Fascinating how things change. Back in the 1980s, when Macs became dominant in the publishing industry because of the LaserWriter and PageMaker, you didn’t read about the goings on at Apple in the mainstream press every single day. It’s hard to realize that Apple had a double digit market share way back when, although the total PC universe was a lot smaller. At the time, however, I was too busy earning that paycheck to think much about the computer I used to for my work.

I felt lucky when I only had one or two system crashes a day, that a floppy disk didn’t become corrupted, and that an attempt to output a high resolution document didn’t fail. No, things did not always “just work,” but you put up with the anomalies and the annoyances and persevered. Yes, there was also an occasional computer virus or two. I learned the hard way to get proper protection from such things, and accepted that, too, as the cost of doing business.

When System 7.0 arrived in the early 1990s, it ran like a slug on a 68000 Mac, but was only a tad less responsive on something with a more powerful processor, such as the IIci, with a 68030 chip. But suddenly, 8MB of RAM didn’t seem so massive, and I welcomed 32-bit addressing. The IIci and its predecessor, the IIcx, were dust magnets, by the way, and it would all gather in the rear of the floppy drive, which is why it would stop working until cleaned. You could say I lived in a dusty environment, and maybe you could say that about New York and New Jersey. But I didn’t shout to the skies that Macs were unreliable, especially after hearing the trials and tribulations of friends who used PCs. And, oh yes, crashes were a bit less frequent.

Of course things didn’t just get better over time. When the first Macs with PowerPC processors arrived in 1994, I noticed that they seemed to run slower than the Quadra. Product reviewers noticed that you had to use software especially compiled for the new chips to get any performance speedup. Doesn’t that sound familiar? I suppose these new models were better, but some were designed by what I felt were a bunch of lunatics who relished the pain you suffered when you had to pop a bunch of cable assemblies and even the logic board just to add memory. What were they thinking? What indeed.

Apple seemed to fall into a huge hole before long. In 1995, with the arrival of the first Macs with PCI slots (just like those in a high-end PC box of the time), the first operating system was a disaster. One or two crashes would be a revelation. Having it happen just 15 minutes after setting up a new computer was only the beginning of my woes, until Apple patched the system to make it sufficiently reliable that it required a mere one or two restarts a day. Sure, some of you went on for days without trouble, but as soon as you ran a resource hungry content creation application, you saw your Mac demonstrate its true colors.

And then there was the first PowerBooks with PowerPC chips, which shipped late and maybe should haven’t shipped at all, because they were so filled with hardware glitches. Apple even had to issue a recall to address power port, logic board and other ills. I sent back a 5300ce, which cost over five grand by the way, several times to fix one problem or another. One weird symptom was the appearance of some sort of sealant at the bottom of the screen bezel. I had to wonder, at times, whether it was infected by an alien parasite. In any case, with the proper cautionary explanations, I sold it to a local user group official, and he had to send it back to Apple again for repair before he found another victim to take it off his hands.

So today, when you look at the online chatter about Apple problems and the first real virus infection in years, you have to wonder what they’re complaining about. We’ve grown so accustomed to the Mac OS on Unix that up time’s of less than three or four weeks is absolutely unacceptable. Yes, there is still that occasional hardware glitch, and extended repair program. But today if a group of people are affected by what they perceive to be a defect, they don’t just send their products to Apple or a third party repair shop to fix the problem, they file a class action lawsuit. Of course, if the legal action is successful, the lawyers will make millions and you will end up with an offer for a coupon to save a few dollars on your next purchase or a tiny rebate. Was it all worth it?

Today, anything that slows down your Mac, even for a fleeting second, is a major issue that Apple must repair forthwith. In the days when there were several powerful viruses a year on the Mac platform, you didn’t see it blasting from a thousand and one tech columns across the free world. Today, a single infection, even one that really isn’t so damaging in the scheme of things, is portrayed by some as a major problem confronting Apple that it must address forthwith before things get out of hand.

At the same time, millions of Windows users confront thousands of malware variations every single year and only the very few that can bring businesses to their knees get reported. How many Mac users were affected by the recently discovered Oompa-Loompa strain? The reports say perhaps several hundred, but it is pictured as an example that the Mac has finally entered the real world of personal computing.

So do you really long for the good old days?

