Been little to no activity here lately...I know. News will resume promptly. I just took delivery of a beautiful, healthy, bouncing baby girl!!! I will get back to blogging as soon as I am done going goo goo ga ga.
May 2004 Archives
Now THIS would be interesting indeed....
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From the French site http://croquer.free.fr/ some unconfirmed interesting specs have emerged: (rough translation)2004-05-20 - G5 Trinity at WWDC
G... [MacRumors.com Page 2]
Developer Bruce Luckcuck released Radeon Enabler 1.0, which allows owners of the OEM versions of ATI's Radeon 9000 Pro, 9600 Pro, 9700 Pro and 9800 Pro video cards to use ATI's Radeon Displays 4.2.5 utility. The utility works with the retail versions of those cards but was not made available in the OEM versions. Radeon Displays provides access to such features as OpenGL override, which allows you to create graphics options that will override the settings found in an application, such as a game. You need Mac OS X v10.2.8 or higher to use Radeon Enabler, which is not supported by ATI or Apple. [MacCentral]
The Wired 40: Apple Computer 'the new face of consumer electronics' rockets from nowhere to number 3
Wired Magazine's "Wired 40" is about "masters of innovation, thecnology, and strategic vision - 40 companies driving the global economy," according to Wired's Kevin Kelleher. "Old school business types found some solace in the bust - at least the upstarts go their comeuppance. Hardly! With the economy finally perking up, newcomers are running the show: Three of the top five companies in this year's Wired 40, our annual list of enterprises leading the charge toward... [MacDailyNews]
Dr. John Maeda, an associate professor of design and computation at the M.I.T. Media Lab and an award-winning graphic designer, has spent eight months putting forward his own one-word vision of the future: simplicity," Jessie Scanlon reports for The New York Times.
"There is too much needless complexity in the world, he argues. Technology, which was supposed to make our lives easier, has taken a wrong turn. In 20 years we've gone from the simplicity of MacPaint to Photoshop.... [MacDailyNews]
By now, assuming you pay any attention to the Macintosh media in between your weekly doses of TidBITS, you’ve undoubtedly heard of the hubbub brewing around the announcement last Thursday of the first Trojan horse to target Mac OS X. The news came from Intego, the developers of a variety of security software, including the anti-virus program VirusBarrier, which Intego updated to detect hypothetical malicious software using this new technique.
Should we laud Intego’s integrity in alerting the Macintosh community to this possible pestilence, or should we revile the company for a self-serving PR move that has the potential to cause untold headaches for the entire Macintosh world? I’ll reveal my hand here - if Intego wants to do public service announcements, they shouldn’t use a press release to submit their findings, and they should stop selling a product that stands to benefit directly from both the increased paranoia they’ve caused and a potential plague of copycat Trojans.…
Needless to say, the press release was immediately covered by a variety of news sites (I’ve included a selection of links below; it’s amusing to compare them, and be sure to see the hilarious Joy of Tech cartoon at the end). As usual, that means a few sites confirmed the story, investigated the technical claims, and queried security experts, whereas many others merely reprinted or pointed to Intego’s press release. The massive coverage instantly generated a ton of confusion and misunderstandings. Many people thought Mac OS X was immune from such malevolent code (false, and the proof-of-concept works equally well in Mac OS 9), which led to the conclusion that Intego was promulgating a hoax (equally false). Other misapprehensions that quickly resulted were that this was a virus (false, Trojans don’t self-replicate) and that it was in some way related to Apple’s success in the music world (inane, and at best a non-sequitur). Intego itself generated other confusions, such as the implication that what was being identified was an actual Trojan horse (false) rather than just a method by which a Trojan horse could be created. Intego is also culpable for classic FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) tactics by advertising that the same technique could be used with GIF and JPEG files, and QuickTime movies (true, but irrelevant)…
Then there’s this section: [of the press release] “Due to the use of this technique, users can no longer safely double-click MP3 files in Mac OS X. This same technique could be used with JPEG and GIF files, though no such cases of infected graphic files have yet been seen.” That’s classic FUD aimed at scaring less-sophisticated users into believing that they cannot so much as double-click an MP3, JPEG, or GIF file without risking untold digital horrors. Unless, that is, they’re running Intego’s VirusBarrier.
Source: TidBITS
It amazes me how many people, Mac and Windows users, get brainwashed by Intego. They are by far the worst supplier of FUD the Mac Community has ever known. I have thought this for a while, and it is nice to see Adam Engst feels the same way. If you read through the Intego press release, you will find an all knew meaning to the term FUD. Or just read Adam’s breakdown of the press release, it is far more informative.
Has the proof-of-concept MP3 “trojan” become a serious threat in the wilds of the real world? Will it become a threat any time soon? I have my doubts. But now that MP3Concept is so publicized it will either be copied or no one will use the technique since it is so well known by now.
See Mac OS X MP3 Trojan horse threat overhyped, says Sophos. Now Sophos is a anti-virus vendor I have come to trust and respect.
