The Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group

The Status Register - August, 2002


This newsletter will never appear on CUCUG.ORG before the monthly CUCUG meeting it is intended to announce. This is in deference to actual CUCUG members. They get each edition hot off the presses. If you'd like to join our group, you can get the pertinent facts by looking in the "Information About CUCUG" page. If you'd care to look at prior editions of the newsletter, they may be found via the Status Register Newsletter page.
News     Humor     Common     PC     Linux     Mac     Amiga     CUCUG

August 2002


To move quickly to an article of your choice, use the search feature of your reader or the hypertext directory above. Enjoy.

August News:

The August Meeting

The next CUCUG meeting will be held on our regular third Thursday of the month: Thursday, August 15th, at 7:00 pm, at the Illinois Technology Center. The Linux SIG convenes, of course, one hour earlier, at 6:00 pm. Directions to the ITC are at the end of this newsletter.

The August 15 gathering will be one of our split SIG meetings. The Linux SIG will continue with its presentations upon security this month with Dan Jansen showing how to setup a Linux firewall. The WinSig will also explore Internet firewalls in an open discussion format. Jim Lewis will start off with an explanation of a simple NAT firewall and then open the floor for input on everyone's favorite firewall product. There will be downloads available of several shareware/freeware products for demonstration. Jack Melby reports that the Macintosh SIG will have a guest speaker, Matthew Klahn, of the local OS X developer CodeTek, demonstrating a new application for Mac OS X called CodeTek Virtual Desktop. Jack says, "Those of you who are long-time Unix/Linux users and have switched (or are contemplating switching) to OS X will have noticed in the past the absence of the Unix multiple workspace feature in OS X. CodeTek Virtual Desktop restores this feature and allows the simultaneous use of up to 100 virtual desktops. If you're interested (and I certainly am!), I urge you to attend the Mac SIG meeting on August 15th!" Interesting night? I'd say so. See you there.

ToC

AOL agrees To $15 million settlement of class action suit

URL: http://consumeraffairs.com/news02/aol_settle.html

AOL has agreed to pay $15.5 million to settle a consumer class-action lawsuit that claimed the company's version 5.0 software made it impossible for customers to access other Internet service providers.

The settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge in Miami, ends a lengthy proceeding that began in 1999, when AOL released version 5.0. Users said that after installing the program they were unable to log on to other ISPs and some said the software made their systems unstable.

AOL noted that the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing and a spokesman said the company agreed to it to avoid protracted litigation. Attorney A.J. De Bartolomeo, who represented the plaintiffs, called the settlement "reasonable and equitable."

Under the settlement, about $8.8 million will be paid to consumers, with the rest going to pay fees and court costs. Payouts to consumers will be graduated and will be based on how much evidence they can provide about their difficulties with the AOL software. Under terms of the settlement, the maximum payout to any individual will be $250.

Consumers who believe they should be included in the settlement should go to www.50softwaresettlement.com. The deadline for filing claims is Sept. 6, 2002.

ToC

Apple Posts $32 Million Q3 Profit

TidBITS#639/22-Jul-02

Apple last week announced a $32 million profit for its third fiscal quarter of the year. Revenues for the quarter were $1.43 billion (down 3 percent from the same quarter last year) and gross margins were a still-healthy 27.4 percent (although that too is down from 29.4 percent a year ago). Apple says it shipped just over 800,000 Macs in the quarter, and international sales accounted for 42 percent of revenue. Despite the current economic conditions, Apple remains in good shape compared to most other computer makers, with some $4.3 billion in cash on hand. The company expects a small profit for its next quarter, barring any large non-recurring expenditures. [GD]

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/jul/16results.html

ToC

The Humor Section:

A thought for today...

There are 10 kinds of people in the world.
Those who understand binary, and those that don't.

;-)

------------

10's company; 11's a crowd.

;-)

ToC

Common Ground:

IBM lays desktop PowerPC on Cupertino lawn

By Andrew Orlowski in London
Posted: 08/08/2002 at 20:16 GMT
URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/26594.html

IBM is to release a version of the dual-core Power4 processor aimed at the desktop, and will disclosed details at Microprocessor Forum in October.

The new chip designed for "desktops and entry level servers", and will be an 8-way superscalar, SMP-ready design capable of 6.4GB/s throughput. Tantalizingly, the processor has it own "vector processing unit implementing over 160 specialized vector instructions."

The "over 160" number is quite significant: the AltiVec vector unit for the PowerPC G4 hasŠ 162 instructions.

Now why would IBM want to do create a desktop RISC processor? It needs to remain competitive with entry-level workstations against the likes of Sun and HP's Alpha, where the size and heat dissipation of the mighty POWER4 have kept it out of systems below $12,000. IBM's desktop workstations still run POWER3 (but then you can find UltraSPARC Iis in Sun's bargain basement).

However AIX and OS/400 are not the only PPC-compatible operating systems out there. There is of course, Apple's Mac OS X, potentially a significant volume addition for Big Blue - at least in terms of volume as the UNIX big iron world know it.

IBM and Motorola designed the Book E specification together, which forms the basis for Motorola's G5. So the two largest partners of the old AIM (Apple, IBM and Moto) alliance still work closely.

With the Alpha destined for the scrapyard, POWER4 looks set to remain top of the performance heap for several years, giving Apple's professional users all the, er power they need. But the move could run into two problems. Firstly, Apple has "tied the future" of the company's hardware to AltiVec. And so have professional media application developers. If the vector unit in the desktop Power4 isn't AltiVec, it may be useless to Apple.

Secondly, it requires a great deal of imagination to see today's POWER4s in low power notebooks. Motorola effectively threw in the towel with volume desktop processors five years ago by focusing on embedded applications. But what has been pro users loss has been notebook users gain: this is a highly profitable part of the Apple business, and given the less than spectacular sales of the Cube and the iMac2, is an area where Apple has consistently seen growth. Despite the efforts of Transmeta, the only notebooks you'll find in CompUSA with five hour battery life (enough for a coast to coast flight in Apple's biggest market) are Apple notebooks.

Apple wouldn't want to bifurcate its roadmap between G3/4 and POWER4 for desktop/server and notebook: but it knows how to. The NeXT team who took over Apple in 1997 have plenty of experience of producing one binary for different processor architectures: HP-UX, Solaris and x86 as well as Mach on 68000. NeXT called these Multi-Architecture Binaries, or MABs.

One glitch in what could be a smooth transition could simply be the amount of legacy MacOS9 code: much of 'Classic' is still written in 68000 instructions. Getting OS X onto a new processor is going to be difficult with so much old code hanging around.

This week Matt Rothenberg and Daniel Drew Turner wrote a fascinating report at eWeek suggesting that new Macs next year won't be able to run the old MacOS.

Could this be why?

ToC

Special Report: USB 2.0 Hiccups

By Jeremy A. Kaplan
July 15, 2002
URL: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,381666,00.asp

The next time you see a USB 2.0 product, take a close look at the logo and an even closer one at the fine print to make sure that it's the fastest form of USB connectivity available today. We were quite surprised at TechXNY (PC Expo) to see the number of products claiming to be USB 2.0-compliant. It turns out, though, they are - and they aren't.

To be certified by the USB Implementers Forum as compliant and to use those fancy new logos, a new product must pass compliance testing (and the manufacturer needs to pay the forum a cool 1,500 bucks). Once products are fully certified and compliant, the USB Implementers Forum prompts companies not to use the term "USB 1.1" anymore; products that were called USB 1.1 are now USB 2.0 Full Speed, according to the Implementers Forum. Products that run at USB 2.0's 480 Mbps, on the other hand, are called USB 2.0 High Speed. Full speed products use a slightly different logo that lacks a red bar with the words "high speed" in 2-point type.

Confusing, right? According to the Forum, the idea was to cut down on confusion, since people will be able to tell at a glance that all USB products play well in the same sandbox; they're all USB 2.0, after all. According to David A. Dickstein of the USB Implementers Forum, "The idea is not to mislead the public into thinking that joysticks, keyboards, mice, and other peripherals that work fine at USB 1.1 speed will work 40 times faster with High-Speed USB 2.0." Thus we now have two logos, which are intended to highlight the speed distinction. But without a very thorough knowledge of this little intricacy, it will be extremely hard to tell whether that new external hard drive is really fast or really, really slow.

To complicate things even further, in the logo license agreement, the Forum actually refers to Full Speed USB 2.0 as Basic Speed, so you can expect to see products at some point labeled as such. Additionally, the Forum's Web site, www.usb.org, refers in several places to Low Speed USB. Clearly, they've gone through several different iterations of the naming conventions.

ToC

Stomp

From: Kevin Hisel (khisel @ kevinhisel.com)

Here's a little snippet for the newsletter. I think these guys are pretty decent.


From:           	"Steve DiGerlando"
To:
Subject:        	Stomp, Inc.
Date sent:      	Wed, 31 Jul 2002 13:36:26 -0700
My name is Steve DiGerlando, and I am the Director of Public Relations for Stomp, Inc. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce Stomp, Inc. to the CUCUG and to let you know a little about us. Stomp began 7 years ago with it's invention of the "CD Stomper Pro" CD labeling applicator. Since then, the company has developed a number of amazing new products. We offer a FREE 30 trial offer on our software titles from our website at www.stompinc.com. Please have your user group take advantage of this incredible offer.

Our company has made some headlines lately with two of our products receiving World Class Awards from PC World Magazine and Editor's Choice awards from PC Magazine and CNET.

----

From: Kevin Hisel (khisel @ kevinhisel.com)
To: Steve DiGerlando

Steve, thanks for the note. We'll drop a notice into our next newsletter. I just bought a box of your Disksavers and I love them.

Thanks for being one of the very few companies to try to connect with the user groups. Please do let us know if you ever distribute promotional copies of your software for user groups to use in raffles and demos.

----

From: Steve DiGerlando (steve@stompinc.com)
To: Kevin Hisel (khisel @ kevinhisel.com)

Hi Kevin: We have a product called Click 'N Design 3d--the ultimate CD/DVD labeling software. We would love to have CUCUG review it for us. Its really a simple to use software product that your group enjoy using. It comes in both a PC and MAC version. Let me know if anyone would be interested in reviewing it for your newsletter. For more information, check out www.clickndesign3d.com Thank you for your interest.

