June 2009 Maclanta by Todd Daniel

Maclanta

Newsletter for the Atlanta Macintosh Users Group • June 2009

Since 1984 www.amugonline.org

Your source for Atlanta area Macintosh news and information

Inside This Issue

May Meeting Action

Pg. 3

10.5.7 Update Makes Video Go Freaky Pg. 4

Repairing A Broken iPhone Pg. 5

Software Review: iBank 3.4.2 Pg. 7

IMPORTANT NOTICE

June Meeting Date Changed

Due to a schedule conflict, for June ONLY we are meeting the second Thursday of the month, June 11.

June Meeting Announcement You are invited to the June 11 meeting of AMUG for an exciting night of fun, learning, and door prizes. Program: Multimedia, featuring iLife ‘09 When: June 11, 7 p.m. (6:30 p.m. social time) Description: The incredible beauty of Apple software is how nicely it plays together. We are going to use iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand to produce a movie, which will be uploaded to YouTube at the end of our session. We will even choose one guest from the audience to BE in the movie.

Location: The Portfolio Center (see directions on back)

A Note To Our Guests Join AMUG!

We’ve proudly served the Atlanta area since 1984, and we’d love for you to join us. To join, click on the “Join” button on the AMUG website (www.amugonline.org) or see Treasurer Adele Ward or Membership Director Christina Wellman at any meeting.

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 . .........................................open Telecom Director ..................... Lawrence Sharp AMUG Hotline: General Information line 678-534-AMUG (2684) Atlanta Macintosh Users Group PO Box 15130 • Atlanta, GA 30333-0130 www.amugonline.org

Celebrating 25 Years of Service May Meeting Report We had an excellent meeting on May 19 at the Portfolio Center. Lawrence Sharp began the program by leading a Q&A session. Afterwards, Martha Shannon took the stage to give us a presentation on digital images. A graphic artist for many years, Martha showed some of her past work and explained the techniques of how she created certain effects. We then took a break, and in the second half of the program she opened up PhotoShop and showed how to make various special effects. We then ended the meeting with a door prize drawing.

May SIG Report Due to the Memorial Day holiday and other factors, the SIGs did not meet in May. They will return to their regularly scheduled time in June. To get last-minute cancellations and other club news, we strongly encourage you to subscribe to the AMUG Twitter account. From there, you can be assured of getting the latest AMUG information. To subscribe, simply “follow” @amugonline.

AMUG News We still have openings for an Education Director and Program Director. The Program Director is responsible for lining up programs for the coming year. You would be responsible for finding presenters, maintaining communication and helping with equipment needs, and coming up with a backup program in case of a cancellation. This is a fun job that can really help our club thrive. If interested, see any club officer.

Maclanta • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • June 2009

Action at the May AMUG Meeting Everyone had a great time at the May meeting. A thanks to our president for bringing some delicious candy and other treats.

CLOCKWISE — Top Left: The great minds of AMUG gather to solve a technical question. Top Right: Christina borrows a 10-gallon Stetson for the door prize drawing. Right: Lawrence leads the Q&A session. Left: Michael, our prez, gives the announcements.

May Treasurer’s Report

June Birthdays

Our treasurer Adele Ward reports that the treasury contained $8148.40 in assets. Costs for the month were very minimal and included the use of Skype and PayPal. Note that over the past months the AMUG board has conducted a line-by-line cost-cutting campaign, and we have now reduced expenses to an absolute minimum.

A huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY goes to the following. May each of you get lots of goodies that start with an “i”: Jan Ball (6/1), Thomas Baley (6/2), Randy Davison (6/6), Todd Daniel (6/15), Alan Thornton (6/17), Robert Mitravich (6/30). June 2009 • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • Maclanta

