To Apple or Not to Apple! (Part5 of 5)

Ok here it is, my final review of the iMac G5 and Mac OS X.
To see the first 4 parts you can click the links below!

Part1
Part2
Part3
Part4


To Apple or not to Apple! (Part5 of 5)
(or Apple iMac G5 from a PC Guys perspective)

Written by Will Wagner
http://weblinksnewsletter.net
Wednesday, March 08, 2006

This 5-part review sure has been an adventure. Right up front I want to provide a hearty thanks to those who offered encouragement, feedback, and praise. You all seemed very interested in what I had tried to write about. It has been a true learning experience for me, and has helped me understand a lot more about computing interfaces, especially non-windows and other windowing operating systems in general. In this, the final part of my review, I want to provide some final feedback, wrap up my personal experiences, and give you my recommendation. That sure is a lot to do, so lets get started!

The Intel iMac Core Duo has essentially made the iMac G5 obsolete. Not in the sense that it does not or will not work, but more so in the sense that Apple has set a future course towards Intel computer ships. Older G5 hardware will be obsolete in perhaps 6-12 months. Those interested in the Mac will have to consider getting the Intel version before attempting to purchase any G5. This is a good strategy, if you plan to purchase an iMac today; the Intel version is the clear way to go. This is the future. But should you? More to come on that shortly!

Lets look at all the negatives surrounding using the iMac and Mac OS X. Yes, Mac faithful, there are a few drawbacks.

Bad:
· I saw no easy way to back off of updates installed by Apple. Microsoft Windows has the Add/Remove software option in the Control Panel. Apple needs something, even some basic scripts via menu, to uninstall software for non-technical users.
· There is little to no commercial software available in the retail chain. I mean that you cannot walk into WalMart and purchase a software package or game for the Mac.
· The goofy one button mouse is stone ages behind the 2 or 3 button mouse. It has to go to eBay and you will need to purchase a real mouse.
· iTunes (and iPhoto) uses a proprietary database for cataloging your stuff. I really see no need for this. I would prefer a more open architecture for file management of your private materials. iTunes is a widely used application, but only because it is the only package to use with the iPod, not because it is the very best software.
· Not all of the settings are easily found and set in Finder. You have to manually modify the scripts or use a 3rd party tool for advanced features and settings. I know that Windows is the same with many of its hidden features. I have yet to figure this one out, unless they are leaving an opening for 3rd party developers. Oh and thank goodness for them!
· Heat! Heat! Heat! My iMac G5 gets hot. No wonder Apple has switched to Intel. I hope the new iMac has addressed this problem. The G5 has plenty of fans; they are just always set on low speed. Just not enough air flow! How hot is it, roughly 165F under constant load.
· .Mac is one of those extras that is disguised as an option, buy the entire OS is built with the assumption you will sign up and use .Mac. There should be a way to replace .Mac with your own personal webspace or site!
· It is not easy to see how much space a file is using. Allow us to put that info under each Icon as an option. Yeah you can choose a different view to display details, but I like the Icons view. In Windows you can click on a few files, and the total size is displayed at the bottom of the Explorer bar. I miss that! (There are 3rd party free utilities that serve this function, but Apple needs to supply it)
· Keyboard shortcuts are not shown on screen, in the menu. I admit the funky combinations are powerful, but for a newbie, I have to have a list of them plastered to my wall. Just put them in the menu!
· Thanks to Microsoft, flip4mac has given us libraries to open and save Windows Media files and formats to MOV. Apple should have supplied this one, perhaps in a conversion tool, but since M$ has deep pockets; all the Windows profits have gone to something worthwhile. Even if it is clunky.
· The iMac monitor base cannot be raised, only tilted. Why? Every other monitor manufacturer gives this ability. I can only imagine that since the iMac is so heavy, Apple felt that the neck and computer would not stay extended over a long period of time due to vibrations. Hence only a tilt neck is included. Apple is the innovator, get real, and fix this one.
· USB ports on the back? What gives? I have a few USB devices, and would like at least one on the side or somewhere we can reach it more easily. I have to admit one on the front would look like crap. I can give Apple some credit here for looks over function.
· iMac doesn’t come in a Cinema display? It should. I want a monster monitor with no cables like the iMac! There would only be demand for it if it were fast and top of the line hardware, like iMac.
· In Mac OS X you simply cannot change the size of the little close button icons or maximize/minimize button icons. You must be able to allow users to adjust sizes of these things. When you go hi-res these things are TINY! It takes me 3 clicks to hit it, and I am pretty accurate with the mouse clicks. I never have this trouble on Windows! Windows allows adjustments of visual queues and button sizes.
· The Dock on OS X is not as usable as the Taskbar on Windows. Don’t get me wrong; I think its appearance blows Taskbar away. I just like the way all open programs show up on Taskbar. Not many people like this as much as me, but I want to see all the programs I am running grouped together. The Dock shows little arrows on running apps, but that’s lame for an OS proud of its graphics capabilities. If the App is not minimized, it won’t show up on the Dock, too.
· Multiple desktops are a feature on just about all the Major UNIX operating systems. Apple dropped the ball here. 3rd party to the rescue! Unix gurus want multiple desktop utilities.
· The Mouse cursor can be resized, but the jaggies show up like Paul Bunyan’s favorite tree destroying saw. Again, for a supposed graphical OS, it should be a smooth transition if you resize the arrow. In Windows, no such problems! Matter of fact you can change the cursor all together! Nope, not on Mac OS X. Third party utilities provide this, but why should they need to?
· I was able to drop an audio sound into the default folder for my default sounds, but what about startup music or shutdown music. Windows does it, now! Not Mac OS X. The option should be there for user fun and configuration.
· Apple includes only lame OpenGL screensavers. Give us more eye candy! At least 3rd party developers have many out there for free, but you have to search.
· Installing software is not standardized. Sure most of the time you can simply drop into the apps folder, but some apps have an install script, others don’t. Why make the user drop the software into the Applications folder, allow them to right click on the app they want to install, and have the system copy it. I bet this could be done in Automator or through Apple Script. But make our lives easier; include the script on the file context menu.
· No Audio Input port, only Audio Output. This is supposed to be a users multimedia system, but no input for sound? Wack!
· No Newsreader is included. What? That is a deep hole that needs to be filled. A basic newsreader is very important to my online experience.
· If you like to label CDs, I suggest that you don’t use them in the iMac CD/DVD drive. They could get stuck. Since the unit is hot anyway, the label could spin right off the disc.
· OS X is built specifically to run on Apple hardware, so it is more stable. But not perfect. During a reboot that some virus scanner software recommended, the system hung up hard, and the fans whirred full speed. I had to power it off to get it back!
· Oh and the hardware is one solid main board, not much to upgrade inside, except memory or hard drive. Don’t expect to buy any add on cards or internal capture devices, no such thing! This could be a good thing, easier for users to manage, but your iMac system could become obsolete faster than a normal desktop, which can grow with your needs.
· My Creative Web cam wouldn’t recognize when I plugged it in. Why? It is no wonder that the iSight is now included in the iMac. One less issue to deal with!
· Unix file permissions and ownerships get screwed up every time you install software. Why? This sure seems like a major bug to me. You have to run the permissions correction tool periodically.
· Mac Icons are not easy to change, and your main foundation icons cannot be changed. On windows you can change almost any icon anywhere.
· Mac software, which can be found, is expensive! No wonder people prefer Windows. You may not get world-renowned software, but who cares for a few dollars we could toss it in the trash if we don’t like it. Most Apple applications hover around $100 but some are much more.


Well I wanted to be absolutely honest on my criticisms on the iMac and Apple OS X. I didn’t hold back, and really feel that these issues are mostly things that can be addressed easily. Actually, I see no reason keeping Apple from doing all of them cheaply. We know I can be a critic, what about the items that I really like about the iMac and OS X?

Good:
· Great sounding speakers! The size alone would make you think they would be only good enough for whisper music. In fact the speakers are great for standard speech and audio. I love the fact I don’t need to purchase extra speakers or hardware. Plus the fact that they are built right in.
· Talk about Hardware, the iMac is gorgeous! Flat, streamlined, simple, aesthetically pleasing, well designed, compact…. On and on! The iMac is simply the best looking and best designed computer, and that before you even turn it on!
· I found that the iMac was a great system for viewing DVDs. I simply love the DVD player software in my iMac. This iMac looks like a TV, and plays DVDs with magical quality. I could be at my desk working on a project, reading mail, or doing paperwork, and view DVDs easily, they sound good, and the screen is sharp and clear. A bit costly for a simple DVD player, but at least it does other things too.
· The iMac boots very quickly! Blows Windows away, not even close. If I were to compare equal plain vanilla systems, I think it would be a little closer, but still no contest! I even reloaded my PC do be more fair, the iMac still seems much faster at bootup.
· Even though the USB and Firewire ports are on the back, they are all lined up together, in a row, very uniform. On any given PC the jacks and connectors are all over the back of the system, and never next to each other.
· Mac OS X is Unix, and not just any Unix, but BSD. This means it is rugged and built to run. If you like Linux, you should love Mac OS X.
· Since OS X is Unix, there are many ports or conversions of Linux software now being ported to OS X. This equates to a lot of free online software, which happens to be very useful.
· The slot load CD/DVD player and burner is kool. No tray, nothing to worry about, CD simply slips into the side of the iMac cabinet. It is easy to use, and clean looking.
· I cannot say enough about the keyboard. I truly appreciate the sound controls on the keyboard, volume, mute, and eject key for CD drive. Very user friendly once I discovered them. No such thing exists on the PC, except in aftermarket keyboards that add extra expense. I guess in the long run; since the PC is cheaper, these may break even with each other, but the iMac includes them, score one to Apple.
· I upgraded the memory from 512Meg to 1024Meg (1 Gig). This process was simple, easy to do, only 3 screws to unscrew. They never popped out, they stay attached to the unit so they don’t get lost. Pop the memory into the slot, click the ends onto the memory and close up the cabinet. Easy upgrade!
· I was pleasantly surprised to find much freeware and shareware software on the Internet. Even though you cannot find commercial software in the stores, there is plenty of it online, tucked away at your favorite Mac sites.
· Mac OS X was simple to update via the Apple assistant. Took one click to allow my Mac to check for updates. They appeared, and you hit ok. The updates all install, then your computer asks to reboot. In the Windows world you have to reboot on some of the patches right away, one at a time, then check for updates again, what a PC time waster! XP has come a long way to helping correct this, but it is behind the iMac on this one.
· I hooked up my PC printer and it just worked, the driver was already in there. No fancy features like on the PC but at least it works. Windows has been pretty good at hardware detection over the last many years too though.
· I like the Finder program manager / file manager. It is simple to use, and fully object oriented. That means you can drag files to applications, or drag files to printers.
· I currently have my iMac tell me the time every hour. My Mac speaks! I like this feature. I can also have the Mac say anything from a file I want. This feature can also help you navigate the OS if you have sight troubles.
· Mac Icons are very colorful, sharp and attractive! They are sharp even if you grow them to the largest size, as big as a Quarter.
· OS X comes with a wide array of applications, utilities, and programs. If you didn’t want to purchase anything else, you don’t have to.
· Searchlight is fantastic! Type in a word, and the system will search the whole darn system for references to that word. Bookmarks, files, folders, mail messages, music, photos. Everything!
· It is easy to drop an application to the Dock for future use, and even easier to remove one. Drag file to or off the Dock, that’s it!
· The iMac comes with Bluetooth and Airport wireless built in! I use Bluetooth for the keyboard. I know many cell phones today have Bluetooth. Not to mention PDAs. That’s a fine standard feature, one Apple has been wise to include.
· An Ethernet 10/100 jacks in included for wired networking. This I prefer for privacy!
· The widgets are nice little utilities. I prefer Konfabulator, but the built in Widget engine is kool too.
· The Background Image on the desktop has more options. You can tile and stretch, but they are oriented from the center, not from the top left corner of the screen. This is much more advanced and intelligently designed. You don’t have to hit the OK button, like discontinued IBM OS/2, the change just happens.
· Smooth! This one is rather hard to express, but the Mac and OS X seems to run smoothly and present an aesthetically pleasing experience. The actions on the OS are not choppy. When you open windows they quickly fade in or animate from the Dock. Windows has this feature, but it seems like a resource hog on the traditional PC.
· I prefer the 2-button mouse, and as dirty as it seems, I took a Microsoft Mouse, plugged it in, and it worked great. Any 2-button mouse would work, but I got the same one that my PC had. It is USB, and never skips or hops, it just runs reliably. I can say on Windows 2000 there was an issue where the mouse would abort and you had no pointer. Never saw that on Windows XP.
· There is game support on Mac OS X. Quake 3 comes to mind. I have found enough games for my tastes. I prefer small quick 1st person shooter games. I have several Flash files that are games, like PacMan and Asteroids, Tetris, and even Batman. The current Flash player is available for Mac OS X, a huge plus.
· Safari is feature rich, and solid. It has never choked on a web page, which I visited. Safari just runs well. Tabbed browsing has grown on me too, since you cannot see all your separate Safari web page windows running in the Dock. There is a hidden setting you can use, I think, to show all jobs running, but that would get cluttered. Apple took the correct approach here.
· Even though the front of the iMac looks funny, the screen is on the top third. I like the space for sticky notes below the screen. This is a great place for reminders and notes to myself. I don’t use the software sticky notes application, which is included. With space for real notes, it is easier for me.



