Tom Morton has recently assumed a new position at Apple as the Senior Account Executive for Central Pennsylvania. Tom has been our Apple AE for some years. He has been a great help to everyone here and will be missed. I know we all wish Tom good luck in his new position.
Clayton Copeland has been the Apple IAE for Georgia Higher Education for the past few years and and is now assuming the role of Higher Education AE for Tennessee and Kentucky effective immediately. Clayton certainly has the right names for the job here at UT. I am sure he will be an asset to all of us.
Researchers said they have found a way to crack the code used in millions of car keys, a development they said could allow thieves to bypass the security systems on newer car models. -- Associated Press.
Technology-savvy people today who want to keep their finger on the pulse of global information are using Really Simple Syndication "aggregators" to perform their information gathering for them. -- Knoxville News Sentinel.
The iPod pushes Apple into the lead ahead of the hard-charging search engine--and surprise top-five finalist al-Jazeera. -- c|net.
Apple Computer announced faster PowerBook laptops Monday, and reduced prices $100.
Apple's software business has been growing steadily, but while it may help sell Macs, the expanding number of Apple-branded software applications is affecting some third-party developers, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
Back in the golden days of NeXT, Steve Jobs himself decided to do a demo video, about 30 minutes long, where he demonstrates the applications, networking abilities and development tools in NeXTSTEP 3.0. Thanks to a australian member of MacSlash forum they have been able to take the NTSC copy of this tape and import it to a MPEG-4 file.
Macworld has tested the Mac mini and can now give you a full review--along with lots of other information about Apple's latest desktop at Macworld's Mac mini page.
Firefox's creator is featured on the cover of Wired magazine this month and Jason O'Grady received a lot of good e-mail about his article on dumping the hot upstart Web browser. Many e-mailed him with some good feedback on making Firefox run more reliably. Great tips on Firefox and other browser alternatives he neglected to mention in his previous piece "Why I May Fire the 'fox."
An update about Ming Chow's course entitled "Security, Politics, and Privacy in the Computer Age" that she is teaching this semester at Tufts University.
This tutorial by Mike Matas shows you how to create and order a 20" x 30" poster through iPhoto.
Kevin Rose, has managed to fit a PC inside the Mac mini. "I've seen a ton of articles around the web lately comparing the Mac mini to the near full size desktop PC. What they fail to compare is the amount of computing power per square inch you get with the Mini. So, I decided to take it upon myself to create the fastest PC possible with the size constraints of the Mini's small form factor." The article covers most everything he did and includes pictures.
There is a short article at Gear Live that tries to explain why Apple still sticks with a one-button mouse. It points out the fact that although it is perfectly possible to use a two-button mouse on a Mac for 7 years now, developers are forced to re-think their design approach and can't flood the right-click menu. No article of this kind would be complete without mentioning that users get confused with two buttons.
Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack Pro is a great program, but it seems to me that the developer's own Web pages fail to explain exactly why. -- TidBITS.
Presenters at the World Social Forum in Brazil -- a protest to the World Economic Forum underway in Switzerland -- push developing nations to adopt open-source software to avoid dependence on corporate Microsoft and the expense of Windows. -- Wired.
Apple has released iMovie 5.0.1, an update to iMovie HD, which is part of the just-released iLife '05 suite. The update notes say simply, "iMovie HD 5.0.1 addresses issues related to video and audio synchronization for DV projects and other minor issues. The update can be downloaded through Software Update if you have iLife '05 installed.
A patent granted to Apple January 25th, 2005 appears to reveal that Apple had a multiyear head start on Microsoft for Spotlight, the Apple search technology that will be released later this year in Tiger. -- The Mac Observer.
ExtremeTech has published the aptly named "A Linux Geek Embraces Mac OS X," a 13 page article by a Linux and Windows user's first dive into the Mac world.
The Apple Developer Connection has published a how-to article for developers to tap into the .Mac SDK.
The problem I had was that I wanted to be able to access and edit my iCal calendars on multiple computers, without having to sign up to .Mac (being a cheapskate and all). Currently in iCal, if you publish from two different computers to one calendar file, the changes made by one will not be shown in the other. These steps should be made on all computers. -- Mac OS X Hints.
Mario Apicella of InfoWorld writes; "Normally I don't cover Macworld Conference & Expo, not because it's not an interesting show but because until now Apple Computer Inc. had not much to propose about storage. Things have changed. Not everyone has realized this yet, but the storage world has a new star in Apple."
DashboardDeveloper is a new Web site community for developers working on "Widgets" designed to work with Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger's" new "Dashboard" feature. Widgets are mini-applications created using HTML, CSS and JavaScript that serve various purposes, like weather forecasting, stock tracking, calculation and conversion, or anything else the developer dreams up.
Using his new iPod Stories website, Markus Giesler, a 28-year-old assistant professor of marketing at York University (Toronto) says he is conducting a study of iPod users and their music-listening habits and hopes to create an ethnographic study called "iPod Therefore iAm."
There are reports of people having problems after installing Security Update 2005-001. There are also reports of slow downs of Mail.app. If you are the cautious type or are having a problem you might run Apple's Disk Utilities and let it repair the disk and permissions. I had some sevier problems with my Mac recently (of my own making, don't ask) and after rebuilding my Mac from the ground up I installed Security Update 2005-001. Before I rebooted into OS X in but in my Panther CD and ran Disk Utilities. It found and fixed a LARGE number of permissions. I then rebooted into my OS X and all has been well (knock wood.)
This a little hard to describe but you have got to see Bluebroc's iMac-Based Office Furniture. I wonder if Steve has this in his office?
H. Edward Goldberg, AIA, has written an excellent brief comparison of all BIM applications currently in the market with strong positions. Chief among the five BIM (building information modeling) choices were Mac CAD stalwarts ArchiCAD and VectorWorks ARCHITECT. -- CADalyst.
Global online lottery provider Goldenpot has been extensively testing the beta release of Oracle 10g for OS X, and now intends making a small cluster of Xserves its main backbone for its Bolivian operations, with plans to upgrade to a ten node cluster soon, as new countries "go live".
The lottery company's project manager, Christian Trotobas said: "IT is mission critical: all together; Oracle 10g on Xserve, Mac OS X and Java WebObjects are the key solutions we adopted to achieve perfect availability of our games at very affordable costs, and with simplified deployment and maintenance." -- Macworld.
An interesting story was published in the Fall 2004 issue of 2600 The Hacker Quarterly about a guy that wrote his own "call home" beacon to protect his PowerBook in the event it was ever lost or stolen. "The basic idea behind this idea is to run a cron job as root every five or ten minutes that runs a simple command. This command acts as a beacon." Other security tips in the article that should be heeded by all PowerBook users include:
The 2600 article "Laptop Security" includes the source code to the beacon and is available in PDF and HTML.
Don't forget to look at UT's contribution to securing your Mac, "Mac OS X System Hardening: Guidelines for Faculty and Staff Desktops." As Sergeant Esterhaus used to say, "And hey, let's be careful out there."
OK, I think it's finally time for me to start encrypting my mail on Mac OS X. The last time I did this was in college and I was using Sun OS (not Solaris at the time). Needless to say, I don't remember much about that. So, I figured I'd turn to the Mac community at O'Reilly Net for pointers on the best tools to use to get my Mail mail encrypted. -- O'Reilly Weblogs.
Noel Davis looks at problems in the Linux kernel, the Darwin/Mac OS X kernel, iSync, Ethereal, enscript, hylafax, rssh, Xine-lib, mpg123, and Konversation. -- O'Reilly Network.
When its growing computing and storage needs required the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Human Genetics to upgrade its Linux cluster, Assistant Professor Dr. Michael Barmada set his sights on a 250-processor Xserve G5 cluster. Why? "Initially, I thought of moving to the Xserve because of the easier administration," he says. "But it also gives us much more power and potential than before." -- Apple PR.
With a little help from Paul Simon, Vern Seward offers you Many Ways to Leave your PC. -- The Mac Observer.
