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Ten steps for building a wireless broadband home network for all of your Macs

Surfing the Internet quickly and wirelessly is just a far-off fantasy, right? Your reality is that you've got an iMac, an iBook, and a dial-up Internet account. You're sick of the dial-up process, you're sick of the slow 56k speeds, you're sick of only being able to get online with one computer at a time, and you're sick of either tying up your main phone line or paying for a second line. You've had it with dial-up, and you're ready to pay a little more per month to get a lot more out of your Macs. You imagine a scenario in which your iMac and your iBook are able to share a high-speed connection, your phone line is always free, and your iBook can surf freely untethered from the back porch...but your wallet aches as your imagination races. Never fear, your fastasy Internet scenario may not cost you as much as you might think. Here's ten steps that will get you surfing fast and free on the cheap:

1. Get a broadband Internet account. Whether you go with Cable or DSL is your business. They use vastly different technologies, but the cost and the results are generally the same. Some will argue that one or the other is faster or more reliable, but this is for you to figure out. The essential difference is that with Cable Internet service, you're dealing with your Cable company, while with DSL, you're dealing with your phone company or one of it subletters. So pick the company you trust the most. If all else fails, simply pick the one that's available in your area (even in 2003, local availability of cable and DSL is still not a given). Call your cable company and your phone company to see who has the best introductory deals. In South Florida, Comcast Cable, Adelphia Cable, BellSouth DSL, and Earthlink DSL are all offering packages that allow you to go high-speed for around $20 per month for the first several months. This is barely more expensive than dial-up, giving you enough time to figure out whether you're really putting broadband to good use before you have to start paying the full rate.

2. Get your email from someone other than your ISP. We all have a friend who changes email addresses like the rest of us change screen savers. You don't want to be that person, do you? If you want to do things right, get a $99 per year mac.com email account, or if you're going on the cheap, get a free yahoo.com account. This assures that in the future, you won't need to switch email addresses every time you change ISP's, or every time your cable company gets bought out by a larger one and changes names. Feel free to ignore my advice on this one, but don't say I didn't warn you.

3. Get rid of your old dial-up account. You don't want to defeat the whole opportunity to do this on the cheap by forgetting to cancel your old dial-up account and suddenly finding a superfluous $20 charge on your credit card from an ISP you no longer use. Call and cancel immediately. If you feel the need to hang on for a little while longer, some ISP's allow you to pay a nominal fee (AOL charges $2.95 per month) to keep your old email address intact and your old Internet account alive yet unusable. This will buy you some time, both in terms of letting everyone know your new email address, and in terms of changing your mind and wanting to go back to dial-up (trust me, this won't happen, but you never know...).

4. Get a free AOL Instant Messenger screen name, and avoid the heck out of "AOL for Broadband". If you're getting rid of AOL, don't let them talk you into paying money to keep your instant messaging capabilities alive. Just head on over to www.aim.com, sign up for a free AIM screen name, launch iChat, enter the info, and off you go. Sure, you'll have to re-build your buddy list, but it's FREE. Remember, if for some reason you don't care for iChat, you can download plain-old AOL Instant Messenger, also for free, and use that instead. Whatever you do, don't let AOL con you into paying the extra $14.95 per month (on top of your broadband fees) for the privilege of using the pitifully crippled AOL browser. Because you're not retarded, you don't need to pay the good people at AOL an extra fifteen dollars per month just so they can tell you how to get around on broadband. In fact, the exact opposite is true: by using AOL for Broadband, you're defeating one of the biggest reasons for moving to broadband in the first place, which is to get you off AOL and onto the real Internet. Once you adjust to the light, you'll wonder why you wasted so many years in darkness of AOL's so-called Internet. If you're getting your "Internet" from AOL, you're handicapping yourself and missing out on almost everything the Internet has to offer. And this is aside from the fact that the AOL browser is one of the most cumbersome, diffucult-to-use pieces of software ever written (I think it's #2 behind MS Word). Do you want me to tell you how I really feel about AOL? ;)

5. Be sure that your broadband ISP gives you a modem with ethernet on it. No matter what anyone at the cable or DSL company tells you, USB broadband modems are pure crap. USB is for printers and cameras, not Internet, for crying out loud. USB modems were invented solely for the purpose of speeding up the installation process on PC's that lack ethernet ports. Every Mac built in the past five years has 100 Mbps ethernet built-in, so this doesn't apply to you. This is why some modem manufacturers don't even bother to write USB Mac drivers for their product. It's not because they don't like us, it's because there is no reason that a Mac user would ever need to settle for getting their broadband over USB. Modems that have both ethernet and USB are acceptable; modems that solely have USB are not. Think I'm merely being superstitious? Quoting the Adelphia quick set-up guide, "Your cable modem comes with both an ethernet and a USB port. You can use either one. However, it is our experience that ethernet connections are both easier to set up and more reliable than USB connections." I couldn't have said it more concisely. If your network is also going to have a PC involved, you'll want to install an ethernet card in the PC, if it doesn't have one already. Or, you could just throw the PC out the window -- it's quicker, easier, less hassle, and you'll thank me for it later. Try not to hit any pedestrians on the street below.

6. Decide whether to buy a router or use Internet sharing. Every cable and DSL company I've dealt with could care less how many of your computers you attach to your modem, but the catch is that they're only going to give you one IP address. This is where a router comes into play. You connect your router to your modem, and then connect all of your computers to your router. The router takes care of splitting your lone IP address among all your computers. MacOS X Jaguar has a checkbox in System Preferences -> Sharing that allows the computer to act as a fake router, effectively sharing its Internet connection with your other computers. If you go this route, you'll save money by not paying for a router. But keep in mind that a computer that's not turned on can't share a connection, and a desktop Mac can't share its connection wirelessly unless you install an AirPort card in it. These days, a cheap wireless router can actually cost less than an AirPort card, so you might be better off just ponying up for the router. This choice is solely yours.

7. Get a router that suits your budget. If you've decided to buy a router, keep in mind that you'll probably get what you pay for. You do NOT need to buy an AirPort Base Station to make wireless work for you. In fact, because my budget was tight at the time, I simply bought the least expensive router I could find. This ended up being a CompUSA brand 802.11b Wireless Router for $69. If all your Macs are wireless, you can go even cheaper by getting the CompUSA Wireless Access Point for $49, which has no ethernet ports for non-wireless computers. If you're not going wireless at all because all your Macs are desktops and you don't mind having them all within cable-length of the router, you can get off even cheaper with a $39 (non-wirless) router. If you make the mistake of shopping at a place like Best Buy, you're likely to run into idiot salesmen who will tell you that you have to buy a special "Mac router" (there's no such thing, but this did recently happen to a colleague of mine), so you're better off avoiding such places entirely. If you don't know your stuff, they'll talk you into buying the wrong thing, and if you do know your stuff, you'll end up wanting to punch them. If you're not sure what you need to buy, go to CompUSA, find the Apple Rep, and explain the end result you're looking for. You can go to the Apple Store if you want, but they don't carry off-brand equipment. If I were floating in money, I'd have gone with a name-brand router, but that's not the path I chose. I've had good luck so far with my cheap-o router, and we'll see what happens with it as time goes on. For that matter, since none of my Macs is 802.11g-capable, I saw no point in paying extra money for the faster 802.11g (AirPort Extreme version) router. I figure by the time I finally have a Mac with 802.11g built-in, it'll be time for a new router anyway.

