2005 Newsletter Compilation pdf

Transcription

Monthly Meeting
January 26 - 7 pm
iDVD
Learn how to use this
revolutionary program.
at UConn Medical Center
“Back To Basics” - 6 pm
NEWSLETTER OF CONNECTICUT MACINTOSH CONNECTION, INC.
JANUARY 2005
From Maxi to Mini
Macworld SF 2005
By Don Dickey,
CMC president
Last year’s rage was G5s. Big ones!
Whether you were looking at a G5 tower
or a G5 iMac with 20" integrated display, you were looking at some very
large hardware.
For 2005, Apple introduced the “Mac
mini.” What is it? Imagine a stack of five
audio CDs. The Mini is a skosh bigger than
that, but not much. What’s it got? A G4
processor with most of the ports you’d get
in an iMac, eMac, or iBook. What’s it
missing? Well, a keyboard and mouse, to
mention a couple! Yes, you do need them,
but they’re “optional” and add $58 if you
don’t already have a set.
More importantly, who’s it for? A couple of
different groups fall into the target market.
The obvious candidate is someone who
already has an OK monitor, keyboard, and
mouse, and just wants an easy upgrade.
You just swap CPUs and you’re up and
running in no time.
The less-than-obvious candidate is somebody who found the iMac ($1,299), iBook
($999), and eMac ($799) just too darn
expensive. Translate: Too darn expensive to
switch from a (cheap) Windows PC.
They’re really trying to attract more
“switchers.” At least that’s my humble
opinion.
Is it a good value? That’s not easy to
answer. It really depends on your needs. If
you’re a graphic artist or video editor, I’d
point you to a G5, since the software you’re
using is probably optimized for that new
chip. You might also miss the speeds of
(see info on page 11)
FireWire 800 and gigabyte ethernet. The
low end Macs never made sense for professional users anyway.
If you’re a current Mac user looking for an
easy upgrade, the Mini represents a very
good value. This is especially true if you
already have a decent monitor which
would “go to waste” if you bought an iMac
or eMac. Got a blue and white G3 tower?
This machine is just right for you! You’ll
even get some desk or floor real estate back
in the bargain.
If you don’t have a Mac, but are interested
in getting started, things get a little dicey. If
you buy the mini, add a keyboard, mouse,
good 17" flat panel display, pair of amplified speakers, and a USB microphone (for
iChat AV conferencing), you’d definitely
spend more than you would have for an
eMac. And, for a little more you could have
had the new iMac G5 with it’s better
chipset and the beautiful integration of an
all-in-one. The G5 has better longevity:
you’ll be happier using it longer as OSX
matures into Tiger this year and beyond.
I wrote this article because many of you are
going to ask “Is the mini a good machine
for me?” I hope I answered some of your
questions, or at least focused your attention
on what questions you need to ask yourself.
Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous
2005! 
1
Macworld San Francisco
Apple CEO Steve Jobs
delivered a keynote
presentation Tuesday,
Jan 11, at 9 AM PT,
introducing the latest
hardware and software
products from Apple,
including iPod shuffle,
Mac mini, iLife ’05,
iWork ’05 and
Final Cut Express
HD and more.
You can watch Apple’s Steve
Jobs deliver the Macworld
Expo keynote address. See the
video-on-demand webcast
exclusively in QuickTime and
MPEG-4 at the following:
http://www.apple.com/
quicktime/qtv/mwsf05/
Inside this Issue
From Maxi to Mini .............................. 1
Member of the Month.......................... 2
Review: Eye TV ....................................3
Review: Firefox ....................................4
Download of the Month .......................5
Phishing 101 .........................................6
MUG Special Offers.............................8
Review: Airport Express ......................9
Meetings and Club News ...................11
Member of the Month
by David Gerstein
CMC Treasurer
This month’s Member of the Month
is Dan Arnold, a retired actuarial
accountant.
Q How long have you been a member
A
Editor
Deena Quilty
Q Does this make you almost a
A
Content Contributor
Don Dickey
Contributing Author
Rich Lenoce
Designer
George Maciel
Photographer
John Scott
Publisher
Connecticut Macintosh
Connection, Inc.
41 Crossroads Plaza
PMB 1984
West Hartford, CT 06117
Printer
Budget Printers
1718 Park Street
Hartford, CT 06106
We welcome submissions
from members!
Please submit articles by first of
the month for inclusion in our
newsletter. There is much talent
in our group; it would be great
to have several member articles
in each issue.
of CMC?
Since 1991.
founding member?
Not quite. The organization was
well into existence when I joined.
Q And what do you use your Mac for?
A Like a lot of people, mainly
has evolved, so that there are many
more activities today than when I
first joined.
Q Does the makeup of the club, that is
the division between the experts
and the novices, provide any problems for the club?
for email and web surfing.
Q In your time you have seen changes
A
in the organization. What strikes
you about the differences between
the club today and when you joined
in the nineties?
No differences really, just different
personalities on the board. They
evolve over time. Actually the club
A
This has always been true. We
always had the “geeks” who really
understand the system and the
users just learning about the Mac.
But we learn from each other.
Classified Advertising
Display Advertising
CMC Members can Advertise For
Sale, Swap, Trade, Giveaway or Want
to Buy Items. This space can be used
by members to advertise non-business
items which they are no longer using
or upgrading. This is a FREE
service provided to our members.
Send submissions via email to
[email protected].
Any business items or services can be
advertised at the low monthly rates listed.
Business Card ......................$10
Quarter Page ........................$20
Half Page ..............................$30
Full Page or insert* ..............$50
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Submit all ad copy to the Editor on a
disk with nothing else on it or e-mail it
for insertion in the following issue.
Display ads must be submitted cameraready in .eps or .pdf format with
all fonts and graphics embedded.
For Sale: Powerbook G3, 14.1", 233 MHz, 160 Mb Ram, running OS 9.2.
Lots of software on drive. No startup discs. Inc. CD, Zip & floppy drives.
Also 3 working batteries, USB adapter and Targus bag. $175 OBO. email:
[email protected]
2
Review: Eye TV
Elgato EyeTV 200 FireWire
from Elgato Systems
By Maria O. Arguello
MSRP: $329, User Group Price $279
(This offer is available to groups in the
U.S. and is valid until February 28.
http://www.elgato.com/shop/apple_
UG/discounts.HTML)
Does your Mac
TiVo? Well, it almost
can with Elgato’s
EyeTV 200 (FireWire).
You’ll be able to
watch excellent
quality TV on your Mac’s screen, as
well as schedule and record your
favorite shows and pause, replay, and
search that TV. Its high quality
MPEG-2 encoder not only allows
your shows to look good, but also
makes them ready to archive to DVD
using Roxio’s Toast.
In the box you will find the following
items: EyeTV 200 hardware, EyeTV
software and PDF documentation on
CD-ROM, FireWire cable, Remote
control, two AAA batteries and a
Quick Start Guide.
The latest software is EyeTV 1.6.3
and it requires a G4 with a speed of at
least 500 MHz or a G5 Power
Macintosh, and Mac OS X v. 10.2.8
Jaguar or later. Elgato recommends
Mac OS X v. 10.3.5 Panther.
The installation is simple, easy, and
very intuitive. The Quick Start Guide
is very clear and useful. The Setup
Assistant will guide you and when
you finish, you’re ready to watch TV.
It’s that simple.
EyeTV digitally records your favorite
TV shows on your Mac’s hard drive
for immediate or later viewing. You
can program your favorite shows
once, daily, or weekly. Or you can use
EyeTV’s optional free Electronic
Program Guide from TitanTV to
ensure recording all the shows that
interest you.
With the built-in editor, you can edit
unwanted parts. It’s like having an
iMovie to help you edit your programs. Isn’t it wonderful to be able to
remove the commercials, finally?
The TiVo model I have pales in comparison to what I can do with the
EyeTV 200 on my Mac. I can take my
shows with me by creating DVDs or
Video CDs to play anywhere I like on
teacher and science department head, her
newfound time has allowed her to become
more involved with her Mac and the User
Group Community. Maria is president and
vendor liaison of the Main Line
Macintosh Users Group, where she has
also served as member-at-large and as
special events coordinator. She is the
Apple Regional Liaison for the Northeast
United States and online groups.
Minimum
System
Requirements:
most standard DVD players. Or I can
update my VHS tapes to digital by
capturing the VCR content through
EyeTV to record a digital copy on the
Mac, and then burn it to a DVD or
Video CD.
The included remote control enables
me to record a show that I want immediately from my TV viewing couch. I
don’t have to move to lower the volume, raise the volume, or mute it
when the phone rings.
It’s no wonder that EyeTV 200 won
the Macworld Editor’s Choice Award
for the Hardware of the Year. It is the
best way to watch TV on a Mac.
I will add a comment about the customer support department being very
friendly, efficient, and timely. The first
unit I tested was defective and needed
to be replaced. I was impressed with
the attention I was given. It is further
testimony to the care and attention
they give to customer satisfaction. 
Copyright 2004 Maria O. Arguello,
MLMUG. Maria O. Arguello is a native of
Nicaragua and a naturalized American
citizen. She received her Bachelor of
Science degree from Loyola University of
New Orleans and her Master of Science
degree from West Chester University in
Pennsylvania. Since retiring from the
Philadelphia School System as a science
3
Macintosh computer with
minimum PowerPC® G4
500MHz or G5 processor.
A built-in FireWire port or
independently powered
FireWire hub
Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later, with
256 MB RAM (512 MB
recommended)
Minimum 20 MB free hard
disk space
Approximately 2 GB of free
hard disk space for each
hour of video to be recorded
QuickTime 6.4
An Internet connection to use
EyeTV?s Electronic
Program Guide (EPG)
(Optional)
A CD or DVD burner and
Roxio’s Toast 6 Titanium
CD recording software to
create Video CDs, Super
Video Cds, or DVDs
(Optional)
Test System: G5 Dual 2.5GHz, 2 GB DDR SDRAM,
250-GB SATA hard drive.
Overall Rating: 
5 out of 5 Apples
Firefox: The Best
Browser for Mac or PC?
By Rich Lenoce
CMC Vice President
Internet Explorer couldn’t be removed
from PCs and that Microsoft excluded
other browsers from shipping with it’s
OS.
What free software has been downloaded 15 million times? Why would
11,000 people contribute thousands of
dollars to run a two-page advertisement in the NY Times to advertise this
free software? What Mac browser
may be the safest, most compatible
and fastest browser for the
Macintosh? What software has
Microsoft very scared? The answer is:
Mozilla FireFox.
History
Firefox has a long and interesting history. Firefox is an outgrowth of the
Mozilla project. Conceived by
Netscape in mid-1994, Mozilla was
seen as a new method to improve
development of the Netscape browser
by releasing its source code to the
public. Being a free product, open
sourcing Netscape would cause no
financial harm and there would be no
development cost to Netscape, yet it
was believed a better browser would
emerge. It wasn’t until late 1998 that
Netscape released the code. Netscape
oversaw the first preview release of
Netscape Mozilla. They named it
Gecko and let the open source community go to it.
At least 25 browsers were under
development based on the Netscape
Mozilla browser. On the Mac side
there were numerous Mozilla
browsers such as the original OS 8
Mozilla application and the carbon
based OS 9/X-ready version called
Fizzilla. (It’s a joke on “carbonization.” Get it? Fizzilla?) The OS X
Cocoa version was called Chimera,
and later, Camino.
Meanwhile in the PC World,
Microsoft had been accused by the
U.S. Justice Department of being a
monopoly and part of the government’s case was that Microsoft
Microsoft defended
this stance saying Explorer was not a
separate application, but embedded
into Windows as part of the OS. This
advantage–from Microsoft’s perspective–proved to be a huge vulnerability,
since hackers could use the browser as
a gateway to deliver viruses and spyware directly into systems and into the
heart of the OS. Since this OS integration in Explorer and the mail program
Outlook was key to Microsoft’s development strategy, the public wasn’t
going to get a fix from Microsoft.
Users needed to purchase expensive
anti-virus and spyware software to
secure their machines. Users clamored
for a better and free option.
The easy answer for users to better
secure their PCs was to install another
browser. Mozilla seemed like the best
alternative, but Mozilla was slower
than MSIE and it’s email, news reader
and web composer components
offered features most people didn’t
need. Also, with 25+ versions of
Mozilla under separate development,
developers were splintered among
various projects and not focused on
creating one solid browser. One
Mozilla project showed an advantage
as a browser-only application making
it more speedy and efficient and was
being designed for multiple platforms.
That browser is now Firefox. The call
went out to other Mozilla project
4
developers and two years later we
have possibly the fastest, most customizable and most secure browser
available.
Firefox for Mac OS X: Review
Having a secure browser for the Mac
is nothing new; we have Apple’s own
Safari browser. Relative to the now
defunct MSIE for Mac, Safari seems
fast but it pales in comparison to
MSIE for Windows. It also has very
limited customization and few plugins. Safari upgrades are also few and
far between, usually timed with a new
release of OS X. There are many
advantages to using Firefox over
Safari, specifically security, speed,
advanced features and customization.
Downloading and installing Firefox
was as easy as it gets. Firefox, available from Mozilla.org, comes in at a
svelte 8 mb download. Once downloaded, simply copy the application
from the unstuffed disk image into
either your system or user application
folder and launch. There is no
“installer,” and you won’t be asked for
an administrator password. Firefox
doesn’t need it because it doesn’t put
anything in your system folder.
Getting my Safari bookmarks into
Firefox was simple, using a free application called Safari Bookmarks
Export available from Versiontracker
.com. Bookmark folders and menu
items imported flawlessly. If you use
MSIE, you can directly import your
IE Favorites from within Firefox.
Firefox takes security a couple of
steps farther than the already secure
Safari. When downloading an application, Safari will open StuffIt Expander
or Disk Copy to unstuff or mount the
downloaded file. Hackers could use
these applications to deliver a virus,
but it’s unlikely given the other security measures Apple has placed in OS X
and Safari. Firefox by default doesn’t
automatically open other applications
after downloading a file, making it
inherently more secure.
continued on page 5
continued from page 4
Firefox has the potential to be faster,
depending on the version you download. I ran several tests between
Firefox 1.0 and Safari and found that
they displayed pages equally well and
equally fast, until I discovered from
CMC member Kyle Demilo that there
are separate versions of Firefox optimized for the G4 and G5 processors.
When I installed these versions on my
G4 eMac and G5 desktop machines,
and ran the same tests, Firefox displayed pages in half the time–across
the board! To download these G4 or
G5 optimized builds, you’ll need to do
a Google search for “G4 optimized
Firefox” or “G5 optimized Firefox”
since they aren’t official releases, but
are merely optimizations of the code.
I have found both work very well with
the exception of a couple of known
issues listed at their web sites. Most
issues should be fixed by the time you
read this to bring them in line with the
official Firefox release.
Firefox’s real strength is its customization. Since Netscape and Mozilla have
been around since the dawn of the
World Wide Web, there are hundreds of
plug-ins, enhancements and widgets
available to enhance the browsing
experience and customize the look and
feel of the browser. With MSIE and
Safari, you either do things Microsoft’s
way or Apple’s way. If you don’t like
the look of Firefox, there are themes to
change it. Want more menu buttons to
control more features? Firefox has
them. The browser can truly be “yours”
and operate the way you do.
gration is built in; you won’t have to
wait for Tiger.
My favorite feature is that Firefox supports multiple search engines from the
search window in the button bar–not
just Google. There are over 100 search
engines that can be added to your list.
And switching between them is as easy
as a pointing and clicking in the search
window. I teach film history and I have
four movie database search engines at
my fingertips! I can even do my
Amazon searching right from the
search window. Also, RSS news inte-
Firefox is under constant development
by thousands of developers around the
globe. New plug-ins are released daily
and upgrade releases of Firefox for
Mac should be common. In fact, there
is a program called FireFix that will
automatically download nightly builds.
One feature I really like is that Firefox
remembers web site IDs and passwords
and will ask you if you’d like to automatically log in the next time you visit
the site. This is great for people like me
who are constantly logging into work
web-based email accounts or other
secure sites. For security reasons, you
could choose not to use this feature,
and in fact some web sites don’t support it, but I find it makes my daily web
use more enjoyable.
I wholeheartedly recommend Firefox
for your daily web browsing, as it is an
excellent browser that works the way
you want it to! 
Download of the Month
submitted by Debi Foss
Hallon 0.8.2
http://homepage.mac.com/pgw3/hallon/download/Hallon.dmg
This is the neatest thing: I have a red raspberry
menu. You create a bookin my menu bar that allows me to play Clay
mark by selecting what you
Aiken without going to hunt for his songs, or
want to bookmark and then
even opening iTunes! I am listening to Bridge
press a user-definable hotover Trouble Water right now, with no fuss. So
key or by choosing “Add...”
easy …Bookmarks in the finder! Yes!
in the Hallon menu. If you want, you can write
notes and set a due date with alarm for each of
Hallon can create bookmarks in many applicathe bookmarks. Hallon
tions (like iTunes) that usually can’t create
comes with support for
bookmarks and they are always accessible from
Address Book, Finder,
a menu whatever you are doing. You can bookiPhoto 4, iTunes, Mail
mark your favorite songs, an email that you have
and Safari but you can
to reply to later that day, some documents that
yourself add support for
you are working on or the contact information of
many other applications
a friend whom you need to call before the end of
by downloading from the
the week. And you play the song, open the
site or creating your own.
email, the document or the contact information
Requirements: Mac OS
just by choosing the bookmark in the Hallon
X Panther (10.3)
5
Phishing 101
By Bill Davies, MacNexus
Sacramento Macintosh User Group
This is a semi-technical explanation of a
very common exploit of your personal
information that was taking place at an
exponential rate in 2004. The technique
is called “phishing” and for that reason, I
have entitled this article “Phishing 101.”
According to VISA’s web site,
“Phishing” is an email scam that
attempts to trick consumers into revealing personal information—such as their
credit or debit account numbers, checking account information, Social Security
numbers, or banking account passwords—through fake Web sites or in a
reply email. Typically, the emails and
Web sites use familiar logos and slick
graphics to deceive consumers into
thinking the sender or Web site owner is
a government agency or a company they
know. Sometimes the phisher urges
intended victims to “confirm” account
information that has been “stolen” or
“lost.” Other times the phisher entices
victims to reveal personal information
by telling them they have won a special
prize or earned an exciting reward.
Phishing scams are among the fastest
growing forms of fraud on the Internet.
According to the Anti-Phishing Working
Group, phishing scams grew by 52 percent from December 2003 to January
2004.” My goal with this article is to give
you some basic knowledge as to what
you can do to see if an email you receive
is really from the sender that it says it is
from.
Let’s start with an innocent-looking
email message. (See “Phishing1.”) As
you can see from this graphic, we are in
Apple’s Mail program, and it appears
that we have received an email from
PayPal. The
message
tells me that
PayPal has
noted an
attempt to
log in to my
PayPal
Photo :Phishing1
account from a “foreign IP” address and
asks me to log in to verify that my
account had not been hijacked (i.e.
someone other than myself logged in to
the account, and perhaps changed the
password or contact information.)
Sounds good. Why would I be suspicious? Well, for one thing, I don’t think I
have a PayPal account. (And I’ve
received similar messages for FirstBank
and Citibank, and I don’t have accounts
there, either!) Distressingly, if you’re not
on the ball, this message looks very legitimate. Notice in the middle of the email
they give you a link to click on that
shows a PayPal URL.
LESSON ONE:
Frequently spam and phishing emails
purport to show you a link to click on,
but when you click on that link, they
actually take you to a different place.
How on earth would you ever know this?
That’s the ugly part.
What I had to do in Apple’s Mail program was go to the Message Menu and
choose “Raw Source” to see what was
actually going to happen if I clicked on
that link. (See “Phishing2.”)
Photo :Phishing2
LESSON TWO:
Learn enough
about HTML so
that you can look at
raw source without
getting seasick. You
want to see that raw
source, don’t you?
Photo :Phishing3
Then take a look
the graphic at “Phishing3.” The way the
scam artists do this is really very interesting. First of all, any time you see
6
<img src=blah blah blah> that is an
image tag. What they do is download
real, corporate images from the actual
server that they are trying to imitate.
Therefore, if you review the source of
this message, you’ll see that it downloads ALL the “official” PayPal graphics
from the PayPal web site. Normally a
person might say that this email came
from PayPal since it uses graphics from
their server. Except this is legal. Huh?
LESSON THREE:
HTML email can download images
from any server, including a different
one than the product or service advertised in the message. So MacNexus
might send out a message advertising a
raffle, and include an image of the new
iPod using an embedded URL <img
src=http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipod.jpg>
to Apple’s web site to obtain the graphic.
When you get the email, it shows a picture of an iPod. There’s nothing illegal
about doing this, at least so far.
OK, so if HTML email can legally
include images from here, there, and
everywhere, how would you know that
this PayPal email is a scam? Well, the
critical part of the message is what I have
highlighted in yellow in “Phishing3.”
This is the part of the message where
they tell you to “click here” to log in to
your account. In the “visual” part of the
email that the reader sees, they show this
link as https://www.paypal.com/cgibin/webscr?cmd=_login-run but as you
can see when you view the raw source, if
you click on that, it is really going to go
to http://217.112.229.216/ which ain’t
PayPal, my friend. It
is some computer
running somewhere
with a login form
and when you put in
your login and password, the thieves
will then possess
your PayPal login
information! Then
they can login to
your PayPal account
and transfer money, presumably to
themselves.
continued on page 7
LESSON FOUR:
If an HTML email asks you to click a
link to verify information, view the
source to see what is actually going to
happen when you click that link!
Want to see another example? Then
please review the graphics “Ebay1” and
“Ebay2.” You will see that I received an
HTML email message telling me they
were unable to process “my most
Photo :Ebay1
Photo :Ebay2
recent payment.” Only problem here is
that I haven’t bought anything on eBay
for roughly three years. It seemed suspicious to me, even though the
criminals who wrote this had the
audacity to include eBay logos and the
‘trust•e” logo to make me think that it
was official. I decided to view the
source of this message. As you can see
in the second graphic, all the graphics
come from eBay, but the login screen
goes to http://67.19.186.3. Where the
hell is that? I don’t know, but one
would think that if all the graphics
came from eBay, then the link to the
login page would also start with something like https://www.ebay.com
instead of directing to a raw IP address.
This is an overview of the current epidemic of phishing. It may seem
technical, but all users should attempt
to master these skills to protect their
personal information.
What can you do to combat phishing? If
you can identify and document phishing
attempts, most major web sites have
links or departments where you can
report security breaches. I have reported
phishing attempts to Citibank, PayPal,
and eBay. eBay was the most cumbersome, as I had to find my eBay login and
login to their site before I could file a
report. The others just let me reveal the
raw source of the offending message and
paste it into a form.
Categorically, if you get a message that
just doesn’t seem quite right to you,
either investigate it and report the criminal to the appropriate authorities, or take
no action and give out no information. If
this keeps up, many of us may just
decide to conduct our banking by phone
or in person, and never type any information into a web site because of the
number of scams that are out there. 
© 2004 Bill Davies, MacNexus, the Sacramento Macintosh User Group. May be reprinted
by any Mac user group with proper attribution. To view larger copies of the graphics in this
article, go to http://www.hmaus.com/signal/topstories/documents/phishing101.html
Photos from the December 15th CMC Pizza Party
If you
feed them
...they
will come!
Photos by
John Scott
7
Special MUG Offers from
the Apple User Group
Yes, I want to join CMC
Benefits:
Monthly meetings, monthly newsletter, special
events, discounted books, assistance with computer problem, network with other Mac users,
User Group Store discounts, and more.
Date ______________________________
Name _____________________________
Address ___________________________
City ______________________________
State________ Zip __________________
Phone (Home) ______________________
Phone (Office) ______________________
Phone (Fax) ________________________
Business___________________________
Occupation_________________________
These User Group discounts are
brought to you by the Apple User
Group Advisory Board. You must be a
current Apple user group member to
qualify for these savings. member?
Join CMC today to take advantage of
these special offers. Get a complete list
of all current deals at: www.mugcenter.com/vendornews/vendornews.html
Micromat Padlock
Podlock is a unique new
Macintosh application that
works in conjunction with
your iPod. With PodLock you will be
able to create an invisible passwordprotected partition on your iPod to hide
important files, learn detailed technical
information about your iPod, examine
the contents of your iPod (including
music, pictures and voice recordings),
backup and restore the entire contents
of your primary iPod volume and
defragment the files stored on your
iPod. Apple UG members pay $24.97
(US) a discount off the $39.97 (US)
retail price Visit the Micromat MUG
web site http://www.micromat.com/
micromat_store/mug.html
This offer is valid until March 31, 2005.
Email:_____________________________
Referred by:________________________
Areas of special interest: ______________
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
Annual CMC Family
Membership - $25.00
Make check payable to CMC and
mail to:
41 Crossroads Plaza, PMB 1984
...or
pay online with PayPal at
www.ctmac.org
Total Training
Have you ever wanted to have
your own personal Adobe
expert by your side? With
Total Training videos, now you can.
Plus, as an Apple user group member
you can save 20 percent off any Total
Training videos for Adobe software
programs. This offer cannot be combined with any other offer or discounted
Total Training product. Call to order. 1800-546-9620 or (760) 517-9001 User
Group Code: MUG33105 www.totaltraining.com/usergroups This offer is
valid until March 31, 2005.
Linden Lab - Second Life
Second Life is now available
for Mac OS X. Join Second
Life, the 3D digital world
Time magazine called “the Matrix
minus the Evil Machines” for just
8
$4.95. In Second Life, you create
your reality. Build anything you want
with Second Life‘s robust building and
scripting tools, meet new people from
around the world and even earn real
dollars. You‘re limited only by your
imagination. Sign up for a basic
account and the user group code will
get you a $5 discount. User Group
Code: MUG519. Learn more.
http://secondlife.com This offer is
good through March 31, 2005.
O‘Reilly
Get a free “iPod
Fan Book” with
the purchase of any two books from
O’Reilly. Apple UG Members can
receive a 20 percent discount and a free
“iPod Fan Book.” Purchase directly
from O‘Reilly and use the code below
to get the discount, and add the “iPod
Fan Book” to your shopping cart along
with your two book choices. Free
ground shipping is available for online
orders of at least $29.95 that go to a
single US address. User Group Code:
UGIPOD. Online www.oreilly.com/
By phone 800-998-9938 This offer is
valid until March 31, 2005.
The MUG Store
www.applemugstore.com
Great deals for CMC members. Aggressive new prices
on all the latest Macs. Add to that Free
freight, an exclusive $100 rebate on
any installed RAM in selected new
Macs, 1% merchandise credit back to
CMC, huge blowout and specials section, including great deals on Bose
speakers, Apple software, and
more...and you have a deal that can’t
be beat. Visit this exclusive user group
site. http://www.applemugstore.com
These offers are available to members
of CMC. For information about all of
the vendor offers, visit http://homepage.mac.com/ugab
User ID and Password
12/1/2004 - 3/30/2005
User ID: xxxxx (lowercase)
Password: xxxxx (lowercase)
Review:
Airport Express
By Rich Lenoce
CMC Vice President
Apple’s new Airport
device, Airport Express, is
a mini marvel. You can
use Airport Express as a
10-user base station to
create a wireless “WiFi”
network, to extend an
existing wireless network,
to act as a print server to share a USB
printer wirelessly on a network, or to
stream iTunes music wirelessly to a
stereo far from the computer (which
Apple calls AirTunes). You can also
do all of the above at the same time!
I found Airport Express easy to set-up.
Not much larger than a typical “Power
Plug”, you just plug it in the wall and,
using the install disk, run the set-up
wizard and it will walk you through
the steps. Or, if you are an Airport
expert, install the software and manually configure the product.
At $129, Airport Express is pricey and
isn't for everyone. For example,
Airport cards and wireless routers are
far cheaper than Airport Express–in
fact, one Airport Extreme card and an
inexpensive wireless router costs
about as much as one Airport Express.
If you don't need AirTunes, USB
printing, etc, you are best to go that
route. I had a problem more difficult
than that. i have a wired network in
my office using a wired Netgear cable
modem/router combo unit feeding my
G5 and my wife's G3 iMac, and a
USB printer shared off my Mac. My
wife decided that in our new house
she wanted to have her own office but
still wanted to be on the network,
access her Internet and print to my
USB printer. I could have gone hog
wild and bought an Airport Base
Station, put Airport cards in her iMac
and my G5 and spent almost $350
doing so. Airport Express seemed like
a perfect solution–less expensive and
since my G5 and I sit right next to
the router and printer, I have no
need for radio waves
piercing my flesh at
close range – I’ll
stick with wired,
thank you.
I decided to instead
buy her an Airport
card for her computer and one Airport
Express that would
sit in my office. One
of the Ethernet outputs
of the Netgear router would
go to the Airport Express.
Her Airport card would
then see it and be given its
own IP address on the network to receive Internet
wirelessly. I would then
plug my USB printer into
the Airport Express and I would be
able to see it on my wired network
because the router is running to the
Airport Express. She’d also be able to
see it wirelessly as a printer on the
network when she opens the Printer
Preference Pane. Theoretically, it
should all be pretty transparent.
Connecting this system was easier
than I thought. I plugged the Airport
Express, wired Ethernet and printer
into the Airport Express and then
plugged the whole thing into the wall.
I then ran the set-up wizard on her
computer and magically it received an
IP address. I opened her printer preferences and there was the USB
printer. It was as easy as that. Well,
not quite. It had some glitches. The
Airport Express needed to be reset
every time something was changed
–this just requires unplugging it from
power and plugging it in again. Each
time I did this Airport Express and her
iMac connected to the network with
the new changes taking effect.
This worked so well, I decided to get
gluttonous. In our new house, my
stereo sits one floor down at the exact
opposite side of the house. In our old
9
house the stereo was outside my office
and I’d feed iTunes from my Mac's
speaker output to my stereo's RCA
input using a $5.00 Radio Shack
adapter cable run under the carpet.
Now the stereo is so far away, how can
I listen to my iTunes Music throughout the rest of the house? The answer
was Airport Express AirTunes. I
bought a second Airport Express, connected it to my stereo and ran the
Airport Express Wizard. Voila! First, a
new “AirTunes” button showed up in
iTunes and then the software saw the
second Airport Express and beamed
the music from one Airport Express to
another.
The bad news is that there is no
remote control for AirTunes! If I want
to change a song or playlist I have to
walk from the living room, up the
stairs to the computer, manually make
the change and go downstairs again.
This is just plain dumb! It's a wireless
world and an optional remote should
have been provided to do just this.
Airport's WiFi technology is perfectly
capable of doing this and in fact there
are WiFi products that have remote
controls that can control iTunes via
WiFI–however, they won’t play back
Apple’s iTunes purchased music
because Apple refuses to license the
FairPlay digital rights management
technology to them. It can be done
and Apple could have done it. At $129
for an Airport Express, this is clearly a
case of Apple dropping the ball.
So Airport Express isn’t perfect. But it
works flawlessly and if you need its
functionality is worth the price. If you
don't need its functionality, you may
want to look elsewhere. And, if you
don’t mind a long walk to change a
song occasionally, Airport Express
and AirTunes might serve as a new
exercise machine – compared to a
NordicTrak, it’s cheaper! 
2004-2005 CMC Officers and Board of Directors
President Don Dickey
[email protected]
860-232-2841
Vice President Rich Lenoce
[email protected]
860-347-1789
PR Jerry Esposito
[email protected]
Secretary Chris Hart
[email protected]
860-291-9393
Treasurer David Gerstein
[email protected]
Past President/Ambassador Joseph Arcuri
[email protected] 860-485-1547
Newsletter Design George Maciel
Editor/Auction Deena Quilty
Webmaster Brian Desmond
[email protected] (860) 668-8728
Raffles Robert Sawyer
Download of the Month Debbie Foss
Special Events Jack Bass
[email protected]
Parlimentarian/Historian Connie Scott
Caricatures by Bill Dougal of Lebanon, (860) 456-9041. Available for illustration assignments and event caricatures.
10
CMC Monthly Meeting
January 26, 2005
UConn Health Center
6 pm – Back To Basics
Having trouble mastering mailing lists and
the printing of envelopes or labels on your
Mac? Back To Basics is here to help. This
month’s session will explore using
AppleWorks to create and manage your mailing lists. Whether you’re running a small
business or just trying to send out greeting
cards, we’ll walk you through the steps.
7 pm – iDVD
presented by Rich Lenoce
iDVD is Apple’s powerful DVD creation
tool. With customizable themes and sophisticated navigation, anyone can simply create
highly stylized DVDs to distribute and
archive their videos, photos and music.
Learn how to use this revolutionary program.
Upcoming Meetings!
February 23, 2005
Maintaining Your Mac
Presenter: Chris Hart
UConn Health Center
G3s, G4s and G5s coupled with MacOSX
brings a whole new level of sophistication
to computing but with it comes the
responsibility to perform routine maintenance and to resolve problems as they
occur. Chris Hart demonstrates the tools
and techniques to keep your Mac running
in tip-top shape and how to identify and
address common Macintosh problems.
March 30, 2005
The Macintosh in Astronomy
Presenter: John Pellino
Location: TALCOTT MOUNTAIN
SCIENCE CENTER
We all know Macs are used for creating digital media and in business but did you know
Macs play a leading role in Astronomy? The
Macintosh’s imaging power and sophistication are used by thousands of backyard and
professional astronomers. The people at the
Talcott Mountain Science Center will walk
us through connecting and using
Macintosh computers to home telescopes
and all of the things you can do with it.
Hopefully the night will be clear!
Discounted Books!
FREE Raffle!
CMC continues to offer our current members the opportunity to
purchase any published book for
either Mac or Windows at a 20%
discount. All major publishers are
carried by our source.
Every CMC member who attends our
monthly meetings gets a raffle ticket.
This will give you a chance for one of
our free prizes every month! You
could win…t-shirts, toys, CDs, mugs,
software …there’s always something
we’re giving away! And don’t forget
the Free table at the back of the room
where everything is...FREE!
Contact a Board Member or send
an email to [email protected].
Provide the book title, the publisher and the ISBN number, if
possible, and he will check on its
availability. Normally, the wait is
not too long.
SPECIAL
NOTICE!
Changes regarding
access to the
CMC website:
www.ctmac.org
• Member expiration date
• Membership number
(for free shipping at MacConnection)
• CMC Web site username
and password
...are now located on your
newsletter mailing label.
Please make a
note of it NOW!
Are you receiving
our CMC emails?
We always send out advance
notice of the meetings, and sometimes for big news or special
events (like our bus trip to
Macworld). If you’re not getting
them, please email us at
[email protected] with your
current email address and a subject
line of: ADD TO CMC EMAIL LIST
11
Treasurer’s Report
New Members!
We need new members! Have your
friends and co-workers join us for fun and
learning about OSX and the Mac.
Total Membership: 126
Account Balances
Checking Balance ..............$2338.88
Savings Balance ................$3964.06
Balances as of January 5, 2005
Take Note of This!
You can get your own Apple logo
notepad and pen, as our thank you,
when you complete a
CMC survey! Plus,
you'll get a chance at
free music from the
iTunes Music Store.
We always want to hear what you need
and want from the group. Right now
we're making that even easier by giving you a way to share your opinions.
During December and January, CMC
is conducting a survey of all its members. You can tell us – anonymously –
what you really think of the group.
Your participation is essential to the
future of CMC. In addition to receiving a thank you gift when you
complete the survey, you'll also be
entered into our raffle for a $75 gift
certificate to the iTunes Music Store!
What better gift for yourself, or the
iPod-lover in your family?
Watch your email and check our web
site for details on how to participate.
41 Crossroads Plaza – PMB 1984
Meeting
Monthly
- 7 pm
6
2
y
r
a
u
n
Ja
iDVD e this
to us
Learn how program.
ry
a
revolution
nter
edical Ce
UConn M
ics – 6 pm
s
a
B
o
t
k
Bac
CMC Meeting Location
a PDF document containing a visual direction guide to UConn Health Center is
available on our website: www.ctmac.org. Print and take it with you to find us easily!
Monthly meetings will be held at UConn Health Center in Farmington. When hands-on programs
require computers for attendees, we will be using Middlesex Community College in Middletown.
Directions to UCHC, Farmington
Directions to Middlesex C.C.
From I-84: Take Exit 39 (if coming from I-84 West,
Exit 39 is after 39A). Turn right at first traffic light onto
Route 4 East (Farmington Avenue). At third traffic light, turn
right to enter the Health Center campus. Go around the main
building to the right (at a Y in road), then take a left when
you get to the Academic Entrance. The road becomes twoway there so you should be able to tell where to turn. (Do
not go on straight to the two-way part). Then take the second
right into parking lot A&B. this is close to the building. Go
past the police station entrance on your left (small sign). You
will see a continuation of the building with its own entrance
area. This is the new research building. Enter on the ground
floor, turn right and enter room EG-013 on your right. This
is the first room on your right. The rest rooms are on your
left as you enter.
From the Hartford area, take Route 9 South. A few
miles south of downtown Middletown on Route 9, take
Exit 11 (Rt. 155, Randolph Road). At the end of the
ramp (for both N. & S. bound), turn right onto
Randolph Road. Continue to the traffic light at the top
of the hill and turn left onto Saybrook Road. Go a quarter of a mile and turn right onto Reservoir Road. Travel
past the stop sign, then take the first right onto Training
Hill Road. Your first left will lead into the Middlesex
Community College Campus parking area. When you
arrive on campus, take a right onto Training Hill Road.
Go to the second parking lot entrance and take a left
into the upper lot. Directly in front of you will be Snow
Hall. Enter Snow Hall and go up the stairs to the 2nd
floor and go to the last room on the right, Room 509.
12
Monthly Meeting
February 23 - 7 pm
“Back To Basics” - 6 pm
FEBRUARY 2005
Camcorder + Mac =
Recording Studio
all current Macs and would be worth a
try. But I like Sound Studio from Felt
Tip Software (www.felttip.com). This
great program used to ship on many
Mac models, but is available as shareware for $49.99 and runs on OS 9 and
OS X.
By Don Dickey,
CMC president
Not long ago, if you wanted to
make a concert recording, you’d
buy a reel-to-reel or cassette
recorder, plug in a couple of
microphones, and press
“Record.” What you got was
fine for simple archival purposes, but you had to put up
with tape hiss, low frequency hum, and other
distracting noises. The equipment to
make noise-free digital recordings
was beyond the pocketbooks of most
amateurs and hobbyists.
I recently learned through experimentation that you can use a camcorder
(on a tripod) and a Mac to create a
decent recording. You could record
the concert with the camcorder, capture the footage on your Mac with
iMovie, and then extract the audio.
This process involves three steps.
Plus, you’re recording time would be
limited to the length of your tape, usually only an hour. That’s simply not
enough to record a typical concert
without having to change tapes. This
method’s only advantage is that you
don’t have to bring your computer to
the concert...which might be very useful if that computer is a big G5.
Fortunately, there is a better way if
you’ve got a laptop. Connect the camcorder to your Mac and record the
sound directly on the hard drive. You
can do this digitally using a FireWire
cable or in analog mode using the
cable that came with your camcorder
plus a small adapter to go from the
cable’s RCA plugs to the Mac’s
(see more info on page 11)
3.5mm sound input jack. If you have
an iBook or other Mac without sound
input, try the FireWire method. If you
have a sound input jack, the analog
method is useful if you want to position the camcorder further from your
computer than the 12 foot limit of a
FireWire connection. You can easily
extend the RCA type cable by 20 or
more feet.
The sound quality is very good using
either method, and is largely dependent on the microphone in the
camcorder. A modest investment of
about $100 for a good external camcorder microphone will dramatically
improve your recordings. External
mics typically have better frequency
response and stereo separation, and
they’re also removed from any noises
generated by the camcorder’s motors.
This is particularly important if you’re
recording video to tape simultaneously. By the way, your movies will also
sound better!
The one additional requirement for
recording on the hard drive is software. What you use depends on the
connection employed. Analog audio
can be recorded by just about any
audio software. Garage Band ships on
1
If you’re recording
audio over FireWire,
your choices are more
limited. You need a program that supports OS X
audio, called HAL, such
as AudioX ($19.95) from
RealMacSoftware.com or Peak from
Bias-Inc.com
Once the audio is on your hard drive,
you can use Apple’s free iTunes software to convert the files to MP3
format for the web, or burn them to a
CD to play in your car or home stereo.
Record the surf at your favorite beach
to make good “sleeping music.” Make
your kid or grandchild a CD of their
school concert or neighborhood band
and you’ll be a hero. Or, record a concert at church for shut-ins who can’t
attend, and you might be praised by a
higher authority! 
Inside this Issue
Camcorder+Mac=Recording Studio .... 1
MacOSaiX Freeware............................ 2
Review: DiskWarrior............................4
Open Source Software..........................5
Review: iWorks .....................................6
Under the OSX Hood ...........................8
CMC Officers & Directors .................10
MacOSaiX
Freeware
By John Hershey
NCMUG Member
Editor
Deena Quilty
Content Contributor
Don Dickey
Contributing Author
Rich Lenoce
Designer
George Maciel
Photographer
John Scott
Publisher
Connection, Inc.
41 Crossroads Plaza
PMB 1984
Printer
Budget Printers
1718 Park Street
Hartford, CT 06106
from members!
in each issue.
Freeware – a word
that conjures up
memories of frequent
crashes, non-intuitive
interfaces, one-trick-pony software and basically, not a whole
lot of positive scenarios. Of
course, one might say, it’s free,
so “you takes your chances.”
And take a chance I did. I saw a
brief blurb in MacAddict about
freeware that was included on
their December 2004 disk called
MacOSaiX. The name is a combination
of Mac, OS, and a tongue-in-cheek
spelling of Mosaic.
MacOSaiX
After installing MacOSaiX, my freeware fears disappeared. This is one fun
little application that makes photomosaics–of the type seen in high-priced
advertising and magazine editorial illustrations–available to users with OS X
10.2 and above. Once this process was
the exclusive domain of what I can only
speculate to be mainframe computers
running gazillions of bytes and calculating light, dark, and color to build a
single picture made up of thousands of
little photos.
Mosaic set up
Here’s how MacOSaiX works: You
assign an image from which to make a
mosaic. The devil is in the details, as it
says in MacOSaiX’s Web page FAQs at
http://homepage.mac.com/knarf/MacO
SaiX. Images with less detail require
fewer tiles and thus fewer images to
make the mosaic.
You chose the shape of the tiles, and
number of tiles across and down, from a
default of 20 x 20 and on up. Your
source of images that will comprise the
mosaic can be (by default) your User >
Pictures folder and/or any other folder
2
you designate, including iPhoto. A
Preview window displays the full
image, with tile grid superimposed if desired.
Glyphs and Googles
For those with not enough images,
other options of source imagery to
be used as tiles are
provided as choices in the interface.
You can choose
Random Glyphs,
for example. This
image source picks
a random letter
(known as a glyph)
from a random font
on your computer
and draws it in a
random color over a background of a
random color.
Another choice is Google Image Terms.
You put in the terms and a Google
search comes up with the images. You
can also choose multiple sources, such
as Glyphs and Googles.
Let the Magic Begin
What happens in a second window displayed to the left of the first is pure
magic. Caution: You can use up a lot of
your productive time playing with this
application. It’s that impressive and that
much fun. Sort of like that commercial:
“Your friends will think you spent hours
preparing...” when all you do is set it up
properly and go away for a few hours.
How long depends on how many tiles
you are asking the software to create in
order to make a picture.
Stunning Results
The software may complete an image
and still be searching for better matches
for tiles. Therefore, the longer it runs,
the closer the detail gets to replicating
the big image. You can click on a tile
and choose a different image than the
one selected if you desire, although this
is a sluggish process. Once done, you
can export the image as a tiff or jpeg.
Continued on page 3
Continued from page 2
The tiff I exported in my test using two
friends’ portrait was 124 Megs and at
300 ppi was 21 x 28 inches. The detail
was excellent. When I zoomed in on
screen I was able to see sharp renditions
of my source photos in their tile positions. Check out some of the examples
on the MacOSaiX Website noted above
to see some impressive resolution.
Caveats and Tips
Sometimes you may have to create an
artificially full-ranged selection of photos in order to give the software enough
images to fill in appropriate areas. A
folder of normally exposed shots may
lack these extreme levels.
When the lighter areas in my photo
were slow to fill in with tiles, I took half
of my 1,000 original digital shots and
duplicated them, creating an action in
Photoshop to batch process them with
“whited-out” brightness levels. I did not
need additional dark-biased photos
since I had a lot of night shots. Only
after adding the lightened shots was
there a full range of light and dark to
make a convincing mosaic. Don’t close
the application before exporting the
resulting mosaic or you will have to
start all over again. It does not save the
mosaic composite done to date, only the
setup parameters. I suggest exporting
as a tiff and then down sampling to
your needs. That way you still have the
highest resolution original in the tiff.
ware. Who knows? You might just
come up with a practical application or
project to justify all that fun. 
MacOSaiX Freeware download:
http://homepage.mac.com/knarf/
MacOSaiX
System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.2
or above, 128 MB Memory (RAM),
256 MB recommended.
See a few examples from the Mosaic
community at: http://homepage.mac.
com/knarf/MacOSaiX/Community/
Final Comments
You can get Version 1 from
the MacAddict disk or
download it from the
Website. It’s free, so no
frivolous spending is
required. Version 2 is in
beta. MacOSaiX has managed to disprove all of my
cliché opinions about free-
TextWrangler 2.0
http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/download.shtml
BareBones software, maker of
BBEdit, has just released version 2
of their “lite” version known as
TextWrangler. Best of all, it is now
totally free. This is one of the best
text editors for the Mac (not counting BBEdit, of course).
From the BareBones web site:
TextWrangler 2 is the powerful general purpose text editor, and Unix
and server administrator’s tool.
What is a text editor?
At its most basic, a text editor is a
tool for simply editing text. You can
use a text editor for a wide variety of
tasks from cleaning up data, to editing configuration files on your Mac
or server, to writing HTML or coding
TextWrangler is a...
• General Purpose Text Editor
• Programmer’s Text Editor
• Unix and Server Administrator’s
Tool
• Powerful Text Transformer and
Manipulator
• Good Mac OS Citizen
• Powerfully Useful Tool
• Te x t W r a n g l e r w a s
developed in the best
traditions of Bare
Bones Software, with
high performance, ease
of use, a rich feature
set, and the ability to
read its own release
notes
3
Note: If you are not using OS X yet,
go to http://www.versiontracker.com/
to download BBEdit Lite 6.1.2.This
is their pre-OS X version. They do
not support it anymore and do not
have it on their site, but
VersionTracker still has it available,
for now. Grab it while it is available.
DiskWarrior:
Fixing the
Unthinkable
By Rich Lenoce
CMC Vice
President
For those of us
who rely on our
computers for our income, a computer
crash can be devastating–so we tend
not to think about them. My wife is a
teacher and her Snow iMac holds her
syllabi, lesson plans, grades, and communications with students. She also
teaches a distance-learning course, so
her computer is essential to her job.
The computer never gets turned off,
but also never gets backed up or maintained.
Tech, and who shall remain anonymous, told me there was one repair
application in his arsenal of repair
applications that he takes out when all
else seems lost and it magically
repairs seemingly dead drives:
DiskWarrior. On his advice I purchased a copy on sale and it has
remained in the box.
I put the DiskWarrior CD in the drive
and booted holding the “C” key down.
It launched and found the disk.
DiskWarrior is a ten-step process of
finding drive directory information
and rebuilding the directory. Before it
rebuilds the directory it tells you
everything that is wrong with the
drive, what it repaired and what it will
do. It found 187 things wrong with my
wife’s hard drive. Everything including folders having gone invisible, to
One evening I needed to access her
OS 9 applications to translate a file
and to do so, I needed to reboot the
computer into OS 9. Upon restart the
computer failed to boot into either OS
9 or X, giving me a very dangerous
looking white screen that said “Open
Firmware.” I did the appropriate thing
and booted from the OS X CD and
ran the Disk Utilities Disk Repair
application. It found several errors
that it claimed were repaired but upon
running Disk Repair a second time, I
got the same errors and when rebooted, I again got the Open Firmware
screen.
