Well, Apple announced their Intel based Macs yesterday in two forms, a desktop (in the form of a new iMac) and a laptop (in the form of the MacBook, a replacement for the Powerbook). This is ahead of schedule, and it shows that Apple have been working hard to modify their hardware to support the alternative CPU and environment. I've actually been using an Intel based Mac for a while now. As a developer I was fortunate enough to be able to get a Apple Transition Kit. I can say, quite simply, that I'm impressed. I'm even happier that as one of the early developers to embrace the new technology that Apple are providing us with an upgrade path in the form of a new Intel based iMac to replace our ATK.

Apparently there is some sort of keynote or something going today by Apple.

I'm not going to be there, but based on past experience, it could be an expensive day (I've purchased hardware after a number of these keynotes as soon as the Apple store has opened).

Predicting what is coming is impossible - Apple have pulled too many tricks on us before now. Pointing you to pontification is also fairly pointless. However, I do think Jason Fox tried an interesting approach...

A better approach to get the info is to visit one of the many sites that will be providing information straight from the keynote. MacDaily News already has a page available, and it's likely that other sites such as Macintouch, The Apple Blog (one of my other blog sites) and MacNN will have some live commentary. MacNN also have some pre-Macworld photos available, just in case you can't wait.

One of the interesting elements about the modern web experience is that users are expected to be part of a community, and web site owners are expected to provide the infrastructure to support it. You can see that in a combination of different tools.

Blogs contain support for people to comment, and you'll often see the same people comment on the same post, and even have conversations through the comments on a single post to the point that you know the person that is posting based on their posts. We're seeing the same with other sites. del.icio.us, Shoutwire, digg and even older sites like Slashdot all work on the same principle.

WordPress 2.0 is out and some reviews are beginning to hit the web. I actually did my own review of WordPress as a platform (rather than a specific version) just before WordPress 2.0 was released as part of the newsletter series on web hosting tools at Free Software Magazine. WordPress 2.0 has some interesting new features, like a WYSIWYG editor (only supported on some browsers), a new role based security model and some improvements to the administration interface.

I just visited Physorg.com to read a story about Bill Gate's vision for the multimedia home, digital lifestyle and Windows Vista's role in that vision.

On that page there's a link to Microsoft, among many others, and I clicked on it, fully expecting to go to Microsoft's website so that I could see if there was a press release on Gates' piece that I could blog on later.

The hyperlink is one of the main reasons why the Internet is so popular and usable; the ability to click on a word or phrase for more information is what makes the Internet a source for information, rather than a quest for information.

According to this report the US lost $105 billion to cybercrime in 2005.

That's a staggering amount, in any currency, but I can't help but think about how much that money could have saved in terms of providing funding for others projects, or how much could have been pumped into pension funds (mostly in a deficit here in the UK), or just placed into our consumer pockets. Afterall, the money lost comes from somewhere and one way or another that money comes from individual pockets in terms of the increase in costs of goods and services for the suppliers, services and insurance companies that are invovled in the process.

According to this report the US lost $105 billion to cybercrime in 2005.

That's a staggering amount, in any currency, but I can't help but think about how much that money could have saved in terms of providing funding for others projects, or how much could have been pumped into pension funds (mostly in a deficit here in the UK), or just placed into our consumer pockets. Afterall, the money lost comes from somewhere and one way or another that money comes from individual pockets in terms of the increase in costs of goods and services for the suppliers, services and insurance companies that are invovled in the process.

It is the start of the new year, and that generally leads to predictions and thoughts about what is going to happen in the coming year. Today, I want to talk about digital media. While I'm not going to make any out and out predictions about what might happen, I am going to make some generalisations about some issues that come up in the new year. To look forward, we need to start by looking back. Let's look at some of the top issues, in no particular order:

• Sony rookit
• CD Sales in 2005 are down

Despite my best attempts, I don't stop using computers over a break like the recent Christmas/New Year. In fact, this holiday I've only had a few days off from the grind.

But for some reason, the start of the new year and a return, even from a small break, seems to be a major issue. I know I'm not the only one who has such problems.

So how do you get back in the flow?

Here's what I do:

1. Start with the small jobs - catch up on the logs, emailed reports and other things that I can do over a small cofffee.
2. Do some of the smaller, easier tasks. Change the backup tapes, create the new users.

I've just read Spam: More or Less and it's the final point Joyce makes that rings true with me. As an individual I am certainly receiving less spam than I used to. But as an admin I know that the reason is because I've added Amavis and SpamAssassin to my network to filter out the spam before it reaches my mailbox. As an individual, that's great, as a network administrator, it is another item to manage and a little more work. As a responsible netizen it concerns me that the spam is still being sent and that it is deleted (albeit automatically) only after it's wasted CPU cycles, network bandwidth and in the process money before it reaches the machines where it is deleted where, in turn, it wastes my CPU cycles and bandwidth.