I really didn't want to be "that guy" always writing about how much he loves his new Mac. I wrote last week about why I finally made the switch. But I read an article at CNNMoney.com this week that I just have to respond to. Jonathan Blum wrote "Why Macs still aren't right for most businesses". Having worked as an IT professional at one point in my career, I could think of a few likely reasons that someone might suggest not using Macs in business. But I wasn't prepared for the lack of substance in this article.

"First off, the packaging is seriously overdone: The slogan "Designed by Apple in California" posivitively shouts at you from the box. Like I care."

Like it matters! Are you serious? This is the first reason for not using a Mac for a business?

Having made the decision to switch to Mac for my business, I have given a lot of thought about how businesses use computers. I think that many more companies can and should move to Macs for these five reasons.

1. Web-based applications

2. Ease of tech support

3. Productivity

4. Networking

5. The Lack of IT Upheaval every 5 years

I want to begin by saying that what I love about the Mac experience is its operating system. Just the iTunes application is worth the price of admission. (A built in database for your music collection - brilliant!) And I don't know how many times I've looked at some neat ultraportable and said - "That would be really neat, except you would have to use Windows." And that takes it right off the table.

However, occasionally I am given a piece of Windows hardware. It usually doesn't work, and it's owner has moved on to another computer. I play with it for a while and then run back to the comfort of computing with my Macs. But I can't help but wonder what it would be like to use some of the ultraportable computers in the PC market with a decent operating system.

In short, I began to think about Linux. And in between adding my analog records and cassette tapes to my iTunes library, I decided to have a little fun. By a little fun, I mean putting a third operating system on the mighty Pismo......

When you can run Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger) or 9.2.1, why would you need something else? As my boss said, when you have the best OS, why fiddle with things?

But it's mainly 'cause I can, I replied. Besides, the world of Mac is moving on, and I can't run Leopard on my Pismo unless I put in a G4 processor. I can't replace the video card, and I already have to turn the video display down to thousands of colors to run Cover Flow in iTunes. Zounds!

You can see that Steverino and the boys at Cupertino are marching to the beat of the Intel chip and are going to leave PowerPC in the rearview. What am I going to do when the Mac OS abandons me and I still want to use the trusty Pismo?

What I need is a new operating system that is slim, trim, and still viable.....

I just want to be able to put songs on my Apple iPod from my Ubuntu Linux machine. Fortunately, for all of us end-users, the open source community started taking seriously the call to make multimedia a priority for application development. Getting an iPod recognized and connected to a Linux machine is only slightly more difficult than it is with iTunes.
Our environment

What we are working with is the following:
PC: 64-bit machine running 32-bit Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron
iPod: 5-gen 30 gig video iPod formatted in Windows format
Software: gtkpod-aac....

Take note that the only way you will be able to access your iPod for writing is if your iPod is formatted in the Windows format. The Apple formatted iPods can be recognized but writing to them is very difficult (and has, in my case, resulted in complete loss of data on the iPod.)....

Adobe dominates the field of image editing software with Photoshop, but it also offers a $99 alternative called Adobe Photoshop Elements, which does much of what Photoshop does at a much lower price.

At the June meeting of the Cambria Computer Club Macintosh User Group, Rick Auricchio is set to demonstrate Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 for Macintosh. As he plans to show, Elements, being oriented toward nontechnical users, includes a number of tools not offered in Photoshop.

AMD launched its long-awaited Puma laptop platform this morning into an unexpectedly open market after Intel was forced to delay its refreshed Centrino 2 ["Montevina"] platform.

Puma is built around AMD's Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile processor but the vendor has put HD at the centre of its pitch. Puma features integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics and supports DirextX10. It will also offer other discrete ATI Radeon graphics set-ups. Part of the pitch is its ability to run both the built-in and discrete graphics set-ups in tandem.

At the logic level, MacBook, the benchmark for success in mainstream notebooks, is unremarkable - indistinguishable from every PC notebook built on Intel Core 2 and its chipset-integrated graphics. Why, then, can't anyone with the same parts list emulate Apple's growth in an otherwise stagnant notebook market? Because Apple painstakingly hand-optimized its OS for a tiny variety of hardware architectures, presently Intel Core 2, while Microsoft wrote Vista to run on absolutely everything. No PC notebook maker can take the proprietary route that Apple plays to such advantage.

Microsoft can't crank out proprietary cuts of Vista for each notebook vendor's choice of suppliers. The best hope is a hardware architecture that's optimized for Vista. Not only that, but optimized for 64-bit Vista running on a battery. That radical objective drove AMD's design for the total notebook platform nicknamed Puma, and now dubbed, temporarily I hope, AMD's Next Generation Notebook Platform. This platform's Turion X2 Ultra 64 CPU is not cut from the common cloth of adapted desktop platforms like Core 2 that rely on machinations of the OS to balance performance with battery life....

Apple, Inc. and Microsoft disagree on who needs to fix a security threat that blends Apple's Safari and Microsoft's Internet Explorer browsers. The Safari hole allows dumping executable files on a desktop, and Internet Explorer lets an attacker run those files. Apple says the problem is not a security issue, and Microsoft says it's Apple's fault.

Microsoft is sounding the alarm in Apple's camp, warning that a previously disclosed flaw in the Safari browser could spell trouble for Windows users. Another flaw in Internet Explorer makes the situation worse.

Apple is not treating the blended threat as a security issue, but as a further reason to raise the bar against unwanted downloads. Who will take responsibility for fixing the issue remains to be seen.

My sleep addled brain slowly came online, registering what she said to me. I cast a quick glance at the digital clock on the nightstand and sure enough it was dead. There was a mild thunderstorm in our area. As I lay there debating whether this required action on my part....

It's rare the power goes out in our area and if it does, it never stays off more than a couple of minutes. The UPSs that powered the various machines in the basement could easily handle a 2 or 3 minute outage. That's when my wife said:

"It's been out for about 15 minutes."

Ninja like I sprang into action, racing down the now pitch black stair case and hoping I wouldn't twist an ankle and plunge headfirst to an embarrassing demise: "Local hero perishes in valiant effort to save data" would be an unlikely headline. "Local idiot dives off staircase for computer and dies" would probably be it. You know you've been in IT too long when you hear the bleeping of a UPS alarm and have the same visceral response a mom does to a crying baby; "they need me"! Damn, I am such a geek.

Does anyone out there still use film in his camera? Photo film, like typewriter ribbon, television antennas, and leaded fuel, has been reconciled to the dusty storage room of history where all once-cutting-edge technology seems eventually to land. Some diehards still insist on clattering away on their old Remingtons or tooling around the countryside in their vintage Packards, but the rest of us have moved on.

In fact, the digital camera conquest of the consumer photography business has been near-total... more than 6 out of 10 individuals in the U.S. owns a digital camera. There are several reasons behind this rise. First, digital cameras have become easier to use; second, thanks to broadband Internet penetration, more users are able to upload and share their photographs online; and lastly, digital cameras have become a lot cheaper.

That's good news for consumers, but it presents a problem for camera makers. Like the computer, another popular device whose success eats into its profitability, digital cameras are in an increasingly mature market, as it nears maximum penetration and its rate of growth slows. (Not to mention increasing competition from constantly improving cell-phone cameras.) The trick now is to enter new markets as well as develop new technologies that will keep existing users coming back......

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