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Editor's Notes
Fred Showker,
Editor/Publisher, User Group Network News
- Welcome to the opening of the 2001 Holidays...
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_ * Great Downloads in time for the Holidays
; _ * Play some Chess over the holidays
; _ * Better multimedia player makes better slide shows
; _ * Sony Handheld? You need the Missing Sync
; _ * Another really great "stupid" web trick
; _ * Printing 'Smart' just got easier
; _ * Killer text editing for both platforms !
; _ * Manipulating huge text files from server logs...
; _ * Alternative to QuickTime? iMovie? Get HIP
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- Great Downloads in time for the Holidays
- - With the holidays just around the corner, I've selected this month's favorite downloads with an eye on fun and entertainment. Nothing beats some cool computer entertainment when the folks and relatives roll in. Our favorite is browsing photos from holidays past. I've maintained my collection of digital photos on the home hard drive since the first Cassio digital camera came out in 97. Three cameras later, we're still enjoying all the benefits of digital cameras, especially when amongst friends and family. Also for the holidays is a handy sync utility so the Sony hand-held owners out there can hook up. I'll wrap up this month with a couple of killer text editors, and a couple of really whacky web tricks as well. Of course, all these will be posted at http://www.user-groups.net/shareware/index.html
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- Play some Chess over the holidays
- - As the relatives roll in for the holidays, you'll be wondering what to do to entertain them. How about a little game of chess? Enter ChessWorks 3.0, the free multiplayer, cross platform, chess game that is playable over the internet or a LAN. ChessWorks is strictly multiplayer so you don't have to worry about losing to the computer every time. Version 3 was developed from the ground up providing more features and improved stability over previous versions. The list of new features contains game clocks, more customization, full PGN support, resizable graphics, and much more. ChessWorks version 3 is available for Mac OS 8 and 9, Mac OS X, and Win32. - Thanks to: Ekim Software for this item. File it under: Games: strategy, chess, table games. Zoom on over to: http://www.ekimsw.com/chessworks/
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- Better multimedia player makes better slide shows
- - Another great piece of software to have when the folks come to visit is Archer. All along we've said iView Multimedia Pro is the best slide show and media catalogger out there. We still believe that, but Eridanus has now launched Archer their free OS X Multimedia Player and we're blown away! Archer is a free, easy-to-use slide show play for OS X that lets you combine still images, audio, and video files into the same slide. With Archer you can also run several slide shows at the same time. Each slide show can be configured and sized differently. To make navigating through the images easy, a scroll bar is available when not in full screen mode. You can even navigate through the images while the slide show is playing...just in case you want to go back an see an image again. Some people are even using Archer as a video jukebox simply by turning on the Random Playback option and importing a folder of video files. Re-size the player, position it in the corner, hit the Space Bar, and enjoy the show. - Thanks to: Eridanus, Inc. for this item. File it under: Multimedia: authoring, video, slideshow, editing, DVD To get Archer, go to: http://www.eridanus.com/products/products.html
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- Sony Handheld? You need the Missing Sync
- - Is there a Sony handheld under the tree this year? Then, you'll also need the Missing Sync -- a collection of USB drivers, software and coupons enabling full usage of the popular Palm OS based Sony Clie handhelds with USB equipped Macs. The Missing Sync provides the power to HotSync a Sony Handheld with any USB equipped Mac via Sony Handheld USB cradle or cable. You can Install files and perform backups with Palm Desktop; mount the Memory Stick on the Mac Desktop as a removable disk and synchronize the time between Sony Handheld and Mac. You even get the HotTime clock synchronization conduit from Aladdin Systems (a $9.95 Value!), along with valuable coupons worth up to $40 towards the purchase of WordSmith, Web Confidential Mac/Palm OS bundle, PalmPrint, The Athlete's Diary, Take An Order!, On Hand, CatScan, and PocketTimer. The Missing Sync has a single copy price of $29.95 408-293-7299 - Thanks to: Mark Space for this item. File it under: Mobile computing, hand helds, Sony, syncronize files, USB http://www.markspace.com/missingsync.html
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- Another really great "stupid" web trick
