Odds & Ends

New Macs due in January All signs point to the announcement of a new line of desktops G3 Macs at Macworld Expo in January. An article in CNET News.com provides a good overview of what the predictions are.

Virus of MacFormat magazine CD? No Jose Azevedo reported that the MacFormat 71 Christmas Issue CD ROM has a virus. Update: Richard Hill (Deputy Editor of MacFormat) categorically denies this is the case. The discs have been verified as virus-free. Mr. Hill contends that any problem Mr. Azevedo has is due to a physical defect in his particular disc or a problem with his Mac setup. We apologize for not checking with MacFormat before posting this.

Talk City pre-Macworld Expo events Talk City is hosting a series of special Pre-Macworld live chats for the next 3 weeks. Among the scheduled guests are Paul Kent (President of Mactivity, Macworld Expo Conference Organizers) Christopher Breen and Andy Ihnatko.

The iMac: Bray is not impressed A short while ago, I posted a couple of items about magazine columnists that were returning to the Mac after their previously publicized switch to Windows. Hiawatha Bray (a name often linked to Mac criticism) will not be one of them. He writes: "It'll take more than the iMac to make a convert of me." I was initially pleased to read about columnists' return to the Mac and was initially disappointed in Bray's article. I was especially irritated that Bray's rationale was based on emphasizing one of the very few ways that PCs are superior to Macs (their handling of virtual memory) while ignoring the many ways (often more significant in my view) that the reverse is true. But then what should have been obvious dawned on me. No product will ever please everyone. That's why Pepsi and Coke still co-exist. It's why Burger King still competes with MacDonalds. So, in the end, it matters little that Mr. Bray wants to stick with his PC. The Mac will survive just fine without him.