News Common PC Linux Mac Amiga CUCUG
The January 16 gathering will be one of our split SIG meetings. KrisKlindworth reports the Linux SIG will be talking about cool SSH tricks."We will go over basic secure communications with SSH and then moving on tousing SSH to create point-to-point tunnels for insecure communications liketelnet and HTTP." Jack Melby says the Macintosh SIG will have Ed Hadleyputting Sound Studio through its paces and showing a few other new OS Xapplications. Finally, Richard Rollins states the PC SIG will be treated toa demonstration of a PC tablet.
We'd also like to thank renewing members John Baird, Elaine Avner, CraigKummerow, Greg Kline, Ed Serbe, Joseph W. Hamilton, Matthew W. Skaj, JohnB. Melby, Jeff Strong, Jerry Feltner, Ed Hadley, Mark Zinzow, Dan Jansen,Selena Douglass, Emil Cobb, Richard Hall and Kevin Hopkins. We also like toexpress our appreciation to our Lifetime members Kevin Hisel and RichardRollins.
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.
Membership is still only $20. You could save that easily with just oneanswer to a vexing computer question!
President: Richard RollinsVice President: Emill CobbCorporate Agent: Kevin HiselSecretary: Kevin HopkinsTreasurer: Rich HallWe want to thank our returning officers, and, in particular, RichardRollins, for stepping up and returning to the CUCUG Presidency, after ahiatus of several years. We'd also like to make special note of Mr. KevinHisel assuming his first elected office in CUCUG after being the powerbehind the throne for nearly twenty years. Thanks, Guys.
Here's the big list of FREE products three lucky Winsig members willWIN at the January 16th meeting, courtesy of Microsoft (please note, youmust be a 2003 member of CUCUG and show your card to participate in thedrawing):
Windows XP Professional Full Version (retail box)
Windows XP is the operating system release that unifies the Microsoftrange, with all the desktop versions now built on the NT/2000 codebase rather than the shakier foundation of Windows 95, 98, and Me.That makes XP a great upgrade for users of the now-obsolete 9x and Meline, but for those already on Windows 2000 Professional it is acloser call. This is the full version of the software--NOT an upgrade.Street price $299.99.
MapPoint For Dummies (book)
MapPoint is a unique product designed to help business get a leg up onthe competition by creating geographic analysis based on realdemographic and statistical information. MapPoint For Dummies coversthe essentials a new MapPoint user needs to know -- from how to handlesimple mapping and plotting tasks to tying it into other Office toolsand databases in order to analyze business trends and make informeddecisions. Includes 60-day trial version of the MapPoint software fromMicrosoft. Street price: $17.49.
Combat Flight Simulator 3: Battle for Europe
Anti-aircraft fire blankets you. Blast debris hurls toward yourpropeller. And you wonder why you didn't join the navy. This ain't nofree-flight, cloud-gunner, glory ride. This is ground assault: thereal, gritty combat that can make or break a battle, and take yourlife in one massive explosion. Bombs shatter enemy airfields, trains,and tank columns as you streak across the European countryside inWWII's greatest planes, dodging small-arms fire, gripping yourjoystick with sweaty palms and white knuckles, pumped with adrenaline-living history. Street price: $39.99.
A U.S. district court judge on Monday ordered Microsoft to include SunMicrosystems' version of Java with the Windows operating system, citingthe software giant's history of undermining the platform-neutralprogramming language.
The preliminary injunction "I find it an absolute certainty that unless a preliminary injunction isentered, Sun will have lost forever its right to compete, and theopportunity to prevail, in a market undistorted by its competitor'santitrust violations," Motz wrote in the 42-page ruling. Sun is suing Microsoft for allegedly violating antitrust law in droppingSun's version of Java and including its own version, which Sun alleges tobe incompatible with its technology. Java is a programming language designed to work regardless of whatoperating system a computer has installed. Microsoft has long viewedJava as a competitive threat to its Windows operating system, which thecourts have ruled a monopoly. Motz cast his decision in stark competitive terms, contending thatMicrosoft's actions benefited its own .Net products at Java's expense. "Unless Sun is given a fair opportunity to compete in a market untaintedby the effects of Microsoft's past antitrust violations, there is aserious risk that in the near future the market will tip in favor of.Net, that it is impossible to ascertain when such tipping might occurin time to prevent it from happening, and that if the market does tip infavor of .Net, Sun could not be adequately compensated in damages." Sun applauded the decision. "This decision changes the dynamics of the distribution channel for theJava technology," Mike Morris, Sun's vice president and special counsel,said in a statement. "It is the technology and the business modelsurrounding it that promises to open the markets now monopolized byMicrosoft to the benefits of robust competition and unrestrainedinnovation...the preliminary injunctions we sought are intended totemporarily address some of the damage that Microsoft has inflicteduntil a full trial can be conducted." Microsoft said it planned to appeal Monday's injunction. "We're disappointed with today's ruling," said a Microsoftrepresentative. "We still need to review the details of the court'sdecision. But based upon our initial review, we intend to appeal andwe'll ask the Court of Appeals to hear it on an expedited basis." In his decision, Motz cited numerous instances in which Microsoft hadworked to undermine Java. "While...deliberately fragmenting the Java platform to make it lessattractive for developers and users, Microsoft also successfullyembarked upon a campaign to destroy Sun's channels of distribution,"Motz wrote. "Microsoft has succeeded, through its antitrust violations,in creating an environment in which the distribution of PCs is chaoticand the Java runtimes on PCs are incompatible." The ruling can hardly be a surprise to Microsoft. Motz gave some clue tohis thinking earlier this month when he compared Microsoft's treatmentof Sun to figure skater Tonya Harding's 1994 attack on competitor NancyKerrigan in advance of the Olympic Games. It will be at least a year before Sun's lawsuit against Microsoft goesto trial, Lee Patch, Sun's vice president and associate general counsel,said in a conference call on Tuesday. He said attorneys for Sun andMicrosoft will meet with Motz early in January to discuss the next stepin the case. In the decision, the judge cited Sun's request that Microsoft "set upSun's most current Java runtime environment to be installed by defaulton any product containing .Net, including Windows XP...and InternetExplorer." While granting Sun's request for an injunction in general terms, Motzheld off on determining exactly which of Microsoft's software titleswill be affected. He ordered attorneys for both sides to work that outover the holidays, according to Sun. Sun filed a private antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft in March,seeking "remedies for the harm inflicted by Microsoft's anticompetitivebehavior with respect to the Java platform and for damages resultingfrom Microsoft's illegal efforts to maintain and expand its monopolypower." One legal expert called Monday's decision "an incredible victory for Sun." "The judge had a fair amount of discretion in fashioning an appropriateremedy," said Eric Goldman, an assistant professor at MarquetteUniversity Law School in Milwaukee and former chief counsel forEpinions. "But the one he gave was a fantastic remedy that may be betterthan Sun could have achieved in the open market. They got this judge togive them what they were unable to get from the judge in the governmentcase, and from their settlement negotiations. Sun gets distribution thatthey could only have dreamt about." But the Association for Competitive Technology "The central issue in this case is who is responsible for the failure ofJava, and it is clear to anyone in our industry that Sun is responsiblefor that failure, not Microsoft," said the group's president, JonathanZuck. "Rather than take responsibility, they turn to the courts to pinthe blame on others and force Microsoft to carry their product." News.com's Jeff Pelline contributed to this report. Eric Raymond has released a new document leaked from Microsoft, which hehas dubbed the eighth "Halloween Document." This internal memo discusseshow to respond to recent and future announcements from governmentscontemplating a move to Linux or open-source software. British mobile phone developer Sendo Ltd. said it expects hearings tostart at the end of January or early February in its lawsuit accusingMicrosoft Corp. of using false promises of partnerships to gain accessto Sendo's mobile phone expertise. The suit was filed in federal court for the Eastern District of Texas,according to Marljke van Hooren, a spokeswoman for Birmingham, U.K.-basedSendo. The U.S. division of Sendo is based in Irving, Texas. In its suit, Sendo is alleging that Microsoft developed a "secret plan" to"plunder" Sendo's intellectual property, proprietary hardware expertiseand trade secrets and transfer them to low-cost original equipmentmanufacturers such as High Tech. The complaint also alleged that Microsoft used Sendo's relationships withcarriers such as Orange to establish its own contractual relationshipswith mobile carriers. Van Hooren said that Sendo is "looking intothe legal implications" of the Orange/Microsoft relationship, but shedeclined to provide further details. She added that Sendo has discussedselling the Z100 with Orange. Sendo, in its complaint, is charging that after gaining access toSendo's intellectual property and hardware, Microsoft drove "Sendo to thebrink of bankruptcy." Sendo said that Microsoft was late in deliveringsoftware and was unresponsive to Sendo's requests to fix software bugsand make changes through the spring of this year. Microsoft also failedto provide $14 million in financing, and Sendo had problems raisingfunds from outside sources, the complaint said. The suit also says that under their agreement, if Sendo filed forbankruptcy, Microsoft would be allowed to obtain a royalty-free license touse the intellectual property Sendo had developed for its Z100 Smartphone. Apple wrapped up 2002 with the release of Mac OS X 10.2.3, a hefty updatethat rolls a number of improvements and bug fixes in to Jaguar. Somechanges include compatibility fixes between the Mac and certain digitalcameras or external CD burners, as well as enhancements to applicationssuch as iPhoto, iChat, Mail, Disk Utility, and Disk Copy. Mac OS X 10.2.3also offers better iDisk performance over slow or busy network connections,updates Rendezvous networking, and makes the changes necessary for theimprovements in Connectix's Virtual PC 6. The update is available as amammoth 51 MB download via Software Update; stand-alone installers havealso been posted for updating from Mac OS X 10.2.2 or from versions 10.2 or10.2.1 (59 MB). Prompted by discussion on TidBITS Talk and some personalexperience, we recommend running Disk First Aid on your hard disk beforeinstalling the update, particularly if you've updated all the way from MacOS X 10.0. [JLC] http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107263 Two of Apple's flashier announcements at the July 2002 Macworld Expo havefinally become more usable, just in time for the January 2003 Expo. iCal1.0.2 brings sorely needed performance improvements to the calendarapplication, including speedier launch times and better importingcapabilities (meaning, at least in our case, iCal now correctly importsvCal and Microsoft Entourage files). iCal 1.0.1, released earlier lastweek, didn't work properly for users in time zones 10 hours or more fromGreenwich Mean