News Common PC Mac Amiga CUCUG
The January 18 gathering will be one of our combined SIG meetings. QuentinBarnes and Dale Rahn will deliver an OpenBSD "firewall" presentation.Besides general issues concerning firewalls, Quentin has @Home and Dale hasPrairieinet, so they can answer specific questions about Net security withregards to these services as well. If you were ever concerned about howyour machine interacts with the Internet, this will be a meeting ofconsiderable interest.
Illinois Technology Center
101 Tomaras Ave.
Savoy, IL 61874
From Champaign or Urbana, take Neil Street (Rt 45) south to Savoy. If youset the trip meter in your car to zero at the McDonalds on the corner ofKirby/Florida and Neil in Champaign, you only go 2.4 miles south. Windsorwill be at the one mile mark. Curtis will be at the two mile mark. Go pastthe Paradise Inn/Best Western motel to the next street, Tomaras Ave. on thewest (right) side. Tomaras is at the 2.4 mile mark. Turn west (right) onTomaras Ave. The parking lot entrance is immediately on the south (left)side of Tomaras Ave. Enter the building by the door under the three flagsfacing Rt 45.
More directions and a map can be found on the CUCUG website at:
http://www.cucug.org/meeting.html
This will be a trial run to see how everyone likes the new meeting center.More information about the meeting itself will be in the Status Registere-mail which you will receive prior to the meeting. Stop by on the 18th andlet us know what you think of this new facility.
We welcome any kind of input or feedback from members. Have an article orreview you'd like to submit? Send it in. Have a comment? Email any officeryou like. Involvement is the driving force of any user group. Welcome backto the group.
http://www.cucug.org/cucugapp.html
Membership is still only $20. You could save that easily with just oneanswer to a vexing computer question!
In a move unanimously hailed by the trade press and industry analysts asbeing a sure sign of incipient brain damage, Linus Torvalds (also known asthe "father of Linux" or, more commonly, as "mush-for-brains") decided thatenough is enough, and that things don't get better from having the samepeople test it over and over again. In short, 2.4.0 is out there. Anxiouslyawaited for the last too many months, 2.4.0 brings to the table manyimprovements, none of which come to mind to the exhausted release managerright now. "It's better", was the only printable quote. Pressed fordetails, Linus bared his teeth and hissed at reporters, most of whichsuddenly remembered that they'd rather cover "Home and Gardening" than theIT industry anyway.
Anyway, have fun. And don't bother reporting any bugs for the next fewdays. I won't care anyway.
Linus
[Editor's Note: For a listing of the changes since the prerelease, check out http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2001-01-05-001-04-NW-LF-KN .Additionalcoverage can be found at http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-4379807.html .]
Wed, 03 Jan 2001 - Amiga has announced the release of BoingBag2, the secondpatchset for AmigaOS 3.5 (for those who haven't upgraded to OS 3.9). TheBoingBag2 patch is 1.2 Meg and can be downloaded from
http://www.amiga.com/3.5/support.shtml
or directly from
http://www.amiga.com/3.5/download/BoingBag2.lha
Tue, 09 Jan 2001 - Due to some minor problems with BoingBag #2 Amiga hasdecided to release AmigaOS 3.5 Boing-Bag #2a. Please simply install it ontop of BoingBag #1 or #2. Download of the LHA archive (1.6 MB) at
http://www.amiga.com/3.5/download/BoingBag2a.lha .
Content of the BoingBAG:
Workbench
AmigaMail
Utilities
Datatypes
ASL-Library
(c) Amiga Inc., 34935 SE Douglas Street, Suite 210, Snoqualmie, WA 98065 USA
Iomega's new Peerless drive system,debuting this month at CES and MacWorld Expo, are new PDA-sized drives thatutilize a $250 base station that is "slightly" larger than the disk itself(a slim, vertical enclosure about four inches across and five inches tall).The "disks" are available in 5GB ($130), 10GB ($160) and 20GB ($200)capacities and are fully sealed, offer transfer rates of up to 15 MB/secwith the FireWire interface, and include chip-based identifier technologydata security. FireWire and USB 1.1 interface modules are expected to beavailable in mid-2001 in the US and in the third quarter in Europe andAsia/Pacific. USB 2.0 and SCSI versions due "as follow-on products."
LAS VEGAS--Microsoft's entry into the video game business will no doubtinspire a number of marketing gimmicks, but it will be hard to topSaturday's: Bill Gates sharing a stage with professional wrestler "TheRock."
The only-in-Vegas pairing happened as Gates took the wraps off the Xbox,Microsoft's highly anticipated bid to gain a chunk of the lucrative videogame market and the software giant's biggest detour yet from the PCbusiness.
"There's a revolution that's about to take place in game consoles," Gatespromised before removing a black shroud covering an Xbox unit.
The Xbox debut was the finale of Gates' keynote address at the ConsumerElectronics Show, during which the Microsoft chairman also previewedWhistler, the next consumer version of the Windows operating system, andshowed prototypes of several Pocket PC-powered gadgets.
The technical details of the Xbox--scheduled to go on sale this Octoberbacked by a $500 million marketing campaign--have been known since March.Gates, however, used the CES appearance to show off the actual box and itssophisticated graphics capabilities.
The main unit is a squarish black box that looks more like an expensiveclock radio, and the controllers are--not surprisingly--similar toMicrosoft's Sidewinder game controllers for the PC.
More important than the plastic, though, were the game demonstrations.Graphical software performance is one of the factors that will determinehow well the Xbox will do against Sony's PlayStation 2. If thedemonstration is any indication, the companies are destined for tightcompetition.
Gates and Seamus Blackley, head of Microsoft's Xbox division, randemonstrations of several Xbox titles, which featured detailed graphics andsmooth animation that looked more like a Disney movie than current videogames.
"If there's an area where breakthroughs in hardware and software couldreally change the business, it's got to be video games," Gates said. "Thisis a breakthrough device. It's a new thing for Microsoft."
Blackley said Xbox titles will benefit from raw hardware horsepower--a733-MHz processor, a beefy hard drive, a 250-MHz graphics processor--butalso clever configuration. Microsoft has spent extra effort in putting thesystem together in a way that makes it easy for software writers to exploitfeatures and write programs.
Numerous game developers have complained that market leader Sony made itsnew PlayStation 2 console so difficult to program that current gamesharness only a fraction of its power.
"One of the basic premises of the Xbox is to put the power in the hands ofthe artist," Blackley said, which is why Xbox developers "are achieving alevel of visual detail you really get in 'Toy Story.'"
Among the Xbox titles in development is a World Wrestling Federation game,which led to the closing appearance by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who noteda number of similarities between himself and the software guru. "Both TheRock and Bill Gates are known worldwide for their vast array of catchphrases," the wrestler noted.
Analysts have cast the Xbox as Microsoft's Trojan horse to enter the livingroom, where it could serve as a conduit for Internet content, aninteractive TV controller and myriad other functions. But Ed Fries, vicepresident of games publishing at Microsoft, said such plans are lowpriorities.
"We've been fighting a lot of battles all along to make this box all aboutgaming," he said in an interview after Gates' speech. "Whether it makessense long term, if Xbox works its way into that networked home Bill wastalking about, we'll see about that later."
Fries said Microsoft hasn't settled on target numbers for initial Xboxsales, but he said the European release of the console was delayed untilnext year mainly because the company wants to have a strong launch in theUnited States and Japan.
"We don't want to disappoint gamers," he said, in a not-so-veiled referenceto Sony's PlayStation 2 shortages.
In addition to the Xbox shenanigans, Gates also echoed Intel CEO CraigBarrett's keynote the night before by describing a home of the future wherePCs will control everything from digital picture frames to home theatersystems using wireless networks. Naturally, Gates opined that Microsoftsoftware will be the glue that binds it all together.
"The PC is going to be the place where you store the information and reallythe center of control," he said. "Software is the key to making sure wedon't have islands of information."
The Whistler preview focused on the start-up screen, which allows for easyswitching between user profiles without rebooting, a scanner and camera"wizard" that simplifies the storing and distributing of digital photos,and enhanced networking capabilities for running all those devicesthroughout the home.
"We created a machine you'll be leaving on 24 hours a day," Gates said."We're taking the PC and the wireless infrastructure to make it availablethroughout the home."
