Dictionary Features

Here's a copy of the PMUG meeting handout on June 2009, in case you missed the meeting.

June 2009: Dictionary Features

Got a Word?
The Dictionary that lines up so nicely in the Dock is full of words! Take a look . . .

When you click on Dictionary you have choices of All, Dictionary, Thesaurus, Apple, Wikipedia.

What good is that Apple Dictionary, you ask? Type a in the search box. Click on Apple. Up comes a list of the “a” words, all of which apply in some way to Apple products. “Aqua,” what is that? A double-click brings up the definition. Did you already know it meant “the graphical user interface and visual theme of Mac OS X”?

If you’ve got time on your hands, do the same thing with Wikipedia. Type in a and see what comes up. “A & W” links to several titles, so we choose “Root Beer.” Clicking here brings up an outline of contents and concise information, including nutrition facts. You’ll find links scattered throughout, each opening to a new website.

Now, Thesaurus. It tells you there are 997 entries for "a." From words to phrases you can find more words. Click on one, and feast your eyes on words with various shades of meaning.

Dictionary opens by announcing there are 943 entries for a. On the menu at the top of your desktop go to Dictionary > Services > Speech and click on Start Speaking Text. Hear the chosen word pronounced. You may find this more helpful that sounding it out yourself, using the diacritical marks given in the dictionary entry.

Note: You can also click Start Speaking Text when using Pages and highlighting the words or sentences you’d like the voice to read for you. In System Preferences choose Speech, and select the man’s or woman’s voice you like.

What’s Up?
Go to http://pmugnews.blogspot.com/ to see what’s up. There are 161 postings since we started this feature in April 2008. Browse and see what’s there.
Now, ask yourself, what news could I send to Elaine that would be of interest to other PMUG members? Click on editor@pmug.us  and email me what’s up.

See also the PMUG website at www.pmug.us/ and explore the info there. Webmaster is John Carter.
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Google Maps

Now with our blog's new Jump Breaks capabilities I'd like to post the handouts given out at previous PMUG meetings.  As your news blog editor I've printed up handouts beginning in May.  Now I can post them here without hogging the whole homepage! In the next few days I'll post each, separately.  To start us off here's May 2009: Google Maps

5-23-09     Google Maps  
Have you tried Google Maps with new features?
Go to Google and type your address in the search box. No need to capitalize!
When the page opens click on that address where it says maps.google.com
Up comes street map, arrow pointing to that place and a tiny photo of the house.
In the upper left click on the yellow man and begin to drag him towards your house.
All streets that have been Googled are now outlined in blue.
Put the man down in the street at your address. Watch as your house comes up.
You can scroll in a 360 degree circle to see the neighbors.
The tiny icon at right side, top will enlarge your house to fill your screen.
You can move towards or away from using other control icons on the left side.
Notice you can use the Back Arrow to go to the previous screen.
On the first map, top right, you can find Traffic, More, Map, Satellite, Terrain.
Go under More and find Photos, Videos, Wikipedia, Webcam.
Experiment and see what you find.

Instead of putting in a whole address Google will find places if you type what it is, Ground Zero Twin Towers, Club 50 Fitness Prescott Valley, Washington Monument, etc.
On the left side other links will appear. You can even read and post Reviews.  # # #

Consider "Net Neutrality"

Should the FCC and the government stay out of the Internet, or should ISPs be allowed to, say, charge for the amount of usage a person uses?  Jim Hamm raises this question and goes on to say, "After reading this article I'm still a bit uncertain if I'm 'fer or agin' net neutrality. Do you think the FCC and government should stay out of the Internet, or should ISPs be allowed to, say, charge for the amount of usage a person uses? For example, YouTube has caused a significant increase in soaking up broadband, as does downloading movies, etc. This can cause internet slowdown in a neighborhood. Should people pay for this increased usage?"

"Another example: now many RV parks charge for WiFi (which is OK, somebody has to pay for this service), but now when one pays the fee you are limited to 60MB/day usage. Once you get to that level, you have to pay another fee for another 60MB. The parks say this restriction is needed because too many campers were soaking up available WiFi watching or downloading movies.

Jim concludes, "We'll see and hear more about this issue in future months, I'm sure."  Here's the article.

Mac Commercials vs. Windows

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."

When you see a book that piques your interest click to let Randy know so he can bring that book to you at the next meeting, or make other arrangements. And, please jot a note for the blog so we can let others know your opinion of the book or movie. Thanks!

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?