Perl on your Mac part 2

By Jon Gales

If you missed my last lesson read
it before you read this one. If not you have a good change of being lost. If
you don’t feel 100% about last weeks lesson that is ok, you will after today.
The last lesson was a quick into to the basics of Perl, scalar variables and
the print function. We will be covering them both in more detail as well as
standard input and comments.

Scalar variables:

• Always
marked with a $ before ($scalar_variable)
• Can contain A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and underscores in the name and must
start with a letter.
• Integers and character strings can be assigned as the value
• Can be assigned different values in the same script such as:

$one = 1;
$one = 2; #$one now contains 2

• Are
case sensitive so $A and $a are two different scalars
• Can be used in conjunction with each other such as:

$one = 1;
$two = 2;
$answer = $one + $two;

The operators
for Scalar’s are
as follows:

Add	=	+
Subtract	=	-
Divide	=	/
Multiply	=	*

To increment
a scalar (has to be a number) add ++ or — after it like:

$value
= 6;
$value++; #the ++ increases the 6 to a 7
print $value; #will print 7

This is the
principal that web counters work on. When a visitor visits the page it triggers
a Perl script that reads a number from a file increases it by one prints it
to the web and then prints it to file for the next time a hit is occurred.

Print
function:

The
print function is probably one of the most
important things you will need to learn
in Perl. Thankfully it is simple. Perl doesn’t
actually print things (on your printer)
it outputs them on screen. To print something
just put the following:

print
"WHAT YOU WANT TO PRINT";

You
can print scalars, strings, numbers, or
whole files (you will learn this at a later
date). Be careful to quote strings of text
(Perl will let you get away without quoting
scalar variables but not text strings).
Also don’t forget that ending semicolon.

Standard
Input:

We
briefly touched this in our last lesson
but not enough to thoroughly understand
it. The code for standard input looks like
this:

$VARIABLE_NAME
= <STDIN>;
chomp($VARIABLE_NAME);

That
chomp isn’t always needed but is a good
idea because sometimes input can get an
extra line in it and we don’t want that.
If there is nothing to chomp it does nothing.
This code picks up whatever was typed in
and dumps it into the $VARIABLE_NAME variable.

Comments:

Comments
are pieces of text that are solely meant for
human readers of the code. The computer automatically
ignores them. In Perl they are marked by a
pound sign #. Everything after a pound sign
is ignored. You have to comment every line
(there are no multi-line comments in Perl
like there are in C, PHP, and many other languages).
Commenting is a really really really really
(did I make my point?) good idea. Even if
you code looks good after your 5th Mountain
Dew at 3 a.m. I promise you it won’t look
good when your boss is looking over your shoulder
at 9 a.m. The first line of every Perl script
is a comment but this one isn’t ignored, it
tells the comp where to find Perl.

---

A
simple program using: Scalar Variables, Print
Function and Standard Input and comments is
below:

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "How old are you?
"; #prints
question
$age = <STDIN>; #puts response into
scalar
chomp($age);#get rid of that new line
$age_days = $age * 365; #times age by number
of days in a year
print "You are approximately $age_days
days old
"; #print answer

If
you are in X make the code a text file ending
in .pl and chmod it to 755. Then you can run
it by typing the path to file in the terminal.

 

Homework:
Your homework is to mess with the X
terminal. Practice writing stuff in pico and
chmoding it and moving around the directory.
Here are a few commands to get you started:

•
ls lists current directory
• cd changes directory (cd usr moves you
to the usr folder, cd / always moves you back
to the root directory).

If
you are on Classic you don’t have any homework
except to get OS X as soon as you can. It is
the future and kicks butt for Perl!

If you are having trouble or would like to ask me a question
please send me mail: jonknee@macmerc.com
or chat through AIM:
jonknee41 (add to buddy list)

Intro to Darwinism

By
Jon
Gales

No,
this isn’t going to be a religious or scientific battle about the origin of
our universe. It’s going to be a first look at Darwin, the underlying level
of Mac OS X. Right now you are probably asking yourself why, how, or are confused
as to what Darwin really is. I can give a you a great nutshell answer for each.
Strap on your geek boots, here we go!

 

What:

Darwin
is FreeBSD for the PowerPC processor (G3 and up actually). It is open source
and can be downloaded free of charge from http://darwin.org/projects/Darwin/1.3/release.html
(an Apple site). The download is about 120 megs and the installation can’t
be easier. If you have ever tried to install Linux you will envy Darwin’s
install. It is truly drag and drop (and there’s not even any dragging!). Just
double click, select an empty partition and you are in UNIX. I said before
that Darwin is the underlying level of OS X. Here is what that means:

Aqua
Carbon	Classic	Cocoa
Open GL	Quartz	QuickTime
DARWIN

As you can
tell, Darwin is on the bottom of our chart; this means it controls all the
base level OS operations. You can access Darwin in the Terminal.app in OS
X (in the Utilities folder). That’s all good but we power users want more.
For that we move to why.

