News Common PC Mac CUCUG
The next CUCUG meeting will be held on our regular third Thursday of the month: Thursday, August 17th, at 7:00 pm, at the First Baptist Church of Champaign in Savoy. The Linux SIG convenes 45 minutes earlier, at 6:15 pm. Directions to the FBC-CS are at the end of this newsletter.
The August 17 gathering will be whatever it turns out to be. I requested information about what was planned and received none in return, so your guess is as good as mine. I'm sure we'll have a good time, though - we always do. Come and see what your friends have been up to in the last month.
ToC
By Michael Kanellos
Story last modified Mon Aug 14 16:38:20 PDT 2006
URL: http://news.com.com/Dell+to+recall+4+million+batteries/2100-1044_3-6105486.html
Dell and the U.S. Products and Safety Commission plan to recall 4.1 million notebook batteries on Tuesday, a company representative confirmed Monday.
The recall affects certain Inspiron, Latitude and Precision mobile workstations and XPS units shipped between April 2004 and July 18, 2006. Sony manufactured the batteries that are being recalled, the representative said.
If they have one of the affected units, consumers are advised to eject the battery from the notebook after powering down and continue using the notebook with its AC power adapter, the CPSC said. Dell has so far received six reports of overheating units that caused property damage, but no injuries.
Dell has faced several issues this year related to exploding or flaming notebooks, and wants to ensure the safety of its customers, the representative said. The 4.1 million units is a subset of the 22 million units shipped during that time frame, he said.
At the moment, this looks like the largest battery recall in the history of the electronics industry, said Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates. "The scale of it is phenomenal."
Customers will be able to go to a Dell Web site (http://www.dellbatteryprogram.com) to determine if they need a new battery. The Web site is expected to go live tomorrow. Dell also plans to launch a toll-free number, 1-866-342-0011, for people affected by the situation, IDC analyst Richard Shim said.
"It's a huge deal," Shim said, particularly for Dell customers with employees in remote locations or traveling. "If you have people all over the field, then you're asking folks to send in the batteries and run off just AC (alternating current power) until they can get new batteries shipped out to them."
Dell had only six incidents over millions of units, Shim said, but it's "a dangerous situation."
Lithium ion batteries have two to three times the energy density of nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal hydride batteries and four times the energy density of lead-acid batteries. Higher energy density translates to longer battery life. Lithium ion batteries are used in consumer electronics and notebooks, which only require a limited amount of energy. Hybrid cars and power tools, however, generally use more traditional batteries, in part because of the risk of explosion. In other news:
- Sun turns server plug inside out
- Open source grows beyond its roots
- Digital doctoring: Pictures that lie
- News.com Extra: RIAA pursues case against dead man's family
- Video: Does privacy still exist in Internet age?
The problems Dell is having stem from impurities within the anode and cathode of the battery, said Kay, who was briefed on the problems by Dell executives. Over time, those impurities, usually tiny pieces of metal, can work their way to the edge of the anode or cathode and rupture the isolator that sits between the two, he said. Once that happens, you get a short circuit and perhaps a fire.
In cell phones, lithium ion batteries can overheat because of a short circuit. If temperature rises slowly, the battery case may melt. If it rises rapidly, however, enough pressure may be generated to create a small explosion in a lithium ion battery. Consumers have suffered severe burns as a result of these failures. The chemical reaction that produces energy in a lithium-ion battery is considered quite violent.
Several companies, including Valence Technology and PowerGenix, are working on safer lithium ion batteries or batteries which rely on different chemicals.
"The timing of this does buy Dell goodwill with customers and potential customers," said Sam Bhavnani, an analyst with Current Analysis. The first pictures of exploding laptops were posted in June, and the company has moved fairly quickly to investigate whether or not the problems were isolated or more widespread, he said.
CNET News.com's Stephen Shankland contributed to this report.
ToC
by Ed Serbe
Saturday, August 13, 2006
I saw a rock show this evening. I haven't been to one for many years. Fat City Saloon in Champaign, IL hosted the 40th Anniversary Reunion of the Red Lion Inn this weekend featuring several of the favorite bands from it's heyday. The 3 day event raised money to support the High School and Middle School bands in the area.
As one of the old fogeys that remembers the live rock from that era, and specifically the Red Lion Inn on Green Street at the University of Illinois campus, it was great fun.
I went specifically to see The Rave because I have known Herbert Tareyton (aka Kevin Hisel) for over a decade from being a member of CUCUG. I had not, however, seen this band play before and I was intrigued about how the mild mannered man I know could perform on stage.
Quite simply, the band ROCKED.
They are not a heavy metal band, more a good-time band, but very loud and very high energy. The people gathered in the tent were there for a good time and to bring back some memories.
It was interesting seeing the ages in the crowd. There were very many who obviously remember the Lion. Some, I think, like me have been away from that scene for some time and were ready for the show.
The weather was perfect, cool and dry. The drinks were flowing and the decibels were intense.
Kevin remarked from the stage that the crowd was "too kind". The band really have talent, but they are not kids anymore. The voices may have cracked (a little) and the fingers may have slipped on the guitar strings (just a little), that didn't matter. That is not the point. The energy level in the tent was amazing.
The crowd was UP from the first song. But then, as their set continued, it grew. By the time they played their last few songs, the energy level coming back from us was rivaling the intensity (and volume) coming from the stage.
The band absolutely felt it. They seemed surprised, but they had a great time and so did we.
The evening was not about studio perfection, it was about high energy and great spirit.
The Rave MORE THAN DELIVERED!
Thanks guys, GREAT SHOW!
[Editor's Note: La Rochefoucauld wrote in his "Maxims" that "In the misfortune of our friends we find something that is not displeasing to us." This was utterly not the case with The Rave's performance on Saturday night. I absolutely delighted in seeing my friend, Kevin Hisel, tearing up the stage as he used to do. (Yeah, I was there back then. too.) I don't think I've seen him happier. I have to disagree with Ed (a little), I didn't see any faltering at all. Afterward, Kevin said they'd made a few mistakes, but anyone who knows the man knows him to be the consummate professional - very high standards. The Rave came roaring out of the gate with their high powered pop, dancing through a set of standard Rave fan favorites: "New York New York", "Test Tube Babies", "Blue Crusties". They even added a brand new tune "Dance of the Teenagers" and a killer rendition of Frank Sinatra's "It Was A Very Good Year," tipping the hat to the passage of time. But the bedrock talent of this band has not diminished in the least. What the wider world missed by not giving these guys "their head" is a real loss. La Rochefoucauld be damned. The Rave rocks! Check it out yourself - http://www.theraveband.com .]
ToC
By MICHAEL BARBARO and TOM ZELLER Jr.
Published: August 9, 2006
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/09aol.html?ei=5094&en=9b5fd9ff341e3216&hp=&ex=1155182400&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1155128649-jdch/UW7Qriw2HnV1f0Bww
Buried in a list of 20 million Web search queries collected by AOL and recently released on the Internet is user No. 4417749. The number was assigned by the company to protect the searcher's anonymity, but it was not much of a shield.
Thelma Arnold's identity was betrayed by AOL records of her Web searches, like ones for her dog, Dudley, who clearly has a problem.
No. 4417749 conducted hundreds of searches over a three-month period on topics ranging from "numb fingers" to "60 single men" to "dog that urinates on everything."
And search by search, click by click, the identity of AOL user No. 4417749 became easier to discern. There are queries for "landscapers in Lilburn, Ga," several people with the last name Arnold and "homes sold in shadow lake subdivision gwinnett county georgia."
It did not take much investigating to follow that data trail to Thelma Arnold, a 62-year-old widow who lives in Lilburn, Ga., frequently researches her friends' medical ailments and loves her three dogs. "Those are my searches," she said, after a reporter read part of the list to her.
AOL removed the search data from its site over the weekend and apologized for its release, saying it was an unauthorized move by a team that had hoped it would benefit academic researchers.
But the detailed records of searches conducted by Ms. Arnold and 657,000 other Americans, copies of which continue to circulate online, underscore how much people unintentionally reveal about themselves when they use search engines - and how risky it can be for companies like AOL, Google and Yahoo to compile such data.
Those risks have long pitted privacy advocates against online marketers and other Internet companies seeking to profit from the Internet's unique ability to track the comings and goings of users, allowing for more focused and therefore more lucrative advertising.
But the unintended consequences of all that data being compiled, stored and cross-linked are what Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy rights group in Washington, called "a ticking privacy time bomb."
Mr. Rotenberg pointed to Google's own joust earlier this year with the Justice Department over a subpoena for some of its search data. The company successfully fended off the agency's demand in court, but several other search companies, including AOL, complied. The Justice Department sought the information to help it defend a challenge to a law that is meant to shield children from sexually explicit material.
"We supported Google at the time," Mr. Rotenberg said, "but we also said that it was a mistake for Google to be saving so much information because it creates a risk."
Ms. Arnold, who agreed to discuss her searches with a reporter, said she was shocked to hear that AOL had saved and published three months' worth of them. "My goodness, it's my whole personal life," she said. "I had no idea somebody was looking over my shoulder."
In the privacy of her four-bedroom home, Ms. Arnold searched for the answers to scores of life's questions, big and small. How could she buy "school supplies for Iraq children"? What is the "safest place to live"? What is "the best season to visit Italy"?
