Info Manager

Info Manager for June 30, 2003

[*]   WWDC Announcements

[*]   Forbes looks at Apple's announcements

[*]   Peek at Panther

[*]   What about the G4s?

[*]   Gartner's view point

[*]   Music Sharing Services To Start Lobby

[*]   Do Not Call! Victory for consumers

[*]   [TOW] Save Battery Power: Prevent Indexing

[*]   [MUGS] Seth Schoen: "The Empire Strikes Back"

[*]   [SW] No more single clipboard

[*]   Top Ten Digital Video Tips

[*]   Video Chat Software Reviewed

[*]   O'Reilly releases the Google Pocket Guide

[*]   Swamped with storage cards?

[*]   Bench test controversy?

[*]   Quotes: Keller, Jong and an Italian Proverb
 

WWDC Announcements

I will not try to rehash all the great stories out there on the net, but here are some of the announcements from WWDC last week:
Mac OS X 10.3 by year's end
New iChat AV for video and audio conferencing or internet phone calls
New G5's due in August.
New product - iSight - web cam and microphone that attaches through single Firewire cable for audio, video and power.
You can link to the top five stories from Fred's excellent "Brief" of links, unhindered by extraneous screen schmatta but including all the essentials at:
http://www.aacug.org/MUG/

Forbes looks at Apple's announcements

So what do those out side the Mac media think? An article from Forbes magazine was very positive. See it at:
http://www.forbes.com/

Peek at Panther

Apple has put up information complete with screen shots showing what we can expect from OS X 10.3. You can see it at:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/panther/

What about the G4s?

This is really great you can now get G4s for much less than you could before June 23rd. You can now get a NEW G4 Tower, that will still boot OS 9 for $1299. Or a dual processor tower for $1700. Check it out at
http://store.apple.com

Gartner's view point

Martin Reynolds of Gartner Research has also taken on the controversy and has made a pretty nice press release giving more of the technical details of the G5. Download the PDF: or go to:
http://www3.gartner.com/

Music Sharing Services To Start Lobby

The Washington Post reported on June 24th, that Wayne Rosso, the President of Grokster has announced that Grokster, (of the West Indies) and Lime Wire of New York among others are setting up a trade association to defend the rights of "peer-to-peer" networks and traders. While I doubt that they have the finances to over come the music industry, I wish them well. See the story at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Do Not Call! Victory for consumers

Hopefully someday we can do the same for UCE. But in the meantime, sign up to stop most telemarketers. Sign up at: http://www.donotcall.gov/ . . .
[Fred's Note]
Lynn, this is definitely one of the landmark victories for private citizens. And we at AACUG's Anti-UBE campaign believe it will have a major impact on the anti spam wars.
      FTC/FCC regulations mandate penalties for calling those on the do-not-call list ranging up to $11,000 per unwanted call. And, the telemarketing industry must be taking this very seriously: a quick search on Google this morning revealed no less than six new companies using paid advertising to promote their "compliance assistance" start-ups. This is encouraging for our Anti-UBE campaign because legislators we are working with are taking a serious look at the mechanics of this program targeting a national "Do Not Spam" registry.
      As of two hours ago, NPR released statistics through the DoNotCall Registry that at times (Friday) they were logging more than 1,000 registrations per second at the web site, and the national hotline phone system was completely clogged. According to the Federal Trade Commission by 2:30 p.m. Friday, more than 635,000 phone numbers had been registered and they expect 60 million people to register eventually. FTC Chairman Timothy Muris said that 14 million of about 20 million people on various state registries will be automatically transferred.
      You can register online at http://DoNotCall.gov/ if you have an active email address. If you live in a state west of the Mississippi River (including Minnesota or Louisiana), you can call toll-free, 1-888-382-1222 (TTY 1-866-290-4236), from the number you wish to register. Phone registration will open to the entire nation on July 7. Registration is free.
      The Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the states will begin enforcing the National Do Not Call Registry on Oct. 1, 2003. That's when consumers who put their numbers on the registry by August 31, 2003 will notice a downturn in the number of telemarketing calls they get.
      For full details and a number of good consumer information PDF files, go to:
http://www.ftc.gov/

