The Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group

The Status Register - February, 2003


This newsletter will never appear on CUCUG.ORG before the monthly CUCUG meeting it is intended to announce. This is in deference to actual CUCUG members. They get each edition hot off the presses. If you'd like to join our group, you can get the pertinent facts by looking in the "Information About CUCUG" page. If you'd care to look at prior editions of the newsletter, they may be found via the Status Register Newsletter page.
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February 2003


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February News:

The February Meeting

The next CUCUG meeting will be held on our regular third Thursday of the month: Thursday, February 20th, at 7:00 pm, at the Illinois Technology Center. The Linux SIG convenes, of course, one hour earlier, at 6:00 pm. Directions to the ITC are at the end of this newsletter.

The February 20 gathering will be one of our split SIG meetings. Kris Klindworth says the Linux SIG will be looking at KNOPPIX, a complete Linux distribution that runs from a single CD. KNOPPIX comes loaded with just about every kind of software you'd need. Very cool. Jack Melby says the Macintosh SIG will examining X11 and some of the Unix software that runs on it. He may go on a little Safari, too. Finally, Richard Rollins says the PC SIG will be building a "virtual" machine. That is, speccing out the machine of your dreams. All in all, a pretty varied platter of items to choose from. Come and partake.

ToC

Welcome New and Renewing Members

We'd like to welcome the newest member of our group, joining us in the last month: Rodger Bigler. Actually, Rodger is a returning member, back from our C64/128 days. Glad to have you back, Rodger.

We'd also like to thank renewing members Quentin L. Barnes, Mike Latinovich, Harold Ravlin, Norris Hansell, Anderson Yau, George F. Krumins, John B. Ross, Kris Klindworth, Benjamin P. Johnson, and Jack E. Erwin.

We welcome any kind of input or feedback from members. Run across an interesting item or tidbit on the net? Just send the link to the editor. Have an article or review you'd like to submit? Send it in. Have a comment? Email any officer you like. Involvement is the driving force of any user group. Welcome to the group.

ToC

Huge PC Giveaway For February's Meeting!

-Kevin Hisel

Here's the list of FREE products two lucky Winsig members will WIN at the February 20th meeting, courtesy of Microsoft (please note, you must be a 2003 member of CUCUG to participate in the drawing):

Microsoft Office XP Professional (retail box)

Microsoft Office XP Professional (includes Word, Excel, Access, Outlook and PowerPoint) puts the features you need within easy reach at all times. New and improved tools in Access allow you to build and manage lists and databases, or analyze information from databases such as Microsoft SQL Server. New context-sensitive smart tags pop up with options you need-- right when you need them. No digging through menus. Tasks that once required multiple steps are just one click away with the new taskpane. This is the full version of the software--NOT an upgrade. Street price $446.99.

Links 2003 and Links 2003 Championship Courses

Links 2003 is the most realistic golf sim available. The newest version of the all-time best selling golf simulator features improved graphics, six brand-new championship courses, high- resolution 3-D characters, a dynamic camera that lets you see your shot from different perspectives, and improved putting with a new 3-D Green Analyzer. Links 2003 also brings improvements to the powerful Arnold Palmer course designer--the same 3-D course architecture tool used by the Links team to create course graphics in stunning photo realistic detail. Also includes add-on pack Links 2003 Championship Courses. Street price: $49.98.

ToC

Electronic attack slows Internet

CNN.com
Saturday, January 25, 2003 Posted: 4:54 PM EST (2154 GMT)

Experts: 'SQL Slammer' worm doesn't cause serious damage

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A fast-moving computer worm snarled business and government computers Saturday, slowing some corporate systems to the point of inaccessibility, but Internet security experts said it does not appear to have done any serious damage.

The worm, dubbed "SQL Slammer," attacked via a vulnerability discovered six months ago in SQL.

Server 2000 software from Microsoft Corp., according to Oliver Friedrichs, a senior manager with Internet security firm Symantec Corp. Microsoft has offered a free patch to fix the trouble spot, but not all users of the server software installed the patch.

Friedrichs said the SQL worm "breaks into the server and tries to spread."

"It really generates a lot of network traffic," Friedrichs said. "It's really just going to slow down Internet performance."

The White House was notified about the attack after it was discovered early Saturday, said Tiffany Olson, a spokeswoman for the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board.

The FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center is investigating, she said.

Alan Paller of the SANS Institute, a training organization for technologists who try to protect computer systems and networks, said the SQL worm did not appear to be affecting files stored on computers. Instead, he said, it was causing trouble by replicating quickly and sending queries across computer lines for more vulnerable computers.

"It's not a major risk. It's not [doing] either of the two things that are terribly damaging," Paller said. "One is hurting people's machines, and one is knocking things [off-line]."

Several companies -- including Bank of America and Continental Airlines -- reported widespread computer problems Saturday.

Bank of America spokeswoman Lisa Gignon said the bank's problems appeared to be worm-related, but she could not verify it.

Continental said the worm attack caused its difficulties. Spokesman Jeff Walt said agents reverted to "the old fashioned way" -- phones, and pen and paper -- to record reservations and electronic tickets.

"[That is] more time consuming, so we had some scattered delays around the system and some cancellations of regional flights," said Walt, adding that the airline experienced few problems on its national flights. "It looks like we're getting close to [having] everything resolved."

Walt said Continental's hub at Newark, New Jersey, was the most affected by the problems, but problems were also reported in Houston, Texas, and Cleveland, Ohio. No delays lasted more than 30 minutes, he said.

The "Slammer" did not appear to affect files stored on computers.

Worms of this nature are often precursors to a different type of attack called "distributed denial of service." In that case, computers infected with a worm or other program are directed to send a flood of information to a specific Internet location and force it off-line.

"[Saturday's worm] is the recruitment of soldiers, not telling the soldiers where to aim their guns," Paller said.

He described Saturday's activity as a "worm with collateral damage."

If the vulnerability in the SQL software is not patched, Paller said, it is possible that a future denial of service attack could harness the "zombie" machines created Saturday.

Friedrichs said Saturday's worm was similar to the "Code Red" worm, which attacked unpatched Microsoft IIS servers in 2001 and defaced Web pages with the message "Welcome to http://www.worm.com! Hacked By Chinese!"

"Code Red" eventually hit more than 700,000 computers and spread too quickly for investigators to trace its origin.

So far, "SQL Slammer" has not disturbed any Web pages or other files.

As far as the origin of Saturday's worm, Paller said it will be difficult to trace it via technological means. In many cases, a worm's creator brags about his or her activities online and is caught that way.

Paller and Olson said Internet service providers and other security organizations had helped slow the worm's spread.

"It could have been horrendous," Olson said.

[CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg and White House correspondent Dana Bash contributed to this report.]

ToC

AMD to unveil Athlon XP 3000+ chip

By John G. Spooner
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 9, 2003, 9:00 PM PT
URL: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-983901.html

Advanced Micro Devices on Monday will beef up its desktop processor line with a new Athlon XP 3000+ processor.

The chip, based on AMD's new "Barton" processor core, represents a potential bright spot for the company, after a year of difficulty brought on by the sluggish PC market and excess inventories in 2002.

The Barton core gives the 3000+ a larger 512KB cache and support for AMD's 333MHz bus. The larger cache and faster bus--holding larger amounts of data close to the processor core and speeding up data to and from the chip--help increase the chip's model number by boosting performance.

Because AMD delayed its next-generation Athlon 64 chip until September, Athlon XP 3000+ using the Barton core will become the cornerstone of AMD's desktop processor product line for the better part of 2003. The chip is part of the company's effort to ratchet up its competitive position against rival Intel, for one, and also help AMD command higher prices for its chips.

The new 3000+ chip will list for $588, nearly $200 more than its Athlon XP 2800+. Higher prices hold the potential to translate to positive results on earnings. AMD, which put together a string of earnings report losses during 2002, expects to break even in the second quarter of this year on the strength of better sales of processors like the 3000+ and flash memory. The company hopes that a cost-saving plan put into motion at the end of the third quarter of 2002 will help it along as well.

AMD will also be releasing on Monday a new 2800+ chip based on the new core. And an Athlon XP 3200+ is in the works for a midyear introduction. The new 2800+ chip will sell for $375. But AMD will hold prices steady on the remainder of its desktop chips.

But the lack of an even higher-performance desktop chip--the Athlon 64, which had been scheduled to come out in March or April--will be a big disappointment for some PC manufacturers and their customers, leaving the Athlon XP 3000+ with some expectations to make up for, analysts said.

"With the absence of Clawhammer (the code name for Athlon 64), AMD needs products for the high-end of the market. Until now, it didn't really have one," Mercury Research analyst Dean McCarron said. "If things go well, we'll look back and say, 'yeah, that was the turning point.' But it's too soon to tell."

The 3000+ will fill the performance gap and then some, a company representative said. AMD's tests showed the chip outperformed the 3.06GHz Pentium 4 by as much as 17 percent on some applications, she said.

AMD's model number system evaluates the Athlon XP's performance against an older Athlon chip, the model numbers usually also equate to Intel's Pentium 4.

So far, AMD has assembled a large number of supporters for the 3000+ chip. Nearly 25 PC makers, including Hewlett-Packard and Falcon Northwest in the United States, will offer the chip in systems around the world by the end of next month, AMD said.

But executives at AMD's biggest customer, HP, were disappointed over not being able to offer Athlon 64 systems on time, said Bruce Greenwood, director of product marketing for desktop PCs at HP.

"Clearly there is a market that's awaiting the (Athlon 64) part. Every missed launch lets Intel get that much further ahead and disappoints AMD's customer base," McCarron said. "There's a number of OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) that were willing and ready to use it as soon as it becomes available. It's a shame it's not sooner than later."

For its part, Intel is brewing faster Pentium 4 chips, including a new 3.2GHz processor that will offer an 800MHz bus. The company is also expected to compliment the 3.2GHz chip with a new line of slower 2.4GHz to 2.8GHz Pentium 4 chips that include hyperthreading and use the 800MHz bus. This entire family of Pentium 4s and the chipset are all expected in the second quarter of this year.

While AMD said it pushed the Athlon 64 chip back to better align its introduction with software, analysts believe the company has had problems with manufacturing the chip. The problems were most likely in perfecting its silicon on insulator (SOI) process, which jumps up performance and helps lower power consumption, McCarron said.

AMD's Opteron server chip--which is based on the same technology as the Athlon 64--is on track for an April 22 launch, AMD said.

ToC

Apple Posts $8 Million Loss

TidBITS#663/20-Jan-03

Apple Computer last week announced an $8 million loss for its first fiscal quarter of 2003. The results include one-time charges for restructuring and an accounting transition adjustment; without these items, Apple would have had an $11 million profit for the quarter. Apple shipped 743,000 Macs during the quarter - on par with the same period a year ago - and although gross margins were down to 27.6 percent, those were on revenue of $1.47 billion, up 7 percent from the same quarter the year before. International sales accounted for 43 percent of Apple's revenue. Apple also noted it was able to reduce channel inventories 11 percent during the quarter, which bodes well for the new PowerBooks just announced at Macworld Expo. [GD]

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/jan/15results.html
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07041

ToC

Get an iLife

TidBITS#665/03-Feb-03

Apple has released iLife, its suite of digital hub applications that includes iTunes 3 (which doesn't undergo an update in iLife), iMovie 3, iPhoto 2, and iDVD 3. iMovie 3 and iPhoto 2 are now available as free downloads. iDVD 3, which is too large to download (in the 2 GB range, to judge from iLife's system requirements) will be available only via the $50 iLife CD/DVD package. Those who purchased SuperDrive-equipped Macs on or after 07-Jan-03 qualify for a $20 "iLife Up-To-Date" price; similar $20 prices are available for QuickBooks and for an iLife/QuickBooks bundle, again for appropriate Macs purchased on or after 07-Jan- 03. [ACE]

http://www.apple.com/ilife/
http://www.apple.com/ilife/uptodate/

ToC

iLife & Keynote for $15 for Teachers

TidBITS#665/03-Feb-03

Following on the heels of providing Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar for free to teachers (a promotion that Apple has extended through 31-Mar-03), Apple is now offering the entire iLife suite plus Apple's new Keynote presentation program for a mere $15 (a savings of $113). To qualify, you must be either a K-12 teacher or a full-time faculty member at a higher education institution. Unfortunately, the offer is good only in the U.S., and the software can be delivered only to your school's address. [ACE]

http://www.apple.com/education/ilifeandkeynote/
http://www.apple.com/education/macosxforteachers/

