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Answering iTunes Questions

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        John Carter sends some important info:  "Take Control of iTunes 11: The FAQ" now answers iTunes 11 questions.
        "Few upgrades of late have engendered as much press - and hand-wringing among users - as iTunes 11. It's not surprising - millions of people rely on Apple's media management tool for a wide variety of tasks, but the new version revamped the interface and moved controls for many long-standing features.
        "If you've upgraded to iTunes 11 and are having trouble navigating its new interface or figuring out how best to use the new Up Next feature or the changed Genius, Shuffle, Search, and MiniPlayer features, help is now available in Kirk McElhearn's freshly published Take Control of iTunes 11: The FAQ. Written in question-and-answer style with a strong focus on audio and video, this 192-page guide will help you take your iTunes know-how to 11 thanks to chapters such as Play, Rip, Buy, Tag, Organize, Search, and Sync that cover the basics and beyond. Start answering your iTunes 11 questions today! 
        "The book normally costs $15, but the 30% MUG discount drops that to $10.50. Learn more about the book via the coupon-loaded link here:  http://tid.bl.it/tco-itunes11-mug-discount "

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January is the Time to Get Organized

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         Getting organized is a chore, but it’s so logical that you feel like you’ve accomplished something good.  January brought the end of the month of December, the end of the fourth quarter of 2012 and the end of the year.  Lots of practical things to do.  No doubt, you’re well on your way to achieving that goal.  
Do you have all of the 2013 birthday and anniversary greetings figured out for your extended family?  I do, and I’ve ordered them up already for the whole year. I’d like to tell you a good website to check out.  
Last fall I discovered jacquielawson.com  and for a mere $12.00 I’m paid up for the year of unlimited e-cards from her collection.  They’re amusing, entertaining, musical, and even serious.  
You can choose, designate the dates and the emails for a year!  They notify you when an e-card is sent, and another notification when the person has opened that email.  Your Cards History lists the last 30 cards they’ve sent for you.  Under Cards Pending you can view a card again, edit, or cancel it. 
There is a real Jacquie Lawson, an English artist in Southern England who started this in 2000.  She and her friends have created a total of 235 e-cards, ready for your preview.  Birthday cards, Congratulations, Get Well, Christmas cards, Thank you cards, Invitations, Valentine, etc. You can choose such features as dogs, cats, birds, teddy bears, flowers and many other subjects.  
When you click to preview a card you view the animation, and hear the music. The listings tell you about the orchestration.  One I’m looking at here has “Golliwog’s Cakewalk” from “Children’s Corner” by Claude Debussy, orchestrated by Mike Hughes-Chamberlain. You can choose from 15 different headings for your greetings.
        “An Eloquent Arrangement” is a floral bouquet e-card, and you can rollover to show the meanings of the flowers.  Someone of any age would enjoy these clever cards. 
After going through my list of 62 nearest relatives now I’ve covered the whole year in advance.  I sign in with my password and can look at my account.  It lists the name of the e-cards I’ve chosen, the names and emails of the recipients, and the dates I want it sent.  How simple is that!
        But wait, you say, I want to add a personal greeting.  Yes!  You can choose a Write Your Own Message or a Note Card.  I’ve sent personalized poems this way, and signed it whichever way suits the occasion.  
More than 50 of the most popular e-cards have been made into screensavers for you to download from this site.  Directions tell you how for PC or for Mac. 
After looking through their site I had a few questions and emailed Help@jacquielawson.com  Gary’s reply: “As long as the sender does not delete the card you should be able to save it on your computer.  
“Note: We do not permit the commercial sending of our cards to large lists.  If it’s a small group of recipients that the sender knows it is permitted.  If you’d like to post on a forum that has thousands of members that you do not know personally, feel free to link to our site, using instructions found on http://www.jacquielawson.com/linkpage.asp  
“Please note that since our cards are animated and most of the time the entire message will not show up at the end of a card without having to scroll down, printing them usually doesn’t work out.  Unfortunately, there is no way around this. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.”
        Speaking of writing, a poem can convey a thoughtful message without all the bother of regular sentence structure and punctuation.  It doesn’t have to rhyme, it doesn’t need to follow any pattern at all.  
I just wrote a page-long birthday poem for Granddaughter Joy.  I wanted to mention some highlights of her life and compliment her on her travels, her volunteering, and her service now as an R.N.  Navy nurse. 
The first draft is just a quickie, then let the writing rest.  Go back the next day and start to add more and polish it up. What you write to that person will be treasured more than a simple card from the store with only your name on the card.  You can convey encouragement, appreciation, happy memories,  plans for the future, and other personal notions that come to mind. 

