TidBITS#748/27-Sep-04
=====================
Charles Maurer anchors this issue with an in-depth discussion of
tools and techniques the perfectionist can use to polish digital
photos. Glenn Fleishman radios in from high above Seattle...
via iChat AV and the Connexion by Boeing Internet service.
In the news, we cover the releases of StuffIt Deluxe 9.0,
Tinderbox 2.3, Keyboard Maestro 2.0, and The Missing Sync 4.0.1,
along with mentions of two new sponsors and the PowerBook G4
White Spot Repair Program.
Topics:
MailBITS/27-Sep-04
iChat AV in the Air
Editing Photographs for the Perfectionist
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/27-Sep-04
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* StuffIt Deluxe 9 from Allume Systems improves on the Mac's <------- NEW!
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MailBITS/27-Sep-04
------------------
**New Sponsors: easyDNS and HobbyLink Japan** -- We're extremely
pleased to welcome back as a long-term sponsor easyDNS, the DNS
registration, hosting, and management company where we've kept all
the TidBITS domain names for several years now. They aren't the
cheapest DNS service, but when it comes to something as critical
as a domain name, I'll take reliable and easy to use over cost any
day. After years of horrendous (to put it mildly) experiences with
Network Solutions before switching, working with easyDNS has been
a huge relief. Also joining us this week is a company that's
unusual among our sponsors because they sell not computer-related
products but hobby kits, toys, books and anime-related gear direct
from Japan. Fun stuff! [ACE]
<http://www.easydns.com/>
<http://www.hlj.com/>
**Allume Ships StuffIt Deluxe and StuffIt Standard 9.0** -- Allume
has upgraded their long-standing compression, archiving, and
expansion utilities, improving performance (particularly on dual-
processor Macs) and improving the interface and user experience.
Both StuffIt Standard (comprised of DropStuff and the free StuffIt
Expander) and StuffIt Deluxe 9.0 include an improved version of
DropStuff that provides a single interface to creating StuffIt,
Zip, and .tar archives. DropStuff can also now archive files
directly to CD/DVD and FTP servers, eliminating the need to create
an archive and then burn or upload; if an archive is larger than
a single CD or DVD, DropStuff automatically segments it on the
fly. On the other side of the equation, the new StuffIt Expander
makes restoring archived files to their original locations easier.
Changes in StuffIt Deluxe 9.0 include an enhanced ArchiveAssistant
tool that helps users archive any folder to any local or network
drive, CD/DVD, FTP server, or iDisk. Also improved is the StuffIt
Express automation utility, which now allows distribution of
automation drop boxes to others. Also, compression and expansion
tasks invoked via Magic Menu and the StuffIt contextual menu
are now multi-threaded, so you can keep using the Finder while
they run. StuffIt Standard costs $50 (although StuffIt Expander
remains free as part of the 6.3 MB demo download); upgrades from
any previous version are $20. StuffIt Deluxe costs $80, with
upgrades from previous versions of StuffIt Standard or StuffIt
Deluxe at $30. Both require Mac OS X 10.3 or later. [ACE]
<http://www.stuffit.com/mac/deluxe/>
<http://www.stuffit.com/mac/standard/>
**Eastgate Fires Up Tinderbox 2.3** -- Eastgate Systems has
released Tinderbox 2.3, a free update to its program for storing
notes and other information (see "Light Your Fire with Tinderbox"
in TidBITS-651_). This version improves the display of text and
maps, speeds up spell checking, and beefs up the program's agents
feature with new queries and actions. Tinderbox 2.3 costs $70
for a new license, and is a 4.5 MB download. [JLC]
<http://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06959>
**Keyboard Maestro 2.0 Makes Macros** -- Michael Kamprath's
utility Keyboard Maestro has found a new home at Stairways
Software, which has just released version 2.0. The revision is
a rewrite of the original program, which lets you create macros
to automate tasks based on hotkeys, application actions, specific
times, or even the use of a Griffin Technology PowerMate. The new
version also adds button clicks and scroll wheel simulations,
window manipulation, multiple named clipboards, and the capability
to collect macros into application-specific Macro Groups. Keyboard
Maestro 2.0 costs $20 for a single user license, with prices for
5-, 20-, and 100-seat licenses ranging up to $695. The program
is available as free trial version, which is a 4.4 MB download;
Mac OS X 10.2 or later is required to run it. [JLC]
<http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/>
<http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/documentation/2/whatsnew>
