Moore’s News Roundup Digest - Wednesday, December 24, 2003
The iPod This Year's Most Wanted Christmas Gift
Running 64-bit Linux on a G5
Will There Be a Corporate Mac?
Mac Night Owl: Is Apple Poised for an Extreme Makeover?
Jane Doe Ruling Limits Effect Of RIAA legal Defeat
Interview With Mary Percat, Channel Manager Apple Canada, Posted
New, Inexpensive iPod Competitor From China
Apple Profiles Virginia Tech'x G5 Based Supercomputer Project
LindowsOS Reviewed
SCO Pesters Fortune 1000 Companies For Linux License Fees
SCO Opens New Front In Linux War
How To Create Standards-Conforming Websites Tutorial Posted
lynda.com Announces "Learning Adobe After Effects 6" Movie-Based Workshop
eWeek: Apple Patches Mac OS X Security Hole
PC Mag: Tech Support -- to Outsource or Not?
eWeek: On Beyond Monoculture
eWeek: Broadcom Jumps the Gun on 802.11n[/url]
The iPod This Year's Most Wanted Christmas Gift
ITV reports that:
"The Christmas present at the top of most people's wish list this year is the latest must-have gadget, the iPod.
"The music player, made by Apple, has been flying off the shelves despite its hefty price tag.
"Costing anywhere between £249 and £399, manufacturers have nevertheless been working flat out to make sure demand for the player is met."
For the full report, visit here:
http://www.itv.com/news/144883.html
Running 64-bit Linux on a G5
OSews Special Contributor Bas v.d. Wiel writes:
"A couple of weeks ago TerraSoft released preliminary 64-bit ISO's of their flagship product, Yellow Dog Linux 3.0.1 (YDL), especially for owners of Apple's new G5 machines. I was pining for a chance to get an open source OS running in 64-bit mode so I quickly downloaded the three ISO's.
"This version of YDL is just a beta, so this won't be a review of the distribution's features. YDL just happens to be the first open source OS I got working on my G5 and I would like to share my experiences with you. In this article I'll use YellowDog mainly as an example."
You can read the review at:
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=5447
Will There Be a Corporate Mac?
Applelust's András Puiz writes:
"I always find it amusing when someone realizes that he (yes, it's always a 'he') knows what Apple needs to do, and chooses to honor some online forum of instant gratification with his revelations. Blogs, discussion boards, and even otherwise perfectly good websites have fallen victim to such fits of know-it-all graphomania.
"According to these writings, Apple is usually just plain doomed, unless it immediately releases some very specific product, which the author will be quick to identify and immediately lobby for. Is it a DJ iPod? A Tablet Mac? Or maybe a resurrected Newton? Well, in any case, it will certainly be a product with a market for at least one complimentary review copy, if not much else.
"Today, I'm joining this honorable team of armchair Phil Schillers, and going out on a limb to offer some totally unfounded speculation on what Apple could, and perhaps even should do in order to make a strong entry into the enterprise market."
You can check it out at:
http://www.applelust.com/oped/editorials/archives/andras_xclient_031222.shtml
Mac Night Owl: Is Apple Poised for an Extreme Makeover?
Music, music, everywhere. Where's my iPod?
Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://www.macnightowl.com/index.htm#makeover
Jane Doe Ruling Limits Effect Of RIAA legal Defeat
Mark Rasch of SecurityFocus says:
"On Friday, the DC federal appeals court ruled that the recording industry's efforts to subpoena the names and addresses of ISP Verizon's customers who were using P2P file-sharing networks to download and upload copyrighted music were unlawful. However, the decision rests on a narrow reading of the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and likely will have little long-term impact on the file sharing debate.
"In fact, at the same time the DC court was narrowing the ability to get discovery of anonymous users of the Internet, a court in Connecticut reinforced a private company's right to determine the identity of a person who anonymously criticized the company in e-mail.
"The rulings both go to the core of that most cherished and reviled privilege of online life: anonymity...."
You can check it out at:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34645.html
Interview With Mary Percat, Channel Manager Apple Canada, Posted
Computer Dealer News' Sarah Lysecki says:
"Several product launches including Panther OS X Server allowed Apple Canada to re-enter non-traditional markets in 2003. Through the VAR recruitment program, Apple Canada's channel strategy and development manager formed new partnerships with resellers that would have shunned Apple a few years ago
"For Mary Percat, this past year has borne the fruit of her labour.
"Percat, channel strategy and development manager for Apple Canada, has been instrumental in developing a new channel for Apple Canada and recruiting new VARs in enterprise and storage markets."
