:: Sunday, May 26, 2002 ::

Happy, happy days...

OK, so it doesn't take a lot to make me happy ... :: Lots to talk about today -- finally. I haven't posted in a bit because there just wasn't anything I felt like saying. I got my hands on the developer copy of Jaguar, and I'm going to try and not give anything away because of the non-disclosure agreement, but it's beautiful. I'm not kidding here. There are spring-loaded folders, the graphics seem crisper and brighter (I know this because I'm now back in 10.1.4, and I can tell the difference), and the system was overall faster. I had to go back in time and reinstall 10.1.4 because, well, the OS is in beta, and some of my important apps (like Toast Titanium), got broken and would just quit when I started them. So I'm back in the old OS now.

But this is the most amazing development in Jag: graphics rendering. In order to fully take advantage of Quartz Extreme, we've all heard, you have to have a supported video card with 32 or 64 mb of VRAM. I won't dispute this, but I could swear it does something with other configurations. I have a Bondi Rev. B iMac with one of the old ATI cards so far not supported by OS X. I've always had trouble in X playing QuickTime movies. They get choppy and I have to give up and reboot into OS 9 to watch them. Not so in Jaguar. Even with my meager 6 mb VRAM on a supposedly unsupported card, I watched a full-screen QT movie with no breakdowns in OS X.

The release isn't supposed to come until later this summer, but now I can't wait. Also, about something else others have been worrying about: the installation process. This of course is a preview and it could change, and I could probably lose my all of my Apple affiliations for writing this (but heck, I'm pretty sure they're not actually reading me anyway; my little lost corner of the Web universe), but Jaguar actually gives you three installation choices. You can upgrade your current OS installation, move your old OS installation into a separate folder (and import your user settings) or do a complete reformat. This is good news for those of us who have been frustrated by the OS X install process until now.

Jaguar will be very nice...

On to more important things: Episode II ... :: All is forgiven, George. There has been an awful lot of debate going on about "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones," and whether it's any good or not. I believe it is. I put it ahead of "Return of the Jedi" and most definitely "The Phantom Menace." But it still doesn't touch the original movie or "Empire Strikes Back." But that's OK. The movie is a great thrill ride, and it has a rich storyline and plot, one that will keep the Star Wars junkies analyzing for the next three years until Episode III comes out. The movie is a bit darker, much like "Empire," and really starts to subtly weave in the transformation of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader. It's a great flick. Go see it.

Back to Mac stuff :: Or at least stuff about Microsoft. Apparently, this wasn't on the Seattle Post-Intellegincer's Web site (I searched for it), but a guy on one of those crazy Mac e-mail lists I belong to posted this last week about Microsoft's demo of its new handwriting recognition software, something Apple also is planning for Jaguar. "One reporter scrawled: `Bill Gates is the chief software architect. He is a fervent proponent of all things technological.' The Tablet PC's translation: `Bill Gates is they software adulterer bees of fewest property out trope pedagogue.'" Since I don't have a copy of the article, who knows if it's true, but it's so funny, I had to post it.

Almost the end of the Megahertz myth? :: Some sites, including The Register, are starting to report that Apple will give a speed bump to its G4 processor at MacWorld New York this summer. The new chips will reportedly hit 1.5 Mhz, and I can assume that if they put two of those in a dual-processor machine, you'll be able to sit down at your Mac to work and find that everything you wanted to do has already been completed even before you touch your mouse or keyboard. OK, so it won't be that fast (or be able to read your mind), but it will scream, I'm sure.
:: Steve 12:22 PM [+] ::

May the force be with you

Today's the day :: Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones opens in theaters across the country today. No, I'm not trying to advertise for Mr. Lucas or anything, I'm just a big Star Wars fan (I think it has something to do with not being able to let go of a part of my childhood). There have been some excellent reviews of the flick and some not-so-excellent reviews, but I'm just posting to say that I'll probably like the film no matter how it comes out. There's something about hearing those opening notes to John Williams' theme music and that scrolling "what you missed last time" opening info that just makes me 5 years old all over again. To be honest, the movie after that could be two hours of Ewoks frolicking in the woods and I'd probably still like the flick. I mean, it's Star Wars! I'm going to see it Saturday, I'll post my own review here.

