TidBITS#913/04-Feb-08
=====================
Issue link: <http://db.tidbits.com/issue/913>
The big news this week is Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid to buy
Yahoo, so Adam looks at what's involved and comes away unconvinced
that it's a good idea. Back in the Macintosh world, Apple released
updates to iWork and iWeb, but draws ire for remaining almost
entirely mum on what changed. Glenn laments the loss of the Crazy
Apple Rumors Site, Joe explains how to work around the disconcerting
way that video chats make eye contact nearly impossible, Adam weighs
in on the Direct Marketing Association's move against the Catalog
Choice service, and Mark relates his woes in dealing with warranty
repairs. This issue brings a number of practical tips, such as how
to avoid mysterious crashes on launch in Word 2008, ways of working
around an infinite Setup Assistant loop at startup, and what to do
when your Mac starts typing in the wrong language. We also welcome a
new sponsor - CS Odessa, makers of ConceptDraw - and open a DealBITS
drawing to give away copies of Sound Studio 3. Lastly, check out our
latest Leopard ebooks on backing up, maintaining your Mac, and more!
Articles
iWork and iWeb Updated, Apple Restricts Release Notes
Microsoft Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo
CS Odessa Sponsoring TidBITS
DealBITS Drawing: Win a Copy of Sound Studio 3
Crazy Apple Rumors Site Kills Self, Collapses Mineshaft
Fix for Mysterious Word 2008 Crash
For Want of a File, an Operating System Was Lost
Quick Fix for a Mac Typing in the Wrong Language
Catalog Choice Slammed by Direct Marketing Association
New Leopard Ebooks Help with Backups, Maintenance, and More
Looking Video Chat Problems in the Eye
When Is a Warranty Not a Warranty?
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/04-Feb-08
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iWork and iWeb Updated, Apple Restricts Release Notes
-----------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9431>
Apple has released updates to the components of the iWork suite via
Software Update and as standalone downloads, bumping Keynote to
version 4.0.2 (32 MB download), Pages to 3.0.2 (27.8 MB download),
and Numbers to 1.0.2 (26.2 MB download). Separately, iWeb was revved
to 2.0.3 (17.2 MB download). The release notes for these updates set
a new low even for Apple, noting for Pages, Numbers, and iWeb that
"This update addresses compatibility with Mac OS X" and expounding
only more slightly for Keynote that "This update primarily addresses
performance issues while playing or exporting presentations."
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/keynote402.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/pages302.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/numbers102.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/iweb203.html>
I'm becoming increasingly fed up with Apple's reluctance to admit
that they might have fixed a bug when releasing an update to one of
their programs. I can see an argument that average users may not
care what specifically changed, but release notes that say merely
"This update addresses compatibility with Mac OS X" are just
patronizing. Some people actually use these programs for real work
and care deeply about changes. Describing what's new in a program
gives the interested user the necessary information to determine if
an update is likely to solve a particular problem. And since some
updates actually cause new problems to crop up, release notes that
could be summarized with a grunt and "Update good" verge on the
negligent.
Come on, Apple, acknowledge that you have professional users whose
livelihoods depend on your programs and the information you publish
about them. I'm not saying you have to overwhelm Software Update
users with detail that most people couldn't possibly understand, but
somewhere on your Web site, how about providing real release notes
that actually document what has changed? It's all about trust - you
want us to trust your updates without question, but if you can't
trust us to make our own informed decisions, why should we trust
your software to work in mission-critical situations? If you need a
role model, check out the release notes from Bare Bones Software,
which lay out clearly exactly what has been added, changed, and
fixed.
<http://www.barebones.com/support/updates.shtml>
Microsoft Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo
--------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9434>
The New York Times is reporting that Microsoft has made an
apparently unsolicited offer to buy Yahoo for about $44.6 billion,
in a mix of cash and stock. That price values Yahoo at $31 per
share, a 62 percent premium over Yahoo's $19.18 closing price on
31-Jan-08.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/business/01cnd-yahoo.html>
The move is clearly aimed at Google, which has continued to cement
its dominance even as both Microsoft and Yahoo have invested
millions in competing with Google Search and Google's online
advertising programs. According to market research firm comScore, in
December 2007 Google handled 58.4 percent of Web searches, with
Yahoo in second at 22.9 percent and Microsoft a distant third at 9.8
percent.
The real question is what benefit Microsoft sees to buying Yahoo. In
the letter to Yahoo's board of directors, Microsoft reportedly said
that the merger would provide economies of scale and allow combined
research and development efforts. But the Internet world doesn't
hinge on economies of scale as do manufacturing industries where
being able to buy in larger quantities results in lower per-unit
costs. Combined R&D operations don't seem like a huge win either,
unless Microsoft believes that Yahoo has some truly astonishing
technology in the works that it can't duplicate.
On the even more obvious downside, Yahoo and Microsoft have very
different corporate cultures that might not meld well, and more
importantly, the companies have numerous overlapping services,
including search, email, instant messaging, advertising, news,
travel, and finance. It's unclear if there's any particular benefit
to one company owning multiple competing services, and forcing users
to switch to a combined service could cause them to jump ship
entirely to Google or another site.
