Meeting Notes - Jan 17, 2001

Introduction

Section Links

1. What's New
   
2. Apple Student Program
   
3. Audio Editing & Capture
   
4. MacWorld 2001
   
5. OS 9.1
   
6. Mac OS X Issues & Discussion

What's New by James Reynolds

• PowerMac G4s come with CD burners and faster processors (466, 533, 667 and 733 Mhz). Duel processors are available only by special order and only come with the 533 MHz models.
• All 733 MHz models come with a new "Superdrive" which can burn CDs and DVDs.
• The new Titanium PowerBook G4
  

• MacOS 9.1(click here to see Mac Managers Overview)
• iTunes
• iDVD
• DVD Studio Pro
• DiscBurner (Finder based CD burning utility)
• Appleshare IP 6.3.3
• MacOS X
  

• Questions and concerns were raised about why the MacWorld hands-on demonstration PowerBook G4s were becoming so hot. Reaction was split between the way they were displayed (the PowerBooks were placed on under-lit display platforms) and the possibility that because titanium is a good heat conductor, the new case may be serving as a heat sink for the processor.
• No crossover cables are needed for the new PowerBook G4s. The ethernet port automatically senses if the other end of the cable is connected to a computer or a hub. This Auto-ID feature only works on and amongst the newest machines.
  

• Most anti-virus utilities cannot check for viruses in compressed files that are themselves part of a compressed file. For example, an infected Installer that was installed another Installer will not be checked for or cleansed of a virus.
• In some cases, iBook keyboard units warp causing a key or batch of keys to be depressed by the lid when it is closed. As a result, these iBooks mistakenly wake-from-sleep. The solution is to remove the keyboard unit and flex it to remove any warpage.
• System crashes caused by the interaction of Epson printer software and the Apple Remote Access control panel can be prevented using an Epson driver update
• TechTool Pro 2 users who've upgraded to version 3 may be able to reclaim as much as 100Mb of drive space. In some cases,TechTool Pro 3 installs a new TrashCache folder without removing the older TechTool Pro 2 files and folders as a result, invisible files left in the version 2 TrashCache will become inaccessible and will not be automatically deleted. The solution is use any utility that can display and delete invisible files such as File Buddy or Sherlock.
  

Apple Developer Connection Student Program FYI from Richard Glaser

Dear University Executive Forum,

I want to take this opportunity to follow up on the offer Clent Richardson, VP of Apple Worldwide Developer Relations, made to you during the UEF meeting you attended here at Apple in November.

We welcome you to nominate up to three students for a complimentary membership in the Apple Developer Connection Student program ($99/year). This program, which today supports up to 2000 students worldwide, provides benefits designed to encourage new software and hardware developers, including:

• Mac OS X Public Beta and Developer Tools on CD
• Mac OS updates
• Deep discounts on QuickTime and WebObjects software
• Generous hardware discount for a development machine
• Scholarships to Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC)
• Access to a student-only listserv
• And much more...
  

Students will continue to be sent upcoming releases of Mac OS X. New program benefits planned for 2001 include training on Apple technologies and access to employment and internship opportunities both at Apple and Macintosh developer organizations. The program is aimed at undergraduate students, although we do have a small percentage of high school and graduate students as well.

The students you nominate will also automatically receive one of our scholarships to attend Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2001, May 21-25 in San Jose, California. This generous grant covers their admission (a $1600 value) and gives them the opportunity to meet hundreds of other student developers and network with more than 3000 developer attendees from around the world. Students have access to all WWDC sessions and events and additional student-only activities.

We would appreciate having the names and email addresses of the nominated students on or before February 15 so we can get them set up for the membership and scholarship as soon as possible.

Audio Editing/Capture Overview by Randy Madsen

• Sampling Rate The number of times a second that signal can be measured with a known values. The higher the sampling rate, the better the quality of the recording.
• Bit Resolution The number of known values from which a sample value can be assigned. It is counted in binary.
• Audio Frequency Spectrum Generally refers to the range between 20hz to 22khz.
• Compression Types and Algorithms Most compression formats are lossy formats. Compression is commonly carried out using psycho-acoustic principles to determine what data to throw away.
  