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When you think of security, the threat of malware comes to mind. Whether you call it a virus, a Trojan Horse or a worm, you don’t want to have to confront the nasty thing. You may prefer to think of such problems as exclusive to the Windows platform, but the first computer virus actually appeared years ago on the Unix operating system.

Over the years, there have been relatively few Mac viruses. Most were simply annoying, although some were destructive enough to cause you agony if you encountered them. But when Mac OS X arrived, and the closest thing to a virus threat was a proof of concept or two, or perhaps the periodic security updates from Apple, it was easy to come to the conclusion that it can’t happen here. That Mac OS X was also supposed to be more secure than Windows only added to your feeling of security. But it’s a false sense of security.

Now it’s perfectly true that the Mac virus that has gotten so much attention in recent days isn’t near as lethal as most. True, it can replace some of your applications if you let it loose, but those applications can be reinstalled. The highly-touted iChat threat only impacts folks on a local, Bonjour network, not while you’re connected via AOL’s AIM network on the Internet, but that wouldn’t stop someone from building another virus that’s less picky.

But it’s not hard to protect yourself from computer viruses. One of the strongest remedies is simply not to open files you didn’t expect to receive, even if you know who sent it. Remember, that malware can affect someone’s computer and then spread itself by grabbing that person’s address book or buddy list.

Another step to protect yourself is to install a virus protection application. Yes, you might consider such software as potentially invasive because it’s monitoring your system, and it may slow down application launches because of background scanning. It’s also true that these applications are known to cause system-related anomalies from time to time, but regular updates usually fix that. You just have to remember to configure the automatic update process, known as NetUpdate with Intego’s VirusBarrier and LiveUpdate with Symantec’s Norton Anti-Virus. They are usually configured for weekly updates, but I’d recommend you change the settings to daily.

These two elements comprise only part of the steps you need to take to protect your stuff. As I said, Mac OS X security updates appear occasionally. They close loopholes in the system. It doesn’t mean those loopholes have been exploited. In fact they haven’t been, at least not yet, even that recently discovered security hole that reportedly afflicts Apple’s Safari browser. But those updates are still essential, because it only takes one successful attempt to breach a security leak for havoc to ensue.

There is a final step you should take to protect yourself, and it’s one that should become a regular part of your computing regimen. Even if there was never a security threat, never a virus in the wild, never a need for any sort of security update or virus protection software, this step is essential. All you have to do is mistakenly delete a file, or experience a hard drive failure to find yourself feeling totally helpless. I’m taking about backups. True, you may be able to reinstall your system and applications if you have the original media (assuming you didn’t get them online), but what about those business reports you did in Microsoft Word, the presentations you created for that sales meeting in Keynote, or the financial records from Intuit’s Quicken?

Think about what it would involve to have to recreate all that critical data? Think about how long it would take to download and reinstall any software you lost, assuming it didn’t come in a retail box? Consider the cost, for example, of recovering a crashed hard drive. Yes, there are drive repair utilities, data recovery utilities, but trying to get your files back after the fact isn’t guaranteed. Also remember that virus protection software isn’t perfect, and an infected file may not be recoverable. In addition if a new virus strain appears, it may take a few days for definitions to be updated, leaving time for lots of damage to be done.

Backups can be as simple or as complicated as you wish. It may just involve making copies of your most important files on an external drive, or perhaps a CD or DVD. No, putting it on another partition on your hard drive isn’t a solution, because when the drive fails, as they do on occasion, it takes down everything. You don’t need special software for this simple sort of backup, just some way to remind yourself to do it regularly. Daily is not too often, especially if you are making new documents or revisions each day. When I record an interview for The Tech Night Owl LIVE, I actually make three copies on external drives as soon as the interview has ended. I do not want to even think of having to do that interview all over again, and most guests expect to do it just once, and that’s it!

If your needs are more complicated, consider backup software. The application I use these days is SuperDuper!, a shareware program that clones your hard drive. But it is a lot more sophisticated than that, because its Smart Update feature can be used after the initial backup to only copy the files that have actually changed. It also makes your backup drive bootable, which means you can start from that drive if your main drive fails. There are also scheduled backups and other features that make it more than worth its $27.95 price for a user license.