As such, it's hard to see Yahoo wanting to merge with Microsoft from
a strategic standpoint. However, from the financial side, Yahoo has
been having trouble of late, announcing plans last week to lay off
1,000 employees and giving a 2008 revenue forecast that disappointed
Wall Street analysts (and Apple watchers know what punishment comes
to a stock's price when analysts are disappointed!). But Yahoo
remains profitable, posting a $660 million profit in 2007.
Still, I remain unconvinced that this is a good idea. And more
importantly, it doesn't seem likely that Yahoo's board of directors
will approve the offer unless they feel that it's simply too much
money to pass up.
CS Odessa Sponsoring TidBITS
----------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9442>
We're pleased to welcome as our latest long-term sponsor the
Ukrainian company CS Odessa, makers of a suite of programs based on
their flagship business and technical drawing application
ConceptDraw. You likely wouldn't use ConceptDraw for a figure
drawing class, but if you need to draw an org chart, diagram your
network, plan out a Web site, lay out an office floor plan, or map
your business processes, ConceptDraw's vector drawing tools, layers,
smart connectors, and presentation mode make it ideal for business
graphics. CS Odessa has taken some of the more popular uses of the
general ConceptDraw program and created versions tweaked for
specific uses, such as Concept Draw MINDMAP for brainstorming,
ConceptDraw Project for project management, ConceptDraw WebWave for
mocking up Web sites, and ConceptDraw NetDiagrammer for visualizing
networks. For people coming over from Windows, ConceptDraw works
well as an alternative to Microsoft Visio, and ConceptDraw can
import Visio documents in XML format (the company also provides a
free service for anyone who wants to convert Visio's VSD documents
into Visio XML (VDX) files).
<http://www.conceptdraw.com/>
<http://www.conceptdraw.com/en/visio/>
We go way back with CS Odessa - they first sponsored TidBITS in
2001, and for a time they were even helping revitalize our Russian
translation, so it's good to see that they've prospered over the
last seven years. Thanks to CS Odessa for their support of TidBITS
and the Mac community!
DealBITS Drawing: Win a Copy of Sound Studio 3
----------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9438>
The Mac has numerous audio recording and editing programs, but one
long-time standout has been Sound Studio 3, created by Felt Tip
Software and published by Freeverse. Sound Studio lets you capture
audio by recording a live performance, digitizing from an analog
source like an LP, or using any other Core Audio-based device like a
USB microphone. Once captured, you can use Sound Studio's
easy-to-use tools for editing and manipulating your audio, including
the capability to apply numerous built-in and Audio Unit filters,
analyze the audio content, and even generate tones and noise from
scratch. The program can import and export common audio formats,
and, for those who find themselves applying filters or adding intro
and outro audio to numerous files, Sound Studio supports AppleScript
and Automator.
<http://www.freeverse.com/soundstudio>
In this week's DealBITS drawing, you can enter to win one of two
copies of Sound Studio 3. Entrants who aren't among our lucky
winners will receive a discount on Sound Studio 3, so be sure to
enter at the DealBITS page. All information gathered is covered by
our comprehensive privacy policy. Remember too, that if someone you
refer to this drawing wins, you'll receive the same prize as a
reward for spreading the word.
<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/sound-studio/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/about/privacy.html>
Crazy Apple Rumors Site Kills Self, Collapses Mineshaft
-------------------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9435>
In a rare public appearance, Crazy Apple Rumors Site (CARS) was seen
ingesting massive quantities of fluid extracted from the pineal
gland of an iguana, before shouting, "iPod socks forever!", pulling
out a fake banana, and plunging it repeatedly into its own midriff.
That failing, it pulled the supports out of the mineshaft in which
it had been trapped for eight days, killing itself, and destroying
the only known sexbots on the planet.
<http://www.crazyapplerumors.com/>
In more rational news, we bid a fond and hopefully temporary
farewell to the only Macintosh rumors site honest enough to reveal
that it makes up all, not just some, of its news. John Moltz's CARS
brought us lesbian ninja sexbots, of course, let's not forget that,
but also an account of IDG's Macworld Expo Extended Edition, a DVD
including:
<http://www.crazyapplerumors.com/?p=1025>
"Shocking footage of how Macworld's Jason Snell, Philip Michaels,
and Dan Moren really spent their week: a cocaine-fueled blur of
hookers and violence ending in a shootout with police (a PC World
neighbor notes: 'They seemed like such nice fellas. Quiet. Kept to
themselves.')"
Or news of Apple dropping all DRM from its music and videos:
<http://www.crazyapplerumors.com/?p=993>
"According to Jobs, Apple is scrapping its FairPlay DRM system and
replacing it with the Aunt Ethel system. Instead of software
restrictions on copying files to unauthorized users, your Aunt Ethel
will call you periodically and ask if you've been file sharing."
