News Common PC Linux Mac CUCUG
The next CUCUG meeting will be held on our regular third Thursday of the month: Thursday, April 15th, at 7:00 pm, at the First Baptist Church of Champaign in Savoy. The Linux SIG convenes, of course, 45 minutes earlier, at 6:15 pm. Directions to the FBC-CS are at the end of this newsletter.
The April 15 gathering will be one of our split SIG meetings. The Linux SIG will have Anthony Philipp doing a "BSD Basics" presentation. The Macintosh and PC SIGs are open for anything anyone wants to bring in.
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We'd like to welcome back renewing member Anderson Yau, who renewed his membership at the last meeting.
We welcome any kind of input or feedback from members. Run across an interesting 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 user group. Welcome to the group.
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by Kevin Hisel
Here's the list of FREE products some lucky members will WIN at the next meeting, courtesy of Microsoft (please note, you must be a 2004 member of CUCUG to participate in the drawing):
Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 is the most complete personal and business productivity solution that enables people to manage customers and create impressive marketing materials, manage e-mail and share information efficiently and securely, and streamline business processes?all with familiar, integrated and easy to use software. It provides access to a leading community of partners and Office Online for additional solutions, training, and support.
Key Features:
Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Edition includes:
This practical, hands-on tutorial expertly builds your skills with Microsoft Office 2003?one step at a time! Complete in one volume, you can teach yourself the essentials for working with Microsoft Access, Excel, FrontPage®, Outlook®, PowerPoint®, Publisher, and Word?along with two new programs, Microsoft InfoPath? and OneNote?, and the new collaboration features of Office. With STEP BY STEP, you work at your own pace through the easy-to-follow lessons and practice exercises. You?ll discover how to publish professional-quality documents, brochures, and Web pages; develop easy-to-use spreadsheets; better manage your e-mail communications and calendar; produce and deliver compelling presentations; and build databases for better decision-making. You?ll also learn how to use OneNote, the new Microsoft Office note-taking program, and InfoPath, which enables you to easily create and use rich, dynamic forms?as well as how to take advantage of the enhanced collaboration features across the entire Office System. Whether you?re new to Office or you?re an experienced user looking to develop expertise with Office 2003, you can build and practice exactly the skills you need, exactly when you need them.
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from Mark Kevin Hopkins, Editor
It is with unspeakable sadness that I have to report the death of my wife of nearly twelve years, Nancy Ann Casalino Hopkins. Nancy and I were married, here in Champaign, on May 23, 1992. She had just graduated from the University of Illinois, after receiving her Master of Fine Arts degree in Costume Design.
Nancy was a talent and a personality to be reckoned with. As a Costume Designer, her work had been shown at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. Over the years, she designed and built custom wedding gowns, in order to stay at home with our daughter Nina Elizabeth, born October 21, 1994. Nancy was born in Chicago on April 2, 1956 and had just celebrated her 48th birthday a few days ago.
Nancy was diagnosed with cancer on December 7 (Pearl Harbor Day), 2001. For the next two plus years, we struggled to restore her health, but that came to a quiet end at 8:28 AM this Easter morning (April 11, 2004).
I can't begin to express my loss.
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By Daniel Sorid
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Taking a page from automobile marketers, Intel Corp. will now assign model numbers to its chips and eliminate measurements of raw speed from its product names, the world's largest chip maker said on Friday.
The move marks a break from decades of chip marketing strategy, and comes at a time when Intel is trying to pack into its chips more features, such as security and multi-tasking, that fall outside what has long been the primary measurement of raw speed -- the number of megahertz or gigahertz.
The shift, one analyst said, will better position Intel's newest notebook computer chip, the Pentium M, which has lower "clock speeds" than other Intel mobile chips. But the new marketing strategy could also confuse computer shoppers used to treating chip speed as the only marker of performance.
"It is confusing, and it's going to take a tremendous amount of education on the part of Intel and Intel's customers for this to sort of get assimilated into the marketplace," said Nathan Brookwood, who runs the research firm Insight 64.
Intel's new model numbers give each Intel processor brand a series number. Within desktop computer chips, for instance, the low-end Celeron chip will be given the 300 series, the high-end Pentium 4 will be given the 500 series label, and its Pentium 4 Extreme Edition will be given the 700 series.
Within each series, a higher number -- a 350 series versus a 330 series, for example -- will signify a broader array of features in the chip.
While chip speed will no longer be included in the chip's name, Intel is not eliminating chip speed from the description, and said personal computer makers are unlikely to strike speed from their own advertising.
Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. got rid of clock speed from its chip names two-and-a-half years ago, replacing it with another number that it said better signified the chip's overall performance.
At the time, it was widely viewed as a way for AMD to address the issue of its chips running at slower speeds than rival Intel's.
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Paul Thurrott
http://www.wininformant.com/
In an interview with "Computerworld," Microsoft Senior Vice President Bob Muglia revealed that the next major version of Windows (code-named Longhorn) won't ship until 2006 at the earliest, confirming the opinions of analysts and others familiar with the company's problem of shipping products on schedule. "2006 is the earliest time frame we're looking at [for Longhorn]," Muglia said, suggesting that perhaps 2007 is a more accurate date. "[The client and server versions of Longhorn] will ship at different times. Clients need slightly less bake time than servers do." He also presented an interesting summary of the features Microsoft plans for Longhorn. "There are three major pillars for Longhorn. One is the new user interface pieces in the Avalon UI, the graphical UI. Another is WinFS. And the third is the Web services infrastructure in Indigo."
