EXCLUSIVES

Mac OS X Hacks
Words by Ric Getter

Until now, if you wanted to diddle with the Mac OS, you either needed to use some sort of utility application (boring) or learn a programming language and the ins and outs of the Mac Toolbox (difficult). With OS X, those of us who are not content to leave it alone have direct access to the system's underpinnings.

Mac OS X Hacks - 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools by Rael Dornfest and Kevin Hemenway is a great cookbook for getting started. A few of the 100 tips seem to be there just to get a nice, round number for the title (it's hard to say how many readers will find the command-line technique for locking files useful), but the vast majority will prove to be either very useful or downright fun to play with (like how easy it is to turn a command-line shell script into a clickable application).

The book is perfectly set up for browsing through the many hacks. Each of the nine chapters is devoted to a particular aspect of OS X (file system, networking, iApps, the Terminal, etc.) and each of the hacks is rated for complexity (i.e. how much or how little trouble you can get yourself into). The bulk of the hacks are fairly quick and easy tips and tricks. But there are also a few rather complex hacks, including how to load and run Linux on your iBook. The Networking chapter offers some great techniques for exploiting Rendezvous and Jaguar's built-in VPN and SSH tunneling abilities.

The chapter "Multimedia and the iApps" goes off in some very interesting directions. Hack #26 gives a detailed account of how to use iTunes and the QuickTime Streaming Server to set up your own Internet radio station. Other hacks in the chapter offers some interesting tips for folks with Bluetooth-enabled cell phones.

To enjoy most of the book, all you need is the basic OS X installation (check out Hack #17 if you need to install Jaguar on your old, beige G3). But the authors do cover some of the more interesting shareware utilities that are out there and touch on some useful components in the Developer's Tools installation.

Even though it may not qualify as essential reading, Mac OS X Hacks will be a very useful volume to have around. And, like the OS itself, it can be a lot of fun to play with.

Mac OS X Hacks - 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools by Rael Dornfest & Kevin Hemenway, O'Reilly (www.oreilly.com) 406 pgs, $24.95, ISBN 0-596-00460-5

Mac OS X in a Nutshell
Words by Ric Getter

It's probably one of the most useful and least appropriately named references for OS X users. O'Reilly's OS X In a Nutshell is an indispensable manual for anyone who needs to know the OS inside and out. However, the "nutshell" we're talking about here is an impeccably organized, copiously illustrated 800-page reference for the serious Mac user. Even though it touches on nearly all aspects of Mac OS X, it hones in on many of the areas where you'll probably be looking for the most help. You'll find a wealth of information on system administration, networking and many of the more arcane but often essential system utilities. A great example of the latter is the book's Property List (plist) Editor, a tool that lets you examine and (assuming you know what you're doing) change many of the otherwise untouchable system and application settings and defaults. It's a utility that makes an appearance at several points throughout the book and makes up the bulk of one of the chapters. Like so many other aspects of OS X, you also have access to the plists through the command-line, in this case via the utility, default. Nutshell does an excellent job of showing both the Aqua and command-line versions of the various utilities. With Nutshell helping you find your way around the Terminal, you may find that is the easiest route.

Nearly a third of the book is dedicated to a Unix command reference that pays special attention to Darwin-specific commands. There is also fairly complete coverage of the Unix vi and emacs editors as well as a few interesting tricks you can do with Apple's own TextEdit. Even though it may not be of use to a lot of readers, one of Nutshell's chapters features one of the most clear and concise overviews of CVS that we've seen. Few other OS X texts even acknowledge it.

Even though Mac OS X in a Nutshell is the kind of book you'll be using mostly as a reference, you will pick up a lot by browsing through it. It is full of features and tricks that are far from obvious and a number of which we haven't found anywhere else. In either case, this is one book you'll want to keep within arm's reach.

