TidBITS#794/29-Aug-05
=====================
This week's issue brings a potpourri of Mac news, including
Adam's coverage of an iPod infestation of the biological sort
(Monomorium destructor, to be precise). Adam also notes how you
can add a USB-to-Ethernet adapter to a Mac using new open source
drivers. Mark Anbinder looks briefly at Google Talk, and Jeff
Carlson follows up last week's Mac to School article with some
software suggestions for students. Glenn Fleishman resolves
a problem with AirPort preferred network listings in upgraded
versions of Tiger and turns to Flashblock to eliminate Flash-based
ads. Finally, we note Safari updates, FileMaker Pro 8, the 2nd
annual Mac Networkers Retreat, and a Math+Magic DealBITS drawing.
Topics:
MailBITS/29-Aug-05
DealBITS Drawing: MathMagic Personal Edition
Google Stakes a Claim on IM Territory
Adding Tiger's AirPort Preferred Network List
Ants Invade New Zealand by iPod
Firefox Flash Blocker
Adding a USB-to-Ethernet Adapter to a Mac
Back to School Software
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/29-Aug-05
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Copyright 2005 TidBITS: Reuse governed by Creative Commons license
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---------------------------------------------------------------
This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:
* READERS LIKE YOU! Support TidBITS with a contribution today! <----- NEW!
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Special thanks this week to John Hayden, Nico Macdonald,
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* Dr. Bott, LLC: Swim with the Phish ... blasting in your ears. <--- NEW!
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* Web Crossing, Inc: Site Crossing brings Web Crossing power to
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---------------------------------------------------------------
MailBITS/29-Aug-05
------------------
**Safari Updates for Panther & Tiger** -- Apple has released
updates to its Safari Web browser, which the company says
improve support for third-party Web applications, make Safari
more stable, and improve Web site compatibility. We'd love
to offer more specific information, but Apple's release notes
(as usual) are woefully terse. However, the company has released
the Safari update in two forms: Safari Update 2.0.1 for users
running Mac OS X 10.4.2 Tiger (4.5 MB), and Safari Update
1.3.1 (3.8 MB) for users running Mac OS X 10.3.9 Panther.
(The appropriate software should also be available via Software
Update.) Despite the paucity of detail, it's nice to see Apple
making good on its intention to provide important updates for
the Safari engine under Panther as well as Tiger, at least
for a time. [GD]
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/safariupdate131.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/safariupdate201.html>
**FileMaker 8 Adds Features, Retains File Format** -- FileMaker,
Inc. today took the wraps off FileMaker 8, the latest version of
its flagship desktop database product. Long-time FileMaker users
will be happy to learn FileMaker 8 files are backward compatible
with FileMaker 7, the company's recent major overhaul of the
venerable product (see William Porter's review in TidBITS-721_).
They may also be happy to see FileMaker 8 offers built-in PDF
and Excel spreadsheet export capabilities, making it simpler
to exchange data with Excel and other applications and product
electronic versions of documents with FileMaker data. Other new
features include auto-complete data entry, a visual spell-checker,
a built-in email mail merge feature for sending customized email
messages, calendar drop-downs for entering date information,
mouse wheel support, a visual graph of database relationships,
and built-in tools for managing tabbed panels within layouts.
FileMaker Pro 8 is available today for $300; FileMaker 6 and
7 users can upgrade for $180.
<http://www.filemaker.com/products/fmp/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07587>
FileMaker Pro 8 also marks a change for FileMaker Developer
Edition, which has been renamed FileMaker Pro 8 Advanced to appeal
to users who are sophisticated enough to create their own database
solutions but who don't necessarily see themselves as developers.