Leaked email messages from Microsoft suggest that the company is planning to cut back on a few crucial Longhorn features, a "BusinessWeek" report says, but I'm not quite sure I agree. According to the messages, Microsoft will still implement the WinFS storage engine in Longhorn, but WinFS will work only on local systems, not across networks. Furthermore, Microsoft Office 12, which originally was going to run only on Longhorn, will now also be compatible with earlier Windows versions. I don't see these changes as huge retreats from Microsoft's original plans for Longhorn. In fact, I think you could make the argument that we're going to see a lot of Longhorn technology early, rather than late. Just look at Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2): Microsoft lifted SP2's Windows Firewall, memory- protection, network-protection, and other security-oriented features directly from Longhorn. And later this year, when a major new Windows Media Player (WMP) release ships, I think you can expect to see a lot of other technologies that Microsoft originally slated for Longhorn. Yes, Longhorn is taking a long time to ship (its beta 1 release was recently delayed until mid-February 2005), but that delay doesn't mean Longhorn is the next Cairo--Microsoft's ambitious and ultimately aborted mid-1990s project to add object-oriented underpinnings to Windows NT.
Let me get something straight: First, Microsoft missed out on the whole Internet boon by shipping a lackluster, proprietary online service then called The Microsoft Network just as the Internet was starting to take off. Now, the company is admitting that it blew it big time again by missing out on providing a world-class Internet search service, letting an unknown company called Google take off. "People say that Microsoft does it all, but this is the case where we didn't do it all," CEO Steve Ballmer said, describing the company's missteps with Internet search as its "biggest mistake." Ahem. This kind of talk reminds me of Microsoft's use of the term "bet the company," which it carts out at virtually every product launch. I guess this scenario is "bet the company's" antithesis.
I also found out yesterday that Microsoft doesn't plan to ship XP Reloaded as an interim OS release (see my original article, "Windows XP...Reloaded," at http://www.winnetmag.com/ , InstantDoc ID 41858). Instead, the company is still wrestling with how to market and package an OS that's changed dramatically in the 3 years since the company first released it. Like Windows Server 2003, XP has had many excellent free (and nearly free) out-of-band updates in the past 3 years. By late 2004, those updates will include two service packs, two major updates to Windows Media Player (WMP), several major security enhancements and changes to wireless networking, and several Instant Messaging (IM) updates. Microsoft's plan for XP Reloaded is to reenergize XP from a marketing perspective to show consumers who haven't looked at the product recently that it isn't the same OS anymore. Before that can happen, however, Microsoft has to release XP SP2, which will ship in June. Plans for distributing SP2 to customers are still up in the air, however. For example, will the company replace the current XP retail boxes with XP SP2 boxes? I think so, although most XP licenses are sold with new computers. The plans for XP SP2 will affect XP Reloaded, and no one knows how Microsoft will spin XP as we get closer to the 2004 holiday season. Stay tuned.
Struggling PC maker Gateway announced that it will close all 188 Gateway retail stores by April 9. The company, which recently merged with eMachines, hopes the store closings will help it return to profitability, although how Gateway now plans to market its products is unknown. As a result of the store closings, Gateway will eliminate about 2500 sales and management positions. The company will announce a new strategy on April 29. Yikes.
Microsoft apparently did the right thing when the company cut the US price of its Xbox video game console by $30 to $150. Xbox sales have more than doubled since the price cut, suggesting that the new pricing is a more comfortable starting point for many consumers. The Xbox sales jump mirrors the leap that Nintendo experienced last year when it cut the GameCube's price from $150 to $100, a move that breathed new life into what had been a dying platform. However, video game mavens are still waiting to see whether Sony will institute a similar price cut for the market-leading PlayStation 2. The PlayStation 2 still outsells the Xbox and the GameCube by a wide margin.
Here's a hypothetical situation for you: If someone pirates your software, and you know that person pirated your software, do you let the pirate download security patches and other updates? At first blush, that question might seem to have an obvious answer, but hold on. What happens if those pirated software versions number in the millions, and attackers are using them as zombies to transmit viruses and worms around the Internet? Then things get a bit murky. Well, Microsoft is facing that problem, and the situation came to the forefront this week when someone leaked to the Internet a key generator for Windows Server 2003 (both volume-licensed versions and standard retail packaging). Microsoft says it can tell whether a customer's system used a key-generator-created Product ID, raising the question about whether the company allows updates in such cases. Right now, the company is mum about its plans, stating only that Microsoft Product Activation will be more diligent in the Longhorn time frame.
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from Tom Purl (tompurl2000@yahoo.com)
The Yellow Dog corporation has announced that their Linux distribution will soon run on the 64-bit Mac G5 platform. It is scheduled to be released at the end of May. For more information, please see https://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/news/2004/2004-04-07.shtml.
Lindows.com has announced that they are no longer going to use the name "Lindows" outside of the US because they can't afford to defend themselves against Microsoft on a worldwide basis. They will, however, still use the name in the US and hope to gain the right to use it everywhere. For more information, please see http://www.lindows.com/lindows_news_pressreleases_archives.php?id=115.
The new version has 40+ patches, which seems to be a lot. Apparently, none of these patches add any significant functionality. As I've said before, the 2.6.x kernel is significantly faster than the 2.4.x kernel on my machine. If they would just fix all of the drivers, I would switch today.
A new maintenance release of OpenOffice.org is available. It's everyone's favorite free office-productivity suite, and it's available at http://download.openoffice.org/1.1.1/index.html.
