Hivelogic has the low-down on setting up your Panther-ized Mac as a fax server. (via MacInTouch)

Just as I mentioned that I would like to have voted for SpamSieve for the MacInTouch Reader Choice Poll for 2003, so does Ric Ford go and allow readers to vote for third-party software. So I got the chance to vote for Michael's software after all. With that, congratulations are in order to Michael for being a runner-up in the Communications category of the refreshed list. Kudos also to one of my other favorite developers, Brent Simmons (and his wife, Sheila), for the runner-up spot claimed by another awesome piece of software, NetNewsWire. It's the only way to read RSS feeds on the Mac.

Ric Ford has posted the results of his totally informal poll on the best Apple products for 2003. The iPod/iTunes combo takes overall best product. You can check out the other winners on the poll page. Personally, I would have voted for Michael's SpamSieve as the best software product, but the poll was for Apple-only items. I can't tell you what a time saver SpamSieve has become for me, and even though I have little to no day-to-day interaction with the app, I am addicted to its usage. (Which is the way I'm beginning to feel about LaunchBar...)

The folks at iSkin have rolled out a new keyboard protector for current PowerBooks and iBooks. I reviewed an older version of the iSkin Keyboard Protector earlier this year, and recommend the product.

Michael released version 2.1 of SpamSieve today. This version adds more support to Apple Mail that was begun in version 2.0.2, as well as numerous other improvements. There's a new Training Tip window that offers advice on how to improve the app's accuracy. The Entourage address book can now be used as a white list, something that will come in handy for me at my new job. And I swear this thing just keeps getting faster. With its tight integration with Mailsmith, I hardly know it's running at all, though I most certainly know that it's working. Over the past couple of weeks, I've gotten two false positives--relatives who had never emailed me before--and a few false negatives from new spam that was swiftly added to the corpus and now flow in to the Trash. SpamSieve 2.1 requires Mac OS X 10.2.6 or later, and is the best $25 a Mac user can spend.

Friend of the phisch Michael Tsai has been awarded an Eddy by Macworld magazine for his awesome spam-killing app, SpamSieve. I've been using SpamSieve since before it was first released, as a beta tester, and it's a top-notch piece of work from a top-notch guy. Sorry, Windows users, but this spam killer works on Macintosh only. Congratulations, Michael!

What happens when your client realizes they're running the wrong version of two commercials in all thirty-nine of their stores that have a theater setup? You spend all night pushing the new versions down to those stores. That's exactly what happened on my third day of work, my birthday no less. Apple wants its current commercials to be popped in to the video loops shown at the retail stores with theaters, and the latest iPod commercials (HipHop, Rock, and Dance), were either wrong or nonexistent. We received the raw footage from Apple on DV tapes in the morning, spent the afternoon capturing and cutting a new video loop, then uploaded the new loop to a staging server--all 1.2 GB of it. Then it was waiting until the stores began closing, and staggering the push across the time zones. Crawled in to bed about five this morning, got up about noon. Standard operating procedure is nothing but support calls on the day after a big push, and I don't know enough about the systems to take any calls, so I get a day off. Pretty simple editing in Final Cut Express, but it has whetted my appetite for more.

The December issue of About This Particular Macintosh is out. Articles of interest include Ellyn's look at the changing face of research, part six of Andrew's excellent design tutorial, and Ted's continuation of his intensive outliner series. Eric has a review of the Risk game for OS X (no, it's not from Milton-Bradely), Chris Lawson gets everyone addicted to Snood, and yours truly reviews iPhoto 2: The Missing Manual. The usual great stuff abounds.

If you really want to get the most out of your web code, and don't have a Mac, please, please, please use this.

Karl Dandenell reports to Ric Ford on MacInTouch that Virtual PC 6 is not supported on Power Mac G5s. There is potential hope in that Microsoft states in the tech note they are working on G5 support for the application. This avoids a Retrophisch™ "I told you so" moment for the time being. After all, how long did it take Microsoft to bring HALO to another platform?

Today was my first day at my new job. The company I'm working for is AMX, based in Richardson, Texas. In business since 1982, AMX specializes in audio/visual automation and control systems for both commercial and residential customers. The project I'm working on happens to be the Apple Retail Stores. AMX has partnered with Apple to deliver and maintain all of the control systems for the Apple Stores' theater and music setups. All those movies that play on the store's big screen? The cool tunes you hear playing over the loudspeakers? All run by a combination of AMX's hardware and software and Macintosh systems. My new boss Mark just had a hellacious holiday weekend prepping the Ginza store opening. Things look to be fairly quiet for a couple of weeks, then it's time to prep all the content the stores will need after the Stevenote that first week in January...

