Info Manager

Info Manager for February 17, 2003

[*]   Scramble Your E-mails on Web Pages

[*]   Hunter College Department Moves From Mac OS 9 To X

[*]   We are a long way off from fiber everywhere.

[*]   iPhoto files too large?

[*]   SW of the week: Beyond iPhoto

[*]   FTC Pushes Safe Computing

[*]   TiVo integrates with iLife

[*]   Office for Macs to get Exchange update

[*]   E-Mail Delivery Rates Fall in Q4

[*]   Intel's New Chip - Slower?

[*]   Security notices from Microsoft to home users

[*]   Are you paying to much for Microsoft OS support?

[*]   Fixing Ken Burns

[*]   SpyWare

[*]   Resellers file complaint over HP tactic

[*]   iSCSI Standard Gets Stamp of Approval

[*]   DropStuff on .Mac

[*]   IMHO - IRS Presses for Electronic filing

[*]   This Old Mouse: Need A little Juice?

[*]   Quotes of the week: Kaufman, Shaw
 

Scramble Your E-mails on Web Pages

"Have you ever been wary about putting your name on a web page because robots may harvest your e-mail and send you tons of junk? Hiveware Enkoder Form 3.1 is a web page that will give you a java script to place your e-mail so that it is scrambled in the HTML, but visible by your web browser. I tried it out. It's very easy and an awesome idea! Best of all, it's free!" Quoting Taylor Sharpe of The Apple Corp of Dallas.
See the ACD newsletter, the Apple Gram at:
http://www.acd.org/AppleGrams/200302February/

Hunter College Department Moves From Mac OS 9 To X

In a series of articles about Hunter College's Department of Film and Media Studies, Computerworld is following that school's efforts to integrate new Apple hardware and software.
Full story at:
http://ComputerWorld.com/

We are a long way off from fiber everywhere.

In an article called "Copper Lines Regaining Luster - With the Obstacles to Fiber, Phone Companies Are Tapping the Old Infrastructure" the Washington Post is talking about how the phone companies are getting faster and faster connections from the POTS, copper wire systems.
See the full article at:
http://www.WashingtonPost.com/

iPhoto files too large?

On InfiniteLoop mailing list, we got the following suggestions for managing LARGE iPhoto files from a German user:
     "Once a year I rename /Users/$USERNAME/Library/iPhoto Library to /Users/$USERNAME/Library/iPhoto Library 2002 or which year it is and create a new iPhoto Library. Whenever I want to use an old library, I rename them back."
Or use iPhotoLibraryManager! At:
http://homepage.mac.com/bwebster/

SW of the week: Beyond iPhoto

Plato Grande Software's ImageViewer is a powerful and inexpensive multimedia application, which provides a complete set of image viewing, cataloging, browsing, and editing capabilities. Images can be printed in a variety of styles, as a list or individually. A number of time saving features are provided, including automated html page creation and batch processing. ImageViewer fully supports QuickTime video effects, which may be used as transitions between images in a slide show, and provides numerous other useful features.
ImageViewer runs in OS 9.x or OS X, needs CarbonLib 1.2.5 or higher, 32MB RAM, and at least QuickTime 3.0. It's free to try; $35.00 to buy
Complete download links, instructions, etc., are found at:
http://www.aacug.org/MUG/shareware.html

FTC Pushes Safe Computing

The FTC has issued "The Common Sense Guide for Home and Individual Users". It is a document of general ways to keep your computer safe. It is not platform specific although Mac users don't need to worry as much about opening attachments to e-mail. To get the document, simply click
http://www.isalliance.org/resources/papers/ISAhomeuser.pdf
Story about the booklet at:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/

TiVo integrates with iLife

MacWorld in the UK is saying that Apple is working with TiVo to better integrate that appliance into the iLife world. Now will they tie it into Watson and/or Sherlock?
See the story at:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/

Office for Macs to get Exchange update

According to Ian Fried at CNET News, Mac users will be getting a long awaited update to Entourage (a part of Office v.X) and will be able to access Microsoft Exchange server. That software should be available this summer.
Full story at:
http://news.com.com/

E-Mail Delivery Rates Fall in Q4

According to an article from Internet news with the above title, a study found that e-mail failed to reach recipients at the top 10 ISPs and average of 15% of the time during the fourth quarter of 2002. Those ISPs handle about 60% of the e-mal in business-to-consumer campaigns. So they are talking about direct mail pieces. Those are the ones that some might consider spam even if they had subscribed to the lists. So I suspect that means that a number of people are switching ISPs to get away from all that e-mail. What do you think?
Full story at:
http://www.internetnews.com/

Intel's New Chip - Slower?