<http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate/>
<http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/documentation/2/purchase.html>
**The Missing Sync 4.0.1 Fixes CLIE Bug** -- Mark/Space, Inc. has
released an important update to The Missing Sync for Palm OS, the
company's utility for synchronizing Palm OS handhelds with the Mac
(see "Missing Sync 4.0 Fills Palm Gaps" in TidBITS-743_). Version
4.0.1 solves a problem where Sony CLIE owners would experience a
Mac OS X kernel panic when trying to mount Memory Stick media on
the Desktop. It also adds support for FMSync and Vindigo conduits,
adds keychain support, and more. The update is free for registered
users of version 4.0, and is an 11.6 MB download. [JLC]
<http://www.markspace.com/missingsync_palmos.html>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07784>
**PowerBook G4 White Spot Repair Program Announced** -- If you
were an early owner of Apple's 15-inch Aluminum PowerBook G4,
you may have found an unwelcome surprise: faint white spots
on the display. Until now, Apple has been repairing them on
a case-by-case basis; my PowerBook exhibited the problem once
and was repaired successfully, but I know others whose PowerBooks
went back to Apple numerous times. Now, Apple has created a repair
program to get the white out. The program covers the Aluminum
15-inch PowerBook G4 (1 GHz or 1.25 GHz processor) or the Titanium
15-inch PowerBook G4 (867 MHz or 1 GHz processor) with a serial
number between V7334xxxxxx and V7345xxxxxx, or QT331xxxxxx and
QT339xxxxxx. The LCD replacement program is offered worldwide.
[JLC]
<http://www.apple.com/support/powerbook/displayprogram/>
**iPhoto Workshop in Malta Cancelled** -- We're sorry to announce
that Techie Tours has been forced to cancel our iPhoto workshop
in Malta, scheduled for the second week in November. Although
there was plenty of interest in the event, too few people actually
signed up, making it financially infeasible for Techie Tours. The
specific timing of the event (right after the U.S. presidential
election) may have been the factor that kept people from signing
up. I hope global political and economic conditions improve to the
point where Techie Tours will be able to hold the event in the
future; the concept of mixing Macintosh training with an exotic
vacation is still a good one. [ACE]
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07705>
iChat AV in the Air
-------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Last week I flew up and around the Puget Sound region, and my
broadband connection came with me. I was invited with other
journalists to take a trip in the Connexion by Boeing test plane,
a craft equipped with Boeing's high-speed, in-flight broadband
service that's currently available only on a handful of Lufthansa
jets, but which mostly Asian and European airlines should start
rolling out later this year and into the next.
<http://www.connexionbyboeing.com/>
Connexion by Boeing uses a satellite transceiver, mounted on
a gimbal on top of the plane, that's controlled by on-board
electronics. The connection allows from 5 to 20 Mbps of download
bandwidth and up to 1 Mbps of upload. On the test flight, we had
1 Mbps down and 128 Kbps up.
The flight was unbelievably gorgeous: Washington looks great from
the air. We could practically touch Mt. Rainier, with just 2,500
feet of lateral and 3,000 feet of vertical distance as we flew
around it (we also flew that near to Mt. Adams).
But the view on board was quite good, too. Inspired by Eric
Zelenka of Apple, who used this service on a Lufthansa flight
(see "iChat AV Takes Flight with In-Air Wi-Fi" in TidBITS-736_),
I was able to use iChat AV and an iSight to push video to my dad
(his iSight wasn't hooked up), video both ways with Adam Engst
(his audio was screwy), and audio and video with Jeff Carlson
(I could barely hear him and he heard what sounded like a digital
rendition of the loud airplane noise; we suspect that the noise
was caused by iChat's audio compression, which is tailored for
human speech, not loud background noise).
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07730>
<http://www.apple.com/ichat/>
<http://www.apple.com/isight/>
I was also able to make some test voice-over-IP calls, but
the airplane noise was too loud; I tried a noise-cancellation
headset that the Connexion folks had with a Wi-Fi telephone they
were testing, and it was extraordinarily clear and offered low
latency: better than a cell phone in many respects. And,
interestingly, the noise-canceling headset almost forces you
to talk more quietly because it pushes some of the microphone
input back into the headphone: I was talking at what I thought
was an above-normal voice, and my seatmate said he could barely
hear me.
