The Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group

The Status Register - October, 2007


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

October 2007


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

October News:

The October Meeting

The next CUCUG meeting will be held on our regular third Thursday of the month: Thursday, OCtober 18th, 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 October 18 gathering will be one of our split SIG meetings. For the PC SIG, Kevin Hisel will demonstrate Mozbackup, a freeware utility for backing up Firefox, Thunderbird and Suite user data. The Macintosh SIG is open for anything anyone wants to bring in. Come one, come all.

ToC

Welcome New and Renewing Members

We'd like to welcome the newest members of our group, joining us in the last month: Jerry White (Windows PC). Actually, Jerry joined in July, but I didn't hear about it until the September meeting. Sorry for the screw up, Jerry. Take a little vacation and see what happens.

We'd also like to welcome back Bill Strutz as our first renewing member for 2008. Bill beat everybody to the punch by renewing at the end of September. Thanks, Bill.

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

ToC

CUCUG Membership Renewal

It's that time of year again to renew your membership in CUCUG. We rely on our members and their talents for our strength and vitality. You can renew at any of the meetings remaining this year or through the mail at our local address given at the end of the newsletter. We sincerely hope to have you with us in the new year.

ToC

CUCUG Elections Coming In December

CUCUG will soon be electing officers for next year. The offices of President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and Corporation Agent are open for nominations. The actual election will take place at the December "Annual" meeting. If you'd like to serve your club, or know of someone who you would like to see in a position of leadership in CUCUG, be considering your nominations. The election guidelines appear later in this newsletter.

ToC

Beatles reunited online as Harrison goes digital

Nine albums from the late George Harrison have been made available online through retailers such as Apple's iTunes, record label Parlophone said on Wednesday, as the fourth and final member of the Beatles finally went digital.

<http://tinyurl.com/24qe6t>

ToC

'TimesSelect' Goes the Way of the Dinosaurs

<http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2007/09/timesselect_goes_the_way_of_th_1.html>

(09-18-2007) -- At midnight, the content of TimesSelect, The New York Times' fee-based section that includes its top columnists and its archives, will be accessible free of charge. (Well, at least most of it. You'll still have to pay for archived stories from 1923-86.)

In a statement on the Times' Web site today, Vivian Schiller, senior vice president and general manager, acknowledged that the times (and the Times) have changed.

Since we launched TimesSelect in 2005, the online landscape has altered significantly. Readers increasingly find news through search, as well as through social networks, blogs and other online sources. In light of this shift, we believe offering unfettered access to New York Times reporting and analysis best serves the interest of our readers, our brand and the long-term vitality of our journalism. We encourage everyone to read our news and opinion - as well as share it, link to it and comment on it.

Marketplace reports that the change comes because of pressure to "increase revenue from advertising." The first sponsor for the now-free TimesSelect content will be American Express.

One person who I'm betting will be happy about the development is award-winning Times columnist Thomas Friedman. He had been critical of the move because he felt it would cut him off from members of his global audience who couldn't afford to pay. Now they can read him all they want, all the time.

Related Links:

Free at last!
- <http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/thejuice/2007/09/free_at_last.html>

Firms Abandon Online Subscription Plans
- <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14537587>

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Comcast speaks out on bandwidth caps

By Eric Bangeman | Published: September 19, 2007 - 11:40PM CT
<http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070919-comcast-speaks-out-on-bandwidth-caps-says-they-only-affect-0-01-of-users.html>

Over the past several days, there have been a number of rumors and lots of discussion about the issue of bandwidth caps and Comcast. There have been a number of reports of users having reached some sort of bandwidth limit-reportedly 90GB-and having their service cut off by America's largest cable ISP. Ars spoke to Comcast today in an attempt to find out what's going on.

Surprisingly, Comcast's Acceptable Use Policy, to which all of its subscribers must agree, is somewhat vague when it comes to bandwidth limits. There are no hard numbers, just an admonition that Comcast's high-speed Internet subscribers are not allowed to "restrict, inhibit, or otherwise interfere with the ability of any other person, regardless of intent, purpose or knowledge, to use or enjoy the Service, including... generating levels of traffic sufficient to impede others' ability to send or retrieve information."

It's only when that last factor comes into play that Comcast will take action, Charlie Douglas, Comcast's director of corporate communications for online and voice services, told Ars. Douglas also said that those customers are an extremely small minority. "More than 99.99% of our customers use the residential high-speed Internet service as intended, which includes downloading and sharing video, photos and other rich-media," he told Ars.

Douglas said that Comcast customers whose Internet use causes issues for others on the network can expect a call from the company. "[Our] policy is to proactively contact the customer via phone to work with them and address the issue," he said. In some cases, addressing the issue involves determining whether their PC has been compromised and is now part of a spam- and malware-spewing botnet. If that is the case, Douglas says that Comcast will work with the customer to fix the problem.

In other cases, Comcast will suggest to the user that he or she move to a different Internet plan, often a "commercial-grade" product. Those include Standard and Enhanced packages that offer much the same speeds as the consumer packages, but come with extra niceties such as 24/7 support, domain name services, and static IP addresses. The Standard package starts at $95 per month and the Enhanced plan goes for $160.

Douglas was careful to emphasize that bandwidth abusers are a very small minority of Comcast's customers, reiterating that the issue is confined to less than 0.01 percent of the company's subscribers. "In fact, 95 percent of our users could increase their bandwidth usage a hundred-fold and still be in compliance," he said.

When asked whether Comcast would be better off with a proactive policy that spells out the limits in advance, Douglas defended the company's current stance. "We think it's a very proactive policy," he argued. "We actively monitor and look for patterns of repeated and consistent use with the goal of ensuring our customers have the best network possible." Most of the users contacted by Comcast ratchet their usage back significantly when they're done, according to the company.

Although Comcast is at the forefront of recent discussion around the issue of bandwidth caps, the company is by no means the only ISP with a cap. Much to the dismay of broadband users around the world, ISPs have begun turning to bandwidth caps in an attempt to cut down on the amount and type of traffic flowing through their networks. Many of those have actually relaxed over the past few years: in 2002, Canadian ISP Sympatico had a 5GB bandwidth cap. Users now indicate that the cap has been raised to 60GB for many users, while some have an unlimited bandwidth allowance.

Comcast's biggest problem may not be the fact that the bandwidth caps exist but that the company isn't transparent about how they work and at what level users will run into trouble. The situation is magnified by the fact that there appears to be a strong overlap between two populations: those who have run afoul of the ISP's limits and those who are likely to complain loudly when they feel they are being treated unfairly by their ISP.

It may very well be that a minute proportion of Comcast users are affected by the caps-although using Douglas' 99.99 percent figure, that still works out to around 1,150 users based on Comcast's 11.5 million subscribers as of the end of 2006-and it's great that Comcast calls users who are going overboard on bandwidth instead of merely pulling the plug once the mystery number is reached. But it seems that Comcast and its users could be spared a lot of pain if that number wasn't such a big mystery.

[Editor's Note: My thanks to Jon Bjerke for submitting this article for the newsletter.]

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FCC Fines Comcast $4,000 For Airing Fake News

<http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/25/142232>

September 25, 2007 -- And the Federal Communications Commission has fined Comcast $4,000 for broadcasting a fake news segment on the company's CN8 local news channel last year. Comcast aired a video news release produced by the manufacturer of a sleeping remedy without disclosing the company's ties to the video. This marks the first time the FCC has fined a broadcaster for airing a corporate public relations video as if it was an actual news segment. Last year the Center for Media and Democracy released a study that found at least 77 TV stations around the country have aired corporate-sponsored video news releases over the previous 10 months.

ToC

Phone Companies Abuse Free Speech

Producer - Stevie Converse
Asst. Producer - Candace Clement
Media Minutes, October 5, 2007
Audio: <http://www.freepress.net/mediaminutes/archive/MM_10_05_07.mp3>

Last week, phone giant Verizon was exposed on the front-page of the New York Times for blocking text messages from NARAL Pro-Choice America. After a public outcry, Verizon reversed its decision. Public interest groups, however, are not appeased by the reversal.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/us/27verizon.html?_r=1&oref=slogin>
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/business/28verizon.html>

Art Brodsky, Communications Director of Public Knowledge, a group dedicated to defending our "information commons," says the incident sheds light on a growing problem at the Federal Communications Commission - the agency charged with overseeing the telecommunications industry. He says consumer protections are being whittled away by changing the definitions of what types of communication can be regulated.

While Verizon or AT&T can't censor you're phone conversations, they can censor your emails, Internet postings and text messaging.

Brodsky: As they deregulate and as consumers lose protections, then something has to fill the vacuum. And if it's not going to be a legal structure or a government agency or a law or regulation, the only thing left is whatever the carrier feels like doing, unless pressured to do otherwise. That's not good enough for a public that's used to having a telecommunications network that - absent something that is blatantly illegal - they can use as they wish. This whole idea that telecommunications companies are beholden to no one except their own consciences and their own discretion is just totally contrary to all that we've known and all the law generally provides.

Verizon's "glitch" was not an isolated incident. In a live webcast of a Pearl Jam concert in August, AT&T censored lyrics that criticized President Bush.

More seriously, Verizon and AT&T reportedly have been involved in a secret lobbying campaign, along with the White House, to pressure Congress to grant them immunity from lawsuits stemming from their involvement in the National Security Agency's illegal spying program.

And on the heels of the NARAL flap, online watchdogs dug up copies of the phone companies' "terms of service" agreements -- which reserve the right to disconnect any subscribers who disparage Verizon or AT&T.

Brodsky: The sense of corporate self that says, "This is my network and thou shalt not speak ill of it if you wish to continue to use it," that just boggles the imagination in a supposedly free society. And the fact that someone would even think to put that in a terms of service, much less enforce it - is just appalling. But until relatively recently, no one has cared. Maybe now people will start to care and take this stuff seriously.

On Tuesday, the SavetheInternet.com Coalition called for congressional hearings on phone company censorship. To learn more, visit savetheinternet.com or publicknowledge.org .

Related Links:

AT&T Threatens Complaining Customers with Cancellation
-http://www.freepress.net/news/26631>

The Verizon Warning
- <http://www.freepress.net/news/26649>

What's the biggest threat to Free Speech in America?
- <http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/?p=221>

Back Story With Adam Liptak
- <http://graphics8.nytimes.com/podcasts/2007/09/27/28backstory-liptak.mp3>

Democrats Back Down on Pledge To Restrict Wiretapping
- <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/washington/09nsa.html?th&emc=th>

FCC Won't Investigate Role of Telecoms in Domestic Spying
- <http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/09/1349224>

ToC

AT&T's Term of Service Change

5.1 Suspension/Termination. Your Service may be suspended or terminated if your payment is past due and such condition continues un-remedied for thirty (30) days. In addition, AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Service, any Member ID, electronic mail address, IP address, Universal Resource Locator or domain name used by you, without notice, for conduct that AT&T believes

(a) violates the Acceptable Use Policy;

(b) constitutes a violation of any law, regulation or tariff (including, without limitation, copyright and intellectual property laws) or a violation of these TOS, or any applicable policies or guidelines, or

(c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries. Termination or suspension by AT&T of Service also constitutes termination or suspension (as applicable) of your license to use any Software. AT&T may also terminate or suspend your Service if you provide false or inaccurate information that is required for the provision of Service or is necessary to allow AT&T to bill you for Service.

[Editor's Note: Remember when the customer was always right?]

ToC

AT&T Doesn't Have to Care

Posted by Ed Foster on September 27, 2007 10:30 AM
InfoWorld Gripe Line
<http://weblog.infoworld.com/gripeline/archives/2007/09/att_doesnt_have.html>

When is the Internet not the Internet? When your ISP can't be bothered to see to it that your e-mail traffic gets through, answers one reader, speaking about the company formerly known as SBC and now calling itself AT&T.

