Finding interesting stuff for the Mac is difficult given the relative numbers of users and programmers out there. I think I may have found something though. In the *NIX world (including OS X) the Python language seems to be the up and coming thing for programming. Python is an interpreted object oriented language. Python comes free with OS X, Linux, and BSD. It has to be downloaded and installed if it is to run on a Windows machine. I have…
This morning while performing my daily internet news gathering I came across an update to an interesting program. Minitube is a You Tube downloader/player. One of the major points the author makes is it doesn’t use the Flash player. In my opinion this makes it fairly fast. This program is available in four forms, Mac, Windows, Linux (32bit binary), and source code. The Mac and Windows versions have demos. I would guess the Linux and source code versions are the…
Mike Willegal has announced that final beta testing on the Brain Boards has begun and that the kits will be $59.00. Pre-built units will be available at some point for an additional fee. Mike has also put out a beta of the users guide for users to familiarize themselves with the board and created a website for the board at: http://www.willegal.net/appleii/brainboard.htm Orders for the Brain Board will begin to be taken on 19 March 2011 with the first units expected…
I might be a little late to the game in all this but I never had an iPhone before. Mainly cause I was on verizon and was not going to jump ship to get it. Not after hearing how horrible the network was on AT & T. So my plan was up in February and I said, I am not going to get the iphone now because they were going to come out with iPhone 5 (rumor) and I would…
Almost any series of commands which can be run in the shell can be run from a shell script. Tying in some of the last few posts I published here this is an example. Let’s say I wanted to run the gedit editor from the shell rather than from the dock/GUI… I would first have to locate the executable program. I happen to know it is installed in “/Applications/gedit.app/Contents/MacOS/gedit“. By running this program the gedit editor will start. Since it…
I volunteer as a system administrator at a place which installs software for an “educational charity” on Fridays. Yesterday the repair guy (who is a big Star Trek fan) called me over to his table. He showed me a video on Youtube about an Android app which turned a tablet into a “Tricorder”. I thought that was pretty cool. A quick search on Google for “lcars ipad” turned up this link to a couple of videos from last year. The…
The annual Pwn2Own competition has had it’s first day results come in. The idea behind the competition is to present some “hackers” with a series of web browsers on various machines. These machines are configured by various software manufacturers. The first hacker to generate a remote exploit on a particular machine gets to keep the machine plus $15,000. Although armed with 62 last minute patches, Safari was the first to go down. It took only five seconds. Next to go…
The Mozilla Organization has released the first Release Candidate fo their new Firefox 4 Internet Browser. The new browser has come about after a number of delays in the program which initially had the release of the completed browser in February. However, the program itself is feature rich, with a cleaner and easier to use interface. The new Release candidate should lead the way to a release within a short time frame, however, Mozilla has offered no details on the…
Apple has released the latest version of their developers tool, XCode 4 on their developers website (http://www.developer.apple.com). Apple is no longer requiring that developers using the program have a developers membership to use XCode. It is even available from download from the Mac App Store for $4.99. The new version has a number of new features in it including: Single Window Apple LLVM Compiler 2.0 New Debugger Interface Builder is Built-in Fix-it and Live Issues Instruments for Xcode 4 Assistant…
A new way of writing Applesoft Basic programs has been created by Andres Lozano, known in the Apple ][ world as Loz. Virtual Basic is a complete BASIC with all of the same operators and commands as Applesoft, except that it is written in a style much like other high level languages of the modern era. The entire system for Virtual Basic is a series of python scripts. If you are writing Virtual Basic programs, they can written using…
Wade Clarke has released an update for his Leadlight Adventure. The game itself is quite the adventure. Your are playing a girl Belinda who’s world is slowly falling apart. According to the Leadlight website, “15-year-old Belinda Nettle is studying at Linville Girls High School in Australia’s Blue Mountains. After falling asleep in the library one afternoon, she wakes from her mundane existence into a nightmare. Her classmates are transformed, nameless terrors seek her out across the schoolgrounds, and traps and…
For the second time this week, Apple has released a new version of their iTunes software. 10.2.1 was made available for download but the documentation of the changes in the program has not been mad available on the Apple website. This is the second update this week, and with the impending release of iOS 4.3 on March 11th looming ever larger in the windshield, Apple is obviously trying to cover all the bases with a slew of updates before hand….
Rovi Corporation announced the release of their latest version of the Roxio Toast DVD burning software. Version 11.0 which is now available on the Roxio website, with the pro version 11.0 including such new features as: Adobe® PhotoShop® Elements 9 – the latest, full-featured version of the #1 selling consumer photo-editing software for the Mac. The application delivers powerful options that make it easy to create extraordinary photos, quickly share your memories in online albums and unique print creations, and…
Nest buy squashed the The initial rumor meant that Best Buy would have been purchasing nearly 200,000 units just for their employees. This glut of machines would have likely meant very few machines for actual retail customers. According to the article in the Wall Street Journal (http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/03/07/best-buy-considers-tablets-for-salespeople/?mod=WSJBlog&mod=), they are looking into other alternatives and other tablets but it is highly unlikely now that they will ever give iPads to all their employees.
Mike Maginnis, curator of the Apple II Scans website, announced the availability of the second edition of Open Apple, the podcast with he and Ken Gagne. Join them as they delve into their blast from the past and their favorite software from yesteryear. According to the releases on CSA2, “This time, Mike and Ken are joined by Ivan Drucker: two-time KansasFest alumnus, Juiced.GS staff writer, and Mac consultant based out of New York City. News this month includes a look…
This is largely a repeat of an article in an earlier issue of the magazine. It works across all forms of *NIX (including OS X) and in a limited way Windows as well. Most professional *NIX people don’t recommend it. The reasons escape me at the moment. One thought some network analysts had a couple of years ago as to the slow loading of web pages was due to mis-configured or slow ad servers. Visiting some pages with numerous popups…
The FAA has approved the iPad as a replacement for paper maps in the cockpits of commercial aircraft. Traditionally, airline pilots have carried reams of the maps of the airports they were flying into and out of, in a specialized flight suitcase. Now they will really only need their iPad complete with the appropriate maps application such as the one from Jeppesen. According to an article in Bloomberg (http://bloom.bg/fFwLkH), Delta Airlines is one of the major players in the push…
The Apple II Scans website, managed by Mike Maginnis, has announced that they have added the follow on book to Gary B. Little’s Inside the Apple //e. Inside the Apple //c was based on the initial Apple //c and covers the machine in its entirety. Unfortunately, it is lacking in information about the second generation Apple //c as well as the Apple //c Plus which came out later. Still the book is a wealth of information for the user who…
Apple announced their new Garageband App for the iPad. Complete with Touch instruments, recording studio and and Smart Instruments, the app not only makes the iPad a complete musical instrument but also gives musicians the ability to work on their tracks while they are on the go. The program features Drums, Drum machines, Synthesizers, and Keyboards as well as Guitars and other modern musical instruments. The multi-touch ability allows the iPad to be played as if playing the original instrument,…
Snippetspace, the company known for it’s eazy to use iPhone App framework, has released a preview of it’s next version of the package. iWebkit has been one of the most widely used frameworks for building iPhone Apps and iPhone compatible websits during the past few years. Its author, Christopher Plieger, is also taking dontations for the purchase of an iPad so that he can begin building a version of the iWebkit framework for the iPad. According to the release on…
