The BFC Computing Weblog

I’ve been considering getting a new MacBook Pro - the specs are very nice, it’s a real desktop replacement, and even though there are some weird things like a slower DVD drive and a lower-res screen it would be a good computer.

But there’s one thing that’s ruled it out - the lack of support for Java embedding in Rosetta, the PowerPC translation engine for Mac on Intel.

So, Java embedding sounds sort of obscure doesn’t it? But what it means is that lots of free software I depend on for my workflow won’t work. Firefox won’t work unless you can give up Java and Flash. 3 months ETA on that. NeoOffice/J, the OpenOffice platform for Mac won’t work either, and there’s no ETA on that.

Apple has a large following among Open Source geeks and they like to court the Alpha Geeks. Maybe they should reevaluate their support level for Java in Rosetta and get these things working. I remember when Steve Jobs said the Mac was going to be the premiere Java development and deployment platform.

For those who claim Mac OS X is an inherently secure Operating System or those who claim that Mac users claim this, it’s helpful to use the human immune system as a model and metaphor.

Superman doesn’t get sick (we’ll ignore Kryptonite for the sake of this essay). We don’t have a Superman OS yet. Come back with something completely written in a design-by-contract model with lots of years of bug finding and then we can talk about entry into the JLA. Mac users don’t have a superpowered OS, despite Steve Jobs’s Reality Distortion Field superpower.

So, we have mortal Operating Systems. Some of those operating systems have strong immune systems. Mac OS X is a good example. It has everything off by default and a good auto-update mechanism. It’s still written in C and has buffer overflow problems. We know they exist, there will be a cold eventually if it’s not fed a constant stream of vitamins (software updates). Still, there is a good permissions model from UNIX, ACL’s now in later versions, and Apple has done a heck of a good job making a user not understand root on a UNIX system. Sudo is nearly invisible and the Keychain lets us store credentials in a cryptographically-secure manner. Plus lots of it is Open Source, so the OS is getting a well-checkup by many doctors, frequently.

So, then we have linux. Linux has most of the genetic benefits of Mac OS X. But it has more challenges to its immune system. Most distros come with services running, root is not as well hidden, and keeping up to date has been historically difficult. Big repos like Dag and mechanisms like yum make this easier today, but there’s alot of history. So, linux is more like a strong young male with a good immune system who happens to sleep around alot and is at risk for more STD’s because of it. That said, he gets a checkup by a doctor every three hours.

Then we have OS’s which are like people on immunosupressive drugs. There’s a reason the immune system has to be so weak, and in a way it’s like a transplant - backwards compatiblity. So, this is Windows and its users are always looking for more, better software to fix a somewhat hard to use system. They’re always downloading things and clicking Install just because they want something new - you can’t ignore behavior in this analysis. So Windows is on immunosupressive drugs and is an alcoholic and does drugs and likes to bungie jump. Some people find the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock’n'Roll OS alluring, and its pushers have made sure it’s pervasive on the streets. We’re still not sure why corporations hire this kind of employee but we think it has something to do with the dirt the pusher has on the managers. To combat this situation, users are on a steady stream of antibiotics, antivirals and on telemetry 24/7 to keep watch of their vitals. This is expensive and ultimately takes a toll on quality of life.

So, Mac OS X isn’t a WunderOS and its users have to watch for ice on the parking lot. But they are wearing YakTrax on their feet so they can at least talk about the Panther’s game on their way into work (or is it the Bengals this season? - it’s probably Detroit next year).

Here’s why Intel is going after low power in its new Core line. At the Yahoo! Keynote at CES Intel CEO Paul Otellini showed off a viiv-powered dual-core palmtop entertainment device. That’s a 1.5+ GHz dual-core processor in that little thing.

Intel says a slightly bigger one is coming out this year (iTVS remote?) and this model is 1-2 years out. Click the image for a vidbite from the Keynote. Yahoo CEO Terry Semel is in the other fellow in the video.