The Newsletter Director Speaketh This Month: Upgrading to 10.5.7 - My Freaky Video Experience timum Resolution 1680 x 1050 @ 60 Hz. Some inner force told I was so excited when the 10.5.7. Leopard update came me to look at my display settings Todd Daniel out that I immediately loaded it on all my Macs. one more time, and suddenly I Newsletter Director On my personal computer, all went well. But when I noticed there was a specific set- todddan@me.com upgraded my work computer, which is a Mac Mini, some ting for these specs. I excitedly bizarre things happened. Following the upgrade my little click on this choice, the display went black for a moment, baby computer booted back up and I immediately noand when it returned — POOF — the screen was back ticed that the screen was off-centered. And when I played with the most crisp quality that I’ve ever seen. with the mouse, the screen went GRAY! Oh gosh, what Now, the puzzling thing is that the 1680 x 1050 @ 60 do I do? Hz choice was NOT AVAILABLE in HDMI mode, so I I rebooted again and the screen came up, but somejust had to pick something close. But in VGA mode, it thing was odd — the quality of the video was degraded. was. The type was hard to read, and most Naturally, our little geek brains are noticably, the little U.S. flag at the top taught to believe that newer is always of my screen was blurry (the flag icon better and that analog is always better is for the International section in Systhan digital. But in this case, VGA is tem Preferences). better. Now, this didn’t make sense to I don’t know if what happened is me because when you upgrade your related to the new upgrade or if VGA operating system, things should get simply works better with the Mac BETTER and not WORSE. So, I Mini for some unknown reason. If After 10.5.7 my video quality went whacky. spent about 30 minutes playing with anyone could explain this to me, I sure the monitor settings and the Display would be grateful, but in the meantime controls in System Preferences. I tried I am enjoying the best video quality rebooting and even covered myself in that I’ve ever seen. ashes. NOTHING WORKED! I was about to use Time Machine One More Freaky Thing to restore my computer back to 10.5.6 The HPw2207h monitor is quite when suddenly I had an idea. I have impressive. It has sound, supports a HP w2207h monitor that supports both HDMI and VGA, and gives me both HDMI and VGA. Since the com- Switching from HDMI to VGA made it perfect! two extra USB ports. On top of all mon myth is that HDMI is always betthat, the monitor just looks cool with its black rim and ter, OF COURSE I was running in this mode. But what if silver base, and it is MUCH cheaper than an Apple moniI tried the computer in good ol’ fashioned VGA? tor. But there is one more thing the monitor can do that My next step was to venture to the crawl space under sets it apart from others — the thing can rotate! This is a my house in the dark and rain and pull out that magic great feature for desktop publishing projects. Strangely, container that every computer fanatic owns — you know, under the old versions of Leopard my video card did not the one with all the extra cables, connectors, screws, etc.. support rotation, but now that I’ve upgraded to 10.5.7 it I started digging around and quickly found an HDMI-tonow suddenly does! Obviously, Apple must have includVGA adapter. Would this help? ed a new feature for monitor rotation. After hooking up the VGA cable to my HP monitor I So, the moral of this story is that sometimes the good turned it on and immediately notice a great improvement Apple giveth, and other times the good Apple taketh in sharpness. My little flag at the top of the screen was away. LESS blurry, but still not perfect. I went to my display preferences and saw that my resolution was set at 1600 x Note: Share your computer experiences by writing an 1000. Things actually looked pretty good. article in Maclanta. We would love to hear about your But then I reviewed the Quick Start Guide that came hardware and software challenges, and how you found a with my monitor and saw the following message: “Opsolution. By Todd Daniel, todddan@me.com

Maclanta • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • June 2009

Research, Research, Research The parts are on the way, and it’s time for a little iPhone repair surgery .... By Christina Wellman, Membership Chair Well, the new hard drive went well. My MacBook pro

now has a 500 Gb drive. Piece of cake, except when I lifted the top up to reach under I bent the little pieces on the back. Aluminum bends easily, and I was able to get them back, but I’m not sure how many times I would get away with that. The new project this month for me is the iPhone. Oops, I dropped it. The screen now looks a little shattered at the bottom on the left. After a few days, I started getting bad pixels, so I knew I had to do something, but if upgrades are allowed when 4G model comes out later this year, I didn’t want to spend that much. I took it to Apple store, and they said $199 to fix it. The parts involved are the LCD screen and the front glass which connects to the digitizer. Torx drivers are needed for this repair. And there is some double sided sticky pieces that hold it all together. Yuck! So begins the research. I hunted around, and found repair prices from $139 to $279. Many of these promise overnight shipping, back in one day, etc. So many choices for how many parts are involved, and whether or not

