Shuffle November 2006 by EmiratesMac.com

November 2006

shuffle

Monthly Newsletter from EmiratesMac User Group Table of Content A word from the editor Comic Corner Review:Nike+iPod Sport Kit Have a question? Ask EmiratesMac! MAC 911 Cooking with Apples Review: SuperDuper! Installing MySQL on Mac OS X Photos from EMUG events Switching to Mac Tips and tricks for EmiratesMac AppleCore - What do you do with your OSX? Review: iPod U2 Create a water reflection with Adobe Photoshop Join EMUG

2 3 4 5 6 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20

What do you do with your OS X?

F ED IRST ITI ON !

Photoshop tutorial: water reflection

Mac 911 About EMUG EmiratesMac User Group (EMUG) is a non-profit, community organization which aims to spread knowledge about Apple products in the United Arab Emirates, and increase the knowledge and skills of its members. EMUG is open for anyone to join. Web: http://www.emiratesmac. com

Issue 1 | Volume 1

Review: Nike+iPod Sport Kit Review: iPod U2 EmiratesMac shuffle - The Newsletter of EmiratesMac User Group

A word from the president

By Magnus

A word from the editor The journey is the reward W

elcome to the first issue of EmiratesMac shuffle, the newsletter of the EmiratesMac User Group (EMUG). It’s the first publication of it’s kind in the Emirates, and we hope it becomes a regular feature in the lifes of anyone interested in Apple and their products. “The journey is the reward” is the title of a biography about Steve Jobs by Jeffrey Young published in 1988. Obviously the book only deals with the early years of Apple and Jobs and doesn’t cover his remarkable comeback in 1997 and the success the company has had since. It is however a great read and I love the title of the book and the sentiment that the process you go through is more important than where you end up. For me the process of EmiratesMac started when I began blogging about Mac stuff in the Emirates in late 2005. Never did I in my wildest dreams think that within a year the site would have several hundred registered users, that there would be a User Group, and that we would publish a newsletter and a podcast.

The EmiratesMac logo The EmiratesMac logo is a combination of an apple and the UAE flag, combining the two themes of the site and the user group. When the logo was first designed by MacUAE, it was using Apple’s apple with the flag on it. We quickly realized that might not be the best thing to do, to use Apple’s apple, so we tried to draw our own shape, which is what we now use in the logo.

This has definitely been a wild ride. The site has gone through some major changes and we’ve had incredible spikes of traffic a few times from being able to publish stories with wide, international appeal. With more users and functionality comes more responsibility and time required to manage and develop the site. These challenges is something I look forward to and I hope to be able to make as many users as possible happy with what the site has to offer. That said, the site only gets as good as the users on it and what we do is largely driven by user input. If you do have any views, suggestions, or questions regarding the site, please don’t hesitate to send me a private message or email. It wasn’t long ago that the user group (EMUG) was finally recognized by Apple. And I say finally because we submitted the application back in May, so it took quite a while. We cer-

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tainly appreciate Apple’s support and we look forward to working together with Apple and Apple IMC Middle East to spread the word about Apple’s products in the region. This type of community organization is not a very common concept in this part of the world but we hope we can in some humble ways help make it more common since we think it’s a wonderful way to get people together to help each other out and have fun. This is the first edition of our newsletter which we call shuffle. The name is partly an homage to Apple’s iPod model, and partly a good fit for what we intend this newsletter to be - a little bit of everything in an uncertain order, all rolled into one. We hope to make shuffle a monthly publication and we hope to be able to print and distribute it through stores in the UAE. To this end we’re looking for sponsors and advertisers so if you’re interested, please let us know. We are also hoping that EMUG members will consider writing material for the newsletter. As you can see already for this first newsletter some members have generously dedicated time and effort to producing articles for everyone to enjoy. Some have even committed to having recurring columns in the newsletter, which is wonderful. We hope that many more will over time contribute and make this newsletter a good addition to the web site and the podcast, as a source for information about Apple and their products, with a focus on the United Arab Emirates. As this is our first newsletter we’re still feeling our way through the whole processo of producing something like this. We certainly appreciate your feedback, but please keep in mind that we’re very new at this. Magnus Nystedt

Founder and Administrator EmiratesMac.com

Comic Corner

Blaugh.com Blaugh.com has generously given their permission for EMUG to reprint their comic strip in our newsletter. Go to http://www.blaugh.com to see a new comic strip every day. Use the code â&#x20AC;&#x153;blaughâ&#x20AC;? when you shop at www.Godaddy.com to get 10% off your purchase.

Geekculture.com Geekculture.com has generously given their permission for EMUG to reprint their comic strip in our newsletter. Go to http://www.geekculture. com/joyoftech/ to see a new comic strip every day. Make sure you also check out all the other features on the Geekculture.com web site.