Mac OS X in a Nutshell by Jason MacIntosh, Chuck Toporek & Chris Stone, O'Reilly (www.oreilly.com). $34.95, ISBN 0-596-00370-6

The Macintosh iLife: Updating the Digital Hub by Jim Heid
Words by Ric Getter

Apple's Digital Hub now has more features, a new name. and, thanks to the talented author, Jim Heid, one of the slickest digital-media how-tos you'll ever find. The Macintosh iLife is a substantial update to Heid's earlier guide to the Digital Hub. Working with Apple's digital media suite is an incredibly visual and tactile experience (just try, over a telephone, to tell someone how to crop a scene in iMovie). So, the combination of the lavishly and colorfully illustrated book and the well-conceived DVD that acompanies it covers a lot of territory without occupying a lot of shelf space. As useful and effective as they are, there is a lot more to The Macintosh iLife than the tutorials. Heid covers a wealth of tips, tricks and interesting background information. For example, in the section on iPhoto, he offers useful tips on improving your digital photography and setting up manageable photo libraries. Heid also covers some of the more useful, third party software and hardware add-ons for iLife's components. Even though the DVD is comprised primarily of footage of the author at his workstation and screen captures, it works well as a coordinated teaching tool. This allows you to either watch the DVD to get a walk-through of the applications and then go back to the book to flesh out the details, or start with the book and use the DVD to see the programs in action. The book and DVD will appeal to readers/viewers at a whole range of skill and experience levels. If you're already an expert, you'll still find numerous ways to get more out of the iLife apps and learn about what's going on behind the scenes. But, if you know somebody who just bought a Mac (or if you have family members who are wondering why you did), the book is a great source of ideas for things you can do. And, of course, you can keep it out where your friends who are steadfast Windows users can see it. Even if they had a machine that could do all this stuff, they would probably never be graced with a book like this that explains it all so well. The Macintosh iLife by Jim Heid, Peachpit Press 193 pgs, $29.95, ISBN 0-321-17011-3 www.Peachpit.com

Nanocosm: Nanotechnology & the Big Changes
by William Illsey Atkinson
Words by Chris Mace

Beyond the microcosm is the "nanocosm," the next frontier of the ever-smaller journey down the rabbit hole, where distance is measured in millionths of a millimeter and the nuts and bolts approach to engineering in the macro-world nears irrelevance.

In the next 2-5 years, the book claims, we will see things such as the self assembly of small electronic parts, based on artificial DNA and go-anywhere concentrators capable of producing drinkable water from thin air. Much of this requires a conceptual leap tantamount to jumping across a ravine, leaving plenty of room for zealotry, venture capitalism and R&D funding.

Michael Crichton's recent novel, The Prey, describes self-replicating killer nanoscale robots that escape from a faulty experiment. But the non-fiction of nanotech often resembles the fiction and it's Atkinson's task to puncture the bubble of hype and take us on an insider's tour. But when he restores the bubble with his enthusiasm and reporting, we find ourselves trapped inside, able to see that the next big thing is smaller than ever. Atkinson is skilled in analogy, the coin of science writing, and he is a storyteller, which saves this book from being merely a technology business briefing. Through a series of interviews with advanced nano-scientists in Japan, Switzerland, Australia, Canada and the United States, we share in the discovery.

The interviews construct a slick fade but we get beyond that with the facts; at least as far as 368 pages can take us without a Ph.D. After a character sketch of the staff, we are introduced to the nanomanipulator (nM) multimedia lab at UNC Chapel Hill, where "operators can probe a virus with a technologically medicated finger" and learn about the bug's exterior. The nM is an SPM (Scanning Probe Microscope) with an ultra-fine point for a "lens" that scans side to side, picking up the faint magnetic fields of atoms and imaging the topography of a molecule. It can even move a single atom causing it to stick to the lens with electrical current - hence, "manipulator."

Space, contrary to all those Star Trek reruns, is not the final frontier.

Atkinson is president of a technology consulting firm and a contributing science writer for Toronto's Globe and Mail.

Publisher: AMACOM Price: $24.95 Hardcover Pages: 368 www.amanet.org/books