"Is it my imagination or is the U.S. infrastructure imploding?" the reader writes. "Recently on several occasions I have not been able to reach customers on the Internet -- people that I am in touch with every day or several times a week. In the first case, I called my ISP, AT&T, to ask what the problem was. They investigated my line. They investigated my router. They investigated my computer and declared 'no problem.' But I continued to insist that there was a problem. Finally, I downloaded a 30-day free route tracer and tracked down the culprit."

The problem wasn't exactly AT&T's fault "It was a router on a leg not owned by AT&T but by another backbone owner," the reader writes. "It had a 15-second transmission lag. No, not a good 15-ms transmission lag - a 15 second read lifetime transmission lag. All my efforts were timing out. My helpful ISP said 'See no problem. It is their problem. We are asking them to fix it.' And eventually it was fixed or it evolved or something."

Then just recently the reader again had a problem. "Once again I called my foreign technical helpers at AT&T," the reader writes. "They investigated my line. They investigated my router. They investigated my computer and told me 'We cannot figure out why your computer has this problem.' I told them that they must have a router issue. The DNS was resolving correctly but my pings were timing out. So they put me on hold to investigate. Sure as the day arrives, they returned and told me that router FTWOCXAR was down and would be back up in about three hours. I asked why I was not being routed around the down router. No answer. I pointed out that the router above that router must be misprogrammed because it was not rerouting traffic - just sending it to the down node. No answer. When I asked who I could take these concerns to get them addressed, they told me they were making a note of it. Thank you. Have a nice day."

"I have realized something," the reader concludes. "We have a plan. We have implementers. But we have no overseer to make sure that the implementers actually do their job correctly. When they do not, that is when the Internet is not the Internet."

At least in terms of buying up the baby bells, the company formerly known as SBC has gone a fairly long way to stitching the old AT&T back together again. And maybe they're also getting a bit of that monopolist's swagger back. As Lily Tomlin's Ernestine character used to say, "We don't have to care -- we're the phone company."

If a monopolist or would-be monopolist is ruining your day, tell us about it by posting your comments on my website or by writing me at Foster@gripe2ed.com.

[Editor's Note: My thanks to Jon Bjerke for submitting this article for the newsletter.]

ToC

Verizon: No warrant, no problem

By: Steve Benen on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 5:22 AM - PDT

<http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/16/verizon-no-warrant-no-problem/>

It's an awfully good time to debate telecom immunity, isn't it?

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/15/AR2007101501857.html?hpid=topnews>

Verizon Communications, the nation's second-largest telecom company, told congressional investigators that it has provided customers' telephone records to federal authorities in emergency cases without court orders hundreds of times since 2005. [...]

<http://financial.washingtonpost.com/custom/wpost/html-qcn.asp?dispnav=business&amp;mwpage=qcn&amp;symb=VZ&amp;nav=el>

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Federal+Bureau+of+Investigation?tid=informline>

Verizon also disclosed that the FBI, using administrative subpoenas, sought information identifying not just a person making a call, but all the people that customer called, as well as the people those people called. Verizon does not keep data on this "two-generation community of interest" for customers, but the request highlights the broad reach of the government's quest for data.

From January 2005 to September 2007, Verizon provided data to federal authorities on an emergency basis 720 times, it said in the letter. The records included Internet protocol addresses as well as phone dataÉ. Verizon and AT&T said it was not their role to second-guess the legitimacy of emergency government requests.

That's it? That's the excuse? How about second-guessing the legitimacy of the law?

<http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/10/14/rule_of_law/index.html>

Related Link:

Former CEO Says U.S. Punished Phone Firm: Qwest Feared NSA Plan Was Illegal
- <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/12/AR2007101202485.html?>

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Justice Department's Late Comments Against Net Neutrality Questioned

Stevie Converse, Producer
Candace Clement, Assistant Producer
Media Minutes 9-21-07
Audio: <http://www.freepress.net/mediaminutes/archive/MM_9_21_2007.mp3>

Just before Alberto Gonzales ended his reign as Attorney General, the Department of Justice submitted a late filing to the FCC against Net Neutrality - the principle that prevents Internet providers from speeding up or slowing down web content based on its source, ownership, or destination.

Free Press, the national, nonpartisan media reform group that coordinates the SavetheInternet.com Coalition, filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out whether industry lobbyists or White House pressure may have influenced the Justice Department.

Marvin Ammori, General Counsel of Free Press, says the DOJ filing came long after the comment period had officially closed.

Ammori: When we looked at the filing, we noticed that there is nothing special about the filing that would require them to be late. There's no evidence that the DOJ took, there're no hearings that they held, there's no outreach they had that supported or opposed Net Neutrality that we knew about. And so when the DOJ filed this boilerplate document that seemed to have nothing but AT&T's talking points in it six weeks late, it looks remarkably fishy. So we filed a FOIA to try to figure out who they talked to. We wanted to find out if they had been contacted by or been in contact with the companies that oppose Net Neutrality, like AT&T and Verizon.

The filings from the Justice Department came just three days before Gonzales stepped down.

Ammori:It struck us that this seemed to be a favor from Alberto Gonzales on his way out to AT&T and Verizon. And as it turns out, the day George Bush announces his appointment for a new Attorney General, he appoints an acting Attorney General who is a long-time AT&T attorney - Peter Keisler.

Other top administration officials with ties to the phone company include White House Counselor, Ed Gillespie, who was a key AT&T lobbyist. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, AT&T ranks as the second largest donor in American politics since 1987. Its employees have supplied candidates on both sides of the aisle with over $22.5 million dollars since 2000.

Thus far, there's been no response to the Free Press inquiry from the Justice Department.


Related Links:

AT&T Donor File at OpenSecrets.org

- <http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.asp?ID=D000000076>

Free Press Questions Justice Department's Late Hit Against Net Neutrality

- <http://www.freepress.net/press/release.php?id=271>

The United States of AT&T
- <http://www.freepress.net/news/26187>

ToC

GAO Report Says Big Media Companies Get Unfair Advantages at FCC

Media Minutes, 10/12/2007
Audio: <http://www.freepress.net/mediaminutes/archive/MM_10_12_07.mp3>

The Government Accountability Office, or GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, has released a new report that shows how the Federal Communications Commission violated its own rules by leaking information to industry insiders about upcoming agency procedures and votes.

The report says the FCC gave lobbyists confidential information which gave the telecommunications companies a big advantage in preparing their arguments before critical votes, while consumer and public interest groups were left in the dark.

Jon Bartholomew of Common Cause explains:

Bartholomew: The FCC is set up to regulate the telecommunications industry for the benefit of the public. Yet, what they've been doing is that they've actually been giving favorable treatment to the industry that they regulate.

That big telcos have the agency's ear is not news to anyone familiar with media policymaking. The cozy relationships that lobbyists have with government officials come from a "revolving door," where FCC officials and staff leave to become lobbyists, and lobbyists join the agency as regulators.

Left out of the conversation is what's best for the public.

Bartholomew: What we can access on the Internet and how fast, you know, with the Net Neutrality issue. Can cell phones work on multiple networks? Will people have access to setting up a low-power FM station or their public access station? These are all things that the FCC regulates that the telecommunications industry doesn't necessarily want to see happen.

Will the GAO report change the way the FCC does business?

Bartholomew: There hasn't been a comment from Chairman Martin's office, so they haven't said what they plan on doing about this. So will things change over there? It's very difficult to say.

Bartholomew says it will take congressional oversight to end business as usual.

Bartholomew: Instead of contacting the FCC, contact your member of Congress to say, "Don't let the FCC keep doing this." Because the Congress is the one with the real teeth in this situation.

Related Links:

FCC Accused of Unfairly Aiding Some Firms
- <http://freepress.net/news/26654>

FCC Should Take Steps to Ensure Equal Access to Rulemaking Information
- <http://freepress.net/news/26694>

Report Says FCC Talks Too Much
- <http://freepress.net/news/26700>

A message for the FCC by Rick Kaempfer
- <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8xD_BHzDqg>

ToC

AT&T U-Verse sidesteps town politics, coming to Illinois in 2008

By Nate Anderson | Published: October 04, 2007 - 01:52PM CT

<http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071004-u-verse-coming-to-illinois-in-2008.html>

Chicago has become a battleground for AT&T as the company tries to roll out its U-Verse IPTV service despite local opposition. AT&T has been pushing hard to get U-Verse going outside of Texas, where it was first launched, and Chicago was to be one of the first major test markets for the fiber-to-the-node technology. Now, the company has found a way to bypass local opposition altogether by applying for a new statewide franchise that was authorized by an AT&T-backed bill earlier this year.

The problems started when AT&T routinely refused to take out franchise licenses from towns for U-Verse, claiming that it was not a cable operator and was simply upgrading its data network to carry new kinds of data. Because it refused to take out franchise agreements, it in effect refused to abide by any sort of local build-out requirements (companies that use public rights-of-way are often required to serve the entire public within a set period of time).

The led to an ugly standoff in which AT&T attempted to sue its IPTV service into existence by taking local cities to court, an issue we looked at in a feature last year. The communities fought back, so the company turned its efforts to Illinois legislators, who promptly (and unanimously) passed a bill earlier this summer authorizing statewide video franchises (the bill was even supported by the US Department of Justice). Under the Cable and Video Competition Law of 2007, AT&T can pick up a single license from the state and start rolling out U-Verse, rather than negotiating with every town council in the state.

The build-out requirements are more modest than many municipalities would like (50 percent of homes in a community where AT&T offers service must be served within five years), but the bill does throw consumers some bones by penalizing video operators who don't show up during service call windows and limiting TV contracts to only a year. And, hopefully, competition will lower prices.

At least 18 states have now passed such laws, and new entrants to the video market like Verizon and AT&T are rushing to take advantage of them. In Illinois, the company has already filed its application with the state, less than three months after the bill went into effect. The Illinois Commerce Commission will have 30 days to act on the application; if it does nothing, the application automatically becomes valid.

In the application, a copy of which was seen by Ars Technica, AT&T says that it hopes to roll out U-Verse services by February 1, 2008. The good news for consumers is that more TV choices will be coming to at least some households. The bad news is that when there's a problem, users can't complain to the local town hall any more. Only the Illinois Attorney General can enforce the franchise license.

Similar stories are being played out across the country. New entrants will find that they can enter the video market much faster by acquiring a statewide franchise, but local communities will lose much of the control they once had over TV operators.

[Editor's Note: My thanks to Jon Bjerke for submitting this article for the newsletter.]

ToC

September 22 Is OneWebDay

Media Minutes 9-21-07
Stevie Converse, Producer
Candace Clement, Assistant Producer
Audio: <http://www.freepress.net/mediaminutes/archive/MM_9_21_2007.mp3>

Saturday, September 22, is OneWebDay. This is an event that was started last year by Susan Crawford, Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan.

Scrawford: OneWebDay is an Earth Day for the Web. The idea behind OneWebDay is to have a day - always September 22, which is itself an echo of Earth Day which is April 22 - a day when people step back and reflect on how the Web has changed their lives and do things in public places that are good works for the future of the Web.

OneWebDay is a truly global effort, where people take positive action -- through videos or blogs to show how the Web has changed their lives; or by teaching someone else how to make the Web a stronger communications tool -- like how to edit a wiki or set up a router. And there are other ways of celebrating as well.

Scrawford: In Ethiopia they're opening up a bunch of Internet cafes and work stations so that people can have Internet access. In Bulgaria, there's a fight on behalf of bloggers that have been punished by the government for one reason or another, and that is being focused on OneWebDay. In Austin, Texas, there's sort of a teach-in at a cafe where people are getting together to talk about the Web.

