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INTEREST: US Army-NASA, UCLA build 1566 and 512 processor supercomputers
by billing 06 Jul '04

06 Jul '04

...from: http://www.colsa.com/cover_page/news_front/news_details/news_details.htm COLSA Corporation of Huntsville, AL and Apple Computer Corporation of Cupertino, CA jointly announce the acquisition of one of the largest and most powerful computers in the world. COLSA has contracted with Apple to deliver for COLSA’s government customer, the Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center (AMRDEC), the components for a supercluster computer system with more than 3000 processors. The system will consist of 1566 dual-processor, rack-mountable Xserve G5 units. These units employ Apple’s new 2.0 GHz G5 CPU, one of the most powerful processors in the new generation of 64-bit computer chips. COLSA will build, install, test, and operate the Apple Computer component supercluster computer system for its Army customer. The new system will be delivered to COLSA’s Hypersonic Missile Technology facility located at its newly renovated Research & Operations Center in Huntsville in June. The supercluster will be employed to model the complex aero-thermodynamics of hypersonic flight, including applications related to missile interceptors and scramjet engine performance. At its peak, the new supercluster has a performance capability of greater than 25 TFlop/s, meaning that it is capable of calculating more than 25 trillion floating point operations per second. A floating point operation, or Flop, represents an arithmetical operation on a pair of numbers and is a standard performance measure for scientific computing. On the basis of this performance capability the system would rank as the one of the most powerful computer on the planet as measured by the TOP500 List (on the net at www.top500.org). On today’s TOP500 listing, the new supercluster would be second only to Japan’s 40 Tflop/s, $350 million dollar Earth Simulator computer. At approximately $5 million dollars for 25 Tflop/s, the system will set a new price-performance standard for high-end scientific computing. The Xserve G5 supercluster system is expected to be on-line and in production for work by COLSA’s Research, Development and Engineering Center (RDEC) customer of the Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM), located at Redstone Arsenal, AL by late Fall of this year. This acquisition is the second phase of a multi year COLSA program to create a center of excellence in Huntsville for computational modeling and simulation. Through the continued efforts of Senator Richard Shelby, (R.), AL, a long term supporter of bringing this advanced capability to Huntsville, the new system will benefit both the U.S. Army and NASA for the National Aerospace Initiative and their research and development objectives. ============================= ...from: http://www.thinksecret.com/news/ucla.html UCLA Plasma Physics to create 256 Xserve G5 cluster July 5, 2004 - By Andrew Feder, Contributing Editor According to officials, UCLA's Plasma Physics Group recently purchased some 256 Xserve G5s and is in the process of building a Virginia Tech-style parallel super computing cluster. The cluster will employ 256 Dual G5 Xserves running Mac OS X Server to form a 512-processor parallel supercomputing cluster. The cluster is being deployed for Plasma Physicist Warren Mori by a team at UCLA Academic Technology Services led by IT Infrastructure manager Bill Labate. The cluster's estimated cost is close to $1 million, which was largely funded by a grant to Mori from the National Science Foundation. Mori proposed the cluster in October 2003, at which point many platforms were evaluated. Xserves running Mac OS X Server proved to be the most cost-effective, straightforward and appropriate choice for the application, plasma physics research. Officials with the "Dawson Project," as it is known, told Think Secret that the cluster is currently under construction and that the Xserves are arriving in groups. The team has been installing the Xserves for the last few weeks, and expects the cluster to be up in running in another couple of weeks as the remainder of the servers arrive. The Dawson team has received some, if not all of its Xserves (pictured below) despite heavy demand and shipping delays on the dual servers. As Think Secret recently reported, Apple is on the verge of quelling the harsh backlog on dual Xserve orders. UCLA Physics is no newcomer to parallel computing with Macs. In 2002 a group working with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory created a parallel computing cluster using 33 dual-processor 1GHz Xserves to achieve over 217 Gigaflops. The cluster used Pooch and MacMPI X, a development of AppleSeed, an ongoing project begun by physics researchers at UCLA in 1998. Earlier this month, the COLSA Corporation announced the building of "Mach 5," a Mac OS-based supercomputer cluster which is expected to be one of the fastest in the world. The cluster is to be made up of 1566 dual-processor Xserve G5 1U rackmounted servers and is expected to perform at over 25 Tflops/seconds. Mach 5 will be used by the US Army, at a cost of $5.8 million, to model the complex aero-thermodynamics of hypersonic flight. Mach 5 is expected to rank as one of the most powerful supercomputers on the planet, according to the June 2004 Top 500 supercomputers list. Mach 5 will rank second to Japan's $350 million Earth Simulator. Although the Plasma Physics Group's cluster pales in comparison to Virginia Tech and COLSA's, it is another step in the right direction for Apple as it vies for market share in the higher education arena. We are beginning to see, albeit slowly, the introduction of Mac OS-based servers into industry, government, and higher education as Apple makes inroads in these deeply sought after markets.

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INTEREST: Gartner Research report: How to Stop the Destructive Overuse of E-Mail; iPods pose security risk for enterprises, Gartner says
by billing 06 Jul '04

