QuarkXPress 6 for Mac OS X Ships — Quark claims it will begin shipping QuarkXPress 6 to customers this week, finally delivering the long-awaited Mac OS X version of the desktop publishing software. The new version adds direct PDF exporting capabilities, improves its Web page creation tools, broadens some output features, and offers full-resolution previews of imported images (though you must register the program with Quark to activate this last feature). QuarkXPress 6 also adds layout spaces to its feature set, a method of sharing style sheets, hyphenation settings, colors, and lists among multiple layouts.

<http://www.quark.com/products/xpress/>

Still, the real news here is that at long last a Mac OS X-native version of QuarkXPress is available. Apple has singled out the lack of QuarkXPress 6 as a reason for low Power Mac sales, reasoning that many publishing professionals are waiting for QuarkXPress before upgrading to new machines that can boot into only Mac OS X. With QuarkXPress 6 finally shipping, it will be interesting to see if Power Mac sales do indeed pick up, or if publishers instead choose to either hang onto old hardware running older versions of QuarkXPress or switch over to Adobe InDesign. QuarkXPress 6 requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later and a minimum of 128 MB of RAM. The software’s retail price is $1,045 for a single-user license, but Apple is selling it online for $900; upgrades cost anywhere from $200 to $500, based on your previous version (see Quark’s Web site for details). [JLC]

<http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/>

<http://www.apple.com/macosx/applications/ quarkxpress/>

<http://www.quark.com/products/xpress/purchase/>

QuicKeys X2 Beefs Up Macros — CE Software has released QuicKeys X2, the latest Mac OS X version of their long-standing macro utility (see "QuicKeys X: Return of the Ghost" in TidBITS-602). Along with a redesigned interface, this release brings to Mac OS X capabilities that previously existed only in the classic version of QuicKeys. For instance, QuicKeys X2 can now watch your actions and record them for later playback, which simplifies making multiple-step shortcuts. More automated tasks have returned as well, so you can now store and retrieve images and text within shortcuts, find and activate buttons by name or location, and find and access pop-up menus by name or location. The return of some programming constructs, including repeat loops, waiting for user actions, and feedback dialogs, will also make multiple-step shortcuts significantly more powerful. Other improvements and new features include customizable date and time formats, a shortcut debugger that runs through multiple step shortcuts one step at a time, an inspector window that helps you configure shortcut behavior, tabbed toolbars, and more control over which applications are affected by specific shortcuts. QuicKeys X2 requires Mac OS X 10.2.3 or later. It costs $100, with upgrades between $20 and $70, depending on your current version of QuicKeys. A 30-day trial version is available as a 10.5 MB download. [ACE]

<http://www.cesoft.com/products/qkx.html>

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06603>

<http://www.cesoft.com/products/qkx2- upgrade.html>

<http://www.cesoft.com/downloads/demos.html>

NoteTaker 1.5: Even More Noteworthy — AquaMinds has released version 1.5 of their flagship outliner, NoteTaker, with many improvements (see "Take Note of NoteTaker" in TidBITS-677). References to external files are now aliases, which work even if a target file is moved. Clippings can now be more informative about their source; for example, clipping text from a Web browser identifies the source by application and URL. A new Find All button gathers links to all search results in a single drawer. A history of visited pages is maintained; you can view it, or just step back and forward as in a browser. Links can now emanate from a stretch of text (not just an entry as a whole). Keyboard navigation is much improved, and menu keyboard shortcuts are completely customizable; the look of documents can be heavily customized as well. All NoteTaker documents in your Documents folder are now treated as a library; thus, they are listed in a drawer in any document, and you can open any page of, and search in, a library document even if it isn’t open to begin with. All sections and pages in the current document are also listed in this drawer, so you can navigate to a specific page easily. The upgrade is free for registered users, otherwise NoteTaker 1.5 costs $70, or $40 for academic use, and a free 30-day trial version is available as a 5.7 MB download. NoteTaker 1.5 requires Mac OS X 10.2 or higher. [MAN]

