I was really surprised to see the following bit of Javascript show up in the comments of a previous post, and waited awhile to see if it'd get picked up by anyone, but it didn't, so here we are. While I knew Apple knew about it internally for quite awhile, I hadn't yet seen it floating about in the wild -- and I wasn't at liberty to say anything as sometimes part of getting to know something is not being able to talk about it without making the life of the person who passed it on very difficult.
posted on April 12, 2006 at 12:25 PM
Hardcore Mac users are indeed a special breed, as shown by the dude's overt happiness to lay hands on a Powerbook. Relayed via Julian.
I read somewhere that acceptance is one of the key stages one has to go through before one is able to move forward, after denial, anger, and bargaining. An open question is whether the posted job description is indicative of the mental stage management is in, or whether someone is going to get called into their office for a chat. Caught by Roland C, thanks.
I don't normally post about software updates regarding various apps, because:
- There are better places to keep track of that type of thing, even if some of the options are arguably retarded (in a sling-blade way, not the cuddly way).
- You start doing it for one, then you have to start doing it for everyone.
It's worth mentioning Growl v.7.3 though, because:
- I said I would (like
xdays late, but still). - It primarily just fixes one bug -- but I gave Chris a lot of hell over this bug in person (not on the site), so good to note that it's fixed.
I've actually got a bit in my head regarding Growl, and other things, that's built up to the point where I want to dump it out...
Today is organization day, both in meat-space and on the computers. In particular, my Dock has gotten backed up with things I wanted handy, either because I was going to post them or wanted to pass them on...
Paul @ Rogue Amoeba, on realizing the supplier for MacWorld (GES) has a website that doesn't work in Safari and completely chokes FireFox:
Fantastic, no? It finally worked in IE (*shudder*), and even after I registered, I was unable to sign in using Safari. You'd think perhaps the company running a large portion of the biggest Macintosh show in the world would have a website that worked in Safari. You'd think.
The first screenshot had me in absolute stitches, only partially from having met him and being able to picture his expression when he saw it...
On December 9th I saw a document which intimated that Apple and the last defendant in the original "Tiger Torrent" lawsuit were close to reaching a settlement, which would be filed on December 13th. I sat on this so as not to cause any problems while it went through, however everything went through yesterday. With a little knowledge of the system and some cash you could view the court papers, but since they're public documents I'm posting them here:
There can be an out-of-sight-out-of-mind quality to a story like this, and if you're wondering what the deal is, an earlier entry lays most of it out, and links to the rest of the earlier posts and my earlier contact with David. With this settlement, it's my understanding that the Tiger Torrent lawsuits are now over, as there have been no other filings against any John Does...
I had the inbox down to 98 unreads, but the equilibrium point for it seems to be responding to 10 a day, which means it's backed up while I'm trying to figure out what Steve Jobs is doing in Playa de Oro, and whether it means Mac OS 10.6 will be code named jaguarundi or margay, along with how quickly the obvious more ghey moniker would follow the second.
While it isn't ideal, because there were amusing nuggets in some of those emails, we're going to do the paraphrased-questions thing again, because the inbox must get below 200 before I can try my hand at making sweet potato biscuits tomorrow. This time it's aggregating questions about two previous posts, the video iPod, and DRM...
The Evening at Adler video is available on its own suitably campy separate section as of right now, which is where you should be sending people. This was that little deal where some of the brightest indies in the Mac scene descended upon Chicago for a casual conversation on October 21st, 2005.
The video and the audio rip are available via a torrent and many generous web mirrors, although bittorrent is preferred, as is seeding -- it's not just for downloading Doctor Who anymore. As previously mentioned, it's being released under a Creative Commons license, because I want as many people as possible to be able to get to know these guys, and to be exposed to some of the ideas in it.
Take it, show it, snip it, post it, remix it, or just string together all the drunkenbatman space-cadet moments as a reminder of why sleep is important and its not socially acceptable to drink before noon. Above all, have a good time with it.
With that, I'm going to Disneyland.
I've long had warm feelings for IHOP, aka, the International House of Pancakes chain, as they...
So, I missed the last Apple Bug Friday, or maybe I missed the last two, as it's all kind of blurring together at the moment, but I'm reasonably sure I missed the last one. This was kind of disappointing, as earlier in the week I'd done some thinking about the lamest bugs in Mac OS 10.4 Tiger.
For something to be considered The Lamest Tiger Bug™, it isn't enough for it to just be an obvious bug. It has to be a bug that so downright sickly sad that, like a dead canary in a coal mine, its state of being tells us something, somewhere, has gone horribly awry. This won't be exhaustive, but rather just what comes to mind...
Joachim writes:<--snipped-->
Anyway I just read an interview with another sony bigwig here and his talk of an OS for the PS3 was weird. Maybe I am wanting it too much, but do you see a collaboration with Sony and Apple for an OS? I mean the whole WWDC year of HD and the PS3 can do 1080p HD and that twice with dual monitor connections! Plus this would get them off the hook with IBM and put the hardware in Sony's hand just like the how they are putting the peripheral chips (north & south bridge) in Intels.
qutoes from the article that I like:
"Of course, the PS3 can run Linux. If Linux can run, so can Lindows. Other PC Operating Systems can run too, such as Windows and Tiger (Max OS X 10.4), if the publishers want [them] to do so. Maybe a new OS might come out.""The user interface will also get interesting. In the case of the PC, users will have to wait for years between XP's UI to Longhorn's. But the PS3's UI will evolve much faster."
<--snipped-->
Oh my, did Sony see you coming a mile away...