One of the new devices that may connect to that network is a high-techalarm clock that runs on calendar information and plays music files beamedfrom the PC. The prototype looked like an Apple Computer iMac shrunken tocell phone size.
"That alarm clock has the full power of your schedule, your userpreferences...in a device that's very inexpensive because it runs off thepower of the PC," Gates said.
Gates' vision of the networked home also includes a big role for handheldcomputers running on Microsoft's Pocket PC software. The most impressivePocket PC demonstration involved a voice recognition software package thatwill allow a person to speak information into the handheld and controlbasic functions by voice. Other Pocket PC software in the works will allowhandhelds to be used as a remote control for shuttling digital music from aPC to a networked stereo system.
Television also was a focus for Gates, who demonstrated enhancements toMicrosoft's interactive TV software that allow viewers to record multipleprograms simultaneously.
"Music will not be the same now that it's digital," he said. "The same withtelevision--television will not be the same once it's fully in digitalform."
Apple Computer's forthcoming operating system got a big endorsementWednesday.
Microsoft announced it will release a version of Office for Mac OS X in thefall, marking the first truly significant software developer to backApple's next-generation operating system.
Analysts had warned that without a version of Office, or a similarproductivity suite, running natively under Mac OS X, Apple would faceproblems getting businesses to switch to the new operating system.
"This is a very significant announcement for Apple," Gartner analyst ChrisLeTocq said. "Frankly, this is the endorsement they needed."
Until Wednesday's announcement at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Microsoftrefused to reveal a timetable for a Mac OS X version of Office, with someanalysts speculating the company would not deliver the product until early2002.
Mary Becker, group product manager of Microsoft's Macintosh business unit,explained the change in the company's position with regard to Office forMac OS X.
Becker said that when Microsoft unveiled Mac Office 2001 in July, "a lot ofpeople in the industry were saying, 'What does OS X really look like? Whatdoes it really mean to the industry?' There was a lot of uncertainty."
But much has changed since the summer. "The difference between then and nowis that Apple is further along" with OS X, Becker said. "If you take atrain analoge, we didn't know where we were headed. We do now, andMicrosoft's on the train."
Given that Microsoft only started shipping the current release, Mac Office2001, in October, the company definitely faced dwindling gains by puttingout another version of Office so soon, say analysts.
But Microsoft did back Mac OS X in other ways, such as shipping a versionof Internet Explorer with the operating system's public beta, or testversion, in September.
Still, Microsoft's commitment to delivering Office for OS X is a huge winfor Apple, particularly because software developers have not flocked to thenew operating system as aggressively as the company had hoped, TechnologyBusiness Research analyst Tim Deal said.
"This is a good development for Apple," Deal said. "It certainly helpspromote Mac OS X. I believe Apple still needs to get additional developersonboard for Mac OS X to reach the potential they are shooting for."
Becker concurred that Microsoft's full backing for Mac OS X sends animportant message.
"We've worked hard to partner with Apple, but the industry looks and asks,'How does Microsoft view things? If they're on board with OS X, then thingsmust be going well,'" she said. "They look to us as an overall temperaturecheck and gauge."
Regardless, Apple may have delivered a tacit ding Tuesday to Microsoft, itslargest software development partner. During his keynote speech atMacworld, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs on several occasions referred toapplications appearing in the autumn as "laggards."
Becker defended Microsoft's decision not to release Office for Mac OS Xuntil later in the year.
"Office is a very large set of applications," she said. "There are 25million lines of code. It's not as easy as saying, 'Hey, we're going toport it over to OS X.' It takes time."
She also emphasized the importance of the project for Microsoft.
"We're moving on to Mac OS X. It's our No. 1 priority for 2001," Beckersaid.
Jobs also announced that Mac OS X will go on sale March 24 for $129 andappear on new computers starting in July. The much anticipated, butlong-delayed, operating system overhaul is the most significant change toMac OS since 1984 when Apple released the Macintosh.
In the meantime, Apple on Tuesday released Mac OS 9.1, which added newfeatures designed to ease the transition to the new version.
With the Mac OS X release date firm and no longer "a moving target," othermajor developers may finally give the operating system the support itneeds, said LeTocq, who praised Microsoft's responsiveness.
"For Microsoft to produce a major application like Office six months aftercode freeze is pretty good timing on their part," he said.
For a limited time, Microsoft plans to offer a 50 percent discount on theupcoming Mac OS X Office to anyone who buys the current release, Mac Office2001.
Microsoft has set the price for the upgrade to Office for Mac OS X at $299and the full version at $499.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker also is working on the first updateto Mac Office 2001. The update is essential for ensuring that the softwaresuite runs smoothly under Mac OS 9.1 and Mac OS X's "Classic" mode.
Besides revealing its future Mac OS X Office plans Wednesday, Microsoftalso released the beta version of Outlook 2001 for the Mac.
Becker said Microsoft plans to release Outlook 2001 in the summer. Outlookdiffers dramatically from Entourage, the email client and contact managerincluded with Office 2001. Whereas Entourage is a stand-alone product,Outlook requires Exchange Server and offers a variety of collaborativefeatures.
Apple Computer, like many individuals, has a New Year's resolution: Trimthe fat fast.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company is kicking off the new year withmassive price cuts across its entire line of business systems--PowerMac G4and Power Cube G4 desktop systems, PowerMac G4 server and PowerBook G3notebooks--and apparently abandoning long-standing rebates.
The new deals are available through the online Apple Store and via somecatalog and online Mac dealers.
On New Year's Day, Apple cut prices by as much as $1,100 in a nearlyunprecedented pricing action.
"I think $1,000 is fairly steep. I wouldn't say it's the biggest I've everseen, but it's definitely steep," said Tom Ostrander, senior Apple productmarketing manager for direct marketer MacConnection.
For businesses interested in Apple products, the time to buy Macs couldn'tbe better. Apple's top-of-the-line dual 500-MHz-processor PowerMac G4 nowsells for $2,499, or $1,000 less than on Dec. 31. Apple's bulkiestPowerBook now goes for $2,199, down from its $3,499 introduction and lastweek's $2,999 selling price.
Apple's price cuts come as the company has failed to clear a backlog ofinventory from dealers' shelves. The computer manufacturer had used rebatesof up to $500 to boost sales, but that effort apparently failed. Accordingto market researcher ARS, Apple has 11.5 weeks of systems sitting ondealers' shelves, up slightly from about 11 weeks when the company issued aprofit warning early last month.
"This says to me they have to clear a lot of stuff, a lot of inventory,out," said Gartner analyst Kevin Knox. "Bottom line, they're not sellingsystems, inventory is building up, and they're doing everything in theirpower to get rid of this stuff."
A drop-off in December
Preliminary retail sales data for the first half of December shows Applesales plummeted 40 percent, according to market researcher PC Data. Bycomparison, all retail PC sales declined more than 20 percent for theperiod.
With the Macworld trade expo about a week away and an industrywide pricewar brewing as Compaq Computer and other PC makers look to clear off storeshelves, Apple is backed against a wall. Rumors of a new PowerBook notebookand faster PowerMac G4s have churned up excitement about the expo, whereApple typically introduces new products.
"Apple needs to clear out its inventory glut in order to prepare for theintroduction of new products at Macworld," said Technology BusinessResearch analyst Tim Deal. CEO Steve Jobs "wants to start the year with aclean slate in order to more effectively create hype for new or upgradedproducts," Deal said.
But to sell new systems, Apple must first clear the shelves of the oldones. The cost of doing this could affect Apple for some time. Manyanalysts had speculated Apple would not cut prices, relying on rebates tospur sales.
That the company significantly slashed prices shows how little effect therebates had on sales, said PC Data analyst Stephen Baker. "They're inplenty of trouble now," he said. "They obviously have got to find some waysto move some product and get back on track."
Lowering prices now could make it harder for Apple to introduce newproducts at a higher price later, analysts say. Apple typically has broughtout beefier systems for the same price as the old, keeping prices fairlylevel over time.
"They usually wait for new products to get into the channel before theystart to take price actions," Knox said. "I wouldn't say it's desperationmode, but they're feeling a lot of pressure to get rid of the stuff that'sout there."
