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About this site

For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Saturday, July 03, 2004

Mac or PC? That is the question ...

Knight Ridder/Tribune News: "As I walked home I realized I should have mentioned another advantage of thinking Mac: a safer computing life. There are very few Mac viruses and worms. Mac owners can generally ignore all the worries that Windows users life with every day. And with Apple's new Mac OS appearing this week [actually, it's a year away. --Paul], Mac owners will also be able to get right now the new advanced hard-drive search and other features that Microsoft claims it will have in Windows, by 2006 or 2007. My general 'which system to buy' advice is this: If saving money is the most important factor, consider a PC with Linux. It looks and works pretty much like Windows, comes with all the software you'll need and can cost as little as $200 to $300 for the computer (plus whatever you pay for the screen). Walmart.com has some. If ease of use is most important, look to a Sony PC with Windows (Sony consistently makes the sleekest and slickest PCs) or even better, a Mac (solid software, superb design such as the compact iMacs [iMacs are currently unavailable and won't be sold again until September. --Paul], and dreamy extras such as the new 30-inch flat screen [which costs $3300, or about twice the cost of my first two cars combined, and won't ship until August at the earliest; it also requires a special $600 video card that only works with PowerMac G5 computers. These systems start at $2000, so a system plus card plus monitor will cost at least $6000. Yeah, it's a 'dreamy extra,' clown. --Paul]. Go to an Apple store to see how the Macs look and feel. Or get a glimpse at www.apple.com. For anyone who wants to do e-mail, schoolwork and music, nothing beats a Mac plus an iPod. Windows can be OK, with work, and is sometimes required by corporate or school rules, but don't write off Linux or Mac until you've seen what they can save and do."

It's astonishing what gets passed off to the public as good advice these days. Does this guy actually know anything about the PC industry? My guess: He doesn't actually use Linux at all. And with this kind of expertise, I doubt he can afford a Mac either. Unbelievable.

[ Posted at 1:21 PM | Permalink ]

Average user not likely to pounce on Tiger

Seattle Times: "Assume the crouching Tiger pose for at least six months. Apple showed a preview of its next operating-system release, Mac OS X 10.4, which it will spring upon us in the first half of 2005. That could mean up to a year from today. With Panther purring along, Tiger's biggest impact will be on owners of Power Mac G5 computers, which Apple expects to sell quite a few of before Tiger ships. Tiger will take full advantage of the 64-bit G5 processor's power; Panther does not. While Tiger claims 150 new features, just as Panther did, an average user won't notice or care about most of them ... Like previous Mac OS X releases, Tiger will cost $129. It includes virtually none of the features readers of this column favored most strongly a few weeks ago."

[ Posted at 1:19 PM | Permalink ]

The mighty Mac

Tom Yager: "Apple is positioning the Mac client platform -- primarily OS X running on PowerBooks -- as a one-stop productivity and connectivity environment ... Apple and Microsoft are pushing Mac-client technology ahead at a fast clip. Microsoft recently released Office 2004 with capabilities I prefer to its Windows counterpart because the Mac hosts it so well, and because the engineers in Microsoft’s Mac business set a higher standard than making a clone of Office for Windows. The Virtual PC 7 x86 emulator isn’t yet released, but the new version’s compatibility with the Power Mac G5 will make it more useful for those times when you absolutely must use a PC ... I consider Apple’s client technology story to be the strongest. I’m not mourning the death of AMD64, Bluetooth, or rewritable optical media. Of course, Apple could still screw this up. It can goose megahertz to the detriment of unique Mac advantages such as battery life, and low heat and noise levels. Or it could mess up by allowing the quality of its overseas manufacturing slide by offering anything less than stellar repair and support, or by failing to keep its essential ties to the open source community strong. I’ll grant that there is more to success than technology. But mark my words: OS X will trounce Linux on the desktop (notebooks are a given) and give Microsoft a fast-moving target for Longhorn."

[ Posted at 1:18 PM | Permalink ]

CrossOver Office Professional 3.0.1

ExtremeTech: "One of the more common questions experienced Linux users get asked by those considering migrating from Windows to Linux is, "Will my Windows applications run under Linux?" Thanks to the folks at CodeWeavers, the answer to that is yes--for some applications, anyway. The company's CrossOver Office lets you run many important Windows applications such as various versions of MS Office, Internet Explorer, and Quicken. The new 3.0 release institutes a number of changes: CrossOver Office has been split into CrossOver Office Professional and CrossOver Office Standard (we're looking at the Pro edition today). Also, CrossOver Plug-In (the browser plug-in product) has been discontinued and blended into CrossOver Office Standard (existing CrossOver Plug-In users have been upgraded to CrossOver Office Standard licensees). The main differences between the Standard and Professional iterations are that the Pro version includes enhanced deployability features, multi-user support, volume discounts, and enhanced support. Most regular users will probably just want to opt for the Standard version."

[ Posted at 1:17 PM | Permalink ]

Friday, July 02, 2004

A theory about the Apple iMac implosion

In the wake of Apple's bizarre and unprecedented decision to not sell any iMacs between now and September, when the new iMac G5 will allegedly ship, many people are wondering what went wrong. I have my own theory.

First, why didn't Apple simply announce the product at the WWDC this week, with the understanding that the product wouldn't ship for three months? After all, they do this all the time. In fact, the iPod Mini is arguably still not shipping three months after it was supposed to be released in the US. Well, it's simple: Doing so in this case would have killed existing iMac sales. But because Apple would have had to keep making them to keep up with any remaining demand, its iMac sales figures for 2004 would have been doubly miserable, as unpurchased stock sat on shelves. As we know, iMac sales for 2004 were miserable already, and falling fast: Many reports have noted the sharp declines in year-over-year iMac sales lately.

By simply canceling the current iMac line, however, Apple has an out: When the iMac sales figures for 2004 nose-dive, as they would have anyway, the company can simply point to its mid-year "problem" and cite that as the excuse: Sales would have been fine, you know, but we missing our replacement deadline and couldn't get the parts for the old units anymore. Who would complain about that? After all, the company apologized for the error.

