Tag: Mac

Although there was nothing remotely Mac-related about the SXSW sessions, amazing to see that 70-80% of all laptops in the crowd were PowerBooks or iBooks. Traditionally, this would probably be explained by pointing to “the creative types,” but the crowd breakdown was weighted more to developers than to creatives. As Tim O’Reilly started noting a couple of years ago, the “alpha geeks” have been adopting the Mac at a rate much, much higher than the general computing population. And SXSW was alpha-geek-central. Other than not having to feel like a leper, some nice side-benefits of being at Mac-heavy conference:

– Being able to use Bonjour/iChat for the back-channel.

– The SXSW organizers built a really cool scheduling system: Once logged into their site, add sessions to your online calendar. The SXSW database kept track of how many people had logged interest in the session. Then subscribe via iCal to your own SXSW preferences and get an ideal iCal interface mapping out your week. Click an event and see not only the room number, but also how many attendees were expected to show up. Now overlay a second calendar for parties and a third for personal meetings, and you have a very slick organizational tool for conferences.

Storm of news over the past couple of weeks about the recent appearance of a pair of meek little proof-of-concept viruses for the Mac. It’s a news item not because the viruses are widespread, or because any noticeable damage is being done — it’s a news item because, until now, viruses for the Mac simply didn’t exist. Mac users have, perhaps foolishly, come to see their platform as a citadel of inherent security, leading to a common mindset that they can sit back and do nothing safely.

For Wired News, Leander Kahney writes Mac Attack a Load of Crap:

The smuggest of smug Mac users is right: the platform is more secure, and these new security threats are no more threatening than a paraplegic kitten. … Last month, there were four “massive” virus attacks on Windows, according to Commtouch, an antispam and antivirus vendor. Indeed, viruses are now so aggressive, they routinely outpace attempts by antivirus companies to distribute protective signatures. … These Mac “threats” are only news because of their novelty, not the threat level they pose.

Maybe, but once there’s a crack in the dyke, a village can flood pretty quick. For now, I’m with Kahney — I’m not installing any A/V software, nor am I suddenly regarding every email attachment or download as suspicious. But that could change.

In a way, this turn of events could become an acid test for the old argument about whether the Mac has been virus-free due to low marketshare or due to inherent security. If virus writers turn their attention to the Mac and go at it aggressively, the “low marketshare” part of the argument is mitigated, and we’ll be able to see whether the Mac really is inherently more secure.

Will it be possible to run Windows or Linux on Intel-based Macs? ZDNet has a FAQ summarizing a lot of the discussion out there on the topic. The problem primarily comes down the boot-loader. Current versions of Windows use good old BIOS, while Intel Macs boot from Extended Firmware Interface, or EFI. Until Windows can boot from EFI, it’s not going to be an easy feat. But Windows Vista will include support for EFI, and a version of Windows Media Center already does. And some Linux distributions use Elilo rather than LILO or GRUB, and Elilo already knows how to boot from EFI.

When a server at work that should have had gobs of free space suddenly claimed to be running on empty and we wanted more info than we could get from the find command, I discovered this little gem: Disk Inventory X, which quickly drew a map of files and folders on disk by type and space. Culprit turned out to be a 305 GB log file generated over the past few days by an out-of-control Samba process.

Pictured above is the main drive in my home Mac. Rectangles are files, and their containing rectangles are folders. Each color represents a different file type. Select a rectangle and it’s immediately selected in a corresponding file tree (not shown), and vice versa. The region selected in yellow represents my old unused OS 9 System folder. Trippy. And useful.

Skipping commentary on today’s righteous MacWorld announcements, but this is probably drowning in the noise: Google Earth is finally available for the Mac. And they’ve done a killer job with it. For severely directionally challenged knuckleheads like me, it’s one of the best spatial visualization tools available.

Boot up iPod for first time in two weeks and the icon of a sad Mac stares me in the face, with (most excellent) Xs for eyes, its tongue lolling out. An ominous clicking sound emanates – telltale sound of a shot drive. Hmm… just enough time to race to the Apple store before work. Genius notices that I bought AppleCare for it, calls me “his hero” (yeah, right). Goes in the back, pulls a brand new replacement unit from brown cardboard, sends me on my way with a new unit 10 minutes later, no questions asked. The experience could not have rocked harder. Always buy AppleCare.

Interesting: Asked if I could cross-grade to a Nano, and he said no. What I didn’t know: All Apple hardware replacements are like-for-like. Even though my iPod model is no longer sold, they still manufacture them as replacements. Apparently, Apple keeps manufacturing every device they make for seven years after they stop selling them, for just this reason. Otherwise people would intentionally damage their Macs to score upgrades.

Think Secret reports rumors about the “rebirth of the Mac Mini” as a home entertainment hub, featuring an Intel CPU and including “both Front Row 2.0 and TiVo-like DVR functionality.” True, there are already several Mac-based living room video recorder arrangements available… but not ones that come from Apple, who can now capitalize both on its iPod success and on the lower cost of x86 chips. Allegedly, its DVR functionality will be stellar: “Sources with knowledge of the project have dubbed the latter a “TiVo-killer.”

I’m still flummoxed by the relative lack of success of the Mac Mini as a general desktop computer. Amy’s has been flawless: Cheap, tiny, silent, attractive, and 100% stable. I’d be very inclined to use a home entertainment variant of it in place of the Tivo, especially if it offered a way around paying the monthly subscription, and let me burn DVDs.

Apple’s new photo management/editing software for professional digital photographers is called Aperture, which is to iPhoto as Final Cut is to iMovie. Pretty mind-blowing – marginalizes Photoshop out of the picture for most needs (though not completely). Downsides: It’s $500, and the system requirements specify a DUAL 2GHz G5. Talk about limiting your audience. Still, can’t wait to play with it.