News and commentary from the cross-platform scripting community.
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Mail Starting 7/10/97 | |
I just had an interesting conversation with my father tonight. We talked about my unsplit wood pile out back, and he told me that all wood that is more than two years old should be disposed. It's not suitable for burning anymore. My wood pile is one year old, and I've been procrastinating on splitting it for winter use. If I don't split it before this fall, I may as well just pitch it.
From: david@sallak.com (David Sallak);
Sent at 7/10/97; 11:28:25 PM;
The Sure Road to BankruptcyHe then asked me about this Apple news he's heard about. With your article heavy in my mind, I related to him that there's too much inbreeding in the board of Apple, and that cool technology can't help at this point. My father said to me, "David, it's time to make a choice. Take action, then move on."
Metaphors - I love 'em. My father is concerned that my platform choice has a future, and he doesn't think that Apple has one. He also wants me to split the wood. So what do I do, continue to work in a platform I love, or honor my father, and his genuine concern for my ability to make a living into the future?
Tough choices.
Another trick for saving the world, and your Mac, by having fun with caches:
From: dsandler@rice.edu (daniel sandler);
Sent at 7/10/97; 11:05:08 PM;
Re:Crashes And CachesYes, it behooves you greatly to get that 5MB beast out of your system folder. It behooves you just as greatly to get it off your useful hard drives entirely, for the following reason: the wear and tear on your HD is a surefire way to corrupt your volume in record time.
Consider the number of files getting written, re-written, unhappily treated when there's a crash, etc. Lots of little files. Sooner or later (probably sooner, given the sheer volume of file operations), your volume bitmap, extents tree, etc. are hosed. Often Disk First Aid will balk at the inconsistencies on your HD's various delicate roadmaps, and you'll need to turn elsewhere (often Mr. Norton Disk Doc).
Don't want to go repartitioning your hard drive? Throw it on a RAM disk, if you have the memory to spare. Or, use Apple's excellent* Disk Copy (6.1.2 or later) to make a read/write disk image of your cache folder. It'll mount on the desktop; aime Netscape/IE's cache at the new pseudo-volume. Throw an alias of this image in your Startup Items folder. Disk Copy will mount it at startup, and you now have a new partition of 5MB or so that won't twiddle with your HD a bit.
I have to be honest; I don't know whether the image stays resident in memory or not. (Gotta go read the Disk Copy technical info, if there is any..) If it does, then it's not too different from using a RAM disk...
As a Web developer, I see Java and Rhapsody as *great* technologies. A Rhapsody box would make the ideal Web design platform, workstation and server, combining the best of both worlds--the beauty of the Mac with the power of Unix.
From: graham@neog.com (Graham Barron);
Sent at 7/10/97; 9:54:15 PM;
A Web developer's perspectiveOne nit: Macsbug actually stands for "Motorola advanced computer systems debugger". It's got nothing to do with the Mac per se, just happens they use a Motorola chip, so they use a Motorola debugger.
From: nbornstein@plr.com (Niel M. Bornstein);
Sent at 7/10/97; 10:45:18 PM;
Re:Crashes And CachesOn another topic: Is it me or did something really big happen with Gil's resignation? Suddenly (or maybe not so suddenly) everyone is proclaiming the death of Apple and the ultimate victory of the Wintel hegemony. Or maybe it's not everybody - maybe it's the sites you're linking to.
Is there anyone out there who's willing to stick their neck out and state that this is not the end of Apple? That maybe this is finally the opportunity for turnaround that will actually take?
Few times I've seen a so negative article: Why are you writting all this crap? Why do you hate Apple so much? For years many negative writers had written negative articles about Apple, but Apple has always emerged as a great technology creator. We love the Mac beacuse is superior in many ways to Wintel Machines.
From: oheredia@data.net.mx (Octavio Heredia Valls);
Sent at 7/10/97; 7:50:23 PM;
WHO PAYS YOUR SALARY? Bill Gates?You forget many things; Apple has the most loyal customers, great technology, the fastest Personal Computers, incredible ergonomics, very powerful shareholders, one of the best OS, a very strong foundation in Rhapsody, PowerPC chips, IBM and Motorola very interested in Apple's success,still No.1 in K-12 market, No.1 in Web creating content, the fastest portable computers in the world (by far), and many other things.
I don't thing you are better than Steve Jobs! Who are you to speak in that way? What important things have you done for the computer industry? don't compare yourself to Steve Jobs, He was one of the creators of the Personal Computer, The Macintosh, the Laserwriter, Next, Renderman, and may other things.