Inventory woes
The inventory problems are expected to contribute to a projectedfourth-quarter loss of as much as $250 million.
Apple apparently rode the upgrade cycle of its core users, which analystssaid dropped off around the time the company introduced newmodels--including the G4 Cube--in July. But slow sales followed, includinga disappointing back-to-school selling season, driving Apple's inventoryfrom about 3.1 weeks in June to more than 11 weeks in December, accordingto ARS.
"We're at a point where Apple has probably never been before, with salesfalling and inventory building," Knox said.
Slow sales of the stylish G4 Cube apparently blindsided Apple. Apparentcracks in the housing and the stiff $1,799 entry-level price hurt Cubesales, which, Apple acknowledged, contributed significantly to itsprojected revenue shortfall. The price cuts put Apple's Cube where manyanalysts said it should have been in the first place: $1,499.
"I anticipate that Apple, now humbled by the lackluster demand of its G4Cube, will showcase a line of products at Macworld with more features andless fluff," Deal speculated. "Apple must now get back to basics andclearly recognize the needs of its target market."
At the high end, the PowerMac G4 cuts put Apple within reach of higher-endPCs--typically 1.4-GHz Pentium 4 desktops--and the system offers a secondprocessor. Still, Mac OS 9.04 and most Mac software cannot really takeadvantage of the second processor. That support will come with the releaseof Mac OS X, now in beta.
The PowerMac G4 with two 500-MHz G4 processors, 256MB of RAM, a 40GB harddrive and a DVD-RAM drive now sells for $2,499, down from $3,499. A similarmodel with standard DVD drive, as Apple phases out DVD-RAM, dropped to$2,399 from $3,199. The dual-450 system now sells for $1,999, discountedfrom $2,499. Apple's entry-level, 400-MHz single-processor G4 is $1,299,compared with last week's $1,599.
Both PowerBook notebooks have been deeply discounted. The top-of-the-line500-MHz G3 model goes for $2,199, down from $2,999. The 450-MHz PowerBooknow sells for $1,999, a discount of $400.
Apple also cut its G4 server to $3,099 from $4,199.
While Apple may be clearing out commercial systems to make room for newmodels to be introduced at Macworld, Knox sees signs of trouble ahead.
"This probably spells a pretty bad fourth quarter for Apple commercial, aswell as consumer," he said.
[Source: The Commo-Hawk Computer User Group newsletter, "The File" January,2001. CHCUG's address is P.O. Box 2724, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52406-2724.]
Some time ago, the topic of a task snooper for Windoze came up .. Ilearned that there's actually one with it, allegedly since 3.1 even,called "drwatson.exe", usually in the /win95/system directory, or asimilar place in other versions, just use the find-thing to get it.Running it should bring an extra icon to the systray, which offers crashlogs and running .DLLs with dependencies etc. .. I don't get that icon onthis box (weird as is), but it worked on another one that my brothershowed me. Just in case it helps anyone .. :)
If you cannot afford Norton or McAfee, Network Associates has a good, freevirus checking program that is available. You will have to register,though.
The Network Associates checker is free and available athttp://www.webattack.com
Kevin Hopkins:
Skal, which one are you referring to specifically? I found a page full offreeware virus checkers at Skal Loret: That would be the InoculateIT Personal Edition. ftp://ftp.cai.com/pub/marketing/ipe/IPESetup.exe Barry Steenbergh: I'd agree with you. You can't beat the price. :) A more direct link to itis: "g'o'tz ohnesorge": Another option is F-Prot. F-Prot is freeware, and should be available fromthe usual big download sites. [Source: The Commo-Hawk Computer User Group newsletter, "The File" January,2001. CHCUG's address is P.O. Box 2724, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52406-2724.] SAN FRANCISCO--Looking to re-energize the Mac faithful and boost saggingsales, Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday unveiled faster Power Macs that willreach speeds of 733 MHz and come equipped with CD-RW drives. "The last several months of 2000 were particularly challenging for Appleand our industry," Jobs said in his keynote speech at Macworld Expo here."We've decided to start 2001 with a bang." Jobs also introduced a thinner, faster PowerBook laptop and pushed back theschedule for Mac OS X's release to late March. As expected, Jobs unveiled four new Power Mac models with PowerPC G4processors ranging in speeds from 466 MHz to 733 MHz. Three of the models will come equipped with CD-rewritable drives. The topmodel will have what Jobs dubbed a SuperDrive, a combinationCD-RW/DVD-recordable drive. The SuperDrive can read and write DVDs that canthen be played in mainstream DVD players. Jobs also announced that the long-awaited Mac OS X will be available forpurchase for $129 on March 24. However, Jobs added that the new operatingsystem will not be pre-loaded on new Macs until July when the bulk of thenew OS X applications will be available. Apple had originally said it would begin shipping the new operating systemlast year, but instead decided to offer it as the "public beta," or testversion, last September. At last year's Macworld Expo, Jobs had promisedthe new operating system would become Apple's default operating system onnew models beginning this January. Jobs said July's Macworld Expo in New York will be the "coming-out party"for Mac OS X applications. Wearing his trademark black turtleneck and faded blue jeans, Jobs succeededin rousing the 5,000-person crowd into cheers. To illustrate the speed ofthe 733-MHz Power Mac, Jobs staged a mock battle between the machine andone with a 1.5-GHz Pentium 4. The Apple G4 rendered a complex 3D graphic 12seconds faster than the Pentium 4. "This highlights the megahertz myth. What matters is how fast the machinesare," Jobs said. Welcome relief Of the four new Power Macs, the bottom two are available immediately, andthe other two will be available in February. However, Jobs said Apple willprobably not be able to meet demand for the 733-MHz model in the firstquarter. The prices for the four models are $1,699 for the 466-MHz system; $2,199for the 533-MHz system; $2,799 for the 667-MHz system; and $3,499 for the733-MHz system. The bottom two models will come with 128MB of RAM, the top two with 256MB.All four models come with new audio systems, CD-RW drives and AGP 4x(accelerated graphics port). The three faster models also come with Nvidiagraphics cards. Although Apple isn't heavily touting it, the company's online store alsoallows people to purchase a dual-processor 533-MHz system for $2,499. The faster processors and other improvements to the Power Mac line come aswelcome relief to the graphics professionals and others who use Macs atwork. Adam Tatro, production support coordinator for Williams-Sonoma, said thenew Power Macs will run the programs he uses faster, meaning less timespent waiting. "It's well within our budget," he said. "You get what you pay for." When addressing the CD-RW drives, Jobs acknowledged Apple's tardiness."We're late to this party. But we're here," he said. To further show that Apple has recognized the free digital musicrevolution, Jobs announced a program called iTunes that lets people rip andburn CDs, manage playlists, and play Internet radio. The program isavailable now as a free download. Jobs also introduced iDVD, a program that allows people with the new "superdrives" to create their own DVDs with digital video and photographs. Thesoftware will be bundled with the super drive-equipped Power Mac. Apple also moved the Power Mac to a faster, 133-MHz system bus andspeedier, 133-MHz memory chips. The new PowerBook G4 notebook bulks up and slims down at the same time.Jobs called it "the fastest notebook in the world." The new notebook has a titanium case, five hours of battery life and aslot-loading DVD drive. It can be ordered with a 400-MHz and 500-MHzprocessor, 120MB to 256MB of RAM, and a 10GB to 20GB hard drive. Thenotebook ranges in price from $2,599 to $3,499. The PowerBook G4 has a 15-inch, extra-wide screen. The notebook is 1 inchthick and weighs 5.3 pounds. Jobs compared the new PowerBook with Sony's Vaio 2505, saying Apple's modelis thinner and has a larger screen. The new PowerBook will be available at the end of January. Mixed reaction Analysts offered a mixed take on Jobs' announcements. "Are these things enough to help them tremendously in their recovery? No.But it keeps them fresh, relevant and innovative," said Anne Bui, ananalyst at market researcher IDC. In particular, Bui questioned the way Apple positioned its new software.Jobs clearly aimed iTunes and iDVD at consumers, she said, yet the onlymodels with a CD-RW drive are the new Power Macs, and only the top-endPower Mac has the SuperDrive needed to burn DVDs. Owners of iMacs and iBooks can still use iTunes either without theCD-burning feature or by adding an external drive. Jobs said the necessarysoftware to allow iTunes to run on popular makes of external drives will becoming shortly. Apple must have felt it needed to get all its new software out, Bui said,adding that the company is likely to beef up its consumer machines in thecoming months. "The sense I think Apple had was 'We've got to do something now,'especially with the state they have been in," Bui said. Gartner