Univers Mac Interactif 53/Univers Mac Interactif - Issue 53.iso/JOURNAUX/mac-chat-080-to-091/mac-chat-081-etx.txt

Internet Message Format | 1995-10-01 | 27KB

Date: Wed, 12 Jul 95 11:04 PDT
From: [e-mail] (Tony Lindsey)
Subject: Mac*Chat#081/12-Jul-95

Mac*Chat#081/12-Jul-95
======================

Welcome to Mac*Chat, the free, weekly electronic newsletter biased
   toward Mac users who are production-oriented professionals.  Other
   Mac users may find many, many items of interest as well.  I'd enjoy
   hearing your feedback and suggestions.  Unfortunately, due to the
   massive numbers of messages I get every day, I can't guarantee
  a personal reply.

  Tony Lindsey, <[e-mail]>.
  http://www.cts.com/browse/xxltony

See the end of this file for legalisms and info on how to subscribe.

Any [comments in brackets] are by Tony Lindsey.

Topics:
Highlights Of This Issue
It's Great To Be Back!
Advertising In Mac*Chat - Tell Me Your Views
Inexpensive MO Disk Update
So, How's "Money On The Internet" Doing?
Web Sites Of Note
Searching & Indexing
Publish & Subscribe Tips
Eudora 2.1's Filtering Capability
Legalisms
Free Subscriptions To This Newsletter

Highlights Of This Issue
------------------------
  I talk about my vacation, I mention a free program with wide use and
  questionable morals, I open the discussion about advertising in
  Mac*Chat, we track down inexpensive magneto-optical disks, I ask
  about online cash-transfer methods, I pass along a few nice
  Mac-oriented Web sites, one reader explains why the next Mac
  operating system will make On Location obsolete, we cover Publish
  & Subscribe Tips to the point of overkill, and Eudora 2.1's
  filtering capabilities are explained.

It's Great To Be Back!
----------------------
  By Tony Lindsey <[e-mail]>

  I've had very, very pleasant vacation, yet I've missed
  corresponding with all of my wonderful friends in Mac*ChatLand.

  Palm Springs was very nice, though 116 degrees Fahrenheit (46.6
  Celsius) was a bit much, even for a desert boy like me.  I also
  enjoyed a very nice pool party for July 4th.  The rest of the
  time I spent working on our house - digging up stumps, training
  our new Border Collie, and working on my body-shape.  In the last
  three years, I've intentionally gone from a 47-inch waist down to
  a 36.  Most of that change has been in the last year, and many of
  my long-term friends don't recognize me at first!  I'll have to
  post some new images soon on the Web page.

  I've spent a lot of time thinking about Mac*Chat and the
  directions I'd like to take it.  Expect to see some risks taken
  as time goes by - I'm still working on the details, and will make
  announcements as things develop.  I've also begun to correspond
  with a loose affiliation of my content-provider peers.  Mac*Chat
  is currently #11 of all electronic newsletters on earth, and I
  find I'm in need of friendly advice at times.

  So - I've been out of the loop - Somebody send me some good
  gossip!  I want to know all about the BEST new goodies,
  techniques, tips or locations.

Advertising In Mac*Chat - Tell Me Your Views
--------------------------------------------
  By Tony Lindsey <[e-mail]>

  I'm going through a period of internal debate, and I need your
  feedback.

  Back in October, when I started getting massive amounts of new
  Mac*Chat subscribers through my new-found ability to post on the
  comp.sys.mac.digest newsgroup, I had the stubborn idea that I
  would never, ever sully my newsletter with advertising.  I
  justified it with the idea that I wanted to write editorials that
  would scorn certain products and bless others.  I saw Mac*Chat as
  an opinion page, and back then, each issue was nearly 100%
  written by me.  That's no longer the case.  Mac*Chat is evolving
  nearly every week.

  Looking at NewtNews and TidBITs (both of which are sponsored by
  advertisers), I don't see any loss of editorial vision and
  integrity.  If anything, both publications are booming along
  nicely with no negative press at ALL.

