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Redstone Software Launches Industry's First Test Automation Product for Mac OS X

Redstone Software, Inc., the leader in

easy-to-use, cross-platform test automation tools, today announced the

immediate availability of Eggplant, the first test automation product for

Mac OS X.



Eggplant for Mac OS X is a test automation tool that allows automation of

almost any manual test. Eggplant tests the end user experience, much as a

manual tester would. The interactive scripting development capability

allows even an unsophisticated user to start using Eggplant within hours.

Eggplant's capabilities are also powerful enough to support the most

complex environments and experienced users. Eggplant's strengths are its

ease of use and learning, its versatility, and its cost-effectiveness.

"We have been entirely focused on delivering a product that is both easy to

use and also powerful enough to automate testing," said John McIntosh, CEO

and president, Redstone Software, Inc. "I'm proud to be part of bringing

this innovative product to the market."

"Mac OS X's open, UNIX-based architecture continues to attract new

developers and great applications to the Mac platform," said Ron Okamoto,

Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. "Eggplant provides

unique test automation capabilities that are exciting for the Mac OS X

developer community."

"Redstone has been very responsive in addressing our test automation

requirements," said Jamie Mackey, Quark Inc. "I am very confident that

Eggplant will keep pace with our changing needs."

"The Eggplant test automation tool has the potential to revolutionize

software testing in the Mac market," said Kevin Gallagher, VP Research &

Analyst Services. "An easy-to-use, reliable software testing product is

overdue in this market space."

"Eggplant is so simple; it's phenomenal," said Ray Bell, Technology

Director, Software Testing Solutions, LLC.

"I found Eggplant easy to install and am grateful to do away with the

typical 30 page installation guide," said a large Mac OS X software

publisher. "It's easy and fun to use and very intuitive. I am thrilled to

be working with Eggplant."

While Eggplant runs on Mac OS X, it uses a TCP/IP connection so that

development and testing operations can also occur in Mac OS 9, Windows,

Unix, Linux and other environments.

About Redstone Software, Inc.

Redstone Software, Inc., the leader in providing easy-to-use cross platform

test automation tools, was created in April 2002 to addresses the market

need for an easy-to-use, cross-platform automation tool.

Redstone was founded upon the belief that commercial test automation tools

are too complicated and have too many system dependencies to satisfactorily

address users' needs. Furthermore, many computing environments which could

benefit from automation technologies-including Macintosh and Linux-have

been ignored by competitive tool developers.

Redstone's vision is to serve these unique markets with technology

solutions. For more information, contact the company at (800) 891-3486 or

visit Redstone's web site at www.redstonesoftware.com.

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ActiveDeveloper v2.10

Today InterACTIVE-Technology

released ActiveDeveloper v2.10 - our Runtime Objective-C & C IDE, JIT

compiler and Debugger with support for Cocoa and WebObjects.

The ActiveDeveloper IDE cuts your API learning curve and allows incremental

Development of any Project. With ActiveDeveloper you get a Runtime Object

IDE allowing you to build NATIVE apps and servers directly at Runtime while

they run.

ActiveDeveloper - "Grow" your Apps - through incremental JIT Compilation

• Develop, Test, Debug and Play - at runtime
  
  
• Edit-compile-play cycles in 1-2 seconds
  
  
• Deploy NATIVE Apps - with NO ActiveDeveloper dependency
  
  

ActiveDeveloper - Pricing:

Commercial Single platform (Thin) multi user license - only $ 99


Personal Single platform (Thin) single user licenses - only $ 49


Educational Single platform (Thin) 5-pack user licenses - only $249

Download ActiveDeveloper from

http://www.interactive-technology.com

Screenshots of ActiveDeveloper:

http://www.interactive-technology.com/Screenshuts/

Get InterACTIVE with NATIVE Cocoa and WebObject.

For further information, please contact:

InterACTIVE-Technology


info@interactive-technology.com


http://www.interactive-technology.com

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Apple pulls all iPods from France stores

Apple has pulled all iPods from authorized Apple reseller stores in France today because the iPod outputs a maximum volume louder than 100 dB, which is the maximum allowed output by any audio device in France. Apple should be releasing a firmware update in early October to fix this problem.

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Synchronizing computers with iSync

After installing iSync on my iBook, I was able to sync it with my G4, which I had previously tested iSync on. While the sync went very smoothly, it's less useful than it could have been, since it's tied to .Mac.

The last time I ran iSync on my G4, I synced it to my .Mac account. When I installed iSync on my iBook, it gave me the option of merging data on this computer with .Mac or deleting & copying from .Mac. Since I didn't really maintain my addressbook on my iBook and I didn't have iCal installed until now, I chose to delete & overwrite. I also discovered that you have to install iCal before iSync, if it isn't already installed.

After completing the sync, all of the data in addressbook & iCal were copied perfectly to my iBook. Note that only addressbook & iCal data are synchronized - it doesn't do any file synchronization.

Being tied to .Mac is a significant disadvantage, since it requires you to sync one computer to .Mac before you can sync the other computer to it. It also requires you to be online or have a permanent internet connection to use it. On the plus side, it lets you synchronize even when you're traveling.

iSync would have been much more useful if it supported direct Rendezvous synchronization. It should automatically see any other Macs with iSync installed (just as iChat does), and let you sync directly with another computer. Maybe a future version will add that feature.

Being tied so closely with .Mac could be Apple's way to force users into buying .Mac accounts, and I certainly find iSync a much more compelling reason to join than the email and web hosting features. However, Apple shouldn't lock users out of basic functionality if they choose not to pay for .Mac services.

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Apple releases iSync beta

Apple has released the first public beta of iSync, a Jaguar utility for synchronizing data between multiple computers, PDAs, and other devices.



iSync lets you synchronize address book and iCal data between computers & devices. Note that it doesn't do file synchronization. Your .Mac account is used to synchronize multiple computers. Synchronizing Palm devices uses the Hotsync function of Palm Desktop 4 and is still pretty rough in this version. I don't have any bluetooth equipment or compatible phones, so I couldn't test those features.

iSync can be downloaded from this AppleCare document, which also provides additional information about the beta.

Before you synchronize your Palm device, you need to set up the iSync conduit in the HotSync conduit manager. You also need to set the address, datebook, and to do conduits to do nothing, so it will synchronize with Apple's addressbook & iCal via iSync instead of Palm Desktop.

Other synchronization options are set up in the iSync application.

Synchronizing with a palm device is a bit tricky in this version, and it failed on several attempts, although I did finally manage to synchronize successfully. When you click the Sync Now button in iSync, you will get an alert saying tthat you must press the hotsync button on your palm cradle. After you press the hotsync button and it connects to your Palm device, you also need to press the continue button on that alert to allow iSync to continue the sync. If you don't time it right, it will fail to connect to your PDA.

Hopefully this will be a lot smoother in the release version.

After you sync for the first time, it may find conflicts between your computer and the device. For each conflict, it will show both records and allow you to choose which one to use. You then need to sync again to resolve the conflicts.

I also found that it made a complete mess of my calendar, installing items from subscribed calendars I wasn't showing and didn't want to appear. It also duplicated many entries that were created separately in iCal and on my Visor.

Update: I found that simply hitting the hotsync button on my Handspring cradle will launch iSync when it runs the iSync conduit. It isn't necessary to use the sync now button in iSync.

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GUI front-end for installing open source software

FinkCommander provides a convenient graphical front end for the Mac OS X package manager, fink, which makes it easier to install, update, and maintain open source packages on your system.

With FinkCommander, you can easily see what packages are currently installed, which are out of date, and what must be installed or updated. You can easily update & install either from source or binary releases without having to open the terminal window or enter any commands.

All fink commands are available from the menus and toolbar, and when administrator access is required, it will use the standard Mac OS X authentication window.

To use FinkCommander, you must first install the fink package. Both are available from SourceForge.

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Server Upgrades

BounceWeb is doing a major upgrade this weekend, which may result in some downtime. After the upgrades are complete, the server should be much faster & more reliable.

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Apple extends .Mac signup deadline

Apple announced today that they're extending the signup deadline to Oct. 14 for iTools memebrs to sign up for .Mac service.

"The launch of the .Mac suite of Internet services and software has been a phenomenal success," Apple said. "In order to make sure that every iTools customer has the opportunity to take advantage of the special $49.95 membership offer, even the ones who've waited until the last minute, we've decided to extend the deadline."

Earlier this month, Apple announced that over 100,000 members signed up for .Mac services. Apple supposedly had 2.2 million iTools users, so of course many sites spun the news to say 2.1 million members didn't sign up for .Mac. Since a lot of people had several free iTools accounts, those numbers really aren't accurate.

I ended up joining .Mac for $49, but not for email & web hosting, both of which I get elsewhere.

The real incentives to sign up are free copies of Virex & Backup, iCal & iSync, other utilities such as Mac Slideshow Publisher, and the promise of future enhancements. According to rumors, Apple may eventually provide some type of dynamic DNS service similar to dyndns.org. I probably won't renew next year for $99, though.

I'm not surprised Apple extended the deadline when they saw many people were waiting until the last minute, and I wouldn't be surprised if they add other incentives before Oct. 14.

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Mac OS X attracting Linux users

Despite Apple targeting Windows users with their switch campaign, the largest potential audience of switchers is Unix & Linux users.

In this article on SlashDot, Hemos writes "Taco and I are both strongly considering beginning to use OSX as a primary laptops - anyone else looking at doing this?".

As anyone who's attended MacHack knows, CmdrTaco isn't know for being a Mac fan. Until now most Linux users haven't had a very favorable opinion about the Mac. However, that seems to have changed. Even among the hardore Linux users who read SlashDot, the replies to that article are strongly favorable towards Mac OS X.

I used Unix systems before I bought my first Mac in 1984 and I was always anticipating a nice version of Unix for the Mac. Apple's first attempt, A/UX, was a failure. It was slow, buggy, lacked many features and was incompatible with most other varieties of Unix. Even worse, it couldn't run Mac software very well.

With Mac OS X, Apple finally managed to combine the best of both worlds. We have a very compatible Unix system that can also run Mac software. It isn't surprising that Unix users would start taking interest, since below the surface, it's a very serious Unix system.

