Categorie: Apple
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Mac mini
Lees verderEn toen toverde Apple opeens weer een mooi product uit de hoge hoed. Na de wat tegenvallende iPhone 4 introduceren ze een volledig nieuwe Mac mini.
Deze zou helemaal niet verkeerd staan op mijn bureau ;-) Combineert ook leuk met een iPad. Zucht, 2010 wordt een duur jaar…
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Dé keynote van 2010?
Lees verderDe presentatie waar gadgetliefhebbers elk jaar weer op zitten te wachten, de keynote van de Apple WWDC - de World Wide Developer Conference - heeft dit jaar in mijn ogen weinig interessants opgeleverd.
Waar in het verleden iMacs en andere revolutionaire computers werden
onthuld, is het nu verworden tot een businesspraatje met vervolgens de presentatie van een kleine upgrade aan een
bestaande gadget. Zijne Steveheid vertelde dit jaar dat er weer een hele hoop apps zijn bijgekomen, dat er een hele hoop
iPads en iPhones verkocht zijn en dat ze ook nog een paar iBooks hebben verkocht.Hij ging vervolgens door met de nieuwe iPhone 4. Naast een nieuw uiterlijk - ik vind het best wel lelijk - is het enige noemenswaardige in mijn ogen de toch best wel hoge schermresolutie van 960 x 640 op dezelfde dimensies als de huidige iPhone. Dat komt dus gewoon neer op 326 dpi; beter dan wat een gemiddelde printer afdrukt. Het is te verwachten dat de volgende versie van de iPad ook zo’n hoge resolutie krijgt (mits ze de schermen zo ver kunnen opschalen).
De andere upgrades, een 5 megapixel camera en bijbehorende 720p30 videoresolutie, vind ik eigenlijk tamelijk logische stapjes. Ook de front-facing camera die videobellen mogelijk maakt is niet echt revolutionair, die hebben we in andere telefoons ook al gezien.
Al met al ben ik niet echt onder de indruk. Is het Reality Distortion Field afgebrokkeld of ben ik uit de Apple zone? Waar is de Apple TV reanimatie of - doe eens wild - een complete Mac mini redesign? Waar zijn de producten volgepropt met innovaties die je credit card laten jeuken?
Ik ben underwhelmed. Behalve over de nieuwe naam van het iPhone OS… Die is ook schitterend ;-)
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iPad Bashing
Lees verderHet is schijnbaar een sport om alles wat Apple uitbrengt te bashen om alle functies die een nieuw apparaat niet heeft. Daarbij gaat de basher in kwestie volledig voorbij aan het feit dat hij (opvallend genoeg is het meestal een hij) misschien wel helemaal niet tot de doelgroep van het product behoort.
Een favoriet argument is dat bezitters van de producten collectief leiden aan het Stockholm-syndroom. Het is misschien moeilijk voor te stellen, maar er zijn dus schijnbaar mensen die níet de hele tijd met een laptop op schoot willen zitten. Gelukkig zijn er ook andere geluiden te horen die het “gemis” van features wel weten te relativeren:
Tenslotte nog een filmpje van 16 jaar geleden. Bedenk bij het kijken dat het web in 1994 nog in de kinderschoenen stond (Netscape en Opera werden pas in december dat jaar uitgegeven, de enige andere op dat moment was Mosaic, de allereerste grafische web browser voor de Mac en PC).
Ik denk niet dat de iPad gaat falen en wel precies om de reden waarom de iPhone niet is gefaald en de iPod niet is gefaald: Het doet wat het moet doen en het doet het simpel, dát is wat mensen willen. Het interesseert de gebruiker niet dat ze niet vier dingen tegelijk kunnen doen.
Net als Apple zie ik wel een markt voor iPad en we gaan over een paar maanden zien of het inderdaad succesvol wordt. Voorlopig is m’n MacBook nog prima, maar het zou zomaar kunnen dat de opvolger van Idéfix geen laptop is; een computer heb ik immers al in de studeerkamer staan. Of dat een iPad is weet ik niet, we gaan immers genoeg van dit soort producten zien in de komende tijd. Maar of die er ook zo mooi uit zien…?
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Iets schrijven over Apple
Lees verderIk kreeg afgelopen week deze mail (verstuurd vanaf een persoonlijk hotmail-adres, de naam heb ik toch maar even veranonimiseerd):
Hoi,
Ik ben S. en ik zie dat u een website runt i.v.m. Apple, enz.