The idea with Connexion is to reclaim lost time on the long
flights that businesspeople take. The cost will range from $10
to $35 depending on how much time you want to use and how long
the flight is. This test flight was awfully convincing that
broadband Internet access while in the air will be a compelling
use of technology.
Editing Photographs for the Perfectionist
-----------------------------------------
by Charles Maurer
I have two modes of taking pictures: point-and-shoot and
perfectionist. In the first mode I use a pocket-sized camera with
no manual controls. It processes the pictures, I throw them onto
my hard drive, and the only editing I'll ever do is remove some
occasional red-eye. In perfectionist mode I revert to a previous
incarnation and become a commercial photographer again.
This year my perfectionist mode has gone digital and my computer
has replaced my darkroom. To effect this change, I reviewed all of
the photo-editing software available for the Mac. In this article
I shall summarize my take on the most suitable products available
for the perfectionist to finish photographs.
Since some readers will come to this from photography and others
from computers, I shall not assume that anybody understands the
jargon from either side and shall go back to basics frequently.
My intent, however, is to point out an approach and products that
go far beyond the basics.
**The Raw Truth** -- The digital sensor in a camera generates a
file of raw data that requires an enormous amount of processing to
become converted into a usable image. This processing can be done
in the camera or by a computer. A computer allows more control and
the opportunity to change your mind in the middle.
The conversion of a raw file into an image is not straightforward.
Many algorithms are possible, so different programs come out with
different results. Try the converter that came with your camera,
try Adobe Photoshop, try any others you might have on hand, and
see what you like the best. Note that Photoshop and perhaps some
other applications will permit you to enlarge the images from
the different colour channels to slightly different extents, to
compensate for one cause of colour fringing, lateral chromatic
aberration. This is useful but don't expect much. Most colour
fringing comes from other causes.
Raw files can be converted into TIFF or JPEG. TIFF (Tagged Image
File Format) contains full information but is large. JPEG (Joint
Photographic Experts Group) is compressed but impoverished. It is
sensible to convert raw files to TIFF, keep the TIFF files for
editing, then convert them to JPEGs as needed for distribution.
You are likely to be offered the choice of converting your
raw files to 8-bit or 16-bit colour. Eight bits ought to be
sufficient, but if a picture is poorly lighted or poorly exposed,
rescuing it may require teasing apart nearby tones. In that case
smooth tonal gradients may break up into discrete bands unless you
have more steps. However, 16-bit files are twice the size and take
much longer to process. I prefer to use 8-bit colour normally and
to take the risk of needing to reconvert a file on the odd
occasion that eight bits aren't enough.
Most raw converters allow you to sharpen the pictures. Indeed,
most of them sharpen pictures by default. However, never sharpen
pictures at this early point in the process. Sharpening of this
sort, "unsharp masking," distorts the image at edges, which then
prejudices other manipulations. Moreover, the amount that is
useful depends upon the size and purpose of the final image.
Sharpening an image should be the very last thing you do.
**Noise Ninja** -- A digital sensor always records a certain
amount of random noise. Usually this is an insignificant
proportion of the image, but it may become objectionable with
long exposures or higher amplification (i.e., higher "film speeds"
or "ISO speeds"). It can also become noticeable in smooth areas
under ordinary circumstances. It is possible to characterize
mathematically the noise produced by any particular sensor at
any particular amplification and to subtract that noise from the
image. This subtraction needs to be done before you modify the
image. However, at this stage in the process, it is important
that you remove only noise, not detail. Later, after the detail
has been brought out as best as possible, it may seem sensible
to remove some of it to clean up some more noise, but that comes
later. At this point, you want to retain all of the detail.
I have not tried many noise-reduction packages because wherever
I read comparisons, one of them always came out at the top for
both Macs and Windows: PictureCode's Noise Ninja ($30 or $70,
depending on whether you need 8-bit or 16-bit output). Noise Ninja
can discriminate remarkably well between image and noise. I have
found that with images from my Sigma SD-10 shot at ISO 100, Noise
Ninja's default settings (other than turning off sharpening)
eliminate all the noise that ever becomes visible, yet never
affects any detail. Noise Ninja has shown itself to be so reliable
that I am about ready to start running images through it
automatically in batches - but only for pictures shot at ISO 100.
