From: xxltony@cts.com (Tony Lindsey) Subject: Mac*Chat#093/20-Oct-95 Mac*Chat#093/20-Oct-95 ====================== Welcome to Mac*Chat, the 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, . 3401-A55 Adams Avenue San Diego, CA 92116-2429 Mac*Chat may be copied freely, provided that all copies are left intact and unedited. Financial donations are gratefully accepted, to help defray the costs of putting-out one of the fastest-growing newsletters on earth. For more information, send e-mail to , with "Donations" in the Subject line. Mac*Chat back-issues may be found within any Info-Mac ftp archive at /info-mac/per/chat and read with any Web browser at See the end of this file for legalisms and info on how to get a free subscription. Any [comments in brackets] are by Tony Lindsey. Topics: Highlights Of This Issue Editor's Notes Learning Applescript First Virtual - I'M Now An Online Consumer, Part Two Photoshop 3.05 Upgrade & Gif Exporters Industrial-Strength Indexer Finding Techtool Ez135 Cartridge Drive "A Word A Day" Mailing List Typeindexer Tips For America Online Users - Start Designing Your Web Page! Tips For America Online Users - Downloading Mac*Chat Back-Issues The Best Way To Read Mac*Chat Back-Issues New Jobs Legalisms Free Subscriptions To This Newsletter Highlights Of This Issue ------------------------ I talk about my efforts to learn AppleScript and why, finish my diary of what it was like to open a First Virtual account and spend some bucks over the Internet, we talk about the new version of Photoshop and goodies that come with it, Toby tells us about a great document-indexer, Ken tells us where to find TechTool, we get more info about the new EZ135 drive, several fans of the Word a Day mailing list tell us about it, we get news about a very nice type-management tool, I begin the discussion about America Online's new (primitive, but available) Web-page service, I explain how to find Mac*Chat back issues and point out the issue that makes reading Mac*Chat super-easy, we hear about some great New Jobs for Mac users, and hear about two books that can explain a lot about the New Job Market. Editor's Notes -------------- By Tony Lindsey Ahhh - It's so satisfying to be back on track! I'm getting plenty of high-quality e-mail for the next few issues of the newsletter, subscribers are getting their weekly issues again, and I'm very happy that the technical difficulties are over! Learning Applescript -------------------- By Tony Lindsey I've been spending the last few weeks learning AppleScript. Where on earth am I finding the spare time? AppleScript comes free with System 7.5. It's a language that allows me to control the programs on the Mac with a high degree of automation. It's not difficult to learn for most people, but I tend to learn things backwards. I only open the manual whenever I want to look things up! I just dive in and mess around until I've wrestled it to the ground. Later on, I'll read the manual and be thrilled to find easier ways to get things done. Why would I want to learn such a thing? Because we've arrived at a point in computer complexity where it's very easy to create beautiful documents in a wonderfully efficient way, but then we're expected to use our time-savings to create and organize even MORE work. I find myself and my clients spending too much time doing repetitive work that involves grabbing information, passing it through several changes, and then outputting it in some attractive or useful way. AppleScript, being built-into the operating system, allows me to set up a simple program that can take over other programs (such as QuarkXpress, JPEGview, the Finder and America Online), and make them do the work themselves, one after the other. In the meantime, I can be swaying gently in a hammock, sipping pineapple juice and humming a few dance tunes from my youth. Yeah, right. More likely, I'll find some OTHER reason to be too darned busy! I have had two good books to help me along - Danny Goodman's _AppleScript Handbook_ (I'm a big fan of his writing) and _The Tao of AppleScript_ by Derrick Schneider, Hans Hansen and Tim Holmes. The second book is very, very warm & fuzzy in its style, so I'm recommending it more than Danny's book for people who REALLY hate to read manuals. Personally, I'm very pleased with both of them. They're both from Hayden Books (800-428-5331): What are the other recommended books and tutorials, very best utilities, add-ons and Internet sites for AppleScript fans and students? First Virtual - I'M Now An Online Consumer, Part Two ---------------------------------------------------- By Tony Lindsey In the last issue, I used my aggravation with a shareware product's reminders to pay my fees as a goad to make me open up my own First Virtual account. This allows me to transfer funds electronically with no fears of hackers making-off with my money. See back-issues #67, 81 and 90-92. Seven hours after I spent ten minutes and two bucks to set up my account, I