Striking GOLD - AUC

MINDWheels for theStrikingGOLDCONTRIBUTECOMMUNICATECOLLABORATEMakingeverythingbeautifulA magazine for academic staff, students and IT professionalsSPRING2007FREE COPY

PRODUCT ROUND-UPWHAT’S NEW IN THE WORLD...Best of both worldsVMWare is the gold standard in servervirtualisation, and now it has taken onParallels with its own Windows-on-Mac OSX application. There’s support for seamlessWindows apps on the desktop, DirectX 8.1,multi-processor virtual machines, 64-bitoperating systems, point-in-time snapshots,and migration of Boot Camp installationsonto the desktop. Contact VMWare on(02) 9375 2269 or www.vmware.com.Get your movie on trackCreating content digitally may put a universeof tools at your fingertips, but you still needeffective planning and production tools tomake your story work as well as possible.ToonBoom Storyboard Pro provides panelor overview window layouts to let youdraw sketches, manage camera movement,use onion-skin and motion layers, createvector images and more. Academic pricingis $US599.99 from www.toonboom.com/product/storyboardpro/ or considerthe $US149.99 entry-level Studio at www.toonboom.com/products/toonBoomStudio/.Dfinest thingDigital image handling has its benefits, butnoise – the sharp gradations and unwantedsensor artefacts of pictures taken in low lightwith high ISO settings – isn’t one of them.Compensation filters usually reduce noisebut soften or destroy much of your image,but DFine 2 eliminates this compromiseby offering professional control over noisereduction for Photoshop users. Costs$US99.95 from www.niksoftware.com/dfine/.Making smartphonesthink differentIf you want a smartphone but can’t wait untilthe iPhone launches here next year, you’llprobably end up with a Windows Mobile(WM) device. Since there’s no ActiveSync forMac, you’ll need Mark/Space’s The MissingSync. It synchronises music, photos, SMS,phone history, calendar, to-do and otherinformation with your WM device, providingfeatures even ActiveSync doesn’t. The latestversion supports WM5 and WM6. Costs$US39.95 from www.markspace.com.Willing and AabelIf numbers are your thing, Aabel may be yournew best friend. Combining statistical andexploratory data analysis, scientific graphingand thematic mapping, Aabel combines datafrom multiple sources into more than 200types of graphical analysis and facilitatesexploration of data hierarchies. If you needto analyse it, Aabel can probably do it. Costs$US345 from www.gigawiz.com/aabel.html.Get that light touchAlthough it’s possible to do just aboutanything in Photoshop, sometimes youjust want to get the job done quickly andeasily. LightCrafts LightZone 3 keeps offersa full suite of image retouching and assetmanagement tools. Want to brighten upsomeone’s face? ZoneMapper lets youclick on it, then adjust your sliders. Noisereduction, RAW support, automatic imageoptimisation and more. Costs $322.52 fromwww.lightcrafts.com.2 WheelsfortheMind

CONTENTSEDITORIAL62 Product Roundup4 Rendezvous at the Gold Coast4 AUC Update6 Making everything beautiful8 Stop-motion teaching9 Better than being there81810 New Apple Tech12 Striking gold with Quartz1413 12.1 Surround Sound14 Big brains, big storage15 Entropy hits the Xgrid16 Development, with honours18 Xworld 200720 Living the vida WWDC22 The Joy of Tech23 Crossword CompetitionWheels for the Mind is published by Apple Australia Pty. Ltd., Level 13, 255 Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW 2000Apple University Consortium: http://www.auc.edu.au register online for a free subscription.Editor: Stephen JohnstonEditorial: David Braue, www.braue.comDesign and Production: Allegro Graphics, Phone: 03 9836 1600, Email: allegro@allegrographics.com.auAUC MEMBER UNIVERSITIES AUSTRALIA:• Australian National University• Central Queensland University• Charles Sturt University• Curtin University of Technology• Deakin University• Edith Cowan University• Flinders University of SA• Griffi th University• James Cook University• La Trobe University• Macquarie University• Monash University• Murdoch University• RMIT University• Southern Cross University• Swinburne University of Technology• University of Adelaide• University of Melbourne• University of Newcastle• University of New England• University of New South Wales• University of Queensland• University of South Australia• University of Southern Queensland• University of Sydney• University of Tasmania• University of Technology, Sydney• University of Western Australia• University of Western Sydney• University of Wollongong• Victoria University of TechnologyNEW ZEALAND• University of Auckland• University of Canterbury• Massey University• University of Otago• Victoria University of Wellington• Waikato UniversityAFFILIATED UNIVERSITIES• Australian Defence Force Academy• University of Canberra• Dr Mahalingam Collegeof Engineering & Technology,Pollachi, IndiaWelcome to the Spring 2007 edition of Wheels for theMind. The biennial academic conference on the GoldCoast is the AUC’s flagship event. The conference themeof contribute, communicate and collaborate provides aunique forum for member universities to exchange ideasface to face and continue the inspirational work usingApple technologies in Australian Higher Education.Attracting keynote speakers like Dr. Kenneth C Green,Author, Educator and founding Director of the CampusComputing Project in the USA, the world’s largeststudy of the role of IT in colleges and universities.Professor Carl Berger, Dean Emeritus of the Universityof Michigan and amongst many other things, AppleDigital Campus research fellow, promises to stimulateminds as a highly sought after and engaging speaker.Michael Ossipoff, Director of Capability with Telstrawhose role is interpreting the implications of newtechnology for Business to leverage strategic advantage– and to add to this impressive line up, Nick Tate,Director ITS University of Queensland and Director ofthe Australian Computer Emergency Response Team,brings a raft of diverse industry experience which is sureto enrich an already engaging conference schedule.If you look at the history of mankind’s achievements youwill see in many cases that an extraordinary sequenceof events led up to their eventual outcome. Being in theright place at the right time and being given the rightopportunity seems to sum up this phenomena. A goodexample of this is how two students and AUC Scholarshipwinners, Zac Cohan from Macquarie University andNik Youdale from the University of New South Wales,developed ‘Picturesque’ to recently win an Apple DesignAward for best student project.Who knows of the extraordinary sequence of events orchance meetings that may come from this conference.One thing the AUC is committed to is facilitating thoseopportunities and fostering relationships which we hopewill progress mankind’s achievements in the field ofhigher education in concrete and deliverable ways forshared benefits between Australian universities.Stephen Johnstons.johnston@ecu.edu.auWheelsfortheMind 3

