Website Design

If you've ever aspired to doing a bit of programming or creating your own website, here is an informative article by Gina Trapani from the "Lifehacker" newsletter .  Jim Hamm sends us this info,  commenting, "As I read through the article I recognized names that I've heard of or read about before — Such as Ruby on Rails or Greasemonkey — but have never tried them. I'll save this article in case I ever get ambitious and want to try something like this."

The article, "Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code" is by Gina Trapani.  She writes, "You've always wanted to learn how to build software yourself—or just whip up an occasional script—but never knew where to start. Luckily, the web is full of free resources that can turn you into a programmer in no time.

"Since the invention of the internet, programmers have been using it to discuss software development techniques, publish tutorials, and share code samples for others to learn from and use online. If you're curious about how to become a programmer, you can get off to a running start using tons of great free web-based tutorials and resources."

The article goes on to discuss choosing a language, desktop scripting, web development, command line scripting, add-ons, web development for the desktop, mobile app development — and she closes with advice on patience, elbow grease, trial and error.

Amazon Selling Apple at a Big Discount

"On sale!"  Two urgent words!  De Prez Allen Laudenslager rushes us this news, so check it out right away.  Amazon advertises some smoking deals on Apple products. He announces, "I looked at their website and found the MacBook Pro for $101 off and free shipping."  He wasn't aware that Amazon was an authorized Apple reseller and is offering discounts on Apple products. Did you know that?!

Talking About Google's Chrome

In case you haven't read them, here are three more articles about Google's Chrome OS.  Jim Hamm explains, "After reading and understanding a bit more about what this new OS is-and isn't--I have trouble understanding what significant role this might play in the computing world. I don't have much--if any--enthusiasm for it, at least at this time. Maybe as time goes on I'll see more of a place for it."  He goes on to give links to the articles . . .

Click to bring up these three articles from Computerworld.   One, two,  three.

Jim concludes, "Regardless of my thoughts, it's always interesting to read about new developments in the computing world. That's what keeps me--and many others-- spending money on the latest 'gadget' (did I hear 'Magic Mouse') or software upgrade."

DIY, Serious or Fun

David Passell passes along this link to the Instructables. It's an eclectic collection of DIY (Do It Yourself) projects, ranging from Christmas gifts and decorations, (now's the time to get going on these!) to the tech-oriented stuff.  He reminds us, "To get the full benefits you will have to establish a subscription, but it is FREE.  Every week you will get a new email with a link to the latest madness."

Maybe You Don't Need TWO Computers?

What's the future of computing?  Obviously, things keep changing. This article at Daring Fireball talks about one possible direction for computing. What a snazzy title:  "Maybe Instead of Two Cars, You Just Need a Car and a Bicycle." Instead of two computers maybe the second one could do a lot less, and that could be liberating, they say.

De Prez Allen Laudenslager piques our interest with, "While I haven't tried a netbook myself yet, the idea of the netbook as a partially capable 'junior' computer for travel use has some real potential for those who don't need to do everything on the road." Check out their archive for other thought-provoking pieces.

Advance Look at Google Chrome

We've heard a little about Google Chrome, and we do want to keep up with the latest in Internet technology. Well, here's a little more from both De Prez Allen Laudenslager and Jim Hamm.  Jim starts us off with, "After reading this article on Google Chrome, any potential interest I might have had in this has cooled considerably. I had envisioned it to be a download one would install, like Firefox, but apparently not. Also, Google's first focus is on netbooks, about a year from now."  Allen recommends this article.  And Jim comes up with two other links that explain the situation.

Jim continues, "The way I understand the comments, Google Chrome will be for computers with 'specific reference hardware.' Does this mean a computer has to be built to accommodate Google Chrome? Why would any manufacturer want to do this? I can't, for example, envision Apple doing this. This concept seems like a very limiting factor in Google Chrome gaining any significant market share. Maybe I'm not understanding all this correctly."

Allen's comment from the Computerworld article, "This report is claiming that the final Chrome release may only run on devices without a hard disk drive and use solid state memory in its place."

Jim has more information, "Here's a further clarification--and understanding on my part--of the difference between Google Chrome OS and Google Chrome. The first one is a web-based operating system that will be available on computers configured to handle it--such as a solid state drive. Here is an article explaining more about this concept.

"There are instructions available now on how a person can go ahead and install Google Chrome OS and run it in a virtual machine using the free software, VirtualBox.

Jim concludes with, "Now, Google Chrome is a web browser contained within the Google Chrome OS that a person, eventually, can download and install on their computer.  It will be interesting to see how both concepts fare as time goes on. The latest issue of MacLife compared several browsers, including Google Chrome, which came out well in the tests. These tests were done on a Mac."

