News Common PC Linux Mac CUCUG
The next CUCUG meeting will be held on our regular third Thursday of the month: Thursday, June 15th, at 7:00 pm, at the First Baptist Church of Champaign in Savoy. The Linux SIG convenes, of course, 45 minutes earlier, at 6:15 pm. Directions to the FBC-CS are at the end of this newsletter.
The June 15 gathering will be one of our split SIG meetings. Allen Byrne wanted it noted that there definitely will be a Linux SIG meeting this month, so come and see what he has planned. For the Macintosh, Craig Kummerow will be doing an iMovie/iDVD demo. He'll be working with a G5 iMac, to provide some flexibility in showing off parts of the programs. Craig add, "I just installed iLife 06, which has some very cool new features, but haven't played with them enough to lead the group. But, it will be there if people want to play around." Sounds great to me! And PC SIG will have Richard Rollins showing how to use BartPE, Bart's Preinstalled Environment, a bootable live windows CD/DVD for crashed system recoveries. So, another full evening of interesting things to explore.
ToC
by Grant Gross
URL: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9001091&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1
June 09, 2006 (IDG News Service) A U.S. Federal Communications Commission ruling requiring voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers to give law enforcement agencies wiretapping capabilities is legal, a court ruled today.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the FCC's August 2004 ruling saying interconnected VoIP providers must allow wiretapping by May 14, 2007. Several groups, including the American Council on Education, Sun Microsystems Inc. and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), had appealed the ruling, saying it could introduce security vulnerabilities into VoIP services and drive up costs for customers.
The FCC ruling requires VoIP providers that offer a substitute service for traditional telephone service to comply with a 1994 telephone wiretapping law called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, in requesting the ruling, argued that their surveillance efforts are "compromised" without CALEA rules for VoIP.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said in a statement that he is pleased with the court's decision. "Enabling law enforcement to ensure our safety and security is of paramount importance," he said. "[The decision] will ensure that law enforcement agencies' ability to conduct lawful court-ordered electronic surveillance will keep pace with new communication technologies."
But the CDT said the FCC ignored the U.S. Congress' efforts to keep regulations away from IP services.
"This ruling threatens both civil liberties and technology innovation," CDT Policy Director Jim Dempsey said in an e-mail. "This decision threatens the privacy rights of innocent Americans as well as the ability of technology companies to innovate freely."
ToC
Jay Sherman, TV Week
URL: http://www.freepress.net/news/15839
After two years of hype and big promises, AT&T and Verizon are learning the hard way that morphing from a phone company into a cable competitor can be a more challenging process than anticipated.
ToC
Ron Orol, The Deal
URL: http://www.freepress.net/news/15829
Nearly a year after he was forced to put the issue on hold, FCC chairman Kevin Martin is gearing up for a controversial new round of media ownership deregulation.
ToC
Mark Hachman, PC Magazine
URL: http://www.freepress.net/news/15827
BellSouth officials denied Friday that they had blocked consumer sites MySpace and YouTube, although customers in Florida and Tennessee said that they were unable to access them.
ToC
by Rich Warren
The "Circuits" column in The News-Gazette
Monday, May 29, 2006
Medusa went to her grave without finding a good hairdresser. She left her curse upon all of us who enjoy home entertainment systems. It was simple enough at first, just a cable from the turntable to the amplifier and a single pair of speaker wires to the speaker.
Then stereo came along, as well as tape decks and other components. Stereo yielded to 5.1-channel Dolby Digital and DTS, which also added video inputs and outputs. We endure not merely with a plethora of cables, but different connectors on their ends. The original audio connectors, technically called "pin plugs," are popularly known by the name of the company that propagated them as RCA plugs. RCA plugs annoyed aficionados from Day One because they do not lock to their receptacle. Thus, they did not always make good contact and could easily be pulled out. RCA plugs remain the main connectors today, not only for analog audio, but also for digital audio and video.
With the proliferation of 5.1-channels and more recently 7.1-channels, the electronics industry searched for a way out of this morass. Since everything soon will be digital, it made sense to route everything through a single digital cable with a secure connector.
Thus was born the High Definition Multimedia Interface. Most of the best known companies are behind it, such as Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Hitachi and Toshiba. HDMI comes with a complete set of mandatory specifications that all users must match.
This sounds great so far. Instead of buying a new home theater system and scratching your head as to which wire goes where, just connect one simple cable and all is well. HDMI interconnects audio and video. Of course, you will still have to connect speaker wires.
HDMI enters your home as a Trojan horse from the entertainment industry. While it simplifies your life and eliminates unsightly wires, it restricts your freedom to use the programs that come into your home. HDMI contains intelligent circuitry that recognizes copy prevention coding. Thus if HBO doesn't want you to record a specific show, or wants the cable or satellite provider to charge extra for recording it, it can do so. It's not just HBO; it's also NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox. It can even prevent you from streaming a show to a TV elsewhere in the house or viewing shows on your computer. If you think you can simply make an analog recording to a VCR or DVD recorder, think again. New HDMI-equipped electronics lack analog outputs. Once digital TV becomes the only TV in three years, the entertainment industry will totally control its content. It only took them about 30 years to circumvent the famous Supreme Court "Betamax" decision that said people had a right to record programming for personal use.
At some point, if all new components come with HDMI, it could obsolete older digital components, which lack that interface. So a perfectly good DVD player might not work with the TV you buy in a year or two.
HDMI could be benign if the public gained the upper hand and insisted that the technology remained neutral and did not restrict the transfer of programming. If recent history is any guide, the entertainment industry will win.
[Editor's Note: My thanks to Rich Hall for bringing this article to my attention.]
ToC
Calling themselves freedom fighters, a group of protesters is taking its battle against DRM to the streets.
By K.C. Jones, TechWeb.com
May 26, 2006
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=188500716
Calling themselves freedom fighters, members of the Free Software Foundation are engaging in a campaign against Digital Rights Management, which they emphatically refer to as Digital Restrictions Management.
Members donned yellow hazardous materials suits to kick off the initiative, called DefectiveByDesign.org, in Seattle earlier this week to protest Bill Gates' keynote speech on the future of Microsoft. The direct action campaign, targeting "big media and corporations peddling Digital Restrictions Management," plans more flash protests.
Peter Brown, executive director of the FSF, is encouraging technologists to get involved.
"We see this as the tip of the iceberg and it is our duty to do something about this," he said in a prepared statement. "We know about the collusion of Big Media, device manufacturers and proprietary companies to lock us down. Their aim is to put Digital Restrictions Management into all our computers and homes."
The group contends that computers, high-definition screens, phones, music players and video players do not respect users' rights to make private copies of their digital media. That means art, literature, music and film cannot fall into the public domain and that user viewing and listening habits can be monitored, DefectiveByDesign argues.
"In any other industry, such limitations or invasions would be considered major flaws," Brown said. "A media player that restricts what you can play is like a car that won't let you steer."
Henri Poole, chairman of Civic Actions, said that calling users "pirates" equates sharing with murder and kidnapping.
"Media bosses have long been the 'gatekeepers to the market' for artists," Poole said. "Now they are threatened by new distribution methods that give artists new freedoms and direct access to an audience. DRM is the media bosses' attempt to re-impose their rule."
Companies earning money from digital media argue that they need DRMto protect their products and their ability to profit.
Supporters, including the Motion Picture Association of America, claim DRM is needed to control distribution and copying of material, while protecting artists and copyright holders.
This is how DefectiveByDesign.org describes DRM <http://defectivebydesign.org/node/95>:
DRM is an attempt by hardware, software and media companies like Apple to accomplish through technology what they have been unable to fully accomplish by political and legal lobbying -- the authority to regulate what you do in the privacy of your home with media you have legally purchased.
They call this "Digital Rights Management". They make it sound like they are giving you something new. But, you have always had the right to make copies of your media. DRM takes away these rights by using proprietary formats and technology.
Think of it as "Digital Restrictions Management". Technology that restricts what you can do with your computer, the electronic devices you own and the media you buy. DRM can be deployed in software, hardware and in music or movies.
ToC
By Arik Hesseldahl
Business Week Online
June 9, 2006
URL: http://businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2006/tc20060609_532973.htm
Apple continues to anger consumers overseas with its restrictions on
music downloading. But it's not the only company drawing fire
Dismay over how Apple Computer sells music downloads is deepening.
Consumer regulators in Europe say the company places too many
restrictions on consumers who buy songs from the online iTunes store.
And The consternation is spreading west.
A group called the Free Software Foundation has planned June 10 protests for seven Apple retail stores in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle. The foundation is focusing its ire on so-called digital rights management technology (DRM). Used in an array of digital entertainment products including Apple's iTunes, DRM limits what consumers can do with purchased content.
The "Defective by Design" protests are not aimed at Apple (AAPL) in particular, but at what the Free Software Foundation sees as a growing trend toward legal restrictions that bind digital content to particular playing devices.
"This isn't intended to attack Apple and its innovations, but really to draw attention to the existence of DRM technologies, and how they restrict what consumers can do with their music," says Ted Teah, who maintains a directory of free software for the Free Software Foundation.
Sony BMG's use of DRM sparked a firestorm last year after the company programmed CDs with a hidden code that secretly installed itself on users' hard drives, relayed information back to Sony, and left computers vulnerable to viruses (see BusinessWeek.com, 11/22/05, "Sony's Escalating 'Spyware' Fiasco" <http://businessweek.com/technology/content/ nov2005/tc20051122_343542.htm>). That episode resulted in the recall of some 5 million CDs and customer boycotts and class action lawsuits.
The content-protection technology used by Apple and other companies isn't nearly as invasive, nor has it elicited as much outcry. But over time, Teah says, those restrictions may become more onerous. They may be used as a springboard for legal attacks against consumers by such organizations as the Recording Industry Association of America, which has sued consumers found to have downloaded pirated songs from the Internet. Says Teah: "A teenage girl making a mix tape for a boy she has a crush on could become a target for an expensive lawsuit in the future."
Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg dismisses concerns that the iTunes DRM system is overly restrictive. "It's fairly innocuous," he says. "You can easily get around the restrictions by burning your songs to a CD, and then reimporting them as an MP3 or any other format you wish."
He says other services, such at MTV's Urge online music-download service, created by Viacom's (VIA) MTV Networks in partnership with Microsoft (MSFT) and the privately held MusicNet, sells song downloads for 99 cents per track, similar to Apple. "They following what Apple does because the market has shown that it works," Gartenberg says.
Apple isn't the only company targeted by the organizers of Defective By Design. In May, the group staged a surprise protest at a speech by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates at Microsoft's WinHEC conference in Seattle. Protesters wore hazardous-material protection suits at the entrance to the venue where Gates was set to demonstrate Windows Vista, the next version of Microsoft's PC operating system. An Apple spokesman said the company would have no comment on the upcoming protests.
It remains to be seen whether concerns over Apple's technology are strong enough to result in much, if any, uproar in the U.S. But they appear to be on the rise on the other side of the Atlantic. Regulators in Norway and Britain are renewing calls for Apple to revise the rules that consumers agree to when they begin using the iTunes store.
Norway's Consumer Ombudsman, at the request of the country's Consumer Council, ruled that certain provisions of Apple's usage agreement violate Norwegian law. The company has been given until June 21 to amend the rules. It also has been asked to defend its DRM scheme known as Fairplay, which restricts songs purchased on from the iTunes store from being played on portable players other than the iPod. Similar calls are coming from regulators in Sweden and Denmark.
Additionally in England, a recording trade association has told legislators that iTunes music should be made compatible with other portable players. This follows inquiries by European Union regulators into Apple's pricing structure for songs sold on iTunes in Britain, where users are charged 79 pence, or about $1.45, vs. 99 euro cents (about $1.25) in other European countries.
The latest flurry of activity follows a row between Apple and French legislators allied with a consumer advocacy group. This group wanted the company to make the music sold through its online music store compatible with portable players other than its popular iPod device. At the time Apple branded the effort "state-sponsored piracy," and suggested that it was more likely to shut down the French outpost of its iTunes store, rather than comply with the legislation.