ToC

Apple Introduces 20-inch Cinema Display

TidBITS#665/03-Feb-03

Keeping up the pressure started at Macworld Expo, Apple last week released a new 20-inch Cinema Display, priced at $1,300. The new LCD screen offers 1680 by 1050 pixel resolution, a digital interface using the Apple Display Connector, and the same 16:10 widescreen aspect ratio that Apple has increasingly been using for its Cinema Display line and larger PowerBooks. Apple is saying the 20-inch Cinema Display works only under Mac OS X, likely because Mac OS 9's Display Manager doesn't support the new display's native resolution (though it may work at lower standard resolutions). Simultaneously, Apple lowered the price on the 23-inch Cinema HD Display, with its 1920 by 1200 pixel resolution, to $2,000 (a drop of $1,500). The 17-inch Studio Display (a mere 1280 by 1024 resolution) was also reduced to $700 (down from $1,000). Realistically, Apple's LCD displays are still more expensive than similarly large screens from other manufacturers, but all of the Apple displays I've seen have been gorgeous, in sharp contrast to the astonishingly poor quality of many of the cheapest LCD monitors out there. [ACE]

http://www.apple.com/displays/
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/jan/28displays.html

ToC

New Power Macs Add FireWire 800, AirPort Extreme

TidBITS#665/03-Feb-03

Bringing the new connectivity features from the recently enhanced PowerBook line to the desktop, Apple last week released a new set of Power Mac G4s that offer FireWire 800, the 54 Mbps 802.11g-based AirPort Extreme, and integrated Bluetooth wireless networking (with the addition of a $50 internal card that's reportedly available only when you're ordering). The three new machines provide the choice of a single 1 GHz PowerPC CPU ($1,500 for a standard configuration), or a pair of PowerPC G4s running at either 1.25 GHz ($2,000) or 1.42 GHz ($2,700 to $3,800), once more pushing up the top speed of Apple's professional computer line while dropping prices significantly. The two dual-processor Power Macs feature a 167 MHz system bus (133 MHz for the 1 GHz CPU model) and offer either 1 MB L3 cache (the dual 1.25 GHz model) or 2 MB L3 cache (the dual 1.42 GHz model) per processor. You can choose from 60 GB, 80 GB, 120 GB, and 180 GB hard drives, and these Macs can support up to four internal ATA hard drives. For video, the new machines support dual displays, offer ADC and DVI connectors, and have 4x AGP graphics; you can choose among the ATI Radeon 9000, the Nvidia GeForce4 MX, the Nvidia GeForce4 Ti, or the ATI Radeon 9700 video cards. The optical drive has seen improvement too, with faster Combo drives and SuperDrives that can write DVD-R discs at 4x speed. Other specs include up to 2 GB of DDR SDRAM (256 MB or 512 MB installed), four PCI slots, one FireWire 800 and two FireWire 400 ports, two USB 1.1 ports (plus another two on the keyboard), front headphone jack, stereo audio line-in and line out mini jacks, Apple speaker mini jack for connecting to the optional Apple Pro speakers.

http://www.apple.com/powermac/
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/jan/28pmg4.html
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06927

One improvement that sounds especially good to our ears is that the new machines are reportedly much quieter than the previous "wind tunnel" Power Mac G4s. Note that, as promised by Apple, these Power Macs cannot boot into Mac OS 9. Classic remains available, of course, and two high-end Mac OS 9-capable Power Macs from the previous generation can still be purchased at the Apple Store. [ACE]

ToC

Apple upgrades servers, unveils storage

By Ian Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 10, 2003, 9:40 AM PT
URL: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-983982.html

Apple Computer on Monday announced an upgrade to its line of rack-mounted servers and unveiled a line of storage gear.

In its Xserve server line, Apple added faster 1.33GHz processors. A single-processor server with 256MB of Double Data Rate (DDR) memory, a 60GB ATA drive and Gigabit Ethernet networking sells for $2,799. A dual 1.33GHz processor model sells for $3,799 and includes 512MB of DDR memory and a 60GB hard drive.

Both machines are 1.75 inches tall and come with a CD-ROM drive and the Mac OS X server operating system with a license for an unlimited number of client Macs. The prices are $200 less than when Apple first introduced the Xserve--the company's first rack-mounted server--last May.

Apple has been gaining share in servers, albeit from a very small base, since the Xserve's introduction. Apple had originally planned to announce a companion Xserve RAID storage system by the end of last year, but later delayed the launch until early this year.

"We're really happy with the deployments we've seen for Xserve," said Alex Grossman, Apple's director of hardware storage product marketing. "We were pretty humble (when we entered) the server space."

Apple executives said the company has been "pleasantly surprised" with the breadth of customers who have adopted Xserve, who range from Apple's traditional base of schools and graphic designers to users who need file and print serving and clustering in business and academic settings.

According to Gartner Dataquest, Apple's U.S. server sales in the fourth quarter rose more than fourfold to $14.6 million, up from $3.75 million in the fourth quarter of 2001. The company's unit market share rose to nearly 1 percent of the total server market, up from just one-third of a percent a year earlier.

The Xserve RAID systems introduced Monday feature up to 2.5 terabytes of storage in a 5.25-inch-high rack-mounted system. With standard prices ranging from $6,000 to $11,000, depending on the configuration, Apple says it is offering storage as low as $4 per gigabyte.

One analyst said that Apple will need to be a quick study if it wants to find much success in the storage realm.

"Apple is entering the storage market pretty late in the game at a time when battle lines have been clearly drawn and loyalties are firmly entrenched," said Tim Deal, an analyst at Technology Business Research. "This means that Apple will once again be forced to try to lure customers from...heavyweights like EMC, Hitachi Data Systems, and Dell."

The storage system comes in three configurations that will be available starting in March.

The $5,999 entry-level model includes dual, independent RAID controllers with a 128MB cache (and support for up to 512MB) per controller, dual 2-gigabit-per-second Fibre Channel ports, 8MB of on-drive cache and four 180GB ATA/100 Apple drive modules.

A midrange configuration, priced at $7,499, increases the number of 180GB drives to seven, while the top-of-the-line model has a full cabinet of 14 drives. The models can also be custom-configured by boosting the number of drives or by adding cache memory.

Xserve can connect to Xserve RAID with a 2GB Apple Fibre Channel PCI Card that is sold separately.

ToC

Apple Releases New iMacs, Lowers eMac Prices

TidBITS#666/10-Feb-03

Continuing the push to update its product line for AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth, Apple last week unveiled the latest revisions to its flat-panel iMac line. The new 17-inch iMac starts at $1,800 and boasts a 1 GHz PowerPC G4 and a 133 MHz system bus, 256 MB of DDR SDRAM (expandable to 1 GB), and a 4x SuperDrive (CD-RW/DVD-R), along with slots for an AirPort Extreme card (an extra $100), and an internal Bluetooth module (an extra $50). The 15-inch iMac receives only a speed bump to an 800 MHz PowerPC G4 and a $200 price drop to $1,300. Unfortunately, it's not capable of taking an AirPort Extreme card (though the slower 802.11b AirPort card remains an option) and can use only a USB-based Bluetooth adapter. Simultaneously, Apple announced price cuts - but no new features - for the 17-inch CRT-based eMac, which now costs $1,000 with a Combo drive (CD-RW/DVD-ROM) or $1,300 with a SuperDrive. [ACE]

http://www.apple.com/imac/
http://www.apple.com/emac/

ToC

Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.2.4 Update

TidBITS#667/17-Feb-03

Apple Computer has released Mac OS X 10.2.4, which includes networking enhancements for SMB and AFP file services and improves support for audio applications under Classic and for FireWire audio devices under Mac OS X. The update also rolls in several bug fixes for the Finder, the Classic environment, printing, and the Address Book, and includes security updates to some of the Unix utilities underpinning Mac OS X. The update is available via the Software Update pane in Mac OS X's System Preferences, as a stand-alone 40.1 MB updater for Mac OS X 10.2.3, and as a stand-alone 76 MB combined updater for any version of Mac OS X 10.2. [GD]

http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n107362
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n70167
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n70168

ToC

Safari Public Beta (v60) 2-12-03 Released

TidBITS#667/17-Feb-03

Although we usually don't report beta software updates, Mac OS X users seem to have embraced Apple's Safari Web browser in a big way, with more than 1 million copies downloaded, according to Apple. The latest update, Safari v60, reportedly performs 30 percent faster, improves the playback of Flash content, adds support for XML, and enhances support for CSS1. The update is available through Software Update or as a separate 2.9 MB download. [JLC]

http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n120182

ToC

Final Cut Express 1.0.1 Released

TidBITS#667/17-Feb-03

Continuing its string of incremental updates, Apple last week posted an update to its intermediate-level video editing application Final Cut Express. The 1.0.1 revision improves performance and stability, links keyframe parameters to the Motion tab, and adds Easy Setup presets for NTSC and PAL noncontrollable devices. The Final Cut Express 1.0.1 updater is available as a 12.2 MB download. [JLC]

http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n120190

ToC

USB Overdrive X 10.2.1 Crosses the Finish Line

TidBITS#667/17-Feb-03

Alessandro Levi Montalcini has released USB Overdrive X 10.2.1, a universal USB driver that supports all manner of USB devices, such as mice, trackballs, joysticks, and gamepads (see "Top Mac OS X Utilities: Restoring Third Party Capabilities" in TidBITS-625_). Using USB Overdrive, you can configure the controls of multiple devices to perform complex actions or launch applications, in addition to basic actions like clicking. For some people, USB Overdrive X is essential for using devices whose manufacturers haven't created Mac OS X drivers. USB Overdrive X 10.2.1 costs $20 shareware, and is a 476K download. [JLC]

http://www.usboverdrive.com/
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06779

ToC

Xbox, GameCube slash prices

CNN.com

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Software giant Microsoft Tuesday said it would cut the price on some best-selling titles for its Xbox video game console, a week after rival Nintendo cut some game and hardware prices in a bid to spur sales.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said the "Platinum Hits" program would start with more than a dozen titles at a price of about $19.99 each. Top titles for the Xbox, which holds the No. 2 position in the U.S. market, usually retail for $49 or in some cases $39.

Among the titles to be offered at the discounted price are Xbox hits like Microsoft's "Amped Freestyle Snowboarding" and "Project Gotham Racing" and third-party titles like Electronic Arts Inc.'s "Bond: Agent Under Fire" and Activision Inc.'s "Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions."

Xbox's biggest title

Ed Bland, a senior director of sales and marketing for the Xbox, said games will have to be on the market for at least nine months to be eligible for "Platinum Hit" status, with sales of about 350,000 to 500,000 units, though Bland said that figure can vary.

"It ends up being a great sort of impulse buy for consumers," Bland said.

The Xbox's biggest hit title to date, Microsoft's own "Halo," will not immediately move to the discount program, and will continue to retail for $49, as it has since it launched with the Xbox in 2001.

"It is doing very well at $49," Bland said, noting that it will move to "Platinum Hit" status at some point later in the future.

Competition heats up

Bland also said "Platinum Hits" titles will get special packaging distinct from their previous boxes and will have additional display space at retail.

Sony launched a hits program for its PlayStation 2 console last year, and Nintendo unveiled one for its GameCube last week.

Nintendo also said it would offer one of four games for free with the $149.95 GameCube.

GameCube buyers will be able to choose from "Metroid Prime," "Star Fox Adventures," "Mario Party 4" or "Resident Evil 0" with purchase of the console.

Other Nintendo offers

Nintendo slashed the price on its bundled offering of the GameCube, "Super Mario Sunshine" and an external memory card to $159.95 from $189.95. Purchased individually, the three components of the pack would cost almost $215.

A number of games from early in the GameCube's history, like "Luigi's Mansion" and "Super Smash Bros. Melee," will be cut in price to $29.95 from $49.95 as part of a "Player's Choice" program, the company said.

Nintendo once dominated the U.S. video game market but has fallen to third place behind Sony's dominant PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's upstart Xbox.

ToC

Common Ground:

Start-up redesigns fuel cells

By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 10, 2003, 11:25 AM PT
URL: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-983920.html

A start-up company says it has developed a way to make fuel cells out of silicon, a change that potentially could increase the performance of cells and make them easier to manufacture.

As far-fetched as it might sound, fuel cells for cell phones or notebooks will likely emerge in the market next year and grow in popularity. Unlike microprocessors, hard drives or memory, batteries are not continuing to improve at a rapid, predictable rate. This is forcing tech companies to seek alternatives or products that will complement batteries.

The twist developed by Neah Power Systems essentially replaces the polymer membrane inside fuel cells with layers of porous silicon, said David Dorheim, CEO of Neah.

Current fuel cells produce energy by creating a chemical reaction between methanol and oxygen. Electrodes draw those substances toward a plastic membrane, and when they come in contact with the membrane, the methanol breaks down and releases electrons, which are then funneled to power the host device. The byproducts of the reaction eventually recombine with the electrons to form water and carbon dioxide.

However, the amount of electrons produced is directly related to the surface area of the membrane. Increasing the power means expanding the physical size of the fuel system. Polymer membranes can also tear and leak.

