- apple-list - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

INTEREST: Java founder quits Oracle
by billing 26 Apr '10

26 Apr '10

...from: http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/java-founder-james-gosling-quits-oracle/1… Java founder James Gosling quits Oracle By: Joab Jackson On: 10 Apr 2010 Father of Java James Gosling is the latest ex-Sun employee to leave Oracle following the merger of Sun Microsystems James Gosling, the creator of the Java programming language, has resigned from Oracle, he announced in a blog entry on Friday Gosling resigned on April 2 and has not yet taken a job elsewhere, he reported. "As to why I left, it's difficult to answer: just about anything I could say that would be accurate and honest would do more harm than good," he wrote. Gosling was the chief technology officer for Oracle's client software group and, before that, the chief technology officer of Sun's developer products group. In 1991, he led a small group of engineers in a project, then called Oak, to build an object-oriented programming language that would run on a virtual machine, which would allow programs to run on multiple platforms, such as television set-top boxes. This work evolved into Java, which took off in conjunction with the growing use of the Internet, thanks in part to its inclusion into the Netscape browser. Gosling follows a number of other noted ex-Sun employees out the door since Oracle's purchase of the company was finalized in January, including CEO Jonathan Schwartz, and XML co-inventor Tim Bray. Less than a month ago, Gosling had stressed the importance of Java to Oracle. "Oracle has certainly been incredibly committed to keeping Java and the whole ecosystem as strong and as healthy as can be," he said, during a talk at a Java symposium in Las Vegas. But around the same time he also expressed dismay over the growing politicization of the Java Community Process. Fellow ex-Sun alumni Bray tweeted that he was "astounded that Gosling held on so long."

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FYI: Apple Education Seminars Invitation - Apple Tech Series - Platform Virtualization on Mac OS X
by Doug Hamilton 22 Apr '10

22 Apr '10

Apple Tech Series - Platform Virtualization on Mac OS X Monday, May 10 2010 10:00AM to 3:00PMAdd to iCal You've been invited to an event Please join us for a workshop on virtualization solutions for your Macs on campus. The objective is to help your organization better understand these important tools as a way to efficiently use Macs for multiple operating systems. Please use the address in this e-mail to register for the event. Holiday Inn - Winnipeg South 1330 Pembina Highway Conference Theatre Room Winnipeg, MB R3T 2B4 Get Directions Copyright © 2010 Apple Inc. 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014. All Rights Reserved / Keep Informed / Privacy Policy

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FYI: Apple Headphones with Remote Replacement Program
by billing 21 Apr '10

21 Apr '10

...from: http://www.apple.com/support/headphones/replacementprogram/ Apple Headphones with Remote Replacement Program Apple has determined that the Apple Headphones with Remote included with the iPod shuffle (3rd gen) may fail under certain conditions. A very small percentage of iPod shuffle owners have experienced this issue. These headphones were included with the iPod shuffle (3rd generation) made between approximately February 2009 and February 2010. If your headphones stop working or work intermittently as described below, Apple will replace them, free of charge, for two years from date of purchase. Symptoms Controls are non-responsive or work intermittently Unexpected volume increase or decrease Unexpected playing of voice feedback Product Description Apple Headphones with Remote - included with iPod shuffle (3rd generation). Serial number ranges of the iPod shuffle with the covered headphones: xx909xxxxxx to xx952xxxxxx xx001xxxxxx to xx004xxxxxx How to find the serial number on an iPod shuffle. Note: Apple In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic and Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic which exhibit the symptoms noted above are also covered under this program. All of these headphones have an in-line remote on the right earbud cable like the one illustrated here: Next Steps If your headphones are experiencing any of the symptoms noted above, please use the Online Service Assistant on the Apple Support site to begin the replacement process. You will need to provide the following information: Serial number of your iPod or iPhone Shipping and Billing addresses Credit card information Please choose "Replace part or accessory" as the service needed. Then choose "Headphones" to complete the request. Upon completion of your online service request, Apple will send you a replacement along with a pre-paid return envelope so that you can ship back the original headphones. It's important that you return the original headphones so that they can be examined and recycled responsibly. If Apple does not receive your original headphones within 10 business days, your credit card will be charged a non-return fee. You may also visit an Apple Retail Store to obtain a replacement. We recommend you set up an appointment with aGenius. Outside the U.S., please visit an Apple Authorized Service Provider to obtain a replacement. If you have any issues placing the replacement order, please contact Apple. Additional Information This worldwide Apple program does not extend the standard warranty coverage of the covered headphones. Apple will continue to evaluate the repair data and will provide further updates to the program if needed. Information as of 2010-04-16

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INTEREST: Web Coupons Know Lots About You, and They Tell
by billing 18 Apr '10

18 Apr '10

...from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/business/media/17coupon.html?pagewanted=2… Web Coupons Know Lots About You, and They Tell By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD Published: April 16, 2010 For decades, shoppers have taken advantage of coupons. Now, the coupons are taking advantage of the shoppers. A new breed of coupon, printed from the Internet or sent to mobile phones, is packed with information about the customer who uses it. While the coupons look standard, their bar codes can be loaded with a startling amount of data, including identification about the customer, Internet address, Facebook page information and even the search terms the customer used to find the coupon in the first place. And all that information follows that customer into the mall. For example, if a man walks into a Filene’s Basement to buy a suit for his wedding and shows a coupon he retrieved online, the company’s marketing agency can figure out whether he used the search terms “Hugo Boss suit” or “discount wedding clothes” to research his purchase (just don’t tell his fiancée). Coupons from the Internet are the fastest-growing part of the coupon world — their redemption increased 263 percent to about 50 million coupons in 2009, according to the coupon-processing company Inmar. Using coupons to link Internet behavior with in-store shopping lets retailers figure out which ad slogans or online product promotions work best, how long someone waits between searching and shopping, even what offers a shopper will respond to or ignore. The coupons can, in some cases, be tracked not just to an anonymous shopper but to an identifiable person: a retailer could know that Amy Smith printed a 15 percent-off coupon after searching for appliance discounts at Ebates.com on Friday at 1:30 p.m. and redeemed it later that afternoon at the store. “You can really key into who they are,” said Don Batsford Jr., who works on online advertising for the tax preparation company Jackson Hewitt, whose coupons include search information. “It’s almost like being able to read their mind, because they’re confessing to the search engine what they’re looking for.” While companies once had a slim dossier on each consumer, they now have databases packed with information. And every time a person goes shopping, visits a Web site or buys something, the database gets another entry. “There is a feeling that anonymity in this space is kind of dead,” said Chris Jay Hoofnagle, director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology’s information privacy programs. None of the tracking is visible to consumers. The coupons, for companies as diverse asRuby Tuesday and Lord & Taylor, are handled by a company called RevTrax, which displays them on the retailers’ sites or on coupon Web sites, not its own site. Even if consumers could figure out that RevTrax was creating the coupons, it does not have a privacy policy on its site — RevTrax says that is because it handles data for the retailers and does not directly interact with consumers. RevTrax can also include retailers’ own client identification numbers (Amy Smith might be client No. 2458230), then the retailer can connect that with the actual person if it wants to, for example, to send a follow-up offer or a thank-you note. Using coupons also lets the retailers get around Google hurdles. Google allows its search advertisers to see reports on which keywords are working well as a whole but not on how each person is responding to each slogan. “We’ve built privacy protections into all Google services and report Web site trends only in aggregate, without identifying individual users,” Sandra Heikkinen, a spokeswoman for Google, said in an e-mail message. The retailers, however, can get to an individual level by sending different keyword searches to different Web addresses. The distinct Web addresses are invisible to the consumer, who usually sees just a Web page with a simple address at the top of it. So clicking on an ad for Jackson Hewitt after searching for “new 2010 deductions” would send someone to a different behind-the-scenes URL than after searching for “Jackson Hewitt 2010,” though the Web pages and addresses might look identical. This data could be coded onto a coupon. RevTrax works as closely with image-rich display ads, with coupons also signaling what ad a person saw and on what site. “Wherever we provide a link, whether it’s on search or banner, that thing you click can include actual keywords,” said Rob O’Neil, director of online marketing at Tag New Media, which works with Filene’s. “There’s some trickery.” The companies argue that the coupon strategy gives them direct feedback on how well their marketing is working. Once the shopper prints an online coupon or sends it to his cellphone and then goes to a store, the clerk scans it. The bar code information is sent to RevTrax, which, with the ad agency, analyzes it. “We break people up into teeny little cross sections of who we think they are, and we test that out against how they respond,” said Mr. Batsford, who is a partner at 31 Media, an online marketing company. RevTrax can identify online shoppers when they are signed in to a coupon site like Ebates or FatWallet or the retailer’s own site. It says it avoids connecting that number with real people to steer clear of privacy issues, but clients can make that match. The retailer can also make that connection when it is offering coupons to its Facebook fans, like Filene’s Basement is doing. “When someone joins a fan club, the user’s Facebook ID becomes visible to the merchandiser,” Jonathan Treiber, RevTrax’s co-founder, said. “We take that and embed it in a bar code or promotion code.” “When the consumer redeems the offer in store, we can track it back, in this case, not to the Google search term but to the actual Facebook user ID that was signing up,” he said. Although Facebook does not signal that Amy Smith responded to a given ad, Filene’s could look up the user ID connected to the coupon and “do some more manual-type research — you could easily see your sex, your location and what you’re interested in,” Mr. Treiber said. (Mr. O’Neil said Filene’s did not do this at the moment.) The coupon efforts are nascent, but coupon companies say that when they get more data about how people are responding, they can make different offers to different consumers. “Over time,” Mr. Treiber said, “we’ll be able to do much better profiling around certain I.P. addresses, to say, hey, this I.P. address is showing a proclivity for printing clothing apparel coupons and is really only responding to coupons greater than 20 percent off.” That alarms some privacy advocates. Companies can “offer you, perhaps, less desirable products than they offer me, or offer you the same product as they offer me but at a higher price,” said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the United States Public Interest Research Group, which has asked the Federal Trade Commission for tighter rules on online advertising. “There really have been no rules set up for this ecosystem.”

