TidBITS#652/21-Oct-02
=====================

 Macworld Expo is returning to Boston - but is Apple? We look at
 the brouhaha so far to see what all the keyboard rattling could
 mean for future Mac trade shows. Also in this issue, Mark Anbinder
 examines Palm's new Zire handheld, Adam analyzes the steps
 required to solve any troubleshooting problem, and we note the
 release of important Microsoft Office updates, Apple's X for
 Teachers deal to get Jaguar for free, and Apple's fourth quarter
 $45 million loss.

Topics:
   MailBITS/21-Oct-02
   Apple, IDG Play Hardball Over Macworld Expo
   Palm Offers Low-price, No-frills Zire Handheld
   TidBITS Troubleshooting Primer, Part 1

<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-652.html>
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MailBITS/21-Oct-02
------------------

**Security Patches for Office 98, Office 2001, and Office X** --
 Microsoft has issued security updates for Macintosh versions of
 Office 98 (1.5 MB), Office 2001 (2 MB), and Office X (2.8 MB). The
 updates correct two security issues, one where a holder of a valid
 security certificate could generate bogus subordinate certificates
 which Office would believe to be valid (Microsoft security
 bulletin MS02-050), and another where field codes in Microsoft
 Word could be used to gather information surreptitiously from
 users' documents in some circumstances (Microsoft security
 bulletin MS02-059). The security certificate problem is the same
 one for which Microsoft released new versions of Internet Explorer
 last month.

<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/download/security.asp>
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/?url=/technet/security/bulletin/
MS02-050.asp>
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/?url=/technet/security/bulletin/
MS02-059.asp>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06947>

 Significantly, the security update for Office X also includes
 unspecified improvements which may improve application stability
 under Jaguar, welcome news for frustrated users of Word X who have
 experienced inordinate program crashes since upgrading to Jaguar.
 [GD]


**Apple Posts $45 Million Q4 Loss** -- Apple Computer last week
 announced a net loss of $45 million for its fourth fiscal quarter
 of 2002, although Apple's net numbers for the entire fiscal year
 were positive, with $65 million in earnings on $5.74 billion in
 revenue. The fourth quarter results included several non-recurring
 items (including write-downs of investments); without these items,
 Apple would have had a net profit of $7 million for the quarter.
 Revenues for the quarter were $1.44 billion, and gross margins
 were down to 26.4 percent from 30.1 percent in the same fiscal
 quarter of 2001. Curiously, international sales accounted for
 only 35 percent of Apple's revenue: usually, international
 sales contribute just under half of Apple's revenue.

<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/oct/16earnings.html>

 Apple said it does not expect the computer industry as a whole to
 improve soon, so the company does not anticipate a dramatic uptick
 in profits. However, Apple hopes to do well during the holiday
 season with consumer-oriented items like iPods, iMacs, and iBooks,
 and the company claims Mac OS X 10.2 is on track to have 5 million
 users by the end of the calendar year. Apple retail stores had
 2.25 million visitors during the last quarter, and Apple as a
 whole remains in good financial shape with more than $4.3 billion
 in cash on hand, no revenue slippage, and normal levels of channel
 inventory. [GD]


**Jaguar Free to Qualified U.S. Teachers** -- Apple has unveiled
 "X for Teachers," a new program offering _free_ not-for-resale
 copies of Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar for eligible K-12 teachers in
 the U.S. (and, after 24-Oct-02, in Canada) for their personal,
 educational, and/or research use. The package will feature a
 "Getting Started with Mac OS X" self-paced training CD-ROM that
 presumably introduces Mac OS X's key features; also included are
 Apple's digital hub applications iMovie, iTunes, and iPhoto.

