TidBITS#873/02-Apr-07
=====================
Issue link: <http://db.tidbits.com/issue/873>
It's a big week for news, with Apple and EMI announcing DRM-free
music to be sold in the iTunes Store and Adobe announcing the final
details surrounding the upcoming release of Creative Suite 3. Of
course, we can't resist passing along other, less-serious
developments, such as Gmail Paper and other examples of April
Foolishness. Returning to real news, Glenn worries about the
acquisition of the national ISP Speakeasy by retail chain Best Buy,
Adam ponders the recent uproar around death threats made against a
prominent woman blogger, Jeff examines the new Complete My Album
option in iTunes, and Robert Movin returns with the story of how he
switched his mother to the Mac.
Articles
April Foolishness 2007
Apple Sends Vista to Boot Camp
iTunes, You Complete Me
Blogosphere Uproar
DealBITS Winners: BeLight Software's Art Text
Apple and EMI Offer DRM-Free Music via iTunes
Adobe Announces Creative Suite 3 Plans, Pricing, Dates
Best Buy Buys Speakeasy: Doom, Despair?
Switching My Mother to the Mac
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/02-Apr-07
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April Foolishness 2007
----------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8935>
Whew! We want to thank everyone who came together yesterday for what
was truly our most inspired April Fools issue ever. Joe Kissell's
remote-controlled, animatronic monkey was definitely the highlight,
and we hope that his landlord will be understanding about all the
damage - who would have suspected that the folks at MacUser.com were
so adept at remote AppleScript programming?
What?
Oh.
Right.
So, we didn't actually create an April Fools issue this year. With
April 1st landing on a Sunday, we figured it would be confusing for
readers who pick up their email at work on Monday to be treated to
tomfoolery on the wrong day. And, to be honest, we're all crazy busy
right now with other projects.
Therefore, we decided to skip April Fools this year and store up our
ideas and energy for next year, when April 1st falls on a weekday.
However, don't think that we weren't keeping our eyes out for other
April Foolishness online. The date may have passed, but you can
still enjoy some of the efforts of others that we found to be
exemplary.
**Fools Abound** -- Because electrocuting yourself is just so darned
hard, we're glad that the folks at Art.Lebedev Studio have come up
with the Vilcus Plug Dactyloadapter, available with adapters for
both U.S. and European plug types. Shocking!
<http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/vilcus/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2007-04/vilcus-plug-it-in.jpg>
**Google Underground** -- Google announced their solution for bringing
broadband Internet access to any home. Google TiSP (Toilet Internet
Service Provider) is free in-home wireless broadband that connects
through city sewer lines. It's not as funny as some previous Google
efforts, but it plays off the fact that fiber optic lines are, in
fact, often run through old sewer pipes.
<http://www.google.com/tisp/>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google's_hoaxes>
Going back to the future, Google also announced Gmail Paper, a
service that prints and delivers your email for free, thanks to
"relevant, targeted, unobtrusive advertisements, which will appear
on the back of your Gmail Paper prints in red, bold, 36 pt
Helvetica. No pop-ups, no flashy animations - these are physically
impossible in the paper medium."
<http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html>
**ThinkGeek** -- In addition to reselling the Vilcus Plug
Dactyloadaper, the folks behind ThinkGeek offered up a bounty of
geeky gifts. The ThinkGeek 8-Bit Tie is sure to take you back to
those early Nintendo days, but we particularly liked the idea of the
SnuzNLuz WiFi Donation Alarm Clock: every time you hit the snooze
button to sleep in for just a few more minutes, the clock makes an
electronic direct-deposit donation to a charity or organization you
despise.
<http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/8-bit-tie.shtml>
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2007-04/8bit_tie.jpg>
<http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/snuznluz.shtml>
**Windows Security Advisory** -- In this age of heightened security,
it's beneficial to examine every aspect of our surroundings,
especially the things we see so often that we no longer register
them as threats. The Computer Academic Underground released a white
paper detailing the problems inherent in non-opaque structural
materials ("Window Transparency Information Disclosure") that
states, "An information disclosure attack can be launched against
buildings that make use of windows made of glass or other
transparent materials by observing externally-facing information
through the window."
<http://www.caughq.org/advisories/CAU-2007-0001.txt>
**Toddler Settlement Rate and the NSA in Second Life** -- The April
Fools edition of the EFF's EFFector newsletter was particularly
biting this year, with a piece about how the National Security
Agency (NSA) will be opening an office - a large black box in an
undisclosed location - in the virtual world of Second Life. Also
hilarious was the bit about how the RIAA has sent a "settlement
letter" to all parents of children under 3 years old, offering a
discounted settlement rate if they pay in advance for their
children's inevitable future copyright infringements.
