Meeting Notes - Jan 21, 2004

Section Links

1. What's New
   
2. MacWorld 2004
   
3. Nagios Overview & Demo
   
4. iChat AV & iSight Overview
   
5. Other Issues

What's New by Mike Yocom

• iBook (16 VRAM)
• iBook (Dual USB)
• iBook (Late 2001)
• iBook (14.1 LCD)
• iBook (14.1 LCD 16 VRAM).
  

• Video "artifacts" progressing to eventual system failure
• "Black screen" or "dimming" of the backlight, when screen is opened past a certain angle
• "Black screen" or "dimming" of the backlight at random times, which can be temporarily solved by tapping on, or applying pressure to, the iBook case directly below the fn and control keys (to the left of the trackpad)
  

• Enable fast user switching in System Preferences
• Log into administrative account from which you run Retrospect scripts and don't log out
• Fast switch to your normal account.
  

• "Opening and Repairing an Apple Pro Mouse"
• "Modding the Apple Pro Mouse MOD apart"
• "An Optical Mouse on the inside..."
• "Apple Pro Mouse Repair - Unofficial, Warrantee Voiding"
• "Dave's Tech Tips"
  

MacWorld 2004 Overview by Hang Wong

• Garageband: New music authoring application
• iDVD 4: 20 New Themes, New Menus, 2 hr
• iMovie 4: Nondestructive editing
• iPhoto 4: 25,000 photos, time based organization
• iTunes 4 : Billboard 100 (iTunes store)
• Cost
• Retail $49 upgrade
• Education: $29 upgrade
  

• 15 GB (New) US$299
• 20 GB US$399
• 40 GB US$499

• 4 GB US$249
• Anodized aluminum case (five colors)
• New (Patent Pending) scroll wheel
• Same big iPod interface/software
• New ear-bud style headphones
• Face is the size of a credit card and only 1/2" thick.
  

• Single 2.0 GHz G5 US$2999 - 1GHz bus; 512MB RAM 8GB Max); 80GB drive module (up to 750 GB three drive bays); Slot-loading CD-ROM (Combo optional); 2 Gigabit ethernet; 2 FireWire 800; 1 FireWire 400; 2 USB 2.0, 1 D8-9 serial port; 2 full-length 64-bit 133 MHz PCI-X slots.
• Dual 2.0 GHz G5 US$2999 - 1GHz bus per processor; 512MB RAM (8GB Max); 80GB drive module; 2 Gigabit ethernet; 2 FireWire 800; 1 FireWire 400; 2 USB 2.0, 1 D8-9 serial port; 2 full-length 64-bit 133 MHz PCI-X slots.
• Dual 2.0 GHz G5 US$3999 - 1GHz bus per processor; 1 GB RAM (8GB Max); 80GB drive module (up to 750 GB three drive bays); Slot-loading CD-ROM (Combo optional); 2 Gigabit ethernet; 2 FireWire 800; 1 FireWire 400; 2 USB 2.0, 1 D8-9 serial port; 2 full-length 64-bit 133 MHz PCI-X slots.
• Virginia Tech has the option to swap out it's Terrascale Supercluster G5 desktops with XServes. They are going to add 200 XServes to the existing cluster.
• There was a rack of G5 Xserves on display for visitors to look at. One noticeable feature was how quite they are.
  

• 1TB US$5999 - 4 250 GB drives
• 1.75TB US$7499 - 7 250 GB drives
• 3.5TB US$10999 - 14 250 GB drives
  

• The focus appeared to be on the "Digital Hub" concept introduced a couple of years ago with strong emphasis on digital music, digital photography, and digital video.
• It appeared that outwardly, the show was more family and home consumer oriented unlike previous years when it was geared more towards "computer types".
• The crowds were smaller and there appeared to be more families and more kids in attendance.
  

• The vendors in attendance were not from the large corporations but from smaller companies.
• Their products were very specialized geared towards home use items. Digital camera/video editing suites,
• Extra software to add too or modify iLife apps.
• Home electronics items such as new TiVO-like devices that turn your Mac into a "video hard drive" used to store recorded video.
• Bigger vendors weren't not in attendance as many opted out to go to the more popular and widely attended CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. The tight economy and tighter corporate budgets forced vendor to pick and choose where they went this year. There were complaints about IGN's high showroom/registration fees and their timing, scheduling MacWorld so close to the CES.
• The increased number of smaller vendors building specific applications that fill certain niches is a good sign. It demonstrates that there is a community out there focusing on the Mac and what it is capable of doing.

• Unlike previous January MacWorlds, there appeared to be more nuts-and-bolts technical/development people rather than marketing/promotions/PR people in attendance.
• The presentations were visibly more technically oriented. They were well attended and many of the individuals were asking very specific technical questions
  

• Lots of iPod accessories, FM transmitters, internal cards, and cases of al types
• There was a third-party mouse that took the single button Apple Pro Mouse design and split it down the middle to form two buttons. It also had a scroll-wheel
• Keeping in theme with the home, there were several new video authoring hardware solutions, analog DV converters, and so on
• Iomega debuted personal area storage device solution. It is a 250 GB hard drive with firewire and ethernet ports so that so it can be put on the network to act as a NAZ
• Iomega also showed off a USB flash drive that is about the length of a half stick of gum (see presentation video), It has a swivel USB plug with a built in activation light. Sizes range from 64 MB up to 512 MB of storage.