Her searches are a catalog of intentions, curiosity, anxieties and quotidian questions. There was the day in May, for example, when she typed in "termites," then "tea for good health" then "mature living," all within a few hours.
Her queries mirror millions of those captured in AOL's database, which reveal the concerns of expectant mothers, cancer patients, college students and music lovers. User No. 2178 searches for "foods to avoid when breast feeding." No. 3482401 seeks guidance on "calorie counting." No. 3483689 searches for the songs "Time After Time" and "Wind Beneath My Wings."
At times, the searches appear to betray intimate emotions and personal dilemmas. No. 3505202 asks about "depression and medical leave." No. 7268042 types "fear that spouse contemplating cheating."
There are also many thousands of sexual queries, along with searches about "child porno" and "how to kill oneself by natural gas" that raise questions about what legal authorities can and should do with such information.
But while these searches can tell the casual observer - or the sociologist or the marketer - much about the person who typed them, they can also prove highly misleading.
At first glance, it might appear that Ms. Arnold fears she is suffering from a wide range of ailments. Her search history includes "hand tremors," "nicotine effects on the body," "dry mouth" and "bipolar." But in an interview, Ms. Arnold said she routinely researched medical conditions for her friends to assuage their anxieties. Explaining her queries about nicotine, for example, she said: "I have a friend who needs to quit smoking and I want to help her do it."
Asked about Ms. Arnold, an AOL spokesman, Andrew Weinstein, reiterated the company's position that the data release was a mistake. "We apologize specifically to her," he said. "There is not a whole lot we can do."
Mr. Weinstein said he knew of no other cases thus far where users had been identified as a result of the search data, but he was not surprised. "We acknowledged that there was information that could potentially lead to people being identified, which is why we were so angry."
AOL keeps a record of each user's search queries for one month, Mr. Weinstein said. This allows users to refer back to previous searches and is also used by AOL to improve the quality of its search technology. The three-month data that was released came from a special system meant for AOL's internal researchers that does not record the users' AOL screen names, he said.
Several bloggers claimed yesterday to have identified other AOL users by examining data, while others hunted for particularly entertaining or shocking search histories. Some programmers made this easier by setting up Web sites that let people search the database of searches.
John Battelle, the author of the 2005 book "The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture," said AOL's misstep, while unfortunate, could have a silver lining if people began to understand just what was at stake. In his book, he says search engines are mining the priceless "database of intentions" formed by the world's search requests.
"It's only by these kinds of screw-ups and unintended behind-the-curtain views that we can push this dialogue along," Mr. Battelle said. "As unhappy as I am to see this data on people leaked, I'm heartened that we will have this conversation as a culture, which is long overdue."
Ms. Arnold says she loves online research, but the disclosure of her searches has left her disillusioned. In response, she plans to drop her AOL subscription. "We all have a right to privacy," she said. "Nobody should have found this all out."
[Editor's Note: My thanks to David Noreen for the contribution of this article to the newsletter. There's another take on this event at http://news.com.com/2100-1030-6103098.html]
ToC
by Glenn Fleishman <glenn@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#841/07-Aug-06
America Online[28] dropped a fee bomb last week: You can use their antiquated, funky, irritating software with an AOL account at no cost, as long as you don't want to use dial-up Internet access. Dial-up accounts cost just $10 per month for unlimited usage and unlimited customer support. (Some press reports stated that dial-up service would remain nearly $26 per month for unlimited use and that the free accounts wouldn't be available until September. Rather, $26 per month accounts will drop in price to $10 per month for existing subscribers over what appears to be a one-month transition. Current broadband-only users pay about $15 per month, and that fee will disappear.)
AOL has 18 million subscribers, but lost one million in the second quarter. All dial-up service providers, including EarthLink, AOL, and even a corporate reseller called iPass, are seeing significant quarter-over-quarter declines as U.S. users switch to broadband Internet service.
Having dealt with AOL in the past, I wanted to see this with my own eyes. I went to AOL's Web site, clicked Sign Up Now in the upper right corner, and was offered free (bring your own bandwidth) or $10 per month for unlimited dial-up connectivity. My in-laws have been paying the $10 per month rate for unlimited use for some time, and I previously thought it was a billing error. Now I think AOL has quietly been ratcheting the cost down to customers who complain (as my in-laws did) during the transition period. They're now broadband users and will keep AOL, since they don't want to get new email addresses at the moment.
AOL says that they will make money through - volume! Underpants gnomes! Spaghetti feeds! Advertising! Guess which one of those four is true. The company also expects to save oodles of money by dropping thousands of employees who deal with issues of billing, payment, and associated matters, and the elimination of four million billion tons of AOL CD-ROM inserts and mailings. The company also believes that selling ads to what they expect will be a new, larger audience will produce better returns. (About 1,300 customer service job cuts were announced in May, and 5,000 on 03-Aug-06[29]. AOL currently employs about 19,000 employees worldwide.)
What can AOL offer you? If you like their form of newsgroups and chat, walled-garden news sites, and horrible, horrible email, then it's for you. I have a hard time seeing how AOL offers anything unique within its package. Its Web-based interface for email is not bad at all, by contrast, and a number of Web-only services are just fine. And AOL Instant Messenger forms the basis for Apple's iChat services.
Oh, and AOL wants to give you 5 GB of free online storage, too[30]. AOL acquired online storage firm Xdrive almost precisely a year ago[31]. The company currently charges $10 per month for single-user access to 5 GB. (Larger amounts of storage and workgroups cost extra, and they work hard to hide the pricing link[32].)
Xdrive will start offering 5 GB of online storage for personal use to all comers in early September. These accounts offer ways to create public folders to let others retrieve files. Offering this amount of storage for free raises the bar on Internet-based storage in the same way that Google's Gmail[33] - now in its second year as a public beta! - did for free and cheap email storage, transfers, and attachments.
What all this means for AOL is hard to say. AOL's software still stinks. AOL's email filtering is highly erratic. Any of us who run mailing lists are familiar with suddenly having all of our double opt-in, fully approved AOL users bounce our email for some obscure reason that's impossible to address directly with AOL.
And, well, AOL has betrayed users' general trust over and over again, primarily in terms of its unpleasant, legally proven behavior in making it almost impossible to stop being charged for their service. This will all change when AOL becomes uninterested in collecting user revenue, and the marketing machine is replaced by an advertising machine.
On the other hand, the apparently purposeful but unauthorized-from-the-top release 10 days ago of some 20 million search queries entered by over 650,000 AOL Search users[34] during a recent three-month period shows that AOL may still not have the right internal controls and sensibility that benefits our interest. The data were intended for academic research, but the keyword searches were organized by user, and were not "anonymized" by having identifiable queries and private data removed. AOL pulled the data today and apologized, but it's far too late to put that downloaded-genie back in the bottle.
Do we need and trust AOL in a world of a billion other Web sites, many of them offering better features and run with better oversight? They'll have to show us why.
ToC
Written and produced by John Anderson (mediaminutes@freepress.net)
Media Minutes: August 4, 2006
Audio: http://freepress.net/mediaminutes/archive/mm080406.mp3
Text: http://freepress.net/mediaminutes/transcripts/mm080406.pdf
The phone and cable companies leading the push to do away with network neutrality online say they need to charge Internet users more in order to build more capacity into their networks. Overlooking the fact that in the 1990s various federal and state laws were changed to give telecom companies incentives to build out mega-broadband networks - and that they recouped some $200 billion from a project on which they did not deliver - these companies aren't exactly hurting for cash today.
For example, AT&T's financial figures for the second quarter of 2006 have been released - and it's been a very good year so far. AT&T's profits are up 81% from just a year ago; the conglomerate made nearly $2 billion in profit between April and June, on almost $16 billion in revenue. It can attribute a part of its good fortune to an influx of cash from the merger of AT&T with SBC last year, as well as the layoff of several thousand employees since the start of 2006, more than half of whom lost their jobs in the second quarter. The company now expects profit margins on its products to rise as high as 18%.
Even the smallest of the Baby Bells, Qwest, has turned a healthy profit so far this year - something it hasn't done since the year 2000.
As for the cable companies, the largest of the bunch, Comcast, is also rolling in the dough. It made $460 million in profits during the second quarter of this year, up seven percent over last year, and it expects yearly earnings to rise some 13%. Shares of stock in Comcast have risen 20% in the last three months. However, Comcast at least admits that it's benefiting from a lack of competition between phone and cable companies - they compete just as much as they need to, but neither side are slashing prices in order to try and woo the other's consumers. That's the definition of duopoly in a nutshell.
This is how they can spend some $100 million dollars on high-stakes lobbying and misleading astroturf PR campaigns attacking the principle of network neutrality. The latter has attracted the attention of a group of public relations professionals, who now call the practice of using fake grassroots organizations, quote, "anti-democratic, unethical, immoral, and often illegal," and are working on a campaign to raise awareness of the tactic and convince other PR professionals to stop using it.
And finally, here's a good example of how the lack of network neutrality leads to higher prices and less consumer freedom: Cingular wireless, a joint venture of AT&T and BellSouth (which AT&T is the process of purchasing), has announced plans to charge customers with older cell phones an extra $5 a month starting next month. Cingular wants to phase out older phones which are only partially compatible with its new wireless network infrastructure. Nearly five million people will be forced to pay extra, either through the new charge or by buying a newer, more expensive phone. And will these new technologies actually bring benefits to the consumer? That depends on who your cell phone service provider is. For example, Verizon has disabled several features on many of its phones, like the ability to download and play music and games, unless the content comes from a Verizon-approved source. If network neutrality disappears from the Internet, it'll end up more closely resembling such closed networks as cell phone and cable systems.
