Per Paul Stamatio, as if you needed thirty-six other reasons.
Tag: tech
I renewed my .Mac subscription last year, though I did so with reservations. That was the last time I will renew, and come October, I will be .Mac-less for the first time since the service was the original, free iTools. With every feature “update”, I am finding less and less value in the service for myself. I am not alone in my feelings, and Khoi Vinh sums up a lot of how I feel. Your own mileage may vary.
I thought I would begin the process of replacing the features I use with .Mac, keeping in mind the sum total of the replacements not exceed .Mac’s annual price tag of $99.95. Steven Frank offers alternatives, and I will likely touch on many of those as well.
Anti-Virus
To begin the replacement process, I started with virus protection. When McAfee began to have issues with Virex 7.5, before and after the introduction of Mac OS X Tiger, I went looking for another anti-virus solution. Granted, we have yet to have a serious virus infection of the OS X community, but it never hurts to be prepared.
I now use ClamXav to fend off the nasties. The only downside to ClamXav is a lack of protection from Visual Basic-based macro viruses, which infect Microsoft Office documents. Personally, though I own Office, I use its components rarely, so this isn’t a showstopper for me. If the applications of Office are some of your mainstays, however, you might want to investigate Norton AntiVirus or VirusBarrier.
It should be noted that Apple no longer includes any anti-virus package with .Mac, so even if I were to pay for NAV or VirusBarrier, it wouldn’t be counted against the $99.95 cost of .Mac.
E-mail
Besides the former use of Virex, another feature I’m using with .Mac is the @mac.com e-mail address. At the last revision of the .Mac feature set, Apple increased the default storage limit to one gigabyte. This is shared space; it is utilized by your .Mac e-mail, as well as any files you upload to your account.
Contrast this with Google’s Gmail, which gives you, currently, 2.7 GB of space, and counting. (Google slowly increases the storage amount each day.) My Gmail account has become my main e-mail account, with my account on my own domain coming in second. The Gmail web interface is much faster, for me at least, than the .Mac web interface, though with both accounts I use the POP protocol to route the mail to my local e-mail client.
So for now, I’ve replaced the anti-virus software Apple no longer offers, and I’ve replaced the e-mail service with one that offers more storage and a faster user interface, both at no cost. More on my personal quest to rid myself of .Mac in a future post.
Guy mentions the web telephony service Jajah, which looks interesting, especially when compared to Skype. Unlike the latter, Jajah doesn’t require you to download any software, and you use your own phone.
This is just about as dead-simple telephony as you can get. You enter your phone number, then the number you’re calling, then hit the Call button. Your phone rings, you answer, then it rings the number you’re calling. That’s it.
So, like Skype, you can call internationally really cheap. Unlike Skype, you can dial Guadalajara, then chat on your mobile with the golf pro who took three strokes off your game, all while you drive to your local course.
Personally, I’ve never had much use for Skype. I haven’t called internationally in ten years, easy. Calls within the borders of the U.S. are covered adequately by my mobile phone plan. And if I were calling internationally, I may not want to be tied to the computer when doing so. Should I have the need, I can certainly see myself favoring Jajah.
O’Reilly has a web site devoted to Lightroom.
[Via John.]
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Though I do not speak, read, or write either, I still think it very cool that Gmail now supports Arabic and Hebrew.
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The World eBook Fair is a month away.
[Via AWAD.]
Leave it to a bunch of Brits to play football with automobiles. In this case, a small fleet of Toyota’s Aygos. There was plenty of rubbin’ going on, and as we all know, “Rubbin’s racin’.”
[Via Autoblog, video requires Windows Media Player.]
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When you go to see X3, sit through the credits.
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It is amazingly quiet in my study when my wife’s Windows PC is powered off. My iMac Core Duo, PowerBook, external hard drive, and HP OfficeJet AIO (when it’s not actually printing) are all near-silent.
When I walked in a moment ago, and registered the quiet, being so used to the fans of the PC, I had a momentary thought of “What’s wrong?”
Lee’s a bit hot under the collar over Skype’s new, supposedly free, SkypeOut plan, and understandably so. I’m not sure I get Skype’s argument; I thought the whole point of their service was to be location free, to the extent of remaining within the borders of the U.S.
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Something tells me my sister would really dig these lamps.
[Wave of the phin to Firewheel Design.]
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Congratulations to Aram Kudurshian, developer of High Priority, who has accepted a developer position with Apple.
Dell Warns of Earnings Shortfall: “Dell warned it would miss its earnings and revenue forecasts, blaming pricing actions aimed at reviving sales growth.”
Sorry, I just had to do it again.
AT&T is torching their Cingular brand like a gang of boychiks igniting a hobo on their way home from the milk bar. From the ashes, phoenix-like, a new brand is to emerge: AT&T Wireless.
I used to be an AT&T Wireless customer. Not good memories. Cingular is such a distinguishable brand name, for good or ill, whereas for everyone I know and speak to on this issue, AT&T Wireless offers nothing but ill will. Unlike Consumerist’s Ben, I’ve had nothing but good customer service from Cingular. Yes, I realize the “new” AT&T isn’t really anything like the “old” AT&T, corporate-wise, but the bad connotations with the AT&T brand are apparently so bad, we all fear it is. Or will be.
[Wave of the phin to Tom, via IM.]
I just really wanted to use the words “beleaguered” and “Dell” in the same sentence.
How do you like them apples, Mr. Dell?