MacInTouch's Mac Mini Reader Report covers memory, keyboards and mice, use as a home server, pricing comparisons and more today. Don't miss their Mac Mini Review, updated yesterday, and Mac Performance Comparison, if you haven't already seen them.
MacInTouch has a report about doing your own upgrades to memory and disk-drives on a Mac mini. The bottom line is DON'T.
A MacInTouch reader pointed out issues with quality and customer support for Apple's pro audio application.
Quantum computing is set to revolutionize the way we work. Trouble is, it could crack any of today's security codes in a fraction of a second, says Charles Arthur. -- The Independent.
With podcasting, you can hear what anyone with a mic, a computer, and an Internet connection has to say. And you can listen in when you choose to rather than rearrange your day to accommodate someone else's programming schedule. If you aren't hip to the latest thing in digital audio, don't worry, you can easily get up to speed. Here's everything you need to know to join the legion of podcast listeners. -- Playlist.
Sonos allows access to digital music through home sound system. Sonos has set out do for the rack stereo system what the iPod did for the Walkman: give it a digital makeover. -- San Jose Mercury News.
Turning interviews into podcasts using entirely digital production methods that would allow me to make phone calls and record directly to MP3 for simplicity. I worked it out, but not until I went through a lot of trial and error that I'll save you from. -- Mac DevCenter.
Components are readily available to Java programmers using the QuickTime for Java API. In this PDF excerpt from QuickTime for Java: A Developer's Notebook, Chris Adamson shows how to write such a well-behaved application. -- O'Reilly Network.
Have you ever wanted to watch TV on your Mac? Sure, you could go out and buy a TV tuner--if you're willing to spend the money, let alone commit your precious USB ports or PCI slots. Most commercial tuners offer excellent solutions for Mac TV mavens. But before you go out and spend the dough, consider the equipment you have on-hand. -- O'Reilly Network.
Learn more about Apple's new dotMac kit for building .Mac applications for Mac OS X Tiger. -- O'Reilly Network.
For now, I'm mini-less. But that doesn't mean I have to live without streaming music and photos from a dedicated server at home -- and all with hardware and software I already have. -- O'Reilly Network.
Davis Pouge in the New York Times says that combination VHS-DVD recorders are a safe and relatively inexpensive way to transfer old videotapes to discs. A review of four models.
There's more to home networking than entertainment, but turning potential into reality remains a challenge. -- c|net.
Windows PC makers are hoping the Mac Mini catches on. Really. -- c|net.
Sorry for the lack of updates. I have had to rebuild my system and it has taken longer than I hoped. -- mam
Apple Computer released a software patch on Tuesday to fix seven vulnerabilities in its Mac OS X operating system.
The fix repairs flaws in the Safari browser, the Mail program and the ColorSync utility as well as four open-source programs, the computer maker stated in an advisory.
Apple also announced that it would be changing how it names its advisories, numbering the bulletins sequentially for each year, a scheme currently used by Microsoft.
Apple Mac OS X users can update their systems using the operating system's updating utility.
Never seen video footage of the introduction of the Macintosh in January 1984 was published for the first time on the Internet today. Renowned Mac user Scott Knaster kept that Betamax video tape for 21 years, and German media agency TextLab has unearthed this only surviving video tape of the launch.
With the advent of the Mac mini, this short guide targeted at Windows and Linux users who are new to Mac OS X can quickly increase your comfort level on Mac OS X. -- Ars Technica.
Want wireless or more memory for your trim new Mac? Apple just made it less costly to add on. -- c|net.
Michelle Delio in the MIT Technology Review has a baker's dozen ways for you to put a Mac mini to work, and none of them involve sending letters to Aunt Martha, balancing your checkbook, or buying airline tickets to Vegas.
Be very very careful in iPhoto 5. Many people are having problems. Some are losing libraries, but most are losing albums. The pictures are still there, but it's easy to lose an album. Here's how I managed to stop album loss. -- Mac OS X Hints.
Pages might best be described as a word processor with page-layout skills, or a page-layout program with word processing skills. It does quite a bit of both, and yet isn't completely one or the other. While that may sound confusing, what it means is that you get a good word processor that also happens to create great looking page layouts. -- Macworld.
Firefox is a fantastic browser, but it isn't always very Mac-like, as evidenced by the recent discussion on how to switch tabs. Here are a few tips to make things better. -- Mac OS X Hints.
"The Mac Media Center Project" is a plan to develop a free Media Center application for the Apple Macintosh, "bringing together the power and intuitiveness of the Macs' built in applications under a simple interface, for use as part of a Home Theatre system."
Lynn Malsby wrote in to MacInTouch highlighting Mac OS X security advantages in a rapidly-changing computing environment:
I recently attended MacWorld in San Francisco. As part of the MacIT Conference, Mark Jeffries, from Genentech provided an overview of their early migration to OS 10.1.5 (!). The session, titled "Big Cats in the Office: A two-year report card on OS X Integration in the Enterprise", was concise, amusing and full of interesting information. That's not what really caught my attention about Mark's presentation.
Here's what really got my attention. I've heard from time to time during the past 12-18 months or so that a variety of governmental entities are beginning to rely heavily on Mac OS X. A small piece of Mark's presentation took this one step further. The DOD's Cybertrust Program, and the Federal Open Source Initiatives both identify the risk of operating in a Windows only environment. He also indicated that interviews with CIO's from Fortune 100 companies state the same that best practice recommendations indicate a 30/70% heterogeneus environment - desktop and back-end.
The implications of this are enormous, if you consider its impact to the OpenSource environment - and ultimately, Mac OS X. It doesn't take a bundle of imagination to see the SEC or the NSA indicating something similar as a requirement for business continuity protections.
I would very much like to hear from others in the group regarding this and get more feedback - preferably in the form of verifiable links to statements. If ever there was a Macintosh Justification...
KernelTrap has an interview with Timothy Miller, a long time developer of graphics chips and drivers. He has observed that there is a growing trend by graphics hardware vendors to provide less and less information to free and open source operating system developers. Without this information, it is becoming more and more difficult to purchase new graphics hardware that is stable and reliable on free and open source operating systems. In response, Timothy worked with his employer, Tech Source, to form the Open Graphics Project.
First fruits of Oracle's move to authorize Oracle Database 10g for Mac OS X has already been seen, with a major enterprise migration to Xserves showing how easily Macs now sit within the enterprise. -- Macworld.
This great gallery of Apple Newton MessagePads covers all models from the original MessagePad to the able Newton 2100 with pictures, descriptions and specifications. Also features concepts, prototypes and other Newton OS based devices like the eMate 300 and the Digital Ocean Tarpon. Cool!
Know how to calibrate your monitor? Know why you should? First the why, then the how. -- Macsimum News.
You've tried everything you can think of to fix that little glitch on your Mac. Maybe you wonder if someone else is having problems like yours. In fact, what you really hope is that someone else solved your problem. If so, how do you find out about it? If the problem is application-related, then you should go to the application's Web site. Most software makers have sites with troubleshooting information such as a FAQ (frequently asked questions) section; some even have discussion boards. Look there for the answer.
I've used OS X since the 10.0b1 public beta, and only use Mac OS 9 at work, so when someone calls with an OS 9 question, or even 10.2 (Jaguar), it presents problems. So here's what I do--I tell the user about the Help menu. It's the first line of questioning in any problem.
The UC Computer Store has the new Mac mini, and it is a small as you thought. They also have an Apple 30-inch Cinema Display. It is as huge as the mini is small. You know I have only owned one TV in my life bigger than that display? It is awesome. I lust for it. I also lust for a million dollars. Neither seem to be in my future.
MacPractice Inc. has announced the forthcoming March release of new Mac OS X practice management software for doctors' offices. MacPractice MD is coming for physicians, as is MacPractice DDS for dentists and MacPractice DC for chiropractors. -- MacCentral.
British artist Richard Bolam is part of Europe's techno-art avant-garde, but he uses some pretty old technology: classic Macs and HyperCard. -- Wired.