Don’t believe all you read folks. Oh, and the hubbub about that IE and Safari vulnerability, thats pretty lame too. That “flaw” has been around for some time now. I don’t see it as a flaw either. You can read my comments on that issue on my blog if you like.
Intego did the right thing, they just went about it all wrong.
Another great article by Adam Angst.
[Breaking Windows]“The surprise hit of the Cannes film festival is a movie made by a first-time director with a budget of precisely $218.32,” reports Charlotte Higgins for The Guardian. “Tarnation was created by 31-year-old jobbing actor Jonathan Caouette, using the Apple Macintosh package iMovie. It is a touching and often disturbing family history pieced together via photographs, home movie images from the 1970s and 80s, and interviews by Caouette with his mother and grandparents.” [May 20] [Apple Hot News]
Internet audience measurement service comScore Media Metrix today announced the Top 50 U.S. Internet Properties for the month of April 2004. In April, the active online population across U.S. home, work and university PCs totaled 155.1 million people. A wide range of factors, including Easter, Mother's Day and a number of creative online promotions, drove this month's major traffic shifts.
Apple.com ranked 49th with 10,743,000 unique visitors followed by Hewlett Packard with 10,657,000.... [MacDailyNews]
Rogue Amoeba Software today announced Audio Hijack Pro 2, a new version of its audio enhancement utility that lets you record any audio on Mac OS X... [MacMinute]
Shareware developer, Arlo Rose, released an update to Konfabulator, a Widget-based JavaScript runtime engine, bringing the current version to 1.6.1. The update fixes many user reported bugs including a problem with playing sounds causing some Widgets to disappear; issue with "Hide" option of "Startup Items" control panel making Konfabulator menu inoperable; problems with certain Contextual Menu plug-ins; and more. The update is free to registered users; a single user license costs US$25. Konfabulator requires Mac OS X 10.2.8 or higher, although Mac OS X 10.3 is recommended. [MacCentral]
In an email sent to .Mac memebers today, Apple has announced changes and improvements to their .Mac service:
One of the .Mac team's primary objectives is convenient and truly useful access to your personal data and correspondence when you're away from your own computer. We're pleased to announce that a new set of persistent navigation links at the top of the .Mac page means all you have to remember now is "www.mac.com." From there you have one-click access to your .Mac... [MacDailyNews]
"Over the span of about a year, Apple's iTunes Music Store has gone from being a concept to being the dominant player in online music retailing: It commands over 70 percent of the market, has sold 70 million songs in its first year of operation, and now offers over 700,000 tracks. And Apple has again updated its iTunes utility, letting buyers make better use of the store and the tracks they purchase there (as well as the ones they rip from their own CD collections). But while iTunes... [MacDailyNews]
Apple has updated .Mac Internet applications, and added free gifts, member-exclusive specials and discounts, downloads, and tutorials.
Current offers and changes: - $20 off Symantec software for Mac. Offer good May 17-October 6, 2004. - Enjoy a $20 discount on software from Symantec, a top name in computer security and developers of Mac software since 1989. - Free Norton Parental Control. Offer good May 17-October 6, 2004. - Norton Parental Control by Symantec provides... [MacDailyNews]
Founder, one of the largest PC suppliers to the Chinese market, and Apple today announced that every Founder PC will come pre-installed with Apple's award-winning iTunes digital music jukebox software beginning next month. iTunes works seamlessly with Apple's iPod, the number one digital music player in the world, to deliver an unbeatable combination for music lovers in China. With iTunes, Founder PC users can easily import music from CDs, create custom playlists, burn custom CDs and take... [MacDailyNews]
Ohhhh the sweet smell of things to come. I can see the herd of PC weenies that have preached to me about how great their PC's are, they will be coming out of the wood works to see this great chip known as the G5. Next thing you know, they will be claiming that they always loved Mac's.....
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"Two weeks ago, Intel, the world's largest chip maker, publicly acknowledged that it had hit a 'thermal wall' on its microprocessor line. As a result, the company is changing its product strategy and disbanding one of its most advanced design groups. Intel also said that it would abandon two advanced chip development projects, code-named Tejas and Jayhawk," John Markoff reports for The New York Times.
"Now, Intel is embarked on a course already adopted by some of its... [MacDailyNews]
North Carolina State University Chancellor Marye Anne Fox on Saturday conferred an honorary Doctorate of Sciences degree to Steve Wozniak, CEO of Wheels of Zeus, a company that designs wireless electronics products, and co-founder of Apple Computer Inc. and inventor of the Apple I and Apple II computers. (Attribution: MacNN)
See potos of the event here. [MacDailyNews]
The device offers drivers iPod device control using their car audio systems. By Macworld UK (via MyAppleMenu) [myapplemenu]
German students develop the first emulator for running Mac OS X on a Windows machine. It's incomplete, buggy and horribly slow, but PC geeks are rushing to try it out. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News: Cult of Mac]
"Hitachi Ltd's hard disk drive unit said Sunday that it will spend about $200 million to double the disk drive output of its Thailand factory, including the 1-inch, 4-gigabyte disk drives that are found in the iPod Mini," Reuters reports.