ToC
by John Anderson (mediaminutes@freepress.net)
Media Minutes: June 2, 2006
Audio: http://freepress.net/mediaminutes/archive/mm060206.mp3
Text: http://freepress.net/mediaminutes/transcripts/mm060206.pdf
The issue of network neutrality is now the number one telecommunications issue facing the U.S. Congress. As a result, lawmakers are looking to associate their names with Internet freedom, and this has led to an explosion of competing bills pending in the House and Senate.
There are six pieces of legislation in all: the two front-runners are the Communications, Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act in the House and the Communications, Consumer's Choice and Broadband Deployment Act in the Senate. Both of these bills deal with a wide range of telecom issues and thus are likely to be the legislative vehicles that will ultimately come up for votes. And although they have nice names, the bad news is neither of the bills contain any meaningful provisions when it comes to protecting Internet freedom: the COPE Act allows the FCC to investigate cases of data discrimination but it's prohibited from actually making rules on the subject, while the Senate omnibus bill simply asks the FCC to study net neutrality and report back to Congress.
That's why four other bills have been introduced explicitly dealing with the issue. In the House, the front-runner is the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act, which has bipartisan sponsorship and treats net neutrality as an antitrust issue. This bill cleared the House Judiciary Committee late last month, although Republican House leadership may conspire to keep the bill from coming up to the floor for a full vote. The other House bill, the Network Neutrality Act of 2006, currently languishes in the House's Commerce Committee.
On the Senate side, two similar bills await review by the Senate Commerce Committee - the Internet Freedom Preservation Act and Internet Non-Discrimination Act - both of which would essentially prohibit phone and cable companies from extorting cash from online content providers in exchange for smooth service. The Internet Freedom Preservation Act also has bipartisan sponsorship.
At a recent Senate Commerce Committee hearing on network neutrality, Free Press policy director Ben Scott put the political momentum for preserving an open Internet into some impressive perspective.
Ben Scott: "Together, the audience of the net neutrality bloggers exceeds the readership of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post combined. This is the online democratic public sphere in potent action."
And in an exchange with Senator Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota and one of the co-sponsors of the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, Scott warned the Congress that those who oppose network neutrality do so at their own peril.
Sen. Byron Dorgan: And what are the consequences if the Congress says, 'You know what? Let's do nothing and whatever happens, happens out there'?
Ben Scott: I think that the hundreds of thousands of people that are currently engaged will become tens of millions and we'll suddenly see a revolt on the Internet the likes of which has never occurred before."
The weakest of the Senate bills is expected to come up for a vote before the Commerce Committee in a couple of weeks, while a full House vote on the COPE Act is expected any day now. Meanwhile, phone and cable companies continue to shovel money into fake coalitions and an avalanche of advertising that tries to portray Internet freedom as some sort of quasi-socialist concept. They're still spending at least a million dollars a week on this campaign. The Save the Internet coalition has spent less than 1% of that - in total - and has managed to unite groups ranging from the Christian Coalition to the Feminist Majority with more than 5,000 blogs, nearly 10,000 MySpace friends, and more than three-quarters of a million signatories to a petition to Congress asking it to protect free speech online.
Related Links:
H.R. 5252: Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement (COPE) Act of 2006 -
H.R. 5273<: Network Neutrality Act of 2006 -
H.R. 5417: Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006 -
S. 2360: Internet Non-Discrimination Act of 2006 -
S. 2686: Communications, Consumer's Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006 -
S. 2917: Internet Freedom Preservation Act -
ToCSenate Commerce Committee: Hearing on Network Neutrality -
Speaking at the World Wide Web conference in Edinburgh, Sir Tim Berners-Lee,
one of the inventors of the Web, has called for
clear separation between Internet
access and Internet content.
ZDNet - http://www.freepress.net/news/15652
In a fundamental sense, fair use and Net Neutrality are the same thing. In both cases, the line defining the limits is uncertain and those who support each say that the limits imposed on the property right are necessary for some important social end.
Lawrence Lessig, Lessig Blog - http://www.freepress.net/news/15651
The American Library Association and the Association of Research Libraries have joined the SavetheInternet.com Coalition, which includes groups from across the political spectrum that have banded together to save Net Neutrality.
Library Journal - http://www.freepress.net/news/15640
The National Retail Federation (NRF) is urging passage of a bill introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives that would ensure Net Neutrality.
National Jeweler - http://www.freepress.net/news/15638
From Free Press, May 18, 2006
URL: http://www.freepress.net/news/15567
WASHINGTON - Rock group R.E.M. is joining Moby and a growing list of musicians pushing Congress to protect the Internet from corporate takeover by AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and other telecommunications giants.
Major artists and musicians are signing the "Artists and Musicians for Internet Freedom" petition - joining Internet advocates, political groups on the right and left, consumer advocates, and more than 600 diverse organizations on the SavetheInternet.com Coalition. This coalition is uniting Internet users against a congressional proposal to gut Network Neutrality - the Internet's First Amendment.
"This is yet another attempt by corporations and their congressional buddies to pull our society backward rather than moving us forward," Michael Stipe of R.E.M said. "These corporations are trying to set up tollbooths on the information superhighway. We need to keep Net Neutrality so the Internet remains a free and level playing field."
R.E.M. also blogged about this issue as the top item on their Web site, <http://www.remhq.com>.
Net Neutrality ensures that small music blogs and independent news sites open just as easily on people's computers as large corporate sites. Companies like AT&T are spending millions lobbying Congress to let them decide which Web sites work best based on which corporations pay them the most.
"If Congress guts Net Neutrality, independent music and news sites would be choked off, consumer choice would be limited, and the Internet will be become a private toll road auctioned off by companies like AT&T," warned Moby. "We need to stand up for Internet freedom now. Congress must uphold Network Neutrality."
Moby will join Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.), ranking Democrat on the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Internet, for a Net Neutrality event Thursday in Washington.
The Save the Internet.com Coalition - an alliance of organizations from across the political spectrum, consumer groups, educators, small businesses and bloggers that have joined together to protect Internet freedom - has galvanized support for Internet freedom from artists, musicians and hundreds of thousands of average citizens who will hold Congress accountable on this issue. Nearly 700,000 people have signed an Internet Freedom petition to Congress on the site, more than 7,000 friends have joined SavetheInternet.com's MySpace, and thousands of blogs have linked to the coalition.
R.E.M's announcement: <http://www.remhq.com>
SavetheInternet.com Coalition: <http://www.savetheinternet.com>
[Editor's Note: You can see Moby speaking on the subject at <http://www.savetheinternet.com/moby>.]
President Roberta Combs
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
http://www.cc.org/content.cfm?srch=net+neutrality
Washington D.C. -- Today, Christian Coalition of America announced its support for the effort to amend pending telecom legislation in Congress in order to prevent the large phone and cable companies from discriminating against web sites.
Roberta Combs, the President of Christian Coalition of America said, "Christian Coalition is joining a broad array of organizations, representing consumers, businesses, and all ends of the political spectrum. The Coalition is committed to working on behalf of our supporters to ensure that the Internet remains the free marketplace of ideas, products and services that it is today."
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/130715
Saying the Internet is a "critical medium for religious speech," the chairman of the communications committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote a letter urging the House of Representatives to support Net Neutrality.
Stephanie Innes, Arizona Daily Star
<http://www.freepress.net/news/15825>
Under the COPE Act, Google and Microsoft can pay big bucks to receive higher priority, thus lowering LXer.com's priority, and leaving it in the dust.
DC Parris, LXer
By Tom Abate
From San Francisco Chronicle, June 2, 2006
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/06/02/BUG76J61121.DTL&type=politics>
The nation's largest high-tech trade association jumped into the network neutrality debate Thursday, siding with content providers like Google that want to stop telephone and cable companies from charging them higher fees for preferred Internet delivery.
The 2,500-member American Electronics Association, which represents the biggest companies in Silicon Valley, urged Congress to give the Federal Communications Commission rule-making and enforcement authority to preserve the way Internet traffic is delivered on a first-come, first-served basis.
Association President William Archey echoed the arguments of net neutrality proponents who say startups will be hurt if they have to pay for preferred delivery.
"The low barriers to entry for such innovators must be preserved," Archey said.
This unusual call for regulation by a trade group that generally opposes it is a blow to phone and cable companies that say they face big expenses to expand broadband access to homes and hope to recoup some of those costs by charging content providers. Otherwise, they say, consumers will have to pay the whole bill.
The issue has divided much of the tech world. For example, network giant Cisco Systems, in a break with its peers, has joined phone and cable companies in a campaign to stop a handful of House and Senate bills that would enforce net neutrality.
The debate over net neutrality is just part of a larger effort in Congress to make it easier for telephone companies to deliver television shows over fast, new Internet lines, effectively putting them into the television business.
But the question of how much pricing power network owners should have has pushed TV competition into the background, as net neutrality advocates have painted this as a battle for the soul of the Internet.
"When you see eBay and Amazon and Google and Yahoo in the United States, they came from people starting with interesting ideas who did not have to leap over any kind of a hurdle to buy access to customers," said Google executive Vint Cerf, one of the scientists who helped create the Internet.
But in recent days, academics such as Carnegie Mellon computer scientist David Farber and UC Berkeley economist Michael Katz have argued against net neutrality legislation, saying that higher prices are also a form of innovation and that prohibiting charges to content providers shifts the burden to consumers.
"There's a tendency to protect competitors from being harmed rather than protect consumers from being harmed," said Farber, who said it may not be wise to write the 30-year-old first-come, first-served Internet system into law.
Katz, who has served as an FCC economist and Justice Department antitrust official, compared the Internet to credit cards to explain his opposition to net neutrality laws. Consumers pay interest on charge cards just as they pay monthly fees for broadband access. But in the case of credit, banks also charge merchants a fee for the transaction. If net neutrality principles were applied to charge cards, such merchant fees would be prohibited, and that could shift costs to consumers, he said.
ToC
by John Nichols
Published on Friday, June 9, 2006 by The Nation
<http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=90090>
<http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0609-24.htm>
The First Amendment of the Internet - the governing principle of net neutrality, which prevents telecommunications corporations from rigging the web so it is easier to visit sites that pay for preferential treatment - took a blow from the House of Representatives Thursday.
Bowing to an intense lobbying campaign that spent tens of millions of dollars - and held out the promise of hefty campaign contributions for those members who did the bidding of interested firms - the House voted 321 to 101 for the disingenuously-named Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act (COPE). That bill, which does not include meaningful network-neutrality protections creates an opening that powerful telephone and cable companies hope to exploit by expanding their reach while doing away with requirements that they maintain a level playing field for access to Internet sites.
"Special interest advocates from telephone and cable companies have flooded the Congress with misinformation delivered by an army of lobbyists to undermine decades-long federal practice of prohibiting network owners from discriminating against competitors to shut out competition. Unless the Senate steps in, (Thursday's) vote marks the beginning of the end of the Internet as an engine of new competition, entrepreneurship and innovation." says Jeannine Kenney, a senior policy analyst for Consumers Union.
In case there was any question that Kenney's assessment was accurate, the House voted 269-152 against an amendment, offered by Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey, which would have codified net neutrality regulations into federal law. The Markey amendment would have prevented broadband providers from rigging their services to create two-tier access to the Internet - with an "information superhighway" for sites that pay fees for preferential treatment and a dirt road for sites that cannot pay the toll.
After explicitly rejecting the Markey amendment's language, which would have barred telephone and cable companies from taking steps "to block, impair, degrade, discriminate against, or interfere with the ability of any person to use a broadband connection to access-services over the Internet," the House quickly took up the COPE legislation.
The bill drew overwhelming support from Republican members of the House, with the GOP caucus voting 215-8 in favor of it. But Democrats also favored the proposal, albeit by a narrower vote of 106 to 92. The House's sole independent member, Vermont's Bernie Sanders, a champion of internet freedom who is seeking his state's open Senate seat this fall, voted against the measure.
Joining Sanders in voting against the legislation were most members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, including its co-chairs, California Representatives Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey, as well as genuine conservatives who have joined the fight to defend free speech and open discourse on the internet, including House Judiciary Committee chair James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, and Intelligence Committee chair Pete Hoekstra, R-Michigan.
