analog_line writes "According to this article in Business Today, in 2004 the summer Macworld Expo will move from New York City and the Javits Center back to Boston, where it rightfully belongs! As a Boston area resident, I'm ecstatic! Can't tell you how much I look forward to not having to go to New York. ;-)" This was rumored a few months ago, and I am glad to see it happen.

destructo666 writes "Woohoo, the wait is over for Digidesign to get with the program. Read the release and then upgrade and toss Mac OS 9. Now MOTU may finally release DP for Mac OS X." I can't find a link the free version for Mac OS X, though. Some of us are cheapskates, you know.

dmayle asks: "I've decided to do some Mac-based database development, and, since Apple was kind enough to include ODBC Administrator, I decided to use that as a starting point. The only problem is, there doesn't seem to be ANY documentation anywhere about it. I know that PostgreSQL for Mac includes an ODBC driver, but again, I can's seem to find out any docs on how to use it... Are there any developers using this tool out there, and where did you learn how to do it?"

antmo asks: "Mac OS X doesn't allow you to specify which WEP key index (1-4) one wishes to use, via the Network preferences. This causes me much pain, since my employer's wireless network uses a key index other than 1. I know the AirPort card allows for this, as I am able to set all four keys in Open BSD and Debian Linux. I don't know whether this is a limitation of Mac OS X's AirPort driver or simply the preferences. I've looked all over the net, posted to many discussion forums (since March of this year), done quite a bit of tinkering with the config files and still don't have a clue how to, if possible, set which key index to send. I have not heard a thing from Apple about this, which leads me to believe they're not going to add this ability. Does anyone know whether a fix from Apple is forthcoming? Anyone know a hack to get this working?"

Spock the Baptist writes "This website's recent article on the O'Reilly Network is by James Duncan Davidson, speaking at the recent O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference. PowerBook, and iBook owners will likely be intrested in this article, as sending e-mail from multiple locations is less trouble when done via sendmail rather than a remote mail serever. Also, if your ISP's mail server goes down you'll still be able to send outgoing e-mail which can be quite handy."

dhardman writes "iPod Software 1.2.1 adds significant enhancements, including audio playback and user interface improvements, music browsing by additional categories, support for iTunes 3 Sound Check, Calendar, and more. Update can be found online." Also released recently were AirPort 2.1.1 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.2.2 (security update), both via Software Update.

rhetland writes "An article on O'Reilly network discusses the new port of OpenOffice to Mac OS X. The public beta, due out next week, will be posted on the OpenOffice Mac site. I have been waiting for this for months, and can hardly wait."

zzen writes "Aparently, IBM is looking for input on the posibility of their DB2 database being ported to Mac OS X. MacObserver writes: 'IBM has posted a survey asking Mac OS X users if they are interested in having DB2 ported to Mac OS X. DB2 is an enterprise level database solution from IBM, and a Mac OS X port from IBM would be a major boost for Mac OS X in the corporate market place.'"

Spencerian writes "I've become quite accustomed the depth of co-author Dave Taylor's writing on UNIX in previous books such as Teach Yourself UNIX in 24 Hours . As you can note from Dave's recent writing credits, his experience and knowledge of UNIX is vast and varied. That said, I was mildly disappointed with this latest offering that discusses the UNIX underpinnings of Mac OS X." Spencerian explains the logic underlying that conclusion in his complete review, below.

MrFreak writes "Have you ever wanted to grab a sound from DVD Player or record a RealMedia stream to AIFF? It's previously been impossible to do this digitally, but the folks at Rogue Amoeba have released a piece of software called Audio Hijack that allows you to record audio from any OS X application. Additionally, it can apply live audio effects to any application, so you can add an equalizer to MAME or play Quake 3 with a live echo or flanger effect."