Well, as you can see I have found much good, and bad about my experiences. Seems to me that the iMac is not perfect. Matter of fact, I see much room for enhancements or changes. The hardware is a winner, many of my problems surrounded the software interface. As a PC guy, I would love to see Windows XP run on an iMac. I like Windows XP, it is the first really reliable OS that Microsoft has given us. However, I like the iMac overall too!
For this review, since day one, I have had the iMac sitting next to my PC. I admit, the PC is more centered, and the iMac is just to the right. I have attempted to use the iMac for much more than just browsing the Web, but it is best suited for browsing, E-Mail, and general Internet related usage. Strangely enough, no newsreader was included. Some modern browsers include newsreader function. Apple needs to include a newsreader.
I have found that the iMac and Mac OS X in general can do all of the things that the Windows XP counterpart can. Matter of fact, there are utilities for almost anything out there you wish to do. I do have some very specific programs and utilities on the PC that I wish I had on the iMac. I am sure they will eventually come, or perhaps I will come across a similar application or script. But no major show stoppers.

Recommendation:

Finally, here comes the major zinger of whether I recommend the iMac and OS X, or not.
1. Yes I do. I fully recommend the iMac for your Internet and computing needs. I felt that if my PC crashed and went south, I could use and enjoy the iMac for my computing needs.
2. Now how about the question, “Would I Switch from the PC to Mac, and never look back?” No. I would not. For some things I still prefer the PC. I prefer my music on the PC, in MP3 format. MP3 format is more widely used and supported. But the iMac is a great companion to the PC network, it easily integrates, and can serve as a second system, web server, or just to get various things accomplished while you wait on your PC to do other things. But be careful of .Mac. Be wary of what you purchase on extended agreements or subscription services. Keep in mind that anything on someone else’s server can be searched through or copied. Your privacy is at risk.
3. If I had to choose right now and select only one platform to use, I would have to stay with the PC. I know so much more about the PC and the underlying file structures. Previous versions of PC software count, but in todays connected world you can find any application you need on the Net for cheap or commercial fee. Software is just no longer a factor.
4. If you are new to computing, or don’t know a heck of a lot about the PC in general, or the inner workings, I feel that you would be a better candidate to switch to the iMac. It is a fantastic platform for computing, Internet, and content creation (like video and DVDs). It does it all very well, and builds high quality output. The PC does it all, but is sometimes slow, sloppy (poor output) and prone to lock ups.

Finally:

Go out and purchase an iMac. I think you will really enjoy the experience as I have done. Whether you need or like the iMac will be based on many personal factors, and preferences. I just don’t see a clear-cut argument for or against either platform. I don’t mind seeing competition though, and Microsoft needs more of it. But Apple would score more adopters as an open platform, which seems important to more people today, if they would create software that doesn’t hook you into their formats and ways of doing things. Make software that is well integrated, but open! This is probably why Linux is gaining so much ground on the desktop, at work and at home.

Thanks for reading, good luck in your review!

Live Simpsons Intro by Fans!

This is very funny, and I wonder why this hasn't been done earlier. These fans went and created the Simpsons TV show intro via LIVE scenes. Really kool to see in live footage, versus the original cartoon version. Check it out!

Hilarious Monkey Mail from Careerbuilder.com

My cousin dropped me some email formatted by this site. The gag is that you create a monkey, type in some text, and it talks. I like the Simon voice best. I was sending notes and junk all night! I guess I am an Internet Junkie afterall. To really waste some time, and get some laughs, try it for yourself! Listen to this message from me!

Unusual Catchy Video - Maeken Toranzu - Koi no Maiahi Chiwawa

Here is a link to a catchy video I found on Google Video and YouTube. Take a look, dance a little, then realize that the main female character looks alot like the main male character! Coincidence, nope! But still a catchy and fun video to watch. Look out Britney!

John Dvorak says Apple will Adopt Windows?

John C. Dvorak has always been one of my favorite pundits! He is one who seems to love controversy. And in his true style he has announced that he believes that Apple will eventually kill off Mac OS X and adopt... Windows. Article Courtesy of PC Magazine.

To Apple or not to Apple! (Part4 of 5)

To Apple or not to Apple! (Part4)
(or Apple iMac G5 from a PC Guys perspective)

Part 4 of my 5 Part White Paper on my experiences using an iMac from a PC user experience has been released. Part 5 will be forthcoming this weekend, with a Wrap Up and recommendation for those who want to know if they should take the plunge.

Part1
Part2
Part3


To Apple or not to Apple! (Part4)
(or Apple iMac G5 from a PC Guys perspective)

Written by Will Wagner
http://weblinksnewsletter.net
Thursday, February 16, 2006

Well, with the announcement of the newer Intel iMac, my review of the G5 seems to now be very old and outdated. Better get my butt in gear and finish this review! Apple sure does do business via Internet time, it seems that Microsoft is in delay mode for all of their products in comparison. Sure says a lot for a smaller company (Apple) compared to the behemoth (Microsoft). The latest G5 with the remote was released only a few months ago. Now the iMac, like I have on my desk, comes with an Intel chip inside. Oh well, I have my thoughts together, and have made an attempt to speed up the release of these last 2 parts. Part 4 which you are reading now, will cover real productivity, and Part 5 will be my recommendation or lack of. I guess the review will be more of a wide perspective of Apple and Mac, versus just simply this iMac G5, but I will try to be specific in my views on both topics. I anticipate the final part to be out in less than a week. I feel that you can get a bargain sale price on the iMac G5 right now, so if ever there was a time to purchase one for your own review, that time could be now. More on that in Part5!

What Have I done?

The title doesn't really imply "Oh no, what have I done!" but rather, "“Ok I have an iMac, not what have I done, with it?"

As far as productivity software goes, I have fully tested AppleWorks. AppleWorks, as you may recall, is the productivity suite that is bundled with the Mac OS X Operating system. Wow, is it simply jam-packed with templates and options. There are templates for web pages, newsletters, letterhead, greeting cards, signs (for sale), banners, awards, postcards, posters, and calendars. Like I said jam-packed!
In AppleWorks you get a paint program, much like Paintbrush on Windows. The single most amazing drawing tool (to my simple mind) is the triangle tool. Sure other apps can draw circles and squares, but I have never seen a tool that can draw triangles. Hmm, I could envision usage for this, such as creating cool Halloween pumpkins hand crafted for a greeting card. You can also paste a pattern into the background or just about anywhere. Change the colors, and create unusual backgrounds. Now I admit, this is not Photoshop, but it is a cool tool that goes a long way for the price of bundled software. Save the image as a BMP, PNG, TIFF, TGA, JPEG and a few others. Noteworthy, you can also save in ClarisWorks format, which indicates to me that this part of the package is a direct licensed copy of the real ClarisWorks.
You also have Assistants that walk you through a few choice documents. Certificates, envelopes, calendars, business cards. All in all some very useful items. Major format styles are covered too, word processing, spreadsheets, line drawings (a second program other than paint), presentation software, and finally a database utility.
This AppleWorks application has really grown on me. As a PC guy I recognize these tools are commercial quality. They are not flashy in any stretch of the imagination, but very useful and complete. Beats the large price tag for Microsoft Office.

Apple has packed some fantastic Internet Utilities inside the Mac OS X. I have been using the Mail application on the Mac and comparing in parallel to my PC. Mail is full featured, has a spell checker, rules "wizard” to set various sorting options as messages come into your Inbox. I couldn't find a Vacation Message option, but I suspect you could create a rule to email all recipients you are away. But the clear best feature Mail has to offer is the Bounce capability. This means that if you get junk from someone, you can reply with a bounce message. This means that the junk mail sender gets a server type message saying unknown recipient, and that can get you removed from the Spam list. Kool!
How about if you want to avoid someone, just bounce the message back. You could also redirect the message, which is better than forwarding. When it is redirected, the original sender remains intact, versus a forwarded message, which gets your address in the From Field. I see this very handy for those with multiple mail accounts where you may wish to reply from a specific account or service, back to this sender. Kool #2
You can also edit and cater the button menu to your liking. Place all of the buttons you frequently use, such as Get mail, New, Reply, Reply to All, Print, Redirect, etc. There are buttons to change the font ala IE for font increase and decrease, on the fly. Highly configurable, and easy to use package overall. You can even drag the default set back to the toolbar to get back to the original setting. Yes it is that easy!
I have to tell you, I really don’t see any major drawbacks with this commercial grade and high quality Mail program. It has all the normal features plus what I outlined above.