Steve

----

From: Kevin Hisel (khisel @ kevinhisel.com)
To: Steve DiGerlando

Yes, if we can get someone to write the review. As you probably know, in any group, about 10% of the membership provide meaningful content for the others to consume. If you do have review copies available I can make sure we get someone to do a review. Our group is pretty heavy into CD burning but I'm not so sure there are that many DVD burners out there -- yet.

Again, nice to see a company actually interested in the user groups.

Thanks again.

-Kevin Hisel
  Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group
  http://www.cucug.org/

----

Anyone interested in writing a review for this product?

ToC

China, Unplugged

by Hannah Beech/Shanghai
Time Asia, JULY 15, 2002/VOL. 160 NO. 1
URL: http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501020715-300685,00.html

After a deadly fire in an illegal Internet hangout, Beijing declares war against online fun factories

Chen used to let his evenings unfold in the corners of Shanghai's cheapest bars. He was content with his Sprite-and-beer shandies and a stack of car magazines to keep him company. But last September, the 20-year-old engineering major decided to break with routine. He bypassed his usual watering hole and climbed a narrow staircase to a windowless room. There, too, the men were sitting alone, obscured by clouds of cheap cigarette smoke. Chen had found a new hangout. In late May, he spent 32 hours straight in the illegal Internet café, working his way through six packs of Double Happiness cigarettes and relieving himself in a bucket by the stairs. "When our parents were young, they spent their spare time in Communist Youth League meetings," says Chen, eyelids puffy from lack of sleep. "We fill our emptiness by living in another world."

Beijing has declared war on Chen's world. Last week, authorities kicked off a nationwide crackdown against China's estimated 150,000 unlicensed Internet cafés, comparing them to opium dens where young men slowly destroyed themselves a century ago. In mid-June, 25 people were killed when a pair of teens torched a Beijing cybercafé that had refused them entry. It was the capital's deadliest fire in decades. The central government used the blaze as an excuse to order the closure of thousands of illegal Internet outlets over the next two months, threatening the owners with prosecution.

The government has for several years staged periodic cybercafé raids, usually on the grounds that online pornography and violent, addictive computer games are a moral hazard to the nation's youth. But psychological and safety considerations are only a small part of the campaign to shut down what is, for many Chinese, the main artery to the Internet. Control-crazy officials are struggling to monitor an information-packed online world that by its very name, the Web, is a tangle of unmanageable links to "cultural pollution." Since 2000, the number of Internet users in China has quadrupled to 38.5 million. "The Internet is a double-edged sword for China," says Ted Dean, managing director of BDA China, a telecom-analysis firm in Beijing. "The government needs to figure out the right balance between supporting a lucrative digital economy and controlling all that free and dangerous information."

In truth, most of the mainland kids crowding around computers aren't there to upload dissident manifestos or pages from, say, TIME, whose website is blocked in China. They're logging on to find fun. Near Shanghai's prestigious Jiaotong University, a student only pauses his online game-World Karate Domination Antics III-to upload a picture sent by a cyberbuddy. It's an image of a pouting, naked redheaded girl. He shakes his head. "I don't like funny-haired foreigners." Another picture streams in, this one of a Chinese teen. The café owner leans in and nods approvingly: "That's the best one we've seen all day."

What bothers Beijing most is that illicit gathering places exist at all. There are about 46,000 licensed Internet cafés in China, and all are required to monitor their customers by watching over their shoulders and blocking blacklisted Web pages. Although the Public Security Bureau has deployed a young corps of Internet police to block offending websites, there's no way a few hundred officers can filter all the pages on the Web and maintain blocks that stymie surfers for long. But the Internet police keep trying. According to the Hong Kong Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, Beijing recently ordered all Internet cafés to install software that immediately alerts one of the Public Security Bureau's Internet Café Information Security Control Centers when a surfer links to a "reactionary" website.

But only a tiny minority of China's cybercafés is playing by the rules. Since the hourly charge is less than 50 cents at the priciest Shanghai outlets, city dwellers vow to keep surfing. "Coming to an Internet bar is cheaper than karaoke or a pub or a disco," says Zhang Guoming, a 34-year-old cybercafé owner in Shanghai. "There's less harm in it than going elsewhere. Why are they trying to close us down?"

For Chen, the solution is clear. "No matter how many cafés you try to close, new ones will always appear," he says. "The government should just accept that the Internet is here to stay." Then Chen gets back to interacting with his avatar, a 19th century warlord. And the name of Chen's online alter ego? "The Opium Smoker."

ToC

Microsoft's Xbox hacked; Pirated games invade RP

By Leo Magno
Posted: 0:56 AM (Manila Time) | Jun. 27, 2002
URL: http://www.inq7.net/inf/2002/jun/27/inf_1-1.htm

Hong Kong connection

PIRATED games and modification chips for Microsoft's Xbox gaming console have reached Philippines shores, and at least two stores in Metro Manila are now selling premodified Xboxes and offering modification services to those who already have Xboxes.

It was just a matter of time before illegal copies of Xbox games and the mod chips needed to run them reached the Philippines, and to date at least 28 pirated Xbox games are in the country and at least seven modified Xboxes are now operational in Manila.

The first known batch of Enigmah mod chips from Hong Kong arrived June 21 in Manila. As of press time, one Xbox has been converted by a store in the Quiapo area and another in the Mandaluyong area. Five premodified units were also flown in from Hong Kong, and these have all been bought since June 21. Like mod chips used for other game consoles such as Sony's PS2, the Xbox chips disable security features built into the console. With a mod chip soldered into the Xbox motherboard, owners can play bootleg copies of games burned onto CD or DVD discs, or games designed for other regions that normally would be blocked by the regional encoding system.

The first Xbox mod chip to be announced was the Xtender (May 24) followed by the Enigmah (June 15). Another group is currently working on the Messiah X, from the makers of the original Messiah for the PS2. The first batch of modified Xboxes had the Xtender chips in them, but users encountered problems with their units so the [Image]Enigmah is now being used. The Enigmah chip, measuring less than two inches long and wide, has to be soldered to 29 points on the Xbox motherboard. The Messiah X will reportedly have only 13 soldering points. After the mod chips are installed, the Xbox, whether US or Japan version, can now play all Xbox games from all regions, including the ability to play bootleg Xbox games.

For the sake of science and in the interest of advancing his technical knowledge on the intricacies of game console electronics, this writer subjected his own US Xbox to the modification procedure on Wednesday. This was two days after the very first known Xbox modification procedure took place in Quiapo on June 24. However, since the writer's goal was merely to confirm that the mod chips and the pirated games actually work, he has vowed to have the mod chip removed (yeah, right) after going through a few bootleg games and making sure that his Xbox was still in proper working condition.

And what do you know? It actually did work. But at first it didn't. After soldering 29 points of the chip unto the Xbox, we tried it out and the unit just hung on us. It froze every time you boot it up. That was when the electronics expert performing the procedure (let's just call him Master Chief) was informed by his boss that a jumper setting had to be obtained for older US Xbox versions. When the jumper setting was obtained from the Master Chief's Hong Kong suppliers, my Xbox went under the knife anew.

Underground business

After the two-hour operation, we booted it up. We tried it out on original US and Japanese games, bootleg games, original DVD movies and bootleg DVD movies. Everything was direct-loading; no need for those loaders you use on your PS2.

The darn thing actually worked.

This opened the door for pirates to pounce on Microsoft in areas such as Greenhills, where modified PS2 games sell for 200 pesos. Today, the bootleg Xbox games cost anywhere from 500 pesos to 800 pesos, but this should go down in a few months.

The country's main supplier of pirated games, mod chips and premodified consoles is China, coursed through Hong Kong. Specialty retail shops like Lik Sang International Ltd (www.lik-sang.com) and Console Source offer the Xtender mod chip between 80 and 85 dollars, and the Enigmah at 70 dollars. These shops also offer Japanese Xboxes with the mod chips preinstalled, at a cost of 339 dollars.

In the Philippines, one store bought five such premodified units from Hong Kong, and sold them in the Philippines for 19,000 pesos. Either that or users can buy their own Xboxes here or from abroad and have them modified for anywhere between 5,000 and 6,000 pesos. However, this would void their warranty since the Xbox would be opened up, and they have no guarantee that their unit would be replaced if something terribly wrong happens with the circuitry. They also have to make sure they watch closely when the mod chips are being installed.

Installation of the Enigmah chip requires that the 29 wires be precisely soldered to the chip and specific spots on the Xbox's main circuit board. Some say this is a daunting task and that not many users would want to have their Xboxes subjected to the procedure. The Master Chief himself admitted that the procedure was nerve-wracking since it was the first time he was performing it on an Xbox, and it was only the second such procedure in the Philippines that they were aware of. This delicate and often painstaking task, some say, makes modification less of a problem for Microsoft.

The problem is, in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and other areas in Asia, such modifications have actually become underground businesses for retail and electronic shops. And when the modified consoles increase, so will the bootleg games. Considering that Microsoft is selling the Xbox hardware itself at a loss (from 300 dollars down to 199 dollars), and that Microsoft plans to cash in on the expensive games (at 50 dollars each), this revenue model becomes useless now that pirated games on modified units are available.

Worse, once people start burning Xbox games into their own DVDs and play them on their PCs, this would undercut the market for the Xbox console itself. This would leave Microsoft with no revenue from both the hardware and the software side.

Tide of piracy

The hacking of the Xbox and the piracy of its games actually happened faster than anyone expected. Sources previously said they would have mod chips and pirated games ready by December. It's only June and the ball has already started rolling. This goes to show how fast technology becomes unlocked and cracked, and makes Microsoft's statement on the Xbox hacking incident rather laughable:

"Microsoft maintains an evolving high-end security system to protect its intellectual property and we see this incident as posing no threat to our customers or to our partners."

Microsoft representatives in other countries have said the company is investigating legal options to stop the distribution of Xbox mod chips, but the company is fighting a tide of curious Asians who have continuously and successfully made an underground business out of piracy. The Master Chief alone has about two dozen mod chips in his drawer, all waiting for Xbox owners willing to subject their units under the knife.

Curiously, the Greenhills area -- known for years as the bootleg mecca of Manila -- was late in offering pirated Xbox services. The stores with the premodified Xboxes in the Mandaluyong and Quiapo areas are not yet announcing their services openly, but it's just a matter of time before you see other such stores becoming bolder and declaring their piracy openly.

