August 2004

August ‘04
From the Editor
Executive Contact List
Well,...
Please feel free to contact any of the following individuals
if you have comments or questions relating to Macintosh
Users East or Macintosh computing in general.
Position/Name
Phone#
President
Jim Foster
Hm: (905) 433-0777 Courtice
Email: jimfoster@mac.com
Apple Liaison
Bruce Cameron
Hm: (905) 983-9205 Orono
Email: rbcameron@rogers.com
Treasurer
John Kettle
Hm: 905-404-0405 Oshawa
Email : hjke@pteron.org
VP Programs
Len Clement
Web Admin
Sean Murphy
Presidential Assistant
Gary Moore
Logistics
C. Greaves & M. McCarthy
Programs
John Babister
Secretary
Helen Alves
Macintosh Users East [MaUsE]
eMail: mause@mac.com
208 Winona Avenue, Oshawa,
Ontario, L1G 3H5 Canada
MaUsE Message Line: 905-433-0777
Double Click
Double Click on the web at:
www.mause.ca
Double Click Editor
Michael Shaw
Hm: (905) 576-2097 Oshawa
Email:
michael_shaw@sympatico.ca
fat_idle_bastard@yahoo.ca
Small Print
What you are looking at is the latest edition of the Double Click
monthly newsletter from the Macintosh Users East, (MaUsE), a
motley collection of old and new Mac users who reside in Southern
Ontario with a motley collection of old and new Macintosh computers. What more do you need to know ? Oh, yes. This Newsletter
is created by Michael Shaw, Double Click Editor, on an antique
Macintosh clone, a 1997 Daystar Genesis MP 800+ running OSX
v10.2.6.
Submissions from MausE Club members, ‘though rarer than hens’
teeth, are always welcome. Send them to: michael_shaw@sympatico.ca. I have never refused a submission yet. There's always
room for another piece on ANY Mac-related topic and I’ll make
room if there isn’t. I would like your submissions. But I won’t beg.
Apple, Macintosh, and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple
Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. The
MaUsE (Macintosh Users East) is an independent user group and
has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by
Apple Computer, Inc.
The next meeting will be held at Faith
United Church on Nash Road in
Courtice Ontario,
at 7:30 on September 22th, 2004
DeLocalizer
I found a reference to this program on one of the Low End
Mac Lists for people with Apple
iBooks and PowerBooks. A new
user was complaining that he
got an iBook with a tiny 30-gig
hard drive and after installing
the system he only had about
20 gigs available for applications. A helpful subscriber wrote in and explained about how the new
Mac operating system was just a wee bit bloated
to make it usable for all Mac users, especially the
ones who needed exotic languages. I recall
watching my Jaguar install disks spending a lot of
time putting local Korean, Chinese and Finnish
files into my Mac and drivers for printers I’ll never
own. I just know I’ll never use them. I have no
idea yet how many files are involved or how much
hard drive space but if the amount of time the
installer spent inserting all of these foreign language files is any indication, it must be a huge
wad of data.
When you launch DeLocalizer it presents the window below, with a suggestion that you check the
boxes to select the languages and language files
that you do not intend to use. As you can see, I
want to wipe the resource files (localization packages) for all of the foreign languages except
French.
DeLocalizer will remove all non-American English
localization resource files that you request. This
application is geared towards American English
users, as it will not remove localization resources
for American English. Users that use other languages may still use DeLocalizer to remove languages that they do not use (except, of course,
American English).
Localization files provide the language support for
an application. All strings of text that an application uses are defined in a localization file. Mac OS
X also includes non-English localization files for
people who speak other languages. While this is a wonderful
technique for easily bringing applications to other languages, it can
use up more space than you may
be willing if you plan on using no
more than one language. While
Mac OS 10.1 allows the option to
not install localization files, some
inevitably exist on your drive.
DeLocalizer requires Mac OS
10.1.2 or greater with the BSD
subsystem installed. You may
choose to remove resources from
your startup disk only or all volumes currently mounted on your
system (probably won’t work for
network volumes). If you would
like to examine the Unix command
that is to be executed, you may
paste it into a text editor when you
are prompted for your administrator password
(that is when DeLocalizer copies it to the clipboard). To test out this program I used my old
Daystar Genesis MP 800+ and ran DeLocalizer
on a 7.5 Gigabyte partition with OSX v10.2.8
installed. The processor was a 800 MHz G4. I set
the preference for “StartUp Disk Only” because I
have lots of drives and volumes in the Genesis
and did not want it tied up for a long time.
The removal process takes about 15 minutes for
the startup disk alone, so if you are going to run
this program please be patient. Force-quitting the
application will not kill the process that is removing the files (the name of that process is “find”).
When the process is complete, a dialog box will
tell you how much space you saved on the startup disk. DeLocalizer only works on the boot disk
so if you have systems installed on more than one
disk or on more than one partition you will have to
restart your computer and run the DeLocalizer
program from each disk individually in order to
clean the foreign language files off it.
DeLocalizer was created entirely with AppleScript
Studio by a programmer named Mike Bombich.
He has made it available as a FREE download
from the internet with this caveat: While I am
entirely confident of DeLocalizer’s ability to
perform well without undesired data loss, you
are reminded that use of this software is at
your own risk without any warranty.
More information about this program is available
on the internet. This software is distributed as
freeware — you are free to download it and use it
as much as you want at no charge!
