[MyAppleMenu] Tuesday, Jul 29, 2003

Tue Jul 29 21:05:00 EDT 2003

MyAppleMenu Newsletter
Tuesday, Jul 29, 2003

MyAppleMenu : Top Stories
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Macworld Expo New York's Ill-Advised Age Policy (Adam C. Engst, TidBITS)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07288>
No one expects a seven-week-old infant to be asking intelligent questions about high-end printers or seriously considering the purchase of 3-D modeling software. But her father, who matches IDG's description of a "qualified, professional attendee with buying power" would have been asking such questions if he had been allowed inside.

MyAppleMenu : News
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Richardo Torres: Shaking Up Hollywood (Bija Gutoff, Apple)
<http://www.apple.com/pro/film/torres/>
"Shake has lowered the bar. Before, ILM and others were the only ones who could do certain shots. Now, when it comes to who gets the job, it's not about who has enough money. The barriers to entry are leveled."

Senior Chip Analyst Says Apple Lying About PowerMac G5 (The Inquirer)
<http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10732>
Given this blast at Apple's hype, Peter Glaskowsky does say that Powermacs are, once more, competitive with Windows PCs in performance. They also have advantages that will help Apple expand its market, he says.

PDF Keeps It All Nice (Nigel McFarlane, The Age)
<http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/07/28/1059244549264.html>
Once an itinerate stranger, now an inescapable hanger-on -- that's the story of PDF, the Portable Document Format.

Mozilla Thunderbird Email Client Released (MacMinute)
<http://www.macminute.com/2003/07/28/thunderbird>
"Our intended customer is someone who uses Mozilla Firebird (or another standalone browser) as their primary browser and wants a mail client based on Mozilla that 'plays nice' with the browser."

MyAppleMenu : Opinions
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Why The G5 Will Force  You To Upgrade (Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac)
<http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=2402>
Let's face it: you'd be cracy not to want the fastest Mac you can afford.

MyAppleMenu : Reviews
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formZ 4.0: Retooled 3-D Modeler Throws Users Some New Curves (Sean Wagstaff, Macworld)
<http://www.macworld.com/2003/08/reviews/formz4/>
For loyal users of the program, formZ 4.0 is an exciting upgrade. Still unmatched as a solids and surface modeler and renderer, the program is finally ready for OS X, and it has many important productivity changes.

SimCity 4 (Karen Halloran, Inside Mac Games)
<http://www.insidemacgames.com/reviews/view.php?ID=392>
The scope and detail of SimCity 4 is definitely impressive, and it retains all of the game play features that longtime fans of the franchise have grown to love even though they may find that the new interface takes some getting used to.  Even then, there are some technical and design problems that should never have made the release version, and at times they take away from the game play considerably.

True Confessions Of A Mailsmith Switcher (Matt Neuburg, TidBITS)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07289>
Mailsmith 2.0 is simply a great program, and deserves wide and serious consideration. It has been worth the wait. If you've wondered what the fuss is about, now is the right time to give Mailsmith a second look -- or a first look.

Pyppy Suite (Niko Coucouvanis, MacAddict)
<http://www.macaddict.com/issues/0306/rev.puppysuite.html>
As a gimmicky gadget, however, Puppy Suite is choice -- it does its trick on command and won't embarrass you by misbehaving when you show it off.

iChat, iSight A Good Team (Peter Coffee, eWeek)
<http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1204409,00.asp?kc=EWAV103039TX1K0000565>
Apple's iChat AV instant messaging software, and the company's concurrently introduced iSight compact digital camera, demonstrate Apple's usual synthesis of top-to-bottom platform integration, novel and intelligent industrial design, and an intuitive user experience that encourages the adoption of new capabilities.

Laptop Laidback Computer Stand (Charles W. Moore, Low End Mac)
<http://www.lowendmac.com/misc/03/0728.html>

MyAppleMenu Tomorrow: Top Stories
---------------------------------
Loss Of E-Mail 'Worse Than Divorce' (BBC News)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3104889.stm>
A week without e-mail is more traumatic than moving house or getting divorced, say techies.

Airline Security's False Hope? (Arnold Barnett, MIT Technology Review)
<http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_barnett072803.asp>
An expert on aviation safety statistics says a new computer system to screen out terrorists may actually make things easier for them.