Until the time when Microsoft Philippines officially markets the Xbox in the country, the gray market will continue to supply the local consumer need for the Xbox, and it is through this market that the modified and pirated Xbox games will continue to proliferate. It would also be interesting to see if Microsoft would actively pursue these stores like they do for their software products in cooperation with the National Bureau of Investigation under the Business Software Alliance. Meanwhile, this writer will continue his academic experiment on his newly modified Xbox, searching and waiting for bugs caused by the mod chip, all in the interest of journalistic exploration. After that, as promised, he will remove the mod chip from his unit later. Much later. Much much later.

[Submitted by George Krumins.]

ToC

The PC Section:

Control Your Window Positions and Sizes

by Kevin Hisel (khisel @ kevinhisel.com)

Don't you hate it how Windows forgets where you want your applications and folders to open and how large you want them to be? Two applications in particular are notorious for "forgetting" their place on your desktop: Explorer (the program that visually shows you all your folders and files) and Internet Explorer.

I run a pretty big desktop (1280 x 1024 on a 21" monitor) and I like to keep the left side of my desktop visible. IE will usually remember where I want it to open for the first window but as soon as I open a second window--bam--it wants to open it on the far left side of the desktop. Explorer is similarly stupid. For some reason Windows only has room to remember a set number of folder sizes, positions and display preferences. Open and close enough folders and Windows will start to forget where to put them. This is exasperating if you're a desktop control freak like me.

I finally got fed up and fired up Google (http://www.google.com/) to search for a solution. Almost immediately I came across the link to Basta Computing (http://www.basta.com/). They make quite a few tiny, little shareware applications which solve this and other problems. A quick download later I was installing ZMover (http://www.basta.com/ProdZMover.htm), a wonderful little tool that gives you back control over your desktop windows.

ZMover gives you control of your desktop layout by allowing you to set the size, position, state, and layering of application windows. You can define window positions on-the-fly or give ZMover a list of windows to remember. When these windows appear, ZMover will automatically arrange them for you. ZMover sits in your system tray and watches for windows on its list to open and immediately repositions and resizes them to your pre-set requirements.

Now, all my IE windows open in the same place and at the same size every time. Even when a new window opens and Windows tries to put it at the far-left of the screen, ZMover swiftly takes over and whisks it right into its proper place. ZMover is very flexible--almost any window can be repositioned and most can be resized. It's easy to enter new windows into ZMover's database, too.

http://www.basta.com/Software/SSZMover.gif

ZMover is compatible with Windows 95, 98, Me, NT4.0, 2000 and XP.

30-day free trial. Shareware, $10.

ToC

WinInfo Short Takes: Week of July 29

by Paul Thurrott, July 26, 2002
URL: http://www.wininformant.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=26058

Longhorn? Wait till late 2005

The next major revision of Windows, code-named Longhorn, won't ship until 2005 at the earliest. Various Microsoft executives have said as much, certainly, and this week Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates even specifically mentioned the date during the company's annual financial analysts meeting. But the Longhorn release schedule is tied to so many other products and technologies now, that a time frame of 2005 (or beyond) is virtually guaranteed. Here's why: Gates said this week that Longhorn would be tied to future releases of Office, Exchange Server, and, of course, the SQL Server "Yukon" technologies, which will be used for the Longhorn file system. And my understanding is that the Longhorn's server versions--the follow-ups to the Windows .NET Server family releases that will happen in Q1 2003--will be released in lock-step with the Longhorn desktop versions. Given all this information, how quickly would Microsoft release updates to Office, Exchange and Windows Server? I'm thinking two years would be the minimum, and indeed, Office 11 will ship mid-2003, meaning that Office 12--the one that will be released along with Longhorn--won't happen until at least mid-2005. And consider Windows Server: Windows 2000 Server shipped to customers in February 2000, with its successor, a minor update called Win.NET Server, hitting around the same time in 2003. So how could the next one hit any sooner than mid-2005? It can't. So Longhorn is definitely on track for mid-2005 or later. And that, people, means that we can expect at least one or two interim Windows XP releases in the meantime, as I've been saying for a while now. And though Microsoft won't talk about these releases because it's busy pushing XP SP1, XP Tablet PC Edition, and XP Media Center Edition right now, I can assure you that mentions of future XP versions will start appearing later this year. It's unavoidable.

Tying Together Office 12 and Longhorn

And speaking of Microsoft's plan to tie Longhorn with Office 12, here's the quote. During the Microsoft financial analysts meeting, Gates described the move to the Longhorn generation of products like this. "If we didn't have this approach--a version of Office that takes advantage of [Longhorn]--then the work wouldn't show through," he said. "The most important ISV for us is Microsoft itself. We want one architecture for all our products." In the meantime, Office 11, due in mid-2003, will feature ClearType technology for clearer text, a persistent query window for live updating of query information, and a new user interface, which will hopefully be updated significantly from that awful blue-gray "Office NGO" look we've seen from early alphas of the product.

Microsoft to Up Hiring, R&D Spending

Recession? What recession? Microsoft said this week at its annual financial analysts meeting that the company would increase R&D spending for its next fiscal year by almost 20 percent, to $5.2 billion. Additionally, Microsoft will add 5000 jobs over the same period, bringing its total work force to 55,000 people. And what will Microsoft be doing with all those people, you ask? Investors hope the company will be working to pump up its stock price, which hit a 52-week low the other day. In hindsight, my recommendation that friends and family consider buying Microsoft stock at $70 a share now seems like awkward miscalculation, as the stock was trading in the low 40s as I wrote this.

Exchange 2000 Rockets to top Spot

And speaking of Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, Microsoft reported this week that its Exchange Server product line is now the most popular collaboration and messaging server in the world, surpassing solutions from IBM and, well, just IBM, I guess. Exchange Server usage rose 20 percent over the past year, giving it more than 39 percent of the market. Does anyone else find it odd to see Microsoft continually touting its domination over other products?

Microsoft Has No Interest in Expensing Options

Despite repeated calls from investors and analysts that Microsoft change its policy of not expensing stock options, company executives say they have no plans to do so, unless, of course, new laws force them to. The weird thing is, even Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admits that "it makes economic sense to expense options." Scrutiny over corporate handling of stock options has intensified since the Enron and WorldCom fiascoes, of course, but Microsoft says that it won't have similar problems because its executives don't bathe in extravagant perks of the kind that executives from those companies enjoyed. And Ballmer even noted that Gates and he won't accept new stock options in the future. Which is nice, except that Gates and Ballmer are already two of the richest men in the history of the planet Earth, making any future stock options rather pointless anyway.

AOL Faces Federal Accounting Probe

Everybody's favorite online giant was slapped with a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accounting probe this week after "The Washington Post" expose about AOL revealed that the company's accounting practices were a little unconventional. For example, AOL apparently reported some of its online advertising transactions in 2000 and 2001 in a rather questionable manner, including what appears to be a bizarre legal settlement that involved stock rather than cash. AOL Time Warner stock responded to the news predictably, dropping 18 percent to about $9 on Thursday; the stock has dropped more than 70 percent this year. Does anyone alive still believe that the AOL-Time Warner merger was a good idea?

Palm Market Share Slips as Handheld Sales Falter

Quarterly shipments of handheld computers slipped 10 percent year-over-year--to 2.6 million units, despite the fact that I personally purchased two handheld computers (just doing my part for the economy, ahem). More interesting, perhaps, is news that Palm's share of the market fell dramatically, from 40.6 percent in first quarter 2002 to 32.4 percent in second quarter 2002, when the company sold 846,000 devices. Hewlett-Packard (HP) is now the number-two maker of handhelds, thanks to its merger with Compaq; HP sold 485,000 units in the second quarter, for 19 percent of the market. But the bigger winner, in some ways, was Sony, which jumped to the number-three spot with sales of 250,000 units, a dramatic 233 percent rise from the 75,000 units Sony sold a year before. Sony's performance gave the company 10 percent of the market. Handspring, once the number-two handheld vendor, slipped to fourth place with 171,000 units sold and 6.5 percent of the market.

[Submitted by Jim Lewis]

ToC

From [SFNL] Scot's Newsletter -- 7/18/2002

Subscribe at: http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/

Windows Media 9

Also this week, Microsoft announced Windows Media 9, the official name given its "Corona" effort, which I mentioned in a recent InternetWeek.com story:

http://www.internetweek.com/story/INW20020531S0006

Windows Media 9 is probably being announced now to help Microsoft drown out Apple's MacWorld show in NYC this week. Because, after all, the beta version isn't going to arrive until September 4. (I cannot tell a lie: that analysis isn't really mine but that of a couple colleagues of mine talking in a meeting earlier this week. But since they were probably right, I stole it.)

Windows Media 9 will consist of a new version of the Windows Media Player client, a new streaming server, new audio and video compression, a new encoder, and a new software development kit. Microsoft claims that Windows Media 9 Series will offer significantly improved playback and unparalleled audio and video quality, among other things.

There's really not a whole lot to this announcement right now, it's mostly temperature-enhanced oxygen. The reality may be be somewhat better, but we'll have to wait for September to know for sure. The Windows Media 9 press release:

http://www.microsoft.com/PressPass/press/2002/Jul02/07-15CoronaLaunchDatePR.asp

StarBand Files For Chapter 11

I guess it appears I bought the party line, hook, line and sinker, when I wrote on April 19 that the reports of StarBand's demise at the hands of EchoStar's Charlie Ergen were greatly exaggerated:

http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/24.htm#starb

Thanks to reader Barry Millen for pointing out that, since then, on May 31, StarBand filed for Chapter 11 protection:

http://www.starband.com/infocenter/

My StarBand service is still fully functional, and just as good as ever. But the company has been forced to change its distribution channel. It has also separated from EchoStar, which owned 30 percent of StarBand (an Israeli company known as Gilat in other parts of the world).

Believe it or not, this is still a good thing for StarBand. The company will probably emerge from Chapter 11 and it should have direct control of its customers again. The EchoStar deal made StarBand a sort of OEM supplier of two-way satellite broadband, ripping away contact with end users. I always thought that was a bad idea. Perhaps the company can still make hay out of its superior technology. Meanwhile, EchoStar is trying to make its purchase of Hughes happen, giving it control of the DirecWay DirecPC two-way satellite service (among other things). DirecWay is the same technology as Pegasus Express, which I've reported on extensively, and with mixed findings.

I'll let you know if StarBand suddenly goes dead. And more than likely, you can't order it right now. But I don't think you should cross it off your list permanently. StarBand is still good stuff for anyone who has no hope of DSL or cable Internet service.

[Submitted by Jim Lewis]

ToC

The Linux Section:

Dell, Red Hat to run CBS's SportsLine web site

(Source: Computerworld)
By JENNIFER DISABATINO
JULY 16, 2002

Dell PowerEdge servers running Red Hat Linux as part of a three-year agreement that includes $1 million in the first year for Dell hardware.

