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About this site

For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Saturday, July 27, 2002

New Mozilla Calendar
The budding Mozilla Calendar component was updated the other day with a few new Tasks features. The Calendar still only runs on Windows and Linux, but I understand a Mac OS X port is forthcoming.

[ Posted at 2:36 PM | Permalink ]

OS X Web browsers
Web browsing on Mac OS X is still painfully slow. However, I love the new Chimera, and am now using this as my primary browser on both the iBook and the iMac. Speedwise, Chimera is comparable to Internet Explorer, but it sports the tabbed UI and pop-up window removal features from Mozilla that I've come to expect. Chimera is also far more attractive that IE or Mozilla with an Aqua-like UI that's attractive, not ugly like the one in Mozilla. My advice: OS X users should serioulsy consider using Chimera today, despite its youth. And Apple should adopt this as the native, built-in Mac OS X browser and jettison IE (and its relationship with Microsoft) forever.

[ Posted at 2:32 PM | Permalink ]

StarOffice for OS X
Sun and Apple are collaborating on a new version of Star Office, based on Java, that will ship for Mac OS X next year. This will surely be the final nail in the coffin on the Microsoft/Apple relationship, given their recent public spat over Office v. X sales. But the office suite situation on Mac OS X will remain confusing for a while. Currently a very early alpha developer version of OpenOffice is available for OS X, but this version requires the X Window environment. Another version, which runs somewhat natively under OS X, but still looks like the other (crappy looking) OpenOffice versions for Windows, Linux and Solaris, is on the way too. But the goal of OS X StarOffice is to provide an office suite that looks and acts like a typical OS X application. Sun wants Apple to give the suite away with new Macs, and that makes a lot of sense. Kiss AppleWorks goodbye, people, and while you're at it, bid adieu to Microsoft on OS X as well.

[ Posted at 2:27 PM | Permalink ]

Thursday, July 25, 2002

Chimera 0.4
The promising new Mozilla and Cocoa-based OS X Web browser was just updated. The new version includes bug fixes, better stability, and (gasp) downloading. Yeah, it's a bit wet behind the ears, but worth watching.

[ Posted at 12:40 PM | Permalink ]

Tuesday, July 23, 2002

Mozilla 1.1 Beta
One thing I have downloaded already is Mozilla 1.1 Beta, which adds a new JavaScript debugger, new icons for each Mozilla component (Windows-only, grr), fullscreen mode for Linux (Windows already had it; OS X still does not, grr), a button for creating new tabs in the tab bar, and more. Highly recommended.

[ Posted at 2:36 PM | Permalink ]

Mandrake Linux 9.0 Beta 1
I'll download this today and test: It includes GNOME 2, KDE 3, and, somewhat controversially, GCC 3.1. If you preorder Mandrake 9.0 on DVD, you get a free hat! Hmm...

This reminds me that I never even looked at Debian 3, even though it finally released last week. I'll have to test that as well.

[ Posted at 2:24 PM | Permalink ]

Monday, July 22, 2002

Typing myths
This is good stuff. Apparently, the commonly-held belief that the QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow down typists is untrue. Furthermore, its supposed inferiority to the Dvorak layout is also false. And if you're not interested in reading this excelent article, here's the short version: The typewriter patent was first awarded in 1868 to Christopher Latham Sholes, who came up with the QWERTY keyboard design after experimenting with ways to avoid key jamming. The Sholes patent was sold to E. Remington & Sons in 1873; the company made various mechanical improvements and then began commercial production late that year. In 1936, professor August Dvorak patented his own keyboard design (guess what it was called), which was reportedly based on tests proving that the layout had "advantages of greater speed, reduced fatigue, and easier learning." However, Dvorak's tests, to put it mildly, were BS. And various famous stories about the Dvorak keyboard's superiority are all false. In fact, there are several studies proving just the opposite, and, perhaps more importantly, in various typing tests throughout the years (vs. a variety of keyboard layouts), QWERTY always won. Always. This type of kind of thing really cracks me up. It's exactly the same mentality that allows people to blindly accept unproven or anecdotal blanket statements such as Linux is more secure/stable than Windows or the Mac is easier to use than Windows, and so on. These accepted truths--or "common knowledge," as it were (cringe)--are no less false because a large group of people believes them.

[ Posted at 8:31 PM | Permalink ]

Why iCal and iSync matter
Amazingly, Apple has solved a huge problem I have with the PC, and while I had expected good solutions to appear, Cupertino wasn't even on my radar. First, iCal is a standards-based calendaring application that can publish on the Web and let you subscribe to other iCal calendars. Then, iSync lets you synchronize, simultaneously, if you wish, with a variety of devices, including new Bluetooth-enabled cells phones, Palm OS-based devices (like my Sony CLIE), and the iPod (which I also own). Since I've eliminated my reliance on the buggy and virus-ridden Microsoft Outlook, the scheduling features in iCal, combined with the contact management in the new OS X 10.2 Address Book and the connection capabilities in iSync might very well provide the total solution I want. I suspect I'm not alone in this regard.

[ Posted at 5:54 PM | Permalink ]

Apple meeting
So I met with Apple today in Boston and got the rundown on their Macworld announcements and up-close demos. The conclusion is that these guys just get it. Mac OS X 10.2 ("Jaguar") rocks, the junk mail stuff in Mail.app is awesome (so is the extensible new Address Book), iSync and iCal are unbelievably good, QuickTime 6 is OK (MPEG-4 is good, but not as good as WMV8, Real9, or even the old QuickTime/Sorenson format), Sherlock 3 is surprisingly powerful, and the new hardware (iPod and 17" iMac) are too cool for words. And let's not forget iTunes 3, Rendezvous, and and Finder search and spring-loaded folders! Yikes. I'm becoming an Apple guy.

[ Posted at 5:03 PM | Permalink ]

Sunday, July 21, 2002

Another BS Macworld story...
... full of non-eventful news about Apple's largely non-eventful show. But Stephen Levy, of course, gets the Jobs interview. And, as you might expect, Jobs coughed up some good quotes. Regarding the PC market: "It's only us and Dell making money [among computermakers]. They're making money because they're Wal-Mart, we're making it because we're innovating." On the Apple-Microsoft tiff over OS X sales: "It's just a spat," he says, predicting that new versions of Office will keep appearing on the Mac. We'll see.

[ Posted at 8:44 PM | Permalink ]