Awhile ago, I said the Mighty Mouse officially blows, and its caused some email. Damn, am I ever sick of this product, and I'm a step away from creating a rule funneling all mail mentioning it to a separate folder so I can only view them in a batch when I'm mentally prepared...
As it turns out, my embargo is generally worthless, because no one is paying it any heed. Earlier today, Rosyna passed on their new treat called Smart Crash Reports has reached Beta 5, along with some screenshots. "I'm embargo'd." I said, and then realized I was forwarding it onto twenty people I thought should know about it...
(Note: The download link on the front of the site isn't working, and most normal people -- Including the Unsanity Folks, are asleep. However, this direct link will work until non-vampires awake)
I wanted to throw up a short note about iTunes 5, even though it's pushing 4:30am and I'm having to add more wicks to the candle, because some have gotten the wrong impression about my post yesterday -- or rather are reading too much into it.
It's understandable, as its lacking some context, which is my fault, as I tried to do a quickie on something deserving a longy. Judging by my inbox people are annoyed at a lot of things about the iTunes 5 interface, while yesterday I was reveling in the glory that is Burnt Aqua Unified. I have to keep this somewhat short, because otherwise the embargo on the site in order to get things done for the site will be meaningless, but basically they have the right of it.
A lot of things going on here, which means the site is going to be quiet over the next few days while I try to squeeze a bunch of stuff in that just isn't getting done so the dreams of running up sand dunes will go away. Lots of cool stuff, it just kinda sucks one can't think of it and then have it happen without actual effort.
However, Apple wrapped up their "special media event", which means my inbox is getting humped by a bunch of excited readers, and one good humping deserves another...
About a week ago, I got turned onto the blog of a small pizzeria. Yes, a blog about nothing but pizza -- and it's just short of glorious. Topics include tips on how they do their dough, new vending machines hitting the market that will spit pizza at you while you're waiting for the bus, and of course photos of their wondrous creations.
Two things came to mind:
- These people are doing God's work.
- Alright, Apple. You ignored blogging while Microsoft was doing it, and then while Sun was doing it, but now you're getting shown up by a mom & pop pizzeria.
If you're not careful and wait too long, we could well end up with another one-button-forever fiasco, where you don't deign to participate for a decade or two because you came so late to the party and need to save face.
Belay the last post, as within a day, Apple has pulled their test drive promotion. Arstechnica is where I saw it, and will echo their words...
Cameron passed on that Apple is allowing people to take Mac Mini's home for a test drive with a 30 day guarantee...
I don't normally post rumors and tips, but lately they're starting to freak me out a little. A little while earlier, someone who will remain nameless passed on:
- The Apple wired mouse & keyboard combo was being EOL'd, to be replaced by a Mighty Mouse and keyboard combo.
- The build to order options of the Mac Mini were changing, no more wired mouse and keyboard, just the Mighty Mouse & keyboard and the Wireless Keyboard & Mouse combo.
I gave him my usual spiel, where I said I'd try to look into it but if I couldn't get any similar rumblings probably wouldn't run with it. I get all sorts of tips and rumbles, and lot of times they:
- Are accurate, but things change between what the person heard and what actually gets decided.
- Are conjecture based on something loosely heard somewhere else and the person wants it to be true.
- Are someone repeating someone else who wanted to be seen as In the Know™.
- Are wildly inaccurate, and is just Sircasua trying to mess with me.
Rarely are they really accurate if I haven't confirmed rumblings, but in this case a few minutes later while poking around in the Apple Store, the store changed. Looks real enough to me, and while you can't yet BTO the Mighty Mouse keyboard combo with any of their other Macs in the store, it would appear we're one step closer to Apple shipping a multi-button mouse by default.
This go around it's Digital Rights Management (DRM), whether or not Apple and Intel are cooking up a revolution, and a small redux on the PowerPC versus Intel brought about by a reader trying to juxtapose what they were being told yesterday versus what they're being told today.
We're still chewing through these, although the order is a little out of whack because I messed up how I was sorting them by their first-come-first-serve basis and the text file never seems to shrink.
Still, if you sent one we'll get to it eventually...
The other day I went a little nuts on Apple's new Mighty Mouse, because I figured one good splooge deserved another (No more emails about splooge -- count yourself lucky this wasn't titled "Oh, how the mighty have.." and be done), which included a lot of stuff, but my questions about the actual mouse itself boiled down to:
- How well the buttons work (Remember -- if these worked well, I was willing to give them major points)
- How well the trackball nub works. More specifically, whether you are constantly flicking your finger up and down or wagging it side to side.
- What the hell the tag to right on Apple's site meant -- My working theory was that the mouse might cost $.99+ per minute to use.
That very strange marketing blurb turned out to just be the normal mechanical click of the mouse
It's still a normal Apple on-button mouse you have to click down on, so there is that standard click, but there's some thingamajig to make small noises when you scroll or squeeze. Still, that leaves the buttons and the trackball...
I don't really advertise my IM names around anymore, but people have picked them up in various places anyways... and it isn't as though they're hard to guess. My impression is a lot of people will add me, and then lurk and watch my weird status messages (They're usually song lyrics, but I'm sure everyone thinks I'm close to reaching for a revolver).
All these people suddenly come out of the woodwork when Apple announces something, and I get to wake up and get a laugh because AdiumX has a gazillion tabs waiting for me that are all basically a "Did you see this?", followed by a link...
So yep, I saw it, but it was a busy day and I wanted to have a few drinks in me before I tackled it. I think Apple's Mighty Mouse is pretty cool, although I probably would have skipped dinner if I had known I was going to swallowing this much marketing splooge...
