We all love South Park for its humor, satire, the vulgar words and the creative ways of saying the word "s**t" as often as possible in a single episode. Did you know that every new South Park episode is delivered right on the day it airs? Other than the sheer creative talent of the South Park production crew, the show credits its hectic production to Apple computers.

JJ Franzen, technical director at South Park Studios says, "We have very complex stuff that needs to be done very fast and we need to know that we can trust the machines to handle whatever we throw at them without crumbling. ThatÂ?s why we use Macs."

It used to be that the Studio used construction paper cutouts to play as Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny and the other characters. Such a method became too time-consuming, however; the Studio then decided to mimic the original look and feel of construction paper puppets using SGI workstations.

The animation crew uses Adobe Photoshop and Maya. They scan the original paper cutouts and backgrounds, and use these as textures in Maya. Using computers in producing episodes cut down the process from 3 months to 6 days. Recently, a new special-effects technique in producing the cartoon has been introduced: Motion, a graphics software from Apple, which allows snow to appear more naturally in South Park, Colorado.

After animation and audio, the editorial department cuts the episode for broadcast using Macs running on Avid. The team has custom-built the studio to include a 120 processor render farm, more than 30 Mac workstations, and almost 10 terabytes of Xserve RAID storage space.

Prior to using Apple, Maya was rendered on Windows workstations. But Maya would crash often, requiring the entire system to be rebooted. When Maya was released for the Mac, the team made the switch, and now, whenever the application crashes, only the application has to be rebooted - not the entire system.

South Park Studio says that their Mac workstations are fast and reliable. They're coupled with a 120-processor (AMD Athlon) Linux render farm, effectively doubling the amount of shots that the team could do. Macs could definitely keep up with the South Park crew's insane production schedule.

Frank Agnone, supervising producer at South Park Studios in Los Angeles, says that Apple's quick-to-master style is very useful. "Apple is known in the industry as being very user friendly and when youÂ?re making a big switchover, that factors in ... With Apple and Mac OS X, in-house production could make the transition easily."

Well actually, it has been run natively, but it doesn't mean it loves OSX. In fact, M. Gagnon, the GIMP tweaker who we extracted this find from, has been able to build the GNU Image Manipulation Program in Mac OSX with Imiendo's GTK+ porting kit.

This isn't exactly new, but the porting of GIMP to Mac OSX is actually common practice for GTK+ porters, so that they can experience the porting process first-hand and then begin their own porting projects in greater detail. While it isn't exactly required that you know Linux code, it would be a great help to know if what you're doing is right.

But more importantly, perhaps, is that direct porting isn't always as simple as cha-cha. For a basic port, GIMP will sneeze a few glitches once in a while. But more often than not, it wouldn't be safe at all for everyone to use. Plus, as Gagnon found out, the ported program is difficult to distribute because of lack of package support.

If there's anything that you know that you think could help, hop on over to the GTK+ dev site and suggest your input at the forums. It's here you'll be able to view a step-by-step guide to performing your own port.

DOSBox v0.70 is the latest release from the DOSBox Team. For the uninitiated, it is a DOS-emulator that uses the SDL-library. DOSBox has been ported on different platforms, such as Windows, Linux, and MacOS X. The DOS emulator itself is open source and has garnered the support of a lot of its users. It emulates the following:

• CPU:286/386 realmode/protected mode,
• Directory FileSystem/XMS/EMS,
• Tandy/Hercules/CGA/EGA/VGA/VESA graphics,
• and for sound a SoundBlaster/Gravis Ultra Sound card.
  

DOSBOX offers countless hours of reliving the classic games that newer systems may have a problem running. It is common to find that the games from the 80s and early 90s to be unplayable since they would be too quick (some of the programs use the clock speed to dictate the speed of the game). With DOSBox, it is not only possible but actually relatively easy.

It's been reported that the program's stable and nobody's had any trouble with running classics such as Maniac Mansion, Alley Cat, Wing Commander, or Frogger. It's inevitable that there might be a few classic games that don't work with this version though.

Note for downloads: The windows executable is in the main folder, the zipped .dmg file for MacOS X and the other file for FedoraCore.

Download: DOSBox v0.70

Click the full article to see a quickstart guide.

Quite the big "ouch" to the Redmond giant: the Department of Transportation (DoT) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has banned Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Internet Explorer 7 from its offices. They are considering switching its operation to Macs and PCs running Novell's SuSe Linux.

The rather harsh policy was sanctioned back in January, but through the enactment of a moratorium, the blocking of Vista upgrades is still in effect. 15,000 users at the DoT and 45,000 employees at the FAA have been barred from upgrading to any new software from Microsoft.

The memorandum, dated January 19, was distributed to address concerns about licensing issues, upgrade costs, and backward compatibility with their existing key software and systems. They aren't scrapping Vista altogether if issues could be resolved, although they are considering alternatives to just going Vista all the way.

Aside from educational institutions and research associations, it seems that even the U.S. government is affected by the cost and compatibility problems regarding Bill Gates' new "Wow" product that shuns many XP compatible programs on its questionable platform.

Parallels announced today that Parallels Desktop, its virtualization software for the Mac, has been updated. Parallels Desktop allows users running Intel-powered Apple Macs to run Windows, Linux or any other operating system at the same time as Mac OS X, without re-booting.

