News for Tuesday, 29 July 2003

Apple offers a new public beta (version 2.0) of its script editor (Thx Brice)
Here are the news:
- Enhanced interface
- Find/replace function
- Multiple cancellings
- No more limit at 32Ko.....
To know more and download:
http://www.apple.com/applescript/script_editor/

Other informations on yesterday controversial news.
According to a person who required to stay anonymous:

One of our clients, a big Apple developper, lets me know such things have existed ever since OS X bagan, so that Apple would know how their beta versions spread, to detect where was the weakest link between persons to whom it was distributed. It would seem (that person claims to be convinced of that) a similar system is still used in the Panther betas we all have by now...

Hanny from Italy sent us the following message:

Hello, I discovered that this script /Contents/Resources/log is no more on WWDC Panther release, even if it is sourced by /Contents/Resources/preinstall sh script. And more, the remote ip 17.203.18.80 is active with port 3001 filtered, even if the host sw-eng.apple.com does not exist any more.

And finally here's Eddy's research:

About Apple Phone Home, using WHOIS in net utilitie gives me the following results. There seems to be a real possibility to transfer an info... OrgName: Apple Computer, Inc. OrgID: APPLEC-3 Address: 20740 Valley Green Drive, MS32E City: Cupertino StateProv: CA PostalCode: 95014 Country: US NetRange: 17.0.0.0 - 17.255.255.255 CIDR: 17.0.0.0/8 NetName: APPLE-WWNET NetHandle: NET-17-0-0-0-1 Parent: NetType: Direct Assignment NameServer: NSERVER.APPLE.COM NameServer: NSERVER2.APPLE.COM NameServer: NSERVER.EURO.APPLE.COM NameServer: NSERVER.ASIA.APPLE.COM ....

As rob-ART from the excellent site Barefeats had asked us, we added an "extreme configuration" ("Godzilla" setting) to BenchUT2003. The tests on the game proceed in 1600*1200 resolution, all options to the max !
So much for Radeons 9700, 9800 and other Geforce FX.
To download it: BenchUT2003.sit

Dylan has made some disturbing discoveries.

I just installed Mac OS X on my iPod, but as I didn't wish to reboot from the CD for such a small task, I've merely been to the "System" folder that's on the CD, then Installation/Packages, and opened OSInstall.mpkg Install process went smoothly (in fact it's not even finished while I'm typing those lines), but at tyhe beginning, during "pre-treatment script" excecution, Little Snitch warned me that "Perl"was attempting to connect to apple.com. A bit puzzled, I let him go on but then checked, in OSInstall.mpkg/Contents/Resources, the contents of the "preinstall" file that's normally proceeded with before the install self : it contained the line "LOG=$1/Contents/Resources/log". This drove me to check also Contents/Resources/log, whose contents was quite more surprising! Code: #!/usr/bin/perl # # Installation Log Client # Mike Trent # 11/3/2000 # # we need to send: #   the update name            "update" #   the ip number            "address" #   the ether MAC address      "ether" #   the install start time      "start" #   the install stop time      "stop" use FileHandle; use Socket; $gHost = "sw-eng.apple.com"; $gHost = "17.203.18.80"; # sw-eng $gPort = 3001; &main(); exit 0; Followed by a code (Perl, so readable) to interprete the results. (You'll find it on your install CD in folder /System/Installation/Packages/OSinstall.mpkg/Contents/Resources/log) Could anyone tell me why Apple sends, prior to install and without warning us, both IP and MAC adresses, as well as OSX install hour?!!

Our advice before we know more on that stuff is to deconnect from the Net before proceeding to any installation.
[Upd] After some raw discussions on our forums, that line of code turns out to be no more than old thing perhaps belonging to a beta version. IPs seem not to function on the Web. Nothing gets out of your machine.
We still consider though that unplugging a net wire (especially if that net is always connected to the Web) is a bit of tranquillity.
After the OS is installed, applications exist that enable control of what goes out of the machine.

We received these xBench benches under X.2and X.3, which allow us to compare the two versions on a "small configuration". Its a Blue and White G3 (400 MHz) still using the original ATI 128.

There again, the overall speed (especially for the user interface) has been quite boosted, though this machine has neither Quartz Extreme nor Altivec.

Microsoft may have tried last Panther beta build (Thx g5cubemac...). Microsoft Watch site tells us of an Office X update that would bring along support for Exchange on top of some bug fixes.
Only mountains never cross, they say.

A well informed US source tels us a 1.1 version of Safari is very advanced. It would bring along better speed and stability as well as a better support of Web standards.
No new functionality would be implemented at that stage.
What we don't know yet is when it would be available and if it would preceed Panther.

if you're the owner of one of the 1st AGP G4s (100 MHz bus), its power supply often has a 237W power, which is quite enough to add HDs, change CPU for an acceleration card, or use a recent video caed. But the electric input may also get saturated, the tension brought to components therefore decreasing provoking malfunctions, bugs... when the power supply doesn't simply pass away out of exhaustion.
Taking a look at the specs of the latest ATI Mac Edition Radeon 9800, it is highly requested it is supplied with 300W. So if your already use a greedy accelerator card such as Gigadesigns 1.4 GHz there will be a problem. Apple doesn't produce spare parts on demand, and those would be sold anyway at an unaffordable cost if you were to do an exchange.
A solution exists though. It rquires trickling a PC power supply (ATX format) to replace Apple's. this is explained on XLR8 Your mac. This isn't very complicated. Take care to buy an ATX format extra cable, as on a PC the motherboard is usually nearer. To do things well, by the way, why not buy a silent 400 W power supply, it's not much more expensive.

Thx to Jay for the info !

A precision on the article about Powerbook burners: Apple didn't make any firmware upgrade to reduce burn rates from 2x à 1x, this is all Panasonic's fault as they couldn't initiate mass production (another one !!!) of 2x slot-in burners, so that Apple had to modify their offer only two weeks after launching the line (as you'd noticed then). That's why Steve didn't insist on the 17" Superdrive during MacWorld (and didn't say it was as fast as those of a laptop) for he knew how short Panasonic stocks were... Well, I just didn't want users to think that Apple took some kind of pleasure in bridling their machines and stuffs!

If you still used a non accelerated Formac video card with OS X, you'll have to split for Panther, which actually refuses to use it. The following log line shows that its ROM is too old for it :(

Jul 23 20:44:02 localhost kernel: NVDANV20HAL loaded and registered. Jul 23 20:44:02 localhost kernel: ROM ndrv for formacGA12 is too old (0xb68b4a2d) Jul 23 20:44:02 localhost kernel: AppleKeyLargo::start took 793 ms

We told you last year of this site Hitup.org dedicated to OS X machines with the longest time between two boots.
Laurent B is proud to announce he's now over 369 days. He finally decided to update his system (he's still under OS X.1) and to reboot. Perhaps Laurent Pertois d'Agnosis will eventually do better. See you in 81 days to find out.

Someone who was so eager to receive his G5 decided to modify his MDD G4.

There's something of it for sure. Anyway the G4 look was cooler.