I need them all, and how fast I need it back. Apple doesn’t have Christina Wellman a reputation for fast work, but Membership Chair some of the mail places have christina@christinaworks.com reviews of happy people with truly overnight repairs. The lady at the Apple store told me it was the LCD that needed replacing. She asked me if any of the functions or spaces on the screen were not working, and I figured that since everything still works, that the LCD just needs replacing. I found parts on eBay, my old friend. Have to be careful though; some of these have low prices for the part, but high prices for shipping. Bottom line, if you can find one, is as low as $15. The one I got was $20 and it came with the plastic tools, but I got another set of tools with the torx drivers for only $1.99 more. With parts in the mail I’m all setup to do the repair, as soon as I get back from vacation. You guys wish me luck, and I’ll tell of my success when I do my presentation on OpenOffice at the July meeting.

iPod Touch Used in the Battlefield On the front lines, the iPod Touch is being used for more than just music and games. According to an article in Newsweek, the U.S. military is issuing the iPod Touch to help soldiers analyze data from drones, satellites, and ground sensors. The handy iPod Touch is FAR cheaper than custommade gadgets, and with the addition of a heavy-duty case, the device is proving to be tough enough for military life. According to the article, the iPod meets the military’s need to provide soldiers with a single device that can meet many needs, which allows them to shed other gadgets. Another advantage is that most recruits are already familiar with the device. The military is continually looking for ways to expand the iPod Touch’s use on the battlefield. For instance, under one new application, a soldier will be

able to photograph a street sign, and, in a few moments, obtain information on that street. This could include everything to water quality in the area to photos of insurgent sympathizers. Another app in the works would allow military personnel to photograph a detained suspect for placing into a biometric database, which would make it easier to tract suspects after they are released. Still another app that is being planned will allow the iPod to become a remote control for bomb disposal. And, there are several apps available for language translation and body gestures. The article ends by saying, “The iPod has already transformed the way we listen to music. Now it’s taking on war.” — Newsweek, April 27, 2009

June 2009 • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • Maclanta

Computer Talk

Applications, utilities, and more...

The iPod Shuffle 3G and the Future By Josh de Lioncourt The new third-generation iPod Shuffle has been unveiled, with nary a rumor to foretell it’s arrival on store shelves. It’s size, (now smaller than a AA battery), and its capacity, (now 4GB), are of course big deals to the legions of joggers, bicyclists, and gym-goers at whom the tiny stripped-down digital music player is aimed, but there are some interesting features under the hood that could have an even bigger impact for blind and visually impaired users of Apple products.

Cool new tricks First, let’s examine some of the Shuffles new tricks, and then what the far-reaching implications of these features might be. Generalizations, by and large, tend to be a bad thing. They can be, however, useful if understood Look mom, no buttons! as such. Generally speaking, the visually impaired are music enthusiasts for obvious reasons. That means that they often have a wider mix of content, including foreign language content, on their iPods than Mr. Joe Average. Being able to have the titles for those tracks read properly is a huge improvement, not to mention the boon for non-English speakers. Try having Mac OS X Leopard’s Alex voice speak French, and you’ll find the result less than optimal…if entertaining. If we extend the generalization that visually impaired users are music enthusiasts just a bit further, we’ll find that the 4GB capacity of the Shuffle is not nearly enough for most visually impaired users, including myself, who struggle to keep within the confines of even the 16GB nanos. Audible.com <http://www.audible.com/> is tremendously popular with blind users as well, which also eats up a lot of space in a hurry. Including the iPod controls on the earbuds, while perfectly fine with me personally, as I like Apple’s high-end $79 earbuds, is proving to be a major drawback to many visually impaired users, judging by reaction from the community. The blind, still generalizing, also tend to be audiophiles.

