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Issue #8      September 22, 2000      Please Wait to be Seated What's New We have no fresh buns this week. We'll hopefully have something cooked up for the next newsletter. With extra gooey icing. The Hidden Question Last week's hidden question was, "What is the name of the Russian nuclear submarine that tragically sank -- taking the lives of all 118 men on board -- in the Barents Sea on August 12, 2000?" The answer was the Kursk. About 80 people answered correctly, and here are the lucky five who won fabulous Be baseball caps: Andreas Thorn -- Sweden Dennis Riis -- Denmark Michael Murray -- Oklahoma Jeremy Nikolai -- Arizona Damijan Hrovat -- Slovenia The Hidden Question Rules: Somewhere in the newsletter there will be a hidden trivia question. If you've registered your copy of BeOS 5, send an e-mail to hidden@be.com with the correct answer (and your name and address, please -- don't worry, I promise you won't get stalked) and you will be entered into a drawing to win some nifty BeOS swag. PLUS your name will be announced in the next newsletter as one of the Big Winners. That is all. Time is Relative One of the many great things about the BeOS is how smart it is. Not only does it save all your searches (BUN #5), it can do searches on relative date descriptions. In other words, not only can you find something in "today's" mail, you can also search within the last hour, week, month, etc. Since dates change as you go (today won't be today tomorrow, and other such Deep Thoughts), this function comes in mighty handy when you can't grasp specific dates but you know the general time period you're looking for. Here's how to check today's e-mail: 1. Open the BeOS Find panel, by choosing Find... from the Be menu. 2. From the "find what" pop-up (which says "All files and folders" by default), choose "E-mail". 3. From the "find by" pop-up (which says "by Name" by default) choose "by Attribute". 4. In the Attribute Query definition area, choose "When after" from the attribute pop-up (which says "Name" by default). 5. Type "yesterday" in the After text field. 6. Click the Search button. This query will find all of the e-mail dated after yesterday -- in other words, today's e-mail. You can save this query as something like "Today's Mail" (see Reusing Your Queries in BUN #5 if you need a refresher), and put it or a link to it anywhere you will find it handy, like your Desktop or the Be menu (How to Add Things to the Be Menu, BUN #4). There are a number of ways to enter dates and times which are "relative" to the current date and time. That is to say, when you do a Find using the criteria described below, your Find will be based on whatever the date and time is when you perform it, plus or minus the modifier you enter. This lets your saved Queries "move" their date criteria forward in time, so that they are always up to date. As I described, the BeOS understands the word "yesterday". It also understands "today" and "tomorrow". And it understands the days of the week ("monday", etc.), "hour", "week", "month", and "year", to which you can add either "last" or "next" as a modifier. So to search for files created in the last 7 days, you can search for files modified after "last week". But that's not all! You can also use the terms "minutes", "hours", "days", "months", and "years" with positive or negative numbers (integers only), for example, searching for "-7 days" is the same as the "last week" modifier described above. When there is a choice of how to interpret a date, the BeOS assumes you want a time after the current time. For example, if today is Wednesday and you just give a time of "monday", the BeOS will interpret that to mean next Monday. If that's not what you want, you may have to be more explicit (use "last monday") or you may have to use a relative time format like "-2 days". You can also use somewhat more formal date formats, such as... 1/15/98 1pm Jan 15th 9:00pm Thursday January 15th 10am Thursday To provide this flexible date interpretation, the BeOS Find function -- and many other time-related functions in the BeOS and in third-party applications -- makes use of a collection of built-in date routines called parsedate(). Anything that uses this routine will allow you to enter times and dates, or ranges of the same, in the casual formats described above. So if there's a date field in some application, try experimenting, and see if it's smart. If it is, this Tip will come in very handy with that application, too! Finally, the definitive reference to the BeOS' parsedate() functionality is the Be Newsletter article Buried Treasures... (http://www-classic.be.com/ aboutbe/benewsletter/Issue101.html), by the Be engineer who wrote the support. This article, while written for programmers, is still interesting and useful to technically inclined users who want even more information than this week's Tip. Check it Out The BeUserTalk discussion list is an open discussion list covering using the BeOS and BeOS software. It's a terrific place to discuss issues important to BeOS users, including software, helpful tips, tools, techniques, great uses of the BeOS, business issues and the like. Desirable topics of discussion might include what you like and don't like about the BeOS; what software you would like to see someone write