        Now you can see what a help Mac is.  Pages shows you words that may be misspelled,  you can view your writing larger on your screen if you want to (mine is set for 150% viewing on my 27” Thunderbolt Display), you save it as you go, and then you can save the finished writing in a folder with that person’s name in your family file.  
You may want to make a printed copy for posterity.  Pretty stationery paper is waiting for you at Staples and Office Max.  (You do know that postage goes up to 46 cents for the first ounce on January 27, but the second ounce stays the same at 20 cents.) 
        You could send a pretty email to the birthday person, or the person you want to treat to a nice card.  You know where to find the panel to bring up Stationery on Mail.  But you can also subscribe to other colorful backgrounds for an email.  
        Creative Thinkers: this is fun to do.  I’ve created some family “holidays” for my relatives.  Pick a day, make a nice name for it, send out clever emails or e-cards, or even print something up on certificate-looking paper.  Be sure your printer will print on metallic-decorated paper before using that kind.
Mac has some “official-looking” fonts that make your homemade certificates look really nice. 
                  Here’s a few celebrations I’ve established in the family.  
The Brain Award =  sent to any relative graduating from high school or college.  
The Admirable Brother Award (I only have one brother and he’s a really great guy).  
Happy HARDT-Day = to my sons, their wives, and our grandchildren.  
Darlings-in-law Day =  for my daughters-in-law.  
Happy Everyday = an all purpose, any day of the year greeting to my relatives.  
Happy Sons’ Day = a poem for our sons telling how proud of them we are  
A Certificate of Near Perfection = in recognition of some kind of superior achievement.                             
A more original document was the “Congratulations on Your Medical Achievements” which noted the new title of “Lambpa” for our son Peter who assisted his ewe at the birth of her lamb.
    “Winner of the A to Z Award” was personalized by listing alphabetical characteristics of my brother.  
    For our 52nd wedding anniversary back in 2006 I wrote a poem to Don, and I calculated we’d had 18,980 days, or 455,520 hours, or 27,331,200 minutes of marriage.
    For Don’s birthday one year I wrote, “Have yourself a duct tape birthday.  It’s flexible, useful, strong, practical, helpful: just like you.”
Another birthday, I described other characteristics that the letter “P” of Don’s middle name could stand for, instead of “Paul.” -- persistent, practical,  prudent, providing, pleasant, positive. 
        Of course, a PowerPoint slide show takes the cake.  Our son Peter used beautiful photos taken by his wife Carlene and put in nice words to wish Don a happy birthday one year.  
You can experiment with making slideshows with iPhoto, too.  Do a Google search for “Mac: how to make slideshow DVD” and then under Search Tools designate any date within the last year so that the results will match the latest OS you’re running on your Mac.  
         So start that list of “To Do” and be thankful Mac will be your helper.  Of course, check your Calendar, subscribe to PMUG listings for the meetings for 2013.  Then subscribe to be notified of new postings to www.pmug.us and www.pmugnews.blogspot.com/       
         Plan on having a great 2013, and congratulate yourself on keeping up with the latest and the best.   
       

This was today's handout by Elaine Hardt at PMUG. 
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Need Another Reason to Switch from Windows?

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         Whether you use Windows— or not — there's some helpful info here for all of us!  Don't miss the suggestions about thumb drives and external drives.  Thanks to John Carter for the following detailed report!   He starts with the news article.  Feds: Infected USB drive idled power plant 3 weeks