8. Get the right AirPort card. You'll need an AirPort Card for each Mac that you want to be wireless. Even though your iBook or PowerBook has wireless antennas built-in, you still need a wireless card. Desktops are a different scenario: if your desktop Mac is going to sit next to the router anyway, there's no point in paying for an AirPort card for it. Just plug it into the router via ethernet. However, if you have multiple desktop Macs and you want one of them to be in another room, you might want to drop an AirPort Card into that eMac or iMac. The new high-end Macs use the new AirPort Extreme cards, while all other Macs still use the older plain-old AirPort cards. Make sure you get the right card; they don't fit in each other's slots. Any desktop Mac older than the first slot-loading iMacs won't take an AirPort card at all, so you'll either need to keep your old tray-loading iMacs next to the router and connect via ethernet, or look into one of those USB-based wireless antenna/card kits. If you have a pre-Pismo G3 PowerBook, it won't take a AirPort card, but you can stick a third-party 802.11b card in your PCMCIA slot.

9. Get all your Macs on the proper network setting. In most cases, setting your OS X-based Mac up for use with your new broadband account is as simple as plugging in the ethernet cable, since OS X is set to pick up DHCP addresses over ethernet by default. If the company sends someone out to set up your modem, the technician will enter those settings for you...hopefully. The guy who came to my new apartment was new to his job and had never set up an OS X-based Mac before. He sheepishly had to ask me how to enter a proxy setting on OS X, as he couldn't remember from his training. At least he was honest instead of just tearing into my settings and messing things up. If you're wondering why a proxy was involved, it turns out Comcast uses a one-time proxy to activate your modem, presumably to ward off theft of service. Adelphia, on the other hand, requires no such activation and even lets you self-install your modem, but there's a booby trap involved that disables your service if you try to plug your modem into a different device than the one that it was originally activated with. All you have to do is call Adelphia and let them know that you've added a router or moved to a new computer, and they'll talk you through getting your modem to recognize the new setup. Actually, you first have to get past the first-level technician who will tell you that there is no problem switching the modem from device to device, only to get to a second-level technician who will tell you the exact opposite, but such incompetence is unfortunately to be expected from first-level employees just about anywhere these days (except at Apple Stores, of course). The technician will help you to get your modem to talk to your router, but he most definitely will not help you build your home network. In other words, he'll help you get from the modem to the router, but everything running from the router to your computers is your problem. Or, as the Adelphia technician so aptly phrased it, "If for any reason you do have difficulties getting your Macintosh to accept an IP address from the router, I suggest you contact Macintosh." That's geek-speak for "Not only do I have no idea how to tell you how to set up your Macintosh for DHCP, I also have no idea what the name of the company is that makes the Macintosh. I live under a rock on Mars." A word of advice: just thank the guy and hang up. The lecture you so badly want to pummel him with isn't going to sink in anyway.

10. Take advantage of your newfound speed and freedom -- and the fact that you're using a Mac. Broadband isn't just about loading the same old web pages fifty times faster. It's about using Sherlock 3 to pull up as much integrated movie info as you wish. It's about buying music from the iTunes Music Store and watching it download in seconds. It's about being able to click on any link you want, without fear of losing more than a second or two of your life if the link turns out to be a waste of time. It's about videoconferencing with zero configuration with iChat AV. Note for the record that most of the above is not possible on a PC, which hints at the real truth: broadband on a PC is largely a waste of money. Why pay for the speed if your platform doesn't have the tools? Make a cleap sweep and upgrade to a Mac as you upgrade to broadband. But I digress. If nothing else, broadband is about being able to download that 85-Megabyte-large OS X 10.2.6 combined updater in minutes instead of hours, which means you no longer have an excuse for not keeping your Macs current. And when it comes to being wireless, don't be afraid to take your Mac laptop out to the patio, or the bedroom upstairs, or wherever your journey about the house takes you. Some laptop users tend to leave their battery charger plugged in at all times because they're used to being tied to the phone or ethernet cable anyway, but now that you're wireless, you can go completely untethered and find out if your advertised battery life is really as long as advertised.

Remember that every broadband ISP will have a slightly different story to tell when it comes to getting your modem activated, connecting a router, and so on. And if any of your Macs is running MacOS 9, you'll need to open the TCP/IP control panel and set it to Ethernet and DHCP (it's not automatic, like with OS X). If for some reason you have to use a static IP address on your laptop when you take it to work (like I do), then you'll want to create two separate locations in Network Preferences: one for home, one for work. There are always going to be minor details that might throw up one last hurdle that keeps you from truly being "fast and free" on the Internet, but hopefully the ten steps above will get you 95% of the way there. If worse comes to worse, you can always hire someone like me to set up your wireless network for you. Just make sure that the person you hire isn't dragging their heels. It's never taken me more than an hour (and often less than ten minutes) to set up a wireless broadband home network, and that includes ones I've set up that included both Macs and PC's on the same network. In other words, don't let someone bill you for seventeen hours of labor, when all they're really doing is taking the shrink-wrap off the router and plugging in three ethernet cables.

Most importantly, enjoy your new-found freedom. With a wireless broadband home network, you'll be using the Internet the way it was intended: no bandwidth limitations to choke you, and no wires to trip you.

Have you recently gone fast and free? Has it changed your life in some small way? Or are you only 95% of the way there? Broadband me.

Mac mischief from the fast lane

It's been a good week since Steve Jobs last opened his mouth, so perhaps the changes in the Mac universe have stabilized to the point that I can actually write a column without every bit of it being outdated information before anyone reads it. As such, here's what's been on my mind this week:

- Watching Steve's Keynote in the Apple Store at The Falls (Miami) was an elightening experience. I did two headcounts and came up with 80 and 90 people in the store, almost all of whom were watching the keynote. This included nearly every employee, some of whom seemed to be even more elated about the G5's than the customers were. The most interesting thing was seeing who in the store applauded the most for which announcements. It was easy to pick out who the publishers were (FontBook), who the consumers were (iChat AV), who the developers were (XCode), and so on. Although many viewers were behind me and my eyes were rather glued to the screen, I didn't notice many attendees getting up and leaving at any point. So even those who wandered into the store during the Keynote by sheer coincidence seemed to be sticking around. The only thing that seemed odd was the total lack of fanfare or acknowledgement on the part of the store itself. I imagine some of the browsing customers had no idea that this was even a live speech, let alone the fact that the guy doing the talking was the CEO of the company that runs the store. I mean, would you ever expect to walk into WalMart and see a live speech by its CEO being broadcast right there in the customer area of the store? Would anyone, and I mean anyone, stop to watch it while buying their diapers and cat food? It's just further proof that Apple has something going on here that goes far beyond any other company on earth. Perhaps in the future, the Stores will be a bit more willing to point this out to those who happen to wander in during a Keynote. Or maybe it all goes back to the whole thing of not wanting to overhype the various Keynote addresses, for fear that the least spectacular ones will come off as let-downs.

- If anything, Apple is getting bolder with its retail gambit. While the new Apple Store opening near me in Boca Raton is of the petite variety, the one that just opened in Chicago is certainly not. The new shrine up there has four floors, a theater that puts my local multiplex to shame, and from the pictures, it even appears to have a conference room. With a decent bit of imagination, that conference room has nearly limitless possibilities: seminars for local Mac-using (or potentially Mac-using) businesses, user group meetings, and who knows what else? Clearly, this isn't just about getting Joe six-pack to switch to the Mac anymore -- although the coffee bar suggests that the focus on the consumer is being taken to a whole new level as well.

