Former Macworld Expo NY Renamed Again — The Conference Formerly Known as Macworld Expo, which IDG World Expo announced would be called "Create," has endured another name change and now wishes to be known as "Macworld CreativePro Conference & Expo," although its friends will continue to call it "Nancy" (apologies to the Beatles). IDG World Expo says the name change "further defines the event’s focus on the needs of creative professionals, as well as consumers who want to develop more advanced skills in the creative arts." We think the name change is a thinly veiled attempt to encourage vendors and users who aren’t interested in the creative arts to attend the show anyway. That’s fine, and we hope the show does well, but the more waffling that happens, the lower the interest and the attendance. We’ll simply have to wait until July 14th to see if it quacks like a Mac conference or is just being flighty. [ACE]

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07127>

<http://www.macworldexpo.com/macworld2003/V33/ press.cvn?id=11&p_id=14>

Apple Quietly Updates iBooks — Apple’s entry-level laptop family received a minor refresh this week, picking up a speed bump and larger hard disks but little else. The basic $1,000 12-inch iBook configuration now includes an 800 MHz PowerPC G3 processor (up from 700 MHz) and a 30 GB hard drive. For $1,300, you can move up to a 12-inch iBook with a 900 MHz processor and a 40 GB hard drive. The larger 14-inch model, at $1,500, also sports a 900 MHz processor and 40 GB drive; a build-to-order option offers a 60 GB drive, 640 MB of RAM, and an AirPort card. The big surprise with this update is that these models don’t support AirPort Extreme, especially since this revision is likely to be the one that students and school districts will consider for the next school year. However, with school budgets tightening, perhaps Apple is attempting to keep costs down until AirPort Extreme is more widely adopted. The new iBooks are available now. [JLC]

<http://www.apple.com/ibook/>

<http://www.apple.com/airport/>

Apple today unveiled the iTunes Music Store, a commercial Internet music service featuring more than 200,000 tracks from the five largest music labels and available via a new Music Store playlist entry in the popular (and still free) iTunes 4 music playback and disc burning software. The iTunes Music Store requires Mac OS X 10.1.5 or higher, iTunes 4 (an 8.3 MB download), and QuickTime 6.2 (a separate 18.4 MB download).

<http://www.apple.com/music/store/>

<http://www.apple.com/itunes/>

<http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/>

Unlike existing commercial music services such as Rhapsody and PressPlay, the iTunes Music Store offers both individual tracks and albums for sale and does not require a subscription, although customers may currently purchase only using a valid credit card billable to a United States address using Apple’s 1-Click accounts. The iTunes Music Store also allows customers to burn purchased tracks to CD or DVD discs (an unlimited of times for individual songs; up to ten times for an unchanged playlist), and to transfer tracks to players and up to three different Macs. Also unlike every other commercial music service, the iTunes Music Store is Mac-first and currently Mac-only.

The iTunes Music Store offers individual tracks for sale from artists on the world’s five largest record labels – Universal, Sony, BMG, EMI, and Warner. The store’s catalog currently features over 200,000 selections, and Apple says the list will be expanding quickly (they’ll even send you email every Tuesday with promotions and new additions). Importantly, the entire iTunes Music Store catalog is browsable within iTunes 4 by genre, artist, and album, and a 30-second audio preview is available for every track on the service. Many tracks also feature cover art and some even offer videos. New selections, staff favorites, and featured artists will also be called out separately. Once signed up, you can purchase individual tracks or entire albums with a single click. Individual tracks start at 99 cents; albums are typically priced between $10 and $15. Availability of specific tracks and artists may vary a bit: some artists don’t permit the sale of individual tracks, so customers may be able to purchase only entire albums, and some long-form tracks (such as extended live performances, spoken word recordings, environmental recordings, some classical music) may have prices higher than 99 cents. For users with low-speed connections, a shopping cart feature enables the batch purchase of tracks so selections can be downloaded all at once while you do something else.

Tracks available via iTunes Music Store are not MP3 files: instead, they’re encoded using AAC (Advanced Audio Codec), a technology from Dolby Labs which is also incorporated into the MPEG-4 standard. At bit rates of 128 Kbps and above, AAC offers greater audio quality than MP3 encoding, although AAC doesn’t necessarily do as well at lower bit rates (such as those suitable for modems). Using AAC also enables Apple to tap into the digital rights management (DRM) technologies rolled into QuickTime 6.2, preventing the tracks from being swapped as easily as MP3 files. Users can transfer AAC files purchased on iTunes Music Service to another computer, but iTunes 4 and other AAC playback software will require the original purchaser’s ID and password to play them.