I then tried the AppleCare TechTool
CD that came with the iMac. TechTool
found the drive but said it was not
mounted on the desktop and attempted to repair the drive. TechTool
stopped mid-way through the repair,
saying it could no longer continue as
the drive was “beyond repair and you
should back-up all data.” A backup is
impossible from an un-mounted disk
so it appeared this hard drive was
damaged beyond repair.
Finally, I remembered several years
ago a CMC member who is a Mac
system files in the incorrect location
that no longer allow the system to
boot, or a system that is no longer
“blessed.” It asked if we wanted to
repair and replace the directory and
“re-bless” the system folder. We
clicked OK and in about 10 minutes
we were prompted to restart.
Amazingly the iMac booted and ran as
good as new.
What happened to the drive?
I asked several Mac experts the questions how could the drive get so bad
that it wouldn’t mount or start, and
4
what had actually happened? Hard
drives have hundreds of thousands–and
in some cases millions–of files. You
can’t always see these files as they are
either invisible (hidden from view on
purpose so you won’t mess with them)
or are part of a package. Applications,
for example, are really packages–they
appear as a single file but may be made
up of hundreds of little component files
each doing their part in making a program run. So the few hundred files you
may see when exploring your hard
drive may really be made up of thousands or millions of hidden files. There
is a master catalog and series of smaller catalogs that keeps track of all these
files.
The best way to describe a hard drive
is by comparing it to a phone book.
Phone books consist of tens of thousands of pieces of data. Let’s say each
entry is a file. When you first get the
phone book, everything is in neat
order. The pages are in order and have
no tears or creases, the sections are
whole (white, blue, yellow) and the
table of contents is where it’s supposed to be and helps guide you so
that when you need a “sewage excavator” you look under “plumber,” not
excavator for example. If you use the
phone book every day, over time
pages will crease, rip, get smudged
and sometimes even fall out–so you
stick the fallen pages anywhere in the
book. The information isn’t lost, it just
gets out of place and may become difficult to find or read. A hard drive is
like that. It has catalog entries that act
as a table of contents to let the drive
know where all the files are. The more
that files are moved, copied, or deleted, or that power hits occur, the
greater the chance there will be some
corruption to these catalogs, or the
files themselves. One day an important file that is supposed to be in one
place on the drive now can’t be found,
and the drive won’t start because the
computer can’t find that all-important
file. It’s still there, just not where it’s
supposed to be, or it got flagged as a
continued on page 5
different type of file because it’s now
in the wrong place. Or somehow
maybe it got damaged and the catalog
thinks it’s a folder not a file.
If this catalog and file corruption
occurs to any of the thousands of files
responsible for starting the computer,
you’re in trouble. When the computer
asks the drive to load the files in the
specific order it needs to boot, it can’t
because it can’t find all the files or is
in the wrong place in the sequence or
is masquerading as another file.
It takes a program like DiskWarrior to
examine the hard drive and ask and
answer some important questions:
What files did this computer have?
Where are they? Can I correct problems with them? Can I again put them
where they belong and rebuild the
hard drives directory and catalog
structure to find them again? It then
rebuilds the directory information and
replaces the bad one with the reconstructed one.
Important lesson: backup your files
regularly. I have a FireWire drive and
DejaVu software ($24.95) to backup
my home folder automatically each
night. I like DejaVu because it repairs
Disk Permissions before each backup
to further protect the drive. You should
also have your Mac on a regular quarterly or monthly maintenance plan,
using programs like TechTool and/or
DiskWarrior to resolve any issues
before the problems become visible–or down right dangerous. 
Member of the Month
?
by David Gerstein
CMC Treasurer
Since there was no January meeting
and hence no opportunity to interview a member for “Member of the
Month,” we regret this new feature
will not appear in this issue. Look for
it to return in the next issue of of the
CMC Chronicle.
Open Source:
The Best in Free Apps
By Rich Lenoce
CMC Vice President
Recently, I wanted to purchase a
photo printer, but was told by the
manufacturer it was Windows only.
What’s a Mac OS X user to do?
Look to the Open Source community to write it for you.
“The www.sourceforge.net web site
provides a way for
developers to control
and manage projects as well as make
contact
with
users.”
“Open Source” is a philosophy that
flies in the face of the profitcentered model of software
development, where consumers
purchase software and pay for
updates. Open Source is similar to
community barn-building, where a
community of developers and users
collaborate on development and
testing with the user obtaining software, upgrades and enhancements
free of charge. Presumably this
promotes a higher standard of quality and helps to ensure the
long-term viability of the applications. There is no company to go
out of business and the software
can’t be dropped because it doesn’t
sell. For a minority computer group
like the Mac, this means we get
terrific software that would not be
profitable for a business to develop.
are often quite
usable; the user is expected to send
bug reports. Since no one is being
paid and there are no deadlines,
software may stay in beta for a long
time without a full release.
Today, there are over 2,000 Open
Source OS X applications available
and nearly 500 for OS 9.
One example of a rock solid OS X
Open Source application is Fire, an
instant messaging client that
includes AIM (AOL), Yahoo, MSN,
Jabber, ICQ and IRC in one application. NeoOffice is a Cocoa (Mac
OS X) version of Open Office, a
compatible replacement for
Microsoft Office that is still in beta
testing but very usable. Larger projects like Mozilla and Firefox
(www.mozilla.org), have their own
coordinated communities and web
sites. The status and stability of
each application is ranked at
SourceForge to warn users of
issues. 
It sounds almost too good to be
true; there are downsides. Since
open source software development
is a collaboration between developers and end users, projects are often
under various stages of development. Some are highly developed,
very stable and as good or better
than similar commercial products,
while others are merely in the
alpha stage and are unreliable. In
between, there are the many projects in the beta stage that may still
have some bugs. These applications
5
SourceForge is a community of
application developers who donate
their time coordinates most Open
Source efforts. The www.sourceforge.net web site provides a way
for developers to control and manage projects as well as make
contact with users. A search of their
website reveals every type of application known to man. If you can’t
find an application to meet a need,
then you can request a project be
started. I requested the driver mentioned above and it got assigned to
the GIMP printing group.
Review:
iWorks Pages
By Rich Lenoce
CMC Vice President
I am writing this
review on Apple’s new
and powerful “Word
Processor with Style,”
iWorks Pages. iWorks
is being billed as a
replacement for Appleworks. I don’t
know if I’d go that far since
Appleworks comes with spreadsheet,
database and many other smaller applications, while iWorks only comes with
Pages and Keynote, Apple’s presentation software. Nevertheless, iWorks two
programs are incredibly comprehensive, stylish and elegant. For $79, is this
a Microsoft Office deal-breaker? Well,
we will get to that later.
Installation
To install iWorks, you’ll need OS X and
at least a 500 mhz G3 with a G4 or G5
recommended. My installation disk
came on a DVD rather than a CD. (I am
registered with Apple and they may
know that I had a DVD drive and therefore sent that media. The instructions
do indicate to begin installation “insert
the DVD or first CD,” so clearly CDs
are available.) Installation was fast and
easy. The included serial number is
required. It should be noted that Apple
includes two comprehensive manuals
so there will be no need for a “Missing
Manual for iWorks.” Take that David
Pogue!
The minute you open Pages you immediately notice you are not in MS Word
territory. At start-up, you are asked to
choose from 40 gorgeous templates, or
a blank page. There are syllabi for
teachers, resumes for job hunters,
newsletters for desktop publishers; the
list goes on. Like Keynote, these templates are professional looking and
fully customizable. That is the great
thing about Pages: if you like the templates the way they are you can just
jump right in and begin adding content.
If you want to make a document
your own, Apple made it so easy
to customize a document that
you’ll impress anyone you show
it to. They’ll think you created
it in Indesign , Quark or
Pagemaker.
Style choices such as paragraph,
text, objects (charts, graphs,
tables), borders etc. offer an infinite selection of customization.
With Pages, you don’t have to be a
graphic designer to make terrific looking documents. In fact, the manual
gives pointers on how to approach document design to create styles across an
entire document. Styles (Body, Bullet,
Caption, Heading, Sub-Heading, etc.)
reside in a style drawer placing all
styles at your fingertips; unlike Word,
no hunting is involved. There is a media
browser that let’s you add media from
your iLife library or you can drag and
drop media right into s document from
any iLife application as well as Safari or
the Finder. Merging documents is as
easy as dragging one document to
another’s document window. Internal
and external hypertext and hyperlinks
can also be easily added.
Editing features are truly astounding.
Want to change the style of every heading in a 75 page document? Simply
select one heading in the document and
in the Style Drawer click on heading
and choose “Select All Headings” and a
new style dialog box will appear and
ask you what new style you want all
headings to be! Inserting text boxes and
sidebars into existing documents is
even easier and all text will align properly. Alignment tools are simple to use
and spacing is dead-on!
Are you catching my drift yet? This is a
very powerful program! It is so easy to
use a child could create professional
looking documents. Pages bridges the
gap between a word processor and a
desktop publishing application like
InDesign. In fact, PDFs were nothing
short of gorgeous and printed beautifully from Preview and Acrobat. I’ve
6
always found desktop publishing programs cumbersome and complex to the
point where they are best left to the
graphic design experts. Pages changes
all that with its ease of use and PDF
exporting option.
Rough Spots
My main criticism is with Pages’ disjointed interface. If you are like me and
like to have your editing tools at your
fingertips, you’ll need to open Pages
various drawers, inspectors and
browsers, leaving you with a scattered
mess on your desktop. These palettes
are all different sizes and don’t stack,
minimize, tile or collapse. Microsoft
uses toolbars that neatly stack and
Adobe uses perfectly sized and aligned
palettes by default. Why can’t Apple
create a neat stackable interface similar
to Microsoft, Adobe or their own Final
Cut and DVD Studio Pro products?
Also, frequently used formatting styles
(bold, italic, size) are not available from
the toolbar at the top of the document
Another criticism I have is that Pages,
though integrated with iLife, is not integrated with other Mac OS X
applications or .Mac. I can’t choose to
send a file directly to someone from
within Pages using Mail and there is no
ability to mail merge with Address
Book. These are features even Word
has! I can’t preview PDF and HTML
documents in Preview and Safari. I
opened a template and was told certain
fonts weren’t loaded. Instead, Pages
should ask me if I want to turn them on
through FontBook. Finally, there is no
intuitive way to publish documents to
.Mac Home Pages. Speaking of Web
pages, Pages HTML exporting feature
is nothing short of horrendous. Pages’
pre-made templates completely fall
apart into an unorganized jumble of text
and images losing all structure and formatting when displayed in a web
browser. This makes creating web sites
and newsletters impossible–a feature
Apple has been touting in advertisements for Pages.
continued on page 7
There are some minor bugs with the
program. I can’t place the cursor within
line breaks made with the Return key.
This is because Pages doesn’t have
“Line Breaks” as such but uses vertical
character spacing instead to fill in gaps
between lines. Weird. Even weirder,
Spell Checking always started at the
beginning of the document, not at the
cursor placement point and Mac products are not listed in the spelling
dictionary showing up as mistakes in
Pages documents.
Word Compatibility
How compatible is Pages with Word
documents? The answer varies. When I
opened simple Word documents the
conversion was flawless, however with
complex Word documents, Pages
changed the formatting, tables, media
alignment and font sizes. Documents
even get renamed to “Untitled.” I
believe these changes are because when
Pages converts the document, Pages
applies the current Pages settings, not
the saved Word settings. Similarly, there
were problems with exporting Pages
iLife ‘05 upgrade:
A Cautionary note
by Chris Hart
CMC Secretary
If you have purchased or
will purchase Apple’s new
digital media suite known
as iLife ‘05, you should be
aware of a potential glitch. This is especially important information for those
of you who have a valuable collection
of photos stored in iPhoto. Specifically,
many Mac users have been finding that
their photos have become jumbled, or
even disappeared upon upgrading to
the newest iPhoto (version 5, part of
iLife ‘05). There are some steps you
can take to reduce the chances of this
happening to you.
First of all, I want to remind you that
you should create a backup of your
documents to the Word .doc file format.
With simple documents, the export to
Word was excellent but with complex
templates that included lots of customization, Word could not display
elements properly.
Pages needs to do a much better job
maintaining Word formatting and style
settings upon import and export. Sadly,
Pages does not work natively in the
Word Doc file format like OpenOffice,
Free Office and Neo Office. If these free
programs can work in Word file formats
without exporting, and do a good job of
maintaining compatibility even with
complex documents, why can’t Pages?
It may be that Apple is fearful of treading too much on Microsoft’s turf. If
Pages is too much like Word, fully compatible and truly a competitor,
Microsoft might drop their Office product and that would be devastating to
Apple. They’d be known again as a
niche computer company forcing
schools, businesses and consumers that
rely on Windows PCs and MS Office to
drop Apple like a hot potato. Apple
worked hard at accentuating the differ-
data before installing any
software updates. Be it an
OS X update, or something
like migrating from iLife ‘04
to ‘05, such an installation is
a major change for your system. Always make backups
before making changes to
your Mac!
Now, what you need to do before
installing iLife ‘05 is to rebuild your
photo library in your current iPhoto
version 4 (part of iLife ‘04). You do that
by holding down the COMMANDOPTION-SHIFT keys on your
keyboard simultaneously while launching iPhoto. You will be asked if you
want to rebuild your library. You can
then let go of the keys on the keyboard.
On your screen, confirm that you want
to rebuild your photo library and allow
iPhoto 4 to complete the rebuilding
7
ences between the products, and hiding
or eliminating the similarities. Pages is
just similar and compatible enough but
not too compatible.
Can Pages replace Word for most people? It’s ease of use, the quality of the
documents and price certainly could
replace Word for many consumers.
However, Pages seems to be directed at
people who use AppleWorks daily and
those who want to dabble or become
proficient at desktop publishing. It is
not directed at heavy Word users. For
those of us who need true Word compatibility and higher end business
features such as mail merge, spread
sheet integration, macros, etc., Pages
doesn’t cut it. For most people, consumers, businesses, designers, media
junkies and myself included, Pages is
another tool in a broader arsenal of
tools to quickly and easily create high
end looking documents without paying
a high end price. For that it is worth
$79. Oh, and did, I mention the buffed
up Keynote 2 comes with iWorks? I’ll
save that review for another day. 
process. Once that process is complete,
quit all programs on your computer,
and then install iLife ‘05.
As we go to press, Apple has issued a
version 5.0.1 update for iPhoto, which
is intended to address this photo library
issue. But as I’ve said above, if you
have a highly prized collection of pictures in your iPhoto library, your safest
course of action is to (1) make a backup of your library and (2) rebuild the
library before installing any upgrades.
If you’ve already installed iLife ‘05 and
had problems occur with your iPhoto
library, you may still be able to recover
from the situation. First, try installing
the 5.0.1 update. Second, use the keyboard commands listed above to get
iPhoto to rebuild your library. Good
luck and I hope you enjoy all the great
new features in iPhoto 5! 
Under the OSX Hood:
Spoofing User Agents
By Joe Arcuri,
CMC Ambassador
Benefits:
Date ______________________________
Name _____________________________
Address ___________________________
City ______________________________
State________ Zip __________________
Phone (Home) ______________________
Phone (Office) ______________________
Phone (Fax) ________________________
Business___________________________
Occupation_________________________
Email:_____________________________
Referred by:________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
Annual CMC Family
Membership - $25.00
mail to:
...or
www.ctmac.org
Recently I had a client using OS
X that complained that his bank
was requiring him to use Internet
Explorer 5.5 or above to access his
online portfolio. Since Microsoft
decided to stop supporting the Mac
last year, we’re now stuck with
Internet Explorer 5.2. Whoops. What
to do now? Well, the issue isn’t necessarily that the banks or websites
require some specific feature of IE 5.5
for them to work, it’s that they’ve only
tested their website using that browser.
As long as the site has been designed
to standards, any modern browser will
work on it. The dilemma comes in
how to convince the website that
you’re legitimate.
Browsers use a feature called “User
Agents” to identify themselves to the
server, each browser has a unique User
Agent that tells the browser, the version and the Operating System used.
For example, Safari identifies itself
with the User Agent of: Mozilla/5.0
(Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X)
AppleWebKit/124 (KHTML, like
Gecko) Safari/125.1 whereas the latest
version of Internet Explorer on
Windows identifies itself as:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0;
Windows NT 5.1).
For a complete and updated list of
User Agent strings, check out
http://www.pgts.com.au/pgtsj/pgtsj02
08c.html
If you could only get your browser to
tell the server a lie, you’d be all set and
could use Safari to do your online
banking! You can. Like a kid in front
of an ice cream parlor, your browser is
willing to do anything you want as
long as you know how to ask.
For Safari the easiest way is to download
a small program called “Safari Enhancer,”
8
available at www.lordofthecows.com. You’ll
need to run Safari
Enhancer and choose
the checkbox for
“debugging menu.”
After applying the settings, Safari will have
a new menu item when you launch it.
This menu item is “Debug” and within it you’ll find a “User Agent”
submenu from which you can easily
choose which browser to spoof.
If you use Firefox or Camino, it’s also
simple to modify your User Agent.
One of the beauties of Firefox is the
large amount of extensions and
themes which people have come up
with for modifying it. One of these
extensions is “User Agent Switcher”
available from the Firefox extensions
page at mozilla.org. After installing
User Agent Switcher, you’ll find a
new item under your Tools menu titled
User Agent Switcher. From there you
can choose to use one of the supplied
User Agents or even add new ones.
Camino is the toughest one to modify
because you actually need to edit the
user.js file located in your Users/User
Name/Library/Application Support/
Camino/ folder. If there isn’t a user.js
file there, you can create it using
TextEdit. In the user.js file simply add
this line: user_pref(“general.user
agent.override”, “[User Agent]”); and
where it says “User Agent,” add the
UA of your desired browser. If you
later want to go back to having Camino
be itself simply eliminate that line.
These tricks won’t change the way
your browser actually works; it only
changes how it’s perceived by the web
server. If a site is really designed to
only work with Internet Explorer
under Windows, you won’t be able to
get around that but in most cases the
issue stems from a lazy IT department
not being interested in testing their site
under multiple browsers.
Enjoy your newly named browsing!
Special MUG Offers from the Apple User Group
qualify for these savings. member?
Join CMC today to take advantage of
these special offers. Get a complete list
of all current deals at: www.mugcenter.com/vendornews/vendornews.html
Macworld on Tour
Macworld is great fun for folks who
can make it. Now, even more people
can enjoy Macworld because
Macworld is going on tour starting
with Orlando, Florida on March 9 and
10. Network. Find solutions. See new
products and resources. Meet with
user group folks and vendors. Learn at
sessions specifically prepared for the
enthusiast or pro.
Better yet, user group members
receive 15 percent off this first-time
event. Learn about the tour.
http://macworldontour.com This offer
is valid until Feb. 4, 2005.
JHL Technologies:
quikDVD Templates
quikDVD is a collection of pre-made
DVD menu templates designed
specifically for Apple's DVD Studio
Pro 2 and newer. quikDVD provides
consumers with the ability to create
their own professional looking DVDs
for less. From equestrian events to
your special wedding day, quikDVD
makes certain that every template
allows for that personal touch to make
it your own.
Regularly $92.98, user group members can receive quickDVD plus a
bonus seasonal package for $59.99.
User name: mac62284
Password: jk3798
http://www.quiktemplates.net/order.htm
Offer is valid until April 30, 2005.
MacAddict: Subscription Offer
Special MacAddict Subscription and
Renewal Offer for MUG members. Get
MacAddict for only $20.95. That’s 78
percent off the basic rate and $3.05 off
of the lowest published rate.
Mariner Software:
Desktop Poet 1.0
Ok, let's be honest. How often have
you seen magnetic poetry on someone's refrigerator and just had to stop
and compose a quirky, little quip?
Award-winning MacAddict magazine
launched in 1996 as the ultimate
hands-on guide to anything and everything Macintosh. Its mission is to
provide readers with the most comprehensive range of Mac product and
how-to information possible.
MacAddict packs each issue with indepth how-to articles, fact-filled
features, expert reviews, and up-tothe-minute news and analysis.
Now, with Desktop Poet 1.0, you can
prove you do have a "creative" side,
all from the comfort of your Mac.
And, with our introductory Apple user
group offer, you can free that inner
poet for less than $15.00 (US). That's
25 percent off.
https://w1.buysub.com/servlet/Orders
Gateway?cds_mag_code=MCD&cds
_page_ id=13588
Order. Promotional Code: poem
http://www.marinersoftware.com/sho
pproduct.php
Offer is valid until June 30, 2005.
Offer is valid until April 30, 2005.
Dynamic Graphics:
Photoshop Fix Newsletter
Photoshop Fix, a new monthly
newsletter devoted entirely to
Photoshop, is the smart, cutting-edge
publication designed with the
Photoshop junkie in mind. Each issue
of Photoshop Fix gives you 16 pages
of picture-packed tutorials and tips by
industry experts who break down the
essentials of Photoshop, with easy,
step-by-step instruction and exciting
full-color images.
Members of Apple User Groups can
get a 12-month subscription for only
$55 (US). That's over 50 percent off
the single copy price and $4 (US) off
the regular one-year. Plus, you'll
receive a FREE Bonus Pix CD with
75 exclusive, high-resolution photos
with your paid subscription.
http://www.dynamicgraphics.com/PU
BS/PSF/launch/macUsers.aspx
Offer is valid until May 30, 2005.
See all current deals at:
www.mugcenter.com/vendornews/vendornews.html
9
Learn more.
http://marinersoftware.com/
sitepage.php?page=74
The MUG Store
Great deals for CMC
members. Aggressive
new prices on all the
latest Macs. Add to
that Free freight, RAM rebates,
aggressive pricing on new (and
reconditioned) Macs and the
largest selection of pre-owned
Macs on the planet, 1% merchandise credit back to CMC, huge
blowout and specials section,
including great deals on Bose
speakers, Apple software, and
more...and you have a deal that
can’t be beat.
Visit this exclusive user group site.
http://www.applemugstore.com
12/1/2004 - 3/30/2005
User ID: xxxxx (lowercase)
Password: xxxx (lowercase)
[email protected]
860-232-2841
[email protected]
860-347-1789
PR Jerry Esposito
[email protected]
[email protected]
860-291-9393
[email protected]
[email protected]
10
CMC Monthly Meeting
February 23, 2005
UConn Health Center
7 pm – Maintaining Your Mac
UConn Health Center
G3s, G4s and G5s coupled with MacOSX
brings a whole new level of sophistication
to computing but with it comes the
responsibility to perform routine maintenance and to resolve problems as they
occur. Chris Hart demonstrates the tools
and techniques to keep your Mac running
in tip-top shape and how to identify and
address common Macintosh problems.
6 pm – Back To Basics: iChat
Have you wanted to get involved in chatting online with your friends or relatives?
Thought about conversing with distant
family members over the internet, instead
of paying long distance rates? iChat A/V,
that Apple includes with OSX, includes
what you need to get started.
Upcoming Meetings
March 30, 2005 • 7:00 PM
Special Location: TALCOTT
MOUNTAIN SCIENCE CENTER
April 27, 2005 • 7:00 PM • iDVD
Presenter: Rich Lenoce
Discounted Books!
FREE Raffle!
not too long.
New Members!
SPECIAL
NOTICE!
Changes regarding
access to the
CMC website:
www.ctmac.org
Savings Balance ................$3956.94
Balances as of February 2, 2005
and password
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Account Balances
FREE Classified Ads
[email protected]
Please make a
note of it NOW!
Display Ad Rates
Are you receiving
our CMC emails?
Any business items or services can
be advertised at the low monthly rates
listed below.
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We always send out advance
notice of the meetings, and sometimes for big news or special
events (like our bus trip to
Macworld). If you’re not getting
them, please email us at
11
Submit all ad copy to the Editor on a disk
(with nothing else on it) or e-mail it to
[email protected] for insertion in the
following issue. Display ads must be
submitted camera-ready in eps or pdf format with all fonts and graphics embedded.
Make check payable to CMC.
Monthly Meeting
February 23 - 7 pm
Back to Basics – 6 pm
left as you enter.
12
Monthly Meeting
March 30 • 7 PM
Special Location:
TALCOTT MOUNTAIN
SCIENCE CENTER
(carpool info and directions on page 11)
Mac Media Server
By Don Dickey,
CMC president
Media servers are where it’s at... at
least in the Windoze PC world, that is.
If you’re “up” on this technology, you
may already be planning to make one
for yourself. If you’re not, you’re
probably wondering what a media
server is. Let’s get started!
Media servers are computers that act
as repositories for all your digital
stuff: pictures, music, and video. They
must have the necessary connections
to both receive such data and serve it.
These connections are not usually the
same!
To receive digital stuff, a media server
must be able to grab your photos (usually from your camera or Photo CDs),
grab your music (usually from CDs
you own or from files you’ve bought
and downloaded) and grab your
movies (usually from your camcorder
or from DVDs you’ve purchased). So,
hardware requirements will obviously
include a USB port for your camera,
an optical drive (either CD or
CD/DVD combo), plus a FireWire
port if a digital camcorder is involved.
You also need space on your hard
drive to store the media files. This can
be a modest 60 gb drive for photos and
music, but can balloon to 250 mb or
more when lots of video is involved,
since a typical DVD takes 5 to 7 gb
each!
MARCH 2005
would be your stereo or amplified
speakers. For photos and/or video, this
would typically include your TV or
even a digital projector.
You can connect any Mac to most
audio systems using a cable that has a
stereo 3.5 mm plug on one end and a
pair of RCA plugs on the other end.
Video is a little more complex. Many
Macs, particularly portables, have S or
composite video outputs that can drive
most modern TVs. This is fine for normal resolutions.
If you want to go “all the way” to HD
(high definition), you’ll need a Mac
that has DVI video. Most G4-based
towers and PowerBooks and the new
Mini have these jacks, as do all
PowerMac G5 towers. You should be
able to connect this jack to the DVI
input of an “HD ready” monitor.
You don’t need DVI or HD, though.
These technologies represent the
“high end” right now. I’m using 800 x
600 pixel output in my home with satisfactory results.
What kind of Mac makes a good
media server? Answer: Any Mac that
has all the connections you need. You
can easily add hard drive capacity
with either a replacement internal
drive or an external FireWire drive.
Many see the new Mini as an ideal
media server, and it’s relatively
affordable as such. It’s even ready for
HD with the requisite DVI connector.
The media server also needs to connect to output devices. For audio, this
1
Right now, I’m using an old
SuperMac (not even a G3) to serve
audio in my home. It has over 7,500
songs on it! I often use my
PowerBook as a portable photo and
video server. I recently bought a video
projector, and it’s a great way to do
family slide shows or watch a movie
on “the big screen.”
The other piece of the puzzle is the
software. Apple makes this easy with
iLife! You can use iTunes to organize
and play your music. iTunes can “rip”
the songs from your CDs to your hard
drive. iPhoto can organize all your
digital photos and prepare slide shows
complete with musical accompaniment. iMove can capture your video to
the hard drive and then “present it”
full screen. Finally, QuickTime can
show or play almost any file you
might receive from somebody else.
Other programs can help with some of
the more advanced tasks (like dealing
with your DVDs), but these are
outside the scope of this introduction.
Continued on page 2
Inside this Issue
Mac Media Server ............................... 1
Member of the Month.......................... 2
Mac 911 Help Desk..............................3
iLife ‘05 - Sloppy Software..................4
GarageBand ebooks..............................6
Calibrating Your Monitor .....................7
Skype’s The Limit ................................8
CMC Officers and Directors ..............10
Editor
Deena Quilty
Content Contributor
Don Dickey
Contributing Author
Rich Lenoce
Designer
George Maciel
Photographer
John Scott
Publisher
Connection, Inc.
41 Crossroads Plaza
PMB 1984
Printer
Budget Printers
1718 Park Street
Hartford, CT 06106
from members!
in each issue.
Member of the Month
Closed track, professional drivers,
your mileage may vary, etc.
by David Gerstein
CMC Treasurer
So, the first step is often to try it with
what you have. Take your Mac and get
it hooked up to your stereo. Go one
step further and get it hooked up to
your TV. Next, get some media on it.
Start with a hundred photos you want
to show. Add a few CDs of audio you
want to listen to (and also use as background for slide shows). Finally, if
you have a digital camcorder, add a
movie or two that are worth sharing
with friends and family.
Connecting your server to the Internet
and your home network will expand
its role in several ways. This can be
done wired via Ethernet, or wirelessly
using an Airport card. Either way,
you’ll gain the ability to play music
on Internet radio and download new
tunes from Apple’s online store. With
the sharing features of OS X and those
built into iTunes and iPhoto software,
you’ll also be able to see and hear
your media on other Macs connected
to your network.
CMC Member
of the Month is
Philip Handler, who
describes himself as
“a videographer/
digital photographer/
architect.”
Q How long have you been a member
A
of CMC?
13 or 14 years.
Q How long have you been using a
A
Mac?
Since 1991. My son bought one in
college. I liked it and have been
using them ever since.
Q How do you use it?
A Mostly in conjunction with digital
photography. Even though I use
videography, I take stills from the
video. A digital camera and a Mac
is like having a darkroom without
a darkroom.
Q I assume this is all for a commerA
If you want to go “whole hog” you
can even use screen sharing such as
Apple’s Remote Desktop or freeware
called VNC (virtual network computing) to see and control your server
from anywhere in your house. That’s
how I control what’s playing on my
server in the basement when I’m sitting in the living room with my
PowerBook.
The last step is to have fun with your
new toy! I enjoy being able to find a
music album with a few keystrokes in
iTunes instead of thumbing through
stacks of CDs. The photos and videos
are just icing on the cake! 
2
cial enterprise.
Yes, my company is Fly on the
Wall Productions.
[Inquirer’s clarification: Fly on the Wall
Productions uses videography and
photography to capture visual and aural
information for clients during the
process of building construction.]
Q What changes in CMC have you
seen over the years?
A More impotant than the changes is
the constant, members helping
members. Although there have
been many transitions, this constant remains.
Q What improvements for the group
can you suggest?
A Since most people don’t have that
much time, I would like to see
more reviews of products.
Mac 911 – Help Desk
By Christopher Breen
Windows Media Conversion
Is there a way to convert Windows Media
videos to a QuickTime format so I can import
them into iMovie? – William E. Johnson
It depends on the kind of Windows
Media movie files you want to import.
A tool such as Ronin no Sakurakai
Softronics’ $15 Forty-Two DVD-VX
Plus can convert some Windows
movies to a form of AVI file acceptable
to QuickTime and iMovie, but it won't
work with movies generated by
Windows Media 9. Discreet's Cleaner 6
can also convert some Windows Media
files to QuickTime, but the product’s
$549 price tag is a lot to swallow for
this seemingly simple operation.
And as much as I hate to suggest such a
thing in a magazine called Macworld, if
you can get to a Windows PC, try
Mystik Media’s $50 Blaze Media Pro.
It can convert Windows Media Video
(WMV) files to MPEG-1 format, which
you can play with QuickTime (as well
as export to QuickTime's native format
using Apple's $29 QuickTime Player
Pro, and then import into iMovie).
Sleepy Mouse
When my computer falls asleep, my
Apple Wireless Mouse disconnects. Do
you know how to fix this problem?
– Andre Bonk
Have patience. No, I’m not being facetious. After a period of inactivity, the
mouse goes to sleep to save the battery's
charge. After you click on a sleeping
mouse, it can take 30 seconds or more
to reestablish contact with the Mac.
Many people assume that the mouse
isn’t working properly because Apple’s
wireless keyboard connects far more
quickly. If the mouse refuses to rouse,
install the latest Bluetooth software. If
that doesn't wake the rodent, give Apple
a call. You may have a defective input
device.
Avoiding the Browser Two-Step
There and Back Again
Lately, Safari has been displaying this
message: “Safari can’t open the page
‘www.example.com/’ because it can't find
the server ‘www.example.com/’.” I know
this is a bad error message because when I
press return, the site always loads the second time. – Mike Schell
I bought Mac OS X 10.3 to upgrade from
Mac OS X 10.2.8 on my PowerBook. I want
to remove unwanted partitions, so it must be
a clean installation. But I want to preserve
my Mail files, account settings, and junkmail filters; archive old Entourage
messages; and maintain my Network preference settings. I can store this data on an
expansion hard drive attached to my Pismo
PowerBook. What's the best way to proceed?
– Clark Peddicord
This problem appears to have been
introduced by an Apple security update.
Although there’s no surefire fix, many
people have been able to eliminate the
glitch by opening the Network preference pane, clicking on the TCP/IP tab,
and entering their ISP’s DNS server
address in the appropriately named
DNSServers field.
Regrettably, not all ISPs like to share
their DNS server addresses. If yours
won’t cough it up, launch Network
Utility (found inside the Utilities folder), click on the Lookup tab, enter your
ISP's domain name in the Lookup field,
choose Name Server from the window's
pop-up menu, and click on Lookup.
The DNS server address should appear
after the SERVER entry. If you use a
router, be sure that the DNS information on your Mac and router match.
Other people have found that installing
Java Update 1.4.2 Update 2 fixes the
problem.
This kind of installation cries out for
Archive And Install, but you’ll have to
find another option because you need to
wipe the drive to remove the partitions.
Rather than try to back up and restore
these files (and likely run into permission problems later), do this:
Download Mike Bombich’s $5 Carbon
Copy Cloner and clone your current
system to the Pismo's expansion drive.
Open the Startup Disk preference pane
and choose that expansion drive as the
startup disk. Once you’ve booted from
the expansion drive, run Disk Utility
and format the internal drive (thus wiping out its data). Install Panther on the
expansion drive and use the Archive
And Install option. Once you’ve configured things the way you want them, use
Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the
expansion drive to the PowerBook’s
freshly scrubbed internal drive.
Send Print Preview Packing
When I try to print my Microsoft Entourage
v. X e-mail, I have to go through two dialog
boxes–Entourage's Print Preview and, once
I click on OK, the regular Print dialog box.
Is there some way to keep Entourage from
displaying the preview?–Jack Stephens
Peer into Entourage’s File menu, and
you'll see the Print One Copy command
(Command-option-P). This is the key to
avoiding both the program's Print
Preview and the Mac OS Print dialog
box. The command does exactly what it
suggests–prints one copy of the chosen
message without further interruption.
Entourage 2004 kindly does away with
the extra step by placing Print Preview
within Mac OS’s Print dialog box.
[Contributing Editor Christopher Breen is also Playlistmag.com’s editor in chief author of Macworld’s
tips and troubleshooting column, “Mac 911,” as well as Secrets of the iPod: Fifth Edition and Mac 911
(Peachpit Press). Find Chris’ books at www.amazon.com and www.peachpit.com/ Get special user
group pricing on Macworld Magazine! Subscribe today at http://www.macworld.com/useroffer.]
3
Tip of the Month: Quiet Down, iPod!
I’ve read descriptions of the mysterious
noise anomalies in some of the new
iPods. The only mystery to me is why
Apple claims that it has no clue as to the
cause of the problem. The noise is the
result of a simple ground loop that
occurs when the exposed base of some
earphones’ 1/8-inch stereo jacks makes
contact with the metal chassis surrounding the headphone receptacle on
the top of the iPod.
You can easily–and completely–remedy the problem by insulating the base of
the earphone jack (that is, wrapping a
small amount of Teflon tape around the
base of the jack) or by purchasing an
inexpensive Radio Shack headphonevolume controller (its 1/8-inch phono
jack is fully insulated at the base).
– Peter E. Simson
iLife ‘05:
Sloppy Software
By Rich Lenoce
CMC Vice President
Last month I reviewed
what I would call “sloppy software” from
Apple: iWorks Pages.
This month Apple continues to follow suit with
what should be a stable, bug free and
advanced feature product, iLife ‘05. For
$30 more, that iLife ‘04, we get few
feature additions and plenty of bugs.
Luckily, as I’ve done in the past, before
installing a new version of iLife, I backup my media libraries and move my
previous version of iLife’s applications,
in this case iLife ‘04, into a separate
folder so the old applications don’t get
deleted when the new iLife is installed.
For the first time, I was thankful I took
these precautions. When you open an
iLife ‘05 application, the newer application says it will change the iLife ‘04
Library such as the iPhoto Picture
Library or your iMovie or iDVD project. You are warned that the library or
project will be updated and will no
longer work with older iLife applications. This is problematic because if
there are bugs in iLife ‘05 software you
would have no way of recovering old
files or being able to run them using the
older applications. Loosing five years
worth of digital photos and home
movies would be nothing short of devastating to me which is why I take such
precautions. Though iLife ‘05 didn’t
corrupt my media, enough people have
been reporting problems to make backing up your iLife ‘04 libraries and
projects a must. Since the release of
iLife ‘05, Apple has been releasing
updates to correct the problems, but
given this knowledge, is iLife ‘05 worth
the $79 upgrade price?
iLife and iPhoto
As in the past, Apple focused on one
application in the package to introduce
or improve. Last year it was the intro-
duction of Garage Band; this
year it’s a significant upgrade
to iPhoto. For people who
take lots of digital photos,
Apple has done an excellent
job in improving sorting,
organizing and editing of digital photos.
With iPhoto, it is now much
easier to sort pictures.
Albums can now be grouped
in folders and keywords can be
assigned to pictures. There are also new
ways of viewing photos such as the calendar view that arranges pictures in a
variety of ways.
iPhoto 5 has taken a whole new
approach to image editing, wisely
moving away from auto-fixes like
“enhanc,” and instead has added tools
to correct common photo problems
such as exposure, color temperature
(white balance), saturation, skewing,
tint and sharpness. Like Photoshop,
Apple includes a Histogram for evaluating and adjusting images. The only
fault is that with the histogram, there is
no way to adjust mid-tones, a definite
shortcoming to an otherwise excellent
tool set.
Finally, Apple has enhanced its photofinishing choices with new album
designs including new album sizes and
more economical softcover books.
Photo creation is still buggy and can be
sluggish. Album creation works best
when you use one of the templates, but
the minute you do any customization
such as changing a typeface, designs
become misaligned and iPhoto slows to
a crawl. The best addition to iPhoto
photofinishing is that prices are now
more in-line with other photofinishing
services, starting at just 19 cents for a 4
x 6 print.
iPhoto slide show creation introduces
new transitions and other improvements. Slide show length can be
matched to that of a soundtrack. Finally,
one click of the mouse will send an
iPhoto slide show to iDVD for burning.
iPhoto still lacks some important fea-
4
tures. Web publishing is limited to the
.Mac service and not to other FTP and
WebDAV publishing services.
The Rest of iLife
iMovie and iDVD are the least
improved in iLife ‘05. Unless you have
a $4,000 high definition camcorder,
you’ll have no way of taking advantage
of their most advertised addition: high
definition compatibility. I had some
HDV footage and was able to play with
this feature and it worked very well, but
its use is very limited considering there
is no high definition DVD standard yet.
Even though you can edit HD, there is
no way to output or play DVD footage
except to send it back out to the camera
and play it back via analog HD to a TV.
When HD footage is brought into
iDVD, it is down-converted to standard
definition.
iDVD offers some new themes that are
both beautiful and more professional
then past themes. Apple is moving
away from the cheesy amateur looks
and going for more useful themes.
DVD customization is enhanced by the
addition of a menu play-head that
allows you to add menu content at various points in time.
Apple fixed its most glaring omission to
past versions of iDVD by adding status
information to the encoding and burning process. You can now see how far
along the DVD creation process is at
any time.
Garage Band has several limited
enhancements including the ability to
record multiple tracks at once, but
you’ll need an expensive external box
to take advantage of this feature.
GarageBand can also produce beautiful
musical notations of Midi notes.
Bugs and Annoyances
iLife ‘05 exhibits numerous bugs. Upon
its release, the Apple iLife support
forums were filled with complaints of
destroyed iPhoto libraries and iMovie
projects. Apple immediately released
fixes but these types of mistakes should
continued on page 5
Download of the Month: NeoOffice/J
never happen, especially with a fifth
generation product. Though iPhoto 5
now seems solid, I find iMovie 5 quits
often, forcing me to re-do project
changes. Apple definitely needs to do a
better job of beta testing its software
even if it means releasing the product
less than once a year. For these reasons,
I am for now sticking with iLife ’04, at
least until the Apple Support Forums
show that the major bugs have been
thoroughly eliminated.
http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/download.php#download/
One annoying iLife interface issue is
that many of the enhanced features and
interface additions are taking place
through contextual menus otherwise
known as command-clicking. Hidden
features have been added through
option-clicking. Apple is moving
towards this interface design strategy in
all of its professional products, such as
Motion and DVD Studio Pro, but fails
to mention this for iLife and particularly iPhoto. Most users therefore miss
some very nice additions to the program. Apple should include better
documentation explaining added features and where they can be found.
Again, this lack of documentation is
just plain sloppy.
Is iLife ‘05 worth $79? Is it worth $30
more than iLife ‘04? The answer is an
unequivocal no! This is the first time I
am not recommending Apple software.
With iLife ‘04, Apple introduced
GarageBand, which alone was worth
$49, and the other iLife apps had very
few bugs. With iLife ’05, it feels like
Apple is using my digital life to beta test
their products, and that just isn’t right.
However, for $79, I recommend people
buy the very stable and much improved
Photoshop Elements 3. In fact, iPhoto 4
will allow you to set up a preference
where PS Elements becomes the external photo editor for iPhoto. Apple needs
to realize that our commitment and passion for their products only extends to
them when they are making good solid,
well-tested products that offer expanded features and value. As you can tell, I
found iLife ‘05 a big disappointment. 
You don’t like Microsoft? You can’t
afford Office? Well if you can run OS
X, you are in luck!
NeoOffice/J (J for java, not japanese)
is a full-featured set of office applications (including word processing,
spreadsheet, presentation, and drawing programs) for Mac OS X. Based
on the OpenOffice.org office suite,
NeoOffice/J has integrated dozens of
native Mac features and can import,
edit, and exchange files with other
popular office programs such as
MicrosoftTM Office.
Released as free, open-source software under the GNU General Public
License (GPL), NeoOffice/J is fully
functional and stable enough for
everyday use. The software is actively
developed, so improvements and
small updates are made available on a
regular basis, as patches.
It is available for free from the
NeoOffice/J
download
page.
http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/e
n/download.php#download
To install and run NeoOffice/J 1.1
Beta, you must have the following:
* Mac OS X 10.2 or higher
* 256 MB of memory
* 400 MB of free disk space
Note: Because this download is relatively large, we are
making available a
limited number of
copies on CD. The
cost is $1.00 each.
See Deb Foss at the
meeting to obtain one.
Laptop
Batteries
By Chris Hart
CMC Secretary
Due to the number of questions
and complaints
about batteries,
Apple has established a part of their site specifically for addressing questions
and concerns on the topic. Find it at: http://www.apple.com/batteries/
AND THE WINNER IS...
Nancy Zadroga’s name was drawn at
the February meeting, as the winner
of the CMC Member Survey Raffle.
As her prize, Nancy chose $75 worth
of downloadable music from the
iTunes Music Store. Congratulations,
Nancy!
We’re grateful to everyone who
participated in the survey!
5
GarageBand 2.0 Ebooks
Available from TidBITS/Take Control
Submitted by Bob Sawyer
CMC Director
Ta k e C o n t r o l e d i t o r
in chief Tonya Engst
describes the first ebook,
“Take Control of Making
Music with GarageBand,”
as follows, “I’ve never been
musically inclined, and Apple’s introduction of GarageBand made me feel
old and terminally uncool. So when
Seattle musician Jeff Tolbert proposed
writing a Take Control ebook about
GarageBand, I figured that if he could
hook me into using GarageBand, he
could help anyone learn the program.
Amazingly enough, his step-by-step
instructions and linked audio examples (try that in a paper book!)
allowed even me to create a tune that
sounded reminiscent of Pink Floyd
(the height of cool for at least for
some of us who graduated high school
in 1985). Jeff doesn’t stop at helping
beginners, though, and his mix of
music theory and GarageBand knowhow will also help those with musical
talent and GarageBand experience
make even better songs. Usage tips
and tricks abound, and there’s a nice
section on improving GarageBand’s
performance on older Macs or with
complex songs.”
The second ebook “Take Control of
Recording with GarageBand” (also
Use TV to Learn Digital
Camera Menus
Learning to use the menu system on a digital camera can be
difficult because its display is so
small. If your camera has a
video-out port that lets you connect the camera to a TV, you
can use your TV’s much larger
display to show your camera’s
menus while you learn how to
use them. – Brian Rabin
by Jeff Tolbert) picks up where the
first ebook ends, looking at how to use
GarageBand to create musical compositions with vocals, drums,
guitars, MIDI keyboards, and even
the kitchen sink! Jeff
shares his GarageBand
know-how and years of
recording experience
to help you get the
most out of your existing gear or purchase
new equipment that
fits your budget and style.
You’ll find real-world recording studio techniques, learn how to use a
microphone effectively, and discover
how to apply effects like a pro. Clear
steps and plenty of practical advice
help you plan a recording session,
record multiple tracks at once, and fix
mistakes easily. Two example songs
demonstrate many of the techniques
discussed. Bonus! Linked-in audio
lets you listen to examples while you
read about them. Remember us when
you’re famous! Both ebooks have
been comprehensively updated to
cover GarageBand 2.0, making them
the first books about GarageBand 2.0
available!
Although the usual MUG discount of
10% can be applied to the purchase of
these ebooks, anyone wishing to buy
both at once should instead use the
Buy Both! button on either book’s
Web page (URLs below) in order to
pay only $17.50 ($2.50 savings).
“Take Control of Making Music with
GarageBand” version 2.0
by Jeff Tolbert
http://www.tidbits.com/takecontrol/
garageband-music.html/
PDF format, 85 pages, free 27-page
sample available Publication date:
February 24, 2005 Price: $10.00
“Take Control of Recording Music
with GarageBand” version 2.0
by Jeff Tolbert
http://www.tidbits.com/takecontrol/
garageband-recording.html/
sample available Publication date:
February 24, 2005 Price: $10.00 
Here’s a sample of what is available:
• Mac OS X Backups • Your AirPort Network
• Sharing Files in Panther • Customizing Panther
• Users/Accounts in Panther • Upgrading to Panther
• Email with Apple Mail • Spam with Apple Mail
• What's New in Word 2004 • Buying a Mac
• Buying a Digital Camera • And Many More Titles!
Free PEI Articles Online
Photo Electronic Imaging magazine, a valuable resource for
people using digital photography, has ceased publication, so
for a limited time they have
made all of their tutorials and
articles available online for free
at www.peimag.com.
on screen. A high-quality display may compensate for this,
but we recommend using a display with a DVI (Digital Video
Interface) input instead. The
Mac Mini’s DVI signal is much
stronger than its analog signal,
resulting in a sharper, brighter
image.
Use DVI with Mac Mini
The Mac Mini’s analog video
signal is too weak for many
low-cost VGA displays, resulting in a dull or washed-out look
PowerBook Battery Tip
If you always or almost always
plug your PowerBook into an
AC outlet while you work, the
battery doesn’t discharge, re-
6
ducing the battery’s lifespan.
To avoid this, about once a
month unplug your Power
Book from the AC outlet and
work from your PowerBook’s
battery. Let it drain until your
Mac puts itself to sleep
because of a drained battery,
and then plug it back into the
wall to recharge the battery
again. Macworld 11/04.
Reprinted with permission
from Design Tools Monthly,
March 2005 issue #150
www.design-tools.com
MacBasics 5:
Calibrating your monitor
From Web Watch - 1/23/05,
compiled by The MUG Center
http://www.mugcenter.com
By Don Foy
Know how to calibrate
your monitor? Know why
you should? First the why,
then the how.
