UGN Info Manager UGN Info Manager
Apple is celebrating the first anniversary of its iTunes Music Store. Launched one year ago this month with free tunes, and extended rights package, videos, trailers, and a free download each week... check it out
Recent member and non-member concerns about spyware and adware have prompted Fred to assemble this ground-breaking white paper on spyware. This is the first section: What is Spyware? ... Second section: industry resources tell the full story ; and third section: Spyware - The key to guarding yourself against the evil side of spyware - leading resources for protecting yourself
Also read the official position of the FTC, and their testimony given to the Senate Subcommittee last week... Read more...
This is one of those "energizer bunny" Mac user groups; they just keep going and going and going! With a current membership of well over 200 members, SMUG continues an ongoing tradition of award-winning service to Mac users in the Onondaga County area as well as the entire central region of New York State. Paul Richards, Chris Campbell and an active board of officers are steering SMUG competently through the group's 25th year of full services, meetings, programs, and their award-winning newsletter. Since 1979 they have enjoyed a high percentage meeting turnout and participation in activities including their Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Special Interest Groups (SIGs). Happy Birthday, Syracuse MUG, and congratulations on your 25th year of service to the community! Bravo! Syracuse MUG
The Federal government has charged four people under the "Can Spam" act -- two spam operations that have clogged the Internet with millions of deceptive messages and violated federal laws. Hopefully more to come and others will drop out. Read more...
Hey... you laughed earlier this year when we reported on AOL's sweepstakes to give away a $47,000 dollar Porsche Boxster S Cabriolet... well, on Friday Charles Chase, a 73 year old Veteran from Northern Virginia is now driving that Boxster! Just rewards for the spammer? Yup -- the Porsche was formerly the property of the spammer, confiscated by AOL following their legal victory. (Applause!)
Click to see a Photo ... Read more at USA Today
This could hamper Google's IPO, although I really don't think it will have much effect. The third largest insurance company is suing Google over its selling of trademarks as part of its search. It could mean that competitors may pop up when its name is searched. Read more...
According to CNET News.com (4/26/04) - "Sony debuted on Monday optical storage discs that use blue-laser technology to hold more data and that offer improved durability." These disks are similar to disks being sold in Japan to consumers. These disks are for Libraries and others with high data needs. The consumer disks in Japan use the same technology, but are aimed at consumers that want to save large files such as video. The paper content will make them cheaper. Read more...
As you know FileMaker Pro had been upgraded to version 7. Now Filemaker Inc. has upgraded Meeting and tasks to version 2.0. These are meeting and task management software that work with Filemaker. They will now work with version 7.0. Read more...
This is a humorous adaptation of the Star Wars kid video and scenes from commercial movies including Kill Bill. Click to see the movie now.
I remember when the Amiga had a Mac emulator. Now after all these years, it is the Amiga that is being emulated. Only, this one appears to run on a PC. For details see: amigaforever.com Story from Langa.com
You knew it had to happen someday. Network Associates has decided to concentrate on virus protection. Therefore, the name change. Read more...
Internet Week has a story about how the advertising have figured out a way to keep their pop-ups from being blocked. Good news for advertisers, I am sure. But the rest of us will just have to learn to close the window WITHOUT purchasing anything. Then they should eventually go away. But as long as they produce sales, they won't. Read more...
As part of my work here at RadioShack as well as this newsletter, I subscribe to somewhere around 80 different newspaper and trade publication newsletters. Image my surprise last week when I got an e-mail from siliconvalley.com and they had completed a drawing and my name was picked for a 20 Gigabyte iPod. I had to go install a Firewire card in my Beige G3, but that was easily accomplished. Now I can start drooling over all the iPod accessories. Like the one my boss's wife got him. A G5. Any way, it was a terrific surprise that matches the quality of the articles from siliconvalley.com which I believe cover stories from 3 Bay are papers, the San Francisco Chronicle and Gate and the San Jose Mercury News. If you want to do more to keep up with the industry, you couldn't do any better for the money.
Consumers now have a new avenue to pursue to resolve credit disputes they believe were not handled properly. The FTC will jump into the middle and send the three big credit bureaus complaints from consumers that concern disputes they have over inaccurate or incomplete information in their credit bureau files. The bureaus are suppose to report back the results to the FTC. For more information on how to dispute your report, go to: ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/fcra.htm
I have always bee skeptical of voting machines that don't allow for a paper trail. I guess that is a hold over from all those accounting classes I took in college. Now it looks like California may be doing something about theirs. Now if the other states would just follow in their footsteps. Read more...
ViaClean has reviewed a number of well known delete-history, internet-washer and internet-eraser programs in all price categories, including freeware delete cookie software. The quality of the clean pc programs differed widely. Some turned out to be outright dangerous for the average user because they don't even delete history or clean registry as they promised. Read more...
Chris Clegg has pointed us to a new research report that now strongly supports the link between call center performance and customer loyalty. Over 800 interviews of US consumers who contacted a company with a question or problem indicate that consumers are much less likely to buy a company's products if they have a poor experience when calling that company's call center for help. But of course, you probably could have guessed that for yourself, right? Read more...
Bill Hendricks has tipped us to yet another Basic MAC OS help site. This site helps my students learn some of the basics of the OS X operating system. It also introduces them to the type of tuturials and training available with a MAC.Com subscription. Read more...
Our item last week "AOL Madness" brings this reply from a reader in Baltimore, MD
Fred, I have a small 500 member newsletter and AOL has been reeking havoc! For the past two months I have been getting back about 150 aol subscribers because of a "suspected" URL. I finally had to stop linking articles to my website. I am sorry to hear about this but now at least I see it just isn't some stupid mistake on my part. "
Thanks for writing! (original news item)
Hartley Jim Jackson reviews the latest O'Reilly book from their new Studio Series -- Digital Photography: Expert Techniques
Following the spyware story, UGN shareware library spotlights MacScan -- detection and removal for keystroke Loggers and Trojans from your Macintosh ... MacScan
You can eat with false teeth, walk with a prosthesis, but you cannot see through artificial eyes. Think about it. May 8th is America's National Occupational Safety and Health Week. 1000 workers suffer eye injury on the job each week and a growing concern is computer related eye problems. Vision Xperts offers a free safety poster touting the importance of eye safety. See Preferred Resources for lots of other resources, and for the poster go to: wecare4eyes.com
MacMovieMaker, is focusing on the creation of movies using the Mac. It is to offer articles, tutorials, reviews, and how-to's on every aspect of video production, according its editors Mark Beazley and Papa Romeo. Read more...
Go ahead and pop bubblewrap to your heart's content at: virtual-bubblewrap.com
According to the FBI, internet crime is growing fast, and children are the fastest growing victim pool. Now, the technology used by law enforcement to catch internet predators is available to parents to protect their kids online. Read more...
UGN News Editor Fred Showker cites his favorite news items from the Wired News service -- including the Google IPO, Spammers Canned, Legal Music Copying, iPod Ear bud shoot-out, Apple rebuffs RealNetworks, Online pirate drag-net, taxing the web, porn malware, TVO clones and more .... Read more...
"It is the nature of a man as he grows older...to protest against change, particularly change for the better."
- John Steinbeck
Have a great week...
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