For months now, I've been trying to tell people about Twitter. I was constantly getting either blank stares, a great deal of skepticism, and/or good natured ribbing. No one seemed to understand the power of Twitter. 
 
Last week, our school received news that two of our administrators were going to be studying for a week in China. One of the administrators asked me to look into finding out the best way to communicate from China back to the United States so that she could keep in touch with her family while out of the country. I decided to put into practice what I've been preaching for the past couple of months. 
 
I tweeted out to my followers (at the time only 90 followers) the following tweet: 
 
"Help please. Anyone been to China?What options are available for communication back here? Cell service? Skype? Any help is appreciated." 
 
The first thing I received was a tweet back from a fellow tech coordinator (Ryan Collins) telling me to get in touch with a specific person. I followed that person and directed a reply to them.  
 
It turned out that this person was an American teaching in China. Next, I looked at who that person followed and who followed them. In doing so, I found even more Americans that are currently teaching in China. I followed some, contacted them, and got an incredible amount of current, valid, information. Specifically, exactly what we needed. 
 
Long story short, within hours of my initial tweet, I had: 
 
*Information about pre-paid cell phone service available in China. 
*Information about the types of phones you should bring over to China. 
*Information about free Wi-Fi available in Beijing. 
*Information about Skype functionality from China back to the states. 
*Information about pre-paid calling cards. 
 
If I had any doubt about the capabilities of Twitter, it has now been completely erased. I'll be sending out the link to this blog post to friends and colleagues in the hopes that they too will finally understand the power of Twitter. 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

Would you like to give your students the ability to listen to some text-based content on their iPods? Perhaps you are going to be driving and you want to read a large text-based article but can't read while driving? Why not convert that article to a podcast? What you need is a simple Automator script that can do just that. Here are the steps (see link to video below): 
 
We'll use Spotlight to open Automator. 
 
Next we need to create a custom workflow in Automator. 
 
Now we'll choose the Automator command "Get contents of Clipboard." 
 
The next Automator command we need is "Text to Audio File." 
 
The last command we need is "Import Audio File." 
 
Now we'll save that command as a Plug-In for the scripts menu. "File-Save As Plugin." 
 
Now that the script is created, we can copy some text and run the script. 
 
This will create an audio file on the desktop and it will then import into iTunes. 
 
Select the file in iTunes by single clicking on it. From the "File" menu choose, Get Info. 
 
Click on the Lyrics tab and paste the text inside. Click OK. 
 
Rename your file. 
 
Sync this file to an iPod Touch or iPhone and you will be able to listen to the podcast as well as read along with it. 
 
Enjoy. 
Chris 
 

Posted by: Chris Hamady
Podcast: texttospeech.mov

I just found out something very cool that you can do with podcasts and iPod Touch/iPhone. 
 
Record a podcast of you reading something, a book, a story...etc. Import that podcast into iTunes and convert it to an AAC file. Select the AAC podcast file in iTunes and use the File menu to Get Info on the file. Click the Lyrics tab. Type or paste the words of what you read into the Lyrics window. Click OK. 
 
Now sync that podcast to an iPod Touch or iPhone or upload it to an RSS feed. When you view that podcast on one of those devices, you will see the words and be able to read along with them as the podcast/device reads them to you! 
 
Awesome and easy! 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

I recently came across an article on Apple Insider that discusses why Flash isn't a supported format on the iPhone, and why it probably won't ever be supported. Suppressing my disappointment, I decided to read on. After completely reading the article, I have to say I am thoroughly convinced that Flash isn't a good medium for mobile devices. As educational content migrates more and more toward that medium, content creators should be focusing on standards, as well as encoding video in codecs that won't needlessly suck up our precious processing cycles (and ultimately drain the batteries in our SmartPhones, iPod Touch(es), and laptops). 
 
If you have video content that needs to be published on the web, encode it in H.264. Doing so will guarantee that it will play on the number one selling mobile devices by Apple, as well as reduce the amount of energy your devices expend, lengthening your battery life. 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

I recently posted a review of Apple's new iPhone. You can find it at 
 
http://www.blackswampmug.com  
 
Feel free to use the comment section on this blog to provide feedback, questions, or comments. 
CH 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

David Pogue recently wrote an article that looks at the similarities between a revolutionary multi-touch interface designed by Jeff Han, and the multi-touch interface that Apple will be using in their iPhone. 
 
David contacted Jeff and was surprised to find out that Jeff wasn't angry about what Apple was doing. In fact, he said that he wasn't allowed to discuss the issue. Could this mean that he is involved in a possible collaboration with Apple? If so, this is going to be a huge technological gain for Apple over other companies trying to revolutionize computer interfaces. 
 
You can read more about it here: 
 
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/the-multi-touch-screen/  

Posted by: Chris Hamady

Jeff Sankovich and I presented two sessions today at the eTech Ohio State Technology Conference. Our sessions were both entitled, "Running Microsoft Windows on Apple Macintosh Computers." We demonstrated a number of ways that schools and individuals can run Windows on their Macs. They can boot natively in Apple's Boot Camp software, or they can boot via "Parallels Desktop for Mac" in a virtual machine. 
 
Apple was right to enable this technology. There were at least 20 different schools/individuals that approached us asking how they could create dual boot Macintosh computers. A number of them said that they have been Windows-only schools for many years. My favorite line was from a gentlemen that said for many years they couldn't have Macs in their district because of their Windows-only policies. Now they will be able to choose the right tool for the job at hand. He said, "...students and teachers will be able to finally use Apple's iLife multimedia programs...we can finally have the best of both worlds now that Macs run Windows." 
 
