Info Manager for February 25, 2002

[*]  .Net;   [*]  ODBC Drivers;   [*]  AltaVista;   [*]  Avid;   [*]  PowerBook Manuals;   [*]  CharisMac ;   [*]  Microsoft;   [*]  27 GB DVD;   [*]  Adobe;   [*]  Wal-Mart;   [*]  Apple, Ericsson, Sun;   [*]  RealNetworks;   [*]  VersionTracker;   [*]  Wi-Fi Metro;   [*]  SystemWorks;   [*]  Apple Stores;   [*]  Web Site #1 of the Week: WEBSPEED;   [*]  Web Site #2 of the Week: FIGLETS and ASCII Graphics;   [*]  User Group Site of the Week: MacTechnics;   [*]  Quote of the week: Henry David Thoreau;   [*]  UG Tips: Special Offers and Deals;  
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.Net

ZDNet has an article about why Apple should support .Net. Personally I worry that Macs could be left out in the cold, but I really don't see the need for .Net. Perhaps someone can inlighten me. Full story at:
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-835092.html

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ODBC Drivers

Microsoft has released ODBC Drivers for Mac Office 2001. This will allow Office 2001 to pull data from a number of databases, including Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, dBASE and Microsoft Visual FoxPro as well as ASCII text files. This should include Access databases, but Microsoft didn't specifically mention it. download the update at:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/download/office2001/xldataaccess.asp

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AltaVista

Without making any announcements, AltaVista changed it search engine to do AND by default instead of OR. This should cut down on the number of "hits" that a search will make. ResearchBuzz newsletter told me about this. BTW - AltaVista is also dropping their free e-mail accounts shortly. You can read their newletter at:
http://www.researchbuzz.com/news/2002/feb07feb1302.html

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Avid

Avid annonced that its video editing software Xpress DV is now at version 3.0. Sounds like a good basic product. I am not sure what it offers in competition with Premier and Final Cut Pro, but if you are already an Xpress user, the upgrade price is quite reasonable. (Price: $1,699; upgrade, between $99 and $199.) However the Mac version won't ship until the middle of the year. For more information see
http://www.avid.com

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PowerBook Manuals

Got an old Powerbook, without manuals? Apple has come to your rescue. According to the Ron Carlson at Insanely Great Mac, there are manuals in the Apple Knowledge Base. For example PB G3 Manuals are at:
http://kbase.info.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/kbase.woa/115/wa/query?type=id&val=50017
or Duo Manuals at:
http://kbase.info.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/kbase.woa/100/wa/query?type=id&val=50022
Others are as well, my Powerbook 520C manual was at:
http://kbase.info.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/kbase.woa/wa/query?type=id&val=50021
You can read the full story with some additional links at:
http://www.insanely-great.com/news/01/1505.html
or you can go to Apple and search for yourself. (Must register for Knowledge Base access.)
http://kbase.info.apple.com/

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CharisMac

IGM's Remy Davison also reported that CharisMac is getting very aggressive in its competition with Toast by offering $50 off its normal price. Through the end of March, you can get Discribe for as low as $29..95.Full story at:
http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=27

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Microsoft

A number of computer manufactures are claiming that MS has increased demands on them including giving them rights to patents. (Are we really surprised?) See the full story at:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/2715492.htm

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27 GB DVD

According to ichael Flaminio at Insanely Great Mac, a new standard for using blue-lasers will allow 27 GB DVD disks in future devices.
This will really allow a lot of data in a single disk. (More than 5 times the current DVD disks.) Full story at:
http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=30

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Adobe

According to Remy Davison in another Insanely Great Mac story, Adobe is offering a large rebate to users of Quark Express that switch to InDesign 2.0. They are offering a $300 rebate to all customers of Quark using version 3.x and newer of Express. Full story at:
http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=32

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Wal-Mart

Perhaps a sign of things to come The Register is quoting a CNET article that says Wal-Mart is selling IBM compatible PCs with NO operating system on its web site. Without monitor, the 1 GHz Duron or Celeron models start at $399 and go up to $869 for 2 GHz machines with 256 megs of RAM. Microsoft has always claimed that such systems were an invitation for people to pirate software. Wal-Mart seems to think that the choice of the OS is up to their customers. Therefore customers can use Linux or even an old copy of BE to run their machines. It will be really interesting to see if this becomes a trend. Story at:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/24165.html

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Apple, Ericsson, Sun

The above companies have gone together to develop a mobile MPEG-4 delivery systems. They are trying to setup Quicktime as a standard for mobile communications. Full story at:
http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020213S0029

