TidBITS#836/03-Jul-06
=====================
There's a reason Apple no longer calls its portable computers
"laptops": they're too hot for laps! Adam's "private i" alter ego
investigates the problem of toasty MacBook Pros. Meanwhile, Adam
also examines Microsoft's purchase of iView Multimedia and Jeff
Carlson looks at video timecode calculators. We also roll into
July with a bunch of updates: Apple releases Mac OS X 10.4.7,
iTunes 6.0.5, iPod Software Update 2006-06-28, and QuickTime
7.1.2, while Ergonis Software's PopChar X 3.0 makes its debut.
Topics:
MailBITS/03-Jul-06
Microsoft Buys iView Multimedia
Video Timecode Calculators
The Mystery of the Burnt Thighs
Take Control News/03-Jul-06
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/03-Jul-06
<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-836.html>
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/issues/2006/TidBITS#836_03-Jul-06.etx>
Copyright 2006 TidBITS: Reuse governed by Creative Commons license
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MailBITS/03-Jul-06
------------------
**Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.4.7 Update** -- Apple last week
released Mac OS X 10.4.7, a free update to Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger,
with a variety of improvements and bug fixes. Separate installers
are available via Software Update or the Apple Software Downloads
Web site for the desktop version of Mac OS X on PowerPC- and
Intel-based Macs, and for Mac OS X Server, which so far is
available only for PowerPC-based Macs. Along with a wide variety
of small fixes, some of which address security holes, the 10.4.7
update includes several enhancements to Mail, such as improved
reliability retrieving IMAP messages with attachments using an
unreliable Internet connection and connecting to mail servers
through a SOCKS proxy; improvements for video conferencing
and transferring files in iChat; and better iSync support for
Motorola cell phones using Bluetooth and .Mac accounts.
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303771>
Apple says the update also resolves an issue on PowerPC-based
Macs in which some applications may "silently fail to open,"
and manually removing fonts is no longer likely to cause the
Finder to quit unexpectedly. We also understand that the update
makes Apple's spiffy, new two-finger right-click feature
(announced last month for the MacBook and updated MacBook
Pro models) work on the trackpad of early MacBook Pro models.
Stand-alone download versions are available in sizes ranging
from 64 MB (for the PowerPC 10.4.6 to 10.4.7 delta version)
to 215 MB (for the Intel 10.4 to 10.4.7 Combo version). If you
downloaded the delta version for Intel-based Macs before Friday
of last week, you should download again, since Apple re-released
that installer to include some OpenGL files that were missing in
the initial release. Software Update will find the right version
for your Mac. [MHA]
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/>
**PopChar X 3.0 Improves Usability** -- Ergonis Software has
released PopChar X 3.0, a notable upgrade to the company's
long-standing utility for discovering and inserting the
thousands of characters available in modern Unicode fonts.
Since PopChar X's basic functionality hasn't needed changing,
most of the improvements focus on usability and performance.
To that end, PopChar X features a Search field that speeds
finding characters, showing either characters that contain
the letter entered (so typing an "e" shows all the accented
variants of "e") or the characters whose Unicode name matches
the string entered (so entering "greek" while looking at
the Unicode characters in Lucida Grande shows all the Greek
characters). The PopChar character table can now optionally
be a movable window that remembers its position, rather than
a huge menu, and other preferences cause it to disappear as soon
as you insert a character or click outside it. In an attempt to
bring order the hundreds of fonts many people have installed,
the PopChar font menu now shows only recently used fonts; a new
drawer provides a large scrolling list of all available fonts.
And lastly, if you find yourself entering the same characters
repeatedly, PopChar provides a view showing only the recently
used characters. For a full list of current and new features,
see Ergonis's Web site.
<http://www.ergonis.com/products/popcharx/features.html>
<http://www.ergonis.com/products/popcharx/history.html>
PopChar X 3.0 is now a universal binary for improved performance
on Intel-based Macs; it requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later and
no longer supports Classic applications. It's a 1.6 MB download.