One of the big drawbacks of Linux is the lack of software. Very few major software publishers develop Linux software, and although free products such as The GIMP and StarOffice fill the gap, they lack many features of commercial products and aren't fully compatible with files producted by MS Office and other applications.

Mac OS X is the first consumer Unix system with a huge library of software available for it. In addition to Mac software, we have all of the necessary tools for porting other Unix software along with a nice X11 windowing system (which runs along with Aqua), and fink for installing ported Unix software.

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Server Problems

BounceWeb is currently upgrading their servers, which has resulted in some downtime & reliability problems.

The upgrades should be complete this weekend, after which it will be much faster & more reliable.

I've also set up a backup server, which will share the same database. If the problems get too bad, I now have the option of switching to that server, although the DNS change could cause additional downtime, so I would try to avoid switching.

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Microsoft Internet Explorer X 5.2.2

Microsoft has released security updates to Internet Explorer for Mac OS X and classic Mac OS.

Internet Explorer X 5.2.2 and 5.1.6 Classic resolve all known security vulnerabilities in previous versions of IE, including the one described in security bulletin MS02-050.

For more information & to download these updates, visit:

• http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/5888 (Mac OS X)
  
  
• http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/682 (Classic)
  
  

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Chimera 0.5

I haven't looked at Chimera for a while, but after getting annoyed at the slowness of Mozilla, bugs in IE, and problems with some sites in OmniWeb, I decided to try it again.

When I downloaded Chimera 0.5, I was pleasantly surprised by how far it came since the last version I tried. Although it's still not finished, it's actually a very usable browser. If you haven't tried it recently, take another look - you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Chimera 0.5 is one of the fastest browsers I've seen in OS X. It doesn't feel bloated like Mozilla and has a nice Aqua appearance. It rendered every site I've tried perfectly and hasn't had any problems with scripts (notably mail.com which gives a "javascript not enabled" error in OmniWeb even though I do have it enabled). It also works properly with the Ensim & Plesk control panels I use to administer this server, which won't work in OmniWeb.

For more information or to download the latest version, visit http://www.mozilla.org/projects/chimera/.

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Jaguar Open Source Update

The Darwin team has announced three major Open Source updates based on Mac OS X v10.2 "Jaguar": a Darwin 6.0.1 operating system release, several new Open Directory Plug-ins, and the first Open Source release of Rendezvous source code.

These releases underscore Apple's commitment to distributing core protocols in a manner compatible with true Open Source practices. For more information, please visit http://developer.apple.com/darwin.

The Darwin 6.0.1 kernel, which corresponds to Mac OS X v10.2 (Jaguar), features many enhancements from FreeBSD 4.4 and the KAME IPv6/IPsec code, and is one of the first Open Source operating system releases to be built using GCC 3.1. Darwin 6.0.1 features improved support for POSIX threads and adds several reentrant C library functions, as well as numerous new and updated libraries including ncurses, bzip, and SASL. Darwin now uses bash as the default /bin/sh, and adds python and ruby as scripting languages

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Terminal tip - cdpath

If you use the terminal a lot, the cdpath variable can make it much easier to navigate your file system.



The shell's cdpath environment variable lists directories that are always checked when you change directory with the cd command no matter what your current directory is. If you add a directory to cdpath, you can easily cd to any subdirectory if it without specifying a full path name no matter where you are.

To set cdpath, add a line like the following to either .cshrc or .tcshrc in your home directory:

set cdpath = (. .. ~ /Volumes ~/Documents )

For example, if you insert a zip disk named 'Zip100' instead of having to type 'cd /Volumes/Zip100' you can simply type 'cd Zip100'.

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Powerbacks∆ Slide Alchemy gains visibility with major retailers

Powerbacks∆ Slide Alchemy from Blue Worx, a specialty collection of backgrounds for PowerPoint∆ and other presentation programs, begins to establish itself with major retailers and catalogs.



OfficeMax∆ and Staples∆, hallmarks in the office supply industry, are both now selling the niche collection in their on-line software stores. Powerbacks∆ comes as both downloadable and CD-ROM media and in duplicate .ppt and .jpg files. The 2,000 images are 1024x768 pixels and average 150K in file size. They are divided into three style categories: templates, sets and artistic. Keyword: powerbacks









Softchoice∆ a company that provides North American businesses and organizations of all sizes with software and hardware resources, has also picked-up the unique product. They manage the software and licensing requirements for millions of computers across Canada and the United States. They employ approximately 150 highly trained outbound sales representatives in 32 regional sales offices located in most major North American cities. In addition to having a comprehensive on-line e-commerce site they also produce three print catalogs annually.









Trainer's Warehouse∆ is a resource of products for presenters recognized around the world. Known as an innovative supplier that develops and markets quality products designed to help presenters of all kinds, they are now also featuring Powerbacks∆ Slide Alchemy. The company is located in Natick, Mass and they now carry the innovative collection in both their on-line store and national print catalogs.






Powerbacks∆ Slide Alchemy, has a suggested retail price of $49.95









For evaluation, you can obtain a free, fully functional sampler of 100 backgrounds, under PowerPoint∆ through









http://office.microsoft.com/Downloads/ouvp.aspx









or go directly to









http://free-ppt.com









Blue Worx is a Duns listed company 61-345-8236 located at:




9201 N. 29th Avenue Suite 63-273




Phoenix, Arizona 85051









For further information Creator, Gary Blue, can be contacted by email at blue@powerbacks.com or by phone 970.963.2400

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QuickTime for Windows ActiveX security advisory

Apple Security Advisory APPLE-SA-2002-09-19

A buffer overflow exists in the ActiveX control distributed in Apple

QuickTime for Windows Version 5.0.2. Any user who opens this control in

Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer or other affected Windows mail

clients is vulnerable to attack.

QuickTime versions for Mac OS X or Mac OS 9 are not vulnerable.

Users and web site administrators running the Windows operating system

should upgrade to the new version of the ActiveX control as soon as

possible. This can be done by either downloading a new ActiveX control,

or updating to QuickTime 6 which contains a fixed version of the ActiveX

control.

ActiveX control only: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/qtcheck/


This control will work with QuickTime version 3.0 and later.

QuickTime 6 (free update): http://www.apple.com/QuickTime/download/

Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Information:

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned the

following identification to this issue. These are candidates for

inclusion in the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org), which standardizes

names for security problems.

CAN-2002-0376 Apple QuickTime ActiveX v5.0.2 Buffer Overrun

QuickTime for Windows version 5.0.2 is distributed with an ActiveX

control to allow QuickTime movies to be played on versions on Microsoft

Windows Internet Explorer. The ActiveX control for QuickTime for

Windows 5.0.2 has a buffer overflow vulnerability triggered by

insufficient input validation when parsing the "pluginspage" parameter.

This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote attacker who can induce

a victim to visit any web site with malicious code offering the

vulnerable code or executing a control already present on the victim's

computer. Also affected are users who open HTML messages in Windows

mail clients that use Internet Explorer to render HTML and load ActiveX

controls (e.g., Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, etc). Note that an

email attack would be rendered harmless if the end user email client

handled HTML mail in Internet Explorer's Restricted Sites Zone (say by

having applied the Outlook Email Security Update distributed by

Microsoft; Outlook Express 6 and Outlook 2002 handle mail in the

Restricted Site Zone by default). Mail clients unable to render HTML or

that do not invoke Internet Explorer are unaffected.

All web content managers who support QuickTime technology and all

Windows users of Microsoft Internet Explorer are encouraged to upgrade

to the new ActiveX control or QuickTime Version 6.0 as soon as possible.

Solution

Either download the new ActiveX control by itself, or update to

QuickTime 6:

ActiveX control only: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/qtcheck/


This control will work with QuickTime version 3.0 and later.

QuickTime 6 (free update): http://www.apple.com/QuickTime/download/

Mitigating factors

• In the case of the web-based attack, an attacker would need to force a
  
  user to visit the attackers Web site. Users who exercise caution in
  
  visiting web sites could minimize their risk.
  
  
  
  
• In the web based attack, If ActiveX controls have been disabled in the
  
  zone in which the page were viewed, the vulnerability could not be
  
  exploited. Users who place untrusted sites in the Restricted Sites zone,
  
  which disables ActiveX by default, or have disabled ActiveX controls in
  
  the Internet zone could minimize their risk.
  
  
  
  
• In the case of HTML email based attacks, customers who read email in
  
  the Restricted Sites zone would be protected against attempts to exploit
  
  this vulnerability. Customers using Outlook 2002 and Outlook Express
  
  6.0, as well as Outlook 2000 and Outlook 98 customers who have applied
  
  the Outlook Email Security Update would thus be protected by default.
  
  Also, Outlook Express 5.0 customers who have chosen to read mail in the
  
  Restricted Sites zone would be protected by default.
  
  
  
  
• In the HTML email based attack, Outlook 2002 customers who have
  
  enabled the "Read as Plain Text" option available in SP1 or later would
  
  also be protected.
  
  

Are there any caveats associated with the patch?

Yes. Customers should be aware that although the vulnerabilities here

involve an ActiveX control, the patch does not set the Kill Bit.

Whatis an ActiveX control?

ActiveX controls are small, single-purpose programs that can be called

by programs and web pages. ActiveX allows a programmer to write a piece

of software one time, and make its functionality available to other

programs that may need it.

Whatis the "Kill Bit"?

The Kill Bit is a method by which an ActiveX control can be prevented

from ever being invoked via Internet Explorer, even if its present on

the system. (More information on the Kill Bit is available in Microsoft

Knowledge Base article Q240797). Typically, when a security

vulnerability involves an ActiveX control, the patch delivers a new

control and sets the Kill Bit on the vulnerable control. However, it

isnt feasible to do so in this case.

Why isn't it feasible to set the Kill Bit in this case?