The left-meets-right voting in the House reflected the coalition that has formed to defend net neutrality, which includes such unlikely political bedfellows as the Christian Coalition of America, MoveOn.org, National Religious Broadcasters, the Service Employees International Union, the American Library Association, the American Association of Retired People, the American Civil Liberties Union and all of the nation's major consumer groups.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, opposed COPE, while House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, and Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, were enthusiastically supported it.
Among the Democrats who followed the lead of Hastert and Boehner - as opposed to that of Pelosi - were House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer and Maryland Representative Ben Cardin, who is running for that state's open Senate seat in a September Democratic-primary contest with former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume. Illinois Democrat Melissa Bean, who frequently splits with her party on issues of interest to corporate donors, voted with the Republican leadership, as did corporate-friendly "New Democrats" such as Alabama's Artur Davis, Washington's Adam Smith and Wisconsin's Ron Kind - all co-chairs of the Democratic Leadership Council-tied House New Democrat Coalition.
The fight over net neutrality now moves to the Senate, where Maine Republican Olympia Snowe and North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan have introduced legislation to codify the net neutrality principles of equal and unfettered access to Internet content into federal law. Mark Cooper, the director of research for the Consumers Federation of America, thinks net neutrality will find more friends in the Senate, at least in part because the "Save the Internet" coalition that has grown to include more than 700 groups, 5,000 bloggers and 800,000 individuals is rapidly expanding.
"This coalition will continue to grow, millions of Americans will add their voices, and Congress will not escape the roar of public opinion until Congress passes enforceable net neutrality," says Cooper.
Cooper's correct to be more hopeful about the Senate than the House. But the House vote points up the need to get Democrats united on this issue. There's little question that a united Democratic caucus could combine with principled Republicans in the Senate to defend net neutrality. But if so-called "New Democrats" in the Senate side with the telephone and cable lobbies, the information superhighway will become a toll road.
[Editor's Note: Our own Congressman Tim Johnson voted for the COPE Act (HR 5252) thus against Net Neutrality - <http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll241.xml>. He can be reached at <http://www.house.gov/timjohnson/contact/index.shtml>.]
ToC
by John Anderson (mediaminutes@freepress.net)
Media Minutes: June 9, 2006
Audio: http://freepress.net/mediaminutes/archive/mm060906.mp3
Text: http://freepress.net/mediaminutes/transcripts/mm060906.pdf
The tens of millions of dollars spent by the phone and cable companies to begin the process of privatizing the Internet has so far been money well spent, as the process got underway in the House of Representatives on the evening of June 8th. Majorities voted to defeat amendments to a larger telecom reform bill that would have preserved the principle of Network Neutrality. Democrat Ed Markey of Massachusetts, who led the failed campaign to save Internet freedom in the House, knew the odds were not in his favor from the outset.
Rep. Ed Markey: "We want to have a debate on Net Neutrality. All the Republicans are willing to give to the proponents of Net Neutrality - the central constitutional protection built into the Internet for the last 20 years - is ten minutes. That is a disgrace."
The 20-minute debate (featuring 10 minutes for each side) was feisty. Opponents of the creation of Internet speech stratified by your ability to pay put up a valiant fight, but they were bum-rushed by lawmakers well-marinated in telco and cable cash and not afraid to twist the facts of the debate to the point of outright lies, resulting in a well-oiled choir all singing out of the same phone books and cable guides. Like the bill's main sponsor, Joe Barton, Republican from Texas, who denied the very essence of the dispute.
Rep. Joe Barton: "We're debating a term, of net neutrality that didn't exist nine months ago."
New Jersey Republican Mike Ferguson cribbed from the still-proliferating astroturf groups that have been set up to muddy the issue.
Rep. Mike Ferguson: "Congress' hands-off policy has allowed the World Wide Web to prosper by having the market pick winners and losers."
Texas Republican Lamar Smith provided the refrain:
Rep. Lamar Smith: "Reject government regulation of the Internet."
Which was echoed by Nebraska Republican Lee Terry.
Rep. Lee Terry: "Let's not regulate the Internet today."
Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn set the hype machine to overdrive.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn: "The next thing is going to be having a Secretary of Internet access. I don't believe that's somewhere we wanna go."
Joined by Texas Democrat Gene Green:
Rep. Gene Green: "Higher prices for the consumers, while large Internet content providers get a free ride..."
And fellow Texas Democrat Charlie Gonzalez, who actually accused the supporters of Internet freedom of ganging up on the poor, mistreated telcos and cable providers.
Rep. Charlie Gonzalez: "It is driven by a hostility against one particular business entity that is involved and is a stakeholder in the Internet. It is unfair when this body takes sides."
And then there was Illinois Democrat Bobby Rush, who a few years back secured a million-dollar donation from the SBC foundation for a technology center to be built in his name in his Chicago-area district. A co-sponsor of the omnibus telecom reform bill, Rush sung the praises of non-existent protections to network neutrality and argued against preservation of the principle.
Rep. Bobby Rush: "This is a good bill. This is a marvelous bill. This is a bill that is worthwhile."
Later in the debate, Rush was called upon again to defend the drive to do away with free speech online:
Rep. Bobby Rush: "This is a good bill. This is a great bill. This bill will go a lot - will do a lot and go a long way."
While the vote in the House is history, California Democrat Zoe Lofgren does not believe the fight is anywhere near over.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren: "When the public finds out what we are doing to their Internet, the dome is gonna collapse with the uproar it creates."
According to a cursory review of the campaign finance information archived at the non-partisan Opensecrets.org, all of those quoted here have collectively raked in more than $615,000 in direct political donations and contributions to their re-election funds from just the major phone and cable companies and the trade associations that do their heavy lifting in Washington. This just counts the money that's exchanged hands so far in the 2005-06 election cycle alone, and does not count additional contributions made to individual leadership political action committees - those slush funds politicians use to spread cash around among friends. Of the windfall we added up on a whim, 84% of it went to those who opposed Network Neutrality.
Not bad for a night's work. Keep in mind every representative is up for re-election in November. In the Senate, the principle of Network Neutrality will be the subject of another Senate Commerce Committee hearing later this month, and there's already strong bipartisan support there for a piece of legislation called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, which may now be the last hope to keep the 'net as we know it. Visit Savetheinternet.com to learn much more about this upcoming battle.
Related Links:
House Roll Call: Final Vote on COPE Act with no substantive Net Neutrality safeguards -
House Roll Call: Markey's Net Neutrality Amendment Defeated -
It's Our Net -
Lawrence Lessig and Robert McChesney: No Tolls on the Internet -
Save Access -
ToCSave the Internet -
Friday, June 9th, 2006
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/09/1427218
The House voted on legislation yesterday that could determine the future of the internet and public access television in this country. In a vote of 321 to 101, the House voted to pass the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act, known as the COPE bill. This controversial telecommunications legislation would permit phone and cable companies to operate Internet and other digital communications service as private networks, free of policy safeguards or governmental oversight. The bill would effectively end what is known as "net neutrality" which is the concept that that everyone, everywhere, should have free, universal and non-discriminatory access to the Internet. The bill would also cut back the obligation of cable TV companies to devote channels to public access and fund the facilities to run them. And the COPE bill would replace local cable franchises with national franchises.
Democratic Massachusetts Representative Ed Markey had proposed an amendment to the COPE bill that would have included stiff net neutrality regulations and prevented broadband providers from treating some Internet sites differently from others but the amendment was rejected.
Opposition to the COPE bill came from all corners. The "Save The Internet" coalition, representing musicians, special interest groups, bloggers, and others, delivered almost 800,000 petition signatures to Congress in favor of net neutrality. Internet companies have also spoken out against provisions in the bill. Sergey Brin, co-founder of the search engine Google, met with members of the Commerce Committee to explain the importance of net neutrality for promoting Internet commerce and the CEO of E-bay Meg Whitman took the unusual step of personally e-mailing the auction site's users to ask their support for promoting net neutrality protections. eBay stated that the e-mail reached over a million users.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Congressman Markey speaking from the House floor yesterday.
CONGRESSMAN MARKEY: Let me just make this point once again. The Bell companies had nothing to do with the creation of the Internet. The Bell companies had nothing to do with the development of the World Wide Web. The Bell companies had nothing to do with the browser and its development. In fact, AT&T was asked if they wanted to build the Internet, the packet-switched network in 1966. They turned the contract down when the government went to them. And so a company named BB&N, Bolt, Beranek, & Newman got the contract, a very small company -- not AT&T. They had nothing to do with the development of the Internet, but now, at this late date, they want to come in and to create these bottleneck control points that allow them to extract Internet taxes, Internet fees from companies and individuals who have been using the Internet for a generation. It is this absence of non-discriminatory language in the Manager's Amendment and in the bill to which I object.
AMY GOODMAN: We're joined by Anthony Riddle. He's the executive director of the Alliance for Community Media. Welcome to Democracy Now! Is net neutrality over?
ANTHONY RIDDLE: No, I'd say that we're halfway to the apocalypse right now. There's been a fairly bad bill for the Internet and for public media that has gone through the House. It's the COPE Act, and it was passed in the dead of night last night, 3-1 margin. Effectively, it continues this sort of decision that was made by the Supreme Court last year in August which changed the Internet fundamentally. Before that time, it was understood that all data on the Internet was to be treated equally and that nobody was to block any information going from anyone to anyone. With the Supreme Court decision in last night's bill, the companies that operate the wires or fibers that bring the Internet to and from your house have the ability to offer preferential treatment for pay, and also to block any content that they deem opposing their business interests.
AMY GOODMAN: So users already pay Internet service per month. So this does the other end, the content providers, people who put up websites would also have to pay?
ANTHONY RIDDLE: No, they actually pay already now. You know, if you have a website, you have to pay for space on the website and you have to pay for a pipeline for people to reach, and however big that pipeline is for people to come to your web site, that determines how many people can access your webstreams or whatever. So people are paying on both ends already. What they're trying to do right now is get people to pay for the middle, so that you can pay for an EZ-Pass lane if you're Disney and have a lot of money, and if you don't, then you're going to have to sit in the long lines waiting to go through the toll booth.
AMY GOODMAN: Is this Senate going to approve this kind of bill?
ANTHONY RIDDLE: There's a set of bills in the Senate that are very similar. There's some differences or whatever. What the Senate will have to do is pass a bill and then the two houses will have to get together and do what they call a "conference committee." Since both of those houses are controlled by the same party, you know, with large majorities, they can actually change the bills in toto in this conversation. They don't have to stick to the bills that were actually passed. They can add anything or take anything out as long as both houses agree.
AMY GOODMAN: So what is your hope for the Senate?
ANTHONY RIDDLE: This is what I hope: what I hope is that the people who are within the range of this program and all over the United States will check in on this matter. This is of vital importance. We need every kind of community organization that is organized to check in and say that they oppose the Internet being controlled the way that it's being proposed to be controlled, and that public media like PEG - Public, Educational, and Government access -- needs to have the kind of funding that it's had and that it needs to survive. That we need to be able to have the kind of channel capacity that we need in the future, because this is -- this bill is really for the long distant future.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, these are two separate issues. One is net neutrality and the Internet, and the other is public access and saving it, and they're together in the COPE bill or whatever version will also be in the Senate. So what has happened with access now? You were protesting at Congressmember Sheila Jackson Lee's offices.
ANTHONY RIDDLE: Well, there was an amendment added to the COPE Act at the last minute, which would have allowed half of public access funding to be taken to provide an incentive for women and minority owners of small cable systems, which is really a good issue, and it was well-intended, but I think Jackson Lee didn't quite understand what was at stake, that public access, for instance, has the most female subjects, female-run produced programming, the most managers, the same with minorities. This is where we go, you know, to get our message out because we can't get it out anywhere. When she understood that, she very graciously agreed to withdraw the bill with the idea that Congressman Markey and Dingle and some of the others would help to address this issue in a different way. But we averted losing half of P.E.G. funding just last night, just before the vote.
