Related link: https://connect.apple.com

In the past I hosted panel sessions on the state of Java on the Mac at MacWorld for years. When we got to the question and answer period, invariably someone would stand and ask the folks from Apple about Java 3D or JAI (Java Advanced Imaging). This was common at JavaOne BOFs and almost any event when the Apple Java Product manager or evangelist opened up the floor for questions. Soon, the presenters would precede Q&A by pre-emptively addressing the question. The answer was simple - “it is not a technical issue it is a licensing issue. We’re working on it.”

Without saying more than is allowable, ADC (Apple Developer Connection) members will find an interesting set of downloads posted at https://connect.apple.com . You can join at the free level and still take advantage of these new offerings. In addition to the two product downloads, make sure you also download and read the release notes. In the installation and configuration there is an explicit statement about an upcoming Java release.

Thank you Apple Java team for all of your hard work. I look forward to future releases.

I was all set to mention a blog entry on my personal Open Source in Government blog site about how the Western States Information Network (WSIN) is using blogging instead of email to capture information when I ran across the following Slashdot note…

Slashdot: Columnist Threatens to Sue Blogger

Then, I remembered reading these two other blog-related articles in Slashdot in just the past week…

Slashdot: Microsoft Fires Mac Fan For Blog Photo

Slashdot: Spam Rapidly Increasing In Weblog Comments

Blogging (and Wikis), like all other tech-social phenomena, started out as a flying-under-the-radar niche activity that was easy, relatively safe, and relatively trouble-free. Those days are over fellow bloggers. Welcome to the mainstream… Safe blogging…

Have you started worrying about what you blog and how you blog/write it?

Related link: https://groups.yahoo.com/group/emacs-nxml-mode/

Long-time XML pioneer James Clark last month unveiled the alpha of nXML-mode, a new XML-editing major mode for Emacs. (Apparently no homepage yet, but it has a discussion group and a download site.) I’ve been using it for about a week, and it feels quite robust and featureful despite its early status. More importantly, it seems much more lightweight and “clean” than PSGML-mode, heretofore one of the best options for XML editing in Emacs, but one that carries the weight of years behind it, treating XML more as a variant of SGML than a markup language unto itself.

I feel that nXML’s winningest feature is on-the-fly validation; feed it a schema, and the Emacs status bar will inform you whether or not the document is valid, and continuously update this information while you work. If it’s invalid, the troublemaking characters get underlined in red, and the mode offers keystrokes to quickly browse through all the errorsome parts, with a description of each error appearing in the minibuffer as a tooltip. (If you don’t load a schema, then the mode instead uses a built-in “vacuous schema” that simply checks for well-formedness.)

Loading a schema also gives you a context-sensitive auto-completion key binding. Like every other auto-completion tool in Emacs, one tap fills in as much as it can, and (if things are still ambiguous) two taps brings a Completion buffer containing every word that’s legal at this point. Performing the latter action after typing “<” will give you a list of every legal element at the cursor’s position. Very handy!

Interestingly, it validates only against RelaxNG schemas, and not DTDs. This sounds like it should be a deal-breaker (have you ever worked with anything other than DTDs before? Oh… well, I haven’t), but the mode’s README directs the user to trang, a Java-based conversion engine (and another Clark invention) that can easily turn DTD files into RelaxNG schema files. I’ve confirmed that it works great in the Mac OS X terminal, so it meets my needs, at least. I find this a very interesting and subversive way to draw people away from the crusty DTD spec (”Namespaces? What are those?”) for document validation. (On the other hand, the mode already ships with RelaxNG files for both DocBook and XHTML, which is exactly I wanted to use it for.)

(Clark is best known to me as the developer of expat, the venerable XML-parsing library, nearly as old as XML itself but still quite popular; it’s the core of the XML::Parser Perl module, for one thing. For more thoughts on XML::Parser, consult the green monkeys.)

Hacked XML with GNU lately?

Whether you’re here at the Westin Santa Clara, or working at your job in London, England, here’s what you need to know to follow the activities at the O’Reilly Mac OS X Conference.

• The Official Conference Coverage Page is the main watering hole for conference-related weblogs, pictures, interviews, and feature articles. We’ll also be listing news coverage from outside sources here. Online MP3 interviews and photos will start appearing Monday evening, and updates will be posted through out the week.
• The At-a-Glance Session and Events Page helps you quickly find who is speaking about what and where. Very handy.
• To register for conference passes, use our handy online registration page.
• The BOFs are listed here.
• We’ve set up a Conference Wiki that attendees can use to share thoughts and relay information to one another.
• If you want to track the conference sessions and events in iCal, you can subscribe here.
• To provide us with valuable feedback, here are our online evaluation forms.
• And for general Panther and Mac OS X news for developers and power users, don’t forget to keep an eye on Mac DevCenter, your one-stop Mac information zone.

Please remember if you’re here at the show and using our wireless network, to turn off Internet Sharing. For last minute tips if you’re heading out the door, check out my Top Ten Tips for Mac Conference Goers. And most importantly, say hi if you see me at the show. I’ll be signing books at the conference bookstore on Wednesday afternoon at 3:15 pm.

Related link: https://www.objectis.org/

The Zope web content management system and the popular Plone add-on do not get as much press as some other Open Source products. I’ve been very satisified with the results I’ve gotten from using Zope (or Zope + Plone). My OSCON 2002 presenatation gives you and idea of how we used it to build an Intranet site.

I just read on Plone.org that Objectis now offers a free Zope/Plone site for non-commercial use. I’ve maintained a blog on Open Source in Government on Freezope (the first free Zope for non-commercial use service I know of) for about a year now and found it a useful experiment. So, I’ll be moving this blog and other personal web content to my new inexpensive commercially hosted Zope site soon (look for OgasaWalrus.com to emerge soon :-).