To boost surface area, Neah's fuel cell uses layers of silicon chips, each shot through with pores, to serve as the surface area for the chemical reaction. Just as Greece--with its islands and rocky coastline--has almost as much coastline as all of North America, Neah said the collective surface area from pores in its chips will far exceed the surface area of most polymer membranes.

As a result, more energy can be produced at once, even though the external dimensions of the polymer membrane and silicon chip are the same. The Bothell, Wash.-based company, which started in 1999, asserts that it can make a fuel cell with eight porous chips that will be adequate to run a standard notebook and will be no bigger than today's standard laptop battery pack.

"The location where you can have the reaction is increased dramatically," Dorheim said. "We've been talking to notebook makers for six months."

The use of silicon also lets Neah use hydrogen peroxide, rather than the ambient atmosphere, as the source of oxygen. This leads to a greater concentration of oxygen, which boosts power.

Just as important, silicon is a known quantity. The company's chips can be produced with the chipmaking machinery developed for the semiconductor industry. Neah's chips are far from standard--most of Neah's patents revolve around the techniques involved in creating the pores in the silicon--but the tools work.

"There is 40 years of science around dealing with silicon," he said.

One of the company's fuel cells should be capable of running a notebook for six to eight hours, Dorheim said. Neah, like other fuel cell manufacturers, is also tinkering with ways that will let customers refill fuel cell cases with methanol.

In addition, trade associations such as the U.S. Fuel Cell Council are working with respective agencies, such as Underwriters Laboratories, to gain regulatory approval and set product standards.

Although the concept is intriguing, the company acknowledges that it is still in the first stages. It has demonstrated the concept in the lab and hopes to have a working demo model by the end of the year. Products aren't set to start shipping to customers until 2005.

Fuel cell materials aren't cheap. Like all fuel cells, the reactive surface area on Neah's cell is coated with platinum and ruthenium, two relatively expensive elements.

Investors in the company include Alta Partners, Frazier Technology Ventures and Intel Capital. So far, the 28-employee company has raised between $7 million and $10 million, Dorheim said.

Neah's approach has analysts intrigued.

"Obviously, they are way ahead of having a tangible product, but it is an interesting approach," said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at research firm Mercury Research. "They are addressing a lot of the problematic issues with fuel cells...It looks at this stage like a fairly interesting approach."

ToC

Lawsuit challenges software licensing

By Lisa M. Bowman
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 10, 2003, 9:23 AM PT
URL: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-983988.html

A California woman is suing Microsoft, Symantec and some software retailers, claiming the companies "concocted a scheme" to mislead consumers by requiring them to consent to software licensing agreements they haven't read.

The suit, filed Friday in Marin County Superior Court in San Rafael, Calif., seeks class-action status on behalf of all Californians who've bought software including Norton Antivirus 2002, Norton Systemworks and Windows XP Upgrade.

Specifically, the suit, which was brought by Cathy Baker, claims that Microsoft, Symantec, CompUSA, Best Buy and other unnamed retailers don't allow people to read "shrink wrap" licenses--agreements printed inside the box or incorporated into the software itself--before they buy a product.

"Defendants acted in concert and have concocted a scheme to sell consumers in the state of California software licenses in retail stores without allowing them to review the terms and conditions of such software licenses prior to sale," Ira Rothken, Baker's lawyer, wrote in the complaint.

Further, the suit claims that people who don't accept the terms of the agreement cannot return software to the stores. According to the suit, Baker tried to return the Microsoft and Symantec software to CompUSA after refusing to consent to the licensing terms. However, CompUSA refused to take the software back, saying the packages had been opened, according to the suit.

End-user license agreements have become a hot-button issue in the tech industry as more and more companies try to forge increasingly restrictive contracts. Some companies have tried to ban class-action lawsuits, damages or reverse engineering of their products.

In one of the few cases so far to test the limits of such agreements, a judge in New York ruled last month that Network Associates could not enforce wording that prohibited reviews of its product without prior consent.

Representatives from Symantec, Microsoft and Best Buy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. CompUSA executives could not be reached for comment.

ToC

Microsoft protecting rights--or Windows?

By Joe Wilcox
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 3, 2003, 4:00 AM PT
URL: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-983017.html

Can Microsoft be trusted?

How music labels, Hollywood studios and consumers answer that question could determine whether the software giant dominates digital media the way it does Web browsers or desktop productivity applications, say analysts.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company is engaged in a tried-and-true tactic of giving away highly valuable technology as a means of getting a foothold in an emerging market. The strategy, which was instrumental in Microsoft's victory in the so-called browser wars, is being replayed in the digital media market.

The stakes may be as high; analysts see digital media, like the rise of the Web, as driving the next great wave of PC sales. Microsoft, not surprisingly, wants to make sure Windows becomes a "preferred platform" for using digital media," said Directions on Microsoft analyst Matt Rosoff.

In mid-January, Microsoft unveiled a new toolkit that would let record labels create music CDs containing, along with the normal tracks, preripped Windows Media versions suitable for uploading to a buyer's MP3-type player or PC, but protected by Microsoft's digital rights management (DRM) technology to prevent copying and swapping. The toolkit, the DRM license and the use of the Windows Media Audio format is free for the labels, despite Microsoft's $500 million investment developing what many analysts regard as the best DRM technology available today.

"Windows Media, that whole division, is an investment," Rosoff said "They're not making money on it, and they don't plan to make money on it."

By providing free use of the DRM technology and the accompanying toolkit, Microsoft hopes to make Windows Media audio and video formats more popular with record labels and eventually consumers. The strategy follows marginally successful partnerships with device makers and content creators designed to further the adoption of the format.

"Microsoft hopes that filling a perceived need by the labels to create a DRM solution will help drive Windows Media forward beyond the PC and into the arena of consumer electronics," said Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg.

At the same time, Microsoft is licensing its Windows Media 9 Series file formats for use on non-Windows operating systems and on devices. Many analysts view the low cost of the licensing as an attempt to undercut the licensing cost for MPEG-4, the successor to MPEG-2 used on Hollywood movie DVDs and the biggest potential competitive threat to Windows Media technologies.

"The long-term strategy is the ubiquity of the Windows Media Format," Rosoff said. "If that becomes the default format, suddenly they're selling a lot more Windows Servers, because you need Windows Server to administer the DRM and host and stream the files if you're doing it that way. And you need the licenses for the devices to play the files."

Giving DRM technology away for free--particularly a version that's as good as Microsoft's--also makes it that much more difficult for other companies to compete. Already, for example, RealNetworks has found it difficult to sell its server-based content creation and streaming software when Microsoft bundles Windows Media technologies for free with Windows 2000 Server and the forthcoming Windows 2003 Server.

But Microsoft's DRM toolkit giveaway and low-cost Windows Media 9 Series licensing is no assurance of success, say analysts. Record labels and Hollywood studios remain wary of Microsoft's motives. Is the software giant sincerely trying to generate interest in a compelling and useful technology or is the ultimate goal something else, such as protecting the Windows monopoly?

"The question is whether they're going to use their technology as a pawn for Microsoft proliferation or whether they're going to sell good technology," said Yankee analyst Ryan Jones. "That's really the concern."

Past behavior indicates, "it's the proliferation play," Jones said. "It would be disappointing if Microsoft screwed it up because of that. Their technology is really good."

Motives questioned

Music and technology companies have been moving toward including "second session" content on compact discs for years. Early experiments often included multimedia content such as games or videos, often in Apple's QuickTime format.

In the last several years, record labels have been adding Web links, videos and other promotional material, although such content remains the exception rather than the rule.

However, as labels have increased their interest in copy protected CDs, they have increasingly looked to this second session as a way to ameliorate consumer concerns. Providing digital tracks that can be transferred to a computer, copied to an MP3 player, and ultimately even burned onto a CD will defang critics who say copy protection eliminates consumers' flexibility to use their own music, the labels say.

For at least the last year, the leading technology companies working on copy protection, including Macrovision and SunnComm Technologies, have already been planning to use the Microsoft Windows Media format for this second session content. Many CD production facilities have already installed technology for adding Windows Media Audio files to CDs.

As a result, Microsoft's toolkit falls into an industry already heading Redmond's way. What it may potentially change is vendor relationships. Labels had already been working with the technology companies such as Macrovision for the full copy protection package. Now they could theoretically split their attention, buying the basic copy protection technology from companies like Macrovision, and the second session media technology from Microsoft.

Deciphering Microsoft's motives is not as easy as during the so-called browser wars, when the software giant used exclusive contracts and hard ties between Internet Explorer and the Windows operating system to crush rival Netscape Communications.

For one thing, there is nothing totally exclusive about the DRM toolkit giveaway. Music labels would use the technology to create a second session on a CD, containing DRM-protected music pre-ripped in Windows Media Audio format, lyrics, album art and other extras. The first session, conforming to the usual standard, would be unaltered by the process.

In fact, consumers would still be able to rip music from a CD's first session into an MP3, which wouldn't do much to curb file trading. But used in conjunction with first-session content protection from Macrovision or SunCom, Microsoft's second session would provide labels with a way of offering limited copying of the music. The technology also could resolve a common problem of first-session protection preventing CDs from playing on Windows PCs.

"One of the things Microsoft is really panicked about is Sony, among others, releasing these CDs that just can't be played in PCs," Rosoff said. "Microsoft, definitely, definitely doesn't want that to happen, so they have to present some kind of alternative."

Microsoft is betting the DRM and extras, like Windows Media Audio's support for 5.1 surround sound will appeal to record labels and consumers.

"Really cool liner notes"

"We've definitely seen a movement to taking CDs and trying to protect them," said Michael Aldridge, lead product manager of the Windows Media division. But there have been mixed results trying to do that. We wanted to come up with a mechanism to address this, hopefully, in a very compelling way."

Microsoft believes the second session will appeal to consumers because it "resurrects the kind of rich experience you used to get with albums, where when you opened up the album you had really cool liner notes, lyrics and photographs of the artists," Aldridge said. At the same time, labels can use the DRM to control how the songs are copied, whether to a CD, DVD or portable music player.

Record labels have applauded Microsoft's move for several reasons. While the entertainment companies have tried to avoid relying on the software giant as a sole technology vendor, they like the omnipresence of the Windows Media technology and the strength of its rights management system. And unlike the haphazard digital add-ons to CDs of the past, the Windows Media files are likely to be supported well into the future.

"That was one thing we needed, to make sure: that 10 years from now, you stick the CD in a machine and it plays," said Ted Cohen, vice president for new media at EMI Recorded Music.

Still, Microsoft's approach greatly favors Windows. Accessing the content "would require a PC and support for Windows Media on the PC itself," Aldridge said.

For now, Microsoft only provides a toolkit supporting Windows, although Aldridge says a Macintosh version is forthcoming. For now, record labels would have to distribute over the Web a downloadable license that would let Mac users play second-session content created using the toolkits. No option is available for other operating systems, such as Linux.

This kind of favoritism is likely to make record labels extremely cautious about using Microsoft's DRM, regardless of the technology's attractiveness or the free use, say analysts.

"On the PC, they're trying to lock in favoritism for the Windows platform," said The Yankee Group's Jones. "Their plan kind of shows through, and that will put the content owners on alert."

At the same time, labels are concerned that should Microsoft's file formats come to dominate digital media, what's free today could cost plenty in the future. In other markets, Microsoft significantly jacked up the costs once it dominated a technology or market segment. A good example is Microsoft's Licensing 6 program, which raised fees for obtaining Windows and Office licenses as much as 107 percent, according to Gartner.

"You have the possibility that all your digital content protection is on their platform and they start charging for it," Jones said. "There's this template of how Microsoft can spread its influence and then capitalize on it after being patient. It's really Microsoft's patience that's going to surprise content providers at the end of the day, as it has enterprises."

Consumer resistance

Even if Microsoft has no ulterior motives, content creators have other very good reasons to steer clear of Microsoft's DRM and Windows Media formats.

"Content is what drives digital media behaviors in the home, not a platform," Jones said. "You will never see content owners changing their architecture to fit a device's architecture in the home. It's always the other way around. The device architectures always fit how the content enters the home. There are MP3 players because the content source was MP3; it's not the other way around."

To date, Microsoft's strategy has worked to counter this behavior, with the company convincing device manufacturers to support Windows Media formats. But that strategy has failed to gain much traction for the format against MP3.

Still, the DRM is a big carrot that could convince labels to use Windows Media formats, which could greatly advance adoption. The timing is right, say analysts.

"The labels are feeling a lot of pressure, especially from the retail side, like this Echo thing that was launched," Jones said. "That's a sign the industry is thinking seriously about alternative distribution platforms."

On Jan. 27, a group of music retailers including Tower Records, Virgin Entertainment, Best Buy and Wherehouse Music formed a consortium to sell digital music--through an investment in Echo Networks, which formerly operated a streaming music community.