I find it very rewarding to see that more and more people will finally be able to see the amazing iLife software that Apple ships with every Macintosh.  
 
Time for a rest. 
 
CH 
 
You can get our conference handouts here: 
Windows on Mac 
Cloning 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

Unlike every other state in the U.S. that settled during the Microsoft anti-trust trial, the state of Iowa is still allowing consumers to continue to sue Microsoft for anti-competitive business practices, price fixing...etc.  
 
Rather than dredge up that old mess again, let's look at a startling revelation that occurred last week during the presentation of evidence in this current trial: 
 
James Allchin, the chief of development for the Microsoft Windows operating system (yes...he's the big dog), shocked everyone in the courtroom when it was disclosed that he had written in an email (dated Jan. 7, 2004) that, "...Microsoft had lost sight of customers' needs" and that he would BUY A MAC if he didn't work for Microsoft!!!! 
 
I'm sorry folks. I couldn't make this stuff up if I wanted to. You can read all of the details here. 
 
So I ask you, if a Macintosh is good enough for the guy that is the lead developer of Microsoft Windows, is a Mac good enough for you?  
; ) 
 
CH 
 
UPDATE: 
Full text of Allchin's email is HERE! 
 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

My wife bought an Macintosh iBook G3 (900 mhz, 128 Mb RAM, 40 GB hard drive) in February of 2004. In March of 2005 (outside of warranty), the logic board died and we sent the computer in for repair under Apple's Expanded iBook Logic Board Repair Extension Program. It came back in a few days as good as new.  
 
About 6 months later, the new logic board died as well. We sent it in again and it was repaired for free a second time.  
 
Fast forward to three weeks ago- it died again. Instead of calling Apple support, I called an Apple customer relations representative who courteously asked me to get the machine diagnosed by an authorized Apple repair center. I promptly did and emailed the diagnostic report to the customer relations representative.  
 
After she received the diagnostic report, the customer relations rep said to me, "Let's go pick out your wife's new computer." After I picked my chin up off the floor, I politely told her that we would like the entry level MacBook as it was more than fair of Apple to replace her iBook with one. Long story short, as I type this my wife is sitting across from me working on her new MacBook.  
 
So much of my life lately has been spent dealing with companies that don't just provide bad customer service, dare I say that they provide ZERO customer service. 
 
Frankly, it's amazing to me to find any company in this day and age that still treats their customers fairly, courteously, and superbly. Apple Computer is the only company that I have dealt with in the past 10 years that has ever gone to these lengths to give a customer a "wow" experience. 
 
Amazing...simply amazing. 
 
CH 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

If you use Firefox and have to connect to URLs that contain non-standard ports 
in them (such as https://webmail.nwoca.org:563/), you will find that the newly 
released Firefox 2.0 blocks them for security reasons. Jeff Sankovich found a fix on the web. 
 
In the address bar of Firefox 2.0, type: 
 
about:config 
 
and press enter/return. 
 
Right-click on the list of Firefox preference strings and choose New-String. 
 
Name the string: 
 
network.security.ports.banned.override 
 
Click OK 
 
Next, (in the case of NWOCA) set the value to 563 and click OK. 
 
That's it. 
 
Good luck. 
 
CH 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

I ran across an article recently that gave another reason that people might want to avoid social networking sites like MySpace, Friendster, and Facebook. I wasn't aware of this, but it looks like people are targeting sites like MySpace and planting trojan viruses and worms in their banner ads. Here is an example of how they might do it: 
 
An unsavory advertiser buys ad space on MySpace. MySpace puts up the banner ad and the banner ad exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows called a WMF vulnerability. Now Microsoft patched this back in January but not everyone patches their systems for obvious reasons (see my blog entry labeled, "Fixing or Breaking?"). Once a vulnerable PC tries to display the poisoned banner ad, it is "owned." The people who created the banner ad now control the PC and can use it to do their bidding. 
 
What can someone do to avoid these issues? From the article: 
 
"In addition, Dan Moniz, a security consultant in San Francisco, recommends using a browser other than Internet Explorer. "The way that Internet Explorer is hooked in with the operating system can cause some problems," he says. The July banner ad attack targeted Internet Explorer." 
 
Firefox is a free open source web browser that will help protect you from most vulnerabilities aimed directly at Internet Explorer. 
 
Lastly, get a Macintosh. There isn't any virus, trojan, or exploit currently in the wild directed at Mac OS X. Until there is, it is the safest operating system/computer on the planet. Even if a Macintosh finally had a virus written for it, the score would still be 114,850 to 1. 
 
Here is another article detailing a different type of attack via social networking sites. 
 
CH 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

Today Apple Computer announced that movie downloads are now available from the iTunes Store (Apple has apparently dropped "Music" from the store title). This first batch of movies comes from Disney and Pixar. Being somewhat of an Apple fan, I wanted to familiarize myself with the new service. I ran software update on my Mac and updated iTunes to version 7.0 and QuickTime to version 7.1.3. After I rebooted the computer, I opened up iTunes and went to the new store. I decided to buy Pirates of the Caribbean-The Curse of the Black Pearl for $9.99. 
 
The movie took just over 2 hours to download. It was 1.64 GB in size. An interesting thing to note was the fact that I started to download the video at school, and realized that the download wasn't going to be completed by the time I was leaving for home. There is now a "pause" feature available to you when you are downloading videos. I clicked on "pause", drove home, initiated my home internet connection, and resumed the movie download. This is a very convenient feature. 
 