Can't leave Mac-enough alone :: Alright, now the PC world's copying of Macs is getting a bit out of hand. I don't have a URL for it, but I received an e-mail advertisement yesterday from ZDNet that featured a new "Platinum" line of laptops from Gateway. Sound a bit like "Titanium?" The darn things even look almost just like Apple's TiBooks. They have no shame.
:: Steve 8:26 AM [+] ::

Serve up your data with XServe

Apple enters the Enterprise server market :: Steve Jobs today summed up what most people in the Enterprise biz are thinking as Apple introduces the XServe, its new rack-mountable server. He said Apple is "humble" as it enters the market, because most people probably equate the Mac with Star Trek's "Enterprise" before they do the data service industry. But nevertheless, it is a nice machine. According to CNet News:

"The pizza box-size XServe, which has a sleek metal case, is offered in two standard models: one with a single 1GHz G4 processor and the other with dual 1GHz processors, both with L2 and L3 high-speed cache memory.

"The models, which are available as of Tuesday and start shipping next month, are both 1.75-inch 1U servers, a reference to how much space they take up in a rack. The entry-level model comes with 256MB of Double Data Rate memory and sells for $2,999, while the dual-processor model comes with 512MB of DDR memory and sells for $3,999.

"Both models come standard with a 60GB hard drive in one of four `hot-swappable' drive bays that can be filled with up to 480GB of storage. Hot-swappable drives can be changed without first having to shut down a system. Both models also include two 1-gigabit-per-second Ethernet ports.

"`This is the fastest Mac architecture we've ever built,' Apple CEO Steve Jobs said."

You can find Apple's page on the XServe here.

I'm trying a little serving of my own :: This is pretty timely for me, as I'm attempting to learn how to use the OS X power built into my iMac. I've installed the MySQL database server software, and am attempting to get PHP up and running, but have not been successful so far. Here's your tip of the day: the OS preference pane that turns on Web sharing actually turns on a copy of Apache Web server, the stable and robust Web-serving software used on many professional servers. Pretty cool...

:: Steve 11:05 AM [+] ::

Celine Dion killed my iMac! - and - Apple's sunset on Capitol Hill?

Help! Celine Dion killed my new iMac! :: There are reports all over the Web about the new copy-protected CDs being distributed by the gangster-like music industry. But reports are now starting to surface that these discs, most notably one by Canadian singer Celine Dion, have a nasty habit of locking up the new iMacs, which lack a manual CD eject button. These discs are protected from even being played on computers, let alone ripping the songs into mp3s that you can organize in your iTunes library. Apparently it can render a new iMac un-restartable. Although, there is hope if you're crazy enough to actually buy a Dion disk and stick into your iMac to listen to it. You can either hold down your mouse button while OS X boots (eject CD command) or hold down command-x (force boot into OS X and use the "eject" button in iTunes), or you can boot into single-user mode (command-s) and use an eject CD command, but I don't know what that is. Good luck, but if you ask me, if you actually bought the CD, you're getting what you deserve.

And no, I'm not just talking about Celine Dion (although, I have to admit, she's not exactly my favorite singer if you know what I mean). I mean buying a clearly-labeled copy-protected CD at all. We have to boycott this latest overzealous move by the recording industry. I can't make a copy of these songs to put on my hard drive so I can have a mix going while I work? I can't even listen to the CD while I'm working on the computer? That's b******t! That's like a publisher telling you you can't read a book if you're in the bathroom, and, oh, by the way, if you do, you may find yourself locked in Don't buy these CDs, that's the only way we can really tell them how we feel about this...

I'm just a Mac, on Capitol Hill :: Apparently, the M$ Gestapo lives on Capitol Hill in Washington, and it has a name: the Senate Office of the Sergeant at Arms. According to this Wired story, they apparently don't like Macs much and are practicing Macrimination against senators and their staff who are Apple addicts. I always wondered what was wrong with Congress, now I know. They all use Windows!

Big brother Apple? :: But, as we all know, Apple isn't perfect, either. Just take this latest fiasco involving the filtering of Mac.com mail. Apparently, Apple's spam filtering, which is turned on even when the user doesn't ask for it, is a little too good. Thanks, Stevie J., for trying to look out for us. But I think we can take of ourselves. We are, after all, Mac users.

25th Anniversary Mac? :: A member of one of the e-mail lists I belong to pointed out an interesting fact I hadn't thought of this week, which was pretty busy in itself for Mac news. But this year is Apple's 25th anniversary. Hmmm. Could we see another special anniversary edition machine like we did at 20? I don't know that I'd be able to buy one, though. The 20th cost something like $10,000, and that's a little out of my budget.


:: Steve 3:19 PM [+] ::

A new device in the wings?

Rumor of new Apple product hits the Web :: Actually, it's not really big news when an Apple rumor is published on the Internet. If it didn't happen every day, folks like SpyMac would go out of business. But MacUser is reporting on speculation that Apple's announcement of a new rack-mount server on Tuesday could be much more, like maybe even a digital video device.