<http://www.aquaminds.com/introducing1_5.jsp>

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07157>

<http://www.aquaminds.com/updates.jsp>

Security Update 2003-06-09 2.0 — Last week, Apple released Security Update 2003-06-09, which addresses an obscure potential security problem related to using Apple Filing Protocol to share a Network File System (NFS) mounted volume. It also fixes a problem with LDAP and Kerberos. Needless to say, most people aren’t going to run into these problems, but many people installed the update anyway. Unfortunately, the update also prevented users from clicking the Login button to log in (pressing Return still worked). Version 2.0 reportedly solves that problem. It’s a 1.4 MB download and is also available from Software Update. [ACE]

<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html? artnum=120223>

Microsoft Releases IE 5.2.3 for Mac OS X — Right after confirming that the only future development on Internet Explorer for the Macintosh would be bug fixes (more later in this issue), Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 5.2.3 for Mac OS X, enhancing compatibility with proxy servers and fixing a few bugs (including the annoying Mac OS X bug that caused a pop-up menu to appear much of the time when you clicked a bookmark on the Favorites Bar). Internet Explorer 5.2.3 requires Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later and is a 6.7 MB download. [ACE]

<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/DOWNLOAD/IE/ie5_ osx.asp>

Two weeks after Microsoft announced it would stop development on a stand-alone version of Internet Explorer 6 for Windows – instead continuing to integrate Web browsing functionality into the Windows operating system – the company has now confirmed that there will never be an Internet Explorer 6 for Macintosh. Citing competition with Apple’s Safari Web browser, Microsoft has said that it will continue to release bug fixes for Internet Explorer 5 for both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X as necessary, but the company has halted development on Internet Explorer 6. In fact, development stopped right after the public beta release of Safari in January of 2003, though the decision just became official last week. Simultaneously, Jimmy Grewal, the Internet Explorer program manager, announced that he would be leaving Microsoft to pursue other interests in his home country of Dubai.

<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/ie/>

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

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

There’s nothing surprising about this move, given Microsoft’s lackluster support for Internet Explorer on the Mac over the last few years, coupled with the fact that there’s no business case for engaging a free program in a fierce technical competition with Apple. Microsoft simply doesn’t see a Macintosh Web browser as a strategic direction now that it has won the browser war with Netscape (and the numerous self-inflicted bullet holes in Netscape’s corporate shoes bear evidence to all the help Microsoft had in winning that fight). By some accounts, Internet Explorer owns about 95 percent of the overall browser market share on both Windows and the Mac. There’s also some thought that de-emphasizing the Web browser is part of Microsoft’s overall push towards .NET and Web services.

<http://news.com.com/2100-1045_3-1017126.html>

More interesting is some of the language coming out of Microsoft with regard to relegating Internet Explorer for Macintosh to the living death that is maintenance mode. A Microsoft spokeswoman was quoted in an AP report as saying that Apple can create a better Web browser than any third party because Apple has access to functionality in the operating system that’s not available to others, which is exactly the charge made against Microsoft during the company’s long-running antitrust battle. The quote could be interpreted to mean that it’s impossible to compete with an operating system company that also develops applications (and that’s not fair) or that Web browsing functions should of course be part of the operating system (which is what Microsoft has been saying all along).

<http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/030613/microsoft_ macintosh_2.html>

<http://geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/ 490.html>

Despite still being in public beta, Safari is a very good Web browser, and an improved final release should be coming soon, hopefully with compatibility for the sites the current beta can’t access. Safari has rocketed to being one of the most popular Macintosh Web browsers in six short months, and in fact, more people browse the TidBITS Web site with Safari than with any other Macintosh Web browser. Without any competition from Internet Explorer, the challenge for Apple, then, is to continue to improve Safari and not just coast on the momentum of the initial release. Hopefully the smaller competitors in the browser market – Camino, OmniWeb, Opera, and others – will help keep Apple honest. After all, Apple bundles Mail with Mac OS X, and yet numerous email programs like Eudora, Mailsmith, PowerMail, QuickMail, and even Microsoft Entourage are not only still actively developed, but provide significantly more power and flexibility than Mail.