A user writes in that Aladdin Systems has announced that StuffIt, versions 6.5.x and earlier for Mac OS and Mac OS X, "may contain a flaw that would cause expanding certain maliciously crafted .zip archives to execute unwanted instructions or code." Aladdin notes that no such "trojan horses" have been reported. StuffIt Expander 7.0 is, as with previous versions, free to download and use.

Graff writes "This was found on SiliconValley.com. In an article for the Mercury News, Dan Gillmor talks about how Apple is still standing firm against the Digital Rights Management (DRM) efforts which the entertainment industry is trying to force on the public. There's also another article on the fight for our digital rights in Congress."

Untimely Ripp'd asks: "Satellite broadband has been available to PC users for half a decade, and still is not trivially available to Mac users. It can be done, but it's always an unsupported hack, or it requires buying expensive extra hardware and software. I cannot understand why Hughes and the other providers would refuse to spend the relatively few dollars necessary to develop a couple of device drivers and glue libraries. Time after time, the vendors have said, 'it's coming,' but it never does, and the promise eventually goes away. (Earthlink's FAQ page no longer says that Mac software is being developed, for example). I'm not gung-ho on conspiracy theories, but the only explanation I can figure is that they're either being paid or bullied. Does anyone know of any serious tech hurdle that would make it cost more than $100K or so to develop the necessary software?" this article mentions one-way Mac service coming online from OWC in a future expansion, along with nationwide service. A comment from that story does mention a simple solution, but why is it that Satellite service, even one way satellite service, depends on Windows-only software? What other solutions have Mac users resorted to when they wanted their Macs connected?

netphilter writes "Apple is trying to "close the operating system to tweakers" according to this story on Wired. The addition of the BSD kernel and the command line left me thinking that they were trying to open the OS a bit more to tweakers, not close it. I'm not a Mac user, but I have been thinking about trying out OS X. However, if Apple is trying to CLOSE the OS (contrary to the impression that I had) then I'm not going to waste my time." Jamie adds: life may be harder for them, I guess, but many developers are still tweaking Mac OS X.

Stigmata669 writes "Over at MacSlash the editors have managed to schedule an interview with Jordan Hubbard, Engineering Manager of the BSD Technology Group at Apple to answer questions about BSD, and Darwin in the context of Mac OS X. The interview is being conducted in the Slashdot style, so comment and in a week they will have the highest moderated comments answered. The specific article is here."

Anonymous Coward writes "gnuPod 0.2 has just been released. It's the first GPLed program that allows you to use your iPod under Linux. It has support for playlists and stores information in a XML file, so it's very easy to edit the data or write a frontend. Still a bit 'beta' but its ready for every-day-use and it works well together with iTunes. A mac-ipod2win-ipod howto is also included."

OrangeHairMan writes "iSync, 'the cutting-edge synchronization software from Apple,' has been released in beta, with support for Bluetooth phones, iPods, Palm OS-based handhelds, and .Mac (for synchronizing multiple Macs). Now only if I had any of these products... ;)"

vi-rocks writes "A new O'Reilly book is due for release in October: Mac OS X for Unix Geeks. Brian Jepson and Ernest Rothman are the authors. Details about the book (including a sample chapter) are available on the website. Note the sash on the top right hand of the cover reads 'Switching to Mac OS X.' They say you can't judge a book by it cover -- HUMBUG!, I've already pre-ordered :)" The sample chapter information on NetInfo has helped me already.

An anonymous reader wrote to us with an article on Byte from Moshe Bar about flirting with using OS X. Taco and I are both strongly considering beginning to use OS X as a primary laptops - anyone else looking at doing this? And anyone from Apple that can get me a good price on super TiBooks? *grin*

clarencek writes "Apple has released Rendezvous as Open Source, as promised. Excerpt: Starting today, developers can download Rendezvous as open source under the Apple Public Source License. Rendezvous is part of a broader Open Source release today from Apple which includes the Darwin 6.0.1 operating system and additional Open Directory plug-ins. Together, these underscore Apple's commitment to making core protocols freely available as open standards and open source."