Macking 63

Smart Copying
At the Summer NY Macworld, Connectix demoed a replacement product for the defunct Speed Doubler called CopyAgent. At $40, this smart-copying utility lets you take a folder full of documents and drag it onto an external device (like a Zip) and drop it on, replacing a folder with the same name. But the smart thing is that it doesn't replace the entire folder, just the items you have modified. This little trick will greatly simplify manual backups for people who don't want to use backup software, and hate poring through each folder to see what is new or different.

MediaBridge a waste
Maybe I'm just getting old, but this new use of steaganography (embedding a coded message within a picture) that has been developed by Digimarc and premiered recently (in Wired and Popular Mechanics) seems a total waste.
The point of the exercise is to let Mac and PC users hold an advert in a magazine that contains the embedded code up to a camera, sending their browser directly to a supporting Web page without the bother of having to type in an annoying and complex URL (like http://www.gm.com/).
Now I don't know about you, but generally I do not read magazines while sitting in front of the computer. The couch is more comfortable. Among my friends I can think of only one who has laid out his system so that he reads and watches TV from the same chair that sits in front of his computer. So why go to the trouble of stopping at the ad, going to your Mac, connecting to the Net, launching your browser, and then launching the Digimarc MediaBridge application, just so you can finally hold the magazine up to the camera and wait for the connection?
This has all the signs of a mega-million dollar tank, folks.

Modified Folders
I knew this already but a message from Tipworld reminded me to tell you: The Get Info box will tell you when a file has been modified, and it will tell you when a folder has been modified. But if you get info on a folder that containes a file you have updated, the folder will not reflect the fileÕs modification date! The modification date for a folder changes ONLY when you either drag a file out of it or put a new one into it. Be aware of this when copying or deleting folders to a backup device (Zip, Jaz, another HD, etc.). Always open the folder and check the dates of the files within to make sure you are keeping correct track.

Update for Office 98
(from Tipworld) Users of Microsoft's Office 98 for the Mac may want to take notice of a newly released updater patch which fixes bugs in Word 98 and adds support for upcoming file formats in PowerPoint 98. To download the free patch (it's 5.6 MB), go to Microsoft.

Dog and Pony Show
Apple hosted one of their occasional showings of new hardware recently, and I got a chance to actually see the new G4 Cube and discuss things with the engineer-presenter. This is a first for these shows; normally Apple sends marketing people but this presenter was an actual engineer who could answer all kinds of technical questions and was willing to discuss anything except, of course, unannounced products.
A few notes on my observations:
Even though I said last month that I was not impressed by the pictures, in person the G4 Cube is probably the best looking computer ever. I would get one if I hadnÕt bought an SGI monitor (which requires a PCI card or a $450 VGA-to-digital converter). Figure about $1700 to $2200 for the box, plus memory, and another $450 on top of that reaches into the realm of wretched excess.
Normally I skip over three families of upgrade before replacing my own Mac. (128 to Plus, Plus to IIci, IIci to 7100, 7100 to beige G3, so it's about time now.) All Macs, including the Cube, are being shipped with a well-designed full keyboard and a very nice-looking optical mouse.
The new keyboard will also be sold separately for around $69 and will include a driver needed to use it on older Macs. The USB cord is very short, so Apple will give you a free cable extender for the asking. Trouble is, no one has them in stock so don't plan on actually using the keyboard until you get the extender. It is so short because it is designed to be plugged into the monitor, which assumes that if you buy a new Mac you are also buying one of the monitors to go with it. If you just want to plug it directly into the Cube or into a regular G4, you will need to keep the box very close to the keyboard or get a USB hub. You can also buy the new optical mouse immediately ($69) so you can put your old hockey-puck mouse where it belongs: at the bottom of the Willamette. However loathe I may be to admit it, the Microsoft optical "Intellimouse," with two buttons and a scroll wheel, is a more flexible and useful device for about the same money.
The on-board gigabit ethernet can link two new Macs together without needing a crossover cable or a $1,000 gigabit switchbox. If you already have a 10/100 hub and other ethernet devices, it will negotiate down to whatever transfer rate is supported by the targeted device: 10Mb to the printer or 100Mb to another, older Mac with a 100Mb card. But you have to link two new Macs together directly to take advantage of the fastest transfer rate.
If ordering a SCSI card for the new dual-processor G4s, be sure to specify the ATTO-OEM dual channel Ultra 160 card. This lets you use a fast 10,000 rpm internal drive and also your older external SCSI devices without compromising the performance of the internal drive. The cheaper single-channel cards can have serious performance problems and termination issues if you use any additional SCSI devices.
The video card in the Cube uses an AGP slot, so there is potential for upgrades in the future. It is not considered a consumer-replaceable item, though.
The iMac DV includes audio ports (in & out) but the cube does not. The cube supports USB in/out only, and a headphone jack on the external speakers.
Apple has acquired Astarte, a German company that developed DVD authoring software. All the engineers and code now belong to Apple, and in the future this acquisition will appear in new products. He didn't go into any more detail.
The cube is mail-in service only, like the iBook and PowerBooks. Turnaround is declared to be two or three days with no loaners in the interim. In spite of service and quality-control problems noted on Macintouch, Apple is having the lowest number of returns and DOAs to date.
Peter, the presenter, said he will pass any concerns up to mgmt. I suggested releasing HomePage to open source, along with any other abandoned Apple properties. He said he thought it was a good idea and would pass it along. If you agree, send him a message. The more of us that Apple hears from, the more there will be a chance it will happen.
The PowerPoint slide presentation was projected using an InFocus projector. That company has certainly been nice to PMUG, lending projectors and letting us get refurbs for the club at a good price, but at this show, the projector could not display a full picture at any resolution except 640x480. The right side of the image was cut off and the presenters could not get it to behave. I am sure some pointed questions were burning up the wires from Cupertino after the tour ended.

