News Common PC Linux Mac Amiga CUCUG
The May 16 gathering will be one of our joint SIG meetings. Richard Rollinswill be orchestrating a literal joining of all the elements of CUCUG. Hewill be networking a PC, a Mac and a Linux box together. If you've evercontemplated a home network, this meeting is for you.
We'd also like to welcome back renewing member Lucy Seaman. Lucy took a fewyears hiatus, but we're very glad to see she's returned once more. Our dooris always open.
We welcome any kind of input or feedback from members. Run across aninteresting item or tidbit on the net? Just send the link to the editor.Have an article or review you'd like to submit? Send it in. Have a comment?Email any officer you like. Involvement is the driving force of any usergroup. Welcome to the group.
http://www.cafepress.com/cucug
CUCUG T-shirts, caps, mugs and a tote bag are available.
Here's your chance to support the club (we make 2-3 bucks offeach item) and show the world your true geekiness. Sales aremade through CafePress which is a widely known custom logopromotional materials company and their site features secureshopping.
Buy your CUCUG merchandise now so you can show it off at May'smeeting on the 16th!
Apple has released Mac OS X 10.1.4, a 2.2 MB update available via Mac OSX's Software Update. The new software adds support for Fast 10 SCSI drivesand disc recorders from SmartDisk, EZQuest, and LaCie. On the networkingfront, a potential delay has been removed when using dial-up PPPconnections, performance of Sherlock file searching on local and remotevolumes has been improved, and networks with 3Com routers can browse AppleFiling Protocol (AFP) services. Finally, network security has improved:BSD-based TCP/IP connections check and block broadcast or multicast IPdestination addresses, thus avoiding a potentially serious security hole.An AppleCare Knowledge Base document published shortly after the update'srelease goes into a little more detail than the description of the updatein Software Update. [JLC]
http://www.apple.com/macosx/
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=35022
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106859
Adobe announced that Photoshop 7 is now shipping for both Mac OS 9 and MacOS X. Like a top- billed band arriving late to their gig, Photoshop 7 isperhaps the most anticipated Mac OS X software upgrade. Fortunately, itoffers more than just Mac OS X compatibility: a new Healing Brush toolmakes repairing damaged photographs vastly easier than previous versions; aFile Browser provides a method of tracking and navigating images; newpainting tools provide better brush and pen strokes; and there's even aspelling checker to help locate the typos that invariably show up duringprojects (like spelling the band's name wrong on the tour t-shirts).Photoshop 7 costs $600, or $150 if you're upgrading from a previousversion. The program requires Mac OS 9.1, 9.2.1, or Mac OS X 10.1, 128 MBof RAM, and at least 120 MB of hard disk space; of course, with Photoshopyou're advised to max out all of the preceding minimum requirements to thebest of your budget and ability. [JLC]
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/
No doubt about it: iMacs rake in the dough. Apple announced a $40 millionprofit for its second fiscal quarter of 2002, coming in slightly higherthan analysts's expectations following component shortages which impededthe roll-out of the new flat-screen iMac. Apple had $1.5 billion in revenueon gross margins of 27 percent; international sales accounted for 45percent of the company's revenue.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/apr/17earnings.html
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06682
Apple shipped 220,000 iMacs during its second quarter, contributing to atotal of 813,000 Macs shipped, up 8 percent from the same quarter a yearago. Apple didn't call out sales of portable systems or the iPod, but didnote it has $4.3 billion in cash on hand and plans to open an additional 20Apple retail stores by the end of the calendar year. [GD]
Microsoft has released security patches to address two securityvulnerabilities affecting Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and Officeapplications for both the "Classic" Mac OS (Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9) and MacOS X. Microsoft is urging all users of these programs to download and applythe patches at once.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/security_bulletins/ms02019_mac.asp
Vulnerable software includes:
The first security vulnerability could make it possible for malicious HTMLcode in a Web page, HTML email message, or Office document to exploit abuffer overflow; theoretically, an attacker could exploit this bufferoverflow to perform such tasks on your computer as deleting or changingfiles, or installing and running software without your permission. (UnderMac OS X, the attacker would have the same privileges as the current user,which could limit the vulnerability.) In the case of Office documents (Wordfiles, Excel spreadsheets, or PowerPoint presentations), the user wouldhave to open the malicious document to be exposed; both Microsoft andcommon sense both say you should never open files from unknown sources.
The second vulnerability affects only Internet Explorer 5.1 under Mac OS 8or Mac OS 9. It could make it possible for an attacker to run an existingAppleScript script on your computer, but only if the script's name andcomplete path were known. (The attacker cannot install a script; it mustalready be available.) The most common "well-known" scripts are those inthe Speakable Items folder; they perform tasks like quitting applications,restarting the computer, emptying the Trash, and more.
The patches for Microsoft Office 2001 (263 K), Office X (1.8 MB), andOutlook Express (new version 5.0.4; 8.6 MB), and patches for Mac OS 8 andOS 9 users of Internet Explorer (new version 5.1.4; 5.4 MB), are availablefor download from Microsoft's Macintosh download site. Mac OS X usersshould apply the patch to Internet Explorer for Mac OS X via the SoftwareUpdate feature of Mac OS X, available via System Preferences. Mac OS Xusers must still manually download and apply the patches for Office orother applications.
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/DOWNLOAD/OFFICE2001/URLSecurity.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/DOWNLOAD/OFFICEX/CombUpd1003.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/DOWNLOAD/OE/oe504.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/DOWNLOAD/IE/ie51.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/download/
Microsoft says versions of Internet Explorer prior to 5.1, of OutlookExpress prior to 5.0.1, and of Office prior to Office 98 are no longersupported, have _not_ been tested, and may or may not be subject to thesevulnerabilities.
The current security patches, when applied, also patch all previously notedvulnerabilities in these versions of the Microsoft applications.
Microsoft is offering free user support by phone to U.S. and Canadiancallers at 866/727-2338. International users should contact their localsubsidiary for information about obtaining free support for downloading andinstalling these patches.
http://www.microsoft.com/worldwide/
A scant four months after announcing the death of the CRT in favor offlat-panel LCD displays, Apple today introduced the eMac, an all-in-oneG4-based Macintosh strictly for the education market - and to keep costsdown, the eMac is built around a 17-inch CRT display supporting resolutionsup to 1,280 by 960 pixels.
http://www.apple.com/education/emac/
On the outside, the all-white eMac looks much like the original iMac, andits roughly similar footprint means it will fit on existing furniture,despite having a larger screen. Under the hood, the eMac offers a 700 MHzPowerPC G4 processor, 128 MB of RAM, a 40 GB hard disk, an Nvidia GeForce2MX graphics processor with 32 MB of video memory, 10/100Base-T Ethernet,three USB ports (plus two more on the keyboard), two FireWire ports, aheadphone jack and a built-in microphone along with an audio input jack,optional AirPort support, and a mini-VGA port for video mirroring. Twoconfigurations are available: the $1,000 eMac offers a 32x CD-ROM drive(for schools preferring non-recordable Macs in labs and classrooms), and a$1,200 edition includes a DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo drive and a 56 Kbps modem.Apple also offers a nifty tilt and swivel stand for the eMac.
The eMac will be available in May to the U.S. and Canadian educationmarket, which wanted a display larger than 1,024 by 768 pixels and has beenunderwhelmed by the price tag of Apple's new flat-screen iMac. The eMacfits that bill, and its introduction is well-timed: right now, schools areplanning budgets and purchases for the next academic year. In the past,Apple has often missed the boat with product announcements or price dropsin July or August. The eMac seems like a good idea: it may not greatlybolster Apple's bottom line, but it could help increase Apple's share ofthe education market.
TiBooks to 800 MHz
Apple has also revised the high-end Titanium PowerBook G4 line. The mostvisible change is the screen: it still measures 15.2 inches but now offersa resolution of 1,280 by 854 pixels, up from the 1,152 by 768 pixels of itspredecessors - a 25 percent pixel increase. An ATI Mobility Radeon 7500processor with 32 MB video memory drives the display.
The new machines sport processors up to 800 MHz with 1 MB of L3 processorcache, Gigabit Ethernet, and a DVI video connector for connecting todigital displays. (A DVI to VGA adapter is included; Apple also introduceda $150 DVI to ADC adapter to connect Apple's own digital displays.) The newPowerBooks are available immediately starting at $2,500, with processorspeeds of 667 MHz and 800 MHz, 256 to 512 MB RAM, a slot-loadingDVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, 30 to 60 GB hard disks, and optional AirPort support.Pricing is higher than the previous low-end of the Titanium line, butcheaper than the previous 667 MHz model.
http://www.apple.com/powerbook/
The chipmaker will announce three new Pentium 4 chips for desktopPCs, along with a new version of its 850 chipset. The new chipset offersa faster 533MHz bus and supports a speedier version of Rambusmemory, 1066MHz RDRAM, sources said.
Intel's new flagship Pentium 4 will be a 2.53GHz chip. The other newPentium 4's will run at 2.26GHz and 2.4GHz. All work with the faster bus.
The added clock speed, faster bus and new RDRAM could translate intoan overall performance boost of roughly 10 percent to 15 percent overcurrent high-end desktop PCs, some sources have said. The busprovides a data pathway between the processor and memory.Maintaining a proper ratio between the bus speed and the clock speedof the processor is an important element for preserving performance asprocessors get quicker.
Boosting the bus will make room for faster Pentium 4's. But it also helpsIntel up the ante in its desktop performance race with rival AdvancedMicro Devices. AMD and Intel have been trading blows on the desktopsince the introduction of the Athlon in late 1999. The latest move maygive Intel the upper hand for a while.
However, AMD has several tricks up its sleeve, including Thoroughbred,a new processor that will bring higher clock speeds later in the year. Inearly 2003, PC makers will also begin shipping systems based onClawHammer, a new chip that AMD says will begin at 2GHz speeds.
Currently, AMD's fastest desktop chip is the 1.73GHz Athlon XP 2100+.Despite the difference in clock speed, the Athlon chip offers competitiveperformance to the 2.4GHz Pentium 4, reviewers have said.
While Intel may pull away with the 2.53GHz and its associatedperformance enhancements, AMD won't be far behind with itsforthcoming 1.8GHz Athlon XP, the model number of which has yet to beannounced.
Intel introduced the 2.4GHz Pentium 4 in April, but the transition to afaster bus is somewhat forward-looking. Intel has said, for example, thatthe Pentium 4 will reach 3GHz in the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, raising the bus speed helps Intel make room for newCeleron chips based on Netburst, the processor architecture debutedwith the Pentium 4. Forthcoming Celerons can jump from their current133MHz bus to the 400MHz bus used by the current Pentium 4 platform,sources have said, and sport much higher clock speeds than currentCelerons.
With the 2.53GHz Pentium 4 announcement Monday, a cadre of PCmakers will also announce new high-end desktops.
Compaq (news - web sites) Computer, Dell Computer, Gateway andothers are expected to offer the new Pentium 4's in their performancePC lines.
