Still holding out hope for a surprise Mac OS X 10.3 launch tomorrow to coincide with the 10/3 date? Congratulations, you've officially driven right through the city of Optimism and crossed the town line into Delusionville (population: you-- and an imaginary howler monkey named "Jim-Bob"). We hate to be the ones to burst your bubble (well, not really-- dashing hopes and dreams against the jagged, unforgiving rocks of reality is what Tiggers do best!), but Panther would have to have been "golden master" by at least three or four weeks ago in order for boxed copies to make it onto store shelves by tomorrow, and given the continuing stream of new development seeds since then, that clearly didn't happen.

There's also the fact that the October 3rd release rumor originated at AppleInsider, who has since abandoned the possibility of a super-cutesy release-number-and-date tie-in. And last but not least, whatever your opinion of Apple's marketing department, surely you agree that at least they know enough not to risk the media ignoring a major operating system upgrade just because it came smack in the middle of the journalistic orgy known as No Salt Week.

But cheer up, frowny-pants; the latest update at AppleInsider insists that 10.3 "will indeed ship this month," either on the 24th or 25th "depending on geographical location." Apparently developer seeds of Panther lost their "Pre-Release" label a few builds back, and the current 7B85 build that emerged a few days ago has since proven to be The Golden One. It's probably being duped off and shoved into boxes right this very second, destined to meet its public in just over three weeks' time. So mark your calendars-- although you may want to do it in pencil, seeing as none of this is official just yet. Save the red Sharpie for when Apple issues the press release.

Now, we know we've been hollering for 10.3 to ship ever since Uncle Steve's Wild Panther Ride hooked us with an Exposé demo last June, but that said, we really hope that 10.3 doesn't wind up being a rush job. Hypocritical? Yeah, a little, but here's the thing: we're still dealing with assorted unpleasantries associated with that preternatural spawn of evil known as Mac OS X 10.2.8, including the first time since the pre-X days that we've seen a Mac actually freeze-- no clock blinking, no cursor movement, no disk access, no option-Apple-escape, yet no kernel panic message. (Ahhhh, nostalgia...)

Accordingly, we've regained a poppin'-fresh appreciation for the virtues of putting wacky concepts like "thorough testing" and "quality control" ahead of an early ship date. We're not too worried about Panther, though; developer reports characterize it as rock-solid, and given how scary 10.2.8 turned out to be (plus the fact that Apple's only public self-imposed deadline for a Panther release is the end of the year), we think it's pretty unlikely that 10.3 would be heading off to duplication right now unless it's six microns from bulletproof. Here's hoping.

Time for an update on what we're sure history will prove to be the ultimate lawsuit of this millennium: Apple's epic struggle against TIBCO! For those of you who need a refresher, you are no doubt already aware that Apple's zero-configuration TCP/IP discovery-and-connection technology introduced with Mac OS X 10.2 is called Rendezvous. Well, TIBCO just happens to have its own product called Rendezvous, which is not only in the same general category as Apple's thingy (computer networking software), but has also held the "Rendezvous" registered trademark in the U.S. since 1994. Apple refused to comply with TIBCO's demands that it rename Jaguar's Rendezvous to "I Can't Believe It's Not AppleTalk!" and therefore got slapped with a trademark infringement lawsuit.

Now, maybe it's just us, but we're starting to see certain similarities between TIBCO vs. Apple and what history has proved to be the ultimate lawsuit of the last millennium: Apple's epic struggle against Imatec, who claimed that ColorSync infringed its patents. If you followed that case, you might recall that at one point Imatec took a short break from hassling Apple to commence the incredibly endearing strategy of shaking down end-users of ColorSync as if they were on trial, too. Well, guess what? MacNN reports that an Australian software developer just got a nasty note from TIBCO's lawyers because he mentioned Apple's Rendezvous in his marketing materials for an iChat plugin. (Since AtAT has already mentioned "Rendezvous" a whopping six times in just this one scene, we can only assume that TIBCO will be banging down our door next. Bring it on, Short Round.)

Similarity Number Two: a certain financial shadiness surrounding the plaintiffs. Early on in the Imatec suit, Mac fans discovered that the company had been busted for the illegal sale of stock and were associated with an investment bank that the feds had shut down for fraud. Well, there's nothing quite so dramatic with TIBCO, but Macworld UK notes that "the company has been named in a putative class action... for violating federal securities laws in the way it conducted its IPO." Now, we should probably mention that TIBCO's IPO happened in 1999 at the height of the dotcom craziness and no fewer than three hundred U.S. companies are named in that class action, but still, the faint whiff of economic impropriety brought Imatec to mind.

The parallels are astounding, no? For its part, Apple is no doubt hoping that the similarities don't end there; you probably remember that the Imatec suit was laughed out of court, and not only did Apple prevail, but Imatec also lost all of its patents in the process. So if TIBCO follows in Imatec's footsteps, eventually Apple will get all rights to the Rendezvous name and TIBCO will have to rename its product "FailedGrabForCash" or "New Coke" or something. Stay tuned...

He may only be tied for fifth-best-dressed billionaire, but evidently Steve Jobs is one serious agenda-setter. The man can set an agenda like nobody's business. Complex agendas? Ooooh, yeah-- the agendas he sets would turn your hair white, were you ever fool enough to consider trying to set them yourself. And talk about quality of agenda-settitude! Steve's agendas, once set, stay set; that's it, game over, there's just no unsetting them. Yessirree, if you bring the man an agenda, and he deigns to set it, no matter how complicated an agenda it may be, that's an agenda that's set for life.

We have no idea what we're talking about right now.

Seriously. It's got something to do with what faithful viewer Kioto pointed out, which is Silicon.com's Agenda Setters 2003 awardesque-thing. Apparently a panel of, um, panelists put their heads together to determine who the "agenda setters" are, by which they apparently mean the folks with "global clout and longevity" who "drive the tech industry." Fair enough. We suppose, then, that Steve Jobs ought to be pleased that he was chosen as this year's leader, the agendiest of all agenda setters everywhere. This is his first year at the top of the agenda-setting heap; previous bests include sometime Simpsons guest star Rupert Murdoch, CD-ROM-as-ubiquitous-free-coaster pioneer Steve Case, and Vodafone's Chris Gent. (Yes, if you hadn't clued in yet, this is a British thing.)

That's right, Steve-o is number one this year, up from 15 in 2002-- largely for steering "a relative minnow in the IT industry" into uncharted waters such as online music sales, but also just for being "enigmatic." Who knew that being a man of mystery was such an important part of the effective setting of agendas? Poor Bill Gates, stuck in the number two spot; maybe next year he'll have better luck if he wears an eyepatch.

For what it's worth, Silicon.com also lets you vote for your own favorite agenda setter, with results to be collated and published later-- and they allow write-ins. We're torn; should we go with our gut instinct and reinforce their opinions by voting for Steve, or should we start a grass-roots campaign to elevate Captain Caveman to Agenda Setter status? Decisions, decisions...