Rendezvousat the Gold CoastIt’s that time again: the biennial AUC Conference is on from September 23 to 26 at theCrowne Plaza Royal Pines Resort on Queensland’s Gold Coast.Themed ‘Contribute, Communicate, Collaborate’, the conference is built around theopportunities presented by pairing the strength of Mac OS X with the connectivityprovided in the emerging broadband environment.Papers and presentations are organised around three streams including:Academic AdventuresDeveloper DiscoveriesTechnology Trails‘Academic Adventures’ forAcademics and Students:How is Mac OS X being usedin teaching and learning, or inbroader university life?[sessions in Marquis Room]‘Developer Discoveries’ fordevelopers: Share expertisedeveloping software forMac OS X[sessions in Prince Room]‘Technology Trails’ fortechnical staff: What challengesdo staff face in managingMac OS X systems in auniversity environment?[sessions in Monarch Room]For your convenience, a full conference programme is on the next page. The organisers hope you enjoythe conference and, as always, look forward to your participation!UpdateMacworld Scholarships openThe Macworld Conference & Expo is a primesounding point for major Apple announcements,with Steve Jobs’ keynote speeches at the eventeffectively marking the start of each new year in IT.This year’s event saw the launch of the revolutionaryiPhone, and all eyes will again be on centre stage tosee what Apple comes up with next year.The 2008 conference will be held from January 14to 18 at The Moscone Center in San Francisco. TheAUC will be offering a number of scholarships toassist staff from member universities to attend.Each scholarship, valued at $4500 plus anamount to assist recipients from regional andnon East coast universities, can be put againstairfares, accommodation, Macworld conferenceregistration, and up to 7 days’ travel insurance.Applications for these nationally competitivescholarships close October 5. Visit www.auc.edu.aufor more information on how to apply.CreateWorld is backAfter a strong reception in 2006, theCreateWorld conference will return this year, tobe held at Griffith University’s Southbank Campusin Brisbane. From November 26 to 28, attendeeswill gather to share their experiences and insightsin using digital and online technologies to exploretheir creativity in new and imaginative ways.Last year’s event was a runaway success, withdozens of delegates converging on GriffithUniversity’s Southbank campus in Brisbane for theevent. This year’s event is going to be bigger andeven more chock full of useful content, networkingopportunities, and distinguished speakers.Details will be announced soon.Check www.auc.edu.au for more informationas it becomes available.Rocking Your X-WorldX-World has already become an AUC institution,with strong positive feedback from last year’sevent leading to an even bigger event at theUniversity of Technology Sydney from 4 to 6 Julythis year. Each university received six subsidisedplaces to the event, which covered a broad rangeof technical topics across back-end and front-endacademic environments.The best-received sessions included ‘Hands-Onwith Lithium Network Monitoring’, the ‘DevelopingWith Leopard’ keynote, ‘Building Your Own Apps– Why Wait for Apple?’, ‘Apple Remote Desktop 3’,‘SAMQFS & OS X Hybrid SAN Architecture’, ‘IntelVirtualisation’, ‘Understanding & Using PackageMaker’, and ‘Advanced Leopard Server’.Overall feedback for the conference was positive,with words like ‘excellent’, ‘superb’ and ‘wellprepared’confirming the value of the sessions.Fully 95 percent of attendees rated X-World astime well spent, and an equal proportion saidthey’d be back next year.Something interesting happening within your university’s teaching environment?We want to hear about it! Drop us a line at s.johnston@ecu.edu.au andwe’ll include the most interesting tidbits in the next issue.It’s too early to talk about definitive plans, butfeedback like this is invaluable for helping makeX-World an even better event in 2008.4 WheelsfortheMind

Time Sunday 23rd September Monday 24th September Tuesday 25th September Wednesday 26th September8:00 Arrival Tea & CoffeeRoyal Benowa Foyer8:45 WelcomeMarquis Room9:00 Apple DirectionsTony King, Apple AustraliaMarquis RoomArrival Tea & CoffeeRoyal Benowa FoyerHousekeepingMarquis RoomTBAMichael Ossipoff, TelstraMarquis RoomArrival Tea & CoffeeRoyal Benowa FoyerEstablishing the AustralianAccess FederationNik Tate, Director, ITS, U of QMarquis RoomVaries 9:30Into the Third Decade of the IT ‘Revolution’Kenneth Green,Campus Computing ProjectMarquis Room10:00Peripato Telematikos, an exercise in socialcartography and Public AuthoringGreg Giannis, Victoria UniDevelopment Platform for WirelessNetworked Control SystemsMohammad Tabbara, Melbourne UniI_TV: broadcasting teaching via the WebDavid Hood, Otago University, New Zealand9:45Using Social Software? I Want That One!Colin Warren, Deakin UniGetting the iPod to Do More: A Case StudyDaniel Saffioti, Uni of WollongongHow Will You Have Your Cocoa ThisChristmas? A Leopard Perspective & AudioNomad for Location-based Media AuthoringDaniel Woo, UNSWMorning Tea (10:30)Royal Benowa Foyer11:00 11:00Making the leap ahead with LeopardStephen Atherton, Apple AustraliaMarquis Room12:00 Contribute, Communicate, Collaborate:The Internet as Workplace in the Digital ArtsPaul Draper, GriffithSize Does Matter – How We’re Dealing WithExtraordinary Storage RequirementsIan Duncan, U of QBonjour-based Collaboration Services in aRemote Collaborative EnvironmentChoon Jin Ng, Sydney Uni12:45 LunchKalinda Restaurant1:00 Registration opensRoyal Benowa FoyerOptional Panel Session:The Digital Native, Fact or Fiction?Prince RoomVaries 2:00The Evolution of Interactive LearningMaterial for Medical StudentsEdward Palmer, Adelaide UniUsing Python and PyObjC for Scriptingand Cocoa DevelopmentJames Bekkema, Charles Sturt UniCross-Entropy Optimisation using XgridGareth Evans, U of QVaries 2:45Harnessing the PowerRivka Niesten, ECUPxGrid – A High-throughput Approach toProtein Structure DeterminationMark Bate, Monash UniHow to Use the Macintosh to Geocode Mediafor Google Earth and Google MapsJames Steele, Uni of Canberra3:00Afternoon TeaRoyal Benowa Foyer4:00Plenary: Student DevelopersMarquis Room5:00: Close of Day 4:30: Close of DayMorning Tea (10:45)Royal Benowa Foyer11:15Caught in the Web: Twitting, Podding,Blogging and MashingKate Foy, USQiNetSim + iClassMateIain Murray, Curtin UniSoftware development of embeddedsystems on MacintoshPhillip McKerrow, Uni of WollongongMaking News Today:Content Creation In the ClassroomNatalie Cooper, Uni of WollongongWriting a Leopard Quick Look Pluginfor Flow Cytometry Standard FilesGeoffrey Ericksson, U of QThe Initial Stages of Developmentof the Carrick ExchangeRob Phillips, Murdoch UniversityLunchKalinda Restaurant1:45MyMurdoch: A Case Study of a VirtualStudent Community at Murdoch UniLloyd Johnson, Murdoch UniQuartz Composer Tips and Trapsfor DevelopersLuke Toop, Uni of AdelaideCommodity Hardware and Software forHigh End Professional Video Applications inTertiary TeachingJames Steele, Uni of Canberra2:30Categorising, Searching andReflecting with VideoTony Fetherston, ECUNavigable Movies: A Real QuickTime VRPaul Bourke, UWADeveloping Real-Time Systemsin Java on Macintosh3:15Afternoon TeaRoyal Benowa Foyer3:45JAMTART: An Online Performance SupportSystem For Project ManagementMark McMahon, ECUDeveloping Apps that are ‘ManagedEnvironment’ FriendlyAdam Reed, ANUAnimating Ideas: Communicating ComplexDynamic ContentRic Lowe, Curtin UniMorning Tea (10:30)Royal Benowa Foyer11:00The Millennial Student and now theMillennial Instructor: Implications forTeaching, Learning, Support and, Gasp,Reward and Tenure!Carl Berger, Professor and Dean Emeritus,University of MichiganClosing CommentsMarquis RoomBBQ Lunch (12:30)Kalinda Restaurant5:30Welcome DrinksRoyal Benowa Foyer5:15Optional Developer Session: Future Mac OSX Developer DirectionsPrince Room7:00Conference DinnerDrinks in Royal Benowa Foyer,then move into Prince Room WheelsfortheMind 5

Makingeverythingbeautiful ByDavid BraueNot many nineteen year-olds can say they’rethe author of a globally successful applicationthat has sold thousands of copies, won aninternational software design award and gracedthe top page of Apple’s own downloads section– twice. But that’s just the first of what are likelyto be many claims to fame for Zac Cohan andNik Youdale, whose graphic tool Picturesque hasgone from strength to strength since its releaseearlier this year.Friends from high school who are now in theirsecond year of university – Cohan a philosophystudent at Macquarie University, and Youdalean electrical engineering and computer sciencemajor at the University of NSW – both are relativenovices to programming. Back in Year 11, theybegan teaching themselves basic programmingand produced a few smaller applications “whichnever really took off,” Cohan recalls.That all changed last year, when the two receivedAUC scholarships to the Apple WorldwideDevelopers Conference and began learning theins and outs of Cocoa. “It’s a very inspirationalweek,” says Youdale. “You come back wantingto write software.”6 WheelsfortheMind