<http://www.apple.com/education/macosxforteachers/>
<http://www.apple.com/ca/education/macosxforteachers/>
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/>

 To qualify, teachers must be currently employed as a K-12 teacher
 in a public, private, or charter school. Non-teacher school
 employees, student teachers, higher education faculty, home
 schools, resellers, and others are not eligible, and there's a
 limit of one copy of Jaguar per qualifying teacher. Orders must
 be placed via the X for Teachers Web pages, and orders will be
 shipped to the teachers' school addresses. The X for Teachers
 program runs through 31-Dec-02. [GD]


Apple, IDG World Expo Play Hardball Over Macworld Expo
------------------------------------------------------
 by Jeff Carlson <[email protected]>

 Would Macworld Expo be the same without Apple? That's the
 question Mac users and vendors are asking themselves as Apple
 and conference organizer IDG World Expo publicly trade barbs
 about Apple's participation in upcoming trade shows.

 The brouhaha erupted late last week, when IDG World Expo announced
 that the 2004 East Coast expo would move from New York City, where
 the event has been held since 1998, to the show's original East
 Coast venue, Boston. The announcement was the culmination of weeks
 of negotiations between IDG World Expo and representatives of both
 cities to see which could provide the best deal for one of the
 largest high-tech conferences in the country. (According to
 comments by IDG World Expo CEO Charlie Greco, the last Boston
 show in 1997 brought in $42 million for the city.)

 However, later that same day Apple released the following
 statement: "Today IDG World Expo announced plans to move Macworld
 from New York to Boston in July of 2004. Apple disagrees with this
 decision, and will not be participating in Macworld Boston. Since
 IDG World Expo is no longer investing in New York, we now need to
 re-evaluate our participation in Macworld New York 2003. Apple
 will continue to participate in Macworld San Francisco in
 January."

 The following day, IDG World Expo reiterated its plans to put on
 both shows, with or without Apple. Then, in a public salvo
 delivered over the weekend, Greco suggested in a Boston Globe
 interview that IDG World Expo might consider banning Apple from
 this January's San Francisco show, as well as from its events held
 in Tokyo and Paris.

<http://digitalmass.boston.com/news/globe_story.html?uri=/dailyglobe2/
292/business/Trade_show_chief_hints_he_ll_squeeze_Apple-.shtml>

 Apple hasn't responded publicly to Greco's threat, though it now
 appears that private discussions may be making progress. IDG World
 Expo told MacCentral (both companies are owned by IDG) today that
 Apple would be participating in the upcoming Macworld Expo in San
 Francisco in January. But there's still no word about what will
 happen with the East Coast events, and it's clear that both sides
 are putting on a show of force to see who will back down. Why all
 the fuss? Although money is definitely a major factor, there are
 other possible explanations.

<http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0210/21.expo.php>


**East Expo Expense** -- Moving Macworld to Boston will be a great
 financial boon to IDG World Expo. Boston beat out New York by
 offering incentives such as reduced hotel rates, use of some city
 buildings for Macworld functions, steep discounts for exhibitor
 services, and a great rate for Boston's new convention center,
 which is scheduled to be completed by 2004 and will be large
 enough to house the expo (previous Boston expos required splitting
 the show between two venues, forcing awkward bus trips between
 the two).

 However, as an exhibitor, Apple doesn't share in all the financial
 savings. According to Greco, Apple typically spends $4 million
 to $5 million at an expo for equipment and supplies, plus travel
 and lodging for hundreds of employees, along with the not
 insignificant costs of Steve Jobs's dramatic keynote addresses.
 Apple may have more than $4 billion in the bank, but as the
 overall technology market continues to falter, the company no
 doubt wants to put its money where it will have the most impact.


**An Expo in Every Mall** -- That impact is increasingly being met
 by Apple's retail stores (currently 53 locations either open or
 announced). Unlike Macworld Expo, where people can order products
 only from Apple's online store, Apple Stores are designed to make
 the purchasing process easy. Plus, although Macworld Expo may draw
 50,000 or more people, Apple announced that 2.25 million people
 visited an Apple Store in the last three months.

 Also worth considering is the fact that Macworld Expo attendees
 are for the most part already Apple customers, whereas people
 who wander into an Apple Store are more likely to be new to the
 platform. Call us cynical, but Apple may believe that marketing
 to existing customers simply isn't all that necessary; that could
 also account for why Apple advertises little in Macintosh
 publications.

