News Common PC Linux Mac Amiga CUCUG
The February 20 gathering will be one of our split SIG meetings. KrisKlindworth says the Linux SIG will be looking at KNOPPIX, a complete Linuxdistribution that runs from a single CD. KNOPPIX comes loaded with justabout every kind of software you'd need. Very cool. Jack Melby says theMacintosh SIG will examining X11 and some of the Unix software that runs onit. He may go on a little Safari, too. Finally, Richard Rollins says the PCSIG will be building a "virtual" machine. That is, speccing out the machineof your dreams. All in all, a pretty varied platter of items to choosefrom. Come and partake.
We'd also like to thank renewing members Quentin L. Barnes, MikeLatinovich, Harold Ravlin, Norris Hansell, Anderson Yau, George F. Krumins,John B. Ross, Kris Klindworth, Benjamin P. Johnson, and Jack E. Erwin.
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.
Here's the list of FREE products two lucky Winsig members will WIN at the February 20th meeting, courtesy of Microsoft (please note, you must be a 2003 member of CUCUG to participate in the drawing):
Microsoft Office XP Professional (retail box)
Microsoft Office XP Professional (includes Word, Excel, Access, Outlook and PowerPoint) puts the features you need within easy reach at all times. New and improved tools in Access allow you to build and manage lists and databases, or analyze information from databases such as Microsoft SQL Server. New context-sensitive smart tags pop up with options you need--right when you need them. No digging through menus. Tasks that once required multiple steps are just one click away with the new taskpane. This is the full version of the software--NOT an upgrade. Street price $446.99.
Links 2003 and Links 2003 Championship Courses
Links 2003 is the most realistic golf sim available. The newest version of the all-time best selling golf simulator features improved graphics, six brand-new championship courses, high- resolution 3-D characters, a dynamic camera that lets you see your shot from different perspectives, and improved putting with a new 3-D Green Analyzer. Links 2003 also brings improvements to the powerful Arnold Palmer course designer--the same 3-D course architecture tool used by the Links team to create course graphics in stunning photo realistic detail. Also includes add-on pack Links 2003 Championship Courses. Street price: $49.98.
Experts: 'SQL Slammer' worm doesn't cause serious damage
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A fast-moving computer worm snarled business andgovernment computers Saturday, slowing some corporate systems to thepoint of inaccessibility, but Internet security experts said it does notappear to have done any serious damage.
The worm, dubbed "SQL Slammer," attacked via a vulnerability discoveredsix months ago in SQL.
Server 2000 software from Microsoft Corp., according to OliverFriedrichs, a senior manager with Internet security firm Symantec Corp.Microsoft has offered a free patch to fix the trouble spot, but not allusers of the server software installed the patch.
Friedrichs said the SQL worm "breaks into the server and tries to spread."
"It really generates a lot of network traffic," Friedrichs said. "It'sreally just going to slow down Internet performance."
The White House was notified about the attack after it was discoveredearly Saturday, said Tiffany Olson, a spokeswoman for the President'sCritical Infrastructure Protection Board.
The FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center is investigating,she said.
Alan Paller of the SANS Institute, a training organization fortechnologists who try to protect computer systems and networks, said theSQL worm did not appear to be affecting files stored on computers.Instead, he said, it was causing trouble by replicating quickly andsending queries across computer lines for more vulnerable computers.
"It's not a major risk. It's not [doing] either of the two things thatare terribly damaging," Paller said. "One is hurting people's machines,and one is knocking things [off-line]."
Several companies -- including Bank of America and Continental Airlines-- reported widespread computer problems Saturday.
Bank of America spokeswoman Lisa Gignon said the bank's problemsappeared to be worm-related, but she could not verify it.
Continental said the worm attack caused its difficulties. Spokesman JeffWalt said agents reverted to "the old fashioned way" -- phones, and penand paper -- to record reservations and electronic tickets.
"[That is] more time consuming, so we had some scattered delays aroundthe system and some cancellations of regional flights," said Walt,adding that the airline experienced few problems on its nationalflights. "It looks like we're getting close to [having] everythingresolved."
Walt said Continental's hub at Newark, New Jersey, was the most affectedby the problems, but problems were also reported in Houston, Texas, andCleveland, Ohio. No delays lasted more than 30 minutes, he said.
The "Slammer" did not appear to affect files stored on computers.
Worms of this nature are often precursors to a different type of attackcalled "distributed denial of service." In that case, computers infectedwith a worm or other program are directed to send a flood of informationto a specific Internet location and force it off-line.
"[Saturday's worm] is the recruitment of soldiers, not telling thesoldiers where to aim their guns," Paller said.
He described Saturday's activity as a "worm with collateral damage."
If the vulnerability in the SQL software is not patched, Paller said, itis possible that a future denial of service attack could harness the"zombie" machines created Saturday.
Friedrichs said Saturday's worm was similar to the "Code Red" worm,which attacked unpatched Microsoft IIS servers in 2001 and defaced Webpages with the message "Welcome to http://www.worm.com! Hacked By Chinese!"
"Code Red" eventually hit more than 700,000 computers and spread tooquickly for investigators to trace its origin.
So far, "SQL Slammer" has not disturbed any Web pages or other files.
As far as the origin of Saturday's worm, Paller said it will bedifficult to trace it via technological means. In many cases, a worm'screator brags about his or her activities online and is caught that way.
Paller and Olson said Internet service providers and other securityorganizations had helped slow the worm's spread.
"It could have been horrendous," Olson said.
[CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg and White Housecorrespondent Dana Bash contributed to this report.]
Advanced Micro Devices on Monday will beef up its desktop processor linewith a new Athlon XP 3000+ processor.
The chip, based on AMD's new "Barton" processor core, represents a potentialbright spot for the company, after a year of difficulty brought on by thesluggish PC market and excess inventories in 2002.
The Barton core gives the 3000+ a larger 512KB cache and support for AMD's333MHz bus. The larger cache and faster bus--holding larger amounts of dataclose to the processor core and speeding up data to and from the chip--helpincrease the chip's model number by boosting performance.
Because AMD delayed its next-generation Athlon 64 chip until September,Athlon XP 3000+ using the Barton core will become the cornerstone of AMD'sdesktop processor product line for the better part of 2003. The chip is partof the company's effort to ratchet up its competitive position against rivalIntel, for one, and also help AMD command higher prices for its chips.
The new 3000+ chip will list for $588, nearly $200 more than its Athlon XP2800+. Higher prices hold the potential to translate to positive results onearnings. AMD, which put together a string of earnings report losses during2002, expects to break even in the second quarter of this year on thestrength of better sales of processors like the 3000+ and flash memory. Thecompany hopes that a cost-saving plan put into motion at the end of thethird quarter of 2002 will help it along as well.
AMD will also be releasing on Monday a new 2800+ chip based on the new core.And an Athlon XP 3200+ is in the works for a midyear introduction. The new2800+ chip will sell for $375. But AMD will hold prices steady on theremainder of its desktop chips.
But the lack of an even higher-performance desktop chip--the Athlon 64,which had been scheduled to come out in March or April--will be a bigdisappointment for some PC manufacturers and their customers, leaving theAthlon XP 3000+ with some expectations to make up for, analysts said.
"With the absence of Clawhammer (the code name for Athlon 64), AMD needsproducts for the high-end of the market. Until now, it didn't really haveone," Mercury Research analyst Dean McCarron said. "If things go well, we'lllook back and say, 'yeah, that was the turning point.' But it's too soon totell."
The 3000+ will fill the performance gap and then some, a companyrepresentative said. AMD's tests showed the chip outperformed the 3.06GHzPentium 4 by as much as 17 percent on some applications, she said.
AMD's model number system evaluates the Athlon XP's performance against anolder Athlon chip, the model numbers usually also equate to Intel's Pentium4.
So far, AMD has assembled a large number of supporters for the 3000+ chip.Nearly 25 PC makers, including Hewlett-Packard and Falcon Northwest in theUnited States, will offer the chip in systems around the world by the end ofnext month, AMD said.
But executives at AMD's biggest customer, HP, were disappointed over notbeing able to offer Athlon 64 systems on time, said Bruce Greenwood,director of product marketing for desktop PCs at HP.
"Clearly there is a market that's awaiting the (Athlon 64) part. Everymissed launch lets Intel get that much further ahead and disappoints AMD'scustomer base," McCarron said. "There's a number of OEMs (original equipmentmanufacturers) that were willing and ready to use it as soon as it becomesavailable. It's a shame it's not sooner than later."
For its part, Intel is brewing faster Pentium 4 chips, including a new3.2GHz processor that will offer an 800MHz bus. The company is also expectedto compliment the 3.2GHz chip with a new line of slower 2.4GHz to 2.8GHzPentium 4 chips that include hyperthreading and use the 800MHz bus. Thisentire family of Pentium 4s and the chipset are all expected in the secondquarter of this year.
While AMD said it pushed the Athlon 64 chip back to better align itsintroduction with software, analysts believe the company has had problemswith manufacturing the chip. The problems were most likely in perfecting itssilicon on insulator (SOI) process, which jumps up performance and helpslower power consumption, McCarron said.
AMD's Opteron server chip--which is based on the same technology as theAthlon 64--is on track for an April 22 launch, AMD said.
Apple Computer last week announced an $8 million loss for its first fiscalquarter of 2003. The results include one-time charges for restructuring andan accounting transition adjustment; without these items, Apple would havehad an $11 million profit for the quarter. Apple shipped 743,000 Macsduring the quarter - on par with the same period a year ago - and althoughgross margins were down to 27.6 percent, those were on revenue of $1.47billion, up 7 percent from the same quarter the year before. Internationalsales accounted for 43 percent of Apple's revenue. Apple also noted it wasable to reduce channel inventories 11 percent during the quarter, whichbodes well for the new PowerBooks just announced at Macworld Expo. [GD]
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/jan/15results.html
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07041
Apple has released iLife, its suite of digital hub applications thatincludes iTunes 3 (which doesn't undergo an update in iLife), iMovie 3,iPhoto 2, and iDVD 3. iMovie 3 and iPhoto 2 are now available as freedownloads. iDVD 3, which is too large to download (in the 2 GB range, tojudge from iLife's system requirements) will be available only via the $50iLife CD/DVD package. Those who purchased SuperDrive-equipped Macs on orafter 07-Jan-03 qualify for a $20 "iLife Up-To-Date" price; similar $20prices are available for QuickBooks and for an iLife/QuickBooks bundle,again for appropriate Macs purchased on or after 07-Jan- 03. [ACE]
http://www.apple.com/ilife/
http://www.apple.com/ilife/uptodate/
Following on the heels of providing Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar for free toteachers (a promotion that Apple has extended through 31-Mar-03), Apple isnow offering the entire iLife suite plus Apple's new Keynote presentationprogram for a mere $15 (a savings of $113). To qualify, you must be eithera K-12 teacher or a full-time faculty member at a higher educationinstitution. Unfortunately, the offer is good only in the U.S., and thesoftware can be delivered only to your school's address. [ACE]
http://www.apple.com/education/ilifeandkeynote/
http://www.apple.com/education/macosxforteachers/
Keeping up the pressure started at Macworld Expo, Apple last week releaseda new 20-inch Cinema Display, priced at $1,300. The new LCD screen offers1680 by 1050 pixel resolution, a digital interface using the Apple DisplayConnector, and the same 16:10 widescreen aspect ratio that Apple hasincreasingly been using for its Cinema Display line and larger PowerBooks.Apple is saying the 20-inch Cinema Display works only under Mac OS X,likely because Mac OS 9's Display Manager doesn't support the new display'snative resolution (though it may work at lower standard resolutions).Simultaneously, Apple lowered the price on the 23-inch Cinema HD Display,with its 1920 by 1200 pixel resolution, to $2,000 (a drop of $1,500). The17-inch Studio Display (a mere 1280 by 1024 resolution) was also reduced to$700 (down from $1,000). Realistically, Apple's LCD displays are still moreexpensive than similarly large screens from other manufacturers, but all ofthe Apple displays I've seen have been gorgeous, in sharp contrast to theastonishingly poor quality of many of the cheapest LCD monitors out there.[ACE]
http://www.apple.com/displays/
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/jan/28displays.html
Bringing the new connectivity features from the recently enhanced PowerBookline to the desktop, Apple last week released a new set of Power Mac G4sthat offer FireWire 800, the 54 Mbps 802.11g-based AirPort Extreme, andintegrated Bluetooth wireless networking (with the addition of a $50internal card that's reportedly available only when you're ordering). Thethree new machines provide the choice of a single 1 GHz PowerPC CPU ($1,500for a standard configuration), or a pair of PowerPC G4s running at either1.25 GHz ($2,000) or 1.42 GHz ($2,700 to $3,800), once more pushing up thetop speed of Apple's professional computer line while dropping pricessignificantly. The two dual-processor Power Macs feature a 167 MHz systembus (133 MHz for the 1 GHz CPU model) and offer either 1 MB L3 cache (thedual 1.25 GHz model) or 2 MB L3 cache (the dual 1.42 GHz model) perprocessor. You can choose from 60 GB, 80 GB, 120 GB, and 180 GB harddrives, and these Macs can support up to four internal ATA hard drives. Forvideo, the new machines support dual displays, offer ADC and DVIconnectors, and have 4x AGP graphics; you can choose among the ATI Radeon9000, the Nvidia GeForce4 MX, the Nvidia GeForce4 Ti, or the ATI Radeon9700 video cards. The optical drive has seen improvement too, with fasterCombo drives and SuperDrives that can write DVD-R discs at 4x speed. Otherspecs include up to 2 GB of DDR SDRAM (256 MB or 512 MB installed), fourPCI slots, one FireWire 800 and two FireWire 400 ports, two USB 1.1 ports(plus another two on the keyboard), front headphone jack, stereo audioline-in and line out mini jacks, Apple speaker mini jack for connecting tothe optional Apple Pro speakers.