This document does not aim to regurgitate Marketing KoolAid, not that there's anything wrong with it, but is intended primarily as an introduction to Mac OS X for those members of the technical community who are not familiar with it. You can think of it as a somewhat low-level taste of Apple's operating system. Consequently, some parts are fairly technical, and the implicit assumption is that you are familiar with fundamental concepts of one or more of BSD, Mach, UNIX, or operating systems in general. In many cases I have made no attempt to provide background details of the concepts referred to in the discussion.
by Lois Reagan Thomas
Knoxville News Sentinel
In today's world, a moat and a drawbridge aren't enough to protect the castle.
You need to know everything about the property - how the halls and rooms connect, places you can close off to protect most of the castle once the walls are breached. And you need to know your enemy.
So says Marty Beckerman. He isn't a military strategist or a medieval war expert, He's a physicist with the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.
He uses the analogy of a castle and its multilayered. defenses in explaining the initiative he is leading to develop a program that would anticipate new computer viruses (the enemy) and find ways to defend computer network systems (the castle) from them before they attack. In the analogy, the firewall software is the perimeter defense - the castle's moat. The antivirus software is a defense to known viruses that get past the firewall.
"New kinds of viruses are coming out every day," said Beckerman, "and the typical way to deal with these viruses is to develop patches. Once the viruses come out, you take them apart and analyze what harms you and how to recognize them and, like developing a vaccine after a bug is found, you create an after-the-fact protection. What we're trying to do is build another layer of protection - a predictive tool."
Called the Virus Propagation Analysis Tool, the software kit will analyze networks, using their characteristics as a way of determining how best to defend against virus attacks, how to recognize such attacks if and when they occur, and rapidly quarantine the infected parts.
The project, supported by the U.S. Department of Defense, would aim at making crucial computer networks safer from enemy attacks intent on crippling the nation's economy and defenses. The technology could also be transferred to private companies for commercial use.
For Beckerman and his team, this involves using the latest, most lethal known viruses, taking them apart and studying them. The information is used to create new viruses, which then are turned loose in a simulated computer network system.
"The heart of this thing is the simulator," said Beckerman, explaining that such a tool, long used by physicists, is known as a "Monte Carlo simulator" because it's analogous to throwing dice and seeing what comes up.
"After you create the new virus, you - simulation software to launch it and see what happens;" he said.
For example, since most viruses enter through e-mail attachments, the simulation involves designating the e-mail sender and the receiver, then looking at how the virus moves through the system, and investigating places within the system that could serve as "choke points" that keep the virus at bay, thereby protecting the rest of the system.
Since this is a "Spy vs. Spy" world, in which one side is constantly out-besting the other, the VPAT also will include tools for constant system updating, he added.
The VPAT project was started in 2001 - before the 9/11 terrorism attacks - and is about six months from fruition, said Beckerman. It was launched in response to a defense department announcement seeking such a predictive tool, he said.
Beckerman is also working in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to take the "tools" in the VPAT tool kit and use them in a biological setting with the aim of testing anti-cancer drugs.
"In this case, the network we're talking about is the human body's control system consisting of protein networks," he said. "What you have are these very sophisticated networks and just like viruses attacking computer networks, these networks are susceptible to attacks and exploitation."
This involves creating models of how control networks work and determining through simulations how effective an anti-cancer drug might be, he explained.
The project involves bringing the analytical work done for years by physicists through use of computer simulations into the world of bioscience to go hand in hand with experimental work, he said.
Beckerman has been a senior scientist with Y-12 since 2000. He came to Oak Ridge from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984 to join the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Joint InstitUte for Heavy Ion Research. Ht4ater moved into the area of robotics and worked on a brain research project with Brown University physicist Leon Cooper, co-discoverer of superconductivity, before joining Y-12.
His first book, "Adaptive Cooperative Systems," which explores how to make software smart and adaptive, grew out of his robotics work. His second book, "Molecular and Cellular Signaling," explores how human protein networks operate and how malfunctions in these networks lead to diseases.
PBS's Robert X. Cringely has penned a bit of speculation on the idea that Apple is planning on getting into the video download business.
This column contains what I hope you will find to be helpful and/or fun tips for your Macs running OS X. Frankly, I continue to be amazed at the things I find out about my OS X operating system. -- Computing with Bifocals.
Last year a project I was assigned to required we get a scanner. It needed to have a document feeder since we anticipated having a number of multi-page documents to convert from hardcopy to digital. (Which we did and still do.) I wound up getting a HP ScanJet 8250.
I confess that HP was not my first choice but I have to say that it has performed beyond my expectations. The document feed as work well and been a real time saver. The scanner software in conjunction done a great job saving files to tiff for my OCR software (Readiris Pro) or going direct to Acrobat. The only problem I have had is that some system software updates clobber the HP scanner software and I have to re-install it. So all in all I would recommend it to anyone who needs to process this kind of through-put. At home I have a cheap Canon C80 which works fine but I would still be scanning here at work if I did not have the HP.
Here's a first look by Rob Griffiths, at some of the major changes in the latest version of Keynote. -- MacCentral.
I received a copy of the new iPhoto (part of iLife '05), and I wanted to let everyone know how it is becoming more of an iMedia type application. You not only can import movies from your cameras, but you can import any supported QuickTime movie from your computer as well. You can make smart albums that grab all the movies and allow you to browse through any movie loaded in iPhoto. Double-clicking the movie then opens it in QuickTime. I find this to be the most useful trick in iPhoto05 and wanted to share with everyone in the community. -- Mac OS X Hints.
In a quiet meeting room one level above the NAMM show floor in Anaheim, Calif., Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz opened a guitar case revealing the future of Gibson instruments: a digital guitar. -- MacCentral.
MacInTouch got it; they tested it; and they have the results. Their updated Mac Performance Comparison now includes the Mac Mini, pitted against the eMac, the iMac G5, the iBook and the rest of the Macintosh line. (They've added Xbench results for the 1.42GHz model.)
Xgrade 1.0b1 is a new educational application for teachers that brings the ease of use of iTunes to Mark Books. Available as a public beta, it offers a familiar single-window style interface and automatic calculation of statistics, weighted marks, moderated marks and more. It also includes a note-taking/commenting facility, drag & drop support for adding information, simple backup, and a tutorial.
Electric Design offers a detailed breakdown of the various generational flavors of the iPod as well as the iPod mini, including a listing of the player's internal components, their manufacturers, and function.
Electric Design offers a look at the new iPod industry and examines some of the myriad of paraphernalia.
In New York City, the ubiquitous iPod has caused "an influx of iPod-related mishaps, some highly amusing, others potentially disastrous. -- New York Times.
iStumbler Release 90 is a free, open-source tool for finding wireless networks and devices with any AirPort or Bluetooth equipped Macintosh.
MacTeens has posted an article by Dan Pourhadi providing an in-depth review of Pages, the word-processing application included in Apple's new iWork Suite.
Wired is running a story called "Safe Emailing for Dummies." It describes a new email encryption package called Ciphire Mail, currently in beta and available for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. It sounds like an interesting product, and will soon be open source. The only troubling part is the EULA, in which they state in section 8 (insert obscure irony here) that they can use your personal information for whatever they want, including disclosing it to others. -- MacSlash.
This article is a warning to potential iLife '05 upgraders and an admonishment to Apple. If you are upgrading to iLife '05, REBUILD YOUR IPHOTO LIBRARY FIRST! (Prior to installing iLife 05, hold down command-option-shift and launch iPhoto 4. It will ask if you want to rebuild your library. Say yes.) -- X vs. XP.
iPhoto 5 is now available, and those of you who pre-ordered iLife '05 should have it in your hands. Derrick Story has a few tips to help make your transition a smooth one. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
Jason Snell can tell you what the exact temperature is in his backyard right now. If you'd like to be able to say the same thing, follow his instructions for setting up a Mac-compatible weather station.
I've had to use my Powerbook's modem twice in the past month, and each time I got a hanging disconnect. Now I know how to fix that. -- O'Reilly Weblogs.