New high-end machines, fitted with the 2.53GHz chip, the 533MHz bus,large allotments of 1066MHz RDRAM and 80GB or so hard drives areexpected to start around $2,200 to $2,300. The machines will beavailable for order Monday.
Intel declined to comment on unannounced products.
[A quick refresher in the Microsoft antitrust case. Judge Thomas PenfieldJackson found that Microsoft was indeed a monopoly and ordered the companybroken up. Microsoft appealed, the District of Columbia Circuit Court ofAppeals reversed the breakup order, and, after the Bush administration tookover, the Justice Department dropped its efforts to break up Microsoft. Ofthe states involved in the case, nine plus the District of Columbia brokeranks with the Justice Department in the remedy phase and are seekingharsher terms than those proposed by the Justice Department and the nineremaining states. -Adam]
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1152
http://news.com.com/2104-1001-891286.html
Bill Gates took the stand last week in the Microsoft antitrust remedyhearings, and from most accounts, acquitted himself well, far better thanin his previous videotaped depositions. Joe Wilcox of CNet News said Gates"redeemed himself as a witness." The Washington Post described Gates'sdepositions in the earlier trial as "embarrassing" but said this time, "awell-prepared Gates provided a human face and a modicum of deference," andthat he was a "controlled, polite, and more mature chairman" who "displayedencyclopaedic knowledge" of the proposed remedy. Other reports describedGates as calm, thorough, and professional. (If you haven't yet seen fullreports of Gates's testimony, read the links below.)
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-888889.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-892447.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31247-2002Apr22.html
Despite these positive reports, the technical community immediatelyinsisted he was lying when he said that Microsoft could not removecomponents of Windows such as Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player.In the Eastside Journal of the Seattle area where Microsoft is based,writer Cydney Gillis reported on people skeptical of Gates's claim,including Dave Winer. At UserLand, Winer ran a survey on the topic, and outof 413 votes expressing an opinion, only 1 percent say Gates was tellingthe whole truth. 64 percent say he's lying and 30 percent say he'smisleading by saying code couldn't be removed from the _current_ Windowswithout breaking it.
http://www.eastsidejournal.com/sited/story/html/89976
http://www.userland.com/surveys/results/dave@userland.com/isGatesLying
The reporters present in the courtroom say Gates did well, and hundreds ofpeople who weren't there think he's lying. Some of that's gratuitousMicrosoft bashing, no doubt, but most complaints are technical. People donot understand how something that was a separate program now can't beseparate again. Since the court will decide the question, it's worthexploring.
Background Concepts
Let's try to take the issue in Mac OS 9 terms for clarity. Many keycomponents of Mac OS 9 are implemented as extensions - AppleScript,QuickTime, Disc Burner, and even USB and FireWire support. Reboot withoutthese extensions, and you get a version of Mac OS 9 without theircapabilities. Any program that requires one of these components, however,will not run without them - QuickTime Player won't run without QuickTime,DragThing won't run without AppleScript, and no Carbon application runsunless CarbonLib is present.
Yet these programs do not crash, they simply don't function as you expect.That's because Apple has, for about fifty years, warned developers to makesure a component is available _before_ calling it. Programs that callcomponents that aren't installed crash hard. Checking before calling acomponent is roughly equivalent to making sure your car has come to acomplete stop before getting out.
Back to Windows. The states that don't want to settle with Microsoft saythat since programs like Internet Explorer, MovieMaker, Windows MediaPlayer, and MSN Messenger were previously stand-alone programs, they canstand alone again. Any integration into the operating system should be likean extension, so programmers can use them only if present, and so othercompanies can replace them with their own versions. Microsoft says that'stechnically impossible.
Obviously it is possible, since Windows programs have had to work with orwithout those components in the past. Now however, many programs, includingsome in Windows, do not work properly in the absence of those componentsbecause their presence is assumed. If a necessary component were to beremoved today, those programs would break, just like Gates says. That's notwhat the states have in mind, but that's the way he's spinning it.
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/gates.testimony.042202.pdf
Gates's testimony says that to meet the states' requirement that Microsoftremove components from Windows while maintaining the capabilities ofWindows APIs, the company would have to leave the binary code for all thosecomponents in Windows after all. If you take out Internet Explorer and itsHTML rendering engine, Windows stops displaying all HTML, including helptext. Windows doesn't duplicate Internet Explorer's HTML rendering in othercode - take out Internet Explorer, and HTML goes with it.
Microsoft chose a similar approach during the trial in 1998, breakingWindows by ripping out every piece of code Internet Explorer used ratherthan repackaging it as a replaceable module. Microsoft feared, then as now,that proving it can modularize software would mean a court would eventuallyrequire modularized versions of Windows, in turn forcing Microsoft to giveup the control over which programs stay installed in Windows. The statessay Microsoft shouldn't be able to do that anyway, and Microsoft is pullingout all the stops to make sure it can.
http://davenet.userland.com/2001/08/13/excerptFromBreakingWindows
Weasel Words
So how can Microsoft say modularity is impossible under the states'proposed remedy? The weaseling is in the word "middleware," used in theremedy to identify the components that would have be modular. Microsoft andGates say the word is so poorly defined it could refer to _any_ API - thatis, any routine at all in Windows. It's as if Apple not only had to makeQuickTime a separate extension, but also make every routine _within_QuickTime a separate extension that could be removed or replaced at will.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-891286.html
That approach would never work - programmers can test for components beforeusing them, but not for every single API. It would lead to chaos and massconfusion, exactly the effects Gates describes. By hammering on the detailsand dogmatically sticking to the worst possible interpretation of theproposal, Microsoft is trying to make sure only Microsoft decides what isand is not part of Windows, the company's position since 1995. And it'struthful, too: Gates says the proposed remedy can be read this way, and ifit can, Microsoft may have to implement it this way.
Actually, he's signalling the court that Microsoft will read it this way,ripping out sections of "middleware" under court order even though otherparts of Windows might need the APIs they provide. Such versions wouldnever wind up on store shelves, but if a PC maker purchases more than10,000 Windows licenses and demands that Internet Explorer be removed,Microsoft would rip it out, breaking any program that needs HTML rendering.Such a modified Windows might not even boot.
The new remedy would also require that any "modular" versions run "withoutperformance degradation" over the full version. Microsoft says itabsolutely cannot do that. Adding checks to see if HTML rendering ispresent adds more instructions to a program and therefore degrades itsperformance. Hence Gates's assertion of impossibility: if you removesomething, the resulting operating system either doesn't function right oris slower than the full version. It's an extreme reading, but it's withinthe language of the remedy.
Given the choice between stripping features out of Windows to the pointwhere it might not even boot (thus undoubtedly provoking complaints andlegal challenges from affected PC makers), or being accused of degradingperformance by adding checks for missing components, Gates indirectlycautioned the court that Microsoft would pick the former. With the Districtof Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals's past track record of supportingMicrosoft in designing its products, the likelihood of a punitiveinjunction against the company for not obeying any remedy is small. Also,as the Washington Post reports, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly is sustainingalmost every Microsoft objection, and allowing Microsoft to makepresentations to the court when the states were barred from similarpresentations despite numerous pleas. Don't count on the courts spankingMicrosoft for hyper-literalism.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35100-2002Apr23.html
Back to the original question. Was Gates lying? No. He testified that adecree will cause some behavior in the future and that it's "impossible" tomake it work the way the states want. It's legal posturing, certainly, butas Microsoft Chairman, he can make sure his testimony comes true.
The states can either admit that Microsoft will sabotage their proposal orcome back to the court with one so tightly worded that Microsoft cannotread it in any way other than the way it's intended, a difficult if notimpossible task. Last Tuesday's testimony confirmed this, as the states'sattorney portrayed Gates as deliberately adopting the most extremeinterpretations, unsuccessfully attempting to get Gates to provide moreacceptable language on the stand.
In short, Gates's testimony was consistent with everything he has said anddone for his company since this mess started - promising the world that anyrestriction on Windows that Microsoft didn't like would result in a versionof Windows the world wouldn't like. It's not an empty threat.
[Matt Deatherage is the publisher of MacJournals.com, where he oversees MDJand MWJ - daily and weekly subscription-based, ad- free journals forserious Macintosh users. For a free trial, visit MacJournals.com.]
2:00 a.m. April 19, 2002 PDT
They're here, they're slow, get used to it. At least for now.
One of Apple's top goals for its new flat-panel iMacs is to get homeconsumers to switch from Windows PCs.
But some who rushed to order the attractive new computer sight unseen saythey have been disappointed: For Web browsing -- still the biggest time useof home computers after e-mail -- the new iMacs are notably slower than aPC. Yep, even an older, cheaper one.
Tests conducted by Wired News confirmed reader complaints that a new 800MHz iMac takes an average of twice as long to render Web pages as acomparable or cheaper PC running Windows XP. Even on broadband networks,the iMac's default Internet Explorer browser took an average of 10 secondsper page to render several popular sites, including CNN.com and the AppleStore homepage.
Slashdot discussion pages and some weblog sites took even longer, despitetheir lack of fat graphics. The diagnosis: The problem is not a bandwidthissue caused by fat HTML, but an annoying delay in actually drawing the pageonscreen after its components have been downloaded.
"I spent $1,800 on a computer that's slower than the $400 eMachine itreplaced," one iMac user wrote in an e-mail
Several correspondents asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation byMac zealots, who have been known to e-mail 1,000 or more harangues to thework addresses of those who criticize the huggable device.
But, still: "I'm sick of looking at that little wheel spin," another griped,referring to the circular hourglass cursor that appears while the Macprocesses a Web page.
Tests on other Apple platforms showed a similar performance gap between a$1,500 Dell notebook and a freshly unboxed, $3,000 PowerBook G4.
Switching browsers -- even to the latest version of Opera, the self-styled"world's fastest browser" -- indicated that Mac versions of most browsersare conspicuously slower than their Windows counterparts.
The culprit, it turns out, isn't the new iMac's hardware, but its operatingsystem, which Apple focused on getting to market first and bringing up tospeed later. In order to let OS X support as many existing softwareapplications as possible, "Apple supported a number of legacy technologiesdesigned to ease their transition to the new operating system," saidNathalie Welch, the company's public relations manager for hardware.
As a result, Welch said, "We are merely at the beginning of the performanceopportunities in Mac OS X."
Jason Hazlett, a Mac developer for Opera, said performance problems aresomething application developers have to live with at this stage. "To getany application running on OS X is one thing, but getting it to run well isanother," he said. "The most important thing to do is to use the OS X nativeevent model. I cannot speak for Internet Explorer, but the Opera beta youare running does not (run the event model). This goes a long way inexplaining what you are observing."
Hazlett said that early test versions of Opera's future 6.0 release, whichuses OS X native events, are already faster than their predecessors on MacOS9.2, the previous generation Macintosh operating system still booted byskeptics and late adopters.
Jimmy Grewal, Microsoft's program manager for the Mac version of InternetExplorer, agreed that the problem lies with OS X, not the browser. Inparticular, he said hardware graphics acceleration was largely missing fromOS X at this stage in its development. "The effort of drawing something tothe screen (on Windows) can be offloaded to a graphics card, but in OS X theCPU is heavily involved," he said.
