De Prez Allen Laudenslager sends a note about two creative Mac commercials. Here's the video.
See Google, See Life
Just found a nifty Google feature. Go here for the home page of the listings of all Life magazines from 1935 to 1972. Under "about this magazine" they give free access to share, print and post images for personal use. There's also a world map with red pins marking places mentioned in the magazine you designate. When you click on Contents the list of articles in that magazine come up. You can view full screen, two pages up, or four pages up.
I discovered this from World magazine's article, "Googly eyes," which states you can do an image search by appending "source:life" and the search will be limited to Life archives. Without that nice URL you can just go to Google's homepage, click on More, then click on Books. Magazines are shown, as well as books.
Improving the Blog
New features and improvements for the blog keep on coming. Thanks to John Carter for helping with the newest feature, "Jump Breaks." Scan down this page to note it as "Click to Read More."
Now is the time to consider starting a blog. You can set it up for the whole world to see, or you can restrict it for select people, like family and friends. You'll be able to share a lot of good stuff and publicize your blog in your holiday greeting cards!
Click here to go to www.blogger.com and follow the simple instructions. Then, let us know how it's going.
Tips for Avoiding Phishing Scam
On the heels of the warnings from De Prez Allen Laudenslager read tips from CNET News on how to avoid being a victim of an email phishing scam. Recently usernames and passwords from Hotmail, Gmail, and possibly accounts of AOL and Yahoo users being posted online has caused concern. Read in detail the five tips by Larry Magid: change passwords regularly, click cautiously, look for secure sites that use "https" (the "s" stands for "security"), use a phishing filter and good antimalware software, and think critically. Additional tips and links are given in the article.
Run a Mixed System?
For those who run a mixed system with both Mac and PC De Prez Allen Laudenslager says, "Malware is still a problem. This is not reported to attack the Mac, but since I run a mixed PC and Mac system I thought I'd pass it out just in case we have some members who are still running PC as part of a network.
"Never open attachments to email that claims to be from US or state agencies; they never use email attachments to communicate with taxpayers.
"This one claims that you may have under reported income and may be due a refund. It urges you to click on the attachment which directs you to a phony website that will infect PCs." Here's the article describing the problem.
Mac User Groups = Gems!
"I can't I can't begin to tell you how much being a member of PMUG has benefited me," exclaims John Carter. He goes on to elaborate, "Getting the bits and pieces of news and information through the PMUG Newsletter (Blog) is one of the best resources we have. And learning about other Mac User Groups and peeking in on their activities is another great resource.
"For instance, looking at RIMUG (Rhode Island Mac User Group) I discovered in their quarterly newsletter a review about Vertus FluidMask, a Photoshop plug-in (or stand-alone) application that takes the pain out of selecting portions of an image that you want to mask out of a photo. Wow! What other gems are waiting for me to discover in the world of Mac User Groups?"
John refers to an earlier post with this link to US and World User Groups. Take a look and be amazed.
Save Money on Photoshop
Looks like a good deal. Art Gorski tells us we can preorder Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 for $75 (after rebate) and get free shipping from Amazon. Use this link to help support the great Macintouch website. This page on Amazon has a list of features comparing Elements 6 with the New Elements 8. The "newest version of the #1 selling consumer photo-editing software . . . combines power and simplicity." The item will be released 10-23-09.
Also take a look at Macintouch which today includes an updated Snow Leopard Compatibility List, reviews, and articles that may be helpful.
Soon to Be on Sale?
Rumors of new Apple products always catch our attention. John Carter sends us this biggie, "It has been rumored for the last month that there will be new iMacs for the Christmas buying season. Today, AppleInsider seems to have some information on these. 'A trio of online advertisements that appear to have been published prematurely by one of Apple's international online stores suggest it's only a matter of days before the Mac maker takes the wraps off of new families of ultra-thin iMacs, lighter & thinner plastic MacBooks, and more affordable Mac minis.'
John's advice? "So if you are planning on buying or upgrading wait — new Apple products are usually introduced on a Tuesday. I would guess they will be out by the second Tuesday of the month — October 13, but perhaps we will see something next week."
Beware This New Scam
Thanks to John Carter for the following warning, "If you are a Facebook user, you might get a message from a friend saying something like, 'BigCityBizNews.org Read this news article...', or, 'Community-News.org...', which promises to tell you about a great money-making home business opportunity.
DON'T click on the link! It's a scam!
