The Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group

The Status Register - July, 2004


This newsletter will never appear on CUCUG.ORG before the monthly CUCUG meeting it is intended to announce. This is in deference to actual CUCUG members. They get each edition hot off the presses. If you'd like to join our group, you can get the pertinent facts by looking in the "Information About CUCUG" page. If you'd care to look at prior editions of the newsletter, they may be found via the Status Register Newsletter page.
News     Common     PC     Mac     Amiga     CUCUG

July 2004


To move quickly to an article of your choice, use the search feature of your reader or the hypertext directory above. Enjoy.

July News:

The July Meeting - Date Changed!

Due to a scheduling conflict with the meeting room, the next CUCUG meeting will be held on fourth Thursday of the month: Thursday, July 22nd, 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 July 22 gathering will be one of our split SIG meetings. The Linux SIG 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.

ToC

Welcome New Member

We'd like to welcome the newest members of our group, joining us in the last month: Richard Bronson (Linux PC).

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.

ToC

AOL Employee Charged With Stealing Screen Names

MediaPost'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 a list of AOL screen names in 2003 and sold it to spammers. The announcement comes amid a series of initiatives deployed by the Dulles, VA-based company in the ongoing battle against spam. U.S. investigators later verified the arrest in a Reuters news report. According to the report, Jason Smathers of Harpers Ferry, W. Va., was charged with stealing a list of 92 million AOL customer screen names and selling them to Internet marketer Sean Dunaway of Las Vegas, according to David Kelley, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. An AOL spokesman said Smathers has been fired from the company.

"AOL has uncovered no information indicating that this theft involved member credit card or password information stored by AOL," an AOL spokesman said in a prepared statement. "AOL rapidly brought this information to the attention of federal law enforcement, and this morning, the AOL employee was arrested and charged with criminal activity relating to the theft of these screen names."

"We deeply regret what has taken place and are thoroughly reviewing and strengthening our internal procedures as a result of this investigation and arrest," the spokesman said.

ToC

Common Ground:

Appeals Court Keeps Stay on Media Rules

Thu 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 allow loosened federal media rules on media ownership to take effect, dealing a blow 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 would not take effect until the Federal Communications Commission better explained how it came up with them.

"The Commission has not sufficiently justified its particular chosen numerical limits for local television ownership, local radio ownership, and cross-ownership of media within local markets," the court's 218-page opinion said.

The FCC last year lifted a ban on a company owning both a newspaper and television stations or radio outlets in a single market. It also agreed in many cases to allow a company to own two television stations in a single market.

The FCC said it eased the rules to help broadcasters compete against pay television services. But opponents fear the rules would only allow media conglomerates like Tribune Co. and News Corp. to grow even bigger to the detriment of local news reporting and diverse viewpoints.

Opponents cheered the ruling.

"Clearly, the court found that the FCC's previous studies were inadequate and lacked credibility," Democratic FCC commissioner Michael Copps said in a statement.

Andrew Schwartzman, a lawyer for Prometheus Radio Project who filed the lawsuit, said the court had ordered the FCC to "take the deregulatory thumb off of the scale."

"It looks like the court agreed with us that preserving democracy is more important than helping big companies grow bigger," Schwartzman said.

ToC

US-CERT warns against use of Windows IE

By 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 warned users to stop using Microsoft Internet Explorer after a bug which Microsoft had previously claimed to have fixed has resurfaced.

"Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) does not adequately validate the security context of a frame that has been redirected by a web server. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to evaluate script in different security domains. By causing script to be evaluated in the Local Machine Zone, the attacker could execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running IE," it says.

So far hackers have used this flaw to launch pop-up windows from compromised advertising banners hosted on at least 50 financial institutions websites. By attacking the advertisers websites and causing them to launch these pop-ups, hackers have been able to install key logging programs on end users machines and capture vital key strokes used by end users to log into their financial services sites. These key strokes have then been sent back to the criminals involved in these attacks, to do what they wish with them.

Following a malware attack last week which targeted a known flaw in IE, the US-CERT recommended using alternative browsers. Microsoft meanwhile is hurriedly trying to increase IE's security with the Windows XP Service Pack 2.

"It is possible to reduce exposure to these vulnerabilities by using a different web browser, especially when browsing untrusted sites," US-CERT has advised.

This warning by the US government could not have come at a worst time for Microsoft chairman Bill Gates as he travels through China, Malaysia and Australia in a bid to consolidate the company's presence in these countries.

Gartner Sees More Attacks

Advising users to protect their servers and computers right away, research firm Gartner has found out that so-called zero-day attacks - malicious-code attacks that exploit vulnerabilities for which patches are not available - represent fewer than 1 percent of all attacks. Yet because fixes are not yet available, they can be among the most damaging of all attacks.