Grewal defended Apple's strategy of releasing a slow version of OS X nowrather than a faster one later. "That was a conscious decision Apple made,"he said. "They optimized for user experience rather than raw performance."
The goal, he said, was to update the Mac's look and feel to the new Aquainterface, while avoiding onscreen glitches and user interfaceinconsistencies that a hasty excursion into hardware acceleration might havebrought. "We think our users wouldn't trade that performance difference forthe experience," he said.
And, at least in Wired News tests, OS X didn't mimic 9.2's habit of lockingup completely, requiring the Mac's power cord and/or battery to be removedin order to reboot it -Ð hardly a satisfying user experience.
Apple declined to specify a date or time period when faster browsers or OS Xperformance enhancements would be available, but Grewal speculated it couldtake more than a few months. "I think this time next year or in 18 months,Apple will have time to focus on not just porting (i.e., translatingsoftware from OS 9 to OS X), but on how they can make the performancebetter," he said.
In the meantime, at least some owners of the new iMac agree the experienceis worth the wait.
J.D. Falk, a 10-year Unix administrator, replaced his home PC with one ofthe first flat-panel iMacs to leave the warehouse. Falk shrugged offperformance problems even after a demo. "I've wanted a Mac for a long time."
Scientists at Bell Labs, the research and development arm of LucentTechnologies, have found a way to peer deep inside a semiconductor andcreate an image of a single impurity atom in silicon, a development thatwill help scientists understand how impurities affect the properties ofmicrochips.
This understanding of semiconductors at the atomic level is critical indevising manufacturing technologies needed to shrink the size of futuregenerations of high-speed electronics, such as microprocessors, in a bid tokeep Moore's Law on track.
Moore's Law, observed by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965, posits thatthe number of transistors on a semiconductor doubles roughly every 18 monthswith a 50 percent reduction in area.
This is the first time that an individual impurity has been pictured in itsundisturbed state within a crystal and was achieved using a special electronmicroscope, Bell Labs said, adding that such a feat is as difficult asseeing a footprint on the surface of the moon.
The research is described in an article published Thursday in the journalNature.
The results "are important in understanding the distribution of impuritiesin silicon at an atomic level," wrote Paul Peercy, a professor and dean ofengineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "They will also beimportant in increasing our understanding of a wide range of complexmaterials."
As chips get ever smaller, it's now important both to image and understandthe chemical and physical environment within devices, because thoseproperties will ultimately determine to what lengths engineers will be ableto shrink the sizes of transistors and interconnections among them insemiconductors, said Elsa Reichmanis, director of the materials researchdepartment at Bell Labs.
Impurities--or "dopants" as they are known--are purposefully introduced intosilicon to provide charge carriers that control a chip's electricalproperties. But as chip components continue to shrink in accordance withMoore's Law, the industry is reaching a point where just a few atoms ofimpurities could determine the function of a particular device, Bell Labssaid.
The Bell Labs technique, which uses scanning transmission electronmicroscopy, enables scientists to view the individual dopants and clustersas they exist within actual devices, and will provide scientists with anunderstanding of how these impurity atoms function within real devices, BellLabs said.
Previous techniques had not been able to look inside crystal.
"Now we can look at things hidden inside a solid, in their naturalenvironment," said David Muller, a Bell Labs physicist. "It's asqualitatively different as seeing how an animal behaves in a zoo and how itbehaves in its natural habitat."
The Bell Labs technique is extremely sensitive and can be applied to almostany material, not just semiconductors, Bell Labs said.
Other members of the research team were Paul Voyles, John Grazul and PaulCitrin of Bell Labs, and Hans Gossmann of Agere Systems.
Norton's Disk Doctor once included an app that allowed you to recover deletedfiles provided the file system had not rewrote over the data already. At somepoint, they must have dropped that capability and opted for another method thatrequires you to be running some sort of background process as the file is beingdeleted that puts it in their 'protected recycle bin'.
This works okay, but what if you come across a machine that isn't using thisapplication?
Brian Kato's 'Restoration' to the rescue. Restoration has a nice GUI and willsearch for deleted files on your local drive(s) and in many cases allow you torestore them provided the file system has not already overwritten theinformation.
Restoration is a freeware tool and works with all modern flavors of Windows.Download it here: http://hccweb1.bai.ne.jp/~hcj58401/
Powertoys for Windows XP have been rereleased. Go here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp
The 'toys' are all now separate files, so you can just download theones you want. It appears they all come with installers so installationshould be easy going. You must uninstall your old Powertoys first,though.
If you don't know what Powertoys are, go check them out. This is acollection of applications for Windows XP that provide helpfulfeatures and extends the capabilities of the OS. One Powertoy inparticular you should consider is TweakUI which provides dozens ofhelpful tweaks and control over the settings of Windows XP.
Thanks to CUCUG President Lewis for the heads-up on this.
For those who like an analog bandwidth gauge...
http://promos.mcafee.com/speedometer/test_0150.asp
Have you ever wanted to check your mail on those AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, Juno,etc. accounts without having to fire up the web browser (or Outlook Express)and endure all that html SPAM, security holes and just plain sluggishmessage retrieval ?!?!?
Well here ya go, Bucky!! ePrompter to the rescue!!
This program came to my attention from The Screen Savers program on TechTV(via my DirecTV satellite service). It's a small *freeware* app that canhandle up to 16 of those free spam email accounts for you (and/or POP3, ifyou like) and deliver the messages to your desktop in plain, pure ASCII.You can set the interval for checking the mail, read, reply, forward etc.from within ePrompter.
I've attached some screenshots as visual aids :^)
Normally, the program lives in the System Tray (see ePrompter_2.jpg) quietlyretrieving your email. The colored dots rotate among the accounts with mailwaiting at an adjustable interval (see ePrompter_4.jpg for update display).ePrompter_3.jpg is the program's display in the tray if you have nothing newto read yet. ePrompter_5.jpg shows you have some mail waiting to be read.
In ePrompter.jpg you see the main interface. Each icon represents an emailaccount, color-coded with the number of new messages in the dot. Justdouble-click on one of the boxes to read you mail. Right-click to bring upthe other choices (like get new mail, compose, etc.).
The program also has a screensaver that shows larger versions of all theaccount boxes for you. A little gimmicky, but all in fun. On minus side isthe lack of support for file attachments. The authors state that this willbe addressed in a future version. Also ePrompter's best feature could beconsidered a negative; namely the lack of HTML support. But then itwouldn't be near as fast and fun to use, would it? :^)
To sum up, this is a great little solution for reading your average freeemail account(s) in a fast and convenient manner. This is particularlyappealing for Yahoo users, as POP3 forwarding service on their free accountswas *discontinued* in April, 2002.
Jim Lewis
President,
Corporate Agent,
WinSig Chairman
CUCUG, Inc.
Email: lewisj@pdnt.com
www.cucug.org
Red Hat Linux 7.3 is here!
Red Hat means business with its latest releaseof Linux, version 7.3. It offers several new features aimed specificallyat small businesses and educators, including the Apache 1.3 Web server,GNOME videoconferencing software, MrProjects project management software,and PostgreSQL database management. It also offers Web and telephoneaccess to Linux experts as well as to Red Hat's automated service formanaging Linux systems. Version 7.3 will be available May 15, thoughthe company started taking orders on Monday. The small-business versionsells for $199.95, while a consumer version costs $59.95.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-899607.html
OpenOffice.org Team Releases Version 1.0
Posted by timothy on Wednesday May 01, @08:32AM
from the hey-641-still-works-great dept.
DenialS writes: "Congratulations to the OpenOffice.org team! Version 1.0of the open office suite has been released. I'm downloading it now; I'vehad good luck with the previous stable builds. Release notes haven't beenposted yet, so I can't say what the major differences are between 1.0 andthe previous stable build, 641d, but I'm looking forward to finding out!"
http://slashdot.org/articles/02/05/01/1232239.shtml?tid=162
Codeweavers runs Office without Windows
Posted March 29, 2002 10:23 Pacific Time
Hoping to break down one the biggest barriers to acceptance of Linux on thedesktop, Codeweavers unveiled software that allows corporate users to runMicrosoft Office and Lotus Notes without a Windows operating system.
The product, called CrossOver Office, eliminates the need for a Windowsoperating systems license as well as a Windows emulator which,traditionally, have tended to weigh down the speed and performance ofdesktop applications.
For the full story:
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/03/29/020329hncodeweavers.xml?0401mnam
Big Blue thinks small -- and medium
(Source: InfoWorld)
By Ed Scannell
May 9, 2002 5:47 am PT
HAVING CATERED TO developers and business partners focused oncorporate accounts with several product announcements Wednesday at itsdeveloperWorks Live conference, IBM on Thursday turned its attentionto the other end of the market with a new program and product bundlesaimed at small and medium-size business (SMB) accounts.
IBM announced that its eServer Integrated Platform for e-Business, tobe delivered and supported through the company's business partners, isintended to help smaller companies quickly build and implement Linux-basedsolutions around SuSE's version of the open-source operating system.
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/05/09/020509hnibmsmb.xml?0509thap
Caldera announces support for other Linux versions
(Source: Computerworld)
Linux users will now have more choices for service and support as Calderaannounces broad support for other brands of Linux, including distributionsfrom Red Hat, SuSE and MandrakeSoft.
http://www.idg.net/go.cgi?id=677180
HP wins contract for Linux supercomputers
By David Becker
Special to ZDNet News
April 17, 2002, 4:45 AM PT
Hewlett-Packard announced a high-profile contract Tuesday to build a Linux-powered supercomputer for the U.S. Department of Energy.
The $24.5 million supercomputer will be capable of processing 8.3 trillioncalculations per second (8.3 teraflops), according to HP. That would placethe system among the current top 10 of the world's fastest supercomputers,if it were operating today.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-884584.html
At the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) today, Apple CEO Steve Jobspreviewed the next major release of Mac OS X, codenamed "Jaguar," due forrelease in "late summer," which we would interpret to mean the end ofAugust. Along with a number of Mac-only features that we'll cover below,Jaguar will build in the latest versions of the Unix operating system andtools that lie under Mac OS X. Some of those tools, such as the GCC 3compiler, could help developers provide improved performance, and others,like the next generation Internet protocols IPv6 and IPSec, will help MacOS X be a first-class Internet citizen. Those changes, though welcome, areunlikely to affect users as much as the higher profile improvements Jobsoutlined. One caveat - we're not developers and Apple didn't provide awebcast of the keynote, so we've had to piece details together from avariety of sources. More details will undoubtedly become known as WWDCcontinues.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/newversion/
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/may/06jaguar.html
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0205/06.wwdckeynote.php
iChat
Adding to Apple's iApp stable, Jobs announced that instant messagingsoftware called iChat would be built into Jaguar. iChat will be compatiblewith AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), marking the first time AOL has allowedany company to work with AIM. That hasn't stopped a variety of companiesfrom reverse- engineering AIM support, and with Mac OS X users added toAIM's 150 million user party, AIM compatibility will become even moreattractive. You won't need an AOL or AIM account to use iChat - it willwork with your iTools username and will reportedly also let you createbuddy lists of local network users as well. Apple plans to integrate iChatwith the enhanced Mail and Address Book so you can see the online status ofpeople in your buddy list and turn email exchanges into real time chats.iChat's interface is simple - it uses "dialogue bubbles" to present instantmessages in a "graphically conversational manner." And you thought balloonhelp was dead.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/may/06ichat.html
As much as we're not fans of instant messaging, iChat will probably be ahit by virtue of being bundled with Mac OS X. Chat applications haven'tevolved much from their inception years ago, so we're hoping that iChatdoes more than offer a pretty Aqua interface. Our wish list? Anauto-correct option that ensures words are spelled correctly coupled withan auto- expansion function that turns the common abbreviations like"cul8r" into the actual words of "See you later." So what if we'reold-fashioned?