FileMaker Pro 8 Advanced enables database builders to customize
menus, as well as create standalone applications and kiosks. New
features include flexible tool tips, an enhanced script debugger
which includes a data viewer and can disable individual script
steps for testing, and an expanded database design report
providing an overview of database and field setups. FileMaker
Pro 8 Advanced costs $500, and FileMaker Developer 6 or 7 users
can upgrade for $300. Additional FileMaker 8 products - FileMaker
Mobile 8, Server 8, and Server Advanced 8 - should be available
by the end of the year. [GD]
<http://www.filemaker.com/products/fmpa/>
**2nd Annual Mac Networkers Retreat Approaching** -- Macworld Expo
in Boston may have shrunk, and ADHOC/MacHack may be no more, but
other Macintosh events carry on. From 30-Oct-05 through 01-Nov-05,
the second annual Mac Networkers Retreat promises to provide the
kind of real-world information that Mac network and IT managers
need. It's particularly good to see the organizers acknowledging
that the conference needs to offer training that goes beyond what
can be learned from online sources, with topics like advanced
Mac OS X Tiger Server administration, AirPort network design
and management, implementation of LDAP and Directory Services,
services and security in Mac OS X Server, and a Mac Admin
Beginners Bootcamp. The retreat, held at the Seascape Resort in
Aptos, CA (near Monterey), will have over 30 hours of instruction,
and it costs $700 before 30-Sep-05, $800 after. The only downside
as I see it? Much as I enjoy trading denial-of-service attack
stories and practicing wireless network traffic sniffing, spending
Halloween with a bunch of cool network geeks could be really
scary. [ACE]
<http://www.macretreats.com/mnr/>
DealBITS Drawing: MathMagic Personal Edition
--------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The college students have started to return to campus, making
this a great time to look into new software for science and
engineering disciplines that require high-quality equations
for papers, reports, and other publications. Traditionally,
creating equations has been a time-consuming, difficult process,
and the results seldom looked as good as the surrounding text.
With MathMagic Personal Edition, you can create complex equations
and export them in TeX, EPS, GIF, JPEG, or PICT format for
use with word processors, presentation programs, or graphics
software. MathMagic Personal Edition works with Mac OS X,
the classic Mac OS, and Windows.
<http://www.mathmagic.com/product/pe.html>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08124>
In this week's DealBITS drawing, you can enter to win one of
five copies of MathMagic Personal Edition (with 2 years of free
upgrades), each worth $119.95. Entrants who aren't among our
lucky winners will receive a discount on MathMagic products,
so if you need to publish equations, be sure to enter at the
DealBITS page linked below. All information gathered is covered
by our comprehensive privacy policy. Be careful with your spam
filters, since you must be able to receive email from my address
to learn if you've won. Remember too, that if someone you refer
to this drawing wins, you'll receive the same prize to reward
you for spreading the word.
<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/mathmagic/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/about/privacy.html>
Google Stakes a Claim on IM Territory
-------------------------------------
by Mark H. Anbinder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Google, the ubiquitous Web search company that shook up the
Web-based email world a year and a half ago by offering a gigabyte
of permanent email storage with its free Gmail service, last week
staked a claim to the instant messaging territory with the
announcement of its free Google Talk service.
<http://talk.google.com/>
Based on the open Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol
(XMPP) developed by the Jabber open-source community, Google Talk
offers text-based instant messaging using any Jabber-compatible
client software, and voice chats with the official Google Talk
software. So far, Google has released a Google Talk client only
for Windows 2000 and XP, but they point to third-party Jabber
clients for Mac and Linux users. For instructions on how to use
one of these programs to chat with Google Talk users, click the
client's name in the list linked below.
<http://www.xmpp.org/>
<http://www.google.com/talk/otherclients.html>
Apple's latest iChat, released with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, and
the free Adium multi-protocol chat client both fully support text
chats with Google Talk users. Fire, another popular, free multi-
protocol chat client, works with Google Talk in the 1.5.3 version,
but as of this writing has some bugs in defining new contacts.
An upcoming 1.5.4 release of Fire should resolve the remaining
Jabber issues. Currently, there is no Mac solution for Google
Talk's voice chatting feature.
<http://www.apple.com/ichat/>
<http://www.google.com/support/talk/bin/answer.py?answer=24076>
<http://www.adiumx.com/>
<http://www.google.com/support/talk/bin/answer.py?answer=24075>
<http://fire.sourceforge.net/>
The Jabber Software Foundation and others have pointed out that
Google Talk leaves out one key aspect of the Jabber concept,
inter-server chatting, which allows users on different, private
Jabber servers to communicate with each other. Google promises
to work on server interoperability, but in the meantime, users on
separate Jabber servers won't be able to communicate with Google
Talk users any more than they can communicate with AIM users.
