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|
Chris's
Geek Speak Review —the "GSR"
Definitions full of ® fascinating
Mac trivia, insightful comments, and personal commentary of questionable
merit!
|
Active
Application |
On
the Mac you (usually) only have access to one application and
one menu bar at a time. The one you currently have access to
is
at the "top" - that is, its windows and menu bar are
visible. This currently available application is called the "Active
Application".
Other applications (including the Finder) and their windows may
or may not be visible, peeking out from "behind" the
edges of the windows of the Active Application. You can switch
the active application in a WHOLE BUNCH of ways. KNOWING HOW TO
IDENTIFY THE ACTIVE APPLICATION AND CHANGE IT IS ONE OF THE MOST
IMPORTANT SKILLS TO LEARN IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE MAC. One way to
change it is by clicking on one of those pieces of other windows.
This will make that 'piece' and all other windows associated with
that application rise to the top. The icon of the currently Active
Application appears on the far right of the menu bar. This is
the "Application Menu". |
AFAIK |
As
far as I know |
AOL |
America
OnLine! Formerly a 'member/content provider' Online Service, now
also an ISP. Having an email account on AOL is like wearing a red
'bullseye' target on your shirt for hackers and spammers. (see MSN) |
Apple
// |
One
of Apple computer's predecessors to the wildly successful Macintosh
line. Many of us believe that the Apple // really was the first
Personal Computer. Apple marketing didn't catch onto that idea until
the Apple //e, when they labeled the boxes, "THE Personal Computer".
The //e was a slightly more enhanced model than the //, usually
sold with a super-serial card (to connect to a printer), and which
came with an 80 column display. (The "80 column card"
was used to provide 80 columns to pre-//e models.) Boy, and I hope
I got that all right, because it's been about 20 years since I put
one together!! |
Applescript |
Apple's
REALLY COOL built-in programming language that can automate activities
in the Finder, applications, and across the LAN on somebody else's
Mac. Worth learning about.
One of the things that helps keep the Mac dominant in several forms
of media. You can have scripts that will size your JPEGs, drop them
in a layout program such as Quark, suck the captions out of your
AppleWorks word processing, and print out the whole thing as a magazine.
To even come close to doing this in Windows, you'd have to buy a
thousand dollar's worth of Microsoft development tools and hire
a Visual Basic programmer to try to come up with a way to do it.
With Voice Recognition, you can have scripts that tell your X-10®
Home Automation system to turn on the lights in your Kitchen when
you say, "Macintosh. Kitchen Lights On!" This deserves a whole separate
OVERLOOKED AND UNDERUSED article, which may appear UNPREDICTABLY
in a future issue. |
Application
Menu |
The
menu available on the far right of the menu bar. Displays the Active
Application icon (and if you pull the little vertical "grabber"
bar far enough to the left, the application name.) Click on the
menu to show a list of applications that are currently loaded IN
MEMORY. Yes, you probably have lots of other applications on your
hard drive, but these are the ones that are READY TO ROLL. You've
either loaded them at startup or launched them directly by clicking
on their application icon or a document icon that they have opened
for you. When you launch another application it will be listed there.
When you quit one, it will disappear from the list. Applications
listed there are eating up your available MEMORY. Switch to one
of the available applications by selecting it from the Application
Menu. See? Now *its* icon and name appear on the menu bar! |
BDC |
Big
Dumb Corporation. You know if you work for one. |
BLOG |
Many
of us fantasize that our lives, or our writing, would be of interest
to someone else. Is it? I don't know, but a blog let's you put it
out there for all the world. Once you've read a few, you might think
it stands for "blather log", but I think the word really
derives from "Web Log". Blogs have been around for a long
time, but somehow they've reached that critical mass where if you
don't know what one is, you're just not COOL. And we wouldn't want
that, would we? Think of it as an online diary, or journal, situated
in a personal web site, a location on AOL, or even a site that just
specializes in blogs. |
BTW |
Abbreviation
for BY THE WAY. The use of which shows EVERYONE ELSE that you are
Internet Savvy, hip, part of the IN crowd. Maybe even a fellow GEEK.
