Muskoka Mac User Group

Ever wanted some fun fonts for your Mac but weren’t sure where to go? (or when somewhere and were shocked by the price?) [Try this site](http://www.erik.co.uk/font/). It’s a mix of freeware, shareware and whathaveyou but most are pretty reasonably priced or free.

Boy, Google just keeps on coming up with new stuff.

They have [just released](http://mail.google.com/mail/help/about_whatsnew.html) a [customize your home page option](http://www.google.com/ig). What’s there isn’t that different than what other people have offered in the past, but it’s provided ‘Google style’ so to speak. It has the usual quote of the day, news links, and weather links etc etc etc – but with a couple of twists. *Everything is optional* The page can be as busy or plain as you want and it’s advertising free. Nothing is mandated by Google except the search box at the top.

All the standard things like the weather link are customizable to the one you want (use Bracebridge ON by the way – Huntsville weather is not available). Then it gets neat – there’s a create your own catagory option. Give it an RSS feed url like our very own [muskokamug.org rss feed](http://www.muskokamug.org/news/wp-rss2.php) for example and bingo – you’ve got the latest MMUG news right there too.

The unique features are pretty neat. First up is a gmail inbox summary. Second up is a bookmarks list – just enter in your favourite sites. Thirdly is a ‘Search History’ option – keep track of all your recent google searches. The search history claims that there is a ‘learning’ element to it – the more it remembers the better your search results will be in the future.

Still not convinced it’s cool? All the catagories can be moved around the page *just by drag n’ drop…*

Basically, this thing could provide your email program, your RSS feed reader and most of the functionality of your internet browser and make it available to you anywhere in the world you can sign on to the Internet….

Did I mention [Google has just released](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4180182.stm) [a chat program](http://talk.google.com)? And has [on-line photo albums?](http://picasa.google.ca/) [Satellite pictures and map lookups](maps.google.com) [with a yellow pages like feature](local.google.com)? If they add some calendaring capabilities I bet many many people could pretty much abandon ‘local software’ on thier computers altogether.

That is of course what they are aiming for. Long ago companies like Novell and Sun where advocating getting the data and software off the ‘end points’ and into the ‘network.’ They wanted you to run the software on their servers and make the endpoint computer a simple appliance like a toaster. Google is taking this one step further – as long as you can get on the Internet, they’ll do all the work. The users end point computer can be anything (Think cell phones, refridgerators with built-in screens, smart TVs… the list goes on)

If the major operating system companies like Apple and Microsoft weren’t paying attention before, they sure are now. ‘Tis interesting times we live in…

I have found some links for many of the manuals available for Macs from Newton user manuals to 17″ PowerBook Service manuals. If you are looking for one in paticular – Drop me a line and I’ll pass ‘em along.

Interesting experience this morning…. I got an email indicating I won an iPod.

O.K. – How many of you are nodding your head right now? or thinking “Hey, I’ve got one of those too!”

It’s the first day back after a long weekend and my inbox is showing unread mail in the triple digits – and my junk mail bin has a higher count than that. I almost pitched it – then I stopped and spent about 15 minutes poking around trying to judge it’s credentials. I reviewed email headers, followed embedded links, checked related websites and read it very carefully over and over again. Guess what? It’s ligit ! (well, I haven’t seen the iPod yet – but it sure looks ligit)

So, after I stopped congratulating myself I started to wonder…. When did email become such a mess that I (a reasonably informed computer user) had to jump through that many hoops just to use it?

A thought to ponder while I wait impatiently by the mail box…

Here’s a nifty combination of iTunes and VLC. He’s glued together a couple of programs with AppleScript to record streaming wma. Geeky but cool