You should calibrate your
monitor because every
monitor is different, even
those from the same manufacturer. Using the
built-in tools in Mac OS
X, you can help your display render color more
accurately and may be
able to extend the life of
your CRT (tube), or your
LCD screen.
This is because most displays are shipped from the
factory tuned to their
brightest setting. This may
look great when you
power it up, but it if you
use your Mac in low light
situations, it could make it
hard on your eyes. There
are some who say that displays last longer when
they are not turned up the
their brightest settings.
And it makes it hard for
you to see your work similar to what it will look
like when printed.
Back in the olden days
(you know, 1993), display
calibration was next to impossible
without spending a whole lot of money
and buying professional equipment.
Even today professional calibration
equipment is available, but is really
only needed by imaging professionals.
But Apple has provided built-in tools
in OS X that will help you get your
display in calibration. It’s not perfect,
in fact, it is very subjective, but you
can’t beat the price.
Now, the how. Go to the Apple Menu
and pull down to System Preferences.
When the window opens, look for the
Displays panel. In the
displays panel, there
are two tabs, Display
and Color if you have
a portable. A desktop
adds Geometry. If
your image on your
CRT is crooked or a
little small for the
window or tilted
funny,
Go
to
Geometry and adjust
that. You can always
go back to the factory
default if you mess it
up too badly.
To calibrate the display, click on Color.
The Color tab shows
the display profile
options available for
your display. I’m
writing this on a
PowerBook G4, so
the profile options are
LCD display, sRGB
and Generic RGB. I
chose LCD display.
This way, the system
knows what kind of
display you have. If
you have a Samsung
flat-panel display or a
Sony Trinitron CRT
or whatever, look for
your display in the
list. If it is not there,
select Generic RGB.
Next, click the calibrate button. At this
point, you should see the Display
Calibrator Assistant. The procedure is
self-explanatory from this point. There
is a check box to turn on expert
options. I usually check it. You can try
it without checking the box, or with
the box checked. Either way, if you
7
don’t like the results, you can just run
the Assistant again.
Do the adjustments it asks you to do.
Just do your best. There really is no
correct answer. When you get to the
Target White Point panel, this is where
you can really make a difference. I
work at a newspaper, using Photoshop
to adjust photographs sometimes. So I
set my target white point very warm,
which is to the left side, somewhere
around 5,000. Most CRTs will have to
be set manually because the native
white point will be 9,300. For LCDs,
the native white point will be about
6,500. I keep my general use CRTs set
about 6,500 as well. You may like
yours set at 9,300. Hey, it’s your CRT;
you can leave it that way if you like it
that way. I find it too bright for my
taste.
In the next panel, check the box next to
“Allow other users to use this calibration.” In the next panel, give your
calibration a name. The default name
usually works.
Once you have saved the calibration,
that name now appears in the Display
Profile Options window in the Color
panel of the Displays pref panel. You
can select it to see the difference
between the factory setting and your
new calibration. If you have multiple
users on the machine, each one can
have his own display prefs and his own
calibration.
Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide
whether you like the calibration better
or if you like the default settings. You
are the one who has to look at the display. 
Don Foy is a past president and current Apple ambassador for the Upper
Cumberland Macintosh User Group in
Cookeville, Tennessee. He is also a
former newspaper reporter who has
been fixing Macs for 13 years. His first
Mac was a Mac Plus maxed out with
4MB of RAM and a 17MB hard drive.
The Skype’s the Limit
By Charles Wu, NCMUG
Benefits:
Date ______________________________
Name _____________________________
Address ___________________________
City ______________________________
State________ Zip __________________
Phone (Home) ______________________
Voice over IP, VOIP,
Internet telephony.
These are a few of
the words describing
the latest and greatest
application of the Internet, talking on the
phone. Phone companies such as AT&T,
Vonage and Packet 8 have products that let
you use your regular phone over the
Internet with hardware that connects to
your broadband. There are many ways
Macintosh users can make phone calls
over the Internet with software alone.
Before we get to how to make Internet
phone calls, we’ll answer the question
why would I want to use my Mac to make
phone calls? The first answer is that it can
save you money, especially if you make a
lot of international long distance calls. But
a more interesting answer is that there are
a lot of new features that come with
Internet phone calling.
Phone (Office) ______________________
Phone (Fax) ________________________
Business___________________________
Occupation_________________________
Email:_____________________________
Referred by:________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
Annual CMC Family
Membership - $25.00
mail to:
...or
www.ctmac.org
The first Internet phone application is
iChat, included on every new Mac, it
allows you to text, voice or video chat with
other Macintosh users. It is an excellent
way to see how the Internet can improve
how people communicate with each other.
The problem is that it only works with
other Mac users, and we have to get better
at playing well with others. There is a free
program called Skype that does just that.
Skype is an Internet telephony program
from the creators of the peer to peer program Kazaa that is available for Windows,
Linux and Mac. It does everything that
iChat does but it also allows you to make
computer to computer voice calls whether
they use a Mac or not. It also does something else, it can make calls to almost any
phone in the world through a pay service
they offer called SkypeOut.To get started,
download Skype from their website at
www.skype.com. Installation is very simple, simply dragging it to your applications
program and you’re done. Skype is continually improving so it is a good idea to visit
back every so often to download the latest
version. Launch Skype and create an
account, this is the same process as any
8
other IM service, and you can use Skype
for IM if you want. Install a microphone
and speakers and you are ready
to chat with others. If
you want to make calls
from your computer to
a regular phone, visit
the Skype web site and
purchase SkypeOut credits in 10 Euro
increments using your credit card. Skype
doesn’t support US Dollars, and while the
Euro is very strong their rate is still very
good. Once you have done this, you can
call almost anywhere by typing in the
phone number using the country code +
city code + number to make a phone call.
You’ll be talking into your computer. The
cost is usually 0.02 - 0.03 Euros per
minute depending on where in the world
you are calling.
Now in addition to making “phone” calls,
Skype has very good conference call capabilities. Allowing you to be able to have up
to four lines to talk simultaneously. Even
with multiple SkypeOut calls it is much
cheaper and easier than using commercial
conference bridge services for small
groups. If you want to take advantage of
your home’s phone extensions, you can
create a conference call between your
house phone and the number you want to
dial. Another neat application with Skype
is for people who work collaboratively on
extended projects, it’s possible to keep a
computer to computer “phone” line up for
multiple hours without charge and be able
to ask, informal questions without the
necessity to make a phone call. A virtual
officemate.
Skype is not without its limitations. Much
of the quality of the call is a function of
your microphone; my tests reveal that my
Powerbook’s internal microphone is sufficient for computer calls, but when using
SkypeOut an external microphone
improves clarity considerably. Lastly,
Skype calls seem to be inconsistent using
WiFi; for best results it’s best to be wired
directly into your broadband connection.Despite these limitations, Skype’s
quality of calls and its flexibility means it’s
easier than ever to “reach out and touch
someone” with your Mac. 
Special Offers – Apple User Group Bulletin
qualify for these savings. Not a member? Join CMC today to take
advantage of these special offers. Get
a complete list of all current deals at:
www.mugcenter.com/vendornews/
vendornews.html/
Sybex: Scrapbooking
with Photoshop Elements
Lynette Kent's Scrapbooking with
Photoshop Elements: The Creative
Cropping Cookbook is the first scrapbooking guide to Adobe's popular
image editing tools. Lynette shows
scrapbookers how to expand their creative horizons with tips for enhancing
photos and pages, recipe cards for getting the most out of the technology,
exclusive coupons for digital scrapbooking products and more.
Regularly $29.99, user group members can get Scrapbooking with
Photoshop Elements: The Creative
Cropping Cookbook for $17.99 plus
free shipping in the continental US –
a savings of 40 percent.
Checkout code: MUG4377
http://www.sybex.com/sybexbooks.ns
f/booklist/4377/ This offer is valid
from March 1 to May 30, 2005.
LQ Graphics:
Photo to Movie 3.1
Bored with the traditional photo-byphoto slideshow? With Photo to
Movie 3.1, Macintosh users can add
multiple motions, music tracks,
voiceovers and transitions to make
photos come alive! Utilizing a powerful version of the “Ken Burns Effect,”
turn a digital photo collection of one
or hundreds into a QuickTime movie
slide show with an interface that
appeals to novice and expert users
alike. When finished, movies can be
written to DVD, posted on the web or
emailed. A revolutionary algorithm
optimizes each frame of the movie to
nearly eliminate flicker when shown
on a television. Regularly $49.95, the
special user group price is $39.95.
Add some flair. Offer code: 19928
http://lqgraphics.com/software/offer1
9928.php/ This offer is valid until
May 30, 2005.
Prosoft: Substantial Discount on
All Products
Drive Genius is a Mac OS X utility
designed to provide unsurpassed storage management. Featuring an
easy-to-use interface, Drive Genius is
packed with powerful tools such as a
drive optimizer, a comprehensive
repair facility for analyzing, repairing
and rebuilding volumes, plus excellent testing capabilities with media
surface scanning, performance benchmarking and data integrity checking.
It can be used to initialize drives, create and delete partitions, and erases
them securely. It can also hide partitions and duplicate volumes or drives
swiftly. Last but not least, Drive
Genius features advanced tools for
resizing and moving of volumes without reformatting. Take 25 percent off
any product.
Offer code: PRO247
http://www.prosofteng.com/
This offer is valid until June 30, 2005.
MacWireless
Free Shipping
MacWireless offers a full line of innovative wireless networking devices
including wireless cards, wireless
routers and signal amplifiers. We specialize in state-of-the-art accessories
for the Apple AirPort Base Station,
and in helping older Macs join the
wireless revolution. If it is quality
wireless, MacWireless has it.
9
Apple UG members receive free shipping within the U.S. on all products
from MacWireless. Go wireless.
Offer code: mug25816
http://www.macwireless.com/
Roxio: Exclusive Mac User Group
Savings at Roxio.com
Save 20 to 30 percent on Roxio downloadable software only at Roxio.com.
Download Toast 6 Titanium, Toast
with Jam 6, Jam 6 Upgrade and
Popcorn, winner of Best of Show
Macworld SF 2005. Download and
save. http://www.roxio.com/macusergroup/ This U.S. only offer is valid
until April 30, 2005.
The MUG Store
The MUG Store is a benefit for you
AND CMC. Your user group gets one
percent back on everything you purchase from the MUG Store – which
means that if you and your fellow members buy from the MUG Store, your
user group can get everything from software to new computers for FREE!
The MUG store has free freight, RAM
rebates, aggressive pricing on new
and pre-owned Macs and great closeout deals.
This offer is available to members of
U.S. user groups. For information
about vendor offers and more visit:
http://homepage.mac.com/ugab/offers.
html
12/1/2004 - 3/30/2005
User ID: xxxx (lowercase)
Password: xxx (lowercase)
See all current deals at:
www.mugcenter.com/
vendornews/vendornews.html
[email protected]
860-232-2841
[email protected]
860-347-1789
PR Jerry Esposito
[email protected]
[email protected]
860-291-9393
[email protected]
[email protected]
10
CMC Monthly Meeting
March 30 • 7:00 PM
Special Location: TALCOTT
MOUNTAIN SCIENCE CENTER
DIRECTIONS FROM I-84 EAST
Take Exit 43 “West Harford Center” and
turn left onto Park Road. Park becomes
Sedgwick, and sweeps right and becomes
Mountain Road. Follow Mountain Road
to the intersection with Rt 44 (4.5 miles
from the exit). Take a left onto Rt 44. Go 2
miles, and take a right onto Montevideo
Road. Go in 1.5 miles. The entrance is on
the right and the administration building
is the first building on your left.
DIRECTIONS FROM I-84 WEST
Take Exit 39 “Rt 4 Farmington” and stay
on the connector to the center of
Farmington. Take a right onto Rt 10
North. Follow Rt 10 North for approx. 6
miles and take a right onto Rt 44 East. Go
1 mile, take a left onto Montevideo Road.
Go 1.5 miles. The entrance is on the right
and the administration building is the first
building on your left.
CARPOOLING: We will meet in the parking lot at Crossroads Plaza (directly
opposite the Bishops Corner Branch
Library lot) and will leave at 6:30 pm.
Back To Basics
There is no session this month.
Look forward to its return in April.
April 27 • 7:00 PM – iDVD
Discounted Books!
FREE Raffle!
not too long.
SPECIAL
NOTICE!
Changes regarding
access to the
CMC website:
www.ctmac.org
and password
Please make a
note of it NOW!
New Members!
Account Balances
Savings Balance ................$3967.61
Balances as of March 3, 2005
FREE Classified Ads
[email protected]
CMC Elections
Display Ad Rates
The members of the 2005
Nominating Committee are
Connie Scott and Jerry Esposito.
P r e s i d e n t , Vi c e P r e s i d e n t ,
Secretary and Treasurer positions
will be voted on at the May general meeting. Anyone interested in
running for any of these positions
should contact Connie Scott
[email protected] or
Jerry Esposito [email protected], or
speak with either Connie or Jerry
at any general meeting.
listed below.
Business Card ...................$10.00
Quarter Page.....................$20.00
Half Page .........................$30.00
11
Monthly Meeting
March 30 • 7 PM
Special Location:
TALCOTT MOUNTAIN
SCIENCE CENTER
(carpool info and directions on page 11)
left as you enter.
12
Monthly Meeting
April 27 • 7 PM
iDVD
UConn Health Center
Room EG-013
Back To Basics – 6 PM
Just Out Of The Box
By Don Dickey,
CMC president
You just arrived home with
a brand new Mac. What’s
next? Read on to find out
where you should start and
what you should do.
The first step must be completed before you break the
seal on the box! Call at least one trusted Mac friend, hopefully a “guru,” to
share the info of your recent purchase.
Questions you should ask include “Did
I get a good deal?” and “Did I purchase
the right machine for my needs?” Once
you break the seal, a healthy restocking
fee applies to most returns to the Apple
Store. You can usually avoid this fee by
returning unopened computers within
the allowable time frame (usually two
weeks).
Too many times I’ve learned about
friends and family who bought a Mac
and later learned they could have gotten
an educational discount, should have
custom ordered their machine with more
RAM, or should have bought a completely different model for their needs.
Now that you’ve confirmed you got the
right machine at a fair price, go ahead
and open the box. Be careful to save
everything, including the box and packing materials, just in case your machine
is DOA (dead on arrival) or fails during
the first two weeks. I’ve seen hard
drives die on brand new computers.
They seem to last either a few days or a
few years, and in most cases, fortunately, the latter is true.
APRIL 2005
Once you’ve plugged in your keyboard, mouse, monitor (if not built
in), and power cord, it’s time to fire
it up. When it asks you to create an Apple ID choose to
skip this step. Similarly,
when you get to the screen
when it asks you for your
name, address, and other
contact info, you should type
in your first name only. Then,
hold down the Command
(Apple) key and press Q (for
Quit). Choose Skip from the dialog box
that pops up. Do not enter a password
when asked; just leave that field blank
for now.
The next step involves a brief “kicking
of the tires.” Just poke around and see
what’s installed on the hard drive. Try a
few programs and experiment with
your new Mac to become familiar with
it. Don’t go too far, however, as the next
step erases everything you’ve done!
That’s right, the next step is to erase the
hard drive and reinstall everything!
Why? Because default installations of
OS X that Apple ships include tons of
stuff you don’t need. They’ve thrown in
drivers for all makes and models of
printers, fonts for Asian languages, and
lots of other stuff you’ll never use. This
excess baggage can be easily eliminated on Day One by doing a custom
reinstall of OS X.
To proceed, insert the OS X Install DVD
(or first Install CD) and double-click the
installer. This will reboot your new Mac
off the disc and start the installer. Click
the lower left Options button to choose
an installation type to “Erase the Hard
Drive Before Installing.” Be sure to
1
(See info on page 11)
select a disk format type of Mac OS
Extended and not Unix.
At the next screen, click the Customize
button. You can safely uncheck Extra
Speech Voices, Asian fonts, foreign languages, and printer drivers for brands
other than the printer(s) you have. My
choice is to turn off all the printer drivers. Once OS X is installed, you can
download and install the latest driver
for the printer(s) you have (instead of
letting Apple install drivers for all
Epson’s printers, for instance).
You can also uncheck applications you
don’t want or need. Programs like
iDVD and GarageBand take up gigabytes of space and you can skip either
or both of them if you don’t plan on
using them on this computer.
You should install the BSD subsystem,
however. Turning this off can prevent
other programs from running correctly
later on. I found out when I skipped it
on my PowerBook and later had trouble
with Acrobat. Installing the BSD subsystem fixed my Acrobat problem!
Some models such as the new Mini
include AppleWorks as part of the system install DVD. I was surprised to find
Continued on page 2
Just Out of the Box.............................. 1
Review: Magic Bullet Editor ............... 3
Mac 911 Help Desk..............................4
Recycle That Computer........................5
Selecting Safe Passwords .....................6
Review: Akvis Retoucher..................... 8
it was not selected by default, so if you
want AppleWorks you’ll need to check
it’s box yourself
Once the installer is running, go have a
coffee and relax for a few minutes.
There’s nothing to worry about. If you
forgot something, you can rerun the
installer or manually install most components later.
Editor
Deena Quilty
Content Contributor
Don Dickey
Contributing Author
Rich Lenoce
Chris Hart
Designer
George Maciel
Photographer
John Scott
Publisher
Connection, Inc.
41 Crossroads Plaza
PMB 1984
Printer
Budget Printers
1718 Park Street
Hartford, CT 06106
from members!
in each issue.
After the installer completes and your
computer boots back up in OS X,
you’re probably almost back to where
you were when you powered up the
first time. This time you can create the
Apple ID if you want or skip it.
Similarly, you can fill out your personal info or skip it as before. The choice is
yours as to how much info you want to
share with the mothership.
Likewise, the choice is yours whether
you protect your Mac with a password.
Just remember that if you do, you’ll
have to type it in every time you log on
or run an installer.
With your OS installed, you should use
the Restore Disc to reinstall optional
components you might want such as
Classic Mode (OS9).
If you have another Mac, current releases of OS X installed on new Macs
include a feature that can transfer your
old data and applications automatically.
You’ll need a FireWire cable between
the two machines to use this feature. If
you don’t have one, you should buy or
borrow one before going too far with
the setup process as it could save you
some time and steps.
If you have broadband Internet access,
you should set up your network next.
This may be automatic with some systems such as cable modems. If you
have a cable modem connected directly
to your computer via Ethernet, you
should power cycle the modem for it to
“handshake” with your new machine. If
it doesn’t have a switch just unplug it’s
power cord and plug it back in.
2
AOL members will have to install that
software from a CD as Apple no longer
pre-installs AOL. If you don’t have an
AOL CD, I’ve seen them at local post
offices, supermarkets, and bookstores.
Verify your Internet access is working
by launching Apple’s Safari web
browser from the Dock at the bottom of
your screen. If you’re online, the next
step is to update your software. From
the Apple Menu choose Software
Update. Any updates that were released
since your OS X discs were created will
show up here. TIP: A call to your
favorite “guru” might save you from
installing an update you don’t need or
shouldn’t run. It is very important that
any update process be allowed to complete before powering down your
computer! Pulling the plug during an
update might leave you with an unstable or unbootable computer.
Finally, once you’re online and updated, you can configure Apple’s Mail (or
your favorite email program) with your
address and server info. Earthlink
members can use their TotalAccess
software to help with this step.
You can also run through the various
Control Panels in System Preferences
and change the settings to suit your
needs. If your system goes to sleep
every time you answer the phone or
your mouse isn’t responsive enough,
this is where you adjust such things.
Lastly, install applications and hardware drivers. You should check
manufacturers’ web sites for updates or
current versions of software and drivers. Examples include scanners and
printers that shipped with drivers for
Jaguar (OS X version 10.2.x) and need
new drivers for Panther (10.3.x).
Fortunately, your digital camera will
probably work with Apple’s iPhoto
without even needing to install a driver!
I hope this article helped maximize your
“out of the box” experience. Now it’s
time to have fun with your new Mac! 
Software Review:
Magic Bullet Editors
from Red Giant Software
By Rich Lenoce
CMC Vice President
There are very few pieces of
software that I give a WOW
award to. Let’s face it, there’s
lots of good freeware and shareware out there, so to me, laying out
big cash for expensive software
means it not only needs to be good, it
needs to make me say WOW! Magic
Bullet for Editors (List $299) is one
that I’d call WOW software.
Magic Bullet Editors is a Final Cut
Pro plug-in that gives videos a film
look. There are many parameters you
can adjust to give your video the look
of new or old film. Not only does
Magic Bullet add film-like qualities to
video such as grain, soft edges and a
more film-like gamma, its true power
comes from the 50 presets that can
make clips within your video or your
entire video look like a specific film.
Remember the bright yellow desert
scenes in Traffic? Or the beautiful
greens and reds from Amalie? The
washed look of The Matrix? The silver sheen of Gladiator? There are
presets to make your video have the
same look as these and 45 other films.
You can adjust these presets to your
liking using dozens of parameters.
Magic Bullet truly duplicates the look
of a Hollywood film setting it apart
from any other software.
The software is easy to install and use.
Run the installer, type in the serial
number and files are placed in FCP
plug-ins folder.
A Final Cut file comes with the
installer that provides the Magic
Bullet “Looks” Presets. When you are
ready to add your Magic Bullet clips
to your project, simply double click
the file while your FCP project is
open and the Magic Bullet “Looks”
preset palette will open. Drag your fil-
ter selection to the clip
that you’d like to add
the preset to and render. You’re done. It’s
that easy. If you don’t
like the look, you can
Undo or adjust the
many parameters. I
found some of the
looks a little overdone
for what I needed, but
by adjusting a few of the filter parameters I was able to give my clips a
more subtle but still effective “look.”
Magic Bullet can also make video
look like old film. Many companies
offer tools that add random grain and
scratches to video. Magic Bullet’s is
the first product that looks convincing
because it makes the entire frame look
like film, not video, and applies the
scratches and dust to that look. Magic
Bullet also does an excellent job of
converting color video to a black and
white film look.
The downside of Magic Bullet Editors
is its slow render times. To apply
these complex filters Magic Bullet
needs to render each pixel of each
frame with these very extensive
parameters to give the appearance of
film. Depending on the look needed,
clips were taking hours to render on
my dual 2.0 ghz G5. You can preview
the Magic Bullet look prior to output,
but expect long wait times to see the
final results.
Thank Your
Lucky Stars
CMC’s Board of Directors extends
it’s sincere gratitude to the Talcott
Mountain Science Center for hosting
our March meeting.
In particular, we’d like to thank
TMSC’s Assistant Director John
Pellino for organizing the evening
and demonstrating some cool Mac
astronomy software, and TMSC
Astronomer Mark Meredith for a
wonderful planetarium show and
view of the night sky from “the
ridge.”
Besides learning about TMSC’s origins and facilities, we were treated to
great views of the night sky including
Jupiter, with several of it’s moons
visible, and Saturn, complete with it’s
colorful rings. Fortunately, Mother
Nature cooperated with the TMSC
team to make this a meeting everyone
attending enjoyed.
If you couldn’t be with us you’ll have
to make do with a virtual tour!
Visit: g3.tmsc.org/astronomy/ for a
look-see at what you missed.
So, stop complaining about the garish
look of digital video. If you are in no
hurry, Magic Bullet is the tool to
make any video look like processed
film. WOW! 
Tip of the Month
from Jack Bass
You should be aware of the danger of destroying a CD or DVD disc by
bending and snapping it in half. DON’T DO IT! I did it and had many
pieces of the disc fly all over the room in all directions. This could
very possibly injure your eyes. Plus, you find pieces of all shapes and
sizes of it days later, and even the silver foil delaminates from the
surface in small pieces too.
3
Mac 911
Help Desk
By Christopher Breen
Subpar Service
I want to highlight text in an application,
choose Send Selection from that program’s
Services menu, and watch as a new message opens in Apple’s Mail with the
selected text ready to send. Instead, the
Mail application window comes to the fore,
but the message with the selected text does
not. Is there a solution for this problem?
—Larry Singer
Look at the goal rather than the tool.
The Send Selection service is an inadequate tool not only because it doesn’t
bring a new e-mail message to the
fore, but also because it works only
with Apple’s Mail. When I want to
mail a chunk of text automatically, I
use Script Software’s $30 macroutility, iKey. It gets the job (and any
number of other jobs) done, and it
does so with any e-mail client you
want to use.
Incredible as it may seem, clicking on
Sherlock’s Movie Information for a
link may be the only way to view
movie trailers in Sherlock.
With iKey, I created a macro for copying text to an e-mail message; the
macro copies the selected text,
launches my e-mail program, hides
other applications to ensure that the email client is the foremost app, creates
a new message, and pastes the copied
text into the message body.
Finding Sherlock’s Movies
Sherlock’s Movies channel has stopped
downloading trailers. I’ve trashed the
com.apple.Sherlock.plist file in the hope
that this would help. It didn’t. Do you
have a hint? —Paul Miller
Yours is a two-part problem. Sometimes movie previews don’t load
because of a failure on Apple’s end. In
such cases, you can wait until Apple
fixes it, or you can simply click on
Sherlock’s Movie Information For
link, which will whisk you to the
Moviefone site, where you can view
the trailer (See screenshot). If Apple
has managed to get the feature working again, vaporize not only that .plist
file (found at your user folder/
Library/Preferences),
but
also
Sherlock’s cache folder (your user
folder/Library/Caches/ Sherlock). If
that doesn’t work, create a new useraccount, switch to that account, copy
its com.apple.Sherlock.plist file and
Sherlock cache folder to the root level
of your hard drive, switchback to your
primary account, and replace that
user’s files with the ones from the
account you just created.
Quite a Character
I just upgraded to Microsoft PowerPoint
2004, and now when I launch the program
I see an alert that displays what appear to
be Asian characters and a message that
claims this font is unavailable on my computer. My presentations don’t use this font,
so why the substitution? —Ken Chupp
PowerPoint 2004 displays this error
message when it’s missing an Asian
font that’s installed with OS X or a font
that Microsoft Office installs when it
first runs. The missing Apple font is
likely to be Hiragino KakuGothic Pro,
and the Microsoft font is MS PMincho.
At this point, you have a couple of
options. You can enable the fonts (or
install them if they’re missing), or you
can tell PowerPoint to live without them.
To instruct PowerPoint to proceed without certain fonts, open your PowerPoint
presentation and choose Format:
Replace Fonts. Select the Asian font in
the Replace pop-up menu, choose something more appropriate in the With field
(Times, for example), and click on
Replace. The new font you’ve selected
will replace all instances of the old one.
With luck, these fonts may still be on
your Mac. To find out, launch Panther’s
Font Book, select All Fonts from the
Collection column, and peer into the
Font column. If one or both fonts are disabled, select them and click on Enable.
If the Hiragino font is missing, you
could get it back by reinstalling OSX,
but there’s an easier way. Download
Charles Srstka’s $20 share-ware utility
Pacifist, and use it to extract the font
from the Panther installer disc(s). You’ll
find the font by following this path:
ContentsofOSInstall.mkpkg/Contents of
EssentialSystemSoftware.mkpkg/ Contents
ofEssentials.pkg/System/Library/Fonts.
Note that the font’s name includes a
series of Japanese characters that you
might not be able to read. The font you
want has a name that ends with Pro
W4.otf, and it weighs in at 9.6MB. It
normally lives in theFonts folder within
the System folder—a folder for which
you lack permissions. If you’d rather
not change those permissions, simply
add the font to your user account’s Font
folder (your user folder/Library/Fonts).
If the Microsoft font is missing, insert
your Office 2004 disc, open the
Microsoft Office 2004 folder, the
Office folder therein, and then the Fonts
folder inside that folder. Copy the MS
PMincho font to your user account’s
Fonts folder.
Unsolicited Advice: Fix Font Book
While testing my advice to Ken Chupp,
in “Quite a Character,” I used FontBook
to disable both the Hiragino Kaku
Gothic Pro and the MS PMinchofonts.
On completion of that testing, I
attempted to reenable the fonts by
selecting them and clicking on Font
Book’s Enable button. All went according to plan when I selected the
grayed-out Hiragino font, butimagine
my consternation when I discovered
that the MS PMincho font had disappeared from Font Book. Repeated
attempts to bring it back by employing
the program’s Add Fonts command and
navigating to the location of the font did
no good.
It was then that I recalled the existence
of the com.apple.ATS.plist file (in your
userfolder/Library/Preferences), which
tracks the fonts you’ve disabled in Font
continued on page 5
4
Book and bars those fonts from loading
when you log in. I located and trashed
this file and then logged out and back in
again. When I next launched Font
Book, the MS PMincho font appeared
in the Font list.
Tip of the Month:
Old-School Cursors
In versions of Microsoft Word prior to
Word 2004, Command-right arrow or
option-right arrow moved the cursor one
word forward, and Command-left arrow
or option-left arrow moved the cursor
one word back. Adding the shift key
highlighted either the previous word
(left arrow) or next word(right arrow).
The latest version has changed this so
that only option-arrow moves the cursor
from word to word; press Command-left
arrow or Command-right arrow, and the
cursor now jumps to the beginning or
the end of a line, respectively.
After searching Word’s Tools:
Customize: Customize Keyboard: All
Commandslist, I found WordLeft,
WordRight, WordLeftExtend, and
WordRightExtend(the latter two highlight individual words). I changed
these commands to the familiar
Command-left arrow, Command-right
arrow, Command-shift-leftarrow, and
Command-shift-right arrow to mimic
earlier Word keyboard navigation. If
you’re worried about losing the
StartOfLine, EndOfLine, StartOfLine
Extend, and EndOfLineExtend shortcuts, you can use the option key in
combination with an arrow key and
the shift key for selecting lines.
—Joe Kewekordes 
[Contributing Editor Christopher Breen is
also Playlistmag.com’s editorin chief
author of Macworld’s tips and troubleshooting column, “Mac911,” as well as
Secrets of the iPod: Fifth Edition and Mac
911 (Peachpit Press). Find Chris’ books at
www.amazon.com and www.peachpit.com.
Get special user group pricing on
Macworld Magazine! Subscribe today at
http://www.macworld.com/useroffer/.]
Recycle That
Computer
by Chris Hart,
CMC Secretary
During my presentation at the February
meeting, on the topic of Caring For Your
Mac, some members asked about getting rid of old computers. I’m very glad
to see that so many of you would like to
see computers properly disposed of, and
not just thrown into the trash can.
systems might refuse. I would urge you
to put this special school at the top of
your list for computer donations.
If your old equipment is so far gone that
no one wants it, then recycling is your
smartest option. If you happen to live in
an area that has an electronics recycling
program operated by a town or utility,
you may be able to dispose of your
computer hardware for free. For example, a friend of mine who lives in
Orange, CT, has informed me that his
town offers a yearly electronics recycling day for its residents. You may
want to contact your town hall or local
municipal recycling center about any
such programs offered in your area.
Computers and related electronic equipment contain materials and compounds
that are harmful to the environment.
Going out of your way to properly get
rid of old computers and related accessories will help us all to breathe easier. Your last option is a national computer
recycling service, which accepts boxed
Out of a sense of social responsibility, shipments of computers and electronics.
many of the prominent computer manu- Unfortunately, protecting the environfacturers have started offering computer ment is not free and these services
recycling services in recent years. charge a fee, which varies according to
There are also independent computer the nature of the item(s) and the quantirecyclers around the nation.
ty. Yes, social responsibility has a price.
But before you pursue recycling, you Below are some links to programs and
should consider donating that old com- services that either recycle or re-use
puter. If it’s still functional, it may be computers. I hope you’ll find them usesuitable for donation to a not-for-profit ful and you’ll go out of your way to keep
organization that refurbishes and dis- your old computer out of the landfill.
tributes used computers to those in
need. These programs make computers Recycling by computer manufacturers:
available to those who can’t afford to http://www.apple.com/environment/
recycling/nationalservices/us.html
buy one for themselves.
Another great option for computer
donation is your local school system.
You’ll need to check with them as to
what their requirements are for donations, as many schools will no longer
accept any and all computers offered.
Because the demands of the software
they need to run is continuously
increasing, they may not be able to
accept the computer you’re offering.
https://warp1.external.hp.com/recycle/
http://www-1.ibm.com/financing/
dispose/recycling.html
http://www.dell.com
Trade-Up Program From Gateway (PC):
https://www.gateway.tradeups.com
Donating your computer for re-use:
Talcott Mountain Science Center
John Pellino, Assistant Director
email: [email protected]
http://www.cristina.org/dsf/
http://www.c4k.org/pcdonations.php
http://www.sharetechnology.org
However, there is a Hartford-area
school that is interested in a wide variety of computers. In fact, it’s where our
March meeting was held – Talcott
Mountain Science Center in Avon.
Those members who joined us on top of An example of a for-profit computer
the mountain can attest to the fact that recycler:
this facility gets the maximum mileage http://www.thegreenpc.com
out of their computers! Their resourcefulness allows them to take advantage
of older models that other school
5
Selecting
Safe Passwords
by Chris Hart, CMC Secretary
As our personal and business lives
become more and more connected
with the world of the Internet, our
choice of passwords becomes more
and more critical. The pass phrases
you choose to protect your online
accounts and information are essential
to keeping hackers out of your business. If you’re careless with your
password selections, access to your
accounts could be easily compromised by a resourceful hacker. You
could even find yourself the victim of
identity theft – where another person
assumes your identity in financial
transactions and purchases – which
could leave you responsible for the
debts accrued in your name.
Thwarting The Hacker
Your goal in choosing a password is to
make a hacker’s life difficult. His first
attempts at accessing your accounts
will utilize common words and phrases. He’ll also try educated guesses
based on public information about
you. Finally, he may employ automated software that attempts to gain
access by trying common combinations of letters, words, numbers, etc.
The good news is, while hackers are
determined folks, they can still be
thwarted. A thoughtful effort on your
part to choose an effective password
will make the unlocking of your
accounts require more effort and time
than the average hacker wants to be
bothered with. He’ll move on to
cracking the accounts of someone
who has been less smart than you in
the selection of their passwords.
Password Advice
The number one piece of password
advice I would give you is to never use
the same password for all your
accounts. Regardless of how easy this
may make your life, it also makes the
hacker’s life easy! Ideally, you would
have a different password for every
single user ID, account, company, etc.
that you do business with. However, I
realize you may find that unreasonably inconvenient.
At a minimum, you should attempt to
use some variety in your passwords.
For instance, use different passwords
for different purposes. For instance,
use one password for your personal
email, a second one for your logins at
work, a third for your your online purchases, etc.. Aligning your passwords
with their uses in this way will help
you in remembering what password
applies to the account you’re trying to
access (helpful if you momentarily
forget the password). Further, when it
comes time to change a particular
password, you know what accounts
you have to update with the new one.
If you do employ a thematic approach
to your passwords, I would strongly
recommend that you not use it for
your financial accounts. These critical
areas, related to your ability to pay
bills and conduct business, require the
most careful of password selections.
Your online banking pass phrases
should be as long, convoluted and
hard to guess as you can bear to live
with.
If you use “public” computers
(library, internet cafe, conference
room), realize that it is very easy for
your activity to be recorded (including
every single key that you press). With
this in mind, you should have a password for the accounts you access in
these venues. Change that password
frequently and keep it unique.
Password Guidelines
Now that I’ve shared some password
advice, let me give you some specific
guidelines that will be useful in choosing actual passwords:
6
What To Use For A Password
Aim for at least six characters –
the longer the better
Do
use a password with mixedcase alphabetic characters
Do
use a password with nonalphabetic characters (digits and
punctuation)
Do use a password that you won’t
forget
Do
use a password that you can
type without having to look at the
keyboard (which means it will
harder for those around you to
observe the keys you type)
What Not to Use For A Password
Don’t repeat your login name in
any form (even reversed, capitalized, etc.)
Don’t
use any of your names,
nicknames, or those of your immediate family – no children!
Don’t use common names, such as
those from: religion, astrology,
astronomy, cartoons, movies, TV,
sports, and mythical stories
Don’t
use information easily
obtained about you – license plate
numbers, telephone numbers,
social security number, the car you
drive, the name of the street you
live on, etc.
Don’t
use a password with only
digits, or only letters
Don’t
use a word contained in
(English or foreign language) dictionaries or lists of common words
and phrases
Don’t use birth dates!
Don’t use common abbreviations
Don’t use keyboard patterns, such
as “qwerty” and “asdf”
continued on page 7
Making Passwords Memorable
Choose a line from a favorite
movie, song or poem, and use the
first letter of each word. For example, the lyric “I’m as free as a bird
now’’ could be used as “iAfAAbn”
Consider using the same number
of characters in all your passwords, so that you’ll always know
how many characters to type.
Use alternate, phonetic spellings
of words – examples: “rootEEn’’,
“eluhVate”, “deZZurt”
Combine words you personally
find memorable with a punctuation character between them –
examples: “snoW*Kats”,
“coffEE+crEEm”, “biLLy%goots”
Change Passwords Regularly
Passwords should be changed on a
regular basis – as frequently as you
can tolerate.
Saving Your Passwords
While security experts advise that you
never write down your passwords anywhere, I realize how impractical that
advice is. So I must urge you to never
leave your list of passwords out in the
open, or in a place that is easily
accessed in your absence. When listing your passwords, consider
recording just a part of the actual
sequence. For instance, using the
above example “coffEE+crEEm”
you could write down just “coffee+
_____”. This will remind you of the
password when you see it, but won’t
give away the full code to anyone who
may get their hands on your password
list.
If you store your passwords on your
computer, don’t keep them in a document that anybody can access with
just a double click. For instance,
Stickies would be a bad place.
Documents that are password-protected
– such as using the document locking
feature in Microsoft Word – offer the
(Almost) No Worries
With the proper precautions taken and
some smart choices for passwords,
you’ll be able to bank online and
make those impulsive eBay purchases,
with the confidence that your accounts
are safe. Be careful out there!
Safe Places For Passwords
The following software provides
encrypted information storage:
minimum level of protection that you
should consider using.
The safest place to store your private
data is an encrypted document.
Encryption actually scrambles the
contents of a file, so that anyone unauthorized will not be able to determine
what’s inside. The utilities listed at
the end of this article encrypt the documents they create, which means that
they are virtually unhackable. This
kind of security is essential, for example, if you have a laptop computer as a
constant companion and you want to
use it for retaining valuable personal
information.
Apple’s Keychain
(included with OS9 and OSX)
http://www.apple.com/support/
Steel
http://homepage.mac.com/
gabrieledesimone/Steel/
iNotePad
http://www.vojousoftware.com
Passwords Plus
works on Mac, Palm and Windows
http://www.dataviz.com
SplashWallet
works on Mac, Palm and Windows
http://www.splashdata.com
Password Master
http://www.railheaddesign.com
(click on Software link at top)
Vault
www.geocities.com/dagronf/vault/
Download of the Month: PiquantMenu 1.6.1
PiquantMenu 1.6.1 is a small menu that
does five things well:
Applications Menu for accessing applications. Menus divide Apple applications
and non-Apple Applications, don’t add
launched applications and don’t show
folder for minimum items.
Files browser for fast access from menu
bar. Function proposes advanced options
for display items of folder sub-folder on
current folder level (same menu), this limit
number of sub-menus to be displayed. A
sub-menu control can be grafted for manager items with traditional operations
(copy & past, get infos, delete...) without
Finder.
iTunes AS menu controls iTunes on your
Mac or other Mac on the network (using
7
eppc protocol). Play list navigation is simple & fast. You can automatically play a
playlist, upon opening PiquantMenu, for
use as alarm clock.
Various options regroup “hidden”
options for Dock, Finder, & Exposé©.
Contains Password Generator and Page
Updater module.
And, PiquantMenu regroups utilities and
small applications downloaded during
your visits on the Net; they move to a
“Modules” folder and are added to the
general menu.
Product Requirements: Mac OS X 10.3.
http://www.versiontracker.com/php/dlpage.
php?id=21635&db=mac&pid=45332&kind
=&lnk=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mparrot.
net%2Fdownloads%2Fpiquantmenu.dmg
Software Review:
AKVIS Retoucher
By Rich Lenoce
and Andres Nieves
Benefits:
Date ______________________________
Name _____________________________
Address ___________________________
City ______________________________
State________ Zip __________________
Phone (Home) ______________________
Phone (Office) ______________________
Phone (Fax) ________________________
Business___________________________
Occupation_________________________
Email:_____________________________
Referred by:________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
Annual CMC Family
Membership - $25.00
mail to:
...or
www.ctmac.org
Macintosh power can best
be demonstrated by the little things we need to do,
not the big. Now that
we can store thousands
of photos on our Macs,
we can also import slides and photographs and make them new again
thanks to products like Photoshop,
Photoshop Elements and Painter.
Plug-in tools extend the power of
these applications and Akvis
Retoucher is no slouch in this category if you’re looking for a powerful
assistant in your photo retouching
efforts.
The Akvis Retoucher image processing plug-in claims to restore damaged
photographs to optimal condition
with minimal effort and amazing
results. Surface defects such as
scratches, water spots, flakes and
stains can be removed automatically
without the time-consuming aspects
of manual editing. Akvis claims even
torn photos can be repaired.
Does it work, and
if so, and how
well? CMC member Andres Nieves
put this plug-in to
the test with a
badly
damaged
100 year-old photograph that
contained dust,
tears and stains
that he has been
working on manually for weeks.
Andres installed
the plug-in and
selected the damaged area and
selected the appropriate filters in
the filters menu. Akvis Retoucher
is not a stand-alone tool.
8
The Retoucher filter
removed scratches from the
badly damaged test photo
without making any alterations to the images. The
Enhancer filter also worked
really well bringing dark pictures back to life. Enhancer
was found to be the most
effective tool in the package,
working much better than
iPhoto and Photoshop’s automated
enhancers. In timesavings alone, the
enhancement and the Retoucher
dust/scratch removal tools are worth
the price of the plug-in.
However, when it came to reconstructing a face in our test picture,
manually making the repairs in
Photoshop was still more effective.
Overall we found Akvis Retoucher a
welcome addition to Photoshop’s
manual retouching tools. It can save
many hours of work on all but the
most badly damaged photos. Just
don’t expect it to work miracles on
parts of missing and badly damaged
faces within photographs.
Akvis Retoucher sells for $87.00
USD. 
Screenshots available on the Akvis
website http://akvis.com/en/retoucher/
screenshots-image-restoration.php
Special Offers – Apple User Group Bulletin
These User Group discounts are XtraLean Software: Shutterbug
Introducing ShutterBug,
the content creation tool
that helps you easily
qualify for these savings. Not a memand quickly create digber? Join CMC today to take
ital photo albums and
advantage of these special offers.
journals, and publish them
to your .mac account or other web
Pressure Drop:
server. ShutterBug is fully WYSIPaperHub
WYG and can update websites on the
PaperHub is a
fly. Users can choose from more than
USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 combo hub
50 free customizable templates and
cleverly placed within an elegant alueasily create sites that render properly
minum paper tray. It features the latest
across all browsers on multiple plattechnology for high-speed data transforms – even if they know nothing
fers and provides the most ports
a b o u t H T M L . R eg u l a r l y $ 2 9 ,
available of any hub on the market
ShutterBug is available to user group
today. PaperHub is the first official
members for only $20.
product of the new Art-Techo movewww.xtralean.com/mugs/0305.html
ment, Pressure Drop’s crusade to
This offer is valid until July 31, 2005.
replace drab computer accessories
with stylish, visionary peripherals that
TechWorks: Quality Memory
fuse technology with art. Regularly
Founded in 1986,
$150, PaperHub is available to User
TechWorks has
Group members for only $129.99.
emerged as the
Storage and Connectivity With Style.
leader for Macintosh
www.pdrop.com/buy/index-mug.html
computer memory (RAM).
Offer is valid through June 30, 2005.
Rayming Corp: GPS Receivers
Rayming Corp is proud to support
User Groups with a Promotional
Discount for the Mac OSX supported
TN-200 USB GPS
TN-200
Receiver at price of
$84.74 and the TN-206
Bluetooth GPS Receiver
at a price of $189.74.
Regularly $112.99 and
TN-206
$252.99, you can receive
25 percent off MSRP on their website
orders.
TechWorks success can be attributed
to quality, a money back guarantee,
toll-f r e e t e c h n i c a l s u p p o r t ,
l i f e t i m e warranty and a commitment to 100 percent customer
satisfaction. User group members can
receive 30 percent off retail prices on
the latest memory products.
Username: Mugmember
Password: mugmemory
http://www.techworks.com/partners/
mugmembers.html
Rayming Corporation encourages
Apple User Group members to take
advantage of this special offer and
then offer feedback about these GPS
products at [email protected].
Offer code: MUG05
http://www.rayming.com
Matterform Media: Spamfire
You don’t have to put up with unwanted junk email. Spamfire from
Matterform Media removes unwanted
commercial and pornographic email
from your in-box. It works with any
POP3 or IMAP email account and any
email program. Spamfire uses intelli-
gent, fuzzy-logic
filtering to identify
spam and protect
messages you want
to keep. Automatic
intern e t u p d a t e s
ensure you always have the most
advanced spam protection available.
Fun revenge options let you fight back
at spammers. Spamfire works in OS 9
and OS X.
Apple user group members can purchase the CD or download Spamfire
for just $24.95, nearly 40 percent off
the regular price of $39.95.
A fifteen-day demo lets you try before
you buy. Enjoy email again.
http://www.matterform.com/mugoffer
The MUG Store
The MUG Store is a benefit
for you AND your group.
Your user group gets one
percent back on everything
you purchase from the MUG Store,
which means that if you and your fellow
members buy from the MUG Store,
your user group can get everything from
software to new computers for FREE!
The MUG store has free freight, RAM
rebates, aggressive pricing on new
and pre-owned Macs and great closeout deals.
This offer is available to members of
U.S. user groups. For information
about vendor offers and more visit:
http://homepage.mac.com/ugab/offers
.html
3/31/2005 - 6/30/2005
User ID: best (lowercase)
Password: deals (lowercase)
See a complete list of all current deals at: www.mugcenter.com/vendornews/vendornews.html
9
[email protected]
860-232-2841
[email protected]
860-347-1789
PR Jerry Esposito
[email protected]
[email protected]
860-291-9393
[email protected]
[email protected]
10
CMC Monthly Meetings
Discounted Books
FREE Raffle!
Monthly CMC Meetings are held on last
Wednesday of the month from 7:00 - 9:00
P.M. (except November and December
when the meetings are held one week
earlier due to the holidays). Location below.
Board meetings are held on the first
Thursday of the month. If you wish to
attend a Board meeting, contact an officer
for time & location.
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
6:00 P.M. – Back to Basics
This month’s session will explore using
AppleWorks to create and print lists.
Whether you’re running a small business
or just trying to send out greeting cards,
we’ll walk you through the steps.
7:00 P.M. – iDVD
Location: UConn Health Center
Upcoming Meetings & Events
May 25, 2005
Tiger OSX
Presenter: The Apple Store
Location: Apple Store, WestFarms
July 12 – 14, 2005
MacWorld Expo Boston
Location: Hynes Convention Center
As in past years, CMC will offer a group daytrip
to MacWorld Expo. Look for details on how to
secure your seat on the bus in upcoming issues
of our newsletter! You can register for a free
MacWorld Expo Exhibit Hall pass until June
10th at: www.macworldexpo.com/ When filling out the order form, use priority code
B0201 (zeroes, not the letter “O”).
FOR SALE Accessories for a 2nd Gen.
iPod. New, unused replacement battery
(still wrapped), Griffin iTrip, Remote control.
Email [email protected]
not too long.
NOTICE!
and password
New Members!
Account Balances
Savings Balance ................$3969.46
Balances as of April 6, 2005
Make a note of it NOW!