- I'm not sure whether the PC crowd's skeptical reaction to the G5's speed should be looked upon with humor or pity. It's not as if the real-world performance tests are open to debate. Take Adobe, who just a few months ago placed a page on its own website telling its pro customers that Adobe products ran faster on the PC. Now, an Adobe VP is on stage telling the world that the G5 runs Adobe products up to twice as fast as the fastest PC. Are these PC users implying that not only is Steve Jobs lying about the G5's speed, but Adobe and an independent research firm are all in on the conspiracy? Maybe IBM is lying as well. Nevermind the fact that an IBM VP just told the world that G5-based Macs are significantly faster than IBM's own Intel-based line of PC's. If Andy Grove gave a speech tomorrow and acknowledged that the G5 blows away his own company's offerings, would the conspiracy theorists then claim that Intel was in on the plot as well? At some point, you've got to give up the ghost and admit that your platform is, for the time being, not the fastest. The kicker is that most of these complaints are probably coming from PC users who aren't using anything even close the fastest PC anyway. Beyond pride, what should they care? The existence of the G5 doesn't make their current PC run slower. For that matter, the G5's birth doesn't make the iBook I'm typing this on run any faster. Are some PC users just smarting from the fact that not only does the Mac have the vastly superior operating system and the vastly superior vital applications, now the top Macs are faster, too. Now, there's nothing left in the world that PC users can use in defense of their platform choce...except for video games. I suppose next they'll be claiming that it wasn't really gaming legend John Carmack on stage at Mac World Expo praising the Mac, and that skating game mastermind Tony Hawk doesn't really use a Mac.

- The iSight is somehow much larger than I was expecting. It appeared to be the size of a camera battery when I was watching the Keynote, but it turns out to be a good four inches long and one inch wide. This appears to be a good thing, considering the image quality it produces. I'm sure Apple made it as small as possible, so if it were any smaller, the quality would probably not be nearly as good. Suffice it to say that I'm extremely impressed, and look forward to a time when I can put it to good use, either personally, professionally, or both. For the time being, like the G5, it's just something for Mac users like me to brag about.

- Based on my own experiments with two G4-based Macs and two camcorders, iChat AV really does work as advertised. But the 600 Mhz minimum requirement for video chat seems a bit steep. I wouldn't expect video chat to be supported on my mother's ancient 233 Mhz iMac, but the fact that my sister's somewhat new 500 Mhz iMac misses the cut just doesn't seem right. Here's a call for Apple to get those requirements down a bit by the time iChat AV becomes a final product. If users of slightly slower Macs have to live with small video windows or a bit of choppiness, let that be the choice of the user. Don't automatically disable the functionality entirely. That having been said, the audio chat is a great thing...and as long as your Mac has a microphone, there's no hardware cost involved. There's no per-minute cost, and there's nothing to hold up to your ear, so I can envision voice chats that go on for hours, with long gaps of silence in between. Why go through the hassle of hanging up? Now, for a wireless headset that will permit voice chats to continue as you run to the kitchen for a soda, etc. The "V" in iChat AV will get the most attention, but the "A" will get the most use and in the end, probably change more lives. And to think that there were those who dismissed the original iChat as "just another AIM client" and a "waste of time"...as if Apple would go to all the trouble to create it without having years worth of future plans for the product.

- Now that the iPod has proven the viability of a handheld device that can charge its batteries directly from the computer over 6-pin FireWire, wouldn't you just love to go back in time and choke the life out of the digital camcorder company execs who decided that 6-pin FireWire was just too large of a port for their devices, and instead opted to go with powerless 4-pin ports across the board? We could all be charging our digital camcorders automatically while we import video into iMovie. But then that's the problem: too many head-honcho technology geeks lack imagination. That's why it's often so easy for Apple to embarrass the others so thoroughly, simply by trying to imagine what would make the end users' lives easier. The iSight is about to prove the viability of a device that can pull all its power from the computer over 6-pin FireWire while it's performing a task, as well. Will other tech manufacturers ever get it?

- Rumors of laptops powered by fuel cells make me think that everything could change, again, with respect to how laptops are used. Wireless networking finally fulfilled the promise of a laptop, allowing users to get full usage out of their laptops (including Internet) for hours at a time with nothing at all plugged into them, but fuel cells could change that to weeks or even months at a time. If battery life on my iBook suddenly became a non-issue, using it would become an even more integral part of my day. Yours too, I'd imagine.

- I got to spend a good thirty seconds with Exposé, and already I know for sure that it will change the way I work. I will no longer feel compelled to hide applications or dock windows for any reason. Every window on my screen will be as accessible as the one in the front. The ability to clear your desktop instantly might be the most valuable of all. Never again will I have to perform the desktop equivalent of stage-diving just to get to that document I want to drag into an email, or that file that I want to launch. I tend to have so many apps running at once and so many clutter-causing windows open, that I often access my desktop items via a folder in my dock because it's quicker than digging for the desktop, but this will alleviate that need entirely.

- The new Finder makes a LOT of sense, and should allow non-computer people (the vast majority of users) to take advantage of features that had always remained out of their reach. Of course you shouldn't have to go to a menu to bring up the Get Info panel, but for nineteen years, Mac users did. Those longtime Mac users who still claim that the MacOS X interface is more difficult to use and navigate than the traditional Macintosh OS are simply crying sour grapes, in my opinion.

- Should Panther cost money? I don't know. I've been disturbed to come across so many Mac users happily plodding along with 10.1, either refusing to pay for Jaguar, or somehow unaware of its existence. Since these people didn't pay for Jaguar, they either haven't spent money on OS X since 10.0, or their Mac came with 10.1 and they never have paid for OS X. Why not charge them? Just because Microsoft "innovates" so much more slowly, only being able to release an OS they can charge for every 2-3 years, should Apple slow down to the same level? Apple is innovating the hell out of OS X, but that doesn't mean that users must keep up with the newest version. Those who don't want to pay for OS X upgrades and are content to stick with whatever version came with their Mac until they buy a new one, are welcome to do so. Apple has so spoiled us with free software such as iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, iCal, iSync, Sherlock, and Safari, that some users have the gall to cry foul when the newest versions of the free apps require a version of the operating system that they have to pay for. Guys and gals, that's called a business plan. Or should Apple just give every bit of its software arsenal away for free until the company goes out of business? People seem to forget that just because the actual software box they buy might have cost fifty cents to manufacture, it doesn't mean that thousands of developer-hours weren't spent on it. Those developers usually ask for a paycheck at the end of the week, just like you and I do.

- If you don't believe that Apple Education is doing anything to get stakeholders to realize that schools MUST have Macs, go here and take a look at what all is being done with Macs in schools, and take note of how Apple is subtly building an infrastructure by which teachers around the world can share iLife-based ideas and even lesson plans. Most educators are all too happy to share what has worked for them with other educators. Unlike the corporate world, in which the Burger King and the Mc Donald's down the street from each other would sooner shut down than ask each other for help, schools can share their ideas and resources quite freely, knowing that in the end it's all about educating kids -- whether they go to your school or another one. This is something that Apple obviously gets, and something that I doubt any of the PC companies have any clue about. Providing "solutions" for schools about allowing teachers to share inspiring technology lesson plans, not about conning schools into upgrading to a system that runs the same crap ten percent faster.