I haven’t tried the Objectis free service. But, it certainly sounds like a good deal for someone interested in building a test-drive Zope-based site.

Anyone else Zope-ing or Plone-ing out there?

Once again it’s time for the annual pilgrimage to your nearest Apple Store to celebrate a new release of Mac OS X. Yes, Friday, Oct. 24 is the evening that Panther hits the streets.

If you don’t have an Apple Store within reach, or you’re just not a special event kind of person, then you can comfortably order your copy directly from Apple online.

But for those of you who want to get a little more action for your 129 bucks, the “Night of Panther” events are the way to go. Yes, you’ve heard the stories from years past about Mac faithful getting in line, sharing anecdotes, and checking out others who were just crazy enough to spend their Friday night hanging out in malls across this great land with other OS X gearheads.

So this year, let’s make it easy to compare notes.

If you participate in a Night of Panther event, afterward, please post a talkback here and tell us what you saw. How many people? What were they like? What did you talk about? And most importantly, were there any freebies?

Photo buffs can include a link to their site. We don’t care if they’re just regular snapshots; we what to see what happened in your town. All pictures are welcome as long as they don’t include any obscene or offensive gestures, body parts that should otherwise be covered up, or Windows PCs.

if you can’t attend a Night of Panther event, be sure to stop by here over the weekend to see what others saw. I’d love to have a report from every Apple Store.

Post your Night of Panther report here. Be sure to include which Apple Store you’re reporting about. Please keep it brief and to the point. Include photo links if you can.

I’ve been catching up on what’s happened since I took off for the mountains ten days ago with the steering wheel for a 1990 VW Vanagon in one hand and a digital camera in the other. After reading about iTunes for Windows, new Belkin devices for the iPod, and (finally) G4 iBooks, I’m thinking I should take off for another week just to see what else Steve will announce while I’m gone.

All this new stuff sounds great, but I want to focus on the G4 iBooks for a minute, especially the 12″ model, which I think is still one of the most distinctive computers Apple produces. I’d be surprised if you haven’t read the tech specs yet, so I’m going to jump right in to fray.

First of all, I’m pleased about the G4 processor in the 12″, but I would have liked a 1 GHz option to complement the 800 MHz offering. I know Apple is trying to keep distinction between the PowerBooks and the iBooks, but I don’t think throttling down the speed is the answer. Some people like aluminum, and others like impact-resistant polycarbonate plastic. Let’s have all of the notebooks run as fast as possible and let the customers sort out which models best suit their needs.

I’m really happy to see the slot-loading optical drive added to the iBooks. And I’m not particularly distressed that there isn’t a SuperDrive option for the iBooks. This is an area where it makes sense to differentiate the iBooks from the PowerBooks.

Still only one slot to expand RAM? Ack! That needs to be changed. Limiting the iBook to 640 MBs of RAM is a shame that could easily be fixed. But two USB 2.0 ports… excellent. You only get FireWire 400 (instead of 800 also), but I don’t think that’s a problem at this stage of the game.

AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth options keep the iBook at the forefront or wireless connectivity. And the ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 with AGP 4X is a nice touch, although I was disappointed to see that the s-video connector is an optional item ($19). I think that should be in the box along with the VGA adapter that Apple still provides as standard equipment. After all, if you’re going to use your iBook as a DVD player, you’re more likely going to watch movies on a television monitor than a computer screen.

One other thing I want to mention. You can upgrade the standard 30 Gig hard drive to 60 Gig for an additional $75. Don’t even think twice about this one, just do it. As digital cameras continue to feature bigger sensors, and online music becomes easier to acquire, that hard drive space is valuable real estate.

So aside from the minor quibbles about the single RAM slot, optional s-video adapter, and only one processor offering, I think the iBook will continue to be an excellent option for those who need a light, rugged, network-savvy laptop. Not everyone likes metal. And I think those who prefer plastic should have powerful choices too. This latest offering is definitely a step in the right direction.

The starting price is $1,099 US. I recommend that you upgrade the RAM (to 640 MB), hard drive (to 60 GB), and add the AirPort Extreme card and s-video adapter, bringing the “real world” price to $1,442. That’s a lot of computer for the money, especially keeping in mind that it comes loaded with Panther.

The Samsung Yopy Linux-based PDA has been reviewed by a couple of sites. Here’s some info links:

Samsung main Yopy site

bargainPDA Yopy Review

PDA Buyer’s Guide Review

YopyDeveloper.org

Hmm… US$400+ (closer to $500) for a Linux PDA? Palm OS and Pocket PC boxes are available for well under $250. Would you buy a Yopy just to use Linux (vs. putting a port on, say, a HP iPAQ)?

Related link: https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/oct/20itunes.html

Well, looks like it’s official: iTunes for Windows is a hit. Apple today announced that there have been one million downloads of the Windows iTunes jukebox since it was announced on Thursday. I’m sure at the next keynote, Steve will give us a stat of how many downloads per minute that is, but I think it’s safe to say that a LOT of Windows users are checking out iTunes.

Of course, the best way to check out iTunes is to load in some of your personal library and then take a trip over to the Music Store. Apparently Windows users did just that and have also downloaded one million songs since Thursday. If you remember, it took about a week to sell that many songs back in late April/early May. So, the process has definitely sped up a bit.

A million iPods, a million Windows downloads (and counting), millions of songs purchased through the iTunes Music Store. Apple is on fire. This is a huge time for us Mac fans. And I think we should all get together and give a big welcome to Windows users (and don’t forget the I-told-you-so’s!).

I could use a million, how about you?

This blog has two inspirations. The first is the research for my O’Reilly Mac OS X Conference presentation, which goes by the cheerful and innocuous title Why Mac Users Hate Java. It got me thinking about what Java could be, but isn’t.