FREE Classified Ads
CMC Elections
The members of the 2005
Nominating Committee are Connie
Scott and Jerry Esposito. President,
Vice President, Secretary and
Treasurer positions will be voted on
at the May general meeting. Anyone
interested in running for any of these
positions should contact Connie
Scott [email protected]
or Jerry Esposito [email protected], or
speak with either Connie or Jerry at
any general meeting.
Getting CMC emails?
We always send out advance notice
of the meetings, and sometimes for
big news or special events (like our
bus trip to Macworld). If you’re not
getting them, please email us at
11
[email protected]
Display Ad Rates
listed below.
Business Card ...................$10.00
Quarter Page.....................$20.00
Half Page .........................$30.00
Monthly Meeting
April 27 – 7 PM
iDVD
at UConn Health Center
Room EG-013
Back To Basics – 6 PM
(See info on page 11)
left as you enter.
12
Monthly Meeting
May 25 • 7 PM
Tiger OS X
Apple Store
Westfarms Mall
Directions: http://www.apple.com/
retail/westfarms/map/
My Wish List
By Don Dickey,
CMC president
Apple is regarded by
many as one of the
most innovative companies in its field.
Using my experience in product
d eve l o p m e n t ,
I’ve given some
thought to
their current product line and decided
to offer some suggestions to “plug the
holes.” The main rule I’ve followed is
that every suggestion must be feasible,
with a minor extension of today’s
technology. This would enable the
“mothership” to capitalize on such
ideas within a 12 month timeframe.
PowerMac G5 Quattro
Over a year ago Steve Jobs promised
us the Dual 3 ghz PowerMac G5.
Unfortunately, IBM has been unable
to produce a steady stream of fast
enough processors to make this a reality. I offer a solution to Apple for
those power users out there who yearn
for more juice: The PowerMac G5
Quattro would leverage the present
day 2 ghz G5 chip by implanting not
two but four processors in its heart.
Using 2 ghz chips instead of the overclocked and heat pumping 2.5 chips
should be cooler, more reliable, and
cheap enough to offer the new Quattro
at a price point of $2,999, right where
Apple usually positions its top-of-the
line tower.
MAY 2005
PowerTab
Tablet PCs have been around in the
Windoze world for some time now.
It’s amazing that Apple has never
done this, but I’d be interested in seeing them implement a tablet running
OS X. Here’s the concept in a nutshell: take a PowerBook, allow the lid
to pivot horizontally and flip so the
exposed top surface when closed can
either be the aluminum exterior or the
exposed screen. Instead of the usual
TFT display, use a custom version of
Wacom’s Cintiq. You would navigate
with a stylus (or your fingertip)
instead of a mouse, and the OS X
Inkwell technology would instantly
recognize your printing for text input.
With the screen opened conventionally, the PowerTab would use traditional
keyboard and track pad inputs.
Flipping the lid would automatically
put it into tablet mode and make the
Cintiq screen and Inkwell operational.
Suggested retail pricing for the
PowerTab would be $2999 (with a
SuperDrive, of course).
iMac G5 Modular System
This system is really three components.
The first is a G5 version of the Mini but
with integrated DVI display and coaxial power connectors on its bottom, and
a pair of thumb screws on its top. The
second component is an updated
Cinema display with integrated rearfacing DVI and power connectors. The
third component is a single power brick
capable of powering both the computer
and display components and would be
very similar to that supplied with the
existing Mac Mini.
1
You would purchase the Mini module
with the optical and hard drive options
desired, purchase the Cinema display
size desired, and simply screw the
CPU module to the back of the display. The mating connectors would
supply video and power to the display,
so you’d only have to connect the
power brick to the computer module.
Putting the power supply in a brick
would make the desktop equipment
lighter, quieter, and cooler. You would
be able to mix and match CPUs and
displays, and you’d have a nice clean
desk with no visible CPU box. The
power supply would come with the
display, not the CPU module. That
way the displays would be universal
and could also be used with
PowerMac G5 towers and Windoze
PCs since the video connector is a
standard DVI jack.
PC manufacturers could even come up
with a CPU module containing a
Pentium chipset that could mate with
Apple’s Universal Display. Apple
would probably sell a lot more of their
beautiful displays. I doubt they’d
loose any CPU sales either because
Continued on page 2
My Wish List ....................................... 1
Hidden Gems........................................4
Digital Photography Websites ..............5
Take Control Ebooks-Tiger OS X ........6
A PIM Comparison.............................. 8
Upgrading a Linksys Router ................8
“switchers” are actually fairly rare in
both camps. They might even gain a
few as people buying an Apple display
and a Pentium module could easily
purchase a Mac module later on.
Editor
Deena Quilty
Designer
George Maciel
Photographers
John Scott
Jack Bass
Publisher
Connection, Inc.
41 Crossroads Plaza
PMB 1984
Printer
Budget Printers
1718 Park Street
Hartford, CT 06106
from members!
in each issue.
You could use an inexpensive Mini
(G4) with the new displays, but you’d
have to shell out more $$$ to get a G5
chip and have the integration that gets
the CPU off your desk. With the DVI
connector on the bottom of the CPU
and those ugly thumbscrews on top,
you’d be more likely to buy Apple’s
display than a cheaper universal PCtype display. Besides, you’d have to
shell out another $99 to buy that
optional power brick since it comes
with Apple’s displays and not the
CPU modules!
PowerDrive
Take a standard iPod, remove the
screen and buttons from the face, and
voila: you’ve got a slick powered
FireWire/USB portable hard drive. It’s
embedded OS is smart enough to be
taught how to provide automatic
backup and syncing of your OS X’s
“Home” folder when connected. It
could automatically grab photos from
your digital camera, and it could even
“capture” video directly from a
MiniDV camcorder over FireWire.
Sure, other companies make external
hard drives, but none would be as
slick or have a built-in battery to work
on the underpowered FireWire and
USB ports especially common on
Windoze laptops. What a great way to
recycle iPods that come in with damaged screens! Suggested retail prices
for the PowerDrive: $199 for 20 gb,
$249 for 40 gb, and $299 for 60 gb
models.
Airport Express A/V
Take a standard Airport Express and
add an S-video jack to it so you could
stream not only sound to your stereo
2
but photos and movies to your TV
wirelessly. What a boon to folks doing
slide shows and making iMovies! Of
course, it would come with the standard S-Video to composite adapter
Apple ships with several products. It
would sell for $149, with the older
Express dropping to $99.
AirPod
Take a standard iPod and add a card
slot. This slot could be used to read
digital photos into the AirPod from
digital media, but more importantly, it
could be used to hold a WiFi card.
This could be used to stream audio
and/or video directly from the AirPod
to an Airport Express or the new
Airport Express A/V. Look ma, no
wires! AirPods would sell for $50
more than standard iPod models, $100
more in a kit including the WiFi card.
Another option would be to simply
integrate the WiFi functionality into
the iPod to make the AirPod models.
TalkPod
License the iPod technology to Nokia,
Siemens, Kyocera, and Motorola so
they can implement it in their next
generations of cell phones. Sure, some
cell phones have built-in MP3 players,
but none work seamlessly with iTunes
and the Apple music store. You could
use the phone’s broadband cell connection to download new songs
directly without any wires. You could
sync the phone to your Mac when you
get home using Bluetooth, and this
could even happen automatically if
desired.
In your eyes, this may be one of the
most useless columns I’ve ever written. We’ll just have to wait and see. If
any of these products come out during
the next year or two, you’ll know
whom to thank while you’re having
fun with your new Apple gear! 
CMC Photo Gallery
Catch The Bus To
Macworld Expo in Boston
Photos by John Scott
March – Talcott Mountain Science Center
by Chris Hart, CMC Secretary
CMC’s annual day trip to Macworld
Expo in Boston is set for Wednesday,
July 13th.
CMC members enjoy a discounted
ticket price of $20, while non-members are invited to join us at a
still-reasonable $25. Do the math —
taking fuel and a day’s worth of parking into account — and you’ll see
why there’s no question that the CMC
Bus is the best way to get to
Macworld Expo!
Plus, you’ll enjoy the day rubbing
elbows (sometimes literally) with fellow Mac enthusiasts, while our bus
driver chauffeurs you to the event! No
traffic hassles, no parking hassles, and
curbside service. How can you beat
that?
April – iDVD presented by Rich Lenoce
Tickets will go on sale soon, so watch
this space for details!
If you haven’t already reserved your
free admission to MacWorld, you
need to hurry! After June 10th you’ll
have to pay to get into the event. To
order, direct your web browser to the
official web site: http://www.macworldexpo.com Your ticket order will
become free when you enter the priority code B0201 (those are zeroes, not
the letter “O”)
Don isn’t the only one with an Apple wish list. So, in the spirit of
“having fun with your Mac”, here are a few wish list pictures from
the web. Anything is possible...but feasible?
freewarerocks.com
from www.geekculture.com (joyoftech.com)
freewarerocks.com
3
Off the Beaten Path:
Hidden Gems You Might
Have Missed
By Kyle DeMilo, CMC
When you surf the web as much as I
do, you sometimes come across the
occasional diamond in the rough, so to
speak. This column points out those
hard-to-find freeware and shareware
items for your Mac that you might
think you didn’t need, but prove to be
really handy!
Sidenote is this cool
cross between a
Notepad and a
Sticky Note application. It’s a
graceful drawer
that slides from the
left or right side of your
screen that lets you drag clippings,
text, you name it – and it hides itself
when not in use, which is great for
users with small screens. This is no
lightweight
scrapbook,
either.
Sidenote has support for OS X eye
candy such as adjustable transparency,
Services, and full printing support.
From their web page, these are some
of Sidenote’s features:
• Note colors
• User definable Hotkeys
• Clean and unobtrusive interface
• The screen edge border can be
totally hidden
• Native RTF note format
The best part about Sidenote (besides
that fact that it’s Mac-only!) is that it’s
free!
➤ Get it from here:
http://www.chatelp.org/?s=Sidenote
Finally, Mac
OS 10.3 (or
‘Panther’ as all
the cool kids
call it) added
this cool new
feature called fast user switching,
which allows a shared Mac to have
several users logged into it simultaneously, without a noticeable hit in
speed. It’s perfect for when your kids
are playing a game while you’re
expecting an important email. They
can pause their game, and you are able
to quickly switch to your account and
check Mail for that message from
your boss.
Did you upgrade
to Tiger and are
you wondering
what they were
smoking when
they designed the
Mail 2.0 interface? Here’s a free app
that will switch it back to the Classic
Aqua look you know and love. It’s
called CageFighter, and it’s a free
program that will turn off the new
toolbar buttons and get back Mail’s
beloved retro look.
The problem? The full user’s name
appears in the Menu Bar, which isn’t
bad if your name is, say, John Smith,
but pretty lousy if your name is John
Jacob Jinglheimerschmidt (yeah,
yeah, his name is my name, too). The
answer? A freeware app called
WinSwitch. Instead of the long name
used by Apple, it uses the short name
(John), a generic ‘user’ icon, or your
user picture.
http://otierney.net/cagefighter/
http://winswitch.wincent.com/
Download of the Month submitted by Debi Foss
Galerie v. 5.0.1
Galerie generates galleries on web
pages with pictures and QuickTime
media files (VR panoramas, video,
sounds). For each picture or media
file, a separate page will be created
with navigation to next and previous pages. One or more index
pages will show thumbnail images
of all pictures, each linked to the
corresponding page in the gallery.
Galerie will work with a selection
in iPhoto, with a selection in a
browser window of Graphic
Converter, with a selection
in a iView MediaPro catalog, with a selection in
Extensis Portolio 7 catalog,
or with files or folders
dragged from the Finder.
Collections of editable
templates and many
options enable creating a large variety of different galleries with
different designs and different features. Galerie runs on Mac OS X
(10.2 and later).
4
Get it here:
http//www.myriad-online.com/
en/products/galerie.htm
As a fervent SLR “real film” bigot –
I finally bought a digital camera – a
Konica-Minolta Z5. Boy! – am I
impressed! Today’s digital cameras
offer almost all the creative controls
I’ve been used to. My new camera is
simply amazing! If you’re thinking
about “Taking the digital plunge”,
here are some GREAT…
Digital Photography
Websites
By Peter P. Gladis
reprinted with permission
The Digital Camera Resource Page at
DCresource.com is a very useful, honest
site for current or future owners of
Digital Cameras. Their mission is to:
➤ Provide honest reviews of Digital
Cameras, with no sugar coating. If
they think a camera isn’t a good
choice, they tell you!
➤ Not shove ads down readers’
throats – and no pop-ups.
➤ Maintain a friendly atmosphere.
Reviews are written with minimal
technical jargon so both tech geeks
and grandparents can understand it.
If you are overwhelmed by all the choices in Digital Cameras – and the myriad
of options and features, go to Digital
Photography Review at DPreview.com.
Here you’ll find all the latest in Digital
Photography news; reviews of the latest
Digital Cameras and accessories; active
discussion forums; a large selection of
sample images, a Digital Camera
Buyers Guide; side-by-side comparisons; and the most comprehensive
database of Digital Camera features and
specifications.
Another great resource for the Digital
Camera buyer is Steves-Digicams.com.
The site is very well-designed and easy
to navigate – and is filled with loads of
useful, easy to understand info about
cameras & accessories. Its “Digicam
Dictionary” helps you understand all the
technical jargon, and provides links to
each of the Camera manufacturer’s
websites. The site’s Forums are active
and informative. This is a “Must Visit”
site if you are thinking of buying a
Digital Camera.
MegaPixel.net calls itself the “Digital
Camera Review Web Magazine”. It is
comprehensively updated monthly and
offers a wide selection of Reviews,
Articles, News, Photo Galleries,
Member Forums, and links to other
sites.
As you see above, there are many terrific sites Digital Camera that help you
select and buy – but at Photo.net you’ll
learn lots about Photographic
Technique: Composition, Lighting,
Depth of Field, etc. The site is a
“Photography Learning Community”,
in which amateur & professional photographers provide mutual support, and
become resources for new photographers. The site’s Forums and Galleries
feature member-contributed photos. It
also has a “Neighbor” section with
member ratings and feedback on photography retailers. The “EZShop”
features member-contributed equipment
reviews and comparative shopping.
There are over 3300 edited articles &
reviews in the “Equipment,” “Learn.”
and “Travel” sections.
Another great site on how to take better
Digital pictures is ShortCourses.com.
Although the site actively markets
“How-To” books and CDs, it offers a
terrific FREE Tutorial section. For
example, their free “Short Course In
Using Your Digital Camera” covers in
depth the following important topics:
• Camera Controls and Creativity
• Fine Tuning Sharpness
• Fine Tuning Exposure
• Capturing Light and Color
• Understanding Lenses
• Using Automatic Flash
• Seeing Creative Images
• Exploring Close-up Photography
A useful Digital Photography site is
InternetBrothers.com/phototips.htm.
These guys get right to the point: BUYING: If you are experienced in
traditional 35mm photography, you’ll
5
discover some key differences with a
Digital Camera. They discuss a few
“gotchas” to watch out for. DIGITAL
TECHNIQUES: How to incorporate the
fine art of traditional photography into
the Digital world. TOUCH UPs: Get rid
of dust and specks, balance the colors,
create a matte or mask/merge images.
DIGITAL PHOTO STORAGE: Over
time, storing Digital photographs on
your computer can become a hard disk
resource constraint. You also want to
protect the future readability of your
electronic photo album. This section
helps you, and your kids, enjoy your
new hobby well into the future.
A great site on how to take better Digital
Pictures is DCviews.com/tutors.htm.
Here you can select from many tutorials
– just a few of which are:
• 10 Common Digital Mistakes
• 10 common Digital Myths
• Fundamentals & Trends
• Monitor Color Calibration
• Photoshop Tutorials
• National Geographic Photography
Guide
• Nature Photography
• Photography and the Art of
“Seeing”
• Secrets of Nature Photography
• Techniques of Natural Light
Photography
Lastly, a shameless plug… Photography
is a combination of both technique and
technology. The book: “Faster Smarter
Digital Photography” published by
Microsoft Press, does a fantastic job of
covering both of these important aspects
– and you need to master BOTH to
make your Digital Pictures the best they
can be. The book is inexpensive and
available at all the major book websites.
And oh yes – the Shameless Plug part:
My Brother, Ron Gladis, is one of the
authors – and I could not be prouder of
what he accomplished with this fine
book.
Questions? Comments? Ideas?
E-Mail me at [email protected] 
Take Control Ebooks
“Take Control of Users & Accounts in Tiger”
by Kirk McElhearn
The Help You Need with Tiger
by Robert Sawyer, CMC Raffles
The release of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is
undoubtedly the most anticipated
event in the Macintosh world so far
this year, and we’ve been working hard
for the last few months to create not
one, not two, not three, but four ebooks
about Tiger. The ebooks help
Macintosh users upgrade to Tiger successfully, customize the new operating
system, work with user accounts, and
share files among multiple networked
computers. They are:
“Take Control of Upgrading to Tiger”
by Joe Kissell
“Take Control of Customizing Tiger”
by Matt Neuburg
Thousands of Mac users upgraded to
Panther successfully with Joe Kissell’s
previous best-selling ebook, “Take
Control of Upgrading to Panther,” and
Joe is back with detailed new advice
for upgrading to Tiger. Joe’s expert
guidance, developed over numerous
test installations, thoroughly explains
the seven steps necessary before
upgrading, which of Tiger’s three
installation options is right for you,
how to perform the actual upgrade,
and the four tasks you must perform
after the upgrade finishes. Also included are instructions if you’re upgrading
from Mac OS 9.
Worried that something might go
wrong? Joe provides practical troubleshooting tips for the most common
problems, step-by-step instructions on
how to downgrade to your previous
system if necessary, and in-depth discussions of what exactly each
installation option does (and does not
do). Frankly, this ebook is a must-read
for anyone upgrading to Tiger. $5
It’s Day 2 of Tiger, and you’ve played
with the new features. But you can
become even more productive if you
customize Tiger for your needs. Turn to
Matt Neuburg for a road map on how to
start using new features in Tiger. Matt
shows you how to configure and use
Spotlight efficiently for finding files on
your hard disk, and once you’ve found
them, he helps you set up Smart Folders
that automatically organize your files.
Matt also helps you make the most of
Dashboard, which gives you instant
access to mini-applications. In other
parts of the ebook, you’ll learn how to
manage the status menus in your menu
bar, how to customize keyboard shortcuts (and even disable the Caps Lock
key!), and how to get started with
Automator. Matt has updated his advice
about essential customizations that
Tiger brings up from Panther, including
how to work with Exposé, the sidebar,
the toolbar, Finder windows, Font
Book, Unicode, and more. Additional
help for those new to Mac OS X: 150
basic ways to customize your Mac! $5
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/
tiger-upgrading.html?14@@!pt=
TRK-0017-TCMUG>
tiger-customizing.html?14@@!pt=
TRK-0018-TCMUG>
sample available
sample available
6
Does dealing with user accounts in
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger make your head
spin? In this ebook, Kirk McElhearn
helps you take control of users and
accounts! Kirk explains why you need
at least two accounts, tells you everything you need to know about
different types of accounts, and shows
you how to create the right types of
accounts for the different people who
use your Mac. Learn how to use a
troubleshooting account to solve maddening problems, make the best use of
Fast User Switching, and share files
between
users. Special digital lifestyle advice
for families! Kirk reveals undocumented tricks for sharing music and
photos among multiple users on your
Mac using iTunes and iPhoto. Newly
updated for Tiger, this ebook explains
and uses Tiger terminology throughout, and it covers the new parental
controls. $5
tiger-users.html?14@@!pt=
TRK-0019-TCMUG>
sample available
“Take Control of Sharing Files in Tiger”
by Glenn Fleishman
No Mac is an island when it comes to
sharing files. In this detail-packed
ebook, networking expert Glenn
Fleishman makes file sharing easy,
whether it’s between two Macs on a
local network, among a mixed-platform office workgroup, or between
far-flung computers on the Internet.
Learn how to set up Mac OS X 10.4
Tiger to share files with Macs,
Windows, and Unix machines using
AppleShare, Samba, FTP, the Web,
and WebDAV. Glenn shows you how
to avoid the risks of sharing files
continued on page 7
across the Internet, provides instructions for accessing shared files from
common operating systems, and
explains how to enhance Tiger’s file
sharing with SharePoints. Building on
the three free updates that kept the
Panther edition of this ebook up to
date, this new release has been thoroughly revised for Tiger. Extra section
- learn all the ways to share music and
10% can be applied to the purchase of
these ebooks, anyone wishing to buy
more than one should also check out
the Two for Tiger bundle (Upgrading
& Customizing for 10% off) and Four
for Tiger bundle (all four ebooks for
20% off).
photos across a network with iTunes
and iPhoto! $10
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/tige
rsharing.html?14@@!pt=TRK-0020TCMUG>
sample available
The bundles are available from the
relevant ebooks’ web pages. 
Although the usual MUG discount of
Apple iCal
A PIM Comparison
by Kyle DeMilo, CMC
A PIM is an acronym for personal information manager. It’s an application that
usually includes an address book and also
organizes unrelated information, such as
notes, appointments, and names, in a useful
way. My dad uses his Filofax as his PIM. I
have yet to settle on the right one for me.
Current Version
Cost
Third-party add-ons?
Syncs with PDA?
Supports iCalendar
format (.ics)
Supports vCalendar
format (.vcs)
Supports vCard
format
Is this updated
regularly (ie: will
there be future
versions)?
Built-in web
sharing?
Cross-platform
sharing of data
Print to paper
planner
Links to files outside
of application (ie:
Word or
AppleWorks
documents)
All-in-one
Runs under Classic?
I have a challenge to all the Mac users out
there. The next time you are
at the house of a Windowsusing friend or family
member, see what they use
as a PIM. Chances are,
they’re either using some form
of Outlook (not Outlook Express, that’s
just e-mail), or Palm Desktop. That’s it.
NowSoftware Now UpTo-Date/Contact
4.5.3
$159.90
✖
✔
✖
Microsoft Entourage
1.5.5
Free
✔
✔
✔
PalmOne Palm
Desktop
4.2.1
Free
✖
✔
✖
✖
✔
✖
✔
†
✔
✔
✖
✔
✔
✖
✔
✔
✔‡
✖
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✖
✔
✔
✔
✖
✔
✔
✔
✖
✖
✔
✔
✖
✔**
✔
✔††
§
11.1.0
$399*
✔
✔
✔
There are some other minor players on the Mac, such as
DayLite, Organizer, and MeetingMaker, but they’re more
niche products, in my opinion.
Oh sure, there are other programs out
there. Mozilla’s Sunbird, and the calendar
application in Microsoft Works come to
mind, but I will stick my neck out and say
that the majority of Windows users use
Outlook or Palm Desktop. Have you seen
some of the available choices for us Mac
users?
I don’t have a laptop, so all my data has to sync nicely
with my PalmOne Treo 600. So, I have been comparing
these four PIM applications to see which one would
work best for me. Here is my comparison chart that I created. It’s helpful to me; perhaps it will be helpful to you
as well.
Includes full versions of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint as well.
vCards supported in Address Book, a separate application.
Requires .Mac subscription ($99/year) or a WebDAV server.
Requires manual vCalendar and vCard emailing.
Version 4.0.3 is an older version of NUDC, which is still supported.
†† Version 2001 is an older version of Entourage, which is no longer
being developed, except for secuity fixes.
*
†
‡
§
**
• Apple iCal
• Palm Desktop
• Now Up-To-Date/Contact
• Microsoft Entourage
7
Benefits:
Date ______________________________
Name _____________________________
Upgrading a Linksys
Router with OS X
downloaded your firmware make sure
it is named code.bin.
by Joe Arcuri, CMC Ambassador
Now comes the scary part. Start the terminal. Once in terminal mode you’ll
need to change directories to the folder
where you downloaded code.bin. For
example, if you downloaded it to your
documents folder you’d type:
I tend to use a variety of routers in my
client network installs and most of
them have a browser interface for doing
upgrades to the firmware. One of the
few that doesn’t have a browser
upgrade path is also one of the most
popular routers on the market, Linksys.
For clarification purposes the firmware
in a router is basically the mini operating system that runs the router and
allows it to do its job. Firmware
upgrades can add features and fix bugs
so they are important to utilize.
Address ___________________________
City ______________________________
State________ Zip __________________
Phone (Home) ______________________
Phone (Office) ______________________
Phone (Fax) ________________________
Business___________________________
Typically when I’ve done Linksys
firmware upgrades, I’ve had to use a
PC and use the utility provided by
Linksys, but I finally put my foot down
and said “there has to be a way to do
this with my Mac!” And there is.
The method that Linksys uses to upload
the file is a protocol called TFTP,
Trivial File Transfer Protocol. TFTP is
exactly what it sounds like: a simpler
implementation of FTP. Fortunately,
OS X has a TFTP client in it’s arsenal.
Occupation_________________________
Email:_____________________________
Referred by:________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
Annual CMC Family
Membership - $25.00
mail to:
...or
www.ctmac.org
One of the oddities of Linksys’ implementation of TFTP is that they use a
password which TFTP normally doesn’t recognize, so you’ll have to disable
the password on your router temporarily. To do this, login to your router and
just delete the settings for the password; after we’re done you can go back
and reset it. At the same time, remember the IP address of your router; you’re
going to need it later. In our example
we’ll use 192.168.0.1.
To begin, you need to go to linksys.com
and download the latest firmware for
your router. Make sure that when
you’re asked your operating system
you specify “Other;” this allows you to
download the firmware without the
associated Windows TFTP client. In
the event you download the zipped
Windows version, you can just extract
the firmware out of the zip file. It will
be a file called “code.bin”. Once you’ve
8
cd/Users/jarcuri/Documents/
(change the user name -jarcuri- to your
username)
Now just type the following (shown in
bold text) in Terminal. Note that I’m
also showing what you’ll see:
/usr/bin/tftp
$/usr/bin/tftp
tftp> connect 192.168.0.1
tftp> bin
tftp> verbose
Verbose mode on.
tftp> put code.bin
putting code.bin to
192.168.0.1:code.bin [octet]
Sent 757760 bytes in 34.4 seconds
[176223 bits/sec]
tftp> quit
That’s it! You’ve successfully upgraded
the firmware. You can now go back and
reset your password and at the same
time confirm that the upgrade has taken
place by checking the firmware rev on
the status screen.
For those who are curious, here’s a
breakdown of what you’re doing in the
above commands:
/usr/bin/tftp
(launch the tftp program)
tftp> connect 192.168.0.1
(connect to your router)
tftp> bin
(switch to binary mode for the upload)
tftp> verbose
(verbose mode outputs feedback to the
screen)
tftp> put code.bin
(putting the file into the router)
tftp> quit
(quit out of tftp)
Special Offers – Apple User Group Bulletin – April 15, 2005
qualify for these savings. Not a member? Join CMC today to take
IOGEAR: 35 Percent Discount
IOGEAR, the leading name in connectivity products, delivers exclusive user group
offerings to keep your Mac in whack. Our
GCS632U KVM lets you simultaneously
run two USB computers from a single
keyboard, video monitor and mouse. Our
Bluetooth MiniMouse (GME225B) is the
alternative to touchpads.
Need a hub? Check out our GFH610
with six FireWire ports. Our GUH284R
delivers six USB 2.0 ports and a 12-in-4
card reader. IOGEAR’s GUH420 boasts
four USB 2.0 and three FireWire ports.
Our 250GB ION Tri-Select
(GHD335C250) has both FireWire and
USB 2.0 ports.
IOGEAR offers 35 percent off of MSRP
to Apple user group members when using
the user group discount code.
Offer code: M2796UG
Check it out. http://www.iogear.com
Valid through July 31, 2005.
LoadPod: 10 Percent Discount
LoadPod, the nation’s leader in iPod
loading services, saves you the time and
hassle of loading your existing CD collection into your iPod. With nationwide
local in-person service, there’s no shipping or traveling on your part. Within
five days your iPod is returned to you
loaded with your music for as little as
$1.29 (US) per CD.
Apple User Group members receive a
10 percent discount on all LoadPod
services by when using the user group
discount code.
Offer code: 108301111
Order. http://www.LoadPod.com
Call. 1-866-LOADPOD.
Valid until August 30, 2005.
macXware: 20 Percent Discount
Get creative with macXware. Best
sellers include:
- MacFonts - 1,000 TrueType Fonts
& FontManager
- MacFonts 2 - 1,000 New Fonts in
OpenType Format & FontManager
- Commercial Use MacFonts
Collections - Four Collections
for Professional Use
- MacBurn - CD & DVD
Burning Software
- MediaEdit Pro - Video, Audio
& Image Editor
- ScreenRecord - Capture OnScreen Actions for Tutorials
User groups receive an extra 20 percent discount on any macXware
website order by using the user group
discount code box during checkout.
Code: MUG2005
Find out more.
http://www.macXware.com
Valid until July 31, 2005.
E2Sync: 25 Percent Discount
e2Sync brings Entourage support to
iSync. A genuine iSync conduit,
installation is simple. You then just
run iSync as normal. Apple user group
members receive a 25 percent discount
off the regular price of $39 (US) when
using the user group discount code at
their online store.
Code: MUG25OFF0503
E2Sync Store
www.e2sync.com/purchase.html
Valid until July 31, 2005.
TextSoap 4: Sanitize Grubby Text
Since 1998, TextSoap has served as the
premier text processing tool. TextSoap
easily cleans your emails of garbage
characters, extracts text from HTML,
processes database text files, and much
more. Custom Cleaners allow you to
design one-click actions for your specific needs. TextSoap supports both plain
text and styled text manipulation.
TextSoap offers advanced integration
allowing you to use its features inside
your favorite application.
User group members receive 20 percent
off retail price of TextSoap when using
the user group discount code and the
link below.
Code: CPNMUG419
Place your order.
http://www.unmarked.com/partners/mugmembers.html
Valid until June 30, 2005.
The MUG Store
Is there something the MUG store can
do to help your group? Just let us
know! Get 1 percent back on everything your membership purchases...
which means if you encourage your
members to buy from the MUG Store
you can get everything from software
to new computers for your operation
for FREE!
The MUG Store has free freight to
members, RAM rebates and aggressive
pricing on new and reconditioned
Macs, and the largest selection of preowned Macs on the planet!
See a complete list
of all current deals at:
www.mugcenter.com/
vendornews/vendornews.html
9
The passwords to get into this
exclusive User Group site are:
3/31/2005 - 6/30/2005
User ID: xxxx (lowercase)
Password: xxxxx (lowercase)
[email protected]
860-232-2841
[email protected]
860-347-1789
PR Jerry Esposito
[email protected]
[email protected]
860-291-9393
[email protected]
[email protected]
10
Discounted Books
FREE Raffle!
not too long.
NOTICE!
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Apple Store, Westfarms Mall
7:00 P.M. – Tiger OS X
Directions: www.apple.com/ retail/westfarms/map/
Back To Basics
Takes A Summer Break
There will be no Back To Basics sessions
in May, June, or July, due to the nature of
the meetings and venues. Look for the
return of these sessions later this year.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Middlesex Community College
7:00 P.M. – Three Hands on
Sessions (subjects TBD)
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Hynes Convention Center
(See page 3 for details)
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
CMC Summer Picnic
6:00 P.M. – followed by
“Stump The Geeks” Q&A
(Location TBD)
and password
New Members!
learning about OS X and the Mac.
Account Balances
Savings Balance ................$3971.52
Balances as of May 11, 2005
Make a note of it NOW!
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May Elections
Four positions will be voted on at
the May meeting. They are
P r e s i d e n t , Vi c e P r e s i d e n t ,
Secretary, and Treasurer. We
have candidates for President,
Vice President, and Treasurer.
We currently have no volunteers
for the Secretary position. Please
consider running for this position; contact Connie Scott at
[email protected].
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11
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Monthly Meeting
May 25 • 7 PM
Tiger OS X
Apple Store
Westfarms Mall
Directions: http://www.apple.com/
retail/westfarms/map/
left as you enter.
12
Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, June 29
7:00 P.M.
Three Hands on Sessions:
• Mastering iPhoto
• Creating a Personal Website
• Photoshop - All About Layers
Confessions
and Clemency
By Don Dickey,
CMC Past President
restarted. The software was reinstalled
almost daily. There had to be a better
way! Then I noticed something: my little Mac LC was a happy little machine,
by comparison. It was a faithful friend,
needing little care, and even greeted me
every day with a smiling face instead of
a “C:/” prompt!
I MAKE FUN OF
WINDOWS USERS ALL
THE TIME, AND FEEL SO
SUPERIOR, YET WHEN MY
MAC DOES STUPID
THINGS, I FEEL SO
SHAMEFUL...
As I write my last cover
page feature for the CMC
newsletter, I am reflecting
on events of the past that had
a significant impact on my
life. One such event was
“the switch.” Yes, as I bare
all before you, I am publicly
admitting that I was once a
staunch PC user.
It’s not as bad as it sounds!
This was over a decade ago
(1993), and I was actually a
power DOS user. Sure, it was
“Gatesware,” but not the Windows flavor that many Mac users hold with
disdain. My “killer app” at that time
was AutoCAD r12, and it ran considerably better (and faster) under DOS
than Windows. AutoDesk knew this,
and Windows was not as pervasive
then, so r12 was delivered as either a
DOS or Windows installation.
Until this time, I really didn’t understand the Mac. I saw no real difference
between Windows and the Mac. Both
were graphic, both used a mouse for
navigation and data entry, and many
apps ran on both, AutoCAD r12
among them. I suggest that many present day Windows users see life through
similar eyes and don’t perceive any
real difference or advantage to switching to a Mac. In fact, they look at the
acres of software for their PC at
CompUSA and compare this to a half
isle of Mac software and agree that the
JUNE 2005
WOULD YOU
LIKE TO SEE
ONE OF OUR
COUNSELORS?
Fortunately, this was covered under
the extended AppleCare Plan.
Mac must be a very small island, perhaps too small. If it were any good,
wouldn’t more people be using it?
My next position was as manager of
product development in a company
selling products in the technology education market. When I reported to work,
I soon found that all curricula was produced in software foreign to me called
Quark XPress. My need to edit and
write such curricula meant that for the
first time my desktop held two computers: my “main” Intel-based machine
and a strange little pizza box called a
Mac LC. I was then writing curricula
for CNC (computer numeric control),
which ran in DOS. With it I could
design a part in AutoCAD and then use
the CNC software to operate a desktop
lathe to “turn” the part, all in a matter of
minutes.
The software crashed often. The lathe
went awry on more than half the operations. The PC was constantly being
1
The lathe was made by a company in
England, and its software was created
by a fellow in Germany. One day when
I was speaking with him, he mentioned
there was a Mac version of his lathe
software, and that he would “Express”
me a copy.
Then, Addison-Wesley offered me a
copy of AutoCAD r12 for Mac as long
as I was willing to write a review of it
for them. With the arrivals of Mac versions of AutoCAD and the CNC
software to drive my lathe, I was in
heaven! For the first time, I could “play
engineer” on my Mac. I think this was
the turning point in my life from which
I’ve never seriously looked back.
Because of this experience, and likewise for many Mac users with a similar
past rooted in the PC world, I have a
sound understanding of what it means
to be a “switcher.” It also enabled and
encouraged me to share my experiences
with others in the PC world, which can
lead to a sort of “family tree” of switchers! I count our most recent past
president Joe Arcuri as a branch of my
family tree, and I’m sure he has added
cousins to our common tree as well.
There’s a lesson in this, and that’s the
point of my article. Some of us are so
Continued on page 2
Editor
Deena Quilty
Designer
George Maciel
Photographer
John Scott
Publisher
Connection, Inc.
41 Crossroads Plaza
PMB 1984
Printer
Budget Printers
1718 Park Street
Hartford, CT 06106
from members!
in each issue.
far into Mac lore and religion that we
actually repel members of the PC world
and keep them from getting too close.
We may need to humble ourselves,
offer the gentlest of encouragement, or
perhaps even lend a friend a Mac when
their PC is in the shop, along with
enough hand-holding to help them
along their way. If you’re on foreign
turf here, ask a “switcher” for help!
There are plenty of us around, and we
can identify with those “on the edge” ...
making that decision to replace an
aging PC with either a new black Dell
or a new white Mac.
Do you think there’s a reason the iMac
is white? You bet your single button
mouse there is... to distinguish it from
the sea of mostly black PeeSees out
there. And be sure to encourage a
switcher friend to trash his brand new
Apple mouse! In fact, make it your job
to outfit a switcher friend with a two
button optical USB mouse complete
with a scroll wheel. This will most cer-
tainly help him cross the divide and feel
at least partially “at home” with a new
machine.
This leads me to my last act as your
outgoing president: I am hereby declaring clemency for those among us who
were former PC users! They made a
hard choice, they paid their dues, and
its time for us to forgive and embrace
them as brothers and sisters in our fraternity. These folks are the ones who
will most likely create branches on the
family tree. They’ve “been there, done
that,” and can lead the way to their PC
friends as many of us already have.
It has been my pleasure to serve as an
elected officer on CMC’s board, and I
look forward to the fresh ideas and
great things the newly elected executive
officers will bring to our organization.
Best wishes,
Don
Member of the Month
by David Gerstein
CMC Treasurer
CMC Member of the Month is
middle-schooler Juli Woolard of
Bristol.
Q Juli, where do you go to school?
A I'm in the 8th grade at Memorial
Boulevard.
Q How long have you used the Mac?
A Ever since the first grade, back
in Colorado.
Q And what do you use if for?
A Oh, to download music, chat with
friends and my cousins. My
friend Ellie uses hers for her Sims.
2
Q You’ve been to meetings. What
do you find useful or interesting?
A
The Black Eyed Peas...
Q Black Eyed Peas???
A You know...the band. When you
showed the photos and played
the music. Garage Band. Cool.
Q What would you like us to do
better?
A Sometimes things go wrong. The
computer crashes. It’s nice to
find out the answer to things
Hidden Gems You
Might Have Missed
By Kyle DeMilo, CMC Secretary
When you surf the web as much as I do,
you sometimes come across the occasional diamond in the rough, so to speak.
This column points out those hard-tofind freeware and shareware items for
your Mac that you might think you don’t
need, but prove to be really handy!
This month features a trio of apps that
are all free, and really helpful. I personally use them on a daily basis.
The first is from long-time NeXT
developers Devon Technologies. Their
D ev o n T h i n k , D ev o n N o t e , a n d
DevonAgent applications are three
powerful (but not free) tools for
research. However, lurking on the freeware section of their site is a free app
that blows away the built-in “Find”
function in OS X. It’s called EasyFind
and it can search for file names as well
as content. How it works is a mystery to
me, but it’s fast!
➤ Get it from here: www.devon-tech
nologies.com/download/shareware.php
Our next one is a module for your
System Preferences called
RCDefaultApp, which allows you to
set the default applications for URLs,
documents, MIME types, etc.
Normally this is done through several
AOL Service
Assistant
By Kyle DeMilo,
CMC Secretary
Do you love being an AOL member,
but you’re not crazy about the software? Have you just upgraded to
high-speed access and looking to
leave AOL? This new option might be
just the thing for you.
The AOL Service Assistant is from
AOL and it allows you to gather all of
your information from the files nor-
separate functions (Get Info for files,
Safari for URL’s, etc). This is onestop shopping for your Mac.
➤ Get it from here: http://www.rubi
code.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/
The third and final piece is a great
donationware application called iSnip.
What is donationware? It’s shareware
without the nagging; it’s freeware with
a tip jar. You can use it for free, but if
you do use it, it’s suggested you kick
in whatever you think it’s worth.
What does it do? It’s a clipboard history manager. Have you ever copied
an item and then find yourself copying
something else before you had a
chance to paste the first item? It’s happened to me – and nothing is worse
than the mad dash to run back and find
that first item to edit once more. Not
with iSnip: any time you copy items to
the Mac’s clipboard, it keeps a running
history of it. You can also specify
recurring items called ‘snippets’,
which can be sorted into folders and
subfolders.
It’s great for web browsing, boilerplate text, anything where you would
need to reference stuff you’ve placed
on the Mac’s clipboard.
➤ Get it from here: http://www.isnip.net
Feedback? Something I missed? Email
me at: [email protected]
mally kept on their service, and store
it locally in the applications that Apple
includes with every new Mac. Of
course you have still have to an active
AOL account in order to use this, but
once you’re done migrating all your
stuff, you can say goodbye forever–or
just keep the account if you must, and
ditch the client.
From AOL’s site:
Mail - Easily configure Mac OS X
Mail to send and receive AOL mail.
You can also import your incoming
and outgoing messages from your
3
Download
of the Month:
iAlert 6.0
Submitted by
Debi Foss
http://angeman.perso.cegetel.net/
iAlert/?language=en
Do your kids annoy you? Your dogs?
The neighbors? Well then why not your
software?
iAlert is a preference pane which
allows you to display an alert with a
transparent floating window whenever
a particular event occurs and lets you
interact with the application that
launched it.
The built-in plugins show alerts when:
• web sites are updated
• a download is completed in Safari |
or Firefox
• new articles are fetched in Safari
RSS
• you receive new messages in Mail,
Entourage or Thunderbird
• you receive new messages or your
friends get connected on iChat
• a new song is played in iTunes
You can also set up alarms and timers.
The alerts are fully customizable and
you can control their size, their position on the screen, their opacity, their
color and their background picture.
iAlert is freeware and comes in a
version for Panther or Tiger. 
Personal Filing Cabinet into Mail.
iChat - Easily set up iChat to work
with your Screen Name.
Address Book - Import your AOL
Address Book contacts into your Mac
OS X Address Book without bringing
in duplicate entries.
Safari - Import your AOL Favorite
Places into a folder in the Safari
Bookmarks Bar.
Download AOL Service Assistant for free
from here: www.aol.com/downloads/?
One Month
with Tiger
By Rich Lenoce,
CMC President
You can read about the 200
enhancements Apple has put in OS
X.4 Tiger on their website, but I
think that what strikes me about
this version of OS X is that it
seems to be making a jump to the
next level of OS. I always
felt–from the original OS X
through
Jaguar
and
then
Panther–that Apple was trying to
recreate the older Classic OS in a
new form, and that it was poised to
use its UNIX routes to be a breakthrough OS. That time is here!
With Tiger, Macintosh OS X has
finally come into its own: breaking
new ground offering powerful features, better Windows integration
and adding a level of sophistication that puts the Mac OS ahead of
any other OS on the market.
Does that mean everyone should
upgrade? If it sounds like you
might need Tiger’s powerful features, you’d certainly be happy
upgrading, however many people
won’t need or may never use
Tiger’s advanced features, and for
them Panther will certainly remain
good enough. So look at the features and decide for yourself if
Tiger is worth the $129 to you.
Spotlight/Smart Folders
and Mailboxes
One of the handiest and most powerful features in Tiger is Smart
Folders and Smart Mailboxes.
These two features are functionally similar, allowing you to set up
folders in the Finder or mailboxes
in Mail so that
when files or
emails meet a
certain criteria,
the file or email
gets placed in the assigned Smart
Folder or Smart Mailbox. For
example, I have my work email
forwarded to my SBC account but
those emails are always getting
mixed up with my personal emails.
I set up a Smart Mailbox so that
when Mail receives an email in my
SBC Mailbox with the subject line
that says “FWD from rlenoce@mxcc.
commnet.edu,” that email gets sent
to a special Smart Mailbox I created called Work Emails. I used to
perform this same task manually at
the end of each day, moving all my
work emails to a special mailbox.
The difference between Smart
Folders and Smart Mailboxes is
that with Smart Folders the actual
file is not placed in the folder, only
an alias. The original file still
resides in the original location.
Email does get moved to the Smart
Mailbox, eliminating clutter.
Smart Mailboxes and Smart
Folders save me several minutes
each day. I set up Smart Folders
for various projects I’m working
on so that documents get properly
filed. Again, you could manually
do this or let a program like
Entourage do it for you, but Tiger
does this for you elegantly and easily. Can I live without Smart
Folders and Smart Mailboxes?
Certainly...but I like ‘em!
The ability to perform these
sophisticated functions comes
from Apple’s Spotlight technology,
the new search feature built into
Tiger. Spotlight is similar to the
4
old Sherlock Indexing but is far
more powerful and much faster.
Spotlight not only catalogs all of
your files but the contents of the
file, the file attributes and metadata. Meta-data is additional data
that further describes a file such as
the date, time and exposure of a
digital photo written by the camera
when the photo was taken, or the
name of the CD album hidden in
the song file when you imported it
to iTunes.
Spotlight is nothing short of astonishing. After you install Tiger,
Spotlight indexes your drives
examining every aspect of your
files and catalogs the information.
When you perform a search from a
Finder window or from the new
Spotlight Menu located all the way
to the right on the menu bar, you
will see a list of results. Type a
word or phrase and Spotlight will
instantly provide the results of all
files containing the word or
phrase. The downside is that if the
word is common, you’ll receive
thousands of results that you must
wade through. But, like any good
search engine, you can use keywords to narrow your search or
place phrases or file names in
quotes to get exact results. I keep
everything on my computer very
organized, so Spotlight isn’t essential for me. However, I could see
where it would be useful for many
people especially those who have
multiple documents with similar
information—such as a sales person who has multiple documents
for an account (invoices, quotes,
records, etc.). Spotlight coupled
with Smart Folders/Mailboxes is
continued on page 5
an extremely powerful pairing.
Personally, I’d like a way to go
back to Panther’s more basic
search feature and call up Spotlight
as needed.
Dashboard
Dashboard, Apple’s other well-publicized feature, has also gotten a lot
of press. Dashboard consists of user
installable mini-applications called
Widgets that run in the background
and are activated and brought to the
screen forefront by pressing F12 or
the Dashboard dock icon. I have
widgets installed for 5-day weather
forecasts and Doppler radar, TV
program schedules, a Webcam of
Venice Italy, air flights, and an
Amazon search tool. In the past,
these were tasks that I would look
up using Safari bookmarks or using
the widget based application,
Konfabulator. Again, do I need
Dashboard to do this? No, but it is
an elegant way to reduce bookmark
clutter…and it’s fun.
Safari and .Mac
For those people with a .Mac
account, you’ll be happy to learn
that iDisk synchronization finally
works as advertised. It’s much
faster and works seamlessly with
the Finder. I was always annoyed
by the sluggishness of iDisk and
the slowness of the synchronization process, and Apple seems to
have addressed these issues. Sadly,
I had to pay $129 for Tiger on top
of the $99 a year to get .Mac, just
to have my iDisk to work it’s supposed to. Also, Safari has gotten
faster and the DNS bug that has
affected its ability to find web
pages the first time you select a
URL is finally fixed. Bug fixes and
functional enhancements to Safari
and .Mac should have been done as
a Panther update. Apple has to stop
with the “we’ll fix these problems
in the next release” attitude.
There are too many enhancements
to each application that comes with
Tiger to mention. Apple should
begin including a manual, even a
basic manual in PDF form, with all
OS releases and applications. They
supplied an excellent manual with
iWork for Pages and Keynote and I
thought this might be a trend. Much
of the enhancements in Tiger and
the latest release of iLife are hidden
and a manual would help us wade
through the changes rather than
waiting months for a Missing
Manual or Dummies book to appear.
For example, there are many new
features to the way Address Book,
Calendar and Mail interact but
without documentation most users
will miss some of Tiger’s best features. Also, Spotlight is very
complicated; there are many ways
to perform a search but looking at a
Spotlight dialog box you’d never be
aware of that. The new Tiger application, Automater, similar
to Applescript but easier to
use, looks interesting but darn
if I can figure out how it works.
There were some disappointments to Tiger. iChat’s new
video confere n c i n g f e a t u r e s
a r e h i g h l y over-rated since
you need a G5 or dual 1ghz G4 to
host an H264 conference. Apple’s
changes to Mail’s look and color
scheme to me isn’t as attractive,
and information such as mailbox
sizes isn’t as accessible is in
Panther.
