Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 01:47:24 -0500
Subject: What's Behind All The Bad Press?
From: Nathan Tennies Ðbootstrp@vnet.netð
What's behind all the bad press? This is one question that's been eating
at me. While the media certainly has the responsibility to report
negative happenings in the Apple world, the high degree of
misinformation, speculation, rumor, and conclusion by the media that
we've seen in the last few weeks is unprecedented.
It seems to me if we're going to figure out how to correct the damage -
and reduce the likelihood of it happening again - we have to identify
what went wrong this time. I don't want to play the blame game, but if
we can't honestly identify the problems, we can't fix 'em.
Off the top of my head, I can see three of the possible problems:
1) Smaller media outlets don't write (let alone research) national
stories much anymore. At least for our local Charlotte Observer, almost
all of the national business-related news comes from other sources. The
recent killer headline in the Observer's business section - "Apple
Surrenders Consumer Niche" - came from an AP story. Undoubtedly,
hundreds of other media outlets around the country mindlessly copied this
article.
2) The media is misinformed. They don't really understand computers or
the computer industry. I see this problem all the time in their choice
of what to report on, in the factual errors in all kinds of
computer-related stories (especially regarding the Internet). If they
are misinformed, they can't verify the accuracy or relevance of news they
receive from other sources, let alone write their own stories.
3) The media increasingly looks for sensational stories, and plays up
sensational aspects of stories. Simply reporting that Apple had a loss
and is laying off some workers is boring. Reporting that this means
Apple is on its last legs, that its about to be bought, etc. increases
sales or viewers. And I recently read that marketing folks rely on
sensationalization to increase reader/viewer "vulnerability" to
advertising.
However, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Are some
reporters _really_ biased against Apple or the Macintosh? Do they
actually want to see Apple fail? Or are we just seeing the interaction
of the above three factors? In other words, may a reporter trying to
sensationalize an article intentionally distort or leave out facts simply
to sell papers, with no actual malice toward Apple?
If there are reporters who actually _are_ anti-Mac or anti-Apple, can we
identify who they are? Are they in positions that will allow their
stories to be copied verbatim by other media outlets?
Why isn't the media better informed about Apple and its products? Apple
puts out a lot of press releases, are these not working? Do they even
reach reporters and editors at smaller media outlets around the country?
If they do, are they read?
What else is behind the current tidal wave of bad press?
Any ideas about what we or Apple can do to address these problems?
Nathan Tennies
Bootstrap Enterprises Inc
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 03:15:59 -0500
Subject: SEMPER FI REPOST: Enough Is Enough
From: Nathan Tennies Ðbootstrp@vnet.netð
Michael D Murie wrote the following on Semper Fi, and I've reposted it
here for those Carpe Diem folks not on both lists. It seems to explain
at least part of Apple's current media woes, from the perspective of a
writer.
Nathan Tennies
Bootstrap Enterprises Inc
>I can't help thinking that one of Apple's problems is that they haven't
>been good at working with (i.e.sucking up to) the press. Hasn't anyone at
>Apple read "The Macintosh Way"?
>
>Here's two examples from my own dealings with Apple, which occured three
>years apart:
>
>I co-wrote one of the first QuickTime books. Apple had no interest in
>providing any help. The Product Manager referred us to the person
>responsible for handling "Book Authors". Her primary job seemed to be to
>ignore us. Two months after the product shipped they sent out a 1.0
>CD-ROM. That was the extent of the support/interest.
>
>A couple of months ago I wrote an article on QuickTime VR for Digital
>Video magazine. After phone calls and email with Apple PR I was sent a
>press release, and they suggested I read the MacWorld article on
>QuickTime VR for more information. (For a while I wondered if they were
>going to suggest we just reprint the article!) They wouldn't send a copy of
>the authoring tool because it wasn't for "end-users". Only after I emailed a
>three page list of questions did they arrange to let me talk to an engineer
>(who I must say *was* very helpful.)
>
>As a counter example, at the same time I called Microsoft to find out
>about their press release technology Surround Video. They sent me more
>press releases than I knew what to do with, a white paper on Surround
>Video and offered to arrange an interview with an engineer (I didn't ask,
>they suggested I might like to.) The person at the PR company called back
>frequently to keep me up to date on the arrangements and I have to say I
>feel
>more positive about the experience with Microsoft than with Apple (and I
>don't like Windows!!)
>And, they never actually managed to arrange an interview (my belief is that
>the PR person didn't know there wasn't really anything to talk about until
>she
>tried to find someone!!) But I really felt like the PR person cared about
>my problems and *tried* to help me. (They must have read "The Macintosh
>Way" in Redmond)
>
>So, Apple should take a leaf out of Microsoft's book (just like Microsoft
>took the GUI out of their's) and do the following:
>
>1. Gather up all the influential press they can and bring them over to
>Apple's research labs and show them lots of neat technology, served with
>food, wine and beer. Give everyone an exclusive they can write about (and
>maybe slip in some Mac vs Windows info too, but don't go over board on that.)
>
>2. Pre-announce several amazing things (if it's good enough for
>Microsoft and IBM.)
>
>3. Give them beta's of Coupland, and the number of someone to call if
>they have questions or problems. They'll never bother installing them
>anyway but they'll feel good.
>
>4. Let them talk to important, as well as knowledgeable people.
>
>5. Let me come too because it was my idea.
>
>
>And quit this defensive posture. It just confirms peoples suspicions that
>there are problems.
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 10:37:14 +0000 (GMT)
From: Koryn Grant Ðkdg2@ukc.ac.ukð
Subject: Re: What's Behind All The Bad Press?
On Sat, 3 Feb 1996, Nathan Tennies wrote:
> Why isn't the media better informed about Apple and its products? Apple
> puts out a lot of press releases, are these not working? Do they even
> reach reporters and editors at smaller media outlets around the country?
> If they do, are they read?
How about compiling a list of email addresses for reporters and having
someone who gets Apple's Press Releases *ensure* that they are forwarded to
these people? This will no doubt be a big job but from some of the stuff
that's been printed (e.g. Time's article Feb 5) I'm pretty sure that
many reporters simply aren't aware of the PRs Apple are sending out
electronically. Maybe a Mac-savvy reporter who could write a paragraph to
tack on to the front explaining the PR in simple terms, for
non-computer-geek reporters.
This would probably require asking the reporters first ("Hey, we'd like
to send you the latest news from Apple as it's released. How about
it?") so they don't get hacked off when their email a/c is flooded with
Apple Press Releases.
Is this a Good Idea or a Not So Good Idea?
Koryn Grant A Kiwi in the UK oBo
Ph.D. Student (Applied Mathematics) University of Kent / X
Home page: Ðhttp://stork.ukc.ac.uk/IMS/maths/people/K.D.Grant/ð
Interface: Apple Power Macintosh
Subject: Re: What's Behind All The Bad Press?
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 96 22:19:11 +1000
From: Grant Bayley Ðgbayley@geko.net.auð
>This would probably require asking the reporters first ("Hey, we'd like
>to send you the latest news from Apple as it's released. How about
>it?") so they don't get hacked off when their email a/c is flooded with
>Apple Press Releases.
>
>Is this a Good Idea or a Not So Good Idea?
I figure this helps, and I know it's partially a case of preaching
to the converted, but in the course of setting up my Mac Archive
(http://mac.unsw.edu.au/), I sought out as many Mac-interested and
Mac-savy reporters in the Australian Media, including the "online"
correspondants of MacUser and MacWorld (the Australian ones), as
well as a reporter guy who writes for a couple of major local
newspapers in their computer section, and sent them details about
what my archive did etc etc etc, telling them exactly what I thought
they wanted to hear. In this case, it wasnt so much preaching
Apple's products and innovations, but self promotion.
Needless to say, the self PR worked, my site ended up getting a
mention in Australian MacUser's Feb 1996 edition as a "site
worth visiting" (I locally hand-mirror a whole stack of useful
and not-often-seen-in-Australia stuff on my Uni's FTP site),
as well as having the reporter bloke as a recipient of the
archive's mailing list and a regular letter writer, him being
eager to learn whatever he can about the Mac (yes, there are
pro-mac journos out there)
The thing is that Apple needs to feed the papers exactly what
they want to hear, about fantastic new things in the pipeline
(like pre-announcement one in a while), and _how_ these cool
tools will make things easier or faster or better for everyday users.
Mindshare is the key.
Grant Bayley
BTW, if anybody happens to visit my small-ish site, I did all
the graphics myself... on a Mac
PS: Please save CyberDog. Please dont give us boring CRAP like
Apple Internet Explorer Kit. We'll end up sounding like MS
PPS: I also like the idea raised on semper.fi about each buying
a share or two as part of a collective or organisation of users.
**************************************************************************
Grant Bayley "Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration
UNSW Mac Archive Bloke to describe the history of the computer
Macintosh Evangelist industry for the past decade as a massive
President, Food Science Assoc. effort to keep up with Apple"
gbayley@zonk.geko.net.au -Byte, December 1994
http://mac.unsw.edu.au/
**************************************************************************
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 08:50:59 -0500
From: Danimanz@aol.com
Subject: Re: What's Behind All The Bad Press?
An obvious point that Apple is missing is publicity.
Fery few media (specially the irresponsible ones that publish nonsense) would
attack the hand that feeds them.
So Apple should start a more serious publicitary campaign (meaning not
restricted to Mac magazines), this would not just start to make more people
aware of Mac's wonders but also will shut the press up.
I already mentioned in semper.fi how I think it is a waste of money to
publish a 5 pages ad in a Mac magazine. Why isn't apple advertising in the
NYT, WSJ, or PC magazines?
Regarding the plan on:
>>How about compiling a list of email addresses for reporters and having
someone who gets Apple's Press Releases *ensure* that they are forwarded to
these people? This will no doubt be a big job but from some of the stuff
that's been printed (e.g. Time's article Feb 5) I'm pretty sure that
many reporters simply aren't aware of the PRs Apple are sending out
electronically. Maybe a Mac-savvy reporter who could write a paragraph to
tack on to the front explaining the PR in simple terms, for
non-computer-geek reporters.
A good idea would be to give to each subscriber of this list part of that
list of reporters, so each of us would be in charge of informing, say, 10
reporters. This would make the job real easy. All we would have to do is copy
from carpe.diem the posting (that would be marked with some code in the
subject so we know it is to be forwarded) and forward it to our list of ten
reporters. Does it get any easier?
Daniel Manzano
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 10:14:12 -0500
From: jragosta@dca.net (Joe Ragosta)
Subject: Re: What's Behind All The Bad Press?
>
>2) The media is misinformed. They don't really understand computers or
>the computer industry. I see this problem all the time in their choice
>of what to report on, in the factual errors in all kinds of
>computer-related stories (especially regarding the Internet). If they
>are misinformed, they can't verify the accuracy or relevance of news they
>receive from other sources, let alone write their own stories.
I just talked with a reporter from the San Jose Paper (notoriously
anti-Mac). This reporter had never even heard of PPCP, so had no clue
what I was talking about in the discussion.
>
>However, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Are some
>reporters _really_ biased against Apple or the Macintosh? Do they
>actually want to see Apple fail? Or are we just seeing the interaction
>of the above three factors? In other words, may a reporter trying to
>sensationalize an article intentionally distort or leave out facts simply
>to sell papers, with no actual malice toward Apple?
Mainly, I believe the reporters are lazy. It's easier for them to follow
the herd (supported by dozens of inaccurate Microsoft press releases). It's
much harder for them to search for the facts. If they don't get a press
release (preferably a _lot_) and see it in UPI or AP, they don't want to
hear it.
I also believe that one or two papers (the Wall Street Journal and San Jose
paper, for example) _are_ biased against the Mac. Since these are often
influential papers who everyone else copies ("a Wall Street Journal report
says...."), it can do a lot of damage.
Regards
Joe Ragosta
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 15:15:30 +0000
From: Keith.Hodges@brunel.ac.uk (Keith P Hodges)
Subject: Re: What's Behind All The Bad Press?
Please how does one get the digest of this list ?
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 10:17:12 -0500
From: jragosta@dca.net (Joe Ragosta)
Subject: Re: SEMPER FI REPOST: Enough Is Enough
[lots of good ideas on informing the press]
>>
>>
>>And quit this defensive posture. It just confirms peoples suspicions that
>>there are problems.
AMEN. I talked with a San Jose reporter yesterday and said that the #1 task
facing Amelio is to provide leadership. Apple needs someone in charge who
believes in the platform and isn't shy about telling the world. I believe
that's why Markkula gave him the Chairman's job as well (according to the
San Jose paper)--he wants one voice, one figurehead, one vision leading
Apple.
We've got a lot going for us. WHY THE DOOM AND GLOOM?
Regards
Joe Ragosta
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 10:18:13 -0500
From: jragosta@dca.net (Joe Ragosta)
Subject: Re: What's Behind All The Bad Press?
>How about compiling a list of email addresses for reporters and having
>someone who gets Apple's Press Releases *ensure* that they are forwarded to
>these people?
How about putting them on the Carpe Diem mailing list or Guy Kawasaki's
EvangeList?
