News Common PC Linux Mac Amiga CUCUG
The April 18 gathering will be one of our split SIG meetings. The LinuxSIG, which meets at 6 pm - an hour prior to the main meeting, will belearning how to install software from source code or RPM archives (RedhatPackage Manager). The Macintosh SIG will have Edwin Hadley working withPhotoshop, making desktop pictures and exploring the topic of filters. ThePC SIG will be doing one of their Tips and Tricks / Question and AnswerSessions. So, be inquisitive and bring your curiousity with you.
We'd also like to welcome renewing member Michael R. Habermann.
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 tothe group.
Wednesday, April 17, 2001, * 335 Grainger * 3:00 - 4:30 pm
Alex J. Lovell-Troy will be do a new comparison of recent popular Linuxdistributions. The sneak preview of this at last week's PC User's Groupmeeting was very informative. I'm looking forward to the additional detailthat Alex has promised for this presentation.
Invite your friends, this meeting is open to the public!
For those unfamiliar with the Grainger Engineering Library a map showingthe location of room 335 may be found at:
http://www.als.uiuc.edu/DRES/wheelchair/324PLAN3.html
More maps and images of Grainger are linked at:
http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~markz/grainger.html
Palm, Inc. today made Palm Desktop 4.0 for Macintosh available as a freedownload. The new version adds Mac OS X compatibility, support for recordsmarked private, and the capability to import and export vCard and vCalfiles. (As a quick example of vCard use, you can drag a contact's title baricon directly to the Contacts folder of a mounted iPod to add it to therudimentary address book feature added in last week's iPod 1.1 softwareupdate.) Palm Desktop 4.0 is a 10 MB download. [JLC]
http://www.palm.com/software/desktop/mac.html
Apple CEO Steve Jobs last week unveiled two new products in his keynoteaddress at Macworld Expo in Tokyo. A new 23-inch Apple Cinema HD Displaywith 1920 x 1200 resolution joins the company's existing LCD flat-paneldisplays and will sell for $3,500 when it becomes available next month. (Incontrast, the 22-inch Apple Cinema Display, still available for $2,500,offers a mere 1600 by 1024 resolution.) The company says the new display'sresolution will allow editing of HDTV (high definition television) digitalvideo "with room to spare." At the same time, Apple introduced a morecapacious iPod, a $500 version of the portable MP3 player with a 10 GBinternal hard drive, available immediately. The existing 5 GB model remainsavailable for $400. For an extra $50, either model can be personalized atthe Apple Store with laser engraving of two lines of text containing up to27 characters each.
http://www.apple.com/displays/acd23/
http://www.apple.com/displays/acd22/
http://www.apple.com/ipod/
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06608
Jobs also previewed Apple's upcoming support for Bluetooth. The short-rangewireless communication technology is intended to link personal electronicdevices such as computers, cell phones, and personal digital assistantswhen they're in close proximity. Promising "a Bluetooth solution thatactually works and is easy to use," Jobs said that, in early April 2002,Mac OS X users will be able to download free preview software from Apple'sWeb site for use with the D-Link USB Bluetooth adapter, itself to beoffered at the Apple Store for $50. Apple's Bluetooth software willautomatically recognize other Bluetooth devices that come into range andoffer to connect to them.
http://www.apple.com/bluetooth/
http://www.bluetooth.com/
At the same event, Jobs made the surprise announcement that, effective21-Mar-02, current flat-panel iMac configurations have _increased_ in priceby $100; orders placed prior to that date retain the price at the time oforder. Citing rising component costs for memory and flat-panel screens,Jobs defended the price hikes as a better alternative to keeping theoriginal pricing but reducing features. Given the demand for the new iMac,we don't see the price increase as a deal-killer: Apple says it has shipped125,000 new iMacs since the model's introduction in January and is nowshipping 5,000 iMacs per day.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/mar/20imac.html
Apple last week released the Security Update April 2002 through SoftwareUpdate and the Apple software downloads site. The 4.7 MB download includesupdates to a number of Mac OS X's Unix components, including OpenSSH 3.1p1,rsync 2.5.2, groff 1.17.2, PHP 4.1.2, sudo 1.6.5, mod_ssl 2.8.7, andmail_cmds. These updated components provide increased security againstUnix-based exploits for gaining unauthorized access to your Mac. Everyoneshould download and install this security update. Most notable with thisrelease, though, is Apple's first real use of their Security Announcemailing list, a PGP-signed posting to which carried more detailed changenotes than were available via Software Update's description of the update.Plus, the version of the change notes on Apple's Security Updates pageincluded links where you could read more about the exploits in question.It's taken over a year, but it appears that Apple is finally living up toall of the responsibilities to the community it took on by moving theMacintosh away from the highly secure Mac OS 9 to the far more open Unixcore of Mac OS X. [ACE]
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120111
http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/security-announce
http://www.apple.com/support/security/security_updates.html
I've got four PC boxes of varying talent and they run 24/7. I've always hadan interest in distributed computing. Distributed computing enliststhousands of computers to work on small parts of a (usually) mathematicalproblem. The beauty of this is that people rarely always use all the powerof their computers, so they can run an application in the background tosolve big problems.
The most popular distributed computing application is SETI@Home. SETI(Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) uses your computer to analyzesmall portions of radio telescope data to look for telltale evidence ofalien life. It sounds neat, but I don't have a lot of confidence that thisproject will ever succeed.
Recently, I came across another distributed computing project calledFolding@Home (http://folding.stanford.edu/) which allows you to use yourunused processor cycles for a good cause. Go to their web site,download and install the appropriate application (versions are availablefor Windows, Linux and Mac OS X), choose a user name and team number andyou're off and running. The application's calculations mathematically"fold" proteins in a quest to find new treatments for real diseases likeAlzheimer and AIDS. When it finishes with one batch of calcs it uploadsthe results and downloads the next set of problems (called a work unit).The program comes with a neato molecular display that changes while it'sworking.
Folding@Home is now running on all four of my machines and it has had noapparent ill effects. At first I was reluctant to even install it on mymain machine but the thing runs at such a low priority that I haven'tnoticed any kind of degradation at all. I'm running it on Windows XP and98.
If you've got some extra processor cycles (and who doesn't?) why not runFolding@Home? You'll be helping to solve problems that could lead to newtreatments for human disease and using your computer for a good cause.
If you do decide to give it a try, join the CUCUG Folding@Home Team! We areteam number 3154 (just enter the team number into the configurationscreen).
Now I feel a little less guilty running all these machines all day--hey,I'm doing good work here!
Here's the official poop from InsightBB regarding their high-speed Internetpricing:
Current Prices:
Premium Installation $ 99.95
Insightbb.com monthly service $ 44.95
Insightbb.com modem rental $ 10.00
Digital Cable Discount $-10.00
So, the current rate is $54.95 with the modem. Insight's MarketingCoordinator told me that @Home customers who signed up before August 1,2001 are charged only $44.95. There should be a discount line shown on yourcable bill reflecting this. If you have Digital Cable TV with at least oneprogramming pack, you'll also get an *additional* $10 discount. These"grandfathered" @Home rates are good only through the end of the year.
If you signed up for @Home service after August 1, 2001 you are probablyalready paying $54.95 (with the modem).
Anyone who had @Home service before August 1 should not be charged $54.95.If you are being charged the higher rate, contact Insight Communications at217-384-2500. If you can't get through (pretty common, lately) contact mevia e-mail and I can put you in direct contact with the MarketingCoordinator who has promised to fix these kinds of problems for CUCUG.
America Online, the world's most popular Internet service, seems to belosing its home-field advantage.
Executives at AOL Time Warner, the parent company of AOL, are no longerrequiring its many high-profile divisions to exclusively use an e-mailservice developed by AOL's Netscape subsidiary. This flies in the face of adirective established last May that required all AOL Time Warner employeesto use AOL technology as their corporate e-mail service.
Since the merger between AOL and Time Warner, executives have been trying toweave AOL's influence throughout the company's array of media andentertainment divisions. In the case of using AOL e-mail, the move was agesture of solidarity behind the service and also offered potential costsavings by eliminating licensing fees for corporate e-mail software, such asMicrosoft's Outlook or IBM's Lotus Notes.
Some AOL Time Warner divisions, including magazine publisher Time Inc. andWarner Music Group, were required to use a customized product developed byAOL's Netscape.
AOL Time Warner spokeswoman Tricia Primrose said the Netscape product wasdeveloped to meet specific needs of the company's various divisions.
"Unfortunately, it didn't work for everybody," Primrose said. "So we decidedto give everybody the choice that met their needs. Some will stay with it,some will move to others."
AOL Time Warner divisions now are permitted to license e-mail managementsoftware from non-affiliated companies, such as Microsoft and IBM.
Other divisions have decided to stick with AOL and/or Netscape consumere-mail products including AOL corporate, AOL Time Warner corporate and TimeWarner Cable, according to Ann Brackbill, a spokeswoman for the AOLdivision.
Brackbill added that since the merger, the company has also consolidated itsnetwork backbone onto AOL's, which has made network operations across thecompany more efficient.
In the past, AOL Time Warner employees had been quick to complain aboutbeing forced to use AOL's e-mail system. The complaints mainly centered onthe system's shortcomings for daily business tasks such as difficulty insending large attachments and a reliance on cumbersome security features,according to an AOL Time Warner employee who spoke under the condition ofanonymity.
AOL Time Warner executives have been trying to show how the marriage betweenthe companies would chart a new course for the media empire. The company hastaken steps to reduce costs by consolidating the technical management of allits Web sites, including those from Time Inc. magazines and Warner Bros.Executives have also been touting the company's ability to cross-promote itsoffline products, such as movies and television shows, to AOL's Internetaudience.
However, most of these crossover benefits have been anecdotal. Furthermore,AOL Time Warner's latest financial earnings report showed that the AOLdivision, under fire for its lackluster financial growth, gained $138million worth of advertisements from other AOL Time Warner divisions duringthe fourth quarter of 2001. That spending helped the AOL division reportless of a revenue loss from the sour advertising environment.
News.com's John Borland contributed to this report.
Two weekends from now, people will search for hidden Easter eggs on thelawn--but they don't have to wait to find them inside the DVD version of"X-Men."
Easter eggs in the world of technology are not trinkets covered in hard,colored shells. Those found in software applications contain a differentkind of goodie, usually consisting of a hidden message or command thatdevelopers tuck away as an inside joke or tip. They range from anything astame as a list of the often-unnamed developers who wrote the application tosomething more substantial, such as extra scenes in a video game.
