[MyAppleMenu] Jan 17, 2001

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu Newsletter

== AppleSurf (Top Stories) ==============

 Apple SuperDrive And iDVD (Digital Post Production)
<http://www.digitalpostproduction.com/2001/01_jan/features/AppleSuperDrive.htm>
Combining the power of nonlinear editing, the affordable quality of DV and the high-quality, low-cost delivery format of DVD into a single machine was a very smart idea that should place the Mac in a very special position with video professionals. Although Steve Jobs said that the new G4s are evolutionary, I'd say that they are in fact revolutionary.

 Apple iTunes Proves To Be Big Hit (Reuters)
<http://www.msnbc.com/news/517378.asp>
Apple Computer Inc’s free digital jukebox program, iTunes, unveiled last week as part of the firm’s new multimedia focus, was downloaded more than 275,000 times in its first week on offer, the company said Tuesday.

 Despite New Products, Analysts Expect Bruised Forecast For Apple (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-4497193.html?tag=st.ne.1006.thed.ni>
A number of analysts say they expect that Apple CEO Steve Jobs may lower the outlook for the current quarter that ends in March and again for 2001, amid a continuing glut of inventory and an ever-worsening PC market.

== AppleSurf (News) ==============

 Home Sweet Home (The Sydney Morning Herald)
<http://www.smh.com.au/icon/0101/18/news3.html>
"Home studios have liberated people's creativity. If you have the means of your own production, and distribution on the Net, you can produce your own work and find an audience yourself. It's never been possible to do this before."

 'Mistfits', Computers Turn Out Recipe For Success (Reuters)
<http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010117/tc/plugged_in_dc_1.html>
The first idea is that discarded, donated equipment -- the kind many people might consider would make a great doorstop -- still has a lot of life in it. The second is that the scope and success of introducing computers in schools can increase exponentially if students take part in the process.

 The View From FETC 2001 (Apple)
<http://www.apple.com/hotnews/articles/2001/01/fetc/>
FETC is the year’s first major education conference. Held just after Macworld, it provides a preview to educators of Apple’s new hardware and software and its solutions-focused education offerings.

 Analyst Predicts PC Vendors Must COnsolidate Or Die (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-201-4500953-0.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..sf>
Apple should play to its strength in industrial design and design the best computers for the Wintel market. Abandon the PowerPC architecture and port the Mac OS X over to Intel architecture.

 Apple's First Quarter Results Due Today (MacCentral)
<http://www.maccentral.com/news/0101/17.results.shtml>

 It's Offiical: San Francisco Expo Biggest Ever (Applelinks.com)
<http://www.applelinks.com/articles/2001/01/20010116222109.shtml>
Yup, IDG World Expo and Apple say that over 93,000 people made it to Moscone Center this year, making the Expo that just ended the "largest gathering of Mac fans in the US ever."

 Running Your Own Personal DreamWorks (Los Angeles Times)
<http://www.latimes.com/business/cutting/20010116/t000004280.html>
New technology in camcorders and computer software means that amateurs can get fancy.

 Apple iTunes Proves To Be Big Hit (Reuters)
<http://www.msnbc.com/news/517378.asp>
Apple Computer Inc’s free digital jukebox program, iTunes, unveiled last week as part of the firm’s new multimedia focus, was downloaded more than 275,000 times in its first week on offer, the company said Tuesday.

 Despite New Products, Analysts Expect Bruised Forecast For Apple (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-4497193.html?tag=st.ne.1006.thed.ni>
A number of analysts say they expect that Apple CEO Steve Jobs may lower the outlook for the current quarter that ends in March and again for 2001, amid a continuing glut of inventory and an ever-worsening PC market.

 A New OS X (MacWEEK.com)
<http://macweek.zdnet.com/2001/01/14/0116osx.html>
Most noticeable is the return of the Apple Menu; previous OS X incarnations relegated the Apple icon to a useless ornament in the middle of the menu bar. But Apple has also made the Dock act more like the Apple menu by introducing a new pop-up folder capability, and addressed another frequent complaint by making the Finder's toolbar customizable.