Adding Tiger's AirPort Preferred Network List
---------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger added a neat feature for those of us who
use Wi-Fi in many locations. It can now display a list of all
of your preferred networks - networks you've connected to before
and asked to remember after connecting. If multiple networks
can be available simultaneously in particular places, you can
rearrange the list of networks so that Mac OS X attempts to
connect to them in a particular order.
However, many folks who have upgraded to Tiger aren't seeing the
Preferred Networks option in the By Default, Join pop-up menu.
(To check your system for this anomaly, open the Network preference
pane, choose AirPort from the Show pop-up menu, and look in the
By Default, Join pop-up menu.) If you had an AirPort network
defined in Panther, the Preferred Networks option won't appear
if you upgraded to Tiger. Luckily, you can work around the
problem by deleting your existing AirPort network configuration
and creating a new one. Follow these steps in the Network
preference pane:
1. From the Show menu, choose Network Port Configurations.
2. Select your AirPort network and click Delete.
3. Verify that no AirPort item remains. When Jeff Carlson and
I tried this on his machine, deleting his first AirPort port
created a new one, so we had to delete that one, too.
4. Click New and choose AirPort from the pop-up menu.
5. Name your network; it seems you can name it anything except
"AirPort".
6. Click OK when you're done.
When you now select your AirPort network from the Show pop-up
menu, you'll see that Preferred Networks is an option in the By
Default, Join pop-up menu.
Ants Invade New Zealand by iPod
-------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
iPods are everywhere, and according to a posting on the PestNet
discussion list forwarded to us by loyal reader Frank Streeter,
some unsavory characters are using the iPod to move around the
world. The bad guys in this case were Singapore ants - Monomorium
destructor. They infiltrated a packaged iPod sold in an airport
duty-free shop, and an individual returning from Fiji to New
Zealand purchased the iPod on his way home. Upon arrival, however,
he discovered the ants, and, acting on instructions from the
authorities, put the iPod and packaging in his freezer to kill
the insects (I presume the iPod emerged unscathed, though its
fate wasn't mentioned).
This quick thinking may have saved the entire country from an
infestation of environmental, economic, and health significance -
M. destructor is a stinging ant that, although not particularly
dangerous to humans, is extremely annoying, mainly due to building
large colonies in homes and other structures. Worse, the worker
ants are highly predacious on other insects and are known to gnaw
holes in fabrics, some plastics, and rubber goods. They can even
remove the rubber insulation from electrical or telephone wires.
We're talking bad dude ants here.
<http://ant.edb.miyakyo-u.ac.jp/E/Taxo/F41102.html>
My friend Ted Schultz, Chair of the Department of Entomology at
the Smithsonian Institution, works mostly with leaf-cutter ants,
but he was intrigued by the iPod infestation story. He commented
that he'd once been sent some ants from Singapore that were
fouling up a microwave receiver antenna; some ants are known
to be attracted to electromagnetic fields for unknown reasons.
<http://entomology.si.edu/>
<http://entomology.si.edu/Entomology/siants/search.lasso>
The moral of the story: bugs aren't just in software any more,
so be careful out there, and keep an eye on your AirPort base
stations!
Firefox Flash Blocker
---------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I accept fully that many sites, including some I run, need
advertising to operate. My Wi-Fi Networking News site has Flash
ads on it right now, for instance. But I am, unfortunately,
finding that Flash ads are now often highly intrusive even on
sites I trust. They cycle endlessly. They use visual effects
to knock my eyeballs on the floor. They play audio without my
permission (even more annoying when I'm already playing music
in iTunes or using voice over IP via iChat AV or Skype).
<http://www.wifinetnews.com/>
Since Flash is not under my control, I've taken stronger action on
my Mac and started using Flashblock, a simple Firefox plug-in that
loads Flash content, but doesn't play it. Instead, Flashblock puts
a replacement symbol in the spot occupied by the Flash object,
that, when hovered over, changes to a play button. This approach
puts me back in control of my attention, the sounds emanating from
my Mac, and my Web browser.