But IMHO this could be trouble because AFAIK you'd better be prepared
to be challenged, and if you fail, FLAMED. |
Burner
|
Cool
word, huh? People "burn" CDs on their CD Burners. Why burn? Because
the technology used to make CDs is LASER, and CD Burners (and CDs)
actually get pretty warm when they're making a CD. If you say "cutting"
a CD, young people will think you are CLUELESS, and older people
who are HIP will think, "It's about time you gave up this thing
with ANTIQUE ANALOG VINYL TECHNOLOGY, DUDE." |
Clean
Install |
At
some point in its past Apple incorporated a 'Clean Install' option
in System Installers. Any system, especially Mac Systems owned by
Mac Geeks (MGs), get mucked up with Preferences, extensions, and
all kinds of feature customizing add-ins, temporary files, and so
on, that contribute in varying degrees to instability in the Mac
system. By default, a System Installer of a new update puts the
new system into the 'old' System Folder, mixing the new stuff with
all the old junk.
Hoping that this default install will "fix all Apple's bugs'",
the classic MG, soon discovers his System still crashes or hangs.
In the next step, the MG intiates a 'Clean Install'. This option
inserts a brand spanking new version of the System Folder on the
same drive (but not the same folder) as the old one. It even politely
labels the old System, 'Previous System Folder'. Mr. MG, restarts,
finds his Mac works great. And he should probably stop there. But,
he's a geek. He picks through the extraneous junk in the Previous
System Folder, moving it to the clean new folder. He Restarts. Get
the picture? The closer to a 'Clean Install' the more likely the
System will be stable. |
Command
Line Interface |
How
people controlled computers PM (Prior to Mac). THERE WAS NO MOUSE.
A "prompt" - that is, a colon, or carat, or some other obscure character
from your keyboard - appeared on the screen. This was equivalent
to your dog looking up at you with THAT LOOK. If you knew the commands,
you could TYPE one in and probably press [Return] or [Enter], and
the computer would DO something. For example, in MS-DOS, if you
typed in DIR (which stands for "directory"), you would get a list
of FILES, with names like: CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, WORD.EXE, AND
HELPME.TXT. Whoopee. Believe it or not, a lot of people STILL enjoy
this kind of interaction with a machine. |
Connectix |
One
of the most respected Mac Software companies. These guys came out
with some impressive smaller utilities first. You may have heard
of RAM Doubler. They went on to write Virtual PC, a great (though
not the first) PC emulator on the Mac. |
Control
Panel |
This
is fairly self-evident isn't it? On the Mac, available from the
Apple Menu. The many devices that allow you to change and adjust
all kinds of settings on your Mac. Superceded by 'System Preferences'
in OSX. |
Dark
Rider |
One
of the nine Nazgul - wringwraiths - demons in service to the Dark
Lord. Nasty types who want to harm those charming little hobbits.(Visually,
"Darth Vader" comes to mind. But technically, Vader is the apprentice
to the Sith Master, the Emperor. Darth Maul, with his cool aboriginal
face paint, preceded him, until he went to pieces in the 'First'
Star Wars movie.) |
Desktop |
The
main GUI 'metaphor' of the Macintosh and to a lesser and disabled
extent, its dominant rival, Windows. The area of your screen presented
when the Finder is the active application. Volume icons, the Trash
Can, Folders, File, and Applications can all be 'on' the Desktop.
So can Printer icons if you use "Desktop Printing" (you probably
do). |
Disk
Image |
A
*file* that when double-clicked "launches" and appears as a Volume
in your Finder. A Disk Image can actually consist of multiple files,
that when launched, combine to appear as a single large volume.
You've seen this neat trick if you downloaded the 15 4Mb Image files
of the OS 9.1 update. |
early
adopter |
A
term that technology analysts like. Early Adopters are the people
who go for new technology before it becomes widespread and/or inexpensive.
Apple was an early adopter of the concept of the palm device (Newton),
which they abandoned to the consternation and dismay of at least
one UNPREDICTABLE reader. Many Mac users were early adopters
of the Internet. Early adopters usually gain the advantages and
suffer the pain of new technology. |
EUNUCH
|
Another
name for a Unix geek. Unpredictable refers OCCASIONALLY to 'the
EUNUCH faction at Apple'. In case you think I'm bashing the EUNUCH
faction at Apple too much, make no mistake. Apple is going full-
bore to assimilate the UNIX world. Hired into Apple to make OSX,
many of these folks are command-line fanatics with little comprehension
of the interface ease and simplicity the average Mac user expects.
