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Warning: Do not place your iBook G4 on a pillow or other soft material when it is on,
as the material may block the airflow vents, in particular the rear vents, and cause the
computer to overheat. -Apple iBook manual (Page 70)

Open Letter to the Mac Community
The Truth Behind the iPod Nano "Scratch" Class Action Suit

May 22, 2006

Dear Mac Community:

Hello! My name is Jason Tomczak. Many people around the world rightly know me as a mild-mannered techie, photographer, writer, and nature-lover. I am an Apple fan and have been fortunate enough to use Mac computers and other Apple products since about 1985.

On October 19, 2005, my life changed due to the unauthorized conduct of others. From that date forward, countless numbers of people around the world were driven to hate me and slander my name, sometimes using foul and threatening language.

Since October 19, 2005, my name has been infamously tied to the iPod Nano "Scratch" Class Action law suit filed against Apple.

What You Don't Know About The Nano Suit
The truth is that I never sought out nor did I ever hire David P. Meyer & Associates or Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro to represent me in any case, much less the iPod Nano Class Action suit.

The iPod Nano Class Action law suit was initiated by David P. Meyer & Associates Co. LPA of Columbus, Ohio and their representative firm, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP of Seattle, Washington and filed on October 19, 2005.

David P. Meyer & Associates contacted me, soliciting my opinions and comments about the scratching of my iPod Nano after finding Nano-related blog posts I'd written on my own website, on The Unofficial Apple Weblog and on The MacCast. They informed me that they had received an "overwhelming number of complaints" about the Nano and that they wanted my "insight into the problem". Yes, I answered their communication and told them that I had problems with my iPod Nano, however I clearly told them that they should do their own professional and technological study of the iPod Nano.

I emphasized that I did not have any access to any specific data about the materials used in making the iPod Nano. David P. Meyer & Associates used my personal comments and opinions as the basis of the iPod Nano suit. To my knowledge, there was no actual technical study done on the iPod Nano before the Class Action suit was filed.

Additionally, I told David P. Meyer & Associates that I wanted to remain private, and that my wish for privacy, among other considerations, would preclude me from getting involved in the case.

No Documentation
At no time did David P. Meyer & Associates or Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro ever receive any attorney-client agreement form from me. On their own time and based on their own schedules and plans, they prepared the paperwork and filed the iPod Nano Class Action suit in California using my name as Lead Plaintiff, however this was done without my knowledge or consent.

The Filing and The Call
The senior partner of David P. Meyer & Associates and one of his representatives called me during the afternoon of October 21, 2005 to urgently request my signature on an attorney-client agreement - two days after the Class Action suit was filed; two days after they began their action against Apple; two days after the press had begun running the story. They then warned me that my family, friends, clients and I should expect to hear from the media and others interested in the iPod Nano Class Action suit.

During that phone call to me, David P. Meyer and his associate blamed the faulty Nano filing on Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro.

Spin Cycle
During that week and the following months, my name was posted in relation to the iPod Nano Class Act

TUAW

He is off his meds. See this commentary here.

http://www.tuaw.com/2006/02/16/dvorak-off-his-meds -claims-apple-switching-to-windows/

The mac mini runs Front Row just fine.

It's really becoming more and more apparent what Apple's strategy in this area is, they just haven't admitted as much.

Try 30 million iPods sold (as of Nov 2005).
It isn't even close.

Just to get a few more MSN pageviews by people too lazy to change their default homepage?

Is it me, or is Sony the first vendor to make (or spread) a Mac OS X Root Kit?

I use Neooffice J myself, even though I could use the X version I do prefer NeoOffice.

The good news is that OO 2.0 is working on a native Aqua port. The bad news is it might be a little while before we see it as that announcement was pretty recent. I think Neooffice had sais they were not going to do a 2.0 version because the Aqua port was being worked on.

Some guy on www.tuaw.com claims to have spoken with an apple sales rep about this. Supposedly, Front Row won't be available for older macs. I sure hope he's wrong.

I'll keep that in mind the next time I enter a war-zone. Like Henrico County, VA.

On a more serious note, this looks really interesting for diving. But it's just a patent, so I don't have too much faith in a product being released.

--
Use your bluetooth phone as a modem for Linux

While you're probably correct about the inevitable turnaround on the video issue by Apple's torch-bearers, your characterization of the general reaction to the iTunes phone is kind of disingenuous. It seems to me that the community's reaction, far from the pants-cream-a-thon you suggest, has been tepid at best.

