Maclanta
Newsletter for the Atlanta Macintosh Users Group • Feb/Mar 2009
Since 1984 www.amugonline.org
Your source for Atlanta area Macintosh news and information
Inside This Issue Meeting & SIG reviews Pg. 2 AMUG logo contest Pg. 3 Let’s go Twittering Pg. 4 The power of Yellowsn0w Pg. 5 Favorite iPod Touch applications Pg. 6 Sync your Address Book with other apps Pg. 7 A review of iLife 09 Pg. 8 Ask Mr. Peach Pg. 9 Upcoming Meeting Pg. 11
March Meeting Announcement You are invited to the March 17 meeting of AMUG for an exciting night of fun, learning, and door prizes. Program: Handy Utilities, presented by Tom Baley. When: March 17, 7 p.m. (6:30 p.m. social time) Description: Tom is a collector of utilities and shareware programs, and he has dozens! During this program he’ll show off some of his favorite goodies. A sampling of Tom’s utilities: 1Password, AllBookmarks, Audiobook, Builder, Disk Warrior, Dropbox, Evernote, Flip4Mac, Fluid, FuzzyClock, MacTheRipper, Little Snitch, Missing Sync, Quicksilver, Saft, SugarSync+, SuperDupe,TechTool, Protogo, VisualHub, VLC, What’s Keeping Me, WhatSize.
Location: The Portfolio Center (see directions on back)
IMPORTANT NOTICE We’ve MOVED
All General Meetings now take place at the Portfolio Center, which is only a few blocks north of our old meeting place. All SIGs will remain at Macquarium. Directions are on pg. 12.
A Note To Our Guests
Founded in 1984, the Atlanta Macintosh Users Group is a not-forprofit Georgia corporation organized and operated exclusively for the purpose of providing education and assistance to its members in the use of the Apple Macintosh computer and software. Made up of many members, AMUG consists of Macintosh enthusiasts from a variety of backgrounds: artists, technicians, programmers, designers, consultants, publishers, accountants--users of a variety of Macintosh types and software! This diverse gathering provides a unique resource for Macintosh information, creativity and education. We encourage you to join our community of Apple enthusiasts. You can either join online, at the information area prior to meetings, or by seeing our treasurer Adele Ward.
About Maclanta Maclanta is published monthly by the Atlanta Macintosh Users Group, Inc.(AMUG™), Post Office Box 15130, Atlanta, Georgia, 30333-0130, a non-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization, as a service to the membership. Subscriptions: Portions of a member’s dues in AMUG are designated for an annual subscription to Maclanta. Annual membership dues are $40. A separate subscription to this publication is available for a fee to be determined by the Newsletter Director. © Copyright 2008 by the Atlanta Macintosh Users Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Maclanta is an independent publication, not affiliated or otherwise associated with Apple Inc. or any other organization that might otherwise advertise herein. The opinions, statements, positions, and views stated herein are those of the author(s) or publisher and are not intended to be the opinions, statements, or views of Apple Computer, Inc. or any other organization that might advertise herein. Rather than place a trademark, copyright, or registered symbol at every occurrence, we hereby state that we are using the names only in an editorial fashion with no intention of infringement of the owners work. Nothing herein may be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written permission of the Newsletter Director or the President of the AMUG Board of Directors, with the following exceptions: all articles and/or graphics not under copyright by the author may be reprinted by a nonprofit organization provided proper credit is given to the author and Maclanta. Proper credit is defined as Title, Author, and the words ‘Reprinted with permission from [month ] [year ] of Maclanta, a monthly publication of the Atlanta Macintosh Users Group, Inc.’ Permission to reprint copyrighted articles and/or graphics may be obtained by writing to the author or artist, care of this publication. Submissions: Maclanta welcomes unsolicited articles (including feature stories, commentary, and user group news) pertaining to personal computers, hardware, software, related products, services, and end users. Submissions should be made via E-mail attachment or body in text format. Unless otherwise arranged, the deadline for all articles, letters, and illustrations is 5 p.m. the Friday after the 1st Tuesday of the month before the month of publication. The editors reserve the right to edit for brevity and clarity. Payment will be in the form of credit in Maclanta and copies of the issue(s), at the least. AMUG Trademarks: AMUG and the AMUG peach are trademarks of the Atlanta Macintosh Users Group,Inc.