Joe Leblanc rescues a dead G4 Cube and builds Gil a new home.

Earlier this year, yours truly used an Apple PR hi-res product photo of the third-generation iPods to create a desktop picture. That picture was subsequently submitted to MacDesktops.com, and has finally been posted. Due to the vagaries of life, I missed the email notification sent to me a couple of weeks ago that it was posted until checking through earlier this evening. It can be found on the iPod page, and is "Something Wicked Cool." Enjoy, and please leave feedback on the desktop picture.

I love my Power Mac G4 Cube. Small. Elegant. Takes up little desk space, and you want it on your desk so it can be displayed as the work of art it is. The only problem with owning a Cube is that you are somewhat limited in processor and video card upgrades. Because the Cube uses convection cooling, you have to be careful that you don't overtax the external power supply and overheat the system. Most processor upgrades for the Cube come with a small fan that, once installed, blows air up the Cube's "chimney," assisting in keeping the little Power Mac at peak operating performance. As video cards have become more and more powerful, they have also increased somewhat in physical size. Sure, anything you buy these days will easily fit in the AGP or PCI slots of your Power Mac tower, but the Cube is limited to certain models whose physical proportions match those of the Cube. PowerLogix thinks they have the answer to these Cube-owning quandries: the PowerCube Enclosure. The PowerCube offers improved ventilation, allowing faster processor upgrades to be used without adding on fans. It also features 20 times more room for video cards than the original Cube enclosure, by moving the DC/DC card. I realize that these enclosures are hand-crafted from machined aluminum, but I'm not sure if it's worth $269. Yes, I understand that (a) this is an expensive process to produce these enclosures, and (b) that the Cube-owning market is pretty small. All the same, I'd be more tempted to buy one if it were running around $150. My Cube is pretty much maxed out in all areas. It has the full complement of 1.5 GB of RAM. It has a 100 GB hard drive; the only larger drive I could put in would be a 120 GB model, since the Cube's bus limits drive size to 128 GB or smaller. My Cube sports a nVidia GeForce3 video card. I'm not a gamer, and at this stage, I'm not working with a lot of digital video, so it's a great card for me. The only upgrade missing is a new processor, and the price on 1.2 GHz upgrades keep slowly falling, so that's just a matter of time (and finances, now that I'm unemployed). I had always thought that after the proc upgrade, I would eventually just buy a faster Mac, lusting after a new 15" PowerBook and the dual 2 GHz G5. The Cube could then be put to other uses. Laurie Duncan had a hand in seeing the PowerCube brought to production, and offers thoughts on her two test enclosures, as well as giving an overview of the transplant procedure. Response on Laurie's forums and the Cube email list run by Eric Prentice seems very favorable. I watched the online version of the install video. (Warning: designed for low bandwidth, so it's low-res and really jumpy. The one that comes on DVD with the enclosure is very smooth, according to Laurie.) There are a couple of items of note that should give the Cube purists out there pause. One, the new recessed power button. On the one hand, a good idea, since many a Cube owner has put his system to sleep by accidentally brushing the button on top of the Cube. On the other hand, there is something so inherently cool about there not being any push buttons on the original Cube, that simply gliding one's finger across the acrylic top will power on the system. Second, no more "core removal." While the internal chassis of the original Cube is used, with a slight modification of the Airport antenna and the DC/DC board, said chassis is screwed to the PowerCube enclosure. So you can't simply flip your PowerCube over, push down on the latch, and lift the chassis out by the handle. Not that Cube owners do that all the time, but it's still an incredibly easy way to get to the Cube's internals, no longer available with the PowerCube. Finally, and this is the purest of the purely aesthetic: I just like the way the original Cube enclosure looks. The clear acrylic shell, with nothing behind it for a good two inches or more at the bottom, makes the system look like it's floating on one's desk. You don't get that with the PowerCube Enclosure. So even if I could afford it, I just don't think the PowerCube is for me. Though I wouldn't say no if Robert at PowerLogix wishes to send me one to review...