Stan's List

InfoWorld provides its perspective on CrossOver, a commercialized version of the open source Wine (Wine Is Not an Emulator) project which is itself a re-implementation of the Win32 API, allowing applications to run as if natively on the target OS.

“CodeWeavers already has an established history within the Linux community with their Linux version of CrossOver. However, the Mac version is still new and will require some extensive tire kicking before it can compete with some of the competitive solutions that it is already faced with. The company is making great strides and already offers official support for about 50 applications including Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, Intuit Quicken, as well as games such as Half-Life.” More …

There are all sorts of stories about 2nd or 3rd PC owners finding personal data still on the hard drive of the used computer they just purchase.
BusienssWeek notes that completely wiping the contents of your hard drive is a tough task, but there are tools that make deleted data very hard to reconstruct. “National Institute of Standards & Technology has just issued a report, “Guidelines for Media Sanitization” that advises government agencies on how to clean up digital storage media for disposal or reuse. It examines techniques ranging from simple clearing of the data to ones that involve the terms ‘disintegrate, shred, pulverize, or incinerate.’ [...]� If you’re an Apple Mac user, the built-in OS X Disk Utilities has a feature that will safely overwrite file contents.” More …

Though there’s no press release heralding the change, the Mac mini has also been updated with faster processors and, like the “new” iMac, Intel, Core Duo.

Here’s what you get for $599:

• a 1.66GHz Core Duo
• 2MB L2 Cache
• 667MHz FSB
• 512MB 667MHz DDR2
• 60GB SATA HDD
• Combo drive
• AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth 2.0
• Apple Remote

Here’s what you get for $799:

• a 1.83GHz Core Duo
• 2MB L2 Cache
• 667MHz FSB
• 512MB 667MHz DDR2
• 60GB SATA HDD
• Combo drive
• AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth 2.0
• Apple Remote

Apple has announced that all “new” iMacs now feature Merom (the latest Core 2 Duo) processors, which the mothership says delivers up to 50-percent faster performance.

“Every iMac—from the $999 model up through the new dazzling 24-inch widescreen model—now features blazing Core 2 Duo performance,” said Philip Schiller, senior vice president, worldwide product marketing. “And the new 24-inch widescreen iMac is the fastest, biggest and brightest iMac we’ve ever made.” More …