News Common PC Linux Mac Amiga CUCUG
The September 19 gathering will be one of out split SIG meetings. The LinuxSIG will be finishing up their examination of security issues before themain meeting. After the main business meeting, the Macintosh SIG will haveEmil Cobb demonstrating the Stomp Click'N Design 3D CD labeling programand Jack Melby will conduct a Q&A session on the new Mac OS 10.2 -"Jaguar". The WinSIG meeting will be brimming over with topics and goodies.Kevin Hisel will be doing a companion mini-review of the Stomp CD labelingsoftware. There will be a discussion of the new Service Pack 1 release forWindows XP. Kevin said, "If you are having trouble downloading the thisupdate from the Microsoft web site because it is so busy, we will have someXP SP1 CDs available (FREE for members only) at the meeting." But wait,there's more: a Questions and Answers session, another of our famousround-table (hey, where's the table?) discussions on network securityissues or whatever comes up. And also, thanks to some very generousdonations from Microsoft, we will be sponsoring a monthly FREE raffle justfor showing up. As part of their Mindshare user-group program, Microsoftsent CUCUG a box of stuff which Kevin priced out at about $600 on Amazon.com.All kinds of full-retail-boxed software from MS were included so we plan tohave a prize available for every WinSIG meeting from now on. Here's a greatreason to attend the meetings!
We welcome any kind of input or feedback from members. Run across aninteresting item or tidbit on the net? Just send the link to the editor.Have an article or review you'd like to submit? Send it in. Have a comment?Email any officer you like. Involvement is the driving force of any usergroup. Welcome to the group.
Due to Jim's departure, Vice President Emil Cobb will assume thepresidential duties until the Board can appoint a new president inaccordance with our bylaws (or delegate those responsibility to someoneelse). Since we are only three months away from our next election ofofficers, the Board may decide to forego those appointments, as no minimumtime frame is specified in the bylaws, and let the membership make thosechoices.
Jim was a formidable presence in CUCUG. He held three offices, two electedand one voluntary: President, Corporate Agent, and WinSIG Chairman. We'regoing to need three individuals to step up and fill these positions.Please, if you can, pitch in and help, the need is there.
Other of Jim's "behind the scenes" contributions to the club are beingdealt with by various Board members. Our thanks to them for stepping intothe breach.
Regarding Jim, he should soon be reachable via e-mail, so if you'd like tocontact him, he will be checking his mail at lewisj@pdnt.net. Just give hima little time.
We're all really sorry to see Jim go. He was a good CUCUG president andhe'll be sorely missed.
http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/default.asp
The odd thing is, to get the discount, you must phone your order in (how20th century!). In any event, to place your Microsoft Press order justphone 1-800-MSPRESS. Give them the code MCPC to identify yourself as auser group member and receive 20% off.
BT has lost its controversial bid to sue Prodigy Communications over apatent that it claimed covered the use of hyperlinks.
U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon awarded Prodigy its motion for summaryjudgment to have the case dismissed, saying that no jury could find thatProdigy infringes BT's patent.
The ruling frees all Internet service providers from the threat of havingto pay a license fee to BT for hosting pages that use hyperlinks--thebuilding blocks of the Web. If BT had won and license fees had beenimposed, the charges would have almost certainly been passed on to ISPcustomers.
BT had contacted Prodigy and 16 other ISPs, including America Online, inJune 2000, asking them to buy a hyperlink license. When they refused, theBritish telecommunications giant pursued Prodigy as a test case.
The ruling is a huge blow for BT, which had doggedly pursued the case.Shortly before the case went to trial in February, BT Chairman SirChristopher Bland dismissed suggestions that BT would be wise to ditch thelawsuit. "The case will go ahead," Bland said at the time. "The idea thatwe should abandon this suit in order to provide ISPs with a feel-goodfactor is, frankly, bizarreÉEveryone sues all the time in the States,anyway."
BT appeared to be losing the case almost from the start. In March, McMahondecided, in what is known as a Markman ruling, that many of BT's claimswere invalid. A Markman ruling constitutes the first phase of patent trialsand is concerned primarily with putting the words of the patent claim intoplain English.
The hyperlink patent--properly known as the Sargent patent--describes asystem in which multiple users, located at remote terminals, can accessdata stored at a central computer. BT had argued that the Internetinfringes the Sargent patent and that Prodigy facilitates infringement byits subscribers by providing them with access to the Internet.
But McMahon found three problems with BT's arguments. First, she said, theInternet has no "central computer" as described in the Sargent patent.Second, she said that because the Internet itself does not infringe theSargent patent, "Prodigy cannot be liable for contributory infringement oractive inducement for providing its users with access to the Internet."
And third, said the judge, BT's argument that Prodigy's Web serversdirectly infringe the Sargent patent also fails "because Web pages storedon Prodigy's Web servers do not contain 'blocks of information' or'complete addresses' as claimed in the Sargent patent."
"In contrast to what BT would have us believe," McMahon concluded, "thereare no disputed issues of material fact in this case. Instead, the twosides reach vastly different conclusions based on the same set of facts. Ifind that, as a matter of law, no jury could find that Prodigy infringesthe Sargent patent...either as part of the Internet or on its Web serverviewed separate from the Internet. Prodigy's motion for summary judgment istherefore granted."
BT filed for the patent in the United States in 1976. The patent, No.4,873,662, was issued to BT in the United States in 1989 and expires in2006. The company said it only discovered the patent in a routine trawlthrough its own patents four years ago.
ZDNet UK's Matt Loney reported from London.
Those of you that read the Athlon XP 2600+ review at Anandtech the otherday may have noticed that he didn't use Sysmark as he used to.. He saidthey had found some issues with it.
According to Dean Kent, one of the people behind Realworldtech.com (heis a widely respected guy in the hw enthusiast community), some peoplehave found proof of some very murky stuff going on in Sysmark, and theyhave sent this proof to several websites, so the lid is going offsoon... Take a look at this post:
http://www.aceshardware.com/forum?read=80028558
Intel is an investor of Bapco, the creator of Sysmark. Some people arespeculating that this might give the people that sued Intel formisleading people about the performance of the P4 a very good case.
Intel has been an investor in Bapco for a long time IIRC. The funnything is that each new version comes up with a mix that makes Intelchips look faster. But AMD have added stuff like SSE and prefetch, soBapco have produced a version that are bandwidth hungry or SSE2optimized.
When the Hammer comes out I guess they'll favour PNI... Or maybe not, asAMD joined Bapco recently. Makes you wonder if AMD found out aboutthis, and wanted to join in order to influence the next version.
It will be very interesting to see how this develops.
In a move many people expected to happen at last month's Macworld Expo,Apple has unveiled new Power Mac G4s that offer significant enhancements toApple's professional desktop line while changing only the front panel ofthe elegant Power Mac industrial design. In fact, the front panel changepoints to the Power Mac's differentiating name - Apple identifies the newmodels as with the clunky moniker "Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors)."
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/aug/13pmg4.html
http://www.apple.com/powermac/
The new Power Macs all feature dual PowerPC G4 processors running at 867MHz, 1 GHz, or 1.25 GHz; the first two have 1 MB of backside L3 cache, andthe 1.25 GHz model offers 2 MB of backside L3 cache. Three video cards, allof which offer ADC and DVI connectors and support dual monitors, areavailable: the Nvidia GeForce4 MX with 32 MB of DDR-SDRAM, the ATI Radeon9000 Pro with 64 MB of DDR-SD-RAM, or the Nvidia GeForce4 Ti with a 128 MBframe buffer of DDR-SDRAM for the ultimate in graphics power. The mainsystem memory is also DDR-SDRAM, which provides twice the throughput ofconventional single data rate RAM. Storage comes in the form of a 60 GB, 80GB, or 120 GB Ultra ATA/100 hard drive running at 7200 rpm, plus either aCombo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) or a SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW). If you want morestorage, there are three additional 3.5-inch internal hard drive expansionbays and one more external expansion drive bay. Additional system expansionis possible with the four 64-bit 33 MHz PCI slots and one 4x AGP slot.After that, the specs return to the familiar, with two FireWire ports, fourUSB ports, Gigabit Ethernet, an AirPort card slot, keyboard, mouse, and soon.
http://www.apple.com/powermac/specs.html
The new Power Macs do require (and boot into by default) Mac OS X 10.2Jaguar; they also include Mac OS 9.2.2. Other bundled software includesLemke Software's Graphic Converter, Omni Group's OmniGraffle andOmniOutliner, Caffeine Software's PixelNhance, and Ambrosia's Snapz Pro X,plus Apple's full iApp suite.
The dual 867 MHz Power Mac G4 starts at $1,700, with the dual 1 GHz modelstarting at $2,500 and the dual 1.25 GHz model at $3,300. The dual 867 MHzand dual 1 GHz models are available immediately; the 1.25 GHz model isslated to ship in the second half of September.
Apple last week announced small changes to its consumer desktop line ofMacs. The eMac, which initially offered only a CD-RW drive, now featureseither a Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) for $1,100, or Apple's SuperDrive(DVD-R/CD-RW) for $1,500 (the two configurations differ in other ways too -the SuperDrive-equipped model has a faster CPU, more RAM, and a larger harddisk). If you want the stylish iMac with its flat-panel display instead,Apple just sweetened the deal by dropping the prices on the CD-RW and Combodrive models by $100, to $1,300 and $1,500 respectively. (Both repricedmodels come with the 15-inch LCD screen; the 15-inch model with aSuperDrive remains priced at $1,800 and the 17-inch model comes only with aSuperDrive and costs $2,000.) Although these changes are minor, they helpmake the iMac and eMac even more attractive to students just before thestart of the school year.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/aug/13consumer.html
http://www.apple.com/emac/
http://www.apple.com/imac/
On Saturday, 24-Aug-02, Apple released Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, the secondmajor update to Mac OS X since the operating system's release on 24-Mar-01.As with Mac OS X 10.1, Jaguar offers significant improvements on the statusquo, bringing back features from Mac OS 9 (such as spring- loaded foldersand Software Base Station) and breaking new ground (look at Rendezvous andInkwell). We've looked at Jaguar's features in brief before, and additionalcoverage will be forthcoming as we learn more. In the meantime, Jaguardiscussions have already started on TidBITS Talk - be sure to check themout for details. A single-user copy of Jaguar costs $130, or you can buy a5-license family pack for $200. [ACE]
http://www.apple.com/macosx/
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06816
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06880
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1711+1712+1714+1715+1716+1718+1719+1688
Apple has made available a pair of security updates for Mac OS X to helpprevent unwanted access to your Mac. Specifically, the updates modifycomponents of Mac OS X to incorporate changes in OpenSSL 0.9.6g, and theSun RPC XDR encoder under Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar. Security Update 2002-08-20applies to machines running Mac OS X 10.1.5; Security Update 2002-08-23works on Macs running Jaguar. The update is either a 2.2 MB or 5.6 MBdownload, depending on which version applies, and is available throughSoftware Update or as a separate download from Apple. [JLC]
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120141
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120142
Netscape Communications has released Netscape 7, a promising improvement tothe now-underdog Web browser. New in Netscape Navigator 7 is tabbedwindows, which enable you to load multiple Web sites within the samebrowser window, plus overall performance improvements and bug fixes. Othernew features include persistent history that records visited URLs acrosswindows and sessions, a Download Manager that tracks all your downloads ina single window (like Internet Explorer), a Print Preview (though itdoesn't redraw the preview to account for scaling percentages), thecapability to save a page as a folder of files, a contextual menu featurethat lets you start a Web search for selected text, and updatenotifications of new releases. The Netscape Mail component has also hasmuch-needed performance enhancements, a quick search for messages in amailbox, alerts of new mail, labels, easier filters, and more. Netscape 7is a free 19.2 MB download for users of Mac OS X, or a 155K activeinstaller for users of Mac OS 8.6 or 9.x (where the eventual installationneeds approximately 36 MB of disk space). [JLC]
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp
http://wp.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/ns7/relnotes/7.html
For those interested, Mozilla 1.1 is now out.