You can read the interview here:
New, Inexpensive iPod Competitor From China
business-times.asia's Amit Roy Choudhury reports:
"Move over, iPod, here comes Huaqi's Aigo. It's a range of new, sleek, inexpensive MP3 players that the Beijing-based company claims is currently the top-selling brand in China
"HERE comes a series of sophisticated and stylish MP3 players which could give other MP3 players - including those from Creative Technology and Apple Computer - a run for their money....
"The new gizmos sell under the brand name 'Aigo' and come from Beijing-based Huaqi Information Digital Technology. Huaqi has more than 20 MP3 models and will initially introduce five of them here for between $170 and $300 each. Some of the models offer the ability to record directly from a phone and come with a removable SD card storage; the top-line MP3 player offers 256 MB of storage."
For the full report, visit here:
http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/story/0,4567,103249,00.html
Apple Profiles Virginia Tech'x G5 Based Supercomputer Project
A new Apple Science Profile article notes:
"Dr. Srinidhi Varadarajan knew that he wanted to build a world-class supercomputer. Also, he wanted to solidify the position of Virginia Tech’s world-class computer science program. But with only a fraction of most supercomputing budgets to spend, it seemed like a hopeless dream. He crunched numbers, solicited every likely vendor, examined and ultimately discarded all possible options using other platforms and chips. Then in June of 2003, news of Apple’s Power Mac G5 hit the airwaves. At last, Varadarajan realized, he’d have as much 64-bit processing as he needed to power his dream, without overtaxing his budget.
"Soon after the announcement, Varadarajan took delivery of his very first PowerBook laptop running Mac OS X. Within days, he placed an order for the 1100 dual processor, 2.0 GHz Power Mac G5 computers that now drive Virginia Tech’s new supercomputer. Smart choice: In November of 2003 the giant system — named System X — became the third fastest supercomputer in the world."
You can check it out at:
http://www.apple.com/education/science/profiles/vatech/
LindowsOS Reviewed
unixreview.com's Joe Casad says:
"If you tune into Slashdot or any of the other high-tech sources, you may have noticed that Microsoft Corporation, which has emerged relatively unscathed from many titanic battles with corporate giants and national governments, could very possibly receive a crippling blow from an upstart company with the big idea. That company is Lindows.com, and their big idea is that maybe the name "Windows" shouldn't be protected by a trademark. The creators of LindowsOS were so certain that Windows shouldn't have a trademark that they gave their product a name that infringes directly on that trademark. And when the inevitable litigation began, they didn't flinch at a full-scale legal assault from a company with the worlds largest cash reserves but, in fact, seemed to take a certain relish in it. The copyright notice on their Web site bears the words:
"'Lindows is not endorsed by or affiliated with Microsoft Corporation in any way — in fact, we don't even really like them because they are suing us.'
"We know that Microsoft is mad at them. But Lindows has never exactly been a darling on the Linux world either. Its purported goal of making Linux more like Windows rankles the sensibilities of the Linux purists, and its unabashed for-profit mindset makes it less than popular with the ascetic open source crowd. I took a closer look at LindowsOS 4 and discovered that behind all the hype and the litigation is a real product that has slowly been getting better and more competitive."
For the full report, visit here:
http://www.unixreview.com/documents/s=8989/ur0312j/
SCO Pesters Fortune 1000 Companies For Linux License Fees
The Register's Andrew Orlowski reports:
"The SCO Group has sent another letter to Fortune 1000 companies, requesting that they stop using Linux, or reach an agreement with the Utah company over what it claims are copyright "binary interfaces".
"'Any part of any Linux file that includes the copyrighted binary interface code must be removed,' according to the demand. The SCO Group identifies a number of files which, once machine-specific versions are discounted, boil down to simply four header files. The files signal.h, ioctl.h, errno.h, stat.h and ctype.h contain copyright infringing code.
"These files, according to SCO, 'must carry USL / SCO copyright notices and may not be used in any GPL distribution, inasmuch as the affirmative consent of the copyright holder has not been obtained, and will not be obtained, for such a distribution under the GPL.'
"However the header files contain simple error codes essential to the operation of any Unix-like operating system. "
For the full report, visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/34639.html
SCO Opens New Front In Linux War
"SCO Group has targeted a new group in an effort to profit from what it says is illegal use of Unix intellectual property in Linux, but Novell, a former owner of the operating system, claims it still holds copyrights.
