Newton’s Lore

Sun’s open source virtualization package xVM VirtualBox is out of beta for Mac OS X and available for download. Note that it can’t currently host Mac OS X (aside from the licensing issues that only allow you to virtualize Mac OS X Server). According to ZDNet Sun sells a commercial version with USB support and an RDP server.
If you download it and can’t open the archive you may need to remove the ‘.bz2′ from the end of the filename.

If you want to get in on the game with Spore Creature Creator, you can download it here. Ars Technica has some more information on getting it running on machines with not quite the right graphics card here.

Incorporating some iPhone categories this year (because hey, they’re cooler than those boring old Macs), we have

• Best iPhone Web Application - Remember The Milk for iPhone and iPod touch 1.0 You’ll never forget the milk again! (runner up was AP Mobile News Network 1.0)
• Best Mac OS X Leopard Application - ScreenFlow 1.1.1 from Vara Software Limited for capturing and producing screencasts. (Runner up was the cool Bee Docs Timeline 3D Edition 2.1 for producing 3D timelines, strangely enough)
• Best New Mac OS X Leopard Game - Guitar Hero: III Legends of Rock 1.1 (Runner up Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars 1.09)
• Best Mac OS X Leopard User Experience Macnification from Orbicule BVBA (Runner up, Checkout 2.1 point of sale system from Werck BV)
• Best Mac OS X Leopard Graphics and Media Application - Screenflow 1.1.1 (Runner Up FotoMagico 2.2 from Boinx Software Ltd.
• Best Mac OS X Leopard Student Product - Squirrel (alpha), a financial management application from Axel Péju (runner up Flow 1.0.1, an FTP client with editor and QuickLook from Brian Amerige)

With Apple Online Stores across the world down if you’re chasing coverage of Steve Jobs’ WWDC 2008 keynote as distraction you could try

• Mactalk (Australian) IRC available
• The Unofficial Apple Weblog (IRC Channel)
• MacRumorsLive

According to The Australian’s IT section, Apple Australia have announced the availability of iTunes U in Australia. Content will be provided by some of Australia’s leading universities including

• The University of Western Australia
• The University of New South Wales
• Griffith University
• Swinburne University
• Otago University
• Australian National University
• University of Melbourne

Conveniently these universities are already running automated lecture capture or recording systems.

Well, a full Time Capsule backup in hand I upgraded to Mac OS X 10.5.3.

Unfortunately, after the install the machine seemed hung during the shutdown process.

After a forced shutdown and a restart, it seems that BOINC was running, but that BOINCManager wouldn’t work. Killed that.

Now it seems that CPU is being chewed up by

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework/Versions/A/Support/mdworker MDSSyncScanWorker com.apple.Spotlight.SyncScanWorker


man mdworker says:

mdworker is the metadata server worker process. It is used by mds to scan and index files as a volume is mounted or a file changes.

There are no configurations to mdworker, and users should not run manually.

Which isn’t particularly revealling. I guess I’ll wait and see if it finishes anytime in the near future. On the plus side, the Airport reception seems better.