One of the nice features about digital video recorders has been the functionality which allows TV viewers to skip past the advertisements in their favorite shows. But Philips Electronics has a change of plans in mind. This spring the company filed for a patent on technology that would disable the fast-forward button on remote controls - unless the hapless viewer paid a fee for the special privilege of skipping past the ads. According to market research into the use of DVRs, two out of three users skip through commercial breaks.
Relatedly, the manufacturers of the Tivo digital video recorder plan to open up its customer research to media executives interested in viewing habits. How do they get this information? Every night, 20,000 of the estimated four million Tivo units in circulation report back to corporate headquarters with information on what its owners watched on television that evening and how they watched it. Some advertisers use that information to tweak their spots in hopes of enticing more viewers to actually watch them. While Tivo does disclose to customers that it collects information on their viewing habits, that does not extend to personal information, although at least one Tivo executive would like to see that catalogued as well.
---Related Links:
ToCAnti-Astroturf Campaign - http://www.freepress.net/news/16726
Bad Karma for AT&T and Verizon - http://www.freepress.net/news/16735
Comcast Reaps as Price War Fails to Materialize - http://www.freepress.net/news/16774
Earnings at New AT&T rise 80% - http://www.freepress.net/news/16725
Philips Patent App Would Force You to Watch Commercials - http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/18/philips-patent-app-would-force-you-to-watch-commercials-both-li/
Save the Internet - http://www.savetheinternet.com/
Today''s Cell Phone System Argues for Retaining Network Neutrality - http://business.newsforge.com/business/06/07/19/206209.shtml?tid=138&tid=3
What's a Broadband Duopoly? - http://www.freepress.net/news/16568
Written and produced by John Anderson (mediaminutes@freepress.net)
Media Minutes: July 21, 2006
Audio: http://freepress.net/mediaminutes/archive/mm072106.mp3
Text: http://freepress.net/mediaminutes/transcripts/mm072106.pdf
On July 17th, the so-called "father" and "grandfather" of the Internet squared off in a debate over the principle of network neutrality. Vint Cerf - who developed the network protocols on which the Internet functions and is now Chief Internet Evangelist for Google - and Dave Farber - former FCC Chief Technologist and professor of Computer Science and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University - held forth in front of an audience at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C.
Cerf spoke eloquently as to why data discrimination based on wealth would destroy the democratic nature of the Internet. And Farber - who's been labeled the "grandfather" of the Internet by phone and cable companies, because he advised many scientists who later went on to work on the Internet - agreed with him. In fact, one did not get the sense from listening to Farber that he's actually opposed to network neutrality. Whereas opponents to network neutrality assure us that any instances of data discrimination could be easily addressed by the FCC, Farber did not agree.
Dave Farber: "Its responses can be challenged in the courts, and things can be strung out and the regulatory mechanisms become part of your competitive edge."
When questioned about the comments of AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre and others, who claim they have a right to extract more money from Internet users of all shapes and sizes because they own key parts of the U.S. broadband network infrastructure, Farber did not agree.
Dave Farber: "It is beyond me why Whitacre actually stirred up this hornet's nest. Reading his past history, he's not a sort of wildcard, and yet, I don't understand the reason for it."
In fact, both Cerf and Farber recognized a need for some sort of legal guarantee that phone and cable companies would not use their duopoly over broadband connectivity to restrict access to information online. And although the phone and cable companies that have used Farber as a foil to fight network neutrality don't like the idea of any government involvement in the issue, Farber does not agree.
Dave Farber: "The focus of this should not be, in my opinion, protecting companies against companies. It should be protecting the users against companies in general."
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, the head of the Senate Commerce Committee, Ted Stevens, is turning to phone and cable companies for help to push telecom legislation that lacks a net neutrality guarantee toward a vote on the Senate floor. Aides for the Alaska Republican held a big meeting earlier this month with industry lobbyists and asked them to go to every Senator and perform some reconnaissance on their feelings for Internet freedom. A vote on the Stevens bill is not expected now until September at the earliest.
The battle for network neutrality here may have repercussions felt around the world. Borrowing talking points from the chiefs of AT&T and Verizon, who want to double- charge for the information that flows through their networks, Germany's Deutsche Telekom is calling on German and European Union regulators to allow data discrimination on the company's new fiber-optic network, which forms the backbone for a service that provides nearly ten times the amount of bandwidth compared to what U.S. phone and cable companies currently offer. If it's not allowed to discriminate, Deutche Telekom says it might halt network upgrades and lay off a slew of workers. Telecom executives in Italy are making similar noises.
But at least one member of the European Union Information Society has responded to these threats by noting that just because broadband is now in vogue does not mean that it's proper to, quote, "establish new monopolies on the basis of old ones." Just last month the European Commission issued a strong statement in support of a non-discriminatory online environment. For what it's worth, British and France Telecom are both on record in support of the principle of network neutrality, though it's not written down anywhere in their policies.
Because the Internet is actually a patchwork of different networks, a loss of net neutrality here will be felt overseas. U.S. lawmakers thus have a chance not only to preserve Internet freedom at home, but abroad as well, by setting the tone for global debate on the issue.
---Related Links:
ToCIch bin ein Broadbander: Deutsche Telekom Takes A Page From The Verizon/AT&T Playbook - http://telecom.seekingalpha.com/article/8261
National Journal: Senate Panel Rallying Industry in Support of Telecom Measure - http://freepress.net/news/16600
Net neutrality: a tale of two internets - http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,20411-2267110,00.html
The End User: Neutrality? Yes and no - http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/21/business/ptend22.php
The Great Debate: What is Net Neutrality? - http://www.americanprogress.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=594153&content_id=%7B62C7AD8C-AA52-4719-909D-D5D50FD15A
Wikipedia: David J. Farber - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._Farber
Wikipedia: Vint Cerf - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vint_Cerf
Paul Thurrott
URL: http://www.wininformant.com/
25 years ago this Saturday, IBM did the unthinkable, entering the personal computer business with its first-ever microcomputer, the IBM PC 5150. For about $1500, users could get a system that was about as technically sophisticated as the $300 Commodore 64, but with three major differences: The IBM was expandable like an Apple II, could run a number of operating systems, and was backed by the world's most powerful computer company. The first IBM PC was an awfully conservative machine in many ways, but it revolutionized personal computing by making it legitimate and, eventually, by setting the stage for the clone market, which established the PC as a de facto standard that continues to this day. Like most excellent technologies, the original IBM PC was developed by a small, skunk works-style group outside of the mainstream of the company that paid the bills (similar to the original Macintosh group at Apple). Sadly, IBM has since exited the PC business, but there are over 1 billion PCs in use around the globe, and virtually all of them owe their existence to IBM's decision to enter the market 25 years ago.
Last week, hackers at the Black Hat security conference got their mitts on Windows Vista and came away pretty impressed, which, frankly, actually surprised me. This week, Microsoft revealed that it had hooked up with hackers at Black Hat only after the OS got a resounding thumbs-up from the world's legitimate security professionals. These so-called "white hat" hackers have been pushing at Vista's security features for several months and, like their black hat brethren, they like what they see. Honestly, it says a lot that Microsoft is willing to put Vista under such scrutiny at this stage, and they must really believe they've created a reasonably secure system. Of course, they believed that about XP as well. Cross those fingers.
At Apple's almost self-destructively boring World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote this week, Steve Jobs and company took pot-shot after pot-shoot after Microsoft and Windows Vista, which is odd when you consider that Microsoft and its Office product kept the company afloat less than ten years ago and that half of OS X's features seem to have been culled directly from Vista. Many in the Windows community, normally oblivious to the noise from the smaller Apple camp, have taken umbrage at Apple's baloney. I guess I have too, though of course, Apple does of course score a few points as well (this is real life, and not a fictional black and white universe). I've written up my feelings about Apple's Leopard preview at WWDC on the SuperSite for Windows (http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/macosx_leopard_preview.asp).
Here's one of the more interesting factoids that came out of last week's Microsoft Financial Analyst Meeting 2006: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that a single mistake led to Vista's multitude of delays. But I'm guessing that if he could go back and develop Vista in the same way all over again, he would. "We made an upfront decision that was, I'll say, incredibly strategic and brilliant and wise ... and was not implementable," Ballmer told financial analysts, explaining away the past four years in about nine seconds. "We tried to incubate too many new innovations and integrate them simultaneously, as opposed to letting them bake and then integrating them, which is essentially where we wound up." Bake and integrate--that's the ticket.
So, Intel has finally caught up with--some might say "surpassed"--AMD with its new line of Core 2 Duo microprocessors, but it looks like the damage has already been done--AMD has moved up in the processor market. In the quarter ending June 30, AMD snagged 25.9 percent of the market for server processors, up from 16.2 percent in the same quarter a year ago. So much for the theory that Intel is unassailable: That's a serious increase and certainly greater than anything AMD has been able to achieve in the desktop market. I wonder how much Dell had to do with it.