The higher the sensitivity, the more noise, so that the difference
between detail and noise becomes less clear. Where there is more
noise, it is even more important to use Noise Ninja, but I prefer
to run it by hand for greater control.
<http://www.picturecode.com/>
**FocusMagic** -- Once you've eliminated noise, it's time to
wave a magic wand over blurry parts of the picture. If the lens
wasn't focused properly or had too little depth of field, or if
the subject or camera moved, this magic wand may remove the blur.
The wand is Acclaim Software's $45 FocusMagic. It can't produce
perfection, but 8" x 10" enlargements can show astonishing
improvements.
<http://www.focusmagic.com/>
Although FocusMagic sharpens the picture, it works quite
differently from ordinary sharpening routines. Ordinary sharpening
routines enhance contrast at sharp edges; FocusMagic forms sharp
edges out of blur. Be sure to use FocusMagic before any other
optical correction. To fix focus blur, FocusMagic works at least
as well as the $60 FocusFixer from Fixer Labs and is a bit easier
to use. To fix motion blur, I don't know of any alternative.
<http://www.fixerlabs.com/pages/fixer.html>
Unfortunately, although a stand-alone version of FocusMagic is
available for Windows, only a Photoshop plug-in is made for Macs
and requires Photoshop; it will not run in GraphicConverter.
**A Better Perspective** -- Now comes the time to compensate for
basic optical problems in the photo:
* Compensate as best you can for colour fringing caused by lateral
chromatic aberration, if you did not do this in the raw converter.
* Straighten lines that are curved by barrel or pincushion
distortion. Straight lines evincing convex curves show barrel
distortion; straight lines evincing concave curves show pincushion
distortion. With a digital image you can remove so much distortion
that you can even straighten the lines of a fish-eye photograph,
but with any lens, if the distortion is not simple and
symmetrical, then some residual waviness will remain.
* Rotate the image if the camera was not quite straight.
* Correct perspective so that buildings don't appear to be falling
over. This can be done horizontally as well. Both corrections
make scenes look more natural.
* Correct light fall-off toward the corners caused by wide-angle
lenses.
* Correct the magnification toward the edges of wide-angle lenses.
For these corrections I use a quartet of plug-ins by The Imaging
Factory: Debarrelizer, Perspective, Squeeze and Vignette
($40 each, other than the $20 Squeeze). They are easy to use
and combined they offer more control with greater sophistication
than any similar products I have found, except for one lacuna:
they offer no compensation for pincushion distortion.
Unfortunately (in this context), I happen to have no lenses
that cause pincushion distortion, so products to repair it
are beyond my ken. In theory the $40 plug-in LensFix from
Kekus Digital offers more precise compensation for distortion
and chromatic aberration than any other product but with my
lenses I found it to be no better, merely difficult to use.
<http://www.theimagingfactory.com/>
<http://www.kekus.com/plugin/>
**Asiva** -- Up to this point, all of your manipulations are
straightforward and mechanical. Now we bring in artistic judgement
because we need to adjust tonality and balance colour. The usual
approaches to this employ the adjustments built into Photoshop,
but I find something else that is easier to use, more subtle,
and more powerful: the $70 Asiva Shift+Gain. This is a product
fundamentally different from anything else on the market and
fundamentally more useful.
<http://www.asiva.com/products/plugins/ShiftGainTrial.php>
Whenever you edit a photograph, the first thing you need to do is
select the pixels you want to change. Often this means complicated
masks and careful manipulations of the mouse. The procedures in
Photoshop can be anything but simple, even when they happen to be
straightforward. Instead, Shift+Gain will "see" and identify the
objects that you want to change much as you see them yourself.
If you can see a face or leaves or twigs or hair, then you are
seeing areas of a certain range of brightness and colour. This
range must be distinct from what's adjacent, else you would not
see the object. If they are different, then the computer can find
them automatically and change them.
Incredible as it may seem, the Asiva folks hold a U.S. patent
on this idea. Shift+Gain is one of their implementations of this
patent. With Shift+Gain you define some arbitrary region of the
photo and instruct the program to find and change therein all
pixels of an arbitrary range of brightness and colour. If the
object you want to change is too variegated to define - well,
then you can define the colours of the surrounding objects and
tell the program to change all the pixels that it did not find.
