News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
James' "The wisdom of crowds" is the topic here. He goes through several examples ranging from predictive economic, electoral and sports markets where the crowd generates surprisingly accurate results. He relates this to the delicious and flickr tagging exercises and to Google's ability to find what you want using, essentially, the wisdom of the crowded internet. The argument extends to the wikipedia idea that chaos can conceal an order. He compares to the common perceptions of crowd behaviour in terms of stock market bubbles bursting and meetings, where everyone becomes as dumb as the dumbest person attending. But, he maintains that groups can be "made smart" if three conditions are met
Martin Levins | Jun 30, 2008
I’m sitting in the keynote of this conference (known colloquially as NECC) where over 18 000 educators have come together in San Antonio Texas (site of the Alamo) for what is arguably the biggest education conference to address curriculum issues involving Information Technologies in the world, with the theme of Convene, Connect and Transform. Some may argue that the British Education Technology Trade show is bigger, and it is, but it's more of an "expo" with far fewer spotlights, keynotes and workshops than International Society for Technology in Education's NECC.
Martin Levins | Jun 30, 2008
If you’ve been reading the Mac news the last week or so, it’s been pretty chock full of information on exploits and malware affecting OS X. First there was Intego’s security alert concerning what the security software maker calls the “ARDAgent root privilege escalation". To summarise the security exposure that Intego reported, it’s a pretty bad one. There are some glimmers of good news in the gloom, though. To take advantage of the ARDAgent exploit, some interaction from the user is still required, and it's relatively easy to protect yourself.
Rob Griffiths | Jun 30, 2008
You’ve probably read by now that some people who went to the Apple Store Sydney opening last week have begun selling their commemorative t-shirts on eBay and similar sites. This, in a sort of mixed-up way, makes sense to me. It means, after all, that what they were lining up for for so long actually has monetary value to them. What makes less sense to me is the fact that people are buying them — at least at these prices.
Matthew JC. Powell | Jun 27, 2008
Sometimes, it's better to play with yourself. No, wait, that's not quite right. I've been spending some time recently on an iMac playing two fairly significant fantasy action games. First, I've been enjoying playing through Lionhead's Fable: The Lost Chapters, recently brought to the Mac by Feral Interactive. Then I went head to head with the big challenge in fantasy games right now; Blizzard's well-loved World Of Warcraft.
Alex Kidman | Jun 25, 2008
Apple very quietly added TV shows to the content of Australia's iTunes Store yesterday, not even issuing a press release about it until early this morning (and that with no subject line). The shows, from three American producers and two Australian ones, cost $2.99 each and finally provide a fully legal way to populate an Apple TV, iPod touch or — in a few weeks — iPhone with compelling content. Up until now the only video content available from the iTunes Store has been Pixar short films, music videos and movie trailers.
Matthew JC. Powell | Jun 25, 2008
The South Australian Apple Users' Club (SAAUC) bas been in Adelaide since the late 1970s and now has a diverse range of members between the ages of 15 to over 80s. Skill levels vary from raw beginners to professional and power users. It is an ever-evolving group that still provides a wide variety of services and assistance to its members. It produces a monthly magazine, called AppleSauce, which is provided in an easy-to-read on-screen PDF format. Back issues of AppleSauce can be downloaded from the web site and when you visit the site be sure to say Hello to Englebart!
Nicholas Pyers | Jun 24, 2008
Traffic — particularly pedestrian traffic — in the middle of Sydney was disrupted on Thursday as people lined up around the block into York Street to be among the first to enter the Apple Store. The excitement of those in the line was palpable, as was the disbelief of many passers-by. "Why are you waiting in line," they cried, "it's just a shop." I heard that phrase a lot: "just a shop". I'm sure the people who queued overnight heard it many more times than I did. But, in truth, is the Apple Store "just a shop"?
Matthew JC. Powell | Jun 20, 2008
It merited only an aside in Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote here at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). The real information about the next version of Mac OS X, if any, was flashed later in the day only to developers, and only under a nondisclosure agreement that promises vengeance unto the third generation if broken. So, what we know about that operating system, dubbed Snow Leopard, is: It exists. And the widespread pre-WWDC rumours were on target when they said that Snow Leopard, unlike, oh, every other major OS X revision, will feature … no new features.
Dan Turner | Jun 16, 2008
The 3G iPhone, to no-one's surprise, debuted this morning at the WWDC in San Francisco. The feature set, however, did come as a surprise, as did some of the features of the enhanced and rebadged .Mac service, hereinafter known as MobileMe. And who was expecting a white iPhone? Not us. Read all about it and join in the chat on the Australian Macworld Forums.
Matthew JC. Powell | Jun 9, 2008
What tickles your fancy? The Geography of Europe. Nanotechnology, Philosophy or perhaps Astrophysics and Supercomputing? The University of Melbourne, Swinburne, Australian National University, University of Western Australia, the University of NSW, Griffith and Otago University in New Zealand, are just some of the Antipodean tertiary institutions now joining their US cousins in providing public lectures, courseware and recordings of ceremonial events such as commencement and valedictory speeches.
Martin Levins | Jun 9, 2008
Yeah, your iPhone has access to that high-speed cellular data network. But admit it: you use Wi-Fi whenever you can, right? Why, these days I’m tempted to walk into every McDonalds I pass and log in for free Wi-Fi just because I can! 3G may beat EDGE, but Wi-Fi beats both.