Apple took a risk when it introduced AirPort Extreme in January of 2003 because the IEEE 802.11g specification that AirPort Extreme relies on hadn’t yet been approved. 802.11g improves on 802.11b, which Apple called AirPort, by increasing the raw speed to 54 Mbps while maintaining backward compatibility with 802.11b devices (see "AirPort Extreme: In the Key of G" in TidBITS-663). Apple’s gamble paid off 12-Jun-03 with the ratification of 802.11g by the IEEE, the engineering standards group that developed both 802.11g and 802.11g.

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

<http://www.ieee.org/hpnews_802.11g>

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07047>

Greg "Joz" Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of hardware product marketing, said, "There have been no significant changes to the specification," since January. However, Apple has had to make tweaks along the way and Joz said there would be an update before the end of June that brings AirPort Extreme into full compliance and compatibility with the final 802.11g spec.

Last month, reports circulated that the IEEE had reduced 802.11g’s speed from 54 Mbps to less than 25 Mbps, panicking some users who had already invested in 802.11g hardware. Fortunately, the IEEE didn’t change the speed: they were merely clarifying the throughput of an 802.11g-based network in real world situations (similarly, 802.11b never achieves 11 Mbps; roughly half that is more common in real world situations). Networks always have overhead for processing packets and managing traffic, and 802.11g’s overhead is quite large compared to conventional Ethernet.

<http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/ mobile/story/0,10801,81450,00.html? nas=PM-81450>

Interestingly, Apple’s AirPort Extreme chipset supplier Broadcom and three other major wireless chipset developers – Agere, Intersil and Texas Instruments – are all working on solving the throughput problem. Broadcom said that its Xpress technology will increase the speed on 802.11g-only networks that use its technology by 27 percent and on mixed 802.11b/g networks by nearly 75 percent simply by more intelligently packaging packets. Even if only one device transmitting on the network uses Xpress, you can still see speed improvements. Their "packet bursting" technology works fine with older devices, and Broadcom is part of an effort in the industry to roll out a compatible version of this notion soon. (Technically, Xpress uses a subset of a draft version of IEEE 802.11e, a specification that should be finished in the next year for improving throughput and streaming media capabilities.) Broadcom also said this capability is already latent in the chips they’ve delivered to equipment makers like Apple, and it’s up to each equipment maker to decide whether or not to turn the feature on. Given the timing on Broadcom’s announcement, it’s possible that Apple will throw in this Xpress feature later this month with the AirPort Extreme firmware upgrade.

<http://www.80211-planet.com/news/article.php/ 2222031>

The next step for 802.11g is inclusion in the Wi-Fi certification standard that currently ensures that all 802.11b (and 802.11a) devices are compatible with one another, no matter what company has developed the underlying chipset. The Wi-Fi Alliance, a trade group that manages the Wi-Fi certification process and allows compatible products to display the Wi-Fi seal, has said it plans to start testing and certifying products this month.

<http://www.wi-fi.org/>

With fanfare at some Apple retail stores last weekend, Apple released Final Cut Pro 4, the latest version of its high-end, nonlinear, digital video editing software. According to Apple, the release includes 300 new features; many of these features affect users’ workflow by offering more sophisticated techniques (for instance, clip merging and linking has become more complex and powerful) and multiple ways of accomplishing the same task (for example, the new Audio Mixer provides yet another way to work with audio). A new RT Extreme engine delivers real-time compositing and effects (especially if your Mac is a dual-processor Power Mac G4), and new 32-bit, floating-point-per-channel video processing delivers higher-quality rendering. You can now map keyboard shortcuts to most (if not all) commands and set up custom toolbars in many windows. Users switching from Avid-based systems may particularly welcome the new keyboard shortcut customization.