And write they did. Through continued selfteaching,some help from an AUC course onCocoa last year – and a $500 AUC grant for anApple Developer Connection Select membership– the two soon began developing Picturesque.Picturesque was originally envisioned as analternative to Photoshop, which is the goldstandard in image editing tools but continues tohave a steep learning curve. Instead of being acomplete replacement, however, Picturesque wasdesigned as a means of helping people accomplishsimple image editing tasks with just a few clicks.“Everyone’s got Photoshop, but we foundit really difficult to use for simple things, likemaking an image look good with roundedcorners,” Cohan explains. “It’s something thatpeople want to do all the time, but it’s justa nightmare on Photoshop. So we thought‘wouldn’t it be great if there were a piece ofsoftware that did those things?’ We just startedthinking around that concept of taking an imageand making it beautiful.”Offering effects like reflections, curved borders,fading and glow, the application’s architectureis built completely around Cocoa and CoreGraphics, with all image properties fully scriptableusing AppleScript. Batch processing is supportedand has been rated in some reviews as beingfaster than using Photoshop.After four months of intense development,Picturesque was unleashed onto the world in Apriland quickly gained a worldwide profile. This rapidelevation was not the result of quick marketing,however, as it was the result of good timing and thepair’s last-minute rush to complete the applicationin time to enter it into the Apple Design Awards atWWDC 2007, which the two again attended thisyear courtesy of an AUC scholarship.Making the deadline for the awards meant thepair “were working flat out for the week before”,Cohan recalls. “But we got it in the day beforethe deadline, and had our fingers crossed.”It clearly worked: Picturesque was chosen as thewinner in the Student Product category of theawards, propelling the team to instant stardomwith a front-and-centre profile on Apple’s Website. Within hours, their own site was showingthat all-too-common result of instant stardom: itcrashed, and crashed hard.The duo quickly moved their site to another server,and the going has been great ever since. Morethan 2,000 copies of the $19.50 program hadbeen sold through their Web site (www.acqualia.com/picturesque/) within three months of theproduct’s launch, and continuing strong word ofmouth portends a bright future for the application.“It’s hard to get in touch with people when you’reas small as we are,” says Cohan. “The people thatfind software through sites like MacUpdate.comand VersionTracker.com are usually very picky people– designers and Web developers looking for softwarethat can help us. But we don’t have any competition,because there is no other software except Photoshopthat does what we do. It’s ridiculous that nobodyhad done this earlier.”Never content to rest on their laurels, the duohave been busy juggling their uni schedule withupdates to Picturesque, and are already workingon “something larger and bigger” – although theydecline to provide any more details at this point.In the long term, both Cohan and Youdalehope to continue building on the popularity ofPicturesque and make commercial developmentan ongoing endeavour. “We’ll be working on itany time we’re not at uni,” says Cohan. “Otherkids have to devote their time to fast food shopsor retail as jobs, but working on commercialproducts will keep us going.”So, too, will the exposure Acqualia has gainedsince its WWDC coup. The pair are also thankfulto the ongoing support of the AUC: “How luckyare we to be born in the only country where anorganisation actually exists to give students theability to go to WWDC,” says Cohan. “We’vebeen pretty lucky, because we ended up in theright place at the right time doing the right thing.And this is just the beginning.”WheelsfortheMind 7

With its mountainous terrain, remote areas andmassive cleft separating North and South Islands,New Zealand presents some unconventionalchallenges when it comes to delivering teachingto remote staff.At the University of Otago, which has more than17,000 students and 3,250 staff spread acrossfive main campuses and several outlying facilitieson both islands, this issue was felt acutely.Information Technology Services trainers had realproblems when it came to delivering consistenttechnology training on both mainstreamproductivity applications and niche applicationsthat meet a specific requirement for a particularuniversity department.While organisations have a number of onlineoptions for delivering application training, manyof these become problematic when bandwidthis unpredictable, which was a problem trainersfaced given the limited bandwidth to some of thesites involved. To resolve this problem, IT trainerDavid Hood took a fresh look at the challengethe organisation faced and came up with hisown solution.“Most Internet video tends to sacrifice the clarityof the image for frequent refresh rates so thatyou get a continuous view,” says Hood. “Wedecided that for our purposes, being able tosee the screen clearly was more important thanseeing the mouse moving continuously.”8 WheelsfortheMindWith this in mind, Hood set about developing atraining method that would allow attendees of aclass to see what was happening on his computer,without requiring the higher bandwidth of adedicated streaming desktop solution.The result, developed over the course of acouple of days, uses scripts to automatically takea snapshot of the host desktop every second.Each snapshot is written to a directory as a PNGfile using a single filename, then served out toconnected parties using the Apache Web serverbuilt into the Mac OS X desktop.To participate in the online training, attendeesonly have to go to a specified URL, whichcontains a small amount of JavaScript code thatforces the desktop client to update the page,which forces it to download the updated screenshot, once a second.The result isa continuousstream ofdesktopimages thatallows remotestudents to follow along with lessons as they’regiven. Whatever Hood types, draws or runs onhis computer is instantly conveyed to trainees inreal time, allowing him to walk them throughapplication training at a suitable pace.While it doesn’t support video, Hood says hissolution has proved more than adequate foreasily delivering training to students on a broadrange of topics. Because it’s delivered usingstandard Web browser technologies, the solutiondoesn’t require access control mechanisms aswould be necessary with Apple Remote Desktopor other formal online training systems.“When you’re talking about training, you startfacing the issue that the people you’re teachingaren’t necessarily that skilled in computer things,so you need to make it as easy as possible,” heexplains. “It’s quite handy for ad hoc phone things,where someone who has been to a training courserings up and says, ‘I didn’t quite get this point nowthat I’m back in my own office’.”To enhance the experience, Hood has writtenseveral enhancements that provide a measure ofinteractivity. A PHP Text Chat clipon, for example,shifts the display of the desktop images into aframe-based Web page and allows trainees tosubmit questions or comments in real time.Another feature of Hood’s solution is the abilityto send an accompanying sound stream usingembedded QuickTime, providing backgroundmusic or voice narrations for the onscreeninformation. Hood’s training team has also usedthe technique to put together training videos– with a series of screen shots cobbled togetherinto QuickTime movies – and is now fieldingenquiries from other departments that areinterested in the solution.“We decided that for our purposes, being ableto see the screen clearly was more importantthan seeing the mouse moving continuously.”“If you don’t know what the computer is at theother end, and you’re not entirely sure of thebandwidth and who is there, it fills that nichevery well,” he says. “You can get the samekind of result on a Windows computer, but it’sjust that everything isn’t sitting there to be puttogether like it is on the Mac.”