GIMP, the Gnu Image Manipulation Program, has achieved the 2.0 milestone. It's similar to Adobe Photoshop, except that it's free. Please check it out at http://brix.gimp.org/files/presspack/pressrelease.pdf.
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As you know, we're highly selective about what news we publish in TidBITS, which makes for quite a job of culling through the press releases we receive and scanning other sites to see what else is happening that might warrant coverage. I've just come across a new site that promises to make lighter work of our headline scanning: Macminer.com. Started by Tobias Engler, who helped translate TidBITS into German several years ago, Macminer.com takes the standard headline list to new levels. You can click any headline to view it, of course, but more interestingly, you can click buttons next to each headline to email it to a friend, view similar news stories, show all the headlines from a particular site, and hide all the headlines from sites that don't interest you (this last setting is persistent). A Hot Topics listing at the top of the screen lets you filter the headlines along specific topics, and more general filters allow you to categorize your news views. You can even create your own filters. It's highly refreshing to see a news headline site that so completely understands that it's a database and make database-style actions possible - it's basically a smart search engine for Mac news. If you're a Mac news hound, check it out. [ACE]
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TidBITS#722/22-Mar-04
Belkin's latest iPod add-on lets you plug in an external microphone for recording audio to your iPod. The Universal Microphone Adapter accepts 3.5 mm microphones and plugs into the special headphone/ adapter jack found on the dock-based iPod series. The adapter shipped 17-Mar-04 and costs $60 from Belkin; or about $40 from resellers. The adapter records 16-bit audio (ostensibly stereo) at 8 KHz, which is adequate for voice recording but would be sub-par for live music recording. The adapter has its own headphone jack to replace the one it's using, a level indicator, and a three-position gain switch to adjust sound sensitivity on the microphone you attach.
<http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?&Product_Id=158384>
Belkin's previous offering, the Voice Recorder, was a mono recorder with relatively low fidelity and no adjustments, although a reasonable choice for compactness. In low ambient noise conditions, the Voice Recorder performed well. But at any distance or with any complex sound situation, the recorder lost distinction and rendered sound somewhat unintelligible. By contrast, the Universal Microphone Adapter lets you change sensitivity on the fly. The level indicator - which displays tones that range from green through yellow to red - ensures that you're actually recording sound and that it's not breaking up at the loudest end. As with Belkin's previous product, it's extremely hard to use the iPod's hold button since it's partially covered by the adapter. [GF]
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TidBITS#722/22-Mar-04
TidBITS readers with long memories have probably already noted that we tend to mention Lemke Software's image processing utility GraphicConverter often in these issues (at least 21 times since 1997, in fact). Largely this is due to the fact that this robust shareware application competes on almost all fronts with Adobe Photoshop, the powerhouse of image processing - yet costs a measly $30. But it's also due to how extensive the changes are - and release notes that accompany them - between revisions. Now, GraphicConverter has turned 5, gaining a browser search feature, improved handling of EXIF data, the capability to export a photo slideshow as a movie file, and lots of other enhancements and bug fixes (a small 5.0.1 version released late last week fixes an error that cropped up when saving files). GraphicConverter 5.0.1 runs on Mac OS 8.5 and higher, including Mac OS X, and is a 6 MB download. [JLC]
<http://www.lemkesoft.com/en/graphcon.htm>
<http://www.lemkesoft.com/en/graphversionsueb.htm>
TidBITS#723/29-Mar-04
If you've been wanting to participate in video or audio chats with Windows- using friends, last week's release is what you've been waiting for. iChat AV 2.1 enables videoconferencing between you and a friend using AOL Instant Messenger 5.5 for Windows. Apple lists no other changes in the free update, which requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later running a Mac with at least a 600 MHz PowerPC G3 processor. (Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar users remain locked at iChat AV 2.0, which costs $30.) The update is a 4.3 MB download and is available via Software Update or as a separate download. [ACE]
<http://www.apple.com/ichat/>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/ichatav.html>
TidBITS#723/29-Mar-04
In an unsurprising announcement, Adobe Systems said that it would discontinue the Macintosh version of the high-end publishing program FrameMaker as of 21-Apr-04. Support for FrameMaker 7.1 for the Mac will continue through 21-Apr-05. Adobe never brought FrameMaker to Mac OS X, forcing long-time users to run it in Mac OS X's Classic environment. The move leaves Macintosh FrameMaker users with several unpalatable options: switch to Windows (or Solaris), where Adobe plans to continue developing FrameMaker, or move to InDesign CS, which lacks some of FrameMaker's features for handling long documents and XML imports and exports. [ACE]
<http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/03/23/framemaker/>
<http://www.adobe.com/products/framemaker/main.html>
TidBITS#723/29-Mar-04
Apple has released iPhoto 4.0.1, an important bug fix update to the company's photo management program. Although Apple's release notes are, as usual, short on specifics, iPhoto 4.0.1 features improved performance, better thumbnail rendering, and numerous bug fixes that Apple claims improve stability. I've been able to confirm that the Trash album now reports its size, the Sepia command in the image editing window's contextual menu is no longer disabled, Originals folders are now burned to disc properly, and modifying film rolls no longer changes your overall sort order. Other bugs remain, such as the one that forgets to add "copy" to the name of edited photos you duplicate. The only new feature I found while checking the final draft of my iPhoto 4 Visual QuickStart Guide is that slideshows now play on the monitor containing the iPhoto window, assuming you have multiple monitors.