Ik heb een klant die geïnteresseerd is om met u samen te werken.
Hij zou graag een neutrale vermelding krijgen in één van uw artikels/tips over Apple-producten.Bij deze.
Sorry, maar wat moet ik met zo’n mail? Hoe serieus moet ik die klant nemen? Een paar maanden geleden kreeg ik ook al een mail van dezelfde “persoon” (is het een echte persoon? Google kent bijna geen enkele pagina van iemand met deze naam):
Ik ben S. en ik zie dat u een website runt i.v.m. Mac computers.
Ik heb een klant die geïnteresseerd is om te adverteren op uw website. Aanvaardt u advertenties op uw website? Welke advertentie-opties biedt u aan?Ik heb er nooit aan gedacht en heb eigenlijk ook weinig interesse in adverteerders op mijn website. Het is een hobby en dat zal het voorlopig nog wel blijven, tenzij iemand met een concreet aanbod komt waar ik iets mee kan.
Heb jij wel eens dergelijke mails ontvangen en wat deed jij ermee? Ik ben benieuwd.
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Ugly Betty heeft geen stroom nodig
Lees verderEven goed kijken…
Hee kijk nou, Betty kan een iMac gebruiken waar geen stroomkabel in zit :-P
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iSync Plugin for SonyEricsson S500i
Lees verderAlright, got my new phone today, a shiny black Sony Ericsson S500i which I chose for the looks, the fact that it’s a Sony Ericsson, that it has Bluetooth and as such could sync with my laptop using iSync.
iSync however didn’t recognize it, because there’s no “plugin” for it yet. Luckily there’s a few companies who sell iSync “plugins” to anyone who needs them at rediculous prices.
Because, if you delve a bit through the iSync package (the
/Applications/iSync.app/directory), you’ll find plugins for quite some other phones that have been on the market earlier. Since basically the protocols to exchange items don’t change (it’s been standardized by SyncML), the only thing that sets a plugin for one phone apart from that for another phone is the name and a pretty picture.So here you have it, an iSync plugin for the SonyEricsson S500i. Create a directory in
LibrarycalledPhonePluginsif it doesn’t already exist and move the contents of the ZIP file there. Relaunch iSync and you should be able to add the device.Please leave a message if you found this page useful! Thank you!
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So, how did the command key get this ⌘ next to the ?
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When I came to Iceland, I saw the same symbol the command key on Apple keyboard carries (⌘) everywhere there was something interesting to see. It is called the Saint Hannes cross and is an old viking symbol and now used in the Nordic countries and Estonia to denote sites of touristic interest.
I wondered about this and apparantly there is a funny anecdote about how the “clover” sign as some refer to it came on the command key.
When Steve Jobs first saw the large application menus of the MacDraw application, he saw a list full of logos. He didn’t like this, thought it would take the logo in vain and ordered them to find another symbol to take its place.
Update: Hmm, I forgot to mention that I keep running into the clover. Those were actually the reason for this post!
German band Silbermond uses it on the cover of their newest album ‘Laut gedacht’. No idea why, but they have one track called ‘Das Ende vom Kreis’. The End of the Circle as universal symbol of infinity and is ⌘ the new one?
In Die 13 1/2 Leben des Käpt’n Blaubär by Walter Moers, the protagonist lands inside the Eternal Tornado which is describing a course in the form of the Saint Hannes cross of about two thousand kilometers long.
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Steve Jobs on DRM
Lees verderIn response to the European countries which are starting to take action against the closed-off DRM software by Apple called FairPlay, Steve Jobs personally responded with an open letter to the European government and the music industry titled Thoughts on Music on the website of the computer company.
Firstly, he rejects the allegations that iPod and iTunes are strongly locked into eachother, which is simply not true; music ripped from CDs into iTunes can be perfectly played on any MP3 player in the market. And conversely, MP3s created by any encoder can be played on the iPod. So there is no lock-in between iTunes and iPod.
There is however, a lock-in between the iTunes Store and the iPod; only the iPod can play content bought in the iTunes Store. This is against European free market regulations and this is what Norway started complaining about, getting joined by many other countries including the Netherlands.