<http://flashblock.mozdev.org/>
If Flashblock catches on, it could become another reason for users
of Internet Explorer (especially under Windows) to switch to
Firefox, and it will probably reduce the response rate on Flash
ads, thus moving advertisers to other mechanisms.
Now I just need a tool that blocks the relatively new JavaScript-
based pop-up ads that defeat ad blockers. They use JavaScript to
write parts of the pop-up script, which makes them more difficult
to identify on the fly. A Web browser would need to run the script
in a sandbox, analyze its output, and then use that to decide
whether to block the pop-up.
More generally, I'm troubled that advertising has become an arms
race in which advertisers and consumers fight an ever-more-
ridiculous war in which the advertisers feels empowered to violate
a user's space - just as badly as those 1/8th-screen-blocking ads
on television now during programs for the next program - while
consumers feel no compunction with using technology to suppress
advertising entirely.
In the long run, it doesn't benefit the advertiser to fight a war
with the reader, however strong the return on a given style of
intrusive and offensive advertising campaign is initially. It's
important to remember that Google's billions come almost entirely
from consistently formatted text advertisements. Advertisers are
fighting for higher response rates than the gold standard of text
ads, but they're fighting a losing war when surfers just turn
them off.
Adding a USB-to-Ethernet Adapter to a Mac
-----------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
What would you do if you wanted to add a second Ethernet card to
a Mac mini, iBook, or iMac to turn it into a router, a firewall,
or a packet shaper? Or, how would you work around a burnt-out
internal Ethernet chip in such a Mac? With a Power Mac, you can
buy an inexpensive PCI Ethernet card and be up-and-running with
a minimum of fuss (as I did for my Power Mac G4 after a lightning
strike; see "Adding Ethernet to a Power Mac" in TidBITS-737).
But it's a trickier problem for Apple's consumer Macs, though they
have plenty of power and other attributes (such as minimal noise
generation) that make them attractive as utility machines. In some
cases, you might be able to use the Mac's AirPort card as your
second Ethernet interface, but AirPort isn't as fast as Ethernet
and AirPort networks aren't quite as stable for a machine that's
acting as a server.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07737>
A better solution is a USB-to-Ethernet adapter, since they're
inexpensive (about $25 to $40) and readily available from
companies like Linksys, D-Link, Netgear, and others. However,
Mac OS X doesn't include drivers for these adapters, and the
companies in question aren't the most Mac-friendly firms out
there. Thanks to Peter Sichel of the Macintosh networking
developer Sustainable Softworks, you can get USB-to-Ethernet
adapters from these firms working with your Mac.
<http://www.sustworks.com/>
A while back, Peter found himself wanting to add a second Ethernet
card to an iBook, but when he researched the situation, he found
that the only driver that worked the way he wanted was an open
source driver written by Daniel Sumorok for Mac OS X 10.3 Panther.
Unfortunately, Daniel's driver worked only with USB 1.1 devices,
which are limited to a maximum speed of 12 Mbps. While 12 Mbps
is roughly similar to the 10 Mbps of 10Base-T Ethernet, if there
are low-speed devices such as a mouse or keyboard on the same
USB bus, they bring USB 1.1's speed down to 1.5 Mbps. That level
of performance might be acceptable for Internet access over a
standard broadband connection but wouldn't be for local network
usage. Luckily, there are also USB-to-Ethernet adapters that use
USB 2.0 (which has a maximum speed of 480 Mbps) and that can keep
up with 100Base-T Ethernet, but Daniel's driver didn't support
these devices.
Peter contacted Daniel about helping to make Daniel's original
driver work with USB 2.0 devices. Daniel was interested in the
project, but said that he lacked the hardware and software to
test, so Peter provided him with the necessary resources, helped
out with testing and, once it became clear changes would be
necessary for Tiger, porting. The upshot is that after a few
months of work, Peter and Daniel now have a pair of drivers, one
for USB 1.1 Ethernet adapters and the other for USB 2.0 Ethernet
adapters, and both are Panther- and Tiger-compatible. They're also
free and open source, released under the GPL license, so you can
download them along with their source code. You can read more
about the drivers and download them at the page linked below.
<http://www.sustworks.com/site/news_usb_ethernet.html>
Back to School Software
-----------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Last week, I imagined myself in a college student's shoes and
offered several recommendations for Mac-related gear to take
back to school (see "Mac to School 2005" in TidBITS-793_).