The firm has sent out a list of recommendations to avoid an attack:

  1. Scan all your Web servers for malicious code that may have been installed to exploit the IE flaws, and review your defenses.
  2. If the malicious code is found on any of your public-facing Web servers, warn your customers that their PCs may have been infected and provide guidance for cleanup.
  3. Reset IE security settings to High until fixes are available. (Service Pack 2 for Windows XP - scheduled for release in the next few months - will correct several Internet Explorer flaws, but Microsoft has not yet indicated whether the new identified flaws will be among them.) Once patches have been made available and deployed, consider reducing the security settings to a less restricted custom or default level.

It has also stated that enterprises using the Mozilla (Netscape) and Opera browsers need not take these actions.

ToC

US-CERT Cyber Security Tip ST04-012

by 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 happening behind the scenes. Active content and cookies are common elements that may pose hidden risks when viewed in a browser or email client.

What is active content?

To increase functionality or add design embellishments, web sites often rely on scripts that execute programs within the web browser. This active content can be used to create "splash pages" or options like drop-down menus. Unfortunately, these scripts are often a way for attackers to download or execute malicious code on a user's computer.

JavaScript and other forms of active content are not always dangerous, but they are common tools for attackers. You can prevent active content from running in most browsers, but realize that the added security may limit functionality and break features of some sites you visit. Before clicking on 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 email clients use the same programs as web browsers to display HTML, so vulnerabilities that affect active content like JavaScript and ActiveX often apply to email. Viewing messages as plain text may resolve this problem.

What are cookies?

When you browse the Internet, information about your computer may be collected and stored. This information might be general information about your 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 more specific information about your browsing habits (such as the last time you visited a particular web site or your personal preferences for viewing that site).

Cookies can be saved for varying lengths of time:

To increase your level of security, consider adjusting your privacy and security settings to block or limit cookies in your web browser. To make sure that other sites are not collecting personal information about you without your knowledge, choose to only allow cookies for the web site you are visiting; block or limit cookies from a third-party. If you are using a public computer, you should make sure that cookies are disabled to prevent other people from accessing or using your personal information.

ToC

The PC Section:

WinInfo Short Takes

Paul Thurrott
http://www.wininformant.com/

Intel and Proxim Promise WiMAX Hardware in Early 2005

The high-speed follow-up to Wi-Fi, the 802.11b wireless standard, could debut as soon as early 2005 if Intel and Proxim can deliver on their new plan. According to the companies, they'll work together to ship certified WiMAX (802.16) wireless broadband equipment by early next year. WiMAX breaks down into two categories: 802.16a for fixed wireless broadband and 802.16e for mobile wireless. Compared with today's Wi-Fi products, WiMAX is 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 an average bandwidth of 70Mbps and peak rates as fast as 268Mbps. I wonder whether the advent of WiMAX means I'll soon be accessing unprotected home wireless networks named "linksys" in the next state instead of just next door.

Mozilla Releases a Trio of New Products

And speaking of the Mozilla Foundation, this week has been a big one for the organization, which issued three major software releases, including Firefox 0.9, its standalone Web browser; Thunderbird 0.7, its standalone email client; and, most recently, Mozilla 1.7, its integrated Web browser suite. All three products are fairly high quality, and although I generally use Firefox and Thunderbird full time, I should report that I've had several problems with Thunderbird 0.7, so proceed with caution. You can download all three releases from the Mozilla Web site.

http://www.mozilla.org

XP SP2 to Ship Late July/Early August; Tablet PC Edition 2004 Is Complete

A Microsoft representative contacted me yesterday to confirm that the final release of XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), the long-awaited XP security upgrade, will likely ship in late July or early August. Furthermore, Tablet PC users who are interested in getting the next version of XP Tablet PC Edition should download the current XP SP2 Release Candidate 2 (RC2) build because the release includes the final shipping version of XP Tablet PC Edition 2005. XP SP2 also includes several other product updates, such as XP Media Center Edition (XP MCE) 2004 (for existing XP MCE users only), Windows Update 5, Windows Media Player (WMP) Series, and DirectX 9.0c.

Microsoft Chairman: Pirates Are Our Only Competition

Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates said this week that software piracy is a bigger competitor than open-source software (OSS), a biting comment that nonetheless rings true. "You know what my toughest competitor is?" Gates rhetorically asked reporters in Australia this week. "It's pirated software. If you really look around, you'll find more pirated Windows than you'll find open-source software--way more." Expect this comment to generate some grumbling from the open-source camp.

Gates Touts Automatic Updates in Wake of Most Recent IE Exploit

This weekend Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates said that his company is working to reduce the amount of time between the discovery of software vulnerabilities and the release of patches. But the key to this plan is in users' hands: They must turn on Windows' Automatic Updates 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 done very quickly, we also have to convince people to turn on [Automatic Updates]." Good idea. I recommend that Windows users immediately turn on the feature.

