Updates of Interest

By Mike Hubbartt

1. Apple Updates general site: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/

An important Apple update for this month:

• Apple Security Update 2007-004, released 4/20/2007 – 10 MB (improves MacBook and MacBook Pro compatibility and addresses a security issue).
• Apple Security Update 2007-005 for Mac OS X 10.3.9 and 10.4, released 5/25/2007 –- is available for both client and server editions of OS X 10.3.9 and for both PowerPC and Intel installations of Mac OS X 10.4. Fixes a security flaw in iChat and also improves the security of the following system components: bind; CarbonCore; CoreGraphics; crontabs; fetchmail; file; mDNSResponder; PPP; ruby; screen; texinfo and VPN. Security Update 2007-004 has been incorporated into this security update.
• QuickTime 7.1.6, released 4/02/2007 – 45.1 MB (delivers numerous bug fixes, addresses a critical security issue with QuickTime for Java)

IMPORTANT! Apple announced that Leopard will NOT be available until October, even though they vehemently denied the rumor earlier in the month.

2. Microsoft

A, Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.5 Update

This update contains several improvements to enhance security and stability, including fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code. In addition, this update includes all the improvements released in all previous Office 2004 updates.

Applies to: Office 2004 Standard Edition, Office 2004 Student and Teacher Edition, Office 2004 Professional Edition, Word 2004, Excel 2004, PowerPoint 2004, Entourage 2004.

Released: May 8, 2007

3. Adobe

A. Creative Suite CS3 began shipping mid April. Nice!

4. Montage

A. Mariner released an update in March, April, and now a third on May 2, 2007.

• Element (character, location, camera location, time of day) suggestion lists now popup after a single character (previously required you to type 2 or more characters)
• Fixed a problem that prevented Annotations from working
• Fixed a problem where applying styles (Format, Bold, Italic) would fail in Scenes view, and would not be saved or printed although style changes appeared to be applied in Script View.
• Fixed a performance issue where Montage's CPU usage would sometimes increase when a blank unsaved file is open
• Fixed scene insertion location when inserting scene in Full Screen mode
• Fixed a problem where tab key failed to work on page 2 or higher in script view
• Fixed a problem where suggestion lists would disappear upon typing the 3rd character on page 2 or higher in script view
• Text boxes are now centered in Scenes View
• Fixed a number of problems related to inserting scenes in script view: - Page count now remains correct - Page no longer scrolls incorrectly - Cursor placement after scene insertion remains correct - New scene is inserted in the correct location
• Fixed a problem in Script View in Mac OS X - 10.3.9 where keyboard input would fail when typing a scene header, character or anywhere else a popup list was expected
• Fixed a problem in Script View in Mac OS X - 10.3.9 where typing the start of a slug line would make typed text disappear
• Fixed a problem where changing name of one character (such as Fred) may affect name of another similarly-named character (such as Alfred)
• Fixed a problem where inserting a scene in a numbered script would result in typing problems in new scene
• Increased the width of popup suggestion lists to accommodate longer names
• Fixed a problem where typing dialogue in Script View across pages resulted in dialogue text at top of new page gets formatted as Scene Heading
• Inserting a scene in Scenes view: New scene now has Scene Heading element selected, and cursor is placed at the correct margin for Scene Heading
• Made Script view background same as the dark grey in Scenes View
• Added Category column to the Contact list
• Fixed problem with Apply To popup menu in Scene Numbering sheet so that menu updates correctly, and all menu options can be selected

B. On May 21 while attending the Cannes Film Festival, Mariner announced Montage 1.3. Although the current version supports importing scripts created with Final Draft, version 1.3 will provide ‘Save as Final Draft’, localization for French, German, Spanish and Italian, and support Movie Magic files. Note: The press release did not say how Montage would support Movie Magic – import or save as – so we’ll let you know as soon as we do.

5. May Shameless Astronomy Plug

A. May 2007 issue of Starry Night Times

B. New Starry Night Widget, released 4/19/2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A new scrolling banner across the bottom of the widget for up-to-date news, plus a few other enhancements make this a must-have. Download it today!

To see Starry Night online – http://www.space.com/snserver/snweb.html?zip=55311

D. Pending Eclipses

* 2007 Aug 28: Total Lunar Eclipse

* 2007 Sep 11: Partial Solar Eclipse