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FYI: Microsoft Office 2008 updates
by billing 13 Apr '10

13 Apr '10

[NOTE: make sure you quite from all OFFICE applications as well as Microsoft's "Remote Desktop Connection" application to do this update.] ...from: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980839 Before you install the Office 2008 12.2.4 Update, make sure that the computer is running Mac OS X 10.4.9 (Tiger) or a later version of the Mac OS X operating system. To verify that the computer meets this prerequisite, click About This Mac on the Apple menu. Additionally, you must install the Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.3 Update or later versions before you install the Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.4 Update. To verify the update that is installed on your computer, follow these steps: • On the Go menu, click Applications. • Open the Microsoft Office 2008 folder, and then open any Office application. For example, open Microsoft Word. • On the Word menu, click About Word. • In the About Word dialog box, compare the version number next to Latest Installed Updateto the version number that is a prerequisite. For example, pre-update: ...post-update: Description of the Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.4 Update View products that this article applies to. On This Page Expand all | Collapse all INTRODUCTION Microsoft has released security bulletin MS10-017. This security bulletin contains all the relevant information about the security updates for Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. To view the complete security bulletin, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms10-017.mspx Back to the top Update details This update improves security. It includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code. In addition, this update contains several improvements to enhance stability and performance. Back to the top Improvements that are included in the update The Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.4 Update includes the following improvements. Improvements for all Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac applications Helps improve security. This update fixes vulnerabilities in Office 2008 that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code. For more information, see the security bulletin that is listed earlier in this document. Improvements for Microsoft Excel 2008 for Mac Stability is improved. This update fixes an issue that could cause Excel to close unexpectedly in the following scenarios: Corrupted fonts are present. You insert a row or value into a calculated column. You drag the scroll bar when Excel is displaying trendlines. Performance is improved. This update fixes an issue that causes slow performance with certain printer drivers in Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Imported content from a text file is formatted correctly. This update fixes an issue in which multiple line values in a single cell appear in separate rows when you save the contents as a text file and then open the file in Excel. Back to the top Prerequisites Before you install the Office 2008 12.2.4 Update, make sure that the computer is running Mac OS X 10.4.9 (Tiger) or a later version of the Mac OS X operating system. To verify that the computer meets this prerequisite, click About This Mac on the Apple menu. Additionally, you must install the Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.3 Update or later versions before you install the Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.4 Update. To verify the update that is installed on your computer, follow these steps: On the Go menu, click Applications. Open the Microsoft Office 2008 folder, and then open any Office application. For example, open Microsoft Word. On the Word menu, click About Word. In the About Word dialog box, compare the version number next to Latest Installed Updateto the version number that is a prerequisite. Back to the top How to obtain the update The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center: Download the Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.4 Update package now. Release Date: March 9, 2010 For more information about how to download Microsoft support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 119591 How to obtain Microsoft support files from online services Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help prevent any unauthorized changes to the file. Back to the top Updated files For a complete list of the files that this update adds or changes, double-click the update installer, and then on the File menu, click Show Files. Notes The Office 2008 12.2.4 Update is also available from Microsoft AutoUpdate. AutoUpdate is a program that automatically keeps Microsoft software up-to-date. To use AutoUpdate, start a Microsoft Office program. Then, on the Help menu, click Check for Updates. For more information about resources for Office 2008 for Mac, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/mac Back to the top APPLIES TO Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac Microsoft Excel 2008 for Mac Microsoft PowerPoint 2008 for Mac Microsoft Word 2008 for Mac

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INTEREST: Swiss: "No 'iPhone' for you...."
by billing 12 Apr '10

12 Apr '10

...from: http://www.macworld.com/article/150215/apple_trademark_appeal.html?loomia_o… Apple loses Swiss iPhone trademark appeal Posted on Apr 2, 2010 11:37 am by Aayush Arya, Macworld.com Apple first applied to the Swiss Trademark Office for the trademark in September 2006; it was turned down by the institute in September last year. The trademark office argued that the “i” in “iPhone” will be taken by consumers to mean that it stands for the Internet and that the name could be used to describe any phone with Internet capabilities.Apple’s appeal for reconsideration of its trademark application for the word “iPhone” has been rejected by the Swiss Federal Administrative Court, which maintained that the term is a non-distinctive word for which Apple could not be granted a trademark. Apple then appealed to the Swiss Federal Administrative Court, citing past instances where it had been granted trademarks for product names that began with “i” and insisted that the letter stood for several other things that the iPhone was capable of. The court denied Apple’s appeal on the grounds that the word “phone” is too generic a term and the addition of the letter “i” does not make it distinctive enough to be trademarked. All hope is not lost for Apple, however, as the company has now appealed to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court. Whatever decision the supreme court arrives at will be final and binding, meaning there’s still a chance for Apple to walk away with the trademark. Then, presumably, the battle begins anew for “iPad.”