AMUG Board of Directors President .............................W. Michael Henigan Vice-President .........................Martha Shannon Treasurer . ............................................ Adele Ward Secretary .......................................Wendell Dillon Education Director . ......................................open Membership Director ........ Christina Wellman Newsletter Director ........................ Todd Daniel Program Director . .........................................open Publicity Director . .............................. Jim Minter Telecom Director ..................... Lawrence Sharp AMUG Hotline: General Information line 404-327-9002 Atlanta Macintosh Users Group PO Box 15130 • Atlanta, GA 30333-0130 www.amugonline.org
Meeting Reports
General meetings, SIGs, and more... February General Meeting - InDesign CS4 Our topic for February 17 was the new Adobe InDesign CS4, which was presented by Paul Olmeda, president of the Atlanta InDesign Users Group. Paul got many “ooohs” and “aaaaahs” from the audience as he demonstrated the latest features of this desktop publishing program, and showed a few tricks as well. A thanks to Paul for coming out. This was the first meeting at our new location, the Portfolio Center. Fortunately, no one had a problem getting to the new venue and we had a great turnout. During announcements, Adele Ward said that AMUG had received a $500 bequest from a former member. The money is to be used to provide grants for memberships. The Board will decide best how to set up the grant program at a future Board meeting.
SIG News • FileMaker SIG - SIG leader Lee Hoong treated attendees to an unveiling of the new FileMaker Pro 10. Some of the new features include script triggers and dynamic reporting. But the feature that got the most attention was the completely redesigned interface. Since the beginning, FileMaker controls have been on the side, but in following the trend of other applications, they moved them to the top. • OS X SIG - SIG leader Jay Cann did an unveiling as well, and showed off the just-released Safari 4 Beta. He showed off many of the browser’s 150 new features, including the improved bookmark and history features. He also showed the new Top Sites view feature, which was especially cool.
Club News • Server Change - As part of AMUG’s overall cost-cutting program, the club has moved its website, announcement list, forums, and online database from its own server to a hosted server. A thanks to Lawrence Sharp who has spent many hours conducting this change. In related news, Christina Wellman has been working on a new website, which will run on Joomla, a free, open-source content management system. Currently, the website runs on a similar, but more simplified product called CMS Made Simple. • Facebook - There is a group of us AMUG members who stay in touch via Facebook. We now have our own AMUG Facebook group, which already has 15 members. If you are a Facebook member, please show your support for AMUG by joining this group — simply do a search for Atlanta Macintosh Users Group. If you are not a Facebook member, consider joining! Plans are in the works to get a Twitter group as well, and a handful of our members are also staying in touch via Twitter. So, take part in the social media craze and join us!
Maclanta • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • February/March 2009
Club Business
General meetings, SIGs, and more...