This is particularly funny, as in your last para you bash this new product with a line of reasoning that effectively parrots the negative reaction of even Apple's usual cheerleaders. Yes, we all know about the other phones with mp3 player functionality which work a gazillion times better than the ROKR.

Except this is a misguided comparison --the iTunes phone is of almost no interest as hardware, and no more or less interesting as stand-alone software than what runs on your average iPod. But so what? The *whole point* of the offering, and pretty much the only facet in which it is at all compelling, is the software's horizontal integration with Apple's existing iTMS offering, which you may have heard is kinda sorta popular. How about you call me when your Treo has out-of-the-box sync with one of the most popular digital music platforms in the world, k? Thx!

That iTunes mobile is tied to an underwhelming handset, and that handset alone, is a major strike against it --which isn't meant to push the blame onto Motorola. With an offering this half-baked, there's plenty of blame to go around.

That the only real way to defend it is to pull out tired phrases like "horizontal integration" which sound great on concalls with analysts (hell, who am I kidding, they don't even sound good there), but which do nothing to improve a grisly end-user experience --well, that doesn't help much either.

There are all kinds of reasons this first step into mobile is going to fail. But unless Apple turns tail and exits the market when that initial failure happens, eventually the end-user experience is going to improve. And when that happens, we'll really get to see who has more money to give Apple and its partners. Which group do *you* that that'll be? Marty-smarties who can get their music onto their phones themselves and have no need for a music management product like iTunes in the first place thank you very much, or the 75% online music sales market share who are already managing their music with iTunes and syncing with their iPods? What does it cost the user, at that point, to put a different device on the end of their sync cable?

Of course, that begs the question of whether the market even *wants* an iPod that can interrupt Chicago's Greatest Hits with an important message from a telemarketer, but that's a whole other kettle of fish.

7 Things To Do With Your Old iPod Mini

Goodbye iPod Mini. Hello iPod Nano! But wait...what are you going to do with that old Mini now that you've decided to fork out for an even cuter sliver of iPod goodness? Chill, dude, I'm here to help you out...

1. Use it as the world's most expensive paperweight.

2. Carry it in your top shirt pocket to deflect stray bullets.

3. Add it to your iPod family, you freak!

4. Stock it up with appropriately wistful tracks (Power of Goodbye, Bye Bye Baby...) and stick that sucka on eBay, tightwad!

5. Use it as a *really* opulent doorstop.

6. iPod dominoes, anyone?

7. Save yourself over $200. Just take your Mini and hit it with a sledgehammer until it's real flat. Then paint it black and color in the screen with some crayons. Hey presto...you don't need to fork out for a Nano after all!

1. And what exactly can you do with apt-get under OS X? Yeah, you can run many Linux applications under it. Only those that don't touch anything else except X11. Btw, there is Bash available for Windows alongisde cygwin.
2. Actually I don't think anyone took this seriously when you mentioned Finder. Even the greatest Mac zealots don't praise Finder.
3. Point taken, although I will mention OpenBSD.
4. iMovie - Movie Maker, iPhoto - Image viewer (not the same, but there's still ACDSee), iTunes - wow, I don't think I can download that, GarageBand - point taken (but it's not nearly what people preach about it), Mail - Outlook. Right Movie Maker is crappy and doesn't count, but hey it can export to an open format. I won't even mention all the apps that are available for Windows.
5. Is this even a point? Exactly how hard is it to download Java for those 30% of people who actually need it?
6. Again, I just can't take this seriously. Would Windows score higher if it had an assembler bundled?
7. Right clicking and setting permissions is difficult?
8. If you say Sys Pref is better then it must be. What? You mean it's hard to run a FTP service? Windows already has a built-in firewall.
9. How about if I prove you wrong? Notice that this trojan was released for Tiger even before Tiger officially shipped? But wait, there's more! I wonder why Slashdot doesn't post news about this :)
10. There are a lot of articles written about this so I won't bother. To put it short: it doesn't use the graphics card for rendering windows, it deosn't use PDF and it doesn't use vector graphics. Simply put - not a whole lot better then Windows already does. Check arstechnica if you don't believe me.
11. Everyone's personal opinion. Although Apple locks you in on that theme wihtout any (legal) way for you to change it, it does (to me) look better than Luna. Maybe I'm to used to Luna? Anyway, maybe I should download the ac conversion pack for Windows...
12. MSN, Yahoo, Google toolbars. There I said it. And no, Spotlight is _NOT_ what WinFS is supposed to be.
13. Explain to me how can a Windows PC be slower because of Registry? You seem to have no idea what the Registry really is. Is you Mac slow, because you have to many config files?
14. And Windows doesn't? Try looking inside Documents and Setings\User\Application Data\
15. Explain to me what are real, actual UNIX permissions? /home is \Documents and Settings. Moving from one Windows machine to another is also very simple. Try running the Files and Settings Transfer Tool some time.

