This update includes the following components: apache_mod_ssl, CoreFoundation, CoreTypes, curl, iodbcadmin, OpenSSL, Safari, sudo and syslog.
Most notably, the update rectifies issues where:
Security Update 2005-009 also includes enhancements to Safari to improve handling of credit card security codes (Mac OS X v10.3.9 and Mac OS X v10.4.3), CoreTypes to improve handling of Terminal files (Mac OS X v10.4.3), QuickDraw Manager to improve rendering of PICT files (Mac OS X v10.3.9), documentation regarding OpenSSH and PAM (Mac OS X v10.4.3), and ServerMigration to remove unneeded privileges.
Developers should all be moving their existing CodeWarrior applications to Apple's Xcode so that they can create universal binary applications that include executable code that runs on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macintosh computers. This article explains the benefits of transitioning and gets you started.
Rumors abound about Apple tapping the Mac Mini and an improved version of Front Row to roll out their own DVR. In this rumor mill round up, I'll tell you why I don't think it's going to happen any time soon. -- Ars Technica.
I had a conversation yesterday about someone who was having a problem with their Mac running OS X. Seems they could not get into certain systems at UT and were getting error messages. Upon further conversation to get enough information to make an informed diagnosis it came out that they had NEVER allowed any of the System Updates from Apple to run on their computer! They had seen them but they had never allowed them to run. Since it was not possible to know how long this had been going on or what version of OS X they were running (they did not know) the obvious solution was to
I also told them to upgrade to the latest version of OS X for their computer.
Software Updates are not optional. They fix, patch and update. If you do not apply them then versions of software the mainframe is running (notably JAVA) will not be at the correct version on your Mac. Which will mean your Mac will not be able to work with Web applications running on our servers.
The Problem is that you can't log on to .... (portal, grades on line, cpo, etc.) The steps below are how to troubleshoot the problem, isolate the cause and perhaps find a solution.
This document defines the term "pixel anomaly", explains why such anomalies occur, and describes what to do if you feel your active matrix LCD panel has more than an acceptable number of pixel anomalies.
Every computer comes with a certain version of system software preinstalled. If you install an earlier version of system software, your computer may exhibit unexpected behavior, such as the display image may appear to shrink with black bars all around it, or the trackpad or mouse may no longer work properly. Every computer Apple ships is designed to work with the version of software it shipped with-installing an earlier version has not been tested and is not supported. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
The "wc" command, in the Terminal, will return the number of words, lines and characters in a given file. Just open the Terminal, drag and drop the file in question into the Terminal window and press return. It will return the number of words, lines and characters in the file.
$ wc file
A line is defined as a string of characters delimited by a <new-line> character, and a word is defined as a string of characters delimited by white space characters. White space characters are the set of characters for which the iswspace(3) function returns true. If more than one input file is specified, a line of cumulative counts for all the files is displayed on a separate line after the output for the last file.
And yes that means you can drop more than one file into the Terminal window and wc will give you the count for each file AND the total for ALL the files.
If you have had any problems with OS X or you just believe in being careful, the following is the "safest" way to install any update. (I never do this except for major, 10.3 to 10.4, updates. I do repair permissions which does not require rebooting.)
When the SANS Institute, a computer-security training organization, released its Top-20 vulnerabilities last week, the rankings continued an annual ritual aimed at highlighting the worst flaws for network administrators. This year, the list had something different, however: The group flagged the collective vulnerabilities in Apple Computer's Mac OS X operating system as a major threat.
Such warnings, however, have to contend with the Mac OS X's impressive lack of major security incidents. The issue is that if Mac OS X is not properly configured it can be vulnerable (DUH!)
So the question is, "Should you be worried?" And the answer is NO, IF you have followed the Mac OS X System Hardening: Guidelines for Faculty and Staff Desktops and if you have applied all the patches and updates from Apple for your OS. -- Security Focus.
A longtime Linux user recounts his experience partially switching to OS X (he bought a Mac mini.) "When switching operating systems, there is a strong tendency to whine about all the things missing in the new OS, or that are done differently and require a change of habits. The advantages become obvious only after some time. I'll do my best to take that into account and present a balanced review. There are a few fundamental problems that I cannot ignore though."
IDG World Expo today announced the schedule for the Users Conference, as well as the Hands-on MacLabs at Macworld Conference and Expo, taking place January 9-13th, 2006 at San Francisco's Moscone Center.
In an out-of-the-blue e-mail, a user asked Graham Rogers about the iMac G5. When he had answered, he suggested a visit to the retail outlets, and the user replied "a small request, just talking to friends who are all using Windows, and would like to switch to Apple Mac OS X, could you include some comments/advice?" Here is Graham's response.
Intel is working with movie, music, and game providers across the planet to make sure services work with the living room computer concept behind its future Viiv products. Intel has not commented on whether its long-sought new PC partner Apple is to be part of the Viiv scheme. -- Macworld.
On Nov. 29, the US Patent & Trademark Office revealed that Apple was granted a reissue patent number "RE38,896" for "Apparatus and method for rotating the display orientation of a captured image." This Reissue Patent makes clear reference to Apple's QuickTake digital camera that was discontinued in 1997. -- Macsimum News.
On a 12-inch PowerBook there's usually plenty of room for short application names but launch Photoshop Elements (or any other app with a long-winded name) and prepare to lose fully 15 percent of your menubar space-nearly 150 pixels from the 1024 available! If you could just shorten the application's name somehow, you could recover a significant amount of menubar space. -- Macworld.
Seems like it would be cool to have the equivalent of cellphone ringtones for Mail. Here's a quick hack using AppleScript and iTunes. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
In this follow-up to his first article on installing Fink, Koen Vervloesem tackles more advanced topics, such as building binary packages, running your own binary distribution server, and creating Fink packages for your own software. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
The storage technology in consumer electronics devices may soon influence how computers themselves operate. Flash memory is coming to the PC. -- Technology Review.
The anarchic state of audio on the internet is about to become more organized. A handful of new technologies scan entire podcasts for specific words. -- Wired.
In 1998, astronomers studying distant exploding stars stumbled on an amazing discovery: the universe is not just expanding, which they knew, but it is expanding at an ever-faster pace. -- Space.
An abusive New York camera store threatens blogger. "I will make sure you will never be able to place an order on the internet again." "I'm an attorney, I will sue you." "I'm going to call your local police and have two officers come over and arrest you." Just a few of the fun things I got to hear today from someone who said his name was Steve Phillips over at PriceRitePhoto. --Thomas Hawk.
A new Working Draft of WCAG 2.0 was released November 23, 2005. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
A new document was introduced to guide the understanding and use of WCAG 2.0. Understanding WCAG 2.0.
Broadband Tuner 1.0 allows you to take full advantage of very high speed Internet connections that have a high latency.
A few weeks ago I ran an article on the latest Top500 Supercomputer list. In reading it I noticed that some systems were getting more bang for the buck than others so I decided to calculate the "efficiency" of each system, defined as how much work each processor was doing (calculated by dividing Rmax by the number of processors.) The new table is very interesting. Some systems have almost the same E-Rank as Rank. For others there is quite a difference.
The two top Apple units moved down (20 to 50 and 15 to 62) and the two lower ones moved up (308 to 75 and 303 to 113). Cray is very big in the top 15.
The worst was the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory which went from 47th to 499th. Less is more if you buy right.
Computerworld's Ulrika Hedquist recently had the opportunity to review the new iMac G5, and her biggest complaint was that she would eventually have to give it back. By comparison, her PC seemed loud, bulky, and suffered from a lack of design.
Think Secret claims an Intel-based Mac mini will make an appearance at MacWorld San Francisco in January. Expected to be included in the update, other than the move to Intel processor:
Temperature Monitor 3.2 displays all accessible temperature sensors. The new release adds support for the third-generation iMac G5 (iSight). If you used a release prior to 3.2 on the new iMac G5, it is recommended to delete your preferences file to get updated sensor labels.
The Boston Globe reports that Verizon is taking a dual-pronged approach in delivering high-speed Internet access, offering both an upgraded DSL service while rolling out the new FiOS service. "Verizon is testing DSL with download speeds double their current limits in some of its employees' homes in Texas. If the service proves popular among its workers, Verizon could crank up its high-speed residential connections from their current download speed limit of 3 megabits per second to as much as 7.1 megabits per second. [...] FiOS offers download speeds 10 times faster than DSL's current quickest speed. It can also deliver cable television and even home phone service over the same line at the same time. The fiber service would eliminate the need for the copper wires that currently carry Verizon's phone and Internet service."
eWeek talks about Mac OS X's superiority over Windows when it comes to user privileges: "When talking about the various functions of their beloved operating system, Mac stalwarts are fond of remarking, perhaps a bit smugly, that the Mac 'just works.' But when it comes to appropriately managing user permissions, Apple's OS X definitely merits that phrase. In fact, the Mac boasts the best user rights management of any operating system we've tested. Mac OS X offers separate user and administrator privilege levels and, more importantly, includes effective facilities for prompting users when rights elevation is required."
The San Diego Tribune reports on methods for getting Apple's iDVD to work with DVD recording devices other than built-in units. "I recently bought a Plextor PX-716UF external DVD burner, thinking it was compatible with my PowerBook G4. After using iDVD to create a movie, my Plextor drive isn't recognized when I want to burn the finished DVD. I'm running Mac OS X Tiger and iDVD 4.0.1. Any suggestions? -- Officially, Apple only supports iDVD with the SuperDrives that ship with Mac hardware. But all hope is not lost."
The question was asked: is there a Mac-based CAD program that seamlessly opens and uses Autodesk files?
The answer is: yes, and it doesn't really matter. Powercadd is an excellent program on the Mac- the best, and I have used them all. It opens and writes DWG files. It is an incredibly well-kept secret and regularly updated.
And by and large, unless you need to regularly collaborate on a project between the Mac and the PC, translation [and that is what it is, after all] is normally a one-time operation. That's why 'seamless' isn't really that important.