Even if record labels embrace the toolkit and create millions of discs with Microsoft DRM-protected content, there's no guarantee Windows Media formats would gain any traction with consumers. In fact, many analysts believe content protection simply cannot succeed in the market place.

"DRM solutions have not been popular with consumers," Jupiter's Gartenberg said. "It's not likely consumers will flock to this technology or replace either existing consumer-electronics equipment or PC equipment to help labels fight piracy or help Microsoft drive Windows Media adoption forward."

In fact, the most serious indictment of DRM technology may come from Microsoft employees. A research paper published last fall, reportedly by four Microsoft employees, concluded that DRM technology would likely fail because of consumer resistance to content protection and acceptance of file trading. The researchers concluded "that a vendor will probably make more money by selling unprotected objects than protected objects."

Gartenberg isn't surprised. "Consumers have shown adversity to anything that inhibits their use of the music that they purchase," he said. About 40 percent of 15- to 17-year-olds buying a CD in the last 12 months said downloading influenced their purchase, according to Jupiter; 28 percent had copied music from a friend.

"The figures were 11 percent and 10 percent, respectively, for adults," Gartenberg said. "That seems to indicate consumers want flexibility with their music."

ToC

The PC Section:

Ad-Aware Version 6 Released

by Kevin Hisel

One FREE program that I recommend to ALL my friends and acquaintances is Lavasoft's Ad-Aware. The latest version is now available from Lavasoft's web site at:

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

Ad-Aware scans your computer for so-called "spyware" and "malware" applications. These programs can do all kinds of nasty things including stealing personal information about you and your Internet habits, highjacking your browser and displaying unwanted advertising, tracking your movements as you visit various Internet sites and other nefarious activities. Many people have these unwanted programs installed and running on their computers without even knowing it.

Ad-Aware detects and removes these unwelcomed programs and it's completely free. It also removes known data-tracking "cookies". More deluxe versions of the program that you must pay for are available. This latest free version is greatly improved, easier to use and allows for online updating.

Download Ad-Aware and scan your system today. You may be surprised how much "junk" you have unknowingly added to your computer.

ToC

Sotec 3120X Laptop Computer Review

by Kevin Hisel

I finally broke down and replaced my absolutely ancient 486-DX66 laptop. My criteria for the new machine were very simple. It had to fast, thin, light, powerful and above all CHEAP! In the back of my mind I was convinced that I'd never really find such a machine since it probably didn't even exist.

I was wrong.

I did a lot of digging on the net and came across a group of people who were raving about this little no-name laptop from a company called Sotec (http://www.sotecglobal.com/us/). Apparently Sotec is a Japanese electronics company that's been around for about 20 years. They've supplied OEM products to the likes of Gateway and Dell but only recently entered the US market. They do not actually manufacture any of their products but use third-party manufacturing facilities. The 3120X appears to be manufactured by Twinhead of Taiwan. Net users report machines made in both Taiwan and China (mine was from the latter).

The little machine everyone was excited about was the Sotec 3120X. It's 4.4 pounds and only 1.3 inches thick, so you can carry it anywhere. It comes in a sturdy magnesium alloy casing. Its 12.1'' 1024x768 TFT display is super sharp and reasonably bright. Mine had no bad pixels. The processor is a mobile Celeron clocked at 1.2GHz with 256K L2 cache. It's no P4 3.06GHz screamer but everything runs very quickly. It comes with 256 megabytes of PC133 RAM and can be expanded to 384 megs. The hard drive is 20GB. Windows XP Home and Microsoft Works 6.0 is preinstalled.

For the ins and outs, it's got three USB 1.0a ports, a 10/100 ethernet connector, a 56K FAXmodem, headphone (with rotary volume control) and microphone jacks and one PCMCIA/PC Card port. The VGA-out can simultaneously output the LCD monitor's display. It ships with an AC adapter/charger and the battery is lithium-ion rated at about three hours capacity--in real life I get about 2 1/2 hours. The speakers are not very good nor very loud. Some people have negatively commented on the keyboard layout--it takes a little getting used to but I've had few problems. The letter keys are full-size. There are no serial, parallel, infrared or PS2 ports. There is a cut-out for an IEEE-1394 port, but no port. No floppy drive is included.

One surprising feature was the software included with the touch pad pointing device. It's from Synaptics and is very customizable. I didn't think I could use a touch pad but the Synaptics driver is really quite clever and allows you do a lot more than just move the mouse pointer around the screen.

The real draw for this little machine is the combo optical drive. It's an 8x DVD reader (Sotec throws in some great software to play DVDs called InterVideo WinDVD) and a 16x10x24 CD-RW. Roxio burning software is included. Watching DVDs on the 3120X is really quite enjoyable. The screen is sharp and the WinDVD player is easy-to-use and quite capable. Writing CD-Rs is adequately fast.

The graphics system is a SiS 630ST AGP 2X using 32M of shared RAM. I've heard that you can set this to 64M if you upgrade the memory to 384M. I'm not a gamer so I have not really tested the 3D capabilities but I did run a few demos and they didn't look that great. I don't think you big-time gamers would like the graphics very much. The audio sounds great through headphones.

The 3120X measures 10.6'' x 9.6'' x 1.3''.

Unfortunately, I did have a little trouble with my machine. About four days after receiving it, the DVD/CDRW combo drive died. I had to send it to Sotec's warranty center in California. It took two weeks door-to-door and was covered under the one-year (6 months for the battery) warranty. This appears to be a rare defect according to 'net reports. The most common problem seems to be loud fans. Mine was fine, but Sotec replaced it without me even asking. I'm guessing this was a preventative measure.

Using the 3120X is real dream. I installed a Wi-Fi wireless network card and I can now freely roam the house and access the Internet and all the files on my other machines with great ease. The 3120X--at only 4.4 pounds-- is so small and light that it's truly a laptop computer. It's really quiet, too. The real pluses of this machine are its snappy performance, the crystal-clear display and the DVD drive.

Price. Oh yeah, that's the best part. Other machines in this size/weight/power range are running $1,300-$1,600. The Sotec is available for about $900 and is a real bargain. Sotec is offering a $50 rebate and a "free" 32M USB keychain drive with purchase ($10 S&H). I was lucky enough to catch mine in stock at BestBuy.com while they were running an additional $150 rebate, so the final price I paid was about $750. This is a ridiculously low price for a small form-factor notebook with a DVD/CDRW. The 3120X is available at BestBuy.com, Walmart.com, Office Depot and direct from Sotec. Sam's Club sells the 3123xs which includes a 30GB drive but is otherwise identical.

More information about the Sotec 3120X can be found on the web at:

http://www.sotecglobal.com/us/products/?catid=11&subid=102&prodid=1002

http://sotec.mine.nu/forum/

http://home.ettus.com/sotec-linux/

http://www.edgeworld.com/notebook/sotec.php

ToC

Microsoft preps new Office 11 beta

By Joe Wilcox
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 12, 2003, 2:40 PM PT
URL: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-984380.html

Microsoft is expected to release next month a second test version of a crucial upgrade to its Office desktop application software.

The initial test release of Office 11--the code name for the product--was shipped to about 12,000 testers in October. In a familiar pattern, the software titan is expected to make this second testing version more widely available. Microsoft has taken a similar approach with past upgrades to Office and its Windows operating system.

Office 11 Beta 2 will be geared more toward enterprise customers, said Microsoft executives.

This new version of Microsoft's cash cow comes as analysts question how well the software will be received by customers. While Office still controls more than 90 percent of the desktop office market, customers say they see fewer new features that would compel them to upgrade to the latest versions.

Some customers have even investigated lower cost alternatives. Although a new licensing plan will help keep customers in the Microsoft fold, any slump in sales could make a big impact on the software maker's balance sheet. Office contributes nearly one-third of Microsoft's overall revenue.

With Office 11, Microsoft's new strategy is to focus more on features targeted at businesses, as the company tries to expand its reach into larger customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications to complement its broader product lines.

New features

The new Office 11 Beta 2 is expected to include two new Office products, OneNote, a new note-taking application, and InfoPath, a tool for building and sharing Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based forms.

Only a small number of testers were given InfoPath, formerly code-named XDocs, with Beta 1. Microsoft has not finalized bundling plans for OneNote or InfoPath, which could ship separately from the main Office package.

Like Beta 1, the new testing version is expected to include the Access database, Excel spreadsheet, FrontPage Web site creation and management software, Outlook e-mail, contact and calendaring application, Publisher content creation package, PowerPoint presentation creator and a word processor.

Testers will be able to take advantage of new digital ink capabilities that allow users to write on screens using a penlike device. The support is available in portables running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.

For enterprise customers, the most valuable part of Office 11 may be support for XML, a crucial technology for delivering Web-based services and for linking applications. But it is uncertain whether Microsoft will do anything in Office 11 Beta 2 to open proprietary schemas, or XML dialects, that could restrict how enterprises make use of the technology. Major applications Word and Excel would be able to save documents in XML as well as Microsoft's .doc format. InfoPath will widely use XML to extract data from Office files into formlike documents.

"InfoPath is part of the XML revolution that is being reflected across all Microsoft products," Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said on Tuesday during a speech given at the company's Most Valued Professional Summit held at its headquarters. "But in order for the XML revolution to happen, one piece of it has to be rich viewing: The ability to create rich schemas and have right user interaction with XML documents; and that's InfoPath. Being part of the offering really provides that critical piece."

Hurdles into businesses

One issue for Microsoft is the significant number of larger customers who have purchased licenses for Office XP--Office 11's predecessor--but who have yet to install the software. That means those customers might not adopt Office 11 for years. In an informal survey conducted in October during Gartner's annual symposium, 31 percent of U.S. IT managers said their companies used Office 97, 56 percent Office 2000 and 6 percent Office XP.

At the same time, a significant number of customers opted for the older Office 2000 over the newer XP last year.

"Office 2000 gained its market share by about 15 percent last year," said Gartner analyst Michael Silver.

In the past, release of a new version of Office has been a significant event for Microsoft. Office is one of the company's two flagship products. In the most recent quarter Microsoft's Information Worker division, which is largely made up of Office, accounted for $2.4 billion of the company's $8.5 billion in revenue and $1.88 billion of the $3.25 billion gross profit.

Typically, Microsoft sees a surge in sales following the release of a new version of Office, but analysts don't expect to see much of an increase when the new productivity suite ships. One reason is the Licensing 6 program. In May 2001, Microsoft announced the new licensing program, where customers would have to pay upfront, typically under two-year contracts. This "Software Assurance" program guarantees them access to the latest Microsoft technology when it becomes available.

Licensing hang-ups

Microsoft fully enacted the licensing 6 program Aug. 1. Late sign-ups unexpectedly boosted the company's deferred revenue--essentially, cash in the bank accounted for during the course of the licensing contracts--past $9 billion in the first fiscal quarter.

Still, analysts estimate as many as two-thirds of customers chose to skip the program. One reason: Licensing 6 raised upgrade fees anywhere from 33 percent to 107 percent for many customers, according to Gartner.

Many Microsoft customers have complained about the new licensing plan. "We have not signed the Licensing 6 program," said Josep Guallar-Esteve, senior systems network administrator for Eastern Radiologists in Greenville, N.C., a large radiological practice serving seven hospitals. "We are going with OpenOffice/StarOffice/WordPerfect suites. They are getting better and don't have such abusive contracts bundled with the software."

If Microsoft faces any problems delivering Office 11, those snags could come back to haunt the company in a few years, say analysts. Customers typically sign up for Licensing 6 under 24-month Software Assurance contracts.

"People are trying to figure out what Software Assurance really means, and the only data they have about whether they should buy it is Microsoft's track record delivering products," said Paul DeGroot, an analyst with Directions of Microsoft. "If Microsoft can't deliver you an upgrade within 24 months, purchasing SA for 24 months starts to become an issue."

Late summer or midyear?

Microsoft earlier had said the product would be available around midyear. The company is now saying late summer. "Customers will have the final Office 11 product in their hands by the end of the summer," said a Microsoft spokesman.

Some analysts remain skeptical that Microsoft will meet its target date, given the earlier slip in the schedule. But the impact of any delay will most likely be minimal.

"To me, midyear and end of summer are two different things," DeGroot said. "If you're a university student, end of summer could mean end of September, which is quite a bit later than midyear. I guess they could say they have until Sept. 30 to qualify for midyear. That's fudging it."

Even if Office 11 slipped into the fourth quarter because of unexpected problems found during testing, any real customer impact would likely be "symbolic," DeGroot emphasized. If large customers follow past behavior, they will take up to a year testing the new version of Office before widely deploying the productivity suite anyway, he added.

ToC

"Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" Commemorates 100 Years of Aviation History

"Flight Simulator" Franchise's 20th Anniversary Year Corresponds With Centennial of Flight Celebration

REDMOND, Wash. -- Feb. 11, 2003 -- As the world prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of powered flight, Microsoft Corp. today announced that "Microsoft¨ Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" is in development and cleared for takeoff this July.

