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Tue, 12 Aug 2003
Google Calculator in Safari
Google has a new calculator feature which can be invoked by simply entering an expression in Google's seach box. As a side-effect, it can also be used anywhere a Google search can be done, including Safari's Google search field.
To use Google's built-in calculator function, simply enter the expression you'd like evaluated in the search box and hit the Enter key or click the Google Search button. The calculator can evaluate mathematical expressions involving basic arithmetic (5+2*2 or 2^20), more complicated math (sine(30 degrees) or e^(i pi)+1), units of measure and conversions (100 miles in kilometers or 160 pounds * 4000 feet in Calories), and physical constants (1 a.u./c or G*mass of earth/radius of earth^2). You can also experiment with other numbering systems, including hexadecimal and binary.
You can also enter an expression directly in Safari's google search field.
DEVONthink is now also an outliner and a notepad
DEVONtechnologies releases a new version 1.7 of its revolutionary information manager and freeform database DEVONthink Personal Edition.
The new outline feature allows every content stored in DEVONthink to be checkable, a simple but extremely effective way of melting the "best of both worlds", of an outliner and a freeform database. Also, with version 1.7 it's now possible to edit text or RTF contents directly in any browser window, making DEVONthink an easy-to-use but full-featured, powerful notepad application.
Additional new features of DEVONthink 1.7 are a syntax colouring option for HTML and XML, a must-have for everyone writing mark-up code within DEVONthink, a highlighting toolbar button to simply highlight selected text like one would do with a text marker, and a command for converting PDF and HTML contents to plain and rich text. Images, HTML and text contents can now be zoomed in and out, and a realtime character and word count helps writers and editors to create articles of a predefined length. As with every release, DEVONthink is also faster, uses less memory and is more stable than ever.
Without the need for indexing, DEVONthink fully or semi-automatically classifies elements, lists similar contents and words immediately using fuzzy algorithms, finds and compares text and even images, summarises texts intelligently and provides high performance concordance tools. As a Cocoa application it's perfectly integrated into Mac OS X including it's own services for storing and summarising text clippings, has advanced text editing functions including rulers and provides a Finder-like interface with contextual menus, Dock menus, different views and drag-and-drop. Finally, DEVONthink is the first product based on the powerful and language independent DEVONtechnology which is suitable for a wide range of applications.
DEVONthink Personal Edition 1.7 runs on Mac OS X 10.1 or higher and is immediately available as a free download from www.devon-technologies.com. It must be registered for US$ 35 after the evaluation period.
NEWS FLASH! How Blaster Worm Affects Mac Networks
Today, the Win32 Blaster Worm is wreaking havoc on the net. You might
think that this only affects Windows networks, but that appears now to not
be the case.
Reports are still coming in, but it does look like the Win32 Blaster Worm
*can* affect Mac networks as well. Macs do appear to be unaffected, but if
even if you have only a single Windows machine on your network, it can
affect not only the Internet connection ... but also your LAN. Even
machines that are on private IPs on the net will have connectivity
problems, and the worm appears to be able to permeate through routers which
would normally act as a gatekeeper.
The solution: Unplug the Windows machines from your network, update with
the appropriate security patch, and then run the removal tool. More
details can be seen at SlashDot.org
Patches can be downloaded from the Microsoft web site at:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/ms03-010.asp
and the removal tool can be downloaded at:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.blaster.worm.html
Details are still evolving, but already this morning there are reports of multiple
large, primarily Mac networks be seriously affected. Unplugging the
Windows machines from the network instantly brought them back up.
Make sure you have port 135 blocked at your firewall. I checked my D-Link DI-624's log and find I'm getting lots of attacks, which it's stopping. The entries look like this:
| Aug/11/2003 19:49:59 | Drop TCP packet from WAN | xx.xx.xx.xx:1417 | yy.yy.yy.yy:135 | Rule: Default deny
|
| Aug/11/2003 19:46:42 | Drop UDP packet from WAN | xx.xx.xx.xx:30099 | yy.yy.yy.yy:135 | Rule: Default deny
|
Apple 5x Internal IDE/ATAPI DVD-ROM Drive
Use this in a Mac or a PC! Must have DVD decoder video card on pre-AGP
machines (ie Beige & B&W G3s as well as PCI Graphics G4s)
Was $49.99, now $29.99 with Q-Pon Code "DVDZ"
Product #661-2163R Exp. 8/19.
FaceSpan is coming to Mac OS X
Facespan, the original AppleScript design tool, is coming to Mac OS X.
FaceSpan is a cutting edge interface design and rapid application development (RAD) tool, which gives you the power to build and customize Macintosh applications quickly and easily. It includes editors for constructing windows, scripts, and menus, as well as a management environment through which you can inspect, edit, duplicate, and delete each application's scripts, interface components, and resources.
FaceSpan is used in conjunction with AppleScript and gives you the power to add the features and functionality you need to customize virtually any scriptable application such as FileMaker Pro, Cumulus, QuarkXPress, InDesign, Creator2, Word, Excel, Photoshop, Illustrator, and the Macintosh Finder to name a few.
Unlike most other programming environments for the Macintosh --- FaceSpan makes programming easy and accessible to the novice. Without any previous programming experience, you can quickly learn to design and build your own applications. AppleScript alone is a powerful scripting language but has a limited interface capability. With FaceSpan, a unique scripting environment is created that possesses the ability to create powerful applications with Macintosh interfaces.
Use FaceSpan and automate often-repeated tasks, customize existing applications, integrate the functionality of multiple applications, rapidly build applications and prototypes, and personalize your Macintosh computing environment.
For more information, visit facespan.com.