I'd rather be in Steve's hands than in yours.
Sorry your name may be Winer, but you write like a LOSER!
I couldn't run the story because I didn't have it confirmed.
From: dwiner@well.com (Dave Winer);
Sent at ;I personally 100 percent believed it to be true. But I wasn't sure enough to call it a fact. What I wrote would have stood either way, whether or not the story was true. I was taking a risk. You're reading more into the word knowledge than you should. I was in a subtle position.
dave, i admire your site and views tremendously. but please stop musing about whether you are a journalist, or even a publisher. as your latest piece shows, you most surely are neither. being a journalist or publisher is about giving the reader priority, about siding with those on the outside.
From: ryantate@uclink.berkeley.edu (ryan travis tate);
Sent at 7/10/97; 5:29:55 PM;but your allegiance clearly lies with industry insiders -- not that it shouldn't, but please make it clear in davenet that this is what you're about. you say, "'Early knowledge?' To people who asked if I had early knowledge of the announcement, yes. There was a general buzz among insiders in the software industry for the last two days that Amelio had been fired by Apple's board." now if you truly had "early knowledge" and not just early rumors, don't you think other developers would have wanted a heads-up? i mean, what's davenet all about? what's scripting news all about? you *had* the news and you *sat* on it. why should anyone turn to scripting.com when you just do day-after spinmeistering?
that having been said, i recognize that it is your perrogative to say or not say whatever you want. but as a loyal davenet reader for the last two years, i feel more than a little let down. community is about the right mix of openness and discretion, it is my view that in this case your community could have used a lot more openness.
As an Apple developer for the last eight years, I've seen Apple's fortunes rise and fall. Gil Amelio did what was needed. He stopped the heavy bleeding. Apple's expected losses Q3 '97 are around $70m while last q's were $708m. As bizarre as it may sound, this is a good trend. I think Apple will continue to improve. Why?
From: jdhouse4@jump.net (James Hillhouse);
Sent at 7/10/97; 7:16:03 PM;
NeXT Purchase by AppleApple has, despite what you said, very strong developer support. This support is founded on a few things, two of which are Rhapsody and Apple's general strength in some key markets. You wrote,
"The party is almost over, all the loans have been taken, all the cash has been spent. Sales of Rhapsody are $0. The Mac continues to sell, but in greatly reduced numbers."
Apple's cash position is still somewhere around $1.3 billion, yet you write that all the money is gone. Apple's long-term debt is fine and short-term is nothing to worry about. Go to the Wall Street Journal's site and see for yourself. So, what is the basis of this statement? None...unless you have a line in Fred Anderson's office. You say that developers are not porting to Rhapsody. Wrong, very wrong. Perhaps you've not heard of Metrowerk's Latitude. I started using it about three weeks ago, as soon as it came out. And many Apple developers are beginning to use it as well to port their Mac code to OpenStep. Again, you make an unsubstantiated claim. Do you know of Metrowerk's Lattitude sales? And do you not realize that most of the developers are waiting to see how Dev. Rhapsody looks and feels before they buy? Come on. It is far, far too early to know how Rhapdody is going to be recieved by developers, and you, as a past developer, should know better than to indicate otherwise. That's the same as stating that the Mac OS would not do well, and making that statement in 1983.
Despite what you wrote recently concerning the NeXT sale, from what I saw at the WWDC, Rhapsody is very much ahead of schedule. By most accounts, it is from one to three months ahead. At this time, Apple could release its internal version and it would have more features than developers were originally promised in a developer release. And Rhapsody is fast. By all accounts, its snappiness, performance, and stability are unequaled. I have seen Rhapsody, I am running OpenStep. The developers with whom I communicate, most of whom are Apple developers as well, are very supporting of Apple's NeXT purchase and of Apple's future in getting this new OS out on time. From what I could tell of your comments concerning Apple's purchase of NeXT and your comments that developers are leaving Apple, you are not an Apple developer. I think your judgement is clouded because of your past run-ins with Steven Jobs. If you would take a look at Rhapsody, forgeting the emotions of the past, you will find an OS that is going to do well. Will it take off like the Mac OS did? I doubt it. But those days are over for everyone. Is Rhapsody going to be enough to stem the tide for Apple? Let's wait till the Developer Release is out there to write that article. You and I do not know what the new OS is going to be like. So it's best we both wait to hail/smash the Apple-NeXT purchase in public, as you have done in your article, until the OS starts going to developers and we get the developer community's feedback.