The servers from Austin, Texas-based Dell will run on a Linux operating system from Red Hat Linux Inc. in Raleigh, N.C., according to a company statement.

The $1 million agreement is part of a three-year deal during which SportsLine will move from proprietary to open-standard systems. SportsLine hasn't yet determined how much it will spend in the second and third years, Dell spokeswoman Michelle Mosmeyer said.

For the full story:

http://www.idg.net/go.cgi?id=714379

ToC

Ballmer 'fesses up to Linux/Windows cost FUD

By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Posted: 07/16/2002 at 14:25 EST

Windows is a lot more expensive to run than Linux, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has finally confessed. Despite Redmond's heroic efforts to defeat common knowledge with elaborately-rigged total cost of ownership 'studies', innuendo, FUD and outright distortions, the rhetorical power of common experience has become too powerful, even for a marketing behemoth like MS.

According to an article by VARBusiness, Ballmer now concedes that MS execs "haven't figured out how to be lower-priced than Linux. For us as a company, we're going through a whole new world of thinking."

Interestingly, an old page on the MS Web site claiming that the lower costs of Linux are "a myth" has been removed. In its place is a more reasonable item cheerfully touting the many wonderful features in Windows which Linux, it's said, lacks.

For the full story:

http://www.theregus.com/content/4/25629.html

ToC

China looks to replace Windows

By Andrew Colley
ZDNet Australia
July 22, 2002, 7:05 AM PT

News that a consortium of China's universities and commercial interests want to develop a Windows-like desktop operating system could indicate that its Government wants to squash software piracy in the country.

CyberSource CEO, Con Zymaris, believes that China may want to stop looking the other way when it comes to software piracy in order to give its bid to enter the World Trade Organization more credibility.

Zymaris, who has met and spoken with delegations from China's IT sector in the past, believes that Microsoft's Windows product line is simply too expensive for Chinese businesses and government organizations to use legally.

For the full story:

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-945403.html

ToC

Linuxworld - IBM looks to SMB sector for Linux love

Posted August 08, 2002 03:17 Pacific Time

SAN FRANCISCO (08/08/2002) - Ahead of the Linuxworld Conference and Expo, which begins Tuesday in San Francisco, IBM Corp. is seeding the field with a collection of announcements that illustrate its momentum behind the open-source operating system. The company detailed Thursday new customers that have chosen to use Linux with its hardware and software. Nine customers being highlighted bring IBM's tally of Linux followers to more than 4,600, the company said.

What is notable about the latest batch of converts is that some come from the small and medium-sized business (SMB) sector, a segment known for typically using Windows servers to run basic business, productivity and accounting applications.

For the full story:

http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/08/08/020808hnlinuxibm.xml?0808tham

ToC

The Macintosh Section:

Macworld Expo New York 2002 Diary

by Adam C. Engst (ace@tidbits.com)
TidBITS#640/29-Jul-02

My post-Macworld Expo coverage generally aims at analysis, noting significant trends or themes that help us understand the state of the Mac industry and where it's going. This year, however, I'm not going to do much of that, because I'd feel as though I was rewriting last year's analysis of the New York show. In short, attendees were surprisingly numerous (though down about ten percent from last year, a negligible dip considering last September's terrorist attacks on New York) and seemed happy and upbeat. The number of exhibitors was down, but the ones with whom I spoke were happy about the traffic and direct sales. And just like last year, there weren't any truly amazing products, although a number of the more interesting ones appear in our traditional superlatives article in this issue.

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06502

Instead, join me on a ride through the events of my week, complete with a pair of appearances at Apple Stores sandwiching the three days of Macworld Expo. I hope you'll get a better feel for what a Macworld Expo week can be like for me and see how much happens at the Expo beyond the show itself.

Sunday, July 14th

I began with a three and a half hour drive from Ithaca, NY to the Apple Store in West Nyack, NY for a "Meet the Experts" presentation on iPhoto. At the Palisades Mall, a monstrous conglomeration of stores with an abysmal directory, I found the Apple Store and introduced myself to Scott behind the Genius Bar. He clearly knew his stuff, as did the other Genius Bar staffers I spoke with, although he said the downside of the position is that people constantly ask if he's a genius. (Answer: Yes, with a capital G and a TM sign.) The presentation itself got off to a rocky start, with someone in the back immediately asking a detailed iPhoto troubleshooting question. Luckily we managed to get past that quickly, and I showed off iPhoto basics and passed along tips for using it well. Although many audience members were clearly new Mac owners, they asked amazingly good questions, and as I neared the end of my presentation, I realized I'd been talking for nearly two hours.

http://www.apple.com/retail/palisades/

I packed quickly and jumped back in the car to drive another hour into New York City to have dinner with my grandparents. Then, I drove for another hour to my aunt and uncle's house in Staten Island, where I chatted for a while before retiring to catch up on email. Exhausted, I finally went to bed around 1 AM.

Monday, July 15th

Monday is TidBITS production day, so I spent my waking hours editing the issue and trading email with other editors and contributors. The New York Times ran a short piece about our spam filter travails (see "Email Filtering: Killing the Killer App" in TidBITS-367_), so I also spent some time on correspondence regarding that. Before I knew it, my relatives had returned home from work, and it was time for dinner. They went to bed around 10 PM, and once again, I stayed up until about 1 AM, finishing a final edit pass on a Macworld magazine article and responding to as much email as I could, since I was going to be offline all day Tuesday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/15/technology/15SPAM.html
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06866

Tuesday, July 16th

Tuesday before Macworld Expo is traditionally a day I reserve for having fun in New York City on my own, so I got up early to go into work with my aunt, who's second-in-charge of the Statue of Liberty (still closed to visitors, though you can walk around outside now). I spent the morning browsing through the excellent Ellis Island Museum, then headed into Manhattan. I took the subway uptown, checked into the Paramount Hotel, and then spent the afternoon hopping between art galleries in the Chelsea district and taking photos of people on the street.

http://www.ellisisland.com/

At 8 PM, I returned to the lobby of the Paramount, where TidBITS readers had already begun to gather for our annual TidBITS Ice Cream Social (see the group photo below - thanks to Pekka Helos for taking it!). We chatted for about half an hour, tried some truly amazing fresh Krispy Kreme donuts brought by Alex Hoffman, and then walked to a nearby Ben & Jerry's. After cooling off with ice cream (especially welcome in the muggy evening temperatures), we headed back to the Paramount to continue discussions about everything from spam filtering to the room-sized printers that print Apple's trade show banners to the new REALbasic Developer magazine, until we finally called it quits around midnight. I spent another hour preparing email for the next morning (when I'm travelling, I try to send Tristan email every day or so with pictures of things I see), and it was time for bed.

http://www.tidbits.com/resources/640/ice-cream-social-2002.jpg
http://www.rbdeveloper.com/

Wednesday, July 17th

Finally, the official Expo began in earnest with Steve Jobs's keynote. Press people had to be at the Javits Convention Center by 8 AM for the 9 AM keynote, so I got up and out quickly. I always like to walk over to Javits from the Paramount in the morning - despite the 15 minute walk, it's a relaxing time. Arriving at Javits, I immediately ran into an Apple employee friend from Seattle who had been dragooned into holding a big Media sign and directing press people to the appropriate staging area (he was good, and refrained from using the words "pen," "corral," or "herding" when anyone was listening). After 15 minutes of chatting, I joined my fellow pack animals, and another 20 minutes after that, we were herded to our seats in the auditorium. Interestingly, there weren't as many people registered as press as in previous years. This year, I had no problem finding a seat.

The Macintosh media world is relatively small, so many of us know one another, and I sat with a number of editors from Macworld Magazine. We traded comments back and forth and shared notes occasionally as Jobs ran through a vast number of announcements in a mere two hours (see TidBITS-639_ for full details).

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbiss=639

The keynote gets the bulk of the attention at Macworld, but for me it's merely the launch pad for numerous meetings and appearances. After the keynote, I dashed off to a press briefing from Creo, whose Six Degrees software provides a new way of organizing project-related files and email, though currently only for Microsoft Entourage users.

http://www.creo.com/sixdegrees/

After that, I had about 20 minutes to snarf lunch in the speaker room and send and receive email using their AirPort-based Internet connection before heading off to my Macworld Users conference iPhoto presentation. People once again asked so many good questions that I only made it through about two-thirds of my material. Luckily I was able to continue talking at a signing at the Peachpit booth immediately afterwards. After an hour of that, I met with Peachpit's publisher, Nancy Ruenzel, to chat about the book's performance and future. Next up was a short conversation with the director of marketing for Web Crossing, whose software TidBITS is considering for our next-generation infrastructure. Around 5 PM, I finally had a chance to see the show floor, at least until 6 PM, when the show closed.

http://www.webcrossing.com/

Don't think that meant the end of the day, though, since first I hung out with everyone who was going to the Netter's Dinner, and then walked over to the restaurant with them. Before we arrived, though, Glenn Fleishman, a good friend who worked with us on NetBITS, and I broke off and took the subway downtown to meet a small group of Mac friends at a theater where ex-Seattleite Mike Daisey was performing his one-man, Off-Broadway show about working at Amazon.com. Glenn had done a six-month stint as Amazon's catalog manager, and since we had lived in Seattle during Amazon's rise to prominence, Mike's show was especially hilarious (I recommend it to anyone who has watched the dot-com boom and bust at all closely). Since Glenn and Mike knew each other, our group had dinner with Mike and his wife before we all piled back into the subway to head home. I made it to the Paramount by midnight, but after realizing that my roommate - Chuck Shotton, who wrote the first versions of WebSTAR - had arrived and was already asleep, I went to the lobby to work through email for an hour before I dropped from exhaustion again.

http://www.mikedaisey.com/

Thursday, July 18th

Vowing to be better about email, I got up early and arrived at Javits around 9 AM, which is before the show floor opens. Luckily, the press room, with its AirPort-based Internet connection and bagel breakfast, was open, so I settled down to my email. I didn't read much, though, thanks to an impromptu visit from Craig Isaacs, who used to be the VP of Marketing at Dantz Development and is now the president of networking software company Neon Software. In addition to catching up on personal news, I saw enough of Neon's NetMinder and LANsurveyor products to want to spend more time with them later. Craig realized he was late for a meeting, so I spent a few more minutes with email, just in time to receive notification that I'd managed to retain my third place ranking in the MDJ Power 25 list of influential people in the Macintosh world. That list has been good for my ego each year, and it reinforces my belief that making connections and doing the right thing is always the best course of action.

http://www.neon.com/
http://www.macjournals.com/pages/gcsf/mdj_power_25_2002.html

I hit the show floor at 10 AM and spent a few hours browsing the booths before attending a briefing with CMS Peripherals about the ABSplus backup device (a FireWire hard disk with a custom controller and software that enables it to back up changed files whenever you plug it in), and then taking lunch with the president of 4D to talk about their new mail server.

http://www.cmsproducts.com/usb_abs_mac.htm
http://www.webstar.com/products/4dmail.html

Next up was another signing for my iPhoto book at the Aladdin Systems booth, after which Sean King invited me over for a live broadcast of his Your Mac Life radio show, leaving only a half- hour before the show floor closed.

http://www.yourmaclife.com/

Even though I'd managed to eat lunch, the Peachpit authors dinner was welcome, as was the group limo ride that eliminated a long, muggy walk. There, along with much convivial conversation, I learned that my iPhoto Visual QuickStart Guide had been the first product purchased during the grand opening of the new Apple Store in Soho. After dinner and a little rain that didn't break the mugginess, fellow author Dori Smith and I hopped into a cab to go to Apple's Pro-to-Pro party, where vendors demonstrated products and services at small stations while everyone mingled. Unfortunately, demonstrations from a small stage were also going on, with a deafening sound system. By the end of the party, I'd been lucky enough to show the party coordinator my 1998 article on how to throw a good Macworld party.