Why:

Why not? Well,
it isn’t user friendly, has no native GUI (X Windows can be installed but
isn’t part of Darwin), can’t run any of your applications, and the list gets
longer. What it does, it does well: all UNIX functions. Aqua is beautiful
but takes RAM and CPU cycles. That is a waste if you are using your box as
a server. OS X has real powerful server tools like Apache built-in, and MySQL
and PHP can be installed making OS X a powerful web server. The same server
can be run from Darwin without the wasted RAM and CPU cycles that Aqua brings.
In fact, Darwin can be your network’s NAT server (for sharing net access).
You can have an older G3 serve as your router/firewall/webserver all without
paying a dime. Even if you don’t want to use those features there is no easier
way to learn UNIX (except using it in the terminal).

How:

Once you run
the installer, go up to the startup disk control panel and select the disk
(or partition) with Darwin on it. If you don’t want to make it the default
disk, just hold Option at startup and select the boot disk at that point (instead
of using the startup disk control panel). After a few minutes you will have
a blinking cursor; type the following:

root

You will get
the following message: "Welcome to Darwin!". This signifies that
you are all logged in and are ready to do anything you choose. Here are the
commands I found most useful:

ls
= list files in current directory
cd
= change
directory (cd / takes you to the main directory)
mkdir
= make directory, creates folder
pico
= opens
up pico (a text editor). A file string followed by pico will open that file
in pico (Ex: pico /files/test.pl will open a file called test.pl located in
the /files directory)

All the OS
X directions in my Perl
tutorial apply to Darwin (since it is OS X).

To connect
to the internet I edited the /etc/iftab file in pico to read:

en0
inet 192.168.1.102 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
en0 inet -DHCP-

The IP address
is specified by my router so that will change depending on your setup. If
you aren’t on DHCP try following the directions on this site: http://www.excel.net/~clobrien/darwin/Network.html

After I was
on the net I did an FTP transfer. To connect to an FTP server type:

ftp
ftp.servername.TLD (replace TLD with the ending tld)

It will prompt
you for a username if necessary and then a password. You can use the cd and
ls commands to move around the file tree. Type: get FILENAME to download
files and: put PATH/TO/FILE.txt to upload files. Type ? for
a list of all commands.

---

That was my
experience with Darwin… I will write another article once I get PHP and
MySQL going (I am having some difficulties forwarding the right ports to my
computer at the moment).

 

If
you are having trouble or would like to ask me a question, please send me mail:
jonknee@macmerc.com

Extreme IE customization – Graphical Favorites

By: Jon Gales

Although very few people will admit to being a fan of Internet Explorer,
most Mac users will come in contact with it quite frequently. Although OmniWeb
and Chimera are good
browsers, IE still has more compatibility. I recently found a way to make Explorer
a little nicer ñ graphical
favorites:

The trick makes your "must have" sites more visible
while giving them a nicer appearance.

The first step is to make the graphic. Go to the site that you want to have
the graphical link to and look for a logo. In my case I went to MacMerc (big
surprise!) and found our logo. To save this to your desktop you can either click
on it and drag it to your desktop or control-click on it and choose "Download
Image To Disk". It’s your call but control clicking might be a little
easier if you’ve never dragged an image to the desktop before.

Once you have it saved to your computer you need to resize it. Although IE will
try to automatically resize it, the result will look like trash. I used Photoshop
[screen
shot] but any basic image editor with resizing capability will work –
even iPhoto! If you
are using Photoshop and the logo is a gif (like it is in MacMerc’s case) the
mode needs to be switched to RGB [screen
shot] Once the image has been resized it needs to be cropped [screen
shot]. I saved off my image as ‘logo.gif’ and put it on my desktop.

Now open up a text editor and type
in the following code. If you are using TextEdit type Command-
shift-T before starting to type anything (switches to text mode). To save some
typing download (control-click and choose Download Link To Disk) this
file and open it in TextEdit (no preference hacking needed). Whichever way you
chose your file should be as follows [screen
shot]:

<a href="http://www.macmerc.com"><img
src="logo.gif" alt="MacMerc"></a>

The image (logo.gif)
will link to http://www.macmerc.com
and it’s title (underneath the image) will be "MacMerc". You
can obviously change these if you are doing another site. If you want to do
several sites at once feel free to keep adding code – you don’t have to
delete the first line before adding a second. Download a transparent gif of
the logo if you can. Otherwise it may look a little funny on your tool bar!
You can always make a logo transparent in Photoshop if need be but most of the
times you should be able to find one. If you can’t make out the logo at the
small size either make up a new one in Photoshop or find a new site! Not all
sites have logos that fit well in the little space.