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

In the goodies department, Final Cut Pro 4 now ships with additional software: LiveType for even fancier titles; Soundtrack for creating your own music; Compressor for encoding digital media in a variety of formats, complete with playback that lets you compare your media before and after encoding; and Cinema Tools (formerly a $1,000 stand-alone product), database software that tracks dupes, cuts, and other details if your source material is analog film.

Lisa Brenneis, author of Final Cut Pro 3 for Macintosh: Visual QuickPro Guide and other Final Cut books, summed up the new release, commenting, "Now that Apple has Final Cut Express for users who value simplicity over advanced features, Final Cut Pro is free to become a pro-level monster of an nonlinear editor."

Final Cut Pro 4 costs $1,000; upgrades cost $400. If you purchased Final Cut Pro on or after 06-Apr-03, you can upgrade for approximately $50 if you postmark your request by 20-Jun-03; check Apple’s Web site for details.

Back in February, Apple quietly started a program to replace the noisy fans in the Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors). For $20 shipping and handling, Apple will ship you a new power supply and fan along with installation instructions. The program runs through 30-Jun-03, so there’s still time to order if you haven’t yet done so.

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07081>

<http://depot.info.apple.com/?program=acoustic>

I received my replacement power supply several weeks ago, but I didn’t find the time to install it in my dual-processor 1 GHz Power Mac G4 until recently. Since installation involves removing numerous cables and drive carriers as well as the actual fan and power supply, I wanted to make sure I could afford some downtime if I screwed something up. Luckily, I didn’t, and I now have a quieter Mac.

Installation Process — Apple’s instructions are detailed and accurate, though the photos are a bit fuzzy. The photos in the PDF version that you can download from the page linked above are higher quality, and you might find it worthwhile to download and print them on a color printer, if available.

The entire installation process took me about an hour. I’m comfortable taking Macs apart, but I was working methodically. An expert repair person could probably do it in 20 minutes; if you’ve never opened a Mac before, it probably makes more sense to pay a dealer to install the new power supply for you.

Overall, the instructions worked well, and I had no significant troubles, although convincing the new power supply to slot into the tabs in the case took several tries. The instructions aren’t kidding about needing a Phillips screwdriver with a magnetized tip; my normal Wiha screwdrivers lack magnetized tips, and removing and reinstalling the screw that secures the back hard drive carrier would have been extremely tricky if I hadn’t found another screwdriver with a magnetized tip.

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

Speaking of screws, that’s the one place the instructions fall down completely. They do fine at telling you which screws to remove, but they’re silent about when to reinstall those screws until the very end, when they remind you to check that all the screws you removed were in fact reinstalled. As long as you keep the various screws separate, and refer back to the disassembly steps, though, it’s easy to figure out when to replace which screws.

Quieter, Less Powerful — The new power supply is rated at only 360 watts, compared to 400 watts for the original. Apple says that won’t make any difference. Similarly, the new fan appears to have slightly different specs.

More to the point, is it quieter? Yes, though it’s certainly not silent. I looked into buying a sound meter from Radio Shack, but theirs went down only to 50 dB, and I wasn’t sure if that would be low enough. So, lacking a real sound meter, I figured out a different method of testing. My iBook has an built-in microphone, and the Mac OS X Sound preferences pane’s Input tab has an Input level display of 15 "lozenges" that look almost exactly like those answer bubbles you have to fill in with a #2 pencil on standardized test forms.

By maxing out the Input volume setting (thus increasing the sensitivity of the iBook’s internal microphone to the maximum), I was able to determine that the original power supply generally registered 6 lozenges, occasionally dipping to 5. I took that reading right next to the machine; I also took a reading at where my head is normally located several feet from the machine. That second reading registered 5 lozenges, with frequent dips to 4 and occasional dips to 3.

