And so passes our first Halloween in AtAT's new digs-- and it was a scary one, to be sure, by virtue of our continuing foray into the sticky world of wallpaper removal. Haunted house, schmaunted house; the scariest structure has a living room with walls covered with glue and a scheduled furniture delivery in less than two weeks. As for the trick-or-treating, it turned out that the six pounds of Smarties and Dum-Dums we bought to dole out to the local populace was way too much candy for what few kidlings showed up. So when we answered the door (dressed in our Wild-Eyed Glue-Covered Psycho costumes), we held the enormous bowl of candy in front of the excited kids and told them each to take a fistful. Oh, you can just imagine the squeals of delight. Don't you love this holiday?

Unfortunately, since this was a weekend of scraping disgusting glue off of the walls, we didn't log much Mac time this Halloween. But we're in luck; AtAT's terrific viewing audience stepped in to fill the void with lots of Mac-related fun this All Hallow's Eve. Take, for example, the funky Blueberry iBook costume concocted by faithful viewer Aaron Swartz and his family. (Aaron and his clan also pulled off a well-executed iMac costume last year.) Attention to detail is everything, and you'll find scads of it in this iBook costume, from the Disney Blast CD-ROM preloaded in the drive to the "i was assembled by Mom" caption emblazoned on the underside. What's so scary about a Blueberry iBook, you ask? Well, scope out the pictures and it'll hit you; if you think Apple's iBook is too big and bulky for a laptop computer, you'll find the scaled-up proportions of the Swartz iBook downright terrifying. Well done, folks!

But even as an oversized iBook was roaming your town hitting you up for treats, you may have experienced your own little Halloween-related Mac sighting while preparing for the onslaught of sugar-crazed costumed kiddies. Faithful viewer Bryan was "dumping bags of candy into the trick-or-treat bowl" when a slip of paper fluttered out. Apparently Mars, Inc. is having some contest where you can win a ton of free candy or something, and guess what kind of computer is sitting on the candy-stuffed desk in the picture? None other than a Blueberry iMac, of course. Hey, Apple hired candy-makers as consultants when formulating the iMac's translucent shell, so is it any surprise?

Lastly, what Halloween would be complete without a Mac-o-lantern? Last year we had the Plus and Classic models from Lori Andrew and Eddie Jackson of MacExchange, as well as the more organic stylings of Joe Puente's rendition, which reminds you that "All Great Pumpkins Wear This Face." This year there's a new masterpiece, hacked by a knife-wielding Samantha Lynn out of an orange gourd-like thing. Bet you didn't know that iMacs were now available in Pumpkin as well as Tangerine, right? And even Apple got into the act, replacing the product images on the Apple home page with their own digitally-created Mac-o-lantern; we missed it, but luckily the Mac Observer saved a screenshot. Thanx to all the AtAT viewers who injected a bit of Mac magic into our Halloween. :-)

Let's see, Mac OS 9's been out for all of a week now, and already people are starting to find some potentially serious security holes. Faithful viewer Justin noted a problem with the new operating system's "Console Lock" feature, as reported by Security Focus. You're aware, of course, that Mac OS 9 adds basic support for multiple users? The idea is that if you've got a Mac that's shared by several people, each user can have a distinct set of applications, different access to folders, individual preferences and settings, and all that good stuff. No more manually shifting email folders around to accommodate different family members, etc.

Unfortunately, as soon as you start dealing with multiple users, you start having to worry about security issues. Presumably you don't want your kids to be able to log in to the family Mac with your password and start diverting funds from the mortgage budget into their allowance. (Great, so the house got repossessed, but the kids are tooling around in state-of-the-art go-karts all hepped up on a lifetime supply of Pixie Stix.) That's why Apple added the "Console Lock" feature to Mac OS 9; if you leave the Mac idle for a certain amount of time, the screen "locks" and you have to enter the current user's password to get back in. Alternately, there's an option to log out the current user, so if Dad wandered off to watch VIP, little Johnny can log him out and log back in with his own password.

Here's where the problem comes in: as Johnny clicks the button to log out dear ol' Dad, all of Dad's applications start to quit. But if Dad left his fan letter to Pamela Lee unsaved in his word processor, a dialog box will appear asking if the document should be saved. At that point all Johnny needs to do is click "Cancel" and the shutdown process will be aborted-- leaving him logged in to Dad's account without ever having had to enter a password. Woo-hoo! Let's see what these pictures are that Dad downloaded from the Internet. Hmmm, Mom sure would like to know about these. Time to blackmail Pops for a bigger allowance...

Remember when ZDNet's Jesse Berst, that longtime Wintel-using Apple-bashing pundit, recently voiced his intense frustration at the "constant crashes" and "inconsistent interfaces" of Windows? He even went so far as to say that he was strongly considering switching to an iMac. Now, we're not naïve enough to believe that he was seriously ready to junk his Wintel and leap head-first into the Joy of Macdom-- heck, anything that's Mac-vs.-PC is controversial, and therefore a big traffic draw. For all we know, Jesse just wanted a little boost in his advertising revenue a few weeks ago. But still, it's a hopeful sign when the Apple-haters start talking about switching to Macs; even if Jesse doesn't mean it, would he really have posted such an article two years ago? Yeah, right.

Anyway, Apple was paying attention, and jumped at the opportunity to snare a high-profile convert. As ZDNet executive producer and Mac correspondent Liz Enbysk reports, Apple sent Jesse a Graphite iMac DV Special Edition to review just days after his tale of Windows frustration hit the web. There are even pictures of Mr. Berst unpacking the thing, looking just a bit out of place; he's the quintessential Windows geeks holding the epitome of computer style and elegance. We're anxious to see how he likes it.

Now, we imagine there are those of you who are none too pleased that, after years of slamming Apple and the Mac platform, one little hint of a possible conversion is all it takes for Apple to send Jesse Berst a free iMac. Some of you who are still trying to buy an iMac DV Special Edition are probably even more steamed that, due to ongoing availability "issues," you can't even get one for $1499, but Jesse Berst got one for free two weeks ago instead. Hey, we feel your pain. But at the same time, we're glad that Apple is paying enough attention to send equipment to someone who might recant years of anti-Apple bile and tell his readers that the iMac is actually a pretty spiffy piece of equipment. Of course, if that happens, then demand for the iMac will be even stronger, and you'll probably be waiting even longer before there's a Special Edition available for you. Sigh. Just remember, all good things come to those who wait...