MyAppleMenu Tomorrow: News & Opinions
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Helping Machines Think Different (Noah Shachtman, Wired News)
<http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,59787,00.html>
While the Pentagon's project to record and catalog a person's life scares privacy advocates, researchers see it as a step in the process of getting computers to think like humans.

Open Group Goes Open Source (Paul Festa, CNET News.com)
<http://news.com.com/2100-1013_3-5056121.html>
The Open Group, goaded by open-source advocates and from within its ranks, has begun a drive to improve its street cred in the world of open source and open standards.

Who Pays For Open-Source? (Alan WIlliamson, O'Reilly Network)
<http://weblogs.java.net/pub/wlg/275>
But is there is an open-source model in other industries? What if an airline operated an open-source policy? Flying would be free, first-come-first-served, but the inflight meal (aka the service) would cost $400!

Outsourcing Services Put Chip Designers On Edge (Ed McNamara, EE Times)
<http://www.eetimes.com/sys/news/OEG20030725S0018>
The acceleration of overseas outsourcing of information technology services in recent years has some circuit designers worried about the security of their once-sheltered position. Those concerns are not without merit.

Signs Of Life In Silicon Valley (Joanna Glasner, Wired News)
<http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59749,00.html>
Recruiters say the balance of power -- in which employers can be extraordinarily fussy about whom they hire -- hasn't changed much in recent months. But as a bullish run in technology stock prices predicated on hopes of economic recovery spurs confidence among area employers, headhunters say their own business is picking up.

Gates: Dot-Com Dreams To Come True (Ina Fried, CNET News.com)
<http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5056117.html>
"Virtually everything that was discussed, even the most hyped thing" will happen, Gates told a crowd of researchers gathered at its headquarters here for the company's yearly Microsoft Research Faculty Summit. "It just takes more time."

MyAppleMenu Reader: World
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In The Political Arena, The Gladiators Are Now Engaged In Total War (Ronald Brownstein, Los Angeles Times)
<http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-outlook28jul28,1,3022854.column?coll=la-headlines-politics>
American political life has always required a tolerance for mud and expediency. But over the last generation, the level of combat in this endless battle has escalated to the point where the extreme has become the routine.

Foreign Currency (Richard Just, Prospect)
<http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2003/07/just-r-07-22.html>
What Democrats can learn from Tony Blair's speech to Congress.

MyAppleMenu Reader: Science & Tech
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A Bad Trip Down Memory Lane (Bruce Grierson, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/27/magazine/27CLANCY.html?pagewanted=all&position=>
Though the term "false memory" is slippery and inadequate, there is now little doubt that the phenomenon exists.

MyAppleMenu Reader: Life
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Just Say Om (Joel Stein, Time)
<http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101030804/story.html>
Scientists study it. Doctors recommend it. Millions of Americans -- many of whom don't even own crystals -- practice it every day. Why? Because meditation works.

Bob Hope, Master Of One-Liners And Friend To G.I.'s, Dies At 100 (Vincent Canby, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/29/obituaries/29HOPE.html>
There was nothing Bob Hope loved more than an audience, and audiences responded in kind, particularly soldiers facing combat who desperately needed a laugh.

City Lights Alter Rhythm Of Life On Long Island Sound (Kirk Johnson, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/29/nyregion/29SOUN.html?hp>
Scientists say that night on the Sound no longer exists because the sky has been deeply altered by the advent of artificial light.

MyAppleMenu Reader: Expressions
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A Rich Man (Edward P. Jones, New Yorker)
<http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/content/?030804fi_fiction>

MyAppleMenu SingaporeSurf : News & Opinions
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ASEAN Must Reform Itself, Analysts Say (AFP)
<http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2003/07/28/2003061316>
The growing number of free trade agreements between Asian nations and their trading partners could undermine the utility of the regional body.

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MyAppleMenu is edited by Heng-Cheong Leong. This site is not affiliated with Apple Computer, Inc., or any other companies in any manner. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, Power Macintosh, PowerBook, iMac, iBook, iPod, and eMac are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. All other brands or product names are trademarks of their registered holders. Copyright (C) 1996-2003 Heng-Cheong Leong. All rights reserved.