News Common PC Mac Amiga CUCUG
Due to a scheduling conflict with the meeting room, the next CUCUG meetingwill be held on fourth Thursday of the month: Thursday, July 22nd, at 7:00pm, at the First Baptist Church of Champaign in Savoy. The Linux SIGconvenes, of course, 45 minutes earlier, at 6:15 pm. Directions to theFBC-CS are at the end of this newsletter.
The July 22 gathering will be one of our split SIG meetings. The LinuxSIG will have Rodger Bigler showing Win4Lin, a Windows emulator for Linux.The Macintosh and PC SIGs are open for anything anyone wants to bring in.
It's possible that the cat just might drag in a special guest for this month's meeting.
ToCWe'd like to welcome the newest members of our group, joining us in thelast month: Richard Bronson (Linux PC).
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.
ToCMediaPost's MediaDailyNews, Thursday, Jun 24, 2004
URL: http://www.mediapost.com/PrintFriend.cfm?articleId=256751
America Online late Wednesday acknowledged that a former employee stole alist of AOL screen names in 2003 and sold it to spammers. The announcementcomes amid a series of initiatives deployed by the Dulles, VA-based companyin the ongoing battle against spam. U.S. investigators later verified thearrest in a Reuters news report. According to the report, Jason Smathers ofHarpers Ferry, W. Va., was charged with stealing a list of 92 million AOLcustomer screen names and selling them to Internet marketer Sean Dunaway ofLas Vegas, according to David Kelley, the U.S. attorney for the SouthernDistrict of New York. An AOL spokesman said Smathers has been fired fromthe company.
"AOL has uncovered no information indicating that this theft involvedmember credit card or password information stored by AOL," an AOL spokesmansaid in a prepared statement. "AOL rapidly brought this information to theattention of federal law enforcement, and this morning, the AOL employeewas arrested and charged with criminal activity relating to the theft ofthese screen names."
"We deeply regret what has taken place and are thoroughly reviewing andstrengthening our internal procedures as a result of this investigation andarrest," the spokesman said.
ToCThu Jun 24, 2004 02:31 PM ET
URL: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=5507878
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court refused on Thursday to allowloosened federal media rules on media ownership to take effect, dealing ablow to large media companies like News Corp. that are hoping to expand.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said the new rules wouldnot take effect until the Federal Communications Commission betterexplained how it came up with them.
"The Commission has not sufficiently justified its particular chosennumerical limits for local television ownership, local radio ownership, andcross-ownership of media within local markets," the court's 218-pageopinion said.
The FCC last year lifted a ban on a company owning both a newspaper andtelevision stations or radio outlets in a single market. It also agreed inmany cases to allow a company to own two television stations in a singlemarket.
The FCC said it eased the rules to help broadcasters compete against paytelevision services. But opponents fear the rules would only allow mediaconglomerates like Tribune Co. and News Corp. to grow even bigger to thedetriment of local news reporting and diverse viewpoints.
Opponents cheered the ruling.
"Clearly, the court found that the FCC's previous studies were inadequateand lacked credibility," Democratic FCC commissioner Michael Copps said ina statement.
Andrew Schwartzman, a lawyer for Prometheus Radio Project who filed thelawsuit, said the court had ordered the FCC to "take the deregulatory thumboff of the scale."
"It looks like the court agreed with us that preserving democracy is moreimportant than helping big companies grow bigger," Schwartzman said.
ToCBy Online Staff
July 1, 2004
URL: http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/01/1088488080022.html
The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has warnedusers to stop using Microsoft Internet Explorer after a bug which Microsofthad previously claimed to have fixed has resurfaced.
"Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) does not adequately validate the securitycontext of a frame that has been redirected by a web server. An attackercould exploit this vulnerability to evaluate script in different securitydomains. By causing script to be evaluated in the Local Machine Zone, theattacker could execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the userrunning IE," it says.
So far hackers have used this flaw to launch pop-up windows fromcompromised advertising banners hosted on at least 50 financialinstitutions websites. By attacking the advertisers websites and causingthem to launch these pop-ups, hackers have been able to install key loggingprograms on end users machines and capture vital key strokes used by endusers to log into their financial services sites. These key strokes havethen been sent back to the criminals involved in these attacks, to do whatthey wish with them.
Following a malware attack last week which targeted a known flaw in IE, theUS-CERT recommended using alternative browsers. Microsoft meanwhile ishurriedly trying to increase IE's security with the Windows XP Service Pack 2.
"It is possible to reduce exposure to these vulnerabilities by using adifferent web browser, especially when browsing untrusted sites," US-CERThas advised.
This warning by the US government could not have come at a worst time forMicrosoft chairman Bill Gates as he travels through China, Malaysia andAustralia in a bid to consolidate the company's presence in thesecountries.
Gartner Sees More Attacks
Advising users to protect their servers and computers right away, researchfirm Gartner has found out that so-called zero-day attacks - malicious-codeattacks that exploit vulnerabilities for which patches are not available -represent fewer than 1 percent of all attacks. Yet because fixes are notyet available, they can be among the most damaging of all attacks.
The firm has sent out a list of recommendations to avoid an attack:
It has also stated that enterprises using the Mozilla (Netscape) and Operabrowsers need not take these actions.
ToCby Mindi McDowell
URL: http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-012.html
Browsing Safely: Understanding Active Content and Cookies
Many people browse the Internet without much thought to what is happeningbehind the scenes. Active content and cookies are common elements that maypose hidden risks when viewed in a browser or email client.
What is active content?
To increase functionality or add design embellishments, web sites oftenrely on scripts that execute programs within the web browser. This activecontent can be used to create "splash pages" or options like drop-downmenus. Unfortunately, these scripts are often a way for attackers todownload or execute malicious code on a user's computer.