[TOW] Save Battery Power: Prevent Indexing

This week's "Tip of the Week" prize goes out to AACUG member Randy Glass of St. Pete Beach FL! His tip, posted to the InfoManager list warns PowerBook owners of OS X's "drive indexing" feature.
      If you're on the coast to coast flight to Macworld, you'll want to turn it off... Althought OS X makes it easy to locate any file, the continual indexing of file directories increases your hard drive activity ten fold -- which bleeds precious battery power. To turn indexing off, choose Finder > Preferences and click on the Select button below the Languages For Searching File Contents option. Then deactivate all of the languages in the dialog box that appears. Since there's no language to search for, Mac OS X won't index any of your computer volumes. When you're back to an AC outlet, turn the feature back on.
You are encouraged to post your own tips and discoveries to the InfoManager and a prize if your tip is selected as the "TOW" ... go to:
http://www.user-groups.net/InfoManager/INFO.html

[MUGS] Seth Schoen: "The Empire Strikes Back"

Join the Linux Users' Group of Davis for a Special Meeting, Davis, CA--July 21. Seth David Schoen, Electronic Frontier Foundation, will be speaking about "The Empire Strikes Back: Constraining Free Software Development." He will review the story of the DVD Wars, the broader debates over copyright policy, and current regulatory initiatives. He will also discuss new technologies such as software-defined radio and trusted computing, and emphasize that free software's future is far from assured.
http://www.lugod.org/meeting/upcoming/

[SW] No more single clipboard

iClip is a utility that helps you get past the limitations of having a single Clipboard. It allows you to quickly copy & paste and drag & drop clippings to and from its multiple "clipping bins" so that you can easily access them in the applications you're using. Hmmmmmmm, can you think of about a thousand uses for that in your daily computing experience? OS X Only...
http://www.aacug.org/MUG/shareware/iclip.html

Top Ten Digital Video Tips

Unless the guy next door happens to be Steven Soderbergh, you'll probably have a hard time getting good advice about how to master your DV camcorder. Yes, you can pore over each dryly composed paragraph in your multilanguage owner's manual, but chances are all that will improve is your French. Instead, check out these ten handy tips that will transform your ho-hum footage into compelling video. Go here for those tips:
http://www.macdevcenter.com/

Video Chat Software Reviewed

Fred Showker's brother, Joe, was going on and on last week, raving about Apple's net iChat. Then David Pogue posted his NYT article on Video Chat software and sez: "Sure they're buggy, but what do you want for free?"
I would give you the link here, but it's so long, it takes five lines in the InfoManager, and then probably wouldn't work. However, AACUG's MUG front page has the link to this New York Times article by David...
http://www.aacug.org/MUG/

O'Reilly releases the Google Pocket Guide

"Google Pocket Guide" unleashes the power behind that blinking curser by delivering a thorough, concise tour of Google's features. You'll find practical examples to inspire going beyond the basic keyword search; secrets for constructing more powerful queries using Google's special syntax; and tips on understanding and refining the results Google provides. Crafted from our best-selling "Google Hacks" title, "Google Pocket Guide" provides exactly the information you need to make your searches faster and more effective.
Sample Excerpts on "Google Basics," "Froogle," and "Consulting the Dictionary" are available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/

Swamped with storage cards?

Unfortunately they forgot to establish a standard for flash storage. So now many people are having to deal with different kinds of cards from cameras, pocket drives, and other iLive devices. Now the DB-35U Flash Card Reader can solve that problem with their FireWire reader that handles six different types of storage cards -- CompactFlash, SmartMedia, IBM Microdrive, MemoryStick , MultiMedia-Card, and Secure Digital Card. here's a picture:
Go here for the full story:
http://fwdepot.com/

Bench test controversy?

A number of publications are pointing out that Apple didn't follow "standards" when doing their bench testing on the G5. Apple is arguing that the modifications they made actually made the PC look better. The Register covers most of the details at:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/39/31416.html

Quotes: Keller, Jong and an Italian Proverb

"Many persons have the wrong idea about what constitutes true happiness.
It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy cause."
      - Helen Keller

"Advice is what we ask for
when we already know the answer but wish we didn't."
      - Erica Jong

"At the end of the game the king and the pawn
go back in the same box."
      - Italian Proverb

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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