Perhaps because I'm drawn to shiny electronic toys, I focused
on hardware from the iBook G4 to cellular phones and handheld
organizers. This week, prompted by a few email messages, I want
to cover some of the software that should run on all that cool
hardware.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08216>
Before I jump into specific titles, though, I need to follow up on
a few points from the last article based on feedback from readers.
I mentioned that getting an inexpensive inkjet printer was a
necessity, because you don't want to be waiting in line for
a shared printer when a paper is due. But Ted Lomatski pointed
out that "inkjets are not the way to go, especially for students
who print out a high volume of papers (unless things have changed
from my day!). The high cost of ink cartridges does not make
sense. I have found that you can buy a new HP LaserJet, and the
cartridge will last the year, most probably, and you will save
money in the long run. I have also found that HP cartridges
do not go up in price as do those of other manufacturers."
David Nicholson noted an essential device that completely slipped
my mind: a USB flash drive (also known as a pen drive or keychain
drive) "for those times when only sneakernet will do." Flash
drives, which have replaced floppy disks as the best form of easy,
portable storage, now come in higher capacities for less cost
than when they were introduced: for example, a quick check at
dealram.com today finds a 1 GB USB 2.0 flash drive for about $55.
TidBITS sponsor Small Dog Electronics also offers USB flash drives
that are better designed than the norm, and of course, an iPod
shuffle does double-duty as a flash drive, and the hard drive-
based iPods can also be used as external storage devices.
<http://dealram.com/prices/37/1GB.html>
<http://www.smalldog.com/product/33896>
<http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/>
I finally bought a flash drive for myself last year after I had to
turn in a Macworld article while on a camping trip (I was writing
about laptop batteries, and testing them away from power sources).
There was no phone or Internet access at the campsite, of course,
but the local ranger station surprisingly had two PCs - connected
via a T1 line! If I had owned the flash drive at the time, I could
have copied the Word file to it, then inserted it into a PC's USB
port. Instead, I ended up disconnecting one PC from the network,
copying the Internet settings to my PowerBook, and connecting my
machine to their connection via Ethernet. It wasn't quite the
great outdoors experience I was hoping for.
<http://www.macworld.com/2004/10/secrets/novmobilemac/>
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001FV3AK/tidbitselectro00/
ref=nosim>
Finally, Forrest Snyder mentioned that as an alternative (or
supplement) to buying AppleCare for a computer, some credit card
companies include extended warranties on purchases you make with
their cards. Check the fine print on your card's terms of service
to see if you can take advantage of this type of deal.
Now, on to the software!
**Word Processing** -- There's no getting around it: students
write papers, lots of them. Although it's often overkill for
simple papers, the king of this particular category remains
Microsoft Word. Microsoft sells a $150 Student and Teacher edition
of Microsoft Office 2004, which also includes Excel, PowerPoint,
and Entourage and is cheaper than buying Word on its own at the
normal retail price of $240 (unless you're upgrading a previous
version of Word, which costs $110). (See "Word Up! Word 2004,
That Is" in TidBITS-734_.)
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/office2004/office2004.aspx?
pid=office2004>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07715>
If you've recently bought a new consumer-level Mac (iMac,
iBook, or eMac), you can use the included AppleWorks 6 software,
the suite that includes a page layout, graphics, database,
and presentation capabilities, as well as compatibility with
Microsoft Office file formats. To be honest, I haven't used
AppleWorks in years, so I can't comment on how well it
functions, but the basic tools are there for students.
<http://www.apple.com/appleworks/>
Apple's more modern offering, iWork '05, includes the
visually friendly Pages, a combination word processor and page-
layout application (see "iWork and iLife Together at Last" in
TidBITS-762_). I've not had an opportunity to use Pages much,
certainly not for long documents such as term papers, but it
does seem capable and it interfaces nicely with the iLife '05
suite, which can be advantageous when you need to add visual
supporting information such as photos and illustrations. You can
also export documents to Microsoft Word format, which is important
since I imagine most professors use Word, and with Internet
access prevalent on most campuses, papers can be submitted
electronically.