In the letter, Steve Jobs defends their strategy, enabling users to play their bought items on relatively quite a lot devices, be them all by Apple.
Apple was able to negotiate landmark usage rights at the time, which include allowing users to play their DRM protected music on up to 5 computers and on an unlimited number of iPods. […] So far we have met our commitments to the music companies to protect their music, and we have given users the most liberal usage rights available in the industry for legally downloaded music.
Remember that the Windows Media DRM is much more restrictive (and much less end-user friendly). So he is proud that Apple could negotiate the relatively free DRM with the music industry. He is however not proud of the fact that they have DRM at all and would much better liked to have completely free content in the iTunes Store. Once a hacker, always a hacker, I guess…
He foresees three scenarios for the future:
- The current system of FairPlay which is only playable on iPods and iTunes, probably resulting in being forced to close the European iTunes Store.
- Licensing the FairPlay technology to other media player producers, becoming unable to guarantee the safety of the encryption - Microsoft actually used this scenario, but with the introduction of the Zune they changed into the above one. It shows how weak the system becomes.
- Free all content of DRM.
All have their problems and issues. On the third option, Jobs argues that 90% of all music sales are in fact already DRM-free, namely CDs, and asks the music business why this small percentage should be bothered with the hassle of administrating DRM on the files, while CDs can be ripped and copied just as easily.
Jobs doesn’t forget to mention that two of the four big music companies are in fact European themselves and that a third is 50% in European hands.
For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard. The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by Vivendi, a French company. EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50% owned by Bertlesmann, a German company. Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.
In this light, it is strange that as far as I know, indie releases on iTunes are also crippled with FairPlay. Most indie artists have a much more relaxed attitude towards internet downloads. If those releases where freed from their shackles, it would certainly put the big music companies in a disadvantageous position and could put a little bit of pressure on them to loosen up.
So if Steve Jobs really meant anything of what he wrote, Apple should sit around the table with all the small labels and individuals offering their stuff on the iTunes Store, suggesting to release it free from DRM.
Update: EMI apparently is thinking about selling unprotected MP3 files online, so it’s already starting.
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Changing Apps
Lees verderWhile my stays in Linux (Ubuntu 6.06 currently) still are very brief, mainly checking some things out and then quickly rebooting to OS X.
All in all you could say I’m very much hooked to OS X, it only has one very big drawback: You have to pay for many pieces of software… Beh, don’t like that ;-)
However, there are quite a few very good Free Software apps available, libgaim based IM client Adium being one of them. Safari is a nice browser, but some things just work better on a Gecko based browser like Camino and today, I found a freeware newsreader I really like: Shrook. It is not Free yet, but it’s getting closer :-)
Actually, the reason I wanted to ditch NetNewsWire which I previously used was that it wasn’t a Universal Binary and somehow apps using Rosetta take up all your system resources and make it dead slow to the point that clicking the NNW-icon keeps you waiting for about half a minute before anything at all happens. And it isn’t limited to NNW also, other apps become slow too.
Shrook has a few interesting features I haven’t seen on other readers. Firstly, there is this thing called Distributed Checking which uses the fact that other Shrook users probably have some channels in common and if one of them has an update of the channel, this fact is submitted to Shrooks server and then pushed through to the other subscribers. So basically it is an implementation of push in a pull technique!
Secondly it is possible to synchronize your subscriptions with the Shrook server and in this way keep track of them on other machines as well (along with their article’s read and flag status!).
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MacBook experiences
Lees verderAfter two weeks and two days with my MacBook, I think I can come to some conclusion about it.
Firstly, I called it Idéfix, after Obelix’ dog since it is also white and black (the screen is really black compared to the white of the enclosure) and it goes with his master on all of his adventures, like how mine is going with me to Iceland.
Heat problems
None. Really, I don’t know what the others are doing to it, but mine isn’t getting hotter than any laptop I’ve had my hands on. Unlike my old Fujitsu-Siemens, the keyboard hardly gets hot. The area around the tab-key is the hottest, while the right side actually remains quite cool.
In the past week, temperatures steadily rose to around 30 degrees and it was noticable on Idéfix. The little fellow can’t really get rid of its own heat, so it now gets hotter than normal.