Put the text file, and image in a
folder (you can call it anything you like). Place this folder someplace that
it won’t be moved (/Users/username/Documents is a good place). If it does get
moved your bookmark will bust! Open the text file in Internet Explorer
by dragging in into a blank browser window, dragging it to the Dock icon or
choosing open in IE. Once the file is open you should see the logo you lovingly
prepared. If not go over what you did… If you’re still having trouble email
or IM [AIM: jonknee41] me and I’ll walk you through it. If you want to add MacMerc
I have posted the graphic I used here.

Once you have the logo just
drag it to the top tool bar [screen
shot], the logo should "stick" afterwards. If you need to delete
it or just want to see the text/image control-click in the top menu bar [screen
shot] and choose the appropriate option. [screen
shot of graphics only] [screen
shot of text only]

Most people will want to add Google
(as well as MacMerc…) and I have one more trick that will save you even
MORE time. Instead of linking to http://www.google.com
use this URL:

javascript:void(q=prompt(”,”));if(q)void(location.href=’http://www.google.com/search?q=’+escape(q))

The code for the page will look like
this:

<a
href="javascript:void(q=prompt(”,”));if(q)void(location.href=’http://www.google.com/search?q=’+escape(q))">
<img src="logo.gif" alt="Google!"></a>

What it will do is pop up a box in
IE that you type your query into. Hit return and you’re taken to the results
page of Google! No need to hit the front page! You can easily customize this
javascript to work with a bunch of search sites like dictionaries, and image
search engines. It’s quite a time saver!

If you find any cool tricks that stem from this idea please send
them to me and I’ll let the rest of the world know (and also credit your name
of course). Also, if you go wild with this and want to send me a screen shot of your tool bar go ahead! I’d love to see/post what everyone has done.

MacMerc	The Joy of Tech	After Y2K	Apple	MacDesign
MacUpdate	MacSurfer	O’Grady’s Powerpage	MacMinute	MacAddict
MacFans	Unsantity	IconFactory	Google (Pop-up)	Google
MacMusic	Hollywood Stock Exchange	IMDb	Audible.com	Amazon
	The Screen Savers		TechTV

Playing Copy Protected CD’s on the Mac

By: Jon Gales

**MacMerc.com does
not condone the STEALING of music. We also don’t condone the RIAA cutting off
ALL Mac users (and all other non-Windows users). This is why I
have written this article. These directions are for use on CD’s you have purchased
legally and wish to back-up. Don’t distribute the songs to people that haven’t
directly bought the CD**

If you were not disturbed by an article
stating how certain CD’s play on PC’s but not Mac’s (we’re talking audio CD’s
here) you must not be a true Mac guy. If you didn’t read the article, do so
now.
After you have read it, come back and finish this one. After reading that piece
I immediately went to Amazon
and ordered the CD "More
Fast and Furious: Music From and Inspired by the Motion Picture".

Now, I am not a fan of this
type of music at all (so stop the hate mail) but it was known to not play on
the Mac so I had to give it a try. After popping it in, iTunes hit the
CDDB and got the track names. At this point I was feeling suckered that I paid
for an awful CD that will play just fine in my Mac. I selected a track and the
CD player spun and spun until iTunes started to not respond. So, this miracle
of the RIAA actually
freezes up iTunes. Nice. ::pats the RIAA on the back::

A quick Force-Quit and F12 gave me
back the CD to start cracking. It plays just fine in my home CD player, which
is as expected. It also plays nicely in my portable CD player (a Philips Expanium).
The Expanium has a line out jack (you could use a head phone jack if your player
doesn’t have a line out). It doesn’t matter what kind of CD player you use (portable
or not), just as long as it has a way to get the audio out to a mini jack).
Using a Mini-to-Mini cable from RadioShack (Cat.#:
42-2497) I hooked my Expanium into my G4 Tower. If you have an iBook you
will need something like Griffin
Technology’s iMic to mimic this setup. Mind you, this can be done at a friend’s
house and the songs taken home with you so that you don’t need to buy more hardware
than necessary. The iMic is very cool though, if you are an iBook user and think
you’ll have a few audio projects in the future go ahead and do yourself a favor.

As of writing this there isn’t a
software package to crack these suckers. If you are a budding Mac programmer
this would be a great project. If you have written one already (and I just don’t
know about it) please let me know and MacMerc
will give you some press.

The following directions detail what
is probably the most cumbersome and time consuming method to get the music off
of these Copy Protected CD’s. It will also work for other audio mediums that
your computer can’t play (cassettes, LP’s, live performances, 8-tracks, and
pretty much anything else out there that doesn’t directly play in your Mac).
It’s not a secret method, and it’s not hard. It just takes a little thinking
and a lot of time. Here we go!