Someone sent me a link to a site called Inside Apple earlier today, which has an article up which is, I think, almost a parody of the last post:
It seems that in the past couple of months, I’ve read about and have personally seen more than a comfortable level of iMac G5’s hitting the dust a little sooner than originally expected. Surprisingly, even numerous second-generation iMac G5's have broken down short of their advertised life expectancy.
And on and on making points about the heat problems (And others, which yes, are very real) and then:
I may sound like I would never recommend the iMac G5 to friends or family. Not true. I find the iMac G5 to be a remarkable computer with its elegant design, along with the power of a PPC970 processor packed in behind its beautiful flat 17- or 20-inch liquid crystal display. Though I've seen many first-generation iMac G5's break down on numerous fronts, I haven't witnessed nearly as many second-generation iMac G5's break down on the same scale - and I'm confident - without any real facts to back it up - that of all the negativity I may witness in the iMac line of Apple products...
The guy wrote this a day or two before mine, but I hadn't seen it as The Drunken Eye of Sauron™ has been focused on other things and I'm not familiar with the site, but if I had I would have linked to it as an example because, um, what the hell.
Hey Drunken Bat Dude,Is something going on with you? I was reading through your last post, and I recognize some of the behaviors you pointed out in myself, but the drunk I know would not have made me feel stupid while making his point. Just my opinion, take it for what it's worth.
Mark F.
I actually got two emails like this, and after a little sleep and some coffee, and now looking over that last post, there is probably some truth to them and I should take my lumps. I was certainly a little more acerbic in what I'm banging out than I often am. I meant everything I said, but given a second shot I'd probably word some of it quite differently, as if I'm making people feel stupid I'm letting people down, including myself. In deference, I proffer these excuses:
- I'm stretched more than a little thin lately.
- A few of the things I'm working on have me frustrated to a level I rarely reach, yet I have to sit on quite a bit of it, and it wouldn't surprise me if stuff eeks out around the edges.
Let's just say I've become somewhat obsessed with the current quality of Mac OS X, and Apple hardware in general, but for right now am keeping it to the quality of what is going out on discs. I've been devoting a lot of resources into digging into what's going on, enough that I'm already backed up on the chats again. Not full-on Deconstructing Maui X-Stream obsessed, but it's getting close.
I think most real users know, in our heart of hearts, that Mac OS X has been misfiring quite a bit lately, and that 10.4 was almost a total misfire in terms of actually using it. It doesn't mean we're going to switch, it doesn't mean we've given up, it just means we know something is wrong.
You can like the idea of XHTML/JavaScript/CSS apps and still know Dashboard was a complete misfire, even if your only clue is that they're bolting on major functionality in a .2 release. You can like the idea of building webkit into your apps while knowing the quality of what you are building your app around isn't at the level it should be.
Severe, extreme wonkiness like this doesn't happen by accident, whether it is going on at Apple or Microsoft or anywhere between.
I was browsing the Ars Apple Blog this morning, which linked to a story saying this would be the last ADHOC (formerly MacHack) conference, which just finished up the other day:
At the end of this year's ADHOC Conference, Expotech announced that this was the last conference. Due to dropping attendance, higher expenses, and fewer sponsors, the show could no longer be sustained.The decline began in 2003 when Apple moved WWDC to the week following MacHack, which resulted in some last minute cancellations. In 2004 the name was changed to ADHOC in an attempt to attract a wider audience and the date was also changed to occur following WWDC. MacHack had its own culture and traditions, and was as much a social & networking event as an opportunity to learn & show off neat tricks.
I'm still sort of hoping this isn't really true, and still sort of hoping my feelers won't get back to me. Expotech, the company that's behind them, barely has a site to speak of, and there isn't anything on the PR page of Adhoc just yet.
Unfortunately, it has some of the ring of truth to it. Awhile ago all of the expos and exhibitions came under a grind, and when Apple started changing shows around it messed the Mac-specific ones up bad and they've never really recovered (Some would say there was more they could have done perhaps, but it's hard to put show like this together under ideal conditions).
Probably one of the better descriptions of ADHOC I've heard (or at least the most recent) was from Jonathan Rentzsch back in the Red Shed interview, where he said:
Adhoc is about one thing: coolness. It has four facets:
- Cool people
- Talking about cool stuff (papers/sessions)
- Showing off cool ideas (hacks)
- Coming up with your own cool ideas and trying to get them working (your hack(s))
That's it. It's very informal, most of it made up on the fly, by really smart people whom you can communicate with at very high bandwidth. Unlike WWDC, which is Apple's firehose, Adhoc is a distributed firehose about what your peers think is cool, not just what Apple thinks is cool.
Rentz also has a nice little introduction at his site that gives some more feel at the site (I'm kicking myself for forgetting to post it), and there are some other MacHack memories within that interview. If it's true, it's a really sad thing all around, as ADHOC was really a one-of-a-kind institution for Mac coders and the technically minded, and so many cool hacks and relationships would come out of that show every year.
There are hacker-conventions and such that take place elsewhere, but they don't really capture the charm and spirit that MacHack seemed to pull together every year. I tip my coffee to them, and if it turns out to be true, will be tipping a glass of something else to them tonight.
Every once in awhile, I'm just bored with what the hot topic de jour is at the moment. Judging by my inbox, and my constantly seeing it recycled via my feeds, right now the big buzz is about the rumored upcoming Apple Movie Store.
If you're fairly new to the site, you may be scratching your heads as it isn't as though I talk about the iPod all the time.
