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Apple Bytes 1/2008

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Happy New Year to All!

MacWorld SF is coming January 14 – 18 Moscone Convention Center

We all know what that means. This is the month when we all pay homage to Glorious Leader of the cult of the Mac. A long week of studying and analyzing the new releases to our fifedom. We will all get rejuevenated and all jazzed up about the newest "gotta have" things for the Mac. You should refrain from purchasing anything for the Macintosh system until at least January 14th, unless it is a dire emergency! (Really good deals excepted.)

Surely there are lots of rumors about new and updated Macs and plenty of new gadgets to go with them. The is the norm for this time of year. We just need to remain patient and roll with the rumors. It just isn't a fact until Stevie says so. (Planned leaks excepted.)

Only one meeting this month so we will have plenty to talk about and share after MacWorld.

Next meeting January 24th
That's it for now…


SLMUG Minutes 12-6-07

John Mitchell led conversations on Leopard. Asked how many are using it … a number are already into Leopard. Some folks had no problem; others lost their key chain info because backup was not done. With a large hard drive of 300-750 GB, one should make 2 to 3 partitions. One should back up in January and February; then in March erase January. Repeat this monthly so you always have two months' worth of backups.

John talked about a Mactech Magazine article on a Mac/unix 1000 baseT network to move data around very quickly. The average PC user has 10-15 GB on their HD, whereas the average Mac user has 60 GB on their HD …filling up the HD rapidly. It was noted that a TDK DVD (Taiwan made) has a 50-year half life. The average HD may fail in 3-5 years. Therefore, have an aggressive backup plan. It would be well to back up monthly, and remember that large drives take a long time to back up. 150,000 files take 60 Gbs of space. One common thread between PC and Mac users: most save all their email. If you delete an email with an attached file … it goes with the email. The latest Airport Extreme is 1000 baseT.

Bob Shayler talked about his experience in backing up his cousin's iBook via a 60 GB firewire drive. He used option-start key to boot from an external drive (with all of Andy's stuff on it). He booted the G3 and G4 and cloned the machines to the external drive. A .mac can be a backup site … then sync to .mac. You can use Carbon Copy Cloner, which is less complicated than Data Backup. Data Rescue is the premier HD saver. John has a Tiger bootable machine with all utilities on a 40 GB HD.

FaceBook is a web site that lets you know that they know about you (facebook.com) and what sites you are visiting. Periscope [link on MacUpdate] takes pictures. Periscope is share ware ($40). Flickr is a competitor to FaceBook.

Ed Matlock needed two disks for this month's DOM. Included you will find the following files: Updater 10.4.11 and 10.5.1; Cocktail LE for Leopard; Data Rescue 1.2; Disk Catalog Maker and the 2007 catalog of files; Docker; Firefox 2.0.0.11 and 3.0 Beta 1; Google Earth Maac (can view from different views); iPhoto, iTunes, QT updates; KlixMaac (a picture rescue program from Joe Soft); Little Snitch (indicates when your computer tries to send your info out. You can configure Little Snitch to give you more security); PacX (pacman for Mac); Reunion 9.0.6; Safari Ad block; Intel updaters; Toast 8.0.3 for Leopard and PPC machines (it includes Disk Catalog Maker); and more.

Ed demonstrated the use of Disk Catalog Maker and showed how you can access the contents of 2007 CDs. The shareware program cost is $19. Well worth it as you can catalog music, CDs, etc. with it. Thanks Ed. Next year DVDs might be used for the DOM. Wow!

Dues of $36 are due for 2008. See Ed. He reported that there is $1030 in the treasury. It was voted that we give the Graphics Lab the following: Disk Warrior, new speakers, printer memory, and other such items needed by the lab.

The election results for 2008 officers were as follows: President – Bob Shayler; VP – John Mitchell; Secretary – Kathleen Roth; Treasurer – Ed Matlock.

Meeting adjourned to Bakers Square for the Board Meeting

Dayle Scott, Note Taker


Learning about Leopard

So you have Leopard but just haven't had the time to really investigate its features? Me too! Even though I am "on vacation," there has been too much housework and shopping plus some really delightful time with family to delve much into Leopard. Thank heavens for Claire Rottenberg and her eBooks!

I have personally purchased six of them for the really good price of only $7 or $8 per topic. Her eBooks are in PDF format and can be downloaded directly from a link provided to your email address after payment using Kagi or eSellerate. There is no copy protection. Updates from 10.4 to 10.5 are included. Claire has produced three eBooks for Leopard thus far: "System Preferences for Leopard," "Safari for Leopard" and "iTunes7." She indicates that "Apple Mail" for Leopard will be out soon. See: http://homepage.mac.com/cjrtools/ebooks/ [website no longer exists ~mario]

Claire's eBooks are very easy to use with clear detailed tables of contents. I rarely have to use the PDF search feature to find exactly what I want. For those who have a more organized learning style than mine, the eBooks are organized as stepwise guides. I am a more visual learner and appreciate the plethora of images that show screenshots. Her System Preferences eBook for Leopard has 86 such images in 153 pages.

Usually I prefer printed guides but Claire has put together such well-designed eBooks that I am quite happy with the electronic versions. I do enlarge a couple of clicks from the default, as some images are a bit blurry on my G4 iBook to decipher without magnification.

Some guides are for the rank beginner with little interest to an experienced user. Others are so advanced the average user group member can't even follow the vocabulary. These eBooks provide enough of both levels to be valuable to all but the professional who spends all day with Leopard and Apple applications. The eBooks are easy to read and are very accurate.

For the more advanced user, she has created six sets of Automator and Applescript Universal Binary applications. See:

http://web.mac.com/cjrtools/Automator-AppleScript-Apps/Welcome.html

  • Safari Automator Fun – Set 1 – Leopard Only
    (6 Applications for use with Safari Browser and Mac OS X 10.5)
  • Automator Fun Apps – Set 1
    (22 Applications in three categories: Audio, Video & Graphics; Text; Utility)
  • Automator & AppleScript Fun Apps – Set 2
    (7 Applications in four categories: Finder, iCal, iTunes, Mail)
  • Automator Fun Apps – Set 3 – Leopard Only
    (9 Applications in four categories: iPhoto & Preview, iTunes, Mail & Internet, Text)
  • Automator Fun Apps – Set 4 – Leopard Only
    (10 Applications in three categories: Finder & Spotlight, QuickTime & Movies, Utility)

At the January 24 main meeting, we will look at the System Preferences and iTunes eBooks in some detail. If you can't wait until then, go to the links above and check them out for yourself.


January 24th meeting features…
This will be an open forum. (Something new and different.) Let's talk about what you enjoyed or bought at MacWorld this year. Will Wes be running Leopard by MacWorld? Does he have a need for it? Only Wes really knows. Are you running Leopard? Do you really need it? As usual Ed will start a new year of CDoms of the month.

 

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