Each is positive that his operating system is the best and will try his hardest to convince you of that - and is not above taking a few swipes at the competition. These are not rational, disengaged reviews; these are opinionated essays meant to sway your point of view.

FireWire data transfer speeds seem set to double, thanks to a new chipset that has been announced this week by developing company, Symwave.

While there's no immediate plans to implement it in the Mac the company behind the invention is now actively seeking device and computer manufacturers prepared to employ it.

Devices implementing support for the new technology will see speeds of 1.6 gigabits per second. Even better, it will power external hard drives without demanding they be plugged in.

This high performance FireWire chipset - FirePHY-1600 - is already compatible with all existing FireWire drivers for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, Windows XP and Vista and Unibrain.

You may have read my earlier LEM article about my PowerBook 150 and my plans for a Vintage Mac Network at home. Well, I picked up a Classic II, two PowerBook 100s, System 7.0 in original boxing, and a never opened LocalTalk set.

Now to talk about my Vintage Network: It's great. The old Quadra 610 serves me well as a printer server, and the ImageWriter printer, although noisy, works great. I am able to share the printer and my Internet connection between all of the old Macs in my house using LocalTalk.

All of my old Macs are running System Software 7.1, except for the Quadra, which is running 7.5.3. Every Mac is useful. My Classic II is a wonderful writing machine, the Quadra is a reliable server, and the PowerBook 150 is just an awesome laptop for all of my daily Classic tasks.

Charles Moore sees both Major League Baseball and Apple losing some of their magic. I couldn't disagree more.

I don't watch a lot of baseball, but I was grinning from ear to ear after the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. My Red Sox hat that I wear is so beat up and worn, people used to criticize the condition, but not any more.

As for Apple, I grin every time I read about them toppling another barrier. Those smug, rabid PC fans have less to brag about all the time.

DisplayLink lets computer monitors work over USB. The company offered up the first beta version of Mac-compatible drivers last week, though it cautioned that without Apple's help, those drivers are unlikely to be able to achieve parity with their Windows counterparts.

Designed for computers with limited expandability, such as laptops, mini systems and all-in-one designs, DisplayLink's technology lets you hook up a monitor over USB 2.0. DisplayLink's drivers compress the video signal, enabling up to six monitors to work at a time. DisplayLink licenses its technology for use in products manufactured by LG, Toshiba, Samsung and others.

Up until recently, DisplayLink products only worked in Windows, but at the end of March DisplayLink began offering beta drivers that support Intel-based Macs running Tiger or Leopard.

Although I suppose you and I are pretty well connected and all, I am willing to bet that most of you don't concern yourself about which browser to use. Macs come with Safari, Windows PCs come with Internet Explorer and the vast majority of users of either platform simply use the browser that ships with your computer, without worrying so much about finding a substitute.

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