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Sunday, 30 June 2002 |
Jaguar is the code name for Mac OS X 10.2, currently in beta. The ThinkSecret website is publishing a series of sneak peeks at Jaguar as it progresses through its pre-release beta stages. Jaguar seems to be getting better all the time.
Mac OS X 10.2 should be released in August 2002.
6:13:19 PM 
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The day before Extracts x 3, the three-man show in Perth that contains an extract from my photo project A Poverty of Desire, closed, The West Australian published a review of it. Better late than never I guess.
Here is a few quotes from Neville Weston’s review:
… Although stylistically and technically diverse, there is a feeling of cohesion to the show which is perhaps cemented by an imaginative and unusual—if not entirely comprehensible—catalog essay by Robert Cook.
But then the world portrayed in these more than just proficient images could hardly be accused of comprehensibility.
For they are big city photographs about a rather small city, lost in an environmental wasteland, globalised out of its tiny mind.
… Gottschalk, in comparison, focuses on figures moving around the city streets, unaware of the drama in which they are playing a starring role.
… Strong, almost theatrical light rakes across the participants in the ad hoc street theatre, their attention being grabbed by a wheelbarrow full of cement, a half eaten ice cream cone, or a redundant milk crate, which are turned into something magical like a fragment of a Vermeer painting.…
Not bad, the comparison to Vermeer. I’d have been just as happy with mention of van Eyck, Dürer, Holbein, Beckmann, or one of the others I find inspiration in.
Although the show came down today, you can see some of the images from A Poverty of Desire on the web:
5:18:17 PM
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This is a great little feature article on the Entertainment Today about what you need to have your own one-person film and video production studio.
I wish this stuff existed when I was trying to make movies years ago in Perth. Just think, your own film production studio for around US$5000.
4:56:37 PM
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Do you know any more "Macintosh Myths" than the ones published below? These myths are all real by the way—I didn’t make them up!
If you have more of them to share, please make a comment on this post or email me using the emnail link at the right—just click on that icon that looks like the back of an envelope.
4:21:21 PM
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One thing I have noticed about the typical Macintosh Myth (or "Big Lie") is that it is precisely the exact opposite of the truth.
- Macs are hard to use: Macs are easier to use than Windows or Linux.
- Macs are only for creative types: Macs are for everyone. Everyone is creative, if they can only be bothered. Creativity has nothing to do with whether a Mac is for you or not.
- Macs are not for businesspeople: Millions of businesspeople run their businesses on Macs. Almost every magazine and newspaper publisher, writer, musician, recording studio, film or TV studio, design firm, or director relies on Macs and they are businesses and businesspeople. So do many law firms, accountants, dentists, doctors—you name it.
- Macs are not for programming: The Mac is a programmer’s dream machine. Mac OS X is Unix, and Unix is the operating system most programmers prefer to any other. There are many advantages to programming in Unix on the Mac.
- There is no software for the Mac: So 15,000 different programs is not enough?
- You can’t play games on Macs: There are plenty of games available, including Mac versions of many of the most popular Windows PC games. However, if gaming is really your thing you’d be better off with a dedicated games machine like those made by Sony, Nintendo, Sega and Microsoft than trying to do it on a PC of any kind. Would you use an axe to drive in a screw?
- Macs are more expensive: Macs are cheaper.
- Apple is going broke: Apple is doing fine. They are consistently in profit, have billions in the bank, are continually doing R&D on new products and introducing them at a sustained rate, and are working on doubling marketshare right now.
- Apple is owned by Microsoft: At one point Microsoft bought US$150 million of non-voting investment stock in Apple, and later sold it for a significant profit. Does anyone seriously believe that buying a tiny bit of stock in a multi-billion dollar firm means that you own all of it? My Mum owns Telstra shares. Does that mean she issues orders to Ziggy Switkowski?
- Macs cannot be networked: Macs are the easiest computers to network.
- You cannot mix Macs and Windows machines in the same network, so you have to get rid of the Macs: Macs play happily with Windows on the same network. Windows machines work fine with Mac servers, and Macs work fine with Windows servers.
- Tech support for Macs is expensive: Macintosh tech support is cheap. Most people can do their own tech support, with a copy of Norton Systemworks or Tech Tool Pro at hand. Most Mac-only organizations don’t need in-house computer technicians and do fine without them.
- Macs are not “compatible” with Windows: What do people actually mean by that? If referring to files and documents, Macs import and export the same file and document types as Windows PCs do. Swapping files is dead easy. So where is the problem?
- There is no Word, Excel and Powerpoint for Mac: Word and the others were first made by Bill Gates for the Macintosh before Windows existed—Gates has always been a major fan of the Macintosh. Office X for Mac, which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint, is better and easier to use than its Windows cousin. And you don’t even have to have Office to open and save Word or Excel documents—just use the copy of AppleWorks that came with your Mac.
- There is no MS Access for the Mac: True! Why would you make do with a hard-to-use database program like MS Access when you can have easy-to-use Filemaker Pro, available for both Mac and Windows?
- The Macintosh operating system is a copy of Windows: Windows is a poor copy of the Macintosh operating system. Sections of the code in various versions of Windows are straight copies of the code in the Mac OS.
- Macs are slower than Windows computers: Macs are faster. A machine’s MegaHertz rating is only a small part of the processing power equation, and Windows PC chips’ MHz should not be compared to Macintosh PCs’ MHz.
2:46:03 PM
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This page in the Apple website’s Small Business section contains these Business Basics resources:
Most of the software listed on the pages above is best-of-class products, regardless of computer platform, by the way.
My favourite is MYOB AccountEdge, an Australian success story in business software that began in a very small Australian business, and is now used everywhere in the world to run the finances of enterprises varying in size from one person to thousands.
