There are often misconceptions behind open source. There is the idea that if you don't shell out big bucks for software, that it can't be any good.

This is what I hear...

1. Open source is garbage, there isn't a company to back it up
2. Open source is hard to load onto your computer
3. Open source can make your computer crash or worse

Choose any one of the three and it could be correct, however the well built open source software is often better quality than the commercial counterpart and it is certainly less expensive.

For example, if you compare the feature set of Open Office to Microsoft Office Suite, you may be surprised at how well they compare. At my place of work, only about a third of the staff uses the Office suite. Most use Office instead. Part of this, certainly, has to do with working at a very geeky place, but part of it has to do with thriftiness.

I've described Skitch before.  It is a cool image management, screen capture, sharing community tool for MacOS.  I have a few more invites that I can share.  If you would like one, email me at matthew at dogstar.org.

Today my work laptop updated to 10.4.9.  It was a large update with many seeming  security holes.  Right now the balance of our Macs are getting the update as well, Intel and PowerPC.

10.4.9 seems pretty final.  I've never seen Apple have an official release that was something like 10.4.9.1.

I think this means that Jaguar is right around the corner.  I can almost smell that kitty cat.  Will I buy it when it is released?  You betcha.  Can I say the same for Vista--no WAY.

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Non-profits that want to manage their own Internet based systems will ultimately find themselves needing to use File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Basically FTP allows you to move files from one computer--your local computer, to a second computer--often a server. It was originally developed for UNIX and is a main-stay for those developing Web sites.

I've used many different FTP clients on the Mac. Before OSX I used Fetch--a strong client that was ported to OSX. It originally had a free scaled down version that was easy to use but now is limited to a 14 day trial.

The creators of Kazaa and Skype have announced a partnership to create a Internet TV service called Joost.

Viacom had forced YouTube to remove all of its copyright content from the YouTube.  It has announced that it will deliver content from its various interests like MTV, VH1 and Paramount.

Joost has announced a beta program to test the Interface.  They have also announced that while it currently is Windows only, 250 Intel MacOS testers are in the process of working through a Mac version.

My post over the last day or so regarding my daughter's "laptop" seems to have generated some pretty significant traffic. I'm not quite sure why. Traffic over the last 24 hours has surged about 10 times its normal amount.

Even the somewhat controversial post which covered several men of Arabic descent being escorted off a flight I was on last October gleaned less traffic.

Perhaps it is because I posted to the Mac|Life forum regarding it and Mac users tend to be quite passionate about the platform.

I picked my daughter up from daycare and she proudly showed me this. Yep, she's an Apple gal. And only six!

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I bought two Mac minis today.  One for work--we are going to try and make use of it for ZAPP(tm) juries in the future.  We need one on the bench to figure out what it can or can't do for WESTAF.  The second was for my daughter.  She has been drawing keyboards on a typing paper, folding them and drawing an Apple on the back.  I've set up the little computer between Paula and my work stations.

One of the things that I absolutely love about MacOS X is parental controls.  Paula spent about 45 minutes setting up the Internet sites that our kiddo can access.  No more, no less.  You can lock down access tight as a drum.  Very cool.

Apple Gazette is reporting that Apple is replacing Aqua with a new skin called Illuminous. Apparently the new look will be unveiled at Macworld 2007. Given the copied look and feel by Vista it is no wonder that Apple is thinking about updating the look. Related, it appears, that Microsoft quickly replaced a copied icon.