JavaScript and other forms of active content are not always dangerous, butthey are common tools for attackers. You can prevent active content fromrunning in most browsers, but realize that the added security may limitfunctionality and break features of some sites you visit. Before clickingon a link to a web site that you are not familiar with or do not trust,take the precaution of disabling active content.
These same risks may also apply to the email program you use. Many emailclients use the same programs as web browsers to display HTML, sovulnerabilities that affect active content like JavaScript and ActiveXoften apply to email. Viewing messages as plain text may resolve thisproblem.
What are cookies?
When you browse the Internet, information about your computer may becollected and stored. This information might be general information aboutyour computer (such as IP address, the domain you used to connect (e.g.,.edu, .com, .net), and the type of browser you used). It might also be morespecific information about your browsing habits (such as the last time youvisited a particular web site or your personal preferences for viewing thatsite).
Cookies can be saved for varying lengths of time:
To increase your level of security, consider adjusting your privacy andsecurity settings to block or limit cookies in your web browser. To makesure that other sites are not collecting personal information about youwithout your knowledge, choose to only allow cookies for the web site youare visiting; block or limit cookies from a third-party. If you are using apublic computer, you should make sure that cookies are disabled to preventother people from accessing or using your personal information.
ToCPaul Thurrott
http://www.wininformant.com/
The high-speed follow-up to Wi-Fi, the 802.11b wireless standard, coulddebut as soon as early 2005 if Intel and Proxim can deliver on their newplan. According to the companies, they'll work together to ship certifiedWiMAX (802.16) wireless broadband equipment by early next year. WiMAXbreaks down into two categories: 802.16a for fixed wireless broadband and802.16e for mobile wireless. Compared with today's Wi-Fi products, WiMAXis a significant development, with a range of 25 miles to 30 miles,compared with Wi-Fi's several hundred feet. Also, WiMAX is faster, with anaverage bandwidth of 70Mbps and peak rates as fast as 268Mbps. I wonderwhether the advent of WiMAX means I'll soon be accessing unprotected homewireless networks named "linksys" in the next state instead of just nextdoor.
And speaking of the Mozilla Foundation, this week has been a big one forthe organization, which issued three major software releases, includingFirefox 0.9, its standalone Web browser; Thunderbird 0.7, its standaloneemail client; and, most recently, Mozilla 1.7, its integrated Web browsersuite. All three products are fairly high quality, and although Igenerally use Firefox and Thunderbird full time, I should report that I'vehad several problems with Thunderbird 0.7, so proceed with caution. Youcan download all three releases from the Mozilla Web site.
A Microsoft representative contacted me yesterday to confirm that thefinal release of XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), the long-awaited XP securityupgrade, will likely ship in late July or early August. Furthermore,Tablet PC users who are interested in getting the next version of XPTablet PC Edition should download the current XP SP2 Release Candidate 2(RC2) build because the release includes the final shipping version of XPTablet PC Edition 2005. XP SP2 also includes several other productupdates, such as XP Media Center Edition (XP MCE) 2004 (for existing XPMCE users only), Windows Update 5, Windows Media Player (WMP) Series, andDirectX 9.0c.
Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates said this weekthat software piracy is a bigger competitor than open-source software(OSS), a biting comment that nonetheless rings true. "You know what mytoughest competitor is?" Gates rhetorically asked reporters in Australiathis week. "It's pirated software. If you really look around, you'll findmore pirated Windows than you'll find open-source software--way more."Expect this comment to generate some grumbling from the open-source camp.
This weekend Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gatessaid that his company is working to reduce the amount of time between thediscovery of software vulnerabilities and the release of patches. But thekey to this plan is in users' hands: They must turn on Windows' AutomaticUpdates feature to get the benefits of Microsoft's security-patch work."We guarantee that the average time to fix will continue to come down,"Gates said. "The thing we have to do is not only get these patches donevery quickly, we also have to convince people to turn on [AutomaticUpdates]." Good idea. I recommend that Windows users immediately turn onthe feature.
This week, Microsoft representatives revealed that the company has"reconstituted" its moribund IE team to work on the new IE release thatMicrosoft will include in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and that theteam is now actively looking at the feature set for an upcoming rev of theWeb browser that's hardly ever updated. Amen to that news. "At this stagethere isn't much more to add other than to reiterate the point that the IEteam does exist and does care," Dave Massy, who recently moved from theLonghorn team to head up development of future IE releases, said. "I'vereally enjoyed working on Longhorn as a technical evangelist and remainvery, very excited by the capabilities that Avalon and Longhorn will bringbut the time was right for me to return to work on a product team."Frankly, Microsoft has a lot of work to do; IE is buggy, insecure, and oneof the most obvious attack vectors for people who want to compromiseWindows. My advice? Use Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, or Opera instead of IE.
Microsoft has released a "configuration change" for Windows Server 2003,Windows XP, and Windows 2000 that improves system resiliency against theDownload.Ject electronic attack, which caused panic attacks among securityconsultants and IT administrators last week. The company will post thechanges to Microsoft Windows Update later today and will release themthrough Automatic Updates. The changes are also available for directdownload from the Microsoft Web site.
On the other hand, maybe IE isn't the only hackalicious Web browser outthere. In the wake of the Mozilla Foundation's obvious and deservedcackling over the problems with IE, that organization's products werefound to have a security flaw of their own. This is a good news/bad newsthing, however. In the good news department, the Mozilla folks fixed thebug--which afflicts the Mozilla browser suite, Firefox, and theThunderbird email application--extremely quickly, and you can now downloada patch, or a new version of each product that includes the fix (seeMozilla.org for details). The bad news is that it's now clear thatMozilla, like Mac OS X and other untested products, is simply benefitingfrom the fact that so few people use their products. If usage increases,it's pretty clear that Mozilla will suffer many other attacks, and it'sunclear at this point how the product will far. In any event, I stillrecommend Mozilla Firefox, though this week's vulnerability is a soberingreminder of the realities of the PC world today.