Back in March, I wrote a blog entry that discussed the first movie available from iTunes, "High School Musical". In that entry, I mentioned that there were times when the video quality wasn't quite perfect.  
 
I'm happy to say that Apple has fixed that issue. All purchased video content from iTunes is now being encoded using the H.264 codec and looks fantastic. Apple has also increased the resolution of all videos to 640x480 from 320x240. I couldn't tell any difference between the movie that I downloaded and a DVD. It really looks that good.  

Posted by: Chris Hamady

I found a great little article on the web recently. It seems this guy has always been more than a little curious as to why his PC runs great initially, but then the more things he installs on it, the slower it gets. He decided to do a detailed test of his PC's speed both before and after installing specific applications..over 30 to be accurate. Here's a link to the last page of his article including the results of his testing: 
 
http://www.thepcspy.com/articles/other/what_slows_windows_down/3 
 
It always makes me feel a little bit better knowing why things happen, instead of just having them happen and being in the dark about the true cause. 
 
Enjoy. 
CH 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

Tom Yager is a well known name in the world of IT and computer technology. He is the chief technologist at the InfoWorld Test Center where he spends his time reviewing and commenting on everything from Linux to Windows to Macintosh. 
 
Recently he published an article titled: 
 
"Is Windows inherently more vulnerable to malware attacks than OS X?" 
 
If you have any doubts at all about the superior security of Mac OS X, read his article. 
CH 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

Recently, Microsoft created and issued a patch for Internet Explorer 6 that was supposed to fix 8 security vulnerabilities. That's the good news. Now for the bad: 
 
What they really did in patching for the 8 vulnerabilities was install a new vulnerability on people's machines. No...I'm not making this up: 
 
Read this article. 
 
I try to trust Microsoft. Honestly I do. I've recently been turning on auto-updates on my home PCs running Windows XP Pro to be assured that I'm running on the latest and greatest patches from Microsoft. Now I find out that one of Microsoft's auto updates could have installed a security vulnerability into my computer. This is just so frustrating for IT administrators and also for end users.  
 
People are creatures of habit. I don't blame them for a minute when they get angry after I tell them to stop using Internet Explorer and start using Firefox. The problem is, however, that I just can't trust Internet Explorer...period. 
CH 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

Have you ever installed an application in Microsoft Windows only to have the installer trash your Windows installation? I have. More than once.  
 
It's bad enough that after you install Windows, you have to install all of your device drivers before you can get things to work properly like the sound card or video card. Now imagine that you just got done re-installing Windows, and you go to install your ethernet card driver, only to have the installer crash and destroy your pristine Windows install. Does that sound like fun? I didn't think so. 
 
What if I told you that you wouldn't have to endure that suffering ever again? OK...here's the deal. 
 
Tonight I decided to download and install the beta for Internet Explorer 7.0. What I didn't want to do was to trash my current Windows XP Pro installation (running under Parallels Virtual Machine software on my Apple MacBook) by installing some beta software from Microsoft. I really wanted to try the software, however. 
 
I said to myself, "Wouldn't it be cool if I could just clone my current Windows XP installation and install the beta IE software into it?" That way I could play with the new browser in the clone of my XP installation, but not trash my original. 
 
I started clicking on the menus at the top of the screen and lo and behold, there it was! Under the menu labled VM was a menu item called, "Clone VM". Next thing you know, I had cloned my XP Pro installation IN UNDER 9 MINUTES!!!. 
 
What is really cool is that I now get to choose which install I want to work with. If I want to test out a piece of software, I just install it in the "testing" installation of Windows. If I need to do serious work in Windows XP, I use the original installation. 
 
Just another one of the million reasons to buy a Macintosh. 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

I recently read a very interesting article that details the numerous technological advantages that Apple's EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) has over the basic BIOS that today's Wintel PCs use. 
 
EFI gives Apple the ability to exceed the 4 bootable partition limit that occurs with today's Wintel PCs. EFI controlled computers can have as many as 128 bootable partitions per disk. While not important for the average user, servers running virtual machines or many simultaneous operating systems will find this feature indespensable.  
 
One of the most important items discussed is the added protections that EFI gives to the Master Boot Record (MBR). Security is one of the biggest problems for today's computers, and Apple is definitely doing a fine job attempting to create the most secure operating system/platform/computers in the world today. 
 
The most thought provoking item was mentioned at the end of the post. The article mentions that Mike Bombich has now added Windows support to NetRestore.  
 
Using NetRestore, a Windows XP installation can be pushed out to a Macintosh computer over the network in under 10 minutes (average XP installation image). This is accomplished by pulling the computer out of the box that it shipped in, plugging in the power and network cable, and booting the computer holding down the "N" key on the keyboard. 
 
You can read the article in its entirety here. 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

I'm sure this seemed like the right thing to do at the time. File a patent for a course management system when there is a TON of prior art that precedes your product or invention. Back in 2000, BlackBoard filed a patent for their Course Management System (CMS). They recently were awarded a patent. I'm not sure if the U.S. Patent Office is doing much research these days before awarding patents, but just digging around using Google dug up this information that points to a good deal of prior art: 
 
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Online_Learning_History 
 
http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=35237 
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO 
 
I'm sure that just like other proprietary software vendors who feel threatened by Open Source Software, BlackBoard sees the writing on the wall. Open Source software could potentially make them irrelevant. This is probably a reactionary move on their part in an attempt to stem the tide of customers who are leaving BlackBoard for CMS systems such as Drupal and Moodle. 
 
