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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

Friday, June 13, 2003

Notebook deal may signal my next big purchase
According to various reports, Compal, which makes notebooks for a variety of PC makers, has signed deals with Apple and Acer to make 15.4-inch widescreen-based machines for each company. That confirms rumors that Apple's Aluminum-based upgrade for its TiBook will be a 15.4-inch unit. But the only question is ... when?

[ Posted at 1:10 PM | Permalink ]

Yikes: Microsoft confirms cancellation of Internet Explorer for the Mac
Roz Ho, the general manager of Microsoft's Mac Business Unit (MacBU), has confirmed that no future versions of Internet Explorer will be released for the Mac. "Some of the key customer requests for Web browsing on the Mac require close development between the browser and the OS, something to which only Apple has access," she says. This isn't huge news, I guess, given how good Safari is, but it does mark the passing of an era. You may recall that inclusion of IE with every Mac was a key part of Microsoft's 1997 financial bailout of Apple Computer, which kept the company in business and kept its product viable.

[ Posted at 12:51 PM | Permalink ]

Thursday, June 12, 2003

Google
The Web according to Google is so much better than the Web according to Yahoo! (or AOL for that matter) that's it's almost hilarious. Google is one of the few times I was up on something years before the rest of the planet, and I remember asking friends which search engines they used a few years back, and none had even heard of Google (and yes, they all used Yahoo!, with about half of the people I asked actually telling me they used Yahoo! as their home page, shudder). So recently, I was discussing some Internet topic with one of these guys, and he actually said, "Why would anyone use anything other than Google?" Hmm. Good point. Google rocks. But then, this is obvious to everyone by now.

[ Posted at 6:00 PM | Permalink ]

Who owns UNIX?
SCO says it owns UNIX. Not so, says The Open Group. So who really owns UNIX? I'm pretty sure it's a guy named Eddie. But seriously, folks. This is complicated. SCO, apparently, owns "all rights to UNIX technology, including the copyrights ... and trademarks." "SCO is the owner of the UNIX operating system, as well as all of the UNIX contracts, claims and copyrights necessary to conduct that business," says Chris Sontag, senior vice president and general manager, SCOsource intellectual property division, SCO. OK,fine. But The Open Group says that SCO "holds the rights only to the operating system source code originally licensed by AT&T and does not own the UNIX trademark itself or definition of what a UNIX system is ... SCO has never owned 'UNIX'." Instead, The Open Group says it owns the UNIX trademark and the [UNIX] specification (that subsequently became the Single UNIX Specification). "As the owner of the UNIX trademark, The Open Group has separated the UNIX trademark from any actual code stream itself, thus allowing multiple implementations. Since the introduction of the Single UNIX Specification, there has been a single, open, consensus specification that defines the requirements for a conformant UNIX system." Furthermore, The Open Group notes that, "There is a mark, or brand, that is used to identify those products that have been certified as conforming to the Single UNIX Specification ... now UNIX 03. Both the specification and the UNIX trademark are managed and held in trust for the industry by The Open Group." And not coincidentally, The Open Group is now suing Apple Computer for describing its Mac OS X system as UNIX (and using a non-standard "Built On UNIX" graphic) when it, in fact, does not conform to the UNIX 03 standard. Confused? This may help. It may not.

[ Posted at 12:56 PM | Permalink ]

Adobe Reader 6.0
The new family of Adobe Acrobat 6 products is finally out, and the new Acrobat Reader, renamed to Adobe Reader 6.0, is quite nice. PDF rocks.

[ Posted at 12:16 PM | Permalink ]

Woz
Woz is one of the good guys. Hell, Woz is so good he makes the rest of us look silly by comparison. Find out why in an excellent interview (part one and two).

[ Posted at 11:54 AM | Permalink ]

David Brinkley passes away
I didn't realize he was so old, but David Brinkley passed away Thusday at the age of 82. Brinkley, widely acknowledged as the "the elder statesman of broadcast journalism," was most famous for his work covering politics over several decades. But the best way to summarize his career comes from Brinkley's memoirs, in which he writes, "11 Presidents, 4 Wars, 22 Political Conventions, 1 Moon Landing, 3 Assassinations, 2,000 Weeks of News and Other Stuff on Television, and 18 Years of Growing Up in North Carolina." He'll be missed.