AMUG Logo Contest
As part of our 25th anniversary celebration, we are holding a logo design contest. We are lucky to have many talented graphic artists in our group. The following are the entries. These entries are also featured in the AMUG online forum (see path below). All members are encouraged to visit the forums and post comments on what entries they like. The “top three” entries will be decided by the Board and the general membership will then vote on the winning entry. The Board thanks everyone who submitted an entry, plus a “thank you” to those who have posted their thoughts on the forum. To view the entries on the forum, follow this path: News and Information > Feedback to the Board > 25th Anniversary Logo Contest
February/March 2009 • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • Maclanta
The Newsletter Director Speaketh This Month: Twitter - the Great Information Source By Todd Daniel, todddan@me.com First, I would like to apologize for not getting out a Febru-
ary issue. I had some major personal and work issues come up and, well, it’s a long story. If you ever want to join me at a local restaurant after the meeting, I can tell you the whole story (but it would probably bore you). I know that a thousand years from now some AMUG historian is going to say, “Hey, where’s the February 2009 issue,” so I’ve just named this one “February/March.” So what I have done for excitement in my life? Well, buying software always gives me a jolt, so after the release of iLife 2009, I called Scotty at Microcenter and asked him to hold me a copy. Like he usually does, he put my name on a copy and hid it under the counter, safe from the Mac Mongol Hordes. Okay, I’ve never done drugs, but I imagine that buying new Mac software is like a cocaine fix, or maybe it’s like a religious experience, like when the Virgin Mary appeared in that farm in Conyers. What I’m saying is that buying software is a total high. I know that consumerism addiction is a bad thing, but at least I’m not buying something that harms the environment. Anyway, the past couple of weeks I’ve been having a blast with iLife. See my review on page 8. Twitter World The next excitement in my life, in terms of computers, at least, is my discovery of Twitter. Much to my dismay, my youngest daughter said that Twitter was “just for old people.” Now, I have this strange desire to buy a cane, sit on a park bench, and try to trip little children. Okay, serious, I am finding that Twitter is a great information source for getting the latest Mac news. Several of my AMUG friends are on Twitter, and I thank them for giving me various computer updates and news. Oh, what is Twitter? It is best described as a mini blog. You can send updates about your activities, ask questions, or carry on conversations with other subscribers. The trick is that whatever you say must be SHORT.
your most visited websites. The browser also has a much-imTodd Daniel proved history search, and the tabs are now on top. Give it a try Newsletter Director at www.apple.com/safari/down- todddan@me.com load. Free Omni Products Another big news scoop I learned from Twitter is that OmniWeb, OmniDazzle, OmniDisksweeper, OmniObjectMeter are now free! Now, I am a HUGE fan of the Omni Group. I love the ease and simplicity of their products — they are very Apple-like. Already, I am a regular user of OmniPlan and OmniOutliner. So, when I learned that Omni was making some of their best programs free, well, I stopped everything and immediately went to their website — www.omnigroup.com. I immediately downloaded OmniDiskSweeper and put it to work cleaning up my computer and external drives. What OmniDiskSweeper does is find all the large programs, folders, and applications on your disk, and lists them in order of size. Yes, I know you can do this with the OS X “Find” command and searching by size, but OmniDiskSweeper is far more elegant, and provides a “bird’s eye view” of what’s on your drive. The idea is that you can immediately find forgotten files, unused applications, and duplicates that are immediately taking up space. For instance, the Entourage mail database or the Parallels disk images can take up gigabytes of space. If you happen to have multiple copies of these items, or, say a few forgotten movies, you are taking up tons of space. Once I got going with the program I was cleaning up my drives until late at night. In one forgotten folder, I found a bunch of old images used for a project in 2005 — I zapped them and freed up 485 megs! My one word of advice is that when you are zapping applications, check first to see if the program has an uninstall feature. This is definitely a cleaner and preferred way to delete applications. Anyway, it’s almost time for spring cleaning, so I encourage everyone to get this program.
Safari 4 Beta From my Twitter feed I immediately learned about the release of the new Safari 4 Beta earlier this week. I immediately downloaded it and gave it a try — I was not disappointed. Among the 150 new features I like best is the new “Cover Flow” feature, which shows you a collage of
Maclanta • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • February/March 2009
OmniDiskSweeper gets your hard drives REALLY clean. I freed up about 50 gigs in one evening. Half of that was a giant PC disk image I found, which was left over from when I used Virtual PC.