<http://www.eff.org/effector/20/13a.php>
**Wait Until Next Year** -- Although April 1st fell on a Sunday, there
was clearly a lot of effort online put forth to fool or amuse us. If
you have some time to kill, be sure to check out Urgo's 2007 list of
April Fools' Day jokes on Web sites. In the meantime, we'll be
storing up ideas for next year!
<http://aprilfools.urgo.org/2007.html>
Apple Sends Vista to Boot Camp
------------------------------
by Joe Kissell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8932>
Apple last week released Boot Camp 1.2 beta, the latest version of
its software for enabling Intel-based Macs to boot into Microsoft
Windows. This is likely to be the final update to Boot Camp before
the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, which according to Apple will
include a release version of Boot Camp (though there's still much
speculation about what form Boot Camp will take in Leopard). Boot
Camp 1.2's most prominent new feature is support for Windows Vista
(but only 32-bit versions for now), which previously required
awkward hacks. Also new in this beta are updated drivers for
numerous Apple devices including trackpads and iSight cameras,
support within Windows for the Apple Remote, the inclusion of Apple
Software Update (to update Apple software within Windows), and
numerous other improvements. It's a 138 MB download.
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/>
iTunes, You Complete Me
-----------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8933>
One of the great things about the iTunes Store has been the way it
lets you buy single songs without having to purchase an entire
album. I own too many CDs that contain only one or two songs I like;
the rest of the selections just don't hold my interest. I'm
especially bad about this if I go into a store (such as the
excellent local Sonic Boom Records), listen to a couple of tracks or
parts of tracks, buy the album thinking I've stumbled on some
cutting edge band, and then discover later that the disc wasn't so
hot (and that my radar for new music is still subpar, darn it).
<http://www.sonicboomrecords.com/>
Occasionally, though, I'll buy a single song and then realize that
the rest of the album _is_ worth buying. Purchasing the album from
the iTunes Store would result in a duplicate of that single, and if
there were more than nine songs on the album, it wouldn't be worth
buying them individually to avoid duplicating the one I already own.
Apple has now introduced Complete My Album, a new feature that gets
around the problem. When you click the iTunes Store link for a song
(the arrow to the right of the song title in your iTunes library), a
Complete My Album option appears, listing the cost of the rest of
the album and a Buy button. So, for example, if you've purchased one
$0.99 track, it will cost you $9.00 (plus tax) to purchase the rest
of the album's tracks.
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/03/29itunes.html>
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2007-04/itunes_complete2.jpg>
Apple says that the Complete My Album feature applies to qualifying
tracks for up to 180 days after you've purchased the singles.
However, I've noticed that the feature currently applies to singles
I purchased when the iTunes Store first opened, too.
Blogosphere Uproar
------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8927>
There's a line between abusive comments and criminal speech.
I read very few blogs on a regular basis, and I've never become
enmeshed in the "blogosphere," the entire collection of blogs and
bloggers that link to and quote one another. But among those sites I
do glance at regularly is Kathy Sierra's "Creating Passionate Users"
blog, where she posts thoughtfully about code, interface design,
marketing, t-shirts, and a host of other technology-related issues.
Although we have friends in common (long-time Mac writers Tom
Negrino and Dori Smith, who work with us on Take Control), I've
never met or even corresponded with Kathy before.
<http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/>
<http://www.backupbrain.com/2007_03_25_archive.html#a005032>
Being familiar with Kathy's writing, I was shocked to read her
reports of receiving death threats on her blog and sexually abusive
posts on several other blogs operated in part by a variety of
apparently well-known names in the blogosphere. Especially
disgusting is that none of this abuse seems to be directed against
anything Kathy wrote, and frankly, nothing she writes could possibly
engender such a response from any sane person. All the vitriol is
purely personal, and graphically misogynistic beyond belief.
<http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2007/03/as_i_type_this_.html>
The famous New Yorker cartoon said that on the Internet, no one
knows you're a dog. But making death threats is a criminal offense
in many parts of the world, and since Kathy has properly informed
law enforcement, I sincerely hope that the dogs in question are
unmasked, charged, and convicted like the criminals they are.
This appalling situation illustrates how the Internet is no longer
separate from reality; what happens on the Internet nowadays is as
real as any other event in your home town. Unlike equivalently
unpleasant plot lines played out in both fictional and
"reality-based" entertainment media, this is happening to a real
person, in the real world.
Much is said in the journalistic world these days about how the
Internet enables public conversation (with the implication that the
conversation is about important topics), but we all need to realize
that with the ability to say whatever we want comes the
responsibility to participate in a meaningful way. To paraphrase my
mother, "If you don't have anything useful to say, don't say
anything at all."
Thanks to you all for participating in the extremely civil community
of TidBITS readers. And Kathy, all I can say is that I'm sorry this
happened, but perhaps the outrage we're seeing will help rein in
future unpleasantness.