http://www.apple.com/powermac/
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/jan/28pmg4.html
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06927
One improvement that sounds especially good to our ears is that the newmachines are reportedly much quieter than the previous "wind tunnel" PowerMac G4s. Note that, as promised by Apple, these Power Macs cannot boot intoMac OS 9. Classic remains available, of course, and two high-end Mac OS9-capable Power Macs from the previous generation can still be purchased atthe Apple Store. [ACE]
Apple Computer on Monday announced an upgrade to its line of rack-mountedservers and unveiled a line of storage gear.
In its Xserve server line, Apple added faster 1.33GHz processors. Asingle-processor server with 256MB of Double Data Rate (DDR) memory, a 60GBATA drive and Gigabit Ethernet networking sells for $2,799. A dual 1.33GHzprocessor model sells for $3,799 and includes 512MB of DDR memory and a 60GBhard drive.
Both machines are 1.75 inches tall and come with a CD-ROM drive and the MacOS X server operating system with a license for an unlimited number ofclient Macs. The prices are $200 less than when Apple first introduced theXserve--the company's first rack-mounted server--last May.
Apple has been gaining share in servers, albeit from a very small base,since the Xserve's introduction. Apple had originally planned to announce acompanion Xserve RAID storage system by the end of last year, but laterdelayed the launch until early this year.
"We're really happy with the deployments we've seen for Xserve," said AlexGrossman, Apple's director of hardware storage product marketing. "We werepretty humble (when we entered) the server space."
Apple executives said the company has been "pleasantly surprised" with thebreadth of customers who have adopted Xserve, who range from Apple'straditional base of schools and graphic designers to users who need file andprint serving and clustering in business and academic settings.
According to Gartner Dataquest, Apple's U.S. server sales in the fourthquarter rose more than fourfold to $14.6 million, up from $3.75 million inthe fourth quarter of 2001. The company's unit market share rose to nearly 1percent of the total server market, up from just one-third of a percent ayear earlier.
The Xserve RAID systems introduced Monday feature up to 2.5 terabytes ofstorage in a 5.25-inch-high rack-mounted system. With standard pricesranging from $6,000 to $11,000, depending on the configuration, Apple saysit is offering storage as low as $4 per gigabyte.
One analyst said that Apple will need to be a quick study if it wants tofind much success in the storage realm.
"Apple is entering the storage market pretty late in the game at a time whenbattle lines have been clearly drawn and loyalties are firmly entrenched,"said Tim Deal, an analyst at Technology Business Research. "This means thatApple will once again be forced to try to lure customers from...heavyweightslike EMC, Hitachi Data Systems, and Dell."
The storage system comes in three configurations that will be availablestarting in March.
The $5,999 entry-level model includes dual, independent RAID controllerswith a 128MB cache (and support for up to 512MB) per controller, dual2-gigabit-per-second Fibre Channel ports, 8MB of on-drive cache and four180GB ATA/100 Apple drive modules.
A midrange configuration, priced at $7,499, increases the number of 180GBdrives to seven, while the top-of-the-line model has a full cabinet of 14drives. The models can also be custom-configured by boosting the number ofdrives or by adding cache memory.
Xserve can connect to Xserve RAID with a 2GB Apple Fibre Channel PCI Cardthat is sold separately.
Continuing the push to update its product line for AirPort Extreme andBluetooth, Apple last week unveiled the latest revisions to its flat-paneliMac line. The new 17-inch iMac starts at $1,800 and boasts a 1 GHz PowerPCG4 and a 133 MHz system bus, 256 MB of DDR SDRAM (expandable to 1 GB), anda 4x SuperDrive (CD-RW/DVD-R), along with slots for an AirPort Extreme card(an extra $100), and an internal Bluetooth module (an extra $50). The15-inch iMac receives only a speed bump to an 800 MHz PowerPC G4 and a $200price drop to $1,300. Unfortunately, it's not capable of taking an AirPortExtreme card (though the slower 802.11b AirPort card remains an option) andcan use only a USB-based Bluetooth adapter. Simultaneously, Apple announcedprice cuts - but no new features - for the 17-inch CRT-based eMac, whichnow costs $1,000 with a Combo drive (CD-RW/DVD-ROM) or $1,300 with aSuperDrive. [ACE]
http://www.apple.com/imac/
http://www.apple.com/emac/
Apple Computer has released Mac OS X 10.2.4, which includes networkingenhancements for SMB and AFP file services and improves support for audioapplications under Classic and for FireWire audio devices under Mac OS X.The update also rolls in several bug fixes for the Finder, the Classicenvironment, printing, and the Address Book, and includes security updatesto some of the Unix utilities underpinning Mac OS X. The update isavailable via the Software Update pane in Mac OS X's System Preferences, asa stand-alone 40.1 MB updater for Mac OS X 10.2.3, and as a stand-alone 76MB combined updater for any version of Mac OS X 10.2. [GD]
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n107362
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n70167
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n70168
Although we usually don't report beta software updates, Mac OS X users seemto have embraced Apple's Safari Web browser in a big way, with more than 1million copies downloaded, according to Apple. The latest update, Safariv60, reportedly performs 30 percent faster, improves the playback of Flashcontent, adds support for XML, and enhances support for CSS1. The update isavailable through Software Update or as a separate 2.9 MB download. [JLC]
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n120182
Continuing its string of incremental updates, Apple last week posted anupdate to its intermediate-level video editing application Final CutExpress. The 1.0.1 revision improves performance and stability, linkskeyframe parameters to the Motion tab, and adds Easy Setup presets for NTSCand PAL noncontrollable devices. The Final Cut Express 1.0.1 updater isavailable as a 12.2 MB download. [JLC]
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n120190
Alessandro Levi Montalcini has released USB Overdrive X 10.2.1, a universalUSB driver that supports all manner of USB devices, such as mice,trackballs, joysticks, and gamepads (see "Top Mac OS X Utilities: RestoringThird Party Capabilities" in TidBITS-625_). Using USB Overdrive, you canconfigure the controls of multiple devices to perform complex actions orlaunch applications, in addition to basic actions like clicking. For somepeople, USB Overdrive X is essential for using devices whose manufacturershaven't created Mac OS X drivers. USB Overdrive X 10.2.1 costs $20shareware, and is a 476K download. [JLC]
http://www.usboverdrive.com/
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06779
LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Software giant Microsoft Tuesday saidit would cut the price on some best-selling titles for its Xbox video gameconsole, a week after rival Nintendo cut some game and hardware prices in abid to spur sales.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said the "Platinum Hits" program wouldstart with more than a dozen titles at a price of about $19.99 each. Toptitles for the Xbox, which holds the No. 2 position in the U.S. market,usually retail for $49 or in some cases $39.
Among the titles to be offered at the discounted price are Xbox hits likeMicrosoft's "Amped Freestyle Snowboarding" and "Project Gotham Racing" andthird-party titles like Electronic Arts Inc.'s "Bond: Agent Under Fire" andActivision Inc.'s "Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions."
Xbox's biggest title
Ed Bland, a senior director of sales and marketing for the Xbox, said gameswill have to be on the market for at least nine months to be eligible for"Platinum Hit" status, with sales of about 350,000 to 500,000 units, thoughBland said that figure can vary.
"It ends up being a great sort of impulse buy for consumers," Bland said.
The Xbox's biggest hit title to date, Microsoft's own "Halo," will notimmediately move to the discount program, and will continue to retail for$49, as it has since it launched with the Xbox in 2001.
"It is doing very well at $49," Bland said, noting that it will move to"Platinum Hit" status at some point later in the future.
Competition heats up
Bland also said "Platinum Hits" titles will get special packaging distinctfrom their previous boxes and will have additional display space at retail.
Sony launched a hits program for its PlayStation 2 console last year, andNintendo unveiled one for its GameCube last week.
Nintendo also said it would offer one of four games for free with the$149.95 GameCube.
GameCube buyers will be able to choose from "Metroid Prime," "Star FoxAdventures," "Mario Party 4" or "Resident Evil 0" with purchase of theconsole.
Other Nintendo offers
Nintendo slashed the price on its bundled offering of the GameCube, "SuperMario Sunshine" and an external memory card to $159.95 from $189.95.Purchased individually, the three components of the pack would cost almost$215.
A number of games from early in the GameCube's history, like "Luigi'sMansion" and "Super Smash Bros. Melee," will be cut in price to $29.95 from$49.95 as part of a "Player's Choice" program, the company said.
Nintendo once dominated the U.S. video game market but has fallen to thirdplace behind Sony's dominant PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's upstart Xbox.
A start-up company says it has developed a way to make fuel cells out ofsilicon, a change that potentially could increase the performance of cellsand make them easier to manufacture.
As far-fetched as it might sound, fuel cells for cell phones or notebookswill likely emerge in the market next year and grow in popularity. Unlikemicroprocessors, hard drives or memory, batteries are not continuing toimprove at a rapid, predictable rate. This is forcing tech companies to seekalternatives or products that will complement batteries.
The twist developed by Neah Power Systems essentially replaces the polymermembrane inside fuel cells with layers of porous silicon, said DavidDorheim, CEO of Neah.
Current fuel cells produce energy by creating a chemical reaction betweenmethanol and oxygen. Electrodes draw those substances toward a plasticmembrane, and when they come in contact with the membrane, the methanolbreaks down and releases electrons, which are then funneled to power thehost device. The byproducts of the reaction eventually recombine with theelectrons to form water and carbon dioxide.