== AppleSurf (Opinions) ==============

 Apple SuperDrive And iDVD (Digital Post Production)
<http://www.digitalpostproduction.com/2001/01_jan/features/AppleSuperDrive.htm>
Combining the power of nonlinear editing, the affordable quality of DV and the high-quality, low-cost delivery format of DVD into a single machine was a very smart idea that should place the Mac in a very special position with video professionals. Although Steve Jobs said that the new G4s are evolutionary, I'd say that they are in fact revolutionary.

 Is Mac OS X Threatening Linux? (SlashDot)
<http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/01/16/230234&mode=flat>
Why would they want to use Linux instead of OS X?

 Mac OS X: But What About The Children? (Go2Mac.com)
<http://www.go2mac.com/newswire/displaynewswire.cfm?id=201>

 About Time Steve Cussed Out Those 'Sorry Butt' Mac Retailers (Applelinks.com)
<http://www.applelinks.com/macspirit/cuss.shtml>
Apple has every reason to open its own stores. If the company is going to waste money on retail, at least it’ll be Apple’s retails, which would give the company greater control over how the product is presented to the public.

 iDVD Brings Prono Movie-Making TO The Common Man (The Mac Observer)
<http://www.macobserver.com/columns/ibrotha/2001/20010116.shtml>

 Apple's Business Strategy (MacWEEK.com)
<http://macweek.zdnet.com/2001/01/14/0116wgkeynote.html>
It has finally learned a poignant lesson from its own tumultuous history. The "first mover," or the first to market with a new technological paradigm, often merely carves a difficult road into the unknown--with its own R&D blood and marketing sweat--so that others may follow, while avoiding the pitfalls.

== AppleSurf (Reviews) ==============

 Extension Overload (The Macjunkie)
<http://www.themacjunkie.com/cgi-bin/newspro/fullnews.cgi?newsid979711028,34212,?x>
Extension Overload offers a few helpful features beyond what each Mac is already equipped with, but unfortunately nothing worth the $20 registration fee.

 Cabrio PR1 (Low End Mac)
<http://www.lowendmac.com/tf/010117.html>
Cabrio's tiny size puts even legacy programs and Mac OS X Beta's Music Player to shame, and its minimal memory footprint makes it incredibly friendly with lower-end computers. And, beta-level release or not, it's stunningly polished. Cabrio gets my vote as the best everyday MP3 player for the Mac.

 iTunes (Applelust.com)
<http://www.applelust.com/HTML/Reviews/html/Archives/review_itunes_igot.shtml>
With iTunes as a "digital music hub" Apple has a clear winner in its hands. Most users like the interface a lot (in spite of certain shortcomings), and it's now, for Apple, just a matter of adding or reinstating missing features, and of course of marketing the product properly.

 Script Debugger 2.0 (Macworld)
<http://macworld.zdnet.com/2001/02/reviews/scriptdebugger.html>
If you own Script Debugger 1.X or you're hitting the 32K limit on script size, this is a must-have upgrade. But if you've never scripted before, Script Debugger 2.0 may be overkill. Main Event Software's Scripter Personal Edition offers an easier, less expensive way to get started with scripting.

== The Wintel Empire (Top Stories) ==============

 Analyst Predicts PC Vendors Must COnsolidate Or Die (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-201-4500953-0.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..sf>
Apple should play to its strength in industrial design and design the best computers for the Wintel market. Abandon the PowerPC architecture and port the Mac OS X over to Intel architecture.

 MS Using The Old Blue Screen To Sell Win2K (The Register)
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/16139.html>
The '9x code base was crap to begin with, and crap it remains. But no one can accuse us of MS-bashing here; the company's own ad campaign makes precisely that assertion.

 Ashcroft Unlikely To Drop Microsoft Case But Experts Say He Might Turn Down Heat (San Francisco Chronicle)
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/01/16/BU140984.DTL&type=tech_article>
Ashcroft isn't expected to change the case's course before an appeals court ruling later this year. But those who have followed the case say the former Missouri governor and U.S. senator may push for settlement talks between the government and Microsoft after the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., hands down its ruling -- which many expect to favor Microsoft.