It's obvious, really. If Apple had just kept quiet about the next iMac, as it might have normally, the expected super-poor summer iMac sales (because many people would have held off for an expected G5 version) would have lessened the appeal of the product line, maybe damaged it irreparably. But by simply canceling the product, they have a ready-made excuse about the sales, and can build excitement in a G5-based product. And when that product takes off, they look great.

However, two things need to happen for that last bit to work. First, the G5 iMac has to be less expensive than the current models, significantly less expensive. With perfectly workable PCs selling for $500 these days, the $1500-$2000 iMac was a tough sell, even with its beautiful flat panel displays. Second, Apple is going to have to sell a bunch of the things to make up for the falling (and, now, non-existent) sales. That means they can't cripple the things like they did with the previous generation. The next iMac has to be incredible, or it's Game Over.

Can Apple create an expandable, powerful, and cheap iMac? Will it be an all-in-one unit, or will they leave that market to the eMac? I'm all for a cheap, headless iMac, but they need to make some cheap displays too. The current displays, as good as they are, are just too expensive for consumers. This will all make for an interesting summer of speculation, of course...

[ Posted at 3:36 PM | Permalink ]

Apple Must Make Strong Case for Xserve G5 Adoption

MacNewsWorld: "Apple's Xserve G5 is a powerful machine -- just not in ways that are easy to get across to the IT market. It is not a general-purpose computing barn burner. In business-style integer and floating-point tests, a 2-GHz Xserve G5 comes in at about half the calculating power of a 2.2-GHz Opteron running in pure 64-bit mode. The G5's memory performance is excellent, but it degrades in a linear fashion under load, whereas Opteron's memory performance degrades more slowly. Opteron is cheaper, faster in common computation, and more consistent in terms of how fast it accesses memory. In light of these facts, it's hard to make a traditional IT case for Xserve G5. IT departments generally base their PC server purchasing decisions on criteria that reflect the strengths of the x86 architecture: the highest clock speed, the largest CPU cache, and the maximum amount of memory they can afford. With Xeon and Opteron, a system is the same thing as a computer. If that's your viewpoint, nothing about Xserve G5 quickens your heartbeat."

[ Posted at 2:31 PM | Permalink ]

Mozilla Feeds on Rival's Woes

Wired: "Hackers have long insisted that steering clear of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser is one of the easiest ways to protect computers from many of the security threats that lurk on the Internet. That suggestion is often greeted with apathy or angry accusations that the geek in question was indulging in Microsoft-bashing -- admittedly a not-uncommon activity in hacker circles. But last Friday, in response to the latest security exploit involving Microsoft products, the usually staid U.S. government's Computer Emergency Readiness Team, or US-CERT, published a warning strongly suggesting that users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer should switch to another Web browser, due to 'significant vulnerabilities' in technologies included in IE ... many evidently took CERT's warning to heart and downloaded Mozilla or Mozilla's Firefox, free, open-source Web browsers developed and distributed by the Mozilla Organization, who resurrected the remnants of Netscape after it was purchased by AOL in 1999. Downloads of Mozilla and Firefox -- an advanced version of Mozilla -- spiked the day CERT's warning was released, and demand has continued to grow. According to Chris Hofmann, engineering director at the Mozilla Foundation, formed last July to promote the development, distribution and adoption of Mozilla Web applications, downloads of the browsers hit an all-time high on Thursday, from the usual 100,000 or so downloads on a normal day to more than 200,000."

Friends don't let friends use IE.

[ Posted at 2:29 PM | Permalink ]

Linux kernel: Moving closer to Windows?

ZDNet UK: "Security and the way windowing is handled remain two of the diminishing differences between Linux and Windows, according to one of the main speakers at Microsoft's developer conference. At Microsoft's Tech Ed conference in Amsterdam on Wednesday, a session was devoted to how, according to one Microsoft fan at least, the Linux kernel is beginning to resemble, well -- Windows. The talk, given by Mark Russinovich, chief software architect for Winternals Software and co-author of Inside Windows 2000, 3rd edition (published by Microsoft press), was clearly delivered to a home crowd, and its message was clear: Linux is paying catch-up with Windows and the gap is narrowing. It all means, said Russinovich, that the kernel is becoming less relevant. Both kernels are monolithic, he noted, meaning that all core operating system services run in a shared address space in kernel mode. And, he asserted, both have a common heritage. 'Both operating systems had their origins in the 1970s and their real birth in the 1990s and have been evolving quickly since then. The two operating systems are very similar from a kernel perspective, because as engineers work on problems they look around to see what’s working elsewhere. So you end up with a lot of similarities,' said Russinovich ... Russinovich's presentation, which he claimed to have run by Torvalds, Cutler and Linux kernel developer Ingo Molnar, did not cut any slack for what Russinovich characterised as u-turns by Linux developers -- most notably Molnar. For example, on making the kernel re-entrant (which refers to letting software be executed multiple times simultaneously), Russinovich cited an article he wrote which pointed out the lack of this feature in the Linux kernel. 'Molnar said it was a clear red herring,' said Russinovich, 'A month later he turned around and made all paths (in the Linux kernel) r-eentrant.' 'I also pointed out that a pre-emptible kernel is a lot more responsive to a high priority thread,' said Russinovich, moving on to his next target. 'The Linux kernel 2.6 was made fully pre-emptible.' As these and other differences have been removed, said Russinovich, the only major difference between the two operating systems is how windowing is handled. 'Windows has kernel windowing ... With Linux, you have messages transmitted which can degrade performance.' Security was also another area where there significant differences remain between the two operating systems. But ultimately, said Russinovich, the gap between the two operating systems will continue to narrow to a point where their underlying kernel becomes irrelevant. 'Layered services will become more important," he concluded.'"

To be clear, Marc Russinovich is a freaking genius, and I had heard about his attempts to get the Linux kernel developers to switch to re-entrancy had been originally rebuked. It's somewhat classic that a Windows kernel expert would help the Linux community fix their product.

[ Posted at 12:47 PM | Permalink ]

Poll: WWDC keynote missed mark

MacWorld: " A quarter of readers (26 per cent) would have preferred to have seen a new-look iMac, with another 20 per cent hoping for cheaper Macs. Other items on the wish list were PowerBook G5 (15%), colour-screen iPod (8%), 3GHz Power Mac (8%), video iPod (4%), Windows compatible software (3%). A further 5 per cent of the 1,602 voters were hoping for 'something else'."