Windows kernel guru Mark Russinovich has spent his first week at Microsoft and one of the more interesting points he made this week in his blog ( http://www.sysinternals.com/Blog ) is that the Sysinternals tools will remain free. This is good news, because many people assumed that these tools would be sucked into the Microsoft monolith, never to return. "I'm pleased to report that Microsoft's number-one priority is not only keeping the tools freely available, but preserving the Sysinternals community including the newsletter, the forums, and my blog," he wrote. "While we're still brainstorming how to make this successful in the long term, I'm pleased to announce the first step in the transition, which is the introduction of a new Sysinternals EULA, that I believe is even more permissive than the EULA in place before the Microsoft acquisition, since it allows for wider use of Sysinternals utilities within a company." Go, Mark.
ToC
By Nate Mook, BetaNews
August 10, 2006, 1:22 PM
Giving enthusiasts a taste of what's coming, Microsoft has released a trial version of its much-anticipated Flight Simulator X (http://fileforum.betanews.com/sendfile/1155224166/1/fsxprereleasedemo.exe), which celebrates 25 years of the popular franchise and will be fully optimized for Windows Vista. The demo includes two airports, three missions, and three different aircraft.
Flight Simulator X is compatible with Windows XP SP2 and Vista, requiring 14GB of hard drive space and a DirectX 9 capable graphics card. The new title is expected to fully launch in time for the holiday season in a Standard edition and a Deluxe edition that adds more airplanes, airports, cities and missions. Microsoft is also building in an online component to Flight Simulator X.
ToC
Mark Joseph Edwards
WinInfo
URL: http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/92999/92999.html
Those who use Microsoft's anti-malware solution, Windows Defender, will probably notice that during the next two weeks Microsoft will test its malware signature update pipeline by publishing updates daily instead of bi-weekly. The daily updates will begin August 1 and run through August 15, Monday through Friday. After the testing period the company will revert to bi-weekly updates.
Adam Overton, Group Program Manager at Microsoft, said that "[with the] new process [we] will be able to release updates on a more flexible schedule at any day including weekends and holidays for emergency situations. We want to understand how well the new process satisfies a daily release cycle, and receive customer feedback during this trial period." Overton asked that people post their related experiences to the company's Windows Defender newsgroups.
Windows Defender, currently in its second phase of beta testing, is available for Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 or later, Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or later, and Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 or later.
ToC
First, Microsoft turned its back on its digital media partners because they were unable to come up with designs cool enough to thwart Apple's iPod. Now, the company might be doing something similar in the PC market. After years of trying to convince PC makers that they need to ship better-looking PCs, Microsoft has given up and is now designing its own PCs in-house. However, these PCs won't be sold directly to the public. Instead, Microsoft will offer its designs to PC makers, along with instructions for making the PCs integrate better with Vista. The hope is that PC makers will see the light and become more bold and innovative. But because that will never happen, perhaps it's only a matter of time before Microsoft gets into the PC business.
ToC
Posted By: John Quigley
URL: http://www.activewin.com/awin/default.asp
Ta da! It's the next-generation MSN Messenger. Along with everything you already love about Messenger - your contact list, emoticons, and instant access to your friends - there are brilliant new ways to connect and share photos (and other stuff). As always, it's free to download Messenger and use most of its features.Quick links PC-to-PC Calling Telephone calling, too Even better video conversations Sharing Folders Text message their phones Your two-way, super-powered address book Windows Live Alerts New: Talk to your Yahoo! friends, too (http://get.live.com/messenger/overview)
ToC
URL: http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/
CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. That removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space. The best part is that it's fast! (normally taking less that a second to run) and Free.
Cleans the following:
- Internet Explorer Cache, History, Cookies, Index.dat.
- Recycle Bin, Temporary files and Log files.
- Recently opened URLs and files.
- Third-party application temp files and recent file lists (MRUs). Including: Firefox, Opera, Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, Office XP, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and more...
- Advanced Registry scanner and cleaner to remove unused and old entries. Including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more... Backup for registry clean.
- Windows Startup tool.
If you like and use this software then it is polite to make a donation to the author.
ToC
[Editor's Note: My thanks to Kevin Hisel for the contributions to this section of the newsletter.]
ToC
TidBITS#839/24-Jul-06
Apple continued its succession of profitable quarters by announcing a $472 million profit for the third financial quarter of 2006, based on revenues of $4.37 billion. Those rosy numbers arrive thanks to sales of 1,327,000 Macintosh computers (compared to 1.1 million last quarter, and up 12 percent over the year-ago quarter), and 8,111,000 iPods (which is slightly down from the 8.5 million iPods shipped last quarter, but 32 percent better than a year ago). [JLC]
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1046>
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/jul/19results.html>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08504>
by TidBITS Staff <editors@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#841/07-Aug-06
Apple completed its transition to Intel-based computers today with the release of the new Mac Pro desktop and Xserve server machines, throwing significant weight at the top end of the Mac line and replacing the old Power Mac G5 and Xserve G5.
The Mac Pro[35] shares the same aluminum enclosure as the Power Mac G5, but inside, it's no mere speed bump. The Mac Pro is powered by two 64-bit, dual-core Intel Xeon 5100 series processors[36] running at up to 3 GHz, with 4 MB of shared L2 cache per processor. Replacing the PowerPC G5's AltiVec graphics processor is a 128-bit SSE3 vector engine that Apple claims is faster than its predecessor. Not surprisingly, Apple claims everything is faster on this machine, from performance per watt (3 times better than the Power Mac G5 Quad) to general usage (1.6 to 2.1 times faster).
The Mac Pro can accommodate up to 2 TB (terabytes) of hard drive storage in four internal Serial ATA hard drive bays, which are easily swappable in slide-in carriers (similar to the bays in the Xserve). Four PCI Express slots are available for further expansion, one of which is double-wide to accommodate today's high-end graphics cards. There are also two bays for optical drives: a 16x SuperDrive comes standard, and the other bay can be configured with a second SuperDrive. Although Apple is emphasizing how convenient it can be to burn two discs at once, we suspect that the real reason for dual optical drives is preparation for including an internal Blu-ray or HD-DVD burner in the future. (Roxio recently announced Blu-ray burning support in the next version of Toast[37], and DVD Studio Pro[38] already supports encoding HD-DVD discs.)
The Mac Pro is available now in a single configuration for a base price of $2,500, which includes dual 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors, 1 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 memory, an Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT graphics card with 256 MB of memory, a 16x SuperDrive, and a 250 GB SATA hard drive. Other options are available as build-to-order options, such as 2 GHz or 3 GHz processors, more memory (up to 16 GB), a second SuperDrive, more hard drives, and beefier graphics cards from Nvidia or ATI. Surprisingly, the base configuration does not include Bluetooth or AirPort Extreme wireless hardware (or a modem, but that's been the case for several revisions of Apple's desktop Macs).
Along with the new Mac Pro, Apple today announced an update to the Xserve[39] that replaces the PowerPC G5 with a pair of dual-core Intel Xeon processors running at 2.66 or 3.0 GHz. Other basic specs include a 1.33 GHz frontside bus per processor, 4 MB of L2 cache per processor, 1 GB of RAM (expandable to 32 GB), a built-in ATI Radeon X1300 PCI Express graphics card, and two open eight-lane PCI Express slots. In terms of storage, the Xserve comes with a 24x Combo drive (an 8x double-layer SuperDrive is available as an option), and three drive bays with one 80 GB SATA drive installed. You can install up to 2.25 TB of storage via SATA (Serial ATA[40]) or higher performance SAS (Serial Attached SCSI[41]) drives. Standard ports include a pair of FireWire 800 ports, one FireWire 400 port, two USB 2.0 ports, and a DB-9 serial port. As always, an unlimited client copy of Mac OS X Server 10.4[42] - which is reportedly a universal binary as of today - comes with the Xserve. Pricing remains the same, with the base configuration coming in at $3,000. Apple claims the new Xserve will ship in October 2006.
All those specs are nice enough, but not unexpected in a new Intel-based Mac. What is new, and highly welcome, is that the Xserve now features an optional second power supply, finally providing the redundant, hot-swappable power supplies that network administrators have been wanting for so long. Also welcome, according to Chuck Goolsbee of the hosting company digital.forest[43], is the return of a video card, which was lacking in the Xserve G5, much to the consternation of support staff who needed to reboot and manage hosted Xserves in certain crash situations. Those folks would also prefer the USB and video ports to be on the front of the Xserve, since some management tasks require access to the power button and optical drive, and speaking from experience with our Xserve at digital.forest, it's a pain to walk back and forth around the racks to swap CDs or toggle power, and in an entire rack of Xserves, it's a little tricky to keep track of which is which in the stack.
On the downside, Chuck was unhappy about the fact that the new Xserve is about 2 inches (5 cm) deeper than the previous Xserve models, which were already deep at 28 inches (71 cm). The extra depth means that the new Xserve won't fit inside many existing server cabinets, something that's also true of Dell servers (there the rationale seems to be to sell Dell server cabinets; it's not clear why Apple felt the need to extend the depth of the Xserve. digital.forest has already had to remove the doors on some of their cabinets, thus negating much of the point of a cabinet.