The Kill bit is currently implemented in Windows as an "all or nothing"

switch. Setting the Kill bit will totally disable your ability to use

QuickTime in media which invokes it via the ActiveX control. This

includes millions of web pages, along with many CDs and DVDs. By

design, the Web pages, CDs and DVDs contain hard-coded references to the

ActiveX control to load QuickTime. The QuickTime content on these web

pages, CDs and DVDs would no longer be accessible. As a result, a new

ActiveX control is provided to remove the vulnerabilities, but the Kill

Bit is not set on the old one.

Will the Kill Bit on this control be eventually set?

Yes. Microsoft is developing a new technology that will enable it to set

the Kill Bit on the vulnerable version of the control without forcing

users to re-author web pages containing references to these controls.

When the new technology is available, we'll provide a QuickTime update

that makes use of it.

References

• http://www.apple.com/QuickTime/download/
  
  
• http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/qtcheck/
  
  
• http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2002-0376
  
  
• http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q240797
  
  
• http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q154850&FR=1
  
  

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New Site Features

I've activated a few new features in PHP-Nuke 6.0 to make this site more friendly & useful.

I've added a new menu to make all of the sites features easily available. Registered members can now create their own journal.

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PHP-Nuke 6.0

I've upgraded the site to PHP Nuke 6.0. The forum module has been improved and several new themes are available for registered members. Let me know if you find anything that doesn't work.

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Cisco releases Jaguar-compatible Aironet drivers

Cisco Systems has released new drivers for their Aironet series of wireless cards that are compatible with Mac OS X 10.2.

Cisco's Aironet 340 & 350 series of PCI and PCMCIA wireless cards allow you to put your older Mac without Airport capability on your Airport network.

I'm using an Aironet 350 PCI in my Blue & White G3 to connect it to my home wireless network. It works very well, except it still asks for the WEP password at startup even though I told it to save the password. I haven't tried the new drivers yet, so I can't tell if the problem is fixed.

The latest drivers, which are now at version 2.1.1, can be downloaded from http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/tablebuild.pl/aironet-utils-mac.

When I unpacked the archive, the installer was named "Cisco Interim", and the release note says that only the drivers were changed for Jaguar compatibility. It still works under 10.1.5 and it doesn't seem to have fixed the problem with saving the WEP password.

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ChronoSync updated to version 1.1

Oviedo, Florida -- September 23, 2002 -- ChronoSync™, the automated

synchronization tool for Mac∆ OS X, adds powerful new features. ChronoSync

combines an easy to use interface and large feature set, making it the

perfect utility for synchronization and light back-ups.

New to this version are persistent synchronization trees. Now ChronoSync

keeps track of what and when files were synchronized. This change allows for

bi-directional syncs with deletions, better date accuracy with all systems,

and even restoration of changed files.

ChronoSync’s full featured Scheduler gets even better too. A new background

application can automatically launch and terminate synchronizations so you

don’t even have to keep ChronoSync running.

Maintain complete control of your files from the Analyze outline view with

increased capabilities. Besides file names and status information,

ChronoSync now offers information on size and time differences of files as

well as the last sync date. All columns can be resized, sorted, rearranged,

and expanded. Select single or multiple files to exclude, delete, restore,

compare, or change sync direction. There is even an option to view all files

so you can view hidden files or files excluded by rules.

“The Analyze View sets this product apart. You not only can view and control

all your files, you get detailed overview of all your files so you aware of

what is going on,” said Joseph Japes, Marketing Director for Econ

Technologies.

Visit Econ Technologies for more information or to download a demo.

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gBrowser 1.5b20 released

Andreas Schwarz has released gBrowser 1.5b2, the latest version of his Cocoa-based image browser.

gBrowser is an image browser with which you can view and browse through large collections of images as thumbnails. Its layout is based on your file system; what you see in the Finder is what you see in gBrowser (in a much more convenient way, of course). It also features slideshow capability and the "Image Viewer," useful on multi-monitor setups, which can be used as a non-linear slideshow or just to more easily view pictures as you browse your collection. It also includes features to help you create your own slideshow screensavers.

New in this version:

• You can now command-click and drag to scroll in image windows, the Image Viewer, slideshows, and the preview pane (though in the preview pane you must hold the option key as well unless you are clicking in "empty" space).
  
  
• Low quality on-the-fly thumbnail generation is now threaded, so the app should feel much more responsive now if you're using this mode (particularly with large files).
  
  
• Added an option (in the file list setup section of the prefs) to display the number of folders and total files in a directory next to its name in the file list. Be forwarned this might slow down the initial display of the file list, especially if you have folders containing very large numbers of files.
  
  
• Added an option (in the file list appearance section of the prefs) to control the spacing of the lines in the file list.
  
  
• Added an option (in the preview pane appearence section) to control the color of the thumbnail shadow.
  
  
• Added an option (in the preview pane information section; yes, not the best place... a prefs revamp is coming soon) to control whether or not to edit file names when the name is clicked on (you can set it to edit file names only when you press enter when the file is selected; some people have requested this after accidentally starting filename edits too often).
  
  
• Added the same option for the file list in the file list setup section.
  
  
• In when using manual thumbnail generation or the resource fork stripper, the progress bar is now an animated indeterminate progress bar while gBrowser searches for image files (instead of sitting there blank and useless, as they did before).
  
  
• You can now have more than one instance of the thumbnail generator and resource fork stripper.
  
  
• The resource fork stripper should now be a good deal faster (not that that was a problem before) and will give you an estimated time until completion (but it is so fast that unless you're stripping thousands of files you won't have time to see that!).
  
  
• Both the thumbnail generator and resource fork stripper now have a "review files" button that you can use to review/edit which files will be affected.
  
  
• Both the thumbnail generator and resource fork stripper can now be closed by pressing the escape key.
  
  
• The "random" option for the slideshow has been changed a bit; it is now just a regular sort option instead of a separate option. Also, you can now navigate back and forth through the random slides.
  
  
• Optimized and improved quite a few other sections of code.
  
  
• When turning off automatic thumbnail generation, the status bar gets updated immediately instead of continuing to say "Generating thumbnail for XXX" until something else caused a change.
  
  
• Added formatters and warning sheets to the text fields in the preferences panes (in case invalid values are entered), because it appears that at some point the ones that used to be there were deleted form the nib files. When, why, and how that happened I have no idea!
  
  
• I think the nasty crasher caused by automatic thumbnail generation has been fixed (finally!). In case anyone cares, the crashes were caused because something was mucking with memory it shouldn't have been accessing. All was well (on my system anyway) once I changed the way I initialized the CFMutableArrayRef I was using to queue the files to be generated (using [[NSMutableArray alloc] init...] instead of CFArrayCreateMutable()). Why this made any difference I still have NO idea, but since it seems to have fixed it I'm not going to complain ;-).
  
  

For more information or to download a copy, visit http://homepage.mac.com/schwarz/gbrowser.html.

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iCalShare lets you share your calendars

iCalShare, a new website, provides a source for iCal calendars and a place to share your calendar.

Although iCalShare doesn't provide hosting for calendars - you still have to publish them on your .Mac account or your own WebDAV server, it lets you announce your calendar and find other calendars to subscribe to.

Being able to share calendars is one of iCal's most powerful features (and the only reason I bother to use it). The current version is slow, buggy, and lacking in features, yet the ability to share calendars is a very compelling reason to use it.

I'm still using Palm Desktop, since I need to synchronize with my Handspring Visor. Hopefully the next version of iCal, along with iSync will add that capability and squash most of the bugs.

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TigerLaunch 1.0b5

TigerLaunch is a free open source application launcher from Ranchero Software.



TigerLaunch displays an Apps menu at the top of your screen listing all your applications in alphabetical order—no matter what folder they appear in. You can easily configure it to exclude applications you rarely or never launch.

This allows you to be more selective about what apps are dock-worthy, so your dock doesn’t get so cluttered. It also makes it easier to launch apps that are buried in sub-folders, such as in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.

For more information or to download a copy, visit Ranchero Software. The Cocoa source code is also available for download.

For developers, if you have a Projects folder in your home directory, it will add a Projects menu which lists all ProjectBuilder projects in that folder (future versions will also support CodeWarrior & RealBasic projects).

Here's the right side of my menubar. From left to right: TigerLaunch, WeatherPop, MU Menu, Script Menu, iChat.

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Mail Scripts 1.2.1

Andreas Amann has released an update to his Mail Scripts package, which adds several new features and enhancements.



New features:

• Send all Drafts - immediately send all messages in the "Drafts" folders for all accounts
  
  
• Remove Duplicate Messages - delete all duplicate messages found in the selection
  
  
• Search Addresses - find all addresses inside the Address Book matching one or more criteria
  
  

• New folder layout so we don't clutter the Script Menu
  
  
• Save all scripts as applications so that they can be run from any location and not just the Script Menu
  
  
• Added some more error checking to the installer script
  
  
• (Create Rule) show IMAP folders and subfolders inside the standard mailboxes (In, Out, ...) for "Transfer..." rules [this is one I requested - Mike]
  
  
• (Export Addresses) let the user decide whether to include the full name in the output file
  
  
• (Export Addresses) reverse order of ZIP and city in the output file
  
  

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Mac incompatibility myths persist

In today's Sun-Sentinel, a reader asked the following question:

I have been a PC user since 1984. Until recently it has been my understanding that Mac files & Windows files are incompatible. Is that still true? If I buy an iMac, could I still exchange files with people who use Windows?

Actually the compatibility is very good, as anyone who uses both systems regularly knows. Since the earliest versions, Microsoft Word was able to save files in a cross-platform format called RTF (Rich Text Format), which consists of pure ASCII characters with embedded commands. Standard graphics formats such as GIF, TIFF, and JPEG are completely cross-platform and always have been.

The current version of MS Word, High-end graphics applications such as PhotoShop, and desktop publishing software such as Quark XPress use the same file formats on both platforms, and files created on either system can be opened transparently on the other.

In addition to being able to read PC-formatted floppies, Macs have always been able to read as well as burn ISO-9660 format CDs that are compatible with Windows. In the era of email, as long as you use MIME encoding and avoid Mac-specific formats such as Stuffit or BinHex, your documents should be readbale on both platforms. In some Email applications such as Eudora MIME is called Apple Double, and in others it's the default.

