June 2007 - apple-list - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

INTEREST: monthly iPhone costs; Rogers not carrying iPhone
by billing 19 Jun '07

19 Jun '07

Apple has already announced the US pricing for the iPhone (US$499 for the 4MB model, and US$599 for the 8MB) but what would the monthly operating costs be. A journalist has put together his approximation: If purchased from ATT/Cingular, the monthly iPhone costs have been estimated to be: - AT&T 450 minute individual plan - US$39.99/month (There may be a minimum required voice plan to get the iPhone.) - Unlimited data plan - US$39.99 (final data price still unknown for iPhone) - Estimated monthly taxes and fees - US$15 - Total cost of montly services - US$94.98 Just for comparison, similar service from Rogers Communications in Winnipeg would be: - Rogers Business Plan 500 (500 minutes) - C$50 - Unlimited data plan - doesn't seem to exist. They do have 5MB/month for $5.00 and 10MB/month for $10.00 (each additional MB costs 3 ¢ with, it seems, no cap on the charges. There is also a BlackBerry plan for $95 with 350 Weekday + Unlimited Evenings & Weekends and 50 MB/month. Each MB over the initial 50 is $7 with, apparently, no cap on the charges. Sources for the above information: ATT pricing: http://blogs.zdnet.com/mobile-gadgeteer/?p=400 Rogers pricing: - cell phone plan: http://www.shoprogers.com/business/wireless/ plans_services/business_plans.asp? shopperID=RGS2RJ6DGNUV9PKNXF1ER64K99GC4PNF&plan=business&cat=1&typ=1? shopperID=Q0VQA923PLXQ8KCF85F84UA1LX88DHK0& - OR the tinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/yoe4fg - mobile internet plan: http://www.shoprogers.com/store/wireless/ services/voice/navigate-mobile-internet.asp? shopperID=3GGLJL1KL8VJ9ME6N2GJ7RQELEKU8UCD - OR the tinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/ysr3pm BlackBerry plan pricing: http://www.shoprogers.com/business/wireless/ plans_services/business_plans.asp? shopperID=W6053CQGDAC99N2WPV9HXM3UBU2SAD30&plan=blackberryvoicenemail&ca t=3&typ=2 - OR the tinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/ywj4xz = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ...from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM. 20070617.wiphone0617/BNStory/Technology/home Why you can't buy Apple's new phone (in Canada) CATHERINE MCLEAN Globe and Mail Update June 17, 2007 at 9:06 PM EDT The most hyped consumer electronics device in years will make its debut on June 29, but Apple Inc. [AAPL-Q]'s iPhone will be conspicuously absent from Canadian store shelves. Sold out? No — just not for sale. [...] Rogers Communications Inc. [RCI.B-T], recently admitted little was happening on that front. "The truth is we aren't very far with Apple," Bill Linton, Rogers' chief financial officer, told a conference last month. "They're concentrating on this launch and the U.S., and when they decide to turn their mind to other markets, we'll be in line." [...]

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FYI: FBI "Operation Bot Roast" (no joke) identifies botnets > 1 million machines
by billing 18 Jun '07

18 Jun '07

...from: http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel07/botnet061307.htm Over 1 Million Potential Victims of Botnet Cyber Crime Today the Department of Justice and FBI announced the results of an ongoing cyber crime initiative to disrupt and dismantle “bot- herders” and elevate the public’s cyber security awareness of botnets. OPERATION BOT ROAST is a national initiative and ongoing investigations have identified over 1 million victim computer IP addresses. The FBI is working with our industry partners, including the CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University, to notify the victim owners of the computers. Through this process the FBI may uncover additional incidents in which botnets have been used to facilitate other criminal activity. A botnet is a collection of compromised computers under the remote command and control of a criminal “botherder.” Most owners of the compromised computers are unknowing and unwitting victims. They have unintentionally allowed unauthorized access and use of their computers as a vehicle to facilitate other crimes, such as identity theft, denial of service attacks, phishing, click fraud, and the mass distribution of spam and spyware. Because of their widely distributed capabilities, botnets are a growing threat to national security, the national information infrastructure, and the economy. “The majority of victims are not even aware that their computer has been compromised or their personal information exploited,” said FBI Assistant Director for the Cyber Division James Finch. “An attacker gains control by infecting the computer with a virus or other malicious code and the computer continues to operate normally. Citizens can protect themselves from botnets and the associated schemes by practicing strong computer security habits to reduce the risk that your computer will be compromised.” The FBI also wants to thank our industry partners, such as the Microsoft Corporation and the Botnet Task Force, in referring criminal botnet activity to law enforcement. Cyber security tips include updating anti‑virus software, installing a firewall, using strong passwords, practicing good email and web security practices. Although this will not necessarily identify or remove a botnet currently on the system, this can help to prevent future botnet attacks. More information on botnets and tips for cyber crime prevention can be found online at www.fbi.gov. The FBI will not contact you online and request your personal information so be wary of fraud schemes that request this type of information, especially via unsolicited emails. To report fraudulent activity or financial scams, contact the nearest FBI office or police department, and file a complaint online with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, www.ic3.gov. To date, the following subjects have been charged or arrested in this operation with computer fraud and abuse in violation of Title 18 USC 1030, including: James C. Brewer of Arlington, Texas, is alleged to have operated a botnet that infected Chicago area hospitals. This botnet infected tens of thousands of computers worldwide. (FBI Chicago); Jason Michael Downey of Covington, Kentucky, is charged with an Information with using botnets to send a high volume of traffic to intended recipients to cause damage by impairing the availability of such systems. (FBI Detroit); and Robert Alan Soloway of Seattle, Washington, is alleged to have used a large botnet network and spammed tens of millions of unsolicited email messages to advertise his website from which he offered services and products. (FBI Seattle) The FBI will continue to aggressively investigate individuals that conduct cyber criminal acts. | Press Releases | FBI Home Page |