AMY GOODMAN: You were in the gallery when Markey was making a statement and the vote.
ANTHONY RIDDLE: Yes. He made a very impassioned statement. It was really good. It's such a contrast to see Markey making this statement about freedom and understanding and how people ought to be able to interact, and then to see the other side making these impassioned pleas that we should pass this plea, because what the American people need is $20 off of their cable TV bill.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, wasn't it Mike McCurry, the former spokesperson for President Clinton, who really was the front man, the spokesperson for the key lobbyist for a kind of Astroturf campaign where progressive bloggers had ads on their websites that said, you know, stop government interference or regulation of the Internet.
ANTHONY RIDDLE: This is -- yeah, you're right, and this is like 1984. If they're saying stop government interference, what they really mean is we want interference. It's just like the clean air act. It's been amazing. You know, I've known how the government ran for a long time, but I never really understood the power of money. In California, where there's a similar bill being offered at the state level, the telephone company bought every single lobbyist in the state. When the Cable Television Association went to get a lobbyist, there was not a lobbyist to be found, not even for them. When we talk about over on the hill, Verizon had over 200 lobbyists, just on this bill. That's not even talking about AT&T. They've bought every single person they could work on.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you think this is payoff to the telecoms for cooperating with the government and the N.S.A., and handing over the phone logs of tens of millions of Americans?
ANTHONY RIDDLE: I don't want to sound cynical, but I think that's absolutely what happened. I think, you know, the government goes and they say, you know, we've got this massive legislation that's really important to you, this is what you really want, you wrote it, we can pass it, this is what we need of you. You bring up a really good point, because what we're talking about is handing over the complete communication system to people who have no regard for your privacy, who will hand stuff over without warrant or anything. I think people really need to be up in arms about this.
AMY GOODMAN: When does the Senate vote?
ANTHONY RIDDLE: We keep hearing different things, it's hard to tell. I know they all want to get out before summer starts so that they can get back and campaign, because it's campaign season. But if the people check in really heavily on net neutrality, on public access -
AMY GOODMAN: Where do they find that information?
ANTHONY RIDDLE: They can go to the Alliance website, which is www.alliancecm.org, they can go to www.saveaccess.org, and they can also go to the Free Press site, which is Save the Internet. We implore all organizations - we've even got the Christian Coalition and the N.R.A. involved in this, because everybody understands that if you have anything that's remotely not mainstream, that this can be blocked if these measures go through.
AMY GOODMAN: Anthony Riddle, I want to thank you very much for being with us, executive director of the Alliance for Community Media.
ToC
submitted by Jon Bjerke, CUCUG member
For the past nine years Pavel Kanzelsberger of Slovakia has been quietly working on a graphics application that may shake the very foundations that Photoshop have been built on. The application called 'Pixel' nears its 1.0 release and can still be purchased for $32. It runs on about any OS one can imagine! (including MorphOS)
Pixel is a RGB, CMYK and HDR image editing, photo retouching and manipulating program available for many operating systems formerly known as Pixel32. It is available for Windows, Linux, Linspire, MacOSX, BeOS, Zeta, QNX, MorphOS, FreeBSD, eComStation, OS/2, SkyOS and even old plain DOS, for both x86 and PowerPC architectures.
<http://www.kanzelsberger.com/pixel/?page_id=12>
<http://www.kanzelsberger.com/pixel/?page_id=6>
Curiously the following sample screen grab is titled "Bliss.bmp"
<http://www.kanzelsberger.com/img/winxp.png>
ToC
Paul Thurrott
URL: http://www.wininformant.com/
According to leading hardware analysts, AMD's technological lead over market leader Intel will evaporate when Intel ships its Core 2 Duo line of processors later this year. A slew of independent benchmarks pitting Intel's upcoming chips against AMD's best microprocessors might provide AMD with some sobering news. Not only are the Intel chips faster, but they're much cheaper in many cases and suck up less power. AMD has enjoyed a multiyear lead over Intel in such technologies as multicore processors and x64 compatibility. But with the Core 2 Duo, which will ship in variants for notebooks, desktops, and servers, Intel seems to have finally caught up and even surpassed AMD in many meaningful ways (but not, curiously, in x64). I hope that AMD has a few surprises left. We all know what happens when you wake the sleeping giant.
Next Tuesday, Microsoft will unleash 12 security patches on customers as part of its regularly scheduled Patch Tuesday. And good news, folks: Many of the patches will fix critical security problems. This is the largest number of patches since February 2005, and given some of the problems we've had with recent patches, I'm sure users will be a little more leery (not to mention weary) about installing them. Hey, it could be worse. Wait, could it actually be worse?
Customers still running Windows 98 and Millennium Edition (Me) have one more month to go before Microsoft finally pulls the support plug on these aging and increasingly dangerous OSs. The company will issue its final patches for Win98 and Me on July 11, the next Patch Tuesday, and then it'll stop providing security patches for them altogether. Anyone still running these systems deserves the computing equivalent of a Purple Heart. I wonder if Microsoft hands those out.
[Editor's Note: There's an article over on C-Net News.com that might make that quest for a Purple Heart more of a death wish: No fix for 'critical' hole in Windows 98, ME. Repairs would require so many changes to the older OSes that it might break applications, Microsoft says. Say Good Night, Gracie. ]
At the WinHEC 2006 trade show last week, Microsoft revealed that the version of the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) graphics driver it will ship with Windows Vista is only the first in a series of dramatic improvements to the way that Windows displays images onscreen. Future revisions to WDDM will appear in subsequent Windows releases, Microsoft engineer Steve Pronovost revealed, and those updates will improve the way that Windows schedules graphics tasks in the graphic card's graphics processing unit (GPU). Given Microsoft's problems moving Windows to WDDM 1.0 in Vista, my guess is that it will be at least three years post-Vista that we have to worry about WDDM 2.0, which will require not-yet-released graphics hardware from ATI and NVIDIA. Weird how things just keep getting better.
Users who installed Windows Vista Beta 2 got a mild surprise when they checked out the "About" box for the Vista version of Internet Explorer (IE) 7: The browser has been rebranded IE 7+. It turns out Microsoft wanted a way to differentiate the version of IE 7 in Vista from the XP/2003 version, because the Vista version includes a couple of key unique features, such as Protected Mode and parental controls. You may recall that Microsoft significantly updated IE 6 for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) but then didn't uniquely identify it, so everyone was forced to refer to it as "the version of IE 6 that's included with XP SP2." Now, we have a simpler and more obvious way to talk about the version of IE 7 that's included with Vista. Nice.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said this week that Vista was still on track for its January 2007 release to consumers after news reports suggested that he was hedging his bet on the release. "I said yesterday that Vista was on track to ship in ... January as we had said," Ballmer said. "But I also emphasized that the most important thing is getting quality right. I was asked an unusual question and I think my answer was fine, but I don't think it was interpreted correctly." In separate discussions at WinHEC this week, including one with Microsoft Co-President Jim Allchin, various Microsoft executives reiterated to me that the plan hasn't changed: Microsoft will finalize Vista by October and ship it to consumers in January. However, these executives also feel that quality is more important than hitting an arbitrary date. If problems arise, they're willing to slip again to get it right. Clearly, this is the right decision.
ToC
by Barry Levine
Fri Jun 9, 7:26 PM ET
URL: http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=02300000LL7I
You turn on your TV. Immediately, you see a picture and hear sounds. Why shouldn't your computer be instant-on as well? Intel wants its new Robson technology -- presented most recently at the Computex technology show in Taiwan this week -- to allow PCs to spring to life much more quickly than they do now.
The Robson technology uses flash memory, similar to the kind found in digital cameras, to store frequently used software directly on a computer's motherboard even when a system is powered down.
Solid-state flash memory is much faster than a hard drive. If Robson catches on, the seemingly endless wait for your computer's desktop to appear might become just another story you tell the next generation of computers users about the "good ol' days."
Robson also promises to increase the amount of time laptops can run on battery power, given that the technology can cache frequently used data, reducing the number of times the PC must spin the hard disk.
But will it be instant-on?
Early reports suggest that Robson will be able to halve the notoriously long boot times for the upcoming new Microsoft OS, Windows Vista, to some 30 seconds. Robson also will be able to reduce the amount of time it takes a PC to wake up from a sleep state.
However, by most accounts, the age of instant-on Windows PCs is not yet here, although there are several technologies emerging to help us get there.
In May, for example, Samsung released a Hybrid Hard Drive, a traditional disk drive with flash memory built right on the drive. Samsung's drive promises to do much the same thing as Robson, but the technology is seen as being less practical than integrating flash memory directly on the motherboard.
"Robson can not only speed up booting and open applications quicker, but conserve energy as well," said Nicole d'Onofrio, an analyst with technology research firm Current Analysis. "Intel will have an advantage in the mobile market."
According to Intel, Robson will be available in sizes ranging from 64 MB to 4 GB, with larger sizes able to cache a wider range of frequently used software. Robson will become part of the new Santa Rosa chipset from Intel, which is planned for release in early 2007.
"The sweet spot will probably be 256 MB or 512 MB," said Joseph Unsworth, a Gartner analyst. "We're estimating that you'll see 60 to 70 percent of new notebooks in 2007 with Robson."
ToC
By Tom Krazit, Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: June 8, 2006, 5:45 PM PDT
URL: http://tinyurl.com/zcdtm
If you're in the market for one of Intel's Pentium D processors, you might want to wait a month or two.
Intel plans to push the prices of its Pentium chips way down its pricing list when it introduces the new Core chips next month. The new Core 2 Duo chips will practically take over Intel's product list in the second half of the year, said Chuck Mulloy, an Intel spokesman. With multiple 65-nanometer factories cranking out the new chips, this product launch promises to be much more aggressive than past ones.
Intel's pricing scheme looks a bit like a flight of stairs. The highest-performing chip is given the most expensive price at the top of the stairs, and moved down a notch as new, more powerful chips are introduced. That's still the plan for the Core 2 Duo chips, formerly known as Conroe and Merom, but Intel isn't just launching the new products into the high end of its range, Mulloy said.
The company will insert new chips into both the high-end and mainstream portions of its product line, knocking the Pentium D chips based on its Netburst architecture way down the list, Mulloy said. "The pattern is normal. What's not normal is the ability to move into the mainstream price points with the technology sooner (than usual)," he said.
Intel is looking for a serious boost from the Core 2 Duo chips to stem market share losses at the hands of Advanced Micro Devices. The Core 2 Duo chips are expected to be more powerful and less power-hungry than their Pentium cousins. But PC buyers have been able to find deals in the second quarter as Intel has been forced to unload older Pentium chips to make way for the new Core chips, according to analysts.
Woodcrest, the server version of the Core 2 Duo lineup, will be the first to arrive this month, according to the company. Conroe, the desktop version, will arrive in July, while Merom, a notebook chip, will follow in August.
ToC
Yardena Arar, PC World Wed May 24
URL: http://tinyurl.com/z6gac
Like all Windows before it, Windows Vista will introduce a number of new technologies and features--and, as usual, Microsoft has coined terms (most of them trademarked) for each and every one. Here's a quick glossary.
BitLocker: Drive-encryption technology designed to safeguard data from unauthorized users. The feature is primarily intended to protect systems that have been stolen or hacked.
Certified for Windows Vista: The wording on a sticker indicating that a peripheral or non-PC device can take advantage of features in Windows Vista, such as SideShow. This is a step up from Works With Windows Vista.
FlexGo: A Microsoft-backed program to sell PCs in emerging economies using the pay-as-you-go model that has proved successful for cell phones. Individuals in developing nations would be able to take home a $600 PC for as little as $250 to $300, but it would have usage-monitoring software on it, and after a certain amount of time, the PC would shut down until the owner purchased cards for additional system time. After the owner had made enough additional payments, they would own the system outright.
OCUR (OpenCable Unidirectional Receiver): Devices such as TV tuners that will leverage Windows Vista's HDTV features, including support for one-way CableCards, digital video recording, and the ability to stream recorded programs to Media Center Extenders throughout a home.