Apple's bundled Mail client has thus far failed to measure up to anywell-known email clients. Judging from the WWDC keynote, though, the nextversion of Mail will provide more competition via filters with multiplecriteria, automatic saving of message drafts when you quit, better handlingof multiple accounts, searching across mailboxes, color highlighting,security features, support for virtual private networks, and support forQuickTime.
Most interesting, though, is the promise of a spam filter that works on thesemantic content of spam. Apple must be extremely careful in how Mailidentifies spam, since false positives could prove highly damaging to thebusiness reputations of companies whose legitimate mail was incorrectlyidentified. We had significant problems with Outlook Express's Junk MailFilter marking TidBITS as spam when it first shipped - despite the factthat TidBITS has always been an opt-in mailing list, a number of readersreported us as spammers based solely on Outlook Express's say-so. If thatjudgement were to come from Apple's default email client, especially giventhat it will be used heavily by novices, it could be utterly disastrous tocompanies like us that rely on email communications.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05647
Address Book
Backing up iChat and Mail is a new Address Book. The main change to AddressBook is that any application can now access its system-wide database ofcontact information. It supports vCards and reportedly will also offer LDAP(Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) searching. Plus, it's tied intoApple's forthcoming Bluetooth support, so you can exchange vCards with PDAsand cell phones. It's unclear if other applications will be able to useAddress Book to work with databases containing other sorts of information;also unclear is if the database engine underlying Address Book offerssufficient performance and robustness to be used in such a way. We've beenagitating for a system-level database since 1996 (see "The DatabaseReturns" in TidBITS-341_); it would be nice to see Apple finally providesuch a service.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=00906
Finder Improvements
Fans of Mac OS 9's spring-loaded folders will be happy to see the featurereturn to Mac OS X, enabling you to click and hold on a folder to view itscontents and drill down into other nested folders. Also new in Finderwindows is instant searching via a Toolbar Search field into which you canenter file names or text in a document; the results are displayed in theFinder window. It promises to be much better than today's glacial searchesvia Sherlock.
The Finder will also receive performance boosts from multi- threading andfrom Quartz Extreme, an enhanced version of the Quartz rendering enginethat's responsible for drawing graphics. Quartz Extreme offloads graphicsprocessing to a supported video card, freeing up the Mac's mainprocessor(s) for application- specific tasks. Graphics-intensive programslike 3D games and video utilities will see performance improvements, aswill the drawing of Finder interface elements such as drop shadows andtransparent windows. However, the key phrase here is "supported videocard," which includes the Nvidia GeForce2 MX, GeForce3, GeForce4 Ti,GeForce4, or GeForce4 MX, as well as any ATI AGP Radeon card - andpreferably cards with at least 32 MB of VRAM. So, essentially, only thenewest Macs (other than the iBook) will be able to take advantage of QuartzExtreme, no doubt an effort by Apple to stimulate hardware sales whenJaguar is released.
Sherlock 3
Although we primarily use Sherlock to find files, Apple has always pushedit as a way to find Internet information such as news headlines or phonenumbers. Those features have never impressed us, in part because Sherlockhas always been a jumping-off point, displaying results that load into aWeb browser when clicked. Sherlock 3, however, will be able to displayproperly formatted results in its own window, turning Apple's online sleuthinto what looks like a clone of Karelia's excellent Watson, although Watsonoffers more tools than appear in Apple's screenshot of Sherlock 3.
http://www.karelia.com/watson/?src=_tb
Handwriting Recognition
One of the more intriguing announcements was support for handwritingrecognition, referred to as Ink on Apple's Web site. Reports from theconference claimed that handwriting is recognized by any application thataccepts text, including Unix programs such as Terminal. However, Apple'sJaguar page notes that Ink works in Mail and TextEdit, with an additionalprogram called InkPad used to copy and paste written text into programsthat don't support Ink. An input tablet is reportedly necessary, though wesuppose a finger on a PowerBook or iBook trackpad might work as well.
Ink will no doubt ignite a new round of speculation about a Mac OS-basedhandheld device, which we'll believe when we see it. In the meantime,adding this type of low-level support provides developers with analternative to keyboard-based input. We can imagine graphics programssupporting Ink for adding text to illustrations, or educational programsrelying on it to help children learn to write. However, it's important toremember that handwriting recognition has never caught on with mostcomputer users, not to mention the fact that tablets remain uncommon inputdevices.
QuickTime 6
Apple's Jaguar preview also included QuickTime 6 and QuickTime Broadcaster.QuickTime remains one of Apple's key technologies, with QuickTime 5 for Macand Windows being downloaded a few million times each week. QuickTime 6will sport (yet another) new user interface and better performance ofstreaming media over limited-bandwidth connections. It will also enableusers to view MPEG-4 video. The MPEG-4 standard is a way to encode audioand video for use on digital devices or for transmission over the Internet;it was defined nearly four years ago and is itself partially based onQuickTime. Like QuickTime, MPEG-4 can scale to a variety of devices anddeliver content in limited bandwidth situations (like typical Internetstreaming applications today). MPEG-4 also targets high-end digitaltelevision and video markets, has features for creating interactiveapplications, and offers digital rights management features. MPEG-4 alsosupports Advanced Audio Coding (also known as AAC - a perceptual audioencoding method from Dolby Labs which offers better fidelity than MP3 audioin less bandwidth). With QuickTime Broadcaster (combined with QuickTimeStreaming Server), QuickTime 6 will probably make Jaguar the first platformthat can create, stream, and view MPEG-4 video.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/may/06quicktime.html
http://www.aac-audio.com/
A complete MPEG-4 solution is nice in theory, but it's currently mired inlicensing issues. The multimedia and video industry has cringed at alicensing proposal which includes a per-minute use fee (roughly $.02 perhour), along with fees for shipping MPEG-4 encoders and decoders. AlthoughApple has essentially completed development of QuickTime 6, it won't shipuntil licensing issues are worked out. Including QuickTime 6 in Jaguar mayindicate that Apple has confidence that MPEG-4 licensing issues can befinalized soon.
http://www.mpegla.com/
http://www.m4if.org/
Rendezvous
Jaguar will also include Rendezvous, a new technology from Apple intendedto ease administration and configuration of IP-based network services.Long-time Mac users fondly remember how easy it was to set up and configureAppleTalk networks: you plugged in the devices, turned them on, and theymagically all knew about each other. Rendezvous promises to bring the samefunctionality to IP-based networks, letting devices both discover servicesavailable on the network and advertise services they offer - and it's allsupposed to work over Ethernet, AirPort, Bluetooth, FireWire, and othernetworking technologies. An iBook with an AirPort card could automaticallyfind a printer connected to the iMac upstairs; a user could set up iTunesto serve as a music jukebox for an entire local network. Rendezvous isbased on a draft IETF standard called Zero Configuration Networking andshould be most useful in small networks where network administration islow-key or absent; let's hope Rendezvous doesn't expose any securitybugaboos.
http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/zeroconf-charter.html
Windows Compatibility
On the cross-platform front, Jaguar improves Mac OS X's connections toWindows-centric networks. No longer will you have to type URLs foraccessing a shared Windows folder via SMB - Jaguar includes SMB browsing.Plus, in news that probably isn't popular with the folks at Thursby Systemswho work on DAVE, Jaguar will also let Mac OS X share files with Windowsmachines (although Apple's press release didn't mention printer sharing).Finally, Jaguar will offer built-in PPTP (Point-to- Point TunnellingProtocol) security for virtual private network (VPN) uses.
http://www.thursby.com/products/dave.html
Universal Access
Mac users with disabilities have been pretty much locked out of Mac OS X sofar, with only Niemeijer Consult's KeyStrokes and Black Cat Software'sMouseki offering onscreen keyboards under Mac OS X. The release of Jaguarshould improve the situation significantly, since Jaguar will offer APIsthat let developers provide screen magnification via Quartz, out-loudreading of text under the cursor, access to everything via the keyboard,and visual notification of alerts. It's possible Apple will provide simpleuser-level utilities with Jaguar, but it's even more important to providethese system-level capabilities to the developers working on tools for Macusers with disabilities.
http://www.assistiveware.com/keystrokes.html
http://www.blackcat-software.com/mouseki.htm
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06773
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1189
Bated Breath
Jaguar promises a great deal, but with developers receiving a copy at WWDC,there's hope that we'll see not just the technology in a few months, butalso a wide variety of applications that take advantage of these newcapabilities to offer features never seen before. Apple will undoubtedlypreview Jaguar again at Macworld Expo in New York in July, although therethe demonstration should be aimed more at users than developers. Untilthen...
In the previous installment of this series on Mac OS X utilities, I lookedat Mac OS X programs that restored common capabilities provided by thirdparty utilities in Mac OS 9. I said then that I was ignoring a large subsetof that category, utilities that offer alternative control mechanisms.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06779
Even though utilities like DragThing, QuicKeys X, and TypeIt4Me X may notseem similar, a close look reveals that all offer alternative approaches tocompleting common tasks, ranging from opening files to entering textautomatically. Each utility's raison d'etre is that its alternative methodis either faster than the standard approach or fits better with the wayyour brain is wired. Because of the significant overlap among theseutilities, I'll start with launchers and work through to those that justinsert text.
DragThing
One of the best known of the alternative launchers is James Thomson'sDragThing, which has provided Dock- like functions for years. You cancreate multiple docks, add files or folders to those docks, assign hot keysto any item, and far more (including, oddly enough, the option to put theTrash back on the Desktop). DragThing offers significant customizability -colors, textures, hot spots, sounds to play, delays before various actionshappen, alias handling, and numerous other settings. The multitude ofoptions and settings probably defines DragThing's audience - if you lovetweaking your virtual environment, DragThing probably fits your tastes.DragThing costs $25 shareware (floating dock windows and hot key supportaren't enabled until you register); competitive upgrades from SemicolonSoftware's The Tilery launcher - which won't be moving to Mac OS X -Aladdin's DragStrip, and Power On Software's Action GoMac cost $19.DragThing 4.3 is a 1.3 MB download.