With "Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight," the next milestone in the award-winning "Flight Simulator" franchise, Microsoft celebrates 20 years of developing and perfecting computer flight simulation. "A Century of Flight" allows aviation enthusiasts to experience history at the controls of historic aircraft, such as Charles Lindbergh's Ryan NYP "Spirit of St. Louis," the Douglas DC-3 and the world's first successful powered aircraft, the Wright Flyer.

New engaging features such as interactive multimedia provide a wealth of historical information on the planes that shaped aviation history and the pilots who flew them. Informed and insightful articles explain all there is to know about Microsoft's "Flight Simulator" and the 24 aircraft included in the software. "Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" also introduces an updated, dynamic weather system, enhanced automatically generated scenery (AutoGen) and detailed visual effects, improved Air Traffic Control functions, and 3-D interactive cockpits, as well as 15 modern aircraft, including the Boeing 777, the Beechcraft Baron and the Robinson R22 helicopter.

"Launching 'A Century of Flight' in conjunction with a historical milestone as monumental as the invention of powered flight is an exhilarating, once-in-a-lifetime experience for all of us on the 'Flight Simulator' team," said Bruce Williams, product planner at Microsoft Aces Studios. "There are a lot of organizations celebrating the centennial of flight, but 'Century of Flight' empowers people to get into the cockpit of legendary aircraft such as the Wright Flyer and the 'Spirit of St. Louis' to feel what it was like to actually fly those planes."

When "Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" launches this July, Microsoft will mark flight's 100th anniversary by participating with the Experimental Aviation Association (EAA) in a yearlong celebration, Countdown to Kitty Hawk. A touring pavilion honoring aviation heroes and innovations will land in cities across the country, beginning this April at Sun 'N Fun in Lakeland, Fla. The pavilion will house a virtual 1903 Wright Flyer with which guests can experience the new "Flight Simulator" software, stepping back in time and recapturing the feeling of the first flight of Wilbur and Orville Wright on the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, N.C. Would-be pilots operate the "aircraft" from a horizontal hip cradle, using hand levers and a shifting hip mechanism to control virtual takeoffs and landings in front of a giant panoramic projection screen.

Availability

"Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" will be available on PC at leading retailers nationwide including Best Buy, Electronics Boutique and Circuit City Stores Inc. in July 2003 for an estimated retail price of $54.95 (U.S.)* and is rated "Teen."

ToC

The Linux Section:

Sales increase for U.S. Linux servers

By Ian Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 10, 2003, 11:37 AM PT
URL: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-984010.html

Sales in the United States of servers running Linux nearly doubled in last year's fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to new statistics from market researcher Gartner Dataquest.

Total Linux server revenue was $384.6 million in the fourth quarter, up 90 percent from $202.2 million. By contrast, overall U.S. server revenue climbed just 5 percent in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier.

IBM was the chief beneficiary of Linux server revenue, taking in some $159.9 million in sales, up from $75.6 million a year earlier. Hewlett-Packard saw sales rise to $80.2 million, up 81 percent from $44.3 million a year earlier. Dell Computer's Linux server revenue grew nearly 66 percent, but fell behind HP, with fourth-quarter sales of $77.1 million, compared with $46.4 million a year earlier. Sun Microsystems, which started selling Linux servers just last year, took in $1.3 million in the fourth quarter, up from $912,500 in the third quarter.

"Linux (sales) increased a lot because of IBM," said Shahin Naftchi, server analyst for Gartner. Naftchi said that IBM is now shipping blade servers, 75 percent of which run Linux.

Linux servers made up more than 14 percent of all servers shipped in the United States in the first quarter, but accounted for just 7.6 percent of total server revenue. A year ago, Linux made up 9 percent of server unit shipments and 4.7 percent of revenue.

In the Unix market, U.S. server sales fell 3 percent from a year earlier to $1.69 billion, down from $1.74 billion. Sun remained the top seller of Unix servers, but saw sales drop more than 27 percent from a year earlier, to $675 million. HP solidified its No. 2 spot in the market, posting a 54 percent year-over-year increase, to $562.6 million. IBM posted a narrower 9.4 percent gain from a year earlier, with sales of $361.8 million. SGI was the fourth-largest seller, but saw sales dip 25 percent, to $39.1 million.

"HP's Unix is improving a lot," Naftchi said. "HP is gaining customer's trust, especially overseas."

In the Intel-based server market, Dell extended the lead it regained from HP in the third quarter, grabbing 29.4 percent of the market compared with HP's 27.5 percent. Dell sold $531.5 million worth of Intel-based servers in the U.S. during the fourth quarter, up 37 percent from a year earlier. HP's sales grew a scant 0.6 percent from a year earlier, to $496.4 million. IBM remained the No. 3 seller of Intel-based servers in the U.S., with revenue up 28.8 percent, to $244.5 million.

The total market for Intel-based servers in the U.S. during the fourth quarter was $1.8 billion, up 17.4 percent from a year earlier and 3.5 percent from the third quarter. Gartner has also predicted that revenue from less-expensive Intel servers will surpass revenue from high-end Unix-based servers for the first time in 2003.

Intel-based servers accounted for 90 percent of unit shipments in the fourth quarter and 40.3 percent of revenue. A year earlier, Intel-based servers made up 87.5 percent of units shipped and produced 36.1 percent of revenue.

In the overall U.S. market, IBM generates the most server revenue, followed by HP, Sun and Dell. In terms of unit shipments, HP is the leader with 30 percent of the market, followed by Dell at 19 percent.

ToC

The Macintosh Section:

AirPort Extreme: In the Key of G

by Glenn Fleishman & Adam C. Engst (editors@tidbits.com)
TidBITS#663/20-Jan-03

Apple led the drive to offer Wi-Fi wireless networking equipment at reasonable prices to consumers way back in 1999, but the company's gateway product, the AirPort Base Station, had started to look under-featured and overpriced even by late 2001 - especially for broadband users who didn't need its built-in modem.

But Apple stayed the course: $300 for the AirPort Base Station and $100 for the proprietary AirPort card that inserted into a special PC Card-like slot in every model of the Macintosh. Because many Mac models over the last three years lack PC Card and PCI slots - notably, the iMac, eMac, Cube, and iBook - the AirPort slot was for a long time the only reasonable option for adding wireless access for under $150.

At this month's Macworld Expo, Apple not only caught up with but exceeded the rest of the wireless world by announcing AirPort Extreme. The AirPort Extreme products rely on a draft version of the IEEE 802.11g specification, which uses the 2.4 GHz radio spectrum band just like 802.11b, is completely backwards compatible with 802.11b, and operates at up to 54 Mbps.

http://www.apple.com/airport/

In this article, which we're also publishing as an addendum to our recently released book, The Wireless Networking Starter Kit, we discuss compatibility issues with 802.11g and AirPort Extreme and run through the equipment's specifications. Later in this section, we note the other makers of 802.11g equipment, including Linksys, Belkin, and D-Link, and survey their initial product offerings and pricing. We've also started tracking Mac-related wireless news on a new weblog hosted at the book's Web site; stop by regularly (or add its RSS feed to your favorite headline watcher) if you're interested in what's up with AirPort and AirPort Extreme.

http://wireless-starter-kit.com/
http://wireless-starter-kit.com/airportblog/

Forward and Backward Compatibility

The 802.11g specification uses a relatively new method of encoding bits onto radio waves in such a way as to squeeze up to 54 Mbps of raw data across a single channel. As is the case with most theoretical network throughputs, the net throughput of real data - the actual contents of files or transactions - provides somewhere between 20 and 30 Mbps. In contrast, 802.11b's 11 Mbps raw throughput generally translated to 4 to 6 Mbps at best, and it isn't uncommon to drop below that as distance from the base station increases.

802.11g is attractive because it includes full backwards compatibility with 802.11b. This compatibility isn't optional for manufacturers, but rather is a mandatory part of the spec. 802.11g also has several intermediate steps for speed, so you don't just drop from 54 Mbps all the way down to 11 Mbps.

One of 802.11g's big advantages over 802.11b is that it better handles the inevitable signal reflection. Radio signals bounce off different pieces of matter - floors, metal, even the air around you - at different angles and speeds. A receiver must reconcile all the different reflections of the same signal that arrive at slightly different times into a single set of data. 802.11g (like 802.11a) slices up the spectrum in a way that enables receivers to handle these reflections in a simpler but more effective way than 802.11b.

Despite Steve Jobs's confident declaration in the Macworld Expo keynote that 802.11g is a "standard," the current specification has not been finalized and ratified by the IEEE, the engineering group that develops new standards. Ratification should happen relatively soon, almost certainly by the end of 2003. Until then, the 802.11g "standard," remains in draft form, although that hasn't stopped several chip manufacturers from shipping the silicon necessary to implement the current draft of 802.11g. (Apple's Web site now calls 802.11g a draft, reflecting reality.)

Also note that the Wi-Fi Alliance hasn't included 802.11g as part of its certification suite. The Wi-Fi Alliance tests equipment to make sure it works according to spec and is interoperable with all other certified equipment; if so, the maker is allowed to use the Wi-Fi logo. Until 802.11g is finished, the Wi-Fi Alliance has no way of guaranteeing that different 802.11g devices will work with one another, meaning that it will likely be some time after ratification that the Wi-Fi Alliance considers adding 802.11g to the Wi-Fi certification suite. Some of our sources speculate that a testing program could be in place as early as summer, but final certification almost certainly wouldn't start until at least late 2003.

That's not to imply that compatibility is likely to be a major problem. Manufacturers have significant motivation to maintain compatibility with other makers. No one wants to sell equipment that won't play nice with others, because to do so would undermine confidence in the entire technology. In the worst case, unless a piece of hardware is designed extremely poorly, two incompatible 802.11g devices should be able to talk at 802.11b speeds.

Compatibility problems are particularly unlikely among different devices from the same manufacturer. Apple AirPort Extreme Base Stations will happily communicate with AirPort and AirPort Extreme cards, for instance. However, good compatibility likely goes farther. Apple's equipment relies on chips from Broadcom, as does 802.11g gear from Linksys. For that reason, and because Apple and Linksys have brought the first 802.11g devices to market, it's likely that Apple and Linksys equipment will be compatible. In addition, later equipment makers will have to meet Broadcom's specs rather than vice-versa. Sometimes standards are set merely by shipping the most devices.

One way or another, compatibility will not be an issue in the long run, whether you buy hardware now or later. Apple has promised firmware upgrades as the standard stabilizes, and Apple has done a good job thus far providing these kinds of updates to the older AirPort equipment.

On a related front, Apple hasn't committed to or rejected support for WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access), the security update that fixes encryption problems and removes complexity from securing local wireless network connections. Apple said that they will monitor whether WPA becomes widely adopted and evaluate their response based on usage. Again, if Apple were to support WPA, that support would appear in the form of a free firmware update. Meanwhile, many other vendors are already promising WPA support. For instance, D-Link says their new 802.11g devices will support WPA with a firmware upgrade by the second quarter of the year.

Is 802.11a Dead?

Apple has chosen to not support the existing 802.11a specification as part of AirPort Extreme. 802.11a operates in the 5 GHz band and its use of a different frequency means that it is not backwards compatible with 802.11b. Several companies offer dual-band 2.4/5 GHz radios now, but that approach increases cost and complexity.

Because of this lack of compatibility with millions of 802.11b devices currently in use, Steve Jobs said that 802.11a is doomed to failure. However, it's more appropriate to say that 802.11a is now relegated to niche status for particular purposes, such as dense installations in corporations, server room backup links, or high-speed point-to-point bridges.

Because 802.11a has 12 distinct channels that can be used without interference in the same place, it offers an advantage for scenarios in which avoiding interference is important. Likewise, the four channels reserved in the upper end of the 5 GHz band for 802.11a outdoor, point-to-point use can employ higher power levels, which may provide a better throughput than 802.11g in the same circumstances.

AirPort Extreme Base Station

Apple offers two different AirPort Extreme Base Station models, priced at $200 and $250. Both units have 10/100 Mbps WAN and LAN ports, sport a USB port for printer sharing (but not spooling), and can bridge to other AirPort Extreme Base Stations, acting as an access point and a bridge simultaneously. The $250 unit also includes a 56K modem and a jack for an external antenna.

The 10/100 Mbps bump up in speed on the WAN port recognizes that some users might be hooking into wide-area networks or broadband connections that provide more than 10 Mbps of bandwidth (that's unfortunately not true for us, so we can't test that feature). If you're only running a 10 Mbps wired Ethernet, it might also be time to upgrade to 10/100 Mbps switches if you're also installing AirPort Extreme equipment to take full advantage of the intra- network speed. Do note that AirPort Extreme won't help your Internet use at all, since almost all Internet connections are far slower than even 802.11b's realistic 4 to 6 Mbps.