<http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/iphoto_readme.html>
The improved thumbnail rendering requires that iPhoto upgrade your thumbnails; it's a slow process that took an hour for my 6,100 photos. Short of that, iPhoto 4.0.1 has been more stable in my testing, although some users on Apple's discussion boards have reported problems with launching the application and with losing transitions in slideshows. The problems appear to be related to permissions within the iPhoto application bundle; the usual troubleshooting steps may help (repair permissions using Disk Utility, delete the com.apple.iphoto.plist file from your ~/Library/Preferences folder, reinstall iPhoto, and run DiskWarrior to fix directory problems). If those fail, try the user-posted fix at the first URL below. iPhoto 4.0.1 is a 4 MB download via Software Update; it's also available for independent download. [ACE]
<http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?14@71.8BMraVsOibP.0@.6890942e/39>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/iphoto.html>
TidBITS#726/12-Apr-04
Qualcomm has released Eudora 6.1, the latest version of their venerable email client. New in Eudora 6.1 is a toolbar-based Search Bar that enables you to search either within Eudora or in Google via your Web browser; you can also Control- or right-click a word and choose it from the contextual menu that appears to search for it in Google. Another new feature (though a more-limited version appeared in Eudora 6.0; see "Eudora 6.0 Slams Spam, Concentrates Content" in TidBITS-696_ for more on that release) is Transfer to Selection, which enables you to Control- or right-click a word in Eudora and choose a similarly named mailbox into which the message will be transferred. IMAP synchronization has been improved with the capability to synchronize specific IMAP mailboxes on mail checks and easier resynchronization of entire mail folders. Eudora 6.1 provides more control over content concentration, which it uses to hide quoted and other less relevant text appearing in the preview pane. Lastly, and perhaps the most welcome (if depressing) feature is the addition of Junk mail statistics to the Statistics window. It's harsh being shown that 61 percent of my mail is spam overall, and that the percentage is more like 75 to 78 percent for the day or week.
<http://www.eudora.com/email/>
<http://www.eudora.com/download/eudora/mac/6.1/Release_Notes.txt>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07342>
Eudora 6.1 is available in Paid mode for $50; Sponsored (with ads and no support) and Light (reduced features and no support) modes are free. If you've purchased or upgraded Eudora within the last 12 months, the upgrade is free; if you purchased or upgraded more than 12 months ago, but less than 24 months ago, the upgrade costs $40; and if you last paid for it more than 24 months ago, you have to pay the full $50 again. Eudora 6.1 is a 6 MB download for either Mac OS X or Mac OS 9. [ACE]
<http://www.eudora.com/download/>
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TidBITS#725/05-Apr-04
Apple posted two versions of Security Update 2004-04-05 for Mac OS X today. The update for Mac OS X 10.3.3 Panther replaces the Mail, OpenSSL, libxml2, and CUPS Printing components and is a 3.7 MB download. The update for Mac OS X 10.2.8 Jaguar includes only the CUPS Printing update, but also incorporates Security Update 2004-01-26 and is a 4.8 MB download. No other details were released; the updates are available from Software Update or as standalone downloads. [JLC]
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/securityupdate_2004-04-05_(10_3_3)
.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/securityupdate_2004-04-05_(10_2_8).html>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07525>
by Adam C. Engst <ace@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#725/05-Apr-04
Crackers, worms, viruses, zombies, trojans... it seems as though the promise of constant access and instantaneous communication through networking has been twisted in such a way that people are afraid in ways that few expected back in less-connected days. In large part because of co-authoring The Wireless Networking Starter Kit with Glenn Fleishman, many of the interviews I do end up working their way around to security, which I find somewhat depressing. For me, wireless networking is all about breaking down barriers - physical barriers - and I'm more interested in sharing connectivity than erecting virtual barriers.
Nonetheless, there are very real situations in which security - often serious security - is called for, and in trying to help people decide if they need it, I've come up with what I call the three L's of security: Likelihood, Liability, and Lost Opportunity. This article will help you think about security in general and wireless security in particular; to learn more about how to address wireless security concerns, Glenn and I wrote four chapters on the topic in The Wireless Networking Starter Kit, Second Edition, available in both paper and electronic form.
<http://wireless-starter-kit.com/>
The first aspect of security to consider is likelihood: how likely is that someone will violate your privacy, steal your belongings, or otherwise exploit you? For instance, when I was growing up in rural New York State in the early 1980s, my family lived on top of a hill in the middle of roughly nowhere. Our nearest neighbors were a mile away, the dirt road that went by our house seldom saw an unrecognized car, and the road wasn't even plowed past our house in the winter. As a result, I left the keys to my car (a rusty Dodge Colt that needed bits of mouse nest cleaned from its fuel filter on a regular basis) in the ignition when it was parked in the driveway. It was easier than bothering to bring the keys inside, and when I evaluated the likelihood that anyone would steal the car, I just couldn't see it happening.
Fast forward ten years to when Tonya and I were living in a populous suburb of Seattle. Our car was a shiny red Honda Civic, we barely knew the next-door neighbors, much less everyone on the street, and unknown vehicles zipped by day and night. We did not leave the keys in the car when it sat in our driveway; we locked the doors at all times, and we had a lock that connected the brake pedal to the steering wheel for when we parked in seedier neighborhoods in downtown Seattle. The change in location and situation affected our perception of the likelihood of someone stealing the car, and we responded in kind.