<http://www.apple.com/iwork/pages/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07955>
iWork '05 also includes Keynote 2.0 for creating presentations,
which I find more enjoyable and less frustrating to use than
PowerPoint. iWork '05 costs $80 retail, or $50 for Apple's
academic discount price.
<http://www.apple.com/iwork/keynote/>
<http://www.apple.com/education/store/>
Not everyone needs the bells and whistles of Word or Pages,
however. If you're looking for a simple text editor, you can't
go wrong with Bare Bones Software's free TextWrangler. If you
need more text-munging power (if you're learning Web design
or programming, for example), you can move up to BBEdit, which
Bare Bones offers at a student discount of $50.
<http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/>
<http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/>
<http://www.barebones.com/store/academic.shtml>
Lastly, I should point out OpenOffice.org, a free suite of
Office-type applications that run in the X11 windowing system
under Mac OS X. I've not used them, so I can't judge how well
they work.
<http://www.openoffice.org/>
**Research and Organization** -- Most typical schoolwork involves
accumulating lots of information, and more importantly, being
able to pull it all together when you need to. Several programs
for the Mac attempt to do this, with varying degrees of success.
Fortunately, Matt Neuburg's vigilant quest for the ultimate
snippet-keeper has resulted in TidBITS having perhaps the best
collection of reviews in this field. See the series "Conquer Your
Text" as a starter, which includes such worthy programs such
as Tinderbox, DEVONthink, and NoteTaker. Also make a point
of checking out "Best Footnote Forward: Papyrus 8.0.7" in
TidBITS-514_ for a look at the bibliographic program.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1196>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05781>
For my own work, I started using Circus Ponies NoteBook after
reading Adam's review "The Well-Worn NoteBook" in TidBITS-745_.
I use it as a good central repository for notes and deadlines
related to my ongoing projects.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07739>
<http://www.circusponies.com/>
Of course, a Web browser is likely to be the most-used tool in
your collection, whether it's accessing Wikipedia or current
events. Adam is partial to OmniWeb (see "OmniWeb: The Powerful
Web Browser" in TidBITS-742_), while I still prefer the simplicity
of Safari. To store Web page information for later, consider the
page-downloading utility Webstractor (see "The Simple Brilliance
of Webstractor" in TidBITS-737_).
<http://www.wikipedia.org/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07775>
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/safari/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07739>
**Financial Software** -- Although college students often subsist
on minimal incomes, having a program such as Quicken or Moneydance
will help keep track of where the money is going (see "Moneydance
Eases a Tax Burden" in TidBITS-775_). For many students, college
marks the beginning of their financial independence, especially
now that so many arrive at school with credit cards - trust me,
you do not want to miss a few credit card payments accidentally.
<http://www.quicken.com/>
<http://www.moneydance.com/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08059/>
Once you start earning money as a student, the tax man will be
wanting his cut as well. In the U.S., at least, Intuit's TurboTax
is the main option for the Mac, though Intuit also offers an
online version of TurboTax that you can use through a Web browser.
<http://www.turbotax.com/>
**The Virtual Halls of Academia** -- I realize that my list above
just scratches the general-purpose surface, but it hopefully
provides a good jumping-off point. I'm deliberately not getting
into specific disciplines such as the sciences, broadcast video,
and others, since they probably have specific software needs that
are assigned by the professors. Apple's higher-education Web pages
include many programs (including third-party software) broken down
into general categories.
<http://www.apple.com/education/hed/>
You can also use the TidBITS archives to discover other utilities,
big and small, that we've found useful over the years.
<http://www.tidbits.com/search/>
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/29-Aug-05
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The second URL below each thread description points to the
discussion on our Web Crossing server, which will be faster.
**iChat and Parental Control** -- A reader wants to restrict iChat
buddy lists, but enabling the parental controls under Tiger
disables the Bonjour messaging on the local network. (1 message)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2678>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/532/>
**Mac to School 2005** -- Reactions to Jeff Carlson's article
about buying Mac-related equipment to go back to college,
including information on product warranties and additional
suggestions. (4 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2679>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/533/>
**DEVONthink Professional** -- How easy is it to search within the
versatile database program? Readers provide answers and opinions.
(4 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2680>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/534/>
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