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Apple and carriers will donate free devices and broadband to US schools
The White House won't be going it alone as it brings US classrooms into the internet era through its ConnectED initiative -- it just revealed that a host of technology firms will also lend a hand. Apple plans to donate $100 million in iPads, MacBooks and software to underprivileged schools, while Autodesk and O'Reilly Media will give away free software and content. Microsoft, in turn, will heavily discount Windows to lower educational PC prices. Carriers are getting in on the action, too. AT&T and Sprint have both pledged to offer free wireless broadband to schools for multiple years; Verizon isn't giving away service, but it will donate up to $100 million in cash and other commitments. The combined efforts aren't going to fix the American education system by themselves, but they could create a level playing field for schools across the country. [Image credit: Johan Larsson, Flickr]
TUAW Bookshelf: Learning Unix for OS X Mountain Lion
Dave Taylor's "Learning Unix for OS X Mountain Lion" offers an in-depth tutorial for OS X power users who have not yet mastered Unix. Written for technically competent readers, it focuses on introducing common command-line tasks. The book starts with Terminal, and then moves on to the basic forms of Unix commands. In just about 200 pages, it surveys common file tasks, application launching and even X11. There are a lot of useful nuggets of information to be found. The tone overall is a bit dry, and I was rather hoping for more motivation on topics. That said, the author has done a good job in surveying Unix. My favorite bits were the in-text notes that offered practical advice such as differentiating between absolute and relative paths, what noclobber is, and so forth. In those, the content got a lot more real-world, and the tone was a bit warmer. It's a good book if you are, for example, a developer who's considering exploring the command line, or someone who's regularly responsible for system administration, but it's really not intended for a general Mac audience. If you've ever wondered about permissions strings or wanted to access file systems directly, and need to basically understand what's really going on behind that lovely OS X GUI, Learning Unix for OS X Mountain Lion offers a basic introduction that will get you started. It retails for US$20 print, $12 e-book or $22 for both.
Mini-review of Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition
If you're trying to figure out what to buy yourself with the gift card you got this holiday season, let me recommend David Pogue's Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition. I was fortunate to get a copy of it for Christmas this year (thanks, sweetie!) and it's 866 pages of sweet, Leopard-y goodness. The book is divided into six sections that cover just about every conceivable thing you could ever want to know about the OS. It takes a look at how to maneuver around the desktop, how to use the native apps to their fullest potential, what to do with once your online with your Mac, and everything in between.If you already know your way around OS X, this manual is a terrific reference tool for looking up obscure things you don't do very often, like tweaking onscreen colors to mimic a Windows PC monitor. At the other end of the spectrum, if you're a switcher there are roughly seven trazillion tips and tricks to help you learn how to get the most out of your new operating system. Pogue's writing style is upbeat, easy to understand, and sometimes downright hilarious. The book is well laid-out and progresses fairly intuitively, although the editor seems to have gone a little crazy with the headings, sub-headings, and sub-sub-headings on many of the pages. Also, while I'm sure Pogue touches on all 300 of Leopard's new features, it's not always immediately clear which features he's describing are different from the previous version, Tiger.Despite these minor shortcomings, I love this book and think it's a great addition to any Mac users bookshelf. This manual is one you don't want to miss.
Bill O'Reilly and guests talk Cali. game ban
The recently-overturned California law banning violent games sales to minors came under the gaze of one of America's most prominent TV personalities last night. The "Is It Legal?" segment on last night's episode of The O'Reilly Factor saw Bill O'Reilly and two guests briefly discussing the decision and the issue of game violence in general.First up was legal analyst Lis Wiehl, who actually defended the decision to overturn the law because, as written, the statute is overly broad. "You can drive a truck through this statute," Wiehl said. "Pac-Man is violent under this statute."Lawyer and politician Jeanine Pirro was having none of it, siding with Governor Schwarzenegger and the California legislature. "[They] can prove a causal relationship between seeing videos of violence and aggressive behavior, especially in the frontal lobe," Pirro said. Funny, we thought that the frontal lobe was usually associated with thoughts, not behavior per se.After a brief shouting match between the panelists, O'Reilly implied through a question that the rating board's decision should be good enough for these games. Despite this, after some more cross talk, O'Reilly comes down on Pirro's side. "If it's OK for the movies it should be OK for the video games," he said. One problem though ... there's no law regulating violent content in movies. So why should there be one for video games, then? Maybe just so O'Reilly will have a chance to call someone a "pinhead judge."
iPhone: The Missing Manual available in August, PDF bundle available now
The venerable David Pogue has worked his relentless magic yet again to conjure up yet another manual that apparently should have been in the box with iPhone: The Missing Manual (though one could certainly argue that there would have been no way to fit a typical book in the iPhone's impressively compact packaging anyway). As the promo email that I just received states, Pogue's iPhone coverage is summarized into four primary categories: the phone and organizer, the iPod, the Internet, and the hardware and software. Pogue even tackles such issues as synching an iPhone with multiple machines and ways to solve the iPhone's lack of a spam filter. Heck, Mr. Pogue is so into the iPhone, he even sang about switching to it.If you're already hooked and itching to both buy and read, O'Reilly is offering a bundle deal right up your alley: though the $20 book doesn't ship until sometime in August, you can purchase a $24.99 bundle to get a PDF copy right now. Either way, you can find out more details at O'Reilly's product page for iPhone: The Missing Manual.
Vista vs. OS X by the books
Tim O'Reilly, he of the animal books (as I like to call them), often posts about how O'Reilly's book sales can be indicative of tech trends in general. Thanks to zealous statistic keeping Tim has a wealth of knowledge about his sales (as as good business man should). The latest trend that Tim has set his sights on is OS adoption, specifically that of Vista/Tiger. Clearly, O'Reilly has sold more Vista related books vs. OS X books (darn marketshare), however, after 6 months Tiger books completely replaced sales of Pather books while XP books are still selling strong (though Vista sales are 50% higher than XP).What does this tell us? Mac users, at least those that buy tech books, are more likely to upgrade their OS to the latest version while Windows users are taking a wait and see approach with Vista.How many of you are planning on upgrading to Leopard as soon as it comes out?
Macworld SF 2007: O'Reilly Speaker Schedule
It's that time of the year again-that wonderful sense of anticipation while we wait for the big day and the new toys. No, not Christmas, Macworld San Francisco! Well O'Reilly and company are trotting out their heavyweights for MWSF, including David Pogue, Derrick Story, and others. Anybody who is thinking of going, check out the schedule to whet your appetites (and on that cold January morning, spare a kind thought for your faithful scribe who will be gazing fondly in a westerly direction while his unpardonably lucky fellow-bloggers are in San Francisco providing TUAW coverage).[Via MacVolPlace]
6 Fresh iPod Tips from O'Reilly
The newest version of iPod: the Missing Manual just came out this month and it's author, J D Biersdorfer has a cool article up over at O'Reilly Digital Media to celebrate. In "Six Fresh Tips from iPod: the Missing Manual", you're likely to find at least one new tip that you hadn't previously known about. For me, it was the one about storing full-resolution photos on your iPod. Other tips include how to safely reset your iPod, loading songs from multiple computers onto a single iPod, and downloading iPod-ready videos from Google. Nice write-up and well worth a read. Full disclosure: I also write for O'Reilly.