[ Posted at 11:15 AM | Permalink ]

First Impression Of Tiger: Eh

Apple-X.net: "Tiger is Disappointing, to Say the Least. After getting my hands on Tiger, and giving it a try, I was simply not impressed. It was basically Panther with Konfabulator and QuickSilver now built into the OS. Worst of all, these new 'features' looked more like Windows XP than Mac OS X. We would post screenshots, but there really is not anything to show you that is not already on Apple.com. To be fair, Tiger did feel much quicker and snappier than Panther, although it still looked and felt like Panther. The biggest speed boost I noticed was present in the new Safari, it was--shockingly--much faster. Also, despite Spotlight's XP-like appearance, on my 1.25GHz Al PowerBook G4 it was nearly as fast as when presented by Steve Jobs in his Keynote--although there is much to be desired in the accuracy of Spotlight's search results ... Dashboard, Spotlight, and the new Finder search buttons freakishly resemble XP."

I've been critical of Apple's lukewarm Tiger updates, but let's be serious here for a minute: It's a bit early to declare that the whole release is disappointing.

[ Posted at 11:09 AM | Permalink ]

Apple's New iMac Desktop Won't Ship Until September

New York Times (free registration required): "Apple Computer Inc. said a new version of its flagship iMac desktop computer won't be ready until September, two months later than planned and well after it expects to run out of current models. In a statement, Apple said it had stopped taking orders for the current generation of iMacs and expects its inventory of these machines to run out in the next few weeks. 'We planned to have our next generation iMac ready by [this] time. ... But our planning was obviously less than perfect,' Apple said. 'We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers.' An Apple spokesman declined to elaborate. The delay is another problem for Apple's computer division, which steadily has been losing market share. Apple sold just 1.7% of the world's personal computers in the first quarter, down from 2% in the first quarter of 2001, according to market researcher Gartner Inc."

This is just bizarre. Did Apple actually just reveal that it had fallen behind on a product whose very existence it had previously never acknowledged? My goodness, is our little company actually growing up?

[ Posted at 9:23 AM | Permalink ]

Thursday, July 01, 2004

Mardi Gras Party in Boston, Macworld Expo-Style

The MUG Center: "Macworld ExpoAny experienced Macworld Expo-goer will tell you that, as good as the conference tracks and exhibit hall are, they are only part of the reason to come to Boston next month.There will be plenty of fun after dark at the 1st Annual Macworld Conference & Expo Attendees Party. The event will be even more fun because it will be Mardi Gras style, with beads, King Cakes, and a raffle. Entertainment will be provided by the Macworld All-Star Band, boasting the likes of Chris Breen, Bob LeVitus, Chuck La Tournous (a User Group Leadership Conference faculty member), Paul Kent, Brian Chaffin, Dave Hamilton and more. You can bet that the user group community will be well represented, so come on out and join the fun. Tickets are $20 in advance ($30 at the door, if you can get in), so register early and be at The Big Easy in The Alley, 1 Boylston Place in Boston on Wednesday night, June 14th to party!"

[ Posted at 3:05 PM | Permalink ]

Apple’s ActiveX

What Do I Know: "Ever since Dashboard was unveiled at the WWDC this past week, I’ve been following the slow leaks of technical information about the widgets (er, gadgets), with most of the good stuff coming from Dave Hyatt. Then this morning working examples of the gadgets appeared online. Between viewing the source code of the gadgets, cross-referencing Hyatt’s posts, and attempting to use the gadgets in any browser other than Safari, one point became painfully clear — Apple is launching their own, proprietary, non-standard browser API that looks, smells, and feels like ActiveX. For years I have railed against ActiveX, due to the proprietary, closed nature of the API ... but it would be hypocritical to say that Apple’s Dashboard controls are any different from Microsoft’s attempts at extending the browser to the operating system."

[ Posted at 3:00 PM | Permalink ]

Derivative, not innovative: Apple's Dashboard is a Konfabulator rip-off

As Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced a new Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" feature called Dashboard during his WWDC keynote last week, you could almost imagine the two individuals who developed the highly successful Konfabulator product seeing their life's work ebb away. What's most amazing is not that Apple completely ripped off their idea--heck, it wouldn't be an OS X release without Apple ripping off yet another small shareware developer--it's the speed at which Apple apologists raced to defend the company they do desperately love and explain that, hey, Apple would never hurt anyone.

Well, they're wrong.

The apologists are pointing to an ancient Mac OS feature called desk accessories to prove that Apple is not, in fact, ripping off Konfabulator. According to Inside Macintosh Volume 1, desk accessories were "mini-applications that can be run at the same time as a [full] Macintosh application" (page I-437). There were a number of standard desk accessories, including a calculator, an alarm clock, and a puzzle game. You accessed desk accessories by choosing them from the Apple menu; when you chose one, that window became the active window. "A desk accessory is usually a special type of device driver--special in that it may have its own windows and menus for interacting with the user," Inside Macintosh reads (page I-438). "You must create [a desk accessory] as a device driver and include it in the system resource file ... Device drivers are usually written in assembly language."

Why desk accessories?

The original Macintosh OS offered no true multitasking features, so you could only run one application at a time. Desk accessories offered a limited way around this limitation, giving users access to handy little helper-applications, or applets, which could provide specific functionality and run concurrently with the current "true" application. Most, like the calculator and notepad, were useful. Others were frivolous or fun. Hey, it was the early 80's.

However, desk accessories survived all the way through Mac OS 9, the last version of the "Classic" Mac OS. As "Mac OS 9 for Dummies" notes, however, "most desk accessories are pretty lame and you probably won't use them very often. You can rearrange your Apple menu so that desk accessories don't take up so much space." By OS 9, typical desk accessories included Calculator, Chooser, Key Caps, and ScrapBook. But OS 9, like the previous few Classic Mac OS releases, had rudimentary multitasking capabilities, lessening the need for desk accessories.

On Windows, Mac OS X, and other modern operating systems, the functionality of Classic Mac OS desk accessories is provided by true applications, because those systems utilize sophisticated multitasking and memory management features that were missing in early versions of the Mac OS. Indeed, Mac OS X itself features a laundry list of true applications that reads like rundown of previous generation desk accessories: Address Book, Calculator, Chess, Font Book, Stickies, and TextEdit, for example. None of these applications are implemented as desk accessories. Why would they be?

