According to billing...
> http://www.codeweavers.com/
> For today only (until midnight CST), you can download Crossover for
> Mac and or Linux for free
Bwahaha! Cheap bastard that I am, I investigated and...
Main Website Temporarily Offline
Due to the high volume of traffic for the Lame Duck Challenge Free
Offer, we have temporarily streamlined the CodeWeavers main website.
We apologize for any inconvenience. We still love Digg, even if our
server disagrees. ;-)
Use this form to register for a serial number. Due to load, expect
your serial number to be emailed to you in a few days.
--
Tom Dubinski Phone: +1.204.474-8841 Fax: 474-7609
Computer Science, E2-596 EITC CompSci General Office: E2-445 EITC
University of Manitoba E-Mail: tom_dubinski(a)umanitoba.ca
Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada http://www.cs.umanitoba.ca/~tdubins/
..from:
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/27/codeweavers-says-cheap-gas-free-software-tom…
Three months ago, CodeWeavers CEO Jeremy White offered a challenge to
another CEO -- the nation's chief executive, George W. Bush. If the
president achieved one of White's six "Lame Duck" goals during the
twilight of his 2nd term, White would make Windows-API enabler & WINE
GUICrossOver free to customers for one day. Some considered White's
proposal a great motivational tool for GWB; others found it smug,
partisan and kind of a goofy way to promote the company's products,
but in any event none of his six challenges seemed to be on the path
to achievement, so that's where the story should have ended. CrossOver
is a fine way to run Windows apps on your Mac, but as a force for
political change, not so much.
Then a funny thing happened on the way to January 20th: due to global
economic conditions and through no fault of the president, the price
of crude oil dropped precipitously and the cost of gasoline moved in
parallel... bringing the average price per gallon in Minneapolis down
to the target $2.79 level called for in White's goal #1.
http://www.codeweavers.com/
For today only (until midnight CST), you can download Crossover for
Mac and or Linux for free
- -- it's usually ~US$40 or so.
About CodeWeavers
CodeWeavers' mission is to make Linux and Mac OS X fully Windows
compatible operating systems. We do this through the power of Wine,
which powers all of our CrossOver products. The CrossOver products
make it possible to run Windows programs on Mac OS X and Linux without
needing a copy or license for Windows itself.
About Wine
Wine is an open-source reimplementation of the Win32 API for Unix-
based operating systems. Wine allows Windows applications to be run
without a Windows operating system license. CodeWeavers is the largest
corporate sponsor of the Wine Project, and contributes all of its work
free to Wine.
Crossover is a commercial version of the WINE emulator, that allows the
user to run Windows apps on Mac or Linux.
...from:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/an-elephant-backs-up-googles-libra…
October 13, 2008, 6:17 PM
An Elephant Backs Up Google’s Library
By MIGUEL HELFT
Google often says that it likes to take the long-term view of things.
But Google’s idea of long term does not appear to be long enough for
some librarians, who tend to equate long term with forever, at least
when it comes to preserving books.
On Monday, a group of major libraries that are participating in
Google’s Library Project, said they are working together to create
what amounts to a publicly accessible backup of the digital library
that Google is creating. The project, which is called HathiTrust,
includes libraries at 12 Midwestern universities like the University
of Michigan, the University of Iowa and the University of Illinois,
plus the 11 libraries of the University of California system. (Hathi
is Hindi for “elephant,” an animal that is said to never forget.)
In the Google Books Library Project, the Internet giant has been
scanning the collections of several large libraries. The company gives
users access to the complete text of books that are in the public
domain, and to snippets of books that are protected by copyrights.
Google also gives each library a copy of the books it digitized from
that library.
“Google is an excellent partner,” Paul Courant, university librarian
and dean of libraries at the University of Michigan, said in an
interview. “They are a corporation with a responsibility to its
stockholders. Google could last 50 years, 100 years, 1000 years. We
are academic institutions with a commitment to the preservation and
use of scholarship and the scholarship record for the indefinite
future.”
Mr. Courant said that the majority of the 2 million or so volumes
already in HathiTrust were digitized by Google. HathiTrust also
includes fragile and hard-to-find books that the libraries have
digitized on their own, he said.
HathiTrust is an agreement by several of those libraries — but not all
of them — to pool their digital copies into one giant database that
will be accessible online. It will not make snippets of copyrighted
works available, as some authors and book publishers said that amounts
to copyright violations, but will allow users to search those texts.
“I am hoping others will join, and I am hoping that we will be a
destination for hundreds of thousands of people on the Web,” Mr.
Courant said. “Google will probably be better than we are at large-
scale consumer applications.” But Mr. Courant said that for some
services aimed at scholars “we’ll be as good or better than them at
that.”
http://www.hathitrust.org/
The Limits of iPod touch/iPhone Restrictions
By Christopher Breen mailto:cbreen@macworld.com
I recently got an e-mail from a reader asking if he could place
parental control restrictions on an iPod touch's Web browsing
functionality with Safari. Yes, and here's how it works.
