The meeting started with Ed presenting Randy an award for his excellent work as our president the past two years: An Apple Swiss Army Knife in a tin container – real neat!
Our new web page (www.slmug.org) was presented by John and Ed. It was up on December 11. It was built by Ed and Jenny. Lots of goodies are and/or will be on it. Check it out. The site has been hit by a number of search engines via Safari, Netscape and Internet Explorer.
A number of members shared their perception of “the Best of Show” at MacWorld:
- Randy’s were as follows: Prosoft Engineering booth – Data Backup, Data Rescue ($99). GarageBand – record your music and mix professionally recorded Apple Loops and all by ear (part of iLife 4). IPhoto with improved speed and handling over 25,000 photos. Mini-Pod – a small, elegant 4G iPod in 5 colors … a winner. Lacie – one FTB of data (1000GB). Gorgeous d2 cast aluminum case, FW 800/400, USB 2.0 for only $1200. You Software – You Control allows you to create menus and store them anywhere … a way cool program. Higher Ground Gear – way cool brief cases and backpacks that provide tremendous versatility. QuickKeys – CE software that lets you make and record macros to automate just about any function on your Mac, and Trans Lucy, which lets you, work and watch DVDs at the same time. Finally David Pogue – Excellent speaker, Mac Evangelist and author with a quick wry wit. His latest book is Mac OS X The Missing Manual: Panther Edition is a Must Have!
- Ed demonstrated the process for reducing the startup time for OS 10.3.2 (see handout for details about needing to “link” ln rather than “copy” cp and how to get to Terminal via the Utilities app.) Also check www.apple.com, then click on support, type in 86639 in the search box to learn more. (Also suggest that you refer to Stan’s email late evening on January 15 for info on reducing start up time.) See details on our web page. Belkin – their products will sell for 50% off till the end of January.
- Stan’s best of show were Elgato Systems’ EyeHome, a hardware device that enables access to content stored on a Mac from a television and home entertainment system. A wireless or Ethernet connection provides a remote-controlled TV interface for access to your iTunes music library, iPhoto image library, and more. $249. He was impressed with Brother’s new printer offerings, $230 to $899. Bare Bones Software released Mailsmith 2.1, its SMPT/POP email client that features integration with SpamSieve and PGP, extensive AppleScript support, regular expression searching, and more. CE Software released Trans Lucy 1.0, a DVD player for Mac OS X 10.3, a software that can float its display above all applications and allows adjustment of the movie transparency so that you can see through to windows and documents underneath. $14.95. Wiebetech announced 3 new storage products: G5Jam increases internal storage of a Power Mac G5 to 4 drives (up to 1 Terabyte) from $2499 to $1499. SmileOnMyMac released PGFpen 1.0, which can split, combine, reorder, and augment PDFs with text and image overlays and much more. $29.95. Griffin’s SightLight.
- John encouraged the establishment of another user account for troubleshooting problems. He elaborated on how that account could be used to discover the problem.
- Bob’s best of show included the well worth it $195 user group fee. Pogue lectures were great. Version Tracker pro/MacFixit will worth the $55. He demonstrated Intelliscaner’s bar code reader. A great way to inventory your books, Cds, etc. Check it out at www.intellisw.com. The model Bob purchased sold out at the show.
It was a MacWorld Expo well worth attending.
Dayle Scott, Secretary