Although backups aren’t hard to do, I understand that you are busy and it’s awfully easy to forget about it. In addition to setting up a schedule with your software, you could also set a reminder in iCal. If you really want to learn the ins and outs of setting up the best backup routine for your needs, you’ll want to check out Joe Kissell’s excellent e-book, Take Control of Mac OS X Backups. Joe is a regular guest on the radio show, and he guides you through just about every possible backup possibility, step-by-step, so you know which one will work best for you. It may be the best $10 you ever spent.

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As you may have heard elsewhere, Apple plans a Special Event on February 28th. Journalists are receiving cryptic messages in their mailboxes, asking them to “Come see some fun new products from Apple.” Fun? Well, that raises lots of possibilities. But if you take “fun” as representing a consumer computer, there is one set of prospects.

If you are a regular reader of these columns, you know that I don’t truck in rumors, and I do not claim to possess any magical powers to determine what Apple Computer might be up to in the foreseeable future. At the same time, when you look over the details and consider the trends, you can come up with some reasonable conclusions.

Of course, when it comes to reasonable conclusions, Apple has a nasty habit of confounding logic and reason and surprising us. So let that be my excuse if I happen to be dead wrong about all this, although others have presented similar ideas.

First, let’s look at the sales picture, because it shows the challenges Apple is confronting. All current estimates show that MacIntels (Macs with Intel Inside) are selling quite well, thank you. Published surveys show that iMacs are moving fast, and that Apple continues to be backordered on the MacBook Pro. But where does that leave the rest of the line? Not much past the starting gate, it appears.

Consider the Mac mini and the iBook, both of which haven’t been updated in a long, long time. In fact, other than some extra memory, and the possibility that a few units shipped with somewhat faster processors, the mini is pretty much the same as the product that made its debut 13 months ago. That’s an eternity in the computer business and then some.

The iBook? Well, educational systems are going to be placing their orders for fall in the coming months, and this model is a cornerstone of Apple’s school-based initiative. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the present iBook. In fact, it’s quite a nice laptop, except that PC laptops are getting cheaper and cheaper as processor performance heads upward.

Now consider one other factor, that Intel is about to ship single core versions of the chip that powers the new iMac and MacBook Pro. Without knowing any specific details, I don’t think you can dispute the fact that Apple has been working on its Intel-based revisions for the Mac mini and iBook for quite some time now, just waiting for the right parts to finish the job. Those parts are just about at hand, which means that MacIntel versions may indeed make their debut next week.

It would seem reasonable to assume a new iBook would become the MacBook, and that the Mac mini’s name will be unchanged.

But how does all that account for the fun factor? What if the new models also feature, say, a Front Row 2.0, which expands the possibilities of Apple’s new remote control system? The major element that separates Front Row from a Windows Media Center computer is latter’s the ability to record TV shows. Sure, that capability is already filled by third party products, such as the EyeTV line from Elgato Systems. But Apple usually has its own ideas about such things. Besides, this important feature, and other enhancements to Front Row are sorely needed to match up with what you can get today on Windows. Put a proper Apple spin on the new capabilities, and you can imagine how the MacIntel versions of the iBook and Mac mini might be configured.

Even better, since Front Row is software, it would seem sensible to be able to download an update and deliver the same capabilities to the iMac and MacBook Pro. Fascinating!

As to pricing, the Mac mini will probably continue to have a starting price of $499, but Apple is under pressure to cut the price of the iBook replacement. Consider an $899 laptop with iSight and a Front Row upgrade. Now match that up with Windows laptops, and they suddenly don’t look quite as attractive when you consider the lack of features. But the form factor of the mini clearly doesn’t allow for a Webcam provision.

Some are suggesting that Apple might just install the slowest Intel Core Duo in these models, citing only a modest increase in costs. But when it comes to the low-end of the product line, even a few dollars can mean a lot. If a Core Duo is used, it’ll only be on the higher-priced spreads.

One more aspect of the sales picture: Although iPod sales are reportedly still good, they have clearly cooled somewhat from the holiday season, which is to be expected. So there may indeed be updated iPods, perhaps a high-end model with a larger screen and enhanced video playback battery life. Some of the speculation talks of a Boom Box version of the iPod, but that’s a need that’s already filled by third parties, so I hardly see why Apple would develop an integrated product.

As I said at the outset, I may be all wrong on these possibilities. Perhaps Apple will simply extend its consumer electronics reach with an all-new product line, one that again stretches the joys of the iPod in unexpected ways. Regardless of what happens on February 28th, it’s clear the whole world will be watching.

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