It's very important that people understand that the Web is made up of people and not machines. And that it is under threat around the world in a variety of ways from gatekeepers of all kinds, censorship, inadequate access, lots of incumbents who are worried about their business models being undermined by the Internet. So, many of the activities are aimed at creating a global constituency that self-consciously feels that it is responsible for the Web.

For more information about OneWebDay, go to <http://www.onewebday.org>.

Related Links:

OneWebDay - Interview with Founder Susan Crawford
- <http://www.freepress.net/news/25303>

OneWebDay's official Web site
- <http://www.onewebday.org/>

ToC

Common Ground:

Firefox-Google marriage on shaky ground?

AdBlock tryst threatens web browser wedlock

By Cade Metz in San Francisco
URL: <http://tinyurl.com/35k9z7>

Comment Yes, Firefox reached a major milestone this week, surpassing 400 million downloads worldwide. But that's just the good news. There's another story swirling around the famously open source web browser - and it's a little less sunny.

Last week, The New York York Times questioned whether the growing popularity of a Firefox extension called AdBlock Plus poses a threat to the ad-driven business models of entertainment, media, and search sites across the web. If enough people install the extension and other ad-killing browser gizmos, The Times asked, could they chip away at the bottom line of companies like CNN, Microsoft, and Google?

With roughly 2.5 million people using AdBlock Plus - and 300,000 to 400,000 more downloading the tool each month, according to its developer - this is certainly a valid question. But there's a second question worth asking, a question looming over the future of Firefox itself.

According to internet rumor, Google provides almost all of the revenue for the Mozilla Corp. - the commercial wing of the Mozilla Foundation, makers of Firefox. You know how it works: Google ponies up the dough, and Mozilla ties Firefox to certain Google tools. Most notably, Firefox uses a customized version of Google.com as its default home page.

The question is: As more and more people install AdBlock Plus, which is officially recommended by Mozilla, will Google continue to fund the browser?

When we asked Google for an answer, the company stayed quiet, as it did when The Times came calling. And we're still awaiting an email from Mozilla on the matter. But it isn't hard to connect the dots.

According to a March 2006 rumor trumpeted by Weblogs founder Jason Calacanis, Mozilla pulled in $72m in 2005, and most of that came from Google. In a subsequent blog post, Mozilla board member Chris Blizzard wouldn't verify the rumor, but he said these figures were "not off by an order of magnitude."

Meanwhile, AdBlock can be downloaded from the Mozilla website, where it's listed as one of the most popular Firefox extensions. And yes, it does a wonderful job of blocking ads on Google's AdSense network - not to mention banners served up by DoubleClick, the company Google's trying so very hard to purchase.

No, that doesn't mean Google is dead-set on pulling its Mozilla dollars. After all, it could simply crack down on the use of AdBlock, a free download developed by an independent German programmer named Wladimir Palant. As The Times discussed, there's already a mini-movement among ad-laden websites to, well, block AdBlock.

Oklahoma-based web developer Danny Carlton has succeeded in rejecting any user who visits his sites with AdBlock Plus installed, and he insists that each and every site owner has the right to do the same. Palant and his cohorts, Carlton says, shouldn't be allowed to block AdBlock blocking.

"It comes down to whether they're going to be like adults and support the concept of freedom, allowing site owners to block AdBlock users, or they're going to be like children screaming for more bread and circuses," Carlton told The Reg.

But if Google jumped on board with this sort of AdBlock crackdown, it would surely anger the masses, undermining the we're-in-it-for-the-little-guy attitude the company tries so hard to foster. "Google could step into this very easily. They could shut AdBlock down entirely," Carlton said. "But then they look like the big-bad meanie."

In the end, it might be easier for Google to break off its relationship with Mozilla, leaving the foundation struggling for revenue. Sure, Google would lose the traffic driven by those less than 400 million users, but there's nothing stopping the ridiculously-rich Mountain Viewers from building their own browser - or buying a Mozilla competitor that doesn't block quite so many ads. Opera comes to mind.

Then again, if Google dumped Mozilla, it would still look like a big-bad meanie. No wonder the company won't grant us an interview.

Update

Still no interview, but Google did send us a brief statement. They told us to attribute it to a spokesperson: "Mozilla is a valued business partner because many users utilize Firefox to access Google products and services. We will continue to work with a variety of technology providers, including Mozilla, to ensure our mutual users have the best experience possible with our products and services."

Ensure our mutual users have the best experience possible? That sounds like they're not too concerned about AdBlock chipping away at the bottom line. We shall see.

[Editor's Note: My thanks to Kevin Hisel for submitting this article for the newsletter.]

ToC

Thunderbird Developers Quit Mozilla

The only two paid developers working on Mozilla's e-mail client say they are quitting the company.

Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
Tuesday, October 09, 2007 10:00 AM PDT
<http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,138240/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws>

Just three weeks after Mozilla Corp. spun off its Thunderbird to a new subsidiary, the only two paid developers working on the e-mail client said they were quitting the company.

Both Scott McGregor and David Bienvenu used terse blog posts last week to announce that their last day with Mozilla will be Friday.

"I plan to continue on, as a volunteer, with my role as a module owner for the Thunderbird project," said McGregor, who started the Thunderbird project in February 2003. "I wish the Mozilla Corporation and the new Thunderbird Mail Corporation luck in their future endeavors," he added. Bienvenu posted a similar message on his blog Friday.

Mozilla did not respond to questions and a request for comment on the departure of the two developers, who led the largely volunteer effort.

In a blog posting of her own, Mozilla's CEO Mitchell Baker only alluded to losing McGregor and Bienvenu. As she retraced the decision to separate Thunderbird from the Firefox-centric work at Mozilla Corp., she said: "Two things became clear. We had the team for developing ... a stand-alone desktop email application. But we didn't have the complete set of people to address both that and the larger issues."

The second thing that became apparent, she said, was that Mozilla Corp. wouldn't be able to create the kind of e-mail/communication software that was needed by users.

Last month, Baker announced the spinoff, dubbed "MailCo" until a permanent name can be found, would be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, just as is the for-profit Mozilla Corp. The separation was the result of discussion within the latter, as well as public debate about Thunderbird's future that kicked off in July. Firefox, Baker said in July and repeated today, is Mozilla Corp.'s first and overriding priority, which left Thunderbird a stepchild at best.

"Firefox was at the center of a new wave of activity and a giant ecosystem," she said, referring to a period two years ago when Firefox share caught fire. "Through this Mozilla acquired a stronger voice for openness, innovation and participation on the web." But not Thunderbird. "Thunderbird is an excellent basis for thinking about these topics and improving Internet and web-based communications as a whole. But this wasn't happening, Baker said. "We weren't seeing Thunderbird develop the kind of community or influence in the industry that Firefox has."

The split was also ordained by Mozilla Corp.'s minimalistic approach to management, Baker claimed. To handle both Firefox and Thunderbird appropriately, the company would have needed to add another management layer. "We have managers and management in the Mozilla Foundation and Corporation, but generally we have as little as possible to get the job done."

Thunderbird users who read McGregor and Bienvenu's notices were supportive and disappointed simultaneously. Some wanted to know more. "Could you enable the verbose mode and tell us more about the reasons you and mscott are leaving MoCo despite the creation of a company dedicated to Thunderbird (aka 'MailCo')?" asked a user identified as LpSolit in a comment to Bienvenu's post. "Why so much mystery? All this generates is rumors ... and that's probably not good."

Others saw a possible nightmare in the making. "The way I see it, Mozilla is spinning off Thunderbird and tossing them a safe amount of money," said Joel. "They're safely removing all responsibility for the future of Thunderbird...and when MailCo flops they can shrug their shoulders and say market forces killed it."

McGregor and Bienvenu did not reply to e-mail messages requesting comment and/or an interview.

[Editor's Note: My thanks to Jon Bjerke for submitting this article for the newsletter.]

ToC

Amazon MP3 Takes on the iTunes Store

by Adam C. Engst <ace@tidbits.com> TidBITS#898/01-Oct-07
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9203>

Amazon.com has launched a public beta of Amazon MP3, a digital music store that provides DRM-free downloads of over 2 million songs from 180,000 artists and 20,000 labels. In comparison, Apple says the iTunes Store now contains over 6 million songs.

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/163856011>

According to Amazon's press release, most of Amazon MP3's songs are priced between $0.89 and $0.99, with more than 1 million songs in the current catalog available at $0.89, a full $0.40 less than Apple's iTunes Plus songs. Most albums in Amazon MP3 are priced between $5.99 and $9.99, again a bit cheaper than albums in the iTunes Store, which generally check in at $9.99.

<http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1055053>

All songs in Amazon MP3 are encoded at 256 Kbps, which is comparable to iTunes Plus songs, although in theory, the iTunes Plus AAC format could provide better quality than the MP3 format used by Amazon. Because Amazon is using MP3 and avoiding DRM entirely, songs purchased from Amazon MP3 are playable on any device, including the iPhone and iPods, along with Macs, PCs, and music players from other manufacturers.

Individual tracks can be purchased directly from a Web page, but to buy an album, you must first download and install the Amazon MP3 Downloader, available for both Mac OS X and Windows (a 615K download for the Mac version). Reportedly, a Linux version is in the works.

In my testing, the Amazon MP3 Downloader worked acceptably, but it was a distinctly clumsier experience than purchasing from iTunes. Clicking a Buy button on the Amazon Web site downloaded a document to my Desktop. I believe the Amazon MP3 Downloader was supposed to open it and download the actual song, but I had to double-click the file manually, likely because Amazon wasn't expecting that I'd be using a browser other than Safari (I generally rely on OmniWeb). Once opened in Amazon MP3 Downloader, the song was downloaded to an Amazon MP3 folder in the Music folder and then sent over to iTunes, which, at least for my setup, means that it was duplicated, since I keep my iTunes Music folder on a server for shared usage and copy music to that folder when adding it to my iTunes Library.

<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2007-09/Amazon-MP3-Downloader.png>

Songs I purchased were encoded at between 208 Kbps and 256 Kbps using variable bit-rate (VBR) encoding, and the free sample song was encoded at 280 Kbps VBR. Sound quality was certainly fine to my ears, though I'm no audio connoisseur. The metadata was complete and album artwork was either included or picked up automatically by iTunes.

Not Too Shabby

Amazon MP3 is the first online music store besides the iTunes Store that hasn't left me cold. Its advantages are very real:

I don't think Amazon MP3 will be putting the iTunes Store out of business by any stretch of the imagination. It's competitive, thanks to the lack of DRM, low prices, and ease of shopping, but it's clumsier than using iTunes, and everyone who has an iPod will be using iTunes anyway to sync music, so it's not as though Amazon can ever get as close to the iPod as Apple can. The good news is that by releasing an online music store that doesn't suck, Amazon has given Apple some real competition, and where there's competition, there's innovation.

Of course, the next question is if Amazon will translate these advantages in Amazon MP3 (no DRM, Mac-compatible, integrated with iTunes) to their Amazon Unbox video download service. Were that to happen, the iTunes Store would have significantly more competition.

ToC

Stop Preloading Windows, Business Think Tank Says

A European group says PCs and operating systems should be sold separately to boost competition.

James Niccolai, IDG News Service
Monday, September 24, 2007 06:00 AM PDT
<http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,137519/printable.html>

A pro-business think tank in Europe has recommended unbundling Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system from sales of new PCs in order to give customers more choice when buying a new computer.

A report from the Globalisation Institute in Brussels urges the European Commission to require that PCs and operating systems be sold separately in Europe to break Microsoft's monopoly in the desktop OS market.

"Microsoft's dominant position is not in the public interest. It limits the market and has slowed technical development to the prejudice of consumers," said the report.

The report is gaining attention partly because the Globalisation Institute usually advocates a hands-off approach to business regulation. It researches and develops policy options that are sometimes championed by politicians.

