Info Manager

Info Manager for November 3, 2003

[ *]   Mini-Mini Review TackyShirt's Mac OS X

[ *]   $150 Million Marketing Push for Microsoft

[ *]   Symantec To Buy ON Technology For $100M

[ *]   Microsoft to take on iPod with portable players

[ *]   SMC's New HomePlug Networking Products

[ *]   "Song in your heart, thousands on your belt"

[ *]   All But Forgotten Oldies

[ *]   Amazon to search the content books.

[ *]   Extreme make over

[ *]   Blogger Gets Booted at Microsoft

[ *]   New Stuff for Mac Users

[ *]   CyberGauge 4.2 Supports Panther

[ *]   Apimac Cleans Text in OS X and Mac Classic

[ *]   ASCII Text not to be left out...

[ *]   InTouch Gets a new name: Phlink

[ *]   Help for Panther Security woes

[ *]   Thursby also sees security problems with Panther

[ *]   Teachers with OS X need QuizMaker

[ *]   Twisty-turnee for iSight

[ *]   Take the Pro, or don't go - surfing

[ *]   PdfCompress takes a bite out of fonts

[ *]   Panther launches with mixed reactions

[ *]   The Panther Roars (in Pain)

[ *]   iTunes: quite a stir

[ *]   SPAM News

[ *]   Quotes: Eliot, Stevens, Nute, Twain and da Vinci

 

Mini-Mini Review TackyShirt's Mac OS X

They are kidding when they say this is "The Basics". But some of us really need to learn what is the differences between OS 9 and OS X. While things have a tendency to work the way we expect them to, they don't always and the underlying commands may not be the same. In this video, Bob LeVitus, Andy Ihnatko, Shaw King and John Welch provide a very entertaining way to learn about OS X. It is more enjoyable than some of the Hollywood movies I have rented lately. This truly is "Technical Training You Want to Watch"

$150 Million Marketing Push for Microsoft

A few years a go, a big deal was made when Apple said they were going to spend $100 million + to advertise their entire line of products. Well, Microsoft is going to spend $150 million on just the Office Upgrade for its Window's version of Office.
      They are trying to make sure we don't take Office for granted and that we will view it as a product that will make us a winner in the office. Analysts say that one of the goals is to keep StarOffice suite and IBM's efforts to expand into the small business market at bay. NY Times

Symantec To Buy ON Technology For $100M

Symantec does what it does best: buy another company for their products. Here, they get software to allow network administrators to inventory and manage desktop computers, servers and mobile devices on LANs and WANs. Symantec

Microsoft to take on iPod with portable players

According to Simon London in the Financial Times, Microsoft announced this week that they will be releasing a new generation of music and VIDEO players that will compete with Apple's iPod. Microsoft has got Samsung Sanyo and some others to agree to use their software to produce similar products. This could be a case once again of a better proprietary product being beaten out by one that is inferior, but not exclusive to one company. Apple needs to license the iPod. Full story is only available via paid full subscription at this point. I haven't found the story any where else. Sorry, no link.

SMC's New HomePlug Networking Products

HomePlug networks use your existing electrical wiring to provide the network. SMC is offering new products that is suppose to be easy to install. It better be, if it is going to beat out Wi-Fi (Airport) Click for details

"Song in your heart, thousands on your belt"

That is the title of this article singing the virtues of having an iPod... in the Philadelphia Enquirer

All But Forgotten Oldies

Here is a web site to use to come up with that song you almost remember from the 60s and 70s. Its list 4000 songs from 1960-1975 is searchable by keyword, but you can also just browse. (From http://www.researchbuzz.com) All But Forgotten Oldies

Amazon to search the content books.

This could be very interesting, since there are 120K books to be searched. You will get the results displayed as an excerpt from the book and it will tell you what page number it is on. A link will allow you to see the whole page. But, at that point you might be asked for a credit card number if Amazon doesn't have one on file. My experience showed the page and the facing page. According to ResearchBuzz you don't get charged. They don't know why the question about the credit card number. Check it out and let me know what you think. Select "Books" before entering your search criteria. Select "Books" before entering your search criteria.

Extreme make over

This is a Wired story with pictures of some of the ways that PC people have designed their computers. One is actually a coffee maker, another is built in a keg. What do you think?