Meanwhile, two independent Mac developers, the folks who brought us the amazing Kaleidoscope skinning engine for Classic Mac OS, developed a cool little application that "use XML to structure images, and a scriptable language, like Perl, in such a way that someone who knew the basics of Perl could put together cool little mini-applications. The goal was that these mini-applications would just sit around on your desktop looking pretty, while providing useful feedback."

This application, called Konfabulator, answers a question that plagues all modern operating systems: Even though full applications provide excellent functionality, sometimes those applications, or the underlying system, needs to provide notifications to the user. These notifications could be about instant messaging contacts coming online, new email alerts, weather updates, or any other related functionality. In the past, applications would have to figure out how to send users these alerts, so Microsoft has undertaken a wide-reaching project to centralize notifications and alerts in Longhorn, its next-generation Windows release, through the OS (read more here). That way, users will have a consistent experience. But this issue isn't unique to Windows: All OSes have this problem.

On Mac OS X, there is no such consistent interface. So the developers of Konfabulator came up with a cool idea: Provide an extensible platform, on Mac OS X, for providing on-screen alerts to users. "The possibilities for something like this could potentially be limitless," the authors of Konfabulator write on their Web site. Collaborating, they settled on a JavaScript engine, because it would be easier for people to use, and a graphical front-end that would be visually appealing and easy for graphics creators to create.

At the World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2004 in June 2004, Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced Dashboard, "a semi-transparent layer that zooms across your Desktop with a single button click, similar to the way Exposé works ... The Dashboard is home to a new kind of application called Widgets. Widgets are mini-applications written in JavaScript that are designed for fun as well as function." The Konfabulator developers, rightly, thought this sounded a bit familiar. And they're right: Apple is ripping them off.

So let's compare the three technologies, shall we?

Desk accessories
Created by: Apple Computer
When: 1983
Purpose: Provide helper applications that can run concurrently with true applications in the single-tasking original Mac OS release.
Development style: Low level assembly language using a device driver model.
Example desk accessories: Alarm Clock, Calculator, Puzzle

Konfabulator
Created by: Arlo Rose and Perry Clarke
When: 2002
Purpose: Provide users with visual widgets that display status, alert, and notification information, usually from a back-end data source, Web service, or application.
General development style: Javascript engine driving UI elements called Widgets.
Example Konfabulator Widgets: Analog Clock, Battery power meter, Calendar, iTunes Remote, Weather Alert.

Dashboard
Created by: Apple Computer
When: 2004
Purpose: Provide users with visual widgets that display status, alert, and notification information, usually from a back-end data source, Web service, or application.
General development style: Javascript/Webkit engine driving UI elements called Widgets.
Example Dashboard Widgets: Analog [World] Clock, Calendar [Datebook], iTunes Remote [Controller], Stickies.

Time for a recap. Yes, all three solutions provide mini-applications but the similarities end there (using that logical, MS-DOS and Mac OS X are identical because both are operating systems). But only Konfabulator and Dashboard use a high-level Javascript programming interface. Only Konfabulator and Dashboard use UI elements called Widgets. Only Konfabulator and Dashboard are designed to "keep you up to date with timely information from the Internet such as stock quotes," as Apple puts it. In other words, only Konfabulator and Dashboard are the same animal. They are the same solution, implemented in only slightly different ways. And one can expect Dashboard 2 to simply make up any lost ground and completely overtake Konfabulator; it's the Apple way.

In short, Dashboard is a Konfabulator rip-off. To my mind, however, that's not the biggest problem with this situation. The bigger issues are that it would have cost Apple so little to make the Konfabulator guys happy and give them credit where it was due, and that Apple boasts so loudly about how it invented this feature and is innovative as a result. Well, Apple is certainly an innovative company. But in this case, they have crossed the line and have blatantly copied a great idea, even if they did implement it in a slightly different fashion. And anyone who argues otherwise is being partisan, and not intelligent.

More to the point, no one can argue that Konfabulator was "plugging a hole in the OS," charges aimed at previous developers who complained when Apple ripped them off. For example, the original few versions of Mac OS X didn't include a good way to switch between applications using the now-standard ALT+TAB (or, Apple+TAB on a Mac keyboard) keystroke. So an enterprising third party came up with LiteSwitch, a product for which I paid. Apple ripped them off, and the apologizing began: But surely Apple had the right, the absolute right, to enhance its OS. After all, not using a proper ALT+TAB is a missing feature, right? Hey, whatever. The problem was the Panther's ALT+TAB solution was almost visually identical to LiteSwitch. It was a rip-off. Ditto for Apple's Sherlock 3, which stole Watson's functionality: No one can logically argue that searching for movie times through a Web service should be an OS feature. But they do. Of course they do.

Dashboard is a Konfabulator rip-off. Obviously.

[ Posted at 12:50 PM | Permalink ]

Why Sun will open code for new 3D desktop

NewsForge: "Reaffirming its role as the 'benevolent guardian' of the far-ranging Java franchise, Sun Microsystems nonetheless continues to, in effect, tease enterprise developers and IT managers by opening the code of selected products. But not Java itself -- yet, anyway ... This week, Sun announced it is opening the code for its new 3D desktop software included in the newest version of the Linux-based Java Desktop System. Called Project Looking Glass, the software allows users to turn open windows and folders on the desktop on their sides -- and shrink them down to tiny sizes -- to open additional space on the desktop without having to close the window. Looking Glass works with Linux, Solaris, and Java applications running in the X Window System. Sun said the SDK will be available in a month or so and expects the open source community to lead the way on coming up with new features ... Kawahara said that he worked two hours a day for more than a year, including weekends, to build Looking Glass. He said he took no vacations and even risked his relationship with his girl friend to get the job done. 'I knew Microsoft and Apple were designing next-generation desktops, so I searched the Web about Linux, and couldn't find anything that had this, so I figured this is what I could do to (help) advance Linux,' he said."