Maclanta • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • June 2009

Until there is a wider array of ear buds from third-party vendors or an adaptor with the controls included on it, the lack of choice is going to drive many potential visually impaired customers away. Fortunately, an ever growing number of third-party manufacturers are announcing an assortment of earbuds and control adaptors that will soon render this complaint obsolete. But why? It’s very important to understand two distinct points when considering Apple’s decision to move the Shuffle’s controls to the earbuds. The first is the target audience. The iPod Shuffle is not primarily aimed at audiophiles, or even music enthusiasts. It’s meant to be a stripped-down music player that is ideal for commuting, jogging, or exercising with. With that in mind, putting the controls on the earbuds makes perfect sense. They will be within easy reach at all times, and the iPod is free to be clipped to any article of clothing that is safe and convenient for the user. The second consideration is, perhaps, the more important one. Earbud technology has been static for decades. By introducing some changes to the connector, Apple has made it possible to include both a microphone and remote controls conveniently on the part of our music players which is always the most easily accessible. They’re opening the development of third-party earbuds up to include such features on higher or lower end models. One could argue this is not astronomically innovative, but no one else has taken such advancements very seriously. No one else has brought such features to the masses and encouraged third-party development of the technology. If backward compatibility is the main argument, which I submit that it is, then I’m thankful it wasn’t applied to CD’s and DVD’s. We’d still be listening to music on vinyl, and watching movies on VHS. I think advancements in earbud technology, however minor, is long overdue. But what can be conjecture from these new features

about Apple’s future products? Unlike the speaking iPod nanos, the new iTunes 8.1 seems to include its own TTS voices within itself. This is particularly interesting for users of the Mac’s Voiceover functionality. Currently, the only way to use Voiceover on the Mac in other languages is by purchasing pricey thirdparty solutions. If Apple can incorporate these additional languages into other products, especially OS X, it would be a huge boost for blind users. The fact that Apple has specifically called the speaking feature of the iPod Shuffle “VoiceOver” seems to indicate that we may find this multilingual functionality in Mac OS X’s implementation of VoiceOver before long. Here’s hoping.

Conclusion Coming full circle, the iPod nano seems to be still the better choice for most visually impaired users, and there doesn’t seem to be any technical reason why the multilingual support couldn’t find its way to the nanos, given that the speech generation is handled by iTunes, not the iPod. Overall, the Shuffle update is showing how serious Apple is about accessibility, and how they hope to leverage some of that innovative technology into practical uses for non-visually impaired users, which will be a huge boon for both sighted and blind consumers alike. Reprinted with permission from Lioncourt (http://lioncourt.com).

Software Review: iBank 3.4.2 By Bob Carpenter, ApplePickers

Developer: IGG Software (http://www.iggsoftware.com) Price: $59.99 (Upgrade price from earlier versions of iBank: $29.99) Pros: Mac-like interface, numerous features; Cons: Price Throughout history, people have searched for the Holy Grail. Alas, my search hasn’t been quite so lofty. However, at times, it has appeared to be just as fruitless. I’ve been searching for a Mac personal finance program that I was completely happy with. Like most of you, I first started out with a version of Quicken that came pre-loaded on my Mac. Unfortunately, while the Mac version of Quicken may share the same name as its Windows’ cousin, it’s not the same program. I also found it to be very finicky on my Mac and likely to crash when I upgraded OS X if I didn’t buy a new version of Quicken. As a result, I started looking into various personal financial management programs. I was never happy with any of them, but I was happiest with Moneydance. Unfortunately, its Java interface meant that the program never works exactly like a Mac program would. However, because of an announcement in the Apple User Group bulletin, I decided to contact IGG Software for a review license of iBank to see if it finally filled my personal finance management need.

QIF (Quicken Interchange File) import This was vital to me because I wasn’t willing to start out from scratch. I needed to be able to export my Moneydance data and have iBank seamlessly import the data so I could hit the ground running. I give credit to iBank that I was basically able to do this. I say “basically” because when iBank

took my original QIF file that I exported from Moneydance, it created both accounts as checking accounts. It didn’t affect the data, but I wanted to be able to use the visual cues to distinguish my savings and checking accounts. I also found that if I renamed one of the accounts, it messed up my account balances. On further reflection, that made sense because my money transfers from one account to another couldn’t find the other account name. It would’ve been nice to receive a warning before I renamed the account that this could happen. However, since iBank allows you to selectively import transactions from the QIF file, I simply created the accounts prior to importing the QIF file and selecting which transactions went to each account. It would’ve been nicer to use the “Create accounts for this file” option, but it caused the problem of making every account look like a checking account. Since I know that QIF files can differ from program to program, it’s possible that the QIF file that left Moneydance didn’t have all of the information that iBank needed to know that these transactions belonged to a savings account and to choose the appropriate account icon. To me, this is where “the rubber meets the road”. If entering transactions isn’t easy, you won’t do it and having the program is worthless. After using iBank for a month, I’d give it an A- for entry. While there are a few rough edges, iBank is the best program I’ve found so far for doing personal financial management on my Mac. I realize there are people who run Parallels or VMWare Fusion simply so they can run the Windows version of Quicken or Microsoft Money, but that’s not something I’m willing to do. Reprinted with permission of Bob Carpenter and ApplePickers.

