Macking 58

iBook on a plane
Last month I flew to New York for a client job and got to travel with my iBook for the first time. I am writing this on the plane right now. PowerBook users will have the same experience: The thing is just about too big for coach class! The only way I can use it is perched at an angle on the seat tray, with the keyboard part resting on my stomach making the whole thing like a widely-opened V. Sitting flat on the tray makes the screen pitch too far forward to see properly and this position lets me see okay but have to type with my wrists coming in from the side. Naturally, this leads to more tyopes -er- typoes.
The plane just passed over the Mississippi (I think) as the sun is setting in the west. The wings are bright orange but the ground below is already almost dark. Sunset comes quickly when flying east at 600 mph.
The plane is over half-empty so I have all three seats to myself. Hint: If you want to fly non-stop to NYC in a half-empty plane, take the 1:05pm flight on a weekday. Coming back Sunday morning at 8:30am was no picnic - the plane was completely full. An aisle seat was the only way I could use the iBook at all. But it's my first-ever trip to NY and I plan to see what services there are for Mackers in Manhattan.

Need a Consultant/Techie?
Better not need one in NYC. Although my client works across the street from a Mac shop in Greenwich, Conn., there is a reason they spent the money to get me here. Mac doctors in this area command more than $120 an hour plus travel time, and are so much in demand that people who know one keep it a secret lest they lose them to someone with deeper pockets. Even marginally competent people, ones who would quickly see the unemployment line in Portland, can get all the work they want. But they'd better hustle: rents are quintuple what we are used to, and for a lot less space. Want a nice old house similar to a traditional Portland bungalow, 1500 to 2000 square feet? A cool million would not be unreasonable, it would be at least 40 miles from Manhattan, and rent for over $3500 per month. Manhattan? Not for you, Mac boy. Better become an investment banker instead. Even if you can afford several million to buy a condo, the taxes are higher than most Portland yearly salaries. Oh, well, you could move into the Bowery...
The problem with long-distance commuting is that I've gotta get things right the first time. The callbacks would kill me.
Manhattan is Mac paradise. In the short time I had to wander around town, I saw large banners for Macs, and visited three separate electronics retailers who had not just Macs, but all possible peripherals in stock. (Yes, plenty of Wintel boxes too, but the sales people seemed more than capable of selling you a Mac if you wanted one, unlike some of the mass retailers around here.)
The price of square footage demands efficiency, so there was a lot more vertical displays, with more salesmen around, and all the product you could want, at competitive prices. I was very sorely tempted to upgrade from my Palm IIIx to the IIIc color unit. The screen is gorgeous - it looks like a mini PowerBook. The backlighting is always on when being used, which limits battery time to under two weeks, but it recharges every time you put it in its cradle. I also saw the collapsible keyboard for the Palm models: what an amazing piece of technology. A full-sized keyboard (well, PB-sized, anyway) that folds on three hinges into a packet the same size as your Pilot.
I wonder if it would be profitable for someone to open a Manhattan-style technology shop in the new Pioneer Place mall.
But none of those shops offered any kind of service beyond the standard Apple swap-out-the-board work our own local warranty shops do.

Why Netscape expired
Alan Olsen writes, The problem with older Netscape is not a y2k issue. It is a problem with a poor choice of dates.
When you connect to an e-commerce site with SSL (Secure Socket Layer), that site has a certificate signed by a certification authority. This certificate is to prove that the place you are connecting to is actually the place you think you are connecting to (so someone cannot pretend to be the other site and suck down your credit card info).
The actual details are a bit complex, but the short story is that the information they use to sign site certificates expires every once in a while. The information on these "root certificates" is kept in a database in your browser. Older browsers do not have the newer certificate information, so they cannot verify if the site they are connecting to is "legit" or not.
The two big certification authorities are Verisign and Thawte.
Thawte had their root certificate expire in July of 1998. They made it easy to patch the problem by creating a page that would update that information in your browser. (More info on this at http://www.thawte.com/certs/server/rollover/.)
Verisign's root certificate has the unfortunate choice of expiring on Dec. 31, 1999. Instead of providing a method to upgrade the information via a web page, they chose to force people to have to upgrade their browsers instead. This is problematic, not only for Mac users, but for Windows 3.1 users as well.
More information on the Verisign root rollover problem can be found at: http://www.verisign.com/server/cus/rootcert/faq.html.

More SETI times
Loren Beach writes, My overall average for 67 units completed is 15.55 hours/unit now. Currently, units are going thru at about 14.5 hours with the newest version of the software, which seemed to speed things up some. This is on a beige G3/266, system 8.1.
If you want to check benchmarking for yourself, one place (outside of the SETI site) is http://www.teamlambchop.com/ where they have a bunch of high-end Macs, and Intel boxes running Linux and W9x. Of course the top-end Macs beat the top-end Intels.

Ethernet connection
Seth writes, I am trying to connect my iMac DV with my Performa 6115. I bought an Ethernet transceiver for the 6115. However, when I am in AppleTalk and try to switch the connection to Ethernet it tells me there is an error and to check my connections. do you have any advice on what might be wrong? thanks for any suggestions!
You need to plug in a crossover cable from the iMac to the Ethernet transceiver, and set the iMac's AppleTalk control panel to Built-in Ethernet (or whatever) and AppleTalk to On. Only then can you set the 6115 AppleTalk control panel to Ethernet. It needs to see a target machine out there before it can save the AppleTalk settings. That's the "Getting port info" dialog you see on the 6115. The iMacs have the ability to set ethernet to an open port but older Macs don't.

