William Computer Blog

Today is the day Apple Computer releases Mac OS X 10.4 - nicknamed Tiger. I’ve been waiting for this version of Mac OS X ever since I watched Steve Jobs Macworld keynote in January this year. Reviews on Mac OS X Tiger are all over the Internet and here are some of them:

• Tiger Review from Personal Technology from Wall Street Journal
• New York Times Review on Tiger
• Ars Technica Review Mac OS X Tiger

I won’t be upgrading to Mac OS X tiger for a few weeks because I plan to get a new mac next month. Will you upgrade / Have you already upgraded?

Opera 8 was released on April 19, 2005. The software is released for Windows and Linux operating systems and is currently at beta for Mac OS X. This time, I’m going to write about Opera 8 new key features and my experience using it.

Google had activated a new feature allowing google search engine user to access and manage their past search requests and results. “My Search History” service found on http://labs.google.com/. My Search History saves information about your activity on Google, including your search queries, the results that you click on, and the date and time of your searches.

Using this service, google will also provide you with statistics such as the number of visits you’ve made to a given web page and the last time you view it.

Because google stores your search history in google servers, you’ll be able to access them on any computer, as long as you are logged in with your google account. You can use your current gmail/googlegroups account to login. Google won’t save your search information if you aren’t signed in.

Remember to logout if you are sharing your computer with anyone else otherwise you might get embarrassed when other people view your search results.

Google Search History Site

This tip is useful if you have a lot of image on your disk such as wallpapers, web images, etc. I would like to display a preview/thumbnail of these images on Finder because I don’t want to import them to iPhoto (since I prefer to use iPhoto only to manage personal photos).

To enable icon preview feature, go to view > Show View Options (keyboard shortcut: Apple-J). You can now tick on the show icon preview window. You can also choose to apply those options on All windows or This window only.

Now, your finder is like thumbnail view for folders in Windows Explorer and you don’t have to memorize file names anymore.

Mozilla, released an upgrade to the firefox and mozilla browser. These new releases contain fixes to several security problem.

Apple released Mac OS X 10.3.9, an updated version to the Mac OS X 10.3 “Panther”. This update is recommended to all users because it contain a few improvements and security updates.

These are the improvements:

• network volumes are now available in the Finder sidebar and Desktop for convenient access
• file sharing and directory services reliability for Mac (AFP), UNIX (NFS), PC (SMB/CIFS), PPTP, and wireless networks
• support for NTFS formatted volumes
• reliability of user logins, mounting of home directories in a networked environment, and launch of network applications
• updated PostScript and USB printing
• updated font management
• reliable disc burning and recording functionality
• Bluetooth compatibility for Apple Wireless Keyboard and Mouse and Bluetooth phones.
• iPods connected via USB 2.0 are now recognized by iTunes and iSync
• updated Open GL technology and ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
• updated Address Book, Calculator, Disk Utility, DVD Player, Image Capture, Mail, Preview, Safari, Stickies, and QuickTime applications
• compatibility for third party applications and devices
• additional support for FireWire and USB devices
• FileVault, FireWire 800 and WebDAV improvements from Update 10.3.1
• previous standalone security updates and Bluetooth Update 1.5.1.

Apple also released iPhoto 5.0.2, an updated version to iPhoto5. iPhoto 5.0.2 addresses issue with iPhoto book layout, multiword searching, iDVD slideshow integration, and slideshow performance and photo editing on G3 systems. Another update is also released for iMovie HD.

You can download the updates from Apple Support Downloads or via Software update (Blue apple logo on top left corner > software update). Software Update Tips by Daring Fireball

According to Apple.com, Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) will be unleashed on Friday, 29 April. It will also be released on the same day in Australia according to Apple.com.au.

Buy online and you will get access to an exclusive online seminar with Mac experts.

This major release include features such as spotlight, an advance desktop search function allowing user to quickly search the computer hard disk for documents, photos, e-mail, music.

Another interesting feature of the operating system is dashboard, which provide widgets with information on weather, stock prices, and many more. Other major features are the new iChat, Quicktime 7, Safari with RSS, Automator.

I’m really excited with this release, roar!!

I found an interesting new command on Mac OS X called pbcopy and pbpaste. These two commands provide copying and pasting from command line.

pbcopy takes standard input and place it in the specified pasteboard. Example use of pbcopy, type the following in your terminal:

$ ls -la | pbcopy

The results of that unix command will now be placed in the pasteboard. Now, you can paste that result into Mac OS X program such as Safari, Mail.app, TextMate, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, etc.

The pbpaste removes the data from the pasteboard and writes it into the standard output. You can now copy things from Mac OS X software and paste it in terminal. Example:

1. Copy a paragraph of text from Mac OS X software (i.e Safari)
2. Open up terminal
3. type pbpaste > file.txt
4. A new file called file.txt will be created with things from your pasteboard in it

After being on beta for a very long time, Microsoft finally released the latest version of it’s instant messaging software, MSN Messenger 7.0. This version introduces some new features such as nudge, winks, animated display picture and dynamic display picture. I decided to download MSN Messenger 7.0 and install it on Windows XP Pro.

I would like to automatically assign IP address to computers attached to my network rather than setting them manually everytime they are attached to my network. This time, I’m going to write how I install and configure the ISC DHCP on my FreeBSD Router.

The gateway computer is running FreeBSD. The gateway computer has two network interface, an external interface connected to the Motorola Cable Modem, and an internal interface connected to the wireless access point and hub. IPfilter, is used for packet filtering and Network Address Translation.