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Reviews

By MacUAE

Review: Nike+iPod Sport Kit A

Review Summary Product: Nike+iPod Sport Kit Company: Apple Computer Inc. URL: http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike Price: $29.00 System requirements: iPod nano, Nike+ shoes, iPod nano software v1.2, iTunes 6.0.5 or later, a Mac with a USB 2.0 port and Mac OS X version 10.3.9. Test System: iMac 20”, Mac OS 10.4.7, fluffy sports shoes. Date: August, 2006 Reviewer: MacUAE Overall Rating: ••••• (5 out of 5)

s soon as it was announced, I ordered the Nike+iPod accessory for my iPod nano. A few days later I got a call from the courier company so I picked up after work. And I read somewhere that this gadget makes jogging fun. Let’s see if that’s true. With the help of Lego Steve, I unpacked the box of my new iPod accessory! Examining the box, I was amazed by how small this thing was. As with all Apple products, the quality is instantly evident. By the way, Lego Steve wasn’t surprised. So what’s inside the box? There’s the little red & white sensor that goes inside the shoe and of course, the little receiver that plugs into the nano to help you with your workout! My first reaction was that this thing is tiny. After the amazement had subsided a bit, I plug the receiver into the nano and instantly get a new menu selection.Ohh Goodie! Under the Workout menu, you can practically pick what type of workout your want. Either by Time, Distance or Calories. Curious as I am, I tried to plug the receiver into my 5th Gen. iPod and I got an error message. So this thing is specifically made for the nano. No surprise there really. After a quick look through the manual I decided to try it with my jogging shoes. Note that the sensor is made to work with the Nike+ shoes which I didn’t have. Unable to locate my shoes, I decide to use my ‘other’ jogging pair.

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As instructed in the manual, I place the sensor in the shoe with the help of Lego Steve for perfect adjustment inside the shoe. Holding the nano in hand and ready to try it out, I chose a quick 20 minute workout. As expected the sensor and receiver communicate instantly and I am off jogging in my apartment. Lego Steve picked the album and the display updates with the distance, pace and also time. Three minutes later, I decide stop and see a final report of my workout. Good! 21 calories in three minutes.

Overall, Nike+iPod is a great way to workout. The system integration is amazing and really keeps you informed of your workout performance, while listening to your favorite albums. I haven’t tried the online rating system, so I can’t say anything about it. My impressions are 90% Positive, only Negative is that it currently requires the Nike+ shoes to work. So if you need to workout efficiently and have fun doing it... get the Nike+iPod... costs around Dhs 110 from Amazon (plus shipping). Highly recommended by Lego Steve!!!

Ask EmiratesMac

Have a question? Ask EmiratesMac!

miratesMac.com is a community web site and one of the most importan functions of the site is to be an unofficial support to Apple users in the UAE. Anyone who has a problem with a Mac, an iPod or anything else Apple-related can register on the site and post a question in the forums. Other users will see the question and many are willing and able to help. We want to create an even more helpful environment for users and in doing so we’ve set up a special email address for support issues: askaquestion@emiratesmac.com. Send an email to that email address and we will do our best to make sure you get help. We may post your question in the forums, where others can respond, or we may just email you an answer back. If you do email us with your problems, please make sure you include as much information as possible that may help us diagnose the problem, for example: • What Macs are involved (specific models please).

Support EmiratesMac

t present there are no fees involved for using EmiratesMac. com or being a member of EmiratesMac User Group. However, there are

• • • • • •

What are the specs of the Macs (RAM, harddrives, optical disks, accessories, etc). What version of Mac OS X do you run? And have you applied all the latest software updates. If your problem is software related, what version of the software are you running? If the problem is iPod related, what version of the iPod and iTunes software are you using? What have you already tried in order to fix the problem? Your username on EmiratesMac. com (if you have one).

We hope you understand that this is a community- and voluntary service, and there are no guarantees that your questions will be answered and that the answers given will be of help to you. EmiratesMac, EmiratesMac. com, and EmiratesMac User Group and members, will not be held liable for anything that happens as a result of advice given. No specific leadtimes are guaranteed although we aim to give answers as fast as possible.

significant costs for running the site and the group, and we would certainly appreciate any support you would be willing to show us. On the homepage of the site there is a link which you can click on if you want to give us monetary support. There is also information about how to support us in other ways. EmiratesMac shuffle

Email your questions to askaquestion@ emiratesmac.com and perhaps your question will be answered in future newsletters.

EmiratesMac community The EmiratesMac community consist of a wide range of different users. Together they cover virtually every aspect of Macs, iPods, and other Apple products. With a combined experience from various fields of industry, like media, education, IT, printing and graphics, and more, there is bound to be someone who can answer your question.

You can also send us an audio-question via our Odeo feature (http://odeo.com/ sendmeamessage/ emiratesmac). We will get your recorded message and may use it in the EmiratesMac podcast.

Mac 911

MAC 911

By Christopher Breen

What are the end and home keys supposed to do on the Mac?

About the author Senior Editor Christopher Breen is the author of Secrets of the iPod and iTunes, fifth edition, and The iPod and iTunes Pocket Guide (both Peachpit Press, 2005). 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

