I use Safari Enhancer to kill the brushed metal look of Safari. I just used iTunes Unified to change iTunes 5's Unifed-Metal look to normal Unified. So why is it my chat client has to have brushed metal? What the hell is wrong with me?

The September issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available. Wes had a great idea for the cover, and we like how the art turned out. We're just sorry we couldn't have run it last month, but that's the way it is some times. Speaking of Mr. Meltzer, in this month's Bloggable, Wes covers the latest Mac-on-Intel musings from the Mac blogosphere, as well as blips on the Mighty Mouse, browsers, and Apple rumors. David Ozab shares a moving tribute to Robert Moog, the man responsible for popularizing the modern synthesizer, which many a Macintosh has played in concert with. Sylvester shares his digital music experiences in this month's Pod People. Regarding the Pod People column, we seem to have run through the staffers interested in contributing, and we are seeking future columns from our readership. If you would like to share your iPod experiences, please [drop us a line](mailto:editor@atpm.com?subject=Pod People). Chuck Ross's critically-acclaimed FileMaking series continues with a look at Fields and Calculations. (I kid not; reader feedback on Chuck's articles has been incredibly positive. Congrats, Chuck! It's our pleasure to offer your work to our readers.) Our own Matthew Glidden shares some photo textures from Louisville, Kentucky, and New Orleans, taken in August of last year, in this month's desktop pictures section. My good friend Francisco also has a contribution, a picture of what the night sky in Manhattan may have looked like, starting in 1998... Cortland decodes corporate buzzwords while missing a golden opportunity. Meanwhile, the plan of the evil geniuses is temporarily foiled due to their inability to read a map. Once again, I wrote the blurb (ahem, Lee), so I'm using it here. It took me long enough to come up with that; why reinvent the wheel? Frisky Freeware notes the Nvu web authoring system. It's free, and cross-platform to boot, and looks fairly nice. If I wasn't such a text editor nerd-wannabe, I would probably look in to it more, but most of my web design and development is done inside BBEdit. David Blumenstein puts the ABSmini one-touch storage system through its paces, while Tom Bridge does the same with Apple's new Mighty Mouse. (I'm still trying to scrape together funds for a Kensington trackball.) The Dean, Frank Wu, examines the NeoCase from RadTech. I had many a neoprene case for my old PowerBooks, and it's cool in a retro way to see them still around. Andrew Kator works over the PhoneValet 3.0, while Marcus Albers logs in to Tron 2.0. Light-bike races are still my favorite. Finally, Lee reviews You Control: Desktops, which, for the special price You Software is offering ATPM readers, is worthy of consideration for your multiple desktop needs. We have some staff vacancies, as you can see on our cover page, we need Pod People authors, as I stated earlier, and we always need cover art each month. If you'd like to contribute to ATPM in any way, please let us know.

Dear Apple, Is it really and truly necessary for a x.0.x upgrade of a web browser to force an full-blown system restart? Think of the minutes of productivity lost for this single user. Think of the total hours lost by large corporate entities. Oh, Safari is closely tied to Mac OS X? How very Microsoft of you, Steve. Get your act together, gang. It's a web browser. Updates and upgrades shouldn't force restarts. Thanks, Annoyed Retrophisch™

As I've said before, I like the look of iChat. So when I made the switch yesterday to Adium, so I could use both the AIM and Google Talk (viz: Jabber) protocols at the same time, I began a hunt to have Adium replicate the look of iChat. If you feel similarly, I'll save you some time. First, don't download the official Adium client. Instead, download Metal Adium X by Mike Barca. That will give you the metal look for the chat window(s) and the Contacts list, as well as Aqua-y goodness for progress bars, etc. As he explains on the Metal Adium site, Mike updates the app within 24-48 hours of a new release of the official Adium client. Second, download iChadiumMod, so your message view will have the iChat-style balloons. Next, be sure to change your sound set to "iChat" in the Events preferences. Finally, you'll need a new Dock icon. There are a few iChat replica icons on Adium Xtras, but I didn't want an exact duplicate. I'd like to be able to tell my apps apart, thank you, so I went with the iChat Adium derivative. Looking at my chat setup now, I can't help but wonder if this is near to what iChat would look like with tabs:

I'm sure Steve would have the tabs at the top, a la Safari, but otherwise, pretty darn close, no?