I like to use the car analogy because I think people understand it on a visceral level; a beater car in the country is of course much less likely to be stolen than a new car in the suburbs. But the lesson applies equally well to wireless networks. Your location is important, as is the type of data that passes across your network. If you live in a lightly populated area, and no one could easily come within range of your network without sitting in your driveway, you probably don't have much to worry about. Turning on WEP or WPA and dealing with the passwords is probably more trouble than it's worth. That's especially true if your network is just a standard home network that you use for browsing the Web, checking email, and moving files around. But if you live in an apartment building with neighbors who could pick up your connection, the likelihood of someone connecting to your network rises significantly, generating the question of whether you want to allow others to share your Internet connection or not. Even apartment dwellers aren't likely to have "interesting" (to a thief) data on their network, so there's little incentive for someone to do more than use the Internet connection.
The likelihood of attack increases significantly if you're running a business, since it's plausible that your network would carry sensitive information such as credit card numbers, business plans, and so on. Also, most businesses are located in areas or buildings where someone could easily sit and hack into your network without being noticed.
Think about the car analogy again. What was the liability if someone were to steal my rusty Dodge Colt? It was probably worth a few hundred dollars at the time, and although that amount of money meant more to me than it would later, it still didn't compare to the thousands of dollars embodied in the new Honda Civic. Again, with physical property, the liability of loss is fairly obvious. You might not think twice about leaving an old 3-speed bicycle on your front porch, but you'd be much less likely to leave a 21-speed racing bike out there without a strong lock.
Now transfer that kind of thinking to your wireless network. What is the realistic liability if someone were to record all the traffic that passed across your wireless network? For most home networks, the amount of network data that's at all sensitive is extremely low; perhaps a credit card number being sent to a unusual Web site that doesn't use SSL, maybe some financial data, possibly some bits that would be embarrassing if made public.
(It's worth noting that although you should also apply this consideration of likelihood, liability, and lost opportunity to the data on your hard disk, a wireless network is only one way someone could access your stored data. An always-on Internet connection could provide an avenue for attack, and physical theft would also give a burglar access to your files. Of course, if you're using Windows system, even with all the patches applied, firewalls, and anti-virus tools, you may need to take stronger measures than when using a Mac running Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X.)
Simply allowing someone else to use your Internet connection has a relatively low liability in most cases. However, you may think differently if you pay per byte, if you have a slow dialup connection that would be impacted by someone else's use (with high speed DSL and cable modem connections, you're unlikely to notice another user), or if you're concerned that allowing someone else to use your connection would be violating your ISP's terms of service in a way that was likely to result in you being disconnected.
Business are once again a different story. The likelihood of sensitive and confidential information passing through a wireless network is much higher, of course, and the liability of an outsider learning that information is significantly greater. If a business's customer data were extracted from a wireless network, it could involve a disastrous loss of reputation or even lawsuits. And if confidential business plans were learned by a competitor, the ramifications could be catastrophic.
This last security consideration was suggested by my friend Oliver Habicht, an IT director at Cornell University Library. Oliver pointed out, rightfully enough, that the opportunity cost of implementing and living with security measures also has to be factored into the equation. To return to the car analogy, you can buy car alarms and security systems, but they're expensive and a hassle to use on a regular basis. A car alarm would have been wasted on my elderly Dodge Colt, and it was overkill even for the Honda Civic. Had we owned a Ferrari, though, I would have considered a security system mandatory, and even with our Civic, if petty theft was common, the security system might have been worth it. Put another way, you can expend significant time and money to ensure a high level of security, but would your effort and expense have been better employed elsewhere?
With home wireless networks, the opportunity cost comes mostly in the form of troubleshooting irritating problems, which is more necessary and harder when security is on, and in the annoyance of dealing with passwords with new machines or when you have visitors. In a corporate environment, you have both the extra work of dealing with the security measures and the extra expense of authentication servers, VPN hardware, and so on. But since your data is so much more valuable in a business environment, the expenses are more easily justified... to a point (armed guards with attack dogs patrolling your parking lot may be an excessive reaction to the possibility of someone sitting in a car within range of your wireless network, for instance).
I hope I've made it clear that there are no cut-and-dried answers when it comes to security. It's up to you to determine the likelihood of someone breaking into your network and either using your Internet connection or eavesdropping on the data that flies by. Next, you must determine the severity of the problems that would ensue from someone using your bandwidth or using a network sniffer to record your data. Lastly, you need to figure out what the lost opportunity of different levels of security is: the higher the likelihood of attack and the higher the liability if your network were to be invaded, the more you're probably willing to spend and the more annoyance you're willing to endure. Only by seeing where your situation fits for likelihood, liability, and lost opportunity can you ascertain how much effort you should expend on security.
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Intros - Rich gives Kevin Hisel his 'official' title - 'Official Website Acquirer' otherwise known as the club's official web go-fer! Some hassles about Rich's mouse being sub-par... ??
Talk of the European Union's arbitration win over Microsoft in their suit over Windows Media Player being incorporated into the Windows OS. The monetary amount is in the range of several billion dollars (EU??). A member mentioned that one of the recent versions of Windows Media Player (WMP v9?) is being incorporating into the next DVD standards. So, some felt the EU complaints were negated. One point, MS has complaints with is the EU's insistence that MS take the WMP out of all Windows OS sold in the rest of the world as well.
Discussion of the possible results... Will MS stop leasing software in Europe? Will MS make a special edition of Windows that is stripped of WMP? Would MS really be willing to risk the loss of the market in Europe? Would the EU then sue them for 'over-charging'? (Pennsylvania is suing MS for over-charging.)