Solutions to your most vexing Mac problems Toying with textures In January, Steve Jobs showed off Keynote 3’s cool new charts--the ones with the wood and marble textures. I’ve been trying to change textures in my charts and can’t figure out how to do it. What’s the trick? --Chuck Joiner So, you want to mix and match your textures in Apple’s Keynote 3 (part of iWork ‘06, $79). First, let’s say you’ve created a bar chart--which is what appears by default when you choose the White theme and then click on the Chart button in the toolbar. Lovely as the chart’s default gray and brown paper textures may be, you’d like to change the colors to something cheerier. To do so, follow these steps. Click on one of the bars--say, a gray one. This selects all the gray bars. Open the Inspector (View: Show Inspector) and choose the Graphic tab (hover over the tabs to see their names). From the Fill pop-up menu, choose Tinted Image Fill. Click on the Tint color icon (to the right of the Choose button). In the resulting Colors palette, click on a new color. The gray bars will change to that color while retaining their texture. Changing the actual texture of the bars takes more fancy footwork. Why? The texture is based on your presentation’s theme. For example, if you choose a 3-D bar chart in the White theme, you get marble bars. Change your theme to Black and you get bar charts with a wood texture. You can’t use the Inspector to change the textures of 3-D charts, so what do you do? Create a new Keynote file that uses the theme you want for your chart. Make your chart in this file and then copy and paste the chart into your actual presentation. Alternatively, you could try this trick, which a Mac 911 forum participant came up with. Select only the element you want-- a wooden bar, for example. Choose Format: Copy Style, switch to your preferred theme, select that same element in the new

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theme, and choose Format: Paste Style. This applies the copied texture to the selected object (see top screenshot). The advantage of doing this is that you can mix textures. You could, for example, create a bar chart that included wood, plastic, and cloth textures. Note that Apple likely tied textures to themes so you wouldn’t create ugly presentations. If your audience groans because your wooden charts clash with your Formal-themed presentation, you have no one to blame but yourself. Inconsistent keys On a Windows PC, if you place your cursor in the middle of a sentence and press the end key, the cursor jumps to the end of that line. Conversely, if you press the home key, the cursor jumps to the beginning of the line. But when I try either on my iMac G5, the cursor remains where it is. What are the end and home keys supposed to do on the Mac?--Steve Sawula On the Mac, the home and end keys don’t always do the same things across applications. For example, these keys work as you describe in Microsoft Office applications but not in TextEdit. In Web browsers, you’ll discover that the home and end keys take you to the beginning and end of a page, respectively. The consistent keyboard shortcuts for placing the cursor at the beginning and end of a line are Command-left arrow and Command-right arrow, respectively. (Again, browsers are the exception here. Use these keys to go to the previous and next pages, respectively.) If you’d like your cursor to jump to the beginning and end of your document, try Command-home and Command-end. Creating Address Book categories How does Apple’s Address Book assign categories to contacts? I notice that most--but not all--of my contacts have one or more categories listed in the Note section. --James Aldrich

Mac 911 Your mysteriously categorized contacts were undoubtedly exported from a contact manager, such as Address Book, that supports the universal vCard contact standard. Try exporting these contacts yourself by creating a new group (File: New Group) and giving it a descriptive name--My Friends, for example. Pack that group with appropriate contacts. Now drag that group to your desktop --a vCard file will appear. Double-click on the file, and Address Book will tell you that it’s going to import and update x number of contacts. Click on OK, and then select that group. You’ll see that each of those contacts now includes a Note entry along the lines of CATEGORIES: My Friends. If any of the contacts belong to other groups as well, those group names will also be listed.

number larger than 2. (This will be the number of simultaneous connections.) Quit Firefox, and relaunch. Once you do this, you can download more files simultaneously. If you download a lot of files frequently, you might also get the DownThemAll extension (free). As its name implies, DownThemAll allows you to automatically download all the linked files on a page or just a selection of particular file types (see bottom screenshot). For example, you can ask it to download just a page’s video files. This queues the downloads so you don’t have to hang around clicking on link after link. Fishin’ for permissions Whenever I repair disk permissions with Disk Utility’s First Aid feature, I see a long list of entries about widgets. Even after I’ve supposedly repaired these permissions, I continue to see these entries. What’s going on?--Mary South

Is this useful? Sure. Use these category notes to create a smart group (File: New Smart Group) that automatically gathers contacts that appear in mul-tiple groups. For example, a smart group with two conditions--Note Contains My Friends and Note Contains Business--would list only those contacts you count among your business buddies. More-efficient Firefox downloads I visited a Web site that had links to a lot of MPEG-4 movies. I wanted to download them all, but when I clicked on each link I found that Mozilla Firefox would download only two movies simultaneously. Is Firefox really limited to just two downloads? --Don MacKenzie By default, Mozilla’s free Firefox Web browser can download only two files at a time, but you can change that. Type about:config into Firefox’s Address field. Type persistent into the Filter field that appears at the top of the resulting page, and double-click on the network. http.max-persistent-connections-per-server entry. In the sheet that appears, type in a

If you repair permissions regularly, you may believe that it’s necessary to deal with anything that Disk Utility’s (/Application/Utilities) First Aid feature reports. Not in this case. With the advent of Tiger’s widgets, First Aid became chattier, much like a barroom companion who drones on and on without ever getting to the point of a long-winded story. In this case, First Aid listed widget after widget and said that each is using a special permission (33188). The problem was that it failed to sum up the report with an “Oh, and you can bang on the Repair Permissions button from here until doomsday, and you’ll see this same list of entries every time.” I write in the past tense because Apple addressed this issue with the OS X 10.4.6 update. Install it, and you’ll find that First Aid no longer lists widget entries. Yet there’s still something you can take away from this: Feel free to ignore any entry that begins with “We are using special permissions.” Target Disk Mode versus FireWire I’m trying to connect two Macs so I can see the secondary Mac’s hard drive from the screen of the primary Mac. I want to use the secondary Mac mainly for storage and

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Is Firefox really limited to just two downloads?

