July 2008 - apple-list - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

FYI: desktop mounting of your ccu UNIX volume...
by billing 01 Aug '08

01 Aug '08

...will see a short disruption this coming Sunday afternoon. For anyone mounting their CCU UNIX directory on their OS X desktop by using "Connect to server..." and specifying afp:// rigel.cc.umanitoba.ca, there will be a short outage of this service on Sunday afternoon this weekend. The exact time for this outage is unknown (beyond Sunday afternoon) as this is just one stage of many updates being done but it should not last more than 10 minutes or so.

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FYI: Sun's VirtualBox: open source virtualization for OS X, Windows, Linux, OpenSolaris
by billing 19 Jul '08

19 Jul '08

...from a list subscriber: > VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for > enterprise as well as home use. > > Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and > OpenSolaris > hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including > but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista), > DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), and OpenBSD. > > http://www.virtualbox.org/ > > Related to the aobve, which actually what pointed me to it: > > Virtualization continues to be a big topic among Mac users with > Intel-powered Macs. Products from Parallels and VMware allow you to > easily run many different operating systems on your Mac, each within > its own protected virtual environment. Recently, a third player > entered the market -- Sun, with its VirtualBox product. > > http://www.macworld.com/article/134584/2008/07/mwvodcast59.html > > Usual disclaimer: just read about it for the first time, haven't yet > tried it. > I downloaded the installer and here's the "caution" given during the install process: Sun xVM VirtualBox for Mac OS X Welcome to Sun xVM VirtualBox 1.6.2 for Mac OS X! This installer will guide you through the installation process. In a minute from now, you will be able to execute virtual machines running different operating systems on your desktop. You will find that VirtualBox delivers a great feature set and excellent performance. As one of the strengths of VirtualBox is user friendliness and excellent operating system integration, we are looking forward to receiving feedback, especially suggestions on how to make VirtualBox the most user friendly OS X application. Send your feedback to info(a)virtualbox.org Currently, we are aware of the following restrictions: • No support for Host Interface Networking • No support for Internal Networking • No support for audio input • No support for VT-x/AMD-V (rarely required) • No support for raw disk access • The numlock emulation isn't implemented yet • The VirtualBox kernel extension is currently accessible from all user accounts Note that we are planning to address all known issues. Should you experience a crash in any of the VirtualBox applications (VirtualBox, VirtualBoxVM, VBoxSVC, VBoxHeadless, VBoxManage), please include the CrashReporter log in the report if possible. You can find the CrashReporter Logs in: {user-dir}/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ Wayne

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FYI: The Economist tech view of Windows XP, Vista, "7", and Midori("green")
by billing 10 Jul '08

10 Jul '08

The Economist magazine (http://www.economist.com) "is the premier source for the analysis of world business and current affairs, providing authoritative insight and opinion on international news, world politics, business, finance, science and technology, as well as overviews of cultural trends and regular industry, business and country special reports." The Economist magazine is published weekly and each week they also make much of the material available in audio/PodCast format. One of the podcasts looks exclusively at "Technology and Science". In this weeks Economist technology podcast they report on what's been happening with Microsoft XP and Vista. Tthere is also mention of Microsoft's commitment to XP upgrades and patches 'till 2014 Microsoft Windows "7" and the version of Windows to come after "7" currently called "Midori". http://gizmodo.com/5021126/microsoft-midori-is-a-secret-post+windows-operat… The podcast can be found at: http://downloads.economist.feedroom.com/economist/t_assets/20080707/2008070… ...or... http://preview.tinyurl.com/5d5sye ...also of interest related to "What's happening with Microsoft VISTA?": http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E00E0DA163DF933A05755C0A96E… http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jh… http://blogs.computerworld.com/intel_backstabs_microsoft_by_abandoning_vista June 26, 2008 - 6:40 P.M. Intel backstabs Microsoft by abandoning Vista Preston Gralla The news that Intel has decided it won't upgrade its PCs to Vista must be especially bitter for Microsoft because court documents show that Microsoft may have launched its ill-fated "[Vista Capable] PC" scheme at the behest of Intel. Is this the kind of payback that Microsoft expected? According to the New York Times, Intel has decided that it won't upgrade the PCs of its 80,000 computers to Windows Vista. The Times reports: "...the company made its decision after a lengthy analysis by its internal technology staff of the costs and potential benefits of moving to Windows Vista, which has drawn fire from many customers as a buggy, bloated program that requires costly hardware upgrades to run smoothly." [...] A refresher for those who might not remember the "Vista Capable PC" scheme: It was a marketing scheme in which people claim that Microsoft misled consumers into buying the Windows Vista Capable PCs, even though the PCs couldn't run the most important features of Vista. According to court documents released in a suit related to the scheme, Microsoft's John Kalkman sent an email to Scott Di Valerio, who was in charge of the company's relations with PC makers, noting that the Vista Capable PC scheme was being launched on behalf of Intel: "In the end, we lowered the requirement to help Intel make their quarterly earnings so they could continue to sell motherboards with the 915 graphics embedded. This in turn did two things: 1. Decreased focus of OEMs planning and shipping higher end graphics for Vista- ready programs and 2. Reduced the focus by IHV's to ready great WHQL [Windows Hardware Quality Labs] qualified graphics drivers. We can see this today with Intel's inability to ship a compelling full featured 945 graphics driver for Windows Vista." http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/02/28/did-microsoft-lower-its-standards-t… Kalkman makes clear in the email that it was a mistake to try and bail out Intel: "...it was a mistake on our part to change the original graphics requirements. This created confusion in the industry on how important the visual aspects of visual computing would play as a feature set to new Windows Vista upgraders." So Microsoft went out on a limb to bail out Intel, and this is the payback it gets? They're no doubt talking about back-stabbing at Redmond these days.

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