5
There were also some areas of
Tiger that didn’t get the makeover
needed. Fontbook is still almost
too simplistic to be useful for
power users, and burning a CD or
DVD in the Finder still isn’t very
flexible. I also wish there were
additional maintenance utilities
built into Tiger. But, I’m just nitpicking here; there are many third
party applications that can manage
these OS functions.
With Tiger, I found few “must have”
new features but plenty of “wow
that’s great” features. Overall, Tiger
is another tremendous Apple innovation particularly for power users.
Casual users may find the additions
overkill, especially for $129.
Beginners to the Mac OS should get
a good manual, as there’s a lot of
power under the hood.
Tiger Migration Guide Available
For users making the move to
Tiger, I strongly recommend Erik
Vlietinck’s Tiger Migration Guide,
an eBook for helping users migrate
from earlier versions of Mac OS X
to Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. The free
version of the eBook
is available in PDF
form for on screen
viewing. A high-resolution printable
version is available
for $5. Additionally,
buyers will receive
a bonus chapter
containing the shortcuts of new and changed features
in Tiger. 
<http://www.it-enquirer.com/
main/ite/more/tiger_guide/>
Instructions from
Outer Space:
GPS Car Navigation
by Adam C. Engst
[email protected]
reprinted from TidBITS#780/16-May-05
Have you ever found yourself driving
at high speed or in heavy traffic in an
unfamiliar area while the person in the
passenger seat frantically attempts to
read the map and tell you where to
turn next? If you’re like me, it’s stressful. And if you’re anything like Tonya,
trying to figure out the current location on a map and give coherent
directions, all while the car is moving
is equally as stressful, plus a bit nausea-inducing.
Our recent trip to New Mexico was
made even more enjoyable by our
decision to spring for the extra $10 per
day to rent a GPS-enabled (global
positioning system) cell phone from
Alamo that spoke directions for each
upcoming turn. It was brilliant,
despite some notable design flaws.
We’re not gadget freaks, but we’ve
already decided to look into buying a
similar device for the next time we
have to do any significant driving in
unknown parts.
Driving by Wireless
Alamo wasn’t forthcoming about
what the device actually was and how
it worked, so my apologies in advance
if my deduction and speculation prove
somewhat incorrect. From what I
could tell, the GPS device itself was a
Motorola i58sr cell phone with Nextel
service; the phone had a relatively
small black & white screen, and
Alamo provided a suction cup mount
so it could attach to the windshield.
When turned on, the phone ran some
kind of specialized Java application
that asked for your permission (presumably because you could have been
tracked through the device) and then
dumped you into a predictably lousy
interface for searching for an attrac-
tion or entering an address. Once you
entered the address, the phone used
Nextel’s data network to download
driving directions from your current
location, determined by the GPS, and
then both read them out loud to you
via its speakerphone and displayed the
next turn on the screen, with running
countdowns of how far until your next
turn and until you reached the eventual destination. It always started talking
about half a mile away, and it repeated
itself as you got closer, but never so
much that it was annoying. As you
came up on a turn, a progress bar
showed you how many meters until
the turn; that was great in situations
where there were two turns quite close
together.
Although the interface was poor, and
it took us longer to figure out than
ideal (remember, we were driving; it’s
not like you have time to sit down
with the thing beforehand, and Alamo
didn’t include any instructions at all),
we quickly became addicted to the
driving instructions. With one exception - where the GPS phone would
have had us get off an arterial, cross a
road, and get right back on - the
instructions were extremely accurate.
And interestingly, a second pass
through the area where it gave the
foolish instructions did not repeat
them; it’s conceivable that we were in
a different lane and thus triggered different instructions. If you missed a
turn (the mistake was the only direction we ignored), it detects that you’re
not on course and quickly downloads
new directions to reroute you.
More problematic, particularly in the
rural parts of New Mexico, was that
you had to enter a full address. We
were staying with fellow authors
6
Robin Williams and John Tollett for a
few nights, and although we had
directions to their house, and thus had
the final road name, we didn’t have
their street address handy. We were
able to fool the GPS phone into giving
us directions anyway by guessing that
the house number was 1 instead of
2745 or something, and we were
lucky, since in some cities, that difference could have put us entirely across
town. A bed and breakfast we stayed
at in Chimayo had only a P.O. box for
an address, and the device’s database
had never heard of County Road 0100,
so it wasn’t much help there.
Although Tonya found a GPS menu in
the phone’s interface somewhere, we
never managed to see if it would give
us a map view of the area (and my
reading of the phone’s user’s guide
afterwards would seem to indicate
not). It would have been helpful to be
able to point at a spot in the map and
say “Go there!” It would also have
been useful on at least one occasion to
see a map view and which direction
we were traveling; luckily my normal
handheld GPS device showed us that
we were headed in entirely the wrong
direction. That was before we’d quite
realized how helpful the GPS phone
would be, and we hadn’t planned on
using it that trip, since our final destination in Los Alamos didn’t have an
address (it was probably classified
information, though we were again
able to fool the phone into taking a
random address on the final street).
According to the user’s guide, the
phone can communicate with a computer to work with mapping software,
though it was unclear if it would really work on the Mac or not.
<http://nextelonline.nextel.com/
assets/pdfs/en/support/guides/phones/
i58sr/ug.pdf>
As you might expect, the reliance on
Nextel’s data network for instructions
proved problematic in several locacontinued on page 7
tions, since Nextel’s coverage where
we were in Taos and Santa Fe was
poor to non-existent. We were fine getting to those locations, since the phone
downloaded all the instructions it
needed initially, but it couldn’t access
any new instructions until we were
within range of a Nextel tower again.
Planning for the Next Trip
Such voice-enabled GPS devices are
not new; I’ve been hearing people talk
about them for years. But they’re
pricey ($400 to $1,000), and particularly in Ithaca, where we know the
roads well, I couldn’t justify the
expense of such a device. But this
GPS phone and associated service,
thoroughly mediocre though it may
have been, fell squarely into the category of gadgets that improved our
life. Particularly when I’m under time
pressure to arrive somewhere, I’m not
one of those people who is relaxed
about potentially getting lost. I hate
not knowing where I am, and I
absolutely can’t stand the feeling that
I’m going to be late because I took a
wrong turn somewhere. And in turn,
Tonya doesn’t enjoy reading maps
and feeding me navigation instructions while we’re driving. So the
clearly enunciated directions both
increased my peace of mind while
driving and Tonya’s relaxation level.
I’ve started to look into other devices
that might work better than the
Motorola GPS phone; it’s not acceptable to be without directions just
because you can’t get cell service. It
also sounds from this PC World article as though it would be fairly
expensive: the cost of a Nextel data
plan plus $11 per month for the GPS
service.
<http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/
article/0,aid,115273,00.asp>
There are a number of dedicated GPS
devices that promise features well
beyond what the GPS phone provided, such as multiple map views, route
Two Gigabytes or Bust
choices if you don’t want to take freeways (or if you want to take only
freeways), and more. Voice instructions are key, since paying attention to
gadget interfaces in the car is dangerous. A few of the devices I’ve found
and plan to look into further include:
• Magellan RoadMate 300/500/700
<http://www.magellangps.com/
en/gpsAdventures/driving/
road.asp>
• Garmin StreetPilot
c320/c330/2610/2620
<http://www.garmin.com/mobile/
products.html#automotive>
• TomTom GO 300/700/Rider
<http://www.tomtom.com/
products/category.php?ID=
0&Language=4>
If you’ve used one of these devices, or
another voice-enabled GPS system
for providing navigation, let us know
on TidBITS Talk <[email protected]> what you think. 
2 GB, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) connected webmail. An AIM account will link to a webmail account.
AIM accounts are free and self-standing and can be used
with iChat.
by Glenn Fleishman
[email protected]
It’s all about
the Gmail.
Reprinted from Tidbits
Google contin#780/16-May-05
ues to control
the vertical and horizontal for nearly everything they
touch, and Gmail’s upgraded capacity of 2 GB of free
email storage has set the target for other companies that
want some of that sweet, sweet ad revenue from people
who use webmail instead of their ISP’s service. ISPs
must be sweating a little, because unbundling email
means that the pipe to the ISP is really just delivering
water, not chicken soup, coffee, and bisque (to stretch a
metaphor).
<http://www.aim.com/>
<http://www.mailblocks.com/>
Yahoo upped its mailbox to 1 GB a few months ago, and
offers 2 GB for $20 per year. Apple’s .Mac service
includes just 250 MB of storage for $100 per year, with
1 GB total available for $50 extra per year. Hotmail
includes 250 MB - with only 25 MB of that available in
the first 30 days - with 2 GB costing $20 per year.
<http://mail.yahoo.com/>
<http://mac.com/>
<http://hotmail.com/>
<http://www.gmail.com/>
Of course, Google is still tweaking their approach. When
they lifted the limit on April Fool’s Day from 1 GB to 2
GB, they said it was only the beginning. And it’s true. My
mailbox keeps getting slightly larger. I have about 535 MB
of stored mail (it’s an automatic CC’d backup for my main
account) and every day the upper limit rises slightly.
AOL is the latest entrant, and a surprising one. They purchased Mailblocks almost a year ago, a provider that
offers challenge-response based email so that only recipients with human characteristics wind up in your In box.
Mailblocks charges modest fees for its modest storage
service, but AOL used their technology to build their free,
7
Special Offers – Apple User Group Bulletin - June 2005 Edition
Group Advisory Board and Tom Piper,
vendor relations. You must be a current
Apple user group member to qualify for
these savings. Not a member? Join an
Apple user group today to take advantage of these special offers.
Future Sonics: $89 Ears Earphones
Celebrating our 20th anniversary as the
original innovators of professional personal monitors, Future Sonics thanks
the Apple community for embracing
our technologies.
“They sound amazing...frequency
response is particularly good with a
really warm bass sound...”
- Graham Barlow/MacFormat Magazine
“Ugliest looking and best sounding
earphones available. I hear things that
I never knew were in the music before these things are amazing!”
- Shawn King/”Your Mac Life”
Order your Future Sonics Ears online
for $89; That’s over 40 percent off
MSRP and 10 percent off web pricing.
Offer code: Applegroups Hear what
you're missing. http://www.futuresonics.com/apple/ Offer valid until
September 30, 2005.
NewTek: LightWave 3D [8]
LightWave 3D is a sophisticated graphics production program with a complete
and affordable professional toolset. This
makes NewTek's Emmy award-winning
software a great choice for any 3D job
anywhere. It's quick and easy to learn
and it's very productive.
NewTek is offering a full commercial
license of LightWave 3D [8] with electronic documentation exclusively to
Apple user group members for $495
(US) (495 Euro + VAT, 299 Pounds +
VAT), a discount of 69 percent. In North
America http://www.newtek.com/products/lightwave/partners/mug/ Offer is
valid until June 30, 2005.
Agile: 10 Key Software
Agile 10 Key program, a new typing
practice application from Curry K.
Software, helps users build speed and
accuracy on the numeric keypad for
productivity at work, school or home.
Master all 18 keys on the Macintosh
keypad, and train for the PC layout too
(even the oversized “+” key) all on your
regular Mac keyboard. Multiple exercises and error modes offer preparation
for a variety of practical ten-key tasks,
and graphic gauges let you track
performance while keeping full concentration on what you're typing.
Get a 30% discount off the price of
$14.95 with this exclusive mug offer.
Coupon Code: CPN7492547975
http://curryk.com/mug.html
Offer is valid until August 31, 2005.
O’Reilly: Mac OS X:
The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition
Receive a 35 percent prepublication discount from the regular $29.95 list price
when you pre-order David Pogue’s
“Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger
Edition” (projected to release in midJuly). O’Reilly is famous for its user
group support and online services and
you can get free ground shipping for
online orders of $29.95 or more that go
to a single US address. Also new from
O’Reilly in early June: “Learning Unix
for Mac OS X Tiger” and “Mac OS X
Tiger Pocket Guide.”
Call 1-800-998-9938 or order online.
Online Code UGMACX
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/
macxmmtiger
Offer is valid until August 31, 2005.
Absolutist Games: Special Pricing
The Absolutist game developing company is proud to support user group
members with special promotional
discounts.
Bubble Shooter combines the best from
Tetris, Arcanoid and Pool, and adds
cool new features.
8
Download and try it for free:
http://absolutist.com/mac/bubble
_shooter/bshooter_mac.sit
JetDucks is a hunting simulation game
for the fans of cartoon graphics and
classic arcade-shooters.
Download and try it free:
http://absolutist.com/mac/jet_ducks/
duckshooter_mac.sit
Apple user group members can buy
Bubble Shooter and Jet Ducks each
for just $11.87, 30 percent off the regular price of $16.95. A 14-day demo
lets you try before you buy. Get the
promotional coupon. http://absolutist.com/mac/mugs_discount.html
Offer valid until September 30, 2005.
USGlobalSat Buys Rayming Corp,
Updates User Group Offer
USGlobalSat is proud to support user
groups with a short-term promotional
discount for the Mac OSX supported
BU-303, BT-308 and BT-338 GPS
Receivers (with Route66 USA 2004
included).
With the acquisition of Rayming
Corporation, USGlobalSat encourages
Apple user group members to take
advantage of this special offer while it
lasts. Offer feedback about the product(s) and your experience with the
GPS products at:
[email protected].
BU-303: $112.99 (US) - 30 percent off
$162.98 MSRP
http://www.usglobalsat.com/item.
asp?itemid=51
BT-308: $184.99 (US) - 36 percent off
$292.98 (US) MSRP
http://www.usglobalsat.com/item.asp?it
emid=52
BT-338: $168.99 (US) - 35 percent off
$259.99 (US) MSRP
www.usglobalsat.com/item.asp?itemid=6
See more MUG offers on page 9
MUG Deals, Deals and More Deals!
Vendor Offer Watch
June 2, 2005 Edition
Exclusive MUG Center Discounts:
BackJack - 3 free months of online backup
service; available globally, expires 8/31/05 Order URL:www.backjack.com/mugcenter.html
East Bay Technologies
Over 40% off iWire Broadcast;
available globally, expires 7/31/05
Coupon code: “MUGIWIRE”.
KeynoteUser.com - 10% off all products;
Order URL: www.keynoteuser.com/MUG/
Peachpit Press - 35% off Three iLife ‘05
books, available globally, expires 12/31/05
Coupon code EE-S4AP-PPT at the checkout
St. Clair Software - $10 off Default Folder,
available globally, expires 7/31/05 - Order
URL: www.digibuy.com/cgi-bin/order.html?
stclairsoft+101379038763+108265373248
Discount Code: DFXUG_1000
Other offers in effect, including those
from the Apple User Group Bulletin:
MacWireless - Free Shipping in the U.S. only.
Expires 6/30/05
Macworld magazine - $13 off annual
subscription; available in U.S. only;
no expiration
macXware - $20 off various software titles;
available globally. Expires 7/31/05
matterform Media - $15 off Spamfire;
Mucho Spanish - $15 off Mucho Spanish;
available in the U.S./Canada only.
Expires 6/30/05
Benefits:
Date ______________________________
MYOB - $25 off First Edge & $100 off
Account Edge; available globally. No expiration
Name _____________________________
NewTek - (see page 8 for details)
Address ___________________________
O’Reilly - 20% off all titles;
available globally. No expiration
City ______________________________
O’Reilly/David Pogue - (see page 8)
Oz Music Code - Free sample CD and
t-shirt with purchase. Expires 6/30/05
Peachpit Press - 25% off all titles by joining
Peachpit Club; available globally. No expiration
State________ Zip __________________
Phone (Home) ______________________
Phone (Office) ______________________
Absolutist Games -(see page 8)
Pressure Drop - $20 off Paper Hub;
available in the U.S. only. Expires 6/30/05
Apple MUG Store - Discounts on new and
refurbished hardware and 1% back to your
group; available in U.S./Canada; no expiration
Prosoft Engineering - 25% off Drive Genius,
Picture Rescue, Data Rescue, Data Backup &
Data Recycler; available globally. No expiration
AppleWorks Users Group
Discount on Macintosh batteries;
available globally, no expiration
Steel Blue Sky - 1 year free user group web
site hosting, available globally, good while
supplies last - Order URL: https://www.steel
bluesky.net/product_info.php?products_id=45
Occupation_________________________
TechWorks - 30% off RAM; available in
the U.S./Canada. Expires 6/30/05
Referred by:________________________
TidBITS - 10% discount on Take Control
eBooks; available globally. No expiration
unmarked software - 20% off TextSoap 4;
__________________________________
Audible.com - Free month of service plus
free gifts; available in U.S. only; no expiration
Curry K. Software - 30% discount on Agile
10 Key; available globally. Expires 8/31/05
e2Sync - 25% discount on e2Sync iSync
Conduit; available globally, expires 7/31/05
Future Sonics (see page 8 for details)
Guy Kawasaki - The Art of the Start & 128
MB USB Flash Drive bundle; available
globally, good while supplies last - Order URL:
www.1800ceoread.com/pitchkit.asp
IOGear - 35% discount on various
connectivity products; available in U.S. only.
Expires 7/31/05
LoadPod - 10% off iPod loading service;
available in U.S. only. Expires 8/30/05
MacAddict magazine - Up to 78% off annual
subscription; U.S. only. Expires 6/30/05
macHOME magazine - $15 off annual
subscription; U.S. only. No expiration
XtraLean Software - $9 off Shutterbug;
Phone (Fax) ________________________
Business___________________________
Email:_____________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
Provided by The MUG Center
http://www.mugcenter.com
See a complete list
of all current deals at:
www.mugcenter.com/vendor
news/vendornews.html
3/31/2005 - 6/30/2005
User ID: best (lowercase)
Password: deals (lowercase)
9
Annual CMC Family
Membership - $25.00
mail to:
...or
www.ctmac.org
Congratulatio
ns!
2005-2006
CMC Officers
!
President Rich Lenoce
[email protected]
860-347-1789
Vice President Chris Hart
[email protected]
860-291-9393
[email protected]
Secretary Kyle DeMilo
[email protected]
PR Jerry Esposito
[email protected]
Past President Don Dickey
[email protected]
860-232-2841
Ambassador Joseph Arcuri
[email protected]
860-485-1547
Design George Maciel
[email protected]
860-561-0319
[email protected]
10
FREE Raffle!
Every CMC member who attends
our monthly meetings gets a raffle
ticket. This will give you a chance
for one of our free prizes every
month! You could win…t-shirts,
toys, CDs, mugs, software
…there’s always something we’re
giving away! And don’t forget the
Free table at the back of the room
New Members!
Wed., June 29 - 7:00 P.M.
NOTICE!
(Directions to Middlesex Community
College are on the back page)
Three Hands on Sessions
and password
Learn how to organize, tweak and share
your photos with Apple’s iPhoto.
to share photos and stories with family
and friends.
• Photoshop: All About Layers
Learn to use layers to enhance your images.
Back To Basics
Takes A Summer Break
Back to Basics is taking a break, but look
for a new session in August!
Wednesday, July 13
Hynes Convention Center
The CMC Bus is the best way to get to
Macworld Expo! CMC Members enjoy a
discounted ticket price of $20, while nonmembers are invited to join us for $25. Bus
departs 8:00 AM and returns before sunset.
Tickets on sale now - check our web site!
Wednesday, July 27
6:00 P.M.
CMC Summer Picnic
Great food and open forum Q&A!
(Location TBD)
Please, make a
note of it NOW!
Getting CMC emails?
learning about OS X and the Mac.
Account Balances
Checking Balance ................$892.28
Savings Balance ................$3973.71
Balances as of June 9, 2005
FREE Classified Ads
[email protected]
FOR SALE
Power Mac G4 (350 MHz)
CPU with mouse, keyboard,
SCSI card and DVD-ROM
drive. 2 internal ATA hard
drives (10GB/20GB). 576
MB RAM. OS 9 and X. $250.
Call/e-mail Amy with any
questions. 860.526.2360 or
[email protected]
Discounted Books
Display Ad Rates
listed below.
Business Card ...................$10.00
Quarter Page.....................$20.00
Half Page .........................$30.00
not too long.
11
Monthly Meeting
Wed., June 29 • 7:00 P.M.
Three Hands on Sessions:
• Photoshop - All About Layers
(driving directions below)
left as you enter.
12
Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, July 27
CMC Summer Picnic
Special Time & Location:
Starts at 6:00 P.M.
Wolcott Park, W. Hartford
(see directions & info on page 11)
Apple and CMC
in Good Health
By Rich Lenoce,
CMC President
My grandfather taught
me that the one thing we
should all cherish is our
h e a l t h . W h e n I fi r s t
joined CMC, Apple was
unhealthy and its future
was unknown and rather bleak. Today
it’s a completely different story as Apple
is one of the most successful and profitable computer and consumer
electronic manufacturers.
CMC is also healthy and as president,
I’d like to continue our forward momentum. Like Apple, we have money in the
bank to benefit our shareholders (you)
allowing us to run education programs,
hold events and programs, print a terrific newsletter, publish a website and
provide information and tech support to
our membership. We also have a loyal
following of 130+ members who are
active and engaged. Our Board, like
Apple’s, is dedicated to customer satisfaction and being responsive to
members needs. I’m fortunate to have
inherited such a healthy organization
thanks to previous presidents who came
before me. They continue to serve you,
looking out for the health and well being
of the organization.
I recognize that to stay healthy and to
continue to meet the goals of our user
group, like Apple, we need to continually evaluate the future and change with it.
I’m in the process of working with the
Board to set some goals for the club
over the next two years.
JULY 2005
One thing that is abundantly clear is that while
the Macintosh’s market
share has increased, our
membership
has
remained steady. Not a
bad thing until you go to
an Apple Store event like
the release of Tiger and
hand out flyers to Mac
owners who say “I didn’t
know there was a
Hartford area user group.” Clearly, we
need to get the word out to Mac users
through publicity and public relations.
Jerry Esposito, new to the Board, has
taken on this task and I plan on working
with Jerry to set some PR goals for the
club. Also, these Mac users who say
they don’t know about our group are just
the ones who would benefit most from
membership. I’ll be spending the next
two months developing a proposal for a
membership drive to present to our
board.
I also believe to remain healthy we need
to re-evaluate our mission and develop a
strategic plan so we know better who we
are collectively and where we want to
go to better serve you. The groundwork
for that has already been laid thanks to
the member survey developed by Chris
Hart. The results of that survey will be
an excellent tool to aid the Board in
developing these plans.
Another goal is to have more social
events for our membership. Stronger
bonds among our members helps make
for a stronger club and allows each of us
to draw more efficiently on the knowledge and diversity of our membership.
This can aid many of you in job searches,
knowledge for your work, information
1
for your hobbies and calling on a club
friend for assistance when needed. And,
let’s not forget, having fun is important
to good health!
Today, Apple is the epitome of good
health. The corporation is extremely
profitable with billions in the bank and
many analysts feel its stock is grossly
undervalued. When Macs move to Intel
processors there will be no excuse for
people not to own a Mac. Comparisons
of price and performance between
Wintel and Macs will be obliterated.
Phil Schiller has commented that Macs
may be able to run Windows but not visa
versa. Michael Dell, who always trivializes Apple and its innovations, recently
said he’d like to distribute his PCs with
OS X on them. Fat chance, Mike! If you
want OS X, buy a Mac. I foresee Apple
taking business away from the Dell’s of
the world.
For all of us, this move to Intel, though
it poses some challenges, will mean
Apple and CMC will continue to remain
healthy. It looks like we will have much
to look forward too. My grandfather
would tell us to cherish and nurture this
good health. I look forward to working
with you in helping nurture the health
and future of CMC and the Macintosh.

Apple and CMC in Good Health ......... 1
Review: Trying My Hand at iPoker......2
Off The Beaten Path–Hidden Gems.....3
A Change for the Better .......................4
Live Free in the Land of MP3 ............. 6
Review: You Type, It Typinates.............9
Trying My Hand
at Poker: iPoker
by Jeff Carlson
<[email protected]>
Reprinted from TidBITS#785/27-June-05
If your knowledge of poker comes
from watching television shows such as
the World Series of Poker or Celebrity
Poker Showdown, you might think that
the only type of poker game is Texas
Hold ‘Em.
Editor
Deena Quilty
Designer
George Maciel
Photographer
John Scott
Publisher
Connection, Inc.
41 Crossroads Plaza
PMB 1984
Printer
Budget Printers
1718 Park Street
Hartford, CT 06106
from members!
in each issue.
However, Hold ‘Em is just the current
popular variation in the United States
(and to my surprise, poker still seems
to be primarily a U.S. game, as one of
our Japanese translators pointed out to
me). Variations were played as early as
the Civil War, and spread across
America as settlers moved west.
If you’re looking for more than just
Hold ‘Em on the Mac, you’re looking
for Scenario Software’s iPoker. It features 101 poker games that range from
simple 5-Card Stud to some that entail
a bewildering array of rules, wildcards,
and antes. For example, take a look at
the iPoker description for the poker
game called Baseball: 7-Card Stud is
played with all threes and nines wild.
When a three is dealt face up, the player must either match the pot or drop.
When a four is dealt face up, the dealer
immediately gives that player an additional face-up card. With eight wild
cards and the ability to have more than
seven cards in your hand, you’ll need at
least four-of-a-kind to win this game.
If that weren’t enough, you can customize the rules to each game to an
extent that I didn’t realize was possible
for a card game. Want to honor a threecard straight instead of the normal five
cards? Use joker cards? Award chips to
a player for being dealt a specific card?
All easily done.
The Buy-In — With so many games to
manage, iPoker doesn’t try to mimic the
layout of a real poker table, aside from
the look of the cards, the table surface,
and the chips - all of which can be customized. Instead, players are listed top
to bottom at the left of the program’s
2
single window. Cards are dealt in horizontal rows left to right, making it easy
to see every player’s cards.
iPoker also takes a more general
approach to the game overall. It’s one
long ongoing marathon poker session,
which you happen to be able to jump
into and out of at will; when you quit
the application, the current standings
are saved, so that the next time you play
every player has the same amount of
money as before. This approach can be
exhilarating if you’ve managed to hand
out some bad beats to your opponents
and stored up a mountain of chips, but
it’s depressing when you’re thousands
of dollars in the hole and fighting to just
break even. Unfortunately, in this case
the only way to start fresh is to delete
iPoker’s preferences file.
Having a rolling session simulates
what you’d likely be doing at a casino,
carrying your winnings (hopefully)
from table to table trying different
games, or simply playing a home
game. You can choose the game type
yourself, or enable a preference so that
the dealer chooses the game. Unless
you’re familiar with all 101 games, or
are comfortable losing a few hands to
see how it’s played, you can also limit
the dealer’s choice to just recent games.
The Rocks and the Fish — iPoker can
pit you against as many as 10 other players, though your screen resolution and
processor seem to determine just how
many are possible. On my 15-inch, 1.25
GHz PowerBook G4, I can play comfortably with five opponents using a
Bigger Graphics setting, or eight opponents with a More Players setting but
with slower performance. iPoker won’t
even let me choose 10 or 11 players.
Unlike the computer opponents in the
current version of DD Tournament Poker,
the players in iPoker retain their own skill
characteristics. Claire Voyant (just one of
several entertaining names) possesses the
same playing traits each time you go up
against her, making it easier to guess
when she might be bluffing or holding a
strong hand. You can tweak those traits,
Continued on page 3
too, by double-clicking the player’s
icon and moving sliders that determine
the strength of skills such as Poker
Mathematics, Psychological Deception,
and Betting Courage.
The players exhibit some personality
as well. Each player is represented
by a photo of a real person, which is
animated if you enable QuickTime
player movies. Watching them furrow their brows in concentration,
grumble when they lose, and smile
when they win is a fun addition... for
a while. But there are only so many
little facial QuickTime movies
included for each person, so their
antics became a distraction and I
turned off that feature.
A clever, if unnecessary, feature is
the capability to use an iSight or digital camera to project video of your
own face on your player’s icon. After
a few minutes, though, you realize
that you’re looking at your cards and
not yourself, and are likely to turn
the feature off. If iPoker were a networked game, and I were playing
against real people, it might be fun to
see video of my opponents, but that’s
not the case.
the dealer’s hand snaps its fingers
once, then twice, then three times to
make sure you’re paying attention.
Best of all, you can control the speed
of the animation via a slider, which
by extension speeds up play overall.
I don’t need to wait for Rhonda Voo
to figure out which move to make
(especially considering that the decision was probably made in a few
nanoseconds).
However, I quickly turned off the
dealer’s narration of the action. And
although I like the sound effects,
there’s no in-game volume control.
So, if I’m listening to music using
iTunes at moderate volume, the
sound of shuffling cards is louder
than it needs to be. I’d like to see a
simple volume control in an upcoming version, instead of having just
the choice of enabling or disabling
sound effects entirely.
Shuffle Up — iPoker is a program
that loves the game’s seemingly
unlimited capacity for variety. It’s
great for trying out different poker
permutations, or just for those days
when you have a few minutes to
spare and want to pick up a few
hands without investing the time in
playing a full tournament-style
game. iPoker 3.4.1 requires Mac OS
X 10.2 or later and is a 36.2 MB
download. The unlicensed version
offers unlimited play, but only of 7Card Stud; a license costs $30 and
unlocks the full version of the game.

The Sound of Winning — One wellimplemented aspect of iPoker is its
animation and sound. I’m not a fan of
whizzing graphics just for the sake of
whizziness, which is why I think
Scenario Software has done a good
job of spicing up the play of the game
with minimal, but effective, effects.
Copyright 2005 TidBITS:
Cards spin as they’re dealt, with a subReuse governed by Creative Commons license
tle whiss sound of a card’s surface
<http://www.tidbits.com/terms/>
sliding against another card. The chips
Contact: <[email protected]>
sound as if the developers recorded
real chips clicking together
(although larger chip values hit
the table with a heavier thud,
which doesn’t seem realistic
but adds weight to the fact that
you just tossed in a $100 chip
instead of a $5 one). There’s
even some calculated whimsy:
if it’s your turn and you’re taking too long to act, the icon of
iPoker: <http://scenario.com/iPoker/>
3
Hidden Gems You
Might Have Missed
When you surf the web as much as I do, you
sometimes come across the occasional diamond in the rough, so to speak. This column
points out those hard-to-find freeware and
shareware items for your Mac that you might
think you don’t need, but prove to be really
handy!
I used to be a Firefox fanatic www.get
firefox.com. I still am a champion for what
they’re doing, which is giving web surfers a
choice in web browsers. However, since Mac
OS X 10.3.9 came out, Safari has gotten a
whole lot better. I like the speed, the polished
feel, and the bookmark syncing of .Mac, too.
One thing that Safari is missing that Firefox
has is the ability to warn me when I do a dumb
move like closing a window full of tabs when
I meant to close just one. That has been corrected by a freeware add-on called Taboo.
➤ Get it from here: http://www.ocdev.com/
The next application is an open source DVDto-MPEG-4 ripper. This allows you to make
backup copies of your movies onto your hard
drive. From there, you can use Toast to make
a backup disc of them, or edit them in
QuickTime Pro or a program like iMovie.
http://handbrake.m0k.org/
Our final installment is from a new software
development house from the original creators of Now Utilities, now called You
Software (by the way, Now Utilities is now
owned by Power On Software – you can get
it and its OS 8 replacement, Action Utilities
at http://www.poweronsoftware.com/products/actionUtilities/default.asp). They have a
great iTunes controller called You Control:
Tunes
➤ Get it from here: http://www.yousoftware.com/itunes/
Feedback? Something I missed? Email me
at: [email protected]
A Change For The Better
By Chris Hart,
CMC Vice President
Word has spread quickly throughout
the Mac community of Apple’s
announcement that they will transition their computer line to Intel
processors in the near future. I know
that many of you have questions (and
worries) about what this change
means. Perhaps you even fear this to
be a sign of Apple Computer becoming a maker of “Pcs.” Well, I’m here
to put your worried mind at ease.
I’ll say up front that I’m all for this
change. I feel a new optimism for
the future of the Macintosh platform and I look forward to the
faster computers that are over the
horizon. Best of all, this change
will help to remove long-standing stigmas regarding Macs–that
they use out-of-date processors
and run slower than PCs.
What’s the big deal about a
processor? From a technical
point of view, a processor is a
very big deal because it’s the
heart of the computer. Nearly
every bit of data that courses
through the computer will pass
through the processor at some
point. But from an “end user” perspective (meaning you, the person
sitting at the keyboard), the processor
should not be a big deal. The computer should just work, performing the
tasks you ask of it as seamlessly and
efficiently as is possible–without need
for you to know about the inner workings. This has always been the forté of
Macintosh. However, history has
shown that this isn’t enough to assure
the success of Mac.
What’s necessary is the ability to
compete with PCs–computers that
wear badges touting Ultra this,
Gigahertz that, Centrino here,
Pentium there. And the reason you
recognize those words Centrino and
Pentium is because of the Intel marketing machine. You’ll rarely see a PC
advertisement that doesn’t end with
the “Intel Inside” logo and accompanying theme music. This marketing
approach has been very effective in
boosting Intel’s brand identity and
making the company and its products
ubiquitous. Simultaneously, this
unforgettable slogan has been the subject of mockery throughout the
c o m p u t e r i n d u s t r y, e s p e c i a l l y
amongst Macintosh zealots.
Indeed, some of the Mac users around
the world are angry about this Intel
processor announcement. They view
this news as a sign of Apple joining
“the dark side” of the computer world.
However, these people are assigning
too much sentimentality to a computer company and too much importance
to the internal components of a computer. What it comes down to is Apple
has to service their long-term interests
and their shareholders. Based on all
the information available to them, it
has become clear that this course of
action is the best path for boosting
Mac competitiveness, Mac sales, and
shareholder returns.
While current Macs are far from slow,
many models are operating at a speed
deficit, when compared to PC products. For example, Apple is overdue
for breaking the 3-gigahertz speed
4
barrier in their desktop computers. In
a keynote speech, Apple CEO Steve
Jobs promised they would reach that
level by a certain date. We are already
a year past that date and the goal has
not been achieved. Apple’s processor
partners (IBM and Motorola, who
actually manufacturer the processors
that currently go inside Macs) reportedly have not been able to produce
processors of this performance level
in the quantities that Apple requires.
Also overdue is an upgrade to the
lineup of Apple laptops. A common
question at CMC meetings over the
last year has been “Any word on G5
PowerBooks?” There has been no
word on this expected evolution
of the laptop product line,
because the development of these
products has been hampered. The
processors available to Apple use
too much power and produce too
much heat to be practical for laptop applications. If a PowerBook
G5 prototype exists, and you
were to have the chance to use it
for an afternoon, you’d probably
find that it would burn your
thighs and run out of battery
power quickly.
I believe that these product
development failures are through
no fault of Apple. They have highly
skilled and resourceful engineering
teams and if these things were possible, they would make them happen.
But one can only work with the tools
available, and this has been Apple’s
hindrance.
So, where’s a computer company to
turn? Apple, of course, gave a call to
the most recognized name in processors and asked if they might consider
a partnership. By all indications, Intel
brought Apple into their secret rooms,
showed them secret documents and
had some secret discussions. Satisfied
with what they saw, Apple returned to
their HQ and thought over what this
continued on page 5
changeover would entail. You can bet
that all departments were in on these
discussions and that the decision
would not have been made unless it
was appropriate and necessary.
You may wonder how Apple knows
what they’re in for with such a dramatic transition. How do they know
that they can navigate their way
through this change and safely come
out the other side? To some degree
there is still doubt lingering over this
endeavor; we won’t know the outcome until we truly do reach the other
side. But at the same time, Apple has
confidence based on experiments
they’ve conducted in their labs. To the
shock of many, Apple revealed that
for five years they have been experimenting with the combination of Mac
OS X and Intel processors. At the time
of the public announcement, the
changeover was already fully underway within the confines of the Apple
compound in Cupertino.
Those of you who have used the Mac
for a while will recall that Apple
already has a similar transition under
its belt. In the 90s, they transitioned
the Mac platform from what was
known as the 680x0 processor to the
current technology, known as
PowerPC. While that change wasn’t
without its share of bumps, for the
most part it went quite nicely. The
result was absolutely for the best and
had that transition not been made,
Apple Computer would probably have
not lived to see the year 2005.
So what does this Intel changeover
mean for you, as an Apple customer?
Will Mac computers look more like
PCs? Will they work more like PCs?
Will Macs run Windows software?
Will the new computers wear “Intel
Inside” badges? The answer on all
counts is “No.” Apple will continue to
innovate and make unique products,
which work as simply and straightforward as possible. Some of the parts
inside will change and some of the
performance specifications will
change, but the overall Mac experience will remain much as it is now.
Mac OS X will stay as it is, aside from
its natural evolution that would still
have occurred without this
changeover.
While the Mac operating system will
never run Windows software “natively,” it is possible that future Macs will
be able to simultaneously run Mac OS
X and a version of the Windows operating system. You might be able to
switch back and forth between the two
environments with a key press or
click. This capability might also come
with better Windows performance
than is currently possible with emulation products like Virtual PC.
So when does all this start to happen?
Starting in early 2006, Apple will
begin introducing computers that feature Intel processors. They’re
expected to start with the low-end
models (such as eMac and Mac Mini)
and I imagine the laptops will follow
next. Sometime in 2007, the entire
Mac product line will become an allIntel lineup. While Apple has done all
of us a service by announcing this
coming change well in advance, I
wouldn’t count on them being any
more forthcoming in the future. For
example, I don’t expect that we’ll
know the technical details of the Intelbased computers until the day they’re
actually available for sale.
However, I will answer some common
questions to the best of my knowledge, such as: “Will my current
software work with these new computers? “Will my accessories still
work? “ “What about the Classic environment?” “Will these new computers
be less expensive?” The answer to the
first question is that a good percentage
of current software will work on the
new computers, thanks to Apple’s
advanced planning and a technology
they’re calling Rosetta. I also expect
that most accessories will continue to
5
work (following some software
updates from the manufacturers).
These new computers will not run
Classic, so if that’s an issue for you,
I’d suggest you plan on holding onto
your current Mac for your OS
9/Classic tasks. No one can yet say
whether the forthcoming Intel-based
computers will have a lower cost than
current models, but this would certainly help lure more switchers from
the land of Windows.
Another common question is whether
or not this announcement will have a
near-term effect on sales of Macintosh
computers. My belief is that, yes,
there will be a negative impact.
Because of customers being unsure
about what this transition means, they
may hold off on making a purchase. I
imagine some of you reading this
share that trepidation. My opinion is
to not postpone the joy of having a
faster and more capable computer. Of
course a good used computer is
always an alternative to consider as
well–something that, while not the
latest and greatest, is certainly better
than what you’re working with now.
Thanks to its strong financial assets,
Apple has enough money to carry it
through any drop in Macintosh sales
during this transition period. Once
this storm passes, however, the forecast for the Mac platform is very
sunny. In three to four years time, I
envision us all enjoying faster Macs
that compete toe-to-toe with their PC
counterparts and more people than
ever joining the Macintosh community. Only time will tell if my vision
comes true. 
Live Free in
the Land of MP3
by Chris Hart
CMC Vice President
As I write this article, Apple has
made a revision to their iPod lineup
and added color screens to all the
hard-disk models (in other words, all those
$300 and above). While that’s great and I
certainly enjoy an illuminated, color screen
as much as the next guy, not everyone
wants to plunk down that kind of cash.
While many CMC members have an iPod,
I know that probably just as many of you
own a portable music player that isn’t made
by Apple. Or perhaps you do have an iPod,
but a member of your family who likes to
share your music library has chosen to use
another type of music player. Or, maybe
you’ve got a DVD player in your living
room that can play MP3 files and you’d like
to use it for entertaining your dinner guests.
Some after-market car stereos even have the
ability to play MP3 files, allowing you to
enjoy several hours of music on the road
from one CD. Even more common are
portable CD players that play both audio
CDs and MP3 CDs, which can be had for as
little as $40.
If you’ve been trying to use iTunes to share
your music with non-Apple devices such as
these, you’ve likely found that it didn’t
work. Why is that? Well, the first thing you
have to know is that all modern music players work with music in a compressed form.
The compression process removes some of
the–shall I say “less important”–musical
details in order to make your music fit into
smaller files. The type of compression
being used is what determines which
players can play the resulting song
files. While several compression
types have been thrust into the world
of consumer electronics, MP3
remains the most widely compatible
format.
want to enjoy music on something other
than an iPod, is that iTunes defaults to storing your music in AAC files (these files
typically have suffixes such as .m4a and
.m4p, for example “Velvet Jones.m4a”).
While AAC (a.k.a. MPEG4) is arguably
superior to MP3, there are few playback
devices (outside of Apple’s own iPods of
course) that can recognize the resulting
song files. MP3 simply has much greater
versatility and it’s an open standard that has
been widely adopted throughout the electronics industry.
of these formats has the wide compatibility
of MP3, and cannot be played on a wide
variety of devices.
So, don’t despair about iTunes’ AAC habit
my friend, because you can coerce this little
app into providing the MP3 files you need.
Let me assuage any fear you may have of
this change hampering compatibility with
any iPods in your life. Apple’s player works
fine with both MP3 and AAC files. So, as a
result of making this change, your song
files will work with nearly every portable
music player on the planet. (The notable
exception being models from Sony that
were manufactured before spring 2005. I’ll
spare you my soapbox rant on Sony and
their insistence on doing things in a proprietary fashion).
Among those experienced with MP3 files,
opinions vary widely on the preferred quality setting. I’ll not get into a lengthy
discussion on the matter, but suffice to say
you are choosing the compromise that suits
your needs. The higher the quality setting,
the better your music will sound, but fewer
songs will fit on your player. Going in the
opposite direction, the lower the quality you
use, the more songs you can squeeze in.
However, I would urge you not to get carried away with a desire for more music and
never set this selector below the “good” setting (128 kbps), or your music will suffer
greatly.
At this point I should warn you to expect
slightly larger song files, because MP3 files
are somewhat bigger than their AAC counterparts. But I doubt most of you will be
troubled by this, as MP3 files are still
small. Besides MP3 and AAC, other compression formats available in iTunes
include AIFF, ALC (Apple Lossless
Codec) and WAV. All three formats have
superior sound quality, but they also create
song files that are sometimes as much as 10
times larger than MP3 or AAC. Plus, none
Once you have clicked OK in the
Preferences window, the settings to import
music in the MP3 format will take effect.
From now on, when iTunes imports music
from your CDs, it will create MP3 files
instead of AAC files. If you haven’t yet
imported music into your iTunes library,
then you’re all set to begin the process. But
if you have already imported some music,
then of course those songs defaulted to
being stored as AAC files. If you haven’t
already imported a hefty load of songs,
then I feel that the best way to proceed
would be to delete the AAC songs
(which came from CDs that you own)
from your iTunes library and re-import
them from the original CDs.
To make sure that your iTunes is creating
MP3 files, you need to check the Import
setting in preferences. To do this: Open
iTunes; go to the iTunes menu; select
Preferences; click on the icon named
Importing. Make sure that the first selector
“import using” is set to MP3 Encoder and
below that choose the quality level that you
desire (figure 1).
If you’re not sure which songs in your
library are in AAC format, then follow
these steps: Click once on the Library
icon at the top of the left column; go to
the Edit menu and select View
Options; in the window that appears
put a check mark next to Kind; click
iTunes started life as an MP3-only
tool, but when it came time to address
the copyright infringement concerns
of the recording industry, Apple introduced their own format called AAC.
The unfortunate detail for those who
Figure 1
6
continued on page 7
OK. Your list of songs will now indicate
whether the song is AAC, MP3 (MPEG) or
some other format. (Note: Scroll to the
right to see this new column.)
If re-importing your songs is impractical
due to their sheer number, then there are
two utilities to choose from to perform a
conversion from AAC to MP3–mac3dec
and iTunes-LAME Encoder. The latter is
the easier of the two to use, because it integrates with iTunes nicely, retains the song
titles (a.k.a. tags), and can perform conversions in batches. After using iTunes-LAME
Encoder, you will end up with duplicate
songs in your iTunes library. Use the indicator in the “kind” column to differentiate
the MP3 (MPEG) files from the AAC files.
Once you have confirmed the MP3 files
work fine, you can trash the AAC files.
If your AAC songs were purchased from
the iTunes Music Store, then your situation
is more complex. All songs purchased
from the iTunes Music Store are protected
from duplication and conversion by a
DRM mechanism. A utility called JHymn
can often strip the DRM protection from
AAC files. However, there’s no guarantee
it will work on all song files, as Apple is
constantly revising their methods.
Remember that if you are successful in
stripping the DRM information from the
song files, it is your duty to respect the
copyrights in place and to not infringe
them by engaging in abusive duplication
and illegal sharing. (Note: It would be
advisable to make a backup of the iTunes
folder in your Home/User folder before
trying to remove the DRM protection from
your iTunes song files.)
If JHymn cannot successfully strip the
DRM from your AAC files, it is my sad
duty to inform you that you will not be able
to convert these particular song files directly into MP3 files. Your only option at this
point is to create playlists of the protected
AAC song files, burn those playlists to
CD-R discs, and them re-import the music
into iTunes from those discs (with iTunes
set for MP3 importing).
Once you have completed the process of converting your AAC song files to MP3, you will
be able to enjoy your right to duplicate the
music you own for personal and family enjoyment. But first, of course, you need to get the
MP3 files out of iTunes and onto your musicplaying device. How you do this depends on
the type of device you want to use.
First, let’s deal with portable music players
that connect to your computer via USB (or
memory card). Once the player’s icon has
appeared on the desktop of your Mac’s
screen, you can drag your MP3 tracks from
the iTunes window onto your music player
(you may wish to create folders first).
Alternatively, while in iTunes go to the File
menu, select Show Song File and you will
be taken to the actual MP3 file(s) on your
hard drive. You can then drag these folders
(or individual files) to your music player’s
icon and they will be copied over. (Note:
You are inside the iTunes music library and
it is absolutely essential that you do not
modify files in here. Do not move, rename,
reorganize, delete, or otherwise change
these files. Doing so may cause significant
problems in iTunes.)
If you intend to listen to your song files in a
CD or DVD player that plays MP3 files, then
you will need to create what iTunes calls an
“MP3 CD.” Your first step to create this type
of disc is to go into iTunes Preferences; click
on the icon named Burning; under the category Disc Format click on the button next to
MP3 CD; click OK.
Now, create a playlist in iTunes that contains the songs you want on the CD. (When
naming the playlist, keep in mind that this
Download of the Month:
CardBook
Submitted by Debi Foss
It is cookout time, and for the cook in
all of us, we have CardBook for storing recipes, and everything else.
CardBook is a card index application
for Mac OS X. It is released under
the FreeBSD License, which means
without charge. Several sample cardbook files are included, as well as the
full source code for CardBook. One
7
will also be the name of the MP3 CD and
you should avoid strange characters and
unnecessary punctuation.) As you add
songs to the playlist, be aware of the total
number of megabytes listed at the bottom
of the iTunes window. The maximum
amount of data you can fit on a typical CD
is 700 megabytes. Once you have built a
playlist you like, click once on the name of
the playlist, and then click on the Burn
Disc icon in the upper right corner of the
iTunes window. The result will be an MP3
CD that should play in nearly any CD or
DVD player that is capable of MP3 playback. (Note: You do not need to use an
“Audio CD” for the MP3 CDs you make;
standard CD-R discs will work fine. Also
note that many CD and DVD players do
not like CD-RW discs, and it would be best
to use only CD-R media.)
You are now able to enjoy the freedom that
MP3 song files provide. Your music will
play on any portable music player currently on store shelves and any that will come
to market in the foreseeable future. Now,
doesn’t that make you want to dance?
Software Referenced:
JHymn
http://hymn-project.org
iTunes-LAME Encoder
http://www.blacktree.com
(click on Apps)
mac3dec
http://sourceforge.net/
projects/mac3dec/ 
of the included files is a recipe file.
Take that one and start organizing
your kitchen. Documentation of both
the application and source are
included in cardbook format.