Microsoft did win a suit against 'Lindows" in Belgium and the Netherlands for copyright infringements, etc.
Rich asked if there was anything else 'breaking'. It is mentioned that Anderson's Dell laptop had recently broke and he was not that happy with Dell at the moment.
Talk of the monthly Great Midwest Computer Show coming up the following weekend. The show moves among several locations in the Chicago area, this time it is at Truman College. The entrance cost $7 (a website coupon gives $1 off) and it is supposed to be a good large venue for new and used equipment. Several members were planning to go and good deals were expected. Several other members asked the ones going to maybe pick up some stuff for them... please??? There is supposed to be one in Indianapolis every month as well.
Norris Hansell talked of his latest upgrades. Having hassles with his older versions of Eudora and Netscape, he upgraded both. Some of this was encouraged by club members and he thanked them for the friendly 'kick in the pants'. He also had several adventures. One with MIT's Student Download site - his new versions of Netscape and Eudora have all sorts of handy shortcuts related to the MIT/Boston area. He finds them interesting if not very useful. Another with a CITES Mac while hunting fonts. He wanted some fonts from some OSX install discs. He bought Adobe's Creative Suite just for the fonts... not for the software, for the fonts. It costs about $400, but has about $3,00 worth of fonts, according to Norris. Norris really loves fonts! But, he doesn't have an OSX system. So, off to the U of I he goes... He is pointed to a OSX machine and installs the software, finds the fonts, burns them on a CD and then un-installs the software. He walks away with his beloved fonts. Oh happy days!
Rich gets wistful about MIT and the early days of computing. He talks of the book 'Hackers' about the beginnings of computers. It is more about the people than the machines. It seems that they all got started because they wanted to control all the switches in their model train layouts. Other shenanigans ensue! Norris mentions the time some MIT students put gunite on the trolley rails on a certain bridge in Boston and welded the trolley to it's rails. Oh, those whacky kids...
Discussion of the AMD and INTEL chips price decreases. Some seem to think it is mostly because of the upcoming 64 bit chips. Talk of the temperatures the chips run at. Of over-clocking a 3 gig CPU to 5 gigs with the aid of liquid nitrogen. Talk of water-cooled computers. Talk of other computer mods with lots of neon and flat panel displays. Computer as light show.
Talked about 'Yoshi's Supreme Game Box'. It is a box that has almost every known game console built into one monster box. While it doesn't look as slick and glitzy as some of the other computer mods around, it does have everything you'd need to play just about any game. MS has gotten bent out of shape over him hacking up an X-box. While this is not illegal, it could be considered somewhat 'insulting'. Hacking the chips IS illegal in the states, though. A member mentioned someone they knew that had mounted a 80 gig hd in it. They had a gotten a deal from Blockbuster for renting as many games as they want a month for a fee. They were running back and forth to Blockbuster every few hours ripping the games to the hard drive and going back for more. (Personally, I can't see that there are that many games I would want to rip that would make the deal worth it.)
Rich starts a discussion of satellite dish services. A member has a new satellite service. Dish Network has a new 500 class Dual Receiver that allows interfacing with it through a variety of different video methods. But it allows pausing 'live' action and stepping through commercials. Each receiver can control separately about 100 hours of video. Discussion descended into minutia regarding satellite connections.
Question regarding satellite Internet. Possible to use standard routers? Direcway has a modem set-up that is terribly slow, but there is a newer DW600 modem - it has built-in DHCP and it connects to either routers or switches directly. No built-in router or firewall, the service has a built-in firewall, though.
The service costs $59.95 a month and you can hook up as many computers as you like. There is a cap on bandwidth. Upload speed is slow, so running a server is not feasible. It might not be big in the on-line gaming community. The worst part of it is that you can only contact Direcway through the 1-800 number and there is no 'local' rep. The fellow describing the service says that Direcway will set-up an installer for you, but he thinks they are all 'morons!' And the installers are licensed by the FCC and renters are not authorized to touch the dish. So you are 'stuck' with your installer, moron or not. The service is very reliable, though.
Web search and discussion of upload and download speeds. Talk of StarBand - not optimistic. The claim is that StarBand users spend more time down that up. Evidently Canada is good for trout and the Internet with Optimum Online performing at a meg up and 10 meg down. Supposedly Insight is going to introduce a new tiered service soon. Speeds seem to be going up, though. More discussion ensued. DSL is starting to wake up to cable modem speeds maybe we will get some real competition.
Discussion of running illegal servers on cable systems. Basically, don't do it unless you like being relegated to a 300 baud dial up modem and a rotary phone. They will hunt you down and ban you for life, according to one member.
Discussion of viruses. Talk of recent article about which server system is attacked more, Windows, Linux, Unix, or Mac. The article did not include home systems, only the BIG servers, and it covered assaults and successful attacks. It seems that Linux is the big winner. Part of this is also that many servers are being switched over to Linux systems.
Kevin Hisel wants to sell some 4x DVD-Rs for sale. They are 'likey-lookey' brand and they don't work in his machine. Discussion of DVD speeds and writing DVDs. Mark Z. decided to buy them.
Rich brings up an Ebay auction for a used Triton missile site in Washington state. Formerly owned by the Air Force. Reserve is 1.3 million. It includes 3 155' deep silos and control room with out buildings. It is built to survive 1 megaton blast within 3,000 ft. It has it's own 700' well and surrounding perimeter chain link fence. It is dry with a 360° view of your neighbors and located in a private, secluded location. The inner survivalist in all of us was yearning to be free! Suggestions for use included as a summer camp or adventure facility. And the seller is rated excellent on Ebay. We checked his other auctions - there were none, but we figured he is actually into teddy bears... ?
