Sherrill MacBooks... and some issues.

We have discovered an interesting quirk about a certain line of 13" MacBook Pro models.

Known issue:
After installing Apple MultiTouch support in Windows XPSP3, we discovered that these machines started behaving erratically... their boot times jumped from a one-minute load-time to anywhere from 5-10 minutes.
We investigated the issue and explored a number of options, but for the time being, we have disabled Multi-Touch Support in Windows XP.... :(
I know, I know...

this means no two-touch scrolling, no right-clicking, no gestures, and no pinch-and-zoom under Windows XP.  Luckily, the library has provided a number of two-button scroll mice for Windows users.

Needless to say, MacOSX still has multi-touch support.

We are working diligently to find a solution and are in contact with other providers that use these particular hardware types.
Expect an upgrade/fix for the Spring 2011

Working on Sherrill Library Macs for checkout.

Updating the sherrill library MacBookPros.
It's kind of a secret that they have a small laptop cart, because it's only used for training purposes.

So far, we have run these updates:

Office 2007/2008 Updates
Flash Player 10
Adobe Reader Update
WinXPSP3 Security Updates
Norton AntiVirus Definitions


OH, and yes, we added a spiffy new Fall 2010 wall paper to match the rest of campus :)

More info to come!

Love the Smell of New MacBookPros

13" MacBook Pros for Check-Out!

Coming SOON!

And it only really pertains to staff and faculty (sorry, students)...
We will be offering 13" MacBook Pros for loaners *for presentations, classroom instruction, & guest speakers, etc. to replace the IBM ThinkPads & Apple G4 Laptops that we used to check-out.....
These new machines will be dual-boot (with SnowLeopard (MacOSX 10.6.x) and Windows XP SP3)... and will contain the basic presentation software, media codecs, and SMART board Notebook software.

We have finalized the deployment images and are testing them now...

I'm really not at liberty to say more, but expect them to be "reservable" starting the Fall 2010.

***And for students, sorry... i didn't mean to get your hopes up.
The Academic Computing Department at the Art Institute of Boston offers Laptops for Checkout.
AND, you can use one of many computers in our labs.