[02-Apr-07 Update: Since I wrote the original piece above on
27-Mar-07, there have been hundreds of comments on Kathy's blog
(most, but not quite all, highly supportive), an update from Kathy,
a variety of news stories, and - happily - productive communication
between Kathy and several of the people who were associated with the
sites in question. The identity of the perpetrator remains unknown,
but it seems that there has at least been progress to my concluding
hope above - that out of this terrible event can come more effective
and civil communication online.]
<http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2007/04/updatejoint_sta.html>
<http://www.rageboy.com/statements-sierra-locke.html>
<http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/03/call_for_a_blog_1.html>
DealBITS Winners: BeLight Software's Art Text
---------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8919>
Congratulations to Dan Kerkman of appns.com, John Allan of mac.com,
Neal Pann of mac.com, and Ron Gillmore of victoria.tc.ca, whose
entries were chosen randomly in last week's DealBITS drawing and who
received a copy of BeLight Software's Art Text, worth $29.95. But
don't fret if you didn't win, since BeLight is offering everyone who
entered this DealBITS drawing a 15-percent discount on Art Text
through 11-Apr-07, dropping the price to $25.45. Thanks to the 714
people who entered this DealBITS drawing, and we hope you'll
continue to participate in the future!
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/8918>
<http://www.belightsoft.com/products/arttext/overview.php>
<https://usd.swreg.org/cgi-bin/s.cgi?s=31176&p=31176121906&v=3&d=0&q=1&;>
Apple and EMI Offer DRM-Free Music via iTunes
---------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8937>
In a press conference today in London, Apple and EMI Music announced
that starting in May 2007, EMI Music's entire digital catalog of
music will be available for purchase in DRM-free versions from the
iTunes Store worldwide. Removing Apple's FairPlay digital rights
management system from the tracks comes with a price, though.
DRM-free tracks will cost $1.29 rather than $0.99, although they
will also feature higher quality 256 Kbps AAC encoding, which Apple
claims makes them indistinguishable from the original recording. 128
Kbps versions with Apple's FairPlay DRM will remain available for
$0.99, giving users the choice of which track to purchase.
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/04/02itunes.html>
All EMI music videos will also be available without DRM, with no
change in price. iTunes will provide a one-click option for
customers to upgrade previously purchased EMI songs for 30 cents per
song.
Commenting on the announcement, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said, "We are
going to give iTunes customers a choice - the current versions of
our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of
the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of
interoperability for just 30 cents more." The move comes a mere two
months after Jobs posted his widely read open letter about the ills
of DRM and Apple's opinions about it (see "Steve Jobs Blasts DRM,"
2007-02-12).
<http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/8856>
The removal of DRM from EMI's content sold through the iTunes Store
is a significant event in the short history of online music sales,
given the iTunes Store's leading position in the market. Customers
purchasing DRM-free songs will be able to play them on any digital
music player that supports unprotected AAC (and you can bet that the
capability will be added soon to any that currently don't), thus
eliminating much of the complaint about how Apple required the use
of the iPod to play iTunes Store purchases. Other usage restrictions
that disappear for EMI songs include the capability to play
purchased songs on more than five computers and to burn playlists
containing purchased songs more than seven times. Needless to say,
the removal of DRM does not mean that it's legitimate to copy music
in ways that violate copyright law, but that's not new.
The increased price presumably helps EMI feel better about the
possibility of increased copying, and I wouldn't be at all surprised
if Apple and EMI will be tracking the number of songs from the
iTunes Store that appear on the peer-to-peer file sharing services.
More important, increasing the price to $1.29 while keeping the
DRM-protected versions available for $0.99 creates additional
revenue, which the music labels had been pushing for, while letting
Apple hold fast to $0.99 as the base price.
From the research perspective of determining consumer attitudes to
DRM, it's a little unfortunate that Apple increased the encoding
rate for the DRM-free versions of EMI's songs. Had DRM removal been
the only change, it would have provided a clear-cut answer to the
question of how customers value the legally granted rights that DRM
restricts. Of course, since quality has never been a significantly
limiting factor in working with digital music for most people, the
popularity of DRM-free music will still offer worthwhile insight
into consumer attitudes. Personally, I plan to pony up the
additional 30 cents per track for all the EMI music I've purchased
from the iTunes Store.
It's unsurprising that the first chink in the iTunes DRM armor comes
from EMI, since EMI has been dabbling with DRM-free music since late
2006, selling a few songs without DRM via Yahoo Music. The question
is, will EMI's move to the anti-DRM camp convince other major labels
to follow? Jobs said that Apple expects to have more than half of
the five million songs on iTunes available in DRM-free versions by
the end of 2007, so the implication is that Apple is negotiating
with the other major labels as well. Even so, the terms - FairPlay
DRM or an additional 30 cents per track - seem quite set now, since
I can't see Apple offering music from different labels for different
prices.
