UGN Info Manager UGN Info Manager
According to this article in MacWorld, there have been new announcements last week from open source competition to Microsoft Office for the Mac. One is NeoOffice/J. NeoOffice/J is a Mac OS X native version of the OpenOffice.org suite. OpenOffice itself is available for the Mac, but requires X11 installation and doesnít support printing.
Haansoft, also has announced that ThinkFree Office 3.0 will be available shortly after the Windows version appears later this month. ThinkFree is not free, but will probably sale for about $50 in the U.S.
Next year when the switch to Intel occurs, CodeWeaversí CrossOver Office will also be available. The story also mentions a couple of other alternatives. Read the full story at: www.macworld.co.uk
The BugBlog tries to document bugs and flaws on both Windows and Mac systems. Their free service is usefull, but they also offer a paid service, which includes an RSS feed and access to the archives. See it at: www.bjkresearch.com
DwayneWright is a FileMaker trainer and developer. As such, he has set up a web site to help with development of FileMaker databases. See his site at: www.dwaynewright.com
AirFoil is made by the same company that makes AudioHijack Pro. While AudioHijack enable your recording of audio on the Mac, AirFoil lets you listen to any audio files on the Mac via your Airport Express. Read more and get it at: www.rogueamoeba.com
This site has a comprehensive list of Mac news. It claims to update every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day. See it at: www.sitelink.net
KCRW-FM, LAXL General Manager Ruth Seymour was getting her teeth cleaned in February when her dentist suggested the station adopt a new technology called podcasting.
Apple Computer Inc. this week rolled out an updated version of its music software, iTunes, that prominently features podcasts of such KCRW programs as comedian Harry Shearer's "Le Show" and film critic Elvis Mitchell's "The Treatment."
The nonprofit station relies on the generosity of 500,000 over-the-air listeners and funds from program sponsors. If the trend continues, Seymour anticipates the station may raise an additional $1 million a year, a big potential shot in the arm for its $10-million annual budget.
KCRW's experience signals that podcasting may soon join Internet radio as a mainstream way for local radio stations to distribute programs nationwide. Although 22 million Americans own portable devices capable of playing podcasts, before this week only about 6 million people had downloaded programs, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. KCRW is one of the public radio stations that I listen to at work.
But I haven't come across the two shows mentioned above. Thus, I didn't recognize them in the new list on the iTunes store. Listening to Podcasts are so much easier now. Read the full story (Free registration required.) www.latimes.com
Dave Winer, one of the inventors of RSS, criticizes Apple for its implementation of Podcast subscriptions in iTunes. Apple aims to build podcast support directly into both the software and iPod, but leaders in the RSS community, including the standard's own creator, are taking Apple to task for developing an ill-advised DTD without seeking input and guidance from the community.
So-called "media RSS" implementations would enable podcasts to be categorized by any syndication service, the way existing RSS tags today enable text pages--including Tom's Hardware Guide pages--to be listed on many syndication services today, including Moreover.
But last week, responding to Apple's iTunes 4.9 release on one of his many blogs, Dave Winer, the creator of the original RSS standard and its most vocal supporter, chastised Apple for explicitly using the name of its technology, "itunes," within the DTD namespace....
This is not the first time that Dave Winer and Apple has butted heads. He previously had a macro program for scripting on the Mac, that Apple over took with AppleScripting. Read the full story at: www.tomshardware.com
Last week, law enforcement agents from 11 countries took part in a series of raids on 'warez' sites throughout the world. Led by the FBI Cyber Division over 90 searches were made worldwide and a number of arrests have been made. The FBI claims to have taken down eight of the major warez networks in the world.
The people behind the sites are alleged to be behind the cracking of the copy protection and the distribution of hundreds of well-known movies and software including AutoCAD 2006, Adobe Photoshop, and the movies 'Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith' and 'Mr and Mrs Smith'.
The DoJ promises that this is just the beginning. It says that more than 120 leading members of the organised online piracy underground were identified by the investigation to date, and as the investigations continue, additional targets will be identified and pursued. Read the full story
Here is an essay that talks about the momentum in the personal computer space. It is written by James Stoup, but it basically says that Microsoft's momentum is negative, Linux is positive and Apple's is off the chart. He thinks that Microsoft will have to make some big changes if they are going to be influential a decade from now. Read the full essay
If you searched for "sticky fingers" on the web, at one time you'd pull up a filthy porno web site. Last week the Columbia, S.C. barbecue chain "Sticky Fingers" finally purchased the domain for $6,000. Hits have already more than quadrupled and online sales have doubled for the Barbeque chain. One down, fifty thousand to go. www.wjla.com
The OS Views site has an interesting story about running new operating systems on legacy Macs...