The second inspiration is the "What If…"
line of comic books that Marvel used to produce, which would present
one-issue alternate-history stories about what might have happened if
super-heroes had never gained their powers, lost key battles, joined
different super-teams, turned evil, etc.. The stories were presented
by "The Watcher", (not "The Monitor" as I said in an earlier version of this weblog), who was this bald guy who wore a toga and was typically found floating on an asteroid.

So if you’ll just imagine yourself crossing a cosmic boundary to a four-color universe…

The Story So Far…

The makers and fans of Java knew they had a problem. To them,
software that could run on any operating system had huge advantages.
They could develop an app once and deploy it everywhere, instead of
writing different versions for different OS’s. Users, on the other
hand, could choose the operating systems that best suited their needs,
without having to fear a lack of software.

But the users didn’t see it that way. They saw Java applications
as href="https://archive.salon.com/tech/col/garf/2001/01/08/bad_java/index.html">slow,
ugly, and irrelevant. Slow, because Java’s virtual machine turned
every machine into an emulator, one whose code could not possibly be
as fast as native code. Ugly, because the applications’ GUI widgets
had obvious visual differences from native applications, and used widgets
inappropriate to the host platform, like in-window menu bars on the
Mac. And irrelevant, because Java applications didn’t do anything
that a native application couldn’t do better.

In your universe, heroic efforts were made to attack the first two
problems. href="https://java.sun.com/products/hotspot/">Cutting-edge
technology was developed to make Java code fast, while others
tried to mimic
platform-specific GUI widgets in Java.

But in another universe, a different question was asked… not
"how can we make Java fast?" or "how can we make Java
pretty?", but rather, "how can we make Java
matter?"

They happened across a remarkable answer.

The Coming of jTunes

The release of jTunes was met with a mixture of delight and
skepticism. Critics wondered why anyone needed another MP3 player.
But fans were delighted to have a capable player that they could use
anywhere: at home, at work, even in remote locations by uploading
their music to a website and then launching jTunes as an applet in a
web browser. In each case, they enjoyed the same interface and the
same functionality.

It helped that the interface had been outsourced to experts in
human-computer interaction, designing it for ease-of-use by typical
users… a massive shift for a Java community that had too often
focused on tools by developers href="https://wwws.sun.com/software/sundev/jde/index.html">for
developers.

But moreover, this was the sign of a new strategy, a realization
that code and data are inextricably linked, that running anywhere
implied there needed to be something worth doing anywhere. By
letting users play their music and listen to net radio regardless of
location or computing environment, the
Java community had stumbled onto a brilliant tactic: hijacking
content to spread Java. The popularity of MP3’s came with an
implicit need for software to organize, play, and enhance it. jTunes
shrewdly satisfied this need.

But hopping from desktop to desktop wasn’t enough, not in a world
increasingly tilting to the Windows platform. They also needed to hop
off the desktop. Java had long been a success on the server, but that
kind of success is invisible. What was needed was something that you
could grasp.

Dukester

The next java media success could be grasped — literally. The
Dukester was a portable MP3 player, shaped like Sun’s
soon-to-be ubiquitous mascot, standing six inches from tip to toes.
Critics balked at the impractical shape, but consumers said
"awww, cute!"

Cute wasn’t the only thing Dukester had going for it. A J2ME
version of jTunes brought the desktop experience to the small device.
Users appreciated the familiarity. Moreover, to get music into the
device, it had to provide USB and FireWire ports, which in turn
required API’s to use these ports from Java. With a public release of
these API’s, Java suddenly became instantly useful to device makers.
Long sick of being goaded into producing connectivity and driver
software for the small Mac OS X community, and even more sick of being
hacked by a Linux community that sought to provide its own access
software, the device makers realized that they could write their Java
code once and satisfy all these communities. The original Java vision
became more of a reality.

With small devices now requiring not a desktop computer but rather
just a Java environment, makers of other consumer electronics got
interested in Java. Console game makers had long hoped to be the
center of the household entertainment suite, but had little appetite
for delivering the software and services themselves. But in the end,
they didn’t have to, not with users clamoring to hook their Dukesters
up to their PlayStation 2s… all that was needed was a network
connection, a USB or FireWire port, and a Java runtime on the console.
Game consoles and set-top cable and satellite boxes soon offered Java
compatibility as a selling point, with the playful Duke logo becoming
a ubiquitous symbol on consumer electonics cartons in stores.

In a sign of remarkable openness, the Dukester even allowed small
J2ME applciations to be downloaded to it. This drew both beginning
and experienced developers to write appointment calendars, to-do
lists, games, and other handy little apps for the Dukester.
Moreover, J2SE was redefined to be a full and proper superset of J2ME,
so any particularly useful apps developed for the Dukester could also
be run in any other Java environment. "Write once, run
anywhere" was starting to pay off with more and more apps, and
more and more "anywheres" to run them in.

Perhaps more importantly, all these java implementations generated
license fees, which was poured back into new java development.

jMovie and jPhoto take the stage

Released the next year, jMovie seemed almost obvious - a
tool to make home camcorders more useful by providing first-class
editing and post-production tools that worked on any computer or
equally-powerful device. Again, Java technology latched onto the
popularity of another technology to spread itself.

Perhaps more importantly, the technology was now powerful enough to
help set standards. While scanners generally supported the href="https://www.twain.org/">TWAIN standard, there was no
equivalent for capture of dynamic data, such as from a video or audio
source. This had led href="https://java.sun.com/products/java-media/jmf/index.html">earlier
Java media frameworks to only support capture via native code
specific to each platform. With Java constantly spreading onto new
platforms, this position was untenable, and undesirable anyways, so
jMovie’s introduction was accompanied by the release of proposed
standards for audio and video capture, with jMovie providing
implementations for the most popular devices. Not wanting to be left
out, device makers quickly embraced the standards.

Eventually, connecting camcorders to computers, set-top boxes, and
console game systems was something users would do without a second
thought. They simply expected such things to work anywhere, and with
Java’s ambitions of ubuiquity and standards-based simplicity, it was
more or less true.