received an e-mail message giving me my unique First Virtual code. I was determined to use my newfound buying power to purchase the PhotoGIF program from BoxTop Software. I fired-up the Register program that simplifies the process of sending-in my shareware fees (It came in the same folder as the PhotoGIF software). I typed a "1" in the field asking me how many copies I was paying for, typed my First Virtual code in the appropriate field, and then clicked "Save." This saved a SimpleText file, which I opened, selected all of the text, copied it, and then pasted it into a new e-mail message. I typed "shareware@kagi.com" into the address field and clicked "Send." The next morning, I received a message from First Virtual telling me that an order had been requested, which required a reply. I replied with the single word "Yes" and sent it off. Total cost? About twenty seconds and $25 for the Photoshop GIF plug-in. If I had said "No," it would have canceled the order. If I had replied "Fraud," it would have instantly shut-down my account to avoid further problems and alerted the folks at First Virtual. Bottom line: I like the First Virtual system. It works, it's good. All the words I've typed on the topic have been a lot more bother than the actual setup and use. My next step is to set myself up as a First Virtual Merchant. I really like the idea of getting electronically paid for ads in Chat*Ads, once that separate newsletter is up and running. Photoshop 3.05 Upgrade & Gif Exporters -------------------------------------- By Tony Lindsey In issue #92, I mentioned a nice plug-in module for Photoshop that allowed me to export GIF 89a image files that are perfectly suited for people publishing information on the World Wide Web. Immediately after that, Adobe shipped the bug-fix 3.05 upgrade for Photoshop 3.04. This includes a free plug-in that exports those desirable 89a files. DO NOT bother trying to upgrade your Photoshop unless you are already using version 3.04! However, the GIF 89a plug-in will work with version 3.0 or above - it was ignored by my elderly version 2.51. Sigh. Yes, I know it's time to upgrade, I suppose. 3.04's main advantage is for folks using the newest 604-chip PowerMacs, such as the 7500, 8500 and 9500 - It greatly improves the speed. On the topic of PhotoGIF, the other GIF 89a plug-in, I received the newest update automatically (since I paid for the previous version) and the following text: The Adobe GIF89a Export plug-in has capabilities that PhotoGIF does not and PhotoGIF in-turn has capabilities that GIF89a Export does not, most important of which is the fact that it is a file format plug-in and can open GIF files while maintaining transparency and interlacing settings allowing for easy editing and fast saving. ------- By Ken Hancock Adobe has now released their free GIF 89a export filter as part of the Photoshop 3.0.5 upgrade. It's available from their web site: ------- By siple@infinet.com (Mark Siple) The PhotoShop 3.05 update is available from Industrial-Strength Indexer --------------------------- By Toby Moore In response to Isaiah Cox's request for *very* powerful indexing tools in Mac*Chat #92: Check out EndNote Plus 2.0 by Niles & Assoc. It's available through the usual Mac mail order catalogues. I'm not sure it can do exactly what you describe, but it is an excellent bibliographic database (5 mice from _MacUser_). I used an earlier version when writing my Ph.D. dissertation, & it saved my sanity. However, I didn't have the complex indexing task you have. Finding Techtool ---------------- By Ken Workman In Mac*Chat #092, Jeff Brett mentioned the use of "TechTool." [It's an essential utility that allows anyone to PROPERLY manage that pesky desktop-rebuilding chore, manage and rebuild the Parameter RAM, etc. I strongly recommend it.] It is very useful but also very hard to locate. After much searching I managed to find this freeware at *Editorial Comment:* I was very saddened by the statistics of the donations to Mac*Chat as of issue #092. Only 21 folks could afford the $10? Heck, I'm retired and on a fixed income but I was pleased to be able to help support the continuance of Mac*Chat. Here's hoping that you get on the order of 5,000 to 10,000 paying subscribers. That's the number I would estimate that would pay for the great information available in Mac*Chat! Ez135 Cartridge Drive --------------------- By Al Goldsmith As others have undoubtedly copied to you by now, Syquest EZ135 has on-off switch and push-the-switch selectable SCSI asddress lacking in the Iomega ZIP (either-or one of two addresses, always"on"). Also, the first disk furnished with EZ135 includes DiskFit Direct and it works just fine on a multidisk backup, "ejecting" and calling for each new disk - with user-selectable backups of"everything", or "folders", or "files", etc. Restores in reverse -aaand, individual files can be accessed from the back-up disks. Faster than ZIP too. Using the included Silver Lining