Paul's Notes June 1997



So have you seen the June issue of Wired? 101 Things Apple Needs to do...Please! This from a "award winning" magazine....Its bad enough I have to read this B.S. every time the local paper's Business Section writes an article on Apple. But Wired? They should know better. What's even worst is that Wired/Tired junk. Hey guys how about this:

Wired : LCARS / Paul's Note's
Tired: Wired Magazine

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison won't be buying Apple, at least not right now. Which is a good thing. After all the last thing Apple needs is someone else who has a grandiose idea about what to do with Apple. Besides talk about humiliation, one of the oldest computers companies in the industry - one that has been successful with several different platforms - scraped to make Network Computers, or Internet Appliances or whatever buzzword you want to place on it.

Ok, so what's the real reason that I'm huffing and buffing over this...Well no one asked me what I think is the best thing for Apple to do. 'What then, Paul, should Apple do?' I'm glad you asked, Apple needs to make up its mind what kind of company it should be - Hardware or Software - and stick with that plan. Personally I feel the past 10 years Apple has been great at one thing, software. MacOS, Quicktime, OpenDoc, etc. Let the clone makers worry about the machines, let Motorola, and IBM worry about the PowerPC chip and let Apple make the 'Insanely Great' software. A step in the right direction is Apple's announcement that it will form "a subsidiary that will focus on meeting the computing and communications needs of today's corporate mobile users. The new company, to be named at a later date, will provide customers with market-driven products and technologies, based on the award-winning Newton operating system, in conjunction with its licensees, value-added resellers, and systems integrators." - I.E. Newton is being spun-off and somone else can deal with it.

At Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple demonstrated the new MacOS, System 8, scheduled for release in July. Apple also announced that MacOS 8 is expected to include both Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator for the first time. MacOS 8 will provide a more responsive user interface with a multi-threaded, PowerPC-native Finder; integrated Internet services, and improved installation and configuration features. Apple's big announcement, at the conference, was the "Yellow Box" Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). By making the Yellow Box programming environment cross platform Apple believes it can attract new software developers to the Rhapsody and MacOS platforms and expand the business opportunities for current MacOS and OPENSTEP developers.

Looking for an area to express your feelings about Apple? Need help with your Mac? Or just curious? Check out the System Folder in LCARS to make your feelings known about the MacOS, MKLinux, BeOS or Windows NT.

Well, its been a long first month online, but it looks like LCARS is going in the right direction. over the past month, LCARS has had:
Hopefully things will go up from here, and if you think you have an idea to help, please let me know.

Book Recommendations
West of Eden

By Frank Rose, Penguin Books ISBN #0140093729
This book is out of print. So you may need to make a trip to your local public library. None the less, if you want to know more about the end of Steve Jobs at Apple, and how the Macintosh was born here is a book for you. A quick run down of the "players" at Apple, Where they came from, what they did between 1977 and 1984 and where they ended up. I would say its a must read for those who want to know "The Apple Story"

Programs
Quicktime 3.0 is expected to be available sometime soon. Some of the new features will include the ability to capture, edit, compress, and playback digital media on all major personal computer platforms, including Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, MacOS System 7, and MacOS System 8.

Games
A few people have sent recommendations to me about sites to add to the Games list. It would seem people take their gaming pretty seriously. So I've added these companies to the list: Know any others that should be added? Let me know.

Websites
Iconfactory is dedicated to "Mac Icons that Don't Suck." They do a damn good job of it too. They have a growing collection of over 20 icon sets covering topics from Star Wars and Star Trek to Far Side and Looney Toons, with just about everything in between. If fact a good number of the icons on LCARS come from various icons sets done at the Iconfactory. If you want to add some color to your desktop then this is the one stop place for you.

Want to share some comments? Let me know.


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