Please Apple! Indoctrinate them for three months with an early iMac
running OS9, and then make them take at least one semester of English
as a Second Language (ESL) before they are even allowed to suggest
an 'enhancement' to TEN. |
Extension
Manager (Control Panel) |
(9)
Use with Caution!! Allows you to create 'sets' of Extensions, those
little snippets of code that load during startup. This way you can
NOT LOAD the Extensions that you don't use or need, or BE SURE TO
LOAD the ones you do. The commercial (and superior) counterpart
to this is CONFLICT CATCHER. Extension Manager is FREE, OVERLOOKED,
& UNDERUSED. |
Finder |
The
"main" application on your Mac, which generates the Desktop, keeps
track of and allows you to name and move your files, and so on.
Technically, probably not considered part of the OS, but as far
as most of us are concerned, it IS the OS. |
Flame |
As
a verb, to put someone else down, usually in some public (Internet)
forum. "Man, I really got flamed!" In the old days (more than a
year or two ago), it was usually NEWBIES who got flamed for not
showing the proper REVERENCE and RESPECT to the regular members
of Lists and Newsgroups. As Internet commoners have flooded the
system, the elite have become more tolerant. Newbies still might
get flamed for making a dumb mistake like sending mail by accident
to everyone on a LIST. Generally it's best to LURK without posting
until you have a feel for the names and personalities and etiquette
of a list or Newsgroup. Then when you post, GROVEL appropriately.
It's always good to start out a question with, "Oh great and powerful
all-knowing gurus of..." |
Frodo |
A
hobbit. Chosen heir of Bilbo. The ringbearer charged with returning
the One Ring of Power to the place it was forged and thus bringing
an end to the Power of the Dark Lord, Sauron. |
Gig |
In
the days of stone knives and bearskins, media was measured in 'bytes'.
Nobody knows or cares what the heck a BYTE is anymore, do they?
It's SMALL. For example, a Megabyte is a MILLION BYTES. There are
One Thousand Mb (megabytes) in a Gig (gigabyte). A Gig is what magnetic
media is measured in THESE DAYS. If it's less than a Gig man, what
good is it? Well, we like CDs, but of course CDs are only 600Mb
or so. Why do people use them? You can't beat the 'per-megabyte'
price. If you shop and buy in quantity, you can get CD-Rs for around
25 cents apiece or less. In a year or two we'll all be burning DVDs,
which START at 5 Gig. And if I got this all correct, as my prize,
send me a couple of tickets to the next Neil Young concert in the
New Jersey area, okay? |
GUI |
Pronounced,
"Gooey", like the worm that was. Geek Speak for "Graphical User
Interface". Everyone knows this by now, don't they? Can you remember
when a User Interface wasn't Graphical? Some of us can... |
Guide |
Could
be Strider, also known as Aragorn of Arathorn. Helps the Ringbearer
avoid hazards and pursuit by the Dark Riders. On OS 9 on the Mac,
a subset of the Help system that LEADS you through setting things
up, or using features. (Gonzo from TEN). |
haxsie |
Generic
term (at this point almost exclusively used by Unsanity Software)
to describe a "hack" to Oh Ess Ten . "There are some
great Haxsies out there, but my system is more stable without them." |
IBM |
1)
"I'll Buy a Mac" 2) Less commonly, International Business
Machines, the BIG LOSER of the PC Platform wars: Licensed PC-DOS
from Microsoft and for BDCs, legitimized the idea of the personal
computer with the "IBM PC" (old timers will remember the
quaint Charlie Chaplin commercials). They squandered their lead
in PC architecture when their BIOS was reverse-engineered by Phoenix,
Compaq, and others. They tried to re-gain control of the market
by introducing proprietary PS 2 and "micro-channel" PC
architecture which was spurned by the industry. They codeveloped
OS2 with "partner" (Ha, Ha) Microsoft, partnership with
MS dissolved when "Pinky" Gates decided he could market
the nearly finished operating system as Windows NT. Then infighting
with IBM's hardware division prevented IBM from even selling OS2