Mac 911 Firewire FireWire is the name given to the external wired interface specified by the IEEE standard 1394. It is also known as i.Link or IEEE 1394. It is a personal computer (and digital audio/digital video) serial bus interface standard, offering high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data services. Almost all modern digital camcorders have included this connection since 1995. Many computers intended for home or professional audio/video use have built-in FireWire ports including all Apple, Dell and Sony computers currently produced. FireWire was also an attractive feature on the Apple iPod for several years. However, Apple has eliminated FireWire support in favor of Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0 on its newer iPods. (Source: Wikipedia.org)

for testing new software and updates. But when I attach a FireWire cable, go into the Network preference pane, and click on Apply Now, the secondary Mac doesn’t appear on the screen of my primary Mac. What’s up?--Barry Wallack There are two ways to connect these Macs via FireWire. Unfortunately, you haven’t quite accomplished either. Here’s how to do both: Target Disk Mode Shut down the secondary Mac, and string a FireWire cable between the two computers. Start up the secondary Mac while holding down the T key on its keyboard. In a short time, a FireWire symbol will appear on that Mac’s display. That Mac’s drive should appear on your primary Mac’s display as a local volume. At this point you can have your way with the drive--treating it just like an external drive that’s physically attached to your primary Mac (which, in a way, it now is). Network via FireWire The other option is to mount the secondary Mac’s drive as a network volume. To do so, string that FireWire cable between the two Macs. On the secondary Mac, launch System Preferences, open the Sharing preference pane, and select the Personal File Sharing option in the Services tab. Return to the primary Mac, open its Network preference pane, and from the Show pop-up menu choose Built-In FireWire. From the Configure IPv4 pop-up menu, choose Using DHCP and then click on Apply Now. In short order, a self-assigned IP address will appear--

Blaugh.com Blaugh.com has generously given their permission for EMUG to reprint their comic strip in our newsletter. Go to http://www.blaugh.com to see a new comic strip every day. Use the code “blaugh” when you shop at www.Godaddy.com to get 10% off your purchase.

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something that begins with 162.254. (If no IP address appears, click on the Renew DHCP Lease button.) In the Finder, select Go: Network. In the Network window that appears, you should see the secondary Mac. Click on its icon and then on the Connect button that appears. In the Connect To Server window that pops up, enter the user name and password for that secondary Mac (that Mac’s administrator name and password) and then click on Connect. In the next window, choose the secondary Mac’s hard drive and click on OK. That Mac’s hard drive will mount on the primary Mac’s desktop as a network volume. A word of caution: You mention that you’d like to test applications that reside on that secondary Mac. They may not run-or will run, but oddly--on the primary Mac because you haven’t installed the applications and their support files on your primary Mac. If you’d really like to see how they’ll perform on the primary Mac, consider creating a Target Disk Mode setup. Then restart your primary Mac, holding down the option key, and in the screen that appears, choose the secondary Mac’s hard drive as the startup drive. This boots the primary Mac from the secondary Mac’s hard drive. This may not work if the secondary Mac’s hard drive can’t boot the primary Mac. For example, I can’t boot my PowerBook G4 from my Intel Mac mini’s hard drive because the systems aren’t compatible. I can, however, boot that PowerBook from my older, PowerPC-based Mac mini.

Feature

Emirates Mac a unique service in the UAE

By Magnus

miratesMac is the only web site focusing on Apple, and the only recognized and active Apple User Group, in the United Arab Emirates. Since the site’s foundation in late 2005 it has steadily grown and has at the time of writing this over 400 registered users and more signing up every week. The user group, EMUG for short, has been active for a few short months and there are already almost 50 members signed up, something we’re very proud of. EmiratesMac.com was started as a way to spread information about Apple products, their availability, price, and help and support information. The site has more or less become the unofficial support center for any kind of Apple product, with a focus on Macs and iPods. The users on the site range from those who have just bought their first Mac or iPod, to veterans who’ve been Apple users since before the Mac was introduce in 1984. There’s a wide spectrum from home users to professionals who use their Macs in their work every day.

Overall it’s a place where anyone should feel comfortable to come to, to ask any questions they may have, or ask for help with problems they experience. We know there are certainly some unique circumstances that Apple customers face in the Middle East and we want to try to make the situation as easy as possible. We do this by creating a platform, a community, through which users can share information, experience, knowledge, and have a good time. We hope you come and join us on the site and in our user group.

Advertise in shuffle and reach Apple users throughout the Emirates E

miratesMac shuffle is the only publiction of its kind in the United Arab Emirates. If you sell products or services that you think may be of interest to Apple customers, Mac and iPod users in the region, advertising in shuffle may be the smartest investment you will ever make.

newsletter will be distributed as a PDF file to all EmiratesMac User Group members, to all registered users on EmiratesMac.com, and to anyone else who downloads it from the site. We hope in the future to be able to offer it in printed format and mail it out to users, as well as put it in select Apple stores in the Emirates.

Since this is our first edition we don’t have any figures on how many reads the newsletter, how many get copies of it, etc. In the beginning the

If you are interested in advertising in shuffle, get in touch with us so we can discuss you needs.

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AppleIDX One important service offered by EmiratesMac.com is the AppleIDX (Apple-Index) price checking service (http://www. emiratesmac.com/appleidx). The goal is to publish the best available prices for any and all Apple products in the UAE in the list, so that consumers can see where they can buy them. AppleIDX depends on users reporting the prices and products they have seen in stores in the UAE. Registered users on EmiratesMac. com can submit new products to be added to the AppleIDX and update details of items already in the list.

This monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recipie

By Crystal

Cooking with Apples Apple-Nut Cake

Ingredients 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil 1 1/2 cups sugar 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar 3 large eggs 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 3 1/2 cups peeled, diced cooking apple (about 3 large) 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts Brown Sugar Glaze

Instructions Beat first 3 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients; stir into sugar mixture. Stir in vanilla; fold in apple and walnuts. Pour into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan or 12-cup Bundt pan.Bake at 325Â° for 1 hour and 30 to 35 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean.

Brown Sugar Glaze Crystal is the founder and editor of EmiratesBaby.com. She writes about various kinds of issues of interest to parents in the UAE. Crystal will be bringing us a new recipie based on apples in each edition of the newsletter. She promises it will be an exciting and mouth-watering mix of dessert, main courses, snacks, and more.

Ingredients 1/3 cup butter or margarine 1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar 1/3 cup sugar 1/3 cup whipping cream 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract Instructions Combine first 4 ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly; boil 1 minute. Stir in vanilla.

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Reviews

Review: SuperDuper! Backing up gets super-easy W

ith SuperDuper! for OS X, you can back up, clone, restore, image files, and more. This amazing program is so easy to use that losing data can only produce extreme self-flagellation, if you lose them because you didn’t have SuperDuper. And remember this profound truth: there are two types of people: those who have lost data, and those who will. I am embarrassed to admit that I have never successfully used any backup program. I tried Retrospect and it was so complicated that I gave up. I tried the free .Mac Backup for members and gave that up, too. I back up manually; that means, when I think about it, I copy my iPhoto Library and my iTunes Library to an external hard drive. My Aperture photos have Vault, which is a built in backup system, but you have to remember to do it manually. Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of my friends rave about SuperDuper and how easy it is to use. I had to try it. SuperDuper not only is easy to set up, but it is easy for new computer users to understand and has enough features to satisfy the advanced user, too. The first backup is long but the updates are a breeze. I put SuperDuper to the test and cloned my 250-GB SATA startup hard drive, which had 156.85 GB used. It took 2 hours and 10 minutes to copy 156.36 GB to my external SATA Wiebetech 250-GB hard drive via eSATA connection. Once that was done, it took 16 minutes and 43 seconds to complete with Smart Update. To get started buy a large hard drive, the larger the better, that will be dedicated to hold your backed-up data and to be managed by SuperDuper. You’ll have to decide whether or not to partition. It all depends on your personal needs. Partitioning a hard drive may help when

using the Sandbox feature in SuperDuper. They recommend a 10-GB partition. A SuperDuper feature called Sandbox allows you to play with a new OS update first to see if you are satisfied before you commit to it. Clone your OS to a second drive, boot from it, access all your apps from your primary drive. Try the update on the second drive and see if you like it before you commit. This is pretty cool.

By Maria Review summary Product: SuperDuper! 2.1.3 Company: Shirt Pocket URL: http://www.shirt-pocket. com Price: $27.95 (Free trial available) System requirements: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher. Does not support optical or tape drives. Universal Binary. Test Systems: Dual 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5, OS 10.4.7 Date: September, 2006 Reviewer: Maria O. Arguello Overall Rating: ••••• (5 out of 5)

I’ve never used SuperDuper before so I have not seen the different versions. In this version the developers claim the following changes: • Can disable ACL copying in Advanced options • The What’s going to happen? section now says when the destination is an image • No longer allows erroneous restarting/ startup from an image • Scheduling now works with multi-byte characters in volume names • Scheduling now works under 10.3.x for Japanese language users • Addressed various other minor issues Of course, the new SuperDuper 2.1.3 still improves on the acclaimed original in many ways, including: • The ability to easily schedule backups • Additional imaging options • More control over shutdown • Better AppleScript support • Hundreds of UI improvements • Growl support • And a completely rewritten, task-based User’s Guide. And it’s a free update for registered 1.x users! It is so refreshing to find a quality program that works so well and is so easy to use. This is the only backup program anyone needs.

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About the author Maria O. Arguello is president and vendor liaison of the Main Line Macintosh Users Group (MLMUG) also member of PMUG, NCMUG, MUGSNJ, SJAUG, and CCPMUG. She is the Apple User Group Regional Liaison for the Northeast United States, as well as the Liaison for Online Groups. Copyright © 2006 Maria O. Arguello.

How-to

By Magnus

Installing MySQL on Mac OS X

ou can download and install MySQL on your Mac if you want to try it out or perhaps develop something for an application or web site. It’s not as complicated as it may sound. Here’s what to do.

Start the MySQL Administrator application. It will ask you to connect to a MySQL server and login. Enter “localhost” for “Server Hostname” and “root” for “Username”. Leave “Password” blank.

Download MySQL 5 from http://dev.mysql. com/downloads/mysql/5.0.html#downloads.

Click on “Connect” and you should be logged in and connected. Click on the “Users” icon at the top of the window.

Doubleclick the two installers and the prefpane, in turn to install them. MySQL is a very popular database server product that is used by many web sites (including EmiratesMac.com).

This will give you a new preference pane from which you can stop and start the database server and see whether it’s running or not.

Type in the password you want to use for the root user on your MySQL server in “Password” and “Confirm Password”. The root user is the “super user” with access to everything on the Server so be careful with the root users details. Click “Save Changes”.