Just thought it was interesting...
:: Steve 12:00 PM [+] ::

Jaguar: More than meets the eye

Leave it to Apple to leave out the best parts :: OK, it's been a day since the Mother Ship let some of the details of OS X's next release, code-named "Jaguar," out of the bag at the World Wide Developers Conference. Yesterday, I told you about some of the new cool things that will be included like the iChat application and the handwriting recognition software called "Inkwell." I didn't note the part of the update Apple is calling "Quartz Extreme," because, well, I didn't think it anything of note. It was way near the bottom and this was about all it said: "Quartz Extreme takes advantage of the OpenGL 3D graphics engine to make the entire desktop a fully accelerated OpenGL scene. A supported* video card can then render the drawing of the desktop, just like it would a 3D game."

Today a link to the photo you see at the right was sent to one of the e-mail lists I belong to. Click on the photo to go directly to it. It looks just like a photo of a screen in Mac OS X with some graphic things going on. But as the e-mailer on my list pointed out, some further investigation of the photo reveals some very interesting things. In the background, a DVD movie is playing. In the foreground are two 3D semitransparent objects being rendered in another program. Not only are they semitransparent, they reflect what is going on in the movie behind them.

This is a big deal. It means the entire desktop can not only have transparent windows and drop shadows, it means the entire desktop could work, if code was written properly, in three dimensions. Now, this would only be available to high end graphics cards directly supported by OS X, like the latest ones by Rage and nVidia, but it signals an exciting time coming ahead for personal computing. A time in which we can turn on our computer and instead of clicking on menus and icons sitting on a flat surface, we could have nooks and crannies and three-dimensional pieces of our user-space containing data. Think of it this way: It's as if your computer would become a giant closet and you could open it and look for things either on the floor towards the back, or towards the front. The possibilities could be endless.

Now, I don't know much about Quartz Extreme yet, and from this photo, it seems it still only works in what still is a traditional 2D desktop situation. But if it can truly render things in the way that we see in this photo, it could signal some wonderful developments ahead for the Mac OS.
:: Steve 8:42 PM [+] ::

Hello, Apple ... You watching?

Yup, that's a pic from OS X 10.2, code-named "Jaguar" :: I got it from SpyMac.com, which has a whole host of them up. I'm surprised the Apple Gestapo hasn't given them a cease and desist order as of yet. Always loving a bit of danger, I figured I'd join the pack a bit and send you over there, as well as post this little tidbit here. Cheers to the guys at SpyMac! Plus, I thought it would be fun to see if I could get my own cease and desist order from the mothership. There are other cool photos at the site, including one of Master Stevie's keynote address and the OS 9 coffin.

One of the coolest things you can see in the snap on the right, which is from the System Preferences app in 10.2, is the new line of preference panes called "Digital Hub," which includes panes for CD burning, photography and video. I wonder what they "adjust?" I guess we'll just have to find out later this summer.

In honor of Jaguar, I've posted a desktop on the desktops page called "Unleash the Animal."
Go, Jaguar!
:: Steve 7:27 AM [+] ::

Steve Jobs officially kills OS 9

At WWDC keynote, Jobs turns up the RDF :: At yesterday's keynote address at the Apple World Wide Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif., Apple Chief Executioner Steve Jobs brought the coffin holding the Classic Mac OS and declared it dead. Kind of like in the Godfather when Fredo betrayed Michael Corleone. "You're dead to me now, Fredo." Fredo lived, for awhile, but his days were numbered. The same will now happen to the Classic Mac OS. Apple is no longer developing for it -- at all. And it's encouraging developers to take the same path.

By the way, for the unitiated, Jobs' "RDF" is his "reality distortion field," his apparent ability to suspend normal reality at keynote addresses. I liken it to "Beach Shopping Disease." When you're on the boardwalk on vacation, in the sun and a bit giddy from the relaxation of it all, you often pass things in stores that you would never dream of looking closely at when you're at home. You buy something only to get back home and look at it and think, "Why in the hell did I buy that piece of junk?" Jobs has a way of making the ordinary, or even an incremental step in the evolution of Apple software or hardware, seem revolutionary when he speaks. It's just his RDF. Example? At yesterday's keynote, he really did bring out a real coffin and pulled an OS 9 box out of it to symbolically show the death of OS 9. Then, he went through some of the new features that will be in Jaguar, the next release of OS X, which will come out late this summer.

Here's a taste, from Apple's Web site:

The initial release of Mac OS X gave you the power of UNIX with the simplicity of Macintosh. But it merely paved the way for the next generation of hardware and software offerings from Apple and third parties. Here are a few of Jaguar’s extraordinary new features that will take us to the next level.

iChat. Jaguar includes a fun and easy to use instant messaging program, called iChat, that lets you have spontaneous, interactive conversations over the internet. If you already have a mac.com account or use AOL Instant Messenger, you can use those names immediately with iChat. That means you’ll be able to chat with your friends on AIM — and they can chat with you. iChat and Mail work well together, too — you can tell when a buddy is online when an icon is displayed next to one of her emails to you. Simply click on that icon to start an iChat session. As with other chat programs, iChat lets you exchange files and use smileys. iChat also uses the full Aqua interface to present instant messages in a graphically conversational manner.