Even tech geeks can get disoriented and feel like a newbie when moving to an unfamiliar platform. Here's a few Mac Mini related articles and references I found useful. -- O'Reilly Weblogs.
Until OS X, there never was much interest in, or support for, embedded development on the Mac. Now, with the UNIX underpinnings of Mac OS X, we can benefit from the huge open source effort supporting small microprocessors. -- Mac DevCentral.
Earlier this month Apple unveiled the Mac mini, a new desktop computer which it says was designed specifically for the consumer and education markets. Through investigations over the past week, AppleInsider was able to elicit several previously unpublished details and specifications of the computer, which can be found in AppleInsider's extensive report.
Walt Mossberg writes in the Wall Street Journal, "I've been testing the Mac mini ... for several days, and it does indeed work, quite well. I connected a mini to a Dell flat-panel screen and a Hewlett-Packard keyboard and mouse, all about three years old. The little Mac fired up and worked perfectly at every task I threw at it..."
X11 is a widely used graphical user interface on UNIX, and on a Macintosh computer, X11 is compatible, fast, and fully integrated with Mac OS X. This means that many existing X11 applications from the UNIX world are available to use for free--but you need to know the "secret handshake" in order to get started. Read this article to learn how to set up X11 on Mac OS X, and download and install open source applications like OpenOffice and Fink. -- Apple Developer Connection.
Louisiana State University's Center for Computation & Technology (CCT) has partnered with Apple to co-sponsor the launch of Nemeaux, a supercomputer that was unveiled on Thursday. Purchased with a US$114,000 grant, Nemeaux is a cluster of 24 Xserves that is currently testing CCT's Cactus Framework and Apple's Xgrid, two grid computing applications that researchers are using to build tools for distributing audio rendering. Nemeaux will also eventually provide high-end computing power for art and digital video projects, as well as numerical relativity, fluid dynamics and scientific visualization problems.
Senior Macworld writer Dan Frakes' brand new Mac mini just arrived. And he's taking Macworld readers along for their first hands-on look at the tiny desktop computer--what's in the box, how easy it is to set up, and, most important, how it performs.
Two companies are releasing new versions of popular photo-organizing programs. Both can vastly improve the digital photo experience. David Pogue.
I just received my Mac Mini this morning and took some pictures of the unboxing.
Writing MIDP apps on Mac OS X is an interesting intro to developing for phones using the machine on my desktop.
Eminent computer scientist, author, painter, and dot-com millionaire, Paul Graham has written down the things he wishes somebody had told him when he was in high school in What You'll Wish You'd Known, suggesting, among other things, that students treat school like a day job, working on interesting projects to avoid what he has found to be the most common regret among adults of their high school days: wasting time.
Logic Express Update 7.0.1 enhances reliability and performance. Furthermore, it contains improvements in the following areas:
Logic Pro Update 7.0.1 enhances reliability and performance. Furthermore, it contains improvements in the following areas:
One of my favorite Panther features is the ability to create .zip compressed files from within the OS (basically, this shrinks the file size, ideal for files you're going to e-mail -- smaller file sizes mean faster file transfers). To create a compressed file, either Control-click on the file, then choose Create Archive (which is Apple-speak for "Make a compressed .zip file"). Or you can click on a file, then go to the Finder's File menu, and choose Create Archive from there. Either way, it quickly creates a new file, with the file extension ".zip." This is the compressed file. You can also compress several different files (like 3 for example) into one single archive file -- just Command-click on all the files you want included, then choose Create Archive of 3 Items from the Finder's File menu. A file will be created named "Archive.zip" (that's it!). By the way, if someone sends you a .zip file, don't sweat it -- just double-click it and Panther will automatically decompress it.
On eve of inauguration, online producer of hit video spoofing 2004 election has George Bush playing banjo and feeling spunky.
This document specifies obsolete and vintage Apple products worldwide.
Does Mail complain when you try to send a message to several recipients at once? You might be surprised to know that Mail actually has no limit on the number of recipients to whom you can send a message! So, what's going on here?
iLife '05 applications support burning to DVD±R and ±RW discs when used with recent-model SuperDrives. This list will help you determine if your computer supports these two media types.
Silicon.com took a poll of its CIO jury pool, which declared Apple "irrelevant" to today's businesses, citing price as the biggest issue. With comments from IT directors, CIOs, and CTOs, the group taking part in the discussion had little positive to say about Apple solutions in their respective IT departments. -- The Mac Observer.
According to French Mac enthusiast site MacBidouille (english translation), current PowerBooks and eMacs have been declared end-of-life by French reseller FNAC.
A few years back, Apple Computer touted its hardware and software with the marketing slogan "Think Different." After using the company's latest, greatest and largest Apple Cinema Display (ACD) for the past few weeks, I've come to wonder if maybe that ad campaign has morphed into "Think Big." -- MacCentral.
A Boston Globe article profiles one avid member of the podcasting community (Richie Care).
The BBC reports an arrest following investigation into attacks by networks of "zombie" computers taken over and controlled remotely:
c|net reports that the Marlin Joint Development Association is attempting to create standards for copy-protected content such as music or videos that will allow playback on equipment from any manufacturer.
Apple, leave the Dock as the smashing demo it is, but also supply some serious, information-dense tools. You have the talent and wherewithal to make such tools as attractive as the Dock if only you will cease seeing this one single object as a complete solution. -- AskTog.
In 1993 Apple introduced the original MessagePad, running Newton OS 1.0. They had many revisions after that, finally concluding with the MessagePad 2100 and the eMate 300. Several advancements were planned to improve newer Newton devices, but Apple decided to end the entire Newton project in 1997. -- Macsimum News.
Wired's Leander Kahney reports on a guy that installed a VNC server on his PowerBook at home in Vienna and controls with a VNC client on his PocketPC device.
Apple overhauled much of iPhoto in version 5 and presented photographers with a more robust tool for managing their media files. Derrick Story looks at importing existing iPhoto libraries, using the new editing tools, and working with RAW and QuickTime files. Image samples of RAW comparisons are included.
Scientific American claims that advances in commercially available quantum encryption might obsolete the existing factorization-based solutions
Actor Scott Rose's first love was the Mac, but falling for a computer didn't teach the young nerd much about relating to women. Now, Rose has written a one-man play detailing his fruitless attempts at applying computer logic to love. -- Wired.
Even for IT professional Matthew Ingrassia, keeping a home Wi-Fi network safe from outside threats is close to a full-time undertaking. -- Wired.
Long time reader John Droz, jr. of macvspc.info writes:
Since you are referencing Mini Mac shootouts (something a lot of people are interested in) you should publish these two very detailed links at PC vs. Mac System Shootouts: $600 Small Form Factor Shootout and $600 Desktop System Shootout.
Keep up the good work.
Apple'S "Mr iPod" Stan Ng has ruled out a video-capable version of the music player anytime soon. -- News.com.au.
Dell's CEO Kevin Rollins isn't worried about Apple or its famous iPod line, the latter of which he see as nothing more than a "fad," really. -- Ars Technica.
Four security flaws have been found and publicly reported by security firm Immunity. The flaws were all found in Darwin, the open source kernel for Mac OS X, and involve memory-related issues, including a "text book case" of a stack overflofindings. -- c|net.
Apple has quietly announced its second Pepsi/iTunes promo, as anticipated yesterday. The promotion will offer 200 million free iTunes song codes and will giveaway an iPod mini each hour between February 2nd and April 11th.
I've also been playing with Apple's newly announced iWork '05, and it's worth noting how well it works with iLife. -- Jim Heid's Mac iLife site.
It's just enough for some; but Apple should make sure those few people know that. -- O'Reilly Weblogs.
Many Linux users who are adding Mac OS X to their computing life look to combine the control of command line with the convenience of GUI. In this article, Philip Hollenback, a seasoned Linux user himself, shows how to bring these worlds together on Mac OS X using mutt, FastMail, and Mail.app. -- Mac DevCenter.
