EMC predicts the end is nigh for rotating drives dominating data center storage.

Speaking at EMC's annual conference in Las Vegas, David Donatelli, boss of EMC's storage division said he expects enterprise solid state drives to match the price of its spinning magnetic media counterpart within only two years.

"By 2010, flash will have reached parity with high-speed fibre channel disks. The enterprise flash drive will significantly change the way storage products are designed."

Early in 2006, I wrote an article for Low End Mac entitled VNC, Basilisk II, and SheepShaver: 3 Ways to Run Classic on an Intel Mac. In it, I noted that the then-new Intel-powered Macs were unable to run older Mac software in called Classic Mode, but that there were at least a couple of ways to get around that, including Basilisk II, which emulates old 680x0 Macs, and SheepShaver, which emulates newer pre-OS X PowerPC Macs.

While SheepShaver, promising emulation of Macs from the late 1990s, would seem a better solution than Basilisk - emulating Macs from the 1980s through early 1990s - I noted in that article: "I've been trying to make (SheepShaver) work . . . So far, all I get is a black window."

While many of us no longer rely on old Classic mode software, Apple gives Classic mode even less support than at the time I wrote that article. At that time, if you had a PowerPC Mac, you could still run older software in Classic Mode if needed. But now, if you've upgraded to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, your PowerPC Mac will also be Classic-less.....

SheepShaver is an open source project designed to emulate Power Mac hardware with versions for Mac OS X, Linux, Windows, and more. In order to make it work, you need to download a copy appropriate for your hardware and operating system, have handy a copy of the Mac operating system (versions 7.5.2 through 9.0.4 - and not a copy that's tied to a specific piece of hardware), and access to a Mac ROM image. You need the ROM image in order to allow your emulated Mac to start the boot process - where standard Windows-style PCs have fairly simple ROM BIOSes, PowerPC Macs need access to a hunk of Apple-written (and Apple copyright) code before they start to load the operating system.

That Mac ROM image is the catch.....

About a year ago, I decided that my Mac museum would be incomplete without an iMac, what with it being the "computer that saved Apple" and all. I began browsing eBay with the intent of finding an original Bondi blue tray-loader for the collection. I hadn't really paid much attention recently to the old CRT iMacs, and I was caught a little off guard by how cheaply they could be acquired.

Various resellers on eBay were selling whole flats of early tray-loading iMacs for well under $100 per machine (without keyboard or mouse). As a matter of fact, for an individual iMac, shipping was often more expensive than the computer itself.....

Pretty soon I settled on a Graphite G3/400 DV SE and placed a bid. I won the auction with a total outlay around a hundred bucks, shipping included, and the big box showed up on my doorstep. The computer had arrived with a mismatched Bondi blue keyboard, a raspberry hockey puck mouse, and a pretty bare-bones install of Mac OS 9. Happy as a clam with my new acquisition, but not really sure what to do with it, I set it up on the dresser in my bedroom where I could use it to watch DVD movies and as a bookshelf CD player.

Having delivered consistently strong financial results over the past year, displaced Wal-Mart as the leading U.S. music retailer, stormed into the mobile phone market, and outperformed the rest of the computer industry, Apple has never looked more polished.

Phishers have begun using Apple's brand as bait. Communications security company Proofpoint has detected a phishing message that attempts to exploit Apple's name. A screen shot provided by Proofpoint shows a fake version of the Apple Store that has been set up to steal personal information.

Not only is systems integrator Psystar continuing to defy Apple's no-cloning rule by selling Leopard-based knockoffs, it's now supporting the machines with a service pack that includes multiple bug fixes -- some of which address problems inherent in Apple's software.

"Safe updates, as well as bug fixes and workarounds, are now available," Psystar said in a note Monday on its Web site.

Apparently some of you think that Apple's about to go out of business; that its very existence is threatened; that fire, plague, and pestilence lie just around the corner for our favorite fruit-themed computer and consumer-electronics company. To which I say: What fight are you watching?

It may have started last summer, when there was much hand-wringing over the delay of Leopard. "Apple can't scale to meet demand!" people moaned. One missed deadline and suddenly every Mac user is an operations-management expert.

Then some of you were disappointed that Apple didn't follow up the iPhone with something equally game-changing - like a tablet PC. Or one of those $100 laptops. Or an even cooler iPhone with, um, lasers. Or maybe jet packs.....

What is the matter with you people?......

The Axiotron Modbook is currently the only Tablet solution for Mac users. It features a modified Macbook with simply a screen, a pen, and OSX ready to roll. The question is - is it worth buying?....

For the same money you can purchase a Macbook with a full keyboard and a [Wacom] Cintiq 12WX and draw directly on the 10 inch screen of the Cintiq. If ultra portability is a must, then you may want to conside the Modbook. It is certainly easier to carry around than a Macbook and Cintiq would be.

It's very clear that the words Mac and cheap don't align very well. Although you can buy a fair number of notebooks for hundreds less, the cheapest MacBook remains $1,099. A refurbished model, or one bought through Apple's educational channels, can save you a modest sum, but that's the best you can do if you prefer a Mac.

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