Apple embeds a poem into MacOS:

Your karma check for today:
There once was a user that whined
his existing OS was so blind
he’d do better to pirate
an OS that ran great
but found his hardware declined.
Please don’t steal Mac OS!
Really, that’s way uncool.
(C) Apple Computer, Inc.

Very funny: Why Macs suck (Warning, occasional coarse language)

Speaking of Google Video, they now let you download Google Video (GVP) files and the Player onto Windows or Mac, Video iPod or Sony Playstation Portable. They’ve also got a thing producing the HTML to show the video on your own web site.

The Commonwealth Games are looming, as is the week’s extension of summer time in Eastern Australia.

Microsoft have issued a patch for most (but not all) versions of Windows. What they haven’t done is made it an automatic update for affected users, nor made it easy to find — it’s not shown on the Microsoft Australia home page, for instance, you have to search for it. They also haven’t provided a smooth way of reverting to “normal” summer time for next year: users have to remove the patch and manually set the timezone.

Meanwhile Apple have done… nothing. Charles Wright has tracked down how to fix it on Macs, which involves going an finding a timezone update file on an ftp server, untarring and ungzipping, running an obscure (if you’re not a Unix god) command… jeez.

Ask yourself: is the typical non-geek computer user going to seek out these solutions, and even if they find them, are they going to bother to figure it out and do it? I’m betting not. I’m betting a lot of computers will be an hour out during the week of the summer time extension.

This is very sloppy behaviour from both sides of the OS fence, and something the millions of Australian computer users won’t be too happy about in March. (Though most will have forgotten about it by late-April, no doubt.)

PS. 29/3/2006. Still getting a lot of comments here, but there is a later post on this topic here.

Reviews of the Intel Core Duo iMac are starting to come in. Engadget has a roundup.

Ars Technica has had a go at trying to get Windows working on one. No luck so far.

Australian Personal Computer: Will Intel-based Apple Macs be able to run Windows? Apple says they’re not doing anything to prevent it. Their Macs will use an Extensible Firmware Interface, which replaces the BIOS, and Windows Vista will support EFI.

Would be pretty cool to have the lovely Apple design for your hardware, plus the lovely Apple OS, but be able to boot into Windows when compatibility was needed.

Blogger Russell Beattie stirs up a hornet’s nest by declaring he’s thinking of switching back from Mac to Windows.

Reports are coming in that the new very groovy iPod Nano’s screen scratches rather too easily, so bad in some cases that the images get distorted.

Hot on the heels of the flawed (badly, for some people) iTunes 5.0, Apple has released iTunes 5.0.1.

So, I’ve been using Fedora Core 3 (I really must upgrade to 4) and I’ve noticed that SSL – ie HTTPS – is really slow. Logging into eBay took something like a half hour. I consulted someone who uses FC3 as their primary operating system and his suggestion was to disable the firewall. “but…” I protested. The response was simple: “Stop being such a pussy. You’ve got a firewall in your modem.” And I do.

So I did – Applications | System Settings | Security Level got me to firewall configuration, one option of which was “forgetaboudit”. A reboot of the iptables (iptables is the linux firewall: very sophisticated, very powerful, very fragile, requires a detailed understanding of IP protocols to use correctly) later – either by a command line entry (simple – just enter service iptables restart) or a system reboot (easy to remember, but takes a fair old time – FC boot time is longer than XP’s) and the firewall’s behaviour was changed. Then secure logins went just as fast as straight HTTP, and it was clear that the Red Hat Firewall was the culprit.

Hours of searching the web revealed a suggestion for a change to the configuration file, which I went to implement in a restarted firewall – and it was already there. So, to make Firefox – or any other web browser – do fast SSL when it was going slow – you need to disable, then re-enable the firewall. You can do that by picking Applications | System Settings | Security Level from the menu, disabling the firewall, opening a terminal window and entering service iptables restart, and repeating the process but enabling the firewall this time (ensure you have web turned on).

