Leopard is here…
Wow, is it ever. "Like Gangbusters" is an understatement. We all have heard both sides of the spectrum. Many have experienced a very smooth transition and a good number have suffered one or more significant problems. The press is on both sides of the fence. Some rave and others rant. By-and-large, Leopard is being well received. Without a doubt there are some problems. Migration, for example, does not always work according to some reports. Speed, however, is a real winner. Everyone is thrilled with the noticeable improvement in speed. Spotlight is no exception.
No sense in complaining about the shortcomings. They will get worked out in due time.
Apple stock continues to do well. Now over $185.
If you want to use Time Machine apparently you need a backup drive that is twice the size of your main hard drive. For example: if you have a 24" iMac with a 500 GB hard drive, then you need a 1 Terabyte hard drive attached to your computer. My MacBook Pro has a 160 GB hard drive and there is currently not a 320 GB 2.5" HD available. At least I am not aware of one. Therefore, my laptop is no longer portable. Catch 22???
SLMUG Minutes 10-4-07
Prior to the meeting, 28 Macs were updated to maximum RAM in about 45 minutes. Thanks go to John, Ed, Wes, and Deborah Reinerio (Graphics Lab Teacher).
Kathleen shared some "Best of YouTube.com" which she had downloaded as Podcasts to her MacBook Pro. They were shown via iTunes. Some neat podcasts were experienced. Due to poor quality of speakers, the club voted to buy new ones for the Graphics Lab.
Randy led us through the new features in Leopard … lots of new ones. There are new icons, a new way to control windows via Exposé, and some new screen savers ("not really necessary"). Randy talked about "Time Machine" which keeps track of all that you have done. You should have a second hard drive to take full advantage of the program. Safari 3.0.3 has a web search engine allowing one to search with tabbed browsing. You can access multiple web sites easily. You can customize the toolbar by dragging new features to the toolbar. Randy demonstrated how to do slideshows via "Spaces" which is like having multiple desktops… Note the second paragraph in the October newsletter: "The (Leopard) previews continue to get better and more impressive. The Apple website has seven whiz-bang video demos on Leopard features (check it out), including Quick Look, Spaces, and Mail. Mail will have support for RSS to keep Mail- heads in the loop with the rest of the world, and Notes integrates directly with emails."
Ed reviewed this month's DOM. He stated that most of the files are Apple updates. Also on the disk are the following: Smart Recorder goes in the menu bar and keeps track of SMART status items, Safari iBlock that blocks pop ups, and the Sporktris game Tetris. Thanks Ed.
Many went to the board meeting at Bakers Square after the meeting.
Dayle Scott, Secretary
My weekend with Leopard
By Bob Shayler
It was a normal Saturday except Pamela was going to a several-hour meeting at Holy Cross church. The day awaited for son Darin and I! Oh, what to do? Lunch sounded good and since we would be dining right around the corner from the Apple Store in Stoneridge, why not just stop in to see what it was like this day after Leopard was released? Of course, I had dropped by the previous Friday evening and bought the Leopard family pack and received two T-shirts. They were very well stocked with both items.
Back to Saturday and the boys on their own… We strode into the store that Terry built and that's when the urge to splurge hit me. Oh that 24" iMac looked sooo!! good sitting on the counter next to the Genius Bar. Did they have one in stock? You know, the one I had just happened to configure at the Apple Store online and just happened to have the printout in hand. It was for the 24-inch model running at 2.8GHz with a 1Terabyte drive. No, said the cute and very efficient employee at the check out counter. They only had 2.4GHz models and anyway the big drive was a special order. Amused by the fact that all the store employees looked underage and to my relief that I would not be spending a pile today, we retreated to lunch.
During lunch I called the SLMUG hardware expert John Mitchell to get his opinion about whether I really needed 2.8GHz. Would a 2.4GHz model do? Of course I needed 2.8, he opined, reminding me that bigger and faster is always better. So sad, too bad, no new toy for me this day. Until…I just couldn't get that 24-inch screen out of my mind. After lunch, back we strode to the store and this time we were greeted by no less than three employees simultaneously. Hoping for some miracle, I once again asked if they had a 2.8GHz model in stock. Of course we do, they sang in chorus but only a 500GB drive. They don't sell so well. Only the true Mac nerd seems to know the value of that speedy model. So much for cute… Within 30 minutes of the store re-entry, we were on our way home with that big boy strapped safely into the back seat. I wondered, maybe I have one of these ahead of Randy and Stan?
The rest of the weekend was devoted to Mac nerd worship and installation. Macs won't be preloaded with Leopard at the stores for about two weeks but in the box is a Leopard installation DVD. Cool. Just in case, I had already backed up the old G5 iMac to an external drive using Data Backup. Just in case, you understand. Anyway, then (do not do this yourself, it was stupid) I formatted with zeros and installed Leopard on the old G5 Friday night.
This day (Saturday – remember?), I formatted the Intel iMac and cleanly installed Leopard. No glitches whatsoever. None. Zero. Then I booted the freshly installed iMac, connected the external drive with the (clone) backup on it and opened Migration Assistant. No matter how many tricks I tried, Migration Assistant would not see that backup drive. Frustrated but determined, I cloned the old G5 back to its original, booted it into target mode, hooked up the firewire cable and tried Migration Assistant once again. Still no joy. Whether there is a problem with Migration Assistant or with Data Backup I do not know and frankly at that point did not care. Everything else had gone perfectly smoothly.
So, what to do? Connect the backup drive to the new iMac and manually copy over all the files. Freshly install all the software. Update everything. Even remember to deauthorize the old iMac for iTunes so the iPod and the music would work properly. It took less than three hours. I just know it would have taken much longer to solve the one and only issue I had with getting my new toy working properly. Doing things manually is sometimes better anyway…
Come see the result at the November 1 meeting. Bob and his new toy, a fully loaded 24" 2.8GHz iMac. It is one fast machine. The screen is to die for and the music even sounds a lot better than with the old G5. Oh, no Windows yet and I still need to get that 1TB backup drive since Time Machine requires twice the space in a backup drive as is present in the internal drive. Costco has them for $300. NO problem!
November 1st meeting features…
Illustrious Leader Bob Shayler will be demonstrating his latest new toy. That would be the Super sized 24-inch iMac which is the supercharged model, and it is reeaally fast. Especially running Leopard. You will want to see this. Can we podcast this presentation? Be sure to attend. As expected Ed will be presenting his magic tools. The Mac adventure continues…