Winds of Change

written by Charles DeVore

from Mouse Tracks July 2001

There is a good reason not to buy a USB CD-RW drive if you have a FireWire port on your computer. The USB drives, no matter what speed they advertise, will only burn reliably at 4X-speed for data and most times only at 2X-speed for music. The flow of data from the computer just can't keep up with the CD-RW burning, resulting in failed CD burns. I'm reading more and more about USB CD-RW owners complaining about this issue. So until USB 2 is supported on both computer and CD-RW player, your best choice is FireWire or replacing your internal CD player with an IDE/ATA CD-RW. If you own a G3 tower or G4 tower the IDE/ATA option is a good one providing you find a drive that will allow your computer to boot with an Apple System disk. There are lots of drives out there; here are a few drives people have reported having success with. Your results may vary.

Sony CRX140E/CH2
Sony 160E/A1
Sony CRX168B-A1
Toshiba SD-M1402
PlexWriter 12/10/32A
PlexWriter 16/10/40A (Noisy)
Plextor LTR-12101B
Plextor PX-W1610A

I would recommend buying a copy of Toast 5.0.1 to go along with the new CD-RW drive so that you can use it to burn CD ROMs. Apple's Disk Burner / iTunes application seems to have problems with some third-party CD-RW drives. Toast 5.0.1 appears to work with almost everything. However, you may have to turn off the Apple iBurn extension if it conflicts with Toast.

Roxio, the people that make Toast 5.0, and EMI, the record company (who just bought a portion of Roxio), have announced that they will build copy protection into Toast to prevent copying stolen MP3 music files onto homemade CDs. Hmm, sounds like EMI has indeed bought its way into one of the main CD-ROM burning companies. What these folks don't seem to understand is that adding some type of copy protection is just a red flag for the hackers to get around it. The more you try to protect the information, the harder it gets for the average user to use the software. I want to know how they're going to know if you already own the music and are making a backup of it to take on vacation. The answer is they won't, you'll have to prove ownership over and over–and well, you get the drift. I'm not sure how others feel about this, but I'm sure not going to carry my CD collection around in my car in 100 degree temperatures. So how are we to backup and safeguard what we already own? If these people get their way you won't be able to unless you're willing to pay them extra money for what you already own.

Object SupportLib reminder
I can't say how many times I've said this: "If you're running System 8.0 or above you need to check in your Extensions folder for ObjectSupportLib." If you find it you need to delete it from your computer. Old software, and even some current software, places it there. Only users of System 7.6.1 and below are required to have this in their system. It will cause crashes and system corruption if you do not remove it. System 9.1 is the only system that will not allow installers to place it in the System Folder.

LCD monitors
In looking for an LCD monitor, I have discovered that some ViewSonic displays will only do a resolution of 640x480 instead of the expected 1024 x768. So if you're looking for one, beware of the VG150. The reason you have to watch out is that it will display 1024x768 on a PC but not on the Mac. I find this real interesting. Their VE150 is rated at 1024x768 on the Mac and almost every other display except the VG150 and VG150b models.

ibook batteries
Some owners of the new iBook with the two USB ports have reported that the extra batteries they ordered came without the outer shell of polycarbonate plastic. They say the battery works, but its reset button sticks out, the unit is not level, and is a darker color than the iBook. If you have gotten one of these batteries you should contact service ASAP for replacement.

Rescue tools tip
So you have purchased a new computer. Have you tried starting it up with your Norton Utilities/TechTool/DiskWarrior CD-ROM? You may want to give that a shot before you have a problem and need to use your rescue CD. Many of the new machines require certain pieces of software in order to start-up. The older CDs do not have that software on them and will not start up your computer. Now before you say, "but I just got this from the store", packaged software sits on the shelf up to a year before a new version comes along and replaces it. You can get a replacement CD with the current version from the vendor. Prices usually work like this. If you need to upgrade to a newer version, say from 5.0 to 6.0 the cost may be $50.00 plus shipping. If you own 6.0 and you want the current version on CD it may be around $19.00 for the replacement. If you just bought a new copy and want to go through the hassle of faxing them your invoice of purchase, the disk is free. You can find the phone numbers for these vendors in your manual or in the "About (this program)" under the Apple menu while running the program. Please note that none of these programs will currently (out of the box) start up an iBook with the two USB ports. The current shipping version of DiskWarrior 2.1 can start up your new computer at least until the next new Mac shows up.

Macintosh virus
A new AppleScript based worm has been released on Mac users. As reported by several anti-virus makers a new worm version is targeting Mac computers using Outlook Express or Entourage as their email client. This email "Secret Simpsons Episodes" message shows up in your mailbox with an attached file. If you launch the file, the worm sends a copy of the original message and the script entitled "Simpsons Episodes," to everyone in your address book (Subject line: "Secret Simpsons Episodes!"). Once the virus has been activated, the script places an alias in your startup folder (located inside the system folder). In order to stop the worm, you must start up with your extensions off and remove this file.

Info to know
If you need to call in a computer consultant, here are some things to think about before the consultant arrives. 1. Where are the serial numbers to your software in case you need to re-install? 2. Where is the software and any updaters for that software? Be sure and let the consultant know if you need a updater and you don't have modem access before he gets there. 3. Where are the pass words and set-up files for your email accounts in case they need to be re-installed? 4. Have a list of the things you want to ask about and have the consultant do. 5. Do not ask the consultant to install software you do not own.

You can reach me at charles@cdevsol.com.

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