Total Training Offer
As I indicated in the June 23rd MaUsE Meeting
Report, there’s more to TOTAL TRAINING than
just what we saw at the meeting. Besides the CDs
and brochures they provided to the Club in
exchange for demonstrating their product line
they also donated to the club an amazing package consisting of seven DVDs comprising 26
hours of training videos for users of Adobe
Photoshop CS, the Creative Suite version of their
latest Photoshop release. This set of training
seven disks retails for $299.00 US (about
$460.00 Canadian) and it was offered to the club
by TOTAL TRAINING with the understanding that
it could be raffled off at a club meeting or used as
a club resource and circulated amongst the
membership.
There are so few members of the club who actually have the need of this unique and exclusive
training expertise and who actually have copies of
Photoshop CS and are running the right system
that it was deemed inappropriate to raffle the
DVDs to the membership. There was just too
great a chance that the DVDs would be won by
someone who would never use them or who
would never have a use for them and they would
be lost to the club. Like in many raffles open to the
public with one big non-exchangeable prize, isn’t
it always Grandma that wins the HarleyDavidson.
As MaUsE Resource Librarian I have taken on
the responsibility for keeping this set of DVDs
together and lending them out to members on a
first-come first-served basis. It is essential that
these DVDs be properly treated as a resource
belonging to all of us and not anyone's private
property to be lost, neglected, abused, lent out to
friends and relations, or split up so that one or
more DVDs gets lost or broken. The value of this
instruction course would be seriously diminished if one or more of
the DVDs were lost or damaged.
Contact: Michael at 905-576-2097
to get on the list to borrow these
DVDs.
ASANTE
FriendlyNET
Cable/DSL Router Laura is back off to university in Guelph in
September and will be out of residence
and sharing a house with a bunch of other
Responsible Young Adults. Like all modern
RYA types they will each have a bed, a
bookshelf and a computer. And they will all
need to connect to the internet and waste
precious hours and hours and hours gabbing and downloading songs and sending photos
to their adoring friends.
To make it possible for Laura and the other RYAs
to all share one ultra-fast internet connection without loss of speed I picked up an Asante FR3004C
FriendlyNET DSL Router. Back a few years ago
when high-speed internet service was relatively
rare and these things were new they were a LOT
of money, but now that many new networks have
gone strictly wireless you can pick one up used
for next to nothing. A search for this particular
router on eBay shows one listed for $15.00 that
got NO BIDS, another with an opening bid of
$3.99 that got NO BIDS and one listed for $0.99
that got ONE BID and
actually sold for ninetynine cents plus postage.
Postage is the killer for an
item like this: the one I
picked up,from a seller I
know on the Low End Mac
SWAP LIST was mailed
from New Jersey for an
actual cost of $14.85 US
in postage.
To use this the RYAs will
have to get an internet
account and a high-speed
modem from Sympatico,
Rogers, or some other
ISP down in Guelph and
run an ethernet cable from
the high-speed modem to
the WAN RJ-45 port on this Asante router. Then
they will use ethernet cables to connect their computers to the other RJ-45 ethernet ports on the
router and set their TCP/IP computers internet
preferences to connect via ethernet using DHCP.
All of the computers will see a fast connection to
the internet and each other.In case of an emergency, like if Rogers cable goes down, there is a
port where a regular dial-up modem can be
plugged into the Asante router and shared as
well. If they need more ports to connect more
computers to the system can be easily expanded
with a ethernet hub.
Built from the ground up to provide multiple levels
of security, the FriendlyNET
Cable/DSL
Router
is
designed around natural firewall that protects your local
computers from outside
intruders. The security-hardened FriendlyNET router is
the only IP network address
exposed to the outside elements. To guard against unauthorized removal or
theft, the sleek Asanté FriendlyStack case design
features special hooks (to attach security cables)
and four mounting holes (including two concealed
holes). These security features are ideal for
securing the router in hotels, schools and other
public areas where physical security is essential.
Unlike other Internet routers, the FriendlyNET
router was designed for maximum network performance at an affordable price. Start with the
integrated 2-port 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet
switch. When directly connecting two computers
in the same room, network traffic moves at up to
100 Mbps (200 Mbps in full duplex mode) - ideal
for backing up data from a notebook computer to
a desktop machine. As your network needs grow,
just add another FriendlyNET 10/100 switch or
hub to connect up to 253 users over standard
Fast Ethernet cabling. Running mission-critical
applications? Even if you’re just doing day-trading, you’ll never want to be off-line when your
broadband Internet connection is sluggish or
down. The FriendlyNET routers come with a builtin standard serial port to connect an
optional external v.90 56K modem - just
in case. The FriendlyNET router also
offers a cost-effective way to share a
color inkjet or laser printer. Instead of
dedicating a computer to act as a print
server, let the FriendlyNET router handle that for you. Now you have the freedom to share a parallel port printer
through a 10/100 Fast Ethernet network.
The FR3004LC model has a redundant
modem port so you can upgrade from a
v.90 56K analog modem and still keep it
as a back-up modem (when your broadband connection is not available). The
FR3004LC model also adds an integrat-
ed print server for sharing a printer with a parallel
port.
Router Features
Data Transfer Rate: 100 Mbps
Networking Standards: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet
Networking Features: IP-routing, DHCP support,
NAT support, VPN, Manageable, Print server
Transport Protocol: TCP/IP, PPTP, IPSec, PPPoE
Integrated Switch: 4-port switch
Switching Protocol: Ethernet
Status Indicators: Port status, Link activity,
Power, 100M device connected
Form Factor: External
General Product Info
Weight: 1.54 lbs
Dimension: 1.4 in x 8.5 in x (HxWxD)
Cost in 2004
About the price of a slice of pizza, PLUS postage.