I've ran into one change that I would call a bug but might be a design flawin tabbed browsing. Selecting a bookmark of tabs to load up no longerreplaces what is already loaded and tabbed. It now adds that many moretabbed sites to the window. I haven't found a way to change this so I'mgoing to have to do some research on this. It seems to handle MS's site"slightly" better depending on the format of the page.
The one thing that stands out and they claim is what they focused on isthat it's faster. Much faster!
So far it's a keeper!
After an initial release and rapid retraction last July, Microsoft hasre-released its Palm conduit for Entourage X, enabling Entourage X users tosynchronize contacts, calendar items, tasks, and notes (but not email)between Entourage X and Palm-compatible handheld devices. We haven't yettested this newest release and can't say if it's any more reliable than theversion Microsoft previously withdrew, so (as always) back up your databefore installing. The conduit requires Microsoft Office X Service Release1, Mac OS X 10.1 or later, and a Palm-compatible handheld with Palm OS 3.xor later and Palm Desktop 4.0 or later. It's a 716K download. [GD]
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06878
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/DOWNLOAD/OFFICEX/palmsync.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/DOWNLOAD/OFFICEX/OfficeX_SR1.asp
At Apple Expo in Paris, Apple today released iCal, the company's simplecalendar application announced at Macworld Expo in July. iCal provides anattractive Aqua interface, supports multiple calendars, and allows forcalendar sharing via a WebDAV server or via .Mac (which can also publishcalendars so they can be viewed in a Web browser). The program is free andis a 6.3 MB download, but keep in mind that it requires Mac OS X 10.2Jaguar and can send email invitations only with Apple's Mail.
http://www.apple.com/ical/
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06880
The other noteworthy announcement from Apple is that starting in January of2003, all new Macs will boot only into Mac OS X. Older applications willremain accessible via the Classic environment. The announcement is nosurprise - we've all known the day was coming when new Macs would cease tobe able to boot into Mac OS 9 - so if you were thinking about buying a newMac and need the capability to boot into Mac OS 9, you might want to buysomething in the next few months. [ACE]
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/sep/10macosx.html
Karelia Software has released Watson 1.5.5, its utility for easilygathering information from the Web that offers more features than Apple'sotherwise-similar Sherlock 3. New in this version is the capability toperform Internet searches using Google, along with a module that helps youfind and purchase products from Amazon.com. The ZIP Code lookup utility hasalso been improved, and Watson is now fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.2Jaguar. It's often easier to use Watson instead of a Web browser to look upinformation such as movie times, flight schedules, eBay auctions, and more.Watson 1.5.5 is a free update to owners of Watson 1.5 and later, and isavailable as a 2 MB download. An individual license to use Watson beyondits two-week demo period costs $30; a "household" license costs $40. [JLC]
http://www.karelia.com/watson/
When Font Reserve 3.0 was released as DiamondSoft's first attempt on theMac OS X fortress, it couldn't handle Mac OS X fonts, such as .dfonts,.otfs, and Windows .ttfs - rather a serious limitation for a fontmanagement utility. (See "Font Reserve Moves to Mac OS X" in TidBITS-620_.)Now an update, version 3.1, fills that hole; it's a 10.2 MB download. FontReserve 3.1 is Jaguar-compatible and manages all Mac OS X font types.Auto-activation now works too: when a document is opened by just about anyMac OS X application, if it uses any fonts that are in Font Reserve'sdatabase and aren't active, Font Reserve activates them transparently.Those who favor Font Reserve's centralized approach to font storage and itsdatabase-like features that make finding and navigating even hugequantities of fonts easy will be delighted to see at last a Mac OS Xversion that truly works. It's free for owners of version 3.0, $30 forowners of previous versions, $50 for owners of ATM Deluxe and Suitcase, and$90 for new users. [MAN]
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06751
http://www.fontreserve.com/support/downloads.html
Now that developers have had more time to work with the shipping version ofMac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, applications are being updated to address variouscompatibility issues. Last week saw updates to Bare Bones Software's BBEditand QuicKeys X, both free to registered users. BBEdit 6.5.3 is a 7.7 MBdownload; QuicKeys 1.5.3 is an 8.9 MB download. [JLC]
http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit.html
http://www.barebones.com/support/bbedit/bbedit-notes.html
http://www.cesoft.com/products/qkx.html
http://www.cesoft.com/downloads/qkx/qkx-153-readme.txt
The Most Important Rule: Build Products People Want.
iMovie, iPod, iPhoto, iTunes, television tuner-cards, composite video out,CD burners on laptops, flat-screen iMacs, Cinema displays, and QuickTime...seemingly every quarter, Apple ships another drool-worthy technology thatfurther erodes the tenuous division between "entertainment devices" andcomputers.
Since 1979, Apple has broken every rule in business. It shipped a personalcomputer at a time when computers were million-dollar playthings ofuniversities, insurance companies, and defense contractors. It introduced acommercial graphical interface to a market filled with power-nerds whosneered at the ridiculous idea of "friendly" computers. It brought video tothe desktop, wireless to the home, and the biggest, sexiest titaniumnotebook ever made to laps everywhere. It put freaking open-source Unixunderneath its legendarily easy-to-use operating system!
Apple has broken every rule except the most important one: build what yourcustomers want to buy. Since 1979, Apple has achieved its every success byselling the stuff that people like you and I want to buy. Since 1979,Apple's failures (Remember the Apple III? The Newton? The Cube?) have beenproducts that simply didn't sell well enough.
Today, Apple - and every other technology company - is in danger of losingits right to make any device that it thinks it can sell. Hollywood,panicked at the thought of unauthorized distribution of movies capturedfrom digital television sets, is calling for a new law that would give itultimate control over the design of every device capable of handlingdigital television signals.
This is bad news for any company that wants to collapse the distinctionbetween entertainment devices and computers. Digital hub projects areexciting, but they're also squarely in Hollywood's cross-hairs. The moreyour Mac acts like a television device (think of TidBITS's April Foolsspoof iTiVo coming true, or El Gato's new EyeTV) the more your Mac will besubject to regulations that are meant to control "only" digital television(DTV) devices.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06765
http://www.elgato.com/eyeTV/
We've seen some coarse attempts to reign in technical innovation from thelikes of Senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC), whose Consumer Broadband andDigital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA) is also known as the "Consume,But Don't Try Programming Anything" bill. There's a far more insidiousthreat to your rights to buy a Mac that does what you want it to do:regulations intended to speed the adoption of digital television are in theoffing, regulations that will have a disastrous effect on Apple and everyother computer manufacturer.
Digital Television and Hollywood
Here comes digital television. Digital television uses a lot less radiospectrum than the analog TV system we use today. If all broadcasters wereto switch to digital, the U.S. government could auction off the freed-upspectrum for billions of dollars. Understandably, the FCC is big on gettingAmerica switched over to digital, so much so that they've ordered allanalog broadcasts to cease in 2006, provided that 85 percent of Americanshave bought digital sets.
Hollywood says that digital television will make it too easy to makedigital copies of its broadcast movies and redistribute them over theInternet. Never mind that digital TV signals eat up to a whopping 19.4megabits of data per second, well beyond the ability of any currentInternet user to redistribute without compressing the video to the pointwhere it's indistinguishable from analog shows captured with a TV card.Never mind that you can always hook up a capture card to the analog outputof a digital set and make a near-perfect copy.
Never mind reality. In Hollywood's paranoid fantasy, digital televisionplus Internet equals total and immediate "Napsterization" of every movieshown on TV. So the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) hasthreatened to withhold its movies from digital television unless SomethingIs Done.
This has given the feds The Fear. If there aren't any movies on digitaltelevision (the argument goes), no one will buy a digital TV set, and if noone buys a digital TV, the feds won't be able to sell off all that freed-upspectrum and turn into budget-time heroes. So Something Will Be Done.
Perfect Control Makes Imperfect Devices
In November of 2001, at the request of Representative Billy Tauzin (R-LA),the MPAA's Copy Protection Technical Working Group spun off a sub- group,called the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (BPDG). It's aninter-industry group with representatives from the movie studios, consumerelectronics companies, computer companies, broadcasters, and cable andsatellite operators. The BPDG's job was to consult with all theseindustries and draft a proposal that would set out what kinds oftechnologies would be legal for use in conjunction with digital television.
The BPDG started off by ratifying two principles:
1. All digital TV technologies must be "tamper resistant." That means thatthey need to be engineered to frustrate end-users' attempts to modify them.Under this rule, open-source digital television components will be illegal,since open-source software (like Darwin, the system that underpins Mac OSX) is designed to be modified by end-users.
2. To be legal, a digital television device must incorporate only approvedrecording and output technologies. Some system will be devised togreen-light technologies that won't "compromise" the programming that theyinteract with, and if you want to build a digital TV device, you'll need todraw its recording and output components exclusively from the list ofapproved technologies.
Hollywood Never Gets Technology
The entertainment industry has a rotten track record when it comes toassessing the impact of new technologies on its bottom line. Every newmedia technology that's come down the pipe has been the subject ofentertainment industry lawsuits over its right to exist: from player pianosto the radio to the VCR to the MP3 format and the digital video recorder,the industry has attempted to convince the courts to ban or neuter everynew entertainment technology.
http://mmd.foxtail.com/Archives/Digests/200103/2001.03.09.01.html
http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/weblog/view/wlg/953
http://www.eff.org/Legal/Cases/RIAA_v_Diamond/
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/Newmark_v_Turner/20020606_eff_pr.html
In 1984, Hollywood lost its suit to keep Sony's Betamax VCR off the market.The Betamax, Hollywood argued, would kill the movie industry. In the wordsof MPAA president Jack Valenti, the VCR was to the American film industry"as the Boston Strangler is to the woman home alone." The most importantthing to emerge from that case was the "Betamax doctrine," the legalprinciple that a media technology is legal, even if it can be used toinfringe copyright, provided that it has substantial non-infringing uses.
That means that even though a VCR can be used to duplicate and resellcommercial video cassettes illegally, it's still legal to manufacture VCRs,because you can also use them to time-shift your favorite programs, a usethat is legal. That's why the iPod exists: You can create MP3s legally byripping your lawfully acquired CDs with iTunes. That you can also illegallydownload MP3s from file-sharing networks is irrelevant: the iPod has asubstantial, non-infringing use.
The BPDG proposal compromises the Betamax Doctrine. Under Betamax, Applecan make any device it wants to, without having to design it so that it cannever be used to infringe - it is enough that some of the uses for thedevice are non-infringing. Crowbar manufacturers aren't required to designtheir tools so that they can never be used to break into houses - it'senough that crowbars have some lawful uses. It's impossible to make reallygood, general-purpose tools that can't ever be used illegally - Betamaxlets manufacturers off that impossible hook.
A Veto Over New Technology
Consumer electronics and IT companies were willing to go along with theidea that devices should be tamper-resistant, and that there should be somecriteria for deciding which outputs and recording methods would bepermitted. Each company had its own reasons for participating.