ToC
by TidBITS Staff <editors@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#841/07-Aug-06
At Apple's 2006 Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) today, Steve Jobs teased the assembled developers with details of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, the next major release of the Mac operating system that is due to ship sometime in "spring" (which we in the United States consider to be roughly the March to May 2007 time period). Jobs offered overviews of ten new or improved features to be found in Leopard, and coyly referred to other "top secret" features that weren't going to be shown so as to not encourage copying by Microsoft's Windows Vista developers (who received a fair bit of competitive ribbing at WWDC). Developer preview versions of Leopard were given to registered attendees of WWDC; we're concentrating here on the promised new features that end users will see, so those interested in Xcode 3.0[44], Leopard's 64-bit application support[45], and new CoreAnimation[46] framework will want to look elsewhere for immediate details.
Perhaps the most interesting development in Leopard as previewed by Steve Jobs is Time Machine[47], which promises a sort of file journaling - automatic incremental backups of an entire file system of any changed files at whatever time you pick. In Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, Apple added hard disk journaling, in which changes to directory structures were noted in a special file that could be retrieved on a crash, dramatically reducing the chance of directory corruption and reducing repair time. With Time Machine, Apple is extending this concept to individual files and more. Jobs claimed that a complete Time Machine backup could be used to restore an entire machine, system and all. Neat as it is, the concept isn't new; Time Machine sounds similar to Rewind[48], an application offered for Mac OS 8 and 9 by Power On Software.)
Time Machine can back up specific folders or files, too, and it can write data to a hard disk or a server, although Jobs didn't define whether that meant a network-mounted drive or a client-server software pair. In his demonstration, a series of receding screens represent restore points for files that you're looking at, with a star field to indicate motion over time. Jobs located a file he had previously deleted by zooming back through time (either by clicking arrows or a timeline along the edge of the screen), and then clicked Restore to retrieve the file. A QuickTime movie on the Leopard preview site shows a similar example. A black hole or a wormhole appears behind all the zoomed files: watch out for that deletion event horizon when all files become infinitely long.
It's unclear from details released to this point whether you can force Time Machine to keep a certain number of backups (and no more) of particular files or folders, or whether you can, for security or privacy reasons, delete all backups for a particular file. Time Machine can be tied into individual programs, and it's already part of the next version of iPhoto (which was used in the demo). Individual photos could be restored or reverted within the application using Time Machine's interface, without rooting around in iPhoto's Trash or having to sort out where a particular file is located. The example of Address Book in the QuickTime video is even more compelling: you see where an entry was deleted and can restore that. Many programs that have internal representations of data within a database would benefit from Time Machine integration, too, by backing up objects rather than an entire database.
Although Time Machine may introduce a host of related effects, including system slowdowns, and massive backup files when you modify, say, 2 GB MySQL tables (now we understand why the new Mac Pro offers up to 2 TB of storage), for users that simply want the state of their system constantly recorded for easy retrieval after a catastrophe, there's nothing like this on the Mac.
Time Machine doesn't appear to mimic a much-loved Windows XP feature (if any feature in Windows XP could be so described) in which you can set a system restore point or in which Windows XP automatically creates one. With that feature, you can roll back to a previous working configuration when inevitable hardware driver conflicts occur. Deep Freeze[49] from Faronics provides those features for Mac users.
Does Time Machine threaten EMC Insignia's (formerly Dantz's) Retrospect? It would seem not, given Retrospect's client-server architecture and scheduling tools that probably won't be found in Time Machine. Rather, Time Machine makes moot Apple's own Backup software, which has always been a kludgy and difficult package, even with its recent improvements. Better still, Time Machine will be an integral part of Leopard and won't be in any way tied to .Mac, although one could back up to a .Mac iDisk or to other online storage that offers appropriate network volume mounting that Time Machine will recognize.
Working on a single monitor and wishing you had more screen space for all of your open applications and documents? Although we've been promoting the virtues of multiple monitor Macs since 1991, not everyone can afford more than one monitor, or the necessary desk space to accommodate it. To help users avoid the clutter that Steve Jobs so famously hates, Leopard will introduce Spaces, a virtual desktop feature that will enable you to group applications while working on tasks, so you'll only have to look at the windows that apply to what you're working on at any given moment. With typical Apple flair, your screen view rotates horizontally, vertically, or even diagonally to show the "hidden" monitor you'd like to work on next.
Like many features Apple has introduced for Mac OS X over the years, Spaces isn't a new concept; Unix windowing systems have long offered multiple virtual desktops so you could focus on one thing at a time, and third-party software such as VirtueDesktops[50] already lets Mac users switch among multiple virtual monitors.
We'll be able to switch Spaces by clicking an application's icon in the Dock (which will switch to the Space that application is living in), bring up an Expose-like thumbnail browser for selecting a Space or for dragging applications from one to another, or use keystrokes to rotate among the Spaces.
Not everyone is a fan of Spotlight, particularly those of us who mostly want to search for filenames and who find that Spotlight usually produces far too many results to be useful. Although relatively few details were available, it appears that Spotlight in Leopard[51] may prove a bit more helpful, thanks to the addition of Boolean search terms (AND, OR, and NOT) and the capability to search on metadata like author, type, or filename extension. A feature called QuickLook will provide a way to preview items in the results list without opening an application, and if you regularly work on multiple Macs on your network, you'll appreciate the capability to search across multiple machines simultaneously.
A few years ago Steve Jobs mentioned in a keynote address that Apple was "in the market" for new text-to-speech options to replace the aging voices such as Victoria and Fred that have been essentially unchanged since the Mac OS 9 days. Apparently he got what he wanted, because Leopard will feature a new synthesized voice called Alex that's dramatically better than both the current Apple voices and the current Windows voices. Among other subtle cues, this voice uses periodic "inhaling" sounds that add to its realism. It will also be available in several different languages, including Japanese and Chinese. The Alex voice, which even sounds clear when sped up dramatically, is one of the key features in Leopard's improved accessibility[52] offerings. VoiceOver in Leopard, which makes use of the Alex voice, will also feature improved navigation, positional cues delivered through stereo speakers or headphones, and greater customizability.
For the first time, Leopard will also offer direct support of Braille, using third-party Braille displays[53]. Rounding out the accessibility improvements, QuickTime in Leopard will feature closed captioning support for a synchronized text track alongside audio and video.
The Leopard version of Mail[54] will add several new features designed to enhance productivity and visual appeal. First is a template-based system that looks and acts remarkably like the interface for iWeb, Pages, and iDVD. Working from a predefined stationery file, you'll be able to drag in images from your iPhoto library, type or paste in text, and get a nicely formatted newsletter, announcement, invitation, or greeting. Mail will send your message as HTML, readable in most modern email clients. (Enhancements to the plain text messages that make up the vast majority of email communications, if any, were not mentioned.) In addition to starting with a template, you can apply a template after the fact to a message you've already composed. The new version of Mail will also provide a facility for you to create your own templates.
Mail will also offer Notes, which enable you to write notes to yourself that appear in your Inbox (as well as in a separate Notes mailbox) without having to email them. Notes support full formatting, and can contain images, PDF files, and other media content.
In addition, in the Leopard version of Mail, any email message - or any selected text within a message or note - can be turned into a To Do item with a single click. These To Dos can have due dates, priorities, and alarms, and the capability to create them will be available as a system-wide service. For example, iCal and Mail will share the same To Do list, and third-party developers will also be able to contribute or access these To Do items.
Mentioned on Apple's Web site but not demonstrated at the keynote was RSS support in Mail. You'll be able to subscribe to RSS feeds and have the articles appear in your Inbox; using Smart Mailboxes, you can also sort, group, or filter news articles. Presumably this is in addition to, rather than a replacement of, the RSS support in Safari.
No Tiger feature was as polarizing as Dashboard[55]: many people love it (as evidenced by the more than 2,500 widgets now shipping), and many people hate it (or just ignore it). The keynote crowd's initial reaction on hearing that Dashboard was one of the top 10 new features in Leopard was muted at best, but by the end of the demonstration, there was hearty cheering. What got everyone excited was a new feature called Web Clip, which will enable anyone to create a custom Dashboard widget from a portion of any Web page in seconds, with no coding at all. After navigating to the desired page in Safari, you'll click a toolbar button, which opens Dashboard and brings up your page in a new widget. Resize and reposition this widget to show just the portion of the page you're interested in, click Close, and you've got a new, dynamically updating widget that can display auction progress, a webcam, news headlines, or any other Web content (as long as the X-Y coordinates of the Web content don't change). You'll also be able to choose any of several themes to adjust your widget's border. Advertisers won't be happy about this feature, which will likely be used to extract content from ad-laden Web pages.
For developers, Leopard will also include Dashcode, a tool to assist in designing, developing, and debugging widgets. Continuing the Leopard theme of templates everywhere, Dashcode will include templates for common widget content such as RSS, podcasts, and images, which can be modified or expanded as needed. Dashcode will also feature a parts library for common controls such as search fields and buttons. Finally, Dashcode will provide visual editing of HTML and CSS, as well as a JavaScript editor and debugger. Looking for something to ease widget development now? Check out Widgetarium[56], from Gandreas Software.
Apple's iChat[57] instant messaging client, which provided audio and video chats in Mac OS X 10.3 and added multi-user audio and video chats in Mac OS X 10.4, promises to leap further ahead with several new capabilities, some reflecting most-requested features (or features already found in other chat clients) and others reflecting new technologies not found in anything but high-end collaboration software.