06 Jul '04

...from: http://www.umanitoba.ca/ist/gartner/intraweb/research/121200/121276/ 121276.html How to Stop the Destructive Overuse of E-Mail 8 June 2004 Nikos Drakos Maurene Caplan Grey Excessive dependence on e-mail threatens to destroy valuable organizational knowledge. Attention to human factors, usability and flexibility is key to shifting e-mail traffic to appropriate systems. E-mail has become end users' tool of choice for ad hoc communication and carrying out more-complex coordination, collaboration and management activities. Aside from its negative effect on productivity, unchecked e-mail growth will endanger valuable organizational knowledge. To attract users to more-natural, activity-specific alternatives, enterprises must give special attention to human factors, usability and flexibility concerns — especially where alternatives to e-mail are already in place but underused. In the long term, excessive reliance on e-mail is likely to be symptomatic of inflexible business processes. Analysis The ease of use, ubiquity and flexibility of e-mail have made it the most-popular tool for person-to-person communication. But even a casual examination of a typical inbox reveals usage patterns that go far beyond simple communication. E-mail is used for activity coordination and management tasks (for example, scheduling meetings or tracking progress), group discussions and decision making, finding people or distributing information. Furthermore, these e-mail-based collaboration, coordination and discovery patterns typically are present across the spectrum of business processes. [...] Short-Term Remedies for Excessive Dependence on E-Mail Many enterprises have already deployed tools that provide explicit support for common communication, coordination and collaboration patterns — for example, virtual meetings, shared spaces, discussion forums and project management. Such support may be available through specific collaboration products, or as part of a broader intranet or portal deployment. Short-term remedies for excessive e-mail dependence are underused. There are many reasons why users rely too much on e-mail instead of various, more-specific alternatives — but there are just as many tactics and strategies to reverse this overreliance. The first reason for users' aversion to alternative communication and coordination tools is that they're often unaware of such tools and have received inadequate end-user training. This is the place to start remediation. Enterprises are increasingly developing e-mail productivity training programs, which include technologies and usage standards (see "Making E-Mail More Productive"). Any such program should include specific guidelines about when to use e-mail as opposed to alternatives such as instant messaging, Web conferencing or another enterprise communication infrastructure. Training can be delivered via various channels: • Just-in-time training — for example, short videos that can be included as part of the desktop software image • Lists of top-10 e-mail usage standards, distributed to employees on laminated cards • E-mail productivity management training Next, there are important human issues to consider, such as cultivating trust, recognizing and satisfying privacy concerns, and encouraging participation. The last item — encouraging participation — usually requires an enterprise to rethink employee incentives and rewards to overcome natural information-hoarding tendencies, as well as a natural aversion to discipline. Without active leadership, encouragement and appropriate responses to human issues, users will continue to prefer the almost-private world of e-mail. E-mail gives users control over who they trade information with and how, as opposed to other forums or applications in which users lose control of their contributions on submission. This is especially problematic in cases where the rules of engagement (that is, who can access a contribution or what they can do with it) are unclear or not enforced. Trust is a belief system. Enterprises should support communication mechanisms that take an individual's "trust levels" into consideration (see "Choose the Right Communication Channel to Build Trust"). A third reason for users' aversion to alternative communication and coordination tools is the poor usability and inflexibility of alternate e-mail tools. [...] E-mail traffic growth can be one of the obvious symptoms of inflexible or inappropriate business processes that force employees to broadcast or cascade messages to increasingly larger numbers of co-workers. Such bursts of e-mail traffic can be a force for good, however, as long as they're used to identify and rectify a broken process or exploit a new opportunity. Unfortunately, too many enterprises treat only the symptoms (in some extreme cases, they ban the use of e-mail) and fail to recognize the fundamental causes of and appropriate responses to problems. ============================= iPods pose security risk for enterprises, Gartner says By Laura Rohde, IDG News Service July 06, 2004 9:20 am ET The iPod may be popular, but also poses such a major security risk for businesses, that enterprises should seriously consider banning the iPod and other portable storage devices, according to a study by research firm Gartner Inc. The devices, using a Universal Serial Bus (USB) or FireWire (IEEE 1394), present risks to businesses on several fronts: from introducing malicious code into a corporate network, to being used to steal corporate data, the Stamford, Conn.-based research company said in its report "How to Tackle the Threat From Portable Storage Devices," published Friday. The report pointed to a variety of devices, including pocket-sized portable FireWire hard drives, like those from LaCie Group SA or Toshiba Corp., or USB hard drives or keychain drives, such as the DiskOnKey from M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers Ltd. Gartner also named disk-based MP3 players, like Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod, as a security risk as well as digital cameras with smart media cards, memory sticks and compact flash. Gartner advised companies to forbid employees and external contractors with direct access to corporate networks from using these privately owned devices with corporate PCs. Companies should also consider a "desktop lockdown policy," disabling universal plug and play functions after installing desired drivers, to permit the use of only authorized devices. The report conceded that the devices themselves can be quite useful within corporations, making it "unpractical and counterproductive" to introduce an outright ban. Companies should take a multipronged approach to portable storage devices, Gartner said, including using personal firewalls to limit what can be done on USB ports. The use of products for selectively controlling ports and encrypting data should also be considered, the company said. Additionally, digital rights management technology should also be used by enterprises that want to protect intellectual property, Gartner said.

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FYI: Increase Your Internet Explorer Browsing and Outlook E-Mail Safety
by billing 05 Jul '04

05 Jul '04

If you are using Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Outlook/Express), Microsoft has the following recommendations: ....from: http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/settings.mspx Increase Your Browsing and E-Mail Safety 4 Steps to Help Ward Off Hackers and Attackers Updated: June 11, 2004 If your computer is part of a managed network, contact your system administrator before making any changes. Malicious hackers and virus writers can take advantage of low security settings in your e-mail and Web browsing software to infect your computer. They can do this by sending you a malicious e-mail message or by enticing you to visit a malicious Web site. By increasing your security settings in Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Outlook Express, you can help limit your chances of being attacked. There are four things you can do right now to increase your security. 1. Set Internet Explorer security level to High 2. Add Web sites you consider safe to Trusted Sites 3. Use plain text to read the e-mail messages you receive 4. Block pop-up windows in your browser ...more details at: http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/settings.mspx

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INTEREST: Dutch Parliament Withdraws Support for Software Patents
by billing 05 Jul '04