Two groups now have proprietary copy-prevention technology they want tobuild a market for: Hitachi, Intel, Matsushita, Sony, and Toshiba aremembers of the "5C" group, and Intel, IBM, Matsushita (Panasonic), andToshiba are members of the "4C" group. Since the 4C and 5C technologieshave been blessed by Hollywood's representatives to the BPDG, a mandatedBPDG standard will make it illegal to sell less-restrictive competingproducts, and so by participating in BPDG, the 4C and 5C companies couldshut out the competition, guaranteeing a royalty on every DTV device sold.
http://www.dtcp.com/
http://www.4centity.com/
Other companies, like Philips and Microsoft, have their own copy-prevention technologies and were anxious that if they didn't play ball withthe BPDG, it would be illegal for them to sell DTV devices that incorporatetheir technology.
Finally, the computer companies became involved because they saw the BPDGas a way of setting out an objective standard that they could follow, andin so doing, be sure that they wouldn't be sued into bankruptcy if theircustomers figured out how to use their technology in ways that Hollywooddisapproved of. But then Hollywood dropped its bomb. When it came time tosetting out the actual criteria for DTV technology, Hollywood announcedthat it would consider only one proposal: new DTV technology would be legalonly if three major movie studios approved it.
The tech companies at the BPDG had been there with the understanding thatthe BPDG's job was to establish a set of objective criteria for newtechnology. Those criteria might be restrictive, but at the very least,tech companies would know where they stood when they were planning newgizmos.
Hollywood suckered the tech companies in with this promise and then sprangthe trap. No, you won't get a set of objective criteria out of us. From nowon, every technology company with a new product will have to come to us onits knees and beg for our approval. We can't tell you what technology we'relooking for, but we'll know it when we see it. That's the "standard" we'rewriting here: we'll know it when we see it.
The Endgame
The BPDG co-chairs submitted their final report to Rep. Tauzin, theCongressman who had asked for the BPDG to be formed at the beginning. Thereport was short and sweet, but attached to it was a half-inch thickcollection of dissenting opinions from the likes of the Electronic FrontierFoundation, the Free Software Foundation, and Digital Consumer, as well ascommercial interests like Philips, Sharp, Zenith, Thomson, and Microsoft.
http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/000128.html#000128
http://www.house.gov/tauzin/
http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/000116.html
http://www.fsf.org/
http://www.digitalconsumer.org/
Missing from the report were objections from any computer manufacturer. Theinformation technology industry took its lead from Intel, which has aninterest in the 5C and 4C technologies, and is quite pleased at the idea ofa BPDG mandate becoming law. Apple, which has previously been outspoken onthe subject of a free technology market, was silent, as were IBM, HP, Dell,Gateway, and all the other general-purpose computing companies who have themost to lose from a BPDG mandate.
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0203/04.jobs.php
The Future
It's bleak. On 08-Aug-02, FCC Chairman Michael Powell announced that theFCC would open proceedings to mandate the BPDG proposal, turning this"standard" into the law of the land. Without any computer companies willingto carry the banner for the freedom to innovate, to make Betamax-legaltechnology without oversight from the film industry, the BPDG mandate willalmost certainly come to pass.
The BPDG world will be extremely hostile to the digital hub concept. Thinkabout a high-definition digital video suite of iMovie tools. These toolswill exist to capture, store, and manipulate high-definition video streams- streams from camcorders, TV sources, and removable media like DVDs. Theymight support cable-in or a DTV antenna so that your digital hub doesn'trequire a stand-alone TV. And they'll need a DVD burner/reader and drivers.
Incorporating a tuner and a DVD player/burner into a Mac is just the kindof thing that scares the daylights out of the BPDG. If you expect to beable to play your existing DVDs on your Mac, let alone record shows thatyou get off cable or an antenna and play them on your TV set, think again.
Hollywood wants to be sure that you can't do anything with video from TV orcable without the film studios' permission. So while you may want to beable to stick a DVD full of home movies into your Mac and edit a fiveminute short for your distant relatives to download from your iDisk,Hollywood wants to be sure you won't be able to do the same with thatepisode of Buffy you recorded from the TV. When your distant relativesdownload your home movies to their computers and burn them to DVD,Hollywood wants to be sure that what they're burning is really a home movieand not a Law & Order episode that slipped through the cracks and made itonto a Web site.
How can this be accomplished? Once the video is on a DVD, a Web site, oryour hard disk, neither your Mac nor your TV can tell the differencebetween Buffy and your holiday videos. There's no easy answer, and luckyfor us, the Betamax doctrine says that just because someone might dosomething illegal with El Gato's EyeTV or a real iTiVo, it doesn't mean youcan't have one. It's enough that there are legal things that can be donewith the technology.
But absent any way to achieve Hollywood-grade perfect control over thetechnology's use, the BPDG simply won't let it come into being. It will beillegal to _manufacture_ this device.
Hollywood's approval of an iTiVo will be contingent on its "tamperresistance" (so long, Mac OS X, hello again, Mac OS 9!) and its operatingsystem will have to include a facility for marking files that can't bestreamed over an AirPort card or Ethernet port (forget sitting in yourbedroom watching video stored on a server in your living room!). The entireoperating system and box will have to be redesigned to prevent unauthorizedcopying of Hollywood movies, even if that means your own digital video datacan't be backed up, sent to a friend, or accessed remotely.
If the entertainment industry had gotten its way, we wouldn't have radios,TVs, VCRs, MP3s, or DVRs. Business Week called Hollywood "some of the mostchange-resistant companies in the world." No one should be in charge ofwhat innovation is permitted, especially not the technophobes of the silverscreen.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/mar2002/nf20020327_2364.htm
A Glimmer of Hope
For all the likelihood of a BPDG mandate becoming law, it's by no meansinevitable.
One technology company - Apple, IBM, AMD, Gateway, Dell, HP - could stallthe process. All it would take is a public statement of opposition to theBPDG, a breaking of ranks with Intel and the other companies who areseeking to secure a market for their copy-prevention technologies, and theFCC would be confronted with infinitely more uncertainty about a BPDGmandate than it currently faces.
There are already a couple million DTV devices in the market that will benearly impossible to accommodate under the BPDG mandate; another 12 monthsand there will be 10 million or more, and it will be too late to try tolock down DTV without permanently alienating DTV's most importantcustomers.
Apple has been a strong champion of its customers' right to buy and useinnovative technologies in innovative ways. If any company has therule-breaking courage to stand up to Hollywood's bullying, it's Apple. Ifwe're very lucky, Apple will agree. One press conference where Steve Jobsgives the MPAA what-for would likely derail the FCC's consideration of theBPDG process - maybe forever.
Mac users are fiercely loyal to the Macintosh, and Apple has alwaysresponded with new Macs with innovative features. Let's hope that theywon't forget us now that there's pending legislation that could hamstringboth Apple's entire digital hub strategy and the ways we already use ourMacs with tools like iMovie, iDVD, and the SuperDrive.
(For further reading, I encourage you to read the following Web sites andarticles: the EFF's BPDG weblog, "Consensus at Lawyerpoint"; Rep. Tauzin'smemo to the BPDG representatives; the EFF's letter to Rep. Tauzin; the NewYork Times on the BPDG's final report; the EFF's comments on the BPDG'sfinal report; a summary of the EFF's comments on the BPDG's final report;and the BPDG final report.)
http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/
http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/000138.html
http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/000133.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/05/technology/05DIGI.html
http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/000116.html
http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/one-page.pdf
http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/000128.html#000128
[Cory Doctorow is Outreach Coordinator for the Electronic FrontierFoundation. He's been using Apple computers since 1979 and has a27-pixel-by-27-pixel tattoo of a Sad Mac on his right bicep. He won theJohn W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Writer at the 2000 HugoAwards, and his first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, will bepublished by Tor Books next Christmas. He is the co-editor of the weblogsBoing Boing and Forwarding Address: OS X and is a frequent contributor toWired.]
http://www.boingboing.net/
http://www.saladwithsteve.com/osx/
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,54202,00.html
Cory Doctorow's article last week on whether Apple's digital hub conceptcan survive the political machinations of Hollywood garnered unprecedentedattention, thanks to a mention on the geek news site Slashdot. Like otherswho have been "Slashdotted," we were unprepared for the tidal wave oftraffic. After a few hours we managed to move the cached article from ourdatabase server (behind a 128K ISDN line) to our main server atdigital.forest (where they have a huge OC-12 Internet connection); thathelped, but even our main server maxed out serving 100 simultaneousconnections with no respite until the load started to wane in theafternoon. Although I still don't think it's necessary to design a systemjust to handle an isolated spike in traffic like this, a move to Mac OS Xon a faster Mac will probably ease future concerns.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06901
Also, Cory sent a clarification surrounding his statement that the FCC hadannounced it "would open proceedings to mandate the BPDG proposal, turningthis 'standard' into the law of the land." He writes:
"In the FCC rulemaking proceeding, the FCC commissioners and spokespeopleclarified this, saying that the FCC proceeding was looking for comments onwhat sort of Broadcast Flag mandate, if any, would be appropriate; further,they said that the BPDG proposal would not receive any specialconsideration. For information on how you can submit your own comments tothe FCC rulemaking, visit the link below and sign up for regular updates."
Finally, as always, I encourage you to check out the ongoing discussion onTidBITS Talk surrounding this topic. Although the outlook may seem bleakregarding legislation in the U.S. seriously hampering the kind of digitallifestyle that Apple has been promoting, the efforts of individuals canmake a difference, both by convincing companies we support to stand up andby sounding off directly to our elected representatives.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1702
[Yes has recently completed the first leg of its Yes Tour 2002, in which"the classic Yes lineup" of Wakeman, Squire, vocalist Jon Anderson, drummerAlan White and guitarist Steve Howe have played to packed amphitheaters. InAugust, the band released "In a Word: Yes" (Rhino) a comprehensive,five-disc set, complete with 80-page booklet, that encompasses the group'sentire career.]
CNN: Yes seems to have gone through waves of popularity. Now you seem to bereaching a whole new generation ...
WAKEMAN: My oldest boy sort of summed that up. He's 30 -- my oldest lad --and said the trouble is that a lot of the people remember when rock 'n'roll started. He said if you remember when something starts, you'll alwaysdate it. Like nobody cares about a 90-year-old jazz musician; nobody caresthat Sinatra got to his ripe old age and was still crooning away; nobodycares if there is an 80-year-old folk singer, or a 90-year-old blues singersinging, because it's the norm. He said, the funny thing is, in 50 yearstime this could be a load of 80-year-old rock 'n' rollers and nobody willbat an eyelid; you either like it or you don't. And it is very true.
So the kids ... these people don't have that ageism problem that a lot ofthe media, especially the radio media, have. And that's a shame because,you know, in England the main radio stations really won't play anybody ifthey are over the age of about 22, which, when you consider the fine youngmusicians around in their late-20s and early-30s, and they are strugglingto get heard. I mean, we're not too bad, but if Yes was formed tomorrow, wewouldn't get a record contract and I doubt whether we would get heardanywhere. I mean, we're all right, but I just feel sorry for some of theother ones.
CNN: Why do you think that is? It seems that there are a lot of bands inthe same boat.
WAKEMAN: When rock 'n' roll sort of started as it is knownnow, it became a business. It became a business,shall we say, in the '70s ... the late '60s and early '70s. Suddenlybusinessmen were there saying "hold on a minute." New formats were comingout ... it was a serious youth revolution. There were so many more anddifferent types of music floating around, everybody had a type of musicthey liked. ...