Multiple logins - the capability to sign on to more than one AIM or Jabber account at the same time - leads the list of most-requested features, along with invisibility (being able to hide from any but certain buddies), the capability to auto-rejoin chats if you're disconnected, and tabbed chatting, similar to the tabbed browsing feature in Safari. The latter will be a boon to anyone who regularly chats (separately) with more than one person at a time, and it matches similar features in such third-party chat clients as Fire[58] and Adium[59]. Other promised features that may or may not float your boat include animated buddy icons and enhanced parental controls.
More impressively, iChat in Leopard will also add the capability to share what's on your screen with chat buddies, such as slide shows from iPhoto or Keynote presentations in a virtual presentation room, or even full screen sharing. Apple says you'll be able to "browse the Web with a friend, or pick the perfect plane seats with your spouse," all while using iChat's audio chat feature to compare notes. We're more intrigued with the possibility of using full screen sharing to simplify remote tech support tasks.
Photo Booth's capability to squash your face and apply other effects to your image has proven so popular among younger iSight users that Apple has added real-time Photo Booth effects to iChat. Although we imagine this will hold limited amusement value for most of us, we know some five-year-olds who'll never get tired of turning on the funhouse mirror effect while chatting with aunts and uncles.
Perhaps something the rest of us will use more often is iChat's backgrounds feature, which magically replaces whatever's behind you in the frame with any still image, or even moving video, so you can appear to be on the beach or in Times Square while chatting with friends, or seem to be in your own office while playing hooky! (If these features sound intriguing to you, you don't have to wait until next year for Leopard, since many of them are available today in Script Software's $20 ChatFX[60] utility. Happily, as he posted on the Script Software blog[61], Julian Miller and the folks at Script Software aren't bitter about having a future version of iChat that copies their original ideas. No doubt by then they'll have a new version of ChatFX to do still niftier stuff, and we've heard that they're working on support for Skype and Yahoo Messenger.)
Apple's iCal[62] is popular with individuals, but it's seldom used by workgroups that need to maintain shared calendars - for instance, we use Now Software's Now Up-to-Date & Contact for that. iCal's single-user focus will change with Leopard, thanks to support for the CalDAV standard[63]. Apple claims that iCal in Leopard will enable multiple people to share a single group calendar, complete with access controls, and it will be possible to view the availability of group members before sending meeting invitations, although a new AutoSchedule feature attempts to find the best time for everyone to meet. Meetings can also be organized around resources such as particular conference rooms or projectors, and if you want people attending the meeting to preview a particular document, you can share it with them by simply dropping it on the event.
ToC
by Glenn Fleishman <glenn@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#841/07-Aug-06
VMware, a leading developer of virtualization technology, will offer an Intel-based Mac OS X version of their virtual machine software[6], while Microsoft will not revise Virtual PC[7] for Intel-based Macs, the two firms announced today during WWDC. Apple provided no new information in public statements about Boot Camp's integration[8] with next spring's release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. (Microsoft's FAQ on Intel support was not updated at this writing; we received word via press release.)
In general terms, virtualization software enables a computer to run one operating system parallel with another; for instance, virtualization software for Mac OS X might enable a user to run Mac OS X and Windows XP (or a distribution of Linux) side by side without switching from one to the other via rebooting. Robert Movin covered virtualization technologies[9] in TidBITS-825, and reviewed Parallels Desktop[10] in TidBITS-834.
VMware expects to release a beta version of their product "later this year," and offers a signup page[11] to signal interest in being part of that testing. More significant than VMware offering competition for running Intel-based operating systems within Mac OS X is the firm's plan to provide interchange support for disk images created on all platforms with each other. This support means that a virtual machine running on VMware's Windows XP client edition could be copied or mounted via a fast network shared volume on a Mac and run without conversion. VMware claims four million users.
Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit ended months of speculation about whether the division would update Virtual PC to work with Intel-based Macs. The company said it would have to start from scratch rather than revise current software, and stated that "alternative solutions" offered by Apple and others would do the trick.
Parallels has already released[12] their Parallels Desktop for Mac package for running Intel-based operating systems.
ToC
by Matt Neuburg <matt@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#842/14-Aug-06
The announcement last week from Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU)[7] that Virtual PC for Mac will be discontinued, and that future versions of Microsoft Office for Mac will lack support for Visual Basic macros, has sparked one of those rumor wildfires over which, as usual, cooler heads must prevail.
Virtual PC was always a desperate half-measure at best, sufficient (say) to test a cross-platform application built with REALbasic slowly, but not for serious Windows-based work. Personally, I won't miss it, and I look forward to acquiring an Intel-based Mac and running Parallels Desktop[8] so I can try Dragon Naturally Speaking[9] at last.
As for Visual Basic, the news seems to me almost entirely good. Visual Basic support in the Mac version of Office was always a crusty hack (just how crusty is made clear by Erik Schwiebert in his blog[10] and by Rick Schaut in his[11]), and was never on a par with the Windows version anyway; its removal will be, if anything, liberating.
The real take-home message here is that Mac Office has at last been completely migrated into Xcode. This means that a universal binary build of the Office applications is now more than a theoretical possibility. In effect, the MacBU has managed to squeeze a camel through the eye of a needle; the fact that in the process one of its humps fell off (Visual Basic support) doesn't detract from the achievement. Plus, remember, a Microsoft Office that can't run Visual Basic will close one of the largest security holes on most people's Macs today, namely the danger of receiving a Word document infected with a macro virus. Finally, you'll still be able to automate Office through AppleScript, support for which became downright excellent in Office 2004, and which will surely be even better with the underlying Visual Basic scaffolding removed and no longer dictating how an AppleScript command is formed.
And what if you need Visual Basic compatibility in order to cooperate with Windows users? I guess you'll just keep on using Office 2004 (under Rosetta, if you've migrated to Intel); that will be a pity if it means missing out on subsequent Office improvements, but to call it a hardship would be a bit strong.
The real unanswered question, it seems to me, is how Excel users will write custom functions (as opposed to macros). AppleScript's math would not be up to this, even if Excel could somehow call back into it, so the MacBU must either ignore the problem and cripple Excel or come up with a completely innovative solution. Time will tell.
ToC
by Glenn Fleishman <glenn@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#841/07-Aug-06
A potentially serious exploit of Mac OS X's wireless networking hardware drivers has had a very limited demonstration[13]. The exploit, which apparently relies on a flaw at the lowest level of the drivers' interaction with Mac OS X's kernel, has not yet been independently confirmed, nor has Apple released a statement on the matter. The flaw, if proven, could allow an attacker to gain root access privileges via Wi-Fi.
Researchers Jon Ellch and David Maynor found the flaw in Apple's Intel-based Macs running Mac OS X and in PCs running Windows XP using certain Wi-Fi adapters, and presented their findings at the Black Hat USA 2006 Briefings[14] last week. They declined to show the exploit live to avoid giving out details that could be turned into a security threat in the wild.
The researchers maintain that the flaw can affect any Wi-Fi equipped computer as noted above, regardless of whether the computer is actively connected or connecting to a network, and the exploit does not involve a rogue access point - one that attempts to fake an identity to get a connection from a client.
The videotape[15] that the researchers showed didn't demonstrate that. The researchers connected what appears to be a covered-up USB device to a MacBook, which is then connected to a network running on a Linux computer. They then show files being manipulated on the desktop but no other attack being carried out.
There is lively discussion at the Washington Post's Security Fix blog[16] about whether this is just a rigged demo or a real event, although beware the personal abuse directed at the blog's writer, Brian Krebs. (Many are taking this attack against a MacBook personally. Surprise, surprise.)
According to two experts TidBITS has heard from, the videotape is inconclusive and could be either a staged stunt or a real exploit. Jim Thompson, a veteran Wi-Fi engineer and security expert, is dubious, and he explains why in great technical detail[17]. Security expert Rich Mogull[18], research vice president at Gartner, said that the exploit is credible and that it's possible that similar exploits on multiple platforms developed independently are already in the wild. Mogull has seen reports that a similar exploit may have been used at a recent conference that he declined to identify for security reasons. The researchers who presented at Black Hat are taking significant precautions to prevent their particular research from getting out of their grasp, he said.
Lending credence to this potential flaw was the release by Intel in July of driver updates[19] for three of their Centrino wireless products. Notes for the release label the patch for their oldest adapter (an 802.11b-only model) as having an exploit that could allow a "malformed frame," a packet-like chunk, to allow a hacker to gain control of a machine. Two newer adapters seem to have a severe, but less frightening flaw. Mogull said that these Intel patches show that this kind of exploit is not an unknown issue.
As noted, there is no confirmation of this exploit from anyone who has seen the actual attack carried out in person, no separate validation of the attack from third parties using different equipment and the same approach, and no public response from Apple, Intel, or Microsoft, despite the firmware patches from Intel. There is also no identified attack of this sort in the wild.
At the moment, our suggestion is not to worry. The likelihood of this flaw being exposed, becoming widespread, and threatening your particular machine over the period of time it might take Apple to issue a patch is extremely remote. The exploit also appears to be limited to Intel-based computers at the moment, making it even less of a concern for many Mac users.
We'll update this story as details become available, but if Apple releases a security update that describes a fix for a malformed frame and you travel around with your MacBook or MacBook Pro, you should consider installing it as soon as is practical.