Newer Technology has launched the NewerTech battery recycling program, designed to reward customers who choose to recycle their batteries. The new program allows customers to send in their old Apple or third-party PowerBook or iBook batteries and receive a $20 rebate for each NewerTech replacement battery purchased. Newer says that the battery type sent in for rebate must be the same type as the battery purchased (and that only a single rebate would apply for each purchase; however, NewerTech will properly of all batteries sent in). NewerTech's laptop batteries, available for most Apple iBook and PowerBook models including all current iBook/PowerBook models, start at $120 and offer as much as 50 percent more capacity than Apple's stock batteries, according to the company.
The December 2005 issue of Electronic Musician features my how-to article, "The Art of Podcasting." The issue won't go online until January, but you can see a bunch of my source material now, plus an example podcast, at the EM site. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
The Music Genome Project, an attempt to define music by it's traits in a way similar to DNA defines traits in humans has led to the development of Pandora. Pandora uses the song choices you make to see what traits appeal to you and present you with custom radio station. Artist is better than song title.
I stopped watching "Saturday Night Live." So I missed this portrayal of Steve Jobs on SNL's "Weekend Update." Click through to download a Quicktime clip (13MB) of the fun.
The Federal Communications Commission is expected to suggest that cable companies could best serve their customers by allowing them to subscribe to individual channels instead of packages of several stations. (DUH!!!) -- Money.
In the wake of Apple Computer's decision to base its next generation of Macintosh computers on Intel processors, Intel Corp. has created an internal 'Apple group' comprised of both engineers and sales staff, eWeek is reporting.
Apple announced that it has reached long-term supply agreements with Hynix, Intel, Micron, Samsung Electronics and Toshiba to secure the supply of NAND flash memory through 2010. As part of these agreements, Apple intends to prepay a total of $1.25 billion for flash memory components during the next three months.
Record professional-quality, personalized DVDs with the multi-format LaCie d2 DVD±RW Drive with LightScribe. With this dual format drive and Toast 7 Titanium recording software, Mac OS X users can store and archive as much as four hours of high-quality DVD video, up to 16 hours of VHS video or up to 8.5GB of data, music or photos on a single double layer DVD±R disc. This versatile drive now also features innovative LightScribe labeling technology, which burns custom, silkscreen-quality lasting images directly onto your discs using the very same laser that burns data. I just got one of these and it was just plug and play.
By all accounts, Sony's high-definition discs are being tapped as the successor to standard DVD. But serious production questions remain. -- c|net.
The John Henry of the information age uses hand-tuned code to help solve the toughest supercomputing problems. -- c|net.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory officials aren't sure if their hotshot computer, a Cray XT3 known as "Jaguar," will reach next year's stated goal of 100 teraflops - 100 trillion calculations per second. "It's going to be a challenge, but I think we're going to get close," said Thomas Zacharia, the associate lab director and computer chief. -- Knoxville News Sentinel.
The mysteries of dark matter and multiple dimensions could be solved with the help of the world's biggest computer grid. -- c|net.
The tip: Reduce the number of icons on your Desktop.
That's it. Really. No, really, try it and see. If you only reduce it by a few (or a VERY fast processor), you probably won't notice much of a difference, but the more you remove, the snappier it will feel (depending on your machine, of course).
Why? Well, every icon on your Desktop is a little window, and as such, has a corresponding backing store allocation in the window server. Lots of these little windows apparently can put a strain on the window server, especially when you've got lots of other (normal) windows open as well.
Don't believe me? Well, you can see for yourself, by running Quartz Debug found in /Developer -> Applications -> Performance Tools (assuming you have the Developer Tools installed -- you do have the Developer Tools installed, don't you?). Show the window list (Tools -> Show Window List), order by Application, and click on the various Finder entries to highlight each "window." You'll soon see that each desktop icon is treated as its very own window. See, I told you so.
For those who don't have Xcode (Developer Tools) installed yet, here is a detailed how-to on Macworld.
I also read somewhere that if you use a solid color background instead of a picture, that can also affect your speed performance.
Apple quietly updated their Aperture page on their website to reflect that it is now shipping. Apple introduced Aperture as a pro-level RAW support photo cataloging app on October 19, 2005.
MacFixIt reports that cell phone interference causing problems with add-on devices.
They continue coverage of an issue where fifth-generation iPods (with video), apparently suffer from erratic functioning due to interference from cellular phones and potentially other radio-emitting handheld devices.
Speculation now holds that these issues are directly or indirectly related to the touch sensitive portion of the fifth-generation iPod, and possibly the iPod nano.
They're now receiving reports from readers who are experiencing issues with third-party add-ons resulting from phone interference.
Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Walter Mossberg notes reasons for a sea change in Windows users' consideration of the Mac platform. "The daunting security problems that have plagued Windows have also prompted many of its users to take a serious look at the Mac. This trend has been further reinforced by the "iPod halo effect," in which Windows users who own and love Apple's iPod music players are willing to consider the company's other products. As a result, Mac sales, while still relatively small, have been growing much faster than overall personal computer sales. Are you among the PC majority considering a switch to the Mac? Then you probably have some important questions."
MacInTouch has a new special report from Robert Mohns on iPod Reliability, based on last week's survey of 4000+ MacInTouch visitors (with almost 9000 iPods). The report includes survey data (in chart and table form), observations and commentary on reliability and types of failures. Overall, iPods are good sturdy devices, but there's a clunker or two among the many different models Apple has sold, along with general issues of both technology and usage.
[Jim Frost] A friend and frequent contributor to MacInTouch asked me to give some impressions of my new Quad. To that end I wrote up a (much longer than originally intended) review, including a lot of notes about noise levels. If you're interested you can read the whole review at: The Power of Four: A Review of the Apple Macintosh Quad Power Mac
[Adam Tow] I received my PowerMac Quad G5 and have posted a fairly extensive review of my week-long experience getting it set up: Power Mac Quad G5
[Andy Ormsby] Chris Gueymard asks about noise and other issues with the new dual core G5 2.3GHz. I've had mine for about 3 weeks now. It is not completely silent but I would in no way describe the noise as intrusive or irritating. It sits beside my desk in an otherwise quiet apartment.
As for the Thoughts on the Power Mac Dual-Core 2.3 GHz [at OSNews] I take issue with some of the comments made by the author.
For example, the claim that because the case of the G5 is rigid, it is loud. Hang on a moment, wouldn't it be more of a problem if the case was non-rigid and could resonate? The only way you could get the G5 case to resonate would be with a sledgehammer.
The "extremely loud" Western Digital drive? Well, it's very noticeably quieter than the external LaCie 160GB drive I use for backups. If that drive is turned on (I normally leave it switched off) it drowns out the noise of the Power Mac completely.
Rayiner claims the components in the Power Mac are cheap and draws particular attention to the disk drive. At dabs.com, of the 250GB SATA drives on offer, prices range from £73.39 to £93.74. The cheapest and most expensive drives are differently packaged models of the Western Digital Caviar 250GB unit. The Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 unit mentioned in the article is £78.81, clearly nearer to the bottom of the price range than the top. On Froogle, the price range for both the Western Digital and Seagate drives appears to be $100 to $215 - exactly the same.
I'm delighted with my new G5. It runs rings around the G4 iMac I was using previously, the transfer of data and software was smoother than I had imagined possible. Just make sure you have a Firewire cable.
With a unique mounting solution, MacUpgrades.com is offering a way to mount up to nine hard drives inside the case of a Mac G5. The full 9-drive solution costs $599 US, although you can cram fewer drives with less-expensive solutions. But for those needing a way to maximize the storage of their high-end hardware, this looks like a great option. If you're willing to store your stuff outside the case, or don't own a new G5, have a look at Iomega's new 1TB solution.
I've lately been searching high and low for an easier way to build Web applications. As a PHP/MySQL kind of guy, I've been growing tired of jumbling together the business logic with my database code. There must be a better way! After examining and rejecting Ruby on Rails for having too steep a learning curve, I have been looking for PHP-based solutions that take a similar tack. Last week I discovered the PHP Object Generator, which very nicely creates database-handling classes. Not bad, but not the whole solution! But today I discovered what might be a viable alternative: Phocoa, a framework written in PHP that takes its inspiration from Apple's Cocoa development frameworks. What are your experiences with this, or other PHP frameworks? -- MacSlash.
A few tips on where to look. AFP548.com is by far the best web-based resource for OSX Server discussion. The lion book
It sure is getting chilly in the underworld, now more than ever thanks to this word from the Financial Times, reporting that Microsoft will be submitting the Office file format to a standards body, which will write the documentation and make it available to the rest of the industry. Supporters include Apple Computer, Barclays Capital, BP, Intel and Toshiba. From the article: "Within about 18 months, customers, competitors and developers should be able to download detailed files from Ecma on how to create a Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or Excel document." So MacSlash, is this the beginning of the end for Microsoft's Office, or will this move further cement their dominance in the industry?
The folks over a MacWindows have been busy:
You've got about 200 old vinyl albums lying around the house, and you just can't bring yourself to throw them away, noting that some of them are not available anywhere on CD.
So I'd like to digitize some of them, burn them on CD for safekeeping and listen to them in iTunes and in the car. My wife wants some of them on her iPod mini.
So when ADS Tech asked if I wanted to review Instant Music, I jumped at the chance. Box said "Just plug it into a source and USB port on your Mac and you're ready to go." I installed the software that came with it, Roxio's CD SpinDoctor 2, and was ready to record. -- Macsimum News.