Its report comes one week after Europe's second-highest court turned down Microsoft's appeal of the European Commission's 2004 antitrust ruling against it, which fined Microsoft ,497 million (then around US$600 million) for abusing its OS monopoly.

That investigation focused on how Microsoft bundles its Media Player software with Windows, which the Commission said harmed competitors such as RealNetworks Inc. It also required Microsoft to publish communications protocols so that its rivals can make their server software work better with Windows clients.

The Globalization Institute said the Commission should take its thinking about Microsoft's OS to its "logical conclusion" and force PC makers to unbundle Windows from PCs as well.

The report does not mention recent moves by vendors such as Dell Inc., and Hewlett-Packard Co. in Australia, to offer Linux as an option with PCs sold online. Globalisation Institute President Alex Singleton called those offers "a token gesture."

"The fact is, when you go into a computer shop, the majority of consumers are not faced with a choice. Just because on the margins you are offered something else, I don't think those choices mean there is real competition."

In addition, the report argued, offering a choice of OS is not a practical option for retail stores, where floor space is limited. Therefore PCs should be sold separately from the OS.

"We do not believe this would add complexity for consumers. Consumers would simply be asked to insert an operating system DVD when they first turn on a new computer, which would then automatically configure itself," the report says.

Such competition exists in hardware, the report argues, with microprocessors and hard drives available from a choice of vendors. But when consumers walk into a store they generally have only one choice for an OS: Windows.

"The result is that consumers who, given the choice, would opt for a cheaper operating system, find themselves automatically buying the market leader."

The group sent its report to the office of the European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, Singleton said. Kroes led the Commission's antitrust case against Microsoft and has called the company's share of the desktop OS market "unacceptable."

Microsoft representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

[Editor's Note: My thanks to Jon Bjerke for submitting this article for the newsletter.]

ToC

The PC Section:

WinInfo Short Takes

Paul Thurrott
URL: <http://www.wininformant.com/>

Windows Live SkyDrive Gets a Minor Boost

And speaking of Windows Live services, Microsoft also launched another change I've been waiting to discuss, a doubling of the storage space on the Windows Live SkyDrive beta service from 512 MB to 1 GB. SkyDrive is Microsoft's cloud-based storage service, sort of a virtual USB drive that you can access from any Web browser. More is always better, of course, but what I'm really interested in seeing is how this service adapts in the future for paying customers--so that users can pay annually for more than 1 GB of storage--and interacts with other Windows Live services that involve online storage, such as Live Spaces and Live Hotmail. Additionally, Microsoft added a way for Windows Live users to share SkyDrive-based stored items with others, whether they're in their Hotmail or Messenger contacts list or not. Nice.

XP SP3 to be Final XP Service Pack

Microsoft this week expanded the Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) beta test pool to include those who are already testing Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows Server 2008. The big news, however, is that XP SP3 will be the final service pack for Microsoft's thorn-in-the-side predecessor to Vista. "As is standard practice for operating systems nearing the end of their sales period, Microsoft will be releasing a final Service Pack for Windows XP in the first half of 2008," a note to new testers this week reads. Note that Microsoft hasn't actually revved the XP SP3 beta: This is the same code that originally shipped previously as the initial SP3 beta.

The Great IE 7 WGA Controvery

Just about a year after it unleashed the browser, Microsoft this week announced a change in the way it will distribute Internet Explorer (IE) 7. Now, the company will no longer require users to undergo the onerous Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) piracy-check to get the browser, in order "to make it available as broadly as possible to all Windows users." So here's a gut check question: Do you believe Microsoft is doing this to make users safer--IE 7 is, after all far more secure than previous IE versions--or do you think the company is baldfacedly going after market share? Normally, I enjoy the conspiracy thing as much as anyone, but I have to go with the former on this one: IE 7 is already responsible for almost 30 percent of all Web browsing traffic worldwide, and is running at over twice the usage rate of Mozilla Firefox, despite its short time on the market. But really, that's not the important point. I have a hard time believing that Microsoft would sacrifice its anti-piracy stance to gain a few Web browser users. IE 7 is simply a better and safer browser than IE 6.

Microsoft to Keep XP in the Wild an Additional Five Months

Microsoft this week announced that it would allow PC makers to continue selling Windows XP until mid-2008, a five month extension of the previous agreement, which would have seen XP disappear from new PCs starting in January. The company noted that they were, perhaps, "a little ambitious" in their original plan to phase out XP so quickly after Vista's launch this past January. Typically, Microsoft stops shipping older OSes to PC makers four years after they are launched, but because Vista took so long to come to market, they were forced to temporarily extend their limit for XP. I wouldn't look at this as particularly bad news for Vista as some have done: The company is still selling tens of millions of copies of the new OS each month, and my guess is that whatever interest there still is in XP is mostly vestigial. Still, it's a bit funny that Vista's only real competition in the market is its predecessor.

ToC

Creative Element Power Tools

-Kevin Hisel

One of the problems users (and those who support them) of Windows XP had was messed up file associations due to misuse of the XP file association editor. The editor included with XP allowed the user to change many advanced settings and if the user wasn't sure of what he or she was doing, things could get messed up pretty badly. Microsoft's answer to this problem was to simply pull the editor from Vista and replace it with very simple application that only allows you to create and change primary associations.

Well, this bugged me so I went looking for an app that would replace the file association editor missing from Vista. What I found was a lot more.

Enter Creative Element Power Tools. If you are pining for a "Power Toys" for Vista, you really should check out Power Tools. Besides what appears to be a complete replacement for the file type associations editor (they call it "File Type Doctor") Power Tools includes a ton of clever and useful add-ons for your Vista, XP, Server 2003, Win 2K or Win ME system.

Most of these add-ons are used with Windows Explorer (not IE, the file browser) and are accessed via the context menus.

Here is a list of what all is included in Power Tools (from the manufacturer's web site at <http://www.creativelement.com/powertools/>).

Control Panel

File Tools

Internet Tools

Search Tools

Folder Tools

File Dialog Tools

Interface Tools

In addition to the specific tools designed to improve productivity throughout Windows, there are several features you'll find in all parts of Creative Element Power Tools. All your settings are saved so you don't have to type them in every time. All dialogs and windows remember their size and position, so you don't have to move and resize them every time you open them. And most windows in Creative Element Power Tools are resizable, so you're not stuck with tiny windows on a big screen or huge windows on a small screen. In short, every part of the package is designed with care to be as useful and efficient as possible, without the annoyances found in so many other products.

Unlike most of the programs I review for the newsletter, this one is not free, but the price is still pretty good. Registration (required after a 45-day trial period) is only $18. Additional computers are only $5 each after the initial registration.

Support is great. I sent a an e-mail with a minor issue I noticed as it relates to file association in WMP and within a few hours, they sent me a new version of the software that fixed the bug. Now that's service.

Get your own 45-day trial copy of Power Tools here: <http://www.creativelement.com/powertools/>

ToC

Windows Home Server Hits the Channel

Paul Thurrott
URL: <http://tinyurl.com/2tvaqf>

Microsoft's long-awaited Windows Home Server may not be available via new home server hardware yet, but it is now available for less than $200 to those who like to install the software on their own machines. So-called OEM software versions of Windows Home Server are now available to enthusiasts from such US-based online retailers as Buy.com and Newegg.com. The software version is also available in Australia and New Zealand, according to reports, and will soon become available in Europe as well.

OEM software versions are supposed to be sold only to original equipment manufacturers, which for the Windows Home Server market are typically small systems builders. But Microsoft isn't actively preventing any individuals from purchasing the software, though it would prefer that typical consumers stick with a prebuilt Windows Home Server. Those machines are expected to sell for $500 and up in the weeks ahead.

Those looking for the software version of Windows Home Server should shop around. While Newegg.com is selling the product for $189.99, Buy.com is undercutting that price and selling it for $177.99. I will be reviewing Windows Home Server soon on the SuperSite for Windows, but I've already posted a number of screenshots of the installation and configuration experiences.

ToC

October Set of Fixes Available for Vista

Paul Thurrott
URL: <http://tinyurl.com/2q2m6n>

In my recently published article, "Inside Windows Vista Service Pack 1," I revealed that Microsoft was preparing a second wave of performance and reliability fixes for its latest client operating systems. This week, the company made those fixes available in four separate updates, and Microsoft tells me that it will soon deploy them via Windows Update, as it did with a similar set of fixes from August.

The four patches, which are currently available as manual downloads from Microsoft's Web site, address a wide range of issues. These include fixes to Vista's core USB components, Media Center, and Windows Media Center 11. The fourth fix generally addresses "compatibility, reliability, and stability" issues with the new OS. (See download URLs below.) While the software giant calls the updates incremental and subtle, they make some interesting changes to the OS: Startup and sleep time is reduced, battery life is extended for portable machines, and wireless connections are made more reliable.

While Microsoft plans to roll these fixes in Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), they are not available in the current beta version of that update, but will rather ship in a future beta release. Vista customers who are experiencing compatibility, reliability, and stability issues should consider downloading these updates.

Vista Updates (Microsoft)

October 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941229>

Cumulative update rollup for USB core components in Windows Vista
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941600>

Update to improve the compatibility, reliability, and stability of Windows Vista
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941649>

Update for Windows Media Player 11 in Windows Vista (32-bit)
<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=82738f1a-eea4-4bbe-b3b8-fa25e4faff81&DisplayLang=en>

Update for Windows Media Player 11 in Windows Vista (64-bit)
<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bba3d78a-cb21-44d6-bb04-1e39ebdf46da&DisplayLang=en>

ToC

Windows XP SP3 to Include Some Vista Features

A Web site that leaked details of Windows XP Service Pack 3 claims that the update includes several new features, including some borrowed from Windows Vista.

Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
URL:<http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,138251-pg,1/article.html>

A Web site that leaked details of Windows XP Service Pack 3 over the weekend claimed that the update includes several new features, including some borrowed from Windows Vista.

According to NeoSmart Technologies, Windows XP SP3 build 3205, which was released to beta testers on Sunday, includes four new features among the 1,000-plus individual hot fixes and patches that have been issued since XP2's debut three years ago.

Features backported from Vista, said NeoSmart, include Network Access Protection (NAP), an enterprise policy enforcement technology that inspects client PCs before they access a corporate network, then updates the machines if necessary or blocks them if they don't meet specified security criteria.

Other additions range from a kernel module containing several encryption algorithms that can be accessed by third-party developers, to a new Windows activation model that doesn't require users to enter a product key.

Microsoft had previously announced SP3 support for NAP, which is part of Windows Vista and will be included in the not-yet-finalized Windows Server 2008.

Windows XP SP3, which Microsoft has said will be released early in 2008, will be one more move by the developer to extend the lifespan of the six-year-old operating system. Last month, for example, Microsoft gave Windows XP a five-month reprieve by pushing back the end of retail sales and sales of XP-powered PCs by large resellers to June 30, 2008.

And last week, Microsoft debuted a new "get-legal" program that lets companies purchase large quantities of Windows XP Professional licenses through their usual resellers.

Microsoft was not immediately available for comment on the leak, or the new features touted by NeoSmart.

ToC

[Editor's Note: My thanks to Kevin Hisel for submitting all the preceding articles in this section of the newsletter. Thanks to Jon Bjerke for all the following articles in the PC Section.]

ToC

Zero-day flaw hits Windows XP

Posted by Sumeeth Evans on September 19 2007, 11:21 AM
<http://bink.nu/news/zero-day-flaw-hits-windows-xp.aspx>

A new zero-day flaw has been reported in a system component of Microsoft's Windows XP. Experts warned that, depending on the way in which the attack is conducted, the flaw could allow an attacker to execute code on a target system.

The vulnerability lies in two Windows components known as MFC42 and MFC71 which are part of the Windows API that is used by virtually all Windows applications to communicate with the operating system.