However, every once in awhile I do come down from the mountain carrying stone tablets, and I'd have to imagine that's why my inbox is a "Mac Movie Store and TiVO" clearing house right now. Almost a year ago to the day, I wrote C.K., and its Redux, which was an attempt to be a lazy kick in the head to a bunch of editorials and such I was seeing at the time.
It's hard to go back in the wayback machine and remember what was going on at the time, but it was all about Real Networks and their Harmony service, Apple opening their DRM, and the mythical iPod phone. Most of what was being said was so out of the bounds of reality, which can be confirmed that none of it has really been borne out.
Almost nothing has changed in my thinking since then, which is why I get bored with the iPod so easily, as everything I hear gets filtered through:
- Does it change the equation?
- Does it affirm the equation?
- Is it just more of the same until the end-sum of the equation?
If we skip back to the iTunes Music Store, the only real credible variable that's made my radar has been the addition of satellite radio to the mix, and podcasts, so we'll knock out Satellite Radio, Podcasts and the iTunes Movie Store in one swoop which will hopefully do us for another year...
I'm slowly but surely making it through the rest of the Pentium-switch questions that were sent in, and yes, I know this is taking forever but we'll get through them.
I basically threw them all into a .txt file separated by some line breaks (It's still about 24k in size), and just grab a few in between working on other things, so it's going to take awhile...
Do you think Apple will eventually move to AMD? They are by far more innovative than Intel, who is reacting to AMD and not leading the market. AMD is eating Intel's lunch! I could deal with moving from the PowerPC if they were using the best available, but Intel is the lowest denominator.
A lot of Mac users are really hung up on the Apple choosing Intel over AMD thing, but to really go into this we need a clearer picture of AMD's history in the microprocessor arena and their current role in the marketplace.
Right now, some of the antics you see going can and have really muddied the situation in enough people's heads that the way they view AMD is vastly different from the reality of their situation. Note I said clearer, as while AMD does have an interesting story, and we'll be going into some of the differences in their roadmaps and differences between their products and such, this isn't magnifying glass as this isn't titled 'Deconstructing AMD'.
One of the things I make myself do is browse through Apple's Knowledge Base articles, which isn't something I generally look forward to but it's good to keep up and one day there may be one with a fix for keeping audio in synch within iMovie.
Until that iMovie post, this new one is my current favorite and made me laugh tonight almost as hard as the little bit about "and other important acronyms" they had on one of their marketing pages awhile back.
Someone there deserves a pat on the back for eeking that through. Yay, swarm of bees!
Covering whether or now is the wrong time to buy a Mac, the possibility of dual-booting Windows and OS X on a Pentium-based Mac, plus more weirdness involving the CELL and consoles.
I was able to chew through a few more questions tonight. Endians (aka, one of the most boring subjects known to man), the coexistence of 32-bit and 64-bit, and cheap macs. It's approaching 4am now, so consider this post to come with zero warranty, but if something is off let me know and I'll check it out once I've slept and my functional IQ is back above 30.
I've been chewing my way through your x86 questions (there are a few pages of them), and as we learned in Under the Iron, ask me a question and you can kill an afternoon. Yes, it's that way in real life, too. So I'm going to break them up, in order of the ones that help kill off others.
For warning, I have a habit of lumping things together when it's just easier that way, so 'x86' will be used to denote the instruction sets that make up, well, x86 chips, and IA-32 and the 64-bit extensions added on will be broken out only when necessary.
Small problem regarding the last post: I'd thrown my cap over the wall regarding the WWDC keynote, which meant I had to climb over and get it, but in watching the keynote there isn't a whole lot to talk about outside of the PowerPC to Intel switch post I'm working on, but I did jot down some thoughts while I was watching.
I've been fairly glutted by notes from people attending (which all piled in late, as apparently the network at WWDC was offline constantly), so I almost didn't need to watch it. It also didn't help that I have an unwatched Doctor Who episode sitting around, but I'd thrown the cap over the wall.
Going by court documents filed a few days ago in the Northern District of California (which you can download below, since they are public record once you shell out a bit for them) it would appear Apple Computer and Vivek 'Sunny' Sambhara have reached a settlement agreement:
If you're new-ish to the situation, Sunny was one of three named individuals being sued for distributing a developer pre-release of Mac OS 10.4 over the internets, along with a score or so of 'John Does'. The site ended up sitting down with Sunny to get this side of what was going on, and eventually a whole bunch of notables from the Mac side of the fence weighed in with their varied thoughts on the situation.
It wasn't very pretty, and awhile afterwards Sunny was able to procure the services of Summers Rubinstein PC, who in a short Q&A explained why they were defending Sunny from Apple while forgoing their legal fees. The terms of the settlement are in the PDFs linked above, at least so far as I can tell. Just the fact that he'll be putting it behind him and focusing all of his attention on organic chemistry means it's a good day.
I know my shoulders loosened up a bit after seeing these papers, and while I do understand where Apple was coming from I can definitely say it's colored my view of Apple and their products. There's a bad aftertaste here, and I don't look at 10.4 the same way I may have otherwise. When they were factoring their return on investment on this course of action, I truly wish they'd been a little more creative.
While it is a great day for Sunny, and I'm whole heartedly glad they were able to work something out and put it behind them, I'd have to imagine that bad aftertaste outweighs whatever short term gains Apple procured (like 'sending a message') by a very wide margin.
I wanted to touch base a bit on what's been going on with Sunny (Desicanuk) over the last while.
