Macintosh Birthday on January 24

This calls for a cake with 25 candles. Why didn't we think of it earlier? Thanks to David Passell for alerting us to the following:

The BBC News website has this article with video, "Apple's First Macintosh Turns 25." http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7846575.stm

Another article worth perusing, "25 Years of Mac: From Boxy Beige to Silver Sleek" http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-01/ff_mac

Keep SuperDrive Clean

We just got some handy reminders from past president, current treasurer, David Passell. He relates some problems and problem-solving techniques that PMUG members need to know.

"Last fall after a lot of work that I was doing burning DVDs of Photos and Movies for a friend, I decided to listen to some music. When I inserted the CD it would not mount. Attempts to mount it with Disk Utility only showed it was there. It had all sorts of other weird information displayed when I clicked on the disk icon. I finally was able to eject it. The usual methods did not work.

"I had other problems when I tried to burn a CD with some photos: No success.

"I inquired to various sources, and the general suggestion was that the SuperDrive in my Mini was out of alignment or defective. There are two separate lasers for DVD and CD, I'm told, and one can fail while the other still works. Even the consultant at Argosy West said I probably would have to replace the drive under warranty.

"Not wanting to separate myself from my computer for a week or so, and noting the amount of dust which floats around the room (one of the problems of having pets around), I thought I would try to clean it. I heard a disaster story about trying to blow out the drive with compressed air (destroyed the drive) so I went to Staples and purchased for $10.00 a CD/DVD Drive Cleaner disk. This is a CD with a big arrow printed on the label side and a couple of little brushes on the shiny side.

"Per the instructions on the package I inserted the disk into the drive arrow forward and immediately I got the Audio CD Icon which was a good sign. There was also a voice message (actually available in several languages). Continuing on, some of the instructions did not exactly work as expected. This may be because like so many products they were PC/Windows oriented. In any case there were a lot of whirring and disk activities which within a minute or so stopped.

"I was able to eject the disk in a normal fashion; that is drag to Trash, use CMD-E, or the little arrow on the upper side of the top menu bar.

"Then I inserted my music CD. It played normally. This was on October 4, 2008. The drive has worked fine for both CDs and DVDs until a week ago when I noticed that CDs would not mount. I got out the Cleaning disk and performed the ritual again on January 13, 2009. The CDs mounted and played normally again.

"Conclusion is that if you start having problems with your SuperDrive, especially if it is in the close confines of a Mini get a Cleaner Disk and give it a try before you start looking for a replacement. The Mini has only ventilating openings at the back and its almost silent fan probably draws in a lot of dust.

"Further note: If you do a lot of DVD or CD work, you might consider purchasing an External drive for $100.00 or so. By the way, I would avoid those "LIghtScribe drives." You pay a premium, and when you read all the fine print you will discover that it takes 20 minutes or so to write the image. I prefer the crude old soft-tip pen and reserve my art for an insert. NEVER use a stick-on label. If it has any hanging edges it may jam in the drive. Then you do have problems."

So, there you have it, PMUG members. Thanks to David for taking the time to chronicle his computer adventures.

Jim Says, "Hi."


From a bluegrass festival in Blythe, CA, De Prez Jim Hamm sends greetings.  "The weather has been perfect, the music great, and we're having a good time. . . We had a fire in an outdoor stove every evening, and, of course, some pickin' . . . Glad the meeting went well Saturday."  

(That's Zee in the picture with Jim.)  
He concludes with "I'm actually sending this email from an RV park near Palm Springs, CA on Monday evening where I have wi-fi access.  Weather is 80 degrees and I'm in shorts and sandals.  Tough life, but we'll persevere. . . . (grin)  See you in a month."   

Starting Off the New Year



Our 2009 series of PMUG meetings at the Prescott Library got off to a good start today. Roger Lakner presided since De Prez Jim Hamm was off on a trip, and Roger took these photos. 

Speaker John Sykes from Argosy West gave a slide presentation about new features of some Mac products.  It was fun meeting visitors Daniel Leung, Al Abady, and Allen Laudenslager.  Helen Parsons, new member, remembers David Passell from "a long time ago" in PMUG. 
Thanks to Ginger Carlson who keeps us in cookies, with the help of Lynn Bischoff.  And Randy Calvert lugs those books for those who want to read all about Mac stuff. Thanks to the early birds, especially Mary Beth who helped set up the room. 


Zee Says, "Yea!"

The Google program Picasa was a favorite of Zee Hamm when she had a PC.  She really missed it when both she and Jim switched to Macs. It's finally been released for the Mac.  Here is one link to an article: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2009/01/05/macworld-ars-google-officially-releases-picasa-for-mac
and the other article is http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-10130501-12.htm?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20 

Live Blogs, Tuesday at 10 a.m.

Plan accordingly!  De Prez Jim Hamm tells us that live blogs on the keynote speech at MacWorld Expo will be available Tuesday, January 6 at 10 a.m. our time. 

http://macworld.appletell.com/
http://www.macworld.com/topics/macworld_expo.html

"MacWorld magazine and Appletell (and others) will have representatives at the Keynote speech and they will type (a live blog) what Phil Schiller, VP of Marketing from Apple, is introducing as new products, software, etc. by Apple for 2009. They may be using cell phones to type on, or maybe a notebook Mac. The info is uploaded to their respective website where you can read it on your Mac. It's fun to sit at your Mac and read what's happening. Later, a video of the Keynote speech will be available, too. I don't know what time that will be available.

"If time and inclination permit, here's an opportunity to while away an hour."  — Jim

Won't it be fun to see what's coming next! 

