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Jun 06, 2005

Apple Switching to X86!

Looks like the speculation was on target - Apple is switching to Intel. I wonder what this will do to sales of G4/G5 hardware until late 2007 (Intel hardware will appear in June 2006) when the transition is due to be completed.

I've got a NeXTStation (a 68040 machine running NeXTStep 3.3) and OpenStep 4.1 for Intel so the whole fat-binary thing should be a complete non-issue from and end-user perspective. In the old NeXT days apps would come ready to run on Motorola/Intel/PA-RISC/SPARC/Intel.

Support and software will be a phased transition so the PowerPC architecture will see updates for many years to come. Apple is an expert at this type of thing having moved from 680x0 to PowerPC and MacOS Classic to Mac OS X.

Oh well - leave it to Apple to keep the tech-world interesting . . .

[/links/2005] | [permalink] | [2005.06.06-19:50.00]

Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

So I've just seen the final Star Wars film Revenge of the Sith and I'd have to say its the best of the three prequels. Which doesn't say much but at least I get closure. The plot isn't to bad but you could still drive several star destroyers through the holes. The dialog and acting is universally terrible but the visual spectacle is still the primary draw-card. The initial opening space battle is definitely my fave scene - its a shame Babylon 5 didn't get a bigger budget for its special fx as its an infinitely better example of the 'space opera' genre than the last few Star Wars movies (my fave is probably Empire Strikes Back).

Someone really needs to turn one of Iain Banks Culture novels into a movie for a decent example of a hard sci-fi story set in the distant future.

[/film] | [permalink] | [2005.06.06-07:20.00]