By the time jPhoto was rolled out, this idea of ubiquitous
access was well-established. The application, which allowed users to
organize and enjoy digital camera pictures, supported practically any
camera out of the box.

Moreover, a camera with unique features could
offer device-specific code to the application at runtime, without an
installer CD, using the principles of href="https://www.jini.org/">Jini to pick-up implementations of
well-defined service interfaces at runtime. Jini’s value proposition
had always depended on a ubiquity of Java VM’s as an environment for
its ad hoc Java-to-Java networks; the success of the jApps provided
Jini with fertile soil in which to grow.

Within a few years, computing and consumer electronics had been
changed from a balkanzied battlezone of conflicting standards and
power-grabs to an industry powered by a virtuous circle of
inter-connectivity, thanks to these Java-based applications that
piggy-backed digital content to enable the content to move around
networks and devices, and in so doing, spread Java from the desktop to
all manner of connected devices.

Another Reality, But Not This Reality

But that is not how things have turned out in this reality. Here,
the iApps are a collection of media applications that run only
on Apple’s operating system. Moving media from one platform to
another is still fraught with peril, thanks to incompatible
"standards", deliberately fractured by players trying to
capture the media market to lock users into other products and
services.

Despite Apple’s media prowess, the idea of media apps actually
makes more sense as platform-agnostic Java apps, like these
jApps. Wanting to enjoy music or photography shouldn’t tie a
user into a specific operating system, or even make them use a desktop
computer at all, when other household devices have equivalent power
and better output options - why wouldn’t you prefer to enjoy your
media from the couch on an HDTV with surround-sound?
Yet the idea of capturing video with a
home computer, with no concern for camera compatibility, then editing
it in the living room on a game console, and then sending it over the
network to another device, is simply fantasy in this world.

In this world, the Java media APIs lay in a state of utter decay,
incomplete and largely abandoned, unsuitable for the task of
revolutionizing media and spreading Java. J2SE isn’t a superset of
J2ME (no javax.microedition in J2SE for example), so apps for the
device tend to stay on the device. A Java USB API remains href="https://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=80">on the drawing board
and FireWire connectivity exists only in dreams. Jini’s
assumption of a JVM-rich network isn’t true, so it has few
environments to run in. And two years after its announcement, href="https://java.sun.com/features/2001/06/sony.html">Java for the
PlayStation 2 remains vaporware, perhaps because there’s little
apparent point to it. Instead, Java enjoys its success on the server,
and to a far lesser degree in device-specific mobile phone scenarios,
with neither making genuine cross-platform Java particularly relevant
or even visible to the common user.

Having seen what could have been, this is what is.

WHAT IF… you had a response to this blog? You’d add it to the discussion below…

Okay, it’s time for me to get on my soapbox for a few minutes…

Hrmph!

There are a bunch of people out there right now chatting up and writing about a particular piece of NDA’d software. A classic example is this one over on OSNews.

Now, an NDA is just what it means: Non-Disclosure Agreement. That means, by signing an NDA, or reading one online and agreeing to its terms, you will follow the request of the person or company and keep your yap shut about the software they’re about to give you access to. They’re allowing you access to their software (yes, their software) for testing purposes, not so you can go off and write articles about it. They’re giving you access to their software, and all they’re asking for in return is for you to test the software out so you can help them isolate bugs (and report said bugs back to them), with the ultimate goal of trying to make the software better. Oh, and one more thing: To keep quiet about the software they’re supplying to you.

They’re not giving you access to the software so you can crank out an article, or burn copies for your friends, or post disk images on some P2P site. An NDA is a legally-binding document between you (and only you) and the company who’s asking you to sign it. By signing the NDA, you agree not to share the software with anyone else, or to show it to someone else, or to even talk about it.

But violators prevail, and ultimately mess things up for the rest of us tight-lipped ones.

Only bad things will happen from violating an NDA. First, you could find yourself in a buttload of legal trouble. But what’s more, you’re messing things up for everyone else out there who signs and agrees to the very same NDA you’ve signed. Those of us who follow the NDA to the letter of the LAW run the risk of being penalized by not gaining access to beta release software in the future.

By violating the NDA, you’re essentially giving away the software company’s trade secrets. Secrets that their competitors could then use against them, costing God only knows how much in lost revenue, etc.

Remember: Being asked to sign an NDA is a privilege, not a right. If you’re asked to agree to an NDA and you feel like you can’t keep quiet about what you’re about to be given access to, you should just turn around and walk away.

Don’t ruin it for the rest of us. Privileges can be revoked for everyone (not just you) at any time.

Hrmpph!

Off my soapbox now.

What’s your feeling on NDAs and those who violate them?

Related link: https://www.mozilla.org/

Slashdot reports that Mozilla 1.5, Mozilla Firebird 0.7, and Mozilla Thunderbird 0.3 came out today (and that 1.5 is said to be the last version of the current suite format). The Mozilla download server(s) appear to be Slashdotted right now. So, those of us who woke up in timezones far removed from the announcement time will have to wait a little while before we can get the new versions.

Is the browser competition truly over (as various press reports tell us)? Or has the Mozilla project provided a viable browser alternative for the masses (vs. tech geeks like most of us here)?

Mephistopheles:
Here to your service I will bind me;

Beck when you will, I will not pause or rest;

But in return when yonder you will find me,
Then likewise shall you be at my behest.

From Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The buzz is that iTunes for Windows will be released tomorrow, and I’m dying to see how Apple handled DRM on the PC. What deal with the devil was negotiated in order to appease the RIAA? What compromises or balance did they have to strike?

It seems the only way to pacify the RIAA (MPAA, etc.) is to negotiate and compromise innovation. It is a sad state of affairs when we have to negotiate with a lobbying group as to what we can and cannot do with our technology. While the market has spoken, and the portable MP3 player is rapidly becoming the leading consumer electronic device, the RIAA has tried to bury technology for years.