05 Jul '04

...from: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20040702085542832 Dutch Parliament Withdraws Support for Software Patents Friday, July 02 2004 @ 08:55 AM EDT The Dutch parliament is making news. It has just withdrawn its vote for the Directive on Software Patents. It's a proof-of-concept vote, you might say, the first time such a move has been taken in the history of the EU, demonstrating that other countries are free to do the same, as we reported on June 22. Here is part of the FFI press release. Today, July the 1st, the Dutch Parliament has decided to direct Minister Brinkhorst and Secretary of State van Gennip (Economic Affairs) to withdraw the Dutch vote in support of the Council of Ministers' text for the Directive on Software Patents. This is the first time in the history of the EU that such a course of action has been undertaken. The idea of allowing patents on software has been strongly criticized among SMEs (small medium enterprises), scientists and consumer organisations. They inhibit investments in Research and Development and contribute to higher prices. Commentators also fear the rise of a "lawyers paradise" in Europe such as is found in the USA, where programmers are constantly threatened by lawsuits. This act represents an incisive criticism of the European Council of Ministers' attempts to introduce broad patentability of software. Minister Brinkhorst, acting on behalf of the Netherlands, endorsed the Council's current proposal, which not only reiterated the terms of the Council's strongly criticized first proposal, but went even further, directly rebuffing the clear stance assumed by the EU Parliament, which voted to add numerous amendments which made clear how the category of logical algorithms would be treated. The European Parliament's version asserted that patents would only be allowed for industrial inventions (e.g. washing machines) and would not be made possible for pure software. All these adaptations were removed in the Council of Ministers' controversial version. Earlier, Brinkhorst described the Council proposal to the Dutch Parliament as a compromise with the EP. In recent legislative debates,Van Gennip was forced to admit that this was incorrect information, and attributed it to "an error in the word processor." The Dutch Parliament apparently didn't buy this explanation and today she rendered an historic and groundbreaking decision, calling upon Minister Brinkhorst and van Gennip to withdraw the Netherland's supporting vote in the European Council and convert it to an abstention. This measure is possible because at the present moment there is only a "political agreement" and the "formal vote" can only take place after the contested text has been translated into the 20 European Languages. An emergency brake move in the procedure such as this has never been exercised before. With this decision, the Dutch Parliament demonstrates the active interest her public holds in the debate over software patents, and the recognition and appreciation for the adaptations introduced by the European Parliament. Dieter Van Uytvanck, spokesman of FFII Netherlands, stresses the importance of this decision: "This political signal reaches much further than just The Netherlands. We hope that other European countries that also have their doubts about the proposal of the Council will also withdraw their support, so that the current proposal no longer has a majority. The historic precedent is there now."

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Apologies for inadvertent image inclusion in email
by billing 21 Jun '04

21 Jun '04

My apologies. Because I did a wholesale "copy and paste" of the first article in my message: INTEREST: ICANN surveys proposed Net domains, "Net is moving into Iron Age" ...there were included a couple of access tracking graphics included. I did not realize they were there or I would have cleaned them out before I sent the email. I'll take greater care in cleaning my messages of such unwanted "hitch-hikers" in the future. Wayne

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INTEREST: ICANN surveys proposed Net domains, "Net is moving into Iron Age"
by billing 21 Jun '04

21 Jun '04

...from: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5176438.html?tag=default By Declan McCullagh CNET News.com March 19, 2004, 3:42 PM PT The Internet's real estate may soon be expanding, with the proposed addition of up to nine new top-level domains, including .jobs, .xxx, .travel and .mail. Ten organizations have submitted detailed proposals to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for the rights to sell the potentially lucrative domain-name suffixes. ICANN, which made the list public on Friday afternoon, has not approved any new top-level domains since adding .biz, .info, and .aero and four others in 2000. The other proposed suffixes include .cat, .post, .asia, .mobi, and .tel. Two groups, New York-based Pulver.com and the U.K's Telname Limited London, are vying for .tel, which places ICANN in the uncomfortable position of judging which company is better qualified to run it. It is unclear how long it will take for ICANN to consider the new top-level domains, and how many will be approved. In a recent interview with CNET News.com, ICANN Chairman Vint Cerf said he has no upper limit in mind. "There is no specific number that has been set for acceptance," Cerf said. "My understanding is that we have not put any limits on the number of applications, and that as applications are qualified, that they would presumably be approved." ICANN plans a public comment period for the proposals over the month of April, followed by submission to an independent evaluation panel in May. The criteria for judging the proposals require that there be broad support for a top-level domain, that it not negatively affect the domain name system (DNS), and that it be financially viable. Each applicant paid $45,000 to ICANN, and proposals were due by March 16. Stuart Lawley, the president of Toronto-based ICM Registry, said he hopes ICANN will approve his request for .xxx so "responsible adult entertainment businesses can go about their business in a less restricted way." ========================================================== ...from: (requires the ability to play Microsoft streaming video) http://zdnet.com.com/1606-2-5239781.html ICANN chairman and MCI Senior Vice President Vint Cerf contends that the Net is still early in its evolution, in the process of moving from a figurative stone age to an iron age. In his Face to Face interview with ZDNet Editor in Chief Dan Farber, Cerf discusses the Internet's future and outlines his views on spam, privacy, IPv6 and interplanetary networking.

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INTEREST: Munich to stick with open source
by billing 18 Jun '04

18 Jun '04

...from: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5237356.html By Jo Best CNET News.com June 17, 2004, 7:19 AM PT Munich, the city whose switch to Linux was seen as so significant it attracted a personal visit from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, has announced that its yearlong trial is a success and that it will stick with open source for its PCs. The change will officially take place on July 1, and 14,000 desktops will permanently migrate to the open-source platform. The pilot was run using Novell's SuSE Linux and IBM products. But the eventual contract--which could be worth tens of millions of euros--will be put out to tender. The city's move to Linux is the biggest migration ever from proprietary software to open source, and it will call for municipal PCs and notebooks to move from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice and to use the Mozilla browser. City officials voted last year to make the change. The decision will doubtless come as a blow to Microsoft, which pulled out all the stops to get the German city to stay with proprietary software. According to a document seen by USA Today, the concessions the software behemoth was prepared to punt Munich's way included undercutting a Linux bid by $12 million, letting Munich license stripped-down versions of Windows, and offering training and support for nothing. The migration is expected to be complete by 2008 or 2009. Earlier this week, Norway's second-largest city, Bergen, announced it would be following in Munich's footsteps and opting to run Linux.