- In some ways, the Mac platform has made more progress in 2003 than it did in the five years prior. That's not bad, considering that the year is only half over. Do you start to get the feeling that Steve might announce next week that he and the team are kind of tired, and that they'll be taking the rest of the year off? There's so much new stuff coming out so fast that most of the people with whom I regularly share this stuff can barely even keep the names of all the new products straight. For that matter, I can barely keep them straight sometimes. As my dock steadily grows with more and more vital apps, all I can think is that it's a good thing that they can all be learned (and taught) so quickly. This was never more apparent than when I sat down to write the curriculum for my elementary technology classes for next year. We did a decent job last year of keeping the kids current, but then Apple goes and invents stuff like Keynote that's so good that is simply must be put to use. Every one of my older students will need to become proficient with Keynote, iPhoto 2 and the digital camera, Sherlock Dictionary, and then grasp how to use such tools in conjunction as part of their regular classroom curriculum...and that's just in the first nine weeks of the year! It's a good thing kids that age can pick up intuitive software so quickly, and it's a good thing that Apple's software titles are so intuitive.

Anyone else thinking along similar lines, or thinking different(ly)? Give me a shout.

Boca Raton Apple Store to open July 3rd at 6:00 pm

Just when I thought all the Apple-related fun stuff was done for the moment, it turns out that the brand new Apple Store in the Town Center Mall in Boca Raton, Florida, is having its Grand Opening next Thursday at 6:00 pm. It looks as if Apple decided to go ahead and get this store open for the Fourth of July weekend after all, even if it means a departure from the traditional Saturday-morning-at-ten Grand Openings of the past. You can read all about it on the Apple retail site. Anyone else going to be there for the Grand Opening? Holler at me.

Alright, I give up, what day is it again?

The most hectic spans of your life can be defined by the number of times you find yourself asking yourself which day of the week it is, and not being able to answer it. In the past four days, I believe I've set a personal record in that regard. Today was supposed to my wind-down day, in which I regained my bearings and settled back into doing such normal tasks as, let's say, checking my email and sleeping in my own bed. But it just wasn't meant to be. Today alone, I've been in two different Apple Stores for two different reasons, been to CompUSA for something that had no connection to today's Keynote, spoke with two different CompUSA Apple Reps (not at a CompUSA, but at an Apple Store, during today's Keynote), set up a cross-platform DSL-based wireless home network (but not at my home), and walked past a still-under-construction future Apple Store (for reasons that had nothing to do with today's Keynote, or with Apple for that matter). I didn't even have time to appreciate the irony of the fact that while I was walking past this store and wishing I had the cajones to open the construction door and peek inside to see just how close this Boca Raton store was to being ready to open, a construction employee approached with an armload of supplies and asked me to open the door for him (giving me a full view of a nearly-complete showroom).

So it should have come as no surprise to me at all that Steve's WWDC Keynote today scrambled the current state of the Mac platform as much as the past four days have scrambled my brain. Safari has finally reached version 1.0, but now iChat is beta. There's a new Finder redesign that screams, "why didn't someone think of all this ten years ago?". Changing among user accounts has been reduced to all the complexity of a Keynote transition. The G5 specs posted on apple.com last week were real after all, and Steve actually made a joke out of it. And I'll never be able to so much as eat at a Longhorn Steakhouse again without being reminded of the other joke Steve made today, the one about the, ahem, next version of Windows.

There's a new PowerMac in town with nine fans and a wafer that's wafter-thin. Something about Al Gore. Several geeks who showed off their geek vocabulary, and one who was quite proud of the three billion that his company spent on a plant. I hope he was referrring to a factory variety, and not the potted variety. At one point, Steve Jobs may or may not have been opening negotiations with the French. Either that, or he bought the Eiffel Tower for $149 and designated it as an "iSight". Apple and Adobe pretended to be friends again. Apple and IBM have apparently had a thing going on longer than they were letting on. Apple and Microsoft are acting like old friends who tried being roommates, found out it wasn't such a good idea and tried to cut their losses, but now can't quite get rid of each other. Videoconferencing is finally real, but the notion that your home directory needed to be four layers down the hierarchy seems to have been a myth all along. Or maybe it was Al Gore who was negotiating with the French?

In all seriousness, today's announcements cranked the "Oh my God" factor back up to eleven on the amplifier, but I need to sleep on them before I can put them in perspective. I'll see if I can't give the whole "serious writing" thing a whirl tomorrow. My brain is as scrambled as that poor PC that choked to death during today's speed trials.

But tomorrow is, indeed, another day. Wait, what day is it again?

A personal note to readers

The big day is almost upon us. No, not the Steve Jobs Keynote at the World Wide Developers Conference on Monday. I'm referring to my friend's wedding on Sunday. I'm actually going to be in this wedding, and let's just say that the sight of me in a tuxedo is even scarier than it sounds. At least I think so, as it's been a good five years since I've actually worn one. This ought to be fun. My friend and his fiancee are a fantastic couple, and it's about time they finally tied the knot.

As a result of the whole wedding thing, I'm afraid there will be precious little blogging for the next few days on my part, but I do plan to make up for it. I'll be watching Steve's Keynote at the Apple Store at The Falls (Miami) on Monday, and I'm sure I'll have plenty to write about it thereafter.

The one Mac-related tidbit that I'll mention is that our front office managed to successfully migrate to MacOS X this week. Their workflow remains intact, and they seem to be happy with the change. There has been no talk whatsoever of going back to OS 9. Instead, iChat (over Rendezvous) is suddenly the new preferred method of communication among front office members. I essentially set it up as a demonstration of the kinds of cool things OS X is capable of, but apparently it's going to be a permanent fixture. Grab the phone and call two offices down just to ask a quick question? Nah, just send an instant message. Even I didn't think that the intra-office iChat thing would be this easy to implement. With new tools like that, no one seemed to mind adjusting to the new locations for application shortcuts and documents, the new version of MS Office, the new way of logging into servers, etc. There will be plenty more to write about this, once the situation finishes fleshing itself out. We'll see how it all goes. The big test will be in August when the school year officially starts up again. But by then, all involved will have had enough time to learn, adjust to, become fully comfortable with, and begin to milk the power of OS X for all it's worth. In terms of making the workflow easier, iChat over Rendezvous is potentially just the beginning.

There's so much going on in my life lately, I can barely afford to even think five minutes ahead. Still, I can't wait until Monday. I have a gut feeling that Steve Jobs is about to take over the world yet again. The G5 rumor talk is fun to read (someone even wrote to me today to tell me that he spent time with five demo models), but what I find most interesting is the seeming near-total lack of specuation about what MacOS X Panther will bring to the table. I think it's because OS X is about to evolve so far past what any of us mere mortals can perceive when imagining an operating system, that none of us have a clue about what's coming next.

If you're at the Apple Store at The Falls on Monday for the Keynote, be sure to say hello. I'll be the one wearing the hat with the Dave Matthews Band logo on it. I hope I won't still be wearing the tuxedo.

