> rm -f_

Along with the desktop updates, Apple also released a new keyboard that comes by default on the new iMacs. The problem with this keyboard is that it’s designed just like the bluetooth keyboard, except for having a cable and two side USB ports. That also means its missing a numeric keypad! Thankfully Apple still offers the standard keyboard with numeric keypad as an option for free, but there will be many who order new iMacs unaware of the new keyboard. I already contacted my ordering department to make sure that they check the Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad. Also this seems to only be a default for the iMac, the Mac Pro still comes with the standard keyboard. Not really sure where Apple is going with this one, guess we’ll find out.

Today Apple announced updates to their entire desktop line-up:

Finally, Apple updated the Mac Mini and I’m kind of thinking about buying one. The Mini comes with either a 2.0 or 2.6Ghz Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM, 120GB, 250GB, or 320GB 5400 RPM drives, and NVIDIA 9400M graphics. Lets talk about ports now, the Mini now has 5 USB ports, a single FireWire 800 port , and two video out options (Mini DVI port & Mini DisplayPort). Why FireWire 800 exists on the Mini but was abandoned on the MacBooks, I still don’t understand. The Mini is shipping within 24 hours and starts at $599. I’m thinking one of these might be making its way to my TV stand…

The iMacs have been updated with faster Core 2 Duo processors, 2.66, 2.93, and 3.06Ghz, ram configurations up to 8GB DDR3(though at a cost of around $1000), and 320GB, 640GB, or 1TB 7200 RPM drives. The 20″ iMac and low-end 24″ model both come with NVIDIA 9400M graphics. While the other 24″ models offer you a choice of discrete graphics options of NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 256MB, GT 130 512MB, or an ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB. The ports are pretty much the same except for the removal of FireWire 400 and of course the addition of Mini DisplayPort. The iMacs are shipping within 24 hours as well and start at $1199.

The Mac Pro also received updates today, with a Quad-Core and 8-Core option. The Quad-Core configuration starts at $2,499 with either a 2.66 or 2.93Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processors, up to 8GB of DDR3 Memory, storage configurations up to 4x 640GB or 1TB 7200RPM drives, and either a NVIDIA GeForce GT 512MB or ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB. The 8-Core configuration starts at $3,299 and comes with either 2×2.26, 2×2.66, 2×2.93Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processors, and up to 32GB of DDR3 ($6,100). The Nehalem processor also allows for Turbo Boost which allows the machine to shut down cores idle cores (when an Application does not require all eight), while increasing the speed on the active cores. This will allow the 2.93Ghz Mac Pro to run as fast as 3.33Ghz. As far as ports go Apple replaced all FireWire 400 ports with FireWire 800, so now there are 4 total FireWire 800 ports. Right now the Mac Pros are shipping within four days.

Hopefully a few of these will be arriving at my office soon. If so, I will try and put up a review of the new machines.

Yesterday Apple released Safari 4 Beta, and with it introduced some new UI changes. If for some reason you wanted to revert back to some of the old UI (Tabs not on top), there are some hidden preferences which can be edited via the command line.
Typing in strings /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari | grep DebugSafari4 in Terminal, outputs a list of preferences that can be configured:

DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop
DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign
DebugSafari4IncludeFancyURLCompletionList
DebugSafari4IncludeGoogleSuggest
DebugSafari4LoadProgressStyle
DebugSafari4IncludeFlowViewInBookmarksView
DebugSafari4TopSitesZoomToPageAnimationDimsSnapshot
DebugSafari4IncludeTopSites

Personally I missed the blue progress bar and was hoping to get it back. By typing in defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign -bool NO and defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4LoadProgressStyle -bool NO, then restarting Safari brought back the blue progress bar.  However, it also puts a loading spinner in the tab, which honestly forced me to revert back to defaults.

For a complete list of the preferences, click here.

