eWeeks Reports Tiger Fixes to Networking

It's about time. We've got a Tiger-based file-sharing network in the Jackson Free Press office (not running Mac OS X Server, just a dedicated machine with File Sharing turned on), and that gives us some headaches at times. I've been thinking for a while now that Mac OS X should be mature enough that the networking works a little better than it does...we've been at this close to seven years, right? Anyhow, the eWeek report says that Mac OS X 10.4.7 -- which should be available in both PowerPC and Intel flavors via Software Update as you read this -- addresses some long-standing issues such as problems that InDesign and Quark have when accessing files over a network. (Can I get an 'Amen'?) Plus, fewer dropped connections, some improvements in AirPort networking and it sounds like some tweaks to QuickTime.

New Netscape.com = Digg.com Plus

AOL, owners of Netscape.com, have approved a retool of the portal that will have a Digg.com look-and-feel, but cover a broader range of topics than the tech-focused Digg. (Although Digg itself announced it was broadening a bit just last week.) The new Netscape is in public beta right now, just reaching 1,000 members as I'm typing. Users enter small blog-like entries to interesting news stories, which can then be voted on by the community. Those with the most votes hit the home page. Jason Calacanis, who sold AOL Weblogs.com, Inc. a while back, is running the new Netscape and says he'll have a team of bloggers who follow the most popular stories with interviews and on-the-street reporting.

Clever Tweak Alters Mail

While I'm not blessed with my own, personal widescreen Apple monitor (toiling away as I do on as 12-inch PowerBook G4), I have always thought that the Mail interface isn't fully utilized on wider screens. Some enterprising Mac nerds have cobbled together a plug-in for Mail that rearranges the interface so that a full top-to-bottom list of e-mail can be viewed and the preview pane, now on the right side of the Mail Viewer window, can display nearly a full page of text.

http://harnly.net/software/letterbox.html

(Now if only the damn Paste and Match Style command actually worked.)