Product raffle - Zoo Tycoon ($30±) and Digital Image ($104±), both from Microsoft. Anthony Philipp gets Zoo Tycoon and Digital Image goes to Mark Zinzow.
We break for SIGs. Chaos raised it's ugly head...
reported by Edwin Hadley (elhadley@life.uiuc.edu)
I showed Emil and ? a small application called microSynth <http://homepage.mac.com/seishu/ssworks/microSynth.html>, a cheap software synthesizer I bought for $40. It is made by S's Work. It uses QuickTime Music Synthesizer for standard sounds, but also loads SoundFont2 and DLS sound files. I found it while looking around the Apple 'Built for the Mac' site. I personally like the SFX voices and have used them on my radio show, InComing Wounded, fairly often. It is a downloadable application that is a time limited demo. It is 3.6 mb when installed.
What you see when you start it up is a keyboard synth. It is a full width keyboard scaled down to fit your screen. You also have a 'Transport' window a set of play/stop/record buttons, a volume slider, 16 channel buttons. And you have some octave buttons as the computer keyboard does not have enough keys to get 7 plus octaves on it. Press the octave buttons and the computer keyboard mapping pops up or down an octave. You can play the keyboard by moving the mouse cursor over the screen keys or use the computer keyboard. Or you can use an external midi keyboard attached via midi interface. And you can remap the computer keyboard if you would like rearrange sounds. The 'Transport' area is used for for composing songs or sounds.
The only problem I have found with it so far is that in the pull down list of voices samples many are duplicates or there is a bug loading the various different voices. I am still in the process of investigating the alternate sound files.
I also showed a little of MAX/MSP a mid-range but very powerful sound manipulation and synthesis applications from Cycling '74 <http://www.cycling74.com/index.html>. MAX is a virtual machine building application. You build processors and generators and connect them via virtual cables. The software does not rely on hardware to operate and so it can run on older systems than would be thought possible, like early OS 8. But, because it relies on the processor to do the majority of the work, it can be very slow on slow machines. But I can't do as good of a job describing the software as the 'Getting Started' manual can...
- - - - - - - - - - -
What is Max?
"Max is a graphical music programming environment for people who have hit the limits of the usual sequencer and voicing programs for MIDI equipment." - Miller Puckette, Max reference manual, 1988
Max was conceived in 1986 as a project for producing interactive music at IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique) in Paris. The original author was Miller Puckette. Max became a commercial product from Opcode Systems in 1991 with further development by Puckette and David Zicarelli. Cycling '74 became the publisher of Max in 2000.
Max lets you control your equipment in any way you want. You can create applications for composing music, improvising music, providing accompaniment as you play, sending commands to synthesizers, modifying synthesizer patches - anything you can imagine doing with a computer and MIDI. Because Max turns all control information into a simple stream of numbers, you can 'patch' anything to anything else.
Max provides you with a high level, graphical programming language that takes full advantage of the Macintosh's graphic capabilities and icon-based user interface. Programs are 'written' using graphical objects rather than text. This reduces the need to learn a lot of arcane commands and syntax, and it provides a clear and intuitive way to write programs simply by connecting objects to each other.
Max takes care of all the low level programming tasks for you. It will trigger events at any arbitrary time in the future, interface to MIDI and other communication protocols, and perform useful logical operations.
Applications made with Max run in real time. Because of its speed, Max enables you to write programs that generate music instantly based on what you play, or that modify your performance as you play.
Max is based on the C programming language. Max provides a simple yet versatile, high level, graphical language which is itself written in C, but will be easy to use for those familiar with almost any other programming language, or even for those who have never programmed before. For those who are fluent in the C language, however, Max can be combined with C code that you write. So, if there's something you need to do that Max can't do - and Max can do a lot - you can write your own Max objects in C."
- - - - - - - - - - -
Cycling '74 is offering Max at about $300. Both MAX and MSP are now offered for Windows and Unix platforms. They come as downloads with a 30 day trial period, then you need a registration phrase.
MSP stands for Maximum Signal Processing. It is a software sound manipulation application. You are supposed to be able to play CDs backwards with it and put real-time filters, etc. on it at the same time. One of the sample MSP 'machines' I have had fun playing with can turn a slow ballad into a hopping waltz with the manipulation of several controls - think Frank Zappa's Sofa 2 in a quick 3/2 time with the chipmunks doing vocals! MSP goes for about $300. But, if you buy MAX & MSP together it will only cost you about $500.
Both of these applications are far beyond me at this point. They are very powerful and very dense, and I am a slow learner. I have a 30 day full capability demo copy and am slowly becoming familiar with the application. (I have not built any machines at this point.) Unless I was to work the 30 days full time, I would only be able to scratch the surface of these applications. Fortunately, the download from Cycling '74 includes several sample MAX/MSP machines which have given me an inkling of what it can do. There is extensive documentation available for those that wish to really get into the guts of the application. The authors of the software seem to invite collaboration with users. There is so much documentation it hurts my head!!
Besides the rather steep price and learning curve, the only problems with the application I can see is that it makes me lust for a faster laptop that I can not afford!!!