CompUSA's Apple Stores respond

I was pleasantly surprised to see the number of responses I got from CompUSA Apple Reps from around the nation. One of them came, fittingly enough, from the Apple Rep at the Deerfield Beach store that I had written about. He invited me to come back over when he was on duty, and meet with him. I happened to go at a time when the Apple section was extremely busy, and I spotted him but didn't want to pull him away from helping actual customers, so I just spent time playing with the various display Macs. During that time, several red-shirts came into the Apple section to see if they could help me. When I told them that I was waiting for the Apple guy, they said I didn't have to wait for him, because they could help me with anything Apple-related. Of course, they had no way of knowing why I was waiting for the Apple guy; they just saw a customer in the Apple section, saw that the Apple guy was busy, and came over to help. It was clear to me that any employee in that store would have gladly made an attempt to help me with any Mac needs I had, in lieu of the extremely busy Apple rep. This greatly alleviated my fear of what goes on in the SWIAS when the Apple rep is off-duty, at least in this particular CompUSA.

When things slowed down and the Apple rep was finally alone, I approached him and found both him and his manager to be extremely hospitable, not only to me, but to the teacher from my staff who had come with me to buy some odds and ends for her new PowerBook. The Apple Rep even went so far as to offer to come to my school's next Apple User Group meeting and help present, despite the fact that we are not a large group. During our conversation, a customer came by to ask about getting a SuperDrive installed in his first-generation Titanium PowerBook. The Apple rep went in the back for a moment, and during that time the customer couldn't help but brag to me about how much he loves his Titanium, having thrown his old PC "in the garbage". I didn't ask him where he had purchased the Titanium in the first place, but it was obvious that he had no fear of trusting CompUSA to perform an internal drive replacement on his baby.

I'm starting to think that I could be wrong about not steering first-time Mac buyers toward this store and others like it. Time will tell, and the Macintosh landscape in Deerfield Beach will change entirely when Apple opens it own store in neighboring Boca Raton's Town Center Mall later this summer, a mere ten or fifteen minutes away from this CompUSA. The really good thing is that any potential debate these days centers around which of the two retail options offers the most ideal Macintosh shopping experience, whereas three or four years ago the debate would have been based on which option stunk the least. Anyone remember Sears? Things have certainly changed.

Some of the CompUSA reps who wrote in provided various reasons why they thought their store could provide an even better Macintosh experience than a true Apple Store:

* Potential-but-hesitant switchers may be more willing to go and look at a Mac in a cross-platform store such as CompUSA, than at a dedicated Macintosh shrine like the Apple Store.
* Because the vast majority of peripherals on the market are Mac-compatible, CompUSA has a larger variety of peripherals available to Mac users than does an Apple Store.
* CompUSA offers a no-questions-asked replacement plan for the iPod and other products, meaning that if you drop it and break it, you get a new one.

Consumers, as always, will vote with their wallets. Potential Switchers who are already avid computer users may be more comfortable buying a Mac from the same CompUSA that has always serviced their PC-based needs, while non-computer-types who are interested in the Mac but fear being overwhelmed in a computer superstore may be more comfortable checking out the eMac in an Apple Store in their familiar shopping mall. From Apple's point of view, both sides of the equation seem to be covered quite nicely. Either way, Apple wins, and so do the customers.

Another district loads up on iBooks for students

The Greene County Board of Education has voted to put an iBook in the hands of every student and teacher in all of its middle and high schools. Greene County Finance Director Harvey Gay explained, "School systems are lining up to do this. I would rather be first than down the line somewhere. Whoever does it first will be on the cutting edge."

I can't help but agree. It's one thing to take your time when adopting a new textbook series or buying new furniture. But technology is a whole different story. Every moment you're not moving forward, you're moving backward by default. Especially these days (on the Mac platform, anyway), larger and larger chunks of personal computing are becoming relevant to education. If you don't make an effort to keep up with the new advancements, your school will get left behind as fast as you can say "PowerMac 5200 running MacOS 7.5.2".

Of course, the irony is that you can't simply buy some new technology and then turn around and claim to have a valid tech program. Putting your new stuff to good use is an ongoing process that requires continual effort on the part of teachers, administrators, support people, and students. To paraphrase a line from Apollo 13, Greene County has a thousand steps on their journey with these iBooks, and right now they're on step eight.

Cheers to any district that has the guts to try to pull this off. With the right technology (read: Macs running OS X and the whole software arsenal), a laptop program such as this can change the lives of the students involved -- not just in small doses here and there in a lab, or for brief moments of time on a shared classroom computer, but for twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for several years on end. With that kind of potential, you're only limited by your own imagination.

Keynote 1.1 Update released

In case you missed it, Apple released the 1.1 update for Keynote this week. There's a whole laundry list of improvements and enhancements, but one that struck me right off the bat is that the cube transition now backs up a bit before rotating, allowing you to see the entire cube rotating. There is a checkbox in the preferences that, despite its strange wording, appears to allow you to turn this new effect off.

Oh, and Apple threw in a few more important things, as well. QuickTime export is improved, and PDF export now sports a smaller file size. Go get the update now.

Embarrassed by yesterday's release of Snood, Quark rolls out XPress 6 for OS X

Snood and Quark XPress had been the only two applications of note that had yet to find their way to OS X. Yesterday, Dave Dobson finally released a MacOS X-native version of Snood. It looks like the folks at Quark were so thoroughly embarrassed by the fact that they were the last remaining app, that they decided to finally sit down and start actually writing the darn thing. Well, they must have pulled an all-nighter, because sure enough, Quark XPress 6 was announced today and will ship tomorrow. See what a lone college professor and his shareware video game can accomplish?

In all seriousness, the release of Quark XPress for OS X is huge for the people who use it. It's been a big enough of a deal-breaker to keep many design pros planted firmly in OS 9, and a result, planted firmly on an aging Mac. How ironic is it, then, that rumors have surfaced that G5 Power Macintosh units may ship sooner than later? We could see an explosion of high-end sales this summer. The big question will be how many pros will be sufficiently motivated by the thought of XPress 6 on a G5 to go pull out the credit cards, and how many will wait until they can get MacOS X Panther pre-installed on their new rig.

Apple seems to think Quark for OS X is a big deal -- big enough to give it the prime spot on apple.com. Thanks to old pal Marc LaFoy for pointing out the irony of the "Snood vs. Quark Great Race of Turtles".

Embarrassed by yesterday's release of Snood, Quark rolls out XPress 6 for OS X

Snood and Quark XPress had been the only two applications of note that had yet to find their way to OS X. Yesterday, Dave Dobson finally released a MacOS X-native version of Snood. It looks like the folks at Quark were so thoroughly embarrassed by the fact that they were the last remaining app, that they decided to finally sit down and start actually writing the darn thing. Well, they must have pulled an all-nighter, because sure enough, Quark XPress 6 was announced today and will ship tomorrow. See what a lone college professor and his shareware video game can accomplish?

In all seriousness, the release of Quark XPress for OS X is huge for the people who use it. It's been a big enough of a deal-breaker to keep many design pros planted firmly in OS 9, and a result, planted firmly on an aging Mac. How ironic is it, then, that rumors have surfaced that G5 Power Macintosh units may ship sooner than later? We could see an explosion of high-end sales this summer. The big question will be how many pros will be sufficiently motivated by the thought of XPress 6 on a G5 to go pull out the credit cards, and how many will wait until they can get MacOS X Panther pre-installed on their new rig.

