What's Happening to Skype?

If you're a user of Skype you'll want to keep informed. De Prez Allen Laudenslager alerts us:

VoIP provider Skype is in serious jeopardy, eBay warned in a regulatory filing this week, saying its future depends on a court battle over rights to the company's core components and its own software-development efforts to replace the technology. The issue derives from a claim by Joltid, a company owned by the founders of Skype, that eBay has infringed on its patents after revoking the company's license. New York Times, (07/30) from SmartBrief.com/news/ Enter "Skype" in the search box.

A longer article at http://www.techdirt.com (scroll down to Skype Founders) goes into more detail.

Allen says, “eBay bought Skype but only licenses the core technology that makes it work. Now eBay and Skype are in court (in England) over the licensing issues. Without the core tech, eBay will have to close down Skype - a real loss for those of us that use it - and write off the 2.6 BILLION they paid for it." He concludes, “There are an estimated 40 million active users.”

More People Prefer Mac

Interesting commentary on PCs and Mac. De Prez Allen Laudenslager tells us he found this on the Daring Fireball blog http://daringfireball.net/2009/07/microsofts_long_slow_decline

"Microsoft has lost all but a sliver of this entire market. People who love computers overwhelmingly prefer to use a Mac today. Microsoft’s core problem is that they have lost the hearts of computer enthusiasts. Regular people don’t think about their choice of computer platform in detail and with passion like nerds do because, duh, they are not nerds. But nerds are leading indicators.

"This is true in many markets with broad appeal, not just computers. Microsoft is looking ever more so like the digital equivalent of General Motors. Car enthusiasts lost interest in GM’s cars long before regular people did; the same is happening with Windows."

P.S. from Elaine. If you, like me, have trouble reading white print on a dark colored background remember you can toggle to white background and dark letters by doing the combination of Control + Option + Command + 8. When you're done, do it again to toggle back to normal.

It's Terminal, You Say?

Did you know that the Mac has a Terminal application for entering commands at the keyboard? Why would you want to do that? What's wrong with the graphical interface?

John Carter has some answers for us. "Well, for one, when you use the terminal both hands are constantly in the same position - over the keyboard - instead of one hand moving back and forth from the keyboard to the mouse. But if you're not a good typist that probably doesn't matter much to you anyway.

"Secondly, and this is probably the most important reason to use keyboard commands, the graphical interface actually hides a lot of functionality and detail from the user. Using keyboard commands gives you so much more control over what you want to see and do.

"Now here's an interesting tutorial that just might help anyone new to Linux to get used to keyboarding (as we call it).

"By the way, this tutorial will take you from 'why use a keyboard' to almost forgetting all about what a mouse is used for." http://osxfaq.com/tutorials/LearningCenter/

RSS Explained Some More, Hopefully

Updating what we posted on this blog on February 24:Have you solved RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to keep current with your favorite websites? You can set RSS for the PMUG site.

John Carter started us off on Monday with an email saying the RSS feed for the PMUG website appears to be working the way it should now. “After making two updates this morning, one in About Us and the other in Specials, I now see the update in my RSS feed as soon as I refresh the feed.”

I found his earlier email where John offers to help, "If you have any questions about how to subscribe to the PMUG RSS feed or whatever news reader to use, please send your questions." webmaster@pmug.us

Now, about using NetNewsWire as your RSS feed, http://www.newsgator.com/individuals/netnewswire/ Note that it’s a free Mac download.

Allen Laudenslager tells us, “In response to reports that the RSS button on the blog doesn’t work with NetNewsWire I found that if I open the PMUG blog in my web browser (Firefox) and highlight and copy the URL, then open NetNewsWire (my RSS reader) and lastly click on File and New Subscription a window opens that lets me paste the PMUG blog URL into NetNewsWire. Done this way, my reader automatically updates when something new is posted to the blog.”

Then to further clarify using NetNewsWire when it's open, Allen writes, “Click the Refresh All button on the top tool bar; that should bring in all the unread posts. You may have to highlight the oldest post and then move the cursor up to list them as read.”

Anybody else have comments about this?

Jim's & John's Impressions

Google is offering a new service called Google Voice. The basic idea is to give a person one phone number for all your phones. Jim Hamm writes, "I just received an invite, after submitting my name some time ago just to see what it was all about. With the same set of emails I received the following article by Paul Stamatiou on his first impressions of this service. Other links in his article contain more info. See http://paulstamatiou.com
"My first impression is that this is an intriguing idea, and a service that might be very useful to a business person who needs to stay in touch, or for someone who travels a lot. Also, it seems that a person can text message free using this service, whereas text messaging on a commercial carrier costs money.





