For those that live under rocks, the title is a quote from Family Guy.
So I took the plunge and bought myself an XBox 360 after the price drop. It was too sweet a deal to miss out on.
I’ve been spending quite a bit of time on it since I got it, and I’m enjoying it. I especially like the way you can download demos for free. Good thing.
I’ve also gone and gotten myself one of those 360Voice blogs, so effectively my 360 now has its own blog, which is interesting. It can be read here.
One last thing - The Halo 3 Soundtrack is beautiful. Stunning. Simply gorgeous.
When my Macbook Pro isn’t being used, it usually stays cooped up in my bag, waiting for the time when I’m at Uni, or at a friends house. Sometimes those visits can be few and far between. I’m only in Uni one day a week.
So my thinking was that instead of relegating the Macbook Pro to my bag for the week, why not turn it into a server? After all, my current server is rather noisy and is running linux…
There’s a few things that make the Macbook Pro (or any other similarly configured notebook) suitable for a SOHO server:
Small Form Factor - Obvious one. It’s a laptop. And a thin one at that. By no means is it an ultra portable, like an Asus EEE or the MacBook Air, but it’s still one of the thinnest notebook computers in its class. Being only an inch thick, it can slide into nice small places, or be kept in a draw.
Quiet Running, Even Under Load - My current server is an HP Pavilion desktop tower. It’s probably safe to say that it has one of the noisiest cooling fans fitted to its CPU that money can buy. if that wasn’t enough, the server is silent - as long is its not under any load. But as soon as you put it under any kind of load, the fan will start to rev, and then eventually, turn up to full speed, and sometimes I can’t hear my TV over the noise it makes. This isn’t so with the Macbook Pro, its as quiet as a mouse at all times!
Powerful Enough For Most Requirements - With it’s Core 2 Duo at 2.4 GHz and 2 GB of RAM, the Macbook Pro is already more powerful than my current server, with its P4 D, the faux dual core processor and 1 GB of RAM. The only thing the Macbook Pro lacks is a large direct storage solution. The most effective way to overcome it is to use external drives, which can be costly. Especially if you’ve chosen to use eSATA, which requires you to buy an express card for eSATA connectivity. however, its storage is adequate for small scale use, and firewire drives are inexpensive.
Has Built In Power Backup - My current server has the option to reboot upon a power failure. This is great, only the system still goes down as soon as the power fails, and data corruption could occur when it happens. Without shelling out for an expensive UPS system, this can’t be prevented. However, notebooks already implement this kind of functionality because it has a battery. As soon as power is lost, the notebook switches to its battery supply. Power failures are no longer a problem. The system can be scripted to shutdown cleanly when it detects power failure which can prevent the data corruption.
To oversee all of this, I’ve given OS X 10.5 Server a go. At first glance, it seems like a very powerful server OS. Not just because of what it can do, but because of how well the tools to control everything are integrated with the OS. A lot of the functionality that OS X 10.5 Server gives you can be achieved using Open Source alternatives (come to think of it, most of the software it uses is Open Source). The Server Admin tool is very robust and acts as a central go-to for everything you need to configure. Much easier than having to delve into the command line and configuration files.
And there you have it. Why shell out for a dedicated server system, or a noisy desktop tower when you can have a decent server up and running using an notebook?
There are screams echoing over the interwebs that Apple is mass-rejecting applications for the iPhone Developer Program.
However, this is a classic case of people overreacting or just being plain stupid. The e-mail people have receive goes a little something like this:
“Thank you for expressing interest in the iPhone Developer Program. We have received your enrollment request. As this time, the iPhone Developer Program is available to a limited number of developers and we plan to expand during the beta period. We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time.”
Now read that and explain to me why people are thinking this is an outright rejection… There are multiple parts of this text that indicate otherwise:
“We have received your enrollment request.” - Notice how they say that, and not “We have rejected your enrollment request.”
“At this time, the iPhone Developer Program is available to a limited number of developers and we plan to expand during the beta period.” - Remembering that the iPhone SDK and the Developer Program are still in beta stage, it should be obvious that not all applications will be accepted immediately. While the iPhone SDK is available in beta form to all those who sign up for, or already have a free Apple Developer Connection account, that doesn’t mean that the program is equally as open. Apple have been inundated with enrollment requests, and the letter clearly states that at this moment in time, they’re only accepting a small amount of developers, with intentions to increase the numbers throughout the beta period.
“We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time.” - Notice again how they do not say they are rejecting the request, but rather the opposite. They’re telling you that they will have another look at the request when they decide to open the developer program a little wider.
I also applied for the iPhone Developer Program, and the response I received this morning was a little bit more of a let down than those who received the one above. The response I got was:
“Thank you for expressing interest in the iPhone Developer Program. We have received your enrollment request. At this time, the iPhone Developer Program is only available in the US and will expand to other countries during the beta period. We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time.”
My first response wasn’t to cry out that Apple had rejected me! In fact, it was pretty much just a “Humph, looks like I’m going to have to wait”.
So to all those whiners that think they’ve been rejected, suck it up. At least when the program opens up a little, you’ll probably get in there before Apple expand it outside of the US.