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INTEREST: Linux Enterprise Grip Tightens with EU Wins
by billing 17 Jun '04

17 Jun '04

...from: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1613842,00.asp By Peter Galli June 16, 2004 The open source Linux operating system continues to gain ground in governmental agencies around the world, winning another two converts this week. The Norwegian city Bergen on Tuesday said it plans to move 100 schools and 32,000 users away from its proprietary Unix and Microsoft Windows applications platform to Linux by the end of this year. And the German city Munich on Wednesday also voted resoundingly in favor of its plan to switch to Linux from Microsoft Windows following a closed-door city council meeting. Bergen decided on a two-phased implementation of Novell Inc.'s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8, which will impact some 50,000 users of the city's administrative and educational networks. The implementation will initially see the current 20 Oracle database servers running on HP-UX, which power the City's core health and welfare services applications, being replaced with Enterprise Server 8 running on 64-bit Itanium-based Hewlett-Packard Co. HP Integrity servers. The second phase of the implementation will involve the migration and consolidation of the current Microsoft Windows application servers that power Bergen's educational network to Enterprise Server 8 on IBM eServer BladeCenters. Bergen will also be able to consolidate its more than 100 Microsoft Windows application servers to 20 IBM eServer BladeCenters running SUSE LINUX. The implementation is expected to be completed by year's end and officials hope to be able to channel the resultant cost savings into building core public services for the public, Janicke Foss, the CIO of Bergen, said in a statement. "The most important issue for the City of Bergen is to provide best possible public services to our citizens through cost-effective municipal operation. In addition to the IT-based benefits from migration to Linux, we attain a business model that doesn't tie us to a single vendor's solution architecture. "By migrating to Linux, the City of Bergen has a business model that is open and democratic, and we believe that will ensure a greater degree of freedom of choice, more efficient operation and major cost savings that will benefit the citizens," Foss said. Richard Seibt, the president of Novell for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region, expected more public and private sector Linux deployments to follow. "The City of Bergen needed to do more with less and the advantages of Linux such as lower costs and greater reliability are clear and will certainly continue to drive Linux adoption among enterprise and public sector organizations, he said. Michel Teyssedre, the vice president for IBM's business development in EMEA, said that with 32,000 students and 4,000 teachers accessing Bergen's educational network, the city's current server environment was not scaling with growing demand. Rudi Schmickl, HP's vice president of enterprise storage and servers for EMEA, added that Bergen's current database servers ran several critical applications, so it was essential that the new solution offered maximum uptime while being cost effective. Meanwhile, Munich moved forward with its Linux plans on Wednesday. The city last May decided to develop a detailed conceptual implementation and migration plan for the move, which has been under wraps until now. This week's vote approved that move and started the process of putting the matter out for bids and receiving tenders, a source close to the decision told eWEEK. Last May, the Munich city council said it was looking to migrate its 14,000 desktop and notebook computers away from Windows products to Linux. The city currently runs Microsoft Office, Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and NT as well as the Internet Explorer browser. The council also planned to move to the free OpenOffice desktop productivity suite. Walter Raizner, the country general manager for IBM Germany, said at the time that the German public sector is embracing open standards-based software such as Linux. "Worldwide, more than 75 IBM government customers—including agencies in France, Spain, UK, Australia, Mexico, the United States and Japan—have now embraced open computing and Linux to save costs, consolidate workloads, increase efficiency and enact e-government transformation, Raizner said then. Hans-Juergen Croissant, a spokesman for Microsoft in Germany, said last year that "with respect to the Munich administration, we will continue to work closely with them to explore additional programs and offerings that best meet the needs of Munich's citizens and businesses." In addition, Linux continues to gain footholds in U.S. governmental organizations. eWEEK reported this week that the latest stateside governmental win for Linux is the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC), in Washington, which provides administrative support, program management and policy development services to the federal courts. The agency is migrating applications from Solaris to Linux using HP's ProLiant servers that are running Red Hat Inc.'s Enterprise Linux Advanced Server and HP's StorageWorks tape libraries.

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Fwd: Join Apple for two free must-see events
by Doug Hamilton 27 May '04

27 May '04

Hi, I thought many of you would be interested in at least one of these presentations, if not both. http://www.apple.com/ca/tours/postnab/ http://www.apple.com/ca/tours/server/ Regards, Doug

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Word 2004 Poser
by Doug Hamilton 12 May '04

