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Mac OS X Revisited Last issue's Surf Watch didn't feature my usual balance of Mac sites and Current Affairs sites... it was all about Mac OS X. And I have to apologize to His Steveness: contrary to my implied expectations, Mac OS X actually appeared on the day Steve promised it would. Now whether it's actually ready for people to use... views differ. But no-one could pretend it has met with universal acclaim from all quarters. Me: I'll hold off for a while, I think. I know it's the way our platform is bound to go, but I'd prefer to let others do the grunt work. [FYI, I use OS X almost exclusively now. I guess I'm the grunt. - Ed] Just one recommended Mac site this month, and in a way it's a one-trick pony. It just happened to be the trick I needed, though. I'm a complete newbie to networking, my last essay into this territory being several years ago when I AppleTalked my wife's Mac, mine, and a printer [Is "AppleTalked" even a word? - Ed]. But earlier this month I seemed to be the only one on this tiny Caribbean island with any Mac knowledge at all, so I was the one who got to set up a little Ethernet network. Two Macs, a PC, and a printer. I really didn't have the first clue, our nearest bookstore is a $400 flight away, and Amazon, well, mail takes several weeks and Fedex begins at $70. So the Net was the only way. And that's how I happened upon a wonderful resource that I'd never seen before... No need for any books, or any expensive advice; just surf right over, and you'll be able to do just what you need to. Somehow, it doesn't all seem arcane any more, just rather straightforward. To cap it all off, you can download the whole site and retain it your machine as a convenient reference. I'm not likely to get to do another network very soon, and I'm actually rather regretful about that. Naturally, I didn't tell the people I'm doing it for how simple and straightforward it all was, so they still think I'm wonderful. And guess what, all three are young, female, and rather attractive. For an old guy like me, it doesn't get much better. If that's all there is, it's enough.
Getting Back on Track OK, as promised, back to News and Current Affairs. Previous columns dealt with media outlets and newspapers all over the world, and I've listed all the ones I know about that I think are worth the trouble of going to -- notice I haven't mentioned USA Today. So now I'll begin to take a look at columns written by writers I like -- no, I'll change that; columns written by people I either like or reluctantly respect. I'll begin with my current favorite: completely zany, usually with a nice edge to it, and wonderfully inventive. How this guy writes stuff that's so consistently original and funny, I don't know. Read him in your local paper if you can, but if you can't, or if you miss some columns for silly reasons like being away from home, then read him on the net. Yes of course, I'm referring to Dave Barry. http://www.miami.com/herald/special/features/barry/ Now to a more serious columnist. Writing mostly about domestic U.S. issues, Ellen Goodman writes from a perspective that anywhere else in the world would be seen as the moderate center, but in the American context is the far left. Right up my street, in other words. Reading her, I usually think, "yes, that's how I would have said it if I was as good a writer as she is." She's one of those writers (William F. Buckley Jr is another, from the opposite end of the spectrum), who's regularly read and respected even by those who are apoplectically upset by her view. I was especially entranced by the quotation from President Dubya that reveals a lot, I feel about him. "You teach a child to read and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test." Oh, so that's why I learned to read, is it? http://www.globe.com/globe/columns/goodman/ I've mentioned William F. Buckley Jr. If I suffered from low blood pressure, he'd be an infallible antidote. He's a personal friend and ideological arch-enemy of my political and economic mentor from long ago, John Kenneth Galbraith. If ever I can't see what the folks on the right could possibly have to say on some issue, I look to William F. Buckley, and the absolutely outlandish answer is written right there, explained so persuasively that I might almost start believing he's right if I didn't know better [You mean if your mind wasn't quite so closed - Ed]. http://www.uexpress.com/ontheright/ These political columnists, of course, aren't the most widely-read ones in American newspapers. That honor goes (and has gone all my life) to Ann Landers. How old is she? Is Ann Landers really a person, or is it just a name given to a megacompany (with a huge office building in Dallas or somewhere) to make it seem more human? You know, like Publisher's Clearing House's Robert H. Treller, who writes his own personal letters to me about three times a day, and who goes over the typewritten copy and circles things and handwrites comments in the margins with his very own blue marker before licking the envelope, putting in all the other little stickies and foil envelopes, and sticking the stamps on [Are you digressing a bit again? - Ed]. But to get back to Ann Landers. You can get all the advice you want, maybe more, from the Official Ann Landers Website. There's enough advice here to last all your life, and that's just reading it, not even beginning to take any of it. Here, for example, is what Ann thinks of the Internet:
Oh, so that's what we do all day around here. Connect with vulnerable people in undesirable ways [It's a good thing Dennis is off the mainland... our American readers are safe. - Ed]. Look out, vulnerable readers. D'ya actually know about anything else on the internet, Ann? Apart from connecting up with Miss Marvelous?
90 million people to read her advice about the internet and other topics -- that's her estimated daily readership. Well, maybe she is getting on a bit in years. But hey, I have an aunt who's 91. She does have a computer and she is on the Internet. But she's not often lonely or bored and she's certainly not vulnerable, so maybe she doesn't have to worry too much about getting connected with people who are undesirable. Although she does exchange email with me quite a bit. And btw, Ann is a person. She's 78, She answers 2000 letters a day. I wonder if she handwrites the answers, gets them typed on an old Royal Manual by her 82 year-old secretary, and then goes over the typescript with a blue pencil like Robert H. Trell [Let him go. - Ed]. Oh, and I almost forgot the URL. http://www.creators.com/lifestyle/landers/ Guess someone in the Ann Corporate Office office down there in Dallas does have a computer. More columnists next month, And as a special treat, something even more ridiculous... yes, Doctor Laura Schlessinger.
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