And there were questions regarding a Blue & White G3 that has been modified with a G4 processor (some flashing of EPROMs has been involved). It seems to have cooked somehow and won't start. It just gives a blank grey screen. And when he tries to start it from CD the same thing happens. Emil and I were the only ones in the SIG other than the fellow who owns the G3 and this is way out of our league, so we couldn't really help. We both tend to think that the processor and/or the motherboard have seen the end of their days, but we really don't know. I did suggest that he go check out Low End Mac <lowendmac.com> as they seem to be into keeping old Macs up and running, modifying older Macs and otherwise cheating 'O. B. Solete', the god of computer death. They have the 'Quad-list' and 'G-List' maillists that discusses all sorts of problems and questions regarding Quadra and G processor Macs. One segment of the list seems to be focused almost entirely on modifying the first generation G3 machines with particular focus on G4 upgrades and running OSX in hostile environments (early G3s and older Quadras). Other aspects of discussion are on how to incorporate Firewire and USB into older Macs, and finding old software, drivers, etc., etc., etc.
As usual with some of these lists, there are some folks who know more info than I could ever hope to gather in one place. But some of them - some of the best - are more than a little grumpy and do not suffer ignorance lightly. Pray to your gods that you never ask the question more than twice - don't even think about more than 3 times unless you have asbestos underwear and/or don't mind being banned from the list. One should also learn when to leave a subject well enough alone. Like which Mac OS is best! Opinions vary and machine variables abound, so there is no easy answer. And after three weeks of discussion with no solid consensus, tempers flair and people are banned. Web-based social interaction can be hazardous!
We closed down the shop at this point and I went off to kill the Covenant and the Flood and otherwise save man kind!!
See you next month!
ToC
reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)
The March meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday,
March 23, 2004, at 7PM, at Kevin Hisel's house. (For anyone wishing to
attend - which is encouraged, by the way - the address and phone number
are both in the book). Present at the meeting were: Richard Rollins, Rich
Hall, Kevin Hopkins, Kevin Hisel, and Emil Cobb.
Rich Hall: Rich gave the club's Income/Expense Report. We had one member renew at the last meeting.
Tom Purl: Sorry couldn't make the meeting last week. Will have free software and a presentation for next month. Richard wanted to see how to set up a server. Rob Adams talked about doing a Linux install fest. Later, they would like to do one for the community, perhaps on a Saturday, which would require financial backing from the club for an additional room rent, etc.
There was a discussion of the Mepis Linux distribution. Richard Rollins said he loved it; it had come in real handy for one of his clients.
Kevin Hopkins: Kevin apologized for the lateness of the web version of the February newsletter. Due to an extreme family health problem, free time has become difficult to come by.
Kevin Hisel: Really enjoyed the meeting, especially Ed Serbe's demonstration of Microsoft's Flight Simulator. It was a very good presentation.
There was a discussion of DVD drives. Kevin's interested in a dual layer burner.
Kevin said he wished Mike Latinovich would surface again.
Kevin requested input for the Linux and Mac pages on the club's web site.
Emil Cobb: Emil didn't have any new business to bring up.
Emil reported that Ed Hadley had shown some sound programs during the Mac SIG at the last meeting. This prompted Richard Rollins to talk a little about Apple's program "Garage Band."
Richard Rollins: Richard felt we had a good first half of the meeting. He enjoyed the Flight Simulator demo. He said he was sorry he fell asleep at one point, but his work load has been crushing lately. He really like the Wright Flyer.
Next month's PC SIG will more than likely be an open forum.
There was a discussion of backing up systems and hard drives.
There was a discussion concerning the continuing topic of how to best set up the meeting room.
ToC
Meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the First Baptist Church of Champaign in Savoy. The FBC-CS is located at 1602 N. Prospect Avenue in Savoy, on the NE corner of Burwash and Prospect. To get to the the First Baptist Church from Champaign or Urbana, take Prospect Avenue south. Setting the trip meter in your car to zero at the corner of Kirby/Florida and Prospect in Champaign (Marathon station on the SW corner), you only go 1.6 miles south. Windsor will be at the one mile mark. The Savoy village sign (on the right) will be at the 1.4 mile mark. Burwash is at the 1.6 mile mark. The Windsor of Savoy retirement community is just to the south; Burwash Park is to the east. Turn east (left) on Burwash. The FBC-CS parking lot entrance is on the north (left) side of Burwash. Enter by the double doors at the eastern end of the building's south side. A map can be found on the CUCUG website at http://www.cucug.org/meeting.html. The First Baptist Church of Champaign is also on the web at http://www.fbc-cs.org .
Membership dues for individuals are $20 annually; prorated to $10 at mid year.
Our monthly newsletter, the Status Register, is delivered by email. All recent editions are available on our WWW site. To initiate a user group exchange, just send us your newsletter or contact our editor via email. As a matter of CUCUG policy, an exchange partner will be dropped after three months of no contact.
For further information, please attend the next meeting as our guest, or contact one of our officers (all at area code 217):
President/WinSIG: Richard Rollins 469-2616 Vice-Pres/MacSIG: Emil Cobb 398-0149 e-cobb@uiuc.edu Secretary/Editor: Kevin Hopkins 356-5026 kh2@uiuc.edu Treasurer: Richard Hall 344-8687 rjhall1@uiuc.edu Corp.Agent/Web: Kevin Hisel 406-948-1999 Linux SIG: Tom Purl 390-6078 tompurl2000@yahoo.com
Visit our web site at http://www.cucug.org/, or join in our online forums at http://www.cucug.org/starship/index.php .