12 May '04

Hi Everyone: Well it appears that some bored individual has written a unix shell script, and changed the script file meta-tag and icon to make it appear to be Microsoft Word 2004. http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/top_news_item.cfm?NewsID=8664 Some misguided individual in Europe downloaded what he thought was MS-Word 2004 from LimeWire (a peer-to-peer file-sharing service). That was his first mistake, as commercial applications are not legally distributed via peer-to-peer file-sharing services. His second mistake was double clicking on what he thought was MS-Word 2004. In actual fact, this individual unknowingly executed a malicious unix shell script. A shell script which most likely contained a rather innocuous looking command like the following: rm -dfRP ~/ For those of you unfamiliar with unix commands. The 'rm' command is used for removing files. The "-" means use the following modifiers. In this case the 'rm' was to use the these modifiers: "d" remove directories, "f" do not challenge user for a 'yes/no' response to the removal of a file or directory, "R" run this command recursively (that is deletes every file or folder within any file or folder), and for good measure "P" tells 'rm' to overwrite the files three times. The "~/" means run the command on the home directory of the user running the script. This script would recursively delete every file and folder contained within that user's home directory without challenging the user for a 'yes/no' response to each file or folder deleted. If you have ever worked on a computer running DOS, this is similar to but not as damaging as running the command, " C: *.* ". Yep, this individual managed to very thoroughly delete their entire home directory. While this would not affect any other user on that computer, this particular user's account is completely unrecoverable. Regardless of the hardware or operating system, the only thing that will protect your personal account from this type of malicious programming is good user practices. Consider creating yourself a user level account. Apple refers to this type of account as a "Standard" account. When you first start an new Mac, or after re-installing the operating system, you will be asked to create and account. That first account is an admin or administrator level account, which means that account has access to other folders and files then just home directory of that account (e.g. the Applications folder). By making yourself a "Standard" account on your computer for your every day work, you are providing a level of security for your system. This does not protect your account for the script above, but it will keep the script from running at an admin level. Thus providing protection against the deletion of Applications and other files outside of your home directory. If you are really concerned about this type of attack. Consider creating another account for testing applications. If the application is malicious, then only that test account will be impacted. Should that happen, delete the test account and create a new one. Thus preventing your working account, and the accounts of other users on the system from being damaged. In addition, if you are downloading files from the Internet make sure that you are downloading from a legitimate website (e.g. www.versiontraker.com, www.macupdate.com, www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/). To keep someone from walking up to your computer and installing a malicious script/application or engaging in destructive activity. Use the security features of the operating system (e.g. turn off auto log-in, specify that the user must provide a password once the screen saver has been enabled). And if at all possible, physically secure your computer (e.g. lock your office door ... if you have an office door). If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please email me and I will post the question and answer to the list. Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Apple Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 204-474-7556 http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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Apple Portable Promo -- Revised
by Doug Hamilton 04 May '04

04 May '04

Hello, I just received a notice from Apple today regarding the Apple portable promotion. Apparently all of the portables have to be the same. Given the original information I thought that this might have been a good promotion for our campuses, guess we'll have to wait until mid-July to see what Apple offers in the way of back-to-school promotions. Sorry for any buying confusion this may have caused. Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Apple Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 204-474-7556 http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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Mac OS X 10.4 -- aka "Tiger"
by Doug Hamilton 04 May '04

04 May '04

Hi Folks, Well its official, the next version of the Macintosh OS is version 10.4. Its development name is "Tiger" and Steve Jobs will be showing off some of the its capabilities on June 28. He will be addressing the attendees of the Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC). Why the name "Tiger", well according to Apple it is because "Innovation never sleeps". Wow, you really gotta appreciate the people in Apple marketing for that by-line (note the sarcasm). For all the details regarding this keynote follow this link: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/may/04wwdc.html There is no word as yet about a web-stream or satellite-feed of this keynote. If Apple decides to broadcast this event, we will most likely know only a few days before the event. However, I will email this list as soon as I know of any broadcast details. Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Apple Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 204-474-7556 http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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Apple Promo - Reply
by Doug Hamilton 03 May '04

03 May '04

Hi Everyone: Regarding the mild spam I sent out discussing Apple's latest portable promotion (see original message below). I have received requests from several of you wanting to know what models qualify under this promotion. They are as follows: - Both stock versions of the 14" iBooks (pricing starts at $1,333** -- 14" iBook 1.0GHz Combo Drive); - and all of the PowerBooks (pricing starts at $1947.00** -- 12" PowerBook 1.33GHz Combo Drive); - or any custom configuration of the above listed base models. [** Regular Higher-Ed pricing, doesn't include $125.00 savings of this promotion.] Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Apple Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 204-474-7556 http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/ On Fri, 30 Apr 2004, Doug Hamilton wrote: >> Hi Everyone: >> >> I apologize if I offend any of you with this mild bit of spam. >> >> I just received notice that Apple has a new limited time offer on bulk >> purchases (e.g. 10 or more) of (2) different models of the new iBooks, >> and (5) different models of the new PowerBooks. >> >> Now, it is highly probable that no one on this list needs ten iBooks >> or >> PowerBooks. That said, I am willing to start a list of interested >> people, if we hit the minimum number (10), then we can start the >> ordering process. >> >> The promotion will save you $125.00 over the regular educational price >> for either an iBook or PowerBook with and Apple Care warranty; custom >> configurations are allowed. >> >> The window of this opportunity is April 29 to June 26th of this year. >> >> Re-cap: >> -Minimum collective order must be (10); >> -Systems (iBook/PowerBook) can be custom configured; >> -Systems must be purchased with an Apple Care warranty; >> -You'll save $125.00 on each system. >> -This offer is not restricted to staff, students qualify as do >> university institutional purchases. >> >> >> Thanks for your time. If you have any questions or comments, please >> contact me. >> >> >> Regards, >> Doug >> >> ------------- >> Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP >> Senior Apple Computer Consultant >> Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba >> 204-474-6196 >> 204-474-7556 >> http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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Mild Spam
by Doug Hamilton 30 Apr '04

30 Apr '04

Hi Everyone: I apologize if I offend any of you with this mild bit of spam. I just received notice that Apple has a new limited time offer on bulk purchases (e.g. 10 or more) of (2) different models of the new iBooks, and (5) different models of the new PowerBooks. Now, it is highly probable that no one on this list needs ten iBooks or PowerBooks. That said, I am willing to start a list of interested people, if we hit the minimum number (10), then we can start the ordering process. The promotion will save you $125.00 over the regular educational price for either an iBook or PowerBook with and Apple Care warranty; custom configurations are allowed. The window of this opportunity is April 29 to June 26th of this year. Re-cap: -Minimum collective order must be (10); -Systems (iBook/PowerBook) can be custom configured; -Systems must be purchased with an Apple Care warranty; -You'll save $125.00 on each system. -This offer is not restricted to staff, students qualify as do university institutional purchases. Thanks for your time. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me. Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Apple Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 204-474-7556 http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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INTEREST: Where does Security begin...
by Wayne Billing 29 Apr '04

