 NewsletterSeptember 2006Newsletter Editor: In This Issue:
Meeting information
Future Meetings:
Minutes of the Aug. 16th 2006 Meeting
The newbie session started at 4PM, and the regular meeting was called to order at 4:30 by President Robert Elphick. Treasurer Carol Parks stated we have $794.70 in our bank account. President Robert was able to obtain gratis funding for our website for another year from Whidbey Telecom, a major achievement saving the club around $250 for the year. Two major business items were discussed: First was the procurement of a replacement club computer, and the Directors have settled upon an Intel 1.8Ghz MacBook with 1Gb of RAM; Secondly, the current computer will be auctioned off to MAGIC members. Purchase will not take place until club funds permit, and a separate communication to all MAGIC members will request tax - deductible contributions to this cause. Similarly, all MAGIC members will be invited to bid for the current computer, the details also to be contained in a separate communication. The meeting's presentation was given by Nancy Ruff on the subject of giving high quality presentations with the Apple Keynote program. She concluded by showing her excellent Keynote presentation on a separate subject. Daryl Thomas MAGIC Moments
Thoughts from a self appointed wizard of the very best kind Many of the past MAGIC monthly presentations have been rendered into HTML and included in the Tricks and Tips page of this web site. A couple of recent presentations that have been included are:
New computer Since the last meeting we have auctioned off the previous MAGIC computer, a G3 iMac. We have also ordered a new MacBook and we are awaiting its delivery at press time. The MacBook has enhanced memory (1 Gbyte) so that it will be able to handle memory intensive applications on its intel chips. We are hoping that it will arrive in time to be shown at the next MAGIC meeting. Application for Gratis website Whidbey Telecom have again approved our application for another year of gratis service. The value of the website is about $250 per year. MAGIC is grateful for this support and commend Whidbey Telecom for their support of MAGIC and other local charitable organizations. Updated Maintenance page The "Operating System Maintenance" section of the MAGIC website has been reviewed and revised. All members are recommended to print out the new version and follow its recommendations in order to keep their macintosh computers running smoothly and efficiently. The article can be found at: https://www.whidbey.com/magicmug/tricks/maintain.html Whatever else you do, BACK UP your hard drive regularly! Future presentations We are actively looking for ideas for presentations and presenters in 2007 - it is closer than you think and we need to plan these things in advance. Do you have something that you would like to talk about? Is there a topic that you would like to have explained in plain English? Please contact me at . Finally - Don't forget to check out the User Group Discounts: http://homepage.Mac.com/ugab/offers.html Apple recalls Sony - made PowerBook, iBook batteries
by Peter Cohen - MacWorld Apple and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on Thursday announced a recall of 1.1 million battery packs made for Apple's PowerBook and iBook battery packs. Information on the recall has been posted to the CPSC's Web site. Users who have batteries affected by this recall are entitled to a replacement battery, free of charge. Instructions are supposed to be available on Apple's Web site (the URL was not working as Macworld posted this article). Apple follows Dell in recalling the laptop computer batteries, which were manufactured using battery cells made by Sony Energy Devices of Japan. In addition to the 1.1 million battery packs recalled in this program, the company and government agency indicate that another 700,000 battery packs sold overseas have the same problem.