on their OWN hardware (Windows was the default OS). Although miserable
failures in the desktop arena, IBM still maintains large accounts
with lots of BDCs who continue to use their larger mainframe and
mini systems, and they have even made some inroads in the LAN Server
world by supporting Linux and other open-source software. |
iBook
|
Formerly
the flattened iMac, clamshell, color, 'consumer' laptop counterpart
to the PowerBook. A laptop for college students and other creative
types who presumably don't have to deal with BIG DUMB CORPORATIONS
and CONSERVATIVE BEEHIVE I.T. DRONES who want every laptop to look
and act like an IBM ThinkPad or DELL Latitude. Now, the sleek, awesome,
translucent white baby sister of the Titanium G4 PowerBook, the
new iBook is sometimes called the "Icebook". Aggressively
priced, available with an optional INTERNAL CD-RW/DVD. Beautiful
enough for artists and academics, and square enough for BIG DUMB
CORPORATIONS. This looks like a winner folks!! Get your Apple stock
now, while you still can!! |
IE |
To
most people, the abbreviation I.E. stands for Internet Explorer,
Microsoft's 'free' web browser. TRUE GEEKS call it IE. They don't
waste syllables when they can use TWO LETTERS! To me, IE stands
for an 'Internet Edition' of CHRIS'S UNPREDICTABLE NEWSLETTER. BTW,
there are TONS of Microsoft-specific, Internet related abbreviations.
But if they don't have anything to do with the MAC, I'M NOT GOING
TO WRITE ABOUT THEM! |
IMHO |
In
my humble opinion |
in |
Undoubtedly
originating in that similar sixties phraseology, as in, 'I'm not
into that bag!' Using, immersed in, currently using, i.e. 'I was
in the Finder, but as I write this, I'm in Emailer' |
Instability |
Euphemism
for the likelihood that a system or application will crash or hang,
i.e. "Windows is inherently unstable." In other words,
a 'stable system', doesn't crash or hang...much. |
Interactive |
I
don't really have to explain this do I? |
ISP |
Internet
Service Provider. The company that provides you access to the Internet.
Used to be America Online or Compuserve weren't really considered
ISPs because they gave you access to their own content and membership.
But like everything else, that has changed. |
iTunes
|
You
must know what this is by now, right? Software. Apple's bid to make
the Mac even more Internet Savvy than it already is, by giving Mac
users a COOL and FREE MP3 player that includes the ability to burn
CDs. |
Lists |
THE
INTERNET WAY TO GET TONS OF EMAIL AND FEEL POPULAR IF YOU'RE LONELY.
Members send mail 'to' the List, and the List distributes the mail
to all the members. Most lists let you receive the list as a 'digest'
which summarizes all the individual mails into a single daily mail.
There are lists on all kinds of topics. Find a list and join it!
You might find yourself communicating with the people who write
your software, or authors of books you've read, old friends, or
someone with a common interest who lives on the other side of the
planet!
<http://www.lists.apple.com> |
Location
Manager (Control Panel) |
Covered
in the article on Updating Quicktime in UNPREDICTABLE #8. Allows
you to create 'sets' consisting of ALL KINDS of different settings
(including Extension Manager or Conflict Catcher settings) and switch
back and forth between them easily. Not for the timid, but definitely
worth the learning curve. Another FREE, OVERLOOKED, & UNDERUSED
feature that you already have! And for Laptop users (that's the
focus of this issue after all) an ESSENTIAL!! |
LOL |
Laughing
Out Loud -- DON'T EVER USE THIS!!! IMHO the most overused abbreviation.
Let me give you an example. LOL. Was that really funny? Maybe not,
but I thought so. LOL. Blech. It's much "cooler" to use smileys.
And we want to be cool, right? ;-) |
Lurk |
Lurk:
Hang out and 'listen' without actually posting. BTW, it's considered
UNCOOL to respond to the individual email address of someone on
a list or newsgroup without also sending your mail TO the list or
newsgroup. (Unless of course you're discussing something 'Off Topic',
or if by consensus members have agreed to 'take the topic offline'.)