TidBITS wasn't immune to CARS ribbing, including the premature
revelation of our plans for world domination.
<http://www.crazyapplerumors.com/?p=962>
<http://www.crazyapplerumors.com/images/TidBITS.jpg>
We'll miss the insanity and humor, especially Moltz's alter ego Phil
Schiller. Like Andy Kaufman and his unleashed id Tony Clifton, Moltz
would regularly make himself up as Schiller, and appear in Apple
keynotes with Steve Jobs (Moltz's godfather and drinking buddy). The
Schiller face make-up alone took four hours, an indication of
Moltz's commitment to Apple.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Kaufman#.22Tony_Clifton.22>
In honor of John Moltz, I present the Worst Unboxing Photos Ever,
shot from my iPhone while opening up a MacBook Air that Apple lent
me for review purposes. Shawn King of Your Mac Life called these
pictures, "spectacularly crappy." Author Tom Negrino noted,
"Those...just...suck! Well done!" I can hear Moltz's angelic voice
whispering down from the heavenly choir - rather, Twitter - "Oh,
sure, post photos of a 19th century bootblack unboxing a MacBook Air
THE DAY I'M QUITTING."
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/glennf/sets/72157603834937267/>
<http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2341/2235326638_7ba822cf04.jpg>
<http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/>
<http://www.backupbrain.com/>
Fix for Mysterious Word 2008 Crash
----------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9437>
Here's a tip for any of you early installers of Office 2008 for Mac:
If you're experiencing a crash on launching Word 2008, try throwing
out its settings file. Look in your home directory for Microsoft's
preferences folder at ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft. Move the Word
Settings (10) file to the Desktop and relaunch Word 2008. That did
the trick (with some help from Microsoft tech support) for me under
Leopard on an older PowerBook G4. If moving Word Settings (10) out
of the way solves your problem, trash the file.
For Want of a File, an Operating System Was Lost
------------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9436>
I had to reinstall Leopard on my home computer, and it was among the
most frustrating experiences in my 24-year history as a Mac user.
The re-installation was required because of a problem with a single
tiny file that caused Setup Assistant to demand registration again
and again - on a computer that has long been registered - no matter
what else was tried.
The problem started with RAM. I was upgrading my 1.33 GHz PowerBook
G4 (September 2003) from 1.25 GB to 2.25 GB. (Never mind that it can
only address 2 GB; the machine has 256 MB on the motherboard, and
two slots; it's an odd problem.) After installing the RAM and
starting up, Setup Assistant ran. I couldn't escape and return to my
account, so I assumed it was a problem with the RAM. After several
attempts, I powered down, removed the power supply and battery
again, and reinstalled the old RAM. Another boot; same problem.
I started researching the matter via my wife's computer, and found
that Apple has a technical note on this precise topic for Leopard:
"Setup Assistant appears after every restart." In forums, I
discovered similar advice, which appeared to be required when a
QuickTime update or other software upgrade for Leopard had gone
awry.
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306998>
I followed the brief instructions, which are, quite simply: start up
with the Shift key held down (to trigger Safe Mode), and then click
the Restart button on the account login screen. (Safe Mode startup
took nearly 10 minutes on my computer, but I found after a few
tries, I didn't have to keep the Shift key held down after the
progress circle appeared under the Apple logo at startup.)
The advice didn't help. I turned to colleagues, who noted that the
problem appears to lie in a file located in the /var/db directory
called .AppleSetupDone. The file indicates that, you know, the Apple
setup is done. The file was present; usually its absence is a
problem. I mounted my computer in FireWire target disk mode to my
wife's MacBook, and examined the file. I wound up trying several
tactics, including replacing the file with hers, and deleting it.
Nothing seemed to help. (In retrospect, it may have been a
permissions problem with the file or its parent directory, but Disk
Utility's Repair Permissions found nothing wrong with files or the
disk.)
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583>
I had to give up at last and use the Leopard installer's Archive and
Install option. With this option, described in depth among other
strategies in Joe Kissell's "Take Control of Upgrading to Leopard"
book, you preserve applications, user accounts, and other
information, but the installer puts in place a clean copy of the
operating system.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/leopard-upgrading.html?14@@!pt=TB913>
This, of course, worked perfectly. After the installation was
complete, my system was back to normal. The .AppleSetupDone file is
now at zero bytes (with an odd set of permissions: user writable,
world readable). And I had to download about 200 MB of updates to
get myself back into sync.
After those updates were complete, I ran a Time Machine backup to
ensure that if it happened again, I'd be in a little better shape;
my previous backup was a few days old, and I wouldn't have lost
anything critical. It's just that an Archive and Install seemed less
painful than a system restore because I could retain my precise
current state. Had that failed, a Time Machine restore would have
been next up.
A TidBITS reader, Dave Dykes, wrote in with the link to an alternate
solution that avoids reinstallation but requires a bit more
technical finesse. The article he recommends explains how to boot a
Mac into Unix single-user mode, and then carry out a short sequence
of commands that removes two files I was unaware of -
.SoftwareUpdateAtLogout and .SoftwareUpdateOptions - to disable
Setup Assistant's loop. Thanks, Dave!
