Macking 99

99 Issues
Hard to believe, isn't it? Think about what was going on with Apple back in the mid-'90s. The company was mired in malaise, system upgrades were making things worse, sales were plummeting and many thought that Apple wouldn't survive.
Well, the demise of Apple has been predicted 34 times and counting, yet it's stronger and better than ever. Even though the company keeps giving dedicated Mackers a reason to hold our heads and groan, our ultimate superiority to Windows is getting obvious to an ever-increasing number of people.
This last round of worms has helped boost Mac sales too. There are only about 100 viruses for Macs, most of them variations on five or six themes. Old ones like nVir don't even run on OS9 and none of them run on OSX. Theoretically there are Unix viruses that could affect Macs, but it hasn't happened yet.
There are still those pesky Word Macro viruses that DO run on Macs, but affect Word only, or do things to PCs that it can't do to a Mac. Those viruses can be harbored on Mac and then passed on to PC, so don't get complacent! Keep your virus guard software updated and turned on, unless you are not on the Internet and do not receive files from other people.
Next month will be episode 100. One hundred computer-years (months to humans) is a loooong time. What were you doing back then? If I get enough interesting emails by deadline time (first of the month) I will let that be the bulk of the 100th issue. Send 'em to 100macyears at moonmac.com. (Macy ears?)

The new G5
Finally saw one in person, at the Mac Store (formerly The Computer Store), and my first impression is "whisper quiet." I mean that. Only an iMac (no fan at all) is quieter. There are NINE fans of various sizes in the case, which is divided into four compartments to channel air where needed. The entire front and back of the case is ventilated; looks a little like a cheese grater. Much as I like the design of the clear-handled plastic case of the G4, I have to admit this is a major improvement. Since it has so many fans guiding airflow, none has to work very hard, keeping RPMs down. The Mac Store is a big open room with lots of people and lots of things going on, so I had to put my ear to the case to hear anything at all.
Speed? In the demo model, a 1.8 GHz single processor, it seemed only incrementally faster than what I am used to, an 867 MHz G4. But with eight slots for RAM that can total four gigs internal now and eight in the future, there will be a lot less I/O to the hard disk which helps speed things up a lot.
If I weren't personally committed to the convenience of using a laptop exclusively, I would get in line for one of these. Even if you have recently purchased your G4, and especially if you have the howling wind-tunnel MDD model, think seriously about this upgrade. You home and home-office users in a quiet room, I am speaking directly to you.
It is also possible that by now the extremely secretive Apple will have pulled a jackalope out of its hat in the form of a 15" PowerBook with an underclocked G5 in it which will also do almost anything you need. (They didn't. But the aluminum 15" PB is a great replacement for the TiBook.) That could motivate me to upgrade from my 12" PowerBook, which is less than six months old. Yes, I am that crazy.

Cool Mousepad
The MouseRug is a rubber-backed fabric pad printed to reproduce carpets produced and distributed by the Nourison collection of fine carpets. You have many patterns to choose from, including classic Persian designs to Scottish Tartan and more contemporary styles, all with white fringe on two edges, just like the real thing. They even make tiny ones to serve as coasters. My optical mice track perfectly on it, as do conventional wheeled mice. I found mine in a store that specializes in fine pens, but you can buy directly from the site and better stationery stores everywhere for about $20. The site sells orphaned designs for $15.
It cleans the bottom of your mouse as you work, and if it gets covered in dust and pet hair you simply beat it against your chair or vacuum it with a little Barbie vacuum cleaner (not included).

MS Virtual PC Already Sucks
Microsoft has owned VPC for only a couple of days now, after a forced buyout of Connectix, and already they are screwing it up. The first victim reported that the MS upgrade to 6.1 trashed his old VPC disk, wiping out all his files and applications. To add insult to injury, he says that it runs slower than 6.0. Furthermore, he can't log into the M$ Support site to complain because it requires a Microsoft Product ID number. Since he bought it from Connectix, he doesn't have one.
Another writer noted that Connectix halted the Care users forum for VPC and referred inquiries to Microsoft with a generic link and phone number. Two days later the Care forums were restored, along with the original archive. Perhaps M$ was perturbed by the support demands of the poor victims who upgraded to 6.1.
Three days later Microsoft allowed the use of a Connectix ID number in the VPC setup window to serve as the authorization number and things became okay for VPC from Connectix users.
As usual, if something odd is wrong and Microsoft is involved at all, it's usually their fault.

Ticketmonster Spams You
Don't buy tickets to anything from Ticketmaster's web site. According to a news.com article, you cannot opt out of emails from 3rd party affiliates of Ticketmaster, and spam you they will.

