TidBITS#846/11-Sep-06
=====================
Issue link: <http://db.tidbits.com/issue/846>
Apple widened its consumer offerings last week with updates to the
iMac line, adding Intel Core 2 Duo processors and a 24-inch iMac
model (and speed-bumping the Mac mini). Also in this issue, Adam
details some of the behind-the-curtain changes we've been
implementing and looks in detail at the new BBEdit 8.5; Glenn
Fleishman praises the elegant coconutWiFi; and we cover the releases
of OmniWeb 5.5, Interarchy 8.2, and a Mac Pro-compatible version of
Parallels Desktop.
Articles
OmniWeb 5.5 Goes Universal, Switches to WebKit
Interarchy 8.2 Adds Growl Support and More
C4 Developer Conference Promises a Taste of MacHack
Parallels Desktop Updated for Mac Pro and Leopard
coconutWiFi Reveals Nearby Networks, Status
iMac Line Adds Core 2 Duo Chip, 24-inch Model
BBEdit 8.5 Adds Function via Form
Behind the TidBITS Curtain
Take Control News/11-Sep-06
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/11-Sep-06
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* FETCH SOFTWORKS: Fetch 5.1 goes Universal and adds a widget
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Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>
* WebCrossing Neighbors Creates Private Social Networks
Create a complete social network with your company or group's
own look. Scalable, extensible and extremely customizable.
Take a guided tour today <http://www.webcrossing.com/tour>
* Bare Bones Software's BBEdit 8.5 -- Must-have upgrade sports
major interface overhaul, new prefs and clippings systems,
improved JavaScript, new Ruby/SQL/YAML support, code folding.
More than 160 new features in all! <http://www.barebones.com/>.
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OmniWeb 5.5 Goes Universal, Switches to WebKit
----------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8666>
The Omni Group has completed a deceptively minor update to OmniWeb,
their feature-laden Web browser that sports iconic tabs, workspaces,
RSS news feeds, site-specific preferences, and more. New features in
OmniWeb 5.5 include support for saving pages in the WebArchive
format, a warning that appears upon reloading a page that would
resend a form, and a global and site preference for user-defined
style sheets. But OmniWeb 5.5 isn't about features - the real news
is that it's now a universal binary, providing better performance on
Intel-based Macs, and it's based on a slightly customized version of
Apple's WebKit browser engine framework, which means greatly
improved Web site compatibility, rendering performance, and
stability. In short, OmniWeb should now perform like Safari, which
also relies on WebKit. The $30 OmniWeb 5.5 requires Mac OS X 10.4.6
or later, is a free update for owners of OmniWeb 5.x, and is a 10.1
MB download.
<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/>
<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/releasenotes/>
<http://webkit.org/>
<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/download/>
Interarchy 8.2 Adds Growl Support and More
------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8667>
Stairways Software has released Interarchy 8.2, the latest version
of their highly flexible file transfer tool and network utility.
Notable new features include support for Growl notifications (an
independent system-wide notification method), file converters that
automatically convert files on upload/download, and easier
bookmarking via a Bookmark button in every window's status bar. Most
amusing, though, is the fact that Interarchy 8.2 now offers spell
checking; as the release notes comment dryly, "Just what you always
wanted in a file transfer program." There are a slew of other minor
enhancements and plenty of bug fixes, and since it's a free upgrade
for owners of Interarchy 8.x, it's worth the 8.3 MB download.
<http://www.interarchy.com/>
<http://growl.info/about.php>
<http://www.interarchy.com/documentation/8/whatsnew>
<http://www.stairways.com/main/download>
C4 Developer Conference Promises a Taste of MacHack
---------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8668>
Jonathan "Wolf" Rentzsch, who has contributed a number of articles
to TidBITS over the years, and who was a fixture at the
MacHack/ADHOC conference, has decided that if we can't have MacHack
any more, he'll just have to hack together his own conference. The
result is the C4 conference, which will take place in Chicago on
October 20th and 21st, 2006. It's looking like it will be short and
sweet, with seven talks across the two days, along with appropriate
food and libations. C4 costs $384 and attendance is capped at 75
people, so if you're interested, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] to
register. There are also three scholarship spots for students; see
the conference Web site for details.