The batteries were used in 12 - inch iBook G4, 12 - inch PowerBook G4 and 15 - inch PowerBook G4 systems and were sold between October 2003 and August 2006. The following units are affected by the recall:
Users are instructed to remove affected batteries from their computers and use them with AC adapters until replacements are sent. A separate statement issued by Sony accepts the findings of the U.S. CPSC and said that Sony anticipates no further recalls of battery packs using these particular battery cells. The recall arises because, on rare occasions, microscopic metal particles in the recalled battery cells may come into contact with other parts of the battery cell, leading to a short circuit within the cell. Typically, a battery pack will simply power off when a cell short circuit occurs. However, under certain rare conditions, an internal short circuit may lead to cell overheating and potentially flames. The potential for this to occur can be affected by variations in the system configurations found in different notebook computers, said Sony. Sony claims that additional safeguards have been introduced to its battery manufacturing process to prevent this from happening. Article at: http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/08/24/batteryrecall/index.php SPECIAL OFFERS - APPLE USER GROUP BULLETIN
August 16, 2006
MAGIC Interview: Ray Thorne
I'm probably one of the more unconventional users in the group. My profession has nothing to do with computers at all. I restore antique furniture for a living, and my educational background is in fine arts and photography. I grew up near Cupertino, and am a graduate of De Anza College - - just a stone's throw from Apple. Over the past couple of years, my journey has been one of trying to learn OS X by total immersion, and find ways of incorporating all of this newer technology into my personal, professional, and leisure life. When I was younger, I got very discouraged and turned off by the whole tech world, computers, and the whole "Silicon Valley" scene, and finally got out of there. Thanks for taking time to share some information with the MAGIC group. Your brief message was interesting. What was it that turned you off about the tech world and are you enjoying personal computers now? There were lots of things I didn't like about the tech world. It was very hard to get any kind of job, the people were unfriendly and unpleasant to work with, and my early experiences with computers were extremely frustrating. (This was before Macs existed) My first experience with computers was right after high school. In the summer of 1983 I had a summer job as a receiving/inspection clerk. Part of my job was to log information into a computer. It was a Wang terminal, with a green screen, and connected to the company's mainframe. The system was so slow and overloaded, that it used to take a half an hour for the cursor to move down to the next line after hitting the return key. No one could get any work done, and I hated it! To make matters worse, my boss always wanted a report printed out, and on his desk by 7:30 every morning. In those days that meant walking all the way over to another building, going upstairs to where the main frame was, and have one of the administrators get the printout for you. Most of the time they weren't there to give me the printout, and I'd catch hell from the boss if he didn't get his report on time. I also had to put in lots of overtime to catch up on all the backlog of work because the computer was so slow. It was awful! The other thing that turned me off to computers was the college computer lab. It was always crowded, the people running the lab were rude, and didn't want to help you if you had a question, or a problem. One time I had spent an hour and a half doing a class assignment in the lab, went to print it out, and had dialed to the wrong printer port. I hit "Print" and lost everything. I was livid! About a year later the first Macs arrived on campus. They were mostly for the writing and art students, and we loved them! I remember saying to one of the gals working in the computer lab how nice the Mac was to work with, and she said in a condescending tone: "It's a nice toy..." So, I'd have to say that the first macintosh changed my attitude toward computers, and I've enjoyed working with them ever since. Do you find your computer a real help in your business? Yes, my Mac has been very helpful. There are no standardized forms available for furniture restorers, so I created my own using Appleworks. I created my own bid sheets, time and material logs, fliers, and brochures. I sometimes use e - mail to communicate with clients, and also use the internet to order supplies, compare prices, or search out new vendors. It's easier than dragging out stacks of catalogues and thumbing through them one by one. I still do my bookkeeping in a manual ledger though. When you have a computer problem do you have a procedure for problem solving? Assuming you can't find an answer in the Apple help files do you check Apple's support or discussion web pages? I usually try to solve a problem on my own first. The help menus are okay, but I usually rely on my OS X books, and running cocktail, and repairing permissions. I have tried Apple's discussion boards, but it takes forever, and more often than not it's not that helpful. I had to call tech support once. Sat on hold for 2 hours, the guy tried to solve my problem, but couldn't. He finally told me to erase my hard drive and reinstall everything. It was a nightmare! Do you use iPhoto, digital photography? Is there any difference in digital versus film when it comes to large professional prints? Yes, I do use iPhoto, but haven't made the switch to digital photography yet. I'm on a tight budget, and am waiting for the cost of 8 - 10 megapixel SLRs to come down in price. Also Nikon film scanners. Mostly I scan 4 X 6 prints, then import them into iPhoto and remove dust and flaws that way. I've got thousands of slides that I'd like to scan and work with - - someday. Have you done any computer graphics? Tried any of the art programs? No. But I did take a course in Adobe Illustrator, and