Time. Although the release notes for version 1.0.2 do notspecifically mention this particular fix, Apple removed a notice from theiCal download page about the problem, so we assume this was a reason forreleasing another update so quickly. iCal 1.0.2 is a free 10.4 MB download. http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06880 Apple also posted iSync 1.0, the release version of its synchronizationutility that has been in beta since 30-Sep-02. iSync now boasts fastersyncing with Palm OS devices, better Palm configuration options withiniSync (you need the HotSync component of Palm Desktop 4.0), automaticsynchronization with a .Mac account, .Mac Address Book synchronization, andan iSync menu bar icon. (In our testing, iSync has been remarkably slow andprocessor intensive.) Beginning 07-Jan-02, .Mac account holders will beable to access their Address Book information via the Web. iSync 1.0 is a5.1 MB download. [JLC] http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06946 Leveraging the Unix core of Mac OS X, Apple has made available a publicbeta of X11 for Mac OS X, an environment that enables X11 applications torun within Mac OS X and makes it easier to port X11 applications to theMac. The X11 package includes display server software, client libraries,and developer toolkits; an optional X11 Software Developer Kit for Mac OS Xis also available. The public beta is available now as a free 41.5 MBdownload; the SDK is a 3.8 MB download. [JLC] http://www.apple.com/macosx/x11/ Apple made networking easier with the introduction of Rendezvous, a methodof automatic discovery and connection of devices over IP networks that thecompany has submitted as an open-source standard. Now, other companies arestarting to implement Rendezvous, starting with three announcements madelast week. TiVo Series2 digital video recorders will soon be able todiscover Macs and play shared music or display photos on a TiVo-equippedtelevision, using an upcoming premium service package. Brother's HL-5070NLaser Printer boasts the capability to streamline the process of setting upand printing to local printers, and Aspyr's NASCAR Racing 2002 Season gamemakes it easy for multiple players to find and join games on their network.[JLC] http://www.apple.com/macosx/rendezvous Microsoft today released an updater for Microsoft Office X to addressseveral issues with the Italian Spelling Tool and the French ProofingTools. Installing 10.1.3 requires that you already have the 10.1.2 update(released in November) installed. http://www.microsoft.com/mac/DOWNLOAD/OFFICEX/OfficeX_1013.asp The update patches the English, French, German, Spanish, and Swedishversions of Office X, and the stand-alone Word, Excel, PowerPoint, andEntourage applications for Mac OS X. Since the update appears to fix onlyissues with foreign-language features within Microsoft Office, it's notclear that most users will need this upgrade. [MHA] NEW YORK (Reuters) - AOL Time Warner on Sunday said Steve Case will stepdown as chairman of the company following the shareholders' meeting in May,but remain as a director of the company with joint responsibility forcorporate strategy. Case, the architect of the troubled mega-merger of America Online and TimeWarner, in a statement said his role as chairman had become a "distraction"for the world's largest media company in the face of disappointment withits post-merger performance. The company said Case notified Chief Executive Dick Parsons and the boardof directors of his decision over the weekend. Case will remain a member ofAOL Time Warner's board of directors and continue as co-chair of itsstrategy committee. The embattled executive said that under a new leadership team AOL TimeWarner could focus on executing the company's various strategies. "Given this progress and the fact that we're moving into more of anexecution phase, this seems like an appropriate time for me to announcethat I will step aside," Case said. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ÷ A new anti-piracy feature on Intuit's popularTurboTax software has triggered a backlash among consumers who areskewering the change as a major headache that will drive them to competingproducts. Intuit says the scathing criticism stems from misconceptions about theproduct activation code that customers must obtain from the company to useits top-selling tax preparation software. The activation code essentially ties the software to a single computer toprevent buyers from passing around TurboTax to people who haven't paid touse it. The code isn't required on the Macintosh version of TurboTax. The code allows customers to use TurboTax on other computers, but allprinting and electronic filing of tax returns must be done from thecomputer where the software was first launched. The Mountain View-based company announced the new restrictions inSeptember, but many customers are just learning about the change as theyinstall the software to begin their 2002 tax returns. In a fusillade of online attacks, customers are blasting the change assomething that could cause problems if they buy a new computer before theApril 15 tax-filing deadline or need to amend their 2002 returns withinthe next few years. In hundreds of online product reviews and postings in newsgroups,customers are deriding TurboTax and urging people to switch to H&R Block'sTaxCut software, which doesn't require an activation code. Some people aretaking heed. "I have been buying TurboTax for awhile, but I am not ever going to buy itagain because of this," Silicon Valley computer engineer Steven Scharfsaid in an interview. TurboTax's new activation code also has raised concerns about a securitysoftware program called Safecast, or C-Dilla, that makes the feature work. Critics say Safecast is installed surreptitiously on the hard drive andchews up computer memory. The detractors also say Safecast is extremelydifficult to remove from the hard drive and may even be used as "spyware"to snoop on a user's computer, something Intuit strongly denies. "It's not even close to spyware," Intuit spokesman Scott Gulbransen saidof the Safecast feature. To address some of the complaints cropping up, Intuit has devoted aspecial section of its Web site to answer some of the frequently askedquestions. "There is a lot of confusion out there, which always is a dangerousthing," Gulbransen said. "We don't sell a product, unless it's easy touse." The online griping about product activation hasn't spurred a spike incomplaints about TurboTax on Intuit's customer phone lines, Gulbransensaid. Still, Intuit is making some changes in response to customer complaints. For instance, beginning Thursday, customers will be able to download anupdate giving them direct access to income tax forms on other computersbesides the one where the program was activated. That flexibility hasn'tbeen available. The strident online opinions threaten to undercut TurboTax sales as thetax-filing season heats up. Intuit adopted product activation to stir more sales of TurboTax, whichsold 5.3 million desktop copies in the year ended in July. Another 2.1million tax filers subscribed to TurboTax's online edition. The company suspects TurboTax sales would have been even higher if not forall the people who illegally prepare their tax returns with copies boughtby others. Many unhappy TurboTax customers, such as Barry Watzman of North Canton,Ohio, understand the need for piracy protection, but believe Intuit istaking the wrong approach. "If I knew about the problems I know about now, I probably would havenever bought TurboTax," Watzman said. Like other customers, Watzman is considering switching to TaxCut to avoidthe activation hassles. While TaxCut doesn't require activation codes this year, H&R Block isn'truling out the possibility of using them in future editions, companyspokesman Tom Linafelt said. LAS VEGAS--When you're one of the most recognizable brands in theworld, it's hard to walk softly--but Sony Electronics is doing fine whenit comes to the big stick side of the equation. As expected, the consumer-electronics giant announced at the ConsumerElectronics Show here this week a new high-speed removable memory cardformat and a new feature for its already existing card format, the MemoryStick. Both announcements will mean higher storage capacities for deviceowners who use Memory Stick cards for storing data such as digital imagesor music. Memory Stick cards fit into slots that are built into devices such asdigital cameras and handheld computers. The cards let people store data,and in some cases, expand the capabilities of a device. For example, aMemory Stick card with a built-in digital camera can be added to ahandheld device via a Memory Stick slot. With the growing popularity of devices that use digital media--such asdigital audio players, and cell phones with built-in digitalcameras--higher capacity cards and, in the case of cell phones, smallercard sizes are becoming increasingly important to drive product sales fordevice and card manufacturers. The new card format, Memory Stick Pro, will eventually top out at 32GB,but it will start out with 256MB, 512MB and 1GB storage capacities.Memory Stick Pro will also allow devices to record content faster thandevices that use the original Memory Stick cards. "Pro elevates the flash card debate beyond higher and highercapacities," said Sony spokesman David Yang. "It adds record times tothe debate, which is important because with higher capacities, consumerscan store more large files, and a bottleneck can be created on devices." Semico Research analyst Jim Handy agreed. "With the increasingpopularity of digital video, offering faster speed transfer rates willbecome more important," he said. Sony is also working on giving Memory Stick Pro users the ability tolock the cards and prevent unauthorized access to the data they carry.The company has not determined when it will make this new Access Controlavailable but said devices such as handhelds and PCs will be able to beupgraded so they can lock and unlock the cards. "With higher capacities, consumers are more likely to store importantdata on Memory Stick Pro cards, so it's important to make sure that itcan be secured," Yang said. The cards will be available starting in April and are tentatively pricedat $190 for the 256MB card, $440 for the 512MB card and $880 for the 1GBcard. Sony will develop new devices specifically for Memory Stick Pro,and all original Memory Stick cards will be compatible with thosedevices, Yang said. Certain devices using Memory Stick cards will becompatible with Memory Stick Pro cards natively and others through anupgrade, but some older devices will not. The company will maintain alist on the Memory Stick (http://www.memorystick.org/) site that sayswhich devices will be compatible. A new feature for the original Memory Stick will also appear soon.Memory Select Function adds more chips to the Memory Stick format,offering higher storage capacities. Devices will be able to access 256MBof data on a card. Sony plans to make the feature available in April for$160. Sony is working on a 512MB card with the Select Function feature. The first of Sony's mini Memory Stick Duo cards with 64MB and 128MB sizeswill be available in the spring, according to the company. In related news about removable flash memory cards, Panasonic announcedat CES that it will be making a 1GB Secure Digital card available thisfall, but said pricing has not been set. Intel will increase the speed of the chipset on the Pentium 4 in thecoming months, a change that will likely boost the performance of top-endPCs. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker is coming out with a new chipset,code-named Springdale, for Pentium 4 PCs. The chipset runs at 800MHz,substantially faster than the 400MHz and 533MHz chipsets currentlyavailable for Pentium 4 computers, according to sources close to thecompany. The new chipset will be released with a 3.2GHz version of the Pentium 4,the sources said. Intel could not be reached for comment. Among other tasks, the chipset creates a data path, or system bus, betweenthe processor and a computer's memory. Speeding it up increases both therate the processor can obtain data and the amount that can be transferred. The imbalance between processor speeds, which top out at 3GHz, and memoryand system buses, which are far slower, has made the system bus look morelike a street than a freeway because of the imbalance. Often, processorshum along in idle mode because of a lack of data. Likewise, latency, thetime gap between when a chip has requested data and when it arrives, hasgrown. "Anything you can do to speed that up will help," said Nathan Brookwood,an analyst at consulting firm Insight 64. Overall, the increase in bus speed could boost performance by 3 percent to5 percent, he said. The chip is expected to be discussed at the Intel Developer Forum kickingoff in San Jose, Calif., on Feb. 18. Earlier, some analysts speculatedthat Springdale would come with a 667MHz bus. Desktop chip price cuts,which haven't occurred since November, will also likely occur around thesame time to ease the introduction of the 3.2GHz chip. The Springdale chipsets likely will invigorate the ongoing performanceduel between Intel and rival Advanced Micro Devices. Although the topchips from the two companies were fairly evenly matched in 2001, Intelbegan to pull away on various benchmark tests from AMD in the second halfof 2002 by increasing the clock speed, measured in mega- and gigahertz, onthe Pentium 4 faster than AMD did with its competing Athlon chip. Goosing megahertz isn't everything in performance, but it helps, analystsand executives say. AMD had to delay some chips and has had difficulty producing its fastestones in appreciable volumes. Intel then widened the gap further with the release of the 3GHz Pentium 4in November. The chip was the first desktop part to come withhyperthreading, which allows a chip to perform multiple tasks at a singletime. Despite some early skepticism, benchmark testers gave it the thumbsup. "We have to hand it to Intel; we honestly expected hyperthreading to be abig flop initially on the desktop because of losses in performance," AnandLai Shimpi, editor of the Anandtech site, wrote at the time."Hyperthreading in its current form is very much an infant technology; thepotential for it is huge, and it can grow into something much larger thanwhat we see here today." AMD, though, will counter with its Athlon 64, the first desktop chip basedaround the Hammer architecture, in late March or early April. Hammer chipswill come with an integrated memory controller--the part of the chipsetthat creates the system bus--that will run at the same speed as the chip,making it faster than Intel. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD has also made several tweaks to the core ofHammer, which will improve performance. The Hammer core is partly based onthe Athlon architecture. Both approaches have their advantages, but at this point "there are somany different factors...it is hard to determine" which will provesuperior at any given speed, Brookwood said. LAS VEGAS -- He shared the stage with a refrigerator equipped withwireless computer screens for "smart" magnets. He carried a portable computer monitor that controlled the lighting in theroom and flipped the channels on a flat-screen TV. He played an Xbox game in real time with Shaquille O'Neal, who lounged inLos Angeles. Then Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates revealedthe next-generation PC: a wristwatch. In his keynote speech Wednesday night, Gates teased his audience at theConsumer Electronics Show with current and oft-touted Microsoft-poweredproducts such as the Xbox game console, portable smart displays andcombination PDA/cell phones. He saved what he apparently considered thebest for last: a silver Fossil wristwatch. Not your ordinary department-store watch, Gates' timepiece is part of anew line of products using a technology called SPOT (small personalobjects technology), has a black-and-white screen and gives wearers thetime plus real-time information such as news, weather, sports scores andinstant text messages. "It's sort of like a pager," Gates said. The watch operates on FM radio frequencies and automatically resets itselfwhen the user moves into a different time zone. Wearers can customize the watch's look and features by visiting a websiteset up by Microsoft expressly for that purpose. Besides Fossil, Suunto andCitizen also plan to release their own SPOT products this fall. "These partners have a vision that the watch goes beyond just tellingtime," Gates said. Some members of the audience seemed to think that vision may have cloudedMicrosoft's better products and judgment. Blake Krikorian, a technology adviser for id8 Group in San Mateo,California, said he was surprised Microsoft would heavily promote such aproduct in favor of its "exciting technology today, like the smartdisplays." While Krikorian believes Microsoft has the connections to market thewatches, he also foresees challenges. People who would buy a watch like the one Bill Gates showed off in hiskeynote are business travelers who need to stay constantly connected,Krikorian said. These folks are more likely to go in for watches fromRolex or Cartier, not Fossil, he said. "I would buy a watch that had that functionality but did not sacrifice onthe quality of the design," Krikorian said tactfully. Norman Weinstein, an analyst with Yeske and Company, said Microsoft hascovered its bases by supporting so many different technologies. At theshow, four electronics makers, including Sanyo and Samsung, are expectedto release a Windows-powered personal digital video recorder by theholiday season. The 20-GB recorder would allow users to carry with them upto 175 hours of video or 8,000 songs. Windows Movie Maker 2 makes home movies amazingly fun. With Movie Maker 2,you can create, edit, and share your home movies right on your computer.Build your movie with a few simple drag-and-drops. Delete bad shots andinclude only the best scenes. Then share your movie via the Web, e-mail,or CD. Using third-party software you can even take movies you've made andturn them into DVDs. You can also save your movie back to the video tapein your camera to play back on a TV or on the camera itself. To download Windows Movie Maker 2 (it's free) just go to Windows Updateand select it. What's New in Windows Media Player 9 Series? With over 120 new features in Windows Media Player 9 Series, there's a lotto explore and something exciting for everyone. We tried to fit this list into a Top 10 but there were too many tomention. So here's our baker's dozen list of what's new in Windows MediaPlayer 9 Series: 1. Fast Streaming - get instant-on, no-interruption streaming forbroadband users, effectively eliminating buffering time when connected toa server running Windows Media Services 9 Series. For dial-up users, thenew player dramatically improves streaming responsiveness and reliability.(All supported OS versions) 2. Mini-Player & Full Screen Audio Modes- frees up space on the desktop,making it easy to control playback of music and video from the taskbar orvia full screen controls. (Windows XP version) 3. New audio effects including Crossfading & Volume Leveling- Crossfadingenables you to create radio-style transitions in your playlists byoverlapping song endings and beginnings. Volume leveling minimizes thevolume difference in playlist items by equalizing the volume. (Windows XPversion) 4. Queue-It-Up- instantly add new music to your current playlist queuewith one click. (All supported OS versions) 5. Variable Speed Playback & Media Link- Control the speed of audio orvideo without changing the pitch and tone perfect for quickly gettingthrough a long video, or for aiding comprehension. Use Media Link to Emaillinks to your own highlights from streamed news, presentations, homemovies and more. (Windows XP version) 6. Info Center View for WMA and MP3 Files- view artist details, ratings,lyrics, related news and radio stations, and even discover downloads andvideos in the Now Playing window. (Windows XP version) 7. Advanced Tag Editor for WMA and MP3 files- supports over 35 mediainformation tag types, including pictures, lyrics, mood, comments, andeven synchronized lyrics. (Windows XP version) 8. Smart Jukebox Organization- Features including file and foldermonitoring keep your library in sync across multiple folders, drives, evennetworked PCs. (Windows XP version) 9. Auto Info- Automatically add or fix album details such as composer,year, genre, and album art for your existing WMA and MP3 collection.(Windows XP version) 10. Auto Playlists- enables the creation and editing of smart mixes thatautomatically update to reflect new additions or changes to your MediaLibrary. You can also edit and personalize over 20 presets or add yourown. (All supported OS versions, creation and editing of Auto Playlists onWindows XP) 11. High performance CD burning- lets you easily and quickly burn audioCDs with Volume Leveling. Burn music and video content as data on a CD-Rfor backup or playback in Windows Media-compatible DVD players, carstereos and portable CD players. (Audio CD burning on all OS versions,audio CD burning with volume leveling and data burning on Windows XP) 12. Support for Windows Mediaú Audio and Video 9 - Windows Media Audioand Video 9 offer breakthrough audio and video quality at any bitrate,with a 20% boost in quality compared with Windows Media Audio and Video 8.New audiophile-grade features such as WMA VBR, WMA Professional (24-bit,96khz, 5.1+ channel), and WMA Lossless deliver unparalleled quality andflexibility. (All supported OS versions) 13. 5 Types of Plug-ins- For maximum personalization, a new plug-in modelmakes it easy to add audio and video effects, new UI features, renderingformats, skins, and visualizations to your player. (All supported OSversions) It must really irk Gateway Corp. founder and chairman Ted Waitt every timehe sees an ad for his competitor Dell Computer, or a profile of itsfounder, Michael Dell. After all, Mr. Waitt started his mail-order PCcompany in an Iowa farmhouse at about the same time Mr. Dell started one inhis dorm room at the University of Texas - and now Dell is the undisputedleader of the computer business, and Gateway is a footnote. On Tuesday, the company engaged in a ritual that has become all toofamiliar over the past year: it cut its revenue and profit targets, sayingit would lose 18 cents (U.S.) to 19 cents in the fourth quarter, on salesof $1.06-billion. That compares with a consensus forecast of 14 cents onrevenue of $1.22-billion. To add to the pain, Gateway added that a disputewith a "major partner" could bump its losses up by a further 3 cents. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Mr. Waitt said that a strong fourthquarter would be needed to keep the company's loss for the year under the$250-million mark. The fact that its final quarter was actually weaker thanexpected means it will likely lose more than that - a loss that will comeon top of a $1-billion loss last year. Gateway has managed to make a profitonly once in the last eight quarters, in the fourth quarter of last year,and even then it was only a minuscule 1.6 cents a share. Given its fourth-quarter estimate, the computer maker is likely to havesales for the year of just over $4-billion - a staggering 55 per cent belowwhat its annual revenues were just two years ago. And where did most ofthose sales go? To Mr. Waitt's arch-rival, Michael Dell. In the sameperiod, Dell's sales have gone to $34-billion from $25-billion, a climb of40 per cent. Between 1997 and 2000, Dell's revenue more than doubled.Gateway's sales rose 50 per cent, but have since lost all that ground. Not surprisingly, Gateway's stock price has also lost a lot of ground. In1999, the shares hit a peak of $81, and even as recently as last year thestock was trading at $20. It is now below $3, and some analysts who followthe company believe it could go even lower. While the company has no debtand $1-billion in cash, it continues to lose money - and shows no sign ofbeing able to turn that red ink into black in the near future, despiteseveral major restructurings in the past two years. In one of those restructurings, Ted Waitt returned to take the helm of thecompany he founded, and there was some initial hope that he could find away to return Gateway to its roots and make it profitable. Instead,however, many of his strategic moves actually accelerated the company'sproblems - such as the move to expand Gateway's chain of retail outlets,something fellow mail-order PC maker Dell has stayed away from. Those retail stores are now a massive cash drain, and that comes on top ofdeteriorating profit margins in the PC industry - a trend that has beenengineered in large part by Dell, which described its relentless pressureon competitors in 2001 by saying "This is going to be Bosnia" (in the wordsof Dell president Jim Vanderslice). As Dell has ratcheted PC prices downfarther and farther, it has managed to make money because of its low-costoperation, but others have been hemorrhaging. Exactly a year ago, Gateway disappointed the market by cutting its revenuetargets for the fourth quarter, although it stuck to its profitexpectations. The shares slumped by more than 25 per cent to $7.44 (morethan double the price they are trading for now). Some analysts said thecompany was making the transition from low-margin PC sales to higher-margincorporate sales and that this would be reflected in future quarters.Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown boosted its price target to $12 with a "buy." Instead, however, Gateway has lost focus even further, expanding itsproduct offering from PCs to Mp3 players, digital cameras, large-screentelevisions and other consumer electronic devices. Meanwhile, it hasresorted to aggressive price-cutting and incentives - such as a two-for-onePC deal over Christmas - which have only eroded its profit margins evenfurther, without resulting in any market share gains. That, analysts say,is a vicious circle that is leading Gateway in one direction: down. "There's just no room for them," technology consultant Martin Pichison toldthe Los Angeles Times just before Christmas. "Dell is beating theyou-know-what out of everybody. There's just no margins anymore."Morningstar analyst Joseph Beaulieu said Gateway "is not a stock that Iwould own at any price at this point. They're losing money, and they haveno viable business plan to turn things around." At some point, Ted Waittmay finally have to admit that his former dorm-room counterpart has won. Subscribe to The Globe and Mail online: #https://customer.globeandmail.ca/circcsSubsBase.asp# Linux seller MandrakeSoft issued a plea for cash Friday, encouragingpeople to buy products, MandrakeClub memberships or company stock. The company, based in Paris but drawing much of its revenue from NorthAmerica, needs $4 million to pay debts and cover expenses in order toattain profitability. It's the second time this year the company has soughthelp from its customers. "A very difficult time has arrived for us: We have a very big short-termcash issue," co-founder Gael Duval said in a statement. MandrakeSoft isn't the only company to struggle with the business prospectsof Linux, an open-source clone of the Unix operating system and one ofseveral technologies once popular with investors. For example, the SCOGroup changed its name to emphasize its Unix products, and Lineo, a makerof Linux for gadgets, this week was acquired under its new name Embedix bya Motorola unit. SuSE, based in Germany and second to Red Hat in market share, declined inNovember to state whether it expects to be profitable for 2002. RivalTurboLinux has sold off a distributed computing software business andretrenched to its Japanese stronghold. Linux companies have seen some business success, however. For example, RedHat, the top seller of Linux, has edged into profitability. MandrakeSoft held an initial public offering on the unregulated MarcheLibre exchange in Paris in 2001. At the time, MandrakeSoft was trying to extricate itself from a change ( The company embarked on an expense-cutting campaign last year, but saidFriday it won't be able to attain profitability by the end of the 2002, asit hoped. It now hopes to move into the black in the spring of 2003 withthe release of its next version of Linux. "If you are concerned about MandrakeSoft's future, this is the time tomobilize," the company exhorted customers in a message ( Specifically, the company asked customers to join the MandrakeClub(http://www3.mandrakelinux.com/en/club/) or upgrade their membership level.The members of the club get access to more software, quicker downloads andspecial promotions. MandrakeSoft estimated it could meet the current cash hurdle if 20,000 ofthe company's estimated 200,000 customers signed up for a silver-levelmembership, which costs $120 per year. The company also suggested customers buy products or company stock. Currentshareholders may purchase stock at about $2.10 per share through a warrantoperation, the company said. THE LINUX OPERATING system has made the jump fromcomputer servers to handheld computers, digital videorecorders, and wristwatches and soon may find a homeinside your cellular telephone. NEC said Wednesday it is working on the development ofLinux-based cell phones with MontaVista Software, andan executive of the Sunnyvale, Calif., softwarecompany said it is in talks with other major cellularhandset makers on similar projects. SILICON GRAPHICS INC.'S (SGI's) new Altix 3000 machinesare penguins on steroids, combining the Linuxoperating system with Intel's Itanium 2 processor intoa server that can scale up to 64 processors. The Altix 3300 and Altix 3700 were announced by SGITuesday. Both systems use a standard version of Linux-- whose widely used emblem is the penguin --compatible with Red Hat's Linux Version 7.2. The Altix3300 can be configured with a single node of betweenfour and 12 Itanium 2 processors, while the Altix 3700uses anywhere from 16 to 64 Itanium 2 processors in a node. Saying he had "two Macworld's worth of stuff for you today," Steve Jobsunveiled a host of new software (and hardware, covered elsewhere in thisissue) offerings at his Macworld Expo San Francisco 2003 keynote address.In fact, the sheer number of products prevents us from going into muchdetail about the software in this issue - look for more detailed analysisin upcoming editions of TidBITS. iLife The digital hub remains a core Apple strategy, and the company hastightened the radius of its iApps by creating iLife, a bundle consisting ofiTunes 3, iPhoto 2, iMovie 3, and iDVD 3. In addition to new features,these applications now integrate with each other - so iTunes playlists areavailable in iMovie, iPhoto albums are accessible in iDVD, etc. iPhoto 2and iMovie 3 will be available 25-Jan-03 for free download (iTunes 3 isalready available). Due to iDVD's size, it's not practical to make itavailable online, so on 25-Jan-03 Apple will start selling the entire iLifepackage on CD-ROM for $50. Keynote Steve Jobs has always been noted for his showy keynote addresses; now he'srevealed the application he used to create his sophisticated slide showsduring 2002. Keynote is a presentation program which takes advantage of MacOS X display technologies like Quartz and OpenGL to make sophisticatedslide shows. It imports and exports from PowerPoint, making it anintriguing alternative to Microsoft's dominant presentation program (see"Apple Reduces Its Microsoft Dependency" elsewhere in this issue). Keynoteis available now for $100. Final Cut Express Apple also announced Final Cut Express, a slightly stripped-down version ofits Final Cut Pro digital video editing application. Final Cut Express usesthe same interface as Final Cut Pro and offers most of the pro-levelnon-linear editing, transitions, and real-time effects as its big brotherat about one-third of the price. That makes it a good choice for someonewho wants to produce projects more sophisticated than what iMovie canhandle, but who doesn't need extensive image capture and exportcapabilities. Final Cut Express is available now for $300. http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/ Safari Public Beta One of the most exciting announcements was Safari, Apple's home-grown Webbrowser. Built by some of the folks who develop Chimera for Mac OS X,Safari is a new Web browser based on the open source KHTML renderingengine. Apple intends it to be the fastest browser available on the Mac -and so far, they seem to be pulling it off - with easy-to-use features.Currently Safari is in public beta and available as a tiny 2.9 MB download.On 10-Jan-03, Apple released a v51 update, which is recommended foreveryone who initially downloaded Safari in the first few days afterrelease. Amid rumors of video iPods and tablet Macs appearing during the MacworldExpo keynote address, Steve Jobs calmly introduced a pair of new PowerBookmodels that slot neatly into Apple's existing iBook and PowerBook lines.The most obvious distinction for the new machines is display size, andthat's how Apple refers to them officially: the 12-inch PowerBook G4 andthe 17-inch PowerBook G4. The 12-inch PowerBook G4 packs a lot of powerinto the smallest laptop Apple has ever made, and the 17-inch PowerBook G4breaks new ground for the size of a screen in a laptop computer. BothPowerBooks support Apple's new 802.11g AirPort Extreme wireless networking;both also exclusively run Mac OS X and cannot boot into Mac OS 9 (thoughthe Classic environment is still available to run Mac OS 9 applications). http://www.apple.com/powerbook/ Given Apple's penchant for differentiating the names of new Macs as littleas possible, there was much talk at the show about what these newPowerBooks would end up being called. After all, many people refer to theTitanium PowerBook G4 as the TiBook, and Apple's parenthetical descriptorslike Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors) are both awkward and hard to say(and as a wag at the Netters Dinner chided me when I said the entire namealoud, the parentheses are silent). So the attendees of the Netters Dinnervoted the most popular name for the 17-inch PowerBook G4 as "Lunch Tray,"with the 12-inch PowerBook G4's matching name being "Happy Meal." Despitethe elegance of a matching set of names, I suspect many people will callthe 12-inch PowerBook something based on "Mini Me," the character played byVerne Troyer in the Austin Powers movies. That comes thanks to Apple'shilarious TV ad for the new PowerBooks featuring the diminutive Troyer withYao Ming, the 7-foot, 6-inch (2.3 m) center for basketball's HoustonRockets. We'll see what names actually catch on in common usage. http://www.apple.com/hardware/video/powerbookg4bigandsmall.html 17-inch PowerBook G4 With the new 17-inch PowerBook, Apple broke new ground in laptop size. The17-inch screen is reportedly the largest laptop screen ever, although at1440 by 900 (the widescreen 16 by 10 aspect ratio), it can't claim theaward for highest resolution, since some PC laptops have screens that runat 1600 by 1200. Kudos go to Apple's designers for implementing acounterweight in the hinge that makes the lid incredibly smooth to open andclose. Despite the massive screen, Apple managed to keep the overall weightdown to 6.8 pounds (3.1 kg). It's also the thinnest PowerBook yet, with athickness of just under 1 inch (2.54 cm), which is slightly thinner thanthe existing Titanium PowerBook G4. Rounding out the dimensions, it's 15.4inches (39.2 cm) wide and 10.2 inches (25.9 cm) deep. http://www.apple.com/powerbook/specs.html Rather than rely on titanium for the new PowerBooks, Apple switched to anaircraft-grade anodized aluminum. Although I'm not enough of a metallurgistto verify this, Apple claims the anodized aluminum is lighter and stifferthan the titanium used in the TiBook. My reading of bicycle frame buildingdiscussions comparing aluminum and titanium agree that aluminum is lighter,but not generally stiffer. However, it's also clear from reading thosediscussions that specific design makes a huge difference in finalstiffness. The aluminum