While Easter eggs are nothing new to software applications, they areincreasingly finding their way into movies on DVD, especially recentreleases such as "X-Men" and "The Godfather DVD Collection."
For example, viewers of "The Godfather DVD Collection" can watch JamesCaan's audition, an impersonation of Marlon Brando's "On the Waterfront"character, Terry Malloy, according to a Web posting on DVDeastereggs.com, asite that details how to find Easter eggs and gives a brief description ofeach egg.
On the "X-Men" DVD, there's a clip of an on-set joke that includes a cameoby Spider-Man.
The new features are the latest push to maintain the growing momentum of theDVD format. Last year, consumers spent $16.8 billion renting and buyingmovies in that format, which is more than twice as much as they spent onmovie tickets, according to the DVD Entertainment Group, a nonprofitorganization that advocates the DVD format. The amount spent on DVDs in 2001was a 21 percent increase from the preceding year.
Consumers bought $4.6 billion worth of movies on DVDs--more than what theypaid to buy movies on VHS tape, although videocassette recorders faroutnumber DVD players. Last year, there were 25 million households in theUnited States with a DVD player, compared with 96 million with a VCR. Inaddition, DVD-ROM and DVD-recordable drives have become popular add-ons fordesktop PCs, and DVD players are nearly universal in all but the cheapestlaptops.
Easter eggs have "always been around, but now they're becoming more of amarketing tool," said Amy Jo Donner, executive director with the DVDEntertainment Group. "Studios are now publicly acknowledging them and insome cases actively putting Easter eggs in" movies on DVD.
It's not clear whether the Easter eggs have boosted sales, but some saythat's not the point.
"I'm not sure that you can say that they've enhanced sales, but they areclearly popular," Donner said. "They're similar to looking for buriedtreasure, or like a modern-day Cracker Jack prize."
Cracking open some buzz
Geoffrey Kleinman, founder of "Someone will generally start a thread by talking about an Easter egg theyfound in a movie, and that will launch into a whole discussion about themovie," Kleinman said. Martin Blythe, vice president of publicity with Paramount HomeEntertainment, said Easter eggs are one of several features that studioshave been pushing at an audience that is increasingly looking for more of aninteractive experience. Film studios have already been releasing longerversions of movies, including scenes not in the theater release of a film,to tempt consumers into buying movies on DVD. "For the generations that have been raised on gaming, they're moreinterested in interactivity, which is the direction that DVDs are now goingin," Blythe said. "The dilemma is that we want people to find them, but wedon't want to take away from the fun of hunting." Rob Engstrom, founder of DVDeastereggs.com, said enthusiasm for the eggsdoesn't come from just the studios and the developers. Seventy-five percentto 80 percent of the almost 600 Easter egg descriptions on DVDeastereggs.comcome from readers. The remaining 15 percent to 20 percent come directly frommovie studios. Engstrom has noticed that more reports of Easter eggs are from newerreleases of movies on DVD. "They seem to be getting more frequent, especially in new releases," hesaid. "Some studios seem to be adding eggs just because they know people arelooking for them...For programmers of the menu system, they're almost like asignature." What came first? The chicken or the... The inspiration for Easter eggs can be traced to one of the most commonlyused key combinations in the computer world, Ctrl-Alt-Delete, which restartsa computer and was developed by David Bradley, one of the original 12designers on the IBM PC. Bradley inserted the command code for programmers,but a magazine published the shortcut, and the public embraced it. The 4.7GB capacity of DVDs gives developers and film directors more storagespace to insert more than just shortcuts. Easter eggs can include segmentsthat weren't part of the theater release, such as video clips, deletedscenes and messages from directors. James Rocchi, a spokesman for DVD rental Web site Netflix, gives the exampleof "American Pie 2," in which the uncovered Easter egg shows stars of themovie throwing eggs at the screen. Another example is in the movie "Mallrats." In the DVD movie's system menu,going to the Deleted Scenes icon and pressing the right arrow key on a DVDplayer lights the eyes of a robot that is in the corner of the screen. If aviewer presses Enter, a video clip of director Kevin Smith starts up inwhich he chastises viewers for having nothing better to do with their time. "If you're watching this, I bet you thought this was going to be an Easteregg, something hidden. No, nothing, just us sitting here laughing at you asyou lie there looking for Easter eggs on a D-V-D," Smith scolds on the DVD."God almighty, get out there, live, smell the air, sniff a dog...You'relooking for Easter eggs? No, no, no. What you should be looking for isapparel." And yet there is another Easter egg on the "Mallrats" DVD: a music video oftwo key characters in "Mallrats," Jay and Silent Bob, dancing to the song"Build Me Up Buttercup." Going to the MCA Soundtrack Presentations icon andwatching the presentation through to the end reveals the hidden video clip. Rocchi called Easter eggs "garnish," adding that the eggs aren't enough of afeature to make a mediocre movie good, but depending on how the eggs arehidden and what they contain, they can make a mediocre movie into aninteresting DVD. Besides, there's room on the disc. "One of the exciting things about DVDs is that you can add new features tothem, just like with software applications," he said. "And through word ofmouth, consumer interest in DVDs can increase." The March edition of The Status Register included a portion of anarticle by Paul Thurrott entitled "Windows More Secure Than Linux? Yep!".Some of us in the Linux SIG felt compelled to counter Paul's twisted useof statistics from an NTBugTraq security report. He was playing fastand loose with the numbers from this report by constructing apples tooranges comparisons to support his statements. Take this claim: Paul reached this erroneous conclusion by adding together the reportedvulnerabilities for ALL of the Linux distributions. It doesn't workthat way. You run one distribution, you are at risk for only thevulnerabilities listed in that distribution. And then there is this claim: In fact, when you look more closely at the NTBugTraq numbers, Windows2000 has easily the WORST record in the group. The real numbers forthese distributions since their release in the year 2000 are: The situation gets even worse for Windows 2000. Although the MS-IISweb-server ships as part of Windows 2000, the NTBugTraq report countedits 29 vulnerabilities for this period separately. Since the NTBugTraqnumbers for Linux distributions included vulnerabilities for allapplications that shipped with the distributions, an apples to applescomparison would require counting these MS-IIS vulnerabilities againstWindows 2000. Under this more accurate comparison of platforms, theWindows 2000 count balloons to 105. In reality, the whole exercise is silly. It isn't appropriate to use theNTBugTraq numbers to compare Linux against Windows. The NTBugTraq reportitself advises against using its data for this purpose. Quoting thetext at the top of the NTBugTraq report: ... The numbers presented below should not be considered a metric by which an accurate comparison of the vulnerability of one operating system versus another can be made. It is our sincere opinion that both Linux and Windows 2000 serverscan be secured by competent system administrators. Further both Linuxand Windows 2000 servers pose serious security threats in the hands ofincompetent system administrators. Security is important. Let's generatemore light and less heat shall we? References: Mozilla is just about to be released. Mozilla is a project that consists of multiple applications:web browser, wysiwyg html editor, email client, chat client, and helpviewer. Mozilla is free, open source, and cross-platform (Mac OS X, Linux, Windows).I've been using Mozilla to create my web pages on my Mac for about a month-- it works pretty well. KDE 3.0 released! KDE is a powerful Open Source graphical desktop environment for Unixworkstations. It combines ease of use, contemporary functionality, andoutstanding graphical design with the technological superiority of theUnix operating system. You can find a list of improvements that KDE 3 brings at:http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-3.0.html Yellow Dog Linux 2.2 is now available. YDL 2.2 redefines your PowerPC experience. A complete Linux operatingsystem, YDL 2.2 offers an elegant array of highly customizable graphicalenvironments; familiar, functional internet, office, and multi-mediaapplications; and all of the expected code development and server toolsthat have become the foundation for a traditional, stable, fast Linux box. http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/products/ydl.shtml Sharp Zaurus PDA is available in local stores. It was advertised in an Office Depot circular in the weekend paper.This PDA runs embedded Linux and includes many applications includinga web browser (Opera), productivity apps, an mpeg player, and an emailclient. Besides the fact that it runs Linux, what makes this PDA interestingis its embedded keyboard and dual card slots - CompactFlash Type II andSecure Digital card slot. http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT2134869242.html Apache 2.0 now available. The Apache HTTP Server Project is proud to announce the first GA [GeneralAvailability] release of Apache 2.0. Apache 2.0 has been running on theApache.org website since December of 2000 and has proven to be veryreliable. Apache 2.0 offers numerous enhancements, improvements and performanceboosts over the 1.3 codebase. The most visible and noteworthy addition isthe ability to run Apache in a hybrid thread/process mode on any platformthat supports both threads and processes. This has shown to improve thescalability of the Apache HTTP Server significantly in our testing.Apache 2.0 also includes support for filtered I/O. This allows modulesto modify the output of other modules before it is sent to the client.We have also included support for IPv6 on any platform that supports IPv6. This version of Apache is known to work on many versions of Unix, BeOS,OS/2, Windows, and Netware. Because of many of the advancements in Apache2.0, the initial release of Apache is expected to perform equally well onall supported platforms. http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/Announcement2.html What's new since 8.0? Ahem... It's been almost one year now, asking "what hasn't changed" wouldbe easier to explain. .