Although running Mac OS natively on PC hardware is not possible, there is another option--running Mac OS X on an emulator. In this article, I will show you how to install and run Mac OS X Panther on your PC using PearPC, a free, architecture-independent PowerPC platform that runs on PCs. -- O'Reilly Network.
Smash has a video showing the technique for cracking open a Mac mini safely. Upgrade the RAM and hard drive yourself and save a bundle.
VVI today announced the release of DAQ Plot version 9.7.1, which adds plug-and-play low-cost and high-precision data acquisition hardware in addition to many advanced processing features.
When you go to work, stop a the store, fly in a plane, or surf the we, you are being watched. They know where you live, the value of your home, the names of your friends and family, ins come cases even what you read. Where the data revolution meets the needs of national security, there is no place to hide. This investigative documentary tells the story of the nation's quest to use data and surveillance technology as a magic bullet. It makes sense of how it happened and explores the implications. I listened to this yesterday on WUOT and is was the scariest thing I had ever heard. You should listen too.
What better way to blow a hundred bucks than by getting an iPod shuffle? And what better way to blow that hundred bucks again than by tearing the iPod apart into its component pieces and taking pictures? AppleMatters did.
Apple's G5 notebooks may be coming sooner than expected, and it appears as though the company is going to overhaul both the PowerBook and iBook lines. -- Ars Technica.
A print dialog may not appear in Safari when you try to print, even though other applications still print just fine.
This can happen when you have Safari 1.2.4 (v125.11) on the same computer with Mac OS X 10.3.6 or earlier. This version of Safari comes with the Mac OS X 10.3.7 Update and as such doesn't work properly with the earlier versions of Mac OS X.
To print in Safari, simply update the computer to Mac OS X 10.3.7.
Mark Kellner of the Washington Times said in an article Tuesday morning that if you want to find the best new product to come out of Macworld San Francisco, look not to the iPod shuffle or Mac mini, but rather to iWork.
The BBC has published a shootout between Apple's new Mac mini and similarly priced Windows PCs from competitors.
The New York Times has published an article by long-time Apple reporter John Markoff that asks if Apple is considering a "Mac TV.".
Read the whole ugly story of Apple's dismemberment of their reseller channel in "Inside the Channel's Battle With Apple" on VAR Business.
Apple has put online more developer-oriented information about Tiger. There are also detailed articles about Spotlight, Dashboard, 64-bit apps and Automator.
Macworld magazine on Thursday announced the products that won Best of Show Awards during this week's Macworld Conference & Expo San Francisco.
MacFixIt has posted some Mac mini questions that are worth considering if you are thinking of buying a Mac mini.
MacInTouch has turned their rough, real-time Expo Keynote report into more polished prose, adding a few more notes in the process. They've also updated their on-going Expo Products page, while yesterday's Reporter's Notebook offers important details from Henry Norr about the new Apple hardware, along with observations about the show.
Charles Terrell followed up on the topic of protests mounted at Macworld Expo against Apple's environmental policies:
Regarding the Computer TakeBack Campaign's protests targeting Apple: Have they looked into Apple's existing computer recycling programs and design policies?
And for the United States:
Looks better than average for the industry... Maybe I'm missing some details that the protesters noticed. My main complaint is the lack of prominent linkage to this info from Apple's main web site. Not knowing about the program could reduce actual usage levels.
Just 9 days ago, Helixent Technologies released iFlicks 1.0, an iTunes-like program for movie files including integration with NetFlicks. However, if you try to download it from Helixent's website, you get a page explaining that iFlicks is mysteriously no longer available for download in a very SoundJam MP-esque way. Is an iTunes and iTunes Music Store for movies on the way? -- Macslash.
We're here to provide a forum (a wiki, actually) for collaborative documentation of the MythTV project, an open source software PersonalVideoRecorder. It lets you build a box similar to a TiVo or ReplayTV, but much more powerful - and easily modified.
Banc of America said, "We believe that Apple can capture 3.5% or more of its iPod installed base, driving 16% CPU growth in 2006, versus our previous estimate of 10%." -- Forbes.
ZDNet is running a preview of Apple's newest version of OS X, Tiger, after Jobs said it was still on track for a q2 2005 release (long before Longhorn...).
Macnews.de seems to be the first site to take a Mac mini apart! I confess I don't understand this. You can see how your Mac compares to the Mac mini, at Xbench.
"Buzz" over a Sci-Fi Hi-Fi post some random thoughts on this year's MacWorld.
Following Apple's new product introductions at this week's Macworld Expo, Merrill Lynch analyst Steve Milunovich said he believes Apple is building a sustainable consumer electronics franchise and is showing off its strategic flexibility with its lowest price Mac ever and iPod shuffle, which boasts more capacity than expected for $99. -- AppleInsider.
In an interview on CNBC following his keynote address on Tuesday, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs talked up the company's latest products, while dodging questions about past iPod battery issues and commenting on Apple's direction for the future. -- AppleInsider.
Apple Wednesday announced financial results for its fiscal 2005 first quarter ended December 25, 2004. For the quarter, the Company posted a net profit of $295 million, or $.70 per diluted share. These results compare to a net profit of $63 million, or $.17 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue for the quarter was $3.49 billion, up 74 percent from the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 28.5 percent, up from 26.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 41 percent of the quarter's revenue.
Opera Software says it's giving away browser licenses to protect academia from flaws in "more vulnerable browsers." -- c|net.
Learn which versions of Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9 will run on which Macintosh computers. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
This article discusses what kind of hard drives are appropriate for video capture and playback using Final Cut Pro, as well as discussing specific incompatibilities between certain hard drive system and hardware combinations. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
Cubes and product delays excepted, the faithful at Macworld Expo are typically among Apple's most enthusiastic supporters. Yet if the long queues to check out both the Mac mini and iPod shuffle, and the throng of visitors at a nearby Apple Retail Store, are any indication, this was a particularly exciting Expo for many attendees and exhibitors alike. -- MacCentral.
Thousands of students, faculty and staff at George Mason University learn their personal information was downloaded by online intruders. -- c|net.
Apple has made available the iPod Shuffle commercial, which is reminiscent of the standard silhouette iPod ads, and features the tag-line "Life is Random."
Maybe a better use for a Mac mini might be as a DVD player/recorder, HDTV recorder, web surfing device hooked up to your digital TV? This topic is intended as a starting point for anyone that wants to record HDTV on the Mac. There are some other somewhat fragmented threads that discuss this but I thought others would benefit from a consolidated "HOW-TO" especially considering the timing of the new FCC mandate requiring cable providers to offer firewire to customers effective 4/1/03. This document is by no means complete and I'll update it as needed. Any comments or corrections are appreciated. Referenced links are provided at the end of this post. -- AV Science Forum.
When reading the web site info on Apple newly introduced applications, a reader came across the following text in the "Feature Overview" section of the iLife/iDVD 5 pages:
"Which Systems Can Burn to DVD+/-R/RW?
Many Macintosh systems can burn DVDs using DVD+/-R/RW media. That includes all currently-shipping Macs with a built-in SuperDrive. In fact, if you have a 17-inch or 20-inch iMac G5 with a built-in SuperDrive, updating to iLife '05 will give you the ability to use DVD+/-RW media, as well.
By launching a much cheaper Mac and iPod, Steve Jobs is appealing to hordes of price-conscious consumers. The risk: Cannibalization. -- Businessweek.
Henry Norr covered a protest at Macworld Expo against Apple's recycling policy.
Actual Technologies today released Actual ODBC Driver for Oracle, an ODBC driver that lets OS X users access Oracle databases from applications such as Excel and FileMaker Pro. It features a setup assistant, on-line help and diagnostic tools that due away with the hassle associated with getting connected. The driver is available for immediate downloaded.
Bill Gurley and others reported that they were having trouble with JetDirect print servers since they came back from the holiday break. Withers Morgan reply's:
One thing that has happened recently: Apple released the Mac OS X 10.3.7 update on 12/15/2004, which has the following reported issue:
If a Mac running OS X 10.3.7 prints to an HP printer, it may cause the printer to become non-responsive.
