| Timbuktu and the MacMini - a perfect combination | | Date Created: 25 Jan, 2005, 06:17 AM |
 I have been a long term user of Timbuktu, the software which allows you to observe and control a remote PC or Mac.
There have been times when I have been away from home and used copies of Timbuktu to fax urgent medico-legal reports from the home computer rather than pay excessive international call rates.
At other times, when it's been hard to network a Mac and a Windows machine because it's hard to work out the Samba magic, Timbuktu has come to the rescue to help exchange files. I did this recently when I talked a friend into getting himself an iMac G5 and he needed to swap a very large number of Microsoft Word and Excel files from his IBM laptop. (I advised him to get a 512MB USB thumbdrive to mop up the leftover files).
At another time early in my OS X days before I located a printer driver for my Canon inkjet (and loathed opening OS 9 just to print) I would use Timbuktu to print files from the Windows box to which the printer was connected.
So I have been a booster for Timbuktu for a long time now.
When the MacMini was released two weeks ago, my thoughts immediately turned to how it could be used without the keyboard, mouse and screen, especially in those homes and enterprises which already had another computer, Mac or PC. Clearly, using the MacMini as a server for printing, music and video storage and the like is an obvious use. (Technologyreview.com carries a more extensive list of possible uses, as does Victor at Solution Spheres)
Placing a copy of Timbuktu on it and on the primary PC or Mac would allow control of the little beast, including the feature that most delights new users - complete replication of the screen on the main PC. On a fast network, there is very little lag in terms of actions, although you certainly wouldn't want to watch video via Timbuktu as it's very choppy.
On Friday last week, MacWindows carried a report that Timbuktu 8 was being prepared. Here is what it says:
Timbuktu 8 remote control to add security, "push installer." January 24, 2005 -- Netopia, Inc. has announced that in late February it will ship Timbuktu Pro 8.0, the next version of the remote control software, file transfer, and voice messaging software for Windows and Macintosh. New features will include:
• Support of Rendezvous, Apple's implementation of ZeroConf (zero configuration networking), for automatically locating other Timbuktu Pro users on the network.
• In addition to the current multiple security levels, Timbuktu 8 will add system "user accounts to create a new type of secure connection that leverages Apple's existing security."
• Encryption and data compression using Secure Shell (SSH) connections.
• A new "Push Installer" feature to allow network administrators to install Timbuktu Pro on remote computers that do not already have the software installed.
For many, the co-opting of Rendezvous as an extra means of secure connectivity between Macs near each other will offer interesting possibilities. This is expecially so if both Macs are Airport-equpped, as well as using the MacMini to network as a printer server if the main unit (say a Powerbook) is out of range of the printer. iTunes already takes advantage of this to use the MacMini as a music server and no doubt soon to be a video server.
How soon before we see Apple bundling the MacMini with Timbuktu - or its own version of desktop remote software? |
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