So, the question was posed, “what would it cost to get a PC workstation equivalent to the Quad-Core PowerMac G5?". The null hypothesis was “The PC is going to be significantly cheaper.” It was assumed that Dell is the de-facto standard for low-cost workstations. So, off to the store.* sites. The specs are:

* 2GB ECC RAM
* Pair of SATA Disks
* 256MB Graphics Card
* Firewire & USB
* DVD Burner
* 3-year warranty
* Necessary supported software

First, Apple:
* 2.5GHz Quad-core PowerPC G5
* 2GB 533 DDR2 ECC SDRAM- 4x512
* 2x500GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
* NVIDIA GeForce 6600 256MB SDRAM
* 16x SuperDrive DL (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
* Apple Keyboard & Mighty Mouse - U.S English
* Mac OS X - U.S. English
* Accessory kit
* AppleCare Protection Plan for Power Mac (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll

Price: $4,923.00

Now let’s look at a Dell:

Dell Precision Workstation 670:
Dual-Core Intel® Xeon™ Processor 2.80GHz, 2x2MB L2 cache
2nd Processor Dual-Core Intel® Xeon™ Processor 2.80GHz, 2x2MB L2 cache
Genuine Windows® XP Professional, x64 Edition with Media
2GB, DDR2 SDRAM Memory, 400MHz, ECC (4 DIMMS)
500GB SATA, 7200RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™ for RAID
2nd Hard Drive: 500GB SATA, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
256MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX 3450, Dual DVI or Dual VGA or DVI + VGA
16XDVD and 16XDVD+/-RW w/ Sonic DM, Cyberlink PowerDVD
Sound Blaster* Audigy™ 2 (D), w/Dolby Digital 5.1 & IEEE1394
Keyboard: Entry Level, USB, No Hot Keys
Mouse: Dell USB 2-Button Optical Mouse with Scroll
Speakers: Dell™ two piece stereo spkrs
No Floppy Drive
Symantic™ AntiVirus Corporate Edition
Webroot Spy Sweeper
3 Year Business Standard Plan
No Onsite System Setup

Price: $6,767.00

Each system has a few spots where it shines over the other. The Mac has a better memory architecture, the PC has a faster clock and a bit better graphics card. All in all they’re pretty close.

If you left off Windows and its anti-malware suite you could save a bit of money but it still wouldn’t come close in price, even if Dell has a great coupon this week.

Just for grins, HP comes in at $7,427.00 for a similar rig.

I’d like to hear if there’s a different vendor with better pricing on a big workstation, but for now the null hypothesis appears to be proven false.

I was pleased to find that the perl Encode module makes it fairly straightforward to convert between 8-bit character sets. The documentation isn’t as clear as one might like, so here’s an example.

Say you have some Mac data and need to display it on the web, typically in ISO-8859-1 format. Pump it through this subroutine:

sub convertFromMacToISO8859 {
my $line = shift;

use Encode;
my $utf8 = decode("MacRoman", $line, );
my $iso = encode("iso-8859-1,$utf8, Encode::FB_HTMLCREF);

return $iso;
}

and you’ll see those gremlins go away. The odd-looking Encode::FB_HTMLCREF constant at the end of the encode and decode functions serve to put the error checker into a mode where items which don’t exist in the target character set will be encoded as their HTML/Unicode equivalents. Unicode is a superset of both MacRoman and ISO-88591-1 (Latin 1) but neither MacRoman or Latin-1 are a superset of each other - most visible are the punctuation characters missing in Latin-1 like en and em dashes and ’smart quotes’.

The Register has an article talking about the new Intel Core (nee Yonah) processor line, expected to debut in Apple computers next month. The processor breakdown is interesting - we have dual cores at 2, 1.83 and 1.67 GHz, a single core at 1.67 GHz, and low-voltage dual cores at 1.5 and 1.67 GHz. In that whole lineup there’s only one single-core CPU.

So the guessing game is really about which processors will land in which products. Some things are easily excluded - the PowerMac line and the iMac line are both already using 64-bit chips and Apple won’t be pulling them down to the 32-bit world. The 64-bit version of Intel Core isn’t going to be here until next autumn.

So that leaves us with the perpetual performance/cooling/battery life deck chairs to shuffle.

First, performance: Apple isn’t going to release slower computers than the G4 versions - slower from a user’s perspective, not clock frequencies. With some of the software emulated at 60% of the speed of the G4 version, this sets our bar pretty high for minimum performance. Single Cores need not apply.

The G4 1.66GHz is top of the line now. Regardless of the horsepower of the Intel Core line compared with the PowerPC G4 line, the marketing department won’t allow a whole new line to be released at lower clock speeds than the old line. This guarantees that the PowerBook line, at least, will be using the T-series 1.67, 1.83, 2.16GHz flavor of Intel Core. They maximally dissipate at least as much power as the 1.67GHz Powerbook G4 does so battery life is in play.

The good news is these new CPU’s excel at power management. Intel is betting the company on low-power chips and they seem to have done an excellent job. Reportedly these things can dynamically slow the clock, as various laptops since the Powerbook 140 have been able to do, but they can also shut down parts of the chip that are unnecessary and even switch off a core. Apple has higher density batteries this year than they did last year, so battery performance should be as good or slightly better than in the past. If they can figure out how to cram a 17 display into a Powerbook and run it on a battery then they should be able to handle a few more watts. The slowest Intel Core T runs at ~25W where the old Powerbook runs at 27W, so this is well within the comfort zone. Expect much better battery life on the slowest Powerbooks and marginally better on the high end.