Bluetooth--its name is cool, but what can you really do with it? If you're curious, let Michael Yuan take you on a tour through the myriad use cases for Bluetooth-enabled devices, from car kits to social networking. He also provides overviews on the technology behind Bluetooth, and how to use it. If you're considering Bluetooth, either for app development or to create your own cable-free personal area network, this is a good place to start. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
Yes, you can spend extra dollars for Apple's sleek white video cable for TV connectivity, or you can hack your own together for cheap. Erica Sadun shows you how. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
It's time to dig around in your OS X Developer Tools and put some of those utilities to work. Robert Daeley takes you on a tour of handy CLI tools that, if you're not using them now, you will be after reading this article. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
From the poke-out-both-eyes department: I didn't really plan using a $20,000 laser cutter on my 17" Powerbook to etch a 19th-century engraving of a tarsier, a nocturnal mammal related to the lemur (also the vi book cover image, from O'Reilly), but it seemed like it had to done. -- Make.
It appears that there's more of you than there used to be. It would seem that lots of you have bought Macs because you're fed up with Windows, or just because you bought an iPod and you thought it was cool, or a mixture of both. I just wanted to give you a bit of advance warning about some things that might start happening to you now you've got your Mac. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
The holographic disk promises to retail for $100, and by 2010, it will have capacity of 1.6TB each. Holographic disk storage can attain far higher density than standard magnetic disk drives, which store data only on the surface of a disk, because the holographic technology allows data to be stored throughout the polymer material that makes up a disk. -- ComputerWorld.
Reading Arik Hesseldahl's post, Can Apple Truly Tie OS X Down?, I got to thinking about the glorious marketing opportunities Apple will have once those Intel-based Macs start to come to market. -- BusinessWeek.
There will be no news updates on MacVolPlace next week as I retire to the hinterlands to do unspeakable things to turkeys. To cheer you up, I leave you with this little song. Take care and drive safe. See you back here on November 28.
Front Row 1.0.1 Update delivers overall improved reliability and compatibility for browsing music, photos, and videos on your iMac.
Record label says its music from copy-protected CDs will play on Apple's iPod, but Apple disputes that notion. -- c|net.
Even before Google gave its blessing, Paul Rademacher was hacking away at the code behind its mapping application so he could mix it with outside real estate data and see exactly where homes listed for sale were located in the San Francisco area. -- c|net.
Sam Walton taught Google more about how to dominate the Internet than Microsoft ever did. -- I, Cringely.
This document offers information about how to restore your Apple software using the Restore disc(s) that came with your computer. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
Mozilla.org has released Firefox 1.5r3, a second test preview of the next generation open-source browser with better performance, more privacy features, security enhancements, and fixes for Mac OS X. Release 3 features an improved automated update engine, improvements to back and forward button performance, drag & drop reordering of browser tabs, improvements to popup blocking, a new Clear Private Data feature to quickly remove personal data, more descriptive error pages, redesigned options menu, better RSS discovery, and a new "Safe Mode" experience.
Mac GNU Privacy Guard is the Mac OS X port of the popular security utility. I have been using GnuPG for more than 5 years now and it is the best available open source solution for various encryption purposes. This article guides the reader through Mac GNU Privacy Guard installation, as well as its basic functions. -- NonStopMac.
You can not only drag text between applications, but onto application icons in the Dock! Applications will handle the text in different ways. Also, not every application supports this feature; only some of them will accept text snippets dropped on their docked icons. Based on some of my experiments, as well as comments from macosxhints.com readers, here's a list of applications that are known to do interesting and/or useful things when you drop a text snippet on their dock icons. -- Macworld.
I still yearned for a lightweight, straightforward shopping cart module that didn't involve installed an entire CMS or B2B solution. Thus, Handel. Later I will show you how to get a functional shopping cart up and running using no lines of code. You heard that correctly: no lines of code. Zero. None. Nada. -- O'Reilly Perl.com.
An article run in the Sydney Morning Herald saying that IT workers have been dubbed the worst dressed corporate employees.
Peter Callesen is a sculptor who makes amazing papercraft fantasies out of single sheets of A4-sized paper.
Yuval Kossovsky writes for Computerworld, "Yesterday, I had an hour to work with Apple Computer Inc.'s new Power Mac Quad G5, and for anyone in the broadcast, sciences, music, print and photography industries, I have some advice: Place your orders now!"
iPods, smart phones, digital cameras and other gadgets pose a real security risk to organizations. IT managers are looking for solutions. -- c|net.
If you've been to a technology event recently, especially one with a high concentration of digerati, you may have seen someone stand up and tell everyone what the event's Flickr tag is. -- c|net.
A way to correct problems where Pro applications quit unexpectedly on launch or quit, or display non-customary menus and dialogs. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
Of all the "under the hood" components of Mac OS X, my personal favorite is preferences files. The topic is so big that it will take several of these articles to cover it; three or four at least. This first one (which combines Parts I and II) introduces the basics. -- MacFixIt.
Maplesoft released a Maple 10.02 update for all editions of its widely-used analytical computation software. The update includes enhancements in a variety of areas.
Every true Macintosh fanatic has seen, or at least heard about, the famous 1984 television commercial that heralded the introduction of the Macintosh. The spot, with its distinctive Orwellian vision, is indelibly imprinted in the minds of Mac users the world over. Now, for the first time, the whole truth can be told. What you don't know about the commercial will surprise you, what you think you know is probably wrong. -- Curts Media.
Intel has launched this week the beginnings of its future line of processors that will support "virtualization". These new chips are known as Intel Pentium 4's 672 and 662. Essentially virtualization technology (or VT) enables a processor to run multiple operating systems or applications in independent partitions, or what is often called "containers", on the same chip. This type of technology has been around for years on big iron servers from Sun Microsystems and IBM, for example. Intel is not creating anything new in that regard.
However, what is new is this type of technology inside of a typical personal computer. And this begs the question: was this part of the consideration in Apple choosing Intel? -- Architosh.
Whether it's for a tutorial, a how-to, or a software review, if you have a product you'd like to explain to other users, screencasting-the art of screen recording with audio narration-can be both easier and more effective than written descriptions accompanied by static screen shots. Jon Udell walks you through how to make, edit, and deliver compelling screencasts. -- O'Reilly Digital Media.
I got a copy of DiskWarrior the other day and decided I'd see what would happen if I ran it on my iPod. -- iPodHacks.
Java 2 SE 5.0 Release 3 includes version 1.5.0_05 includes version 1.5.0_05 and improves functionality of J2SE 5.0 on Mac OS X v 10.4 Tiger 10.4.2 and later. This release does not replace the existing installation of J2SE 1.4.2.
iBackup is a simple to use backup/restore utility for scheduled backups of files, folders, applications and your system preferences like the dock, desktop picture, time settings, firewall, bluetooth and system applications like AddressBook, Mail, Stickies, iChat, iTunes and more. You can edit these preferences settings and add your own. iBackup is for free and for personal use only!
Having trouble with your iPod? This list of troubleshooting steps and service options will show you the smoothest path to resolving your issue. Be sure to perform the appropriate troubleshooting before submitting a service request. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
Do you have a lot of stuff in your mailbox? Never clean it out? Well, if you leave too much stuff in there you might find yourself saying, "My stuff! It's... GONE?!" Don't worry, all those things you had in Mail are not history. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
The 2005 Apple Design Awards were given out in nine categories: Best Mac OS X Tiger Technology Adoption, Best Mac OS X User Experience, Best Product New to Mac OS X, Best Mac OS X Entertainment Product, Best Use of Open Source, Best Mac OS X Scientific Computing Solution, Best Mac OS X Server Solution and Best Mac OS X Student Product.
If you double-click to select a whole word, and on the second click hold the mouse button down, you can then drag to select contiguous words, one word at a time. And if you triple click, hold and drag you can select text paragraph by paragraph. This feature is NOT new but has been around since the Mac OS. Just FYI in case you missed it.
Quad PowerMac G5's are starting to arrive and more benchmarks are emerging. Barefeats posts a collection of benchmarks from After Effects, Cinebench G5, Photoshop CS2, Xbench, and UT2004 comparing the Dual Dual-Core ("Quad") G5 2.5GHz PowerMac to the previous Dual 2.5GHz G5 PowerMac. Macsonly provides the same comparison with some similar benchmarks but also some "Real World" tests.
Just in case you didn't releaize it. Most of us add memory to our PowerBooks and iBooks so we can do more. In doing so we are reducing the amount of time our battery will last. Apple benchmarks are run on its standard configuration, not the maximum configuration. More memory uses more power which equates to shorter battery life. Just FYI.
Volunteer fans, this is your chance to prove your blood really does run orange. Please plan to donate blood the week of November 14 and help us beat University of Kentucky fans. Keep in mind, UK fans have won this competition more time than UT fans! Please help settle the score!
I don't give a damn about that! I want all of you to get up and go give blood because it is the right thing to do. You can save a life you don't even know. And some day you may need blood, and if it is not available you might die. There is no charge. The Coke, cookies, ice cream, and t-shirts are nice and the gurneys are more comfortable than ever. I have been doing this every year since it started and you should be too. I don't want to beat Kentucky. I want you to help someone you don't even know. If you can't give for medical reasons get a friend to give for you. DO IT! No excuses.
The MacTimeLIne web site that details updates to Apple's software and hardware offerings.
A local Mac user wanted a WiFi system of three Macs with OSX and a printer. This should be plug and play, but I was not the first to play. While not claiming expertise (I hate the word), I was confident that the technician who had abused the system first had little idea of OSX. I made some basic checks and fixes. I also made sure that new passwords were used. -- eXtensions.
Image Recognition Integrated Systems (I.R.I.S.) on Tuesday introduced Readiris Pro 11 for Mac OS X, a new version of their optical character recognition (OCR) software. It costs US$102. You can get it through the UT Computer Store.
Readiris Pro 11 is designed to enable users to convert scanned images into useable documents with editable text.
New features include bar code reading; the ability to read and recognize typewritten text, hand-printed capital letter, figures and symbols; accurate recognition of up to 118 languages based on Latin, Greek and Cyrillic alphabets; a configurable user interface redesigned for Mac OS X and more.