Apple seems to think Quark for OS X is a big deal -- big enough to give it the prime spot on apple.com. Thanks to old pal Marc LaFoy for pointing out the irony of the "Snood vs. Quark Great Race of Turtles".

High schoolers swimming through the iLife

Patrick Insko wrote in to share an inspiring story of how iLife was used by the swim team at his local high school. I wanted to pass it along to readers. It's been my theory that iLife, when used meaningfully, can greatly assist in the proliferation of Macs in schools, and Patrick helped prove it:

Mr. Palmer,

I just read your article, "Fifth Graders Living the iLife, Part 3: which way is the middle school?" I thought I'd share a story of my iLife experience.

My friend Brian is the head girls' swim coach at a large high school in my area. He asked me one day if he could borrow my digital camcorder to film his female athletes as they approached the end of their season. I was somewhat reluctant, knowing that my precious camcorder would be so close to a pool without my supervision, but I nonetheless agreed. I should also mention that I burned out of school when I was in fourth grade, so I typically have a very cynical attitude toward anything related to academics, scholastics, or extracurricular activities associated therewith. Simply put, this was not a project that interested me; this was not a project in which I wanted any involvement at all. So I surrendered the camera, glad to absolve myself of any participation.

A couple of weeks went by, and I wanted my camera back, pure and simple. Brian told me to wait. In just a few more days he would have what he was looking for on "film." OK, fine. But I hadn't anticipated what was to come: as I was the only one with a FireWire-equipped G4, iMovie, and an iTunes library of over 5,000 songs, it was my duty to assemble the footage into a fully-produced movie for a surprise presentation to the girls at their awards banquet.

I dreaded the prospect of pouring through hours of footage at first. But once we started importing the clips, and adding transitions, music, sound effects, and titles, I was thrilled to finally be making use of all of this incredible equipment I own. As it turns out, Brian had given the camera to various swim team members at various times throughout the couple of weeks, each choosing what they wanted to film. There were clips of bus rides to competitions; intense training heats; exhausted, post-tournament laziness on gym mats; competition close-ups; giggly, teenaged-girl skits; personal dedications and soliloquies; the obligatory teasing and jabs at Coach Brian; and lastly, the triumphant footage of victorious competitors and trophy presentations.

Once we assembled the footage with all of the titles and transitions, it was time to add the music. We chose an upbeat selection - songs like "Gettin' Jiggy With It" by Will Smith (for the warm-up sessions), "Jungle Boogie" by Kool and the Gang (for the competition shots), "March On" by Robert Cray (for the anxiety of waiting for the final scores), etc. During the skits and made-up cheers, we let the audio speak for itself.

In the end, we wound up with a fifteen minute video, which to the naked, untrained eye appeared to be professionally produced. And unlike your recent iLife project, we unabashedly promoted the Macintosh with pride. We ended the video by fading away from the girl with the first place trophy by slowly scrolling the following:

"Hononegah High School Girls Swim Team
2002 Championship Season
Great Season, Girls!
Filmed by the Hononegah High School Girls Swim Team
Produced and Edited by Coach Brian McGuire and Patrick Insko
Powered by Macintosh"

The presentation of this video at the awards ceremony was viewed by many, many faculty members. After the presentation, the high school purchased its own digital camcorders and a G4 iMac to produce movies for all of the athletic departments. I believe that not only did we start a trend, we re-introduced a Windows-centric high school to the indisputable superiority of the Macintosh computing platform. From what I understand, there are now more Macintoshes at Hononegah than ever, even exceeding the number of Macs that existed prior to the school's "switch" (wink, wink) away from the Mac several years back. Ah, iLife has never been better to be a Macintosh user.

Sincerely,
Patrick Insko

When I read this story, it made my day. I know that iLife stories like this one must be taking place all across the nation, and around the world. If you've got an inspiring iLife story and you'd like to see it published here, go ahead and send it in. The more people who share their experiences, the easier it is on the next person who decides to jump in and try to make a difference in the lives of children.

At long last, Snood 3.0 for MacOS X arrives

Back in April, I wrote that it seemed as if Snood and Quark XPress were going to battle it out for the dubious distinction of being the last remaining vital Macintosh application without a native MacOS X version. Today, Quark was declared the winner by default. The official, final version of Snood 3.0 for MacOS X (and MacOS 9) was released today. I've played a few games with this new version of Snood, and so far so good. A few bugs that still existed in Beta 3 appear to be gone.

You can download it by clicking here. Keep in mind that Snood is shareware, which means that if you like it, you're supposed to pay for it. At $14.95, I think it's a steal.

got Mac?

Have you always wanted to place a Macintosh-related bumper sticker on your car, but could never quite find one? Well, here's your big chance. The "got Mac?" bumper sticker you've been looking for can be had by clicking here. Enjoy.

The dumb things people say about the Mac

Sometimes we just say the dumbest things. I'm guilty of it. You're guilty as well. We all are, from time to time. This past week, I was at a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, and I overheard someone near me saying, "Their new guitarist is really good, but he's trying too hard to sound like their old guitarist, John Frusciante." I was a little distubed to hear such a lack of Chili Peppers knowledge, but I thought that rather than sit there and shake my head in disbelief, why not just supply him with the one piece of the puzzle that he was missing? After all, the guy had a point, just not the point that he thought he did. So I leaned over to him and said, "Psst, that is John Frusciante, he's back in the band now." You could almost see the light bulb flash on over his head. I would have thought that every Chili Peppers fan knew about Frusciante by now, considering he returned to the band about four years ago, but I guess this guy just had no real way of knowing that...until someone pointed it out it to him.

I tried to carry that thought with me this week as I encountered some of the dumbest statements about the Macintosh I've ever heard, all from people who should have known better. Each time, I looked past the urge to scold the individual for not doing his or her homework. I suppose not everyone can be expected to visit MacCentral and MacSurfer every day, or watch every Steve Jobs keynote, or even know that "iMac" does not start with a capital letter. There are those of us who, for whatever reason, choose to do our Mac homework on a regular basis. And then there's the other 99.9 percent of the earth's population. I suppose it's our job to ever-so-respectfully set the record straight for those who seem to want to know about the whole Mac thing, but need the occasional booster shot of accurate information.

All of the statements below were said to me within the past four days. They all would have sounded dumb five years ago, and sound even more asinine today...at least to us know better. But each time, I took the opportunity to enlighten gracefully, and I urge all of you to do the same.

"I love PowerPoint, too bad they don't make it for the Mac." A volunteer at my school told me this, remorseful that he wouldn't be able to show off it his PowerPoint skills to me. Remedying this misconception didn't even require speaking a word. I handed him an iBook, clicked on PowerPoint in the Dock, and showed off the Mac-only QuickTime transitions before leaving him alone with it for a few minutes. He ended up creating a slide show presentation about his high school that he then showed to a class of fourth graders. He's one of the smartest kids I know, yet he didn't know about the existence of PowerPoint:Mac. It's not his fault, he learned to use it on a PC in a business technology class. Why in the world he was using a PC for that class is a whole other issue (it sure wasn't at my school). But the bottom line is that he went back to his school knowing that the Mac can run PowerPoint just as well, or better than, the PC that he learned it on.

"I don't have any software to use with my digital camcorder." This came out of the mouth of a digital camcorder owner who also happens to own an iMac with an iMovie icon in the Dock. And here, I always thought that part of his motivation for purchasing the camcorder in the first place was to use it with iMovie. So much for assumptions. I offered to show him how to use iMovie. Hopefully, he'll take me up on the offer. But at least know he knows that his computer already has all the software he needs.