When the user opens a document that calls on the function, a condition could be created that leads to a crash and potentially allows an attacker to run malicious code on a user's system, according to Secunia. There is currently no fix for the vulnerability, although Secunia said that the only applications known to access the components are HP's Photo & Imaging Gallery 1.1 and version 2.1 of the software/driver installer for HP's All-In-One series.

Secunia credited the discovery of the flaw to researcher Jonathan Sarba of the GoodFellas Security Research Team. The group claimed to have notified Microsoft about the flaw on 21 June, but that it was not until earlier this month that the company acknowledged that it was working on a fix.

ToC

A second attempt at making Applesauce: Microsoft launches new Zunes

By Nate Anderson | Published: October 03, 2007 - 01:14AM CT
URL: <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071003-asecond-attempt-at-making-applesauce-microsoft-launches-new-zunes.html>

The new Zunes are here, and none of them are brown.

Microsoft officially announced a new batch of Zunes last night, adding a high-end 80GB hard drive model and 4GB and 8GB flash models. The company has clearly been listening to its customers; the new feature set reads like a laundry list of user requests.

And in a welcome decision, all of the improvements will also be coming to the original, 30GB Zune that we reviewed last year via a firmware update. Owners of the original version will soon have all the functionality of the newer devices (look for the firmware update in November). Classy move, Microsoft.

The 80GB version comes only in black, while the flash versions will be available in pink, red, black, and green.

A new "Zune Social" community site also offers users the chance to create "Zune Cards" that will let friends see what others are listening to and what their favorite songs are. The Card will eventually be available as a standalone widget that can be dropped into user pages on most popular social networking sites.

Assuming the device works as well in the hand as it looks on the page, this could be quite a tasty upgrade. Wireless syncing of your music collection might not be a big deal to most users (how many people add new music to their players even once a week?), but when that syncing now handles your favorite podcasts and all the TV shows recorded by Windows Media Center, it gets more interesting. Being able to do it all from any room in the house is hot enough to have several members of the Orbiting HQ casting lustful glances at the new devices.

We'll bring you a full review once the Zunes are released into the wild in November. Stay tuned later today for more in-depth Ars coverage of the Zune launch.

Related Link:

Zune 2 Preview - Paul Thurrott, October 2, 2007
- <http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/zune2_preview.asp>

ToC

Security Researchers Look Beyond Vista

The improved security in Microsoft's newest software products may leave some security researchers looking elsewhere for work.

Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service
Tuesday, October 02, 2007 3:00 PM PDT
<http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,137990-c,industrynews/article.html>

The improved security in Microsoft Corp.'s newest software products may leave some security researchers looking elsewhere for work.

That was the message that some security professionals took away from BlueHat, an event last week on Microsoft's campus that allows security researchers to mingle with Microsoft developers.

"One of the messages we got was to look in the future for [our products] to not be so successful," said Pedram Amini, manager of security research at 3Com Corp.'s Tipping Point division. That's because Microsoft is applying a lot of the technologies used by security researchers in house, making the third-party techniques not as effective, he said.

For example, he said that Microsoft Office has been susceptible to fault by fuzzing, an automated technique for finding software faults when access to the code isn't available. But Microsoft has recently put more effort into using fuzzing itself, so now third-party fuzzing technologies are unlikely to be as necessary for Office 2007.

One well-known researcher who goes by the name Halvar Flake called Vista "arguably the most secure closed-source OS available on the market," in a blog post about BlueHat. "As a result I think that most of the security researchers will move on to greener pastures for a while. Why try to chase a difficult overflow out of Vista when you have Acrobat Reader installed, some antivirus software with shoddy file parsing, and the latest iTunes?"

But the security researchers don't expect to have time on their hands just because Vista and Office 2007 are more secure than their predecessors. "It's not like our industry is done now," said Dan Kaminksy, director of penetration testing services for IOActive Inc. He pointed to weaknesses in Web-based services and technologies like virtualization.

Others agreed. "There's always something that can be improved on," Amini said. Some researcher will come up with a new approach to bug hunting or they'll focus on different technologies, he said.

While the advent of the first BlueHat event in 2005 marked a shift at Microsoft to become more open to the security research community, this BlueHat, only the second since the release of Vista, reflected another shift, Kaminsky said.

He has seen a change in Microsoft toward considering security as an engineering problem. "If you look at security as an engineering problem, then the message from the security researchers stops being 'you bad horrible people, you write bad code,' and starts becoming 'here are changes in the engineering landscape that you need to be aware of,'" he said.

That attitude change was apparent at the conference last week, he said. At some earlier BlueHat's, there was some antagonism among the researchers and Microsoft employees. Kaminsky remembers a presentation at the first event that took Microsoft to task for learning about certain bugs in one piece of software and then failing to prevent the same bugs in different applications. He didn't see those types of presentations this time.

Neither did Amini. "Everyone appreciated what everyone else is doing," he said.

BlueHat typically happens twice a year and Microsoft does not allow members of the press to attend.

ToC

[Editor's Note: From here on down are a couple three articles I encountered that I thought might interest you PC guys.]

ToC

Lemme put it to you this way: Win32/Virut

[Editor's Note: This is from a friend of mine "in the know."]

If your virus scanner tells you you are infected with Win32/Virut, save yourself a lot of hassle. Just reformat and reinstall.

Without a doubt the nastiest and most virulent piece of crap I have ever seen. It infects every .exe on the hard drive with 9Kb on the front that executes the bot. Another way to tell if you have it is if you all of a sudden, You start getting the domain-style login.

It's some sort of IRCBot, either spam or DDoS. Connects to an IRC server with a .pl domain. Don't screw around. Don't plug anything into the computer, like a flash drive. They get automagically infected as well. Just nuke and reinstall. Consider every .exe or .scr file infected. The first directory it goes after is win32.

ToC

Microsoft confirms stealth WU update mucks up XP restore

September 28, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Microsoft Corp. today confirmed that Windows XP users who repair the operating system cannot update their PCs with the latest patches because of a file included with the stealth update pushed out to machines this summer.

<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9039681>

ToC

The XP alternative for Vista PCs

By Ina Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Story last modified Fri Sep 21 15:53:32 PDT 2007
<http://www.news.com/The-XP-alternative-for-Vista-PCs/2100-1016_3-6209481.html>

While Microsoft is still pushing Vista hard, the company is quietly allowing PC makers to offer a "downgrade" option to buyers that get machines with the new operating system but want to switch to Windows XP.

The program applies only to Windows Vista Business and Ultimate versions, and it is up to PC makers to decide how, if at all, they want to make XP available. Fujitsu has been among the most aggressive, starting last month to include an XP disc in the box with its laptops and tablets.

"That's going to help out small- and medium-size businesses," Fujitsu marketing manager Brandon Farris told CNET News.com.

Hewlett-Packard also started a program in August for many of its business models. "For business desktops, workstations and select business notebooks and tablet PCs, customers can configure their systems to include the XP Pro restore disc for little or no charge," HP spokeswoman Tiffany Smith said in an e-mail. She said it was too soon to gauge how high customer interest has been. "Since we've only been offering (it) for about a month, we don't really have anything to share on demand."

A Microsoft representative confirmed there were changes made over the summer to make it easier for customers to downgrade to XP. Under Microsoft's licensing terms for Vista, buyers of Vista Business and Vista Ultimate Edition have always had the right to downgrade to XP, but in practice this could be challenging. In June, Microsoft changed its practices to allow computer makers that sell pre-activated Vista machines to order Windows XP discs that could be included inside the box with PCs, or shipped to customers without requiring additional activation. Microsoft noted in a statement that neither it nor the PC makers are "obligated to supply earlier versions to end users under the end user licensing terms."

While there is always resistance by some to move to a new operating system, there appears to be particularly strong demand, especially from businesses, to stick with XP.

One of the challenges, for both businesses and consumers are Vista's hefty graphics and memory needs.

Lenovo, for its part, has details for its downgrade program on its IBM ThinkPad Web site.

<http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/VSTA-DWNGRD.html>

Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden said Dell has been offering businesses that have a Premier Page set up the option to order systems with XP, Vista or Vista with XP downgrade rights. There is no extra charge for the downgrade rights.

"We've been offering it and we're still offering it," she said.

HP, Gateway and others also still sell machines with XP on them, nearly a year after Microsoft first started offering Vista to businesses. Vista went on sale broadly to consumers in January, at which point XP largely disappeared from retail shelves.

<http://www.news.com//Limited-choices-for-Windows-XP-holdouts/2100-1016_3-6161250.html>

However, demand for XP has remained. In April, Dell brought XP back as an option even on consumer PCs.

<http://www.news.com//Dell-brings-back-XP-on-home-systems/2100-1046_3-6177619.html>

There is an issue, though, over how long PC makers can keep selling machines with Windows XP as the preloaded operating system. Microsoft is requiring large PC makers to stop selling XP-based systems as of January 31, though some PC makers would like to sell XP machines for longer.

<http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx>

"We're all lobbying for it," Farris said.

ToC

The Linux Section:

Google looks like mobile Linux break-out

Posted by Dana Blankenhorn @ 6:53 am, October 12th, 2007
URL: <http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1536&tag=nl.e589>

Like Patton cutting across France, Google looks set to give mobile Linux its worldwide breakout with its GPhone announcement, now expected on November 5.

After parsing through all the stories and speculation, it seems Google will announce a mobile Linux reference platform, an initial manufacturer, and an advertising-driven business model for mobile services. Each one of those steps could spark a revolution:

This is bigger deal than the Apple iPhone because of its direct challenge to carrier power. Apple eventually chose to work with one U.S. carrier, AT&T, with the kind of proprietary design such carriers prefer, while Google will offer an open design and an alternative to the present carrier business model.

While the iPhone has a great interface, but mainly offered Web 1.0 applications, the GPhone will focus on Web 2.0 applications from the start, integrating mapping, email, and search services in its design. The iPhone was a phone with data applications, the GPhone will be an Internet link with voice services.

[Editor's Note: My thanks to Jon Bjerke for submitting this article for the newsletter.]

ToC

Mandriva Linux 2008 now available

The result of six months of heavy development and testing, 2008 includes all the latest software and many enhancements over previous Mandriva Linux releases. You will find KDE 3.5.7 and the new GNOME 2.20 already integrated, a solid kernel 2.6.22.9 with fair scheduling support, OpenOffice.org 2.2.1, cutting-edge 3D-accelerated desktop.

<http://blog.mandriva.com/2007/10/09/mandriva-linux-2008-now-available/>

ToC

The Macintosh Section:

Leopard Slated for October 26th?

by Adam C. Engst <ace@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#899/08-Oct-07
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9219>

The first question I was asked last week when speaking to the Oneonta Macintosh Users Group was, "When is Leopard coming out?" After I finished explaining that I had no inside information and that the terms of my NDA would have prevented me from saying if I did, I revealed our internal speculation: October 26th, 2007.

When Apple missed its "first half of 2007" promised ship date for Leopard, reportedly due to shifting development resources to the iPhone, the date was reset for October (see "The Mystery of the Leopard Ship Date: Solved," 2007-04-16). Obviously, we're in October now, and if Apple remains true to form, they'll release on a Friday night. That narrows it to the 12th, 18th, or 26th. But which Friday?

<http://db.tidbits.com/article/8952>

With Panther, which shipped on 24-Oct-03 (the same day we launched Take Control Books with "Take Control of Upgrading to Panther" - see "Do You Want to Take Control?," 2003-10-20), Apple foreshadowed the release roughly two weeks before with an announcement on 08-Oct-03. In 2005, Apple announced Tiger on 12-Apr-05, and roughly two weeks later shipped it on 29-Apr-05. If Apple were to announce Leopard this week, probably on the 9th or 10th, that leaves roughly two weeks before the 26th, fitting the pattern perfectly.