With SMB support improved in Jaguar, it's now much easier to connect Macs & PCs on the same network and allow them to share files. If you're running an older system, DAVE is available to let you access Windows file servers. Alternately, Windows NT Professional and Windows 2000 support Macintosh file sharing, which will allow server volumes to be accessed from a Mac without any additional software.

Other software such as contact managers may be more difficult, but if you have a Palm-compatible PDA, it provides an easy way to move your data between platforms. I use Palm Desktop as my calendar & address book, and I have a Handspring Visor. Simply sync your PDA normally on the Mac (or whichever machine you want to use as the "master"). On the other machine set up Palm Desktop to allow the PDA to overwrite the PC, and do another sync. All of your data will be transferred cleanly to that machine.

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OmniWeb 4.1.1 beta 1 released

A public beta of OmniWeb 4.1.1, a native Cocoa web browser for Mac OS X has been released.



Version 4.1.1b1 adds the following:

• Fixed a problem that prevented recent releases of the Flash plugin from working correctly in OmniWeb.
  
  
• Support for the RealOne Plugin and Player
  
  
• The RealOne Player is now in our list of safe applications that we'll launch to handle a file when it completes downloading. (You need to have the file associated with the correct application in Finder for this to work.)
  
  
• Improvements to OmniWeb's HTTPS/SSL support to ensure that the browser will not connect to a domain with a security certificate that does not belong to the host. Additionally, OmniWeb will check the authenticity of all security certificates along the chain to ensure that they are all valid.
  
  
• Fixed an incompatibility with Mac OS X 10.2 which affected hostname lookups (contacting websites)
  
  
• OmniWeb 4.1.1 beta 1 includes a Swedish localization courtesy of Peter Baeckstr‡m, a Finnish localization courtesy of Teemu Masalin, and an updated Traditional Chinese localization courtesy of Julian Lee.
  
  

For more information or to download a copy, visit The Omni Group.

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Apple Security Update 2002-09-20

Security Update 2002-09-20 is now available in the software update panel.

This update fixes a

potential vulnerability introduced in Terminal version 1.3 (v81) that

shipped with Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) which could allow an attacker to

remotely execute arbitrary commands on the user's system.

The Terminal utility is updated to version 1.3.1 (v82) with this

Security Update.

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Macintosh criticized on MSN

In this article on MSN, Kim Kommando dismisses the Mac, although she claims to be fair. "And just to set the record straight, I was not influenced one bit by the fact this column runs on a Microsoft-owned site. In fact, I started my testing months before I began contributing weekly columns to Microsoft bCentral.", she says.

The article starts out by mentioning the iMac's appearance & style, always the first target of the Windows-centric press. Similarly, when a PC manufacturer tries to copy the Mac, they only duplicate the style but always end up with a much less elegant system. Gateway's Profile 4 is a perfect example.

At least the Mac scores one point: "The first test was getting the iMac on the network. That was a piece of cake. Just a few entries were needed in System Preferences." No matter how much someone dislikes the Mac, you have to admit Mac networking is much less troublesome. I know from experience that Windows networking is a nightmare.

Her major complaint is the iMac's lack of speed. However, her benchmarks are Internet Explorer & MS Word, both of which are no speed demons. She could get a better feel for the machine's speed if she had used OmniWeb or Chimera, both of which are a lot faster than IE and don't suffer from its tendency to suddenly lock up while it's loading or rendering a page.

Surprisingly, she also says that Adobe PhotoShop filters are much slower on the iMac, and this is one area where the Mac always beats PCs in most benchmarks. She was using an 11Mb TIFF file, although she doesn't mention what version of PhotoShop she was using. If she was using an older version that runs under classic, this could explain the difference.

She also takes swipes at a few other common targets: the one-button mouse, 15-inch screen, and lack of a floppy drive, as well as the price.

Although the iMac ships with a one button mouse, multiple button mice are well supported, and the scroll wheel & right button on most mice will even work with no additional drivers in most applications. All manufacturers of Mac-specific mice include driver software, and USB OverDrive will work for almost any standard USB mouse. I use a Kensington Optical Mouse Elite on my main machine and a cheap no-name optical wheel mouse on my other machine. Both work flawlessly.

Of course a 17" iMac is available, but if she was comparing it against a desktop machine with a separate monitor, a much better comparison would be with a G4 tower, which lets you use almost any monitor or LCD display.

As for the lack of a floppy drive, this isn't even worth mentioning. Although I have an external floppy drive (actually a VST Tri-Media drive, which supports floppies, SmartMedia, and CompactFlash), I almost never use it to read floppies. A few days ago one of my neighbors who uses a PC asked me to scan a picture for him. Since neither of us had a floppy disk, I simply emailed it to him. With large graphic & multimedia files, floppies are much less useful than they were in the past. CD-R and CDRW media is almost as cheap as floppies and can easily handle large files. Since most models are capable of burning CDs, the lack of a floppy disk isn't even an issue any more.

Which brings me to the final point. Although she mentions the availability of multimedia software for the Mac, she says she didn't look at it and wasn't really interested. However, even most business users often have to burn CDs either for backup or for publishing. On a Mac, burning CDs is as easy as copying to a floppy. On PCs, you often have to deal with kludged-up third party hardware & software, with drivers that often cause conflicts.

One of my friends publishes a weekly community newspaper. He uses PCs for his business and refuses to even consider Macs. Every week I hear from him about the grief he's having trying to burn a CD to send to the printer.

Even if the Mac is slower, it lets you work faster. With PCs you can spend days debugging hardware or software conflicts, or trying to fix a network problem. While problems do occur on the Mac, they're less frequent and usually much easier to resolve.

No matter how they try to copy the Mac, Windows will never match its elegance. Windows in its current form, including XP, is a patchwork of kludges, bug fixes, and unnecessary layers of complexity.

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MuMenu shows software updates in menu bar

I've just discovered a very cool utility that shows you the latest software updates in your menu bar, updated automatically.

MuMenu X 1.1 adds a an icon to the right of your menu bar, which lists software updates from MacUpdate. You can change the update frequency from every 5 minutes to every hour, and you can also update manually.

For each available update, MuMenu shows a sub-menu with a 2 line description, plus download and info links.

Now, instead of visiting a website several times a day to check for software updates, you can see them instantly in your menu bar. This is a great time-saver!

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NetNewsWire Lite 1.0 Released

Ranchero Software has released NetNewsWire Lite, a free Cocoa-based RSS news reader for Mac OS X.

NetNewsWire Lite uses a familiar 3-pane interface to display web sites and their latest stories. Hundreds of sites are included (even our RSS feed), plus you can subscribe to any available RSS feed.

Features:

• Remembers which items you’ve read, and lets you know when there are new items, so you spend less time surfing.
  
  
• Reads RSS news files from thousands of different websites.
  
  
• No up-front configuration required: getting started is just a matter of launching the application.
  
  
• Familiar interface means there isn’t a bunch to learn.
  
  
• Subscriptions can be grouped via drag-and-drop, so you can organize your news your way.
  
  
• Comes with hundreds of sites you can subscribe to with one click.
  
  
• Customizable appearance, including colors and window transparency.
  
  
• Imports and exports subscriptions files compatible with other RSS readers.
  
  

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Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 Released

Aladdin Systems has released Stuffit Deluxe 7.0, which improves Jaguar compatibility and adds several new features.



Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 adds MS Word integration, a command line tool, support for Apple Mail & Entourage, long file name support, virtually unlimited (up to 1 terabyte) archive size, and a new file format, sitx.

The new sitx archive format gives you better compression for faster file transfers, 512-bit encryption for maximum security, error-correction for corruption protection, and support for long file names.

The upgrade is $29 for current Stuffit Deluxe owners, or $80 to purchase a new copy. For more information or to purchase a copy, visit www.stuffit.com.

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Apple & IBM working on 64-bit CPU

According to sources, IBM Microelectronics, a division of IBM, is working with Apple on a 64-bit PowerPC processor for use in Apple's high-end desktops and servers.



Sources said Apple is testing the CPU, dubbed the GigaProcessor Ultralite (GPUL) on Mac OS X-based hardware at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, and making sure that the processor complies with a new bus architecture on tap for future Macs.

In addition, IBM plans to offer the processor as the centerpiece of future Linux-based systems, the sources said. As reported this week by eWEEK, IBM recently announced that it would soon introduce new versions of its high-end p690 and p670 servers designed to run Linux native, in place of IBM's own AIX operating system.

Some GPUL details are expected to be disclosed at Microprocessor Forum in San Jose, Calif., in mid-October. IBM will hold a session at the conference on Oct. 15 entitled "Breaking Through Compute Intensive Barriers -- IBM's New 64-bit PowerPC Microprocessor."

For the full story, visit eWeek.

MacMegasite Spin: This could explain why MacOS 9 booting will no longer be possible. Since classic doesn't have direct hardware access and runs in a virtual machine, it should be possible for classic to still run on a new hardware architecture, even though support isn't available to boot Mac OS 9 directly.

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Microsoft's new Airport

Microsoft said on Thursday that it will begin selling within the next few weeks Microsoft-branded hardware that will let users connect their personal computers and notebooks through wireless connections using the 802.11b standard, also called Wi-Fi, which is also the same standard used by Apple's Airport hardware.

"The overall strategic vision is to get into anything to do with Microsoft's vision of delivering information any time, any place," said Adam LeVasseur, the hardware division's Group Product Manager.

"To deliver that into the home you need a network infrastructure in place."

Wireless networking has increasingly become an important part of the Internet experience, allowing users to access e-mail, news and information without being tied to a desk.

Users have complained, however, about the complexity of wireless networking, which involves a variety of hardware, communications and security settings. (not Mac users :-)

Microsoft says it has an answer for that (never mind that Apple had already solved it).

"At the core of our (wireless) product line is software that detects hardware and automatically configures the network," LeVasseur said. (hmm... where have we seen this before?)

Microsoft said that the software will make it painless for users of its hardware products to install a wireless network and connect a variety of devices.

Ten products are being released:

-- A Wireless base station that hooks up to a broadband connection and links wireless devices to each other and the Internet, for $149.95.