I am not "flaming" you. You made what I would characterize as statements not based on knowledge and fact, but on emotions and impressions. Apple's support among developers is strong. We are concerned that Amelio left only because we don't know who is going to replace him and how quickly. Apple developers would like someone who comes in before OS 8's roll-out (completed on-time, by the way) and who has a clear vision of Apple's place in the Big Computing world. Macs are still fairly ahead of PC's in connectivity, ease of use, ease of maintenance, and plug&play. With the NeXT OS, we'll have an OS whose stability is unequaled and whose performance is far and away superior to NT, 9X, and even some of the Unix OS's. And you think the NeXT purchase was a mistake?
Jim Hillhouse
HouseWorks Software
Apple Developer #52046133I worked in Apple's Advanced Technology Group for 10 years under Wayne Rosing, Larry Tesler, Dave Nagel, and others. Under their's and others' leadership, ATG was a consistent source of innovation that led to many - if not most - of Apple's significant technical advances after the introduction of the original Mac. In particular, ATG and Apple engineering have been very active on the Internet from the beginning days. For many years, Apple.com was by far, the heaviest trafficed site in the valley on the pre-web internet. In 1989 I wrote as proposal entitled Personal Media Networks that foreshadowed the web pretty accurately. At that early date, I suggested the Apple should begin developing personal media servers. Lots of other people including Steve Cisler, Eric Fair, Scott Stein, Ike Nassi and many others tried to get Apple's senior management to pay more attention to the net.
From: Liebhold@well.com;
Sent at 7/10/97; 2:54:18 PM;
Re:The Sure Road to BankruptcyAs Larry said, Apple's non-technical management quashed almost all authorized development in inter-networking products and services except the ill-fated, proprietary e-world. Martin Haeberli tried for years, in vain, to try to get management to bundle TCP-IP with every Mac. Martin is, of course, now at Netscape, as I am. Interestingly, Apple was the first PC company to work the NCSA Mosaic team and Marc Andreesen in particular.
In my opinion, The source of many of Apple's current problems stems, unfortunately from aspects of Apple's legendary libertine culture. Several well known CEO's of currently successful companies who were previously high profile Apple execs in the heydeys have privately observed, and will confirm that getting Apple's divisions to work together was as easy ' as herding cats' to quote a cliche. When I left apple in late 93, there were dozens of Internet skunkworks projects working independently without much official sanction. I understand that in later years the number of unfunded and un-managed internet projects continued to expand.
Netscape, on the other-hand, has retained much of the counter-cultural experience but is well disciplined. Working teams all over Netscape repeatedly perform miracles under almost impossible deadlines - over and over. The difference is simply focus and coordination What's left of Apple would be well advised to emulate Netscape's working ethic. Netscape has proven that technical advances and market success can be acheved without the sacrifice of a free spirited culture.
I hope that Apple - from top to bottom - understands the need for a new ethic, and changes accordingly.
If items in the system folder slow boot time, I can only imagine how much of an adverse affect Castanet has. My marimba folder has over 1,500 .class files, and that's with just a few subscribed channels. Makes you wonder why developers choose to toss everything in the preference folder.
From: dhughes@net.microserve.com (Dan Hughes);
Sent at 7/10/97; 5:56:59 PM;
marimba class filesMy favorite trick, which helps keep my startups fast and my crashes infrequent, is to place my browser's cache on a RAM disk.
From: bsimmons@ranchero.com (Brent Simmons);
Sent at 7/10/97; 2:38:29 PM;
Re:Crashes And CachesAll you have to do is set up a RAM disk, restart, then go into your browser's preferences and tell it that your cache is now on your RAM disk.
This has several benefits:
1) Your cache is emptied every time you re-start your computer. This makes it somewhat easier to browse dynamic sites, sites that change often.
2) There's less possibility of hard drive (B Tree or whatever) corruption.
3) Corrupted files in a cache can cause your browser or computer to crash, but any corrupted file won't stay around long since your cache is empty every time you turn on your computer.
4) Browsing the web is faster, since your browser doesn't have to read and write from disk so often.
Since I've been using this system (with a 1MB RAM Disk), my computer has been far more stable, with both Netscape and MSIE, than ever before. I've turned some other people on to this trick, and they've all reported increased stability and speed.
My favorite part of this may be that my computer is much quieter. When browsing the web I no longer hear my hard drive playing a little symphony in the background.
PS Disabling JavaScript also seems to be a big help in stability.