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=04694

When things wound down at 10 PM, I was too tired to attend the Your Mac Life party with the Macintosh All Star Band, so Tim Holmes (the manager of Apple's Mac OS evangelists and #5 on the MDJ Power 25 list this year) and I walked back to the Paramount, where we talked for a few hours before another friend, Richard Ford of Packeteer, (who was previously Apple's Open Transport product manager) happened on us in the Paramount's bar. His arrival extended the evening for another few hours, so 3 AM had come and gone before I went to my room, where Chuck was still awake. It was another hour before we finished catching up.

Friday, July 19th

Chuck and I had to check out of the hotel before heading over to the show, so we were awake and packed before 9 AM. We met Richard Ford and Tom Weyer of Apple for breakfast and discussions about unusual wireless networking situations, since Tom had been the wireless networking evangelist until recently. Once at the Javits Convention Center, I headed for the speaker room to get email again and dash off a note to Tristan before hosting an informal, round-table discussion in the User Group Lounge. I had a great time talking and quizzing people on TidBITS trivia in exchange for a few TidBITS t-shirts I'd brought to give away. I then saw most of the rest of the show floor before putting in an hour at the Peachpit booth talking to people about digital cameras and iPhoto. There I also received the enjoyable news that Peachpit had sold all its copies of my iPhoto book at the show - we had to send the last few people over to the Aladdin booth, where a few copies were left. With the show floor closing, I had an hour to check my usual sources on estimated attendance and exhibitor opinions about the show.

Though the show was over, I wasn't done. I met Tim Holmes again, and we compared notes on the show while picking up our luggage and meeting Andy Ihnatko (#23 on this year's MDJ Power 25), with whom we took a cab to Brooklyn for dinner with a number of Mac friends at Tim's brother's house. Most people left or went to bed by midnight, but a few of us stayed up talking until nearly 4 AM.

Saturday, July 20th and Beyond

The week's lack of sleep clearly catching up with me, I struggled awake at 7:30 AM and went to breakfast with fellow journalist David Strom at 8 AM. After a lengthy (and tasty) dim sum breakfast in Chinatown, David dropped me off at the Apple Store in Soho, where I was to present at 6:30 PM that evening. My plan was to dump my luggage in an office and then spend the afternoon walking around Soho. I had a great time talking to street artists and wandering in and out of stores and galleries until the lights suddenly flickered and went out when a transformer blew at the main ConEd plant, which powers a large chunk of lower Manhattan. Not being from New York, I didn't immediately assume the worst, but the natives were distinctly jumpy, especially as the fire engines started racing past (as much as is possible in crowded Manhattan streets).

After the power went out, I walked back to the Apple Store, where I watched as firemen rescued people trapped in the elevator, leaving the store with their ladders and a standing ovation from the customers. The Apple Store was better off than almost any other business in the area - its open, airy design had a lot of natural light, and of course, the PowerBooks and iBooks kept working for a few hours on battery power.

http://www.apple.com/retail/soho/

Nonetheless, it was still early in the afternoon, so I didn't see any reason to stick around to see if the power would come back on. Instead, I walked downtown to J&R Music & Computer World, which is one of the main Mac dealers in New York City and located just across the street from the blacked-out area. I was curious to compare them to the Apple Store, and after doing so, I can see why Apple is keen on opening more stores. Although J&R seems generally well-respected as a Mac dealer, the Apple Store had two advantages. First, you can be sure in the Apple Store that everything works with a Mac. Second, Apple does a great job of letting people touch not only Macs, but also peripherals like digital cameras, scanners, and printers.

http://www.jandr.com/
http://www.apple.com/retail/

Continuing down to the tip of Manhattan, I walked past ground zero of the terrorist attacks, which looks primarily like a large construction hole now, though plenty of physical reminders of the destruction of the World Trade Center towers remain. Around 5 PM I returned to the Apple Store, which was being forced to close at 6 PM because the power hadn't come back on. Undaunted, I volunteered to demonstrate iPhoto to anyone who came by since my iBook was the only machine still usable. Even more fun was showing the Apple Store employees some of the tricks and techniques I've learned, since they give presentations about it and other Apple programs every day.

Fortunately, the subway to the Staten Island Ferry was still running, and after a scenic ferry ride, I was recounting the events of my day to my aunt and uncle over dinner. I made it to bed by the relatively early hour of 11 PM.

After a late and leisurely breakfast, I made the four hour drive home, then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening writing this article and catching up on important email. Unfortunately for me, we decided it was more important to run the keynote coverage, so I spent all day Monday writing the articles you read last week. We normally prefer a more relaxed production schedule, but special occasions like Macworld Expo often require such last minute exertions.

Finishing Up

I hope you've enjoyed this trip through my life at Macworld, and if I occasionally seem distracted or tired at future shows, I hope you'll now understand why. As you can tell, the hardest parts are finding time to visit the show floor and keep up with email.

Although I'm dead tired at the end of each day, I do love doing this. There's little I enjoy more than talking with people about Macintosh and Internet topics, and for many people in the industry, trade shows are the main chance we have to see one another.

The big difference between the Macintosh world and so many others is the community that's grown up around the Mac, and that's nowhere more evident than at Macworld. Sure, many people just go to Macworld Expo, walk around the floor for a few hours, and then go home, but if you put some effort into meeting and talking to other people, it's easy to find yourself welcomed into the community.

ToC

iMac Expands to 17 Inches

by Adam C. Engst (ace@tidbits.com)

TidBITS#639/22-Jul-02

Despite rampant rumors that Apple would release new desktop Macs (a move possibly held up due to new systems requiring Mac OS X 10.2), the only new Mac that appeared at last week's Macworld Expo was a 17-inch (43.2 cm) iMac selling for $2,000. Other than the new wide-screen display, the addition of an Nvidia GeForce4 MX graphics controller, and an 80 GB hard disk, the 17-inch iMacs will be identical to the existing high-end iMacs. That means they'll have 800 MHz PowerPC G4 processors, 256 MB of RAM, SuperDrives, 10/100Base-T Ethernet, a 56K internal modem, Apple Pro speakers, and the usual complement of FireWire and USB ports.

http://www.apple.com/imac/

The screen is the most unusual aspect of the iMac - its native resolution is 1440 by 900 pixels, a 16:10 aspect ratio. It can also run at three other resolutions in the 16:10 aspect ratio, plus three resolutions in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio. Perhaps because of its location, cantilevered out on the iMac's chrome arm, the display looks more awkward than the screen on the Titanium PowerBook G4 or the two large Apple Cinema Displays, all of which have roughly similar aspect ratios. In contrast, the 17-inch Apple Studio Display provides a resolution of 1280 by 1024, offering a few more total pixels and more vertical height than the wide-screen iMac display.

http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html

The 17-inch iMac should be available in a week or two - the fact that it's nearly identical to the existing iMacs probably helped Apple push it out quickly. Although there will no doubt be those for whom the higher cost of the 17-inch iMac is difficult to justify, Apple's data show that cost isn't the deciding factor with iMac buyers. During the keynote, Steve Jobs said that half of all the new iMacs sold were the high-end models with the SuperDrive; this new model adds a mere $200 to the price of the previous high end model for the larger display, better graphics controller, and larger hard disk. Given the known (and viscerally obvious) benefits of a larger screen, I expect the 17-inch iMac to be a hit - I know I'd pay the premium for it if I were in the market for an iMac.

ToC

Jaguar, iCal, and iSync Appear

by Adam C. Engst (ace@tidbits.com)

Steve Jobs devoted a large portion of his Macworld Expo keynote last week to building excitement for the next major release of Mac OS X. Codenamed "Jaguar" and known officially as Mac OS X 10.2, the release will reportedly offer significantly improved performance and 150 new features when it appears for sale for $130 on 24-Aug-02. For people buying Macs between 17-Jul-02 and 24-Aug-02, the Mac OS Up to Date program will provide a copy of Jaguar for $20, but unfortunately, there is currently _no_ other upgrade discount for current Mac OS X users.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/jaguar/

Many people have complained about Jaguar's cost, and as much as Apple needs to find sources of revenue in this harsh economy, the company will have to be careful. It's clear that Apple wants to keep people upgrading versions of Mac OS X, and if the price is too high, that could slow further adoption just when Mac OS X is gaining ground. Apple estimates that there are 2.5 million copies of Mac OS X in active use, and they believe that number will double to 5 million by the end of 2002, thanks to 77 percent of Mac buyers keeping Mac OS X as the primary operating system. (For reference, Jobs implied that 5 million Mac OS X users would account for 20 percent of the installed base of Macs, many of which can't even run Mac OS X.)