"AT&T, Verizon, et. al., probably aren't too enthused by what Google is doing. I don't plan to jump on this service yet, if ever, because I'm not sure I really need it, and it seems a bit convoluted. But, having said that, when we're traveling in our motorhome it would be handy to have calls to our home phone number routed right to our cell phone.

"Google is apparently working on getting number portability, so one can just use their existing number and not have to get a new one from Google." Here's the Google site http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

Now, John Carter enters, "My impression is this: anyone can take the time, if they will, to forward their phones to any other number when they go on vacation. For busy business people with multiple phones, it might be appropriate to have one 'master' phone ring if any of the others ring, but to have ALL of them ring at once for ANY incoming call to ANY phone is a bit ridiculous. Still, I'm sure some Type A person will think that's a blessing."

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"Session Timeout" when accessing iTunes.

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Have you been receiving a "Session timeout" error message while trying to buy something from iTunes? Well, here's the odd (and easy) answer to that particular problem: your system clock isn't synchronized with Apple's! Although this is reported as a Windows problem, some Mac users are also experiencing this problem. Click on the title link above for the solution given by PCWorld. Or, if you want the Mac solution right now, open "Date & Time" in System Preferences, make sure that the box for "Set date & time automatically" is checked, and in the panel on the right select "Apple Americas/U.S. (time.apple.com)". Oh, and don't forget to set the correct time zone: Phoenix - U.S.A.


Thanks to the Prescott Computing Society Newsletter for this tidbit.

Jim Saves Time

We all like to save time, right? Jim Hamm, De Previous Prez, tells us how he saved time when transferring files to a new computer via Time Machine. "Here is an article from the 'Ask Dave Taylor' Newsletter on how to go about transferring files, etc., from Time Machine to a new Mac. It works, and one important item Dave mentions: connect Time Machine to the new Mac via ethernet cable, not wi-fi, which is too slow for massive transfers of data." http://www.askdavetaylor.com/use_apple_time_machine_to_restore_new_macbook.html

Bobbie Finds Out

Bobbie Pastor sends this comment to the June 27 blog entry, "Discovering Modem Speeds" where it said, "You might want to see if there are any upgrades in your area. If you're an 'old' subscriber there may be improvements now available." She says, "I found out through my own account, that if you are an old subscriber you can't have the upgrade unless you want the new, going rate which for me is $15.00 more a month. How do you like them apples?"

Mac for Sale

Bill Williamson writes that he's got a Mac for sale. Take a look:
"Believe it or not, we are running out of space on our lower floor. I will have to get rid of one of my Macs and the entire set up. A moving van is coming this weekend with lots more 'stuff' for our lower floor so I’m offering someone 'a chance of a lifetime' deal. All of the items in the package below will be sold to the highest bidder by this Friday providing they will pick it up by noon this Saturday, July 18th."
********************************
A Package Deal to the highest bidder:
Mac Power PC, OS 9.1, CD player, floppy disk and zip internal drives.
LaCie 10 GB external HD
Keyboard, Kensington Track Ball
Sony Multiscan 400 PS 19” CRT Display
LaserWriter Select
Software:
Adobe Photoshop 6.0
Kaleidagraph 3.0
MS Basic
MacDraw Pro
MathType 3.5
MS Office 2001
Painter 5.0
Quicken Delux 2002
Write Now 3.0
*********************************
Bill Williamson, 374 Summit Pointe Dr., Prescott, Ph. 928-708-0843

Mac Available in Library

Jim Hamm, De Previous Prez writes, "Here's an update on a new program at the Prescott Public Library entitled: 'Make the Most of Your Mac.' They have brochures at the front desk and a system in place to add Mac mentoring to their computer mentoring program. I've been working with the Library for them to purchase a Mac and to get this mentoring program in place. The Library has purchased a new MacBook Pro with the 13" screen. Initially, this Mac is available for use in our 'Beginning Mac' classes, and for use in the mentoring program. Later, it may be available for patrons of the Library to check out and use while they're in the Library. I'm very appreciative that the Library was willing to show this support for Mac users."

He goes on to explain, "Library patrons can sign up for mentoring on a Mac at the Library's front desk, or by calling 777-1526. The sessions are 1 to 2 hours duration, and may be repeated as often as requested. I'm doing the Mac mentoring as a volunteer at the Library. I'll bring a brochure to the PMUG meeting Saturday, and if you're in the Library stop by the front desk where they have a rack of the brochures and take a look.