Microsoft has made a lot of noise about its search plans for Longhorn andMSN, but this week Microsoft group vice president Jeff Raikes revealedthat improved search will also be an integral part of the next MicrosoftOffice version, currently codenamed Office 12. This makes a certain amountof sense: For many users, Office is the conduit through which most of thedocuments on their system are created. However, it's still unclear howOffice will use this technology, which Raikes says is coming out ofMicrosoft Research.
Unaccompanied by a lot of fanfare, MSN Hotmail recently began using a McAfeeantivirus solution to scan all incoming and outgoing email for viruses. Thismeans that Hotmail-generated and -received email will be a lot less dangerousthan it used to be, which is good news. Emails found to be delivering malwarewill be cleaned, Microsoft says. The previously announced Hotmail storageupgrade to 1GB is still pending, however.
Strong PC sales in the second quarter are causing researchers at IDC andGartner to forecast a strong 2004, with growth hitting double digits. Major PCmakers shipped 42.8 million PCs in the second quarter, a 13.3 percent gain overthe same quarter last year. Dell retained its number one spot for the quarter,followed by HP, IBM, Fujitsu, and Acer.
ToCThe DVD Forum steering committee recently approved the initialspecification for High-Definition DVD (HD-DVD), a next-generation DVDstandard. According to the specification, HD-DVD devices will have tosupport VC-9, the basis for Windows Media Video (WMV) 9, Microsoft's mostrecent video codec. HD-DVD will also support the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC(H.264) formats, according to the DVD Forum. The decision is a coup forthe software giant, which is trying to establish its multimedia formats asindustry standards.
HD-DVD isn't the only high-resolution, next-generation DVD format,however. A competing group will offer devices based on a technology calledBlu-ray. But HD-DVD offers a number of advantages over Blu-ray, not theleast of which is HD-DVD's backward-compatibility with today's DVDs. As aresult, tomorrow's HD-DVD devices will play DVDs as well as HD-DVDs.
Thanks to VC-9's and WMV's compression capabilities, HD-DVDs will be ableto play back more than 130 minutes of HD video encoded at 15Mbps. Thiscapability played a major role in the inclusion of Microsoft's technologyin the specification because at 23GB Blu-ray supports more capacity, and asecond-generation 50GB Blu-ray standard is due soon.
ToCThe long-stagnant Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) might command about 95percent of the Web browser market but a recent spate of securityvulnerabilities seems to be finally helping IE's competitors make someinroads into the market. Even the usually staid United States ComputerEmergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has taken the unusual step of advisingusers to switch to a different browser because of IE's many attacks. Theresult has been a bonanza for safer browser alternatives such as Mozillaand Opera.
The Mozilla Foundation reports that daily downloads of its Mozilla browsersuite and Firefox Web browser have doubled since US-CERT's recommendation;on the day of the US-CERT announcement, the foundation says that usersdownloaded the products more than 200,000 times. "More people seem to havereached their threshold level of frustration dealing with problems with IEand Windows and have found the Mozilla software a good solution to solvingthose problems," Chris Hofmann, The Mozilla Foundation's director ofengineering, said. "US-CERT's recommendation is just a reflection of thetrend we have seen for quite some time."
Experts point to several obvious problems with IE. First, the browser isso widely used that it's a natural attack point. Second, IE is integrateddirectly into the Windows OS, a curious and ultimately damaging decisionthat made a previously secure Windows NT-based system vulnerable to newtypes of attacks. Third, IE technologies such as ActiveX have proven to behighly insecure, and many IE attacks exploit ActiveX-relatedvulnerabilities. Microsoft will address the latter concern in Windows XPService Pack 2 (SP2) but the company has no plans to provide thisfunctionality in other Windows versions or to completely decouple thebrowser from its OSs.
The Mozilla Foundation and Opera Software say that they have solutions forthe first problem. If the current download rates continue, the browseralternatives might soon be nibbling away at IE's massive market share. Ifthat happens, Web designers will have to take those browsers into accountmore often when they design Web sites. And because Mozilla and Operaadhere more closely to Web standards than IE does, that situation couldeventually lead to dramatic changes on the Web in general. Perhaps futureIE versions would also be more standards-compliant as a result, whichwould make the process of developing Web sites much easier becausedevelopers could simply target one standard. Today, IE's market sharecauses Web developers to target IE's nonstandard technical idiosyncrasiesfirst.
ToCTuesday, June 29, 2004 Posted: 8:48 AM EDT (1248 GMT)
URL: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/06/29/apple.osx.ap/index.html
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Apple Computer Inc. chief executive SteveJobs says the 2005 launch of the next Mac OS X operating system will havefeatures "way ahead" of Microsoft Corp.'s next Windows release due out in2006.
"It's going to drive the copycats crazy," Jobs said Monday before anenthusiastic audience at the opening keynote of Apple's WorldwideDevelopers Conference at San Francisco's Moscone Center.
Code-named "Tiger," the upgrade will be the fifth version of Mac OS X inits four-year history.
Among 150 planned new features will be an advanced new searching toolcalled "Spotlight" that can instantly search for keywords across differenttypes of files in the machine -- whether they're in an e-mail, image, ortext document.
Finding data on a single, bulging desktop often is more challenging thanusing Google to search billions of Web sites. That won't be the caseanymore with "Spotlight," Jobs said, demonstrating how typing the words"Half Dome" into his computer instantly found the right information, even adigital map of Yosemite National Park with the famous mountain marked.
Microsoft's impending "Longhorn" Windows release also will include a moresophisticated searching method.