Better thanbeing there.Apple’s QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR)technology has been helping people createimmersive graphical environments for more thanten years, but the types of environmentsit produces are limited to still imageswith limited interactivity.Aiming to improve this, Paul Bourke, a seniorresearch fellow within the Western AustraliaSupercomputer Program at the University ofWestern Australia (UWA), has taken QTVR intoa new dimension by developing a techniquefor allowing immersive environments to bemade using movies rather than static pictures.The project grew out of Bourke’s work at theUniversity of NSW’s iCinema Centre for InteractiveCinema Research, which was involved in a projectthat composited moving actors on top of staticQTVR images of a range of Indian temples. Bourkewondered whether he couldn’t take that idea astep further by making the entire environment,rather than just a few characters within it, move.The result was Bourke’s Navigable Movie Player(NMP), a Cocoa application that uses theQuickTime API to render video and audio streamsrecorded using a special format. This format,which is produced by 360-degree cameras suchas the $10,000 six-sensor Ladybug2 sphericaldigital video camera from Point Grey Research,records movies as a series of doughnut-shaped360-degree images.Using the NMP application, those images aredecoded into a continuous series of QTVRimages, allowing users to move around andinteract with the video as it unfolds. For example,Bourke refers to footage he has produced of arock concert in progress: one viewer might turnand watch the drummer playing, while anothercould focus on the lead singer using the samevideo stream.“The problem with a movie is that you’reconstraining viewers to just look in the directionthat you create the movie at,” he explains.“What I can do with these navigable movies is tocreate something in between the extremes of fullyinteractive go-where-you-want, with pre-renderedenvironments. The key here is that every time youwatch these movies, you get a different experience.”NMP is about more than just cool video effects:by generating immersive movies of data thatcan be explored and zoomed in on while they’replaying, scientific researchers can use the tool toget completely new understandings of the datatheir research produces.Bourke, who demonstrated the technology atthis year’s AUC Conference on the Gold Coast,has also imbued NMP with the ability to adddifferent projection effects – such as fisheyedistortion – to the movies as they’re rendered.This step allows the movies to be projected onlarge hemispherical domes such as those foundin specialised planetariums, which have fisheyeprojection capabilities to display the distortedNMP videos as full 360-degree projections. Thiscapability, Bourke believes, will breathe newlife into the relatively mundane video contentcurrently available for such facilities.“Increasingly, planetariums are becoming full digitalvideo planetariums,” he explains. “This means theycan put real-time movie style content on the entiredome, and let the presenter present movie contentthat has some sense of navigation. This is a verypowerful thing that lets planetariums think outsideof just astronomy content.”Projecting data sets onto immersive spherical domes provides new ways of interacting with data– here, a map of background radiation from the Big Bang.WheelsfortheMind 9

New Apple TechiPhoning homeBy far Apple’s biggest event this year was theJune 29 launch of the iPhone, which deliveredon Steve Jobs’ announcement of the productsix months earlier. Unprecedented enthusiasmaccompanied the iPhone’s debut, which sawmany eager buyers setting up camp outside AppleCenter and AT&T phone stores across the US.Reception lived up to the hype, with far-reachingpraise for the new device and fans eagerlyproclaiming that it had been worth the wait.Weeks before the launch, however, Apple set theagenda for developers by announcing that therewould in fact be a way to write applications forthe iPhone – by using the embedded Safari Webbrowser to run Ajax-based interactive applications.By building applications around open standards,Apple has progressed support for Web-basedapplications whilst delivering on Steve Jobs’ originalvision of a device that would not be unnecessarilycompromised by third-party applications.Just how this opportunity plays out will becomeclear over time, but the growing number of iPhonecapable applications suggests that developers arewarming to the possibilities of the Ajax-basedapplication platform. By the time the iPhonedebuts in Australia and elsewhere early nextyear, there will be a strong body of developerknowledge around the device, helping interesteddevelopers to make the most of the industry’spremier media player-cum-smart phone.Faster iMacs,newer lookApple’s August 7 iMac event breathed new lifeinto the hugely successful all-in-one iMac rangeof computers, which have been instrumental inhelping Apple’s PC market share outpace thegrowth of the overall PC market (first-quarteriMac sales increased 36 percent over the sameperiod a year ago).Front and centre was the newlineup of iMacs, which not onlygot a feature upgrade but enjoyeda major redesign that combines a recyclable,brushed aluminium body and black-rimmedmonitor bezel. The new systems are thinnerthan their predecessors, feature a new ultra-thinaluminium Apple Keyboard that measures just8.4mm thick at its front, and come in 20-inchand 24-inch sizes.Inside, the new iMacs feature the latesttechnology, including Intel Core 2 Duo processorsat up to 2.8GHz; 1GB RAM expandable to 4GB;802.11n-compatible AirPort Extreme wirelessnetworking; and up to 1TB of internal harddrive storage. Also included is the new iLife ’08applications bundle. Configurations include:For $1698 RRP Inc. GST: 20-inch display,2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB RAM,SuperDrive, ATI Radeon HD2400XT graphicswith 128MB RAM, 250GB hard driveFor $2149 RRP Inc. GST: 20-inch display,2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1GBRAM, SuperDrive, ATI Radeon HD2600 PROgraphics with 256MB RAM, 320GB hard driveFor $2599 RRP Inc. GST: 24-inch display,2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1GBRAM, SuperDrive, ATI Radeon HD2600 PROgraphics with 256MB RAM, 320GB hard driveFor $3399 RRP Inc. GST: 24-inch display,2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GBRAM, SuperDrive, ATI Radeon HD2600 PROgraphics with 256MB RAM, 500GB hard drive10 WheelsfortheMind

Improved multimediaThe debut of the new iMacs was also marked bythe launch of iLife ’08, a significantly improvedversion of Apple’s digital lifestyle applications suite.Each application in iLife has been imbued withnew features. iPhoto, for example, now groupsall photos into Events, which use a single pictureto represent a day’s worth of photos. Moving themouse over an Event allows the user to quicklyskim through the photos, which can also be splitfor multiple events on a single day. Users can hidephotos they want to keep but don’t want to seeall the time, and pictures can easily be publishedonline using the new .Mac Web Gallery feature.iMovie ’08 has been completely redesigned fromthe ground up, with a focus on enabling usersto quickly and easily produce vibrant videos.Support for the latest video cameras, the abilityto skim through clips at normal or fast speed,and easy export to iPhone, iPod, Apple TV orYouTube videos are just a few of the new features.Movies can also be published online with a fewclicks using the .Mac Web Gallery feature.For the musicians among us, GarageBand ’08 addsa virtual ‘band’ playing user-selected instrumentsas well as advanced features such as multi-takerecording, easier arrangements and supportfor 24-bit audio interfaces. And iWeb ’08, theupgraded Web design software, enables liveinteractive content such as Google Maps; targetedads using Google AdSense; photos or movies from.Mac Web Galleries; a range of new themes; andhosting of iWeb sites using personal domains.iWork, therefore iAmAnother upgraded application announced on August 7 was iWork ’08, the productivity suite thatthis year gets a new member: the Numbers spreadsheet.Fitting alongside Pages and Keynote to fill out the three major productivity applications, Numbers offersa full range of spreadsheet capabilities – for example, 150 different functions, live 2D and 3D charts,as well as new features such as intelligent tables on a flexible canvas, which let users arrange elementswithout breaking the structure of the spreadsheet.Pages ’08, the word processor of the package, now includes two separate operation modes includingstreamlined word processing, for straightforward document creation, and flexible page layout, whichlets users control every element of the page. A contextual format bar changes depending on the taskthe user is performing at the time, while change tracking allows users to easily collaborate with otherswhen creating a document.Finally, Keynote ’08 has been given the new Smart Builds feature, which makes it easy to createanimations simply by dragging and dropping relevant pictures, then using animation controls tomanage rotation, movement, scaling and opacity. The Instant Alpha feature speeds the processof removing unwanted backgrounds from photos and graphics. Voiceovers can be overlaid ontop of presentations, which can be bundled for delivery via the Internet, YouTube, or podcasts.All iWork applications can import and export Microsoft Office application formats, and can exportin PDFs for print-ready document sharing. Learn more about the $99 RRP Inc. GST iWork ’08 fromwww.apple.com.au/iwork/.iLife ’08 costs $99 RRP Inc. GST.For more information, seewww.apple.com.au/ilife/.Making more of .MacRounding off Apple’s latest new product announcement was a suite of improvements to .Mac,the online companion service to the Mac environment.Foremost among these is the previously mentioned .Mac Web Gallery, which lets members post theirpictures and videos online for access by anybody, or by specific people. Using a desktop-like interfacethat works the same on Macs and Windows PCs, visitors can navigate through galleries using the same‘skimming’ gesture built into the new iLife ’08 applications.Through tight integration with iPhoto ’08 and iMovie ’08, users can quickly and easily upload their contentfor sharing. The new .Mac also ups available storage space for members, jumping from 1GB to 10GB forindividual members and jumping from 2GB to 20GB for family memberships. Maximum email size has alsoincreased to 20MB, which is even better utilised thanks to improved built-in spam filtering..Mac costs $139.95 RRP Inc. GST for individuals and $249.95 RRP Inc. GST for a five-account Family Pack.Learn more at www.mac.com.WheelsfortheMind 11