OSX
Darwin layer (BSD Mach 3 UNIX kernel) is open source. 128-bit SSL built in and nothing turned on by default. Remote login will require active invocation. This will prevent some of the potential security issues normally found in UNIX boxes. In short, users will need to worry no more than they do now when their Macs are connected to the Net full time. Yes, you should plan on a firewall of some kind if you want to be truly secure.
Classic applications will auto-boot OS9 in a transparent layer and run exactly as before. New machines will be sold with the user's choice of X or 9 preinstalled, but in order to run carbon and classic apps, one will need to own both OSX and OS9 which will possibly mean an extra purchase. This is the first time that this particular issue has been discussed publicly, that I know of. If you think that a >$2,000 computer should come complete with whatever operating systems are needed to do the job, you need to be letting Apple know now, although this will not be an issue until Macs start shipping with OSX installed.
There will indeed be a UNIX command-line interface (CLI), but the user will never, ever, need to access it, even when calling tech support to deal with problems. The CLI will be available to anyone who wants it, however, via an application in the Utilities folder.

CD/DVD Changer
Also at the demonstration was a presenter showing the first low-priced CD/DVD jukebox. The PowerFile C200 FireWire-based changer holds 200 CDs or DVDs. Two players within support accessing two disks simultaneously. It's fully networkable and costs only $1799; devices like this used to cost well over $6,000. Right now 98% of customers are Mac users because the primary users are graphics houses with large collections of client files on CDs. Now that DVD-ROM burners are becoming common, you can imagine the usefulness of having immediate access to two hundred discs that hold over 4 gigs apiece.
All volumes are cached on all client machines for searching. The user license for the bundled software includes unlimited clients on a network, so no concern for multiple licenses. The unit also supports Windoze and direct support for Canto Cumulus Media Asset management software ($50 for a copy if you don't have it already). Check it out at the PowerFile site.

Monitors
If you have an older Mac, including current G4s, you will no longer be able to buy an Apple monitor. All three of their monitors are designed to work with the newest models and display up to 1600x1200.
There are no internal power supplies.
The 15" model TFT now looks like the Cinema display (tripod stand, no elevator), and displays only 1024x768. It is now $999. The 17" CRT model is $499. Four grand for the biggie, as before. Interestingly, the Cinema Display resolution is 1600x1024, which is the same as the SGI monitor, available for a thousand dollars less from Silicon Graphics. The drawback is that it is mapped at 110 dpi, so your inches are about 65% of the size on the Cinema Display, mapped at the usual 72dpi. As of deadline time, SGI still had a few blue&white displays that were designed for the matching G3 and were blowing them out at $1799 including the necessary card. Go to the site and head for the displays section. There should be a link to the sale.
If you need ColorSync and the ability to correct manually, you need to get the CRT model, which retains all of the dynamic USB-controlled calibration. The 21" model is no longer being made.
Apple claims to be working with 3rd-party developers to produce an external power supply and video converter to allow the new monitors to work with older Macs. The new Macs all have a VGA port as an alternative to the new combined video/power port so any existing monitor will work with the new units.

Great iMac Stands
The number of useful Mac add-ons gets greater every month. In the latest MacWarehouse catalog, I spot the iDoc, a base for your iMac that not only elevates a little higher for easy access to the CD, but plugs into one USB outlet and provides three USB ports, two traditional Mac serial ports (without AppleTalk), and a new parallel port with InfoWave drivers, which lets you use a whole range of formerly PC-only printers. Cost: $179. For $259, you can get the iDock II, which adds another USB outlet, an ADB port (instead of the parallel port) and a front-mounted floppy drive! If you got one of the new $799 iMacs, this will give you almost everything you will need for future external devices, or to keep using your old serial inkjet and ADB trackball.

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

email mp at moonmac dot com. (I took out the mailto link because that's how the spammers find me.)