Archive | Apple Macintosh OS X

Panther, Tiger Leopard: Apple’s OS X on iMac, PowerBook, iBook, MacBook, PowerMac and more.

MacBook boots Linux, runs Knoppix!

By Ted Roche on February 22, 2006 in Apple Macintosh OS X, Linux, Technology

OSNews reports Knoppix on the Intel-Based Macintosh. “We reported a few days ago that we had Linux booting on the Intel-based Macintosh. We have been looking at Linux on this hardware some more, and we are glad to report that we now have a full-fledged Knoppix distribution working, complete with the X Window system. We are releasing the first pictures of Knoppix 4.0 running on a 17-inch iMac Core Duo. The X Window system is shown running at full resolution (rather, fuller resolution – 1472×900 – notice that the bottom right edge of the KDE dock is cut off). Most (but not all) aspects of the hardware seem to work, but we have yet to analyse exactly what doesn’t work and assess how much work it might take to get such things working.”

Awesome! Linux booting on the MacBook could lead to a dual-boot, dual-proc laptop.

Are there no safe attachments?

By Ted Roche on February 21, 2006 in Apple Macintosh OS X, Security

Over at Ars Technica, Eric Bangeman points out a Safari vulnerability worth taking note of. “The widely reported Trojan horse for Mac OS X may be a dud. However, a security flaw in Apple’s Safari browser is something to be concerned about.” It looks like Apple made the poor decision of depending on the file extension to determine how “safe” a document is to open — even if the document also has metadata making it an executable script. Tsk, tsk. Wise advice in the article: turn off the Safari option to “Open “safe” files after downloading.” Even Apple puts “safe” in quotes — that should be a hint!

Dabo does Reporting

By Ted Roche on February 13, 2006 in Apple Macintosh OS X, LAMP, Linux, OpenSource

–Paul McNett, Earthling posts Dabo Report Designer Screencast. “I’ve just put together a 23-minute overview of the Dabo Report Designer [Updated Link] in a screencast. It should give a good feel of Dabo’s current capabilities and design goals. Enjoy!”

Awesome! Dabo is looking more powerful, capable and slicker each time I check in on Paul and Ed Leafe. If you’re looking for a cross-platform rich client app this is worth checking out.

The Best PowerPoint Slide. Ever.

By Ted Roche on February 3, 2006 in Apple Macintosh OS X, Microsoft, Technology

The Doc Searls Weblog power-points to PowerPointless.

Gary Turner has a one-slide approach to industrial sabotage.

Perfect.

Mac updates today

By Ted Roche on January 16, 2006 in Apple Macintosh OS X, Security

New mac patches today: my iMac greeted me with a slew of patches today: QuickTime, iTunes, iPod and Mac OS X. The security patch readme includes:

The 10.4.4 Update delivers overall improved reliability and compatibility for Mac OS X v10.4 and is recommended for all users.
It includes fixes for:

SMB/CIFS and NFS network file services
Bluetooth wireless access
Core Graphics, Core Audio, Core Image, RAW camera support, including updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
Spotlight indexing and searching
AppleScript, iChat, DVD Player, and Safari applications
Dashboard widgets: Calendar and Stocks
Software Update and Sync Services
compatibility with USB and FireWire devices and third party applications
previous standalone security updates

“For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n302810 … For detailed information on Security Updates, please visit this website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798. ”

Get patching!

Apple DRM: Lose your music, buy it again. And again.

By Ted Roche on December 27, 2005 in Apple Macintosh OS X, Technology

There’s been a recent flap about iTunes and iPods losing all their content and the ugliness of it all. The ugly underside of Digital Restriction Management is epitomized by this Apple support web page:

Otherwise, if your hard disk becomes damaged or you lose any of the music you’ve purchased, you’ll have to buy any purchased music again to rebuild your library.

So, let’s make this clear: the oxymoron Intellectual Property means their property, not yours, their rights to sell you the same thing multiple times, not your freedom to do what you wish with your purchases. Unacceptable terms for me. Digital Restriction Management that prevents a legitimate, innocent user from time-, space- or device-shifting content they have purchased must not be allowed to succeed. Pirates won’t respect them. If Congress and the industry try to ban Fair Use, only criminals will enjoy the new digital freedoms. This is insane.

Dabo goes video!

By Ted Roche on December 18, 2005 in Apple Macintosh OS X, Linux, MySQL, OpenSource, Python

In “Dabo Part I: The AppWizard,” Andrew Ross MacNeill interviewed Ed Leafe in a videocast demonstrating the Python n-tier framework dabo. Ed was so impressed with the power of video presentations that he’s tried his hand at it himself. Check it out at http://leafe.com/screencasts/codedemo.html. Ed used dabo on a Fedora Core 2 workstation and recorded it using pyvnc2swf and Sound Studio on the Mac. Very cool!

Personalizing your PowerBook… with a tarsier

By Ted Roche on November 20, 2005 in Apple Macintosh OS X, Technology

Slashdot post: Laser Etching a Laptop. ptorrone writes “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), but it seemed like it had to done. The results are stunning…”

Very cool hack. Personalizing a PowerBook like this makes it a lot easier to identify, too…

Apple’s latest 15-inch PowerBook reviewed

By Ted Roche on November 13, 2005 in Apple Macintosh OS X

Daring Fireball posts a brief review of the 15-inch Powerbook: “I have, for several years, subscribed to the theory that those who are mostly desk-bound should buy the cheapest laptop they can get by with and the most expensive desktop system they can afford… As of two weeks ago, I officially unsubscribed from this theory,…”

Apple switchers growing

By Ted Roche on November 8, 2005 in Apple Macintosh OS X

OSNews links to an Apple Insider article that can’t have been well thought through: Over 1 Million Windows to Mac Converts So Far in 2005?. “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.”

Great news! I’m a switcher, though in 2004. But, digging into the article,

“If we assume that all of the growth in Mac shipments during the past three quarters resulted from Windows users purchasing a Mac, then purchases by Windows users exceeded one million,” the analyst said.

Well, that’s silly. No current Mac user bought a new Mac in the past three quarters? If so, Apple is doomed. Apple users often keep their machines running for years, as they don’t have the rapid decline-to-obsolesence of WinTel boxes, but I’d guesstimate a 4-year-lifecycle on average and so a rough estimate of 20% of sales to current Apple users still yields a respectable 800,000 switchers this year and projects around a million by the end of the calendar year. There are lies, damned lies and statistics. Let’s leave the exaggeration to the other guys.

Older posts Newer posts

Navigation