In FC3 the default firewall install doesn’t like HTTPS. And I thought Windows was freaky. I understand the FC4 doesn’t do this crazy shit.

Interesting to see the gradual spread of Wifi coverage in Australian cities. Shame they’re mostly in McDonalds and Starbucks outlets, which don’t exactly provide the pinnacle food and coffee. But I suppose if you’re sneaky, you should be able to find somewhere offering decent food and drink nearby (or even next door) where you can pick up the coverage.

Fascinating article speculating why Apple really switched from IBM to Intel CPUs.

Smartcards are the answer to public transport ticketing! But, err, what was the question? (from my blog)

Apple has announced Power-PC OS-X applications will run on the future Intel Macs via an emulation layer called Rosetta, developed by some ex-Manchester Uni people. Obviously there has to be a performance hit in doing so, but you’d hope by the time the Intel Macs hit the streets, processor speeds would have come along enough that it’s not very noticeable, at least over today’s Macs.

What may be interesting is how Virtual PC for Mac runs on Intel Macs. An upgraded Intel version I mean, not the PowerPC version under Rosetta!

It now sounds as if the new Macs will have not just chips made by Intel, but chips that are theoretically the x86 we all know and love. If so, and assuming Virtual PC gets a re-write, people who love Macs but have to run a little bit of Windows software may be in for a very pleasant surprise when the new Macs arrive.

Following my post about Apple/Intel rumours it’s now possible to confirm that the rumours are true:

Steve Jobs made it official at the keynote to the Apple World Wide Developers Conference today. Apple will be using Intel CPUs starting June 2006, and a complete transition will be done by 2007. Steve confirmed that for the past 5 years, Mac OS X for Intel has been in development, and Steve even did the whole keynote using an Intel-based system. As for Mac apps, Coca apps will require small tweaks; Carbon apps will require more tweaks; Metrowerks apps need to be recompiled using Xcode (version 2.1 was released today). Developers can then create a “universal binary” that can run on both PowerPC and Intel. Apple will also ship Rosetta, which will allow users to run PowerPC apps on Intel Macs. – MacAddict

The move marks a major shift for Apple, which has long relied on PowerPC chips from IBM to drive its computers. To help with the switch, Apple also announced the availability of a Developer Transition Kit, consisting of an Intel-based Mac development system along with preview versions of Apple’s software, which will allow developers to prepare versions of their applications which will run on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs.

“Our goal is to provide our customers with the best personal computers in the world, and looking ahead Intel has the strongest processor roadmap by far,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “It’s been ten years since our transition to the PowerPC, and we think Intel’s technology will help us create the best personal computers for the next ten years.”

“We are thrilled to have the world’s most innovative personal computer company as a customer,” said Paul Otellini, president and CEO of Intel. “Apple helped found the PC industry and throughout the years has been known for fresh ideas and new approaches. We look forward to providing advanced chip technologies, and to collaborating on new initiatives, to help Apple continue to deliver innovative products for years to come.” MacWorld

The move is being seen as a big gamble for Apple strategy, and a boost to Intel at the expense of IBM.

It ends a decade-long relationship between Apple and IBM, which have recently wrangled over supply problems. BBC News Online

So, it’s official. I guess Mac and PC users can both join in on whether Intel chips are the best. What’s next? Would AMD ever get a look in? Is there any way back for IBM? Ironic, that they are making chips for Microsoft now?

What do you think?

“The rumors floating around for the last few weeks that Apple will turn to Intel processors for future systems are now being moved from the rumor column to the confirmed column, according to some news organizations” – InfoWorld.com

Apple and Intel – the history

“Apple has seriously considered switching to Intel at least twice in its history. One previous project code-named Star Trek actually ported Mac OS 7 to Intel based hardware in 1992. Most recently, internal IBM documents noted that Apple considered switching to Intel but felt it would cause too much trouble:” – MacRumors.com

This time?