I find it VERY telling that as soon as the patent was granted, they filed a lawsuit against Desire2Learn. Had BlackBoard filed suit against IBM (who own their own CMS), they would probably have been in for a world of hurt. Going after a defenseless, small company like Desire2Learn says a great deal about the business philosophy of BlackBoard's management. While other companies have realized that innovation is the key to success, BlackBoard has decided that lawsuits are the answer. 
 
My best guess is that BlackBoard/WebCT stock is going to start diving in 12-24 months. Only time will tell. 
 
UPDATE: 
Anders Bylund recently (August 18) wrote in The Motley Fool: 
"Blackboard is an exciting company with a lot going for it, but until we see how its customers respond to the lawsuit situation, I wouldn't dare touch the stock with a 10-foot laser pointer. The fears might be overblown, but you just never know." 
CH 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

If you are interested in Microsoft's new operating system called Vista, you can't find a much better review than the one found at Tom's Hardware. The folks over there take you on a 40 page journey that took over 500 hours of working with Vista to create the article. If you aren't of the mindset to read all 40 pages of the article, I will summarize it in as few words as possible. 
 
The review mentions a number of new features that are found in Vista. Based on the information found in this article, the short synopsis of this review can be summed up in one sentence: Vista doesn't have one new feature that isn't already present in either Mac OS X, or the Linux operating system. In fact, the concluding page states: 
 
"One notices repeatedly while working with this software that Microsoft scoped out its competition very carefully." 
 
There are a number of improvements in Vista, however, that will make the end-user pretty happy. Vista now sports an improved and streamlined archive decompression utility. Downloading an archive from the internet used to require an assistant to take you through the decompression process. Right-clicking on the file now gives you the ability to decompress the file without going through the lengthy assistant. 
 
The new operating system also installs almost all of the required device drivers automatically during the initial start-up of the operating system. This will be a welcome change for users who started up their computers for the first time and have had to click through innumerable dialogue boxes while XP installed device drivers. In the interest of parity, it should be mentioned that Macintosh computer users rarely (if ever) have to install device drivers. 
 
Vista also has a new User Account Control function to enhance a regular users ability to install software that might require administrative access, yet protects the operating system by leaving the user in a non-admin account. If a non-admin account needs to install something as admin, they simply use the "runas" command to "run" the software installer "as" an admin user. Here is the article's explanation of this: 
 
"The guiding idea behind this technique is called the "principle of least privilege". Under this doctrine, users who normally work on a Windows machine should log in using ordinary user accounts, so that if they contract a virus or other malware, that unwanted software is a lot less able to do serious damage than if they routinely log in using administrative privileges. But Microsoft hasn't taken this principle entirely to heart, either. The first user defined during installation is automatically granted administrative privileges. Worse yet, the reserved account named Administrator is not required to have a password to log into the machine!" ( http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/05/31/windows_vista/page18.html ) 
 
Basically it boils down to the widely accepted principle that a user should never run an operating system in a full administrative account if they want to have the best security possible. Conversely, Mac OS X already gives a non-admin user the ability to authenticate as admin for certain functions that might require it. On the Mac, this is done by clicking a single button and entering a username and password. We'll have to see whether or not this "runas" implementation is that simple. 
 
One problem pointed out in this article relates to security concerns in Active-X. The reviewer tried to remove the Active-X plugin from Internet Explorer 7 and was unable to do so. Active-X is well known for its security vulnerabilities that contribute to the proliferation of viruses, and spyware, and also the total takeover of the operating system. 
 
For more information on Active-X and its security problems, see:  
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA04-184A.html 
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA04-293A.html 
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/713878 
 
The article ends by taking an incredibly long 8 pages to discuss the many games and game improvements included in Windows Vista. Nearly 1/5th of this entire article was devoted to the included games. Some of the new features are nice, but hardly worthy of devoting so much press to them. For instance, was it really so important to point out that you can now save games when quitting out of them? 
 
Windows also includes a new Chess game in it. What wasn't mentioned in this review is whether or not the version included with Windows Vista supports voice navigation and control out of the box like Apple's does (and has since 2000). Physically challenged individuals with special needs will no doubt find Apple's chess program vastly superior to Vista's. 
See: 
http://www.apple.com/accessibility/voiceover/ 
 
Here is a list of more new features found in Vista, and the year that each of these features was already introduced by either Mac OS X or Linux prior to Vista. 
 
User Interface Transparency- Linux 2003 or earlier, Mac OS X 2002 
Small Applications called Gadgets- Mac OS X (Widgets) 2004 
File system protected from Internet Explorer 7- All modern operating systems protect their file systems from web browser vulnerabilities. They have for many years. 
Tabbed Browsing- Firefox (formerly Phoenix) in Linux and Mac OS X have had tabbed browsing since 2002  
Integrated RSS Feeds- RSS feeds have been integrated into Firefox 2004(Linux and Mac OS X) and Safari (Mac OS X) since 2005 
Website Preview Function- Opera Web Browser in Linux and Mac OS X 1995 (formerly NeXT OS) 
Built-in Popup Blocker- All web browsers on all platforms supported popup blocking by 2002. Microsoft Internet Explorer did not until 2004. 
Automated Defragmentation- All Unix-based OSes (including Linux and Mac OS X) have had automated defragmentation, or smart file system management (negating the need for defragmentation) built into them for many years. 
 
While users will surely find most of the new features in Windows Vista appealing and useful, there is no denying the fact that almost all of these features have already existed (in some cases for 5 or more years) in Mac OS X and Linux. Some people might say that these features are worth the wait. For the sake of the end-users at our school and their day to day computing experience, I say that I would rather lead, than follow. 
 