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FYI: more "What's coming from Apple?"
by billing 09 Jun '07

09 Jun '07

...from: http://zdnet.com.com/1606-2_2-6189050.html?tag=nl.e622 During a presentation Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz said his company's open-source file system, ZFS (Zettabyte File System), will be introduced into Mac OS X [with the release of OS X 10.5]. ...from: http://www.sun.com/software/media/real/zfs_learningcenter/ 06D00555_09_100.rm In this video, Bill Moore (Lead ZFS Engineer at Sun) introduces ZFS and describes how ZFS provides provable data integrity for disk storage and shows how ZFS allows immense storage capacity to any OS which implements ZFS. ...from: http://www.sun.com/2004-0914/feature/ Creating Immense Capacity Sun engineers wondered if the 64-bit capabilities of current file systems will continue to suffice over the next 10 to 20 years. Their answer was no. If Moore's Law holds, in 10 to 15 years people will need a 65th bit. As a 128-bit system, ZFS is designed to support more storage, more file systems, more snapshots, more directory entries, and more files than can possibly be created in the foreseeable future. This scalability also means that storage can be dynamically added to or removed from storage pools without interrupting services, providing new levels of flexibility and availability for globally accessed application services. To efficiently use all of this capacity, file systems grow and shrink automatically as users add or remove data. Administrators can set quotas to limit space consumption and reservations to guarantee future availability of space. ZFS also provides compression to reduce disk space and I/O bandwidth requirements. Logically, the next question is if ZFS' 128 bits is enough. According to Bonwick, it has to be. "Populating 128-bit file systems would exceed the quantum limits of earth-based storage. You couldn't fill a 128-bit storage pool without boiling the oceans." [NOTE: for more info on the "boiling the oceans" comment, see http:// www.hodulik.com/2006/12/18/boiling-the-oceans/] ------------------------------- What is ZFS and how will this affect my disk storage? ...from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zfs In computing, ZFS is a file system (a method of arranging data on computer storage) originally created by Sun Microsystems for the Solaris Operating System. It features high capacity, the integration of the concepts of filesystem and volume management, a novel on-disk structure, lightweight instances, and easy storage pool management. ZFS is implemented as open source software, licensed under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL). ...from: http://www.sun.com/2004-0914/feature/ The ZFS will provide for disk storage which is/will provide: - Always-valid on-disk state - Consistent, reliable backups - Data rollback to known point in time - Dynamic striping across all devices to maximize throughput - Copy-on-write design makes most disk writes sequential - Multiple block sizes, automatically chosen to match workload - Explicit I/O priority with deadline scheduling - Globally optimal I/O sorting and aggregation - Multiple independent prefetch streams with automatic length and stride detection - Unlimited, instantaneous read/write snapshots - Parallel, constant-time directory operations Or, more simple ZFS delivers virtually unlimited disk storage capacity, provable data integrity, and near-zero administration. ...More details about ZFS: ZFS Storage Integrity, Security, and Scalability - http:// www.sun.com/bigadmin/features/articles/zfs_part1.scalable.html ZFS Learning Center: http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/ zfs_learning_center.jsp Videos describing ZFS: http://www.sun.com/software/media/real/ zfs_learningcenter/high_bandwidth.html

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An interesting article on Macdevcenter
by Mark Rogers 07 Jun '07

07 Jun '07

This looks very interesting. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2007/06/01/discover-the-power- of-open-directory.html Mark Mark Rogers www: http://web.mac.com/mark_rogers msn: mark underscore rogers at mac dot com

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INTEREST: new announcements on Apple web site
by billing 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

- iPhone is coming June 29 (at least in the USA), say the new Apple ads: http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/ad1/ http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/ad2/ http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/ad3/ - YouTube on your AppleTV: http://www.apple.com/appletv/ "Direct-to-Internet With Apple TV, you can watch theatrical trailers from Apple.com on your TV. And soon, you’ll be able to browse and watch YouTube videos on the big screen, too. Coming in June, you can browse and watch thousands of free YouTube videos streaming directly from the Internet. Just sit back and enjoy the show." Wayne

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