In Part 5, Mary Norbury-Glaser looks at how Tiger Mac OS X runs regularly scheduled commands and scripts to execute recurring jobs, like system maintenance and backups. She compares the "old" way, using the Unix tool called cron (for chronological), with the new Tiger method of using the launchd daemon. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
In the past few years many of us have been introduced to a new type of application, the Type Manager. Most of us are familiar with iTunes, but there are many other Type Managers out there that are gaining market share and a rabid fan base of users such as digiKam and amaroK. Type Managers seem to have that magic combinations of features that makes users love them. I have been taken a closer look at the Type Manager, what makes them so useful, what they really provide for the user and came to some surprising results. After creating a list of all the traits of a Type Manager I was able to define exactly what a file manager should be and discovered that there are in fact many partial Type Managers out there now that implemented only half of what makes up a full Type Manager. -- IceFox.
There's a lot of criticism of Apple's copy-protection scheme, Fairplay, in the news today. [In a nutshell, your FairPlay agreement entitles you to play your music on up to five computers (and enjoy unlimited synching with iPods), allows unlimited burning for individual songs and lets you burn playlists up to 7 times each.] -- Wired.
This document discusses the Archive and Install feature of the Mac OS X Installer. To learn more about this feature in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, see this document.
Apple and Samsung are expected to reach a long-term deal for supplies of NAND Flash memory by the end of November, according to Forbes. The deal, which will be worth several hundred million dollars, will help secure a source for iPod memory chips.
GraphicConverter X 5.7.3: view, edit, convert most image formats. In the new release, split of RGB and CMYK in separate channel images has been added and slideshow move folders 1-10 can used for alias creation as option.
ITWorld reports that Apple is among the vendors supporting Canadian efforts to boost the nation's supercomputer muscle. "C3.ca says more than $250 million has been invested or committed to high-performance computing in Canada over the past five years, by the federal government, the provinces, universities and its industry members. C3.ca also receives funding and technical support from seven HPC industry vendors - Apple Canada, Cray, Hewlett-Packard (Canada), IBM, NEC Solutions, Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems of Canada."
Apple's "closed" iPod/iTunes music ecosystem is under fire, earning second prize in the "This Won't Work With That" awards, which honor "self-serving perpetrators of toxic incompatibilities." Newsweek technology columnist Steven Levy says that the inability to play iTunes songs on non-iPod music players and the inability to play music purchased from other music stores on the iPod frustrates customers and interferes with interoperability standards.
Wolfram Research today announced that Mathematica Personal Grid Edition supports the new G5 quad processors, which began arriving today. "Mathematica Personal Grid Edition eliminates the barriers to using parallelism as part of your daily workflow--with no administrative overhead and no contending for shared resources--and opens the door to new possibilities in high-performance computing."
Apple fans: Don't spend all of your holiday money on a video iPod--Wall Street analysts and Mac experts are predicting a surprise announcement of a new Intel-based Mac at MacWorld this January. -- Forbes.
Ogilvy Cape Town, a full-service advertising agency, has standardized its data storage and recovery solution on Apple's Xserve servers, completely replacing its PC servers, the agency says. -- IT Web.
I don't know why I did this but I did. You remember yesterday's item on the new fastest supercomputers? Well I wanted to know how much work each CPU was doing. In other words was it a matter of having really fast processors or just a lot of them? Well it seems to be the latter.
Many of the leaders in the list are not getting as much out of each processor as the XServes do. To be fair there are exceptions. Cray and NEC do well. So on an output/cpu basis Apple's XServes would be much farther up the list. I wish they would do a list (or column) based on efficiency.
"Ten years ago, when Apple was stagnant and its products troubled, I recommended that consumers shun the Mac. If Apple's quality and innovation slip, I might revert to that position. But for now, the Mac is the best computer, with the best operating system and the fewest security problems, for average consumers." - Mac Move.
I never cease to be amazed at how many folks give as much thought to their computer as they do their blenders. Why do so many folks spend more time picking out tv remotes than they do setting up wireless security at home? -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
The PowerBook looks like it's displaying a regular "transparent desktop," made by snapping a pic of the scene behind the computer and displaying it onscreen, giving the impression the LCD is transparent. When the PowerBook is picked up the background stays stationary in space -- just as though it would if the screen were truly transparent. It's a really convincing illusion.
Out of Japan, where else, a set of stackable add-ons for the Mac mini that transforms it into a towering music system. Made by a company called Greenhouse, the components are a 15 Watt subwoofer (bottom); a speaker and USB hub (the one with the knob); and a hard-drive case for storing gigabytes and gigabytes of digital music. On top is the mini itself. No other information available about cost or shipping -- or how it sounds.
Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray maintained an "outperform" rating on Apple Computer and raised his price target on the company in anticipation of continued iPod and Mac innovations and a possible "iPhone" in the next 12 to 18 months. -- Forbes.
For last several days I've been listening to this one particular John Lee Hooker album over and over on my iPod. But how I got this album on my iPod is a bit of a tale. -- BusinessWeek.
Apple Computer is on track to introduce the first Macs with Intel processors as early as January, which should help the company avoid any potential sales slow down in the first half of 2006 and appease concerns voiced by shareholders and industry-watchers, AppleInsider has learned.
Looking for a supercomputer? The latest Top500 ranking shows a strong streak of red, white and Big Blue. And Apple has four in the Top 500. Three are self-made and one is out of the box from Apple. The University of Tennessee's Innovative Computing Laboratory is one of the three organizations responsible for the list. -- c|net.
Rank |
Site |
Computer | Processors | Year |
Rmax |
Rpeak |
| 15 | COLSA United States |
MACH5 -
Apple XServe, 2.0 GHz, Myrinet Self-made |
3072 | 2005 | 16180 | 24576 |
| 20 | Virginia Tech United States |
System X - 1100
Dual 2.3 GHz Apple XServe/Mellanox Infiniband 4X/Cisco GigE Self-made |
2200 | 2004 | 12250 | 20240 |
| 303 | University of California, Los Angeles United States |
Dawson -
Apple XServe, 2.0/2.3 GHz, GigEthenet Self-made |
512 | 2005 | 2135 | 4403.2 |
| 308 | Bowie State University United States |
Xseed - XServe
G5 2GHz, Myrinet Apple |
448 | 2005 | 2104 | 3584 |
The keyboard layout or input method that your computer uses at the login window is the same one you selected in the Setup Assistant the first time you started Mac OS X. However, you can change the keyboard layout used at the login window after completing the Setup Assistant. Here's how. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
Apple offered to donate copies of Mac OS X for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) US$100 laptop program, according to the Wall Street Journal. MIT declined, saying that it wanted to use an open source operating system instead.
Walter S. Mossberg, columnist for the Wall Street Journal recently said that "for now, the Mac is the best computer, with the best operating system and the fewest security problems, for average consumers."
Here is a feature that miraculously hasn't made it in to John Gruber's thorough review of the new Powerbooks, nor, ostensibly, in Apple's marketing literature. The only hint is a feature which Apple claims will let you swap batteries easily: "Put the PowerBook to sleep. Remove the current battery. Pop in the new battery. Wake up your PowerBook. You don't even need to save your work."
This feature is called "Safe Sleep", and it was introduced with these new Powerbooks. This is Apple's first implementation of a no-power saved state, similar to Windows' Hibernate feature. Andrew Escoban has a feature about it, and explains a way to hack other Macs to do the same thing. As usual when considering a system hack, make sure you have a backup before you attempt this.
It looks like John Gruber over at the Daring Fireball has picked up a new 15-inch Powerbook G4. His review, "Full Metal Jacket," is a detailed overview of the machine's new improvements, with an eye for detail that we expect out of Gruber. His summary is worthy of the machine: "Depending on Apple's Intel time table, there may yet be one more speed-bump revision in the PowerBook G4's future. But if not, the current 15-inch PowerBook G4 is an appropriate send-off to one of the best products in Apple's history." Amen!
Last month, Tom Adelstein over on sister site LinuxDevCenter asked the question 'Why do people switch to Linux?' Now it's Mac's turn. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
In this, the fourth installment of "Web Apps with Tiger," Morbus shows you how to maintain and optimize your databases. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
WebObjects 5.3.1 for Mac OS X Server 10.4 updates the Application Server components in Mac OS X Server 10.4 to WebObjects 5.3.1.
The Apple Developer Connection (ADC) Web site has posted a new article titled "Getting Control With Subversion and Xcode," which explains how to use Subversion on Mac OS X Server as a repository for Xcode projects. Subversion is an open source version control system that extends the functionality found in CVS. Support for it is built into Xcode 2.
A Wales UK-based member of MacRumors has reported receiving his Power Mac G5 Quad earlier in the week, and has run a preliminary set of Xbench 1.2 benchmarks on it. While full details are in the forum thread, the overall score for the machine with 3 GB RAM running Mac OS X 10.4.2 weighs in at 151.86. [My Dual 2.5GHz G5 got and overall score of 106.85 with this version of Xbench. The version of Xbench makes a big difference. You can not compare numbers unless you are running the same version.]
There have been some reports the past few days of problematic FireWire functionality occurring after the Mac OS X 10.4.3 update. New data suggests that performing an NVRAM reset may be successful in some cases where FireWire ports are not recognized by Apple System Profiler, nor any other component of Mac OS X.
In order to perform an NVRAM reset, restart your system and hold down the Command, Option, O and F keys simultaneously. You will be presented with a command-line prompt. Enter the following commands, pressing return after each:
reset-nvram
reset-all
Failing the above, the following workaround may be successful: Disconnect all FireWire devices from your computer and disconnect any externally powered devices from electrical input. Shut off your Mac and wait several minutes. Reconnect all of the devices, and check for recognition.
Temperature Monitor 3.1 displays all accessible temperature sensors. The new version contains a workaround for the problem that Mac OS X did not update the readings for some specific low-priority sensors of certain Macintosh models. Now all sensor values are refreshed under all conditions. This affects temperature sensors of the 15-inch and 17-inch PowerBook G4 models released in 2005, as well as the ambient air temperature sensors of PowerMac G5 models.