driver, it may be turned on during a session and mounted when needed other utilities will also mount, depending on driver used. I've been very pleased with the EZ135. ----- By Jeff Porten > The box had no designation as Mac or PC specific. The floppy that > came with it was PC format and had some Mac software on it (which > I never got to work.) There were two very brief instruction pages > included - one for Mac and one for PC. So the question arose, can > you use the media to transfer files between Macs and PCs? That's not quite true. The box indicates whether the drive is IDE (primarily for IBMs, but also good with the new PowerMacs, I believe), or SCSI (primarily for Macs, but some IBMs as well). The SCSI box indicates that it can be used with Macs and IBMs, but the IDE box only says IBM's. I've only worked with the SCSI drive. The disk that comes with it is indeed in IBM format, because the 135 meg disk is in Mac format. The IBM disk is for IBM SCSI users who want to format the disk for their use. When I installed an EZ drive for a client, we had no need for the floppy. There is a program on there that suggests the right SCSI number, but if you know the system (and know which numbers are usually reserved: 0, 3, and 7) there's little need for it. Incidentally, Incredible Universe has the EZ drive on sale for $189, which is over $40 cheaper than the catalogs. "A Word A Day" Mailing List --------------------------- By Rick Sciacca In the last issue of Mac*Chat, a reader asked about A Word A Day. Here's the info for him: To subscribe or unsubscribe, email wsmith@wordsmith.org with subject "subscribe " or "unsubscribe" -------- By Duncan A.Word.A.Day: Contact: Anu Garg Purpose: Exploring Strange New Words. The music and magic of words--that's what A.Word.A.Day is all about. This is a mailing list from a wordserver which mails out an English vocabulary word and its definition (with occasional commentary) daily. ------ By Thomas Philip I have been using that list for six months now and find it an interesting read every morning, to say the least. Typeindexer ----------- By [The following message is not something I normally let through into the newsletter. It seems vaguely similar to a press-release that is aimed to get under my radar. I'm letting it through because it appears to be a fine product, even though the demo version completely ignored my TrueType Holiday Font collection. It work from the PostScript Type 1 Printer fonts, so it could be a boon for "Font Piggies" with a gazillion typefaces to manage. I've already urged the author to re-format the 15-examples-per-page output to make it ideal for a 3-ring binder, and to make it easier for folks outside the USA to order the upgraded version. I assume the following is from the official blurb about TypeIndexer:] >>TypeIndexer(tm) allows Macintosh users to catalog and print samples from all PostScript fonts stored on any live media, without having to install the fonts or open them. TypeIndexer will automatically search an entire drive and find all PostScript fonts stored in any location (folders, sub-folders) or, you may limit the search by selecting only the fonts for which you need samples. A master index of any font list may be exported as a tab delimited file containing the following information: screen name, file name, file path, family name, full name, file creator, weight, version and notice. Imported into a database program this information can be used to search and organize font libraries. TypeIndexer occupies only 325 K of disk space and can process an unlimited number of files. Requires: Macintosh,System 6.0.7 or higher, any PostScript Printer Suggested Retail Pricing: $49.95 - Includes 26 Type 1 Postscript Fonts <<< The demo version of TypeIndexer is located here - that I'm aware of. http://www-chem.ucdavis.edu/mac/v13/IMp95-13.html#item17 http://users.aol.com/tindexer/TI.htm Tips For America Online Users - Start Designing Your Web Page! -------------------------------------------------------------- By Tony Lindsey Please notice the AOL address a couple of paragraphs above this. It is one of the very first to use America Online's newly-created service allowing folks to post their own Web pages to promote their small or large businesses. This is important! Here's why... ------- I've been snooping around the Internet section on AOL, and I'm intrigued. It appears that a determined AOL user can now create and display a few Web pages and graphics (up to 2 megabytes) on the World Wide Web. Why would you want to? You would know better than I would, once you've tried it out, but you may want to promote your business, club, church, hobby, or whatever. You WILL have a Web page at some point. It's as likely as your having a telephone or a radio! You may as well get started now if you're the type who is an early adopter. I'm planning to type the step-by-step instructions on how you can get your pages online and available, starting with the next issue, but