If the iTunes Music Store succeeds, expect Apple to ship a version that works for Windows users – much as they’ve done with the iPod player – and the company says they’re working to make the iTunes Music Store available to international customers.

The real question is whether the iTunes Music Store’s 1-Click shopping, music selection, and 99 cent price per track are enough to convince the users of song-swapping services to "get legal." The tracks for sale via iTunes Music Store are legitimate, legal copies of the music, but they’re still part of the much-vilified commercial music industry, which many song-swappers don’t want to support in any way, even at 99 cents per track. Music from independent artists and labels probably won’t be available via the service unless a distribution agreement is in place with one of the so-called "big five" labels, and very little of the 99 cent purchase price is likely to make its way back to the folks who actually wrote, recorded, and produced the audio in any case. Looking forward, it would be interesting to see Apple explore an affiliate program with the iTunes Music Store, enabling independent labels and even individual artists offer tracks for sale. This might give Apple the best of both worlds: popular large-scale commercial releases from the major labels, and independent, quirky material which isn’t beholden to the larger music industry.

Needless to say, the iTunes Music Store is being overwhelmed with traffic today, so don’t be surprised to see errors while Apple works out the kinks and as the connection spikes settle down. That said, in our testing today, we were able to play previews and purchase songs, and the process appears simple and elegant, as one would expect from Apple.

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Along with the high-profile changes necessary for the iTunes Music Store, described previously in this issue, iTunes 4 sports a number of other welcome enhancements. Most notable is support for Rendezvous, as Steve Jobs showed in his Macworld Expo New York keynote in 2002 (a feature that an impatient developer replicated in the open source application iCommune). Now a Mac using iTunes can share its music with other Macs using iTunes on the same local network. In the iTunes Preferences dialog, you can share your entire library or just select playlists, and if you don’t want everyone on your local network to see your shared music, you can restrict access with a password. Needless to say, shared music is play-only; you can’t copy shared songs to your computer, make playlists with them, change their information, or anything else.

<http://www.apple.com/itunes/>

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06881>

<http://icommune.sourceforge.net/>

Also new in iTunes 4 is support for burning data CDs or DVDs. It’s not entirely clear how a data CD differs from an MP3 CD, but iTunes 4 now offers both options in the Burning pane in its Preferences dialog. This capability is particularly useful for people who have Macs with SuperDrives, since they can easily burn backup DVDs of their entire music collection.

Not surprisingly, given the file format used for the iTunes Music Store, iTunes 4 can now import music from your CDs in AAC format along with MP3, AIFF, and WAV. To import music using AAC, you must have QuickTime 6.2, which is available as a manual download from Apple’s QuickTime Web page; it isn’t yet available in Software Update.

<http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/>

Apple enhanced the ever-present Search field in iTunes 4, adding a drop-down menu that lets you restrict searches to artists, albums, composers, or songs. When you’re in the Music Store, a Power Search option also appears; choosing it takes you to the Music Store Power Search screen in the main iTunes window.

Finally, for those who miss CD cover artwork, iTunes 4 provides a new area that you can hide or show at the bottom of the playlist pane. When showing, you can drag a graphic file to that area to add it to the selected songs; you can also add artwork by dragging it to the Get Info window’s Artwork tab or to the Artwork box in the Multiple Song Information dialog. If you double-click artwork underneath the playlist pane, it opens in a new window at full size.

Where would you get this artwork if you don’t have a scanner? Music you purchase from the iTunes Music Store comes with its associated artwork, although it doesn’t appear that you can download art from the iTunes Music Store for albums you already own. However, there are numerous collections of cover artwork on the Internet, and you can also just find the album on Amazon.com and drag the image from Safari (or possibly other Web browsers) into iTunes. Unfortunately, iTunes 4 still seems to lack options for storing and displaying other metadata such as lyrics or liner notes.

iTunes 4 requires Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later, with at least a Mac with a 400 MHz PowerPC G3 processor and 256 MB of RAM recommended. It’s available in numerous languages and is an 8.3 MB download. Although you must download manually at the moment, it will likely appear in Software Update soon.