"We sure are fortunate to have such a nice Library in Prescott--so supportive of the community with free meeting rooms available, wi-fi and internet access, computers for use, a computer mentoring program, and now a Mac. Let's remember this when it comes time for our annual financial contribution to the Prescott Public Library," and Jim ends with a grin and, "See you Saturday."

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New iCal URL for PMUG calendar.

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STAY TUNED! There is something wrong with the URL provided here.
An update will come when the problem is corrected. - John Carter
The iCal subscription to the PMUG iCal events has changed. The new URL is:
The following 'tutorial' is intended to help in updating the PMUG URL for iCal:



1. Open iCal.
2. Select any one of the PMUG calendar events.
3. In the Menu Bar, select 'Calendar', then select 'Change URL..."
4. A pop-up window appears showing the current URL for that event.
5. Paste the new iCal URL over the current URL.
6. All calendar events for PMUG will automatically update.
Or...
1. Open iCal
2. Right click on the PMUG subscription entry in the left panel
3. Select 'Change URL...'
4. A pop-up window appears showing the current URL for that subscription.
5. Paste the new iCal URL over the current URL.
6. All calendar events for PMUG will automatically update.
If you do not have a PMUG iCal subscription:
1. Open iCal
2. Right click in a blank spot in the left panel
3. In the pop-up menu, select 'Subscribe...'
4. Paste the iCal URL in the new pop-up window.
5. All calendar events for PMUG will automatically appear.
6. Rename the new subscription and/or change the color (if you like) by right-clicking on the subscription name and selecting 'Get Info'.

PMUG's New Officers

Congratulations to these esteemed PMUG members who've agreed to serve as our new officers. Here is a very brief introduction. Obviously, each has more of a story to tell, but we've limited them to only 100 words! Introduce yourself, ask questions, and you'll be pleased with their backgrounds, Mac experience, hobbies, travels, and all-around personalities.

PRESIDENT ALLEN LAUDENSLAGER: Allen is a semi-retired technical writer who switched to a Mac from PCs just about 2 years ago. His background with computers began in 1963 with a room sized Univac III. The first computer he owned was built from a kit in 1979 his experience spans operating systems including CPM, DOS, and Unix. In addition to starting his year as the PMUG president, Allen is the outgoing president of the Ponderosa Park Association (a neighborhood lead here in the Prescott area) and is on the Prescott Sailing Club safety committee. Allen is currently building a 16-foot wooden sailboat.

VICE PRESIDENT BILL WILLIAMSON: Bill has used an impressive variety of computers throughout his career: a CDC mainframe in 1957, followed by 10 different IBM models, on to Cray supercomputers, then in the late 70’s to PC’s and finally Macs. With a Ph.D. in theoretical physics, he taught graduate courses, wrote for 100 - 200 professional publications and gave presentations, and also directed research, garnering Fulbright, Outstanding Research, etc. awards. He was consultant to Sandia Labs for about 10 years. Retired in 1997, Bill moved to Prescott where he’s been president of Archaeology Society, Prescott Outings Club, and active in Monday Night Bluegrass.

SECRETARY BOBBIE PASTOR: After earning her Secretarial major in college Bobbie started at UniRoyal Rubber Company in Santa Ana, California where she did clerical work. From there she worked for Laura Scudders, then Kimberly Clark, retiring thirty-three years later. In 2003, Bobbie retired at 58 ½, sold her house in Placentia and headed to Prescott, AZ. Here she found the Mac User Group, and was “roped into being Secretary” in 2006. She keeps the books, sends out notices, takes minutes, keeps attendance and has possession of the PMUG computer, projector and files for the club. Now she also holds SIGs for beginners.

TREASURER DAVID PASSELL: David’s degree is from USC in Telecommunications (TV and Radio production) W56 as broadcast engineer/DJ for KUTE in Glendale, CA, then Chief Engineer for FM station WNCN in NYC. In 1961 he was Telecommunications Engineer at JPL (analyzing spacecraft data, writing reports, and writing FORTRAN programs). He did Technical Writing (IBM, Litton, Associated Writers, Conrac) retiring in 1996 from Ameritec, Duarte, CA.
Betty and David came to Prescott in 1996. His Mac history: Apple II - 1978, MAC portable - 1991, Mac TV - 1995. Currently he has MINI, iMAC, and a G3. In PMUG since 1997, he’s been President twice and continues as Treasurer.