 Hole Found In Windows Media Player "Skins" (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-4499270.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni>
Security experts are warning of a high-risk security hole affecting Microsoft Windows Media Player 7 "skins," which are used to give the desktop application a custom look and feel.

 Intel Hits Lowered Estimates, Sees Bleak First Quarter (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-201-4497699-0.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..sf>
Intel squeaked past lowered fourth-quarter earnings expectations Tuesday, posting net income of $2.6 billion, or 38 cents a share.

 Microsoft Earnings To Be Watched For Industry Outlook (Reuters)
<http://www.washtech.com/news/software/6640-1.html>
Microsoft Corp. is seen posting flat quarterly profit growth this week, in line with lowered expectations, but the slowing U.S. economy and sluggish computer sales could mean further grim news for the world's top software maker.

== The Wintel Empire (News) ==============

 MS Whistler Copy Protection Climb Down Begins - In Germany? (The Register)
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/16157.html>
With Whistler Microsoft plans to introduce a new form of copy protection involving compulsory registration and resulting in 'single use' software. But there are signs of revolt among the troops - at least in Microsoft Germany.

 Analyst Predicts PC Vendors Must COnsolidate Or Die (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-201-4500953-0.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..sf>
Apple should play to its strength in industrial design and design the best computers for the Wintel market. Abandon the PowerPC architecture and port the Mac OS X over to Intel architecture.

 What Microsoft (And Oracle) Are Scared Of (ZDNet AnchorDesk)
<http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2674880,00.html>

 Microsoft's VSA To Ease Web App Development (Techweb)
<http://www.crn.com/Sections/BreakingNews/dailyarchives.asp?ArticleID=23042>
Microsoft hopes to bring the point-and-click programming model it pioneered for desktop applications with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to back-end applications available over the Web.

 MS Using The Old Blue Screen To Sell Win2K (The Register)
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/16139.html>
The '9x code base was crap to begin with, and crap it remains. But no one can accuse us of MS-bashing here; the company's own ad campaign makes precisely that assertion.

 Ashcroft Unlikely To Drop Microsoft Case But Experts Say He Might Turn Down Heat (San Francisco Chronicle)
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/01/16/BU140984.DTL&type=tech_article>
Ashcroft isn't expected to change the case's course before an appeals court ruling later this year. But those who have followed the case say the former Missouri governor and U.S. senator may push for settlement talks between the government and Microsoft after the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., hands down its ruling -- which many expect to favor Microsoft.

 AMD Rolls Out Duron Chip For Portables (ZDNet)
<http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2674685,00.html>
The chip is the company's first processor for notebooks that is based upon Athlon technology.

 Linux Plus Itanium Equals Whoosh (Wired News)
<http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,41213,00.html>
"We believe that Linux clusters will soon be the most widely used architecture for parallel computing, and that these two clusters from IBM are the best way to deliver terascale performance," said Dan Reed, director of NCSA and the National Computational Science Alliance.

 Hole Found In Windows Media Player "Skins" (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-4499270.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni>
Security experts are warning of a high-risk security hole affecting Microsoft Windows Media Player 7 "skins," which are used to give the desktop application a custom look and feel.

 AMD Offers Developer Tools For 64-Bit Chips (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-201-4496431-0.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..sf>
Advanced Micro Devices and software firm Virtutech announced Tuesday that they have created a software tool--"VirtuHammer"--that will enable developers to produce applications for AMD's next generation of processors, code-named Sledgehammer.

 Private Microsoft Suits Still Alive In California (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-201-4496871-0.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..sf>
Microsoft may have scored a legal victory last week when a federal judge tossed out parts of some private antitrust suits, but that doesn't mean the company is in the clear when it comes to money damages.

 Intel Hits Lowered Estimates, Sees Bleak First Quarter (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-201-4497699-0.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..sf>
Intel squeaked past lowered fourth-quarter earnings expectations Tuesday, posting net income of $2.6 billion, or 38 cents a share.

 Intel Should Make An Easy Switch To Pentium 4 (Gartner Viewpoint)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-4500159.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni>

 Microsoft Earnings To Be Watched For Industry Outlook (Reuters)
<http://www.washtech.com/news/software/6640-1.html>
Microsoft Corp. is seen posting flat quarterly profit growth this week, in line with lowered expectations, but the slowing U.S. economy and sluggish computer sales could mean further grim news for the world's top software maker.

