Monday, January 17, 2000
Top Stories
OS X: A First Look
Apple appears on course to release a great demo. Like all great demos, OS X has been stripped of all those extraneous details that detract from initial reaction, extraneous details like the names of the files you are working on. While I applaud the designers for what they have done to date—much of which is very, very good—their work, if OS X is to be more than a swell demo, is far from over. Right now, OS X, as a whole, is frighteningly reminiscent of New Coke, painstakingly developed to appeal to an upcoming younger generation, but destined to become the greatest marketing disaster of the Twentieth Century.
Project Is WInner In Green Contest
Cloverleaf of Middle School seventh-grader Jessical Studer toils away at her writing assignments on a green Apple iMac computer as a stuffed frog named Lorenzo peeks down on her from above the screen... It's not easy being green, a famous frog once said, but members of the middle school's Green Team of interdisciplinary studies combine laughs and cartoon characters with their serious work in order to keep their creative juices running.
News
Hard Drives Hardly Faze Young Computer Aces
The mysterious wires, boxes and circuits deep inside a Macintosh computer do not mystify 11-year-old Jennifer Pyle.
4 Years Ago: Apple Loss Hits $69 Million
Abandoning low-end system manufacturing and sales to clone-makers so Apple can concentrate instead on more expensive systems with heftier profit margins probably won't help either. "It still puts them in a death spiral, but it would slow the decline down. Their biggest problem is that they're a hardware and software manufacturer in a world where most companies have moved to separately definted businesses."
Opinion
Vitamin G3 And The Devil's Flu
You don't realize how portable PowerBooks really are until you lose your portability.
A Funny Thing Happened To Me At CompUSA
I'm all for quiet Mac arrogance, but the days of in-your-face evangelism can not cut it the way it once did.
On OS X: 'Who Cares About Cost? I Want It!'
As soon as the first screen shot was revealed, I, about 13 rows away from The Man, began reaching for my wallet to see if I had enough money to purchase two copies.
The Main Difference Between Steve Jobs And Bill Gates
This is one reason why I can gladly "put up with" Mac OS X, even though I have seen only the demo at Macworld. I'm looking at it as a vision, not as a product. Vision carries risk. There is risk associated with being forward thinking. This may be what many nay sayers in the Mac community are overlooking.
Review
Microsoft IntelliMouse USB
The mouse is not for game playing, but this is not what Microsoft really designed it for. It is for more productivity in which case Microsoft succeeded.
Outlook Express 5.0
The challenge for any e-mail program is to smoothly handle the torrent of e-mail that advanced users receive without drowning casual users in needless complexity. Outlook Express (OE) 5.0, Microsoft's free e-mail and Usenet news program, delivers on both accounts.
Using The Right Rodent Helps Reduce Wrist Pain
As one who struggles with typing and mousing pain due to chronic neuritis, I would have to agree on the basis of personal experience that size isn't the only relevant issue. For me, the force required to click the mouse button(s) seems to be the principal aggravating factor in mousing pain.
Sidetrack
Wintel
Lotus Agrees With Microsoft
Lotus has reached an agreement with Microsoft to allow Outlook as an alternative integrated platform for Domino.
Is Corel Building A Linux House Of Cards
Investors are impressed with Corel's continued push into the Linux market through startup investments. A cursory glance gives some the feeling that Corel is building a strong Linux business. But the truth is that the four Linux companies Corel has invested in are long shots. Taken together, the investments offer little hopes of nudging Corel toward profitability.
Ballmer As CEO May Help Microsoft
Known as a friendly guy who promotes smooth relationships with customers, Ballmer's personality contrasts sharply with the arrogant and distant image perpetuated by Gates during his testimony at the antitrust trial.
Missing Features Detract Appeal Of Dell's Web PC
What frustrated me was that many things were missing from the Web PC. Among them: No network card... No 1394 connectin... No floppy drive.
The Week That Was For Microsoft
The arrival of a new bully on the blcok is not, or at least should not be, license for the current bully to pursue its thuggish ways.