fscklog

SamstagsMacOrama

Lesenswerte iPhoto 4 Kritik bei DasGenie: !Scrap, inklusive Möglichkeit zur Verbesserung der Keyword Nutzung.
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Die RIAA begrüßt den Pepsi iTunes Spot (wen wundert es?):

"The RIAA applauded the ad, even though it may serve to remind some of the trade group's legal campaign, which many music fans thought went too far.
"This ad shows how everything has changed," said RIAA chief executive Mitch Bainwol. The debate is not digital versus plastic, it's legitimate versus illegitimate."

Ganz überlesen hatte ich bisher, dass Pepsi neben dem Super Bowl Spot, noch weitere Bewerbungen im Sinn hat:

"In addition to its television efforts, Pepsi is the presenting sponsor of the Super Bowl’s official Web site, www.superbowl.com. Beginning Super Bowl weekend and throughout February, Pepsi will feature ads and giveaways on the site. The Pepsi iTunes promotion will be highlighted on the Super Bowl site and on Yahoo! with a special message from superstar Beyoncé Knowles."
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Dem MacObserver ist schon eine Pepsi Flasche mit Gewinn-Code in die Hände gefallen, man hatte jedoch noch Probleme beim Einlösen:

"I sat back, took a pull from my now flat and warm Pepsi, and thought for a bit. The first thing I thought was that Pepsi tastes much better when it is cold and has some fizz. My second thought was that the promotion doesn't really start until February 1, so maybe iTunes won't accept the Pepsi codes until then. Makes sense to me, but, being the diligent gent that I am, I gave Apple a call to confirm my suspicions.
The nice folks at Apple replied, confirming my thinking; about being too early to redeem my cap, not about Pepsi tasting better cold and fizzing, although I think they would confirm that though if I asked."
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Seattlepi.com berichtet über die 'Mac lovers of Microsoft', sprich die MacBU bei MS:

"We may be part of Microsoft, but we're really Mac users," said Roz Ho, general manager of the Mac Business Unit. "Many of us use Macs both at work and at home, and I think that's what keeps us current on what's happening in the Mac environment."
Employees of the Mac Business Unit echo that sentiment, speaking of their enthusiasm for making Mac software and their fondness for Macs in general. In an employee video shown at an event last year, they recounted with pride such tales as the colleague who broke up with a girlfriend who bought a Windows PC."
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MacBidouille liefert eine kleine MIDEM Nachlese.
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Praktisch für Gebrauchtkäufer, die Knowledge Base listet sämtliche Macs mit ihrem entsprechenden Auslieferungsbetriebssystem seit 1998 auf.
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Final Cut Express bekommt ein kleines Update auf 2.0.2:

"This update includes fixes and improvements for Final Cut Express 2. Improvements include changes to the user interface and window displays, documentation, and user preferences. This update also fixes known issues with audio and video syncing over FireWire, Timeline editing functionality, and capturing long clips."
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Gestern komplett vergessen zu posten das Nudge Contextual Menu, sehr feine Sache:

"This Contextual Menu "nudges" the Finder to update the information it displays about a file or folder. Use it on any item (or groups of items) if you suspect the Finder hasn't updated its view. This should work for most attribute changes, icon changes, size changes, files that have been saved but don't appear, and so forth. On Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) and up, you can control-click on the empty space in any Finder window and have the contextual menu act on the containing folder."
Ab 10.2; 64KB; Freeware (Donations aber natürlich gerne gesehen)
(via Daring Fireball)
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Mal wieder an der Zeit für ein kurzes 'Danke, Herr Google'. So findet man mich dort nicht nur perkekt auf der Suche nach 'Bierlaune' sondern genauso nach 'geheimen Fotos' sowie 'iPod Sex', wer weiß schon, ob damit nur versucht wurde, das Geschlecht des sexy Gerätes herauzufinden...
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Außerdem Wissenswertes aus dem Terminal - heute:
01/31 Hewlett-Packard founded, 1939
(Anleitung).

Schuldig im Sinne der Langsamkeit!