Speed
It is fast, really fast: Converting a DVD to MPEG-4 is twice as fast as on Hoefnix, my Power Mac G5 2 x 2.5 GHz. It manages to get 60 fps while Hoefnix only gets 30. That isn’t a daily task of course (well, for some it might be), but overall, it feels snappier than the Power Mac.
Handbrake converting Forrest Gump DVD into an MPEG-4Battery life
Better than my Fujitsu, but that goes without saying since that battery is broken :-) But okay, I already got four hours, with Bluetooth and AirPort turned off.
Critics
Yes, tiny thing, namely that it could be finished better! The keyboard leaves a grease mark on the screen, not very nice and something the Fujitsu didn’t have (one of the few good things about that one).
The polycarbonate case is a bit wobbly at some places, nothing terrible, but I think the finishing on that could be a bit better. One screw isn’t fastened deep enough, I tried to give it an extra turn but it won’t go in further.
Further stuff
The first days I took it with me in its protective cover (see picture).
Idéfix nicely packed in its boxThe second day it teared open and it was also raining, so I added a plastic bag of the Media Markt. The reason I didn’t have a proper bag for it is that they simply don’t exist yet. The form factor isn’t new, but apparently if a notebook isn’t an Apple, it isn’t worth making a sleeve for according to the manufacturers… Because I cannot do without, I decided to get me a not-so-expensive one which doesn’t fit exactly and look for a good one at a later point.
Tucano Second Skin 14Yes, it says iBook. Yes, it is for a 14 inch model. Yes, a MacBook fits in it, if you add a piece of insulation tube :-)
Insulation tube -
Switch back
Lees verderI’m switching away1 from PowerPC… Yesterday I already installed Linux on my SGI O2+ (MIPS R5000 architecture), today my all new and shiny white MacBook (Intel x86) arrived!
You know how hard it is to to shut up to anyone about it for a whole week just to make this surprise post? Especially when you’re going to the Apple Centre with the whole bunch ;-)
First impression: Nice thing! Also ordered the mini-DVI-to-DVI cable, so I can hook it up my Dell 2405FPW and enjoy the full 1920×1200! Apple removed the stupid restriction that the consumer level notebooks could only mirror the screen on the external screen, you can now also expand your desktop.
1 Well of course I'm only joking about switching away from my PowerMac, but it sounded cool ;-)
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Finally: Almost full Switch to Linux
Lees verderFinally, after having Hoefnix for more than a year, I’m booting Linux on my Mac more and more often. There were a few reasons I sticked to OS X, one of them was I didn’t really had a reason to over to Linux; everything worked for me… Well, sort of, I’m getting fed up with looking for warez and shit while there is an enormous repository of Free Software in the world just waiting to be discovered and used.
The course of Visualization led me back to Linux, since the libraries that I needed aren’t available in DarwinPorts at the time and they are in Debian, which is just so much easier. Gotta love a good package management system :-)
So now I’m dualbooting again, like in the old days with Windows and Linux. Basically for all the imaging stuff I use OS X. Ah, and for Democracy TV of course (Linux player still in very early alpha).
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Mac mini in the living room
Lees verderToday we moved the Mac mini from the study into the living room. Not because my mom wanted it, but because we’re going to be renovating the study and that can take some time, so the machine has to be somewhere. This isn’t bad at all, since it is warmer in the living room.
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iPod shuffle on holiday
Lees verderMy shuffle had its longest time without refill this holiday and I must say, two weeks is definitely too long for this device. After a week, you’ve heard every song and you’re in need of a change.
That I couldn’t update it was of course my own fault, since I had a laptop with me, also loaded with music. I just have to find out which free app is the best for updating iPods (in Linux).
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System memory upgrade
Lees verderToday, I had completely had it with the swapping and other memory issues in OS X, so I went to the Computerland and bought two very nice and not-so-very-pricy Kingston DDR PC3200 256MB parts and installed them in my Mac.
To open the case and install the memory exactly zero screws are to be unscrewed and exactly one tool, namely one of your fingers, is needed: Open the external case latch, remove the aluminum plate, remove the plastic air deflector shield thingy, remove the two fans in front of the CPU cooling block by just pulling them out. Insert your RAM banks, put everything back in place and boot the system… Yes, very easy, even an idiot could do it. And to prove that, I forgot to put the fans back in :-)
I already can feel some grave differences between 512 MB and 1 GB. For instance, calling the Dashboard is a lot more responsive, the harddisks have more time off, switching between programs isn’t as slow anymore… Of course, there is also the excitement factor, the improvements might not be this great, but there actually are improvements and that’s good.It has to be said, my moments with Linux (albeit short and few) were better than what OS X does to the memory. Much can be improved here on Apple’s behalf, I think.