In addition to the MySQL GUI Tools mentioned in this article, there are many tools available

Download MySQL GUI Tools from http://dev. mysql.com/downloads/gui-tools/5.0.html.. This is a set of three applications with which you can develop MySQL databases and manage MySQL servers. Once downloaded, drag the three applications to your Applications folder or wherever you want to put them.

Quit MySQL Administrator. Now you should be able to connect to your database with your new access details. Try the MySQL Query Browser, for example.

for free. One of the best ones is CocoaMySQL, avaialable from http://www.theonline.org/cocoamysql/.

In future newsletters we will take a look at how we can work with a MySQL database.

With CocoaMySQL you can create databases, enter data into databases, query databases for information, and more.

You may also want to create a normal user account that you use for your databases. It’s not a good idea to regularly connect as root as that poses serious security issues.

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EmiratesMac User Group Events

Photos from EMUG events EMUGers having a good time, playing around with their Macs trying to keep up with what Stevie was announcing during the Special Event on 12th of September.

Fatima arranged a delicious cake in the shape of the EmiratesMac logo. Not only was it very nice to look at, it was also nice to eat.

MacNight, Ibn Battuta Mall, Dubai EMUG Meetings and Events The EmiratesMac User Group meets regularly once a month. The location changes but we hope to be able to arrange for a set place to meet in the near future. EmiratesMac also organizes different types of events, including MacNight, which are all to the benefit of Apple users in the UAE. We hope to be able to offer a wide range of activities and events that can bring Apple users together to share experience, teach each other new things, and just have a good time.

Macs...

And more Macs!

An important part of any diet - whipped cream! EmiratesMac shuffle

Switching to Mac

By Aditya “But if you are thinking of switching, then trust me you will never feel like using Windows again unless you are forced to.”

Switching to Mac I

ts been more than a month since I bought my Apple MacBook Pro. I have just switched from Windows, and this has been a completely new experience. It did take a lot of persuasion from other Mac owners for me to buy my notebook. With every Windows user trying their best to dissuade me from buying a Mac, it does take courage initially to buy one; especially if one is a student like me and had to chip in some portion of the money from his own savings. People who had never touched anything apple other than an iPod used to lecture me why not to switch. I believe the only reason they do that is because they themselves have not experienced what it is to be on a Mac. I have

recovered from a serious error” or when your applications shut down with all your unsaved data. This thing is stable, reliable. It does not eat my mind up for things it should not. The looks of Apple products are something to die for. The illuminated Apple logo on the cover is the envy of all my friends. I already prefer Keynote to Powerpoint. In fact, I cannot believe how quickly I have got accustomed to this. Yesterday, while working on a friend’s computer, I was clicking on the left side of the application window to close it. To be honest I still do use Windows once or twice a day. This is only for games or for AutoCad. In essence now there is no software which I cannot use. I believe one of the major issues

yet to find a Mac user who does not like his computer. Though I do not know, how many “I hate Windows” sites exist on the internet. I bought my notebook solely on the advice of people who had already used Macs, and the fact that BootCamp was released. So that acted as a safety cushion, I could always revert to Windows if I didn’t like the new environment. My fears were all allayed the very first day I used my notebook. The GUI is not a sore in the eye, but infact a real treat. The interface is very intuitive. There is even a “Switching from Windows” section in the help. I do not recollect a single instance when I could not figure out things either on my own or with the OS-Help. It feels nice to simply surf the net without being reminded rudely to download hundreds of megabytes of security updates for the millions of viruses, worms, trojans, etc. that exist. It is a nice feeling when you are not told every minute that “The computer has

with people who want to switch is compatibility, especially if he or she does not have another Windows machine. BootCamp easily resolves this. So does Parallels. But if you are thinking of switching, then trust me you will never feel like using Windows again unless you are forced to. Sure the notebook that I am working on is far from perfect, it does have heating issues and the speaker quality is not good enough, but this is closer than the rest. Though in the Middle East, the Apple also turns out to be quite on the higher side, when it comes to prices too. Two friends of mine who stay with me also have bought Macs. They too had no Mac experience but seeing how it works first-hand on my laptop they got convinced enough to buy one. Needless to say they are as happy as me. The best way to gauge any product is to ask the users themselves. To cut a long story short, I am loving this.

“I have yet to find a Mac user who does not like his computer.”

Aditya Anand is an eighteen year old student from India studying engineering. He likes reading, wikieing, surfing, music, some poetry and ofcourse his Mac. This is his first year in Dubai, he would love to meet similar minded people and also get some advice on Macs and this new place. His emiratesmac username is “inurv2”. You can reach Adi on MSN at adityavinod@hotmail. com, or email to theone.adi@ gmail.com.

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Tips and tricks

Tips and tricks for EmiratesMac

By Magnus

e’d like to think that EmiratesMac.com is a fairly easy site to use, but as we get more users posting more stories, there may be somewhat overwhelming to try to keep up with everything. Here we offer a few suggestions that may help you keep up with what’s going on and make your life easier. New Posts On most pages on the site there is a button you can click on with the test “New posts”. That will show all the posts that are new since you last logged in on one convenient page. Login problems If you have problems with logging in, and you’re asked repeatedly to log in even though you already did, chances are it’s a cookie problem. Log out from the site and delete all cookies, then try to log in again. Some users have reported this problem when they’re connecting from corporate networks behind routers, proxies and other networking equipment.