<http://db.tidbits.com/article/7405>

Of course, this all assumes that Leopard is ready to be released from its Cupertino cage. No one can comment on that without violating NDA, but it's important to remember that even after Apple declares a particular build the golden master and releases it to manufacturing (after which it must be distributed worldwide), Apple's programmers will be hard at work stamping out bugs that weren't considered show-stoppers. It's almost certain that 10.5.1 will appear within a few weeks of Leopard's eventual release. With Panther, 10.3.1 appeared on 10-Nov-03, a bit more than two weeks after the initial release. And Tiger's 10.4.1 appeared on 16-May-05, again, just slightly over two weeks after Tiger was unveiled to the public. So I think we can expect 10.5.1 in the middle of November, meaning that if you don't want to be on the bleeding edge, just wait a couple of weeks.

Apple could also change gears entirely - we were all expecting iLife '08 to appear at Macworld Expo SF in January 2007, and when it failed to materialize, the best guess was that it was tied to Leopard's release in some key way. Given the August 2007 release of iLife '08, that speculation didn't pan out. Plus, Apple has taken to invitation-only press events for unveiling new products, so it's conceivable that there's a postcard in the mail right now.

But my bet is still on October 26th, and if you want to get Leopard as quickly as possible without actually waiting in line at an Apple Store, the easiest approach is probably to pre-order either a single-user copy for $129 or a five-user family pack for $199 from Amazon.com. Oh, and Amazon's estimated ship date? October 31st. Spooky, eh?

<http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Mac-Version-10-5-Leopard/dp/B000FK88JK/tidbitselectro00/>
<http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Version-10-5-Leopard-Family/dp/B000BR0NPO/tidbitselectro00/>

ToC

Apple iPhone warning proves true

BBC NEWS, Published: 2007/09/28 09:38:08 GMT
URL: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/7017660.stm>

An Apple software update is disabling iPhones that have been unlocked by owners who wanted to choose which mobile network to use.

Earlier this week Apple said a planned update would leave the device "permanently inoperable".

Thousands of iPhone owners hacked their expensive gadget in order to unlock it for use with other mobile carriers and to run a host of unsupported programs.

There are also reports of the update causing issues with unaltered iPhones.

On Monday Apple issued a statement in which it said many of the unauthorised iPhone unlocking programs caused "irreparable damage" to the device's software.

The company said this would "likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed".

That warning has now proved correct as many owners are reporting their phones no longer work following installation of the update.

Apple requires iPhone owners to take out a lengthy contract with AT&T in the United States but there are a number of programs on the net that unlock the device for use with other networks.

Some owners are reporting on technology blogs and Apple's own forums that the update is deleting contacts information, as well as photos and music, on iPhones that have not been modified in any way.

ToC

MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.0 Enables Journaling

by Jeff Carlson <jeffc@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#898/01-Oct-07
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9202>

If you own one of Apple's latest laptops, your version of Mac OS X may not have shipped with journaling turned on (you can check by launching Disk Utility, selecting your boot volume name, and looking at the Format line in the disk information area at the bottom of the window). Journaling is a system-level feature that causes the system to log all disk changes in order to prevent data loss in the event of a crash or power outage. (When you erase a Mac volume under Panther or Tiger, the recommended option is to format it as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".) To remedy this situation, Apple has released MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.0, a 200K download that applies to MacBook (13-inch Mid 2007) and MacBook Pro (2.2/2.4 GHz Mid 2007) models. After you install the update, Apple recommends running Disk Utility from another startup disk (such as the Mac OS X Install or Restore disc) and performing a disk verification.

<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107249>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macbookmacbookprosoftwareupdate10.html>
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306442>

ToC

iLife '08 Updated, iMovie Improved

by Jeff Carlson <jeffc@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#898/01-Oct-07
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9213>

Apple released updates for iLife '08 last week, fixing bugs in most of the applications but also significantly addressing some of iMovie's shortfalls (see "A Few Important iMovie '08 Notes," 2007-09-07). The updates are available via Software Update or as stand-alone downloads; they all require iLife Support 8.1 (7 MB download), which updates shared components.

<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9111>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/ilifesupport81.html>

Some of the changes in iMovie 7.1 (44.6 MB download) restore features from iMovie HD 6 that didn't cross over to the new iMovie 7 (which was created from scratch). It can now create still frames from video, select multiple clips, set a custom duration for audio fades, and perform frame-level trimming. Other improvements simply make sense, such as changing the duration of still photos or transitions without going into the Preferences dialog, controlling the level of ducking (dropping the audio volume to make way for other overlapping audio), and displaying the current playhead time when Playhead Info is activated. Apple also claims performance improvements when switching between iMovie Events.

<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovie71.html>

iMovie 7.1 also restores timecode to the application. Previously, footage was referred to only in increments of tenths of a second, which I suppose is more comprehensible to video editing novices and also seems to be the approach favored by tapeless camcorders that record to memory cards or internal hard disks. But the rest of the video world uses timecode, which expresses footage as minutes:seconds:frames, with each second comprising 30 frames for NTSC video or 25 frames for PAL video. A new Display Timecodes setting in Preferences activates the feature.

In terms of the other iLife '08 applications, iPhoto 7.1 (59.3 MB update) fixes issues with stability and moving photos between events, and adds new greeting card themes in anticipation of the holiday season. iDVD 7.0.1 (18.6 MB download) appears to be just a bug-fix update. GarageBand 4.1 (46.1 MB download) addresses problems with third-party audio software, display issues, and the Magic GarageBand feature. iWeb 2.0.2 (17 MB download) addresses upgrading iWeb 1.x sites and fixes "some common publishing problems."

<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/iphoto71.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/idvd701.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/garageband41.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/iweb202.html>

ToC

Apple Updates iWork '08 and Core 2 Duo Mac Firmware

by Jeff Carlson <jeffc@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#898/01-Oct-07
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9211>

Continuing its recent update spree, Apple released incremental versions of Keynote, Pages, and Numbers (collectively iWork '08), as well as firmware revisions for Intel-based Macs. The updates are available via Software Update or as stand-alone downloads. Unsurprisingly, the company doesn't offer much detail about what's changed other than performance improvements: Keynote 4.0.1 (31.1 MB download) also addresses issues with builds; Pages 3.0.1 (27.8 MB download) updates the change tracking feature; and Numbers 1.0.1 (26.1 MB download) addresses issues with tables.

<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/keynote401.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/pages301.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/numbers101.html>

The EFI firmware updates "improve the performance and reliability of Intel Core 2 Duo processors and fix issues with Boot Camp" and are available for iMac (3.9 MB), Mac Pro (2.8 MB), MacBook (1.7 MB), MacBook Pro (2.8 MB), and Xserve (1.5 MB) computers. Each installs an application in the Utilities folder (which is located in the Applications folder) that will update the firmware. Remember that doing so can lead to a dead computer if something goes wrong, so be sure you have a backup of your data; downloading Apple's Firmware Restoration CD 4.1 utility and making a disc from it isn't a bad idea either (although I had no trouble on my MacBook Pro).

<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imacefifirmwareupdate12.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macproefifirmwareupdate12.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macbookefifirmwareupdate11.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macbookproefifirmwareupdate14.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/xserveefifirmwareupdate10.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/firmwarerestorationcd14.html>

ToC

Inching Towards Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac

by Glenn Fleishman <glenn@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#898/01-Oct-07
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9205>

Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) has announced the shipping date, pricing, and upgrade path for the next major revision of Office for Mac. The now appropriately named Office 2008 will ship 15-Jan-08 for prices ranging from $149.95 to $499.95, depending on version. The standard package of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage - including Exchange Server support - will list for $399.95, with an upgrade costing $239.95.

<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/go/promotions/>

The Home and Student Edition includes just the four core applications and runs $149.95; there is no upgrade pricing. This is the first time Microsoft has advertised a plain version of Office intended for the home, too, as opposed to a student edition that educators, academic staff, students, and parents of students could purchase.

The Home and Student Edition may be intended to put Office up against Apple's $79 iWork suite, which now competes head-to-head with Office in word processing (Pages versus Word), presentation (Keynote versus PowerPoint), and spreadsheet capabilities (Numbers versus Excel). Although Office also comes with Entourage for email, contacts, and calendaring, those functions are built into Mac OS X in the form of Mail, Address Book, and iCal.

A Special Media Edition ($499.95 full version, $299.95 for the upgrade) adds the digital asset management tool Expression Media, Microsoft's rebranding of iView MediaPro, acquired last year (see "Microsoft Buys iView Multimedia," 2006-07-03).

<http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/overview.aspx?key=media>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/8585>

If you purchase any edition of Office 2004 for Mac starting 25-Sep-07, you qualify for a $10-plus-tax upgrade to Office 2008's comparable version. This is an attempt by the MacBU to avoid sales being cannibalized by the announcement of the next release's shipping date.

The press release that accompanied the announcements says that upgrade pricing is available for any "legally licensed users of previous versions," which we have confirmed includes owners of versions of Office before Office 2004.

Office 2008 will look and work in a manner that's somewhat different from Office 2004, much in the way that Office 2007 for Windows broke the previous mold. Reviews of Office for Windows said that while the new approach wasn't necessarily worse, it wasn't better, either, and required relearning everything one ever did in Office for Windows. The revision to Office for Mac seems less severe, but we'll see if the release version still induces learning-curve vertigo.

ToC

Seagate Hybrid Hard Drives Not Mac-Compatible

by Adam C. Engst <ace@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#900/15-Oct-07
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9229>

Seagate Technology has released the new Momentus 5400 PSD hard drive, the first "hybrid hard drive" that puts 256 MB of non-volatile flash RAM in a 2.5-inch notebook hard drive to improve boot time and overall performance, reduce power consumption, and increase reliability. In essence, the flash memory serves as a large cache that can serve out commonly accessed data, enabling the drive to spin down more frequently and providing that data more quickly than it could be read from the disk platter. Because the drive spends less time spinning, power consumption drops, and because the drive is far less likely to be damaged while spun down, reliability increases at the same time. (Put another way, not using the drive makes it more efficient and more reliable - what a concept!)

<http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?&vgnextoid=f9be1194e3085110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD>

Seagate's press release received quite a bit of play in the Mac press, but I'm sorry to say that there's absolutely no point in buying one for your MacBook Pro just yet. I confirmed with Mike Hall of Seagate that explicit operating system support is required for all the benefits of a hybrid hard drive, and the only operating system that provides such support right now is Windows Vista. Mike did say that Seagate hopes to increase the number of operating systems that support the Momentus 5400 PSD, but he didn't know of any support in the works from Apple. If you were to install one of these drives in a Mac now, Mike said it would work just like any other normal hard drive. And since the Momentus 5400 PSD drives are likely to be more expensive than normal drives, you should save your money.

That said, it's likely that we'll see a refresh of Apple's laptops in the next few months, and perhaps also the Mac mini and the Apple TV, all of which use 2.5-inch hard drives. It would be entirely within character for Apple to add hybrid hard drive support to Leopard, and to include the Momentus 5400 PSD in laptops as a way of increasing battery life and in the Mac mini and Apple TV to reduce power consumption and noise.

I think we'll be seeing more of this melding of solid-state storage with spinning-disk storage trend. Flash RAM prices continue to drop, with 16 GB Compact Flash cards as low as $128 and 8 GB SDHC cards at $65. I don't know how comparable those prices are to what's being used in the Momentus drives, since the 256 MB flash RAM that Seagate's using may be faster and thus more expensive than consumer-level cards, but Seagate can also undoubtedly reduce costs significantly by buying in quantity. If operating system support for hybrid hard drives becomes widely available, putting some flash RAM in a hard drive would seem like an easy win for everyone.