ToC
by Jeff Carlson <jeffc@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#841/07-Aug-06
Apple last week posted Security Update 2006-004[1], which patches a number of potential vulnerabilities. Some updated components include AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) Server, Bluetooth Setup Assistant, Bom (which handles archive files), fetchmail, and gunzip. A number of image-related problems have been addressed as well that could enable malformed images to crash the computer or execute code. Also, changes in LaunchServices, OpenSSH, telnet, and WebKit deal with connecting to malicious servers or Web pages. The update is available via Software Update, or as stand-alone downloads for Mac OS X 10.3.9 Client[2] (29.5 MB), Mac OS X 10.3.9 Server[3] (42.7 MB), Mac OS X 10.4.7 Client (Intel)[4] (8.3 MB), and Mac OS X 10.4.7 Client (PPC)[5] (5.4 MB).
by Adam C. Engst <ace@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#842/14-Aug-06
I've been remiss in not writing this up sooner, but I remember it only when I'm in the car, listening to podcasts or music on our iPod nano. Since the most recent iPod update - iPod Updater 2006-06-28 - our iPod nano has suffered from frequent (at least one per car trip) 1- to 2-second bits of garbled playback. Another person reported this on TidBITS Talk[1] as well, although it's not clear if the problem is widespread. Since the iPod Updater 2006-06-28 contains iPod nano Software 1.2, with Nike+iPod support (and unspecified bug fixes), if you're not using the Nike+iPod Sport Kit[2] (see "Grab Your iPod and Run"[3] for details), I'd encourage you to hold off on this particular iPod update. Apple knows about the problem and is undoubtedly working on a fix.
If the problem bothers you sufficiently, you can restore to the previous iPod nano Software 1.1.1. Look in your /Applications/Utilities folder for an iPod Software Updater folder, which contains older iPod updaters. I launched iPod Updater 2006-03-23, the second-most-recent one, clicked the Restore button (remember that this will erase everything on the iPod, so do a restore only if you're loading everything from the Mac anyway), and let it restore. Before copying music and podcasts back to the iPod nano, iTunes tried to get me to install the bad update again; I demurred, and all was fine. I later let the bad update install again for testing purposes, and the problem returned, so I repeated the entire process to revert back to iPod nano Software 1.1.1. I'll revisit this issue once I'm ready to test the just-arrived Nike+iPod Sport Kit.
ToC
by Adam C. Engst <ace@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#838/17-Jul-06
When it comes to listening to an iPod, I find I'm interested in doing so only in very specific situations. There's an iPod in the bedroom, which helps Tonya and me go to sleep at night and wakes us up in the morning, and I've become quite fond of listening to the iPod's earbuds inside protective earphones while mowing the lawn. But even though living in Ithaca enables us to spend relatively little time in the car, that's where I appreciate the iPod the most.
I've considered some of the more permanent methods of installing an iPod in the car, and as much as they're attractive from an interface and elegance standpoint, I'm uncomfortable with many of them for three reasons. First, they tend to be a bit expensive, with prices above $150, and that's before paying for professional installation. Second, I have trouble committing to the entire situation, since I strongly suspect that some solutions might not be physically compatible with even near-future iPods, and I don't know how long we'll keep our Honda Civic (I hold out hope that the automakers or conversion companies might come out with a plug-in hybrid that could run almost entirely on electricity for the around-town trips that dominate our driving). Third, we have an older Subaru Legacy Outback that we use primarily for winter driving, and since we almost never drive both cars at the same time, it feels wasteful to install something that would be usable only in one car.
With all that in mind, I've been testing a number of entries in the current crop of car iPod adapters from Griffin Technology, Belkin, and Small Dog. No doubt there are others, but these are the ones made available to me for review, and I've had some time to evaluate them on more than a cursory level.
The solution I wanted to find has three basic functions:
It's not essential that any given car iPod adapter perform all three of these functions, but if not, it shouldn't prevent some other device from adding the missing functionality.
Along with these technical requirements, industrial design turns out to be paramount. A hinged arm that wobbles is maddening, for instance. Plus, iPods come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes even now, forcing the manufacturers to come up with a variety of ways of accommodating the different form factors. Lastly, although color would seem to be merely a matter of taste, with an iPod and car adapter, I prefer black, since the dashboards of most cars are more likely to be dark colored and the adapter/iPod combination will be less likely to stand out visually to a larcenous passerby.
The first iPod car adapter I tried was the simplest and least expensive, the $33 Car Tune from Mac retailer (and TidBITS sponsor) Small Dog Electronics. It combines a car charger with an FM transmitter, but doesn't hold an iPod at all. The unit consists of a plug that fits into the car outlet, and an articulated oval head that provides an LCD display, two tuning buttons, and a power button. Although I was worried initially that I wouldn't be able to see the Car Tune's LCD display or reach its controls easily, it turned out to adjust well. It connects to the iPod via a dock connector on a thin, springy cable, and although I prefer being able to see the iPod screen while I drive, the cable allowed me to set the iPod in an open slot in the car's dashboard. Even still, some other holder like Griffin Technology's $10 iSqueez would have been welcome.
<http://www.smalldog.com/product/38574/>
<http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/isqueez/>
As an FM transmitter, I was a bit disappointed in the Car Tune. Although it was easy to tune different stations, and the Car Tune remembers the last one, its audio output level was quite low, lower than all the other devices I tried, which forced me to turn up the radio volume, increasing the amount of background static noise and exposing me to loud static whenever the Car Tune wasn't transmitting. And since it takes about 8 seconds for the Car Tune to start transmitting after receiving power, I was continually diving to turn down the volume when I started the car.
From a usability standpoint, the Car Tune was extremely manual. It doesn't pause playback automatically when the car turns off, and although it does automatically come back on, that 8 seconds of static ensured that I not only had to press Play on the iPod, I had to manage the volume on the stereo.
Similar to the Small Dog Car Tune is Griffin Technology's $70 iTrip Auto. It too provides a car charger and FM transmitter, but no method of physically holding the iPod. Instead of mounting the interface on the power plug directly, the iTrip Auto places the chewing gum packet-sized control module in the middle of the cord, between the dock connector and the power plug. Unfortunately this design proves rather awkward, since I had to root around for the control module whenever I wanted to change stations. Plus, since changing stations requires pressing flush-mounted buttons, seeing the change on an LCD, and then pressing a Select button, it proved more difficult to operate than the Car Tune, with its raised buttons and no need for a Select button.
<http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/itripauto/>
For the extra money, the iTrip Auto provides significantly greater audio output levels, eliminating the need to crank the radio volume just to hear the music. Even better, the iTrip Auto automatically pauses music when the car turns off, and while it doesn't automatically resume when the car turns back on, it starts transmitting silence instantly so there's no burst of static. The iTrip Auto provides two modes - DX and LX - that supposedly provide different quality levels, though I couldn't tell much difference between them.
Moving from the two previous devices, which had wires snaking around my dashboard and required that I leave the iPod loose in a dashboard slot, I next tried Griffin Technology's $90 RoadTrip, whose charger plug leads - via several articulated arms - to a dock that holds the iPod. Plastic inserts enabled compatibility with a wide variety of iPod sizes. The dock is also home to an LCD display with two tuning buttons and power button, the latter of which also gives access to four preset stations.
<http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/roadtrip/>
I'm always amazed when I can get one of these devices with articulated arms, complete with rotating joints and locking screws, to work. The first iPod car adapter I tried, a DLO TransPod, used the articulated arm design and was miserable. And indeed, with the extender arm that I was sure was necessary, I couldn't get the RoadTrip into a decent position. However, when I removed the extender arm and played with the possible articulations, I was able to find a sweet spot that was in fact the best of any of the devices, blocking nothing but one of two cup holders in front of the center-mounted gearshift lever. Your happiness with the articulated arm approach will depend completely on the dashboard layout of your particular car.
Despite the unexpectedly good positioning made possible by the RoadTrip, it suffered from some usability annoyances. Although it helpfully paused playback when the car turned off, it not only didn't resume playback when power returned, it required me to push the power button. As a result, the typical process for starting the car went like this: Turn the car on, swear at the static on the radio, push the RoadTrip's power button, and then push Play on the iPod. The swearing and powering up of the car adapter are entirely unnecessary, and soured me on the RoadTrip.
Audio output volume was good, better than the Car Tune, but perhaps not quite up to the iTrip Auto or the next product I tried, the Belkin TuneBase FM.
The $80 Belkin TuneBase FM promised to meet all of my technical needs, and since it's available only in black and works with most modern iPods (not including the iPod shuffle, the iPod 3G, or anything earlier), it seemed like it might be the ultimate solution. Physically, it provides a short, sturdy gooseneck that can be manipulated into different positions. Unfortunately, I could never quite get it into the position I wanted due to the stiffness of the gooseneck. The iPod slots into a holder at the end of the gooseneck; Belkin provides eight plastic adapters to hold all the supported iPod models and it worked fine with my iPod photo and iPod nano. Belkin also makes the TuneBase FM for iPod nano, which has a longer, more flexible neck and which likely addresses my minor complaints about the positioning, though of course at the expense of compatibility with larger iPod models.