See what I mean? You'll need to get acquainted with each of these nice people.

Discovering Cable Modem Speeds

What's the speed of your Internet connection? Art Gorski sends us an interesting tidbit this morning.

"I discovered this weekend that Cableone has increased their cable modem speeds. This is a stealth upgrade. They will not increase your speed unless you call them (928-445-4511). My 3Mbps cable modem is now 5Mbps at the same cost. Don't look at what folks in the Big City get or you will be depressed, but it's a positive move for those of us in the Sticks."

You can run a test, "How Fat is Your Pipe?" at http://www.digitallanding.com/high-speed-internet/section_display.cfm/section_id/20?gclid=CKjCisCJq5sCFRYiagodCil3DA to arrive at your Internet download and upload speeds, bandwidth, VoIP test, and a comparison chart of broadband services.

Then you might want to see if there are any upgrades in your area. If you're an "old" subscriber there may be improvements now available.

Clearing Up Some Confusion

Have you seen the recent article comparing the up-coming Snow Leopard with some PC system? Spare yourself some confusion - - and time - - by reading Apple’s page that outlines which computers will be able to run it. http://www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html

Note: It is only for Intel Macs. Earlier Macs don’t need it and won’t run it. When you buy a new Mac now it will be Intel, and if you purchase after June 8 you can upgrade Leopard to Snow Leopard for $9.95. The rest of us will pay $29.00.

Thanks to David Passell for alerting us to the confusion of the PC article. Want to read it for yourself? http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1114

Happy Listeners

Bobbie Pastor captured these images of the happy listeners at our June meeting in the Library. I've added her additional photo to our sidebar. Thanks, Bobbie.

Were you there? See yourself?

If you missed this time, be sure and catch the next PMUG meeting. Catch up with what others are doing to enhance their computer experience. Share what you've discovered.
How about volunteering to do a demo or give a full presentation to PMUG sometime? We appreciate the help we get from each other, as well as help we gain from hearing outside speakers.

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More on Monsoon-Ready

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Thanks to Art Gorski for the following info:
At my home Mary Ann and I have separate offices, a home theater setup in the living room, and a central wiring closet.

Both offices and the closet use CyberPower 895 3600 Joule surge suppressors. I picked this brand for the very high protection rating. Besides protecting computers and peripherals in the offices, it also protects my cablemodem (the incoming cable goes through the CyberPower), Apple base station router, and a ReadyNAS server that I use centrally for all backups. If I used a Qwest phone line (I use ViaTalk internet phone instead), it would also be protected.
http://www.amazon.com/Cyberpower-895-8-Outlet-Surge-Suppressor/dp/B000098XO0

For the home theater, I selected a CyberPower 1030HT 6000 Joule surge suppressor optimized for this application.
http://www.amazon.com/Cyberpower-1030HT-10-Outlet-Surge-Suppressor/dp/B0009WDLPK

I'm not particularly worried about a power failure actually hurting anything, so I wasn't interested in a UPS solution, but we have had serious issues with lightning damage in our neighborhood. Hence, the heavy duty surge suppressors.

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Re: Are You Monsoon-Ready?

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I have all my electronic equipment (computers, stereos, TVs) on Tripp-Lite Omni1000LCD UPS systems (this model may not be available anymore). I bought them all from Costco (around $99 each). They have served me well through three Monsoon seasons without a problem and I never bother turning anything off unless the power is out for more than a few minutes. Each unit has four uninterrupted outlets and four surge-conditioned outlets. I noticed that the Tripp-Lite UPS is what Smith Audio installs for all entertainment systems.

Consider this: if you really want to upgrade your computer, leave it powered on and plugged in to a UPS. Most UPS systems have some kind of insurance policy against loss of equipment during a lightning strike. If the UPS fails to protect your computer, you get a new computer - for free! ;-)

John C.

Security Update Posted

If you haven’t been automatically notified from your Mac’s Software Update, you might want to look at this. It’s a security update, “Java for Mac OS X v.10.5, update 4.” Several news sources on Google reported it. I looked at http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/06/15/apple_plugs_critical_java_security_hole_affecting_tiger_leopard.html

Sure enough, it came up when I looked at Software Update on my Mac. It said, "Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 4 delivers improved reliability, security, and compatibility for Java SE 6, J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4.2 on Mac OS X 10.5.7 and later. This release updates Java SE 6 to version 1.6.0_13, J2SE 5.0 to version 1.5.0_19, and J2SE 1.4.2 to 1.4.2_21.
Please quit all web browsers before installing this update.
For more details on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3581

Check it out for yourself. "Secure" is such a nice concept.