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iTunes 4.9 with Podcasting
Lees verderThe idea of podcasting intrigued me, but since there were no really user-friendly applications (from my point of view) handling podcasts, I never really got into it.
Last tuesday, Apple released an updated version of iTunes which integrates Podcasting into their Music Store and they did it very well. So, I decided to listen what the fuss is all about and subscribed to the Daily Source Code, Adam Curry’s podcast.
I also subscribed to some other feeds to check the quality of the broadcasts. Now, the content isn’t always of very high quality, but the idea of never again miss a radio show because you didn’t turn your radio on too late is great!
Already quite a few bloggers are doing podcasting in audio and some of them even do video broadcasts. I hear great success stories from Adam Curry, about how unknown bands become famous just by having their song played on a podcast. They would never get on regional radio, let alone national, so that is pretty cool. But then again, Curry is of course one of the initiators of the whole podcasting thing, so it might be a little bit biased.
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Mac mini
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Dad and I bought mom a Mac mini for her birthday, to try to get her to use a computer.The first reaction of anyone seeing the device is of course something like, “Wow, that’s small, how do they fit it in there?”. In fact, they don’t. It is basically a laptop without screen, so all the components are already very small and can be crammed into a small space. Nevertheless, the design of both case and internals are impressive and it might very well be a successful companion to an iPod for current PC-users (since that is wat Apple is aiming at).
I don’t know how one would call going from no computer-user at all to a Mac-user, but would Apple consider it “switching”? More about the “switch” of my mother will come in a few weeks.
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iPod shuffle
Lees verderI completely forgot I promised to write something about my iPod shuffle. So here you have it:
Many words have been said now about the shuffle by many users and I just can’t add much to that. It sounds all right, the electronic sounds of Sigur Rós tend to clip (can also be an encoding problem, but I don’t hear them that clear on my stereo) and switches slow between songs (about a second silence between each track which really is too ong). It might also give some audible feedback when pushing the buttons. Here are some interesting links about iPod shuffle.
- Apple Talk on Gathering of Tweakers (sorry, in Dutch)
- One of the first iPod shuffle covers and absolutely beautiful. The guy seems to got a lot of success by just putting some nice pics online :-)
- A funny mod, probably a weak pun on Apple’s comparison
Okay, so that is what they say and do with it. I had my own personal iPod experience. About a week after I had activated it, the left headphone started to make a cracking noise. That was a bit disappointing, but since I of course have warranty, I called Apple and they sent me a new pair without any question. Way to go, Apple! Excellent!
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Shipment arrived
Lees verderOkay, after some bumps in the road thanks to a nice guy of TNT, the DVI-to-TV cable arrived today.
Yesterday, 11:18, I wasn’t at home, according to this person called Sabayo. I was however, and today at 11:58, the same Sabayo didn’t ring twice to deliver my package. Mildly irritated I called TNT at about 12:05 why I was at home and no one rang, but wrote a nice note for me. The guy at the other end didn’t understand either, but convinced the postman to come by my house again on his way back. And this way, at 15:51, the bag (the package I mean, not the postman) came after all.Of course, I wanted to try it out immediately, but since I don’t have a television in my room, I first had to borrow the one from the kitchen. And find a cable. And find a new cable since the first one apparantly was broken as it only gave a distorted image once and then became completely silent. I almost thought I had a case of DOA, but luckily, with the new cable, the image was as bright and clear as it could possibly be on a television screen.
So, for those who thought I bought a Mac mini, you thought wrong. For those who thought I bought an iPod shuffle, you were right. I also bought an iPod shuffle :-) More about that later.
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TNT order tracking
Lees verderTake a look at the screenshot
… And guess what it is for. The one who gets it right… wins.
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Apple introduces Mac mini
Lees verderApple introduced this new product family called Mac mini on MacWorld San Francisco last week, but since Orion was down, I couldn’t write anything about it…
Targeted at switchers who already have a good monitor, this little wonder of micro-computing might also come in handy as a portable movie player with TV-out. Hmm, have to think about it, € 499,- still is a lot of money for a DVD-player :). -
Installed Debian GNU/Linux!!!