After performing the power supply transplant and turning the Mac on again, I was pleased to note that the noise level was noticeably lower. Performing the same tests with the iBook revealed initial readings of 3 to 4 lozenges right next to the Mac and 2 to 4 lozenges at head level, with 3 lozenges being the most common reading.

There’s no question these results are highly unscientific, since the precision of the Sound preferences pane’s Input level display is sorely lacking. I also wasn’t able to control for the temperature of the room, and since the fans are variable-speed, their noise will undoubtedly change as they increase speed to deal with higher temperatures.

My main complaint is that the new noise of the power supply isn’t entirely even. At a specific fan speed, there’s a slight burbling, and I find that burbling more distracting than the previous noise, which was louder, but even. In an attempt to isolate the burbling, I opened the Power Mac while it was still running (which Apple recommends you don’t do). That messed up the carefully designed airflow, and caused the fans to increase speed – and noise – significantly. I wasn’t able to locate the culprit, and a few minutes after I closed the case, the speed and noise returned to what has seemed like normal so far. After a few weeks, I became more accustomed to the new noises, and the burbling doesn’t bother me as much now.

Worthwhile? If you have a covered Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors), should you spend the $20 on the power supply replacement? I’d say yes, since the only downside is the minimal cost and the slight risk of damaging your Mac if you’re careless while disassembling it. If, for whatever reason, you don’t like the sound of the new power supply, you can always reinstall the old one. Although we initially reported that Apple would provide an airbill to return the old power supply and fan, and the program is called an "exchange," I received no such airbill in my package, and there are no instructions about how to return the old power supply in the box. There is, in fact, a single sheet of paper that says, "The parts you have replaced as part of this exchange program should be disposed of in accordance with local laws." If I remember my classical education, trying to figure out your local laws with regard to the disposal of power supplies is in fact one of the labors of Hercules. So I’m keeping my old power supply, just in case; if you feel the need to get rid of yours, try giving it to whatever local computer recycling center you may have.

This Power Mac G4 is still the noisiest thing in my office, and I think it’s still noisier than the 450 MHz Power Mac G4 it replaced, but it’s better than before. Audio and video professionals who need silence will still likely want to isolate the Mac in another room or in a soundproof enclosure. Most everyone else will probably be happy that the new power supply and fan are indeed quieter, even though this replacement won’t eliminate jealousy over the silence of the fan-less Power Mac G4 Cube and older iMacs.

PayBITS: If Adam’s experience convinced you the power supply swap

is worthwhile, why not say thanks with a few bucks via PayPal?

<https://www.paypal.com/xclick/ business=ace%40tidbits.com>

Learn more about PayBITS: <http://www.tidbits.com/paybits/>

Your finances, medical history, school records, Internet usage – it’s all out there. Any type of information can be tracked through a database, with ramifications both highly useful and, these days, profoundly scary. But before you curse the god-like power of database-tracking, consider its lighter side: Internet-Guided Offline Recreation, or IGOR. A growing number of innovative hobbyists have fun with databases (really), and they’ve established Web sites to track the mostly non-commercial transit of everything from toys to books to money.

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07216>

High-Tech Kula Ring — The indigenous peoples of Papua New Guinea, the Trobriands, and other South Pacific islands participate in a complex ritualistic system that interweaves their cultures and enforces economic bonds and social loyalty. Shell necklaces, yams, armbands, and other objects are exchanged, ceremonially and non-competitively, around a large geographic circle of Melanesian islands, forming what anthropologists call the Kula Ring. Each object is passed along with stories of its previous owners, and the more an object is exchanged, the more valuable it becomes.

<http://www.michie.net/pnginfo/monibagi.html>

<http://tyr.ioa.ucla.edu/Northridge/AsiaMisc/ sld017.htm>

<http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/ anthropology/courses/122/module5/kula_ ring.html>

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 1859735185/tidbitselectro00/>

Perhaps it’s part of the human condition to crave such deeply meaningful and ancient rituals, even in technology-mediated industrial nations. A number of IGOR sites track the motion of things, encouraging the ongoing exchange of ritual objects that reflect the values of modern society: dollar bills, for instance, and books.