<http://www.macfixitforums.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=leopard&Number=843562>
Have you encountered this problem? Did you find a better solution?
Let me know, and I'll add the details to this article. I suspect,
based on searches on Google, that this problem is not common, but
it's not exceedingly rare, either.
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Quick Fix for a Mac Typing in the Wrong Language
------------------------------------------------
by Tonya Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9389>
If you find that your Mac unexpectedly starts typing in a different
character set, such as Greek or Arabic, the explanation may be
simple.
Solving this problem became a top priority for me shortly after I
upgraded to Leopard. It first showed up in Safari under Leopard:
when I typed in the URL field, I got a few Greek characters. I tried
to solve the problem in Safari's preferences, and that seemed to
help after I quit and relaunched Safari.
But, a few days later, the problem came back, and after fiddling
with a few things and restarting, I noticed that somehow my
International menu bar item had become enabled, and it had a Greek
flag icon, indicating that I had the Greek language chosen. Weird!
But easily fixed. I opened my International preference pane, clicked
Input Menu, and disabled Greek.
It wasn't until I mentioned the problem in a Twitter post that I
figured out how this had come about, thanks to Matt Deatherage from
MacJournals.com, who noted a conflict between the default keyboard
shortcut for switching the keyboard input language and the one for
showing the Spotlight Search field (Command-Space in both cases).
You can have one or the other, but if you want keyboard shortcuts
for both options, you should open the Keyboard & Mouse pane in
System Preferences and modify one of the shortcuts. Or, if you want
only one, you should be sure the other is disabled.
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2008-01/keyboard-and-mouse.png>
This conflict can also occur in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, so why did I
encounter it now, years after Tiger's release? When Tiger came out,
Spotlight was new, and Spotlight's Command-Space keyboard shortcut
conflicted with the default trigger for LaunchBar, a great $39
utility from Objective Development. LaunchBar beats the pants off
Spotlight as a keyboard-activated application launcher, calculator,
Google searcher, iTunes controller, and so forth. Unwilling to
change my habits for Tiger, I turned off Spotlight's keyboard
shortcut and stuck with LaunchBar.
<http://www.obdev.com/products/launchbar/>
But in Leopard I decided to rewire my nervous system to use
Command-Space for Spotlight and switch to Control-Space for
LaunchBar. I somehow also turned on the Greek language in the
International preferences pane - the jury is still out on how I did
that. As a result, Command-Space for switching to Greek took over
for Command-Space for opening Spotlight. And, since it took a few
days to remember to press a different trigger for LaunchBar, I kept
accidentally pressing Command-Space. Spotlight didn't activate in
the menu bar, but since I was trying to activate LaunchBar instead,
I didn't notice.
It seems odd that Apple would make the default - to change the Mac's
typing language - override the far less intrusive action of
activating the Spotlight search field.
A Google search about this problem turned up little assistance, so I
hope that this piece will help others who have inadvertently
activated a second input language. If something along these lines
happens to you, the solution may be as simple as changing a keyboard
shortcut or turning off all extra languages in the International
preference pane, on the Input Menu screen. In fact, if you don't
select any extra languages, you won't even see Input Menu listed in
the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane.
Catalog Choice Slammed by Direct Marketing Association
------------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9432>
According to an article in Business Week, the Catalog Choice service
I wrote about last year has caused a bit of a scare in the direct
marketing world (see "Stop the Catalog Madness with Catalog Choice,"
2007-12-03). With over 500,000 members having declined more than 6.3
million catalogs, even the Direct Marketing Association is
concerned, and is encouraging its members to ignore requests from
Catalog Choice users to be removed from catalog mailing lists.
Business Week says that the DMA will be removing the $1 fee from its
service and letting users decline individual catalogs, but it's too
little, too late, especially since a credit card will reportedly be
required for proof of identity. That's a privacy nightmare waiting
to happen.
<http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_53/b4065035213195.htm>
<http://www.catalogchoice.org/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9232>
If your business wants to endorse Catalog Choice's work, they've set
up an Endorsements page for that now. I've added TidBITS Publishing
Inc. to that page - we love what Catalog Choice has done so far.
We've declined a total of 68 catalogs, 13 of which have been
confirmed by the merchants. Only one - Title Nine (a sports clothing
retailer for women) - has refused our request; we'll be calling them
to request more firmly that they stop inundating us with unwanted
paper.
<http://www.catalogchoice.org/endorsements>
What's especially nice about the Catalog Choice site is that you
have a record of which catalogs you've declined, and they provide
links to those companies' Web sites. Just because I don't want a
catalog doesn't mean I don't want to shop with that merchant again.
But catalogs have given way to the Web for many of us, and it's high
time retailers acknowledged that not everyone wants paper catalogs.
They could redirect the saved money to creating better and more
compelling Web sites; there's no site out there that doesn't have
room for improvement.