Blogger Gets Booted at Microsoft

A temp at Microsoft was fired after he posted a photo of some new Macs arriving at Microsoft on his web site. In his blog now, he admits that what he did was a big mistake, but says that he thought he was following policy. To get his side of the story go to: Michael Hanscom's web site

New Stuff for Mac Users

As the Panther revolution rolls out, there are lots of Mac companies standing in line for their moment of fame -- bringing new products to market, and updating/refitting old ones. Here are a few of the more notable ones:

CyberGauge 4.2 Supports Panther

Neon Software's is now sporting a free update for Panther and Xserve Owners. This bandwidth monitoring software works with any SNMP-based device, including routers, switches, and servers, and monitors bandwidth usage -- automatically creating utilization graphs as well as daily, weekly, and monthly quality of service (QoS) and billing reports. Neon Software

Apimac Cleans Text in OS X and Mac Classic

Jessica Tomati wrote in to give us a heads up on the new Clean Text 3.0. This handy application removes, converts, encodes and replaces attributes from any text, setting it up for other uses. Apimac

ASCII Text not to be left out...

ASCII/edit is the first WYSIWYG editor for tables, diagrams, or simple graphics made of ASCII characters for Mac OS X. It's a cute program, letting you arrange text on a page, as with a layout software; align and indent paragraphs, like in a word processor; and add lines and rectangles, as in a drawing application. The output, however, is simple ASCII text, which you can include in e-mails, newsgroups, or source code. It's Shareware and requires Mac OS X 10.1 Simon Haertel.de.vu

InTouch Gets a new name: Phlink

Ovolab's Phlink, the final version of its telephony application for Mac is now combined with the Ovolab Telephone Adapter, a small USB device, and can answer telephone calls and identify the caller through Caller ID. It takes messages, and sends them by email! It can be set to execute scripts, launch applications or open documents by simply pressing numbers on the telephone keypad during the call. Sweet.

Help for Panther Security woes

Panther presents its users with improved features for secure networking; however the security features in Panther does not support the standard IPsec and is therefore not compatible to most VPN gateways. VPN Tracker is compatible to over 150 gateways devices and will now bring essential security compatibility to Panther users to secure their networking. Panther and VPN Tracker secure networks can be established and all branch and home office users and mobile workers will be able to securely share files over the Internet. Download a demo: VPN Tracker

Thursby also sees security problems with Panther

They've rushed ADmitMac v1.1. to the market for the integration of Macintosh systems into Microsoft Active Directory and Windows NT domains. Microsoft has stated that its earlier protocols were "vulnerable to widely published attacks for obtaining user passwords." ADmitMac v1.1 is the only Mac product that provides full support for NTLMv2 in addition to its use of Kerberos and encrypted LDAP authentication. ADmitMac v1.1 sports significant improvements in security, and support for Microsoft's Distributed File System (Dfs) as it applies to Panther (Mac OS X 10.3) Thursby Software

Teachers with OS X need QuizMaker

Well, that's not all together true. ALL teachers need QuizMaker Pro version 5.0! It performs in OS X, Classic Macintosh, and Windows 95-XP creating, archiving, administering, grading, and analyzing multiple choice, matching and short answer quizzes. The best news is it's shareware

Twisty-turnee for iSight

As with any new gizmo that shows any promise at all, a string of add-ons soon appears. Such is true for Apple's new iSight. SightFlex from MacMice is a flexible desk stand for Apple's new iSight web cam. It's flexible metal tubing stand provides virtually unlimited mounting and positioning options for your iSight. It's The 20-inch tall and can be easily adjusted to a variety of positions from very near the desk top to well above Apple's tallest Cinema Display. Its clear coated, shielded, silver braid Firewire cable is five feet long -- so now Mac exhibitionists can undress for their web cams just like Windows users have done for years! SightFlex

Take the Pro, or don't go - surfing

URL Manager Pro 3.1, the shareware ($25 or 25 Euro) bookmark manager for the Mac is sporting a new system-wide bookmark menu, and lets you select a destination bookmark file when you add a bookmark. The feature I like best is accessing my bookmarks from any application through a system-wide menu. So, for updating and creating web pages it's a smashing "must have" app. You can access your bookmarks from the browser's menu bar too, including Safari and Mozilla -- as well as from the Mac OS X Dock. Store, manipulate, cross-reference, edit, label, color and archive bookmarks in an intuitive way. Hunting for bookmarks in browser preferences folders is a thing of the past. URL-Manager.com