Following the Money — Where’s George, which tracks the serial numbers of paper currency, is like money itself: ugly, utilitarian, green, and very popular. Of all forms of IGOR, tracking currency is the easiest: simply enter the bill’s serial number, mark the bill with a short message ("Track this bill at wheresgeorge.com" – use pencil if you don’t want to deface public property), and release it into the world (in other words, spend it). Dollar bills are tracked the most, but Where’s George tracks all bills up to $100.

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

Currency from other countries can be tracked, too. Britons track pounds through DoshTracker, Canadians visit Where’s Willy (which resembles Where’s George) and Canadian Money Tracker, and Japanese trackers use Osatsu ("Bill"). The fastest-growing currency, the Euro, has its own tracking system at Eurobilltracker.

<http://www.doshtracker.co.uk/>

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

<http://www.cdn-money.com/>

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

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

Other Ritual Objects — Geocaching (see "Internet-Guided Offline Recreation (IGOR): Geocaching" in TidBITS-683 for more details) circulates its own currency: "hitchhikers," or objects transferred from cache to cache. Attached to the objects are instructions ("Take me to another cache") and sometimes small logbooks. A specific type of hitchhiker is a "travel bug," marked by metal ID tags bought from Groundspeak, a supplier of geocaching gear. In addition to finding and hiding caches, geocachers enjoy racking up the number of travel bugs they’ve carried and released.

<http://www.geocaching.com/track/>

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07216>

Using a similar method, BookCrossing catalogs a giant global library. Registering a book takes a bit more work than tracking a dollar bill. For one thing, the BookCrossing database generates new identification numbers (BCIDs) instead of just using ISBNs. For another, a book can’t be spent like a dollar bill, nor carried in a wallet or small pocket. So it takes more planning to register a book, print the BCID and instructions on a label, stick the label on the book, and "release it in the wild" (bus, cafe, classroom, waiting room, wherever). When books are found, readers log journal entries on BCID-associated Web pages. Unlike an actual library, BookCrossing doesn’t loan specific books – or even reliably supply them in specific places, because other finders may get to them sooner. But the idea of an organized catalog of free books scattered randomly in public places nevertheless appeals to blithe bibliophiles.

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

Exquisite Corpse — The serendipitous result of collective writing or artwork was dubbed cadavre exquis ("exquisite corpse") by the Surrealists. Creative IGOR projects naturally produce cadavre exquis, delighting and inspiring their participants and admirers.

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

Avid diarists are drawn to The1000JournalProject. As the title suggests, one thousand blank journals were sent to various diarists who added written entries, drawings, and collages, and sent the journals to other diarists. Full journals are sent back to the source, their pages and covers scanned into images, which are posted on the site. Even non-diarists appreciate the colorful images of handwritten entries and artwork.

<http://www.1000journals.com/>

Letterboxing, an exchange-based IGOR similar to Geocaching but lower-tech, appeals to a narrower audience. It requires old-fashioned hunting methods – compass reading, encrypted clues, resourcefulness – instead of GPS coordinates. Letterboxing uses no identification numbers of any kind. Its purpose is to exchange rubber stamps. When a letterboxer, toting a rubber stamp and logbook, finds the container (which may not be easy), she stamps the container’s logbook with her own rubber stamp, and conversely stamps her logbook with the container’s stamp. It’s like the stamping of a passport, without the presence of obnoxious customs people. Participants are encouraged to use unique, even home-carved, rubber stamps, so letterboxing typically attract artists and craftspeople.

<http://www.letterboxing.org/>

Dude, Where’s My Camera? With the advent of digital photography and disposable cameras, taking pictures has become an inexpensive hobby with broad appeal in our image-fascinated culture. This, in turn, has inspired several photography-based IGOR projects. Photo Tag involves passing a disposable camera from one person to another, each taking a single snapshot and mailing the camera to someone else. When the full camera returns to Photo Tag, the film is developed and serial photos are posted. One camera started near the North Pole and was sent to someone in Hawaii, so the film contains pictures of both arctic and tropic scenes.

