Cool Mac Gear

Last week a reader named Denis wrote to suggest that I do something special for OS X Odyssey 200:

"The Odyssey reaches 200! Well Homer's version went on for a few pages too. I'd like to suggest you do something special for No. 200. Anything you like of course, but how about a retrospective of The Odyssey itself. I don't mean another how is OS X now, but a review of the Odyssey series- the high points, the valleys- the recurring themes,- the things you agree with all this time later, the areas where things have changed. There were those must have features, then along came a fix or software and they were back. Also those must haves, that in the end you don't use anymore- for me thats the Apple System Menu - ASM.

"Have greatly enjoyed your articles and enjoyed even more disagreeing with you. Long live the Odyssey!"

In OS X Odyssey 1, which appeared on Applelinks on November 27, 2001, I kicked things off with the following preamble:

"One of my primary objectives in purchasing a new computer system this year was to begin the transition process to OS X. I'm not in a big rush. OS 9.x is still doing a superb job for me as my workhorse system. However, I accept the inevitability of making the switch if I want to remain relevant as a Mac-oriented writer and commentator, and I'm of course hopeful that OS X will eventually provide a better computing experience then the Classic Mac OS has for these past 17 years.

"I had OS X 10.0.3 installed on my G4 Cube last summer [2001], but for reasons I have elucidated elsewhere, I didn't use the Cube a whole lot, so my X impressions were cursory. However, I now have OS X 10.1 loaded up on my new-to-me Pismo PowerBook, and the Odyssey begins in earnest. I'm going to take it fairly slowly and incrementally, and I've switched back to my faithful WallStreet PowerBook as my production machine for now, while I devote the Pismo to the OS X learning process."

Little did I know how slow and incremental it would be. I had initially anticipated that I would be using OS x full time by late winter, or April at the latest. However, it didn't quite work out that way, and 199 Odyssey columns later, I'm still using OS 9 as my primary production system, although I'm probably in OS X about one third of the time now that I have installed Jaguar.

Back in that first Odyssey column, I noted:

"For a Mac OS veteran, trying to actively work with OS X, as opposed to just playing around with it, can be compared to coming home and finding that someone has visited while you were away and completely are rearranged your furniture and tools, even putting some of your stuff in different rooms."

In Odyssey 2, I observed:

"It's nice to have these little Finder hacks available, but why, oh why did Apple not include the traditional Mac OS Finder functionality in OS X? The Dock, whatever its virtues, is simply not an adequate replacement for the Application Switcher, Window Shading, pop-up folders, etc. And while I'm at it, I really miss spring-loaded folders."

By Odyssey 4, I had this to say:

"Sigh. I'm really trying to like OS X, but am finding it heavy going. "

A recurring theme over the past 11 months.

In Odyssey 5 I discussed problems I was having getting the Pismo to network with my Wallstreet via Ethernet. Eventually I got that one ironed out. Odyssey 6 adressed ripping CDs and screen shots in OS X. I wasn;t much impressed with the Grab utility.

Odyssey 7 was the first of several columns in this series about Eudora. I wrote: Why not use OS X Mail? Well, I don't anticipate leaving the Classic OS completely behind for a good long time yet.... With Eudora, I have viable archive compatibility ranging back from OS X to Eudora 1.5 .1 on my old Mac Plus running System 7 if I need it. Also, I can use the same Eudora Mail folder with both the OS X and Classic version, thanks to aliases. Also works with SweetMail.

OS X Odyssey 8 discussed the way X does windows. I noted:

"In my normal mode of operation, I will typically have up to a dozen or more Tex Edit Plus documents of different articles, research dumps, letters, and so on, one or two NotePad Deluxe databases, and perhaps some e-mail messages and/or browser windows open at any given time, all WindowShade collapsed to their title boxes and bunched at the top of the screen. A click on the appropriate Application Switcher icon will bring all windows of the desired application to the front, and one can easily navigate using the Windows menu if the document one wants his hidden behind others....Now, I can appreciate that some users may like the way things work in the OS X Finder batter, and I'm happy for them, but I don't like it."

I've now gotten used to it, although I still miss the Classic OS mode of bringing all of an applications open windows forward when you click in one of them. In Odyssey 9, I reviewed some things I liked about X. In Odyssey 10 I checked out Nisus Email for OS X.

In Odyssey 11 I said:

"One feature I haven't really tried out much at all in my OS X-plorations is Classic mode. While I'm glad it's there, and don't doubt that it will prove to be an emergency lifesaver when I switch to OS X as my main working system, I am philosophically disinclined to use it as a crutch for routine tasks. If I'm going to run OS X, I want all of my regular-use software and utilities to be OS X native."