On an iPhone or iPod touch, you go to Settings: General: Restrictions,
tap on Enable Restrictions, and enter and confirm a four-digit code.
With this done, you have the option to switch off these features:
Explicit iPod Content, Safari, YouTube, iTunes, and Installing Apps
(the iPhone adds Camera as a final option). When you slide the On/Off
toggle for Explicit iPod Content, any tracks marked Explicit become
invisible. They're still on the device, you just can't access them.
Toggle off Safari, YouTube, iTunes and/or Installing Apps and the
associated applications on the iPhone or iPod touch are hidden.
But then, how difficult would it be for someone to work around these
restrictions? As it turns out, not difficult at all. All a kid has to
do is restore the iPod touch or iPhone in iTunes. This removes the
restrictions. The person could then restore from a backup and then
enable restrictions on his or her own--using a new passcode instead of
yours. That way, should you eyeball the thing and see Safari and
YouTube missing from the Home screen, you might think your
restrictions were still in place. Of course, if you're sneaky you'd
then grab hold of the device and test restrictions to see if it works
with your passcode.
"Ah, but wait," you think, "all I have to do is switch on Parental
Controls on my Mac and disable access to iTunes. That way they can't
restore the thing!"
And that would be great if your family lives in the middle of the
Australian Outback and your next nearest neighbor is 400 kilometers
away. You can restore an iPod touch or iPhone on any computer running
iTunes. If your kid has a single friend with access to a computer, say
goodbye to restrictions.
In other words, yes, parental controls are built-in, but those
controls are about as sturdy as a damp piece of bathroom tissue.
Technological parental controls have their place, but communication
and trust between parent and child remain the most effect tools
available.
Get all the latest iTunes and iPod news at
http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/ipodblog.html?lsrc=mwipod.
NOTE: One-to-One (OTO) is a trade journal of the CD, DVD and other
recorded and recordable media industry. Their masthead bills it as
"the leading publication" for this industry.
...from:
http://www.oto-online.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1124&It…
DVDs still the heart of home video
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Once again, industry is dealing with the 'Mark Twain Syndrome': "The
reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Two recent reports
indicate that DVDs are alive and well worldwide - yes, even in the US.
According to a recent report from the NPD Group, $8 out of every $10
spent on movies goes to buying and renting DVDs.
As for trends in Western Europe, FutureSource Consulting reports that
the home video market is expected to generate total retail revenues of
€11 billion by the end of 2008, with 97% of those revenues coming from
packaged media (DVD and Blu-ray) and 3% from new digital video (online
and mobile video).
Admittedly, the online video market in Western Europe is expected to
gain traction and will be encouraged by technology advancements such
as faster broadband speeds. Futuresource anticipates online video
revenues to increase significantly by 2012 and, along with mobile
video, this will represent 13% of total video revenues in Western
Europe.
As the vast majority of revenues in the short to medium term will come
from packaged media, there are a raft of initiatives in the market
aimed at boosting sales. Certainly the continued release of
blockbuster titles on Blu-ray will be key factor in holding up
packaged media; however, in the near term the focus continues to be on
DVD."
Across Europe an increasing amount of titles are being heavily re-
promoted in the 3-4 month post-release period. There is a continued
appetite for TV content on DVD. Although TV content is performing well
in the UK, it has been Germany, Spain and Belgium that has witnessed
impressive 25% growth rates in volume terms for TV content on DVD in
an otherwise near-flat market.
"As in any mature market as well as focusing on sales boosting
initiatives the studios are also equally focused on improving
efficiencies and reducing costs throughout the home video supply
chain," said Jim Bottoms of Futuresource. "As a result, all the major
issues preoccupying the minds of those involved in the home video
supply chain will be debated in the forthcoming European Supply Chain
Academy Conference in Prague on 2-3 October, with Futuresource a co-
producer of the event."
According to information presented recently by NPD, less than 1% of
Americans' movie budget is currently spent downloading movies and TV
shows from the web. Entertainment Trends in America, an NPD report,
suggests that 41% of dollars budgeted for movies and video was spent
on DVD movie purchases, 11% for purchases of TV programmes on DVD and
29% on DVD rentals.
To help clarify the following article, while there doesn't yet seem to
be any related material at the Microsoft web site, most major computer
manufacturers appear to be saying that Windows XP will continue to be
an option on new computer purchases until July, 2009 (as the article
states).
It should be noted, however, that the program which allowed Windows XP
OEM to be purchased apart from the purchase of a new computer has been
discontinued and availability will probably dry up before the
extension date so, if you were planning on getting a copy of XP to run
under VMWare Fusion or the Parallels product, you might not want to
wait too long to pick up a copy of XP.
