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Our friend David Pogue is the host at the Tech Fair 2005. The Fair is being held at the Discovery Museum and Planetarium in Bridgeport, Connecticut with product viewings from Sony, Panasonic, Apple, Canon, Casio, Hewlett Packard, Nikon, XM Satellite Radio and more." David has asked all neighboring user groups to come and help it be a big success in its first year. More details at: www.discoverymuseum.org
Ok, how long will it take to download a 1.19 megabyte file if using a 56K modem. How about a 28.8K modem? My old Prodigy friend, Patrick Crispen has published a story in his Tourbus newsletter about the Intel download calculator. Normally it would take 7 steps to get to the answer: Covert file size to kilobytes, then to bytes then to bits. After that, divide by 28,800 (speed of connection), to see how many seconds it will take to do the download, then divide by 60 to get minutes. And then convert the decimal back to seconds. To download a 1.19 Mb file using a 28.8 dial-up modem would be about 5 minutes and 47 seconds.
Now want an easier way? Use the INTEL Personal Calculator. So now you can tell people wanting to download a file from you MUG site just how long it will take at various speeds. The full article isn't available yet at the web site, but you can subscribe to the newsletter at: http://www.tourbus.com And check out the archives. There is a great link to how to setup an urban legend combat kit. It seems like I get an urban legend forwarded to me at least once a month. ... see the full story...
The New York Times has an article about how to do back-ups. For both Macs and PCs. One point it makes is:
"But most of the experts (and amateurs too) wrote to say that it's not enough to back up your My Documents folder on Windows, because it doesn't include your e-mail, preference settings, programs, and a million other little changes that that you've made to your system. (Backing up your Home folder on the Macintosh is a much better bet, because it DOES contain all your e-mail and settings.)"
It is a good read with good advice. We all need regular backups. I recently purchased a flash drive to do that doing my Home folder. But I also would like to backup my music and photos. CDs can help with some of that, and most of my music came from CDs I already own. So really it is only the photos that I need to worry about. I think my next step is to get a Firewire drive to use as a mirror. But, I still need to think about an off premises copy.
Be aware, that the NYT is a big spammer, so it is best to use one of the alternative sign in codes that we have talked about in the past. Read more...
Skype 1.3 for Mac OS X adds multi-chat, drag and drop contacts, a new services and alert interface, a red badge on the Dock, API support, animated emoticons, support for selecting multiple contacts, better support for "Do-Not-Disturb" mode, and Growl support. (Growl is a free addition to the Mac OS that provides a unified notification engine for all applications). skype.com
According to an article in the San Jose Mercury News, and others, EBay has offered to buy Skype for $3 billion. Skype is an VoIP Service provider and has been in business for 2 years. If I was offered $3 billion for a 2 year old business I would take it. However, some people think that the rumor is just a way for Skype to promote its service. ... see the full story...
Apple has attended an event in the United Kingdom for at lest 10 years, but according to a story on MacWorld UK, they will be attending this years show in addition to the Paris show. The London show will be October 27-29. No word if any company officals will do a Keynote. It has been announced that there will be no keynote in Paris. (Now lets root for Boston!) ... see the full story...
Can you imagine? Over 1000 ways to "upgrade" your iPod. Of course how many of those thousand are covers and cases? We may never know. But it still is an impressive number. Read more...
Chicago Public Schools are rewarding schools and families for going to school. The schools will spend about a half a million dollars trying to make sure that students show up for classes. They are not just being generous, because for every 1 percent increase in school attendance, they will get $18 million more from the state. Prizes include iPods, Macs, concert tickets, movie passes and more. And here I thought winning was its own reward. Read the full story with free registration at the chicagotribune.com
Yes, someone took Andy's original idea for a Mac aquarium and used it to create an aquarium out of an old Mac Cube. It really does make a better aquarium, because it is clear on all four sides. Check it out at: home.comcast.net
Nisus has released version 2.5 of its Writer Express. Nisus Writer Express has long been a Word compatible alternative to the Microsoft product at less than 1/2 the price of the stand alone Word offer. New features of Express include: Right to Left Text Input (for some foreign languages), Bullets and Numbering, LinkBack Support, Improved Style Sheet Navigator, Faster File Opening, Built-in Tables and much more. See the details and download a trial version at: www.nisus.com
We told you about the 2004 battery replacement program, now there's another one covering 12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch PowerBook G4 and 15-inch PowerBook G4 batteries made from October 2004 through May 2005. ... see the full story...
If you want to get the latest and greatest, Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 is now available for download. According to Mozilla, this rev offers better support for Mac OS X -- but watch out, this beta is for developers, testers, extension/theme authors. There's an impressive list of new features to try -- and please report bugs to be fixed in the final release, expected by the end of the year. www.mozilla.org
Some of you may have noticed that InfoManager was not in your mail box this morning, and that the web site still says 'last week.'
That's because the final phase (assembly, coding, mailing and deployment to the web,) was slightly delayed for technical reasons. I'm sitting next to the savage surf of North Carolina's Outer Banks just miles from Cape Hatteras and evacuated Ocracoke Island where hurricane Ophelia is due some time this week. Internet connection has been hindered somewhat, and our only connection now is through AOL dial-up.
Hopefully I'll get FTP running and web site updates before Ophelia makes landfall tomorrow night.
Fred
"The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channeled toward some great good."
- Brian Tracy
"The good deed you do today for a brother or sister in need will come back to you some day for humanity's a circle in deed."
- Robert Alan
"If you don't learn from your mistakes, there's no sense making them."
- unknown
Have a great week... (See last week)
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