Pagemaker. But that was a long time ago. Around 1992. When I still had my old 512k Mac I used to do some fun things with Mac Paint, but that's about it. What Apple programs do you really appreciate, or hate? The iLife applications are neat, and so is Quicktime. I can't think of any programs that I hate. Appleworks is kind of quirky and difficult sometimes. My biggest difficulty was just trying to learn OS X the hard way. My biggest beef with Apple was their lack of tutorials or instruction manuals for OS X. Everything else you buy has an instruction manual. Not having one for a new computer with a totally new and unfamiliar operating system is ridiculous! If you could have a custom program written just for you what task would it perform? I would love a program that could do easy multimedia creation, page layouts, handle photos, video, and work across platforms. But what would be really great is built in digital rights protections so that you could control your content. I'm interested in creating photo, text and video content for sale and publication. But, the big worry is piracy. It would be great to disable printing, copying, and illegal duplication of discs, or be able to encrypt it yourself. There doesn't seem to be any practical, cost effective way for individuals to do this. What topics would you like to see covered either at the MAGIC meeting presentations or in the newsletter? I'd say the meetings and newsletters do a great job covering all kinds of topics. Perhaps digital rights management issues, and multimedia would be nice additions to consider. Little Snitch
Tom Johnson - RAVEN Consultants Little Snitch is Highly Recommended, especially for Broadband users. Features include:
Download site: http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/download.html Pricing Although Little Snitch is a commercial product, its demo mode provides full functionality and protection already. However, it is limited to three hours of operation for free. If you want permanent protection for your computer, you can buy a license for $24.95 per seat. Find empty iTunes song data fields
by Rob Griffiths - MacWorld One of the challenges with an ever - growing collection of digital music in iTunes is making sure you've got the proper metadata captured for each song. Metadata, as Wikipedia explains, is data about other data. In the case of songs in iTunes music, it's information such as the artist, genre, album, year, and other details about a given song. If you buy your songs from the iTunes Music Store, most of these fields will be completed for you. But if you rip your own stuff, particularly if it's obscure and not in the Gracenote database that iTunes uses to match song info, you'll be entering a lot of your own metadata. Not everyone is overly concerned with digital music metadata, but I do know some people who spend hundreds of hours making sure all their songs have complete data for nearly every field available. Personally, I only really care about a few fields - genre, artist, album, and year, primarily. Regardless of which metadata camp you fall in, here's a timesaver to help with the chore. iTunes Smart Playlists have the ability to search on blank fields in most of its metadata fields. You just need to create a new Smart Playlist (Command - Option - N), set the first pop - up to the field you're interested in looking at, set the second pop - up to 
Make sure the Live udpating box is checked as well - this will insure that as you add new songs to your library, the smart playlist will update if its condition is met. If you now view this smart playlist in iTunes, you'll see a list of all your songs that have a blank Genre field. You can repeat the process for as many or as few of iTunes metadata fields as you like. As you edit songs to provide the missing information, they'll drop off the playlist (because you checked Live updating), making it really simple to see how many songs you have left to edit. Article at: http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macosxhints/2006/08/emptytunes/index.php Mac mini gets Core Duo speed boost
by Jim Dalrymple - MacWorld In addition to its updated iMac, Apple on Wednesday also updated its Mac mini product. The Mac mini now features Intel's Core Duo processor on both models - previously the low - end model included the Intel Core Solo processor. The $799 model now includes a 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, up from 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, and the $599 model now includes a 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, up from a 1.5 GHz Intel Core Solo processor. Complete Article at: http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/09/06/mini/index.php Apple Launches Free Computer Take - Back Program
from Apple Apple has launched a free computer take - back program, offering U.S. customers environmentally friendly recycling of their old computer when they buy a new Mac. The Apple Store and Apple retail stores will now give U.S. customers the option of recycling their unwanted PCs, regardless of the manufacturer. When a customer chooses to participate in the program, Apple will send an email with instructions and a label for free shipping and recycling. Customers simply package their recyclable equipment and attach the label provided. All equipment received by the program is recycled domestically and no hazardous material is shipped overseas. Apple's recycling programs have processed more than 21 million pounds of electronics worldwide since 1994. Apple continues to offer a free iPod recycling program through its U.S. retail stores, providing environmentally friendly disposal of any unwanted iPod and a 10% discount on the purchase of a new iPod. The company also operates a free drop - off recycling service at its headquarters in Cupertino for used computer systems and home electronics. Apple's free computer take - back program is offered to customers in the 48 contiguous United States. More information on Apple's recycling programs is available online. Complete Article at: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/may/31takeback.html MacWorld Editors' Notes Weblog