"I'd buy an eMac, if you could use floppy disks with it." I immediately ran to the wall calendar to make sure that it really was the year 2003. For a moment, I thought it was 1998 all over again. But then I realized that here was someone who was only one small misconception away from buying a Mac. This is a Good Thing. I explained that floppies are no longer the external media of choice, that they have grown useless due to their small capacity, slow speed, and relative unreliability. I said that anything small enough to fit on a floppy is better off being transported as an email attachment, stored on something like a USB keychain, or simply left on the hard drive of the computer, now that hard drives are so large that millions of word processing documents couldn't fill up the computer. I told her that most media files won't fit on a floppy disk, and are better off being burned to a CD, which holds as much stuff as 400 floppy disks. I gave her a copy of the manual that comes with the eMac (I've got 41 of those manuals lying around right now, taking up space), and she took it with her. Just maybe, she'll buy an eMac. But if not, at least now she understands why the eMac doesn't have a floppy drive. I never imagined that I'd still be giving that explanation about the floppy five years after it disappeared, but that' the way it goes.

"I can't play this, it's in Windows Media Player format." This came from someone who is familiar with both Macs and PC's, and really should have known better. At least now, he does know better. I could have ranted all day about how Windows Media is not the same thing as the Windows operating system, but it's so much easier to just point to the software and say "go get it". It's not as if the existence of WMP for Mac is open to debate, it's just a matter of informing the misinformed. A lecture about how QuickTime is a superior format will fall on deaf ears when the content someone wants to see happens to only be available in another, lesser format. It can't hurt if people like us write to the content creator asking that QuickTime be added, but the other 99.9 percent doesn't care about that -- they just want to watch their music video.

"I'm so afraid I'm going to catch that new BugBear virus." This was spoken by a Mac user, believe it or not. It's a bit harder to get someone to believe that Macs don't get viruses than it is to simply show them PowerPoint running on a Mac, but I directed her to sarc.com so that she could see the words "Macintosh: unaffected" with her own eyes. I went on to explain that while it's a good idea to use antivirus software on a Mac so as not to pass viruses on to PC users, and while it's always possible that someone is going to finally come up with a devastating virus that affects us, Mac users generally laugh at the idea that I Love You, or Melissa, or LoveBug, or Klez, or any other other major virus outbreaks of the past few years, is going to do anything to their computer other than count as one more piece of junk email.

I've been listening to the new Chili Peppers record since it came out, and it's taken me this long to realize that it's one of my favorite albums of all time. It's a masterpiece, but for awhile, I just didn't "get it". I don't always grasp the obvious as quickly as I should. None of us do. So the next time someone laments the fact that Apple went out of business in 1997, let go of the urge to slam them for their ignorance, and instead try to set them straight in a way that they have a chance of actually accepting. You never know when it might be your turn to play the fool, even when it comes to the Macintosh. From time to time, we all proclaim that John Frusciante plays the guitar too much like John Frusciante does. Unless you're trying to be ignorant on purpose, no one needs to hit you over the head for it.

Have you heard any absolute whoppers about Apple lately? Has someone you otherwise respect floored you with Macintosh misinformation? Have you jumped at the opportunity to try to turn it into a positive situation? Pepper me with it.

Minor application updates! Get your minor application updates!

For those of you who like to keep your software current (I hope that's all of you), Apple has released a trio of minor updates in the past 24 hours that will have varying relevance to each user. The QuickTime 6.3 update focuses primarily on cell phone compatibility along with enhanced support for Keynote, iMovie, and iDVD. The iSync 1.1 update adds support for many more cell phones (hmm, seems to be a common theme here), including non-Bluetooth phones that sync over USB. You might want to check, as your phone might suddenly be a candidate for iSync without you even knowing it. iMovie 3.03 is a performance and stability boost, which is usually the least-heralded yet most important kind of software update.

Also, if anyone missed it, iTunes 4.01 was released a bit earlier, notable for a performance and stability boost of its own, but far more notable for the fact that the recent wave Internet music-sharing hacks have been disabled. Don't say I didn't warn you. All four of the updates I've mentioned can be rounded up at once via Software Update. If you don't know how to run it manually, just open System Preferences, choose "Software Update", and click on the "Check now" button. If not all of the updates appear on the list, don't worry, as updates sometimes appear at different times for different users. If I had to guess, I'd say Apple does this to stagger the download frenzy and keep the weight off its servers. If you just gotta have the updates before they show up in Software Update, all links to all four downloads can be found on this page.

Some users like to be cautious and wait a few days before installing any new update, so as to let others be the initial guinea pigs. The theory is that any widespread problems with any given release will be widely reported on, thus saving you potential agony. This is good advice to those who don't like to take unneccessary risks with their system. But Apple puts out these releases for a reason; they're essentially saying that this would have been the finished product that they would have released in the first place, if they had had the extra time and the extra foresight to get it all right before the original deadline. Just be glad Apple does this for us, unlike some unnamed software companies who don't patch their applications unless their attorneys advise them that a lawsuit is coming.

So whether you install such updates right away or wait a bit, be sure to just do it. QuickTime, especially, is at the core of your operating system, so installing version 6.3 is like getting a taste of Panther ahead of time. Speaking of Panther, that particular cat will be out of the bag in just a few weeks, and I can't wait to hear all about it. Although the actual release date is unknown, Apple has made it clear that details will be revealed to developers at the Worldwide Developer Conference at the end of this month. Here's hoping that the leap from Jaguar to Panther will be at least as large as the leap from 10.1 to Jaguar. The nice thing is that since most of the larger necessary refinements have already been made to OS X, most of what we'll get from here on in will should be of the cool and innovative variety. The Year of the Mac continues.

Dell beta-testing, Angus King, and Junior Seau: search engines gone wrong

One of the nice things about using Blogger is that it provides information on where my traffic comes from. When someone clicks through to my site from a search engine, the keywords from the search are typically embedded in the referring URL. This makes it easy to go back and re-perform the sometimes totally irrelevant searches that led surfers to click on my site when they were searching for, perhaps, dog biscuits in Spain. I made that last one up, but the ones below are real. Please keep in mind that I'm sharing these all in good fun, and I'm certainly not complaining about the ways in which readers may have found their way to this site:

"dell beta testing" I've taken Michael Dell's name in vain a few times, and I've written about beta testing Safari, but someone needs to explain to me why my site comes up fifth in the alltheweb.com search engine under this search criteria. What puzzles me more is why someone would be searching for "dell beta testing" and then actually click on this site. Oh well, we're happy to have you, whoever you are, and I hope you've found what you were looking for.

"tangerine iBook Charles Moore" I've never written about a tangerine iBook, although I once nearly bought one. I've never written about Charles Moore, although I sometimes read his Mac-related columns. Searching for these four words really shouldn't lead to my site, but once again, thanks for clicking through, and I hope you'll stick around. You can find Charles Moore's work here.

"what Governor Angus King thinks is the key to Maine's success" Apparently, Google seems to think that the answer to this question is "iBook", because nearly half of the sites on the first page of the search results are Macintosh-related sites that mentioned Maine's student iBook initiative. Well, I'm honored to be one of them, for whatever it's worth. Ironically, my site ranks higher in this search than it does when simply searching for "Bill Palmer". Ah, the curse of having a common first and last name. Maybe I should change my name to "Angus".