MacDeals
Reader Gwen W. wrote in to call our attention to the MacNewsNetwork's MacDeals page where there are good prices on items of interest to Mackers that are not necessarily Mac products or peripherals. I hit the page and it looks pretty good: I could have bought a 20.4 gig Maxtor drive for just $120! The MacNN site is a good resource for general Mac and other technical information, just as is Macintouch, but it also gives other tech news that might be of interest to the rest of you. It updates links daily to news on other sites, like the problem with a Melissa-like virus hitting (Microsoft's) WebTV that spreads itself via email to other WebTV users. (The article stated that although the virus uses a customer's address book to spread itself, the virus works only on other WebTVs and does not affect Macs or even Windows users.)

Zip/USB problems
Daniel Mistele writes to the EvangeList: I can't thank the members of this list enough for the amazing response I received to my USB/Iomega/crashing problem.
I received over 50 replies!
A number of you wrote to tell me that you have similar problems and asked that I share any solution(s) with the group. It was amazing how many listas have experienced problems with Iomega's USB Zip. Unfortunately it seems as if Iomega does not want to take any responsibility for this problem either. Of all the solutions I received, they can be distilled into two basic solutions:
First of all. If you have not yet installed a USB Zip drive, its a great storage device, but do not install any of the drivers or software that comes with it! This is where the conflict occurs. The new Macs have built in USB support for all storage devices including the Zip drive.
The first "work around" solution is to unplug the Zip before starting up and before shutting down your computer. From the many posts I received, many ZIP users only plug their drives in when they use them. This is currently what Phil is doing so that he can finish his work.
The second suggestion is to download the newest "USB Storage" support driver from Apple's web site. Delete ALL the Iomega software and drivers. Then install the USB Storage software, then restart your computer with the Zip Drive plugged in.
If you still experience a start up crash or the drive does not mount try hooking up the USB in different configurations. I was given the following sound advice from Todd Lassich - a 12 year computer consultant:
Essentially he said to try and "balance" the "bandwidth" of the total USB load between both USB iMac ports. In other words, printers, scanners and storage devices (including the Zip) send larger chunks of information than say your keyboard and mouse. So try and hook one of your higher bandwidth devices through the extra USB connection on your keyboard. While results may vary, here is my configuration. USB Port 1 - Keyboard/mouse/Epson 740 printer. USB Port 2 - POWERED USB hub --> Scanner/Zip.

OS9 Update List
If you need to install OS9, Macintouch has a complete list, by publisher, of what has been updated, what needs to and what will never be (like After Dark). Another good resource is VersionTracker, a local Oregon company who demoed their site at PMUG recently. Many problems can be avoided if you do not invoke the Multiple Users feature of OS9.

Downgrading from OS9
Apple recoils at the very thought, but it is possible to downgrade some Macs to 8.6. My client had a Bronze Keyboard (Lombard) PB, current with my iBook. I renamed their System Folder, copied mine over onto theirs, removed all the iBook-specific items, disabled their OS9 folder and restarted. Perfect startup! Then, all I had to do was move over their personal settings and 3rd-party extensions from the old 9 folder. Now she is happily running 8.6 and her own compatibility issues are gone.
An email from an Apple-friendly help site had told her (about two hours after I had finished my install) that she could actually install from the commercial version of the 8.6 CD, provided that the MacOS ROM file version 2.3.1, not on the CD, was downloaded (first) and put into the 8.6 folder before restarting.
Trouble is, you can't just buy the 8.6 CD anywhere. Mac dealers do not have anything but 9 in stock. Most of the copies out there are either 8.5 (which won't install) or machine-specific versions like the one that shipped with the earliest versions of the PB. It is possible to find such a thing through the used-parts resellers, but not that easy. So if you want to downgrade your G4 or G3 PowerBook, find someone with an iBook or the CD from an earlier release and go to town. But the latest generation of iMacs, iBooks and G4s won't fly; you're stuck with 9 on those.
After this column went to press, however, I learned that the Apple Fulfillment Center, available only at 888-273-3594, will happily sell you the 8.6 CD for just $20 plus shipping! Just say to the operator, "I understand you have the CD that will let me upgrade from System 7.5 to 8.6 for only $20?" Give them your charge number and it gets to you via 2nd day air.
Just be very careful when moving items from the OS9 folder into the 8.6 folder. There are a whole host of new items that are in there that you will NOT be needing. If you want to make it simpler, just make the change and then reinstall all your other software and re-enter all your preferences and settings files.

EpsonShare
Want to share that Epson with multiple Macs on a network? Go to www.epsonshare.com and download a shareware client/server application! It is a little awkward to install and use, but it works! Since the "Share this printer" installed by Apple works only with StyleWriters, you Epson users have but this alternative to an expensive network card. Worth every dime.
If there is any gotcha you need to deal with, it is the fact that it is incompatible with older Epson drivers. You need to make sure that Epson Monitor3 is part of the install. The web site contains all the documentation (most of which is downloaded with the installer for local reading) and tells you the version numbers you need installed on all Macs on the network.

No Microsoft products were used in the production of this column.