A Warning Alert

Member John Carter forwards to us the following warning from http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2008/12/hackers-create-secure-sockets-liar.html

"Hackers create Secure Sockets Liar: You know that comforting little padlock icon at the bottom of the browser that lets you know you're on a secure, encrypted connection to a bank, merchant or whatever? It's been picked. An international team of security researchers announced today that, with the help of 200 PlayStation 3 consoles strapped together into a poor man's supercomputer, they had exploited a known weakness in a cryptographic algorithm called MD5 and created a rogue Certification Authority able to forge the certificates used to authenticate Secure Sockets Layer connections (the padlock thingie). In theory, similarly skilled evildoers could steer users to phishing sites that not only looked legit but also appeared to be properly secured. In practice, the evildoers still have some tech work to do to catch up with the white-hat guys, and the exposure of the vulnerability should be enough to encourage the remaining real Certification Authorities using the MD5 function to switch to something a little sturdier. So no need to panic, but also no time to relax. Said cryptography expert Bruce Schneier, 'This is good work, great cryptography. I love the research, but this doesn't matter a whit. There are half a dozen ways to forge certificates and nobody checks them anyway.'"

With Deep Regret

Just received from De Prez, Jim Hamm a message of deep regret that Dan and Erica Simpson are asking to be relieved from PMUG responsibilities. Dan's job will involve travel in the new year and he writes that he will not be able to give the attention PMUG needs. They will not be able to continue hosting the SIG, nor serving as Webmaster and Ambassador.

We have certainly enjoyed having Dan and Erica so active in our group.  We will miss their cheerful participation and very helpful contributions, and we hope they will come as often as they can.
Any PMUG members who wish to help out in these areas please contact Jim at mailto:machamm@gmail.com 

Don't Be Without Music

Our musical prez, Jim Hamm wants you to know about a radio website you can listen to while you're on your computer.  He tells us, "It's like having interactive satellite radio on your computer.  The list of channels is even like an XM or Sirius listing.  You can select a channel, type in a song or name of performer.  Go to www.theradio.com . Very nice, particularly since I enjoy music."

How would we ever guess he likes music?

Going to Macworld in San Francisco?

Anyone from PMUG going to Macworld in San Francisco might want to check this out. Erica Simpson sent the info to De Prez Jim Hamm, and Jim wants you all to know about it:

"Dear Erica, You are receiving this email because you have attended an Adobe User Group Breakfast in the past. Register now for the 2009 Adobe User Group Breakfast. Space is limited; two representatives per user group please. Got to: http://www.acteva.com/go/adobe Date: Wednesday, January 7, 2009 Location Address: Moscone South Hall, Room 310 San Francisco, CA 94103 Breakfast schedule: 7:00 a.m. - 7:30 a.m. - Registration & Door Open (Continental Breakfast) 7:30 a.m. - Presentation begins 7:30 - 8:30 am - Dave Helmly 8:30 - 9:30 am - Terry White 9:30 am - Q&A and raffle 9:45 a.m. - Program ends NOTE: if you do not arrive by 7:30 AM, you will automatically forfeit your confirmed reservation for the breakfast. Remember to bring your Acteva confirmation email with you. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Happy Holidays and I look forward to seeing you in January! All the best, Carmela Z. Robertson, CMP CZ Productions"

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Breaking News!

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Maybe you saw it already, but breaking news is Apple bails on Macworld Expo after the '09 show, and Steve Jobs will not be presenting at that event.  Phil Schiller will be presenting.

De Prez Jim Hamm alerts us to a site to bookmark,  http://macsurfer.com.  Here you can scan down an itemized list of headlines and links.  It lists news articles, troubleshooting info, how-to tips,  Op/Ed, press releases, hardware, price trackers/deals, analysis and editorial opinion.  It goes on to list articles of both Apple and Non-apple industry news.
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More Music

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In case you missed seeing and hearing this musical group, De Prez Jim Hamm sends us this:
"Here's a picture of most of the Monday Night Bluegrass Band playing at the Acker Musical Showcase this past Friday, December 12, in downtown Prescott. From the left: Charlie, Jim, Bill, David, Elaine. Missing is our fiddle player, Carl. Bill's wife took the picture to send to their children and apparently Carl was too far to the right to be included, or maybe he had just stepped away. We had a good time pickin' and had a nice crowd that evening."

Party Photos, click on each to enlarge!

  1. Group
  2. Jim Hamm, De Prez
  3. John and Mitch
  4. Tala and Jackie     
  5. Don and Art
  6. Kaye and Bob
  7. Elaine and Lynn
  8. Art and Jim
  9. Mary Beth, Jackie, Bobbie
  10. Elaine, Roger, Erica
  11. group
  12. group
  13. group
  14. Kaye, Dan,Roger, Bob, Art
  15. Jackie, John, David, Tala, Jim, Dan 

            




Thanks to Bobbie for her photos.  It turns out very tricky to add a bunch of photos with captions.  Anyone know how to do these layouts?  

Surely you want copies for your screen saver? 

Lots to Eat

Our annual Christmas Potluck was held today at Manzanita Village Common House, thanks to Art Gorski who lives in this community. De Prez Jim Hamm welcomed 24 PMUG guys and gals to the festive meal.  Dan & Erica Simpson donated a Canon Pixma MP210 printer which was won by Bob & Kaye Fleming.  One year's free membership in PMUG was won by Helen Blossom and Emmett Buell.  We had lots to eat and lots of conversation to enjoy. 

P. S. He Wrote Back!

After posting here about the amazing panorama photos taken by German photographer Willy Kaemena at the opening of the Apple Store in Munich I found his email address wkaemena@mac.com and wrote, telling him about our Mac blog.  Within a few hours he wrote back!  He said, "Thanks a lot!  I have already 34000 pageloads of that panorama in 3 days.  Are you in Prescott?  I love it."

How's that from a fellow Mac user?