Wer sich fragt, warum sein Safari Bookmarks Menü nur so kläglich langsam aufklappt, der sollte bei bronski.net vorbeischauen, denn dort sind die Schuldigen an den Pranger gestellt:
Der Schockwellenreiter, Industrial Technology & Witchcraft und die Außerlomographische Opposition tragen aufgrund ihres unermesslich langen Namens zu entsprechend unermesslicher Langsamkeit bei. Lösen lässt sich die Problematik per Tipp von macosxhints: Bookmark Namen einfach kurz halten, noch besser (für die weniger faulen) ist allerdings, die Lesezeichen direkt in den zugehörigen Ordner einzusortieren... ;)

Lord of the iPod (Update)

Forbes.com berichtet über die Firma PortalPlayer (ein wenig mehr dazu gab es bei mir im vergangenen Dezember), die das zentrale Nervensystem für den iPod liefert:

"In 2001 the small firm beat out nine competitors, including Texas Instruments, to provide iPod's central nervous system. Apple's in-house designers provide the look and feel that make the iPod so distinctive; PortalPlayer provides the innards that lie beneath. It won over Apple with a design that uses two modest processors and an operating system two years in the making.
PortalPlayer's "firmware" makes it easy for makers to mix and match features and rapidly stamp out upgrades without having to start from scratch. Apple picked PortalPlayer in the summer of 2001, and the iPod was in stores in November of that year."

Natürlich findet der iPod genauso gerne in seiner Funktionalität als externe Festplatte immer wieder begeisterte Anwendung, so tragen nicht nur Wissenschaftler das komplette menschliche Genom damit umher, sondern ebenso wurde während der 'The Lord of the Rings' Produktion ständig auf die Speicherkapazität des iPods (und etliche weitere Apple Produkte) zurückgegriffen:

"Jackson then viewed those 1K-resolution QuickTime files on an Apple Cinema Display, tied to his G4 laptop, which drew directly from his iPod. The director's setup was mirrored in New Zealand, so Rygiel and crew could step through shots with the help of their iPods, with Jackson's guidance piped in over a videoconferencing system. During the course of two movies and four months, "Rings" iPods stored and served up nearly one-half terabyte of digitized footage from "Towers" and "King."

Update:

"Lord of the Rings Director Peter Jackson powers his Apple Titanium Powerbook with an Apple Cinema Display."
Gefunden in der grandiosen 'Mac Watch' Rubrik bei dogmatic.

Super Bowl Werbeattacke (im QuickTime Gewand)

Der Pepsi-iTunes Spot war bereits bei mir verlinkt, eine weitere Seite bietet ihn ebenfalls in verschiedenen Größen an (fälschlicherweise als Superbowl Apple Ad betitelt), zusätzlich kann man sich jetzt alle weiteren Pepsi Superbowl Spots in QuickTime anschauen, besser werden diese dadurch allerdings auch nicht.
(via IT&W)

Ebenso ist die Gladiatorengeschichte mit Pink, Britney Spears und Beyonce vorhanden (29,6 MB .mpeg), so kann jeder für sich entscheiden, ob dieser Spot noch schlechter ist, als die 'I fought the law'-Variante... Der Clip wird übrigens nicht auf dem Super Bowl gezeigt werden!
(via Adrants)

adland vermeldet, dass immer noch nicht alle Werbeplätze beim Super Bowl verkauft seien:
"As CNN/Money mentioned in an article two weeks ago, Apple wasn't going to advertising, but did inquire how many spots were left. Maybe, just maybe, they were waiting for this."

SiliconValley.com berichtet von den Preisen:
"So, once again, advertisers are paying an average $2.3 million to CBS for one of the 40 30-second spots, up from $833,000 in current dollars in 1984.[...]
Apple: There have been rumors for some time that Apple would air an homage to its 1984 ad this year. But, as of press time, it had not purchased time. The company will be represented, however, in one of the spots from Pepsi-Cola."

Steve Jobs versuchte Bo Derek zu switchen

Die erst vor kurzem bei mir verlinkte Seite folklore.org liefert heute schon eine weitere unterhaltsame Apple Historie über den Versuch von Jobs, Bo Derek als erste Switcherin zu etablieren ('he was going convert Bo to a Mac user -- and who knew what else'):

"And so one day shortly thereafter, Steve piled into his Mercedes, along with a Mac, and drove down to Bo's Santa Barbara ranch, which she shared with her husband John Derek. Bo was cordial but unimpressed; she accepted the computer but remained a PC user. And apparently she did not find Steve as dashing as Steve expected she would."