Regards
Joe Ragosta
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 14:05:40 -0500
Subject: Carpe Diem Digest
From: Nathan Tennies Ðbootstrp@vnet.netð
Keith P Hodges wrote:
>Please how does one get the digest of this list ?
Good question Keith. I know Andrew is setting up a Web site with
archives. I'll ask about the possibility of setting up a digest.
Nathan Tennies
Bootstrap Enterprises Inc
Date: 3 Feb 1996 11:23:07 -0800
From: "John David N. Dionisio" Ðdondi@CS.UCLA.EDUð
Subject: Press Release(s) Proposal
Hello AIMED and Carpe Diem,
Some questions seem to have now come up concerning press releases. So far,
two press releases have appeared. The first one was what was originally an
"all-developers" draft that I put up; it has since been rewritten (though not
re-released) as a per-developer statement.
The second press release is one specific to the formation of AIMED. Now,
people are wondering which way to go. I offer a solution:
- release both on February 29, in this manner:
* AIMED releases its own announcement (i.e. the more recent draft)
* INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPERS release their own customized version of
the original press release; the customized version will have content
specific to the developer's Mac successes, and may also include a
blurb such as "we are also joining AIMED..."
This way, we have a true media event, if we can get enough individual
companies to issue a press release.
As a follow-up, these press releases should:
- include WWW information
- include contact information
- be as positive as possible; someone has mentioned taking care not to overly
criticize the media, because they will bite back; instead, just make
statements contradicting what the media has stated *without* saying that the
media was wrong
On my part, I will send out a revised customized developer release within the
week. I also would like to call for signups from the following key Mac
developers; I think this will enhance the overall "weight" of February 29, if
these companies were represented:
- Microsoft (yes, them; think of it --- "well, MS supports the Mac still, so
they must be admitting that there's something there that W95 doesn't have...")
- Lotus/IBM (Lotus *does* make Notes for the Mac...and IBM may be making Mac
clones when PPCP comes out...imagine this: "IBM/Lotus makes public statement
in support of Apple's Macintosh" Wow!)
- Corel (particularly in light of the WordPerfect acquisition)
- Adobe
- Fractal Design
- Macromedia
- Connectix
- Global Village
- LucasArts
- Bungie
- Berkeley Systems
- Insignia Software
- MacPlay
...and many more. I choose these developers not necessarily for quality of
their products, but for their potential media impact if they show support for
the Mac OS. I have no contacts to speak of --- can somebody out there who
does try to solicit people from these companies to affiliate with AIMED or put
out a release on the 29th?
Thanks for your time...and effort!
HFMYBNKJOJMKMLCCHFMYBNKJOJMKMLCCHFMYBNKJOJMKMLCCHFMYBNKJOJMKMLCCHFMYBNKJO
John David N. Dionisio, PhD candidate "Ignorance is curable,
dondi@cs.ucla.edu stupidity is forever."
http://kmed-www.cs.ucla.edu/bios/dondi.html -- Al Vinci
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 15:51:51 -0500
Subject: Re: What's Behind All The Bad Press?
From: Nathan Tennies Ðbootstrp@vnet.netð
Joe Ragosta wrote:
>>2) The media is misinformed. They don't really understand computers or
>>the computer industry. I see this problem all the time in their choice
>>of what to report on, in the factual errors in all kinds of
>>computer-related stories (especially regarding the Internet). If they
>>are misinformed, they can't verify the accuracy or relevance of news they
>>receive from other sources, let alone write their own stories.
>
>I just talked with a reporter from the San Jose Paper (notoriously
>anti-Mac). This reporter had never even heard of PPCP, so had no clue
>what I was talking about in the discussion.
Good example. Does anyone else feel like Apple's PR is just too
esoteric? If I'm a harried reporter or editor, and I get an Apple press
release in my hand, can I read one or two sentences and immediately
understand why this thing is important? Do I sense that this is
interesting or relevant or (better still) maybe a little sensational in
nature?
Seems to me that for Apple's PR to kick butt, a reporter or editor needs
to read the headline of the press release, and think, "Hey, that could
sell papers!". Apple has always been the underdog, the dark horse, and
today that's true more than ever. I think Apple needs to exploit that
underdog image. It is precisely that everyone thinks Intel and Microsoft
are invincible that every chink in their armour makes for a sensational
news story. I think Apple (or evangelists like us) need to figure out a
way to make that work in our favor.
Nathan Tennies
Bootstrap Enterprises Inc
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 15:51:56 -0500
Subject: Does Apple have Any Credibility With The Media?
From: Nathan Tennies Ðbootstrp@vnet.netð
>How about compiling a list of email addresses for reporters and having
>someone who gets Apple's Press Releases *ensure* that they are forwarded to
>these people?
I think that's a good idea. Maybe if we can put together a list of "key"
reporters and editors who have wide impact, either Apple (or evangelists)
can ensure that they are kept informed. However, that raises another
question.
Does Apple have any credibility left with the media?
I don't necessarily think Apple's track record in this area is any worst
than, say, Microsoft's. In fact, I recently saw a mention in Hot News
about a Seattle paper talkinga about Microsoft's poor track record of
having anything materialize from their announcements. However, the
media's perception of Apple's current state is so bad, I have to wonder
whether they would give any credence to any positive PR coming from
Cupertino.
I guess if I were a typical reporter or editor who had been following the
Apple news, and I actually received a release that said "Apple Demos
MacOS on the PowerPC Platform", I'd either think this is irrelevant
(given that I think Apple is "bleeding" red ink) or just desperate spin
control (given that I think Apple is going down the tubes). After all,
how can a company that's not going to last the year benefit from the
PowerPC Platform. And all this asssumes I even know or care what the
implications of the PowerPC Platform are.
I'm not trying to be defeatist. I think Apple does _indeed_ need to
seriously beef up their PR department. In fact, I think the only way
they are going to improve their credibility is to get effective Apple PR
not only into the hands of technology reporters at big media outlets, but
in the hands of business editors and reporters at the small dailies and
local stations as well.
Nathan Tennies
Bootstrap Enterprises Inc
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 15:52:02 -0500
Subject: Re: What's Behind All The Bad Press?
From: Nathan Tennies Ðbootstrp@vnet.netð
Daniel Manzano wrote:
>A good idea would be to give to each subscriber of this list part of that
>list of reporters, so each of us would be in charge of informing, say, 10
>reporters. This would make the job real easy. All we would have to do is copy
>from carpe.diem the posting (that would be marked with some code in the
>subject so we know it is to be forwarded) and forward it to our list of ten
>reporters. Does it get any easier?
That's an interesting idea. I think that we could also have other
evangelists ensure that smaller news outlets - local TV and radio
stations and newspapers - got the message too. If we have info we think
evangelists should distribute, maybe we can get Guy to distribute it on
the Evangelist list, which I understand now has about 18,000 members
(wow). That's an army.
I guess this dovetails with my question about Apple's credibility. Would
reporters and editors in small, local media outlets pay more attention to
information being faxed, emailed, etc. to them by local folks, than if
the same info came from Apple?
Since what comes from us won't be "official" Apple press releases, can we
structure what comes from grassroots evangelists in different ways than
Apple could? Could we make them a little more sensational?
Nathan Tennies
Bootstrap Enterprises Inc
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 16:00:29 -0500
From: TheGapGuy6@aol.com
Subject: Re: What's Behind All The Bad Press?
>How about compiling a list of email addresses for reporters and having
>someone who gets Apple's Press Releases *ensure* that they are forwarded to
>these people?
>How about putting them on the Carpe Diem mailing list or Guy Kawasaki's
>EvangeList?
I'm not sure if this is what Joe Ragosta meant but one of the offending
newspapers is the Knoxville News Sentinel. They can be reached at
Ðkns@knoxnews.comð.
Adam Lynn
e-mail @ TheGapGuy6@aol.com
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 15:52:07 -0500
Subject: Example Of Pretty Bad Marketing
From: Nathan Tennies Ðbootstrp@vnet.netð
Something Joe Ragosta said made me think of this. A few years ago, I
remember reading that Apple was sponsoring a race car (or team or
driver). Anyway, they were trucking this car around the country, making
stops in major cities, and somehow were using these stops as a Macintosh
promotional event.
When I read the press release about this, I couldn't believe it. I
identify this sort of marketing campaign with big, out-of-touch companies
like IBM, Sperry, and DEC who have way too much money and not a clue how
to communicate their products' benefits to their customers. It doesn't
jibe at all with the scrappy, inventive, in-touch, "Macintosh Way"
company that Apple _should_ be (and occasionally is). It scared me that
there were people in Apple's marketing department who thought that the
benefits of Apple's products were so abstract that they had to resort to
attracting people using a race car.
Don't get me wrong. Having a sports idol wear your product - or your
product's logo - can certainly help convince thousands of people to buy
your product. But how many people idolize a racing car? Heck, I live in
Charlotte, NC, where the three R's of entertainment are "racing,
'restling, and religion", and I don't know many folks who'd go out of
their way to see a race car.
Nathan Tennies
Bootstrap Enterprises Inc
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 17:07:43 -0500
Subject: Carpe Diem Is Being Digested
From: Nathan Tennies Ðbootstrp@vnet.netð
I just talked with Andrew Donoho, our list administrator, and he said
that digests of Carpe Diem are already being produced and can be set by
sending an email to Carpe.Diem-Request with the following as the body of
the message:
set Carpe.Diem digest
That's all! Andrew says that archives are already being generated, but
he hasn't put the Web page pointing to them together. Wow, Andrew has
really done a great job of whipping Carpe Diem into shape fast.
Nathan Tennies
Bootstrap Enterprises Inc
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 14:09:14 -0800
Subject: Re: What's Behind All The Bad Press?
From: Glenn Leach Ðgleach@earthlink.netð
>Mindshare is the key.
I agree, MINDSHARE IS THE KEY! I also agree that to increase it we =
need to educate the media. I will find the email addresses of the =
media in the DC area (Washington Post etc) and forward Apple Press =
releases to them. Or is there agreement from the list members to set =
up a separate list to do this?
_________________________________________________________
Glenn Leach | Accounting and Macintosh Consulting
:-) | for the Small Business and Professional
_________________________________________________________
gleach@earthlink.net | Arlington, VA | (703) 920-0481
=80=80=80=80
-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=
=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D=
-=3D-
Join "EvangeList," Guy Kawasaki's (un)official Apple listserver of =
good
news about Apple, Macintosh, and third-party developers. To subscribe =
to
EvangeList, send an email to: listproc@solutions.apple.comð and =
include
in the body of the message the text: Subscribe Macway
-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=
=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D=
-=3D-
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 18:46:36 -0500
Subject: Re: What's Behind All The Bad Press?
From: Nathan Tennies Ðbootstrp@vnet.netð
Glenn Leach wrote:
>I agree, MINDSHARE IS THE KEY! I also agree that to increase it we need to
>educate the media. I will find the email addresses of the media in the DC
>area (Washington Post etc) and forward Apple Press releases to them. Or
>is there agreement from the list members to set up a separate list to do
>this?
I'd say to go ahead and use Carpe Diem to put together a list of email
addresses for media folks. It might be worth also finding fax numbers as
well. I'll start compiling a list as they come in.
Nathan Tennies
Bootstrap Enterprises Inc
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 16:08:15 -0800
From: xenolith@halcyon.com (Kevin Purcell)
Subject: Re: What's Behind All The Bad Press?
The flip side is what the New York Times had to say today in their
meta-article "Apple and Disclosure: How golden is silence?" on the whole
Apple thing. It ran beside their the continuation of their front page
article on the replacement of Spindler (and Markkula) in the Business
section.
The gist of the article is why didn't Apple say anything earlier on Friday
about the replacement of the both the CEO and chairman and why didn't
NASDAQ stop trading in their shares. The NASDAQ rules require "prompt
disclosure" of any events affecting a companies value. Why was it National
Semiconductor was saying early in the moring (around 11am) that Amelio had
resigned his position as CEO. NASDAQ's response was "that there was full
disclosure in the newspapers " i.e. one of those rumors must be correct!
The final sentence is telling a company like Apple may be less risk of
legal action by saying nothing than by saying something incorrect.
It all reminds me of the Al Haig "I'm in charge here" debarcle after the
attempted asassination of Ronald Reagan.
The article next to that is worth reading too: a quick summary of Amelio's
career especially his work at NatSemi. It doesn't make great reading. He
seems to be able to make a company profitable but still in a poor position
compared to its competitors. Although he talks like a "transformation
expert" (taking the long-term view) his actions and results are more like a
"turn around artist" (taking the short term view) in heading rapidly
towards profitibility. An executive commented that he sent new goals and
new metrics and then disappeared into the woodwork. Meanwhile plants
closed, workers were laid off and profits reappeared but without any real
growth and he has moved onto Apple.
The graph of NatSemi's stock price is interesting too. A steady improvement
from $5 to $25 then peaking at $30ish late last year before droping to its
current $17. He took NatSemi out of the commodity chip market. Others have
said he is a conventional "by the book" manager who missed the chance to
transform NatSemi into a new company. Perhaps he see's Appl
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 01:04:30 -0800
From: Schubert@eworld.com
Subject: Re: A tactic to help trounce Windows
Thursday, February 22, 1996
Hello!
