Worst [3:00 PM] osOpinion - First Amendment, Captive Markets: P2Pis Real Issues
This reviewer hates those who feel entitled to his work or any other personis work, espeically when that work is creative. Alas, Dave Manchester fits in that category and he proceeds to draw some absurd conclusions about the law and the constitution in the process. That said, Mr. Manchesteris arguments are mostly well stated unlike so many illetarates on the "we are entitled to download free music because CDs are too expensive and besides you dinosaurs just donit get it" crowd, and his piece makes for an interesting read, though a most frustrating one too. The silliest quote from this piece:This confers, or should confer upon those amendments a unique and overriding status that has enjoyed only sketchy and inconsistent recognition by the Courts, in this laymanis meagerly informed opinion.
It matters not if we physically assemble together in a room, or on the Web. The First Principal remains the same.
Let the court decide what it may about Napster (all but moot, now). Trying to stop the aggregation of Free Persons in Communities on the web, and the subsequent sharing of ideas (in whatever form, be it MP3 or txt, jpg or pixmap, or DVD) is futile.
Hereis a free clue: Freedom of Assembly does not confer the right to assmeble and break the law. There is a different between trying to stop people from talking about MP3s or meeting to discuss MP3s (which the constitution protects us from) and trying to stop people from stealing property through an organized means. Reviewer - Bryan Chaffin
Best [3:00 PM] XAppeal - Enabling Printing Under OS X Beta
It is rare that we mention tips or tricks in the Best & Worst, but this one promises to make roughly 60,000 OS X Beta users very happy. XAppeal, a wonderful resource for OS X news and topics, has posted a "hack" that gets printing to function under Beta for certain printers. This is not anything official from Apple, nor is it guaranteed to work. But, if like me you are using Beta as your main OS, and hate booting into OS 9 to print something, it might be worth a shot. Our favorite quote from this piece:One of the largest complaints heard from Mac OS X Public Beta users has been the lack of printing support. Obviously the paper-less office is not quite a reality yet, students have papers to print, SOHO users have invoices, and some people still print out email. After trolling through several Mac OS X forums Iive stumbled upon a hack that can actually get printing to function under Mac OS X.
Our best guess is that printer support will be improved soon, as we are hoping an update to Beta is just around the corner. Reviewer - Kyle DiAddario
You can find these links, and lots of other links for Mac and Tech Industry stories, at MacOS News Around The Web.