-- A Wireless Universal Serial Bus Adapter to connect a computer or device through a USB port, for $79.95.

-- A Wireless Notebook Adapter, for connecting laptops through PC card slots, for $79.95.

-- Two kits, with a base station and either a USB adapter or notebook adapter, for $219.95 each.

-- Five Ethernet-based products that connect computers to each other and the Internet through wire connections, ranging in price from $24.95 to $79.95.

The products will feature 128-bit encryption by default and also feature parental controls that limit access, LeVasseur said.

Xbox, which is set to become an online gaming platform this fall with the launch of Xbox Live, needs a high-speed broadband connection to link into the Internet and other users.

Since the Xbox is often in a living room, sometimes far away from a broadband connection, wireless networking would seem a simple solution for enabling Xbox Live. But LeVasseur said that there were no plans to directly tie Xbox up with the new wireless hardware.

MacMegasite Spin: Microsoft just "invented" Airport & Rendezvous.

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DragThing 4.5 Released

DragThing, an application launcher by James Thomson, has been upgraded to version 4.5. This new version adds several major new features and fixes some compatibility problems with Jaguar.

Here are some of the highlights of tis update:

• You can now turn docks into sliding drawers that work like popup windows from Mac OS 9.
  
  
• Improved support for Mac OS X "Jaguar" (including 10.2.1).
  
  
• More cool translucency effects.
  
  
• Added an option to highlight Classic applications in docks.
  
  
• Added support for Mac OS X applications with "????" creator codes.
  
  
• Added a "Revert" command for the preferences file in case of accidents.
  
  
• Folder contextual menus can go more than five levels deep on Jaguar.
  
  
• Added new hot keys to control individual docks.
  
  
• Added support for custom sounds on Mac OS X and a "DragThing Sounds" folder.
  
  
• Added an option to sort the Disk Dock into the same order as the Desktop.
  
  
• Improved performance.
  
  

For more information or to download a copy, visit www.dragthing.com. I'm also providing a download mirror here.

I've tried many different application launchers, but DragThing is by far my favorite. It's highly customizable so it can work the way you work, it's unobtrusive, and problem-free.

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WTextView now supports Mac OS X spell checker

WTextView, a PowerPlant wrapper for the WASTE text engine developed by David Phillip Oster, has been updated to support spell checking services. I've used it in several projects - it's the best text editing solution available for PowerPlant applications.

The author writes:

I've revised WTextView to version 1.0.3a5. WTextView is the PowerPlant

wrapper for WASTE, the Worldscript Aware Text Engine, and included in

this release is Richard Buckle's wonderful example which

calls the Cocoa incremental spelling checker service.

I've fixed some minor bugs, and updated it to OS X 10.2 and CodeWarrior

8.2.

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Fire 0.31.c Released

Fire, a free open-source multi-protocol chat program from Epicware has been updated to version 0.31.c. Among the changes in this version are an optional brushed metal appearance and new service icons (probably changed for legal reasons).

0.31.c is an *english only* release. No new localized files are being released with this version. 0.32.a will re-include localized versions of all of the interface files.

Other changes:

• Add button in Accounts window works in Text Only mode now
  
  
• You can show the Offline buddies group in the buddies window again
  
  
• Toolbar for Console window
  
  
• Option to use brushed metal chat and buddy windows - requires 10.2
  
  
• Non-white buddies backgrounds work properly now (bug 577927)
  
  
• Command-S to send a message works again (bug 583043)
  
  
• Send File to Buddy menu command enables based on whether it is supported for the
  
  selected buddy
  
  
• Fixed problem when dragging a buddy past the bottom of the list (bug 567003)
  
  
• Hand pointer when you mouse over a link in chat windows and configurable link colors
  
  Thanks to Nick Kocharhook for the changes
  
  
• Close all chat windows command - changes from Nick Kocharhook
  
  
• Selection in the buddies window is remembered as buddies log on and off or view changes
  
  
• Contextual menu for Setup view)
  
  
• Accounts window is click sortable
  
  
• Accounts window zooms intelligently to fit the content when using zoom box
  
  
• Accounts window selections are retained when the UI is updated
  
  
• Fixed problem with the Accounts menu showing disconnected services as checked
  
  
• Shows proper badge on buddies window when using the Dock menu to change status
  
  
• New Away Messages editor; Edit Away Messages... menu command added to the Window menu
  
  
• properly show AM/PM or not based on user's preferences (bug 555605)
  
  thanks to Alex Satrapa for the changes
  
  
• Screen Name fields no longer accept non-numeric text when the service is ICQ
  
  
• New attributions on all required locations. (esp)
  
  
• Transparent Buddies List is enabled again. It is not perfect, but it works.
  
  
• Removed the hokey chat window title bar icons
  
  
  
  
• Added correct legal attributions due to scary letter from lawyers
  
  
• AIM∆ Changes
  
  
  
  
  
  • Added File Receive
    
    
  • Sends multiline messages properly now (bug 571249)
    
    
  • Reports correct number of buddies in the console (bug 589465)
    
    
  
  
  
• IRC Changes
  
  
  
  
  
  • Conversations should be properly saved based on the name of the channel
    
    
  
  
  

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Apple releases MacOS X 10.2.1 and iTunes 3.0.1

Apple has released the Mac OS X 10.2.1 update they accidentally pre-announced a few days ago, along with iTunes 3.0.1.

Both updates are now available from the Software Update system settings panel. No additional information is available on what changed in iTunes 3.0.1, although most people report that it feels much faster.

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MacCVSClient 1.7

MacCVSClient 1.7 is a free CVS source code revision

control client running on Mac OS 7.1 and later, now

also carbonized for Mac OS X.



It shows checked out files in an intuitive

hierarchical list view (with filtering options)

so that you are aware of their status anytime.

File log histories can be displayed in hierarchical

log views. File differences and change conflicts

are shown in special colour coded views. The RBL

format can be used to store Mac OS resource files

as diff'able and mergeable text files on CVS servers.

The AppleSingle storage format is supported as well.

New in this release:

• Carbonized version for Mac OS X; this is recommended
  
  for Mac OS X only.
  
  
• Mouse wheel support (carbonized version only).
  
  
• Column heads in Module window. Sorting by columns.
  
  
• Drag-and-drop in Module window.
  
  
• "Move to Trash" command.
  
  
• Long file name support (not in 68K version).
  
  
• Text files can be stored with Classic Mac line endings
  
  or Mac OS X (UNIX) line endings (see Preferences/Export).
  
  
• Context menus in Module, Diff, Conflict and Log windows.
  
  
• "Reroot Module" command to change CVS server settings for
  
  a checked out module; useful when a repository is moved.
  
  
• Easy revision and tag selection in Log window to quickly
  
  run a CVS Diff from there (OPTION-click and OPTION-drag).
  
  
• Bug fixes.
  
  

Joerg Bullmann -- jb@heilancoo.net

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Remembering General Magic

General Magic has announced that they are ceasing operations. I used to own one of their PDAs, and here are some of my personal experiences with it.

General Magic was started by former Apple employees, and many parts of their software (notably QuickDraw graphics) were similar to MacOS. Their device was 680x0-based, and software was developed using MetroWerks CodeWarrior for Magic Cap.

I bought a MagicLink with the development kit at WWDC 1995, although I never did any Magic Cap development. I was doing Newton development at the time, and was hoping to expand to other PDAs, but Magic Cap was different enough that it wasn't possible to do a straight port, and the market didn't seem large enough to devote much effort to it.

The graphical user interface was based on a "Main Street" metaphor, where you entered buildings, including AOL, for different purposes. There was also an easter egg (which I don't recall how to invoke) that gave you a parade down the street.

The address book & note pad in Magic Cap were a lot like HyperCard, and you could also design your own forms & layouts by dragging buttons to the card & assigning actions or scripts. However, storing large numbers of addresses was much less convenient than Palm OS, since it was difficult to search.

The OS used "agents" which could be sent via email, although I didn't use their online service, so I never really experimented with that aspect.

Ultimately, it was a very interesting toy with a lot of unrealized potential. I'm sorry to see it wasn't allowed to become truly useful.

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General Magic to cease operations

The once high-flying software company General Magic Inc. said on Wednesday it would cease operations effective at the close of business today because it could not get additional financing or complete a merger or acquisition.



General Magic said most of its employees will leave immediately, but a small group will stay for a few months to manage the sale of its assets and resolve its debt.

The proceeds from the sale of its assets will be used to pay its creditors. The company does not expect to have assets remaining for common and preferred stockholders.

Shares of General Magic fell 21 cents or 84 percent to 4 cents in early morning Nasdaq trading. Earlier it reached an all-time low of 3 cents. When the company went public in February 1995 at the beginning of the Internet boom, its shares more than doubled on the first day to $27.75.

The announcement comes on the heels of a warning in July in which the company said revenue would fall short of previous expectations. General Magic also cut jobs as it suffered from delayed corporate spending and implemented a 1-for-14 reverse stock split.

Founded in 1990, General Magic started out with a groundbreaking operating system for personal digital assistants that allowed the devices to send and receive electronic mail and faxes and to talk with corporate networks.

The company now makes software that allows users to access information via the Internet and telephone by hands-free voice command.

It counts OnStar Corp., General Motors Corp.'s in-vehicle safety, security and information services unit, as a customer.

It has also developed products with AT&T Corp., Motorola Inc. and Sony Corp. These companies, along with Apple Computer Inc. , were core investors in General Magic.

Sunnyvale, California-based General Magic said 15 employees would be retained at OnStar's expense to facilitate a smooth transfer to another vendor of the operation and support of the voice application software it was maintaining for OnStar.

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iccTools Announces iccToolBox Pro 1.0.4

iccToolBox is a suite of tools that assist the printing and graphics

arts professional in creating, modifying, evaluating and managing

ICC/ICM profiles for a variety of graphic arts applications and devices.



Standard Features:

• 2D and 3D graphs, including distribution, gamut, gray-balance/UCR and
  
  GCR, Channel analysis
  
  
• Profile Tag editing
  
  
• Grayscale, NCP, Rich Gray and Device Link profile creation
  
  
• Integrated Profile Calc ( was LabCalc )
  
  
• Direct DTP 41 Support.
  