June 2009 • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • Maclanta

Club Business

Announcements, Minutes, Bylaws, Elections ....

May 6 Board Meeting Minutes Called to order at 7:15 pm. Attending members: Pres - Mike Henigan, Vice Pres - Martha Shannon, Treasurer - Adele Ward, Membership Director - Christina Wellman, Newsletter Director - Todd Daniel Potential Publicity Director - Susan Joseph. VP report Nothing to report. Attended monthly meeting, had to leave halfway through due to ongoing hip pain flaring up. On April 26, I returned from weekend trip to NC to find my apartment ransacked and all computers missing. On May 4, purchased a new Macbook from MicroCenter in Duluth. Now I feel like a newbie and a fish out of water without my usual applications. Telecom Report I upgraded the forums to SMF 2.0 RC1. Managed to fix the limitations on upload file size, much to Todd’s relief and exultation. Tried to install the SMF integration module for Joomla!, but the documentation was lacking and haven’t gotten back to it yet. Membership Report 47 members total (counting the ones entered during the meeting) 11 didn’t renew in April, but 6 did renew (including 2 household members, and 3 corporate members) 3 expire in May, 7 expire in June 10 reminders will go out, 8 cards will go out. Treasury Report We have assets of: Fixed CD $5603.22, Checking $1050.86, Checking 2 $1443.47, Cash $50.85. Education Report (Thanks to Todd) SIG attendance OS X SIG is healthy Filemaker SIG not so much. Only 1 or 2 people most of the time.

Maclanta • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • June 2009

Publicity Report Susan attended to see how we work, and make final decision on wether she will be on BOD. Christina working on new Flyer. Still have a lot of business cards that need labels on back to cover the Macquarium map. Mike spoke about status of club Synopsis: Should we change purpose of group? downsize into the SIG format only with no board or official general meeting anymore? Are there any good user groups? Washington apple pie, they charge money for services, have offices and training rooms with computers, paid people to do classes. Suggestion that maybe Susan could do a little research on this. She already is in many groups already, and says they are all wondering the same things about how groups can survive. Should we have more prizes, gifts? What do we think is causing members not to renew, todd puts on whiteboard lack of vendor support competition with apple loss of theatre (macquarium) loss of chris and jay loss of print newsletter loss of free wi-fi (we have that again now) recent reduction in door prizes Should we have a schedule change? bi-monthy? Eliminate dues? Discussion of dues. Lawrence moved and Christina seconded that we revisit the dues issue May 2010; motion not passed. Motion by Todd to table till next month, Adele seconded. motion not passed, Mike made a motion to suspend dues, did not pass. He urges us to reconsider. Mike will be visiting proposed location for summer picnic this month. Board Dismissed 9:00 pm

Mac 911: Safari’s Private Browsing By Christopher Breen Reader Leo Campo is interested in

Safari’s Private Browsing feature, but finds with it a measure of frustration. He writes: I’m using Safari 4 beta on an Intel iMac under Leopard 10.5.6. I use the private browsing feature most of the time. Is there a way to make this Safari feature the default action? It gets old very fast always having to turn this feature back on every time I launch Safari, which for me, is several time a day. Regrettably Private Browsing isn’t a feature you can leave on. When you quit Safari and launch it again, you’ll find that Private Browsing is turned off. And no, editing the com.apple.safari.plist file does you no good either. Safari just resets the option within the preference file when you next launch Safari. If you’re running Leopard you can, however, automate the process of enabling the Private Browsing option with AppleScript. Like so. First, launch the Universal Access system preference and enable the Enable Access for Assistive Devices option. Now, launch Script Editor (within the AppleScript folder inside the Applications folder) and enter the following script: tell application “Safari” activate end tell tell application “System Events” tell process “Safari” tell menu bar 1 tell menu bar item “Safari” tell menu “Safari” click menu item “Private Browsing” end tell end tell end tell