[ Posted at 11:28 AM | Permalink ]

How to Deal with the Spatial Paradigm

OS News: "Gnome 2.6's recent switch from navigational to spatial mode within Nautilus was highly controversial. As probably most of you know, 'navigational' means browsing through folders in the same window, just like it works in Windows 2000/XP or in Konqueror. 'Spatial', on the other hand, is a very different concept of managing your files. Not only does each folder open in its own window, but the windows also memorize their exact position and size on the desktop."

This is, of course, utter stupidity, and the feature's only saving grace is that you can turn it off. On the other hand, the behavior of shell windows in Windows XP is a huge step back from previous Windows versions, so there needs to be some middle ground: That is, you should be able to use a single window for shell navigation if you want, but shell locations should remember their window positions if opened directly, and should remember their view settings (i.e. icon style, etc.) at all times. XP doesn't do this at all, and it's stupid.

[ Posted at 11:25 AM | Permalink ]

Novell Announces Availability of Mono 1.0

Novell: "Novell today announced the availability of Mono 1.0, an open source development platform based on the .NET framework that allows software developers to efficiently build Linux and cross-platform applications to benefit their customers or co-workers. A community initiative sponsored by Novell, the Mono project makes it far easier to build and develop applications on Linux and other platforms, allowing developers to get software to market faster and more cost effectively."

.NET applications on UNIX? What is this, a planet ruled by apes?

[ Posted at 11:23 AM | Permalink ]

Apple is as predatory as Microsoft

Gigaom.com: "Think of me as a glutton for punishment. What I am about to write is going to get me a smack-down from Apple lovers all across the planet. As full disclosure, I love my OS-X, love my IPod and my miniPOD. In fact I support Apple by buying ridiculously expensive peripherals and accessories. In fact, I can ill-afford a new PowerBook ever year, but I forsake my Dunhill’s and Gray Goose for three months to pay for the shiny object of desire. But today, I was simply and completely disgusted by Apple’s actions. The company announced its new OS, code-named Tiger. It looks very nice and cool. It has tons of new features and one in particular are the reason I am writing this post: Dashboard ... it is a direct rip-off of Konfabulator, a $25 Macintosh program which has been doing this for the longest time. Shame on you Apple! ... This is a sign that Apple is as predatory that Microsoft and is perhaps more evil than the Barons of Redmond. Why? because time and again, Apple takes the best ideas from the 'lone coder' community and subsumes into its operating system. It wants everything in the OS, just like [Microsoft does with] Windows."

I have yet to see an example where Microsoft went after an individual writing a single shareware application, but then there is so much more third party development on the Windows side, that kind of thing wouldn't typically generate much news. It seems to me that Microsoft does have a track record of killing off huge companies, however. Kind of interesting comparison: I wonder that Apple doesn't ever try to take on companies its own size. On the playground, we call such people bullies.

[ Posted at 11:19 AM | Permalink ]

Sony Debuts 20 Gigabyte Walkman to Silence IPod

Reuters: "Sony said on Thursday it is launching a Walkman digital music player capable of storing far more songs than Apple Computer's market-leading iPod, while also undercutting iPod's price. The Japanese consumer electronics maker said the 20-gigabyte device, which is its second hard-disk drive gadget aimed at unseating Apple and can store 13,000 songs, will be launched on July 10 in Japan, by mid-August in the United States and in September in Europe. Dubbed the Network Walkman NW-HD1, it marks a major upgrade to the legendary Walkman brand and the announcement comes on the 25th anniversary of the introduction of Sony's groundbreaking portable music player -- July 1, 1979 ... Sony said it packed more songs [than the 40 GB iPod] in a smaller storage space by using advanced compression technology ... 'I don't know if we can take this market back in a year ... But this launch is our message that we will work hard to put an end to the dominance by just one company,' Sony President Kunitake Ando said."

Ah yes, there's nothing like Sony's naming conventions. The name "Network Walkman NW-HD1" just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Kind of makes your forget there ever was an iPod, doesn't it? LOL. On the other hand, Sony has sold 340 million Walkman devices over the years. Presumably, it knows something about this market.

[ Posted at 11:10 AM | Permalink ]

Tiger, Longhorn search for desktop answers

CNET: "Microsoft and Apple Computer are searching for the same thing with their next operating systems: a better way to find stuff on an increasingly cluttered hard drive. The software makers have made scouring for information a top priority. In large part, that's because hard drives have continued to grow, stretching the limits of old ways of accessing information, such as looking through folders."

Related: Can you give us a preview of what search will be like on Longhorn? ... "WinFS is a database platform. It's a storage platform. Developers write new apps, those apps use schemas to describe the user's data and rely on the system repository to hold those items. Full-text search is just one thing that you can build on that. Much more important, IMO, is what the database guys call query and relations."

[ Posted at 11:06 AM | Permalink ]

Sources preview Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Part 1

Apple Insider: "On Monday, Apple Computer supplied 3,500 of its developers with a preview copy of the company's next-generation operating system, Mac OS X 10.4 'Tiger.' Sources close to the company were able to obtain a copy of the software and have been previewing the new system over the last few days. One of the first facts to note is that Tiger was distributed on a single Apple DVD disc, and was not available to developers on CD. In the short installation note accompanying software, Apple states that Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Developer Preview will require a PowerPC G3, G4 or G5 processor, a DVD drive, built-in-FireWire, 128 MB of RAM and 2 GB of disk space."

[ Posted at 11:03 AM | Permalink ]

Wednesday, June 30, 2004

My Thoughts about the Apple WWDC 2004 keynote, version 2.0

JBQ's spot: "My experience with MacOS has been good and bad. Good, because the system is rock-solid, reasonably fast, and gets the job done. In my experience, Linux doesn't 'get the job done' for what I need (the Gimp is no substitute for Photoshop), and Windows seemed less predictable (although in my extensive experience with Windows XP it is definitely very solid, fast, and gets the job done). The bad part is that what were supposed to be the strong points of MacOS didn't materialize for me (plug-and-play and intuitive UI) ... I went to the Steve Jobs opening keynote of the 2004 WWDC on Monday June 28, getting in with a media pass in order to take pictures for OSnews.com ... I can't get myself to seriously trust anything that Steve Jobs said. In a number of instances I believe that what he said was false or wilfully misleading, and this definitely has a negative influence on all the other aspects ... My big problem is with Apple's propaganda on the one hand poking fun at Microsoft for probably copying in longhorn some of the features from Tiger, yet failing to acknowledge that some of the features of Tiger were at least 'heavily inspired' by what some other companies have been doing ... In some instances the Spotlight user interface to create some of the queries looked incredibly like the BeOS tracker, to the point where once again Steve Jobs' forward-looking poking fun at Microsoft for probably introducing a similar feature in a few years seems out-of-place as Steve Jobs himself should look in a mirror."