[ Posted at 11:40 AM | Permalink ]

Touch-type relief?
I recently read of a study that determined that extensive keyboard use doesn't cause carpal tunnel syndrome, but my own personal experience suggests that's baloney. In any event, an exciting new keyboard called the Touchstream purports to eliminate typing-related injuries, and it will be out in July, according to the New York Times. The big deal here, apparently, is that the Touchstream offers Zero-Force touch-typing, pointing, and gesturing, meaning you aren't physically striking mechanical keys all day, which just might have the same effect on your joints and nerves as jogging does to your knees. You can even pop out the keyboard from its frame and use it with a laptop, though that looks kind of lame. Will work? I don't know, but I might just ask for a review copy and find out.

[ Posted at 11:36 AM | Permalink ]

Wednesday, June 11, 2003

Moore's Law myths
George Kanellos is one of the few remaining trustworthy people at CNET, and his recent article on Moore's Law myths is excellent. Among the oft-cited "common knowledge" about Moore's Law that's completely incorrect: the number of transistors doubles every 18 months (Moore never specified a time frame). And on a side note, does anyone else see the irony in Kim Polese describing anything as "petering out"?

[ Posted at 10:16 PM | Permalink ]

Duke Nukem Whenever
This is going to be a huge year for games, with Half-Life 2, DOOM III, and Unreal Tournament 2004 being the most eagerly anticipated titles. But what happened to Duke Nukem Forever? According to this article, our buddy Duke is caught in a corporate cat fight between 3D Realms, the creators of Duke, and Take Two Interactive, which signed on years ago to distribute the game. In February, Take Two wrote down $5.5 million because Duke was taking so long to come to market. 3D Realms' response was purely Mozillian in its childishness, and the company says it just wants to work quietly on the game and release it when it's ready. Well, that's sweet. But 3D Realms has already bailed on some high profile games (anyone else remember Prey?) and their glacial development pace makes id Software look like over-achievers. How long as Duke Forever been in development? Well, the last time a screenshot was released, it was 2001. And when this year comes and goes with no new Duke, it will have been over 5 years since the project was started. So I guess I understand Take Two's frustration. Just finish the freaking game, for crying out loud.

[ Posted at 10:08 PM | Permalink ]

Sunday, June 08, 2003

VW discontinues original Beetle
21 million ugly little cars and 58 years later, Volkswagen is finally discontinuing the original Beetle because demand for the car has fallen to an all-time low. In the past year, just 30,000 copies of the $7000 car were made, compared to 1.3 million cars annually at its peak in the 60's and 70's. I owned two original Beetles--a 72 Super Beetle and a 73, both baby blue--and not coincidentally I now drive a New Beetle. Once you go Beetle, it sticks with you.

[ Posted at 9:39 PM | Permalink ]

Thoughts on the 2003 PowerBooks
I came this close to buying a 12-inch PowerBook G4 the day they were announced in January (actually, I did order one, but later cancelled it). Since then, I purchased a 17-inch iMac, but I've been waiting for the right machine to upgrade from my quickly fading iBook, which was never a speed demon but is now slower feeling than ever. I won't buy a 15-inch PowerBook until the new Aluminum model appears, and now that I've spent some time with the 17-inch, I can say it's just too damn big (it's also too damn expensive and Apple should be ashamed of that crappy keyboard; how about an ergonomic option with all that space?). That brought me back to the 12-inch PB, which is, alas, this close to being perfect. Last week, Apple dropped the price $200 to $1599, which is sweet. But I won't touch the thing until it packs at least a 1 GHz processor (the current models are a lowly 867 MHz) and I'd really prefer a machine with L3 cache, for Virtual PC. I guess I'll wait and see how the new 15-inch models pan out, but methinks this summer will mark a new Mac portable; two years ago this August, I bought the iBook.

[ Posted at 4:21 PM | Permalink ]

Sync heaven
Yeah, baby.

[ Posted at 4:12 PM | Permalink ]

Power Mac G5 allegedly coming soon
Allen H. points to an AppleInsider article (they're still around??) that details the Power Mac G5 systems Steve Jobs will allegedly unveil at the WWDC late this month. I hope it's true, as Apple's current hardware is anemic at best. According to the report, the G5 will consist of the 64-bit IBM PowerPC 970 processor running at 1.4 to 1.8 GHz, DDR 400 RAM, AGP 8x graphics, FireWire 800 (FireWire 2), USB 2.0, and a new Hypertransport bus architecture capable of transferring data at up to 12.8 Gigabytes per second. Additionally, Apple has developed a modified Power Mac G5 enclosure, which is more square and compact than the current Power Mac G4's deep, rectangular form-factor. It lacks the 4 curved handles found on current units, but sports a single USB and a single FireWire 800 port on the front of the casing, with additional ports in the rear, the report says. People foolish enough to buy the first gen systems will get Jaguar and a coupon for Panther, due in September.

[ Posted at 4:12 PM | Permalink ]