Marcel Bresink has also released Hardware Monitor 3.1 which reads all available hardware sensors in Macintosh computers and displays the measured values in a variety of ways. This release adds support for new Power Mac G5 dual-core systems, support for new PowerBook G4 (dual layer SuperDrive) systems, support for ambient light sensors in the latest PowerBooks, support for several new SMART hard disk sensors, a workaround for a Mac OS X problem that did not update the readings for some specific low-priority sensors of certain Macintosh models, and other changes. Hardware Monitor is 7 Euro for Mac OS X 10.2.5 and up.
Apple released Xcode 2.2 today for Apple Developer Connection members only. Xcode 2.2 provides overall stability and performance enhancements to Xcode IDE, as well as improvements to debugging, workflow, and the Xcode build system. It requires Mac OS X 10.4.x.
Sony BMG's controversial DRM code may have spread to Macs, according to a published report in The Register and MacInTouch. Mac users report that at least one CD distributed by the major label includes a Mac OS X application that purportedly installs a pair of extensions to the operating system's microkernel. Imogen Heap's 'Speak for Yourself' CD is said to contain an extra disc partition for "enhanced content." The CD ships on the RCA label, part of of Sony BMG. On the disc is Start.app, a Mac application that sits alongside the usual Windows files. Start.app presents the user with a licence agreement and a dialog to enter the administrator's username and password. Two kernel extension are copied over: PhoenixNub1.kext and PhoenixNub12.kext.
Apple's iCal application has its good sides and bad sides. Here's a brief bit of submitted feedback about keyboard interaction. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
Hardware sales are very important to Apple. And momentum seems to be rolling their way. So how's the switch to Intel going to preserve that? -- O'Reilly Developer Weblog.
Apple Computer next week will launch a major update to the Genius Bar reservation system used by customers wishing to schedule an appointment for technical support or service at its many retail stores, AppleInsider has learned.
This is a collection of information about evaluation, repair, and transformation tools useful for Web content developers and Web users who wish to make the Web more accessible. -- W3C.
Growing cadre of vendors vows to improve OpenDocument-based alternatives to Microsoft Office, as government customers voice more interest. -- c|net.
Some Apple applications might not open fully or at all if the Digidesign Core Audio driver has been installed as part of a Pro Tools version 6.9 installation. Digidesign products that rely on this driver include the Mbox, Digi 002, and HD systems. Audio MIDI Setup can usually be used to work around the issue. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
Learn how to use the Apple Product Security PGP Key. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
Time Magazine has named the new iMac G5 as their Gadget of the Week. Time was pleased with the price, performance, and looks of the new iMac, and called it a "respectable work of engineering."
BusinessWeek online recently started a new blog called Byte of the Apple that focuses on Apple, Macintosh, and iPod related topics. The blog is hosted by BusinessWeek's computer editor Peter Burrows, and technology correspondents Arik Hesseldahl, and Cliff Edwards. Recent topics included a discussion on the future of video distribution, Apple product warranties, and a very active post looking for advice on switching from Windows to Mac OS X.
If you like expressing your opinion on things, for the next week or so (until November 15th), you can cast your vote in Macworld's 2005 Readers' Choice Awards.
This brief two-question survey lets you pick one hardware and one software product as "best of" for 2005. The products in the survey were chosen by the Macworld readers.
The winners will be announced on Macworld.com in December, and in the February 2006 issue of the magazine.
MacSpeech released the ScriptPak for BBEdit, an add-on for its iListen voice command software. The ScriptPak installs almost 500 commands into iListen, making it possible to do almost anything in BBEdit that can be done keyboard shortcuts or menus. The ScriptPak for BBEdit is $19.95 for Mac OS X 10.3 and up with iListen 1.6.8 or later.
MacSpeech also has ScriptPaks for other OS X software packages as well.
Robert Mohns examines the iMac G5 (iSight) in a "first look" review, covering details of the built-in camera, Front Row software, remote control, design and features. -- MacInTouch.
Intuit has posted information on the forthcoming release of the next version of its business management software for the Mac, although the company has not made any official announcement on the product. QuickBooks: Pro 2006 for Mac offers new features including Mac OS X Tiger support, the ability to download and import bank/credit card transactions, and realtime synchronization of contacts with Tiger's Address Book or other applications that support Tiger sync--such as cell phones and PDAs.
Windows users are trying Macs in increasing numbers -- and it's not just a function of the iPod 'halo effect.' -- BusinessWeek.
Steve Jobs might not approve, but Apple's latest operating system can be installed on any x86 hardware. How well does it function? Read our preliminary labs test to find out. -- ZDNet UK Reviews.
Five Across has released Bubbler, a new blogging software solution that offers the ability to incorporate thumbnails within a blog report that acts as a photo gallery. The person behind Bubbler is Glen Reid, founder/CEO of Five Across, a former Apple employee and the creator of iMovie and iPhoto. -- Macsimum News.
I declare it now, in public: I used to be a browser whore, flitting from one to the other every month or so, always drawn to the newest clever widget or the newest smart feature. But for a while now I've been a steadfast Camino user and it will take something pretty spectacular to make me stop using it. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
Faulty capacitors are causing video failure and periodic system shutdowns in some Apple iMac G5s. [Photos] -- c|net.
The field of online photo-sharing sites is becoming pretty crowded, but a new service hopes to distinguish itself by automating the tedious job of tagging pictures by using artificial intelligence and face-recognition technology. Riya has developed software that can automatically recognize who is in a picture and tag it with their names. -- Wired.
AirPort Extreme Driver Update 2005-001 resolves AirPort compatibility issues with certain third party 802.11 cards and access points for OS X 10.3.3 through 10.3.9.
Motorola on Tuesday revealed two new colors and two new versions of its popular and stylish ultra-slim RAZR mobile handset, including a version that will ship with Apple's iTunes software. -- AppleInsider.
Apple applies for a trademark for the translation technology that allows Mac programs to run on upcoming Intel-based machines. -- c|net.
I work at a large company that blocks all Internet ports, only allowing access to the web through a proxy server on ports 80 and 443. I have a fast connection at home and a nice shinny PowerBook sitting on my coffee table all alone. I searched high and low to find exactly how to accomplish this, but I could only find bit and parts. -- Mac OS X Hints.
Yesterday an interesting news item on the Net aligned with a previously published statement about Apple's ultimate intentions behind the Intel switch. A reliable source had told Architosh prior to the highly anticipated Apple WWDC event earlier this Steve Jobs would make an announcement that would be ultimately about expanding Macintosh market share. -- Architosh.
Xsan's appeal is the ease of management. The most frustrating lapses are the inability to manage data itself and the lack of communication between the Xsan Admin and StorNext client, but fixing the first would add an extra "9" on the price tag, and the second is intractable, being rooted in the security models of the "alien" OSes. -- InfoWorld.
The questions on everybody's minds were: when is Front Row going to come to the Mac mini? When is Front Row going to come to other Macs in general? Is Apple planning to create some sort of set-top box with Front Row being a limited test? Is Apple finally going to integrate TV/cable recording abilities into the Mac like set-top boxes? (Well, this last question is probably a "no", given that Apple will likely go the route of selling TV shows through the iTMS instead of having consumers record it on their own.) -- AppleXnet
There are few rootkits tailored for BSD (the codebase underlying OS X) and none specifically for the Macintosh. Talk of Macintosh rootkits is less credible than Elvis sightings, but as we are at heart running a Unix system, a generic Unix rootkit could be deployed on your Macintosh. Just remember that security is all about planning for the worst case; it pays to be paranoid. However, the sky is not falling; not today, at least. That being said, enjoy this piece. It's fascinating. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
Our all-new OpenWeb 3.0 product will have you running a plethora of fully configured web applications in record time with absolutely zero installation! For the first time our OpenWeb product is now a stand-alone application, completely-configured and ready for you to start adding content without the hassle and frustration of installing even a single package or library! [Almost every one of these applications can be acquired individually for free from their respective sites. OpenOSX has just done all the collecting and some configuration for you. - mam] -- OpenOSX.
Joining other retailers in an early (before Thanksgiving Day) holiday sales push, the Apple Store opened its Official Holiday Gift Guide. There's free shipping on items over $50 plus buy now and pay no interest until 2006 with the Apple Credit Account same-as-cash financing.
So if you un-plug and re-plug your PowerBook every day, say to take it back forth to work or school, you should have 80% of it's original capacity after less than a year. And that's if you believe Apple's marketing spin on batteries-and we know how accurate they are on that topic.
I avoid this unnecessary battery abuse by running my PowerBook battery down to empty as often as possible and when a battery dies I charge it in my groovy external battery charger from NewerTech. -- The Apple Core.
Sterling Anderson has posted a pictorial on how to change the color of your PowerBook's Apple logo. That's pictorial, as in, just pictures. Obviously, you're doing this at your own peril, CAVEAT EMPTOR!
TurboGears is a Python-based framework that enables you to quickly build database-driven, ready-to-extend web applications. In this article, Matthew Russell takes you inside this framework for a look at its internal mechanisms, then introduces you to its creator, Kevin Dangoor. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
The French site MacBidouille has detailed step-by-step instructions for souping-up a 12-inch iBook and turning it into a something comparable to the 12-inch PowerBook -- at a considerable saving.
It requires disassembling the iBook, swapping out the optical drive and hard drive, and adding Bluetooth and a ton of RAM. It takes a couple of hours, and "this transformation is not a piece of cake," but:
All parts including the iBook have been purchased for 1,598 euros VAT included. To compare, the same iBook 80GB 5400rpm without the SuperDrive costs : 1,677.99 euros VAT included and the PB 12" Superdrive 1.2 GB with 80 GB 5400rpm : 2,168 euros VAT included.
It's official: IT doesn't work properly and as a result you're glued to your desk trying to resolve some technical issue when you should be in the pub, effing and blinding and occasionally throwing things, and pausing only to ring some hapless helpdesk operative and give him or her a piece of your mind. -- The Register.