Total Impact Total
Power MP
Waltzing through eBay looking for cheap and
cheerful PCI things to play with in my old Daystar
Genesis and 9600, I came across an item I’m
totally unfamiliar with, something I never new
existed. The green and red cards pictured here
are obviously a PCI cards designed to plug into
one of the PCI slots on a computer like the 7200
through 9600 series Macintosh, but all of those
Macs have the Apple 604e processor on a daughtercard and the 604e daugter card must be
removed if you replace it with a G3 or G4 upgrade
of any sort.
The Total Power Total Impact MP PCI processor
upgrade cards for PCI Macs cards pictured above
feature two DIMM slots and one to four G3
(green) or G4 (red) PowerPC processors, each
with 1 MB of backside cache. The Total Power
series is different from traditional upgrade cards
that plug into the daughtercard slot or ZIF socket
and replace the original processor. Instead, two or
four processors and two 168-pin SDRAM DIMM
slots are provided on a PCI card that augments
the slower more primitive 604e processor. The
logic behind designing a processor upgrade card
for the slower PCI bus rather than the relatively
faster processor direct slot escaped me until I
researched this weird card further. Computers like
mine have ONE PDS slot for a daughter card but
they have up to SIX PCI slots.
For additional speed, multiple cards
can be used together, effectively creating a “supercomputer” for applications
modified to take advantage of the
“Total Freedom” software libraries.
New pricing for G4 based systems:
2 X 400MHz G4 with 128MB of SDRAM:
2 X 500MHz G4 with 128MB of SDRAM:
4 X 400MHz G4 with 128MB of SDRAM:
4 X 466MHz G4 with 128MB of SDRAM:
4 X 500MHz G4 with 128MB of SDRAM:
$1600
$1900
$3100
$3600
$4200
Total Impact’s mPower solution offers either 4
PowerPC G3 (750) or 4 Power PC G4 (7400)
CPUs ranging from 366 to 500MHz on a single
PCI based board for integration into PCI based
computers. Up to 10 additional mPower PCI
boards can be utilized in Total Impact’s Power
Box enclosure via a high speed PCI card to the
host computer. Multiple Power Box enclosures
can also be configured together for highly intensive computations.
Unfortunately the red card sold for $200.00US so
I didn’t buy it.
Six PCI Slots
One PDS
Slot
512k Cache
Twelve
DIMM Slots
(1.5 Gig Total
RAM)
SCSI
Connectors
PDS Cards for Tsunami
Macs and Clones
Its a wonderful thing when a Mac user gets a new
Mac. Fortunately most of us, including me, are too
intimidated by brand-new still-under-warranty
computer equipment to tear it apart and put it
back together just to see how its made. Around
my house its a wonderful thing when we get any
kind of a Mac, whether it be a new Mac or an old
one. My desktop is constantly evolving and right
now the new old Mac I’m playing with the most is
the beautiful 9600/233 that I picked up last month
on eBay (see the July 2004 Double Click) for just
under $60.00US. I must say that it is very well
behaved and a pleasure to crack open and root
around in the guts of.
For those of you who do not delight in rooting
around in mature Macs, I will explain a few
basics: all of the 9600 models except the 300 and
350 Mhz models have a Tsunami motherboard
inside. The 9500 Macs have the same board, and
most of the tower model Mac Clones, like the
Apple 233 MHz 604e
Daystar and PowerTower, also have the same
board. Thats a picture of it above and as you can
see its a brute with maximum expansion capability. This motherboard went into computers that
shipped with one 2 or4-meg PCI video card and
16 or 32 megs of RAM but can accept up to six
PCI cards and a dozen 128-meg DIMMs for a
total of 1.5 Gigs of RAM. To make them even
more upgradable they were equipped with a PDS
slot with the 604e processor on it, a design idea
which made it possible to upgrade just the
processor as faster ones became available.
This 9600 came equipped with the 233 Mhz 604e
processor card when I bought it. In last month’s
Double Click I outlined the performance improvement I achieved by putting a basic cheap
NewerTech 300 MHz G3 card ($25.00 plus
postage on eBay) into it. The 9600/300 G3 still
runs the same applications and system software,
with OS8.6 and OS9.1, but it runs everything so
much faster. As you can see from the picture to
the right the NewerTech card physically resembles the Apple card except for the colour of the
heat-sink. Apple uses white aluminum heat-sinks.
NewerTech often colours theirs black. Sonnet
very often uses a distinctive bright purple.
Then I ran into an offer I could not refuse for a 450
MHz Sonnet G3 card for the 9600 so I arranged
to flog the NewerTech card for what I paid for it
and I picked up the Sonnet card. As you can see
from the picture at right, the Sonnet card is much
smaller than the NewerTech card. The
9600/233/512k 604e that became a 9600/300/1M
G3 has now become a 9600/450/1M G3 with the
final digits indicating a full 1 Meg of cache.
Sometimes you have to be careful when shopping
for PDS G3 processor upgrade cards as there are
usually two grades available for any given processor speed, depending on the size of the Level 2
cache built into the card. The cache on the
Tsunami motherboard is a set of four chips
totalling 512k. The size of this cache proved to be
a performance issue so the next generation of
boards had a full 1 Meg of cache. Many G3 cards
shipped with the smaller 512k cache as well so
watch out for the upgrade cards with the full 1
Meg of cache. They are faster at everything
than the cards with the smaller cache.
My Daystar Genesis MP 800+ computer has
the exact same motherboard as the 9600
but it shipped with a vastly different processor card and has got an even more different
one in it now. The original card was HUGE
and held four heatsinks and four 200 Mhz
604e processors but like the 9600/233 it
only had 512k of cache, a condition that
inhibited it from realizing its potential. Using
special multiple-processor technology and
software developed by Daystar and Apple
NewerTech 300 MHz G3
Sonnet 450 Mhz G3
during the Clone Wars of the late
90’s the Genesis MP computers
were the fastest personal computers in the world and hideously
expensive.