Typical applications for CardBook:
• addresses
• recipes
• to do lists
• note keeping
http://www.paullynch.org/macosx/
cardbook/CardBook.dmg
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8
You Type,
It Typinates
by Matt Neuburg
<[email protected]>
Reprinted from TidBITS#785/27-June-05
Ergonis software, whose PopChar and
KeyCue utilities have been mentioned
in TidBITS, now throws its hat into the
typing assistant ring with Typinator.
The idea is that you provide Typinator
with a set of abbreviations and expansions; when you’re working in any
program, if you type an abbreviation,
Typinator substitutes the corresponding
expansion. For example, I could type
“tb” to generate “TidBITS”, or “AS” to
generate “AppleScript”, and so on for
any boilerplate, short or long, that I
expect to use. <www.ergonis.com/
products/typinator/>
Typinator’s primary competition is
TypeIt4Me, which I’ve also mentioned
in these pages. The approaches taken by
the two utilities vary radically.
TypeIt4Me is an input method; you
switch to it using your Input menu (the
status menu at the right end of the menu
bar whose icon is usually some country’s flag), which means that you can’t
use it in conjunction with any other input
method or keyboard layout. Typinator,
on the other hand, is an ordinary application. It watches the characters you
actually enter by typing – I don’t know
how - and when you type an abbreviation, it uses GUI scripting to select it and
to substitute the expansion. This is done
by pasting, which means that Typinator
can enter images if an application allows
this. It also means that entering a
Typinator expansion wipes out whatever
was on the clipboard; I don’t quite see
why this is necessary, since it ought to be
possible for Typinator to restore the old
clipboard contents afterwards, but in any
case you can work around this, if you
find it problematic, with a multiple clipboard utility such as CopyPaste or
ClipBlock.
Typinator also doesn’t require you to
type any terminator character to signal
Benefits:
that what precedes is an abbreviation;
instead, it watches to see whether
you’ve typed an abbreviation at the start
of a word, and if you have, it just
expands it (and if that isn’t what you
intended, Undo restores the abbreviation in most applications). Typinator
also does some smart things such as letting you use the capitalisation of the
abbreviation to dictate the capitalisation
of the expansion (useful for ordinary
words that should be capitalised at the
start of a sentence but not elsewhere).
And that, aside from letting an expansion enter current time and date
information in a variety of formats, is
about all Typinator does; it doesn’t permit multiple abbreviation files, or
application-specific abbreviation files,
like TypeIt4Me.
As usual with Ergonis’s products,
simplicity and reliability are the watchwords. Like PopChar, Typinator can
enter characters from throughout the
Unicode repertoire; and like PopChar, it
seems to work just about anywhere - I
wasn’t able to find many applications
that give Typinator trouble (though I did
quickly find one, Panorama). Typinator
requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later, and
costs just $20; you can try it out for free
(a 500K download), the only limitation
being the number of abbreviations the
trial version remembers.
Copyright 2005 TidBITS: Reuse governed by
Creative Commons license
<http://www.tidbits.com/terms/>
Contact: <[email protected]>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?
tbart=08058>
<http://www.ergonis.com/
downloads/>
9
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Make check payable to CMC
and mail to:
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★ ★ ★ ★ 2005-2006 CMC Officers and Board of Directors ★ ★ ★ ★
[email protected]
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10
FREE Raffle!
FREE Classified Ads
items which they are no longer using or
upgrading. This is a FREE service
provided to our members. Send to:
[email protected]
Wednesday, July 27
CMC Summer Picnic
and Q&A Session
Special Time: 6:00 P.M.
Special Place:
Wolcott Park, West Hartford
Bring a blanket or chairs, an appetite and
lot’s of your Mac questions for our
experts. Our picnic will begin at 6pm at
the picnic area adjacent to Chatfield
Drive. Parking in the Chatfield Drive lot is
limited so, if you can, car pool. Additional
parking is available at the opposite end of
the park or on side streets.
Rain cancels so check your email or the
CMC website <www.ctmac.org> for
cancelation information. If cancelled we
will hold the meeting in our regular
UCONN Health Center location.
Directions:
From Route 9, follow to I-84 East.
From I-84 East, get off at New Britain
Ave. exit. Left off ramp, go about 100
yards, take next right on Chatfield Drive.
From I-84 West, at end of ramp, left on
Ridgewood Rd for 50 yards to New
Britain Ave. Left on New Britain Ave for
1/4 mile. Right onto Chatfield Drive.
NOTICE!
FOR SALE
Brookstone Mouse Pad and
Calculator with Gel Wrist Pad
$10.00 USB 2.0 8 in 1 card reader.
Never used; $10.00. Call Shirley at
860-747-8833.
and password
Please, make a
note of it NOW!
FOR SALE
Inspiration 5.0, creative brainstorming software (great for teachers!).
New, but older version for OS 9/
Classic. Also Kensington TripleTreks
Flapover Case for laptops. New,
$20.00. Call 860-678-8622.
FOR SALE
Getting CMC emails?
One Palm m515 with 16mg SD disc
– very good condition $100
One practically new Canon PIXMA
iP5000 bubble jet printer – I made
about six 8x10 great prints, but I
want a larger printer. List $199.
For sale $100. Jack Bass email:
[email protected] or 324-4224
cell phone
Display Ad Rates
New Members!
listed below.
Business Card ...................$10.00
Quarter Page.....................$20.00
Half Page .........................$30.00
We need new members!
Have your friends and co-workers
join us for fun and learning about
OS X and the Mac.
Account Balances
Checking Balance..........$1247.36
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Balances as of July 7, 2005
11
Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, July 27
CMC Summer Picnic
Special Time & Location:
Starts at 6:00 P.M.
Wolcott Park, W. Hartford
(see directions & info on page 11)
left as you enter.
12
Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, Aug. 31
UConn Health Center
Final Cut Express
7:00 P.M.
Back to Basics - iTunes
6:00 P.M.
If Classic means something
that is timeless…
When is Classic
not Classic?
By Rich Lenoce,
CMC President
?
As you read in
last month’s issue,
we Mac users have
nothing to fear with
Apple’s switch to
Intel processor unless
you need to run Classic applications
not available for OS X. Though a program called Rosetta will enable Power
PC OS X apps to run on Intel, apparently there will be no such emulator for
pre-OS X applications.
I still use some applications in Classic
daily. Inevitably, a student sends me a
p a p e r i n C o re l Wo rd Pe r f e c t o r
Microsoft Works formats on Windows
and I need the Mac Classic versions
under OS X to open them. Or, I am
working on a media project and need
any number of tools that never made it
to OS X. I keep a PowerBook 1400
and an iMac G3 for running those
applications that won’t run under OS
X or under OS X Classic.
Here are some OS 7-9 apps that either
have no OS X equivalent; or have an
OS X equivalent but the OS 7-9 version was much better; or are
applications that won’t run under OS
X Classic at all, requiring a Mac that
can boot into OS 7-9.
Apple Applications
Apple has this nasty habit of offering
some of the best and most forward
AUGUST 2005
thinking software, and then canceling
them for no apparent reason. Take
these four:
Hypercard:
Simple yet advanced multimedia
authoring application. It was so
simple, elementary school students could use it to create
learning games yet multi-media
developers could create sophisticated interactive documents and
applications. Another revolutionary
product from Apple that is now gone.
Claris Home Page:
A WYSWYG web page creator
that was as easy to use as a word
processor but used to create beautiful web pages.
Cyberdog:
The smallest (2 mb), fastest
and simplest web browser ever.
Probably, the shortest lived too.
Claris Emailer:
A powerful, efficient and comprehensive email reader that could
receive AOL mail. Had no support
for many modern email protocols
like SMTP authentication.
Gone but Not Forgotten
Here are some applications that never
made the move to OS X and left the
Mac altogether.
Corel Word Perfect:
Fast, expandable and to this day
still puts Microsoft Word “bloatware” to shame. Just goes to show
you, the best application doesn’t
always win. Now available for free.
http://acmfiles.csusb.edu/corel/
wpmac.html
1
Adobe Persuasion:
A terrific presentation application
but it couldn’t compete with
Microsoft’s Powerpoint.
AutoCad:
The standard in architectural and
engineering software that never
made the leap to OS X. No OS X
equivalent available for this
industry standard.
Digidesign ProTools LE/Free:
The leader in pro audio software
made a full featured audio application that could run separately
from ProTool’s proprietary hardware and offered it for free. No
similar OS X version. Still available from Digidesign
http://www. digidesign.com/
products/details.cfm?template
=overview&product_id=2040
Macromedia SoundEdit 16:
Simple, inexpensive, fast and efficient audio recorder and editor.
Casady & Greene’s Sound Jam:
Yes, Apple bought this and turned
it into iTunes, but first they
stripped its ability to record audio
and broadcast Internet radio.
Continued on page 2
When is Classic not Classic................. 1
Off The Beaten Path–Hidden Gems.....3
iPod_Now Enviromentally Friendly.....3
MacWorld Best of Show ......................4
Free WiFi Security............................... 5
MacWorld-An Intimate Affair ..............6
Special MUG Offers.............................8
VSE Be Found:
Takes a web site, examines its
content and registers the site with
search engines saving hours or
days of work. Nothing like it anywhere. VSE still offers monthly
updates but no OS X version.
Editor
Deena Quilty
Designer
George Maciel
Photographer
John Scott
Publisher
Connection, Inc.
41 Crossroads Plaza
PMB 1984
Printer
Budget Printers
1718 Park Street
Hartford, CT 06106
from members!
in each issue.
Comet CG:
A CG is a Character Generator, a
hardware or software tool that is
used in video production and
broadcasting to create graphics.
This was an easy method to create
broadcast level graphics on the
Mac. Today, dozens of similar
products are available for
Windows PCs but none are available for Macintosh.
Macromedia Authorware:
Hugely popular multimedia
development software for teachers and instructional designers
that uses a flowchart metaphor to
design applications and learning
modules. No OS X version.
Control Strip and Chooser:
Since the Control Strip and
Chooser are not part of OS X or
Classic, these applications have
no OS X equivalent and won’t run
in OS X Classic. I keep an old
Mac around just to use these very
useful tools.
Adobe Distiller:
Drag a file or folder containing
any document type over the
Distiller Desktop Printer and
they’ll instantly be converted to
PDF. Adobe offers Distiller for
OS X but it’s painfully slow. A
folder of 100 Word Docs took 5
minutes to convert under OS 8
while the same docs took one
hour in OS X. That’s progress?
Myrmidon:
Like Distiller, drop any document
type or an entire folder of documents on to this Chooser-based
2
Desktop Printer and the documents will be converted into
exact HTML replicas, complete
with table layout! It’s so magical
I don’t know how it works and
can’t live without it. Last year, a
client asked me to convert a 500page catalog created in Adobe
PageMaker to a web site. If I did
this manually it would have taken
weeks. Myrmidon turned the
multi-page document in an entire
website in 90 minutes complete
with buttons and links. It took me
two hours to clean it up and make
a table of contents. I was home by
lunch! Available now for free as
wel as the low-end Go-Click software at www.terrymorse.com/
StripCam:
A control strip module that when
activated, takes any camera connected to the Mac and turns it into
a WebCam. Activate the Mac file
sharing control strip and it will
serve the camera to the Internet.
Great for security.
There you have my round-up of
favorite OS 7-9 applications that are
no longer available or won’t run in
Classic. I’ll bet you have your own
software you can’t live without that
only runs in Classic or on an OS 7-9
only machine.
Email me at [email protected]
and I’ll print the results next month.
Off The Beaten Path:
Hidden Gems For Your Mac You Might Have Missed
iPod – Now
Environmentally Friendly
By Chris Hart, CMC Vice President
When you surf the web as much as I do, you sometimes come across the
occasional diamond in the rough, so to speak. This column points out those
hard-to-find freeware and shareware items for your Mac that you might
think you don’t need, but prove to be really handy!
Despite the cost of iPod portable music players,
they are sometimes considered disposable items.
Because the cost of servicing an iPod is sometimes
nearly as much as the cost of a new one, many people choose to cut their losses and toss their old iPod.
One of the best things about the Mac is choice. You’re not limited to using
one service, or one program. You have choices. It’s this line of thinking that
brings us to our trio of items for your Mac.
You may or may not know that
there is a feature in the Address
Book to bring up a map of a contact’s location via Mapquest by
clicking on the address label
(“home” or “work”). The cool part
is that this plugin allows you to use
Google Maps instead. Choice is
cool, no? It requires: Apple Address Book, and Mac OS X 10.3 or higher.
➤ Get it from: www.briantoth.com/addressbook/
The second item is a program for OS X that touts itself as “The only
good PC feature, now on the Mac.” It’s called “Show Desktop,” and it’s
based on the Windows feature of the same name. What it allows you to
do is click on an icon in either the Menu Bar or in your Dock and
instantly hide all of your open windows and applications.
While you can do this with Panther and Tiger’s Exposé, what’s neat about
this implementation is that you
can configure certain applications to remain visible (think
iChat AV buddy lists) after you
hide the other applications. The
best part? It’s free! It requires:
Mac OS X 10.1 or higher.
➤ Get it from: www.everydaysoftware.net/showdesktop/index.html
Finally, here’s something for all of you Tiger users out there that
might find the Terminal a little daunting. It’s called “Shellac”–a collection of Automator actions that run such UNIX power tools as cat,
cut, grep, head, paste, sort, tail, uniq, wc and more in a more userfriendly graphical interface.
They’ve thought of everything – even
Tooltips! They’re not free, but only
99¢ an action, and you only pay for
what you want to use. Shellac is a steal
for folks who want to use the power of
Tiger’s UNIX core, but don’t want to
learn how to use the command line.
➤ Get them from: www.pixelglow.com/shellac/
Considering the millions of units being sold in a
year, this kind of approach could quickly result in
lots of units ending up in landfills or other waste
processing facilities. The problem with that is the
presence of numerous environmentally harmful
chemicals inside an iPod (as with any computer).
Many customers and environmental protection action
groups have been pushing Apple to respond to this
issue and provide a responsible method for dealing
with dead equipment. In early June, Apple announced
that they will now accept iPods for recycling, free of
charge to the customer. Further, they will offer a 10%
discount on the purchase of a replacement iPod during that same visit to an Apple Store.
I certainly applaud this announcement. You may
recall that I’ve written in these pages about the
issue of computer recycling and the fact that
Apple accepts old computers for processing for a
fee of $30. Unfortunately this new announcement has no impact on the computer recycling
program, and recycling your old computer will
still cost you money.
I urge Apple to lower consumer costs across their
entire recycling program. Obviously shipping a
computer for recycling costs considerably more
than shipping an iPod, but that cost should be
covered by the profit of selling a consumer a new
computer at an Apple Store. Considering the
industry-leading position that Apple strives for in
the design of their products, they now need to
lead by example with a CPU recycling program
that is equally noteworthy.
More info: www.apple.com/environment
Feedback? Something I missed?
Email me at: [email protected]
3
Macworld Boston
2005 Best of Show Awards
Reprinted from TidBITS#788/18-Jul-05
by Geoff Duncan [email protected]
Our friends at Macworld magazine
and Mac Publishing announced five
Best of Show winners at the IDG
Macworld Conference and Expo 2005
in Boston. To be eligible, products had
to be introduced at the show itself (or
recently enough that they generated
excitement amongst attendees) and be
available for hands-on evaluation by
the Macworld editorial staff. Not surprisingly given the success of Apple’s
iPod, winners included products
aimed at the digital music market.
The winners are:
Harman Kardon’s Drive + Play,
scheduled to be
available in
September for
$200 (plus several hours of
installation time
if you want to
hide the cables,
or an estimated
$100 to $150 in
installation
costs), is an incar iPod music
system featuring a backlit LED
display which lets users see the
contents of their iPod and control
the “Brain,” the interface which
connects to the iPod (and charges
it while driving). Most interesting
is the LED-illuminated controller,
whose rotating wheel and four
buttons mimic the iPod’s clickwheel. A 3.5 mm output jack
plugs into a car stereo, although
the Drive + Play can also broadcast to any unused FM frequency
as well as route audio from other
devices such as a satellite radio. It
demoed well in a fancy BMW,
though many people were also
quite taken by the car’s color LCD
navigation screen.
http://www.harmankardon.com/drive
Parliant’s PhoneValet combined
hardware/software product turns a
Mac into a call
c e n t e r, w i t h
features like
voicemail and
call history (see
“PhoneValet,
Can You Get
That?” in TidBITS-699 for a review
of the initial release). Two new
enhancements take PhoneValet two
steps further. The PhoneValet
Anywhere server software enables
PhoneValet Message Center 3.0
users to access voicemail messages,
reports, logs, and phone books from
anywhere via the Internet.
PhoneValet Podcast is an extension
to PhoneValet Message Center 3.0
which includes tools for recording
phone conversations and later editing them via VST-enabled editions
of BIAS’s Peak Express and
SoundSoap 2, creating a powerful
solution for podcasters and others
who conduct phone interviews or
record events via phone for later
broadcast or publication.
http://www.parliant.com/
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?
tbart=07380
http://www.bias-inc.com/
The Print Shop for Mac 2.0,
This inexpensive software from
MacKiev will
be shipping this
August, and it
starts to take on
the big boys of
page layout by
introducing new tools like gridlines, rules, and snap functionality,
plus a new project window which
enables users to group items into
four predefined categories. The
Print Shop also gains drag & drop
functionality with Apple’s iPhoto,
Mail, and other programs, and
draws on the capabilities of Mac
OS X 10.4 Tiger’s Spotlight and
Core Image technologies.
www.mackiev.com/print_shop.html
4
SketchUp 5.0, from Last Software,
is an architectural
design tool
for Mac
OS X. The
new version
expands
libraries,
offers augmented sketching tools,
improves file import/export, and
adds a collection of “sandbox”
tools for landscape designers.
http://www.sketchup.com/
Transpod for iPod shuffle is an FM
transmitter for Apple’s
iPod shuffle portable
music player which
can tune to any available FM frequency. It
plugs into a car’s
cigarette lighter or
accessory jack,
simultaneously
plays music and
charges an iPod shuffle via USB,
and offers a 3.5 mm stereo output.
The small size of the iPod shuffle
may make the Transpod for iPod
shuffle more successful than the
previous Transpod, which was
awkwardly designed and clumsy
to use.
http://www.dlodirect.com/
See the complete article at
http://www.macworld.com/news/
2005/07/13/bestofshow/
Free Corporate-Grade
Wi-Fi Security from WiTopia
by Glenn Fleishman
<[email protected]>
The folks at WiTopia, a
group that sells personal and small-office
scale network security
tools, are offering their
WPA Enterprise service for Wi-Fi
networks of up to five users and a single base station at no cost for a year.
This is a boon to small networks
because it allows you to have highlevel security for each user - even if
it’s just you - without having to create
and enter encryption keys.
http://witopia.net/aboutsecuremy.html
WiTopia uses WPA Enterprise, which
combines the strong encryption found
in the algorithm used in WPA (Wi-Fi
Protected Access) with individual
usernames and passwords. Mac OS X
10.4 supports WPA Enterprise; Mac
OS X 10.3 works too, with the latest
AirPort firmware and software. When
you connect to a Wi-Fi network that
uses WPA Enterprise, Mac OS X
prompts you for your username and
password. If you enter your credentials correctly, the access point assigns
you a unique encryption key - no one
on the network shares that key with
anyone else on the network. This
effectively gives you a secure wireless
link that can’t be sniffed. (Someone
can sniff at the Ethernet port if they
have physical access, of course.)
WiTopia maintains your information
on their servers, which you access in
two different ways. To add, change,
and remove users, you access their
secure Web site and use a simple
interface. Your access point also
directly access a separate, secure
authentication server using a separate
password they provide (a shared
secret) to confirm a user’s login
details when they connect to the wireless network. (A WiTopia staffer
pointed out that an AirPort Express
can become a portable secure WPA
Enterprise network: if it’s configured to point to their
servers, all it needs is to plug
into an Internet-connected
Ethernet network that assigns it a
valid local address, and it’s
secured.)
The one drawback to their service is
that a bug in how AirPort Admin
Utility works with the latest few
releases of the firmware for the
AirPort Extreme Base Station prevents easy entry of the shared secret.
It’s Apple’s bug, and I alerted Apple
months ago with no results. WiTopia
has a workaround involving Apple’s
free AirPort Management Utility
that’s not too inconvenient, and you
enter the shared secret only once during setup. They document the
workaround on their support forums.
http://forums.witopia.net/viewtopic.
php?t=11
This $29 per year starter package
comes with a $29-off coupon, making
it free for the first year for up to five
users and a single base station. Base
stations cost $10 per year extra each,
and additional blocks of five users are
$5 per year each.
http://www.witopia.net/cart/cgi-bin/
cp-app.cgi?pg=prod&ref=smwf
Download of the Month:
jBidWatcher - v.0.9.8
Java-based eBay auction bid management. Tired of people winning
auctions you are bidding on, at the last
minute? Snipe them, with a free
snipe tool.
A Java-based application allowing you
to monitor auctions you’re not part of,
submit bids, snipe (bid at the last
moment), regularly search for auctions,
and otherwise track your auction-site
experience. It includes adult-auction
management (that is, the relevant cookies are supported), several currencies
5
Firefox Tip
From Lifehacker.com
I love Firefox for many
reasons, including popup blocking.
So over the last few weeks I’ve been
surprised to see occasional popups.
It turns out that some clever people
figured out that you could launch
popups from Flash, getting around the
Firefox default settings. Fortunately,
you can get around it:
Type about:config into the Firefox
location bar.
Right-click on the page and select
New and then Integer.
Name it privacy.popups.disable_
from_plugins
Set the value to 2.
The possible values are:
0: Allow all popups from plugins.
1: Allow popups, but limit them to
dom.popup_maximum.
2: Block popups from plugins.
3: Block popups from plugins,
even on white listed sites.
To download Firefox, got to
www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
(yen, euro, pound,
dollar (US, Canadian,
& Australian), and
Swiss francs presently),
drag-and-drop of auction URL’s, a unique
‘multisniping’ feature, a
nice UI, and is known to
work cleanly under Linux,
Solaris, Windows, and Mac
OS X from the same binary.
Mac OS X 10.2 or higher Java runtime
installed . Tiger Compatible
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/
jbidwatcher/JBidWatcher-0.9.8. app.
tar.gz?download
Macworld Boston 2005:
An Intimate Affair
by Adam C. Engst
<[email protected]>
Apologies in advance if my title either
had you hoping for a hot and steamy
tale of nookie behind the trade show
floor curtains or caused you to think
of an awful made-for-TV movie starring out-of-practice celebrities. No,
the joke is merely that whenever
someone came up to me at Macworld
Expo last week in Boston and said, “I
can’t believe how small the show is!”
I’d always reply, “It’s not small, it’s
just an intimate gathering of a few of
our closest friends.”
Seriously, Macworld Expo again
shrank to new lows in terms of the
number of exhibitors and attendees.
I’d put the number of exhibitors at
under 60 and the rumblings I heard
place the attendance figures slightly
lower than last year, when 8,000 to
10,000 people were expected. (In contrast, January 2005’s Macworld Expo
in San Francisco saw nearly 36,000
attendees). As always, IDG World
Expo did a good job managing the
perceived size, so the aisles on the
first day felt crowded and busy, and
the session rooms were small enough
to seem full, even with fewer people
in the seats.
The choice of Boston’s Hynes
Convention Center was an inspired
move, since it’s far more appropriate
for a show the size of Macworld Expo
than last year’s site: the cavernous
Boston Convention and Exposition
Center (BCEC). Navigating the Hynes
Convention Center never took more
than a few minutes compared to some
of the hikes necessary in the BCEC,
during which you started wondering if
you should have brought provisions.
But even more enjoyable was the fact
that the Hynes Convention Center is
on Boylston Street in the heart of
Boston, one block from the shops and
restaurants on the trendy Newbury
Street and within walking distances of
numerous hotels. It’s all too common
to go to a trade show and see no more
of the host city than the streets to and
from the airport.
Also successful were the special productions: Andy Ihnatko’s keynote was
hilarious as always, and it was
enhanced by the guys who signed his
talk for anyone in the audience who
was deaf; even though I don’t know
American Sign Language, I was at
times torn between watching Andy
and watching how the guys doing the
signing translated his jokes into an
uproarious combination of facial
expressions and body language. The
Mac Brainiac Challenge was once
again a hoot, even if my team lost in
the end (though I was pleased that my
Classics degree came in handy for
answering the question of the source
of Lorem Ipsum, the dummy text that
designers use to test the look of new
layouts: it’s from Cicero). The Geeks
& Gadgets stage on the show floor
was popular too, particularly for the
iPod sessions, all of which were
mobbed.
http://www.lipsum.com/
On the downside, the changed hours
enjoyed mixed reviews at best; starting at 11 AM on Tuesday and
Wednesday worked well for letting
people sleep off the previous night’s
events, but keeping the show floor
open until 7 PM was awful. It ran
through dinner time for many people,
the floor was nearly bereft of attendees, and the people working the
booths were even more exhausted
than normal. On Wednesday, when I
spoke to the Boston Macintosh Users
Group after the show ended, I talked
straight through until nearly 9 PM.
Francisco. The cost of exhibiting was
on par with Macworld San Francisco,
so at least some vendors selling products at booths found the reduced
number of attendees problematic,
even if the people present were buying
at the usual rate. Similarly, attendees
were disappointed mostly if they had
anticipated spending a lot of time
browsing through booths of products
they hadn’t seen before. With only
five or six aisles (there were six, but
some weren’t full) of booths, it didn’t
take long to work the floor, and relatively little was new to anyone who
has been paying attention to the world
of the Macintosh of late. As with other
recent shows, a number of the vendors
were showing iPod accessories.
Expo Notables — This will be the
first time in ages that we’re not doing
a superlatives article calling out the
most notable products and happenings
at the show. Put bluntly, there just
wasn’t much that warranted mention,
and our friends at Mac Publishing
pretty much pegged it with their Best
of Show awards (see Geoff’s
“Macworld Boston Best of Show
Awards” elsewhere in this issue),
although a few other booths and products caught my attention.
Rimage had guys outside the Hynes
Convention Center handing out entry
forms to win their Rimage 360i (a
CD/DVD recording/printing device);
the cool bit was that they were wearing 35-pound (16 kg) backpacks
containing laptops and LCD screens
on arms that projected over their
heads advertising the company’s products. We may one day see cloth that
can display moving images, but it
won’t be nearly as eye-catching as a
guy with a monitor suspended over his
head.
http://www.rimage.com/
Despite the small size, most people I
talked with weren’t unhappy, unless
they were expecting a show more
along the size of Macworld San
6
Tonya and I were also impressed by
the stylish iPod-holding purses and
continued on page 7
backpacks from the amiable wifeand-husband team of Joallyn and
Dave Cartwright (Delarew Designs).
Joallyn put a lot of thought into
designing bags that protect the iPod
while allowing the user to see and
control it through a clear plastic window that faces inward to avoid
advertising the iPod’s presence; the
earbud cable feeds through another
opening. Then there was Cableyoyo,
with a slim plastic device that you use
to wind up your cords; it’s elegant, but
essentially a fancy twist-tie. Lastly,
Quark was once again present, and I
couldn’t resist chuckling at the sign
they had posted with their presentation schedule, which laid out, in great
detail, in case you were confused, just
to be absolutely clear, that they would
be discussing QuarkXPress 6.5 every
hour on the half-hour.
www.delapod.com/
www.cableyoyo.com/
www.tidbits.com/resources/788/
quark-sign.jpg
The booth that most surprised me,
though, was the Apple Specialists
Pavilion, co-produced with HP, so it
featured lots of current Macs along
with HP printers that use a new inkbased printing technology. I’ve been
hearing the Apple Specialist term for
years, and I knew that TidBITS sponsor Small Dog Electronics was an
Apple Specialist, but I’d never internalized what is special about them. It
turns out that the Apple Specialist
program collects over 160 independent Macintosh dealers and service
centers like San Diego’s Crywolf and
New York’s Tekserve, all of which
have survived by earning the undying
loyalty of their customers over the
years. About 50 Apple Specialists
were represented in the largest booth
on the show floor, and the technical
know-how was amazing. But even
more interesting is that the Apple
Specialists have banded together to
form the Apple Specialists Marketing
Co-op (ASMC), which has negotiated
(and in some cases helped design)
exclusive products like the miniG
series of hard drives from Transintl,
the iListen MX voice-recognition and
headset/microphone bundle, and
more. The ASMC also held a one-day
“best practices” meeting on 11-Jul-05
that included presentations, roundtable discussions, a table-top vendor
fair, and a “vendor speed dating”
event that must have been hilarious
(“You have 3 minutes to introduce
yourselves and generate the rough
outline of a reseller agreement. Got
your business cards ready? Go!”).
www.applespecialists.com/
www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/
press/2005/050711a.html
www.transintl.com/store/minig.cfm
www.macspeech.com/news/
pr.html?id=105
More Like a Soiree — The fact is,
Macworld Boston 2005 simply wasn’t
a news event. Few new products were
introduced at the show, and nothing
that happened really qualified as
news. The small press room was never
full when I happened to stop by, and I
saw almost no mainstream press in
attendance.
All that said, it was a fine show, even
if it has become more of a limited
regional event aimed at networking
7
local vendors and attendees. Given the
shrinking size, the question of
whether it will happen again comes
down to whether IDG World Expo
earned enough money to make it
worthwhile. IDG World Expo has said
that it is committed to future shows in
Boston at the Hynes Convention
Center, though at press time no
announcements of dates for next year
have been made.
www.macworld.com/news/
2005/07/15/idg/index.php
Assuming it was profitable enough to
continue, or could be further refined
to be profitable, I’d encourage IDG
World Expo to consider replicating
the concept of a small regional show
in a variety of cities. With the expectation that such a show wouldn’t have
tens of thousands of attendees, the big
name exhibitors wouldn’t feel the
need to attend every show (or have
their presence missed, as was the case
at Macworld Boston), and a lot of
people who would be unlikely to travel to either San Francisco or Boston
could still take advantage of the training sessions and the opportunity to
see and talk with vendors. Such an
approach would also acknowledge the
reality of Macworld San Francisco as
the most important event in the mainstream Macintosh world, rather than
pretending that Macworld Boston will
ever regain the equal status it held in
the glory days of yesteryear.
Vendor Offer Watch
Intriguing Development
15% discount on iRemember; Expires 9/30/05
liquidlibrary
15 month membership for the price of 12 months; Expires
12/1/05
LoadPod
10% off iPod loading service; Expires 8/30/05
MacAddict magazine
Up to 78% off annual subscription; Expires 6/30/06
macHOME magazine
$15 off annual subscription; No expiration
Macworld magazine
$13 off annual subscription; no expiration
Magnet Media
15% off Digital Media Training Series; Expires 10/31/05
MYOB
$25 off First Edge & $100 off Account Edge; No expiration
O’Reilly
30% off all titles; No expiration
O’Reilly
35% discount on David Pogue’s “Mac OS X: The Missing
Manual, Tiger Edition” - Expires 8/31/05
Peachpit Press
25% off all titles by joining the Peachpit Club; No expiration
Prosoft Engineering
25% off Drive Genius, Picture Rescue, Data Rescue, Data
Backup & Data Recycler; No expiration
Recosoft
$10 discount on PDF2Office Personal; Expires 9/30/05
Sams Publishing
35% of all books; available globally. Expires 12/1/05
SpyMac
40% discount on Club Services; Expires 12/1/05
Steel Blue Sky
1 year free user group web site hosting, while supplies last
www.steelbluesky.net/product_info.php?products_id=45
Tekkeon
Free FM transmitter with purchase of myPower for iPod;
Expires 12/1/05
TidBITS
10% discount on Take Control eBooks; No expiration
Total Training
25% off training videos; available globally. Expires 12/1/05
August 16, 2005 Edition
Provided by The MUG Center http://www.mugcenter.com
For an up-to-date list of all available user group offers,
visit: <http://www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/>
Exclusive Discounts from The MUG Center:
BackJack
3 free months of online backup service; expires 8/31/05
www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/backjack.html
Order URL: www.backjack.com/mugcenter.html
Centurion Technologies
20% off MacShield Enhanced Edition
hard drive configuration protection software; expires 9/30/05
http://www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/centurion.html
Order: Call 800-224-7977, and reference code “MUGS05”
KeynoteUser.com
10% off all products; expires 12/31/05
http://www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/keynoteuser.html>
Order URL: http://www.keynoteuser.com/MUG/
Peachpit Press
35% off Three iLife ‘05 books, expires 12/31/05
http://www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/peachpit.html
Enter coupon code EE-S4AP-PPT at the checkout page
Other offers including those from the Apple User
Group Bulletin: For details, including code acquisition,
go to <www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/>
Absolutist Games
30% discount on Bubble Shooter & JetDucks; exp. 9/30/05
Discount on Macintosh batteries; no expiration
Apple MUG Store
Discounts on new and refurbished hardware and 1% back to
your group; no expiration. www.applemugstore.com
7/01/2005 - 10/31/2005 User ID: xxx Password: xxx
ATAcom.com
$200 off RAID-5 network attached storage solutions;
expires 9/30/05
Audible.com
Free month of service plus free gifts; no expiration
Brigadoon Software
33% off MacPhoneHome Mac theft recovery software;
expires 9/30/05
Curry K. Software
30% discount on Agile 10 Key; expires 8/31/05
FastMac
15% - 20% discount on processor upgrades; expires 9/30/05
Guy Kawasaki
The Art of the Start & 128 MB USB Flash Drive bundle;
While supplies last. www.1800ceoread.com/pitchkit.asp
Copyright ©2005 The MUG Center.
8
Special Thanks to our
Presenters
May:
The Apple Store
CMC would like to thank the Apple
Store, Manager Brian Connelly and
presenter
Katherine
MacCall,
Business Consultant, for holding the
May General Meeting. We’d also
like to thank Donna for her assistance and refreshments. It was a
highly informative presentation
and demonstration on OSX Tiger.
We also appreciate the discounts
Apple offered. Several members
were seen leaving with their shiny
new purchases! Thanks to the Apple
Store for allowing us to hold our
meeting there and for the presentation, discount, refreshment and
hospitality!
Benefits:
Monthly meetings, monthly newsletter, special events, discounted books, assistance with
computer problem, network with other Mac
users, User Group Store discounts, and more.
Date _____________________________
Name ____________________________
Address __________________________
City _____________________________
State________ Zip__________________
June:
Special thanks goes to Middlesex
Community College for hosting
our June hands-on meeting and
MxCC Mac IT support specialist,
Chris Grande, for providing support to our group. Thanks to Rich
Lenoce for the iPhoto presentation and to Kyle Demillo for his
presentation on Web Design and
Blogging. The membership
would like to extend its gratitude to CMC Photographer, John
Scott, for stepping in and doing a
Photoshop presentation at the last
minute. Even with bad weather
we had 45 members attending
these hands-on sessions making
it a very successful event.
Phone (Home) _____________________
Phone (Office) _____________________
Phone (Fax) _______________________
Business __________________________
Occupation ________________________
Email:____________________________
Referred by: _______________________
Areas of special interest: _____________
_________________________________
_________________________________
Annual CMC Family
Membership
$25.00
Make check payable to CMC
and mail to:
...or
www.ctmac.org
9
★ ★ ★ ★ 2005-2006 CMC Officers and Board of Directors ★ ★ ★ ★
[email protected]
860-347-1789
[email protected]
860-291-9393
[email protected]
[email protected]
PR Jerry Esposito
[email protected]
[email protected]
860-232-2841
[email protected]
860-485-1547
[email protected]
860-561-0319
[email protected]
10
FREE Raffle!
FREE Classified Ads
[email protected]
Wednesday, August 31
UConn Medical Center
Back To Basics - iTunes, 6:00 PM
Tune into iTunes and learn how to work
with Apple’s excellent program for playing, organizing and even sharing music.
We’ll show you the basics and then some.
Soon you’ll be the master of your music
collection! Bring a PC-using friend! This
session can help those using Windows just
as much as us Mac users.
Final Cut Express, 7:00 PM
Guest presenter Keith Larsen will demonstrate how to get started with Apple’s
Final Cut Express software. If you’ve outgrown iMovie, this is the video editing
program for you. Keith is a professional
video editor and founder of the
Connecticut Final Cut Pro Users Group.
Come benefit from his experience and
hear how a pro gets video projects looking
great!
NOTICE!
and password
are now located on your
Please, make a
note of it NOW!
Getting CMC emails?
FOR SALE
Powerbook (Pismo): G4 (FastMac
upgrade from G3), 550mghz, 20gb
hard disk, 512mb RAM, very good
condition. The screen has signs of
some pinkish tinting. Battery needs to
be replaced. Will deliver this in its
original box with all paperwork and
disks. Runs OS X.3.9 perfectly.
Asking $550. Contact Seshu
Badrinath, 617-821-7993.
[email protected],
WANTED
Capable InDesign/Illustrator/Photo
Shop operator wanted for occasional
(or semi-regular if we’re a fit) overflow work from small marketing
communications shop on subcontractor basis. Publication layout, logo
design, image preparation, etc.
PageMaker skills a plus. Please contact Jeff at (860) 742-7234 or
[email protected].
Discounted Books
Display Ad Rates
CMC continues to offer our current
members the opportunity to purchase any
published book for either Mac or
Windows at a 20% discount. All major
publishers are carried by our source.
New Members!
listed below.
Business Card ...................$10.00
Quarter Page.....................$20.00
Half Page .........................$30.00
OS X and the Mac.
Contact a Board Member or send an email
to [email protected].
Provide the book title, the publisher and
the ISBN number, if possible, and he will
check on its availability. Normally, the
wait is not too long.
Account Balances
Checking Balance............$900.05
Savings Balance ............$3977.95
Balances as of August 3, 2005
11
Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, Aug. 31
UConn Health Center
Final Cut Express
7:00 P.M.
Back to Basics - iTunes
6:00 P.M.
left as you enter.
12
Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, Sept. 28
UConn Health Center
Celebrity Night:
Andy Ihnatko
Special Time
6:30 p.m.
NOTE: “Back To Basics”
To allow time for our guest, there
will be no session this month.
NEWSLETTER OF CONNECTICUT MACINTOSH CONNECTION, INC. SEPTEMBER 2005
Of Tiger, Smart Folders
& Spotlight and a 22
Year Old Computer
By Rich Lenoce,
CMC President
My first computer was a
1983 Coleco ADAM, made
right here in West Hartford,
CT. It had an operating system
with a GUI, a word processor,
spreadsheet, database software, and
Coleco smart Basic (really Apple Soft
Basic). It had a modem (300 baud) for
Internet, email, BBS, Telnet and Prodigy,
RS232 serial and parallel ports, color
graphics, dual tape drives, three expansion
slots and one bay, an optional 5.25” floppy
disk drive and later, a hard drive adaptor. It
used the same processor as an Apple II
(z80) and could play arcade, Colecovision
and Atari 2600 video games.
I bought ADAM while searching for my
first post-college job. At the time, I was
going broke paying a woman $5 to wordprocess each cover letter I needed.
ADAM saved me money because I could
write cover letters and resumes and print
them myself with the included printquality daisy wheel printer. Like today’s
word processors, I was able to keep a
database of possible employers and mail
merge the data into my letters.
I mailed 175 cover letters and resumes
and received three job offers from people
who didn’t know me from… ADAM. All
commented how professional my letters
and resumes looked compared to those
they received from other applicants.
All of this hardware and software power
cost $599 at Zayre.
For this article, I dug my 1983 ADAM out
of the basement. It started right up and
I spent hours playing with these
fun and still useful applications.
I can honestly say it is still that
same great tool I remembered.
Rummaging through the box,
I found an electronic planner,
finance and graphics software,
CP/M software (capable of talking to an IBM server), and a simple
multimedia development program for
kids called LOGO. ADAM worked as
advertised, albeit slowly with its 64k of
memory. What I found in playing with
ADAM 22 years later is that the computer
experience hasn’t really changed much.
Today, most people still use computers to
word process documents, create spreadsheets, send email, enter information into
databases and surf the ‘net. Though we
do it more elegantly today, ADAM had a
GUI (Graphical User Interface) that
made all these operations intuitive two
years before the introduction of the
Mac–and in color. Granted, today we
have fantastic audio, video and multimedia capabilities that are far beyond
ADAM, but that doesn’t make computers any “smarter” than a computer like
ADAM–until Tiger. In fact, until Tiger,
we’ve had to use our computers the way
the programmers who designed the software and hardware wanted us to.
Take word processors. The word processor in my ADAM isn’t any better or
worse than Microsoft Word. What’s
more, after 22 years, Word adds nothing
that helps me write better–the only difference is how the software’s features are
organized, and that seems more a matter
of the programmers taste than of purpose.
Continued on page 2
1
Special Thanks to
our Presenter
At our August meeting, we enjoyed a
presentation from
video production professional and
Connecticut Final Cut Pro Users
Group founder, Keith Larsen.
(see photos page 7)
CMC would like to thank Keith
for his detailed presentation of
Apple’s Final Cut Express video
editing application. For those who
have outgrown the capabilities of
iMovie, Final Cut Express is the
next step in creative control,
allowing you to make professional looking videos and DVDs. We
appreciate Keith sharing his
insight and experience with us and
encourage you to visit the group’s
web site at www.ctfcpug.org
For a comparison of the features and
capabilities of Apple’s iMovie and
Final Cut video editing software products, see the comparison table at:
www.apple.com/finalcut/
Of Tiger, Smart Folder & Spotlight ............ 1
Off The Beaten Path ...................................3
CMC Member Observations .......................3
Review: DEVONthink...................................4
Review: Mac OS X Tiger Killer Tips .........5
Download of the Month..............................5
Mac 911 by Chris Breen.............................6
Vendor Offers for MUGs .............................8
Meetings and Club News .........................11
Whether it’s ADAM or Microsoft
Word, the word processor is only a tool,
not a collaborator.
Editor
Deena Quilty
Designer
George Maciel
Photographer
John Scott
Publisher
Connection, Inc.
41 Crossroads Plaza
PMB 1984
Printer
Budget Printers
1718 Park Street
Hartford, CT 06106
from members!
in each issue.
Tiger and its associated applications
including iLife, add “smarts” to computing. For the first time I can tell my
OS, my email and my iLife applications to do things the way I want them
done using features such as Smart
Folders, Smart Mailboxes, Smart
Albums, Spotlight, Magic iMovie
(which automates movie-making) and
One-Step DVD in iDVD.
Tiger Mail’s Smart Mailboxes autosorts the 100 emails that I receive each
day by importance–as defined by me,
rather than the more programmer-centric subject/sender/date method I had
previously been forced to use. This
saves me at least an hour a day going
through these communications because
Smart Mailboxes acts as my personal
assistant, telling me what emails need
immediate attention, what emails I can
wait on and which ones deserve to be
trashed. (The to-be-trashed emails outnumber the others 2 to1.)
iMovie 5’s Magic iMovie feature is
another tool where the computer is my
editing collaborator. Magic iMovie is a
simple tool to use. Just plug in your DV
camera, set some parameters and
iMovie will import and edit your movie
unattended. If the information is entered
correctly, a few tweaks may be all that is
needed to finish the movie. It’s like having an assistant editor there to pre-cut
your movie. Magic iMovie’s results are
startling when you see them for the first
time. Best of all, the movie is still your
movie, as the parameters were defined
by you, not some programmer in
Cupertino, Redmond or West Hartford.
Like Smart Mailboxes, Smart Folders
sets parameters to auto-organize documents based on user-defined criteria.
This is great for handling documents
according to project or purpose.
Spotlight is the power behind these
2
technologies, tracking more than file
names but content and meta-data.
Can smart software that helps me in
other important ways be far behind?
Applying the principles introduced in
Tiger, we may see some fantastic software coming our way. For example,
I’ve often complained that though MS
Word is a fine word processor, it’s still
really no better or worse than the one
that came with ADAM because it doesn’t help me write. Based on technology
like Magic iMovie and Spotlight, I can
see a day when word processors will
understand the subject of my document
and can therefore make smart spelling
and grammatical decisions, auto-format paragraphs, automatically apply
styles, scour the Internet for quotes,
create footnotes and citations on-thefly and examine my writing for
unintentional plagiarism. The word
processor could one day be not just a
glorified non-linear typewriter, but a
true writing collaborator.
The same intelligent computing can be
applied in other areas. Smart computers
may be able to organize and design page
layouts from a folder of text documents,
design architectural structures based on
the computer owners’ needs and tastes,
and buy and sell stocks unattended
based the owners financial criteria.
If all of this sounds like science fiction,
thanks to Apple innovation it isn’t. As I
mentioned in my initial review of Tiger
back in May, with Tiger Apple is finally going beyond the Classic OS and all
other existing operating systems from
the 70s, 80s and 90s and into a new age
of smart computing. Until you really
explore it, you may not realize it’s more
than just another pretty OS. User
groups like ours can help you better
understand these innovations by networking with others on how they best
use their computers and Tiger. It’s a
great time to be a Mac owner!
By the way, if you know of anyone who
wants to get rid of old ADAM stuff drop
me an email – being subservient to an
old computer can still be fun.
Hidden Gems For Your Mac You
Might Have Missed
When you surf the web as much as I
do, you sometimes come across the
occasional diamond in the rough, so to
speak. This column points out those
hard-to-find freeware and shareware
items for your Mac that you might
think you don’t need, but prove to be
really handy!
Our first item
this month is
from Mac
Shareware
guru David
Wa t a n a b e ,
author of NewsFire (a RSS reader for
Mac), and Acquisition (a LimeWirebased Cocoa app for downloading
files). It’s a plug-in for Safari 2.0
called Inquisitor that does predictive
text entry in your Google search box.
Huh?
After installing it, start typing in the
Google search box, and it will try to
predict what you are looking for, by
attempting to complete the entry. As
an example, if you were to type
“amer” into the search field, Inquisitor
will provide the suggestions “american idol”, “american airlines”,
“american express”, etc., as these are
the most probable completions to your
input, as based on the search history
of others. It saves me many, many
keystrokes (and many minutes) in the
process. Best part? You guessed it
–it’s free! Mac OS 10.4 is required.
¢ Get it from here:
http://www.inquisitorx.com/
Our second application comes from a
one-person Macintosh software development company, Dejal Systems, LLC,
owned and run full-time by David
Sinclair. It’s called Time Out, and it’s a
simple application designed to keep you
from working too long at the computer.
In David’s words:
“It is very easy to
fall into bad habits
TIME
when using a computer
OUT
for hours on end. You
care about what you
are doing, so can
sometimes push yourself too far, or
over-strain yourself. The human body
isn't built to sit in one position for endless hours, gripping a mouse or typing
on the keyboard. Dejal Time Out! is
here to help. It will gently remind you
to take a break on a regular basis.”
Time Out requires Mac OS X 10.3.9
or later. It is Tiger and Intel compatible. It’s free, too!
http://www.dejal.com/timeout/
Our final application is from BeLight
software, a Ukrainian company who
focuses solely on Macs. Their newest
application is called Image Tricks,
and it’s an image manipulation application in the genre of Kai’s Power
Goo. It uses the power of Tiger’s Core
Image technology to transform your
digital photos and other images by
applying different effects to them.
Although the
requirements
can seem kind
of hefty, it will
work on almost
any modern Mac.
IMAGE
TRICKS
Requires Mac OS
X v.10.4 (Tiger) and later. Image
Tricks can work with wide range of
graphics cards. It is recommended to
use cards that support the Core Image
technology, like:
• ATI Mobility Radeon 9700
• ATI Radeon 9550, 9650, 9600,
9600 XT, 9800 XT, X800 XT
• nVidia GeForce FX Go 5200
• nVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
• nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL,
6800 GT DDL
http://www.belightsoft.com/
products/imagetricks/overview.php
3
Some CMC Member’s
Observations –
Macworld Boston, 2005
By David Gerstein, CMC Treasurer
Greg Allen: I remember when they started in Boston and then went to New York.