<http://rentzsch.com/c4/zero>
<http://c4.rentzsch.com/>
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Parallels Desktop Updated for Mac Pro and Leopard
-------------------------------------------------
by Mark H. Anbinder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8669>
Parallels, Inc. last week announced a release candidate for an
update to their Parallels Desktop for Mac, adding compatibility for
Apple's new Mac Pro computer and the developer builds of Mac OS X
10.5 Leopard. The "Update RC," a free update for all Parallels
Desktop users, adds additional improvements such as improved
compatibility for Solaris and OpenBSD 3.8 guest operating systems,
and an improved Parallels Tools package.
<http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/>
The $80 Parallels Desktop allows owners of Intel-based Macs to run
Windows or other Intel-based operating systems in a virtual machine
while still running Mac OS X. Apple's Boot Camp solution, still a
public beta until Leopard's release, requires the user to restart
the Mac to switch between Mac OS X and Windows operating systems.
Parallels offers a 15-day free trial of their software. (Don't
forget that you can save $10 off the cost of a Parallels Desktop
license using a coupon from Joe Kissell's "Take Control of Running
Windows on a Mac" ebook, rendering the ebook free.)
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/>
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/windows-on-mac.html?14@@!pt=TRK-0034-TB846>
Another option for Intel Mac users who wish to run Windows
applications is CrossOver Mac, a forthcoming product from
CodeWeavers, Inc., released as a public beta late last month. This
application doesn't even require the user to install Windows. Based
on Wine, which re-implements the Windows developer APIs, CrossOver
Mac lets Mac users run many, though not all, Windows applications in
their own separate windows under Mac OS X.
<http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/>
<http://www.winehq.com/>
coconutWiFi Reveals Nearby Networks, Status
-------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8670>
Wi-Fi networks are everywhere, but finding them often requires
tedious use of the erratic AirPort menu in the menu bar, or a
separately running application, like iStumbler, that shows more
information than most people require. (iStumbler is great for
learning more about and troubleshooting the local AirPort-space,
however, and includes support for scanning for Bluetooth devices and
revealing Bonjour services on the local network.)
<http://www.istumbler.net/>
Christoph Sinai's coconutWiFi offers a simple menu bar indicator: a
single dot. The dot is red when there are no networks in the
vicinity, yellow when nearby networks are encrypted with WEP (Wired
Equivalent Privacy) or WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) protection, and
green if at least one unprotected network is in range. (Scanning
isn't sufficient to find other protection methods, such as WPA
Enterprise, which requires a login, or MAC (Media Access Control)
lockouts, with which specific Wi-Fi adapters are allowed access by
their unique hardware number.)
<http://coconut-flavour.com/coconutwifi/>
Click the dot, and a list of networks drops down, including the
method of encryption for protected networks. An optional number next
to the indicator displays the number of networks found. The software
is a universal binary and a 219K download; donations are accepted.
iMac Line Adds Core 2 Duo Chip, 24-inch Model
---------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8671>
Last week, Apple announced two notable changes to the iMac line,
available now. First, all iMacs now use Intel's new 64-bit Core 2
Duo processor, which Apple claims can deliver up to 50 percent
faster performance than previous Core Duo processors. However, in
testing done by PC World on PC laptops, the Core 2 Duo chip improved
performance by only 5 to 10 percent over identically configured
laptops with the older Core Duo chip; Macworld's benchmarks rated a
10 percent improvement. My guess is that the new iMacs with the Core
2 Duo will be faster, perhaps noticeably so in some tasks, but not
so much that it would make sense to upgrade from an existing Core
Duo-based iMac to a new Core 2 Duo-based model.
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/sep/06imac.html>
<http://www.apple.com/imac/>
<http://www.apple.com/imac/intelcore2duo.html>
<http://www.macworld.com/2006/09/firstlooks/core2duo/>
<http://www.macworld.com/2006/09/firstlooks/imacbench/>
However, the second notable change in the iMac line may be
sufficiently compelling to cause even a recent iMac purchaser to
consider trading up to a new model. That's because the
top-of-the-line iMac now comes with a built-in 24-inch widescreen
display running at 1920 by 1200 pixels (compare that with 1440 by
900 for the 17-inch display and 1680 by 1050 for the 20-inch model).