I use the bundled Safari web browser to surf the net. It is fantastic too! There is a modern Flash player, which I feel keeps your sites looking like they do on the PC side. But on top of that compatibility you get so much more. Safari is an RSS newsreader, which just makes plain sense. RSS is built on the web server structure, so why need a separate reader?
Block Pop Ups! Surf PRIVATELY if you like! Your History is kept in the menu, which breaks it down by days on which you browsed. The Bookmark editor looks just like the Finder file Manager, so it is easy to use as well.
How about this one? You can open all your bookmarks at one time. Yes, each Bookmark child menu has a listing to Open in Tabs. This executes each bookmark in the current drop down to open in Safari. Now as you might expect, I did this on my large bookmarks section, and nearly 50 bookmarks opened all at once. It worked great, with only a moment of wait to begin using the bookmarks. If you are working on several projects, I like this option to open all the pages at one time.
Safari is fast too. It runs as fast as the Gecko engine on Mozilla. Not sure which is faster, I suspect Mozilla, but it is peppy. Not to mention you can also watch all of your file downloads and activity via the separate Activity and Downloads boxes. I can download many files at once, and they show status all in one place. WasnÂ’t sure I would like this, but I actually do. Makes for less screen clutter. I was even able to pause or stop a download, and click on it and it would pick up where it left off, for large files. Awesome features that users love, and they are all here.
I imported all of my Bookmarks, by the way, and have them on my Mac now as well as in Netscape on the PC. Even though I don’t use all of them all the time, and prefer the Google bar for finding pages, it imported flawlessly.
Another fine application that is unique to the Mac OS X, even if they are not glamorous, for an Internet junkie like myself, they are critical to making the iMac useful for me.

I dabbled with iTunes. I realize the market of the iPod, so I won’t spend too much time here. I myself like iTunes for what it can do. It catalogs and sorts your audio library, allows easy burning of CD media and music, and allows you to purchase some great songs and videos for cheap. I am not a fan of having to be forced into any package that requires me to use it to do simple burning of music files. But on the PC I had to get third party software to allow me freedom as well. To simply play audio files or downloaded content, I prefer QuickTime or the free VLC Player.

iPhoto is the software that handles all of your photos and allows you to view and preview them, then print or share. I imported 4600 items into iPhoto and it choked. Not right away, it seemed to import, but while managing some photos, moving them or indexing them, basically sorting them to other folders, iPhoto locked up. Now I did dump a lot of photos. so I give it that.
I don’t care for iPhoto that much. Like with my music, I simply prefer to place my files into my own folders and sort system. I don’t mind a viewer of sorts, but have no need for a separate library to catalog my photos. I can view them in the Finder. So no thrills for iPhoto, but I can see why it is nice to have for those people who are not keen on file management and direct manipulation of files and folders.

iDVD is awesome though. It was simple and easy to create some really professional DVDs. I had a few troubles getting my real content on the DVD at first, being lulled into thinking the nice animated intro menus linked directly to content. It didn’t for me. But once I got the hag of making links to content and the real movie, I got it. Bottom line is it is not as easy to use as everything else on the iMac. But once learned, it does become effortless to create a nice high quality DVD. Oh and the templates in iDVD are incredible!

iMovie HD beats many of the movie making packages I have seen though. The drag and drop features are cool, and I could actually simply record voice via the internal mic, and add some of my own commentary to the video.
The effects are abundant. Probably more than a “basic” package such as this really needs. But they are there if it strikes ya. Normally you should stick to one particular wipe style, so the audience is not distracted, but for creative genius, you can do almost anything.
Better yet Make a Magic Movie. This means that you select footage, place a default scene transition between the scenes, and send to iDVD to create. This thing then creates the DVD for you, and does a good job! Keeps ya from doing all the planning and creation for simple family DVDs you want to get out the door while your family is waiting to take a copy home.

GarageBand is the now very famous musical creation application in OS X. It comes with some demo music, which you can edit and mess with to learn how to use GarageBand. I am not very musically inclined, so struggled at first. But I then figured out how to edit and create new tracks and musical instruments. Now I did take music in school, played the guitar for a half semester, tuba for a year, and drums (bass, snare and cymbals), and recorder (flute like thing) but my ability to really create was very limited. I was never really that good. I have to admit I was better at lip sync or air guitar.
Nonetheless, this application is awesome. For those of you who have musical ability, this tool brings to you all instruments you could want. Drum rhythms, guitar riffs, various different keys that can be inserted as individual notes, via midi keyboard (or like me, by using the on screen keyboard with mouse). It is a lot of fun to use, and tinker with, and I plan to invest much more time to create something, no matter how lame it may be.
Oh if you do actually create something worthwhile, send it to iTunes, and burn it to a CD. That may be one of the best features.

QuickTime comes with OS X. QuickTime is the video player. I just had to finally purchase the PRO version so I could record and view MOV files full screen. For $30.00 it is a bargain. I must say that Windows Media Player has many of these features, and is free. So that has to be taken in consideration.
Once you go PRO you can record any audio and video you wish to. In a previous section I noted how liquidly smooth the size adjustments are for movie resizing, 2x and back to 1x. Grab the window and move it, and note just how smooth and clean the video remains while it is moved.
QuickTime is a very well written and refined package, especially from a few years ago. Back then I had all kinds of troubles with it on Windows 95. Finally I see it has matured into a viable recoding application that we were waiting for.

So what have I done? Basically I have used the major packages to create music (bad music), create cool DVDs from movie clips, listen to free pod castings on iTunes, and read my mail. I actually prefer Safari to any browser I have tested or use today.

In addition I have downloaded several free software programs for the Mac OS X. There has always been an insistence that there is no software for the Mac. Well, you can’t buy software in any store, YET. But you can get Mac software for free, via shareware, and via commercial terms on many sites across the net. There seems to be plenty of software.
I have purchased Toast 6 Lite via eBay. I am looking for a good deal on Toast 7, and plan to grab that soon. But this Lite version allows me to easily wipe rewritable cd disks. It can be done via the disk utility, but easier via Toast.
I also purchased a Slots game, which was on sale, from CompUSA. This was more for my wife, to acclimate her to the iMac. She likes the iMac, but could care less what I have on the desk. She just wants it to work, and it does.
I also added Konfabulator, which is now called Yahoo Widget. I like this better than the Apple widget engine, since I can place widgets directly on my desktop. I found some hacks, which enable you to drag your Apple widget to the desktop, but it stays on top by default and is difficult to close the widget. I use the Activity Monitor to close wayward apps anyway, so thatÂ’s the solution! But I encourage you to grab the Yahoo Widget engine, FREE. It really dresses up the desktop and can make it very useful. Whatever widget engine you use, Widgets are an integral part now of any OS. When will Microsoft come up with this idea? Lets hope not!

Finally, I would be inept at reviewing the iMac if I didnÂ’t mention the Unix frame underneath. Unix is the backbone of the Internet, as well as the phone networks. It is used by engineers to do real work, and is very popular in the Linux flavor across the Internet.
Now we have Unix underneath the famed Apple platform, and I like that idea. I donÂ’t know a lot about Unix administration, but I can use the command line for viewing permissions and using basic commands.
For those out there who want Unix, the Mac is no doubt a compelling option. Based on BSD, the version out of Berkley Unix. Mac OS X boasts the Mach Micro kernel. Unix experts like to use various different kinds of script languages, and all of the major versions are supported. Perl, PHP, TCL/TK, Ruby, and Python and Korn Shell. Heard of Microsoft Vista doing 64 bit addressing? OS X already does that. Woa!


Wrap Up!
(Next - Final Issue Part 5 Wrap Up! available at http://weblinksnewsletter.net)

Hulk Hogan Anthology DVD

Big news for Hulk Hogan and Pro Wrestling fans, the list of feature matches for the DVD on April 4th, 2006, has been leaked to the net. Looks good as seen at Lords of Pain.net

More on Hulk Hogan at the WWE site!

Liberals Devalue King's Legacy at Funeral

Jimmy Carter, Rev Joseph Lowery (who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr.), and Bill Clinton smeared the memory and legacy of Dr King, as well as Coretta Scott King, during Mrs. King's funeral. Leave it to this bunch, who whine and complain about tactics, not enough for poor, and slow response to Katrina, but refuse to accept responsibility for their part in all of that. They attacked President Bush at a persons funeral! Unbelievable, and the media misses it. They actually ignore it. George H. Bush was correct in stating that "Anybody that shoots at the president of the United States at a funeral, I just didn't appreciate that." And any citizen who respected the legacy that both King and his wife brought to civil rights would also recognize that it was inappropriate!

Hear an interview with George H. Bush and what he thought of this, from CBS News!

FREE Remote Display Software for Mac and PC

I just had to step in here and post this one. I got the latest PC Magazine Solutions Email Tech Newsletter from Anil Hemrajani. The entire article topic was how to connect to your PC from Mac or reversed! Be it Windows, Mac OS X or Linux, it just doesn't matter! I thought this would be a great tool to use while testing the Mac during my 5 part series on the Mac from a PC Users Perspective. I LOVE this kool utility! You can't BUY a cooler software package, one that offers real options in multi-platform processing setting. I can now run anything on my Mac, which is via remote display from my PC. Read the article for yourself, and I urge you to check this one out, and give it a try!

John Kerry - Man Of Mystery

From the Network of College Conservatives, a very funny image of John Kerry. Seems that Kerry wants to declare peace and sign a treaty with terrorists! Amazing!

Beastie Boys Fun

One of my favorite bands/groups has always been the Beastie Boys. I have felt that they always try to stretch their music while making statements about just what is going on out there. Now I may be digging deep, but their latest project is a motion picture, with a group of fans taking the video. Due out in March! Caution Adult Language!

Cringely on Bush Wiretaps

Robert X. Cringely has stated his 2 cents on President Bush, and the technical truth about spying on your terrorist enemies! He says: "several hundred NSA communication intercepts wouldn't have qualified for submission by the DoJ to the FISA court, and some of those might not have qualified for FISA court orders even if they had been submitted".

Olesker Resigns Due to Plagiarism!

Long time Liberal Sun Newspaper columnist Michael Olesker has resigned short of his 30 year anniversary with The Sun Newspaper. I now see that not only Olesker had been unnecessarily rude, but also lazy! Olesker has been on the attack against popular Maryland Governor, Bob Ehrlich, using various statements, facts and figures that now must be called into question. Ehrlich sued The Sun in 2004, and won in Federal Court, however the liberal newspaper has appealed. This is a glorious day for Marylanders, which says go ahead and speak out, but be accurate, truthful, and use your own material.

The article says: Ehrlich Press Secretary Greg Massoni said in an e-mail detailing the ban that Nitkin and Olesker "are failing to objectively report on any issue dealing with the Ehrlich-Steele administration."

Examples of the Plagiarism is shown in the WBAL website at this link.