Other highlighted "Tiger" features included support for multipleparticipants in the iChat video-conferencing program; a new version of theSafari browser that can generate a news feedlike interface for Web sites;support for the next-generation video-compression standard known as H.264;and a "Dashboard" feature that allows users to pull up a custom collectionof tools, say, the calculator, iTunes control panel, and a to-do list --all with one keyboard tap.
The new version will be available in the first half of 2005 at a suggestedretail price of $129.
Jobs also unveiled a new design of widescreen displays for its Apple Cinemaline, including a 30" version, the largest high resolution display in themarket.
Unlike its predecessor, the aluminum-encased flat-panel monitor, which willalso come in 20- and 23-inch versions, are compatible with Windows PCmachines as well as Macintosh computers.
The 30-inch display will be available in August for $3,299. It requires aseparate purchase and installation of a $599 Nvidia Corp. graphics card.The 20-inch and 23-inch models will be available in July for $1,299 and$1,999, respectively.
ToCby Jeff Carlson <jeffc@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#735/28-Jun-04
The curious thing about computers is that no matter how beautifully they'redesigned, you're always looking at the screen. At this year's WorldwideDevelopers Conference (WWDC), Apple improved the view by announcing threenew Apple Cinema Displays: updated 20-inch and 23-inch sizes, as well as ahuge 30-inch model. For the benefit of the other people you work with, eachdisplay sports a stylish new aluminum case design that complements Apple'sPowerBooks and Power Mac G5 computers.
<http://www.apple.com/displays/>
The 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display supports resolutions up to 2560 by 1600pixels, or approximately 4 million pixels overall. It features a brightnesslevel of 270 cd/m2 (candela per square meter) and a contrast ratio of400:1. Due to the increased pixel count, the 30-inch display will work onlywith a Power Mac G5 equipped with an Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL graphicscard; that card will be available in August as a build-to-order option fornew Power Mac G5 purchases, or as a $600 kit for existing Power Mac G5owners. The card offers dual DVI connections in parallel, and it will alsosupport the use of two 30-inch displays. The 30-inch Cinema Display costs$3,300, and will be available in August 2004.
<http://www.apple.com/displays/digital.html>
The 20-inch and 23-inch models may appear to be Apple's existing displaysin different cases, but the new screens add more than just aluminum. The20-inch Cinema Display, priced at $1,300, still sports up to 1680 by 1050pixels, but now has a brightness of 250 cd/m2 compared to 230 cd/m2 and acontrast ratio of 400:1 instead of 350:1. Similarly, the $2,000 23-inchCinema HD Display handles up to 1920 by 1200 pixels, but features the same270 cd/m2 brightness (up from 200 cd/m2) and 400:1 contrast ratio (up from350:1) as the 30-inch Cinema HD Display. Both displays will ship nextmonth.
<http://www.apple.com/displays/specs.html>
The new Cinema Displays include two self-powered USB 2.0 ports, twoFireWire 400 ports, a power button, brightness buttons, and a Kensingtonsecurity slot. Apple is also introducing a magnetic iSight mount that willbe included with new iSight cameras or available in a separate iSightAccessory Kit in the next few months, as well as a Cinema Display VESA(Video Electronics Standards Association) Mount Adapter Kit for connectinga display to a third-party ergonomic mount.
The displays also abandon Apple's proprietary ADC (Apple Direct Connection)connector found in previous displays, in favor of the more common DVI(Direct Video Input) connection. ADC was an Apple favorite because itreduced cable clutter and eliminated the need for a power supply by routingpower from the computer to the monitor. The new displays also feature asingle cable exiting the display, though it splits off into power,graphics, USB 2.0, and FireWire 400 connectors; the display's powerpresumably comes from an external power brick. According to Apple, the20-inch and 23-inch models will work with existing Power Mac and PowerBookmodels. These two displays will also work with "Windows-based PCscontaining graphics cards that support DVI ports with full single linkdigital bandwidth and VESA DDC standard for plug and play setup," accordingto the specifications at Apple's Web site; the 30-inch model will only workwith a Power Mac G5 and Nvidia G3Force 6800 Ultra DDL card. As with theiPod, this hardware expansion out of the Mac bubble can only improveApple's sales to the large Windows market.
<http://www.apple.com/displays/specs.html>
ToCby Adam C. Engst <ace@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#735/28-Jun-04
Today's keynote from Steve Jobs at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference(WWDC) in San Francisco dished out the promised preview of Mac OS X 10.4Tiger and its bundled applications. In the keynote, Jobs noted that over 50percent of the installed base of Macs are now using Mac OS X, which amountsto 12 million users. That's up from the claim of 7 million users a year agoat WWDC, and although I'm not quite sure what to make of that 12 millionnumber, it's not far from the 13.75 million Macs Apple sold from 2000through 2003 (judging from the company's SEC 10-K filings). Nonetheless,Tiger will be Mac OS X's fifth major release since the operating system'sintroduction in 2000, and there's no question that Apple has madesignificant changes over that time.
<http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/>
You won't see Tiger this year though, since Apple is committing only to thefirst half of 2005 as a ship date. That could mean as early as January 2005(expect to see a big preview at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, though Iwould be shocked to see Tiger ship then) or as late as June 2005. My moneyis on sometime in between, partly because it's the safest bet and partlybecause I believe Apple would want to use WWDC next year to preview what'scoming rather than recap what just shipped. But software schedules arenotoriously difficult to predict, particularly that far out, andparticularly for an operating system, so there's no telling. The cost willonce again be $130.
As with Panther, Apple is again touting 150 new features, although a feware more significant than others. Like everyone else, I'm seeing this stufffor the first time, so rather than attempt to repeat all the details here,I'll restrict myself to a short description of (and commentary about) eachmajor new feature, along with a pointer to Apple's Web site, which youshould read for details.
