Briefly: Feds on ex-Apple execs, Cisco reprieve (again), Parallels RC3
Some of Cupertino's alumni could soon meet the raw end of a government axe. Simultaneously, Apple itself has been granted a stay of execution from its iPhone rival Cisco, and Parallels' latest release candidate brings the virtualization software up to spec with the newest technology.
Previous Apple execs face legal reckoning
While the corporate mothership may be safe at the moment, those no longer within its protection won't be so fortunate, according to the Wall Street Journal. The trade paper revealed today that Federal prosecution teams are hoping to fast track their investigations of executives it believes may have illegally backdated company options -- including two of Apple's recently departed executives, CFO Fred Anderson and general counsel Nancy Heinen.
The accelerated hunt may have shifted some attention away from company head Steve Jobs, who remained under scrutiny by the Feds for his potential involvement with the matter. An internal investigation by the company late last year allegedly cleared the charismatic frontman of any wrongdoing but failed to satisfy the US government's expectations.
Apple, Cisco extend iPhone talks again
After causing a minor panic when its self-imposed February 15th deadline ran out, Cisco on Friday gave Apple another week to hash out a deal that would let both companies keep the iPhone trademark.
Apple now has until the evening of February 21st to respond to the networking firm's lawsuit over the naming conflict, which had been filed scarcely a day after the unveiling of Apple's phone. The now-elapsed original extension had been granted at the beginning of this month when both companies decided it would be wiser to reach a compromise than slug it out in court.
Parallels RC3 adds Vista, USB 2.0 support
Owners of Intel-based Macs were treated to a new beta of Parallels Desktop on Friday. Release Candidate 3 (build 3170), as it's known, offers a pair of crucial updates as well as a handful of new features.
Particularly important for some is enhanced Vista support: Parallels Desktop users with a copy of Windows XP already installed can now upgrade to Vista from within the shell itself, sparing the headache of requiring a clean install. Peripheral hardware also received a major boost through USB 2.0 support, letting hard drives and Apple's iSight camera run at the full speed of the serial bus.
Testers willing to try the new test version also had access to Transporter RC3, a tool that creates a virtual machine out of an actual Windows PC's installation; a more secure drag-and-drop tool that prevents files from being shared on a global level without permission; and various fixes for issues with OS X 10.5 Leopard and USB.
Previous Apple execs face legal reckoning
While the corporate mothership may be safe at the moment, those no longer within its protection won't be so fortunate, according to the Wall Street Journal. The trade paper revealed today that Federal prosecution teams are hoping to fast track their investigations of executives it believes may have illegally backdated company options -- including two of Apple's recently departed executives, CFO Fred Anderson and general counsel Nancy Heinen.
The accelerated hunt may have shifted some attention away from company head Steve Jobs, who remained under scrutiny by the Feds for his potential involvement with the matter. An internal investigation by the company late last year allegedly cleared the charismatic frontman of any wrongdoing but failed to satisfy the US government's expectations.
Apple, Cisco extend iPhone talks again
After causing a minor panic when its self-imposed February 15th deadline ran out, Cisco on Friday gave Apple another week to hash out a deal that would let both companies keep the iPhone trademark.
Apple now has until the evening of February 21st to respond to the networking firm's lawsuit over the naming conflict, which had been filed scarcely a day after the unveiling of Apple's phone. The now-elapsed original extension had been granted at the beginning of this month when both companies decided it would be wiser to reach a compromise than slug it out in court.
Parallels RC3 adds Vista, USB 2.0 support
Owners of Intel-based Macs were treated to a new beta of Parallels Desktop on Friday. Release Candidate 3 (build 3170), as it's known, offers a pair of crucial updates as well as a handful of new features.
Particularly important for some is enhanced Vista support: Parallels Desktop users with a copy of Windows XP already installed can now upgrade to Vista from within the shell itself, sparing the headache of requiring a clean install. Peripheral hardware also received a major boost through USB 2.0 support, letting hard drives and Apple's iSight camera run at the full speed of the serial bus.
Testers willing to try the new test version also had access to Transporter RC3, a tool that creates a virtual machine out of an actual Windows PC's installation; a more secure drag-and-drop tool that prevents files from being shared on a global level without permission; and various fixes for issues with OS X 10.5 Leopard and USB.
Comments
Cisco held out until Mac World, Apple didn't flinch. Now Apple holds out for the 15th, and Cisco doesn't flinch.
Meanwhile, the lawyers cash their monthly checks.
Nothing like Russian programmers for speed!
S...Release Candidate 3 (build 3170), as it's known, offers a pair of crucial updates as well as a handful of new features...a more secure drag-and-drop tool that prevents files from being shared on a global level without permission...
Yeeah BUILD 3150 has a weird "drag and drop" bug, which when enabled, gives the Virtual WINXP2Pro (others[?]) access to your WHOLE Mac. When you click the "Parallels Shared Folders" for example, on the desktop, you can see the whole Mac drive from / - meaning /user /tmp /etc and so on. AFAIK.
And what do ya know, Fred Anderson is no longer with the company
Yup, the scapegoats have been trotted out. Next up: Off With Their Heads !!11!!
Yup, the scapegoats have been trotted out. Next up: Off With Their Heads !!11!!
...then kick those heads into federal prison.
Ah, what a country. Do the crime, spend the time, then sell the grime.
Heh.
Ah, what a country. Do the crime, spend the time, then sell the grime.
It's also a law here that you can't make money off your crime. For example; writing a book about in prison won't make you any money.
It's also a law here that you can't make money off your crime. For example; writing a book about in prison won't make you any money.
But "Backdating Stock Options for Fame and Fortune" would be perfectly alright, right?