analyst Chris LeTocq praised Apple for taking more than aspeeds-and-feeds approach to the new systems. "The message was great," LeTocq said. "In a competitive marketplace, in atight PC market place, emphasizing the value of your systems is great." By positioning the new Power Macs for specific purposes, such as recordingmusic CDs or making movies, Jobs showed the value of new Macs compared withother computers, LeTocq said. "But the reality underneath is: If you want to write a DVD movie, there'sonly one way to do it, and that's to shell out something like 3,800 bucks." David Bailey, an analyst at Gerard Klauer Mattison, called Jobs'announcements "strong." "They definitely met the expectations of the Mac fan base," Bailey said."The big question is: Can they go beyond their (current users) and reversetheir weak sales at a time when demand is deteriorating. I think the answeris no. But that is not because the products are weak. It's just verydifficult timing." News.com's Joe Wilcox contributed to this report. Is Titanium tough enough to reverse Apple Computer's sagging fortunes? The Titanium PowerBook G4 notebook--the long-anticipated successor to thePowerBook G3--more than any of the products introduced at this week'sMacworld Expo epitomizes what Apple needs to build its market share. Butsome analysts believe the Titanium is so loaded with features that Apple issacrificing huge profit margins in order to gain a bigger chunk of theportable market. "Apple's biggest problem is they lost a lot of market share in thecorporate space, and they're clearly trying to build that back," MobileInsights analyst Tim Scannell said. Apple is by no means a leader in the notebook market, but the Cupertino,Calif.-based company has been picking up speed. During the third quarter of 2000, Apple had 2.9 percent share of theworldwide notebook market, up from 2.1 percent year-over-year, according toDataquest. In the United States, Apple's notebook market share rose to4.98 percent in the third quarter, up from 3.6 percent a year earlier. For comparison, Toshiba led the worldwide market with 13.6 percent share inthe third quarter. Dell Computer led the U.S. market with 21.4 percentshare. "Apple's real success will rest on its ability to pull notebook users awayfrom their Dells, Toshibas and Sonys and firmly plant them in front of aPowerBook," Technology Business Research analyst Tim Deal said. While much of Apple's more recent hullabaloo over new products focused onconsumer styling and features, the Titanium is clearly geared for theprofessional market. Apple CEO "Steve Jobs is thinking about the business market by offeringsuch a light and rugged computer," Scannell said. "At the same time, he'snot sacrificing style." The 1-inch thick portable sports a titanium case, a 15.2-inch display, aslot-loading DVD drive, an integrated modem and networking, USB andFireWire ports, and 802.11 wireless-networking capability. It weighs ascant 5.3 pounds. Other niceties: Reflecting Apple's typical engineering innovation,Titanium's keyboard is attached with magnets and pulls off easily, allowingsimple access to upgrade the memory. "No one else offers such a large display at such a low weight," ARS analystMatt Sargent said. "It's an impressive system, and I think it will sell verywell." The new PowerBook also bridges the speed gap between Apple notebooks anddesktops, offering a choice of 400MHz or 500MHz G4 processors. Apple movedits professional line of Power Mac systems to the G4 chip more than a yearago, but PowerBook buyers had to contend with slower G3 processors. Timing is everything Besides packing powerful features, Titanium also is really "cool looking,"Scannell said. But unlike the iMac, the iBook or even the Power Mac, the newPowerBook's styling is likely to attract a wide range of people, includingcorporate buyers. Analysts have long faulted Apple for not taking the business marketseriously enough. The company has instead focused on established segments,such as education and graphics, and on rekindling consumer interest. But for Apple to expand or even just survive, the company must win more thanjust Mac enthusiasts, said Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney. Apple must convincetechnology managers and corporate chief information officers that itsproducts offer enough value and features to justify the headaches of runningmixed PC and Mac systems. Scannell agreed. "Apple has to make the attack on the enterprise side inorder to go forward," he said. "They have to get away from being aconsumer-y type company." The timing also is right because more and more businesses want to providetheir most productive employees, as well as managers and salespeople, withnotebooks. This contrasts sharply with the timing of Apple's ill-fated Power Mac G4Cube, which suffered from slow sales and brought the company praise forstyle but little else. Apple released the Cube in July--at about the sametime its core users completed their "typical 18-month upgrade cycle,"Sargent said. "It's not surprising the Cube sold poorly." Titanium's release, by contrast, is expected to ride pent up demand for afaster, sleeker Mac professional notebook. Apple also benefits from anoverall growing portable market. "Apple's first tenuous steps to introduce a new product after the Cubedebacle may prove to be in the right direction," Deal said. "The Titaniumnotebook certainly represents a more conservative design approach for Apple,but it will appeal more to corporate customers--a market Apple couldundoubtedly exploit more." But Titanium's design is also striking. This is important, Scannell said,because many notebook "purchases are being made as work-style decisions." Henoted that IBM--which chose to make the shells of its ThinkPad notebookswith titanium composite--also realized this and stylized its notebook line. Dulaney sees the new PowerBook appealing to sales and other professionalsneeding "an image product." At what cost? One of the biggest things going for the Titanium is value, analysts say,which is something unusual in a Mac notebook. "Something they are doing with this system--and it's something they have notdone in the past--is being price sensitive with PCs," Sargent said. "If youcompare PowerBook to PC notebooks, the price-performance just hasn't beenthere." Apple's consumer portable, iBook, comes close, Sargent added. The entry-level Titanium model sells for around $2,600, making it about thecheapest notebook that packs a 15-inch display. Dulaney scoffed at the pricing, wondering how Apple could make any money onthe Titanium. "It must be a loss leader," he said. "There's no way Apple can sell titaniumcasing and that large a display and make money on this." He also faulted Apple for using titanium casing, calling it a marketingploy. "Complete titanium is a waste of money," Dulaney said. Apple's low-cost, low-profit approach is simply "a way to gain marketshare," Dulaney said. "They're probably afraid of losing their core graphicsor advertising talent." An Apple representative wouldn't respond. "We are in a quiet period (before earnings) and cannot comment onfinancials," the representative said. Because of this, "we're not going tocomment on margins. We're not going to comment on that assertion, if youwill...We think it is just an incredible product and that titanium (casing)brings a lot of value to the product, something our customers are going tolove." Apple announces earnings Jan. 17. Other analysts questioned the assertion that Apple would sell any titaniummodel at a loss but conceded that the profit margins are likely very slimfor a notebook. "If Apple can capture three or four points of market share in the businessmarket, it's worth even selling it at a loss," Scannell said. The faithful speak The reaction from people attending Macworld in San Francisco showed stronginterest in Titanium. Donna Morris, a media specialist dealing with education in Orlando, Fla.,owns a G3 PowerBook and is considering buying the Titanium. "It's awesome,"she said. "I would really like to have another one. It's just coming up withthe bucks." Fred Johnson, an anchor with Yahoo's Financevision Webcasting unit in SantaClara, Calif., said he ordered one immediately after Jobs' keynote speechbut is rethinking the decision. One reason is the performance and featuredifferences compared with the new Power Macs. "It's a sexy machine all right, but you're still giving up a bit," he said."It's cool and I may still get it, but it's those little, fundamentalthings." Still, Titanium's broadest appeal may come from creative professionals, whocould benefit from the portable's wide display, rather than the moresquarish shape found on other notebooks. "The Titanium notebook seems well suited for the independent filmmaker whoneeds to edit on location," Deal said. By integrating a larger screen alongwith its trademark FireWire connectivity, Apple is capitalizing on itsstrong digital-video editing competencies." News.com's Ian Fried contributed to this report. [Editor's Note: Available Configurations as delineated at http://www.apple.com/powerbook/specs.html .] SAN FRANCISCO--Although Mac fans are applauding Apple's new DVD- andCD-burning software, some will be dismayed to learn that they don't have thehardware required to take full advantage of the programs. Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled iDVD and iTunes on Tuesday during his keynotespeech at the Macworld Expo here. The iDVD program, which lets Mac owners burn home movies and photos ontodiscs that can be played on a standard DVD player, only works if someone hasa DVD-recordable drive. And that drive will be found only on the upcomingtop-of-the-line Power Mac. The free iTunes program runs on all computers using at least version 9 ofthe Mac operating system. But the CD-burning function requires aCD-rewritable drive that Apple is adding, at least for now, only to itsbusiness-oriented Power Mac line. Analysts worry that Apple is offering software that primarily appeals toconsumers but is including the necessary drives only on business models. "No one who (buys) an iMac today can use iTunes to create CDs without buyingadditional hardware," said David Bailey, an analyst with Gerard KlauerMattison. Because there are no new consumer models with a CD-RW drive, analysts say,it will be tough for iTunes to become a significant force in driving Apple'ssales in the near term. IDC analyst Anne Bui also questioned Apple pitching iDVD as a program thatwill let someone make movies and send them to Grandma. "Are you or I, as average computer users," Bui said, "really going to beable to shell out $3,500" for a machine capable of running iDVD? Apple vice president Phil Schiller said in an interview that iDVD is aimedat consumers, professionals and the education market. And Apple expects thatthe new SuperDrive, a combination CD-RW/DVD-recordable drive on thetop-model Power Mac, will eventually make its way into lower-priced Macs. "We are selling a solution that we hope someday everybody will" use,Schiller said. "To get there is going to take a bunch of time." Gregory Stapp, an opera singer and longtime Mac devotee who was at Macworld,said he already records his performances and would love to put them ontoDVDs. But he prefers his PowerBook laptop to the pricier and less portablePower Mac desktop. For him and others on the go, Stapp said, an externalSuperDrive would be ideal. "Nobody's going to want to tote around a tower," he said, explaining why hewon't purchase the new Power Mac. "And price is always an issue." Schiller would not give a timeframe for adding CD-RW drives to the iMac orsay when the SuperDrive might be more broadly available. In his speech, Jobs noted that until now, just the drive to record DVDs hascost in the neighborhood of $5,000, and now it is available in a $3,500computer. Schiller likened the SuperDrive to the Apple LaserWriter, which wasrevolutionary for those who could afford the laser printer's $5,000 pricetag when it debuted in the 1980s. Eventually, the LaserWriter becamesomething everyone could afford. Like the LaserWriter, Schiller said, iDVD is a breakthrough today eventhough it's not available to everyone yet. Bui also questioned whether iDVD will be a major factor in education sales,noting that many schools are fighting to cut costs even on basic supplies. "Most school districts are struggling with their budgets to afford basicssuch as chalk," Bui said. However, one Alaskan educator at the show said he was excited about iDVD. Hepointed out that a number of students could do most of the work on theirprojects on less-expensive machines, meaning that one Power Mac withSuperDrive could serve a computer lab of 10 or more students. Bui said Apple might have wanted to wait to announce some of the productsuntil it came out with new consumer models. But the company may have feltunder pressure to make a strong showing at Macworld in the wake of slowingsales, she said. Apple has issued earnings warnings for the past two quarters and is expectedto post its first quarterly loss in three years when it reports fiscalfirst-quarter earnings later this month. Apple executives are also clearly trying to lay out a longer-term vision forthe company, with Jobs touting the Mac as a "digital hub" that can makeother consumer electronics--such as an MP3 player, camcorder or DVDplayer--more useful. "For once, we decided to be a little bit more (open) about the vision,"Schiller said. Bailey said Apple is clearly responding to customer concerns but is findingthat reworking its product line takes time. "That was apparent in the new PowerBook because they included a DVD (drive)instead of a CD-RW drive," Bailey said. SAN FRANCISCO--Apple's move to incorporate Nvidia's chips into its new,speedier Power Macs is a further changing of the guard in theever-turbulent and quickly consolidating graphics chip market. Apple announced Tuesday that its newest Power Macs will come standard withNvidia's GeForce2 MX chips in all but the slowest model, which will comewith ATI's Rage 128 Pro chip. ATI's higher-end Radeon chip remains anoption on all the new Power Macs that are custom built. For Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia, already an industry darling, the moveis another sign of its rising-star status. Analysts say the move is afurther blow to the former top dog--Canada's ATI Technologies--which was inall Macs before the new models announced at this week's Macworld Expo tradeshow here. "Their market share, at perhaps their biggest customer, could disappearover the next several years," said Peter Glaskowsky, an analyst withMicrodesign Resources. "It's up to ATI to prove it's a better supplier ofchips. That is going to be difficult to do." Nvidia's move into the Apple market was expected, as Nvidia first said lastyear that the GeForce2 MX was Mac compatible. Nvidia chief executiveJen-Hsun Huang told CNET News.com in November that the next news aboutNvidia's Mac plans would probably be coming from Apple CEO Steve Jobs. ATI characterized the decision to add Nvidia's chips as simply a move byApple to broaden its portfolio of suppliers. "Apple is one of the last, if not the last, tier-one PC manufacturers toadopt a second source strategy," ATI spokesman John Challinor said. "Doingso, in our opinion, is a good strategy. It's a strategy we've used foryears." Glaskowsky disputed ATI's take on Apple's move. "I don't really think this is representative of a company that is lookingfor a second source," Glaskowsky said. "I think it looks more like acompany looking for a different source." Ruffling feathers ATI ruffled Apple's feathers in July when it announced that its chips wouldbe part of iMacs and Power Macs that Apple had not yet introduced. ATI has been losing share to Nvidia in general in the overall PC graphicschip market. In addition, the graphics chip industry has been consolidating rapidly,with a number of companies exiting the market, including 3dfx andGigapixel, both of whose assets were picked up by Nvidia. However, Glaskowsky said that even if Apple wants to move exclusively toNvidia, such a move will take time--at least a couple of years. Among thereasons: ATI has strengths in video processing, and much of the existingbase of Mac software is optimized for ATI cards. Nvidia spokesman Derek Perez said the company plans to include Macintoshsupport on all its future product lines. "The only thing limiting us in this market is Apple's adoption," Perezsaid. "It may be a slower growth cycle than on the PC side." Mac owners had been asking Apple for some time to offer Nvidia's chips. Daniel Krach, who both uses and sells Macs at Di-No Computers in Pasadena,Calif., called Nvidia a welcome addition to the Mac lineup. Nvidia chipsprobably won't be a big driver of sales to professionals, Krach said, butthe lack of Nvidia graphics is one reason that Macs haven't been themachine of choice among hard-core computer gamers. "This will sort of even it up a bit," Krach said, while browsing Apple'sbooth at Macworld. Consumers' options For now, Mac customers who want Nvidia graphics will have to buy one of thenew Power Macs because there are no Mac-specific add-on cards that useNvidia chips. Perez said Nvidia is not working with any graphics boardmaker to offer Mac-compatible add-on cards, which enhance graphicsperformance, and would do so only if Apple wanted such a product. However, Glaskowsky added that he would be surprised if there weren'tthird-party cards by next Christmas. And for many people, Glaskowsky said, ATI's Radeon chip still remains abetter bet because it is faster and compatible with more Mac software thanthe GeForce2 MX, a low- to midrange chip in Nvidia's line. However, Glaskowsky expects that by summer, Nvidia's forthcoming NV20 willbe the best Macintosh graphics chip on the market. "NV20 will definitely be faster than anything ATI has out there,"Glaskowsky said. For ATI's part, the company said it plans to continue to develop new chipsfor the Mac market. "We believe competition is good," Challinor said. "We are going to continueto produce superior technology for Apple products." Macintosh enhancement pioneer Newer Technology has announced it is ceasingoperations; 29-Dec-00 was the last day of work for the bulk of Newer'semployees, and a shareholder meeting 08-Jan-01 will determine whether thecompany will file for bankruptcy protection. Newer Technology has a longhistory in the Macintosh industry, having first built its business onmemory upgrades, then shifting into expansions for PowerBooks, clock chipaccelerators, and Macintosh CPU upgrades. Newer filed for bankruptcyprotection in 1996 when the world RAM market buckled, but it seemed to berecovering its stride with a wide range of well-regarded CPU upgradeproducts. Newer announced an equity partnership with Singapore's Tri-MTechnologies in February of 2000; Tri-M had been manufacturing Newerproducts, and during the last year provided Newer with operating capitaland brought in an executive team to help operate the company. However,despite executive denials and plans to exhibit new products at the upcomingMacworld Expo in San Francisco, in recent weeks Newer has been unloadinginventory at fire sale prices, and rumors abounded that Newer was lookingfor a buyer among remaining upgrade vendors. Newer Technology's shutdown islikely due to a lack of demand in the Macintosh upgrade market andcomparatively inexpensive new machines from Apple - a $400 CPU upgrade hastrouble competing with an $800 iMac. There's no word yet on what support orupdate options, if any, will be available for Newer's hardware and softwareproducts. [GD] Preliminary testing by MacNN has revealed that Newer Technologies' iMAXpowrG4 iMac upgrade is incompatible with Mac OS 9.1. Installing the operatingsystem update, expected for public release on Tuesday, renders the iMacunable to boot. Both installing the OS over 9.0.4 and as a clean installproved unsuccessful. With the recent demise of Newer Technology, it'sunknown if this problem-if proven to be widespread-will be corrected. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to one and all: Wow, have we been a blessed company. On December 27, 1999 we executed ouragreement with Gateway, and January 3rd 2000 was our first day of business. In one year we have been able to release an upgrade to the AmigaOS (3.9,with our partners Haage and Partner), we have announced and released twoversions of the SDK for the New AmigaDE (Digital Environment), we havereleased the AmigaOne specification and announced two partners in buildingthese new machines, (bPlan, and Eyetech). Yes this has been an amazing year. As we look back upon these last 12 months, there have been many lessonslearned, and it is with these new lessons that we will be moving into 2001,with clear focus, and numerous new announcements and deals. Yes, theConsumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will be great fun for Amigans aroundthe world, for it is here that the rest of the world will begin to learnwhat you already know! :-) At this time of remembrance and thanks, we are also reminded of our friendsthat we have lost. Coz, Bob Cosby is very missed and we think of him, andpray daily for his wife Marsha. It has been the most sobering event forAmiga, and it helped us to remember that Family is what makes Amiga great.We are looking to add many new members to the Amiga family this year. This year has been hard for us in other ways also: the stock market hascertainly hindered our ability to raise the capital we wanted to accelerateour plans, and many of us have had to endure financial hardships making thedream of Amiga a reality. The Amiga team is together, and moving aheadquickly towards this new and exciting year. I want to thank each and every one of you for your continued support andfor everyone hanging in there with us. We are truly a blessed company. I want to personally wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and a very HappyNew Year. God Bless, ><> Bill McEwen ><> Bizarre as it may seem, there are still a few people out there proclaimingAmiga as vapourware developers and accusing them of having done absolutelynothing since it was spun out from Gateway almost a year ago. Fortunately,these voices are in a minority and not supported by the evidence of Amiga'swork over the last few months. 2000 has gone surprisingly quickly, and theAmiga of today is a far healthier concern than the pale imitation it hadbecome since the departure of Jim Collas. Amiga have had to walk a fine line between saying too much and saying toolittle this year. Too much and they risk looking unprofessional or stupidwhen things, inevitably, change - with accusations of hype or vapourware.Too little, and people start to proclaim the death of Amiga (like we don'thear that enough already) or loyal Amiga users and developers feeldiscarded for pastures new. It's a tricky path, sometimes they get itright, sometimes they get it wrong - but from what I've seen and heardthey've done a remarkably good job considering, and got it mostly right.>From a pure publicity point of view, they've got the message out withoutmuch fanfare or hype - the Amiga name is cropping up in all kinds ofplaces, paving the way, subtly, for the AmigaDE launch. For example, this year I've received a huge number of e-mails from peoplewho are either encountering the Amiga for the first time or rediscoveringthe Amiga again. I've had people ask me if the AmigaOS runs on their x86 PCor CHRP PowerPC, people interested in legally emulating the Amiga, peopledusting off their A1200 to get online, people looking to upgrade an oldA2000 or A3000, others asking how they can ditch their PC but ensure fileand disk compatibility with the Windows world, even someone who rescued anA1000 from a garage sale and wants to find spare parts. It's amazing, and yet this is just with the older Amigas - and more thanjust from a nostalgia point of view. The questions aren't geared towardsplaying old games or watching old demos, but towards doing all the thingsmany people would lead you to believe is only possible on machines runningWindows, with huge amounts of RAM and processor clocks just a whisker fromthe GHz range: using the Internet, doing word processing and DTP, creatingmusic or multimedia presentations, managing their finances, touching updigital photography, syncing their Palm device. Sure there's a long way togo image-wise, but something is happening socially, slowly, surely, awayfrom prying eyes. Meanwhile, Amiga are out in the open, slowly spreadingthe word and announcing partnerships and technologies, with more tuckedaway waiting for the right moment to be made public. Amiga's first announcement was that of the key partnership, the foundationof Amiga's plans. UK based visionaries Tao Group are providing the core OSkernel, including their VP which provides a very important selling point:hardware-neutral binaries. The hardware now becomes an abstract commodity,with the same software running transparently on whatever hardware isprovided: be it an x86 or PowerPC desktop, an ARM palmtop, a Coldfire STB,or an SH-4 console. The partnership provides technical benefits, but alsoopens up an important division of labour: giving Amiga a head start andcool technology, giving Tao added value and some talented developer supportcourtesy of the Amiga community. (That's a gross simplification, but youget the idea.) Of course, having a partner means nothing if tangible results don't startto filter out to the public, particularly developers. Amiga rectified thisby releasing a software developer kit, the Amiga SDK, to provide developerswith the first glimpse of the new environment, and start the third-partysoftware development process running. Initially hosted on Linux, with aWindows version added later, the kit was a little rough, a littleincomplete, but an excellent foothold into the new Amiga. Of course, aswell as the software, a reference hardware platform was also announced tocomplement the SDK - consisting of a low cost PC compatible specificationwhich would ensure an obtainable base level for developers to use andsupport. The choice of an x86 PC was controversial for some - but when youtake into account the need for cost and availability followed by the factthat the VP technology makes hardware choice unimportant, the decisionmakes perfect sense. In recent months Amiga have also begun to announce hardware partnershipsfor the real machines, the new Amigas. I've covered these in the previoustwo months, but for completeness the coverage so far has been of twoparticular markets: those of the set top box and the desktop. Amiga-poweredSTBs are due pretty soon, with the desktops arriving in two waves: thefirst wave aimed at existing Amiga users and developers, the second wavelate next year in the form of actual, standalone systems. More hardware isdue to be announced, in particular with speculation rife about some form ofpartnership with a consortium representing a significant chunk of theelectronics market in the Far East. I've overhead a few names from varioussources, but this is something that should very definitely remain a case ofWait And See. But what of the existing Amiga market? Well, despite the remaining suppliesof new machines dwindling, if not already gone, the third party market hasundergone a slight revival with announcements of the much-needed PCIexpansion options, new PowerPC boards, the AmigaOne expansions, new soundcards - not to mention software from various sources. In fact, throughHaage & Partner, AmigaOS 3.9 is ready to hit the streets providing anotherOS upgrade. More significantly, discussions about AmigaOS 4.0 haveresurfaced once again - could this be the much anticipated move of theoriginal OS to a PowerPC native environment? (Until then, check outMorphOS.) So, here's to a successful 2001! First off, I would like to thank Bill for spending his time answering myquestions. I realize that very few CEO's would make themselves available totheir customers, and I he deserves recognition for doing so. After reading the 'I Bought a' thread and seeing all the rumours that werebeing discussed, I thought that it would be useful to the MooBunnycommunity to have these rumours cleared up, at least as much as possible.To achieve this I decided to call Bill McEwen this evening