Free Old Macs

This just in: David Passell informs us, "I was a Computime yesterday (08/27/09) and they have five G4 Macs and three very old iMACS (no firewire and difficult memory and HD change). They also have the old blue-white monitors; very large and heavy. They were from a school.

"The G4s may not have RAM. The name plate states 400MHz, 128 MB sdram, 10GB HD/Zip/DVD. Copyright 2000. They have 2 firewire and two USB (probably 1.1) ports plus VGA.

"They will give them away to anyone who is interested. I only had room for a usb mac keyboard:). I think they have several of those too. There is another party who recycles PCs who is interested in them only for their HDs."

Anticipation!

Today's the day! As we anticipate Snow Leopard De Prez Allen Laudenslager wants us to know how to do it. He's copied from Daring Firewall an article by John Gruber, "I Believe in Murphy's Law." "How I upgrade to a new version of Mac OS X, from 2007:

So, in short:
1. Do a complete backup clone to an external FireWire drive.
2. Test that the backup is indeed bootable and up to date.
3. Unplug the backup drive.
4. Boot from the installer DVD and perform a default upgrade."

Can you jump from Tiger to Snow Leopard? Read for details and cautions from Wired.
More details are here at Apple Insider.
Note: Your Mac must have an Intel processor in order to run Snow Leopard. See the list of technical specifications from Apple.
Jim Hamm sends some links to articles that will help us check items before installing Snow Leopard. "For example," he says, "is your printer compatible with Snow Leopard?"
From Macworld. From Apple Support. And another from Apple.
Now, whoever is first to put in Snow Leopard, let us know how it went for you. . . Mine was just delivered by FedEx.
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Adding Video to Email

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Maybe you already know how? De Prez Allen Laudenslager writes, "I was trying to send a video clip as an email attachment and it shows up as a thumbnail, way too small to be viewed, as I am composing the message. That really threw me! I checked with Apple and that's normal and when you actually send the email the clip is about 2 inches square and big enough to view. If you save the attachment, then all the features of Quicktime become available.

"After I sent the email, I looked in the sent folder and the video clip looks right (about 2 inches sq) in that copy of the message."

With no experience in adding video to email I turned to Apple's site for help. Anyone else conquered that challenge?
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Solving a Big Problem

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Here's something to copy and print out for yourself. It may solve a big problem someday.

Jim Hamm, (De Previous Prez) is always looking for helpful advice. He alerts us,"A friend's iMac wouldn't boot up and turn on yesterday. Following is an email she sent to me and the corrective action she took after a technician at AppleCare told her what to do with her iMac.

"If one has a Mac laptop — instead of the iMac like she has — I presume one would disconnect the battery to terminate all power to the computer. If it's a newer MacBook Pro, without a removable battery, I don't know what one would do to terminate the power. Call AppleCare, I suppose, and ask them. Or maybe laptops aren't affected this way since they are somewhat insulated against power surges by their built-in battery. I'm going to print a copy of this for future reference in case I ever need to do this."
Here Jim quotes a friend, Nancy: "Remember I told you that my iMac wouldn't turn on? I tried to force restart it, but that didn't work either.

"This AM I got up and she booted up perfectly. I then called AppleCare and here's what I was told — it was static buildup probably caused by a power surge. I was told this is 'normal' but not something you want to happen frequently. He gave me a remedy to be used in the event you suspect you have a hardware problem. But, again, it's not to be relied on as a permanent fix because it can ruin the logic board. However, on occasion it is OK to do and will actually purge the computer of that extra static electricity buildup. It's called a PRAM reset, i.e, 'reset the power chip.' Here's what you do (Remember the computer is not on):

Disconnect the power cord from the computer (not the wall, leave it plugged into the wall)
Disconnect keyboard and mouse
Disconnect any other peripherals

Wait about 30 seconds, then plug in power cord and keyboard with the mouse attached.
Hold down Command + Option + r with your left hand (keep them down)
Press the power button
Press and hold the P while still depressing the other keys

Wait to hear three slow "bongs" (they're about 20 seconds a part - the same noise the computer makes when it's booting up).

Release the keys
Shut the computer down
Turn it on again.

"And there you have it - resetting the power chip or PRAM reset for beginners! Something to share with the others." Thanks, Jim, for sharing this info from Nancy.

Office, Free?

Some of you may have decided to download NeoOffice for all of your Documentation, Presentation, and Spreadsheet needs (because it's free). Now what? John Carter shares some details here.

"Would you like to get to know this application a little better? What better way than with a tutorial that guides you through several practice items for each type of document? You can get this tutorial online as an eBook in PDF format here.

"That site contains links to several documents in the section labelled 'Download Documentation.' The one I recommend is OpenOffice.org 3x Conceptual Guides to get a thorough treatment of all aspects of NeoOffice. Please download any and all documents that pique your interest. And don't forget to grab the OpenOffice Lesson Files (a zip file that you have to unzip) that go with the OpenOffice.org 3x Conceptual Guides. Download all these files to the same folder in your hard drive where you can easily access them.