MaxMenus
Although DragThing uses screen real estate efficiently, for a lesscluttered look, check out Proteron's MaxMenus. Taking its cue from Power OnSoftware's Action Menus, the MaxMenus preference pane lets you createnumerous custom menus activated by clicking in the corners of the screen(MaxMenus supports two monitors), by clicking in unused space in the menubar, or by pressing a hot key. These menus can contain any file or folder,plus special items like text labels, separators, mounted volumes, openprograms, recent applications, recent documents, and System Preferences.The corner-based and hot-key-activated hierarchical menus can bespring-loaded, so dragging items into those menus copies or moves them; youcan also grab items out of a menu. If that's not enough, you can assign ahot key to any individual item while you're viewing it in a menu. Afterthinking about how I wanted to set up MaxMenus, I found it extremely useful- definitely a winner. My only negative so far is that it won't open filesor folders on shared volumes that aren't mounted. MaxMenus 1.1 costs $30; a30-day trial version is a 1.1 MB download. Through 05-May-02, owners ofPower On Software's Action Utilities can save $10 on MaxMenus with thecoupon code ACTN2MAX and their Action Utilities serial number.
http://www.proteron.com/maxmenus/
piPop
Where MaxMenus can overwhelm you with possibilities, piDog Software's piPop(previously called piDock) offers a more focused approach. Move your cursorto the edge of the screen, and piPop's hierarchical menu appears. Navigatethrough the menu, and click to open a selected item. You can also drag anitem from piPop's menu to move it, copy it, or open it in anotherapplication, and you can even tear off menus and leave them floating onscreen for repeated access. Although piPop doesn't attempt to be ascustomizable as MaxMenus, Control-clicking the piPop menu lets you setvarious options, such as which edge of the screen activates piPop, whethera modifier key should be required, and which folders are at piPop's toplevel. piPop is at version 2.0b2 as I write this, and although updates havebeen arriving regularly, it still has stability problems: it doesn't avoidthe Dock if both occupy the same edge of the screen, and I was unable tomake a feature that mimics Mac OS 9's spring-loaded folders in Mac OS Xwork reliably. Nonetheless, piPop is worth watching, even if you haven'tmoved to Mac OS X, since it works under Mac OS 9 as well. The suggestedregistration fee for piPop is $20 to eliminate startup nags; it's a 1 MBdownload.
Snard
Gideon Softworks' Snard creates a custom system-wide menu (a separate Dockversion provides almost the same capabilities and is available even whenyou're in Classic applications) into which you can put files and folders;applications can display recently accessed documents in a hierarchical menuas well. The menu can also serve up special items including a Find command,a Recent Servers menu, a System Preference menu, and an Open asAdministrator command. You can create and name text separators, and you cancreate your own hierarchical menus with groups. A different sort of group -worksets - lets you open a number of applications and documents with asingle click. Selecting an item is the only way to open it - Snard has nohot key support. I found Snard's configuration window flaky, and the onlyfeatures that distinguish it are its worksets and server list. Snard 1.0costs $10 and is a 1.6 MB download (1.1 MB for the Dock version).
http://www.gideonsoftworks.com/snard.html
LaunchBar
For ad hoc keyboard control of your Mac, look to Objective Development'sLaunchBar. At its heart, LaunchBar is deceptively simple - pressCommand-Spacebar to display LaunchBar's small pop-up window, type a fewletters of the filename you want to open, and press Return. The real powerof LaunchBar lies in its sophisticated matching algorithms. When I enteredEA, for example, LaunchBar matched it with EIMS Admin. Typing LP didn'tinitially select LetterRip Pro Administrator, but I was able to find it inthe list of possible matches. Since LaunchBar's algorithm is adaptive,every time I entered LP from then on, LetterRip Pro Administrator was thedefault match. For abbreviations unrelated to the file's name (matchingMAIL to Eudora, for instance), you can create manual aliases. Along withfiles, folders, and disks, LaunchBar can also open URLs (from yourbookmarks), create mail with email addresses (from your address book), andjump directly to preference panes inside System Preferences. Plus, you candrag files onto LaunchBar's pop-up window for launching with specificapplications or performing various file operations like moving, copying, ormaking a link (including aliases, absolute and relative symbolic links, andhard links). LaunchBar is simply brilliant, although there's still room forimprovement. I'd like it to send text selections to specific applications(such as a word to Omni Dictionary, or a URL to a Web browser); mountshared volumes automatically when needed; and learn to parse Eudora'snickname files properly for better display of email addresses. LaunchBarcosts $20 for non-commercial use or $40 for businesses; a trial versionthat works for seven launches is available as a 208K download.
http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/
Script Menu
Apple's Script Menu provides an alternative method of launchingAppleScript, Perl, and shell scripts from a system-wide menu.Interestingly, to install Script Menu, all you do is drag theScriptMenu.menu file to the menu bar; to remove it, Command-drag it off themenu bar. Script Menu automatically provides access to a number of scriptspre-installed with Mac OS X (some are useful, others are merely examples),and you can add your own in the Scripts folder inside your user's Libraryfolder. Like Snard, Script Menu is unavailable when you're in a Classicapplication, and it has no provision for hot keys. Nevertheless, ScriptMenu is free, and if you know AppleScript, you can probably make it mimicmany of the capabilities of the other utilities discussed here. Script Menuis a 284K download.
http://www.apple.com/applescript/macosx/script_menu/
Drop Drawers X
Fans of tabbed pop-up windows in Mac OS 9 should check out Sig Software'sDrop Drawers X, which lets you create custom "drawers" around the edges ofyour screen (all sides, and yes, Drop Drawers supports multiple monitors).Drop Drawers X features two types of drawers: process drawers, which showactive applications, and the more-common clip drawers, which can store fileand folder aliases, URLs, text snippets (with styles), pictures, movies,sounds, and more. Options for the location and appearance of drawers aremyriad, and you can open drawers by mousing over them, clicking them, orpressing a user- defined hot key. Once a drawer is open, you can drag itemsin (even onto application or folder icons), double-click items (for openingfiles), or drag items out to another application (as you might a piece ofboilerplate text). Any item can have a hot key attached to it, making itsimple to open a file or insert text (which happens via pasting). DropDrawers X is more manual than launchers like MaxMenus and piPop in that youmust set up every drawer in advance rather than have it builtautomatically. Simultaneously, the ease of adding content to a drawer meansthat Drop Drawers X is notably more fluid than programs like QuicKeys Xthat require a fair amount of effort to create a piece of boilerplate text.In short, if you find yourself reusing bits of content frequently or likethe process of arranging your virtual environment, you'll like Drop DrawersX. Like piPop, it works equally well on Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. Drop DrawersX 1.5.9 is a 393K download and costs $20 shareware.
http://www.sigsoftware.com/dropdrawers/
QuicKeys X
It might seem odd to include CE Software's long-standing macro utilityQuicKeys X here, but most people probably use QuicKeys primarily to openfiles and type bits of text via hot keys, though activating macros viatoolbar buttons has also been possible for several years. QuicKeys X willremain feature-poor compared to its Mac OS 9 ancestor until Apple exposesmore of the innards of Mac OS X, but the utility can type intoapplications, move and click the mouse, open files and folders, runAppleScript scripts, switch among applications, open URLs, change Finderviews, and more. Some of those features are unique among Mac OS Xutilities, but QuicKeys X really stands out when you need a macro thatcombines multiple steps. For example, I have a simple macro that types thebeginning of a URL in angle brackets, then moves the insertion point backinside the closing bracket for me to enter the rest of the URL manually -there's no way to do that without multiple steps. Like DragThing and DropDrawers, QuicKeys X requires manual setup for use as a launcher, but if youneed its more powerful features, it's utterly invaluable. QuicKeys X 1.5.1,which fixes a bug in 1.5 with inserting text into some Carbon applications,lists for $80 and is available for $60. There's a 30-day demo that's a 7.6MB download.
http://www.cesoft.com/products/qkx.html
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06603
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06786
Keyboard Maestro
For those interested in primarily using the keyboard, Michael Kamprath'sKeyboard Maestro offers a number of pre-built Hot Key Actions, displays apop-up toolbar that lets you launch and switch between applications, andprovides multiple clipboards like CopyPaste-X and PTHPasteboard. KeyboardMaestro's Hot Key Actions can switch between applications, quit and hideapplications, open files, launch URLs, open System Preferences panes, runAppleScript and Unix scripts, insert text and remap keystrokes. KeyboardMaestro proved flaky in my testing, crashing a number of times and at onepoint requiring reinstallation. You can use Keyboard Maestro 1.0.4 forfree, although paying $20 removes a number of limitations and reminders.It's a 526K download.
http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/
Key Xing
John Scalo's Key Xing offers features roughly similar to Keyboard Maestro'sHot Key Actions - it can open files or folders, switch to applications ifthey aren't already running, hide open applications, perform a few systemactions (Sleep, Restart, Shut Down), run AppleScript scripts, and send URLsto your Web browser, all activated via hot keys. It can also, oddly enough,copy full file paths in the Finder and control iTunes. Unfortunately, itcan't insert text into a document, though I suppose that could be done viaAppleScript. For $7 shareware though, Key Xing's capabilities might be allyou need, and it was stable in my testing. Key Xing 2.1 is implemented as apreference pane and is a 316K download.
http://homepage.mac.com/scalo/keyxing.html
TypeIt4Me X
Since 1989, Riccardo Ettore's TypeIt4Me has made it possible to insert bitsof text when you choose a menu item or type an abbreviation. (This latterfeature is currently unique among Mac OS X utilities.) In Mac OS X,Riccardo made TypeIt4Me X an input method component, which means it livesin /Library/Components (the other utilities are stand-alone applications orpreference panes) and is activated by enabling it in the Keyboard Menu paneof the International preference pane, then choosing TypeIt4Me from thekeyboard menu. In my limited testing, TypeIt4Me X 0.99 worked well despitebeing in beta, though installation and activation hadn't yet been cleanedup for the final release. TypeIt4Me X will cost $27 ($14 for students) with$9 upgrades. It's currently a 1.7 MB download.
http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~r-ettore/TypeIt4MeIndex.html
Typist
With this last utility, Selznick Scientific Software's Typist, we've movedall the way from utilities that just launch files to those that just typetext. In Typist you set up chunks of text to type and then insert them inother applications by choosing them from Typist's Dock menu (click and holdor Control-click) or by pressing a user-defined hot key and then selectingan item from the list. Although Typist can handle large chunks of text, itsimulates the keyboard, so it's slow to enter large amounts of text;there's also no way to link different hot keys to specific pieces of text.Like TypeIt4Me and QuicKeys X, Typist can substitute a number oftime-related variables in the typed text, along with the current contentsof the clipboard. Typist 1.2 costs $15 shareware, and it's a 411K download.
http://www.selznick.com/products/typist/
Choose and Move On
I hope my descriptions above help you determine which of these utilitieswill best match the way you work; when it comes to alternative controlutilities, personal preference rules. I'm still not sure which of theseutilities will earn a permanent place on my hard disk. It is worth noting,however, that performing the kind of testing necessary for these articlesin previous versions of the Mac OS would have been a nightmare - Mac OS Xhas been solid throughout, and I haven't seen any specific conflictsbetween utilities with overlapping features.