"The link takes you to an authentic looking website with a news article about using Google advertising that eventually asks you to click on two other links and pay $1 for one link and $1.95 for the other link. You probably get nothing in return for the money you give them, or what you get is information on how to do something that you could figure out on your own. And what's more, the article looks even more authentic by mentioning the name of someone in your city who is making tons of money with Google ads."
Where in the World?
Have you seen Apple Pi? Washington Apple Pi, to be specific. Yes, your PMUG from little Prescott Arizona is now listed on this extensive site that covers the world. Click for United States Groups, The World, Internet-Based Groups, Corporate & Government and Special Interest Groups. Thanks to David Harris for updating his impressive site to include PMUG.
September Winners
Another interesting PMUG meeting was held, with Roger Lakner showing a DVD on the beginnings of Macintosh. Winners of the drawings were David Passell and Randy Calvert (coffee mugs), Sandra Garramone and Harry Morel (the magnets), Marshall Waller and Roland Michaelis (the T-shirts) and Arnold Watson (the poster). A good time was had by all.
Favorite 10 Tips
This just in from Jim Hamm, "The Favorite 10 Tips" from Kibbles & Bytes. See it here. Betcha find at least three things you didn't know! And to think that cent sign ¢ was hiding under the Option + 4 key all this time.
Finding Something on This Blog
There IS a way to find something posted earlier on this blog. Maybe you've not noticed it before but look at the very top of the screen. In the Search box, next to Search Blog, I typed in Music. The obedient little search feature looked through ALL the postings in the whole blog. Up came the postings from 11-17-08, 12-2-08, 12-5-08, 12-16-08, 12-28-08 and 9-11-09.
Now you don't just need to scroll through the titles of all the entries to look for your key word, or even settle just for Command + F. That command only works on what's visible on the screen. Try it, you'll like it!
Read a Book?
Ready to read? Roger Lakner, PMUG Ambassador informs us that the Library page on PMUG site now contains one new book and "Welcome to Macintosh," a movie. He explains, "When you open the Library page, click on "Books" below my picture and select "Movies" to see the movie listing. Randy Calvert will get the new items this weekend. New total items = 42."
SIG: Fundamentals of Photoshop
Good news for PMUG members with interest in Photoshop! John Carter has scheduled a SIG on Fundamentals of Photoshop to be held at the Founder's Suite on January 8 from 10am to noon. He notes, "This may be a one-time only SIG, or it may turn into a series depending on member interest and my ability to stay one step ahead of everyone. This SIG is in addition to the Basic Mac SIG.
"Please note that the PC group has already done this program for their members. This program is for Mac users. Nothing new may be covered in this program from what the PC group covered. CS4 will be emphasized with flashbacks to CS3 where there are significant differences."
Also, John reminds us, "For anyone interested in attending a 6-month free online class in Photoshop, see here. That class is held every Thursday from 11 am to 1 pm. There is a 1,000 login limit, so log in early if you want to attend."
Screen Capture Problems?
Right after upgrading to Snow Leopard, John Carter discovered that he could no longer use the keyboard shortcut (SHIFT-CTRL-CMD-4) to take a snapshot of an area of the screen and paste it (CMD-V) into a Mail message (the snapshot is saved in the clipboard). However, he could paste the image into any other application. To verify the problem, John logged in as another user on the Mac and performed the same operation. The problem did not show up in the other user's login environment. So this meant that the problem was isolated to John's login.
Taking some lessons from an earlier call to Apple support, John began troubleshooting the problem by first working in the ~/Library/Preferences folder (the '~' character is shorthand for the home folder, or in this case, /Users/jcarter). After a short session of trials which involved pulling files out of ~/Library/Preferences and testing with Mail, John discovered that when the file "com.apple.screencapture.plist" was removed, the problem went away.
When a file is removed from the ~/Library/Preferences folder, the next time the user logs in, that file is recreated when the function/application it was designed for was again used. Of course, any preferences (other than the defaults) for that function/application are lost and have to be recreated. Removing the preference files is the basis for doing the test to determine which preference was causing the problem; remove a preference, log out and log back in, and perform the test again. If the problem goes away, the preference file removed was the culprit. If the problem persists, replace the file that was removed and repeat these steps until the problem is isolated.
John discovered to his amazement that the com.apple.screencapture.plist file was not recreated after performing the screen capture (snapshot) operation. This strongly suggested that that file is not used or needed in Snow Leopard.
So John called Apple support to confirm this finding. Sure enough, Apple support says that file does not exist in Snow Leopard.
That file may have been created in John's login environment by a third party application on John's machine (but definitely not by Jing - confirmed). Apple support cannot find any record of that file existing on any of their Snow Leopard machines.