CH 
 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

I'm sure that this is probably just a huge misunderstanding on Dell's part, or perhaps it is just the ramblings of some anti-microsoft crazy, or maybe someone at Dell forgot to talk to their PR department before they let this one fly. 
 
It seems that someone was recently told that they would have to pay 49 dollars before Dell would remove the spyware from their new computer that SHIPPED WITH IT INSTALLED FROM THE FACTORY! 
 
I didn't believe it myself. Maybe this guy made the whole thing up? To be fair, Dell would argue that they don't see anything wrong with a piece of software that keeps track of a users's browsing habits and forwards that information along to a third party service that will then better choose what advertising to display on the computer (in other words, POPUPS!). PHEW...I'm tired just typing that. 
 
Read the ARTICLE. 
CH 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

I've been waiting and hoping for some time now that Apple would create commercials that captured the essence of the differences between a Mac experience and a PC experience.  
 
Every time a teacher walks into my office and tells me that her PC won't wake up, or she has to reboot it all the time, or the wireless won't work, or he can't count on using his PC for a all-school PowerPoint presentation, or it takes 30 minutes to get a laptop to mirror properly to an LCD projector, I wondered if Apple would ever tell the story that needed to be told.  
 
They FINALLY did it. In case you haven't seen Apple's new television ads, you can catch them here: 
 
http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/ 
 
Oh...and did I mention how humorous they are? : ) 
CH 
 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

Anyone that pays any attention whatsoever to the Windows technology world will no doubt recognize the name Paul Thurrott. He is the owner/operator of the famous: 
 
http://winsupersite.com 
 
Paul has some SERIOUS connections in the Microsoft company, and has been an evangelist and supporter of all things Microsoft for many years now. Recently, however, his attitude toward Microsoft has slowly been changing.  
 
In his latest review of Window's next operating system, Vista, he doesn't just give it a lukewarm review, he downright pans, criticizes, and exposes every flaw, broken promise, and broken deadline that Windows Vista has become. 
 
If this came from some half-crazed Mac fanatic, one could claim it was biased, but Paul Thurrott IS everything Microsoft. If HE doesn't like Vista, Microsoft is in for a world of hurt. Check out his review: 
 
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_5308_05.asp 
 
Its good to see that some journalists choose to keep their integrity intact. 
 
CH 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

After using it for the past 3 weeks, I finished up my Mac Mini media center 
article. If you are interested in my impressions of a Mac Mini Core Duo with 
Front Row, and an Elgato EyeTV EZ PVR connected to a television, you can read 
about it here: 
 
http://homepage.mac.com/chamady/MacMiniReview/ 
 
I've included pictures, some screenshots, and an example of some video 
recorded from digital cable. 
 
CH 
 
UPDATE: My article was recently submitted (by some guy from Texas) to what most geeks will agree is one of the largest computer/technology websites in the world, http://www.digg.com  
 
In less than 10 hours the story was promoted to the front page of digg, and had well over 700 "diggs" by the time it was bumped from the front page. At last count, the article racked up 1100 diggs! Amazing! 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

I'm lying in bed at 4:27 AM trying desperately to get a handle on all of the potential possibilities and ramifications of Apple's announcement yesterday that Macintosh computers can now run Windows XP or XP Pro. I'm amazed, excited, a little nervous, but more so than anything else, motivated to get my hands on an Intel Mac and try out this new software: 
 
http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/ 
 
In the short term, this is a BIG win-win situation for both Apple and Microsoft. The long term ramifications mean HUGE marketshare gains for Apple and Mac OS X, and potential marketshare losses for Microsoft Windows. 
 
Yesterday was the start of a new era in personal computing. I'm sure of it. 
 
CH 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

I had heard rumors that Apple was getting ready to sell movies on the iTunes Music Store. Tonight I was excited to find that those rumors were correct. For $9.99, I purchased and downloaded the first full length movie available. It is "High School Musical" by the Walt Disney company (of which Steve Jobs is now the single largest individual stockholder, but I digress).  
 
My children absolutely LOVE this movie. Whenever it is on, the entire family has to gather around the tv and watch it. Well now, thanks to Apple, we were able to download the movie and we will have the opportunity to watch it whenever we want. This blog will document the entire experience. 
 
I started the purchase/download at 6:48 PM and it completed at around 7:10 PM. The file size was 487 mb. I have 5 Mbps cable at home and I found the download time to be very reasonable considering that we were getting a full length movie that was 1 hour and 40 minutes in length. 
 
Once the download completed, I used the Mac Mini remote control to put the computer into Front Row (Apple Computer's media center software). We began to play the movie.  
 
I can summarize the experience very easily...my children were glued once again to the television watching their favorite movie. : ) Read on for the geek review. 
 
The vast majority of the movie was very easy to watch so long as the action wasn't fast paced on the screen. There was minimal artifacting going on, and the picture quality was very good for a web-delivered video being played at full screen on a television. Like I mentioned previously, the only times that noticable artifacting occurred, was during action scenes with a lot of fast movement. During these scenes artifacts and anomalies were somewhat noticable, but never to the point that I wasn't caught up in the movie. 
 
Overall, I think this is going to be another home run for Apple, and I can't wait to see what the future will bring. 
CH 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

Having just gotten an Intel Core Duo Mac Mini, I've run across a few applications that are indispensable: 
 
Intel compatible version of Firefox: 
 
http://wiki.mozilla.org/Mac:Intel 
 
TrimTheFat- This application will remove the PPC binary code from your universal applications. I pulled over 20 megabytes of code out of Apple's Mail program. 
 
