A lot of folks in charge of school Mac labs have been resisting the urge to upgrade to Mac OS X for one very compelling reason: no Apple Network Assistant. For those unfamiliar with ANA, it was a nifty Timbuktu-like product that allowed a single administrator to manage a whole lab full of Macs from one central system. Admins could remotely install software, launch and quit applications, repair hard disks, share and control remote screens, and more; most of the people we've heard from who use it acknowledge that it's a whole lot more economical then wearing out shoe leather running around from Mac to Mac. Unfortunately, ANA doesn't exist for Mac OS X, which means that Apple's next-generation operating system isn't exactly school lab-friendly.

But heads up, educational-types, because all that's about to change; one of the biggest reasons not to upgrade your school's labs to Mac OS X has just disappeared in a puff of official Apple press release. As faithful viewer Ash pointed out, today Apple announced the availability of Apple Remote Desktop, which, given its remarkably familiar feature set, sounds a heck of a lot like ANA for Mac OS X. Best of all, while you'll need Mac OS X to run the admin software, ARD can manage workstations running Mac OS X, plus any Macs still running Mac OS 8.1 through 9.2, so there's no need to upgrade all at once. (Mac-based businesses take note, too-- ARD sounds like a life saver for the help desk staff.)

Now, how much would you pay for this astounding feature-packed remote control software? $79 a seat? $99? Well, if you call in the next ten minutes, you can buy a 10-user license for just $299-- that's a mere $30 per seat! Got more than ten desktops to manage? Don't fret, because an unlimited-client edition is only $499. Priced low for the education crowd, you say? Well, not so fast, folks, because that's just the standard retail pricing. If you're buying on behalf of an accredited educational institution, ARD is just $149 for ten seats, or a budget-friendly $299 for all the remote management you can eat. You won't even have to cut the school's music program. Order now!

By the way, we were kidding about that "in the next ten minutes" part. You knew that, right?

We don't know why, but some people seem to consider warranties to be some sort of personal affront, as if only spineless jellyfish would ever fall back on such a wussy safety net; thus, they look for ways to void those evil things as quickly as possible. Well, reckless Mac-owners, rejoice-- for one of your ilk has discovered a new manner in which to void the warranty on Apple's most expensive Mac available. Well, okay, it's not really a new manner, per se, but this is the first we've heard of this specific application of an age-old practice to the current cream of Apple's crop.

While it's not necessarily as creative or extreme a method as running your car through the car wash with your dual-processor 1 GHz Power Mac strapped to the luggage rack ("Hot wax? Yes, please!"), it does have two big advantages: 1) if done properly, it might boost your Mac's performance by 20%; and 2) the procedure involves using a hot soldering iron, which always introduces a thrilling element of potentially permanent damage and the possibility of searing flesh. Woo-hoo!!

So, courtesy of a pointer from faithful viewer Johnny Asbury, here it is: how to overclock your 1 GHz processors to 1.2 GHz, thus nuking your warranty so thoroughly that it technically never actually existed in the first place, while earning you the right to brag about owning the fastest Mac that Apple has never sold. Note that we here at AtAT are utter hardware wimps who, amazingly enough, believe that warranties are good things, so we just have to say, kids-- don't try this at home. But feel free to read through the step-by-step instructions, study the pretty pictures, and thrill to the Apple System Profiler screenshots and benchmark results which clearly show that the tweaked Mac is indeed running its G4s at a sketchy but darned impressive 1.2 GHz apiece and reaping the expected speed benefits.

Oh, if only Xtrem were alive to see this. The folks at Xtrem, you'll recall, first claimed in August of 2000 that they planned to ship a 1.2 GHz single-processor Mac, then dropped that to 1066 MHz, and eventually disappeared completely-- almost as if they were... a hoax. (Gasp! Consternation! Uproar!) But if they were still around, we know exactly what they'd say about Marc Schrier's overclocked wonder: "Well, okay, sure, it runs at 1.2 GHz. But does it look like a giant microphone? Yeah, we didn't think so. Punk."

Ah, the iPod: gorgeous, teeny, energy-efficient, high-capacity, versatile, and priced well beyond many people's means. Don't get us wrong; we think $399 is a perfectly fair price for what you get, but the simple truth is that lots of folks who would just love to own an iPod can't justify dropping four Bennies on any portable music player that doesn't include a gun and mask to be used in an ensuing liquor store robbery to cover that month's rent. But hey, what if some government were to slap what amounts to an additional 16% tax on that already-pricey iPod? Well, listen up, Canadians, because if you think the iPod is expensive now, just keep your fingers crossed that a certain proposed levy doesn't come to pass.

See, faithful viewer Alvaro Heiden directed us to a Wired article about the "Private Copying Tariff," a tax that, if enacted, would require that manufacturers and importers of certain products shell out beaucoup bucks to the Canadian government. What kind of products, you ask? Well, pretty much anything that "can be used to store music." In Canadian funds, blank CD-R media would carry a 59 cent tax per disc (about 37 cents in USD), while blank DVD-Rs would be taxed at CAD $2.27 each (USD about $1.42). But here's the kicker: MP3 players like a certain white-and-silver podlike thing we could mention would be taxed at CAD $21 per gigabyte. Factor in the iPod's 5 GB hard drive, and Apple's looking at a potential tax of about USD $66 on every single unit sold in Canada. Heck, it could be worse; each 20 GB Nomad Jukebox would be taxed USD $264-- when it only costs USD $319.95 at Amazon. Ouch.

As to where all this taxeriffic cash would go, it would be paid to the Canadian Private Copying Collective-- who, in turn, is then supposed to "distribute the funds collected (minus administration fees) to musicians who hold copyrights on music in Canada." Getting the picture, here? The idea is that since these products might be used to copy music illegally, the proposed levy is meant to compensate the music industry for its "lost sales." So if you buy blank CD-Rs in Canada to back up your data, or blank DVD media for your wedding video, or even a CompactFlash card for your digital camera, you're automatically guilty of Naughty Music Theft and need to cough up some restitution. (Sure, technically the tax is on the manufacturers and importers, not the customers-- but if you think that the tariff wouldn't be passed through in increased prices, you need to stop mixing cough syrup and furniture polish.)

The real irony here, of course, is that this bizarre plan would actually hurt independent musicians who legally burn copies of their own music to sell; they'd be paying a tax on their own blank media that would then be paid out to the music industry at large. It's sort of a "join the Empire or suffer the consequences" scenario. The good news is that "legal experts" don't expect the tariff to pass, but if it does, we bet it wouldn't be more than about thirty seconds before vans full of contraband iPods start streaming towards the border. Hey, c'mon-- our neighbors to the north deserve semi-reasonably-priced Digital Hub devices, too, right?