Another idea is to use a RAM disk. Shrinkwrap makes a great one! I just have it create the disk at startup, before the browser launches, and then the cache files go into RAM instead of on disk. Helps prevent disk fragmentation/problems too. Bigger caches usually make browsing slower, as it checks all those files to see if it's cached.
From: PPRODOEHL@CORP.QGRAPH.COM (w e b s l a v e);
Sent at 7/10/97; 4:16:15 PM;
Re:"Caches and Crashes"As you're so interested in the Apple subject (and you're so interesting) , I'd like to invite you take part in the Upside.com feedback system, which was set up about ten minutes ago.
From: arturner@upside.com (Andrea Turner);
Sent at 7/10/97; 11:31:36 AM;
Please post your thoughts...It's linked directly off our front page, below David Coursey's story , "Apple After Gil". You'll notice that the some of the scripting community posts were linked from that story as well.
I'm very interested in what you have to say on the subject, know that others are too, and look forward to reading your words soon.
This article was very good, but painful to read. However, I don't agree with you on the conclusion. So what if Apple dies? I truly believe a clone maker or independent developers will pick up on the MacOS and keep it better... Open up the source code, like Linux, and give it to GNU or something. I also hope cloners will keep making CHRP PowerPC hardware. I believe Be will pressure their partners (PowerComputing and Motorola) to continue making the hardware. Then, developers (or developer wanna-bes) like me will still be able to both improve the OS and develop new software for it. Sure, the marketshare will diminish to Linux-like numbers, but there will be people like me, people who have experienced the Macintosh experience and won't settle for anything less. BTW, I am writing this at work on a WinNT4 box, and god help me if I am forced to use this as my regular OS at home.
From: gcheng@uiuc.edu (Guanyao Cheng);
Sent at 7/10/97; 2:03:45 PM;
The Sure Road to BankruptcyIn an article for MacInsider at http://www.macinsider.com/crab.html Don Crabb claims inside information that puts a completely different slant on Gil Amelio's resignation. That URL doesn't look like a long term one. When it disappears I would look for the article in the MacInsider archives at http://www.macinsider.com/archives/archives.html
From: sidney@communities.com (Sidney Markowitz);
Sent at 7/10/97; 11:37:31 AM;
Don Crabb has another slant on AmelioSummary: Amelio planned on leaving at end of fiscal 4th quarter to pursue aspirations in politics. A personal matter that Crabb knows but will not disclose came up suddenly to cause him to resign now.
I don't say that I believe it, but it is certainly a different point of view.
I write this in response to all the ruckus involving Apple yesterday, your commentary, the posted responses, other stories on the net, and my own twisted view of the world. It's kind of a rant, but I hope it comes off being reasonable.
From: ted.oliver@asu.edu (Ted Oliver);
Sent at 7/10/97; 11:09:13 AM;
MS, Humanity, and EvolutionMicrosoft in the computer industry (hell, possibly in society in general) is analagous to humanity in the earth's ecosystem. They are simply better at competing given the rules (for competition) that exist, and thus will continue to "win" until they lose their edge or the rules change. Of course, by now their size and wealth allows them to compete in ways (i.e., change the rules, such as giving away IE, having a captive market for upgrades, leverage their OS and business applications near-monopolies for each other, buy any company that comes up with anything neat that they want, etc.) other smaller companies can't, much like our technology pretty much makes moot any other organisms wishes regarding their impending extinction. Other companies are like all of the species of critters we (as humans) have directly or indirectly caused or are causing to go extinct. I wish we (as humans) were less ruthless competitors, and more willing to think long-term about the benefits of diversity. I like "nature". I wish MS were less competitive (or at least was less dominant, so the competition is a little more even and based on technological merit without the advantages their economic and mindshare status gives them) and we as the computer using public were willing to think long-term about the benefits of alternatives (diversity). But both the capitalist system and the natural world work on the same basic set of rules: the winners win, and the losers die. Greed works, and don't forget the golden rule: he/she who has the gold, makes the rules.
Capitalism and natural selection are both competitive systems in which a player (or players) can do so well that they completely outclass the other players, such that competitive pressures really don't affect them. MS dominates the computer world, and humanity dominates the natural world. History, given a long enough periodicity, will of course demonstrate that change can and will occur (probably decades in the computer industry, and much longer in the natural world), but I, like most humans selfishly value my own time (now) much more highly than future or past times.