ReadyBoost: A cheap alternative to buying extra RAM, ReadyBoost lets your PC use free memory on a USB flash drive to augment RAM. You'd need, at a minimum, a drive with 256MB of free space that can read data at 2.5 megabits per second and write at 1.5 mbps; to qualify for a Windows Vista logo, the drive would need 500MB of space and have read/write speeds of 5 mbps/3 mbps, respectively.
ReadyFetch: Technology that's supposed to speed up system performance by optimizing system memory based on monitoring how you use your PC.
SPR (System Performance Rating): This is basically a benchmark that assigns a numerical rating (on a scale of 1 to 5) to your system and identifies components that are slowing it down. It's accessible from the Vista Control Panel.
Windows Connect Now: Technology designed to simplify setup of network devices in general and Wi-Fi devices in particular. Based on the Wi-Fi Alliance's forthcoming Simple Config, Connect Now technology would make Wi-Fi devices that use it instantly visible to a designated Registrar (for most people, this would be a Windows Vista PC) that would configure it over the air after the user had verified ownership by typing in a PIN provided with the device. When Vista ships, it will not support wireless configuration of the first Connect Now router in a home; you'll still need to go through the ethernet hookup. Microsoft expects to release a software update that will enable wireless setup for initial routers or access points.
Windows Rally: A family of technologies designed to simplify setup, security, and management of networked devices. Rally technologies include Windows Connect Now for easy Wi-Fi setup; Plug and Play Extensions (PnP-x) for easy installation of networked-connected devices; and the Link Layer Topology Discovery protocol for easy discovery of networked devices.
Windows SideShow: Technology that affords access to data on Windows Vista PCs--even when they're hibernating--from auxiliary displays on a range of devices, such as a small LCD on the lid of a closed laptop or a Windows Mobile Smartphone. You could use a SideShow device to check an Outlook calendar or contact data, and third-party developers will be able to write SideShow-aware applications.
Windows Vista Capable: Wording on a sticker that indicates a PC will be able to run Windows Vista, but without all its bells and whistles. Not as good as Windows Vista Premium Ready.
Windows Vista Premium Ready: A sticker with this phrase indicates that the PC can run Windows Vista with its most resource-intensive options, including the Aero interface. Better than Windows Vista Capable.
Works With Windows Vista: This designates a peripheral or device that won't crash if you use it with Windows Vista, but doesn't particularly benefit from use with the operating system. Not as good as a Certified for Windows Vista sticker.
XPS (XML Paper Specification): A new XML-based document format that's compatible with the XML file formats in Office 2007 and offers some of the benefits of Adobe's PDF. An XPS document viewer is integrated into Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista, and the OS also can create XPS documents from other applications through the use of a virtual print driver.
ToC
Mark Joseph Edwards
URL: http://tinyurl.com/hzw9z
Microsoft published a new whitepaper, "Microsoft Windows Vista Security Advancements," that details many of Windows Vista's new security features and architectural enhancements, some of which could go a long way towards easing security administration and software development.
To help ease development, Vista's new logon architecture brings greater flexibility that surpasses many of the limitations of the Graphical Identification and Authentication (GINA) interface found in previous Windows platforms. A major limitation of the GINA is that only one instance could be used at a time, which presented significant hurdles for companies that wanted to allow users to select from a variety of different credential types for authentication. The new logon architecture can simultaneously interact with multiple credential providers.
An improved smart card architecture will also be included with backend support typically required for smart card functionality, such as a common cryptographic service provider that formerly might have been developed by individual smart card vendors. The smart card architecture also includes third-party smart card communication modules to ease smart card deployment.
Cleaning up after intrusion significantly increases computer and network administration. Vista aims to help reduce that load with its firewall and spyware defenses. The current Windows Firewall only provides inbound access controls, however the new Windows Firewall adds the ability to control outbound network access. Microsoft's anti-spyware solution, Windows Defender, is also integrated into the operating system. Microsoft is adopting a common sense approach where both tools will be enabled by default.
The new User Access Controls will give administrators much greater control over user privileges, which should significantly reduce the chances of intrusion due to various forms of malware, including viruses, Trojans, worms, and spyware.
Microsoft originally released Windows Security Center (WSC) as part of Windows XP Service Pack 2, where WSC monitored automatic update status as well as the status of the firewall, antivirus, and anti-spyware tools. Windows Vista will include an improved WSC that will also monitor the security settings of Internet Explorer as well as UAC.
In its IE Blog, Microsoft said that Windows Vista will include Internet Explorer 7+, where the plus sign indicates a new version of IE designed specifically for Vista that has security enhancements not available in the regular release version of IE 7. Enhancements include a new protected mode of operation, parental controls, and improved network diagnostics.
Other Vista enhancements include the new BitLocker Drive Encryption technology, an integrated Rights Management Services client, improvements to the Encrypting File System (EFS), USB device controls, Network Access Protection, mandatory driver signing, and technology that causes services to run with restricted privileges.
While not specifically mentioned in the whitepaper, Windows Vista will also include the new Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) security technology, which helps prevent certain types of common attacks. You can read about ASLR our related news story, "ASLR Makes Vista a Moving Target ."
Microsoft's new whitepaper is available at the company's Web site as a downloadable Word document: <http://tinyurl.com/hlpf8>
ToC
Paul Thurrott
WinInfo
URL: http://tinyurl.com/zscfl
Late Wednesday, Microsoft made Windows Vista Beta 2 available to the public, letting anyone download or order a DVD of the pre-release version of Vista. Microsoft expects more than 2 million people to test Vista Beta 2.
"The Windows Vista Customer Preview Program [CPP] makes a pre-release edition of Windows Vista Ultimate broadly available to the public for the first time," a statement on Microsoft's Web site reads. "Beta 2 is intended for developers, IT professionals, and technology experts to continue or begin their testing of Windows Vista. This is beta code and shouldn't be used in a production environment or on a main machine in the home."
That's for sure. In my testing of Vista Beta 2 on various desktop and notebook computers, I've noted an alarming number of reliability problems spanning a wide range of hardware. In my opinion, Vista Beta 2 isn't ready for the public, and only those with extra PCs and the ability to handle the problems that will inevitably pop up should consider installing it. Vista Beta 2 shouldn't replace Windows XP on anyone's main PC yet.
Microsoft says it will later make a Release Candidate 1 (RC1) build of Vista available through the CPP. Hopefully, by that time the product will be more reliable and stable. According to the company, Vista Beta 2 and Vista RC1 will expire in June 2007.
You can order Vista Ultimate Beta 2 on DVD, or you can download a 3.5GB ISO version (4.4GB for the x64 version). To access the Vista Beta 2 CPP, use the following URL:
<http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx>
I've been reviewing Vista Beta 2 on an ongoing basis on the SuperSite for Windows. The next part of my review will be available this week.
<http://www.winsupersite.com/>
ToC
REDMOND, Wash., June 8, 2006 -- On April 24 as part of the Genuine Software Initiative, Microsoft expanded a pilot of the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program that provides notifications to consumers using non-genuine Microsoft Windows XP. Every year millions of consumers and businesses are hurt by counterfeit software that they have purchased unwittingly, and many companies that sell legitimate software have difficulty competing with low "too good to be true" prices offered by software counterfeiters. Through WGA, Microsoft is working to help customers and resellers of Microsoft products reduce the threats posed by counterfeit software.
The WGA program was launched July 2005 to provide an improved experience for consumers using genuine Windows XP and to help Microsoft address software piracy. The first phase of the WGA Notifications pilot was launched in Norway and Sweden during November 2005. In February 2006 five additional countries were added, and the program was further expanded in April 2006 and again in May 2006 to other markets around the world.
The WGA program consists of two major components, WGA Validation and WGA Notifications. Validation determines whether the copy of Windows XP installed on a PC is genuine and licensed. WGA Notifications reminds users who fail validation that they are not running genuine Windows and directs them to resources to learn more about the benefits of using genuine Windows software.
Recent public discussions about WGA Notifications have raised questions about its operation. Shortly after logon, WGA Notifications checks whether a newer settings file is available and downloads the file if one is found. The settings file provides Microsoft with the ability to update how often reminders are displayed and to disable the program if necessary during the test period. This functionality enables Microsoft to respond quickly to feedback to improve the customer's experience. Unlike validation, which sends system information to Microsoft, this operation is limited to the download of the new settings file. No additional information is sent to Microsoft. There have been some questions on this issue, and Microsoft is working to more effectively communicate details of this feature to the public.
As a result of customer concerns around performance, we are changing this feature to only check for a new settings file every 14 days. This change will be made in the next release of WGA. Also, this feature will be disabled when WGA Notifications launches worldwide later this year.
To help clarify some details about WGA Notifications, we have posted some Frequently Asked Questions below.
Q: What happens when WGA Notifications communicates with Microsoft when a PC is booted up? Why is this function a part of WGA Notifications?
A: The pilot version of this software periodically contacts Microsoft after validation. The software checks whether a newer settings file is available and downloads the file if one is found. The settings file gives Microsoft the ability to update how often reminders are displayed and to disable the program if necessary during the test period. Unlike validation, which sends system information to Microsoft, this operation is limited to the download of the new settings file. No additional information is sent to Microsoft.
Q: What information is collected in this check? Is Microsoft collecting Personally Identifiable Information?
A: Other than standard server log information, no information is collected. Unlike validation, which sends system information to Microsoft, this operation is limited to the download of the new settings file. No additional information is sent to Microsoft.
Q: Why were customers not told that their PCs would periodically check in with Microsoft?
A: Microsoft strives to maintain the highest standards in our business conduct and meet our customers' expectations. We concentrated our disclosure on the critical validation step that would occur when validating through WGA. Not specifically including information on the periodic check was an oversight. We believe that being transparent and upfront with our customers is very important and have updated our FAQ accordingly. We have gone to great lengths to document any time a Microsoft product connects with Microsoft servers and will continue to do so. For example, we published a white paper that covers the topic of connecting with Microsoft Servers in Windows XP SP2. It is located at <http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/intmgmt/download.mspx>.
Q: Some people are saying that WGA is spyware. Is this true?
A: Broadly speaking, spyware is deceptive software that is installed on a user's computer without the user´s consent and has some malicious purpose. WGA is installed with the consent of the user and seeks only to notify the user if a proper license is not in place. WGA is not spyware.
Q: Why is it so important that users run genuine software?
A: Every year millions of consumers and businesses are impacted by counterfeit software that is purchased unwittingly, and many makers of legitimate software have difficulty competing with the low prices offered by counterfeiters. Through WGA, Microsoft is working to help customers and retailers of its products reduce the threats posed by counterfeit software. With counterfeit software, users expose themselves to the possibility of a system becoming infected by spyware or other malware. The chance of receiving incomplete code also increases when consumers are sold counterfeit software over the Internet. Microsoft has also seen instances of credit card theft by those purporting to sell software online that later turned out to be counterfeit.
ToC
As they prepare for the arrival of Windows Vista, customers shopping for new PCs or upgrading their hardware now have more comprehensive guidance to aid them in their decisions. Today, Microsoft Corp. announced the launch of the "Windows Vista Get Ready" Web site, the worldwide availability of Windows Vista Capable PCs, the upcoming availability of Premium Ready PCs and the availability of the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor beta.
Windows Vista Get Ready Website:
<http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/>
Windows Vista Requirements Press Release:
<http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/may06/05-18GetReadyPR.mspx>
Most popular downloads <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5030306>
Most recent downloads <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5030307>
Microsoft Update <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5030308>
Office Update <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5030309>
Automatic Updates <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5030310>
ToC
The TweakGuides Tweaking Companion Version 3.1 is the complete system optimization guide for Windows XP users. It contains an enormous amount of detailed descriptions and resources together in one free 175 page downloadable PDF file. Everything from the correct installation of Windows and critical software and drivers, through to recommendations for every significant setting in XP, all the major performance, visual and convenience tweaks, and descriptions of XP's functionality. The guide contains dozens of links to major free applications for optimizing and maintaining your system, as well as to a vast range of resources for finding out more about your PC and troubleshooting PC problems. Basically the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion is the mother of all Windows XP tweak guides and system optimization guides.