However, the amount of electrons produced is directly related to the surfacearea of the membrane. Increasing the power means expanding the physical sizeof the fuel system. Polymer membranes can also tear and leak.
To boost surface area, Neah's fuel cell uses layers of silicon chips, eachshot through with pores, to serve as the surface area for the chemicalreaction. Just as Greece--with its islands and rocky coastline--has almostas much coastline as all of North America, Neah said the collective surfacearea from pores in its chips will far exceed the surface area of mostpolymer membranes.
As a result, more energy can be produced at once, even though the externaldimensions of the polymer membrane and silicon chip are the same. TheBothell, Wash.-based company, which started in 1999, asserts that it canmake a fuel cell with eight porous chips that will be adequate to run astandard notebook and will be no bigger than today's standard laptop batterypack.
"The location where you can have the reaction is increased dramatically,"Dorheim said. "We've been talking to notebook makers for six months."
The use of silicon also lets Neah use hydrogen peroxide, rather than theambient atmosphere, as the source of oxygen. This leads to a greaterconcentration of oxygen, which boosts power.
Just as important, silicon is a known quantity. The company's chips can beproduced with the chipmaking machinery developed for the semiconductorindustry. Neah's chips are far from standard--most of Neah's patentsrevolve around the techniques involved in creating the pores in thesilicon--but the tools work.
"There is 40 years of science around dealing with silicon," he said.
One of the company's fuel cells should be capable of running a notebook forsix to eight hours, Dorheim said. Neah, like other fuel cell manufacturers,is also tinkering with ways that will let customers refill fuel cell caseswith methanol.
In addition, trade associations such as the U.S. Fuel Cell Council areworking with respective agencies, such as Underwriters Laboratories, to gainregulatory approval and set product standards.
Although the concept is intriguing, the company acknowledges that it isstill in the first stages. It has demonstrated the concept in the lab andhopes to have a working demo model by the end of the year. Products aren'tset to start shipping to customers until 2005.
Fuel cell materials aren't cheap. Like all fuel cells, the reactive surfacearea on Neah's cell is coated with platinum and ruthenium, two relativelyexpensive elements.
Investors in the company include Alta Partners, Frazier Technology Venturesand Intel Capital. So far, the 28-employee company has raised between $7million and $10 million, Dorheim said.
Neah's approach has analysts intrigued.
"Obviously, they are way ahead of having a tangible product, but it is aninteresting approach," said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at researchfirm Mercury Research. "They are addressing a lot of the problematic issueswith fuel cells...It looks at this stage like a fairly interestingapproach."
A California woman is suing Microsoft, Symantec and some software retailers,claiming the companies "concocted a scheme" to mislead consumers byrequiring them to consent to software licensing agreements they haven'tread.
The suit, filed Friday in Marin County Superior Court in San Rafael, Calif.,seeks class-action status on behalf of all Californians who've boughtsoftware including Norton Antivirus 2002, Norton Systemworks and Windows XPUpgrade.
Specifically, the suit, which was brought by Cathy Baker, claims thatMicrosoft, Symantec, CompUSA, Best Buy and other unnamed retailers don'tallow people to read "shrink wrap" licenses--agreements printed inside thebox or incorporated into the software itself--before they buy a product.
"Defendants acted in concert and have concocted a scheme to sell consumersin the state of California software licenses in retail stores withoutallowing them to review the terms and conditions of such software licensesprior to sale," Ira Rothken, Baker's lawyer, wrote in the complaint.
Further, the suit claims that people who don't accept the terms of theagreement cannot return software to the stores. According to the suit, Bakertried to return the Microsoft and Symantec software to CompUSA afterrefusing to consent to the licensing terms. However, CompUSA refused to takethe software back, saying the packages had been opened, according to thesuit.
End-user license agreements have become a hot-button issue in the techindustry as more and more companies try to forge increasingly restrictivecontracts. Some companies have tried to ban class-action lawsuits, damagesor reverse engineering of their products.
In one of the few cases so far to test the limits of such agreements, ajudge in New York ruled last month that Network Associates could not enforcewording that prohibited reviews of its product without prior consent.
Representatives from Symantec, Microsoft and Best Buy did not immediatelyrespond to requests for comment. CompUSA executives could not be reached forcomment.
Can Microsoft be trusted?
How music labels, Hollywood studios and consumers answer thatquestion could determine whether the software giant dominatesdigital media the way it does Web browsers or desktopproductivity applications, say analysts.
The Redmond, Wash.-based company is engaged in a tried-and-truetactic of giving away highly valuable technology as a means ofgetting a foothold in an emerging market. The strategy, which wasinstrumental in Microsoft's victory in the so-called browser wars, is beingreplayed in the digital media market.
The stakes may be as high; analysts see digital media, like the rise of theWeb, as driving the next great wave of PC sales. Microsoft, notsurprisingly, wants to make sure Windows becomes a "preferred platform" forusing digital media," said Directions on Microsoft analyst Matt Rosoff.
In mid-January, Microsoft unveiled a new toolkit that would let recordlabels create music CDs containing, along with the normal tracks, prerippedWindows Media versions suitable for uploading to a buyer's MP3-type playeror PC, but protected by Microsoft's digital rights management (DRM)technology to prevent copying and swapping. The toolkit, the DRM license andthe use of the Windows Media Audio format is free for the labels, despiteMicrosoft's $500 million investment developing what many analysts regard asthe best DRM technology available today.
"Windows Media, that whole division, is an investment," Rosoff said "They'renot making money on it, and they don't plan to make money on it."
By providing free use of the DRM technology and the accompanying toolkit,Microsoft hopes to make Windows Media audio and video formats more popularwith record labels and eventually consumers. The strategy follows marginallysuccessful partnerships with device makers and content creators designed tofurther the adoption of the format.
"Microsoft hopes that filling a perceived need by the labels to create a DRMsolution will help drive Windows Media forward beyond the PC and into thearena of consumer electronics," said Jupiter Research analyst MichaelGartenberg.
At the same time, Microsoft is licensing its Windows Media 9 Series fileformats for use on non-Windows operating systems and on devices. Manyanalysts view the low cost of the licensing as an attempt to undercut thelicensing cost for MPEG-4, the successor to MPEG-2 used on Hollywood movieDVDs and the biggest potential competitive threat to Windows Mediatechnologies.
"The long-term strategy is the ubiquity of the Windows Media Format," Rosoffsaid. "If that becomes the default format, suddenly they're selling a lotmore Windows Servers, because you need Windows Server to administer the DRMand host and stream the files if you're doing it that way. And you need thelicenses for the devices to play the files."
Giving DRM technology away for free--particularly a version that's as goodas Microsoft's--also makes it that much more difficult for other companiesto compete. Already, for example, RealNetworks has found it difficult tosell its server-based content creation and streaming software when Microsoftbundles Windows Media technologies for free with Windows 2000 Server and theforthcoming Windows 2003 Server.
But Microsoft's DRM toolkit giveaway and low-cost Windows Media 9 Serieslicensing is no assurance of success, say analysts. Record labels andHollywood studios remain wary of Microsoft's motives. Is the software giantsincerely trying to generate interest in a compelling and useful technologyor is the ultimate goal something else, such as protecting the Windowsmonopoly?
"The question is whether they're going to use their technology as a pawn forMicrosoft proliferation or whether they're going to sell good technology,"said Yankee analyst Ryan Jones. "That's really the concern."
Past behavior indicates, "it's the proliferation play," Jones said. "Itwould be disappointing if Microsoft screwed it up because of that. Theirtechnology is really good."
Motives questioned
Music and technology companies have been moving toward including "secondsession" content on compact discs for years. Early experiments oftenincluded multimedia content such as games or videos, often in Apple'sQuickTime format.
In the last several years, record labels have been adding Web links, videosand other promotional material, although such content remains the exceptionrather than the rule.
However, as labels have increased their interest in copy protected CDs, theyhave increasingly looked to this second session as a way to ameliorateconsumer concerns. Providing digital tracks that can be transferred to acomputer, copied to an MP3 player, and ultimately even burned onto a CD willdefang critics who say copy protection eliminates consumers' flexibility touse their own music, the labels say.
For at least the last year, the leading technology companies working on copyprotection, including Macrovision and SunnComm Technologies, have alreadybeen planning to use the Microsoft Windows Media format for this secondsession content. Many CD production facilities have already installedtechnology for adding Windows Media Audio files to CDs.
As a result, Microsoft's toolkit falls into an industry already headingRedmond's way. What it may potentially change is vendor relationships.Labels had already been working with the technology companies such asMacrovision for the full copy protection package. Now they couldtheoretically split their attention, buying the basic copy protectiontechnology from companies like Macrovision, and the second session mediatechnology from Microsoft.
Deciphering Microsoft's motives is not as easy as during the so-calledbrowser wars, when the software giant used exclusive contracts and hard tiesbetween Internet Explorer and the Windows operating system to crush rivalNetscape Communications.
For one thing, there is nothing totally exclusive about the DRM toolkitgiveaway. Music labels would use the technology to create a second sessionon a CD, containing DRM-protected music pre-ripped in Windows Media Audioformat, lyrics, album art and other extras. The first session, conforming tothe usual standard, would be unaltered by the process.
In fact, consumers would still be able to rip music from a CD's firstsession into an MP3, which wouldn't do much to curb file trading. But usedin conjunction with first-session content protection from Macrovision orSunCom, Microsoft's second session would provide labels with a way ofoffering limited copying of the music. The technology also could resolve acommon problem of first-session protection preventing CDs from playing onWindows PCs.
"One of the things Microsoft is really panicked about is Sony, among others,releasing these CDs that just can't be played in PCs," Rosoff said."Microsoft, definitely, definitely doesn't want that to happen, so they haveto present some kind of alternative."
Microsoft is betting the DRM and extras, like Windows Media Audio's supportfor 5.1 surround sound will appeal to record labels and consumers.
"Really cool liner notes"
"We've definitely seen a movement to taking CDs and trying to protect them,"said Michael Aldridge, lead product manager of the Windows Media division.But there have been mixed results trying to do that. We wanted to come upwith a mechanism to address this, hopefully, in a very compelling way."
Microsoft believes the second session will appeal to consumers because it"resurrects the kind of rich experience you used to get with albums, wherewhen you opened up the album you had really cool liner notes, lyrics andphotographs of the artists," Aldridge said. At the same time, labels can usethe DRM to control how the songs are copied, whether to a CD, DVD orportable music player.
Record labels have applauded Microsoft's move for several reasons. While theentertainment companies have tried to avoid relying on the software giant asa sole technology vendor, they like the omnipresence of the Windows Mediatechnology and the strength of its rights management system. And unlike thehaphazard digital add-ons to CDs of the past, the Windows Media files arelikely to be supported well into the future.
"That was one thing we needed, to make sure: that 10 years from now, youstick the CD in a machine and it plays," said Ted Cohen, vice president fornew media at EMI Recorded Music.
Still, Microsoft's approach greatly favors Windows. Accessing the content"would require a PC and support for Windows Media on the PC itself,"Aldridge said.
For now, Microsoft only provides a toolkit supporting Windows, althoughAldridge says a Macintosh version is forthcoming. For now, record labelswould have to distribute over the Web a downloadable license that would letMac users play second-session content created using the toolkits. No optionis available for other operating systems, such as Linux.
This kind of favoritism is likely to make record labels extremely cautiousabout using Microsoft's DRM, regardless of the technology's attractivenessor the free use, say analysts.