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jun/28tiger.html>
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/>
Spotlight
With Spotlight, Apple aims to make it significantly easier to find dataalready on your hard disk. Spotlight won't just search filenames andcontent, as Mac OS X can do now; it will also be able to gather and searchthrough metadata, much as iTunes and iPhoto can do with Smart Playlists andSmart Albums. Spotlight will power additional smarts: Smart Folders in theFinder (which could let you overlay different organizational structures ontop of the basic hierarchical file system we have now), Smart Mailboxes inMail (letting you group the same set of messages in different ways), andSmart Groups in Address Book.
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/spotlight.html>
It's good to see Apple acknowledging the need for more access to metadataabout files and other data objects in the system, since as the amount ofdata we all accumulate increases, the more difficult it becomes to manage.Apple's metadata search engine will be able to extract some metadata fromfiles automatically, and developers will be able to add their own metadataas well, making it possible to extend Spotlight's capabilities easily.
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/searchtechnology.html>
iChat AV for Tiger
Immediately after iChat AV showed off audio and video chats, users startedasking if they could include multiple people in an audio or video chat.Right now the answer is no, but that will change once Tiger ships.Multi-party audio chats will be limited to 10 participants; multi-partyvideo chats to 3. As you would expect, the interface for iChat AV for Tigeris elegant, with a multi-party video chat showing each person an almostthree-dimensional display, complete with subtle reflections on the "floor"in front of each person's picture. Multi-party audio chats lack the whizzygraphics, but add helpful sound-level meters, making it easy to see who istalking, even if you don't recognize voices. That's a feature I'd love tohave on normal conference calls.
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/ichat.html>
Apple also claims improved performance and picture quality, and while thosewill be welcome, I also hope to see reliability enhancements; the mainreason I don't use audio and video chats more often is that at least someof the time it turns into a troubleshooting session via normal text chatfor the first five minutes.
Safari RSS
Although Apple's Safari RSS page is overenthusiastic about how RSS is a"new" technology, when in fact RSS has been around for years, it's still amajor addition for Safari. RSS is a way of using HTTP to publishinformation, usually article headlines and summaries, though full articlesare also possible, and in fact, you can read TidBITS Talk via RSS bygetting the URL from the XML button on our Web Crossing version. You readRSS feeds using special programs like Ranchero Software's NetNewsWire. RSSsupport in Safari won't be unique; Opera 7 and the public beta of OmniWeb 5both offer RSS features already, so it will remain to be seen how Safari'sRSS support will stack up.
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/safari.html>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/>
<http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/>
<http://www.opera.com/>
<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/5/>
Other useful features in Safari RSS will include identity protection whenusing public Macs, the capability to save Web pages in an archive formatand to email them directly, and to search your bookmarks. My take is thatSafari RSS will be a nice improvement on Safari, but won't compete with themore full-featured browsers like OmniWeb and Opera.
Dashboard
Apple has hung signs in the lobby at WWDC tweaking Microsoft's operatingsystem group for the far-in-the- future Longhorn (the next major release ofWindows), including "Redmond, start your photocopiers!" That phrase hascome home to roost with Dashboard, which appears to be a direct knockoff ofKonfabulator from Arlo Rose and Perry Clarke (see "Consider MeKonfabulated" in TidBITS-717_), complete with calling its littleJavaScript-based applications "Widgets." Arlo and Perry are furious athaving Apple stomp their business, and the Konfabulator home page nowincludes a "Cupertino, start your photocopiers!" tagline.
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/dashboard.html>
<http://konfabulator.com/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07545>
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but Karelia Softwarewasn't flattered when an update to Apple's Sherlock mimicked Watson, andthe same is true for Arlo and Perry. Apple has in the past purchasedproducts or licensed code to include in the Mac OS, and it's unclear whythe company seems unwilling to do that now, particularly given the opensource underpinnings of Mac OS X and all the effort that goes into usingthose projects. The cost probably wouldn't be usurious, at least incomparison to the ill will generated by copying the work of smallindependent developers, both in the community at large and among developerswho are being conditioned to avoid creating anything Apple might later takefor itself.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06816>
The main consolation Arlo and Perry have is that Konfabulator is availablenow, whereas Dashboard may not ship for up to a year. In the meantime, youcan enjoy Konfabulator even more with the just-released Konfabulator 1.7,which adds Unicode support and an Expose-like feature for showing all yourWidgets at once on the same layer, separated from everything else that'sshowing.
<http://www.konfabulator.com/info/relNotes17.html>
Automator
Dashboard may be an obvious knockoff, but it's less clear if Tiger's newAutomator will threaten macro utilities like Script Software's iKey or CESoftware's QuicKeys. Automator is a visual scripting environment forcreating "workflows" that are sequences of "actions." Although it soundslike a macro utility when described like that (Apple calls it a "personalautomation assistant" and has given it a little robot icon), the AutomatorWeb page seems to point toward it having more of a link with AppleScriptand Apple Events. We won't know quite where Automator fits for a while, butin the meantime, it's decidedly interesting.
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/automator.html>
VoiceOver
For many people, using a Macintosh is visually difficult or impossible, andApple is attempting to address that with VoiceOver, a new technology builtinto Tiger. VoiceOver enhances Mac OS X with a spoken interface that readsemail and document files aloud, audibly describes the workspace, andprovides a set of keyboard commands for navigating the entire operatingsystem. It's difficult to extrapolate from Apple's description exactly howVoiceOver will work, but we can hope that it will make the Mac moreaccessible to those with disabilities.
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/voiceover.html>
.Mac Sync
I've been tremendously disappointed in iSync, since Apple neither opened itup to other developers nor extended it to synchronizing files and otherdata between networked Macs. With Tiger, that should change, since Apple isbuilding synchronization services into the operating system and openingthem up to developers. Apple seems to be making a big deal of how Tiger'snew sync engine will work with .Mac accounts to let you synchronizecontacts and calendar, although it's unclear how that's different from whatiSync provides now. Nevertheless, I hope Tiger's sync engine will enablemuch more than iSync has so far.