In OS X, iTunes won’t record from
the microphone jack. Theoretically in OS 9 you can, since you can change the
monitoring source from the internal CD to the microphone jack. I haven’t done
this in 9, and won’t mention it any further. The software I mention is for OS
X but there are many packages available for Classic. Just peruse the Audio
section of MacUpdate and look for something that will record audio. That’s all
you need – audio recording. I downloaded AudioX,
Sound
Studio 2 and Audiocorder
OSX. If I had to suggest one it would be SoundStudio for two reasons: SoundStudio
doesn’t have an advertisement of audio recorded under the demo like Audiocorder
and it has a nicer interface than both the others. AudioX is free but very limited
(no gain controls, or editing…). SoundStudio has a whole lot more depth than
the alternatives and you can use it for 14 days without paying for it (so save
up all your copy protected CD’s).

Here’s a screen shot of my SoundStudio
import:

SoundStudio allows you to do linear
editing, which is really handy for breaking up tracks and taking out long periods
of silence. Here is what I did to import my audio:

1. Make sure the lights are"dancing"
   when your CD is playing (while it is hooked into your Mac of course). To do
   this if they aren’t already showing go to Window>Show input levels. If
   they aren’t moving check your connections and then go to Audio>Sound input/output
   Setup and change it to the appropriate setting (it will be internal if you
   are using your Mac’s internal Mic port, and USB if you are using the iMic).
   If you have a fancy soundcard it will be different than those covered but
   should be obvious.
2. Hit play on your CD player and
   look at the dancing lights. Make sure you look for a good while (sometimes
   there is a soft intro track that can throw this judgment off). Skip through
   a few tracks. If you get a bar that turns red, you got problems. Red is OK
   in analog but not in digital. To solve this just lower the gains or lower
   the volume of your CD player.
3. Now that you aren’t maxed out,
   you can start the CD over and hit record in Sound Studio. This is pretty simple
   and you will want to record all the way until the first track is over. Once
   it is, hit stop.
4. Now just save it off as an AIFF
   (File>Save As, type a name and hit OK). It’s a good idea to save all these
   AIFF’s into one folder (an empty folder with just the songs in it).
5. Repeat for the rest of the tracks.
   

This method worked really well, and
has no shortcomings but it has two annoyances.

1. You have to manually break up
   tracks. At least in the software I found. There may be a package out there
   that acts like iMovie and "thinks" for you. If you have written
   one or know of one please email me
   the link/info and I will include it on this page.
2. Recording only happens at 1X.
   If you are an avid CD Ripper this will nearly kill you. The only thing that
   saved me was that I was pissing off the RIAA. iTunes normally imports at 5X-8X
   (at least on my system) so this means it will take 5 to 8 times LONGER to
   import a copy protected CD. However, it’s much more fun when you are circumventing.

So now that we have it recorded digitally
in the computer, we have to get it on a CD and in MP3 format. Both are really
easy to do.

For a CD:

Find the folder of AIFF’s. Drag
it into an iTunes play list and hit burn to CD. It’s that easy! Once your
CD is burned you have effectively negated the copy protection scheme on the
original – sit back and smile!

For MP3′s:

In iTunes go to: Advanced>Convert
to MP3… and select the folder that contains your tracks. Ideally when
you recorded it you should have saved it off as different files for every
track. If it is one big track you’ll have one long song . Once you hit ok,
iTunes rips all of the songs and you are rocking and rolling.

Remember it only takes one person
to do this! If you have bought the CD and your friend has bought the CD, go
ahead and share the files. It makes no sense to do it twice.

It’s not fair that these CD’s don’t
play on the Mac but with these simple instructions all CD’s will be made equal
again. I think that implementing these protection schemes will backfire because
of people who rip the CD’s and make them public (I’m not giving any addresses)
just because they are "Copy Protected". If labels want to sell protected
CD’s why don’t they drop the price to $5 a CD? That would at least be some consolation
for not being able to listen to it on your computer or iPod (without the trouble
of doing what I already covered). It shouldn’t cost them more since no one will
be "stealing" it…. right? Wrong, the protection scheme is
a sham and it just takes a few users who take a few more minutes to have the
MP3′s all ready for P2P sharing.

If you want to read more about these
types of CD’s and what to do about them (fight the system, heckle the labels….)
point your browser over to: Fat
Chuck’s.

Jonathan Gales is a staff
writer and programmer for MacMerc.com.
He can be reached for comment at: jon@macmerc.com.

Anti-Macintosh Propaganda

By: Jon
Gales [AIM: jonknee41]

UPDATED 12:18AM EST **ADDED EMAIL FORM**

Vnunet.com,
a UK Technology site has recently posted two anit-Macintosh articles. I neglected
to post the first one the day it came out, cut the author a break. I don’t give
second chances. His second installment is just as quirky as the first.