‘Jailbreaking’ program ideal for overseas Yellowsn0w software effectively provides a way to allow your iPhone to be used by other services. the service and support I got. But that was on the 2G phone and I can’t really compare it with Orange. Suffice In May of last year I unlocked a first generation iPhone it to say that employees in two Orange stores didn’t have so that I could use it in England while my wife and I were a clue as to why GPS worked sometimes and not others. on vacation. It worked quite well and I decided to unlock I think it was a coverage issue but Orange doesn’t display my newer 3G iPhone on another trip to England earlier ‘Edge’ or ‘3G’ when applicable which T-mobile did - at this month. least for the ‘Edge’ network. Orange displays a little or Using iPhone Dev Team’s Yellowsange instead. I don’t know… oranges n0w to hack the phone was relatively on an apple? simple though watching the video of I haven’t looked but it would be the Jailbreak and then Unlock was very nice if there were a discussion board helpful in preparing me for the various or group about the various service steps involved in the process. Unlike providers around the world and how the first generation iPhone the 3G has they work on the iPhone. I don’t to be jailbroken first in order to unlock particularly like or dislike AT&T it and make it possible to use SIM but I do see the phone as mine and cards from other carriers in the UK. I’m unwilling to pay what AT&T All functions of the iPhone remain wants to use their SIM card overintact after the jailbreak and unlock as seas. I have restored the iPhone to well as the few App Store applications its original settings and reinstalled previously installed. the AT&T SIM card and all is copa On the advice of a mall security cetic again. I have also updated the guard in London I chose Orange as iPhone to the latest 2.2.1 version and the provider of my new SIM card. so will have to wait for a new unlock The product Yellowsn0w is great if you want to use your Don’t ask my why. I was asking him to be developed. iPhone overseas. for directions to a store where I could get a SIM card and he pointed at the 02 store nearby. I then asked for his opinion on the best Editor’s Note: As of this publication, from what I’ve read, service provider and he pointed the other way and said, jailbreaking is NOT illegal. This issue is now being settled “Orange.” in the courts. Should jailbreaking be deemed a “no no” this Last time I used T-mobile and was much happier with editor will no longer publish articles on jailbreaking. By David McMorran, davidbmcm@mac.com
Advertise in Maclanta and get your message in front of a targeted audience today!
MacCollege - Committee Now Forming Can Ya Help? It’ll Be Fun!!! The MacLanta Expo is a day long experience that includes a series of classes designed to broaden knowledge about Macs, Mac programs, and how others use their Macintosh. Besides a day-long schedule of special classes, there are opportunities to meet with software and hardware vendors, get helpful answers to your questions, see the latest applications, chat with fellow Mac enthusiasts, bid for great prizes at our auctions, and much more. We are now forming a committee to plan the 2009 MacCollege. If you’d like to help, please contact Todd Daniel (todddan@me.com, 678-567-2052).
February/March 2009 • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • Maclanta
A sampling of favorite iPod Touch apps The author shares some of her favorite applications — most of these are great for the iPhone as well. After some research, here are some of the apps that I downloaded onto my iPod: I always thought it was pretty cool that people can get Twitterific - by Iconfactory. This is a very popular app on the internet and stay connected to friends and family that does a great job of displaying and light managing the through e-mail and social media, while traveling, but I could tweets of people one is following on Twitter. I really like it’s never justify the expense of purchasing a laptop computer simple interface. for myself. NYTimes app. - By New Then came the second genYork Times Corp. This app eration iPod Touch. Wow... It’s displays the web version of like a tiny laptop, doing all that the New York Times. The cool I would do, anyway, even if I did thing is if you let it update have a laptop. I can surf the infully, even if you lose WiFi ternet using Safari, check e-mails connectivity, you can still read and tweets and generally be able the news as it is fully retained. to stay connected, wherever I go. Free. Fabulous! BBC Reader app - by the I didn’t really need the phone BBC news. Displays the news functionality anyway, so the iPod from the BBC. This also alTouch is perfect. What a fascinatlows for offline reading if you ing piece of technology this thing allow it to finish updating is. It’s a little bitty thing that feels before running off to the airgreat in the hand. I elected to keep plane or wherever. Free mine in a nice slim “Sena” leather 1Password app - From case that I can slip out of when- Applications for the iPod Touch (left) range from games to clever utilities. Agile Solutions. This app syncs Most are suitable for the iPhone as well (right). ever I want to use the iPod. with the desktop 1Password Then, the next thing was to application and enables autoconnect it to the computer and put in it just matic logging into websites on the iPod. a few select items from my iTunes library. In