Mac Guild Article Archives: 1997 - 1999

Featured here are the articles contributed by Mac Guild members in 1997, 1998 and 1999. Click on the links below to read the full articles.

Mac Guild Newsletter

Just in time for Christmas! From Appletalk to iBooks, the Mac Guild Newsletter covers some of the more interesting articles posted as well as informative editorials straight from the Mac Guild mailing list.


Mac Guild Newsletter for December 1999 (12-25-99)

A Campus Window on Enterprise IT's Future

Stanford's web page now depicts the Macintosh (in comparison to a PC) as "more user-friendly, easier to set up and network, easier to troubleshoot, more consistent in behavior, less prone to virus attacks, and more likely to be specifically required for a particular class." There's a tide moving... be sure to catch the wave!


PC Week article about what's on center stage in the desktop arena (6-3-99)

Appletalk Chattiness - Fact OR Fiction

There is an age-old myth that Appletalk is too chatty on intranet networks. Many mis-informed or uninformed administrators have used this as a reason to keep Macintosh computers off of company local networks. Users who prefer Macintosh computers over Wintel machines are often left defenseless, not understanding enough about the issue to argue the point.

Here is a compilation of articles which help dispell this myth.

Articles on the Myth of Appletalk Chattiness (2-15-99)

Lockheed Martin Photoshop Guild

For experts and novice users alike, the Lockheed Martin Photoshop mailing list provides a forum to discuss issues related to using Photoshop. Have a question about Photoshop 3, 4 or 5? Do you wonder what others at Lockheed Martin are using Photoshop for? Do you have expertise which others can benefit from? Join the mailing list. The mailing list web page also provides a growing number of links to Photoshop web sites.

Join the Photoshop Guild. (10/27/98)


iMac has Landed

The new Apple iMac is shipping.

Click here to read all about it. (9/1/98)



WWDC '98

Larry Peng has written an excellent white paper on what he learned from this year's World Wide Developer's Conference in San Jose, CA, from May 11-15, 1998. At WWDC 1998, Apple announced the next step in the evolution of both software and hardware. There were many technical subjects and details, so only a sampling is presented here.


Click here to read the white paper. (5/29/98)

Degrees of Freedom

The picture above represents the classic puffer train.
This is what it looks like after 800 generations, or applications of Game of Life transition rules.

This is an excellent essay on the "Degrees of Freedom", a system's unique ways to move, as it applies to moving to a single computer software standard. It explains why embracing Microsoft as the standard will ultimately lead to the loss of our degrees of freedom. Very informative and interesting reading.

Click here to read the article. (4/20/98)

NASASOFT

This reading is not for the faint of heart. It is the complete story as it transpired at JSC/NASA. It includes details of the Microsoft takeover, quotes from JSC and from the Inspector General, several links to other documents, information about congressional inquiries, and a chronological list of letters, articles, and events. This is must reading, not because it provides answers to the problems of dealing with monopolistic powers and corrupt management, but because it will heighten your awareness of the problem. The parallel is frighteningly close to a situation right here at home.

Click here to read about the Microsoft Takeover at JSC. (3/25/98)

Rhapsody Kitchen

This is a trip report for a class kitchen on Apple Rhapsody programming that Larry Peng attended from February 16-20, 1998 sponsored by Apple Computer. The kitchen was held in Cupertino, California. The information contained here applies equally well to both Macs and Wintel machines.

Some quick highlights:

  • Development schedule is on track for the first customer release in the first-half of 1998.
  • Java integration is superb and getting better.
  • Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) to be held in San Jose, May 11-15, 1998.
  • When using the Yellow Box on Mac OS and Windows 95/NT will need an additional 5 MB RAM for the first application, and about 250-500K for each successive application. The Yellow Box runtime components will occupy 10-15 MB disk space, and is a collection of library files (dynamic link libraries in Windows-speak, shared libraries in Mac-speak). Given how big PC and Mac applications are already, and how much memory they ask for, the requirements for the Yellow Box run-time is quite reasonable.

Click here to view the trip report. (2/24/98)

Rhapsody - An Overview

Larry Peng, engineer for Sandia National Labs, Livermore, California, has been using the developer's release of Rhapsody for some time. He has put together a white paper providing a good overview of Apple's upcoming operating system, Rhapsody. In a nutshell, the contents of the white paper are:


WHAT IS RHAPSODY?
What it is, and what it is not
General Structure

WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT RHAPSODY?
The Blue Box--Mac OS compatibility
Yellow Box--The Development Platform
Application Deployment--Mac OS/Windows/UNIX
Java

WHAT IS THE ADVANTAGE OF RHAPSODY?
Developers
Users

THE OVERALL PICTURE
The Rhapsody Package
Power Mac versus PC Compatibles
Rhapsody versus other cross-platform alternatives
Conclusions

Click here to view the white paper. (2/25/98)

G3 Speed!

As shown in the latest Apple commercials, the G3 has been shown to be up to twice as fast as the Pentium II. If you missed the latest Apple commercial, you can view it from this site (it requires the QuickTime Plug-in). It's fun to watch!