  So - Am I tilting at windmills when I declare that I can't allow
  advertising in my territory?  I can think of several fine
  businesses that I would have no qualms about adding to Mac*Chat,
  provided that we reach an understanding of sorts.  What should
  those understandings be?

  I'd like your ideas on how everybody can win here.

  - I want to ship Mac*Chats that can be trusted.  I want people to
  know EXACTLY what they are getting (or not getting).  There are
  enough hidden agendas on the Internet, and I don't want to be a
  part of that.

  - I'd like to be able to afford to provide new ways for my
  readers to get value from Mac*Chat, such as a searchable index
  and many more new features as they come out. Maybe even a Web
  server of my very own.

  - I want to keep shipping fresh new Mac*Chat's every week (when
  I'm not on vacation), with extra value and no concomitant
  editor-burnout.

  - I want to be able to start paying staff, like other
  large-subscriber e-magazines.  So far, all my help has been
  volunteer-based, but Mac*Chat has reached a growth-point that is
  making this difficult.

  - I'd like the freedom to try out even more changes in the
  newsletter.  I'm aware of some radically-new publishing options
  will open up in the next year or so, and I'd like to afford to
  try them.

  I think the main change in the newsletter is that it has gone
  from being a "podium for Tony's opinions" to a "magazine" format.
  I get articles, opinions and questions from the world.  I pick
  the ones that will best-serve the readers according to my own
  editorial bias. I write new material, and then I make sure it all
  fits within the self-imposed size constraints.

  Advertisers (carefully chosen) can help the process, if we do it
  right.

  -----

  Mac*Chat, TidBITs and NewtNews (just to name a tiny fraction of
  the e-magazines out there) are not a passing fancy.  The global
  public is embracing our newsletters.  Mac*Chat's subscribership
  goes up-up-up every single week.

  Collectively, we are inventing a new forum for special-interest
  communications, and our success is not accidental.

  There are many, many new e-magazines starting up.  Many of them
  are mentioned at

http://www.tile.net/tile/listserv/index.html

  I'm certain there will be a shakeout at some point.  I'm willing
  to adapt if it means that Mac*Chat can be one of the long-term
  successes.

Inexpensive MO Disk Update
--------------------------
  By Tony Lindsey <[e-mail]>

  A few issues ago, we mentioned that Memory Merchants sells boxes
  of ten 230-megabyte Kyocera-brand magneto-optical disks for
  US$219.90 (a REALLY good deal).  These have a lifetime warranty.
  Somehow we neglected to mention the contact information: Memory
  Merchants, 1-800-799-3475/415-594-9173.

So, How's "Money On The Internet" Doing?
----------------------------------------
  By Tony Lindsey <[e-mail]>

  There is a frantic rush going on at the moment.  People
  affiliated with Visa & Mastercard, Microsoft, and many, many
  others are frantically setting up methods to safely transfer
  funds over the Internet.  So far, most of them are experimental,
  but some are further along than others.

  I'd like to hear from folks who have a direct, user's-level
  experience with ecash, First Virtual, DigiCash, etc.  Send me a
  few paragraphs telling me whether we've arrived yet - I want to
  know about usefulness, safety, and the human factor.  No
  flackery, please!

Web Sites Of Note
-----------------
  I have been getting a lot of these alerts, and I thought I'd
  gather them together for one issue.  I haven't

  By "Joseph O. Holmes" <[e-mail]>

  My apologies for the canned text!

  The Mac Street Price Index (MSPI) is a comprehensive listing on
  the World Wide Web of the lowest advertised prices on new
  Apple-brand hardware. We update the MSPI every two weeks, and
  more often when major price changes occur or new hardware is
  released. The advertised prices for Apple's new Power Macintosh
  9500 and color LaserWriters, for example, were available on our
  World Wide Web site within hours of the products' official roll
  out at PC Expo.

  We can be accessed at

http://www.interport.net/~joholmes/street_price.html.