Address Book. Jaguar’s Address Book provides a central repository for all your contacts. New in Jaguar, Address Book offers full support for vCards, a standard method of storing contact information. You can exchange vCards with other Bluetooth-equipped devices. If your cell phone has Bluetooth, you can select an Address Book contact and tell your phone to dial the number or send a Short Message Service (SMS) note. Address Book can also notify you of incoming phone calls and their associated Caller ID information.

Sherlock 3. Sherlock always made searching for information on the Internet effortless. In Jaguar, Sherlock makes it simpler to comprehend that information once you’ve found it. Now Sherlock displays search results in an interface tuned for each channel, instead of launching your Web browser. Sherlock 3 offers tons of channels, including movies, stocks, TV guide, flights, package tracking and even the Yellow Pages with inline driving directions. Just ask for a place name, and Sherlock brings up a list of likely candidates complete with map and directions.

Ink. Jaguar features advanced handwriting recognition. Graphics professionals will appreciate the ability to input text via stylus instead of switching to the keyboard. You can write directly in Mail messages and TextEdit documents, or use the InkPad to write text and draw sketches before sending them to your favorite applications. Ink requires an input tablet.

More ...

It looks pretty good, but none of it is really revolutionary, if you ask me. Chat? Yup, we've had that for awhile. A better address book? Cool, but how different is that? Better searching in Sherlock? I've been hoping for it for awhile.

The only part I'm truly impressed by is Inkwell, and according to this ZDNet posting from 2000, it is technology that's been hanging around Apple for awhile and is a remnant of the defunct Newton message pad.

But still, Jaguar is looking good, and its great to see that Stevie's RDF hasn't lost its power...
:: Steve 5:44 AM [+] ::

The sounds of silence from the WWDC...

Apple ties developers with non-disclosure agreement :: Well, as much as I love Apple, Stevie's up to his Top-Secret ways again. This week is the World Wide Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif. This is the annual event where Apple programmers get together and talk about their trade and take seminars teaching them new stuff. This year, the plate is apparently full of some forward-looking lessons regarding the next release of OS X, to get these programmers up to speed. And for the first time, Apple is saying that all of the sessions except for the keynote address are covered by the company's non-disclosure agreement. What does this mean? Oh, don't worry, we'll still find out what's in the next iteration of OS X (and whether it contains any goodies like a functioning time machine, a human transporter or a built-in microwave oven -- right on your computer!), but we'll have to go to the likes of SpyMac, which is promising exclusive coverage and apparently isn't as afraid of the NDA as others might be. Then Apple will threaten them with legal action, but the cat will be out of the bag, and we can all start planning to take that trip to the Middle Ages we've always wanted to go on when X 10.2 is finally released, hopefully this summer.

Getting to know you... :: O'Reilley Networks has posted the first of two parts of an excellent article on the history of Cocoa, which is OS X's most native programming language. By chronicling the history of Cocoa, which goes back to Apple's NeXT days, they're actually chronicling the history of OS X. It may sound boring, but it's not, actually. Check it out!


:: Steve 5:39 AM [+] ::

Newest member of the United Mac family

Meet Gacy the African cichlid ::Yup, I finally got my fish tank up and running again, and it's even got a resident. African cichlids are aggressive fish, and this guy's pretty big (about 4 inches), so I named him after the serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Actually, that came from a crazy conversation I was having with a friend on the day I bought him, but I won't go there. So far, he seems to be acclimating well. And for anyone who knows anything about this sort of thing, it's a 30-gallon tank with a crushed coral substrate (certain cichlids like almost brackish water with high Ph levels) and those rocks used to be live rock in a saltwater tank. The whole thing is cleaned by an AquaClear biological/mechanical filter. For anyone who doesn't know what all that means, don't worry about it!

But I'm not a student! :: There's more buzz this week over Apple's new eMac for the educational market and it's new PowerBook G4. You can find Apple's tech notes, for you true geeks out there, on what these machines can actually do here for the eMac and here for the PowerBook.

Also, there's been a little bit of a backlash against Apple for only offering the eMac to the educational market, according to this article from Wired.com. While I would never suggest that anyone lie or do anything illegal, just for information purposes I will tell you that the Apple store doesn't ask for any actual proof that you're a student or a teacher. That info is just for informational purposes, of course.
:: Steve 5:24 AM [+] ::