I was just browsing Ars Technica, and I came across an exclusive review of Papers for the iPhone. For those of you who are not familiar with Papers, it’s a program geared towards the mac-using scientific community. It allows you to take all of your PDFs, organize them into a single folder and display them in an interface similar to iTunes. Papers has become very popular where I work, not only does it organize your PDFs, but it also allows you to search PubMed and many other scientific sites. The iPhone app looks great so far, you can view any PDF, download new articles from wherever you are, and also sync your PDFs with your desktop version of Papers (though version 1.9 of the Desktop app is required, and at this moment is not available). I really see Papers for the iPhone being a must have app to accompany the desktop version. Here is more info on the App. It can be purchased from the App Store for an introductory price of $9.99.

A few months ago, I installed a new Time Machine server at work.  There were a bunch of users who were buying firewire drives and backing up their machines at their desks.  We wanted to provide them with a way of using Time Machine, but to have their data backed up on a server.  We had just purchased a new Xserve and Nexsan’s SATABeast Xi and put Time Machine server to the test. 

SATABeast is a high capacity RAID storage system that can be filled with 42 1TB drives (for now we have 14) in a 4U design.  This gives us plenty of room for right now, but will also allow us to grow over time.  Another reason we went with the SATABeast Xi is Nexsan’s Automaid technology, which automatically reduces power consumptions and heat generation when the drives are idle.  We’ve been trying to make a push for green storage and this feature really impressed us.

The installation of the Xserve and SATABeast was pretty simple and within a few hours we had our server racked and ready to be configured. 

Coming Next: Configuration of OS X Server

Brandon Paddock, a Microsoft Employee, posted on his blog the list of new hotkeys for Windows 7 Beta. I decided to test out some of these hotkeys on my Windows 7 box at work.  Here are some of my findings.

The zoom command, Win++, is just clunky.  Why not implement a similar zoom interface as OS X? Why have it launch an App that takes upwards of five to ten seconds to launch?  Win+Space is just useless.  It provides you a peek of the desktop, but you can’t interact with the desktop at all.  Win+D already hides all open applications, why the need for a peek?

There are a few hotkeys worth mentioning though, starting with Win+P. This will be extremely useful for those with Notebooks. Instead of searching for the function key (which is different on each brand of notebooks), you can now decide how you want to display the desktop when connected to an external monitor with a standardized hotkey. Finally, Win+Shift+Left/Right allows you to switch between multiple displays. Previously with multiple displays, if you have your windows maximized, without any third party solutions, you would have to: resize the window, drag to desired monitor, and then maximize it again. Seems petty, but when you do it a lot, it gets annoying. Those are just a few of the new hotkeys, which ones do you like so far or look like you will use in the future?

Just the other day I ordered a Western Digital WD10EADS 1TB Caviar Green Drive from Newegg. Today Western Digital announced the first 2 TB internal drive, it will sell for $299. Specs include 32MB of cache, a four-platter design (500GB per platter), and 400Gb/in2 areal density. A hands-on preview can be found at Hot Hardware. Keep in mind when planning to purchase a drive of this capacity, you should really consider purchasing a second for redundancy.

For those of you who have been waiting for iLife ‘09. It looks like it will be shipping tomorrow for $79. A family pack (5 Licenses) is also available for $99. If you purchased a Mac on or after January 6th, you can upgrade for $10.

Working on a few things, it’s been a pretty busy week. Hope to have a few posts up soon, new to all this blogging stuff. At work we went over this years projects, and it’s finally happening. We’re finally going to start integrating the Macs with Active Directory. So there is that going on… I’ve also started studying for the Apple Certified System Administrator certification. Not sure what’s taken me so long to get started on that. Oh and yesterday I started reading up on Python, fun times indeed. 
Andy Hertzfeld
25 Years of Mac

I’ve always had a hard time keeping track of all my projects and my daily to-do’s.  That was until I started using Cultured Code’s application Things.  Things is based on GTD (Getting Things Done), an action management method.  GTD’s basic principle is that you need to move tasks out of your mind and capture them to an external source.  Thus, the mind is free to focus without distraction. read more »