The addition of USB printer sharing enables a network of Macs to share a printer without connecting the printer to a Mac which must be turned on whenever anyone wants to print. However, the printer itself must be turned on: Apple confirmed that this feature is indeed "printer sharing," which makes it seem just like the printer is connected to each machine, rather than "printer spooling," in which print jobs are sent to the print spooler, stored in a file, and then printed out whenever the printer becomes available. (Adam absolutely adores print spooling because his printer is seldom on, and whenever he turns it on, his AppleShare IP-based print spooler immediately prints all the waiting print jobs.)

In the past, adding an external antenna to an AirPort Base Station required serious surgery that made a mockery of your warranty and required significant manual dexterity. Now, with the $250 model of the AirPort Extreme Base Station, you can simply plug an external antenna into the Apple-proprietary antenna jack.

Don't blame Apple for yet another proprietary jack - the FCC mandates that any wireless networking equipment that can take an antenna must feature a hard-to-find connector. That's because the FCC doesn't want just anyone attaching uncertified antennas that could spew more than the legal amount of signal. (An uncertified antenna is anything that the manufacturer didn't have the FCC test with a given wireless gateway or card.)

You'll be able to buy two external antennas for the AirPort Extreme Base Station. Both initial models are made and marketed by veteran Mac firm Dr. Bott. Apple said that they didn't want to get into the antenna business, but Apple is having the entire $250 AirPort Extreme Base Station plus Dr. Bott antenna system certified by the FCC. (Companies pay a separate fee for each certification - which may account for part of why the cheaper AirPort Extreme Base Station doesn't have an external antenna jack.)

http://www.drbott.com/

The Dr. Bott ExtendAIR Omni ($100) is a 3.5 dBi omnidirectional antenna suitable for extending the range of an AirPort Extreme Base Station in a 360-degree spread; the ExtendAIR Direct ($150) is a 6.5 dBi 70-degree directional antenna. (For more on adding antennas to access points for extending range, read Chapter 8, "Going the Distance," in The Wireless Networking Starter Kit.)

Although you can still use the 56 Kbps modem (V.90, not V.92, unfortunately; see Kevin Savetz's articles on V.92 linked below) to connect via a dialup Internet connection, you might still want the modem-equipped version of the AirPort Extreme Base Station even if you have a broadband connection to the Internet. That's because the AirPort Extreme Base Station also supports PPP dial-in connections. Forget a file while you're traveling? As long as your Mac is turned on and has file sharing enabled, you can use your laptop's modem to dial up your AirPort Extreme Base Station and retrieve that file. Exactly how this feature will work won't be clear until we can test the hardware, but it could be a welcome addition. (Of course, this assumes a phone line dedicated to incoming data calls.)

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06431
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06996

The AirPort Extreme Base Station's bridge feature is unique for equipment in this price range. It enables you to extend the range of a network without wires. Just buy two AirPort Extreme Base Stations, connect one to your Internet connection, and set the other to work in bridge mode. The bridge unit connects to the master AirPort Extreme Base Station and acts as an access point for computers within range. In the past, you would have had to spend well over $500 to buy a single device that could act as an access point and bridge simultaneously, or combine separate pieces of equipment like the Linksys WAP11 and WET11 to achieve the same effect. (See pages 152 to 160 in The Wireless Networking Starter Kit for more on how wireless bridging works.)

Remember that even if you don't have a single AirPort Extreme card or 802.11g adapter on your network, two AirPort Extreme Base Stations can connect to each other at the full 54 Mbps raw speed of 802.11g. If your wired network runs at 100 Mbps, the high-speed bridging is another reason for the 10/100 Mbps WAN port on the new units.

With AirPort Extreme Base Stations, you could locate islands of wired and wireless access in various locations without running wire among those islands. This could allow you to create larger coverage area or connect neighboring buildings or homes.

Although the AirPort Extreme Base Station bridging works with up to four units at once, you reportedly cannot daisy chain the AirPort Extreme Base Stations in bridging mode; all the bridged units must each connect back to the master unit. In more extensive installations, you could run Ethernet among several master AirPort Extreme Base Stations and still use bridging on the edges of the network.

AirPort Extreme Card

The new AirPort Extreme Card is based on the mini-PCI Card form factor, and has a new shape and connector. The card is built into every 17-inch PowerBook G4, and is a user-expandable or build-to-order option with the 12-inch PowerBook G4. (Both PowerBooks were announced at the same time as AirPort Extreme.)

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07041

These two PowerBook models also have built-in Bluetooth and a pair of antennas. Apple said the two antennas reconfigure themselves dynamically to provide either antenna diversity for better reception of Wi-Fi or 802.11g signals, or for one antenna to be dedicated to Bluetooth and the other to 802.11 depending on what's needed.

The antenna redesign also solves a problem inherent in the Titanium PowerBook G4 design which restricted the signal strength entering and leaving the computer. In the new PowerBook G4 aluminum case design, the antennas are located at the top of both sides of the LCD display with rubber seals providing radio "transparency."

Will there be an upgraded AirPort Extreme card for older Macs? The answer is a firm no. Greg Joswiak, Apple's VP of hardware products, confirmed for us that the older AirPort card relied on a too-slow bus, or communications channel, inside each Mac. This slow bus can't operate at the speed required by 802.11g, thus making it impossible to revise the card or plug a different card into that slot.

We expect that new Power Macs will be among the first Macs to sport either an AirPort Extreme slot or, less likely, a PCI-based AirPort Extreme card option. iMacs, eMacs, and iBooks would require motherboard redesign to support AirPort Extreme, and thus only a major refresh to each product line will be extreme enough to incorporate 802.11g.

It's certain that other companies will step up to the plate as well, such as Asante, Proxim, MacWireless, and Belkin, all of which have a history of supporting Macintosh networking. These companies typically release PC Cards first, meaning that only certain PowerBook models would handle 802.11g. PCI card adapters are already shipping, and we might see Ethernet or even FireWire (USB is too slow for 802.11g) converters as well.

Other 802.11g Makers

Although Apple is early with 802.11g, it's not the first to ship products. Linksys gets that honor, having pushed out its first "54G" gateways and cards before the end of 2002, with Buffalo following quickly. D-Link and Belkin aren't far behind. (Prices are all the lowest price at Amazon.com or via the companies' online stores.)

Many Mac users know Belkin as a cable company, but the firm has been shipping a variety of networking products, including inexpensive Bluetooth adapters, for some time. By the time you read this, the company plans to ship four devices: a wired/wireless gateway (F5D7230-4, retail price $150), a plain access point (F5D7130, $140), a PC Card (F5D7010, $80), and a PCI card (F5D7000, $80). Belkin has promised drivers for its 802.11g gear by February for Mac OS 8.6 and later.

http://www.belkin.com/

Linksys has two 54G gateways and two cards. The WRT54G is a combination wired switch and wireless gateway which updates their BEFW11S4 model ($130). The WAP54G is a simple access point that adds 802.11g support to the WAP11 ($130). The WPC54G PC Card ($70) is available now, and the WMP54G PCI adapter ($70) is coming soon. Linksys has little to no Macintosh support for any of its existing products.

http://www.linksys.com/splash/54g_splash.asp

D-Link is offering products under the complicated brand name of AirPlus Xtreme G. They also have a wired/wireless gateway (DI-624, $150), a plain access point (DWL-2000AP, $140), a PC Card (DWL-G650, $80), and a PCI Card (DWL-G520, $90). D-Link has offered limited AppleTalk support in its previous offerings, but Mac drivers are unlikely.

http://www.dlink.com/products/wireless/airxtreme.asp

Buffalo has its AirStation G54 Broadband Router Access Point (WBR-G54) for a retail price of $200 and a PC Card (WLI-CB-G54) for $100. Street prices should be less. The company has offered limited Mac support in the past.

http://www.buffalotech.com/wireless/

Future of G

The future of 802.11g is bright given its advantages, and the early rush to push products into the marketplace. Buying equipment now should cost only a slight premium over later prices: Apple probably won't adjust its prices much, if at all, based on its history, and 802.11g devices from other manufacturers will probably drop only $10 to $30 over the course of 2003 unless major manufacturing breakthroughs occur or chip prices plummet.

We're bullish on 802.11g because it's backwards compatible, and because it doesn't rely on unproven technology. Faster speed at about the same price? Count us in.

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ToC

Going on Safari

by Adam C. Engst (ace@tidbits.com)
TidBITS#664/27-Jan-03

As I noted in "Apple Reduces Its Microsoft Dependency" in TidBITS-662_, Apple's Macworld Expo beta release of the Safari Web browser is indication that Apple is hunting big game, namely Microsoft. But is Safari a high enough caliber weapon to take down the lumbering behemoth that is Internet Explorer? Or will the svelte and sprightly Safari merely bounce off Microsoft's tough hide? We won't be able to decide that until Safari 1.0 finally ships, but there's no question that Safari is good enough that, if possible, you should join the more than 1 million people who downloaded copies of Safari through last week and take a look.

To be clear, Safari is a Cocoa application that requires Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar or later, and Apple claims it's optimized for use with Mac OS X 10.2.3. It does not and will never run in Mac OS 9, so Macs that haven't yet upgraded to Mac OS X or that can't run Mac OS X should stick with whatever browser they're using now. The Safari download is only 2.9 MB; a welcome size for a modern Web browser.

Under the Hood

With Safari, Apple chose not to reinvent the wheel, but instead of buying another browser, Apple chose to continue in the Mac OS X vein by basing Safari on an open source project, the KHTML rendering engine that lies underneath Linux browser Konqueror. Although my money had been on Apple using the open source Gecko rendering engine that powers Netscape, Mozilla, and Chimera, KHTML is both faster and comprises significantly fewer lines of code to understand and maintain.

http://developer.kde.org/documentation/library/kdeqt/kde3arch/khtml/
http://www.konqueror.org/

On the downside, although KHTML displays pages relatively well, it (or at least Apple's implementation of it, the changes to which have already gone back to the KHTML maintainers) doesn't yet do as well with Web standards as other rendering engines. Whether or not KHTML ends up being better or worse in terms of standards support, it's yet another target that Web designers must now test against, since it will undoubtedly display many pages slightly differently than other browsers.

>From what I can tell from Web standards reports so far, Apple does have a fair amount more work to do, despite all the claims of superior standards support. Bugs should be reported, but final judgment should be reserved until Apple releases the 1.0 version of Safari (and frankly, people shouldn't stress about changing their Web pages too much for Safari's sake until the release version). Right now, Safari is unabashedly in beta, and one of the primary developers, Dave Hyatt (who also started the Chimera project), has a weblog where he has been posting updates about problems that he's fixed in the source code. It's definitely worth a read.

http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/01/07/safari_review.html
http://www.mozillazine.org/weblogs/hyatt/archives/cat_safari.html

Fast, Streamlined Interface

After trying Safari on the first day, Tonya became an immediate convert, purely because of Safari's page rendering speed. She hates waiting and has commented on several occasions since switching that she's finding a number of sites less frustrating to use, simply because pages draw faster than in Internet Explorer. Apple has benchmarks that show Safari drawing pages more than three times faster than Internet Explorer. Although all benchmarks should be taken with a grain of salt because code can be tweaked to produce good results, Safari definitely wins out perceptually. It appears that some of Safari's blazing speed is due to using some soon-to-be documented routines that arrived in Jaguar; I hope other browsers will be able to take advantage of those routines for improving Mac OS X's sluggish text drawing performance.

That perceptual speed is undoubtedly helped by Safari's clean and elegant Aqua interface, without many of the controls that clutter many other browsers' windows. Though it doesn't bother me, the brushed metal look (which Apple calls a "textured window appearance") has drawn some criticism, in part because it violates Apple's own human interface guidelines. Textured window appearances are intended for applications that provide an interface to, or attempt to recreate the interface of, a real-world digital device such as a camera, MP3 player, or calculator. Safari obviously violates this recommendation, and its Downloads window, which is also textured, violates the guideline that only the primary window in an application should have the textured window appearance. The use of the textured window appearance looks particularly odd with Aqua-appearance sheets (such as appear when you create bookmarks or save pages).

http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/macosx/Essentials/AquaHIGuidelines/AHIGWindows/Textured_Windows.html

Numerous programs, such as SafarIcon and Safari Enhancer, have popped up to let you switch the Safari textured window appearance to an Aqua appearance, and SafarIcon also lets you replace Safari's icons with different themed sets. Safari Enhancer goes one step further, by enabling a Debug menu that provides some interesting options and features, such having Safari pretend to be another Web browser.

http://homepage.mac.com/reinholdpenner/
http://gordon.sourcecod.com/sites/safari_enhancer.php

Enhanced Bookmarks

In the keynote, Steve Jobs made a big deal about how Safari's bookmark interface is so much better than competing browsers. These days, I seldom use bookmarks, perhaps because keeping bookmarks organized has been so much trouble, and in part because searching Google is so fast. I do store some bookmarks in Internet Explorer, but those I access primarily via the toolbar and via Internet Explorer's superior URL auto-completion.