Let me tell you about an experience that was an eye-opener for me.
A friend and export manager for a cosmetics company from France came on a
business trip to Taipei/Taiwan, and stayed in a medium-sized business hotel.
He was typing his faxes to be sent back to Paris on his new Texas Instruments
PC laptop. Never mind that he did not have an internal fax modem, but he
needed a hard copy to fax, and for his filing.
He went to the hotel's business center, and, after connecting to their
printer, tried to print out on their Epson. However, he did not have the
driver necessary installed (his Windows gave the message: "Please install the
driver from Windows disk #7",) but who would bring a complete set of Windows
disks on a business trip?
As tempers flared, we finally tried to copy the faxes files on a floppy disk
to transfer it into the business center Taiwan clone PC for print-out. It was
a major operation, and took us about five minutes. We had to switch several
times between DOS and Windows.
No problem, we thought, as he wrote his faxes in MS Works (no, he was not
writing them "in Windows," as the business center manager explained!) and the
center must have a word processor... We found one, but it was a Dutch version
of WordPerfect, and we just could not make it open MS Works documents. Files
were just not compatible, what a nightmare.
So we took a taxi with the documents on the floppy to the Regent Hotel, then
the Hilton, alas, with the same result: their business centers were not able
to print out the files, either!
I went home with the floppy, inserted it into my Mac, double-clicked, and
with my friend looking at me and his file in utter amazement, opened it in
less than 20 seconds. Once the heading gibberish removed, I printed all his
faxes in less than a minute.
A story about Windows compatibility in real life!
Cheers,
Wolfgang Schubert
Support & Solutions
Apple Computing Consultants
P. O. Box 90
Peitou 11299, Taiwan
We'll keep your Apple Computer smiling...
+886 2 896-2866
fax +886 2 894-9894
taiwanmac@eworld.com
anappleaday@pristine.com.tw
See Support & Solutions' smile for yourself, and check out cool Mac links at
home page: Ðhttp://www.pristine.com.tw/AMPERSAND/ð
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 10:07:17 -0500 (EST)
From: "Bruno Bloch +41-1-631 7472, Fax 7886" Ðbruno.bloch@reuters.comð
Subject: Apple please stop blocking the sales of your products
Dear Apple Friends
As US citizens you are not affected by Apple's blocking policy but all other
aliens are.
Since Jan 2nd, 96 I am a converted Apple fan (after 10 years PC/office
frustration). I started to buy all those US Apple magazines like MacUser (my
favorite) and MacWorld.
Being attracted by many software progs and add-ons for the Mac, I called some
stores in Switzerland (where I live) just to find out that they either don't
carry the products wanted or sell it a horrible prices (large premiums over the
US prices).
So I went to call some US mail order stores just to find out that Apple
prevents them of selling their products outside the United States. Many other
companies have the same policy, like Global Village.
Why should they do that? To prevent local dealers in Europe? What's the point
of supporting European dealers selling Apple products at higher prices than I
could get them from the US, including paying UPS shipping and the local sales
tax in Switzerland upon arrival?
APPLE STOP YOUR CHINESE WALL POLICY AND ALLOW MAILSTORES TO SELL CROSS BOARDER
!!! and expand your European market share vs Wintel.
Regards
Bruno Bloch - Switzerland
From: bastion1@netcom.com (Gregory Weston)
Subject: Re: Are Mac Evangelists Arrogant?
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 05:18:36 -0800 (PST)
> One quick example from the Windows 95 release. A lot of Mac users
> (including myself) pointed out that the Mac had features like long file
> names for ten years before Windows did. The popular "Been There. Done
> That" slogon captures that sentiment. But this can come across as a bit
> arrogant. As one my partners - who uses both Macs and PCs - said, "Who
> cares who had it first. All that matters is that Windows users have it
> now." And, in a sense, he's right. I don't know which auto company
> first included air bags or multi-speed windshield wipers; once they are
> common, who cares who had it first.
I've been thinking about this issue myself recently, and had a
counter-argument occur to me: Having something doesn't mean that
you have the ability to utilize it. You can very correctly make
the statement that both platforms offer 'Feature XYZ' now, but
on which platform do the users _and_ the developers have experience
actually using that feature? And how long will it take those on
the other platform to come up to speed?
Greg
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 11:26:16 +0200
From: mpap@hypernet.hyper.gr (Manolis Papastefanou)
Subject: Re: Mouse vs. Keyboard (2 mouses And Keybd)
Greetings !
I get into this thread just to mention a friend of mine that is a graphic
artist. He not only uses his mouse and his keyboard but he has a second
mouse!
The interesting part is that the mouse lies on the floor under the desk and
is used only for clicking by the foot!
Just another aspect of the subject,
Best regards,
Manolis
Manolis Papastefanou (mpap@escape.hyper.gr)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Escape Information Sevices "Yield to temptation,
Thessaloniki it may not pass your
HELLAS way again"
-------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 08:34:36 -0500
From: pkscout@acpub.duke.edu (Kyle Johnson)
Subject: Where is the admin FAQ for this list
I need to get off this list and I don't remember getting an admin mailing
that included the address and commands to get off the list.
I loathe having to send this kind of request to the list, but I have no
real choice. If the list admin could please respond directly to me I would
appreciate it.
Thanks.
Kyle
---
Kyle Johnson, System Engineer pkscout@acpub.duke.edu
National Technology Group RTP,NC johns128@mc.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~pkscout/ M6588@applelink.apple.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a
mistake when you make it again.
-F.P. Jones
___________________
Join "EvangeList," Guy Kawasaki's (un)official Apple listserver of good
news about Apple, Macintosh, and third-party developers. To subscribe to
EvangeList, send an email to: listproc@solutions.apple.comð and include
in the body of the message the text: Subscribe Macway
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 05:33:50 -0600
From: fschoute@isbe.state.il.us (Fred Schouten)
Subject: Re: The Cost of NOT Using MacOS
Gino Larsen-Giacalone wrote:
|... While educators might be
|concerned about training kids in Windows I'm sure school boards will be
|concerned if they are shown the costs of maintaining systems other than
|Macs. They should be made clear that, yes they can go with the more popular
|OS BUT it will cost them more and their children will get less.
I agree! Do you have any citations of where this type of hard data may be
located? I recently talked my School Board president down from his phobia
of the Apple company. He relented in his insistence on Intel-based boxes,
and we will be outfitting all of our high school teachers' desktops with
Motorola-based boxed (a.k.a. "Mac") next year! I would like to be able to
back up my assertions about ongoing maintenance costs with real data.
Thanks,
Fred
============================================================================
| J. Fred Schouten, Ed.D. | http://isbe.state.il.us/~peohs |
| Director of Curriculum and Technology |--------------------------------|
| Peotone Unit District #207U | Phone: 708-258-3236 |
| Peotone, Illinois, USA 60468 | Fax: 708-258-6991 |
============================================================================
Subject: Re: Lenten Humor
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 96 06:30:08 -0500
From: Geno Porfido Ðporfido@chelsea.ios.comð
>For these reasons, I have decided to give up all Microsoft products for
>Lent. Operating systems, applications, and development environments. It is
>my hope that when Easter comes, I will have the strength to live a
>Microsoft-free life.
>
>I ask for your support in my self-improvement efforts.
>
>- Mark Malson
ð markm@xetron.com
Hi Carpe Diem people.....
Great list....I just joined from the Evangelist.
Mark...CD members...
I use utterly absolutely NO M$ garbage at all.......There are much =
better solutions to most of their products available. While Visual =
C++ and a few other offerings are good ....my realization a few years =
ago, as to M$ development treatment ( um, like not releasing key code =
so that, of course, M$ comes out with 'the' solution way ahead of =
everyone......), on top of the simple fact that BG is a liar ( how =
many of his past quotes do you need to read?? )....and a rip-off, has =
been since he made the deal for the 'Quick and Dirty OS'...or DOS, =
and probably long beforethat thanks to daddy's money.....thats plenty =
of reason right there, no deep prayer needed to NEVER purchase M$ =
products again.
I bought Flight Sim for my Dad two years ago......As soon as I did I =
realized M$ strategy of buying small companies; they really create =
NOTHING of their own, ....its either stolen or they buy out a small =
creative compsany and ruin it; once I saw that Flight Simm WASN'T =
EVEN CREATED BY THEM........I understood. Think about it:
DOS...not theirs
NT...... major parts written by the guy who wrote VMS
wimp95...stolen from IBM /OS/2 team under the guise of 'working on =
the ultimate OS...OS/2'..and obviously the MAC
SoftImage......a real shame
windowsx.x..? stolen design from the Mac
Flight Sim....written by a small design co. that M$ just bought.
Excel.....not sure but I thought I read somewhere that this was from =
someone else they snapped up...?
Now..Vermeer........alliances with NBC......MCI
Not to mention, I think their stuff stinks.. :)
They have the $$$$$ to do ANYTHING......they get that $$ from =
US....20-25% of M$ income is FROM US.... Stop giving them the =
resources to RUIN OUR PLATFORM.........
I REFUSE to buy ANYTHING from M$....period. And I honestly believe =
that ANYONE, who calls themselve a Mac person.......MUST do the same. =
M$ is out to ruin Apple...WHY, WHY do Mac people SUPPORT THEM???!
Hey...its up to US.........
GP
Apple Forever
=89 Smilin' Pig Productions =89
=89 Multimedia Music & Sound Co.=89
=89"Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and,=89
=89 besides, the pig likes it."=89
-----------------------------------------------------------------------=
------
Stop the hegemony! Join "EvangeList," Guy Kawasaki's (un)official =
Apple
listserver of good news about Apple, Macintosh, and third-party
developers. To subscribe to EvangeList, send an email to:
listproc@solutions.apple.comð and include in the body of the message =
the
text: Subscribe Macway
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 08:06:21 -0600
From: jcast144@inlink.com (John E. Castasus)
Subject: Re: All The Rubbish That Is Fit To Print
>These, of course, are just a few examples of the sensationalistic
>reporting on Apple that has been happening all over the country. Some
>newspapers and radio stations have issued retractions upon learning that
>what they pulled "off the wire" was highly inaccurate. Others, such as
>our own Observer, apparently didn't wish to look foolish, and were willing
>to let Apple suffer as a consequence.
>
>There's no doubt that some of the negative reporting about Apple stemmed
>from reporters with malicious intent. However, it looks like most of the
>nation's news outlets were content to print or broadcast a
>sensationalistic story pulled from whatever sources were close at hand,
>without taking a minute to verify the story's accuracy. It appears that
>the biggest threat to the Macintosh comes not from Microsoft or Intel, but
>from our daily paper.
The problem is ignorance, and I've seen it in so many areas. During the
Gulf War, much of the reporting was terribly uninformed, and even the
"experts" came off as ignorant. My favorite example occurred during the
first night of the war, when Tom Brokaw identified an F-15 as an F-111.
The only solution is for EvangeListers to respond with the facts whenever a
media outlet broadcasts erroneous information. Carpe Diem could be a great
way to do this. Post the e-mail address of the offending newspaper or
reporter here, and bury them in facts.
---------
Cordially,
John E. Castasus
Stalwart Defender of the Macintosh Empire
and Official Mac Evangelist
Join the EvangeList! E-mail me for details!
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 09:10:00 -0500
From: bruce.e.oneel.1@gsfc.nasa.gov (Bruce O'Neel)
Subject: Re: A tactic to help trounce Windows
Hi,
At 5:12 PM 2/21/96, Drew Ivan wrote:
>>1) How do I find a file on the Macintosh?
>>2) Where is the file manager?
>>3) Where is the program manager?
>>4) Where is the control menu?
>>5) ...
>
>How do I get a command line?
>
You buy MPW (probably cheapest by buying CodeWarrior Bronze). It's really
interesting to have a command line....
bruce
--
oneel@arupa.gsfc.nasa.gov -- Bruce O'Neel HSTX (301) 286-1511 --
Napoleon died in 1821; Wellington was saddened. -- Cyc
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 10:20:17 -0600
From: j5rson@prairie.lakes.com (Jeff Iverson)
Subject: Apple proposes 3D Metafile format for VRML
This just in 2/19 PCWeek:
Apple, last week, pitched a cross-platform QuickDraw three-dimensional
graphics file format, 3D Metafile, for VRML 2.0.
The proposal is available at
http://www.webmaster.com/horizonpr/apple/out_of_this_world.html
Cheers!
J5rson!
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 01:31:35 +0900
From: macross@gol.com (Michael House)
Subject: Re: Mouse vs. Keyboard
At 12:48 96.2.21, Jim Cahill wrote:
> The ultimate, therefore, is to let the user determine the keyboard shortcuts;
> all new development should incorporate this user-defined extensibility.
FWIW, Nisus Writer, the Mac-only document processor which has won
awards for its WorldScript implementation, has always had user-definable
keyboard shortcuts, among lots of other great features. Check out their
webpage for more info: www.nisus-soft.com.
