Free Republic

Al Jazeera International, the English version of the leading Middle East broadcaster, has switched to Mac. The broadcaster has deployed a swathe of Apple products across its organisation, covering editing, post-production and archiving solutions. It has reached a deal with Arab Business Machines to deploy a major installation of Macs: 41 MacBook Pros (with Final Cut Studio) for journalists; a 70TB Apple storage solution using ten 7TB Xserve and RAID systems; 14 Xsan licences; 12 PowerMac G5 Quads; two Power Mac G5 Dual Cores; and 19 23-inch Apple Cinema Displays. Based in Doha, Qatar, Al Jazeera International has the status...

TECH BEAT - When it comes to IT investments by businesses large and small, it's all about the numbers. After the dot-com boom went bust, many CEOs started to question ballooning IT expenses. In place of conversations about being on the leading edge of technology, companies started talking about cutting their IT costs. But there are other numbers beyond the sticker price business executives need to think about, particularly when making decisions about the next upgrade cycle. Known as total cost of ownership, such approach often leads companies to realize that higher-end computers offering more benefits than low-end machines because...

Though Apple Computer updated its latest OS this week to solve a security problem with widgets, worries persist that the small applications still pose a potentially serious risk. Widgets, or small programs that automatically install after downloading, were introduced in Tiger for the Dashboard, which overlays the desktop. An attacker could write a malicious widget for Mac OS X 1.4 Tiger that would run invisibly in the background and hijack a user's "sudo," or administrative, privileges on a system, according to an alert distributed on the Full Disclosure mailing lists late Wednesday. With administrative privileges, the attacker would have full...

Apple Computer Inc. has retaliated against the publisher of an upcoming unauthorized biography about chief executive Steve Jobs by removing dozens of other technology books sold by the publisher from Apple stores around the world. Apple removed the books last week from all 104 of its stores after failing in a monthlong attempt to persuade John Wiley & Sons not to release "iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business," which is to go on sale within the next six weeks, the publisher said. The book-spurning is only the latest attempt by Apple executives to crack...

Back when Apple was settling a lawsuit with the Beatles and agreeing not to switch from the computer industry to music, the idea of Apple Computer being in the same business as Apple Records seemed a bit silly. And yet today, computer technology has advanced so rapidly that today there’s no telling where computers stop and music begins. The result is a potentially cataclysmic clash of special interests, and Apple’s right in the middle of it. As a technology company, Apple is in the business of creating innovative products and selling them to you and me. But today, a lot...

While the Apple spotlight has been on the overwhelming and continued success of its iPod, Apple’s albeit “mini” but growing share of the computer marketplace, developers continue to spawn some new and “renewed” products. Here’s a few I’ve been working with that you may want to consider for your Mac’s arsenal. Virtual PC 7 After having purchased Connectix almost two years ago, this past fall Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit once again has shown its commitment to the Mac OS platform, by releasing under its own brand, Virtual PC 7 (VPC7). Virtual PC, in its various flavours allow you to run...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Hacker attacks on Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh OS X operating system, thought by many who use the Mac to be virtually immune to attack, are on the rise, according to a report from anti-virus software vendor Symantec Corp.

This is a 'blog for Mac and Apple stuff. IOW, not a 'blog for how wonderful and innovative Dull and Windulls is.

A couple of weeks after its unveiling, the budget-priced Mac mini has begun shipping. Targeted at would-be switchers and “adders,” the mini is easily the lowest-priced Mac desktop ever. There are always Mac owners who are looking to upgrade older equipment or looking to own a small form factor Mac. Many of those have snapped up Mac minis. However, some of the new Mac mini owners are Windows or Linux users who have always wanted to fool around with Mac OS X, but have been turned off by the Apple’s price structure. A dual-CPU G5 tower will set you back...

Bowie State Univ. launches XSEED Xserve cluster Bowie, Md.'s Bowie State University has launched a new 224-node High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster based on Apple's Xserve G5. Called XSEED, the system won't just be used for mathematics and computer science -- its administrators plan to see the system used campus-wide, for arts and sciences. The 224-node cluster utilizes 112 individual Xserve G5s, each equipped with two 2GHz processors, 2GB of RAM and 80GB hard disks. The system uses a Myrinet 4GB/sec switch for internode communication. Apple's Xsan storage area network technology is also being used; Matties estimates XSEED has about...