"On the PC, they're trying to lock in favoritism for the Windows platform,"said The Yankee Group's Jones. "Their plan kind of shows through, and thatwill put the content owners on alert."
At the same time, labels are concerned that should Microsoft's file formatscome to dominate digital media, what's free today could cost plenty in thefuture. In other markets, Microsoft significantly jacked up the costs onceit dominated a technology or market segment. A good example is Microsoft'sLicensing 6 program, which raised fees for obtaining Windows and Officelicenses as much as 107 percent, according to Gartner.
"You have the possibility that all your digital content protection is ontheir platform and they start charging for it," Jones said. "There's thistemplate of how Microsoft can spread its influence and then capitalize on itafter being patient. It's really Microsoft's patience that's going tosurprise content providers at the end of the day, as it has enterprises."
Consumer resistance
Even if Microsoft has no ulterior motives, content creators have other verygood reasons to steer clear of Microsoft's DRM and Windows Media formats.
"Content is what drives digital media behaviors in the home, not aplatform," Jones said. "You will never see content owners changing theirarchitecture to fit a device's architecture in the home. It's always theother way around. The device architectures always fit how the content entersthe home. There are MP3 players because the content source was MP3; it's notthe other way around."
To date, Microsoft's strategy has worked to counter this behavior, with thecompany convincing device manufacturers to support Windows Media formats.But that strategy has failed to gain much traction for the format againstMP3.
Still, the DRM is a big carrot that could convince labels to use WindowsMedia formats, which could greatly advance adoption. The timing is right,say analysts.
"The labels are feeling a lot of pressure, especially from the retail side,like this Echo thing that was launched," Jones said. "That's a sign theindustry is thinking seriously about alternative distribution platforms."
On Jan. 27, a group of music retailers including Tower Records, VirginEntertainment, Best Buy and Wherehouse Music formed a consortium to selldigital music--through an investment in Echo Networks, which formerlyoperated a streaming music community.
Even if record labels embrace the toolkit and create millions of discs withMicrosoft DRM-protected content, there's no guarantee Windows Media formatswould gain any traction with consumers. In fact, many analysts believecontent protection simply cannot succeed in the market place.
"DRM solutions have not been popular with consumers," Jupiter's Gartenbergsaid. "It's not likely consumers will flock to this technology or replaceeither existing consumer-electronics equipment or PC equipment to helplabels fight piracy or help Microsoft drive Windows Media adoption forward."
In fact, the most serious indictment of DRM technology may come fromMicrosoft employees. A research paper published last fall, reportedly byfour Microsoft employees, concluded that DRM technology would likely failbecause of consumer resistance to content protection and acceptance of filetrading. The researchers concluded "that a vendor will probably make moremoney by selling unprotected objects than protected objects."
Gartenberg isn't surprised. "Consumers have shown adversity to anything thatinhibits their use of the music that they purchase," he said. About 40percent of 15- to 17-year-olds buying a CD in the last 12 months saiddownloading influenced their purchase, according to Jupiter; 28 percent hadcopied music from a friend.
"The figures were 11 percent and 10 percent, respectively, for adults,"Gartenberg said. "That seems to indicate consumers want flexibility withtheir music."
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I finally broke down and replaced my absolutely ancient 486-DX66 laptop. My criteria for the new machine were very simple. It had to fast, thin, light, powerful and above all CHEAP! In the back of my mind I was convinced that I'd never really find such a machine since it probably didn't even exist.
I was wrong.
I did a lot of digging on the net and came across a group of people whowere raving about this little no-name laptop from a company called Sotec( The little machine everyone was excited about was the Sotec 3120X. It's 4.4 pounds and only 1.3 inches thick, so you can carry it anywhere. It comes in a sturdy magnesium alloy casing. Its 12.1'' 1024x768 TFT display is super sharp and reasonably bright. Mine had no bad pixels. The processor is a mobile Celeron clocked at 1.2GHz with 256K L2 cache. It's no P4 3.06GHz screamer but everything runs very quickly. It comes with 256 megabytes of PC133 RAM and can be expanded to 384 megs. The hard drive is 20GB. Windows XP Home and Microsoft Works 6.0 is preinstalled. For the ins and outs, it's got three USB 1.0a ports, a 10/100 ethernet connector, a 56K FAXmodem, headphone (with rotary volume control) and microphone jacks and one PCMCIA/PC Card port. The VGA-out can simultaneously output the LCD monitor's display. It ships with an AC adapter/charger and the battery is lithium-ion rated at about three hours capacity--in real life I get about 2 1/2 hours. The speakers are not very good nor very loud. Some people have negatively commented on the keyboard layout--it takes a little getting used to but I've had few problems. The letter keys are full-size. There are no serial, parallel, infrared or PS2 ports. There is a cut-out for an IEEE-1394 port, but no port. No floppy drive is included. One surprising feature was the software included with the touch pad pointing device. It's from Synaptics and is very customizable. I didn't think I could use a touch pad but the Synaptics driver is really quite clever and allows you do a lot more than just move the mouse pointer around the screen. The real draw for this little machine is the combo optical drive. It's an 8x DVD reader (Sotec throws in some great software to play DVDs called InterVideo WinDVD) and a 16x10x24 CD-RW. Roxio burning software is included. Watching DVDs on the 3120X is really quite enjoyable. The screen is sharp and the WinDVD player is easy-to-use and quite capable. Writing CD-Rs is adequately fast. The graphics system is a SiS 630ST AGP 2X using 32M of shared RAM. I've heard that you can set this to 64M if you upgrade the memory to 384M. I'm not a gamer so I have not really tested the 3D capabilities but I did run a few demos and they didn't look that great. I don't think you big-time gamers would like the graphics very much. The audio sounds great through headphones. The 3120X measures 10.6'' x 9.6'' x 1.3''. Unfortunately, I did have a little trouble with my machine. About four days after receiving it, the DVD/CDRW combo drive died. I had to send it to Sotec's warranty center in California. It took two weeks door-to-door and was covered under the one-year (6 months for the battery) warranty. This appears to be a rare defect according to 'net reports. The most common problem seems to be loud fans. Mine was fine, but Sotec replaced it without me even asking. I'm guessing this was a preventative measure. Using the 3120X is real dream. I installed a Wi-Fi wireless network card and I can now freely roam the house and access the Internet and all the files on my other machines with great ease. The 3120X--at only 4.4 pounds--is so small and light that it's truly a laptop computer. It's really quiet, too. The real pluses of this machine are its snappy performance, the crystal-clear display and the DVD drive. Price. Oh yeah, that's the best part. Other machines in this size/weight/power range are running $1,300-$1,600. The Sotec is available for about $900 and is a real bargain. Sotec is offering a $50 rebate and a "free" 32M USB keychain drive with purchase ($10 S&H). I was lucky enough to catch mine in stock at BestBuy.com while they were running an additional $150 rebate, so the final price I paid was about $750. This is a ridiculously low price for a small form-factor notebook with a DVD/CDRW. The 3120X is available at BestBuy.com, Walmart.com, Office Depot and direct from Sotec. Sam's Club sells the 3123xs which includes a 30GB drive but is otherwise identical. More information about the Sotec 3120X can be found on the web at: http://www.sotecglobal.com/us/products/?catid=11&subid=102&prodid=1002 http://home.ettus.com/sotec-linux/ http://www.edgeworld.com/notebook/sotec.php Microsoft is expected to release next month a second test version of a crucial upgrade to its Office desktop application software. The initial test release of Office 11--the code name for the product--was shipped to about 12,000 testers in October. In a familiar pattern, the software titan is expected to make this second testing version more widely available. Microsoft has taken a similar approach with past upgrades to Office and its Windows operating system. Office 11 Beta 2 will be geared more toward enterprise customers, said Microsoft executives. This new version of Microsoft's cash cow comes as analysts question how well the software will be received by customers. While Office still controls more than 90 percent of the desktop office market, customers say they see fewer new features that would compel them to upgrade to the latest versions. Some customers have even investigated lower cost alternatives. Although a new licensing plan will help keep customers in the Microsoft fold, any slump in sales could make a big impact on the software maker's balance sheet. Office contributes nearly one-third of Microsoft's overall revenue. With Office 11, Microsoft's new strategy is to focus more on features targeted at businesses, as the company tries to expand its reach into larger customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications to complement its broader product lines. New features The new Office 11 Beta 2 is expected to include two new Office products, OneNote, a new note-taking application, and InfoPath, a tool for building and sharing Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based forms. Only a small number of testers were given InfoPath, formerly code-named XDocs, with Beta 1. Microsoft has not finalized bundling plans for OneNote or InfoPath, which could ship separately from the main Office package. Like Beta 1, the new testing version is expected to include the Access database, Excel spreadsheet, FrontPage Web site creation and management software, Outlook e-mail, contact and calendaring application, Publisher content creation package, PowerPoint presentation creator and a word processor. Testers will be able to take advantage of new digital ink capabilities that allow users to write on screens using a penlike device. The support is available in portables running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. For enterprise customers, the most valuable part of Office 11 may be support for XML, a crucial technology for delivering Web-based services and for linking applications. But it is uncertain whether Microsoft will do anything in Office 11 Beta 2 to open proprietary schemas, or XML dialects, that could restrict how enterprises make use of the technology. Major applications Word and Excel would be able to save documents in XML as well as Microsoft's .doc format. InfoPath will widely use XML to extract data from Office files into formlike documents. "InfoPath is part of the XML revolution that is being reflected across all Microsoft products," Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said on Tuesday during a speech given at the company's Most Valued Professional Summit held at its headquarters. "But in order for the XML revolution to happen, one piece of it has to be rich viewing: The ability to create rich schemas and have right user interaction with XML documents; and that's InfoPath. Being part of the offering really provides that critical piece." Hurdles into businesses One issue for Microsoft is the significant number of larger customers who have purchased licenses for Office XP--Office 11's predecessor--but who have yet to install the software. That means those customers might not adopt Office 11 for years. In an informal survey conducted in October during Gartner's annual symposium, 31 percent of U.S. IT managers said their companies used Office 97, 56 percent Office 2000 and 6 percent Office XP. At the same time, a significant number of customers opted for the older Office 2000 over the newer XP last year. "Office 2000 gained its market share by about 15 percent last year," said Gartner analyst Michael Silver. In the past, release of a new version of Office has been a significant event for Microsoft. Office is one of the company's two flagship products. In the most recent quarter Microsoft's Information Worker division, which is largely made up of Office, accounted for $2.4 billion of the company's $8.5 billion in revenue and $1.88 billion of the $3.25 billion gross profit. Typically, Microsoft sees a surge in sales following the release of a new version of Office, but analysts don't expect to see much of an increase when the new productivity suite ships. One reason is the Licensing 6 program. In May 2001, Microsoft announced the new licensing program, where customers would have to pay upfront, typically under two-year contracts. This "Software Assurance" program guarantees them access to the latest Microsoft technology when it becomes available. Licensing hang-ups Microsoft fully enacted the licensing 6 program Aug. 1. Late sign-ups unexpectedly boosted the company's deferred revenue--essentially, cash in the bank accounted for during the course of the licensing contracts--past $9 billion in the first fiscal quarter. Still, analysts estimate as many as two-thirds of customers chose to skip the program. One reason: Licensing 6 raised upgrade fees anywhere from 33 percent to 107 percent