Lees verderAll right then, I installed Linux on my Mac today, finally I was able to do so since the Debian installer from the 4th on has a kernel which supports this machine.
A bit of fooling around with
chrootanddpkggave me a working system, which can also be accomplished by following the instructions in the thread on the debian-powerpc list.I’m happy and can go to sleep now :-)
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Status
Lees verderI’m losing interest in installing Debian on my Mac; OS X is very nice after all. Meanwhile, the Debian PowerPC project is quarreling about going 64-bit all the way or just the kernel.
Patrons argue that the amd64 team does exactly the same, while they could have a 32-bit userspace. Opposers argue that the archive is large enough already and it isn’t really profitable to have 64-bit binaries.
In Ubuntu, PPC64 support has been postponed as a long term goal.
So, the only way I could get Linux on my machine is using Gentoo, but I don’t want to compile each and every little package until I get a working system, I want a system that “Just Works™”.
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Rendezvous is hip!
Lees verderI have a laptop functioning as my mail and printer server. Of course it would be cool to be able to print directly from OS X instead of making a PostScript and then scp’ing it to the laptop.
Well, Apple has been busy supporting a very functional print system known as CUPS (Common Unix Printing System). Linux (and other Unix) users have been converting their systems from the old lpr-style daemons to this new system and printers are supporting IPP (Internet Printing Protocol). No reason for Apple to not convert their apparantly broken printing system of OS X 10.1 (I don’t know, but I’ve read a lot of bad things about it) to the modern CUPS.
So, with CUPS in place, I can easily print on my laptop… Or so I thought… Of course, I can go and edit the
/etc/cups/printers.conffile myself, but that would be no fun. No, it should work the Mac-way: Everything automatically configured with a single click.The answer to this is Rendezvous (or OpenTalk nowadays). Rendezvous is Apple’s implementation of the DNS-SD (DNS Service Discovery) protocol, used for announcing services on remote machines to your machine. It works only on the local network, since it uses a multicast link local address (IPv4) which cannot go through routers.
I installed Apple’s mDNSResponder from their Rendezvous Developer Web Site and configured it so that my printer would be announced.
Printer HP LaserJet 4M _ipp._tcp. txtvers=1_Arp=printers/LaserJet-4M_Aproduct=(LaserJet 4)^Apdl=application/postscript 631Now I start the responder, start an application I’d like to print from, select Print…, select Printer HP LaserJet 4M from the list, it is added automatically and I can press the Print button!
Too bad this whole configuring has taken me a few days to figure out what software to use, what exactly should go where and then adding the printer is so fast… Since now my only other computer is already configured, the responder is a bit useless (not completely, it is also used to keep the printer in the list) so I am exploring new possibilities of Rendezvous like announcing a WebDAV server or a remote iTunes Library.
Oh, and apparantly there is a bug in Howl mDNSResponder by Scott Herscher, which announces an incorrect DNS TXT record. I’ll have to mail him about that. I mailed to the rendezvous-dev list of Apple and Marc Krochmail of Apple was very helpful in detecting my problem.
Update: In the meantime, a much better implementation of mDNS has emerged, called Avahi.
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Its first Linux boot
Lees verderToday I tried the experimental Gentoo PPC64 LiveCD and it worked. I totally got two Tuxes… Tuces… Tuxi… Tuxii… whatever and a #-prompt.
And then I remembered it was a Gentoo system and against my religion to use that, so the first command I entered was
halt<enter>, which printedhaltCon the prompt… Great, wrong keymap. Luckily the numpad-enter was a real enter, so I tried that one. -
Proper detection of PowerMac7,3 (mine) by Linux
Lees verderFrom the Linux 2.6.9-rc4 changelog:
<schwab@suse.de> [PATCH] Properly recognize PowerMac7,3 Make the PowerMac7,3 no longer unknown. Signed-off-by: Andreas Schwab <schwab@suse.de> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>So that is nice already, let’s hope the Ubuntu guys will create a new installer soon with this patch applied. Maybe it will boot (it currently doesn’t at all).
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Debian install a no go?
Lees verderI was trying to install Debian with a newer version, but that was no success at all.