1997 - Tries to kill off personal CD duplication.

1998 - Sued Diamond Multimedia over the Rio 300 MP3 Player, claiming it was in fact a recording device. This device was the bane of the music industry. According to the RIAA, combined with the Internet, it actually encouraged consumers to “infringe the rights of artists by trafficking in unlicensed music recordings on the Internet.”

1999 - RIAA loses it’s appeal in the case and says “We�re obviously disappointed we lost in the Appeals Court. The court appears to have concluded that, despite Congressional intent, the Audio Home Recording Act has limited application in a world of convergent technologies. We filed this lawsuit because unchecked piracy on the Internet threatens the development of a legitimate marketplace for online music, a marketplace that consumers want. ”

“Diamond declined our request to work together … to adhere to the law,” said Hilary Rosen, RIAA’s president. “We believe [the Rio PMP300] is destined to damage the market for digitally downloaded music before it has a chance to begin.”

Flash Forward to 2003

Four years later, Apple (fresh off the success of releasing the most popular MP3 player in history) releases the iTunes Store. The first, truly comprehensive, yet simple execution of Digital Rights Management and online music sales. With over one million iPods and millions of songs sold, did the Rio MP3 player or the iPod destroy the market for digitally downloaded music, or did they in fact create it?

So given the apparent disconnect between the RIAA and the consumer, why is it we still consider any compromise with them? They’ve had absolutely no vision when it comes to technology, and if it had been up to them, we would still be unable to burn music CD’s, transfer music to MP3 players, or convert CD’s to MP3’s. In fact, if the mentality of the RIAA had been accepted years ago, there would not have been cassette tapes, reel to reel, or even CD’s. If it had been up to the RIAA, our car stereos might have technical innovations like slot loading 45’s.

The fact is the technology sector has always pushed the sales of media, when media sales began to decline. The CD injected new life into the music industry. The DVD increased sales in a video industry gone flat. Each time a new technology was proposed, however, large sections of the media industry fought tooth and nail to prevent it from ever seeing the light of day.

The RIAA argument is that technology encourages the average citizen to steal. The fact that I own a checkbook has not turned me into a bad check felon. The connection the RIAA tries to make between technology and piracy is absurd. Simply having a high speed internet connection and a MP3 player has not made me more prone to breaking the law.

The success of the Apple Store is proof that if consumers are presented with a simple and affordable solution for purchasing music online, they will. And if the RIAA had worked effectively with the tech sector six years ago, we might have made more progress towards curbing piracy through solutions, not lawsuits against 12 year old girls.

We are on a slippery slope each time we make a concession with the RIAA. You can’t work with a bully whose idea of working with you is telling you what to do and if you disagree, they’ll take you to court. These tactics damage innovation because it sucks up valuable capital on lawsuits, driving small technology companies into oblivion. And let’s face it, they are a large part of the reason why their wasn’t an effective and acceptable DRM in the first place. If they spent more time talking and less time suing, the piracy problem might not be so rampant.

Do we need to protect artists, their work, and their livelyhood? Of course, but that comes through empowering people, not rendering them powerless.

My major concern is what we may just compromise ourselves back to the phonograph.

My favorite hobby as a child was sneaking down the stairs in the middle of the night to see all the HBO programming that I was generally not allowed to watch. On one such occasion I got to see every terrifying moment of Ridley Scott’s Alien. That is, every terrifying moment I could bear to pry my fingers from across my eyes. And thus began a love affair with things that go bump in the night. Alien is everything that is good and fun about Halloween.

Very few filmmakers have the distinct honor of having created a whole new genre, and Ridley Scott has had two. This Halloween, do yourself a favor and go see the Director’s Cut of Alien in the theater. That’s right, digitally remastered and released just in time for Halloween…on the big screen. Two generations have never had the pleasure of seeing this film as it was meant to be seen…and even at 32, I expect I may pee myself.

So take some time this holiday to see the film that launched a thousand imitations.

Here’s an interview with Ridley Scott on the new release.

Oh and I almost forgot…the man whose nightmares gave me nightmares…the creator of the Alien, H.R. Giger.

You’re gonna go, right?

Related link: https://www.macosxhints.com/g5/

Rob Griffiths has a review up over on Mac OS X Hints of a dual 2 GHz G5. The benchmarking isn’t as scientific as some other methods out there, but the results and presentation are certainly oriented toward the average user. Not so much how many gigaflops can it do, but how fast can I launch Internet Explorer?

A very good read. I’m impressed to see that this machine can throw 200+ fps in Quake 3. Makes me wish that someone would work on porting Enemy Territory to the Mac. Hint, hint, Aspyr. I know it’s free for Windows and Linux, but I’d be willing to pay for a Mac version.

Seen any other good reviews of the G5?

I happened to catch the Sen. Subcmte. Hearing on File Sharing & the Entertainment Industry on C-Span the other day, where I heard the following quote from Senator Barbara Boxer’s opening statement:

“Downloading copyrighted works is theft, and I think if there’s anything else coming out of this hearing other than that, it’s a real problem.”

And then it dawned on me: What lawmakers don’t know about the Internet, could fill the Internet.

On any given day, stashed deep within the Technology section of any major newspaper, you’ll find a boring little article opposing the efforts of the RIAA and similar organizations. Within all the techno-babble of the piece, you’ll find the author defending the consumer’s fair use rights.

I must admit, based on the contrived sound bites released by organizations like the RIAA, who wouldn’t side with them? If I were to set my beliefs only by what I’ve read of their press releases, I would not only agree that consumers are thieves, but that artists and their families are begging in the streets because of the MP3. I might even turn myself in for sharing music with my wife.

