Bootable CD Woes

Okay, here's the scoop: I'm looking for a bootable CD that boots as fast as the Mac OS X Installation CD does. The reason, I want to run Apple Software Restore from the command line.

Boot CD is a nice application that automates creating a bootable CD. The problem is that the CDs are always extremely slow to boot, taking upwards of 10-15 minutes. The Installation CD seems to boot in normal time.

I noticed that under the Installer menu on the Install CD are some applications you can run: Disk Copy, Reset Password, and Terminal. Terminal was greyed out, but I had a marvalous idea. I made an image of the CD and copied the Terminal Application into the same folder as the other programs and then burned that image. Volla! I could now use the Terminal. One problem - ASR was not one of the commands on the disk. I copied that over. Now, ASR works when cloning a drive to another drive, but it does not work when you try to install from an image. When running with the source as an image, it gives me an error when it tries to validate the source. Here are some of the errors that concern that: "DI_CreateDrive: failed
/usr/bin/hdid: DIAttachDrive() failed - no such file or dirrectory
/usr/bin/hdid: mounting "Macintosh HD_asr.dmg" failed: error 199"

If anyone knows how to fix this, or another solution to creating a fast bootable CD that allows you to input commands, be it a bootable command-line CD or GUI CD, let me know.

Mac OS X: Panther

Is Apple's newest O.S. worth the upgrade?

I've decided to review the preview of Panther, OS 10.3. I do not have a copy of the preview version, so my responses will be limited to what I've read at Apple's new Panther site (check the archives for other feature reviews)
I will also be rating each feature on a scale from 1-10 on whether or not they are worthy of considering upgrading from the might OS 10.2 Jaguar.


I haven't had time to continue to review the new features in 10.3, so here is just a quick review of the remaining features:

Preview has gotten a whole lot faster and if I upgrade to 10.3 it will be my new PDF viewer. While the overhaul of Preview is appreciated, I don't think its enough to tempt me to upgrade. Worth the Upgrade Rating: 3

Font Book and the new fonts look like they will be amazing. Here is a "free" tool that will allow users professional style font management. While this tool looks like it will be outstanding, most typical users will never need to use it.
Worth the Upgrade Rating: 6

Faxing is now built into OS X. This is an old feature that Classic versions of the Mac Operating System had for years. About time.
Worth the Upgrade Rating: 1

iDisk will be faster and better integrated in 10.3. This helps all those .Mac users, but what about students like me who balk at the $100 price tag and can't afford it?
Worth the Upgrade Rating: 1

Xcode, the new development tools for 10.3 is sweet, that's all I have to say. If you are a developer, you will want this upgrade.
Worth the Upgrade Rating: 1
Worth the Upgrade Rating (for Developers): 9

Mac OS X: Panther

Is Apple's newest O.S. worth the upgrade?

I've decided to review the preview of Panther, OS 10.3. I do not have a copy of the preview version, so my responses will be limited to what I've read at Apple's new Panther site (check the archives for other feature reviews)
I will also be rating each feature on a scale from 1-10 on whether or not they are worthy of considering upgrading from the might OS 10.2 Jaguar.

A major new feature Apple is touting:
File Vault:
Apple has added security measures into Panther that previous version of OS X have not had. File vault is the ability to encrypt your home directory. When you're logged in and working, it will encrypt and decrypt on the fly, but no one else can decrypt your files. This is nice, but their are already viable work arounds that allow you to do similar things. Apple also included the ability to require a password when you wake from sleep, but a simple solution to that is to require a password to get out of your screen saver and just make sure the screen saver runs before the computer goes to sleep.

All in all, most of these security measures will not appeal to the average user, and can already be achieved through a bit of ingenuity or free third party applications.
Worth the Upgrade Rating: 1

Mac OS X: Panther

Is Apple's newest O.S. worth the upgrade?

I've decided to review the preview of Panther, OS 10.3. I do not have a copy of the preview version, so my responses will be limited to what I've read at Apple's new Panther site (check the archives for other feature reviews)
I will also be rating each feature on a scale from 1-10 on whether or not they are worthy of considering upgrading from the might OS 10.2 Jaguar.

A major new feature Apple is touting:
New Mail.app:
As with every realease of Mac OS X, Mail.app has received a significant overhall in Panther to try and make it as feature-full as the most popular e-mail clients out there. The complete feature list is too long to list here, so visit the link above to find out more information. All I'm going to say is that if you're looking for a free e-mail client that has nice bells and whistles, or if you decided to switch to Apple's Mail.app in Jaguar, then you will probably want this upgrade. (Also, if you're using Outlook Express or Eudora and you upgrade to Panther, ditch 'em for Mail.app)

For the rest of us that still use Entourage, Mail.app does look like a tempting switch. One of the nice things about it is that it is specifically an e-mail application. Not only that, but Entourage, thus far, does not use Apple's Address Book application which many programs have started to use. And don't forget that Using Mail.app means you are supporting Apple and not the "Evile Empire"
Worth the Upgrade Rating: 7

Mac OS X: Panther

Is Apple's newest O.S. worth the upgrade?

I've decided to review the preview of Panther, OS 10.3. I do not have a copy of the preview version, so my responses will be limited to what I've read at Apple's new Panther site (check the archives for other feature reviews)
I will also be rating each feature on a scale from 1-10 on whether or not they are worthy of considering upgrading from the might OS 10.2 Jaguar.

A major new feature Apple is touting:
Fast User Switching:

>Starting with Panthar, Mac users will now have the ability to quickly change from one user to another, without having to quit out of any applications.

>When switching between users, the Keynote box transition is used, a revolving 3D cube:revolving the old screen out and the new screen in.

>Fast User Switching also comes with the option to require a password for certain accounts and not others.

The truth of the matter is that Microsoft beat Apple to this feature; Windows XP has had this ability for a while. However, once again it appears that Windows XP has not done it as well as Panther. Besides the fact that Apple's switching is a lot prettier, from what I saw at the WWDC, Panther is faster at switching. (Of course, Jobs might have been on a fast computer than the XP machines I've run across) This is a nice feature that most users will enjoy -- the family Mac will be shared more readily; it will be great for education, especially professors with T.A.s; and even computers that only have single users can use it as extra desktop space and interface. Fast User Switching, like most of the features new in Panther, is nice, but not a necessity.
Worth the Upgrade Rating: 5.5