  The Mac Street Price Index shows the lowest advertised selling
  prices on all currently-offered Macintosh desktop and PowerBook
  CPUs, as well as Apple-brand monitors, keyboards, and printers,
  drawn from three sources: authorized walk-in dealers, authorized
  national mail-order catalogs such as MacWarehouse, and
  non-authorized "gray market" sellers. In addition to listing
  prices, we also notes recent trends and changes in prices and
  product availability. The MSPI is a reference tool, however, so
  we do not list any dealers or contact information.

  [I became suspicious and asked him what his "angle" was - He told
  me he started doing it because it suited him.  He doesn't make
  any money off of it, though I think he ought to.]

  ---------

  By [e-mail] (Robert Hook)

  G'day! What is shaping up to be THE Mac oriented web site is
  under construction at:

http://www.ozemail.com.au/~pkortge/mac/mum.html

  (By the way 'mum' is Mac Users Mecca - not Peter Kortge's Mother!)

  An initiative by Queensland, Australia's, prime Apple Users Group
  - Apple Q Inc. - in collaboration with one of Australia's largest
  ISPs has led to the creation of Mac Users Mecca. The intention of
  Oz-Email and Apple Q is to make this site the first place to the
  visit for any Mac or Apple users.

  The creators of the site, Peter Kortge and Dale Rodgie, are
  actively searching out and evaluating every Mac or Apple site
  available, and organising them under this site with an intuitive
  and colorful layout.

  It lists Name, Address, Phone & Fax Numbers etc - (and Internet
  address if available) for every Macintosh Dealer in Australia
  (soon to include all South Pacific Resellers as well),  most
  large Australian Hardware, Software & Distribution companies and
  all known Australian Macintosh User Groups (as well as major US
  ones and some from other countries). Also included are Mac
  related WWW sites worldwide, most Macintosh ftp sites worldwide,
  Mac Internet Software descriptions / locations, Mac mailing lists
  and Mac Newsgroups etc etc.

Searching & Indexing
--------------------
  By Lee Fyock <[e-mail]>

  In the 6/20 MacChat, you have an article on "ON Location."  I
  used to use it  quite a bit, and agree with everything that Jim
  Bonner said.  However, he  didn't mention that ON Technology
  hasn't upgraded ON Location in at least  three years, and that
  they have no intention of doing so.

  Also, Copland will include indexing and very fast searches, much
  like ON  Location, but better in some ways.  Part of the new
  Copland Finder interface will be a much-enhanced Find  utility.
  The Find will be built into the Finder, rather than being a
  separate application as it is in 7.5, so that the "found" files
  will be in  regular Finder windows.

  A "find set" is a set of criteria for performing a search, such
  as "find all  files on my boot disk that have the word 'native'
  in the title".  These find sets can be saved, so that
  commonly-performed searches can be re-run with just a
  double-click.  Doing so brings up the "viewer" for the find set,
  which displays the result of the search.  Viewers are completely
  live, so  that creating a new file with "native" in the name
  would cause the viewer to add that file within seconds to the
  list of found files.

  One use for a viewer that was demonstrated at the '95 World Wide
  Developer's Conference was to make a  backup viewer that searched
  for "all files modified after 6/21".  Once the  search had
  completed, the user or a script would copy the results to a
  backup floppy or drive.

  System 7.5's Find File utility has the ability to search for text
  in the contents of files, if the user option-clicks on the
  criteria popup menu.  Copland's find goes one better by
  pre-indexing the contents of files, a la ON Location.  This makes
  searches for text inside of documents extremely fast, since only
  an index is searched, not the actual documents themselves.

  Searches are performed very quickly in general, since the Copland
  file manager is native PPC code.  Also, search processes are
  threaded, so users will be able to perform many searches
  simultaneously.

Publish & Subscribe Tips
------------------------
  [A few issues ago, I asked if Publish & Subscribe were of any use
  at all, since I had never met anybody who used them.  Here are
  some well-thought-out replies.  I'm re-posting rather a lot more
  replies than I normally do, hoping that the ideas will "click"
  with many more  people out there.]

  By [e-mail] (Christian Doenges)

  I use publish & subscribe on a regular basis for two things
  mainly:

  1)  When using spreadsheets, I often publish the results of a
  monthly report and subscribe it in a yearly report.  This way, as
  my monthly data changes, the yearly data is updated automatically.

