From Jenny Morgan:

Subject: G4Ti

Awesome.

I LOVE my Pismo... I lust for the Ti. If there is a God, may she grant me the winning lotto ticket.

I love the specs. And the look. Kiss this Sony. And what is a VAIO anyway?

I like our dear Mr. Farr, but maybe he's spent just a little too long on the Farrside of things ;-) .

-Jenny Morgan

From Christian Ienni

Subject: newer pb woes

Hi Charles!

Yeah, those Titanium PBs look SWEET!!! I wonder how they solved the mobile G4 overheating issue (maybe the titanium case acts as a giant heat sink ;-) Just kidding!

ANYway.....you commented that you were considering getting one of those Newer upgrades before they went belly up. I know you have a Wallstreet, and last month I helped someone install one of the new PowerLogix upgrades (a 466) in his 233 Wallstreet (one of the dreaded Series 1 no-cache 13"-screen models), and it worked great! Plus, you don't have that "send the daughtercard off into the darkness" issue; PowerLogix's installer copies the boot ROM into software and reinstalls it onto the upgrade card with no hassle. Just though I'd pass along the recommendation, since there is an alternative to the Newer card for your model PB.

Chris

From Christian Ienni redux:

Subject: newer pb woes....part 2: never mind ^_^

Hi Again!

I just fired off that last email after only reading the first story about the Newer problems. I just read the next bit about the upgrade comparisons (including the PowerLogix Blue Chip I mentioned), and your own position that it's just better to save up for the Titanium.

You're right, of course. Personally, my Lombard is doing just fine, the 7200/90 still serves as my music machine, and the priority for any upgrade issues for me will be to get one of those Sonnet (got it right this time! ;-) G3 cards for the 7200. And I still have the old Quadra 700 and even an Apple //e for nostalgia value. But yeah, if I suddenly had 4 grand to blow, I'd have to get a Titanium, if nothing else than for the wowie/lust factor. Excuse me while I drool on my bronze keyboard (*slurp*).

Chris

From Chris Higgins:

Subject: Powerbooks sweet spot and 2001

Charles,

Couldn't agree with you more on the new Powerbooks! All I kept thinking about was Bowmans' last transmission when he encounters the monolith (which I believe was in "2010" a straightforward but solid sequel):

"My god its full of stars!"

Titanium, WOW!

-Chris Higgins

From Mike Kaufmann

Subject: I really want one of these. :-)

Me, too, Charley! Me too!

From Mark Masny:

Subject: Nisus Writer/Word Conundrum

Charles,

Perhaps by now you have had a chance to try Word 2001. I like it, and find it is a fine Mac application, especially suited for the type of word processing duties expected in office type work. I am curious if you now have any opinion on the Nisus Writer/Word comparison. I am considering Nisus Writer for long document work, as in fiction writing, of book length. As a matter of fact, I'm on the cusp of purchasing the product, but thought I'd ask your opinion, seeing as how I already have Word 2001, and Nisus Writer would be another expense. It does have a certain feel to it, that is hard to describe other than it feels like a serious writer's tool.

Being one who does like Word, and all it offers, Nisus Writer is quite a change, but I'm thinking perhaps both could reside on my Mac, each for a different task environment. The customization allowed in Word is quite nice, as it allows me to streamline and simplify its work environment. This decision I'm trying to make is not based on any complaints toward Word, though I think it tries to do too much, and this bogs it down. Nisus Writer is a bit odd, but I'm drawn to it.

Can you enlighten me, and advise?

Thanks,
Mark Masny

Dear Mark;

I think you have pretty much answered your own question. The two programs are indeed very different. I actually have not used Word 2001 yet, having been thoroughly turned off by Word 98. About three months ago I purged all Microsoft extensions and other doodads from my System folder, and decided to see if I could get along happily without Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, or Word 98. So far, so good.

I do still have and ancient copy of Word 5.1, and any equally ancient copy of Excel, but I just use the former for opening the several hundred Word formated documents I have archived, and I very rarely use a spreadsheet at all. AppleWorks 5 would be plenty powerful enough for my needs.

This is not to disparage the taste of folks like yourself who like Microsoft software. However, I find that Mac OS stability is flaky enough without the extra added overhead of all that junk that the Microsoft programs dump in the System Folder.

I like my programs lean and mean, and while Nisus has grown a fair bit over the years, especially with the Version 6.x releases, it still doesn't spread itself all over your hard drive the way Microsoft applications do. It also has still managed to retain it's light and nimble "feeling."

I think that the biggest distinction between the two programs is that Nisus concentrates on being an extremely powerful and versatile text manipulation engine -- sort of an ultra text editor with many word processing features added on, but it never forgets its main purpose. It is a tool that is particularly oriented toward the needs of serious writers.

Word, on the other hand, tries to be all things to all users, and is almost a junior desktop publishing program as well as a word processor. It is inarguably the most powerful program of its type for the Mac, and very likely for any platform. However, I find it (at least up to Word 98) ponderous and overbearing. From my perspective, the only really compelling reason to use Word is if transparent file transfer to the PC platform is a significant priority. But then, the program that I use for 90 percent of my word crunching chores is little Tex Edit Plus, so that bespeaks where my priorities and preferences lie!

However, when I do require the services of a full word processor, Nisus is my choice. Features I particularly like are the ease of customization, the powerful and intuitive search capabilities, and non-contiguous text selection.

What I would suggest, is downloading the freeware Nisus Writer 4.1.6, which does not have every feature that you will find in Nisus 6.0.1, but has all of the basic ones, and should give you the feel of what the Nisus experience is like without making any cash commitment.

Incidentally, Nisus Writer 6.0.1 it on sale for $79.95 until January 15th.

http://www.nisus.com

I hope these musings have helped a bit.

Charles

From Christian Ienni:

Subject: GlobeTrotter apparently defunct

Hi Charles! (yet again ^_^)

"And now for something completely different..."

Yesterday (I think) you posted a reader email responding to the HTML editor/web software issue that mentioned a program called Globetrotter from a company called Akimbo and a link to their site. I went to check it out, and it seemed cool, but the site hadn't been updated since 1996-97 (!!) and when I tried to download the demo version, I got an FTP 550 error ("no such file or directory"). I'll try sending them an email to make sure, but I doubt I'll get a response; it seems Akimbo is defunct.

Too bad, Globetrotter seemed like a good idea...a graphical web page creator that completely hides HTML from the user; their site even has quotes from Tim Berners-Lee commenting that he never meant anyone to actually have to bother with manually coding HTML and he personally can't stand having to type those brackets! The flotsam of the Internet, I guess.

Chris

(ps: In any case, I just got my "HTML in 24 hrs." book, so it's time for me to get down'n'dirty. I like the aspect of doing it all yourself by hand, like the way I approach my music; I have to do it ALL myself from start to finish ^_^)

Charles W. Moore

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