StrikingGold withQuartzObject and event-based programming makesscripting straightforwardLuke Toop may not have expected to end up as a developer, but a varied CV has led him back to university topursue a second degree that has been driven in many ways by the capabilities of Mac OS X’s Quartz imaging system.Luke’s experience with the technology came about gradually, after he spent around 18 months providingvideo jockey services for pubs and clubs around Adelaide.In those days – the heady times after completinga law degree at the University of Adelaide –Toop was using a Windows laptop to manageand deliver the huge volumes of video andgraphical footage he used in his sets.It was always a somewhat limited solution,however: “You’d have a very grainy picture thatwould start getting clunky immediately if anythinginteresting happened,” Toop recalls. Feeling theremust be something better, he experimented withLinux before making the switch to Mac OS X.“I haven’t looked back,” he laughs.Because of his heavy involvement with videoprojection, Toop needed a reliable computerthat was capable of handling a variety of mediasmoothly and effectively. Experimentation withFinal Cut and Motion, which remain the primaryapplications for his VJ work, confirmed that themedia capabilities of the Mac platform weremuch better suited to his requirements.“Quartz Composer lets you play with videosat full frame rates and smoothly,” he says,“which is really nice when the point is toget people inspired rather than having themwonder what they’re looking at.”Luke eventually drew on his legal skills to setup MediaUplink, a business that specialises in12 WheelsfortheMindaudio-visual setups and digital signage.The team built a custom application to handlethese capabilities, running it on Mac minishooked to big-screen TVs at the venues.As his requirements grew more sophisticatedover time, he stopped dabbling in QuartzComposer and began working with it steadily.“We decided we were going to developapplications and needed to do video stuffwithout any flaws,” he says. “The platformcouldn’t fall over or else we’d be in a lot oftrouble. We tried out a number of things bothwith Quartz Composer and without it, and itwas absolutely brilliant for that. It integratesreally tightly with other applications thatyou’re writing, and being able to drag anddrop the programming is really handy.”His growing experience with Quartz Composer– which he is sharing as practical advice in apresentation at this year’s AUC Academic &Developers Conference on the Gold Coast –has been underscored by his decision to returnto university to pursue a second degree,this time in Computer Science.“I didn’t want to work as a lawyer but it wasvery useful for running a small business,” he says.“But I just found I was bumping my head againstnot quite knowing the maths or programmingto proceed further and faster.”As the business continues to grow, Luke is findingnew uses for his growing Quartz Composerskills all the time. When experimentation iseasy, he says, it’s easy to play around with thebuilding blocks to see how interesting moviesand animations are being produced – and thenbreaking down those clips to figure out how theeffects were created.“Quartz Composer lets you play around withreal-time 3D visuals that were difficult orimpossible to do in other contexts,” he says.“It’s a really excellent application that deserves alot more attention; the more popular it is,the better off everyone in the community is.”Quartz Composer proves invaluable in the handsof video jockeys

What do you get when you combine a GPSnavigator, a leisurely harbour cruise, Mac OS Xand the creative minds of several University ofNSW digital artists?The answer became clear during a recentconference in Sydney, where attendees weregiven the chance to go on a series of regular onehourcruises around Sydney Harbour on a boatthat had been specially rigged for the occasion.That rig included a dozen speakers spacedaround the perimeter of the boat, pointing intowards the centre so that passengers standingin the boat’s middle were literally surrounded bysound. Those speakers were driven by a Mac OSX computer, which had been linked with a GPSreceiver and tied to a database of audio narrationand interesting facts.As the boat moved, projecting its position ontoa map would tell the application as the vesselpassed points of interest – suburbs of historicalinterest, bird rookeries, floating buoys or anyother type of object. By projecting relevant soundbites through one or more of the speakers, theartists – led by well-known sculptor and soundartist Dr Nigel Helyer – were able to immersepassengers in a full 360-degree soundscapethat Dr Daniel Woo, a lecturer in the UNSWDepartment of Computer Systems & Engineering,calls “augmented audio reality.”For the Sydney Harbour voyage, sound bitsincluded a narration about the preservation ofThe Rocks from labour history expert Jack Mundy,discussions about Captain Cook and shark attacksin Sydney Harbour, industrial sounds in DarlingHarbour, sonar and nature sounds, and more.“This is not just about being technologists whocan create cool technology,” Woo says, “butabout trying to design and create experiences foryour users. It’s software engineering and the usercentred design approach fusing together. We’retrying to empower artists like Nigel to be able toimagine and conceptualise these new art formsand new media experiences.”The Sydney trip – which was captured on cameraby a team from The Discovery Channel – wasactually the second time the setup had beenrun: in 2004, an early test as part of the 5thInternational Symposium on Electronic Art inHelsinki saw the team’s debut on a boat cruisingbetween Helsinki, Stockholm, and Tallinn. Amongthe highlights in that trip was a sequence ofsounds from buoys along the trip, which tappedout the lyrics to an ABBA song in Morse code.The technology behind the project, which wassupported by an Australian Research Councilgrant, was developed by a five-strong team ofPhD and Masters students, who also called uponthe voiceover talents of students at the NationalInstitute of Dramatic Arts.Using the Subversion version-tracker application,the development team was able to build thecore application for the display using XCode,Cocoa and Interface Builder. The audio mixingcapabilities, supporting the 12-channel surroundsound, were built from the ground up to link inwith the interactive music capabilities of the PureData open source project.As an ongoing effort, Woo says the enforcementof development rigour has helped the teamcontinually improve the capabilities of theinstallation. The system is set up in a studio andregularly improved, while future projects arebeing explored as opportunities arise.“You’ve got a collection of people that wantto go out there and change the way the worldthinks,” says Woo. “Mac OS X is a great platformfor putting it all together. Being able to useCocoa and other development technologiesmakes this thing happen really quickly. Andby doing this iterative development cycle,we’ve been able to improve what we do, andunderstand what works, and what doesn’t. Anytechnology where a developer gets to write lesscode can give you that productivity.”WheelsfortheMind 13