-) As Uncle Stew is feeling very lazy today, I'll simply point you to thestuff we wrote about i586 beta. As far as the "applications" are concerned,this distribution is comparable to the second beta of the 8.2/i586, plus afew bug-fixes. What's more important is the support for the Mac- hardware,and network protocols. PPC-specific features By far the most important news is that 8.2/PPC should work on both"OldWorld" and "NewWorld" machines. In particular, it DOES work on a 7600test machine we have in the lab. There have even been some efforts towardssupporting the IBM's PPC machines, but this has been put "on ice" for now,due to the lack of demand, and lack of the test machine. Other new featuresinclude: (*) Thanks to the PPC distribution, 8.2/i586 users will also profit fromimproved support for Appletalk protocol and (to a certain extend) FireWiredevices! Test the hardware support! As you can imagine, we have a very limited supply of Apple hardware. Thus,if you want to see 8.2/PPC working nicely on YOUR machine, give this beta atry, and report your experiences. I'll monitor this story, and if there isenough interest I'll do the same kind of "test this" for PPC distribution,as I do for the i586 betas, but concentrating on PPC specific hardware, andMac specific programs. Note: everything what is said about testing the /i586 distribution appliesto the PPC version too, except for the "cooker" list. That is, PPCdistribution has its own "cooker-PPC" mailing list, which is used fordiscussing the PPC-hardware- and Apple- specific development. Subscribe to the dedicated mailing list by sending an email tosympa@linux-mandrake.com with the words "SUB cooker-ppc" in the body ofyour message. You can also follow the discussions by reading two onlinearchives: http://www.mandrake.com/en/archives/cooker-ppc/ Download 8.2 PPC Beta: Czech Republic: Estonia: France: Germany: Netherlands: Sweden: Taiwan: United States: For a long time, digital video editing seemed more work than it was worth,and I let Apple's DV train pass right on by. Recently, I was forced tocatch up all too quickly, but I managed to do it without emptying my bankaccount on new hardware and software. The Train Has Left the Station One of my jobs is being a drummer for a retro-'60s faux British Invasionband here in Vancouver called The Neurotics. In spring 2001, our booking agent arranged to have one of our largerperformances professionally videotaped by a camera crew. Several monthslater, she asked if we could make a three-minute promotional video from theresulting VHS tape, since many high-end clients want to see what they'll bepaying for. We had no particular deadline, no budget, and no one who knew what theywere doing. The rest of the band members swiveled their eyes in mydirection. Laying the Tracks I decided to work with what I had: an older beige Power Mac G3, USB videoinput, the free version of iMovie 1.0.2 for Mac OS 9 (iMovie 2 for Mac OS 9remains a $50 upgrade), and whatever other hardware and software I hadkicking around. I wanted to buy only new videotapes and CD-Rs for the endproduct. I figured that I would digitize the audio and video separately, then puteverything together in my very limited spare time over the course of acouple months. I started by watching the whole performance and took manynotes. Then I recorded the entire show's audio from my VCR (in mono) intoCoaster, the free audio digitizer from Visual Click Software: http://www.visualclick.de/products/coaster/ I broke the resulting files into a few chunks with the QuickTime ProPlayer, then backed up the results to CD using Roxio's Toast. http://www.apple.com/quicktime/buy Next, I fired up Pro Tools Free, a freeware 8-track sound mixer, which Iused to edit (again in mono) the best bits of audio into a continuousmontage of various songs and silly stage banter, with cross-fades, seamlesssplices, and other trickery to make sure it kept up a good pace. I saved itas an 18 MB AIFF file that was three and a half minutes long. http://www.digidesign.com/ptfree/ This soundtrack formed the backbone of everything else I did. Once it wasfinished, I left it alone. Scanning the Scenery The next step was to tackle the video. I used my XLR8 InterView USB videocapture device to digitize useful videotape segments. The InterViewcaptures at 320 x 240 pixels, which is a lower resolution than the 720 x480 output of a digital camcorder's DV (digital video) stream. However, itshares the same 30 frames per second (fps) frame rate as a camcorder. http://www.xlr8.com/ProductInfo/interview/ Digitizing only short segments (between 30 seconds and 2 minutes each)became necessary because I have a relatively small 12 GB partitioned harddrive with lots of stuff on it already. At 215 MB or so per minute, there'sno way it could hold two hours of video. (I ended up having to back up andpurge my MP3 collection to make room.) iMovie is designed to take digital video only from a DV camera through aFireWire port. With some trickery, however, it can also import DV files(but no other type of movie) from a hard disk. I used QuickTime Pro toconvert each InterView QuickTime video file into a DV-formatted file. Thatscaled up the dimensions of the video images, but with the DV compressionalgorithm, each file stayed roughly the same (fairly huge) size, using uproughly twice as much hard disk space as the raw video files required ontheir own. After another backup, I deleted the non-DV movie files. Coupling the Cars After all my importing and conversion, I created an iMovie 1 project.Although I have both Strata VideoShop 4.5 (included with the InterView) andAdobe Premiere LE 5.1 (included with my FireWire/USB card), I find iMovieso much easier to use that I was willing to go through all the DVconversion rigamarole just to use it. That's a testament to the good jobApple did simplifying iMovie to do the very essentials. http://www.apple.com/imovie/imovie1.html I next imported the entire audio track and did nothing with it for the restof the time I worked. After dumping a few of the DV stream files at a time into the iMovieproject folder, I ran iMovie so it would find the clips and automaticallyimport them as "strays." I then dragged them into the Timeline Viewer inrough order before I quit and dropped in the next batch, so that iMovie'sclip tray wouldn't get full. (iMovie 2 removes this limitation.) I did my editing in iMovie in one day, dragging files around, shorteningthem, creating transitions, and trying to get the images to match therhythm of the soundtrack. During that time, I used GraphicConverter andPhotoshop to create logo-title cards, manipulate still photos, and generateother JPEG and PICT files. On the Web, I also found an old-style "Indianhead" TV test pattern, and a little stock clip of applause for the end ofthe video. http://www.lemkesoft.com/us_gcabout.html Since I had sampled them separately, I didn't try to sync up video andaudio at all, even though they were from the same performance. In the end,I was surprised at a few clips where it looked like people were playingprecisely what was on the audio track - even when the audio and video werefrom completely different parts of the show. The End of the Line I saved the completed video using iMovie's "Expert" QuickTime exportsettings, at 640 x 480, 29.97 frames per second, Cinepak compression atmaximum quality, and uncompressed mono audio, 16-bit, 22.5 kHz.Essentially, that was as high quality as I could manage. This file wasabout 260 MB, and took my Power Mac G3/266 about four hours to generate. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/Cinepak.html I exported and posted large (13 MB) and small (6 MB) Web videos. Beforeposting them to the band's Web site, I opened them in the QuickTime ProPlayer and zoomed them to double size for better visibility in Webbrowsers, especially on large monitors. After I outlined most of this process in a TidBITS Talk discussion ofdigital video, Duane Byram of Apple's QuickTime engineering group noticedthat he had to wait as each video downloaded before it would play. Heoffered a simple fix: save the file again from the QuickTime Pro Player asa "Self Contained" movie file. Apparently, any edits made to a saved moviefile (such as adding annotations) prevent it from fast-starting whendownloaded. Saving a self-contained version _after_ all modificationssolves the problem. http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1586 Following comments from the rest of the band and our agent, I popped backinto iMovie and changed a few small things, then exported and uploadedagain the next night. I used Apple's iTools HomePage tool to create thevideo pages, since it was fast and I was hosting the video on our iToolssite anyway. I burned a few different versions of the video to CD - first a data backup,then a Video CD/audio hybrid (with some audio-only song demos we'd recordeda couple of years ago on the audio portion), then a QuickTime/audio hybrid.Those were for clients who would rather watch the video on a computer orDVD player. (Having missed the DV train, of course, I don't have a DVDburner.) http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2496/vcdfaq.html Finally, I used my ATI Xclaim 3D Plus video card's analog video- out portto transfer the completed video (running full-screen from the QuickTime Proplayer) to VHS tape, then added the audio-only song demos on the end withstatic title cards displaying as they play. I made the title cards inPhotoshop, and simply manually switched between layers to display eachsong's title as it played from iTunes during recording. A bit awkward(especially since I had to do it all manually again for each new mastertape), but it worked. http://www.ati.com/products/mac/xclaim3dplus/ Unloading the Luggage Making the video took a lot of time, but very little expense. I have neveredited video of any kind before, so I think it turned out quite well. Surprisingly, the actual "video editing" was a small part of the procedure.Just as in real movies, preparation and post-production are much biggerpieces. Most of the work was not in the video editing, but in the samplingand conversion, and (surprisingly) in the creation of the audio track. Ispent a lot of time doing other things (or sleeping) while my Mac turnedone sort of file into another sort of file. I see now why people who dothis for a living buy the fastest computers possible, regardless of cost. The final video quality is not spectacular, but it is full-screen, 30 fps,and it looks like old film from the '60s (slightly washed- out colours,somewhat grainy), which is perfectly appropriate for our retro-'60s band.It also helped that the original footage, shot by a team of professionals,was so good. My main frustrations with iMovie 1 were its lack of support for anythingbut DV stream video, its limited clip-tray space, its unwillingness to runon more than one monitor, and its inability to view the audio trackwaveforms visually, so that I could coordinate the video more preciselywith the sound. (All of these shortcomings were fixed in iMovie 2, exceptfor the multiple monitor support.) I liked the multi-level undo and theoverall ease of using iMovie, compared to Strata or Premiere. In iMovie, the video never played smoothly on my old Mac, even though itplayed fine in QuickTime Player after export. For that reason, and becausemuch of my audio software doesn't work in Mac OS X (my normal environment),I worked under Mac OS 9.2.2, with virtual memory off, for the wholeprocess. I also have 416 MB of RAM - I recommend lots of it, whether yourmachine is old or new. Once I returned to Mac OS X, I discovered that iMovie 2 (which comes withMac OS X) works rather well even on my old G3. Luckily, iMovie projectsmove seamlessly between iMovie 1 and 2, and between Mac OS 9 and X - youcan even, it seems, open iMovie 2 projects in iMovie 1, which is impressive. http://www.apple.com/imovie/macos9/ Looking Back on the Journey So how did it turn out? See for yourself: http://homepage.mac.com/neurotics/ Editing this, my first real video, reminds me of the joy I felt when Ifirst got into desktop publishing 15 years ago or so and ditched Letrasetforever. It was fun, but the rest of my family (not to mention the band) isprobably glad I'm finished - for now. [Derek K. Miller is a homemaker, writer, editor, Web guy, and drummer whosewife and two daughters are pleased that he finally brought the VCR andlittle TV back upstairs. Derek lives in Vancouver, Canada, and tries to keephis weblog interesting.] Everyone knows that the group that's by far the most important to Apple iscomposed of small utility developers. Several years back, Apple saw thatthe Mac market was stagnating because almost every conceivable utility hadalready been developed. Realizing drastic resuscitation measures werenecessary, Apple moved quickly to replace the Mac OS with theNeXTstep-based Mac OS X, hoping to give Mac developers the opportunity torestore Mac OS 9 functionality