[MyAppleMenu] Wednesday, Oct 15, 2003

Wed Oct 15 21:05:00 EDT 2003

MyAppleMenu Newsletter
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2003

MyAppleMenu : Top Stories
-------------------------
Sales Boost Apple Earnings (Ina Fried, CNET News.com)
<http://marketwatch-cnet.com.com/2100-1047_3-5091976.html?type=pt&part=marketwatch-cnet&tag=feed&subj=news>
Buoyed by a rise in sales from a year ago, Apple Computer posted fourth-quarter earnings that narrowly topped expectations. The Mac maker posted a net income of $44 million, or 12 cents per share, on revenue of $1.7 billion, for the three months ended Sept. 27.

Mac Supercomputer: Fast, Cheap (Leander Kahney, Wired News)
<http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60821,00.html>
The brand new "Big Mac" supercomputer at Virginia Tech could be the second most powerful supercomputer on the planet, according to preliminary numbers.

MyAppleMenu : News
------------------
iPod Available At New Regional Retailers (MacNN)
<http://www.macnn.com/news/21573>
MacNN readers note that the iPod is now available at several of The May Department Stores, including Robinsons-May and Hecht's.

Bayshore Goes Digital With Laptops (Michael Barber, Bradenton Herald)
<http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/7015419.htm>
Manatee County School District officials selected Bayshore to be the first county school to provide every student with a personal laptop computer.

Computer Commitment (Larry Slonaker, San Jose Mercury News)
<http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/7017939.htm>
Gunderson High's laptops: Educational blessing or expensive distraction?

Greene County Students Get Laptops (Mark Lineberger, Kinston Free Press)
<http://www.kinston.com/Details.cfm?StoryID=15231>
Dozens of middle school students, all born in the 1990s, were the first to receive the computers Tuesday, computers that educators hope will give them an edge, both academically and in the workplace.

Mozilla, Firebird, Thunderbird Get Updates (MacMinute)
<http://www.macminute.com/2003/10/15/mozilla>

NetNewsWire And NetNewsWire Lite Updated (Mac Net Journal)
<http://www.whiterabbits.com/MacNetJournal/October2003.html#note_1868>

Apple Store Opening In Cleveland Area Oct 24 (MacMinute)
<http://www.macminute.com/2003/10/14/applestore>
A new Apple Store will be among several stores having their grand opening on October 24 at the Legacy Village retail center in Lyndhurst, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.

Apple To Webcast Quarterly Results On Wednesday (Peter Cohen, MacCentral)
<http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2003/10/14/webcast/index.php?redirect=1066167696000>
Apple CFO Fred Anderson and others hold the quarterly financial conference call with Wall Street analysts, to discuss the company's financial results and news of import to the financial and Macintosh communities.

Microsoft Launches Compatibility Center For Mac Users (Jim Dalrymple, MacCentral)
<http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2003/10/14/macbu/index.php?redirect=1066167695000>
The new Compatibility Center gives users access to articles, studies and success stories of people using Microsoft products on both Windows and Macintosh.

Two Apple Stores Closed For Panther Release (Jim Dalrymple, MacCentral)
<http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2003/10/14/pantherrelease/index.php?redirect=1066143404000>
Two of the company's retail outlets will be closed for the celebration.

MyAppleMenu : Opinions
----------------------
Will Apple's 'Panther' Make A Meal Of Microsoft's 'Longhorn'? (Peter Coffee, eWeek)
<http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1342573,00.asp>
Panther, with its innovative Expose and Fast User Switching visualizations, might begin the actual movement of real-world user environments in directions that William Gibson first visualized -- and that Gibson later developed, when his Hermes 2000 was no longer worth the cost of repair, on an Apple II.

Technology Vs. Legislation: Part Two -- iTunes For Windows And The RIAA (Alan Graham, O'Reilly Network)
<http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3874>
We are on a slippery slope each time we make a concession with the RIAA. You can't work with a bully whose idea of working with you is telling you what to do and if you disagree, they'll take you to court.