OR
"The Real Steve Jobs: (30 Years of) Stock Options Was Just The Beginning".
OR
One of my favourites:
"Get Rich Quick (With Stock Options) Or Go To Jail Trying"
by Fred Anderson and Nancy Heinen, with Foreword by FiddyCent.
Coming Soon to a Bestseller List near YOU.
But "Backdating Stock Options for Fame and Fortune" would be perfectly alright, right?
OR
"The Real Steve Jobs: (30 Years of) Stock Options Was Just The Beginning".
OR
One of my favourites:
"Get Rich Quick (With Stock Options) Or Go To Jail Trying"
by Fred Anderson and Nancy Heinen, with Foreword by FiddyCent.
Coming Soon to a Bestseller List near YOU.
Backdating options isn't a crime, dummy!
How many times have we cleared that up?
There have been executives imprisoned for hiding their profits and not paying taxes. They have also been imprisoned for not doing the legal corporate diligence.
But you have to go to trial, and be convicted first, remember?
While the corporate mothership may be safe at the moment, those no longer within its protection won't be so fortunate, according to the Wall Street Journal. The trade paper revealed today that Federal prosecution teams are hoping to fast track their investigations of executives it believes may have illegally backdated company options -- including two of Apple's recently departed executives, CFO Fred Anderson and general counsel Nancy Heinen.
It's also a tradition in the U.S. legal system that prosecuted criminals will testify against a corporate CEO in exchange for a reduced prison term, if they can't avoid prison altogether.
Watch for perjury charges and obstruction of justice accusations in the weeks to come. As the article states "Federal prosecution teams are hoping to fast track their investigations of executives".
Buy oranges for Steve.
Parallels is a cool company, i think. Once i get an intel mac, I will sure buy them.
You'll buy the company? How much money do you have?
Still no 3D support from Parallels though. Plus I wish they'd find a way to share the internal memory with the Mac system. As soon as the VM loads, it sucks up the entire chunk of Ram so it's using too much when it doesn't need it and it can't get enough when it needs more. It would be good if you didn't have to assign Ram and each process had it's own memory segment allocated like a native system.
Yeeah BUILD 3150 has a weird "drag and drop" bug, which when enabled, gives the Virtual WINXP2Pro (others[?]) access to your WHOLE Mac. When you click the "Parallels Shared Folders" for example, on the desktop, you can see the whole Mac drive from / - meaning /user /tmp /etc and so on. AFAIK.
That was not a bug. That was a feature, called global sharing, which was originally enabled by default.
A big stink ensued on the Parallels Forums about the security implications of the feature, and so it is now disabled by default, allowing users who accept the security implications to turn it on if they desire.
That was not a bug. That was a feature, called global sharing, which was originally enabled by default.
Ahh....
A big stink ensued on the Parallels Forums about the security implications of the feature, and so it is now disabled by default, allowing users who accept the security implications to turn it on if they desire.
Good fix, I think.
Backdating options isn't a crime, dummy!
How many times have we cleared that up?
There have been executives imprisoned for hiding their profits and not paying taxes. They have also been imprisoned for not doing the legal corporate diligence.
But you have to go to trial, and be convicted first, remember?
My witty
Trial? Conviction? Yeah, it's all factored into the book deals. First the dodgy videos and leaked documents and/or he-said she-said. Start writing the book. Then investigations and so on, continue writing. If it looks like trial and conviction is too far away, release the book, start talking movie/ cableTV deals. No trial still? Release the book with litigious material, libel is a good bit as any to throw in.
You'll buy the company? How much money do you have?
That's funny, I was going to make the same comment, but said; Nah!
Still no 3D support from Parallels though. Plus I wish they'd find a way to share the internal memory with the Mac system. As soon as the VM loads, it sucks up the entire chunk of Ram so it's using too much when it doesn't need it and it can't get enough when it needs more. It would be good if you didn't have to assign Ram and each process had it's own memory segment allocated like a native system.
3D support is not guaranteed. There is no known way to do so, though they may be able to get around some of the difficulties. The mother OS "owns" the graphics system. So far, after many years of trying, no one has ever been able to work around that. It's possible that 10.5, however, might have some loopholes in that, but we'll see.
That's funny, I was going to make the same comment, but said; Nah!
It's alright, we were all thinking the same thing 8).
3D support is not guaranteed. There is no known way to do so, though they may be able to get around some of the difficulties. The mother OS "owns" the graphics system. So far, after many years of trying, no one has ever been able to work around that. It's possible that 10.5, however, might have some loopholes in that, but we'll see.
VMWare Fusion Beta for Mac has apparently demonstrated this with DirectX8 (some leaked video is out, authenticity unknown AFAIK). VMWare is massive in the corporate space. They've got the skillz to bring out VMWare Fusion for Mac by middle of 2007 with DirectX9.0c hardware accelerated support, + multicore support, + Vista hardware acceleration support.
I think by the end of 2007 we'll have multicore, solid Vista, and full DirectX9.0c hardware acceleration support in virtual machines. Either from Parallels or VMWare or both. 2008 - DirectX10 support.
Also by the end of 2007 - as one of the posters mentioned here or somewhere, smarter memory management - so that instead of the virtual machine "isolating" a chunk of memory you assigned to it, applications and virtual OS will take what they need from the host OS and swap out to disk when not being actively used.
What's so exciting about Macintels right now is that the hardware is there, it's a matter of software catching up. That's a great position to be in, in terms of longevity of Mac hardware, given software upgrading is generally cheaper than eBaying and buying new Macs every 0.5 years or whatever... well, kinda... y'all get my drift...