[MyAppleMenu] Apr 8, 2003

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu Newsletter
Tuesday, Apr 8, 2003

MyAppleMenu : Top Stories
-------------------------
Apple Counters 'Slow G4' Claims (Jonny Evans, Macworld UK)
<http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/top_news_item.cfm?NewsID=6190>
An eight-page report on the subject has been published by independent research firm, Pfeiffer Consulting. Apple is listed as a client by the company.

MyAppleMenu : News
------------------
External PowerBook G4 Antennas Boost AirPort Reception (Peter Cohen, MacCentral)
<http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2003/04/08/quickertek/>
QuickerTek Inc. has announced a pair of new antennas that it says will boost wireless connectivity by up to 50 percent.

MacNET Launches New Shareware Site (MacMinute)
<http://www.macminute.com/2003/04/08/macnet>
This is a free site for all Mac OS X shareware developers to come and promote their shareware applications.

Mac Clone To Attack Unfilled Niche (Julio Ojeda-Zapata, Pioneer Press)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5579129.htm>
Only Apple remained mum on the subject. Was the ever-inscrutable Macintosh creator ignoring the iBox project as beneath its contempt?

Better Mac Living Through Bluetooth (Arik Hesseldahl, Forbes)
<http://www.forbes.com/2003/04/08/cx_ah_0408tentech.html>
A Swedish software developer named John Salling has come up with a truly innovative combination that pairs a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone with an Apple Macintosh computer. 

iKey Provides Mac OS X Automation Tool (Dennis Sellers, MacCentral)
<http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2003/04/08/ikey/>

How To Turn Your iBook Into An iMac (Sort Of) (Tony Smith, The Register)
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/30145.html>
The Dome is an iMac-esque hemispherical base with a clear perspex flat panel for your notebook where the iMac has its LCD screen. 

Cashing In On Classic Computers (nzoom.com)
<http://technology.nzoom.com/technology_detail/0,1608,159338-113-380,00.html>
Yesterday's computers, so often dumped for the next new model, have finally come to be treasured as historical artifacts.

MySQL Database Scalability Peaks (Lisa Vaas, eWeek)
<http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1007647,00.asp>
MySQL 4.0 includes features designed to make it more suitable for mission-critical, heavy-load database systems.

A/V FireWire Capture Device For FCP 4 Announced (Dennis Sellers, MacCentral)
<http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2003/04/07/ajavideo/>
A high-end, 8- or 10-bit broadcast video device, Io lets you connect professional analog or digital audio/video to a Power Mac G4 or PowerBook G4 through a FireWire interface.

MyAppleMenu : Opinions
----------------------
Debunking Dvorak With Napkin Math For OS X On Intel (John Kheit, The Mac Observer)
<http://www.macobserver.com/editorial/2003/04/08.1.shtml>
Perhaps as it ramped up its market share, Apple might eventually be able to support unfettered licensing of an Intel version of OS X. However, as it stands, John Dvorak's and others' hopes for OS X on Intel seem to be cries for Apple to tilt at windmills.

Steve Jobs Takes A 5 Million-Share Bite Of Apple (Graef Crystal, Bloomberg)
<http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&sid=aKzBvDNlRPGg&refer=columnist_crystal>
The cracks are beginning to show in the stock-option edifice built by Silicon Valley over several decades.

Are Tech Support Nightmares On The Rise? (Gene Steinberg, Mac Night Owl)
<http://www.macnightowl.com/#support>

The Boy Who Cried Bandwidth (Jeff Carlson, TidBITS)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07144>
After a lot of uncertainly and a great outpouring of support from TidBITS readers and GoLive users, the punchline has arrived: the charges are zero.

The Mac's Second Coming Just Begun (Ron Carlson, Insanely Great Mac)
<http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=1944>
Apple technologies are actually causing a tectonic shift in the industry and perhaps a few people watching Schiller's dog-n-pony show actually did few a ripples of excitement.

MyAppleMenu : Reviews
---------------------
Apple's iLife Suite Could Tempt Windows Owners (Knight Ridder News Service)
<http://www.jsonline.com/bym/tech/news/apr03/131738.asp>
For those dying to dabble in consumer-grade digital photography, digital-video editing and music-file organizing, iLife can make a Macintosh seem all but irresistible.

Bonzai USB Mini-Drive (Niko Coucouvanis, MacAddict)
<http://www.macaddict.com/issues/0303/rev.bonzai.html>
As with any flash or USB drive, transfer speeds are painfully slow--otherwise, the Bonzai fits right in with our on-the-go digital lifestyle.