The 24-inch display also offers a wider viewing angle than the
smaller displays, is brighter, and provides a higher contrast ratio
than the 17-inch display (though slightly lower than the 20-inch
display).
<http://www.apple.com/imac/graphics.html>
Interestingly, there are a number of other differences between the
24-inch iMac and the smaller models besides some added size and
weight. The 24-inch iMac uses a faster Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT
graphics processor (or an optional Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT) in favor
of the Intel GMA 950 (in the 1.83 GHz 17-inch iMac) or the ATI
Radeon X1600 (in the 2.0 GHz 17-inch iMac and the 20-inch iMac).
Instead of a pair of FireWire 400 ports, the 24-inch iMac features
one FireWire 400 port and one FireWire 800 port. It also doubles the
power of its internal digital amplifier from 12 watts in the 17- and
20-inch iMacs to 24 watts.
<http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html>
**A Plethora of Possibilities** -- Configuring an iMac is a bit more
confusing than in the past, since the low-end 1.83 GHz 17-inch iMac,
priced at only $1,000, can be configured only with more RAM (512 MB
standard, up to 2 GB), with an Apple Remote, and with a modem. It
comes standard with a Combo drive, a 160 GB hard drive, Intel GMA
950 graphics processor, and AirPort Extreme, but not Bluetooth. This
basic configuration was introduced in July 2006 for education buyers
(see "New iMac Replaces eMac for Education", 10-Jul-06); it's now
available to anyone (and it still costs $900 for educational
customers).
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/8595>
The 2.0 GHz 17-inch iMac ($1,200) can be upgraded to a 2.16 GHz Core
2 Duo processor and comes with a 160 GB hard drive, upgradable to
500 GB. In contrast, the 20-inch ($1,500) and 24-inch ($2,000) iMacs
both come with a 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, upgradable to 2.33
GHz, and they both have 250 GB hard drives, with 500 GB options. All
three of these models come with an 8x double-layer SuperDrive, 1 GB
of RAM (upgradable to 3 GB), and built-in AirPort Extreme and
Bluetooth 2.0.
Standard equipment for all iMac models includes a built-in iSight
camera, three USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire ports, Gigabit Ethernet,
mini-DVI out, built-in stereo speakers, a built-in microphone,
optical digital audio in/out jacks, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, and iLife
'06.
**Mac mini Speed Bumped** -- Although the also-updated Mac mini
doesn't share the iMac's switch to the Core 2 Duo chip, Apple has
speed-bumped the low-end Mac, dropping the Intel Core Solo processor
entirely while keeping prices at their previous level. The $800 Mac
mini moves from a 1.66 GHz Core Duo processor to a 1.83 GHz Core Duo
processor, and the $600 model drops its 1.5 GHz Core Solo processor
in favor of a dual-core 1.66 GHz Core Duo processor. All other specs
remain the same.
<http://www.apple.com/macmini/>
BBEdit 8.5 Adds Function via Form
---------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8672>
One of the great myths, in my personal experience, is that when you
pull up the ratty carpeting in an old house that you've just bought,
you'll find a gorgeous hardwood floor. We always find plywood, but
perhaps our luck is changing, since peeking under the carpeting in
Bare Bones Software's BBEdit 8.5 has revealed some seriously nice
planks.
<http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/>
For those recently recovering from amnesia-inducing accidents,
BBEdit is a text editor aimed primarily at people who work with pure
text files, often involving code of one sort or another:
programmers, Web designers, network sysadmins, and so on. BBEdit's
long history (it was first released in 1992) means that the
program's feature set is extremely mature; on a number of occasions
when I've asked Bare Bones Software's Rich Siegel a question about
something I didn't see, he simply pointed me in the right direction.
With BBEdit 8.5, fewer users should be unaware of what the program
can do, since although 8.5 is a significant upgrade with some
extremely welcome new features, much of the effort has gone into
revamping the interface to reveal features that most users never
realized even existed.