and ask himdirectly. Following are questions that I asked, paraphrased responses, andsome of my impressions and opinions. I led asking about AmigaDOS 3.9. I asked him what he felt the value was inupgrading to this release. He responded that it had upgraded Internetfunctionality that was missing from 3.5, and that it had multimediaplayers. Bill said that most users will have to evaluate the features of3.9 for themselves to see if there's any value added. The owners of 3.5will find that most of the functionality is similar. My impression is that Amiga has very little interest in the 3.x line ofreleases. They are totally focused on the new product and have left thefate of 3.x to Haage and Partner. I would not hold out any hope for thefuture of 680x0 Amigas. I asked if 3.5 and 3.9 were significant additions to the Amiga revenue.Bill said that they were not, but it wasn't worrisome to them. Bill saidthat the products were making money, but not a lot. I see this as thempinning their hopes on the future. As far as their cash goes, they are getting low. Bill said the last fewmonths have been tight, but that they are working on securing moreinvestment. He mentioned several different sources, but said that there wasa tier one company looking to invest in Amiga. My take is that if they don't secure some big financial backers then theymight take more drastic measures in order to gain financing. Consideringthe number of layoffs in the technology sector, and considering thatstartups are starting to die left and right, there may be a grim future forAmiga. Bill feels confident that they have a product ready to go andhopefully that will impress investors more than some of the ephemeralproperties that other startups failed to sell. We now know that cash is low, but is Amiga failing to meet any of itsfinancial obligations? This question was answered like this: TedWallingford can make whatever statement he likes about the situation, butit's not true. I did not press him any further since this was the onlysubstantial rumour. Bill said that if anyone wants to know what thesituation is they should talk to Ted Wallingford. I feel like there might have been a disagreement over a contract and thatTed feels Amiga owes him more than they think they do. Did that make anysense? Who knows. Maybe Ted can clear this up. Incidentally, Bill said thatTed should not have posted his message. I think Bill McEwen and others atAmiga do listen to the community, even if it isn't always evident. Amiga not exhibiting at Comdex or CES. Bill said that Amiga will only beexhibiting at Amiga trade shows, but that their product will be availablethrough vendors. Bill mentioned several set-top box manufacturers, but I'msorry that I wasn't able to take their names quickly enough. Bill said thatthese set-top boxes should be available soon and he said he was excitedabout other products coming down the pipe. In particular he said there issomething that should please Amigans. Where should Amiga be spending it's money? I think they're probably makingthe right choice for what they can afford, but it would still be nice tosee Amiga show up at these spotlight events. If they had more funding, I'msure they'd be there, but this is another sign that they don't have quiteenough money. I asked Bill if he could give me an argument why an Amiga user should havefaith in Amiga and not jump platform and he said that they have beenworking hard this past year to get products ready. He reiterated that they(this being vendors using Amiga technology) had some products ready todebut and that we should stick around to see them. My analysis is this: Amiga does not have a product that I as an Amiga userwould necessarily want, but that I as a computer geek might dig. We Amigausers are a technological launching platform for a new, possibly cooltechnology, and Amiga wants us to continue to pay attention to them untilits ready. This explains 3.5 and 3.9, and it explains the early appearanceof the developers kit. Amiga is going to continue to blow us kisses untilthey have something to impress us with or until they run out of money. Thanks to MooBunny readers for taking a look at this, and thanks again toBill for sharing his time with me. I'll be following this thread for anyfollow up questions. Light and Life, Corinna Amiga-News: Good morning, Francis, and thank you for the opportunity of this interview. Francis Charig: It's a pleasure for me too! FC:AN: Let's start with some basic questions. How old are you and where were you born? FC: Unfortunately, I'm 40 years old. I was born in Oxted by London. AN: Sure you are married and have children? FC: Yes, my wife is Japanese and we have two boys. One is six and the other will be three in February. AN: When and where was TAO (pronounced: DAO) founded? FC: TAO was founded in 1992 in Bracknell nearby Reading, England. Until 1995 it was a virtual company, located in a bedroom. AN: How many people are working for TAO? FC: About 70 people. More then 50 of them are in the software department. They are coming from three major groups: the Video games industry, the Blue Chip Industry and we selected the best directly from the universities, Stanford for example. AN: What's your position at TAO? FC: I'm the chairman of TAO. TAO is not a public company. Sony and Motorola together own 30% of TAO. If TAO were a public company, its market value would be about $100.000.000. Nowadays Amiga Inc. is our most important partner. AN: Do you remember your greatest success? FC: Of course, it was to bring this exiting engineering team together. These people are incredible. We've only had a fluctuation of two people in the last 2 1/2 years. AN: What was the worst day in TAO's history? FC: [Thinks long] It was to loose business with our investor from the blue chip industry in 1995 while we had no customers. AN: When did you have "First contact" with Bill McEwen? FC: It was in October 1999. We introduced him to investors after he decided to use our software for the new Amiga. In fact: TAO saved Amiga. AN: Are you familiar with Amiga's history? FC: Yes, I know about it all. I know about Commodore, Escom, VisCorp, Gateway and all these things. I still have my Amiga, but unfortunately it's standing in the attic. Also, my nephew used the Amiga. I loved gaming on it, e.g. BrakeOut. AN: Can you describe the new OS with only three words? FC: Consumer Multimedia Stack. AN: When will the new Amiga-OS be ready, in Q3/2001? FC: Of course not! Sometime in the next half year! AN: We are just a few days into the New Year. Do you have a wish for this year? FC: [Joking] Retirement. No, I wish that TAO would be successful in all of the key markets. AN: Is the existing Amiga community important for you? FC: Yes. The Amiga community has the best developers and artists. There is more multimedia skill in the Amiga community than in the PC-World. But there is a discussion if memory protection is needed or not. I want to explain TAO's point of view. For what is memory protection needed? To prevent badly programmed software from crashing the computer. That means that it leads into bad programming. But the software for AmigaDE will run on your desktop but also on your mobile or in your car. Mobiles for example don't have memory protection. Are they crashing? No, the software for them is well programmed. If we add memory protection, we have to have a very, very good reason, because it slows down the operating system. Our goal is to deliver the best multimedia operating system. This also means speed! AN: Some words to the community? FC: We can make Amiga great together. To be great we have to lead the world. Amiga is delivering the best content to the mass market. If we always remember that, we can achieve. AN: Thank you for this interview and have a successful stay at the CES. FC: It was a pleasure to me. Thank you! [Editor's Note: Translation help thanks to http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn ]. Dec. 21, 2000 - The meeting began with President Jim Lewis speaking toeveryone about the possibility of moving our meetings to the IllinoisTechnology Center in Savoy. The pros and cons of the move were aired. Inorder for everyone to get a clearer idea of the financial aspects of thedecision, Kevin Hopkins asked that Treasurer Rich Hall give the AnnualTreasurer's Report required at the December meeting, which Rich did. Kevinthen supplied the club's current membership information. The club returnedto the discussion of the new meeting site. In the end, it was decided tomove the January meeting from the Bresnan to the ITC, going to Savoy for atrial. We would then vote on a longer term change after everyone had had achance to see and evaluate the new site for themselves. Turning to the next item of official business - the election of clubofficers, Kevin Hisel nominated the current slate as it appeared in thenewsletter. This was the officer corps currently in office. Norris Hanselseconded. The vote carried unanimously. The officers for 2001 are: Jim Lewis - President The meeting recessed for a break. Upon returning, the membership fell into a general discussion and Questionand Answer Session. The topic of buying new Mac for the club was raised. Someone said you couldget a G4 on Outpost.com for about $1000. Another recommended a Cube for its portability. There was talk of Nvidia killing the Voodoo card. President Lewis announced that the Board meeting would be on the 26th. Edwin Hadley talked