As you can see from the pictures
here, all of these cards serve the
same purpose and have the
same connector that fits in the
same PDS slot on the same
motherboard but they all look
very different. I replaced the
nPower card in my Genesis with
the 800 Mhz Sonnet G4 card pictured below and even though it
shipped with System 7.6 on it it
can now run OS8, OS9, and OSX
Jaguar.
Daystar Quad 604e vs. Apple 604e
Replacing the processor daughtercard in your
computer with a newer, faster, more powerful
model should not disrupt any of your normal procedures. There is often an extension to install or
control panel to configure to make sure that your
computer sees the new processor and there is a
little easy-to-find button beside the PDS that
should be pressed to clear the PRAM in the computer every time you replace the processor with
one of a different type. As more and more Mac
users move on to G4 and G5 models and abandon their PCI Macs the prices of these wonderful
machines will continue to plummet. Processor
upgrade cards are getting faster and cheaper
all the time and the cost of the used cards on
eBay just keeps on dropping.
800 MHz Sonnet G4
Eventually there will be G6 and G7 models
available from Apple and in another few years
you will probably start to see antique PowerPC
9600s and the early G3 CPUs at the Goodwill
if you shop there. Between now and then there
is still a lot of fun to be had for very little money
cracking open these and other middle-aged
Macintoshes to transplant youthful components that can restore them to a longer more
productive life.
9500 (Tsunami Board) With Card
RAGTIME solo
RagTime solo has now been made
available as an unbelievable gift for
everyone who wants or needs a fully
featured desktop publishing program
and doesn’t want to pony up big
bucks for Quark XPress, Microsoft
Office or InDesign. This program is
easy to use, easy to learn, uses all of
the Macintosh menu commands that
you already know, and will enable
even an avowed amateur user to
create professional-quality documents that look better than you
would have a right to expect even if
you’d spent hundreds of dollars for
this program. I will not differentiate
between Ragtime and RagTime solo because
in terms of functionality there really is no difference between the two programs.
RagTime is a desktop publishing program like
the best of them but with a few very big differences. One big difference is that Ragtime is
compatible with every operating system you
are likely to use, including Windows XP, NT,
ME, Windows 98 and Windows 2000, Macintosh
OS8, OS9, and OSX. Another big difference is
that RagTime has made their software available
as a FREE download called “RagTime solo” that
you can install on your computer, use as much as
you want and for as long as you want,
without paying a cent as long as you are
not making money with it. This is not a
light version or a “tryout” version with
Save disabled: this is a fully featured
completely functional copy of their software that you can use just like the commercial version as long as you are not
using it for business purposes. This is
ideal for students and other people who
need or want a really excellent crossplatform desktop publishing suite for an
activity club like ours and do not want to
spend a lot of money. Ragtime 5 is the
commercial product, Ragtime Solo is the
free version for home use that can be
downloaded from <http://ragtimeonline.com/>.
With RagTime you don’t create text or tables; you
create documents. The result of your work is
judged by the finished printed document. Reports,
price lists, analysis and sales materials are more
than simply text, spreadsheets and charts. It is
the combination of all the elements, which
transforms a text into a
report and a table into
an analysis that is ready
for a presentation. Up to
now, you probably haven’t
used layout programs, because
you couldn’t afford to do without
spreadsheet calculations or text processing. Now you can give your
work that final polish. With RagTime,
you have a single convenient layout
environment in which you can
process text, tables, drawings, pictures and graphs. The intuitive
user interface simplifies your
quick access to all of RagTime’s
functions.
RagTime spreadsheets have two faces: They
simplify your work whenever you have to clearly
divide a section of your page into rows and
columns. Plus, in RagTime, spreadsheet cells can
accommodate anything you can place on a normal page: pictures, charts, text, whatever. At the
same time, they’re still calculating tools featuring
sophisticated
mathematical
functions,
from simple sums to statistical evaluations, and
much more. And all of this is possible in layout
mode!
Naturally, you not only have settings for fonts,
paragraphs, lines and colors but also those necessary for kerning and a multitude of other useful
typographical adjustments. With RagTime, you
have access to an unlimited range of master
pages, which can of course be used in accordance with specific rules. An automatic table of
contents, an index and the management of footnotes with free markers round out the picture.
The Inventory Window
You probably have never seen this before but I
have. In an Inventory window, you have an organized overview of all the components and aids that
have been used in your document. (The Apple
Media Tool program uses an identical presentation method so you can keep track visually of all
of the images, files and clips you used to create
your multimedia AMT projects). However, this
Inventory window is not simply a passive list,
rather each object in it can be edited by simply
double-clicking on its
name in the list. Even
better: with Drag &
Drop
components
can be moved to or
from documents or to
the desktop or can
even be duplicated.
Naturally, you don’t
need this to quickly
write and print an
informal fax. However
as soon as you need
to maintain compliance with a set of
rules regarding format and to ensure
that the documents are organized and have a uniform appearance, you will quickly find the
Inventory list to be an indispensable aid.
System requirements
• Windows (minimal): 486-compatible instruction
set running Windows 95, 24 MB RAM, 30 MB
available disk space
• Windows (recommended): Pentium processor,
Windows 98 or higher, NT 4 SP3, 64 MB RAM, 75
MB available disk space
• Macintosh (minimal): Macintosh with Mac OS
8.1, 32 MB RAM, 30 MB available disk space
• Macintosh (recommended): Macintosh with Mac
OS 9 or higher, 64 MB RAM, 75 MB available disk
space
• Mac OS X: Power Macintosh with Mac OS X
version 10.2. Version 10.2.3 or later recommended. 120 MB free hard disk space for one language, about 55 MB for any additional language.