Safari can complete URLs if you start typing a word in the site's domain name. However, Internet Explorer can perform similar auto- completion on words that appear anywhere in the URL or the title of pages you've visited recently or bookmarked. Safari should mimic this behavior; it's unreasonable to expect users to remember domain names, whereas it's fairly likely they'll remember some word that is in the URL or title of the desired page.

Safari's bookmark interface is simple and well-done and - thanks to the way it takes over the entire Safari browser window when showing - looks much like iTunes. Also like iTunes playlists and iPhoto's albums, Safari's bookmark collections don't support hierarchies, but unlike those other programs, you can nest folders inside the collection itself.

Safari imports bookmarks from Internet Explorer, but if you want to bring your bookmarks from another Web browser into Safari, search on MacUpdate or VersionTracker for "Safari" to find bookmark importing utilities. (These sites also catalog a number of utilities for localizing Safari for other languages.) Version 3.0.4 of Alco Blom's URL Manager Pro can import bookmarks from Safari and export them back, but since Safari doesn't currently support the Shared Menus Protocol, URL Manager Pro's full feature set isn't available for Safari.

http://macupdate.com/search.php?keywords=Safari
http://versiontracker.com/mp/new_search.m?search=safari
http://www.url-manager.com/version300.html

Googlicious!

In "Hyperspatial JavaScript Search Bypass" in TidBITS-657_, I passed on a simple technique for quick searches of Google or other search engines. That JavaScript technique works fine in Safari, but with Google, there's little need, thanks to a useful search field that appears at the top of every window. Aside from providing immediate access to search results on Google, it also remembers the last 10 searches in a pop-down menu.

This kind of feature isn't new - there have been lots of shortcuts for searching throughout the years, and some (such as in Opera) have provided almost identical direct searching fields. However, Apple gets points for choosing Google and for their implementation. Internet Explorer's hidden shortcut for searching from the Address Bar (type ? and then your search phrase) is rendered less useful by its reliance on MSN Search. And some other browsers make the decision to provide access to many search engines, which, though totally reasonable on the face of things, can detract from the elegance of providing a focused feature that meets the needs of many people without cluttering the interface.

The added fillip to Apple's Google search is SnapBack, which solves a common problem with searches. You run your search, get results, and follow a link out to another site, perhaps looking at several pages before you determine you need to try more of the search results. Instead of clicking the Back button five or six times, you can click the orange SnapBack button in the Google search field to jump right back to the Google search results.

A SnapBack button also appears at the right side of the address field as soon as you delve at least one page deep into a site. Find yourself too deep in the site? Just click the SnapBack button and hop back up to the top level.

Reality Check

Apple's Safari team has done a good job of keeping Safari focused, while at the same time addressing the often unpleasant realities of today's Web. For anyone irritated at Web sites like Yahoo that pop-up advertising windows when you visit, Safari offers a command in the Safari application menu (as well as an option in the Security pane of its preferences) to block such pop-ups. I don't understand why it's in the Safari application menu rather than in either the View menu or the Window menu, but since pop-up windows were driving me batty in Internet Explorer, I appreciate the feature. You can toggle it quickly with a keyboard shortcut should you visit sites that require pop-up windows to function properly.

Perhaps my favorite feature in Safari, though, is the Bug button, which you can turn on in the View menu. Should you run into a page that Safari renders incorrectly, you can (and should!) click the Bug button to report the problem to Apple. Even better, if you delete the contents of the Page Address field, the Bug button makes a great way to send general feedback about Safari to Apple. All of Apple's software should offer a similar feature, and many other developers could benefit from adding such a feature to their programs as well. I understand that Safari's developers will see all those feedback reports, and I'm sure that if enough people request a feature change or even a feature, they'll give it serious consideration.

Apple has posted a handful of sample AppleScript scripts for Safari, and though the browser's scripting support is still preliminary and non-standard, it's useful. A document's text and HTML source are available, and you can script the browser to load URLs (though you do so by setting a document's URL property, rather than through the long-standard GetURL and OpenURL suites). No application preferences are accessible, and you can't control bookmarks, cookies, history, or other items using scripts.

http://www.apple.com/applescript/safari/

Lastly, some people have complained about how Safari takes over as the default browser. When this came up in TidBITS Talk, others noted that it hadn't taken over from their default browsers, and after a bit of testing by several people, the group determined that Safari takes over the default Web browser setting _only_ if you've never changed it from Internet Explorer. If you switched to Chimera or another browser, Safari leaves the default browser setting alone.

Missing, but Desirable Features

Even though the Safari we're using today is still a public beta, it's likely that the feature set for version 1.0 is pretty much locked. That leaves Apple with plenty of room for enhancement, because as much as Safari is fast and easy to use, it lacks some features that are popular in other browsers. Don't assume Apple will definitely implement these features in future releases, however, since the team is focused on keeping Safari simple, lightweight, and extremely fast. They'll have to balance that goal against some of these killer features, which may prevent many users from relying entirely on Safari.

Gazing out on the Veldt

It will be fascinating to see where Apple takes Safari. Currently, Apple is clearly focused on speed and elegance above all else, and that's a fine goal for a 1.0 product. But I hope that future versions of Safari incorporate additional features that simplify life on the Web, much as AutoFill, tabbed browsing, and other features have in the past. Safari shouldn't merely settle for recreating those features, though, and I hope to be surprised by innovative new approaches to using the Web.

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ToC

Multiple Clipboards on Mac OS X

by Matt Neuburg (matt@tidbits.com)
TidBITS#667/17-Feb-03

We all copy and paste without thinking about it. Can you remember back to when you started using a Mac and were introduced to the notions of copying and pasting, and the invisible but omnipresent "clipboard"? Probably you understood right away, thought to yourself, "good idea," and just moved on. At that time, you also had to internalize the fact that any time you copy, you wipe off the clipboard whatever you copied previously.

This fact is probably by now so deeply internalized that you no longer realize how much it dictates your working habits. You are unconsciously careful, after copying (or even more critical, after cutting, which makes the data live in the clipboard and nowhere else) not to hit Command-C again until you've pasted the current clipboard to retain it. Nevertheless, I bet you've made that mistake on occasion, each time cursing at the loss of the previously copied data.

Another frequent situation is that you have more than one thing to move from one place to another, either within the same application or between applications. You're probably so accustomed to inconvenient ways of coping with this necessity that you don't even think of them as workarounds. For example, knowing that you need to move three sentences from various places within a paragraph, you copy and paste the whole paragraph and pare down the pasted results afterwards. But there are also situations where this strategy fails, and you've probably found yourself resigned to going back and forth, back and forth between two applications, copying and pasting, copying and pasting.

Various individual applications assist with these difficulties. Many applications let you split a window so that you can see two parts of the same document at once, which makes it a lot easier to move bits from one general area to another. And more and more applications now provide multiple internal clipboards, or something equivalent: for example, Nisus Writer, BBEdit, and Microsoft Word do this. But what's really needed is multiple clipboards at the system level, and it's no credit to Apple that the clipboard of 2003 is so much like that of 1984.

The situation is particularly surprising in view of the fact that Mac OS X's clipboard underpinnings are considerably more sophisticated than in previous systems. The clipboard is now the responsibility of a background daemon called "pbs" (for "Pasteboard Server"). This daemon is perfectly adequate to provide multiple clipboards (pasteboards), and in fact already does so. You may have noticed, for example, that the text you enter into the Find dialog in Safari then shows up in the Find dialog in BBEdit; that's because pbs maintains a separate Find Pasteboard. In fact, pbs maintains five pasteboards, and applications are free to add others. Thus, if you were the developer of two applications, you could allow each of them to copy and paste extra data by way of a sixth pasteboard, which other applications could use too if they knew about it. At present, however, only one of pbs's pasteboards is the General Pasteboard, the one that all applications know about and share during Copy and Paste operations. To implement multiple pasteboards at system level would be simply a matter of adding more General Pasteboards, and providing an user interface to them. (Look at BBEdit to see how such an interface might work.)

Anyway, until Apple wakes up to these possibilities, there are third-party utilities to provide multiple clipboards on Mac OS X right now, and this article describes three of them: PTHPasteboard, Keyboard Maestro, and CopyPaste X.

PTHPasteboard

PTHPasteboard's chief virtues are its simplicity and its price (free!). It's an ordinary application that runs in the background; it has no Dock icon, but rather appears as an icon in the rightward part of the menu bar. Every so often (I believe it's every half-second) behind the scenes, it polls the clipboard, and if the clipboard's contents have changed it adds them to a list. Thus, as long as you don't copy too frequently, all your copied material (up to a user-configurable limit) finds its way into this list. From here it can be recovered and pasted.

To see the list, you do one of three things. You can click on the PTHPasteboard icon in the menu bar; you can type a user- configurable hot key combination; or you can choose from the Services menu, in those applications that support services. Any of these brings up a floating window listing the currently saved bits of clipboard data; clicking one pastes it at the insertion point in the current application, or you can hit the Escape key to dismiss the window.

PTHPasteboard doesn't work well with Classic applications - it doesn't paste at all, though it does seem to see copied material correctly, and it can usually at least alter the contents of the clipboard even if it can't make them appear in a document. Its menu item in the Services menu uses the keyboard shortcut Shift-Command-V, and this can't be changed - a minor point, since it doesn't interfere with any other application's use of this shortcut, but it does mean that such an application overrides PTHPasteboard's use of it, and in any case user-configurability would be nice. Its appearance as an icon in the menu bar is often useless to me, since typically my real menu items crowd out any extra menu bar icons, and it's unnecessary because the floating window can be summoned with a keyboard shortcut instead. (The menu bar icon can be removed, but then you have to keep the floating window always visible; I don't see the logic behind this.)

But these are quibbles. PTHPasteboard is robust, it's simple, it has a small footprint in memory and CPU time, it does the job, and it's free.

http://www.pth.com/PTHPasteboard/

Keyboard Maestro

Keyboard Maestro, by Michael Kamprath, is actually a sort of macro utility. It revolves around the notion of attaching a keyboard shortcut to an action or sequence of actions; such actions can include things like hiding applications, opening a particular file or folder, running an AppleScript or Unix script, typing text, and changing sound volume or screen brightness. It's an application switcher, too. And it also functions as a multiple clipboard utility, which is why it has found its way into this article.

Keyboard Maestro's multiple clipboard interface is somewhat similar to PTHPasteboard's, and is also reminiscent of John V. Holder's QuickScrap, which I remember using on Mac OS 9 some years ago. It responds to particular user-configurable keyboard shortcuts for cutting, copying, and pasting. When you cut or copy with one of these keyboard shortcuts instead of the standard Command-X or Command-C, Keyboard Maestro puts up a window with a list of clipboards; here, you choose either to append a new clipboard to the existing list or to reuse one of the existing clipboards. The clipboards can be assigned names, and you can get some idea of what's in them through a tooltip that appears when you hover the mouse over one of them. Keyboard Maestro performs the cut or copy back in the application you were originally in, puts it on the normal clipboard and in its own clipboard list, and returns you to what you were doing. Pasting works similarly; Keyboard Maestro shows you its list of clipboards, and you pick the one you wish to paste.

http://www.johnvholder.com/qsdesc.html

Keyboard Maestro has the advantage of being extremely clean and simple. It's also free, as long as you don't want more than four clipboards at time (and just $20 to get as many as you like). Plus, of course, you get Keyboard Maestro's other macro and application-switching features, which you can use or disable as you please. It doesn't work well with Classic; in my tests, copying or pasting with Keyboard Maestro in Classic applications caused the current selection to be changed, so that the wrong material was copied or replaced in the document. On the other hand, PTHPasteboard doesn't work well with Classic either, so between the two of them it comes down largely to a choice between very different interfaces and overall approaches.

PTHPasteboard doesn't require any special action on your part in order to remember what you copy; it simply remembers everything that passes through the system's clipboard. That's great for those times when you realize after the fact that you need some material copied earlier, but it also means that everything you copy is remembered whether you like it or not. Thus, if you set the list size at ten, and you realize that you need the data from eleven copies ago, you're out of luck because it's fallen off the end of the list. You get no choice between copying to PTHPasteboard's list and just copying normally. Keyboard Maestro, on the other hand, offers exactly this choice. That's good, but now you face the opposite disadvantage: if you don't remember to copy something with Keyboard Maestro explicitly, it doesn't go onto the list. Also, having to pass through a window every time you want to copy to Keyboard Maestro's list might strike you as helpful or might deter you from using it at all. It's all a matter of your particular needs and your peculiar psychological makeup. The best way to see how you feel about the interface is to try it.

http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/

CopyPaste X

CopyPaste X is the descendant of the Classic extension I reviewed in TidBITS-364_ from 1997. In Mac OS X, it's an ordinary application, which means it's more compatible and reliable than ever before. It also means you don't have to run it all the time; I frequently don't, and then when I want it I can launch it from anywhere, using a universal contextual menu item that it optionally installs.