about a problem of freezing up his Mac had. Everyonepitched in to solve it. Ed also recounted that the Bookmarks problem he'dhad earlier was because he'd had too many of them. Eliminating a bunch ofold bookmarks cleared the problem. He said, "I guess there is such a thingas too many bookmarks." Emil Cobb talked about a friend whose PC contracted a virus. In attemptingto clear that problem, the friend had wiped his hard drive, then he was inreal trouble. There was a discussion of the AMD-Intel rivalry. Jim Lewis highlyrecommended the Asus KVM motherboard for Athlon machines. He rated the Abitas the number two motherboard best for the AMD chipset and the Intelchipset. In a discussion of video, Kevin Hisel advised people to stay away from thebleeding edge video, in order to avoid compatibility and driver issues. Kevin Hisel brought up a problem he was having opening a file and it taking10 to 15 seconds to execute. He thought it might be an association problem.Jim Lewis suggested that he check his Temp folder. He said it may have toomany files in there. Emil Cobb asked the Mac people what was their opinions on Toast for burningCDs. Harold Ravlin asked about the ALI chipset. Jim Lewis reported that Intel had just sent out the Pentium 1 GHz processorin a box in the last two weeks. This lead to a discussion of processoravailability in general and speeds in particular. Jim said that front sidebus speed plus a hard coded multiplier in the chip equals its frequency. Norris Hansel said he is looking for a retailer like one he had recentlyexperienced in San Francisco. He described the full service store in somedetail and asked if there is a retailer like that in Chicago or St. Louis?No one knew of any. This lead to a whole discussion of Apple relatedservice issues for Mac users in the Champaign area. It basically boils downto the fact that non-University Apple users are in a hard way. Someonementioned that they thought RamJet did Apple repairs locally. Our friendly News-Gazette reporter, Greg Kline, had a reader with a "DriverMemory Error" on her Task Bar. The combined CUCUG braintrust brought theirformidable talents to bare. Was it a Virus? A Win 95 to 98 upgrade problem?A corrupted driver? The virus theory seemed to be the most likely candidatefor the symptoms described. Dec. 26, 2000 - The December meeting of the CUCUG executive board tookplace on Tuesday, December 26, 2000, at 7PM, at Kevin Hisel's house. (Foranyone wishing to attend - which is encouraged, by the way - the addressand phone number are both in the book). Present at the meeting were: JimLewis, Rich Hall, Charlie Melby-Thomas, Jack Melby, Kevin Hopkins, andKevin Hisel. Rich Hall: Treasurer Hall reported that 14 people attended the lastmeeting and that all of them rejoined CUCUG. Jack Melby and CharlieMelby-Thomas renewed their memberships at the Board meeting. Rich then discussed the club's financial asset mix. There was a discussion of the purchase of a new Macintosh for the club. Jack Melby: Jack reported that OS X Final would be released on 24th ofFebruary. (This has since been moved back to March 24th.) Jack said thatSteve Jobs might spring it on January 9th at the MacWorld Expo in SanFrancisco. It is expected that OS X Final will include OS 9.1. Jack then related a little tidbit of news he had run across. It seems thatthere is a "hidden" feature for applications running in Classic mode, thatshould they freeze up, you can bring up the Force Quit dialog and, byclicking anywhere in the box (other than the Force Quit button), you canunfreeze the program and continue on your way, at least long enough to saveyour work, as there is no information as of yet about how corrupt memorymight be. The Board returned to the discussion of pricing on a new Mac. We weighedthe benefits of a multiprocessor or single processor machine, purchasing anew or older G4 for performance versus price. President Lewis asked Jack toinvestigate an upgrade path for the club. Kevin Hisel raised the questionof the necessity of even buying a new machine, considering our membershipnumbers. Kevin Hopkins: Having no new business, Kevin delivered the membershipdatabase update. Kevin Hisel: Kevin suggested that a notice of the new meeting site becreated and mailed out several times before the January meeting. Jim andKevin said they'd work on the message and send it out. Jim Lewis: Jim talked about his Prairie Inet wireless Internetconnection. Jack Melby: Jack reported that he was able to run multiple virtual PCs atthe same time on his new G4, using Virual PC 4.0. Kevin Hisel: Kevin commented that he fealt the last meeting suffered fromreal anarchy and that more order was needed. Kevin Hopkins: As clarification, Kevin asked what was planned was nextmonth's meeting. Jim said the PC SIG would do a Q & A. Jack said the MacSIG would look at a variety of OS X stuff and XWindows. Meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at theBresnan Meeting Center in the Champaign Park District Headquarters(398-2550). The Center is located at 706 Kenwood, 1/2 block south of thecorner of Kenwood and John Street, in west Champaign. Kenwood is the fourthnorth-south street off of John as you are going west, after crossing Mattis.The Center is in the northwest corner of Centennial Park, northwest ofCentennial High School. Membership dues for individuals are $20 annually; prorated to $10 at midyear. Our monthly newsletter, the Status Register, is delivered by email. Allrecent editions are available on our WWW site. To initiate a user groupexchange, just send us your newsletter or contact our editor via email. Asa matter of CUCUG policy, an exchange partner will be dropped after threemonths of no contact. For further information, please attend the next meeting as our guest, orcontact one of our officers (all at area code 217): Surf our web site at http://www.cucug.org/ ZDNet Offers Updates.com!
Tired of searching for updates to your favorite Windows programs? Let ZDNetUpdates do the work for you! Just sign up at http://updates.zdnet.com/ andpush "Scan My PC" -- we'll provide you with your very own customized listof available software updates. Also, check out our other great featuressuch as Update News, Featured Updates and our Hardware Advisor! The Macintosh Section:
Jobs unveils 733-MHz Power Macs, sets OS X release date
By Ian Fried and Cecily Barnes
Staff Writers, CNET News.com
January 9, 2001, 1:40 p.m. PT
URL: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-4419535.html Titanium PowerBook: A test of Apple's mettle
By Joe Wilcox
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
January 11, 2001, 11:00 a.m. PT
URL: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-4447270.html Order no. M7952LL/A M7710LL/AProcessor 400-MHz PowerPC G4 500-MHz PowerPC G4Backside level 2 cache 1MB 1MBMemory (PC100 SDRAM) 128MB 256MBDisplay 15.2-inch (diagonal) TFT 15.2-inch (diagonal) TFTVideo memory (SDRAM) 8MB 8MBVideo controller ATI RAGE Mobility 128 ATI RAGE Mobility 128Hard disk drive 10GB Ultra ATA/66 20GB Ultra ATA/66Optical drive Slot-loading DVD-ROM with DVD-Video playbackEthernet Built-in 10/100BASE-T Built-in 10/100BASE-TModem 56K V.90 56K V.90Wireless networking AirPort ready AirPort ready
Apple's DVD-, CD-burning software out of consumers' reach
By Ian Fried and Cecily Barnes
Staff Writers, CNET News.com
January 9, 2001, 5:45 p.m. PT
URL: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-4424786.html Apple-Nvidia alliance a further blow to ATI
By Ian Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
January 10, 2001, 5:05 p.m. PT
URL: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-4436145.html Newer Technology Closing Shop
TidBITS#561/01-Jan-01Newer's iMAXpowr possibly incompatible with OS 9.1
Posted on Sunday, January 7, 2001 @ 2:30pm
URL: http://www.macnn.com/news.php?id=1943 The Amiga Section:
Executive Update - Looking Back
from Bill McEwen - December 23, 2000
URL: http://www.amiga.com/corporate/122300-mcewen.shtml
President CEO Amiga, Inc.
bill@amiga.com Making Way In The Universe
Author: John Chandler
Published on: December 11, 2000
URL: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1365/54787 I spoke with Bill McEwen tonight...
Corinna Cohn (lazuli42@NOSPAM.yahoo.com)
Friday, Jan 5, 2001
URL: http://flyingmice.com/squid/moobunny/amiga/messages/46342.shtml Interview with Francis Charig, Chairman of TAO
by Christoph Dietz - 06.01.2001
URL: http://www.amiga-news.de/archiv01/010106.shtml The CUCUG Section:
December General Meeting
reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)
Emil Cobb - Vice President
Kevin Hopkins - Secretary
Richard Hall - Treasurer
Jim Lewis - Corporate AgentDecember Board Meeting
reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu) The Back Page:
The CUCUG is a not-for-profit corporation, originally organized in 1983to support and advance the knowledge of area Commodore computer users.We've grown since then. President/WinSIG: Jim Lewis 359-1342 jlewis@computers4life.com Vice-President: Emil Cobb 398-0149 e-cobb@uiuc.edu Secretary/Editor: Kevin Hopkins 356-5026 kh2@uiuc.edu Treasurer: Richard Hall 344-8687 rjhall1@uiuc.edu Corporate Agent: Jim Lewis 359-1342 jlewis@computers4life.com Board Advisor: Richard Rollins 469-2616 Webmaster: Kevin Hisel 352-1002 khisel @ kevinhisel.com Mac SIG Co-Chair: John Melby 352-3638 jbmelby@home.com Mac SIG Co-Chair: Charles Melby-Thompson 352-3638 charlesm@cucug.org
912 Stratford Dr.
Champaign, IL
61821