By subscribing to a RSS-feed you can easier keep up with what’s new on the site

Gallery Most people love to look at photographs and pictures. That’s certainly also true for EmiratesMac users so we introduced an advanced Gallery section to which any registered user can upload photos and pictures. Change view When you’re looking at a thread in the forum, you can look at the posts in that thread in different ways. There’s a button named “Display Modes” and by clicking on it you can chose between three different view modes. The standard is the Linear Mode. Threaded Mode can be more effective when looking at a thread with a lot of posts. RSS feeds RSS feeds enable you to conveiently keep up with what’s new on the site. Basically, anything new that’s been posted will show up on your computer without you having to do anything. Right now we offer four RSS feeds: Blog (http://feeds.feedburner.com/drupal/ IVKW) Reviews (http://feeds.feedburner.com/Emiratesmac-Reviews) EMUG News and Announcements (http:// feeds.feedburner.com/usergroupnews) Podcast (http://feeds.feedburner.com/emiratesmacpodcast) Safari is capable of subscribing to RSS-feeds. For some other suggestions go to http:// www.emiratesmac.com/forums/showthread. php?t=694.

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Etiquette As more users register for the site and engage in discussions it is important that we all act in a nice way toward each other. EmiratesMac should be a place where users are friendly and anyone can visit without having to experience bad language and personal attacks. Here are a few suggestions for making EmiratesMac.com a nice place for all: • If you have a question, search through the site first. • Don’t use bad language. • Quote something from the message you’re replying to. • Don’t assume others will have the same knowledge and experience you do. • Do let Adminstrator or Moderator know if you think someone has done something you feel is inappropriate.

AppleCore

By Dan

AppleCore - What do you do with your OSX? W

hat do you do with your OS X ? My brother describes it as a ‘pretty’ operating system that hardly ever crashes, is made by apple computers and is only used by graphic designers and video editors. One of my BSD user groups describes it as an OS with massive potential, a great command line interface (CLI), but it is a shame it is not open source. Apple describes OS X as “ the world’s most advanced operating system... a virtual toolbox chock full of cleverly integrated features — all atop a rock-solid UNIX foundation [FreeBSD]... the most innovative, stable and compatible operating system on the planet. Period.”

developed at Carnegie Mellon University.) NeXt provided OS X with kernel threading, Pre-Emptive Multitasking, memory protection, and a UNIX like base.... Apple provided NeXTstep with its user base its sales and marketing engine and its colourful past.

For questions or comments please email applecore@daemonsinc. com

In order to understand apple’s present and future operating system - OS X we need to understand its past. OS X was a massive leap from OS9 from a architectural and graphical point of view. OS X used a new graphical window manager called Aqua and used the NeXT step XNU Kernel. ( After several failed attempts to produce a new release of the Mac OS, Apple decided to purchase NeXT, a technology company owned by its co-founder - Steve Jobs in 1997, and creators of NeXTstep and Openstep).

FreeBSD is a derivative of NetBSD, which it itself was based on the University of Berkley’s Computer Science Research Group’s (CSRG) BSDlite 4.4. Bell labs the original creators of UNIX, sold UNIX to AT&T, who in turn licensed UNIX to the University of Berkley’s SCRG for a minimal fee. The university students then began ‘hacking’ the UNIX code and began providing AT&T with patches and updates to the original UNIX code provided to them. Wind the clock 10 years and many substantial code revisions later. Berkley released their ‘new’ Unix code to the world, for free. Unless you didn’t own your own media to copy it, in which case you had to pay for the media. AT&T were unhappy with this and launched a court case to prevent Berkley releasing their Berkley Software Distribution (BSD). After a code audit it was concluded that only 6 lines of the original AT&T UNIX code remained in Berkley’s distribution. The 6 lines were removed, and later re-written and Berkley released the code as BSDlite, and AT&T’s court case was dismissed by the judge.

The views expressed in this article reflect those of the writer, and may not represent the views of EmiratesMac or its readers as whole or part.

NeXTstep was based on FreeBSD and used the Mach microkernel

Bringing us back to the original question, what do you do with your OS X ? The OS is as Apple had intended it to be, an operating system designed to be used by users from all walks of life from system administrators to ge-

What does all that mean ? Is a pretty operating system just for graphic designers, is it UNIX ? Is it FreeBSD... Or is it really the ultimate operating system that can be used by any professional from any walk of life, as apple proclaims it to be.

A little bit about Dan… Employer : Transocean International Age : 30 Affiliations : Dubai LUG and MUG , OpenDarwin Contributor, openBSD contributor. Hair Length : Long Pairs of Sandals : 4

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AppleCore / Review neric computers users, video editors to graphic designers, and from computer programmers to gamers. Each profession and person can and should find something about the operating system that appeals to them. This is what makes the OS that much better. Software developers appreciate OS X for its strong open source background and its commitment to projects such Cocoa, Ruby on Rails, PHP and MySQL. System Administrators have the ability to pull up a command line interface and have access to powerful tools such as openSSH for secure remote connectivity. Video Editing and graphic design has also always been one of apple’s trademark vertical markets. The introduction of OSX and Apple’s digital life style has increased the amount of number of video editors world wide. Applications such as final cut pro,

which initially were snubbed by video editors for more mainstream applications as AVID and Adobe Premier are finding their way as a mainstream video editing tool, and not just an application for amateur home editing. So the next time you see yourself sitting across from another fellow apple user, don’t just grin because they are using an apple as well. Walk over and ask them what do they do with their OS X ? you might just be surprised...