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FYI: Microsoft Office 2011: this year for Macintosh?
by billing 08 Apr '10

08 Apr '10

...from: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/feb10/02-11msmacworld2010pr.m… News Press Release Introducing Office for Mac 2011: The Quintessential Teammate Next version to deliver on top community requests: better tools to work together and improved compatibility. SAN FRANCISCO — Feb. 11, 2010 — You, the Mac community, have a voice — and at the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU), we listen. Our charter for more than two decades has been to use your feedback to build the best productivity suite on the Mac. Recently you’ve asked for better ways to work with colleagues and friends anywhere, anytime, across platforms. So today at Macworld 2010, we are answering with details on how you can create and share your ideas using Office for Mac 2011, the next version of the leading productivity suite on the Mac. The suite has new connections to Microsoft services so you can work together more effectively, an updated user interface making tasks easier, and essential compatibility to ensure your documents look the way you made them when shared. “Together with your team — officemates, family or classmates — you are part of the community that helps shape each version of Office for Mac,” said Eric Wilfrid, MacBU general manager at Microsoft Corp. “You’ve told us that working together across platforms is a priority to you and that’s why we are making Office for Mac 2011 the best, most compatible productivity suite on the Mac.” New Co-Authoring Tools and Office Web Apps The new co-authoring tools in Office 2011 give you and your teammates the ability to work on a file from Word, PowerPoint or Excel1 from different locations, brainstorm ideas, and stay on the same page regardless of time, geography or platform. Co-authoring improves the processes of working together, removing the pain and frustration of multiple versions, lost edits, or even trying to set a time for the group to meet. With this new feature you can keep track of your team with the Presence Everywhere feature that gives real-time status updates on who is working on the document directly in the application. Office 2011 also delivers a connection to Microsoft Office Web Apps from the application, giving you a simple way to access and share Office documents from any machine with an Internet connection. Similar to the experience in Microsoft Office 2010 for PC users, the Office Web Apps make it easy to get your work done virtually anywhere. These days work doesn’t stop at your desktop. You need to stay productive with access to your information no matter where you are, without worrying about whether or not you e-mailed a crucial file to yourself. Currently in beta, Office Web Apps are available to both home and business users (across platforms) and allow documents to be stored via your Windows Live ID account or on Microsoft SharePoint Technologies. New User Interface Design: Office for Mac Ribbon Another big addition to the Office 2011 suite is a ribbon that’s at the core of our next-generation Office for Mac user experiences. We took your feedback and haven’t completely rearranged what you know and love: the new design is an evolution of the Office 2008 Elements Gallery and uses the classic Mac menu and Standard Toolbar giving you the best of both worlds. You can even collapse the ribbon and the Toolbar for more screen space or for the more advanced users who rely on keyboard shortcuts. Together these tools make it easy to find and discover new and frequently used commands. In fact, more than 80 percent2 of the most used features live in the default view of our new user experience so you don’t have to waste time finding the tool you need. Built using the latest Mac OS X technologies, the ribbon delivers a modern and fluid experience and also gives you a more consistent experience across platforms, which is key to productivity as 75 percent of Mac users also use a PC.3 New: Outlook for Mac Supports .PST Import Along with the updated user interface and quick access to the Office Web Apps, the MacBU announced last August that Outlook for Mac is coming to Office 2011, replacing Entourage. Outlook for Mac is a new application that leverages the Exchange Web Services protocol and is being built using Cocoa, allowing for improved integration with the Mac OS. Today we are also announcing that Outlook for Mac will import .PST files from Outlook for Windows — a top customer request. In addition, as announced last year, Outlook for Mac features a reliable, high-speed, file-based database with Spotlight search and back-up support from Time Machine. Outlook for Mac also provides Information Rights Management to help prevent sensitive information from being distributed to or read by people who do not have your permission to access the content. Outlook for Mac provides an integrated solution for managing your time and information and, when it is used in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange Server, you benefit from increased collaboration capabilities and security enhancements. Office for Mac 2011 will be available later this year. For updates on all things Office for Mac, follow the team on Twitter (@OfficeforMac) and on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Office-For-Mac/272026096667). About Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit For more than 25 years, Microsoft has developed award-winning software for the Mac. The Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) at Microsoft is a leading developer of software and online products for the Macintosh platform including the Office for Mac suite. The group is composed of Mac product experts dedicated to creating innovative software for Mac customers worldwide. More information about the MacBU and Microsoft Macintosh products is available athttp://www.microsoft.com/mac.

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INTEREST: court rules SCO does not own UNIX copyrights
by billing 31 Mar '10

31 Mar '10

...from: http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14786202 Decision in SCO-Novell case ripples beyond Utah Technology » Verdict has implications for software industry, other disputes. By Tom Harvey The Salt Lake Tribune Updated: 03/30/2010 07:09:32 PM MDT Related The SCO Group Mar 26: Jury rests for weekend in SCO Group-Novell trial Mar 25: SCO, Novell suit goes to jury Mar 16: Ex-SCO CEO testifies Novell claim inflicted harm Mar 15: Ex-SCO CEO: Novell elusive about IBM link Mar 10: Ex-Novell officers back SCO over copyrights Mar 9: Attorney: IBM-Novell worked together to hurt SCO Mar 8: Jury seated in SCO lawsuit against Novell Mar 4: Six years later, SCO-Novell lawsuit finally going to trial Dec 2: SCO-Novell case set for trial Nov 27: SCO Group's lawsuits are back on track Oct 28: Appeals court refuses to stay decision in SCO Group case Oct 23: Trustee says SCO Group should pursue IBM, Novell lawsuits Oct 21: Decision could clear way for SCO-Novell trial Oct 19: McBride ousted as SCO Group CEO Aug 24: Court overturns key computer software decision Aug 5: SCO Group can't liquidate assets; Trustee appointed Jun 15: SCO Group strikes deal just before bankruptcy hearing A jury's verdict Tuesday that Utah-based The SCO Group does not own the copyrights to the Unix software code is sure to reverberate beyond the downtown Salt Lake City courtroom where the decision was delivered. After six years of legal wrangling, a federal jury stunned SCO in finding for Novell Inc. after a three-week trial that pitted the two companies over the question of which owned the copyrights to Unix, a computer operating system widely used by businesses. The unanimous decision: » Removed a question about Novell's multimillion-dollar liabilities in the case at a time when it faces an unsolicited takeover bid from a hedge fund. The company employs 1,000 people in Provo, making it one of Utah's larger high-tech operations. » Again raises red flags about the survival of SCO, which is already in bankruptcy proceedings. » Presents a serious question about the future of an SCO lawsuit against IBM in which SCO claims the computing giant improperly used its Unix code as the basis for changes that made the Linux operating system into a strong competitor and drove down sales of Unix. » Is a clear victory for the open source community that was offended by SCO's assault on Linux, an open source system whose codes are available for free to the public and around which companies such as Novell build products for sale to other businesses. The verdict was a setback for SCO, which had presented an array of evidence and witnesses regarding the intent of a disputed 1995 sales agreement in which Novell sold Unix to the Santa Cruz Operations, which sold it a few years later to the Lindon-based company. At issue was a poorly worded portion of the contract that could be read to say that Novell retained the Unix copyrights in the sale. SCO presented top-level negotiators and executives from Santa Cruz and Novell -- including former Novell CEO and Chairman Robert Frankenberg -- who all said the deal's intent was to transfer every bit of the Unix system, including the copyrights. Former U.S. District Judge Edward Cahn, the trustee who is running SCO as part of its bankruptcy filed in Delaware, said he thought SCO had a strong case, adding its team was "deeply disappointed" by the outcome. "Juries are unpredictable and that's why cases get settled," said Cahn, who attended several days of the trial. "I was quite confident we were going to prevail." The case might have turned on the question of an amendment intended to clear up the confusing language of the original 1995 sales agreement. SCO argued it showed the parties' intention to transfer the copyrights in the sale. But Novell's attorneys presented a witness who had drawn up the amendment and said it was not intended to transfer copyrights, though she appeared to contradict that line under cross examination. "We're very pleased for Novell, and I think this also is a big day for the open source community," said Sterling Brennan, a Salt Lake City attorney who represented Novell, along with the San Francisco firm of Morrison & Foerster. Cahn praised Novell's legal team: "Morrison and Foerster are the best lawyers west of the Mississippi and they proved that today." The case had its roots in 2003 when SCO sued IBM for allegedly using Unix code to make improvements to Linux. Novell then said it, not SCO, owned the copyrights to Unix. Novell retracted that statement after SCO showed it an amendment to the sales agreement but then restated its ownership claims a few months later and said SCO had no right to pursue IBM. SCO attorney Stuart Singer of Boies, Schiller & Flexner in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said during the trial IBM collaborated with Novell to try to derail SCO's claims on Linux, around which both Novell and IBM were building businesses. IBM invested $50 million with SCO to buy a Linux business, Singer said. SCO had claimed that Novell's actions cost it up to $215 million, but the jury's decision means the question of damages is moot. That's good news for any company that might make a bid for Novell. Novell's board recently rejected a $2 billion takeover bid from Elliott Associates as too low but signaled it remains open to a sale at the right price. As for SCO, Cahn said the company would discuss what the ruling means for its Unix business. He pointed out that presiding U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart still has parts of a verdict to render that will affect the case's final outcome. For example, Stewart is being asked to rule whether Novell still needs to transfer the copyrights to SCO as part of the sales contract and whether Novell had the right to waive SCO's claims against IBM. "We still have claims against IBM irrespective of this verdict," Cahn said. A representative said Novell is not in the Unix business, despite the verdict. "We are very much in the Linux business," Ian Bruce said from company headquarters in Waltham, Mass. The jury's decision is good for Novell but also very good for Linux and the open source community." Jason Hall, a founder and board member of the Utah Open Source Foundation, praised the decision and Novell's role in defending Linux. "It proves that companies that try to create these lawsuits to try to hunt money from other sources aren't just fighting loose groups of people," said Hall of Eagle Mountain. "There's actually large enterprises now that have a strong stance in the matter and are willing to stand up for the rights of the enterprises themselves but also for the community as a whole."