  

• DTP 41 Target Builder - creates targets as PDF and PostScript
  
  
• Colour Filter window - acts as a lens over other application windows.
  
  
• Image Utilities - enables embedding, removal, extraction of profiles
  
  from TIFFs. Also allows colour space conversions
  
  

• OS X.1.5+
  
  
• Quesa ( included in standard install ) and freely available from
  
  http://www.quesa.org
  
  

Download From http://www.icctools.com


Contact Chris Halford - chris@icctools.com

iccToolBox Pro is made with REALbasic

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Xoggle 1B27: Open Source Release of Boggle Game

Xoggle, the open-source Boggle game developement

effort, was updated today from developer Drew Hamlin of Vizspring Software.

Xoggle is an open-source, networkable game of the popular classic game

Boggle. It includes a full dictionary word list as well as REALbasic and

text-based source code.



Changes in release 1B27:

• Added preferences dialog with the option to auto-define the word list instead
  
  of having to manually select it at the start of each game
  
  
• Fixed a bug where Xoggle would fail to pick the longest possibility in some
  
  rare cases, which sometimes would result in not seeing a word as being
  
  on the board
  
  
• Windows version now additionally available
  
  

Xoggle is available for free download, including source code, from

http://www.drewhamlin.com/realbasic/. Xoggle is distributed under the GNU

General Public License and is OSI certified as part of the Open Source

Initiative at http://www.opensource.org

Xoggle is being developed using REALbasic 4.5, but is backwards compatible

with little or no code revision, depending on the REALbasic version.

REALbasic Developer Drew Hamlin is best-known for his work at Vizspring

Software where he has created the well-known and Macworld Magazine

acclaimed Typeset and ThrobberEdit applications. To learn more about Drew

Hamlin and Vizspring Software visit http://www.drewhamlin.com and

http://www.vizspring.com

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.Mac Subscribers Top 100,000

Apple∆ today announced that more than 100,000 Mac∆ users have subscribed to the company’s .Mac suite of Internet services and software since it was launched in July. .Mac includes 100MB of Internet storage, seamlessly integrated into the Mac∆ OS X Finder™; Internet hosting for personalized homepages; iPhoto™ digital photo albums and iCal calendars; email service with IMAP, POP and web-based access; and antivirus and backup software.

“We’re thrilled to have more than 100,000 .Mac subscribers so quickly,” said Sina Tamaddon, Apple’s senior vice president of Applications. “We’re getting over 1,000 new .Mac subscribers every day, which is proof that many of our users want to seamlessly extend their digital lives onto the Internet.”

.Mac is available as a subscription-based service for $99.95 (US) per year. iTools members as of midnight, July 16, 2002, are receiving a special introductory price of $49.95 (US) for the first year if they subscribe before September 30, 2002, when the iTools service will be discontinued. New Macintosh∆ customers can sign up for a free, 60-day .Mac trial at www.mac.com. .Mac will be available through the Apple Store∆ (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

.Mac requires Mac OS X version 10.1.3 or later, 128MB SDRAM, internal CD-RW or DVD-R drive (to create CD or DVD backups), and Netscape 4.7 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or later. .Mac Slides, Backup v.1.2 and iCal require Mac OS X version 10.2 “Jaguar.” The Virex anti-virus software, Mac.com email, iDisk, HomePage and iCards features of .Mac can also be accessed using Mac OS 9.

MacMegasite Spin: I ended up subscribing for $49.95 for backup & Virex, although I'm still hesitating to give out my mac.com address as a permanent email address. According to rumors, Apple may also offer some kind of dynamic DNS service (similar to dyndns.org in the future). I most likely won't renew for $100 when the first year is up.

It would be interesting to see how many of these members renew at full price next year. That's the real measure of .Mac's success.

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Digital Detectives

You’ve seen it countless times on TV: Detectives arrive at a crime scene, and as they’re briefed, you see the bright flashes and hear the distinctive shutter clicks of a camera firing away in the background.



Forensic photographs are the critically important visual record of a crime. Along with other evidence found at the scene, these images can help detectives reconstruct what happened, and may be used in court to support the testimony of police and forensic evidence experts.

Until recently, forensic photography has almost exclusively been film-based. But as law enforcement organizations discover the many advantages of modern digital technology, they’re starting to make the switch. One such group is the City/County Bureau of Investigation of Wake County, NC (CCBI).

“Like an FBI on a County Level”

BadgeIn its role as a centralized, shared-resource facility, CCBI provides investigative services for 37 different law enforcement agencies throughout Wake County. “We’re kind of like an FBI on a county level, but without the detectives,” says Gary Knight, a CCBI forensic photographer with 25 years’ experience.

Commandeering CCBI’s two $50,000 film-processing machines, Knight was responsible for developing the county’s staggering average of 200 to 250 rolls of crime scene photos per month. “I was almost like a Wal-Mart mini-lab,” he laughs.

Knight had been keeping a close eye on digital film technology as a way to cut costs and streamline the department. So two years ago, when CCBI’s film processing machines were due for replacement, he suggested the switch. Instead of buying new film processors, he proposed a digital lab that included cameras, scanners, printers and two Macintosh workstations. The proposal was funded, and CCBI made digital photography its standard as of January, 2001.

You can read the full story here.

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Apple lets slip 10.2.1 info

In this knowledge base article, Apple gives some details about the upcoming Mac OS X 10.2.1 release. Don't be surprised if it disappears quickly!

Enhancements Delivered with this update

Disc Burning Enhancements

• Improves compatibility of burned CDs with Microsoft Windows.
  
  
• Addresses a situation that could result in a failure when burning a disc using iTunes 3 and a high burn speed.
  
  
• Addresses an issue in which Disk Utility could inaccurately report "problems" when scanning a disc that was burned with iTunes or in the Finder.
  
  
• Adds support for various third-party disc burners, including: TDK VeloCD 241032FP and 241040F, MCE Technologies Lucid-24 24x10x24x Portable FireWire CDRW Drive, LaCie PocketCDRW 24x10x24 U&I, EZQuest Boa CDR/w 48x12x48 FireWire, Formac cdrw 40x10x40 and cdrw 48x10x40.
  
  

• Decreases the amount of time Final Cut Pro takes to open, and improves iMovie compatibility when a Sony DVMC-DA1 media converter is connected to the computer.
  
  
• Improves iMovie compatibility with Canopus ADVC-100 media converter.
  
  
• Improves compatibility with certain (SCSI-based) scanners.
  
  
• Improves compatibility of Image Capture with Epson DS (TWAIN).
  
  
• Improves results when scanning in grayscale or black-and-white with Image Capture and Epson UI.
  
  
• Enhances reliability when hot-swapping a FireWire-based camera on certain iMacs using Final Cut Pro.
  
  
• Addresses a potential issue in which a USB keyboard or mouse is not recognized or able to wake the computer after having been connected to or disconnected from an external USB hub while the computer is in sleep.
  
  

• Addresses a situation in which certain Internet service providers (ISPs) may not accept outgoing email (SMTP) from computers using NAT and a ".local" hostname (which may be assigned by Rendezvous).
  
  
• Addresses a situation in which, if the connection fails when transferring email to your computer via your network or an Internet connection, all mail not transferred is lost.
  
  
• Improves Mac OS X Server performance in heavy AFP client load situations.
  
  
• Improves Mac OS X Server reliability when a Mac OS 9 client attempts a scheduled AFP connection.
  
  
• Resolves a potential issue in which Mail could fail to import mail messages from Eudora as expected.
  
  

• Addresses a potential situation in which Print Center would unexpectedly quit when using St. Claire Software's Default Folder X.
  
  
• Improves compatibility with HP LaserJet 4V and HP LaserJet 4MV printers.
  
  
• Reduces occurrences of a potential "busy; source EIO (ATALK)" alert message when printing using AppleTalk via CUPS.
  
  
• Addresses an issue when printing via CUPS in which the second queued print job would automatically start if the first print job was stopped.
  
  
• Addresses a potential "error -1" message in Print Center when adding a third-party USB printer.
  
  
• Includes various other CUPS-related printing enhancements.
  
  

• Improves potential situations in which a Web page's graphics could take an unexpectedly long time to appear in a browser window.
  
  
• Improves compatibility with Microsoft Entourage.
  
  
• Reduces likelihood of a potential "ticking hard drive" symptom that could be caused by IOAudio errors regularly being written to the system.log file.
  
  
• Addresses a potential issue in which Mac Help may not be available following an erase-installation.
  
  
• Improves compatibility of the Universal Access Zoom feature with some iBook computers.
  
  
• Addresses a potential situation in which no video may appear after waking certain iBook computers that are connected to an external display or presentation device.
  
  
• Addresses a situation in which a Classic application may fail to produce sound after waking from sleep.
  
  
• Addresses a potential situation in which AppleTalk may not be available in the Classic environment after waking from sleep.
  
  
• Addresses various potential kernel panic situations.
  
  

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Story submission guidelines

MacMegasite welcomes your news submissions, if you have any mac-related news or a new product release. To make our job easier, there are some guidelines we'd like you to follow.

The news submission form has two text fields: story text and extended text. Enter only one or two paragraphs in the story text box - that part will appear on the main page. The rest of your story should be entered in the extended text box and will be displayed when a reader clicks on "Read more".

If you include URLs, you need to include the proper <A href=...> tags if you wish to make them clickable, since URLs aren't automatically recognized.

Make sure you preview your post before you submit it.

If you plan to submit articles regularly, please join by clicking on "Log in" at the top of the page. It's free, and your articles will appear under your user name instead of being shown as "Anonymous writes...".

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Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 pre-announced?

In an email promotion, MacZone is now taking orders for Stuffit Deluxe. No availability date is given, and Aladdin's site still doesn't mention 7.0.

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PocketDock 2.54 Released

PocketDock 2.54 has been released and is available for download. Version 2.54 fixes Jaguar related bugs. It is available in English, French, German, Italian, and Dutch versions.



PocketDock is a utility to organize and launch applications,documents, web links, and email addresses. It supports multiple skins or looks. PocketDock has the following features:

• Multiple skin support. Thirty skins are currently available.
  