The idea is PARTICIPATION. Conversely, it's also good etiquette
to copy your email message to the person who you are responding
to, in addition to posting, just in case they miss seeing your post. |
Mac
OS |
OS
stands for "Operating System".
In the ol'timey days Apple didn't want to call it an "operating
system" because that was TOO MUCH like DOS, the "Disk Operating
System" of the OBVIOUSLY INFERIOR command line interface from IBM/Microsoft.
The Mac OS wasn't called "Mac OS" - in fact, it wasn't really called
anything! Versions were identified as "System this" and "System
that".
A couple years AM (After Mac), Microsoft started migrating EVERYONE
ON THE PLANET who ever used DOS, and even a few new recruits, to
the OBVIOUSLY INFERIOR Windows. From the beginning, Mac users had
a little smiling Mac, and a monochrome "Welcome to Macintosh" startup
screen - which Mac users immediately figured out how to HACK so
they could have a startup screen that declared, "Bob's Righteous
Mac", and things like that. (No offense, Bob.) As a consolation
for being forcibly migrated from DOS to Windows, Windows users got
this cool COLOR Microsoft flag that popped up on their screen every
time they RESTARTED their computers, WHICH WAS A LOT.
It took YEARS for someone in Apple Marketing to figure out that
"IT'S NOT DOS", and later, "IT'S NOT WINDOWS" were concepts that
did NOT sell loads of Macs. (They're STILL working on this.) What
they did do, was notice that Microsoft's Lawyer Division had managed
to COPYRIGHT and TRADEMARK the word 'Windows'. (I'm not kidding
on this one, folks.) So they decided they'd better do the same with
what ALL THEIR USERS were calling the "Mac OS", before Microsoft
also owned the two letters 'OS'. The result was the cute little
MacOS logo, with the smiling face(s) that appears at startup and
is labeled on Mac products, and the fact that they now sell the
OS as "MacOS". |
Menu
Bar |
Most
people just call this a "menu", but it used to be called a "Menu
Bar" (because it's the little bar across the top of the screen that
has all the "menus" on it.) I still call it a Menu Bar, sometimes.
In Windows, each application window has it's own Menu Bar because
in Windows "more" is always the same as "better". |
Menu
Items |
(X)
In Apple's case these are icons that don't need millions of colors,
don't need thousands of colors, don't even need 16 colors. These
icons, brought to us no doubt by the (NOT) super-creative, (NOT)
user-oriented, EUNUCH faction at APPLE, sit on the Menu bar with
about as much depth and graphic intensity as the icons on a cell
phone. You've seen them. These are the Sound Volume, Modem Status,
AirPort, and Script Menu icons. (You can add or remove these from
your menu in the corresponding System Preference--"Sound"
for 'Sound Volume', and so on.) Third parties have created a number
of other Menu Item icons, either as replacements for Apple's lame
ones, or for their own use. See 'Know the Difference' (below) for
more on Menu Items in X and Jag. |
MP3 |
MP3
is a popular high-compression technology for recording and playing
digital music. It's the file format that iTunes uses, and the important
point here is file size. A "regular" CD music file takes
up 10 times more space. Which means you could "Rip" roughly
ten Audio CDs worth of music and burn all of them onto ONE data
cd (now called by many, an 'MP3 CD'). No, the sound quality is not
identical. The "perceptual" compression scheme in MP3s
loses quality, but if you RIP (record) at the iTunes "high"
quality level, it'll be hard to tell the difference. Try it! |
MSN |
Microsoft
Network. Same as AOL. The hacker spammer
part too. |
Newbie |
Novice.