Download the file here: <http://www.tweakguides.com/files/TGTC_3.1.zip>
ToC
[Editor's Note: My thanks to Kevin Hisel for the contributions to this section of the newsletter.]
ToC
from Allen D. Byrne, CUCUG Linux SIG Chairman
ZDNet UK: For Dell, Industry Standard Now Includes Linux -
<http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39273865,00.htm>
British Library warns of 'more restrictive' DRMs -
<http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/6263>
SCO's revenue goes down, down, down -
<http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS8104268641.html>
A bit of old news:
SUSE Linux 10.1 Final was released on Thursday, 11th of May -
<http://lists.opensuse.org/archive/opensuse-announce/2006-May/0003.html>
from Tom Purl, former CUCUG Linux SIG Chairman
Officially due to a fear of pirating, Apple has closed the source code for the Intel version of the OS X kernel. Please see the Slashdot link for more information:
<http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/17/1453206&from=rss>
Jonathan Schwartz, the CEO of Sun, recently said that he had high hopes for supporting the "Dapper Drake" version of Ubuntu Linux on Sun hardware, and seems to prefer it over Red Hat and Novell's SuSE. Sun traditionally has said a lot of things that they don't mean, but this is a nice shot in the arm for the up-and-coming distribution.
Please see the ZDNet article here:
<http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Sun_flirts_with_Ubuntu/0,2000061733,39256815,00.htm>
Richard Stallman (of GNU fame) recently rebutted some of the claims that tech journalists were making about the new "open source" of Java. According to Stallman, this new arrangement does nothing more than make it easier for Linux (oops, sorry RMS, GNU/Linux) distributions to pack and distribute the JRE and JDK. For the entire article, please see the following link:
<http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/05/24/1154233>
A new version of the Ubuntu distribution has been released. Here are some of the highlights:
Please see the official announcement for more information:
<http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/05/24/1154233>
Google released a port of Picasa, their photo organizing software, for Linux. It's supported for multiple distributions, and works like a charm for me :)
Please see the following page for details:
<http://picasa.google.com/linux/>
ToC
[Editor's Note: My thanks to Allen D. Byrne <adbyrne@ieee.org> and Tom Purl (tom@tompurl.com) for the contributions to this section of the newsletter.]
ToC
TidBITS#830/22-May-06
On the same day that Apple released the MacBook (see our coverage in this issue), the company shuffled the configurations on the MacBook Pro laptops. Both the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro models offer Intel Core Duo 2.0 GHz and 2.16 GHz configurations at the previous prices of the 1.83 GHz and 2.0 GHz models (2.16 GHz was previously a build-to-order option.) Apple also added a new build-to-order change to the MacBook Pro: both models can be configured, at no extra charge, with the glossy screen introduced with the MacBook. [MHA]
<http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/>
ToC
TidBITS#830/22-May-06
Parallels Desktop, a virtual machine environment for Mac OS X that runs operating systems that require an Intel processor (such as Microsoft Windows XP) has reached the release candidate stage, a point where all bugs should be fixed or classified as not worth fixing. Thanks no doubt to the high profile it garnered following Apple's beta release of Boot Camp, the company said it had over 100,000 beta testers. The release candidate is available now as a 21.5 MB download. Although we normally don't cover pre- release software in TidBITS, it's worth noting that Parallels is still offering $10 off the $50 retail price for the product if you order before the actual 1.0 version appears.
<http://www.parallels.com/en/download/desktop/>
Whereas Boot Camp will install only Windows XP Service Pack 2, and a generic Intel computer might balk at older operating systems or have other limitations, virtual machines such as Parallels Desktop can handle almost anything, including IBM OS/2, Windows 95, various versions of DOS, and the parade of Linux, Unix, and BSD versions. [GF]
ToC
TidBITS#829/15-May-06
Apple released minor updates to four of the iLife '06 applications today - iWeb, iPhoto, iMovie HD, and iDVD - both via Software Update and as stand-alone downloads. As usual, the updates all include unspecified minor bug fixes and stability improvements. Beyond that, iPhoto 6.0.3 (a 14.1 MB download) reportedly solves problems with sharing iPhoto libraries (though we can't tell how, since iPhoto 6.0.3 still creates thumbnails with read-only permissions that prevent complete sharing of iPhoto libraries in the Shared folder), as well as issues relating to photocasting of smart albums and creating calendars and books. iMovie HD 6.0.2 (7.0 MB) resolves PAL audio problems and can now correctly display iLife Sound Effects in its Media Browser. iDVD 6.0.2 (5.6 MB) "addresses issues with burning some 16:9 projects," according to Apple.
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/iphoto603.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imoviehd602.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/idvd602.html>
Somewhat bigger news, and a much bigger download, is iWeb 1.1 (95.3 MB), which adds support for two heavily requested features: comments (which can even include attachments up to 5 MB) and search fields for blogs and podcasts that are published to .Mac. It also contains "image management fixes to improve site load performance." [JK]
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/iweb11.html>
ToC
TidBITS#829/15-May-06
Apple posted the latest security update last week, which patches vulnerabilities in many major Mac OS X components, such as Finder, Mail, Preview, Safari, CoreGraphics, AppKit, Keychain, and Launch Services. Several fixes prevent malformed image files from causing crashes or executing code, while others focus on specific security holes. The update is available via Software Update, or as separate downloads for Mac OS X 10.4.6 Client (in a 12 MB PowerPC or 23.5 MB Intel version) and Server (a 13.1 MB download); or Mac OS X 10.3.9 Client (a 28 MB download) and Server (a 41.6 MB update). [JLC]
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303737>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/securityupdate2006003macosx1046clientppc.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/securityupdate2006003macosx1046clientintel.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/securityupdate20060031046server.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/securityupdate20060031039client.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/securityupdate20060031039server.html>
TidBITS#829/15-May-06
Apple improved two of its media-centric products last week. QuickTime 7.1, a 49.1 MB download, delivers "numerous bug fixes," improves H.264 performance, and adds unspecified support for iLife '06. The media playback application Front Row 1.2.2, a 4 MB download, adds song shuffling in playlists, and fixes bugs related to preventing Audible audiobooks from playing, DVD compatibility issues, and more. Software Update has the updates as well, of course, and beware - as always - that QuickTime 7.1 will overwrite QuickTime Pro 6 licenses. [JLC]
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime71.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/frontrow122.html>
TidBITS#832/05-Jun-06
Apple posted a small update to QuickTime last week that is a big deal for some Adobe customers. QuickTime 7.1.1 fixes a problem that interfered with installation of Adobe Creative Suite 2 (CS2) on Intel-based Macs. It also corrects an issue with exporting Keynote presentations to iDVD and "addresses an issue with 3rd party start-up items on Intel Macs." QuickTime 7.1.1 is available via Software Update or as a 49.4 MB stand-alone download. [JLC]
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime711.html>
ToC
by Jeff Carlson <jeffc@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#830/22-May-06
Apple released Final Cut Express HD 3.5 last week, an update that brings Intel compatibility and a few welcome improvements to the company's intermediate video editor. Until recently, the Final Cut family wouldn't run at all on Intel-based Macs; Apple released Final Cut Studio 5.1 in April, which includes universal versions of Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, DVD Studio Pro, and Motion, but Final Cut Express didn't make the jump to Intel.
<http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/>
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/may/18fcexpresshd.html>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08485>
In addition to Intel compatibility, Final Cut Express HD 3.5 adds Dynamic RT, which enables real-time streaming of effects and edits that previously would require rendering. Performance is dependent upon the capabilities of the hardware you're running, but even compatible machines at the lower end of the scale can use it; Dynamic RT dynamically adjust the quality of playback to render video on the fly, so a low-end machine might see degraded image quality instead of choppy playback. Also new is more powerful keyframing for creating effects and moving objects (such as a floating title or picture-in-picture clip, for example) with more control; keyframing used to be one of the differentiating features between Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro.
This new version also includes the updated Soundtrack 1.5 for audio production and LiveType 2.1 for creating animated text. Soundtrack 1.5 is a big improvement over Soundtrack 1.2.1 (which comes with Final Cut Express HD 3.0): instead of updating the previous version, Apple took Soundtrack Pro and removed features to make it more in line with the package's intermediate focus. (Final Cut Express itself is basically just Final Cut Pro with some of the professional features disabled.) This new Soundtrack adds real-time audio effects processing, real-time crossfades, and enhanced multi-take recording. LiveType 2.1 includes 10 GB of type effects, including new vector-based Live Fonts which scale well for HD-sized content.
<http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/soundtrack.html>
<http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/livetype.html>
Final Cut Express HD 3.5 is available now for $300; owners of any previous version can upgrade for $100. (For more on Final Cut Express HD, see my review of version 3.0 in Macworld.)
<http://www.macworld.com/2005/06/reviews/finalcutexpresshd/>
ToC
TidBITS#829/15-May-06
The final version of RSS news aggregator and reader NetNewsWire 2.1 shipped last week from NewsGator, the company that acquired the product and hired developer Brent Simmons last year (see "NewsGator Acquires NetNewsWire"). NetNewsWire 2.1 dramatically improves synchronization across multiple computers, enabling you to maintain the same set of subscriptions and not view the same news items you've already marked as read on one computer. It also enables viewing news items and modifying subscriptions via the NewsGator Web site, as well as a "sort by attention" option, which pushes subscriptions to the top that the program believes you have more interest in. Performance is also much faster in practically every way.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08278>
<http://www.newsgator.com/NGOLProduct.aspx?ProdID=NetNewsWire>
NetNewsWire costs $30, which includes a one-year subscription to NewsGator Online Premium. The program also synchronizes, with less speed, efficiency, and cleverness, via .Mac or an FTP server, so the NewsGator subscription isn't absolutely necessary for synchronization benefits. The application requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, and is a universal binary. NewsGator continues to develop NetNewsWire Lite (still in beta), which is available at no cost. It does not include a number of interface features, but does handle synchronization. [GF]
<http://www.newsgator.com/NGOLProduct.aspx?ProdId=NetNewsWire&ProdView=lite>
ToC
by Mark H. Anbinder and Jeff Carlson <editors@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#830/22-May-06
Since Apple's January introduction of the 15-inch MacBook Pro, the unspoken (well, maybe a little spoken) assumption has been that a MacBook without the "Pro" was on the way. Apple's introduction of the 13-inch MacBook last week fills that void, effectively replacing both the iBook and 12-inch PowerBook with a capable, affordable, Intel-based laptop - now available in white or black.
<http://www.apple.com/macbook/macbook.html>
Unlike the aluminum skin of recent PowerBook and MacBook Pro models, the MacBook comes in a white or black polycarbonate shell; the black model is available only on the high end for a $200 price premium that gives you black instead of white and a larger hard drive (80 GB instead of 60 MB). The case also sports a new latchless design, with magnets to hold the laptop firmly closed.
The MacBook features an Intel Core Duo processor running at 1.83 GHz or 2.0 GHz, with a 667 MHz bus. It includes a built-in iSight video camera, Apple Remote and infrared port, Gigabit Ethernet, AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth wireless networking, and Apple's innovative "klutz-proof" MagSafe power adapter, designed to separate easily from the laptop to avoid accidents. The Apple Remote controls not only the included Front Row media software, but also presentations in Keynote. (Apple has put together an informative chart comparing the various MacBook and MacBook Pro configurations.)
<http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/comparison_chart.html>
The stock configurations ship with 512 MB of memory, which unfortunately is configured as two 256 MB DIMMs. If you install more RAM (up to 2 GB), you should buy two chips of the same capacity to take advantage of better performance by upgrading RAM in pairs; which means you're stuck with those 256 MB DIMMs (and with people buying MacBooks, there may not be much of a market for used 256 MB RAM). Upgrading the RAM is fairly simple: remove three screws and a bracket in the battery bay, and flip two levers that eject the RAM. Macworld's Jason Snell created a short video showing just how easy it is.