  2)  When working on documents with several contributors on our
  in-house-LAN we create one document which contains all the parts
  done by different people as subscribers.  When somebody makes a
  change, the whole document is updated automatically.

  I do have one gripe, however:  I would like to be able to edit
  subscribed material.  The way I imagine it, double-clicking on
  the subscribed data would open the application that created it
  and let me make (local) changes.  That does sound somewhat like
  what OpenDoc promises for the day after tomorrow :)

  ---------

  By [e-mail] (Greg)

  Too much trouble and takes up extra disk space. One has to
  publish, then subscribe and keep track of changes if one renames
  etc. etc.

  FrameMaker has "import by reference" which accomplishes some of
  the Publish and Subscribe and is about as complicated as I want
  to get. Unfortunately only a few formats are supported (PICT, eps
  and text, more or less). And the whole document is imported,
  unlike selected parts possible with P&S, But then one has to keep
  track of which parts are Published in P&S. By it's name "import
  by reference" one can infer that the imported document isn't
  added to the existing document, only imported for viewing and
  printing--only the reference is saved.

  I've never run into any one using P&S, although it's not
  something I bring up with friends or at parties. I would imagine
  in a very structured environment P&S could be useful, but many
  people don't trust P&S type things. Whatever is printing or
  shown, they want with the document, so it will be there next
  time. In a networked office environment with other people using
  your computer, finding a file is tough enough without having to
  have links to worry about.

  --------

  By James Nunn <[e-mail]>

  I have a very good (and time saving) use for Publish & Subscribe!

  I record detailed expenditure details into a fairly large
  workbook (Excel) [worksheet 1].  Details within this workbook,
  are linked to another worksheet [worksheet 2] which provides a
  summary of the expenditure outlined (eg. Computer expenditure,
  Incidental Expenditure).  This worksheet has the various parts of
  it "published" and saved onto a file server.

  Next the word document [document 1] comes along which outlines
  the monthly expenditure for the office in a detailed written
  report.  In the relevant parts of the report I have subscribed to
  the published material and inserted the relevant parts from
  worksheet 2. Why not just paste a link, I hear you ask?

  The same data contained in worksheet 2, is also subscribed by the
  Systems area for their report on computer and related
  expenditure, it is also subscribed by the Training area for their
  report and related expenditure.

  Each month when I have updated the monthly expenditure and save
  worksheet 2, which in effect re-publishes the information, each
  area opens their word document and updates their document, which
  they then write updated information in their report.

  All areas use the same figures, and the amount of paper that is
  being passed around the office has substantially reduced!

  As time goes by, and I find the time, other reports (eg
  statistics, other financial reports) will receive the same
  treatment.  A real time saver!!!

  --------

  By M Raghuraman <[e-mail]>

  What do I use it for? Mainly to import (scientific) graphs into
  Canvas.

  What I (and a few other people where I work) do is to make graphs
  in programs like KaleidaGraph or SigmaPlot, then transfer the
  graph to Canvas and add other graphics/text to make slides or
  figures for publication. We find that if we've done any kind of
  curve-fitting on the graphs, we can't get a smooth printout of
  the curve fits if we copy/paste the graphs into Canvas (or any
  other drawing program)--the curves look like wiggly lines on the
  printout.  We get similar results if we Export as PICT files from
  the graphing program and import the PICT file into Canvas.

  In SigmaPlot, exporting the graph as an EPS file and importing it
  into Canvas gives good results.  However, SigmaPlot is such a
  dreadful program, we avoid it when possible.  So what we've
  settled on is to use KaleidaGraph to make the graphs, then use
  Publish and Subscribe (Publishing as PostScript) to get the
  graphs into Canvas.  That works beautifully, and has the added
  advantage that if we want to add more curves or data points or
  whatever at a later time, updating the Canvas file is a snap.