"Picassa digital software" I've thrown a few jabs at Picassa, the lame iPhoto knockoff for Windows users, but does that really merit my site ranking fourth in the world when it comes to being a source of information on that particular software title? Does no one in the Windows world actually write about Picassa? Or has no one on the Windows side even heard of it? So much for the notion that it was going to kill off Windows users' motivations for switching to Mac and using iPhoto.

"Junior Seau Miami Pictures" I go and make one little reference to one of the newest players on my favorite football team at the end of one of my columns, and that makes me the seventh-best source on the planet for pictures of Junior Seau? Too bad my site doesn't actually have any pictures of Junior Seau. It goes to show just how difficult searching for pictures on the Internet can still be. I won't dare mention that the Dolphins are on the verge of signing former Denver Broncos quarterback Brian Griese, or Lycos will declare me "the official website of the Miami Dolphins". Oops, I just did. If you're reading this because you were searching for information on Brian, then you've just proved my point.

I should point out that none of the above searches were performed using quotation marks, which is perhaps why they went so astray. Even as search engines continue to grow smarter, the web remains a wonderfully wacky place in which to try to hunt down information. I won't even go into detail about the traffic I received when I mentioned that Live, Ed Kowalczyk's alternative-rock band, used Macs in the studio on its latest album. Of course, when Live is the name of the band, I guess the search engines don't stand a fighting chance.

Please note that I'm changing the name of this site to Angus Kowalczyk, Macintosh Specialist. If you would like to contribute one dollar to anguskowalczyk.net, you can do so via PayPal by clicking here. Thank you for your support.

Using AppleWorks in the land of MacOS 9

Tony writes in to ask:

"Can I turn Appleworks word docs into PDF files within OS9? Or do I need OSX because of Quartz?"

In MacOS X, you can effortlessly create a PDF from any native application that has a print function, which of course includes AppleWorks. When you switch over to MacOS 9, AppleWorks does lose this capability. However, if you really need to create PDF's in OS 9, you can always purchase Adobe Acrobat ($299, not to be confused with the free Acrobat Reader). This is no small chunk of change, so I'll throw it out to readers to see if anyone can write in with knowledge of a less expensive MacOS 9-native application that can create PDF's.

Tony goes on to ask: "Is iWorks at hand and I should just wait? Is there another Micro$oft Office alternative out there that will work for me in a corporate environment?"

I suspect that the release date of iWorks and its rumored "Document" word processor has more to do with ongoing relations with Microsoft than it does with development cycles, so when it sees the light of day is anyone's guess. As highly as I think of the AppleWorks word processing module, I'm more than ready to step up to a word processor the calibur of Keynote. And I think I'm not alone.

I've read comments both from those who swear by the translation abilities of AppleWorks 6.2.x, and from those who wouldn't trust it to translate their neighbor's grocery list. I know of Mac users who swear by OpenOffice, the open-source MS Office substitute, although you'll need to download and install the X11 environment in order to run it. Perhaps readers can share their experiences with file translation between MS Office and OpenOffice.

So why is Tony still using MacOS 9?

"I'm anxiously waiting the next generation of the Albook 12" to come out so I can finally upgrade to X."

Well, even though Apple hasn't yet revised the specs of the stunning 12 inch PowerBook, it did cut the price by $200 this week, making it even more attractive to those of us who want it all and want it small. The "base" model (if you can stand to insult it with such a term) is now $1599, and the SuperDrive-enabled model is $1799.

The rise and fall (and rise) of CompUSA's Apple Stores

Once upon a time, Apple found a way to wedge a miniature retail paradise into the back corner of each and every CompUSA store, and Macintosh users rejoiced. But it didn't take long for paradise to dissolve into a minefield of sabotaged displays, outdated software, and a sea of salesmen who felt it was their mission in life to make sure that no one ever bought a Mac from their PC store. If that meant spotting a customer in line with an iMac and dragging his computer box into a back room to prevent him from making a purchase, then so be it.

The disaster that was the CompUSA Store Within in a Store (SWIAS) reached such comical levels that websites sprung up just to track the relative trashiness of the various stores. Many have speculated that CompUSA's inability to properly represent the Macintosh experience was the primary impetus behind Apple's own retail foray. But while the opening of fifty-plus of its own stores across the nation grabbed all the headlines in Apple's new initiative to sell Macs in a legitimate environment, the placing of full-time Apple reps in nearly every CompUSA went largely unnoticed. Based on my recent visit, I guess we all should have been paying more attention.

Since I'm fortunate enough to be within forty minutes of a true Apple Store, I don't visit my local SWIAS nearly as often as I used to. When I recently received a CompUSA gift certificate, I realized that it would be my first such trip in months. I expected that the SWIAS would be improved, but I wasn't prepared to find anything beyond adequacy. So when I approached the iMac on the front endcap of the Apple corner and stared into its luscious screen, I was surprised to see apple.com staring back at me, loaded in Safari no less. After a bit of clicking around, I discovered that this was in fact the real internet, not just a mock-up of apple's site. CompUSA might be about five years late in adding Internet connections to its demo Mac models, but it's finally happened. I was intrigued to see what else had been, well, upgraded.

The next thing that struck me was that the Dock icon for iTunes was green, which means it's version 4.0, which means only one thing: Music Store. What better way to annoy the PC shoppers on the other side of the store than to crank out 30-second song previews at full-blast? But then I saw a fabled blue-colored playlist, titled "17-inch PowerBook", and upon finding the big beast on another shelf, I saw that sure enough, these two Macs were broadcasting shared playlists to each other over Rendezvous. I had to suppress the urge to run out the front of the store and see whether the CompUSA sign over the door had in fact been replaced with an Apple logo. Whoever set these display models up was no minimum-wage commission-driven CompUSA red-shirt. This was clearly the work of an Apple employee. If Rendezvous wasn't enough of a giveaway, then the Apple LCD connected to the 15-inch PowerBook as a second monitor sealed the deal. This little corner of the store was now the real deal, no longer just a dumping ground in which Macs were marketed as poorly as PC's.

The transformation of the SWIAS from paradise, to sewer, back to paradise, now seems complete. This doesn't mean that Apple is wasting its efforts by opening its own stores, as Apple has now managed to redefine the word "paradise" with its locations. I still wouldn't send anyone to a SWIAS to scope out their first Mac, if they live anywhere near a real Apple outlet. The Apple rep can't possibly be on-hand all seventy-plus hours per week that the store is open, and the CompUSA red-shirts still work on commission and are still too fond of selling you a fourteen-year extended warranty and seventeen external floppy drives...and selling you a PC, no doubt. But for all those who don't yet have a true Apple Store in their area, at least the SWIAS now represents a legitimate, if not ideal, environment in which to get hooked on a Mac...and then buy one. Just be careful when they try to sell you a super-high-grade gold-plated serial cable to go with your new iBook.

Oh, and the gift certificate? I hung on to it for the time being. I'll be coming back to this CompUSA soon enough. I wish the certificate could be used at a real Apple Store, but this'll do.

Has your SWIAS experienced a rebirth? Do you even care about CompUSA anymore, now that Apple has its own stores? Do you wish, like I do, that Apple would have staffed its own employees in CompUSA locations starting back in 1998? Sell it to me.