Ergonis employs an unusual upgrade system that requires attention;
in essence, all upgrades are free within two years of purchase
($30) or renewal ($15), but to use any upgrade after that two year
mark, you must renew again. To avoid surprises, look in PopChar's
registration dialog to see if you're eligible for a free upgrade
before you download and install a new version. [ACE]
**iTunes, iPod Firmware, and QuickTime Updated** -- Delivering
on a promise made in late May, Apple has updated iTunes and
iPod software to work with the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, a gadget
that links an iPod nano with Nike+ shoes to track a runner's
performance (see "Grab your iPod and Run"). iTunes 6.0.5 enables
synchronization of data to nikeplus.com. The 19.8 MB update, also
available via Software Update, additionally patches a security
hole that could be exploited by a malicious AAC file.
<http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08543>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/itunes605.html>
<http://www.nikeplus.com/>
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303952>
iPod Updater 2006-06-28 updates the software for the iPod, iPod
nano, and iPod shuffle to fix bugs, add Nike+iPod support for the
iPod nano, and add a maximum volume limit for the iPod shuffle.
Because Apple rolls all iPod updates into one installer, this one
weighs in at 49 MB and is available as a stand-alone download
or via Software Update.
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/ipodupdater20060628.html>
Lastly, Apple also released QuickTime 7.1.2, a 49.1 MB download
that fixes an issue with previewing iDVD projects. [JLC]
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime712.html>
**PDFpen 2.4 Adds Comment Support** -- SmileOnMyMac has updated
PDFpen (and its form-creating big brother PDFpen Pro) to version
2.4, adding support for PDF comments so users can add editable
comments to PDF files. Also new is a drawer that lists all
comments, notes, and imprints, making it easy to see what has
been added and changed in a file. The comments are true PDF
annotations, so they appear properly and are editable in Acrobat;
similarly, comments made in Acrobat appear and are editable
in PDFpen as well. However, although Apple's Preview can display
existing PDF comments, its "Text Annotation" tool does not
create true PDF comments, but merely yellow-boxed text objects,
and worse, saving a PDF file containing comments from within
Preview destroys those comments. Although PDF comments are overly
awkward for group collaboration with straight text documents,
they work extremely well for creating and sharing comments on
heavily designed documents containing both text and graphics.
Until now, however, creating and editing comments on the Mac
required owning the more-expensive Adobe Acrobat Standard or
Professional. Version 2.4 of either PDFpen or PDFpen Pro is
a free upgrade for registered users and is a 5.9 MB download.
New copies of PDFpen cost $50; PDFpen Pro is $95. [ACE]
<http://www.smileonmymac.com/PDFpen/>
Microsoft Buys iView Multimedia
-------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Now here's an unexpected bit of news. Microsoft has bought iView
Multimedia, makers of the iView MediaPro and iView Media digital
asset management applications. iView MediaPro in particular is
well-regarded as a photo cataloging tool, since it can catalog
files in over 120 formats, leaving the originals in place and
providing browsing of the catalog even when the originals are
offline (stored on DVD, for instance). iView MediaPro even has
some image editing capabilities, though I always found them rather
confusing and difficult to use, at least in comparison to Apple's
iPhoto.
<http://www.iview-multimedia.com/mediapro/>
<http://www.iview-multimedia.com/media/>
iView Multimedia's acquisition FAQ and letter from founder Yan
Calotychos are typically vague, talking about how the acquisition
will give iView Multimedia the capability to "enhance our
industry-leading product, whilst strengthening our customer
service and support." According to the FAQ, "Microsoft has
many exciting plans for iView's technologies and product line.
Details on future product plans and availability will be announced
at a future date."
<http://www.iview-multimedia.com/microsoft/faq_acquisition.php>
<http://www.iview-multimedia.com/microsoft/>
With no hints as to future directions, we can do little but
speculate as to what's going on here. Microsoft has long
lacked a graphics application for Microsoft Office on the Mac,
even though Word has some image manipulation capabilities and
PowerPoint has some graphics tools. It's possible that Microsoft
views iView MediaPro as an intermediary for graphics between the
different Office applications, much as Entourage is intended in
part as the project management glue for the different Office
applications.
Where I'd like to see Microsoft concentrate significant effort
in the next version of Office for the Mac is on collaboration.
As I've written more than once, Word has decent change tracking
and commenting features, but those are only a baby step in the
right direction. Office documents of all types are routinely
shared among members of a workgroup as Word files are commented
on and edited, Excel spreadsheets are added to, and PowerPoint
decks are massaged for clarity. But Office provides no help at
all for sharing those files across a variety of network types,
showing the status of who's working on what, and maintaining
versions of changed files over time. What I'm describing isn't
some niche feature, it's something that, if implemented properly,
would become essential to the workflow of every Office-using
organization, large or small.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07670>
Video Timecode Calculators
--------------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
A few years ago, I considered trying to find a programmer
who could write an essential little video editing utility:
a timecode calculator. Timecode is the way video is measured,
and takes the format of hours:minutes:seconds.frames. So, for
example, a timecode value of 00:32:17.15 translates to zero
hours, 32 minutes, 17 seconds, and 15 frames.