29 Apr '04

..from the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A32480-2004Apr21?language=printer Who Should Keep Out The Hackers? By Jonathan Krim Thursday, April 22, 2004; Page E01 The calm of a few months without a major attack of a computer worm, virus or other form of cyber-harassment was rattled hard this week. So dangerous are the latest vulnerabilities that the Department of Homeland Security took the rare step of briefing the media yesterday, warning that quick action by users and network operators was crucial to avoiding serious Internet disruption. This time the problem is with routers, the appliances that push traffic around the Internet. Routers made by Cisco Systems Inc., which has a major share of the market, have two separate security holes that could allow easy access for hackers to do their worst. It's another reminder that security threats are not likely to go away anytime soon and of the fragility of a world whose technology is so intertwined that a breach in one place can be exploited to bring down thousands or millions of systems around the world. All of which makes recent recommendations in a report by an industry task force unusual and worthy of close attention. In effect, the group is saying: Tech providers, heal thyselves and make safer products. That's a significant change for a technology industry that has spent considerable public-relations resources talking mostly about the need for better educating users and going after the bad guys. But the report, issued Monday, pulls few punches. "The lack of 'out-of-the-box' security in many products is staggering," the authors state. By not having software that is set to be secure from the start, "vendors are placing the entire burden of securing products on their users." [...] For many security experts and an increasingly concerned Congress, the question is, "What happens now"? The celebrated public-private partnership was created expressly with the hope of avoiding the need for regulation. As a result, none of the task forces recommended government intervention. But there is no single entity responsible for driving adoption of the numerous ideas. The Department of Homeland Security officials say they are not responsible for riding herd on industry. The technology trade associations leading the corporate side want the agency to use its bully pulpit to improve education but have been careful not to urge federal action directed at their own industries. In the meantime, worms and viruses are becoming so commonplace that they are losing their luster as news stories. But they continue to cost companies and ordinary consumers millions of dollars a year. ------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/

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INTEREST: continuing SCO vs LINUX saga...
by Wayne Billing 28 Apr '04

28 Apr '04

..from: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-5198152.html Who shot SCO? By Rupert Goodwins ZDNet (UK) April 23, 2004, 5:55 AM PT COMMENTARY--There's been nothing like it since Dallas hit our screens quarter of a century ago. Colorful characters, plot twists and suspense? Check. Good versus evil, powerful men versus noble innocents, billions of dollars in the balance? Yep. We even have judges, guns and mysterious briefcases: as pure drama, l'affaire SCO cannot be faulted. Yet there may be a bigger surprise at the end than anyone guessed. Whoever's writing the script threw in a doozie last week: Daddy wants his money back--or does he? Baystar, the group of capitalists that on Microsoft's tip-off gave SCO $20 million to establish control over Linux, publicly said that it wanted out (see below for more details). And then it shut up. That statement alone was a crippling blow to SCO, whose share price promptly shed nearly half its value. If one of the two major backers for the expedition thinks the game is up, why would judges, juries, investors and customers think any different? SCO's reaction was typically loud, self-pitying and blisteringly ironic--Baystar hasn't told us what the problem is exactly, it said. And if we don't know the details, how can we respond? For a company that has consistently fought to avoid revealing any substantive details of its own legal claims, this is rich stuff indeed. [...] ----------------------------------- ..from: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5197398.html?tag=nl BayStar: SCO needs new management By Stephen Shankland CNET News.com April 21, 2004, 9:00 PM PT Add your opinion Forward in Format for Sign up for After nearly a week of silence, BayStar Capital said Wednesday its move to retrieve a $20 million investment in SCO Group is part of an effort to induce major changes at the Linux litigator--including new senior management and a withdrawal from the Unix product business. BayStar, whose funding in October was paired with another $30 million from the Royal Bank of Canada, said it hasn't been happy with SCO's response to requests it has made in recent months. BayStar has invested in about 400 companies over the years, but only with SCO has it resorted to a request to have its shares redeemed. SCO contends that the increasingly popular Linux operating system infringes its Unix intellectual property, an argument that is central to its lawsuits against IBM and AutoZone and that is supported by BayStar. But to make SCO's case stick, the company needs to change its management, focus on its legal case and communicate in a more "sensible, businesslike fashion," BayStar spokesman Bob McGrath said. "We think they need to strengthen the senior team to get people with experience and background in the legal issues," McGrath said. If SCO addresses BayStar's concerns, McGrath added, the investor is open to reversing its redemption request. [...] ------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/

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MO Drive Help!
by Doug Hamilton 28 Apr '04

28 Apr '04

Does anyone have a 5.25" Magneto Optical (MO) drive that still works? I have a colleague that needs to get some data off an MO old disk. Thanks, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Apple Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 204-474-7556 http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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INTEREST: Intrusion Prevention Solutions
by Wayne Billing 22 Apr '04

22 Apr '04

This may get rather technically detailed and don't be suprised if there are some "product placements" done during the presentation but, FYI, ZiffDavis Publishing is doing a free (ya gotta register with an email address ::-(, online, presentation (probably WinTel based, but who knows): Intrusion Prevention Solutions: The Next Wave in Security Apr 28, 2004 @ 2 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. Pacific Duration: 60 minutes http://eletters.webseminarslive.com/zd1/cts?d=70-141-1-1-43597-2470-1 Bugs. Worms. Viruses. Holes. Hardly a day seems to go by without some kind of new security bulletin and patch, and IT managers are becoming hard-pressed to deal with the onslaught. Join this eSeminar for an in depth discussion with eWEEK Labs editors and technology experts to learn about IPSes (intrusion prevention systems), which are often built from the same technology base as IDSes (intrusion detection systems) but differ radically from their forebears. Sponsored by McAfee Security ------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/