Our take: Apple should offer a discount for existing users. Times are tough all over, and as much as Apple needs to bring in revenue, Mac users don't have unlimited funds either. Apple is already pushing the limits with the $100 annual .Mac subscription fee (see "iTools Morphs into .Mac; Users Squawk," later in this issue), but that's more optional than a major upgrade to an operating system that still has significant problems and gaps. Plus, losing too many people in the upgrade process could complicate Apple's work in pushing out security fixes going forward and providing a single target for future application development. Until this point, it was safe to assume that everyone was running the latest version of Mac OS X; a too-high upgrade price could further divide the Mac community by operating system version. I strongly encourage people to send Apple feedback on this issue - it's unreasonable to ask Apple to give Jaguar away for free, but the cost could be lowered for existing users.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/

A Few More Jaguar Details

We covered the main features of Jaguar when Steve Jobs first announced it at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) several months ago, so we won't recap that coverage - see "Jaguar: Mac OS X Prepares to Pounce" in TidBITS-629_ for information about iChat, Mail, Sherlock 3, QuickTime 6 (now shipping via Software Update, along with a minor Mac OS X security update), Rendezvous, and more.

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06816

In fact, the Macworld Expo demo of Jaguar appears to have been extremely similar to the WWDC demo - the only new feature I hadn't seen mentioned before was a Desktop Pictures preference pane that can automatically switch between different pictures every so often, a feature previously found in the realm of shareware utilities. That's not to say there weren't new details, and I'd highly recommend browsing through Jaguar's extensive list of features, including such things as AirPort Software Base Station, AppleScript folder actions, mounting of FTP servers in the Finder, and a clean install option. Especially fascinating was the keynote demonstration of Rendezvous, which lets Macs running Jaguar discover network services over TCP/IP. Jobs first showed iTunes automatically discovering and sharing music between a pair of Macs connected only via AirPort; a subsequent demo showed a Mac automatically finding and configuring a network printer, something that's currently a tedious manual process.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/jaguar/morefeatures.html

An important improvement barely mentioned in the keynote for lack of time is Jaguar's improved accessibility, which includes a Zoom feature for magnifying anything on the Mac OS X screen, a black- and-white option for improving contrast for reading text, mouse support using the numeric keypad, and system-wide keyboard access.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/jaguar/universalaccess.html
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1189

One interesting note: the Macworld Expo keynote was the first large-scale webcast to use the new MPEG-4 open standard. About 50,000 people watched, half of them with QuickTime 6, which had garnered more than one million downloads in the 36 hours from its initial release to the keynote.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/jul/22quicktime.html

iCal

Although Apple is building an ever-increasing level of functionality into Mac OS X itself - witness the system-wide Address Book and Sherlock 3 - Apple also announced two new applications: iCal and iSync. iCal is a simple single-window calendar that should fill the needs of many consumers. It supports multiple calendars (such as one for each member of a family), and can publish calendars and subscribe to them via .Mac or any other WebDAV server. iCal will be a free download from Apple when it ships in September, and it will require Mac OS X 10.2.

http://www.apple.com/ical/

The product most likely to suffer from iCal's release is Microsoft's Entourage. Although my impression is that Entourage is a more capable calendar, it lacks extensive sharing capabilities and is aimed at the individual user, leaving it vulnerable to iCal. Sharing is key - as Jobs noted in the keynote, we all have calendars, and there's almost no point in having a calendar if you can't share it with the other people affected by your schedule. For many years, Tonya and I have relied on Now Up-to-Date (once again sold by Now Software, just revived as a division of Power On Software) for its sharing capabilities, and we've been flabbergasted that more busy families didn't use something similar. It's unlikely iCal will hurt Now Up-to-Date much, since Now Up-to-Date is more appropriate for businesses. Plus, Now Software announced a Windows version of Now Up-to-Date at Macworld Expo that should make the program significantly more attractive to offices with Macs and PCs.

http://www.nowsoftware.com/

Our take is that iCal will be as much of a hit as the rest of Apple's iApps. It's hard to beat a free program that offers much- needed functionality, especially when it comes from Apple.

iSync

iCal is cute and will be useful for many people, but iSync is far more important. Based on the SyncML open standard, iSync is a general-purpose application for synchronizing data between multiple devices. Jobs described it synchronizing calendar events from iCal and contacts from the Mac OS X Address Book to an iPod via FireWire, to a Palm handheld (it still requires the Palm conduits) via USB, and to a Sony Ericsson cell phone via Bluetooth (a wireless communication technology that is to USB what AirPort is to Ethernet). As with iCal, iSync will be a free download for Mac OS X 10.2 users when it ships in September.

http://www.apple.com/isync/
http://www.syncml.org/

The utility of such a program is obvious - Macs are getting smaller all the time, but they can't hope to compete with the tiny consumer electronics that continue to gain in popularity. For people who are often away from their Macs, iSync will make it possible to carry a minimum number of these devices and choose between them based on the primary feature you want - an MP3 player, a PDA, or a cell phone.

In the future, Jobs said that iSync will be able to synchronize files between multiple Macs via .Mac (presumably via local networks as well, with some help from Rendezvous). My impression is that iSync is meant to be open, so other applications can take advantage of it as well to synchronize data instead of entire files. The first one I'd like to see is iPhoto, which currently has no good way to synchronize photos between a laptop you would take on vacation and a desktop Mac that you'd use for most of your photo work.

Jobs called iSync a landmark, groundbreaking application, and I think he's right. When coupled with the next generation of small digital devices, it brings significantly more power to Apple's concept of the Mac as a digital hub.

ToC

iTunes 3 Gets Smarter

by Adam C. Engst (ace@tidbits.com)

TidBITS#639/22-Jul-02

Among the bevy of announcements during Steve Jobs's Macworld Expo keynote last week was the release of iTunes 3, a new version of Apple's free MP3-playing software that's available now, though only for Mac OS X.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/

New in iTunes 3 is Sound Check, a feature that normalizes playback volumes to avoid the situation where some tracks are shockingly louder or significantly softer than others. Although I hadn't noticed that much when I first started getting into MP3s, it's become increasingly annoying as my music collection grows. iTunes 3 also offers new categorization options that track the number of times each track has been played and let you rate each song from one to five stars. iTunes also records the last time each song was played.

The main new feature, though, is Smart Playlists, best thought of as filters for your music. For instance, you can create a rule that matches all songs in the Rock genre that were released during the 1960s, and iTunes automatically gathers together the appropriate songs. Even better, Smart Playlists update automatically, so if you add a new CD of early Beatles music, for instance, it will instantly appear in your 1960s Rock playlist. Smart Playlists become even more useful when combined with the play count and rating information, so you can, for instance, create a playlist that gives you 50 randomly selected electronic dance tracks you've rated more than four stars, 600 MB of blues songs recorded before 1970, or the 10 tracks you listen to most often. If you delete a song from a Smart Playlist that's limited to a specific number of songs or a specific size, iTunes automatically picks another appropriate song to fill the space.

iTunes 3 also now supports Audible.com, an Internet service from which you can purchase spoken word content for over 18,000 books, a variety of newspapers, and archived radio shows. With iTunes 3, you can set bookmarks to save your place in long audio books.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/audiobooks.html

Finally, iTunes 3 tries to help you regularize your MP3 collection by renaming the individual MP3 files in a regular fashion, a one-time action that wasn't entirely successful for me. Plus, a Consolidate Library command in the Advanced menu offers to move all the MP3 files that iTunes knows about into your Music folder.

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New iPods Debut

by Adam C. Engst (ace@tidbits.com)

TidBITS#639/22-Jul-02

Among the announcements at Steve Jobs's Macworld Expo keynote in New York was the release of new versions of Apple's popular iPod MP3 player. The existing 5 GB iPod remains available, though its price drops $100 to $300. Although Jobs said nothing of this, I anticipate that the 5 GB model may not last too much longer, given that it doesn't share the slightly redesigned case now used by the $400 10 GB model and a newly introduced $500 20 GB model. The new case is about 10 percent thinner, sports a solid-state scroll wheel (much like a trackpad surface), and adds a FireWire port cover. Plus, the iPods now come with an accessory kit that includes a case with a belt clip (though there are numerous other iPod cases that might suit you better), a wired remote, and new headphones. Existing owners can purchase the accessories separately: the case alone sells for rather steep $40, and the remote/headphones bundle also costs $40.

http://www.apple.com/ipod/

The iPod's internal software has changed as well, so you can now browse by genre and composer (a feature for classical music fans for whom the artist and the composer are different), support for smart playlists and play counts that synchronize with the equivalent features in iTunes 3, support for the iTunes 3 Sound Check feature for regularizing volume, and support for Audible.com with round-trip bookmarking for spoken word content. (For existing iPod owners, these features require iPod 1.2 software, which Apple says will be available in August.) iTunes 2 is still supported for Mac OS 9 users, though presumably without support for the new features appearing in iTunes 3, which works only in Mac OS X.

Additional changes that start to move the iPod beyond being an MP3 player include an Extras menu that lets you browse through calendar events and contacts synchronized via iSync from iCal and Address Book under the forthcoming Mac OS X 10.2. The Breakout game is also available from the Extras menu, instead of as an Easter egg, as is an option that displays a clock.

Perhaps most notable is that, starting in late August, Apple will sell the same iPod models to Windows users for the same prices. The iPod hardware requires no changes, but the package sold to Windows users includes a six-to-four FireWire cable (for connecting to the four-pin FireWire ports common on PCs) and can synchronize songs with Musicmatch Jukebox Plus, a leading PC MP3 player. I suspect that the PC user experience won't be quite as good as on the Mac, since four-pin FireWire cables don't carry power, so PC user will have to use an AC adapter instead of charging the iPod while it's plugged into the FireWire port. Plus, I'd be surprised if Musicmatch Jukebox Plus offered all the features of iTunes in terms of play counts and smart playlists. And finally, Apple said nothing about there being any synchronization of calendars and contacts for PC users.

http://www.musicmatch.com/

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A critical look at .mac

From: Steve Levinson (Steve_Levinson@urmc.rochester.edu)
on the TidBITS Talk mailing list
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 10:51:35 -0400

I assume that the next issue of TidBITS will focus on the many announcements that came out of Macworld this week. I hope that one of the issues covered will be the new .mac initiative. I would like to see a future review address some critical and undoubtedly controversial aspects of the new service.

1. Many of us took Apple at their word when they rolled out iTools that this was a free benefit for having purchased a Mac. We have made extensive use of the iTools web site and have established web sites of our own that we will have to either pay for or move. I believe that Apple should have grandfathered existing iTools users in buy offering the existing set of services for free to those of us who signed up in the past.

2. Many of us do not need the included software, as we already have our own anti-virus and backup software and strategies. In fact, we don't need or want a number of the new services and see little value added - certainly not enough to justify spending $100/year.