Apple is about to announce that it is dropping IBM chips in favour of those made by Intel reports suggest.

The first Apple computers with the Intel chips onboard could appear by mid-2006, technology site CNet reported over the weekend.

The move would mark a big change in Apple strategy, and a boost to Intel at the expense of IBM.

Industry watchers are expecting an announcement by Apple on the deal on Monday at a company conference [World Wide Developer's Conference]. – BBC News Online

Why?

Why would such a deal come about? Supposedly IBM are not making (or refuse to / cannot make) a wide enough set of chips for Apple’s needs.

Additionally, IBM now has the contract to providing PowerPC chips for Microsoft’s imminent Xbox 360 console, Sony’s forthcoming PlayStation 3 game machine and Nintendo’s future game-playing machine. Apple isn’t their biggest customer.

Likely?

Here’s Jim’s opinion:

Well, the media is just going nuts thanks to a rumor started by ‘analysts’ at the Wall Street journal about Apple possibly using Intel chips in upcoming products, and everyone’s just falling all over themselves buzzing about the possibility. Personally I think that anyone in the media that starts talking about such things should be fired for their incompetence, but here’s my take on all of this.
First of all, nowhere in the original article was the word PROCESSOR mentioned. You know, that really big chip that runs the whole show? Last time I checked, Intel made more than just Pentiums, and Apple has used Intel chips in the past in its products. In fact, at this very moment I’m staring at an Apple multi-port Ethernet card removed from a G4 server, and it has Intel chips all over it.

Personal Opinion

I’m a Mac zealot, and the initial thought of this possibly being true initially made me a little uncomfortable…

…then again, what’s the big deal?

If Apple can get better, lower priced chips elsewhere, then why not? The Mac relies on a lot of industry-standard components for its machines now, a far cry from over a decade ago.

If they were about to announce going into partnership with Microsoft to develop future Mac operating systems, that would be something to really worry about. (It’s never gonna happen, right?)

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this isn’t just some elaborate wind-up. Steve Jobs may well make some form of announcement, it may even involve Intel, but it could well be different to what everyone has been rumouring – we know how the mainstream media have messed things up before, and unfortunately on far more important issues.

Rather than repeat everything that has been said thus far, here are some links that might be useful for further reading:

• Apple to announce Intel ‘Switch (The Register)
• Apple shifts to Intel: what is all the fuss about? (The Register)
• Why Apple won’t embrace Intel (The Register)
• Otellini says Apple-Intel rumours like “Haley’s Comet” (The Inquirer)
• Apple, Intel rumours “hogwash” (Ferret.com.au)

We’ll wait to see what (if anything) Mr Jobs has to say on the matter.

Here’s a couple of things I’d like to see for Dashboard in future release, at least as an option:

1. The first time Dashboard starts up, and sometimes when it hasn’t been used for a while, it takes a while for many of them to respond, even things like ‘Stickies’ and ‘Dictionary’ which are local. I presume it’s because many widgets access the Internet for the latest information, but there should be an option to either do this at startup (as Dashboard runs in the background anyway) rather than the first time it is invoked, and it should allow other widgets to be used whilst it’s doing it. This may just be because I am on a slower machine, though even on an iBook G3 it flies when it’s working, so I doubt this.
2. After a while, if you use a lot of widgets, you start to run out of space, despite being able to tile widgets. What would be nice is a way of having more than one widget ‘page’ – say one for games, one for searches, one for shell apps, all user-defined of course. This would remove the need to move/hide widgets or add/remove them from the main screen (which takes time) just to use the one you want. I currently have 17 widgets open and with judicious placement, they look good, but I don’t know how many more I’d happily accommodate, and given that Dashboard is about speedy access to applications, just adding and removing them from the dashboard toolbar is not an acceptable solution.

I have to say, though, that with new widgets being coded all the time, I am loving it more and more (it was a bit boring with just the default ones after the initial ‘wow’ factor of the desktop graphics)