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Macintosh
by by John Willner , willner@earthlink.net - June 02, 2001 at 19:35:42:
Apple furnished a new CD on OS X that describes most of the new features. There were numerous film clips, and the LCD projector did a fine job on this presentation. The CD ran in Version 9.1 Classic Mode on a G3 lap top computer. There were five categories, each emphasizing strengths of OS X. The first was pre-emptive multi-tasking, and the fact that a crash of one application would not bring the system down. The real benefit of this approach is the ability to open many applications at once and use them in any order. Essentially this integrates applications into a multidimensional system that performs all necessary tasks when needed.The Preferences folder and Control Panels have basically been combined. There are no more extensions (and potential extension conflicts). In some respects the places for Applications have been flattened, although they can be made as hierarchical as desired. Slots are provided for photographs, internet web designs and messages. The great Sherlock search program is up front. Some familiar operations have been relocated, such as “shut down,” now in the Apple Menu. These do not appear to be changes for the sake of changes. In playing with OS X capabilities one begins to understand the logic used.
Apple has included seven high grade new fonts in OS X. These were designed by world famous designers, and are very impressive. After the OS X demo, they were shown in the improved Textedit program. The Austrian designer Zapf, has developed a gorgeous new script font (he is also the author of Palatino and Dingbats). For headlines a font called Herculanum prints as though it came directly from marble carvings in the ancient sister city to Pompei. New highly readable sans serif fonts are included. Too bad we can’t redirect the use of these new fonts to OC 9.1 while new applications catch up. An impressive array of vendors working on new programs for OS X was listed.
Since a demo disk of M. Y. O. B. had been received the previous day, this accounting program was also reviewed. M. Y. O. B., of course, stands for Mind Your Own Business. It was the first GUI-based accounting system written for Macintosh computers. While straight-laced accountants panned it because it was not a double entry system, the truth of the matter has always been that it is quite accurate, and one of the best accounting programs ever developed in terms of ease of use. In the beginning there was no Payroll module. Over the years, that gap has been filled and many enhancements incorporated. It is now available on Windows computers as well. I personally use Quicken for my accounting software, but I have no payroll requirements. I would switch to M. Y. O. B. if I did. It has a huge number of available reports and the response time in compiling them is impressive. Its biggest weakness might be in the inventory module, although only your computer memory limits the number of items that can be handled. It appears to be more than adequate for any business until one gets to the hundreds of millions of dollars category. Best of all it can be learned one module at a time.
This combination of laptop computer with LCD projector is quite handy. Attendees can look at examples of most topics under discussion. We expect to continue next month with more demos of this nature.
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