<http://www.apple.com/isync/>
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/sync.html>
Tweaky Improvements
Last, but by no means least, we come to the improvements that willprimarily interest developers. Tiger will offer 64-bit memory addressingfor memory- and CPU-intensive applications while retaining compatibilitywith existing 32-bit applications. 64-bit addressing will also improve codeportability with other 64-bit Unix systems. Speaking of Unix, Tiger willupgrade to the FreeBSD 5.x kernel, provide command-line access toSpotlight, and offer access control lists for controlling access down tothe file level. Xcode 2.0 will enhance Apple's development tools withvisual modeling and design features, an integrated Apple Reference Library,improved Java support, and graphical debugging from remote machines. A pairof new architectures called Core Image and Core Video will enabledevelopers to access the speed of the graphics processing unit (GPU) builtinto today's video cards. My impression is that Core Image and Core Videowill basically enable faster and fancier eye candy than ever before. Andwhile we're on the topic of video, Apple will be revving QuickTime tosupport H.264, a new MPEG-4 video codec (compressor/decompressor) that candisplay video on platforms from cell phones to high-definition TV; iChat AVfor Tiger relies on H.264 for better picture quality without the need foradditional bandwidth.
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/64bit.html>
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/unix.html>
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/xcode.html>
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/core.html>
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jun/23quicktime.html>
Tiger Server
One more thing... As with previous Mac OS X releases, Apple also has aserver version. Along with the improvements in Tiger, Tiger Server willinclude Weblog Server for publishing a weblog, an iChat server forprotecting the privacy of internal communications (it will be compatiblewith open source Jabber clients for various operating systems), a varietyof tools that aim to ease the process of migrating from Windows-basedservers, server-based home directories for mobile users, a Software UpdateServer that lets administrators control the availability of Apple's updatesfor Tiger, an Internet Gateway Setup Assistant to simplify setting upInternet sharing services, and Apple's Xgrid clustering software.
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jun/28tigerserver.html>
<http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/tiger/>
Tiger Server shares the same amorphous ship date as Tiger itself - thefirst half of 2005 - and it will retail for $500 for 10 clients of $1,000for an unlimited-client edition. It sounds good, and by adding services,Apple increases the likelihood that those of us with Panther Server orJaguar Server will consider upgrading, something that's a good bit lesslikely than with desktop systems.
ToCTidBITS#735/28-Jun-04
Last week, the voice- over-IP (VoIP) service provider Vonage added asoftware option for its subscribers to place and receive phone calls to thepublic telephone network from their Macintosh. A "soft phone," as Vonagecalls its VoIP software, costs $12 per month, including fees, for 500minutes of outgoing local and long-distance calls. Additional minutes are3.9 cents each in the U.S.; international rates are fantastic. Thesoft-phone service has to be added on to an existing Vonage line, whichcosts as little as $15 per month before tax. The service uses software fromXten, a British Columbia firm that makes the best-looking andbest-functioning software phone for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
<http://www.vonage.com/corporate/press_index.php?PR=2004_06_24_0>
<http://www.xten.com/>
I've found that the soft-phone service works terrifically, and was able tomake my first call from a landline to my Vonage soft phone number withintwo minutes of adding the service to my account. But I recommend using aUSB or microphone/headphone headset: the built-in speakers and mikes onsome Macs cause feedback and echoes. [GF]
ToCTidBITS#734/21-Jun-04
Apple has broadened its iBook Logic Board Repair program to include moremodels of the laptop (see "Apple Announces Replacements for Some iBookLogic Boards" in TidBITS-715_). The new range of affected units weremanufactured between May 2001 and October 2003, with serial numbers rangingfrom UV117XXXXXX to UV342XXXXXX. Problematic iBooks suffer from one or moreof the following symptoms on either the built-in LCD or attached externaldisplay: scrambled or distorted video; appearance of unexpected lines onthe screen; intermittent video image; video freeze; or the computer startsup to a blank screen. Apple is providing repairs (including shipping costs)for free; see the FAQ page at Apple's site for more information. [JLC]
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07527>
<http://www.apple.com/support/ibook/faq/>
by Tonya Engst <tonya@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#735/28-Jun-04
I've never been musically inclined. In my grade school, singing in musicclass marked one as being uncool, and although I eventually had a few pianolessons and a small singing part in a ninth-grade production of Fiddler onthe Roof, by high school, it was clear that I lacked much in the way ofmusical talent. Being one of those people who focuses on the things I knowI'm good at, I never picked up other instruments or pursued additionalmusical opportunities of any sort.
My lack of musical inclination came into sharp focus during the SanFrancisco 2004 Macworld Expo, which brought the introduction of iLife '04and GarageBand, Apple's ultra-hip software designed to let anyone makedigital music. Immersed as I am in the mode of being a working mother, Ihadn't even heard of the obviously cool John Mayer (described on the iTunesMusic Store as a "chart- topping wonder"), who Steve Jobs asked todemonstrate GarageBand to the keynote audience. At the time, the wholeGarageBand thing made me feel old and terminally uncool.
<http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07500>
Judging from the applause in the keynote, not everyone felt the same way,including Seattle musician and designer Jeff Tolbert. When Jeff's not doingcutting-edge illustration or Web design (thus proving the adage that realmusicians have day jobs), he has played in numerous bands with hip nameslike the Goat-Footed Senators. GarageBand's introduction may have made mefeel completely out of touch, but Jeff bought iLife '04 immediately, pickedup new gear to use with the GarageBand, and sent me email to see if I'd beinterested in publishing a Take Control ebook about GarageBand.