       " There are four ways to protect yourself from a virus: 
        1) Keep an hourly updated anti-virus app running continuously. Since any new virus won't be detected and a cure found for up to 24 hours, this isn't any kind of guarantee that a Windows OS won't get a virus.
        2) Switch from Windows to any one of the dozens of Linux distributions. Linux is probably the most secure OS on the market simply because hackers know their return on investment isn't big enough to warrant going after it. There's just not that many Linux computers in use compared to the vast number of Windows computers. Still, installing an anti-virus app on Linux will give added peace of mind.
        3) Switch from Windows to a Mac. Because Mac is based on Unix, it has the same low-profile for hackers as Linux. There have been recent viruses found on Macs in the past couple of years — maybe two or three — so an anti-virus app is now recommended for Macs for added peace of mind.
        4) Stop using computers. (Now we know John is smiling when he says this!  Read on for more of his report.)
       "LInux and Mac are no longer safe now that hackers have discovered a way to infect any computer with a Java virus. But if the browser has Java turned off, or if you don't even install Java on your computer (and this does not include Javascript, which is still safe — for the moment), you're pretty secure when it comes to Java viruses that come in through email or a website. 
        "Still, this doesn't protect a computer when the virus is embedded in a brand new thumb drive or external hard drive that you just bought. So, another step in purchasing any thumb drive or external hard drive is to reformat it before using it.
        "Is Linux or the Mac really free from attack? Many companies using Unix as their primary operating system get attacked daily, but mostly by hackers trying to find a way into the computer through some unguarded port. Hackers don't go after personal computers in this way, simply because there's no assurance that their efforts will return as much of a reward, but this doesn't mean they won't try. 
        "Any computer, regardless of the operating system type, needs to be secured with a firewall for protection against attacks from the Internet, and that firewall needs to be monitored constantly and updated frequently — which almost no personal computer owner knows anything about."
        Well, it's time to come to the conclusion — for now — and John winds up with, "If everyone switched from Windows to Linux or Mac, the hackers will start going after them and we'll be back to grabbing at straws to figure out how best to protect our computers. But for now, either one is a better solution than using Windows."
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Hard Decisions for Photo Editing Apps

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        John Carter sends this report that will interest the photographers:  "Photoshop Elements 11 is out. The upgrade price is $79.99. Adobe has added a whole lot of new features. There is no student price. For some, there probably isn't enough to warrant upgrading from Elements 9 or 10. But if you're still at Elements 7 or below, it's time to upgrade!

        "Photoshop CS6 is out. Student price for the extended version is $249. For the serious photographer, there's nothing really to compare.
        "Adobe Lightroom 4 is another photo editing contender. Only $149. Student price is $79. Personally, I'm not that impressed with Lightroom.
        "Apple Aperture is $79. Aperture interfaces perfectly with iPhoto, but you can't have both open at the same time. The advantages over iPhoto are few, but some are quite useful. Aperture is definitely easier to use than Lightroom. If you already have Elements 9 or above, don't bother with either Lightroom or Aperture.
        "GIMP is free, of course, and it has almost all the features of Photoshop CS. The latest version (2.8.2) does away with needing X11 (XQuartz) and has a very nice interface — more like Elements and Photoshop.
        "Pixelmator is $14.99, designed to work with the Mac, has all the Mountain Lion features, and has many of the same tools as Photoshop CS." 
        John's conclusion:  "You might find yourself wanting more in a hurry, so moving up to GIMP might be the way to go. Some of the Pixelmator reviews aren't too encouraging, but then the professionals wouldn't bother with this app.
        "If you need to work with Layers and Masks, the only viable choices are Elements, Pixelmator, GIMP, and Photoshop CS, in that order of usefulness."
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Explaining Java & JavaScript

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      Looking at Safari > Preferences > Security you might be puzzled.  You’ve heard we need to protect our computers from the latest Java exploit by unchecking “Enable Java” and “Enable Plug-ins.”   Maybe you've already checked to “Block pop-up windows” and “Enable JavaScript.” 
        A Google search for the difference between Java and JavaScript brings up some websites.  See http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/javascript/article.php/3470971/Java-vs-JavaScript.htm  Written by the co-author of a JavaScript Primer Series, Joe Burns explains the similarities and differences. 

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Do You Tweet?

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        This article claims the Library of Congress is archiving every message sent from Twitter's six-year history from spring of 2006 to December 2012 — a total of 170 billion tweets —  and states, “ . . . the struggle now is for the LOC to create a keyword-searchable catalog for the vast amount of metadata associated with the archive, including the time and location that indicate a tie to certain events.”   Is anyone concerned about privacy? 