 Equally important is the fact that Apple Stores control the
 customer experience on an almost one-to-one basis. Rather than
 watch thousands of gawkers stream through the expo booth and fight
 to be heard among the loudspeakers and crowd noise, Apple can
 dictate how a customer's visit occurs from the moment he or she
 walks through the door. Since Steve Jobs's return to the company,
 Apple has been obsessed with controlling the Macintosh experience,
 whether by engineering Mac OS X so that developers have less
 leeway to adjust the operating system's look and feel, or by
 maintaining a tight lid on new products until Apple is ready
 to unveil them at a time and place of Apple's choosing.

 In fact, you could argue that having a booth and hardware to
 display has become something of a formality for Apple. In the
 company's eyes, Macworld Expo is less about connecting with users
 or vendors, and more about generating the massive amount of press
 coverage that the show, and especially the keynote, can draw.
 Macworld Expo isn't a trade show for a niche computer
 manufacturer, it's an Event that receives worldwide media
 attention. If you're skeptical, consider the way the recent iMac
 redesign became a Time cover story (timed to coincide with the
 keynote so that attendees received a free copy, purchased by
 Apple, on their way out).

 But Apple can't keep up the pace. After years of releasing new
 machines and software in January and July, it's become more
 difficult for Apple to live up to expectations by having "just
 one more thing" ready in the wings. At the last New York show,
 Jobs was rumored to be furious because delays in finishing Jaguar
 meant that the new line of Power Mac G4s weren't ready to be
 announced. The result was a greater emphasis on software that
 was on the verge of shipping (Jaguar), or not ready (iCal and
 the still-beta iSync).

 The big announcement pattern has its destructive aspect too, as
 sales of existing products tend to drop off in the weeks leading
 up to the show; the current wisdom being that it's foolish to buy
 new hardware late in the year (during the important holiday retail
 season), because there's likely to be a computer processor speed
 bump or some completely different product at the show in January.
 To buck the trend, Apple has made several significant
 announcements, such as the release of the iPod and the newly
 redesigned iBook, during invitation-only press conferences
 at Apple's corporate campus throughout the year.

 Apple's statement following the Boston announcement suggests that
 the company may be looking to concentrate on the January expo in
 San Francisco, which doesn't require nearly as much in the way of
 travel expenses but still results in huge media coverage. By
 dropping out of an East Coast show in July or August, Apple could
 more easily release products on a less predictable schedule and
 save millions of dollars.


**Timing Is Everything** -- According to reports, Apple's
 statement was a surprise to IDG World Expo, despite frequent
 contact between the two companies during the time IDG World Expo
 was talking to New York and Boston about the change of venue.
 It's hard to believe that the announcement was a complete
 surprise, though, especially considering Greco's comments to
 the Boston Globe indicating that he suspected months ago that
 Jobs was looking to reduce Apple's slate of shows. Instead,
 it sounds as if IDG World Expo assumed Apple would follow the
 expo wherever it ended up, so IDG World Expo forged ahead anyway.
 Apple - or more realistically, Jobs - took advantage of IDG's
 gaffe and dropped the bomb of pulling out of Boston and possibly
 New York at the point when IDG World Expo would be most
 vulnerable - and therefore most willing to negotiate in
 Apple's favor.

 As a result, IDG World Expo finds itself fighting the perception
 that it didn't adequately communicate with its star attraction,
 while also needing to placate the cities of Boston and New York,
 with whom it no doubt has contractual obligations. And in an ugly
 step, Greco has taken the power struggle public, vowing to keep
 the other shows alive no matter what the cost.