Warning: The volume is a bit loud, so you might want to turn it down while the movie is being loaded.

Click here to see the commercial. (2/6/98)

The Death of a Thousand Stings

If you have ever wanted to capture in words the differences between the Mac OS and Windows '95, then read this article. It does not summarize all of the differences, nor does it even touch on areas of graphics and multimeda where the Mac really excels. It does, however, detail extremely well the small day-to-day incidences which, when added up, illustrate why using the Mac is so much more productive than using Windows '95.

Click here to see the article. (1/29/98)

It's A Wonderful Machine

After the grim news from Joan Cox about the future of the Mac at Lockheed Martin, I thought you all might enjoy this article taken from the January 1998 issue of MacWorld. I think it really captures the spirit of the Macintosh community.

Click here to view the story. (1/1/98)

Joan Cox - "The Reality Is..."

The LMMUG user meeting on Nov. 13, 1997 featured Joan Cox speaking about the future of desktop computers at Lockheed Martin. Prior to the meeting, Joan was presented a list of questions compiled from the Mac user community. Most of those questions were addressed at the meeting.

Click here to view Joan's response. (1/1/98)

OS 8 Survey

Users who have upgraded to OS 8 are well aware of the advantages of this new Mac OS over its predecessors, both in terms of ease-of-use and stability. A survey was conducted to quantify these experiences and present them to the Lockheed Martin Standards Committee. The results of that survey are now available to the Lockheed Martin community.



Click here to view the Survey Results. (11/13/97)

NASA CIO Briefing

Over the past 18 months there has been a move at some of the NASA centers toward standardizing computer technology on a single platform. This has caused concern not only among those vendors who are affected but, more importantly, among the scientists and engineers who feel their work and productivity are being impacted by these decisions. NASA's plan is to move toward outsourcing the IT functions while the agency concentrates on its goals of building the International Space Station, planning and executing interplanetary travel, determining whether we are alone in the universe and educating the public and Congress on the importance of these missions to our country and all mankind.

This paper will show why a heterogeneous computing environment makes good business sense and why, in particular, the Macintosh environment is cheaper, faster and better. Click here for the complete briefing. (10/13/97)

Rules for Revolutionaries

If you missed Guy Kawasaki's recent talk here at Lockheed Martin, Sunnyvale, you can download the talk from here. First, you will need to grab a copy of RealPlayer (download it here). Then, you need a copy of "Rules for Revolutionaries.rm". Go to your Chooser, select AppleShare, zone SVL-B153_1C9_NET, server MacDEMON, volume Public. Copy the file to your hard disk for faster performance, then double-click it to view Guy's top ten rules for the revolutionary.

Why Mac? Why Not NT?

The MacKido Warrior has put together a business perspective white paper which discusses the often overlooked issues with Mac OS and Windows NT. The paper discusses speed, performance, reliability, security, and many other important business issues.

 Click here to read the paper.

Window(s) Breaks

"Win 95 drives a proud man to poetry" - A lighthearted look at the struggles with Windows '95.

Dual Platform Support Costs

Gartner Group Consulting Services recently concluded an extensive survey of actual dual-platform costs collected from real organizations in the US. Conventional wisdom indicates that it costs more to support both Macintosh and Windows than to support Windows alone. In their report titled "Technical Support Costs and Dual-Platform Desktops: Managed Diversity," (copyright © 1995 by Gartner Group) Gartner Group concludes there is no support cost premium associated with having both Macintosh and Windows (that is, heterogeneous computing) over being single platform (homogeneous computing).

Click here for a detailed summary of the report.
Digital Industry is More Profitable With Macintosh

A Survey of Over 30,000 Creative Professionals Makes a Clear Case for the Return-on-Investment (ROI) Benefits of the Apple Macintosh.

Apple recently made a press release from SigGraph regarding a study performed by Gistics of Larkspur, California. The study outlines the advantages of using Macintosh computers versus Windows computers, and provides numbers backing up the return on investment. Check out the press release.

Have Mac, Will Get Return On Investment

Buy a Macintosh, improve your return on investment. That's the finding of a study to be published in August by high-technology market researcher Gistics, in Larkspur, California.

The company's research also suggests IT leaders emphasize ROI over simply driving down the total cost of ownership.

Check out the complete article.

Merlin's Cavern

Check out Merlin's Cavern for downloads of Freeware and Shareware applications for the Macintosh.



Strategy Tips from NASA

Star OneCheck out lessons learned from the JSC Experience to help guide Mac users in their fight to keep their Macs. Here's a summary of the lessons:

  • Inform management of facts.
  • Contact Inspector General.
  • Contact your Congressman.
  • Contact reputable magazine editors.
  • Determine which vendors may be affected.
  • Ensure that action is taken.
  • Be loud and persistent!

Click here to see the complete article.
WWDC '97

This year's World Wide Developer's Conference in San Jose featured some very exciting news for Macintosh developers and users. As an attendee, I experienced hands-on demonstrations of some of the technology that Apple presented at the conference. For those interested, I have written up a summary about Rhapsody, the future operating system for Macintosh, and the highlight of this year's WWDC.

[Return to Top]