<http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macword/2006/05/macbookvideo/>
An exciting offshoot of this step is that the hard drive is easily accessible from the left side of the bay. The iBook and 12-inch PowerBook models required an almost complete disassembly to replace the hard drive, which made users (like Jeff) reluctant to upgrade old machines with more storage. No doubt this change makes it easier for Apple technicians to speed up repairs and upgrades.
The MacBook also comes with a 60W power adapter, which is the same physical size as the power brick that shipped with the last generation of PowerBooks and iBooks. The MacBook Pro models use a physically larger 85W adapter. You can use the MacBook Pro adapter to power a MacBook and charge its battery, but not the reverse: a MacBook's 60W adpater will power a MacBook Pro, but it won't charge the battery.
The included Intel GMA 950 graphics processor has 64 MB of video memory, and shares the MacBook's main memory as needed, depending on selected resolution and use of external display. This relatively weak graphics capability means you won't want to purchase a MacBook for playing high-performance 3D games, and limits the capability of running Apple's professional applications; for example, Apple confirmed that Aperture's performance is acceptable, but that the MacBook is not the first choice for running the photo-management program. As with previous PowerBook and MacBook Pro models, but not the iBook line, the MacBook supports mirroring or an extended desktop on external displays.
<http://www.apple.com/aperture/>
The built-in display's resolution is 1280 by 800, and the MacBook's mini-DVI port can support Apple's 20-inch or 23-inch Cinema Displays (or other displays up to 1920 by 1200 pixels) with the use of a mini-DVI to DVI adapter (available separately for $20). The 30-inch Cinema Display is not supported.
Like the 15-inch MacBook Pro, the new MacBook offers FireWire 400 but not FireWire 800, and its 4x SuperDrive lacks dual-layer write capability. The low-end MacBook includes a Combo drive (DVD-ROM and CD-RW) by default; the SuperDrive is optional. All versions include two USB 2.0 ports and optical digital and analog audio input and output; as with all of Apple's newest computers, an external USB modem is optional.
The company says the new wide-format 13.3-inch MacBook display is 79 percent brighter than that of the iBook or 12-inch PowerBook, but people are more likely to first notice the new glossy screen. Windows laptops have sported glossy screens for a few years, but the MacBook is the first Apple product to do so (the glossy screen is also now a build- to-order option for the MacBook Pro). In a briefing following the announcement, Apple said that the new screen improves color and image quality (offering blacker blacks, whiter whites, etc.), and that the MacBook's display is less reflective than many Windows laptops.
The reflectivity is certainly noticeable, though looking at the display head-on reduces the effect, especially when the brightness setting is fairly high. We suspect that the glossy screen will invoke a love-it-or-hate-it reaction in Mac users; but since the screen is the only option for the MacBook, we may have to just learn to adapt.
Another significant change to the MacBook's exterior is the keyboard, which looks like an old chiclet type found on early PDAs or calculators. The sides of the keys drop straight down instead of tapering up from the bottom, making it appear as if the keys are spaced further apart, even though they're not. However, the key response is slightly firmer than the MacBook Pro and doesn't feel odd when touch-typing. The keyboard is also recessed into the case, giving the lower section of the laptop a flat plane that will hopefully reduce or eliminate screen smudges, a common irritant with Apple laptops for several generations.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiclet_keyboard>
The trackpad is the wide variety found on recent Apple laptops, and features two-fingered scrolling. It also adds a new capability: click the mouse button with two fingers resting on the trackpad, or tap two fingers at the same time, to display a contextual menu (the same action as a right-click or Control- click); this feature needs to first be enabled in the Keyboard and Mouse preference pane. Apple confirmed that this is a software feature, not tied to the MacBook's hardware. (Another option is to install SideTrack by Raging Menace, which offers more trackpad configurability.)
<http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/sidetrack/>
Apple's new MacBook is available immediately from the Apple Store Web site and retail locations and Apple resellers, in configurations ranging from $1,050 to $1,500. Build-to-order options include up to 2 GB of RAM and hard drives ranging up to 120 GB.
ToC
by Geoff Duncan <geoff@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#830/22-May-06
Creative Labs, the company that has been struggling in the digital music player market longer than Apple has been making iPods, announced it has filed a patent infringement suit against Apple Computer over the interface to its iPod and iPod nano music players.
<http://us.creative.com/corporate/pressroom/releases/welcome.asp?pid=12405>
Creative claims Apple's products infringe on its "Zen" patent (U.S. patent 6,928,433), which it applied for in January 2001 but which was granted only in August of 2005. The patent covers the organization and navigation of music tracks on high-capacity portable digital music players. Creative claims it implemented and demonstrated its interface as early as January 2000; Apple's first iPods didn't ship until October 2001.
<http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=6,928,433>
Creative's suit is filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California; the company has also filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission seeking an investigation of whether Apple's importing of iPods from Taiwan is a violation of the Tariff Act of 1930. Creative is seeking an injunction against Apple importing, marketing, or selling its current iPod and iPod nano music players: if granted, such an injunction would be a major blow to Apple's music business.
When Creative announced it had been awarded the "Zen" patent, industry speculation already had the company seeking license fees from Apple Computer; at the time, Creative merely said it was examining all options. Patent license income from a product as widespread as the iPod would certainly help a company which posted a $114 million loss in its most recent fiscal quarter. However, Creative's filing would indicate the companies were not able to reach an agreement, or Apple thinks Creative's patent lacks merit, or that it can keep selling iPods while weathering an undoubtedly long and technical patent lawsuit.
Apple has yet to publicly comment on Creative's suit, but actions speak louder than words: on the same day Creative launched its legal action, Apple filed suit against Creative in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, alleging infringement on four of Apple's patents, then updating its complaint two days later to include a total of seven Apple patents. Such tit-for-tat legal maneuvering is common, and often the countersuit results in a settlement rather than both suits being followed to their ultimate end.
ToC
TidBITS#832/05-Jun-06
In a major victory for online news sources, an appeals court ruled last week that Apple could not subpoena email in order to trace the source of leaked trade secrets. In December 2004, PowerPage and Apple Insider posted stories about an unannounced Apple audio product, code-named Asteroid, which included information and drawings leaked from sources inside the company. Apple could not identify the sources of the leaks, and therefore sued "John Does" for breach of confidentiality agreements; as part of the discovery process, Apple sought to subpoena PowerPage's ISP to obtain stored email that might reveal the sources' identities. Apple claimed that the site's owners were not genuine journalists and that, even if they had been, they had no right to protect their anonymous sources. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) took up the case, arguing that Apple's attempts to obtain this information violated both federal and California laws. Although a lower court had sided with Apple in March 2005, last week's ruling by the California Court of Appeals overturns that decision. One upshot of last week's ruling is that ISPs cannot be forced to turn over confidential email in response to civil lawsuits - and that apparently applies to everyone, not just journalists. [JK]
<http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_05.php#004698>
<http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Apple_v_Does/H028579.pdf>
by Sharon Zardetto Aker <sharon@takecontrolbooks.com>
TidBITS#831/29-May-06
The Mac OS X approach to fonts is something that can leave users baffled, and no wonder: many different types are supported, they can be stored in a multitude of places, and Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger installs some duplicate fonts as a default... and that's just for starters.
In many months of font research for the recently published "Take Control of Fonts in Mac OS X" and its companion volume "Take Control of Font Problems in Mac OS X," I trolled the Web and lurked on many message boards, intrepidly experimented on my own Macs, and served as the emergency contact for graphic designer friends (and their friends, and their friends' friends). Of the many misunderstandings and management mistakes users make, one stands out as the most common: consolidating fonts into a single Fonts folder.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/fonts-macosx.html?14@@!pt=TB831>
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/font-problems-macosx.html?14@@!pt=TB831>
I don't know exactly what motivates people to do this. (I'm not sure what motivates me to dig into the details of using the Mac - I just do, even when I'm not going to write about it.) But many users explore their systems, change things, and sometimes run into trouble. The Font Book application included with Tiger is such an improvement over its previous version that there's seldom any need to deal directly with Fonts folders. (And graphics professionals who need more than Font Book use third-party font managers that protect them from needing to know about Fonts folders.) But perhaps a user adds a font and wants to get rid of what appear to be duplicates, or she comes from a Mac OS 9 background where it was more "normal" to manipulate font files manually. Whatever the reason, when you first start poking around on your drive looking for where fonts are stored (perhaps by doing a Spotlight search for folders named "Fonts"), you may be surprised to find at least three different folders, and perhaps four, from Tiger:
Installing Adobe's Creative Suite adds another Fonts folder (in /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Fonts), and if you have Microsoft Office, you get yet another (in /Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Office/Fonts).
<http://www.adobe.com/creativesuite/>
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/office2004/>
Many people, when faced with this seeming mess, decide it's ridiculous to have fonts spread all over the place and start shuffling the files around, combining them in only one or two Fonts folders.
Despite the apparent simplicity, wholesale consolidation is a mistake, because where your fonts are stored controls what applications (and, on a multi-user Mac, which users) can see those fonts. Most fonts are stored in various locations for good reasons. Here's the scoop on each of the Fonts folders listed above.
Tiger installs 30 fonts in this folder (/System/Library/Fonts). Several of them are so important that if you remove them, your menus and dialogs can implode into gibberish and your Mac will refuse to start up. These all-important fonts are LucidaGrande, Geneva, Monaco, and Helvetica. Only slightly less important are Keyboard and LastResort, fonts that don't even show up in your Font menus. Whether or not the two AquaKana OpenType files are dispensable is a matter of some debate; my considered opinion is that, since Apple went to some trouble to keep them invisible - they don't show up in Font menus - you should leave them alone. In fact, leave the System Fonts folder completely alone: don't put fonts in it or take them out.
The System Fonts folder has its own unique way of interacting with you when you try to remove any of its fonts: drag a font out and a copy is automatically made in the destination, with the original left in place. The only way you can really remove a font from this folder is to send it directly to the Trash: drag it there, or select it and press Command-Delete, or Command-click or right- click on the icon for a contextual menu and choose Move To Trash. You'll have to supply an administrative password along the way. But while that's good to know in an academic sense, all these safeguards against accidental removal of system fonts should remind you to leave them all alone!
Fonts in this folder (/Library/Fonts) can be "seen" by all user accounts, so they're available to every user of the machine. On a single-user Mac, there's really no difference between storing fonts here or in the User Fonts folder. Tiger puts 35 fonts in this folder; Apple's iLife and iWork applications put their fonts here, too.
Each user account on the Mac has its own Fonts folder (~/Library/Fonts); the fonts in it are available to only that user. Tiger doesn't install any fonts in this folder; Microsoft Office puts its fonts here - Office X provides 15 fonts, but Office 2004 donates a generous 77 font files! If you're the only user, this is where you should put any fonts you install. On a multi-user Mac, you might want to keep some fonts private to a specific account (so they don't clutter other users' Font menus); to share them with all the users of a specific machine, they must be in /Library/Fonts.
If the Classic environment is installed on your machine, only the fonts in the Mac OS 9 System Folder (/System Folder/Fonts) are available to Classic applications (they're also available to your Tiger applications). Unlike Tiger's wider choice of font types, only Mac TrueType and PostScript Type 1 fonts work in the Classic environment. Tiger automatically smoothes fonts on the screen in only the Mac OS X environment, so if you want your Type 1 fonts to be drawn correctly on the screen (instead of with the famous, dreaded "jaggies") in Classic, you need Adobe's ATM Light version 4.6.2 or later installed in Classic.
<http://www.adobe.com/products/atmlight/main.html>
As befits the inventor of PostScript fonts, Adobe provides a generous assortment of fonts with its applications. But when they're in their default location, only Adobe applications can access them (/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Fonts). If you want to use these fonts in all your applications, you must move them to the Library Fonts or User Fonts folder. That sounds like a good deal until you see how non-Adobe applications handle the plethora of typefaces for these OpenType fonts: Warnock Pro, for instance, has 32 different typefaces that Word lists in about two dozen entries! Moving a few of your favorites, and turning them on and off through Font Book, is a better plan than indiscriminately moving all of the Adobe fonts to another folder. (Note that you won't see these fonts in Font Book unless you move them to one of your Tiger Fonts folders; Adobe's folder "belongs" to Adobe's applications, so Font Book doesn't manage its contents.)