 Greco may have taken the debate to the press to force Apple's
 hand, but angering Steve Jobs by making Apple look bad doesn't
 seem like a recipe for success. It's equally disappointing to see
 Apple stick to the our-way-or-the-highway approach, but the fact
 is that a Macworld Expo without Apple would be a very different
 kettle of fish. Without Apple, attendance would undoubtedly slump
 and much of the press would skip the show entirely, both of which
 would reduce the visibility vendors receive for the significant
 expense of exhibiting. A domino effect could result, with Apple's
 exit causing the larger vendors to bow out, and making it even
 harder for smaller
developers to justify spending marketing
 dollars to attend.

 In such a situation, IDG World Expo could change the show to
 compensate, charging less for vendors to exhibit, concentrating
 more on the conference sessions, or giving away exhibit floor
 passes. But would such changes result in the kind of Macworld Expo
 users and vendors alike would want to attend? We hope Apple and
 IDG World Expo can stop their posturing and work out a compromise
 that keeps Apple involved in the Macworld Expos under terms
 acceptable to both companies and the rest of the Macintosh
 industry.


Palm Offers Low-price, No-frills Zire Handheld
----------------------------------------------
 by Mark H. Anbinder <[email protected]>

 These days, personal digital assistants (PDAs) do just about
 everything. Recent handhelds from Palm, Compaq, Sony, Handspring,
 and others can not only organize users' lives, but also take
 pictures, check and send email, surf the Web, show off color
 photo albums, play music, or serve as a cell phone. And yet,
 for many handheld users use just the basics: calendar and contacts
 are still the primary uses for PDAs. For those users, Palm, Inc.
 this month introduced the no-nonsense $100 Zire handheld.

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

**Zire Specs** -- The Zire (pronounced like the second syllable of
 "desire") is truly a no-frills handheld. Like the original Pilot,
 it includes 2 MB of memory and a monochrome display (with no
 backlight, so forget about using it in the dark). More modern
 accoutrements include a built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery,
 infrared port, and Palm OS 4.1.

 To keep things simple, Palm has included front-panel buttons only
 for the most commonly used applications, Date Book and Address
 Book. The To Do List, Memo Pad, and other standard applications
 are still provided in memory, but they don't clutter the Zire's
 pleasingly trim appearance. At 4.4 inches (11.2 cm) tall by 2.9
 inch (7.4 cm) wide, the Zire is Palm's smallest handheld, though
 its 0.6 inch (1.5 cm) thickness isn't quite as slim as the svelte
 Palm m500 series or Palm Vx, or Handspring's Visor Edge, which
 all measure about 0.4 inches (1.0 cm) deep.

 Abandoning the "Universal Connector" introduced with the m500
 series, the Zire includes a mini USB cable for synchronizing to
 any USB-capable Mac or Windows computer. As such, there's no
 serial port support for synching or adding peripherals, and it
 has no expansion card slot. This means power users or feature
 freaks should look at other models. A simple charging cable has
 replaced the cradles of other models; frequent travelers might
 want to leave it at home, though, in favor of the capability to
 charge the battery (albeit more slowly) through the USB cable
 attached to your Mac.

 Will the Zire's cost-saving monochrome screen (we're talking black
 and white here, not even grayscale) be too limiting? I doubt it,
 since the target audience that needs to keep track of names,
 numbers, and appointments will likely use the handheld for little
 else. The grayscale and color screens on the more expensive Palm
 models mostly come in handy for Web graphics and games, and the
 color screens also dramatically decrease battery life. Although
 Palm's customer research revealed that users rarely made use of
 the backlight on their handhelds, I'd still prefer to see one
 on the Zire for occasional nocturnal use.


**Zire versus m105** -- The big question now is whether you should
 purchase the Zire for $100, or spend the same money on Palm's
 previous entry-level handheld, the Palm m105. In terms of cold
 specs, the m105 is a clear winner: it comes with 8 MB of memory
 and a backlit grayscale screen. On the other hand, the m105 also
 requires AAA batteries for power, runs Palm OS 3.5 (though for
 most users this isn't a noticeable difference), and isn't as
 small, light, or sleek looking as the Zire. (The Web page below
 offers a comparison chart among Palm's currently shipping models.)