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FYI: Mac OS X 10.6.3 - Update Released
by Doug Hamilton 29 Mar '10

29 Mar '10

Today Apple released their 10.6.3 maintenance updates for both client and server. Here are the details... Mac OS X 10.6.3 update (client) http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4014 Mac OS X 10.6.3 update (server) http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4015 Cheers, Doug

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FYI: Apple Tech Series - Client Management: Apple Remote Desktop
by billing 05 Mar '10

05 Mar '10

> > > Apple Tech Series - Client Management: Apple Remote Desktop > Thursday, March 25 2010 9:30AM to 4:00PMAdd to iCal > You've been invited to an event > Please join us for a workshop on how to manage Macs on your Network. The objective is to help you and your organization discover and better understand Apple Remote Desktop as an important tool to efficiently manage, control and inventory Macs that are in your labs and classrooms. > > Please use the reply-to address in this e-mail to register for the event. > > > Holiday Inn - Winnipeg South > > 1330 Pembina Highway > Conference Theatre Room > Winnipeg, MB R3T 2B4 > > Get Directions > > > Copyright © 2010 Apple Inc. 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014. > All Rights Reserved / Keep Informed / Privacy Policy >

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Aperture 3 - Released
by Doug Hamilton 10 Feb '10

10 Feb '10

Hello, Apple released Aperture version 3.0 yesterday (9th Feb). We've since received our educational pricing and are now taking orders; the Aperture 3.0 academic price is $109.95 + plus applicable taxes. Here is the Aperture product page maintained by Apple. http://www.apple.com/aperture/ Here is the Aperture tutorial page, also maintained by Apple. http://www.apple.com/aperture/how-to/ Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 (Ph.) 204-474-7556 (Fax) http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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FYI: Migrate a Time Machine backup
by billing 10 Feb '10

10 Feb '10

...from: http://www.macworld.com/article/146085/2010/02/migratebackups.html?lsrc=nl_… Feb 5, 2010 8:00 am Migrate a Time Machine backup Move to a larger disk without losing your existing backups by Joe Kissell, Macworld.com If you’ve been using Time Machine for backups, there may come a time when you outgrow your backup disk. It’s easy enough to plug in a larger disk or buy a Time Capsule (or a larger Time Capsule) and choose that as your new Time Machine destination, but doing that means starting over. If you want to move to a larger disk while maintaining the continuity of your backups, you can. It just means taking quite a few steps. PEOPLE WHO READ THIS ALSO READ: Build your own home media server iPhone loses market share, but the devil is in the details Bugs & Fixes: Apple admits, fixes iTunes 'remember password' bug Rotate user images in many OS X apps Five System Preference tweaks everyone should know Lithium-ion battery life could reach 20 years Recent Working Mac Posts Feb 8 Get quick access to recently used items Feb 5 Migrate a Time Machine backup Feb 3 Troubleshoot your DNS Working Mac home View all Macworld blogs Move your backups to a new Time Capsule To move your backups from a local disk to a Time Capsule, do the following. Set up your new Time Capsule (according to Apple’s instructions), but leave your current backup disk mounted in the Finder. If possible, connect your Mac to your Time Capsule using an Ethernet cable, which will speed up the transfer process considerably. Open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences, click on Select Disk (or Change Disk, in Leopard), and select your Time Capsule disk as the destination. Click on Use For Backup. Choose Back Up Now from the Time Machine menu in your Mac’s main menu bar and allow Time Machine to begin backing up your Mac to the Time Capsule. Once the Time Machine preference pane shows that the program has finished preparing and is actively copying data, turn Time Machine off by doing clicking the On/Off button in the Time Machine pane of System Preferences. Select your Time Capsule in the sidebar of any Finder window and double-click on the folder inside it (which may be named “Data” or “Backups”) containing your Time Machine backups. If the disk doesn’t mount automatically, click on Connect As, and supply your user name and password if prompted to do so. This folder should contain a single disk image, which holds your recently aborted Time Machine backup. Double-click on this disk image to mount it in the Finder. Open Disk Utility (in /Applications/Utilities). In the list on the left, select your local Time Machine backup volume and click on the Restore tab. Drag your local backup volume (the indented volume name, not the disk name) from the list on the left into Disk Utility’s Source field. Drag the mounted disk image (named “Time Machine Backups”) from the list on the left into Disk Utility’s Destination field. Make sure the Erase Destination checkbox is selected, as it should be by default. Click on Restore, and click on Restore again to confirm. Now be prepared to wait while Disk Utility copies the files—this process could take hours or even days. When the restoration is finished, quit Disk Utility and eject the disk image from your Time Capsule. You can then turn Time Machine back on, and your backups should proceed normally. If you’re moving from a smaller Time Capsule to a larger one, you’ll follow essentially the same steps, except that you should connect both Time Capsules at the same time, using the old one as the source and the new one as the destination. To switch from one Time Machine destination, or turn Time Machine on or off, use the Time Machine pane of System Preferences. Move your backups to a larger local backup disk If you want to relocate your Time Machine backups to a larger (but still local) backup drive, do the following: Open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences and turn off Time Machine. Make sure both your current backup disk and your new disk are connected and mounted in the Finder. Open Disk Utility (in /Applications/Utilities). In the list on the left, select your new disk (the topmost icon, not any indented volume names) and click on the Partition tab. From the Volume Scheme pop-up menu, choose 1 Partition. Click on Options and select either GUID Partition Table (if you’re using an Intel-based Mac) or Apple Partition Map (for a PowerPC-based Mac). Click on OK. Enter a name for your new backup volume (your choice), make sure the Format pop-up menu is set to Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and click on Apply. Warning: this erases the entire disk! Click on the Restore tab. Drag your current local backup volume (the indented volume name, not the disk name) from the list on the left into Disk Utility’s Source field. Drag your newly attached and partitioned disk from the list on the left into the Destination field. Make sure the Erase Destination checkbox is selected, as it should be by default. Click on Restore, and click Restore again to confirm. Now be prepared to wait while Disk Utility copies the files—this process could take hours or even days. When the restoration is finished, quit Disk Utility. Return to the Time Machine preference pane, click on Select Disk (or Change Disk, in Leopard), and select your new disk as the destination. Time Machine backups should then proceed normally. Joe Kissell is the senior editor of TidBits and author of the e-book Take Control of Mac OS X Backups.