This new version of Parallels Desktop is anchored by a completely customizable new feature called Coherence. Coherence allows users to run Windows applications on their Macs like they were native applications.

When users switch to Coherence mode, the Windows desktop disappears, leaving Windows applications, such as Outlook and Internet Explorer, running directly on the Mac desktop and from the Mac application dock.

"When we introduced Parallels Desktop in April, we blurred the lines between the Mac and Windows worlds. With the introduction of Coherence, we completely blow that line away," said Benjamin Rudolph, Director of Communications, Parallels. "This is a game-changing technology that gives users the ability to choose the best application for the job at hand. We intend to expand the Coherence function to help computer users move to a truly operating system-agnostic desktop."

Parallels Desktop also includes a powerful new migration tool called Transporter that gives users the ability to move their entire existing PCs Â? including all of its settings, applications, files and profiles -- directly to a Parallels virtual machine running on their new Macs, without re-installing Windows. Perfect for users who are just switching from a Windows PC to a Mac.

You can grab a copy of Parallels Desktop on the Parallels website for US$ 79.99. A trial version is also available on the website. Kudos to ben for the heads up.

More features after the jump!

Given that Networking media is expected to be a huge thing at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, Neuros Technology's contributions, most notably their Linux-based open source embedded media center - the Neuros OSD Â? will be a sure sight at this year's CES.

IGN reports that using the OSD, users will be able to record from a wide array of devices and then read and write to iPods, PCs, Smart Phones, PSPs, etc.

For the average person (all the non-techy folks out there), this means that all of your portable devices can now be linked to your entertainment center with relative ease. The unit is priced at $229.99 and will be showcased at CES along with several new products.

We'll update you with more bits regarding this years CES as the news comes. Stay tuned.

A few days ago we brought you a list of seven Japanese high-tech gadgets you can't buy just yet. Today we have another list - courtesy of TechEBlog - of seven gadgets that are not yet available for the consumption of the general public. This time, we're setting our sights on one of the most useful accessories we've ever come across: watches.

First up is the iPod watch. Designed by Peter Burns, this concept watch is supposed to be a "10GB player with Bluetooth-enabled earphones." The clean design is enhanced by the lack of wiring between the player and earphones, "a sleek, efficient method of dealing with the increasing risk of misplacing the unit as the iPod gets smaller and smaller."

Check out the rest of the high-tech watches after the jump!

Many moons ago, VMware was rumored to be cooking a virtualization solution for OS X. Now we know the rumor is true because the company just released its Fusion Beta version.

Fusion allows Intel-based Macs to run x86 operating systems (Windows, Linux, NetWare, and Solaris) in virtual machines at the same time as Mac OS X. Simply put, the app allows traditional PC applications to run on Mac.

Fusion Beta version includes the following features:

• Create and run a wide variety of 32- and 64-bit x86 operating systems on OS X without rebooting
• Simultaneously run PC applications next to OS X applications
• On any Mac with dual-core processors, multiple CPUs can be assigned to virtual machine to gain additional performance for CPU-intensive workloads.
• Access physical devices from the virtual machine: read and burn CDs and DVDs, and use USB 2.0 devices like video cameras, iPods, printers, and disks at full speed
• Devices that do not have drivers for OS X will work in a virtual machine
• Drag and drop files and folders between OS X and virtual machines to easily share data between the two environments

To test drive Fusion Beta version, you need to fill up a registration at the VMware website. You can click the link below to go to the company's site.

Now you can have LightScribe drives in your Mac. Announced by LaCie earlier today, their drives are now Mac-compatible, along with the release of its LightScribe Labeling software.

LightScribe is the software which allows you to create labels on your burned CDs or DVDs without the need for those printer or sticky label papers. The drive has a "direct-to-disc" label technology that etches it right on the disc itself. You can even make it funky by putting in an artwork or whatever design you may be so inclined to put. The announcement is particularly fantastic, because although there are already some Mac users who have had the LightScribe drives for a while now, it is only now that LaCie's software allowed for it to be Mac-compatible.

The drives are already available for just under US $100, while the software comes free with the drives. The LightScribe labeling software is also released for Linux.

If Jon Lech Johansen - the same Jon Lech Johansen they call DVD Jon who reverse-engineers data formats and has become infamous for hacking encrypted DVDs so that they play in Linux at the tender age of 15 - is after your technology, would you lose sleep over it?

Well apparently not Apple head honcho Steve Jobs. After a meeting with Johansen and his partner Monique Farantzos some time in January discussing their new company plans, he dismissed it by saying that while Apple was not a litigious company, other firms of the same nature might not go so easy on whatever DVD Jon might be up to.

Now, while Steve Job's extreme confidence is admirable, will it bite him back in his arse? See, Johansen's plan is to add the DRM rather than breaking it. He wants to license the technology to companies who want their content to be playable on Apple devices.

This is not the first time for DVD Jon to get in the ring with Apple. In November 2003, Johansen released QTFairUse, an open source program which dumps the raw output of a QuickTime AAC stream to a file that could bypass the digital rights management (DRM) software used to encrypt content of music from media such as those distributed by the iTunes Music Store, Apple Computer's on-line music store.