<http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/new.shtml>
**Old Features, Revealed** -- BBEdit has long had a glossary feature
for inserting frequently used bits of text. Or so Rich tells me - I
hadn't known that until now, and it took me a few minutes even to
find it (a palette in Windows > Palettes) in the previous version of
BBEdit. Bare Bones dusted this feature off, renamed it to Clippings,
and gave it a top level menu. You can now create clippings from
selected text, store clippings in sets, and access the clippings via
a palette that offers searching with auto-completion. Clippings
don't have to be just static text and can have intelligent
placeholders that insert variables like the date and time; these
placeholders can even invoke AppleScript or Unix scripts.
Also completely revamped is BBEdit's toolbar, whose graphic style
hadn't been updated in years. The toolbar now has larger, more
Aqua-like buttons, and Bare Bones rearranged them for a more logical
layout, moving some functions to a status bar at the bottom of the
screen and removing some entirely.
But where the most work may have been done is in the Preferences
window. Arguably, you don't spend a lot of time there, but the
program has myriad options that, if set properly, could improve your
productivity. To that end, Bare Bones completely overhauled the
preferences interface, making the entire window larger and the
controls more readable, rearranging items and entire sets of
preferences to make them more easily found. An alternative access
method is now available as well, via a search field in a drawer.
Enter a term, and BBEdit shows all the related options, then you can
double-click one to jump to the appropriate set. I've already found
this useful when attempting to locate preferences for new features.
BBEdit has long enabled users to set keyboard shortcuts for any menu
item, though that option was oddly placed in the BBEdit application
menu. That functionality now lives in the Menus preference pane, but
more interestingly, checkboxes next to every menu and menu item in
the program enable users to turn off unwanted items. For instance, I
have no plug-ins that appear in the Tools menu, so now I can just
turn the entire Tools menu off and reclaim the menu bar space. With
so many menu items in BBEdit, I'm going to enjoy paring it down to
functions I actually use.
Lastly, although I barely realized that either existed, Bare Bones
significantly changed the interfaces to both the FTP Browser, which
lets you open files from FTP sites (I instead always use Edit with
BBEdit in an FTP client like Fetch or Interarchy), and the Disk
Browser, which gives you an alternate interface to files in the
Finder. If you use either, you'll probably appreciate the redesigns,
and although I don't use them, the Disk Browser looks like a great
candidate for providing a better interface to folders under version
control; BBEdit's tools for working with version control systems
essentially just issue directives at the command line, rather than
providing a conceptual interface to the version control
functionality.
**New Features** -- Most notable among BBEdit 8.5's new features is
"code folding," which enables users to collapse ranges of text into
tiny ellipsis lozenges so as to focus on other parts of a document.
Code folding works on selected ranges or, when used with a
particular language, it can automatically detect the appropriate
areas to fold, such as the text within paragraph tags in HTML. Once
text is folded into a lozenge, it can be moved around in the
document or expanded via double-clicking.
Next, and of particular interest to us, is that BBEdit's Find
Differences feature now identifies changed lines and highlights the
specific words within those lines that changed. In conjunction with
BBEdit's support for version control systems like Subversion, this
feature makes BBEdit significantly more useful for comparing
different versions of prose text files, where a "line" is a full
paragraph of text, rather than just a relatively short line of code.
Speaking of prose text, anyone writing in BBEdit (including content
for Web pages) will appreciate the addition of a contextual menu
item for Look Up in Dictionary, and the capability to enable Check
Spelling As You Type.
Although BBEdit is a highly stable application (it has crashed only
twice on me in Mac OS X, with both crashes coming more than a year
ago despite frequent use), BBEdit 8.5 adds a user-configurable
auto-save feature, with automatic recovery should a crash or power
failure cause a document to be closed without saving. Thankfully,
BBEdit 8.5 does auto-recovery right, by automatically opening the
backup file if BBEdit alone is launched, and automatically using the
newer backup file in place of the original if the user launches
BBEdit by double-clicking the file in question. (Compare this with
Word, which opens the recovered file as a separate document,
creating a massively stressful situation as you try to figure out
the best course of action.)
Mac OS X automatically compresses old log files in gzip format, and
BBEdit 8.5 can open and save such text files without requiring an
additional expansion or compression step. This feature could also
make it easier to share very large text files with other BBEdit
users, since you can automatically create a compressed file by
merely saving it with a .gz or .gzip extension.