Each second of digital video is comprised of 30 frames for
the NTSC format or 25 frames in PAL format, which is what makes
calculating timecode slightly tricky. A calculator would let you
quickly determine, for example, the total length of your movie if
you added a clip that had a duration of 00:02:00.17 to NTSC video
with a frame rate of 30 frames per second (FPS).
Unfortunately, I got distracted by other projects and the idea
faded away. But apparently, I wasn't the only one with that
notion. While working on my latest book, "iMovie HD 6 & iDVD 6 for
Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide" (which has just been released),
I noted a few timecode calculators you can download that do
exactly what I was looking for and more.
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321423275/tidbitselectro00/ref=nosim>
**Hollywood Calculator** -- Hollywood Calculator comes in two
versions, a stand-alone application and a Dashboard widget.
In either one, plug in a timecode value and choose the frame
rate from a pop-up menu. In addition to NTSC and PAL, you can
choose frame rates of 29.97 (which is actually the true frame
rate of NTSC; applications such as iMovie round up in editing)
or 24 (which is the rate for feature films). Then enter the
second value you're calculating and choose to add or subtract
that from the first value.
<http://www.happypixelstudios.com/>
The stand-alone version includes two additional features. Clicking
the Film tab enables you to choose a film type (such as 35mm or
16mm) and a frame rate. Enter the number of feet you're working
with and hit Return to see how many frames that translates to and
a timecode value of the duration. It will even tell you how many
1,000-foot rolls of film the result would occupy, and how much
those rolls would weigh.
Lastly, Hollywood Calculator's Record Time tab can tell you how
much video can be stored on your connected hard drives. So, if
you know you need to import 50 minutes of video, you can tell
right away if it will fit on one of your drives. Choose from
a wide range of video types, from consumer-grade DV NTSC to
uncompressed 10-bit 1920 by 1080 60i high-definition footage.
Hollywood Calculator is a free utility for Mac OS X 10.2 or later,
and it's a 214K download. The Hollywood Calculator Widget is a 27K
download and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
**Video Disk Space Calculator** -- If you're just looking for a
sense of how much disk space will be eaten by your video footage,
turn to Video Disk Space Calculator, from Rabid Jackalope.
Choose a video format from a pop-up menu, enter the length
of your footage in minutes, and click the Calculate button.
The result can be viewed in megabytes or gigabytes. The utility
also includes a handy printable chart that lists data rates
for each format.
<http://www.rabidjackalope.com/vdsc/>
Video Disk Space Calculator is free and requires Mac OS X 10.3
or later; it's a 49K download.
**Pomfort Frame Calculator** -- If you want more sophistication
and are comfortable working with mathematical expressions, you'll
feel at home using Pomfort Frame Calculator, which can add,
subtract, multiply, and divide timecode values.
<http://pomfort.com/>
More helpful is the capability to mix and match frame rates.
For example, let's say you want to combine a clip of NTSC footage
that's 2 minutes long with a clip of PAL footage that's 4 minutes
long; plus, you also want to split the combined result into
5 separate clips. You'd write the following:
(00:02:00.00|30 + 00:04:00.00|25) / 5
Every calculation gives two results: one that preserves the total
time (in the example above, that would be 00:01:12.00, or 1
minute, 12 seconds), and one that preserves the total number of
frames (00:01:04.00, or 1 minute, 4 seconds if the end result is
in NTSC format; you can choose other formats from a pop-up menu).
Results can also be converted to approximate disk space required
and an estimate of how long it would take to transfer that file to
another computer based on your network connection. Another display
mode reveals the length of film the result would occupy.
Pomfort Frame Calculator costs 20 euros, requires Mac OS X 10.4
or later, and is a 991K download; a separate version for Mac OS X
10.3.9 is also available.
The Mystery of the Burnt Thighs
-------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
[The film noir music rises as the scene fades in again on a
1950's-style office, the glow of twin LCDs illuminating the back
of a man staring out the window. His voice is low and harsh.]