I have personally witnessed this with my Mac and the HP 8100 in our office. The only way to get the printer back was to restart it. And of course, if I printed to it again, it would go away. I ended up having to reinstall the HP drivers on my Mac to fix the issue. Reports of this problem are widespread within the Mac community.
We're investigating other things as well, but I had this one happen to me, so it might be affecting others and I thought it might be worth mentioning.
The University Center Computer Store's site is now updated to show new products and pricing and all have been ordered. They expect delivery of the Mac mini by the end of the month.
Dauger Research, Inc., announced that a new milestone for cluster computing and the Macintosh platform has been accomplished. Software written by researchers at Dauger Research and the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) achieved 1.21 trillion floating-point operations per second on a cluster of 128 Dual-Processor Xserve G5s. Designed by the Plasma Physics Group at UCLA. They also claim to have achieved the largest calculation yet performed using Pooch Pro."
Why the Mac Mini may be more than just a low-cost Mac for "switchers." -- a warm gun.
what follows here are Chuck Toporek's notes -- mostly unedited -- taken during the Keynote. Sure, you'll find some of this elsewhere, but along with the usual bullet points, you'll also get his thoughts on some of the announcements.
The mood at Macworld Expo is cautiously upbeat, but the ghost of products past may haunt the Macs of the future. -- Wired.
The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg test drives the new iPod Shuffle in his Personal Technology column
Realtime multicast streaming came to QuickTime in version 5, but now, years later, it's not widely realized that it can be called from QuickTime for Java. Chris Adamson, author of QuickTime for Java: A Developer's Notebook, shows how it works. -- O'Reilly Network.
Apple Computer, Inc. is suing a Harvard undergraduate who runs a popular Mac information website for disclosing details about unreleased Apple products, including two unveiled at this week's Macworld conference. -- The Harvard Crimson.
iPod Updater 2005-01-11 includes iPod shuffle Software 1.0, iPod photo Software 1.0, iPod mini Software 1.2, and iPod Software 3.0.2 (for iPod with Click Wheel).
iTunes 4.7.1 includes support for iPod shuffle and other performance improvements.
Apple has introducediPod shuffle, a breakthrough digital music player based on iPod's legendary shuffle feature which lets users experience their music in a million different ways. Smaller and lighter than a pack of gum, iPod shuffle comes with its own lanyard so it's ready to wear right out of the box. -- Apple PR.
Apple today introduced Mac mini, the most affordable and compact Mac ever. Starting at just $499, Mac mini is the ideal desktop computer for anyone looking to get started with Mac OS X and features iLife '05, the latest version of Apple's innovative suite of software for managing digital photo and music collections, editing movies and creating music. Just two-inches tall and weighing only 2.9 pounds, Mac mini redefines design for the sub-$1,000 desktop. -- Apple PR.
Apple today announced iLife '05, the must-have upgrade to Apple's award-winning suite of digital lifestyle applications, featuring major new versions of iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and GarageBand and including the latest version of iTunes. -- Apple PR.
Apple today unveiled iWork '05, productivity software designed to take advantage of both Mac OS X and iLife '05 to help users easily create, present and publish professional-looking documents and presentations. -- Apple PR.
Apple today announced Final Cut Express HD, a major upgrade of its advanced video editing application for video enthusiasts, students and aspiring filmmakers that makes it easy to capture, edit and output High Definition Video (HDV) using all the powerful features of Final Cut Express. -- Apple PR.
Jade wanders the halls of the Moscone Convention Center at Macworld San Francisco, looking for the essence of the new Mac mini. -- Ars Technica.
There are a lot of differences between Mac people and PC people. Mac people, conventional wisdom says, stand for creativity; PC people represent conformity. Mac people don't care about cost; it's all PC people care about. -- c|net.
CEO Steve Jobs touts his company's innovations in search coming with next Mac OS X upgrade. -- c|net.
As Apple CEO Steve Jobs finished up his demonstration of the iPod shuffle, he casually mentioned that he had heard they were a few at the Apple Store a few blocks away from the Moscone Center. -- The Mac Observer.
Microsoft Corp.'s Macintosh Business Unit has announced several updates to products at Macworld Conference & Expo on Tuesday including its plans for the upcoming release of Mac OS X Tiger. -- MacCentral.
The Mac OS X 10.3.7 Special Report contains completely revised descriptions of and solutions for the most common problems associated with the incremental update.
An InfoWorld article explores Tom Yager's switch to the Mac, and his resultant increase in stability.
Elgato and ATI today unveiled the jointly developed EyeTV Wonder USB 2.0 analog TV tuner for the Mac. EyeTV Wonder combines ATI TV tuner technology with the Elgato's EyeTV software to offer support for 240 MBit/sec of video recording using USB 2.0 connectivity.
Forget Mac mini, or even iPod Shuffle, (well ok, don't forget them, just take in everything else too) iLife and in particular iMovie HD is where it's really at. -- O'Reilly Weblogs.
Just 12 short hours after purchasing an iPod shuffle, I'm in love. -- O'Reilly Weblogs.
With this Steve Jobs announcement of the Mac mini at Macworld San Francisco, the first thought that came to mind is: "Steve's got his Cube back." -- O'Reilly Weblogs.
We know that RSS support is coming for Safari with the Tiger release, but you can enjoy this service now in Firefox. Wei-Meng Lee shows you the ropes plus some slick insights for tabbed browsing in Safari and Camino. -- Mac DevCenter.
Ever dream of having a smart home? Although a home that responds to your every wish may seem like something only the upper crust can afford, a little knowledge can go a long way. Tony Northrup, co-author of Home Hacking Projects for Geeks, introduces you to X10, a powerful, flexible, and fairly inexpensive technology that will open the doors to home automation. With a little creativity, the possibilities are positively geektastic. -- O'Reilly Network.
Steve Jobs' Macworld keynote speech -- and a lack of Wi-Fi -- set off a rush among iPod fans to see who can get to the nearby Apple Store before the newfangled devices sell out. -- Wired.
The keynote will be available for viewing via webcast at approximately 6:00 p.m. PST (9:00 p.m. EST) Tuesday at http://www.apple.com. This is a delay of some nine hours since the keynote starts at noon EST.
Ed Felten is a Professor in the CS Department at Princeton and heads their Secure Internet Programming Laboratory. He is an expert in Internet security. He has a personal blog on technology and the law, and has posted his predictions for 2005. He predicts there will be no real progress on the spam, spyware, and desktop security problems.
He has also posted his 2004 Predictions Scorecard. His overall score: two right, three mostly right, two mostly wrong, none wrong.
Andy Hertzfeld, an original Mac engineer, talks with CNET News.com about the Mac, open-source software and the iPod.
If the rumor sites are even half right, Apple Computer is about to release a bumper crop of gear. -- c|net.
There has been quite a bit of talk lately about Quicken and it's "attitude" regarding the Mac. In that light I have compiled the following list recommend by online users on different sites.
There's a new cool tool by Boinx Software called Mouseposé. It's for everyone doing demos at trade shows, presentations, training or those individuals with huge and high resolution displays. If turned on, Mouseposé dims the screen and puts a spotlight on the area around the mouse pointer, easily guiding the audiences attention or to quickly locate the mouse pointer.
Apple has finally created a new section for information from an IT Professionals viewpoint, with articles about all the good stuff (Intrusion Protection and Activity Directory Integration.) Previously Apple shied away from having any obvious IT focus, but it seems Apple are acknowledging their influence in the IT sphere, with two high-profile HPC clusters (VPI and COLSA) and enterprise class tools for managing open source technologies.
Automator, one of the powerful new features in Mac OS X Tiger, helps you streamline repetitive everyday manual tasks quickly, efficiently, and effortlessly without programming. -- Apple Developer Connection.