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RealNetworks

Meanwhile, according to the Wall Street Journal, RealNetworks have announced plans to begin selling software that will let wireless carriers deliver audio and video to mobile devices as well. Their software is called RealSystems Mobile and is inteded for wireless networks based on 2.5G and 3G networks. So the AES alliance above is not the only one going this route. Things will continue to be interesting for some time. (I don't have a link to the article as it is a subscription model.) But you can get more details at
http://www.RealNetworks.com

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VersionTracker

VersionTracker gets great publicity in this Wired article about how some Mac (and computer users in general) are obsessive about keeping their OS and software up to date. Full story at:
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,50329,00.html

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Wi-Fi Metro

mBusiness has an article about Wi-Fi Metro wireless. It is an ISP starting up in the San Francisco Bbay area. They are planning on being in 50 additional areas by the end of the year. This sounds like a great way to get connected. Hope it does better than some of the other "wireless" connectivity solutions in the past. Full story at:
http://www.mbusinessdaily.com/story/news/MBZ20020219S0008

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SystemWorks

Symantec has announced an Internet Security package from OS X. (Technically Norton SystemWorks for the Macintosh version 2.0.) SW is a suite that provides NUM and NAV as well as Spring Cleaning, Alsoft's DiskWarrior and Dantz' Retrospect Express Backup. Seems like all they are missing is a Firewall product. Wonder why it wasn't included. They do have such a product. Maybe that is to keep the price down. But then, why include DiskWarrior. That is a product that is competitive to NUM. If you are a new user and not already have many of these pieces of software, this would certainly be worth doing. At $129, it is certainly competitive with the Casady & Green product. Though I would be hard pressed to choose between them. More info at:
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/sysworks/mac/

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Apple Stores

In his Byte of the Apple column, written for the on-line version of Business Week, Charles Haddad does a good job of analyzing the profit and success of the Apple retail stores. IMHO, what it sounds like what they need to do to turn a profit is add some Apple logo shirts, posters and other souvenirs. What do you think? Full story at:
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/feb2002/nf20020220_9570.htm

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Web Site #1 of the Week: WEBSPEED

Ok, just how fast is your broadband connection? Are you reall operating at 50 times your dialup speed? With WEBSPEED, yo can find out in 30 seconds. It measures throughput in bytes per second and modem speed in kilobits per second. To make sure you are getting a good reading, just don't check once. This was obtained via NeatNetTricks. For info on how to subscribe, send a blank email to info-neatnettricks@silver.lyris.net . Just use this link:
http://www.numion.com/YourSpeed/checkup.php

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Web Site #2 of the Week: FIGLETS and ASCII Graphics

A figlet is a way to make large letters out of ordinary text. program called FIGLET can use a variety of special effects to create text. It looks like they have them all covered. For a collection Advanced ASCII Graphics try: http://huizen.dds.nl/~mwpieter/sigs
These last two came from The Tourbus. You can subscribe to them at: http://www.TOURBUS.com
You can get Figlets for your computer at:
http://ianchai.50megs.com/figlet.html

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User Group Site of the Week: MacTechnics

I haven't been around the MacTechnics group in a while. Take a peek at their web site.
If you are particularly proud of your group's site, how about letting me know.
http://www.mactechnics.org/

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Quote of the week: Henry David Thoreau

"It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?"

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UG Tips: Special Offers and Deals

Recently the Apple User Group mail list had a discussion on special offers from vendors. It was immediately pointed out that groups that come across special offers need to share them with other groups. There are a number of ways to do that.
__ One is to post it to the mailing list. (Subscribe at: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/augb).
__ Another is to report the offer to the regional liaisons by sending it to lorene@mac.com
__ Another way is to turn it in to your's truly, who creates a monthly list and distributes it via a PDF file. Of course there are some user group only offers that require codes. For those, you will have to contact your user group leader. We will not publish those for general audiences.
__ Also some user groups maintain pages of specials. For example: Washington Apple Pi has: http://www.wap.org/specials/default.html
__ As always you can send in any cool resources you find using the User Group Network Resource Manager input form at: http://www.user-groups.net/resources/terms.html where you'll find instructions on using content specific forms in the User Group Network.
__ So there are a wealth of ways to share offers. If you would like to get on my mailing list, please send me an e-mail at the address below.

Remember, I invite all user groups to use this column in full or in pieces in your newsletter. Or add a link to their web site. I 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.
http://www.user-groups.net/InfoManager/

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News and Info you can use...

The Info Manager invites user groups to use his column in full or in pieces in their newsletter. 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 just provide him with the link.
Use this address:
mailto:Infomanager@user-groups.net

or... our online Information form

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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