<http://news.digitaltrends.com/article11874.html>
Despite the removal of DRM from EMI's music videos, Jobs made no
comment on whether Apple would be negotiating with the TV and movie
studios to remove DRM from other music videos, the 350 TV shows, and
the 400 movies currently available through the iTunes Store. (And
for anyone following the numbers, Apple says it has sold over 2
billion songs, 50 million TV shows, and 1.3 million movies from the
iTunes Store so far.)
**Staff Roundtable** -- [Glenn Fleishman] Adam's research curiosity
aside, I'm especially happy Apple and EMI coupled an increase in
audio quality with the increase in price and removal of DRM. For me,
this makes the decision to upgrade my EMI content even easier. At
256 Kbps, according to several audiophile sites I checked, an AAC
should be indistinguishable from the data encoded in a typical audio
CD. I suspect the quality will be even higher, though, because
preprocessing - optimizing audio or video quality for a particular
compression algorithm - from the original digital masters could
produce even better results. Apple and EMI haven't said anything on
this front.
The other question for me is whether EMI and Apple will digitally
watermark the non-DRM audio files. Digital watermarking subtly
modifies the media data to overlay encrypted or in-the-clear
information that can be retrieved. The idea is that the watermark
can't be removed without also affecting the overall quality of the
music encoded in the file. One attempt by the record industry at
watermarking was definitively defeated by Princeton professor Ed
Felten, a notable critic of DRM and other schemes.
<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.07/mustread.html?pg=2>
[Jeff Carlson] Glenn points to the potential for dramatically
higher-quality recordings, but so far we don't know whether Apple or
EMI are using masters to create the files. It wouldn't surprise me
if there are three interns grabbing CDs from the archives and
ripping them in iTunes (I doubt that's the case, but it wouldn't
surprise me). The first movie I purchased from the iTunes Store when
video became available, Grosse Pointe Blank, didn't look like it was
encoded from any sort of master print, even taking into account
video compression.
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119229/>
Frequent TidBITS contributor Andrew Laurence noted that this shift
to non-DRM music makes it possible to play back music purchased from
the iTunes Store on hardware devices such as the Slim Devices
Squeezebox or the Sonos Digital Music System.
<http://www.slimdevices.com/>
<http://www.sonos.com/>
I also wonder (without any information to back it up) whether other
music companies or services are planning to announce DRM-free
offerings soon. The Apple/EMI event wasn't announced until the day
before it happened, and the new tracks won't be available on the
iTunes Store until May. To me, it sounds like Steve Jobs hopped a
quick flight to England to make sure Apple and iTunes garnered the
first headlines.
Adobe Announces Creative Suite 3 Plans, Pricing, Dates
------------------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8930>
Ladies and gentleman, start your rendering engines! Adobe has at
last announced shipping dates, product details, and pricing for its
massive collection of updates to existing products under the rubric
Creative Suite 3 (CS3).
<http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/>
If you think this is just another software update, take a look at
the top-level page about CS3 that Apple is featuring on its site.
Photoshop and the Creative Suite are powerhouse applications for
Apple's demanding (and traditionally deep-pocketed) design
customers, who have been waiting for Intel-native versions of the
applications before purchasing new hardware. As John Gruber at
Daring Fireball put it, "Translation: 'Please buy a new Mac Pro.'"
Apple should see a huge spike in Mac sales as corporate purchase
orders are cut, and individuals start tapping their credit cards.
<http://www.apple.com/creativesuite3/>
<http://daringfireball.net/linked/2007/march#tue-27-apple_cs3>
CS3 now encompasses 6 separate Design Editions and 13 major
applications, each edition carving out a slightly different piece of
the graphics, production, design, Web, video, and animation markets,
with soupçons of scientific, medical, and other unique professional
needs thrown in. Several additional support programs are also
included in most editions.
**Web and Design Coming Very Soon** -- Adobe's first batch of revised
programs will be available in Design and Web editions, which each
appear in premium and standard flavors. Design Premium combines
print, Web, interactive, and mobile device design tools, for
instance, while Design Standard targets just production and design
for print. There are a host of matrices on Adobe's site to help you
figure out just what you might need. All these editions are
available for Mac OS X as universal binaries, or for Windows XP and
Vista.
<http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/design/?xNav=DP>
<http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/web/?xNav=WP>
The collective ship date for the Web and Design products is sometime
in April 2007, bringing new versions of Contribute, Dreamweaver,
Fireworks, Flash, Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop. (Acrobat was
updated last year to version 8.) Photoshop CS3 comes in two
editions: a regular version that's an upgrade of previous releases,
and an Extended release that has analysis and manipulation tools for
particular professions (see "Universal Binary Adobe Create Suite 3
Moves Closer," 2007-03-12).