isn't painted, which will please those people whosewatches have scratched the titanium finish or whose hand oil has caused theTiBook's paint to bubble and peel. Under the hood, the 17-inch PowerBook G4 offers a 1 GHz PowerPC G4processor with 1 MB L3 cache, 512 MB of PC2700 DDR RAM (upgradable to 1GB), a GeForce4 440 Go graphics processor with 64 MB VRAM, a 60 GB harddisk, a slot-loading SuperDrive (CD-RW/DVD-R), two USB ports, GigabitEthernet, a PC Card slot, audio line in, stereo speakers, a headphone jack,and an internal microphone. Video out is handled by S-video and DVIconnectors, and Apple includes a DVI to VGA adapter. The 17-inch PowerBookG4 supports dual displays, and a new function key on the keyboard lets youswitch easily between an extended desktop and mirrored displays. Despitethe huge screen and fast processor, Apple claims users should see up to 4.5hours of battery life with the new lithium-ion prismatic battery. FireWire is also onboard, in the form of a standard FireWire 400 port and anew separate FireWire 800 port that runs at, you guessed it, 800 Mbps.FireWire 800 requires a new connector, but it's backward compatible withFireWire 400 if you use the adapter Apple provides. And speaking of ports,the two USB connections are smartly placed, one on each side of the base,making it easier for left-handed users (or anyone using extra USB devicessuch as video or audio editing controllers) to minimize cable clutter. Also built in are not one, but two forms of wireless communication.Bluetooth is now standard for communicating with cell phones and otherBluetooth-capable devices. Then there's AirPort Extreme, an enhancedversion of AirPort wireless networking. AirPort Extreme relies on the802.11g draft standard to provide 54 Mbps of bandwidth when communicatingwith another AirPort Extreme device, while still maintaining full backwardcompatibility with 11 Mbps (802.11b) AirPort devices. In a bit of good newsfor frustrated TiBook users looking to upgrade, Apple moved the antennas(which are used by both AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth, with some cleverswitching to make sure they don't interfere with one another) from the baseto the upper edges of the screen. Apple claims that reception should be asgood as with the recent iBook models, which provide better reception thanany other machine I've seen. Lastly, Apple upped the cool factor of the 17-inch PowerBook by adding afiber optic system that illuminates the keyboard from underneath, with thelight shining through laser-etched keycaps. That's neat, but what's evenneater is that it's controlled by an ambient light sensor thatautomatically raises the level of backlight as the room light goes down.The ambient light sensor also automatically adjusts the screen brightness,although you can control both manually from the keyboard as well. Peoplewho regularly work in dim environments are sure to find this particularlyuseful. The 17-inch PowerBook G4 will be available in February (though Apple'sonline store currently lists a 7 to 10 week estimated shipping timeline)for $3,300, and short of paying $300 more to add another 512 MB of RAM,there aren't any other options. It comes with a free copy of Intuit'sQuickBooks for Mac New User Edition. http://quickbooks.intuit.com/qbcom/jhtml/skins/prod_ovw.jhtml?ssaPath=qb_2003_mac_pro_1user I'll be interested to see how the 17-inch PowerBook sells. Although theprice is reasonable, the feature set is extremely good, and the screen isstupendous, it has one problem: it's big. Really big. Almost withoutexception, everyone I talked with at the show felt it was too big to beused as a general laptop computer, although it would be ideal for someonewho merely needs a portable computer that can be moved from desk to desk.Though it's only very slightly taller than the TiBook thanks to a cleverscreen hinge, it's awfully wide, and I can't imagine using it in coach onmost airplanes. It won't fit in many PowerBook bags, but the Apple OnlineStore offers two optional Brenthaven cases that are designed to hold it(and other bag manufacturers have already started working up new designs).When I asked about the size issue, Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president ofhardware products, shrugged and said, "That's what they said about theTitanium PowerBook G4 when it came out, too." For Apple's sake, I hope he'sright, since it's one heck of a cool machine, and there will be people forwhom it is utterly perfect. 12-inch PowerBook G4 It was the biggest of PowerBooks, it was the smallest of PowerBooks. Withapologies to Charles Dickens, that's how the keynote felt, since afterintroducing the big- screen 17-inch PowerBook G4, Steve Jobs reversed gearsand showed off the svelte 12-inch PowerBook G4. It shares an anodized aluminum case with the 17-inch PowerBook G4, but witha 12.1-inch screen running at 1024 by 768, the new PowerBook has more incommon with the 12-inch iBook. It's even smaller than the iBook in everyway, measuring only 1.2 inches (3.0 cm) high, 10.9 inches (27.7 cm) wide,8.6 inches (21.8 cm) deep, and weighing in at 4.6 pounds (2.1 kg). Both thePowerBook Duo and PowerBook 2400 are slightly smaller than the 12-inchPowerBook G4 in one or two dimensions, but not in all three or in overallvolume. But where the iBook has been slowed by its reliance on the PowerPC G3, the12-inch PowerBook G4 uses an 867 MHz PowerPC G4. To that it adds 256 MB ofPC2100 DDR RAM (expandable to 640 MB), a 40 GB hard disk (add $50 for a 60GB disk) a GeForce4 420 Go graphics processor with 32 MB VRAM and dualdisplay support, a slot-loading Combo drive (CD-RW/DVD-ROM), VGA andS-video out (both via an adapter), a FireWire 400 port, two USB ports,10/100Base-T Ethernet, along with stereo speakers (and a third mid-rangespeaker embedded in the bottom of the base), audio line in, headphoneoutput, and an internal microphone. On the wireless front, the 12-inchPowerBook G4 boasts built-in Bluetooth support as well as a slot for anoptional $100 AirPort Extreme card. The antennas are in the screen again,and Apple claims it should match the iBook's wireless range. Apple alsosays the 12-inch PowerBook G4 gets up to 5 hours of battery life from alithium-ion battery. The 12-inch PowerBook G4 should be available in about two weeks with pricesstarting at $1,800; for an extra $200, you can replace the Combo drive witha SuperDrive (CD-RW/DVD-R). It currently ships with a copy of Intuit'sQuickBooks. Unfortunately, the 12-inch PowerBook lacks the ambient lightsensor and fiber optic keyboard backlight of the 17-inch PowerBook G4. While I'm unsure about how well the 17-inch model will do, I have fewdoubts about the 12-inch model, since there are many people for whom theTiBook was too large and expensive, but the iBook suffered from lack ofboth performance and dual display support. Adding Bluetooth and AirPortExtreme merely sweetens the deal. The 12-inch PowerBook G4 is, quitesimply, the perfect travelling laptop for a serious Mac user. And I wantone. A Step Back All that said, you may have noticed a few annoying limitations in the12-inch PowerBook G4. Although 640 MB of RAM is enough, many people wouldlike to install more. A PC Card slot might be nice, and a backlit keyboardwould be welcome. It also has only VGA out instead of DVI, FireWire 400rather than FireWire 800, and 10/100 Mbps Ethernet rather than GigabitEthernet. Why the limitations? Though space and power are undoubtedly tightin such a small machine, Apple was careful to provide a rational way forpeople to choose among Apple's iBook and PowerBook models, and the companydidn't want the 12-inch PowerBook G4 to eclipse the larger and moreexpensive PowerBooks (the 15-inch Titanium models are still offered, andnow represent the mid-range of the PowerBook line). Apple's pricing rampsup smoothly, as you can see in the list below: * $1,000: 12-inch iBook (CD-ROM, 700 MHz) The feature set of each machine follows along with the price, making iteasy to determine which laptop is right for you. Apple is clearly takingportables seriously, and Steve Jobs said that the company believes thatsomeday portables will outsell desktops. Currently, about a third ofApple's Macintosh sales go to notebooks, compared with less than a quarterof sales industry-wide. Keep this product line ramp up in mind as you imagine what the future mightbring. I could see Apple releasing a 15-inch PowerBook G4 using theanodized aluminum case of the new PowerBooks, particularly if the currentTiBook continues to meet the needs of many new customers. I also think aG4-based iBook might be in the offing, but only if the total packagedoesn't impinge on the PowerBook line. As is becoming increasingly common at Macworld Expo, Apple dominatedattendees' attention by introducing a wide-ranging set of new hardware andsoftware products. The new 12-inch and 17-inch PowerBooks, the speedy802.11g-based AirPort Extreme, significant updates to three of the fouriApps, three new major applications in Safari, Keynote, and Final CutExpress... the rapid-fire of announcements had journalists scribbling madlythrough Steve Jobs's two-hour keynote presentation. But, as interesting and important as most of the announcements were, therelease of the Safari Web browser and the Keynote presentation programoffer the first major public look at what has been one of Apple's maingoals of late: to reduce the company's dependence on Microsoft foressential productivity software. The task is by no means done, so look forfuture moves to complete the task of making Microsoft's software excellentalternatives, rather than the sole choices in any given field. Past Efforts When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, a five-year agreement was madebetween the companies, requiring Microsoft to continue producing Macintoshsoftware, in exchange for which Apple would bundle Microsoft software -Outlook Express and Internet Explorer - with the Mac OS. That agreement isover now and won't be renewed, but Apple has been working for some time towean itself from Microsoft, a move that's not only in Apple's bestinterests, but which may also benefit Microsoft by giving the company'sMacintosh Business Unit (MacBU) some much-needed competition. http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=04090 Though Apple didn't make much of it at the time, the inclusion of Mail withMac OS X was the first step in this strategy, enabling Apple to dropMicrosoft's Outlook Express, which had been bundled previously. More recentpublic hints came with Apple's unveiling of iChat in May of 2002, sinceiChat specifically offered compatibility with AOL Instant Messenger, ratherthan Microsoft's MSN Messenger. Then, although it wasn't blatant, Apple'ssystem- wide Address Book and the release of iCal meant that Apple hadduplicated most of the basic features of Entourage X. The public problemsbecame more obvious after Microsoft complained about how Office X wasn'tselling well enough because Apple wasn't helping to market it. http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06816 Big Game with Safari Once the cracks began to show, it became clear that Internet Explorer wouldbe Apple's first target. Internet Explorer's favored position on the Dockmade it the only non-Apple program to receive such treatment, and given theundeniable importance of a Web browser in today's computing world, Applesimply had to reclaim that spot. Conceivably, Apple could have purchased one of the smaller browsers, suchas OmniWeb or iCab, but the company has avoided that approach with theiApps after turning Casady & Greene's SoundJam into iTunes. In particular,Apple chose to develop iPhoto and iCal in house, even though there wereplenty of decent programs that Apple could have bought to kick start thedevelopment effort. Part of that is undoubtedly Apple's desire to show howquickly Cocoa applications can be developed from scratch; there's probablysome of the old "Not Invented Here" syndrome in play as well, althoughthere are good reasons to write software yourself, as you can read in the"Joel on Software" article linked below. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000007.html So Apple set out to create their own browser, hiring a Netscape developerwho was also working on the open source browser Chimera. That led toassumptions that Apple would use the open source Gecko HTML renderingengine that's behind all of the Netscape-derived browsers (Netscape,Mozilla, and Chimera), but those assumptions proved false when Steve Jobsannounced that Apple had instead chosen the open source KHTML engine,reportedly because KHTML is significantly faster than Gecko and has aboutseven times fewer lines of code. Whatever the under-the-hood details,Safari looks to be a good, if not yet great, Web browser, and we hope Applewill continue to use it to push the browser paradigm forward. Does the release of Safari change the Web browser landscape? Yes, since itwill overnight become one of the primary Web browsers on the Internet, andanyone writing HTML must test against Safari along with all the otherheavily used browsers. But overall, I don't think Mac users will find thechange all that unsettling. Until Safari, Internet Explorer was thedominant browser, and all the rest (Netscape, Mozilla, Chimera, iCab,OmniWeb, and Opera) were used by people for whom Internet Explorer wasn'tquite right. I suspect Safari will replace Internet Explorer, not just onthe Dock, but also as the dominant Macintosh Web browser, and InternetExplorer will join the others as a browser of choice for those who eschewthe status quo. Selling the Keynote If the release of Safari was not unexpected, the appearance of Keynote wasan almost complete surprise. Perhaps PowerPoint experts had been wonderingabout some of the effects in Steve Jobs's Macworld Expo keynotes in 2002,all of which relied on pre-release versions of Keynote, but if there wasany such speculation, I never heard it. I had been thinking privately thatApple might be working to beef up AppleWorks so it could give MicrosoftOffice X some competition, but since AppleWorks doesn't includepresentation software, I wasn't thinking in those terms. In retrospect, though, a cutting-out expedition to separate the weakestmember of the Office suite from the herd makes total sense. Excel occupiesan extremely solid position, since it's incredibly mature and Excelspreadsheets are required for the day-to-day functioning of innumerablebusinesses. Word's position is also rather secure, thanks to the need forpeople to exchange Word documents among Macintosh and Windows users and toimport them into layout programs. Word is more vulnerable than Excel,though, because many people find the program's features - even essentialones such as version tracking and comments - ungainly and awkward. As muchas Word is currently an essential application for vast numbers of people, acompetitor that read and wrote Word format files perfectly would have achance of supplanting it. With Mail, Address Book, and iCal already offering an alternative toEntourage, PowerPoint made sense as the next target for Apple. With theexception of a few programs like ConceptDraw Presenter from smallcompanies, PowerPoint hasn't had any real competition since the demise ofAldus Persuasion in the mid-1990s. Although PowerPoint isn't a bad program,it had become the dominant presentation program more through its inclusionin the Office suite than its incomparable feature set or overwhelming easeof use. PowerPoint's file compatibility is important, but not nearly asmuch as with Word, and it doesn't fill the day-to-day role of Excel inrunning a business. http://www.conceptdraw.com/en/products/CDPresenter/ Hence Keynote. Although I'm not qualified to compare it to PowerPoint on afeature-by-feature basis, it looks as though it will be highly crediblecompetition. Not surprisingly, Apple focused on helping users make visuallyarresting presentations with Keynote, but in a forward-thinking move,Keynote's file format uses XML (eXtensible Markup Language). Since XMLfiles are merely structured text files, other programs will be able towrite out Keynote files, thus making it possible to create automaticpresentations based, for instance, on daily sales data. Plus, Apple enabledKeynote to import and export PowerPoint files, a capability that shouldaddress many file compatibility concerns (reportedly, QuickTime movies inPowerPoint presentations must be moved over manually). Unlike the free Safari and iApps, Keynote costs $100, and thus will notautomatically take over as the Macintosh presentation software of choice.But the buzz about it at Macworld Expo was positive, and if nothing else,it should serve as a wakeup call to the PowerPoint team that they need toinnovate or risk losing the Macintosh platform. How Should Microsoft Respond? While not declaring war, Apple has certainly thrown down the gauntlet, andit remains to be seen how Microsoft will respond. Microsoft's MacBU hasbeen flailing since the release of Office X in October of 2001. The morerecent departure of MacBU general manager Kevin Browne emphasized thegroup's confusion and underscored the importance of Apple reducing itsdependency on Microsoft for essential software. Apple must extricate itself from this too-close relationship with Microsoftcarefully. Were Microsoft to become too angry about how Apple wasportraying the company and its products, it's not inconceivable thatMicrosoft would dissolve the MacBU (which probably doesn't contribute thatmuch to Microsoft's bottom line) and stop producing Macintosh softwareentirely. Such a move could still be disastrous for Apple, given theessential roles that Word and Excel play in business, government, andacademia. However, I expect better from Microsoft, particularly since thecompany has long utilized the same strategy in the Windows market thatApple is following in the Macintosh market. What's good for the goose... Aside from the problem of being beholden to a company that is essentiallyyour primary competition, the other reason it makes sense for Apple tolessen its dependency on Microsoft is that Microsoft hasn't been deliveringof late. It's been 14 months since the release of Office X, and althoughcarbonization of the four programs in the Office suite was an admittedlyhuge undertaking, Office X has few new features over Office 2001, released13 months earlier. And Internet Explorer hasn't seen a major update sinceMarch of 2000, thanks in part to being left without a development team forlong periods of time. Sadly, a renewed sense of purpose at Microsoft, if it's indeed happeninginternally, hasn't yet bubbled to the surface. In our briefing withMicrosoft, the only new thing they showed was MSN for Mac OS X, anovice-level Internet service that, short of some moderately interestingparental controls, was basically a yawn. But even MSN for Mac OS X wasexciting compared to the rest of Microsoft's limp announcements - theextension of a discount on Office X for new Mac buyers, the release ofEntourage X on its own for $100, and the bundling of the Office X TestDrive with all new Macs (in which you can see Apple trying to let Microsoftdown gently). My questions about whether we'd see a new version of Office Xin 2003 were ducked, and no one would venture a comment on Safari orKeynote. Call me an optimist, but I hope that Apple reducing its dependency onMicrosoft will motivate Microsoft to take renewed interest in moving OfficeX and Internet Explorer forward in interesting and innovative ways.Competition is a good thing, and Microsoft hasn't had nearly enough of itlately. On the two-year birthday of the high-end Titanium PowerBook, Apple Computeron Tuesday upped the ante by introducing a model with a massive 17-inchdisplay. "We believe someday notebooks are even going to outsell desktops," AppleCEO Steve Jobs said during his keynote speech at the Macworld Expo in SanFrancisco. He predicted the sales ratio will climb to at least 50 percentin a few years. "We want to replace even more desktops with notebooks," he said. To achieve that goal, the company created a PowerBook that is 1-inch thick,slightly thinner than its predecessor. It weighs 6.8 pounds, compared with5.4 pounds for the 15-inch PowerBook. It's made from high-grade aluminum. New features include built-in Bluetooth (a short-haul wireless technology),FireWire 2 and AirPort wireless networking. The long-anticipated FireWire 2has a throughput of 800mbps (megabits per second), about twice as fast asthe previous version. The 17-inch PowerBook, with a screen resolution of 1440-by-900 pixels, a1GHz PowerPC G4 processor, 512MB of RAM, a 60GB hard drive and a DVDrecording drive, is priced at $3,299 and ships next month. Apple also introduced a 12-inch PowerBook. "We decided to apply thistechnology to something a little smaller," Jobs said. The smaller PowerBook costs $1,799 and includes an 867MHz G4 processor, a40GB hard drive, Bluetooth and is 802.11g-ready. (802.11g is a wirelessnetworking standard that boasts faster speeds and better security.) "This is the most affordable PowerBook ever, and we will be shipping themin about two weeks," Jobs said, touting the new 12-inch PowerBook as aportable digital media studio. "This is clearly going to be the year of the notebook for Apple," he said. The 12-inch PowerBook appears to be the new entertainment portable productthat sources close to the company said would be unveiled at the show. "It's a personal digital media station," said Michael Gartenberg, a JupiterResearch analyst. "The 12-inch (model) is going to fly off the shelves." The introduction of the two new PowerBook models, which are encased inairplane-grade aluminum, greatly broadens Apple's line of professionalportables. In fact, the new PowerBooks give Apple a full range of sizes andprices that could better compete with Windows PC portables. Tough competition Still, the 12-inch model could face stiff competition andcomes at a bad time. Sales of ultraportables like the 12-inch PowerBook aredeclining. IDC predicts manufacturers will ship 666,000 ultraportables thisyear out of an estimated 13 million notebooks. Much of that market could beconsumed by notebooks running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, which addsinking and handwriting technologies to Microsoft's flagship operatingsystem. "Subnotebooks are clearly a declining category," said IDC analyst RogerKay. "The subnotes may be revived by Tablet PC, but the PowerBook is not atablet. Also, at $1,800, the price comparison to Windows products is notfavorable to this. I don't think Apple will sell a lot of these." Apple isn't the only company shipping big-screen notebooks.Hewlett-Packard, Sony and Toshiba all offer at least 16-inch models. Allthree models offer faster clock-speed processors and cost considerably lessthan the 17-inch PowerBook. But Apple has the edge in terms of size andweight. "It's a pretty cool product and shows they are more in tune with customerdemand than they were with their last product release," said Matt Sargent,an ARS analyst. "The trend is toward larger notebooks. That portion of themarket accounted for the largest growth of the PC market in the last year." Toshiba's Satellite 1955-S803 sells for $2,800 with a 16-inch display withresolution up to 1,280-by-1,040 pixels, a 2.5GHz Pentium 4 processor, 512MBof RAM, a 60GB hard drive, a DVD/CD-RW combo drive, 802.11b wirelessnetworking and Windows XP Home; the portable weighs in at more than 9.5pounds. Sony sells the Vaio PCG-GRX670 for $2,400 with a 16.1-inch displaywith resolution up to 1,600-by-1,200 pixels, a 2GHz Pentium 4 processor,512MB of RAM, a 40GB hard drive, a DVD recording drive, 802.11b wirelessnetworking and Windows XP Home; the unit weighs 8 pounds. "You get a smaller display on the Sony but with better resolution than theApple," Sargent said. "It's disconcerting to me that the new PowerBook hasa bigger display but with lower resolution." HP's Compaq Presario 3005us is the lowest-cost of the bunch, at $1,900. The8.1-pound portable comes with a 16-inch display, a 2GHz Pentium 4processor, 512MB of RAM, a 40GB hard drive, a DVD/CD-RW combo drive andWindows XP Home. The