Dan Gillmor: Blog

Lifehacker: Build a Hackintosh Mac for Under $800. (Y)ou can build your own “Hackintosh”—a PC that runs a patched version of OS X Leopard. What?!, you say. Apple’s move to Intel processors in 2006 meant that running OS X on non-Apple hardware is possible, and a community hacking project called OSx86 launched with that goal in mind. Since then, OSx86 has covered major ground, making it possible for civilians—like you and me!—to put together their own Hackintosh running Mac OS 10.5. Today, I’ll show you how to build your own high end computer running Leopard from start to finish for under $800.

This is essentially a parlor trick for now. Why anyone would put OS X on a cheap PC is beyond me, given the relatively low cost of Apple’s own entry-level hardware — for not much more you could buy an iMac with roughly the same specs.

What’s potentially exciting about this is something entirely different: the possibility of putting the Mac OS on a better notebook than Apple is willing to sell. The ThinkPad line is still the absolute class, hardware-wise, in the field. And the X series — superlatively powerful and compact with the best keyboards around — is my favorite laptop form factor.

I’d buy one of those with the Mac OS in a heartbeat, and pay a premium. Apple refuses to sell a sub-notebook computer (though rumor has it that one is coming, extremely belatedly). If someone can hack the X40 or its heirs to run OS X reliably, I’ll give it a great deal of thought.

John Dvorak says, “The Google Phone Is Doomed.” So there.

Look at the MacInTouch page today and you see a long list of problems people are having with the new Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” operating system. Yike…

We bought the “family pack” last week. I installed the OS on one Mac — a Mini that was new earlier in the fall — with no issues, because it basically had nothing that could cause trouble.

But I’m waiting at least until 10.5.1 before I do the upgrade. Apple does good work, but I never, ever buy its new hardware in the initial version, and the same principle applies to operating systems (Windows is the same; always wait for the first service pack on a new Windows version before giving it a try).

Looking forward to the update, and then trying Leopard…

SF Chronicle: Home sales plunge in September. Sales of existing homes in the Bay Area and California plummeted in September and prices sank as the subprime mortgage crisis and resulting credit crunch put a squeeze on would-be home buyers, a state real estate trade group reported Wednesday.

The only real news would have been any other news.

NY Times: Libraries Shun Deals to Place Books on Web. Several major research libraries have rebuffed offers from Google and Microsoft to scan their books into computer databases, saying they are put off by restrictions these companies want to place on the new digital collections. The research libraries, including a large consortium in the Boston area, are instead signing on with the Open Content Alliance, a nonprofit effort aimed at making their materials broadly available.

Google is not doing a bad thing, by any means. But it’s too much to ask a for-profit company to not ultimately abuse the basic monopoly it’s seeking in this case.

The Open Content Alliance is the right next step. It’s worth everyone’s support.

Glenn Fleishman: Software Kit for iPhone, iPod touch Applications Set for February 2008. (I)t will be interesting to see what the iPhone hacking community does. I suspect they’ll continue to explore the innards of iPhone 1.1.1, both to bring back existing third party applications for the four months and to figure out how to unlock the iPhone again. The final reason hackers won’t just wait patiently until February? Because hacking the iPhone is a challenge.

Still more questions than answers. Apple’s control-freakery with the iPhone doesn’t inspire confidence, yet, that it’ll ultimately be truly open. Still, this is unquestionably a positive move.

SF Chronicle: Wikimedia abandons Florida for San Francisco. The Wikimedia Foundation, the force behind the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia, is moving its headquarters to San Francisco this winter, further solidifying the Bay Area’s position as the epicenter of the Web 2.0 movement, which focuses on collaboration, community and user-generated content.

Mercury News: Fiorina joins Fox business channel. Carly Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, has signed on as a contributor with Fox News’ soon-to-launch business news channel, the media company announced Tuesday.

Made for each other…

Salon: If you care about your rights, don’t buy an iPhone.

It’s only in the cell phone business that anyone would tolerate such behavior. If a company tried this in any other industry, people would howl to the heavens. Imagine the outrage if Apple or Microsoft sold desktop PCs that allowed you to connect to the Internet only through Comcast — and then, if you tried to use Earthlink instead, the company would shut down your machine. Or what if Ford allowed you to drive your new Explorer only to Wal-Mart to buy your groceries; if you went instead to Whole Foods, a company official would come by and slash your tires.

As Apple breaks the phones of people who’ve done nothing but assert rational customer rights, it is showing an attitude that will come to hurt the company in the end. I wouldn’t use this phone now if someone gave it to me.

Stay away from the iPhone if you have any common sense. Don’t reward Apple for its sleazy ways.

SF Chronicle: $65 million will buy you an unfinished mansion on S.F.’s Gold Coast.

It would be one of the most expensive houses ever sold in San Francisco - a neoclassical villa with a four-story floating staircase and glass atrium, a facade of French limestone and a roof of 19th century Florentine tile is on the market for $65 million. Despite the price tag, the home is a mere shell - it doesn’t have interior walls, floors or ceilings - and will require more than $10 million to complete.

As more and more people sink below the financial waves, the super-rich do better and better. This is by design — by national policies that have divided Americans by class more than ever, rewarding the people at the very top, largely at the expense of our children and grandchildren, who either will pay to fix the mess we’re creating or will live in a world that makes this one look positively egalitarian.