<http://www.palm.com/products/family.html>

 What's nice about the Zire is Palm's approach: not everyone is
 looking for a full-fledged computer to put in their pocket, and
 the people who want some sort of electronic organizer are smart
 enough to steer clear of cheap Palm knock-offs. The Zire embodies
 many of the same attributes as an older device that promised to
 be the one for "the rest of us."


TidBITS Troubleshooting Primer, Part 1
--------------------------------------
 by Adam C. Engst <[email protected]>

 There's no point in pretending that problems never happen.
 Although this may be a typically male viewpoint, life - computer
 life and life in general - can be seen as nothing but problems
 ("challenges," "opportunities") and solutions. What has always
 amazed us is the level to which people without much technical
 experience assume that they can't possibly solve computer
 problems. Although specialized knowledge certainly helps,
 troubleshooting is a universal skill. If you can figure out why
 your brakes are squeaking or why the sewing machine is jamming,
 you can figure out computer-related problems. Despite what many
 non-computer people think, there's no real difference.

 For those of you who find tracking down and eliminating a problem
 intimidating, here's a guide that walks you through how I
 troubleshoot problems of all types. (This article is adapted from
 the troubleshooting chapter I wrote for the book my friend Glenn
 Fleishman and I are co-authoring right now, tentatively titled
 The Wireless Networking Starter Kit.)

 The most important piece of advice I can give up front is: Be
 methodical. If you start trying solutions without thinking about
 what caused the problem and what the effect of any given solution
 may be, you just end up complicating the entire situation. The
 best way to encourage a methodical approach is to take notes about
 what you see (especially any error messages), what you do, and the
 effects of what you do.


**Describe the Problem** -- The first step in troubleshooting is
 to identify the problem and gather information about it. That
 sounds simple, and it usually is, because most problems aren't
 particularly subtle. Perhaps you can't send email, or your one
 wired computer isn't visible to the computers on your wireless
 network.

 It's important to determine if the problem is reproducible or
 intermittent. Although an intermittent problem may be less irksome
 than a reproducible problem if you can keep working through it,
 intermittent problems are much harder to track down, because one
 of the variables involved is related to a time- or state-related
 fact. Reproducible problems almost beg to be solved, because you
 can't keep working until you've solved the problem.

 Pay attention to any visible indicators that might give more
 information about the problem. For instance, many devices have
 status LEDs that indicate whether a device is turned on and if
 it's performing some sort of activity. If those LEDs aren't
 working the way you expect, record that information.


**Break the System Apart** -- Once you have a firm grasp on the
 problem, you need to start breaking the system related to the
 problem into discrete steps or pieces. Then you can start
 analyzing different parts of the whole. The hard part here is
 that you may not realize what the different parts of the system
 are, making it difficult to understand how one could fail. But
 if you think about what's involved in using the system, you
 should be able to determine most of the parts.

 For instance, take the example of a wireless network that also
 has one computer connected via an Ethernet cable. In this sample
 network, the one wired computer is used as an informal file
 server. You're using one of the wireless computers, and you
 suddenly can't connect to a shared folder that's worked fine
 before. What are the pieces of this system? Let's determine what
 must be true for the situation to work properly, after which we
 can analyze each of the components.

* On your computer, you need properly installed file sharing
 client software.

* Your computer must have a working connection to the wireless
 access point.

* The access point must allow you to see a computer connected via
 wired Ethernet.

* The wired Ethernet computer must have a working connection to
 the access point.

* File sharing server software must be running on the wired
 Ethernet computer.

* A folder must explicitly be shared on the wired Ethernet
 computer.

 You could certainly break these pieces into even smaller pieces,
 but this should be sufficient to get started.

 Keep in mind that what I've just described is only one working
 system, which is important, because if there are other working
 systems - other wireless computers that can see the file server -
 that can help you zoom in on the problem quickly.

 Note all of the pieces of the system briefly in your notebook, and
 if you're a picture person, consider drawing yourself a diagram of
 how it all fits together; this can come in especially handy if you
 actually need to break the system apart by disconnecting cables or
 rearranging equipment.


