Winds of Change

written by Charles DeVore

from Mouse Tracks November 2003

It seems Mac OS X may have problems with multiple versions of programs. This will affect those of you who always keep copies of the last two or three versions tucked away on your hard drive— in addition to the current version. Users are reporting problems opening the version they want to use rather than whatever version the computer thinks you want to use. So it may be time to compress or stuff those old versions so that they can’t be mistaken for the latest copy of the program. Archiving these apps is a great way to keep them around if you ever need them again without throwing them away or forgetting which hard drive or CD you placed them on.

Apple, Dell, HP, Gateway, IBM, Sharp, Sony, and Toshiba have all been named in a lawsuit. This lawsuit claims their advertising is deceptive about the size of the hard drive. For many years, we have been buying hard drives that state 40 Gigabytes on the box only to find out that the drive (after being formatted) only shows 37.5 Gigabytes available. I can understand why some folks get excited about this as it seems they are not getting what they paid for. What I don’t understand is why this is being brought up after all these years. This lawsuit should not even be in the courts. Why, you ask? Because you get the same effect if you buy a 4oz steak and then complain that it is only 3.8oz after cooking it. Raw size on hard drives works the same. After you format the drive with software, it’s going to be smaller than it was due to the fact that the formatting data written to the drive takes up space.

New PowerBooks are finally here. More speed and power is the call of the new machines. Please remember booting into OS 9 is a thing of the past. The new 15 inch PowerBook ($1999) has a 15.2-inch TFT display with widescreen 1280x854 resolution, 1GHz PowerPC G4, 512K Level 2 cache, 256MB DDR333 SDRAM, 60GB Ultra ATA/100 hard drive, ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 (64MB DDR) video processor, full size keyboard (back light optional), Gigabit ethernet, FireWire 400 and 800, AirPort Extreme ready, and DVI and S-Video out. Note that the next version up adds 1.25GHz, SuperDrive (CD and DVD reading/ burning), backlit keyboard, and 80GB hard drive and brings the cost up to $2599.

If you miss the note pad from System 9, there is now a System 10 replacement—also called NotePad. I put an alias in the dock and it seems to work great. This can be found at Versiontracker.com or at AGDesign’s site: http://lazee.lunasitelabs.com/

Roxio’s Toast 6.0 has at least one feature that is a perfect fit with iTunes. If you happen to have an older USB-only iMac or a non- Apple compatible CD-ROM burner, you can use it to burn your iTunes selections to a CD. It takes songs directly from iTunes playlists and converts them from AAC or MP3 to AAIF format on the fly to allow you to put together music CDs without having to jump through hoops.

The Internet may be a wonderful thing, but the very companies that offer you those extra options “via the Internet” may not want you to actually use them. Having ordered an upgrade through Apple for Final Cut Express, I was notified that the order had been shipped. I also got a tracking number to let me know when the order should arrive. Being excited about my software, I wanted to check where it was (you can do this at www.ups.com). To my surprise the delivery date was the 18th of September and it was now the 19th of September! Once you have their tracking number entered you can then select “Detail” and see where your box was scanned last. This is where I discovered that my package was last scanned leaving Hodgkins, Illinois on the 17th. Needless to say as it was the 19th and the package had not landed anywhere, I was off to talk to the UPS rep on the phone. All in all, I talked to three different reps, each of whom told me that their tracking system wasn’t reliable and was I sure that I did not already have the package? The funniest part was when they suggested I should call Apple and ask about the package. My reply was that the package was in their care, and they should be doing the work to track it down, not me and not Apple. After about 15 minutes, I was told that they would check into my case and get back to me in one to eight working days. Yeah, right. This is the second time I have had Apple items disappear in transit from Apple; the first was an 8600 which never did show up, and Apple ended up shipping me another after a week’s wait. Hummm, maybe the guy with the 8600 needs software, you think? This time, the product did arrive on the 21st and the web site showed a “delivered” status. Nowhere on the details report does it show getting to Portland. They must have perfected transporter technology and beamed it into the delivery truck.

Apple has really done a bad job of marketing .Mac (dot Mac) to end users. Hyping the off-site storage and free virus software doesn’t get me excited at all. However what most folks do get excited about is free stuff. That is exactly what Apple is providing but not doing a good job telling folks about. During the last five months, Apple has provided .Mac users with the following discounts and freebies: discounts on SmartDisk FireWire Drives, iPhoto training, free copy of StickyBrain 2, Marble Blast, Versiontracker Plus, and the latest offering is a free copy of iBlog software. Because of these extra goodies, I am going to say the added value of .Mac has gotten to the point that it may be worth the $99 a year that Apple wants for it.

Apple released 10.2.8 and then pulled the release. It seems that there were problems, at least some, with network connections. This release, if most guesses are correct, will be the last revision to Jaguar. Next update out of the gate should be the new system known as Panther or 10.3. In late-breaking news, Apple has indeed updated and reposted the 10.2.8 update with a tag “Build 6R73.” As a warning to all users, I suggest the following before updating any system: back up your data and if possible make two copies. Then after backing up everything you value, use Disk Utility and repair permissions. Then download the System 10.2.8 combo updater (97MB) from Apple. For some reason, people seem to have better luck using these combo updaters than the online software updater Apple wants you to use.

Adobe has just announced Adobe Creative Suite. The Premium version of this special package contains Acrobat Professional 6 and newly enhanced “CS” versions of the following programs: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, GoLive. It incorporates Version Cue file- management technology to find files quickly by viewing thumbnails or searching metadata such as description, keyword, author, copyright, and file type. (There is also a Standard bundle which does not include GoLive or Acrobat Pro.) This little puppy needs 1.8GB of hard drive space, and 256MB of RAM is recommended to run more than one component at the same time. Monitor resolution of 1024 by 768 and at least a 16MB video card with 32MB minimum is recommended. Please note that many of the older portables do not have 16MB of video RAM to run these programs. This stuff is for the serious users who have money to burn. The cost is not only in the program bundle, which retails for $1229 (upgrade cost $749), but for all the hardware upgrades needed to existing computer equipment. Keep in mind you need to be running 10.2.4 or above with Java runtime 1.4.1, and QuickTime 6.3. You can check all this out at www.adobe.com.

Someone once asked me if Apple paid any attention to my ramblings. My answer was I doubt Apple knows I’m alive. However, if anyone who works there or has contact with Apple programmers are listening, here’s my biggest gripe about OS X. THE PRINTER OPTIONS NEED TO BE FIXED! Having to use third party patches to make my Apple envelope feeder be seen by the software is not easy. Most folks can’t get things to work that were fairly simple in System 9. There are basic things you need when you’re using your computer, and one of them is to get the information back out in a format you can send to non-computer people. We’re talking paper here, Apple! One of the things that made Apple successful in the early days was the LaserWriter printer and how easy it was to use. We need to return to those days. I don’t care that it’s faster or can jump through hoops. However, I do care that I can print an envelope and not have the printer choice stuck on envelope feed until I go to page setup and redirect it to paper. So here’s my plea: fix the printer control because right now the Chooser looks like advanced technology.

You can reach me at charles@cdevsol.com.

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