...ok opening display /pci@0,f0000000/ATY.WhelkParent@10/ATY,Whelk_B@1 ... ok copying OF device tree ... done starting cpu /cpus/PowerPC,G5 ... failed: 00000000 Initializing fake screen: ATY,Whelk_A Calling quiesce... returning 0x01400000 from prom_init…and then silence. Well, not completely, because the fans start blowing after some time… And they can get really loud indeed!
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Problems
Lees verderSo, I’m having some problems with my machine, of which I’m not sure it is because of the machine or from external factors.
Firstly, the network is sometimes very unstable, I cannot even watch the AppleExpo keynote at 300kbps (I have a 10MBit connection) and (incoming) ssh connections also suffer from instability.
Secondly, the machine tends to overheat itself and then just go into suspend, of course only if I’m away.
Thirdly, it is a bit loud at night, so I can’t sleep with it on.
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Impressed
Lees verderAfter playing around with OS X I must say, I’m impressed. It is something you need to get used to, because it just works a little bit different. For instance, I keep forgetting there is a menubar of the running program all at the top of the screen. Over to the design of the machine itself. The materials used are of very high quality. It is put together very well, everything fits exactly. I only have one single point of critic, the screws of the PCI slots are a bit hard to (un)screw; the frame is in the way.
I looked into the DVD/CD drive bay to look if it is just an ordinary drive, and it is, so you can just put any ATA drive in there.
Oh, and one other thing about the material, it is very prone to dirt ;-)
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First OS X post
Lees verderWell, here I am. Sitting at OS X on a very small screen (14”) and an even tinier resolution (832 x 624). I really need a bigger screen, this is not workable. But I have to for the time.
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Status: delivered
Lees verderYes! What no one ever expected (ahum) has happened. Today, extremely early (8:02), a mailman of TNT came to my parents house with a big box and a bag… Looks like I have to go home now, but I have to work a couple of hours first; my last workday, on Monday university is starting again.
All in all, the G5 made a very interesting route starting from Cork, via Arnhem, Eindhoven, Venray, back to Eindhoven, Rotterdam and only then it was in Breda… It probably was transported from Eindhoven to Rotterdam over the highway A58, which runs directly to Breda. So, once again it was very near its destination… Efficient driving and shortest path can’t be combined or at least not both at their maximum.
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Not so bad news after all
Lees verderWell, I got an E-mail from Apple soothing me that everything still is ok, but that Venray is actually an Apple depot where they reorder all shippings for further shipment. Strangely enough, I get to see this and even worse, I don’t get any confirmation about what is happening. Others might freak out.
All in all, my G5 is still underway and probably will be delivered this week. It’s comforting to know the Macs get to see their makers one last time before they are let loose in the big bad world. They’ve tasted it a little bit on the rough flight from China to Ireland, rest there a bit in the comforting arms of their parents only to be sent on another journey that will take them deeper into Europe. There they will get one last meal and patting before they will meet their adoption parents who will embrace them with all their love they can give them…
Oooooh, Happy Thought!
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Bad news?
Lees verderHmm, the TNT Consignment Tracker gives me some second thoughts... Although both the tracking number of the and the web order number match mine, the order was going to Venray... And is now even delivered at someone named 'V Leuken'!
<p>I doubt that it is correct… Let’s hear what Apple has to say about that.</p> -
Shipment is just 500 meters away!
Lees verderAt 23:18, the package checked in at the mail warehouse in Eindhoven, just about 500 meters away from my dorm room. Tomorrow, it will go to Breda and then in the evening back to Eindhoven by car…
It is so close and yet so far away!
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Shipment entered the Netherlands
Lees verderToday, 8:22, my machine was checked into a TNT Hub in Arnhem. Looks like it going my way in one or two days.
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Tracking your shipment
Lees verderA friend came with a site where I could get more information about my package than I get from Apple’s own tracking site. I can see there that it is already in Europe. Cork, Ireland to be exact. It might be handy for you too if you are ordering.
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The big wait has an end
Lees verderSo my new Mac was due to ship on 20. August, two months after I placed the order like I wrote in the introduction. According to the tracking page, it has been picked up by TNT Express on 20. August. The big wait is finally coming to an end. IBM had some problems delivering enough G5 processors to Apple, so Apple had problems delivering Power Macs to its customers.