If you want to install the downloaded version of
RagTime, you have to add the size of the
downloaded file to the required hard disk space.
Features:
Seamless cooperation of all
components
• Drawing objects are at the same
time the containers for word processing, spreadsheets, pictures,
graphs and more.
• The components can be
edited directly on
the page or alternatively via a
separate window.
• The same functions work in
tables, text, graphs and buttons
• RagTime components - even drawings - can be
used in all shapes of frames and cells of a table
or flow with the text.
• Free rotation, scaling and skewing of all drawing
objects including their content
• Common style sheets for characters, paragraphs, lines and fillings are available in all components
• Consistent spell checker in all components
including text, spreadsheet, and graphs ...
Text
• Text flow in and around freely customizable
shapes
• Footnotes, table of contents, index and drop initials
• Gridlines, baseline grid, freely customizable
units and rulers
• Non printing text for comments and notes
• Small capitals, kerning and leading
• Number of columns can vary from paragraph to
paragraph
• A dictionary CD with hyphenation rules and dictionaries for other languages is available
Spreadsheet
• More than 200 functions, easy table layout, even
pictures can be put into cells
• Three dimensional table with 16,000 rows,
columns and layers, unlimited tables per document
• Linked cell areas, rotatable cell contents
• All typography settings available in cells
• Continuation of tables over any number of
pages with pipelines Graphs
• Gallery containing over 200 templates
• 2D and 3D graphs with illumination and
view point: line graphs , circle graphs,
XYZ- graphs, balloon graphs and polar
graphs as well as combinations types
• Dynamic link between
tables and graphs via
drag & drop Maps
•
Geo-insight
for
RagTime is a mapping
plug-in that allows you to
show your data on a
map.
• Definable fill style
sheets with linear and
radial patterns and colors for symbols
• Change colors, size, and location of symbols
from the data in your spreadsheet or database.
• Plot your data on graphs in the same document.
• Use pop-ups in RagTime to select demographic
data by zip code, county, state or any other
boundary map files.
• Import shape files to create your map Pictures
• Pictures can be cropped, scaled, rotated and
skewed.
• Direct scanning into RagTime via a Photoshop
plug-in or TWAIN
• Direct data transfer from digital cameras
• Supported file formats: JPEG, PNG, EPSF,
WMF, EMF, BMP, PICT, TIFF ( CMYK, LAB and
separated as well) with color profiles
• Clipping path in JPEG, TIFF and EPSF Drawing
• Many drawing tools, for Bezier curves as well
• Predefined filling style sheets with linear and
radial gradients
• Object coordinate palette for precise numerical
position information and transformation (rotation,
skewing, scaling)
• Interprets vector data in PICT files
• Detailed settings for PostScript line characteristics Intelligent templates
• Standardized stationery pads for reoccurring
tasks
• Flexible rules for automated page addition with
different subsequent pages
• Company wide uniform templates can be used
from a file server, possible on Windows and Mac
OS
Output
• onto local and network printers
• Color print to inkjet and laser printers
• Spot color and four color separation of RGB,
LAB
and CMYK for bit maps, text and vector elements
• Color management with more than 30 MB quality profiles complying to the ICC-standard
• EPS export of complete pages or an optional
selection,
preview: WMF, TIFF in Windows, PICT or TIFF in
Mac OS
• PDF export of complete pages or page sections
via Acrobat Distiller
Miscellaneous
• Identical file format under Windows and Mac OS
• Direct working in print preview
• Drag & drop to import files, assign formats etc.
• Layouts with master pages and pipelines
• Tear off palettes and menus
• Extensive information dialogue for all components
• Import/export for Word 6/97/98/2000, Excel 4/5/
97/98/2000, RTF, SYLK, DBF, XTND, JPEG,
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Our Trip to Macworld
Expo by Jim Foster
History
It has been my habit for the past several years to
try to attend the east coast version of Macworld
Conference & Expo. Macworld Expo events in
North America have evolved to the west coast
event held in San Francisco in early January and
an east coast event held in July. The location of
the east coast event was originally Boston, then
went to New York City for several years, and for
2004 was moved back to Boston.
The traditional "mode" in which I participated in
the east coast Macworld events was as part of a
group consisting of a half dozen or so members of
several Mac User Groups from southern Ontario.
Each summer, Richard Crispin of the Waterloo
MUG would seem to put his organizational skills
to the test and come up with enough people to
warrant the effort. We would generally corral a
vehicle suitable for whatever number of people
we had, and Richard would also organize some
place for us to stay in the host city, usually involving a LOT of people sleeping in one room. The
key to making this work at minimum cost was that
Richard could usually arrange for at least some of
our accommodation and meal expense to be
picked up by other parties. Those "other parties"
sometimes included Apple or outside contractors
working for Apple or other major Macworld
exhibitors, and the trade-off was that we would
volunteer to provide help with organizing their
promotional events. Since many of these events
were targeted at User Group Executives, and
would have been events that we would have paid
to attend anyway, this was an excellent way for us
to take in Macworld at a reasonable cost. Over
the years, it got so "the Canadians" were a welcome and expected team of volunteers at each
east coast Macworld.
In 2003, of course, I was unable to make it to the
last Macworld in New York City because I was
recuperating from surgery for colon cancer. As
Macworld 2004 approached, I was really hoping
to be able to attend in order to renew many
acquaintances with members of other Mac User
Groups from across North America, and indeed
the world, whom I had not seen for two years.