3. Some of us already have purchased AppleCare, which includes much more extensive technical support than that being offered through .mac. Wouldn't it make sense to provide a discount on .mac to AppleCare users to provide an incentive to purchase AppleCare, or vice-versa?

4. Many users will see little point in spending an extra $8/month over and above the cost of their ISP. Perhaps a combination package with EarthLink (dial-up, cable & DSL) would have made this more palatable. After all, we don't exactly have an option of getting EarthLink without e-mail and web hosting services at a reduced rate, but .mac users would save EarthLink some costs, which save them some money.

5. Apple seems to have removed all feed-back options from their web site. Going to the "contact us" portion of the web site provides no real options, and clicking on the web site feedback item for .mac simply returns the browser to the .mac page, which lacks any means of providing feedback.

I have a feeling that the roll-out of .mac is going to create a lot of negative feelings toward Apple - not that this is anything new. Most of us have remained loyal in spite of the constant dropping of support for earlier initiatives. It's just a shame that Apple seems to have such contempt for it's loyal user base - it's live blood.


 U N I V E R S I T Y   O F   | Stephen F. Levinson, MD, PhD, Chair
.-..--. /\. ..--/ ---.--.-.  | Physical Med & Rehab, Assoc. Prof. ECE
|_'|  ||  |_||_ \  | |_ |_'  | Phone: (585)275-3274 Fax:(585)442-2949
|\ |  ||  | ||   \ | |  |\   | mailto:levinson@ece.rochester.edu
| \!__! \/| |!__ / | !__| \  | http://homepage.mac.com/sflevinson/
----

From: Travis Butler (tbutler@birch.net)
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 10:51:35 -0400

.mac is going to hurt Apple, I think. A LOT...

a) Aside from a demo I did for the TidBITS list after iTools' intro, the only thing I used it for was the email address. And there's no way I'm going to pay $99/yr just for a mac.com email account -- especially with the aggressive filtering issue. I use mac.com for several mailing lists, and it's the address I give out for e-commerce purchases, but I can live without it if I have to; I had been considering switching to it as a permanent contact address in case I change my local ISP, but needless to say I don't plan on that now. Unless Apple offers some kind of email-only subscription option for a reasonable rate (perhaps the $10 they're asking for an additional address, though that may be a bit cheap), I'll be dumping my mac.com address come September 30.

b) I actually understand and agree with Apple's need to get something back to pay for the resources used in the former iTools service; hosting all of them for free was probably not cheap. However, harking back to the discussion in the wake of the mac.com web hosting restrictions, I think their announced services and pricing options are frankly stupid. I still think there should be *something* available for free, though it would probably need to be very limited usage; there should also be at least one intermediate level available for people who need more than the free '5 short emails a day for mom 'n pop' level but don't need the announced $99 service level. A $99 lump sum is a pretty big hit for a lot of people, and I think making that the only option is a bad idea.

c) Judging from admittedly limited information, I am very leery of the degree to which the new Jaguar apps tie into .mac. I have to pay $99 for a .mac subscription just to use iSync to synchronize information between my laptop and my desktop? To share my iCal appointment files? No, thanks.

----

From: Nik (gerber@iNik.net)
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 12:43:31 -0400

Another real problem with the .Mac service is purchasing it for multiple users. With most ISPs or web hosts, you can pick up a few email addresses and set up a few different sites for one price. In the case of .Mac, services such as anti-virus, backup, synchronization with iSync and email are all limited to a single user! Yes, you can pick up an additional email address for $5/year, but you can still only back up a single user on a computer and install anti-virus on only one machine.

Considering the multi-user nature of OS X, and Apple's commitment to the consumer market (read: families), this limitation is inexcusable. For only a little more than .Mac service, a person can get EarthLink or AOL service, with multiple email addresses, web space, FTP space for backup, and then purchase Retrospect Express and an anti-virus package and they have all the benefits (pretty much) of .Mac, plus more power and dial-up Internet access!

The whole .Mac pricing structure needs to be seriously re-examined and made practical for real-world users.

----

From: Tom Gewecke (tom@bluesky.org)
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 12:47:34 -0400

It's a tough time for the industry, and therefor a tough time for Apple. That means that Apple has to charge its customers money. But in return, Apple will try to develop some genuinely useful software.

Promise? Please skip the lectures. Many, many experienced users are dubious about the value of what they will be getting for the new charges or the sense of these decisions. Asking $100 so someone can keep an email address that advertises for Apple seems pretty foolish. And paying full price a second time for an OS that in some areas is just reaching OS 9 functionality and speed is bound to strike early adopters, who may well tend to feel they helped Apple debug this thing, as excessive.

Time will tell whether Apple has helped itself or made a tough time worse.

[Apparently there's already a petition somewhere to ask Apple to keep free email on Mac.com, but without all the rest of the features. I could see that, particularly if it were forwarding only. - Adam]

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To .Mac or Not To .Mac?

TidBITS#640/29-Jul-02

If the results of our poll asking for your opinions of Apple's charges for .Mac are any indication, Apple will soon be serving somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 .Mac customers, down from 2,200,000 iTools users. Some 85 percent of respondents to our poll said they wouldn't be using .Mac, though the vast majority _had_ used iTools. Of the 15 percent who do plan to use .Mac, 13 percent had previously used iTools, and 2 percent were new users attracted by .Mac's features. Although I still encourage everyone to register their feedback with Apple directly, after results like this and the discussions on TidBITS Talk, it seems to me that the people at Apple making this decision understand the consequences and have decided the harsh medicine is still necessary. Chuck Goolsbee, VP of Technical Operations at digital.forest, our Web and mailing list host, estimated in a TidBITS Talk posting that iTools was likely costing Apple at least $10 to $20 million per year, if not more. Though Apple has kept its corporate head above water with modest profits of late, it's easy to understand Apple's need to reign in costs related to iTools, even at the cost of significant goodwill among existing customers. [ACE]

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbpoll=77
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06883
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1687
http://www.apple.com/feedback/mac/pm.html

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RIAA and Apple 'reaching dÈtente'

By Macworld staff
URL: http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/top_news_item.cfm?NewsID=5025

The music industry and Apple may be approaching a kind of dÈtente over digital music and Apple's iPod.

The music industry, led by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), has been pressing for strict copyright controls. The RIAA believes digital rights management is essential to protect its investments.

The RIAA supports a bill sponsored by US Senator Ernest Hollings. This mandates copyright-protection technology in all digital devices, including computers.

Stop it

Now, CNN reports, the RIAA has complimented Apple's efforts to encourage its users "not to steal music". Hilary Rosen, RIAA chairman and CEO, said: "Apple is definitely one of the computer makers that cares about the legitimate music market and has spent time and resources working with the record labels on online-music delivery systems."

Mentioning Apple's "don't steal music" plea, she says: "I'm convinced it wants fans to enjoy music online in a legitimate way, and has invested resources to make that a reality."

Apple's interest

Apple CEO Steve Jobs told CNN: "Apple owns a lot of intellectual property itself. We own one of the two operating systems in the world. And so we believe in the protection of intellectual property. But that has to be balanced by consumers' fair-use rights, and there's a balance in there somewhere and everybody wants to swing the pendulum one way or another. With iPod, we struck a middle path."

Apple announced iPod for Windows last week, to the delight of Needham and Co. analyst Charles Wolf, who believes Apple may get 20 per cent of a billion dollar market with the move.

Jobs believes that, consumers should be able to buy music, put it on a computer, burn custom CDs, and play it on portable music players.

"You know, people equate burning CDs with theft. Most of the time it's not. Burning CDs means you want custom compilations," he explained.

[Submitted by John Melby]

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The Amiga Section:

Features and Screenshots of AmigaOS 4 in 2002!

August 7, 2002 - Snoqualmie, WA.
URL: http://os.amiga.com/os4/?PHPSESSID=bb9dbf8feda5d1d6d4f58b5ba8e9fba8

As the release date for the next generation of Amiga desktop products gets ever closer, we have been innundated with requests for glimpses of how the new system will look and what features will be included. Amiga has thus asked our partners at Hyperion to provide us with a set of screenshots and a list of features. Below is a list of those features and links to screenshots of AmigaOS as it progresses.

AmigaOS 4 Features - http://os.amiga.com/os4/OS4Features.php
      features and modules to be included in AmigaOS 4
      - last updated: 07-Aug-02

AmigaOS 4 GUI - http://os.amiga.com/os4/OS4GUIPre.php
      screenshots of the AmigaOS 4 Graphical User Interface
      - last updated: 29-Jul-02

AmigaOS 4 Menus - http://os.amiga.com/os4/OS4MenuPre.php
      screenshots of the AmigaOS 4 Menu system
      - last updated: 29-Jul-02

AmigaOS 4 HD Prep - http://os.amiga.com/os4/OS4HDPrep.php
      screenshots of the AmigaOS 4 HD Prep utility
      - last updated: 29-May-02

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The CUCUG Section:

July General Meeting

reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)

President Lewis began the July 18th meeting with an introduction of our guest, Anthony Philipp, followed by the traditional introduction of CUCUG's officers, those helpful folks you can call upon if you need help.

Jim then called upon Linux SIG Chairman Kris Klindworth for the month's Linux news. Kris said that Dell gotten a million dollar contract to provide Red Hat Linux servers.

Kris noted that the Apache web server problem previously raised is serious. The Open SSH hole is still being talked about.

In Macintosh news, SIG Chairman Jack Melby reported that there had been another presentation of OS 10.2. The newest version of OS X is to be released on July 24.

The iPod for Windows has been released. The iPod now has a 20 GB hard drive in it.

Jack said the next speed increase in the PowerMac line is scheduled for August 13, rumored to be a 1.4 GHz dual or a 1.6 GHz single processor. v The iBooks and PowerBooks are also rumored to be due for upgrade.

Jack said he's pretty confident about these rumors as their source, the ThinkDifferent site (http://www.thinksecret.com/), has a very reliable track record.

Jeff Strong brought up the item that Mac third party developers have started to get their hands on 1 GHz PowerPC processors, most notably Sonnet, one of the primary accelerator board manufacturers.

It was stated that the OS 10.2 upgrade will be a "pay for it" upgrade, costing about $130.

Notice was made of the new 17" Cinema iMac.

There was a discussion of the .mac controversy. Features were discussed. iTools will have 100 MB of web storage. There'll be 15 MB of email. The annual cost is slated for $100.

Yellow Dog Linux 2.3 has been released.