"Last week, SCO started sending out the first of an estimated 3,000 letters to companies, universities and other organizations that licensed Unix, typically from AT&T, the company that invented the operating system and sold it years later. Previously, SCO had limited its legal saber rattling to the world's largest companies...."
For more:
http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-5132215.html
How To Create Standards-Conforming Websites Tutorial Posted
Apple's developer site has posted a tutrial on creating Web sites that conform to standards. The preamble notes:
"The Safari development team at Apple has made a dedicated effort to implement Web standards. This means that the easiest way to ensure optimal rendering of your pages in Safari is by following the standards. Doing so will also guarantee optimal rendering in Mozilla, Opera and Internet Explorer for Macintosh. Of course, each of these browsers has its own minor quirks or legitimate differences of interpretation, so testing your site in all of them is still mandatory.
"By comparison, Internet Explorer for Windows—the most popular browser for the Windows OS—often requires web developers to use a number of non-standard tricks or to accept layout differences. This situation is unlikely to change anytime soon, so for now, web developers have to work around these problems.
"This article gives some practical hints on how to create standards-conforming websites, and to work around some of issues that will arise for Explorer for Windows."
You can check it out at:
http://developer.apple.com/internet/bestwebdev.html
lynda.com Announces "Learning Adobe After Effects 6" Movie-Based Workshop
lynda.com has announced "Learning Adobe After Effects 6" with Lynda Weinman, a movie-based workshop offering a thorough overview of the standard version of Adobe After Effects 6, including Paint effects, Text Layers and all other fundamental to intermediate features. Users will create animated compositions as they learn everything from simple transformations using Keyframes, Effects, Masks, and Track Mattes to more advanced concepts covering Photoshop and Illustrator Integration, Text Layers, Paint Effects, 3D Layers, Lights, Multiple Cameras, Expressions, Parenting, Compositing and more.
"Learning Adobe After Effects 6" is available for immediate purchase at http://www.lynda.com/ where a Macintosh & Windows compatible CD-ROM featuring over 6 hours of content is available for $99.95.
Alternatively, a lynda.com Online Movie Library subscription starting at just $25 per month provides unrestricted online access to "Learning Adobe After Effects 6" in addition to over 3,300 movie-based tutorials covering over 33 software tools and technologies.
For free "Learning Adobe After Effects 6" sample online movie viewing and more detailed product information visit:
http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=69
For more information on this and other training titles, visit:
http://www.lynda.com/
eWeek: Apple Patches Mac OS X Security Hole
"Apple Computer Inc. issued a patch Monday fixing several security holes in Mac OS X, including one issue that could allow a malicious user to gain full access to any machine on a network.
The update, which is available via Apple's Software Update System Preference pane built into OS X, changes the default settings for accessing Dynamic Host Communication Protocol (DHCP) servers on a local network, which are commonly used to assign Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to machines joining a network."
Read more at:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1420557,00.asp
PC Mag: Tech Support -- to Outsource or Not?
"Early this month, MPC Computers took an unusual step. At a time when so many companies offer technical support through third-party, often off-shore, facilities, MPC is moving its entire technical support operation in-house. All support duties will be handled by MPC employees working at the company's Nampa, Idaho headquarters. "Thirty new employees will be on the premises and in training the first Monday of January," says Jeff Fillmore, vice president of services and supply chain operations at MPC."
Read more at:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1419628,00.asp
eWeek: On Beyond Monoculture
"Over the course of this year, the biggest change in my IT environment has been more frequent updates to system software. Not only have there been a larger number of critical software updates, but I've also been much more inclined to find and apply them quickly.
My growing acceptance of these patches is driven by two factors: the more rapid spread and greater malevolence of malware and my growing use of technology diversity to put my eggs in more than one basket. I've gone to new lengths this year to have not just backup systems but actual alternative systems with few shared failure modes. The result is that I'm less exposed to downtime because of any single mishap during a system update or any single success that an attacker might have in exploiting a system loophole. I urge you to consider the diversification of your own technology portfolio as a defense against the twin threats of accident and malice."
Read more at:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,,1420622,00.asp
eWeek: Broadcom Jumps the Gun on 802.11n
"WLAN products based on emerging 802.11n are in the pipeline.
An emerging IEEE standard that promises Fast Ethernet speeds for wireless LANs won't likely be ratified before late 2005, but as with previous WLAN protocols, Broadcom Corp. is planning to jump the gun by releasing "prestandard" products.
Still in the project authorization phase, 802.11n is designed to increase WLAN speeds to at least 100M bps for data and actual throughput rates."
Read more at:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,,1419502,00.asp
Charles W. Moore