Again, I must say this site is really something. I don't have a negative feeling against OS X, but give credit where credit is due. Don't be a fuckup and actually admit it is not perfect. I mean, you Apple zealots are really something. _NO_ Windows user will ever tell you their system is perfect. There are many things in every OS that are superior to some other, but spreading FUD and acting like a child isn't really helping you.

Try looking at "home projects" like SkyOS. Look specifically at their implementation of "Spotlight" (http://www.skyos.org/downloads/indexing.avi, codec: http://www.techsmith.com/products/studio/codec.asp ). I'm sure the real Spotlight is way better.

1. And what exactly can you do with apt-get under OS X? Yeah, you can run many Linux applications under it. Only those that don't touch anything else except X11. Btw, there is Bash available for Windows alongisde cygwin.
2. Actually I don't think anyone took this seriously when you mentioned Finder. Even the greatest Mac zealots don't praise Finder.
3. Point taken, although I will mention OpenBSD.
4. iMovie - Movie Maker, iPhoto - Image viewer (not the same, but there's still ACDSee), iTunes - wow, I don't think I can download that, GarageBand - point taken (but it's not nearly what people preach about it), Mail - Outlook. Right Movie Maker is crappy and doesn't count, but hey it can export to an open format. I won't even mention all the apps that are available for Windows.
5. Is this even a point? Exactly how hard is it to download Java for those 30% of people who actually need it?
6. Again, I just can't take this seriously. Would Windows score higher if it had an assembler bundled?
7. Right clicking and setting permissions is difficult?
8. If you say Sys Pref is better then it must be. What? You mean it's hard to run a FTP service? Windows already has a built-in firewall.
9. How about if I prove you wrong? Notice that this trojan was released for Tiger even before Tiger officially shipped? But wait, there's more! I wonder why Slashdot doesn't post news about this :)
10. There are a lot of articles written about this so I won't bother. To put it short: it doesn't use the graphics card for rendering windows, it deosn't use PDF and it doesn't use vector graphics. Simply put - not a whole lot better then Windows already does. Check arstechnica if you don't believe me.
11. Everyone's personal opinion. Although Apple locks you in on that theme wihtout any (legal) way for you to change it, it does (to me) look better than Luna. Maybe I'm to used to Luna? Anyway, maybe I should download the ac conversion pack for Windows...
12. MSN, Yahoo, Google toolbars. There I said it. And no, Spotlight is _NOT_ what WinFS is supposed to be.
13. Explain to me how can a Windows PC be slower because of Registry? You seem to have no idea what the Registry really is. Is you Mac slow, because you have to many config files?
14. And Windows doesn't? Try looking inside Documents and Setings\User\Application Data\
15. Explain to me what are real, actual UNIX permissions? /home is \Documents and Settings. Moving from one Windows machine to another is also very simple. Try running the Files and Settings Transfer Tool some time.

Again, I must say this site is really something. I don't have a negative feeling against OS X, but give credit where credit is due. Don't be a fuckup and actually admit it is not perfect. I mean, you Apple zealots are really something. _NO_ Windows user will ever tell you their system is perfect. There are many things in every OS that are superior to some other, but spreading FUD and acting like a child isn't really helping you.

Try looking at "home projects" like SkyOS. Look specifically at their implementation of "Spotlight" (http://www.skyos.org/downloads/indexing.avi, codec: http://www.techsmith.com/products/studio/codec.asp ). I'm sure the real Spotlight is way better.