Microsoft Reforms IE Team, Plans Future Releases

This week, Microsoft representatives revealed that the company has "reconstituted" its moribund IE team to work on the new IE release that Microsoft will include in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and that the team is now actively looking at the feature set for an upcoming rev of the Web browser that's hardly ever updated. Amen to that news. "At this stage there isn't much more to add other than to reiterate the point that the IE team does exist and does care," Dave Massy, who recently moved from the Longhorn team to head up development of future IE releases, said. "I've really enjoyed working on Longhorn as a technical evangelist and remain very, very excited by the capabilities that Avalon and Longhorn will bring but 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 one of the most obvious attack vectors for people who want to compromise Windows. My advice? Use Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, or Opera instead of IE.

Microsoft Addresses Download.Ject Attack

Microsoft has released a "configuration change" for Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000 that improves system resiliency against the Download.Ject electronic attack, which caused panic attacks among security consultants and IT administrators last week. The company will post the changes to Microsoft Windows Update later today and will release them through Automatic Updates. The changes are also available for direct download from the Microsoft Web site.

Mozilla Gets Its Own Vulnerability

On the other hand, maybe IE isn't the only hackalicious Web browser out there. In the wake of the Mozilla Foundation's obvious and deserved cackling over the problems with IE, that organization's products were found to have a security flaw of their own. This is a good news/bad news thing, however. In the good news department, the Mozilla folks fixed the bug--which afflicts the Mozilla browser suite, Firefox, and the Thunderbird email application--extremely quickly, and you can now download a patch, or a new version of each product that includes the fix (see Mozilla.org for details). The bad news is that it's now clear that Mozilla, like Mac OS X and other untested products, is simply benefiting from 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's unclear at this point how the product will far. In any event, I still recommend Mozilla Firefox, though this week's vulnerability is a sobering reminder of the realities of the PC world today.

Microsoft to Integrate Search into MSN, Windows ... and Office

Microsoft has made a lot of noise about its search plans for Longhorn and MSN, but this week Microsoft group vice president Jeff Raikes revealed that improved search will also be an integral part of the next Microsoft Office version, currently codenamed Office 12. This makes a certain amount of sense: For many users, Office is the conduit through which most of the documents on their system are created. However, it's still unclear how Office will use this technology, which Raikes says is coming out of Microsoft Research.

MSN Hotmail Begins Scanning All Email for Viruses

Unaccompanied by a lot of fanfare, MSN Hotmail recently began using a McAfee antivirus solution to scan all incoming and outgoing email for viruses. This means that Hotmail-generated and -received email will be a lot less dangerous than it used to be, which is good news. Emails found to be delivering malware will be cleaned, Microsoft says. The previously announced Hotmail storage upgrade to 1GB is still pending, however.

PC Sales Continue Strong Growth

Strong PC sales in the second quarter are causing researchers at IDC and Gartner to forecast a strong 2004, with growth hitting double digits. Major PC makers shipped 42.8 million PCs in the second quarter, a 13.3 percent gain over the same quarter last year. Dell retained its number one spot for the quarter, followed by HP, IBM, Fujitsu, and Acer.

ToC

Microsoft Technology Approved for Next-Generation DVD Standard

The DVD Forum steering committee recently approved the initial specification for High-Definition DVD (HD-DVD), a next-generation DVD standard. According to the specification, HD-DVD devices will have to support VC-9, the basis for Windows Media Video (WMV) 9, Microsoft's most recent 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 for the software giant, which is trying to establish its multimedia formats as industry standards.

HD-DVD isn't the only high-resolution, next-generation DVD format, however. A competing group will offer devices based on a technology called Blu-ray. But HD-DVD offers a number of advantages over Blu-ray, not the least of which is HD-DVD's backward-compatibility with today's DVDs. As a result, 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 able to play back more than 130 minutes of HD video encoded at 15Mbps. This capability played a major role in the inclusion of Microsoft's technology in the specification because at 23GB Blu-ray supports more capacity, and a second-generation 50GB Blu-ray standard is due soon.

ToC

Browser Wars II? Alternative Browser Downloads Surge in Wake of IE Exploits

The long-stagnant Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) might command about 95 percent of the Web browser market but a recent spate of security vulnerabilities seems to be finally helping IE's competitors make some inroads into the market. Even the usually staid United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has taken the unusual step of advising users to switch to a different browser because of IE's many attacks. The result has been a bonanza for safer browser alternatives such as Mozilla and Opera.

The Mozilla Foundation reports that daily downloads of its Mozilla browser suite and Firefox Web browser have doubled since US-CERT's recommendation; on the day of the US-CERT announcement, the foundation says that users downloaded the products more than 200,000 times. "More people seem to have reached their threshold level of frustration dealing with problems with IE and Windows and have found the Mozilla software a good solution to solving those problems," Chris Hofmann, The Mozilla Foundation's director of engineering, said. "US-CERT's recommendation is just a reflection of the trend we have seen for quite some time."