(Disclaimer: My only association with Nisus is as a satisfied customer.)
Be Seeing You...
--Michael House, macross@gol.com, http://www.stellar.co.jp/GAINAX/
GAINAX Co., Ltd. (Opinions expressed are my own unless otherwise specified)
Jibun no ishi o motanu no nara, ikiteitemo shikata arumai
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 10:31:20 -0500
From: FunGrp@aol.com
Subject: Re: Welcome to All Our New Participants
Andrew,
I met with people at Apple last month and earlier this month in an effort to
get them to fund a grassroots effort to repel negative press reports and
provide an information central for Mac Enthusiasts. This carpediem group is
headed in the same direction.
Would you like to receive a copy of my proposal for consideration on how to
expand your efforts?
David Russell
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 10:33:35 -0500
From: FunGrp@aol.com
Subject: Re: A tactic to help trounce Windows
Great idea! Thanks for sharing it. Now if there was just someone who could
make it happen ...
David Russell
Date: 21 Feb 1996 23:27:23 U
From: "Gino Larsen-Giacalone" Ðggiacalone@htland.comð
Subject: "Apple Technology, Inc." (A
"Apple Technology, Inc." (ATI)
Yesterday on NPR I heard a story about a professor who has collected evidence
that the sound of a candidate's last name is highly significant to success in a
presidential bid. I mention this to suggest that, just maybe, our beloved Apple
will just never make it due to the name.
I suggest that part of Apple's success in the education market is the same
phenomena but in a context where it IS acceptable. I've observed adolescent
boys in Costco drooling over "hot" complex looking WinTel boxes that where
playing whizbang multi-media demos (that the machine probably couldn't generate)
and totally ignoring the PowerPC based Preforma beside it. I got the feeling
that the Apple was just so familiar to the kids that it "couldn't" be a real
computer.
I suspect (with admittedly little knowledge) that kids can't really get control
over the Macs in school so they come to associate the machine with minimal
power. On the other hand, the neighbor kid who's father is likely to have a
WinTel box at home probably plays some really cool games. And strangely, the
complexity of the WinTel box suggests power beyond the user's ken.
So I come to my outrageous proposal that Apple change its name to something like
"Apple Technology, Inc." and frequently go by "ATI" or "ApTech". It might have
some deep macho value. Remember the difference in image it made changing from beige
to platinum?
Also, lets call non-Apple MacOS sources something like "Mac Technology Tigers"
rather than "clones". The WinTel world is made up of clones. The MacOS is
driven by Technology Tigers.
G'Nite.
G.S.Larsen-Giacalone
ggiacalone@htland.com
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 11:37:22 -0500
From: MSolutionz@aol.com
Subject: Re: Cable modems and Apple
I doubt if cable-ready internet access will be more than a fad. The
longterm trend is more towards wireless access. Of course who really knows?
Janie
> Sounds wonderful to me. I just wish my local cable company would
>get on the stick and give me the opportunity to get a cablemodem installed.
>I live in Fairfax County, Virginia, where Media General Cable supposedly
>offers one of the best systems in the country...120 channels of stuff. I'd
>give up 99% of them for anything like the sort of speed which has been
>promised.
> It's difficult to believe that Microsoft hasn't got a plan like
>yours on one of its many more or less cold backburners.
>
>bill mcc
>
>>Good Day :)
>>
>>I am writing to prod Apple into some sort of Cable modem strategy. One
could
>>envision Apple working a deal with a major Cable Co. using a Pippin or low
>>cost mac to access the internet via cable modems. The cost of the hardware
>>would be paid off monthly on the customer's cable bill. The entire package
>>would be offered as a toaster like appliance... plug it in, and start
surfing
>>the net.
>>
>>Any comments?
YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Janie Wilson-Cook
President,
MacSolutions!, Inc.
Authorized Apple Value Added Reseller
Authorized Tektronix Dealer
1622 Montague St.
Rockford, IL, 61102
MSolutionz@AOL.com
(815) 962-2622
YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 10:41:36 -0600
From: j5rson@prairie.lakes.com (Jeff Iverson)
Subject: Far from dead...
While this is a couple of weeks old now, it is no less interesting to me.
From PCWeek 2/5:
...portraying Apple as being on its deathbed is an exaggeration... the
company sells 5 to 6 million computers a year... has more than $1 billion in
cash, superior and leading-edge technology, and a customer following
bordering on fanatacism... remember, not too long ago IBM and Digital
Equipment lost billions of dollars quarter after quarter...
Just points to ponder, and this from PCWeek... not exactly a friend of Apple.
Cheers!
J5rson!
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 17:43:52 +0100
From: R.Niemeijer@NiemConsult.nl (Rudo Niemeijer)
Subject: Macintosh for disabled?
Although this is a question, it very much touches on Apple versus Windows.
What ideas and possibilities does the Mac present for seriously disabled?
Any experience so-far should be well advertised. I, for instance, am
looking into the possibility of getting the right equipment for a 26 year
old photographer/painter/musician who has recently become paralyzed
completely (He can only move his head!! He can speak.)
Music has a high priority: he should be able to compose for MIDI. Just
before his accident he also had taken up working with Illustrator and
Photoshop on the Mac.
At his re-validation center, they only know about Windows/MSDOS etc. Is the
Mac providing better alternatives, also for other purposes such as managing
equipment that enables him to live more independently? Dutch Medicare pays
for almost everything that will allow him to live an independent life.
Rudo Niemeijer
R.Niemeijer@NiemConsult.nl
From: farstrup@max.muhlberg.edu
Subject: Re: The Cost of NOT Using MacOS
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 11:37:07 -0500 (EST)
> While educators might be concerned about training kids in Windows I'm sure
> school boards will be concerned if they are shown the costs of maintaining
> systems other than Macs. They should be made clear that, yes they can go
> with the more popular OS BUT it will cost them more and their children will
> get less.
>
> We have to start talking to people about their pocket books. If fiscal
> conservatism is what people want then they've got to know that they waste their
> money terribly by NOT using a MacOS platform.
>
> G.S.Larsen-Giacalone
> Computer Services and Facilites Manager
> Heartland Group, Inc.
ð ggiacalone@htland.com
>
>
The problem is most of the school boards that are making this decision
are too apt to believe all the reports of Apple's fall in the popular
press. With all the hype surrounding the Internet schools think that's
all their computers will have to do (and word processing). They have the
impression that even with PC's it will be easy to set them up and
connect. I know of one school district who has one computer specialist
for the ENTIRE district and they expect that this person will be able to
maintain PC's in all of the schools. They are moving from a succesful
program using Macintosh's to an untested one using PC's because many of
the parents work for HP. Unfortunately there is no reasoning with the
board as to what the true support cost will be for PC's both in dollars
and manhours.
-Adam Farstrup
Subject: Re: Mac Owners United ot Save Earth!
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 96 10:51:53 -0600
From: "Kenneth M. Uecker" Ðken@onr.comð
Thomas Twigg, ttwigg@alaska.net said
>In related news, Microsoft's Bill Gates is said to have been so moved by
>MOUSE!'s action that he went out and bought himself a couple new
>PowerMacs to start his rewrite of The Road Ahead, to be called
>Confessions of a Tailgater.
>
>Reality should be so fun!
>Tom Twigg
>ttwigg@alaska.net
>
>The king has no clothes, for some reason only 10% can see that.
>
Hate to say this, but Bill Gates already has a bunch of PowerMacs.
He has 6 (six) of them installed at his home. (I think that they are
8500's-he likes the teleconference capabilities.)
--------------------------------------------------
Software to Checkout: SiteMill from Adobe.
Hardware to Checkout: Pipeline 50 from Ascend.
Polymaths are the coolest of Surfers.
WebPage: http://www.onr.com/user/Ken.html (under construction-again)
--------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 10:51:21 -0500
From: scstr@alumni.caltech.edu (Suman Chakrabarti)
Subject: Re: Poll Again!
>This is as of Wednesday, Feb 21st, 11:30AM MST.
>
>Do you prefer Macs or PCs?
> 77.4% . . . Macs
> 19.5% . . . PCs
> 02.7% . . . Neither
>
> So far 4294 polls have been submitted.
>
>You have to love Mac fanatics. :)
>Powers Foss.
Say, I know you're just another fanatic, but maybe you have the answer
anyway. When I tried to vote in this current poll, as I did in last
week's, I couldn't. That is, I was able to pull up the questions, but
there was no place I could check off my answers. Do you have any idea what
I'm doing wrong? I'm using this URL:
http://vip.hotwired.com/netizenpoll/index
I emailed the netizen, but have gotten no reply.
STR
Suman Chakrabarti | "If it's Sumanly possible, it'll be done."
scstr@alumni.caltech.edu |--------------------------------------------
[AOL & eWorld] samtrose | Ph.D.2be, Mechanical Engineering
http://alumni.caltech.edu/~scstr/ | Physics Dept., Penn State University
Join "EvangeList," Guy Kawasaki's (un)official Apple listserver of good
news about Apple, Macintosh, and third-party developers. To subscribe to
EvangeList, send an email to: listproc@solutions.apple.comð and include
in the body of the message the text: Subscribe Macway
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 10:20:15 -0600
From: j5rson@prairie.lakes.com (Jeff Iverson)
Subject: IBM posts OpenDoc for AIX beta
This just in 2/19 PCWeek.
The beta code of OpenDoc for AIX is available now on IBM's Club Open Doc
WebSite at: http://www.software.ibm.com/clubopendoc/.
IBM says the final version will be ready in the second quarter of this year.
IBM is also working on getting Lotus to support OpenDoc for OS/2.
Cheers!
J5rson!
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 11:02:14 -0500
From: BUFFALO146@aol.com
Subject: Re: Welcome to All Our New P
Hi, I am new to this list so I do not know if this is a suggestion this has
been discussed and discarded.
I think that it would be good for Apple and the user groups to give with
each new computer a invitation to a meeting and a three month introductory
membership to the local MUG.
Subject: Re: Are Mac Evangelists Arrogant?
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 96 09:20:35 -0000
From: Ðzmarc@designwrite.comð
Nathan Tennies wrote (in part):
>However, I do take this charge of "arrogance" seriously, because I think
>that it can wind up hurting the Macintosh more than helping it. Most
>computer shoppers I've met are frustrated by the difficult choice they
>have to make, and are worried to death that they will make the wrong
>choice. Having Macintosh "zealots" (as some like to refer to us) tell
>users that they made a dumb choice is only going to make people mad and
>defensive. Likewise, attacking Windows 95 as lame is only going to
>antagonize those who use Windows 95 because they don't have any choice or
>didn't know any better.
>
>One quick example from the Windows 95 release. A lot of Mac users
>(including myself) pointed out that the Mac had features like long file
>names for ten years before Windows did. The popular "Been There. Done
>That" slogon captures that sentiment. But this can come across as a bit
>arrogant. As one my partners - who uses both Macs and PCs - said, "Who
>cares who had it first. All that matters is that Windows users have it
>now." And, in a sense, he's right. I don't know which auto company
>first included air bags or multi-speed windshield wipers; once they are
>common, who cares who had it first.
I must agree. I recommend Macs to PC people several times a week at
least. Just this past week I had a naive Windows user who told me that my
Mac looked "just like" Windows. I didn't panic or get defensive, but
instead smiled and carefully pointed out some of the most obvious
differences. I showed her that Macs only had one menu bar at the top of
the screen, and I showed her the application menu which listed all my
loaded apps (about 10 at the time!), and I switched to the Finder and
showed her some folder and files and stuff. As she started to pay
attention I could see she was impressed. (Ever just compare the Finder's
icons to Windows? Big difference.) Anyway, we just sort of talked--I
didn't pressure her at all but pointed out that most graphics were done
on the Mac and emphasized that this was because the Mac had been doing
that for ten years and PCs were only just now started to catch up. She
was impressed. Before she left she said kinda wistfully, "I wish I could
have a Mac a work." And here she'd never even really seen one until just
a few minutes earlier!
On another note--by step-brother, who's a Linux guru--was patently
offended by the "Win95 = Mac84" stuff. He thought it came across as
arrogant, and--even worse--he interpreted it to mean that "Mac96=Mac84"!
In other words, that Win95 was current and the Mac hadn't changed since
1984! We argued about this--it took me a while to understand his
perspective--but this is what he legitimately took it to mean the first
time he saw it. He thought it was a Pro-Win95 bumper sticker! When I
explained it to him he didn't like it. (Of course, this comes from a guy
who thinks a command-line interface is the holy grail of computing!)
--Marc
______________________________________________________________________
Marc Zeedar + DesignWrite Web Page: www.svprint.com/dw/marc.html
Graphic Design + Macintosh Training and Consulting + Technical Writing
Stop the hegemony! Send email to Ðmacway-request@solutions.apple.comð.
______________________________________________________________________
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 10:03:52 -0700
From: bonadio@well.com (Allan Bonadio)
Subject: The Good War
> Moreover, even the Mac is still
>frighteningly dependant on MS apps like Word, Excel, etc.
