January 2001 || Volume 01, Issue 06

Ahh... What a Break!

OK... some of you have noticed that we didn't publish a December issue. Me, being the selfless editor that I am, understand that my extremely talented staff needs a break every once and a while. Of course, December being the month of holidays that it is, it was merely the most convenient time for this break. You, of course, are now supposed to praise me for being a kind and caring Editor, not as a selfish guy who wanted a break myself. But, in any case, here we are, welcoming in the new millennium with flare...

Here Come the New Guys...

...please, no hazing... unless I get to watch. Along with '01, we're welcoming two new columns and columnists this issue. Please say "hello" (no, not out loud!) to Rocco J. Carello and José Morales. Rocco will be the lead Distribution Manager at the Warehouse, a column bringing the best Mac freeware, shareware, and everything in between to your desktop. José will be the head geek behind Mac Mastery: Tips, Tricks & Hints, introducing you to great new ways to use your Mac and to use it more efficiently. I think you'll enjoy the new columns.

Congrats to Stoopsie
(If You Don't Like Football, Just Move on to the Next Section)

For those of you who follow College Football (that's American Football, you wacky Europeans), you know that it's been an interesting year... with all the one loss teams arguing over who should be in the championship game, fans discussing whether the BCS is evil, and everyone questioning the merits of a man 8 years older than most other players being a valid Heisman candidate. I'm glad to see that at least the NC worked itself out this season with Oklahoma overcoming that 12 point underdog spread to beat Florida State.

While I'm not an actual Oklahoma fan, I am of course a Bob Stoops and Steve Spurrier Jr. fan -- the first being the former defensive coordinator at Florida, and the other being a former assistant at Florida (oh yeah, and the son of THE Steve Spurrier, arguably the greatest Football mind in history). Add to the fact that anyone who beats Florida State and denies them a national championship is in my good book (yep, I even pulled for Tennessee in 1998 ;) and you can guess that I enjoyed the whole experience. Now, if only Apple would run ads during bowl month, that would make the whole event more fun...

More Good 'Ol Reviews

We know how much you love 'em so we have three new ones just waiting for you. This month: Craig investigates the latest version of Adobe's franchise player, Photoshop 6, Erica fights to defend the motherland in Beach Head 2000, and Kevin introduces optical mice to his Mac, with a MiniPRO mouse review as the result. So, enjoy these, and if you're good, we'll give you more next month.

Oh Yeah, We Have a Feature!

This issue's feature is about "putting it all together" in the Mac sense of the phrase. What Makes a Mac great? It's not any individual part, but the whole entity from hardware to software to the surrounding Mac community to black turtlenecks that make it what it is. David has taken that philosophy a step further in creating a Sound Mac -- a combination of several independent elements to expand your Mac experience -- cool!

With that, I hope I've whetted your appetite a little. So, happy new year... carry on.

Marc Messer - marc@macosjournal.com
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