Why should moving Mac OS X away from its "native" processor to a new one suddenly yield such a surprising speed gain? Well, if you can believe what some are saying, and it makes perfect sense, Mac OS X is really better optimized for Intel, and that getting it to run in a satisfactory fashion on the PowerPC required a lot of work under-the-hood. That's why, for example, Mac OS 10.0 was so sluggish. -- Mac Night Owl.
This document contains links to download the QuickTime sample movie in several different formats.
Benjamin A. Reitzes of UBS Investment Research said Apple would introduce more video content and digital entertainment offerings at Macworld in January, helping to drive shares. Checks also indicate that the company may be ready to launch lower-end Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people )-based Macs earlier than its original June 2006 target, with the possibility of an Intel-based Mac Mini at Macworld. -- Forbes.
Camino 1.0b1 combines core technologies from Mozilla with Quartz text rendering in a Cocoa web browser, plus type-ahead find, XSLT support, whitelists for popup blocking, and other features. This release adds a number of bug fixes and minor improvements. Camino is free for Mac OS X 10.2 through 10.4.
A reader posting at the O'Reilly Network describes how to move Outlook for Windows email messages to Entourage.
A special report from MacWindows related to the released Outlook client (Entourage) for Macintosh.
Apple's iPod Click Wheel has been selected for a UK usability award. -- Macworld UK.
Compared with their predecessors, the Power Mac G5 Dual models offer an array of new workstation-class capabilities, including impressive improvements in graphics, advanced networking, enormous memory capacity, and state-of-the-art expansion slots. Between the two models, the 2GHz machine, even with video card and hard drive upgrades, is a slightly better bargain. -- Macworld.
Sometimes when you are cleaning things up on your Mac to regain some space, you do clean up don't you, you put a folder full of "stuff" in the trash and select empty the trash from the File menu you get a message that says it can't remove file xxx.yyy because it is locked, or some other reason. You then go and tr to unlock the file via the finder and you can not because you do not have permission. You also can not change it ownership to get permission. So what is a person to do?
Not to worry. Open Terminal. Then open the Trash and drag and drop the folder or file you want to delete onto the terminal window. This will give you the path to the offending file/folder. Then place the cursor in front of the path string and enter
$ sudo rm -fr /path/to/your/file or folder/in/the/trash
Press return and you will be prompted for your password. After entering it and after pressing return the file WILL be gone.
CAVEAT EMPTOR! The rm command with the options given above will remove (delete) forever the contents of the last directory (folder) in the path string above (trash) as well as the directory (folder) itself.
MYOB US Inc. today announced AccountEdge and AccountEdge Network Edition 2006 the new version of the small business management and accounting software for Mac OS X.
If you've been using your Mac for longer than the life-span of a moderately hearty butterfly, you've heard that after installing an OS upgrade-say from OS X 10.4.1 to OS X 10.4.2-you should immediately dash to Disk Utility and click the Repair Permissions button to put any errant permissions back in line. While some regard this as "advice that rarely does much good, but it probably won't hurt," with the latest Tiger update-10.4.3-I've found it to be an absolute necessity. -- Macworld.
Branden Keller's excellent freeware tool Capacity Meter 1.1.1 is truly a must-have utility for all PowerBook users. Capacity Meter displays and tracks information about your PowerBooks battery, including capacity, amperage, current, and voltage. Using this information and your machine's specifications, Capacity Meter will let you know the current status of your battery and track degradation over time.
An Apple developer note seems to provide conflicting information regarding battery life for its now PowerBooks (pages 11 and 12.) And it is definitely in conflict with real world tests. -- The Apple Core.
OS X has been with us for a few years now, and Emacs has been coming along slowly and surely. We must have hit some sort of a tipping point, and there are a whole lot of people working on the problem; the result is that life is getting better and better for the Emacs tribe. This piece opens with a brief sermon on why, if you're not already using Emacs, you might want to check it out; and then surveys the state of play and the multiple interesting emacses that are out there. -- Emacs OS Xplosion.
After playing with Photo Booth on a new iMac G5, Adam points to two utilities that beat Photo Booth at its own game. -- TidBITS.
Travis Butler offers a few more details on AC adapters after last week's article on PowerBook AC adapters was published. -- TidBITS.
Coding errors have sparked explosions, crippled interplanetary probes -- even killed people. Here's our pick for the 10 worst bugs ever, but the judging wasn't easy. -- Wired.
A new BitTorrent tracker devoted to video, movies and music in iPod-friendly formats has just launched. Called Podtropolis, the site says:
"Our streets are filled with loads of high quality content for your iPod including movies, television programs, music videos and of course music. All video is encoded in iPod compatible formats (H.264, MP4, M4V) so you do not need to bother with conversion."
So far, the offerings are fairly thin: a dozen TV shows, half-a-dozen movies (including Pixar's Finding Nemo -- Steve Jobs isn't going to like that), and a handful of music CDs.
However, there are dozens of music videos. It looks like people who've bought Apple's $2 music videos through iTunes, which are pre-formatted for the iPod, are uploading them to BitTorrent.
CAVEAT EMPTOR! Of course, BitTorrent is highly trackable -- use at your own risk, and karma.
It pays to mind your metadata. Technically, metadata is sort of the DNA of documents created with modern word-processing software. By default, it is automatically saved into the deep structure of a file, hidden from view, with information that can hint at authorship, times and dates of revisions (along with names of editors) and other tidbits that, while perhaps useful to those creating the document, might be better left unseen by the wider world.
(If you use Microsoft Word, open a document, go to the File menu and choose Properties. You should see some metadata. Third-party programs are available that will crack open even more.) -- New York Times.
The Noodle Incident is a site that contains some good resources and tips on web development. If you do any web development it is worth a look, especially the stuff on text sizing.
For how long can the semiconductor industry keep up its innovation and fast growth? Some say indefinitely. -- c|net.
Apple Computer late Thursday issued an alert about flaws in its QuickTime media player that could allow a malicious attacker to launch a denial-of-service attack or remote code execution. -- c|net.
MacGuru "Tim the Enchanter" writes:
Got a video iPod and I'm very successfully compressing my video for it with a piece of freeware from Digigami, MoviesForMyPod (freeware). Compresses on my Dual 2 GHz G5 on the 2-pass MPEG-4 setting at <1x the runtime of the video, significantly better than the QuickTime Player's standard export settings. Haven't tried their H.264 setting yet as I didn't have a day to devote to it.
The momentum generated by Apple's iPod digital music players and related products continues to translate into new Macintosh sales according to one Wall Street analyst who estimates that over one million Windows users have purchased a Mac in the first three quarters of 2005. -- AppleInsider.
GraphicConverter X 5.7.2 allows you to view, edit, convert most image formats. The new release adds a delete character option added to rename function and adds a flat view to the context menu in the browser.
Silicon.com speculates that Apple may once again license the Mac OS to clone-makers -- igniting a true platform war.
Apple has flatly denied that the imminent shift to Intel chips heralds a longer term strategy to license its operating system to PC manufacturers.
Adding further spice to the speculation, Steve Jobs claimed earlier this year that three major PC manufactures had already approached him regarding the licensing of the Apple OS.
If you are considering getting a new PowerBook you should read this MacInTouch column from Sunday regarding possible issues with the new screens. I have no personal knowledge on this but there is a log of conversation on the www.
Hardly a week goes by that I don't hear from a friend or colleague with a monumental Windows problem. I tell them I'm glad to help, on one condition: Next time they buy a computer, they agree to consider a Macintosh. A year ago, after a particularly trying week of spyware, adware, viral attacks, lock-ups and reboots, I changed my primary computer to a Mac. I've dabbled with Macs since the late 1980s but never felt a need to change from Windows. -- Seattle Times.
NetApplications, a provider of Web-based applications that measure, monitor and market Web sites for Small to Medium Enterprises (SME), today announced its monthly Web site traffic analysis.
Frank Petrie, Macsimum News contributing editor, reviewer and freelance writer, has launched the handiapped Web site. The site is dedicated to those who face physical challenges and how to ease their burden and, in fact, become proactive. -- Macsimum News
There are plenty of reasons to use a Mac; great software and hardware, the iPod, but perhaps the best reason is security. -- The Apple Core.
GarageBand has opened up the joy of digital recording to new audiences. Here, we cover the basics of how to mix your tracks together. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
Yup, 83 Mac browsers for you to play with. Like you have the time. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
With Tiger, Apple introduced a new extensible Sync Services framework embedded into the OS X 10.4 operating system. With a .Mac membership, Tiger users can take advantage of new functionality and features across many applications and across multiple Macs. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
The Ultimate Star Trek Collection is the ultimate collection for the ultimate fan. This 212-disc behemoth encompasses five broadcast series and 10 feature films and is, with a few exceptions, all the Trek a Trekker could want. Starting with the original series. And it's only $2,499.00.
It's been eight years since Michael Dell was asked after a speech at a Gartner conference in Orlando what he would do if he were in charge of Apple Computer. His answer: "Shut the company down and give the money back to shareholders." BusinessWeek in its new Byte of The Apple Blog looks at how the tables have turned since then. For example, over the last four quarters Dell has been coming in with a net profit margin of about 6.5%. Meanwhile Apple just finished its fiscal 2005 with a profit margin just shy of 9.6%.
The company is working on a new product called Dashcode, according to an AppleNova forum post. They even have pictures of the interface.
Bolstered by ever increasing portable music player sales, the stock soars, but paid music downloads may be flattening out. Could this slow the iPod juggernaut? -- Ars Technica.
Universities are using the download service to reach students and alumni. Stanford is going a step further. -- c|net.
As previously reported, there are some new permissions alerts that will be generated by Disk Utility under normal circumstances, and can be safely ignored. These include any messages that look like:
Determining correct file permissions. We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./Library/Widgets/Dictionary.wdgt/Dictionary.js. New permissions are 33188 [...]
We are using a special gid for the file or directory ./System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/MacOS/Dock. New gid is 0 [...]