PC Cooling: Submerged in Oil

I just have to pass this one along. These techies in Germany have outlined, with images, their high end PC cooling experiment, by submerging the PC in Cooking Oil. Awesome way to look at things, though I may not do this myself. Now I don't have to since they did it for us.

See how they did it!

To Apple or NOT to Apple (Part 3)

To Apple or not to Apple! (Part3)
(or Apple iMac G5 from a PC Guys perspective)

Part 3 of my 5 Part White Paper on my experiences using an iMac from a PC user experience has been released. The Holidays sure took a beating on my free time! In addition to work, school, and various chores around the house, I had little time to refine my thoughts and get them out to you in a timely manner. Rest assured Part 4 & 5 will be forthcoming.

Part1
Part2


Written by Will Wagner
Monday, January 9, 2006

So Far…

My experiment into the World of Apple and Mac OS X has been, I have to admit, a lot of fun. My initial fears associated with the change from one platform to another, one operating system to another, and one whole computing interface to another, have been quelled. I have found that Apple has spent a lot of time and effort into making the Mac easy to use, easy to operate, and less hassle to maintain. In the first few weeks, and then months, which I have been compiling data for this “white paper”, my Mac has been solid, mostly responsive, and easy to understand. In that same time my PC has hung, failed to write a CD properly creating a “coaster”, and my network connection failed to operate several times, forcing me to “fix” the network settings via a Windows button in the preferences. Since I am a highly skilled PC person they were all easy to correct, or to try again, but meanwhile my Mac was sitting there patiently waiting for me to get done with the PC and come back to be able to do something.

Granted, I was, and still am comparing a PC that is a tiny bit older than the iMac, but not by that much. My Windows XP system has had the benefit of tweaks, personal hacks, Norton Utilities and various enhancements via the registry. No such customization was really done on the iMac. Now in this period of time, I have learned several things about my iMac. There are many hidden settings to change the look and feel here and there. But I still feel some major enhancements are missing, or at least I have not stumbled upon the more advanced stuff yet.

I hope to give a general Conclusion later on in Part 5 that will address whether one should switch, or at least consider the iMac during a new purchase. It may not sound like it, but the jury is still out on that one.


Bundled Application Listing

Time to take a look at what kind of software and applications are bundled with the iMac and Mac OS X in general. You will recall this is not the new iMac. This is the previous generation iMac with everything the current one has, except that cute remote that looks like an iPod, and the built in iSight camera.
Lets go alphabetically, shall we? Apple has bundled many applications, some you have already paid for, and some that nag you to register each time you run them.

2005 World Book - Nice application, fun to look at, polished and feature rich. Nice for the kids, and a good excuse for them doing Homework on the iMac. But every PC I have ever gotten comes with an Encyclopedia also. Minus the nag screen.

Address Book - Complements the Email package, mainly used to keep track of phone numbers, and email addresses. But don’t underestimate this partial package. It has several hidden features. Like being able to map the address listed for your current entry through MapQuest. Another very cool feature is you can have your iMac speak the details on this entry. Yes the computer can talk to you, and it does it well.

AppleScript - This software package allows you to run scripts or batch files via the menu. I have not experimented much with this feature, but think it will be used by me as I become more familiar with OS X and find a need to browse the web for information on it. There are many example scripts to test out, and I urge anyone with a Mac to do this.

AppleWorks - Suite of Productivity tools, word processor, Spreadsheet, tools reminiscent of Microsoft Office, but this is free and included in the operating system package. Great feature!

Automator - Much like AppleScript, this is a menu driven graphical interface used to automate processes and execute programs in your given preferences. You select actions from a list of choices for various programs. I don’t know of any program in the Windows world that does this, besides the older Macro Recorder, which has long been discontinued.

Calculator - This is easy a basic calculator application is included. Just like the Windows counter part.

Chess - This is way better than Solitaire, a Chess game is included with OS X, and yes, again it says the moves so you could leave the room for a moment and know when it is your turn.

Dashboard - This is possibly the most popular and highly marketed application. Dashboard is the Widget engine in OS X. It can be quite useful. My only complaint is that it resides on a separate workspace, instead of placing its objects onto the desktop like other well-known Widget programs. Konfabulator comes to mind, now owned by Yahoo, which gives PCs a dynamic useful tools base. Konfabulator wins hands down.

Dictionary - This is another useful application, which allows you to type a word into the program, and it searches for your meaning. I must admit though, I rarely use a dictionary in normal everyday usage, thanks to Microsoft word. Still nice to have for the kids.

DVD Player - Simple enough, the icon looks like an iPod. This app plays DVDs very well, in full screen mode.

Font Book - Mac OS X uses this application as the Font Manager, same as Windows.
Garage Band - This program is hailed as one of the most useful and enjoyable applications included in OS X. Garage Band is just that, it allows one to create music and audio clips for special projects. It takes some getting used to, and is not as intuitive as I would like it to be. But you can dig in right away and begin to tinker around. The thing I do like is that what you enter on the keyboard can be made into any sound when changing the instrument. Fun! I haven’t created any great masterpiece, but this app brings a powerful tool to the family desktop, which could boost musical creativity!

iCal - This application is a Calendar scheduler. Works much like the Calendar in Outlook on the windows side. Nice that it is a separate application, versus a bundled program that requires email to be open. It stands alone quite well.

iChat - One of the most widely used applications today is the chat program, and Apple provides this one that can easily interface with AOL Instant Messenger.

iDVD - This application is a solid DVD authoring tool, bundled with Mac OS X. Windows provides Movie Maker, but nothing as awesome as iDVD. I must say that the intros in iDVD are commercial quality if I ever did see some. Nothing compares!

iMovie HD - This application is a tool used to create content for your DVD movies. It appears to be as nice and clean as the other applications I have looked at. I really like the robustness of the drag and drop. It doesn’t skip a beat. Again, another strong application that makes the Mac OS X worth every penny. I can’t import Windows Media files though, and I feel this is a feature that would be needed for those PC people in a dual computer environment. Perhaps there is a way, and I am too novice yet to have found it.

Internet Connect - This program helps you to setup various modern connection types. I never actually used it since I have broadband. But you could setup your modem connection to your Internet service provider, a Bluetooth or airport wireless connection.

iPhoto - Nice application for cataloging your digital pictures, from your digital camera. Many cameras have their own programs bundled with the camera, but still nice to have this application for those who want a solid Apple designed program to ensure system stability. I would keep it!

iSync - Used to sync your personal files and settings to your roaming .Mac account. I am not using this at this time.

iTunes - What can I say, if you don’t know what this application is, perhaps you should go back to notebook paper and pencils to write letters. Get out the old Records too! iTunes is currently the most popular and widely used music database and ordering system for tracks of commercial artist created music. Usually best associated with the iPod. I like this application for streaming music. I would prefer to enable MP3 as the standard versus ACC format. But I understand ACC enables digital rights management. It is hard to sell music if you cannot control it. In the PC world you have far more choices as to how to manage your music. Free and commercial applications are flooding the net. Windows actually wins this round but by no effort by Microsoft.

Mail - Guess what, this is the mail application. It too is a separate application, and I love this. Mail is simple, easy to use, and clean.

Preview - This image viewer is very simple, but serves the purpose. Earlier, in a previous section, I hinted that it doesn’t allow for easy deletion of the viewed image. However, you are able to adjust the image properties, brightness, saturation, contrast, even sepia, which is usually an advanced option. Use Preview to make a snapshot of the current window. Nice feature!

QuickTime Player - Plays QuickTime movies. I must say that this Mac version is so smooth and fast, it is really amazing. I plan to upgrade to Pro so I can create and save MOV files.

Safari - This is the Apple answer to web browsing, and I have to admit, it is solid. Feature rich menus allow clearing of cache and history very easily. Years ahead of any competition. I am not aware of any special plugins like what Firefox uses, but Safari doesn’t really need them to be good. Fast and solid web browser technology here!

Sherlock - This web based information finder is quite nice. You can search on just about any topic. Though you could use Google, and I normally do, the interface is the well-known Mac feel usable and easy to navigate. For point and click, it really is exceptional. There is even an eBay search section, which I find interesting. This takes you from the eBay site and brings searching to one window. Also search the Internet via Sherlock to get results from many websites at one time. Google is missing though, that’s bad.

System Preferences - This icon is the application that is exactly like the Control Panel in Windows. Change all your settings here.

TextEdit - This is a simple text editor, like Notepad.

Utilities Folder - This folder houses the core system diagnostics, disk managers, and printer utilities. You will also find the Command Line application called Terminal here. For those Unix people, run the Console app to see all Unix style messages. The Screen grabber is here too. Some of the most useful applications I have seen reside on the Mac. This folder beats out Windows without a hitch. Windows just doesn’t include all of these cools utilities. Usually you need a third part program to do what some of these can do, or have to revert to Dos to use the Windows versions when there is an equivalent.


Since my previous issue of this “white paper” I have added many utilities myself. Many or all are free for personal use. For instance, I have added VLC. This program is a simple audio file and video file player. I like it because it is FREE and it is small and loads quickly. It also keeps no database. If I want that I can use iTunes.


Microsoft has provided an Office Test Drive directory, complete with clipart. I also plan to get Office if I can find a cheaper price for the package. Even though AppleWorks is included, I would prefer Office. Like many computer users, I am accustomed to its layout and options, and use it frequently at work.


Next Part 4: What Have I done?

HGTV Dream Home

Yes, time again for the 1 Million Dollar Home giveaway from HGTV, only this year it is valued at 2 Million! It is located in North Carolina, and a beautiful mountain view home! If I win, I have to come up with a gimmick to be able to pay the taxes. I am accepting donations now!

Happy New Year

This site says on Dec 31, you will be able to catch all of the LIVE webcam action from Times Square New York City. They have 12 webcams running at the same time on this New Year's Eve. Worth checking out! You can even see the 2005 Footage from a year ago in Windows Media format.

Write to Santa Online!

Netscape and AOL have provided a keen service for writing letters to Santa Online. Save that $.37 cent stamp and give this a try!

eBay Games and Items

I just posted some new items along with a complete Nintendo 64 Game system online at eBay. Just in time for Christmas. I combine shipping of small items for single shipping price. Take a peek and see if there is anything you may like.

Top 100 Best Products of 2005

PC World has a Best of List on their site. The Best 100 Products of 2005. Look through the list to see what you should consider using, or perhaps you already are using all of the 100 items listed.

Barenaked on a Stick

Rather than distribute via CD, DVD or download, the Barenaked Ladies are making their newest selection of songs, videos and exclusive material available on a USB flash drive.

Nettwerk Music Group is releasing "Barenaked on a Stick" beginning today, says the Hollywood Reporter. It plays on PCs, Macs and any other audio product with a USB port -- like some car stereos -- and costs $30.

