See, what we really like about Mac the Knife is his admirable persistence in the face of unwavering Apple denials. You'll recall the recent rumor that Apple planned to unveil new six-slot G3 Power Macs at last week's Expo, yes? You'll recall also that numerous Apple sources vigorously denied the claim, flat-out stating that Apple had no plans whatsoever for six-slot systems due to the teensy weensy demand for such boxes; instead, Apple plans to release a four-slot system that can host an expansion chassis with three or seven additional slots for those who need the extra room. Lastly, you'll recall that the Expo is over and done, and not only did Apple not announce a six-slot system, but in several instances, they actively denied that such a thing is in the works.

And that's why we're charmed and gratified that Mac the Knife still claims that six-slot G3 systems are running inside Apple's secret labs, running a Voodoo2 3D accelerator, no less. Never mind the incongruity of the facts that the Voodoo2 is purely a gamer's accelerator and gamers are not the people who need to shell out big bucks for six-slot systems; this rumor is pure gold based on the sheer chutzpah of the claim. By the way, the Knife also reports on a "strange black PowerBook" running at 400 MHz, that has flashing blue LEDs and a PCI slot, which is a whole different ball of twist-ties, but intriguing nonetheless.

We suppose part of what makes the six-slot rumor stick is a widespread suspicion in the Mac-using community that even Apple, with its long corporate tradition of making fairly boneheaded business decisions, could not be dense enough to ignore the needs of the content creators who need six PCI slots. Sure, they're less than 1% of the Mac-using universe, but they're a very high-profile and profitable less than 1%. And the feedback we heard from these people at the Expo (as well as in our inbox) is that an expensive and clunky add-on slot chassis isn't an option they want to pursue. Hmmm... Apple expressly stated that the iMac modem wouldn't be 56K, too, and bent to customer demand. Suppose the Knife's on to something?

While the rest of the computer manufacturing industry digs in its heels for a slow sales summer, Apple is gearing up for its biggest product launch ever. With exactly one month remaining until the announced launch date of the iMac, it sounds as if the magic August 15th date is still a go. A Newsbytes article claims that, according to Apple sources, everything remains on schedule, and iMacs should hit the channel in time for part of the back-to-school buying blitz and early enough to capture significant mind share before the holiday frenzy.

One associate reports having seen and played with a demo model already on display in a ComputerTown in Salem, New Hampshire (our prior assertion that it was in Nashua was the result of "operator headspace timing error"), which does bode well for an on-time rollout, though a reseller contact claims that VARs still have not received the SKU numbers from Apple that would let them order the merchandise. (Presumably CompUSA has a special arrangement, and thus was able to pre-order 100,000 systems several weeks ago.) With only a month left before launch, we certainly hope Apple has a seriously oversaturated advertising blitz waiting in the wings; Apple can't rely solely on media stories and word of mouth (though handing an iMac brochure to minutiae-goddess Katie's day-job boss has resulted in a preorder for that non-computer-using person-- installed base market share, here we come!).

We're not particularly surprised to hear that Apple will make the August 15th launch date, but we're still relieved to hear things haven't slipped. An iMac availability problem on the scale of the "Great PowerBook G3 Drought of '98" (you'll be telling your grandkids about that one, trust us) would be an unmitigated disaster for Apple, who has seemingly bet the whole future of the company on the funky blue forty-pound gumdrops. Right now it sounds like in four and a half weeks, tens of thousands of iMacs will flood the channel and style-conscious computer buyers the world over will rejoice in the abundance. Of course, a lot can go wrong in four and a half weeks, and we won't be fully unclenched until we see iMac boxes on the shelves at the local CompUSA. Scratch that-- we won't really be comfortable until we see them flying off the shelves at CompUSA.

Pop quiz! CNN reports that Windows 98 "deliberately disables" competitors' software by screwing with dynamically linked libraries on the system disk. Hands up, who's surprised?

Hmmm, not many hands out there in TV-land, we're betting. (Anyone else flashing back to the widespread reports that installing Internet Explorer screwed up existing working installations of Netscape Navigator on the same computer?) It's really not as blatant and overt as it first sounds, though. Basically, during Windows 98's setup routine, if it encounters any DLL's that are newer than the version it wants to install, it moves the newer versions out and replaces them with the older versions instead, which breaks any software that depends on the newer versions. Think of it this way: you know how Apple's Mac OS installer will present you with a dialog box that says something like, "the version of Quicktime on this system is newer than the one you're about to install," and lets you choose whether you want to keep the newer version or overwrite it with the older one? Well, Windows 98 doesn't ask. And it doesn't tell you what it did when it's done, so unless you're the type of person who reads technical troubleshooting columns (we thought Windows 98 was a consumer operating system?), you'll have no idea why, say, your scanner suddenly doesn't work anymore.

Apparently, the "Version Control Manager" in Windows 98 will let you move the newer versions back into place, if you know which DLLs and which versions your different applications need to run. (Good luck.) And you also have to find the Version Control Monitor, which is buried six levels deep in the Windows 98 Start menu. An elegant solution, to be sure. Apple should hand out reprints of this column as an ad for the iMac.