Jeremy Lee writes "There are some 'educational' apps that transcend the merely interesting, and expand you mind with the force of a crowbar in the cerebellum. Celestia is one. Atom in a box is another. I keep it handy on my new iBook to blow the minds of chemist friends. It only runs on PowerPC Macs, but it's almost a justification for getting one. It should be used in schools to teach chemistry." Celestia is also great (and available for other platforms) ... I couldn't download it from the main link on the page, but was able to get it from SF.net. But if you really want to amaze your friends, turn your Mac into a Desktop Cray.

lisam writes "Alan Graham has an article on O'Reilly's MacDevCenter offering tips for homemade dot mac servers. Tips include creating a central file server, how to set up a central repository for iTunes, sharing images, collaborating with WebDAV, etc."

Aaron Steele writes "Okay, I work at an Apple Authorized Retailer and we just had a lady come in to see if we could fix her PowerBook G4. She walks in the store and comes up to me, 'Sir, I've got a baked Apple.' The top of the screen was a little brown and warped. The lady opened up the machine and the screen was all cracked, and there was not a single key left on the keyboard. It turns out she had the machine in the oven for 20 minutes, baking at 400 degrees. No joke. And what's even more amazing. The machine still works. Ethernet, Modem, USB, it all works. Plug in an external monitor and keyboard and it's good as new ... almost." Am I the only one for whom this conjures up images of Shrinky Dinks?

phreemind writes "There's some news out today on IBM's Power5, which should make an appearance next year. Interestingly, from the sound of this article, they've put a lot of work into power consumption on this processor so that it can go in anything from blades to big iron. This may preclude the need for a specialized low-heat/power version, such as the 970, for anything other than laptops. Oh, yeah, and they hope to use it to wipe Itanium off the map. Check out the article at InfoWorld."

Arf4 writes "I recently published an article that describes extracting video from a TiVo Series 1 digital video recorder. I have been searching the boards for info on a Mac OS X solution, but came up blank. After experimenting with my iBook I figured out a way to do it. Using nothing more than a TiVo and Mac OS X (plus a few other free goodies), you can start backing up the latest Alias or Simpsons." Well, and a network card.

Gentu writes "Omni Group, makers of OmniWeb, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner and other OSX products, talked to OSNews via its CEO, Ken Case. The interview talks about the company and its products, Apple's strategies, Safari, NeXT and the future. Case believes that Safari does not pose a threat to the OmniWeb market-share."

applematters writes "Apple has updated the iMacs, they are faster and incorporate AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth. There are two models, the 15-inch and 17-inch. For good measure the eMac has also been updated, and you can get it brand new for under a thousand bucks. Not bad."

hexgrid writes "A dream come true! Blacktree, Inc. has released Pith Beta 2, 'a utility for Safari that tracks the currently open sites and displays them in a window.' It's not exactly tabs as we know them in other browsers, but serves the same purpose with the added bonus of being more 'Mac-like.'"

ucdot writes "Here is the announcement for a port of uClinux to the Apple iPod, checkout the project page for extra details. Currently the frame buffer, audio and IDE devices are working. Still plenty of work to do."

gsfprez writes "It seems that the general consensus is that iMovie 3.0.1 really sucks bad. Compaints range from randomly splitting cuts when importing, audio/video syncing issues, random crashing, and most common - performance issues so bad that capture and playback at full framrate is unattainable - and that's on DP machines. My experience is all this and worse on my previously very useful iBook 800. One can only wonder how galactically awful iMovie 3.0.0 was. Can anyone give a positive report on iMovie 3.0.1?" It looks nice. I just wish I could use it without it crashing.

Joey Patterson writes "Did you ever notice how well the Apple iPod always fits in with the local scenery, no matter where you take it? Well, ipodlounge.com has a photo gallery featuring 800+ photos of people and their iPods in various places around the world. Some of these pics are very cool (like this one, taken by the Kuwait water towers), while others are downright odd (such as this pic from Sierra Leone, Africa)." I just want a picture of an iPod on my desk. I have a camera ...

MikeXpop writes "Apple announced that its two new apps, Keynote and iLife, will be available for teachers for only $15, saving educators $113 (compared to the regular education price). Also, Apple is extending the deadline for free Jaguar for teachers. Both offers end March 31st."

joesao writes "Remember that beautiful red iBook from a while back? So Pbsource has a post about a guy who hired a French helmet painter to scrape the lid of his iBook and turn into this. I wish somebody would start doing art replicas. Van Gogh, anyone?"

gsfprez writes "iMovie 3.0.1 and iPhoto 2.0 are available for download. iTunes 3 has been out for a while, and iDVD 3 is only available from your friendly neighborhood Apple Store or the virtual one." They are also available via Software Update, and Air Mapster writes "Those of us who ssh in from work/elsewhere can do 'sudo softwareupdate iMovie-3.0.1' and 'sudo softwareupdate iPhoto-2.0' to have them ready when we get home."

viewstyle writes "There is an interesting commentary on eWEEK discussing the 'synergies' between Apple and Linux after visiting LinuxWorld. It makes a good point that advancement of Linux is good for Mac OS X and vice versa, because of the ease of porting across the platforms (soon to get easier with the X11 on Mac OS X)." Next thing you know, most of the Slashdot editors and programmers will be using Macs ...

Macmurph writes "Bibble Labs has released a lightning fast version of the RAW image convertor, MacBibble. According to MacBibble creator, Eric Hyman, "MacBibble 3.x is almost 10 times faster than the manufacturers software when converting RAW files under OSX.". Prelimenary tests indicate the Mac may be faster than PCs in RAW image conversion afterall. This calls into question the relevance of the the hotly debated article Rob Galbraith posted just 3 weeks ago and discussed here on Slashdot. Two thumbs up for the PowerPC G4's AltiVec vector processing engine, now being put to work in MacBibble."

Doctor Beavis writes "As noted previously, Apple ordered developer James Speth to return his iTunes software developer kit and to stop distributing the iCommune plug-in for iTunes. Today, CNET has a story with further details and developments. Speth said that he will honor Apple's request to stop distributing his software, but he will build the same features into a standalone application. The next version of iCommune will work with iTunes and potentially other digital music players and will use Rendezvous, Apple's implementation of a protocol for automatic discovery of network-connected devices. Speth also said that the new version will be Open Source under the GPL."

analog_line writes "According to an article at News.com, the folks at Opera have given an ultimatum to Apple: Use the Opera engine in Safari or we'll have to rethink developing Opera for the Mac. While I know people who use Opera for the Mac, I find it hard to believe that Opera thinks they'll get any response other than, 'enjoy developing for one less platform.'"

Gropo writes "Same old 'scary cyclops' quicksilver face. Up to 1.42 Ghz, FireWire 800, 802.11g and entry-level pricing has dropped. " With the SuperDrive and one of those massive LCD screens, you have a one highly desirable chunk of hardware.

groovemaneuver asks: "I've managed to get a working OpenLDAP directory running on my network. Linux, Windows, and Apple boxes are all happily authenticating. I have imported the 'apple.schema' file to the LDAP server from one of my Macs, but I cannot seem to find any info on the proper syntax for the various apple schema attributes. Anyone have any idea where one could find this? This is the one obstacle keeping my network from having a single source of authentication, and I'm sure this info would be useful to more than just myself. Thanks!"