Figuring that if Jeff could hook me into using GarageBand, he'd be able todo it for anyone, I asked him to draft a few pages that would help mecreate a decent-sounding tune. Jeff wrote the draft, I followed thedirections, and, amazingly enough, I was able to combine several loops ininteresting ways that sounded (at least to my ear) like a real song.Feeling ever so slightly cool, I gave Jeff a contract, connected him withone of our editors who has more musical experience than I (the estimableCaroline Rose, best known for writing and editing Inside Macintosh VolumesI through III at Apple, being the editor in chief at NeXT, and returning toApple for a while as editor in chief of "develop, the Apple TechnicalJournal"), recruited TidBITS Technical Editor (and professional studiomusician) Geoff Duncan to help with a technical review, and we were off.
<http://www.differnet.com/crose/>
<http://www.quibble.com/geoff/tunes/>
A while later, Jeff and Caroline turned in the 68-page "Take Control ofMaking Music with GarageBand," which helps novices like me open the door tothe world of digital music while offering sufficient depth to help thosewith real musical backgrounds and some GarageBand experience. It explainsnot just how to use GarageBand's built-in loops, but also how some of themusic theory I missed in school can be employed in GarageBand to make trulycool songs. (Note that it does not cover recording music via MIDI devicesor adding vocals to your tracks; those are topics for later titles.) Thepart of the ebook I most enjoyed was playing with tricks like panning thesound from speaker to speaker. The tune I created sounds reminiscent ofPink Floyd, and speaking as someone who graduated from high school in 1985,if that's not cool, I don't know what is. Maybe I can still hope for asecond career as a rock chick, though I won't be giving up my day jobpublishing Take Control ebooks anytime soon.
"Take Control of Making Music in GarageBand" is now available for sale for$5, and along with the usual Take Control goodness like full-textsearching, internally linked cross-references, and free updates, itincludes links to clips in the iTunes Music Store that illustrate pointsJeff makes, along with links to audio examples of the two songs Jeff helpsyou create (we tried embedding them in the PDF, but they played only inAcrobat 6.0 and caused Preview to crash on launch). Whether you're alreadya hip musician or a self-admitted wannabe like me, I hope you'll check itout.
<http://www.tidbits.com/takecontrol/garageband-music.html>
ToCBy Tony Smith
Published Wednesday 30th June 2004 14:40 GMT
URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/30/cbm_vs_apple/
Watch out, Apple, another microcomputing pioneer from the 1970s is movinginto the digital music business with a portable, hard drive-based musicplayer. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Commodore is back, this time with its anMP3 player. Dubbed the e-Vic, it's named after the old Vic-20 gamesmachine. The connection: the e-Vic has a 20GB hard drive.
Fans of CBM's business machines needn't feel left out: the Pet brand is tobe reborn too, in the form of the m-Pet, a series of Flash-based MP3players, and the f-Pet, a set of USB Flash drives.
But back to the e-Vic. The player features MP3, WMA and WAV support, andsports a 128 x 64 pixel blue-backlit display. There's a sufficiently largeRAM buffer to provide 28 minutes of no-skip audio, which can be tweakedthrough the built-in five EQ pre-sets or a user-defined EQ setting. Inaddition to playback, the unit will record voice memos and encode audiostraight to MP3. The player hooks up to a host PC as a USB Mass Storagedevice, ensuring compatibility with Mac and Linux as well as Windows.However, you'll need software capable of generating .m3u format playlistsif you're to make the most of this cross-platform support.
The e-Vic measures 8.1 x 6.1 x 1.6cm and weighs 145g. Inside is a 1200mAhrechargeable battery - enough, claims Tulip, to provide 10-15 hours'playback - an impressive figure. The player ships with is own recharge anddata-transfer cradle, and Tulip is bundling a remote control and "in-head"earphones, too. The m-Pet and f-Pet will each be offered with 128MB and256MB capacities. The m-Pet supports the same audio formats as the e-Vic,and includes an FM radio tuner. It runs off a AAA battery.
All three product lines are due to go on sale early in August from Dutch PCmaker Tulip, which acquired the Commodore name in 1997. It is also planningto offer the C64 DTV, a joystick that connects to your TV and whichcontains 30 Commodore 64 games, in October.
However, Tulip has already begun offering digital music downloads, throughits Commodore World web site. The songs are supplied by Dutch onlineentertainment provider YeahRonimo. Tracks require Windows Media 9 softwareto play and use the SLD codec pack.
ToCreported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)
June 17, 2004 -The meeting began with the traditional introduction ofofficers. Presidnet Rollins' first item of business was the necessity tomove our next meeting meeting to July 22, the fourth Thursday of the month.
The floor was then opened for comments.
Mark Zinzow said he had put an extra IDE controller in his machine andasked if anyone had gone passed 26 letters for their drives? As very fewpeople push the envelop as hard as Mark does, there was not a whole lot ofhelp offered. You can map a drive to a folder rather than a lettered drive,Mark said to himself.
Tom Purl commented that his cable modem connection was slow. Kevin Hiselsaid Insight is running at 2.7 megabits right now, so Tom's line isperforming way under that. Ed Serbe said DSL is better than Volo, but Tomis outside the city limits, so he can't get DSL. During the dicsussionthat followed, a couple of culprits were suggest for Tom to have checked:buried cable going bad and rain seeping into the system somewhere in hisneighborhood.
Jerry Feltner related a story about a bad spindle of CDRs he'd gotten.Mark Zinzow reported that Radio Shack is currently selling a spindle of 50for $15 with a $15 rebate. There's a two spindle limit per household. Emilreported that Staples is selling a spindle of 50 for $9.97. During thediscussion that followed, there was a question about burning DVDs. The website http://cdspeed2000.com/ wasmentioned as was Nero CD-DVD Speed v2.20, a free program. The discussion odCDs closed with Kevin Hisel relateing a story about some CDs he bought thatcame down with some kinf of fungus which brought into question some of hisbackups. Richard Rollins recommended using quality disks for archiving.
