iMac details: it's sounding more and more interesting ...

Joswiak: 'True to What an iMac Has Always Been About'

Q: How do you remove the back?

There are three screws, and they're captured so they don't come out at all, so you don't need to worry 'Oh my God, where did that screw go?' Loosen the screws, and the back will simply come off, downward first, and the back is off -- you now have full access to the machine. AirPort is easy to add. The antenna are embedded in the computer, so all you have to do is get your AirPort card, plug it in, push the antenna jack in, and you're off and running. You can put up to 2GB of RAM inside, with standard 400MHz DDR memory.

Q: What about the rest of the machine's insides?

The power supply isn't a brick left out on the floor, it's all integrated inside. It's really amazing, because this is the most compact design we've ever done for an iMac, yet it's the most accessible. It's very easy to service this, which is why you see tabs, because it's easy enough for a service person or even a customer to self-service on this product. There are even four indicator lights on the motherboard that an Apple Care person will tell you to look at the lights, and depending on what's lit up, can tell you the state of different sub-systems.

Q: Anything special about the ports?

You have standard analog audio out, but it's also one of the combo jacks like we have on the AirPort Express that allows you to do digital out as well, so you can do 5.1 surround sound, for example, from DVD Player.

---

The best article on the new iMac so far. I like the power brick being internal -- the main cord is a standard plug.

The strangest omissions are no GB ethernet (would have cost very little) and having to build-to-order for Bluetooth and pay $50 extra. Bluetooth is integral to its elegant design and minimal cords. This is so odd I have to figure it was a desperate attempt to hit a price point. Bluetooth added after purchase is external only!

The 400 MB/sec rather than 800 MB/sec firewire may be related to technical issues. It does include USB 2.0. This doesn't give one a warm feeling about the future of firewire.

It's easy to add an Airport card, so that needn't be an initial purchase.

Most interesting feature of the iMac: it's user serviceable

iMac G5 parts you can install yourself

The Apple Product Cycle

The Apple Product Cycle

This is almost a parody, except it's spot-on accurate. Apple, flaws and all, occupies a unique place in geek culture.

Canon PIXMA iP5000, iP6000D and iP85000 photo printers

Canon Australia - Canon launches high-end PIXMA printers

I was ready to buy the Canon i960 printer after my crummy HP 882c cartridge finally died. I've been ready to trash that beast for months, but I needed to run the cartridge down.

Then I realized the i960 is a year old, and the price is falling daily. It's about $150 on Amazon now.

Sure enough, a set of even better printers is coming out. Canon is having a smashing year.

I need the iP5000. But do I need the iP6000D? I expect the iP5000 will be $250 in the US. They've announced it in Europe and Australia, but I can't believe they'll miss the US Christmas market. It's not available until October where it's been announced, which makes me wonder about availability.

Scotsman.com News - Health - Spiceless Atkins diet 'bores you thinner'

Scotsman.com News - Health - Spiceless Atkins diet 'bores you thinner'

---

Weight loss is not due to metabolic changes or persistent satiety but rather due to dull food.

Maybe, but they're missing what my friend Jim Horn noted -- it's far more work to prepare Atkin's compliant food than carbohydrate food, and it requires refrigeration so it's less snackable.

SONY 802.11 card in iBook - how to

Use Sony Vaio WIFI card in iBook !

How to revert from OS X 10.3.5 to 10.3.4

Archive and Install Mac OS X 10.3, then update to Mac OS X 10.3.4

One needs room to do the archive and install of course.

Apple KB: Matching Mac OS ROM File To Mac OS Version

Mac OS: Matching Mac OS ROM File To Mac OS Version: "Matching Mac OS ROM File To Mac OS Version"

Will this 803.11g card work in an iBook?

SonyStyle.com | Wireless Card PCWA-C300S

---

Apparently some older SONY 802.11b cards may work in Macs. I'm sure we'll find out if this 802.11g card works in iBooks.

iMac G5 may not be a good video editing option

MacInTouch Home Page

The new iMac's 7200-RPM serial ATA drive should provide very good disk performance, but demanding audio and video tasks normally need multiple drives, and the iMac G5 offers only FireWire 400 for that application... and it's problematic to use FireWire drives simultaneously with audio/video transfers.

---

This will be something to watch.

Apple - iMac G5 - expensive!

Apple - iMac G5

I'm not thrilled. Too expensive when one adds adequate memory, bluetooth, wireless, etc. The standard package should have included 512MB memory, wireless and bluetooth.

How well is that panel going to pivot when half a dozen cables hang off the left of the display back?

Arghh. I have a bad feeling on this one. (Of course I liked the cube which flopped. On the other hand I've liked all of Apple's recent devices until this one.)

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Abridged Table of Contents

I came across this via a link to Bayes Theorem (see prior post). The index lists all the topics that are to be covered, it looks like about 80% or so are covered (based on two samples).

Not all the entries are readable by a non-specialist. The Bell's Theorem entry was, to me, incomprehensible.

It reminds me of a massive hypertext encyclopedia of philosophy I came across about 7 years ago. It was a european project. I wonder where it is now (I couldn't find it via Google).

I look forward to reading a history of these projects in about 20-30 years.

Bayes' Theorem - a decent discussion!

Bayes' Theorem

I've taught on Bayes Theorem to graduate students on several occasions. I've never felt I really communicated the underlying subtlety, complexity, and power of that mathematical beastie.

This essay would have helped me.

Inspiration for Palm OS

Inspiration for Palm OS - Business applications

Inspiration is a venerable software package put out by a small company. It started life as a business/productivity application for mind mapping and graphical thinking then found a niche in K12 education.

One of its peculiarities is that the Mac version can import MORE 3.1 files.

Now they have a version for the Palm. I'm not sure what to make of this. This is one application that seems well suited to a 30" LCD, not a 2" LCD.

Inspiration/Palm syncs with Inspiration Windows. Not sure about Inspiraton Mac. There are very few apps that have versions for Mac, Windows AND Palm.

There is a free trial. I'll give a try. You can download the Palm app for EITHER Mac or Windows.

Quantum Teleportation across the Danube -- Hacking God's Computer

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Quantum Teleportation across the Danube Demonstrated

Scientists report today in the journal Nature that they have successfully teleported photons more than 600 meters across the famous waterway.

Rupert Ursin and his colleagues at the Institute for Experimental Physics in Vienna fired a laser through a barium borate crystal to generate two pairs of photons. One pair is entangled, which means that if something disturbs the state of one, the other feels the effects as well--even when they are not physically connected. By separating the entangled pair, the scientists successfully transported information about the state of one photon to the other. Using fiber-optic cable laid under the water in sewer pipes, together with microwaves sent across the air above the water, three distinct states were teleported across the Danube. Over the course of a 28-hour experimental run, the system was correct 97 percent of the time.

---

I think this is incredibly freaky. We're hacking God's own computer.

I feel about quantum teleportation and entanglement the way my great aunt felt about electric lights. Utter magic.