Experts point to several obvious problems with IE. First, the browser is so widely used that it's a natural attack point. Second, IE is integrated directly into the Windows OS, a curious and ultimately damaging decision that made a previously secure Windows NT-based system vulnerable to new types of attacks. Third, IE technologies such as ActiveX have proven to be highly insecure, and many IE attacks exploit ActiveX-related vulnerabilities. Microsoft will address the latter concern in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) but the company has no plans to provide this functionality in other Windows versions or to completely decouple the browser from its OSs.

The Mozilla Foundation and Opera Software say that they have solutions for the first problem. If the current download rates continue, the browser alternatives might soon be nibbling away at IE's massive market share. If that happens, Web designers will have to take those browsers into account more often when they design Web sites. And because Mozilla and Opera adhere more closely to Web standards than IE does, that situation could eventually lead to dramatic changes on the Web in general. Perhaps future IE versions would also be more standards-compliant as a result, which would make the process of developing Web sites much easier because developers could simply target one standard. Today, IE's market share causes Web developers to target IE's nonstandard technical idiosyncrasies first.

ToC

The Macintosh Section:

Apple's Mac OS 'Tiger' ready to pounce

Tuesday, 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 Steve Jobs says the 2005 launch of the next Mac OS X operating system will have features "way ahead" of Microsoft Corp.'s next Windows release due out in 2006.

"It's going to drive the copycats crazy," Jobs said Monday before an enthusiastic audience at the opening keynote of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference at San Francisco's Moscone Center.

Code-named "Tiger," the upgrade will be the fifth version of Mac OS X in its four-year history.

Among 150 planned new features will be an advanced new searching tool called "Spotlight" that can instantly search for keywords across different types of files in the machine -- whether they're in an e-mail, image, or text document.

Finding data on a single, bulging desktop often is more challenging than using Google to search billions of Web sites. That won't be the case anymore with "Spotlight," Jobs said, demonstrating how typing the words "Half Dome" into his computer instantly found the right information, even a digital map of Yosemite National Park with the famous mountain marked.

Microsoft's impending "Longhorn" Windows release also will include a more sophisticated searching method.

Other highlighted "Tiger" features included support for multiple participants in the iChat video-conferencing program; a new version of the Safari 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 collection of 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 suggested retail price of $129.

Jobs also unveiled a new design of widescreen displays for its Apple Cinema line, including a 30" version, the largest high resolution display in the market.

Unlike its predecessor, the aluminum-encased flat-panel monitor, which will also come in 20- and 23-inch versions, are compatible with Windows PC machines as well as Macintosh computers.

The 30-inch display will be available in August for $3,299. It requires a separate 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.

ToC

Apple Introduces New Aluminum Cinema Displays

by Jeff Carlson <jeffc@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#735/28-Jun-04

The curious thing about computers is that no matter how beautifully they're designed, you're always looking at the screen. At this year's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple improved the view by announcing three new Apple Cinema Displays: updated 20-inch and 23-inch sizes, as well as a huge 30-inch model. For the benefit of the other people you work with, each display sports a stylish new aluminum case design that complements Apple's PowerBooks and Power Mac G5 computers.

<http://www.apple.com/displays/>

The 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display supports resolutions up to 2560 by 1600 pixels, or approximately 4 million pixels overall. It features a brightness level of 270 cd/m2 (candela per square meter) and a contrast ratio of 400:1. Due to the increased pixel count, the 30-inch display will work only with a Power Mac G5 equipped with an Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL graphics card; that card will be available in August as a build-to-order option for new Power Mac G5 purchases, or as a $600 kit for existing Power Mac G5 owners. The card offers dual DVI connections in parallel, and it will also support 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 displays in different cases, but the new screens add more than just aluminum. The 20-inch Cinema Display, priced at $1,300, still sports up to 1680 by 1050 pixels, but now has a brightness of 250 cd/m2 compared to 230 cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of 400:1 instead of 350:1. Similarly, the $2,000 23-inch Cinema HD Display handles up to 1920 by 1200 pixels, but features the same 270 cd/m2 brightness (up from 200 cd/m2) and 400:1 contrast ratio (up from 350:1) as the 30-inch Cinema HD Display. Both displays will ship next month.