I eventually gave up on that policy, and for production work I now use use several Classic applications routinely.

Odyssey 12 was on ICQ instant messaging.

In Odyssey 13 I commented:

"OS X aficionados will be pleased to learn that I am actually beginning to like X a bit. After three weeks of X-ploration and X-perimentation, I don't feel like a complete stranger in the strange land of the Aqua interface anymore, and I've begun to appreciate some of Aqua's strengths. I'm far from a convinced convert yet, but I'm now confident that I can learn to work comfortably with this system."

In Odyssey 14 I checked out OmniWeb. and liked it. Odyssey 15 - "Sunday Afternoon In Knowledge Base Purgatory" -- "Macs are elegant, but Apple's Knowledge Base support site is decidedly not. Go figure." In Odyssey 16 I waxed philosophical: "Of course my hope is that eventually OS X will prove to be a better and more efficient production tool than the Classic Mac OS, but it has a long way to go yet."

In Odyssey 17, PPP Monitor proved the solution to my dialup problems with Internet Connect. I still use it. OS X Odyssey 18 was "Spellchecking with Excalibur." I don't still use it. In Odyssey 19, I tried out the TypeIt4Me beta, and noted: TypeIt4Me is one of the third-party utilities that I really would find it difficult to get along without, so the release of TypeIt4MeX is another facilitator to my switching to OS X for production work."

In OS X Odyssey 20, "A Mac Clone Detour On The Road To OS X," we attempted to install OS X on my UMAX S.-900 604e backup machine, using Ryan Rempel's UnsupportedUtilityX hack (now called XPostFacto). Unfortunately, when we tried to boot from the OS X installed on the hard drive, we just got a screen of kernel panic code for our trouble. In Odyssey 21, my adventures installing SuSE Linux 7.3 on my WallStreet gave me a new and deeper appreciation of OS X. In Odyssey 22, I lamented that "OS X is my operating system future, but without broadband, it will be like cruising the infobahn in a Ferrari stuck in low gear." Still no broadband here, alas.

OS X Odyssey 23 was on text browsers and terminals. Odyssey 23 was a eulogy for Eudora Light -- still my favorite email client of all time. Actually, it continued to work in Classic mode until I installed Jaguar. Odyssey 25 was a review of Andrew Orlowski's critique of OS X. In Odyssey 26 I checked out more productivity apps. and utilities. OS X Odyssey 27 discussed booting into OS 9 with the new Macs. In Odyssey 28 we charted the 10.1.X upgrade path roadmap, and in Odyssey 29 I Installed OS X Update 10.1.2, and ran into problems with the ViaVoice installer conflicting with a Finder hack. I grumbled:

"Now, this is where we are in new and hostile territory with 0S X, compared with the legacy Mac OS. With the latter, if a situation like this had cropped up, which it probably wouldn't have, trashing all the ASM stuff and restarting would have cured the problem. But apparently not with 0S X. I'm guessing, but it would seem that somewhere among those 40,000 or so cryptically-labeled OS X files is an invisible copy of the ASM installer, and I haven't got a clue how to get rid of it."

In Odyssey 30 I had received an email message from Jeff Bannerman of IBM Speech Products Tech Support suggesting a workaround for the problem. Worked like a charm, and ViaVoice installed with no difficulty, the whole process taking about 10 minutes.

"I picked up the nearest book and began reading a paragraph at random.....

"Wow! This is a whole new dimension in dictation from either of the earlier versions of ViaVoice or iListen. ViaVoice may be optimized for the G4 chip's Altivec engine, but it copies dictation in essentially real time on my 500 MHz G3 Pismo PowerBook with a modest 256 MB of RAM."

Odyssey 31 - another new Eudora Beta. Odyssey 32:

"I've done so much growling about the lack of a windowshade function in Mac OS X, that I should affirm that it is possible to restore windowshading to the Aqua interface with a shareware add-on called WindowShade X."

Still using and loving it.

In Odyssey 33 I concluded that I needed more RAM. In Odyssey 34 I concluded that the SpeedSearch text search app was better than Sherlock II. It's still etter than the Find utility in Jaguar too. Odyssey 35 was about unleashing the power of AppleScript in OS X. In Odyssey 36 we discussed preemptive vs cooperative multitasking.

Odyssey 37, omn the Finder philosophy debate, I critiqued some comments on Aqua made by Gene Steinberg -- "Do you miss all those features that were abandoned in the transition to Mac OS X, whether you used them or not?" asks Gene.