- - SnapperHead is a handy little app that sends screenshots to people who enter your IP address into a web browser. Simply launch SnapperHead, then send a friend your IP address (it is shown on the SnapperHead window under "Snaps Served"). When they type that Internet address into the location field of a web browser, they will be sent, as an image in their browser, a picture of your screen. That's all there is to it! Interesting concept, eh? Direct Download: http://homepage.mac.com/johnnycat/software/SnapperHead.sit - Thanks to: John Schilling for this item. File it under: Misc or Novelty online stuff. Here's where you can find it: http://www.stimpsoft.com/products/snapperhead.html
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- Printing 'Smart' just got easier
- - Well known Mac shareware developer, Steve Becker, has released WebPrint Plus 5.0 -- an easy-to-use and very highly rated Mac-only utility that provides users with unique, powerful, and customizable tools for gathering, saving, and printing information from almost anywhere -- including both the Internet and programs that usually don't print! WebPrint Plus eliminates problems users experience when printing from their web browsers, accelerates printing, saves users money by significantly reducing the amount of ink/toner and paper they use when printing, and provides users with powerful options when gathering, saving, and printing information that are not available elsewhere! WebPrint Plus works in most programs and is especially useful when dealing with the large amount of information that is available while working with AOL, web browsers, and email clients. A free, fully functional 10-day demonstration version of WebPrint Plus 5.0 can be downloaded -- the package includes a 30-day money back satisfaction guarantee and costs only $29.95 (Upgrades are only $14.95.) - Thanks to: Steve Becker for this item. File it under: Word and Text Processing Download it at: http://www.kagi.com/MacEase
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- Killer text editing for both platforms !
- - How many times have I talked about the powers of cross-media publishing through the powers of databases coupled with killer text editors? Now iReplace gives you some awesome text manipulation capabilities. iReplace allows you to specify multiple items to find and replace or just to search for those items. iReplace allows you to select special characters (such as ) and will replace those with the html equal for those items. With iReplace 1.0 you gain the ability to select an individual file or select a folder to scan -- running search and replace on all the files in the directory. It supports html Files (.htm;.html;.html;.asp;.php), Plain Text files (.asc;.ascii;.text;.txt), Rich Text Files (.rtx), Tab Separated Files (.tsv), or just pick which special characters to search and replace. Best of all you can save the current search list, you can even load a saved search list for those you use over and over. This is a 30-day demo that can be unlocked at anytime by registering for just $12.50. - Thanks to: Luke Jackson for this item. File it under: Word and Text Processing http://homepage.mac.com/lajdesign/
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- Manipulating huge text files from server logs...
- - Speaking of heavy duty text editing, have you ever opened the log file from a web server? How about a gigabyte text file? If you don't have a web site you can just skip this one. But if you do, and you're sick and tired of trying to get meaningful info out of your logs you should take a look at Analog Helper. Here's a graphical configuration tool for Analog, which is a free program to analyze the logfiles from your web server. Analog Helper lets you control and preview the results of hundreds of settings. It supports report columns and drawing pie charts for Analog 5.0, and gives you the ability to specify a request file name prefix for specific input files -- which, believe me, can be a blessing for busy web masters running Macintosh equipment. - Thanks to: Gideon Greenspan for this item. File it under: Web Design and Development Check this one out at: http://www.sigsoftware.com/analoghelper/
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- Alternative to QuickTime? iMovie? Get HIP
- - HipFlics is an economical video compression tool supporting all QuickTime 5 codecs, including Sorenson Video 3. It's the first cross platform video compression tool to fully support all of QuickTime 5's codecs. HipFlics does for video compression what Apple's iMovie does for video editing. HipFlics allows everyday consumers to produce high quality video for the web or CD-ROM easily and quickly -- use a drag and drop interface and timeline controls to process almost any digital video with ease. Use the pro tools for cropping, watermarking, and filter application. Grab a demo version or purchase for $99.95 - Thanks to: Bill Stuart, UGNN for this item. File it under: Multimedia: video, slideshow, editing, DVD You can take a look at http://www.totallyhip.com
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Fred Showker
Editor in Chief: The User Group Network News Service
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From Fred Showker, Editor/Publisher,
User Group Network News: December 15 User Group Network News Service at http://www.user-groups.net/news/index.html.
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