Someone who is new to the Internet, new to a topic, new to a newsgroup,
etc. |
Newsgroups |
Similar
to Lists, but in more of a 'bulletin board' format. I've never been
big on Newsgroups, so I can't tell you much about them. Why don't
one of YOU send a Geek Speak definition to ME?? |
OE |
Outlook
Express. Microsoft's 'free' Internet mail client. Comes, along with
IE, by default, with the Mac OS ever since Steve publicly made peace
with Bill. Some GEEKS call it 'OE' and some call it 'Express', and
SOME would rather PAY for an email client. There is no OE for X
and we don't care! |
Organizer |
Hardware:
Daytimer, DayRunner, Franklin, and so on, are original analog organizers
made using antique plant and animal byproduct technology. They require
the use of a pen or pencil and no batteries or electricity! Older
folks, less adept at adapting to the rapid changes of a digital
culture (including Chris) still use them. Software: "Organizer"
programs mimic the functions of an analog organizer. They are sometime
referred to as "PIM"s (below). |
OS9 |
An
extremely advanced operating system that worked great most of the
time, had a beautiful interface refined over 15 years of use by
a receptive Apple, including sharp text on screen, and an EXTREMELY
EASY TO USE printer environment. OS9 served as the model for all
one hundred and twenty-seven recent versions of the Windows operating
system. It is only with great reluctance and under extreme pressure
that the Apple EUNUCH faction has finally implemented in X, some
features and functionality that were taken for granted in 9. |
PDA |
Hardware:
"Personal Digital Assistant". In fact, they should have
called PDA's PDO's, but some marketing genius decided "Assistant"
was more cool than "Organizer". These devices are also
sometimes called 'handheld', 'pocket', or 'palm' computers. The
terms describe wallet- sized computers which often have some handwriting
recognition capability. Apple's "Newton" pioneered the
genre, but Steve said it had to go, so it did. They're handy for
calendars, tracking contacts, and all sorts of other things, and
can 'synch' with the calendar or contact manager program on your
desktop or laptop computer so all your information is current. Nowadays
to most people 'PDA' means a Palm or a Handspring. To corporate
sheep, more and more, it means yet another variant of the so- called
Windows standard, formerly known as "Windows CE", most
recently renamed "Microsoft Pocket". |
PIM
|
Software:
"Personal Information Manager". PIMs are programs--more
commonly called 'Organizers' these days--that mimic the functions
of a traditional paper Organizer. They keep your schedule of appointments
and recurring events such as birthdays and holidays, and often include
or are linked in some manner to what used to be called 'Contact
Managers', i.e. Address books that are oriented around human beings,
their names, locations, websites, email address and so on. And more
and more (it only makes sense after all), the Contact piece is linked
to an email client. iCal and Now Up-to-Date, both with updates noted
in this issue, fit in this category. Other Mac PIMs of note are
Palm Desktop, and Microsoft Entourage. |
Quicktime |
You've
gotta know what this is, right? Apple's multi-platform media creation/playing
technology. Started out as a digital movie technology way back in
1986 (or thereabouts) and continues to engulf any media that stands
in its path. Quicktime can play MP3s, and Flash animations, and
movies in PC formats, and Quicktime VRs. |
RIP |
I suppose this originates from the term "rip-off". It
means to RECORD or CONVERT regular CD-Audio, or Analog Vinyl, or
Analog Tape, to MP3 format. It's kind of a rough term, which is
why teenagers like it and why it scares some adults and terrifies
the big Music Monopolies. You have a legal right to make a single
"backup" copy for your own personal use (just as you do
with software), at least until the DCMA and other Monopoly-sponsored
legislation and technology changes all that. [See U&O #54 for
details.] I won't get into the legal, ethical, or moral arguments
and rationalizations about "ripping" CDs from other people,
your local library, or via downloads from the Internet. You decide. |
Smiley |
'Faces'
made of typographical characters. Generally they are more succinct
and visual than an abbreviation. Watch the AOL commercial. They
think they're smart because it only took them SIX VERSIONS to figure
out how to put smileys on a MENU!! I usually only use the wink ;-)
or the plain smile :-) . Sometimes I send someone a kiss, :-x .
If you use really obscure smileys you might impress someone, but
chances are they'll think your keyboard is going bad. %-( |
Software
Update (Control Panel) |
Covered
as an O&U Item in UNPREDICTABLE #3.
The Control Panel that updates your Mac software via the Internet. |
SPAM |
Specifically
- Electronic junk mail from 'mass mailer/marketers'. Generically
- Any electronic junk mail (even from a friend or associate). |
SuperDrive |
THESE
DAYS, meaning in the 21st century, a 'Superdrive', or 'SuperDrive'
- whatever - is what Apple calls a CD/DVD drive that will read and
WRITE both CDs and DVDs. This drive is available in Macintosh computers,
and was probably available in them (as usual) first. Definitely
a great thing to have, especially if you have a digital video camera
and you like to make movies. The SuperDrive can also be used to
store around 5 Gigabytes of DATA, although I believe you might have
to buy some third-party utility (such as Toast) to make that work.