Now they’re back in Boston. I preferred it
in Boston when they were huge.
Compared to the previous ones in Boston
and in New York, this one does not measure up. Usually when I go to a Macworld
conference, I never get to see everything.
There were two or three competing vendors competing with each other. Now all
the big ones, Apple, Epson, Lexmark,
Adobe, were missing. But I’m not giving
up. I’ll be back.
David Litchfield (a new member at his
first Macworld Conference): I thought it
was fine. It was enjoyable and not overwhelming. I didn’t find any one thing
outstanding. I was disappointed by the
absence of Apple. But there were plenty of
typical vendors that I’ll probably see at the
DV East conference. Some things were
over my head. I’m not at this professionally, not a knowledgeable user of Apple
products. But [being there] helped gel
some things. By the way, the best part of
the whole thing was the bus trip.
Al Boyer (a member not only in good
standing, but in long standing): Since
Apple was not there, I thought it was
miniscule. I noticed that most vendors
were involved in the iPod which is a big
product. I think one could walk around
that show at leisure in about an hour and a
half. It was fun to be with old friends and
we had a good time together.
Joseph Greene: I think that the sponsoring of the trip by the club is super great. I
enjoy going, seeing the new equipment,
the new software, but was disappointed
that the major manufacturers and software
people boycotted the meeting. I came to
look at a couple of specific items, but none
of them were available at the show. I was
interested in cameras but there were none
on the floor. Also, a lot fewer retailers
[were] there.
DEVONthink Goes Pro
reprinted from TidBITS #793/22-Aug-05
by Matt Neuburg - [email protected]
D E VO N t h i n k i s a
snippet keeper, where
a snippet can be anything from a few words
of text to a Web page, a
Word document, a PDF,
or any of several other
formats. Within DEVONthink's database, documents can be organized
hierarchically and mutually referenced
via hyperlinks. DEVONthink can link to
any file on disk, but its real power
emerges when the file is something it
can parse and index, giving play to its
mighty powers of searching, cataloging,
and cross-referencing.
When I reviewed DEVONthink in
TidBITS-720, I praised its interface and
its searching capabilities, but I pointed to
one shortcoming in its architecture:
there could be only one database. This, I
suspected, would ultimately prevent me
from using the program at all; and I was
right. Now, however, that restriction is
lifted, thanks to the long-awaited release
of DEVONthink Professional 1.0.
tbart=07575>
<http://devon-technologies.com/
products/devonthink/overview.php>
In DEVONthink Professional, a database
functions as a kind of document. Only
one database can be open at a time, but I
don't regard this as an impediment. With
separate databases for different collections of data, I'm at last able to use
DEVONthink seriously.
T h e o t h e r m a j o r i n n ova t i o n i n
DEVONthink Professional is its
AppleScript support. Earlier versions were a little bit scriptable, but
DEVONthink Professional takes
scriptability much further - and wears
its scriptability on its sleeve. The program has a Scripts menu and comes
with many example scripts that users
can take advantage of immediately to
make DEVONthink cooperate with
other applications - fetching all links from
the current Safari Web page, for example,
or importing selected email messages.
What's more, a script can be attached to a
file or a folder within the database, so the
script is triggered when the item is opened;
in the case of a folder, for instance, this
capability enables the creation of a "smart
folder" that populates itself automatically
when opened. DEVONthink also comes
with some Automator actions, along with
example Automator workflows.
tbart=08089>
Another new feature is the capability to
download Web pages linked from a given
page. That's a terrific idea, and I was
eager to try it, but I found it nearly
impossible to tweak the settings so as
to obtain t h e d e s i r e d r e s u l t s .
(DEVONthink's developers could
usefully study the SiteSucker utility.)
<http://www.sitesucker.us/>
Also new is that you can make a page
that's like a simple database table, where
each column is a field and each row is a
record; such pages (unaccountably termed
"sheets") can't have styled text, though,
which limits their usefulness.
Apple Creates Rev-1
iMac G5 Repair Program
Reprinted from TidBITS #793/22-Aug-05
Four months after my iMac G5 went
"Up In Smoke" (see TidBITS-777),
along with those of untold numbers of
other users, Apple has finally admitted
publicly that there's a problem, instituting an official repair program for
revision-1 iMac G5s. According to
Apple, symptoms eligible for free
repair include scrambled, distorted, or
missing video (caused, I believe, by
blown capacitors on the midplane) or
no power (the problem I had - there is,
of course, no mention on Apple's page
of smoke and an evil smell emanating
from the computer). Apple lists the
range of serial numbers of affected
machines. These are all revision-1 17inch and 20-inch iMac G5s; the
revision-2 faster machines released
starting in May 2005 are apparently
unaffected.
Finally, it's worth noting one feature conspicuous for its absence: complex
boolean searches are still not implemented, even after years of complaints from
users and promises from the developers.
tbart=08080>
DEVONthink Professional is a big step
closer to what DEVONthink should have
been all along. Whether that warrants the
"Professional" label or the price tag ($75),
market forces will show. Meanwhile, you
should definitely try this program for yourself; the demo download expires after 150
hours of use and is not limited in any other
way. Mac OS X 10.3.9 Panther is the minimum operating system version required,
but given the number of new technologies
it uses, to run DEVON think on anything
less than Tiger would be a pity.
The good news is that Apple will repair
affected machines for free, even if they
are no longer under warranty. The initial program is for two years from the
date of purchase, but Apple may
extend this at its option. The bad news
is that in order to qualify, it appears
that you must place your machine
physically before the eyeballs of an
Apple representative or service
provider. It will be interesting to learn
whether this means that repairs like
mine, where Apple simply shipped
the needed parts directly to my home,
will no longer be available. [MAN]
<http://www.devon-technologies.com/
download/commercial.php>
4
http://www.apple.com/support/imac/re
pairextensionprogram/
Free Mac
Do-ItYourself
Guides
PB FixIt today
announced the Mac Mini FixIt Guide,
an addition to their FixIt Guide Series.
The new guide is available free at
PBFixIt.com/Guide.
The Mac Mini FixIt Guide contains
detailed disassembly instructions that
walk the reader through the process of
easily accessing and upgrading parts.
The Guides make Mini disassembly so
simple, even novices can upgrade their
RAM, hard drive, or DVD drive with
ease. In addition to the Mac Mini, FixIt
Guides are also available for all iBook
G3, PowerBook G3, and PowerBook
G4 models.
PB FixIt is also making all FixIt Guides
available as free downloadable PDFs.
“There is no reason to pay Apple’s
ridiculous labor fees ever again,” said
Kyle Wiens, PB FixIt’s CEO. “The
FixIt Guides have empowered thousands of people to upgrade and repair
their Macs themselves. Offering free
PDFs was the obvious next step.
VitaminSEE 0.6.4.2
by Elliot Glaysher
From their web site:
• VitaminSEE is an image viewer
for OS X that focuses on interface
responsiveness and speed.
We’re enabling the masses.”
Book Review
“With a simple Internet connection and
a fourth grade reading level, anyone can
purchase parts and repair his or her own
Mac at home. We have thousands of
parts to choose from, any tools you
could possibly need, and we’ll even
show you how to do it for free. Save
yourself the $100/hour in labor. Buy
something nice for your husband or
wife or kids instead. You do the work,
we just make it easy.”
Mac OS X Tiger Killer Tips
By Scott Kelby
Reviewed by Victoria Maciulski,
Conejo Ventura Mac User Group
I got this book hot off
the presses, and I’m
glad I did! It covers all
of the ins and outs of
little things you want to
do, like getting photos
someone sent you in an
e-mail into iPhoto, or
turning the several photos someone sends into an instant slideshow.
FixIt Guides are now available for
these computers:
• Mac Mini
• PowerBook G3 (233-500 MHz)
• iBook G3 (300 - 900 MHz)
• PowerBook G4 Titanium
(400 MHz - 1 GHz)
• PowerBook G4 Aluminum
(867 MHz - 1.67 GHz)
Perhaps you want to get your Mac to quit asking you for your password for everything, or
add words to the end of file names, or stop
Classic from launching without permission
(yes, Classic is still there in Tiger.) He shows
you how to use the same Widget more than
once (handy if you want to see what the weather is in several locations), copy something
from your Yellow pages widget to your address
book with one click, and make your address
book display senior sized phone numbers.
All guides are at
www.PBFixIt.com/Guide
About PB FixIt: Launched in 2003,
PB FixIt is dedicated to bringing
high quality, hard to find laptop
parts to Macintosh zealots everywhere. For more information, visit:
www.PBFixIt.com or 1-866-61-FIXIT.
Scott organizes the info into chapters with notvery-useful names, such as “Fly Like an Eagle,”
“Cool and The Gang,” and “Cheap Trick.”
Luckily, he has given each chapter a subtitle that
helps you know what it is about. Chapter 8 is
called “She Drives Me Crazy,” with the sub-title
“How to Stop Annoying Things.” Beginning on
page 177, it gives you really good tips on how
to customize your OS X to stop automatically
doing things that you don’t like.
• VitaminSEE is quick. “I’ve strived
to make this the fastest image
viewer available for the Mac”.
I had no idea you could get Stickies to spell for
you, create your own Web Cam using Image
Capture, uncover where web links are going
before you click on them, get definitions without launching Dictionary, or have iCal send
invitations to a scheduled event.
• VitaminSEE automatically
thumbnails your images. These
thumbnails are used not only by
VitaminSEE, but also by the Finder
• VitaminSEE allows you to quickly
organize your pictures into different directories with it's integrated
Sort Manager.
Kelby doesn’t limit his tips to OS X. He gives
you lots of tips on iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD 5,
iCal, iChat, GarageBand 2, Mail, Address
Book, Preview, Stickies and TextEdit. The book
is easy to read and understand – no technical
mumbo jumbo. I can recommend it heartily.
• VitaminSEE allows you to quickly
tag your pictures with keywords.
ISBN: 0321290542 New Riders,
367 Pages, $29.99
Freeware with a funny name, but you can't beat the price!
www-personal.umich.edu/~glaysher/VitaminSEE.html
(c) copyright 2005 Victoria Maciulski, (CVMUG)
Ventura, CA. Reprinted by permission
5
Mac 911
Solutions to your most
vexing Mac problems
by Christopher Breen
Trimmer iPhoto Library
Is there any way to make Apple’s iPhoto
save changes to an original photo, short
of moving the altered photo completely
out of the program and importing it
again? For example, when I reduce redeye, I end up with the original photo and
the altered one. Sometimes this is a
waste of hard-drive space.
—Eric Anderson
I agree that this feature is both a blessing
and a curse. Granted, you can always
gain access to your unaltered original:
just select the edited picture and choose
Photos: Revert To Original. But iPhoto
makes the magic happen by squirreling
away two copies of the photo—the original and the edited version.
To free up hard-disk space, consider
Martin Fuhrer’s free iPhoto Diet. This
utility slenderizes your photo library by
eliminating duplicate photos, removing
backups of rotated or modified photos,
stripping out your photos’ thumbnail
icons, and locating and disposing of
photos never added to an album.
Audio Clip Control
I consider myself a veteran user of
iMovie, but I’m vexed by the latest
incarnation, iMovie HD. Before, I was
always able to trim audio clips in the
timeline viewer simply by hovering the
pointer over either end of the audio clip.
In the current version, all this does is
move the clip. What gives?
—John Smith
Apple has changed the behavior of
audio clips. If iMovie HD’s Show Clip
Volume Levels option is enabled (View:
Show Clip Volume Levels), clicking on
an audio file in the timeline allows you
only to adjust the clip’s volume or move
the file—you can’t trim it. Turn this
option off, and you’re welcome to trim
to your heart’s content. For this reason,
it’s a good idea to memorize the
Command-shift-L
keyboard shortcut,
which switches this
option on and off.
( Yo u c a n a l s o
access this com- If you turn off iMovie
mand by control- HD’s Show Clip Volume
Levels option, you can
clicking on an audio trim your audio clips.
clip and choosing
the command from the contextual menu.
Put HTML in Your Outbox
I want to send HTML e-mail messages
that look like Web pages. So far, the
only way I have found to do this is by
creating the page in Macromedia
Dreamweaver, uploading everything to
a server (for access to the graphics), and
then inserting the Dreamweaver file
into Microsoft Outlook on a PC. But is
there any mail program on the Mac that
can send complex HTML? I’ve tried
Apple Mail and Microsoft Entourage
(v. X), but both just seem to attach an
HTML file.
—Steve McGillivray
You have a friend in Rob Buckley, who
created the free Send Complex HTML
with Inline Files 2004 AppleScript.
This script allows you to embed complex HTML files in messages created
with Entourage v. X or 2004. It works
this way: After placing the script in the
Entourage Script Menu Items folder
(/your user folder/Documents/
Microsoft User Data/Entourage Script
Menu Items), create a new e-mail message in Entourage and address it. If you
like, add a subject (if you don’t add a
subject, the script will place the title of
the HTML page in the Subject field).
Choose the script from Entourage’s
AppleScript menu and, in the resulting
Choose A File dialog box, select the
HTML file you want to send. Click on
Choose, and Entourage lets you either
send the message now or send it later. (If
elements in the file are missing—one of
the page’s graphics, for example—the
script will return an error message.) If
everything goes according to plan, the
script will then embed the appropriate
HTML code into the message.
6
Spam Scam
I regularly get “Undelivered mail
returned to sender” messages in my email inbox. According to the information
in the message, someone else is hiding
his or her identity by using my e-mail
address to send pornography out over the
Internet. I’m offended that someone is
using my address for this purpose. Is
there any way to resolve this issue?
—Jim Klausen
Not really. For people unfamiliar with
such a scenario, I’ll explain: spammers
have spoofed Jim’s e-mail address, meaning that vermin like souls have stolen his
address and are pretending that it’s theirs.
On occasion, an ISP blocks these pernicious messages and bounces them back to
the alleged “sender”—a perfectly silly
practice that wastes bandwidth and
punishes innocent parties who had nothing to do with the original messages.
If you receive multiple bounced messages from a particular ISP, you might
contact it and suggest that it stop bouncing messages, as the practice is both
futile and annoying. To protect yourself
against this annoyance, employ a spam
filter and teach it to recognize these
messages as junk.
Liberating Location
I have a PowerBook G4, which I use
frequently at home and work. Because
my Internet connections are different
at the two locations, I have configured my Network preferences with
Home and Work settings. Can I make
the default printers change automatically when I switch?
—Daryl Thornton
What you’re looking for is something
like OS 9’s Location Manager—a utility whose functionality OS X doesn’t
duplicate. Thankfully, you’ll find many
of the old Location Manager’s capabilities in Alex Keresztes and Greg
Novick’s Location X 2.0 ($20). (note:
Version 2.5, which became available
after our August 2005 issue went to
continued on page 7
Tip of the Month:
Flexible iPod Files
press, adds Tiger compatibility.—Ed.)
The OS X
Network
preference
pane allows
you to create
locations that
include network settings
Nagged by warnings and alerts
from programs you thought you
such as the
had deleted long ago? Instead of
default nettrashing an application by hand,
use the installer’s uninstall option.
work port, IP
address, and
proxy settings, but Location X takes this
a step further. It lets you assign a default
printer, an SMTP server, a time zone, a
QuickTime connection speed, Energy
S a v e r preferences, Mail and
Entourage preferences, and a Web
browser’s home page that differ,
depending on where you are.
Just fire up the program, create a new
location, and add the options you’d like
to assign to it—Energy Saver and
Default Printer, for example. Then quit
the application. When you’re ready to
change your location settings, launch
Location X, select the desired location,
and click on the Make Active button.
You can use an iPod shuffle to hold data
files from your Mac by going to iTunes:
Preferences, clicking on iPod, and activating the Enable Disk Use option.
Unfortunately, because the iPod shuffle
is formatted as a FAT32 volume (to
make it work on both Macs and
Windows PCs), it will not transfer Mac
files with certain characters in their
names when you try to copy those files
to the iPod shuffle. The list of characters
includes slashes (/ and \), question marks
(?), angle brackets (< and >), colons(:),
asterisks (*), and quotation marks (“).
To fix this limitation, use Disk Utility
(in your Applications/Utilities folder)
to create a new disk image (Images:
New: Blank Image). In the New Blank
Image dialog box, specify a disk-image
size that will fit on your iPod shuffle
(leave some room for music), and
choose the read-write option from the
pop-up menu. Copy the image onto the
iPod shuffle and then double-click on
the image. It will appear in the Finder
as a generic white removable-disk icon.
Copy any Mac files with Mac-legal file
names onto that disk image. To disconnect the iPod shuffle safely from the
Thank you to our guest presenter, Keith
Larsen who demonstrated how to get
started with Apple’s Final Cut Express
software at our August monthly meeting. Keith is a professional video
editor and founder of the Connecticut
Final Cut Pro Users Group.
7
Mac, first eject the disk image and then
eject the shuffle. Note that the files you
copy onto a Mac disk image will not be
available to a PC using that device. If
you need to use the iPod shuffle or
another Flash-based storage device to
share files between a Mac and a PC,
leave those files on the main partition
and not inside the Mac disk image.
—Jonathan Woolson
[Contributing Editor Christopher Breen is
also Playlistmag.com’s editor in chief,
author of Macworld’s tips and troubleshooting column,
“Mac911,” as well as
Secrets of the iPod:
Fifth Edition and Mac
911(Peachpit Press).
Find Chris’ books at
www.amazon.com and
www.peachpit.com.
Get special user group pricing on
Macworld Magazine! Subscribe today
at http://www.macworld.com/useroffer
photos by John Scott, CMC photographer
and Apple Consultants Network
member. Consultation will be via
phone, email or iChat (or in person,
if local to MYM), with no topic limit.
SPECIAL OFFERS - Apple User Group
Bulletin - September 14, 2005
These User Group discounts are brought to you by the
Apple User Group Advisory Board and Tom Piper, vendor
relations. You must be a current Apple user group member
to qualify for these savings. Not a member? Join an Apple
user group today to take advantage of these special offers.
Regularly $49.95 (US), MYM is offering an exclusive user
group price of $37.46 (US) + $3.95 (US) shipping. Click on
the Essential Learning Series CD link to find out about
MYM. Click on "Mac User Group Specials" to order, email
[email protected] or phone +1 386-852-0466.
Kinemac:
Coupon code: elsmug25
Order by web, email or phone.
http://www.maxyourmacs.com
This worldwide offer is valid until December 31, 2005.
Kinemac Animation Systems at a 25 Percent Discount
Kinemac is a 3D real-time animation and
presentation application for Mac OS X.
Kinemac lets you create professional 3D animations with the simplicity of a 2D
presentation tool. Just drag-and-drop your
images, text, movies, songs, svg and obj files
onto the Kinemac stage. You can also create
objects such as cubes, cylinders, spheres, 3D
text, 2D scrolling text and more.
PocketMac:
40 Percent Off All PocketMac Products
PocketMac makes a variety of productivity tools for PDA and Mac
connectivity, including tools to sync
your Mac with your BlackBerry,
PC/Pocket PC Phone, Windows Mobile Smartphone or PSP
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can sync Entourage to your iSync Phone/ PDA, or use other
products for additional business functions.
User group members pay only $185 (US) - 25 percent off
the regular price of $249 (US).
Coupon code: mugoffer
Check it out. http://www.kinemac.com/store
Save 40 percent off all PocketMac products with the
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MacStyles:
Individualize Your Mobile Mac
Express your individuality and
give your Mac a voice with
MacStyles custom-made vinyl decals for
PowerBooks and iBooks. Each MacStyles
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with over 4,000 possible design combinations. What does
your Mac say about you?
The MUG Store:
The MUG Store has free freight to members,
RAM rebates and aggressive pricing on new
and reconditioned Macs. They’ve also got one
of the largest selections of pre-owned Macs on the planet.
MacStyles are regularly priced at $19.95 (US) or $24.90
(US), with custom monogramming. User group members
receive 20 percent off MacStyles orders with the coupon
code below. (Shipping costs will be increased for overseas
orders.)
7/1/2005 through 10/31/05
User ID: Mug Password: Store
This offer is available to members of U.S. user groups.
For information about vendor offers and more visit
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consultation session with author Terry Jarrell, an AppleCertified Help Desk Specialist, Apple Product Professional
ID and Password Valid: 7/01/2005 - 10/31/2005
CMC User ID:xxxxx • CMC Password:xxxxx
8
Vendor Offer Watch
September 15, 2005 Edition
Guy Kawasaki
Provided by The MUG Center http://www.mugcenter.com
15% discount on iRemember
liquidlibrary
The Art of the Start & 128 MB USB Flash Drive bundle
Intriguing Development
Kinemac (see page 8)
25% discount on Kinemac
15 month membership for the price of 12 months
Centurion Technologies
20% off MacShield Enhanced Edition 20% off MacShield
Enhanced Edition hard drive configuration protection software;
<http://www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/centurion.html>
Call 800-224-7977, and reference promotion code “MUGS05”
MacAddict magazine
ColorIQ
20% off MacStyles products
$10 discount on IQ Match plus free upgrade to Tiger version
when released.
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Order info: <www.coloriq.com/store> and enter code mac842
Macworld magazine
KeynoteUser.com
Max Your Macs (see page 8)
10% off all products; available globally, expires 12/31/05
<http://www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/keynoteuser.html>
Order URL: <http://www.keynoteuser.com/MUG/>
$12.49 discount on Essential Learning CD;
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O'Reilly
Up to 78% off annual subscription
macHOME magazine
$15 off annual subscription
MacStyles (see page 8)
$13 off annual subscription
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15% off Digital Media Training Series
MYOB
$25 off First Edge & $100 off Account Edge
30% off all titles
35% off Three iLife ‘05 books, expires 12/31/05.
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Peachpit Press
25% off all titles by joining the Peachpit Club
PocketMac (see page 8)
Terry White
40% off all PocketMac products
$10 off Mac OS X Training For Windows Users DVD.
<http://www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/terrywhite.html>
User Group Offer - Voucher # 112051289
Prosoft Engineering
Other offers
Recosoft
including those from the Apple User Group Bulletin:
(For details, including code acquisition, visit:
<http://www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/>)
Sams Publishing
Backup & Data Recycler
$10 discount on PDF2Office Personal
35% of all books; available globally
SpyMac
Absolutist Games
40% discount on Club Services Expires 12/1/05
30% discount on Bubble Shooter & JetDucks
Steel Blue Sky
Apple MUG Store (see page 8)
1 year free user group web site hosting, while suppy lasts.
Discounts on new and refurbished hardware and 1% back to CMC
Tekkeon
Free FM transmitter with purchase of myPower for iPod
Discount on Macintosh batteries
TidBITS
ATAcom.com
10% discount on Take Control eBooks
$200 off RAID-5 network attached storage solutions
Total Training
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Free month of service plus free gifts
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Circus Ponies
40% rebate on Notebook 2.0
FastMac
15% - 20% discount on processor upgrades
email: [email protected] for special ordering instructions
9
2005-2006 CMC Officers
and Board of Directors
Yes, I want to join CMC!
CMC Benefits:
Monthly meetings, monthly newsletter, special events, discounted books, assistance with computer problem, network
with other Mac users, User Group Store discounts, and more.
[email protected]
860-347-1789
[email protected]
860-291-9393
[email protected]
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860-485-1547
Editor Deena Quilty
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860-678-8622
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(860) 668-8728
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[email protected]
Download/Month Debbie Foss
[email protected]
860-583-1165
Date ________________________________________
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Make check payable to CMC and mail to:
...or
pay online with PayPal at www.ctmac.org
Caricatures by
Bill Dougal
of Lebanon
(860) 456-9041.
[email protected]
10
Parliamentarian/Historian
Connie Scott
[email protected]
Available for
illustration
assignments
and event
caricatures.
FREE Raffle!
Discounted Books
members the opportunity to purchase
any published book for either Mac or
Windows at a 20% discount. All
major publishers are carried by our
source.
Wednesday, September 28
Special Time: 6:30 p.m.
Celebrity Night with
Andy Ihnatako
Our special guest this month is Andy
Ihnatko. (Please note the early start time of
6:30). If you didn’t get a chance to see
Andy in his previous visit to CMC, then
here is your chance. If you did see Andy,
we know you are looking forward to this
return visit! Not only is Andy one of the
most highly recognized figures in the
Macintosh computer world, but he is fun!
Andy is a columnist for the Chicago SunTimes newspaper and Macworld magazine,
and his writing has appeared in numerous
magazines. Additionally, he has authored a
number of Macintosh-related books, the most
recent being “The Mac OS X Tiger Book.”
Andy will share with us his thoughts on
recent Mac developments – in his humorous and irreverent style. Plus, the evening
will end with a charity auction to benefit
The Red Cross. Up for bid will be all sorts
of hardware and software gadgets donated
by Andy. Please bring your checkbook!
Everyone is welcome to attend the meeting,
so please bring along your friends and coworkers who share an interest in the Mac!
Back To Basics
To allow as much time as possible for our
special guest, there will be no session this month.
Upcoming Events:
• October: RSS Newsfeeds and
Podcasting, presented by Joe Arcuri
• November: CMC Auction
• December: Favorite Gadgets
NOTICE!
Contact a Board Member or send an
email to [email protected].
Provide the book title, the publisher
and the ISBN number, if possible, and
he will check on its availability.
Normally, the wait is not too long.
C L A S S I F I E D
A D S
and password
G4 COMPUTER FOR SALE
Please, make a
note of it NOW!
With Free delivery and a Free hour of
professional setup: PowerMac G4
tower, 450mhz (upgradeable!),
512MB RAM, 40GB hard drive,
DVD, MacOSX 10.3 or 10.4 (your
choice), iLife 04, Contact Chris at 860291-9393 or [email protected]
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11
MONTHLY CMC MEETING
Wednesday, Sept. 28
UConn Health Center
Celebrity Night:
Andy Ihnatko
Special Time
6:30 p.m.
NOTE: “Back To Basics”
To allow time for our guest, there
will be no session this month.
A pdf document containing a visual direction guide to the location of our meeting
in the UConn Health Center is available on our website: www.ctmac.org
Monthly meetings will be held at UConn Health Center in Farmington. When hands-on
programs require computers for attendees, we will be using Middlesex Community College
Directions to UConn Health Center, Farmington
From I-84: Take Exit 39 (if coming from I-84 West, Exit 39 is after
39A). Turn right at first traffic light onto Route 4 East (Farmington
Avenue). At third traffic light, turn right to enter the Health Center
campus. Go around the main building to the right (at a Y in road),
then take a left when you get to the Academic Entrance. The road
becomes two-way there so you should be able to tell where to turn.
(Do not go on straight to the two-way part). Then take the second
right into parking lot A&B. this is close to the building. Go past the
police station entrance on your left (small sign). You will see a continuation of the building with its own entrance area. This is the new
research building. Enter on the ground floor, turn right and enter
room EG-013 on your right. This is the first room on your right.
The rest rooms are on your left as you enter.
12
Upcoming Meetings
• September: Celebrity Night
• October:
RSS Newsfeeds and Podcasting
Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, Oct. 26
UConn Health Center
7:00 p.m.
Your News – Your Way!
“ RSS and Podcasts”
Back To Basics 6:00 p.m.
“Downloading”
Disconnecting
and Reconnecting
By Rich Lenoce,
CMC President
As I write this editorial,
the summer is drawing
to a close. As I look
around the Mac landscape things are quiet as
Apple develops its Intel
Macs. Most likely all we’ll see between
now and next year are a few upgrades
to the current Mac line.
My summer vacation was spent tuning
out and disconnecting. My family has
historically been the type of people
who tune-in and stay connected. We
have or should I say had, cell phones,
Palms, 200 channels of cable TV and
Macs – 2 iMacs, a Powerbook 1400, a
G5 and an old Newton eMate.
Our days seemed to be built around
being connected. Constant cell phone
calls to use up our 200 “free” minutes.
Our evenings would be spent wearing
out the remote control searching
through 200 channels to only discover
nothing was on. And we lived by the
Palm, making all our decisions based
on whatever was in the little device
and fearing ever losing it.
As a media teacher, I’m familiar with
all the studies on the negative effects
of media. Not only health concerns
but on the development of kids. I
never noticed it before being a TV
junkie myself as a child until my son
learned to use the remote control
before he could walk. He’d flip
between kid’s channels like a master:
N i c k e l o d e o n , D i s n e y 1-4,
OCTOBER 2005
Cartoon N e t w o r k ,
e t c . Educationallyoriented PBS Kids
programming couldn’t
compete with the
flashiness of those wiz
bang commercial
channels. When given
a choice, my son would
watch Sponge Bob over
playing ball in the yard.
One day I actually watched these
programs and realized the messages
coming out of these shows were
anti-parent, anti-social and anti-intellectual and then the stations would go
to commercials that were pro-eat junk,
pro-buy junk and pro-spend your
parent’s money. These weren’t the
messages we wanted to teach our kids
so we began unplugging.
First, we disconnected our $85 a
month Cable TV and bought $7
“Rabbit Ears”. For what we spent on
cable we can now go to Cape Cod for
a week. It now seems 6 channels is all
we ever really needed. The only children’s station we get is CPTV and
their programming is positive and
Continued on page 2
Connecting and Reconnecting ................ 1
Off The Beaten Path.................................3
Podcasting ...............................................4
Download of the Month........................5
Book Review: Photoshop Restoration ...6
Google TIps ..........................................7
Vendor Offers for MUGs........................8
Take Control Books ..............................9
Meetings and Club News .......................11
1
Thanks, Andy
A special guest, who deserves a
special thanks; Andy Ihnatko
made our September meeting one
to remember. He regaled us with
stories of his travels across
America and adventures in the
world of t e c h n o l o g y. T h e
result was enough laughs-perminute to be heard by passersby to
make them think there was a convention of comedians going on
inside, and surely not a computer
user group meeting.
In addition to having good fun,
we did good deeds, by capping off
the evening with an auction to
benefit The Red Cross. Andy provided the booty for bidding from
his private stash of hardware and
software. CMC members provided their generosity and gave a
total of $1000. Bravo members!
We sincerely thank Andy for
making time in his schedule to
visit us. The User Group community greatly appreciates people
like you, Andy.
healthy and limited in hours so my son
wants to get outside more.
Editor
Deena Quilty
Designer
George Maciel
Photographer
John Scott
Publisher
Connection, Inc.
41 Crossroads Plaza
PMB 1984
Printer
Budget Printers
1718 Park Street
Hartford, CT 06106
We welcome submissions from
members!
in each issue.
Then the cell phones went. We keep
an emergency $30 Walmart pay-asyou-go cheapy around for the
occasional breakdown, but it stays in
my wife’s glove box and we hope we’ll
never have to use it. Besides, I’m
much happier not being interrupted
at all hours.
Then the Palm went and with it life
has gotten its spontaneity back. A
small pocket calendar and address
book supplied free from my local realtor suffices just fine and if I lose it, I
don’t go nuts.
Besides saving a fortune each month
from all these services and devices, I
find we talk in more meaningful ways
and we’re not tied to the technology
to do so. I’ve discovered that though
we think we rule technology, once
you disconnect, you realize how
much technology has ruled you. Our
family has rediscovered books and
classic movies and has settled into a
slower pace.
And then there’s the Mac. Unlike the
other devices, I’ve found the Mac
allows me to work more effectively,
the way I want to work and not be so
tied to the technology. For example,
communications can be blocked, filtered, read all at once or not at all
saving time. Tools in Tiger, like Smart
Mailboxes and Folders, can sort and
pre-sort information for me. I can
spend time communicating in more
effective ways via iChat or by sending
pictures easily and quickly. After
implementing some of Tigers features
and properly organizing my computer
I’ve been able to cut the time spent on
my computer time significantly.
Last week, we went to Vermont for
four days with no phone or computer.
When I returned my Mac had already
pre-sorted my mail into Smart
2
Mailboxes based on subject importance and the mail rules I setup before
we left sent auto-responses to various
people depending on who they were
(my boss, students, etc). Upon my
return, I spent 20 minutes catching up
on communications, not the two
hours it usually takes.
While sitting on the porch of our
Vermont cabin, I had some time to
think about all the things Apple must
be developing for Mac users once the
Intel transition is complete. First, I
think the transition is going to happen
faster than Steve Jobs led us to believe.
I also think there are Mac products in
development that will blow the minds
of PC users. Imagine Apple releasing
consumer electronic products that
connect to these Intel Macs using the
same processors found on PCs but are
only for people running OS X. These
products will be as cool or cooler than
the iPod and it will frustrate PC
diehards enough to buy a Mac.
Theoretically they should still be able
to run Windows applications but after
taking a Mac and all it’s great features
and software for a spin few will need or
want to run Windows on a Mac.
What would I like to see? I’d really like
to see all of the powerful Unix server
underpinnings we’ve heard so much
about put to good use with a true
Media Server built into every Mac.
Music and video files could be shared
among computers, home stereos and
TVs. There’d be a stylish control
interface on each computer and TV to
select media content and a remote
control that can control the Mac’s
media server from anywhere in a
house. Video files such as movies and
TV shows could be downloaded from
an iTunes-like Store and played
directly to a standard or high definition TV as easily as an Airport Express
can send iTunes music.
Again, it would be audio and video on
our terms—thanks to our Mac.
Textpander
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Our final item this month is a utility
that helps you type more efficiently
and more accurately. Textpander listens to what you type and inserts
predefined text snippets on the fly
whenever you enter their corresponding abbreviations.
CMC Secret
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By Kyle DeMilo,
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LED Spectrum Analyser
SnapNDrag
Our first item this month is called
SnapNDrag, and it’s a utility that fits in
nicely between the “Command + Shift
+ 3” keystroke (free), and SnapzPro X
2 (not free). Like Mac OS X’s built-in
commands, it can easily take screenshots of your desktop, or a selection of
your screen. Like SnapzPro X 2, you
can customize the capture area, and
define a countdown, so you can prepare
your subject area first.
Our next item is a plug-in for iTunes,
Apple’s music management program.
Most visual plug-ins that I’ve seen so
far just create more trippy graphics
that dance to the music. This one,
LED Spectrum Analyser for iTunes,
recreates the look of the old stereo
“EQ” meters. For us older folks, it
even can recreate the look of the
classic “VU” meters. All created using
Apple’s Quartz Extreme rendering
technology for smooth-looking
meters, no matter how hard your Mac
is working.
This application is free and requires
Mac OS X 10.2 or higher. If you like
SnapNDrag, you can upgrade to
SnapNDrag Pro for even more features:
• Ability to scale down screenshots
• Global hot keys for quick access
• Option to turn off sponsor’s message
¢ Get it from here: http://www.yellowmug.com/snapndrag/
Click to Capture
Mac Tip
View Suggested
Word Completions
By Chris Hart,
CMC Vice President
Drag Off
Here are a few examples for what you
can do with Textpander:
• Insert standard greetings, text fragments, and signatures – including
formatted text and pictures (for
example, your handwritten signature in an email). Insert the
current date and time in any format you prefer.
• You can have Textpander correct
typos automatically (no more
Klye DeMilo for me!)
LED Spectrum Analyser for iTunes is
freeware and requires a Macintosh
running Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) or
later, and iTunes 3 or later. A speed of
500 MHz or better will give best
results. Any G3, G4 or G5 processor
is fine. Display performance will
depend on which settings you use.
Textpander is donationware, and
requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or greater.
¢ Get it from here: http://
homepage.mac.com/graham.cox/
LEDSA/Spectrum.html
That’s it for now. See you next
month! Feedback? Find a hidden gem
that I missed? Email me directly at:
[email protected]
Can’t remember the exact word or spelling of
a word, while using your Mac? Well, if you’re
working in a Cocoa-based application (like
Mail, Safari, and TextEdit) you can use OSX’s
auto-completion feature to find the word
that’s stuck deep in your brain.
3
• Import text snippets from other
typing utilities.
www.petermaurer.de/textpander
Enter the first part of a word anywhere you
can type - for example, in the subject title for
a new email - and then press the option and
escape keys at the same time. OSX will present you with a list of words that start with that
word fragment.
Podcasting, the New
Alternative to Radio
by Laura Fargione
Podcasting is going to change the
way consumers listen to radio. While
the term “podcasting” is a portmanteau of Apple’s popular “iPod” and
“broadcasting,” podcasting does not
require an iPod (“Podcasting”), any
MP3 player an be used or you can
subscribe and listen right on your
Mac. In podcasting, free subscriptions to downloadable prerecorded
radio shows, called podcasts, are synchronized to an MP3 player.
Subsequently, you can listen to them
whenever and wherever you want.
You can even pause, rewind, or fast
forward through a program. This “on
demand” format has become the new
alternative to radio.
History
Adam Curry, former MTV Video
Jockey, and Dave Winer, RSS developer, are credited with the creation of
podcasting. RSS (Really Simple
Syndication) is a format of XML that
syndicates web content. Originally
developed for blogs, it is now also
used for podcasts. While attending
BloggerCon, Curry met Winer while
he was showcasing his new development for RSS called “enclosures”. An
enclosure allows a file to be attached
to a RSS feed. Winer convinced
Curry that what people really want is
the ability to “take the internet away
with you and listen to it on headphones”. With this new idea, Curry
created iPodder, the first podcast
client. iPodder automatically downloaded MP3 files and stored them to
Curry’s iPod. Curry released his client
as an Open Source application.
Curry launched iPo dder.org in
August 2004 with his own podcast
“The Daily Source Code”. Curry, like
other podcasters, provides his podcast
free of charge and without advertise-
ments. The majority of podcasts are
created by amateur radio personalities
and do not require a profit as their
shows are inexpensive to create.
Already many public radio stations,
including WGHB in Boston and
WNYC in New York, have shows
available as po dcasts. Christus
Broadcasting, Inc. has placed its company owned radio stations for sale to
start the American Po dcasting
Network. Paul Montoya, CEO and a
31 year veteran of the broadcasting
industry stated, “I was there when FM
Radio came into its own and saw the
impact on AM radio. I have also seen
the impact satellite radio has had on
FM radio. I can now see the incredible possibilities that podcasting can
have globally on the way people listen to content. Now they can listen
to programs they want to listen to,
when they want to listen to it”
(“Broadcaster Dumps”). The America
Podcasting Network plans to keep podcasts free by generating revenue
through advertising in programs.
Clear Channel, America’s largest
radio station owner, plans to make
five-minute, ad-supported segments
available for download from station
sites with highlight clips of their onair personalities. It’s clear commercial
radio is taking notice of Podcasting.
Podcasting Content
Many podcasts use a similar format as
4
traditional radio. There are talk
shows, guest interviews, and interactions with callers. Unlike radio,
podcasts have no time limits or deadlines. Shows can be posted as often as
needed. Podcasts can also reach a
global audience, not limited to the
distance of a broadcast signal.
Podcasts are created on just about any
topic. You can find information on
music and technology, or the more
obscure like wine and fishing.
Podcasts, similar to satellite radio,
“don’t have to conform to the FCC’s
broadcast decency regulations:
They’re downloads”. As a result, podcasters are provided more freedom
then terrestrial radio.
Subscribing
Subscribing to a podcast is extremely
easy. First select a podcast client to
install such as iTunes, iPodderX,
YamiPod, Poddum Feeder, Simple
Podcast and MaxPod. Subscribe to a
podcast through your client’s directory or from a podcast directory website.
Once you subscribe there is no need
to revisit the website, your client will
regularly download and sync podcasts
to your iPod or MP3 player usually via
iTunes. If you do not have an iPod or
MP3 Player, you still can listen to
podcasts.
Creating Podcasts
Creating a po dcast show is significantly less expensive then a
traditional radio show. All you need is
a Mac and some software to be a podcaster. First, download and install
one of the many free, shareware or
commercial audio recorders available
from the web. Some choices are
Audacity or GarageBand. Attach a
microphone and headphone to your
computer and start recording. You
can go back and edit out any mistakes. When you’re done, save your
recording as a MP3 file. iTunes can
convert any audio file to an MP3.
Make sure MP3 is selected as the
continued on page 5
import format in the Preferences. Also
select a bit rate; the higher the
bitrate, the bigger the file.. 32kbps
will do for a conversation podcast or
128kbps for a music podcast. To make
a more professional sounding show,
put in some background music. To
avoid license fees, use royalty-free
music available at ShockwaveSound.com, Looperman, or Opsound.
You will also want to enter ID3 tag
information for your show such as
title and creator and that too can be
done in iTunes by selecting File>Get
Info. This information is what will
display a listeners MP3 player. Upload
your MP3 to a Web Site. Most ISPs
provide their customers with free web
space. Next you will have to create an
RSS feed. You don’t need to be a programmer. There are free utilities on
the web to help, such as the podcast
RSS feed generator located at
w w w. t d s c r i p t s . c o m / w e b m a s t e r
_utilities/podcastgenerator.php>
Widget Television VF1 3.1b
Yo u know how w h en you fin d
something neat, you want to bound
around the house yelling OMG,
OMG...! Well maybe you do,
maybe you don’t. But, when I found
widget TV and it said it had 39
channels of cable TV on my
computer, I said ??????????
So I installed it. Waiting for the
part where it wanted hardware.
But no, I am watching Cspan. And
ABCnews, and Boston TV. And if
you so desire, the Home Shopping
C h a n n e l , o n m y c o m p u t e r.
Streaming, which means the same
buffering problems as other media,
like streaming radio. But OMG...I
am watching a movie in a widget on
There’s also one stop software that
can create and publish podcasts such
as Podcaster and Cast Easy. And most
importantly test your creation by subscribing to your show. When you are
happy with your content, announce
its availability on podcast directory
websites. The iTunes Podcasts-Music
Store allows you to “Submit your
Podcast” to be added to their directory and for listeners to subscribe.
Though there are many Podcast
music shows, Podcasts are monitored
by the Recording Industry Association
of America (RIAA) and music shows
are required to pay licensing fees. If
you are thinking of starting a music
podcast program realize you will need
to pay these fees. Unlike broadcast
radio, which is allowed statutory
licenses to transmit music, podcasts
must pay per performance. Unless
licensing rules change, podcasting
will be used as a tool to find new independent music instead of a place to
listen to the top 10.
Podcasting’s Future
Podcasting’s future is bright. With
the improvement of video compression and portable devices, it will not
be long before you will be able to
watch your video podcasts.
Podcasting’s popularity and advantages assure it a vital future as an
alternative to radio. Forrester
Research predicts podcasting will see
significant growth by 2010 reaching
12.3 million households as MP3
adoption climbs and broadband
reaches 62 percent of households.
Podcasts will almost certainly begin
containing paid advertisements similar to terrestrial radio and some
podcasts will likely move to a paid
subscription model. That aside, neither terrestrial radio nor satellite
allows you to select your program
lineup and listen at your leisure. This
is what will set podcasting apart. Be
prepared for a new era in radio.
my computer while I work. And it
does, work I mean. But don’t try
this on dialup.
And it is free. Woohoo.
Product Description: Currently
there are 39 DV channels available
through VF1 on-line and new
channels being added as they
become available. It’s like having a
small screen television right on
your desktop. The VF1 is a widget
that at its current version, allows
you to watch TV, change channels
and turn the VF1 to its ‘Off’ state.
To turn it to its ‘On’ state, simply
open the side menu panel, scroll to
locate a selection, click the channel, then sit back and watch. Future
versions will include full screen and
video/audio controls. The VF1 uses
all three major streaming video
players: QuickTime, RealPlayer,
and Media Player.
5
What’s new in this version.
Menu scrolling function cleaned
up, new skin.
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 or
higher. You will need to install
Apple’s QuickTime 6.2 or higher,
Real.com’s RealPlayer 10 for OS X,
and Microsoft’s Media Player 9 for
OS X. All free. A high-speed DSL
or cable connection.
h t t p : / / t c . v e r s i o n t r a c k e r. c o m /
product/redir/lid/634692/vf1.wdgt.zip
Photoshop Restoration
and Retouching
by Katrin Eisman
Review by Richard Lenoce
CMC President
New Riders Press
ISBN: 0321316274
$49.99
Are you interested in digital photography and want your pictures to look
their very best? Do you have old photos you need to restore while
maintaining their antique beauty? If
there is one, and only one, Photoshop
book you should own its Photoshop
Restoration and Retouching by Katrin
Eisman. This book is a must for anyone who wants to make adjustments
to their pictures beyond iPhoto’s limited editing abilities.
Whether it’s color adjustments, putting
the finishing touches on what’s already
a good photograph, converting color
photos to black and white or repairing
a torn, ripped and faded 100 year old
sepia tone photograph, this book walks
you through the step by step techniques
necessary to make your photos look
their best.
Every year for the last five I have bought
similar books that were either too simplistic or too complex expecting me to
either know too little or too much. The
books either made me feel stupid or
inadequate. This book made me want
to attack a problem photo demonstrating that with Photoshop I have the
expert’s tools at my fingertips. Eisman’s
book takes a problem solving approach
to digital photography. She clearly
defines problems and presents several
techniques to resolve the problem. She
walks the reader though each technique
and explains in clear language why
some techniques work better than others given certain situations.
For example, I have always had difficulty converting color photos to black and
white, something easily
done in a darkroom with
a couple of filters. Just
converting an RGB to
grayscale color s p a c e
doesn’t work. Midtones
turn a dark gray, dulling
what was once a beautiful, high contrast, color
photo and making
Caucasian faces go flat.
Eisman’s book gives you five techniques
based on the quality of the original to
convert the photo helping you identify
potential problems and ways to resolve
them during the conversion. She
assumes all photos are different and
helps you identify issues and then
explores the techniques to make your
photos look their best. And, isn’t that
the point of any discussion about photo
retouching?
This is not a book for the Photoshop
newbie. Though she does a great job of
explaining the tools and methods used,
I strongly suggest you be comfortable
with Photoshop’s tools and working
with layers before you delve to deep
into the book. You can learn those
basic steps at an adult education course
or by using any number of fine introductory Photoshop books and tutorials.
Once that preparation is behind you,
you’ll discover Eisman’s book to be a
rich text that will give you expert control over your photographs.
Photoshop Restoration and Retouching is
a well organized, well written book.
Chapters include:
Occasionally, everyone with an interest
in photo retouching runs into a problem where restoration is required.
Maybe it’s a recent photo you consider
beautifully composed, taken at the right
moment, but your camera wasn’t cooperating. The color balance is heavily
weighted to the blue or red and the
exposure, brightness and contrast of the
image is so far off it’s hard to distinguish
people from a muddy background. Or
maybe that old photo of grandma on
her wedding day is ripped, torn, faded
and at a stage where the photo looks
hopeless. Eisman walks you through the
steps required to evaluate a photo and
then apply techniques to correct problems that seem insurmountable. She
makes the impossible easy and that’s
where the book really shines.
To aid you in the restoration of old
photos, the book features chapters on
• Dust, Mold and Texture Removal
• Damage Control and Repair
• Rebuilding, rearranging and
Recreating Portraits
Once you buy this book, you’ll be able
to go through those old shoeboxes full
of photos and bring them back to life.
And, you’ll have fun doing so.
I highly recommend Photoshop
Restoration and Retouching for anyone
interested in correcting new and old
photographs. This will be the only
book you’ll ever need on the subject.
• Improving Tone and Contrast
• Exposure Correction
• Working with Color
• Refining and Polishing and Image
• Portrait Retouching
• Glamour and Fashion Retouching
All of the techniques in these chapters
will greatly improve your everyday photos, making them look not just better,
but professional. Old photos will jump
back to life.
Author Katrin Eisman
6
David Pogue’s Google Tips
From his NYTimes.com column
submitted for reprint by Kyle Demilo
www.google.com
® Phrase your question in the form of
an answer. “After all, you’re not looking for Web pages that ask your
question,” explains director of technology Craig Silverstein. “You’re
looking for pages that answer it.” So
instead of typing, “What is the average rainfall in the Amazon basin?”,
you might get better results by typing
“The average rainfall in the Amazon
basin is.”