To recap, Sunny is one of three named defendants (there are many John Does) Apple is suing for allegedly leaking a beta version of the upcoming Mac OS 10.4 onto the internet. A week ago it came out that one of the three named was able to settle with Apple, and move on to dealing with the criminal charges the lawsuit had created.
Because they've been blurred, it's worth noting that this is an entirely separate situation from Apple's legal actions against ThinkSecret, which is also a separate situation from Apple's legal actions against PowerPage and AppleInsider. I know, someone needs to start a Wiki.
I sat down for an interview with Sunny and the admin of the network where the Tiger beta was leaked, and then a bit later Apple Computer cofounder Steve Wozniak and more than a score of other notables in the Mac world weighed in with their thoughts on the issue.
A client of Summers Rubinstein PC -- a San Francisco law firm specializing in intellectual property and business litigation -- saw the interview and passed it on to someone at Summers Rubinstein, and a few weeks later Sunny officially had representation. The firm agreed to take it on pro bono, which is short for "pro bono publico", which means "for the public good", which basically means they've waived all their fees.
Last week I was able to touch base with Yano Rubinstein (Sunny's counsel) about a few things, and he agreed to answer some questions that I could post publicly, to both fill in some gaps and to keep you as in touch with what's going on as I could.
I saw in my feeds earlier that Tim Bray is thinking about switching away from the Mac, and gives some fairly decent reasons for why he's personally thinking about it. Repeat after me: "If I wouldn't flame someone for deciding, for their own reasons, that the Mac is the platform they want to use, then I wouldn't flame them for choosing otherwise."
I think he actually gives a pretty good overview of where the pros and cons are in his personal decision making process. And it is his personal decision making process. What's interesting is I know he's not alone -- but not saying he's the majority (but what wouldn't the majority of the Mac base be not-OK with?).
There are quite a few people in the community -- people you've probably heard of -- who are much less 'enthusiastic' about being a Mac user than they were say, a year ago. It's not generally any one thing, more of a few things converging on a bad taste in ones mouth, compounded by other options starting to open up depending on where your interests lie.
I'll admit I can identify with where he's coming from, as I've also been finding myself contemplating it in a pretty serious way. I've avoided posting about it for a few reasons:
So everyone and their mother is passing on that Apple settled with one of the three Tiger defendants:
"Apple Computer Inc. said on Wednesday it settled its lawsuit with one of three men it sued for distributing test copies of the next version of its Mac OS X operating system on a file-sharing Web site.While Apple will always protect its innovations, it is not our desire to send students to jail," said Apple spokesman Steve Dowling. "We are pleased that Mr. Steigerwald has taken responsibility for his actions and that we can put this lawsuit behind us."
He also said he is the subject of a criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney's office and he is "working toward a resolution with the federal government.
Here's the rub -- most of you are asking things I can't help with, or rather won't. I can't and won't really say much about Doug, except to say that I'm glad for their sake they're able to put part of it behind them. He has a really fascinating story -- that I promised I wouldn't relate on here and won't -- but that one day I'd hope is able to be told.
...which I'm assuming you already heard while I was sleeping soundly and recovering from the last big post. C-Net has the best coverage of this, so it's worth just reading about it there where you can get links to the papers and such. The comments from the EFF are worth a read. Clip:
The judge said that Apple can go ahead and obtain records from Nfox, the e-mail service provider to Mac enthusiast site PowerPage.In the ruling, the judge largely brushed off the question of whether the publishers were journalists and therefore protected from facing contempt charges for refusing to divulge sources under California's shield law. "Defining what is a 'journalist' has become more complicated as the variety of media has expanded," he said. "But even if the movants are journalists, this is not the equivalent of a free pass."
The news on the Apple subpoenas got a little weird(er) today.
The last post had the New York Times saying that Apple had won -- yet the EFF's press release said no ruling had yet been issued. If you haven't yet read it, I'd check it out as it gives a mini-version of what went on in the court room.
I was a little confused by the conflicting data, so I asked an attorney at the EFF to clarify why so many news outlets were saying a ruling had been issued...
"Our press release correct, rumors of our demise were exaggerated."~ Kurt Opsahl, Staff Attorney for the EFF
Basically, they're still waiting on the decision which should come soon, and some people perhaps jumped the gun.
Update: Yep, the ruling has been delayed. It's looking pretty bad -- Apple's argument basically seems to be that only the websites they happen to give Press Passes to at MacWorld deserve traditional protections.
From the NYT:
Apple Computer Inc. can force three online publishers to disclose where they got confidential information about new Apple products, a judge tentatively ruled. Judge James Kleinberg of state court in San Jose, Calif., refused to shield the publishers from Apple's inquiries.Lawyers for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group that seeks to protect civil liberties related to technology, sought the order on behalf of the publishers. "We're disappointed that the tentative ruling was a denial," said Kurt Opsahl, a lawyer for the foundation. He said he would appeal the ruling.
iPodlounge has a story up on the iPod photo's new packaging, along with an, um, photo:
In releasing newly affordable iPod photo hardware, Apple Computer has changed the product's packaging to a thinner and highly attractive black and metal foiled design. Metal foil is used for the box's front text, while an all-black matte background highlights the metallic luster.The new packaging, which you can see more fully with the Read More button below, dramatically de-emphasizes the word "photo" on its front, reducing it to a tiny badge underneath the letters "PC." This contrasts markedly with Apple's new iPod mini packaging, which continues to grant the word "mini" equal prominence with the iPod name.
Back in 'This one goes to eleven', I gave a whole bunch of reasons for why I just didn't understand the iPod Photo, and among other things said...