The best deal no one's talking about, July 31, 2006 I recently spent some time camping out at the local Apple Store's Genius Bar while my kids were having fun at Apple Camp, and I've decided that Apple's ProCare plan is a great deal. So how come nobody ever talks about it? The $99 per year ProCare plan offers customers a higher level of service than you would receive if you just walked in to the Apple Store off the street. Your repairs and access to Apple Geniuses is prioritized, you can reserve time in advance (up to one week), and the plan is accepted by any Apple Store anywhere in the world. You also get a But more than that, ProCare gets you an hour of training with experts at the store - and not just once, either. You can do it as often as once per week. The training can run the gamut, depending on your needs - learning how to get the most out of Apple Mail, for example, figuring out how to add some pizzazz to your latest musical work in Logic, getting more out of Final Cut Studio, or understanding how to create a high - impact presentation with Keynote. It's really up to you. Think about it: $99 per year. You can pay professional Apple consultants that much, or more, per hour. Now I'm certainly not suggesting that everyone drop their Mac consultants and run to the Apple Store to sign up for ProCare - obviously there's an important market for consultants. All kinds of services and help that consultants provide are totally beyond the reach of Apple Stores. But for the average users who are trying to get the most out of their Mac investment, either personally or professionally, it's hard to think of a better value than signing up for ProCare. Over the course of the two mornings my kids were at Apple Camp this week, I saw the staff at the local Apple Store help close to a dozen ProCare customers. One was a brand new MacBook Pro owner who just wanted to understand how her machine worked. Another was a professional musician who wanted to expand her skills with Logic. Another wanted help understanding how to use pro editing tools. Some were just there for tech support on products that they owned. The interesting thing is that for most of those ProCare customers, the Apple Store is a regular haunt - enough so that the staff knows their names and recognizes them when they come in. Now I can't say for sure if that familiarity is unique to the store I visited, or whether it's a matter of cause - and - effect of ProCare, or just entirely coincidental. But that level of personal service can be invaluable, especially in a crunch when you've got a serious problem you need solved. The staff already knows you and has an idea of what you're capable of, and can avoid wasting time going through the motions. Sadly, the closest Apple Store is about an hour's drive from my house, so the cost benefit of ProCare is offset by the cost of gas and the time it takes to get there and back. But if Apple opens a store closer to my house - given the proliferation of Article at http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/ Tips from Apple
Changing the Order of the ResultsLet's say you realize that most of the time you find yourself searching for music, movies, and photos (you're a creative type). Well, by default those result categories appear farther down the list (with stuff like documents and email and contacts appearing near the top of the list). And because of that, you've been spending a lot of time scrolling. It doesn't have to be that way. Go to the Spotlight Preferences (found at the bottom of the Spotlight menu), and when it appears, all the categories are listed in the order they will appear. To change their order, just click - and - drag them into the order you want (in this case, you'd drag Music, Movies, and Images to the top). 
Folders to Add to Your DockAdding folders to the right side of your dock can be a real timesaver, and two of the most popular folders to add to the dock are your home folder and your Applications folder. Another thing you might consider, rather than putting your entire Applications folder on your dock, is to create a new folder and put in aliases of just the applications and system add - ons (such as the Calculator, etc.) that you really use. Then you can access these by Control - clicking on the folder in the dock and a pop - up menu will appear that looks a lot like the Apple menu from OS - 9. 
Adding a Photo as Your Window's BackgroundAs long as your Finder window is in icon view, you can add a photo as its background. You do this by going under the View menu, under show View Options, and in the background section (at the bottom of the dialog) choose Picture. Click on the select button and the standard Open dialog will appear in which you can choose the image you'd like to appear as the background of your window. Click OK and that image will appear. Note: This works only when viewing the window in icon view. if you change to list view, the image will no longer be visible. 
How to Make the Sidebar Work Like the DockYou can customize the sidebar of the Finder window by adding other icons that make it even more powerful. For example, if you use Photoshop a lot, just open the window where your Photoshop application resides, drag the Photoshop icon right over to the sidebar, and the other icons in the sidebar will slide out of the way. Now you can use this window kind of like you would the dock - to launch Photoshop, just click on its icon in the sidebar, plus like the dock, you can even drag - and - drop images you want to open right onto the sidebar's Photoshop icon. 
MAGIC Editor's notes
Here's a link for a good tutorial on OS X maintenance: Thanks to all you have contributed to the newsletter. MAGIC, the Macintosh Appreciation Group of Island County, serves people who use Macintosh computers, software and peripherals. Our goal is to share information and get answers to questions to make us more productive with our use of technology. Our monthly meetings give us a chance to discuss computer problems and share ideas with other Mac users, feature speakers on specific topics, and to keep apprised of Apple news. |
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