Kevin Hopkins warned everyone about the Argus DC1512 digital camera he'djust bought at Wal-Mart. It is, indeed, a bargain too good to be true.
Norris Hansell brought up a Word 5.1 document problem he was having with thePanther Mac OS in OS9. He was unable to read some of his older documents.Dataviz' MacLinkPlus Deluxe for $80 was one suggestion. Nisus Writer wasanother.
Richard Hall brought up a Windows machine memory accessing problem he washaving. Those assembled did some bainstorming and it was noticed that hisproblem seemed to be attached to video intensive programs. It was suggestedthat he go online and do a search for his particulat error message. Hecould alos contact the software manufacturers for help, updates, andupdated drivers.
Richard Rollins talked about Yahoo mail upgrading their email system whichhas shut out older Mac OS users from using their mail. It was known thatMozilla for older machines spoofs the system so that you can get aroundthis problem.
Jerry Feltner brought up an autoloading DVD viewer problem he was having.He's tried shutting off autoplay in preferences, but it's still happening.Kevin Hisel noted that Windows doesn't listen to what you tell itsometimes. Kevin suggested holding down the Shift key when you put in theoffending DVD. That tell the machine "don't autoplay this disk."
Richard Bronson brought up a problem he had of running his digital camerathrough the laundry. It was suggested to wash the camera in deionized waterto take off tyhe mineral deposits on the circuit board and it is possiblethe camera will work.
We then broke for our SIG meetings.
ToCreported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)
The Mac SIG was an informal tech session, trying to FIND the mystery avenueto Kevin Hopkins' Argus DC1512 digital camera being Mac OS compatible, asadvertised on the packaging. We never made it. The Argus DC1512 is a littlethrow-away digital camera available at Wal-Mart for $19.67. It was one ofthose impulse buys and less than impulse returns to the store thE day afterthis meeting.
Having bought the camera for my 9 year old daughter and having failedmiserably in my attempt to get the pictures out of tit, I went online tofind out what others were saying about this little gems. Most of it isunprintable. So, I thought I'd give the Mac SIG a shot at it. But afterheroic efforts, using both OS 10 and OS 9, we were unable to get the Mac torecognize the camera as anything other than an unknown device on the USBbus. C'est La Vie.
ToCreported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)
The June meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday, June22, 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 inthe book). Present at the meeting were: Richard Rollins, Rich Hall, TomPurl, Kevin Hopkins, Kevin Hisel, and Emil Cobb.
Richard Rollins: Richard said he enjoyed the cameras on the roofexperience from the last PC SIG. He also noted that the demo of the PCtablet showed they do have their uses.
A general discussion followed covering the topics of politics, digitalcameras, cable and satellite connections, and email.
Concerning the meeting next month, Richard said he didn't have a programlined up yet. However, due to a scheduling conflict with activities at thechurch, we would need to move the July meeting. After some discussion, itwas decided it would just be easier to move the meeting back one week. So,the July meeting will be held on the fourth Thursday of the month, on July 22.
Rich Hall: Rich reported that we had one new member join at the Junemeeting, Richard Bronson. He then gave his usual financial update.
Tom Purl: Tom informed use that Phil Wall will do a Perldemonstration at the July Linux SIG meeting.
Tom said he will send the newsletter some information on some free Linuxtools his group has found useful. He will also bring some CDs to the nextmeeting containing the latest version of Knoppix, some Mepis Cds, and TheOpen CD which contains free software for Windows.
Kevin Hopkins: Kevin lamented that it is becoming harder and harder toremain outside the influence of the Evil Empire. Everything seems to beWindows or Windows related. His digital camera incident had him momentarilydesiring a Windows machine to try it out on.
Turning to business, Kevin reported that due to vacation plans he will notbe able to do the newsletter for July. Kevin Hisel offered to see that onewas sent out. The two Kevins will make arrangements to see that this iscovered.
Kevin Hisel: Kevin intimated that we might have a special guest at theJuly meeting. He's a former member and you'll just have to come to see whoit is.
Kevin said we have a program, MP3Tag, for anyone who wants to review it.MP3Tag is a database style program for executing mass changes on your MP3collection.
We also have another program for anyone who will review it, QuickReply.This one is an email program aimed mainly at businesses that need automatedmailings and replies.
Emil Cobb: Emil reported that we had 18 members at the lastmeeting. He said the Mac SIG spent their time trying to get Kevin Hopkins'Argus DC1512 digital camera to be Mac OS compatible as billed. It wasn't.Emil finished by saying he would bring a CD of the latest Mac softwareupdates to the next meeting.
The meeting wound down with a discussion of viruses.
ToCMeetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at theFirst Baptist Church of Champaign in Savoy. The FBC-CS is located at1602 N. Prospect Avenue in Savoy, on the NE corner of Burwash andProspect. To get to the the First Baptist Church from Champaign orUrbana, take Prospect Avenue south. Setting the trip meter in your carto 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 theright) 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; BurwashPark is to the east. Turn east (left) on Burwash. The FBC-CS parking lotentrance is on the north (left) side of Burwash. Enter by the doubledoors at the eastern end of the building's south side. A map can befound on the CUCUG website at http://www.cucug.org/meeting.html. TheFirst 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 midyear.
Our monthly newsletter, the Status Register, is delivered by email. Allrecent editions are available on our WWW site. To initiate a user groupexchange, just send us your newsletter or contact our editor via email. Asa matter of CUCUG policy, an exchange partner will be dropped after threemonths of no contact.
For further information, please attend the next meeting as our guest, orcontact one of our officers (all at area code 217):
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 352-1002 Linux SIG: Tom Purl 390-6078 tompurl2000@yahoo.com
Email us at cucug@cucug.org, visit our web site at http://www.cucug.org/, or join in our online forums at http://cucug.dyndns.org/ .