new PowerBooks benefit from smaller size and weight, Bluetooth, 802.11gwireless networking, and FireWire 2, which are not available on any of theWindows XP 16-inch models. But Apple chose to go with the older USB 1.1 ata time most Windows notebooks ship with the much faster USB 2.0. "There are a ton of devices out there that utilize USB 2.0," Sargent said."I was surprised they didn't go with that." Apple also introduced a new version of its AirPort wireless base station,which supports 802.11g and can transfer data at 54mbps. The most commonwireless technology, 802.11b, operates at around 11mbps. New AirPort features include support for 50 users, bridging between basestations, and USB printer sharing. The new base station sells for $199,which is $100 less than the older 802.11b AirPort product. SAN FRANCISCO--Apple Computer's Safari browser offers little challenge toMicrosoft's browser dominance, analysts said Tuesday, but the Mac makercould benefit enormously if it can wean itself from Internet Explorer. Apple's new releases are indicative of the companyÕs strategy to break outof its single-digit market share niche by focusing as much on softwaredevelopment as on the fancy hardware that drew thunderous applause from thefaithful gathered here at Macworld Expo. "Apple can only break out of its narrow (but incredibly loyal) niche in thedesktop OS market if it takes charge of developing (applications such asbrowsers) that are tightly integrated with the platform and if itencourages many third parties--including, but not just, Microsoft--todevelop apps for the platform," Jim Kobielus, a Burton Group analyst, wrotein an instant message interview. Other analysts agreed that through its software expansion Apple might makesome progress against the Microsoft juggernaut. "If Apple can execute on this new software strategy and innovate on boththe hardware and software side of the equation, they might finally be ableto wrestle some market share from the Wintel camp," said MichaelGartenberg, analyst with Jupiter Research. Whether the world needs a new browser remains to be seen. Microsoft'sInternet Explorer currently is used by more than 90 percent of Web surfers,despite some minor gains in recent months with new releases from AOL TimeWarner's Netscape Communications division, Norway's Opera Software, and theNetscape-backed open-source Mozilla project. Like Opera, Apple promises faster surfing, as well as a prominently placedtool for blocking pop-up advertising. Netscape recently and quietlyintroduced a similar feature, but buried it deep within its filemenus--perhaps as a concession to its parent company, which relies onpop-up ads for its own advertising. Safari also includes a built-in text reader that reads a Web page out loud.Another service automatically generates a summary of a Web page. If Apple's chances of winning significant market share from Windows throughthe release of software titles like Safari are slim, its chances ofaffecting the overall browser market are judged to be even slimmer. Analysts point to the limited success that Mozilla has had, even with themarketing strength of AOL Time Warner behind it. While Safari amounts to another chip on Apple's shoulder, it represents asignificant setback for Mozilla, the open-source browser development groupfunded by AOL Time Warner's Netscape unit that supplies the technologybehind the Netscape browser, among others. Apple opted to use a competing open-source browser technology known asKHTML. KHTML is a browser compliant with the World Wide Web ConsortiumÕs HTML 4recommendation and is designed for use with the K Desktop Environment(KDE). KDE is an open-source graphical desktop environment for Unixcomputers; Mac OS X is based on Unix. Netscape declined to comment on Apple's choice of KDE. But KDE contributors hailed Apple's decision, calling it a validation ofthe development effort and of open-source methods in general. "It's a great acknowledgment of the hard work done by all members of theKDE project, and proof that the concept of free software is perfectlycapable of producing software worth being the preferred choice of majorhardware and software vendors like Apple," wrote KDE engineer Harri Porten,in an e-mail interview. Porten, an engineer in Oslo, Norway, with Trolltech who wrote the originalversion of KDE's JavaScript interpreter (KJS), said Apple's choice wouldnot only raise awareness and adoption of the software, but boost KDE'sdevelopment efforts. Other KDE developers agreed. "As far as I can judge from the changelog, so far they did some niceimprovements to the code which Konqueror, KDE's integrated Web browser, cancertainly benefit from," wrote KDE contributor Dirk Mueller. "They alsoimproved KJS." Safari is available as a free download starting on Tuesday and runs on MacOS X version 10.2. SAN FRANCISCO--Many Macintosh fans have been hoping Apple Computer wouldintroduce a device that would allow music stored on a Mac in the den to beplayed on a home stereo in the living room. Such a device did debut at this week's Macworld Expo, but it didn't comefrom Apple. One had to walk well past the massive Apple booth, past eventhe massage chairs and a memory reseller, to find the new gadget, which isdubbed the HomePod wireless stereo. The $200 HomePod, expected to hit the market in March, was developed by athree-person start-up called Gloolabs and will be sold by Macsense, a makerof networking gear and other Mac hardware. The two companies were showingthe device at Macworld from a small booth near the doors at the back of themain hall. Despite the off-the-beaten-path location, the company drewpretty good crowds, including a number of Apple employees. The device, which resembles a wireless base station with a couple of addedbuttons and a small LCD (liquid-crystal display) screen, uses a built-inwireless networking technology called Wi-Fi to connect to awireless-equipped Macintosh or PC. A small Java program on the computerscours the PC or Mac for music and sends that information to the HomePod.The device can even receive playlists created with iTunes digital musicsoftware. The HomePod downloads songs one at a time and plays them eitherthrough a stereo or by connecting directly to speakers. The back of theHomePod has a FireWire port, allowing it to connect directly to a harddrive, and, perhaps at some point, to Apple's iPod digital music player. The design that Macsense is showing is neither aesthetically beautiful nora wonder of technology, but it does fulfill a long-held desire of computerusers to play music stored on their PC in one room on a stereo in anotherroom. "It's a very clear problem," said David Arfin, CEO of Gloolabs. "There are60 million people who have music (stored) on hard disks. Most of thosepeople have stereos." The HomePod is not alone in trying to bridge that gap. TiVo andHewlett-Packard on Thursday both announced their own products designed tooffer living room access to music and other multimedia stored on a PC. ButGloolabs hopes to build a niche by being one of the first to have itsproducts on the market. In fact, one of the biggest worries of the Gloolabs staff was that Applewould preempt the HomePod's debut with its own digital device. "There was a little nervousness," said Ed Sesek, Gloolab's chief technologyofficer. "We've been thinking that people should have done this for acouple of years." The company's three employees sat anxiously through Apple CEO Steve Jobs'keynote speech Tuesday, hoping that there would still be a market for theirdevice once the Apple chief finished pulling rabbits from his iHat. A musical Rendezvous Chris Bourdon, an Apple product marketing manager,said that in the not-too-distant future, the capabilities of the HomePodwill be built into stereos. Using Apple's Rendezvous technology, suchdevices should also be able to automatically find music over a network,instead of requiring new software to be installed on each device wheremusic is stored. Consumer electronics maker Philips Electronics has alreadysigned on to use Rendezvous, and a number of other consumer electronicsfirms have shown interest, said Richard Kerris, Apple's senior director ofworldwide developer relations. For now, though, products like the HomePod can serve as a bridge for thosewho already have music stored on their PC or Mac and don't want to buy awhole new stereo. TiVo, for example, is offering similar functionality tothe HomePod, as well as the ability to view photos stored on a PC or Macthrough a television. TiVo is using Rendezvous to help discover whatdigital content is located within a home network. The key advantage of Rendezvous, Bourdon said, is that it can find thecontent automatically, instead of having to be specially configured. "The non-configuration aspect of Rendezvous is really critical," Bourdonsaid. Sesek said his company expects to encounter competition from much largercompanies, but hopes to carve a niche for itself by continuing into newareas and by opening its design up to developers. Gloolabs already has itssights set on adding video capabilities, allowing a television to grabmovies stored on a computer. The company is counting on Macsense to sell the device at retailers,ideally at places like Fry's Electronics and CompUSA. Macsense was takingadvance orders at Macworld, selling the device at $25 off its suggested$200 price. "We plan demand to be pretty high," said Stephanie Tookes, a Macsensespokeswoman. After the Macworld keynote announcement, I immediately downloaded the Safaripublic beta and set it as my default browser to see how it performs. I'mrunning it under Jaguar 10.2.3 on an old beige Power Mac G3/266 with 416 MBof RAM and a very fast Western Digital 120 GB (8 MB buffer) hard drive. Pluses: Minuses: or by using the lovely little Safari Enhancer utility from Gordon Byrnes: http://gordon.sourcecod.com/sites/safari_enhancer.php you can change how Safari reports itself as a user agent to Web servers. If I set it as Mozilla 1.1, Blogger Pro works fine. So too does Hotmail. Hotmail reports "JavaScript Required!" using the normal Safari user agent, claiming I don't have JavaScript turned on -- which is obviously not true. So it seems that some major sites block Safari (not knowing what it was, obviously, since it didn't exist), even though they do work fine with it in the end if they think it's something else. Overall, a remarkably good public beta. 1.0 should be excellent. Carol Porteous & Jean Detheux wrote: > I find the Finder in OS X a big step backward (or sideways), much more If you want the new Finder to behave more like before Mac OS X, do 2things: 1) Click the clear button at the top right of each of your Finder windowsto close all of their toolbars. --Closing a window's toolbar alters itsbehavior in regards to remembering its size, and how it treats folderstherein that you double-click. 