The first article
supposedly debunked the "myth" that Macs are safer than PC’s running
Windows. My analysis follows quotes from the articles. It would help to read
the articles first. The
second article is chock full of responses from "actual" Mac users
(due to the fact that Apple wouldn’t comment).

FIRST PROPAGANDA PIECE REBUTTAL:

"Mac users are no safer from the threat of viruses than Windows
users, according to experts who have just shattered a long standing myth."

With a thesis statement like this I had high hopes for the article. In fact,
I was hoping to learn a few things (and pass them along to you). Now you have
to realize that the rest of the article doesn’t do anything to support the
above quote.

"Antivirus firm Symantec said that over three quarters of Mac users are
under the illusion that they are not a target for virus writers and hackers."

Their "experts" are only interested in selling Symantec software
– their business. Objectivity is no where to be found. A more suitable
"Expert" might have been an independent security consultant that
has no vested interest in the purchasing of security software. This pretty
much makes the rest of the article fiction. Sorry but next time get an "expert"
that doesn’t profit off of scarring Mac users!

"Obviously there are more PC-only viruses out there, but there are still
over 7,000 macro viruses which can hit either Mac or PC platforms."

Mac’s don’t come with Office (needed to run the mentioned viruses). It
needs to be installed – and only after that can a user be dumb enough
to run a macro. Most PC viruses attack a default Windows install.

"Another big problem Mac users don’t think about is that they make perfect
incubators for Windows viruses," said Chapman. "

Yep… the other day I
got an email titled "Look at these file Jon Gales" and the attachment
was a .exe… The first thing I did was send it to all of my closest friends
that I knew were on Windows. I didn’t really do that (but you knew that) but
think about it – without the virus sending out itself automatically what’s
the danger? 99% of viruses are carried in email (and automatically send themselves
to people in your address book).

"At the time of going to press Apple was unavailable for comment."

Enough said.

SECOND PROPAGANDA PIECE REBUTTAL:

"Despite numerous requests for comment from Apple in both the US and
the UK, the company has not yet provided a spokesman to comment on the issue.
"

Still… I have no comment.
Enough said.

"Readers pointed out that there are plenty of Mac viruses out there,
not just the macro viruses affecting Microsoft Office installations, but AppleScript
and Macintosh file infectors. "

Sounds like some good ol’ PC users writing in. I’ve been a Mac user all
my life and have never had a bit of data lost. I don’t think I’m lucky, I
think I’m average. Try taking a survey among Windows users of at least 5 years
– you’d find someone that hasn’t had a virus to be VERY rare. Even
if there are a lot of Mac viruses they must not get passed around well…
All the ones in my inbox are .exe’s. A smart worm could scan only @mac.com
addresses but that wouldn’t do too much – Apple filters all e-mail.

"I’m a Mac user
since probably around 10 years ago and I’ve found OS/9 is crap. It lacks all
the generic features for a ‘secure’ operating system, as much as Windows, but
probably even worse."

Two things:
* OS 9 is a dead OS. Apple has even said so. We don’t comment on the security
of Windows 98 since it’s well just not being shipped.
* He’s not a Mac user – there is no chance. If you’ve read the Naked
Truth [review]
the comments about detecting PC users will come to mind. If he was really
a hardcore Mac user (you have to be to last 10 years) he wouldn’t trash his
OS. Also – it would never be compared in an inferior way to Windows.
It’s just not done by one of our own.

"On the one hand
this article should be commended. Mac users should not believe they are invulnerable
and should practise safe computing just like their Windows counterparts do.
[But] the Macintosh as a platform is safer, chiefly because it hasn’t been as
attractive a target as Windows machines."

Is the Mac OS safer because
it’s not used as much, or does it have better code? Is a Lexus safer because
their are fewer of them (and thus you are less likely, statistically, to get
into an accident with one) or because Lexus has put more effort into research
on safety? The Screensavers
ran a Capture
the Flag contest during one of their shows. They had both a Mac, and a
Windows machine on the network waiting to be hacked. The Mac needed no updates
while the Windows machine needed several security updates. At the end of the
show no one managed to "win" by placing their contact info in a
folder but someone did succeed in restarting the PC. Interesting if the Mac
is really that insecure.

Now, there were a few real
(or at least pretty good fakes) Mac users that wrote into the author after the
first article was published but overall the BS monitor was off the chart. I
hunted down the author’s email address (James_middleton@vnu.co.uk)
off of their site. Using my custom software that I wrote a while back
I have made a form that will allow you to email James right now. You will also
recieve an email when James opens your message! Tell James what’s up!

Your Email Addy:
Subject
Message:

What’s Real really doing?