A good second take, but this guy doesn't know enough about the development history of Windows, as a lot of the Tiger stuff has been in the works for some time on Windows as well.

[ Posted at 2:34 PM | Permalink ]

Rendezvous for Windows Technology Preview

Apple: "Rendezvous technology is now available on Windows 2000 and XP. This preview release includes full link-local support, allowing Windows machines to discover advertised HTTP and FTP servers using Internet Explorer. It also includes a printer setup wizard which allows Windows machines to print to Rendezvous networked printers, including USB shared printers connected to the AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express Base Stations. With the included Rendezvous SDK, Windows and Java developers can begin the process of adding Rendezvous service discovery to their applications."

Download.

Also available: Rendezvous for Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD, and Rendezvous for Java Clients.

[ Posted at 2:29 PM | Permalink ]

Dell Announces Music-Player Replacement, Recycling Offer; Customer Choice, Value Center Stage in a New Dell DJ Offer

Thanks Eddis. Dell PR: "It'll be a bright summer for digital music fans tired of fading batteries. In 'A Deal that Rocks,' Dell is offering 15 Gigabyte (GB) Dell Digital Jukebox (DJ) music players for $99 after mail-in rebate to customers who send in an iPod for recycling for a limited time. Customers can also get free DJ shipping, 25 free Musicmatch downloads and a copy of Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition and Windows Media Player 9, for a limited time. The Dell DJ has up to 20 hours of battery life before needing a charge, about two times that of the iPod. DJ users also can choose to download their favorite music from the many MP3 and Windows Media-based download services on the Web. With A Deal that Rocks, music fans simply buy a 15GB DJ at its regular price of $199, download a $100 mail-in rebate form, and send in their completed mail-in rebate form with the discarded iPod to be recycled."

Interesting offer, though I don't expect many people to take them up on it. Still, I do have a semi-useless 5 GB iPod sitting around doing nothing...

[ Posted at 1:46 PM | Permalink ]

Commodore eVic Music Box?

World of Commodore: "Commodore presents the new portable jukebox with 20 GB of storage space for all your favorite music tracks. The Commodore eVIC musicbox is one of the most complete jukeboxes around, including high quality headphones and a small dockingstation to connect for example speakers or a digital camera. Just connect the camera to the docking, drag the made photos to the storage device and you can make new photos again!"

This just might be one of the craziest things I've ever seen. This, however, looks cool. :)

[ Posted at 10:21 AM | Permalink ]

Apple CEO creates a 'Reality Distortion Field' that makes even skeptics nod their heads in awe

Mercury News: "Apple has never been shy about adopting other people's good ideas, and there's already some controversy over a feature called 'Dashboard,' which collects a bunch of small software programs people use frequently -- such as calendar, address book, calculator or weather forecasts -- and brings them to the forefront for a quick display at a keystroke. Dashboard looks a lot like a currently available shareware application called 'Konfabulator,' which does pretty much the same thing."

The problem isn't that Apple isn't shy about "adopting" other people's ideas. The problem is that Apple acts like they invented technology they're ripping off and doesn't give credit where credit is due. The search stuff in Tiger is a great example: Every OS should have this kind of thing. But calling it "innovative" and "revolutionary" is a lie: Various companies have had products like this for years, and Microsoft has been very open about its search plans for Longhorn, and excuse me for finding Apple's inspiration for their search tech in Redmond.

But hey, ripping off Microsoft is fun, right? What about the small guys? What about the guys that made Watson, LiteSwitch, and Konfabulator, products that were killed in successive upgrades to OS X as Apple decided, screw them, those features should be part of their OS? What message is Apple sending to the people who are really being innovative on the Mac platform? The message is clear: Innovate and we'll kill you. It's the kind of thing Apple fans accuse Microsoft (often wrongly) of doing to Apple. I can't understand why Apple fans aren't more outraged at this obvious hypocritical behavior. This is shameful, sorry.

[ Posted at 7:00 AM | Permalink ]

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

An Engineer's Thoughts on Mac OS X Tiger

A surprisingly intelligent article from OSNews.com, where anyone can be a commentator: "Dashboard [is] a plain, simple and blatant ripoff of Konfabulator. The kind that makes you think that software patents aren't a bad thing after all. The kind that makes Steve Jobs look like a fool when the big banners for Tiger read 'Redmond: start your photocopiers'. Shame on you, Apple, this kind of behavior really doesn't make me want to give you any of my money, if all you do with it is drive your own developers out of business ... Steve Jobs claimed that the only OS transition ever to happen in the PC world was that in 1995 when going from DOS with Windows 95. Sorry buddy, but the transition from Windows 3.1/95/98/ME to Windows NT/2000/XP was at least as big. Or maybe I'd actually say that the PC world is unique in that it is able to maintain such a level of compatibility that no sharp transition is needed. The latest Windows is still able to run many 10-year-old applications. Most recent PCs can still run 10-year old DOS 6.22. By comparison compatibility in the Mac world is a total disaster ... When I interview a candidate whose resume lists tons of different competencies, I very much like to pick one which I am familiar with and ask a few advanced questions, the kind that can only be answered with some real knowledge and/or experience in the domain. When I get an unsatisfactory answer, all I can assume is that the knowledge of the candidate in the other domains is going to be as shallow. Similarly when I listen to Steve Jobs' glorified sales pitch, I recognize a few areas where I have some level of competency, and my knowledge in those areas makes me realize that MacOS isn't the perfect operating system that Apple would like me to believe. In summary, I don't think that MacOS 10.4 is worth my $129 ... At the moment, MacOS irritates me so much that I don't even want to use it any more, which means that I'm not really doing any photography. If Apple doesn't solve those issues with Tiger (or if they do but create many new ones on the way) I have the feeling that I'll go back to using my trusted old PC. It might be noisy and slow, but it just works much better for me. Your mileage may vary."

