Mac OS 7.5.5 running on a PSP

Neisha Erin Stadelhofer has managed to get Mac System 7.5.5 running on a PSP! It's still in its infancy, but very interesting nonetheless! Interesting tidbits: it takes 4 hours to boot; and she's only had her PSP for one day. In her own words - "yes, girls can hack too". Via MacSlash.

Airport Express 6.2.0 firmware update = no more internet

While adjusting some settings in Airport Admin Utility today I was prompted to update my Airport Express firmware to version 6.2.0. I knew that this firmware update was included with the OS X Airport 4.2 update from back in July 2005, but although I had updated my Mac's Airport software at the time I had never got around to applying the included update to the Airport Express's firmware. "What the hell", I thought, "perhaps it'll solve the occasional freezes I get" (every few weeks my connection seems to lock up, and resetting my D-Link modem fixes it).

Updating the Airport Express firmware was, as it turned out, a god-awful idea. After the update my internet connection immediately stopped working. I could see the Airport network and connect to it but nothing else worked. Internet Connect reported that I was connected to the internet. Network Diagnostics reported that my connection made it as far as my ISP but not to the internet itself. Several resets of the modem and Airport Express did nothing. Nor did a reboot of my Mac.

Eventually I fired up my trusty old dial-up modem and connected to the net to begin searching for clues. In the UK NASCR are a convenient source of dial-up services - no monthly charges and you just pay local-call rates on your phone bill. Having an account with them has saved me more than once!

After some slow-as-hell web browsing, I eventually found the solution. This comment on Versiontracker led me to discover many useful threads on the Apple discussion forums. Several people suggested that the Airport Express 6.2.0 firmware update breaks PPPoE on DSL connections, and reverting to 6.1.1 would fix it. I don't actually use PPPoE to connect, but I still thought that reverting was worth a try. Sure enough, after downloading and installing the Airport Express 6.1.1 updater, my Mac miraculously had an internet connection again!

Comment
This is ridiculous. This firmware update was released over 2 months ago, but I found several recent references to this connection problem in just 5 minutes of browsing of Apple's forums (at a snail's pace, mind you!). If this is such a common problem why hasn't there been a fix? It's hardly as if DSL connections are uncommon.

As an aside, surfing the net via dial-up modem was an edifying experience. For one thing I discovered that my very own website loads extremely slowly on dial-up! :blush: I used to pride myself on small fast webpages suitable for dial-up connections - evidently a few years of broadband has desensitized me to the needs of my dial-up brethren! I shall rectify that, but the whole episode also makes me appreciate my 2 megabit connection more than ever!

Mac news schizophrenia

Same day, same news outlet, two wildly contradictory stories - here's one, here's another.

Plague (honestly!) on World of Warcraft

A report on Ars Technica today discusses a virtual plague spreading across World of Warcraft servers. Essentially a new high-level area was introduced in which a new in-game magic spell can infect players with a 'disease'. This disease can spread from infected players to nearby players. However when infected players returned to the population centers the disease started spreading like wildfire. Unfortunately since the disease was meant to do moderate damage to high-level players it started indiscriminately wiping out low-level players. Even computer-controlled characters in the cities have caught it - but they regenerate fast enough to not die from it, thereby perpetuating the disease.

Ars cite a discussion on ShackNews as the source:

Heres the skinny: Blizzard adds in a new instance, Zul'Gurub. Inside is the god of blood, Hakkar. Well, when you fight him he has a debuff called Corrputed Blood. It does like 250-350 damage to palyers and affects nearby players. The amazing thing is SOME PLAYERS have brought this disease (and it is a disease) back to the towns, outside of the instance. It starts spreading amongst the genral population including npcs, who can out generate the damage. Some servers have gotten so bad that you can't go into the major cities without getting the plague (and anyone less than like level 50 nearly immediately die).

Funnily enough most World of Warcraft players are fairly blasé about the whole epidemic, regarding it as not merely a programming foul up, but as a hazard of virtual life and something to celebrate! Rightly so, in my opinion! This is fantastic stuff, how can anyone not love it? :D

Update: Someone made a video.

Free Opera (or how to abandon desktops while taking over the world)

The relatively unknown (to the general public) web browser known as Opera is now free! From humble beginnings in 1996 with a public debut as a small Norwegian browser to 2005 and membership of a very exclusive club - browsers that cost money - Opera has had a good innings.

Who cares?
Opera is mostly known for the oft-repeated claim of being "the fastest browser on earth" (which incidentally is probably true). However despite impressive performance Opera never really caught on (cost probably had something to do with that), and it now seems likely that the advent of Firefox has sounded Opera's death knell as a worth-paying-for alternative to the mighty Internet Explorer. Opera users today are a shrinking mixture of diehard loyalists from the glory days, web designers testing for compatibility, and power surfers willing to pay for Opera's much touted speed and impressive, if sometimes exotic, features.

So how is Opera Software going to survive?
Their website doesn't suggest many possibilities, but presumably Opera Software will make a few bucks from paid support for the now-free browser, however it doesn't take a genius to see that, even charging for it, they cannot continue supporting a declining browser forever. Despite that it's not all doom and gloom - surely Opera for Mobiles (smartphones and PDAs) must form a major part of Opera Software's future. After all, Opera for Mobiles has no serious competition and the mobile market can't do anything but grow. Opera Mini, released for non-smartphones (stupidphones?) in 2004, is still in its infancy but is another clear sign of Opera's dominance of the entire mobile browser market.