Planning the Trip
The 2004 edition of Macworld Expo east was to
take place in July, at the brand new Boston
Convention & Exhibition Center. The only fly in
the ointment was that, due to a falling out
between Apple Computer and IDG, the firm which
organizes the show each year, Apple had let it be
known that they would not be exhibiting or attending the event. The big unknown factor, then, was
just how successful this Macworld event could be
without Apple.
Planning for the event began, as usual, around
April with Richard sending out his usual email
probes to identify who was interested in attending. The initial responses were not optimistic.
Some of the folks elected to "pass" because of
the uncertainty associated with Apple's absence
from the show. Some others were interested but
indicated that, if they attended this year, they
would rather do so as part of a vacation trip to
Boston with their spouse instead of as part of a
"boy's night out" approach. Still others simply didn't think they would be able to attend due to cost
or other conflicts.
The early outlook, then, was that a few of the original crowd might be able to take in Macworld, but
certainly it did not look like the usual crowd of
"Canadian volunteers" would show up.
Fortunately, as the date of the event approached,
the outlook for some of the usual cast improved.
In the end, Richard Crispin was able to put
together three other folks to travel with him by car
(Van) in the form of his son Peter, Peter's friend
Joel, and Richard's friend Michael. Meanwhile,
Bruce Cameron and his wife Carol decided to
drive down and visit some friends outside of
Boston, allowing Bruce to make it into Macworld
for a couple of days, and my wife Susan and I
finally decided to make the trip by plane, use hotel
accommodations, and to add a few days before
and after Macworld in order to make it a real
vacation. Jack Seary, another MaUsE member,
was also making the trip but combining it with
other business rather than as a totally recreational activity.
Travel
I had quite a number of Aeroplan credits built up
and was therefore able to arrange for airfare for
Susan and I between Toronto and Boston and
back without having to actually buy tickets. When
you do this, you do still have to pay certain taxes
and fees, but obviously this was a nice cost saving overall.
For accommodations, I had hoped to be able to
stay at one of the newer hotels on the Macworld
hotel partner list. It was described as being located right "across the road" from the convention
center and on the Boston Harborfront. By the time
I called for reservations, though, the hotel was
booked up for Macworld. Not being too familiar
with Boston, and running out of time to try to forage for recommendations from local user group
members, I next tried the Sheraton Boston where
the User Group Leadership Conference and
Adobe events were being held. I was able to get
a room there for the full period of our stay in
Boston. The only problem was that it was not
cheap. It turns out the Sheraton Boston is kind of
like the Royal York in Toronto - pretty pricey but
also a darn nice place to stay. I crossed my fingers and hoped that the pricey accommodations
would help to make it a memorable vacation.
It turned out that I was not to be disappointed.
The original hotel I had tried to get was indeed
much closer to the Convention Center where the
show was being held, but it was entirely inconvenient to the many other sights and sounds of
Boston which we were able to enjoy within walking distance of the Sheraton. It also turns out that
both that original hotel and the convention center
itself are in a very industrial / commercial section
of Boston. Staying there would be akin to staying
in a Toronto hotel because it was located adjacent
to Pearson International Airport - handy if your
only concern is business but not the best for a
vacation.
The relatively high cost of the Sheraton Boston
was not without its perks. We had free continental breakfasts in the morning as well as free hors
d’oeuvres in the evening. There was broadband
Internet access in the room, for extra cost, as well
as free wireless access at the Starbucks café
located in the hotel lobby. The area where the free
breakfast and evening refreshments were served
also had a couple of PC’s set up with Internet
access. We also took advantage of the great outdoor swimming pool and took note of the well
equipped exercise facility.
This year's Boston Macworld Expo began on
Monday, July 12. Actually, Monday was reserved
for special "working sessions" which Macworld
attendees could sign up for at extra cost. The
Exhibit Hall and main Macworld events actually
opened on Tuesday, July 13th and ran through
Thursday, July 15th. The Apple User Group
Advisory Council, headed up by Chuck Joiner of
the Hershey, Pennsylvania, Mac User Group,
decided to organize a User Group Leadership
Conference for Monday, and Bruce Cameron and
I had registered to attend that event right at the
Sheraton Boston.
When Chuck heard that Richard and I were going
to be able to make it to the show after all, he
immediately solicited us to spend some time in
the User Group Booth on the Exhibit Hall floor to
promote User Groups and answer any questions
which show attendees might have about User
Groups. We were invited to focus our attention on
Canadian Macworld attendees, so Richard and I,
along with Bruce, did spend half of Tuesday meeting and greeting folks on the Exhibit Hall floor.
More on that later.
As part of making our trip to Boston a real vacation and not exclusively a computer show event,
Susan and I flew into Boston on Saturday, July
9th, and had tickets to fly back home to Toronto
on Sunday, July 18th.
We grabbed a cab from the Boston airport to the
Sheraton and were amazed to get a cabbie who
had a very good understanding of several
Canadian cities and Canadian politics. He claimed to have had Kim
Campbell in his cab recently, and
he was confident that "Paul Martin
will have to team up with those
NDP's in order to get some things
done in Parliament". It turns out that
some percentage of Boston cabbies are of Somali descent and in
turn often have relatives in Canada
or have lived in Canada. We found
other cabbies with similar knowledge of Canada.
Before dropping us off, our cabbie
pointed out some of the high end
shopping districts close to our hotel
but cautioned us, "Don't buy anything in this neighbourhood - the prices are too
high!" Of course, as soon as we had checked in,
we immediately went out for a walking tour of the
area, had lunch at a lovely outdoor cafe right in
the middle of the area which the cabbie had highlighted, and ended up paying close to $90.00 U.S.
for two bowls of clam chowder, two lobster rolls,
and one of my favourite beers!