BBEdit now supports a number of additional languages, including
Ruby, several variants of SQL, and YAML. Plus, users can now adjust
editing and display options (such as the color of comments, among
much else) on a per-language basis, enabling anyone who works in
multiple languages to have better customization. Codeless language
modules are also more flexible now, enabling better handling of
programming and tagging languages that BBEdit doesn't support out of
the box.
For those who regularly work with "camel case" variable names like
firstName, BBEdit 8.5 now provides Control-Left/Right Arrow
shortcuts for navigating to the next part of the word, rather than
the way Option-Left/Right Arrow jumps to the next word. This setting
is optional, and those who prefer the old horizontal scrolling
setting for these keys can revert to it with special defaults.write
commands.
**Details** -- Along with the interface streamlining, BBEdit 8.5 sees
a price streamlining with a cheaper price but no permanent
cross-upgrades from other programs. The price is now only $125, with
upgrades from previous versions of BBEdit 8.x priced at $30 and
upgrades from earlier versions of BBEdit priced at $40. And for
once, those nice round numbers aren't the result of us rounding the
prices for honesty's sake; they're what Bare Bones publishes.
<http://www.digitalriver.com/dr/v2/ec_dynamic.main?sp=1&pn=10&sid=48085>
A 30-day, fully-featured demo of BBEdit 8.5 is available as a 13.7
MB download; the addition of a registration code turns it into a
registered copy. We've been using BBEdit 8.5 for only a few days
now, and although it still isn't writing articles for us, it's a
good upgrade for a program that many people consider an essential
tool.
<http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/demo.shtml>
Behind the TidBITS Curtain
--------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8673>
I've been pretty quiet about our recent transition to a new back-end
infrastructure, mostly because I didn't want to be talking about
things that might change from week to week, and because I didn't
want to tempt fate any more than was necessary. Now, although we're
by no means finished with the changes we have planned, everything
has stabilized sufficiently that I want to share what we've done.
**From FileMaker/Lasso to LAMP** -- Our primary goal with this move
was to transition our back-end databases from the highly evolved
system that Geoff Duncan had built over many years to modern
hardware and tools. Using then-current tools, Geoff had done wonders
with FileMaker, Lasso, AppleScript, and yes, even HyperCard.
However, performance wasn't great, and only Geoff understood how the
system worked and could modify it. Our long-planned content
management system in Web Crossing hadn't yet materialized, and in an
effort to let Geoff extricate himself from day-to-day server
babysitting, Glenn Fleishman offered to recreate Geoff's system
using a more-common and higher-performance combination of Linux,
Apache, MySQL, and PHP, with some Perl code thrown in as well.
(Yes, that's right, Linux. Glenn runs several beefy Linux boxes at
digital.forest for his other sites, so that's where we're pointing
db.tidbits.com now. We may someday purchase a second Xserve and move
the system over to Mac OS X Server, where the same tools are also
available, but that seems unnecessary at the moment.)
Glenn is an eternal optimist, and although his estimate of how long
it would take to recreate the search and results features of the
older database wasn't far off, he didn't realize just how many
tweaky approaches we've accumulated over the years (heck, even I
didn't realize quite how much we were doing), so it took a bit
longer to implement all our quirks. But at this point, we believe
that the new system handles all the tasks the old one did, and we've
thrown in some improvements that I want to call your attention to.
**No More MailBITS** -- Long ago, MailBITS was meant as a sort of
"letters to the editor" column (hence the name), but as the amount
of email we received became greater than could reasonably be
published, we turned it into collection of short pieces and directed
most of the chatty messages to TidBITS Talk. I've long been
uncomfortable with collecting entirely unrelated bits of information
under the MailBITS rubric, so we eliminated MailBITS entirely and
are now giving short articles equal status with longer ones
(although shorter articles will still come earlier in the issue). We
were already breaking the MailBITS column into its constituent
chunks in the article database, so this move merely clarifies what
is and isn't an independent article in the email editions of
TidBITS. (Take Control News and Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk remain
collections, since their constituent items are all related.)