This 128 reusable drive contains 29 songs, including the band's 2004 "Barenaked for the Holidays" album, in MP3 format along with live tracks, in-concert spoken quips, album art, photos, videos and more.

http://www.barenakedladies.com/holidays/

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/pop/249219_tf222.html

http://www.bnlmusic.com/

How to be a Good Democrat!

1. You have to be against capital punishment, but support
abortion on demand

2.. You have to believe that businesses create oppression
and governments create prosperity.

3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of
law-abiding Americans are more of a threat than U.S. nuclear weapons
technology in the hands of Chinese and North Korean communists.

4. You have to believe that there was no art before
Federal funding.

5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less
affected by cyclical documented changes in the earth's climate and
more affected by soccer moms driving SUV's.

6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial
but being homosexual is natural.

7. You have to believe that the AIDS virus is spread by a
lack of federal funding.

8. You have to believe that the same teacher who can't
teach 4th-graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach
those same kids about sex.

9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about
nature, but loony activists who have never been outside of San
Francisco do.

10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important
than actually doing something to earn it.

11. You have to believe that Mel Gibson spent $25 million
of his own money to make The Passion Of The Christ for financial gain
only.

12. You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports
certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because
it supports certain parts of the Constitution.

13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM
fees are too high.

14. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria
Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson,
Gen. Robert E. Lee, and Thomas Edison.

15. You have to believe that standardized tests are
racist, but racial quotas and set-asides are not.

16. You have to believe that Hillary Clinton is normal and
is a very nice person.

17. You have to believe that the only reason socialism
hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried is because the right people
haven't been in charge.

18. You have to believe conservatives telling the truth
belong in jail, but a liar and a sex offender belonged in the White
House.

19. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying
drag, transvestites, and bestiality should be constitutionally
protected, and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal..

20. You have to believe that illegal Democratic Party
funding by the Chinese Government is somehow in the best interest to the
United States.

21. You have to believe that this message is a part of a
vast, right wing conspiracy.

Sony Music CDs Security Threat

URL: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5944549.html

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a cyber-rights group, said on Wednesday that it identified 19 Sony CDs containing a rootkit application that disguises the company's invasive copy-restriction technology.

The software is hard to remove from a PC without causing damage and can be used to hide malicious code; antivirus vendors warned on Thursday afternoon the first malicious software to exploit it has been found.

The discovery of Sony's CD rootkit kicked off a furor, but the company has not said which CDs contain the DRM protection.

According to the EFF, the following CDs contain the DRM in question:

• Trey Anastasio, Shine (Columbia)
• Celine Dion, On ne Change Pas (Epic)
• Neil Diamond, 12 Songs (Columbia)
• Our Lady Peace, Healthy in Paranoid Times (Columbia)
• Chris Botti, To Love Again (Columbia)
• Van Zant, Get Right with the Man (Columbia)
• Switchfoot, Nothing is Sound (Columbia)
• The Coral, The Invisible Invasion (Columbia)
• Acceptance, Phantoms (Columbia)
• Susie Suh, Susie Suh (Epic)
• Amerie, Touch (Columbia)
• Life of Agony, Broken Valley (Epic)
• Horace Silver Quintet, Silver's Blue (Epic Legacy)
• Gerry Mulligan, Jeru (Columbia Legacy)
• Dexter Gordon, Manhattan Symphonie (Columbia Legacy)
• The Bad Plus, Suspicious Activity (Columbia)
• The Dead 60s, The Dead 60s (Epic)
• Dion, The Essential Dion (Columbia Legacy)
• Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten (Epic)

The EFF says it is likely that other CDs also contain the application, although Sony told ZDNet UK last week that discs containing this DRM software had not been distributed in the U.K.

The EFF took a dim view on Sony's actions. "Entertainment companies often complain that fans refuse to respect their intellectual property rights. Yet tools like this refuse to respect our own personal property rights," EFF staff attorney Jason Schultz said in a statement.

"Sony's tactics here are hypocritical, in addition to being a security threat," Schultz added.

To Apple or NOT to Apple? - Part 2

To Apple or not to Apple! (Part2)
(or Apple iMac G5 from a PC Guys perspective)

Written by Will Wagner

See Part 1



Lets Begin

Now I will attempt to accurately describe my observations while I setup and install my iMac G5 computer. The box it came in had a convenient carry handle on the top with images of my iMac on each side, right on the box. No mistaking what an iMac looked like, or that one was actually inside. I knew this iMac was sleek and had a smaller footprint, but I was even a bit surprised when I took out the keyboard, mouse, and one-piece monitor and CPU. I then had an empty box once the monitor was taken out. That’s all that was in there. I am used to mounds of junk in the PC world. It did come with a small bag containing a manual and some warranty information.

The keyboard and mouse were wireless Bluetooth devices. I anticipated the wired variety. Bonus!

I placed the batteries into each item, the mouse, and the keyboard, which were included. I didn’t need instructions really, since many devices today use AA or AAA batteries. Then I hooked up the power cable, and connected a network cable between the iMac and my router. The power button was on the back of the right bottom side of the system, so I reached my hand around and turned on the iMac for the first time.

At boot up, the screen showed me a wordless representation of how to insert the batteries in the mouse. This was already done, but a very nice touch! No such help screen instructed me on how to install the batteries into the wireless keyboard at this point.

First thing I noticed was the color wheel wait icon. Color! Not gray or white, but color. A simple thing, but we must note the extra effort it took to place color on the simplest smallest place that is often overlooked and which was actually very unimportant to the Operating System. It just stood out to me, so I am passing along my thoughts.

Then, a “TV” commercial began to run showing me Mac OSX Tiger 10.4 highlights with music, right on my desktop. I noted the speakers were loud and clear. They are built into the bottom of the edge of the iMac G5. Amazing that they sounded fine. More on specs later on.

A “Before you begin” screen showed itself and indicated that batteries should be installed, and that we will look for your wireless keyboard. The screen instructed you to type a series of numbers, and hit return, numbers entered, keyboard found!

Then an animated 3D setup box appeared to show, “Welcome”. I correctly choose United States for the default country.

I then selected “Do not transfer any information to this Mac”, since I am a first time owner. But there seemed to be a special setup routine for those who did already own a Mac, and had personal files and preferences to place on this one. I simply chose NOT to transfer anything.

Select US Keyboard.

Enter Apple ID, I don’t have one, so I hit continue with a blank field. I figured I would do this later, I wanted to start computing not take a survey.

Registration Information popped up next, I had to enter my name, address, and phone number, with an email address. I did so though was cautious. I know many companies use this info for marketing and tracking. They said they wouldn’t unless I agreed to that kind of usage. I didn’t agree.

Next screen, enter how you will use this computer. I chose Home use. Then had to indicate my career background, I decided I could be one of a few in the multiple list drop down box, but what best fit me was Engineering/Researcher.

I opted in for email newsletters to be sent to me.

Then once I chose a system password and home account name, the iMac proceeded to “automagically” setup my home directories, and preferences.

It then asked me to purchase .Mac, I opted out. And didn’t want the 60 days free try it out feature. The .Mac service is a service that allows you to place your profile information and any archive files and junk on the Apple servers. This enables you to get the info from any Internet connected Mac. But what many people forget, this also gives Apple permissions to look at and compile notes against your data.

Now the iMac was setup and ready for use. I had to simply Click OK to begin using it now. When I did, I got served a default screen, and the iMac connected to the Internet through my router and connection. It said I had many updates to perform, so I decided now was a good time.

I had 14 updates, decided I was not using the iPod, so reduced that to 13. Then I had to enter my password to allow updates to install, nice touch to protect the system from installing anything I didn’t want! I had to agree to wordy contracts to install the software, ala Microsoft style agreements. I agreed to all.

Now the software began to install which was shown on a software update dialog. I had a few hundred Megs of stuff, and the dialog showed the progress for each part that was being downloaded. The time remaining didn’t randomly increased or decreased like Windows dialog boxes do. Come to think of it, I don’t think the updates from Microsoft provide a time frame. Maybe they do now, I need to verify that one. The time remaining seemed consistent with progress, and was an actual representation or close enough to actual time remaining.

While I was waiting, and typing notes for my review via the PC, I had a good chance to look at each desktop side by side. I have to admit; the iMac had a smooth appealing look to it. Sure my Windows XP system was not just taken out of the box, but the iMac looked better and was appealing. I sure can’t express what I mean, just that the fonts and windows on the iMac screen looked cleaner, sharper, with high letter quality. So much for scientific research, feelings don’t provide much frame of reference. Lets hope I can be a bit more descriptive in the information yet to come.

While software was downloading, a small black box appeared on the Software Update window, near the bottom left most corner. Was this an error in the matrix, or an indicator of poor programming? I was unsure, but didn’t affect the download of anything. Might have had something to do with an update that replaced some important file? But once the software was done downloading from the Apple site, the system asked me to reboot. I said ok and the familiar Mac chime sounded. The block was gone after that.


Actually Using Mac OSX Tiger

Once the system was back after the reboot, what to do next? What can I accomplish and how to be more productive? Well first, my cordless mouse had full power batteries, but the pointer jumped. I suspected the surface of my desk was fooling the laser and making this happen. I moved to a mouse pad, and all was fine. Not an Apple problem really, more my problem. More on the mouse later.

I proceeded to pop in a DVD and the DVD player application started. It was very nice looking and quick and responsive when I pressed function buttons. The movie never jumped or paused, like it does sometimes on a PC. All would depend on what was running, I guess. Right now I was not running a thing really.

I played a factory recorded DVD for about 20 minutes, then proceeded to eject the CD, which was a challenge the first time for a PC person. Mac users know that you can simply drop the CD-DVD folder directly into the trashcan. This folder appears on your desktop when you place any CD in the drive. My past Mac experience helped, but this Mac OS X doesn’t have a trashcan on the desktop. I later learned even Mac fans want the trash can back on the desktop. It is in the Dock. Drop the folder to the trashcan in the dock at the bottom of the screen in the lower right hand corner. Otherwise you can also use the Folders Context menu, normally a right click in Windows, but on the Mac use the Control key when you click on the Folder to get the menu. The player itself has some controls in the bottom left corner, and an Eject button was a welcome site. Needless to say, there were a few ways to simply Eject the DVD.

Just after I ejected the DVD I was viewing, I dropped in a homemade DVD. It played for about 5 minutes then scored an error. So I went to eject the DVD. But heard a click and the servo motor tried repeatedly to eject the DVD. I started to worry, was the drive bad? Nope, the DVD tried to eject several times, and then about the 5th time it popped out. I pulled it out, and boy was it hot! I looked closely and the homemade DVD-R was warping. It looked to be warping into a Convex shape. Not a good sign. I figured that the CD player gets hot, just like a PC, but the iMac was so compact, perhaps the heat was not dissipating rapidly enough. I would have to play a factory movie all the way through, and a homemade movie all the way through. But later on when I test the bundled applications.