<http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/>

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Apple’s new online music service is likely to attract most of the attention today, but in typical Apple fashion, it’s the hardware that makes it all possible. Noting that over 700,000 iPods have shipped since the device was introduced in October of 2001, Steve Jobs introduced three new iPod configurations featuring a dramatic redesign from previous versions.

<http://www.apple.com/music/>

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06608>

<http://www.apple.com/ipod/>

The iPod line now comprises a 10 GB model for $300, a 15 GB model for $400, and a 30 GB model for $500. The iPod has also undergone a significant redesign. Measuring 0.62 inches (1.57 cm) deep, the 10 GB and 15 GB iPods are lighter (at 5.6 ounces, or 158 grams) and thinner than two CDs, according to Jobs (I assume he’s including the typical CD jewel case in his comparison); the 30 GB model is slightly thicker, measuring 0.73 inches (1.85 cm) and weighing 6.2 ounces (176 grams). The scroll wheel of earlier models is still there, but the control buttons have moved into a line at the top of the wheel, rather than being spaced in a circle. And, perhaps taking a cue from the 17-inch PowerBook, the buttons’ text is illuminated when you turn the screen’s backlighting on.

The iPod connectors have changed significantly. Instead of a standard FireWire port, the iPods feature a connector on the bottom that plugs into an iPod dock for charging and synchronizing with iTunes. The dock also includes a line out port for hooking up to stereo systems or powered speakers. Rounding out the included accessories, the iPod comes with earbud headphones, a FireWire connection cable, an AC adapter, and a 4-pin to 6-pin FireWire adapter (for connecting to some Windows systems). The two more-expensive models also come with a carrying case, a wired remote, and the iPod dock.

Apple eliminated the separate Mac and Windows configurations – the new iPod can be used on either platform. Along with a free software update scheduled for June of 2003, PC users will need a special dock connector cable (sold separately for $20 starting in June) that enables USB 2.0 as well as FireWire access.

The latest iPod software adds AAC format playback, the capability to customize which options are available in the interface (such as hiding options for features you don’t use, like the calendar), and On-the-Go Playlists that enable you to build playlists on the iPod itself. It also includes the games Solitaire and Parachute, a notes reader for reading text-based information, and an alarm clock that can play either an alarm sound or music that you choose. However, many of these new features may to be specific to the new iPod models; the latest iPod software, version 1.3 made available today via Software Update, adds only the AAC playback to my original 5 GB unit.

<http://www.apple.com/ipod/beyondmusic.html>

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Palm, Inc. has added two new handhelds to its product lineup. The $500 Palm Tungsten C features integrated Wi-Fi (802.11b) wireless networking, a tiny QWERTY keyboard, and a sharp color display, while the $300 Zire 71 promotes multimedia features such as a built-in camera, music and video playback, and a higher resolution color display than was available in past low-cost offerings.

<http://www.palm.com/products/handhelds/tungsten -c/>

<http://www.palm.com/products/handhelds/zire71/>

The Tungsten C joins the $400 Tungsten T, which lacks the keyboard and wireless feature (third-party wireless cards are expected for its Secure Digital slot later this year) but offers Bluetooth connectivity, and the Tungsten W, which can access the Internet via a GSM/GPRS cellular connection. The Tungsten C will do well for a wide variety of home, business, and academic users who want to check email or a Web page through their existing wireless networks or via one of the growing list of public 802.11b hot spots in coffee shops and airports. The tiny QWERTY keyboard on the Tungsten W and other companies’ handhelds (such as Handspring’s Treo line and Sony’s Clie line) has quickly become popular for those whose often use their handhelds for note taking or other data-entry tasks.

<http://www.palm.com/products/handhelds/tungsten -t/>

<http://www.palm.com/products/handhelds/tungsten -w/>

<http://www.handspring.com/products/ communicators/>

<http://sonyelectronics.sonystyle.com/micros/ clie/>

Palm’s new Zire 71, aimed at "youthful professionals," goes up against Sony’s more-expensive camera-equipped handhelds and is clearly a multimedia device. Its hidden, 640 x 480, color digital camera is comparable to the camera in Sony’s $600 Clie PEG-NX70V, though the $800 Clie PEG-NZ90 offers a higher-resolution camera. The Zire 71 also features a high-quality speaker and a stereo headphone jack, and it includes RealOne Mobile Player and Kinoma Player and Producer for playing music, downloaded movie trailers, or other media files. The Zire 71 is the first Palm device to employ Graffiti 2, a new method of entering text with a stylus that differs slightly from the original Graffiti. (Palm chose to drop the original Graffiti system for new models after waging a lengthy patent dispute with Xerox. Earlier this year, Palm subsidiary PalmSource licensed the Jot handwriting recognition system and renamed it Graffiti 2.)