**New Persistent URL Formats** -- You may have noticed that we've
changed the persistent URL format that identifies every article and
issue and article series we've ever created. Our previous format
relied on the GetBITS CGI that Geoff Duncan wrote, along with a
query for an article, issue, or series number. Since it was easy to
change all these URLs in our new system we've implemented a new
system suggested by Geoff that's significantly more obvious. So,
although our system will continue to respond appropriately to the
old GetBITS URLs, the new URL formats to use when linking are:
* Articles: http://db.tidbits.com/article/8625
* Issues: http://db.tidbits.com/issue/841
* Series: http://db.tidbits.com/series/1264
Although the syntax isn't exactly parallel, we also added a quick
author search that's embedded in a URL. Plus, you can still perform
full text searches across our article database by embedding search
terms in a URL, which can be handy when making JavaScript
bookmarklets or enabling independent applications to search our
article database.
* Authors: http://db.tidbits.com/author/Glenn+Fleishman
* Search: http://db.tidbits.com/search/MacBook+Pro
**Issue and Article Links** -- When we streamlined the boilerplate
text in our issues as part of the transition, we initially removed
the link at the top of the text edition that linked to the issue on
the Web. After all, linking to the issue from the issue seemed
redundant. However, a surprising number of people told use they used
that link. Since all of our editions are now generated from Glenn's
database, it was easy to add not just a link to the issue, but also
links for each article; you see those underneath the title of the
issue and the title of each article.
**Numbered URLs in the Text Edition** -- Everyone who subscribes to
the full text edition of TidBITS has noticed that we started using
square-bracketed numbers as a way of connecting link references to
their URLs below the paragraphs. The reason for that is that we're
now using a variant of John Gruber's Markdown format for writing our
issues (Markdown was based in large part on the setext format we
used to use, so it was an easy switch), and Markdown format uses the
square-bracketed references as a way of identifying link text for
embedding URLs in the HTML version of a file. In a fit of
indecision, I decided to try leaving the references in the text
edition for a few weeks to see what I and others thought. Although
responses were mixed on TidBITS Talk, most of us on staff, including
me and Tonya, disliked the way the references cluttered the text. In
fact, we disliked it quite a lot, and as of this week, we've removed
those references entirely in the text edition, returning to our
previous method of including the URLs related to a paragraph
directly below that paragraph.
<http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/911/>
In addition, the particular format we used for the URLs - with the
square-bracketed number, then the URL in angle brackets, without a
space between the two (because the space caused horrible wrapping on
long URLs) - flushed out a bug in Microsoft Outlook 2003. Without a
space or carriage return before the starting angle bracket, Outlook
was incapable of recognizing the URLs as URLs, and wouldn't make
them hot. This problem will disappear for anyone using Outlook as of
this issue; my apologies if you would prefer that we instead made
Outlook itself disappear, but that's a bit beyond our power at the
moment.
A number of other people have reported all the links being broken in
the issue, but that was unrelated to anything we did. It turns out
that everyone with this problem used Yahoo Mail's Web interface, and
it was incorrectly parsing the closing angle bracket as part of the
URL. I reported it to Yahoo and they said it should be fixed as of
this week.
Luckily, for those who found that they preferred the way the
references connected link text with URLs, the HTML edition of
TidBITS (both in email and on the Web) now offers normal embedded
links, where a link's URL is embedded under the text. This change,
along with the fact that the HTML version flows to the width of your
email program's window, makes our HTML edition an even better
option, especially for anyone reading email in a Web browser. And
even if you don't like HTML-formatted email, never fear, because we
use minimal HTML markup, with no graphics, tables, CSS styles, or
JavaScript to get in the way of readability. And that leads to our
next improvement...
**Centralized Subscription Interface** -- So you're thinking, "Maybe
I'll give that HTML edition a try. I wonder how I switch?" Good
question, and before this week, the answer was significantly uglier
than I liked. However, anticipating lots of people wanting to
switch, I was able to work with Michael Landis of Web Crossing to
create a centralized subscription interface. Before I point you to
it, though, some background.
