Published on June 5, 2005
A couple posts back I mentioned that I had stolen a stolen idea to add “TrackBacks” to your blog using Technorati. After Mike asked how it was done, I realized I should do a quick post on how to set this up using Blogger code. So here it is:
We’re going to use Technorati to search for other blogs that have linked back to the current blog post. Open up your Blogger template and choose where you want your LinkBack link to be. In this place, insert the following code:
<a href=”http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/
search.html?rank=&url=<$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$>">LinkBacks</a>
That’s it… you don’t need to change a thing. There are a few points that should be noted about using this method. First of all, I don’t know of a way to display a count of pages that link back to you on your own page. If someone knows a way to do this, feel free to leave a note! Second, this method will only search through sites that have been indexed by Technorati, so you may miss out on links you have on other sites. If you can live with those two limitations, it seems to be a great way to keep track of the web we weave.
Tags: Technorati
Published on June 5, 2005
If you read anything tech-oriented on the net, you have already read plenty of material about Apple using Intel processors in upcoming products. This rumor has been around for years, but has enjoyed a recent revival as The Wallstreet Journal and CNet have fed speculation.
I’m not going to claim to know anything anyone else doesn’t know about this, and I’m also going to spare the history lesson on the Mac platform, but I would like to just share a couple of my thoughts on the subject.
In the bit of reading I’ve done on the subject, I’ve seen a few very good points brought up. First of all, Apple may very well be using Intel as a source for processors in an upcoming product, but will not be making a full platform switch from the PowerPC architecture. This product could be a DVR (digital video recorder) or PVP (personal video player), which would need quite a bit of umph to encode/decode high-resolution video in real time. I would especially love to see a HD-DVR employing the new H.264 video codec.
A second possibility is that Intel will produce a new processor just for Apple, using the PowerPC architecture. Apparently Apple has the right to license the technology out to different chip manufacturers since they are a part of the group who founded the standard. This would make sense, as we’ve seen non-Apple products move to use the PPC architecture, such as Microsoft’s own Xbox 360 game console. An announcement of a PPC architecture chip from Intel would have more ramifications for Intel than it would for Apple.
Of course, the most popular speculation is that Apple will switch from using the current PPC architecture to a x86 based system. x86 is what a Windows machine runs on, currently produced by Intel. Would this mean you could buy a copy of OS X Tiger and slap it on your Dell? I’m placing my bet on “no”. There’s a lot more to a computer than the CPU, and Apple can easily make an x86 based OS that will still only run on their hardware. To make the Mac OS run on any Intel-based machine would be to let go of the control over hardware that Apple currently has. In my opinion, to let go of the hardware control would be the end of the Mac OS. One of the largest frustrations I get when working on my Windows box is how the OS seems to often forget how the hardware it’s running on is supposed to work. Windows has to support thousands of possible hardware configurations. In contrast, at any given time Apple practically knows exactly every hardware configuration their software is going to be running on. For these reasons, I think that if Apple does indeed move to running OS X on a x86 CPU, it will be on an Apple motherboard in an Apple case.
… And yes, I spent way too much time making that Apple/Intel logo. 
Tags: Apple Intel Rumors