<http://sonyelectronics.sonystyle.com/micros/ clie/models/nx70v.html>

<http://sonyelectronics.sonystyle.com/micros/ clie/models/nz90.html>

<http://www.realnetworks.com/mobile/player/>

<http://www.kinoma.com/products.html>

<http://www.palmsource.com/press/2003/ 011303.html>

Palm’s new models take aim at the heavy-duty online features of Dell’s Axim Pocket PC handhelds and the multimedia features of Sony’s Clie line, and take Palm out of its habitual middle-of-the-road position. It’s none too soon, given that the worldwide market for handheld devices declined by about 25 percent in the first quarter of 2003. Palm retained its lead in the market, with a 36 percent market share, followed by HP, Sony, Dell, and Toshiba.

<http://www.dell.com/us/en/gen/topics/segtopic_ axim.htm>

<http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl? ACCT=SVBIZINK1.story&STORY=/www/ story/04-23-2003/0001932086>

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In the course of writing my current book, Mac OS X Power Tools, I downloaded, installed, and evaluated hundreds of pieces of software for Mac OS X: shareware, freeware, donationware, commercial software, you name it. Besides finding a ton of cool software over the last seven months, I learned quite a bit about what developers do right – and wrong – when distributing their creations. Although many developers make the process of downloading, installing, and – when necessary – uninstalling software easy, at least as many don’t. I’d like to provide feedback on this process from a user’s point of view. It’s worth noting that although some of my recommendations apply to any form of software, a number are aimed specifically at developers of Mac OS X programs.

<http://www.macosxpowertools.com/>

I wrote this article in the spirit of Tonya Engst’s series of articles from the mid-1990s on "ReadMe" files – to provide suggestions for improving the user experience, and, consequently, help developers increase the use of and the purchase of their products. The good news is that these suggestions would take most developers almost no time to implement.

Before I discuss specific issues, I want to dispute an almost universal assumption that developers seem to make, perhaps unconsciously: that people install software immediately after downloading it. This one false assumption is, I believe, the primary reason why so many developers provide software the way they do. (You’ll understand what I mean as you read the discussion that follows.) In my personal experience and in working with other users, it’s in fact more common for downloaded software to sit on a computer for hours, days, or longer before anyone installs it.

That said, here are my observations and suggestions, divided into the categories of documentation, installation, distribution, and purchasing/registration. If you’re not a developer, these suggestions may be more of an exercise in empathy than something that is directly helpful; however, if you agree with my comments, I encourage you to provide constructive feedback (with a link to this article!) to developers when you have similar experiences.

Documentation — Yes, I know this is Macintosh software and the user shouldn’t have to read the documentation. But even Apple’s iApps, whose only documentation is relatively obvious online help, suffer from the lack of a manual, hence the popularity of books about the programs. Despite the continuing paucity of documentation these days (see Adam’s "The Death of Documentation" article from five years ago in TidBITS-428), written assistance of some sort is important, and it will increase your users’ comfort level and thus your number of purchases.

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=04865>

Always include a ReadMe file to describe your software. A disk image or StuffIt archive that contains only an application means that the user must launch the application just to find out what it does. More than once, I dumped software in the Trash rather than launching it and hoping it didn’t do something irreversible. Placing the equivalent of a ReadMe file on your Web site isn’t enough – some users may download from somewhere other than your Web site; others may download from your site, but get around to installing later and not recall the Web-based information.

ReadMe files should always include a URL to your Web site; not only is it helpful for the user, it’s also good advertising. A ReadMe file’s name should also include the name of your software; many users keep ReadMe files in a dedicated ReadMe folder, and having 100 files named "ReadMe" or "ReadMe First!" is terribly confusing. Finally, for additional tips about the content of your ReadMe files, check out Tonya’s series on ReadMe files.

