How should we price Snow Leopard? We won’t price it at $129, because we want all Leopard users to upgrade. So we are pricing Snow Leopard at the incredible price of $29.

Considering the work that has gone into the new OS, and the heady list of enhancements and tweaks, the deal isn’t all that bad at all. Admittedly, it’s still $129 for Tiger users, and will only run on Intel, not PowerPC systems, but it’s one hell of a deal for what essentially is the cost of a few coffees and cinnamon swirls at your local Starbucks. Add to that the excellent pricing on Snow Leopard Server (Unlimited Clients for $499, down from $999) and you get a sense of this isn’t just another update: this is a hard push on getting everyone to the best place the Mac OS has been since the late System 6 days.

In any case, this is a short, sweet update to let you know that I’m alive, and the rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated. As such, I’m still liable to the Student Loans Company, and no, you can’t have my things yet.

Since November, I’ve been working… and working some more. I finally pulled off a very painful migration for the team to a new ODM on a Xeon XServe (the documentation for which is still being written… I know, I know…) and since the last bugs were worked out in early/mid January, I’ve actually found time to sleep and even leave work on time. Needless to say, this has left me a little bored at times, but my health and Cardiologist both thank me.

December saw hours and hours and hours spent at work, past my salaried time, bashing my head against the server cabinet in some vain hope that my blood, offered as sacrifice, would resolve the AFP issues that had seemingly plagued my new install, but not the older 10.4.x G5 install. In reality, the issue had been there all along, but under the G5, performance was already so appallingly bad, that no one had a chance to notice the odd kernel panic causing everything to restart. The AFP lockups were so frequent under the old administration (a setup that I inherited, essentially overnight) that everyone was used to it by the time my new Intel went in. It wasn’t until after taking a break at the end of the year, was I able to come back with a fresh mind and look at everything with the analytical bent I had so far been lacking… as an aside, I still twitch at the mention of “beachballing…”

January saw the marriage of my best friend to his charming fianceé, where I stood as Best Man, and did my upmost to ensure the smooth running of the day. This culminated in my throwing myself out of an SUV and puling his then brand new Mother in Law from the path of a speeding car. Being European, she had neglected to remember that cars in the UK move in the other direction. As such, she’d not seen thought to check to her left as she stepped out into oncoming traffic… Needless to say, he still has said Mother in Law, and I learned that I can move rather quickly when needs must. I supposed it’s an indication that I should return to doing some sort of sensible sport and get myself back into shape (or at least, one other than “round”.)

In very early Feb, my little City was (metaphorically) shot in the knees when almost ten inches of snow fell, mostly overnight, causing London’s transport network to simply shut down. I was personally house-bound for three days as the snow that melted formed two inches of ice over everything capable of aiding movement (rails, tarmac, etc) and so venturing outside was an adventure in just how far you could get before falling on your backside because you’d forgotten to strap crampons to your boots.

My birthday was a quiet event (all things told) though the cake I brought to work was a resounding success. The post-cake-drinks were also a welcome change from the usual routine of going to the local Slug and Lettuce to listen to co-workers moan about being underpaid and overworked (which is in this climate, a rather snotty thing to say, I feel…) – the setting of a vodka bar, while not my usual choice, certainly made for a charming evening.

Which brings me neatly to March. Right now, this month has been rather spiffy. We’ve been granted new training resources at work, and projects that we’ve been working on have finally come to fruition. There’s new functionality to build into systems, new apps to test (note: always submit bug feedback; hell, all feedback. Feedback is good…) and stuff to learn. Challenges keep me on my toes. Love ‘em.

Other than that, I saw a very excellent opera based on The Office, written by my friend Anne for Comic Relief. You should all visit the site and sponsor her. And, last but not least, at the end of March, I’ll be setting off once more to the US, to visit friends in Chicago, Madison, and the surrounding areas. I’ll be staying through the Easter weekend, and should be back in London around the 14th. Hopefully, the trip will give me a little time to catch up on my written output. And perhaps a new story from the man in 41C.

Personally, I can’t wait for the new item to show up in stores. It’s going to be the hottest item of the Holiday season.

-Addresses an issue that could cause the AppleFileServer process to stop accepting connections while consuming most of the available CPU time on the server.