No one will deny that artists should be compensated for their work, however, while the RIAA is wrapping itself in the noble flag of artistic altruism, they don’t actually represent artists, but music labels. In fact, if you were to visit the RIAA’s home page, you’d probably be surprised to find that they like to fashion themselves as defenders and champions of free speech. The ACLU of the music industry. Their hipocrisy goes so far as to quote the First Amendment of the Constitution while backing it up with the following statement:

“The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) takes an uncompromising stand against censorship and for the First Amendment rights of all artists to create freely. From the nation’s capital to state capitals across the country, RIAA works to stop unconstitutional action against the people who make the music of our times–and those who enjoy it.”

…and those who enjoy it…the RIAA, defenders of liberty. Protecting the rights of the consumer, like the 12 year old and the grandfather they recently sued.

On the same page that the RIAA extols the virtues of free speech, you’ll find a press release discussing the RIAA’s new campaign to promote Parental Advisory Labels. These are the same warning labels that musicians fought so hard to keep off of their work in the 80’s, because of their belief that it violated their First Amendment Rights. No self-respecting artist should side with the RIAA, and yet, they have Quincy Jones making Public Service Announcements on their behalf. Does anyone else find all of this absurd? Somewhere, Frank Zappa is spinning in his grave.

Running Scared
Media companies are running scared these days. Their failure to embrace technology has put them in a delicate position. For the first time in history, the bread and butter of the media enterprises like music, film, and television are faced with the fact that they may no longer be in control of their business. They’ve been confronted with the terrifying fact that artists and consumers could actually perform direct transactions without their help. I’ve personally supported many independent artists without a label ever coming between us. When I buy an album online from Prince, I buy it directly from him, not Warner Brothers.

And although many technology firms have tried to work with the RIAA towards a positive solution, the RIAA feels they can legislate and prosecute technical innovation back 10 years. Stifling technology through legislation is a small price for them to pay, if it secures their profit margins. Though historically, the creation of new technology has always created new markets and increased sales, this time the media companies have been the last to jump on the bandwagon. This time they got caught with their e-pants down. Instead of following the trend, they ignored it. Now the only way they believe they can catch up is to stop technology dead in its tracks while they figure out what to do.

The sad fact is that we, the consumer, are not only beginning to see the erosion of our current digital rights, but our future rights as well. So why has the tech community been unable to rally the consumer behind our cause? Three reasons:

1. Those who understand technology, don’t have the political clout, financial backing, or experience on Capital Hill that our opponents have. For all our technical prowess and supposed intelligence, we’ve failed to get organized.

2. The tech community continuously fails to explain to the general public in clear and concise “real-world” metaphors, the damage that would incur if the RIAA were to get their way.

3. The media, outside of many tech publications, is biased towards the RIAA because they get a large portion of their revenue from the industries the RIAA represents.

Political Know-How
For all of its technical savvy, one thing sorely missing from the tech segment is political savvy. While technology is what drives media, no one within the tech community, with any political clout, has emerged as a voice for the consumer. No one has been able to resonate with the public in a way that matters or garnishes attention. Most people simply don’t relate to people from the tech community. Let’s face it, while Steve Jobs looks pretty ordinary in blue jeans and turtlenecks, he’s still a geek to the general public, and it’s hard to relate to a man with a $600 $90 million dollar jet.

While the tech community struggles to preserve our rights and get the consumer rights movement to a higher level, the RIAA continues to push it’s agenda forward at breakneck speed. They have emerged as the undisputed voice for the music industry, yet their reach extends far beyond music. It doesn’t hurt that they happen to be funded by some of the largest media companies on the planet, whose financial interests bleed into many forms of media. The most interesting of all their backers would have to be Sony, who walks a fine line between encouraging technical innovation and stifling it at the same time.

Because of large backers like Sony, the RIAA has all the funds necessary to grease the halls of Congress. They’ve been able to get hearings into online piracy, trudging out such heavy hitters (and commercial sell-outs) like Metallica and LL Cool J. The irony of having a metal band that made millions telling kids to fuck the system, tell Congress their livelihoods are at stake (while wearing $2,000 suits), is comical.

In addition to the RIAA’s non-stop lobbying, they’ve been able to back up their sales pitch with a number of studies that show file swapping and MP3s are destroying their business. Of course no one seems to recognize the RIAA paid for most of these studies. There have been some independent studies that have shown music downloads help to increase sales. Those rarely appear on the front page of newspapers.

And although we have gained a few political ears and allies, we have failed to explain the importance of our ideals to what amounts to a roomful of people who are so old, they think Peer to Peer is a fundraising cocktail party. Whether we are talking about the extinction of Internet radio, file swapping, decoding DVDs, ripping MP3 files, DVR, etc., we in the industry all know the underlying fact is age-old. People that steal, will steal, regardless of legislation or Gestapo technologies enforced on the average consumer.

Media piracy was not something Napster invented. It did exist before the CD-ROM. This idea they want us to believe that all the woes of the music industry stem from file sharing is ludicrous. I mean if you really want to talk about theft, look no further than the record companies and the way they’ve gouged artists and consumers the past 20 years. And in what other industry do you see a product (like a movie), gross 100 times more than it was made for, and yet there’s no profit to be found?

Without a clear and organized voice in Washington representing, and more importantly, educating lawmakers, we are facing the demise of the digital realm.

Education

A giant problem we face in protecting our rights isn’t just our lack of political hob-knobbing, but educating the public and our legislators. The members of Congress aren’t ripping MP3 files for their portable music machines. They aren’t buying new CD players based on their ability to play MP3 CD’s. The entire Supreme Court is closer to 80 than 30. So how do we expect them to understand the importance of today’s (and more importantly tomorrow’s) technology? Do we believe that men like Jesse Helms and Strom Thurman could ever have understood the intricacies of digital technology? I never saw Strom ripping MP3s of Scott Joplin’s ragtime hits for his iPod, or Jesse burning a CD of his favorite Stephen Foster tracks.