Because Apple did not allow any hooks this way, I would have something to watch, into Safari on the iPod/iPhone, 1password or listen to, should my iPod be offline. But I uses its own web browser for secure logging left as much space as possible on my 16 GB into websites. Works great and syncs using iPod for the apps, of course! WiFi. The apps store may well be Apple’s greatThe Mark Twain Collection app & est triumph, making the iPod Touch and Fifty Books For Ten Bucks app - both iPhone fantastically powerful and useful. As by BeamItDown Software adds a bunch of Leo Laporte stated at MacWorld, during the books to the iPod. Very nice interface. With live taping of the MacBreak Weekly podcast, these readers, you can control nearly every in reference to the Mac but could easily apaspect of how the pages look. The text is set ply to the iPod/iPhone as well and that is in a column that scrolls as you tilt the iPod, “it’s all about the software,” and it is. using the accelerometer. Tap to stop or start Searching through the app store is pretty scrolling. overwhelming, as by the time I purchased Remote app - by Apple, Inc. This app my iPod Touch, there were already more allows the iPod to be used as a remote to than 10,000 apps for sale. I started off trying control iTunes on the computer, through to find online reviews for the various apps WiFi. Very handy if at the dinner table and but didn’t have much luck. So in the end, I Remote allows you to control iTunes from hubby doesn’t like the music you chose for looked through the apps and compared fea- anywhere on your local WiFi network. the candle light dinner. tures and read the most recent reviews. Radio app - by Intersect World. This By Charlotte Ford, mtnlaurelrabbitry@comcast.net
Maclanta • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • February/March 2009
app is so you can listen to streaming statements. internet radio. It has a number of feaFake-A-Call - by Excelltech. Makes tures that include adding streams to faany iPod Touch look as if you hacked it vorites. Can also listen to any NOAA and it now can make or receive phone weather broadcasts using this app. calls. Pretty realistic looking. My Distant Shore app - by The Blimp mother was not fooled, however. Pilots, the makers of Koi Pond. This Spore Origins - by Electronic Arts, app is a sort of game and social media Inc. A scaled down version of the fain one. It is set on a beach where you mous Spore game. You can design your listen to the waves crashing on shore spore and then have it look for food, and watch gulls fly overhead. You can avoid enemies, and navigate through move along the beach with only your the primordial soup, using the accelerfootprints appearing in the sand, all the ometer. while picking up shells that you find. Nanosaur 2 - by Pangea Software If you collect five shells, then you get is the same game that can be found on a bottle put in your inventory. You can the Mac. The game uses the acceleromwrite and put a message in each bottle eter and is fantastic. The story line is and send it out to “a distant shore” that you control a flying dinosaur and which means another user, using Dis- The Distant Shore app is sort of a game and social media collect eggs while avoiding getting shot tant Shore on their device, where they program combined into one. During the game and can at by enemies. Very nice game play. can find your bottle and read your send and receive messages in the bottle, which come from IBeer - by Hottrix. This one is the messages. It’s like a completely anony- anonymous, fellow players. popular one that every one has so they mous Twitter. The more messages you can imbibe with impunity at their work. send the more you get, and any you do get, you can reply to You would think that all of the apps that I have on my and have people reply back to you. There are no signatures iPod would take up a lot of room, but as each one is shockso it’s completely anonymous. There is a way to report iningly small, the total on my iPod is only 400 MB. Can you appropriate messages. This is a stunning lot of fun. Lots of believe that? I have just shy of 5 GB still available! So it’s off people send fragments of poetry, or quotes, or off-the-wall to the app store!
Sync Your Mac Contacts with Google By Todd Daniel, editor
I was going crazy — I had contact information scattered among several computers, several programs, and in my cell phone. When I needed an address or phone number, I had to think, “WHERE IS IT?” A lot of my stuff was in the Gmail address book, and many other contact names were in my old Mac Address Book. I finally made the decision to get everything organized. The first step was to toss my cell phone and buy an iPhone. I was about to try a thirdparty solution for synchronizing when I learned that a Google-Mac sync feature is built into Mac OS X 10.5.3. I had already moved all my Entourage contact data into the Mac Address Book. I then cleaned it up, and used the Address Book sync utility to synchronize it with Google Contacts. Once everything was synchronized, I put it all on my iPhone. It all worked beautifully. Assuming you have OS X 10.5.3 installed, you can find this feature by opening Address Book and going to Preferences. You’ll also have options for synchronizing with Yahoo!, MobileMe, and Microsoft Exchange. NOTE: Before trying this, back up both your Address Book and Google Contacts. Instructions for making backups are at www.google. com/support/contactsync.