 

-Addresses an issue that could cause the Apple File Service refuse new connections after DirectoryService becomes unresponsive, and improves stability of DirectoryService.

These two issues alone were one of the biggest, causing no end of headache with Portable Home Directory users, and causing many people, myself included, to roll back to more stable 10.4.x Server installations. SInce the advent of 10.5.3, however, a great many people are now able to roll forward to 10.5.x installs again, and active testing is once again starting up. 

Of course, not all is as it should be. While unsupported by many applications, such as the Adobe CS Suite, many users are at home working on files directly from network shares. However, from 10.5.3 onwards, Mac OS Client has issues with writing partial files back over network shares. The result of this, is that users are making changes to CS documents, saving as normal, and finding their work corrupted. As it stands, the issue affects both Server and Client .3 and the current work around is to Save As when writing files back. This causes the application to write an entire copy of the file, rather than just the changes. 

While understandable that this is a somewhat hackish work around, it must also be remembered that the applications affected have never touted, nor encouraged, files to be worked on live on network mounted shares. However, given that Apple’s installed user base tends to centre around graphics and design professionals, it is unlikely that many will see this as anything other than Apple’s fault. 

More news as it becomes available.

Now, more than two months later, Yahoo! has responded with little more than a press release telling Redmond to go fuck itself. And Microsoft is getting impatient.

It has now been more than two months since we made our proposal to acquire Yahoo! at a 62% premium to its closing price on January 31, 2008, the day prior to our announcement. Our goal in making such a generous offer was to create the basis for a speedy and ultimately friendly transaction. Despite this, the pace of the last two months has been anything but speedy.

As John Gruber said,

This is the white collar equivalent of Steve Ballmer showing up at Yahoo’s door with a baseball bat in his hand.

Like many others, I eagerly await Yahoo!’s response. This is going to get interesting.

Look out in the future for a few pictures to start making their way back into posts here, and trips to to actually have pictures with them.

The Client update is available here with release notes here. Likewise, the Server update is here with the (spartan) release notes here.

Additionally, after 10.5.2 installs, you’ll have the option to grab the Leopard Graphics Update – just try not to get lost reading the release notes. It’s a real bother that Apple doesn’t see fit to include more detailed information on their updates. It’s really something that should be addressed. Maybe in a future update…

As I type this entry, happily eating what must be said, a very tasty slice of Ham and Pineapple pizza, one thing springs to mind; I have greasy fingers. Usually, I’d be having kittens at this point, but not now. My fingertips dart over the keys, and I have one over-riding thought in my mind. This computer is no longer mine.

It’s happened; two days ago, I was contacted by Executive Relations at Apple UK. My 12″ PowerBook has had it’s warrant signed, by me, and by a Higher Up at Apple. My MacBook has finally been ordered. A Core Duo 2GHz and a Gb of RAM, and a light up keyboard. I’m as happy as anything. They’ve even decided to throw in a new case for me. Really, the speed boost should be the most exciting thing for me, but no. It’s a light-up keyboard. Something I could have had two years ago, in fact, were it available on the 12″ PowerBook range. Never was, and really, never will be. Jacqui has a review up at Ars on the 1.83 Core Duo, and it’s excellent; despite the utter bullshite Slashdot and the News thread generated, it’s well rounded and an actual review of the hardware by a real user, not a regurgitation of the press release.
Either way, I’ve now got to wait until I get a fucking tracking number, and then the agonising weeks until it goes from Pending, Packing, Shipping, Shipped, and then all aboard the Mystery Bus to the middle of the fucking airport, a plane ride to the Netherlands, then to the UK, and handing it over to TNT for lord only knows how long until some under-paid driver hands over my Precious.

I’m in for one fuck of a long wait.

I’ve got one of these in the post, thanks to Ms. Rennie at Apple Customer Relations. She’s terribly nice. Needless to say, she was more than pleased to get it all organised after she saw the mess of notes in the AppleCare PeopleSoft DB had on my name.

Of course, I’ll put up my reactions to it, and field the usual questions. And no, I won’t send it to you. So don’t ask.

I’m sure I’ll love it. Other than the name. It has a name only a mother could love.