Printer Upgrade, Download Precautions

Today’s advice is copy the settings you’ve got on Mac for your particular printer. Here’s how and here’s why.

Look at System Preferences > Print > Fax. Go to Options and Supplies to then access General and Driver. Copy these numbers. Easy way is to do a screen shot (Command + Shift + 4) and pull the target-looking lines over the parts of the window you want to copy. Then drag the screen shots onto Pages; file one set on the computer, print another set out for a paper folder in the file cabinet.

Here’s why:  Yesterday, automatically up popped an upgrade notice on Mac. Besides a little upgrade for Safari there was one for the HP printer. Of course, keep current, so click it on. Everything went well, etc. until this morning when awakening the printer and clicking to print something. The printer couldn’t find itself. It took a little hunting around, trial and error, but now all is well. It happens that this exact HP model is not listed in the long list under Printer Set Up, General, and Driver. What works for HP LaserJet P4515n is the designation HP LaserJet 4350. All is well. Keep good records.

Downloads Archive from K. Komando

From the Kim Komando website here is her downloads archive as recommended by David Passell.

He notes, "Check out the list of links to the right. On the lists summoned by any category, she has tagged, with appropriate symbols, which freebies are Windows and which are Mac. There is some fine print. The freebies may only be for a week or so, or on a trial basis. However for a collection it looks pretty promising.   Regards, David
P.S.  I said to myself I would stop browsing at 10:00 a.m. and here it is 10:17. WWW truly means World Wide Waster of Time:)"

I Inserted a Blank DVD. Now What?

Good question, David Crooks.  We'll follow John Carter's directions and view his screen shots to see how easy it is to do.



David asks, "I bought some DVD_RW on which to record data I want to save forever.  I inserted the DVD, and it did not appear on my screen.  What do you suggest?" 


"Good question," begins John.  And here for all of us to benefit from, are John's directions: 

Your preferences for what to do with a blank DVD or CD are probably not set to do what you would expect should happen.

Here's what I get when I insert a blank DVD+RDL: (the type of DVD does not matter)
To set up what action to take place when you insert a blank DVD or CD, click on the Apple icon, click on System Preferences, then click on the "CDs & DVDs" icon:
You should see this:

The top two options are set on my machine as you see them there. Here are the options:

Your machine might have it set to "Ignore" which is why you didn't see anything after inserting the blank DVD.

I you don't see any place to click on to eject that blank DVD, first launch Disk Utility (you do this by clicking on the Spotlight and typing in "Disk Utility."
Notice that without moving the mouse, the Top Hit has highlighted the application. All you need to do is  press Enter or Return to launch the application.

You should see something like this in the left side of the window:
I have my DVD drive highlighted. On the right side of the window is this:
Click on the Eject button.

After setting your preferences for what action to take when you insert a blank DVD or CD, you should then be able to work with the DVD or CD the way you want to.
Take care at this point! If you selected to open Finder so you could copy files to the DVD or CD, you might not think to look in the Places section of the Finder to see where it put a link to access that DVD or CD:  

So now all you need to do is drag files/folders into that location. Nothing is actually written to the DVD or CD yet. That only happens when you eject the DVD or CD. Notice the grey and yellow icon on the left? You click on that when you're ready to burn the contents of that folder onto the DVD or CD. And yes, you can change the title of the folder (Rename) and that name will be the title of the DVD or CD.
If you don't want to burn the DVD or CD just yet, leave it there until you have everything in this folder. And alternative is to first prepare a new folder with the contents of what you want to burn to a DVD or CD, then insert a blank, then copy the contents of the prepared folder to the Untitled DVD folder.

You can always back out and not do anything by ejecting the DVD or CD using Disk Utility, even if you have copied stuff to the Untitled DVD folder.  Doing so does NOT remove (delete) the Untitled DVD folder from the Finder sidebar. You have to move that folder to the Trash by going to your Desktop (where it lives), right click (control click) to open the options menu, and select "Move to Trash." As we say in baseball, no hits, no runs, no errors.

,

Making Booklets is Easy to Do

,

Going to the valley for Auntie's 90th birthday inspires me to tell you how bluesquirrel's ClickBook made a nice surprise for her and family and friends.  She gave me handwritten pages of remembrances of growing up with Mama, and I made booklets.  It's so easy to design and print them myself.

ClickBook works with PDF Workflow and automatically rotates, reduces and realigns pages into the correct order to create double-sided booklets.  I've used this program for 5 years, and besides family memories booklets I've compiled 33 booklets of my own inspirational writing, poetry, articles, and stories.  Adding photos are a cinch.

