John Carter is a busy guy. You've heard his PMUG presentations, maybe his SIG ones, too. But John can give you personal help for those pesky problems that are slowing you down. At Saturday's PMUG meeting former Prez Howard LaPittus was bragging on John's helpfulness. Email John here. And he passes along the following info, too. Zenda Sergo is another local resource for anyone looking to take a formal class on how to use their Apple device or to learn a particular app like iPhoto or Pages. Zenda has a website that shows what classes she is offering. All classes are 2 hours in length, and she provides handouts ("Unlike me," comments John. "but then I don't have a formal class schedule to work from."). Click here for her website.
How to Convert to WordPress
Alternative Website Editors Are Available
"Although Apple's MobileMe web hosting apparently is going away permanently in a year, you can still use iWeb to create websites in other places," Art Gorski comments. "But any Apple widgets you are using will probably no longer work, and it looks like Apple may be dropping development and support for iWeb. So here's a good article on alternative website editors for Mac users."
Website Design
If you've ever aspired to doing a bit of programming or creating your own website, here is an informative article by Gina Trapani from the "Lifehacker" newsletter . Jim Hamm sends us this info, commenting, "As I read through the article I recognized names that I've heard of or read about before — Such as Ruby on Rails or Greasemonkey — but have never tried them. I'll save this article in case I ever get ambitious and want to try something like this."
The article, "Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code" is by Gina Trapani. She writes, "You've always wanted to learn how to build software yourself—or just whip up an occasional script—but never knew where to start. Luckily, the web is full of free resources that can turn you into a programmer in no time.
"Since the invention of the internet, programmers have been using it to discuss software development techniques, publish tutorials, and share code samples for others to learn from and use online. If you're curious about how to become a programmer, you can get off to a running start using tons of great free web-based tutorials and resources."
The article goes on to discuss choosing a language, desktop scripting, web development, command line scripting, add-ons, web development for the desktop, mobile app development — and she closes with advice on patience, elbow grease, trial and error.