2) Go into the Finder's Preferences and check "Always open folders in a newwindow." Note that this preference is in the Finder's own Finder menu--notin a System Preferences panel. Optionally, you might want to play with the command-I and command-Jsettings of individual windows. Also: if you do keep using toolbars, try out the View/Configure command inthe Finder, and the fact that you can drag things into those toolbars. Cloanto today released version 5.1 of Amiga Forever, the official Amigaemulation and connectivity package for PCs. New features include improvedemulation components, new Amiga and Windows software (e.g. new SoftwareManager, Amiga Explorer, ReqTools, support libraries, etc.) and updateddocumentation and help files. For the first time since 1991, when the AmigaNarrator and Translator speech synthesis components were discontinued byCommodore (who reportedly was not willing to continue to pay a $1 per unitroyalty), this software, which was part of the multimedia features whichinspired several enthusiasts to buy an Amiga computer, is again availablewith the Amiga OS. Amiga Forever 5.1 includes both the original and fullylicensed speech software in the preinstalled 1.3 configuration and a newercustom setup in the 3.1 ROM environment. As for all Amiga sound output, theemulation makes it possible to save the digital data, so as to preserveforever (maybe for use on an answering machine?) the original accent madefamous by various "This is Amiga Speaking" demos. Amiga Forever 5.1 runs on all Windows systems with DirectX 8 or higher(DirectX 9 has just been released by Microsoft). A cross-platform editionis available for Linux users. The downloadable versions costs $29.95, whilea CD-ROM version, which includes additional Amiga ROM and OS files ofhistorical interest (e.g. Amiga OS 1.0) and more than three hours of videofootage in MPEG format, is available for $59.95. Upgrades are alsoavailable now. A free update from version 5.0 to version 5.1 will beavailable for Christmas. In the meantime, the Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ) section at amigaforever.com has been reorganized and updated, andincludes up-to-date information and tips concerning Amiga emulation, datapreservation and cross-platform connectivity. Due to a family illness, I was unable to attend the December, so I'minndebted to the recollection of Rich Hall for this report. Rich said themost important news to come out of the December social meeting were theclub officer election results. The process began with Kevin Hiselnominating the existing 2002 officers for their respective posts and thennominating past President Rich Rollins to fill the vacant Presidentialoffice. The nominations were seconded by Mike Latinovich and then Mikemoved for nominations to be closed. This motion was seconded by Ed Hadley("or just about anyone else in the room," Rich said). Then the "train" wentthrough. Here are those caught on the railroad tracks :-) Your officers are: Other items of note were that Ed Serbe won Digital Image Pro in the drawingfrom the PC SIG's software cache. Also, Mike Latinovich got the wirelessnetwork up and running. Ed Hadley said he spent most of the evening playingwith some game demos he had downloaded. The rest of the group was in littleclutches talking their particular angle on systems and software. Lastly,the doughnuts were good. I'm assured it was a good time. The December meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday,December 30, 2002, at 7PM, at Kevin Hisel's house. (For anyone wishing toattend - which is encouraged, by the way - the address and phone number areboth in the book). Present at the meeting were: Richard Rollins, KrisKlindworth, Jim Huls, Kevin Hopkins, Kevin Hisel, and Emil Cobb. Richard Rollins: Richard began the meeting by thanking Kevin Hisel forletting the Board meet at his house for nearly the entire age of the club.Everyone seconded the sentiment. Richard then announced that the PC SIG would be treated to a demonstrationof a PC tablet at the January meeting. This should fill about a half anhour, so the remainder of the time will be filled with a Question andAnswer session. In February, the PC SIG will launch into a series ofmeetings addressing the construction of your own machine. Finally, Richardexpressed his desire to make the October meeting something special. Octobermarks the 20th anniversary of the founding of our club. We should plansomething befitting that grand occassion. Kris Klindworth: Kris reported that nothing extraordinary happened at thelast meeting, other than the election of club officers. He said that nextmonth the Linux SIG would be looking into secure communications using SSH. Jim Huls: Jim said it was nice to have a Social once a year: "there wasalways a conversation to visit." On a personal note, Jim said his wifewould be taking classes at Parkland soon, so he wouldn't be around much fora while. Richard Rollins thanked Jim and Kevin Hisel for their comments onthe club's Forums. He said it was a real value to the club. Kevin Hopkins: Kevin delivered the mail from the Post Office Box. He thenreported that the current membership for 2003 stands at seventeen. Kevin Hisel: Kevin echoed Jim's comments on having a Social once a year,more probably being too much. Kevin reported that the new wireless networkreally works in the meeting situation. "It's one of the coolest thingswe've ever bought." He noticed people updating their software over the fastconnection available at the meeting. Kevin said he was looking forward to his new elected position. He said he'dlike to get in contact with Jim Lewis to get a grasp on the parameters ofthe Corporation Agent job. Finally, Kevin reported that we had received another "Care package" fromMicrosoft. Emil Cobb: Emil reported that attendance at the last meeting numberedtwenty-three. In the discussion that followed Kevin Hopkins was requestedto provide a current membership list to Emil for the production of namebadges. He will also provide a list of those who have yet to renew theirmembership to Kevin Hisel for the mailing of a reminder letter. Emil showed us the pictures he had taken at the December meeting with hisnew digital camera. He got an Olympus C4000 Digital SLR with a 4 megapixelresolution for $499 at Circuit City. Everyone was very impressed. Meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at theIllinois Technology Center. The Center is located at 7101 Tomaras Ave inSavoy. To get to the Illinois Technology Center from Champaign or Urbana,take Neil Street (Rt 45) south. Setting the trip meter in your car to zeroat the McDonalds on the corner of Kirby/Florida and Neil in Champaign, youonly go 2.4 miles south. Windsor will be at the one mile mark. Curtis willbe at the two mile mark. Go past the Paradise Inn/Best Western motel to thenext street, Tomaras Ave. on the west (right) side. Tomaras is at the 2.4mile mark. Turn west (right) on Tomaras Ave. The parking lot entrance isimmediately on the south (left) side of Tomaras Ave. Enter the building bythe front door under the three flags facing Rt 45. A map can be found onthe CUCUG website at Membership dues for individuals are $20 annually; prorated to $10 at midyear. Our monthly newsletter, the Status Register, is delivered by email. Allrecent editions are available on our WWW site. To initiate a user groupexchange, just send us your newsletter or contact our editor via email. Asa matter of CUCUG policy, an exchange partner will be dropped after threemonths of no contact. For further information, please attend the next meeting as our guest, orcontact one of our officers (all at area code 217): Visit our web site athttp://www.cucug.org/, or join in our online forums athttp://www.cucug.org/starship/index.php .Halloween VIII: Doing the Damage-Control Dance
Posted: Jan 3, 2003, 16:00 UTC
URL: http://www.opensource.org/halloween/halloween8.php Mobile phone developer expects hearings in Microsoft suit within a month
By: BOB BREWIN
Posted: December 26, 2002
Source: Computerworld
URL: http://computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,77069,00.html Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.2.3 Update
TidBITS#661/06-Jan-03
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n120165
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n120164
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1815 Apple Updates iCal, iSync
TidBITS#661/06-Jan-03
http://www.apple.com/ical/
http://www.apple.com/isync/ Apple Releases X11 for Mac OS X
TidBITS#662/13-Jan-03 TiVo, Brother, and Aspyr Rendezvous with Macs
TidBITS#662/13-Jan-03
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/jan/07rendezvous.html
http://www.tivo.com/
http://www.brother.com/
http://www.aspyr.com/mini-sites/sierra2002/ Microsoft Office X 10.1.3 Released
TidBITS#662/13-Jan-03
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/DOWNLOAD/OFFICEX/OfficeX_1012.asp Case resigns as AOL chairman
January 12, 2003: 6:52 PM EST
URL: http://money.cnn.com/2003/01/12/news/aol.reut.reut/index.htm Common Ground:
TurboTax anti-piracy feature triggers consumer backlash
USA Today 1/8/03 Sony wields high-capacity Sticks
By Richard Shim (richard.shim@cnet.com)
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
January 10, 2003, 6:13 PM PT
URL: http://news.com.com/2100-1040-980270.html The PC Section:
Pentium 4: More speed in the pipeline
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
January 10, 2003, 1:24 PM PT
URL: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-980206.html?tag=fd_top Microsoft Watch: Your Next PC?
08:12 AM Jan. 09, 2003 PT
Wired Windows Movie Maker 2 Final
Posted: January 08, 2003 Windows Media Player 9 (final)
WMP9 is now available as a final version at the http://windowsmedia.com/web site. Here's some marketing materials from Microsoft outlining its newfeatures.The door is closing on Gateway
By MATHEW INGRAM
Globe and Mail Update
www.globeandmail.com, Wednesday, January 8, 2003 The Linux Section:
Linux maker Mandrake: We need cash
By Stephen Shankland (stephens@cnet.com)
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
December 20, 2002, 10:11 AM PT
URL: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-978593.html CES: Linux heading for cell phones
By: Martyn Williams
Posted: January 8, 2003 5:58 am PT
Source: Infoworld
URL: http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/03/01/08/030108hnlinuxphone.xml?0108weam SGI Releases Linux supercomputer with Itanium processor
By: Tom Krazit
Posted: January 7, 2003 5:47 am PT
Source: Infoworld
URL: http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/03/01/07/030107hnsgi.xml?0107tuam The Macintosh Section:
New Apple Software Spices up iLife
by Geoff Duncan (geoff@tidbits.com)
TidBITS#662/13-Jan-03 New PowerBooks: Mini Me and the Lunch Tray
by Adam C. Engst (ace@tidbits.com)
TidBITS#662/13-Jan-03
* $1,300: 12-inch iBook (Combo, 800 MHz)
* $1,500: 14-inch iBook (basic config)
* $1,750: 14-inch iBook (more RAM and hard disk)
* $1,800: 12-inch PowerBook G4 (Combo drive)
* $2,000: 12-inch PowerBook G4 (SuperDrive)
* $2,300: 15-inch Titanium PowerBook G4 (Combo drive, 867 MHz)
* $2,800: 15-inch Titanium PowerBook G4 (SuperDrive, 1 GHz)
* $3,300: 17-inch PowerBook G4 (SuperDrive, 1 GHz) Apple Reduces Its Microsoft Dependency
by Adam C. Engst (ace@tidbits.com)
TidBITS#662/13-Jan-03
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-943859.html Apple laptop gets jumbo screen
By Joe Wilcox
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
January 7, 2003, 2:31 PM PT
URL: http://news.com.com/2100-1040-979491.html Welcome to the browser jungle, Safari
By Paul Festa
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
January 7, 2003, 3:23 PM PT
URL: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-979583.html Gadget takes iTunes to the living room
By Ian Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
January 9, 2003, 3:38 PM PT
URL: http://news.com.com/2100-1040-979988.html Safari first impressions
From: "Derek K. Miller" (dkmiller@pobox.com) defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu '<true/>' Re: Mac OS X Finder
From: Christopher Schmidt (CVASchmidt@ACM.org)
> like that awful Windows Explorer than like the super easy and intuitive
> Finder of pre-OS X systems. The Amiga Section:
Amiga Forever 5.1 Released
23 December, 2002 The CUCUG Section:
December General Meeting
reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu) President: Richard RollinsVice President: Emill CobbCorporate Agent: Kevin HiselSecretary: Kevin HopkinsTreasurer: Rich Hall
Rich Hall then gave the required Annual Treasurer's Report. December Board Meeting
reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu) The Back Page:
The CUCUG is a not-for-profit corporation, originally organized in 1983to support and advance the knowledge of area Commodore computer users.We've grown since then, now supporting PC, Macintosh and Linux platforms. President/WinSIG: Richard Rollins 469-2616 Vice-President: Emil Cobb 398-0149 e-cobb@uiuc.edu Secretary/Editor: Kevin Hopkins 356-5026 kh2@uiuc.edu Treasurer: Richard Hall 344-8687 rjhall1@uiuc.edu Corp.Agent/Web.Mr: Kevin Hisel 352-1002 Mac SIG Chairman: John Melby 352-3638 jbmelby@johnmelby.com Linux SIG Chairman: Kris Klindworth 239-0097 kris.klindworth@Carle.com
912 Stratford Dr.
Champaign, IL