• A digital audio workstation that allows a user to both mix and edit audio files.
• Native format is Sound Designer 2. This allows audio files worked on in ProTools to be further manipulated in a stereo sound editor.
• Editing is completely non destructive as the original audio files are unaffected while editing takes place.
• Sound files can be broken down into very small regions to aid editing or referencing.
• Finished audio files can be used in Final Cut Pro or iMovie productions.
  

MacWorld 2001 by Mike Kimball

APPLESHARE ZONE: MLMC
FILE SERVER: ACLIS Mac OS X Server
USER: <email me if you do not know it>
PASSWORD: <email me if you do not know it>
VOLUME: Mac Mgrs
FOLDER: Mac Mgrs:

HOST NAME: mac-mgrs.aclislabs.utah.edu (155.99.57.50)
USER: <email me if you do not know it>
PASSWORD: <email me if you do not know it>
VOLUME: Mac Mgrs
FOLDER: Mac Mgrs:

Mac OS 9.1 by Richard Glaser

Mac OS X Issues & Discussion info from various sources

• Installation With regards to installing OS X on a machine already running OS 9.x or older, the only official word from Apple came from Steve Jobs during the keynote. His description is that it will be"simple to install."
• Security The out-of-the-box default configuration of MacOS X is pretty secure. Security holes open up as individuals personalize the OS with whatever services they want and how open a system you want. Any box running OS X is as open as the user wants it to be. Most security fixes that were discussed, however, would shut out lazy hackers but not dedicated ones. There was disagreement amongst the session presenters on the use of firewalls. One session would promote them while another would be very cool on the idea. There was also the issue of security versus performance degradation. When you scan each data packet as it is received, the system is sure to slow down. A key point that was made was that a good way to shut out a lot of people was just not to allow random pinging.
• Stability -The OS X in-depth sessions stressed that Mac OX X is "crashproof". In actuality, the new features make the OS more "crash resistant". While preemptive multitasking helps, the stability of any application is still subject to how well the software engineers have developed their product.
• Appleshare There are few existing flaws affecting security and stability. OS X can be more secure than the previous version of Mac OS if it set up is correct. NetInfo poses a big problem in this regard because it can lead to large security holes and/or system crashes. One comment that was made was that because the OSis based on UNIX, there are going to be inherent problems.
• Backup Solutions Retrospect is reported to be coming out for OS X. There will not be a Retrospect version available for the OS X Server, however.
• PDF The OS X that will be shipping in march is largely PDF based. This means that the PICT format is essentially dead. Adobe can still access PICT files but other applications that import into PDF may have problems displaying images. For example, AppleWorks files with imbedded PDF files will not display all graphical elements. This may be fixed in the future if there are enough complaints
• Website Support Apple's website has information on its OS X Server page that gives hints and tips on installation and security.
  

At 3:05 PM -0500 11/27/00, Dale Talcott wrote:
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 15:05:55 -0500
Reply-To: aeh@quest.cc.purdue.edu
Originator: revrdist@quest.cc.purdue.edu
Sender: revrdist@quest.cc.purdue.edu
From: Dale Talcott <aeh@quest.cc.purdue.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <revrdist@quest.cc.purdue.edu>
Subject: RevRdist and MacOS X--Ugh!
X-MID: <v04210100b64851a5f079@[128.210.135.19]>

I've been testing the current (Classic) RevRdist with MacOS X Public Beta. So far, X is pretty shaky as a RevRdist client. Here's a list of what I've found:

• MacOS X AppleShare client corrupts the apparent structure of mounted volumes. That is, I have a volume shared from a MacOS 9 server. When it is mounted under X, X gets confused and discovers a folder that contains a copy of itself, containing a copy of itself, ad infinitum. Needless to say, if RevRdist tries to scan that folder, it keeps going deeper and deeper... The volume itself is fine. I have watched packets with a network sniffer, and the server is reporting correctly to X.
• The Desktop program does not preserve timestamps when copying items. In particular, the modification time is set to the time of the copy, rather than the mod time of the original file. This doesn't directly affect RevRdist, but does make administration harder.
• The Daylight-saving-time problem is still there, only worse. If the client and server have different clocks, no matter how small the difference, MacOS X AppleShare client adjusts the reported timestamps for items accessed from the server. MacOS 9 and previous mangled timestamps only when the clocks differed by more than 15? minutes. This makes use of the "RevRdist timestamp" file mandatory, and will require minor changes to RevRdist to accept these small time differences. These changes conflict with support for some older Novell servers. Note that the previous problem makes it a little tricky to install the RevRdist timestamp file on clients initially.
• A MacOS X client with the same clock, same timezone, and same Daylight-saving setting, reports server timestamps an hour different from a MacOS 9 client.
• I cannot get my development environment's debugger to work (CodeWarrior 6). The problems match those mentioned at the Metrowerks site, but their fixes don't help me. I'm pretty sure I can get this worked out eventually, but it's frustrating.However, this all may be irrelevant. What would be the purpose for RevRdist under MacOS X? Under the current MacOS, sites use RevRdist to 1) distribute new or changed files to clients, 2) undo user changes to preferences, etc, and 3) remove user documents and "donated" applications. Under MacOS X, item 3 is impossible because users don't have write access to system areas. They can play only in their own folders. Item 2 is also of less concern. New applications will keep changeable preferences in the users' preference folders, rather than in a common system area. Preferences for older applications can be made read-only to normal users. That leaves item 1. Unix rdist can handle some of this work, but not all. The problem with using RevRdist is that RR would have to run as root, probably from root's crontab file. But RevRdist is a GUI program and there are difficulties starting a GUI program from the command line when some other user is logged in. Further, because RR is running as root, nasty users could misuse its Save As command to clobber any file on the client. So, it seems to me that my efforts might be better spent either upgrading rdist to handle HFS+, or starting all over with a non-GUI application specifically designed to run okay from root's crontab. Comments are welcome. To make things worse, the Computing Center at Purdue has been Borg'ed and will no longer buy or upgrade Mac lab hardware or software. This will make it difficult for me to test any new RevRdist or replacement under realistic conditions.

Dale Talcott, Purdue University Computing Center
aeh@quest.cc.purdue.edu http://quest.cc.purdue.edu/~aeh/

• Use in Campus Labs Most managers in attendance indicated that they planned on using OS X but only when they were comfortable with it.
• Student reaction to the new GUI When students come in and see the new image will they take the time to muddle through it or will they state "I need to write a paper right now and I don't know what the heck this is on this Mac" and then go to a more familiar machine.
• Consequences of "User Shock" Could the "newness" of the Macs lead to a situation where Mac usership in the labs drops to a point that they are no longer purchased in great numbers (Is Mac updating itself out of existence?).
• Open Access Usership/Network Security
  

• There needs to be the creation of a taskforce to evaluate OS X following its March release to test it and to report on it.
• Set-up a few machines with OS X in the labs alongside the existing OS 9.x machines. Have signs on the OS X Macs indicating that OS X is running on these machines and asking users to"play" with it.
• Establish "short courses" on how to use OS X.
• Inform the faculty that the switchover is coming and have them inform their students of whatever measures we decided to implement.
• Set up meetings with Telcom to discuss issues of security across the backbone
• See how how the OS X servers can be configured to deal with the authentication issues of open access.
• In the short term, limiting functionality of the workstations so that the user can only use Internet, or word processing.
• Contact Apple about the possibility of retrofitting OS 9.x on newly purchased machines until these issues can be sorted out.
• If enough people are interested, get together and go to Cupertino for corporate training sessions.
• Someone familiar with the U of U network and how our labs are set up needs to meet with someone from Apple who is familiar with OS X and how to incorporate it into an educational environment and discuss the above issues.