In the next installment of this series, I hope to look at utilities thatextend the basic capabilities of Mac OS X to make it faster, more flexible,more powerful, and sometimes just plain more fun.
Here's a funny one for all the Mac Addicts...
Bill Machrone (Editor Emeritus of PC Magazine, currently Editor ofExtremeTech, a PC Mag feature) on video editing using the PC (a schoolproject for his son):
----
Thank heaven for my 16-year-old son, Drew. If it weren't for his ill-starredattempts to make videos for school projects, I'd be happily out of touchwith the state of the art in nonlinear editing on the PC platform. But hepersists in making the things, and I wind up getting involved, usuallybecause the technology fails him at one point or another and I have to bailhim out.
<
< lot's of whining and moaning and installation details
< covering several ill-fated hardware installs DELETED...
<
We uninstalled the DV500 drivers. Premiere worked with the Pyro board. Igive high marks to Win XP for recognizing the DV camera and working verysmoothly with it. Once my son figured out how to use Premiere, we were ingood shape, except that Premiere can't do a simple voice-over. It invokesWindows Sound Recorder or the audio editor of your choice, but you then getinto foreground/background fights over the record and playback controls. Wewound up using Win XP's Movie Maker for the voice-overs, then bringing theWAV files back into Premiere.
Why didn't we just use Win XP Movie Maker for the production? Because it'sincredibly lame in most other respects. I don't know about the universeMicrosoft lives in, but in mine, VHS tape is the gold standard of videoexchange and display. Movie Maker can only output files; it can't write backto tape. With Premiere, we played the edited, rendered video back out to theDV camcorder, then did an analog dub from the camcorder to a VHS deck÷at9:30 P.M. on Sunday.
I've come to the conclusion that last week's video software is about asuseful as last week's newspaper. My wife, bless her heart, asked, "How donormal people do this?" Drew and I answered in unison, "They buy a Mac."
----
Sounds to me like this Mac-niche is safe for the time-being.
:^)
Jim
Quo vadis, Amithlon?
There has been a considerable amount of discussion and speculationabout the future of Amithlon on Amiga news sites as well as on theAmithlon mailing list recently. I suspect it has not gone unnoticedthat I have been uncharacteristically quiet on the subject, avoidingto get drawn into discussions which I obviously have passionateopinions about.
The reason, regrettably, is a legal one. All is not well whereAmithlon is concerned. In fact, all is far from well.
In the early hours of March 9th, Melbourne time, I received an emailfrom Amiga Inc, In which Amiga Inc informed me that they consideredthe distribution of AmigaOS XL to be in violation of theirintellectual property rights and thus illegal. The details of theirthird party intellectual property claim were such that they related,among other parts of AmigaOS XL, to the Amiga IP embedded in the file"isolinux/bigird.gz" on the AmigaOS XL CD.
According to the distribution contract for Amithlon, I am fully andexclusively responsible for defending and/or settling any third partyintellectual property disputes that arise from any part of thesoftware I have provided under the contract. The file"isolinux/bigird.gz" was provided by me to Haage & Partner, and wasincluded on the AmigaOS XL CD unchanged.
I would like to state that, when the Amithlon distribution contractwas agreed upon, I was led to believe that Haage & Partner had securedthe required licenses to Amiga Inc's IP. In fact, being able toprovide such licenses was the main, if not the only reason H&P waschosen as the distribution partner. Until I was informed by Amiga Incof their different view of the situation, I had no doubt thatAmithlon, as distributed as part of AmigaOS XL, was a fully licensedproduct.
I need to stress that I have no way of verifying whether Amiga Inc'sclaims are justified. I also have no way of determining whether Haage& Partner have negotiated for, or hold through some other means, thelicenses to Amiga Inc's IP which would be necessary for thedistribution of AmigaOS XL.
However, the claim was made. Legal action was mentioned. And I amcontractually required not only to defend any claim at my own cost andin my own name, but also to assume full and unlimited liability shouldthe claim be found to be justified.
In order to minimize the resulting personal legal risk, I immediatelysent an email to Haage & Partner, invoking a contract clause thatallows me to prohibit any further use and/or distribution of Amithlon,taking effect immediately, in such a situation.
In a response email dated 5:05pm on March 8th (German time), Mr.Haage confirmed that "no agreement [had] been reached" with Amiga Inc.
As Mr. Haage's email did not acknowledge that the contract clauseprohibiting further use and distribution had been invoked, I sentanother email at 3:29am, March 9th (Melbourne time), clarifying thatthe claim did indeed touch upon parts of AmigaOS XL provided by me,and stressed again that I had invoked that clause. I also suggestedthat Mr. Haage, who assured me that I neither would nor could be heldlegally responsible for anything, sign an addendum to the Amithlondistribution contract, stating explicitly that any intellectualproperty claims by Amiga Inc are fully and exclusively theresponsibility of H&P, and that in no case would I be required todefend, settle or be liable for any such claims.
No reply was ever received, despite logfiles confirming that the mailwas indeed delivered to Haage & Partner's mail server.
Distribution of AmigaOS XL by Haage & Partner is continuing. In fact,a new preinstalled "Monster System" was introduced on March 15th. Thisexposes me personally to a substantial legal risk.
I consider any copies of Amithlon shipped by Haage & Partner afterMarch 8th, 5:05pm German time, to have been distributed in directviolation of the Amithlon distribution contract. I explicitly refuseany responsibility or liability resulting from such distribution. Ialso need to point out that as far as I am concerned, the purchase ofany such copies does not provide the purchaser with licenses for theuse of any parts I contributed to Amithlon, which includes the mainemulator executable.
As a freelance software designer, I depend for my livelihood onproper handling of intellectual property issues. I would like tostress that under no circumstances would I knowingly approve of orcondone the distribution of a product for which unresolved yetcredible third party intellectual property claims have been made.
I very much regret being the messenger of such unfortunate news.Amithlon is a product I have poured my heart and soul into, and one Iam rather proud of. Having had to stop its distribution like thispained me greatly; Having to deal with the implications of the ongoingdistribution is taking a toll on my psychological and physicalwell-being, and stops me from doing what I do best, which is to writeuseful software (if I may say so myself...).
Over the last few weeks, I have been working with Amiga Inc, tryingto resolve these issues and to find a common way; Unfortunately, it ismy understanding that due to the ongoing nature of their dispute withHaage & Partner, they are unable at the current time to comment; Atthe same time, the stresses this whole affair put on me started toseriously interfere with my life, my health and my continuing supportfor the users of Amithlon. That could not continue.
The April 18th general meeting of CUCUG started with the usualintroductions.
The first thing on the list of topics was that IBM seems to be getting outof the archive business. It was mentioned that they are having troubleswith their hard drives crashing. It seems that their high capacity drivesare failing. Kevin Hisel asked "Are those initial failure rates? Please say'Yes.'" "No" said Mike Latinovich. 'They are two months down the line.'"Oh" replied Kevin. "I've had mine for three years." The problem variesfrom drive to drive, but it seems to be predominantly in larger capacitydrives, 30 gig and above.
But that is the speculation as to why IBM are getting out of the business.This, it was agreed, is the BIG NEWS in the PC world. It also seems a shamebecause they were one of the biggest names in hard drives and the inventorsof the hard drive. Mike described the first hard drive: 50 discs, each one2.5 ft in diameter. It spun at 1,200 rpm and had the capacity of 5mb. Theyapplied the magnetic substrate, which was paint with iron filings in it,with pantyhose and dixie cups. Truly a hand made computer. Everyone wasimpressed with how crude everything was and how far we've come.
AMD has introduced a smaller and faster Athelon XPs for portable computers.This is the 'die-shrink' that everyone has been waiting for. Jim Lewis asksif this applies to the Duron chip as well? Harold said he's heard AMD isdropping the Duron. Mike said he doesn't think so. John Ross replied he'dread that AMD is dropping the chip, too. That it was the end of life forthe Duron. Someone piped up with "They heard it on the Internet so it HASto be true!" Everyone laughed., but they agreed that it makes sense becausethe Durons are very similar to the P3s and the P3s are being phased out.
Microsoft is going to drop "My Services," formerly "Hailstorm," because allof the corporate partners dropped out. They said they didn't want all oftheir customers' info publicly out on the Internet. But, analysts thinkthat they really don't want their information on Microsoft servers.Microsoft made a press release saying that they haven't given up and are'regrouping.' Harold retorted 'They'll make it an integral part ofWindows!' There were general grumbles and laughing.
There is a new port of Gimp for Windows available. It is supposed to runnatively and be GUI. No dropping to the command line to draw a circle.
Linux news was requested. John Ross reported for us what was listed in thenewsletter. The items included Mozilla, KDE 3.0, Yellow Dog Linux 2.2,Sharp Zaurus PDA and Apache 2.0. He remarked as to how well some of theseapplications run on Windows.
There was discussion as to where to get the Mozilla. It can be downloadedfrom their website (www.mozilla.org)and you don't have to go looking for the hidden button on some 'advertisingghetto' page. John likes it because of the various skins it has. He hasbeen using one that shrinks up the 'large buttons' and gives him "maximumreality."
KDE is available. John plans to wait for a CD release, but if one isdaring, one could download it at their site.
Yellow Dog 2.2 is out and a new version of Mandrake as well.
Sharp has a new color PDA out, the Zaurus, It has an embedded keyboard anddual card slots. John doesn't have one, but wants one. (Send donationsto... ) It even has the Amiga based TAO Elate engine on it. It costs$4-500 bucks. Some figure that any color PDA (w/keyboard) would probablyrun about that much. John has a $40 PDA that works and won't break for thehigh priced spread.
Apache 2.0 is out.
Then John Ross complimented the Register and whoever puts it together.Kevin Hopkins' name was mentioned with HIGH PRAISE! I brought up the factthat the unix stuff was submitted by a club member, Kevin Hisel, John Ross,and I, among others have submitted items in the past. I wanted to reinforcethe fact that this newsletter survives by having plenty of material. So ifyou, the reader, see something interesting or useful, send it in. Kevin isusually more than happy to put it in. He can always use another helpfultip. Especially in some of the areas he is not very familiar with. It's notlike the "old days" of snail mail distribution, when the size of theRegister was limited by postage. John said that he really had to sit downand read it over several sessions to get everything. (Compiling these notescan be a real chore. So my hat is off to Master Kevin. Hear! Hear! - ELH)
George Krumins brought up that he had learned that the Linux driveavailable for Play Station 2 will have a different format than standardLinux drives. And, the modem is going to be a broadband adapter. MikeLatinovich said the system ships in May and will have an adapter and nomodem. The drive will be one way or the other. You either do Unix or playgames. You can't do both. A discussion continued about the difficulty ofdeveloping games on the final consumer version of the PS2 Unix system.Evidently all the info is there, but it is only has sketchy documentation.To do it "right," you'd still do better to invest in the 'industrialstrength' developer's kit. About $15K.