[ Posted at 6:07 PM | Permalink ]

Macworld Boston - Why You Should Be there!

MyMac.com: "Macworld Conference & Expo - just what does that name mean to you? Does it bring to mind fond memories of meeting new people and watching live product demonstrations in anticipation of winning some coveted new piece of software? Do you think fondly of meeting some person face-to-face whose articles, blogs or forum comments you've been reading for years? If you've said no to these questions then you've missed attending the only one true Macintosh paradise. Think about it, where else in the real world have you ever been surrounded by the creative genius of thousands of people with the same interests as you? When you think of Macworld Conference & Expo your mind should focus on that magical Macintosh world of sound, sight, color and smells of thousands of people milling about a hall with one common passion."

Related: Hess Events List - Macworld Conference & Expo - Boston - July 12 - 15, 2004

I haven't figured out my schedule yet, but I'm going, and probably for multiple days. Who's coming to Boston?

[ Posted at 3:26 PM | Permalink ]

Apple Lets Cat out of the Bag

Wired has an interesting article in which Steve Jobs basically admits that Apple is, indeed, copying Longhorn search features. Presumably, that's the cat he let of out the bag. 'We think we are years ahead of Longhorn,' Jobs said. 'The other guys have been talking about it, and we're doing it.'"

Well, actually, Steve, you're just talking about it too: Tiger won't ship until the first half of 2005. But Microsoft talked about it first, and has a more complete, relational database-based solution that isn't limited to a handful of file types. Maybe that's why it's taking so long.

Jobs continues. "'It's very, very simple, and it's a really effective way to find anything ... it automatically finds stuff you'd never find by hand,' he said. 'We think it's going to revolutionize the way you use your system.'"

So does Microsoft. They've been talking about it for years, and have shipped two public previews of the technology since last October. Presumably, that's where Apple got the, ahem, inspiration. But what rankles here is that Apple could simply be honest about this stuff. Obviously, it's important for all computer users to find their stuff quickly. Heck, that's what computers are good at, right? But rather than simply ignore that others are working on more elegant solutions, Jobs has the nuts to brag about how Microsoft is ... insert the sound of history rewriting ... copying them? Geesh.

[ Posted at 3:12 PM | Permalink ]

My WWDC 2004 overview

Here's my quick take on Apple's announcements during the Steve Jobs keynote at the WWDC 2004 event yesterday, in chronological order:

AirTunes/Airport Express. Previously announced, and pretty much a niche product. I ordered one though, so relax: It looks neat.

PowerMac G5. Jobs pulls a fast one on his failed promise to hit 3 GHz by stating that moving to 90nm technology is an industry-wide problem. Heads-up, Steve: No one else makes your bold pronouncements. You're the problem, not technology.

Displays. They look beautiful. They absolutely should have shipped last August, however.

Mac OS X. 12 million users. Steve noted that the "conversion to OS X was complete." That means there are 12 million Mac users, not 25 million, as the company has continually claimed. I accept the 12 million figure as reasonable, despite the fact that many OS X users have probably purchased 2-3 versions of the OS.

Mac OS X "Tiger". Derivative, not innovative. "Revolutionary" search stuff that Microsoft already announced for Longhorn. A shameful Konfabulator rip-off. Won't ship until "firt half of 2005." 150 news features? Dear God. Mark my words: 12 of them are widgets. 11 are command line apps. And so on.

Safari. My favorite browser picks up an RSS aggregator. Snore. Like Tiger, this kind of thing is available all over the place. It's nice that Apple is adding it, but it should arguably be part of Mail, and not Safari.

Core Image and Core Video. Another Longhorn rip-off. "We're doing processing in graphics processor (GPU), not the CPU. It's all done with floating point precision." It sure is. And despite the non-original nature of this, it's still a good idea.

.Mac. I was an early proponent of .Mac, and it's nice to see the service finally taking off, with 500,000 paying subscribers. Tiger will be more closely integrated with .Mac, which makes sense.

Dashboard. Rip-off alert. Rip-off alert. These guys are pissed. They should be. But they shouldn't be surprised. God help any third party developer that makes something cool for the Mac.

Automater. This looks nice. As a visually-oriented company, Apple is good at taking difficult tasks and making them visual. On the other hand... what's the market? The businesses that would use this type of thing don't use Macs, and the people that do use Macs are creative types, students, and home users; they don't have much of a need for automation.

iChat. Wow. Multiple users. Imagine that.

One more thing. There wasn't one. No iMac G5? No color iPod?

[ Posted at 10:43 AM | Permalink ]

WWDC 2004 keynote webcast

Apple.com: "Watch Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, kick off the Worldwide Developers Conference with a preview of Mac OS X 'Tiger' from the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. See the video-on-demand event right here exclusively in QuickTime and MPEG-4."

For you Kool-Aid drinkers.

[ Posted at 10:41 AM | Permalink ]

Developer calls Apple's Tiger a copycat

CNET: "Apple Computer is predicting that rivals will mimic Mac OS X Tiger, but one developer says it's the new Mac operating system that is doing the copying. Arlo Rose is outraged at the similarity of Apple's Dashboard, previewed earlier Monday by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, to his Konfabulator, a $25 Macintosh program. Both programs allow easy access to small programs called Widgets, which can perform a number of useful little tasks. 'It's insulting, is what it is,' Rose said in a telephone interview. 'They could have at least offered to work with us or to buy it.' ... It is not the first time Mac OS X has stepped on what some see as other's turf. Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., previously expanded its Sherlock search tool to add features such as movie times and yellow pages in a format that closely paralleled a third-party tool called Watson."

And another loyal Apple developer gets screwed over by the mothership. Business as usual in Cupertino.

[ Posted at 10:39 AM | Permalink ]

Firefox, Thunderbird Minor Upgrades Released

MozillaZine: "Mozilla.org today released upgrades to both Firefox 0.9 (0.9.1) and Thunderbird 0.7 (0.7.1) to fix some minor bugs present in both releases. Both releases correct some flaws in the extension system that some users may have been experiencing, as well as a new icon set for the navigation toolbar on Windows and Linux in Firefox 0.9.1. All users of both products should get this upgrade. Builds are available for Firefox 0.9.1 and Thunderbird 0.7.1, as well as updated release notes (Firefox, Thunderbird) for both."