to Mac OS X and further extend Mac OS X'slimited interface, to draw Unix hackers into the Mac camp, and to provide amarket for all seven NeXT utility developers. Sarcasm aside, the number of utilities available for Mac OS X has indeedmushroomed of late. In preparing for this article, we turned to TidBITSTalk for recommendations, and the response was overwhelming - so much sothat we've decided to publish a group of articles on the topic; this onewill focus on utilities that restore Mac OS 9 functionality to Mac OS X.Read through the TidBITS Talk discussion for an unfiltered view of what'scoming up. http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1497+1600 Without further ado, here are the top utilities for restoring Mac OS 9functionality to Mac OS X, though please note that these are not intendedto be full-fledged reviews - we simply don't have enough experience witheach utility. If we've missed your favorite utility, bring it up on TidBITSTalk. WindowShade X The windowshade functionality that's been in the Mac OS since System 7.5actually dates back to an independent control panel for System 6 fromRobert Johnson. Double-click a window's title bar or click the collapse boxand the window "rolls up" into the title bar. You can still position thetitle bar anywhere on screen; it's an efficient way to reduce the spacetaken up by windows. Mac OS X eliminated this approach in favor ofminimizing windows to Dock icons. Unfortunately, Mac OS X's approach fillsup the Dock quickly, and it can often be difficult to distinguish betweendifferent minimized windows. But with Unsanity's WindowShade X, you geteverything Mac OS 9 could do and more. There are four methods of invokingWindowShade X (the minimize button, double-clicking the title bar,Control-double- clicking the title bar, and pressing Command-M), and eachmethod can cause a window to minimize to the Dock, roll up into the titlebar, make the window transparent, or hide the application. Although you cancontrol the opacity of windows made transparent, I find that option, likealmost all other transparent interface features in Mac OS X, utterlyannoying. WindowShade X is $7 shareware, and it's a 374K download. http://www.unsanity.com/haxies.php ASM & X-Assist In Mac OS X, Apple tried to do too much with the Dock, making it serve asan application launcher, list of running applications, and more. Mac OS 9broke those features out, and in particular, the list of runningapplications was always tucked away in the menu bar's application menu. InMac OS X, the clock and other menu bar icons take over that space until youinstall ASM or X-Assist, both of which return the application menu to theupper right corner. In ASM's preferences panel, you choose whether itshould show as an icon or a menu title, or both, and how much space themenu should take up. Other settings control how the contents of the ASMmenu appear, what special commands (such as for hiding and showingapplications) appear, and so on. Most important, it offers a return to MacOS 9's window layering, which ties all of an application's windowstogether, so clicking one brings them all to the front (that happens in MacOS X only if you click the application's Dock icon or switch applicationsusing Command-Tab). ASM also offers a Single Application Mode that hidesall applications other than the current one. X-Assist replicates most ofASM's feature set and offers two additional features: the capability todisplay a user-defined hierarchical menu of files, folders, and disks (muchas you can do in Mac OS 9's Apple menu), and support for special plug-ins(the included samples can set the Mac's volume and play MP3 files). Thoughboth appear to work, several people have said that they found ASM morestable. ASM author Frank Vercruesse asks for donations if you like ASM,which is a 354K download for version 2.0.2; X-Assist is free and is a 291Kdownload. http://asm.vercruesse.de/ FruitMenu & Classic Menu The Apple menu has been a fixture of the Mac OS for years, and althoughApple wisely kept it in Mac OS X, it's a shadow of its former customizableself. Two utilities, Sig Software's Classic Menu and Unsanity's FruitMenu,recall the old days. Classic Menu is the simpler of the two; it merelydisplays the contents of the Classic Menu Items folder located in yourLibrary folder's Preferences folder. Populate it with aliases to files,folders, and disks, and you'll have something that works much like the oldApple menu when you click on the Apple menu icon itself. Other helpful menuitems add aliases of selected items to the Classic Menu Items folder, openthat folder in the Finder, and let you select a different folder to use.Access the default Mac OS X Apple menu (which has useful commands like LogOut and Restart) by clicking right next to the Apple menu icon. AlthoughFruitMenu provides the same functionality as Classic Menu, it more closelyresembles Power On Software's Action Menus in providing a preference panelfor arranging your Apple menu and offering custom items not normallyavailable, such as one that displays your current IP address. Overall,FruitMenu feels a bit more powerful, and it's only $7 shareware, comparedto Classic Menu's $10, but both will do the job. FruitMenu 1.5.2 is a 481Kdownload; Classic Menu is a mere 43K download. http://www.unsanity.com/haxies.php SharePoints In Mac OS 9, you could share any particular folder you wanted, and youcould create users and groups that would have access to different folders.That functionality, though present under the hood in Mac OS X, wasn'teasily accessible until the release of SharePoints. Operating either as astand-alone application or as a preferences panel, SharePoints lets youshare any given folder and create users who can access specific sharedfolders but who cannot login via Telnet or SSH and who lack homedirectories. As a small bonus, SharePoints lets you specify a custommessage to be displayed to users on connection. The author asks that fordonations if you like SharePoints; SharePoints 2.0.4 is an 824K download. Xounds Although Apple has only dabbled in interface sounds, the sound effects forinterface actions available from the Appearance control panel wereeffective at providing an additional dimension to using the Mac OS. Thosedisappeared in Mac OS X, but Unsanity's Xounds can bring many of them backagain. Xounds offers to import existing sound sets (though importing athird-party set and switching between it and the sounds from Mac OS 9caused Xounds to stop working until I reinstalled Xounds), and providesroughly the same level of control as you had in Mac OS 9. You can choose toplay sound effects associated with menus, windows, controls, and theFinder, although dragging sounds aren't yet supported. Xounds 1.1.2 is a384K download; it's $7 shareware and works for only an hour per login ifleft unregistered. http://www.unsanity.com/haxies.php Next Up Keep in mind that I chose these utilities based purely on the fact thatthey returned features to Mac OS X that existed in a stock installation ofMac OS 9. In future installments in this series, I'll look at utilitiesthat extend Mac OS X's new features in useful and interesting ways,utilities that bring to Mac OS X features that independent developers hadadded to Mac OS 9, and utilities that bring Mac OS X's Unix underpinningsinto the light of Aqua. In the first installment of this series on Mac OS X utilities, I looked atutilities that restored capabilities inherent to Mac OS 9 that we had allbeen accustomed to over the years. For many people though, the full Mac OS9 experience came not just from Apple, but from a bevy of utilitydevelopers who extended Mac OS 9 well beyond the stock configuration. Thisweek I'll look at a few of the most important utilities that have evolvedto bring those capabilities into the world of Mac OS X. We've examined manyof these utilities in the past; in those cases, consider this compilation arefresher on our previous scattershot coverage. http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06763 In an attempt to keep this article relatively short, I've held asignificant set of utilities for a later article. Utilities like DragThing,LaunchBar, QuicKeys X, Keyboard Maestro, MenuStrip, PiDock, and otherscertainly count as restoring capabilities offered by third party utilitiesin Mac OS 9, but when you look deeply at them, you realize that they allbasically do the same thing. You can think of them as alternate controlmechanisms for operating system functions like displaying and openingfiles, typing text, restarting the Mac, and more, so I'll cover them as agroup later on. Finally, a few new utilities have appeared that should have been mentionedlast week. I'll catch up with them at some future point, but in themeantime, check out the TidBITS Talk threads for the latest additions andfor utilities that have slipped through my admittedly arbitrarycategorizations. http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1497+1600 Default Folder X Apple has never done a good job of making it easy to open and save files,and as Matt Neuburg pointed out in "Apple's Dirty Little Secret" inTidBITS-601_, Mac OS X is in many ways a step back even from Mac OS 9. Inearlier versions of the Mac OS, savvy users fixed Apple's Open and Savedialogs with utilities like Power On Software's Action Files (the successorto Now Software's Super Boomerang) and St. Clair Software's Default Folder.Only Default Folder has made the jump to Mac OS X so far, and in doing so,it has fixed a number of Mac OS X's Open and Save dialog navigationproblems in Carbon (though not yet Cocoa) applications. We wrote aboutDefault Folder X 1.0 when it shipped; it's well worth it for anyonefrustrated by Apple's clumsy and inconsistent Open and Save dialogs. Thejust-released Default Folder X 1.1 offers a variety of small featureimprovements and bug fixes, including the option of showing free disk spaceand icons in Default Folder's menus. Compatibility has been improved with anumber of programs, including the heavily used Microsoft Office X. DefaultFolder X 1.1 is $35 shareware and is a 1.5 MB download. http://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/ CopyPaste-X & PTHPasteboard For most people, Apple's implementation of the clipboard is sufficient.Select something, choose Copy or Cut, and the selected item replaceswhatever was on the clipboard and is ready for pasting. Applications likeNisus Writer and utilities like CopyPaste (reviewed way back inTidBITS-364_) cleverly extended the clipboard by making it possible toaccess multiple clipboards. That functionality has arrived in Mac OS Xthanks to CopyPaste-X and PTHPasteboard. Both utilities track recentlycopied or cut items (20 for PTHPasteboard and between 10 and 200 forCopyPaste-X) and let you paste any one of them into other applications witha keystroke or a click in a palette. Both also save the recently remembereditems through restarts, but CopyPaste-X goes beyond this in making theseclipboards editable, storing user-defined clipboards permanently forrepeated use, and providing full drag & drop to and from the CopyPaste-Xpalette. If your needs are minimal, PTHPasteboard is probably sufficient,but for a full-fledged multiple clipboard utility, CopyPaste-X is the onlyway to go. CopyPaste-X is a 1.3 MB download and costs $20 shareware.PTHPasteboard is a 123K download; it's free, although donations areaccepted. http://www.scriptsoftware.com/copypaste/cpx.html USB Overdrive Apple ships only single-button mice with Macs, but many people prefer miceor trackballs with buttons, scroll wheels, missile launchers, and so on.Some vendors of these alternate pointing devices have provided Mac OS Xdrivers (Kensington is a notable example), but for many devices, the onlyway to bring them into the world of Mac OS X is through Alessandro LeviMontalcini's USB Overdrive. Currently still in beta for Mac OS X, USBOverdrive lets you program multiple buttons and access