Read any pro-digital media article and you’ll see why no one is on our side. Unless you are technically literate and somewhat visionary, the body of the text is practically all techno mumbo-jumbo. Your average 40-60 year old person is so lost in the technical/cultural terminology, they skip over to see what Billy is up to in Family Circus. It is like handing a second grader a copy of A Brief History of Time and then expecting them to give a thesis on Quantum Mechanics.

Where are the real-world examples of the potential damage of RIAA meddling? Why not explain the danger of these new laws by describing it in a way that the average consumer can understand. When a scientist wants money from Congress to build an atom smasher, he doesn’t get it by writing formulas at a Senate hearing. However, people who aren’t physicists can understand the desire to explain the secrets of the Universe. The current discussions and articles on technology rights are preaching to the already converted. To everyone else, we’re dancing with snakes and speaking in tongues. We need a clear message to connect with the consumers who live outside of our industry.

Media Bias

This brings me to my final point. The media makes it very difficult to get any message out. Take a peek at the Lifestyle section on any given Sunday, and you’ll see hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertisements for movies and music. Who do you think pays for all of that, the ACLU? The media has the most to lose when it comes to giving a balanced representation of this particular issue. If a news organization’s editorial slant sides with the consumer, they stand to lose millions of dollars in ad revenue. If you were the editor of a news organization, would you risk losing your job over this issue? This is why the only safe outlet for the consumer view has been in technology publications. What do you think the circulation of the Washington Post is compared to PC Magazine on a monthly basis? I’ve never seen an ad in PC Magazine for the latest Ashley Judd movie. Only where there is no threat from recrimination is there true freedom of the press.

On A Clear Day
It is obvious that we need a clear, resonating voice representing the consumer on this issue. Until we find support within the populace, we will continue to be nothing more than a gnat buzzing in the ear of the RIAA and their Congressional cronies. While the RIAA continues to give speeches professing their love of the ignoble, their arrogance screams “Let them eat cake.” However, if we don’t do something soon, after this revolution, it just may be our heads on the chopping block.

Whether or not you follow news regarding Apple Computer, you have no doubt heard of the Virginia Tech 1,100 node G5 supercomputer. I’m one lucky dog. I’m writing a book about the project, and the folks over at Virginia Tech have treated me like part of the team. I’ve been privileged to watch the construction of the project and I can honestly tell you it left me speechless.

On my first visit, the machines were all unpacked and in the racks, but shrouded within sheets of plastic, to keep them safe from dust caused by the construction. It gave the room an erie look. All around me, construction crews were working to install the cooling and power systems. Cables littered the floor and teams were busy running them to each machine.

On my second visit, the plastic was gone, the cables were complete, and we started to fire up all 1,100 machines. I even had the thrill of turning on six of the machines myself. We joked about kicking off the power and turning it back on just to hear the din of the system chime from 1,100 Macs.

This project is important on many levels. Obviously this is an important step forward for Apple’s entry into the Enterprise market. It is hard to dispute the performance of Macs when you have a G5 cluster outperforming many of todays fastest supercomputers and doing it with fewer machines. On top of that, to do it for less money than any other platform available today, goes against everything the Windows/PC world wants you to believe about the price/performance factor of Apple hardware. The decision for the folks over at Virginia Tech was simple, get the best performance for the best price. They weren’t the only people shocked when that turned out to be Apple…Apple was a little surprised as well…I mean hey…when people built supercomputers, nobody called Apple…until now.

So, will this change anything for Apple? Will it gain new respect for the company at 1 Infinite Loop? More importantly, will it translate to sales? No one can say for sure. There is no doubt a prejudice against Apple amongst many IT departments. In the past, some of that prejudice was deserved. However, Apple is on a roll these days. Design awards, speed boosts, awards for OS X, a new respect from Unix geeks…and companies who never considered porting their software to the Mac platform, are taking a second look.

This story dates back to last year. It almost never happened. But it is far from over. Next year, all the little known details will be revealed in a new book. By that time we’ll know what the project means for supercomputing and for Apple.

If you want to learn more about the project, there will be a keynote speech from one of the project leaders, Dr. Srinidhi Varadarajan, at the O’Reilly OS X conference.

Also, on my last visit, the BBC was there filming a news piece on the story. You can find that here.

I’ve been crossing my fingers so long I think they’re damaged.

But today the cat is out of the bag, and I no longer have to say, “Don’t worry, I have a good feeling Panther will be out by the time the O’Reilly Mac OS X Conference starts.” Of course, this was part calculated guess and part prayer.

It’s a risky proposition designing a conference around an operating system that hasn’t been released yet. And that’s only the half of it. The team of O’Reilly and Macworld Magazine will have another announcement very soon — based on guess what.

So without getting in too much trouble because I’m not sure what my NDA status is at the moment, let me say this…

Panther will released on Oct. 24.
Mac OS X Conference begins Oct. 27.
Do the math.

And just one more thought. A lot of guys who will be teaching sessions, walking around in the hallways, hanging out in the wireless lounge, and grabbing the occasional beer in the bar, have been working with each build of Panther for the last several months and know a lot about this operating system. Some of them might even have books approaching press time.

You can register for the Mac OS X Conference here. And all of you early birders who had the foresight to grab big savings before the G5 cluster session and Panther was announced… good job!

Related link: https://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/resources/msnmessenger/pocketpc.mspx

Microsoft is changing their IM protocol in a week or two. They released the updated MSN Messenger clients for Pocket PC 2002 and 2003. Note that there are different updates for these two Pocket PC versions. Pocket PC Thoughts reports that the 2002 client requires about 227KB of storage space while the 2003 client takes up about 150KB.

Hmm… Do the recent MSN and Yahoo Messenger(s) changes really improve security?

I recently received the following Email:

This program worked for me. If you hate Spam like I do, you owe it to your self to try this program, and forward this email to all of your friends which also hate Spam or as many people possible. Together lets help clear the Internet of Spam!