A new version of Wine is out, WineX. It is supposed to run all Windowssoftware on Unix systems. You don't need anything from Microsoft. It has aDirectX compatible API. Kevin Hisel said "I'll bet that was easy to puttogether! Not!" It is supposed to be compatible enough to run the newestgames. You do have to port the applications for it. It doesn't run as fastbut "Look Ma! No Microsoft!" Jim Huls said that Quicktime breaks on it.Several people piped up that Quicktime breaks on everything! And eventhough the latest version of Quicktime is better, it has issues.
Mac news was called for. John Melby mentioned the latest OS X update 10.1.4that was released a few days before the meeting. It has increased supportfor CD burning. And, there is a major update coming out soon, - 10.2. It issupposed to have a major speed bump, and many new printer and scannerdrivers not available previously. John suggested that one NOT get theupdate disc. This is because if you clobber your hard disc, you will haveto start at the beginning and reconstruct the system from scratch. Besides,you also get a full set of developer's tools if you buy the $100(+) OS 10.2full package.
Harold Ravlin quibbled about developer tools, Fortran 2 and ageism. Haroldscored his dig early tonight. I voted to smack him with a dead fish. Johnwent on to talk about how easy it is to install Fortran 2 using Fink. Finkcan install most applications (or try at least). At this point theconversation degenerated into bad jokes about finking this and that with adead fish and a compiler...
John Melby soldiered on with a story about Apple either porting or NOTporting a version of OS X for the Intel platform. It appeared right aroundApril first and so has been labeled a hoax. But, it keeps showing up onsites, some fairly respected, on days other than April 1. Harold brought uphow it might behoove Apple to keep this possibility as a last resort. Johnsaid that that seemed to be the most common rationalization.
Jim Lewis asked about Apple's general business health because they had notdone as well over X-mas holiday as they had expected. Earnings were down 6%or so. It was asked what was the typical gross margin for the main PCmanufacturers. The answer was about 20%, but at the retail level, it was 6points. or so. Apple's was down to 27% because of costs going up. But theiraverage is higher than the industry standard. The new iMacs are sellingreal well, but it was released post X-mas. Apple had to raise the price ofthe iMacs by $100 because of lack of supply of the flat panel displays.Their sales are up from last year. In the three months prior they hadshipped 280 thousand units. So sales are up but profits are down a bit. RAMmemory has fluctuated in price quite a bit and so it has cost everybody abit of profit. All in all, things are going well for Apple.
George Krumins asked about the dual processors in Apples and how aware theOS was. Harold Ravlin and John Melby both assured him that it is veryaware, partly because it is Unix based. Photoshop has been dual processoraware for several version (from version 4 on). A discussion ensued aboutwhether it is more important that the OS be aware than the application. Butsome of it depends on how threaded the application is. Apple has alwayslooked for an edge and dual processors have been in their line-up forseveral generations of machines. John Melby mentioned his processor monitorthat he uses to watch his dual processor work. He says that quite oftenapplications that weren't design to be aware are still operating the "dualprocessor way." Right now Apple has a 1 gig dual processor machine and theyare rumored to be working up a 1.6 gig machine later this year. And maybe a2.4 gig version sometime next year.
Sales of G4s and Powerbooks are down, but iPods, iMacs and iBooks are doingwell. Jim Lewis commented that these items are usually lower profit itemsthan the high end G4 desktop machines. Rich thought that the iBooks are G3sand so might have a better profit than the Powerbook. (There sure was a lotof "profit" talk going on that night! - ELH) John mentioned that a lot offolks who would have bought G4 towers are getting the new iMacs becausethey use G4s. "And are real pretty!" said Kevin Hisel. Jim Lewis stated'You gotta give'm an A+ in design." I mentioned that I had talked toseveral people who have decided to go for the 14" iBooks because of abetter price and a big screen. John mentioned that at the next developers'conference Apple will release a 17" monitor iMac. (I can't wait for the 22"version! - ELH)
John Ross mentioned that he had tried to build a dual processor Pentium. Hewas hoping for speed improvements, but ran into all sorts of problems withthe applications. He was running NT 3.1 and it worked but the applicationshad to be dual processor aware, and they weren't. Mike Latinovich askedwhat happened to this machine? John got ticked off at it and junked it.
The subject of iPods came up and their possible uses. (Like bootleggingsoftware.) They work as a portable Firewire drive. Rich Rollins mentionedsomeone has made them into a virtual Palm with a HUGE hard drive. There arealso applications that allows them to connect to PCs. Harold Ravlinmentioned an acquaintance that had one that lost it's Firewire four daysafter it's warranty expired. John said there is a fix for the problem whichincludes removing a panel and pushing a reset switch. This most likelyvoids the warranty, but... And it might save the guy about $250.
Kevin Hisel decided to add some balance to the whole mix. During the lastquarter Apple's profits were $40 million, and while that is nice,Microsoft's profits were $2.74 billion. That was up only 12% but theirstock was down $3. Apple's profits were down 6.7%. Apple sells hardware andhardware production costs are going up. Microsoft sells air wrapped incellophane, said Kevin.
A couple of guys out east are designing a fully object oriented codebasefrom the "binary up" called "Ruby." It is a scripting language for gamesand graphical applications. It is supposed to be faster and better. Andfully object oriented instead of mimicking it as other languages do. It issupposed to be cross-platform. John Ross said he runs a version of it onhis Intel, Mac and Alpha IAX(?). He figures it is a new upgrade.
Mike Latinovich had some news for us! Some one made an Internet card for aCommodore 64. There is already a TCP stack for the C-64 available. All thedesign stuff is available, so you can build your own. Many moans and groansabout who would really want one. Mike continued with the news that they arealso running a web server on one as well! They have been doing this forawhile. But the new news is that they are also running a streaming audioserver off of this machine, too! Harold wants to know if there is proof!Mike said all the documentation is available! I commented that this mayinstill new life into the old C-64-SIG! Not too many people were convincedabout this. Evidently, you sample off of the datasette port digitally.Kevin claimed it really does work but sounds bad. Mike said "It sounds like...., it's at one bit!" But it works pretty well! Their server is floodedoff line quite often. And that is the Commodore 64 news!
George Krumins mentioned a mini laptop with docking station and a 1 ghzPentium, color LCD. It's the OAQ (?). Mike Latinovich didn't think itwould see the light of day. (At this point, the tape is a mass of confusionas everybody started spouting spec. about this device. I am not even sure Ihave the name correct. - ELH) The discussion was about several of the newer'mini-laptops'. A few have been around for a year or more and they cost abundle. (My question is, just how small do you go before it becomes toosmall to see or you lose it when you sneeze? - ELH) Everything starts atabout $1,900.
Rich Rollins mentioned the Klez virus that was warned about a couple ofdays prior, but it had just hit Rich's machine that morning. It is supposedto be really nasty. Someone mentioned Sans.org and downloaded theirnewsbrowser for PCs that has nice anti-virus and security features. Richmentioned ABG. Jim Lewis tossed in his two cent about ABG which is a freeanti-virus program that has an scheduler and an auto-updater. You have toregister to get a serial number, but the number is the same for everybody.He has been running ABG for almost 2 yrs. and hasn't had one viral problem.He has become dissatisfied with Norton because it costs and it installs SOMUCH STUFF! It is also too sensitive sometimes.
Mike Latinovich brought up the 5 year anniversary of the Microsoft/Applesoftware development deal. They are not planning to officially renew theagreement, but operate as if it were still in effect. It is in both oftheir best interests to keep it alive. Discussion turned to the browsersituation again. Netscape seems to be the preferred browser on Applemachines. But ads for Apples have Internet Explorer running on the machine.(My work machine had IE on the dock. I had to add Netscape - ELH)
AOL has drop the requirement that CNN had to use AOL's e-mail application.This after they had screwed their business up.
John brought up Microsoft's Unix bashing website. Seems it was being run onUnix servers. They farmed out the work. But, after all the flak they took,Microsoft took over the site and set it up on their own servers. Itpromptly crashed. (hmm....... )
We then took our break before we split into our SIGs.
At the meeting, first thing I did was fight the learning curve on theprojector that put my screen image on the BIG SCREEN! The colorsnever did get adjusted correctly, but then, I've never dealt with this sortof critter before. We finally got it working well enough for most folks toget the idea, though. I showed some sample desktops (some mine,many not). Most of the samples were picked up at maccentral.comwhich features many desktops, start-up screens and other systemtweaks.
Making desktop images for me is mainly playing in Photoshop orBryce. I like to play in Bryce, MetaCreation's landscape creationsoftware, now owned by Corel. I also like to play in Photoshop. A lot ofthe best images are usually some sort of accidental sideshoot of amain project. And space images from NASA and JPL are always a goodstarting point. I enjoy putting odd things together in odd places. Thistime around I decided to stick with Photoshop.
I took several images and started to play with different filters on them.Once you have opened an image in Photoshop and select part or all ofthe file, then you can go to the filter list and select one to treat theselected area with. There are many filters, some to help clear theimage up and some to make the image less "normal". Like the distortfilters. The glass distortion filter in the distort submenu is a goodexample. It is a filter that can scramble the original image quite a biton some settings, but, also, not do much at all. It has settings that makeit look as if you are looking though frosted, canvas, 'tiny lenses', andglass blocks, or load your own texture. The size, smoothness anddistortion can all be adjusted.
Some filters are kind of picky. I have tried to use the Watercolor filterand have had the final project turn to mud. Sometimes this can becompensated for by lightening the original image. But, sometimes it justwon't work at all. Some of my favorite filters are under Artistic: NeonGlow, Paint Daubs, Plastic Wrap, and Watercolor. Under Distort: Spherize,and Glass. Under Render: Lighting Effects, Lense Flares. Under Stylize:Emboss, Find Edges, Glowing Edges, and Solarize. These are the filters Ifind most useful for general use and play. When you get to cleaning upimages or trying to get a very particular effect then some of the otherfilter come into play, like augmenting the feeling of a bicyclist speedingby running a motion blur on the image, or taking out some of the banding ina web-based image by adding a bit of Gaussian Noise to the background andthen running a Gaussian Blur on the background or even the entire image.Also, on occasion, one is asked to make an image look like a watercolor oras if it is painted on canvas, or done with colored pencils, etc. Then,some of the other filters can be useful. But many of the filters you willnever use except to experiment with.
Also, because Photoshop filters don't do everything the "right way",there are developers that have better ideas for new filters. One ofthose people is Kai. He developed a set filters for Photoshop anumber of years ago. He likes nonconventional control systems, andpackaged them in some unusual ways. Sometimes they can makeyou scream, but most are pretty intuitive. They, like the Photoshopfilters, are not always in great demand. Some are just fancier versionsof existing Photoshop filters. But some are pretty nice.
I find Texture Explorer the most useful. Some of the other fun anduseful ones are the Spheroid Creator and the Vortex Tiling.
My favorite power tools in Kai's Powertools 3:
The rest of the list:
These filters are for special situations and thus Idon't use them often. But most software has more features than youwill ever use.
After showing a few of the KPT filters, I played with the layers feature inPhotoshop. This feature has given me almost an insane amount ofplay control and much "indecision trauma." I have learned of thedanger of having too many choices. It can be a lot like very loudfeedback... your brains turns to goo. But layers are fun because youcan turn their transparency from solid to clear. There are also severalother ways one layer can effect layers below it. It can be added orsubtracted, elements of it can be used to effect color or luminescenceor... or... or... far too many choices to stay sane.