I think it would be a good thing for Mac people to wean themselves off of
MS products. As we can all see, they are all getting worse. This is how
MS is making the Mac look worse than Windows.
Instead, it must end up showing how MS products look terrible compared to
their competitors on the Mac. But, surprise, the noose has become tight in
the last few years, hasn't it? If MS has a monopoly, there AREN'T any
other products that compete against it. Very true for spreadsheets; close
to true for other categories. For instance, I have MS Word 5a myself, but
not Nisus, nor ClarisWorks. I do have old versions of MacWrite Pro, Write
Now and WordPerfect.
I hope all the other word processor and spreadsheet (?) companies out there
see the development opportunities:
1) Make your WP read/write MS Word files. Don't argue with me that the
file format isn't documented; get Resourcer and figure it out. Type in
"a", analyze the file. Now type in "b" and analyze the file. Now type in
"ab" and analyze the file. Keep going. It will be worth your while to
hire programmer(s) to work on this full time. This is a mega $$$ market
for you - MS Word refugees. Mega.
2) Same goes for PowerPoint and all the other MS apps that have dominated
the Mac marketplace. Get on the stick.
3) There's GOT to be a spreadsheet out there besides Excel. Now's the
time. Same goes here. Time to make some money.
4) Don't delude yourselves about how much better your file format is than
microsoft's. It is. Nobody cares. Your customers have PC people they have
to exchange with. Who are all razzing these people about how they have to
get rid of their macs because they're incompatible with PCs. So unless you
have a PC in house and can exchange files fluidly, you might as well call
up the bankrupcy attorney and get it over with.
5) Don't delude yourselves about how much better your user interface is
than microsoft's. It is. Nobody cares. Your customers have office
personnell who are all experienced at using MS Word (etc), after having
taken MS Word classes. (Here's where Word Perfect et al have a distinct
advantage.) Who are all convinced that getting these people to use a Mac
with really different everything, would be too much work. Maybe there's UI
copyright issues; find a way around it. Make your UI programmable, and
spin off a tiny company to make the pref files to make it MS Word. If you
can't take one-dimensional temp people who are used to PCs, sit them down
in front of a Mac, and have them work fluidly, you might as well call up
the bankrupcy attorney.
6) Apple should get people inside apple to stop using Word and distributing
files to us in Word format. Not using heavy handed techniques, you
shouldn't have to. The software obviously sucks. Maybe hire cult
reprogrammers from the 80's.
7) Don't delude yourselves about how much time you have. Don't delude
yourselves about how "nobody" has upgraded to Word 6 - last I saw, it was
on the bestseller's list.
8) Don't delude yourselves about the market share you'll gain. You have to
WRITE this file format too. WordPerfect has to write files that Nisus can
read, and these have to go back to the PC and be read by Word.
9) Pity the developers who go head to head with Microsoft on their own
turf. For them, it's not a question of whether they'll lose, but when.
The same is not true for you; Apple will not change the OS to render your
application useless.
- Allan Bonadio
Warning: dates on the calendar are closer than they appear.
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 12:26:18 -0600
From: awd@DDG.com (Andrew W. Donoho)
Subject: Mac Crumples Under Load..Everyone moved to Digest
Folks,
Well, the 60 MB mail spool took AIMS down for the count. Everyone
has been moved to digest mode until I get a mail relay relationship
established with an ever so friendly unix host. This should happen in the
next several days. Until then I will be generating multiple digests per
day.
All the missing posts should be in the upcoming digest. If your
pithy words somehow got lost, please feel free to repost.
Best Regards
Andrew
P.S. We now have 737 subscribers.
-----
Andrew W. Donoho
awd@DDG.com - Donoho Design Group, Inc.
awd@gslis.utexas.edu - UT Grad. School of Library and Information Science
Subject: Re: Apple please stop blocking the sales of your products
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 96 10:05:06 -0800
From: Nic Olinsky Ðolinskyn@sunnyside.wednet.eduð
I don't know if this will be on any service, but it is a Mac product
catalog that is generated from outside the US.
http://www.apple.com.au/MPG/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.sunnyside.wednet.edu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nicholas M. Olinsky Computer Specialist //////////////////////////
Sunnyside School District #201 / This is as real as your/
1110 South Sixth St., Sunnyside, WA, 98944 \ so-called life gets - Q\
Voice: (509) 837-5851 Fax: (509) 837-0450 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sent Via Claris E-Mailer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 14:09:09 -0500
From: dsc@raleigh.ibm.com (Dan Caugherty)
Subject: Mr. Enderle raises his ugly head.. again!
1&all --
I couldn't help but notice the name of Mr. Enderle. Would this be the
same guy who:
-- overestimated sales of Win95 during his tenure at Dataquest
-- was let go by Dataquest (presumably for the 1st point of order)
-- has a history of allowing his biases to alter his forecasts?
There are a few IBM'ers (who I do not speak for!) that gnash their teeth
at this guy for bashing OS/2 as well. It seems Mr. E's pro-MS bias has
gotten him into trouble at Big Blue as well as with folks in Cupertino.
I'm surprised that no one raised an objection to the words from this
horse's mouth earlier.
Cheers,
-- Dan Caugherty, IBM RTP NC
Speaking *from* but not *for* IBM.
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 14:02:50 -0500
From: mnorman@princeton.com (Michael Norman)
Subject: Re: Hmmmm....
>I saw something in the news recently and I thought... why doesn't apple put
>a web server in every mac? Personal web sharing. PR coup. Anyone?
For $10 you can get peter lewis' Net Presenz (FTP and HTTP services).
I'd love for Apple to license this and integrate it into the OS.
It's sure a lot cooler than WindowShade.
- Michael
(Peter deserves to get rich off of a licensing agreement.)
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 11:45:29 -0800
From: shandrew@leland.stanford.edu (andrew shieh)
Subject: Re: Carpe.Diem digest 22 Feb 1996
At 12:56 AM 2/23/96, postmaster@ddg.com wrote:
>Say, I know you're just another fanatic, but maybe you have the answer
>anyway. When I tried to vote in this current poll, as I did in last
>week's, I couldn't. That is, I was able to pull up the questions, but
>there was no place I could check off my answers. Do you have any idea what
>I'm doing wrong? I'm using this URL:
>
>http://vip.hotwired.com/netizenpoll/index
I had similar troubles with it; i found that using Netscape fixed the
problems. I strongly dislike netscape-only forms...
Date: 22 Feb 1996 09:48:29 U
From: "Gino Larsen-Giacalone" Ðggiacalone@htland.comð
Subject: Re: All The Rubbish That Is
Reply to: RE>All The Rubbish That Is Fit To Pr
- The Wall Street Journal ran a story in the past few weeks that included some
graphs. In the text the author asserted plummeting market share while in the graph
accompanying the story showed a gain in market share over the prvious five
years.
- Nathan's article came through to me a bit mangled. Is there a collective
action proposal suggested?
G.S.Larsen-Giacalone
ggiacalone@htland.com
--------------------------------------
Date: 2/22/96 7:02 AM
To: Gino Larsen-Giacalone
From: Carpe Diem
The following is an article I wrote about the media feeding frenzy =
for the February 1996 issue of InsideApple, the newsletter for the =
Charlotte Apple Computer Club. I thought some on this list might =
find it interesting.
Nathan Tennies
Bootstrap Enterprises Inc
-----------------------------------------------------------------------=
---------
All The Rubbish That Is Fit To Print
Nathan Tennies
Date: 22 Feb 1996 10:21:32 U
From: "Gino Larsen-Giacalone" Ðggiacalone@htland.comð
Subject: PS>Improvement on Apple's "
PS>Improvement on Apple's "Macho" Factor
(This is an addendum to my previous message where I considered that the name
"Apple" has a fundamental cultural disadvantage in the U.S.)
% I understand that an apple is often a highly regarded gift in Japan. Does
anyone have any experience with the perception of Apple Computers in Japan?
% SUGGESTIONS TO RAISE THE MACHO FACTOR IN HOME MARKET:
= Preformas should ship with Apple designed joy sticks that are better than
any commonly available.
= License the voices and "look and feel" of media characters such as Darth
Vader, the Star Wars robots and the Star Trek elements for use on special
edition voice/recognition interface in Preformas. Then, only with a Mac could
someone have a live bit of those powerful culteral fantasies.
= Make a commercial with the Scotty charater form the old Star Trek to explain
why when they made the first Star Trek movie they featured a Mac because it was
the most advanced pc available.
= Have a multi-angle ad campaign so that people see Mac ads that look very
different from each other - maybe up to six messages - during the same period.
One set should show famous personalities who really do use Macs. Another should
claim thehigh ground as "The Original pc innovator and historic leader in bringing
power to people".
= Sponsor a TV series set inside Myst's 3D world. The actual creations could
be used as sets.
G.S.Larsen-Giacalone
ggiacalone@htland.com
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 09:49:50 -0700 (MST)
From: Powers Foss Ðfoss@ucsub.Colorado.EDUð
Subject: PowerPC News
Hey everyone, I used to visit this site regularly becuase of it's cool
PowerPC content...but recently the editor Chris Rose
(chrisr@power.globalnews.com) has been sluggish with the cool PPC content
in favor of the standard industry mac news. Please visit his site to
see it:
http://apt.usa.globalnews.com/powerpc/articles/current.htm
But also let him know that that many people visit his site and to
get back to the PPC news that has always been very cool...check
out past archives for info on 300-600MHz PPC604s available from
Exponential (www.exp.com) by '97.
Thanks,
Powers Foss.
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 09:01:22 -0700 (MST)
From: Powers Foss Ðfoss@ucsub.Colorado.EDUð
Subject: Re: My last word: Mouse vs. Keyboard
I think it is blatantly obvious that using a combination of hot-keys,
mouse, keyboard equivalents, any mixture is much faster than either
one or the other by itself.
Powers Foss.
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 09:20:23 -0700 (MST)
From: Powers Foss Ðfoss@ucsub.Colorado.EDUð
Subject: Mac/PC Poll
If you missed your chance to vote at the polls....
http://www.hotwired.com/netizenpoll/96/08/index3b.html
However, the last time I tried to vote it looked like the poll may
be finished. Let me know the latest results!
Powers Foss.
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 14:41:58 -0600
From: hshere@WaterValley.Net (Howard Shere)
Subject: Re: Carpe.Diem digest 22 Feb 1996
Ummmm.....help.......Please stop this digest from coming to me!!!!! I don't
know how to make it stop. I didn't used to get it as a digest, I used to
get it as mail.
____________________________________________________________________________
Howard Shere || President
1-601-473-4225 x12 || Green Dragon Creations, Inc.
hshere@greendragon.com || 211 N. Main St.
http://www.watervalley.net/ || Water Valley, MS 38965
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 15:42:35 -0400
From: aa4lr@radio.org (Bill Coleman AA4LR)
Subject: Re: Mouse vs. Keyboard
>I came late to the discussion, but my thought is this:
>
>The keyboard shortcuts that exist in program are generally hard-wired, so they
>are only as useful as they can be adapted to by the user...
I think you mean "adopted"
>The ultimate, therefore, is to let the user determine the keyboard shortcuts;
>all new development should incorporate this user-defined extensibility.
You need to read "Tog on Interface." I believe he covers this issue.
Basically, to make keyboard shortcuts useful, you have to have a lot of
repetitions to learn them. If your shortcuts are different from application
to application, you'll never learn them. Hence, it is actually BETTER to
have hard-wired, standard shortcuts for everything (at least everything
commonplace).
There are cases where programmability makes sense, but these are more rare.
Which leads me to an introspective moment. Why is it that after 3 years of
using an Extended keyboard do I find myself using little more than the page
up / page down keys? (I use the arrows and the keypad, but these were on
the ancient "standard" keyboard) I don't EVER use the nice F1-F15 keys at
all. Hmm.
(Aside from F1-F4 (defined as undo, cut, copy, paste) Apple doesn't give me
anyway to program F5-F12)
Bill Coleman, AA4LR Mail: aa4lr@radio.org
Quote: "Not in a thousand years will man ever fly!"
-- Wilbur Wright, 1901
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 15:43:28 -0500
From: YourMac@aol.com
Subject: Re: Try before you buy...
In reply to alexgollner@project.com (Alex Gollner) who wrote:
> How about some neat Copland demos on CD...
>
> Most have been created using Macromedia Director. How about cover-mounting
> every September PC magazine with a Copland simulator CD-ROM.
Ideally, it should be runnable from Windows 3.11 & Windows 95, and bundled
with non-Mac magazines (Byte, Windows, etc.).
After all, why preach to the choir?
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 13:09:59 PST
From: "Jim Cahill" Ðjac@xis.xerox.comð
Subject: TextBridge Pro for Macintosh from Xerox
I don't know if this is the correct forum for product announcements, but I'm
going to take a chance.
Today, Xerox Corporation begins shipping TextBridge Pro, the premier optical
character recognition software for the Macintosh.
Following up our very successful TextBridge Classic product, TextBridge Pro
offers advanced features such as output with full document recomposition to Word
and WordPerfect, Instant Access OCR so you can import recognized documents
directly into any text application, the ability to save zone templates and
training sets for re-use, support of most desktop scanners, and much more.