When you start receiving spam about removing spam…the problem has reached a whole new level of the absurd. There is a special circle of hell reserved for spammers.

As of three years ago I had yet to receive a single piece of spam. Flash forward to the present. I now spend about 30% of my Email time evaluating my mail in order to distinguish actual correspondence from junk mail. I also find myself spending extra time considering the subject lines in my own correspondence because I find they often sound like spam. I estimate that about 50% of my mail storage capacity is consumed by spam, forcing me to purchase additional storage space in order to ensure I don’t start bouncing mail. I could try and delete all of it, but the time it would take to sort it is time I don’t have.

For awhile, spam filters seemed to work, but each time they improved on the filter, the spammers found a way to circumvent it. Occasionally a valid Email slips through, forcing me to abandon the filter. In a final act of desperation, I abandoned the Email address I’ve used for the past three years, to reduce the problem. I came up with what I think is an effective (yet not original) solution to the problem (more on that later), although I am not sure how long it will last.

Fighting the Good Fight

People spam because it works. Only a small percentage of individuals need reply for the spammers to quantify it as a success. Even attempts to opt-out of spam lists only validates to the spammer that your email address is active.

Unfortunately, no current proposed or enacted legislation will stop spam because it is almost (if not actually) impossible to enforce. Though I applaud legislators trying to curb the problem, I don’t see their efforts bearing fruit. The real responsibility for change lies in our hands (the tech community). We share a good portion of the blame for the problem. I’m aware that most of the computer geeks out there are savvy enough to avoid spam tactics, but our culpability is that we have failed to educate the public on how to combat the problem. We complain, we legislate, we write code…but the simplest thing to do…is just to talk.

International Spam Awareness Day
I propose that we designate an International Spam Awareness Day, and get as many people within the tech community to observe the day by performing one simple task. Pick five people that you know who are not tech savvy. Your job is to give them a flyer and verbally educate them on why replying to any spam or purchasing from any spammer, makes them personally responsible for the problem. Then you charge them with the same task of educating five people…the anti-spam chain letter effect. Once people stop responding, the metrics drop and it no longer becomes a commercially viable business model. Then they’ll just go back to telemarketing…or junk faxes…or whatever rock they crawled from under.

Simple, effective, and cheap. I’ll tell five friends, they’ll tell five friends and so on. All that’s left is to pick a date and get the word out.

My Spam Spoof

One reason I get a lot of spam is that my Email address is published on the web. I use .Mac for my mail solution, but regardless of who your provider is, I have a cheap way to create a challenger to eliminate or slow the oncoming mass of junk mail.

I’ve created a non-published mail address and a published mail address. When you send an email to the published mail address you get an auto-responder that tells the sender this is not my real mail address or is no longer valid. Inside the auto-responder is a URL to a site where there is a flash file (or .gif/.jpeg) with the real address. Since I doubt very much that spammers read my auto-responder (most of their domains are fake/stolen), I feel relatively comfortable they will not reply to my personal mail address. In fact, in the many weeks I’ve had the new system, I only received one piece of spam.

Fingers crossed.

So, what date should we set for International Spam Awareness Day?

Related link: https://www.raelity.org/oreilly/books/hacks/more_macosx_hacks.html

With Mac OS X 10.3 Panther going gold, I’m setting to work on the the next edition of the Mac OS X Hacks book.

And so I turn to you, gentle readers, for your interest in contributing to the next book. Got a hack, tip, tweak, loophole, script, haxie, favourite bit of software, unconventional use you’d be interested in sharing and writing up (code and/or prose) for the book? Please do leave a writeback or drop me a line. While we’ll certainly be covering more of Panther than you can shake a stick at, there’s no reason to be OS version-specific.

P.s. Those of you under Apple NDA, please do be aware that you’re not supposed to be discussing Panther with me. Just pass me your contact info and some general Mac OS X hacking subject areas of interest to you and I’ll ping you once Panther ships.

Got more Mac OS X Hacks up your sleeve?

For many of us, renewal time is here for our .Mac accounts. I’m mentioning that because if your account is like mine, it’s set up for automatic renewal on Oct. 8. (Of course this depends on when you initiated it up and how you did so. But as you recall, a lot of us converted from the free version to the paying service at the same time.)

I’ll be right up front and say that I renewed. The service is valuable to me because it integrates well with my workflow. I like the email account. Backup runs everyday when I go to lunch to protect my morning’s work. I use the “iPhoto to .Mac” online system for quickly building photo catalog pages and sharing them with friends. And the tipping point for me was the addition of iBlog, which I use to create “Story Photo Notes” on my photography site, storyphoto.com.

Whether or not you feel the same way about your .Mac account, you should probably go review your account settings to make sure everything is the way you want it. As we all know, it’s very difficult to undo something that’s been done with Apple. (For example, weeks after returning them, I’m still waiting for a credit on two linen books that had printing defects.)

Think about the value of .Mac to you, then log on and make sure your account is set up accordingly.

Related link: https://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2003/10/01/notes100103.DTL

There’s a great article over at SF Gate today. Mark Morford writes about Apple’s product packaging and the attention to detail that makes opening a new Apple gadget more fun than Christmas morning. I agree wholeheartedly with the article. Apple’s products are not only a pleasure to look at, but a pleasure to use and to unwrap.

I still remember how impressed I was with the packaging of my first Mac, a 12″ dual USB iBook. From the clean design of the box to the thoughtful organization of its innards, I fell in love at first sight. I still get a little giddy now and then, like when I bought my first (and subsequent) iPod. Buying my iSight is another great example.

I’ve an analogy for Apple’s product packaging. It’s like fine cuisine; the presentation is as important as the real substance. With Apple, I’ve never been disappointed with either.

Were you impressed the first time you opened a new Apple product? Why or why not?