The Digital Shoebox: iData Pro X 1.0.5 (Matt Neuburg, TidBITS)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07145>
What's in your digital shoebox? You know, the place where you stash those pesky snippets of pure text, be they a few words or many paragraphs, snippets that you know you'll need later but you just can't categorize.

Internet Sharing A Breeze In OS X (Dan Knight, Low End Mac)
<http://www.lowendmac.com/x-basics/03/0407.html>

MyAppleMenu : Wintel News
-------------------------
Microsoft Shortlisted For "Most Invasive Project" (iTnews)
<http://www.itnews.com.au/storycontent.cfm?ID=17&Art_ID=11818>
Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing initiative was nominated ‘most invasive project’ by activist group Privacy International in its annual Big Brother awards in the USA.

More Wintel News at <http://www.myapplemenu.com/wintel/>

MyAppleMenu Tomorrow : Top Stories
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Due Process Vanishes In Thin Air (Ryan Singel, Wired News)
<http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,58386,00.html>
The aviation list, intended to catch terrorists before they board planes, has persistently and widely snagged innocent American travelers, according to government documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Disney Plans To Be On Digital Frontier (Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times)
<http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-eisner8apr08,1,861153.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dtechnology>
Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner said Monday that his company would not let the threat of piracy keep it from aggressively pursuing business strategies based on new digital technologies, even if that means rethinking its current business models.

Your Next PC: Legacy Free? (Fred Langa, InformationWeek)
<http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle?doc_id=IWK20030404S0003>
IBM's PC AT has cast a shadow over PC system architecture for more than two decades. Thanks to advances such as Intel's EFI, PC vendors are on the verge of breaking the legacy bottlenecks. Kiss your BIOS goodbye.

MyAppleMenu Tomorrow : News & Opinions
--------------------------------------
Computers That Watch While You Work (BBC News)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2925403.stm>
Canadian researchers have designed a computer that pays attention to the person using it.

Growth Forecast For CRM -- In Two Years (Dawn Kawamoto, CNET News.com)
<http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-995842.html>
Companies that help businesses manage customer relationships will likely see their coffers grow, but first the industry will have to get through two years of stormy weather.

In The Linux Loop (Minda Zetlin, Computerworld)
<http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/story/0,10801,80053,00.html>
Using open-source software like Linux is a no-brainer for many companies. But some companies and government organizations are taking their commitment to open source a step further by actively participating in the open-source community.

Sun Hopes "Enchilada" Will Burn Rivals (Stephen Shankland, CNET News.com)
<http://news.com.com/2100-1010-995863.html>
As part of a multiproduct debut Tuesday, Sun Microsystems will add two new Unix servers code-named Enchilada to its menu, low-end models that are the first systems to use the new UltraSparc IIIi "Jalapeno" processor.

Biotech: Beyond The Bubble (Cynthia L. Webb, Washignton Post)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47479-2003Apr7.html>
Biotech was supposed to be a modern-day gold rush, with groundbreaking drug-related and medical discoveries leading to instant riches. That anticipation spurred venture capitalists nationwide to pour millions of dollars into the industry during the last decade, but many investors remained unconvinced.

The TIA And DMCA Are Philosophies (Harold Martin, O'Reilly Network)
<http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3019>
The trend is clear. There is never too much power.

Sun Unveils Business Collaboration Platform (Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News Service)
<http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/groupware/story/0,10801,80120,00.html>
Sun Microsystems Inc. unveiled a new real-time business collaboration platform today that integrates e-mail, instant messaging (IM), calendar, search and content management capabilities.

As Many Join Burning Boom, CD Sales Slide (Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe)
<http://boston.com/business/news/2003/04/07/cd_burning.htm>
According to the market research firm Ipsos-Reid, a quarter of the US population over age 12 has downloaded music from the Net -- and over two-thirds of them have never paid for their downloads.

Sun Prepares To Unleash Java 'Tiger' (Darryl K. Taft, eWeek)
<http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1001600,00.asp>
The new version, J2SE (Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition) 1.5, will add technology from ongoing JSRs (Java Specification Requests) that will simplify development and smooth the language in four areas: ease of development; monitoring and manageability; scalability and performance; and XML and client-side Web services support, officials said.

Microsoft's Ballmer Fights Linux In Munich (John Blau, InfoWorld)
<http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/04/07/HNballmer_1.html>
None other than Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer paid a personal visit to Munich city mayor Christian Ude at the end of last month to drum up support for the company's operating system software, which faces growing competition from open-source Linux, according to a report in the German newspaper SüddeutscheZeitung, citing people familiar with the situation.