Nearly a decade ago, just a few months after Microsoft shipped Windows 95, I asked Bill Gates if it was a conscious decision in the development of that product to give Windows more of a Mac look and feel. Of course I knew he'd say it wasn't, but I couldn't resist asking. "There was no goal even to compete with Macintosh," Gates proclaimed. "We don't even think of Macintosh as a competitor." That was a crock, so I pressed the issue a little. I asked him how he accounted for the widespread perception that Windows 95 looked a lot like...

Jef Raskin, the human-computer interface expert largely credited with beginning the Macintosh project for Apple Computer, died Saturday at age 61. Raskin, the author of The Humane Interface, died of cancer, according to a man who answered the telephone Sunday at Raskin's Pacifica, Calif., home. Raskin joined Apple in January 1978 as employee No. 31, but left the company in 1982 amid a well-documented dispute with Steve Jobs. The Macintosh was launched in 1984. Reskin was an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, and a visiting scholar at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in the 1970s when...

AJA Video Systems Inc. announced Friday that a Power Mac G5 equipped with Apple's Final Cut Pro HD software and AJA's KONA 2 video cards is helping Fox Sports broadcast this year's NASCAR races, beginning with the recent Daytona 500 on February 20, 2005. Similar configurations have been used by Fox Sports to help broadcast last year's World Series games and this year's Super Bowl. AJA says that Fox Sports will use the Power Mac G5 throughout the NASCAR 2005 - 2006 season. The rig is being used as "a tool for live television," according to Fox Sports Vice President,...

APPLE SECURITY UPDATE: Available for: Java 1.4.2 CVE-ID: CAN-2004-1029 Impact: Updates Java to address an issue where an untrusted applet could gain elevated privileges and potentially execute arbitrary code. Description: A vulnerability in the Java Plug-in may allow an untrusted applet to escalate privileges, through JavaScript calling into Java code, including reading and writing files with the privileges of the user running the applet. Releases prior to Java 1.4.2 on Mac OS X are not affected by this vulnerability. Further information is available in Document ID 57591 from Sun.

This is the "early 2005" version of what is consistently one of our most popular reports. I was recently invited by San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and WhisperPC to help test a Dual 3.4GHz Xeon system and a 64 bit "3500+" (2.2GHz) Athlon system. They were trying to choose a high end PC to use as their recommended workstation for themselves as well as for those remote scientists wanting to run the custom visualization software produced at SDSC and commercial applications (like Maya). Though the G5 Power Mac wasn't being considered by SDSC, I thought it was a perfect time...

Apple to rename Rendezvous as part of copyright deal Friday, February 18, 2005 @ 3:30pm In the coming months, Apple will change the name of its Rendezvous networking technology to "Bonjour," according to documents shown to AppleInsider. Last year, Tibco Software entered into a trademark dispute with Apple over its use of the Rendezvous name, alleging that the Apple technology, used in products such as Mac OS X and the iTunes Music Store, infringed on its exclusive rights to the Rendezvous name. In July 2004, the two companies agreed to end the dispute through a mutual out of court settlement....

have no idea what this means

Apple releases Mac OS X v10.3.8  Technology - MacCentral Apple on Wednesday posted Mac OS X (news - web sites) v10.3.8. The new version of the operating system is available for download directly from Apple's Web site as a 27.7MB file, and through the Software Update system preference pane. If you don't find it right away through Software Update, be patient, as its distribution is spreading. According to Apple, key updates in this release include improved OpenGL technology and updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers; improved file sharing and directory services for mixed Mac and PC networks; improved compatibility for...

A malicious script that spies on Apple Mac users was discovered over the weekend. The malware, which has been dubbed ‘Opener’ by Mac user-groups, disables Mac OS X’s built-in firewall, steals personal information and can destroy data. Security experts say these traits are common among the thousands of viruses targeting Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system but are virtually unheard of amongst the Apple Macintosh community. Paul Ducklin, Sophos’ head of technology in the Asia Pacific, told ZDNet Australia that the malware, which Sophos calls Renepo, is designed to infect any Mac OS X drives connected to the infected system and...

Last week, I wrote an article comparing the Mac mini to a “$399” Dell. Although I assumed it would generate some discussion, I wasn’t quite prepared for the reaction: A bunch of “letters to the editor,” scores of direct emails, and over 180 responses (and counting) in the related discussion thread in the Macworld forums. It seems people are interested in how the Mac mini stacks up against budget Windows PCs. [Before I continue, I just have to say that the article, which I thought was reasonably fair to both sides, generated a good number of less-than-friendly replies from apparent...