I mentioned the Dock. The Dock is a Task Manager sort of object that resides along the bottom by default, which can be moved to the left or right side via some settings in the Finder. But NOT at the top of the screen, the Top is reserved for the Finder. Also the Icons on the Dock show an indication they are running by a small arrow under them. They are not running if no arrow is displayed.

The Finder is the Menu system for your Mac. Just like in Windows where each folder or program has a menu across the top of the Window, the Mac places those menus always at the very top of the screen, just not on the active window itself. It takes getting used to, but in a few days I have found that I never had to goto the Window itself, I always knew to goto the top of the screen to select a Menu option. In all honesty I felt I had to scroll too far to get to the menu at times. If my open window was in the bottom right, I had to scroll to the top left to select a Menu option. No, not a major big deal, just letting you know what I did versus what I was used to. I would like the menu on each Window but can live with this.

Each window has three-color buttons in each top left corner. A RED one for closing the window, a YELLOW one for shrinking the window to the Dock (you can also double click the title bar of the window), and a Green one for expanding the window larger, or perhaps even full screen. Different windows handled the GREEN button differently. The RED button closes the open window only, and it does not close the program. This took getting used to as well. In Windows XP/9x I was used to having the top right corner with the X close and exit the current running Window or program. Subtle differences, but noteworthy!

Lets take a look at the Desktop. This Desktop has on it by default, the Macintosh HD icon, which is the Window’s My Computer equivalent. Any other shortcuts, Mac calls them Aliases, you have to put on the Desktop manually. I admit the Desktop sure was clean. No clutter from all the PC junk that is installed in Windows by third party companies. Matter of fact, no third party software was evident anywhere on the system. It was all Apple. You can force the Icons on the Desktop to stay sorted, which they will do for sure. When a new one is created, the Icons adjust alphabetically (or if you choose by size, date created or modified, or by label or kind). You could turn this off, and allow the Icons to Snap to Grid. This means they will line up unsorted but are arranged in block form. Otherwise you can use no sort options.

I love having my favorite background image on the Desktop. On the iMac you can have nice colorful factory made artistic backgrounds as images or your own. Unless you force a full screen of the image, you see a color around the image on both systems. When selecting a different background image, the change takes effect immediately. One click is all it takes. No need to click OK or Apply. Screen Savers are on this dialogue box as well, they are all artistic and different. I especially like the Cosmos saver. They all seem to scroll through images, but add a Pan and Zoom feature to each one, simulating movement. You can also choose your Pictures Folder and they will be displayed in the same manner. Nice touch, something you may not consider important, but the extra little touches are evident. Windows XP allows use of favorite Pictures, but they are more static, and simply sit there. No scrolling action or movement happens.

How about the keyboard? If you have ever seen an Apple keyboard you know it seems to look similar to the PC keyboard. I submit they are almost identical, except for the Apple key, replacing the ALT key. I feel that they could be close cousins, since they seem to do a lot of the same functions. Microsoft should call the Alt key the Windows Key, but they wield so much market influence, they had a new key created on the keyboard with a little Windows logo. I do know that Apple had its own key first, if that matters.

The Macintosh Mouse comes with simply one button. This is a BIG change for those accustomed to the PC. Just about every PC today has a two button Mouse. Have no fear, the Control Key can be used when you click the Mac Mouse, to simulate a right click function. It is not intuitive, but once discovered, it is never forgotten. The wireless Bluetooth Mouse that came with my iMac was gorgeous. It looked like a large white pill that would cure any headache. Of course it was many times the normal dose, based on size. The Mouse felt very nice in the hand. But based on my PC experience, I found myself thinking the Mouse was hobbled or handicapped in some way. Was I less productive? So it was time to experiment. I shut down the iMac, turned off the Bluetooth Mouse, and plugged in a Microsoft USB Laser Mouse. Sorry Mac fans, this could be blasphemy but it worked like a charm. The Mouse now had the feel I was used to, and to my surprise the Mouse pointer didn’t jump and the scroll wheel worked great too. Earlier I said I thought my desk color or pattern was fooling the Mouse. Maybe so, but this new Mouse was not fooled. It ran smooth as can be. I was a little happier. I guess the Apple Mouse will have to go to eBay when I get time.

I wanted to do some browsing around the File System Folders. A double click on the Macintosh HD icon takes you to a file manager of sorts. The left side offers the My Computer view, with Network, and below that the Desktop, My Home Directory indicated by my login name, an Application Folder, Documents, Movies, Music and Pictures. Seems like all the most important stuff was represented! You could also view Icons in the normal single Icon view, or sorted in a list, or even in columns of data.

Clicking on any of the Icons on the left took me to that folder. I looked around at the Applications first. I saw all the Apps in one folder. I know that the Mac doesn’t care what extension the files have, but I wanted to see them. So I did a right click and turned on the extensions, so I could learn what was there and how things worked. Applications were *.app files, and to my shock and surprise, that was all. One file! If I wanted to delete Chess, I simply could delete chess.app. That is all you do. No fooling with a registry, or uninstall routines in the Windows Control Panel. If I wanted to load an application, I could drop the file whatever.app into the Applications folder, and it was installed. I must admit this single enhancement or procedure is almost worth the full price I paid. No more would I have to hope and pray, and run an install routine, hoping all was setup, Icons created, and settings were complete. When you ran a program, settings were created on the fly as needed. I connected to the Internet and downloaded a few apps to test this theory, worked great! More on the net and other Applications in Part 3.

When it came to Movies, QuickTime is the default format. I dropped some Windows Media files from my other system, into the folder, and no luck. They wouldn’t play. I could get Windows Media Player for Mac though! So no worries there. WMP for Mac is at Version 9, and the PC Version is at 10. I am sure Microsoft is working on a Version 10 for Mac.

I wanted to test QuickTime on the PC versus the iMac. I played the exact same file, which was the Matrix Theater Trailer in 1024 resolution. I played them side-by-side, and was astounded. The iMac version was clearer, sharper, and smooth. The PC version of the same movie had just a small amount of choppy movement. It would pause intermittently. I then decided to double the size of the trailer while it was playing. The iMac did it in a second, no problem. Also, the transition in size was smooth, it dynamically increased in size while playing. It almost looked like you had grabbed the sides of the movie, and pulled it like silly putty. But the PC choked badly, and 10-15 seconds later recovered. It went from normal size to 2x without any nice smooth transition. Astounding. I guess my PC could be a bit lower end, but the iMac was no Power Mac, just a lower end Mac. My feeling was that the PC and iMac are very close to equal in dated release hierarchy on the food chain. Both were one-year-old technology except for the software Mac OSX, which was the latest and greatest software. But Windows XP had service pack 1 installed. Hmmm.

On the iMac, while playing a Movie, you can shrink it down to the Dock, and it keeps playing in a tiny window. Not great for normal viewing, but you can see what is happening. Another added enhancement. I could work and wait until my favorite part of the movie to maximize the window for viewing. Lets see Task manager on XP do this! I also noted in the menu for QuickTime there were all these grayed out advanced features, which you can buy in the PRO version. They actually seemed like features I may want. Full Screen, Copy, Paste, and Recording Options. I will consider purchasing QuickTime Pro in a months time. I had considered this on the PC side, but never really followed through.

If you want to look through your digital images, both the PC and the iMac have a small application for viewing them. But the iMac allows you to crop them. The PC allows you to more easily delete them. I like the delete feature. Often I use the image viewer to go through all my image files, and delete the ones I don’t want to keep. iMac doesn’t allow going through all the files and delete them easily while using the viewer. You have to go back to the folder and delete the images. But you could change the folder settings to make the icon thumbnail large enough to see the image, and select them for deletion. Just a little different, but overall equal functionality in different ways.

It is worthy to note again here, that the small speakers inside the bottom edge of the iMac case are very nice. Not much bass, as anticipated, but clear, crisp, and plenty loud for a desktop system. All I needed was a subwoofer!

I will be reviewing the bundled Applications that come with the iMac and Mac OS X in the next part of this review, Part 3.

Bundled Application Review
(Next Issue Part 3 available at http://weblinksnewsletter.net)

What to do with the OLD Jack-o-Lantern?

Ok Halloween is over, you have an old Jack-o-Lantern to get rid of. But wait! Why not turn that useless orange shell into a spiffy PC? Yes, you too can own your very own Jack-PC, not to be confused with Jack-FM!

To Apple or NOT to Apple? (Part1)

To Apple or NOT to Apple! (Part1)
(or Apple iMac G5 from a PC Guys perspective)

Written by Will Wagner
http://weblinksnewsletter.net

   One of the greatest questions asked in technical and multimedia circles is “which is better, Apple or Microsoft?” In varying degrees, depending on whom you talk to, one is plainly better than the other. But for normal folks who simply want straight unpolished answers, non-technical, plain English communication, and a clear look at the facts surrounding the question; demands a straight forward probing review.
   My attempt will not be to answer the 3-decade-old question. But I plan to offer a look at today’s top and foremost Apple computer offering with my Windows XP experience in mind. Advice will be given after factual experiences are recorded for you, the reader, with which you can base a real decision on.
   I have no connections to either party, have not been financially supported by, or endorsed by either side. I must be forward in presenting my background and experience though, before we begin.


Background

   I have been working with PCs for almost 15 years. I began my computing career with an Apple IIe in High School around 21 years ago. In computer math class, we learned the Basic language to execute routine math calculations and create a snowman with falling snow, and during study time, we would play Pac Man on the back of a 5 1/4 inch floppy a friend brought in from home. How ironic it is that my first computing environment was Apple, only to move to the PC world directly after that, and now years later purchase an iMac G5.
   I have owned a large array of PCs since that time. Beginning with an Intel 8088, 286, 386, 486SX, an AMD 486, a Pentium 1, 2 and 3, as well as a Cyrix 6x86 (Pentium 1 clone). Many of them I purchased with a small budget in mind. Not until more recently did I actually become more concerned with quality parts and software versus cheap parts and flunky clunky applications. I have also purchased a few complete vendor produced systems from Dell and HP, and have been very happy with the quality and added featured software and peripherals they provide.
   Today I own a 3 Gigahertz HP Pentium 4 Computer. Store bought 1 year ago and bundled with software, printer, and a very nice flat screen (LCD). It has been very reliable, allowed me to get work done, run a side eBay business, and support my multimedia hobby while ripping MP3 music and playing it while online or offline.
   With the advent of the newly released and redefined iMac, along with a Unix kernel driven Operating System, my curiosity was peaked. The struggle always came when spending hard earned money for something I just had no idea whether I would like, enjoy, or even use.
   I dabbled with Power Macs in a multimedia setting at work, and noted that for larger file sizes, such as large format print jobs and DVD video output, the Mac seemed to work quite well where our PC counterparts slowed, crashed and muddled through. The PCs that would choke on similar files, we always attributed to poor local configuration, or incomparable feature sets of the hardware (low end PCs). Not for a moment did we consider that perhaps the PC was designed improperly or poorly. Or did we take into account the possibility that the Mac simply was programmed with design stability.
   The question of which is better simply cannot be answered. I could read and search the Internet for such fodder, and fodder I have found. But I always felt bias was a large part of the reviewers content. I wanted a clear comparison of features, abilities, and user friendliness. There was only one way to accomplish this, and that was to do it myself.