  Two unrelated items:

  - You'd talked about optimizing hard drives/unfragmenting files
  in a recent issue.  A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasant
  experience of running Apple's Disk First Aid followed by MacTools
  Optimizer (or whatever it's called) on a Mac IIci at work.  It
  started off with 50 Mb free space; after the process it
  miraculously had 97 Mb of free space!  Unfortunately, I didn't
  check the drive after running Disk First Aid (which did report
  some problems and did some repairs), so I don't know whether it
  was DFA or MacTools that recovered all that space.

  - I just installed a great piece of shareware (freeware,
  actually) on my Mac--it's called TitlePop, and it's by Jouko
  Pakkanen.  It's a system extension that adds a popup menu to
  window titlebars.  The menu lists the current app's windows
  (including folders open in the Finder) and all other running
  apps, with _their_ windows in submenus, so navigation between
  particular windows in different apps is easy.  (So far, I haven't
  had any conflicts with anything, and I do have other navigation
  tools--such as PopUpFolder--installed.)  I hope Apple adopts this
  piece of software--it's such an easy way of navigating windows,
  unified across apps.  (I know there's other software that'll do
  similar things, but for some reason I find this one particularly
  elegant. And the price can't be beaten!) Oh, yes--I got TitlePop
  from the Info-Mac archives.

  info-mac/gui/title-pop-23.hqx

  --------

  By [e-mail] (Mark J. Lilback)

  I've found some great uses for Publish and Subscribe. Here's one
  of my better/more popular ones.

  I've set up a set of Filemaker databases for tracking magazine
  sales through newsstands and newsstand distributors. The
  databases are pretty complex, and very heavily scripted. There is
  one layout with about 30 buttons for various reports that can be
  generated. This is where publish and subscribe come in.

  When a report button is clicked, Filemaker exports the data as an
  edition.  Excel is then launched through apple events, and then
  opens a graph/chart that subscribes to the files exported by
  Filemaker.

  I found this process to be much faster than having Excel
  re-import the data every time an updated graph or chart was
  wanted. For up-to-date graphs, all the user has to do is have
  Excel check to make sure the data is current. Most of the places
  I've sold it to have very low-end machines, and Excel is a real
  processor hog. This solution lets them get the nice graphs Excel
  allows, while getting faster processing/data entry as all the
  real work is done in Filemaker.

  --------

  By [e-mail]

  I use the publish and subscribe feature pretty often with Quark
  Xpress when I know that I will be updating graphics a lot.

  Basically, I set up my file in Quark the way I want and
  double-click (in the hand tool) the appropriate graphic box(s)
  that I want to auto-update. When the P+S box pops up, I then
  click the 'automatic update' feature, and then whenever I make
  changes, the graphic auto-updates. This is especially nice in
  Quark, since if a bunch of files have been updated when you want
  to print or collect for output, you might spend 15+ minutes
  finding updated/missing files and then waiting for those crazy
  files to update in Quark's 'picture usage' box.

  Another nice feature about P+S is that if I want to change a
  file, I can double-click the appropriate graphic box(s) and when
  the P+S box pops up, I can then click the button labeled 'open
  publisher' which then brings the file up in the appropriate
  application (like Illustrator or Photoshop). This allows me to
  edit the file, save it, and it then automatically updates in the
  picture window (if I have selected  the auto-update function)
  saving me the trouble of opening the software and finding the
  appropriate file. I find that it is really useful for me, and I
  use it all the time.

  --------

  By [e-mail] (Ryan Soulier)

  I work as a Data Analyst for a research firm.  I produce hundreds
  of charts from DeltaGraph 3.1.  I also typset numerous reports,
  and produce slides for presentations.  I love publish and
  subscribe.

  My boss is kind of picky about seeing everything just like he
  likes it.  I use publish and subscribe to place my Deltagraph
  charts into Word 5.1.  It works great.  Then if there is a
  mislabeled axis, I don't have to refind the file that produced it
  (it's usually with the experiment data, not the report), export
  it, re-import it.  All I do is select subscribe options, and open
  original.  It finds the publisher for me, and allows quick
  changes.

  It also works great for my slides.  I may produce a color chart
  for a slide, then after I get it in Powerpoint, I may not like
  the colors I used with my slide background.  Just open original
  (probably the same file I used for the report) and voila! Change
  completed.