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=00751

Once CopyPaste is running, it provides ten numbered clipboards, accessible most simply by keyboard shortcuts that work within any application: Command-C-1, Command-V-1, Command-C-2, Command-V-2, and so forth (the trick is to hold the Command key while striking first the letter, then the number). You can turn these shortcuts off, or replace Command with Control. Furthermore, these ten clipboards constitute a set, and you can switch among any number of sets, again using a universal contextual menu, or with CopyPaste's Dock menu, or by means of a floating palette. Furthermore, every time you copy or cut in the ordinary way, the data goes onto a Clipboard Recorder list (similar to PTHPasteboard), accessible in the same three ways.

These features are supposed to work across the Classic boundary, in cooperation with the Classic CopyPaste extension (version 4.5). When this cooperation is working, it behaves just as you would expect: what's copied with Command-C-1 on one side of the X- Classic boundary can be pasted with Command-V-1 on the other side, and whatever is copied in the ordinary way on one side ends up in the Clipboard Recorder on the other. Plus, the CopyPaste X palettes can be used to copy and paste in Classic applications. My experience, however, is that this cooperation is rather flaky. You must start up CopyPaste X before you start up Classic, and the Classic extension loses its ability to list the ten clipboards hierarchically in the Edit menu. More important, sometimes Classic will crash, and often CopyPaste X will freeze up and stop working altogether (and at this point it can even interfere with the ability to do ordinary copy and paste). For stability, therefore, I find it best to disable CopyPaste Classic altogether, which is a pity.

CopyPaste also contains a surprisingly full-featured word processor (the "clipboard editor"), and implements a number of text-munging functions (changing to lowercase, for example). I regard these features as unnecessary bloat. Text-munging would be better implemented separately, as a Service perhaps; properly speaking it has nothing to do with the clipboard at all. Word processing should be left to the user's choice of dedicated word processor. Instead of these ancillary features, I'd prefer to see attention paid to better reliability in the cooperation between the Mac OS X and Classic versions.

The manual is pretty good, but it requires the built-in word processor, and has not been always been correctly or completely translated from the original German. This adds to one's overall sense that many areas of CopyPaste suffer from a rather amateurish quality. Nonetheless, at $20 CopyPaste remains a bargain, and its implementation on Mac OS X is a significant achievement. Personally, I like its interface the best, in particular the keyboard shortcuts Command-C-1 and Command-V-1 and so forth, which allow me to communicate with each specific clipboard numerically by means of the keyboard alone.

http://www.scriptsoftware.com/copypaste/

Picking a Paste Pot

Whatever utility you choose, you owe it to yourself to try multiple clipboards. You'll wonder how you ever got any serious work done without them. Having only one clipboard is like being able to use only application at a time; it's downright primitive, the sort of thing we ought to have left behind back in the days of System 6. Thanks to these utilities, you can save your Mac OS X machine from this Dark Ages holdover.

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The Amiga Section:

Aminet CDs Reach End of the Line

Amiga Update
3 January, 2003

Because most of the users have a direct access to the Internet an AminetCD which is published each second month makes no sense. The users can get the software in a much faster way from the Aminet. Because of that the team of the Aminet has decided to stop making the CDs. This will not affect Aminet itself, which will continue to function as it has. The newest and last Aminet-CD - number 52 - (December 2002) offers Superview Productivity Suite II written by Andreas Kleinert as the highlight. The CD is already provided. SuperView IV (SViewIV) reads, writes and/or converts more than 50 graphic formats and also integrates external programs like Xpk, Ghostscipt or MetaView. Additional to the display of graphics on over 20 supported graphic cards (via CyberGraphX, Picasso96 or special driver systems) the program can also edit different graphic formats.

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The CUCUG Section:

January General Meeting

reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)

January 16, 2003 - The January General Meeting began with newly returned President Richard Rollins introducing the club officers for 2003. Richard then announced that this evening the Macintosh SIG would be witnessing Ed Hadley's demonstration of Sound Studio 2.1. The PC SIG would be examining a Fujitsu Tablet PC.

As Kevin Hisel's note in the newsletter regarding the raffle stated that a current membership card would be required to win, Ed Serbe asked about membership cards. Kevin Hopkins sated that they hadn't been produced yet this year, so that requirement was relaxed. Kevin Hisel proceeded to talk about raffle prizes.

Ed Serbe was giving away Pinnacle Studio DC10 Plus. Ben Johnson gladly took it.

Kris Klindworth announced that next month the Linux SIG would be looking at KNOPPIX, a full Linux distribution on one CD.

Ed Serbe asked about getting a system recovery disk for a ten year old Packard Bell machine for a friend of his. It was a P1/133 machine. The membership analyzed the reported problem the friend was having and made some useful suggestions.

Richard Rollins said he has Eudora 5.2 and is unable to get it to run on OS 10.2.3 natively. It will run in Classic mode and 5.1.1 ran in OS 10.2.3. Jack Melby said there was a very recent update for the problem on VersionTracker.com .

Kevin Hisel talked about the TurboTax controversy. He said, not making light of the stringent new registration process, the major article of contention is the background program "cdilla" which is installed, runs in the background all the time, and isn't removed by the uninstall. This appears to be a problem with the Windows version of TurboTax only. Because of complaints, Intuit has released an updated patch for TurboTax in which the uninstall now takes out "cdilla". Also at issue with the new registration regime is the fear that users wouldn't be able to access their tax records if they had to reinstall the program in the future. Intuit now says that after October 2003 product activation is no longer needed, so you can look at your old tax forms later without a major problem. In the discussion that surrounded these issues, the consensus was that this was a major blunder on Intuit's part and a real boon for the competing product, Tax Cut. It was reported that Tax Cut is only $15 with a $5 rebate at Best Buy.com. George Krumins said he uses it and it's easy.

In light of the "cdilla" issue, Mark Zinzow talked about Adaware and Spy Bot. He said they address the problems created by junk that gets installed secretly, which eventually slows your machine to a crawl. Lavasoft makes Adaware. Mark also mentioned Web Shots.

Kevin Hisel conducted the raffle. Mike Latinovich won the Windows XP Pro package. Norris Hansel won the book "MapPoint For Dummies." George Krummins won "Combat Flight Simulator 2". Roger Bigler won a Microsoft ball hat.

The Macintosh SIG: Edwin Hadley plays with Sound Studio 2.1

Ed Hadley began the Mac SIG meeting by showing the Eizo FlexScan L665 flat panel monitor he brought in. The monitor was beautiful, but Ed noted that the speakers were pitiful.

Ed then fired up a copy of FeltTip Software's Sound Studio 2.1 and began noodling with it. The program can be found at http://www.felttip.com/.

Ed also showed some of the features of Final Vinyl, a free audio recording application, found at http://www.griffintechnology.com.

Ed talked about recording his radio show, running data from his mini-disc player to an iMic (which costs about $35-40) into his Mac via USB and the Sound Studio software.

One of the features he likes is that Sound Studio normalizes the sound file, taking peak the volume to just under the maximum allowed. You get a bigger sound that way.

In talking with Emil after Ed's demo, I was shown a few features of Jaguar - how Command Option + or - allows you to zoom in or out on your main screen in OS 10.2. This can be set in the Universal Access System Preferences control pane. Also, Command F accesses a much streamlined Finder "Find" feature.

The SIG meeting ended with a discussion about old recordings.

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January Board Meeting

reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)

The January meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday, January 21, 2003, at 7PM, at Kevin Hisel's house. (For anyone wishing to attend - which is encouraged, by the way - the address and phone number are both in the book). Present at the meeting were: Richard Rollins, Rich Hall, Kris Klindworth, Kevin Hopkins, Kevin Hisel, Emil Cobb.

Kevin Hisel showed his new $750 laptop. You can check the forums for its impressive technical specifications. He got it at BestBuy.com. There was a $50 rebate from the manufacturer and another $150 rebate from Best Buy (which has since been reduced to $100). All in all, it is a very nice machine, although Kevin noted the speakers are surprisingly bad.

Rich Hall: Rich gave his tax report and an updated financial report. Richard Rollins thanked Mr. Hall for the fine job he has done as Treasurer for the last few years.

Kris Klindworth: Kris announced that the Linux SIG would look at KNOPPIX next month. It is a Linux distribution run strictly from a CD. Richard Rollins suggested stressing the crash recovery possibilities of the CD. It's free. It comes with games, word processors, a spreadsheet, net utilities, planetarium software, chess, CD burning software. "That is so cool," Richard enthused.

Jack Melby: Jack reported that Apple has come out with the Safari web browser, the Keynote presentation software ( Jack said it is supposed to be better than PowerPoint, although he hasn't used it himself). Appleworks 7 is coming soon. Open Office will be released in two months. All of this is basically flipping Microsoft "the bird," Jack said. Also, X11 has come out for OS X and two new PowerBooks have been released.

Safari is really fast, Jack reiterated.

Jack then dropped a bombshell. The club will have to find a new Mac SIG Chairman. Jack said he is moving to Boston in the fall. The move is to get him closer to the music scene he is involved in. He is also planning on being a part time Mac consultant there.

At the February meeting, Jack will be demoing X11 and some of the software that runs on it. He may also show Safari.

Providing a few other bits of Apple news, OS 10.2.4 is rumored to be released this week, Jack said. He also mentioned the iLife suite and the 802.11g AirPort Extreme. Apple's market share is slowly increasing, Jack reported.

Finally, Jack proudly reported on a piece of software he'd just written that has been getting favorable reviews. It got a five-star rating from Versiontracker's very critical user base, "so it must be doing somebody some good" he said. Back_up_user_prefs is available on MacUpdate, Jack's own site at http://www.johnmelby.com, or at

http://www.m-t-software.com/Back_up_user_prefs-20.dmg.tgz

Kevin Hopkins: Kevin reported that we currently have 30 members. He distributed the badge list to Emil Cobb and the non-renewed member list to Kevin Hisel. The issue of membership cards was discussed.

Kevin suggested that we have a combined meeting dedicated to digital cameras. Everyone could bring in their cameras and show them off in a cost versus feature comparison. This sparked a discussion of the topic. One common lament was that digital cameras all eat batteries like they were going out of style. Emil talked about using Twain compliance to import images into Image Capture (Mac) and Paint (PC).

Kevin Hisel: With regards to the January Linux SIG, Kevin said, "I understood about 10% of what Kris said about SSH, but it was a very valuable 10%."

Kevin reported that Dell Commercial is selling an 18" LCD monitor for around $500. If you buy three, you get one free.

Kevin talked about CUCUG founder Jim Oldfield returning for the 20th Anniversary meeting in October.

Kevin reported that Ben Johnson again brought up the projector issue on the Forums. There was another discussion of the pros and cons of purchasing one for the club. Finally, the issue was tabled and it will be brought up to the membership for their consideration.

Emil Cobb: Emil reported that we had 26 attendees at the January General Meeting. He said he is planning on doing an iPhoto demonstration at an upcoming meeting.

Richard Rollins: Richard announced that the PC SIG would build a "virtual" machine at the February meeting. There was talk of the "Shuttle Box", which is a PC similar to the Apple "Cube." Returning to the last meeting, Richard said, "The PC Tablet looks very cool."

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The Back Page:

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

Meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the Illinois Technology Center. The Center is located at 7101 Tomaras Ave in Savoy. To get to the Illinois Technology Center from Champaign or Urbana, take Neil Street (Rt 45) south. Setting the trip meter in your car to zero at the McDonalds on the corner of Kirby/Florida and Neil in Champaign, you only go 2.4 miles south. Windsor will be at the one mile mark. Curtis will be at the two mile mark. Go past the Paradise Inn/Best Western motel to the next street, Tomaras Ave. on the west (right) side. Tomaras is at the 2.4 mile mark. Turn west (right) on Tomaras Ave. The parking lot entrance is immediately on the south (left) side of Tomaras Ave. Enter the building by the front door under the three flags facing Rt 45. A map can be found on the CUCUG website at http://www.cucug.org/meeting.html . The Illinois Technology Center is also on the web at www.IL-Tech-Ctr.com .

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-President:     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.Mr:  Kevin Hisel              406-948-1999
   Mac SIG Chairman:   John Melby               352-3638           jbmelby@johnmelby.com
   Linux SIG Chairman: Kris Klindworth          239-0097       kris.klindworth@Carle.com

Visit our web site at http://www.cucug.org/, or join in our online forums at http://www.cucug.org/starship/index.php .

CUCUG
912 Stratford Dr.
Champaign, IL
61821

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