Big brains, big storageScientists love great new technology, and theboffins at the University of Queensland-basedQueensland Brain Institute (QBI) are no exception.But their love of new equipment has implications,as IT manager Ian Duncan found out recentlywhile discussing storage plans for the new facilityinto which QBI is moving this month.One new Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)machine, for example, can produce images ofup to 250GB in size. At this rate, it doesn’t takelong before even the most robust storage systemsbegin to creak.While many of the institute’s new machinesproduce large files, others produce smaller files– and lots of them. Duncan estimates that anaverage PhD student might produce up to 5,000microscope images, each between 2MB and20MB in size. That kind of data adds up quickly:“It’s all very well that scientists buy whiz-banginstruments,” Duncan says, “but we then needthe storage to hold the data they generate.”Meeting this challenge became a major issueas Duncan spec’d out and implemented the ITfacilities in the new location. QBI’s long-runninginvestment in Apple desktops quickly led him toconsider installing Xserve RAID equipment, but adeeper consideration of the types of files QBI wasgoing to be dealing with eventually led him to ahybrid solution.“We have a huge number of relatively small files,so we needed to look around for a file system thatcould deal with our particular pattern of data,”he explains. “In addition we wanted completeredundancy for the system: if we lost one entireroom of machines, we had to be able to keepgoing. We also need to deal with an expansionfrom 90 to around 250 members of staff.”In the first instance, Duncan opted to builda 20TB storage area network (SAN) aroundhigh-end storage from Sun Microsystems,whose years of experience in high-reliability storagesuited the mission-critical and irreplaceable natureof QBI’s data.To ensure data is never lost, the SAN wasarchitected around a two-building setup in whichdata is continuously and immediately copied fromFibre Channel SAN components in one buildingto SATA components in the second building.In each building, data is also copied to backuptapes. As an added layer of protection, data isalso replicated from the high-end SAN disks toa lower-cost array of SATA hard drives in theprimary building.“In the Sun system, as far as the user isconcerned, they don’t know what their file isactually living on, whether it’s in cache, SATAhard drive, loaded tapes or even ejected tapes,”Duncan said. “They can retrieve, say, a 5GB diskimage from the SATA tray in another buildingalmost as fast as if it were on local disk. Thismeans we can tailor how we use the differenttypes of disk for different users and functions.”As the QBI’s desktops are currently configuredusing Networked Home conventions, the teambegan addressing challenges in linking the Sunstorage with the institute’s Apple directory service,which is necessary to ensure that datapermissions flow correctly from oneenvironment to the other.Directory integration will also be necessary tofacilitate smooth interactions between staff at thenew building. “We’ve designed the building with anemphasis on collaboration, and that means we needa very flexible infrastructure behind it,” he says.“We want people to be able to pick up theirlaptops, move to another part of the building orsit outside, and still have access to their resources.We also need to let people from outside thebuilding have access to certain internal areas,and all of this has to fit into UQ’s ICT rules.”“Originally we said the Sun storage would beenough for everything we needed for 5 years– but this was not the case. One researchercame to me and said ‘I might generate about 10terabytes of data per year over the next three tofive years’, and was that going to be a problem,”recalls Duncan.Instead of just purchasing more Sun disk,Duncan’s explorations revealed that Apple’smedia heritage made the Xserve RAID wellsuited for dishing up the large individualfiles instruments generate, which involvehigh-speed sequential disk reads. He proceededto complement the QBI SAN with 10TB of XserveRAID storage which is used to store large datafiles as they come off the institute’s instruments.“The Sun cache space is relatively expensive,and it doesn’t make sense to put data onthat that we may only be keeping for archivepurposes,” Duncan explains. “The Xserve RAIDis a great solution as it can play the additionalrole of supporting our new computationalcluster of 16 quad-processor Xserves”.Mr Ian Duncan14 WheelsfortheMind

Entropy hits theXgridBy David BraueA major component of the effort was the integration of the Message PassingInterface (MPI) standard – which allows communication between nodes ina compute cluster – with Xgrid. Evans worked to incorporate the OpenMPIimplementation of MPI (www.open-mpi.org) into the environment, andeventually began scripting to test the configuration across 159 desktopscomputers in nearby laboratories.When your entire research focus is built around ridiculously large jobsprocessing numbers, no amount of computing power can ever be enough.For Gareth Evans, a PhD student in the Department of Mathematics at theUniversity of Queensland, this unavoidable truth led him to use an Xgrid basedcomputing environment that harnesses the surplus computing power oflaboratory computers that were previously sitting idle at night.The problem he wanted to tackle was the cross-entropy method, ananalytical method developed in 1997 by Reuven Rubinstein that enablesquick evaluation of potential solutions to a mathematical problem.The method works by generating a series of random samples across allpossible solutions, then comparing them and scoring them based on theirsimilarity to the data being analysed.Cross-entropy optimisation is an iterative process that requires a largeamount of computing power to handle large data sets; for this reason, ithas usually been handled on high-end parallel processing machines. Forthe same reason it was a natural target for explorations into the power ofXgrid, which were occasioned by senior lecturer Michael Bulmer after Evansdelivered a paper on parallel processing-based cross-entropy optimisationsolutions in the US.“He was looking at this Xgrid thing and asked whether I could think ofanything interesting to do with it,” Evans recalls. “I’ve been using the crossentropymethod on biological problems, and while they have 64-processorparallel machines at the university, everyone has to use a queuing system. Itwould take me over a week to get through the queue to get access to just 32processors – and if there was a bug in my code, I had to wait another week.”To help the setup stretch its proverbial legs, Evans – who shared hisexperiences with attendees at the AUC Conference on the Gold Coast– wrote a PHP script that tasked the cluster with a relatively menial job:computing pi, the infinitely long number that represents the ratio of acircle’s circumference to its diameter, out to 1 trillion digits.That task completed in around 2.2 hours – a time that Evans is quickto point out was the result of “by far not an efficient method forcalculating pi”, but proved that the Xgrid cluster and OpenMPIimplementation were working correctly.Since then, he has been running cross-entropy calculations across thenew environment and has found the architecture provides a highly scalableway of getting access to significant computing power. The process offersnear linear scalability: with 120 processors in use, performance was around110 times as fast as using a single computer – without having to wait daysfor access to a shared system.At least, that’s how it is working now. As word gets out, Evans says otherparties are starting to ask how they might access the cluster, which isforcing discussions about setting up a queuing system so jobs can be runthrough the Xgrid cluster with some semblance of order.With tests successfully proven, Evans is looking forward to pushing the clusterto new extremes, particularly when the university replaces the current PowerPCprocessor based machines to Intel-based systems later this year. The dual-coredesign of those computers “will take us to around 300 processors,” he laughs.“I’m not sure how much benefit it will be to go to that many processors, butit’s definitely going to be fun trying.”WheelsfortheMind 15

Development,withhonoursHonours years are an excellent way for keen students to build their expertise and add depthto their university experience. They are particularly relevant for graduates in computer scienceand related disciplines, since they provide an excellent way for students to put into practiceall the theory they have spent the previous three or more years learning.In recognition of the considerable self-motivationand sheer hard work it takes students to completean honours program, the AUC has this yearawarded eight $4000 scholarships to assisthonours-year students in completing their work.This year’s recipients were:Ben SwiftAustralian National UniversityKavinda JayasingheLa Trobe UniversitySam PohlenzUniversity of AdelaideJonathan SokolowskiUniversity of New South WalesMyung-Hee KimUniversity of New South WalesAlex MellorUniversity of QueenslandSheryl SooUniversity of SydneyKimberley UptonUniversity of SydneyAs we are well past the halfway mark in the year,we touched base with the recipients to find outhow their work was going. Here’s what a fewof them had to share.Sam PohlenzThe University of AdelaideWhat was your undergraduate degree in:Computer ScienceWhat is your honours project about:My project is focused on Web services –in particular, context aware Web services.This means a Web service will look at thingslike the user’s location, or perhaps the devicethe user is currently using, and adjust itselfaccordingly. ‘Context’ in this context maycover things like location, user preferences,device types, or even the current weather.What have you completed so far:My supervisor has developed a UniversalModeling Language (UML) model, called ContextUML, that can be used to described contextaware Web services in a generic way. Usingmodel transformation, we can convert that toan executable Web service. I’m basing the UMLediting tool on ArgoUML, a Java-based opensource UML diagramming tool.What else do you have left to do:I’m still working on the model transformationof it. At the moment, we have a system wherewe can build up a context aware Web serviceusing the Context UML profile, and the nextsteps are going to be to convert that into anexecutable Web service.How has the AUC scholarship helped you:It has allowed me to reduce my hours spentat work, so I can spend more time on myHonours project.What are your long-term plans: I’ll do a thesison the project at the end of the year, andhopefully will be able to release a paper and getthat published at a conference. That’s my personalgoal for this year. For next year, I have accepteda job in San Francisco with Good Dog Design,the company I’m currently working for in Adelaide.16 WheelsfortheMind