2:10:53 PM
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As Apple says in the Small Business section of its website:
The best business in the world can’t survive unless customers know it exists. Apple makes it easy with the design and creative strengths of the Mac combined with time-saving and easy-to-use tools like iDVD and iTools—adding up to a powerful way to create effective ads, presentations, websites, and more.
Also, consider this statement from Steven Dorman, President of the Digital Media Marketing Organization, on the same page:
Marketing with video media can produce response rates of up to 60%, compared to 0.1% for print media.
Macs make it dead easy to shoot, import, edit and burn to DVD or CD your own promotional videos, and if you have a shopfront in a retail location you can place a self-running video or slide show on a Mac in the window for passers-by.
1:18:20 PM
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I just spotted this item on the Apple stores web page:
Made on a Mac: William Malgieri:
Learn how you can use Mac OS X, MYOB, FileMaker and Microsoft Office X to manage your small business. Malgieri, who has a CPA practice, will show how to maintain records, process sales and purchases, track inventory, manage payroll and automate customer contacts.
Mac OS X is the perfect operating system to run your small business with—the crash-free stability of Unix with the ease of use of the Mac.
And, most small businesses have their computers in full view of their customers. A beautifully-designed and beautifully-made iMac or eMac in use on the reception desk will only enhance your business’ image. Boring beige no-name boxes cheapen your business’ image.
There is a Small Business section on the Apple Computer website.
12:50:11 PM
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I have been visiting many AppleCentres, retail operations run not by Apple as the Apple stores are in the United States, but independent proprietors. None of them are doing it right, and the mistakes being made are legion, and often exactly the same ones.
AppleCentre@Orchard is a new AppleCentre in Singapore’s Orchard Street, and they are doing it right, it seems.
12:35:47 PM
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My mother does the handicapping for her golf club, one of the largest in the city. The club is a Windows-only operation—many members are build-it-yourself Windows computer enthusiasts or Windows PC retailers and insist that only Windows will do.
The handicapping software package is a constant source of frustration, and goes down for days at a time. It is built in Microsoft Visual Basic by a sole proprietor in the eastern states, is difficult to use, and every time there is a problem the club members have to phone interstate for tech support from the programmer. He often does not return their calls for days.
Everything that they need this package to do can be done with Filemaker Pro. They could use Filemaker Pro for all their other database, financial and even letter-writing needs. Organizations of all sizes the world over know that Filemaker Pro does just fine for them, including NASA and Dun & Bradstreet.
Filemaker Pro is made for Macintosh and Windows. There is a global network of Filemaker specialists who will create a custom-made database system just for you, or you can do it yourself. Filemaker Pro is incredibly easy to use compared to MS Access.
Running Filemaker Pro on a network of Macs would save the club thousands of dollars each year, and my Mum would be a lot less frustrated and irritable. She hates the way Windows keeps telling her she has committed an illegal error, and loathes the feeling of having a Microsoft cop looking over her shoulder and implying she is stupid all the time. She hates being made to feel dumb.
12:15:03 PM
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Another great resource worth visiting regularly, to learn what software is available for your Mac, and to keep what you have up to date, is Versiontracker.
By the way, Versiontracker is for users of the Windows and Palm operating systems as well as Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. Note the tabs at the top of the page.
11:47:14 AM
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There’s a variation on the myth that there is no software for the Mac. The myth is that there is not enough software for the Mac.
There are over 15,000 items of software for the Mac. How much software do you need?
11:26:14 AM
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One of the most enduring Macintosh myths (call it a "Big Lie" if you wish) is that there is no software available for the Mac.
Go into any Harvey Norman’s store computer section, browse the software shelves, look on the boxes for the Mac or Apple logos, and you’ll find many programs that are crossplatform—with versions for Macintosh and Windows in the same box.
Where the programs are too big to allow two versions on one CD, then you’ll often find separate boxes for Mac and Windows side-by-side. So the myth simply is not true. And besides, do you think millions upon millions of Macintosh computer owners are so empty-headed they want to own a computer that just sits there on their desks doing nothing?
The truth is that a huge amount of software is able to be bought direct from the makers. Many software firms of all sizes offer secure online purchasing, and when a transaction is concluded you can download the software direct on to your computer. They provide manuals in PDF form, so you can print the whole thing or just the parts you need.
Direct software sales ensure cheaper prices, easy access to the latest versions, and save a few forests of trees. Not to mention saving expensive shelf space in stores that pay a premium for rent. Each of those boxes in Harvey Norman’s occupies space that has to be paid for with higher prices for the products in them.
An Australian couple in Sydney began compiling a database of software for the Mac years ago, and their Macintosh Products Guide is now part of the Apple Computer website.
11:14:44 AM
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Dylan Tweney reports in his article Broken Trust that “the problem is that Palladium requires users to place a huge amount of trust in Microsoft. You don’t get to decide what runs on your computer—Microsoft does. You can’t even open files unless you’ve been authorized by Microsoft, or by a third party.”
Tweney concludes: “But the rest of us should be very wary of putting so much faith in Microsoft. The real question is, for whom does Palladium make computing safer? It will surely make the digital world safer for Microsoft and Disney. But who will defend us from Bill Gates?”
[Source: Tomalak’s Realm]
10:46:12 AM
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Reader Thomas Kock informs me there is a TCPA/Palladium FAQ available on the Web. Thanks, Thomas.
The FAQ tells more about Microsoft’s Palladium project, its basis in something called TCPA, and how Intel and Microsoft are working together to use Palladium to increase their industry domination at a time when Wintel (Windows + Intel) PC sales have been dropping heavily and steadily.
10:21:59 AM
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© Copyright 2002 Karl-Peter Gottschalk.
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