For more information, post email at textbridge@xis.xerox.com, or call Xerox
sales at 1-800-248-6550, ext. 3
Jim Cahill
Xerox
jac@xis.xerox.com
Subject: Re: All The Rubbish That Is Fit To Print
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 96 16:37:23 -0500
From: Geno Porfido Ðporfido@chelsea.ios.comð
>There=B9s no doubt that some of the negative reporting about Apple =
stemmed
>from reporters with malicious intent. However, it looks like most of the
>nation=B9s news outlets were content to print or broadcast a
>sensationalistic story pulled from whatever sources were close at hand,
>without taking a minute to verify the story=B9s accuracy. It appears =
that
>the biggest threat to the Macintosh comes not from Microsoft or Intel, =
but
>from our daily paper.
>
>Nathan Tennies
Great article Nathan....why can't something as truthful as this be =
printed and picked up across the wire??
I got this from 'Daily Spectrum' mailist...written by Dave =
Duberman..who constantly bashes Apple with little quips and snide =
remarks, like ranting when GOD FORBID!! a CDROM plays ONLY ON a =
MAC....and not a PC!@! ( he really got upset and bashed CD+/enhanced =
CD as an Apple piece of crap...bad interface.......)....that really =
pisses me off. At the same time every day contains at least 2 M$ =
grandeur lies, and sensationalistic ' reports' like the one I =
included below.... I think that 75% of all the M$ stuff you read is =
'planted', either thru M$ itself, or obviously its users. It's time =
that Apple's users, that are involved in the Press and journalism, do =
the same.....mention something great about Apple every damn =
DAY....every chance you get...I'm tired of the lies.....its time we =
ALL did something great....
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
The Princes of Lies.........
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D
MRG Announces Report on Microsoft Multimedia And Internet Strategies
According to a new report released Tuesday by the Sunnyvale, =
Calif.-based
Multimedia Research Group (MRG), Microsoft's multimedia and Internet
strategies, after significant revisions during the past six months,
re-position the software giant to provide products and services that =
could
dominate the industry.
The 125-page report, entitled Microsoft: Multimedia Strategies -- =
1996 -
2000, contains profiles of Microsoft's key players, teams, divisions,
products, services and strategic alliances. It predicts when =
Microsoft will
become a major player in Internet services and assesses its position
vis-a-vis perceived competitors such as Netscape, Sun and SGI.
"We were surprised at how quickly Microsoft could revamp its =
proprietary MSN
(Microsoft Network) strategy to embrace the Internet," stated Gary =
Schultz,
MRG principal analyst and president. "In fact, Microsoft has been so
effective in learning to transfer its unique software development and
marketing skills to multimedia content development that it has become =
one of
the top multimedia publishers."
MRG's analysis outlines Microsoft's key strategic goals for =
multimedia,
which include: aggressive expansion of content into the home; =
facilitation
of easy-to-use Internet authoring tools in concert with (subsidiary)
SoftImage software programs; and exploitation of available bandwidth =
via
strategic partnerships.
Written for executives in the telecommunications, computer hardware =
and
software and online industries, the report tracks multimedia trends =
and
strategies for 1996 - 2000. It is priced at $1,500 and available in =
both
English and Japanese. Contact MRG's Gary C. Schultz, at 408/524-9767; =
email
ggs@mrgco.com.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
I mean...who paid for this ..obviously M$!! WHY DOESNT APPLE do this =
stuff?? Its an obvious setup.....especially in light that the Mac is =
#1 in MM, #1 in Net development...#2 in servers...etc etc.WHY WHY WHY =
doesn't Apple think of this kind of marketing?? All some bozo =
developer has to do now is read this, and say " well....M$ is the way =
to go........." What a load of crap.....it makes me puke. A day =
before, I read an article by some OTHER study, one that you barely =
saw or heard of, that said M$ is on a major decline.......slipping, =
on the way out..BUT you had to get lucky and land on it..
What do we do?? other than continue our Mac evangelising and =
loyalty?? Its such a pile of SH*T.....I mean...who is this company?? =
Why is it always these pc toting "ANAL-YSTS" and "ADVISORS" that come =
up with this stuff, like DataQuest ( a Microsoft subsidiary??? :) =
with their " 30 million wimp95 sold by 96".....forecast, now cut to =
10 million I think (reality sold...under 7 million...:)........when, =
the real folks, out here in the fields.......KNOW whats being used??? =
It stinks of deception......no? Just like all other M$ things..
Oh, how I dislike that company's ethics, product and =
people........truly, the Evil Empire.
GP
...Rantin' and Raving and Pissed and not gonna take it no more!!
Apple Forever
=89 Smilin' Pig Productions =89
=89 Multimedia Music & Sound Co.=89
=89"Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and,=89
=89 besides, the pig likes it."=89
-----------------------------------------------------------------------=
------
Stop the hegemony! Join "EvangeList," Guy Kawasaki's (un)official =
Apple
listserver of good news about Apple, Macintosh, and third-party
developers. To subscribe to EvangeList, send an email to:
listproc@solutions.apple.comð and include in the body of the message =
the
text: Subscribe Macway
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 13:26:49 -0800
From: quadra_quack@sierra.campus.mci.net (Isaac Church)
Subject: Re: Microsoft competitor (was The Good War)
> I think it would be a good thing for Mac people to wean themselves off of
> MS products. As we can all see, they are all getting worse. This is how
> MS is making the Mac look worse than Windows.
>
> Instead, it must end up showing how MS products look terrible compared to
> their competitors on the Mac. But, surprise, the noose has become tight i=
n
> the last few years, hasn't it? If MS has a monopoly, there AREN'T any
> other products that compete against it. Very true for spreadsheets; close
> to true for other categories. For instance, I have MS Word 5a myself, but
> not Nisus, nor ClarisWorks. I do have old versions of MacWrite Pro, Write
> Now and WordPerfect.
I'm a little afraid to say this, but I do have plans to create a company of
my own that will create these kinds of products. Right now I've just turned
18 and I'm in the process of learning about programming and all things
releated to computing. One of the things that I've noticed, is that
although everyone hates Microsoft (even the majority of Wintel users!) no
one can compete with them because they control these products.
My plan for beating them is simple. I want to create programs (with help of
other programmers eventually) that can take the place of Word, Excel,
Powerpoint, etc. I plan on releasing them for the Mac first, and then for
Windows. Depending on the industry at the time, they may be OpenDoc parts,
or Apps, but either way the goal will be to win against Microsoft with both
price, and feature set.
You see Microsoft products are not all the good (obvious to Mac users, but
not so obvious to Wintel people who have never used anything else) and they
could easily be made better for both platforms (take a look at ClarisWorks
for an example). I plan on calling my company Masterpiece Software=81 (that'=
s
trademarked so don't steal it :-). After all the definition of Masterpiece
is a 'brilliantly executed work'. Although I may not be brilliant I plan on
making programs that are in their execution, and useability.
I also plan on making them available both commercially and as shareware
(you read correctly). In a similiar way to Alladin's Stuffit, except all
versions will be basically identical. I also plan on selling them dirt
cheap. I've never been one all that interested in riches. As long as I
could afford a home and a family I'm satisfied. What would really make me
happy is to make computer users lives everywhere a little easier, and help
promote the Mac a bit. With a strategy like that Microsoft couldn't really
compete because it can't make a good product to save it's life, and profit
is all that matters to a company like that.
I'm only spilling my plan in that hopes that I could get some encouragment,
perhaps some suggestions for the products, and basically just some ideas
that might contribute to a great future for computing. In-other-words, I
just wanted to share my idea and get some feedback.
So what do you think? Am I crazy? What do I need to reach my goal? Do you
like the idea?
-Isaac Church
"Life is a series of mistakes, and success depends on how well we learn
from them."
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 18:58:32 -0500
From: cardsfan@aksi.net
Subject: Re: Mouse vs. Keyboard
>Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 01:31:35 +0900
ðFrom: macross@gol.com (Michael House)
>Subject: Re: Mouse vs. Keyboard
>
>At 12:48 96.2.21, Jim Cahill wrote:
>> The ultimate, therefore, is to let the user determine the keyboard shortcuts;
>> all new development should incorporate this user-defined extensibility.
>
>FWIW, Nisus Writer, the Mac-only document processor which has won
>awards for its WorldScript implementation, has always had user-definable
>keyboard shortcuts, among lots of other great features. Check out their
>webpage for more info: www.nisus-soft.com.
>
>(Disclaimer: My only association with Nisus is as a satisfied customer.)
There's an idea for an approvement on the MacOS... Put a box (similar to a
window's close box, but slightly bigger) on all the menus, to the right of
each command (where it currently lists the keyboard shortcuts). Inside of
the box, put the keyboard shortcut if one is assigned, or leave it blank if
one isn't. Now, in order to change a keyboard shortcut (or assign a new
one), go to the menu, and drag the mouse over the box next to the command
who's shortcut you want to edit. When the mouse is over the box, it sort
of "pops up," so you know the mouse is over it (the new Copland
interface[s] is 3D, so this would make sense...). If you let go of the
mouse over the box, it brings up a dialog box letting you edit the keyboard
shortcut for that command. And of course, if you should tell it to use one
that is already in use, it informs you that that shortcut is in use, and
asks if you want to cancel or replace the other shortcut. What do you
think?
-Matt Nichols
--
-CardsFan
cardsfan@aksi.net
------------------------------------------------------------------
Join "EvangeList," Guy Kawasaki's (un)official Apple listserver of good
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~~~~~~
"When all is said, we cannot, in a world that is ruled
by purpose and links an effect with every cause, escape
the concept of reward. Action by which nothing is gained
is futile."
-E.F. Scott
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 96 18:26:55 EST
From: bjorkman@voicenet.com (Marc R. Bjorkman)
Subject: Re: Mouse vs. Keyboard
>For example, I noticed in 7.5, that the open/save dialogs of all programs
>default to the last folder in which a document was opened/saved (this
>wasn't the
>case in 7.1.2). This is a very handy feature.
In System 7.5, the General Control panel allows the choice of three options
for the folder default:
1) Folder which contains the application
2) Last folder used in the application, and
3) Documents folder
-----------------------------------------------
Marc R. Bjorkman
Yardley, PA
bjorkman@omni.voicenet.com, http://www.voicenet.com/~bjorkman
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 18:04:40 -0600
From: gdough@tripos.com (Greg Dougherty)
Subject: Re: Apple Blocking int'l sales
>So I went to call some US mail order stores just to find out that Apple
>prevents them of selling their products outside the United States. Many other
>companies have the same policy, like Global Village.
>
>Why should they do that? To prevent local dealers in Europe? What's the point
>of supporting European dealers selling Apple products at higher prices than I
>could get them from the US, including paying UPS shipping and the local sales
>tax in Switzerland upon arrival?
The point is that Apple and those other companies know that they will have
no (or at least fewer) local dealers if they don't do that blocking, and
they think this will lead to fewer sales.
The first Mac product I worked on had two versions, a US version that did
everything in English measurements, and an "international" version that did
English or metric numbers, depending upon the settings in the intl
resources. We had non-US dealers who only agreed to sell our product if we
agreed to only sell the international version to non-US dealers (i.e.
MacWarehouse could only have the US version). We wanted the extra sales
they would bring in, so we agreed to their terms.
Let's face it, the US is about as close to a "consumers' paradise" as you
will find. By and large our laws don't protect inefficient companies from
efficient and ruthless competitors. Thus the prices are lower here than
they are elsewhere. You want the lower prices, talk with your own
politicians, not with Apple.
---Greg
These opinions are mine. I'm too self-interested to speak for anyone else.
From: louis_lavoie@car.qc.ca
Subject: Re: Re: A tactic to help trounce Windows
Date: 22 Feb 1996 09:53:01 GMT
>1) How do I find a file on the Macintosh?
>2) Where is the file manager?
>3) Where is the program manager?
>4) Where is the control menu?
>5) ...
# I think Chris Habig may be on to something. Whenever I receive a Windows
# user into a Mac environment I am always struck by a common theme:
# disbelief and mistrust.
It's such a bright idea, I wonder how it is nobody from Apple came with it
along all those years. It could make the "porting" of Windows users to the
Mac so much easier... Chris gets my vote on this one.
Louis
Date: 22 Feb 1996 17:06:10 U
From: "Gino Larsen-Giacalone" Ðggiacalone@htland.comð
Subject: DIGESTED COMMENTS
DIGESTED COMMENTS
RE>EGGHEAD & YOU
The reality is that I stopped buying from Egghead in '88 or so. Looks like
only the uninformed would. Egghead IS an icon and a place widely trusted as
representing personal computing BUT they've been on the rocks for years. We
could complain, but if they DID increase their shelf space will be buy from
them? It'd only be fair if we did.
It is true that many end users I encounter resist using mail order until I've convinved
them to try it once.
Also, the Hotwired stunt was fun but mainly served to disable an information
gathering effort. It didn't fool anyone or reveal any truth other than that the
Mac user base is "near fanactical".