"Again, Yes! And I did use most of them -- notably windowshading, pop-up folders, the Application Switcher menu, spring-loaded folders, System Font customization, the Control Strip, the fully functional Apple Menu, and so on. I MISS this stuff, and the Dock is simply not a satisfactory substitute. In fact, I would happily trade the Dock for the old stuff and never miss it."

In OS X Odyssey 38 my RAM upgrade to 640 MB was completed. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't notice any really significant performance boost. In Odyssey 39 I had a bit of a scare. Odyssey 40 was on customizing the toolbar. In Odyssey 41 I asked: "Are G3 Users Second-class Citizens In The OS X World?"

"Personally, I find it annoying even on the 500 MHz Pismo, and adding a 512 MB RAM upgrade (to a total of 640 MB) did not speed things up nearly as much as I had hoped. Stuff that is Bam! -- right there instantly on the old 233 MHz WallStreet in OS 9 still suffers an annoying lag or hesitation in OS X 10.1.2." Another recurring theme.

Odyssey 42 - another new Eudora Beta for 0S X. Odyssey 43, "A Long OS Journey Into Night," chronicled "one of those days." Odyssey 44 was on fixing broken stuff, and musing on buggy OS X software.

In OS X Odyssey 45 I checked out the Okito Composer Word Processor, which will now be the basis of the new Nisus Writer for OS X. OS X Odyssey 46 reviewed the PixelNhance free image enhancement application for OS X.

In Odyssey 47 the OS X G3 speed controversy continued. I noted:

"I have 640 MB of RAM in my 500 MHz Pismo, and I find the Finder response, application startup, and some other Aqua/Quartz stuff disappointingly sluggish in OS X, although the machine is a rip-snorter in OS 9. By "disappointingly sluggish" I mean that stuff takes longer than it does on my 233 MHz WallStreet running OS 9.1. This doesn't seem like progress to me."

In OS X Odyssey 48 I made a a provisional switch to OS X for production work,, and it turned out to be a very long evening. I concluded: "I shall not be switching to 0S X for production this weekend, or likely in the near-term future."

Odyssey 49 chronicled networking success at last. Odyssey 50 addressed the Dock on top, and other TinkerTool tricks. I eventually settled for the Dock on the right hand side of the screen.

More philosophical musings in Odyssey 50 on why OS X suits some users a lot better than others. I noted:

"

I don't dispute in the slightest that for a new or casual computer user, or one forward-migrating from the Windows platform, Mac OS X very likely is more intuitive in easy to learn and use than the legacy Mac OS. Newbies and folks who use their computers mainly for doing a bit of e-mail, letter-writing, Web surfing, and playing games, are not as a rule operating under time constraints, so the balkiness and hesitation that is characteristic of the OS X Finder, at least on the modestly fast equipment I use, would not be a problem for them. As for Windows users, they're used to computer ambiguity and crankiness, and OS X on a Mac must feel like a breath of fresh air."

Odyssey 52 documented more ViaVoice problems and issues with emailboxes. Odyssey 53 reviewed monitoring Classic activity with Classic Spy. Odyssey 54 was more ViaVoice adventures and other troubleshooting.

In OS X Odyssey 55 - "Disk Maintenance, And A Tiny Venture Into UNIX." I explored starting up the Mac Single-User Mode, which is a Unix command line environment to run the Unix disk repair function - fsck. This seemed to be a very satisfactory way of checking and repairing your OS X boot volume without starting up from another boot disk, such as the install CD.

Odyssey 56 contained more ViaVoice good news and bad news. Odyssey 57 was on waiting for the dust to settle before installing system and software updates. Odyssey 58 related a conversation with Viavoice Tech Support. Odyssey 59 discussed enabling your root account.

In Odyssey 60 I revealed a a change in my OS X transition strategy, noting:

"They say that life is what happens while you're making other plans, and I guess that goes for cyberlife on computers as well.

"My original plan last fall was to spend a month or six weeks learning OS X, and then making the switch cold turkey. However, it doesn't look like that's how it's going to work for me. What seems more likely, and indeed what is happening, is that I will gradually ease into doing more staff in OS X, while continuing to use OS 9 as my main production OS for some time yet."

So far, that's been the case.

In Odyssey 61 I explained why I thought TIFF was a dumb format for screen shots. Not as dumb as PDF, however, Odyssey 62 discussed workarounds for non-TIFF screenshots, and Odyssey 63 continued the graphics formats thread.

Odyssey 64 checked out Eudora Beta 5.1b21, and I vented some frustration with iTools And AudioGalaxy, neither of which is around anymore. In Odyssey 65 I still hadn't installed the OS X 10.1.3 update, but noted a WallStreet OS X sleep bugfix.