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/8901>
Adobe continues to follow its path for better integration and more
efficient workflow in this release. The set of programs and their
connective tissue try to leverage the best capabilities of one
program to let you work natively on a piece of media in that
program, and then move it to another application without the loss of
information or structure that happens when you import or export.
This sort of inter-application communication may not be sexy, but
it's what working stiffs need.
The support programs connect muscle to bone, and include Bridge
(browsing and linking), Version Cue (workgroup storage and version
tracking), Central (mobile device emulation), and Connect (rich
conferencing). These tools facilitate and manage all this movement
of media for individuals and large workgroups.
**Audio and Video Appear Later in 2007** -- Two additional CS3
editions won't appear until the third quarter of 2007: Production
Premium and Master Collection. Production Premium is a video and
audio post-production package that comprises After Effects, Premiere
Pro, Soundbooth, and Encore in addition to Flash, Illustrator, and
Photoshop. Only After Effects will ship as a universal binary;
Premiere Pro, Encore (part of the Premiere Pro package), and
Soundbooth are Intel-only Mac products.
<http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/production/?xNav=PP>
<http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/mastercollection/?xNav=MC>
Two support programs for video production will be available only
under Windows: Ultra (keying and compositing), part of Production
Premium, and OnLocation (direct-to-disk recording and monitoring),
part of Premiere Pro. Adobe notes that OnLocation will work under
Boot Camp, however, as the idea is to dedicate the computer to the
program while you're shooting.
<http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/production/ultra/>
<http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/onlocation/>
The Master Collection includes every last Adobe CS3 product plus
Acrobat in one box the size of the Lusitania and the weight of a
cubic foot of neutron star. In reality, it's just a whole lotta
software, necessary only for someone who outputs every possible mode
of digital expression. Like David Byrne, perhaps.
<http://www.davidbyrne.com/>
You can see a full matrix of which products appear in which edition
on Adobe's site by following this link and then clicking Compare
Editions. (Is it a good sign of information architecture that
there's no apparent way to link directly to this chart?)
<http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/>
The packages have a huge variety of upgrade options ranging from
$240 to $1,400 for existing users of Adobe software, and when
purchased new will retail for between $1,200 and $2,500 depending on
the edition.
I'm exhausted just writing about this array of software; we'll look
into the programs in more detail as they come available.
I should also note that while the release of these products might
trigger your Apple Store finger to click a Buy button next to the
image of a Mac Pro, the Mac Pro line hasn't been refreshed in
months, while Intel has eight-core processors just sitting there,
staring at us, waiting to go into some unsuspecting computer. I'm
holding tight, myself.
Best Buy Buys Speakeasy: Doom, Despair?
---------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8928>
My Internet service provider (ISP) Speakeasy Networks was just
purchased by Best Buy. I was hoping the press release carried an
April 1st dateline, but no such luck.
<http://speakeasy.net/press/pr/pr032707.php>
I've been a customer of Speakeasy for home and business for several
years. While they charge 10 to 30 percent more than Qwest, the
incumbent phone company in Washington State, Speakeasy has earned
the difference by being generally responsive: they have great
technical support, they go the extra mile, and they live up to their
promises.
In one case, when moving our connection from one office to another -
the office I share with TidBITS Managing Editor Jeff Carlson and
others - Speakeasy was willing to help me get both DSL connections
live at the same time and flip a switch to move our Internet
protocol (IP) network from the one connection to the other on
command. That's above and beyond what almost any ISP will do.
A year or so ago, I added their Internet telephony service that
combines voice over IP (VoIP) with unlimited long-distance calling
in North America, later extended to landlines and some cell systems
in a total of 22 countries worldwide. Because Speakeasy provisions
the VoIP connection on my end (through a device common to all VoIP
providers) and their end (at the DSL termination point, something
unique to DSL and cable providers), the VoIP lines' quality was just
as good as my landlines.
Speakeasy is also the only ISP of any scale in the United States
that permits its subscribers to share their broadband connections
for free or for a fee with guests, neighbors, or customers. Most
ISPs either outright disallow any form of sharing, or require an
expensive business offering. Speakeasy also doesn't limit bandwidth
use or charge for "excess" use. (They do reserve the right to cut
off customers engaged in activities that violate their use policies,
but those tend to involve illegal software trading or massive file
exchanging.)
A Speakeasy spokesperson confirmed via email that the sharing policy
would remain unchanged with the acquisition, and said that Speakeasy
would remain Speakeasy.
But I'm worried nonetheless. Best Buy is a massive corporation;
Speakeasy, while national, was local to me in Seattle. Best Buy is
publicly held; Speakeasy was private. Best Buy is an aggressive,
profit-driven firm that squeezes pennies and has a scenario-based
store strategy that lets them size up customers and upsell to them;
Speakeasy, while trying to be profitable, always seemed to be aiming
for high-end customer support and service to stand out in the
broadband industry, an industry that's not just dominated but biased
in favor of the incumbent phone and cable firms.