With mail boxes pounded by spam and identity theft on the rise, email encryption and authentication has never been more important. But privacy-protecting technology isn't always exactly user friendly. That's set to change, with a new, easy to use and free email security application. -- MIT Technology Review.
AppleInsider is reporting that as anticipation runs high just prior to mac daddy of Macintosh trade shows, Apple has reportedly discontinued one of its latest audio applications.
The open-source movement has already rewritten the rules for how software is licensed and used. Now the computer services market is changing to keep up. -- c|net.
During her keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show on Friday, HP CEO Carly Fiorina announced that her company will sell an HP-branded version of Apple's newest iPod, the iPod Photo, later in 2005.
On today's NPR's Morning Edition, Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal was interviewed about the raging virus, spyware, etc. problems on Windows computers. He had two computers with him. The second one he said was more secure by design. Guess which operating system it was running?... That's right.
Unless you are a troglodyte, you know that Macworld starts tomorrow. So sometime after Steve Jobs' keynote speech (about 3:00 p.m. EST) there will be postings to Apple's web site. I will try and recap and focus the news on Wednesday morning. Looks like there will be a number of interesting things. The only bummer is that because Steve is pissed off there will be no live broadcast of the event. I am sure it will be available after the fact, but not live for now. If you can't wait I am sure a number of sites will have real-time coverage on their blogs. It is my opinion Steve should get over it. Even he could not buy the amount of publicity this has generated for Apple. The old saw holds, "Any advertising is good advertising."
InfoWorld's Tom Yager notes that his switch to the Mac in 2004 was one of his most important decisions: "Every day I learn to do things better (meaning simpler), and I like hanging with a platform that makes constant progress. Moving to the Mac is one of my all-time smartest calls.
A Reuters story looks at an Apple stock price gain: Shares of Apple Computer Inc. rose more than 7 percent on Friday after an analyst raised his earnings estimates for the company before its annual trade show next week when new product announcements could send the stock still higher.
In what might be the next chapter in Silicon Valley's longest-running soap opera, Steve Jobs, chairman of Apple Computer, is planning to surrender to the computer industry's received wisdom and introduce a sub-$500 Macintosh, according to several published reports -- New York Times.
A New Direction? Flash memory in a cheaper iPod? A $500 Mac? If the rumors about what Steve Jobs has planned for Apple are true, those moves could be just the start. -- BusinessWeek.
The Apple Xserve launched in 2002 without much fanfare in the server marketplace. Two full years later, the platform is gaining more steam than even avid Apple watchers had anticipated. -- Salon.
It is widely acknowledged that Apple Computer enjoys the kind of slavish devotion among its customers--and fawning adoration from the press--of which other companies don't even dare to dream. That is, it's acknowledged by everyone but Apple. -- Forbes.
While rumors keep flying, Motorola's iTunes-compatible phone is a fact. And it's exactly the kind of thing people would go wild about if Steve Jobs mentioned it at MacWorld next week. -- O'Reilly Weblogs.
Bob Cringley publishes his predictions for developments in the world of IT every year. His latest column contains his predictions for 2005 and a brief look back at his predictions for 2004."
The timing of Apple's suit against ThinkSecret over product leaks may be timed to generate pre-Macworld publicity, marketing experts say. But some caution Apple better beware of upsetting its loyal users. -- Wired.
A group of MIT engineers wants to model the biological world. But, damn, some of nature's designs are complicated! So they start rebuilding from the ground up -- and give birth to synthetic biology. -- Wired.
Apple has released Xserve Remote Diagnostics 1.0.1.
During a presentation Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show, a Motorola executive previewed the upcoming mobile phone that the company is jointly developing with Apple. -- PC Magazine.
Steve Jobs has killed real-time webcasting and satellite broadcast of his Macworld Expo keynote, according to an Apple note forwarded by a MacInTouch reader.
This is a very simple Unix hint ... but for those new to the Terminal, it might provide some learning value. The vertical bar (|) is the pipe symbol, and it takes the output of the first command (fortune) and sends it to the second (say). If you don't have fortune installed, you can obviously use most any other command; try ls | say in a small directory, for example. -- Mac OS X Hints.
Another eWeek report notes that Oracle Corp. quietly began shipping Oracle Database 10g and Oracle JDeveloper 10g for the Mac OS X Server in late December.
PowerPC and Power form a continuum of compatible, and now open, processor designs -- and our guess is that the PowerS design will arrive in some form in an Apple machine in 2005. The companies that rely on PowerPC will do very nicely betting on the No. 2 horse. -- InfoWorld.
The pie metaphor gives you a useful way to relate to management. Once you understand the metaphor, then you are equipped to benefit from your knowledge. -- O'Reilly Weblogs.
As reported today by Ina Fried at CNet, Apple is suing Think Secret, specifically citing their articles on the headless iMac and the iWork office suite. It's interesting that they'd file suit now, all but confirming that at least some aspects of both stories are true. Why not wait to file suit next week, after the Macworld Expo Keynote? -- Daring Fireball.
I still can't quite figure out why Apple didn't wait to file suit against Think Secret next week, after the Expo keynote and any new product announcements they plan to make -- and I more or less left this question unanswered in yesterday's coverage. My best guess now is that Think Secret's rumors are accurate enough that Apple doesn't mind fanning the flames, and figures that if they've lost the element of surprise, they might as well capitalize on the hype. -- Daring Fireball.
Holding the Command key, then pressing the Tab key, brings up a giant Dock-like window with huge icons in the center of your screen, where you can cycle through your open apps (using the Tab key, the Arrow keys, or clicking with your mouse). But there's more to it than that -- you can quit any currently running app by cycling to it, then pressing the letter "q" (don't let go of the Command key; keep holding it while you press the letter "q"). Still holding the Command key, press "h" to hide the highlighted app.
New technological tools let scientists at University of Maryland's College of Life Sciences focus on their research. -- Apple PR.
"Switching to Macs company-wide has been good for us," says Carlos Del Castillo, IT manager at Cell Signaling Technology (CST) in Beverly, Massachusetts. "No one worries about the system anymore. They're concentrating on their work, using the Mac as a tool rather than as a computer." -- Apple PR.
When the Hypersonic Missile Technology (HMT) team at COLSA Corporation and the U.S. Army need to model hypersonic flight on a computer system, they'll no longer have to wait two months to get results. -- Apple PR.
As reports continue to come in from the Consumer Electronics Show, InfoSync provides our first look (and more information) on the video-player accessory announced by Nyko.
A couple of new applications are expanding the boundaries of the iPod. Playboy.com has unveiled "iBod" while radiologists are using an open-source application to store and view images on their iPods. -- Ars Technica.
A New York Times report indicates that album sales are up for for the first time in years, thanks in part to online music services like the iTunes Music Store.
Claiming it to be only half the price of products from rivals like Avid, SGI, and IBM, Apple has unveiled a storage area network system called Xsan - a 64-bit cluster file system for Mac OS X that allows organizations to use multiple computers with concurrent file-level read/write access. -- LinuxWorld.
ATI Technologies Inc has unveiled the RADEON X800 XT Mac Edition, which supports high resolution monitors such as the Apple 30-inch Cinema HD Display. The new graphics card sports dual digital display connections, (one Dual Link DVI and one ADC port), 16 pixel pipelines, six vertex pipelines and 256MB of GDDR3 memory. The RADEON X800 XT will be available at a price of US$499.
w3schools.com is a wonderful resource for programming tutorials/reference in many Web-related languages.
The Associated Press covers the main theme of digital convergence at this week's Consumer Electronics Show [at which Apple is absent].
In its latest lawsuit seeking to clamp down on leaks, Apple Computer has added credibility to several hot rumors, including plans to offer a cheaper Macintosh and its own line of office software. -- c|net.
To expand its presence, Apple needs more than competent server products; it needs a client that is a good enterprise citizen--with five key improvements. -- eWeek.
With version 7 of Acrobat, Adobe has wanted to provide users with more office and security functionality. Acrobat is now the application that can be used for archiving and printing CAD documents, as well as for web-usable forms. But under the hood, and tucked away for the larger public, Acrobat silently upgraded its capabilities in the areas of PDF/X and other exchange standards -- IT.Enquirer.