OS X Odyssey 66 reviewed the Simpleshade 1.2 Finder windowshader. Odyssey 67 discussed 10.1.3 Speed, test-flying Docktastic, and my custom OS X launcher. In Odysssey 68 the ViaVoice-releatd sound bug was revisited. In Odyssey 69 I checked out the OS X Stickies utility. I still don't use it much. In Odyssey 70 I noted that obligatory restarts are not a thing of the past. Odyssey 71 discussed rapid PowerBook battery drain in sleep mode.

OS X Odyssey 72 was the first of several OS X browser mini-shootouts; Mozilla/iCab/OmniWeb. OS X Odyssey 73 was more disk troubleshooting with Disk Utility And fsck. Odyssey 74 chronicled some bug battles. In Odyssey 75 I checked out two freeware FTP clients; Captain FTP and RBrowser Lite. Both were nice, but I've settled on the Captain for now.

In Odyssey 76 I responded to the rhetorical question: "did it take OS X to make the Mac a 'Real' computer?" I thought not. Odyssey 77 contained more musings on elegance and efficiency. Odyssey 78 reviewed music sharing with Sputnix and AudioGalaxy, which are now irrelevant, alas.

Odyssey 79 explored Text Edit. I still prefer Tex Edit Plus. Odyssey 80 reviewed the Visage Finder/Desktop appearance customizer utility. In OSX Odyssey 81 I declared that TypeIt4Me for OSX was now ready for prime time. Odyssey 82 explored battery management in OS X.

In Odyssey 83 I started another production use test flight working with the new system. I wrote:

"I'm not making any undertaking that I will stick with it, and the way things have gone this morning, I doubt that I will last the week -- even very far into the week."

I didn't.

Odyssey 84 discussed hard drive fragmentation and other speed issues. By Odyssey 85 my test flight was grounded:

"Ahhhhhhhhhh. That's the sound of me settling back down to work on my faithful old WallStreet PowerBook, running OS 9.1, after several days trial using OS X for production work. There is this incredible lightness of being -- like stepping from a big truck into a sports car.

"Everything is faster and by contrast almost effortless. Scroll arrpws and bars work without crapping out in mid-scroll or just balking. Highlighted blocks of text drag and drop reliably and with precision. When you park something on the Desktop, it stays where you put it, indefinitely."

Odyssey 86 looked at the new OmniWeb 4.1b2 beta. Odyssey 87 discussed The Classic (Mode) experience. Odyssey 88 was another OS X browser bake-off. In Odyssey 89 Fruit Menu brought back traditional Apple Menu functionality.

Odyssey 90 chronicled another "not a crash, exactly" adventure. Odessey 91 noted that IBM developerWorks had analyzed Aqua usability and found it wanting. In Odyssey 92 we discussed Desktop differences between OS 9 and OS X, In Odyssey 93 I had finally got around to installing the OS X 10.1.3 update and I noted some new Trash tricks.

In Odyssey 94 I took my first look at the Chimera web browser. Odyssey 95 saw a new Eudora Beta and other email musings. Odyssey 96 announced that Mac OS X 10.1.4 was released. Odyssey 97 looked at whether Classic Mode slows you down in 0S X. I commented:

"The sticky wicket is that there are several programs I'm addicted to -- Color It! 4.1; Wannabe; Nisus Writer; and a few others, that are not yet available in OS X native versions, which is why I finally gave in and started using Classic. In the fullness of time I expect all of these programs to be available in Carbonized or Cocoa versions, but for the meantime, I'm nor partial to the native alternatives."

Still am and still using Classic Mode.

In Odyssey 98 I had the OS X 10.1.4 Update Installed (and the April Security Update too). This turned out to be my last 10.1 update. I never got around to installing 10.1.5.

Odyssey 99 reviewed Tex Edit Plus 4.2.2.

In Odyssey 100, reached on April 24, 2002, I wrote:

"

Hey, Odyssey 100 already. Time flies, and I guess a progress review is in order.

"What I hadn't anticipated when I began this series of columns back in November is that I would still be using OS 9.1 for production work in the fourth week of April, but progress in the transition has gone more slowly than I had expected.

"However, there has been progress nonetheless. At Odyssey 1, we were in OS X 10.1.0; PPP dialup performance was flaky and unreliable; available browsers (I don't use Internet Explorer) were pretty buggy; there weren't OS X native versions of all my email applications; and importantly for me, there was no dictation software available yet for OS X.

"Five months later, we're at OS X 10.1.4 (which has recently improved PPP performance, but I still need the freeware POPMonitor); iCab, Mozilla, and OmniWeb are now very nice browsers, and both Opera and Chimera show great promise; there are reliable OS X native versions of Eudora, Nisus Email, and SweetMail -- the email clients I use; and ViaVoice for OS X has turned out to be the class of the field in dictation software for the Mac."