But what happened was, when the music industry was around in the '70s itwas all run by people our age and so everybody growing up with it. Nowyou've got a situation that nobody ever expected there to be, of 50- and60-year-old rock 'n' rollers. (laughs) I went to see The Who at the Garden,they did four nights at the Garden -- all sold out -- and nobody would everhave foreseen that there would be 80,000 or 90,000 people going to see TheWho at Madison Square Garden. And they are getting a real mixture of ages-- everything from kids to grannies.
Now the record companies, not ready for this, most of them, in fact all ofthe record companies are run by young people and that's fine. Thirty-fiveand under, call it what you like. Now they just don't understand that thereare bands that have been around -- have been started before they were born.That still draw huge crowds. They don't market for them. Because they don'tmarket for them, the don't understand them, so they shy away from them.
It's the same with the radio, though it's interesting to see that becausepeople like to have choice how fast XM radio is growing. That's reallyopening my eyes that people want their choice. I mean, my kids for example,won't listen to terrestrial radio anymore, they pick everything up on theNet. They pick up radio stations from all round the world because they saythey do not want to be dictated to what we should listen to, they want tofind things out for themselves.
My view is that the record companies need to take a parallel from sport.For example, golf, people said what are we going to do with golfers whenthey reach the age of 50? And they came up with this very clever idea: theSenior Tour. Now they do the Senior Tour, which is as successful as theordinary tour. It draws huge crowds to come out and see these people --young and old -- and they've done the same with tennis. There's the SeniorTennis Tour.
What needs to happen, from my point of view, within the record industry isthere is no reason why they can't have an area within the major labelsthat, shall we say, looks after the "classic" bands. Say, OK, "the classicbands" and have it run by people who understand it. Who understand how tomarket that area and understand how to work that area.
I mean, it's not difficult. If you've got 80,000 people that are going tosee The Who, just in New York, then you have potentially there you alwayssay 2-for-1, that's 160,000 potential CDs there in that area. That's how itused to be looked at. And people just aren't doing it.
It's the same with us, because there's nobody within these record companiesthat understand how it works. None at all. I might just think if one braveindividual company looked at it and said, OK, let's get some people in whounderstand how these bands work, who know the market, who know the people-- it's no good pitching bands like Yes at people who watch MTV. It'shilarious, you know? It's never going to happen. They've forgotten thishuge market that has always been there.
... I think that if record companies would be brave enough to start aclassic department using the strength of the big company, but run by peoplewho know how to market then they would do exceptionally well. But theywon't because they are all stuck in what I call the Pan Am/TWA syndrome,which is when airlines had to change, companies like Pan Am said "Oh we'retoo big. We're an American institution. There will always be a Pan Am and aTWA. Always." Big mistake. They're gone. And I said, about four or fiveyears in an interview that all of the big names that we know in music ...like Polygram and others ... within five years they'd all be disappearingand you wouldn't see the big names anymore. ...
I just think that the industry is ill-prepared for the situation it findsitself in now with the different types of music, with older musicians, withyounger bands. ... It certainly wasn't prepared for downloading. Itcompletely closed its eyes on that one and looked aside and said "oh, thatwill never happen." And now they've gotten themselves in all sorts oftrouble there. ... The whole industry, I think, could be doing a betterservice to the public as a whole.
It's not going to happen though because all the people up there in theirivory towers are too worried about their own wages, pension and lookingover their shoulder to the person above them to make sure they still have ajob that they really don't care. I'm not saying that for all of them, thereare some ... I am not saying that everyone in the business is bad ... thereare a lot of very good people, but unfortunately, I think a lot of the verygood people are not in the positions where they'd be given the power wherethey could actually make change. After saying all that I will probablynever, ever get a contract again in my life. (laughs)
CNN: You mentioned downloading, and that's become an increasingly biggerproblem, to say the least ...
WAKEMAN: But it needn't have been! It needn't have been! The colossal jokeis that it needn't have been a big problem. Intel, for example, years agoalready had the software and various things in place where people coulddownload the tracks they wanted from any major company...they coulddownload the tracks and make up their own CDs. ... They could do all of thethings that people really would love to do and at the moment that theyswiped their credit card to pay for whatever, it's a very simple softwareprocess ... where the correct little whatever it might be -- 10 cents goesto that writer there and 5 cents whatever -- it just automatically getslogged onto a database and goes off to the right places ... it's doneinstantly and everybody's happy. The person gets the music they paid forand the writer, the artist, the company gets their same little chunk thatthey always get from the sale. Very easy. It's very simple.
But no, the record industry refused to embrace the idea and so what happensis, people just go ahead and do it anyway, which means there is less andless money going into the industry. When there is less and less money thatmeans there is less and less to be paid out. So what record companies tendto do now, instead of spreading the money across the board, they'll throwmillions at two or three acts, which ... I just scratch my head. It doesn'tmake any sense at all.
You speak to the average person who downloads and they'll tell you they'llbe very happy, they don't want to see the writer or the artist passed up.They realize there has to be money in the industry to make the product. Themajority of the people you speak to would be very happy to swipe theircards, the money goes off to the right places and they've got what theywant. And the record industry is really, really slow. And it has gottenitself into a complete mess over it.
I mean, you should be able to walk into a store, Tower Records, whereveryou like ... you should be able to walk in, go up to the counter, the sameway you go into a catalog shop, you should be able to write down on a pieceof paper or type into a computer the tracks that you want, you should thenbe able to go up to another counter to fetch your product and collect yourCD.
CNN: That sounds pretty cool ...
WAKEMAN: It's so simple. It's not a difficult thing to do. If a companylike XM Radio can have 2 million tracks just logged on hard disk in theirsetup in Washington or where ever it is they've got it, then there is ...it is not difficult. It is such a simple process. And that's what should bedone. I am sure they do it over here ... my children range from 30 down to16 and they all make composite CDs that they want to play in their cars, sothey are doing it and you'd think the record companies and the places likeTower Records would say "Hold it a minute. This is what everybody is doingat home. Why aren't we doing it for them?"
CNN: Why do you think that they aren't?
WAKEMAN: Because they are so un-streetwise. The people who run the musicindustry are so un-streetwise. They are focused pretty much on one agegroup. They are focused on fashion instead of the music and are forgettingshelved material. It's the equivalent of the supermarket taking everythingout of their shops except the new cereal that's just come in. ...
You know my daughter said to me, it was quite funny, she made a similaranalogy when she was listening to a rock station in Argentina called BigBear music or something and she said, "there's some great stuff thatthey're playing Dad," and I said, what some foreign stuff or what? And shesaid, "No .. .they're English bands and American bands that you never hearon the radio normally." And she actually likened to a similar thing and shesaid how would you like it if you went into the supermarket and they wereonly selling three brands of coffee, but after five years you actuallydiscovered that there were 103 brands. She said, you'd be pretty pissed offat that place. (laughs) And what would you do? You'd go out and try todiscover what the other 100 were. You might not like them, but you'd go outand try to discover them. She said, exactly.
So the industry is ... you know, if I had the money, the wherewithal andtime, I would love to do something about that. Because I know it is therefor the taking. But there you go.
Wow, I just downloaded Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org/) and itlooks much more polished than I had imagined. I haven't given it a realgoing over, but it did load all the MS files I fed it.
Open Office is a Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) work-alikesuite. It has been getting good reviews, is available on a number ofdifferent platforms and loads/saves MS-format files. The install downloadis pretty big (50-70M depending on platform) but if you have a cable modemit's only a few minutes of downloading.
Apparently versions exist for Windows, Linux and Solaris. I swear I sawsomething about Mac OS-X but it's not in the download listing.
My favorite feature of OpenOffice is the price: FREE!
---
from Jim Huls
Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2002 7:09 pm
It does work well for a free item. I have ran into one glitch though in itsfont handling. Essentially it doesn't. My uses are pretty basic but usingthe occasional non-standard font seems to be a bit buggy.
In a growing number of homes, waiting an eon for a Web page to download orputting up with constant interruptions in online music or video feeds aredistant memories. High-speed connections, such as cable and DSL, have madespeedy Web browsing a reality. The only problem: Everyone in the householdends up competing for time on the one computer with a high-speedconnection, while other laptops and PCs go unused or become glorified wordprocessors.
Microsoft plans to launch a line of products that will allow users toaccess high-speed connections and other conveniences on any PC almostanywhere in their home, or even their favorite coffee shop. This new lineof wireless broadband networking products, which will hit store shelveslater this year, will also allow users to share printers and files amongtheir PCs.
PressPass caught up Randy Ringer, general manager for the MicrosoftHardware Division, to talk about why Microsoft is entering this new spaceand how the company will help customers set up their wireless networksquickly and easily.
PressPass: Tell me a bit more about your plans.
Randy Ringer: Microsoft plans to enter the wireless networking market. Wewill be bringing a line of Wi-Fi hardware products - ones that use the802.11b wireless standard -- to market later this year. These productswill enable consumers to set up a wireless network quickly and easily sothey can share their broadband Internet connections, files and printerswith the other computers in their home or small office.
PressPass: Why is Microsoft doing this?
Ringer: Wireless networking opens up a wide range of possibilities forpersonal computing. We've done a lot of research, and it has shown thatconsumers want to be able to share their broadband Internet connections,and they want more mobility - the ability to move about their house or setup a computer anywhere, to connect to their information from wherever theyare.
But right now networking is very difficult; it takes a long time to set upand it's very confusing for a lot of people. Everyday users are a bitafraid to take the plunge. So it really hasn't taken off beyond the "earlyadopter" segment of users. But networking - especially wireless networking- can bring a whole host of advantages to all users, not just the more"technical" ones. Microsoft has an amazing opportunity to help solve thechallenges consumers face with networking by making the entire processmuch easier.
PressPass: Why do you think Microsoft can make wireless networking easierand more convenient?
Ringer: Microsoft has an outstanding track record of making technologiessimpler, more enjoyable and more productive for people to use in all areasof their life. This is evident in the software that people use every day,from word processing and creating spreadsheets at work to accessingdigital pictures, music and movies over the Internet at home. We intend toapply this expertise and vision toward wireless networking, to enhance theways that people work and play.
PressPass: How does this fit in with Microsoft's overall vision for theconsumer?
Ringer: Today, the PC is at the center of productivity in most homes.People use it to communicate with friends and family, browse the Internetand track their finances. But consumers want their PCs and theirelectronics to do more than just the "traditional" tasks; they want toplay head-to-head games, talk to and see friends across the country overthe Internet, and access and play their music from any PC in the house.That's where the Microsoft wireless networking products come in. They willallow users to access the Internet and their data from all areas of theirhouse - regardless of which computer it's housed on - while addingexpanded mobility and the option of putting a PC wherever they want it.
PressPass: Why did you choose the Wi-Fi, what's also known as 802.11b, asthe communication standard for these products?
Ringer: Microsoft chose Wi-Fi because it is widely available andaffordable today, and it will provide consumers with the best possibleexperience. Wi-Fi is being adopted broadly, as well, both in the corporatesetting and in "hot spots" like coffee shops, airports and hotels. Our useof Wi-Fi will ensure compatibility for our customers so that they can logon to the Internet as they go from the office to a coffee shop, to theairport or to their home.
PressPass: What will differentiate your products from the rest of thewireless networking products on the market?
Ringer: Without sharing any trade secrets, our goal with the product lineis to provide customers with an easy way to get their wireless networks upand running, so they can take advantage of all the great benefits awireless network offers. These products raise the bar for easy setup andmaintenance, which will ultimately help transform Wi-Fi from its currentstatus as an early adopter technology to a mainstream one.