CableOne and Mac Mail

"I have been getting questions from people new to the Mac on how to set up Mac Mail to send and receive messages using CableOne," John Carter tells us.  Here he gives us step by step and illustrated directions.

Here's John's directions,  (you have to be connected to the Internet):

1. Open Mac Mail
2. In the Menu Bar, click on Mail
3. Click on Preferences.
4. In the window that pops up, click on the Accounts tab.
5. In the bottom right of the window, click on the "+" sign to add a new account.
6. In the Add Account window, Enter your full name in the top field.
7. Enter your cableone.net email address in the second field.

8. Enter your cableone.net password in the last field.
9. Click the Continue button in the bottom right. You will then get a pop-up window that appears to be an error message:

10. Click on "Setup Manually"
11. In the next window you will be setting up the Incoming Mail Server:

12. Enter the information as shown above, except use your user name and password.
13. Click Continue
14. In the next window, just click Continue:

15. In the next window you will be setting up the Outgoing Mail Server:

16. Enter the information as shown above for the Outgoing Mail Server. The Description field can be anything you like that will identify that CableOne is being used as an outgoing mail server.
17. Click Continue.
18. The next window will again appear to be an error message:

19. Click on "Setup Manually."
20. In the next window, just click Continue:

21. A summary of what you have done so far is shown next:

22. Click on the Create button to finish.
23. When you return to the Accounts page you should see this:

24. Please be sure to check the box "Use only this server" unless you have other email accounts that you prefer to use.
25. Notice that I have several other email accounts
26. Click on the "Mailbox Behaviors" and the "Advanced" tabs and set up your mail preferences the way you like them. There is no "best" way.
27. Create a test message and send it to yourself. In the Mail window, click on Get Mail if the message does not come in right away. Messages are retrieved according to the time period you set up in the General tab of the Mail Preferences (Check for new messages).   # # #

Problem with iMac Detailed

An email making the rounds hit David Passell's inbox.  David wonders if anyone else with a iMac or MacBook with an ATI X1600 GPU is having these types of problems.  A list of links on Apple Forums discussing this situation is listed below, in the event you are concerned.

The problem is described by an Australian long-time Mac enthusiast: "I am a long-time Mac enthusiast who feels a bit more "down under" than usual. I have spoken to the Australian Apple Support regarding my white Intel iMac which has had issues with the graphics card/logic board since three months (!) out of factory warranty. I purchased the machine, which had been used very little, from a friend (a fellow Mac User Group member for many years) in February 2008. It was then two months out of warranty. When I realized he hadn't taken out Apple Care I called Apple and was told that to take out Apple Care it had to be done within the original 12 months warranty period. The machine was however as new with relatively few hours of operation and nothing more intensive than web browsing and emails so I thought I'd be alright.

"The very next month, thin horizontal multicolored lines started appearing sporadically on my screen. I called support who said my warranty had expired and there were no known issues with my model so I was on my own. I repaired permissions and scanned the disk for problems but short of some incorrect permissions on occasion no problem was found. Gradually the problem worsened and the computer would sometimes freeze and the screen change to a pattern of multicolored vertical lines.
In November 2008 I actually took a photo of the screen on such a freeze using my iPhone and I have done so also on another occasion. I have attached links to the pics. I have taken the iMac to my local service agent and they cleaned it and ran tests which failed to find a cause for the problems. They suggested it may be the graphics module which is part of the logic board and can't be replaced.
The problem has now become so bad that I have had to change the background to a plain color and and turn off screensavers and anything graphic intensive. I am now down to one or two freezes & reboots per day from four to five."     This email was sent by Mikael Lindstedt.

Links:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1516765&start=0&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1467276&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2136365&start=0&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2181088
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1697470&start=0&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1974295&start=0&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2194641
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1878407&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2109263
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1726184&start=0&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2147082
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1609243&start=0&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10473645&#10473645
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2165038
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1974295
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1995151&start=0&tstart=0

Screen pics:
http://img200.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=attachmentpe.jpg
http://img21.imageshack.us/g/img0073hw.jpg/

Non-Apple links:
http://getsatisfaction.com/apple/topics/2006_imac_graphics_card_crash_freeze
http://torley.com/macbook-pro-with-ati-radeon-x1600-distorted-video-glitches
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/imacrecall/
http://forums.macworld.com/index.php?/topic/114232-imac-lines-on-screen/
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10330060-263.html?tag=mncol
http://www.sfmslaw.com/pages/cases.php?id=779