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1039>

Think about the format for your ReadMe file and documentation. I don’t recommend PDF files; they increase the size of your downloads, and both Preview and Acrobat Reader can be slow to load on some systems. If you use PDF, set the file attributes of your PDF files so that they’ll open in Mac OS X’s Preview instead of Acrobat Reader, since Preview is the default PDF/graphics viewer in Mac OS X. (Those who prefer Reader or the full version of Acrobat will most likely have configured their system to use it.) If you provide documentation in HTML format, use a file utility such as XRay to dissociate your HTML files from any particular browser. Doing so enables these files to be opened by the user’s default browser when double-clicked; there are few things some users find more irritating than double-clicking an HTML file and watching Internet Explorer launch, even though Safari or Camino is the preferred browser. On a similar note, if you include an Internet Location file (essentially a link encapsulated in a file) with your software that lets the user quickly access your Web site, make sure it’s a standard Mac OS X Internet Location file, and not an Internet Explorer "link." Many Mac users surf the Web with browsers other than Internet Explorer, and not all browsers can open Internet Explorer links.

<http://www.brockerhoff.net/xray/>

If your application includes Help files, consider using standard HTML format rather than using Apple’s Help Viewer. Help Viewer is a great idea and has the advantage of being able to download updates automatically, but the current implementation is slow, bloated, and buggy.

Lastly, whenever possible, I strongly recommend placing your Help files (along with an extra copy of the ReadMe) within the software’s application package. When you do this, the user doesn’t have to worry about installing, tracking, or updating any of these support files – installing a new version of your software package provides everything in one "file." If your product doesn’t have its own interface – as is the case with preferences panes, plug-ins, background applications, and so on – consider including Help-like documentation in the ReadMe file or providing an Internet Location file in your download that links to online documentation.

Installation — After finishing your documentation, pay attention to the installation process your users will experience.

Decide if you need to use an installer or if you can have the user simply copy your application package to the hard disk. The latter is easier, but doesn’t give you as much control. That said, you can often eliminate the need for an installer by having your application (or even an AppleScript script stored inside your application package) perform necessary housekeeping on the initial launch.

No matter which installation method you choose, explain clearly how to install your software. This is necessary even if your software is just an application on a disk image; many users aren’t familiar with disk images and don’t understand that they need to copy files from the image to a hard disk. The trick of using a background graphic in the window to provide simple instructions works well. (Select icon view, choose Show View Options from the View menu, and then select "Picture" for the background.) Check out the disk image Karelia uses for Watson to see a good example.

<http://www.karelia.com/watson/>

If your software uses an installer, state clearly – either in your documentation or on the first screen of the installer – exactly what will be installed, and where the files will live. Installers should always have an uninstall option that removes the software, including all support and preference files, but never user-created data, from the user’s hard disk. Where that’s not possible because of permissions or whatnot, or if you don’t provide an installer, include instructions for uninstalling your software manually.

Finally, support Mac OS X’s standard folder organization. Store preference files in ~/Library/Preferences (unless your software requires a system-wide license or preferences file, in which case it should go in /Library/Preferences). Other support files belong in ~/Library/Application Support or /Library/Application Support. Don’t create new directories in ~/Library or /Library just for your application. Mac OS X’s folder hierarchy may seem confusing at first, but that’s only because it’s so different from Mac OS 9. The more developers adhere to this organizational scheme, the easier it is for users to understand Mac OS X – consistency is the first step towards comprehension. In addition, it makes product support easier – if all programs adhere to Mac OS X’s organizational design, users will start to learn where to look for particular types of files.

Distribution — After figuring out your documentation and installation experience, turn your attention to distributing your software.

Above all else, make sure your download works; in other words, that it downloads as a complete file to the user’s computer. Most users don’t know what to do if clicking a download link results in a browser window full of code. Test all your download links in several different browsers to make sure they’re handled properly. (Many developers provide links to multiple sites, such as VersionTracker, MacUpdate, or Info-Mac, in an effort to reduce bandwidth load.)

If you distribute your software using Mac OS X’s disk image format, make sure your disk image actually mounts. I was unable to evaluate several products because of corrupt disk images.

Make sure to give the file you’re distributing – whether it’s a disk image, a StuffIt archive, or any other format – a meaningful name that includes the software’s version number. Users who see a file called "jcc.dmg" probably won’t recall what they downloaded. Further, some users keep downloaded files around in case they need to reinstall, or for installing on multiple computers, so a meaningful name with a version number helps them organize their collections of downloaded files. Also, including the version number in the archive’s name is helpful for the Info-Mac archivists if you submit your software there.