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Here's Why to Disable Java

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        "If you're still using Java, now is a good time to disable it," warns Jim Hamm.  See this article: http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/01/critical-java-zero-day-bug-is-being-massively-exploited-in-the-wild/
        The fix is to disable Java in your web-browser.  Here Jim explains, "NOT 'java script'  just 'java' — they are two separate check boxes, as they are two separate things."

        You'll note this article is dated today, 1-10-13, and there are already 76 comments.  
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FREE Gmail Phone Calls

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       In case you didn't see this, Jim Hamm wants you to see that word FREE.  "If you have a Gmail email account, you can make free domestic calls  to mobile and landline numbers — at least through the end of 2013. Here is an article with further details. The person you're calling does not have to have a Gmail account — you're just dialing their regular phone number through Gmail on your end.  
        "If you don't have a Gmail account, it's easy to get one, and it's free. Click here to sign up."

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Tablets Outselling Notebooks

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       "For the first time this year, it is forecast that tablet computers will outsell notebooks — and, if I recall correctly, notebooks have been outselling desktop computers for a few years," comments Jim Hamm.  He continues, "Here's the article. It has been interesting to me, who got into computers late in life, to see how  computer technology has evolved over, say, the last ten years. What's next?

        And Jim closes with this remark with a grin, "I think my first PC was running Windows 98 and had 8 MB of memory — a real 'powerhouse.'"
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A Visit to the International Space Station

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        "Ever wonder what it would be like to live 200 miles above the earth in the International Space Station? Here is a 25-minute video that tells and shows you what it's like. Very interesting, very complex, and wouldn't be for you (or me) if you were even slightly claustrophobic. Take a look." This invitation is from Jim Hamm, and it's finally getting viewed and posted here. 

        In her final days as Commander of the International Space Station, Sunita Williams of NASA recorded an extensive tour of the orbital laboratory and downlinked the video on November 18, 2012 just hours before she, and 2 others departed in Soyuz spacecraft for a landing in Kazakhstan. 
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Happy New Year!

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Dear PMUG Members,
The PMUG Board would like to extend its sincere wishes for a Prosperous and Happy New Year to all the members.  We truly hope to see you all in 2013. 

Given a lot of hard work, time, and know-how, our PMUG website is easy to navigate, and is looking good, thanks to Mary Ann Clark.  Note that on the home page www.pmug.us you can click RSS which takes you to NetNewsWire.  Here you can select both this newsblog;http://pmugnews.blogspot.com and the PMUG website so you can keep up with the latest additions.  Try it, you’ll like it.
     Our thanks to PMUG secretary Bobbie Pastor for the above announcement.  See you all on January 19 for our first meeting of 2013.

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An Assortment of Top Tips

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        Here's a bunch of tips that you'll want to try!  Jim Hamm writes, "For your possible interest, here's the top tips in 2012 for OS X per the osXdaily newsletter." 
        Here's a few titles: Tips for maintenance,  Command line tricks  tips to free up disk space, How to speed up an older Mac,  Protect Mac from viruses, trojans and malware,  11 must-have free apps,  Keyboard shortcuts for iTuness,  How to navigate the Mac OS X Dock, and 43 gorgeous secret wallpapers in Mountain Lion.  

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Virus Affecting PC and Mac

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        John Carter gets our attention with this!  "There's a particularly nasty virus associated with the email that supposedly comes from UPS. The virus actually causes the mouse on a Mac to freeze up after about 15 seconds, you then have to reset the mouse, and it freezes again 15 seconds later. 
        "But this can only happen if you have a Windows machine on the same network as your Mac. Once the virus hits Windows, it infects all machines in the same network, including the Mac.

        "The moral of the story is do not run Windows without fully protecting the Windows OS with an A/V program - like AVAST. The Windows OS also needs Malwarebytes and SpyBot Search & Destroy software installed and running all the time in addition to AVAST."
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iPhone App Shows the Prices

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        Going shopping?  Jim Hamm passes on helpful info.  "Here is an app for the iPhone or an Android phone that you might find handy: ShopSavvy. 
        "When in a store, say, looking at a product possibly to purchase, you can use this app to scan the bar code and it will show prices of local retailers as well as on the internet to compare to the price in the store you're shopping in. Best Buy, for example, was matching internet prices before Christmas, but I'm don't know if they plan to do this all the time. Wouldn't hurt to ask if you're shopping in Best Buy."