ToC

Battery Update 1.3 Addresses MacBook Pro Power

by Jeff Carlson <jeffc@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#899/08-Oct-07
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9224>

Apple last week released Battery Update 1.3, a 480K download that addresses unspecified battery performance issues with 15-inch MacBook Pro models (that includes the original MacBook Pro, the 15-inch Glossy model, the Late 2006 model, and the Mid 2007 2.4/2.2 GHz revision). Once the update has been applied to the currently installed battery, other batteries will be updated when inserted, at startup, or after waking from sleep. The update requires Mac OS X 10.4.10 or later.

<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305540>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/batteryupdate13.html>

ToC

OWC Ships 802.11n Adapters for Older Macs

by Glenn Fleishman <glenn@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#897/24-Sep-07
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9193>

On the heels of recent 802.11g and 802.11n add-ons from QuickerTek (see "QuickerTek Expands Inexpensive Wi-Fi Options for Mac Users," 2007-08-30), Other World Computing has introduced three $67.99 adapters that bring 802.11n to Macs that lack built-in 802.11n chipsets. The adapters include a USB dongle, a PCI/PCI-X card, and a CardBus card. All three require Mac OS X 10.3 or later or Windows XP or 2000 and later, including Vista.

<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9146>
<http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/wireless/>

The USB dongle will work with any PowerPC G3/G4/G5- or Intel-based Mac that can run Mac OS X 10.3 or later. The PCI/PCI-X card will work only with appropriately equipped Power Mac models, and the CardBus card only with PowerBooks.

The 802.11n standard provides a much greater coverage area and range than its predecessor, 802.11g. Apple added 802.11n into most of its products in late 2006, and provided the enabling software along with a new base station in February 2007. But some current and all older Macs have only built-in 802.11b or 802.11g adapters.

The Other World Computing and QuickerTek 802.11n adapters work only in the 2.4 GHz range, a relatively crowded slice of spectrum that is full of existing Wi-Fi networks, in which Bluetooth hops around, and in which other uses abound. Apple's own adapters work in the 5 GHz range as well, which has fewer current users and usages, and nearly eight times as much available spectrum.

Other World's adapters differ from gear from both Apple and QuickerTek in that they allow the use of so-called wide channels in 2.4 GHz, which is a bit controversial. A regular Wi-Fi channel uses about 20 MHz of spectrum. With 802.11g, it can reach a raw data rate of 54 Mbps, and with 802.11n, about 150 Mbps; that translates to about 25 Mbps and 70 Mbps of real throughput in ideal cases.

Wide channels use 40 MHz, the equivalent of two channels, and double the raw rate to 300 Mbps, achieving rates in my testing of up to 140 Mbps in the 5 GHz band. Apple allows wide channels only in 5 GHz, where it supports 8 of 23 possible channel choices (with more to come, I believe). With only 3 non-overlapping channels in 2.4 GHz, due to the way in which channels are assigned, a wide channel has the potential to step on more networks that might be operating in the same space.

Part of the delay in 802.11n's finalization continues to be defining the rules that keep 802.11n from being a bad neighbor. When 40 MHz channels are in use, 802.11n is supposed to back down to 20 MHz whenever it senses any network activity in the wider range. In practice, that's still being sorted out.

Other World's gear should work just fine with Apple's AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n (the latest version released just last month with gigabit Ethernet; see "AirPort Base Station Upgraded to Gigabit Ethernet," 2007-08-13), but it won't achieve its highest possible speeds unless used with another base station that offers wide channels in 2.4 GHz.

<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9110>

ToC

Confusion Over Santa Rosa: What's in a Name?

by Simon C. Leemann <leemann@phys.ethz.ch>
TidBITS#897/24-Sep-07
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9191>

The latest batch of iMacs and MacBook Pros have been called "Santa Rosa" by many, and even publications like Macworld and Ars Technica have gone so far as to claim the new iMacs and MacBook Pros "use the Santa Rosa chipset."

<http://www.macworld.com/2007/06/reviews/macbookprorev/>
<http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/aluminum-and-glass-a-review-of-the-new-imac.ars>

This has become a widespread notion and the moniker "Santa Rosa" was quickly adopted to distinguish the latest iMacs and MacBook Pros from their predecessors. Unfortunately, it is simply wrong, and wrong in two ways. Firstly, Santa Rosa is not a chipset, but rather Intel's code name for their most recent mobile computing platform. And secondly, although these new Macs use one of the same chipsets Intel requires for the Santa Rosa platform, they are not part of the platform.

The latest Intel Centrino mobile platform has been given the code name Santa Rosa. Intel has detailed which components are required for a computer to belong to the Santa Rosa platform and hence receive the Centrino badge.

<http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20060307corp_b.htm>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrino#Santa_Rosa_platform_.282007.29>

The main requirements for Santa Rosa are:

Santa Rosa describes the overall platform, which uses a Crestline chipset. There is no such thing as a Santa Rosa chipset. This is the first mistake.

Now let's take a look at the second mistake. For the CPUs on the new iMacs and MacBook Pros, Apple has chosen the Intel Core 2 Duo T7x00 series (or the Core 2 Extreme X7900 Merom XE, in the case of the 2.8 GHz iMac).

<http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html>
<http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html>

The chipset Apple is using is indeed the Intel Mobile PM965 Express chipset ("Crestline"). It runs an 800 MT/s front-side bus (that's megatransfers per second, which is technically more accurate than the commonly stated megahertz), supports DDR2-667 SDRAM, and comes with the Intel ICH8M southbridge (also known as an I/O Controller Hub). Crestline also supports NAND flash-memory caching technology (code-named "Robson") marketed under the name "Intel Turbo Memory," but this is not an explicit Santa Rosa platform requirement and Apple (to date) doesn't make any use of it.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MT/s>

Finally, the wireless chipset. Both the iMac and the MacBook Pro are capable of wireless communication according to the 802.11 standard and both also support the latest draft-n specification of this standard. But for some reason Apple is not using Intel's "Kedron" wireless adapter. Instead they are using a chipset manufactured by Atheros. The FCC code on the wireless card installed in the MacBook Pro reveals the manufacturer even though the module is just labeled with "Apple Computer, Inc." This is the same module used in the previous MacBook Pro generation. A quick hardware scan using lspci under Ubuntu Linux on a MacBook Pro also reveals Atheros as the manufacturer.

<http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/06/10/31/a_closer_look_at_apples_core_2_duo_macbook_pro.html>
<http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=2917029&postcount=21>

It's even more evident on the iMac. If, on the new iMac, you open System Profiler and go to Network > AirPort Card, the firmware version shows that the card was made by Broadcom.

<http://forums.macnn.com/58/imac-emac-and-mac-mini/346932/what-is-the-name-new-imac/#post3477399>

Regardless of the fact that the new iMacs and MacBook Pros are using the CPU and chipset required by the Santa Rosa platform, they are using a different Wi-Fi adapter and therefore are not part of the Santa Rosa platform. This also provides yet another reason why Apple has never used the Centrino badge for these Macs. And thank goodness we don't have to tear those cheesy Centrino stickers off our new Macs!

So why did so many sources get it wrong, and who's to blame? Much of the responsibility lies with Apple itself. For years they have resisted giving their new Macs unique names. Rather than using something like Power Mac 7100/80 they now just refer to the iMac as the 24-inch iMac. Of course, unique names are still needed as soon as it comes to support or hardware repairs. On their support site Apple uses additional monikers to distinguish the models from each other. The latest iMacs and MacBook Pros are referred to as "Mid 2007." [Editor's note: Apple has long suffered from this problem. I first wrote about it over eight years ago in "Macintosh Model Implosion: What's in a Name?" (1999-06-14), and frankly, nothing has improved since then. -Adam]

<http://support.apple.com/specs/imac/iMac_Mid_2007.html>
<http://support.apple.com/specs/macbookpro/MacBook_Pro_Mid_2007.html>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/5436>

Unfortunately, the "Mid 2007" name has nothing to do with the Mac's internals, prompting many people to come up with alternative names. It was quite popular to use "Core Duo" and later "Core 2 Duo" to distinguish the first and second generations of Intel-based Macs, but since it was clear early on that there would likely be more than just one generation of Macs with Core 2 Duo processors, that naming convention made little sense. Indeed the chipset is an easy way to distinguish the first generation of Core 2 Duo iMacs and MacBook Pros from their successors, but as detailed above that chipset would properly be referred to as "Crestline."

The bulk of the confusion over what Santa Rosa is comes from Intel. Very early on, before the official release of the Santa Rosa platform, Intel informed the tech media that they were launching a new mobile platform using a new chipset and the Core 2 Duo CPU, to be called "Santa Rosa." At that point, Intel never mentioned Crestline or Kedron, and used Santa Rosa to describe both the new platform and their new mobile chipset. As a result, observers were referring to the upcoming chipset as "Santa Rosa" long before the official launch of the new Centrino platform. Although Intel later published the requirements for the Santa Rosa platform and clarified which chipset the platform requires, the name "Santa Rosa" has managed to stick with the chipset ever since. But just as Apple makes Macs and isn't a company called "Mac" (a mistake often made by newcomers), Crestline is Santa Rosa's chipset - Santa Rosa by itself is not a chipset.

This situation didn't stem from Intel being sloppy, but is more a result of Intel creating program requirements to bolster sales of certain components. Intel created the Centrino platform to encourage PC makers to use all Intel components in their designs. However, when those components (notably Intel's initial Wi-Fi chipset) weren't competitive, PC makers chose different components in favor of the Centrino sticker. That in turn led to the code names like Santa Rosa becoming synonymous with the processor/chipset pair required by a particular instantiation of the Centrino platform.

You may ask if this is really so important. After all, we're just talking about a bunch of code names, right? While it is true that normal users don't generally need to use these code names, they're still important. Once you offer support, or you need to update or fix somebody's Mac, it's crucial to be able to distinguish different generations from each other in an unambiguous way. Different series of Macs need names that reflect which generation they belong to. And since Apple has resisted providing a coherent naming scheme that provides this level of clarity, we have to come up with our own. However, it is certainly in everybody's interest if we stick with names that are correct and make sense. And that's why it's important to stop confusing Santa Rosa with Apple's Crestline Macs.

[Simon C. Leemann is a research physicist and a longtime avid Mac user.]

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The CUCUG Section:

September General Meeting

reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)

Vice President Emil Cobb took over the Captain's chair for the September meeting in President Rollin's absence. He began the meeting with quick introduction of the officers.

Emil then asked Kevin Hisel what the PC SIG would be doing this evening. Kevin said nothing was officially planned. The SIG would be doing a Q&A, looking a few programs Jon Bjerke had dug up, and discussing the latest PC news.

Emil said the Mac SIG would be looking at his homemade Mac Wi-Fi antenna extender.

Emil continued with a few Mac news tidbits. Apple has reduced the price of the iPhone and is offering a rebate to those that recently purchased the iPhone. He also talked about the new iPod Touch. This sparked a discussion of MP3 players and Kevin Hisel passed around his new Sansa player. It's a little like a iPod Nano but he paid $50 for a refurb unit at Buy.com. They have 2 GB to 8 GB models. It holds Micro SD cards. The Sansa MP3 player is from SanDisk. It has FM radio in it. George Krumins mentioned the Meizu, another iPod clone.

Keith Peregrine asked about registry repair software for XP. Several people recommended OneCare Live from Microsoft. From there the topic of discussion broadened and the site <http://safetylive.com> was recommended, as was CCleaner (crap cleaner) fairly nonaggressive and free remediation program.

Keith then asked, "Has anyone used the program 'Erase,' for secure erasure?" He was pursuing this line of enquiry for business purposes. He was wanting to address some security obligations. Among other recommendations was Darren's "Boot and Nuke," also known as "Dban."