scroll wheels,although I suspect he won't support missile launching. Alessandro isextremely up front about the fact that USB Overdrive is currently a beta,so be sure to read all the release notes and known problems, and send indetailed reports of anything you experience. USB Overdrive beta 4 is a 617Kdownload; it will be shareware when released. http://www.usboverdrive.com/trouble.html Snapz Pro X Though the Mac OS has, since time immemorial, offered the capability ofcapturing an image of the screen, and even though Apple enhanced thisscreen capture capability to capture just windows a few years back,everyone who's serious about taking screenshots uses a third party utility.The same truism applies in Mac OS X. There have been numerous such programsover the years, but Ambrosia Software's Snapz Pro is the screen captureutility of choice for many people, TidBITS staff members included. SnapzPro X makes it possible to take professional screenshots in Mac OS X;although it isn't quite as snappy as it was as an extension in Mac OS 9,it's still the only game in town for screenshots. Snapz Pro X 1.0.2 costs$30 ($50 for Movie Capture); a licensed version also ships for free withmost new Macs. The utility is a 13.1 MB download. http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/ Font Reserve & Suitcase Another area in which the Mac OS has never met the needs of serious usersis in font management. With 15 or 20 fonts, it's not a big deal, but withthe hundreds of fonts and font-intensive projects many users have, a fontmanagement utility like Suitcase or Font Reserve has always been essential.Matt Neuburg reviewed Font Reserve 3.0 in TidBITS-620_; he has a review ofSuitcase 10 coming soon. Both utilities help you gather all your fonts fromthe various different locations Mac OS X stashes them. Then you can groupthe fonts into sets and activate and deactivate them at will to keep thecurrent set at a manageable size. Font Reserve 3.0 costs $90 with $30upgrades; Suitcase 10 is $100 with $50 upgrades. http://www.fontreserve.com/products/frmac.html Here's an item of interest. has an interesting site caslled the Cult of Macintosh. Such items as (updated Mar. 20, '02) Where Old Macs Go Off to Thrive Macs Macs Macs Macs Macs The Old Mac That Went to Pot PCs Are Incorrect on TV Master Maker of Mockup Macs Absorbing Apple's Aesthetic A Mac Box Worth Weight in Gold Plus some other articles about Apple fans designing future Macs. Alsoanother about the popularity of the Powerbook 2400 because it is smallerand lighter than many Powerbooks. On 4/3/02 at 1:21 PM -0500, mpno wrote: I don't disagree that Apple needed to find ways to increase revenue, and QTPro is worth $30. OTOH, I didn't appreciate the loss of lifetime techsupport promised to me when I bought my Mac, or reneging on the promise ofadvanced OS support for the 8500, so here is my revenge: For those who don't know, Movie Player v2.5 (the predecessor to QuickTimePro Player) from QuickTime 2.5 (found on System 7.6 CDs, games or anythingelse of that era that required QT) will give you access to 99% of thefeatures of QuickTime Pro for free. The only thing it can't do is theInternet stuff. (QTV, open URL, etc.) Oh, and it doesn't have thatwonderful brushed aluminum look. If you want to save a web movie to your hard drive, most browsers store themovie in a temporary files folder you can access. In MS Internet Explorer,find them in System Folder>Preferences>Explorer>Temorary Items Folder.Download the movie, watch it once to make sure it is all there, open thatfolder, drag the often cryptically named .mov file to another location onyour hard drive, change file type to MooV and creator code to TVOD, viola,saved web movie. Only you can decide if not having to do that is worth $30. A steal at $30, though I did not like having to pay the $30 again toupgrade to 5.0. Then again, the new "lite" sorenson 3 codec is worth $30by itself easily. What I describe is perfectly legal even from an analobey-all-software-license point-of-view. However, even if you want to spendmoney, I say spend it on supporting an Apple developer, before Applealienates/kills them all. BTV is only $20 for access to most QuickTime Profeatures, and adds several more cool ones of its own, including capture.BTV Pro is $40 for even more way cool features. It's such a steal I toldthe developer to raise his price, so get it before he decides to. Compare BTV to QT Pro at http://www.bensoftware.com. (PS: Seems to be downat the moment. Was there yesterday when I sold a friend on it.) -- Greetings once again - To One and All: Fresh from a fantastic showing at the Embedded Systems Conference in SanFrancisco, where Amiga Anywhere wowed and amazed commentators, developersand potential customers alike, I wanted to take the time to get the Amigacommunity caught up on our flagship project, the AmigaOS. Contrary to the nonsense that is being spread about by a few very noisypeople, the AmigaOS is more than alive and well and we have very excitingplans for the future with more hardware designs and exciting new features.We have very long term life and long term goals for this amazing product. We look to the AmigaOS as the desktop solution and Amiga Anywhere as theembedded solution for Cell Phones, PDA's, Set Top Boxes, InternetAppliances and some other new products. When AmigaOS 5.0 hits the road thenyou will see these code bases merging and the two worlds will allow thecontent to co-mingle and proliferate. Another way to view this is that AmigaOS is for the Amiga Community whereasAmiga Anywhere introduces Amiga to the rest of the world. It is then thatthey can join us and be part of the Amiga community. It is all about marketshare and the opportunity to further expand and grow the Amiga market anduser base. As you know, we took the strategic decision to outsource development of thenext generation hardware and compatible AmigaOS version. This was done toallow us to concentrate on AmigaOS5, our long term goal, whilst alsoproviding a compelling and high performance path from AmigaOS3. What thisdoes is give the Amiga community a product that they can be proud of in theshort and medium term. The hardware contract was awarded to Eyetech Limited, of Stokesley,England, and the software contract was awarded to Hyperion Entertainment,of Belgium. Both companies have an impressive reputation for qualityproducts and a deep commitment to the Amiga, having played a major part inkeeping the platform going through the last five years. These two contracts underlie the first new combined Amiga hardware andsoftware product in over 8 years; the AmigaOne, a product whose featuresand functions were set after looking at the thousands of mails, articlesand comments generated by the community. A PowerPC (PPC) CPU was asked forand it was selected. The ability to take advantage of the latest video andaudio technology was demanded and it was successively built in. USB supportwas talked about and we obliged. A better filesystem, integrated TCP/IP and3D, an enhanced Workbench; all have been designed into AmigaOS4. The excitement is growing. The AmigaOne is already running PPC Linux,AmigaOS4 is progressing rapidly on 68K Amigas equipped with PPCaccelerators and integration is currently underway. Orders for developerboards are already being taken and many developers are working closely withthe AmigaOS4 team to ensure that their applications are optimized for thefuture. It has been a long haul and there have been many bumps on the road. Withthe world economy starting to move out of recession, and the success ofAmiga Anywhere, Amiga Inc is moving from strength to strength. It could nothave been done without the support and commitment of the Amiga communityand we want the community to know that we share its support and commitmentto the success of both our product lines, Amiga Anywhere and the AmigaOS. Hardware Update Last month, Fleecy Moss, CTO of Amiga Inc visited the headquarters ofEyetech and spent a few hours with Eyetech management, engineers and theirnewest addition, a PPC mother board that will be the at the heart of theAmigaOne. Running a version of PPC Linux specially designed for it topermit evaluation, the board and its peripherals performed flawlessly withthe system being very responsive, boding well for an optimised andefficient AmigaOS in the future. The original hardware plan for the AmigaOne was to create two products, amotherboard with an integrated A1200 interface, allowing for the firstversion of AmigaOS4 (4.0) to be completed quickly by still having access tothe AA chipset, and a second product, a standalone board that would workwith the second version of AmigaOS4 (4.2), which would be independent ofthe AA chipset. Over the past 6 months, advances in hardware have meant that the secondproduct is actually going to be available before the first. As a result,the hardware strategy has been updated. The AmigaOne will be built around arevision 1.5 motherboard. This board will be completely independent of theAA chipset and will not need a connected A1200 in order to run AmigaOS4.There will be no motherboard with an integrated A1200 connector. Instead,Eyetech are planning on developing a PCI to A1200 product for those whowish to run older Amiga software that requires direct access to the AAchipset. In effect, the A1200 will be like just another graphics cardplugged into the PCI bus of the AmigaOne. Using this approach it is also technically feasible to use the PCI-cableinterface to connect to an A3/4000 via the CPU slot connector - and even toan A2000 via a CPU pin header. These interface variations may follow later,depending on demand. The current hardware specification for the AmigaOne is as follows; For more information on the AmigaOne hardware, please visit Eyetech'sAmigaOne pages. Software Update Hyperion Entertainment have assembled the cream of Amiga developers to workon AmigaOS4.0, guaranteeing both high quality and high performance in thefinal product and ensuring that AmigaOS4.0 and beyond will be a true Amigaproduct, created with due care and attention to the philosophy andpractices that have always made Amiga solutions the envy of the world. AmigaOS4.0 is currently being developed on Amiga 4000s equipped with CSPPCaccelerators, and integration is now underway on the AmigaOne 1:5 boardsprovided by Eyetech. The aim of AmigaOS4.0 is five fold; Its feature set as currently defined is as follows; Exec SG (Second Generation) - A rearchitectured and reimplemented Exec coreservices manager that allows the deployment of AmigaOS4 to any suitable PPChardware including but not limited to the Amiga One, Blizzard PPC,Cyberstorm PPC, Shark PPC from Elbox, Pegasos from bPlan etc. The following features are being added; 68K emulation - This is key to AmigaOS4.0 as many of the less performancecrucial OS elements, as well as the entire body of Amiga third partyapplications will require it in order to work. The latest Just In Time(JIT) techniques are being employed to ensure maximum performance, withhand tuning of many areas to accelerate the Amiga architecture. PPC native connectivity suite - this was the most requested feature fromthe community, integrated connectivity, and given its importance, wetrusted its development to Olaf Barthel, one of the most respected Amigadevelopers in the world. He has not disappointed, with benchmarkssuggesting that the new AmigaOS4 solution is faster than any otheravailable solution. Its feature set includes; PPC native reimplementation of the Amiga File System (FFS2) - FFS2 is afully backwards compatible re-implementation in C of the Fast File System.It supports media greater than 4 GBytes, and a new variant of thefile/directory name storage format which allows for long file names (up to108 characters). Salvage and recovery tools will also be included thatsupport both FFS2 and SFS. PPC native CD file system - the feature set for this second most requestedfeature of AmigaOS4 is as