We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./usr/lib/php/build/scan_makefile_in.awk. New permissions are 33060
These messages will show up no matter how many times you use Disk Utility to repair permissions. They are normal, and can be safely ignored.
Some people have noted problems with the Keychain after installing Mac OS X 10.4.3 even though they repaired permissions before and after update.
Run keychain repair to fix the corrupted keychain file(s). The corruption can vary from machine to machine. For example two G4s had duplicate/multiple system keychains which resulted in the system rejected the normal and correct system password on the first reboot. A G5 had a corruption that was reported as 'unmapped ports.'
In most cases, these issues can be corrected with the use of the Keychain Access application, located in Applications/Utilities. Under the "Keychain Access" menu select "Keychain First Aid" then verify and repair if necessary.
It has been reported that after installing Apple's latest update (10.4.3) a previously reported problem caused by an Apple Security Update where project status dots were not displayed in Microsoft Entourage 2004 has been resolved.
After transforming the digital music industry with the iPod, Apple is on a high. But the company has enjoyed success before - only to see it vanish, warns Kieren McCarthy. -- The Guardian.
The Meteo Team released Meteorologist 1.4.4, its free weather program for Mac OS X that provides total control over weather viewing. Features include simultaneous interlaced weather reports from multiple weather servers, multiple weather locations, weather alerts, and more. The update fixes city search for many U.S., Canadian, European, and Australian cities, as well as a crash during initial startup. Version 1.4.4 also contains partial localizations in German and French.
On Nov. 3, the US Patent & Trademark Office revealed that Apple has filed patent application 20050246554 titled "system and method for creating tamper-resistant code." James D. Batson is listed as the sole inventor for application 837413 originally filed in April 2004. This appears to be related to Apple's forthcoming Tiger-Intel platform. -- Macsimum News.
Apple is now one step closer to the Intel transition. According to the OSx86 Project, a recently leaked installation DVD of Mac OS X 10.4.3 reveals that the Intel version is in sync with the PowerPC version - the two are now identical. Initially, "OSx86" was substantially behind its PPC counterpart, but the recent update makes it ready for the public. The article also notes that Apple has continued to learn from hackers' efforts to crack the operating system and has greatly strengthened the TPM protections.
The clocks have fallen back, the leaves are hitting the ground and new BSD releases are on the Net. OpenBSD 3.8 includes improved hardware support, such as a new X.org video driver for the Intel i810 graphics chipset among others. The latest version of the OpenBSD-sponsored OpenSSH project version 4.2 is also part of the release. -- Developer.
I know we are all trying to save a buck. And in the area of CDs we presume that all round shiny disks look and are the same. Unfortunately this is not true.
My son's G3 iMac all of a sudden stop being able to burn CDs. It could mount, read and play them but no burning. The drive is a MATSHITA CD-RW CW-7121 that came installed.
My son had already found that it did not like some media which my DPG4 reads and writes just fine (but I have a different drive.) On doing some research it seemed that media was the issue. I went and got some TDK and Imation CDs (thanks Chris) to test. Both worked fine.
The only fly in the ointment now is that my son tells me he can not burn "mixed" media (i.e. songs of different formats on the same CD.) If anyone as any insight on this please let me know.
Sometimes your client wants color but he/she hesitates about the cost of a full color print. The only option you have left is use a spot color (Pantone). But it's limiting your creativity. Well sometimes InDesign helps you being creative by giving you some options. -- creativebits.
More than 800 UK IT managers have spoken, and they've told us that security is their number one concern, closely followed by application development and mail and messaging" -- ZDNet UK.
When last we met, I offered a somewhat convoluted method for archiving Mail 2.0 .emlx messages and importing them into another email client. Thanks to a suggestion from Macworld forum visitor ericob, I can offer an easier path.
There are other solutions.
Cocoa gives a developer tons of things for free. From great support for international scripts throughout the text system to a consistent toolbar component, from a full data persistence layer to sharp graphics capabilities, there's lots to play with.
That said, there are a few things that developers commonly do, or are increasingly going to be doing, where Apple could provide us with a little more help. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
Apple released Mac OS X Server 10.4.3 a couple days ago. The full details about the improvements are detailed in Apple KB#302089, but there's a few really nice bells and whistles in this update that might just make it the reason to upgrade your 10.3 servers. You can think of this article as a sort of "greatest hits" of the KB article. -- AFP548.com.
The UK police may need 90 days to hold terrorist suspects because it takes that long to crack a suspect's PC hard drive." From the article: "Combining the analysis, the translation and second stage analysis, add inter-country co-operation and interview strategy formation, and from the police point of view, the existing 14 days is inadequate and 90 days doesn't look excessive. Another factor is encryption sophistication. If 256-bit triple-DES or similar techniques are used then decryption could require supercomputer-levels of cracking. [Not quite as fast is on TV.] -- Techworld.
AirPort Update 2005-001 update fixes reliability and resolves AirPort compatibility issues with certain third party 802.11 cards and access points for Mac OS X v10.4.3 and later.
MACGURU is MacVolPlace's own listserv. It provides a way for us to ask questions and get answers about things Apple. It is read by members at institutions of higher learning, secondary school systems, select industry professionals and Apple Computer.
You can search the archives, post to the list and Join or leave the list (or your change settings). MACGURU@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU.
Listed on this page are great deals on Apple Certified Refurbished products. Apple Certified Refurbished products are pre-owned Apple products that undergo Apple's stringent refurbishment process prior to being offered for sale. All Apple Certified Refurbished products are covered by Apple's One-Year Limited Warranty.
Paul Thurrott's on his WinSuperSite has posted a review of Apple's Front Row software, comparing it rather unfavorably to Microsoft's Windows Media Center Edition. There are some choice quotes in there, though: for example, Microsoft is "scared to death" of Apple, and notes that Microsoft has ceded the digital music market to Apple. However, on the living room PC front, Microsoft walks all over Apple's Front Row. Well gee whiz Paul, no kidding! It's like comparing an espresso maker to a full-on food processor with five hundred attachments and doohickeys. Apple's Front Row is not intended to be used in the living room; out of the box, an iMac can't even connect to a TV (you need to buy an adapter). But as Thurrott suggests, when Apple decides they will create a true living room Mac, it will be a real contender to Media Center. Although it'll take a remote with more than six buttons.
Giles Turnbull has a confession to make. He was so excited about using the One Big Text File approach to organizing himself and his work. Well, he's abandoned it for something else.
This is because after a while he (a) started losing himself within it, and (b) found it didn't quite suit his needs, and (c) he got bored. Giles talks about his new approach to managing workflow. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
This Hints & Tips monthly newsletter/column is a collection of tips culled from newsletters of Macintosh User Groups throughout the world, as well as many other sources including Mac-related magazines, books, and websites.
Subjects include Adobe's Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, GoLive, and Acrobat; Apple's Operating Systems, Mail, Safari, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand; Microsoft's Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Internet Explorer; Macromedia's Dreamweaver, Flash, and FreeHand; plus many, many more!
On Nov 8 Apple will have a live Webcast on Accelerating Research with the Apple Workgroup Cluster. In this webcast, Market and Product Managers for Servers and Storage at Apple, will explore the latest technologies included in the Apple Workgroup Cluster. The live webcast will occur on Tuesday, November 8, at 10:00 AM - 11:15 AM. Register now on this Apple Web page.
This webcast is part of the Why Mac for Science webcast series for scientific researchers.
So you bought a cool new Firewire scanner, and a piece of software named Photoshop Elements came nestled snuggly in the box. Sweet! Now you can do fun things with photos! There's just one little problem: you have absolutely no idea where to start. Never fear, for the Beginner's Guide to Image Editing is here. -- The Graphic Reporter.
Maintaining privacy in the era of digital information requires work on a number of fronts, but one basic measure is easily overlooked: proper data destruction. -- New York Times.
State Department staffers take steps to make the new documents safer from attack. But a grave error in the design shows they still don't understand the technology. -- Wired.
Wireless network is one of the wonders of the age, provided you can find one. Apple's Airport menu item does a good job of showing you the networks you can see, but lacks the really useful information: namely, signal strength and whether the network is password protected. Also, using it can be awkward when moving about, like say in a hotel room, trying to find the strongest signal (a phenomenon my wife dubbed "wi-dowsing.") Fortunately, three pieces of software come to the rescue for the wireless Mac, and they're all available free-for-nothing. -- Applelinks.
If you installed Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger on your computer, Software Restore cannot restore applications such as iMovie, iPhoto, or Classic Support from a Mac OS X 10.2 Restore disc. This document applies to Mac OS X 10.4 or later and Restore discs for Mac OS X versions 10.2 through 10.2.7 (the Restore disc that may have come with your computer).
Instead, Software Restore prompts you to insert the Restore disc, even though that's what is already in there. So how can you reinstall the software? Here are some ways. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
Apple of course provides a document that lists all the improvements in this update. There are over 500. For me the highlights are:
MarketWatch interviewed financial analysts about Apple's video strategy.
"No one had any doubt they would reach 1 million (downloads)," said Shaw Wu, of American Technology Research. "But I think the speed of adoption is ahead of expectations. It's a good sign for Apple, and its strategy."
Investors appeared to have taken Apple's plans to heart, bidding up the company's shares by $3.01, or more than 5%, to $57.50 in Monday trading. The stock earlier reached a 52-week high of $57.71.
c|net covers a new anti-virus evasion security issue identified by Andrey Bayora:
By adding some data to a file, an attacker could trick virus scanners into letting a malicious executable file pass through, security researcher Andrey Bayora wrote in an advisory last week. The problem lies in the scanning engine, which won't detect files that have the extra data. Bayora refers to that extra data as the "Magic Byte."
The problem affects numerous antivirus products, including software from Trend Micro, McAfee, Computer Associates and Kaspersky Lab, said Bayora, who works as a computer security consultant in Israel. His advisory also lists several products that are not affected, including software from Symantec, F-Secure and BitDefender.