PdfCompress takes a bite out of fonts

Metaobject's inexpensive new version 4.3 of PdfCompress answers at least some of the flaky programming Apple's part-time programmers have built into the Mac OS X PDF engine. PdfCompress tackles edit-data left in PDF files by applications such as Adobe Photoshop. Removing this data can make files up to 10 times smaller. PdfCompress has received rave reviews from all over for being the best PDF compression utility Metaobject's PdfCompress

Panther launches with mixed reactions

The new release of Panther is welcomed and celebrated by a worldwide Mac community; with its superior user performance and excellent new features there is no doubt that Panther will take the Mac fans by storm. From nosebleed delirious, to reserved to disappointing, reactions are gaining momentum as Mac users embrace the new beast -- and not all are happy!

The Panther Roars (in Pain)

There was a flurry of news from external news sources last week as Panther made its big debut. So soon after an OS upgrade, Apple rolls out Panther to at least a few unhappy campers:

* Bye-Bye Data: Glitch in Panther
      In this Wired story we learn that Apple Panther has a serious bug that wipes out external FireWire drives during the upgrade procedure. According to author Leander Kahney -- worse, many Mac users are backing up to external drives before upgrading. Some are losing everything
      Then, a hapless Wired News reporter forgets to back up his hard drive while installing Apple's latest update to OS X, code-named Panther. The installation glitch leads to a world of hurt. A product review by Leander Kahney.

iTunes: quite a stir

iTunes also continues to make major news, even in the face of the all-new Napster, and it's low, low, monthly fee for unlimited downloads.

* Looking Toward a Networked World
      Tech guru Tim O'Reilly cites Apple's iTunes Music Store as an example of how the company is leading a revolution in Net-enabled software. Leander Kahney reports from the Mac OS X Conference in Santa Clara, California
      Buck a Song, or Buccaneer? Leander Kahney says: "Now that it is open to Windows customers, Apple's iTunes Music Store will spell doom for file-sharing networks -- at least, that's how Apple tells it." Others are more skeptical

SPAM News

Stories gathered form Wired News service on spam:

1. California Chalks Up a Spam Win - The Golden State wins its first antispam judgment, against marketing firm PW Marketing. The company is fined $2 million under a 1998 statute; the state expects spammers will be easier to prosecute under its tougher new law.
2. U.K. Plans to Extradite Spammers - Calling the flood of junk e-mail a criminal threat rather than a mere irritant, British lawmakers hatch a plan to bring overseas bulk e- mailers to trial
3. Spam Pitches Are Mutating Faster - Ryan Singel says "Trying to stay one step ahead of ever-improving spam filters, spammers are creating and trying new tricks much more quickly. Antispam developers are keeping up, for now"
4. Spammers Clog Up the Blogs - Ever searching for paying customers, spammers have turned their attention to blogs, where they mass-post target URLs in the comments section.
5. New Virus Dresses Up as E-Mail - Another seemingly innocuous e-mail is a virus in disguise. The virus threatens to turn any recipient's PC into a spam server ... or a frog. Bwahh haa haahaahhh!

Quotes: Eliot, Stevens, Nute, Twain and da Vinci

"Poetry is not an assertion of truth, but the making of that truth more fully real to us."
      - T.S. Eliot

"Confidence, like art, never comes from having all the answers; it comes from being open to all the questions."
      - Earl Gray Stevens

"People don't realize that once you sign up for a contest or free stuff on the Web and you forget to uncheck a box, these people will pass your name to a hundred other people."
      - Paul Nute, a partner in a New York advertising agency. (via New York Times)

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambition. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
      - Mark Twain

"All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions."
      - Leonardo da Vinci

 
      pau

---

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

---------------

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.

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.

Subscribe to Info@lists.user-groups.net
send a "simple" email to: Subscribe to MUG InfoManager, or go to
http://www.user-groups.net/UGCommunity/subscribe.html for full details!