I have gotten my new software loadset onto about half of the new G4s via radmind. Radmind is a bit fragile -- subtle errors cause it to stop cold fairly frequently. If that happens at the wrong point, the machine will become unstable, requiring the OS to be reinstalled before you can try again. Once a machine has been done, it seems to manage the incremental updates much better. I've run into an odd bug: when you reboot for the first time after completing first the radmind update, the machine hangs before it brings up the login screen. If you move the mouse, you'll get the spinning wheel of death at this point. If you, instead, press the power button, to put the machine to sleep, it will flash the login screen and go to sleep. Once you wake it up, it works fine. Go figure.
*** You need to remove /System/Library/Extensions.mkext and then run /usr/sbin/kextcache -elF -a `arch` ***
I'm kind of stumped regarding what text editor to install. For years, I've been a big fan of BBedit -- I think its probably the most useful application on my Mac. In the lab, I've always installed BBedit Lite because, hey, its free, right? And its hard to justify that biology students really need a full copy of BBedit. Unfortunately, I just discovered that 
BareBones has discontinued BBedit Lite. I expect the company sees it as an economic reality, but I think it's very unfortunate. We looked into licensing, but the price is more than we can justify. I can always use vim, but I'm not sure what to get for people in the lab.
A UMass economist, Gerald Friedman, wrote in the Globe
If Massachusetts had collected the same share of personal income in taxes in 2000 as it did in 1990, state and local revenues would have increased by nearly $4 billion, $2 billion more than the current deficit.
[the] real mistake was in cutting taxes for the rich.
The scariest part is that the Republicans want to replace taxes with use-fees for everything. This seems fair until you consider the disproportionately regressive effect this has on the working poor. For example, increasing fees on the turnpike takes a larger percentage of a poor persons's income than a rich person's. Asking the poor to subsidize the Big Dig is simply outrageous.