<http://www.info-mac.org/how/submit.html>

Although you should include the version number of your software in the image or archive name, you should never include that version number in the name of the application itself. By keeping the application name constant across versions, users can upgrade by simply overwriting the previous version with a new version. If you include the version number in the name of the application, many Mac OS X features – such as double-clicking documents or launching via Login Items – may not work as expected after an upgrade, since Mac OS X often looks for applications by name (as opposed to Mac OS 9 creator codes). Put the version number where it belongs – in the version string inside the application – so that users can find it in the application’s Get Info window.

I’m not going to weigh in on the whole StuffIt archive versus disk image debate; both have their merits and faults. In addition, Apple’s newest type of disk image, "Internet-Enabled," (which, oddly, is not "enabled" in any way that remotely relates to the Internet) is gaining popularity. With an Internet-Enabled disk image, the user downloads the disk image; the browser automatically opens the downloaded file with Disk Copy; and Disk Copy mounts the image, copies the contents out of the image, dismounts the image, and moves the disk image file to the Trash. (Users can extract the disk image from the Trash if they want to save it for additional installations.) Some people dislike Internet-Enabled disk images because they initially seem confusing. However, their behavior is actually quite familiar if you think of them as a disk image approximation of a StuffIt archive – double-clicking an image results in the contents of the image replacing the image itself, assuming a copy of StuffIt Expander set to delete intermediate files.

<http://developer.apple.com/ue/files/iedi.html>

Purchase/Registration — Assuming that you’ve created the next killer app, you don’t want to mess up your chances for wealth and fame with an incomprehensible purchasing or registration process.

Make your software easy to buy! If it’s available in stores, tell users which stores. If it’s available from major Web retailers, link to product pages on those sites. If you distribute it online yourself, provide an easy way to pay, such as Kagi, eSellerate, or one of the other payment processing services. There’s nothing wrong with using PayPal, but I don’t recommend relying on it as your only, or even primary, payment service; many people dislike PayPal and you may lose a paying customer simply because you don’t offer an alternative payment method. (This goes both ways – every service has dissatisfied customers; the more options for payment you provide, the more likely someone will find one they’re willing to use to buy your product.) Make your purchasing processing friendly to international users whenever possible; after all, nearly half of all Macs are sold outside the United States.

<http://www.kagi.com/>

<http://www.esellerate.net/>

<https://www.paypal.com/>

Don’t worry about the seemingly high processing fees of these services; users are comfortable with paying through Kagi and the others, and making users comfortable translates directly into them paying for software more frequently. So although using a payment service may mean less profit per transaction, overall you’ll surely come out ahead. Most likely far ahead.

Successful Distribution — You put a lot of work into your software, so don’t undermine it by making unnecessary mistakes when distributing it to the world. Each suggestion in this article may have seemed minor, but a series of minor gripes can result in major inconveniences for your users. Considering that developers need users to enjoy their experiences with software products, it follows that they can increase the chances of such enjoyment by making the most difficult parts of the process for most users – acquisition, installation, and purchasing – as simple and problem-free as possible.

[Dan Frakes recently finished writing Mac OS X Power Tools (appearing soon from Sybex) and is finally getting some sleep.]

<http://www.danfrakes.com/>

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<http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/my-pay-page /P3UQQEWHYLQXIT/>

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• TiVo Series2 Home Media Option. Extensive discussions of the new Home Media Option for the TiVo Series2 digital video recorder in preparation for a future article. (11 messages)

  <https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1914>

  
  

• Thoughts on exposing TidBITS Talk. Excellent comments and suggestions for ways of improving this feature, along with some positive feedback and some complaints about the mediocre performance of the Web archive due to FileMaker Pro and that server’s slow Internet connection. (20 messages)

  <https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1915>

  
  

• Aladdin’s online purchasing nightmare: Discussion of problems with and solutions to ordering from Aladdin, shipping to Canada, and dealing with Digital River. (11 messages)

  <https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1916>

  
  

• NoteTaker comments: Additional information about NoteTaker, discussion of the relationship between NoteTaker and Circus Ponies NoteBook, comment that MORE runs in Classic mode and is available for free. (10 messages)

  <https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1918>