for many customers, according to Gartner. Many Microsoft customers have complained about the new licensing plan. "We have not signed the Licensing 6 program," said Josep Guallar-Esteve, senior systems network administrator for Eastern Radiologists in Greenville, N.C., a large radiological practice serving seven hospitals. "We are going with OpenOffice/StarOffice/WordPerfect suites. They are getting better and don't have such abusive contracts bundled with the software." If Microsoft faces any problems delivering Office 11, those snags could come back to haunt the company in a few years, say analysts. Customers typically sign up for Licensing 6 under 24-month Software Assurance contracts. "People are trying to figure out what Software Assurance really means, and the only data they have about whether they should buy it is Microsoft's track record delivering products," said Paul DeGroot, an analyst with Directions of Microsoft. "If Microsoft can't deliver you an upgrade within 24 months, purchasing SA for 24 months starts to become an issue." Late summer or midyear? Microsoft earlier had said the product would be available around midyear. The company is now saying late summer. "Customers will have the final Office 11 product in their hands by the end of the summer," said a Microsoft spokesman. Some analysts remain skeptical that Microsoft will meet its target date, given the earlier slip in the schedule. But the impact of any delay will most likely be minimal. "To me, midyear and end of summer are two different things," DeGroot said. "If you're a university student, end of summer could mean end of September, which is quite a bit later than midyear. I guess they could say they have until Sept. 30 to qualify for midyear. That's fudging it." Even if Office 11 slipped into the fourth quarter because of unexpected problems found during testing, any real customer impact would likely be "symbolic," DeGroot emphasized. If large customers follow past behavior, they will take up to a year testing the new version of Office before widely deploying the productivity suite anyway, he added. REDMOND, Wash. -- Feb. 11, 2003 -- As the world prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of powered flight, Microsoft Corp. today announced that "Microsoftš Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" is in development and cleared for takeoff this July. With "Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight," the next milestone in the award-winning "Flight Simulator" franchise, Microsoft celebrates 20 years of developing and perfecting computer flight simulation. "A Century of Flight" allows aviation enthusiasts to experience history at the controls of historic aircraft, such as Charles Lindbergh's Ryan NYP "Spirit of St. Louis," the Douglas DC-3 and the world's first successful powered aircraft, the Wright Flyer. New engaging features such as interactive multimedia provide a wealth of historical information on the planes that shaped aviation history and the pilots who flew them. Informed and insightful articles explain all there is to know about Microsoft's "Flight Simulator" and the 24 aircraft included in the software. "Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" also introduces an updated, dynamic weather system, enhanced automatically generated scenery (AutoGen) and detailed visual effects, improved Air Traffic Control functions, and 3-D interactive cockpits, as well as 15 modern aircraft, including the Boeing 777, the Beechcraft Baron and the Robinson R22 helicopter. "Launching 'A Century of Flight' in conjunction with a historical milestone as monumental as the invention of powered flight is an exhilarating, once-in-a-lifetime experience for all of us on the 'Flight Simulator' team," said Bruce Williams, product planner at Microsoft Aces Studios. "There are a lot of organizations celebrating the centennial of flight, but 'Century of Flight' empowers people to get into the cockpit of legendary aircraft such as the Wright Flyer and the 'Spirit of St. Louis' to feel what it was like to actually fly those planes." When "Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" launches this July, Microsoft will mark flight's 100th anniversary by participating with the Experimental Aviation Association (EAA) in a yearlong celebration, Countdown to Kitty Hawk. A touring pavilion honoring aviation heroes and innovations will land in cities across the country, beginning this April at Sun 'N Fun in Lakeland, Fla. The pavilion will house a virtual 1903 Wright Flyer with which guests can experience the new "Flight Simulator" software, stepping back in time and recapturing the feeling of the first flight of Wilbur and Orville Wright on the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, N.C. Would-be pilots operate the "aircraft" from a horizontal hip cradle, using hand levers and a shifting hip mechanism to control virtual takeoffs and landings in front of a giant panoramic projection screen. Availability "Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" will be available on PC at leading retailers nationwide including Best Buy, Electronics Boutique and Circuit City Stores Inc. in July 2003 for an estimated retail price of $54.95 (U.S.)* and is rated "Teen." Sales in the United States of servers running Linux nearly doubled in lastyear's fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to new statistics frommarket researcher Gartner Dataquest. Total Linux server revenue was $384.6 million in the fourth quarter, up 90percent from $202.2 million. By contrast, overall U.S. server revenueclimbed just 5 percent in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier. IBM was the chief beneficiary of Linux server revenue, taking in some $159.9million in sales, up from $75.6 million a year earlier. Hewlett-Packard sawsales rise to $80.2 million, up 81 percent from $44.3 million a yearearlier. Dell Computer's Linux server revenue grew nearly 66 percent, butfell behind HP, with fourth-quarter sales of $77.1 million, compared with$46.4 million a year earlier. Sun Microsystems, which started selling Linuxservers just last year, took in $1.3 million in the fourth quarter, up from$912,500 in the third quarter. "Linux (sales) increased a lot because of IBM," said Shahin Naftchi, serveranalyst for Gartner. Naftchi said that IBM is now shipping blade servers, 75percent of which run Linux. Linux servers made up more than 14 percent of all servers shipped in theUnited States in the first quarter, but accounted for just 7.6 percent oftotal server revenue. A year ago, Linux made up 9 percent of server unitshipments and 4.7 percent of revenue. In the Unix market, U.S. server sales fell 3 percent from a year earlier to$1.69 billion, down from $1.74 billion. Sun remained the top seller of Unixservers, but saw sales drop more than 27 percent from a year earlier, to$675 million. HP solidified its No. 2 spot in the market, posting a 54percent year-over-year increase, to $562.6 million. IBM posted a narrower9.4 percent gain from a year earlier, with sales of $361.8 million. SGI wasthe fourth-largest seller, but saw sales dip 25 percent, to $39.1 million. "HP's Unix is improving a lot," Naftchi said. "HP is gaining customer'strust, especially overseas." In the Intel-based server market, Dell extended the lead it regained fromHP in the third quarter, grabbing 29.4 percent of the market compared withHP's 27.5 percent. Dell sold $531.5 million worth of Intel-based servers inthe U.S. during the fourth quarter, up 37 percent from a year earlier. HP'ssales grew a scant 0.6 percent from a year earlier, to $496.4 million. IBMremained the No. 3 seller of Intel-based servers in the U.S., with revenueup 28.8 percent, to $244.5 million. The total market for Intel-based servers in the U.S. during the fourthquarter was $1.8 billion, up 17.4 percent from a year earlier and 3.5percent from the third quarter. Gartner has also predicted that revenue fromless-expensive Intel servers will surpass revenue from high-end Unix-basedservers for the first time in 2003. Intel-based servers accounted for 90 percent of unit shipments in the fourthquarter and 40.3 percent of revenue. A year earlier, Intel-based serversmade up 87.5 percent of units shipped and produced 36.1 percent of revenue. In the overall U.S. market, IBM generates the most server revenue, followedby HP, Sun and Dell. In terms of unit shipments, HP is the leader with 30percent of the market, followed by Dell at 19 percent. Apple led the drive to offer Wi-Fi wireless networking equipment atreasonable prices to consumers way back in 1999, but the company's gatewayproduct, the AirPort Base Station, had started to look under-featured andoverpriced even by late 2001 - especially for broadband users who didn'tneed its built-in modem. But Apple stayed the course: $300 for the AirPort Base Station and $100 forthe proprietary AirPort card that inserted into a special PC Card-like slotin every model of the Macintosh. Because many Mac models over the lastthree years lack PC Card and PCI slots - notably, the iMac, eMac, Cube, andiBook - the AirPort slot was for a long time the only reasonable option foradding wireless access for under $150. At this month's Macworld Expo, Apple not only caught up with but exceededthe rest of the wireless world by announcing AirPort Extreme. The AirPortExtreme products rely on a draft version of the IEEE 802.11g specification,which uses the 2.4 GHz radio spectrum band just like 802.11b, is completelybackwards compatible with 802.11b, and operates at up to 54 Mbps. In this article, which we're also publishing as an addendum to our recentlyreleased book, The Wireless Networking Starter Kit, we discusscompatibility issues with 802.11g and AirPort Extreme and run through theequipment's specifications. Later in this section, we note the other makersof 802.11g equipment, including Linksys, Belkin, and D-Link, and surveytheir initial product offerings and pricing. We've also started trackingMac-related wireless news on a new weblog hosted at the book's Web site;stop by regularly (or add its RSS feed to your favorite headline watcher)if you're interested in what's up with AirPort and AirPort Extreme. http://wireless-starter-kit.com/ Forward and Backward Compatibility The 802.11g specification uses a relatively new method of encoding bitsonto radio waves in such a way as to squeeze up to 54 Mbps of raw dataacross a single channel. As is the case with most theoretical networkthroughputs, the net throughput of real data - the actual contents of filesor transactions - provides somewhere between 20 and 30 Mbps. In contrast,802.11b's 11 Mbps raw throughput generally translated to 4 to 6 Mbps atbest, and it isn't uncommon to drop below that as distance from the basestation increases. 802.11g is attractive because it includes full backwards compatibility with802.11b. This compatibility isn't optional for manufacturers, but rather isa mandatory part of the spec. 802.11g also has several intermediate stepsfor speed, so you don't just drop from 54 Mbps all the way down to 11 Mbps. One of 802.11g's big advantages over 802.11b is that it better handles theinevitable signal reflection. Radio signals bounce off different pieces ofmatter - floors, metal, even the air around you - at different angles andspeeds. A receiver must reconcile all the different reflections of the samesignal that arrive at slightly different times into a single set of data.802.11g (like 802.11a) slices up the spectrum in a way that enablesreceivers to handle these reflections in a simpler but more effective waythan 802.11b. Despite Steve Jobs's confident declaration in the Macworld Expo keynotethat 802.11g is a "standard," the current specification has not beenfinalized and ratified by the IEEE, the engineering group that develops newstandards. Ratification should happen relatively soon, almost certainly bythe end of 2003. Until then, the 802.11g "standard," remains in draft form,although that hasn't stopped several chip manufacturers from shipping thesilicon necessary to implement the current draft of 802.11g. (Apple's Website now calls 802.11g a draft, reflecting reality.) Also note that the Wi-Fi Alliance hasn't included 802.11g as part of itscertification suite. The Wi-Fi Alliance tests equipment to make sure itworks according to spec and is interoperable with all other certifiedequipment; if so, the maker is allowed to use the Wi-Fi logo. Until 802.11gis finished, the Wi-Fi Alliance has no way of guaranteeing that different802.11g devices will work with one another, meaning that it will likely besome time after ratification that the Wi-Fi Alliance considers adding802.11g to the Wi-Fi certification suite. Some of our sources speculatethat a testing program could be in place as early as summer, but finalcertification almost certainly wouldn't start until at least late 2003. That's not to imply that compatibility is likely to be a major problem.Manufacturers have significant motivation to maintain compatibility withother makers. No one wants to sell equipment that won't play nice withothers, because to do so would undermine confidence in the entiretechnology. In the worst case, unless a piece of hardware is designedextremely poorly, two incompatible 802.11g devices should be able to talkat 802.11b speeds. Compatibility problems are particularly unlikely among different devicesfrom the same manufacturer. Apple AirPort Extreme Base Stations willhappily communicate with AirPort and AirPort Extreme cards, for instance.However, good compatibility likely goes farther. Apple's equipment relieson chips from Broadcom, as does 802.11g gear from Linksys. For that reason,and because Apple and Linksys have brought the first 802.11g devices tomarket, it's likely that Apple and Linksys equipment will be compatible. Inaddition, later equipment makers will have to meet Broadcom's specs ratherthan vice-versa. Sometimes standards are set merely by shipping the mostdevices. One way or another, compatibility will not be an issue in the long run,whether you buy hardware now or later. Apple has promised firmware upgradesas the standard stabilizes, and Apple has done a good job thus farproviding these kinds of updates to the older AirPort equipment. On a related front, Apple hasn't committed to or rejected support for WPA(Wi-Fi Protected Access), the security update that fixes encryptionproblems and removes complexity from securing local wireless networkconnections. Apple said that they will monitor whether WPA becomes widelyadopted and evaluate their response based on usage. Again, if Apple were tosupport WPA, that support would appear in the form of a free firmwareupdate. Meanwhile, many other vendors are already promising WPA support.For instance, D-Link says their new 802.11g devices will support WPA with afirmware upgrade by the second quarter of the year. Is 802.11a Dead? Apple has chosen to not support the existing 802.11a specification as partof AirPort Extreme. 