Michael has released a new version of his disk image creation utility, DropDMG. The big, new features are disc burning and improved progress windows. Very groovy. I may have to revise my own backup procedures in light of this new release.

Jon notes the challenge to get the Intel version of OS X running on non-Apple, Intel-based hardware has been met. It will be interesting to see how this affects both Macintosh hardware and software development moving forward. It would seem that, since this is a development build of Tiger, it would be relatively easy to pull this off. I'm sure the shipping version of the first for-Intel Mac OS will have appropriate countermeasures in the code to prevent this from happening.

The August issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available. Kudos to Lee on the cover art. We were in dire need of cover art, and he stepped up big time. We are always looking for cover art, so if you are graphically inclined, and wish to contribute something, please contact us. Speaking of contributing, we're also looking for another copy editor, a publicity manager, and contributing editors to help us with reviews, opinion columns, how-to pieces, and interviews. We're an all-volunteer publication, but if you'd like to help out in one of these areas, please drop us a line. Back to the issue at hand, there has been a lot of good news coming out of Apple this past quarter, as Rob reminds us. Wes takes, well, just about everyone involved in the business world to task for underestimating and misunderstanding Apple, as well as sharing bits from all over the Mac blogosphere. Eric, my 3G iPod brother, tells his tale with the little white digital music player in this month's Pod People. Ted shares part two of Outlining and Styles in the latest ATPO, discussing, among other things, on-screen readability, font choices, and style sheets. Chuck continues his FileMaking series with Fields and Calculations. If you're just getting started with FileMaker, be sure to go read his first column, too. As Managing Editor, part of my job description is to strong-arm columns out of writers subtly hint at a possible column to staffers when they broach interesting technical subjects. Such was the case when Sylvester was having RAM issues with his new G5, and he shares his experiences with memory testing. Tom has an interview with John Hart, Mac modder extraordinaire. Sorry, John, but I still have severe reservations about embedding my beloved Cube in the middle of a fish tank, no matter how utterly wicked cool that would be. Maybe when I get a G5 we can sacrifice the Cube to the modding gods. This month's desktop pictures selection is a melting pot of various submissions from ATPM readers. We thank John, James, Jim, Bill, and William for the privilege of showcasing their work. Frisky Freeware notes App Stop, which is software I'll have to look in to. Cortland wraps up dinner with his parents and friends, Wieser Graphics rises from the ashes, and Matt pays homage to influential Web comics. Yes, that's word-for-word from the blurb on the Welcome page and the RSS feed, but I wrote it when the blurber got stuck, so I'm using it. (Michael, take note. I have just created the official staff position of "blurber".) Tom and his fiancé, Tiffany, have a review of Backpack, the latest web service from 37signals. I'm really enjoying the free version so far, and my wife and I have used it to track RSVPs for the little phisch's upcoming birthday party, sharing a page online so both of us can access it. Wes looks at Boswell 4.0, sharing how it helps him keep things straight as he writes reviews about software that helps you keep things organized, like reviews about software that help... Then there are the reviews which make this "The Issue of Apple Portable Computing Computer Bags." (See, this is why Michael doesn't let me declare names for issues.) David hauls around the Brenthaven Pro 12/15, while Lawson bombs about with the MaxSleeve from MaxUpgrades. Frank Wu uses booq's Vyper XL, and yours truly was underwhelmed with Timbuk2's Detour. Savvy readers may notice that Ellyn's Candy Apple column did not appear this month. Ellyn's taking a break from the writing gig for awhile, but she continues working tirelessly in the trenches, copy editing for the rest of us. Rest assured, when she has something to say, you'll read it in ATPM. Yet another solid issue from the staff. Thanks, gang!