PressPass: Security seems to be a big concern when it comes to wirelessnetworking. How are you going to ensure this is a secure solution?
Ringer: Again, we're not going to discuss product details until later thisyear. But I can tell you that Microsoft is monitoring the securityconcerns around wireless networking, particularly with regard to WiFi, andwe will address these concerns in our products.
What it comes down to is this: Microsoft will deliver a line of wirelessnetworking products that are very secure and that also perform well forour customers in the home, home office and small office.
DlgXRSizer
http://www.gajits.com/dlgxrsizer.asp
Shareware - $10-$20 depending on OS
Windows XP/2K/NT4/9X
This little ditty does something I searched long and hard for. It givesyou control over your system's file requesters. In the old Amiga days(sigh) one not only could control the system file requesters, you couldreplace them altogether! DlgXRSizer allows you to set the size andposition of most file requesters and also gives you a few new gadgets toeasily pull up most-used directories. A real frustration-saver!
Text Pad
http://www.textpad.com/
Shareware - $27
Windows XP/2K/NT4/9X
TextPad is arguably one of the best text editors on any platform. It'sfast, feature-rich and very user-oriented. For most people, Notepad is allthey ever need. But for many of us who edit a lot of text or write sourcecode for programs or web pages, TextPad eases the pain in a big way. Thereare too many features to even start mentioning here but just suffice it tosay that everyone I know who uses TextPad LOVES the darn thing.
MacroExpress
http://www.macros.com/
Shareware - $40
Windows XP/2K/NT4/9X
MacroExpress automates just about anything on your PC. It includes a verypowerful macro language and recorder that allows you to simulatekeystrokes, mouse movements and clicks, execute programs...almost anyWindows action you can think of. The latest versions of MacroExpressincludes a wonderful little function called "ShortKeys" which lets youprogram text snips of any length into your keyboard which can be typed-outwith just three keystrokes. This is a real time-saver for filling outonline forms. MacroExpress is a monster in terms of features and controls,yet it takes very little of your system's RAM or processor load.
ZMover
http://www.basta.com/ProdZMover.htm
Shareware - $10
Windows XP/2K/NT4/9X
I am so happy I finally found ZMover. It's a simple little utility thatlets you control the size and positions of all your applications' windows.If all applications behaved properly, there would be no need for thisprogram but a few critical apps--like Microsoft's Internet Explorer andExplorer--are notorious about forgetting where you put them. ZMover keepsthese apps' windows where they belong and put you back in control.
AVG Free Edition
http://www.grisoft.com/
Freeware
Windows XP/2K/NT4/9X
I've purchased the Norton Avtivirus and the McAffee virus programs but Inow run AVG Free Edition on all my machines. The simple truth is that AVGuses less of your systems' RAM and processor and installs cleanly. Plus,the price (FREE) is very agreeable. With the commercial apps, not only doyou have to buy the software but you have to pay to subscribe to theirvirus updates on an annual basis. This is an example of where the free appmight actually be better than its commercial counterparts.
Ad-Aware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/aaw.html
Freeware
Windows XP/2K/NT4/9X
Hundreds of programs these days install secret capabilities that are notrevealed to the user. Some of these send back personal information,introduce unwanted advertising onto your desktop and may even take overyour machine and sell your spare processor cycles to third parties--allthis without your knowledge! Ad-Aware scans your system for theseapplications and gives you an opportunity to delete these pesky andunwanted add-on programs.
IrfanView32
http://www.irfanview.com/
Freeware
Windows XP/2K/NT4/9X
IrfanView is one of the most-capable graphic file viewers ever. Itsupports dozens of common graphic file formats as well as some not-so-common. If you have a digital camera, IrfanView might be the onlyapplication you will ever need to view, edit, touch-up and resize yourpictures. A favorite feature of mine is the batch processor which allowsyou to make adjustments to hundreds of pictures at one time very quickly.
TweakUI
http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/PowerToys/Networking/NTTweakUI.asp (2K/NT4/9X)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp (XP)
Freeware
Windows XP/2K/NT4/9X
TweakUI is the Microsoft Windows tool that Microsoft chooses to releaseseparately from the OS. It is not "supported" by Microsoft which meansthat if you mess something up or can't figure it out, don't call them--askyour friendly user group expert. TweakUI allows you to more finely controlover a hundred different settings in Windows. It's really a wonderfulapplication that I couldn't live without. Too many features to mentionhere, but if you have Windows and you'd like to make it more friendly,download and install TweakUI today.
WinAmp 2.8
http://download.com.com/3000-2139-10107718.html
Freeware
Windows XP/2K/NT4/9X
Winamp is the best MP3 player available for Windows. Many of you will beperfectly happy with Windows Media Player and it will indeed play your MP3files, but it's still weak in its user interface, playlist management andadd-on feature availability. If you listen to a lot of MP3 files, youshould download Winamp. I am not recommending the newest version (3.0)because it appears to still be a little buggy.
WinTidy
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,367,00.asp
Freeware
Windows XP/2K/NT4/9X
Wintidy remembers and restores all of your icons' positions on yourdesktop. Set your icon positions how you want them, press a button andWintidy will remember your desktop layout. Next time it gets messed up,run Wintidy and click on the "restore" button and *poof* everything goesback exactly where you put it!
Office, IE lapses put millions in danger of being hacked
SEATTLE, Washington (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that"critical" security lapses in its Office software and Internet Explorer Webbrowser put tens of millions of users at risk of having their files readand altered by online attackers.
The world's No. 1 software maker said that an attacker, using e-mail or aWeb page, could use Internet related parts of Office to run programs, alterdata and wipe out the hard drive as well as view file and clipboardcontents on a user's system.
Office is a software product that runs on Windows and is used to writedocuments and crunch numbers.
"Microsoft is committed to keeping customers' information safe, and isproviding a patch that eliminates three vulnerabilities in Office WebComponents," Microsoft Security Program Manager Christopher Budd said in ane-mail.
In addition, Microsoft reported vulnerabilities in the three latestversions of its dominant Internet Explorer browser software that allowsinfiltrators to read files.
Microsoft urged users to fix the glitches by downloading software patchesfrom Microsoft's TechNet Web site (http://www.microsoft.com/technet).
"It's important that users get the patch," said Russ Cooper, head ofsecurity at TruSecure Corp., a computer security company, and editor ofNTBugTraq.
"Typically with these types of issues it will be six to nine months untilwe see a massive attempt to start exploiting it," Cooper said, adding thata preemptive patch was critical.
Since Office is used by at least 100 million users, the risk of widespreadattacks was significant, Cooper said.
Another security headache
The security warnings are the latest headaches for the Redmond,Washington-based software company.
Microsoft, shaken by break-ins to its system and vulnerabilities in itssoftware, launched a "trustworthy computing" campaign earlier this year toimprove the security of all of its software.
Since that initiative, which chairman Bill Gates said had cost the company$100 million so far this year, Microsoft has issued at least 30 securitybulletins for flaws in its software.
Last week, security experts reported serious flaws in the Internet Explorerbrowser and a complementary encryption program that could expose creditcard and other sensitive information of Internet users.
The Office-related programs vulnerable to attacks include Microsoft Office2000, Office XP, Money 2002, Money 2003, Project 2002 as well as serversoftware related to such client software, Microsoft said.
Microsoft said it is not aware of any specific security breaches or theamount of any potential damage that might have occurred due tovulnerabilities in its software.
Software giant: Repair available for only newer versions
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Microsoft's flagship word processor has for years had asecurity flaw that could allow a criminal to steal computer files by"bugging" a document with a hidden code.
The company said it will definitely repair the problem only for owners ofthe most recent versions of the software. That decision -- still leftlargely up in the air by Microsoft engineers -- may leave millions of usersof Word 97 without a fix. All versions of Word are susceptible to the flaw,but the problem is most severe in Word 97.
"It's incredible to me that Microsoft would turn its back on Word 97users," said Woody Leonhard, who has written books on Microsoft's Word andOffice software. "They bought the package with full faith in Microsoft andits ability to protect them from this kind of exploit."
The attacker sends the victim a bugged document, usually with a requestthat the document be revised and returned to the sender -- a common form ofdaily communication. When the document is changed and sent back, the filethe attacker wants to steal is attached.
The flaw would most likely occur in the workplace, where Word is the mostprominent word processing program. Potential targets for theft aresensitive legal contracts, payroll records or e-mails, either from a harddrive or computer network, depending on the victim's access to files.
Microsoft says an attacker would have to know the exact file name to bestolen and its location. But many critical files -- an address book orsaved e-mails, for example -- are usually in obvious or predictable placeson every Microsoft Windows computer.
"The issue appears to affect all versions of Microsoft Word," Microsoftsaid in a statement Thursday in response to questions by The AssociatedPress. "When the investigation is completed, we will take the action thatbest serves Microsoft's customers."
Word 97 most susceptible
Word 97, an earlier version of the program, is most susceptible to theattack. Microsoft said it is its policy to no longer repair Word 97, butsaid the company is still exploring the issue.
A research firm reported in May that about 32 percent of offices havecopies of Word 97 running, according to a survey of 1,500 high-techmanagers worldwide.
Analyst Laura DiDio of the Yankee Group said companies are taking a risk byusing such old software, but Microsoft should correct the problem becauseof its severity. "These are paying customers," she said.
Word 97 users may be able to get some help from through Microsoft'stelephone technical support, company spokesman Casey McGee said. But,referring to Microsoft engineers, McGee said "there's only so far back theycan go."
The flaw involving Word 97 was discovered by Alex Gantman of cellular phonecompany Qualcomm and was released on the Internet last month.
If the intended target uses Word 2000 or 2002, the most recent versions,the attack will only work if the Word document is printed first before thereply is sent to the attacker.
After seeing Gantman's work on a public security e-mail forum, Leonhardfound a similar flaw that affects recent Word versions even when a documentis not printed. In this case, the stolen file is visible within thedocument, although the attacker can make it hard to find.
Microsoft suggests users view hidden codes in every document they open. InWord 2002, the latest version, that can be done by selecting tools,options, then checking the "field codes" box. Many companies, however, usesuch codes for legitimate and harmless purposes.
SAN FRANCISCO--A technology policy think tank is campaigning to win Linux agreater role in government by offering to act as a central repository for afederally certified version of the open-source operating system.
The Cyberspace Policy Institute, established a decade ago at GeorgeWashington University, plans to push for Linux to be certified under theCommon Criteria, a standard grading of technology required by the UnitedStates and other countries before products can be sold into sensitivegovernment applications.
If successful, the initiative would lead to a single, standard version ofLinux acceptable to the government, and hence make it easier for Linuxcompanies to compete against Microsoft and other large software makers.Certification costs anywhere from $100,000 to millions of dollars and takesup to five years--Microsoft is just finishing the certification of Windows2000--but the effort could be a boon for Linux companies.
"The government wants to get open-source certified, but they don't want tocertify for any specific vendor," Tony Stanco, senior policy analyst foropen-source and e-government at the Cyberspace Policy Institute, said at apanel discussion on promoting Linux to the government.
A single agency administering the certification process for Linux is a must,Stanco said. Otherwise, only a few companies would be able to offer productsand the entire community wouldn't benefit from the effort.
"Only one company (Red Hat) has enough money to get certified," he said. "Idon't think even United Linux has enough money to get Linux-certified."