follows; We also intend to add support for mixed audio/data CD's and support for theHFS and HFS+ filesystem as used by Apple. PPC native RTG system - with the AmigaOne supporting both AGP and PCIgraphics cards, the ReTargetable Graphics system is crucial to highperformance. Redesigned and reimplemented for AmigaOS4 and the AmigaOne, ateam lead by the creators of the Picasso96 solution will ensure thehightest quality graphics display for the consumer, whether gamer, artistor general user. In addition, hand tuned drivers are being written tosupport the following graphics cards, with more to be announced later. Amiga3D - developed from the pioneering Warp3D solution offered by Hyperionand now available on both the AmigaOS and AmigaDE, this 3D solution offersthe power and simplicity of a low level 3D interface, allowing developersto create blazingly fast 3D applications without the overhead of a fatter3D solution such as OpenGL. Hand tuned hardware drivers for the abovementioned graphics cards will provide even higher performance. Whoever saidgames are irrelevant on the Amiga is in for a surprise. OpenGL 1.3 support (mesa 4.0) - whilst Ami3D allows the developer to getdown close to the metal, OpenGL is the standard for a full 3D solution.AmigaOS4.0 will offer OpenGL1.3 support by implementing mesa 4.0 on top ofAmi3D, giving developers the 3D choice of performance and feature set. PPC native RTA - With the introduction of PCI card support, the Amigacommunity now has access to the latest in audio hardware. Given itsexcellent collection of audio software, such as Audio Evolution, Samplitudeand others, this AHI compatible solution will allow the AmigaOne to becomea major force in audio creation. With support for most existing Amiga audiocards as well as Soundblaster live and Soundblaster 128, the future hasnever sounded so good. PPC native GUI system - the entire look and feel of AmigaOS is beingreworked; Intuition is being rewritten and enhanced, to give a PPC native foundationto the AmigaOS interactive environment. Reaction, the BOOPSI based component GUI system has been reimplemented andenhanced for seamless integration with the AmigaOS. Many new classes are being developed whilst drag and drop will be supportedacross the system. Matt Chaput, designer of the famous GlowIcons is taking a leading role inthe look and feel, ensuring that AmigaOS4 will look both modern and unique. A PPC version of AmiDock will also be included, ensuring that Workbenchcontinues to be the most usable environment of all the desktop platforms. PPC native CLI - the tool of choice will be removed of annoying bugs andenhanced to make it even more useful. SCSI interface - SCSI will be supported, allowing the many devices alreadyowned by Amigans to be used, but with particular attention being paid toSCSI devices that use the SCRIPTS controller, for the next generation ofdevices. AmigaInput - A new framework for managing input devices is being designedas a prelude to the requirements for AmigaOS5. This will appear in AmigaOS4and become a crucial part of the developing Amiga solution. USB - USB was to be introduced in AmigaOS4.2 but given the developemtent ofthe 1:5 motherboard, parts of it will be introduced in AmigaOS4.0.Currently this will allow USB mice and keyboards to be supported but, ifall goes well, new devices will be added as they become available, withscanner support next in line. PPC datatypes - the datatypes system has been implemented and extendedwithin the AmigaDE, demonstrating our commitment to superior Amigatechnology. With the move to PPC, the system and many of the datatypes willalso be moved across, increasing their performance dramatically. PPC Storage Toolbox - a set of functions allowing for the management offixed and removable storage devices. PPC font engine - surprisingly one of the most requested features forAmigaOS4.0, a brand new font engine will be added to the AmigaOS, providingsupport for both True Type and Open Type fonts. In addition, bullet.libraryand diskfont.library will be reimplemented and enhanced and a contract withAgfa for 12 truetype fonts has been negotiated. In addition, many Amiga developers are coming forwards and demonstratingtheir commitment to the AmigaOne and AmigaOS4; in particular All in all, AmigaOS4.0 is shaping up to be a very compelling and excitingproduct which in combination with the AmigaOne will provide the productthat we have been waiting so long to offer to the Amiga community. Whilst the the changed schedule for the AmigaOne boards is very welcome, ithas added AmigaOS4.2 work to the schedule for AmigaOS4.0, namely theabstraction of the AA chipset. Coupled with the need to reimplement certainfeatures included by Haage and Partner in AmigaOS3.5 and AmigaOS3.9, thismay push out the final consumer delivery date; an analysis is underway atthe moment to determine this. The Amiga community is owed a great debt by Amiga Inc and, with the successof AmigaDE now allowing us to build revenues and increase resources, thelong layed plans for the future of both the AmigaDE and the AmigaOS can beput into action. Thanks for all your support and here's to the future, Signed on behalf of Amiga Inc, Eyetech, Hyperion and all those workingtogether for the future of the Amiga. Bill McEwen I periodically rediscover a certain realization --- The world of computingis a very different place now than it was when I first got into it. In theeighties, the top computers were eight-bit wonders, good for games orgetting some office work done, and best of all, they were inexpensive, from$100 to $500, up to over $1000 if you wanted a "serious" computer like anIBM PC or an Apple II. Admittedly, inflation would push those prices up abit for today, but surely the equivalent of a $200 Atari or Commodorecomputer would not cost a thousand bucks today. The Amiga grew out of thosetimes, when it was not shameful to have your own custom formats, hardware,or operating system, and value for money was a larger force in the market.That has obviously changed. The crippling majority of all systems are basedon Windows, which forces everyone else to adopt at least some of thatoperating system's "standards" in order to seem like part of the market. Thereal killer from then to now, for me at least, is that there are no trulyinexpensive systems to be found anymore, unless you count machines such asgame consoles or WebTVs, or resort to pre-owned hardware. I'm sure people who can build their own systems in their sleep will tell meI'm wrong, but the real truth is in the stores, where the average personshops for a computer. You're unlikely to find any desktop system for lessthan 6 or 7 hundred, or laptop for under $1000. It's not because it can't bedone (as the system-builders know), it's more a symptom of the market. Wehave Intel and their clones, constantly making bigger, faster, hotter, moreexpensive CPUs, and Microsoft and the rest of the software makers coming upwith bigger, but not necessarily better, gluts of code to take up the slack.Each new software release or OS upgrade places much bigger demands on thehardware than the last, leaving us with our expensive cutting-edgemachine-pushing obsolescence in a matter of months --- at least that's howit often seems. It's not a system that's likely to change either, since it'sa push to keep the consumer spending money to keep up. Thenot-as-cutting-edge machines are naturally less expensive, but those sameforces of movement pull the older technology off the shelves before theybecome actually inexpensive, however. I find it quite ironic that the expensive, decked-out, obsolete in a weekcomputer and the sub-$300 console are both ideal for the same group ---hard-core game players. From what I've seen, a hefty percentage of computerusers today make use of their machines roughly the same as they did in thedays of the Vic-20: Basic office work and the occasional game, though ofcourse nowadays you can add web-surfing to that too. None of thoseactivities are fundamentally horsepower-intensive, so I think it wouldn't betoo tough at all to put together a 3 to 4 hundred dollar system, maybe evena $100 system, to appeal to that market, and the more frugal side of it.Sure, it wouldn't have all the bells and whistles, and might only run at 600Mhz or so, but it's not needed to do the same things you might have used aCommodore 64 to do 18 years ago. It's a concept that has been tried beforein various ways, from CD-I to WebTV to Email terminals, even to Palm Pilotsand the like. Companies like Extreme computers are building fairlyinexpensive PC-based Amigas (with the help of Amithlon), and it's possibleto turn a Playstation 2 into a Linux box for programming purposes. I'm justsurprised no one seems to have the guts to produce and market a cheapWindows machine, where the answer to the question of "how fast does it run"is "Fast enough," and the answer to "How does this compare to that top-endDell machine?" is "It's 1200 bucks less." Better yet, tell them it runs quicker because it's running Amiga OS. The March General Meeting took place on March 21, 2002. Just prior to the main CUCUG meeting, Linux group were treated to anexploration of the KDE environment by John Ross. President Jim Lewis began the main meeting with the traditionalintroduction of officers. Next, he welcomed our visitors for the evening,among whom was Wayne Hamilton, one of the co-founders of the originalChampaign Urbana Amiga Users Group. CUAUG joined with CUCUG in 1987. It wasgood to see Wayne again. Jim made mention of the Linux SIG's activities this evening. Jim then turned to PC News. He asked for a report from Kevin Hisel, butKevin had nothing to report. Mike Latinovich said it had been a slow month.About the only topic that raised any interest was CD burners. Rich Hallbrought up the topic of the HP / Compaq merger. Jim Lewis offered up thenews that Intel had released the newest iteration of the Celeron chip,noting that the Celeron now had a P3 core and the cache memory had not beencrippled in the process. Jim said, "They're cheap: under a hundred dollars,and for all intents and purposes they're a P3. Any motherboard that'llhandle P3s will handle these chips and that includes any multiprocessorversions there may be. Also, you can overclock a 1 Ghz chip to 1.3 or 1.4quite handily." Kevin Hisel talked about the Microsoft court battle with the nine statesthat won't let them off the hook as easily as the Bush administration wantsto do. He noted that a settlement might be the breeding ground for multipleversions of Windows to meet specific specifications. Jim Lewis brought up an annoyance he had been having with the Real audioplayer. He said the Real-One player insists on running a little "fetch"type program when it loads, that goes out on the Web and trolls up some RMads to annoyingly "pop up" at various times. First, he tried to keep itfrom auto-starting with MSConfig, but every time he ran Real One, it cameback. So, he fired up the XP Task Manager, discovered the name andlocation of the program that was doing the fetching and deleted it. Nomore annoying popups! Now when Real One tries to run the thing, NOTHINGhappens, just the way it should be!! In a note after the meeting Jim said, "Here's where this thing lives underXP: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Real\Update_OB\evntsvc.exe According to Jim Huls after a time (unknown how long), Real One willre-download this little irritant and it's Deja-Vu, all over again. Thishasn't happened yet, Jim stated, but when/if it does, he's going to write ascript to look for and delete the thing and schedule it to run daily afterthe Antivirus and defrag tasks. "I'll get that little begger for GOOD!!"Jim said. Harold Ravlin brought up the item from the newsletter about Walmart.comselling PCs with no installed OS. Bill Zwicky asked if it was worth upgrading to Windows XP yet. Our XPexperts said yes. Rich Rollins informed everyone that the HP Scanjet