Interestingly, the deal isn't so much about broadband - Speakeasy
works closely with Covad to handle its DSL lines - but about VoIP.
The press release goes on and on about VoIP, especially for small
businesses, which often fall into the cracks between small customers
and big businesses. Broadband is a marginal business relative to
VoIP, in which there are much bigger dollars to be made. By
combining broadband and VoIP into a single offering sold over naked
DSL - no dial tone from the local telco required - Speakeasy can
bypass the incumbent providers over whose wires Speakeasy's service
runs.
I'm still having palpitations, but we'll see where the business
goes. I liked my mom-and-pop ISP, the only national firm I know of
that still retained that feeling. I'm nervous about their new
corporate overlords.
Switching My Mother to the Mac
------------------------------
by Robert Movin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8922>
It was the call we all dread.
"Hi Mom."
"Hi," she replied tersely.
"Is something wrong?"
"It's my email. It won't work. And the Internet is really slow."
"Crud."
I may be an executive in the world of information technology, one
who works with some of the largest technology companies in the
business, but to my extended family I just "work in computers."
Which means, of course, that I, like many of you, am expected to
keep their email running and figure out where those pesky digital
photos are hiding after being deleted accidentally. It didn't take
long to realize my mother's current woes might be a symptom of only
128 MB of RAM in an aging PC. And some spyware.
Crud, indeed.
I'm a geek, and I've been supporting everyone in my family for most
of my life, but enough is enough. When I realized the local big box
retailer was on her like a used car salesman on a trust-funder, I
knew what I had to do. She needed to switch to a Mac, as I had done
not that long ago (see my story in "From iPod to MacBook Pro: A
Switcher's Tale," 2006-03-13). Soon. And I knew she couldn't afford
it.
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/8455>
After some discussion with my wife I realized I could kill two birds
with one stone. I'd buy my mother a refurbished Intel-based iMac,
and I'd have it cover all holiday and birthday gifts for the next
few years. She's not a very demanding user (at least in terms of
processing power) so odds are any new system can last up to 5 years.
I bit the bullet, logged onto store.apple.com, and placed the order.
**Setting It Up** -- I knew that just sending my mother a blank iMac
wouldn't be the best idea in the world. It's taken me many years to
get her comfortable on Windows and I've learned that her way of
navigating around a system is pure memorization. This is a trend
I've seen in a lot of people who weren't raised on technology -
while most of us understand the contextual information of modern
graphical operating systems, many people still don't understand the
little boxes, symbols, and other hints we use to get around. Like my
mother they rely on nearly rote memorization of exactly where to
click and when. By buying her a Mac I was removing both what little
context she relied on, and all of the process paths she used from
day to day.
Instead I had the system shipped to me so I could prepare it to
minimize the impact on her and to give myself support access. My
first step was to run through all the initial configuration steps
and apply all patches. I created a user account for her, and a
second administrative account for myself. I went into System
Preferences and locked down the security (turned on the firewall,
made sure any unneeded services were disabled, locked all accounts,
verified it would run Software Update automatically, and so on).
Next I went through all the major applications and pre-configured
them. I set up her mail accounts (including a special one we'll get
to later), and linked to an iPhoto photocast that publishes from my
system (so we can send her pictures of the cats; sorry Mom, no kids
yet). By setting her screen saver to iPhoto, I probably increased
the value of the Mac to her by making it do double duty as a digital
picture frame. Since she's a fairly recent grandmother (thanks to my
sister) I figured she might like constantly updating photos of my
nephew.
The next step, a little harder, was to set up an AOL Instant
Messenger account and configure iChat. We ran through a bunch of
potential screen names, and I now know my mother is really slow to
pick up on double entendres. Let's just say some of her proposed
names would have made her more popular online than a good son would
be comfortable with. After installing Firefox (for those few sites
that don't work with Safari) and a version of Microsoft Office I had
also purchased for her, the iMac was pretty much ready. She mostly
uses the computer for email, Web, photos, some work documents, and
greeting cards (she was on her own to buy software for that, though
iPhoto might work). I polished the basic configuration off by
setting up her Dock.
**Taking It Over** -- The next phase was more complicated and involved
tinkering under the hood in as unobtrusive a manner as possible.
I've always struggled to support her remotely (we live on opposite
sides of the country), and I wanted to configure secure remote
access so I could both teach her how to use the Mac, and help
troubleshoot any problems that arose. The next steps are complex
and, based on the skills they required, a positive sign that my own
journey of switching to the Mac is fairly complete.
I've had good success using VNC (Virtual Network Computing) as a
remote control tool. VNC enables a remote user to see and control
another computer over a local network or the Internet, and it works
across most operating systems. Since my mother would never need to
control my Mac, I just installed the server software on her iMac.