The initiative would also add the United States to the list of nationalgovernments that are supporting open-source efforts to offer a secondoption, along with Microsoft software, within federal agencies. On Monday,the British government confirmed that it would consider open-source softwarealternatives to buying Microsoft applications. And, in June, the Germangovernment signed a deal with IBM and Linux vendor SuSE to provide anopen-source alternative to Microsoft operating systems. Both China andTaiwan, two nations often at loggerheads, have also dipped their toes intoLinux.
A better Linux
Strong support for the open-source operating system within the governmentcame from a surprising quarter in early 2001 with the release ofSecurity-Enhanced Linux from the National Security Agency, which fordecades stymied researchers' and technology companies' efforts to createbroadly available strong encryption.
SE Linux adds military-strength architecture improvements to Linux, the mostobvious security improvement being mandatory access controls, or MACs, basedon technology developed by Secure Computing Corp. The Cyberspace PolicyInstitute plans to also add authentication and key management features tothe operating system.
Such technologies make computers much less susceptible to attacks. MarkWesterman, managing partner with network consultant Westcam, installed theSE Linux access controls on a critical server for one of his customers aftera common security flaw, known as a buffer overflow, allowed a hacker to takecontrol of the company's server. Westerman configured the access rules butleft the buffer overflow unpatched on the server as a test.
When the hacker came back a second time to the server and attempted to gaincontrol of the process, the access controls limited what the attacker coulddo. Instead of taking control of the computer, the hacker could only crashthe service that had the buffer overflow, but did no other damage.
"With the access controls, the customer doesn't have to worry about the nextbuffer overflow that comes along," said Westerman at a panel discussion atthis week's LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. "SE Linux gives you militarygrade security at open-source cost."
Microsoft vs. the NSA
SE Linux may be the NSA's last direct contribution to open-source security,however. Because of loud criticism, the NSA will have a far less directrole in the creation of more secure versions of open-source software.
"We didn't fully understand the consequences of releasing software under theGPL (General Public License)," said Dick Schafer, deputy director of theNSA. "We received a lot of loud complaints regarding our efforts with SELinux."
Many complaints criticized the agency for providing the fruits of researchto everyone, not just U.S. companies, and thus hurting American business.
While stressing that the agency received a loud chorus of support as well,the chagrined Schafer said that the issue was contentious enough that "wewon't be doing anything like that again."
Sources familiar with events said that aggressive Microsoft lobbying effortshave contributed to a halt on any further work. "Microsoft was worried thatthe NSA's releasing open-source software would compete with Americanproprietary software," said a source familiar with the complaints againstthe NSA who asked not to be identified.
Microsoft would not comment directly on its lobbying efforts, but did stressthat it wanted to ensure the government continued to fund commercialventures. "The federal government plays an important role in funding basicsoftware research," said a Microsoft representative. "Our interest is inhelping to ensure that the government licenses its research in ways thattake into account a stated goal of the U.S. government: to promotecommercialization of public research."
The debate over whether the government should fund open source projects hasbeen raging for some time. In July, MITRE, a defense contractor and thinktank, released a much-awaited report sponsored by the Department of Defenseendorsing the use of open-source software in the government.
"Open source methods and products are well worth considering seriously in awide range of government applications," the report concluded.
After news of the favorable report leaked out in May, a second reportappeared in early June from the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, anewcomer to the open-source debate, calling such software insecure. A pressrelease preceding the report breathlessly announced "open-source softwaremay offer target for terrorists."
Many critics have claimed that Microsoft funded the report, but a Microsoftrepresentative denied that charge, saying that while the software giant doesfund the institution, it doesn't fund any specific research.
Despite the intense battle surrounding the open source, the NSA will stillfund research on secure operating systems based on Linux as well as workwith U.S. companies to create better security in their own operatingsystems.
Both Red Hat's CEO Matthew Szulik and Chief Technology Officer MichaelTiemann said the company is working with the NSA on security projects, butneither would give details about the initiatives. On Tuesday morning,Tiemann and other technologists from companies including Intel, IBM andOracle met to discuss the future of Linux in the government, said a sourcefamiliar with the meeting.
Through the Composable High Assurance Trusted Systems (CHATS) fund, theDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency, an arm of the Department ofDefense, funds open-source initiatives that improve security. A year ago,Network Associates received $1.2 million from the CHATS program to create acommon set of security features for open-source operating systems.
Apple Computer also will push its own operating system, the Mac OS X, whichis based on the open-source Unix variant, FreeBSD, for governmentcertification. Apple and a coalition of 40 government agencies have formedthe Secure Trusted Operating System (STOS) consortium to create securityfeatures for the base FreeBSD operating system known as Darwin.
Welcome to certification
The road to certification will not be easy, however.
For one, the co-developer of SE Linux, Secure Computing, has indicated thatit plans to enforce patent claims on part of the access control technologybased on its research and development.
In addition, the Common Criteria process, run jointly by the NSA and theNational Institute of Standards and Technology under the NationalInformation Assurance Partnership (NIAP), is better suited to certifyproprietary software coming from a single company. It's ill suited to dealwith the myriad updates that the open-source community produces on aregular basis.
"The big issue is how you fit this wild community into the all the littleboxes that the government bureaucracy wants," said CPI's Stanco.
NIAP Common Criteria certifications run from Evaluation Assurance Level 1(EAL), the lowest level, to EAL 7, the highest. The first four levels canbe obtained through commercial labs, but the levels 5 through 7 requirecertification from the NSA themselves.
Because it is Linux's first time through the process, the Cyberspace PolicyInstitute has modest aims: EAL 2.
"That way we get some validation of open-source security," said Stanco."Going straight to EAL 4 would be tough."
Shooting for a modest target gives the open-source community time to workout some kinks--not in Linux, but in the government's certification process.
Last week's much-anticipated release of Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar hasn'tdisappointed - Apple pulled out all the stops in improving and adding toMac OS X. Despite the $130 upgrade cost, over 100,000 people purchasedJaguar in the first weekend it was available, a number Apple claims is arecord for Mac OS sales in a single weekend (though it undoubtedly includesall the pre-orders placed up to that time as well).
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/aug/27jaguar.html
We've all heard plenty about the major features of Jaguar so far - iChat,Rendezvous, the system-wide Address Book, etc. - so in this article, I'minstead going to take a quick spin through some of the less-noticeablefeatures that have gladdened our jaded eyes here at TidBITS, plus a coupleof installation tips that will save you headaches and disk space. I'm surewe'll continue to discover similar bits about Jaguar; if this articleproves popular, we'll continue collecting them for a sequel.
Check Utilities Before Installing
A number of utilities, most notably those that modify system behavior, arenot compatible with Jaguar. Be sure to check for updates to those utilitiesyou consider essential before upgrading. This has been a public serviceannouncement, brought to you by the same people who always nag you aboutbacking up before installing a major operating system update.
Archive Install
At the Select Destination step in the Jaguar installer, the default buttonis Continue, which will put you on a path to upgrading an existing Mac OS Xinstallation. However, reports from the Internet and our own experienceswith random application crashes indicate that it's worth the extra effortto do a clean installation, something that Apple has improved immenselysince Mac OS 9. Click the Options button, and in the sheet that appears,you're presented with three options: Upgrade Mac OS X (the default),Archive and Install, and Erase and Install. Choose Archive and Install, andclick the Preserve Users and Network Settings checkbox below it. Then clickOK and continue on with the installation. When the installer is done,you'll have a Previous Systems folder at the top level of your hard disk,and inside that, a Previous System 1 folder that contains all the items theinstaller didn't merge into the new installation. Check through that folderfor items you don't want to delete; it does a pretty good job, though it'snot perfect at retaining everything. On TidBITS Talk, Dan Frakes pointed usto an excellent article he wrote for Macworld about particular places tocheck for files to save. If you're a Unix-head, be sure to inspect thePrevious System 1 folder in the Terminal, since directories where you mayhave been keeping stuff, such as /usr/local, are present but invisible inthe Finder. When you're done, you can toss the Previous System 1 folder inthe Trash; you can't toast the enclosing Previous Systems folder withoutsome fussing with privileges.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkmsg=14997
http://www.macworld.com/2002/10/features/install.html
Save Disk Space with Custom Installs
Apple appears to be doing an excellent job with localizing Mac OS X andapplications so people in at least some other countries can use the Mac intheir own language. But is there any point in installing localized files ifyou don't read those languages? Plus, Apple installs numerous printerdrivers you likely don't need. You can save a boatload of disk space by notinstalling all of these extras, but you have to pay attention, since EasyInstall gives you everything, and it's too easy to start the installationwithout realizing. In the Jaguar installer's Installation Type step, clickthe Customize button, and deselect the appropriate checkboxes. One note: Ifailed to do this on my first installation (for a variety of testingpurposes, I restored from my backup and reinstalled Jaguar - I _strongly_recommend a pre-Jaguar backup), and I couldn't find a safe way to removethese items after the fact; a tip I found about deleting all the .lprojfiles via a complex Unix command looked as though it was going to deletefar more than was safe.
Privilege Fixing Disk Utility in Installer
In the event of trouble, it's always worth running the First Aid componentof Apple's Disk Utility. But it won't check the startup disk, which can beannoying. Work around this by booting from the Jaguar installation CD(Install Disc 1 - yes, that's right, Jaguar comes on two CDs, or three, ifyou count the Developer Tools). Choose Open Disk Utility from the Installerapplication menu at any point, and you'll see that not only can you performthe usual tasks, but also that Disk Utility's First Aid component can nowverify and repair privileges (which it calls "disk permissions," asurprising lapse for Apple, which almost universally uses the term"privileges"). I suspect this code comes from Apple's recently releasedRepair Privileges utility (now at version 1.1, in case you previouslydownloaded the 1.0 version). Interestingly, when I ran Verify DiskPermissions on my brand new Jaguar installation, it found two errors infolders I couldn't have touched. (Two other notes about functions availablein the installer: You can reset your password from the Installerapplication menu, if necessary, but the Terminal menu item was neveravailable for me for unknown reasons.)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106900
Adieu Happy Mac
As has been reported elsewhere, Jaguar replaces the 18-year-old happy Macstartup icon with a gray Apple logo. I'm not particularly surprised; asmuch as everyone was accustomed to the happy Mac, it didn't fit in with thegraphical look Apple has taken such pains to present with Mac OS X and newhardware. It's not as though any Macintosh has even looked like the happyMac for years, and the new look doesn't presuppose any particular hardwaredesign. Plus, Apple could easily change the color of the Apple logo in thefuture - I wonder why they didn't fill it with rendered jaguar fur. Theother question is if the sad Mac, whose presence announces the ominous newsof hardware failure, is still around, or if it's been replaced by a rottingApple logo with a worm crawling out. Probably not.
Tired of Logging In?
Many people have complained about having to provide their passwords toinstallers in Mac OS X. I'll happily enter a password instead of beingforced to reboot, as in Mac OS 9, but the frequent password prompts areannoying. Luckily, you can turn them into reminders by making your passwordblank. You can't do this with the Change Password button in Jaguar's new MyAccount preference pane (where it claims your password must be at leastfour characters long), but you can do it by editing your user in theAccounts preference pane (it used to be called Users). Once you've set yourpassword to blank, you can dismiss password dialogs merely by pressingReturn. Needless to say, a blank password is a huge gaping security holewith razor sharp edges, so consider yourself forewarned. I wouldn'trecommend doing this on a machine that's always accessible from theInternet, and I'd reset a password on a laptop before leaving home in caseit was stolen.