<http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=257270>
<http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=257293>
As an FM transmitter, the Belkin TuneBase FM worked well. It ties into software Apple put into the iPod for radio tuning (recent firmware updates are necessary), so the tuning interface appears on the iPod screen. Four buttons store preset stations, and up and down arrow buttons select different frequencies. Changing stations was easy, but even in Ithaca, finding clear frequencies wasn't so simple, especially since our hills change reception quality significantly as we drive around the area. Notably, the TuneBase FM provided five different volume settings that controlled the audio output level, which was particularly helpful with the iPod nano, which has lower audio output levels than other iPods. It's also possible to switch the TuneBase FM from stereo to mono, though mono is useful mostly for audiobooks.
From a usage standpoint, the TuneBase FM stood out. It automatically paused playback whenever I turned off the car, and it automatically resumed playback when I turned the car back on. Welcome as these capabilities were, they weren't perfect. It took the TuneBase FM some time to start transmitting, which meant about 8 seconds of static from the radio before the music kicked in. And although the automatic resume feature worked well, a few seconds after music came in again, there was a brief pause while the TuneBase FM switched from its tuning display to the top level of the iPod's interface. Unfortunately, the display always reverted to the main menu, whereas it would have been better to retain the previous spot in the interface, or at least the Now Playing screen. Finally, although automatic resume works well when only a single person uses the car, since Tonya and I share the car, I would sometimes have to find my place in a podcast because she had either listened to it or just turned off the stereo without first pausing the iPod.
My main complaint with the TuneBase FM, though, is that it prevents a connected iPod from going into deep sleep. That means that if your trips are relatively short (such that the iPod doesn't charge for long) and you don't drive for several days, the iPod will drain its battery entirely. On the next usage it reboots, having forgotten its position in a podcast, and sometimes refuses to respond to input until it has acquired a small charge. I don't know that this is actively bad for the iPod, but it proves annoying on a regular basis, and didn't seem to affect any of the other adapters I reviewed.
With all of the car iPod adapters I've discussed so far, nothing prevents the use of a cassette adapter that plugs into the iPod's headphone jack. The pros of a cassette adapter are that it eliminates the burst of static that plagues all the FM transmitters other than the iTrip Auto and it provides better audio quality than any of the FM transmitters, particularly at the higher volumes necessary to drown out road noise on freeways. Though my hearing simply isn't very good - or at all trained - I'd say that the sound from the cassette adapter was less muddy and provided more range than that coming from the FM transmitters. Plus, since plugging into the iPod's headphone jack enables the iPod's own volume control, I've found that you can extract more volume from a cassette adapter than from any of the FM transmitters that work through the iPod's dock connector. And no, I'm not a semi-deaf head- banger, but in our relatively inexpensive (and thus not heavily sound insulated) cars with factory sound systems, the road noise at speed, particularly with the windows down, requires a fair amount of volume.
But cassette adapters aren't perfect either. I dislike having a cable trailing down the dashboard from the cassette player and that cable makes both removing the iPod (as we do sometimes when parked in public) and ejecting the cassette adapter clumsy. Also, despite the fact that the cassette adapter itself provides better sound quality, the two that I have both make a noticeable amount of noise turning the fake reels. They of course don't do anything, since there's no tape to wind, but the fake reels make much more noise than real ones in a normal cassette. Of course, many new cars simply don't have tape decks at all, as was the case with the rental car we used on our April trip to the West Coast. Lastly, the iPod nano, with its bottom-mounted headphone jack, can't be used with a cassette adapter in units like the RoadTrip and TuneBase FM.
Nevertheless, for my uses, the cassette adapter was the lesser of two weevils, to quote the late Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey character, and that enabled me to bring a final iPod car adapter into this test.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey%E2%80%93Maturin_series#Humour>
Whereas the Car Tune and iTrip Auto provide charging and FM transmission, but not a holder for the iPod, Griffin Technology's $40 TuneFlex nano offers charging and a dock at the end of an 8-inch (20 cm) thin gooseneck, but no FM transmission. And since the TuneFlex works only with the iPod nano, whose headphone jack is on the bottom, next to the dock connector, it has to work with a cassette adapter or by plugging directly into an input jack. The trick is that the headphone jack for this purpose is located at the base of the TuneFlex, where it plugs into the car's electrical outlet. Because the TuneFlex is connecting to the iPod nano's dock connector, that headphone jack is putting out line-level output, making the iPod's volume control irrelevant, but providing more than sufficient audio output levels.
<http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/tuneflexnano/>
The TuneFlex's thin gooseneck is far less obtrusive than the TuneBase FM's thick gooseneck, and it's far more adjustable. Because the cassette adapter plugs into the base of the TuneFlex, the cable to the cassette adapter doesn't hang off the top of the iPod, reducing cable clutter and making it easy both to swing the entire TuneFlex out of the way or to remove the iPod nano to store it in the glove compartment.
Like the iTrip Auto, the TuneFlex automatically pauses playback when the car turns off, but does not resume when power returns. I do prefer the way Belkin's TuneBase FM automatically resumes, but I'm willing to put up with pressing Play on the iPod nano, especially since it means that Tonya and I have fewer conflicts with positioning in podcasts.
Although all these devices provide basically the same set of features, I was somewhat surprised to find that my favorite ended up being Griffin Technology's TuneFlex. In large part that's not due to great technical engineering - the TuneFlex's is perhaps the simplest of the devices - but to its excellent industrial design and physical usability when combined with the svelte iPod nano. Belkin's TuneBase FM has the best set of features overall, ranging from a good interface, powerful audio output levels, and decent physical usability, but the constant blasts of static every time I turned on the car put me off. It's likely that Belkin's TuneBase FM for iPod nano is in fact the ultimate device; it would depend on how it enabled a cassette adapter or direct cable to be plugged in. I can't really recommend Griffin Technology's RoadTrip; it doesn't match up to the TuneBase FM, and the need to turn it on every time you start your car is unnecessary effort. Although I may have sounded somewhat dismissive of Small Dog's Car Tune and Griffin's iTrip Auto, they're so small that they become easily thrown into a laptop bag for a trip that will involve driving in a random rental car. Choosing between them is difficult, since the iTrip Auto is better in every way but ease of tuning, something that's constantly necessary on long car trips in unfamiliar areas, and it costs more than twice as much as the Car Tune.
One aspect of my testing that surprised me was how much more I liked using the iPod nano in the car in favor of my large iPod photo. My iPod nano is black, so its color and size make it harder to see against the black dashboard from outside the car, making me worry less about leaving it out. Since it's solid-state, I also worry less about the heat and cold endemic to this part of the world hurting the iPod. It's a 4 GB model, and although that's significantly smaller than the 30 GB iPod photo, it has proven to be more than sufficient for the music and podcasts and audiobooks we want to hear in the car.
ToC
by Jeff Carlson <jeffc@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#838/17-Jul-06
Due no doubt in part to the votes cast by TidBITS and Take Control readers, we were pleased to see that not just Adam, but also Tonya, were included in the MacTech 25 list of influential people in the Macintosh technical community. Apart from its use of public voting, the MacTech 25 differs significantly from the MDJ Power 25 in honoring people outside Apple who influence the Macintosh world via their technical contributions. The end result thus included writers who explain technical topics or maintain sites deemed key to the technical community, system administrators who spread their knowledge through writing and speaking, and programmers who help other programmers.
<http://www.mactech.com/news/?p=1008582>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08594>
MacTech chose not to rank the top vote getters, making for a flat list. Congratulations to everyone on the MacTech 25, which this year includes the following people (see the forthcoming August 2006 issue of MacTech for a full write-up of each person; if you don't currently subscribe, you can download a free PDF sampler of recent articles):
<http://www.mactech.com/news/?p=1008581>
<http://www.tidbits.com/>
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/>
<http://www.newsgator.com/NGOLProduct.aspx?ProdID=NetNewsWire>
<http://ranchero.com/marsedit/>
<http://siracusa.home.mindspring.com/john/articles/ars/index.html>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bartosh>
<http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=20060611204217263>
<http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/>
<http://www.barebones.com/company/history.shtml>
<http://www.delicious-monster.com/company.php>
<http://www.delicious-monster.com/>
<http://www.wilshipley.com/blog/>
by Jeff Carlson <jeffc@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#842/14-Aug-06
Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) wrapped up this year with the annual Apple Design Award[12] winners, who received not only fame and Mac developer cred, but a special cube award that lights up when touched. (How is this illuminated miracle accomplished? The winners of the 2004 award for best student project didn't merely take theirs apart like any normal person; they peeked inside using a CT scanner[13] and built 3D reconstructed models, of course!)
Congratulations to this year's winners, and we encourage you to visit their Web sites to get a sense of why they were chosen.
3.1[26]. Runner-up: FuzzMeasure Pro 2.0[27].
reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)
Well, I'm sad to report that due to yours truly taking a vacation and no one filling in during my absence, we have no description of what happened at the July meeting. If any member could just sent me an email with any kind of report, we can rectify this situation before the web version of the newsletter goes up. Anything would be deeply appreciated.
ToC
reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)
The July meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday, July 25, 2006, 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: Emil Cobb, and Kevin Hisel.
As a result of summer attrition and the want of a quorum, no official Board meeting took place.
ToC
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 contact/index.html Linux SIG: Allen Byrne 344-5311 adbyrne@ieee.org
Email us at http://www.cucug.org/contact/index.html, visit our web site at http://www.cucug.org/, or join in our online forums at http://www.cucug.org/starship/ .
CUCUG
912 Stratford Drive
Champaign, IL
61821-4137