end tell end tell Save the script as an application and then use that application to launch Safari. When you do, Safari will launch and Private Browsing will be enabled. Accessing a Mac when you don’t know the password Reader Sabrina has a common, but potentially delicate, question. It goes a little like this: I was given my mother’s iMac because she passed away but I don’t know the password. How can I gain access to this Mac? I suggest this question is a little delicate because you could use the method I’m about to describe to access any Mac. And that may be a problem for parents who want to keep kids out of their stuff (and vice versa). On the other hand, situations such as yours (as well as problems that come up when you purchase a used Mac that hasn’t been properly cleared) invite a response. That response is this in regard to OS X 10.5: Locate that Mac’s installer disc or a recent OS X installer disc (a Tiger or Leopard disc, for example). Insert that disc into the Mac’s media drive and hold down the keyboard’s C key to boot the Mac from that disc. When the Mac boots you’ll be asked to choose a language. Do that and click the right-pointing arrow icon to continue. When the Welcome screen appears wait for the menubar to materialize and choose Reset Password from the Utilities menu. In the resulting window choose the user whose password you want to change from the Select a User pop-up menu. Enter and confirm a password in the appropriate fields and, if you like, enter a hint for the password. Click Save to make the change.

N o t e that when you’ve reset Christopher Breen the AdminMac 911 i s t r a t o r ’s password you haven’t reset the login keychain password-that password remains as it was when it was originally set. What this means is that you’ll be able to do all the things an Administrator can--install applications and muck with all the Mac’s system preferences, for example. You can’t, however, access keychain items (web site passwords, for example) saved in that login keychain without the password originally used. Oh swell, I hear parents saying. You’ve just given my kid the key to taking over my Mac. Thanks so much! Fortunately, there’s something you can do. Boot your Mac from that installer disc again, find your way to the Welcome screen, and from the Utilities menu choose Firmware Password Utility. In the window that appears click the Change button, then enable the Require Password to Change Firmware Settings option and enter and verify a password. Click OK and your Mac is now protected with a firmware password. Which means what? It means that if your kid starts up your Mac with an installer disc in the media drive and presses the C key to boot from the disc, the Mac will ignore that key press and move to the login screen. If the kid’s really savvy and presses the Option key to move to the screen where you choose a device to boot from, a padlock icon appears with a text field below. If said kid doesn’t enter the correct firmware password in that text field, he or she won’t be able to boot from the disc. However (and this is an important however), if you’ve logged into your Mac as an administrator and

June 2009 • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • Maclanta

walked away from your Mac without logging out, any passer-by can then shove the installer disc into the Mac’s media drive, boot from that disc by choosing it in the Startup Disk system preference, and then muck with the administrator and firmware passwords. For this reason, be sure to log out of your account before leaving your Mac if you fear for your Mac’s safety. (The Log Out After X Minutes of Inactivity option in the General tab of the Security system preference can help with this.) Making sense of OS X’s folder structure Reader Mark Walerysiak is frustrated by what he views as redundancy in OS X. He writes: I’m very happy with all things Apple but one thing I’ve never understood about OS X is the multiple Library folders. Today I was looking for the StartupItems folder because I had to delete something. I went to Hard Drive/System/Library/ StartupItems. And I found nothing in that StartupItems folder. I then went to my Home folder/Library, only to find no StartupItem folder. Finally, I found what I was looking for in Hard Drive/ Library/StartupItems folder. What the heck is going on? This question goes to the heart of the way OS X organizes users and directories. It breaks down this way: Items in the System folder are for

OS X’s use--items in its Library folder are, for the most part, placed there when OS X is installed or when the OS is updated. Unless you’re geeking out, there are few reasons to venture into this folder. The Library folder at the root level of the hard drive is often populated with third-party items installed by an Administrator. In the case of startup items, they’re placed here because they may be needed by every user who has an account on that Mac. If a user doesn’t have access to a particular application that uses one of these startup items--because they have a controlled account, for example--no worries. It doesn’t hurt to have that item loaded. It would hurt, however, if a startup item was loaded for one account and not another. This helps explain why there’s no StartupItems folder in the Library folder within your user account. (Underscoring this notion is the fact that startup items load before a user logs in.) Note that StartupItems are not the same thing as the applications you’ve designated as Login Items for your account. StartupItems work deeper-level background mojo than Login Items. The Library folder within a user’s folder contains, as you might expect, items that apply to that specific user-preferences, audio files, plug- ins, mailboxes, log files for applications used by that user, and so on.