Redstone Software's Vine Server (OSXvnc) is a great open source VNC
server for the Mac. I configured it to launch at startup, always run
in the background, require a password, and accept connections only
from the local computer.
<http://www.redstonesoftware.com/products/vine/server/vineosx/>
"What?" you ask, "how can you connect to it remotely if it accepts
connections only from the Mac it's running on?"
As great as VNC is, it's pretty insecure - basically an unencrypted
pipe running over (usually) port 5900. But there's another tool in
our arsenal to lock it down - the SSH network protocol. One of the
great features of SSH (Secure SHell) is that it isn't limited to
giving you just a remote terminal session (the shell), it can also
map entire ports across an encrypted network connection. Thus I can
connect from my Mac to my mother's iMac over SSH and forward any
traffic to port 5900 through that encrypted connection, where it's
unpacked and dropped onto my mother's iMac as local traffic which
Vine Server will then accept. I'm simplifying, but you get the idea.
(The necessary command is below.)
An even better feature of SSH is that you can configure it to use
only certificate-based authentication. With a little tweaking you
can have SSH require digital certificates instead of passwords, and
really lock down the certificates that are authorized. I set my
mother's iMac to accept only a digital certificate over SSH (and to
reject password-based authentication attempts), and to use only my
personal certificate. Take that, you password-guessing crackers!
<http://www.extrapepperoni.com/2007/03/24/tcossh-public-key-authentication/>
With all of that set up, I can now connect to my mother's computer
using a simple command in Terminal to establish the encrypted SSH
tunnel (listed below, for the curious).
ssh -L 5900:127.0.0.1:5900 <my username>@<Mom's IP>
Then I launch my VNC client (Chicken of the VNC) and configure it to
connect to 127.0.0.1. All traffic is routed to my mother's iMac,
giving me full control over her desktop.
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/cotvnc/>
"But Robert," you ask, "does that mean she has a static IP address?"
Excellent question - but nope, life isn't that easy.
**Of Cable Modems and IP Addresses** -- My mother connects to the
Internet via a cable modem, and while her IP address doesn't change
all that often, it's definitely not permanent. The solution to this
problem involved a little AppleScript. Remember that "extra" mail
account I set up? It's on a server I control and is relatively
immune from spam. I created a mail trigger to run a small
AppleScript script that looks up my mother's current public IP
address, puts it into an email message, and sends it to one of my
private accounts. All I have to do is send that special account a
message with "GetIP" in the Subject, and her Mac sends me her
current IP address. Another option would be to use a "reverse
tunnel," sometimes called a "meet in the middle." Chris Pepper has a
great tutorial for this (it's an excerpt from a potential "Take
Control of SSH" ebook, so if you'd like to encourage Chris to finish
it and Adam and Tonya to publish it, be sure to vote for it). I know
some people use tools like dynamic DNS for this purpose, but I
wanted something a bit more private, and I want to eliminate any
need for interaction from my mother, thus my choice not to use the
reverse tunnel.
<http://www.extrapepperoni.com/2007/03/24/tcossh-reverse-tunnels/>
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/suggest1.html#TakeControlofSSH>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_DNS>
The next step was harder, and required a trip (already scheduled) to
set everything up. At this point her Mac was totally secured,
configured, and set up for remote access. The problem was that,
while I could get her public IP address whenever I needed it, I had
no way to route traffic behind the home router connected to her
firewall. The only way to solve this was on-site, so I packed up the
iMac, checked it as baggage with much trepidation, and flew out
there. After setting it up, I connected to her home router and
configured it to forward all SSH traffic to the Mac, and while that
sounds simple, it wasn't the easiest task in the world, considering
the limits of the router the cable company gave her.
Of course, once Leopard is released it looks like remote control
capabilities will be integrated into iChat and none of this
cleverness will be necessary, but when I finished this project,
Leopard was still at least 9 months away.
**Mom, Meet Your Mac** -- I actually had to leave before my mother had
a chance to try out the iMac - so with everything set I hopped back
on a plane for home. Her first response was exactly what I expected.
"It's beautiful!"
"Great!" I replied.
"How do I turn it on?"
After telling her where the power switch was, our first lesson
started. To be honest, she adapted much better than I expected.
Perhaps it's a bit of a testament to Apple's focus on simple design.
That said, it wasn't perfect. By losing all of her memorized paths
to get things done and what contextual clues she managed to pick up,
the learning curve was steep and long. That's where VNC came in
handy - over the next few weeks I'd connect to her system and walk
her through any task while she watched and took notes.
My mother may not be a technophile, but she's no technophobe. One of
her nicknames is "buttons" because someone once told her to start
clicking anything she could see on the screen to see what happens.