software for Windows XPwas now available. Kevin Hisel noted that it had some rudimentary OCRsoftware in it. Mac News: Jack Melby announced that the topic for this evening's Mac SIGmeeting would be some very nice shareware and freeware utilities for OS X. Richard Rollins brought up an article he saw in today's Wall Street Journalabout the price for the new flat panel iMacs going up by $100, noting thatRAM prices have tripled since the iMacs were introduced in January and theprice of the flat panel screens have gone up 25% and are in short supply.He also noted that the iPod now comes with a 10 Gig hard drive. Pixar has launched a lawsuit against a company started by 5 formeremployees. There was an update to iTunes, today, to version 2.04. Linux News: When asked for the Linux News, John Ross began by showing acouple articles from the tabloids. The first was one from The Star,entitled "Bill Clinton to Head All Girls School (Monica to be AssistantPrinciple)". The second was from the National Enquirer: "Smoking doesn'tcause cancer -- People cause cancer." (Actually, John made up thatheadline.) Then, he turned to the topic of concern, from the CUCUGnewsletter: "Windows More Secure Than Linux? Yep!" John said the articleswere all of a par. John commented on the latter item, submitted to thenewsletter by Jim Lewis, which stated Windows was more secure than Linux.To say the least, the article was... misleading. John encouraged people toview the original numbers themselves and noted that the website even admitsup front that bugs in 3rd party applications were counted against Linux,but bugs in Windows-compatible software were not counted against Windows.Clearly, a double-standard. http://securityfocus.com/vulns/stats.shtml There was laughter, but the point had been made. John went on to say it had been a quiet month on the Linux front. He talkeda little about Star Office. He also spoke about Oracle 9I, a download forLinux mainframes, but as this is hugely expensive, it is of littlepractical consideration to the rank and file. SuSE 8 is due out April 22. Matt Skaj commented on some crazy bills that have been emanating fromInsight. The service has gone up to $54 per month despite their promise notto raise their rates. Matt urged people to attend the oversight commissionmeeting on April 17 to voice their protest. Richard Rollins showed the Linux CDs that are available from the clubthrough him. Bill Zwicky said he has Virtual PC for Windows running Linux. Charlie Earle asked about speed of connection settings for stuff likeLimewire. Kevin Hisel informed him this wasn't for his download speed, butto inform others of the speed of his connection to be able to downloadthings from him. In the March Linux SIG meeting, John Ross gave an introduction toend users applications for Linux. Most of his time was spent onoffice applications. We saw parts of the KDE office suit and theStarOffice/OpenOffice suit. We also saw the stand-alone word processorAbiWord and the spreadsheet program Gnumeric. John went into the greatest detail with StarOffice, demonstrating theword processor, spreadsheet, and slideshow/presentation applications.They all displayed good though not perfect abilities to import MS-Officedata files. StarOffice 5.2 is available now for free. Version 6.0,currently out in beta release, is expected to retail at the $100 pricepoint with volume discounts as low as $25. OpenOffice 6.0 will continueto be down-loadable for free. The greatest difference between the two versions is that 5.2 requiresthat you run the individual applications from the StarOffice desktop,where as version 6.0 allows you to run the applications independently fromthe desktop. StarOffice 6.0 is based on OpenOffice 6.0. It includesseveral proprietary extensions to OpenOffice, including the Adabas Ddatabase and a more extensive clip art gallery. John also made the pointthat both version are available for both the Linux and Windows platforms. Toward the end, John demonstrated several graphic and multi-mediaapplications. We saw Gimp, which is an open-source graphicsprogram that works very much like Photoshop. We also saw the XMMS MP3player and the plaympeg, gtv, and mpg123 mpeg video players. Resouces: This evening Jack Melby gave a presentation on OS X freeware and sharewareutilities which make the OS X experience more enjoyable. First he addressed miscellaneous software that allows the user to run Unixtasks from the GUI without the necessity of dealing with the Terminal,among which were: Swap Cop - change swap file locations (virtual memory space) (freeware; http://homepage.mac.com/jschrier/). MacJanitor - allows the user to run shell scripts for regularmaintenance that would otherwise be scheduled to run in the middle of thenight when the computer might be off (freeware; REALejectX will do a Force Eject of troublesome disks (freeware); availablefrom http://www.realsoftware.com. Xoptimize - an add-on to update pre-bindings; can greatly improve systemperformance if used periodically (freeware;http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=10451&db=mac). Brickhouse - firewall configurer (shareware);http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_hill/brickhouse.html FireWalk - firewall configurer (shareware); Next he addressed group/permissions/file and creator types utilities: BatChmod - owner/group permissions modifier and can force the Trash toempty of troublesome files (freeware); http://homepage.mac.com/arbysoft. Xray - fixes all problems relating to permissions, locked files, fileowners, forced trash emptying, and lots of other bells andwhistles--definitely a MUST HAVE! (shareware;http://www.brockerhoff.net/xray). SuperGetInfo - a commercial program from In addition, a terrific program now called FileXaminer (formerly"GetInfo" - the name was already taken) does most of what BatChmod and XRay,and SuperGetInfo do, with a few additional features (shareware;http://www.gideonsoftworks.com). Jack also mentioned that the plain old system Get Info has some amazinghidden capabilities. It will allow you to change which program a file (orclass of files) will use when they open. He showed how to change all SimpleText files so that they will use OS X's Text Edit as their application whenthey open. Next were System Preference panes: ASM - Apple Switcher Menu - like the old Application Switcher; lists allprograms, both OS X-native and Classic, currently running and allows easyswitching between them (freeware; http://asm.vercruesse.de). "Haxies" written by Unsanity Software (http://www.unsanity.com): Programsthat do useful things like FruitMenu ($7; enables a customizable Apple Menulike that in previous Mac OS versions), and WindowShadeX ($7; performs the function of the old WindowShade controlpanel--but that's only the beginning!). TinkerTool -- gives the user control over many aspects of the OS XUI--system and application fonts, anti-aliasing, scroll bars, dock, mediaauto-play options, and much more (freeware;http://www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool2.html). A MUST HAVE! USB Overdrive - a preference pane that supports practically all USB inputdevices--mice (including those with any number of multiple buttons),trackballs, scrolling wheels, joysticks, keyboards, gamepads, etc. Usuallyworks better than the software provided by the hardware developers(shareware; http://www.usboverdrive.com/. Other useful items: Classic Spy - puts a little ball on the menu bar with an X (if Classic isnot running) or a 9 (if Classic is running) in it and allows the user tostart and stop Classic without going to System preferences (freeware,http://homepage.mac.com/costique/sw/products.html). Snax - a Finder replacement - has spring-loaded folders and many morefeatures (shareware; http://www.cocoatech.com). BootCD - creates a bootable OS X CD (freeware;http://www.macfixit.com/library/tul/BootCD.sit CarbonCopyCloner - backup entire OS X volume to another volume (freeware;http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html). (NOTE: Holding down the Apple-S key combination on boot up causes you toenter Single User Mode. Once there, type "fsck -y" to fix problems on theOS X startup volume. Repeat this instruction until the report says that thevolume appears to be OK, and then type "reboot" to start up in OS X.) WordLookUp - As supplied, WordLookup has 'Book' support for translatingwords using downloadable books (plugins). These can be obtained so far forEnglish to and from Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Latin, German and NewZealand Maori(!). In addition you can use IDP (Internet Dictionary Project)files with WordLookup as well (freeware; http://www.lindesay.co.nz/). Photoshop Elements - stripped down version of Photoshop ($99--but anupgrade from an old copy of Photoshop LE or PhotoDeluxe, one or the otherof which comes with nearly every scanner and/or inkjet printer, will dropthe price to $70; http://www.adobe.com). It's kind of a Best of Photoshopfor the average user. It replaces Photoshop LE. Kevin Hopkins mentioned thefree Unix clone version called NIH Image. Ed Hadley asked about a filetype problem he was having at work. Jackrecommended FileTyper, a Classic application, to handle it, but the itemsabove under "Group/permissions/file and creator types utilities" will alsohandle this problem. NOTE: If you're afraid of using the Terminal, skip the following: X-Windows on Mac OS X: go to http://fink.sourceforge.net/ for informationon Fink, a package manager that can perform a painless installation ofXFree86 and a large number of X-Windows applications, such as thefollowing: XFree86 - installs X Darwin. This must be installed to use X-Windows on OSX, but it can be installed by Fink. The GIMP (Graphics Image Manipulation Program) - similar to Photoshop, butfree! OroborOSX - invisible X Windows manager that allows X-Windows to run in"rootless" mode alongside OS X applications. AbiWord - word processor with some MS Word compatibility. XonX - site dedicated to porting X-Windows applications to OS X(http://sourceforge.net/projects/xonx/). Information about other useful items can be found athttp://www.macfixit.com/library/osxu.shtml. The March meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday, March26, 2002, at 7PM, at Kevin Hisel's house. (For anyone wishing to attend -which is encouraged, by the way - the address and phone number are both inthe book). Present at the meeting were: Jim Lewis, Dave Witt, MikeLatinovich, Kris Klindworth, Rich Hall, Jim Huls, Kevin Hopkins, KevinHisel, and Emil Cobb. Before the meeting began officially, Kevin readdressed a question that hadarisen at the main meeting on Thursday about Insight and their billingpractices on their Internet services. He said he had called and gotten theinformation directly from their Marketing Coordinator (article elsewhere inthe newsletter). This launched a big discussion about Insight's service andmany of their competitors. Jim Lewis: Jim said the meeting was interesting. He commented on thephantom Internet connect problem the Mac SIG was having in the back room.We never did get connected and Jim said he would run the problem down. Jim noted that the Linux SIG seems to be growing. He said perhaps we shouldpopulate the room with chairs prior to the meeting to encourage people tocome in. He stated that John's presentation this last time was great. Turning to the Windows SIG, Jim said, "Mr. Serbe did an exemplary job, asusual. It was pretty cool. Ed always draws a crowd." Several Board membersmade jealous statements about how well Ed flew the helicopter simulator.Their own propensity for crashing sparked these envious comments. On a business note, Jim said we should get some Visitors forms in the handsof our Linux SIG chairmen. Dave Witt: Dave said, "Ed's presentation was awesome." The Linux meetingwas very good An hour is hardly enough time to learn everything that isbeing offered. Dave reported that Sony had announced