HS Charges Students with Felony for Changing Password on iBooks
In an astonishing display of technological ignorance, the administrators of Kurtztown High School in Pennsylvania filed charges in May against over a dozen students for "Computer Trespass" of the iBooks they were issued by the school board. Apparently, the sum of what these miscreants did was turning off the port blocking software on the laptops allowing them to freely install notoriously dangerous applications like iChat; and disabling Apple Remote Access, to prevent being spied on by the administration. By doing so, goes the claims, these students are felons. On May 31, the local PD sent around letters to the parents demanding they bring their kids-- aged 14 to 17-- in for fingerprinting and identification.
Already the story has raised the ire of the Internet, with a Web site going up in protest: CutUsABreak.Org
See: http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/08/09/kutztown.hackers.ap
OS X Tiger Calls Blogs “Unhealthy?”
Among the nifty new features of the Tiger update to Mac OS X is a built-in dictionary, available within nearly any program. It looks nice and defines the obscure and up-to-date. Here's what it says about "Blog":
|bläg|
noun
a weblog : blogs run by twenty-something Americans with at least an unhealthy interest in computers
As I predicted… The “I Told You So” post
I just came across an insightful comment posting I made back in November 2003 on Mac Observer, anticipating Apple's move to Intel
Subject: Read for comprehension...
(11/6/2003, 05:36 pm EST)What Jobs said was, "Right now we don't see a compelling need to switch processor families."
Get that: "right now" and "compelling need" -- if a compelling need arises, then they can and *will* switch.
Here's the inside line: Apple already has Mac OS X running on Intel. There's a whole programming group at Apple put aside to keep development of Darwin/Aqua current for other "processor families."
But Jobs didn't say "Intel" because all indications were that he was considering AMD (using the Opteron) as an alternative, now that Motorola is pretty much out of the processor picture. (Notice Mo wasn't mentioned once?) Yes, IBM is a better partner for Apple -- but for how long? Processor development is a constant game of one-upsmanship. The G5 is hot right now, but in two more years, there's due to be another "breakthrough." (such as SOI or Hypertransport.) And remember, Motorola had a roadmap, too -- but couldn't deliver on its promises.
With Intel releasing 3+Ghz processors and AMD's Opteron more than keeping pace with the G5, it still remains to be seen if Apple (and Jobs) isn't still using the prospective of "switching" as a whip to keep IBM pushing the development cycle.
How's that for predictive ability?
Apple Goes Intel; End of World Near?
The news has been whispered (more like hissed) around the Macintosh news world: Apple is getting "Intel Inside." Has Steve Jobs finally lost it?
In truth, the development has been brewing for years. Since OS X was based on NextStep, which previously ran on Intel chips, converting to x86 was always a possibility. The story goes that from at least 2002, deep inside Apple's skunkworks, a current version of OS X has been running on Intel-based PCs as part of a secret project codenamed "Marklar." Supposedly, only a small team of software engineers were needed to do the necessary updates.
Two years ago, the rumors initially flared up, just before Apple announced the G5 systems. Now, Apple has been straining to come up with an upgrade to its aging Powerbook and iBook families. The current G4 chip is manufactured by a spin-off to Motorola, Apple's former chip-development partner, now called Freescale. With neither IBM nor Freescale having been able to deliver a speedy, low-power and low-heat processor, the move to Intel seemed a natural consequence.
This morning, at the San Francisco Worldwide Developers Conference, Steve Jobs took the podium for the Keynote address and confirmed the speculations: for years, Mac OS X has been leading a secret "double life."
First, however, he spoke about the developer community "thriving" with the highest attendance at the show in a decade, and more than 500,000 members of Apple's "Developer Connection" program. He then proceeded to pump up Apple acolytes with propaganda about the success of the retail store operation. He moved on to the iPod (16 million, 76% of all MP3 players sold) and iTunes (over 430 million songs, 82% of all songs sold online) Then onto the latest advance in iTunes: integrated "podcasting", which seems to have Jobs particularly excited. (Could he be a closet Podcast junkie?)
But what everyone wanted to know was: what's this stuff about Intel?
Here's what Jobs had to say:
TigerDirect “sues” Apple for “Tiger” OS
In the category of misusing the legal system, online retailer Tiger Direct.com has apparently filed an injunction the day before Apple is to release its update to OS X -- because it's codenamed "Tiger." Gee, what marketing geniuses.
It's simple: Suing Apple generates "free" publicity. Any seemingly scandalous info relating to Apple gets immediate distribution by news sites, and hence makes people take notice of the controversy. Remember the recent "virus contest" which ended before it even started? Or the flack over Apple Stores pulling all books published by John Wiley & Sons in protest over the unauthorized bio of Jobs?
As proof, the initial news of this was actual via a press release from Tiger Direct.
Tiger Direct has no actual standing to sue, as they don't make any software package/OS which competes with Apple's offering. Furthermore, "Tiger" is a code-name, just as Microsoft's "Longhorn" is. It's properly 10.4. Thus, there's no competition nor trademark dilution between the Mac OS, codenamed "Tiger" and a retailer called TigerDirect. (Incidentally, my alma mater, The University of Texas actually holds the registered trademark to "Longhorns" as well as the logo of the horns -- shouldn't they be suing Microsoft?)
Look for Apple to file a "summary judgement" to dismiss the case -- which is scheduled for preliminary hearing on May 3, five days after Tiger's release-- but by then, Tiger Direct will have gotten what they want: attention.