RE> MICROSOFT PRODUCTS
It is one thing for an individual to choose to use outstanding products such as
Nissus but it is next to impossible to get even a relatively small number of
users to change. They don't see why they are being forced to change and don't
care about the esthetics or politics. To them its about doing their work NOT
the systems they use.
Our firm hadn't upgraded from Word 3 and Excel 2. I tried to NOT do the upgrade
but was forced to by an uprising of users. I blame Novell and Claris for not
making it easy to change. When M$ stumbled were the competitors right there to
provide a solution -NO! They were asleep. What was needed was A) a utility
that would run through a hard drive and convert all Word files to, say Word
Perfect, B) an easy to use users guide aimed at Word users and C) a competitive
upgrade to a first class word processor that used the OS rather than imposing
OLE.
On the spreadsheet front we tried to standardize on WINGZ. It was a FABULOUSLY
innovative program in its day (most of the innovations have been adopted by
Excel by now) and STILL runs faster on a PowerMac than does "native" Excel v5.
Informix wasted themselves marketing false starts and then never came out with a
version 2 and doesn't even sell it as a spreadsheet anymore nor do they support
the MacOS.
I think a key issue was that they came out with a great pre-visual basic
scripting language (HyperScript) but lost the opportunity to pick up on the base
of HyperTalk experience out there. We once offered to pay an Excel Macro Language
consultant to learn HyperScript to do a project for us but he wouldn't. If
HyperScript had been an extension of HyperTalk I could have choosen from among a
bunch of guys trying to make a living on HyperCard.
Again Claris blew it. When they licensed Wingz and released it under a
different name we thought they would do the obvious and tweak HyperScript to
bring it into conformity with HyperTalk and tweak the first generation user
interface of some carelessly dumb details. But "noooo". They let it languish
until it died of neglect.
Could it be that since the availability of standard software is such a critical
issue for a popular OS, Apple's number one fear is that M$ will stop supporting
the platform? Did Apple let HyperCard die and failed to make it cross platform
because M$ complained - knowing that it might have pre-empted VB?
RE> "CRUMPLED" CD LISTSERVER HARDWARE
At the risk of arrogance where engineering realities should prevail, it would be
embarrising if you can't run a mere 800 users off some kind of Mac. Andrew,
have you consulted with the Chuq Ðchuq@mail2.solutions.apple.comð, the mail mom
for EVANGALIST? They've got 20K+ at this point. Does anyone know what they
run on?
G'Nite
G.S.Larsen-Giacalone
ggiacalone@htland.com
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 96 23:37:19 EST
From: Gene Ouye Ðgeneo@Rational.COMð
Subject: RE: A tactic to help trounce Windows
I sent this yesterday, but it seems to have disappeared into
the ether...
---------------Included Message---------------
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 96 22:37:05 EST
From: Gene Ouye Ðgeneo@rational.comð
Subject: RE: A tactic to help trounce Windows
To: Carpe.Diem@ddg.com
On Wed, 21 Feb 1996 16:25:42 -0500 Chris Habig wrote:
[...]
>How would we ever figure out all of the questions that the Guide should address?
>One way I thought of would be for Apple to start a Usenet group for Windows
>users who have or are converting from Windows to Macs...find out what
>problems they had in the beginning.
Another place to get questions is from people like myself who have been
Mac fans, users, and evangelists for years, but who are forced to use
Windoze at work. After a while, you get used to certain Windoze paradigms
and you realize that there are some ideas there that aren't actually bad
for you. I haven't seen the start of the mouse vs. keyboard thread (I'm
one of the 400 who joined the list yesterday), but there is a real advan-
tage to being able to do some of the things from the keyboard that Windoze
allows (even though the only reason it originally had keyboard equivalents
to all mouse commands because you couldn't assume that an Intel box would
have a mouse. If you've ever had your cat eat through your mouse cable,
you appreciate keyboard input! :-)
Anyway, if you look at the Wordperfect -> MS-Word transition, it included
not just help, but a Wordperfect mode with pseudo-Wordperfect menus and
key mappings. To really be successful in the Windoze market, something
similar will have to be provided to ease the transition for them. If
you've spent a lot of time on a Windoze box, you've also probably learned
a distrust and dislike of the mouse. In order to get Windoze users to
make the transition, a way will have to be provided to gradually get them
to feel more comfortable with a mouse that actually works in an OS that
actually knows what it is. One thing that is a MAJOR complaint from
stupid Windoze users (there actually are some that aren't stupid, so
don't laugh), is that they can never find where any keyboard equivalents
to the mouse commands are, because when the push the mouse button on the
menu, it immediately goes away. If you think about it, a new user will
spend a lot of time browsing menus just to figure out what can be done,
and where things are. Unfortunately, the only way to do that is to
click on the menu title and DON'T LET GO!!! Trust me, that gets old
quickly when you're used to one click and the menu stays down. In order
to ease the transition for Windoze users, that behavior needs to be
the default when you run in Windoze transition mode.
Gene Ouye Ðgeneo@rational.comð
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 21:53:59 -0600
From: j5rson@prairie.lakes.com (Jeff Iverson)
Subject: OpenDoc on ROM
InfoWorld 2/12:
Article states that Apple and IBM are exploring embedding OpenDoc onto a ROM
chip.
ROM version will increase speed and reduce memory requirements for applets.
Users could create documents using OpenDoc in conjunction with Java applets
without worrying about performance or memory limitations.
Companies benefit by the ability to track and create documents over
traditional LANs or the Internet much more quickly.
OpenDoc in ROM, which currently requires an additional 2MB of memory on top
of the OS requirements, would make it usable in much smaller devices, such
as hand-helds.
Cheers!
J5rson!
Subject: Re: Carpe.Diem digest 22 Feb 1996
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 96 20:10:09 -0800
From: Dan Mitchell Ðdan@mitchell.fhda.eduð
That is one of the most seriously cool ideas I've heard lately.
I used MacHTTP back when it first came out and, though I understand why
it happened, I was saddened in a way when it evolved into a pricey
"professional" product as WebStar. (However, I do own a copy of this fine
program... :-)
What was so revolutionary about MacHTTP was that it put the power to be a
web publisher in the hands of virtually any Mac owner who could wrangly a
connection to the Internet. THIS was revolutionary!
NetPresenz makes this potential a reality. $10 and you have a web server
(which, by the way, works quite well) and an ftp and gopher server as
well. And it is quite easy to set up. I don't know what it's limits might
or might not be, but I do know that most individuals setting up a small
to medium traffic site could easily do it with this program.
Why NOT make it a standard part of the system software? (And suitably
reward NetGod Peter N. Lewis in the process!)
Dan
>
>>I saw something in the news recently and I thought... why doesn't apple put
>>a web server in every mac? Personal web sharing. PR coup. Anyone?
>
>For $10 you can get peter lewis' Net Presenz (FTP and HTTP services).
>
>I'd love for Apple to license this and integrate it into the OS.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Mitchell | De Anza College | Cupertino, CA | http://mitchell.fhda.edu/
dan@mitchell.fhda.edu | danmitch@eworld.com | danmitch@aol.com
Join Apple's EvangeList: Email to Ðmacway-request@solutions.apple.comð
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 09:49:26 +0200 (EET)
From: Jacob Matthan Ðfindians@netppl.fið
Subject: Can somebody reply this misconception
Hi,
I belong to a list on computer-to-plate prepress work. I saw a
post from the General manager of a large US publishing houses in
which he said that they prepared all their work on a Mac and then used
the PC to transmit the data coast-to-coast. I therefore asked him a
direct question as to why he did this transmission on a PC.
Given below is his reply - which is obviously a misconception, but I am
not an expert in that field - so would one of you either constructively
reply the individual or if you can give me the data, I would be pleased
to reply him. I think it would be diplomatic to have a single sound reply
to such a person rather than several people trying to send messages to
him. So maybe the reply can be put up here and the best and most
authoritative one sent to Rich?
Regards
Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland
Do visit my Home page
http://www.netppl.fi/~findians/briefings.html
(next issue is due out Sunday - 25th February 1996)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 14:16:49 -0500
From: Rich Rivera ÐRRIVERA@cahners.comð
To: findians@netppl.fi
Cc: computer-to-plate-pressroom@cybercom.net
Subject: Re: Introduction -Reply -Reply
Hi Jacob,
The bundling can be done from either platform. Currently it is being on a
Mac but I hope to move it to a PC soon. We do transmit our files from a
PC. We do this because our wide area network does not support appletalk.
I UNDERSTAND THE MAC IS VERY INEFFICIENT FROM A WIDE AREA NETWORK STANDPOINT.
(Jacob: Emphasis is mine and not Rich's.)
From a PC however I am able to see the entire network, which literally
goes from coast to coast (Los Angeles, CA to Boston, MA). Using the
novell "ncopy" function I can copy a Mac file anywhere on the wide area
network and keep intact the resource fork.
So what I'm saying is I have a file server in Chicago and all of the offices
can transfer files to it. The prep house in turn, in the Chicago area, can
access the server to copy files over. This lets me have one major
supplier for most of the company, making it much easier to control costs
and support. Since I'm not trying to interface with many different
suppliers who all do things a little differently, I can keep things somewhat
consistant from a procedure standpoint.
Rich Rivera
Cahners Publishing
----------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 22 Feb 1996 22:07:49 -0600
From: "Geoff Coffey" Ðgeoff_coffey@aoce.austin.apple.comð
Subject: Re: Carpe.Diem digest 22 Feb 1996
>You can set that to be your Documents folder, the Last folder used inthe
>application, or the Folder which contains the application. All this in the
>handy General Controls Control Panel.
Additionally, you can disable the general controls Control Panel if you like
the way 7.1 worked better!
Geoff Coffey
Date: 22 Feb 1996 22:19:10 -0600
From: "Geoff Coffey" Ðgeoff_coffey@aoce.austin.apple.comð
Subject: Re: Carpe.Diem digest 22 Feb 1996
>A story about Windows compatibility in real life!
hee hee hee!
I have a similar story:
I was helping a couple with their computers. They have a Performa 575 and a
DEC laptop. They were given some PC disks from their son with some speeches
saved on it. After trying for 10 to pry these files open with Works for
Windows, we gave up and I suggested they just open the files in ClarisWorks on
their Mac and print them from their. They looked at me puzzled, but 30 seconds
later they were proofreading the speeches!
I couldn't agree more,
Geoff Coffey
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 11:10:33 +0000
From: james@frutiger.staffs.ac.uk (James Berriman)
Subject: Peter Lewis and NetPresenz
>For $10 you can get peter lewis' Net Presenz (FTP and HTTP services).
>
>I'd love for Apple to license this and integrate it into the OS.
>
>
>(Peter deserves to get rich off of a licensing agreement.)
He surely does :-)
Why stop there? Anarchie is the natural partner to NetPresenz. Apple should
licence both.
With a serious financial injection, Peter could afford to hire a couple of
programmers and speed up development.
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 05:26:19 -0700 (MST)
Subject: Re: Carpe.Diem digest 22 Feb 1996
From: briareos Ðbriareos@primenet.comð
>There's an idea for an approvement on the MacOS... Put a box (similar to a
>window's close box, but slightly bigger) on all the menus, to the right of
>each command (where it currently lists the keyboard shortcuts). Inside of
>the box, put the keyboard shortcut if one is assigned, or leave it blank if
>one isn't. Now, in order to change a keyboard shortcut (or assign a new
>one), go to the menu, and drag the mouse over the box next to the command
>who's shortcut you want to edit. When the mouse is over the box, it sort
>of "pops up," so you know the mouse is over it (the new Copland
>interface[s] is 3D, so this would make sense...). If you let go of the
>mouse over the box, it brings up a dialog box letting you edit the keyboard
>shortcut for that command. And of course, if you should tell it to use one
>that is already in use, it informs you that that shortcut is in use, and
>asks if you want to cancel or replace the other shortcut. What do you
>think?
too complicated. i believe strata studio pro does this rather well. you
choose "configure shortcut..." from the edit menu. then you select which
menu item gets the shortcut. then type what keyboard combo you want. much
easier IMHO.
Take care, Chad.
----------------------------------------------------------------
| "A little rain
briareos@primenet.com | makes the ground harder"
http://www.primenet.com/~briareos/ | == Akemi san ==
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 08:11:45 -0500
From: jragosta@dca.net (Joe Ragosta)
Subject: Re: Carpe.Diem digest 22 Feb 1996
>
>Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 15:43:28 -0500
ðFrom: YourMac@aol.com
>Subject: Re: Try before you buy...
>
ðIn reply to alexgollner@project.com (Alex Gollner) who wrote:
>
>> How about some neat Copland demos on CD...
>>
>> Most have been created using Macromedia Director. How about cover-mounting
>> every September PC magazine with a Copland simulator CD-ROM.
>
>Ideally, it should be runnable from Windows 3.11 & Windows 95, and bundled
>with non-Mac magazines (Byte, Windows, etc.).
>
>After all, why preach to the choir?
While I agree with you that Apple needs to preach to the unconverted and
your idea is a good one.