This is the folder you want to dig around in when something in your account is acting up. Spring into spring-loaded folders Today’s easy-peasy fix comes courtesy of reader Paul Sarlis, who writes: With older versions of OSX I could grab a file that I saved to my Desktop and hold it over my hard drive icon. When I did that the hard drive would open so that I could place the file where I needed it. Is this option still available or is there a new way to do this? Yes the option--called spring-loaded folders--is still there. In your case, it appears that it’s been switched off. To switch it on, choose Finder -> Preferences, click the General tab if it’s not already selected, and enable the Spring-Loaded Folders and Windows option. With the Delay slider below you can determine how long the Finder delays springing open a folder or volume after you’ve dragged an item to it. Easy and peasy though this question and answer are, it’s a nice reminder of a feature that far too many people fail to use. If this spring-loaded thing is new to you, it works this way: Drag an item to a volume or folder and continue holding down the mouse button. The volume or folder will blink a couple of times and then its root folder will open.

General Meetings

Special Interest Group (SIG) Night

Jul. 21

Jul. 28

OS X, FileMaker

Aug. 25

OS X, FileMaker

Open Office

Aug. 18 Picnic & Gear Swap (25th Anniversary)

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.

Maclanta • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • June 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: There is a guy in

our office who is always playing practical jokes. Last night he got the monitors from all of our desks and created a giant arch with them. What should I do? Mr. Peach: Wow, the Peach is

amazed. Maybe you can invite a nearby preschool over and allow them to play London Bridge. Since they are PC monitors, it’s not really important what happens to them.

have is a .tif. Can I just convert it? Mr. Peach: An EPS graphic, or

“vector” graphic, creates an image using math. Other formats, like TIF, use pixels to create an image. EPS graphics are more sharp and crisp, and can be blown up into infinity without losing quality. If you don’t have your company logo in vector format, you can find a nerd to convert it using Adobe Illustrator.

Dear Mr. Peach: I have this ter-

Dear Mr. Peach: I will put my rible problem. Every time I save Try doing this with flat screen monitors!!!! computer to sleep, and then it a document or image, I forget suddenly wakes up for no apparent reason. Last week it where I saved it, and I have to waste a lot of time searchstartled my maid while she was cleaning my china cabiing for it. What should I do? net, and she dropped and broke a $2,000 crystal vase. Mr. Peach: Relax, my friend. For this is a problem that Mr. Peach: Yikes. Go to “System Preferences” and then to plagues many of us. One thing you can do is use Spot“Energy Saver” and then to “Options.” Then, deselect light and search for the file name. Spotlight is smart and “Wake for Ethernet Access” and “Wake When the Molikes to pull up recently-saved files first. The other soludem Rings.” As for the vase, yeah I saw that in the movie tion is to go back to the program that you saved it in and Risky Business. Life was very boring before Tom Cruise try to save another file — it probably saved it in the same became a Scientologist. place as your missing file. Your third option is recreate the file, after mumbling a few expletive deleteds. Dear Mr. Peach: When Spotlight shows me a file I’m looking

for, I will open it up and use it. But then I have no idea where it is located on my several hard drives. How can I find its location?

Question of the Month

Mr. Peach: Yep, sometimes you’ll open a Spotlight file so

quickly that you won’t notice its location. But here is a trick — click on the title of the document while holding down the command key. Lo and behold, you’ll see the complete path of where your file is at.

I have a G5 OS X.4.11 that burns DVD-. I made a DVD on a regular DVD recorder and it burns DVD+. I want to make copies of this master recorded in DVD+. How do I do it? I have an external drive if that would help in any way or do I need to find a more recent MAC or use someone else’s PC that burns with a DVD+?

Dear Mr. Peach: My printer needs my company logo to make

Can anyone help? Send responses to todddan@me.com.

a giant poster. He is insisting on an .eps graphic, and all I

June 2009 • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • Maclanta

General Meetings: Portfolio Center; SIGS: Macquarium 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.

Maclanta • Atlanta Macintosh User Group • June 2009