Top Ten Reasons Why The iTunes Music Store Will Outplay The Competition (Bill Palmer)
<http://www.billpalmer.net/#com000015>
Here's why the competition doesn't stand a chance.

A Mac Head's Bow To Dell (Alex Salkever, BusinessWeek)
<http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2003/tc20031015_8070_tc056.htm>
Yes, it's true: My Windows PC runs faster than my iMac. You -- and Steve Jobs -- can blame Motorola and its pokey chip design.

MyAppleMenu : Reviews
---------------------
Macworld Lab: First Test Results Of Latest PowerBooks (Macworld)
<http://www.macworld.com/2003/10/reviews/powerbookbenchmarks/>

iSkin eXo: The New iPod Bodyguard (TheMacMind)
<http://www.themacmind.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=371&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0&POSTNUKESID=4b46f4f85b62a06803d27cea13a47de9>

Slick New iPod Even Better (Tom Mainelli, PC World)
<http://pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php?id=132859055>
Apple has improved upon an already great product, creating an MP3 player that I'd be happy to own. Nevertheless, the price tag seems artificially high.

Wide-Open Spaces (Christopher Allbritton, Popular Mechanics)
<http://popularmechanics.com/technology/computers/2003/10/wide_open_spaces/>
If you want big and light, and can afford it, go with the PowerBook.

Aki (Erica Marceau, Applelinks)
<http://www.applelinks.com/reviews/aki-preview.shtml>

Apple Wireless Mouse And Keyboard Tips And Tricks (Francois Joseph de Kermadec, O'Reilly Network)
<http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/10/14/wireless.html>
The lastest gizmos from Apple are very cool products and a purchase you certainly won't regret. In case you were wondering how they behave, here is a preview.

Finding Nemo: Nemo's Underwater World Of Fun (Amy R. Wood, MacHome)
<http://www.machome.com/reviews/display.lasso?grr8=154>
Parents should find that the difficulty level isn't too daunting for little kids and the activities are interesting enough for older kids (in the 6-10 range). All in all, it's a fun game that'll keep kids obsessed with Nemo until the DVD release.

SimCity 4 (Cathy Lu, MacAddict)
<http://www.macaddict.com/issues/0310/rev.simcity.html>
The bottom line is that if you like games of this ilk, you'll enjoy this very solid update of a classic.

Nisus Writer Express (Mary E. Tyler, MacAddict)
<http://www.macaddict.com/issues/0310/rev.nisus.html>
Express is still a good solution for the Nisus-faithful looking to move to OS X, and a decent option for reading Word documents without Word's high price tag -- unfortunately, it's also lacking classic Nisus' completeness.

MyAppleMenu : Wintel News
-------------------------
Why Ballmer Doesn't Get It On Security? (Patrick Gray, ZDNet Australia)
<http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107_2-5090865.html>
Microsoft has come a long way in its understanding of security over the last five years, but comments made last week by its chief executive Steve Ballmer go to show it needs to change not only its approach, but must recognize that it doesn't operate in a vacuum.

Microsoft Unpacks Details Of Longhorn Storage (Martin LaMonica, CNET News.com)
<http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5090584.html>
The Longhorn edition of Microsoft's Windows operating system is at least two years away -- but the company is revealing some details on how it intends to create a smooth transition from today's Windows PCs

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

MyAppleMenu Tomorrow: Top Stories
---------------------------------
Open Source Everywhere (Thomas Goetz, Wired)
<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.11/opensource.html>
Software is just the beginning ... open source is doing for mass innovation what the assembly line did for mass production. Get ready for the era when collaboration replaces the corporation.

For Techies, School Bells Mean 'Let The Games Begin' (Ian Urbina, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/15/nyregion/15GAME.html?8hpib>
Ask teachers whether cellphones, PDAs and other gadgets have become magnets for in-class mischief and distraction, and most will say they are not a problem. But talk to students and you get a different story.

Citizens Strike Back In Intelligence War (Celeste Biever, New Scientist)
<http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994246>
A website to be launched later in 2003 will allow people to post information about the activities of government organisations, officials and the judiciary.