for the BeOS; what software for the BeOS rocks or blows; good Be-related web sites, or news articles. What Russian won the gold in the first Olympics gold medal awarded in a trampoline event? This is not a general customer support questions type of area (check out FAQs for that), and we have already read all the "you suck," "you rule," "me too," "nyeah nyeah" posts we can stand, so steer clear of those as well. And have fun! Horoscopes ARIES (March 21 - April 19): What's that gleam in your eye? Could it be... mirth? You're up to something, and only after your plan has been enacted will everyone else know. Make the list, check it twice, and then go for it. The most important things are to catch them unexpected and to wear protective eyewear. TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): The planets are indicating a change of pace in your life. Whether this is a good thing is yet to be determined. Your attitude has a lot to do with it. So do your shoes. Think comfortable, yet alluring. GEMINI (May 21 - June 21): In this silly dance called life, there are minor skirmishes to route around. If you happen to excel at this, so much the better for you. If you don't, you're bound to run into more trouble than you deserve. I say have another cocktail and try not to think about any of this. CANCER (June 22 - July 22): You won't lack for advice today: It seems everyone you meet knows what you're doing wrong. But are you doing anything wrong? Yes. Yes, you are. LEO (July 23 - Aug 22): You will learn something to your advantage today, but whether you use what you learn remains to be seen. Let's hope you do, because if you don't, you can be sure someone else will, and one day you will look back and wish you had taken the risk. And then won't you feel foolish, having possessed a good piece of information that you completely wasted. You'll deserve the smack on the head you'll surely get from your loved ones after this. Why, even your cat will be mad and give you the cold shoulder -- even more than usual, that is. Boy that cat is getting fatter every day. You should get it some of that diet cat food. Although it may not work, because my cats eat diet cat food and they're still beached whales, so who knows. They just really like to eat, and I have to keep thier bowls full or they'll find paper and crunch it with their feet until you get so annoyed you just FEED them just to SHUT them up. Those cats drive me crazy sometimes. VIRGO (Aug 23 - Sept 22): While everyone else is rushing here, there and everywhere trying to get things done, you seem to be drifting along without a care in the world. Are you the only one with the right perspective or have you missed something important? It must be the latter. The stars encourage you to panic. LIBRA (Sept 23 - Oct 23): If you need to impress someone in authority, today is the day to let him know you are more than just a pretty face. You also have great ankles. SCORPIO (Oct 24 - Nov 21): Keep what you have to say simple today; the more complicated it gets, the less likely you won't be misunderstood. Unless, of course, your aim isn't to keep people from getting confused. If that's not the case, don't make what you have to say as deep and as difficult as you like. Either way, the words will come easily. SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22 - Dec 21): Things seem to be slightly overwhelming these days, to say the least. Your finances are in a shambles, your best friend hates you, and you can't find good Chinese take-out to save your life. Don't despair. It could be so much worse. You could be hideously ugly. CAPRICORN (Dec 22 - Jan 19): It's good you like surprises, because the planets are lining up something that will astonish you. You like floods and explosions, too, right? AQUARIUS (Jan 20 - Feb 18): There are two types of criticism: constructive and destructive. The first is valid, the second is not. If what you want to tell someone will help, go ahead and say it. If it's going to destroy his confidence, be a nice guy and keep it to yourself. You have a tendency to be a really horrible person. PISCES (Feb 19 - Mar 20): It's the little acts of private kindness that really mean something, not the big ones everyone knows about. You will get the chance to do a good deed for someone today, but it is the kind of good deed only you will know about. That warm feeling you get inside is enough reward. If the warm feeling lasts more than 48 hours, consult a physician. Credits & Legal Stuff Editor, Writer, Your Server This Evening: Wendy Hall Copyeditor, Ready to Take Your Order: Mike Popovic To answer that hidden question, send e-mail to hidden@be.com To write a nice note to Wendy, send e-mail to wendy@be.com The BeOS User Newsletter Copyright (c) 2000 by Be, Inc. All rights reserved. Be, Inc. 800 El Camino Real, Suite 400 Menlo Park, CA 94025 Tel: (650) 462-4100 Fax: (650) 462-4129 Web: http://www.be.com/ Be, BeOS and BeIA are trademarks or registered trademarks of Be Incorporated in the United States and other countries. Other brand product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders. All rights reserved. A grasshopper walks into a bar. The bartender says, "Hey, buddy, we have a drink named after you!" The grasshopper says, "You have a drink named Lenny?"

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