Jim Jumps In

"Here's a brief summary of Safari 4 from the Apple Blog. I've installed it, and like it fine," writes Jim Hamm, De Prez.
Apple Releases Safari 4, Posted: 08 Jun 2009 04:40 PM PDT

Apple today stripped the beta tag from, and released, Safari 4 into the wild. Safari 4, which has been in beta since February, offers a host of features and enhancements to what Apple claims is the “World’s Fastest Browser.”

Safari 4 features an updated user interface, and numerous under-the-hood enhancements, all of which contribute to a great new browser, built with the user in mind. If you’ve been using Safari 3, this is a fantastic update you’ll definitely want to install immediately. If you’ve been using the Safari 4 beta for the last few months, some changes have been made, and stability has improved. No matter what browser you currently use, Safari 4 is a gorgeous app that puts the content up front and gets out of your way while you surf.

Safari 4 Top Site Search

Searching in Safari has seen a few feature updates. You can use the new Search bar, which auto-completes terms, offers suggestions, and displays a list of recent searches for you. Pretty standard stuff. But here’s the cool part: Let’s say you want to search for a site you’ve been to in the past, but can’t remember where it was. Simply visit your Top Sites page and use the Search box at the bottom. Safari will search through your history and display thumbnail previews of the search results via Cover Flow in the browser window — making it much easier to find what you’re looking for. The Cover Flow feature also works with your Bookmarks.

Shortcuts

Apple has added a few options to the Customize Toolbar preferences. You can now add buttons for Top Sites, Bookmarks Bar, Site Information, Email Page and more. To make room for these buttons, Apple has removed the Stop/Reload button and made it part of the URL bar.

Safari 4 buttons

For those who were using Safari 4 beta and didn’t care for the Tabs-On-Top feature, you’ll feel all warm and fuzzy when you find the Tab bar has been moved back to its Safari 3 location below the toolbar.

While browsers have had the ability to reduce or enlarge text for a long time, Safari 4 goes one step further by allowing you to zoom an entire page in and out, keeping the content and overall look of the site the way it was intended. Of course, you can also zoom the text only, and support for external style sheets is available, so you can choose your fonts, sizes and colors for all web sites.

A few other nifty features of Safari 4 include inline viewing of PDFs without cumbersome plugins, the ability to “clip” a web page to create a Dashboard Widget of the page, the ability to save images directly into your iPhoto library, and mail the contents of a page (in its full HTML glory) with the click of a button.

Safari 4 Under the Hood

The new JavaScript engine (Nitro) in Safari 4, which boasts speeds four times faster than Firefox 3, four-and-a-half times faster than Safari 3, and eight times faster than Internet Explorer 8, was noticeably improved over previous Safari versions — especially when loading JavaScript-heavy pages such as my iGoogle page.

Page rendering speeds have also been improved by up to three times, according to Apple’s statements. Not having any scientific data to back up my claim, I’ll say that it is fast. Very fast. Considering Safari 4 will run as a 64-bit app under Snow Leopard when it’s released in September, Safari with its Nitro JavaScript engine will be speeding along at a pace that will leave other browsers envious.

Safari 4 also boasts support for HTML 5, for the use of offline technologies, and some pretty cool CSS 3 effects such as animations, fonts and media effects. It’s also the only browser I know of that supports ICC color profiles out of the box, so images appear in the browser as they were intended to.

Of particular interest to web site designers and developers is the ability to invoke Safari 4’s Web Inspector to get a closer look at the underpinnings of a web site. You can view the CSS and HTML code, script and database information, as well as beautiful graphs displaying site statistics, such as image size.

Safari 4 Web Inspector

Firefox, with its plethora of extensions available, has been my browser of choice for a long time. But Safari does offer one thing that Firefox just can’t seem to catch hold-of in Mac OS X — speed! Safari 4 just blows the doors off even Firefox 3.5 beta. And it does offer some customization capability via InputManagers (not supported by Apple, by the way). Overall, if you can live without dozens of extensions for Firefox, Safari is by far the best browser for the Mac.

Safari 4 is available now as a free download for Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later and requires that you install Security Update 2009-002. You can download Safari 4 from Apple’s web site. # # #