Back in the previous century, a 'SuperDrive' was what Apple called
a 3.5 " floppy disk drive that would read and write 800k, and
1.2 Mb "floppy" disks, not only in the Macintosh native
format, and in the Apple // "ProDos" format, but also
in the IBM MS-DOS format. SuperDrives were available for both Macintosh
and Apple // computers, allowing the two different Apple computers
to migrate data back and forth fairly easily. This was a pretty
nifty accomplishment, apocryphally attributed to the programming
prowess of Apple co-founder Steve "Woz" Wozniak. |
System
Folder |
The
big folder on your Startup Volume that contains all the guts of
your Mac's operating system and A WHOLE LOT MORE. Lots of things
to change, lots of things to mess up. Best left to people who have
read at least one book about their Mac or who happily pay a competent
consultant (that would be me) to muck around in there - or not. |
TAFNF |
That's
All For Now Folks. |
TFSB |
Thanks
for stopping by! |
TIA |
Thanks
in advance |
TiMac
|
Powerbook
G4 laptop, also called "Titanium", or "Titanium G4". Why Apple would
go from the 'high touch' curvy, tactile 'feel' of the 'old' PowerBooks
to a completely linear, hard, metallic design, I don't know. I SUSPECT
that they're 'Thinking Different', that they have to 'raise the
bar' now that all the PC companies have once again copied their
innovations, or maybe there's just a new guy in the design group
who had to PROVE himself by TRASHING WHAT CAME BEFORE. Whatever,
they proved that even this metal, linear THING is a THING OF BEAUTY!
|
TROJAN
HORSE |
I
can remember the Latin (Whatever happened to ASU's inspiring Dr.
Lydia Haberman?), but not quite the spelling: "Timeo Danaos et dona
ferentes". Of course this means, 'Beware of Greeks bearing gifts,'
a statement derived from Homer's 'The Illiad' which still has significance
in our DIGITAL AGE. It's amazing, isn't it? Or maybe we think things
have changed in a few thousand years, and THEY REALLY HAVEN'T. A
'Trojan Horse' is a program disguised as something benign like a
screen saver or a JPEG of an attractive female tennis star, but
which in fact is a construction of EVIL INTENT. In reality it might
contain a virus or a password capture program. |
ug
or UG |
User
Group! Usually preceded by some other letters as in PMUG - Princeton
Macintosh User's Group, or NJMUG - New Jersey Macintosh User's Group.
Back in the Jurmassic Era, I was a member of AHUG (Apple Hypercard
User's Group). MUGs are Macintosh User's Groups, and you should
be a member of AT LEAST ONE. |
URL |
What
the h*** is a "URL"?: Stands for: Universal Resource Locator (and
other similar definitions). Most people pronounce this "You - Are
- EL", but some people pronounce it, "Yerl". Internet commoners
believe that URLs only begin with "http:\www". But actually URLs
can be of many types - "http" - which probably stands for "hypertext
transport protocol" is just one. True Internet snobs can tell you
about all the other URLs, which include FTP, and email addresses.
MEMORIZE THIS URL--> <http://www.info.apple.com/>
Brackets surrounding the URL <> are the generally accepted
manner of setting a URL off from the text around it, also making
it possible for programs to recognize the URL as a link which (if
the program or OS is smart enough) can become 'live'. That means
you can click on the URL (even in your word processor or email program)
and your web browser should open the page to which it refers. Be
sure to read the O&U article below for more on this EXCITING
topic. |
USB,
USB HUB, POWERED USB HUB |
Universal
Serial Bus. At its most basic, a jack on your Mac and a special
cable that attaches to another jack on another device, such as a
keyboard, mouse, scanner, digital camera, joystick, etc.