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Final Cut Pro HD 4.5
by Doug Hamilton 21 Apr '04

21 Apr '04

Hello: For those of you using Final Cut Pro 4.0, for the moment you can download "Final Cut Pro HD 4.5" for free from Apple: http://www.apple.com/ca/finalcutpro/download/ Act quickly ... before they get the bright idea to charge for it. Cheers, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Apple Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 204-474-7556 http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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Accessing your cc account from the desktop
by Doug Hamilton 02 Apr '04

02 Apr '04

Hi Everyone: Did you know that you can access your 'cc' account from the Macintosh OS X Desktop? Why would you want to? ACN provides you with 100MB of regularly backed-up storage on their servers. While many of you probably only use 'cc' for your email, you can also use it for storing and/or moving your files between networked computers. Some of the users on this list may have discovered the "Connect to Server" option in the "Go" menu in the Finder (Command Key - K). You may have even tried typing in the following: afp://cc.umanitoba.ca/ .. only to get a connection error. Well there is a little know fact that only one of the many servers which respond to the request: afp://cc.umanitoba.ca/ .. actually has the necessary software to allow you to gain access to your 'cc' account from the 'Desktop' of your Mac. The trick is to ask for the specific server which as the necessary software. Try this string of text in the 'Connect to Server' window: afp://rigel.cc.umanitoba.ca 'rigel' has the necessary software to allow an 'afp' (Apple File-sharing Protocol) connection. In the authentication windows which opens, type in your 'cc' account name and password (the same as your email account), and your 'cc' account will show up as a drive on your Desktop (In the authentication window you might want to click on the "Options" button and example some of the features available to you). Now you can drag-and-drop files to and from your 'cc' account as if it were a hard drive connect directly to your computer. You can move files between any computer which has a high-speed Internet connection, or which is directly connected to the UofM's computer network. This includes MS-Windows computers. However, I don't do windows (small joke), so you might want to speak with your local computer support person about windows file sharing and 'cc' accounts. Wayne, perhaps you could describe how an MS-Windows user would connect to their 'cc' account for the purposes of file transferring? It should be noted, that while you can connect using this method via a dial-up connection. I would only recommend people with high-speed, or the slower "light-speed" connections use this service. I hope that you will all find this a useful service, provided by the people in ACN. Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Apple Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 204-474-7556 http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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INTEREST: IBM seeks knockout blow in SCO case, Apple Design Awards/Developer Conference
by Wayne Billing 31 Mar '04

31 Mar '04

..complete article at: http://www.itworldcanada.com/Pages/Docbase/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=idgml-ca3ebf… 499e-454c-bf81-5137fd289ae7&News=Daily%20ITwire By: Robert McMillan IDG News Service (31 Mar 2004) A recent court filing from IBM Corp. appears to indicate a growing confidence on the part of the Armonk, N.Y., computing giant that it will prevail in its legal dispute with The SCO Group Inc., according to lawyers following the case. In an amended counterclaim to SCO's lawsuit that was filed Friday, IBM asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah to enter a declaratory judgement in its favour. IBM asked the court to rule that it has not infringed on SCO's copyright and has not breached its contractual obligations to SCO. The filing further asks the court to rule that SCO, which was at one time a Linux vendor, cannot impose restrictions on the software that it previously distributed under Linux's open-source software license. [...] ==================================================== The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2004 is going to be filled with technology advances and expert information on the latest Mac OS X solutions. ------------------------------------- SESSION INFORMATION NOW AVAILABLE ------------------------------------- Nearly 200 in-depth technical sessions are planned across seven tracks: Application Technologies, Development Tools, Graphics and Media, Enterprise IT, Hardware Technologies, OS Foundations, and QuickTime and Digital Media. More than 100 sessions are now featured online, with more to be added over the next few weeks. To view session descriptions, visit <http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/>. ------------------------------------- THE NINTH ANNUAL APPLE DESIGN AWARDS ------------------------------------- Apple is also accepting submissions for the Ninth Annual Apple Design Awards, recognizing technical excellence and outstanding achievement in Application Software, QuickTime Content, and new for 2004 -- Performance Demos. The Design Awards are a unique opportunity to get your hard work recognized by Apple, your peers, the press, and Mac fans everywhere. In addition to public recognition, winners in all categories (except Student) of the 2004 Apple Design Awards will get to choose between two computer prizes: the stunning 17-inch PowerBook G4 or the groundbreaking 64-bit Power Mac G5. Each winner also receives an Apple 23" Cinema HD Display. For submission guidelines and information, visit <http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/ada.html>. It would be typical in a case like this for IBM to undergo an internal investigation to determine whether or not any of SCO's claims were true, Norman said. Such an investigation would involve interviewing and reviewing e-mail and code contributions from IBM's Linux programmers. [...] "SCO's threats and its claims against IBM and other Linux users are meritless, and are simply part and parcel of SCO's illicit scheme to get Linux users to pay SCO for unneeded licenses to Linux," IBM said in its filing. ------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/

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INTEREST: Microsoft update: EU monopoly ruling, $40 XP & Office in Thailand
by Wayne Billing 30 Mar '04