the release of Linux for thePlaystation 2 and a price drop of $100. Pretty impressive. Mike Latinovich: Mike said he couldn't understand who'd want to put Linuxon a Playstation 2 anyway. Kris said it might open up the hardware to moregame development. Mike responded that there was no API for it, so hedidn't buy that argument. Anyway, Mike said it was interesting to see some of the applications Johnwas showing for Linux. Star Office 6 looks really, really nice. Mike winkedand said, "It makes me hate Linux less than I do." Regarding the Windows SIG, Mike stated that he had learned stuff about hisown video card that he didn't know it did. He also said he saw more aboutFlight Simulator than he could comprehend. Kris Klindworth: Kris said John did a great job with his presentation.Linux is getting there for the end user ... but not quite there yet. Maybein another year. Kris said the Mac SIG was kind of interesting. Kris reported that there were some questions about the article in thenewsletter about Windows being more "secure" than Linux. He asked if it hadbeen offered "Tongue in cheek." Everyone agreed it was well within therange our usual twisted sense of humor. Jim Lewis, who submitted thearticle, said it was "baloney." Kris said he had plugged CUCUG on a WILL radio show he had done on Monday,March 4 at 10:00 am on the topic of Linux. Next month, the Linux SIG will be learning how to install software fromsource code or RPM archives (Redhat Package Manager). Rich Hall: Rich reported that we had one member join at the last meeting.We also had two join through the mail. He also noted the payment receivedfrom Emil Cobb for one of the TIMM monitors. Jim Huls: Jim expressed his opinion that the "meeting was cool." Heenjoyed the Linux SIG. He also noted that "Ed always does a goodpresentation." Jim brought up the possibility of organizing a Saturday afternoon gamingmeeting. This was discussed. Rich Hall brought up the idea about dedicating a monthly meeting to asingle platform so that everyone could get an in depth, 3 hour exposure towhat other members in the club are doing. Each SIG could take a machinefrom beginning to end, from OS installation to the final tweaks. MikeLatinovich voiced his opinion that he'd like to see that. Jim suggestedthat we coordinate this over the next couple of weeks via email. We coulddo these specially focused meetings, interspersed with general monthlymeetings, as the year progressed. Kevin Hopkins: Kevin reported that our current membership total is 39.Emil requested a list for his badge making. Kevin passed on Jack Melby's apologies for not being at the meeting thisevening. He had home repair issues to deal with. Jack also requested thatCharlie's email address be corrected on CUCUG's home page. Kevin Hisel: Kevin made note of his previous comments on Insight'sbilling. He said that through some SNAFU any CUCUG.org email address hadceased to work. He was speaking with Advancenet about this. A discussionabout this service ensued. Kevin made mention of the surprising fact thatour web site usage hasn't gone down for at least a year and a half, sincethe big drop off after the Amiga Web Directory was retired. At this point, John Ross paged Kris Klindworth at the Board meeting andtold him to give us hell and said if we really wanted a secure system, wecould use his VIC20. Everyone had a good laugh. Missed you, John! Emil Cobb: Emil reported that we had 29 members in attendance at the lastmeeting. Emil said perhaps he would put together a CD of Palm software. Meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at theIllinois Technology Center. The Center is located at 7101 Tomaras Ave inSavoy. To get to the Illinois Technology Center from Champaign or Urbana,take Neil Street (Rt 45) south. Setting the trip meter in your car to zeroat the McDonalds on the corner of Kirby/Florida and Neil in Champaign, youonly go 2.4 miles south. Windsor will be at the one mile mark. Curtis willbe at the two mile mark. Go past the Paradise Inn/Best Western motel to thenext street, Tomaras Ave. on the west (right) side. Tomaras is at the 2.4mile mark. Turn west (right) on Tomaras Ave. The parking lot entrance isimmediately on the south (left) side of Tomaras Ave. Enter the building bythe front door under the three flags facing Rt 45. A map can be found onthe CUCUG website at 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/ The PC Section:
Lies, Darn Lies, and "Windows More Secure Than Linux"
by Kris Klindworth (kris.klindworth@Carle.com), et al. For at least the first 8 months of 2001, open-source poster child Linux was far less secure than Windows, according to the reputable NTBugTraq, Windows 2000 Server had less than half as many security vulnerabilities as Linux during the reported period.
When you break the numbers down by Linux distribution, Win2K had fewer vulnerabilities than RedHat Linux 7.0 or MandrakeSoft Mandrake Linux 7.2, and it tied with UNIX-leader Sun Microsystems Solaris 8.0 and 7.0.
Distribution Vulnerabilities ------------------------------ --------------- Microsoft Windows 2000 76 RedHat Linux 7.0 56 MandrakeSoft Mandrake Linux 7.2 33 Debian Linux 2.2 26 Sun Solaris 8.0 24
There is a distinct difference in the way that vulnerabilities are counted for Microsoft Windows and other operating systems. For instance, applications for Linux and BSD are often grouped in as subcomponents with the operating systems that they are shipped with. For Windows, applications and subcomponents such as Explorer often have their own packages that are considered vulnerable or not vulnerable outside of Windows and therefore may not be included in the count. This may skew numbers.
The Status Register article:
http://www.cucug.org/sr/sr0203.html#PC.3
Paul Thurrott article:
http://www.wininformant.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=23958
NTBugTraq statistics:
http://securityfocus.com/vulns/stats.shtml. The Linux Section:
Linux Bits
from John Ross (hurricanejohnn@prairieinet.net) Mandrake Linux 8.2 PPC Beta is out
In a long awaited move, a beta version of the 8.2/PPC has joined the i586version of the upcoming Mandrake Linux 8.2 distribution. This beta has abit different schedule from the i586 version, but it should be roughlyequivalent to beta2, with a few bug-fixes, and some PPC-specific features.
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=mandrake-cooker-ppc&r=1&w=2
ftp://mandrake.redbox.cz/Mandrake-iso/ppc/
ftp://ftp.aso.ee/pub/os/Linux/distributions/mandrake-iso/ppc/
ftp://fr2.rpmfind.net/linux/Mandrake-iso/ppc/
ftp://ftp.ciril.fr/pub/linux/mandrake-iso/ppc/
ftp://ftp.lip6.fr/pub/linux/distributions/mandrake-iso/ppc/
ftp://ftp.proxad.net/pub/Distributions_Linux/Mandrake-iso/ppc/
ftp://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/Mandrake-iso/ppc/
ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/Mandrake/Mandrake-iso/ppc/
ftp://ftp.chello.se/pub/Linux/Mandrake-iso/ppc/
ftp://mdk.linux.org.tw/pub/mandrake-iso/ppc/
ftp://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/distributions/mandrake-iso/ppc/
ftp://ftp.cse.buffalo.edu/pub/Linux/mandrake-iso/ppc/
ftp://ftp.orst.edu/pub/mandrake-iso/ppc/
ftp://ftp.software.umn.edu/pub/linux/mandrake/Mandrake-iso/ppc/
ftp://ftp.umr.edu/pub/linux/mandrake/Mandrake-iso/ppc/ The Macintosh Section:
Late for the Train: Editing Digital Video on the Cheap
by Derek K. Miller (dkmiller@penmachine.com)
TidBITS#621/18-Mar-02
http://www.roxio.com/en/products/toast
http://www.adamwilt.com/DV.html
http://www.strata.com/
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/
http://www.pharis-video.com/p2807.htm
http://www.apple.com/imovie/freestuff/sounds.html#people Top Mac OS X Utilities: Restoring Mac OS 9 Functionality
by Adam C. Engst (ace@tidbits.com)
TidBITS#622/25-Mar-02
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~pli/x-assist/
http://www.sigsoftware.com/classicmenu/ Top Mac OS X Utilities: Restoring Third Party Capabilities
by Adam C. Engst (ace@tidbits.com)
TidBITS#625/08-Apr-02
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06594
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06718
http://www.pth.com/PTHPasteboard/
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=00751
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05831
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=00696
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06546
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06707
http://www.extensis.com/suitcase/
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06751 Something Interesting
from Edwin Hadley (e-hadley@life.uiuc.edu)
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,51231,00.html
- Japan! They are collecting old 'All-In-One' Macs
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,51189,00.html
- Apart from Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California, perhaps the onlyother Macintosh mecca on the planet is the giant Computer Mac Kan store inTokyo's famed Akihabara "Electric Town" district.
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,50820,00.html
- Illustrating the connection between Macs and marijuana, an old Mac Classichas been converted into a bong.
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,50441,00.html
- In TV and movies, the bad guys wear black or have foreign accents. They alsouse PCs, while the good guys use Macs.
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,49918,00.html
- Japanese photographer Isamu Sanada fancies himself another Steve Jobs,spending weeks designing Macintosh computers. He's so good at anticipatingApple, he dreams up machines before the company does.
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,49920,00.html
- Trainee industrial designers usually learn how to design in broad categories,like cars. They never learn how to make "Fords" or "Sonys." But one teacher isso enamored of Apple's design, his students get to design Macintoshes. ByLeander Kahney.
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,51208,00.html
- An original Macintosh computer is now considered worthless. But the box itcame in? It goes for hundreds of dollars on eBay.Quicktime Pro
From: "Phil A. Lefebvre" (p-lefebvre@northwestern.edu) I, for one, applaud Apple's decision to stop giving away one of their crown jewels for free.
Phil Lefebvre
Chicago, IL The Amiga Section:
Executive Update - Amiga Status Announcement
Bill McEwen - March 25, 2002
URL: http://www.amiga.com/corporate/032502-mcewen.shtml
Beginning on the 18th of March, developers and dealers can order developerversions of the boards, allowing them to evaluate the product and to beprepared for optimising their applications for AmigaOS4. To order adeveloper board, please use Eyetech's online shop.
CEO
Amiga Inc
Snoqualmie, WA Editorialities by Eric W. Schwartz
Eric W. Schwartz, Editor
AmiTech-Dayton Gazette, March 2002 The CUCUG Section:
March General Meeting
reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu) The Linux SIG: Linux End User Applications
by Kris Klindworth (kris.klindworth@Carle.com)
http://www.openoffice.org
http://www.staroffice.org
http://www.koffice.org
http://www.gimp.org
http://www.abiword.org
http://www.gnome.org
http://www.gnumeric The Macintosh SIG: Jack Melby shows OS X freeware and shareware utilities
reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu) March 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, now supporting PC, Macintosh and Linux platforms. President/WinSIG: Jim Lewis 621-2343 lewisj@pdnt.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 621-2343 lewisj@pdnt.com Board Advisor: Richard Rollins 469-2616 Webmaster: Kevin Hisel 352-1002 khisel @ kevinhisel.com Mac SIG Co-Chair: John Melby 352-3638 jbmelby@johnmelby.com Mac SIG Co-Chair: Charles Melby-Thompson 352-3638 cmelby@princeton.edu Linux SIG Co-Chair: John Ross 469-0208 hurricanejohnn@prairieinet.net Linux SIG Co-Chair: Kris Klindworth 239-0097 kris.klindworth@Carle.com
912 Stratford Dr.