Richard writes:
Congratulations... you made Canada's national newspaper! National Post had a piece on this item yesterday. It was almost a full page in the front section. They referenced DrunkenBlog and they included a picture of Steve Wozniak.
Well, that explains all the emails ending in 'Eh?' today. If you're a subscriber to the National Post you can view the article online, but it would be cool to view this in hardcopy and it would be even cooler for you to be able to see it as it's very well done.
I'd really like to know the story behind that post, when are you going to do your usual redux?
It seems what people are really after is not so much a redux but a post-mortem on how it came together and such. I can completely understand wanting that, and it's something I'll probably do, but the time isn't really right for that... mostly because this story isn't over and it's still in-progress as far as I'm concerned.
However, I'll try to get through some of the other questions. Where appropriate, they're paraphrased as usual to try to take out more birds with fewer stones...
Timothy says:
Woz and your site was featured on the screen savers. They had a phone interview with Woz. FYI :) It plays again at midnight EST, and tomorrow at noon. I didn't tape it, I don't have that kind of technology. They had nice web zooms and crops of your site tho. Do you get G4/TechTV?
Inbox is going off the hook about this one -- honestly bear with me I am trying to keep up -- but yep, it's true. I haven't seen the episode (yet -- feel free to send snaps), and I only had a short ping with him earlier today when passing on some information from a reporter.
From what he said earlier today to the reporter, and what I've heard about his call on the show, Woz basically reiterates why he's saying what he's saying regarding the lawsuits (and the repercussions) against Sunny.
It's been a little over a month since I sat down with Vivek "Sunny" Sambhara (desicanuk) for an interview on the lawsuit he was faced with, and what led up to it. This is a separate set of lawsuits from Apple's other ongoing cases.
A lot of feedback flowed in from that interview, most notably from Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer:
"I was shocked reading the interview. Everything fits into place that this is an unintentional oversight and the interviewed student appears to be one of the most honest people on this planet. I have to question who is most right in this case.I wish that Apple could find some way to drop the matter. In my opinion, more than appropriate punishment has already been dealt out. In this age of professional spammers and telemarketers making fortunes, we're misusing our energies to pursue these types of small time wrongdoers. I will personally donate $1,000 to the Canadian student's defense."
Sunny is one of three defendants who have been named in the suit, along with 25 other "John Does", for leaking a pre-release build of the upcoming Mac OS 10.4 onto the internet. It must be noted that this lawsuit is separate from what is being brought against ThinkSecret.
Things are looking pretty grim for Sunny. In order to deal with this, he'd need an attorney in, or licensed to practice law in, the state of California. They'd also need to be an expert in the field of intellectual property, and he's exhausted public avenues of help. Those are primarily geared towards helping a tenant deal with a landlord, with the expectation that the person is in-state. Nothing like this.
Those attorneys he's been able to to return his emails or calls have given a requirement of a $7,500 minimum retainer just to try to mitigate damages. Most required drastically higher retainer fees. This is a civil jury case in a Federal Court, which means there are no such things as public defenders.
There are things you need to do when you've been sued, like responses to the court. If you don't do them, the case defaults into a win for the other side and it all comes down to what they ask for in damages. You're at their mercy. Going by what they're asking for in the court papers, they aren't planning on being particularly merciful when it comes to damages.
Steve Wozniak is one voice in the Apple community, with his own frame of reference. To get a better snapshot of where the community stands on what Apple is doing here, I'm bringing you the words of 24 others from the Macintosh community, from 23 separate companies and projects.
I've specifically talked to developers because they also have large interests in intellectual property in one form or another, and they're a reasonable microcosm of the communities they represent.
Back in "Heading over the cliff while whistling", Carl said:
Following the general thread of these comments, I think we should make a wiki of some sort to list out and detail complaints about UI devolution. I could host it if there's interest and no one else wanted to do it, but I think it would be better if DB sponsored it...
This has actually crossed my mind before, and instigated one of the few times someone working at Apple actually went apeshit on me. This settled down once things were clarified, but the man wasn't happy.
Eweek has a story up where they dish that Apple has agreed to hold back their subpoenas of the websites, and their ISPs, etc. in their bid to find their leakers until the hearing petitioned by the EFF takes place:
Annalee Newitz, a policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told eWEEK.com that Apple, which is represented by the San Francisco law firm of O'Melveny and Myers LLP, has agreed to hold off on serving subpoenas until after the Superior Court of Santa Clara County, California, has held a hearing on the EFF's request for a protective order for its clients, two of the Web sites listed in Apple's suit. EFF filed the request this week; a date for the hearing has not yet been set, but it may be held in early March.
It's a pretty good article, breaking down why the EFF is involved and where they think Apple has gone wrong. Highly recommended.
Yesterday the EFF announced that they were asking the California Supreme Court for a protective order preventing Apple Computer from going after the individuals they've subpoenaed to hand over their sources regarding various product leaks:
Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) asked a California Superior Court for a protective order that would prevent Apple Computer from forcing three online journalists to identify their confidential sources and hand over unpublished materials. EFF, serving as co-counsel for the journalists, argues that online journalists are protected by the same "reporter's privilege" laws that shield print journalists from having to reveal the names of anonymous sources.
I'd suggest you read the whole thing... but if you hadn't followed, various websites published information about a rumored product Apple was coming out with called "Asteroid", among other things, but it seems that "Asteroid" is what really set them off.
I've gotten a bunch of mail asking what's on my shoulder in an older post. It's a WaterField Cargo bag, and I'd highly recommend their kit.