MyAppleMenu Tomorrow: News & Opinions
-------------------------------------
Web Wizards Weave Their Magic (BBC News)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3190884.stm>
The workings of the internet and magic may seem worlds apart, but to one prominent web design thinker, they share much in common.

Inventor: How 3G Has Failed Us (Ben Charny, CNET News.com)
<http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5091438.html>
Have third-generation services failed the wireless industry? Martin Cooper, the man credited with inventing the cell phone, thinks so.

H-1B Visa Cuts Might Not Have A Big Effect In U.S. (John Ribeiro, IDG News Service)
<http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/10/14/HNh1b_1.html>
The reduction this month in H-1B visas might not have a significant short-term effect on companies that use the visas to bring foreign IT workers to the U.S., and long term the trend toward offshore outsourcing could mean demand for the visas is lower than in the past, say those who track the industry.

Interview: Andreessen Sees DCML Taking Off (Ed Scannell, InfoWorld)
<http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/10/14/HNandreessenqa_1.html>
Opsware chairman talks about the future prospects for proposed utility computing standard.

Report Slams Web Personalization (Paul Festa, CNET News.com)
<http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-5090716.html>
Companies trying to get personal with their Web site visitors in hopes of increasing sales are wasting more money than they're earning, warns a new report.

Sun: 'Microprocessors Are Dead' (Stephen Shankland, CNET News.com)
<http://news.com.com/2100-1006_3-5091145.html>
As new chip manufacturing techniques converge with new realities about the software jobs that computers handle, central microprocessors will gradually assume almost all the functions currently handled by an army of supporting chips.

Companies: Linux A Go, SCO Or No (Ed Frauenheim, CNET News.com)
<http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5091306.html>
Who's afraid of SCO Group? Apparently just a small portion of companies thinking about implementing Linux.

MyAppleMenu Reader: World
-------------------------
Fact-Free News (Harold Meyerson, Washington Post)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27061-2003Oct14.html>
The fair and balanced folks at Fox, a survey concludes, were "the news source whose viewers had the most misperceptions."

The Secondhand Smoking Gun (Rosemary Ellis, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/15/opinion/15ELLI.html>
If New York -- as well as other cities and municipalities -- is ever tempted to rescind its smoking ban, it should look at the goings-on in Helena, Mont.

MyAppleMenu Reader: Science & Tech
----------------------------------
Can Sonar Kill Whales? (Brendan I. Koerner, Slate)
<http://slate.msn.com/id/2089812/>
he U.S. Navy has agreed to limit the use of its latest sonar system, bowing to environmentalist concerns that the technology causes whales to beach themselves. How might underwater sound waves drive cetaceans ashore?

MyAppleMenu Reader: Expressions
-------------------------------
To Autumn (John Keats, Slate)
<http://slate.msn.com/id/2089783/>

Trouble (Stacy Grimes, Five Points)
<http://www.webdelsol.com/Five_Points/issues/V7n3/grimes.htm>
I worked with Trouble till she knew who was boss. It took a lot of work. A lot of time and a lot of work.

MyAppleMenu SingaporeSurf : Top Stories
---------------------------------------
Singapore Singing A New Tune (Steve Mollman, Wired News)
<http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60754,00.html>
The city-state at the tip of the Malaysian peninsula hopes to shed its repressive image by embracing the arts, especially in digital form. But reconciling artistic endeavors with the profit motive isn't that easy.

MyAppleMenu SingaporeSurf : News & Opinions
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Singapore Cracks Down On Foreign Maid Agencies (Reuters)
<http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters10-14-203011.asp?reg=PACRIM>
Singapore has begun a crackdown on housekeeping agencies that ask prospective maids to sit or stand in shop windows, saying the growing practice treats them like ''commodities.''

No Direct Bus To Catch AirAsia Flight... Yet (Karamjit Kaur, Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,4386,214665,00.html?>
Two bus companies have applied to the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to run a direct Singapore-Senai service, but it may take up to a month to evaluate the applications.

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