"Even though these documents are written for OpenOffice, they will work for NeoOffice. The differences will be slight, if any, and the compatibility is 100%.

"There are significant advantages to using NeoOffice over OpenOffice, mainly speed and in additional features added specifically for the Mac.

"The NeoOffice documentation shows how to create a PDF file using 'File->Export as PDF...', but sometimes that method doesn't result in a 100% accurate rendition of the file. The method I prefer to create a PDF file is to use File->Print, then select 'Save as PDF...' from the PDF button in the first print window:

"This gives you a 100% compatible output with the way it looks on the screen."
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What's Happening With Microsoft Word?

The headlines (August 12, 2009) grab our attention. "Texas Judge Rules Microsoft Can't Sell Word Anymore." This article goes on to explain, "Microsoft Word's XML systems violate patents by Toronto-based i4i Inc. Word uses XML in reading and writing XML, DOCX, and DOCM files. The lawsuit alleges that MS violated i4i's 1998 XML patent #5,787,449. The injunction will go into effect in 60 days and prevent Microsoft from selling or demonstrating Microsoft Word. MS will have to pay i4i about $290 million in damages."

"Wow!" exclaims Jim Hamm. "Wonder why this patent violation took over 10 years for i4i Inc. to recognize and file suit, or maybe it's been working in the court system for 10 years. I presume MS will appeal this decision. In a decision like this, I wonder if retailers that have MS Word in stock can continue to sell the product until they run out?"

Here is one pertinent article, "i4i says it's 'not out to destroy' Microsoft Word."

Another article headlines, "Court Ban on Microsoft Word Won't Hurt Users."

This is i4i's own website here.

Snow Leopard Requirements

More details on how well your Mac will implement Snow Leopard is sent to us from Jim Hamm. He tells us, "For example, my MacBook Air will not realize any improvement from the 'OpenCL' design because it doesn't have a supported graphics chipset. This won't bother me as I don't use my 'Air' for any intensive graphics work anyway. Otherwise, it looks like my 'Air' is good to go with Snow Leopard.

"Even if your particular hardware configuration won't fully support all the features of Snow Leopard, I think you'll still realize benefits, including freeing-up about 6GB of hard drive."

Take a look at the article from About.com and note that Snow Leopard is only for Macs that use an Intel processor.

More On NetNewsWire


Wondered why NetNewsWire doesn't give you a "new content" bullet? Art Gorski gives us this info. "If you use NetNewsWire as your RSS newsreader (instead of Apple's Mail or Safari), and you 'subscribe' to the PMUG website, you will have probably noticed that you don't get a 'new content' bullet when something changes on the website. But if you just select the feed you can see the dates when each website page was last updated, which is almost as good." (Double click on the illustration to see this example.)

Here De Prez Allen Laudenslager checks in to the discussion: "It must be a setting thing. I use NetNewsWire and get a new post bullet for our blog! I use the default settings and mine works exactly the same for the PMUG blog as for all the other feeds."
Anybody else want to help shed some light here?

Way, Way Up!

Leading a SIG has gone to Jim Hamm’s head. Now we can see he’s head and shoulders up over Prescott. Bobbie Pastor sent this clever email, made with a template from the stationery program from Equinux. Double click on the picture here to enlarge it.

http://www.equinux.com/us/products/stationery/index.html It’s for Leopard only. The Stationery Pack costs only $29.95 and comes with a “try for free” offer on the home page. You have wondered about those cute emails Bobbie sends? Now you know . . . the rest of the story.

Considering NetNewsWire

Here's an article by Rob Griffiths explaining that he doesn't like the coming changes to NetNewsWire. Jim Hamm has this to say, "I presently use and appreciate the features of NetNewsWire, but don't use Google Reader nor do I try to sync my two Macs through or with NetNewsWire. I don't think I'll mind the advertising--businesses have to make money some way."
http://www.macworld.com/article/142032/2009/07/nnwsync.html?lsrc=nl_mwweek_h_cbstories
If you use NetNewsWire, any thoughts--pro or con--on this coming change?

Changes Affecting Us

Changes will affect those of us who use NetNewsWire, according to a short note from Art Gorski. He says,"Many of us use NetNewsWire to aggregate RSS feeds and get our daily news. Unfortunately, version 3.2, now in beta test, will remove MobileMe syncing (useful for those with more than one Mac) and add advertising to the program unless you pay to not display ads. For those reasons I'm not going to upgrade from 3.1.6, and I recommend you don't either."
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/08/netnewswire-beta-beginning-of-transition-to-google-reader.ars

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Warning About Facebook

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A stunning problem is brought to our attention by Bill Williamson. Facebook can use your photo in ads. Today's article, http://www.komando.com/tips/ reveals some troubling information. By using third-party applications offered on Facebook you give their developers access to your profile. That includes your photos. Social ads on Facebook have some access to your data. To avoid some scary problems read the whole article. Kim Komando tells you how to opt out and protect yourself.

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.