Although computers create colours from red, green and blue, and
most programs deal with colours as mixtures of red, green and
blue, people do not easily conceive of colours this way. It is
easier for us to think of colours as having one place on the
rainbow, more or less pure or concentrated, and lighter or darker
on a continuum between black and white. Those dimensions are hue,
saturation and value.
Asiva Shift+Gain lets you think about colours that way. It
provides three graphs with hue or saturation or value on the
horizontal axis and amount on the vertical axis. You shape a curve
on each graph and Shift+Gain selects the colours that fall under
those curves. The selection appears immediately. You can work on
the whole photo or on regions that you have selected with the
marquis or lasso. You can then make changes to your selection's
hue, saturation, value, red, green, blue, or any combination
of the six. The changes are in direct proportion to the amounts
you specify with your curves (Shift). On top of this, they can
be made to increase more when the saturation and/or value is
greater (Gain).
This is difficult to understand abstractly, and using the
product feels strange at first, but it can make sophisticated
transformations trivial. A master painter will model his
subject in light and shadow - chiaroscuro - and also in colour.
Chiaroscuro and colour are limited on canvas. To add contrast,
to define a scene better, a painter will mix the two dimensions
by colouring highlights and shadows. Photographs have an even
more restricted range of tonality and colour, so mixing the two
dimensions becomes even more important in photography, but it
is usually difficult. Shift+Gain makes it easy.
Look at the sample picture linked below. I took this snapshot
with my point-and-shoot camera on holiday then transformed it
with Shift+Gain. This transformation could not have been wrought
in Photoshop without a lot of skill, but in Shift+Gain it was
simple. The highlights were right but the shadows were too dark,
so I tried lightening all the tones that were a little above
black. That lightened some shadowed leaves too much, so I played
with the saturation curve until things looked right, which turned
out to mean lightening only weakly saturated dark tones. This
left the shadows fine but the mid-tones were still too dark,
so I lightened all of the mid-tones. At this point the tonality
was okay but the picture still looked flat. It needed more
saturated contrast within the midtones - i.e., brighter colours -
so I increased ("shifted") the saturation. That didn't look good,
so I tried increasing the gain of the saturation, making more-
saturated colours still more saturated but changing less-saturated
colours less. That was the right direction but the colours needed
different amounts of this treatment and saturated blues needed
to be decreased rather than increased.
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/748/desertspring.jpg>
Asiva also makes three other plug-ins that offer the same visual
method of selecting areas. Correct+Apply Color ($50) replaces
one hue with another, or overlays a hue as digital make-up,
in both cases maintaining the original saturation and value.
Sharpen+Soften ($70) sharpens or softens the selected objects.
(Note: do not use Sharpen to sharpen everything. It still isn't
time for that.) Selection ($40) creates a selection in Photoshop
for use with other Photoshop tools. All four of those plug-ins
are excellent products that are convenient to use and work with
alacrity. A $200 bundle includes them all. Asiva also sells a $50
plug-in, the just-released JPEG Deblocker, that is designed to
enable Shift+Gain to work properly with JPEGs, if TIFF files are
not available. I have not tried it.
<http://www.asiva.com/products/plugins/plugins.php>
Unfortunately, each of these plug-ins requires Photoshop. Asiva
does make a stand-alone application - Asiva Photo - that does the
job of all four plug-ins, but I cannot recommend it. I find its
user interface inflexible and awkward, and it is so slow that on
my 800-MHz Titanium PowerBook G4 I need to twiddle my thumbs for
10 to 30 seconds after every click of the mouse.
**Photoshop, At Last** -- Finally we have finished our Asiva
detour and are ready for Photoshop. This is the point when you can
do almost anything else that you want other than enlargement and
sharpening. I usually need to retouch out a few specks of dust
but not much more. To remove a lot of dust, you might try a free
product from Polaroid, Polaroid Dust & Scratch Removal; it's
available as either a stand-alone program or a Photoshop plug-in.
<http://www.polaroid.com/global/detail.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=
2534374302023779&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441760086>
**PhotoZoom and the Finishing Touch** -- If you want to crop your
photo, crop it now and save the cropped file under another name.