  
• Drag and drop of links and tabs.
  
  
• Customizable links, tabs and docks.
  
  
• Multiple docks.
  
  
• Ability to 'lock a dock'.
  
  
• Launch links from within the Dock.
  
  
• Can launch documents, applications, web links, email addresses.
  
  
• Web links and email addresses can be added via services.
  
  
• Available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Dutch.

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Mail Scripts 1.1.1

One missing feature of Mail.app is the inability to easily create a rule based on the selected message. Andreas Amann fills the gap with his new Mail Scripts package.

The Mail Scripts package includes the following functions:

• Create Rule: Creates a new rule based on the first of the selected messages.
  
  
• Change SMTP Server: Switches between different already defined SMTP servers or defines a new one.
  
  
• Export Addresses: Exports addresses from the Address Book into tab-delimited text files.
  
  
• Create Mailing List: Creates and updates a mailing list from all addresses found in the selected messages.
  
  

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Resending a message in Mail.app

Most email programs have a command to re-send an email if you entered an incorrect address. At first glance, Mail.app seems to lack such a command.

In Mail.app the command is called "Open as new message" and is located in the File menu instead of the more obvious Message menu.

To resend a message, select the message in your Sent folder and choose "Open as New Message". You can then edit the message or readdress it before you send it.

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Frontier 9.0 Released

Frontier is a powerful Web content management system, built around an object database, scripting language, script editor and debugger, outliner, multi-threaded runtime, integrated HTTP server, distributed computing protocols such as XML-RPC and SOAP. Available for Macintosh & Windows.

Frontier is the solution to the problem every large site has, how to separate form from content. Frontier makes it easy to keep complicated HTML out of the way of writers, and gives you, the site manager, all the tools you need to manage the site. When a designer wants to change the template for the site, it just plugs in, you do nothing. What used to take a couple of weeks now happens in minutes. Really.

With Frontier, the hard things become easy. The people who write and design for your site will love you, your job will be easier, your site more competitive, and you can do more powerful things because the software does the tedious and repetitive work, so you can be creative and more productive.

New Features in 9.0:

• Easy setup: Frontier now has a single-page setup wizard. You can have your server running in under five minutes.
  
  

  
  
  Frontier will automatically create your first Manila site, a place for your users to go to create their own sites, and a rich administrative website that you can use to configure and monitor your server.
  
  

• Admin website: After installing Frontier, you'll be taken to the home page of the Frontier Admin website.
  
  

  
  
  Like the Control Panel in previous versions of Frontier, you use the Admin website to configure your server. The Admin website in Frontier 9.0 includes many functions which were previously unavailable via a simple browser-based interface.
  
  

• Manila site backups: The new Manila site backup feature lets you choose important sites to be backed up nightly, using the same backup system used at UserLand.
  
  
  
  

• Search engine integration: Frontier's built-in search engine is now easily configured using the new admin website.
  
  
  
  

• Radio Community Server integration
  
  
  
  

• New Manila hosting options
  
  
  
  

• Radio Hosting:
  
  Any Manila site can act as a host for comments about posts on a Radio UserLand weblog. Since Radio UserLand sites are static files, a dynamic system is required for a feature like comments, and Manila makes good sense.
  
  
  
  

• ServerMonitor:
  
  The ServerMonitor Tool is useful for people who run more than one server. It monitors up-time and performance of all your servers, so you can quickly find out if all your servers are running and how well they are performing.
  
  

  
  
  If a server goes down, email notification is automatically sent to the server manager(s) alerting them of the situation.
  
  
  
  

• MetaWeblog API support for Manila:
  
  Manila now supports the MetaWeblog API. The MetaWeblog API includes support for titles and links, which makes for a nice match with Manila's news items feature.
  
  
  
  

• Slashdot-style discussion group features:
  
  Managing editors of Manila sites can configure the discussion group to display the text of responses inline in threaded mode, much like Slashdot does with their discussion threads. In addition, responses can be listed either in chronological or reverse-chronological order.
  
  The features are documented on this page, which includes links to a pair of Themes that can be used to emulate the look and feel of Slashdot.org.
  
  
  
  

• New discussion group preferences:
  
  Managing editors of Manila sites can now choose whether or not to include stories, pictures and news items in discussion group listings.
  
  
  
  

• Port forwarding on MacOS X:
  
  The MacOS X version of Frontier now automatically sets up port forwarding at startup. Custom scripts are no longer required for Frontier to automatically listen for HTTP requests on port 80.
  
  
  
  

• Instant messaging client and server:
  
  tcp.im is an instant messaging client and server framework for Frontier, supporting the AOL Instant Messenger and Jabber services. It includes a driver architecture which allows developers create their own drivers to handle any IM protocol.
  
  

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Random Playlists in iTunes

Using smart playlists with live updating, you can play random tunes continuously.

Create a smart playlist with the following conditions entered in advanced mode:

Last Played is not in the last 5 days (or any number of days)

Limit 25 (or any number) songs ordered by Random

Live Updating

Since you're excluding recently played songs, the song it just played will be eliminated and a new song will be added to the end of the playlist, giving you continuous music as long as you want to listen. If you don't like any of the selections, just delete them and new songs will be added.

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C/C++ interpreter for Mac OS X released

SoftIntegration, Inc., the leader of

scripting technology for ubiquitous computing, today announced the release

of Ch version 3.0 for Mac OS X. Ch is a superset of C/C++ interpreter. It

supports ISO C standard, C++ class, POSIX, GTK+, Win32, OpenGL, X/Motif and

socket/WinSock with over 8,000 functions.

Ch is an alternative to other scripting languages and mathematical software

packages. It can be used for automating repetitive tasks, shell

programming, regression and hardware testing, 2D/3D graphical plotting and

scientific numerical computing. Ch can interface with C/C++ libraries and

be embedded into other application programs.



"Ch for Mac OS X is a significant step towards rapid application

development and deployment across different platforms," said Dr. Dawn

Cheng, General Manager at SoftIntegration. " C/C++ programs can be

developed in one platform without tedious compile/link/debug cycles, and

run in all other major platforms including Windows, Linux, Mac OS X,

Solaris, and HP-UX."

Ch Standard Edition for Mac supports the ISO C standard (C90), major

features in C99 such as IEEE floating-point arithmetic, variable length

arrays (VLAs), complex numbers and type generic mathematical functions, C++

class and POSIX. Ch is also C compatible shell for shell programming and

system administration. Popular Unix commands such as awk and sed can be

easily used in the Ch scripts in the same manner as in Bash, csh and Perl.

Ch Professional Edition supports computational arrays and C LAPACK for

linear algebra and matrix computations, 2D/3D plotting and scientific

numerical computing with advanced high-level numerical functions for linear

systems, differential equation solving, integration, non-linear equations,

curve fitting, fast Fourier analysis, etc. For example, linear equation b =

A*x can be written verbatim in Ch.

Ch is also a very effective interactive environment for teaching and

learning programming in C/C++ with new features in the latest C99 standard.

Ch Standard Edition is free for academic and non-profit organizations. Many

toolkits for Ch 3.0 in Mac OS X, including OpenGL, X/Motif and CGI, will be

released soon.

About SoftIntegration, Inc.

SoftIntegration, Inc., founded in 1999, is the leader of scripting

technology for ubiquitous computing. SoftIntegration provides

infrastructure software and services for rapid application development and

deployment, scientific numerical computing, embedded scripting, and

Web-based software integration. Our flagship product -- Ch is an embeddable

C/C++ interpreter. It is the solution for engineers and scientists, Web

programmers, software developers, C/C++ beginners and experts, system

administrators, real-time programmers, quality analysts, and instructors

and professors.

SoftIntegration, Inc.


216 F Street, #68 Davis, CA 95616


tel (530) 297-7398 fax (530) 297-7392


info@softintegration.com


http://www.softintegration.com

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Review: iCal

I've posted a review of iCal, which can be read here.

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Windows 2000 servers attacked

Microsoft has investigated an increase in malicious activity that tries to load code on Microsoft Windows 2000-based servers. This activity is typically associated with a program that has been identified as Backdoor.IRC.Flood.



By analyzing computers that have been compromised, Microsoft has determined that these attacks do not appear to exploit any new product-related security vulnerabilities and do not appear to be viral or worm-like in nature. Instead, the attacks seek to take advantage of situations where standard precautions have not been taken as detailed in the "Prevention" section of this article. The activity appears to be associated with a coordinated series of individual attempts to compromise Windows 2000-based servers. As a result, successful compromises leave a distinctive pattern.

Symptoms

Compromised systems show one or more of the following symptoms:

• Antivirus software may indicate that it has detected Trojans, such as Backdoor.IRC.Flood and its variants. Most antivirus vendors' current products (that are using up-to-date signature files) will detect these Trojans.
  
  
• If the compromised system is a domain controller, the security policy is modified. Some of the possible effects of a modified security policy are:
  
  
  
  • Guest accounts that were previously disabled are re-enabled.
    
    
  • New unauthorized accounts, possibly with administrative privileges.
    
    
  • Security permissions are changed on servers or in Active Directory.
    
    
  • Users cannot log on to the domain from the workstations.
    
    
  • Users cannot open Active Directory snap-ins in Microsoft Management Console (MMC).
    
    
  • Error logs display multiple, failed logon attempts from legitimate users who were locked out.
  
  
  

If the computer has been compromised, antivirus software may detect malicious code such as Backdoor.IRC.Flood and its variants.

The presence of these files indicates that the system has been compromised:

• Gg.bat: Gg.bat tries to connect to other servers as "administrator," "admin," or "root." Gg.bat then looks for the Flashfxp and the Ws_ftp programs on the server and then copies several files (including Ocxdll.exe) to the server. Gg.bat then uses the Psexec program to execute commands on the remote server.
  
  
• Seced.bat: Seced.bat changes the security policy.
  
  
• Nt32.ini
  
  
• Ocxdll.exe
  
  
• Gates.txt
  
  

To protect yourself from such attacks avoid blank or weak passwords for administrator accounts and disable guest accounts.