<http://www.phototag.org/>

GeoSnapper catalogs photos by GPS coordinates; more specifically, the photography of the Degree Confluence Project targets coordinates with integers, like 38 degrees N 123 degrees W, which is near the Point Reyes Lighthouse in Marin County, California.

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

<http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?lat=38 &lon=-123>

Come Together — That no one (except me, as far as I know) has yet labeled this genre of online/offline recreation may be related to the fact that IGOR sites are not typically affiliated with each other. Sometimes an IGOR site refers to similar activities in its informational page. The BookCrossing FAQ, for instance, references Where’s George, Photo Tag, and Geocaching.com to reveal the source of its inspiration: "[W]e thought to ourselves, ‘Okay, what’s something else that people would have fun releasing and then tracking?’ And we thought of books. Which made perfect sense, since everyone (well, almost everyone) loves books. Twenty-eight mostly sleepless nights later, on April 17, 2001, BookCrossing.com was launched."

<http://www.bookcrossing.com/faqs>

The possibilities of IGOR are infinite. (Why not, for example, associate sound or video files with GPS coordinates?) I like to combine different forms of IGOR, such as slipping a Where’s George dollar bill inside a BookCrossing book, which in turn is placed inside a geocache. Some geocaches are letterbox hybrids, so rubber-stamp enthusiasts can find letterbox containers via Geocaching.com. A geocache is also a good place to launch Photo Tag cameras and traveling journals. Combining IGOR types is perhaps the best way to invite adventurous and creative people to participate in activities they might not have known about.

Certainly, IGOR junkies can socialize online. But since the purpose of IGOR is to get people outside and interacting with each other, it’s fitting that enthusiasts meet each other offline. Meetup.com organizes local gatherings according to interest – languages, hobbies, career, even BookCrossing – and democratically allows participants to vote on where and when to meet.

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

<http://bookcrossing.meetup.com/>

It’s no wonder that IGOR is attractive: it’s low-impact, inexpensive, family-friendly, collaborative, and fun, and it elegantly blends real-world activities with the organizing power of cyberspace. Participants probably don’t care if IGOR is a modern-day high-tech Kula Ring or cadavre exquis – they just want to get outside and find neat stuff. As long as the Internet is around (but GPS Selective Availability isn’t), it’s probably here to stay.

[Mariva H. Aviram, author of several books and numerous articles, has a passion for the outdoors, art, books, film, culture, and satire. More information can be found at her Web site.]

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

PayBITS: Are you ready to go IGORing? Thank Mariva via PayPal

directing you to a geocache, BookCrossing book, or IGOR gathering!

<https://www.paypal.com/xclick/ business=paypal%40mariva.com>

Learn more about PayBITS: <http://www.tidbits.com/paybits/>

Choosing a projector — Suggestions for buying a portable multimedia projector for use on the road, including a discussion of how screen resolution affects display. (15 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1962>

Geocaching origins and alternatives — Other types of offline searching adventures prompted by Mariva Aviram’s article "Internet Guided Offline Recreation (IGOR): Geocaching," including some that appear in the follow-up article in this week’s issue. (4 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1963>

Macs and GPS devices — Finding and using software for GPS devices that work with the Mac. (3 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1964>

QuickTime 6.3 comments — Which versions of QuickTime work under Mac OS 9? Find out here. (2 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1965>

Selective Availability and Homeland Security — Selective Availability of the GPS network, which degraded GPS signals for non-governmental users, was removed during the Clinton administration. Will the U.S. Office of Homeland Security reinstate it to thwart its use by terrorists? (2 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1970>

Apple and the UNIX trademark — Apple is being sued by The Open Group for using the term "Unix" in conjunction with Mac OS X. (2 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1971>