New Leopard Ebooks Help with Backups, Maintenance, and More
-----------------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9430>
Leopard has been out for three months now, giving us time to explore
its quirks and figure out where Leopard users need help. Whether you
want help with Time Machine, need to put your Mac on a regular
maintenance schedule to avoid problems, or could use some guidance
on how to use Leopard's marquee features, we have new ebooks for
you.
**Take Control of Easy Backups in Leopard** -- Written by Joe Kissell,
author of the massively popular "Take Control of Mac OS X Backups,"
this concise ebook explains how to create a complete Leopard backup
system with archives, a bootable duplicate, and offsite backups, but
without significant effort. If you'd like to know how buy and
prepare a backup drive, if you want to make (and recover data from)
reliable backups in Leopard, then this ebook is for you. "Take
Control of Easy Backups in Leopard" covers the ins and outs of Time
Machine, and it also looks at seven cases where Time Machine doesn't
cut the mustard. (We're giving this ebook away for free to owners of
the second edition of "Take Control of Mac OS X Backups;" click that
book's Check for Updates link to download your free copy.) $10, 83
pages.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/leopard-easy-backup.html?14@@!pt=TB913>
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/backup-macosx.html?14@@!pt=TB913>
**Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac** -- The best way to avoid
problems with your Mac is through regular maintenance, and we're not
talking a cursory clearing of your Desktop and swipe at the dust on
your screen. In the latest version of "Take Control of Maintaining
Your Mac," best-selling author Joe Kissell has returned to the topic
of how to keep your Mac - whether it's running Tiger or Leopard -
running at peak performance. All of his recommendations have now
been updated to account for changes in Leopard and for the latest
helpful utility software. Joe provides daily, weekly, monthly, and
yearly schedules for how to best do preventative maintenance under
Leopard or Tiger, helping you keep your Mac running smoothly and
efficiently. The ebook also helps you monitor your Mac's health,
find and remove unnecessary large files from your disk, keep your
software updated, clear your caches, and much more. The update is
free for the thousands of people who benefited from the original
version; click the Check for Updates button to download it. $10, 87
pages.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/maintaining-mac.html?14@@!pt=TB913>
**Macworld Total Leopard Superguide** -- This visually appealing new
ebook from our friends at Macworld provides an overview of a huge
collection of new features in Leopard, teaching you how to be more
productive and have more fun along the way. In the "Macworld Total
Leopard Superguide," you'll find a compendium of savvy information
about getting the most out of what's new in Leopard, whether you
want to navigate the Finder faster, search Spotlight more
effectively, automate your applications with Automator, share
screens with others, or use core applications like Safari, iChat,
Mail, and iCal. Contributors include several Take Control authors:
Glenn Fleishman, Ted Landau, Joe Kissell, and Kirk McElhearn, along
with a who's-who of other well-known writers. $12.95, 92 pages.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/mw-total-leopard.html?14@@!pt=TB913>
Looking Video Chat Problems in the Eye
--------------------------------------
by Joe Kissell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9433>
Several years ago I wrote an article on Interesting Thing of the Day
about eye-to-eye video, the problem of making eye contact when
videoconferencing. If you've ever used the video capabilities of
iChat or Skype, you know what I'm talking about: the person on the
other end appears to be looking at your navel (or the person next to
you) rather than your face, and you appear the same way on the other
person's screen. I've always found this to be weird and
uncomfortable, but chalked it up to the limits of technology - the
camera has to be above, below, or to the side of the screen, so if
you're looking at the image you are not, by definition, looking at
the camera and therefore give the impression of not looking at the
person you're communicating with.
<http://itotd.com/articles/254/eye-to-eye-video/>
As anyone who has watched Star Trek knows, this problem no longer
exists in the 23rd century. Somehow flat-panel video displays in the
future also magically act as cameras too, and you can look directly
into the eyes of the person on the screen. As a matter of fact, the
secret to this trick may already have been discovered, at least in
Apple's labs. A patent the company received in 2006 describes a
device in which minuscule sensors and lenses are embedded in a
monitor's individual display elements. So instead of having one big
sensor and one lens, you have thousands of tiny sensors, each with
its own lens; digital processing magic combines all of the incoming
data into a single image. Of course, a description in a patent
application and a working prototype are two different things, and
there's no telling if or when this technology will make its way into
consumer products.
<http://xrl.us/bfhsr>
Meanwhile, numerous researchers are toying with other clever
solutions to the problem. For example, in an experimental system
called gaze correction, digital processing alters the appearance of
your face in real time to make it look as though your eyes are
pointed in a different direction than what the camera is actually
capturing. Some implementations of gaze correction use just one
camera, while others interpolate the images from multiple cameras.
Microsoft Research Cambridge has a Web site that demonstrates a
variety of image-manipulation techniques that rely on a pair of
cameras.