802.11a operates in the 5 GHz band and its use of adifferent frequency means that it is not backwards compatible with 802.11b.Several companies offer dual-band 2.4/5 GHz radios now, but that approachincreases cost and complexity. Because of this lack of compatibility with millions of 802.11b devicescurrently in use, Steve Jobs said that 802.11a is doomed to failure.However, it's more appropriate to say that 802.11a is now relegated toniche status for particular purposes, such as dense installations incorporations, server room backup links, or high-speed point-to-pointbridges. Because 802.11a has 12 distinct channels that can be used withoutinterference in the same place, it offers an advantage for scenarios inwhich avoiding interference is important. Likewise, the four channelsreserved in the upper end of the 5 GHz band for 802.11a outdoor,point-to-point use can employ higher power levels, which may provide abetter throughput than 802.11g in the same circumstances. AirPort Extreme Base Station Apple offers two different AirPort Extreme Base Station models, priced at$200 and $250. Both units have 10/100 Mbps WAN and LAN ports, sport a USBport for printer sharing (but not spooling), and can bridge to otherAirPort Extreme Base Stations, acting as an access point and a bridgesimultaneously. The $250 unit also includes a 56K modem and a jack for anexternal antenna. The 10/100 Mbps bump up in speed on the WAN port recognizes that some usersmight be hooking into wide-area networks or broadband connections thatprovide more than 10 Mbps of bandwidth (that's unfortunately not true forus, so we can't test that feature). If you're only running a 10 Mbps wiredEthernet, it might also be time to upgrade to 10/100 Mbps switches ifyou're also installing AirPort Extreme equipment to take full advantage ofthe intra- network speed. Do note that AirPort Extreme won't help yourInternet use at all, since almost all Internet connections are far slowerthan even 802.11b's realistic 4 to 6 Mbps. The addition of USB printer sharing enables a network of Macs to share aprinter without connecting the printer to a Mac which must be turned onwhenever anyone wants to print. However, the printer itself must be turnedon: Apple confirmed that this feature is indeed "printer sharing," whichmakes it seem just like the printer is connected to each machine, ratherthan "printer spooling," in which print jobs are sent to the print spooler,stored in a file, and then printed out whenever the printer becomesavailable. (Adam absolutely adores print spooling because his printer isseldom on, and whenever he turns it on, his AppleShare IP-based printspooler immediately prints all the waiting print jobs.) In the past, adding an external antenna to an AirPort Base Station requiredserious surgery that made a mockery of your warranty and requiredsignificant manual dexterity. Now, with the $250 model of the AirPortExtreme Base Station, you can simply plug an external antenna into theApple-proprietary antenna jack. Don't blame Apple for yet another proprietary jack - the FCC mandates thatany wireless networking equipment that can take an antenna must feature ahard-to-find connector. That's because the FCC doesn't want just anyoneattaching uncertified antennas that could spew more than the legal amountof signal. (An uncertified antenna is anything that the manufacturer didn'thave the FCC test with a given wireless gateway or card.) You'll be able to buy two external antennas for the AirPort Extreme BaseStation. Both initial models are made and marketed by veteran Mac firm Dr.Bott. Apple said that they didn't want to get into the antenna business,but Apple is having the entire $250 AirPort Extreme Base Station plus Dr.Bott antenna system certified by the FCC. (Companies pay a separate fee foreach certification - which may account for part of why the cheaper AirPortExtreme Base Station doesn't have an external antenna jack.) The Dr. Bott ExtendAIR Omni ($100) is a 3.5 dBi omnidirectional antennasuitable for extending the range of an AirPort Extreme Base Station in a360-degree spread; the ExtendAIR Direct ($150) is a 6.5 dBi 70-degreedirectional antenna. (For more on adding antennas to access points forextending range, read Chapter 8, "Going the Distance," in The WirelessNetworking Starter Kit.) Although you can still use the 56 Kbps modem (V.90, not V.92,unfortunately; see Kevin Savetz's articles on V.92 linked below) to connectvia a dialup Internet connection, you might still want the modem-equippedversion of the AirPort Extreme Base Station even if you have a broadbandconnection to the Internet. That's because the AirPort Extreme Base Stationalso supports PPP dial-in connections. Forget a file while you'retraveling? As long as your Mac is turned on and has file sharing enabled,you can use your laptop's modem to dial up your AirPort Extreme BaseStation and retrieve that file. Exactly how this feature will work won't beclear until we can test the hardware, but it could be a welcome addition.(Of course, this assumes a phone line dedicated to incoming data calls.) http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06431 The AirPort Extreme Base Station's bridge feature is unique for equipmentin this price range. It enables you to extend the range of a networkwithout wires. Just buy two AirPort Extreme Base Stations, connect one toyour Internet connection, and set the other to work in bridge mode. Thebridge unit connects to the master AirPort Extreme Base Station and acts asan access point for computers within range. In the past, you would have hadto spend well over $500 to buy a single device that could act as an accesspoint and bridge simultaneously, or combine separate pieces of equipmentlike the Linksys WAP11 and WET11 to achieve the same effect. (See pages 152to 160 in The Wireless Networking Starter Kit for more on how wirelessbridging works.) Remember that even if you don't have a single AirPort Extreme card or802.11g adapter on your network, two AirPort Extreme Base Stations canconnect to each other at the full 54 Mbps raw speed of 802.11g. If yourwired network runs at 100 Mbps, the high-speed bridging is another reasonfor the 10/100 Mbps WAN port on the new units. With AirPort Extreme Base Stations, you could locate islands of wired andwireless access in various locations without running wire among thoseislands. This could allow you to create larger coverage area or connectneighboring buildings or homes. Although the AirPort Extreme Base Station bridging works with up to fourunits at once, you reportedly cannot daisy chain the AirPort Extreme BaseStations in bridging mode; all the bridged units must each connect back tothe master unit. In more extensive installations, you could run Ethernetamong several master AirPort Extreme Base Stations and still use bridgingon the edges of the network. AirPort Extreme Card The new AirPort Extreme Card is based on the mini-PCI Card form factor, andhas a new shape and connector. The card is built into every 17-inchPowerBook G4, and is a user-expandable or build-to-order option with the12-inch PowerBook G4. (Both PowerBooks were announced at the same time asAirPort Extreme.) http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07041 These two PowerBook models also have built-in Bluetooth and a pair ofantennas. Apple said the two antennas reconfigure themselves dynamically toprovide either antenna diversity for better reception of Wi-Fi or 802.11gsignals, or for one antenna to be dedicated to Bluetooth and the other to802.11 depending on what's needed. The antenna redesign also solves a problem inherent in the TitaniumPowerBook G4 design which restricted the signal strength entering andleaving the computer. In the new PowerBook G4 aluminum case design, theantennas are located at the top of both sides of the LCD display withrubber seals providing radio "transparency." Will there be an upgraded AirPort Extreme card for older Macs? The answeris a firm no. Greg Joswiak, Apple's VP of hardware products, confirmed forus that the older AirPort card relied on a too-slow bus, or communicationschannel, inside each Mac. This slow bus can't operate at the speed requiredby 802.11g, thus making it impossible to revise the card or plug adifferent card into that slot. We expect that new Power Macs will be among the first Macs to sport eitheran AirPort Extreme slot or, less likely, a PCI-based AirPort Extreme cardoption. iMacs, eMacs, and iBooks would require motherboard redesign tosupport AirPort Extreme, and thus only a major refresh to each product linewill be extreme enough to incorporate 802.11g. It's certain that other companies will step up to the plate as well, suchas Asante, Proxim, MacWireless, and Belkin, all of which have a history ofsupporting Macintosh networking. These companies typically release PC Cardsfirst, meaning that only certain PowerBook models would handle 802.11g. PCIcard adapters are already shipping, and we might see Ethernet or evenFireWire (USB is too slow for 802.11g) converters as well. Other 802.11g Makers Although Apple is early with 802.11g, it's not the first to ship products.Linksys gets that honor, having pushed out its first "54G" gateways andcards before the end of 2002, with Buffalo following quickly. D-Link andBelkin aren't far behind. (Prices are all the lowest price at Amazon.com orvia the companies' online stores.) Many Mac users know Belkin as a cable company, but the firm has beenshipping a variety of networking products, including inexpensive Bluetoothadapters, for some time. By the time you read this, the company plans toship four devices: a wired/wireless gateway (F5D7230-4, retail price $150),a plain access point (F5D7130, $140), a PC Card (F5D7010, $80), and a PCIcard (F5D7000, $80). Belkin has promised drivers for its 802.11g gear byFebruary for Mac OS 8.6 and later. Linksys has two 54G gateways and two cards. The WRT54G is a combinationwired switch and wireless gateway which updates their BEFW11S4 model($130). The WAP54G is a simple access point that adds 802.11g support tothe WAP11 ($130). The WPC54G PC Card ($70) is available now, and the WMP54GPCI adapter ($70) is coming soon. Linksys has little to no Macintoshsupport for any of its existing products. http://www.linksys.com/splash/54g_splash.asp D-Link is offering products under the complicated brand name of AirPlusXtreme G. They also have a wired/wireless gateway (DI-624, $150), a plainaccess point (DWL-2000AP, $140), a PC Card (DWL-G650, $80), and a PCI Card(DWL-G520, $90). D-Link has offered limited AppleTalk support in itsprevious offerings, but Mac drivers are unlikely. http://www.dlink.com/products/wireless/airxtreme.asp Buffalo has its AirStation G54 Broadband Router Access Point (WBR-G54) fora retail price of $200 and a PC Card (WLI-CB-G54) for $100. Street pricesshould be less. The company has offered limited Mac support in the past. http://www.buffalotech.com/wireless/ Future of G The future of 802.11g is bright given its advantages, and the early rush topush products into the marketplace. Buying equipment now should cost only aslight premium over later prices: Apple probably won't adjust its pricesmuch, if at all, based on its history, and 802.11g devices from othermanufacturers will probably drop only $10 to $30 over the course of 2003unless major manufacturing breakthroughs occur or chip prices plummet. We're bullish on 802.11g because it's backwards compatible, and because itdoesn't rely on unproven technology. Faster speed at about the same price?Count us in. PayBITS: Did this article help you figure out what wireless As I noted in "Apple Reduces Its Microsoft Dependency" in TidBITS-662_,Apple's Macworld Expo beta release of the Safari Web browser is indicationthat Apple is hunting big game, namely Microsoft. But is Safari a highenough caliber weapon to take down the lumbering behemoth that is InternetExplorer? Or will the svelte and sprightly Safari merely bounce offMicrosoft's tough hide? We won't be able to decide that until Safari 1.0finally ships, but there's no question that Safari is good enough that, ifpossible, you should join the more than 1 million people who downloadedcopies of Safari through last week and take a look. To be clear, Safari is a Cocoa application that requires Mac OS X 10.2Jaguar or later, and Apple claims it's optimized for use with Mac OS X10.2.3. It does not and will never run in Mac OS 9, so Macs that haven'tyet upgraded to Mac OS X or that can't run Mac OS X should stick withwhatever browser they're using now. The Safari download is only 2.9 MB; awelcome size for a modern Web browser. Under the Hood With Safari, Apple chose not to reinvent the wheel, but instead of buyinganother browser, Apple chose to continue in the Mac OS X vein by basingSafari on an open source project, the KHTML rendering engine that liesunderneath Linux browser Konqueror. Although my money had been on Appleusing the open source