Bill Gate's 'puter crashed during a presentation at CES. While I admit to loving to hate Microsoft this is too rich an irony to pass up passing along. -- O'Reilly Weblogs.
Macworld notes that Apple has reduced prices in the UK on nearly all of its Mac and flat panel displays offerings by as much as £450. Products met with price cuts include the iMac G5, PowerBook, Power Mac, iBook, and Cinema Display line.
Apple today reduced the price of all three of its flat panel Cinema Display offerings. The 20-inch Cinema Display now fetches a mere $999, while the company's high definition 23-inch and 30-inch displays dropped to $1799 and $2999, respectively. The price cuts represent a $300 reduction at the high and low end of the product line, along with a $200 markdown for the mid-range 23-inch display.
Apple today upgraded its Xserve 1U rack optimized server to deliver dual 64-bit 2.3 GHz PowerPC G5 processors with over 35 gigaflops of processing power per system and the fastest front side 1U server system bus, running at up to 1.15 GHz, providing up to 9.2 GBps of bandwidth per processor and up to three 400GB drives, achieving a groundbreaking 1.2TB of hot-plug storage.
Apple today announced it has begun shipping Xsan, a high performance, enterprise class Storage Area Network (SAN) file system priced at the industry's most aggressive price point of $999 per client and per server. Xsan combines breakthrough performance with Apple's legendary ease of use for customers who require scalable, high-speed access to centralized shared data for storage consolidation and workflow in video post production, data center, broadcast and high performance computing environments.
If 2003 was a big year for Apple, then 2004 was huge. While 2003 saw Apple's stock climb to the mid-US$20s from US$13-15, in 2004 it nearly tripled to US$65 at year end. The G5 also processor made it -- finally -- down from the professional lineup into a consumer machine with the release of the iMac G5. iTunes Music Store hit 200 million downloads, and Apple had a hard time keeping up with demand for the iPod. -- Ars Technica.
Various companies are currently trying to perfect the technology behind a new type of flat-panel display that will rely on diamonds or carbon nanotubes--two forms of pure carbon--to produce images. -- c|net.
It's the iPod, stupid. Apple Computer, which rolled the dice three years ago with a hand-size MP3 player the size of a deck of cards, came up boxcars. -- c|net.
O'Reilly has published a new book called Home Hacking Projects for Geeks, a how-to title for automation projects for your home. The company said the book is intended for both neophytes and "tool-wielding masterminds," and is intended to show you how to so things like install automatic lights and other such projects.
This article discusses a technique of installing personal contact information into your Mac in such a way that you have a chance of getting it back in the event of theft. -- Mac OS X Hints.
Safari "puts Internet Explorer to shame" Walt Mossberg says a number of Web browsers provide a better alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer in a new column.
An E-Commerce Times article examines Apple's current status, and future strategy for the enterprise arena: "Central to Apple's attack is pricing. That means eliminating licensing worries by offering unlimited seat pricing on OS X server; introducing an Xserve hardware package that puts its Intel counterpart's feet to the fire by way of technical specifications and cost; and a pricing package for a hardware/software based SAN (storage area network) that one analyst has called 'spectacular.'"
If you are looking for an argument for those who have been lost to the darkside you might want to take a look at MacInTouch's Macintosh Justification Readers Report. There are a large number of entries. You can also check out the "Why Macs?" section of the Apple page on MacVolPlace.
Adobe today announced Acrobat 7.0, a family of desktop applications that enable workgroups to manage a range of essential business activities. Acrobat 7.0, the latest update to the Adobe Intelligent Document Platform, provides users the ability to assemble documents from multiple sources, create intelligent forms, and collaborate on projects inside and outside the firewall, among other capabilities.
Apple Computer Inc. is widely expected to unveil cheaper portable music players and Macintosh computers next week at its annual trade show as it seeks to change from a niche technology player to the mainstream champion of the "digital life." -- Reuters.
Care to stream any application's audio to an AirPort Express? Help is on the way. -- Macworld.
"What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?" This was the question posed to scientists, futurists and other creative thinkers by John Brockman, a literary agent and publisher of Edge, a Web site devoted to science. The site asks a new question at the end of each year. Here are excerpts from the responses, to be posted Tuesday at www.edge.org.
In Part 1, F.J. introduced you to Skype for the Mac. In today's conclusion he talks more about configuration and hands-on use. -- Mac DevCenter.
What really happened in Cupertino during the early '80s as the Mac was born? Andy Hertzfeld was there and talks with Derrick Story about the early days of the Macintosh, folklore.org, and his new book, Revolution in The Valley. -- Mac DevCenter.
Apple Xserve G5 won InfoWorld's "Best Server Hardware" award and Mac OS X v10.3 Panther won the "Best Operating System" award.
Following his comments on December 23rd to investors regarding the iPod, Steve Milunovich of Merrill Lynch commented on Monday about rumors that Apple will announce an inexpensive, headless Mac at next week's Macworld Expo in San Francisco. -- The Mac Observer.
The New York Times has published an interesting exploration of the topic of modern cinema that includes some interesting discussion about digital video, iMovie, and other issues.
Daring Fireball seems to have verified the rumor regarding iWork.
MacReview reader opinions on the latest version of Virtual PC.
Those piles of cassette tapes you've got lying around the house aren't just cluttering things up--they're also deteriorating, turning your audio keepsakes into silence. But Contributing Editor Jim Heid can help you bring those old recordings into the future with tips for digitizing your old tapes, enhancing the audio, and burning your efforts to CDs. -- Macworld.
Hack-A-Day has posted a story on how to convert a 233MHz PowerBook G3 (Lombard) into a linux-based MP3 player you can install in your car.
January 3 January marks the beginning of our 8th year of posting MacVolPlace. MacVolPlace began in January of 1996 as a way to support the Macintosh community at UT after the decrease in support staff. The web was a way to leverage what one person could do. I did not think about it as a long term project but here I am years later still trying to provide a resource to UT.
I want to thank all of you who help by providing articles and information. I don't know all this stuff. Without the members of MacGuru we would not have the quality of information we do. MacGuru is private, limited to ".edu" addresses only. It is read by higher-ed and secondary school personnel, consultants, Apple folks in the U.S. and more all around the world. I got an e-mail from Sweden today.
It has been fun and I look forward to 2005. It looks like the rest of the world is waking up to what we have know all along. Macs rule!
AudioGoGo.com has published its predictions for 2005, where, as we have seen with other tech media outlets, Apple figured prominently. The magazine had five major predictions concerning Apple, including Apple having a big year for the Mac, Apple losing iPod market share, Apple upgrading the audio quality of the iTunes Music Store, and the Sony PlayStation Portable usurping the iPod as the fad gadget. The most interesting prediction, however, is that IBM will license Mac OS X from Apple.
Mike Washlesky offers a follow up to his experience in transferring Digital Video to 35mm film with the "Oh My God" short film project. -- The Mac Observer.
MDJ today released the fifth annual MDJ Power 25 list. The list, distilled from surveys sent to industry movers and shakers (including journalists, executives, engineers, and Apple Computer insiders), is the Macintosh industry's only serious attempt to track the perception of power and influence in the community.
With two million Britons now owning iPod digital music players, Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, was last night preparing to unveil his next project, a computer costing £260. -- Telegraph.
This Macintosh Hints & Tips monthly column is a collection of tips culled from newsletters of Macintosh user groups throughout the world, as well as other sources including Mac-related magazines, books, and websites.
Several friends have sent comments and notes from a study to be released by Stanford next week that shows an average of 14 minutes a day being devoted to dealing with Windows problems (the survey size was nearly 5000 Internet users - almost entirely Windows). -- tingilinde.
While high-performance clusters often provide the most cost-effective way to speed up your calculations, building your first cluster can be a frustrating experience. But it doesn't have to be. Here are ten tips to help you get started. -- O'Reilly Network.