in the meantime, you can snoop around and find out more on your own. Sign on to AOL, go to the Internet Connection section, click on FTP, and then read through the "My Place FAQ." These Frequently Asked Questions will help you a lot later on. You're also going to want to have your study-materials ready (I recommend Mac*Chat back-issues 66-69, 71-72, 74-75, 78, 85-86, 88 and 90 - They're easy to read). Tips For America Online Users - Downloading Mac*Chat Back-Issues ---------------------------------------------------------------- By Tony Lindsey I'd also click "Go To FTP" and then open the "sumex-aim.stanford.edu/info-mac" section. Scroll down to Periodical and choose MacChat. You'll find all of the back-issues of Mac*Chat. Use Stuffit Expander to translate the ones that end with ".hqx" to a more-useful form, which is plain text that can be read in any word-processor. The Best Way To Read Mac*Chat Back-Issues ----------------------------------------- By Tony Lindsey If there's anyone who hasn't already started using the best-possible way to read Mac*Chat text files, I'd like to point-out that the step-by-step instructions are explained fully in issue #73. New Jobs -------- By Jess Porter, Gaithersburg, Maryland I started doing Graphics and Desktop publishing here in the Washington DC metro area, in January of 1987. Since then, I have been very successful as a "Contractor",. After about three years of Graphics and Desktop publishing, I did a lot of software and operating system training. After about three years of training, I got into Network Administration, the area I want to stay in. Along with network administration always comes software support, helping the end users. As a contract network administrator, I work for different contract firms in the metro area, that send me to there client sites. All of my work is in Defense and Intelligence. My pay has consistently risen every year since 1987. This is not creative work, but highly technical work of a repetitive nature, however I enjoy that. Apple has a new certification program; Apple Certified Server Engineer, (ACSE), which I start studying for in the next two weeks. You can get information on Apple Certification at: http://www-abs.apple.com-acse/ In April of 1989, I wrote an article in the Washington Apple-Pi Journal, about doing Macintosh applications for a living, it was very well received. Wash Apple-Pi, Approx. 5500 member Macintosh users group. I believe I may have been one of the very first persons, to do Macintosh contracting for a living. There were others, as I worked with them. The 80's were very prosperous for Government contracts. -------- By Alun Severn, West Midlands, United Kingdom Charles Handy is a business thinker who has written widely about the way the world of work is changing - many of the social/economic ideas currently in circulation (the disappearance of the corporation, the network organisation etc.) come from him. Readers might find his books (especially the most recent, The Empty Raincoat) helpful and interesting. [I asked: "Do you get any kind of financial or personal benefit from the book's sales?" He assured me he did not.] THE EMPTY RAINCOAT: CHARLES HANDY UK: Hutchinson (Hbk); Arrow Books (Pbk) US: Random House OUT OF CONTROL: THE NEW BIOLOGY OF MACHINES, KEVIN KELLY UK: Fourth Estate (Pbk) US: Addison Wesley Inc The "New Sorts of Employment" articles appearing in MacChat brought to mind two recent books which I have found extremely helpful in trying to understand the economic and social forces currently reshaping the patterns of our employment. Handy believes that we are witnessing the death of the organisation as we know it. Already, organisations employ only 55 per cent of the workforce on a fulltime basis - just 38 per cent of working age adults. The organisation may well continue "organising" work, he suggests, but will not necessarily employ those who are carrying it out. This search for corporate savings is fuelling what some commentators refer to as jobless growth. Flatter, leaner hierarchies are producing "downsized" organisations, often with physically distant workers who are home- or teleworking, self-employed, or left to create their own employment. This is not, according to Handy, a temporary employment blip but the shape of the future - a view supported by Wired magazine's Kevin Kelly, albeit from a rather different and more technological perspective. Both books highlight another interesting consequence of this restructuring. They speak of the birth of "virtual corporations", loose associations of teams and individuals, where control is dispersed amongst many and requires widespread co-operation. The future belongs to those who can become organised in networks, able to identify and form temporary, even paradoxical, alliances and partnerships. Our old model of the closely bounded organisation, Kelly suggests, is no longer valid and is gradually being replaced with something resembling a loosely bounded