Gecko rendering engine that powers Netscape, Mozilla,and Chimera, KHTML is both faster and comprises significantly fewer linesof code to understand and maintain. http://developer.kde.org/documentation/library/kdeqt/kde3arch/khtml/ On the downside, although KHTML displays pages relatively well, it (or atleast Apple's implementation of it, the changes to which have already goneback to the KHTML maintainers) doesn't yet do as well with Web standards asother rendering engines. Whether or not KHTML ends up being better or worsein terms of standards support, it's yet another target that Web designersmust now test against, since it will undoubtedly display many pagesslightly differently than other browsers. >From what I can tell from Web standards reports so far, Apple does have afair amount more work to do, despite all the claims of superior standardssupport. Bugs should be reported, but final judgment should be reserveduntil Apple releases the 1.0 version of Safari (and frankly, peopleshouldn't stress about changing their Web pages too much for Safari's sakeuntil the release version). Right now, Safari is unabashedly in beta, andone of the primary developers, Dave Hyatt (who also started the Chimeraproject), has a weblog where he has been posting updates about problemsthat he's fixed in the source code. It's definitely worth a read. http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/01/07/safari_review.html Fast, Streamlined Interface After trying Safari on the first day, Tonya became an immediate convert,purely because of Safari's page rendering speed. She hates waiting and hascommented on several occasions since switching that she's finding a numberof sites less frustrating to use, simply because pages draw faster than inInternet Explorer. Apple has benchmarks that show Safari drawing pages morethan three times faster than Internet Explorer. Although all benchmarksshould be taken with a grain of salt because code can be tweaked to producegood results, Safari definitely wins out perceptually. It appears that someof Safari's blazing speed is due to using some soon-to-be documentedroutines that arrived in Jaguar; I hope other browsers will be able to takeadvantage of those routines for improving Mac OS X's sluggish text drawingperformance. That perceptual speed is undoubtedly helped by Safari's clean and elegantAqua interface, without many of the controls that clutter many otherbrowsers' windows. Though it doesn't bother me, the brushed metal look(which Apple calls a "textured window appearance") has drawn somecriticism, in part because it violates Apple's own human interfaceguidelines. Textured window appearances are intended for applications thatprovide an interface to, or attempt to recreate the interface of, areal-world digital device such as a camera, MP3 player, or calculator.Safari obviously violates this recommendation, and its Downloads window,which is also textured, violates the guideline that only the primary windowin an application should have the textured window appearance. The use ofthe textured window appearance looks particularly odd with Aqua-appearancesheets (such as appear when you create bookmarks or save pages). Numerous programs, such as SafarIcon and Safari Enhancer, have popped up tolet you switch the Safari textured window appearance to an Aqua appearance,and SafarIcon also lets you replace Safari's icons with different themedsets. Safari Enhancer goes one step further, by enabling a Debug menu thatprovides some interesting options and features, such having Safari pretendto be another Web browser. http://homepage.mac.com/reinholdpenner/ Enhanced Bookmarks In the keynote, Steve Jobs made a big deal about how Safari's bookmarkinterface is so much better than competing browsers. These days, I seldomuse bookmarks, perhaps because keeping bookmarks organized has been so muchtrouble, and in part because searching Google is so fast. I do store somebookmarks in Internet Explorer, but those I access primarily via thetoolbar and via Internet Explorer's superior URL auto-completion. Safari can complete URLs if you start typing a word in the site's domainname. However, Internet Explorer can perform similar auto- completion onwords that appear anywhere in the URL or the title of pages you've visitedrecently or bookmarked. Safari should mimic this behavior; it'sunreasonable to expect users to remember domain names, whereas it's fairlylikely they'll remember some word that is in the URL or title of thedesired page. Safari's bookmark interface is simple and well-done and - thanks to the wayit takes over the entire Safari browser window when showing - looks muchlike iTunes. Also like iTunes playlists and iPhoto's albums, Safari'sbookmark collections don't support hierarchies, but unlike those otherprograms, you can nest folders inside the collection itself. Safari imports bookmarks from Internet Explorer, but if you want to bringyour bookmarks from another Web browser into Safari, search on MacUpdate orVersionTracker for "Safari" to find bookmark importing utilities. (Thesesites also catalog a number of utilities for localizing Safari for otherlanguages.) Version 3.0.4 of Alco Blom's URL Manager Pro can importbookmarks from Safari and export them back, but since Safari doesn'tcurrently support the Shared Menus Protocol, URL Manager Pro's full featureset isn't available for Safari. http://macupdate.com/search.php?keywords=Safari Googlicious! In "Hyperspatial JavaScript Search Bypass" in TidBITS-657_, I passed on asimple technique for quick searches of Google or other search engines. ThatJavaScript technique works fine in Safari, but with Google, there's littleneed, thanks to a useful search field that appears at the top of everywindow. Aside from providing immediate access to search results on Google,it also remembers the last 10 searches in a pop-down menu. This kind of feature isn't new - there have been lots of shortcuts forsearching throughout the years, and some (such as in Opera) have providedalmost identical direct searching fields. However, Apple gets points forchoosing Google and for their implementation. Internet Explorer's hiddenshortcut for searching from the Address Bar (type ? and then your searchphrase) is rendered less useful by its reliance on MSN Search. And someother browsers make the decision to provide access to many search engines,which, though totally reasonable on the face of things, can detract fromthe elegance of providing a focused feature that meets the needs of manypeople without cluttering the interface. The added fillip to Apple's Google search is SnapBack, which solves acommon problem with searches. You run your search, get results, and followa link out to another site, perhaps looking at several pages before youdetermine you need to try more of the search results. Instead of clickingthe Back button five or six times, you can click the orange SnapBack buttonin the Google search field to jump right back to the Google search results. A SnapBack button also appears at the right side of the address field assoon as you delve at least one page deep into a site. Find yourself toodeep in the site? Just click the SnapBack button and hop back up to the toplevel. Reality Check Apple's Safari team has done a good job of keeping Safari focused, while atthe same time addressing the often unpleasant realities of today's Web. Foranyone irritated at Web sites like Yahoo that pop-up advertising windowswhen you visit, Safari offers a command in the Safari application menu (aswell as an option in the Security pane of its preferences) to block suchpop-ups. I don't understand why it's in the Safari application menu ratherthan in either the View menu or the Window menu, but since pop-up windowswere driving me batty in Internet Explorer, I appreciate the feature. Youcan toggle it quickly with a keyboard shortcut should you visit sites thatrequire pop-up windows to function properly. Perhaps my favorite feature in Safari, though, is the Bug button, which youcan turn on in the View menu. Should you run into a page that Safarirenders incorrectly, you can (and should!) click the Bug button to reportthe problem to Apple. Even better, if you delete the contents of the PageAddress field, the Bug button makes a great way to send general feedbackabout Safari to Apple. All of Apple's software should offer a similarfeature, and many other developers could benefit from adding such a featureto their programs as well. I understand that Safari's developers will seeall those feedback reports, and I'm sure that if enough people request afeature change or even a feature, they'll give it serious consideration. Apple has posted a handful of sample AppleScript scripts for Safari, andthough the browser's scripting support is still preliminary andnon-standard, it's useful. A document's text and HTML source are available,and you can script the browser to load URLs (though you do so by setting adocument's URL property, rather than through the long-standard GetURL andOpenURL suites). No application preferences are accessible, and you can'tcontrol bookmarks, cookies, history, or other items using scripts. http://www.apple.com/applescript/safari/ Lastly, some people have complained about how Safari takes over as thedefault browser. When this came up in TidBITS Talk, others noted that ithadn't taken over from their default browsers, and after a bit of testingby several people, the group determined that Safari takes over the defaultWeb browser setting _only_ if you've never changed it from InternetExplorer. If you switched to Chimera or another browser, Safari leaves thedefault browser setting alone. Missing, but Desirable Features Even though the Safari we're using today is still a public beta, it'slikely that the feature set for version 1.0 is pretty much locked. Thatleaves Apple with plenty of room for enhancement, because as much as Safariis fast and easy to use, it lacks some features that are popular in otherbrowsers. Don't assume Apple will definitely implement these features infuture releases, however, since the team is focused on keeping Safarisimple, lightweight, and extremely fast. They'll have to balance that goalagainst some of these killer features, which may prevent many users fromrelying entirely on Safari. Gazing out on the Veldt It will be fascinating to see where Apple takes Safari. Currently, Apple isclearly focused on speed and elegance above all else, and that's a finegoal for a 1.0 product. But I hope that future versions of Safariincorporate additional features that simplify life on the Web, much asAutoFill, tabbed browsing, and other features have in the past. Safarishouldn't merely settle for recreating those features, though, and I hopeto be surprised by innovative new approaches to using the Web. PayBITS: If Adam's Safari article was useful to you, help us We all copy and paste without thinking about it. Can you remember back towhen you started using a Mac and were introduced to the notions of copyingand pasting, and the invisible but omnipresent "clipboard"? Probably youunderstood right away, thought to yourself, "good idea," and just moved on.At that time, you also had to internalize the fact that any time you copy,you wipe off the clipboard whatever you copied previously. This fact is probably by now so deeply internalized that you no longerrealize how much it dictates your working habits. You are unconsciouslycareful, after copying (or even more critical, after cutting, which makesthe data live in the clipboard and nowhere else) not to hit Command-C againuntil you've pasted the current clipboard to retain it. Nevertheless, I betyou've made that mistake on occasion, each time cursing at the loss of thepreviously copied data. Another frequent situation is that you have more than one thing to movefrom one place to another, either within the same application or betweenapplications. You're probably so accustomed to inconvenient ways of copingwith this necessity that you don't even think of them as workarounds. Forexample, knowing that you need to move three sentences from various placeswithin a paragraph, you copy and paste the whole paragraph and pare downthe pasted results afterwards. But there are also situations where thisstrategy fails, and you've probably found yourself resigned to going backand forth, back and forth between two applications, copying and pasting,copying and pasting. Various individual applications assist with these difficulties. Manyapplications let you split a window so that you can see two parts of thesame document at once, which makes it a lot easier to move bits from onegeneral area to another. And more and more applications now providemultiple internal clipboards, or something equivalent: for example, NisusWriter, BBEdit, and Microsoft Word do this. But what's really needed ismultiple clipboards at the system level, and it's no credit to Apple thatthe clipboard of 2003 is so much like that of 1984. The situation is particularly surprising in view of the fact that Mac OSX's clipboard underpinnings are considerably more sophisticated than inprevious systems. The clipboard is now the responsibility of a backgrounddaemon called "pbs" (for "Pasteboard Server"). This daemon is perfectlyadequate to provide multiple clipboards (pasteboards), and in fact alreadydoes so. You may have noticed, for example, that the text you enter intothe Find dialog in Safari then shows up in the Find dialog in BBEdit;that's because pbs maintains a separate Find Pasteboard. In fact, pbsmaintains five pasteboards, and applications are free to add others. Thus,if you were the developer of two applications, you could allow each of themto copy and paste extra data by way of a sixth pasteboard, which otherapplications could use too if they knew about it. At present, however, onlyone of pbs's pasteboards is the General Pasteboard, the one that allapplications know about and share during Copy and Paste operations. Toimplement multiple pasteboards at system level would be simply a matter ofadding more General Pasteboards, and providing an user interface to them.