<http://dban.sourceforge.net/>

Keith said he wants to overwrite the free space on the hard drive several times to securely clean it. File Shredder at <http://www.fileshredder.org/> was recommended for the task. SpyBot Search and Destroy had a feature that overwrites an area 3 to 5 times. It's gone. 10 overwrites complete overkill.

Other programs discussed were "Regshot" which tracks registry changes

<http://regshot.blog.googlepages.com/regshot>

and "Eraser 5.3" which Kevin Hisel uses and recommends.

<http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=37015>

Keith asked if there are any incompatibilities with TrueCrypt? No.

Next up, Edwin Hadley talked about a friend of his who was using Bluetooth and a Wii controller to work with the Reactable.

Emil Cobb gave a brief roundup of Mac news, noting that the iPhone is to be released overseas soon. The iTouch iPod with the iPhone touch screen interface comes in a 8 GB and a 16 GB model and allows the transfer of music both ways, unlike previous iPods.

Phil Wall asked if the iPhone has a decent PDF viewer. The answer was yes.

Harold Ravlin asked if you had to register the iTouch to get it to work like the iPhone. No, you don't.

Rich Hall publicly thanked Kevin Hisel for helping him sort out a router/DSL problem he was having. The router had gotten into a confused state and Kevin knew to cycle the power to get it to return to its senses.

There was a discussion about getting a new club machine. Fortunately, Richard Rollins was able to clean up our old one and it is functioning perfectly fine now.

One of the difficulties in restoring a machine is transferring your OS to new hardware. George Krumins suggested a program called Magic JellyBean Finder to find and retrieve the encrypted license number for your installed OS.

<http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml>

Del England brought up the topic of the downtown Wi-FI system that was just recently installed in Champaign.

Phil Wall mentioned a problem he was having with listening to audio with Safari. This launched a discussion about all browsers and sites involved in this sort of problem.

The PC SIG: No waste of time

reported by Del England

Kevin, here are the topics discussed at the Windows forum while you were wasting your time at the Mac forum. I've run the first 2 on the list and like them. I have not done anything with the other 2 as yet, but when I get a chance, I'll give you my opinion for what it's worth.

CCleaner:

This is a free program that inspects the registry and makes suggestions for repair. It also has an uninstall tool associated with it that is much better than the Windows version. Go to <http://www.ccleaner.com/download/downloading> to get this utility.

PC Decrapifier:

This is a free program that removes all of those annoying trial versions of software that comes with almost all new computers. There is a list of the programs that this recognizes at their web site <http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/download> .

XP_Remove_Hotfix_Backup:

This is a free program that removes the hotfix backup files from your computer. With the free version, you cannot select which ones you want to remove. It removes them all unless you buy the license. To find out more, go to <http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm> .

Readerware:

Readerware is a program for cataloging Books, CDs, and Videos. It isn't free and I haven't had a chance to evaluate it yet. It does have a trial version that's good for 30 days. This program will accept a variety of bar code readers. To find out more and download the trial version, go to <http://www.readerware.com/> .

[Editor's Note: My great thanks to Del England for taking the time to report on this for the newsletter. Smart guy ... in more ways than one. Thanks, Del, you're the best.]

The Macintosh SIG: Emil Cobb is steamed over his Wi-Fi reception

reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)

The Mac SIG this evening was a mixture of items fresh on the minds of the participants.

It began with Emil Cobb giving Craig Kummerow a personal tour of his iPhone. Emil's is the 4 GB model. During the discussion Emil said he doesn't like Edge, AT & T's connection.

Kevin Hopkins asked if there was a way to directly download a linked MP3 files rather than having to click the link, wait for it to load entirely, select "Save Page As" and have to download the file all over again. Craig suggested using a Control click which is the same thing as a right click on a PC. This offers the "Save Link As" option.

Kevin mentioned he was saving MP3s of various news shows, radio interviews, and podcasts, using the "Save Page As" technique. Noticing the subject matter of those items, Edwin Hadley mention he might be interested in checking out MediaGeek, a creation of Paul Riismandel at community radio station WEFT, where Edwin also works.

<http://www.mediageek.net/>

While talking about that, Kevin learned that John Anderson of Media Minutes fame also has a show on WEFT called "Poodles McGee of the FCC" on Tuesday nights at midnight.

<http://wiki.weft.org/Poodles_Ahoy!>
<http://www.diymedia.net/>

This topic ended with Kevin giving Craig a list of about nine podcasts that he is subscribed to.

Emil then showed everyone his wireless booster antenna project. This satellite dish looking contraption is made of a Belkin Wi-Fi receiver mounted into the center of a fold out vegetable steamer. This is connected to his laptop via a USB keyboard extender cable. Check out:

<http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/25/turn-your-steamer-into-a-wifi-antenna/>

Quite a lovely picture there.

As we were closing up shop, Del England popped in from the PC SIG and said they'd found a program similar to the Delicious Library program Emil had shown last month. He was looking forward to trying out.

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September Board Meeting

reported by Kevin Hopkins (kh2@uiuc.edu)

The September meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday, September 25, 2007, 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 Hopkins, Rich Hall and Kevin Hisel.

Richard Rollins: Richard gave a run down of the work he did to revive the club's PC, a P3 1.2 GHz machine. He said he added RAM which bumped it up to 640MB, using chips he had lying around (they are on loan to the club for the time being). Addressing the software, he ran SpineRite first, then he ran Windows defrag. He then removed all the programs we won't be using and those that had been added over many past meetings. Finally, he ran Windows defrag again. Richard concluded that swapping was what was causing the problem with the machine's freezing.

Kevin Hisel reported that the PC SIG discussed little, unknown programs, held a Q & A and Jon Bjerke had a list of things he covered.

Emil Cobb: When asked about what the Mac SIG did at the meeting, Emil described his vegetable steamer antenna project. It's a directional antenna made out of a USB RF antenna and a vegetable streamer. Very space age. Not sure if he calls it V-ger or not.

Rich Hall: Rich had no new business.

Kevin Hopkins: Kevin had no new business.

Kevin Hisel: Kevin had no new business. In the informal discussion that followed Kevin gave a thumbnail review of Vista, saying wireless is better, networking is better, security is much better, directory structure is better - it's more like Linux, Explorer is tons better, searching works great and sleep works great.

Kevin said he will do a demonstration on Mozbackup at the next meeting. Mozbackup is "a freeware Windows utility for backing up Firefox, Thunderbird and Suite user data."

<http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/>

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CUCUG 2007 Election Outline

  1. Offices available
    1. The President - basically, the coordinator for the entire club. Appoints committee chairs and presides over the general meetings.
    2. The Vice President - performs the President's duties in his absence.
    3. Treasurer - in charge of the financial affairs of the club. He/she pays the bills.
    4. Secretary - in charge of keeping all of the procedural documentation, e.g., meeting minutes, as well as correspondence with members, non-members and other clubs.
    5. Corporation Agent - in charge of all matters dealing with CUCUG's corporation status.

  2. Candidates
    1. Potential candidates should contact the chairman of the Election Committee prior to the November meeting so that they may coordinate the forum, etc. Kevin Hisel 217-406-948-1999
    2. Nominations will be accepted from the floor at the November meeting.
    3. Candidates will be given equal time in a forum to express their views or present their platforms at the November meeting.
    4. The Nominating Committee will verify that anyone nominated is a member in good standing. Otherwise, they will not be allowed a forum.
    5. Candidates' names will be published in the December newsletter.

  3. Voting
    1. Who can vote
      1. Every member in good standing (i.e., dues paid) may vote.
      2. Must have and present the current (2007) membership card.
    2. Voting at the general meeting in December
      1. Secret ballots will be distributed to each member that presents a valid membership card at the December meeting.
      2. The Secretary will prepare the official ballot forms. No candidates' names will appear on the ballots themselves. Candidates' names and the offices they seek will be posted at the meeting place by office and then alphabetically by candidate.
    1. Proxy voting
      1. If you cannot attend the December meeting, you may request a special proxy ballot from Kevin Hisel (217-406-948-1999) no later than December 10, 2007 (the Monday of the week prior to the week of the meeting).
      2. Place filled-in ballot in a blank, sealed envelope.
      3. Place blank envelope along with your valid membership card in another envelope.
      4. Address this envelope to: CUCUG, 912 Stratford Drive, Champaign, IL 61824-0716, clearly print the word BALLOT on the front and mail it.
      5. These proxy votes will be opened and verified only by the Tellers at the December meeting and counted along with the general ballots.
      6. All proxy ballots must be received at the CUCUG post office box no later than December 20, 2007 (the day of the meeting).
    1. Who you may vote for
      1. You may vote for anyone. Write-in (non-nominated) votes will be accepted and counted. The candidate with the most votes for a particular position wins that position. In the event of a tie, the Tellers will require a recasting for that position only.
      2. To assume office, a candidate must be a member in good standing both in 2007 and in 2008. If a winning candidate cannot be verified, the office goes to the next verifiable candidate with the most votes. If there are no verifiable winners, a second balloting will take place. Proxy ballots will be counted each time.
  4. Chronology
    1. October meeting
      1. Announce protocol to general membership.
      2. Solicit candidates.
    2. November newsletter
      1. Re-cap the election protocol.
    3. November meeting
      1. The membership will appoint a Nominating Committee.
      2. Accept nominations from the floor.
      3. Nominations will close.
      4. Candidates will be given equal time in a forum to express their views or present their platforms.
    4. December newsletter
      1. Candidates' names will be published in alphabetical order with the offices they seek.
    5. December meeting
      1. Nominated candidates names and the offices they seek will be posted in alphabetical order.
      2. The President will appoint 2 or more Tellers to distribute ballots and count the votes. 3. Votes will be taken and counted by the Tellers. Winners names will be announced by the President.
    6. January newsletter
      1. Winners names will be published.
    7. January meeting
      1. New club officers will be installed.
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The Back Page:

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

Meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the First Baptist Church of Champaign in Savoy. The FBC-CS is located at 1602 N. Prospect Avenue in Savoy, on the NE corner of Burwash and Prospect. To get to the the First Baptist Church from Champaign or Urbana, take Prospect Avenue south. Setting the trip meter in your car to zero at the corner of Kirby/Florida and Prospect in Champaign (Marathon station on the SW corner), you only go 1.6 miles south. Windsor will be at the one mile mark. The Savoy village sign (on the right) will be at the 1.4 mile mark. Burwash is at the 1.6 mile mark. The Windsor of Savoy retirement community is just to the south; Burwash Park is to the east. Turn east (left) on Burwash. The FBC-CS parking lot entrance is on the north (left) side of Burwash. Enter by the double doors at the eastern end of the building's south side. A map can be found on the CUCUG website at <http://www.cucug.org/meeting.html>. The First Baptist Church of Champaign is also on the web at <http://www.fbc-cs.org>.

Membership dues for individuals are $20 annually; prorated to $10 at mid year.

Our monthly newsletter, the Status Register, is delivered by email. All recent editions are available on our WWW site. To initiate a user group exchange, just send us your newsletter or contact our editor via email. As a matter of CUCUG policy, an exchange partner will be dropped after three months of no contact.

For further information, please attend the next meeting as our guest, or contact one of our officers (all at area code 217):

   President/WinSIG:   Richard Rollins      469-2616
   Vice-Pres/MacSIG:   Emil Cobb            398-0149
   Secretary/Editor:   Kevin Hopkins        356-5026
   Treasurer:          Richard Hall         344-8687
   Corp.Agent/Web:     Kevin Hisel          406-948-1999
   Linux SIG:          Allen Byrne          344-5311

Email us at <http://www.cucug.org/contact/index.html>, visit our web site at <http://www.cucug.org/>, or join in our online forums at <http://www.cucug.org/starship/> .

CUCUG
912 Stratford Drive
Champaign, IL
61821-4137

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