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/28882 
 
I will continue to update this blog entry as more apps come to my attention. 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

As a long time Skype user, I couldn't help but feel rather uncomfortable when I found out that eBay was buying the company. My apprehensions to this deal would not seem to be unfounded.  
 
Recently, it was announced that Skype would be partnering with Intel to make "multiparty audio chats more effective." The problem with this, however, is that Skype in doing so could potentially be doing damage to Intel's rival, Advanced Micro Devices.  
 
Skype has announced that users of Intel processors will be able to do 10 party audio chats, while users of AMD processors will be limited to only 5 participants. 
 
AMD has now subpoenaed Skype claiming that this latest Skype/Intel lock-in is yet another example of Intel's monopolistic and anti-competitive business practices. You can read about it here: 
 
Beta News 
 
What's your take on this situation? Feel free to comment below. 
CH 
 
UPDATE: 
Someone has confirmed that this was simply a hack to stop non-Intel systems from running correctly. This same person has created a patch that allows you to get full 10 person conferencing with AMD processor based systems.  
 
More Here 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

It's 9:54 PM and I'm sitting in the Macintosh section of the eTech Ohio workshop area and it is literally packed with Cisco Academy students. These students are here to provide technical support for all of the Windows and Macintosh computers in the Technology Conference. They are packed around all of the Macintosh computers freaking out, laughing, cheering, working with Photobooth, and doing 4 party Bonjour video conferences. I showed them a few things and they just went nuts about the computers. 
 
The students tell me that "Macs are cool...Macs are awesome...best thing in the world." If this is any indication of Apple's future market, it's definitely time to get on board the Mac train. 
 
CH 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

I recently read an online article entitled, "Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS)? Look at the Numbers!" written by David A. Wheeler. Looking at the title of this article, one can’t help but think to his or herself: “What is Open Source Software and why should I care?” See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software 
 
As much as some of us don’t like to rely on any technologies that either run on Microsoft Windows, or were created by Microsoft, we can’t just take a single person’s position as gospel without checking her/his facts. This article held up to intense scrutiny in terms of the author’s documentation, facts, figures, and overall level of research quality. 
 
The crux of this article deals with the myriad of reasons that computer users should forego the purchase and installation of proprietary software in favor of Open Source Software (OSS) and/or Free Software (FS). Since this article is over 100 pages in length, and the original intent of my summary was going to focus on security, this blog entry will focus only on pages 31-49. (You can download the PDF with pages numbers from: http://homepage.mac.com/chamady/woss.pdf or the HTLM version from Wheeler's website: http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html ).  
 
The author David Wheeler begins the security section by mentioning the fact that when underwriting managers J.S. Wurzler sell “hacker insurance,” they charge 5-15% more if the computer(s) they will be insuring are running Microsoft Windows. The senior vice president of the company justified the pricing policy by saying that there is a greater possibility for loss if (Windows) NT is used. As a side note, Windows 2000 server, Windows XP and Windows 2003 server are all built using Windows NT technology. 
 
Wheeler then discusses the Bugtraq database and explains what it is, and what some of the numbers found in it mean. He goes on to point out the various times that pro-Microsoft journalists and other people have tried to misinterpret those numbers in favor of Microsoft. He clarifies the fact that all Linux versions are based on one common source code base, thus it stands to reason that all of the different vendors of Linux would logically have the same security vulnerabilities. If you discount the attempts by these journalist (who in some cases were actually funded by Microsoft) to see to it that various vendor’s versions of Linux and BSD were counted as individual security issues, and just count issues related in general to Linux and the BSD UNIX Oses (including Mac OS X), it is clearly seen that Microsoft has many more security problems than any of the OSS solutions. 
 
When comparing Microsoft IIs and Apache web servers, Wheeler makes some great points stating, “The Gartner Group is recommending that businesses switch from Microsoft IIS to Apache or iPlanet due to IIS’s poor security track record, noting that enterprises had spent $1.2 billion simply fixing Code Red (IIS-related) vulnerabilities by July 2001” (Wheeler, 2004, p. 37). He goes on to point out that the vast majority of what important and serious security vulnerabilities in web servers are tied to Microsoft IIs-based servers and not OSS based solutions. He also points out how unusual it was to have Gartner make this recommendation seeing how Microsoft has hired Gartner in the past to do studies for them. 
 
Viruses and spyware are much more prevalent on Windows based OSes than on any *nix OS. In the case of the former, there are very few viruses for Linux and the BSD UNIXes. In the case of the latter, the author states, “National Cyber Security Alliance’s study of May 2003 reported that 91% of Broadband users have spyware on their home computers running proprietary operating systems; in contrast, there’s no evidence of that this is an issue for OSS/FS systems (Wheeler, 2004, p. 40). 
 
I have to take issue with one thing in this section that the author pointed out. He claims that there are 40 or so viruses for the Macintosh personal computer. While there have been viruses available for Mac OS 9 which was based on the original Mac OS developed in the 1980s, there has yet to be any virus found in the wild for Mac OS X (which has been installed on every Macintosh sold since 2000). 
 
The most damning and convincing evidence that computers users should switch to OSS for enhanced security occurs on page 41. Wheeler states, “In late June 2004, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) recommended using browsers other than Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer (IE) for security reasons. Microsoft had failed to patch a critical vulnerability for 9 months, and IE was being actively exploited in horrendous ways. Customers then rushed to download Mozilla and Mozilla Firebird (now known as Mozilla Firefox), popular OSS/FS alternatives, to replace IE. This was a good idea, since 4 more serious IE vulnerabilities were soon admitted, and the technologically savvy began to switch in droves to OSS/FS browsers.” On page 42, Wheeler goes on to point out that, "The Inquirer reported that the “US Government warns against Internet Explorer”, noting that the US Government’s tone essentially pleaded for “users to stop using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer”." 
 