<http://www.apple.com/displays/specs.html>

The new Cinema Displays include two self-powered USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire 400 ports, a power button, brightness buttons, and a Kensington security slot. Apple is also introducing a magnetic iSight mount that will be included with new iSight cameras or available in a separate iSight Accessory Kit in the next few months, as well as a Cinema Display VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) Mount Adapter Kit for connecting a 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 it reduced cable clutter and eliminated the need for a power supply by routing power from the computer to the monitor. The new displays also feature a single cable exiting the display, though it splits off into power, graphics, USB 2.0, and FireWire 400 connectors; the display's power presumably comes from an external power brick. According to Apple, the 20-inch and 23-inch models will work with existing Power Mac and PowerBook models. These two displays will also work with "Windows-based PCs containing graphics cards that support DVI ports with full single link digital bandwidth and VESA DDC standard for plug and play setup," according to the specifications at Apple's Web site; the 30-inch model will only work with a Power Mac G5 and Nvidia G3Force 6800 Ultra DDL card. As with the iPod, this hardware expansion out of the Mac bubble can only improve Apple's sales to the large Windows market.

<http://www.apple.com/displays/specs.html>

ToC

Put a Tiger in Your Tank... in 2005

by 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 10.4 Tiger and its bundled applications. In the keynote, Jobs noted that over 50 percent of the installed base of Macs are now using Mac OS X, which amounts to 12 million users. That's up from the claim of 7 million users a year ago at WWDC, and although I'm not quite sure what to make of that 12 million number, it's not far from the 13.75 million Macs Apple sold from 2000 through 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's introduction in 2000, and there's no question that Apple has made significant changes over that time.

<http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/>

You won't see Tiger this year though, since Apple is committing only to the first 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 I would be shocked to see Tiger ship then) or as late as June 2005. My money is on sometime in between, partly because it's the safest bet and partly because I believe Apple would want to use WWDC next year to preview what's coming rather than recap what just shipped. But software schedules are notoriously difficult to predict, particularly that far out, and particularly for an operating system, so there's no telling. The cost will once again be $130.

As with Panther, Apple is again touting 150 new features, although a few are more significant than others. Like everyone else, I'm seeing this stuff for 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) each major new feature, along with a pointer to Apple's Web site, which you should 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 data already on your hard disk. Spotlight won't just search filenames and content, as Mac OS X can do now; it will also be able to gather and search through metadata, much as iTunes and iPhoto can do with Smart Playlists and Smart Albums. Spotlight will power additional smarts: Smart Folders in the Finder (which could let you overlay different organizational structures on top of the basic hierarchical file system we have now), Smart Mailboxes in Mail (letting you group the same set of messages in different ways), and Smart 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 metadata about files and other data objects in the system, since as the amount of data we all accumulate increases, the more difficult it becomes to manage. Apple's metadata search engine will be able to extract some metadata from files automatically, and developers will be able to add their own metadata as 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 started asking 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-party video chats to 3. As you would expect, the interface for iChat AV for Tiger is elegant, with a multi-party video chat showing each person an almost three-dimensional display, complete with subtle reflections on the "floor" in front of each person's picture. Multi-party audio chats lack the whizzy graphics, but add helpful sound-level meters, making it easy to see who is talking, even if you don't recognize voices. That's a feature I'd love to have on normal conference calls.

<http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/ichat.html>

Apple also claims improved performance and picture quality, and while those will be welcome, I also hope to see reliability enhancements; the main reason I don't use audio and video chats more often is that at least some of the time it turns into a troubleshooting session via normal text chat for 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 a major addition for Safari. RSS is a way of using HTTP to publish information, usually article headlines and summaries, though full articles are also possible, and in fact, you can read TidBITS Talk via RSS by getting the URL from the XML button on our Web Crossing version. You read RSS feeds using special programs like Ranchero Software's NetNewsWire. RSS support in Safari won't be unique; Opera 7 and the public beta of OmniWeb 5 both offer RSS features already, so it will remain to be seen how Safari's RSS 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 when using public Macs, the capability to save Web pages in an archive format and to email them directly, and to search your bookmarks. My take is that Safari RSS will be a nice improvement on Safari, but won't compete with the more full-featured browsers like OmniWeb and Opera.

Dashboard

Apple has hung signs in the lobby at WWDC tweaking Microsoft's operating system group for the far-in-the- future Longhorn (the next major release of Windows), including "Redmond, start your photocopiers!" That phrase has come home to roost with Dashboard, which appears to be a direct knockoff of Konfabulator from Arlo Rose and Perry Clarke (see "Consider Me Konfabulated" in TidBITS-717_), complete with calling its little JavaScript-based applications "Widgets." Arlo and Perry are furious at having Apple stomp their business, and the Konfabulator home page now includes 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 Software wasn't flattered when an update to Apple's Sherlock mimicked Watson, and the same is true for Arlo and Perry. Apple has in the past purchased products or licensed code to include in the Mac OS, and it's unclear why the company seems unwilling to do that now, particularly given the open source underpinnings of Mac OS X and all the effort that goes into using those projects. The cost probably wouldn't be usurious, at least in comparison to the ill will generated by copying the work of small independent developers, both in the community at large and among developers who are being conditioned to avoid creating anything Apple might later take for itself.