Another mistake users make in regard to the Adobe Fonts folder is deleting it after moving its fonts to another Font folder. Adobe buried a subfolder in it (/Library/Application Support/ Adobe/Fonts/Reqrd/Base) that holds more fonts, ones that are used by Adobe applications for things like its tool palettes. Without these fonts in that folder - in that specific folder path - Adobe applications don't even open.
This folder (/Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Office/Fonts) is a red herring that leads to quite a bit of confusion in the category of "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." If you know that Tiger supports "application Fonts folders" such as the Adobe one just described, it's perfectly reasonable to assume that this folder holds fonts for Microsoft applications - especially because each of the fonts in it shows up in your Fonts menu. The confusion starts when you take a font out of the folder and realize it still appears in your Font menu. Or, you add a font to the folder, and it doesn't show up in your Font menu. Or, you notice that all its fonts are also in your User fonts folder and you decide to delete one or the other copy of the over six dozen duplicate files.
This folder is a mere storage bin; Tiger doesn't access it at all, which is why altering its contents has no effect on your Font menus. Microsoft Office copies these fonts into your User Fonts folder the first time you run it; the originals stay in place, to be copied for the next user account that runs Office, and so on. Tiger accesses only the copies in the User Fonts folder.
Don't assume that just because Tiger uses so many Fonts folders that it doesn't matter which one you use for your fonts, or that the best approach is to collect all your fonts together for easier management. It's better to understand the differences between the folders and store your fonts based on how (and who) you want to access them.
[Sharon Zardetto Aker, who has written about the Mac since its birth in 1984, made her first foray into electronic publishing with her recent "Take Control of Fonts" titles. Between them, the two ebooks contain over 350 pages of this kind of information about fonts.]
ToC
reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)
May 18, 2006 - The meeting began with the usual introduction of officers. We then moved to the Question and Answer Session.
David Noreen asked if we still do "swap meets". He brought in some stuff to sell: some foot pedals for driving games and some keyboards. He also talked about coupons and online rebates.
Kevin Hopkins brought up Insight's problems this month. Richard Rollins reported that Insight had been paying a quarter of a million bucks a month to AT&T for their backbone access. He said the problems began when they went to Sprint for their backbone services. Kevin said he had put that suggestion to the Insight people he spoke to on the phone and they would not confirm it.
Joe Dewalt told those experiencing trouble with Insight to look at their cable bill for the number cable complaint line. 403 number.
Joe Dewalt asked for a good distribution of Linux for a P2-300 MHz IBM Aptiva with 256 MB of RAM For his 70 year old father. Ubuntu was recommended.
Mark Zinzow talked about Insight's News service.
Kevin Hisel talked about Insight's CEO Mike Wilner's posting on Broadband Reports where he promised to increase speed with no cost increase. Kevin predicts 6 MB down and 768 kb up. That's what Comcast does. Insight currently provides 4 MB down and 384 KB up. Kevin suggested to those who have had trouble with Insight, "Bang on them to get a free month."
Dell is going to be using some AMD chips, Kevin Hisel said. That was enough of an opening for Harold Ravlin to go off on Dell service.
George Krumins talked about LCD monitors coming down in price by half in a year.
Kevin Hisel talked about the "Red Lion Reunion" to be held August 11, 12, and 13 at Fat City. A lot of your favorite bands from yesteryear will be playing once more. For more information check out <http://Redlioninn.info>
Richard Rollins talked about getting Dazzle for $29 at <http://www.woot.com>. They have one deal a day from midnight to 11:59 the next night. All shipping is $5. Kevin Hisel said they've had TV cards with PVR software for about $80.
Norris Hansell asked about using a cell phone for Internet connection. Kevin said it is a kludge but it works. T-Mobile has a PCMCIA card for it. A discussion of phones ensued. Quentin Barnes chipped in with his expertise. Craig Kummerow, David Noreen and Mark Zinzow all added to the discussion.
Mark Zinzow is going to go RAID this year. He's envisioning the use of five 320 gigabyte drives. Harold Ravlin, Quentin Barnes and Phil Wall joined the discussion.
Edwin Hadley said a friend who worked at a local game company found some Apple IIs and an "in the box" Atari Falcon in the back room when they were cleaning up.
When asked Emil Cobb reported that the Mac group would be having an open session this evening.
Kevin Hisel said he would be reviewing Desktop Earth, Internet Explorer 7 (Bittorrent for viruses), thumb drive software, and Windows Defender for the PC SIG.
Kevin also mentioned that Microsoft has released the final specs of Vista. They have a program to tell you if your machine will run Vista, called Vista Upgrade Advisor.
Richard Rollins noted that next month he would be showing BartPE which makes a bootable CD to help in the recovery of a screwed up Windows system.
Just before the break, Kevin Hisel tested the Internet connection speed at the meeting by using <http://www.Wugnet.com/myspeed/speedtest.asp>. He noted that you must have Java. Another tester can be found at <http://www.dslreports.com/stest?loc=97>.
reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)
The evening the multifaceted offering was provided by Mr. Kevin Hisel.
Kevin began by showing a video interview of "Guy the cabbie" accidentally drafted into discussing the Apple versus Apple Corp. lawsuit. The unique thing about it was, he ran it off his thumb drive. This was his reason d'entre to discuss TrueCrypt, PC only thumb drive security software system. After showing how it works, Kevin noted that you will need it installed on ever PC you use to access your thumb drive, but this small drawback is overcome by carrying the program on his thumb drive as well. The nice thing about TrueCrypt is it's free.
Next, Kevin moved to Internet Explorer 7. By running it he pointed out that it looks the same, but there are big changes under the hood. Kevin said, "They've locked it down."
Putting IE7 through its paces Kevin showed that it now has tabs copied from Firefox. Richard Rollins pointed out the individual tab close X. It opens fast. IE7 has an RSS reader, another feature taken from Firefox. It has Zoom, stolen from Opera. Kevin said you can use it to fill the screen when web pages are coded incorrectly. Summing up IE7, Kevin said it has been out for about two weeks. It doesn't break your machine. And, it is a lot more security.
Moving to Windows Defender, Kevin said, "Go to Google and type Windows Defender. You are required to download and run it immediately." Kevin and Richard both attested to the fact that Windows Defender is a must have. It's in Beta but it's good enough to recommend.
Phil Wall asked about Spybot and Adaware - "Does Defender eliminate the need for them?" No, it doesn't. They compliment each other. It does a lot of things WinPatrol did, Richard said.
Kevin emphasized that there is no noticeable performance hit, as with it's predecessor. Jim Berger asked about how it would work on an older machine. There didn't seem to be any problems in that regard.
Lastly, Kevin showed Desktop Earth. It is a new background for your PC.
It provides an accurate representation of light distribution of the Earth
according to the hour and the season, how the earth looks. When asked
about his previous negative comments on the program, Kevin said that
Version 2 was buggy, but Version2.1 fixed those problems.
In sum, Kevin ended by pointing out that all the programs he showed are free.
As things opened up, Mark Zinzow recommended Writely, The Web Word Processor, an online Word. Google just bought it. Craig Kummerow said he uses it in his school district. You can add collaborators. It's all online and accessible to everybody you want it to be accessible to. You can access it from anywhere. The advantage over email is that you don't have to remember to reply to ALL. Your document can be private or public. Multiple people can edit a document at the same time. You can selectively choose a subset of revisors. It has a revision history so everything can be monitored. It auto updates for realtime editing.
There is a spreadsheet in a similar vein as Writely called Num Sum Easy, Sharable Web Spreadsheets. It can be found at <http://numsum.com/spreadsheet/show/19735>.
Mark speculated that these kind of programs will put a hurt on Microsoft. A third of Microsoft's profits come from Office.
Concluding the evening, Kevin conducted a Microsoft "goodies" raffle. A free copy of Money 2006 went to Russ Gillen. A book on blogging went to Kevin Hopkins. And, a Microsoft T-shirt went to Jerry Feltner.
All in all, quite a rewarding evening.
ToC
reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)
The May meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday, May 23, 2006, at 7PM, at Kevin Hisel's house. (For anyone wishing to attend - which is encouraged, by the way - the address and phone number are both in the book). Present at the meeting were: Richard Rollins, Emil Cobb, Kevin Hisel, Kevin Hopkins, and Joe Dewalt.
Richard Rollins: Richard said he was a little disappointed in the last meeting because the Linux SIG didn't meet. He said he really enjoyed the hour and a half Q & A. He also really enjoyed Mr. Hisel's program demos in the PC SIG. Richard reported that next month's PC SIG will be looking at BartPE, a program that allows you to build a bootable Windows CD from an Windows installation CD, with tools, like Knoppix for Windows, plus an imager. All this to make recovering and rebuilding a crashed Windows system easier.
Kevin Hisel: Kevin gave a report on his Corporate Agent duties. He noted that Vista Beta 2 came out today. He commented on Microsoft's program to analyze what you want to use Vista for. There will be seven version of Vista available. Three of them will be for home use. The program, Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor, will then checks out your machine to see if it can handle it. Vista Upgrade Advisor is available at <http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/upgradeadvisor/default.mspx. [Thanks to Jon Bjerke for the link address.]
Joe Dewalt: Joe said he had nothing. He then discussed his network at work.
Emil Cobb: Emil reported that there were 23 people at the last meeting. He stated that he had a potential demo for the next Mac SIG. Craig Kummerow said he would demo on iMovie. He said he would also show off his MacBook Pro. Joe asked about the new Mac Mini multimedia version. There was talk about Mac Mini running Front Row. It does not replace Media Center with a TV card, Kevin Hisel said. Emil finished by stating that he will be printing the badges at the meeting JIT.
Kevin Hopkins: Kevin said he had no new business. He also related that Rich Hall had nothing to report either.
ToC
The CUCUG is a not-for-profit corporation, originally organized in 1983 to support and advance the knowledge of area Commodore computer users. We've grown since then, now supporting PC, Macintosh and Linux platforms.
Meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the First Baptist Church of Champaign in Savoy. The FBC-CS is located at 1602 N. Prospect Avenue in Savoy, on the NE corner of Burwash and Prospect. To get to the the First Baptist Church from Champaign or Urbana, take Prospect Avenue south. Setting the trip meter in your car to zero at the corner of Kirby/Florida and Prospect in Champaign (Marathon station on the SW corner), you only go 1.6 miles south. Windsor will be at the one mile mark. The Savoy village sign (on the right) will be at the 1.4 mile mark. Burwash is at the 1.6 mile mark. The Windsor of Savoy retirement community is just to the south; Burwash Park is to the east. Turn east (left) on Burwash. The FBC-CS parking lot entrance is on the north (left) side of Burwash. Enter by the double doors at the eastern end of the building's south side. A map can be found on the CUCUG website at http://www.cucug.org/meeting.html. The First Baptist Church of Champaign is also on the web at http://www.fbc-cs.org .
Membership dues for individuals are $20 annually; prorated to $10 at mid year.
Our monthly newsletter, the Status Register, is delivered by email. All recent editions are available on our WWW site. To initiate a user group exchange, just send us your newsletter or contact our editor via email. As a matter of CUCUG policy, an exchange partner will be dropped after three months of no contact.
For further information, please attend the next meeting as our guest, or contact one of our officers (all at area code 217):
President/WinSIG: Richard Rollins 469-2616 Vice-Pres/MacSIG: Emil Cobb 398-0149 e-cobb@uiuc.edu Secretary/Editor: Kevin Hopkins 356-5026 kh2@uiuc.edu Treasurer: Richard Hall 344-8687 rjhall1@uiuc.edu Corp.Agent/Web: Kevin Hisel 406-948-1999 contact/index.html Linux SIG: Allen Byrne 344-5311 adbyrne@ieee.org
Email us at http://www.cucug.org/ contact/index.html, visit our web site at http://www.cucug.org/, or join in our online forums at http://www.cucug.org/starship/ .
CUCUG
P.O. Box 716
Champaign, IL
61824-0716