Jim Huls raised the topic of an Nvidia MForce 2 chip set for the Mac. This broadened into a discussion of an AMD chip set for PC motherboards and GForce 4 video cards.

Matthew Skaj reported that Microsoft had released a remote desktop client for OS X.

QuickTime 6 has just been released.

Moving to PC news, Jim Lewis noted that the new security initiative from Microsoft called Palladium has been getting hotly debated on CUCUG's Starship 2 message boards. This opened a discussion of digital rights management and the TCPA consortium. Jim concluded that everyone should hit the CUCUG forums (http://www.cucug.org/starship/index.php), read up on the issues, and get an opinion. He said it smacks of "1984."

Defenders of Palladium state that it is supposed to open up the wireless market. However, even Kevin Hisel agreed that the Hollings bill, currently before Congress, is pure evil. Kevin point out that, "Before we freak out here. Nobody's going to buy it. Microsoft is all about money. No money; no do."

Richard Rollins reported that there is now cable modem service in St. Joseph. Insightbb has made it there and Richard is very happy with his 300Kb/second.

Kevin Hisel informed everyone that there is a new SoundBlaster driver available. It's 52 MB in size.

George Krumins asked about the $30 per month DSL deal. Jack Melby spoke to the point, saying it is true, but you have to call them. You get 768 KB up and 128 KB down bandwidth.

Mark Zinzow asked about Tornado.net. Richard Rollins said they are pre-beta, as they haven't even decided on their hardware yet. Richard said they promise 3 megabits up and down.

Kevin Hisel spoke about Folding@Home. He said CUCUG now has seven members involved. CUCUG is now rated at number 118.

Kevin Hisel closed the main portion of the meeting, speaking about the availability of CUCUG merchandise at http://www.cafepress.com/cucug .

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The Presentation: Kris Klindworth discusses security issues

reported by Kris Klindworth (kris.klindworth@carle.com)

This month all three CUCUG SIGs met together for a discussion of computer security issues. Kris Klindworth lead the discussion with information largely gleaned from the excellent security book 'Counter Hack' by Ed Skoudis.

Cracking attacks tend to follow five phases: reconnaissance, scanning, gaining access, maintaining access, and covering their tracks. Not all attacks go through all of these phases. For example, automated attacks like viruses and worms target classes of software and users rather than specific computers systems and networks. Still, it is important to be aware of the various phases so you can defend against them.

In the reconnaissance phase, the cracker attempts to gain any information he can about the target. He may do things like search the web and domain name registrations for contact and hosting information. They can then employ social engineering techniques by calling such contacts. The crackers may represent themselves as a salesmen or a marketing survey taker. People are surprisingly cooperative in providing all sorts of information over the phone.

In the scanning phase, the attacker is looking for ways to gain access to your systems. The attacker probes the target network. They map out the hosts and what ports they are listening on. They try to identify the operating systems being used and the types and versions of network services being provided. With this information, they can look for documented security holes they might exploit.

Now that the cracker has done his homework, he moves into the gaining access phase of the attack. One method the hacker can take is to exploit holes in network protocols. They can employ software, like network sniffers, to listen in on your network sessions. We used to think that technologies liked switched ethernet provided some protection from network sniffers, but this is no longer the case. There are several ways that a hacker can use ARP and IP spoofing to reroute your network connections though a third computer and listen in on your connection from that point. Encrypted communications like SSH, SSL and VPN's can help guard against these so called Man-In-The-Middle attacks, but you still need to be careful. Your client software relies on certificates or fingerprints from the server you are connecting to. They usually keep a database of the fingerprints and certificates of servers you have connected to before. The client software compares the value received against the value in the database and will warn you if they don't match. As this information does change from time to time, it is too easy to assume that everything is okay and to just click "Continue". At that point, your system sends his system the key to decrypt your data; it sends his system the data. His system makes the connection for yours and passes the data through.

A second mode of gaining access is through applications on your system. Your webserver may be sound, but a web application you have added to it may not. You may download a useful application from a web site, not knowing that it is a trojan horse that gives an attacker access to your system. You may use notoriously insecure programs like MS Outlook or MS Word that allow people to embed programs inside of documents that you will unintentionally run when you open them. Even more intelligently designed application like OpenSSH have fallen victim to buffer overflow mistakes in commonly used libraries. Such mistakes allow the attacker to run their own binary code on your system. If they can get access to the password database for you system, there are great tools to help them crack it. These tools exist for Unix variants and MS Windows. Even the most recent versions are still vulnerable to password cracking.

Once the cracker has gotten access to your system, he moves into the maintaining access phase of the attack. The cracker will install backdoors to your system or replace programs you use with trojan horses. There are complete packages called root kits they use to go through your system and make all sorts of changes.

The final phase of the attack is covering their tracks. The cracker will try to edit any logfiles that might alert you to the things he has done on your system. He may replace programs like Windows task manager or the Unix ps command with work-a-like programs that won't display the special programs he has running on your system. They can use network protocols like HTTP and ICMP (network ping) to communicate through your firewalls unnoticed. These protocols are usually allowed to pass through firewalls if your system on the inside initiates the communication. In this mode, your system phones home to another system they control. It returns any result from the last communication and picks up its new instructions. To your firewall, this all looks like normal network traffic, so it ignores it.

So what can you do to lower your risks?

What are some good books an security?

How about some good web sites?

Remember, even if you aren't the primary target of a hacker, your always-on internet connection has great value to him. Your system will make a great base from which to launch attacks on his real targets. You are part of a larger community and you have a responsibility to the other members of that community to keep your system secure.

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July Board Meeting

reported by Kris Klindworth (kris.klindworth@carle.com)

The July meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday, July 23, 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 in the book). Present at the meeting were: Jim Lewis, Emil Cobb, Richard Rollins, Jack Melby, Jim Huls, Kris Klindworth and Kevin Hisel.

Jim Lewis: Jim lead off the meeting with his regrets for not making it into the security presentation. He then launched a discussion to organize a trip to to the DuPage county computer show on the Sunday following the board meeting.

Emil Cobb: Emil reported that we had a total of 23 members in attendance at the last meeting.

Richard Rollins: Richard liked the security presentation. He said he would like to see the Windows SIG follow up in August with a firewall presentation like the Linux SIG had planned. Jim Lewis talked about a couple of options, but didn't officially commit to doing the presentation.

Richard made a comment that his new Linksys router was working very well for him. This triggered a discussion about DHCP assigned IP addresses verses statically assigned addresses. Jim Lewis advised using static IP addresses on small networks. He has had problems with host name resolution on network tools like VNC when using DHCP. When you use static IP address, you can simply punch in the IP address and know you'll get connected to the right machine. Kevin Hisel said that he has used VNC with DHCP and not had any problems. Someone suggested that the way you setup Windows networking might have some effect on this. There was some talk about WINS masterbrowsers and network broadcasts.

Jack Melby: Jack had to cut out of the July meeting early to fix a PC. The August Mac SIG meeting will have Matt Klahn from CodeTek as a guest speaker. Matt is a developer working on their CodeTek Virtual Desktop and SafeOffice software for Mac OS X.

Jack filled us in on things he saw in Steven Jobs recent presentation on Mac OS 10.2. He said it looks very impressive and should hit the shelves on August 24. This started speculation in the group about when or if some future version of the Mac or Mac OS will be released on Intel compatible hardware. The focus in the group was on Apple moving to the Athlon processor. Jack also talked about a future of iChat having a video conferencing feature.

Jack has recently downloaded the RealOne beta and says it's great. It does a good job with MPEG 4 and QuickTime 6 feeds. He also talked about a deal with AT&T to get a 1.5 meg DSL connection for $59.

Jim Huls: Jim had no new business to add.

Kris Klindworth: Kris said he was happy that the security presentation was well received. He reiterated that the Linux SIG will continue its security series with a presentation on setting up Linux firewalls by Dan Jansen. He also expressed great interest in seeing a demo of firewall software in the Windows SIG.

Kevin Hisel: Kevin said that that he had learned a lot from the security discussion in the combined SIG meeting this month. He pointed out that CUCUG members are not likely targets for hackers. He would like to see more presentations in the common ground. We need to draw the members together rather than dividing them so much by platform. Kevin also made a point of showing some new MEI Micro CD sleeves he had picked up. They are very nice flexible plastic CD holders. They require less space than jewel cases and they don't break as easily. They provide ample protection from scratches and offer some protection agains breaking the CDs they protect.

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The Back Page:

The CUCUG is a not-for-profit corporation, originally organized in 1983 to support and advance the knowledge of area Commodore computer users. We've grown since then, now supporting PC, Macintosh and Linux platforms.

Meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the Illinois Technology Center. The Center is located at 7101 Tomaras Ave in Savoy. 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 zero at the McDonalds on the corner of Kirby/Florida and Neil in Champaign, you only go 2.4 miles south. Windsor will be at the one mile mark. Curtis will be at the two mile mark. Go past the Paradise Inn/Best Western motel to the next street, Tomaras Ave. on the west (right) side. Tomaras is at the 2.4 mile mark. Turn west (right) on Tomaras Ave. The parking lot entrance is immediately on the south (left) side of Tomaras Ave. Enter the building by the front door under the three flags facing Rt 45. A map can be found on the CUCUG website at http://www.cucug.org/meeting.html . The Illinois Technology Center is also on the web at www.IL-Tech-Ctr.com .

Membership dues for individuals are $20 annually; prorated to $10 at mid year.

Our monthly newsletter, the Status Register, is delivered by email. All recent editions are available on our WWW site. To initiate a user group exchange, just send us your newsletter or contact our editor via email. As a matter of CUCUG policy, an exchange partner will be dropped after three months of no contact.

For further information, please attend the next meeting as our guest, or contact one of our officers (all at area code 217):

   President/WinSIG:   Jim Lewis                621-2343                 lewisj@pdnt.com
   Vice-President:     Emil Cobb                398-0149                 e-cobb@uiuc.edu
   Secretary/Editor:   Kevin Hopkins            356-5026                    kh2@uiuc.edu
   Treasurer:          Richard Hall             344-8687                 rjhall1@uiuc.edu
   Corporate Agent:    Jim Lewis                621-2343                 lewisj@pdnt.com
   Board Advisor:      Richard Rollins          469-2616
   Webmaster:          Kevin Hisel              406-948-1999           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

Visit our web site at http://www.cucug.org/, or join in our online forums at http://www.cucug.org/starship/index.php .

CUCUG
912 Stratford Dr.
Champaign, IL
61821

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