<http://research.microsoft.com/vision/cambridge/i2i/>
Of course, I'm leaving out the obvious, low-tech solution, which
newscasters and other television performers have been using since
the 1950s: the teleprompter. Just stick a piece of glass, or a
semitransparent mirror, in front of a camera at a 45-degree angle,
and it will reflect whatever is beneath it (a computer screen, a
mechanical scroll, or whatever) so that the subject can read it
while looking directly into the camera's lens, while the camera sees
nothing but the subject. If, instead of a script, the teleprompter's
screen shows a video image of someone else, there's your eye-to-eye
videoconferencing. Sure enough, several high-end videoconferencing
systems use exactly this arrangement.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TelePrompTer>
For your run-of-the-mill computer user, systems that use the
teleprompter design have the distinct disadvantage of being
outrageously bulky. My MacBook Pro, for example, has an iSight
camera built into the case, which despite the limitations inherent
in its placement makes for a pleasantly compact arrangement.
Just before moving to France last year, though, I picked up a gadget
from Bodelin Technologies called See Eye 2 Eye (or SE2E for short).
It's a periscope-like device that uses two mirrors (the top one of
which is semitransparent) to turn a portion of my Mac's screen into
a teleprompter. The idea is that you clip it to the top of your
display and then position the video window from iChat or Skype
behind the bottom mirror; it's reflected in the top, semitransparent
mirror, which is right in front of your iSight camera. And presto:
eye-to-eye videoconferencing in a relatively compact package (9 by 6
by 4 inches, or about 23 x 15 x 10 cm) and at a modest price (around
$60).
<http://www.bodelin.com/se2e/>
<http://www.bodelin.com/se2e/installing.jpg>
I bought the SE2E not primarily for video chats, but for remote
presentations. Travel costs being what they are, I can't often
appear in person at user group meetings in the United States, but
I've had several requests to give live, interactive video
presentations. I wanted to be able to see my notes while speaking
without seeming to look down the entire time, and the SE2E has
enabled me to do just that. Combined with the version of iChat in
Leopard, I can now even run my own Keynote presentation or demo
software on my computer, with a video image of my face in the corner
on the remote screen. Although I haven't yet ventured into the world
of video podcasts, I could use exactly the same arrangement to do
so, perhaps with the addition of teleprompter software such as
Bodelin's ProPrompter LCD Software ($125), the new dvcPrompt from
DVcreators.net ($60), Vara Software's Videocue 2 ($39.99), or the
free, Web-based FreePrompter.
<http://www.bodelin.com/proprompter/software_lcd.html>
<http://www.dvcreators.net/dvcprompt/>
<http://www.varasoftware.com/products/videocue/>
<http://www.freeprompter.com/>
Although the SE2E has worked adequately for me (and is certainly
reasonably priced for what it is), it does have some potential
gotchas. First, Bodelin's Web site advertises two models: the SE2E
FOR $49.99 and the SE2E-N for $10 more. The lower-cost model is
designed to work with displays that have an external camera mounted
on top (such as Apple's discontinued and much-missed iSight), while
the SE2E-N is for laptops with cameras built into the display bezel.
I ordered the latter model, but what I got was a cross between the
two - an apparently new design with removable tabs that allow the
device to work on either display configuration. However, I've seen
no mention or picture of this design on Bodelin's site or any other
- even though I bought my SE2E more than six months ago - and it's
not clear why they continue to maintain two separate SKUs when a
single design covers all the bases.
Then again, "all the bases" turns out to be an exaggeration, in that
none of the SE2E designs works on an iMac with a built-in iSight
camera - neither the older, thicker plastic models nor the newer,
thinner aluminum ones. The notches that let the SE2E slip over a
laptop screen are too narrow to accommodate the iMac's case, which
means that the camera would end up beneath, rather than behind, the
top mirror. If one were disposed to perform some surgery on the
device, it might be made to fit, but I couldn't guarantee it.
Another issue is that the semitransparent mirror sitting in front of
the camera darkens the image a bit. Rather than buy extra lamps to
shine in my own face while giving video presentations, I've been
using Ecamm's $10 iGlasses utility, which lets me digitally brighten
my iSight's image to my liking. (iGlasses does lots of other nifty
things too, but the low-light image enhancement by itself makes it
well worth the price in my book.)
<http://www.ecamm.com/mac/iglasses/>
Then there's the size. The SE2E is far too bulky to carry around in
a laptop case; I'd only ever use it at home. And because it obscures
so much of the display, it's not like I can leave it attached all
the time - it goes on the screen only when I need it. So I wish that
somehow it were much smaller, perhaps even collapsible. On the other
hand, I also dislike having to keep video chat windows scaled down
to 4 inches square; that's just too small for comfortable
conversations, and when you're using the SE2E as a teleprompter, you
have to choose between displaying a very small amount of text or
using a small font. So I wish that somehow it were much larger too!
What I truly wish for is a thin screen that can see me as well as I
can see it, just like the ones on the Enterprise. With any luck,
Apple will make that a reality before the 23rd century.
When Is a Warranty Not a Warranty?