I've used them for a long, long time, going back past three years. I just dig their stuff, even if there are some things that aren't quite perfect.
I'm reminded again on this early, early morning of just how much I loathe airports in general, especially the one I'm at now, and this PowerBook model.
Well, the campus does. Mac users are going to love this one:
"About 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a portable music player have an iPod," said one source, a high-level manager who asked to remain anonymous. "It's pretty staggering."
The source estimated 80 percent of Microsoft employees have a music player -- that translates to 16,000 iPod users among the 25,000 who work at or near Microsoft's corporate campus. "This irks the management team no end," said the source. So popular is the iPod, executives are increasingly sending out memos frowning on its use.
I was going through Rory's blog the other day, where he has 'Apple's UI department going insane?' up for reading. He has some good points to make on where and how brushed metal is used, some great points on the Finder, and wraps up his points on the upcoming 10.4 with:
Come on Apple, at this rate Windows users might actually be pointing and laughing at us for how bad our UI looks by the time Longhorn ships sometime this decade.
The thing to keep in mind about Rory is that he's the maker of the excellent NewsMac software for OS X, and not long ago quit his day job to write code his heart out for the platform full time. He's not just a user with a couple of quibbles, he's a developer with an investment in Mac OS X.
I've written blurbs about this here and there throughout my posts, but the bottom line is that there's a huge elephant in the room when it comes to Mac OS X: The UI is going to hell in a hand basket and everyone is just averting their eyes.
When I was going over the speed bumped PowerBook models, I noted that an app existed called SideTrack that already gave you much of the same functionality (and more).
The author (Alex Harper, nice guy, who also makes the most excellent MenuMeters) has some really interesting thoughts regarding the introduction of the new PowerBooks. Whether it is a new driver or new hardware, whether he can offer the same 'two-fingered' scrolling and more are covered.
Apple updated the PowerBook G4's a few minutes ago, and here's the lowdown after a cursory glance...
There's an in-depth article over at C-Net on the booming industry of iPod accessories. It primarily focuses on the fact that out of all the iPods sold, 75% of them were sold in the past year, with 40% of them being sold in the last 3 months of 2004.
Because it's just a retro sort of week, and I hadn't seen these for ages, I figured I'd pass on a link of the uber-cool Apple Computer brochure Matt Groening (of The Simpsons) did for said Apple back in 1989. I sorta wish I wasn't linking to a .Mac server, as it's the sort of thing I'd hate to see disappear of the web.
The actual copy is pretty much verbatim of all their advertising towards students (and weirdly enough, corporate users) of the time, but Groening just gives it such charm. These cartoons predate The Simpsons, and are from waaaay back when he used to the 'Life in Hell' comic strip, so don't expect "eat my shorts'".
So this story is going to get some crazy page hits. What's sad is that I generally remember all of them, and the circumstances surrounding them (OMG, Atari has their new 64-bit Jaguar console... but Apple and Bandai are creating the Pippen!).
There are a lot of things that aren't on there, but it's not that bad of a list in general. With one exception: what the hell is Word 6.0 for Mac doing on there? MacBU != Apple.
The story seems to start when Engadget and a few other sites, like Neowin and blink.nu posted some screenshots of the upcoming Windows Mobile 2005. Microsoft sent out the usual cease & desists, which is actually unusual for them, but that's what happened.
Where it turns really weird, is that Engadget was apparently able to cobble together a deal with Microsoft where they got permission to keep their sneak peak images and such up, and they were all over the forums in any case. Dave's Ipaq saw that they were everywhere, and saw that endgadget was able to carry them, so didn't see any reason why he shouldn't be able to carry the leaked snaps if everyone else was, so he did so, and is now having fun legal threatenings being turned his way. Lovely, stupid stuff.
*shrugs* If you're going to try to start assaulting and dismantling the community around your products, at least don't do it half-assed. Apple waited several years before they started their on blitzkrieg the community, but they did it right and in a fairly total fashion. Going by past history, Microsoft will probably need a few tries.
Kevin Rose has taken a new Mac Mini and violated it with a nano-ITX board, basically giving you a x86 PC with a Mac Mini enclosure. Works well, but due to the shape of the motherboard he used the optical drive wouldn't fit. (duh: here's the mirrordot link if the above dies)
For a user of an alternative platform, while the devil is the details, this could potentially be one of the biggest stories of the decade:
Microsoft is loosening licensing rules on Office 2003 formats in order to get around new "open standard" restrictions to be adopted by the US state of Massachusetts, according to a state official.
Microsoft told the state it is planning to modify the licensing scheme around its proprietary, patented, XML-based document formats, Kriss said, and as a result Massachusetts is planning to support the formats. Adobe's pdf format will also be supported, Kriss said, according to reports.
Awhile ago, Steve Jobs gave some quotes in a magazine, talking about how as companies mature, the sales guys have a habit of running them and the company starts to lose its soul. Something like that.
C-Net has another good article up talking about the fault lines that seem to be growing between the independent security researchers and the vendors. Specifically under the microscope is the guy who released a whole slew of vulnerabilities to the public, that it had known about for seven months, without first going to Apple to allow them to have updates ready.
I don't quite know why I find this so amusing:
Subscribers to the UK mailing list of Bang & Olufsen (B&O), the upmarket Hi-Fi firm, were bombarded with six million emails this week. List membes are hopping mad, but B&O blames the problem on flaws with some of its customers’ email systems, rather than any security breach on its part.An email plugging an integrated TV/DVD sent out to the list on Monday (24 January) generated a message storm when it hit buggy Small Business Server 2003 servers. The well-known glitch in email systems of three of the recipients of the message generated a blitz of replicated emails.