 Australian Government Rejects Microsoft Argument On Innovation (Fairfax I.T.)
<http://www.it.fairfax.com.au/breaking/20010117/A14219-2001Jan17.html>
The Australian Federal Government today rejected warnings by Microsoft that Australia was at risk of becoming an information technology backwater.

 Microsoft Brings Programming Tools Under .Net Umbrella (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-201-4493678-0.html?tag=st.ne.1003.ttext?tag=st.ne.1002.bgif.ni>
Microsoft has fired its first .Net volley in the new year.

== Breaking Barriers (Top Stories) ==============

 Turn Off The Internet! (Salon)
<http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/01/17/net_power/index.html>
Is the global computer network to blame for the current electricity crisis? Lackeys for the power industry want us to think so.

== Breaking Barriers (News) ==============

 Did Clinton 'Invent' The Internet? (Reuters)
<http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2675064,00.html>
An e-commerce task force says the president's policies helped the Internet grow from a little-known tool into a social and economic juggernaut.

 MS And Amazon Advertise On Islamic Resistance Site (The Register)
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/16143.html>
Microsoft and Amazon have been caught advertising on a Hizbollah-backed Web Lebanese Web site. Both companies protest that, er, they didn't know, and have had the advertising pulled.

 Asta Networks Claims Cure For DoS Attacks (InfoWorld)
<http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/01/17/010117hnasta.xml?p=br&s=7>
Asta Networks will announce Wednesday it has developed router-based software that can detect Internet denial-of-service (DoS) attacks within moments, giving targeted companies precious time to react.

 Browsing The Browsers: We Demand More! (osOpinion)
<http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/6760.html>
It's time for browser developers to check and see if their browser is a Rolls Royce or an old burnt-out Falcon.

 TV Stations Turn On High-Speed Net Downloads (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-4502176.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni>
Undeterred by industry uncertainty, a national group of television stations is starting to test services designed to beam high-speed data such as software programs, music or video directly into homes using TV signals.

 What Microsoft (And Oracle) Are Scared Of (ZDNet AnchorDesk)
<http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2674880,00.html>

 Microsoft's VSA To Ease Web App Development (Techweb)
<http://www.crn.com/Sections/BreakingNews/dailyarchives.asp?ArticleID=23042>
Microsoft hopes to bring the point-and-click programming model it pioneered for desktop applications with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to back-end applications available over the Web.

 For Recording Industry, Napster Is Just The Tip Of Priacy Iceberg (Los Angeles Times)
<http://www.latimes.com/business/cutting/20010116/t000004268.html>
Even if efforts to curb the exchange service succeed, what's to stop others?

 So Much E-Mail, So Little Space (Los Angeles Times)
<http://www.latimes.com/business/cutting/20010116/t000004274.html>
The U.S. government is grappling with how to store the White House's millions of electronic epistles. And they're not all from Monica.

 Minorities Use The Web Differently (Los Angeles Times)
<http://www.latimes.com/business/cutting/20010116/t000004445.html>
One finds 'digital divide' is more a matter of income than race.

 An Ashcroft On My Shoulders (MSNBC)
<http://www.msnbc.com/news/517149.asp>
John Ashcroft believes in angels: he believes they walk among us and that we unwittingly interact with them, as it says in the Bible. And as Attorney General, John Ashcroft wants to be an angel on your shoulders, especially when it comes to morality and what you can and can’t see with your own eyes or hear with your own ears.

 Turn Off The Internet! (Salon)
<http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/01/17/net_power/index.html>
Is the global computer network to blame for the current electricity crisis? Lackeys for the power industry want us to think so.

== PenguinSurf (Top Stories) ==============

 Linux Plus Itanium Equals Whoosh (Wired News)
<http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,41213,00.html>
"We believe that Linux clusters will soon be the most widely used architecture for parallel computing, and that these two clusters from IBM are the best way to deliver terascale performance," said Dan Reed, director of NCSA and the National Computational Science Alliance.

