Surprisingly, even numerous second-generation iMac G5's have broken down short of their advertised life expectancy. Coming from my line of work within an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP), my opinion of the iMac G5's may seem a tad biased, as the only iMac G5's I do see here are the ones that don't work properly in one form or another. However, of all the Macs Apple manufactures and sells, it seems that the iMac G5 comes in for service the most of them all, second to the iBook line of consumer products - each with major hardware failures.

I'm ... inclined to believe that the design of the iMac G5 is slightly flawed, and that that particular flaw wasn't entirely resolved in the second-generation flow of the iMacs.

The iMac G5 typically suffers from one of three (or multiple) hardware defects - 1) blown capacitors on the logic board, causing distorted video and / or freezing; 2) a hard drive that has gone south pre-maturely, or; 3) a power supply gone bad after emitting a burnt-smell sensation.

Hard drives can get fairly warm, and it's expected. But the hard drives in some iMac G5's get a little more than just simply warm - some get to the point of boiling themselves out of service.

Something deep down ... must be seriously flawed if some of the iMac G5's are at risk of burning up and possibly burning down your living room in the process ... the iMac G5 could of been designed to be a little more reliable from the beginning.

Only two per cent of the internet population uses Really Simple Syndication (RSS), according to a new report from Forrester Research.

Principal Forrester analyst Charlene Li based the findings on a survey of 68,000 households in North America.

RSS use is highest among consumers between the ages of 12 and 21, five per cent of whom claim to use the technology.

As it marked the 75 millionth download of its Firefox Web browser, the Mozilla Foundation said it was expanding in several directions.

The foundation's open-source e-mail reader, Thunderbird, is approaching its 10 millionth download. Mozilla's browser for small devices, Minimo, reached a milestone, as a prerelease version appeared with tabs, a bookmark manager and RSS feeds. The Mozilla staff itself has quadrupled during the past six months, to 40 employees.

Research firm IDC expects Microsoft will increase its market share even more after Vista's debut. It predicts the company's share of all operating-system revenues worldwide will grow from 70 percent in 2004 to 77 percent in 2009, said Dan Kusnetzky, vice president of system software research.

Security advances or not, operating systems will be upgraded at the same pace as in the past, he said.

"I suspect that the adoption rate of this software will mirror the adoption rate of other versions of Windows," he said. "It's very likely to take maybe a year, a year and a half, before it's the predominantly shipping product."

Windows Vista Beta 1 is about what I expected to see in April, when Microsoft released build 5048 at WinHEC 2005. On that note, it's not a horrible disappointment like build 5048. However, because it lacks the end user niceties we'll see in the PDC 2005 build, in Beta 2, and in the final product, it's not something that will excite average users. From what I can tell, Beta 1 is primarily designed so that IT administrators and developers can check out custom application compatibility issues. And that's just fine. For the rest of us, seeing how the virtual folders will sort out is somewhat interesting, and I'm eager to use this organizational system full time, as I'm anal retentive about creating specific document folder structures right now anyway. Beta 1 is all about possibility and promises, and that's OK. My only real disappointment is that it took so long to get to this point: I first saw many of these features almost two years ago and now I want more.

On that note, as long as Microsoft can continue to meet and, God forbid, exceed expectations in future builds, then Windows Vista is on the right path. It might be worth comparing this build to Whistler Beta 1, which at the time only barely hinted at the goodness to come. But Windows Vista Beta 1 is much further along than was Whistler Beta 1. Maybe this thing isn't a train wreck after all.

I invite everyone interested to join the Utnubu Team. Utnubu stands for doing what Ubuntu does, just the other way around: We want to take the things Ubuntu does and that are missing in Debian, and - where appliciable - put them in Debian.

Apple today enhanced its affordable iBook G4 line for consumers and education customers with faster Power PC G4 processors running up to 1.42 GHz, 512MB memory across the line, higher performance graphics and built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth wireless connectivity. The new iBooks feature two patent-pending Apple technologies made popular in the PowerBook G4 line, the scrolling TrackPad and the Sudden Motion Sensor, with prices starting at an affordable $999.

Apple today announced enhancements to its Mac mini line, the most affordable and compact Mac ever, with 512MB of memory standard in every model and prices starting at just $499.

The Mac mini lineup includes three models: 1.25 GHz Mac mini, 1.42 GHz Mac mini and the new 1.42 GHz Mac mini with SuperDrive for burning DVDs and CDs ... The top two models of the Mac mini now include built-in AirPort Extreme for 54 Mbps 802.11g fast wireless networking along with an internal Bluetooth module.

The Commodore Amiga (the initial name of the Amiga 1000) was unveiled at the Lincoln Centre in New York on July 23rd in a media frenzy. For the launch Commodore had hired Andy Warhol & Debbie Harry (lead singer of Blondie) to demonstrate the Amiga's graphics capabilities using Island Graphics Graphicraft. This was accompanied by a full score synthesized by Roger Powell and Mike Boom, author of Musicraft.

It is difficult to indicate just how advanced the Amiga was compared to other systems. Apple had a graphical interface ... whilst PCs were still horrible text based systems. The Amiga also had an ace up its sleeve by the fact that it was TV compatible and could be used for editing footage. A task that even now the Mac and PC cannot do as standard. The Juggler demo, consisting of a character juggling reflective balls in a 3D environment, attracted customers to the graphical capabilities. This spurred Electronic Arts to rewrite their IBM PC package, Prism (which was an enhanced port of Doodle for Xerox machines) and release it for the Amiga during September. The rewrite was christened Deluxe Paint and the rest is history.

As computer operating systems get more secure, hackers are increasingly targeting popular applications such as Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes, Real Networks Inc.'s RealPlayer and Web browsers from Microsoft Corp. and the Mozilla Foundation -- and finding more vulnerabilities than ever, a security-research organization said.

More than 422 new Internet security vulnerabilities were discovered in the second quarter, up nearly 11% from the first quarter and up nearly 20% from the year-earlier period, according to the SANS Institute in Bethesda, Md. The institute encourages computer users to make sure their software is updated with the latest patches to protect against vulnerabilities.

The increase indicates that the heightened attention on security in recent years hasn't reversed the growth of software flaws that can let intruders gain control of both home and business computers.

"It's not getting better, it's getting worse," said Alan Paller, SANS's research director.

Hoping to pave a new path to its popular Web site, Yahoo Inc. has acquired Konfabulator, a tiny software maker that provides a computer platform for monitoring the weather, stock prices and a wealth of other customized information without opening a Web browser.

The deal, finalized late last week for an undisclosed price, gives Yahoo access to a toolbox of mini-applications — known as widgets — that have built a cult following since Palo Alto-based Konfabulator first introduced them for Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh in 2002.

Apple liked the concept so much that it includes a widgets dashboard in the Mac's operating system. With just three employees, Konfabulator designs its widget software to run on the ubiquitous Windows operating system as well.