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Podcast Producer FREE 2-Day Seminar
by Doug Hamilton 05 Feb '10

05 Feb '10

Hello, There will be a FREE 2 day seminar on Apple's Podcast Producer at Holiday Inn Winnipeg South on March 2nd and 3rd (9:00am - 4:30pm on both days). The presenter is Bruce Hough (Consulting Engineer) from Apple Inc. Podcast Producer is a complete, end-to-end solution for encoding, publishing, and distributing high-quality video (including podcasts) — ideal for university lectures, presentations, employee training and more. For further details please see this link, http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/features/podcast-producer.html TO REGISTER, please follow this link (also contains a syllabus of this seminar). http://www.apple.com/ca/chatterbox/09/11/podcast_producer_ce/Winnipeg.html Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 (Ph.) 204-474-7556 (Fax) http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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INTEREST: Microsoft’s Creative Destruction by an ex-Microsoft VP
by billing 04 Feb '10

04 Feb '10

...from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/opinion/04brass.html?th&emc=th OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Microsoft’s Creative Destruction By DICK BRASS [Dick Brass was a vice president at Microsoft from 1997 to 2004.] Published: February 4, 2010 San Juan Island, Wash. Maye Webb AS they marvel at Apple’s new iPad tablet computer, the technorati seem to be focusing on where this leaves Amazon’s popular e-book business. But the much more important question is why Microsoft, America’s most famous and prosperous technology company, no longer brings us the future, whether it’s tablet computers like the iPad, e-books like Amazon’s Kindle, smartphones like the BlackBerry and iPhone, search engines like Google, digital music systems like iPod and iTunes or popular Web services like Facebook and Twitter. Some people take joy in Microsoft’s struggles, as the popular view in recent years paints the company as an unrepentant intentional monopolist. Good riddance if it fails. But those of us who worked there know it differently. At worst, you can say it’s a highly repentant, largely accidental monopolist. It employs thousands of the smartest, most capable engineers in the world. More than any other firm, it made using computers both ubiquitous and affordable. Microsoft’s Windows operating system and Office applications suite still utterly rule their markets. The company’s chief executive, Steve Ballmer, has continued to deliver huge profits. They totaled well over $100 billion in the past 10 years alone and help sustain the economies of Seattle, Washington State and the nation as a whole. Its founder, Bill Gates, is not only the most generous philanthropist in history, but has also inspired thousands of his employees to give generously themselves. No one in his right mind should wish Microsoft failure. And yet it is failing, even as it reports record earnings. As the fellow who tried (and largely failed) to make tablet PCs and e-books happen at Microsoft a decade ago, I could say this is because the company placed too much faith in people like me. But the decline is so broad and so striking that it would be presumptuous of me to take responsibility for it. Microsoft has become a clumsy, uncompetitive innovator. Its products are lampooned, often unfairly but sometimes with good reason. Its image has never recovered from the antitrust prosecution of the 1990s. Its marketing has been inept for years; remember the 2008 ad in which Bill Gates was somehow persuaded to literally wiggle his behind at the camera? While Apple continues to gain market share in many products, Microsoft has lost share in Web browsers, high-end laptops and smartphones. Despite billions in investment, its Xbox line is still at best an equal contender in the game console business. It first ignored and then stumbled in personal music players until that business was locked up by Apple. Microsoft’s huge profits — $6.7 billion for the past quarter — come almost entirely from Windows and Office programs first developed decades ago. Like G.M. with its trucks and S.U.V.’s, Microsoft can’t count on these venerable products to sustain it forever. Perhaps worst of all, Microsoft is no longer considered the cool or cutting-edge place to work. There has been a steady exit of its best and brightest. What happened? Unlike other companies, Microsoft never developed a true system for innovation. Some of my former colleagues argue that it actually developed a system to thwart innovation. Despite having one of the largest and best corporate laboratories in the world, and the luxury of not one but three chief technology officers, the company routinely manages to frustrate the efforts of its visionary thinkers. For example, early in my tenure, our group of very clever graphics experts invented a way to display text on screen called ClearType. It worked by using the color dots of liquid crystal displays to make type much more readable on the screen. Although we built it to help sell e-books, it gave Microsoft a huge potential advantage for every device with a screen. But it also annoyed other Microsoft groups that felt threatened by our success. Engineers in the Windows group falsely claimed it made the display go haywire when certain colors were used. The head of Office products said it was fuzzy and gave him headaches. The vice president for pocket devices was blunter: he’d support ClearType and use it, but only if I transferred the program and the programmers to his control. As a result, even though it received much public praise, internal promotion and patents, a decade passed before a fully operational version of ClearType finally made it into Windows. Another example: When we were building the tablet PC in 2001, the vice president in charge of Office at the time decided he didn’t like the concept. The tablet required a stylus, and he much preferred keyboards to pens and thought our efforts doomed. To guarantee they were, he refused to modify the popular Office applications to work properly with the tablet. So if you wanted to enter a number into a spreadsheet or correct a word in an e-mail message, you had to write it in a special pop-up box, which then transferred the information to Office. Annoying, clumsy and slow. Related Times Topics: Microsoft Corporation So once again, even though our tablet had the enthusiastic support of top management and had cost hundreds of millions to develop, it was essentially allowed to be sabotaged. To this day, you still can’t use Office directly on a Tablet PC. And despite the certainty that an Apple tablet was coming this year, the tablet group at Microsoft was eliminated. Not everything that has gone wrong at Microsoft is due to internecine warfare. Part of the problem is a historic preference to develop (highly profitable) software without undertaking (highly risky) hardware. This made economic sense when the company was founded in 1975, but now makes it far more difficult to create tightly integrated, beautifully designed products like an iPhone or TiVo. And, yes, part of the problem has been an understandable caution in the wake of the antitrust settlement. Timing has also been poor — too soon on Web TV, too late on iPods. Internal competition is common at great companies. It can be wisely encouraged to force ideas to compete. The problem comes when the competition becomes uncontrolled and destructive. At Microsoft, it has created a dysfunctional corporate culture in which the big established groups are allowed to prey upon emerging teams, belittle their efforts, compete unfairly against them for resources, and over time hector them out of existence. It’s not an accident that almost all the executives in charge of Microsoft’s music, e-books, phone, online, search and tablet efforts over the past decade have left. As a result, while the company has had a truly amazing past and an enviably prosperous present, unless it regains its creative spark, it’s an open question whether it has much of a future.

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FYI - Apple iPad - tablet computing device.
by Doug Hamilton 28 Jan '10

28 Jan '10

Hello Everyone: Apple released their tablet computing device today, details can be found here,http://www.apple.com/ipad/ Link to the presentation, http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/specialevent0110/ Pricing in Canada isn't available as yet (nor are part numbers), but the U.S.A. pricing can provide some direction. iPad WiFi 16GB $499 / 32GB $599 / 64GB $699 iPad WiFi+3G 16GB $629 / 32GB $729 / 64GB $829 Apple stated this product will be shipping in sixty days (i.e. April). We are unaware of the availability of the iPad WiFi+3G in Canada as these models will require partnerships with cellphone service providers in Canada. If you would like to be added to our waiting list, at your earliest convenience, please let me know which model you'd be interested in obtaining. Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 (Ph.) 204-474-7556 (Fax) http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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FYI: problems accessing gmail via IMAP from OS X?
by billing 28 Jan '10

28 Jan '10

...from: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=known_issues.cs My account has been locked out for exceeding IMAP bandwidth limits when using Apple Mail on the Snow Leopard OS To resolve this issue, upgrade to Mac OS 10.6.2. For information regarding this upgrade, including how to check for the update, visit:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3874. Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 123 Fletcher Argue Building 474-6649 474-7598 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca

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Apples tablet (picture)
by Montana Quiring 26 Jan '10

26 Jan '10

Hello, If you haven't seen it yet, here is a picture of Apples tablet PC: http://i.imgur.com/NTh8q.jpg Montana Quiring IT Systems and Admin U of Manitoba 204.474.8694

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INTEREST: NFP on iPhone... and 3D
by billing 21 Jan '10