What’s Real really doing?
By: Jon Gales

If you are an OS X user
there is a 97% chance that you’ve asked yourself… "Where’s Real for OS
X?". I’ve been asking this since last year and have yet to find an answer.
After searching Real’s notorius hellish* site for several
minutes I found:

"RealNetworks
is fully committed to the Macintosh and we’re actively working on bringing
our latest technologies to the Macintosh platform." [real.com]

Big talk but no results.
I don’t buy it. A company that has ignored the fastest growing alternitive operating
system in the world for 14 months is crazy and is not to be trusted. If you
buy a Mac today you get OS X. Isn’t it fair to have a player for the default
OS? I believe so, that’s why I am asking for your help. I’ve already written
letters but my meager offereings don’t do anything.

I’ve written a form (below)
that sends what you type to Real as an email. Maybe if 3,000+ people send there
wishes for an OS X version of RealPlayer they may wake up and smell the roses.
If you would like to share you comments with me, or want them posted on MacMerc.com
please email or AIM[jonknee41] me. Thanks
for your participation!

Also, if you get a reply
send it to me – I am going to be making a page containing official Real
communications. Most Mac users want to be informed on the progress of Real so
with your help we’ll be the place!

The form also uses an amazing
bit of technology that I myself created (just a few months ago). You will recieve
an email as soon as Real opens your letter (as long as they use an HTML capable
mail reader)! I’m not kidding! Obviously if you put a fake email address you
won’t get anything . If you have the "Let MacMerc publish" button
checked your email will be saved in our system for review and possible addition
to the site (sans the name and email address). If you don’t want us to save
anything just uncheck the box!

We have posted some of the initial letters sent to Real! Thanks for your support and please continue to write Real!

TALK TO REAL FORM:

Name:
Email:
Comment:
Let MacMerc publish?

 

 

*By hellish I mean hard to navigate. All the pressure is to get you to buy.
I’d pay but there is no version available for my computer. Too bad.

What’s Real really doing? Part 2– Real Letters

By: Jon Gales

Here are some of the better
responses MacMerc fans wrote to Real
regarding the lack of an OS X player. If you haven’t yet written
one please do! We still need more! It doesn’t take long at all. Just tell them
you want Real for OS X or at least an explanation.

READER LETTERS:

"RealNetworks folks,
How much longer do MacOSX users have to wait for a version of RealPlayer that’s
built for our operating system. MacOSX was released more than a year ago, and
we still don’t even see a beta version available. As an owner of RealPlayer
8 Plus, I’m ready to see not only a version built for OSX (that contains all
the Windows features) but one that is also stable. I think you owe your customers
a response! "

–

"Dear Real,
I have been a PAYING Customer of your macintosh products since you first entered
the Mac market. As one of the few companies/ products successfully competing
against MIcrosoft, it makes no sense for you to ignore a natural, affluent constituency…"

–

"Dear Real:
I am a Mac user and regular web surfer. I consider the RealPlayer to be a cornerstone
of the internet experience, and have been frustrated in my move to OS X by the
lack of a compatible player. Running the Player in classic is not an adequate
option, as any user of Mac OS X will try not to run classic if at all possible,
and to launch classic (nearly a minute) in order to play a short video clip
seems ridiculous. As a result I have stopped viewing RealPlayer clips, and there
is a hole in my net experience.. Where are you, Real? Bring the Player to X!
"

–

"I hope you’ll
release a public statement soon about the availability of RealPlayer for Mac
OS X. Many large advertising companies, such as my employer, utilitize growing
numbers of Mac OS X systems. Before the end of the year, every Mac in our company
will be running Mac OS X due to the need for better integration and interoperability
with our network/server infrastructure. If RealPlayer isn’t available for Mac
OS X, our company will likely pressure vendors to employ Windows Media format
or Quicktime content on their websites, rather than RealNetworks content Thank
you. "

–

"Hi, I’m a Macintosh
Technician in Manhattan and deal with several large-sized clients along with
single end-users thrown in every once in a while. Almost every week I upgrade
an OS or two to Mac OS X and am asked "Oh… a don’t forget Real Player…
I like that…’" after which I need to tell the client that there is no
Real Player (or Real Plus) for Mac OS X yet. With the release of another major
update of MAc OS X coming soon and the availability of products from Microsoft
and Adobe (among others) I am seeing a large amount of business devoted to OS
X. If you could release Real software for OS X soon I know of a lot of clients
that would install it the same day. Please release Real software for Mac OS
X. "

–

"Just the other
day I realized that it had been a year since I started using Mac OS X. I also
realized that it had been a year since I last used RealPlayer to play any online
video or audio content. This is really a shame. I know that I have missed out
on some valuable online content because you have yet to bring RealPlayer to
Mac OS X. Then I read that you have been promising to do this for over a year.
I find it hard to believe that it is really taking you this long to bring RealPlayer
to Mac OS X."

