User group Newsletter Editors: Utilize this content in your newsletter -- PLEASE ... reference The User Group Network _ / _ UG Network Channel _ / _ NEWS_/ _ Rumor Manager The Rumor Manager is looking for your rumors and tidbits... give him a post! ...or subscribe... see subscription notes below 9912.03 Rumor Manager - 12/3/99 Bots; Transistor breakthrough; Monopoly; iBook; Robotics; Origami; BT & Macs; and last, but certainly not least AppleWorks 6. **** Stop that bot! The 11/22 issue of The Industry Standard magazine has a good series of articles on e-commerce, but a side bar maybe the most useful to readers of this column. The side bar is entitled "Stop that bot!" It suggests 1) Contact the bot's parent directly and ask it to cease 2) Express your wishes via robots.txt, a standard file for bot exclusion. (see an example at www.cnn.com/robots.txt) 3) Block it with server software using its TCP/IP address. 4) Block surfers whose browsers hide their home address. It ends up by saying it might be easier just to let them in. What do you think? **** Transistor breakthrough CNET's news.com posted a story on 11/23/1999 about a new semiconductor transistor so small that a single computer chip can hold 400 times more of the devices than before could help lead to significantly faster and cheaper chip technology, scientists said today. The prototype, dubbed "FinFET." Is the smallest transistor ever created. Details won't be available until the International Electronic Devices Meeting in Washington, DC. The project was funded by DARPA, This pretty exciting, since some people were saying we are nearing the end of Moore's Law that says that processor power will double every 18 months. This should extend that law for sometime. BTW - the new technology has not been patented. Check out the story **** Monopoly Microsoft that is MacWeek turned me on to The Monopoly Site. It presents the Microsoft Monopoly game and will even let you download the source code. Can't believe I didn't think of it first. **** iBook Blueberry iBook You may have heard that PC Data is saying that the iBook was the top selling notebook computer for the month of October even with the late start it got because of production problems in Taiwan. What you might not realize is that it wasn't just the iBook, it was specifically the Blueberry iBook. It seems that PC Data counts the Blueberry and the Tangerine iBooks as separate models in their statistics. So that make the sales leader even more impressive. (BTW - the Blueberry out sold the Tangerine model at the rate of 6 to 1.) **** Robotic Macs? The December issue of Scientific American reports that Carnegie Mellon is using an iBook and a G4 to run a robt that can map a room to navigate around objects and perform functions like floor cleaning and a security patrol. **** Origami From one of the newer activities to one of the older arts: the New York Times has an article about a website run by Joseph Wu that connects to as many Origami sites as he can find. That way by going to his site you too can learn how to fold paper artfully. See it at: www.origami.vancouver.bc.ca This is a lot cheaper than buying the Casady and Green CD that teaches you how to do many of the same folds, but the C&G's version would be a lot faster for most of us. But again, Origami is for the patient. **** BT & iMacs MacWorld UK is reporting that British Telecom is selling iBooks and iMacs along side colored (coloured) telephones with a special promotion that includes a surge protector, a four port USB hub and BT's internet service. The deal even includes home delivery. The promo is short lived however and will be over on December 11. Now if we could just get Bell Atlantic to work that well with Apple. Imagine! **** AppleWorks 6 AppleInsider has a cool article on what they say is AppleWorks 6.0. Looks like it is a major change from 5.0. Of course IF the site is telling us the straight line. Check it out. **** Don't forget Any suggestions for topics and reports of rumors are always welcome. Please me know at the address below. Thanks ... the Rumor Manager invites you to use all or part of his column in your user group newsletter. Please let him know at rumormangr@aol.com and if possible send an electronic copy for the old scrapbook. pau Subscribe to Rumors@lists.user-groups.net DIGEST VERSION: rumors-digest@lists.user-groups.net (recommended) rumors-on@lists.user-groups.net for more information go to: http://www.user-groups.net/ugcommunity/subscribe.html The Rumor 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. 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