21 Jan '10

...from: http://blog.nfb.ca/2010/01/21/online-video-stats/ Canada's National Film Board (NFB) has been on the web for quite some time and for the past little while has been making their films viewable on the web. The NFB also posts stats on which and when their movies are being viewed. Here's a sample: The 10 most popular films on the site this year (Note the running times for each film). A Sunday at 105, (13:20) 155,183 views The Cat Came Back, (7:41) 87,735 Carts of Darkness, (59:34) 82,230 The Log Driver’s Waltz (3:00) 71,148 The Sweater (10:21) 39,404 The Big Snit (9:54) 39,161 Ryan (13:57) 37,371 RiP! A Remix Manifesto (Chapter 1) (5:23) 37,212 Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows (93:33) 34,937 How to Build an Igloo (10:32) 30,996 It's also interesting to note that, of the 3.7 million online views of their videos, 1.45 million of them were international viewers (the rest being films viewed within Canada). Another milestone for the NFP was the introduction of the NFB application for the iPhone/iPod Touch late in October of 2009. This free application can be obtained at the iTunes Store: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/nfb-films/id329353638?mt=8 Here's the overall viewing stats for, 2009: * We grew from an average of 3,000 film views per day (Jan ‘09) to over 20,000 film views per day (Jan ‘10). * As you can see in the above graph, the release of the iPhone app increased our view numbers on the web too * Our content library grew by nearly 1000 videos this year – from 500 films, clips and trailers when we launched to nearly 1500 today. Now the NFB is starting to make 3D and HD versions available on the web and on the iPhone: ...from: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2010/01/21/nfb-online-3d-hd.html http://www.nfb.ca/playlist/nfb-3d/ NFB puts 3-D, HD content online Last Updated: Thursday, January 21, 2010 | 3:20 PM ET CBC News 3-D technology is gaining buzz, helped by hit movies like Avatar and new TV models displayed at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images) With 3-D film Avatar dominating the box office and 3-D TVs hogging the buzz at technology conventions, Canada's National Film Board has decided to test the waters and share some 3-D material with the public. The NFB announced Thursday it will post a sampling of 3-D content — the acclaimed shortsDrux Flux and Falling in Love Again as well as excerpts from the production Facing Champlain — in its online screening room as well as via its iPhone application. The special glasses required to watch the productions can be ordered online from the NFB website. "Normally, organizations don’t share their experimental processes," NFB chair Tom Perlmutter said in a statement. "But we want to start changing that — letting Canadians into the creative workshop. It's a little retro at the moment with the funky glasses (free for the asking at http://preview.tinyurl.com/yhm4yuj), but it's a playroom, it's the skunk work of testing things out while we figure out how to make this fully part of the NFB online experience."

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FYI: Apple Updates Boot Camp, Drivers for Windows 7
by Doug Hamilton 20 Jan '10

20 Jan '10

Hello Everyone: Apple has updated Boot Camp (version 3.1) with drivers for Windows 7. For those of you running Windows Vista via Bootcamp and wish to upgrade to Windows 7, there is a utility from Apple to assist in the process (see this link, http://support.apple.com/kb/DL977). Be sure to use this utility *before* upgrading from Vista to Windows 7. The Boot Camp Windows 7 Installation FAQ can be found here, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3986 For other related downloads & documentation please see the main support page for Boot Camp, found here http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/ Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 (Ph.) 204-474-7556 (Fax) http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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INTEREST: Nokia vs Apple
by billing 16 Jan '10

16 Jan '10

....from: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/nokia-asks-itc-to-ban-iphone-ipod-and-ma… Nokia asks ITC to ban iPhone, iPod, and MacBook imports, files another lawsuit against Apple By Nilay Patel posted Jan 4th 2010 10:49AM Looks like Nokia is going all-out in its patent fight with Apple: in addition to the lawsuit it's filed over GSM standards and last week's International Trade Commission complaint, Espoo just filed a second complaint with the federal court, alleging that Apple's infringing several "implementation patents" that cover everything from camera sensors to touchscreens. That's three fronts in the same war, if you're counting -- the original regarding GSM patents, and these two latest over specific device technologies. The biggest bombshell so far is the ITC complaint, in which Nokia's asking the commission to ban imports of basically every Apple mobile product from the MacBook to the iPhone for infringing its device patents -- a strategywe've seen in other high-profile cases. Since the ITC has the ability to move quite quickly, we'd expect that case to be the primary battleground for the moment -- but remember that Apple has plenty of its own incredibly broad patents of its own to fight back with here, so don't expect a quick resolution. Looks like 2010 is going to be awfully good for these attorneys, don't you think? .....from: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/16/apple-retaliates-requests-us-import-ban-… Apple retaliates: requests US import ban on Nokia phones By Thomas Ricker posted Jan 16th 2010 7:02AM As expected, Apple just responded to Nokia's ITC request to ban Apple device imports with a US embargo request of its very own. Notice of Apple's complaint (without any detail) was posted yesterday on the website of the International Trade Commission -- a government agency tasked with protecting the US market from unfair trade practices. As you might recall, the whole Nokia v. Apple legal spat started with Nokia suing Apple for infringing upon Nokia patents relating to GSM, UMTS, and WiFi; a claim later expanded to include "implementation patents" covering a wide range of items including camera sensors and touchscreens. While the ITC hasn't agreed to investigate either Nokia's or Apple's complaints, it is customary to do so with investigations usually taking about 15 months to complete. We'll post more when the details of Apple's patent infringement complaint are revealed.

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INTEREST: Intel processor roadmap leaked...
by billing 29 Nov '09

29 Nov '09

...from: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/11/29/intels_six_core_gulftown_proc… Sunday, November 29, 2009 Intel's Six-Core 'Gulftown' processor revealed, possibly headed to Mac Pro By Brian Garner Published: 01:10 AM EST Performance numbers of Intel's new six-core Xeon were prematurely revealed by Polish website PCLab, showing strong increases in performance for the chip rumored to be in the next iteration of the Mac Pro. Hardmac reported that test and performance results of Intel's new 6-core Xeon chips code-named "Gulftown" were briefly featured on PCLab before being taken down at the request of Intel. According to the test results, the new chips are nearly 50% faster than the previous quad-core Xenon during parallel tasks, and use up to 50% less power. This chip will, according to sources, be featured in future Mac Pro models that could arrive as early as the first quarter of 2010. The "Gulftown" chip will be sold under the Core i9 name and will be Intel's first six-core, dual-socket processor. The 32 nanometer chips feature 12MB of L3 cache. If paired with another chip, as Apple usually does in its high-end workstations, the processors will offer 12 physical and 24 logical cores. In a previous story, Hardmac reported that the new Mac Pro will have a modified motherboard with a 10Gbit/second Ethernet port and will support 8GB and 16GB RAM modules, allowing for a maximum of 128GB of RAM. The report also stated that it is likely that Apple would have short-term exclusive use of the i9 processor. Apple has enjoyed short-term exclusivity during the release of the previous two Mac Pro lines. ....roadmap graphic: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/29/intels-desktop-roadmap-leaked-with-faste…

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INTEREST: Top-of-the-line iMac takes crown as fastest stock Mac model
by billing 29 Nov '09