 

Of course – the
usual one liners were sent as well but that will always happen. Everything helps
our cause. For those that couldn’t care less about Real, competetion makes products
better! We don’t want to have QuickTime the only game in town! Pass this
around to friends. Get as many people to send letters as you can If you get
official replies from real please send
them to me. I’ll post all that I can. Any communication from Real directed towards
me about this article and email form will be posted as well. Thanks! – Jon

What’s Realô really doing ó Part 3– Realô Replies

By: Jon Gales

A MacMerc reader sent me
a reply he got from Real concerning
the lack
of RealPlayer for OS X. It’s the first reply I’ve gotten. If you have any
replies please send them in so I can post them! If you click on the [comment]
links throughout the email you will get my take. Feel free to send in any rebuttals
you have.

LETTER FROM REAL:

Hello
**NAME OF SENDER**. Actually you are about the 50th person who has stated
this question to us today via the sales email alias. If you could please sent
this response back to all of the other people that have emailed this same
response. Real appreciates all of your input and understands your dying need
to have RealOnePlayer compatible with OSX. I personally am glad that so many
of you are enthusiastic about getting it.
I work in server sales and will pass on your messages. The thing is this.
Real is in deed working on a version compatible with OSX due to be out by
no later than the end of this year [comment]. Unfortunately
Mac versions although very important just make up such a small amount of the
computer universe that they are often the last to be focused on.[comment]
Real makes their technology compatible with over 10 different Operating Systems
and the other platforms are in much higher demand [comment]
unfortunately so we have to get to them first. The OSX version will be out
towards the end of the year. Unfortunately that is all the give me as far
as a date goes.
I will definitely forward all of this response to our product development
department in hopes that this will spur them on to expedite this process [comment].
Thanks again for your input and please  inform the others that emailed
me as well. Thanks. -Chris

–

My Take:

1) "To
be out by no later than the end of this year"

This is what I was going for. We have at least a target. A development time
of 20 months is a little lengthy but I’ll take it. At least we got a time frame
(something that wasn’t posted on their site). [top]

–

2) "Mac
versions although very important just make up such a small amount of the computer
universe that they are often the last to be focused on"

Wow. That makes me very angry. Here’s an analagy: I tend to focus my eyes on
Lexus vehicles rather than on Ford’s. Lexus has a very small market share but
they sure get respect. Imagine if no tires were being made for all of the new
model Lexus’! The stores just say "Sorry Mr. Gales there just isn’t enough
market share to fund making a tire just for your type of car. We’ll have one
out by the end of the year.". You can read the Naked
Truth to continue this analogy but I don’t think you need to. Any rabid
Mac fan will be angered by the above kill statement. Good thing I’m not militant.
[top]

–

3) "Real
makes their technology compatible with over 10 different Operating Systems and
the other platforms are in much higher demand"

Name them. Go ahead, try
it. This is what I came up with:

1. Windows XP
2. Windows 2000
3. Windows ME
4. Windows 98
5. Windows 95
6. Windows 3.1
7. DOS
8. Linux
9. Unix (non OS X )
10. BeOS

On Real.com you can download
their player for 8 OS’s, not 10:

1. Windows 98
2. Windows ME
3. Windows 2000
4. Windows NT 4.0
5. Windows XP
6. Mac OS 8.1
7. Mac OS 8.5 or higher
8. UNIX

The one’s in bold have no
chance of being in higher demand than OS X. Already OS X has a larger user base
than all GUI based Linux distributions so cancel out Unix. How many people do
you know run OS 8? I don’t know anyone. But, it runs RealPlayer. Nice. This
"fact" in the letter was complete BS, plain and simple. [top]

–

4) "I
will definitely forward all of this response to our product development department
in hopes that this will spur them on to expedite this process"

Good. I thank you for your
support in this effort. Hopefully we can all have a smug grin on our face when
RealX comes out a few months early. I congratulate you all. We did something
that one person couldn’t – get a reply out of the monster. Give yourself
a pat on the back! [top]

 

If you get any replies from
Real please forward them to jon@macmerc.com.
Thanks! – Jon

Why Microsoft is winning the game…and Apple is losing

By: Jon Gales

PC
World recently published a stunning article
fittingly titled, "MSN Launches AOL Defection Tool". A quick
read will result in a moderate "Anti-Microsoft" vibe but after an
analysis it’s actually quite chilling but in an odd way appealing. If you haven’t
yet read the article here is the notable quote:

"Microsoft
will cancel your AOL account and for 30 days will refer to your new address
any e-mail sent to your AOL address."