<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06816>

The main consolation Arlo and Perry have is that Konfabulator is available now, whereas Dashboard may not ship for up to a year. In the meantime, you can enjoy Konfabulator even more with the just-released Konfabulator 1.7, which adds Unicode support and an Expose-like feature for showing all your Widgets at once on the same layer, separated from everything else that's showing.

<http://www.konfabulator.com/info/relNotes17.html>

Automator

Dashboard may be an obvious knockoff, but it's less clear if Tiger's new Automator will threaten macro utilities like Script Software's iKey or CE Software's QuicKeys. Automator is a visual scripting environment for creating "workflows" that are sequences of "actions." Although it sounds like a macro utility when described like that (Apple calls it a "personal automation assistant" and has given it a little robot icon), the Automator Web page seems to point toward it having more of a link with AppleScript and Apple Events. We won't know quite where Automator fits for a while, but in 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, and Apple is attempting to address that with VoiceOver, a new technology built into Tiger. VoiceOver enhances Mac OS X with a spoken interface that reads email and document files aloud, audibly describes the workspace, and provides a set of keyboard commands for navigating the entire operating system. It's difficult to extrapolate from Apple's description exactly how VoiceOver will work, but we can hope that it will make the Mac more accessible 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 it up to other developers nor extended it to synchronizing files and other data between networked Macs. With Tiger, that should change, since Apple is building synchronization services into the operating system and opening them up to developers. Apple seems to be making a big deal of how Tiger's new sync engine will work with .Mac accounts to let you synchronize contacts and calendar, although it's unclear how that's different from what iSync provides now. Nevertheless, I hope Tiger's sync engine will enable much 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 will primarily interest developers. Tiger will offer 64-bit memory addressing for memory- and CPU-intensive applications while retaining compatibility with existing 32-bit applications. 64-bit addressing will also improve code portability with other 64-bit Unix systems. Speaking of Unix, Tiger will upgrade to the FreeBSD 5.x kernel, provide command-line access to Spotlight, and offer access control lists for controlling access down to the file level. Xcode 2.0 will enhance Apple's development tools with visual modeling and design features, an integrated Apple Reference Library, improved Java support, and graphical debugging from remote machines. A pair of new architectures called Core Image and Core Video will enable developers to access the speed of the graphics processing unit (GPU) built into today's video cards. My impression is that Core Image and Core Video will basically enable faster and fancier eye candy than ever before. And while we're on the topic of video, Apple will be revving QuickTime to support H.264, a new MPEG-4 video codec (compressor/decompressor) that can display video on platforms from cell phones to high-definition TV; iChat AV for Tiger relies on H.264 for better picture quality without the need for additional 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 a server version. Along with the improvements in Tiger, Tiger Server will include Weblog Server for publishing a weblog, an iChat server for protecting the privacy of internal communications (it will be compatible with open source Jabber clients for various operating systems), a variety of tools that aim to ease the process of migrating from Windows-based servers, server-based home directories for mobile users, a Software Update Server that lets administrators control the availability of Apple's updates for Tiger, an Internet Gateway Setup Assistant to simplify setting up Internet 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 - the first half of 2005 - and it will retail for $500 for 10 clients of $1,000 for an unlimited-client edition. It sounds good, and by adding services, Apple increases the likelihood that those of us with Panther Server or Jaguar Server will consider upgrading, something that's a good bit less likely than with desktop systems.

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Vonage Adds Software Phone for Mac

TidBITS#735/28-Jun-04

Last week, the voice- over-IP (VoIP) service provider Vonage added a software option for its subscribers to place and receive phone calls to the public telephone network from their Macintosh. A "soft phone," as Vonage calls its VoIP software, costs $12 per month, including fees, for 500 minutes of outgoing local and long-distance calls. Additional minutes are 3.9 cents each in the U.S.; international rates are fantastic. The soft-phone service has to be added on to an existing Vonage line, which costs as little as $15 per month before tax. The service uses software from Xten, a British Columbia firm that makes the best-looking and best-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 to make my first call from a landline to my Vonage soft phone number within two minutes of adding the service to my account. But I recommend using a USB or microphone/headphone headset: the built-in speakers and mikes on some Macs cause feedback and echoes. [GF]

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iBook Repair Program Extended

TidBITS#734/21-Jun-04

Apple has broadened its iBook Logic Board Repair program to include more models of the laptop (see "Apple Announces Replacements for Some iBook Logic Boards" in TidBITS-715_). The new range of affected units were manufactured between May 2001 and October 2003, with serial numbers ranging from UV117XXXXXX to UV342XXXXXX. Problematic iBooks suffer from one or more of the following symptoms on either the built-in LCD or attached external display: scrambled or distorted video; appearance of unexpected lines on the screen; intermittent video image; video freeze; or the computer starts up 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/>

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How GarageBand Made Me Feel Young and Hip

by Tonya Engst <tonya@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#735/28-Jun-04

I've never been musically inclined. In my grade school, singing in music class marked one as being uncool, and although I eventually had a few piano lessons and a small singing part in a ninth-grade production of Fiddler on the Roof, by high school, it was clear that I lacked much in the way of musical talent. Being one of those people who focuses on the things I know I'm good at, I never picked up other instruments or pursued additional musical opportunities of any sort.