"This is one of the most significant antivirus vulnerabilities of recent times, as it affects the majority of scanner software," Bayora wrote in an article on his Web site that details the issue.
The Macintosh operating system was updated to fix 60 flaws in the OS and bundled applications. Even for Apple, which traditionally has handled numerous bugs in any given update, October's total was a new record. -- InformationWeek.
Apple Computer Inc. late Monday shipped a security update to patch five Mac OS X security flaws and warned that the most dangerous bug could be exploited to bypass security restrictions.
In an advisory, Apple urged users to upgrade to Mac OS X 10.4.3 (client and server) to protect against security bypass and system exposure attacks.
The most serious of the five flaws is an error in "memberd," the daemon process used by the system to resolve group memberships. -- eWeek.
Continuing our recent tradition of WebKit fix lists, here is the list of WebKit bug fixes in Safari 2.0.2, which is included in the Mac OS X 10.4.3 Software Update. This list is courtesy of Safari/WebKit Integration Engineer Tim Hatcher. As an added bonus, the versions on the release branch are tagged Safari-2~0~2.
Again the usual disclaimers: This list does not include any changes to Safari the app, only to the open source components (WebKit/WebCore/JavaScriptCore). We do not guarantee we will do this for future updates. -- Surfin' Safari.
So, fresh off the sugar buzz from his kids' candy Monday, Don Foy enters into the next installment of his tour of the System Preferences. Today he looks at the Appearance and the Desktop & Screen Saver panes. -- Macsimum News.
Here's just one potentially useful thing you can do with speech recognition: use it to control Exposé (in OS X 10.3 and newer) and Dashboard (in OS X 10.4). Sure, it's not hard to press a function key to activate these features, but you can use your vocal chords instead. You'll need access to a microphone, either built-in (on PowerBooks and iBooks) or external (the iSight has one, for instance). -- Macworld.
Two months ago, we began our series on cross-platform software development for the Macintosh. Our goal is to examine the many solutions available to the Mac programmer, whether he be a professional developer or just a hobbyist. We started first by examining cross-platform C++ frameworks, with a review of Qt last month. This month, we will review another C++ framework, the open source project wxWidgets. -- macCompanion.
High-end audio makers are scrambling to deliver gear that lets your iPod bring music into every room. - BusinessWeek.
ZDNet have published benchmarks on Intel's first dual-core CPU, the Pentium Extreme Edition 840. It's an important shift for Intel and it also has significant implications for Apple's future Intel-powered product line in 2006. -- Insanely Great Mac.
Last month Daphne Kalfon talked about her own introduction to GarageBand, and about how she came to write the song "I Love My Mac." This month she talks about techniques that she often uses when she's arranging a song using Apple's GarageBand.
One of the things that GarageBand or any digital software tool has a tendency to do is to remove the human factor from the music. The following techniques help to make digitally created music sound more human. -- macCompanion.
If we truly believe that technology access and use is a critical determinant for modern success, and if technology is indeed becoming a more important factor in the complex equation that determines social class and mobility, then we need to take a closer, more nuanced look at the technology and class divide issue. Perhaps it's time to see beyond how many people have computers, the Internet, cell phones and other gadgets, and look instead at the quality of their "connections." Perhaps it's time to try and identify specific technology-related knowledge and opportunity gaps and then figure out more-effective ways of lifting people via technology in ways that benefit us all. -- c|net.
Do you need to find a quirky string in a huge source-code file and replace it with something else? Do you need to peer into a log file and search for a specific IP address or event? You could use a command-line text editor, such as pico, nano, vi, or emacs. But if you want the power of full-featured text editing in a standard Mac app-and a free one, no less-then Bare Bones Software's TextWrangler is it. -- Macworld.
DEAR electronics makers, you should worship at the altar of good design and make customer satisfaction your religion. These should be your commandments. -- New York Times.
Among Tiger's many enhancements, Apple introduced a whole new firewall called ipfw2. It works just the like the old firewall, but has new features that allow greater flexibility and more control. In this article, Peter Hickman shows you some of the new features and how you can use them to more easily manage your firewall. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
The Firefox team took another step towards version 1.5 this morning as it made public release candidate 1 of it's popular browser. Users running 1.5 beta should have already received notice via an automated update dialogue box. New features include improved Pop-up blocking, enhanced automated update, better OS X support and faster back and forward page navigation buttons. A full list of features can be found in the release notes as well as the downloaded page.
I'm the software QA manager at an enterprise application development company -- and all my boss needs is pointy hair and an Etch A Sketch for a computer to be a direct replacement for Dilbert's boss. -- Infoworld.
The 10.4.3 Update delivers overall improved reliability and compatibility for Mac OS X v10.4 and is recommended for all users. It includes fixes for:
This update installed and seems to be running fine on my two boxes. It takes a VERY LONG TIME to reboot after the install. As always if you have been having any problem it is advisable to repair permissions and then run the COMBO installer. One additional thought, searching using BBEdit, Spotlight, etc. is now MUCH faster. Fro me that alone is a reason to update.
Below are the benchmarks from my boxes. If this is representative it seems to like G5s more than G4s. Perhaps some of you could verify this?
| Xbench 1.1.3 (higher is better) | 10.4.2 G4x2@1.00 GHz |
10.4.3 G4x2@1.00 GHz |
10.4.2 G5x2@2.50 GHz |
10.4.3 G5x2@2.50 GHz |
| Results (Overall) | 132.73 | 113.97 | 233.79 | 240.36 |
| CPU Test | 122.69 | 122.01 | 225.84 | 234.85 |
| Thread Test | 143.44 | 147.49 | 253.68 | 235.91 |
| Memory Test | 136.33 | 121.35 | 385.39 | 369.85 |
| Quartz Graphics Test | 134.61 | 141.91 | 283.03 | 245.56 |
| OpenGL Graphics Test | 118.28 | 104.71 | 276.44 | 272.65 |
| User Interface Test | 286.61 | 243.45 | 427.24 | 348.99 |
| Disk Test | 91.66 | 57.14 | 105.41 | 136.67 |
After a flaw was found in a decade-old algorithm used to create and verify digital signatures in e-mail and on the Web, the U.S. government is trying to find a solution. -- c|net.
Some earlier PowerBook G4 computers that have a SuperDrive with a 1x or a 2x DVD-R write speed may not be able to burn 8x DVD-R media reliably. Because of this, you should only use 2x or 4x DVD-R media. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
This document describes the security content of Mac OS X 10.4.3, which can be downloaded and installed using Software Update, or from Apple Downloads. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
With Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later, Disk Utility can verify your computer's startup disk (volume) without requiring you to start up from another volume. This feature is called "Live Verification." If Disk Utility discovers any issues that require a repair, you will need to start up from your Mac OS X Tiger DVD or CD and use Disk Utility on that disc to make repairs. (You can't repair your startup volume while your computer is started up from it.) -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
The full list of AppleCare Knowledge Base documents changed within the last seven (7) days.
If your computer won't start up normally, you may need to use a disk repair utility to fix the issue. Mac OS X includes two utilities for this-Disk Utility and fsck. You can also use these even when your computer starts just fine but you want to check the disk for possible file system issues. For Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later, check out "About live verification in Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later," below. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
The Independent reports that the BBC is planning to offer "most of its programming" available for customers: In Britain the BBC is planning a similar service by making most of its programming available on platforms like the video ipod for seven days after it has been broadcast. The difference is the BBC programs will be available for free. Their logic is that the public have already paid for the programs through the licence fee and it would be unfair to make them pay again.
MacInTouch reports that what's peculiar is that Gates has frequently been wrong about the overall direction of technology. His 1995 book The Road Ahead is full of clunkers about how life would develop; Microsoft barely realized that the internet was coming along.
By contrast, you'd be unwise to bet against Jobs. In 1996, when NeXT Computer had already failed in its attempts to sell hardware (and so was having to concentrate on software), he gave a long interview to Wired magazine. In it he forecast that Microsoft wouldn't find out a way to own the Web, that nobody would make money from web browsers, that the Web would be a huge hit for commerce (at a time when Amazon was barely six months old), and that the internet would revolutionize the supply of manufactured goods, by letting consumers specify fine detail of their desired product which could be relayed back to factories. Dell Computer, for example, works on precisely that basis. And Dell is by far the most profitable of the computer manufacturers. Jobs tends to be right about the direction of technology.
Yesterday's report on the ability to use some purportedly unsupported (Windows-only) OEM devices with Mac OS X prompted response from a number of readers who have had similar success. -- MacFixIt.
A number of technologies and services are just hitting the market with the goal of firming up internal network defenses. Some inject intelligence into network security appliances in an attempt to stay a step ahead of security threats, while others aim to limit access to users. -- InformationWeek.
Rob Griffiths at Macworld discusses the merits of partitioning. The question of 'to partition or not' will always be somewhat contentious-some see it as a must-do, others see it as a why-do. To Rob, though, partitioning offers a good protection plan against a long and painful rebuild process, so he sees it as quite worth the effort.
World Book and Britannica prove that even the Internet can't beat a good encyclopedia. -- Macworld.
Think Automator seems cool, but don't know where to get started? Here are five useful workflows you can try right now. -- Macworld.
There are several ways to connect your iPod to your car's stereo ranging from simple and poor sounding to complex and high fidelity. Sometimes you don't have much of a choice because your car stereo limits your options, but there's an option for every configuration and budget. -- The Apple Core.
The 99Mac.se has posted some side-by-side pictures of the new Hi-Rez 17-inch PowerBook compared to the old 17-inch PowerBook. I know it's difficult to tell from the pictures, but the new 17-inch PowerBook appears to be brighter and obviously have more desktop real estate.
Mike Evangelist's live blog of his experiences working at Apple: Writer's Block Live is fascinating. Mike was a director of product marketing at Apple from April 2000 to July 2002 and was responsible for Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, iDVD and few others.
HandBrake is open source software that lets you convert existing DVD content to MPEG-4 for playing on the new iPod. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