It is recommended that if you have the file ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.screencapture.plist, you should remove it.
John's closing advice, "Don't be concerned if any of this is confusing. If your Mac is working the way you want it to, pay tribute to the Apple gods."
By now I wanted to know more; I wrote John and he clarifies this: "Shift-Cmd-4 saves to the desktop with the Date/time label. Shift-Ctrl-Cmd-4 saves to the clipboard."
Office 2008 for Mac, in the fine print
The 9-23-09 ZDNet article by Ed Bott raises David Passell’s eyebrows. See what you think. Bott writes, “I have a copy of Office 2008 for Mac, Home and Student Edition. It has the programs I need (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Entourage), but the license (PDF) specifically prohibits 'use in any commercial, non-profit or revenue-generating business activities.' I have no ethical qualms using this edition for short-term evaluation purposes but will need to replace it with a copy of Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition eventually. That will cost about $200.”
This article goes on to compare various features of Snow Leopard with Windows. Anyone else reading the fine print?
A Simple Suggestion
Frustrated with sites requiring registration? David Passell explains his simple solution. Maybe it's just what you need, too.
"I attempted to keep records on my computer, but a lot of times couldn't anticipate all the steps. I also had some of them on a PW protected file. It was hard to keep up to date.
"Then I had random pieces of scribbled paper which invariably got lost.
"Finally I reverted to a pack of lined 3 x 5 cards. When I encounter a site that wants registration (e.g. the FLOSS manuals) I get a card. I write the name of the service and include the full www or http:// web URL
The email that I use (some sites use them for ID, others don't).
ID that they ask for (some are case-sensitive, some not)
(Notes on other things requested}
Password: Be sure to indicate upper/lower case, numbers, etc.
My personal name ("nickname") that may be how I am addressed when I log in.
"Many sites will send a confirming email on the registration which you then have to respond to to "verify the registration." There will often be a follow up email.
"It is a good idea to set up an email Mailbox in which to save those messages.
"Some of these sites may be tricky: for example you might have a card titled MacFixit, but actually your registration and log in are with CNET. This is not to be confused with ZDNET which is an entirely different registration.
"After filling out the card, put it in a safe place. Over time you may accumulate a pile of them, which you can then sort as you see fit. Currently I have 29. As before mentioned, keep them safe. If you have a scanner you can scan a group of them. If you have a burst of enthusiasm you might even enter their content into some small files.
"When you go somewhere take the cards of sites you may want to visit (like at a meeting).
"I realize this may sound primitive, but over the last few days it has saved me a lot of time when I don't remember the PW and other details. Of course on your own computer, you can have the browser remember the password."
Art Gorski sends us his solution: He uses a smartphone (can't justify an iPhone in 3G-less Prescott!) and has a password safe application on it. Whenever he needs to login to a website or supply credentials for a shopping cart, he just looks them up on his phone. If he had an iPhone, he would use 1Password, which works on your Mac to store all this stuff and syncs the info to an iPhone application.
Now to hear from Bobbie Pastor: "In addition to Dave's and Art's solutions, I have a method that I use for keeping track of website passwords. I have a designated address book that I keep right at my desktop. It has my credit card numbers and the websites listed in alphabetical order. It works great for me."
RSS Makes Life Easier for You
Can RSS make life easier for you? De Prez Allen Laudenslager to the rescue! He says, "For those of us that want to keep up with some blogs (like the PMUG blog!) regularly, an RSS reader, (standing for Really Simple Syndication) makes life so much easier. I use NetNewsWire which is free (click to see download page with screen shots), but Google has a browser based RSS reader and there are others.
"I usually find a blog as a link from an article or a different blog and it opens in my browser. Once I decide I want to add it to NetNewsWire I just highlight the web address and then open NetNewsWire and from the File tool, select New Subscription and that auto-loads the web address into the selection tool, and I can either press OK or change the display name and then press OK."
Elaine adds here, "Want to use Google Reader, instead? Look at this info. Sounds easy, and I'm going to try it."
Ideas for Apps?
In Sunday's Arizona Republic there was an article about a nifty new app for the iPhone/iPod Touch that caught David Passell's attention. He writes "though I'm not a fan of telephones, in general, that almost made me want to get one. I need something like the application described." The story goes on to tell about a group of developers in Phoenix starting the Phoenix iPhone Developer Group, nicknamed "Pi," to bounce ideas around for possible new apps. David wonders if some programmers in PMUG could do something with this idea.