"Production of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies' Microdrive will rise to about 2 million units per quarter by the end of the year, from 200,000 in the first three months of this year, said John Osterhout, who manages Hitachi... [MacDailyNews]
This is absolutely fucking genius!
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kormoc writes "It all started with a ebay auction when the seller got a email from a dude who wanted to scam him. It was a normal setup and it went horribly ... [Slashdot]
Yesterday's news had a post about PearPC v0.1 and Kevin Rose's page on installing OS X with it on his Athlon. Jamie forwarded an email from another user that tried the first release:
" Here is a link to all of the screenshots.http://home2.owc.net/~brianb/osxp/
I was able to take some of the system profiler. There is an bug that is causing both the finder and the dock to crash and cannot seem to find a way around it. This makes the install of panther useless since nothing can be opened. -Brian "
Although Apple's 4th generation iPod exists as nothing more than rumor, sources say the new media pl... [AppleInsider]
ZDnet reports that Microsoft has delayed Virtual PC 7 for the Mac.Initially, our development and testing time line was estimated based on our experien... [MacRumors]
Intego, the company who tried to trick Mac users into buying their product by talking up a possible exploit that was never actually exploited, is at it again. Today a press release crossed the wires warning users of another "trojan horse" that is simply an AppleScript with the icon of Microsoft Office's installer. If you download Microsoft Office (from a Warez site?) and it's only 100K, odds are it is not Microsoft Office. The said AppleScript (that Intego is calling AS.MW2004.Trojan just to sound like they know what they are talking about) deletes your home folder.
Moral of the story? If you have a file that you don't know where it came from, check the file type (command-I). Don't waste your money on some faux security software. [MacMerc]
German designer Karl Lagerfeld is so obsessed with the iPod, he's designed a couture case for carrying up to a dozen of them. Why? Because he needs just such a crate to transport his collection of 40 iPods. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News: Cult of Mac]
Apple Computer Inc. has been awarded a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office for the iTunes interface. It's the latest in a series of patents Apple has applied for specific to its music software technology, according to Cnet. Apple has previously been awarded patents for other parts of iTunes, including the ability to stream songs over a network to another copy of the program. [MacCentral]
From time to time we hear reports of studies of consumer satisfaction and technical support quality with regards to personal computers. Consumer Reports says Overall, when it comes to technical support for desktop computers, Apple rated significantly better than Dell, while Compaq and HP rated significantly worse. It's not clear how those other companies handle support; Apple, Compaq, and HP did not comment. Now for the hard question.... Why? Is it a result of more money spent on support, better training, easier to solve problems? Weigh in with your perspective.... [MacMove.com]
Roxio Inc. announced on Tuesday that they will add DVD Double Layer compatibility to their Toast 6 Titanium and Toast with Jam 6 applications. A free upgrade for registered users will be available for download from the Roxio Web site in June. The update will enable users to burn 8.5GB of data, instead of the typical 4.7GB, on a single DVD+R Double Layer (DL) disc. [MacCentral]
As previously reported on MacSlash, a PowerPC Architecture Emulator was released by the name of Pear 0.1 that allows Windows and Linux users to run PowerPC based operating systems...like Mac OS X 10.3.
The version number designation of 0.1 and the caption under the bottom screenshot (I've no idea about how they managed what you see, so don't bug me about it.) lead me to believe that there still may be some significant hurdles to overcome before PC users will truly be experiencing the joy of X. [MacMerc]
Looks like Comcast has made its plans for the G4 / Tech TV merger public via, G4TechTV.com. The FAQ page list the shows that will be surviving the merger. Call For Help seems to have received the axe. No word is given if the casts will remain the same.
Source: Slashdot
That is a shame about Call For Help, many more people need Call for Help then The Screen Savers, but that is just my opinion. TechLive is also missing in the list of the FAQ page, that was one of my favorites of the network. Another shame.
[Breaking Windows]Moblogs are the latest in cutting-edge personal publishing. To partake, users tend to require a pricey smartphone or fancy handheld, but several are using ancient technology -- Apple's orphaned Newton. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News: Cult of Mac]
A new iPod Commercial has cropped up on the .mac page of Jeff Garden. Anyone with any information regarding the source of this video or an opinion to express about it may do so in the comments below. [MacMerc]
Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates has agreed to pay a US$800,000 civil penalty to settle charges that he violated stock-buying requirements in 2002, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Monday. [MacCentral]
Sonnet Technologies today announced the Encore/ST G4 Duet 1.3GHz, a dual processor upgrade for most "Sawtooth" G4 Power Macs, including AGP Graphics, Gigabit Ethernet, Digital Audio and QuickSilver (2001 and 2002) machines... [MacMinute]
"Most chief executives have enough on their hands steering one company. Steve Jobs, however, is The Chronicle 200's CEO of the year because he excelled at running two companies. Jobs, 49, is chief executive officer of Apple Computer Inc., which ranked 15th in The Chronicle 200 based on revenue. During the year, the Cupertino computer company started the iTunes Music Store, which is helping sell more of Apple's stylish iPod music players as well as helping to reshape the entire... [MacDailyNews]