Intel if now trying to get away from the MHz myth too. But it might find it harder to do since it has been pushing that as a measurement of power for so long. But the new chip is now rated slower than older ones.
Full story at:
http://www.NewsFactor.com/

Security notices from Microsoft to home users

Microsoft now has a newsletter about security aimed at the consumer market. It has long had one for the enterprise market. Don't know that it would make me feel more secure, but at least we should be pre-warned.
Full story at:
http://www.IDG.net/

Are you paying to much for Microsoft OS support?

According to Computer Weekly, Microsoft has rescinded its earlier policy of discontinuing support for Windows NT and Windows 1998 during 2002. They have now said they will continue "hot-fix" support until the end of 2004 for NT and until January 16, 2004 for Win98. However some customers may have already paid for extended support that now they won't need for that additional time frame.
(Sorry, link's gone dead)

Fixing Ken Burns

If you upgraded to iMovie3 and worked with any still photos you learned about the Ken Burns effect. Nice, but very annoying as it runs all the time. You can stop the automatic zoom and pan effects two ways..
1) Hold Esc key with the Cmd and period keys.. tiresome...
2) More permanent fix:
Use TextEdit to navigate to and open ~Library/Preferences/com.apple.iMovie3.plist Locate the entry 'autoApplyPanZoomToImportedStills' Two lines down it says 'true' change this to 'false' Save and open iMovie 3 Now when you want the effect, just hit Apply.
Thanks to Fred Sheffler on the Apple Corp BBS for pointing this out.
Apple Corp of Dallas is located at:
http://www.acd.org/

SpyWare

"According to our friends at Whatis.com, [S]pyware is any technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge. On the Internet, spyware is programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties. Spyware can get in a computer as a software virus or as the result of installing a new program.
(From the Tourbus newsletter*)
      "How do you kill spyware on a PC? Simple! Download and install Ad-Aware. Created by German software company Lavasoft, Ad-aware is a free utility that scans your computer's memory, registry, and hard drives for known spyware. Ad-Aware then lets you kill any or all of the spyware that you find hiding on your computer. ...

"By the way, if you "compute with fruit" there's a spyware killer for the Mac called "MacScan."
You can find out more about MacScan at
http://www.securemac.com/

Resellers file complaint over HP tactic

Taking a cue from Apple's reseller, HP's are also upset. They are doing it a little differently. Apple's resellers sued in Federal court. HP's went to the FTC. Wonder if either process will help the resellers. Or will the lawyers just get richer.
Full story at:
http://SeattlePI.NwSource.com/

iSCSI Standard Gets Stamp of Approval

The Internet Engineering Task Force has approved iSCSI standard for long distance storage. (Isn't amazing how many organization there are you never heard of?)

This standard will allow commands that worked with SCSI devices to be used over the IP-based networks.. Thus giving the possibility of cheap long distance storage. Sounds like things are getting better, if more complicated.
Full story at:
http://www.NewsFactor.com/

DropStuff on .Mac

Aladdin is making DropStuff available for free download to members of .Mac. Plus they are offering the full version of Stuffit for $39.99 instead of the normal $79.99. So check out your iDisk.
Full story at:
http://MacCentral.MacWorld.com/