However, they _must_ not give up preaching to the choir. In today's
environment, there really _are_ people leaving the Mac world because they
listen to all the FUD being spread by the media (sad, but true). Apple
needs to keep them.
On the positive side, I just read on Apple's site that about half of the
Macs sold last year went to people who hadn't used a Mac before. So, their
gains are ahead of their losses. Still--think how well they'd do if they
_never_ lost a customer and still gained 2 million new users a year!
Regards,
Joe Ragosta
jragosta@dca.net
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 09:45:13 -0700 (MST)
From: Powers Foss Ðfoss@ucsub.Colorado.EDUð
Subject: Re: Carpe.Diem digest 22 Feb 1996
I hate DIGEST forms!! Stop it!
Powers Foss.
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 09:05:16 -0800
From: KEVIN CARNEY ÐKCZZ490@wadnr.govð
Subject: RE: Can Somebody reply to this misconception
>> So maybe the reply can be put up here and the best and most
authoritative one sent to Rich?
Regards
Jacob Matthan <<
I saw in Rich's quote the term "novell", so building on that premise,
it must be a Novell WAN. Until Novell's very recent release of the
new NetWare Client for Mac OS 5.1 , what he said had a ring of truth.
Novell is all custom programmed, and it comes originally from a group
of DOS heads, so last year, I was floored to hear they were writing a
MAC client and a MAC Administration module. Last November they
killed the MAC Server and the the Admin module because they feel
noone will buy them. They'll buy $20,000 Compaq tower servers, but
not $15,000 mac servers, I guess. Anyway, Novell said they planned
to support OpenDoc (again they have given hints they may backpedal on
this too) and to this end developing a product for a 1 to 2 year
lifespan made no sense. They DID however write a new Mac client. I
am currently evaluating it on our WAN here at WADNR. I does allow
you to see the whole network like the PC version, and unless you want
to support mac's long file names, you don't have to load the Novell
Mac NLM's to use it (The Novell servers see it as another PC,
really.). I have had problems with printing, though, I can't seem to
get it to work, but I am sure its just my over extensioned Mac system.
The best part is the client is FREE! Its on Novell's web page.
As far as inefficiencies go, with the new client the Mac does not
send those "extra" network noises that only the old Novell NLM
understood, so there are none. (Non-Novell network macs are easier
to set up because of that "noise" its the dynamic addressing going on
- and because of that you can network any mac to any mac without added
hubs!)
-Kevin Carney
kczz490@wadnr.gov
Wash. State Dept. Of Natural Resources
"Mac Tech supporter in a sea of ignorant Novell'd PC's"
Rest of quoted message follows >>
....
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 14:16:49 -0500
From: Rich Rivera ÐRRIVERA@cahners.comð
To: findians@netppl.fi
Cc: computer-to-plate-pressroom@cybercom.net
Subject: Re: Introduction -Reply -Reply
Hi Jacob,
The bundling can be done from either platform. Currently it is being
on a
Mac but I hope to move it to a PC soon. We do transmit our files from
a
PC. We do this because our wide area network does not support
appletalk.
I UNDERSTAND THE MAC IS VERY INEFFICIENT FROM A WIDE AREA NETWORK
STANDPOINT.
(Jacob: Emphasis is mine and not Rich's.)
From a PC however I am able to see the entire network, which
literally goes from coast to coast (Los Angeles, CA to Boston, MA).
Using the novell "ncopy" function I can copy a Mac file anywhere on
the wide area network and keep intact the resource fork.
So what I'm saying is I have a file server in Chicago and all of the
offices can transfer files to it. The prep house in turn, in the
Chicago area, can access the server to copy files over. This lets me
have one major supplier for most of the company, making it much
easier to control costs and support. Since I'm not trying to
interface with many different suppliers who all do things a little
differently, I can keep things somewhat consistant from a procedure
standpoint.
Rich Rivera
Cahners Publishing
----------------------------------------------------------------<<
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 12:14:19 -0500
Subject: REPOST: All The Rubbish That's Fit To Print
From: Nathan Tennies Ðbootstrp@vnet.netð
[ By popular demand, I'm reposting this article with curly quotes and =
m-hyphens changed to standard ASCII equivalents. Sorry 'bout that =
folks.]
The following is an article I wrote about the media feeding frenzy =
for the February 1996 issue of InsideApple, the newsletter for the =
Charlotte Apple Computer Club. I thought some on this list might =
find it interesting.
Nathan Tennies
Bootstrap Enterprises Inc
-----------------------------------------------------------------------=
---------
All The Rubbish That Is Fit To Print
About a year ago, I spent a few weeks trying to infuse the heated =
political discussions on America Online with tidbits of factual =
information that I had collected from government documents. It was =
fun, and I felt like I was moderately successful in raising the level =
of the discussions. However, there was one common claim - that of =
liberal bias in the media - which couldn't be supported or refuted by =
information I had collected myself.
Don't get me wrong - I am very aware that our media provides a =
distorted image of the world. But I grew up in the era following the =
media expos=E9 of Watergate. My teen years saw the Observer's =
investigation of PTL intensify, and many of the writers I respect the =
most are journalists. I believe that the media has an important, =
positive role to play in society. And I believe that simply =
reporting negative information is not the same thing as biasing a =
report. That's why I made The Challenge.
The Challenge involved getting these AOL folks, both liberal & =
conservative, to record a specific evening news show for a week, and =
then document all the perceived instances of bias that were seen. I =
didn't think we would prove anything conclusively, but it would at =
least let everyone argue using the same data. After several days of =
intense debate about the rules of The Challenge, I said 'Go!'. =
Despite the hundreds of people participating in these discussions, =
only one person other than myself took The Challenge, and he never =
reported his results.
Actually, I never reported mine either. The Challenge was hard. =
Listening to the evening news is bad enough, but trying to document =
the instances of bias was pretty frustrating. There are so many =
things that can constitute bias. A reporter might incorrectly report =
facts or intentionally omit facts. A reporter might interview =
unreliable experts or always focus on the negative. A reporter might =
rely too heavily on rumor or groundless predictions.
In the end, I came away believing more than ever that there is no =
widespread, intentional attempt to bias the news in favor of liberals =
or conservatives. I do think that newspeople often succumb to =
sensationalism and laziness when writing an article, but this sword =
tends to cut in both directions. However, my experience also taught =
me that, in order to detect all the subtle forms of bias, you've got =
to be something of an expert in the subject being covered.
Well, there is one area I'm something of an expert in - personal =
computers, and the Macintosh in particular. It's on that basis that =
I'm going to say something that will allow the world to label me a =
kook. I'm going to say, I think the media is biased against Apple. =
Let's take a look at a few recent examples.
Inaccurate Information
On January 18th, our own Charlotte Observer headlined "Apple =
surrenders consumer niche". This article, by AP reporter Catalina =
Ortiz, was based primarily on Apple's press release from the previous =
day. In that release, Apple said that they planned to "focus =
primarily on innovative, differentiated and best-of-class products in =
our key market segments in education, business and the home." In =
other words, Apple wants to make room for Macintosh clone makers to =
compete aggressively in these markets, bringing down Macintosh =
prices, but specifically stated that they are going to continue =
selling computers for the home market.
Omitted Information
In the same Observer article, the AP reporter said that Apple would =
concentrate on its key markets, "including desktop publishing and =
education", which makes the Macintosh sound like a niche computer. =
Yet Apple's press release identifies their key markets as "education, =
business, and the home". Apparently Ms. Ortiz thinks she knows =
better than Apple what its key markets are.
In another example, a recent PBS news show quoted an "expert" as =
saying that there are far fewer Mac software products available, as =
evidenced by the fact that his local software stores had nine times =
more Windows shelf space than for the Macintosh The report neglected =
to mention the well known fact that Mac users have always used =
mail-order predominantly to purchase software. And besides, at our =
local CompUSA the ratio of Windows to Mac shelf space is only 3 to 1.
Groundless Predictions
On August 24th, the day Windows 95 was released, the Observer =
presented a graph showing market research firm Dataquest's =
predictions of Macintosh and Windows 95 sales through the year 1999. =
In the graph, Windows 95 sales increased exponentially to 130 million =
in 1999, whereas Macintosh sales remained relatively flat, and even =
took a dip in 1998. The problem is that Dataquest is widely known =
for a lack of accuracy in its predictions. At various times, =
Dataquest has predicted great sales for OS/2 and the IBM =
Micro-channel architecture, neither of which have made a significant =
dent in the marketplace. Dataquest recently halved their initial =
predictions of Windows 95 sales for 1995.
The real issue here is that no one can accurately predict five years =
ahead in an industry as young and dynamic as computers, and this =
should be obvious. As I asked the Observer's business editors, would =
they have been as quick to print this graph if it instead predicted =
Wachovia's revenues skyrocketing over five years while NationsBank's =
revenues remained flat? Somehow, I don't think so.
Relying On Rumors
The rumors that Apple was planning to lay off "3000 to 4500" =
employees kept appearing in print long after Apple announced it was =
only laying off 1300. Likewise, rumors of Apple's impending takeover =
by Sun kept appearing long after Apple's CEO Michael Spindler =
declared the company wasn't for sale, and even after some =
publications reported that a deal between Sun and Apple wasn't likely.
That rumors make good news is no surprise. However, rumors can hurt =
a company financially, and the media's penchant for printing rumors =
that make Apple look weak or failing clearly takes its toll.
Dubious Experts
My favorite example of this comes from a San Francisco newspaper. =
According to a recent article "'The installed base of Macintosh users =
is upgrading to Intel boxes. They're selling most new systems to =
people buying their first PC, and that won't work,'said Rob Enderle, =
an analyst with Giga Information Group in San Jose, California." =
What the paper didn't mention, or didn't bother to find out, is that =
Enderle is well-known Mac-hater. The paper never bothered to provide =
any evidence to support Enderle's claim, and seems to take it at face =
value. Of course, there is no evidence that users are abandoning the =
Macintosh, because it isn't happening. In addition, Enderle doesn't =
even seem to realize that selling computers to first-time buyers is =
what every computer company hopes to do.
These, of course, are just a few examples of the sensationalistic =
reporting on Apple that has been happening all over the country. =
Some newspapers and radio stations have issued retractions upon =
learning that what they pulled "off the wire" was highly inaccurate. =
Others, such as our own Observer, apparently didn't wish to look =
foolish, and were willing to let Apple suffer as a consequence.
There's no doubt that some of the negative reporting about Apple =
stemmed from reporters with malicious intent. However, it looks like =
most of the nation's news outlets were content to print or broadcast =
a sensationalistic story pulled from whatever sources were close at =
hand, without taking a minute to verify the story's accuracy. It =
appears that the biggest threat to the Macintosh comes not from =
Microsoft or Intel, but from our daily paper.
Nathan Tennies
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 12:44:19 -0500 (EST)
From: "D. Claiborne Hughes" Ðtsunami7@acs.bu.eduð
Subject: Webpages that can read
http://web.bu.edu/CHAPEL is now "speech enabled"
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 13:24:28 -0500
Subject: Trial User Group Memberships
From: Nathan Tennies Ðbootstrp@vnet.netð
BUFFALO146@aol.com wrote:
>Hi, I am new to this list so I do not know if this is a suggestion this has
>been discussed and discarded.
> I think that it would be good for Apple and the user groups to give with
>each new computer a invitation to a meeting and a three month introductory
>membership to the local MUG.
It's a great idea. One thing our user group is pursuing is the creation
of a special "promo issue" of our newsletter that contains Macintosh
resources, and information about our user group. We're going to try to
get the local stores to give away one with each Mac they sell. Including
a form for a free three month membership would kick butt. We should
suggest other user groups do the same, since this mechanism is easier
than having Apple be involved directly.
Nathan Tennies
Bootstrap Enterprises Inc
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 13:24:32 -0500
Subject: Show Them The Numbers
From: Nathan Tennies Ðbootstrp@vnet.netð
Here's a suggestion for evangelists trying to change the perception of
the Macintosh in local computer stores or in the local media. Tell these
folks know how many new Macintosh users there are in your area each year.
The formula is simple; roughly 1 new Macintosh for every 100 people in
your area (you can do the math yourself - something like 280 million
Americans divided by 2.5 million Macs sold in the U.S. last year). While
obviously some of these Macs are sold to existing Mac owners, a lot are
sold into multi-user environments (homes, schools), so the number of "new
users" could actually be a bit higher.
This means that here in Charlotte, with a metropolitan area of over 1.25
million people, I can tromp into ComputerCity or CompUSA and tell them
that there will be over 12,000 new Macintosh users in our area in 1996.
Most computer dealers struggle pretty hard as it is, and bringing
Macintosh sales figures to the local level will be enough to convince
some managers to put a little more effort behind their Macintosh hardware
& software sales. Also, remind them how "zealous" we Mac users are and
how much good word o' mouth advertising they will get if they become
known as the "Mac-friendly" store in your area.
Likewise, working with the installed base yields about 1 Macintosh for
every 20 Americans. Knowing that there are something like 60,000 Macs
here in in the Charlotte