People don't come to me for comfort, they come to have their
problems fixed. Quietly, if possible. Loudly, if not. Usually
I can oblige, but sometimes a case is too big even for me.
That's what happened last week when I returned to my office
after a stakeout to find not one, but two guys sitting in my
waiting room.
It was hot, the air conditioning has been on the fritz since
1987, and both were wearing shorts and, judging from the bags
at their feet, both were packing heat. One had a bandage on
his leg. They looked uncomfortable and clearly didn't know
each other.
I pointed at the guy closer to the door, and motioned him to
come into my office. Once we were seated on opposite sides of my
battered desk, he launched into his tale of woe. He was Arlo Rose,
a programmer, working on Konfabulator. I'd heard of his work -
Konfabulator displayed tiny programs called widgets on the Mac,
and he'd been the first on the block to do it. A nice living -
all legal like - but then Apple took over his turf and told him
to take a powder. He did, and ran right to another of the big
bosses in town - Yahoo.
<http://widgets.yahoo.com/>
But he was here on personal business. He had fallen asleep coding
Konfabulator, and woken up to burned thighs. He leaned over to
pull something out of his bag to show me, but I wasn't taking any
chances. When he came up with his heat, he was staring into mine -
a Colt pistol I keep in the top drawer for such situations. His
heat wasn't a firearm, but a MacBook Pro, so I lowered my piece.
He hadn't been expecting the pistol, and it rattled him.
It turned out his MacBook Pro was running hot. Really hot. Hot
enough to burn both his thighs and an expensive coffee table.
He wanted to know why, and if he was being set up by Apple because
of some harsh words that had gone down during the Konfabulator
deal. It was a good question, and one I didn't know the answer to,
so I told him to leave the MacBook Pro and come back the next day.
After seeing him out, I showed the second guy in. I figured it
would be the usual - help ironing out a misunderstanding with
a bookie, whatever. He introduced himself as Christian Heurich:
a photographer, and a good one, to judge from the images I found
while doing a background check.
<http://www.heurich.com/>
But unlike most photographers who come into my office, his problem
had nothing to do with dames. He too had fallen asleep while
working on his MacBook Pro - when he leaned over to get it to show
me, I merely kept my finger on the trigger inside my desk drawer.
And whereas Arlo had suffered only a mild burn, Christian had some
nerve damage in his left leg as a result of tackling liposarcoma
18 years ago, so he hadn't noticed the heat until he'd suffered
a second degree burn.
Now I was intrigued. It's not often I get two cases in one day,
much less two identical problems. I told Christian to come back
in a day too, and then sat down to think.
Laptops have gotten hotter over the years, as the manufacturers
pack more and more power into their CPUs. A call to a doctor
friend turned up the painful tale of a 50-year-old scientist
who had managed to burn his privates with only an hour usage,
fully dressed (or so he claimed). I winced at the thought and
took a swig from the bottle in my desk. Forewarned is forearmed.
<http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/hotlaptops.html>
Arlo had said something about CPU usage being out of control,
so I started to poke around. Indeed, his MacBook Pro was using
50 to 60 percent of its dual CPUs while idling. Why? I racked
my brain, staring out my window at the darkening night, and
as the streetlight across the street winked on, it came to me.
Spotlight. A good technology in theory, though it's never found
anything for me that I couldn't find myself faster. Perhaps I
just know where to look. But Spotlight works by sneaking around
in the background, reading everything it can find, and that can
chew CPU for no apparent reason.
Unfortunately, checking Activity Monitor for Spotlight's prints -
the mds and mdimport processes - revealed little. It might have
been there, but it wasn't the cause right now. I turned back
to the window and stared down at the drunks on the sidewalk.
My office isn't in the best part of town. OK, it's not even
in a decent part of town. But sometimes you have to be near
the lowlifes to find out what's going on.
I stepped out for a bit of air that wasn't necessarily fresh,
particularly as I passed a guy who'd been a whiz kid before he got
strung out on World of Warcraft. Now he bummed money until he had
enough to get a few hours in a dive Internet cafe. Swore he'd find
some treasure and then be able to sell it on the eBay black market
to set himself up again. I passed him a few bucks and asked what
the word on the street was. He looked up at me, looked back down,
and in a low voice fingered Windows File Sharing.