AOL Seeks To Offer Streaming Video IM (Scarlet Pruitt, InfoWorld)
<http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/04/07/HNaolim_1.html>
America Online (AOL) may soon be able to launch advanced instant messaging (IM) services, such as streaming video, if U.S. regulators drop interoperability requirements imposed on the company as a condition of its 2001 merger with Time Warner.

Yahoo Alights On New Search Site (Stefanie Olsen, CNET News.com)
<http://news.com.com/2100-1032-995713.html>
Yahoo on Monday will phase in a new search site that plays up paid listings and simple, informative query results, but it has yet to capitalize on the assets of newly acquired Inktomi.

Samba Flaw Threatens Linux File Servers (Robert Lemos, CNET News.com)
<http://news.com.com/2100-1002-995834.html>
The Samba Team released a patch on Monday for the second major security flaw found in the past few weeks in the open-source group's widely used program for sharing Windows files between Unix and Linux systems.

MyAppleMenu Reader : World
--------------------------
Noblesse Oblige (Debra J. Saunders, San Francisco Chronicle)
<http://rss.com.com/2010-1071-995823.html?type=pt&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news>
A recent poll found a quarter of the French are rooting for Saddam Hussein to win the war. A pox on all their maisons, but it's the majority of the French who still want the United States to win -- after months of Americans lampooning French military history -- who interest me.

Real-Time War, With Real-Time Confusion (Reuven Frank, Los Angeles Times)
<http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-war-oefrank8apr08,1,6845980.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Dcomment%2Dopinions>
The history of news is a story of technology, machines and devices moving information ever faster, until it is now instantaneous. You can't get any faster than that.

In Indonesia, A Wary Worldview (Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52873-2003Apr7.html>
Indonesians evince a deep skepticism these days toward the U.S. government and, by extension, the Western media. And in a country struggling to establish strong journalistic institutions five years after the end of President Suharto's 32-year authoritarian reign, the media are grappling, too, with how to cover an unpopular war for viewers in the world's largest Muslim country.

Is Fear Spreading Faster Than SARS? (Philip Bowring, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/08/opinion/08BOWR.html>
An obsession with risk not only creates disruption but also diverts attention from dealing with ever present health and safety issues that in human as well as statistical terms are far bigger threats to life.

MyAppleMenu Reader : Science & Tech
-----------------------------------
New Fusion Method Offers Hope Of New Energy Source (Kenneth Chang, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/08/science/physical/08FUSI.html>
With a blast of X-rays compressing a capsule of hydrogen to conditions approaching those at the center of the Sun, scientists from Sandia National Laboratories reported today that they had achieved thermonuclear fusion, in essence detonating a tiny hydrogen bomb.

Middle Ages Were Warmer Than Today, Say Scientists (Robert Matthews, Telegraph)
<http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/04/06/nclim06.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/04/06/ixhome.html>
Claims that man-made pollution is causing "unprecedented" global warming have been seriously undermined by new research which shows that the Earth was warmer during the Middle Ages.

MyAppleMenu Reader : Life
-------------------------
Good Women Hard To Find? (Patrick Goldstein, Los Angeles Times)
<http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/goldstein/cl-et-gold8apr08.story>
Studios obsessed with action flicks and teen comedies have little room for female directors.

Heart Of Japanese Animation Beats In A Robot Boy (James Brooke, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/07/international/asia/07JAPA.html>
Tokyo may not yet have flying cars, but Astro Boy's official birthday on Monday marks the coming of age of Japan's animation industry.

TV's Boldest News Show (Laura Miller, Salon)
<http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/feature/2003/04/08/stewart/>
OK, it's fictitious -- but so is our presidency. Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" pulls the pants down on the fakes and fanatics who are leading us into the future.

Hey, You Guys, What's Saddam Funny? (Noel Holston, Newsday)
<http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/printedition/ny-p2top23210269apr07,0,1023416.column?coll=ny-entertainment-print>
Late-night quipsters have fun with the war, but are they on target?

MyAppleMenu SingaporeSurf : Top Stories
---------------------------------------
Beyond The Tragic: Father And Pstor Dead, Now Esther Loses Her Mum (Lee Ching Wern, Today)
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/todaynews/view/575/1/.html>

MyAppleMenu SingaporeSurf : News & Opinions
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Two Die, Infections Up Sharply (Bertha Henson, Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/topstories/story/0,4386,181929,00.html?>
Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang walked into last night's press conference on Sars and told the gathered journalists: 'It's not a good picture today.'

More Singapore News at <http://www.myapplemenu.com/singapore/>

More
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Linux News <http://www.myapplemenu.com/linux/>

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