What will happen to the desktop browser now?
Given that paid support is likely to have a limited lifespan, one possible option which would generate some public interest, not to mention great PR, would be to open-source the browser. This must seem tempting to Opera bigwigs given the lightning pace of development shown by the unpaid volunteers working on the Firefox project. On the other hand Opera Software may be taking a page out of Google's book and offering free-yet-proprietary software to the world, all the while betting that the software's performance and features will boost the company's reputation in the public eye.

Comment
Hmm ... giving away quality software for desktop PCs ... proven technological innovation ... demonstrable longevity amidst fierce competition ... complete domination of a massively growing market. Sounds a bit like the history of a certain fruit company. Opera Software went public on the Norwegian stock market last year - could it be time to buy some shares?

(Better late than never) DoubleCommand on Tiger!

Don't take the title the wrong way - I'm incredibly pleased that Michael Baltaks has updated DoubleCommand! It's just that happened a month ago and I've only just noticed it! This was the final piece of the jigsaw in my migration from Panther. DoubleCommand allows many unusual key remapping combinations, but for me it is the ability to remap a PowerBook's enter key to a function key, in order to allow for one-handed pageups and pagedowns, that makes it indispensable. DoubleCommand is donationware.

Disassembled Nano

It was announced a matter of hours ago, and someone has already taken it apart (English translation here). Via TUAW.

And the iPhone arriveth ...

It's finally been announced, and it's so underwhelming that it's almost disappointing. Nothing unexpected here - maximum 100 songs (512MB TransFlash card) only, and not particularly good looking. Also no syncing over Bluetooth, locked to one computer, and will not sync with any music software other than iTunes. Supports MP3 and AAC. Verdict? Wait until Apple actually design the phone as well as the software.

iPod nano!

Through all the recent talk about the iPhone there has been a few murmurs of a new flash-based iPod mini. It looks like Apple have another winner on their hands. 4GB, 1.5 ounces, thickness of a pencil, color screen, 14 hour battery, free laser engraving. And available in black.

Another stupid patent, do we need 'em?

Techdirt are reporting that Microsoft have been granted a patent on Kazaa-style music playlists. The relevant US Patent Office document weighs in at a hefty 43 pages, but one essential paragraph caught my eye - it is a series of example playlists that will be possible with this "invention":

• "My favs—All 4 and 5 star rated songs"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating>70, Sort: UserRating
• "My favs—64 Mb worth of 4+5 star rated songs"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating>70, LimitFilter=64 MB Sort: UserRating
• "My favs—128 Mb worth of 4+5 star rated songs"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating>70, LimitFilter=128 MB Sort: UserRating
• "My favs—One CD-R worth of 4+5 star rated songs"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating>70, LimitFilter=630 MB Sort: UserRating
• "My favs, that I've not heard of recent"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating>70, Sort: UserLastPlayedTime
• "Workday 100—Favorite Weekend songs"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating>70, Limit items to 100 Sort: UserPlaycountWeekend
• "Weekend 100—Favorite Weekdays songs"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating>70, Limit items to 100 Sort: UserPlaycountWeekday
• "Caffinated 100—Favorite Late Evening songs"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating>70, Limit items to 100 Sort: UserPlaycountNight
• "Recently Aquired Music"Filter: Type=audio, UserLastPlayedTime=
• "Recently Aquired Music (Yet to be rated)"Filter: Type=audio, AquisitionDate=
• "Songs I've not heard of recent"Filter: Type=audio Sort: User Rating, then UserLastPlayedTime (strongest sort)
• "Songs not yet rated"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating=
• "Sucky music—Songs I dislike and should delete"Filter: Type=audio, UserRating=<10 Sort: Album, then Artist (strongest sort)
• "Songs with digital rights management"Filter: Type=audio, Protected=Yes Sort: Album, then Artist (strongest sort)
• "Songs other users like"Filter: Type=audio, ServiceRating>70 Sort: UserRating
• "My Kazaa Music—All of it"Filter: Type=audio, PathFilter Contains "Kazaa"Sort: Album, then Artist (strongest sort)
• "My Kazaa Music—Recently Aquired"Filter: Type=audio, PathFilter Contains "Kazaa", AquisitionDate=
• "Hi-Res video clips"Filter: VIDEO_VIDEO_WIDTH>300 Sort: Title

Just hang on a second there. Even glossing over the fact that these playlists were implemented in Kazaa at least as far back as September 2002, and this Microsoft patent originated in September 2003, several of these playlists, including the very first one, are identical to iTunes smart playlists. Even if one argued that Kazaa wasn't very widespread (and thus somehow unworthy as 'prior art') you can hardly make the same comment about iTunes. Granted, some of the other playlists listed in the patent are not possible in iTunes, but surely there should be some acknowledgment that significant parts of this "invention" are already in common usage. It's akin to someone coming along and patenting the idea of using arrow keys on a wireless controller to change TV channels.

Comment
There really should be a rule about patenting ideas that have been already implemented in commercially available products :P (Apple's idiotic and futile 1988 GUI lawsuit against Microsoft comes to mind). Seemingly ignorant decisions like this one by the US Patent Office are what drive some Europeans to question the usefulness of software patents. I'd even go so far as to say that if a company cannot keep an idea secret long enough to patent it and bring it to market, then the idea is clearly so bleedin' obvious that it shouldn't be patentable. Does anyone agree?