February/March 2009 • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • Maclanta
Software
Applications, utilities, and more...
iLife 2009 delivers great new features! By Todd Daniel, todddan@me.com Okay, I could whine and complain that iLife and iWork us-
ers don’t get special upgrade prices. Every time a new version comes out, I have to plunk down another $79 for each program. But, I don’t mind at all, and I am never disappointed. Hey, this is Apple we’re talking about, and their software is always first class. Plus, there are always new features that more than justify the cost. Pilgrimage to Microcenter
So, it was with some nerve and trepidation that I asked my wife if I could buy it. She said, “NO.” Fortunately, she later said “YES.” The excitement was exhilarating as my trembling hands took it from Scotty, who is the alwayssmiling guy at Microcenter. I then sped home, ran to my office, and loaded the program on my Mac. Here’s a quick rundown of my favorite new features: iWeb ‘09
I know that iWeb takes a lot of criticism from professional web developers. But iWeb has now gone through several versions and has gotten quite good. I’ve made websites in GoLive and Dreamweaver CS3 and find that for a quick, personal website, iWeb does circles around them both. Most amazing to me is the simple interface and the smooth integration with iPhoto — light years ahead of other web programs. In the new version, my favorite features are the ability to add widgets and the Facebook notification feature. With the Facebook feature, I can annoy all my “friends” whenever I update my website. As for the widgets, I like the ones for inserting YouTube videos and adding HTML snippets. Apple has also added two greatly demanded features — the ability to manage multiple websites, and the ability to FTP your site to services other than MobileMe. The other thing I like is the addition of several new, colorful themes. My favorites are “Comic Book” and “Darkroom.” Now, I have to say two things I DON’T like about iWeb that have still not been resolved. First, iWeb websites are still painfully slow to load. Second, iWeb websites look quite different on each browser. It is frustrating to get a site just the way I like it and then go to a Microsoft Explorer browser and see something quite different. One thing that helps, I find, is to not change the theme after you have greatly customized a page. You will get whacky results.
Loaded with new features, the $79 is well worth the price. iPhoto ‘09
Once again, I like how the whole iLife suite is better integrated with the major online services. For instance, there are now buttons to immediately publish your iPhoto pictures to Flickr and Facebook. What’s amazing is that if someone “tags” a photo on Facebook with a name, that information goes back into your iPhoto. Two of the big new features in iPhoto are “Places” and “Faces.” The Places is intended to work with GPS-enabled cameras. If you travel a lot, this can be very cool. Faces is pretty amazing, in that it attempts to catalog people in your photo collection by recognizing their face. My first test of this feature did not go too well — the program kept confusing my wife and youngest daughter. Well, I can see the resemblance. As for me, it mixed me up with some zoo animals — I felt sorry for the poor animals. iMovie ‘09
Ahhh, paying $79 bucks just to get the features back that Apple took out in iMovie ‘08. Well, that’s okay. The Video Stabilizer alone is worth the cost of the entire suite. There are also cool new transitions and title effects, and the Precision Editor is great for joining clips. There are many more features as well. Other Stuff
GarageBand now comes with “Basic” and “Artist” lessons — very cool, but I only use this program for podcasting. iDVD can now put together a project automatically. Sounds cool, and I do plan to try it.
Maclanta • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • February/March 2009
Ask Mr. Peach We’re not sure how Mr. Peach came to be. Some people think he is an artificial intelligence algorithm that was created one night when Chris Waldrip spilled coffee on his keyboard. However, what we know for sure is that Mr. Peach is smart and will be glad to answer your computer questions.
Dear Mr. Peach: I have programs in my startup list that are
not loading on login. What can I do?