Although many people don't realize it, by virtue of being subscribed
to TidBITS, TidBITS Talk, Take Control Announcements, or any other
of our mailing lists, you have an account on our Web Crossing
server. You received your TidBITS account information when you
signed up for the list, or when I added you manually during our big
mailing list move several years ago (see "Important News for All
Subscribers: Mailing List Migration," 20-Dec-04). Don't worry if
you've lost that information; you can use your subscribed email
address as your username, and you can always request a new password.
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/7930>
Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), you need to log in to our
server to be able to manage your subscriptions; otherwise anyone
could subscribe or unsubscribe you to our mailing lists. But whereas
the subscription interface was awkward and confusing before, we've
now reworked it so you can see and subscribe to all the public
mailing lists we offer, including all the editions of TidBITS,
TidBITS Talk, Take Control Announcements, and even our TidBITS
translations. You can also unsubscribe from any mailing lists
(including some which are private, such as the update notification
lists for particular Take Control ebooks) to which you might be
subscribed. And for those lists where digest subscriptions make
sense, TidBITS Talk in particular, you can switch to and from digest
mode. It's all done with checkboxes; select a checkbox to subscribe,
deselect it to unsubscribe.
Our new Manage Mailing List Subscriptions page handles everything;
the only trick is logging in. If you have logged in before, our
server should remember you, thanks to a cookie that prevents you
from needing to login repeatedly unless you explicitly wish to log
out because you're using a public computer. If you haven't yet
logged in, or if you logged out after your last visit, enter your
email address in the field at the top of Manage Mailing List
Subscriptions page and click Update to load a login page where you
can either login or request a new password by clicking the Problems
Logging In? link. (The next iteration of this interface, which may
appear as soon as later this week, will make it possible for people
new to TidBITS to subscribe as well.)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/manageListSubs>
We have more plans already in the works, and I'll be sure to alert
you to new services as they're ready for the real world. Thanks for
reading TidBITS, as always!
Take Control News/11-Sep-06
---------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8674>
**Airline Ticket Ebook Now Available in Print** -- Anyone who's
interested in reading "Take Control of Booking a Cheap Airline
Ticket" on paper, rather than onscreen, can now purchase a
print-on-demand version of the book, although we strongly recommend
using the links in the ebook when it comes time to visit booking
sites on the Web. Since pricing is based on page count, the 152-page
book costs $13 in black-and-white, or $37 in color. The overall
costs have dropped, though, since QOOP now offers USPS Priority Mail
and USPS Media Mail options for shipping. Priority Mail is almost
exactly the same price as DHL Ground, but the book might arrive as
much as three days sooner, whereas Media Mail is less than half the
cost, but shipping might take more than a week. As before, to access
the print-on-demand ordering link, click the Check for Updates
button in your copy of the ebook. You can learn more and see
pictures of what the print-on-demand copies look like on our Web
site.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/airline-ticket.html?14@@!pt=TRK-0039-TB846-TCNEWS>
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/print-on-demand.html>
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/11-Sep-06
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8675>
**Comments on: Mac to School 2006: The $2,000 Challenge** -- Dan
Pourhadi's back-to-school article elicits praise and discussion of
laptop memory. 7 messages
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/939/>
**Preserving digital media across the ages** -- Remember those CDs you
burned your important files onto? They may not last as long as you
once thought. Readers talk about ways of preserving data, both for
your own backups and for the next generations. 5 messages
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/940/>
**Learning to programme** -- What advice can TidBITS readers (many of
whom are programmers) give to someone who's looking to become a
programmer? What languages should one focus on, and what type of
background is needed? 25 messages
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/941/>
**Programming cage match: Languages or Discipline?** Is the large
number of programming languages due to sloppiness and corner-cutting
by developers? The discussion also moves from programming languages
to spoken languages and how each evolve. 24 messages
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/942/>
**Pathetic nostalgia for old CDs/DVDs** -- You probably have a box
somewhere in your office or house, filled to the brim with old data
CDs and DVDs that you're never going to need... but you don't have
the heart to just throw it away. What do you do with it? 5 messages
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/944/>
**Is iPod the panacea?** The iPod is regarded as a current pinnacle of
design by some, but is its reliance on few buttons actually a
benefit? 14 messages
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/945/>
$$
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