Decision

   I made the decision quite by chance. The latest iMac G5 was recently released. It was the iMac that had an all in one hardware appeal, white appliance look and feel, and yes, price played a part in the decision.
   I was at a local mall and happened into the Apple Store. The generic modern white palace of which Apple enthusiasts gathered, invited me in. If not for curiosity, the salespeople would have scared me away. More on that in a minute.
   I began by looking at what was on display, the iMac, iBook (laptop) some iPods, and peripherals and software. The iMac had always drawn my eye. The iMac G4, often called an R2-D2, based on the half circle base and the long silver pole with a monitor on the end, always intrigued me. It was truly gorgeous, perhaps a piece of modern furniture. But this iMac seemed even more compact, modern and appliance like. I started seeing it in TV commercials, movies, and spoke of it in conversations with friends (PC friends as well as Mac enthusiasts).
   The iMac G5 was a work of art, coming from a PC guy, that really says something I think. The iMac was so interesting I decided I would have to get one, one day. While in the Apple Store, I noticed a pile of unopened boxes with a large picture of an iMac on the front. It was a stack of iMacs on sale; all had $250 off each box. They were closeouts. The new model was in town, and they wanted to push out the old.
   The price, my curiosity, and my wife got the best of me. She said “go ahead, you want one; get one”. That’s all it took. After several years, I would finally buy an Apple iMac based on perhaps the best condition ever, the wife approves. Bliss!
   I picked up the box with the iMac inside, and walked to the cashier, then placed it on the counter. At this point, the assistant manager started talking tech geek. I would need the Apple Care plan, .Mac, and a host of other peripherals that would take my deal of a lifetime, $250 off, well over the budget I wanted to spend. I shrugged off the extras, only to have the used car salesman insist I needed these things and I could have them cheaper now than later.
   Listening to the terms, I decided on Apple Care, which he shook his head in regards to (since he knew best what I needed). Only he didn’t want to pay for them to help a lowly PC guy out. The authority here was the wife, and I could see she didn’t want to hear I had to buy a lot of junk, not even knowing for sure if the iMac was something I could really put to use. Honestly, I agreed, why purchase a lot of extra stuff for an iMac I might end up selling later on eBay if my trial went sour. I proceeded to carry my iMac with Apple Care out of the Mall and home to my office.

Lets Begin
(Next Issue Part 2 available at http://weblinksnewsletter.net)

Happy Halloween

Been a while since I have posted anything. Been kind of busy, and working on an iMac G5 review from a PC guys perspective. I plan to publish Part 1 very soon. In the meantime, enjoy some Halloween Links.

Scary Link1
Scary Link2
Scary Link3
Scary Link4

MI6 Website - BOND, James BOND

The famous MI6, aka SIS, from James Bond lore, has put up their own webpage.

"As Britain's secret service, SIS provides the British Government with a global covert capability to promote and defend the national security and economic well-being of the United Kingdom.

SIS operates world-wide to collect secret foreign intelligence in support of the British Government's policies and objectives."

Fake Premise for Flooding Story

I wonder why the liberal media are losing their following in record numbers? Could it be that they are not very reliable in telling an accurate account of what is happening out there? Oh just couldn't be. What happens when your stories impact is lost when the viewership realizes that your premise for a major story was false?

Thats just what happened, as viewed on the Drudge Report earlier today. Michele Kosinski staged a dramatic report from a flooded area in a rowboat, only the water was one foot deep. How terrible save us from the massive biblical flood!

What Time Is It?

It is about time. Yes it is! If you want to know just what time it is, no better place to check out than the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This is a Java applet that runs on a webpage, so ya need Java installed. Give it a try!

Music: Harvey Danger

Now this is a totally new idea! How about musicians actually releasing their music for free? The band Harvey Danger has done just that. Why? They explain themselves on the website. I urge you to check out the album, then donate if you like it. The music industry is making unprecedented profits, time to give back to the musicians themselves. This is a start!

Orbiter's Long Life Helps Scientists Track Changes on Mars

I sure wonder what kind of man made emissions could be causing the Mars icecaps to melt. Sure is a huge coincidence I say, that the Mars and Earth Polar caps are melting in parallel. What could be causing this? Man made emissions? Unlikely! Probably a temperature or emissions increase in the Sun. So much for "experts" who know a lot about global warming.

..."for three Mars summers in a row, deposits of frozen carbon dioxide near Mars' south pole have shrunk from the previous year's size, suggesting a climate change in progress."

God's Cake

God's Cake

Sometimes we wonder, "What did I do to deserve this?" or "Why did God have to do this to me?" Here is a wonderful explanation!

A daughter is telling her Mother how everything is going wrong, she's failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.

Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, "Absolutely Mom, I love your cake."


"Here, have some cooking oil," her Mother offers. "Yuck" says her daughter.

"How about a couple raw eggs?"

"Gross, Mom!"

"Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?" "Mom, those are all yucky!"

To which the mother replies: "Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake!

God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!
God is crazy about you. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning.

Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart.

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance.


Well Said! - Will

9/11

The Anniversary of 9/11 is upon us. Lets take time to remember those civilians attacked for no reason, and understand why our military MUST be overseas to stabilize a Middle East that is on a run away train!

Here is a graphic that explains why the Twin Towers collapsed. I visited them years ago in 6th grade, like many children. It was awesome to be so high, and terrible to think how far they fell.

See the 9/11 Graphic

Wow, Another Anti New Orleans Rant!

This time from a Black writer at the Jamacan Times. I am shocked, and in full agreement.

Fred Does It Again! His Views on New Orleans and Riots

I must say this has to be the most controversial and bold of any of the articles I have ever seen Fred do. He risks much by speaking out boldly about the riots in New Orleans, and about the entitlement society we have created. If you have any time at all, you must read this article.

Who is to BLAME for New Orleans?

Just who's fault is New Orleans slow humanitarian response? I say NOT the President, how about the slack jawed mayor of New Orleans, or the meek tiny Governor of Louisiana.

"The vultures of the venomous left are attacking on two fronts, first that the president didn't do what the incompetent mayor of New Orleans and the pouty governor of Louisiana should have done, and didn't, in the early hours after Katrina loosed the deluge on the city that care and good judgment forgot. Ray Nagin, the mayor, ordered a "mandatory" evacuation a day late, but kept the city's 2,000 school buses parked and locked in neat rows when there was still time to take the refugees to higher ground. The bright-yellow buses sit ruined now in four feet of dirty water. Then the governor, Kathleen Blanco, resisted early pleas to declare martial law, and her dithering opened the way for looters, rapists and killers to make New Orleans an unholy hell. Gov. Haley Barbour did not hesitate in neighboring Mississippi, and looters, rapists and killers have not turned the streets of Gulfport and Biloxi into killing fields."

How about this...

"The race hustlers waited for three days to inflame a tense situation, but then set to work with their usual dedication. The Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, our self-appointed twin ambassadors of ill will, made the scene as soon as they could, taking up the coded cry that Katrina was the work of white folks, that a shortage of white looters and snipers made looting and sniping look like black crime, that calling the refugees "refugees" was an act of linguistic racism. A "civil rights activist" on Arianna Huffington's celebrity blog even floated the rumor that the starving folks abandoned in New Orleans had been forced to eat their dead -- after only four days."

"Condi Rice went to the scene to say what everyone can see for himself, that no one but the race hustlers imagine Americans of any hue attaching strings to the humanitarian aid pouring into the broken and bruised cities of the Gulf. Most of the suffering faces in the flickering television images are black, true enough, and most of the helping hands are white."

Thanks Wes, we appreciate the truth! read the link above for the whole article.

Help Hurricane Katrina Victims!

FEMA lists the following agencies as needing
monetary donations to assist hurricane victims:

American Red Cross
1-800-HELP NOW (435-7669) English
1-800-257-7575 Spanish

Operation Blessing
1-800-436-6348

AmericaÂ’s Second Harvest
1-800-344-8070

Adventist Community Services
1-800-381-7171

Catholic Charities, USA
703 549-1390

Christian Disaster Response
941-956-5183 or 941-551-9554

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee
1-800-848-5818

Church World Service
1-800-297-1516

Convoy of Hope
417-823-8998

Lutheran Disaster Response
800-638-3522

Mennonite Disaster Service
717-859-2210

Nazarene Disaster Response
888-256-5886

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
800-872-3283

Salvation Army
1-800-SAL-ARMY (725-2769)

Southern Baptist Convention -- Disaster Relief
1-800-462-8657, ext. 6440

United Methodist Committee on Relief
1-800-554-8583

For some additional Katrina Info from FEMA, this link shows maps and FAQ info.

Get Opera FREE!

But only for a limited time. The 10 year anniversary has prompted the guru's at Opera to give away free license codes. Submit your email address for the codes on all platforms! For some kind of limited time only!

Cindy Sheehan Empty Protest

Remember the news coverage of Cindy Sheehan, the woman who is so against the war after her son died volunteering? Well, seems that all is not always as it seems. Take a look at the link and see how a no show of protesters is orchestrated into a full slam bang turn out. Funny thing is that the turn out is all news media. I don't see any real protesters. The liberal media strikes again.

Can you pass the 8th Grade Math Test?

Found this link online, and boy was I surprised, I actually scored 10 out of 10. I stink at Math, but have no fear it is the basic stuff. I wonder how many 8th graders can actually pass this 8th grade test! Try it for fun!

Batman Hits DVD In October

The Rope of Silicon Web site reported that Batman Begins will hit DVD on Oct. 18. The hit film will be available in three formats: single-disc widescreen and full-screen editions and a two-disc deluxe set with eight documentaries, the site reported.

The documentaries will deal with Batman Begins' production, the batsuit, the Batmobile, the monorail chase, shooting in Iceland, fighting and the incarnations of Batman over the past 20 years. The deluxe set will also contain featurettes on characters and weapons, an interactive comic book, a stills gallery, trailers and a collectible 72-page comic, the site reported.

Fred on Slavery!

Fred wonders, what would you do today if faced with profiting of slavery? How about if moral injustices were happening, but you could easily turn your head and think things would be ok? Read the link above to see if you agree or not.

Brosnon OUT of BOND Role?

I said back on April 28, 2005, that Pierce Brosnon would play BOND one more time. Looks like he won't. For some reason he received a call saying they no longer needed him. Shame, I was looking forward to seeing him as Bond one more time.

BBS Documentary

In the 1980's there was a huge sharing of data, that happened before this thing called Internet. It was built on the backbones of private individuals, and depended on the phone lines of America. Called a BBS (Bulletin Board System) one could link up, transfer files and images, as well as play online games. Now you can listen to those most responsible for jumpstarting an Internet Industry before we even knew the term Internet. Check out the website, and for $50 one can purchase a copy of the documentary. The BBS software I used to use was called WWIV for the PC. Take a gander at all the types of software and hardware BBS systems back then.

