Muskoka Mac User Group

Our very own Muskoka Mac User Group blog is now OpenID enabled courtesy of Mr Norris (thanks!) and the appropriate Wordpress plugin.

What’s OpenID you ask? Well - that sounds like a meeting topic to me if anybody is interested - but you can get a head start on the subject at the OpenID official site.

If you’re already an OpenID user, start logging in and making your (non-spam) comments today!

One of the not so thrilling features of the new iTunes 8 is the little link arrows pushing you back to the iTunes store all the time. Turns out there’s a hint on Mac OSX Hints on how to turn them off again.

Enjoy!

Thought I’d throw up a couple of links of interesting articles I bookmarked but never got around to posting about. Here’s one about an Apple user’s reaction to trying Ubuntu linux.

More misc posts coming at random intervals

Interesting rambling meeting tonight. I thought I’d make some notes as we covered a lot of ground…

Bill was really impressed with the quality of a hardcover photo album he’d seen from the Apple store. A real coffee table stand out.

We talked about Time Machine, and discussed the misleading article Sharon had. To get your data back with your original machine unavailable, you can just look at the backup drive and poke around, or boot up from the Leopard DVD and restore the data using that.

We also talked about the differences between how Time Machine approaches backups and programs like Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper. CCC and SD are especially good for offsite backups!

Don mentioned quickly that the new Photoshop CS4 has rollback now, where all the edits are in the metadata, rather than destructive edits.

Meg didn’t get the projector going to really go through the iMovie 08 discussion, but wanted to point out the Unlocking iMovie 08 blog that really helps get you going with iMovie08 for those iMovie HD users that tend to be really lost with iMovie 08.

We also talked briefly about photos being attached or in-line in your email. If you’re having trouble with people not getting your photos as separate attachments, choose the ‘plain text’ option when composing the email, and the photos will show up as attachments for sure.

Remember too that Google is really the ultimate user’s guide these days. If you are having trouble doing something, google it and you’ll find someone else who’s complaining about the same issue. Dig through enough complaints, don’t believe the first post you see that says it’s not possible, and you’ll usually find a solution.

Many mentioned Garage Band as a great time consumer and fun to poke at.

Brian mentioned Open Office 3 is out for the Mac now - and well worth the download.

We also had a brief discussion about LCD picture frames, and using modern plasma and LCD televisions as picture displays.

Welcome too to Emer - who made it out for the first time. Hopefully we didn’t scare her away with our informality.

Hi folks: We hope to see lots of you out for our meeting tonight. Of course, visitors and potential new members are always welcome. We meet at 7:30p.m in the Digital Life Centre at macs@work in Huntsville and we usually end around 9:30 p.m. We are a user driven and organized group which means our agenda often emerges out of the questions and concerns that members bring. We all try to help one another and most often we learn from one another too. This month Sharon is bringing some questions about Time Machine back ups. Meg is prepared to offer a comparison between iMovie ‘08 and iMovie HD and why this is important to know before you begin your big Christmas video project. Brian always has wisdom to share in his unique and entertaining manner. See you there and try to remember to bring your chair. Meg

Don McCormick was our guest presenter at our meeting tonight. He showed us two things that he is excited about these days. A word he uses over and over again as he speaks about the things he is doing with his Mac is “fun.” Sure its useful but most of all, it’s fun, fun fun! Oh, and elegant too. Simply elegant! What Don is excited about these days is creating presentations in Keynote (he is working on a golf instruction piece at the moment) and learning how to use his new iPhone. His enthusiasm was certainly infectious and we all went away feeling inspired. Thank you Don. Next meeting is Monday, November 10th.

Just a quick reminder due to Thanksgiving that the meeting is tonight.

Don McCormick is demoing his new iPhone, Meg will likely want to talk about the new laptops just released, and we’ll take questions from the floor… assuming you forget your chair again.

(and yes, that’s a fairly lame joke)

I do have a posting on tap to recap the September meeting - but this CNET article on Glubble made me decide to make this entry separately.

Basically, Glubble does two things - creates a simplified browser for your kids, and restricts them to websites that a human has reviewed. If they want to explore past the preset list, it gives you the ability to allow or deny whatever they want to see, before they get to see it.

To me the slickest part of it is the way it carries across multiple computers and operating systems. All you need is Firefox. I don’t have to be running the same computer my kids are using, or even be in the house to approve or disaprove new items. It gives me quick summaries of where they’ve been too.

It’s no substitutiton for parental involvement, but it helps sets guidelines, and helps your kids find fun stuff both they and you want them to see.

I meant to mention this before. The Pinedog blog is up and running again. David has been posting articles more regularly, got a write up in the Forrester last week, and is in the process of moving it to a new server. If you do nothing else, make sure you take a peek at his photo gallery. I dunno how he does it!

I always feel guilty when I see him complaining about his ISP. He was using Dreamhost, just like this site. I even recommended them. He’s had nothing but trouble even though we’ve had great success all along. I have this suspicion that somewhere along the line Dreamhost changed their server platform - We’re on the old setup and he’s on the new one - and his stinks When he first really started having trouble they had a series of blog posts detailing the issues they were having with their new SAN technology. I have to wonder if they ever really completely resolved them.

At any rate - best of luck on your new hosting, and with all your endevours David!

I was going to write a nice little rant about how I think Apple is making a big mistake with their handling (read censorship) of applications for the new iPhone and iPod Touch platforms.

Not familiar with the topic? Here’s three or four links to help get started.

But I don’t have to. Jason Snell over at MacWorld wrote it for me - he’s more polite, and through it all shows his I Love Apple Even When Their Wrong flag - but he’s captured the issues for sure regardless of tone. It’s worth reading.

ADDITION Sept 26

Oh - hey look - this will help!

And perhaps the neatest summary of the issue is here.