Epson RIP Installer Bug
Discovered a bug in the current Epson RIP installer. Epson RIP is a commercial program from Epson that works with their printers to create PostScript output.
If you are using an external FireWire drive as your startup drive, the installer freezes. It MUST be run from the System Folder (OS9) on an internal hard drive, even if you tell it to install the software on the external. If you do this, you must manually move the Printer Description Files from inside the Printer Descriptions folder in the Extensions folder on the internal drive to the same place on the external drive.
Not many people run their Macs from an external drive full time, but there are a few good reasons to do so. Epson probably never tested for this bug. I discovered that some other installers are also affected.

Dental Office Software
Mango is a dental office management software package that handles patient scheduling and billing, HIPAA compliant e-claims, printing of prescriptions and labels, integration with Amac digital x-ray system, storage of digital x-ray images and other information with patient records, recall tracking, PDA synchronization, and other features. Mango is available for Mac OS X and Mac OS 9. Contact the company for pricing.

Allocating Memory in X for Classic Apps
Most of you know by now that you can improve the behavior of applications under OS9 or earlier by assigning more memory to the program in its GetInfo box. You may also know by now that it is not necessary to do this under OSX.
But what about those same old programs under Classic? Since Classic Mode is really just OS9 running as a process under OSX, the memory trick still applies. Open your folder "Applications (Mac OS 9)" and select an application. Type Command-I or choose GetInfo from the File menu. There, in the list of items you can select is one called Memory. Click on the down triangle at the left and there are your three sizes, Suggested, Minimum and Preferred Size. Change the Minimum to match the Suggested (if need be) and boost the Preferred to double the Suggested Size. You should now get better performance from your Classic apps under OSX.

OSX Killer Tips
If you're one of those people who love to pick up a book and read all those cool little side-bar tips (you know, those great little tips that appear in boxes on the side of the page in all good computer books) then you're going to lose your mind over this new book from Mac Design magazine's Editor-in-Chief Scott Kelby. It follows the same brilliant premise as his bestselling "Photoshop Killer Tips" book, in that the entire book, cover-to-cover, is nothing but side-bar tips (without all the sidebars).
I got one and I love it.

OSX Security Update
**Apple Releases Security Update 2003-08-14** -- Apple has released Security Update 2003-08-14 for Mac OS X, a 1.1 MB download available via Software Update. The release corrects an off-by-one programming error in a FreeBSD networking function which could potentially be exploited to give a remote user root-level access to a Mac OS X system. The problem was originally found in the wu-ftpd FTP server, and impacts FreeBSD Unix and other FreeBSD-derived operating systems, including Solaris and some flavors of Linux. As of this writing, Apple has not provided any substantive information about the update; however, there are no known instances of this potential problem having been exploited under Mac OS X or any other operating system. [Thanks, TidBITS magazine]

Excessive Spam Filtering
This report from RISKS Digest notes that one of the largest providers of spammer blacklists is using a dangerous method of adding people and sites to their list. I would suggest that you all check with your ISP to make sure that they are not using Easynet's services. If they are, inform them that you will be looking for another ISP if they do not find another filtering service.
From: Jim Garrison Subject: easynet.nl is causing serious e-mail disruption
easynet.nl runs a SPAM blacklist based solely on source IP address and, as far as I can tell, uses a highly indiscriminate process for adding addressesthat can be summarized as "One accusation and you're convicted" combined with "Guilty until proven innocent". Unfortunately, they are also one of the most widely used blacklists, and their popularity is threatening to seriously affect the ability to communicate by e-mail.
My hosting provider recently had to change its upstream provider and get new IP addresses because easynet had its entire class B netblock on the list to "punish" the owner of that netblock for perceived unwillingness or inability to police SPAM.
The new addresses come from class A block 69/8, which until fairly recently was unallocated. Somehow, the NEW address for my provider's SMTP server is also on easynet's list, so we're back where we started.
Easynet won't communicate with anyone about their decisions, and getting removed is nearly impossible. How long will it take before ISPs using easynet realize they're hurting their own subscribers as much as the spammers? This threatens to fragment the Internet into isolated islands where large groups of users are unable to communicate with each other.

Edit Your Web Site
If you have a Web site with a clickable mailto link on it, you may be inviting spam. Software agents called 'bots are always scanning the Net looking for them to add to spammer lists. I am going to be changing all the mail links on my site to "mp at moonmac dot com" instead of the usual address, and revising all email addresses of other people I list in this column. While it makes it less convenient to send someone email, requiring the user to interpret and manually type in the address, it is just one more step in the battle that has been forced upon us.
Meanwhile, I am still waiting to read in the papers about the first spammer murders. I'm sorry I can't contribute.

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.)