  I look forward to OpenDoc and hope it works this easy.

Eudora 2.1's Filtering Capability
---------------------------------

   [I recently mentioned that I manually transferred my zillions of
   e-mail messages into appropriate folders as soon as I received
   them, using Eudora 2.03.  Many folks have urged me to upgrade to
   version 2.1.]

   By [e-mail] (Scott Peterson)

  I use filtering as the most persuasive argument for moving to
  commercial Eudora.

  A neat feature missing from the freeware Eudora is Filtering.
  With filtering, you can automate the sorting of Mail messages by
  auto-transferring mail to specific mailboxes, assign labels to
  certain mails and raising/lowering the priority of the mail, or
  even changing the subject of the e-mail

  (I think filtering works on 2.0.x, but I am sure about 2.1.x). To
  create a new filter, select Filters from the Window menu, click
  on 'New'. Give it a descriptive name. The right side of the
  window will become active. The first line is a set of three
  check-boxes: Incoming, Outgoing & Manual. Select the type of
  message you want to filter (You can select more than one). The
  next field is 'Header:' and presents a pull-down list of:
  To:,From:,Subject:,Cc:,Reply-To:,<<Any Header>>,<<Body>>. Any
  header will search all of the headers for a match, Body will
  search the body for a match.

  Suppose you want to create filter based on subject, so select
  subject. The next field is where you match the header. The
  default is 'contains', other choices are: 'doesn't contain',
  'is', 'is not', 'starts with', 'ends with', 'appears', 'does not
  appear', & 'intersects nickname'. The last three are a bit
  confusing, the rest are self-explanatory. If a message does (or
  does not) contain the header, then the 'appears' or 'does not
  appear' filter will be activated. 'intersects nickname' is a
  fancy way of saying that filter will activate if any of the
  headers contain the nickname specified in the field. You can also
  create a conjunction filter using the next field. The default is
  'ignore', but you can also choose 'and', 'or', or 'unless', and
  specify another text string to be checked for match.

  So what happens if there is a match? You can specify a new
  subject in the 'Make Subject' field, change the label of the
  message (default is none. You can change the label colors and
  names through the Labels control panel). Use the next two radio
  buttons to either raise or lower the priority of the messages.
  And here's my favorite: Click on the big button labeled 'Transfer
  to:' and select a mailbox from the transfer menu (Create on if
  necessary to go with the filter). In my case, I have a Mailbox
  named Mac*Chat. The filter is: Incoming, Header: From:,Contains
  Mac*Chat, Transfer to: Mac*Chat. For lot of other stuff that I
  don't want to read but that gets to me anyway, I transfer them to
  Trash.

Legalisms
---------

Copyright 1989-1995 Tony Lindsey. Nonprofit groups (such as Mac
   User Groups) or other non-commercial publications) are welcome
   to use any part of the Mac*Chat newsletters if full credit is
   given.  All others will need to contact me.

This newsletter is intended purely as entertainment and free
   information.  No profit has been made from any of these
   opinions.  Time passes, so accuracy may diminish.

Publication, product, and company names may be registered
   trademarks of their companies.

 This file is formatted as setext, which can be read on any text reader.

Tips from readers are gratefully accepted.  Please write them in a
   user-friendly way, and if you are mentioning an Internet site,
   please include a paragraph explaining why others should visit it.

Free Subscriptions To This Newsletter
-------------------------------------
You may subscribe to Mac*Chat by sending e-mail to:

                 [e-mail]

The Subject line is ignored, so it can say anything.

In the body of the message include the following line:

                SUBSCRIBE MACCHAT Your full name

As an example: SUBSCRIBE MACCHAT Juliana Tarlton

You will receive a nice long message explaining acceptance of your
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will then automatically receive Mac*Chat in your e-mail box, for free,
every week.

============== ____ ================================================
Tony Lindsey   \ _/__  Free, weekly e-mailed Mac-oriented newsletter
Mac*Chat Editor \X  /  [e-mail], http://www.cts.com/~xxltony/
================= \/ ===============================================