It doesn't take an even marginally intelligent person to realize that MS is the way the world is going, and continues to go. And similarly, it is obvious that their dominance comes from being more successful at marketing and providing solutions people believe they want or need than any other company. And most people, being self-interested, are more interested in being on the winning side than in making a moral statement, especially about something so mundane as a computer OS. But to argue that somehow MS "deserves" to be dominant is directly analogous (IMHO) to arguing that humans "deserve" to be dominant in the world. MS is, and humans are-- that is the reality we live in. Whether either is "right" or "wrong" is at most an individual moral perspective.
I wish I had a tight, clever closing line - but I don't. I just thought this parallel was so fitting that I should share it. I don't deny the reality of the situation, I simply find myself saddened by it, in much the same way I am saddened as species after species, and ecosystem after ecosystem, disappears from our world.
I have a dream the other night. I won a huge lottery and I bought the "Mac OS" from Apple. It's a dream, but you say what I always want to do. You sure have more connection in this industry than I do, and who knows, maybe you can make my dream comes true! It's time for us, the Macintosh users, to declare our "Independence Day"!
From: kcheung@cyberpalate.com (kcheung);
Sent at 7/10/97; 2:08:57 PM;
Being Kind to the MacSometimes I think if everyone just paid no mind to all the bs, media intrigue and bad financial reports they'd remember why they bought Macs in the first place.
From: stewartm@uthscsa.edu (Mark W. Stewart);
Sent at 7/10/97; 10:24:40 AM;
Re:The Sure Road to BankruptcyPeople in the lab I program in have been asking me for a year or more when we should give up and start buying PCs and Windows. But when I ask them what we'd gain from it they rarely have any compelling advantage to cite and I can think of plenty of downsides.We've invested heavily in Mac software; the hardware is the only thing we bought from Apple.
Even if there's no consensus on what their fatal flaw was (you have your analysis but there are plenty of others) most everyone I've read or talked to has considered Apple's fate determined.More than anything else, I think, this has been the reason for the continuing decline. Nobody thinks they can survive and at this point--with Apple imminent quarterly results rumored to be disastrous--I'm probably beginning to agree with them.
But as you yourself pointed out, Apple is just a company. The Mac is a platform. It's time to start rallying around it.
p.s. What percentage of Apple's quarterly losses do you suppose Amelio's golden parachute will account for?
I've never seen a 'sure' road to anywhere. I only know I will support quality wherever I see it, no matter what road I walk. Apple executives have been living off the quality of the Macintosh for some time without adding to it. Hence, the state of the company. The quality of the Macintosh (no matter what outward form it takes, or who produces it) will survive because there are always people who will recognize and 'pay for' quality when they see it... probably about 5%. I don't mind being in the minority.
From: rich@barata.com (Richard Earl);
Sent at 7/10/97; 10:23:30 AM;
Re:The Sure Road to BankruptcyChrist, Dave, what a heavy piece. All I can say is that unless something bloody miraculous happens, I hope to be out of computing before there's no Mac OS, and no Mac. I'm starting to make enough money now that I could probably start getting into my other love, music, and start recording and producing. Which I'd want to do on the Mac...
From: jhaas@madison-web.com (Jason Haas);
Sent at 7/10/97; 10:22:31 AM;
Re:The Sure Road to BankruptcyBuying a small hut in New Mexico and forgetting about Microsoft and the whole "computer revolution" also has its charms.
>>Hey, at least then Frontier would ship with every copy!
From: dwiner@well.com (Dave Winer);
Sent at ;
Re:Being Kind to the MacNo! The system would be reduced to its minimum configuration. Frontier would be available as it is now, thru download from an FTP or HTTP server. Same for every optional system component.
It's a better idea now than ever. Ownership of the MacOS needs to be in the hands of someone other than Apple. I nominate Dave Winer! :-) Hey, at least then Frontier would ship with every copy!
From: dbw11@cornell.edu (David Weingart);
Sent at 7/10/97; 12:52:25 PM;
Re:Being Kind to the MacCoool!
It's fascinating ruminating about Apple, but for perspective, to me, and I think many others, Apple doesn't really exist except as a brand people "long ago" loved and used. Somewhat like the Packard automobile. In fact in the late 50's there were still a few hardy souls driving Packards, and Studebakers for that matter. The Packard was a wonderful car and I believe the first (in the 30s) to incorporate IFS, quite a major automotive leap.
From: Mickapp@aol.com;
Sent at 7/10/97; 12:36:22 PM;
Re: The Sure Road to BankruptcyPlease try to understand, that since I began this new life only 3 years ago, I only know Microsoft's stuff cause I started with WIN 3.1, not even DOS.