So Powerbooks at 1.67, 1.83 and 2.0GHz, all dual-core.

Now, iBooks - in the distant past Powerbooks were much more powerful than iBooks, G4 vs. G3, better memory, better bus, etc. But as the G4 stagnated, the iBook caught up, leaving only clock speed and external expandability as a differentiator. So, which way will Apple go - will it stick the iBook with a single core to hamstring performance - no, that would feel slow, especially emulated Rosetta applications. iBook users love the rugged polycarbonate case, the no-frills design, the good wireless, didn’t need the latest connectivity and expandability - and are often students.

Enter the Intel Core L-Series. A lower-power dual-core version, available in 1.5 and 1.67GHz versions. The iBook currently tops out at 1.42GHz so everything is a step up in clock frequency. This allows Apple to use the lower power chips - tipping the scales at 15-24W, and focus on power, power, power. With better batteries we might be looking at a laptop that can get a student through a 7 hour day on a single charge. This changes everything in education.

So, iBooks at 1.5 and 1.67GHz on the low-power dual-core chips.

The eMac is history, only available to education customers right now, so that only leaves the Mac Mini’s fate hanging in the balance. The Mini doesn’t face the same challenges as the iBook so they can skip the low-power chips. So, where would this leave the Mini? On one hand, you don’t want the $500 chip off the old block running circles around the $2500 Powerbook - but on the other hand you want to have a unit that will wind up in the living room that can handle HDTV - El Gato says you need a 2GHz dual CPU to handle that much processing. I think Apple can do it at 1.83GHz and won’t step on the top-end of the Powerbook line, purely for marketing reasons.

So, a Mac Mini at 1.67 and 1.83GHz on the Intel Core T series.

This means Apple isn’t building any more single-core computers other than a legacy iMac. Yeah, they could save a few bucks by sticking the lone single-core Intel Core T in the Mini, but Steve Jobs would rather declare the uniprocessor universe (and most of its competition) dead than save a few bucks. Right-on, Steve.

Check back next month to see what really happened.

Joel Spolsky writes that the desire by the RIAA labels to have variable pricing on the iTunes Music Store is about stratifying perceived value, not (just) making more money.

PresentationZen has an article on using Simplicity to enhance your projected presentations. To illustrate, they compare slides typical of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

Around here we’d call it a “Shaker-style” presentation. Whacky left-coasters. [Thanks, Suzy!]

Microsoft is offering its Office 12 XML Format as an ECMA standard. Their FAQ answers several questions, but evades clear meaning. In order to make any decisions about the use of this format we’ll need to know at least the following:

• Is this format completely open?
  

  PressPass: Does making XML the default file format for Office “12productivity applications signal an end to binary file formats as we know them?

  Paoli: The Office Open XML file formats aren’t a standalone file format. Rather, they build on the rich functionality of the binary file formats that have traditionally been a part of Office applications.

  OK, so are non-open binary-only blobs allowed in the XML documents? That is, can an XSLT transform be stated that will completely transform a Microsoft XML document into an OpenDocument document?

• Is the format compatible with Open Source licenses?
  

  Finally, Office Open XML is open because the license for Office Open XML is open to anyone. We are expanding the language of the current royalty-free license to specifically enable developers who work only with open source licensing to also be able to work with Office Open XML. This will enable any customer or technology provider to use the file formats in its own systems without financial consideration to Microsoft.

  All this necessarily says is the Open Source product could be released under a different license.

• Is the format encumbered by any patents?

  The talk of licensing would seem to suggest that, yes, it is.

• What clear advantage does the Office 12 XML format offer over OpenDocument?

  Besides the fact that Microsoft won’t support the file formats its customers are asking it to to protect its monopoly position.

I’ve been running Firefox 1.5RC1 on my machine for a few days now - essential plugins are available for it (SessionSaver, AdBlock) even if current versions are a bit hard to find. The Extension updater machanism is roaring and will automatically manage versioning and updating of extensions.

But more importantly, it updated itself to 1.5RC2 this morning. This is what we’ve been waiting for. A browser that’s always up-to-date on security patches that’s not IE.

Plus the Mac version doens’t suck anymore. Oh, and it’s fast. Way better than Safari, especially loaded down with Saft, and, impressively, even better than the Mozilla Suite.

Gentlemen, we’ve arrived.