Well……
Time we got back in the practice of writing a monthly newsletter again. I must admit, I have fallen victim to poor time management practices. Something not unusual to us older folk. I must do better, and I will certainly try.
Mac World 09…
Well, it really wasn’t quite up to par, to say the least. The Apple booth was large but rather sparsely populated, Not many visitors, few Apple folk, and clearly not much going on. There were quite a few exhibitors but I didn’t really see any particular theme. Two piece of software and no hardware didn’t quite justify the cost of putting on a “Keynote” imho!
Will we be attending a show next year or not? I signed up, did you?
The latest rumors are mentioning a refresh of the iMac line. How significant will that be. The recent silent update of the Mac Mini may be a harbinger of the future. Probably the big reason for the lack of interest in the Mini by Apple is likely because of the cost and profit margin. Even though the demand may be there the price/profit margin may not be enough to justify the expense. On the other hand, a downsized model may well be a sign of the times.
Stay tuned
See you at the meeting.
January 15, 2009 Minutes of the Meeting
President Bob Shayler called the meeting to order at 7:40 PM.
Bob asked SLMUG members to bring in “good stuff” to share and recycle: books, hardware, software.
Comcast outages have been caused by service upgrades and Comcast has NOT been alerting customers.
MAC WORLD
Google Earth now includes Google Space. It is included on the DOM (disk of the month). In Bob’s opinion, it is for newer machines because it took several minutes to load on his older iBook. To log in to Google Space wirelessly at home, log in to Google Earth first. Google Space looks at . . . Space.
Google Tools: dozens of tools, basically all are free
Hubble Showcase is a feature giving a little bit of information on what you clicked on in Google Space. You can go deeper and deeper into space but image quality and resolution are taken by different methods so images some may be better than others.
John Mitchell bought a little scanner that sits in front of the computer. It will scan a full sheet of 8 x 11 or business card. Presentations featured at MACWORLD are available at macpres09.shownets.net
Bob discussed “Back to Your MAC”, the ability to access your MAC from a remote location if you have a .mac account and a MobileMe account. Glen Fleishman, the author, is well respected in the industry.
Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is a graphical desktop sharing system used to remotely control another computer. It transmits the keyboard and mouse events from one computer to another, relaying the graphical screen updates back in the other direction, over a network. A VNC viewer on one operating system may connect to a VNC server on the same or any other operating system. There are clients and servers for many operating systems and for Java. Popular uses for this technology include remote technical support and accessing files on one’s work computer from one’s home computer, or vice versa.
Jaadu VNC (www.jaaduvnc.com) [link no longer works ~mario] will let you connect to your computer by your iphones. Real VNC (www.realvnc.com) provides remote control software which lets you see and interact with desktop applications across any network.
Ed Matlock liked the UPEK Eikon fingerprint reader: fingerprint-protected password management.
Too many passwords to remember? 1Password (http://agilewebsolutions.com) takes care of all your online passwords so you can use unique passwords for every site and never forget any of them. Some of the features of 1Password are the tracking of all your web passwords, automating sign-in, and safeguarding from identity theft. Check it out on the January DOM.
Ed also liked Virus Checker by Intego and actually found a mac virus on his computer.
New iPhoto enhancements are nice and are available with the iLife package download. DVD burning which took 19 minutes, now takes about 4 minutes.
The MAC World keynote address is available in iTunes and on the DOM. Ed shared bits and pieces of it at the meeting.
Dragon Speak (http://nuance.com), which turns spoken word into text, is now available for the Mac. It requires an Intel based MAC and will work with any application that reads text.
Steve shared his Soleo Power Pak, purchased at MAC World. It’s a mini-solar battery, with panels that unfold and when aimed at the sun will store enough electricity to power an iPhonee or iPOD. The bad news: its too small to power a computer!
Bob Shayler offered iPhonee cases to the member present who could answer the questions “who can describe geo-tagging” (answered correctly by Jim Coon) and “what are the 3 new features in iPhotos” (answered correctly Jenny Mitchell).
Treasurer’s report: balance $1555.91. Recent expenditures: $188.39 for 48 computer batteries; $61.97 for blank DVDs
The old post office box is now closed and SLMUG is on the wait list for the Fremont branch.
Denny’s at 150th & I580, San Leandro, is the new location for the executive board meetings.
The meeting was adjourned adjourned 9:18 PM
Submitted Kathleen Roth
SLMUG Secretary
February 5th meeting features…
Among other topics will be Firefox add-ons and iPhone applications. Of course, Ed will have the monthly DVD for updates and other cool stuff. The “Board meeting” will follow as usual at Denny’s (I580 & 150th in San Leandro).