Energy Saver Returns
The options in the Mac OS X Energy Saver preference pane have never matchedup to those in Mac OS 9's Energy Saver control panel. But with Jaguar, muchof that control is back, so you can set different options for when yourPowerBook or iBook is running on battery power or is plugged into the poweradapter, and there's a checkbox that claims to reduce the processor speed.Four different presets give you canned choices for Highest Performance,Longest Battery Life, DVD Playback, and Presentations, the first two ofwhich provide the same settings whether or not the laptop is plugged in.Personally, I'll be setting my iBook to save power when using battery, andprovide optimal performance when plugged in. It's too soon to tell just howwell this additional control will help increase the battery life of laptopson the road, but any improvement will be welcome. One addition I'd like tosee - an option to lower the screen brightness automatically when usingbattery power, since my experience is that's one of the major consumers ofprecious electricity.
Smooth Operator
Hidden away in Jaguar's General preference pane is a new pop-up menu thatlets you configure Mac OS X's font smoothing style. It's worth checkingthis out, since the default setting may not be ideal for your monitor (myiBook defaulted to "Standard - best for CRT" for instance), and everyonehas different visual preferences.
FTP in the Finder: Keep Trying, Apple
Jaguar is growling at another class of software - FTP clients. That'sbecause you can now mount FTP servers as disks in the Finder, just like anyother network volume. Just type a full FTP URL like the one below into theConnect to Server dialog (access it from the Go menu, or type Command-K)and click Connect. If a username and password are necessary, the Finderwill prompt for them. Unfortunately, in our testing, Jaguar can only getread access to FTP servers, even if you add your userid and password to theFTP URL. Worse yet, several of us have managed to lock up Jaguar completelyusing this feature, so be careful. Finally, Jaguar's Finder FTP clientdoesn't appear to work at all with Peter Lewis's elderly NetPresenz FTPserver, which is undoubtedly still in wide use on older Mac servers. I'drecommend keeping your favorite FTP client around for a while.
In the Red with Force Quit
Two new tweaks related to forcing applications to quit have appeared withJaguar. First off, if an application isn't responding, it appears in red inthe Force Quit Applications window (accessible from the Apple menu or bytyping Command-Option-Escape). It's a nice touch that simplifiesidentifying the application you want to quit. Second, if an applicationisn't responding, Control-clicking its icon in the Dock presents a menuwith Force Quit instead of Quit; previously, you had to hold down Optionwhile clicking the Dock icon to get to the Force Quit menu item. One finaltip that works in previous versions of Mac OS X as well: after you'veforced an application to quit via the Force Quit Applications window, youcan close the window quickly by pressing Escape - it's easier than clickingthe tiny close window control.
Classic Warning
Classic appears to work basically the same as it has in the past (though itwill likely prompt you to let it update some items in your System Folder),with three notable changes. It launches faster, a new Memory/Versions tabin the Classic preference pane shows you the memory usage for each Classicapplication (plus background processes), and you can now set an option inthe Classic preference pane to let you approve each launch. No morewatching Classic load when you didn't even mean to launch it. (Classicisn't a serious CPU hog as long as there aren't any Classic applicationsrunning, but if there are, it can eat a hefty percentage of your CPUcycles.) Another piggy application is Microsoft Word X, which munches CPUcycles whenever it has open documents, so if you're not using a Worddocument, close it to make extra CPU cycles available to otherapplications. You can see what's happening by using Jaguar's improvedProcess Viewer utility, which now shows proper names for Carbonapplications, thus eliminating the need to use the "top -u" command in theTerminal.
Window Layering Improved for Eudora
Possibly my favorite change in Jaguar is a fix for one of Mac OS X's windowlayering problems. In Eudora, if you Command-click a URL, it opens in a newbrowser window in the background, a fabulous feature I use many times aday. Or rather, a feature I used to use, since a bug in Mac OS X resultedin a background window being drawn over all of Eudora's windows, forcing meto switch processes manually to layer the windows properly again. InJaguar, this feature of Eudora works correctly again. (If you're readingthis using Eudora and Command-clicking doesn't open browser windows in thebackground for you, double-click the URL below and accept the prompt;otherwise, you can copy and paste the URL into a Eudora message, thendouble-click it. For more information on x-eudora-setting URLs and a fulllist of them for Eudora 5.1.1, send email tox-eudora-settings@tidbits.com.)
< x-eudora-setting:258=y >
That said, Eudora can have problems downloading graphics in HTML messageswhen QuickTime 6 is installed, as it must be in Jaguar. If you experiencecrashes in Eudora while downloading graphics, turn off automaticdownloading of HTML graphics in the Fonts & Display settings panel andresist the urge to download them manually. Qualcomm knows about the bug andis trying to fix it.
Just Find It!
I've never been a fan of Sherlock. It provided a slow and clumsy interfacefor finding files, and I always found its channels harder to use than justgoing to the appropriate Web site or search engine. I'm reserving judgementon Sherlock 3, which is similar to the more-capable Watson, but theexcellent news is that Jaguar gives us back the old Find utility forfinding files. It's simple, focused, and sprightly, plus it can havemultiple results windows. Multiple criteria are available, and it can limitsearches to Everywhere, Local disks, Home, and Specific places (which youcan add by dragging folders in from the Finder). Find is available from theFinder's File menu; you can also of course type Command-F to activate it.
http://www.karelia.com/watson/
I also like the new Search field in Finder window toolbars, which enablesyou to search the contents of the currently selected folder, and all itssub-folders. However, it only shows up as a field only if the toolbar isset to display either Icons & Text or just Icons - if you've set toolbarsto show only Text, you get a Search button that launches the Find utility.To change the display style, select Customize Toolbar from the Finder'sView menu, and adjust the Show pop-up menu.
Sharing is Good
With Jaguar, Apple has significantly beefed up the Sharing preference pane,which previously let you start and stop file sharing, personal Web sharing,FTP access, remote login, and reception of remote Apple Events. All that isstill available, but Apple has added Windows File Sharing (via SMB) andPrinter Sharing for sharing all the printers your Mac can see. One tip: Toshare printers with Mac OS 9 machines, Apple claims you'll need to usePrinter Sharing under Classic - setting it up in Jaguar won't work. Twoother tabs in the Sharing preference pane let you configure Mac OS X'sbuilt-in firewall and Internet sharing, better known by its previous name,Software Base Station. Both offer only basic configurations, but theyshould suffice for most people (and if you need more from your firewall,check out the $25 shareware Brickhouse).
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1733+1734
http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_hill/brickhouse.html
Get Info Returns
Mac OS X's Show Info window has long been an annoyance, thanks to itsrefusal to let you open more than one instance of the window (making ithard to compare multiple files). Also bothersome was the pop-up menu youhad to use to switch among the five different informational panels. Jaguartakes a swipe at Show Info, renaming it Get Info, restoring our ability toopen multiple info windows to compare files, and giving the Get Info windowfive different disclosure triangles so you can show only the informationalpanels that interest you. However, it works a bit differently from the wayGet Info worked in Mac OS 9. When multiple items are selected, Mac OS 9would open a Get Info window for each one, whereas Jaguar opens a singleGet Info window with combined information. To compare files, you must opena Get Info window for each one individually.
PayBITS: Did these tips save you hours of unnecessary work? Show yourappreciation to Adam with a few bucks via PayPal.http://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=ace%40tidbits.com Read more aboutPayBITS: http://www.tidbits.com/paybits/
Notes about upgrading to Jaguar from 10.1 - a couple of gotchas.
On the whole, running Jaguar as an "upgrade" is just fine. It works. Iffolks are in love with certain utilities, however, they may wish to wait todo certain upgrades until their authors release 10.2 versions. Mainlyeffected are the preference panes. So if you use ASM 2 for applicationswitching, or TinkerTool, these don't work. If you rely on them, you maywish to wait.
Some nice improvements in Jaguar, however, make missing TinkerTooltemporarily OK. If you work with Terminal, the new Windows Settings allowsyou to adjust transparency. Just remember to press "use as defaultsettings" after you've made any adjustments.
As for horrors, and why waiting for updated 10.2 shareware may be a goodidea: an attempt to install the the version of TinkerTool released for theJaguar Developer release version (comparable to the commercial release)wiped out my system, requiring a complete reinstall. It was nasty: thesystem would reboot, but no GUI would be available.
This is a reminder to make a back up of your boot partition using a toollike Carbon Copy Cloner, unless you're comfortable with the ditto -rsrccommand in a Terminal window - you need to catch all the invisible files inyour directories. There are also utilities to make those invisible filesvisible.
[Frankly, I think having a full backup before installing something as majoras Jaguar is a necessity. Personally, I plan to add to my normal tapebackup with a Retrospect-driven file backup to an external FireWire drive,making a quick reversion easy if necessary. As far as the comments belowgo, I'll be breaking replies about specific features into their own threadsunless they're equally short and general. -Adam]
Speed increases are noticeable particularly on G3s. For G4s it seems launchtimes for applications are reduced. It seems most of the horsepower is inthe more hidden features, like better integrated networking fromRendezvous, and improved dev tools like gcc3.
The dock also has a few nice touches: documents when minimized carry thetag of the app that created them, so you know a minimized browser windowbelongs to Explorer, or Acrobat.
You can't colorize folders, and spring loaded folders only works whenyou're dragging content into a folder.
The spinning rainbow cursor now looks more like a swirling beach ball(slightly flattened). Also, gone on startup is the icon of the classic Macbox; gone, too, are the smiley faces of Mac OS 9. instead, one sees a greyapple with a kind of spoked wheel circling as the system loads. Thiscircling spoke thing also shows up while waiting for many Finder processes,like Find to run. Haven't figured out why the beachball appears for somecases and the spoke thing for others.
Speaking of Find
The new "find" command is now separate from Sherlock. It brings back someof the flexibility of the pre OS Sherlock functionality, such as making iteasy to add criteria to a current search request. It's also added a type ofboolean form (like Eudora's search) so that you can say look for files withThis and This in the title and Created TODAY (or whenever). The onlydisappointment here is that if you wish to look in a set of specificpartitions, the window showing those partitions/drives is not resizable,forcing you to scroll to find the drives you want.
The search field that shows up for the current folder, a la iTunes, isquite nice: it lets you restrict a search to just that folder. It also letsyou keep the results of multiple searches. However, making Find come to thefront is not easy unless you deliberately select the Finder in the dock,since Find does not show up as a separate application.
The new Sherlock is strikingly like Watson, except with fewer channelscurrently. (Did apple license anything from Watson, or did it not have tobecause of the Channels format being used?)
[My impression is that Sherlock 3 and Watson were developed independently,but Watson came out much sooner because it wasn't tied to an OS release.-Adam]
Also, Apple's Sherlock area on the OS X web site advertises a "news"channel. There's none in the list of available channels in this version ofthe OS. Wonder if that's just a regional thing.
Handwriting is available if you have a Wacom tablet, however, it's morelike hand printing. There seems to be no obvious way to train Inkwell withone's handwriting which makes the application not entirely useful. Thisseems surprising, since one of the necessities of Newton, from whichInkwell inherits, was the ability to train the handwriting system.
It's a relatively painless upgrade, again, as long as you don't rely oncertain third party utilities which may not either work, or may be evenless graceful in how they fail if you try them.
Is it worth it? if you don't have a huge developer need or networking need,and you're happy with what you have, you may want to wait to upgrade untila few more third party apps come on line as 10.2 compliant. Perhaps by thattime, iCal will also be available.
----
From: "Phil A. Lefebvre" (p-lefebvre@northwestern.edu)
I just installed OS X 10.2.