Wayne
...from:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jh…
Windows XP Gets Reprieve, Yet Again
With Vista struggling, Microsoft has extended the period in which it
will make XP available for PC makers' downgrade programs.
By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek
October 8, 2008 12:29 PM
Windows XP is proving harder to kill than a Halloween vampire. With
businesses having all but shunned Windows Vista, Microsoft (NSDQ:
MSFT) has decided to extend the period in which it will make copies of
its older sibling available to PC makers.
Microsoft originally planned to stop distributing Windows XP media to
large OEMs on Jan. 31, 2009, but this week said it would move the
deadline to July 31 of next year.
A Microsoft spokesman claimed in an e-mail that the move is designed
to help businesses upgrade to Vista painlessly. "As more customers
make the move to Windows Vista, we want to make sure that they are
making that transition with confidence and that it is as smooth as
possible. Providing downgrade media for a few more months is part of
that commitment," the spokesman said.
The fact is, however, that very few large companies are eyeing Vista.
A survey released last week by the UK's Corporate IT Forum showed that
only 4% of businesses in that country are using Windows Vista on
workplace systems, while 35% said they were "not yet interested" in
Vista. 58% said they were still using Windows XP, now seven years old.
A document obtained by InformationWeek last week revealed that state
IT officials in Maine will likely skip Vista and stick with XP until
Windows 7 becomes available sometime in 2010. Users have complained
about Vista's resource requirements, intrusive security measures and
lack of compatibility with older software.
Vista's unpopularity in the business world may have forced Microsoft
to extend XP's shelf life. The company officially retired the OS in
June for most markets, but continues to make XP Professional available
to PC makers who offer it as a "downgrade" option from Vista on
business systems. Downgrade availability was set to end on Jan. 31 but
will now continue through next July.
If Microsoft is on schedule with Windows 7, that will leave a gap of
just six months between the end of the XP program and Windows 7's
availability. It's a sign that Microsoft has conceded that Vista has
flopped in the corporate market.
Microsoft is hoping Windows 7 will receive a better reception. In an
effort to burnish Windows' reputation and pave the way for the next
version, the company recently launched a $300 million ad campaign
starring Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Gates, and a host of ordinary PC users.
The ads make no mention of Vista.
Microsoft, however, has warned that Windows 7 and Vista share the same
basic architecture. As a result, applications that aren't compatible
with Vista won't likely run on Windows 7, either.
Microsoft shares were off 2.7% to $22.60 in mid-day trading Wednesday
as world financial markets continued their downward slide.
I realize this posting is not really computer related nor even
Macintosh related but, since it's tough getting through to the actual
site (it's so busy), and it seems like a Very Useful Thing, I hope you
will forgive this posting if you already know about the Canadian "Do
Not Call" service:
...from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Do_Not_Call_List
Canadian Do Not Call List
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Government of Canada announced on December 13, 2004 that they
would introduce legislation to create a Canadian Do Not Call List. The
Canadian list follows the model set by the National Do Not Call
Registry established in the United States in June 2003.
Bill C-37, An Act to amend the Telecommunications Act, S.C. 2005, c.50
was the legislation which followed this announcement. It received
royal assent on November 25, 2005 and came into force September 30,
2008. It gives theCanadian Radio-television and Telecommunications
Commission (CRTC) authority to establish a national do not call list,
to establish procedures to administer the Act and to levy penalties
for violations.
Starting September 30, 2008, Canadians began to sign up online at the
Do Not Call List website or by calling the toll-free numbers 1-866-580-
DNCL (1-866-580-3625) or 1-888-DNCL-TTY (1-888-362-5889). The number
of Canadians trying to register on the first day overwhelmed the
system bringing the website down eight or nine hours after the
official launch.[1]
= - = - = - = - = - =
The official site is at:
https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/
...try again later if you get the following message (the site is not
broken just very busy):
The service is not available. Please try again later.
NOTE: this registers your phone number for DoNotCall but there are
some exceptions. (Also from the Wikipedia entry:
Criticism
Professor Michael Geist, an authority on technology, Internet and
copyright law and holder of the prestigious Canada Research Chair in
Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa has criticized
the changes adopted in the amended Act. He observes that the
legislation contains too many exemptions. Professor Geist expresses
particular concern about the extent and duration of the existing
business relationship exception.
On March 28, 2008 Professor Geist introduced iOptOut.ca, a free
service which assists in the process of creating a personal do not
call list. The service notifies callers selected by the user that the
individual exercises his or her right under privacy laws not to
receive communications from the notified business. It is intended to
cover those organizations excluded from the Do Not Call List.
You need to register on the iOptOut.ca site before you can avail
yourself of that service.
Wayne