(Look at BBEdit to see how such an interface might work.) Anyway, until Apple wakes up to these possibilities, there are third-partyutilities to provide multiple clipboards on Mac OS X right now, and thisarticle describes three of them: PTHPasteboard, Keyboard Maestro, andCopyPaste X. PTHPasteboard PTHPasteboard's chief virtues are its simplicity and its price (free!).It's an ordinary application that runs in the background; it has no Dockicon, but rather appears as an icon in the rightward part of the menu bar.Every so often (I believe it's every half-second) behind the scenes, itpolls the clipboard, and if the clipboard's contents have changed it addsthem to a list. Thus, as long as you don't copy too frequently, all yourcopied material (up to a user-configurable limit) finds its way into thislist. From here it can be recovered and pasted. To see the list, you do one of three things. You can click on thePTHPasteboard icon in the menu bar; you can type a user- configurable hotkey combination; or you can choose from the Services menu, in thoseapplications that support services. Any of these brings up a floatingwindow listing the currently saved bits of clipboard data; clicking onepastes it at the insertion point in the current application, or you can hitthe Escape key to dismiss the window. PTHPasteboard doesn't work well with Classic applications - it doesn'tpaste at all, though it does seem to see copied material correctly, and itcan usually at least alter the contents of the clipboard even if it can'tmake them appear in a document. Its menu item in the Services menu uses thekeyboard shortcut Shift-Command-V, and this can't be changed - a minorpoint, since it doesn't interfere with any other application's use of thisshortcut, but it does mean that such an application overridesPTHPasteboard's use of it, and in any case user-configurability would benice. Its appearance as an icon in the menu bar is often useless to me,since typically my real menu items crowd out any extra menu bar icons, andit's unnecessary because the floating window can be summoned with akeyboard shortcut instead. (The menu bar icon can be removed, but then youhave to keep the floating window always visible; I don't see the logicbehind this.) But these are quibbles. PTHPasteboard is robust, it's simple, it has asmall footprint in memory and CPU time, it does the job, and it's free. http://www.pth.com/PTHPasteboard/ Keyboard Maestro Keyboard Maestro, by Michael Kamprath, is actually a sort of macro utility.It revolves around the notion of attaching a keyboard shortcut to an actionor sequence of actions; such actions can include things like hidingapplications, opening a particular file or folder, running an AppleScriptor Unix script, typing text, and changing sound volume or screenbrightness. It's an application switcher, too. And it also functions as amultiple clipboard utility, which is why it has found its way into thisarticle. Keyboard Maestro's multiple clipboard interface is somewhat similar toPTHPasteboard's, and is also reminiscent of John V. Holder's QuickScrap,which I remember using on Mac OS 9 some years ago. It responds toparticular user-configurable keyboard shortcuts for cutting, copying, andpasting. When you cut or copy with one of these keyboard shortcuts insteadof the standard Command-X or Command-C, Keyboard Maestro puts up a windowwith a list of clipboards; here, you choose either to append a newclipboard to the existing list or to reuse one of the existing clipboards.The clipboards can be assigned names, and you can get some idea of what'sin them through a tooltip that appears when you hover the mouse over one ofthem. Keyboard Maestro performs the cut or copy back in the application youwere originally in, puts it on the normal clipboard and in its ownclipboard list, and returns you to what you were doing. Pasting workssimilarly; Keyboard Maestro shows you its list of clipboards, and you pickthe one you wish to paste. http://www.johnvholder.com/qsdesc.html Keyboard Maestro has the advantage of being extremely clean and simple.It's also free, as long as you don't want more than four clipboards at time(and just $20 to get as many as you like). Plus, of course, you getKeyboard Maestro's other macro and application-switching features, whichyou can use or disable as you please. It doesn't work well with Classic; inmy tests, copying or pasting with Keyboard Maestro in Classic applicationscaused the current selection to be changed, so that the wrong material wascopied or replaced in the document. On the other hand, PTHPasteboarddoesn't work well with Classic either, so between the two of them it comesdown largely to a choice between very different interfaces and overallapproaches. PTHPasteboard doesn't require any special action on your part in order toremember what you copy; it simply remembers everything that passes throughthe system's clipboard. That's great for those times when you realize afterthe fact that you need some material copied earlier, but it also means thateverything you copy is remembered whether you like it or not. Thus, if youset the list size at ten, and you realize that you need the data fromeleven copies ago, you're out of luck because it's fallen off the end ofthe list. You get no choice between copying to PTHPasteboard's list andjust copying normally. Keyboard Maestro, on the other hand, offers exactlythis choice. That's good, but now you face the opposite disadvantage: ifyou don't remember to copy something with Keyboard Maestro explicitly, itdoesn't go onto the list. Also, having to pass through a window every timeyou want to copy to Keyboard Maestro's list might strike you as helpful ormight deter you from using it at all. It's all a matter of your particularneeds and your peculiar psychological makeup. The best way to see how youfeel about the interface is to try it. http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/ CopyPaste X CopyPaste X is the descendant of the Classic extension I reviewed inTidBITS-364_ from 1997. In Mac OS X, it's an ordinary application, whichmeans it's more compatible and reliable than ever before. It also means youdon't have to run it all the time; I frequently don't, and then when I wantit I can launch it from anywhere, using a universal contextual menu itemthat it optionally installs. http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=00751 Once CopyPaste is running, it provides ten numbered clipboards, accessiblemost simply by keyboard shortcuts that work within any application:Command-C-1, Command-V-1, Command-C-2, Command-V-2, and so forth (the trickis to hold the Command key while striking first the letter, then thenumber). You can turn these shortcuts off, or replace Command with Control.Furthermore, these ten clipboards constitute a set, and you can switchamong any number of sets, again using a universal contextual menu, or withCopyPaste's Dock menu, or by means of a floating palette. Furthermore,every time you copy or cut in the ordinary way, the data goes onto aClipboard Recorder list (similar to PTHPasteboard), accessible in the samethree ways. These features are supposed to work across the Classic boundary, incooperation with the Classic CopyPaste extension (version 4.5). When thiscooperation is working, it behaves just as you would expect: what's copiedwith Command-C-1 on one side of the X- Classic boundary can be pasted withCommand-V-1 on the other side, and whatever is copied in the ordinary wayon one side ends up in the Clipboard Recorder on the other. Plus, theCopyPaste X palettes can be used to copy and paste in Classic applications.My experience, however, is that this cooperation is rather flaky. You muststart up CopyPaste X before you start up Classic, and the Classic extensionloses its ability to list the ten clipboards hierarchically in the Editmenu. More important, sometimes Classic will crash, and often CopyPaste Xwill freeze up and stop working altogether (and at this point it can eveninterfere with the ability to do ordinary copy and paste). For stability,therefore, I find it best to disable CopyPaste Classic altogether, which isa pity. CopyPaste also contains a surprisingly full-featured word processor (the"clipboard editor"), and implements a number of text-munging functions(changing to lowercase, for example). I regard these features asunnecessary bloat. Text-munging would be better implemented separately, asa Service perhaps; properly speaking it has nothing to do with theclipboard at all. Word processing should be left to the user's choice ofdedicated word processor. Instead of these ancillary features, I'd preferto see attention paid to better reliability in the cooperation between theMac OS X and Classic versions. The manual is pretty good, but it requires the built-in word processor, andhas not been always been correctly or completely translated from theoriginal German. This adds to one's overall sense that many areas ofCopyPaste suffer from a rather amateurish quality. Nonetheless, at $20CopyPaste remains a bargain, and its implementation on Mac OS X is asignificant achievement. Personally, I like its interface the best, inparticular the keyboard shortcuts Command-C-1 and Command-V-1 and so forth,which allow me to communicate with each specific clipboard numerically bymeans of the keyboard alone. http://www.scriptsoftware.com/copypaste/ Picking a Paste Pot Whatever utility you choose, you owe it to yourself to try multipleclipboards. You'll wonder how you ever got any serious work done withoutthem. Having only one clipboard is like being able to use only applicationat a time; it's downright primitive, the sort of thing we ought to haveleft behind back in the days of System 6. Thanks to these utilities, youcan save your Mac OS X machine from this Dark Ages holdover. PayBITS: Did this article help you work better? Because most of the users have a direct access to the Internet an AminetCDwhich is published each second month makes no sense. The users can get thesoftware in a much faster way from the Aminet. Because of that the team ofthe Aminet has decided to stop making the CDs. This will not affect Aminetitself, which will continue to function as it has. The newest and lastAminet-CD - number 52 - (December 2002) offers Superview Productivity SuiteII written by Andreas Kleinert as the highlight. The CD is alreadyprovided. SuperView IV (SViewIV) reads, writes and/or converts more than 50graphic formats and also integrates external programs like Xpk, Ghostsciptor MetaView. Additional to the display of graphics on over 20 supportedgraphic cards (via CyberGraphX, Picasso96 or special driver systems) theprogram can also edit different graphic formats. January 16, 2003 - The January General Meeting began with newly returnedPresident Richard Rollins introducing the club officers for 2003. Richardthen announced that this evening the Macintosh SIG would be witnessing EdHadley's demonstration of Sound Studio 2.1. The PC SIG would be examining aFujitsu Tablet PC. As Kevin Hisel's note in the newsletter regarding the raffle stated that acurrent membership card would be required to win, Ed Serbe asked aboutmembership cards. Kevin Hopkins sated that they hadn't been produced yetthis year, so that requirement was relaxed. Kevin Hisel proceeded to talkabout raffle prizes. Ed Serbe was giving away Pinnacle Studio DC10 Plus. Ben Johnson gladly tookit. Kris Klindworth announced that next month the Linux SIG would be looking atKNOPPIX, a full Linux distribution on one CD. Ed Serbe asked about getting a system recovery disk for a ten year oldPackard Bell machine for a friend of his. It was a P1/133 machine. Themembership analyzed the reported problem the friend was having and madesome useful suggestions. Richard Rollins said he has Eudora 5.2 and is unable to get it to run on OS10.2.3 natively. It will run in Classic mode and 5.1.1 ran in OS 10.2.3.Jack Melby said there was a very recent update for the problem onVersionTracker.com . Kevin Hisel talked about the TurboTax controversy. He said, not makinglight of the stringent new registration process, the major article ofcontention is the background program "cdilla" which is installed, runs inthe background all the time, and isn't removed by the uninstall. Thisappears to be a problem with the Windows version of TurboTax only. Becauseof complaints, Intuit has released an updated patch for TurboTax in whichthe uninstall now takes out "cdilla". Also at issue with the newregistration regime is the fear that users wouldn't be able to access theirtax records if they had to reinstall the program in the future. Intuit nowsays that after October 2003 product activation is no longer needed, so youcan look at your old tax forms later without a major problem. In thediscussion that surrounded these issues, the consensus was that this was amajor blunder on Intuit's part and a real boonMicrosoft preps new Office 11 beta
By Joe Wilcox
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 12, 2003, 2:40 PM PT
URL: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-984380.html "Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" Commemorates 100 Years of Aviation History
"Flight Simulator" Franchise's 20th Anniversary Year Corresponds With Centennial of Flight Celebration The Linux Section:
Sales increase for U.S. Linux servers
By Ian Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 10, 2003, 11:37 AM PT
URL: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-984010.html The Macintosh Section:
AirPort Extreme: In the Key of G
by Glenn Fleishman & Adam C. Engst (editors@tidbits.com)
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TidBITS#667/17-Feb-03
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3 January, 2003 The CUCUG Section:
January General Meeting
reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)