Now, both Apple and Bang & Olufsen are high-end luxury product makers, charging a premium to those who like to live the good life, so there are synergies. However, in this case Bang & Olufsen would seem to have a large surplus of email, while .Mac subscribers never really know when they'll be able to have access to email, so it would seem as though a partnership was in order.
Anyone who has read any of the history of our technology, or rather the history of the ways we have have come to try to keep it closed and secret, usually comes away with the feeling that if you create a technical barrier to something, someone, somewhere will create a technical solution to overcoming.
It's generally considered to be always possible, it's just not always easy or worth the effort. It's generally become a defacto rule of thumb and it's easy to become a bit jaded about it. Which is probably why I got such a cheesy grin on my face reading about the guys nilss effort to reverse-engineer the 4G iPod's bootloader so he could slap Linux on it, using the iPod's peizoelectric crystal and guiding himself by the clicks. That's a lot of effort for 64kb of data.
Similar to the last Mac introduction video, someone put up one of Steve Jobs demonstrates NeXTSTEP 3.0, which is really cute. The site has basically been hammered off the grid for the moment, so I've posted a mirror of it here:
- stevejobs_nextdemo.gz (50 MB AVI)
If you're a Mac user, you'll probably need VLC or MPlayer to view the file. Mirror if you can, and use any mirrors that might be in the comments/trackbacks if you can.
Regarding Funneled Performance, Clinton P writes:
What are the possibilities of 'porting' OS X to the linux kernel? Linux kernel has the real multi threading that is required and seems to be good enough for the IBM 710 multiprocessor server you just mentioned. It seems the BSD decision is holding back OS X. With IBM standardizing on Linux and Apple on the IBM processors it may be worth the effort to migrate.
Lots of questions in this one, so we're going to have to break them out individually in order to keep things coherent.
Macminute says Apple will give you a refund of the difference if you ordered a Mac Mini before the price drops yesterday, but you have to call. Good of Apple to do it; although in this situation I can't imagine any sane company not doing it.
All the same, it wouldn't be the first time someone ordered an Apple product and the price had dropped by the time they got it, so I'm glad they checked up on it. It also looks like Target.com has removed all references to the Mac Mini on their site, and the SuperDrive has been returned to 4x.
When you stop and think about it, the first two weeks of the Mac Mini's life have been a bit bizarre, even by Apple standards.
Wesley pointed me to the fact that Apple has quietly lowered the prices on some of the expansion options for the Mac Mini:
The company is now offering the Bluetooth and AirPort Extreme wireless option for US$99 (was $129), the 1GB DDR333 SDRAM upgrade for $325 (was $475), and the 80GB ultra ATA hard drive upgrade for $50 (was $80). Apple is also now listing an 8x SuperDrive option instead of the previous 4x model for the same $100 cost.
Gruber passed on this bit of web deliciousness: an archive of Apple commercials that totals 780 megs. It's a bittorrent archive, so you'll want to go here if you're without it, or perhaps someone will be nice and link to a 'getting up to speed' page on bittorrent in the comments.
Because these commercials influenced me so, I decided to look at other commercials Apple had done, During the process of carefully analyze their commercial, I noticed that they have clearly mastered the art of television advertising. Thusly, a decision was made, by me, to compile an archive of Apple Commercials in a single BitTorrent file. It’s not complete but it’s as extensive of a collection you’ll find on the web.
I'd mirror the archive for those who didn't want to go through the hassle, but the last thing I mirrored has gotten completely out of hand since midnight and to be honest, Apple has gotten a little too comfortable with suing websites instead of just sending a notice. Sigh, the fact that that actually went through my head, over some commercials, shows how powerful the chilling effect is.
Awhile ago, The Register had a story up saying that a European filing had tipped Apple's hand at creating a Tablet Computer:
The filing, made in May this year but only published this week, covers a "handheld computer" and contains sketches of what look like an iBook screen minus the body of the computer.
So many Mac Mini links, so little time.
Several days ago I saw that ThinkSecret was able to get counsel, and once again my love for the Electronic Frontier Foundation was reaffirmed, which I'll go into in a moment. That faith may not be reaffirmed for everyone, but I know a few people in the EFF, and I honestly don't think they'd marshal resources behind something that wasn't worthwhile.
There are reasons why they're protecting PowerPage and AppleInsider, and reasons why they've marshalled their resources to get attention brought to the Think Secret case so they had a better chance of getting counsel. For those in that camp my inbox has been primarily divided into several veins... my views on them might not be 'popular', and might surely be influenced by my frame of reference, but that's why they're my views and not dogma.
I've been following Apple's lawsuit against ThinkSecret with interest. As Donna Wentworth so eloquently states in 'EFF to Apple: Back Off', there are differences between each case, both between the kids being sued in the ThinkSecret case, and the kids being sued for leaking a Tiger build onto the internet, but it's interesting to note how they all came about at around the same time. As someone once said, it might be "too coincidental to be a coincidence."
I was just going to post this interview (14 MB) with Steve Jobs that someone sent to me yesterday from after the keynote which I dug (Ken Burns is not mentioned once). However, judging by my Inbox, one of the biggest things that stuck out at people from yesterday's post was the whole Sony thing.
People also sent rants agreeing about the UI problems in 10.4 (Yes, I've seen the movies at Apple's site, and yes I'm scared), but apparently the Sony part sparked caused a whole bunch of speculation to be thrown my way. Obviously I wasn't the only one really confused by it, so it's worth (hopefully) clearing that up.