 IBM To Use Linux In Academic Supercomputer (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-4500555.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni>
IBM will build a Linux-based supercomputer expected to become the fastest used by universities.

== PenguinSurf (News) ==============

 Linux Plus Itanium Equals Whoosh (Wired News)
<http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,41213,00.html>
"We believe that Linux clusters will soon be the most widely used architecture for parallel computing, and that these two clusters from IBM are the best way to deliver terascale performance," said Dan Reed, director of NCSA and the National Computational Science Alliance.

 IBM To Use Linux In Academic Supercomputer (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-4500555.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni>
IBM will build a Linux-based supercomputer expected to become the fastest used by universities.

== SingaporeSurf (Top Stories) ==============

 JBJ May Lose Parliament Seat (Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,1870,17862,00.html?>
Workers' Party chief and Non-Constituency MP J.B. Jeyaretnam may lose his seat in Parliament because of his failure to pay $235,000 in defamation damages to eight people.

== SingaporeSurf (News) ==============

 Have More Dialogue Sessions And At Void Decks: Participants (Channel NewsAsia)
<http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/singapore/cna/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/010117/singapore/cna/Have_more_dialogue_sessions_and_at_void_decks__participants_.html>

 Tony Tan Reappointed PAP Chairman (Channel NewsAsia)
<http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/singapore/cna/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/010117/singapore/cna/Tony_Tan_reappointed_PAP_chairman.html>

 Singapore's 4th Varsity To Be Application- And Development-Based (Channel NewsAsia)
<http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/singapore/cna/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/010117/singapore/cna/Singapore_s_4th_varsity_to_be_application-_and_development-based.html>
Singapore's fourth university will place more emphasis on practical applications and technical training rather than research work, said Senior Minister of State for Education Peter Chen.

 Singapore JB Jeyaretnam Seeks Bankruptcy Petition Recall (AP)
<http://asia.biz.yahoo.com/news/asian_markets/article.html?s=asiafinance/news/010117/asian_markets/dowjones/Singapore_JB_Jeyaretnam_Seeks_Bankruptcy_Petition_Recall.html>
Jeyaretnam said in a statement that he had paid the installment in cash on Wednesday. He said he asked the plaintiffs' lawyer, ruling-party politician Davinder Singh, to withdraw a petition to take him back to court for bankruptcy.

 GE Real Test For Papers: Feedback Group (Channel NewsAsia)
<http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/singapore/cna/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/010117/singapore/cna/GE_real_test_for_papers__feedback_group_.html>
The next General Elections in Singapore could help the public decide whether newspapers here have been fair and balanced in their coverage, says the chairman of the Media Feedback Group.

 Employer's CPF Restoration Depends On Economy (Channel NewsAsia)
<http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/singapore/cna/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/010117/singapore/cna/Employer_s_CPF_restoration_depends_on_economy.html>
NTUC's Secretary-General Lim Boon Heng said if things turn out alright, Singapore will be in a better position in the middle of this year to consider whether the restoration of the remaining four percentage points of the employer's CPF contribution could be done anytime soon.

 New Papers Face Scrutiny (Project Eyeball)
<http://eyeball.asia1.com.sg/Eyeball/Story/1,1381,12016,00.html?>

 Not Much Support For Civic Groups (Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum/story/0,1870,17912,00.html?>
Ngiam Shih Tung: The contrast between the way the Government treats the business sector and 'people-sector' organisations reinforces the view that the Government's first concern is business and that it considers people no more than cogs in the Singapore Inc economic machine.

 JBJ May Lose Parliament Seat (Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,1870,17862,00.html?>
Workers' Party chief and Non-Constituency MP J.B. Jeyaretnam may lose his seat in Parliament because of his failure to pay $235,000 in defamation damages to eight people.

== SingaporeSurf (Technology) ==============

 SCV Leaves SingTel Standing (Project Eyeball)
<http://eyeball.asia1.com.sg/Eyeball/Story/1,1381,12029,00.html?>
In just one year of operation, Singapore Cable Vision (SCV) has upstaged SingTel, by grabbing 38,000 residential subscribers - 3,000 more than SingNet's asynchronous digital subscriber lines, or ADSL, users.