Ultimately though, a steady hand and a good eye are the artist bestfriend. Having all these really neat filters and processing softwaredoesn't do any good if you can't get your cursor to go where you want itto. Or, if you can't figure out where that head of hair ends, your friendlooks like he has water on the brain. And while one would have a hardtime making the image look exactly like a hand painted image oncanvas, one could get pretty close to the effect without too much effort.
As for the demo... I ran out of time as usual and had to scramble to getthings packed up to go. I didn't get to show and do nearly everything Iwanted to. But there will be another time. And there is always moresoftware and more images and more ideas to screw around with.
In the April Linux-SIG meeting, Kris Klindworth did a presentationon installing software under Linux. The bulk of the presentation wason RPM's and compiling from source. He touched briefly on theDebian package management format, but did not go into detail.
RPM stands for RedHat Package Manager. The RPM format and the rpmprogram were developed at RedHat and released as open-source software.It is the most common file format for installing and transferring binarysoftware under Linux. A .rpm file is an archive of information aboutthe package and the files that will load onto your system. Therpm utility is the command line tool for managing rpm installedapplication on your system. It maintains a database of informationabout which packages loaded onto your system, which other packagesthey depend on, and what files on your system are part of whichpackages.
The three primary applications for managing RPM packages are thecommand line 'rpm' utility and the GUI utilities GnoRPM and Kpackage.GnoRPM is part of the Gnome project while Kpackage is part of theKDE project. As part of the demonstration, we saw how to useboth of the GUI applications to browse the packages loaded onthe system, see what other packages they depended on, and installnew packages. We also used the 'rpm' command-line utility toinstall a new package, but we did not go into great depth onother uses of the command-line tool.
In the second part of the demonstration, we saw a typicalsequence for installing Linux software from source code. Thissequence goes something like this...
# Download a tar ball from a website (.tar.gz, .tgz, or .tar.bz2 file) # and copy them to the /usr/local/src directory. # Change directory to /usr/local/src cd /usr/local/src # See what sub-directory the tar file will create. gunzip -c file.tar.gz|tar tf -|more # extract the files from the tarball gunzip -c file.tar.gz|tar xf - # change directory to the new sub-directory and # check the readme's for special instructions # Configure the package for your system. ./configure -prefix=/usr/local # Compile the software using Make make # change to root and install the newly compiled software su make install
While we waited for the hamsters in Kris' P166 system to crank out thebinary code, we discussed the reasons one might choose to compile fromsource instead of using an RPM file. The biggest reason was that inthe open-source world, the latest version of your program may not yet beavailable as a binary RPM. The other big reason that a non-programmermight compile from source is for a faster running binary. RPM binariesare frequently compiled for the generic 386 instruction set. When youcompile from source, you may get a performance boost because the binariesare compiled for your specific CPU.
Resources:
http://www.rpm.org/
http://www.getlinuxonline.com/omp/distro/RedHat/rpm.htm
http://www.rpmfind.net
http://www.daa.com.au/~james/gnome/
http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/toivo/kpackage/
Having no formal presentation prepared, President Lewis proclaimed we wouldhave the old tried-and-true, Question-and- Answer, Hints-and-Tips meeting.
We spent the entire SIG meeting addressing the first question.
CUCUG member Debra Smith had what seemed to be a simple enough query,"Which video card would the group recommend for a new system?" It turns outthat the reason Debra asked was because she was building a new system for aco-worker who was into capturing, storing and editing digital video. Wecouldn't stop at just the video card--we picked the entire system apart,bit by bit.
The video question was easy. The group almost unanimously recommended annVidia-based graphics card, most likely a GeForce 3 Titanium. Just aboutany brand of card would be fine but some have varying amounts of memory.
Sound, Debra had already picked out a high-end Creative Audigy Platinum.The group was in wide agreement due to the fact that this is one of themost advanced of the current crop, has a very nice drive-bay-based frontconnector panel and includes an IEEE-1394 (FireWire) interface for easydownloading from a digital camera.
Debra was torn between an Asus P4S533 or Soyo DRAGON P4 mainboard, bothwith DDR2700 memory. The group agreed that the Soyo had some really hotfeatures but that the Asus was a solid performer that might be a betterchoice for the long haul. She's going to be using a Pentium 4 NorthwoodCPU, the most advanced processor currently available. The group nodded inapproval. Even the AMD fanboys were mute.
Up until this point the group was fairly harmonious in its affirmations andrecommendations. Then the question of which hard drive to use came up.There were as many opinions as members. The only thing everyone seemed toagree on was to avoid IBM drives like the plague. They have had qualityproblems and just announced this week that they were getting out of thehard drive manufacturing business. Other brands mentioned as possiblesubstitutions were Maxtor, Seagate and Western Digital. Maxtor seemed to bethe crowd favorite. President Lewis almost had Debra talked into installingthree different hard drives and a complex backup regimen but cooler headsprevailed due to budgetary constraints.
The backup solution finally arrived at was a tried-and-true CDRW drive.Plextor was discussed, but President Lewis pointed out that Lite-On was #2in speed and quality and about #10 in price (read: cheap). Really, it wouldbe hard to go wrong with either of these choices. The end-user is a casualvideo editor, so an elaborate (read: expensive) method of saving largevideo source and editing data (to DVD-R or tape) seemed to be uncalled for.VCDs will probably be the distribution choice for these casual productions,which will require a burner anyway.
Dial-up modem--it doesn't matter anymore. They are a commodity and all workpretty well. Avoid U.S. Robotics since you're paying extra for the nameonly. Diamond and Creative were mentioned as good, solid choices. Do stayaway from so-called "winmodems" or any modem that requires Windows tooperate. They use your computer to do some of the signal processing andshould be avoided.
DVD writer. President Lewis declared that these are not quite ready for endusers. They are expensive, hard-to-use and since a clear standard has notemerged, compatibility is still a big question. Wait and install one sixmonths from now.
This was, for me, one of the more enjoyable SIG meetings and ironically wasalmost a complete accident. We touched on many different areas and I thinkeveryone learned something they didn't know before the meeting. The newmachine Debra is building is going to be a great computer!
The April meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday, April23, 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, John Ross, Richard Rollins, Kevin Hopkins, Jack Melby, EmilCobb, Rich Hall, Kevin Hisel, Jim Huls and Debra Smith.
Jim Lewis: Jim said the meeting was pretty good due to Debra Smith's PCbuilding project, which had launched the WinSIG into a hardware discussionthat had taken the entire meeting time. This project had fostered severalmeeting ideas for the PC SIG and many ideas for future meetings were tossedaround. Richard Rollins said he wanted to bring in a PC, a Mac, and a Linuxbox and network them all together. John Ross said the Linux SIG had plannedto show an educational video at the next Linux SIG. It was decided to do acombined meeting next month based on the networking idea. A discussionfollowed on the hardware that would be needed to execute the plan.
Dave Witt: Dave said, "The Linux guys have been doing a hell of a job."He's very impressed with them. Dave commented that he'd like to see morecommand based stuff in upcoming meetings. The last meeting had been a goodone all round.
Mike Latinovich: Mike said, It was interesting to see the stuff Kris wasshowing at the last Linux SIG, like RPM managers." He said it had inspiredhim to do some investigation and download a bunch of stuff. He said, "Theinformation I'm getting out of the Linux SIG is pretty damn good. I haven'tbeen disappointed by any of the Linux meetings yet." Regarding the WinSIG,Mike said it was interesting to deconstruct a plan to build a machine. Mikeconcluded, both SIGs were good.
John Ross: John said the last meeting had been fine. He noted that he hasbeen watching the graphical side of Linux's development to see if it can'tdisplace Windows in the business environment. He said Linux has become adecent server system in the last few years, but will it become a decentdesktop system in the next few years? He said it is interesting thatinstalling programs is getting easier. John concluded by saying that hereally liked the last newsletter. It had a lot of good contributions.
Richard Rollins: Richard said he has been trying to attend all threeSIGs. He observed that the Linux SIG is doing great things. The Mac SIG waspretty good. And, the PC SIG was very good. He emphasized that the groupexperience is very valuable.
Richard conveyed Lucy Seaman's request for another Social/Swap meet kind ofmeeting, which we haven't had for some time. After some discussion it wasdecided to slat September for such a meeting.
Kevin Hopkins: Kevin noted that he hadn't been able to attend the lastmeeting due to a work commitment. He said the tone of this meeting had beenrather glowing of the Linux SIG as viewed from the CUCUG point of view.Kevin said he was just curious as to how the Linux SIG perceived the mergerwith CUCUG was progressing. John Ross said they had some of the sameconcerns a CUCG had: are we an association of knowledgeable users sharinginformation or are we a service group to help others learn and grow incomputing. Kevin asked if there was any concern that advanced topics werebeing slighted in order to cover more basic topics. John said there hadbeen some concerns in that regard, but he felt that over all it wasn't thatbig an issue. Members can go online to facilitate multiple meetings oraddress more arcane issues. All in all, John thought the merger has beenworking out very well.
Jack Melby: Jack said he had posted a URL: on the CUCUG forums regardinga controversy about OS X being based on Darwin. Supposedly a fundamentalistChristian was saying it was a plot to advance Darwinism and that the OpenSource movement was nothing more than Communism. Kevin Hisel said the wholething was a joke.
Jack reported that the Mac SIG had gone pretty well. He noted that theprojector hadn't displayed colors accurately. More generally, Jack said heappreciates the scheduling of joint SIG meetings as it takes to pressureoff him to come up with program ideas month after month.
Emil Cobb: Emil reported 21 members in attendance at the last meeting.
Rich Hall: Rich said there was not much new on the Treasury front. We hadfour new members last month. He noted that Lucy Seaman had renewed at themeeting in April.
Kevin Hisel: Kevin said that the WinSIG had been "very enjoyable." Hesaid the Question and Answer Session had blossomed into a real meeting.
Kevin reported that CUCUG Folding@Home had gotten four members. We're nowbeating Scotland, the Illini, and Weazer fans. He said to check outstatsman.org. We are team #3154.
Kevin said BBS usage is pretty low. The forums are pretty active onStarship CUCUG 2. He said we should promote the forums in the newsletter onan ongoing basis.
Jim Huls: Jim stated, "The last meeting was cool. The Linux side is niceto have around. The club has been more enthusiastic. OS X, XP and Linuxhave reinvigorated the meetings."
Jim said he had just purchased a new hard drive, a Western Digital driverebranded by Dell, a 120 GB, 7200 RPM, 8 MB cache, normally $195 for$142.10 from dealmac.com .
Debra Smith: Debra said she really enjoyed the last meeting. She reallylearned a lot.
Mike Latinovich closed the meeting with the comment that there will be ajoint announcement from AMD and Microsoft tomorrow regarding a 64 bit OS onAMD's 64 bit chip.
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/ President/WinSIG: Jim Lewis 714-1500 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 714-1500 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.
Champaign, IL
61821