IMHO - IRS Presses for Electronic filing

(Personal experience) Last year for the first time, I used TurboTax for the Web to file both my family and my step-son's Federal income tax. Because of his income, he was able to file for free last year. This year, the IRS is trying to get as many people as possible to do electronic filing. Therefore, they have contracted with several companies to do free calculation and filing of taxes. If you go to the web site at http://www.irs.gov , you will find the link to those companies. Each company however has different rules about who qualifies. Most will provide free service for those with less than an adjusted gross income of $28,000. But at least one will only do it for those with incomes of less than $12K UNLESS you are over 50 years of age. One site would not set up a good secure connection, according to IE on my Mac and thus, it wouldn't let any communication begin.
      I initially signed on to TurboTax to do my step-son's taxes. But couldn't find a link there to the free service that was there the year before. So I went to the IRS site and linked to several and tried them out. I tried TaxBrain Online Tax Center without realizing they were the one that required $12K or less AGI. But I found out, that I really like the speed of their service. TurboTax, TaxCut and a couple of others that I tried are formatted much like the TurboTax software, in that they ask you one question at a time. Making the process very slow. TaxBrain asks several questions to start and then only gives you options based on those questions. I was able to do my own taxes in less than an hour. Where I inputting the data into TurboTax took me over 4 hours. (Redraw time was unreal.) The plus here was that it also allowed me to file for free since I am over 50. The negative is that I had to request a code from them to provide me that free service. But that only took about an hour for an e-mail reply.
      I also found a link on the IRS site that took me to the TurboTax web site's free page. (Don't know why there wasn't a direct link from their http://www.turbotax.com page.) From there I was able to access the data I had already entered and thus didn't have to input it again. All in all, I would recommend on-line filing for anyone with a high speed connection. If only dial up is available, then TaxBrain would be the only way to go online. And you probably ought to go back to one of the commercial packages anyway. (H&R Block's site was suppose to work with my Mac and browser, but didn't draw the screen proper. The reply I got from their technical people was that my machine should work. Period. Nothing to help. Glad I didn't wait for them to reply.
      After I wrote the above, CBS Market Watch had an article about complaints with the services over billing practices.
See that article at:
http://CBS.MarketWatch.com/

This Old Mouse: Need A little Juice?

Nothing is worse than a Mac that won't start up. Booting up the trusty old G3 normally initiates familiar sounds -- the hard drive spinning up, and the monitor buz and crackle -- things you get used to after working with your computer every day. Well, this day was different. As the drive spun up, the monitor gave a single loud click; its pilot light turned from green to amber, and the drive promptly spun down.
      After trying different monitors and a series of other 'quick fixes' my brother suggested I open the box and check the battery. After all, the old beige was a 1998 model -- about five years on the battery. We popped the battery out and headed on over to the Radioshack where the battery checked out perfectly. I bought one anyway.
      After installing the new battery the old Mac booted up and I was back up operating normally. Well, almost normally. Through all the attempts to restart and correct the problem, some things got corrupted -- which will always happen when repeatedly crashing the Mac. (See Part 2)
      Moral of the story? If you have start-up problems not indicating an OS problem, check the battery -- particulary if the machine is more than four years old. Don't trust an old battery even if it checks out. There may not be enough on-demand juice to kick off a start up. Instal a new battery before the recommended five year end of life.
      The battery supplies a small amount of current to keep the clock and calendar up, but also maintains the all-important PRAM and other areas to make sure everything, including the monitor, gets what it needs to start up.
See: "This Old Mouse" for the continuation of this story
http://www.aacug.org/MUG/showker/

Quotes of the week: Kaufman, Shaw

Worrying about the future is like trying to eat the hole in a doughnut. It's munching on what isn't.
      -- Barry Neil Kaufman

The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself.
      -- George Bernard Shaw
Got a favorite quote?
Post it here!

pau

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Also see: MUG NEWS bursts from the AACUG Mac User Guide (MUG)

Note: Features schedule

The InfoManager invites user groups to use his column in full or in pieces in their newsletter. Or add a link to their web site. He would appreciate word that you are doing so however and if you can, please send a pdf version of the newsletter for his perusal. Or provide him with a link. The address is InfoManager@user-groups.net. You can also use that address for feed back.
Note: Features schedule
1st Monday Vendor of the Month; (VOM)
2nd Monday "InfoManager's Humble Opinion (IMHO);
3rd Monday TBA (What would you like to see?)
4th Monday: User Group Tips. (Send them in)
5th Monday: Nothing extra - my day of rest. ;-)
Of course I could make adjustments to this schedule as I see fit and will take suggestions. Have a great week! Note: In light of the new AACUG MUG tabloid publication, I may be changing the above schedule. Please send me your input.
Pau

The Info Manager is a veteran of the UGN (AOL User Groups Forum) and User Group Network. He's been a supporter and volunteer on many, many UGNet and User Group Academy projects. As a long time user group member, he's served as volunteer from Honolulu to Boston and many points in between. Currently working with the Apple Corp of Dallas, the Dallas Mac Pack, Cowtown MUG of Ft. Worth and TUMS (the Tulsa Users of Macintosh Society) doing newsletter articles and the monthly CD-ROM Update. Post a lead Info Manager should follow up on.

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