Tomorrow we will revisit the second hundred Odyssey columns.

The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here:
http://www.applelinks.com/news/odyssey/

ATI Radeon Oct 2002 update

From Michael Koren

Charles

Been following the last day the ATI Radion Oct 2002 retail update thing. Have been having difficulty understanding which computers this is for and had no success in locating info on ATI's web site.

Am I correct that there is an update by ATI that would work on graphics cards used in Pismo machines that would make Jaguar supposedly run faster? If so where do you find this?

Michael

Hi Michael;

You can find the details here:

http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/mac/macos-october-2002-update.html

Supports

Under Mac OS 9.x (version 9.2.1 and higher) the following products are supported: • RADEON 8500 MAC EDITION
• RADEON 7000 MAC EDITION
• RADEON MAC EDITION
• RAGE 128 Mac products such as
° RAGE ORION
° NEXUS 128
° XCLAIM VR 128
• XCLAIM VR (RAGE II/PRO)
• XCLAIM 3D Plus
• NEXUS GA
• XCLAIM 3D (RAGE II/PRO)
• XCLAIM GA

Under Mac OS X ( version 10.1.3 to 10.2.1) the following products are supported:
• RADEON 8500 MAC EDITION
• RADEON 7000 MAC EDITION
• RADEON MAC EDITION
• RAGE 128 Mac products such as
° RAGE ORION
° NEXUS 128
° XCLAIM VR 128

Charles

re: ATI October update

From Norman Winn

I installed the ATI October update on a Powerbook G4 400 and have just spent a whole day trying to rescue my system. All went well during the first reboot. The screen appeared fine until I touched the mouse (a multi-button one) and it was frozen. (One minor criticism of the 'Mac Way' in passing - in Windows I can do EVERYTHING from the keyboard. It's laborious but possible. If this is possible under Jaguar please let me know.)

Booted up fine in OS9. Trouble is I have a UFS formatted partition for Jaguar so can't see it from Classic. I won't do that again.

Anyway, I rebooted in Jaguar and it took a long time. I ended up with a light gray screen. I think the system was functioning but I couldn't see anything. I started up in safe mode and got a normal screen but still no mouse. Command-f brought up the find dialog but nothing else worked.

After a few more efforts I got out the install CD. I tried correcting permissions. No good.

I tried an install and archive. Seemed OK but I got to the background image and nothing else happened. I thought it might be a login problem so changed the passwords to try to force it to ask me to login. Didn't work.

I must add that I had about 2 weeks worth of work on Filemaker sitting on the partition concerned and the client about to ring me to do the updates. OK, I had been stupid. I could so easily have made a copy to the OS9 partition of over to the PC. In my defence I add that I had done a thorough search to find if it would work on my laptop and found people who had done this without trouble

I was getting desperate. Finally, I let the situation push me to do what I had been planning anyway, reformat the Classic partition and put Jaguar on it. I moved all my wanted files to the PC and did a new install, this time using HFS+. Thank goodness that worked. Once done I could see all my previous X partition and the problem was solved.

Anyway, early Titanium owners, beware.

PS How do I get rid of Classic in Jaguar?

Ouch! That's the sort of stuff I want to avoid on my mission critical PowerBook. To get rid of Classic, I guess you could just trash OS 9.

Charles

X speed considerations

From Lawrence Rhodes

Dear Charles,

Many years ago I read that IBM did a study on the effects of response delay on productivity when using timesharing terminals (*many* years). Their testing revealed that productivity took a sizeable hit whenever response time exceeded half a second. They attributed this to people stacking anticipated operations in short-term memory and losing the stack due to memory fade when delays occurred, neccessitating inventing all the steps again -- taking them out of the "zone" so to speak.

So if you're getting one or two or three second GUI delays in X, the significance is not the sum of these few seconds versus not having to reboot, it is the work and exasperation of reloading your brain every time this occurs versus having your operations flow smoothly. This is not a minor effect. I think your observations are accurate, and I hope Apple can eliminate those bottlenecks in a reasonable timeframe. Of course, I used to run System 6 on a IIcx, and I do remember some delays with that, so I suppose some adaptation is possible.

Speedily yours,
Lawrence Rhodes

Hi Lawrence;

My empirical observations square with IBM's old research. The flow of work is disturbed by the hesitations, which I agree slow things down by more than the summ od extra seconds expended.

Charles

The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here:
http://www.applelinks.com/news/odyssey/

CM

Charles W. Moore