The implications
of this are amazing. Microsoft
has already spent $50,000,000 on marketing MSN
(Microsoft’s ISP) to current AOL users. They have even created a browser (based
off of IE) to mimic AOL’s unique "all in one" look and feel. At a
time when AOL Time Warner is strapped
for cash, Microsoft’s spending millions upon millions on stealing their user
base couldn’t have been more perfectly executed. AOL is in a downward spiral
– Microsoft is helping to flush the toilet.

The death of AOL has been in Microsoft’s eyes for years. Ever since AOL controlled
a near monopoly in the ISP market. What they are doing about it (helping users
in every way they can switch to MSN from AOL) is the "perfect" solution
to gain lots of users quickly. What makes MSN so appealing is that it ties in
with everything you use. The reason for this is that MS makes everything you
use. Remind you of another company?

Why doesn’t Apple do this?
Obviously I don’t mean literally – Apple doesn’t own an ISP. I mean, why
doesn’t Apple "baby" users from Windows? Why can’t Apple make a Windows
program to save off email, bookmarks, and other easy to retrieve but annoying
to do so data onto an iDisk or something similar for retreival on a Mac? Why
can’t Apple make deals with large software vendors to allow PC users that have
bought software (and have registered) get a Mac version for free?

I know Apple won’t launch a US$50 million advertising campaign (too costly for a few converts) but one that is aimed at Windows users might help. The current campaigns
make NO sense to the average Windows user. I still have to explain some of them
to the Mac faithful!

Microsoft is doing what it needs to do to stay in the black – well
into the black. Apple can start making ground on the "other" 95% of
computer users. We have the best OS on the market, the coolest computers, and
the most loyal following. Should we mimic the beast and have them get a taste
of their medicine? In my opinion, YES!

Jon Gales is a staff writer for MacMerc. He can be reached for comment at
jon@macmerc.com or on AIM (jonknee41).

The Rebuttal ñ eMac, iMac, No Dvorak

The Rebuttal
– eMac, iMac, No Dvorak
By: Jon Gales

I’ve been following John Dvorak for several years. If you haven’t
heard of him, Mr. Dvorak is a PC Magazine
contributing editor and a vocal anti-Macintosh pundit. I’ve heard him complain
about an array of Apple products (most notably the iBook which he dubbed a Hello
Kitty purse). He recently let loose an article that articulates his ignorance,
"E-Mac,
i-Mac, No Mac". Now, I could pick on the mistakes in his title…
It’s supposed to be eMac and iMac (no dashes) but I won’t even touch on that
.

Bias is to be expected –
especially in the sensitive topic of computing platforms. I’m biased towards
the Macintosh but Dvorak has gone overboard:

Isn’t it about
time the Macintosh was simply discontinued—put down like an old dog?

**BIAS ALERT** There aren’t
many responses (ones that exclude the words I’m not allowed to use on this
site) that would make a whole lot of sense. I’ll just let you laugh at this
one.

The company also rolled out some blade computers for Mac-heads who like running
massive Web sites with Mac technology. The obvious next iteration of the Mac
will be the current Luxo-looking i-Mac with a bigger screen and probably new
colors. After that, what is Apple going to do?

Nope… Not blade computers! They all have CPU’s
and cooling units and are all fully functional computers. They take up 1U
and have G4 chips. Do yourself a favor, visit Apple.com.
Also what did they do when they had the CRT? The made a better iMac. That’s
what Apple does… They keep improving!

The Lisa was designed with ideas lifted from the Xerox Star. The Mac
was an improvement, but apparently there hasn’t been a new idea since.

How about the iMac
which has been one of the best selling computer lines of all time – millions
upon millions of happy customers. How about dumping the floppy when most PC’s
still have one but no one uses it. How about adding FireWire
to every computer they make. How about Final
Cut Pro (most people don’t know that almost every movie trailer is edited
down with FCP). How about iDVD.
How about adding support for 802.11b
in all their machines before most people knew what it was. How about QuickTime
Streaming Server (it’s free unlike something from Real and it’s used throughout
the industry by media giants like CNN).
How about Remote
Desktop. How about OS
X.

 

Dvorak’s fundamental beef
is that he wants Macintosh to die (no real motive except he’s a die hard PC
weenie). His weenie status is evident every time he talks about Apple. He always
screws up his facts. Whether it’s on Silicon Spin (a discontinued TV show) and
he gets the specs of the iPod wrong, or if it’s the capitalization in computer
models he is always wrong when it comes to Apple. As most loyal’s know Apple
has been getting death announcements (more than probably any other profitable
company) for many years but they have all been ungrounded. After Jobs got on
board (for the second time) Apple has taken a lot of ground. After the Switch
campaign started I’ve gotten even more confident that what John Dvorak spews
is just a desperation call. He can’t possibly stand being wrong.

**This
is an editorial piece. All comments should be sent directly to Jon**

 

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