Ben SwiftAustralian NationalUniversityWhat was your undergraduate degree in:Pure mathematicsWhat is your honours project about:I’m a musician and I’m interested in new waysto make music with a computer, particularlythose that are involved with direct measurementsof neural activity. A study in 2005 suggested thatwhen musicians listen to music, they show anincrease in synchronised activity in the brain.I’m creating a music generation engine thatgenerates electronic music, and an EEG devicethat measures the neural activity of the participantin real time, then measures synchronised brainactivity. I want to control the output of this enginebased on the attention that a participant is payingto the music they’re listening to. As you pay moreattention, the computer will respond by doingmore detailed music.What have you completed so far:The music generation engine. It’s a rule-basedalgorithmic composition unit that generates drumbeats and MIDI notes. It uses a musical spacethat you can do walks through, and they end upbeing pleasing to the ear. The system is also quitemodular, so if somebody had their own algorithmiccomposition unit, they could plug it into my systemand control the output with their brainwaves.What else do you have left to do:I’m testing it at the moment, using fakeneural data where I know beforehand howmuch synchronized activity there is in this data.Then I test it to see if the system is picking it outin a meaningful way. All you’re pulling from thebrain is this one parameter, between 0 and 1,which is an index of musical attention. The twoboxes aren’t talking to each other yet; we’re justdoing some testing to make sure the brain boxworks, then we’ll connect them up.How has the AUC scholarship helped you:I used it to buy a Macbook and Logic Pro, whichI’ve been doing all my music stuff on. I wasn’ta Mac user prior to getting this scholarship, butthis music generation stuff is what Macs are reallygood for. The operating system has been designedfrom the ground up to have this MIDI and musicfunction. To try to get that sort of thing out of aPC is like trying to get blood out of a stone.Alex MellorUniversity of QueenslandWhat was your undergraduate degree in:Software EngineeringWhat is your honours project about: Singleparticle analysis lets us generate 3D models ofproteins by taking heaps of 2D pictures using anelectron microscope, and stitching them together.You might need 100,000 individual images of theproteins to be able to get the resolution down toaround 4 angstrom. But until recently, you had tohave someone go and click on each image andorganise it into some sort of primitive diagram;when you have to pick 100,000 of the thingsthat can take weeks or months.I did a summer scholarship involving a Linuxproject called SwarmPS (www.imb.uq.edu.au/swarmps) which proved quite good atautomating this process, but was hard tomaintain and not very expandable.My project is to rewrite most of it,just keeping the algorithmsfor automatic dissemination, and build it as amulti-threaded, cross-platform, really extendableprogram for doing this.What have you completed so far: I’ve currentlygot possibly 70 percent done. I’ve used the opensourceNLM Insight Segmentation & RegistrationToolkit (www.itk.org) to get access to readyto-go,professionally tested image processingfilters there. I’ve built my app using C++, whichis why I use the Apple; it’s really nice to developon, and has a stable set of libraries and tools fordebugging OpenGL interfaces.What else do you have left to do: Testing isthe major thing, although there are minor codechanges left to do. I think it will be a bit moreaccurate and a lot quicker for people to use, andthat’s the major area where I want to show whatprogress I’ve made. I’ve lined up people to dosome testing to compare the picking speed withthe old system versus picking speed on mine.How has the AUC scholarship helped you:I went out and bought an Apple Macbook Proto test it on. I had been borrowing a system fromother people at the time and wanted to decidethat this was the base platform. Building on theMac has been excellent.WheelsfortheMind 17

Starting and ending with feature presentationsfrom renowned Apple employees, the coreof X-World consisted of a variety of hands-onworkshops and technical presentations - withplenty of opportunities in-between for mixing withother attendees. Higher-education Mac supportstaff, lab managers and network administratorsfrom across the country travelled to Sydney toattend this three day event at UTS. The variety ofsessions available catered for staff new to OS Xthrough to the more experienced Unix gurus. Andof course, this wouldn’t all be possible withoutthe wide range of presenters and invited speakers- from university support staff to internationalApple consulting engineers. This amountedto a substantial conference where presentersand attendees could share their experiences,knowledge, tips and tricks with each other.World2007By Carrie OsborneThe conference kicked off with a featurepresentation from Stephen Atherton, QueenslandApple Higher Education Manager, who updatedthe audience with the latest announcementsfrom the 2007 World Wide Developer’sConference, held in the USA a few weeks earlier.Attendees got a sneak peak of what Leopardis shaping up to look like and some usefuladvice on how the release of Leopard mightimpact the university environment in Australia.At the close of the conference, Steve Hayman– a National Consulting Engineer from AppleUSA (based in Canada), captured the audiencewith an entertaining presentation on Leopardfor Australian Developers. After refreshing thecrowd with his insights into the differences andsimilarities between Canadian and Australiantoilets, he showed attendees that Apple’sdeveloper tools are not only for programmers.Several Leopard developer features and toolswere demonstrated – showing that thesetools can also be relevant and useful to peoplewho manage and maintain OS X installations.Following on from the closing keynote, a roundtable forum was held which gave attendees onelast opportunity to ask any questions that hadn’tyet been tackled – to a large group of experts atthe front of the room.18 WheelsfortheMind

Hands-on workshops were the backbone ofX World 2007 and provided attendees theopportunity to learn directly from the experts inthree-hour segments. Presenters included localApple consulting engineers, fellow higher-ed Mactechnicians and two representatives from AppleUSA. The majority of topics on offer were at a basicto medium level, with a few advanced sessionsfor the more accomplished attendees. Theseworkshops provided a good overview of the topicor product through practical examples and exercisesand a quick peek at some of the more relevantadvanced features. Product-orientated sessionsshowed attendees how to best install, configureand monitor Apple hardware and software.Troubleshooting sessions showed attendees howto effectively diagnose and troubleshoot problemsusing built-in and third party tools. Whilst purposespecificworkshops demonstrated how to use setsof tools together to achieve powerful solutions. Inaddition, most workshops provided tips on how tosave time and effort in order to ease administrationworkload, and in some cases gave ideas for furtherexpansion and customization to suit differentenvironments and scenarios.ARD 3 was one of the most popular sessions,presented by Nader Nafissi, the product managerfor Apple Server and Storage Products. This sessionlooked at how to effectively use ARD 3 and its builtintools for remote management and reporting, andprovided some great tips on how to use Automatorin combination with ARD to take things to the nextlevel. The opportunity to receive hands-on trainingcustomized for people working in the higher-edsector is quite rare and it was great to be able todirectly ask the experts questions.At the same time as the hands-on workshops,a number of technical presentations (plenarysessions) were held in the main hall. These45-minute presentations allowed people to sharethe interesting projects that they have beenworking on back at home. By sharing industryexperience and best practice tips, presentersenlightened the audience on how to best maketools and technologies work together in a realuniversity environment, including some useful“to-do’s” and “what not to do’s”. Most sessionsdescribed the processes the team went throughin making their projects work – from planningto testing, finding faults and implementation,through to operation and maintenance. Acommon thread revealed in most of thesesessions showed that there is a big push tomake Mac users more integrated, and theseopportunities seem to be expanding as Macsand Mac servers are becoming more popular.Some sessions discussed how Mac OS X hasmade complicated processes easier (eg. ContentManagement Systems), whilst others explorednew and upcoming tools (eg. Intel virtualisationand Bootcamp), and upcoming projects thatmay affect us all (e.g. the PKI AdvancedAuthentication project for Australian Universities).It was interesting to see what exciting projectsare happening at other Australian universities andagain, people made the most of the opportunityto directly ask the knowledge experts questions.With so much learning packed into three days,it was great that there were plenty of breaks– which gave time to mix with other attendeesand put faces to names. Talking to others outsideof the classroom setting allowed delegates toshare their own ideas and solutions. The socialhighlight, the conference dinner was held at thestar room, on the top level of the Imax building– overlooking Darling Harbour. Many experiencesand stories were exchanged over pre-dinnerdrinks and the wonderful dinner. As suggested atthe conference opening, it is important to makethe most of these occasions, to build a supportnetwork of colleagues – as we are all doingsimilar work and likely face common issues.Overall, X World 2007 provided a good blend ofhands-on learning with presentations and socialopportunities. Not only did attendees take homerelevant knowledge and skills, but they were alsobetter equipped to think outside of the box, andmore prepared for the changes that Leopard willbring, as well as having made a few handy contacts.WheelsfortheMind 19