USB had A LOT OF PROBLEMS when it first came out a couple years
ago on the original iMacs. But most of the hardware and software
drivers lately seem to have cleaned that up. Downloading the latest
USB drivers from Apple, or direct from your peripheral vendor, might
fix flakey problems with USB. It oughta work the way it is supposed
to. That is, hot-swappable - you should be able to plug devices
in and unplug them without having to restart your Mac. Daisy chainable
- plug one device into another device, into another device, into
your Mac. You shouldn't have to plug every device into one of the
USB ports on your Mac. Sometimes you need a USB HUB, which adds
additional ports. It's a good idea to get a POWERED HUB, which provides
additional power to the USB devices, instead of trying to suck it
all out of your Mac. The original iMacs and some of the G4 Macs
were rumored to have notoriously WIMPY USB power. |
Virtual
PC |
The
safest, most stable way to run Microsoft Windows.
May the TAO give you all it's blessings if you have never had to
deal with Mac/PC compatibility issues. Many of us (especially if
we work in BIG DUMB CORPORATIONS) need to PROVE our Macs can DO
ANYTHING and FIT IN ANYWHERE no matter what absurd obstacles the
Dark Riders put in our paths. One tool for doing this is Virtual
PC, which actually puts a Windows (or Linux if you prefer) PC on
your Macintosh in Emulation. That is, it is a software Program (from
a company called Connectix), that runs just like an Intel PC, in
a Window on your Mac. Can't get your accountant to use M.Y.O.B.?
He insists on QuickBooks under Windows?? If you must, you can get
Virtual PC and run Quickbooks on your Mac. Current versions of Virtual
PC are Applescriptable to the keystroke level, so you can actually
automate Windows programs that are too dumb to do it themselves.
(I know, I know, I'm pretty snippy on this topic. I'm trying to
lighten up, but that's me. Get over it.) |
Volume |
A
word we use to describe an icon on your desktop where a bunch of
files are kept on a storage device such as a floppy disk or CD-Rom.
Why don't we just call it a "disk" or a "disk volume"? Because a
volume can be a RAM DISK (which is really only present in RAM),
or a DISK IMAGE and because some media, such as hard drives and
CD-ROMs can have MULTIPLE volumes. If you've ever put an "enhanced
CD" in your Mac, you'll see this. The CD contains regular CD-Audio
data which comes up as one icon. The Multi-media content comes up
as another Volume. [Let me take this opportunity to recommend "The
Ultimate Blue Train" enhanced CD, by John Coltrane on Blue Note.]
It can get confusing. Don't worry about it. Just think of a Volume
as an icon on the desktop that can have stuff like folders and files
inside it. |
VPC |
"Virtual
PC" Any Mac user who has had to contend with inflexible IT
people at BIG DUMB CORPORATIONs knows that in addition to OS9 and
OSX, Macs can become "compatible" by running all sorts
of versions of Windows (even MS-DOS or Linux) using "Virtual
PC". Virtual PC is software, a program that actually emulates
the Intel architecture on the Macintosh, allowing you to run Windows
in a window (or full-screen if you prefer) on your Mac. Even if
you don't need a Windows app but must access a stingy Windows-only
server, VPC works so well you can use it to do all kinds of Windows
networking. You can have a network "share" volume appear
on your Windows VPC machine and drag'n'drop files to and from a
Mac Finder window. You can also "share" a volume or folder
that can be accessed by your VPC/Windows apps AND your Mac OS apps.
This can be pretty handy if you want to check out the appearance
of your web page or other application on multiple platforms, multiple
browsers, etc. |
MG |
Mac
Geek, the best kind of Geek there is. Sometimes referred to as a
'Mac Whacker' or 'Mac Head'. Unix and Linux geeks are okay too.
PC Geeks don't qualify as 'geeks'. They're properly called: "PC
Weenies", and per Scott Kelby, get roasted in all good Mac
publications. |
PC
Weenie |
Technically,
PC users don't quality as geeks, but this is the DOS-based equivalent.
PC Geek, verbal member of the unthinking masses, supporter of the
Monopolistic Forces of Darkness. Mac Basher. Owner of the thought,
"Why can't you be a good sheep?" |
Wizard |
Members
of the Wise, usually GOOD, like Gandalf, but sometimes as in the
case of Sarumon, seduced by the Powers of Darkness. Sometimes bumbling
or arrogant as in the case of many Wizards used in ANOTHER operating
system. |
I know this needs to be updated.
That's the nature of language!
By Christopher Plummer
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