• VPC 7
• Updates to various software such as MYOB, Photoshop
• Thursby: Is Dave effectively dead with the cross platform functionality of OS X?
  

Nagios Overview & Demonstration by Anthony Boldan

• Designed to run on Linux, works fine on all *nix variants
• Monitoring daemon runs intermittent checks on hosts, when a problem is found the daemon sends notifications
• All functionality is available via a web browser
  

• Monitor network services (smtp, pop3, http, nntp, ping, etc)
• Monitor host resources (processor load, disk and memory)
• Simple plugin design
• There are third-party products that give it greater flexibility and features. There's one plug-in that will allow Nagios to monitor temperatures in the server rooms
• Able to define network host hierarchy, allowing detection and distinction between host-down and host unreachable
• Recognizes dependencies and loads. If a router goes down it will alert you to the router but not to everything behind the router
• Contact notification via email, pager, and even FAXs
• External command interface that allows you to run whatever monitoring configurations that you want on the web monitoring pages
• Scheduled downtime
• Web interfaced problem acknowledgment
• Authentication
• Supports SSH
  

• Mac OS X 10.2.x (The makefiles are not yet available for "Panther")
• Nagios 1.1
• Nagios plugins
• libgd
• libjpeg
• libpng
• zlib (built-in)
  

• http://www.apple.com
• http://www.nagios.org
• http://nagiosplug.sourceforge.net
• http://boutell.com/gd/
• http://www.libpng.org
• ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/jpeg/jpegsrc.v6b.tar.gz
  

iChat AV & iSight Overview by Phil Ershler with John Bridge

• To communicate through iChat AV, you can use mac.com or AOL to produce a buddy list as well as check via the service to see if buddies are online. NOTE: The iChat AV buddy list will ID the source of authentication regardless of if it is .mac or AOL
• iChat AV can be used to do traditional text chats, audio chats (if the machines has a microphone), or video chats (if the machine has a camera)
• The camera developed specifically for Apple and iChat AV is the iSight and it needs a good light source on the subject for good transmission
• There is a "Connection Doctor" that provides specifics regarding the current chat's connection. The key readout shows data frame rates. On ethernet or DSL, the frame rate is a full capacity, On a modem there is a noticeable drop off but it is still quite good. Wireless will also have a different frame rate than a hardline connection.
• The iSight has a security iris that closes down completely when you rotate the front bezel guaranteeing that no one can see you should you accidentally activate it. There is also the easily visible green light at the top of the camera to show activity.
• Firewall issues - certain ports must be open for iChat AV to transmit video. This same port must also be open on the receiving end as well. There is an Apple Knowledge Base article (#93208) discussing the issue.
• The iSight can get quite warm during use. Phil has had it on for a hour or so without any degradation in performance.
• One feature that is not highlighted a great deal is the ability to transmit files during the chat to the person on the other end. Just drag and drop a file on the other person's image. He will be queried by his computer to see if he wants the file. The file is then transferred in the background.
  

• When you prepare for a video chat, a preview window opens at the beginning to show the subject what he'll look like to the person he is chatting with. Once the main chat "Feature" window opens displaying the person on the other end, the preview window can be moved anywhere you want in side of it. It can be sized up or down.
• The main "Feature" window can be resized as well. The ideal is to take the video "full-screen".
• The audio/video quality of the iSight on ethernet or DSL connection when chatting cross country distances is quite striking
  

• One research department at UCLA budgeted for a $7000 per seat PC based video conferencing system. They took one look at the iSight and the iChat and changed direction. They purchased each of their people a PowerBook and an iSight camera for less than half of the per seat cost of the other system. While this solution does not have all of the features of the PC based system, it satisfies their needs.
• Collaborative projects - Phil's department is conducting research on a project with a person in California. As part of his project budget, this person figured in travel costs for regular visits to Utah. He got an iSight and doe doesn't think he'll use any of the money allocated for travel.
  

• One big limitation with the iSight and iChat AV (which Apple is rumored to be working on correcting) is that it can't be used to conference with more than one iSight/iChat AV user. There are third-party solutions that are in the works.
• Phil just purchased a third-party flexible iSight camera stalk for $35. The stalk has built-in firewire connectivity so you don't need to use the FireWire cable that comes with the camera.
• For fun and games, there are several third-party solutions that turn your iSight into an interactive video game or into a stop-motion animation camera.
  

• $149 retail price
• $129 educational

Other Issues

• Subject: New Radmind Features
• Presenters: Patrick McNeal
• Moderator: Matt MacInnis, Apple Computer
• Viewing Instructions: Click here for instructions on how to view the webcast archive.
  

• Subject: Novell eDirectory Integration
• Presenters: Dan Sinema, Apple Computer
• Moderator: Matt MacInnis, Apple Computer
• Date: Tuesday, February 17, 2004
• Times:
  10:00 am - 11:30 am PST
  1:00 pm - 2:30 pm EST
  18:00 - 19:30 GMT
• Viewing Instructions: Click here for instructions on how to view the webcast.