WWDC Images by James VerdonLivingthe vidaWWDCChris FreemanDesktopUnit LeaderDeakin UniversityWhat do you do? I head the Desktop Unit atDeakin University. We manage the StandardOperating Environment for about 400 Macsand 4500 Windows PCs.What interested you about WWDC? We’ve gota couple of really clever Mac people, but I’venever really been across the infrastructure thatsupported what we do on the Mac platform,until a couple of years ago. Sometimes you takeon a role and there’s the nagging truth that youdon’t know as much about it as you should.Apple’s WorldWide Developers Conference isalways a worthwhile event, and this year’s wasno different. Held from June 11-15 at MosconeWest in San Francisco, the WWDC had enoughto delight every developer – most notably, afeature-complete beta of the Leopard operatingsystem that was sent home with each attendee.Leopard wasn’t the only product to be showcasedat WWDC. The event also saw the launch of Safarifor Windows, a Web browser that was downloadedmore than 1 million times in its first 48 hours; andthe debut of new features in OS X Server version10.5 including a wiki server, Podcast Producer forpodcast delivery, and Spotlight Server for findingcontent on other servers.Sending tongues wagging at the event was theannouncement that the iPhone, the revolutionaryphone and music player that will be available inAustralia and New Zealand next year, will in factsupport third-party applications written usingAjax techniques and running within the sandboxof the Safari Web browser. This announcementopened up extensive possibilities for thoseinterested in building their own applicationsfor users of the iPhone.As it does every year, the AUC funded a largenumber of students and staff from memberuniversities to attend WWDC. This year, a totalof 33 staff and 29 students received from$3000 to $3700 each to cover airfare andaccommodation for the trip to San Francisco.Feedback from the event was positive,with many recipients making the trip for theirsecond, third or fourth time. Here’s a sample:What did you like the most? One of the biggestthings I got was the Package Maker stuff.We use a tool called Radia for both our Macsand PCs, but there’s no other cross-platformsolution so we’re locked into it – and all sortsof shortcomings. Package Maker is ten timessimpler, and we’d feel safer using something weknow is going to be widely used and supported.I also enjoyed sessions on Access Control Listsand PList Editor.What did you dislike? Nothing specific.What was your overall impression? The overalllevel of expertise of the presenters was reallyimpressive. They took a lot of really toughquestions at the end, were really agile, anddemonstrated really good product knowledge.When you talk to these presenters, it’s genuine.WWDC probably exceeds any other conferenceI’ve been to in terms of making sure people knowtheir stuff.20 WheelsfortheMind

James VerdonLecturer in Film,Television andMultimedia DesignSwinburne UniversityMichael MackenTechnical Officer– Digital Audio &Video, School ofCommunication ArtsUniversityof Western SydneyJonathon MahStudentUniversity of AdelaideWhat do you do? I teach the Film & TelevisionBachelor’s program, which is a productionbased course, and also teach in the MultimediaDesign program. My area within those is postproduction, video compression, special effects,and digital video.What interested you about WWDC? I’m anacademic, not a programmer – kind of a techycontent person. My main interest was theContent and Media stream.What did you like the most? My main interestwas the Content and Media stream, and thehighlight for me was Quartz Composer. Thedemos were impressive, and it was something Ihadn’t really been exposed to before. I had beenusing things like Pure Data to do similar stuff– but the idea that I could create animations andimages without being a programmer, and createCocoa applications with a few lines of code, wasthe highlight.What did you dislike? I was expecting, evenin the developer context, some more coveragesessions about video beyond H.264. There wasnothing related to, for example, ProRes 422[the high-resolution post-production formatintroduced with Final Cut Pro 6]. That’s a newcodec that’s had a huge impact right across theboard, and it’s architecturally quite different toanything that has come before. It would havebeen great to harness that.What do you do? My role covers everything fromIT administration – including four labs with 20Macs in each – to looking after production stuff,producing CDs, DVDs, podcasts and more.What interested you about WWDC?My background is more from the musicproduction and video production side of things,so I’ve tended to use Macs for that sort of work.Since I started at UWS three years ago, I’ve alsomoved more into working with server basedshare points for students. I’m not reallya developer, and this was my first WWDC.What did you like the most? Some of the reallyrelevant stuff was the information on podcasting,especially the tools in Leopard. There were a fewgood workshops on managing Xsan, and somerefinements for lab image building and imagedeployment. Talking to other people was veryvaluable: there were a lot of people attendingthe conference who are in a similar situation tome – a university situation where a lot of otherinfrastructure is not Mac based – so sharinginsights into how they’ve solve problems wasvery valuable.What was your overall impression? I’d heard inthe past that there wasn’t much stuff for peoplelike me, but there were more sessions that Iwanted to go to, than I could go to. It was areally enjoyable conference, well organised andit was great to go to such a beautiful city.It was all good; there were no boring bits.What do you do? I’m a 4th year studentdoing a combined degree in Computer SystemsEngineering and Maths. I also do part-time serveradministration for a company in Adelaide that’susing Mac OS X Server.What interested you about WWDC? I’m mainlyinterested in Cocoa development, and also doa bit of graphics. I have been to WWDC threetimes before.What did you like the most? I got the impressionthat Apple are really keeping up with newtechnologies; they’re really looking into mixingCocoa with Ruby and Python and other scriptinglanguages that are starting to become popularnow. The Core Image stuff looks pretty excitingand the Core Animation is always fun to playwith; it looks like there are going to be a lot ofcool things coming from that. There was alsosome interesting stuff about OpenMP [a multiprocessingframework], which is good to keepin mind as dual-core processors start movinginto everything.What did you dislike? There were lots of peoplethere, which can be a good thing and a badthing. It’s good that there are lots of people,but there’s quite a bit of crowding all the timeand you don’t get to have the one-on-one timethat you might want.What was your overall impression? It comparedpretty well the others I’ve been to. I went to moreof the external events this time, and met withother small developers which was pretty good.WheelsfortheMind 21

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CrossWORD Competition Across1 Smallest screen in new iMac lineup (p10)4 One conference theme (p4)6 This app feeds on Ben’s brain (p17)9 Feature improves Keynote ‘08 animation (p11)13 Sam’s UML diagrammer (p16)14 Chris’ favourite WWDC session (p20)18 Cross-entropy method creator (p15)19 On Photoshop, rounded corners are this (p7)22 Open-source music infrastructure project (p13)24 This Web server powers Otago TV (p8)26 Game of earth is this (p22)27 This distortion looks right inside a dome (p9)Down2 Presenter of popular ARD 3 session (p19)3 Toop’s AV company (p12)5 Number of GB in new .Mac account (p11)7 Mike liked to bike on this bridge (p21)8 Month of Macworld scholarship deadline (p4)10 Mellor is improving this (p17)11 Number of pi digits Evans computed (p15)12 Previous QBI networking method (p14)15 Zac & Nik’s company (p7)16 Lighten a specific area (p2)17 Where Bourke’s immersion began (p9)20 Renowned soundscape artist (p13)21 Standard for building iPhone apps (p10)23 Play Windows games with this (p2)25 iLife ‘08 puts this into GarageBand (p11)For your chance to win an iPod Shuffle, complete theabove crossword (you’ll find the answers throughoutthe articles) and take the letters from the blue boxesthen re-arrange them to form a word.Send this to: crossword@auc.edu.auCompetition closes at 5pm on Friday 2nd November 2007.CongratulationsCongratulations to Alison McDonald of the University ofSouthern Queensland for winning an iPod shuffle bycorrectly completing the crossword to reveal the answer:COLLABORATEAn iPod is on its way.WheelsfortheMind 23