**Ask Yourself Questions** -- Now that you've identified all the
 parts of the system, it's time to look carefully at each part,
 making up a possible reason why a failure at that point could be
 responsible for the whole problem. In our example, let's take each
 part and analyze it, asking questions that lead to tests.

* File sharing client software is of course necessary, but since
 you were able to connect previously, it's a good assumption that
 it's installed. Is it turned on? Has anything changed since you
 last connected successfully that might provide a clue? Have you
 restarted (it's always worth trying)? What about other computers,
 both wired and wireless? Can their file sharing client software
 see the wired computer?

* Is the wireless connection to the access point working from your
 computer? Is it working for other network-related tasks at the
 same time you can't connect to the wired computer? Can other
 wireless computers connect to the access point?

* Is the access point configured correctly so wireless computers
 can see the wired computer? Since it worked properly before, this
 likely isn't the source of the problem. Has anything changed on
 the access point since you last connected that could be related?

* Can the wired computer connect to the access point via its
 Ethernet cable? (Never underestimate the trouble a broken or
 flaky cable can cause.)

* Is file sharing turned on and configured properly? Has anything
 changed on that computer that might have resulted in it being
 turned off or reconfigured? Have you restarted the wired computer
 recently?

* Is the shared folder still shared? Could someone have changed
 which folders were shared? Has the folder been moved or renamed
 or otherwise modified in some way that might have changed its
 state?

 I mentioned the difference between reproducible and intermittent
 problems above; if you have an intermittent problem connecting to
 the wired Ethernet computer, that generates additional questions.

* Does the problem happen at all times of day? Does it happen
 right after you've done something else? Is it related to the
 presence or absence of any other machines?

 Jot these questions down in your notebook, numbering them so you
 can easily refer back to them when your tests start providing
 answers.


**Answer Questions** -- Once you have your list of questions,
 revisit it and think about which test you must perform to come up
 with an answer to each question. Separate your questions roughly
 into easy, moderate, and hard categories (you might write an E, M,
 or H next to each question's number in the margin).

 Also give your intuition a chance to work. If you have a nagging
 feeling that your spouse might have let your 4-year-old nephew
 play a game on the wired Ethernet computer, start with that
 machine. Or, if you just had to reset the access point to factory
 default settings for another reason, start there.

 Wherever you choose to start, begin with tests that eliminate the
 easiest questions first. For instance, it's trivial to check if
 your nephew kicked the Ethernet cable out of the jack; there's no
 reason to consider reinstalling the entire operating system on
 that machine until you've exhausted every easier option.

 Working methodically is essential at this point, and if you change
 something in a way that significantly changes the overall system,
 it's best (if possible) to put it back so the situation stays the
 same as when you analyzed the problem. For instance, if you had
 been thinking about installing a new access point that you'd just
 bought, don't do it in the middle of the troubleshooting process
 or you risk confusing everything.

 Make sure to check off each question you answer in your notebook,
 and note any interesting things that happen when you perform the
 test. I don't suggest you do this because you're going to forget
 what you've done while you're troubleshooting, but because you
 may have forgotten by the next time the problem happens. Plus,
 if you end up wanting to ask someone else for help, you can say
 authoritatively that you had indeed tried some test with negative
 results.

 In most situations, the solution to your problem will make itself
 clear during this process of answering questions. Perhaps it's
 summer, and the reinstallation of your screen door is blocking the
 Wi-Fi signal, or perhaps your spouse configured the computer in an
 unusual way for your nephew's game. Maybe your access point lost
 track of the wireless-to-wired Ethernet bridge settings, or maybe
 your computer or the access point just needed to be restarted.


**Get Expert Help** -- With truly tricky problems, your tests
 won't reveal any conclusive answers. Don't feel too bad, because
 if you've followed the procedure so far carefully, your failing is
 most likely that you don't understand all the parts of the system
 well enough. What to do next? Ask for help, of course, and that's
 where I'll look in the next part of this article.



$$

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