Microsoft's security alert is available here.

While attacks on Mac systems are uncommon, remember you're now running a multi-user operating system, so make sure you disable root access, use strong passwords for all administrator accounts, and turn off any services such as remote login that you don't need.

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2003 Macs will only boot Mac OS X

Apple∆ today announced that starting in January 2003, all new Mac∆ models will only boot into Mac∆ OS X as the start-up operating system, though they will retain the ability to run most Mac OS 9 applications through Apple’s bundled “Classic” software. There are nearly 4,000 native applications now available for Mac OS X.

“We expect that 20 percent of our entire installed base will be using Mac OS X by the end of this year, making it the fastest operating system transition in recent history,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Now it’s time for Apple and our third-party developers to focus all of our resources exclusively on Mac OS X, rather than dividing them between two different operating systems.”

All new Macs sold since January 2002 have had Mac OS X factory-set as the default operating system. Over 75 percent of customers using these Macs have elected to keep Mac OS X as their default operating system. Apple estimates that there are over 3 million Mac OS X users today, and expects to reach 5 million Mac OS X users—or more than 20 percent of the installed base—by the end of this calendar year.

“We’re happy to see Apple take this next step to drive adoption of Mac OS X,” said Kevin Browne, general manager of the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft Corp. “Mac OS X has really come of age with the release of ‘Jaguar,’ and we think the combination of OS X v10.2 and Office v. X for Mac provides our customers with the power and compatibility they’re seeking.”

“Apple is doing the right thing by making their Mac OS X system transition timeline perfectly clear,” said Shantanu Narayen, executive vice president of Worldwide Products at Adobe Systems. “By accelerating Macintosh customer migration to OS X, Apple will make it easier for Adobe and other ISVs to deliver innovative publishing solutions on this robust platform.”

Customers will be able to run older Mac OS 9 applications using the “Classic” software that will continue to be bundled with Mac OS X. The newly released Mac OS X v10.2 “Jaguar” operating system has an updated version of Classic which launches twice as fast; awakes from sleep much faster when AppleTalk∆ is turned on; can share the same desktop and document folders and Internet preferences as Mac OS X; and can access all Mac OS X file systems.

MacMegasite Spin:

Although Apple claims Mac OS 9 is dead, the vast majority of Mac users are still running Mac OS 9 or earlier. For many users with older machines, an upgrade is required to run X, and many won't be able to run X even with an upgrade. This is even more true in the education market, where most of the Macs are still older or low-end models. At the first beta site for my current project, 2/3 of the systems are still running 9.

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Apple releases iCal

Apple has released iCal, the personal calendar application announced at MacWorld NY in July.

iCal lets you create separate color-coded calendars for your home, school and work schedules, and it lets you view all your different calendars at the same time from within a single unified window. That way you can quickly spot scheduling conflicts — and just as quickly identify where you still have lots of time.

With iCal, you can:

• Keep track of your schedules, events and appointments, with at-a-glance views of upcoming activities by day, week or month
  
  
• Manage and view more than one calendar at a time from within a single unified window to quickly identify schedule conflicts and pockets of free time
  
  
• Share your calendars online with your colleagues, family and friends, using your .Mac account
  
  
• Subscribe to other calendars to keep up with work schedules, family and school events, and more
  
  
• Send standards-based email event invitations to people listed in your Mac OS X Address Book
  
  Keep your priorities straight with built-in To Do list management
  
  
• Get notification of upcoming events on screen, by email or via text messaging to a mobile phone or pager
  
  
• Use a lightning-fast search tool to quickly locate any event, task or name entered into iCal
  
  

More information is available here. A free download is available from http://www.apple.com/ical/download/.

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iCal

Apple's new calendar application, iCal, which was announced in July is now available and it doesn't quite live up to the high expectations. It looks great and the web features are nice, but it's very slow & buggy and lacks some important features.







I've been using Palm Desktop as my calendar & address book for several years. It's a great application, but lacks integration with other Mac applications such as Mail.app which use Apple's address book. Palm Desktop 4.0 can export the calendar to a vCal file, which iCal is able to import.







Importing my calendar from Palm Desktop turned up several bugs. Many items simply didn't appear, and a few (mostly repeating items such as birthdays) were off by one day. The imported data was so bad that the easiest thing to do was to simply delete that calendar. You can easily delete any calendar such as "Home" from the top left of the calendar window.







After I deleted my home calendar, created a new one, and called it "Home", I quit iCal. The next time I ran it, the newly created "Home" calendar was now "Untitled", given the wrong color, and moved to the bottom of the list. After I corrected it, the problem didn't recur.







Among the more notable missing features, iCal doesn't provide any way to quickly jump to a specific date. There's no way to label or categorize an event except by assigning it to a particular calendar, and an event can't belong to more than one calendar. If you have many items displayed on the calendar, the display can get very cluttered & difficult to read.







On the plus side, you can create as many calendars as you want, and display any number of them at the same time. Apple provides several calendars for iCal users to subscribe to, including holidays, music, sports, movie, and TV schedules. You can easily publish your own calendars to your .Mac account or any WebDAV server. Subscribed calendars can be updated manually or automatically.







There's currently no way to synchronize a calendar to a Palm device, but that will be possible when iSync is released later this month.







Overall iCal is a good idea, but a poor implementation. I'm sure later releases will address most of the shortcomings.

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Blue Worx launches Powerbacks∆ Slide Alchemy for Presenters

Blue Worx, a Phoenix, Arizona based graphic design firm, announces the first offering in its specialized line of products for presenters - Slide Alchemy.






The dual PC/Mac CD of presentation backgrounds offers users a great variety of looks from the most basic templates to inspirational works of art, that will enhance the presentations of novices as well as seasoned professionals. An html thumbnail viewer, opened with your own installed web browser, Explorer/Netscape, facilitates easy selection. All the background offerings come in convenient .ppt file format for PowerPoint∆ users as well as .jpg format, which provides for usage in many other software programs.









The images are 1024 x768 pixels provided in "high quality" and average 150K in file size. The 2,000 creations are categorized in three orientations: Templates(1,000), Sets(800) and Artistic(200) and can be incorporated with all versions of PowerPoint∆ including XP∆. From most basic textures of line and form to topics illustrated with shades of "Dali-esque Surrealism," Slide Alchemy strives to aid the presenter in entertaining, motivating and influencing their audience.









The Powerbacks∆ line is created by Gary Blue, a lifetime artist and 10-year veteran corporate PowerPoint∆ Designer/Editor. Blue specializes in pre-production conceptualization as well as orchestrating presentation agendas on live events. Five years in the making, Powerbacks∆ "Slide Alchemy" promises to be an influential tool in today's vast presentation marketplace and the "Gold Standard" for an array of presenters of all skill levels and creative desires. Next in the Powerbacks∆ line are "Clip Alchemy" and "Photo Alchemy" also designed with the consummate presenter in mind.











You can purchase Slide Alchemy at the main website, cost $49.95









http://powerbacks.com









For evaluation, you can obtain a free, fully functional sampler of 100 backgrounds, under PowerPoint∆ at









http://office.microsoft.com/Downloads/ouvp.aspx

or directly to

http://free-ppt.com









or email Gary blue @powerbacks.com for a free full product evaluation Download or CD









To obtain a tif print version of the cover - 2 Megs









http://powerbacks.com/alchemy_cover.tif









To download the entire press kit - 9 Megs









http://powerbacks.com/powerbacks_press_kit.exe









http://powerbacks.com/powerbacks_press_kit.sea









Blue Worx is a Duns listed company 61-345-8236 located at:




9201 N. 29th Avenue Suite 63-273




Phoenix, Arizona 85051









For further information Gary Blue can be contacted by email at blue@powerbacks.com or by phone 970.963.2400

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Free Alchemy Deluxe for .Mac Members

As a "welcome" gift .Mac members can download a free copy of Alchemy Deluxe, the latest release from PopCap Games. Can you turn ordinary stone to gold? Test your skills at arranging magic runes to accomplish this transformation. You can set your level of play, plus choose to work against the clock or in strategic mode. Alchemy Deluxe is optimized by Omni Group for Mac OS X.

Alchemy Deluxe is the biggest productivity killer since Tetris - it's truly addictive and it looks and sounds great.

.Mac full and trial members also receive a $5 discount on Bejeweled Deluxe from PopCap Games. This is the brand-new Macintosh desktop version of the online puzzle game chosen as "Game of the Year" by Handheld Computing and Computer Gaming World. If you've played Bejeweled online, you'll appreciate this version's enhancements, which include shimmering mouseovers and a mesmerizing soundtrack.

ShareWare versions of both games are available in the Software folder on your iDisk. For more information about both games, visit PopCap Games.

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Mac On Linux runs Jaguar

Mac On Linux lets you run MacOS under Linux/PPC. It's not an emulator - it runs natively on the processor creating a virtual environment that runs MacOS.

Unlike most emulators, Mac On Linux runs MacOS 8.6 and later WITHOUT A ROM IMAGE at almost full speed.

MOL is free, and the source code is available under the GNU general public licence.

It is now possible to run MacOS X within MOL. Both MacOS 10.1 and 10.2 are supported. The new MOL version also contains support for little endian (remote) X displays.

For more information about MOL, visit www.maconlinux.org. More information about Linux/PPC is available at www.penguinppc.org.

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Aqua Icon Kit

Apple has released a new Aqua Icon Kit and guidelines for designing icons.

The Aqua Icon Kit consists of PhotoShop 7 templates and the following PhotoShop actions:

Plug-in Type Skew: Skews, rotates, and scales a text or graphic layer so that it appears to be approximately flush against the right face of the Plug-in Block in the Plug-in Icon Template. To use, create a type or graphic layer with appropriate dimensions (approximately 32x32 pixels maximum) that contains a symbol or label that indicates the plug-in type, apply this action, then position the resulting graphic on the Plug-in Block. Some fine-tuning may be necessary to achieve the best appearance.

Plug-in Application Icon Skew: Skews, rotates, and scales a graphic layer (which should contain your application icon scaled to approximately 32x32 pixels) so that it appears to be approximately fl