FreitagsMacOrama

Sehr lesenswerter Artikel bei den MacGuardians über Microsofts komische Vorstellungen von Systemsicherheit, 'security through obscurity' und den angeblichen Nutzen von Viren (u.ä.):

"Aber all die Admins, die gerade unter der MyDoom/Novarg-Attacke stöhnen können aufatmen, denn (so Bill): "hackers are good for maturation" of the platform. Das freut die Hacker sicher und gibt ihnen neuen Antreib, wenn sie von Bill persönlich für ihre Arbeit gelobt werden. Und es ist sicher ein Trost für die zig Millionen geschädigten User und Firemn, dass sie Teil des grössten Honeypot-Experiments bzw. Beta-Tests des Planeten sind!"
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Bilder von Apples Präsenz auf der Midem (mehr davon hier) in Cannes liefert MacBidouille.
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François Joseph de Kermadec hält bei O'Reilly XGrid für äußerst zukunftsträchtig:

"Of course, XGrid is a technology preview for now and is aimed at scientists or experienced administrators who know what it can do. In its current iteration, it won't speed iMovie up for you or turn the coffee maker on. However, Apple has made it so easy to set up that I would bet that we will soon see XGrid enter our homes, built right into Mac OS X or consumer applications... After all, we all have small LANs at home now and the idea of tapping into shared resources to speed everyone's computing experience up is really promising..."
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Zwei iDVD/DVD Burning FAQs, Nummer eins bei MacMerc und Nummer zwei bei kentidwell.com.
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Nicht gerade brandaktuell und dennoch besuchenswert: Atomic Learning hat etliche Tutorials zu 10.3 Panther kostenlos verfügbar, richtet sich allerdings eher an Einsteiger.
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David Bradley, Vater der berühmt berüchtigten Ctrl-Alt-Del (Strg+Alt+Entf) Tastenkombination trat heute in den Ruhestand und liefert dabei ein schönes Zitat:

"I may have invented control-alt-delete, but Bill Gates made it really famous," he told a gathering at the twentieth anniversary of the PC.
This comment brought boundless laughter from the PC loving crowd. Bill Gates did not even crack a smile."
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Hassan Aref (Dean of the college of engineering, and a professor of engineering science and mechanics, at Virginia Tech) schreibt bei CNET über den Big Mac:

"No. 3 on the list is Virginia Tech X, the name of my institution with the Roman numeral for 10 appended. X, as we call it, consists of a cluster of Apple Computer's G5 desktop computers, with certain technological innovations.
These include the infiniband communications fabric produced by Mellanox, a new cooling system and customized racks for the computers produced by Liebert, the latest release of the Apple OS X operating system, and a proprietary software package known as Deja Vu that compensates for the inevitable glitches that occur on individual machines within the cluster when running a calculation involving many machines.
X got its name by being the first academic machine to exceed the 10-teraflop barrier. The name is also a play on OS X, the current version of Apple's Unix-based operating system. Clocked at 10.28 teraflops for the Top500 list, X may reach even higher speeds. And we at Virginia Tech hope to follow with L and, in due course, C, capable of 50 and 100 teraflops, respectively."
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Außerdem Wissenswertes aus dem Terminal - heute:
01/30 Mohandas Gandhi assassinated in New Delhi by Hindu fanatic, 1948
(Anleitung).

Aus für Pixar-Disney Zusammenarbeit (Update)

Thestreet.com berichtet:

"Pixar, the animated movie studio led by top Apple exec Steve Jobs, said Thursday it ended talks over extending its collaboration with Burbank, Calif.-based Disney. Pixar said it will instead retain full ownership of movies made after 2005.[...]
"After 10 months of trying to strike a deal with Disney, we're moving on," Jobs said. "We've had a great run together -- one of the most successful in Hollywood history -- and it's a shame that Disney won't be participating in Pixar's future successes."

Mehr auch von Reuters:
"Analysts and investors said Pixar could be using its announcement as a negotiating tactic and observers did not rule out a resumption of talks."

