The Apple News That Got Buried

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"Apple's Showtime event was all well and good, but the big news today was on Anandtech.com. They found that the two dual-core CPUs in the Mac Pro were not only removable, but that they were able to insert two quad-core Clovertown CPUs. OS X recognized all eight cores and it worked fine. Anandtech could not release performance numbers for the new monster, but did report they were unable to max out the CPUs."

- From Slashdot.

Front of future house

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IMG_2054, originally uploaded by Tuz.


This will be what the front looks like except picture it reversed (garage on the left). I’m mainly making this post to test out the Flickr blogging capability that Jacob told me about.

Wikipedia founder debates Britannica editor-in-chief

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Courtesy of BoingBoing:

The Wall Street Journal hosted a debate between Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Dale Hoiberg, editor in chief of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Jimmy's performance is virtuouso, particularly when the Britannica editor says that he doesn't have the space to go into all the criticisms of Wikipedia that have been made in public and Jimmy counters by providing a link to the Wikipedia article on criticisms of Wikipedia!

Mr. Hoiberg: ...We want our articles to be correct before they are published. We stand behind our process, based on trained editors and fact-checkers, more than 4,000 experts, and sound writing. Our model works well. Wikipedia is very different, but nothing in their model suggests we should change what we do.Mr. Wales: Fitting words for an epitaph…

Click here to read the entire transcript.

US Journalist charged with videotaping “critical national security structure” which is just a Katrina evacuatee trailer park that houses 70,000 Katrina victims

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Courtesy of BoingBoing:

A journalist and a TV producer working on a piece about Katrina refugees have been charged with the crime of videotaping a “critical national security structure” in Louisiana.

On August 22, for LinkTV and Democracy Now! we videotaped the thousands of Katrina evacuees still held behind a barbed wire in a trailer park encampment a hundred miles from New Orleans. It’s been a year since the hurricane and 73,000 POW’s (Prisoners of W) are still in this aluminum ghetto in the middle of nowhere....

To give a sense of the full flavor and smell of the place, we wanted to show that this human parking lot, with kids and elderly, is nearly adjacent to the Exxon Oil refinery, the nation’s second largest, a chemical-belching behemoth.

So we filmed it. Without Big Brother’s authorization.

...

[Detective Frank Pananepinto of Homeland Security], in justifying our impending bust, said, "If you remember, a lot of people were killed on 9/11."

Yes, I remember "a lot" of people were killed. So I have this suggestion, Detective — and you can pass it on to Mr. Bush: Go and find the people who killed them.

Jimmy Wales to Beijing: Wikipedia won’t censor

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Courtesy of BoingBoing:

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has refused to censor the content on the Chinese version of Wikipedia, resulting in its being blocked by the Chinese government. Google, Yahoo and others have folded to demands from Beijing's totalitarian bureaucrats, but Wikipedia has stood firm. Predictably, Beijing has come to Wikipedia to ask them for some kind of peace-treaty, because China can ill-afford to block critical information resources if it is to remain economically strong. If only Google and Yahoo's executives were as confident in the importance of their services as Wales is of Wikipedia.

Wales said censorship was ' antithetical to the philosophy of Wikipedia. We occupy a position in the culture that I wish Google would take up, which is that we stand for the freedom for information, and for us to compromise I think would send very much the wrong signal: that there's no one left on the planet who's willing to say "You know what? We're not going to give up."' Wikipedia's entry on the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 includes the government's official claim that 200-300 died and the Chinese student associations and Chinese Red Cross's estimate of 2,000-3,000 deaths.

Wales said: 'I think it's an interesting question whether they're prepared to understand the difference between advocating one set of figures or another versus simply reporting on what the controversy is. I can understand that they would be upset - although of course I still don't think they have any moral right to ban anything - if we were pushing one set of figures in contrast to their objections, but if we are reporting both, to me that's exactly what an encyclopaedia should do and they should be comfortable with that.'

Apple Announces iTunes 7, Movies, Set-Top Box

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Courtesy of Slashdot:

"As anticipated, Apple announced several additions and upgrades to its iPod and iTunes lineup. The iPod now comes in an 80 GB model, with a $50 price drop for the 30 GB model. The 2nd generation iPod Nano harkens back to the iPod Mini with metallic, multi-colored shells (though as diminutive as ever) and comes in an 8 GB model. The Shuffle has been completely redesigned and shrunk down to the size of a matchbook. All of this comes with the release of iTunes 7, which includes support for downloading full-length movies from iTMS."

All 75 movies initially available are from Disney-related studios. The new iTunes will download cover art for all the songs in your library, no matter where you got them from, as long as you have an iTunes account. (A confirmation dialog says: "Information about songs with missing artwork will be sent to Apple. Apple does not keep any information related to the contents of your music library.") There's a new album-cover browsing view of your library. And Steve Jobs gave a sneak preview of a project code-named iTV: a Mac Mini-like wireless set-top box. Engadget has a blow-by-blow of Steve Jobs's presentation.

What is Apple releasing on Tuesday?

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This article presents a very interesting analysis of what one journalist thinks Apple is set to announce on Tuesday. I strongly emphasis that if you care, you should read it. It is very insightful. Personally, as many others believe, I think the iTunes music store is about to become the iTunes music and MOVIE store. And what would go well with movies? A new video iPod of course. One with a larger screen...one that may be a widescreen that stretches the LENGTH of the iPod instead of its width. This new iPod would have a touchscreen or perhaps the controls will be on the side...this I do not know. Well I put my guess out there. Anyone else have any ideas?