While Wheeler makes some solid points and backs them up with overwhelming evidence. Some questions remain: 
 
1. Do you agree with Wheeler's findings after reading the security section of his article? 
 
2. If what Wheeler says is true, why haven’t we seen a mass exodus from Microsoft Windows to either Linux, or Mac OS X like we have from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox? 
 
3. Does it concern you that the Department of Homeland Security (which recommended against using Internet Explorer) has decided to standardize their IT department on Microsoft products? 
 
Just some stuff to ponder. 
CH 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

I've been trying to figure out how to deal with all of the broken Zip drives and Zip disks that we have been plagued with this year. Flash drives seem to be the answer. Solid state, no moving parts, extreme durability, and a reasonable price all add up to a very cost effective and functional solution.  
 
Last week, on the State of Ohio technology coordinator listserv, someone brought up the topic of flash drives. Another tech coordinator mentioned: 
 
"I found out by experimentation that a flash drive that was started on a typical computer was "given" the mapped drive letter "e". If that same flash drive then was put in a workstation that already had the e drive mapped, it would be detected but would not be given a drive letter." 
 
This has yet to happen on any Macintosh computer that I have ever used. I can have dozens of server volumes auto-mount at login and a flash drive detects just fine when connected to the USB connector. What is even more amazing is the hoops that people seem to jump through just to get functionality in their computers that should have been there when the OS was sold by Microsoft: 
 
"A "typical" computer has a hard drive(c) and a cd-rom drive(d). When you install a flash drive, it looks for the next drive letter, which would be e. However, if you already have a network drive mapped, it will not show up because the network drive was already there before you plugged in the flash drive. What you can do is disconnect the mapped drive, plug in the flash drive, go to disk administrator and change the drive letter to U (for USB) and reconnect the network drive." 
 
While I salute the person who took the time to write down this fix and send it to the listserv, Microsoft needs to fix "oopsies" like this BEFORE they try to sell us an OS that they call, "Windows XP Professional." 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

Part 1 
I was sitting at my desk when in walked a fellow educator that I had worked with at my previous school. She began to tell me a story that I had heard numerous times from her in the past. Her Windows-based PC refused to do something that she needed it to do. 
 
Now this wouldn't be a big deal, but each time this happens, she always asks me what she should do.  
 
And each time we talk, my suggestions are always the same: 
 
1. Update your virus protection and scan. 
2. Update your anti-spyware protection and scan. 
3. Update your Windows operating system. 
4. Update all of your applications and device drivers with the latest versions from the manufacturer's website. 
5. Pray bowing at the waist westward toward Seattle. 
 
Ok...maybe I just made up that last one. : ) 
 
Actually, #5 is ALWAYS: 
 
"If you are so sick and tired of all of these problems, why don't you go buy a Macintosh?" 
 
Her answer is always the same. "I have too many applications that won't run on a Mac to buy one." 
 
I think Apple needs to create a virtual Windows environment that takes full advantage of their new Intel processors so that we can finally cross this excuse for NOT buying a Mac off the list. 
 
Part 2 
A colleague walked in a short time later with a newspaper in her hand. It turns out that it was an article detailing how The Toledo Blade was crippled by a virus that almost kept it from being published one day. The author goes on to say,  
 
"Staffers from different departments worked together side by side. People kept their tempers and worked far into the night. Most of The Blade's computers wouldn't talk to each other, but the newspaper's Macintoshes were immune to the virus. 
 
In the end the Macs and the flash drives saved the day. The paper got off the presses three hours late, but it was printed- and delivered."  
 
I wish I had a nickel for every time someone.... 
: ) 
 
CH 
 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

Recently, Microsoft has announced to the world that it will no longer be developing Windows Media Player for the Macintosh: 
 
http://news.com.com/Music+stops+for+Mac+Windows+Media+Player/2100-1047_3-6026715.html 
 
Most people would see this as a horrific thing for the Macintosh platform. I see it as a confirmation of Microsoft's imminent demise in the area of web based media. Let me explain. 
 
Microsoft has a long history of abusing its monopolistic position in the computer marketplace in an attempt to bolster their marketshare and lock out competition: 
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft 
 
This seems to be just another attempt of theirs to do that. Here's the catch. 
 
This recent move is actually a HUGE win for Apple. There have been many studies conducted about the demographic of people that use Macintosh computers, and how much time they spend online, and more importantly, how much money they have available for companies to entice them out of: 
 
http://www.internetnews.com/stats/article.php/1403581 
 
Companies that suddenly find that the internet streaming media format that they use suddenly doesn't work with this valuable demographic will make immediate and important decisions. They will either switch to another media format, or risk losing customers. I believe that more and more companies will switch to Apple's Quicktime media format. Here is my reasoning: 
 
First, Apple makes Darwin Quicktime Streaming server available here: 
 
http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/streaming/ 
 
Darwin Streaming Server is absolutely free. This means that a company would not have to buy an expensive solution from Microsoft to stream their media. They would save thousands of dollars in the long run by switching over to this new format. 
 
Secondly, now that 42 million iPods are circulating in the world, with millions more to follow, there is a very important point that cannot be understated: 
 
EVERY PERSON WITH AN IPOD HAS QUICKTIME ON THEIR COMPUTER! 
 