29 Nov '09

...from: http://www.macworld.com/article/143970/2009/11/core15_imac.html?lsrc=nl_mww… Nov 19, 2009 6:30 pm70 Comments+ 54 RecommendationsShareThis 27-inch Core i5 iMac (with Core i7 option) Top-of-the-line iMac takes the crown as fastest stock Mac model ever by James Galbraith, Macworld.com When Apple announced new iMacs last month, it included a major step forward amid the subtle-but-welcome refinements in most of the models: the first ever iMac to offer a quad-core processor. The new high-end 27-inch iMacs are the first to use Intel’s Core i5 and Core i7 quad-core processors, and they were not available at the time of the announcement. But finally, the wait is over, and the Core i5 and Core i7 27-inch iMacs have arrived—and let me tell you, it was worth the wait. PRODUCT: 27-inch Core i5 iMac RATING (Scale) PROS Impressive speed; amazingly fast Core i7 option; great image quality from display at any angle; improved speaker system; new SD card slot. CONS Glare and reflections from screen may frustrate some users; FireWire 400 peripherals require an adapter; Apple Remote not included. COMPANY Apple PRICE AS RATED $1999; $2199 with i7 processor BEST CURRENT PRICE $1,999.00 There are four standard iMac configurations, three of which have 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo processors and were reviewed recently. The fourth standard configuration is a $1999 model that has the same 27-inch screen, 1TB hard drive, and 4GB of RAM as the $1699 27-inch 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo iMac (), but features a more powerful ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card with 512MB of GDDR3 memory and Intel’s Core i5 quad-core processor running at 2.66GHz. The Core i5 has 8MB of L3 cache shared among the processing cores. The Core i5 features a technology Intel calls Turbo Boost. If an application isn’t using every available core, the cores that are idle shut off, and the active cores speed up. According to Apple, this allows the processor to run up to 20 percent faster under heavy workloads; that translates to 3.2GHz in this iMac. As an upgrade option to the Core i5 iMac, you can swap in a 2.8GHz Core i7 quad-core processor for $200 more. The Core i7 also features Turbo Boost (for speeds of up to 3.46GHz), and it also has Hyper-Threading technology that can present itself to highly threaded applications as having eight virtual cores. New 27-inch Core i5 and 27-inch Core i7 iMacs: Speedmark scores Longer bars are better. Blue bars in italics represent reference systems. Macworld Lab testing by James Galbraith, Chris Holt, Helen Williamson, and Roman Loyola. To see how well the new quad-core iMacs perform, we ran our overall system performance test suite, Speedmark 6, and the results were quite impressive. In fact, with a Speedmark 6 score of 209, the 2.66GHz Core i5 iMac is the fastest standard configuration Mac we’ve ever tested. It was three percent faster overall than the 2.66GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro (), and 1.5 percent faster overall than the 2.26GHz 8-core Mac Pro (). Comparing the Core i5 iMac’s Speedmark 6 scores to its iMac siblings, the Core i5 iMac was 27 percent faster overall than the second fastest iMac we’ve tested, the recently released 21.5-inch 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo iMac with 1TB hard drive and ATI graphics (). Since the Core i5 iMac has the same hard drive as two of the other three new iMacs, we didn’t see a big difference in our file duplication test, and our unzipping test results were pretty flat across the board. However, we did see a 25 percent improvement in the Core i5 iMac’s Compressor score when compared to the 21.5-inch 3.06GHz iMac, a 26 percent increase in Call of Duty frame rates, a whopping 71 percent improvement in our HandBrake test, an 88 percent faster performance in our Cinebench multiple CPU test, and the new Core i5 iMac posted a MathematicaMark score more than twice as high as the 3.06GHz iMac. That’s a lot of performance bang for an extra $200. Comparing the new Core i5 iMac to the Mac Pro models, we see the speed advantage going the iMac’s way in our Zip, iTunes, iMovie export, Call of Duty frame rates, and Compressor tests. The Mac Pros stood their ground on our HandBrake, iMovie import test, Cinebench CPU test, and MathematicaMark trials. Our tests of the built-to-order Core i7 iMac (which, other than the processor, has identical specifications as the stock Core i5 iMac) showed even greater performance prowess. With a Speedmark 6 score of 225, the $2199 Core i7 iMac was nearly 8 percent faster than the Core i5 iMac. The Core i7 was nearly 11 percent faster than the $2499 2.66GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro and 9 percent faster than the 2.26GHz 8-Core Mac Pro, which sells for $1100 more. In our tests, there were a few tasks where having eight physical processing cores was beneficial, like our MathematicaMark and Cinebench CPU tests. 27-inch Core i5 and 27-inch Core i7 iMacs benchmarks Speedmark 6 Finder Finder Finder iTunes 9 iMovie '09 iMovie '09 Call of Duty 4 iPhoto '09 Photoshop CS4 Compressor 3.0.4 Handbrake 0.9.3 Cinebench R10 Mathematica- Mark 7 Parallels 5 World Bench 6 Aperture 2.1.4 SCORE DUPLICATE 1GB FILE ZIP 2GB FOLDER UNZIP 2GB ARCHIVE AAC TO MP3 ENCODE IMPORT CAMERA ARCHIVE SHARE TO ITUNES: MOBILE FRAME RATE IMPORT 150 JPEGS SUITE ENCODE RIP DVD CHAPTER MULTIPLE CPU TEST SCORE MULTITASK TEST WINDOWS IMPORT 27" iMac 2.66GHz Core i5 209 0:21 3:01 0:43 1:07 1:22 1:03 86.9 0:26 0:39 5:44 1:22 1:12 9.64 6:07 1:50 27" iMac 2.8GHz Core i7 225 0:20 2:43 0:42 0:59 1:04 0:59 87.1 0:22 0:39 5:40 1:16 0:58 11.65 4:28 1:41 21.5" iMac 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo (ATI) 164 0:23 2:55 0:43 1:16 2:16 1:18 69.1 0:32 0:41 7:41 2:20 2:15 4.42 4:47 2:32 27" iMac 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo 162 0:22 3:00 0:39 1:16 2:17 1:16 66.2 0:32 0:42 8:16 2:23 2:15 4.28 4:45 2:34 24" iMac 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo (early 2009) 134 0:25 3:42 0:51 1:28 1:40 1:53 19.2 0:36 0:47 9:03 2:24 2:33 4.22 4:57 3:08 Mac Pro 2.66GHz Quad-Core Xeon (3GB RAM) 203 0:22 3:08 0:44 1:10 1:09 1:18 49.3 0:27 0:38 6:17 1:15 1:00 11.13 4:27 1:36 Mac Pro 2.26GHz 8-Core Xeon (6GB RAM) 206 0:23 3:27 0:41 1:14 0:57 1:24 50.4 0:28 0:42 6:33 1:10 0:45 19.53 5:00 1:45 Best results are in bold. References systems are in italics. How we tested. Call of Duty score is in frames per second (higher is better). MathematicaMark is a performance score (higher is better). All other scores are in minutes:seconds (lower is better). Speedmark 6 scores are relative to those of a 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook, which is assigned a score of 100. All systems were tested with 10.6.1 except for the Core 15 and Core 17 iMacs, which had 10.6.2. All Macs were tested with 4GB of RAM except as noted. We duplicated a 1GB file, created a Zip archive in the Finder from the two 1GB files and then unzipped it. We converted 90 minutes of AAC audio files to MP3 using iTunes’ High Quality setting. In iMovie '09, we imported a camera archive and exported it to iTunes using the Mobile Devices setting. We ran a Timedemo at 1024-by-768 with 4X anti-aliasing on in Call of Duty 4. We imported 150 JPEGs into iPhoto '09. The Photoshop Suite test is a set of 14 scripted tasks using a 50MB file. Photoshop’s memory was set to 70 percent and History was set to Minimum. We used Compressor to encode a .mov file to the application's H.264 for video podcast setting. In HandBrake we ripped a DVD chapter to the hard drive. We recorded how long it took to render a scene with multiprocessors in Cinebench. We ran the Evaluate Notebook test in MathematicaMark 7. We ran the WorldBench 6 multitasking test on a Parallels 5 VM running Windows 7 Professional. We timed the import and thumbnail/preview creation time for 150 photos in Aperture.—Macworld Lab testing by James Galbraith, Chris Holt, Helen Williamson, and Roman Loyola. The new quad-core iMacs are outwardly identical to the 27-inch 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo iMac released last month. The quad-core iMacs feature an LED backlit screen covered with glass at a 16:9 aspect ratio, an integrated iSight camera, four USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, a Mini DisplayPort, and a new SD memory card slot. In terms of connectivity all new iMacs offer gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n wireless networking, and Bluetooth 2.1 + Enhanced Data Rate. The 27-inch iMacs ship with a 1TB 7200rpm Serial ATA hard drive, with a 2TB hard drive option available for an extra $250. Macworld’s buying advice With the new 2.66GHz Core i5 iMac and the 2.8GHz Core i7 iMac, Apple has not only blurred the line between consumer and professional systems, it's darn near erased it. The 2.66GHz Core i5 iMac offers faster performance at most tasks than the 2.66GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro. The Core i5 iMac also has more memory and more storage space than the 2.66GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro, while being $500 less (plus you get a 27-inch screen with the iMac). Unless you absolutely require additional PCI cards, multiple internal hard drives, or a lot of RAM, the Core i5 iMac makes a strong case for the being the go-to system for most Mac professionals.