Saturday night, Richard left us a message that he
was planning a drive to Cape Cod on Sunday and
would we like to come along? We got together
with him and Michael on Sunday and had a great
day driving out to Cape Cod, knocking back
another great seafood lunch along the way, and
checking out various other tourist attractions in
the area.
The User Group Leadership Conference
The Monday User Group Leadership Conference
was an afternoon event. Having participated in
these kinds of events in previous years, I
was pretty sure I knew that there would be
some "volunteer work" opportunities on
Monday morning. Susan and I hunted
around and found Chuck Joiner and his
team. Sure enough, each UGLC registrant
was to receive a complementary Adobe
"bag" full of promotional materials from all
the UGLC sponsor companies and these
bags needed to be stuffed and organized
in readiness for the Noon hour registration.
We pitched in to help with this task, all the
while renewing acquaintances with Chuck
and the several other User Group folks
who are part of the Apple User Group
Advisory Council. A few others of the "regulars"
also showed up to pitch in and get everything
ready for the conference.
Once Noon came, Susan departed to spend the
afternoon on her own (I think that was the Spa
afternoon, if memory serves me correct.) and I
reverted from volunteer status to active UGLC
registrant status. The UGLC basically consisted
of about ten conference sessions, each put on by
a member of a Mac User Group, and covering a
wide variety of topics of potential interest to other
User Group Executives or Members. For example, there were sessions devoted to MUG web
site design, making your web site easier to find
with search engines, how to attract youth to
MUG's, and how to add pizzazz to club newsletters. [Promoting MUG Web Site Seminar] There
were usually two different sessions happening at
any given time, so it was good that both Bruce
and myself represented MaUsE so we could each
attend different events if our interests varied.
Each participant at UGLC also received a DVD,
which features many of the UGLC sponsors
materials, and we have also been able to download audio files and presentation materials for all
the UGLC sessions from Chuck’s MUGCenter
web site.
Overall, UGLC was a great way to spend an afternoon, just in terms of the information gleaned. But
it was especially nice as a way to renew friendships with many other User Group folks whom I
had not seen in a long time.
Adobe Systems was the major sponsor of the
UGLC event, and as part of the conference all
attendees were also invited to an evening reception and product demonstration hosted by the
Adobe folks immediately following the UGLC
activities. Susan rejoined me for this event, and
both of us really enjoyed the reception food and
drink, as well as the product demos. There was
even a lot of humour in this event as Richard
Crispin was persuaded to dress up in a toga and
pointy cap, pretending to be the Statue of Liberty
for a lengthy
demo session
which
was
supposedly
taking place
in New York
City.
The highlight of the Adobe event was that everyone in attendance was given a copy of Adobe
InDesign CS, a software package with a value of
several hundred dollars U.S. I have turned one
copy over to our Double Click Editor, Michael
Shaw, who assures me that D-C will be making
the conversion to InDesign, and we will have the
other copy available for use as a raffle prize at
some upcoming meeting.
Macworld Expo - the People
At the risk of repeating myself, I would say that
my main incentive for making the trek to
Macworld Expo each year was to renew acquaintances with a lot of people whom I just plain enjoy
being with but with whom I also feel a kind of kinship because of our mutual interest in finding
ways to make our own User Groups more enjoyable for all our members as well as ourselves. In
prior years, there is no doubt that a secondary
attraction was to see how much "free stuff" we
could lug home for ourselves or to benefit the
club. This year's event was quite different than all
prior Macworld's, and I fully expected that it would
not produce the same quantity of "free stuff". But
it was a LOT of fun in terms of getting back
together face to face with many people with whom
I have only had an electronic relationship for the
past two years.
The afternoon spent staffing the User Group
Booth on the Exhibit Floor was also an opportunity to meet other Canadians at the show. We
learned lots of good lessons which will help us do
an even better job at the booth next year, and had
a lot of fun handing out some CD’s we had made
which listed and had content from all the User
Groups in Canada. We even
handed out some $2 Tim
Horton’s Gift Certificates to help
make this a truly Canadian
experience.
Macworld Expo - the Show
It is a fact that the absence of
Apple from the Macworld Exhibit
Floor had a domino effect, which
resulted in many other major
Mac vendors also electing to be
no shows. A typical east coast
Macworld in prior years took at least one full day
to fully take in all the booths and exhibits on the
exhibit floor. This year's Boston event was much
smaller and you could probably have done the
tour in two hours or less.
Another thing that happened as a result of Apple’s
absence was that this year's Macworld had far
fewer new product announcements, even from
those firms who did participate. New product
announcements associated with Macworld
Expo’s have the effect of putting Macworld on the
map for those thousands of Mac users who are
not attending the show. They also tend to result in
raising the media spotlight on the show in ways
that go beyond the immediate Press Releases.
Because of the relative scarcity of new product
announcement press releases associated with
this year's event, Mac users who were not there
could be excused for not even being aware that it
was happening!
But all of this had been well anticipated by the
show organizers from IDG, and they had taken
many steps to ensure that the focus of this year's
event would be squarely on those people who
DID elect to attend. For example, there was a
much greater emphasis placed on the
Conference Sessions, which are opportunities
which attendees can exercise to attend extra cost
training and information sessions at all sorts of
experience levels. There were also a far greater
number of "events" held on the show floor and
therefore available to the basic exhibit hall pass
attendees at no extra charge. IDG even organized an evening Mardi Gras theme party available
only to Macworld attendees, albeit for the very
reasonable charge of
$20.00 U.S. per person.