® This is an old one, but very important: Put quotes around phrases that
must be searched together. If you put
quotes around “electric curtains,”
Google won’t waste your time finding
one set of Web pages containing the
word “electric” and another set containing the word “curtains.”
® Similarly, put a hyphen right before
any word you want screened out. If
you’re looking up dolphins, for example, you’ll have to wade through a
million Miami Dolphins pages unless
you search for “dolphins -Miami.”
® Google is a global White Pages and
Yellow Pages. Search for “phonebook:
home depot norwalk, ct,” Google
instantly produces the address and
phone number of the Norwalk Home
Depot. This works with names
(“phonebook:robert jones las vegas,
NV”) as well as businesses.
® Don’t put any space after “phonebook.” And in all of the following
examples, don’t type the quotes I’m
showing you here.
® Google is a package tracker. Type a
FedEx or UPS package number (just
the digits); when you click Search,
Google offers a link to its tracking
information.
® Google is a calculator. Type in an
equation (“32+2345*3-234=”). Click
Search to see the answer.
® Google is a units-of-measurement
converter. Type “teaspoons in a gallon,” for example, or “centimeters in
a foot.” Click Search to see the
answer.
® Google is a stock ticker. Type in
AAPL or MSFT, for example, to see a
link to the current Apple or
Microsoft stock price, graphs, financial news, and so on.
® Google is an atlas. Type in an area
code, like 212, to see a Mapquest map
of the area.
® Google is Wal-Mart’s computer.
Type in a UPC bar code number, such
as “036000250015,” to see the
description of the product you’ve just
“scanned in.” (Thanks to the Google
Blog, http://google.blogspace.com, for
this tip and the next couple.)
® Google is an aviation buff. Type in
a flight number like “United 22” for a
link to a map of that flight’s progress
in the air. Or type in the tail number
you see on an airplane for the full registration form for that plane.
® Google is the Department of
Motor Vehicles. Type in a VIN (vehicle identification number, which is
etched onto a plate, usually on the
door frame, of every car), like
“JH4NA1157MT001832,” to find out
the car’s year, make, and model.
® For hours of rainy-day entertainment, visit http://labs.google.com.
Here, you’ll find links to new, halffinished Google experiments-like
Google Voice, in which you call
(650) 623-6706, speak the words you
want to search for, and then open
your browser to view the results.
Disclaimer: It wasn’t working when I
tried it. (Ditto a lot of these experiments.)
® Poke around the “Services &
Tools” link on the Google.com home
page, and you’ll find some of the better-known lesser-known Google
features, if that makes any sense.
CMC Monthly Meeting
September 28, 2005
Celebrity Guest Night
with Andy Ihnatko
photos by
John Scott,
CMC photographer
7
Vendor Offer Watch • October 13, 2005
MacAddict magazine
Up to 78% off annual subscription; Expires 6/30/06
Compiled by The MUG Center www.mugcenter.com
macHOME magazine
$15 off annual subscription; No expiration
ColorIQ
MacStyles
20% off MacStyles products; Expires 12/31/05
$10 discount on IQ Match
plus free upgrade to Tiger version when released
<http://www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/coloriq.html>
Order info: go to <www.coloriq.com/store>
and enter code mac842
Macworld Magazine
$13 off annual subscription; no expiration
KeynoteUser.com
Max Your Macs
$12.49 discount on Essential Learning CD; Exp. 12/31/05
Magnet Media
15% off Digital Media Training Series; Expires 10/31/05
http://www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/keynoteuser.html
MYOB
$25 off First Edge & $100 off Account Edge; No expiration
Peachpit Press
O’Reilly
30% off all titles; available globally. No expiration
<http://www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/peachpit.html>
Peachpit Press
25% off all titles by joining the Peachpit Club;
No expiration
Terry White
$10 off Mac OS X Training For Windows Users DVD
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PocketMac
40% off all PocketMac products; Expires 12/31/05
Prosoft Engineering
Backup & Data Recycler; No expiration
Other offers including those from the Apple User
Group Bulletin. (For details, including code acquisition,
visit: <http://www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/>)
Sams Publishing
35% of all books; Expires 12/1/05
Apple MUG Store
Discounts on new and refurbished hardware and 1% back
to CMC; no expiration (see pg 11 for id & password)
SpyMac
40% discount on Club Services; Expires 12/1/05
Discount on Macintosh batteries; no expiration
Steel Blue Sky
1 year free user group web site hosting, while supplies last
Order URL: <https://www.steelbluesky.net/product_info.
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Audible.com
Free month of service plus free gifts; no expiration
Tekkeon
Free FM transmitter with purchase of myPower for iPod;
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Circus Ponies
40% rebate on Notebook 2.0; expires 12/1/05
Guy Kawasaki
The Art of the Start & 128 MB USB Flash Drive bundle;
good while supplies last. Order URL:
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TidBITS
10% discount on Take Control eBooks; No expiration
Total Training
25% off training videos; Expires 12/1/05
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X-Ray magazine
Four Free issues of the print publication; Expires 11/18/05
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liquidlibrary
15 month membership for the price of 12 months;
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8
“Take Control of Permissions
in Mac OS X”
Mac users who have long been at the
mercy of arcane permissions from Mac
OS X’s Unix underpinnings can now
regain mastery of their Macs with
Submitted by Robert Sawyer
CMC Board Member
“Take Control of Your iPod:
Beyond the Music”
i
f you own an iPod or are thinking
about purchasing one, our latest
ebook “Take Control of Your iPod:
Beyond the Music” - will help you
make the most of your iPod experience.
Although this ebook covers the basics of
plugging in a new iPod and transferring
music to it, most of its 128 pages focus
on all the other cool stuff you can do
with your iPod. And since an iPod is
still fairly expensive, it’s great to put it to
work in ways other than playing music.
The ebook’s author, Steve Sande, has
an infectious enthusiasm for all things
iPod, and I’ve enjoyed learning how to
transfer my calendar and contact information from Now Up-to-Date &
Contact to the iPod, how to read long
text-based ebooks on the iPod screen,
and how to off-load photos from my
digital camera to the iPod. Those are
just my favorite topics... Steve also
explains how to synch other calendar
and contact programs to an iPod, make
backups to an iPod, use an iPod as an
emergency boot drive, display photos
on a color-screen iPod from your computer, use an iPod to drive a slideshow
presentation, turn an iPod into an
alarm clock, play iPod games, and even
install Linux on an iPod. On the audio
side of life, Steve also discusses effective
ways to record meetings or voice
memos, listen to speech-synthesized
ebooks, and move podcasts and an variety of audiobook formats to the iPod.
You can read
more about the
ebook, download a free
31-page sample, and place an order at:
http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/
ipod-btm.html
Although we were poised to release
this ebook several weeks ago, we
delayed slightly in order to incorporate
the latest info about iTunes 5, the iPod
nano, and - for the sake of .Mac users Backup 3. Because the iPod and iTunes
are used by many Windows users, the
ebook includes cross-platform details,
making it useful for Windows-using
friends and colleagues.
Book Details
“Take Control of Your iPod: Beyond
the Music” by Steve Sande
ipod-btm.html?14@@!pt=TRK-0025
TCANNOUNCE>
sample available Platforms covered:
Mac OS X, Windows Publication date:
October 6, 2005
Price: $10
ISBN: 1-933671-01-7
If you’re looking to buy a new or used
iPod, a detailed appendix helps you
wrap your head around all the different
models by explaining the current members of the iPod family and providing a
complete timeline of iPod releases.
9
“Take Control of Permissions in Mac
OS X,” the latest entry in the Take
Control library. Written by Unix guru
and Mac aficionado Brian Tanaka, the
90-page ebook mixes practical how-to
details and troubleshooting tips with
just the right amount of theory as it
explains permissions in relation to how
you keep your files private, copy files to
and from servers, set the Ignore
Permissions option for external disks,
repair screwy permissions, and delete
those files that just won’t die. For those
who want to learn advanced concepts,
the ebook also delves into topics like
the sticky bit, symbolic vs. absolute
ways to set permissions, and how to
work with bit masks. The book covers
managing permissions from the
Finder’s Get Info window, with morecapable Macintosh utilities, and from
the Unix command line.
Full details are available below, and you
can place an order with the 10% MUG
discount already applied via:
<http://store.esellerate.net/store/
s.aspx?s=STR5625274989&Cmd=
BUY&SKURefnum=SKU97807638959
&COUPON=CPN31208MUG&
O p t i o n s = P R E VA L I D AT E
COUPON&PT=TRK-0026-TCMUG>
Book Details
“Take Control of Permissions
in Mac OS X” by Brian Tanaka
http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/
permissions-macosx.html?14@@!pt=
TRK-0026-TCMUG
sample available. Platforms covered:
Mac OS X Publication date:
October 13, 2005
Price: $10
ISBN: 1-933671-00-9
2005-2006 Connecticut Macintosh Connection
Officers and Board of Directors
CMC Benefits:
[email protected]
860-347-1789
[email protected]
860-291-9393
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David Gerstein
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10
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the meetings are held one week
attend a Board meeting, contact an officer for time & location.
members the opportunity to purchase any published book for either
Mac or Windows at a 20% discount.
All major publishers are carried by
our source.
Wednesday, October 26, 7:00 p.m.
“Your News – Your Way”
Ever wish that the latest updates from your
favorite web sites and news sources would
come to you? Or that you could listen to
radio shows according to your schedule?
RSS and Podcasts make that possible.
If those aren’t words you’ve heard before,
you don’t need to worry. Presenter and past
CMC president, Joe Arcuri, will make the
terminology and the process easy to understand.
And once you see how to get started, you’ll
have the latest news, reviews, blogs and commentary delivered to you on a daily (even on
an hourly) basis. But you don’t have to sit at
your computer to enjoy Podcasts. You’ll be
able to listen to these radio-style news, talk,
discussion and interview shows on your personal music player, no matter where you go.
Back To Basics, 6:00 p.m.
Do you get confused by uploading and
downloading? Have trouble making sense
out of the files you download from the
Internet? Do you end up with all sorts of
files on your desktop, and none of them
appearing to be of any use? Or worse yet, do
you end up with a downloaded file that you
can’t get to work?
Then this Back To Basics session at 6:00 is
for you! We’ll explain how downloads work,
clever tools to make them work better, and
most importantly allow you to understand
what all those files on your desktop are for.
Coming in November
The CMC Auction!
Watch your email for news!
NOTICE!
Contact a Board Member or send an
email to [email protected]. Provide
the book title, the publisher and the
ISBN number, if possible, and he will
check on its availability. Normally,
the wait is not too long.
and password
Please, make a
note of it NOW!
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7/01/2005 - 10/31/2005
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CMC Password: XXX
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Balances as of October 5, 2005
11
Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, Oct. 26
UConn Health Center
7:00 p.m.
Your News – Your Way!
“ RSS and Podcasts”
Back To Basics 6:00 p.m.
“Downloading”
Upcoming Meetings
• October: RSS & Podcasting
A pdf document containing a visual direction guide to the location of our meeting in the UConn Health Center is available on our website: www.ctmac.org
• January: Photoshop Layers
From I-84: Take Exit 39 (if coming from I-84 West, Exit 39 is
after 39A). Turn right at first traffic light onto Route 4 East
(Farmington Avenue). At third traffic light, turn right to enter
the Health Center campus. Go around the main building to
the right (at a Y in road), then take a left when you get to the
Academic Entrance. The road becomes two-way there so you
should be able to tell where to turn. (Do not go on straight to
the two-way part). Then take the second right into parking lot
A&B. this is close to the building. Go past the police station
entrance on your left (small sign). You will see a continuation
of the building with its own entrance area. This is the new
research building. Enter on the ground floor, turn right and
enter room EG-013 on your right. This is the first room on
your right. The rest rooms are on your left as you enter.
12
CMC Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, Dec. 14
Special Location: Keller Hall
UConn Health Center
7:00 p.m.
CMC Annual Holiday Party
and Celebration of Gadgets
(see page 11 for info & directions)
I’ve Seen the
Future of the Macintosh
By Rich Lenoce,
CMC President
NOV/DEC 2005
TV. These two new
iMacs are meant to be
the center of a home
entertainment system,
not just a computer.
The Macintosh world has been
quiet since June when Apple
announced the
Mac was moving
to Intel. Since
then I’ve have had a tough time
finding news to fill this column. Now
I have some news. It’s not just news,
but with recent announcements we
can glimpse the future of Apple and
the Macintosh.
This is just a glimmer
of what is to come
when Apple moves
to Intel. The
disappointment is the
rest of us can’t experience the Front
Row media center and Photobooth as
they’re only available on new iMacs.
I’m not sure why this is other than to
leave the rest of us salivating.
First, on October 11, Apple
announced record quarterly revenues
of $3.68 billion and record profits of
$430 million. Wall Street lowered
Apple stock because they sold only 6.5
million iPods and 1.23 million
Macintoshes, which did not meet their
expectations. That’s 1.23 million
Macs in four months at a time when
you’d think people would hold off on
buying Macs until the Intel release!
And, from the Steve Jobs is a fibber
department, we now have the video
iPod. Steve once said there was “no
market for a video iPod” but also on
October 12 he released the device.
When asked about his previous statement he replied, “with the video iPod
we are creating the market.” How silly
of me to misinterpret his original
comments. He also once said no one
wanted to watch video on a 3" screen
but apparently that also has changed.
The next day, Steve Jobs announced
two new iMac models with built-in
iSight cameras, media center software
called Front Row, a remote control to
control the media center and
Photobooth digital photography software. There’s also
faster RAM, a
video output and
enough video
memory (128mb)
to drive both the
LCD monitor and
a high definition
Will people watch video on a
3"screen? You bet, at least if initial
sales are any indicator. Video iPods
have potential beyond watching
videos on a 3" screen as it can be
1
hooked to a TV. It accepts most other
Quicktime files, not just those offered
through the Apple Music Store. The
only Quicktime compatible files I
couldn’t transfer into iTunes were
DIVX (.avi) files popular with
Internet movie pirates. This may have
been done to convince Hollywood of
the iPod’s viability as a secure digital
video player that would protect their
copyrighted content.
Apple also released iTunes 6 giving
users the ability to import Quicktime
videos into iTunes and transfer them
to the iPod and to purchase and
download music videos, Pixar shorts
and some ABC/Disney TV shows
through the Apple Store. Can movies
be far behind?
For $2.00 I thought I’d download a
video and give you my results of how
they looked and played.
The 42 minute pilot episode of the
ABC series, Lost took 40 minutes to
download using DSL and weighed in
at 208 megabytes. The .MPV file contains MPEG-4 video (I assume H264)
and AAC audio. The file is protected
Continued on page 2
I’ve Seen the Future of Macintosh........... 1
DTV 0.7 ....................................................3
Download of the Month ............................3
Mac 911 ...................................................4
Easter Eggs ..............................................6
DVD Review OS X Training ..................8
Review: Papyrus Office.............................9
Take Control Books...................................9
Meetings and Club News .......................11
Editor
Deena Quilty
Designer
George Maciel
Photographer
John Scott
Publisher
Connection, Inc.
41 Crossroads Plaza
PMB 1984
Printer
Budget Printers
1718 Park Street
Hartford, CT 06106
We welcome submissions from
members!
in each issue.
by the same Fair Play digital rights
management scheme as iTunes music
downloads playing only on authorized computers. These protected files
can’t be burned to DVD (you get an
unsupported file message when you
try) and the audio and video can’t be
extracted using Quicktime Pro. The
only way to get the video out of the
computer is by hooking the computer
to a TV, transferring the file to an
iPod and watching the video on it’s
3" screen or though the iPod’s video
output.
The sad news is that the video is of
poor quality with a display size of only
320 X 240 pixels at 24 frames per second, which is one quarter the size of
the 640 X 480/30 fps used by the TV
industry. I’m sure the videos look fine
on 3" iPod screen, but by any standard of taste that is low-resolution
video when viewed on a TV. Full
screen mode magnifies the image 4
times making it look like a very bad
VHS copy with muted colors, little
detail and a very soft pixilated look.
“Yucky” would be the term. The
sound however is CD quality.
What gives? Apple doesn’t compromise in quality with its AAC audio
files. After all, didn’t Apple proclaim
this the “year of HD” video with
iMovie HD, Final Cut HD, iDVD 5
(HD) and the H264 Quicktime video
codec capable of delivering standard
and high definition video at low bit
rates? Why aren’t the videos delivered in that high quality format?
I can’t answer these questions.
Possibly consumer and industry pressures forced Apple to offer the service
too early. It’s clear Disney is the only
studio involved in digital downloads
and they could have possibly used low
quality to not anger their broadcast
affiliates. It just may be that
Hollywood isn’t ready for legal video
downloads. Maybe the other studios
need to be “sold” on digital rights
2
management and the demand for
hardware like the iPod and home
media centers before they’ll join with
Apple and only then the quality will
go up. Whatever the reason offering
low quality video is short sighted considering the number of people sharing
decent quality illegal content over
various P2P networks such as
BitTorrent, Usenet and Gnutella.
What seems clear is that Apple is
readying us for bigger and better
things: computers that go beyond traditional uses. Clearly, Apple wants
the Mac to be a central hub for home
entertainment to download, store,
manage and display iLife and commercial audio and video content. Not
just music and low quality videos, but
high quality motion pictures and TV
series. There’s even a video podcasting
feature in iTunes 6 to view and possibly distribute iLife created content.
If you don’t like the TV shows you
see, you can create your own.
Hollywood may not be ready,
but we are.
Thanks, Joe
October's CMC meeting marked
the return of Past President (and
current group Ambassador), Joe
Arcuri, as a presenter. He brought
an everyman's approach to the hot
topics of RSS news subscriptions
and Podcasting. If you couldn't
tell, Joe's addicted to this stuff and
he thinks everybody should be
hooked! Thanks, Joe, for a great
presentation and don't wait so
long before the next one!
Photo by Jack Bass
DTV 0.7
Submitted by Joe Arcuri
“I just downloaded a free program called
DTV from http://www.dtvmac.com/
that supposedly does for online video
content what a Tivo does for TV.”
From the website:
http://dtvmac.com/
Internet TV
is Open and Independent
DTV is a new, free and open-source
platform for internet television and
video. An intuitive interface lets
users subscribe to channels, watch
video, and build a video library. Our
publishing software lets you broadcast
full-screen video to thousands of people at virtually no cost. The project is
non-profit, free and open source, and
built on open standards. A Windows
version of DTV and a full website are
well underway and will arrive in the
next several weeks.
The Channel Guide is Open
Along with the Mac Beta we've
launched the built-in DTV Channel
Guide, which already features more
than 100 internet TV channels (all
free), with more being added every
day. Publishers of DTV-compatible
channels can now submit channels to
be included in the guide. If you have
an RSS feed with video enclosures,
your channel is already compatible
(see our ideal RSS format). This beta
version of DTV embeds QuickTime 7,
Screenshot Plus 1.2
Driven crazy by the OSX screen capture program? Well relief is here.
ScreenShot Plus 1.2 uses Apple’s
tool to do the capturing, but allows
you to scale the capture and select a
format, jpeg, tiff, psd, and more! You
can even attach the capture to an
email in one step.
so any video that plays in
QuickTime will play in DTV. DTV
supports standard HTTP downloads
as well as BitTorrent downloads.
Submit your channel today!
Create a Channel
Now's the moment to make that
internet TV channel you've been
dreaming of. And you don't need to
be a videomaker to have a great
channel – just as sites like Boing
Boing and Slashdot bring together
news and links from around the
web, we expect that some of the
most interesting and popular internet TV channels will link to video
from all over the place. Broadcast
Machine makes it easy to create
your own channel by pulling
together videos you find around the
internet – funny videos, news clips,
movie trailers, or anything else.
Internet TV needs some good editors, why not you? Try Broadcast
Machine or make a channel of
video links using del.icio.us.
DTV Features
• Built in Channel Guide with hundreds of free internet TV channels.
• Subscribe to any video RSS feed
(video podcast).
• Download, watch, and manage
videos all in one application.
• Auto-download your favorite
channels.
Let us know what you think:
Screenshot: Channel Guide
Screenshot: Channel View
Screenshot: Video Playing
[email protected]
ScreenShot Plus is activated by
pressing Shift-Apple-2, You will
then have the option of selecting a
region on screen, toggle to window
select mode by pressing the spacebar. A window will appear showing
the captured area. From here you can
scale the image and select a format to
save in. ScreenShot Plus now uses
Quartz scaling for a smoother result.
Unregistered copies will save images
with a watermark. Costs $10, Jim
McKay piDog Software.
3
http://www.pidog.com/screenshotplus/
Mac 911
Solutions to your most
vexing Mac problems
by Christopher Breen
Crossed Signals
To boost my wireless network’s signal
strength, I have an Apple AirPort
Extreme Base Station on the second
floor of my town house and an
AirPort Express on the first floor.
Aside from the neighbors’ occasional
2.4GHz phone call, everything has
worked fine. Lately, however, several
802.11 networks have popped up in
my vicinity, and one of them has a signal strong enough to prevent me from
connecting to my network when I’m
on the first floor. How can I improve
the signal strength? – Chris Tatian
Instead of attempting to boost the
strength of the signal, try avoiding
interference from your neighbors’
wireless networks. How? Change
channels.
Avoiding interference from the
phone will be trickier. At one
time, 2.4GHz phones used just one
channel–usually 11. Newer phones
use something called frequency
hopping technology that allows
them to leap from channel to
channel, looking for the strongest
one. If the phone lands on the channel you’ve assigned to your base
station, you could get interference
even after switching channels.
A Matter of Some Import
When I launch Mail 2.0 in Tiger, it
starts importing old messages from
Mail 1.0. Apparently, there’s an old
sent-mail message that Mail 2.0 doesn’t
like: the application hangs on one message and stops importing sent mail.
When I cancel, the whole thing stops.
I’ve tried launching Mail again, but the
whole process repeats. Where does that
old message live? I’d like to delete it
before I launch Mail 2.0, and skip the
import step altogether. – Jeff Hounshell
To change the channel that your
AirPort uses, launch AirPort Admin
Utility (in the /Applications/ Utilities
folder). Select your base station in the
resulting window and click on
Configure. If asked to, enter the password. Click on the AirPort tab, choose
a new channel from the Channel popup menu, and then click on Update.
You’ll find all of Mail’s mailbox files
(called mbox files) by following this
path: /your user folder/Library/Mail/
name of account, where name of
account is the name of your e-mail
account – POPtestingmail.example.
com, for example. Inside this folder is a
Sent Messages.mbox folder. Give this
folder the bum’s rush (in other words,
delete it); that should fix the problem.
Ideally, the channel you choose should
be at least four or five channels away
from that of the adjacent wireless network or phone – for example, if a
nearby network is broadcasting on
channel 1, you’ll choose channel 6 for
your network. To learn which channels nearby networks are using,
download Spintriplet’s free Air Traffic
Control widget if you’re running Tiger;
give the free MacStumbler a go if
you’re using an earlier version of OSX.
Each of these utilities lists local wireless
networks along with their channel
information.
You can also choose to import some of
your old mail by choosing File: Import
Mailboxes. In the Import dialog box
that appears, select the Mail For Mac
OS X option, click on Continue, and
select the account folder from which
you want to import messages. In the
next window, choose the mailboxes you
want to import and click on Continue.
This will place your old mail in an
Import folder in Mail’s sidebar.
Alternatively, you can enable the Other
option in the Import window and selectively import individual mbox files.
Bookmark Management
Is there any way to alphabetize my
bookmark collection in Safari?
– Christian Gilbert
You could do it by hand, of course, but
what a bother–particularly if you routinely add new bookmarks. If you’re
using Tiger, you can alphabetize your
Safari bookmarks with Sheep Systems’
Bookdog–priced at an introductory
$10 as I write this, but it’ll be $15 when
version 2.0 ships. It can organize not
only individual bookmarks, but also
the folders containing those bookmarks. You can also use Bookdog to
track down and delete duplicate bookmarks.
Use the company’s free SafariSorter
if you’re running OS X 10.2 to 10.3.8
(it’s not compatible with 10.3.9).
Crippled QuickTime
In QuickTime Player 6, the video controls let me lighten, darken, change the
contrast of, and tint videos. I upgraded
to QuickTime 7, and that feature seems
to no longer be there–the A/V
Controls cover only audio and playback speed. Is there any way to access
the video controls in the new version?
– Rich Root
QuickTime Player 7’s A/V Controls
allow you to edit video only on Macs
with video cards that support Apple’s
Core Image technology – generally
video cards made by ATI and not those
from Nvidia. You’ll know that your
video card lacks support if you can’t see
the video adjustment sliders in the
A/V Controls window–you’ll be able
to adjust only speed and audio settings.
This is the case in both the free version
of QuickTime and the $30 Pro version.
However, this limitation doesn’t exist
if you use QuickTime Player 6.5.2
with QuickTime 7. Hopefully, you
still have a copy of this older version
of Player. If you don’t, download the
continued on page 5
4
QuickTime 6.5.2 Reinstaller, and
extract QuickTime Player with
CharlesSoft’s $20 Pacifist. This version of QuickTime Player, coupled
with QuickTime 7.X, will offer a
video option in A/V Controls even if
your graphic card doesn’t support
Core Image.
Dodgy Discs
I routinely receive large files on CDs
that were created on a Windows PC,
and those discs fail to mount on my
Mac. What instructions can I give
those Windows users so that the discs
they send me will mount on my
Mac? – Gregory Payne
Politely ask your PC pals to stop using
Roxio’s DirectCD or Drag-to-Disc utilities to burn their discs. These
programs support packet writing,
which allows you to burn files to a CDR or CD-RW multiple times using a
file format called UDF (Universal Disc
Format). This format is a convenient
way to append files to a disc designed
as write-once, but discs produced using
it aren’t Mac-compatible. Discs made
by other means on the PC will almost
certainly be burned in the ISO 9660
format, which the Mac understands
completely.
If the disc format doesn’t appear to be
the problem, check the kind of media
people are sending you. The Mac loves
CD-R media but can act finicky with
CD-RW discs.
Slugging Slide Shows
Is there a way to put the file name of
each picture somewhere on screen during a slide show created in iMovie,
iDVD, or iPhoto? This would be helpful for viewers who want to extract a
few favorite photos from the DVD.
– Doug Fehr
While you can configure Apple’s
iPhoto 4 so that it displays the file
name of each picture during its slide
shows, it won’t export that slide show
to iDVD with the file name in place. If
you want the name to appear in iDVD
(or in a QuickTime movie you export
to iDVD), you must use iPhoto 5 (part
of the iLife ‘05 suite, $79). Here’s how:
• Dig for Deals
If you’re looking for deals on new and
reconditioned Apple laptops and
peripherals, check out PowerBook
Central. The site routinely lists bargains on the laptops you love.
Assemble a slide show in iPhoto 5 (File:
New Slideshow) and click on the
Settings button at the bottom of the
iPhoto window. In the resulting sheet,
enable the Show Titles option and click
on OK. Choose Share: Send To iDVD.
This creates an MPEG-4 QuickTime
movie file that’s stored in the Movies
folder within your user folder. You’ll see
the title of each picture in a small box
in the movie frame’s upper left corner
(see “Name in Frame”).
• Keep Up on Upgrades
Accelerate Your Mac is a terrific
resource for learning how to upgrade
any Mac, laptops included. If you’re
interested in replacing your iBook’s or
PowerBook’s hard drive, media drive, or
processor, this should be your first stop.
iDVD will open with the slide show in
place. If you like, burn it onto a DVD.
Otherwise, open your Movies folder,
locate the QuickTime movie that
iPhoto created for iDVD, and do with
it what you will.
Tools of the trade
• The lowdown on laptops
There’s a reason–other than the pure
awkwardness of it–that Apple didn’t
christen its laptops the Apple
Macintosh PowerBook and the Apple
Macintosh iBook. Laptops are different beasts from desktop computers.
They deserve a special name, as well
as special resources for their care and
feeding.
• Peruse Peripherals
The Apple Store is a perfectly fine
place to browse iBook and PowerBook
peripherals, but suppose you want a
third-party high-capacity battery for
your iBook or a wireless PC Card for
your PowerBook? The Store doesn’t
stock such non-Apple items. Instead,
turn to Froogle, Google’s product finder. Froogle allows you to be very
specific in your searches. If you type
PowerBook G4 15" high capacity battery , for example, you’ll get dozens of
hits (including sales on eBay).
5
• Find It on the Forums
This puts me at risk of accusations
that I’m shilling for the home team,
but it’s unavoidable: Macworld.com’s
Portable Macs and Handhelds forum
is a great place to pose your perplexing
PowerBook and iBook questions and
help others get out of similar jams.
Tip of the month
Lost for words
Say you’re typing in the Tiger version
of a text-centric Apple application
such as TextEdit, Mail, iChat, or
Stickies, and you can’t conjure up the
complete word you’re looking for. Just
type the first couple of letters in the
word and press the escape key. A list of
words that begin with the letters
you’ve typed appears. Select the one
you want, and it replaces the letters
you’ve typed. – Scott Mahrer
Contributing Editor Christopher Breen is
also Playlistmag.com’s editor in chief
author of Macworld’s tips and
troubleshooting column, “Mac 911,” as
well as Secrets of the iPod: Fifth Edition
and Mac 911 (Peachpit Press).
Find Chris’ books at www.amazon.com
and www.peachpit.com. Get special
user group pricing on Macworld
Magazine! Subscribe today at
http://www.macworld.com/useroffer
Easter Eggs
by Kyle DeMilo
CMC Secretary
An Easter Egg is a hidden feature or
novelty that the programmers have
put in their software. In general, it is
any hidden, entertaining thing that
a creator hides in their creation
only for their own personal reasons. This can be anything from a
hidden list of the developers, to
hidden commands, to jokes, to
funny animations.
H o w e v e r, T h e s e d a y s
Easter Eggs are a dying breed.
Large software development houses like Apple or Microsoft frown
them upon. They feel that all of
the effort needed to create them
could be used to fix another bug,
or add another feature.
Another reason is that
the creators usually
put their names in
their creations, and
companies like
Apple didn’t want
headhunters cherrypicking their talent.
According to eeggs.com (an
online collection of Easter
Eggs), an Easter Egg must satisfy
the following criteria:
•
It must be undocumented,
hidden, and not obvious
An Easter Egg can't be a legitimate feature of a product, or be an
obvious part of a storyline. Easter
Eggs will usually stand out either
because they totally don't fit with
their context (like the pinball
game in Word 97), or because
they have a deeper hidden personal meaning to the creators, so they
threw it in for entertainment.
• It must be reproducible
Every user with the same product
or combination of products must
be able to produce the same result
given the instructions.
• It must be put there by the
creators for personal reasons
The Egg must have been put there
on purpose, and furthermore have
a personal significance to the creators beyond just making a better
product.
•
It must not be malicious
Easter Eggs are there for fun, not
to do damage.
•
It must be entertaining!
The most important element...if
it's not there for entertainment,
it's not an Easter Egg.
However, some can
still sneak past. Here
is one unearthed just a
few days ago (requires
Microsoft’s Office 2004)
START UP THE APP:
/APPLICATIONS/MICROSOFT OFFICE
2004 / OFFICE / MICROSOFT OFFICE
NOTIFICATIONS
HOLD DOWN CONTROL, COMMAND
& OPTION KEYS AND SELECT 'ABOUT
OFFICE NOTIFICATIONS'
NOW
CLICK THE LITTLE BLACK
Thanks!
Auction Donors
Our November 16th annual CMC
auction raised hundreds of dollars for
our group. We wish to thank the
many companies and individuals who
donated:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Microsoft
MYOB
Macworld
CodeTek
Circus Ponies
Dantz
Extensis
Total Training
Other World Computing
O’Reilly/Pogue Press
Wiley
Sybex
Webster Bank
Apple
Jack Bass
Focal Press
Plus a huge thanks to Don, Joe,
Bob, Debi, Chris and all for
making this year’s auction a
lot of fun and a great success.
&
WHITE ICON THAT APPEARS ABOVE
THE
'OK' BUTTON.
HAVE FUN :)
Please accept our
apologies if we have
inadvertently left out
anyone from this list!
6
DVD Review:
OS X Training For Windows Users
by Bill Davies, MacNexus
www.macnexus.org/index.php?option=
content&task=view&id=365&Itemid=2
In this review I critique a new DVD by
Terry White entitled “MacOS X
Training for Windows Users.” Who
the heck is Terry White? In my opinion, the guy pretty much walks on
water. He founded and has kept alive
MacGroup-Detroit,
which
is
Michigan’s largest Macintosh user
group. In fact, he’s still the president
and driving force behind the group. So
when I heard that he was putting out a
DVD, I thought it might be interesting
to give it a spin.
I’ve watched most of the DVD, and I’m
going to start with the conclusion: If
you’re trying to learn your way around
OS X and want someone to show you
around, this is a great DVD. On the
other hand, if you’re a Windows user
and moving to OS X, as the title of this
DVD implies, then I did not see anything particularly helpful to the
Windows expatriate, and I think the
title of the DVD is misleading.
So, upon what do I base my conclusions? First and foremost, Terry White
has a very laid back personality and he
gives a nice tour of OS X. He’s easy to
listen to and covers all the basics of
creating, finding, and organizing your
data. That is why I suggest that if
you’re a little timid about how to operate the Finder or the computer in
general, this DVD will raise your confidence and help you find your way
around the system.
However, specific to the Windows user,
Mr. White discusses some of the basic
similarities (such as noting that a
“shortcut” in Windows is called an
“alias” on the Mac), but there is no
real depth to the discussion. A case in
point would be his
discussion of how a
Windows person
would get their data
to the Mac. He notes
the existence of
Detto’s Move2Mac
product for $49, and
also suggests that data
can be copied via CD-R or by network if the two computers are
networked. My feeling is that the average Windows user would have no idea
where their data even lives on the
computer, such as their address list or
their email, and this DVD provides
absolutely no detailed information on
the nuts and bolts things a Windows
person would need to know to successfully migrate to the Mac. Nor does he
...But were it me
marketing this DVD, I
would call this version
“Basic MacOS X Training
For Newcomers To Mac”
mention any of the pitfalls, or things
that, quite frankly, a Windows user
will not find on a Mac. For example,
there is some discussion of how he can
open a Microsoft Word document on
the Mac without having Word on his
computer, but there is no discussion of
the settings in Apple Mail to “send
Windows-friendly attachments” or of
file suffixes, or of file types that are
common to both Windows and
Macintosh. So the flavor I got from
the training was that once you successfully migrate to the Mac, you really
don’t need to worry about successfully
interoperating with your Windows
friends anymore. That seems a bit
short-sighted to me.
The DVD starts with Mr. White’s discussion of the “Top Ten” things a user
new to OS X needs to know about. But
the discussion is entirely oral, that is to
7
say, although he could have easily posted a slide listing the top ten items, or
done title overlays on the video to highlight what he was talking about, but he
has not done that. So you have to listen
keenly to what he has to say, even
though I believe the learning experience would be much better with some
textual slides mixed in with the video.
This DVD appears to have been made
in the May-June 2005 time frame. It
includes discussion of Apple’s one-button mouse and discussion of what a
Windows user who wants a two-button
mouse might do. Time, and product
cycles march on, and this DVD makes
no mention of Apple’s “Mighty Mouse”
product which is like a two-button
mouse on steroids, and soon will be
shipping with all Pro Macs, if not
already. So even before the publicity
machine cranks up around this DVD, it
is already slightly out of date.
Given Mr. White’s job description and
his vast array of equipment, I have no
doubt that over time he will be able to
continue to enhance this video production, perhaps add some textual slides or
overlays for the user to read on the
screen, and drill down with a bit more
detail on the more bothersome topics.
But were it me marketing this DVD, I
would call this version “Basic MacOS X
Training For Newcomers To Mac” and
leave out any representation that this
DVD will help a Windows user successfully migrate to the Mac platform. It’s a
great DVD for basic MacOS X training.
Mac OS X Training
for Windows Users DVD
Produced and narrated by Terry White
Terry White Productions
P.O. Box 760399
Lathrup Village, MI 48076-0399
$34.95
http://terrywhite.tv/index.html
User group members can save $10 by
ordering online and using voucher
code 112051289.
SPECIAL OFFERS – APPLE USER GROUP BULLETIN
November 15, 2005
iWork User Group:
40 Percent Off Business Stationery Design Kit
Have you admired the matching letterheads, envelopes, business cards and memo pads used by large corporations? Now
you can create your own with the iWork Users Group‘s
(iWUG) new “Business Stationery Design Kit” for Pages.
iWUG‘s kit contains more than 400 Pages templates. Just
replace the placeholder text with the name and address of
your business to print professional quality, thematically
matched letterheads, envelopes, business cards and memo
pads for your office. Requires Pages. Regularly $49.95, you
can receive the members’ price of $29.95 by selecting the
MUG Member option. iWUG can be contacted by email at
[email protected], by fax at 734-454-1965 and by
phone at 888-781-2984. Coupon code MUGMember
http://www.iWorkUsers.org/shop/merchant4.html
This worldwide offer is valid through January 31, 2006.
These User Group discounts are brought to you by the
Apple User Group Advisory Board and Tom Piper, vendor
relations. You must be a current Apple user group member
to qualify for these savings. Not a member? Join an Apple
user group today to take advantage of these special offers.
For information about vendor offers and more visit
http://homepage.mac.com/ugab/offerss.html
onOne Software:
20 Percent Discount on Photoshop Plug-Ins
onOne Software provides solutions for digital photographers
using Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Solutions
include Genuine Fractals 4.1 for high-quality image scaling
and large format printing, PhotoFrame 2.5 for creating unique,
high-quality image borders and effects, Mask Pro 3 for masking
images for composites and Intellihance Pro for enhancing digital photographs. This special user group offer will take 20
percent off your entire purchase. Coupon code: MUG
Order today. http://www.ononesoftware.com
This worldwide offer is valid through February 28, 2006.
The MUG Store:
The MUG Store has free freight to members, RAM rebates
and aggressive pricing on new and reconditioned Macs.
they also have one of the largest selections of pre-owned
Macs on the planet. (See id and password on page 11)
Other World Computing:
Selected Discounts
Other World Computing (OWC) has sold and supported
quality Apple hardware products at competitive prices since
1998. OWC has partnered with Newer Technology, to provide high-capacity batteries for iPods and PowerBooks and
launched http://www.FasterMac.net to get Mac users surfing
faster. With this offer, user group members can take 5 percent
off any NewerTech miniStack FireWire kit/solution, and 10
percent off any NewerTech Battery (iBook, PowerBook or
iPod). This offer carries a limit of one coupon per item and
one discount per customer per order.
• Stack code: NEWMINI • Battery code: NEWBAT
See these great products. http://www.macsales.com
This worldwide offer is valid through February 28, 2006.
ColorIQ
$10 discount on IQ Match (free upgrade to Tiger version)
Order: <www.coloriq.com/store> code mac842
KeynoteUser.com
Peachpit Press
www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/peachpit.html
Enter coupon code EE-S4AP-PPT at the checkout
DeltaGraph:
Up to 25 Percent Discount
Red Rock Software
Red Rock DeltaGraph 5.x (Mac/Win) helps researchers, analysts, managers and desktop publishers who work with complex
sets of data to collect, analyze and present their findings in a
visually compelling and memorable manner. DeltaGraph
enables users to develop a broad spectrum of 2D and 3D graphs
and charts (84 Graph/Chart types). It was awarded Best of Show
at Macworld Expo NYC 2003. Reviews are available at
www.macworld.com (Four Mice - 2004). With a MSRP of $299
and an academic price of $199, DeltaGraph is offering a user
group price of $249 and an academic price of $149 Register at
the Red Rock website to receive an emailed coupon code.
www.redrocksw.com/deltagraph/UserGroups/index.htm This
offer is valid through January 31, 2006.
$50 off all products, excluding stand-alone User Guides;
discount applies to academic pricing and upgrades;
www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/redrock.html
User Group Discount coupon: 1USERGROUP50
Terry White
$10 off Mac OS X Training For Windows Users DVD
<www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/terrywhite.html>
Plus...dozens of vendor offers for CMC members.
http://homepage.mac.com/ugab/offers/vendorcodes.htm
(See CMC member password on page 11)
8
Papyrus Office
New Microsoft Office Competitor
Submitted by Robert Sawyer
CMC Board Member
Papyrus OFFICE is a high-end
Microsoft-compatible office suite from
R.O.M Logicware in Germany. Papyrus
Office consists of an integrated wordprocessing program (Papyrus WORD)
and a powerful database (Papyrus
BASE). The product includes word
processing features such as: non-continuous text selection, format and copy,
micro-kerning of text, DTP control of
text and graphics, tables with spreadsheet-capable formulas, rotate text and
objects at will, output to HTML, import
and export to MS Word format, etc.
Papyrus OFFICE is only $99. This
product has been available in Germany
for years, but it took a long time to port
it to English. It very much appears as
if this product is now the closest competitor to Microsoft Word for the
Macintosh, feature-wise. Check out
the screenshots (screenshots for the
German version are the only ones on
R.O.M. Logicware’s site). The interface is quite attractive!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
edit recommended by MacAttorney
Newsletter #48
R.O.M Logicware
Soft-& Hardware GmbH
Raschdorffstraße 99
13409 Berlin (Germany)
Fax: +49 / (0)30 / 4999 73 72
Telephone: +49 / (0)30 / 4999 73 73
E-Mail: <[email protected]>
<http://www.rom-logicware.com/>
Free downloadable OS X demo:
<http://www.rom-logicware.com/
demos.htm#Mac>
Take Control
of Digital TV
Although many
of us know a fair
amount about
Macintosh
hardware,
delving into
the world of digital television is a
humbling experience - it involves a
baffling array of buzzwords and
acronyms, and that’s before you get
into deciding between direct view
and projection TVs and trying to
tease out the relevant differences
between LCD, plasma, DLP, and
CRT-based sets. If, like us, you’re considering purchasing a digital TV this
holiday season, or if you already own
a digital TV but worry that it might
not be positioned or adjusted properly for optimal viewing, you can find
friendly guidance in our latest ebook,
“Take Control of Digital TV.”
digital-tv.html?14@@!pt=TRK0027-TCANNOUNCE>
In this ebook, Seattle journalist and
TV maven Clark Humphrey
explains the jargon, compares all the
different display technologies, and
helps you find the right digital TV
for your budget, living space, and
media viewing habits. You’ll also
learn how to position a large-screen
TV for optimal viewing, arrange
and connect external speakers,
adjust the display for the best possible image quality, and add extras
such as a digital video recorder or
video game console. Clark rounds
out his advice with suggestions of
where to find digital programming, a hand-picked list of Web
resources, and an extensive glossary you can use to decipher
9
otherwise-impenetrable spec sheets.
Tonya and I are due to buy a new TV
sometime soon – we’re still watching a
20-inch set that we bought when we got
married in 1991. Armed with the
knowledge we’ve picked up from reading this ebook, I’m sure we’ll be able to
buy the right TV more quickly and for
less money. Do note that this ebook
covers digital TV from the North
American perspective; standards and
formats differ in other parts of the world.
Book Details
“Take Control of Digital TV”
by Clark Humphrey
digital-tv.html?14@@!pt=TRK-0027TCANNOUNCE>
PDF format, 72 pages,
free 23-page excerpt available
Platform-independent
Publication date: November 10, 2005
Price: $10
ISBN: 1-933671-05-X
Take Control is run by the husband-andwife team Adam and Tonya Engst. By
the time they began Take Control, they
had authored or edited more than 25 traditional books and written hundreds of
magazine articles for major Mac magazines. And, they'd spent the last 15 years
gaining experience in Internet publishing
with TidBITS, their weekly electronic
newsletter and Web site about Mac and
Internet topics.
2005-2006 Connecticut Macintosh Connection
Officers and Board of Directors
CMC Benefits:
[email protected]
860-347-1789
[email protected]
860-291-9393
Treasurer
David Gerstein
[email protected]
Secretary
Kyle DeMilo
[email protected]
[email protected]
860-232-2841
[email protected]
860-485-1547
Editor Deena Quilty
[email protected]
860-678-8622
[email protected]
860-561-0319
[email protected]
860-677-7787
[email protected]
(860) 668-8728
Public Relations
Jerry Esposito
[email protected]
[email protected]
860-583-1165
Date ________________________________________
Name _______________________________________
Address _____________________________________
City ________________________________________
State_________________________ Zip ___________
Phone (Home) _______________________________
Phone (Office) _______________________________
Phone (Fax) _________________________________
Business _____________________________________
Occupation __________________________________
Email:_______________________________________
Referred by: __________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
Annual CMC Family Membership
$25.00
Caricatures by
Bill Dougal
of Lebanon
(860) 456-9041.
...or
Pay online with PayPal at www.ctmac.org
Special Events
Jack Bass
[email protected]
10
Connie Scott
[email protected]
Available for
illustration
assignments
and event
caricatures.
Discounted Books
FREE Raffle!
P.M. (except November and December when
the meetings are held one week
earlier due to the holidays).
attend a Board meeting, contact an officer for time & location.
the Free table at the back of the
room where everything is...FREE!
CMC Membership Meeting
Special Date and Location:
Wednesday, December 14
7:00 p.m.
Keller Hall
CMC’s Annual Holiday Party
CMC’s annual holiday party is also a
celebration of gadgets. So members,
bring in your favorite gadgets and show
them off. While we hope you’ll bring
stuff that is Mac-related, any technological items are welcome. Everyone will
have an opportunity to talk briefly about
why they like their gadgets so much
(you’re welcome to bring more than one
with you).
Of course a party isn’t a party without
food. So, free food and drink will abound.
Bring your appetite and your gadgets and
we’ll see you at 7:00 in Keller Hall.
Directions:
Follow signs for the main hospital entrance
(not the Emergency entrance). Park in
any of the lots near the main entrance. There
should be plenty of parking available. Once
inside, take the escalator downstairs to Keller
Auditorium.
Back to Basics
will be back in January.
The CMC officers and board members wish
everyone happy and safe holidays!
possible, and we will check on its
availability.
CMC Passwords
The Resource Site for Mac User Groups
http://homepage.mac.com/
ugab/offers/vendorcodes.htm
Password:xxxxx
Valid:11/01/2005 - 1/31/2006
User ID:xxxx • Password:xxxx
• CMC Web site username and password • Member expiration date
• Membership number (for free shipping at MacConnection)
...are now located on your newsletter mailing label.
Getting CMC emails?
FREE Classified Ads
or upgrading. This is a FREE service provided to our members. Send to:
[email protected]
Display Ad Rates
New Members!
listed below.
Business Card ..................................$10.00
Quarter Page ...................................$20.00
Half Page .........................................$30.00
Full Page (or insert) ........................$50.00
OS X and the Mac.
Account Balances
Checking Balance ..........$654.40
Savings Balance ............$3982.35
Balances as of November 1, 2005
11
CMC Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, Dec. 14
7:00 p.m.
Special Location: Keller Hall
UConn Health Center
CMC Annual Holiday Party
(see page 11 for info & directions)
A pdf document containing a visual direction guide to the location of our meeting in the UConn Health Center is available on our website: www.ctmac.org
From I-84: Take Exit 39 (if coming from I-84 West, Exit 39 is
after 39A). Turn right at first traffic light onto Route 4 East
(Farmington Avenue). At third traffic light, turn right to enter
the Health Center campus. Go around the main building to
the right (at a Y in road), then take a left when you get to the
Academic Entrance. The road becomes two-way there so you
should be able to tell where to turn. (Do not go on straight to
the two-way part). Then take the second right into parking lot
A&B. this is close to the building. Go past the police station
entrance on your left (small sign). You will see a continuation
of the building with its own entrance area. This is the new
research building. Enter on the ground floor, turn right and
enter room EG-013 on your right. This is the first room on
your right. The rest rooms are on your left as you enter.
12
NOTE:
The CMC December 14,
2005 Meeting will be held in
Keller Hall at UConn Health
Center. See page 11 for info
and special directions.

2005 Newsletter Compilation pdf

Transcription

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