Latest Weblinksnewsletter Blocked

Well the latest edition of my newsletter has been blocked by AOL. This includes AOL itself, netscape.net, and Walmart.com (Netconnect). Seems that the size of my newsletter is the trigger. It must be a new package that evaluates the size of the email, and decides if it is too big, or too much text, it must be Spam. What a shame that actual subscribers of a Newsletter has the content blocked, but I wager that they get hammered by Breast increase pills, Free Software, and Penis Enlargement gimmicks, by the truckload. I am considering what to do next, but perhaps I will pare down the newsletter, and release more frequently. Techies, lend me your ideas!

Bush Needs to be LOCKED UP?

"They all need to be locked up because they are all criminals and they are all thieves," said Judge Greg Mathis, the star of the syndicated television program "The Judge Mathis Show."

Just words of a crybaby loser, who never could accept the simple fact that 51% of the voters actually voted for the opposition. Not one legal case, NOT ONE, has ever been brought up in Florida or Ohio against the Bush Gore Election, or the last Bush Kerry election. Why? It is just this simple. There are NO cases to try. There was no voter fraud, there was no deception, there was no cheating. If anything, this broad proclamation of wrong doing was simply instituted by whiner loser Democrats that couldn't simply win an election on the up and up. They had to place this into the psyche of the American Left, and they will forever be led by shallow people who can not simply state their goals or plans, rather they attack the good Right. The Conservative Right will always win when it comes to simple ideas that make sense, and when Liberals try to redistribute wealth that we have worked very hard for.

Keep whining losers, that just locks in the next major election for the Right! Read this link above for laughs if nothing else!

Is It Wrong to Love Microsoft?

I really like this opinion. You hear many tech people bash Microsoft, and Microsoft does deserve some grief for certain bonehead ideas that place burdens on customers. However, this person loves Microsoft, and tells you why. Glad to see someone with the courage to speak in support of the most popular software company around. With 95% market coverage, regardless of why, they must be popular!

Schmidt Wins 2nd District Special Election!

Ohio Republican Jean Schmidt destroyed the Democratic challenger Paul Hackett to win Tuesday's Second Congressional District special election. She won by a margin of 52%. Earlier the Democrats hinted at a landslide by Hackett, which would indicate Democrats were on the upswing back to power.

So much for Liberal values winning votes!

The election was to replace Congressman Rob Portman who was appointed by President Bush as the US Trade Representative.

Congrats Jean!

Air America Stealing from Poor Kids?

Ok so where is the outrage? Where is the 24-7 coverage on CNN? Why do we only hear about this one on conservative websites? I will tell you, Liberal Democratic leaders are simply lying, coverup stooges. They insist on pointing fingers, but have a double standard. They won't look at scandals that involve themselves. Shame!

Michele Malkin asks "Will Air America's self-proclaimed champions of the poor and downtrodden--Franken? Garafolo? Springer?--touch this story with a ten-foot pole? Will Randi Rhodes trot out her gunshot sound effects to blame the messenger? Or will the gabbers continue maintaining their radio silence?"

Good Question!

Thanks Yahoo, Konfabulator is now FREE!

From their site:
Konfabulator is now free. Yup. If you download version 2.1 you know what you'll never ever see? That's right a registration reminder. Fear not, there's nothing sneaky in there, no spyware, no ads, nothing that's keeping track of information and sending it to us... it's pure, uncut Konfabulator goodness.

Awesome!

Fred on Rocks and Little Girls

Fred has a cool Blog all about the destruction of Political Correctness, and a fine Blog it is. I just hope he is not too late to educate the masses. Seems little girls get arrested for throwing rocks at antagonists, not just arrested, but from a virtual SWAT Team of cowards.

James "Scotty" Doohan Dies

Recently James Doohan, at age 85, passed away in his Redmond, Washington home. Best known for his role as Scotty on the famed Star Trek TV Series, his wit and swashbuckling technical skills, kept Captain Kirk and his Crew from certain doom! I have a chance to meet James a few years back, at a local Computer Show. He was not even announced, so it was a surprise to see him sitting in the corner. The crowd was small, since no one knew he would be making an appearance. I went over to get an autograph and talk with him. I told him how great it was to see him on the Star Trek: Next Generation show, and that he did a great job as Scotty. He thanked me. I went on to ask if he really had a negative feeling for William Shatner. He seemed to want to blow into a tirade about "That son of a ..." when his publicist stepped in, and said they had some differences in the past, but look forward to working on joint projects. I hope Shatner and Doohan had a chance to reconcile. None-the-less I enjoyed his character as Scotty, and will now look back at the old shows with kind reverence for him and his family!

Fantastic Four Movie - Fantastic!

I saw the Fantastic Four Movie this week, and I now know why it is called Fantastic! The movie was a great story, excellent realistic effects, with intermixed comedy, and fun. It had my attention through the whole thing. Sometimes I roll my eyes at the science of these movies, but it was believable, and as realistic as a fantasy movie can be. I urge you to see it, and this one is sure to be one a strong DVD purchase when it is released to home video.

IBM OS/2 to be Discontinued

By Years End, IBM has decided to finally throw in the towel on OS/2 officially. Many will claim that IBM threw in the towel over 10 years ago. OS/2 was the once flagship competition to Microsoft Operating Systems. It had superior multi-tasking, which was called pre-emptive. This Blogger had the pleasure and displeasure of testing and using OS/2 years ago. It was not all that bad, but had many issues with poor hardware drivers support, and very few available applications. I have always felt that IBM could have gained market had they taken a page from the Linux community, and released the source code. But IBM was more interested in short term profit instead of long term money in support and licensing!
Goto the OS/2 BBS site for Some great OS/2 info.

Vacation Fun

Your Weblinksnewsletter.net updates have been a bit slow in coming these last few weeks. Mostly due to work and planned time off for Vacation. Yes, Weblinks faithful, even I take time off to smell the roses. Even more so, I like to smell the surf and the diesel engine smoke. To the Southern end of Delmarva to Assateague Island, in Virginia, what is known as Chincoteague. As far as the Diesel Engine Smoke, you can get a good dose from the Western Maryland Railroad. Both sites were very enjoyable, when I am not walking the Beach or the Rails, I am simply relaxing at home, eating out at local buffets, and sweating to the summer searing heat! Hope your Vacation is as much fun!

Attack on London

It seems to me that Americas War on Terror is succeeding! To many this may at first seem strange, however, lets really look at what happened in London. A small bomb was exploded in a double decker bus. No buildings fell, a relatively small amount of people died, even though 1 dead is a terrible count. The large mighty AlQaeda Terrorist forces are weak. They perpetrated something school children could have done with common household chemicals. Seems that if they risk a strike, they would do one worthy of the name Terrorist. Alas, they are shrinking in strength and resolve. Thanks to President Bush for taking the war to the enemy, or this bombing may have been even larger than a pipe bomb.

Congrats to the Londoners who have extreme determination, and who have faced truly ruthless attacks from above in World War 2. No doubt that this last attack is but a fly in the ointment of the London people. They have endured much more.

I especially like the words of Ken Livingstone, when he said...

"...however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another."

Now that is determination, and a glowing view of what Freedom is really all about. Read the whole address at the link above, to the people of London.

US Supreme Socialist Court Rules in Favor of Property Seizure

The United States Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote, upheld the Connecticut case of condemning property so the State can take it from the rightful owners. It gets harder to believe day after day, but I am just not surprised anymore. When our personal rights to be protected by seizure of our own property, guaranteed by the 5th Amendment to the Founders version of the US Constitution, comes under fire, they may as well repeal it all together. The CIA factbook says that we are a nation that is Constitution-based federal republic with a strong democratic tradition. So much for that fact.

Here is Artitcle V which states:

Trial and Punishment, Compensation for Takings. Ratified 12/15/1791.

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

If we do not act now and throw these Liberal Judges from their entrenched benches, we will have an America that our founding fathers would not be able to recognize as the United States, in a few decades. We must revise our Constitution to some how limit the lifetime appointments that a Supreme Court Justice enjoys. Perhaps there should be some confirmation of continuing service which is overseen by the House of Representatives. Contact your rep to complain today or risk losing the rest of your God given rights.

Schwarzenegger Jeered at Graduation Speech

I have to admit right now, I was blown away to learn that California students were protesting against Arnold. Not because he insisted that he have full reign of control to do whatever he wanted, but rather to insist that the citizens VOTE. Only in America would the puke students even think of protesting the right to vote and decide their destiny. The Socialist doctrine is creeping in on America. I would expect Chinese students to protest FOR the right to vote, or perhaps land owner rights, maybe citizenry to urge their government to allow freedoms to a populace that has seen little reform. BUT to have citizens protest elected officials who are FORCING them to vote, simply ridiculous! Click the link above.

Batman Begins In Theaters

I recently saw Batman Begins and to my pleasant surprise the story was fantastic! Bruce Wayne was a very complex and interesting character for once in a Batman movie. The acting was top notch, and the effects were good. I was not impressed with the shaky camera fight scenes, where I found it hard to see anything. I also didn't like the MTV style camera quick takes and cinematography, but for the most part it didn't take from the story. The movie deals with many flashbacks and memory recalls, which I could have done without. Start telling the story from the beginning, and give us the whole chronological view, instead of going back and forth trying to confuse the viewer. The flashbacks didn't add anything special from what I could see. This movie #5 from the Batman Quintilogy is, however, one of the better attempts to tell the Batman story. An obvious sequel will be in the works, in an attempt to bring back Joker. This major review is one of the first I read, and turns out to be pretty close to my own take on the film.

Apple Going Intel Inside!

In what seems to me to be the biggest announcement in the computer world in the last 10 years, Apple has decided to partner with Intel to replace the IBM/Motorola processor which is currently shipping inside the famed Mac computer. It was announced June 6th at the Apple World Wide Developer Conference. You may be asking, what's the bid deal? The rivalry between Intel with Windows versus Mac has been going on since Windows copied the first Mac computer with Windows 2.0 way back when. Microsoft settled and Apple never looked back. Best known for the iPod music device today, Apple set the standard for modern interfaces on personal computers. Now Apple has decided, under the direction of Apple guru CEO, Steve Jobs, to supplant the Power PC chip with Intel. The implications for the long term development of the company is at first obvious. Intel is light years ahead in low power consumption designed processors. But an added benefit is a possible inroads into the 95% market share that Windows software enjoys on the Intel platform. For us PC chip users, we could have a huge choice to make for a robust Unix based Operating System with a tried and true, solidly built Graphical User Interface in June 2006. If Apple was ever going to take a bite out of the Intel market, this may be Apple getting ready to set the buffet table.



See what my favorite tech pundit, John Dvorak, has to say about this one.