Update:
CNN Money spekuliert zaghaft über einen Pixaraufkauf durch Apple und verwirft den Gedanken sofort wieder:

"Still, as fun as it is to speculate about an Apple and Pixar merger, the odds of it actually happening are fairly remote.
In an age when investors take corporate governance issues seriously, an Apple takeover of Pixar could be viewed as just a tad self-serving. Steve Jobs owns approximately 55 percent of Pixar's shares, according to the company's latest proxy statement, so he'd be basically paying himself if there's a big premium in a deal.
"It might make sense for Jobs to run one company under the same roof, but it's probably easier to keep them separate," said Barry Ritholtz, market strategist with Maxim Group, a New York-based asset management firm."

Zugleich ist Pixar natürlich höchst umworben:

"Every other studio will be falling all over themselves to cut a deal with Pixar," said John Tinker, research analyst with Blaylock & Partners.
Industry executives and analysts said Warner Bros., a division of Time Warner Inc., has the best shot at cinching the film distribution deal, given its vast experience with family-oriented fare from its "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and the "Harry Potter" series.News Corp.'s Fox studio, which was behind the animated hit "Ice Age," is considered a strong contender.
"They are probably the two most likely candidates," said independent analyst Christopher Dixon."

Die NYT liefert erneut Gerüchtematerial für die 'Steve leitet Disney' Geschichte, die bereits seit Anfang Dezember 2003 kursiert:

"Several theories emerged rapidly about why Mr. Jobs, who did not return three phone calls seeking comment, sought to terminate the partnership now. Perhaps, said one of the people involved, Mr. Jobs "made the announcement thinking Disney would come back on its knees."
Wall Street analysts are set to meet with Disney executives in Florida in two weeks, when Mr. Eisner will face tough questions about Disney's future in animation. Its own films have not had nearly the success of those produced by Pixar and Disney has effectively closed its Florida film animation operations.
One film executive suggested that Mr. Jobs could now be considered a candidate to run Disney if indeed Mr. Eisner ever left."

Microsoft empfiehlt: Nicht auf Links klicken, lieber per Hand eingeben

Es gibt sicherlich keinen Browser, der so viel Spaß verspricht wie der Internet Explorer höchstpersönlich:

"The most effective step that you can take to help protect yourself from malicious hyperlinks is not to click them. Rather, type the URL of your intended destination in the address bar yourself. By manually typing the URL in the address bar, you can verify the information that Internet Explorer uses to access the destination Web site. To do so, type the URL in the Address bar, and then press ENTER."

(via Boing Boing)

OS X 10.3.3 (7F24) geht an die Entwickler (Update)

Endlich mal wieder was handfestes von der Systemfront, 10.3.3 (7F24) wurde laut MacRumors und Apple Insider an die Entwickler verteilt und wiegt momentan rund 75MB:

Hauptsächliche Veränderungen finden sich in den 'seed notes' gelistet:
"Graphics, OpenGL games, USB devices, printing, browsing networks, Cocoa applications".

Zusätzlich soll Safari 1.2 (Think Secret berichtete bereits zum Jahreswechsel und ansonsten empfiehlt sich stets das Blog von Safari-Chefentwickler Dave Hyatt) mit von der Partie sein, inklusive der folgenden Verbesserungen:

- Ability to "tab" to form elements (buttons, checkboxes, submit buttons)
- The option (on/off) to "tab" to hyperlinks
- Improved download manager with resume
- View dimensions of an image
- Custom cursor support
- Option to open links from applications "in a new tab in the current window"
- Improved performance

Update:
Apple Insider schiebt weitere Details + Screenshots nach:

"Along with a new version of Safari, Mac OS X 10.3.3 will yield updated versions of Apple's Mail, Font Book, Disk Utility, Address Book and Terminal applications, sources tell AppleInsider. Incremental revisions to the System Profiler, Print Center, Print Setup Utility, Directory and Keychain access components are also among the many changes that amount to this 75.5MB OS update."

Zusätzlich Safari 1.2 Screenshots gibt es bei Think Secret zu bewundern.

Apple reagiert auf die iBook Probleme

Etwas verspätet reagiert Apple mit einem kostenlosen 3-jährigen Reparaturprogramm auf den erheblichen Unmut, den etliche fehlerhafte iBooks um die Jahreswende ausgelöst hatten:

"The iBook Logic Board Repair Extension Program is a worldwide program covering repair or replacement of the logic board in specific iBook models manufactured between May 2002 and April 2003 that are experiencing specific component failures.[...]
The program covers affected iBooks for three years after the first retail sale of the unit. Apple will continue to evaluate the repair data and will provide further repair extensions as needed."