----------------------------------
by Mark H. Anbinder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9399>
Remember when Apple's warranty on Macintosh computers was a mere 90
days, and the change to a full one-year warranty was big news? Or
when on-site desktop computer and mail-in laptop warranty repairs
became the norm? Big changes like that are generally the only time
the average consumer stops to think about product warranties beyond
the simplest "How long is the warranty?" level. Unfortunately,
that's not all we need to know when considering a purchase.
The hidden variation of what warranties can mean to different
vendors was brought into sharp relief last month when the
high-capacity internal hard drive I'd bought for my MacBook died,
and I discovered that the three-year warranty I thought I had didn't
necessarily mean I'd be back up and running any time soon.
Our story begins in July 2006, when I wanted to purchase a larger
internal hard drive than Apple had available in their MacBooks. The
selection process, as with most hardware purchases these days,
required balancing reasonable price against a reasonable expectation
of reliability and post-sales support. The $279 Hitachi drive from
Other World Computing (OWC, also known as macsales.com) I picked
wasn't the cheapest option, but I felt I was investing in a computer
component I'd be heavily relying on. The peace of mind of a known
vendor and known manufacturer seemed worth a slight price premium.
**Where in the World is Mark's Hard Drive?** -- Unfortunately, the
level of warranty information provided by OWC (and, to be fair, most
vendors) ends at the length of the manufacturer's warranty. What
they leave out, and what I've learned the consumer needs to seek out
independently, is any idea of the specific warranty policies of the
manufacturer, including likely turnaround time.
I've discovered this in the worst manner possible, by finding out
that Hitachi's standard operating procedure for warranty replacement
is, literally, a "slow boat from Asia" approach. A replacement hard
drive had to make its way from Singapore to California, taking an
estimated 7-10 "business days" (in December, that was extended
thanks to the holidays), after which it could be sent across the
United States to me in Ithaca.
The problem was compounded by Hitachi's customer service rep
misleading me into believing that the drive was being sent to me via
second-day air; despite my skepticism, I gave him the benefit of the
doubt and allowed for the possibility that he had no idea the drive
had to take a two-week trip from Singapore first. He helpfully took
my credit card number for their advance-exchange option, a
reasonable provision that allowed them to start the process now,
rather than waiting for me to get the defective drive to them.
My happy illusion that my conversation with Hitachi on a
mid-December Monday meant I'd have a replacement drive on Wednesday
or Thursday evaporated when I plugged my RMA number into Hitachi's
Web site that Tuesday to see whether the replacement drive had yet
shipped. Hitachi's RMA tracker doesn't understand advance-exchange
returns, so it gave me incorrect info, which prompted me to call the
company again. This time, I was given the word that the drive was on
its way from Singapore.
The Hitachi rep I spoke to that Tuesday said that if the drive
hadn't already been dispatched from Singapore, he could have looked
to see if a warehouse in the United States (one that isn't generally
used for warranty fulfillment) had a drive they could send me, but
since Monday's misleading (or confused) rep had started the
slow-boat process, they were unwilling to change anything. I should
expect my replacement 2-3 weeks after requesting it, and I'd be
without a working laptop for that time. This just doesn't reflect
modern computer-user expectations, and if their hope is that
customers who can't wait that long will give up and buy a brand new
device rather than seek warranty replacement, it's pretty shady.
That's when I tried calling Other World Computing again, in hopes
that my reputable vendor of choice would stand behind the sale and
take care of the customer after learning how poor a job the
manufacturer was doing. While I've spoken to some friendly and
sympathetic folks at OWC, their policy and their stance is that
their responsibility to the customer ends thirty days after the
sale, and that warranty fulfillment past that time is solely the
responsibility of the manufacturer. (The folks I talked to at OWC
allowed that they can, and do, stretch the thirty-day limit, but not
_this_ long.)
**What's a Buyer to Do?** Obviously, the old "caveat emptor" advice,
"Let the buyer beware," applies here. But this experience has made
it clear that the buyer can't stop at selecting a seemingly
reputable vendor and a name brand product with a reasonable warranty
period. If I had to do it all over again (and I'm sure someday I
will), I'd take the additional steps of ensuring the manufacturer
offers advance-exchange service (this means they will send you the
replacement before the old equipment reaches them) and finding out
what kind of turnaround time I could expect.
For example, Seagate, which now offers a five-year warranty on hard
drives, offers both ground and two-day air shipping for replacement
drives; the latter is available for a fee, or is included with the
company's $20 advance exchange option. Western Digital also offers
advance replacement, and, like Hitachi, asks for a credit card
number to secure the return of the original unit, but doesn't charge
a fee. They quote a 3-5 business day turnaround.
Ideally, resellers like OWC would provide this sort of information,
upon request if not right on their Web site. OWC, Amazon.com, Small
Dog Electronics, and most other online resellers already tell
customers how long a product's warranty lasts, as a matter of
course. Why not provide typical warranty turnaround time? A customer
relations manager at OWC says they'd never be able to keep up with
frequent changes to such info, and publishing it would expose them
to liability if it made a manufacturer unhappy. I'd prefer they
focused on keeping the customer happy.