Mr. Peach: There could be corrupt preference files or
whatever. The first thing is to remove the programs from your Login list and then reinstall them. Do this by going to System Preferences - Accounts - and then to your account. Next, click on “Login Items” and remove the troublesome programs. Dear Mr. Peach: I want to share my Parallels on multiple ac-
counts. I’ve put the virtual machine in my Users/Shared folder, and I’ve set all the permissions to “Everyone,” but I’m still having permissions problems. What do I do? Mr. Peach: You are going to have to enter the mysterious
world of Terminal. From there you will need to “share” the virtual disk folder with ALL users by entering the line: sudo chmod -R og+rwx vm_folder_name. Okay, WAIT, before you dive into Terminal, there is an excellent step-by-step article on the Parallels website (http:// kb.parallels.com/en/5733). Mr. Peach doesn’t recommend going into Terminal unless: a) You know exactly what you’re doing, b) You passed your driver’s test the first time, and c) You’ve had less than two drinks. Dear Mr. Peach: Why wife is divorcing me and is getting ev-
erything I own, including my Macs. Can I put a virus on them or something just for spite? Mr. Peach: Okay, calm down. It’s all your fault for making
your wife a computer widow. Maybe if you came out of the basement once a week to empty the garbage you’d still have your marriage. As for the Mac virus, sorry, the Peach doesn’t get involved in marital issues.
codes as input by your keyboard to the glyphs they represent in the problematically cached font.” You can get the program at: http://homepage.mac.com/mdouma46/fontfinagler/ Dear Mr. Peach: I am told there are no viruses that affect
Macs, but then I keep seeing advertisements for Mac antivirus software. What gives? Mr. Peach: This is a question we receive a lot. There are no
known viruses per se, but we have heard reports of macro viruses in Word and Trojan horses. However, you mainly need antivirus software to protect your PC friends (provided that you like them). This is what’s called “downstream protection” and is important if you work at a company with lots of PC people. In effect, you don’t want to be a virus carrier, or no one will want to go to lunch with you. So, what the antivirus software is using doing is looking for Windows-based bad stuff. Yeah, sad, I know. Dear Mr. Peach: My wife has used duct tape to keep the toilet
seat down. What should I do? Mr. Peach: A toilet is actually a
sophisticated two-in-one input device. Think of it as a combined USB and Firewire port. Now, in your case your wife has disabled the Firewire port. That leaves you with the option of redefining your output to accommodate the new port configuration. This could be challenging and could require some basic reprogramming of the primary output device. Best of luck.
Dear Mr. Peach: My fonts are coming out in gibberish, or
maybe it’s Latin. Help!
Mr. Peach: You likely have corrupted font cache files. Down-
load Font Finagler and do a good zapping. According to the Font Finagler website, “What appears to be happening is that incorrect or corrupted encoding vector information is being used when mapping the character
Tip of the Month - Firefox Change your default “mailto” setting by going to Firefox Preferences and then click on “mailto.” You can then choose Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or Other.
February/March 2009 • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • Maclanta
AMUG Business
Minutes, Board Announcements, Elections, Etc...
February Board Meeting Minutes AMUG Board Meeting February 4, 2009 Michael Henigan, President, called the meeting to order at 7:08 p.m. Michael Henigan, President; Martha Shannon, Vice-president; Wendell Dillon, Secretary; Adele Ward, Treasurer; Christina Wellman, Membership Director; Todd Daniel, Newsletter; Kelly Hilliard was a guest. Reports: Officers: 1. Treasurer: Current balance a. MMI $1,082.85 Fixed CD $5,587.53 Checking $461.14 Cash $50.85 Total $7,182.37 b. Fixed expenses c. Stamps.com $15.95 monthly – We are still being charged and they can’t find our file. 2. Secretary: I will get our minutes up for review. Please review and let me know of any errors. I’m sure there are errors. 3. Vice President: Todd now listed on the web for the newsletter 4. President: Report on the web. Set up for the move of board and general meetings to Directors: 1. Membership: 2. Newsletter Feb will be posted this week. Challenge each board member to write 3 articles per year. Look for more SIGs; advertise in the newsletter. 3. Telecom Director: We are changing our server to godaddy. We will convert out forms to Jooma, an open source system. Unfinished Business 1. Board openings. Program Director and Education Director.
