[AG-TECH] Creating an AG Room Node using a Mac Backbone?

Ivan R. Judson judson at mcs.anl.gov
Wed Feb 15 17:30:08 CST 2006


A quick comment on the "all mac" question. We have worked very very hard to
get Apple to help us get QuickTime Support for the streaming media tools.
Apple has been unable to give us the information we require to make QT based
tools work.

If you are interested in how to help please email the list and either Tom or
I will try to tell you what can be done.

--Ivan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov [mailto:owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov] On
> Behalf Of Jason Bell
> Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 5:20 PM
> To: ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov
> Subject: RE: [AG-TECH] Creating an AG Room Node using a Mac Backbone?
> 
> G'day Mike
> 
> I think you have asked a good question here and I thought I would voice
> my opinion to why I think there hasn't been any Room based nodes using
> MAC's to date.
> 
> As you may or may not been aware, the Access Grids have been around for
> a number for years and I personally have been playing with them for
> nearly 4 years.  In this time, the Access Grid software (mainly the
> media tools) has only worked on either Linux/Unix or windows. It has
> only been recently that a full deployment of the Access Grid software
> has been fully supported for the Mac.
> 
> I currently have an iMac which I have AG 2.4 and 3.0 Beta1 running on
> it, in which I use the iSight for the video capture.  In my opinion, the
> older versions have been a little buggy and it wasn't until the release
> of AGTK 2.4 that it became stable enough to use on a regular basis.  The
> biggest thing I have noticed with the Mac version compared to the
> Windows and the Linux version have been the "Sluggishness" and having it
> running what appears to be a lot slower (and tends to use a lot of CPU).
> 
> 
> Upon using the AGTK 3.0 Beta1, it looks a lot more promising and
> "appears" to run a lot faster as well.  Given I have only ever used the
> AGTK on a single "Mac" node, I am unsure if the following problems may
> also limit the building of an AG Room Node.  So things to consider that
> I hope others might be able to comment on are whether:
> 
> *	the Mac has driver support for multiple capture cards;
> 
> *	the Mac can support multiple screen/projector display.  (I am
> pretty sure it can, it's just I have never done it nor can I recommend
> what video cards to use)
> 
> Other than the above two points, I cannot see why someone cannot build a
> Room base node using Mac's.  I would be interested to hear if you are
> able to do it.
> 
> Hope this helps,
> Cheers,
> Jason.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov [mailto:owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov] On
> Behalf Of Mike Bogle
> Sent: Wednesday, 15 February 2006 3:19 PM
> To: ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov
> Subject: [AG-TECH] Creating an AG Room Node using a Mac Backbone?
> 
> Hi Everybody,
> 
> I have been asked to research the logistics of implementing an Access
> Grid Room Node at our university, and I am hoping that some of you might
> be able to help me resolve a question.
> 
> Specifically, I have been told by our IT Manager that Mac's would be the
> preferred operating system for the backbone of our uni's room node.
> However I have been so far unable to locate much of any information on
> either the Access Grid homepage (http://www.accessgrid.org/), or
> community pages such as AGCentral, that would help shed some light on
> this topic.
> 
> For example, a quick browse of the Global Nodes in our country
> (Australia) seems to indicate that most Room Nodes are founded on either
> a Windows or Linux backbone.
> 
> Is this the case?  And if so, why?
> 
> I would also be particularly interested in hearing from other
> institutions and/or organisations who have either run into difficulties
> establishing room nodes using Mac backbones, or who have succeeded and
> are using them currently.
> 
> Any and all help would be appreciated.
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Mike Bogle




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