It took something like an hour to do all it had to do, but when it finishedup and restarted everything came up perfectly; nothing overwritten orotherwise "eaten." It seems to have passed the acid test, which is to sayit didn't obliterate my Internet settings.
I installed it over 10.1.5 on my Beige G3 on Friday. I left for lunch asthe installer started, saying it would take about 20 minutes. When I cameback 19 minutes later, it had a minute left to install. It took a fewminutes to optimize, then a few minutes to restart and install the HPprinter drivers from the second disk.
I'm curious if all these hour-plus installs are full (easy?) installs. Ichose the optional install and deselected all the foreign languages and allthe printer drivers but the HP set. Saved well over half a gig of drivespace, went as fast as a full OS 9 install, and the results so far havebeen flawless.
I found it pretty easy to crash OS X 10.1.x, or at least crash/freeze theFinder and/or Aqua, but so far 10.2 has brushed off everything I've thrownat it. This is by far the most cutting edge I've ever been with a new OS(heck, I had it installed before it was "officially" released!) and I'mpretty impressed with it so far, as a proof of concept anyway. That'sbecause, though I am trying, and it is starting to get close, it is not mymain OS yet. There are still a lot of things that are "broken" or MIAcompared to OS 9, a lot of my stuff is not yet native for or compatiblewith OS X, and a show-stopping amount of my OS X-native stuff broke in10.2. *Sigh* One step forward, one step back.
Last weekend my family and I made the trek up to Chicago to see some sightsand on Monday one of them was the Woodfield Mall. I had forgotten at thetime it housed one of the Apple Stores that Apple has been opening aroundthe country but when I saw it, I was compelled to check it out.
Let me just start by saying that it does grab your attention when you walkby it. It makes a certain fashion statement in how it contrasts with thesurroundings. As I walked in at around 11am I was pleasantly surprised tobe greeted by one of the employees there who was very friendly yet notoverly aggressive in driving off customers in trying to make a sale. I madea round through the store for a semi-quick glimpse and noticed some things.
1. The employees were all very helpful, kind, and polite. I'm usuallypretty critical of anyone doing sales because frankly most come across asbeing "too" aggressive to make a sale.
2. They had a small table with crt imacs setup with children's softwareavailable on them. My oldest daughter just loved sitting on seats that wereher height and getting to use these computers. Nice win there in myopinion.
3. There was a decent selection of popular software. I didn't really noticea lot of 3rd party hardware but I actually didn't get to look that closelyat everything.
4. There were quite a few people shopping in there. Granted it was aholiday but I was still surprised to find about 2 dozen people in therechecking things out. There were definitely more there than many of theother stores on the mall when we made our rounds. I don't know that anyonewas buying much of anything since I didn't hang around that long but I wassurprised nonetheless.
5. The place is huge!!! This may be the single-most issue I could criticizenegatively about the store. They better be bringing in some cash becausethey have a location close to the center of the mall that can't be cheapand then you throw in a large store that really could be cut in half withthe amount of stuff in there. I will add that they had some equipment inthe back setup in an area that appears to be for presentations...maybetraining? If that somehow is being used for something like training, maybethat will provide the cash needed. Honestly the store almost looked barebecause of the size.
That sums it up for the most part. I was sure eyeing those iBooks andPowerbooks. I played briefly with Mac OS X 10.2 on a dual 867Mhz system andcan say that with the brief use of it, I was impressed with how smooth itfelt in comparison to a WinXP system with a P4 2.1Ghz CPU and otherfeatures being close to similar. Not looking to say that it's faster butthat it just felt smoother.
The size of the store still boggles my mind. Maybe it's a fashion thing?Maybe they're planning on growth into other markets where they can sellthose products there? Maybe it's just stupidity? Could be...I don't knowand I won't make that call yet.
I would like to have hung around there longer just to play and maybe ask afew questions but my wife and youngest one were not exactly being the mostpatient. I've heard that one is opening in Indianapolis so that might beanother chance to check one out if I get so inclined.
Greetings to one and all:
I would first like to thank all of those that I had the chance to meet inSacramento. While a short trip it was indeed great fun and real delightmeeting with all of you and hearing not only the encouraging words, butalso sharing in your concerns, desires, and dreams. We are looking forwardto deliver on what we discussed with you.
When we purchased Amiga from Gateway there were many out there who saidthat we would fail. There were many out there who have worked against ourefforts, and others that have misrepresented fact and manipulatedprivileged information in order to further their obviously self servinggoals. There have been those who have wronged us, and caused us damage.
But, guess what? We are still here! We are still delivering! We are goingto stay here! Amiga is about people, technology, excellence, we are a mosttenacious people, and we have the community to prove it. Has it always goneaccording to plan? no. Have we made some adjustments to the plan? yes. Arewe delivering on the plan? yes. Will we allow others to dictate our future?Absolutely not. Period.
Because of you, the Amiga dream lives, because of you, Amiga's are stillbeing used throughout the world performing amazing tasks and activities,and because of you, we are still here and moving forward.
Amiga is a giant resting for the day of the fight, and gaining strengthquietly, for, as we embark on this mission together, nothing will tear usapart.
Thank you once again for supporting us, and showing to the world that whatwas begun in 1985 was truly only the beginning.
Bill McEwen, and the Amiga Team
Amiga Club Members:
I would also like to take a minute and say a special howdy to all of theclub members. It is really encouraging to see all of the activity and inputfrom you with regards to the shirt design and name for the club. The "I amAmiga" name did not go over as well as I had thought, but in the nextcouple of weeks (after we get the ok from those who already have the namethat was selected) we will all have the name and shirt design with which anbe happy and proud to wear. Each member will receive their first newsletterin the next two weeks, and there will be all sorts of great announcementsand information e, so look forward to it in your inbox.
As a reminder we will be having a new drawing for an Amiga Enabled CellPhone in September, and we would encourage those of you who have not joinedyet, to get in here and do so. We have many plans and activities coming upfor the club, and once again for only $ 50.00 you will receive thenewsletter, Shirt and other special promotions. The lifetime membershipoffer has ended, but we would encourage you to be a part of somethingreally exciting as the members will continue to receive special discountsand exclusive programs directed at the membership. We will honor the"$50.00 off" certificate for the next members who join through the end ofSeptember, at which point we will hold the draw for the new cell phone.
September 1st, 2002:
As mentioned in Sacramento at AmiWest, we had offered amnesty to thosepeople/companies/entities who have knowingly stolen our IP and used it fortheir own gains, or who have shipped product knowing that they are illegalhad until the end of August in order for them to comply and to get legal.
Now, I am not going to mention names nor am I going to get into a publicdiscourse on what is happening.. But legal action has begun. In the nexttwo weeks papers will be served. We will target one violator at a time withthe hope that we will send a very clear signal that this is very serious,will not be permitted and will be stopped.
This is a private action between Amiga Inc, and those who wish to continuein this practice. While we announced publicly our intentions, the actionswill be private. I am sure that everyone can understand this and I hopewill support this.
AmigaOne Update:
Well, the amazing team of Eyetech and Hyperion are doing a great job. Manyof you already have in your possession the AmigaOne boards, and many moreof you have seen the hardware in action. This is indeed another major leapforward as we near the release of the new hardware and OS 4.0. Eyetech andAlan Redhouse have been doing a great job of keeping everyone informed ofthe progress, and we look forward to the products release.
AmigaOS 4.0:
Hyperion and the team are making amazing strides here. The screen shotsthat we all see and the updates from Ben and the people working on it showsgreat progress. I know that they are working hard with regard to theintegration into the AmigaOne, and I for one am looking forward to seeingit all working together, and from what I hear we are not too far off frommaking that happen. With this stated we have received some more shots ofthe interface from the OS 4.0 team. You can see the new AmiDock screenshotshere.
PDA/Cell Phone Update:
As mentioned in Sacramento the Amiga Anywhere Content Engine and associatedcontent will be shipping on the new Sendoª SmartPhoneª when it ships. Now,to answer the many e-mails that I have received about the Sendo phoneÉ. Ido not know when the device will ship commercially; it is out of our handswith regard to when they will have the phone available. I will tell youthat before the end of the year we will be making at least two more CellPhone announcements and at least two more PDA announcements.
We are really starting to move on getting these business deals done andthere will be many more opportunities for our developers to create newproducts for these cutting edge devices.
A Possible New Product Offering - Let me know your thoughts:
In recent dealings with one of our hardware OEM's they offered anopportunity.
This opportunity is for excellent laptop hardware at excellent prices. Theywould be dual boot systems with Linux/UAE, and Bernie Meyers product(formally known as Amithlon) pre-loaded on the device. Here is a sample ofsome of the pricing that you could expect, all prices quoted are in US$:
Intel¨ 1.2GHz 15.0" TFT 20GBCeleronª 256MB Active Hard DVD Linux/UAE $999Processor RAM Matrix Drive Drive Ami*Intel¨ 15.0"1.6GHz 256MB XGA TFT 20GB DVD/CDRW Linux/UAEPentium¨ 4 RAM Active Hard Combo Ami* $1579Processor Matrix Drive DriveIntel¨1.6GHz 256MB SXGA TFT 30GB DVD/CDRW Linux/UAEPentium¨ 4 RAM Active Hard Combo Ami* $1679Processor Matrix Drive DriveThese examples are notebook computers. There are other options available,but I am trying to find out how many of you would be interested inpurchasing these through your local Amiga dealer. Let us know by sending ane-mail to interested@amiga.com. There are also desktops and otherconfigurations but I think that a notebook Amiga would be compelling. Letus know.
The Product Formally Know as Amithlo*:
As mentioned before Bernie Meyers has a wonderful product, and we expectedit to be out by now. However there have been a couple of delays, none ofthese are engineering driven, that has delayed the release. I can tell youthat the new product will be out very soon, and will offer some newrequested features, and from what I understand is really going to knockyour socks off. We will have an update concerning the timing of thisrelease and the new name very shortly. So contrary to what you may haveheard, it will be available soon.
Developers:
This message is an update for you. You have created some of the greatestcontent that the world has ever known. Your skill sets and your tenacityhave overwhelmed many, and everyday you become more and more important tothe future.
If you have been sitting on the sidelines I encourage you to jump in. Weare getting requests from many of our OEM partners with regard to contentthat they are looking for on their devices.
While it has been a slow start (as is always the case in developing amarket), this next quarter is going to see major movement, anddistribution. We have many programs ready to take place for the Holidayseason and we want you to be a part of it. So I encourage you to jump inmake contact with us. Join us in creating the future.
In closing I wish to thank each and every member of the Amiga family fortheir support and good wishes in this amazing journey that we have embarkedupon together. We are closer today than we were yesterday to the dreams andgoals of Amiga. Tomorrow we will be closer again, and soon we can all sharein the rewards.
Sincerely,
Bill McEwen and the rest of the Amiga Team
In Search of a New Amiga
I don't know if any of you recall or not, but 2 -3 months ago I was askingabout suggestions for purchasing an IBM-compatible computer. My mostimportant use was to be for running UAE, but I also was likely to use itsomewhat for web browsing. I mentioned at that time that I would reportback on what I bought, and how it was working for me. So here is my report.
I did go with the local shop, and have been very pleased with the responseto my questions. The PC I bought has the Athlon 1800+ CPU and 256 MB ofmemory, nVidia TNT graphics card with 64MB of memory, and with both aLiteOn CDRW and a regular 54X CD. It came with monitor (15", despitepleadings from several of y