My lack of musical inclination came into sharp focus during the San Francisco 2004 Macworld Expo, which brought the introduction of iLife '04 and GarageBand, Apple's ultra-hip software designed to let anyone make digital music. Immersed as I am in the mode of being a working mother, I hadn't even heard of the obviously cool John Mayer (described on the iTunes Music Store as a "chart- topping wonder"), who Steve Jobs asked to demonstrate GarageBand to the keynote audience. At the time, the whole GarageBand 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 doing cutting-edge illustration or Web design (thus proving the adage that real musicians have day jobs), he has played in numerous bands with hip names like the Goat-Footed Senators. GarageBand's introduction may have made me feel completely out of touch, but Jeff bought iLife '04 immediately, picked up new gear to use with the GarageBand, and sent me email to see if I'd be interested in publishing a Take Control ebook about GarageBand.

<http://www.jefftolbert.com/>

Figuring that if Jeff could hook me into using GarageBand, he'd be able to do it for anyone, I asked him to draft a few pages that would help me create a decent-sounding tune. Jeff wrote the draft, I followed the directions, and, amazingly enough, I was able to combine several loops in interesting ways that sounded (at least to my ear) like a real song. Feeling ever so slightly cool, I gave Jeff a contract, connected him with one of our editors who has more musical experience than I (the estimable Caroline Rose, best known for writing and editing Inside Macintosh Volumes I through III at Apple, being the editor in chief at NeXT, and returning to Apple for a while as editor in chief of "develop, the Apple Technical Journal"), recruited TidBITS Technical Editor (and professional studio musician) 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 of Making Music with GarageBand," which helps novices like me open the door to the world of digital music while offering sufficient depth to help those with real musical backgrounds and some GarageBand experience. It explains not just how to use GarageBand's built-in loops, but also how some of the music theory I missed in school can be employed in GarageBand to make truly cool songs. (Note that it does not cover recording music via MIDI devices or adding vocals to your tracks; those are topics for later titles.) The part of the ebook I most enjoyed was playing with tricks like panning the sound from speaker to speaker. The tune I created sounds reminiscent of Pink 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 a second career as a rock chick, though I won't be giving up my day job publishing 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-text searching, internally linked cross-references, and free updates, it includes links to clips in the iTunes Music Store that illustrate points Jeff makes, along with links to audio examples of the two songs Jeff helps you create (we tried embedding them in the PDF, but they played only in Acrobat 6.0 and caused Preview to crash on launch). Whether you're already a hip musician or a self-admitted wannabe like me, I hope you'll check it out.

<http://www.tidbits.com/takecontrol/garageband-music.html>

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The Amiga Section:

Commodore challenges Apple digital music dominance

By 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 moving into the digital music business with a portable, hard drive-based music player. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Commodore is back, this time with its an MP3 player. Dubbed the e-Vic, it's named after the old Vic-20 games machine. 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 to be reborn too, in the form of the m-Pet, a series of Flash-based MP3 players, and the f-Pet, a set of USB Flash drives.

But back to the e-Vic. The player features MP3, WMA and WAV support, and sports a 128 x 64 pixel blue-backlit display. There's a sufficiently large RAM buffer to provide 28 minutes of no-skip audio, which can be tweaked through the built-in five EQ pre-sets or a user-defined EQ setting. In addition to playback, the unit will record voice memos and encode audio straight to MP3. The player hooks up to a host PC as a USB Mass Storage device, ensuring compatibility with Mac and Linux as well as Windows. However, you'll need software capable of generating .m3u format playlists if 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 1200mAh rechargeable battery - enough, claims Tulip, to provide 10-15 hours' playback - an impressive figure. The player ships with is own recharge and data-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 and 256MB 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 PC maker Tulip, which acquired the Commodore name in 1997. It is also planning to offer the C64 DTV, a joystick that connects to your TV and which contains 30 Commodore 64 games, in October.

However, Tulip has already begun offering digital music downloads, through its Commodore World web site. The songs are supplied by Dutch online entertainment provider YeahRonimo. Tracks require Windows Media 9 software to play and use the SLD codec pack.