10
2. We need to put the program on the front page of the web. Martha will do it. 3. Upcoming programs a. Feb Photoshop CS4 b. Mar Utilities (Tom Bailey) c. Apr Databases Filemaker & Bento (Wendell & Lawrence) d. May Working with photos e. Jun Multimedia (Todd) f. Jul Open Office.org (Christina) g. Aug Barbeque 20th anniversary h. Sep i. Oct j. Nov Annual meeting k. Dec Party with Windows 4. 25th Anniversary events/projects. Our official birth was August a. Logo contest – received 9 entries. We will vote at the March meeting; Board will cut entries to 3. b. Volunteer of year c. Picnic August anniversary & swap fest with Windows group 5. Recruiting – Adiumx.com and facebook twitter post to web and forum 6. Fund raising and recruitment. a. Decided to send a. Christina researched flash sticks and found the cost too high, $8 each for 100 units. New Business 7. Christina suggested we put on an art show at ___ 8. Todd will send postcards to members to announce the new meeting location. 9. David Seeman has volunteered to donate a new membership each month in 2009. 10. The meeting adjourned at 8:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Wendell Dillon Secretary A thanks to The Portfolio Center for serving for hosting our Board meeting.
Maclanta • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • February/March 2009
February General Meeting Snapshots
top: The February meeting drew a large
and enthusiastic audience.
top: Paul, our speaker, showed us all the exciting new features
of InDesign CS4. He dazzled us with many new tricks and features.
right: Adele Ward makes an exciting
Photos by Todd Daniel
announcement about a donation given to AMUG, which will be used to provide membership scholarships.
General Meetings
Special Interest Group (SIG) Night
Mar. 17 Handy Utilities
Mar. 24
OSX, FileMaker
Apr. 21
Databases - “Hands on” Class
Apr. 28
OSX, FileMaker
May 19
Digital Photography Workshop
May 26
OSX, FileMaker
General Meetings take place at the Portfolio Cen- We are always looking for new SIGs ter. SIGs remain at MacQuarium. General meetings - share your ideas! begin at 7 p.m. (6:30 p.m. social time). SIGs start at 7 p.m. February/March 2009 • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • Maclanta
11
We’ve Moved .... We now meet at The Portfolio Center Directions to The Portfolio Center 125 Bennett St., Atlanta, GA 404.351.5055 www.portfoliocenter.com HEADING NORTH ON I-75/85 Take the 10th Street/14th Street exit. Turn right on 10th Street. Go two blocks and turn left on West Peachtree Street. Stay in the far right lane to merge with Peachtree Street. Travel north on Peachtree Street until you pass Piedmont Hospital on the left. Stay in the left lane. At the bottom of the hill, you will see a traffic light and Mick’s Restaurant on the left. Make a left at this light, onto Bennett Street. Portfolio Center is the last building on the right. HEADING SOUTH ON I-75 Take the Howell Mill/Northside Drive exit, then take the Northside Drive ramp. Make a left at the top of the ramp. Go approximately three blocks and turn right on Collier Road. At the intersection of Collier Road and Peachtree Road, make a left onto Peachtree. Stay in the left lane. You will pass Piedmont Hospital on the left. At the bottom of the hill, you will see a traffic light and Mick’s Restaurant on the left. Make a left at this light, onto Bennett Street. Portfolio Center is the last building on the right.
Buy AMUG Gear online at our CaféPress store
AMUG has an online store available to all our members through CaféPress.com. The store sells AMUG T-shirts, golf shirts, mugs, bumper stickers and other AMUG related items. Right now, all sales are done at cost and they’re quite affordable. You can order what you want, when you want right, on the Web. Check out the online store at: http://www.cafepress.com/amug This is a great way to publicize our club, PLUS when you wear an AMUG shirt to a meeting you receive an extra door prize ticket.
12
Maclanta • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • February/March 2009