I should have known. Windows File Sharing is how Apple made Macs
play nice with Windows-based networks, and you have to know how
those Apple guys must have hated being forced to write code to
work with Windows. Perhaps it was spite, but more likely they were
just doing the minimum. Back at the office, I turned off Windows
File Sharing on Arlo's MacBook Pro, the CPU usage dropped, and
after a bit, it was noticeably cooler, though still hotter than
the Roxy on a Saturday night.
That night I went trolling for info. Sources confirmed that lots
of MacBook Pro owners were having similar problems, though few
had the burns that Arlo and Christian experienced. When pressed
for details, a number of people said they'd returned their
MacBook Pros to Apple for repair. Sometimes they came back
with little change, other times they ran a bit cooler, though
still uncomfortably warm. Thermal grease was blamed in some
cases, motherboards were replaced, serial numbers were reset.
An SMC firmware update helped some users.
<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=491878>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macbookprosmcfirmwareupdate.html>
I began to smell a rat. The natives were restless, and Apple was
backpedaling on using the MacBook Pro or other notebook computer
on your lap. Indeed, the only instance of "laptop" in the Apple
Knowledgebase referred to Windows laptops. Was Apple pretending
that laptops couldn't be used safely on laps? Some problems were
just stupid, like the MacBook (not Pro) overheating because a
piece of plastic had been left in at the factory.
<http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=187900365>
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=30612>
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303848>
Despite the talk, people were making do. I learned about a couple
of utilities called CoreDuoTemp and Temperature Monitor that would
report on the internal temperatures of the MacBook Pro. Others
recommended the CoolPad from Road Tools to get the MacBook Pro
off the lap.
<http://macbricol.free.fr/coreduotemp/>
<http://www.bresink.com/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html>
<http://www.roadtools.com/>
The next day, I returned Arlo's MacBook Pro, now running a bit
cooler, and recommended that both he and Christian keep their
MacBook Pros off their laps. I told them everything I'd learned,
but I didn't have the answers they wanted. Apple clearly knew
about the problem, and was working on fixing it, but true to form
was keeping quiet. They couldn't pay me enough to try to pry
information out of Apple. People have disappeared doing that.
In the end, I gave them the name of a reporter I knew at the local
paper. Maybe it would make a story, and maybe Apple would take
notice. But more likely Apple would never admit to the problem
and it would eventually disappear, buried in the desert along
with the news of exploding batteries, Power Macs that sounded
like wind tunnels, and other missteps. It's an ugly business
sometimes, and sometimes good people get hurt. Arlo and Christian
got hurt, but they'll heal.
And me, I've seen it all, so nothing hurts me any more.
Take Control News/03-Jul-06
---------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
**Special 30 Percent Off Coupon for PopChar Purchasers** -- For
those font fans thinking about picking up copies of Sharon
Zardetto Aker's "Take Control of Fonts in Mac OS X" and "Take
Control of Font Problems in Mac OS X", you'll receive a coupon
worth 30 percent off your next Take Control order when you
purchase a new copy ($30) or upgrade renewal ($15) of Ergonis
Software's just-released PopChar X 3.0. For those who haven't
used PopChar over its long history, it's an ever-present utility
that helps you quickly find special characters and enter them
into your current document. That was useful enough in the old
days for working with dingbat fonts, but it's even more helpful
with today's character-rich Unicode fonts whose characters you
might want to use, for instance, as HTML entities in a Web page.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/fonts-macosx.html?14@@!pt=
TRK-0036-TB836-TCNEWS>
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/font-problems-macosx.html?14@@!pt=
TRK-0037-TB836-TCNEWS>
<http://www.ergonis.com/products/popcharx/>
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/03-Jul-06
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The first link for each thread description points to the
traditional TidBITS Talk interface; the second link points
to the same discussion on our Web Crossing server, which
provides a different look and which may be faster.
**Files in databases** -- What are the advantages and
disadvantages of storing files within databases, especially
in terms of a database-driven filesystem? (5 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=3034>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/867/>
**Working with Amazon S3** -- The latest version of Interarchy
supports Amazon's S3 network storage service, leading to a
discussion of similar utilities and services and how well
they perform. (4 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=3036>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/869/>
**Sparseimages Replacing FileVault** -- Derek Miller's article on
using encrypted disk images to store sensitive data prompts a
response from a reader who used the information to locate a
problem he experienced with his own solution. (1 message)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=3037>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/870/>
$$
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