1. And what exactly can you do with apt-get under OS X? Yeah, you can run many Linux applications under it. Only those that don't touch anything else except X11. Btw, there is Bash available for Windows alongisde cygwin.
2. Actually I don't think anyone took this seriously when you mentioned Finder. Even the greatest Mac zealots don't praise Finder.
3. Point taken, although I will mention OpenBSD.
4. iMovie - Movie Maker, iPhoto - Image viewer (not the same, but there's still ACDSee), iTunes - wow, I don't think I can download that, GarageBand - point taken (but it's not nearly what people preach about it), Mail - Outlook. Right Movie Maker is crappy and doesn't count, but hey it can export to an open format. I won't even mention all the apps that are available for Windows.
5. Is this even a point? Exactly how hard is it to download Java for those 30% of people who actually need it?
6. Again, I just can't take this seriously. Would Windows score higher if it had an assembler bundled?
7. Right clicking and setting permissions is difficult?
8. If you say Sys Pref is better then it must be. What? You mean it's hard to run a FTP service? Windows already has a built-in firewall.
9. How about if I prove you wrong? Notice that this trojan was released for Tiger even before Tiger officially shipped? But wait, there's more! I wonder why Slashdot doesn't post news about this :)
10. There are a lot of articles written about this so I won't bother. To put it short: it doesn't use the graphics card for rendering windows, it deosn't use PDF and it doesn't use vector graphics. Simply put - not a whole lot better then Windows already does. Check arstechnica if you don't believe me.
11. Everyone's personal opinion. Although Apple locks you in on that theme wihtout any (legal) way for you to change it, it does (to me) look better than Luna. Maybe I'm to used to Luna? Anyway, maybe I should download the ac conversion pack for Windows...
12. MSN, Yahoo, Google toolbars. There I said it. And no, Spotlight is _NOT_ what WinFS is supposed to be.
13. Explain to me how can a Windows PC be slower because of Registry? You seem to have no idea what the Registry really is. Is you Mac slow, because you have to many config files?
14. And Windows doesn't? Try looking inside Documents and Setings\User\Application Data\
15. Explain to me what are real, actual UNIX permissions? /home is \Documents and Settings. Moving from one Windows machine to another is also very simple. Try running the Files and Settings Transfer Tool some time.

Again, I must say this site is really something. I don't have a negative feeling against OS X, but give credit where credit is due. Don't be a fuckup and actually admit it is not perfect. I mean, you Apple zealots are really something. _NO_ Windows user will ever tell you their system is perfect. There are many things in every OS that are superior to some other, but spreading FUD and acting like a child isn't really helping you.

Try looking at "home projects" like SkyOS. Look specifically at their implementation of "Spotlight" (http://www.skyos.org/downloads/indexing.avi, codec: http://www.techsmith.com/products/studio/codec.asp ). I'm sure the real Spotlight is way better.

I tried doing this today. I called a support line where the person directed me to tech support person, then they directed me to customer relations. The CR person was nice, but said there was no way to get around the *20%* restocking fee. Even for a lowly educational purchaser like me. They'll refund your AppleCare completely though.

Big bummer, but this post helped me feel better about it http://www.tuaw.com/2005/06/06/editorial-apple-on- intel/#c24222

Someone's already done this.

The newest version of Safari added something like the sanitize feature; here's TUAW's take on it.

You won't find this on Slashdot, but seeing how people love to pick on Windows security, I thought to let you know about this;
http://www.tuaw.com/2005/04/25/mac-trojan/
Yesterday (even before OS X Tiger was released) the first Trojan for Tiger appeared.
Sophos is listing a new Mac Trojan, dubbed Mac/Cowhand-A, which lets other people gain control of your Mac: "Mac/Cowhand-A is a proxy Trojan for the Mac OSX platform. The Trojan may copy itself to the user's Preferences folder. In order to run itself on startup, the Trojan may add itself to the user's Startup Items."

There was a recent entry on The Unofficial Apple Weblog asking about this. So far no eggs posted by anyone, at least none in the OS itself. Those noted are either for specific apps, or stuff carried over from OSX's UNIX roots (LOTR dates in the calendar files, games in emacs.)

I recall reading somewhere that Easter Eggs in the Mac OS were so prevalent at one time that Apple actually had a group overseeing them! But at some point (I'm guessing Jobs' return,) a no-egg policy began.

Even the trusty old, option-selecting "About Finder" egg is gone.
-gko

unfilled the filled hole... link

Incidentally, just FYI, you can actually add 3rd-party RAM to the Mini yourself without voiding the warranty. Take a look at this:
Clearing up confusion about the Mac Mini

[quote]
While it is strongly recommended that you only have an Apple Authorized Service Provider crack it open and install RAM, hard drives, Airport and Bluetooth, it will NOT void your warranty if you do it yourself. As is standard operating procedure, however, anything you break while attempting anything on your own is not Apple's responsibility and will not be covered under warranty. I think that is pretty much common sense.

Among other things, the Mac mini boots headless too.