Once Quicktime distribution reaches a critical mass of users that content providers can no longer ignore, they will have to decide in favor of Quicktime. The demographic data supports this. People who are willing to spend money on what is considered by many to be the best media player on the market will spend money on other things. Continuing to support Windows Media when the demographic data points to a different demographic of potential consumers wouldn't make sense. These content providers will switch to QuickTime. 
 
Microsoft is clearly acting in a defensive manner. To see them do so is a sign that things are not going well for them in the area of multimedia content, and more specifically, content delivery. It is just a matter of time before their marketshare begins to wane. 
 
UPDATE: 
While Microsoft has cancelled further development of Windows Media Player for Macintosh, they recently purchased a company that sells a QuickTime plugin that enables Windows Media Player files to be opened in QuickTime. You can get it here: 
 
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/flip4mac.mspx 
 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

It was worth the wait. After many months and many downtrodden looks toward Windows PCs running Google Earth, Mac users can now rejoice! Google today released Google Earth for Mac OS X 10.4.  
 
For those of you who have not seen Google Earth, it is a satellite image application. Google Earth lets you see images of the earth as taken from outer space. Some of them are fairly high res. I am linking to a picture of our school in this post for you to see exactly what Google Earth can do. 
 
You can get Google Earth here: 
 
http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html 
 
Image of Central Catholic is here: 
 
http://xserve.centralcatholic.org/images/cc_high.jpg 
 
Enjoy! 
CH 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

If ever I had doubts about the ability of the Mac platform to finally begin to erode away Microsoft's market share in the PC industry, all of them have been totally erased after today. There are a couple of reasons for this.  
 
I was sitting in my office when a new teacher to our school walked in. I asked her how she liked her iBook. I was surprised when she asked me, "Which one?" It turns out not only does she have the iBook that the school loaned to her for educational use, but she was also recently given an iBook by her parents. Not only that, but her parents gave Macs to all of their children because of the, "many problems with their PCs in the past...!"  
 
This was no ordinary moment. The light bulb suddenly went on. People in the mainstream world were finally awakening to the power and stability of Mac OS X. Not only that, but they are adopting it into their lives at an ever more accelerating pace.  
 
No doubt this is a result of the so called "Halo effect" of the iPod. The aforementioned teacher went on to confirm that she had purchased an iPod prior to her new iBook. I'm sure that there has to be a correlation between the positive experience that she had had with her iPod, and the resulting effect of the purchase of two iBooks for her home. 
 
How, you might ask, does this relate to the MacWorld Expo? Easy. During the Expo keynote, Steve Jobs announced that to date Apple has sold 42 million iPods. During this year alone, they sold 32 million! He also said that during the last quarter they were selling 100 iPods a minute! Now I ask you this:  
 
If one family that had a good experience with their iPod decided to replace all of their children's Windows-based PCs with Macintosh computers, how many Macs is Apple going to sell to the families who purchased the other 41,999,999 iPods? 
 
I think you and I both know the answer to that question. : ) 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

This Christmas my wife and my parents bought me a video iPod that while it certainly is the coolest thing in the known universe, it unfortunately doesn't do Firewire, only USB 2.0 connections. My Quicksilver PowerMac G4 (purchased in 2001) doesn't have USB 2.0 on it, only USB 1.1 ports. Having put a USB 1.1 PCI card in the G4 earlier, I decided to take it out of the Quicksilver and put it into my children's B/W G3 (swapping it for a USB 2.0 card that I had installed into the G3 last year). After I put the USB 2.0 card into the Quicksilver, I connected the iPod and tried to transfer nearly 19 gigs of music and videos to it. It took over 3 hours...closer to 4 if I recall correctly. I decided something wasn't right so I went into Apple System Profiler and found the ports listed as: 
USB Bus 
 
The USB 2.0 ports on my Powerbook 1.67 GHz are listed as: 
USB High Speed Bus 
 
Long story short, it turns out there are two different specs for USB 2.0. USB 2.0 and USB 2.0 High Speed. I ordered an IOGEAR USB 2.0 high speed card from http://www.macsales.com and put it in the Quicksilver. I connected the iPod, reset it erasing all the data from it. Opened iTunes to synch it and...28 minutes later the entire 18.8 gigs of music and videos were on the iPod! 
 
I love progress. : ) 
 
Moral of the story- If you buy a USB 2.0 card, make sure it is labeled, "High Speed." 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

Thanks to the efforts of both the Toast.net staff and the NWOCA staff, our blog server is now up and running! We have some really exciting projects that will involve both blogging and podcasts. That's really all I can say about this at the moment. 
A big thank you again to Toast.net and NWOCA! 
 
A second thank you to Rob Garber for naming my blog. I think he probably got tired of me always saying "Man...isn't that the bomb??!!" one too many times, and tried to find a polite way to tell me. : ) 
 
Rob: 
"You know...you should do a technology column and call it, "The Bomb!" 
 
Ok...done. 
CH 
 
P.S. The writings and contents of this blog are my own, and are not necessarily supported or endorsed by my employer- Toledo Central Catholic High School. My blog entries will always be based upon conclusions that I have come to based upon many years of reading, following, and researching information concerning computers and technology. Any inaccuracies in this blog can, and should be brought to the attention of the author. I can be contacted by email at: 
chamady A T centralcatholic.org 

Posted by: Chris Hamady

Having the ability to instantly publish information on the web and have instant feedback from readers is an incredible opportunity for knowledge/information interaction. I'm pondering ideas about how our faculty and staff can use this for their curriculum and/or publicity.  
 
Apple sure has made this easy from an administrator's perspective.  
I clicked one box in Mac OS X Server Admin and this blogging tool turned on. Way too cool. 

Posted by: Chris Hamady