ecosystem. Both writers, it should be stressed, emphatically put people first. I would urge anyone who, like me, is trying to make sense of their working lives to get hold of and read these two excellent and humane books. ----- By Michael Kaufman, Carlsbad, California I work with a group with a virtual organization (a group of independent consultants that live in different cities around the US). We support industrial based organizations (almost all organizations that we can think of are based on industrial models) to transform into 21st Century organizations (based on information models or knowledge based models). As a virtual organization we communicate extensively with e-mail and sometimes produce products electronically with people working in 4 or 5 different cities. That's the big picture. The little picture usually takes the form of gathering a group of people into an environment (that we travel around with - it goes on a truck) and facilitate them through a creative process. The environment and the process are an example of a way of working that we feel is more in line with an information/knowledge based world (I could probably write a book on this and I understand this may be cryptic, but you asked for well-paying information on 1990's New Jobs that change constantly and defy casual description). The environment and the process are technology rich and supported by a lot of Macintosh computers. The simple way to describe what we do is to say that we are moving as close to 'real time' as we can. We publish a minimum of 2 documents/books in 48 hours after working with the client for 3 days (32 hours). One is a chronological record of the time together and the evolution of ideas. The other is more like a summary or synthesis (of which we add value to the participants work). Macintoshes are used in everything from capturing the words, to digitizing video, to scanning hand drawn art and incorporating it into the text, to searching the Internet or AOL for relevant knowledge, to desktop publishing and presentations, to whatever is needed. We create slide shows (digital and paper based), video documentation (20 to 30 minute pieces that capture the essence of 3 days work), web pages, desktop published summary documents, cartoons, etc. - anything that will support the client in shrinking time, and doing more work then they have ever done before (in such a short time frame) and take their creative ideas and put them into a form that is usable. Essentially, we call ourselves knowledge workers and we have a definite idea of what that means (I think it's different from the traditional concept of knowledge work which is more like a definition of a white collar worker). I have been doing this kind of work for about 8 years. I am 39 years old, a high school graduate and all of my 'education' has been in the world of doing. I have been very fortunate to work with some exceptional people doing some exceptional things. The hours are very long and the work very intense at times however 95% of the time what we are doing is 'really cool' and pushes the envelope of the technology (or, if not, we can't wait to get the time to do new things and push things further). The pay is very good depending on the client and most of the clients are pretty large, Fortune 500, Government, Military and/or good sized businesses. I have a couple of friends that are working very closely with Executives in major organizations as their personal 'knowledge worker' (as employees). Their jobs run the gamut from desktop publishing, to slide show presentations, to financial projections, to Notes databases, etc. They are the 'translators' and 'facilitators' of the executive's vision into tangible, useful vehicles that allow things to move ahead 'faster, easier, more fun, etc.'. Some might consider then glorified secretaries but they have to know business and understand a very large context in order to be successful. When I am not working with this group of folks I do bits of work consulting in the world of education, helping to move that world out of the dark ages and into the 21st Century and I have a handful of friend that I consult in their use of Macintosh computers. I know that's a lot to swallow but again, you asked for unusual jobs that didn't exist before. Legalisms --------- Copyright 1989-1995 Tony Lindsey. Whole issues of Mac*Chat may be copied freely, provided that all copies are left intact and unedited. Small excerpts of Mac*Chat may be reproduced for personal use or by nonprofit groups (such as Mac User Groups) or for other non-commercial publications if full credit is given. Please contact the editor for any other publication requests. 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: 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 subscription, how to end it (if desired) and general listserv info. You 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 / ================= \/ =================================================