Macworld Expo Highlights
Since Apple was not
participating in the
show, there was no
usual
Keynote
Address. In its place,
the
organizers
scheduled a panel
presentation hosted by noted writer and TV personality David Pogue and featuring several of the
men who had participated in the original
Macintosh design team. One of these people is
Bill Atkinson, whose actual claim to Mac fame is
that he "invented" HyperCard. This was many
years ago, and Bill has now turned his attention to
an original love of photography. His latest product
is a "coffee table" book featuring fantastic photos
of various rock formations. He took the opportunity to do a book-signing event after this presentation, so Susan got to have her picture taken with
Bill as he signed her copy!
One of the highlights of the Exhibit Floor was the
booth featuring PhoneValet, a software application that allows you to incorporate your local
phone line or lines into your Digital Hub. Many
people were impressed with the features that
have been incorporated into the latest version of
this package.
There were lots of other entertaining things to see
on the Exhibit Floor, albeit many which would
have a fairly narrow niche of potential customers.
After all, how many of us NEED a device that can
duplicate and label CD's and DVD's all for a very
reasonable price of $1,500 to $3,000 U.S.?
The User Group Lounge is another feature of
most Macworld Expo's. While open to any
Macworld attendees, only User Group members
often know the very existence of the User Group
Lounge. The Lounge at Boston was by far the
largest and most luxurious that I have experienced. The chairs in the Lounge, actually
throughout the Convention Center session
rooms, appear to be from the same manufacturer
(Herman Miller) who makes the Aeron computer
chair that costs around $1,000 Cdn., and it
seemed that everyone was raving about how
comfortable they were. The only bad side to the
Lounge was that it was located a very long walk
away from the exhibit floor.
Macworld Expo - Boston
Our plan to make our trip to Boston a real vacation turned out to be a great idea. Beyond attending Macworld, Susan and I had a wonderful time.
It was my first real trip since getting sick and it
really hit the spot!
A number of presentations were scheduled to
take place in the User Group Lounge, featuring
many luminaries from the Mac world like Adam
Engst who produces the TidBITS newsletter and
Andy Ihnatko who writes for various Mac periodicals. These sessions were again free for anyone
attending the show. On the final day of the show,
there was even a session at the Lounge where
we got to provide our feedback on the event to the
top three executives of IDG, the show organizers.
This turned out to be a very productive session,
where one of the best suggestions they indicated
they got was to next year provide all User Groups
with a "kit" which would allow us to do a 15 minute
presentation about the show to our club members, thus hopefully encouraging even more Mac
users to attend next year's event.
By all means we recommend that people
visiting Boston for the first time take the
Duck Tour. This is a tour of the city and
harbour so named because participants
travel in ex-WWII landing craft that can
travel on land like a truck or travel in water
like a boat. The tour guides use a lot of
humour to make the trip fun but also pass
along tons of useful information which
helps you to decide what areas of the city
to investigate further later on in your visit.
I am sure that Boston restaurants offer all
types of food, but frankly Susan and I had
a hard time turning down the opportunity to
partake of seafood at almost every oppor-
We caught a free Shakespeare play in the Boston
Commons one night and another night we were
treated to a symphony orchestra playing in another part of this public park. We were a little disappointed to learn that the Boston Pops orchestra
shuts down for the summer, their final event being
the big July 4th outdoor event by the Charles
River. Maybe next year we will head to Boston
even earlier!!
tunity. A travel agent relative of ours had recommended both Jimmie's Restaurant and the
Legal Sea Foods restaurants and we can attest
that both will serve you up a terrific seafood
dinner while emptying your wallet.
The Boston Aquarium was very nice and we
would recommend it to you only with the proviso that you try to visit it on a weekday. We went
on the weekend and it was very, very crowded.
At one point, Susan said, "The thing I love about
Boston is that so many things here are for the
people. They don't charge for these things, and
you see everyone enjoying them regardless of
their origins or financial status." While I would
have to agree with her on this, I also have to say
that I have never seen such a proliferation of
Mercedes-Benz automobiles as in Boston. Me
thinks it's a great place to visit but don't expect to
move here until you win a lottery!
Macworld Expo - Summary
We had a terrific time in Boston, and I would certainly recommend that you consider visiting
Boston for next year's event.
While Susan and I took the financial high road by
staying at one of the most expensive hotels in
Boston, Richard and his crowd were able to use
their university contacts to find a college dorm
where they stayed for only $12.00 U.S. per night.
Somewhere in between these two extremes will
likely be our objective in future.
There is also a HUGE wading pool located in the
public park. It meanders through the park, is
never more than about six inches deep, and has
lifeguards posted about every 100 feet down each
side. It is hugely funny to watch these guards
repeatedly and earnestly shouting out "No running!" commands to the hoards of little kids cooling off from a hot summer sun, many of whom are
too little to understand what all the shouting is
about.
If you can only make it for the three or four days
of Macworld itself, be sure to consider signing up
for whatever of the Conference Sessions are
most attractive to you and your budget, since it is
likely that the Exhibit Floor will not grow hugely
from what it was this year. Investigate the activities that are available to Mac User Group members, and call on those of us with experience to
provide suggestions to you.
My personal recommendation, though, is to combine a trip to Macworld Conference & Expo with a few
days of vacation in Boston and surrounding area. If you have no automobile, there are tons of attractions to which you can walk or use the excellent public transit system from your hotel. If you do have
an automobile, then you have the option of extending your tourist activities to sites outside Boston
proper.
I am sure Susan and I
will be able to make
many more trips back
to Boston before we
feel there is nothing left
to see.