The situation is complicated when a "house brand" from an online
reseller is really a standard manufacturer product that's been
relabeled with the reseller's name, such as similar hard drives
manufactured by Hitachi, and offered for sale without identifying
Hitachi. One such vendor tells us that the manufacturer is
responsible for warranty fulfillment on these drives, but a buyer
who doesn't do a little digging beyond the provided information
won't know that.
**Is this Normal?** Of course, I'm kicking myself for not having
figured out _before_ this happened that not all warranties are
created equal. I wish I'd looked into Hitachi and OWC a year and a
half ago, before making the purchase, to see what I could expect
from them. One of OWC's folks tried to convince me that two-week
turnaround wasn't _that_ bad, based on the fact that a couple of
their Macs had taken two months to be repaired under warranty.
Two months does make two weeks look better, but misses the point
that two weeks is _normal_ (and, really, the bare minimum) for
Hitachi's warranty fulfillment turnaround, whereas it's extremely
unusual for Apple, whose typical repair turnaround is under a week.
If Hitachi had unexpectedly run out of a U.S. supply, and as a
result needed to do something unusual by getting my drive from
Singapore via surface ship, it would still be frustrating, but more
understandable.
**What Could OWC Have Done Better?** -- For starters, I'd have been
more impressed if the customer service rep I spoke to on that
Tuesday had offered more than sympathy and a recitation of their
policies. It wasn't until I gave a PR rep from whom we get OWC press
releases a heads-up that I was working on a "caveat emptor" article
featuring one of her clients that anyone at OWC tried to get in
touch with Hitachi to intervene on my behalf.
OWC couldn't get anyone at Hitachi to come up with a better
resolution, though they did extract something I hadn't been able to
- a delivery ETA of December 31st. That's right, the replacement was
being sent to my employer's office while my employer was closed,
which Hitachi knew; I'd given them my work address with the specific
caveat that the office would be closed from that Friday through
January 2nd, so they should ship there _only_ if it was certain to
arrive that week. Hitachi refused to arrange for a change in the
delivery address, though they said I was welcome to try that with
DHL myself.
While I feel that warranty fulfillment after over a year _shouldn't_
be OWC's problem, I'll admit I was hoping their sympathy would
extend to standing behind their customer by replacing the product in
a timely manner when it became clear that Hitachi wasn't going to do
so. Everyone at OWC seems dismayed that Hitachi's standard procedure
involves shipping a replacement from Singapore, and they're now
(understandably) wondering whether they should drop Hitachi drives
from their product selection; but even if they do that, it doesn't
help me.
Ironically, OWC's published policies would have allowed me to
purchase a _new_ laptop hard drive, use it for a couple of weeks
until my warranty replacement arrived, and then return it for a full
credit or a refund minus a restocking fee. (Luckily for them, I
don't feel it's right to take advantage of a liberal return policy,
and even if I did, I wouldn't have felt like laying out my cash to
make up for this gross lapse in customer satisfaction. Instead, I
waited - with my laptop down for the count - until my replacement
finally reached me, last week.)
I can't help but think that someone - at Hitachi or OWC - really
should have said, "You know? This is unacceptable. We took your
money and if we can't get you a warranty replacement unit without
making you wait two or more weeks for it, we should pull a drive off
the shelf and send it to you." Instead, they've created a customer
who will never again buy a Hitachi product, and will have to think
long and hard before ever again buying from OWC.
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/04-Feb-08
------------------------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9440>
**Migrating from Now Contact** -- A reader trying to synchronize
information from Now Contact to a Palm Treo runs into trouble. (2
messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1806/>
**Non-English unicode fonts in Safari** -- A custom Tibetan font is
required to read a Web site, but the font isn't one that ships with
Mac OS X. (5 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1807/>
**Prosoft Drive Genius vs. Alsoft DiskWarrior** -- Does Drive Genius
unseat long-time Mac drive campion DiskWarrior? (6 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1809/>
**What is a "Server Grade Hard Drive"?** Apple touts its new Time
Capsule device as having a "server grade hard drive," but what does
that mean exactly? (1 message)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1811/>
**External disk** -- The low cost of hard drives these days makes it
possible to toss an old, low-capacity drive and replace it with a
new internal drive, rather than trying to boot from a small external
one. (15 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1812/>
**"Mac Users Think They're Superior"** -- Yes, it's the title of an
article in Advertising Age. Yes, we think we're superior compared to
someone who would print a ridiculous article. (8 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1814/>
**iWork and iWeb Updated, Apple Restricts Release Notes** -- Apple's
lack of release notes is increasingly infuriating, especially for
the reader who lost hours reinstalling Leopard after the latest
iWork update. (5 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1817/>
**comparing older mac speeds** -- A Web site lists a complete history
of Apple hardware and specifications, leading one reader to note
that browsing the Web on an older PowerBook is comparable to a newer
MacBook Pro. (5 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1819/>
**Screen shots disabled while DVD player is running...** -- How do you
get around the limitation when this message appears? A few options
are available. (2 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1820/>
$$
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