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Yes, We Do And Should Criticize Apple April 18th, 2000 I write for this site since May 1999. In a whole year of columns, editorials and reviews, I received many letters from Observers out there, mostly positive or negative comments about my opinions. Among those letters were those of criticism. Some unjustified, some more polite…

The Descent into Darkness April 17th, 2000 Margin accounts, like little stars in the night sky, are going out all across the heavens. In the illiquid blackness of our darkness market nightmare there are only fevered asks without a bid in sight. Like everyone else who took up positions in the market recently, the Mac…

The Computer Industry Is So Predictable April 11th, 2000 If there is one shocking but widely accepted phenomenon in the world of computing, it is its predictability. The industry lacks the ability to produce anything original. In addition, when companies have the occasion to make decisions when other people’s interests are on the line… they…

Something Big Is Brewing For The WWDC April 5th, 2000 Folks, I have the impression that something big is brewing in Cupertino. That naughty little devil is on my shoulder, whispering that we are bound to hear big news from Steve Jobs at the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) from May 15 to May 19.…

Ouch! That’s gotta hurt. The Nasdaq has its biggest one day point lost ever as money gushed out of tech stocks only to be quickly reinvested in the beaten down NYSE. Microsoft takes some of the heat for today’s crash, but there’s more than enough blame to go around. Apple held up better than most.…

The Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike yesterday had a predictable effect on stocks. The rate sensitive stocks on the Dow took a beating, while the lighter than air tech stocks, immune from higher rates, soared ever higher. Apple bust through 140 dollars per share for the first time ever. Apple surged 9 1/4 dollars or…

Are Computers Bound To Disappear? March 22nd, 2000 We live in a world of computers, don’t we? Well, if you doubt it, here is some evidence to prove an already obvious reality: Print journalism, television and movie production depend on computers. They handle page layout, editing, and even creation. Look at university life. If you…

Does Apple Offer Too Many Different Products? March 14th, 2000 Have you paid a visit to the Apple Store in the last few weeks? If so, did you notice anything? Apple manufactures so many different Macs that there is something for everyone. At the same time, I have noticed some people wondering if there aren’t…

Market Lore, Virgin Territories and Apple’s Geometry February 28th, 2000  Legend has it that when renowned Wall Street investor – some say it was Bernard Baruch – got a stock tip from the guy who shined his shoes in the 1920s, he knew it was time to sell. The idea is that if everybody is…

USB Printer Sharing, Crashes, & PCI ATA Controllers February 25th, 2000 Borscht and Vodka, now THAT’s a good Thanksgiving meal! Yum! Oh… hello… you aren’t here for Americanized Soviet culinary advice are you? It must be time again for another issue of Ask Dave! Ah… well, let me take off my babushka and put on…

Every Picture, Or Chart, Tells A Story, Including Apple’s February 22nd, 2000  Technical analysis (TA) is the fine art of predicting the future price motion of a stock by analyzing the stock’s price and volume chart. Sometimes it’s called visual analysis; sometimes it’s called voodoo. Many investors make light of the arcane science of technical…

Upgrade Advice, Shutdown Freezes, & Using PC Parts February 18th, 2000 Good day, everyone! Today we’re going to answer some reader questions about the new G4s, discuss the troubleshooting process to solve iMac freezes with Mac OS 9, and talk about using PC hardware inside your Mac. If you have a burning question you’d like…

I Had A Dream: I Was Riding In Steve’s New Jet… February 14th, 2000  Gulf Stream Dream I had a dream that I was a big shot on Apple’s board of directors instead of a lonely trader sitting in front of my trusty Mac. Actually, with my acerbic and introverted personality, I probably wouldn’t survive…

Unless you have been living under a rock of late, and even then that rock would have to be at the bottom of at least a medium size body of water, you have heard all about the attacks on several top Internet sites. Yahoo!, eBay, CNN, Amazon.com, Buy.com, E*Trade, and Datek were all victims of…

The Low Down On Ethernet And Data Recovery February 11th, 2000 Good day, my friends! Today we explore and explain the mysteries behind Ethernet, cross-over cables and hubs. Then we talk about options for disk recovery software and finish up with a little correction from last time! There’s lots of good stuff here today, folks,…

Where The Heck Is Netscape? February 8th, 2000 If you follow the browser wars, you probably ask yourself a question I often ask myself. Where is Netscape Communications? Where is its browser? I’m not talking about Communicator 4.7 either, but about that marvelous Mozilla project that was kicked off in April 1998. This was supposed…

Dave Shares Some Of His Techiques For Finding Answers! February 4th, 2000 Greetings, folks. Today we’re going to focus on finding software on the Web. I get many questions like the following each week, and figured it was time to address a few of them together, showing you where I get *my* answers from! As…

Let The Accumulation Begin January 31st, 2000  Accumulation Area: A price range within which buyers accumulate shares of a stock. Technical analysts spot accumulation areas when a stock does not drop below a particular price. Technicians who use the on-balance volume method of analysis advise buying stocks that have hit their accumulation areas, because the…

Buy Low; Sell High – Why I sold my AAPL stock January 24th, 2000  Some individuals make more difference to the character of a nation than others, but none are irreplaceable. It is a precarious organization, indeed, that is tied to the character or personality of a single person however great he or she may…

SCSI-USB Conversion, Upgrade Advice, & AGP Voodoo3 Cards January 21st, 2000 Greetings, folks. Today we talk about migrations — migrating SCSI devices from older Mac’s to newer iMacs and PowerMac’s, and migrating a 3dfx Voodoo3 AGP card into a G4-based machine. It’s bound to be a good one, so read on! If you have a…

Bill Gates Will Improve Software From Now On January 18th, 2000 Nothing surprised me more than reading the news about Bill Gates stepping aside as Microsoft’s CEO to hand day-to-day management to Steve Ballmer. A few industry analysts said that they anticipated the move. However, it remains hard to believe that the cofounder of Microsoft,…

The Rise And Fall Of Microsoft’s Empire December 27th, 1999  It’s the day after Christmas and I am surrounded by family and friends who won’t let me concentrate on writing this week’s article. Ironically, I have a number of relatives who are intimately involved with other operating systems besides our sweet Mac OS. So, in…

It’s Apple’s best Christmas ever. So why am I so nervous? December 20th, 1999  Language is not simply the medium by which we express our ideas and experiences to each other. Rather it is fundamental to the thought process itself. It involves categorizing and naming objects and sensation in the outer and inner worlds and…

NameCleaner 2.0.1 ($20 Shareware) Sig Software The Mac is a good citizen when put in a cross-platform environment. The PC Exchange functionality of the Mac OS (accessed via the File Exchange Control Panel under Mac OS 9) allows the mounting of PC media, and can translate those archaic three-letter extensions to the proper Mac filetype…