ATPM 12.03

The March issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available.
Ellyn ponders the notion of just because you can do something doesn’t mean you necessarily should do it, especially when it comes to system upgrades. This makes me think about all those people wailing over the new Intel-based Macs; it’s not like your two year-old Mac is suddenly obsolete. Is it still running all the apps you were running on it yesterday? Yes? Fine, carry on, and stop sniveling.
Wes looks at how February appeared to be an iPod month, and also notes the discussions on Smart Crash Reports and dual-core processors that have been making the rounds in the Mac blogosphere. Ted looks at Dossier, a new-to-ATPO outliner, as well as outliner web interaction. His columns continue to simultaneously fascinate and overwhelm me. The “Attractive Futures” section at the end is not to be missed.
Mark Tennent notes Microsoft’s struggles in the European Union, and the potential effect on Mac users. (I wrote the blurb, I can reuse it here.) Sylvester dives in to the world of video extraction, which prompted Lee to note via instant message that he wishes he had this information a couple of years ago. This from a guy who deals with video production on a fairly regular basis, or obviously Sylvester has some enlightening suggestions. Matthew extends the life of his Cube with the installation of a SuperDrive.
This month’s desktop pictures are still shots of Quartz Composer models created by Futurismo Zugakousaku. I’m partial to the fish (not surprising), and I like the Iron Wave shots, too. Definitely check out Futurismo’s work. Frisky Freeware is on a short hiatus, but Cortland finds love with Angie, while Chad ponders life outside of work.
Matthew plays with Chessmaster 9000–do these Feral Interactive guys have a time machine or something? Chessmaster 9000?!?! Does chess change that much in 7,000 years?–while Eric cleans his iPod with Newer’s Clean and Polish Kit.
Paul examines an app that should be in every troubleshooting toolkit, Data Rescue II. Miraz Jordan reviews Path Finder 4.0.2, a Finder replacement I hope to get to know better. Finally, Chris puts the X-Slim EL keyboard through the wringer.
As usual, this month’s issue is available in a variety of flavors.