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The CUCUG Section:

June General Meeting

reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)

June 17, 2004 -The meeting began with the traditional introduction of officers. Presidnet Rollins' first item of business was the necessity to move 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 and asked if anyone had gone passed 26 letters for their drives? As very few people push the envelop as hard as Mark does, there was not a whole lot of help 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 Hisel said Insight is running at 2.7 megabits right now, so Tom's line is performing way under that. Ed Serbe said DSL is better than Volo, but Tom is outside the city limits, so he can't get DSL. During the dicsussion that followed, a couple of culprits were suggest for Tom to have checked: buried cable going bad and rain seeping into the system somewhere in his neighborhood.

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 50 for $15 with a $15 rebate. There's a two spindle limit per household. Emil reported that Staples is selling a spindle of 50 for $9.97. During the discussion that followed, there was a question about burning DVDs. The web site http://cdspeed2000.com/ was mentioned as was Nero CD-DVD Speed v2.20, a free program. The discussion od CDs closed with Kevin Hisel relateing a story about some CDs he bought that came down with some kinf of fungus which brought into question some of his backups. Richard Rollins recommended using quality disks for archiving.

Kevin Hopkins warned everyone about the Argus DC1512 digital camera he'd just 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 the Panther Mac OS in OS9. He was unable to read some of his older documents. Dataviz' MacLinkPlus Deluxe for $80 was one suggestion. Nisus Writer was another.

Richard Hall brought up a Windows machine memory accessing problem he was having. Those assembled did some bainstorming and it was noticed that his problem seemed to be attached to video intensive programs. It was suggested that he go online and do a search for his particulat error message. He could alos contact the software manufacturers for help, updates, and updated drivers.

Richard Rollins talked about Yahoo mail upgrading their email system which has shut out older Mac OS users from using their mail. It was known that Mozilla for older machines spoofs the system so that you can get around this 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 it sometimes. Kevin suggested holding down the Shift key when you put in the offending DVD. That tell the machine "don't autoplay this disk."

Richard Bronson brought up a problem he had of running his digital camera through the laundry. It was suggested to wash the camera in deionized water to take off tyhe mineral deposits on the circuit board and it is possible the camera will work.

We then broke for our SIG meetings.

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The Macintosh SIG: Beware the Argus DC1512

reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)

The Mac SIG was an informal tech session, trying to FIND the mystery avenue to Kevin Hopkins' Argus DC1512 digital camera being Mac OS compatible, as advertised on the packaging. We never made it. The Argus DC1512 is a little throw-away digital camera available at Wal-Mart for $19.67. It was one of those impulse buys and less than impulse returns to the store thE day after this meeting.

Having bought the camera for my 9 year old daughter and having failed miserably in my attempt to get the pictures out of tit, I went online to find out what others were saying about this little gems. Most of it is unprintable. So, I thought I'd give the Mac SIG a shot at it. But after heroic efforts, using both OS 10 and OS 9, we were unable to get the Mac to recognize the camera as anything other than an unknown device on the USB bus. C'est La Vie.

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June Board Meeting

reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)

The June meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday, June 22, 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, Tom Purl, Kevin Hopkins, Kevin Hisel, and Emil Cobb.

Richard Rollins: Richard said he enjoyed the cameras on the roof experience from the last PC SIG. He also noted that the demo of the PC tablet showed they do have their uses.

A general discussion followed covering the topics of politics, digital cameras, cable and satellite connections, and email.

Concerning the meeting next month, Richard said he didn't have a program lined up yet. However, due to a scheduling conflict with activities at the church, we would need to move the July meeting. After some discussion, it was 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 June meeting, Richard Bronson. He then gave his usual financial update.

Tom Purl: Tom informed use that Phil Wall will do a Perl demonstration at the July Linux SIG meeting.

Tom said he will send the newsletter some information on some free Linux tools his group has found useful. He will also bring some CDs to the next meeting containing the latest version of Knoppix, some Mepis Cds, and The Open CD which contains free software for Windows.

Kevin Hopkins: Kevin lamented that it is becoming harder and harder to remain outside the influence of the Evil Empire. Everything seems to be Windows or Windows related. His digital camera incident had him momentarily desiring a Windows machine to try it out on.

Turning to business, Kevin reported that due to vacation plans he will not be able to do the newsletter for July. Kevin Hisel offered to see that one was sent out. The two Kevins will make arrangements to see that this is covered.

Kevin Hisel: Kevin intimated that we might have a special guest at the July meeting. He's a former member and you'll just have to come to see who it 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 MP3 collection.

We also have another program for anyone who will review it, QuickReply. This one is an email program aimed mainly at businesses that need automated mailings and replies.

Emil Cobb: Emil reported that we had 18 members at the last meeting. 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 software updates to the next meeting.

The meeting wound down with a discussion of viruses.

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The Back Page:

The CUCUG is a not-for-profit corporation, originally organized in 1983 to support and advance the knowledge of area Commodore computer users. We've grown since then, now supporting PC, Macintosh and Linux platforms.

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

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/ .

CUCUG
912 Stratford Dr.
Champaign, IL
61821

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