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INTEREST: Psystar found guilty of infringing Apple's copyright
by billing 15 Nov '09

15 Nov '09

First, a quick backgrounder: ...from: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2008/07/apple-finally-sues-unlicensed-mac… Apple finally sues unlicensed Macintosh cloner Psystar By David Chartier | Last updated July 15, 2008 11:24 AM CT [...] This past April, Psystar made instant waves by announcing a bargain-basement Mac clone for $399 that could run Leopard, the latest version of Apple's Mac OS X. Psystar's PC is an upgradeable tower with a respectable amount of features which, at face value, starts $200 lower than Apple's cheapest—and highly unconfigurable—Mac mini at $599. Despite drawbacks like incompatibility with some Apple software updates, a flood of orders brought the company's site down for days at a time. [...] ....Apple has finally filed suit against Psystar in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit accuses Psystar of violating Apples licenses and trademarks, as well as copyright infringement. [...] ...from: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/14/apple-wins-copyright-infringement-case-a… Apple wins copyright infringement case against Psystar in California by Nilay Patel posted Nov 14th 2009 at 5:59PM Well, well. Apple's won its copyright infringement claim against would-be Mac cloner Psystar in California. Anyone surprised? As we've been saying all along, the key argument wasn't the OS X EULA or Psystar's failed monopoly claims, but pure, simple copyright infringement, since Psystar was illegally copying, modifying, and distributing Apple's code. Psystar was also dinged for circumventing Apple's kernel encryption in violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, but that's just another nail in the coffin, really. There's still some legal fireworks to come, as Apple's various other claims like breach of contract, trademark infringement, and unfair competition weren't addressed in this ruling, but those are all secondary issues now -- and we'd expect this decision to have quite an impact on the other case currently ongoing in Florida. We've broken down the highlights after the break, hit up the read link for the PDF and follow along. Okay -- got your popcorn? Let's do this thing. (We're skipping right to the analysis section, but the key piece of info from the facts section is that Psystar didn't install OS X from its purchased DVDs, but from a Mac mini "imaging station.") Copyright infringement. The court agrees with Apple right down the line here -- Psystar is illegally copying, modifying, and distributing Mac OS X, and the court basically slams the whole license-vs-own argument into the ground, saying, "Even assuming arguendo that Psystar was the owner of a copy... the copies at issue here were not lawfully manufactured with the authorization of the copyright owner." Psystar was making multiple copies of OS X from its imaging station, and you just can't do that without permission. Furthermore, Psystar's argument that it includes a purchased copy of OS X with all of its computers fell flat, as the version of the OS on the machines was often different than the version on the disc, and several of the machines examined didn't have discs included at all. Oops. Creation of derivative works. This is part of copyright infringement, but we're going to break it out because it's a major key to the case. In order to boot OS X on a hackintosh, Psystar replaced the OS X bootloader, disabled and removed Apple kernel extensions, and added its own kernel extensions. That was enough variation from Apple's code to warrant a finding of copyright infringement all on its own -- Psystar was essentially selling a custom version of Apple's copyrighted code, and you're not allowed to do that without permission. What does that mean? It means that you can throw out all the arguments about EULAs and ownership and fair use, because Psystar's main business -- hacking OS X to run on non-Apple hardware -- is illegal. What can we say? We told you so. Copyright misuse. After Psystar's antitrust and monopoly arguments were thrown out, it tried to argue that Apple was misusing its copyright on OS X by limiting it to Apple hardware. It was an interesting and ballsy argument, and the court didn't buy it for a second: "Apple has not prohibited others from independently developing and using their own operating systems. Thus, Apple did not violate the public policy underlying copyright law or engage in copyright misuse." Put another way, as long as Apple doesn't try to prevent OS X owners from buying Windows PCs, it can sell OS X however it wants. DMCA violations. Everyone's favorite section of copyright law gets some time in the sun -- the court found that Psystar illegally circumvented the OS X kernel encryption when it hacked OS X and booted it on non-Apple hardware. Amusingly, Psystar tried to argue that Apple's encryption wasn't effective because the keys are available on the internet, but that's just not how the law works at all. "Here, when the decryption key was not employed, the encryption effectively worked to prevent access to Mac OS X. And that is all that is required." Ouch. Relief. Psystar's gonna pay, but we don't know how much, because the court hasn't decided yet. Stay tuned -- that's going down next month. Remaining issues. Apple's complaint contained a number of other claims besides copyright infringement, and they're still on for trial. The big one is breach of contract, which is the fight over the OS X EULA -- but since Psystar has already been found liable for straight copyright infringement, we don't think it stands a chance of invalidating the EULA. There's also a number of trademark claims and unfair competition claims, none of which will affect the main ruling here. In short: things don't look so good for Psystar. Now, this case only covered Leopard; Apple and Psystar are fighting a separate case over Snow Leopard in Florida, which means we haven't heard the end of this yet. If we were betting, though, we'd say that case will end up just like this one -- to quote Groklaw, "Judges notice if you were just found guilty of a similar cause of action in another state." Yeah. ....and the GROKLAW article with all the gory details: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20091114101637997

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Fwd: Apple Education Seminars - Apple Tech Series - Introduction to Snow Leopard
by billing 30 Oct '09

30 Oct '09

Here's a brief agenda for the seminar this Wednesday: > OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Client (64-bit, GCD, OpenCL, services) > OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server install and collaboration > Podcast Producer:Podcast Producer 2 is a complete, end-to-end > solution for encoding, publishing, and distributing high-quality > podcasts for employee training, university lectures, presentations, > and more. > > Xsan: Xsan is a 64-bit cluster file system specifically designed for > small and large computing environments that demand the highest level > of data availability. This technology enables multiple Mac desktop > and Xserve systems to share RAID storage volumes over a high-speed > Fibre Channel network. > Apple Remote Desktop: Apple Remote Desktop allows you to manage the > Mac computers on your network. Distribute software, provide real- > time online help to end users, create detailed software and hardware > reports, and automate routine management tasks without leaving your > desk Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 123 Fletcher Argue Building 474-6649 474-7598 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca Begin forwarded message: >> >> >> >> >> Apple Tech Series - Introduction to Snow Leopard Server >> Wednesday, November 4 2009 9:00AM to 12:00PMAdd to iCal >> You've been invited to an event >> The Apple Tech Series is a brand-new technical program developed >> and presented by Apple System Engineers and Trainers. >> >> Please use the address in this e-mail to register for the event. >> >> >> University of Manitoba >> >> University Centre Building, Fort Garry Campus >> 543 Churchhill room >> Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2 >> >> Get Directions >> >> >> Copyright © 2009 Apple Inc. 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014. >> All Rights Reserved / Keep Informed / Privacy Policy >> >

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INTEREST: Harvard Medical School releases iPhone app to inform/report about swine flu
by billing 26 Oct '09

26 Oct '09

...from: http://www.thisisbrandx.com/2009/10/harvard-medical-school-releases-iphone-… Harvard Medical School releases iPhone app to protect against swine flu 01:01 PM PT, Oct 26 2009 Hot on the heels of President Obama declaring a national emergency over the rapidly spreading swine flu virus (a.k.a. H1N1), Harvard Medical School has released a handy new iPhone app that will alert you to outbreaks in your area. What a great idea, and coming from a trusted medical school, this might get some serious traction in the iTunes app store. The HMSMobile Swine Flu Center app includes video, animation and text about how to avoid H1N1 and methods of protecting your home and workplace from an outbreak. The app also provides real-time updates from the Harvard Medical School. For all of you hypochondriacs, there is even an interactive guide to H1N1 symptoms (Yellow eyes? Nope, you've got jaundice!) and a "hot line" guide to finding medical treatment in your area. -- Richard Metzger

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