When you want to make an enlargement, enlarge the file in
Shortcut's $50 PhotoZoom or $130 PhotoZoom Pro to create a new
file with the optimal number of pixels for the size of print and
the resolution of your printer. By default, both of them sharpen
the photo too. This, finally, is the time for sharpening and I
have found one of their default settings nearly always to be
appropriate, although occasionally I have wanted some of the
fine-tuning available in PhotoZoom Pro. These products are
significantly better than any other enlarging package for the
Mac. I've found PhotoZoom Pro 1.0.95 to be buggy, but it makes
such superb enlargements that I have not regretted its purchase.
Finally, if the enlargement turns out to show too much noise,
open the enlarged file in Noise Ninja and optimize it.
<http://www.trulyphotomagic.com/>
With dye-sublimation printers and some inkjet printers, it is
possible to send the printer a file prepared in PhotoZoom that
defines precisely every pixel that the print-head is to print.
On my Olympus dye-sub printer, this technique generates photos
that are strikingly sharper than any I get by sending the printer
a smaller file and having the system software fill the page.
Unfortunately, most inkjet printers do not have a fixed
resolution, so the printer's software has to fudge whatever
file you send it. If the printer's specs show a number of
pixels or dots per inch that is somewhere around 300, then
it probably has a fixed resolution of that number; if its specs
show dots per inch in the thousands, then the number bears no
relationship to the resolution you will see. Indeed, in this
case the resolution of the print is likely to be undefined
and variable.
To understand this, consider a printer that prints 1,440 dots
per inch. Each colour of ink is laid down as individual dots
and the dots cannot overlap. One dot from each ink required
to produce a colour is the number of dots required to form the
smallest possible bit of that colour; i.e. a pixel. If different
numbers of inks are required to form different colours, the
number of dots per pixel will change with the colour. On top
of this, the dots are likely not to be laid down in a fixed
pattern but scattered about stochastically.
If you are unhappy with your printer's sharpness, then you
might try testing it with files created at different resolutions,
to see if one of those files prints better than the others. If it
does, then you are likely to get better results by feeding your
printer files of that resolution. I made a few test files for
this purpose; download them in the Zip archive linked below.
These are 1-, 2- and 3-pixel stripes with headers showing
different numbers of dots per inch. Print them with Photoshop
or GraphicConverter, not Preview, because Preview will change
the patterns' sizes to make them fit the paper. Examine each
one to see how smooth the patterns are; if one particular
resolution prints better than the others, then scale your
photos using that number of dots per inch. However, do consider
that what matters is your photographs, not tests. This test
can make any printer look bad. If you are satisfied with your
printer's sharpness, there is no point to investigating this
particular bit of imprecision. It would be better to let
ignorance remain bliss.
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/748/PrinterSharpnessTest.zip>
On the other hand, for everything else involved in printing
colour, ignorance is not bliss. With most aspects of colour, it
is useful to know the slop in the system, so that you know when
you need to be precise and when there is no point to trying.
To this end, my next article will introduce you to the wonders
and absurdities of colour and ColorSync. It will show you a few
simple things that matter and describe a world of complexities
and costs that you can ignore.
PayBITS: If Charles's recommendations for perfecting photos
helped, he asks that you make a donation to Doctors Without
Borders: <http://www.doctorswithoutborders-usa.org/donate/>
Read more about PayBITS: <http://www.tidbits.com/paybits/>
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/27-Sep-04
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The second URL below each thread description points to the
discussion on our Web Crossing server, which will be much faster.
**Clipboard History Applications** -- Readers suggest several
utilities that can store more than one chunk of clipboard data
at a time and perform various manipulations on the clipboard
contents. (4 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2318>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/180>
**Macintosh Version Control Systems** -- The Mac boasts a few
version control systems, such as Perforce, which is also
supported by BBEdit. (3 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2321>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/183>
**Wireless iPods** -- Apple took every Mac wireless long ago;
has long will it be before the iPod frees itself of its cables
as well? (6 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2322>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/184>
**Address Book Auto-complete Values?** Apple's Address Book
features an aggressive auto-complete feature, with no indication
of where those values are stored in the event that you want
to change them. (4 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2323>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/185>
**More on Apple Remote Desktop** -- Adam's review of Apple Remote
Desktop 2.0 prompts additional comments and comparisons to other
remote-control applications. (8 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2324>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/186>
$$
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