When I wasn't looking she ran off and grabbed a basic Mac book to
learn on her own. Since I'd locked most of the system down, I
figured the odds of any serious damage were limited, and she slowly
learned her way around. She still can't do much, but she can do
everything she needs.
**The "Wow" Factor, and Bringing a Family Together** -- Aside from
reducing my overall support costs, another reason I bought the Mac
was to spend more time with my 2-year-old nephew. My sister lives
near my mother and, as it happens, the little one spends a lot of
time with Grandma. I thought video iChats would help me get to know
my nephew better, and (better yet) let him know who the heck the
strange guy who visits once a year is. The response was even better
than I expected.
My mother now prefers I make my weekly calls over iChat, and my
nephew always wants to talk online and see our pets. Last visit, for
the first time, he remembered who I was. Sure, you can do all this
with a PC, but the simplicity and reliability can't be beat and the
Mac helps bridge the thousands of miles between us.
Then something even better happened - my sister bought a MacBook.
To make a long story short, I helped my sister configure her new toy
and now that entire side of the family is virtually connected. We
regularly hold three-way video iChats to play with the nephew. My
sister subscribed to .Mac and we now all photocast the latest family
pictures (to be honest, photocasting could be a bit more reliable).
My nephew struggles to figure out why his uncle can't talk anytime
he wants during the day (the whole work thing) and I get all sorts
of Photo Booth pictures.
We really can't ask for much more - we can video chat with better
quality than I imagined, share photos, trade email messages, and
even share calendars (not that we've needed to yet). Yes, I can do
all of this on a PC - I spent years honing my Windows geek skills -
but not nearly with such ease and reliability. Apple has helped
bring our family closer even though I'm the only geek of the litter.
Not everything is perfect. "Buttons" managed to turn on her iMac's
AirPort Extreme card and connect to the Internet through her
neighbor's access point. That broke my remote access system, and
reduced iChat video quality for the few months until my next visit.
She also wishes the system fonts were bigger, and I haven't figured
out how to fix that yet. View > Show View Options in the Finder can
adjust some font sizes in the Finder, and TinkerTool seems to do
this for Safari, but she wants to increase all the system fonts.
<http://www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html>
But overall the switch went far better than I expected, especially
with my sister joining in, and now we're a family of Macs. No more
cleaning spyware off Mom's PC, no more struggling to walk her
through registry hacks over the phone (just kidding), and a level of
connectivity I could only imagine a few years ago.
If you decide to take the risk with your own family members, I think
it's worth the jump. Just make sure you prepare them, and the Mac,
for the transition. With the remote control features in Leopard you
should be able to avoid some of the hoops I had to jump through, but
I still highly recommend you pay the extra shipping (or plane
ticket) costs to configure the computer with everything they might
need before they need it.
And, I hate to say it, but it's kind of nice to just send cards for
all those holidays and birthdays. I'm really bad at picking out
gifts.
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/02-Apr-07
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8936>
**Increasing font sizes everywhere** -- A reader points out that you
can change the text size in Finder windows easily. (1 message)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1195/>
**UK versus United Kingdom** -- A copyediting question leads to a
spirited discussion of how people in England, Scotland, Wales, and
Ireland refer to themselves: United Kingdom, Great Britain, just
Britain? And that, in turn, brings up questions of American versus
British English usage. (49 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1196/>
**Switching My Mother to the Mac** -- Parents and their offspring
comment on switching a relative to the Mac and remotely
administering the computer for someone who isn't an expert. (15
messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1197/>
**MacTech's VBA-to-AppleScript transition guide** -- A reader notes
that MacTech's book about coping with the loss of VBA in the next
version of Microsoft Office is difficult to get outside the United
States and Canada. (3 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1198/>
**PC Slot Memory Limitation?** Is the PC Card slot on a PowerBook G4
limited in the amount of memory it can read? A reader's 4 GB memory
card isn't recognized. (1 message)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1200/>
**Blogosphere Uproar** -- Readers respond to the news that a woman
received death threats on her blog and other electronic forums. (27
messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1201/>
**Great Britain and the UK** -- More opinions are expressed about the
usage of the terms "Great Britain" and "UK." (4 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1202/>
**Selling a Consultancy** -- When it's time to retire, how does one go
about selling a consultancy? (3 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1203/>
**iWeb 1.1 and the Competition, Revisited** -- Do you need a
full-fledged Web design application to build a site? And what about
back-end services such as shopping carts? (5 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1204/>
**Stick 3 GB of RAM in an Intel Core 2 Duo iMac, MacBook** -- Does
adding uneven pairs of RAM in a supported Mac with only two memory
slots improve or hinder performance? (2 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1205/>
**Apple TV: The Real Video iPod** -- How much larger would HD video
files be compared to the movies currently offered by the iTunes
Store? (2 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1207/>
$$
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