[ Posted at 10:34 AM | Permalink ]

Monday, June 28, 2004

Is Apple Losing Its Sheen?

WSJ (paid subscription required): "David Foley, a reseller of Apple Computer Inc. products in Philadelphia, is having a quiet summer ... [he] concludes, 'We're not setting the world on fire.' This is a problem for Apple, which convenes its annual world-wide developer conference in San Francisco today. The innovative computer maker, headed by Chief Executive Steve Jobs, has lately been showered with acclaim for its iPod digital music players and its iTunes Music Store download service. But amid the hoopla, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is facing a dilemma: As the rest of the personal-computer market recovers from the protracted technology downturn, Apple's mainstay computer business isn't participating in the resurgent growth. Even as overall PC shipments grew 12% in 2003, Apple's computer shipments were flat for the year ... At the end of March, Apple dropped out of research firm IDC's top 10 list of world-wide computer makers for the first time ever. Apple's share of the global computer market has eroded across the home, business and government markets over the past year, dropping to 1.7% overall at the end of March, down from 1.8% in early 2003, says Gartner."

Finally, someone gets Apple's market share figure right. Bravo!

"And in the company's last fiscal quarter, Apple's computer sales were sequentially flat or down across all models, particularly for its flagship iMac desktops. The trend lines are worrisome because, despite the success of the iPod, computers are still Apple's core business. The music players account for just 14% of overall Apple revenue while Macintosh computers make up most of the rest. What's more, the Macintosh is slightly more profitable for Apple than the iPod. Macintosh gross margins are 23%, according to Wall Street analysts. Gross margins for the iPod stand at 22% and are predicted to decline because of creeping competition in the music player market" .... Attempts to recruit new users to its proprietary systems, however, have faltered. Apple has launched dozens of company-owned retail stores across the country, and spends millions of dollars a year on slick ads to tout such things as Macintosh's eye-popping software, such as its iPhoto system for digital photos. Yet most of the company's advertising is devoted to the iPod and iTunes -- a fact that turns out to be something of a Catch-22: Resellers like Mr. Foley in Philadelphia say that iPod buyers sometimes wander over to the computer displays in his showroom, but that the music players -- by now practically a fashion accessory -- rarely translate into new Macintosh sales. Apple has acknowledged the disconnect ... One reseller in the Midwest, who declined to be named, said his Macintosh sales are down 25% from a year ago. 'This isn't a seasonal blip,' said the reseller. 'Apple isn't successful because its computers are priced higher than Windows PCs. If Apple would just sell for less, they just might get a higher market share.'"

They might.

You know, it's interesting to watch the mainstream press catch on to what I've been saying for some time now. And it's not Apple-bashing: Apple just isn't selling a lot of Macs. The company needs to do something about it, be it a consumer-electronics tsunami and/or fast new computers that actually do outperform PCs. If it can't connect on either (or, preferably, both) of those initiatives, it's Game Over. The the perceived user interface and security benefits of Mac OS X don't amount to squat if no one uses the systems Apple makes.

[ Posted at 9:26 AM | Permalink ]

Redmond, start your photocopiers

Thanks to Claudio for some classic photos from Apple's WWDC 2004, which opens today in San Francisco.

[ Posted at 9:15 AM | Permalink ]

Sunday, June 27, 2004

Virus Designed to Steal Windows Users' Data

Washington Post (free registration required): "Hundreds of Web sites have been targeted by the virus, which exploits flaws in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Internet software, according to an alert issued Thursday by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), a division of the Department of Homeland Security ... CERT recommends that Explorer users consider other browsers that are not affected by the attack, such as Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape and Opera. Mac, Linux and other non-Windows operating systems are immune from this attack. For people who continue to use the Internet Explorer, CERT and Microsoft recommend setting the browser's security settings to 'high,' but that can impair some browsing functions."

Anyone who uses IE is "high," if I can paraphrase the CERT advisory. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Friends don't let friends use IE.

[ Posted at 4:54 PM | Permalink ]

Firefox 0.9.1 Screenshots

Neil's world: "That, my friends, is how Winstripe looks in Firefox 0.9.1. I’m not so sure whether I like it - to be honest I prefer the original Winstripe icons from 0.9, but then I don’t tend to use the default theme, preferring Charamel (now 0.9-compatible). As far as I can tell, all my installed extensions - Tabbrowser Extensions, Firesomething and Web Developer Toolbar - work fine. The only other theme changes affect the Theme and Extension Manager dialogs - here’s a screenshot of the new Theme Manager dialog, with new buttons and a new icon for the default theme. Firefox 0.9.1 obviously isn’t out yet, but you can download a nightly like I did."

I did that, and while the new version of Winstripe is indeed better than the original version, I'm forced to ponder: How could it not be better? It's still not as sharp looking as Qute. This whole thing is a shame.

[ Posted at 10:06 AM | Permalink ]

Gmail Notifier for Firefox

Neil's world: "This is quite cool - a Gmail notifier for Firefox. It sits on your toolbar and displays how many unread messages are in your Gmail inbox ... it's not the prettiest thing in the world (yet) but it seems to work fine on my release candidate of Firefox 0.9.1. Clicking on the icon logs you into Gmail. So far the RC of 0.9.1 is working fine, although the build I was using yesterday (built on Thursday) did suffer a couple of crashes. The final 0.9.1 should be out on Monday."

Ah, cool.

[ Posted at 9:59 AM | Permalink ]

First Tiger shots?

I don't usually push next-gen Mac OS X rumors here per se, but MacRumors claims to have the first shots of Mac OS X "Tiger": "Perhaps the most dramatic change, however, is the inclusion of a new Expose feature called Dashboard. Dashboard appears to be a Gadget/Widget based utility which provides users with a quick access (invoked by user-specified function key) to frequently used tools/applications. The tools available to users in the Tiger build include Address Book, Calculator, Calendar, iTunes, Stickies and World Clock. The tools provided however, are heavily themed with un-Mac OS X-like styles. It's assumed that developers will be able to provide additional 'Gadgets'. Confirmation or invalidation of these images should come at WWDC next week.

[ Posted at 9:51 AM | Permalink ]