"The other day I found an old Performa 6300CD PowerMac that had been abandoned and was sitting by the trash. To my surprise, pressing the power button yielded the soothing Macintosh startup sound and it proceeded to boot MacOS... osviews.com
Commute to work? Then you'll find a healthy assortment of widgets to help you plan your trips to and fro. Seattle, Ottawa, and Milwaukee residents, for example, might want to download the widgets that let them tap into various webcams 'round town.
Even if you're not lucky enough to have widget webcams in the city where you live, you'll find numerous traffic-related Dashboard widgets, including the rather popular Yahoo! Local Traffic widget. And if you commute by rail, you have train schedule widgets for Italy, Vienna, Holland, the UK, and the Washington DC Metro area to keep you on track.
You'll discover even more commuter-friendly widgets--including one to find the lowest gas prices in your area--if you visit Apple's Transportation category page.
What else can you accomplish with Dashboard Widgets? Plenty. After all, Apple now offers over 700 Dashboard widgets. ... see the full story...
Apple has reduced the price of the 1GB iPod shuffle to just $129. So now you can revel in uncertainty--and enjoy the smallest, most wearable iPod ever--for less. Read more...
An InfoManager reader writes...
> Fred, I dropped my G4 Aluminum Powerbook on a concrete floor today, from a height of over four feet. The Apple Store said $1200 to fix it."
We recommend calling the folks at: PowerBookResQ (1-866-Mac-Repair) 866-622-7372. They offer diagnostics for $49 which includes overnight shipping both ways in a shipping container. If it turns out that the PowerBook is not worth fixing, they'll negotiate a price for the carcass. If you're into eBay, you can chunk that PowerBook up and sell Powerboards, hard drives memory, keyboards, and other components piece by piece. www.PowerBookResQ.com
According to the Federal Crime Watch and AntiChildPorn.org your children are in more danger than ever on the internet. Pass this along to your UG members and friends to impress upon their young computer users these ten rules of the Internet for kids:
1) Never reveal your name, school, home or e-mail address or phone number to anyone you meet online,
2) Never give out passwords to anyone that asks. Ever.
3) Use an alias and user name that does not reveal school, gender, age, street address, city, or real name.
4) Never meet a chat friend in person without a parent or adult along with you.
5) Never open or respond to e-mail messages unless you know who sent them.
6) Never open or download a file from someone you don't know.
7) Never send a picture of yourself, or accept one from someone online without parent or guardian permission.
8) Never install and/or use a web cam while online without parent or guardian permission.
9) Report to a parent or guardian immediately if someone online says something or asks you something that makes you feel uncomfortable, or that you don't understand.
10) Only be online during the time that has been agreed upon between you and your parent or guardian.
If you have URLs to submit regarding child pornography websites, please use the Report Child Pornography form
If you are in the Augusta County Virginia area, go Mary Baldwin College, in Staunton, at 7 PM tomorrow evening for Congressman Robert Goodlatte's "Town Hall" meeting. This meeting will feature our own Fred Showker with the UGN Safenet "Child Safety on The Internet" presentation. The FTC will also be present with the latest information on Phishing and online crime, and the Congressman will outline new internet related bills being introduced to Congress this year. UGNN SAFENET
This week it's utilities for the OS and Development, including Code Stylist PHP Studio code generator * XHTML editor * SQLiteManager * Meridian clock utility * iListen MacSpeech localization * MenuCalendarClock for Tiger * PC-Mac-Net FileShare with PeeCees * iSay voice messaging * File Synchronization * MainMenu, and more in this month's Shareware Manager
"Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold."
Helen Keller
"One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency."
- Arnold Glasow
Have a great week... (See last week)
User Group Network Affiliates may reprint articles as long as full credit and a link to this web site: http://www.user-groups.net/info/ provided. Other Non-profit or non-commercial publications should contact us. The UGNN cannot guarantee accuracy or timeliness of articles beyond the date of publication. All URLs, links and email addresses are accurate as of date of publication. Clicking links in articles older than 30 days may result in a broken link. If you encounter a broken link, please let us know.
Return to: the top of this page, or the INDEX for this department
Exit to: The User Group Network front page
Contact: The Editor, Webmaster or Membership Director