Review: iPod U2 T

By Magnus

Bono, The Edge, Larry, and Adam get a minor makeover

he iPod U2 Special Edition was first introduced in October 2004 and seemed to be an instant hit with consumers. In June 2006, Apple updated the U2 iPod to be in line with the 5th generation iPods. The iPod U2 is really the standard 30Gb 5th generation iPod with some cosmetic differences. Since the functionality of the iPods is well know, we’ll just mention what’s different with the U2 iPod. The most obvious feature is that the U2 iPod is black including the back. The first edition U2 iPod had a clear metallic back but the new one but now even the back is black. It’s still metallic and one drawback of the dark color is that it seems to pick up grease like from fingerprints incredibly easily. You will be constantly wiping off your U2 iPod if you want to keep it clean.

into the metal. An exclusive bonus available only to owners of the iPod U2 is a 30 minute video featuring music and interviews with the band. With your purchase you get a coupon that you can use on the iTunes Music Store. Whether that will actually work in the UAE is still uncertain. The U2 edition has a suggested retail price of 1399 AED. The regular 30Gb you can get for 1229 AED according to our AppleIDX. That’s quite a difference in price. Is the difference worth it? If you’re a U2 fan, I would say it definitely is. If you’re just a regular iPod listener it’s more doubtful that it’s worth it, unless you buy one just to make sure you have one to complete your collection.

Apart from the black color, the red click wheel is a significant eye-catcher. And on the back is perhaps the most unique visual characteristic of the U2 iPod - the band members’ names engraved

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How-to

By Zaid

Create a water reflection with Adobe Photoshop

Creating a reflection within a photograph is popular effect, you can use similar technique for any object in a “studiolooking” photograph.

STEP ONE Open your photo in Adobe Photoshop (any version), in Layers Palette double click on the Background layer, name it then press OK to covert it to a normal layer.

Zaid Al-Hilali is an Adobe Certified Instructor operating from Dubai. You can reach him on 050 736 2306. Photographs © Majeed El-Chemor. You can find more of his photographs at www.elchemor.com.

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How-to STEP TWO To increase work area select Image > Canvas Size. In the Canvas Size window, click on middle–top square Anchor, then click on one of the drop down menus and change it to percent. Now type in the Height box 180 (percent) and hit OK. STEP THREE From Layer menu choose the following, Layer > New > Layer via Copy. In you Layer Palette you should see a copy of your layer by now.

STEP FOUR From Edit menu choose the following, Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical. You should see your image in top layer upside–down. Drag this image down ward using Move Tool to cover all space below.

STEP FIVE Make sure the copied layer is selected to apply a filter to it. Select Filter > Distort > Ripple, enter the amount of your desire, but be conservative. ADDITIONAL STEP Add a text layer by using the Type Tool to type a message.

ONE LAST STEP Use the Burn Tool (found under Dodge Tool in Tool palette) to darken/burn areas in reflection to make it more realistic. In this example I used a 65px brush to darken highlights at the bottom area as these parts should fade into the darkness. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you find it useful. It’s a really simple way to make some of your photographs look a bit more special and exciting.

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Join Emirates Mac User Group

Join EMUG • • • • •

Want to meet other Apple users? Want to learn more about your Mac or iPod? Want to help others with their problems? Want to have some fun? Want to save some money on your Apple purchases?

To become a member • • •

Membership EmiratesMac User Group is a non-profit, community organization which aims to spread knowledge about Apple products in the United Arab Emirates, and increase the knowledge and skills of its members.

Member benefits • • • • •

Presently, membership in EmiratesMac User Group is free. That may change at a future date when membership terms will be reviewed. Membership benefits and special offers are subject to change at any time and will be reviewed annually by EmiratesMac and participating businesses. To see the latest details, go to http://www. emiratesmac.com/usergroup. Memberships are renewed on an annual basis and the membership period is January to Decemeber. New membership cards will be issued each January for members who wish to remain in EMUG. After applying for a membership, you can pick up your membership card at an EMUG meeting or other event.

Go to http://www.emiratesmac.com/usergroup and sign up, or; Fill in the form below and fax it to +971-2-6664289, or; Fill in the form below and mail it to EmiratesMac. PO Box 70263, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

5% discount on any product in a MacStore in UAE. This offer is not valid in conjunction with any other offer or promotion, and limited to one item of the same type per invoice. At participating Salam Studio & Stores in UAE, members can get special offers and sign up for a customer loyalty program. 5% discount on any finished goods product, e.g. Macintosh computers, at Computer Direct Access (CDA) in the UAE. This offer does not apply to accessories, iPods, or software. The right to participate in members-only events, and discounts at select EmiratesMac-organized events. Access to a dedicated discussion board on www.EmiratesMac.com where you can interact with other members, ask questions, and put in suggestions for activities and anything else about what we do.

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Note: Your membership will be processed as soon as possible and you can pick up your membership card at a future EMUG event. Membership details and benefits are subject to change at any time. If you have any questions or concerns, go to http://www.emiratesmac.com. Membership in EMUG is currently free but a membership fee may be introduced in the future at which point you can decide whether to continue to be a member or not.

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