30 Mar '04

EU slaps record fine on Microsoft ..complete article at: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5178281.html By Michael Parsons and Jo Best CNET News.com March 24, 2004, 4:02 PM PT BRUSSELS--The European Union on Wednesday issued its ruling in the long-running case against Microsoft, fining the American software giant $613 million, the heaviest punishment in any European competition case to date. European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti ruled that Microsoft had failed to provide to rivals information that they needed to compete fairly in the market for server software and that the company has been offering Windows on the condition that it come bundled with Windows Media Player, stifling competition. Microsoft now has 120 days to provide the information that rival server makers need to compete fairly, and it must continue to update this information in the future, Monti said. It also has 90 days to provide a version of Windows without Media Player, although it can also continue to provide a version that includes the media software. In the EU's judgment, Microsoft must refrain from using any commercial, technological or contractual terms that would have the effect of "rendering the unbundled version of Windows less attractive or performing. In particular, it must not give PC manufacturers a discount conditional on their buying Windows together with the Windows Media player." [...] Microsoft reiterated its plan to appeal the decision. "We will go forward and seek legal review of this decision in the European Court of First Instance," Brad Smith, Microsoft general counsel, said in a conference call, referring to the European Union's second highest court. [...] ============================= Cropped Windows already exists ..complete article at: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5177455.html By David Becker CNET News.com March 24, 2004, 10:00 AM PT One Windows, indivisible, with browser and Media Player for all. But Microsoft may have damaged its own arguments to the European Union to accept its standard platform pledge in the wake of recent programs to offer stripped-down versions of its software in some Asian countries. Faced with a program by the government of Thailand to provide citizens with low- cost PCs running open-source source software, Microsoft responded with a special $40 package with scaled-back versions of Windows XP and Office. A similar deal was recently extended to Malaysia. [...] Microsoft executives have said the deals reflect new flexibility in product packaging overseas. "What we used Thailand as a pilot to look at is: 'Can we separate product sets to meet the needs of citizens in a developing environment?'" said Maggie Wilderotter, a senior vice president of business strategy for Microsoft. "How can we put good-better-best product sets into the market based on local needs?" Microsoft executives have said the "entry level" version of Windows XP is intended for developing nations but haven't indicated in what other countries the program might be expanded. The Redmond, Wash.-based company has given no indication of similar deals on server software or other enterprise products. Analysts, however, have said the deals set potentially damaging precedents for Microsoft, amid growing pressure from governments worldwide. Research firm Gartner, for one, predicts that the program will lead to the rapid erosion of Microsoft's one-size-fits-all pricing model. "Once they find a country that speaks English that wants this kind of deal, it's going to be a lot tougher for them" to stick to current pricing models, said Mike Silver, a Gartner analyst. [...] ========================= Microsoft cuts prices for Malaysia ..complete article at: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5168029.html?tag=nl By Winston Chai CNETAsia March 2, 2004, 5:37 AM PT Mirroring a similar deal in Thailand, Microsoft has announced a scaled-down software package as part of a Malaysian government drive to increase computer ownership. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant has unveiled a customized, Malay- language version of its Windows XP Home Edition that will be bundled with all new computers under the Malaysian government's new PC Gemilang project. [...] Pikom's budget PC features an 1.7 GHz Intel Celeron processor, 128MB of RAM, a 40GB hard drive, a 15-inch CRT monitor and peripherals such as a mouse, keyboard and speakers. Prices for the desktop depend on the choice of operating system and accompanying software. The Windows version, coupled with Microsoft Work Suite 2004--a scaled-down set of productivity tools for tasks such as word processing and spreadsheets--will retail for $643 (1,147 Malaysia ringgits), while those running a Linux OS and Open Office will cost $586. "In this program, we are able to bring the price to a point to fit the local market because it is a localized version," Butt said. "For the international English version, it's a set global pricing and it's very difficult to have one country with a different pricing from another." He did not reveal the exact cost of the Malaysia-only software package. However, an English version of Windows XP Home Edition and Office XP retails for about $199 and $399, respectively. This means the base price of the modified Windows OS and Work Suite bundle would have to be significantly lower than its English-language counterparts to meet Pikom's $643 price tag for the PC. [...] ------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/

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Fwd: Accessing your cc account from the desktop
by Doug Hamilton 29 Mar '04

29 Mar '04

> From: "Myrna @ACN Support Desk" <donaldm(a)cc.UManitoba.CA> > Date: March 29, 2004 2:30:54 PM GMT-06:00 > To: Doug Hamilton <hamilto(a)cc.UManitoba.CA> > Subject: Re: Accessing your cc account from the desktop > > > > Doug Hamilton wrote: > >> Hi Everyone, >> Apparently I was incorrect in stated that the amount of disk space on >> 'cc' is 100MB. Myrna Donald (ACN Help Desk) was nice enough to inform >> me that the current amount of drive space allocated to each user is >> 50MB. Staff members may make requests for additional drive space by >> contacting ACN. I would recommend speaking with the ACN Help Desk >> (474-8600) for such inquires. >> Myrna, can undergraduate or graduate students make similar requests >> for more drive space? > > Yes, indeed. It is usually granted for those who are compiling huge > programs or analyzing huge datasets (e.g. Mech Engineers doing > fluid analysis, Comp Sci programmers, architecture portfolios.) > >> >> >> Regards, >> Doug >> ------------- >> Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP >> Senior Apple Computer Consultant >> Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba >> 204-474-6196 >> 204-474-7556 >> http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/ >

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RE: Accessing your cc account from the desktop
by Doug Hamilton 29 Mar '04

29 Mar '04

Hi Everyone, Apparently I was incorrect in stated that the amount of disk space on 'cc' is 100MB. Myrna Donald (ACN Help Desk) was nice enough to inform me that the current amount of drive space allocated to each user is 50MB. Staff members may make requests for additional drive space by contacting ACN. I would recommend speaking with the ACN Help Desk (474-8600) for such inquires. Myrna, can undergraduate or graduate students make similar requests for more drive space? Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Apple Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 204-474-7556 http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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Apple Audio Tour
by Doug Hamilton 26 Mar '04

26 Mar '04

Hi Everyone: Just a reminder that the Apple Audio tour road show will be at the IMAX theatre April 6th. Please register for this FREE presentation here: http://www.apple.com/ca/musicrevolution/ Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Apple Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 204-474-7556 http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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