Prizmo for Mac! John Carter passes along some new info. "Now you can use your digital camera to get 'scanned' images of documents, and no matter how badly shaped they are, you can straighten them up with Prizmo. Better yet, if you take photos of a page from a book or magazine, you can even run it through the built-in OCR and turn that image into editable text. Wow!
"So, you've taken some photos and found that your lens introduced some warping effect? Straighten that image with Prizmo! This should be great for those super wide-angle or fish-eye lenses that invariably introduce warped images.
"For the stingy among us, the price tag on this app is only $39.95. That's a far cry from the $129 for ReadIris Pro. One user review says Prizmo actually works better than another so-called professional OCR app."
Your Thumb Drive for Both Mac & PC
How can that innocent little thumb drive be accepted by both Mac and your kid's PC? It was time to find out. Putting that Cruzer Mini 1.0 GB into Mac, then going to Utilities > Disk Utility to format it as MS-DOS (FAT) was supposed to work. Alas, it did not open on a PC.
John Carter to the rescue! He got straight to the point, "Had you not formatted it, you would have been able to read/write on the Mac and on a PC. All thumb drives are originally formatted as FAT32 and will work on all OS types (PC, Mac, Linux).
"Once you've formatted a drive on the Mac, it is unusable on a PC no matter which format you use. As far as I'm concerned, this is a bug. If it is formatted as Mac OS (any type), it will not even be recognized on a PC. If you formatted it as MS-DOS (FAT) on the Mac and reformat it on a PC, you are only able to ADD a 200MB FAT32 partition to the existing Mac formatted partition, and that's the largest size available on the PC. When inserted on the Mac, there will be two partitions on the drive, one with FAT32 as created by the Mac with 3.8GB and one with FAT32 as created on the PC with only 200MB. If you reformat it on the Mac, you can recover all the space in one partition.
"A thumb drive formatted as MS-DOS (FAT) on a Mac has full read/write access on a Linux machine. If it is formatted as Mac OS (any type), it only has read access on a Linux machine.
John closes with this advice: "Bottom line: don't format a drive on a Mac unless you only intend to use it on a Mac."
Info on URLs
Prevent any more sleepless nights! Jim Hamm refers us to an interesting article all about URL domain extensions and why they are needed. You already know URL stands for "Uniform Resource Locator," and that means the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web. Here's another source of info.
Access Your Documents
This site is recommended to us by Jim Hamm. He writes, "Now you can access items in your Dropbox account from an iPhone, iPod and iPad, as well as your Mac. This could be very handy if, say, you're out and about and not near your computer. Just use your mobile device to log into your account on Dropbox (you'll need to create one with a password), then you can access that document you want to look at."
Extensions for Safari
Safari 5 added the capability for extensions. Jim Hamm explains, "Here's an article that explains the difference between extensions and plug-ins. You did want to know the difference, didn't you? (grin) Here's a site where you can pick up a few extensions."
He goes on to elaborate, "The availability of many extensions is one reason why Firefox has become such a popular browser. It took a long time for Apple to add this customization to Safari — perhaps because of Apple's penchant to maintain somewhat of a closed, proprietary system."
New Officers for PMUG
Howard is semi-retired, doing consulting work for companies that have federal government contracts. Howard attended the Art Center School in Los Angeles, majoring in commercial photography. After leaving school he was a free-lance photographer doing fashion photography and covering the entertainment industry. Yes, he was a paparazzi, covering such Hollywood events as the Golden Globe Awards, movie premiers and various entertainment social events.
Howard has over 40 years (yes, he is old) of diversified business management experience in the commercial film processing, photographic equipment, consumer catalog, and educational supply industries.
One of the most exciting and rewarding experiences came when he had the responsibility of managing the JPL account in Pasadena. This involved the acquisitions, delivery and installation of photographic processing equipment that was used to process the first pictures from the moon.
Howard, his wife Carol and dog Oliver moved to Prescott in 2005 from PA. Howard’s first computer experience was running an IBM Tab Card installation which including writing computer programs in RPG in the 60’s. (Yes, he is old!) Howard switched from a PC to a Mac in 2005. His hobbies include photography, meteorology and stamp collecting. And, “long walks on the beach, smoking his favorite cigar,” he adds.
Art started with punch cards and FORTRAN programming in a freshman year college class in 1969. After getting his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering he became interested in the microcomputers that were just coming out in the late 1970's. He took a continuing education class at the local university and learned how to program the 6502 microprocessor in hexadecimal machine language. Since this was the same processor used in the new Apple II computer, Art ended up purchasing one in January of 1979. It's serial number 660, and he still owns it.
Joining the local computer club, he decided to change careers and go into programming for a living and wrote programs in assembly language and FORTRAN for real-time flight simulators. He bought an original Macintosh 128 in early 1985, and eventually upgraded it to a Mac Plus. Later Macs included a PowerBook 100, PowerBook 2300, PowerMac 7200/90, and a G4 Cube (still owns it).
He retired and moved to Prescott in 2007 and spends his time running a couple of websites and generally geeking out. He has a very sophisticated gigabit home network with a network attached storage server.
After earning her Secretarial major in college Bobbie started at UniRoyal Rubber Company in Santa Ana, California where she did clerical work. From there she worked for Laura Scudders, then Kimberly Clark, retiring thirty-three years later. In 2003, Bobbie retired at 58 ½, sold her house in Placentia and headed to Prescott, AZ. Here she found the Mac User Group, and was “sentenced to being Secretary of PMUG” in 2006. She keeps the books, sends out notices, takes minutes, keeps attendance and has possession of the PMUG computer, projector and files for the club. Along with John Carter and Jim Hamm, she volunteers a Basic Mac SIG for PMUG members.
She loves gardening and has a high maintenance landscape. She is Vice-mum for the Diamond Chics Red Hat chapter. She uses a lot of computer techniques that she has learned from being a member of the club and hopes to get a newsletter and website up for the ladies. Home decorating and photography is of great interest, however, she doesn't seem to find the time for them.
She lives with her "special needs" fur child, Archie. He is not only blind, but he is socially challenged. He loves to help her in the yard, and one of these days we will actually find time to grow vegetables!
David’s degree is from USC in Telecommunications (TV and Radio production) W56 as broadcast engineer/DJ for KUTE in Glendale, CA, then Chief Engineer for FM station WNCN in NYC.
In 1961 he was telecommunications engineer at JPL (analyzing spacecraft data, writing reports, and writing FORTRAN programs). He did technical writing (IBM, Litton, Associated Writers, Conrac) retiring in 1996 from Ameritec, Duarte, CA.
Betty and David came to Prescott in 1996. His Mac history: Apple II - 1978, MAC portable - 1991, Mac TV - 1995. Currently he has a MINI, an iMAC, and a G3. In PMUG since 1997, he’s been President twice and continues as Treasurer.
Thanks to Outgoing Officers
Today's meeting was the annual election. But, first, a big thanks to this year's leadership, Allen Laudenslager serving as De Prez, Bill Williamson as VP, David Passell our treasurer and Bobbie Pastor our secretary. We appreciate your time, talent, and good sense of humor!
Ultimate Guide to Gmail
If you use Gmail for your email client, you may want to take a look at this helpful guide, Jim Hamm says.
New Use for That Old Computer
De Prez Allen Laudenslager passes along this new use for your old computer. He also gives us this link if you're in need of a smile.
Finding Help
Hopefully, PMUG members and friends are gaining help when they need it. Last week's update for Mac was an example of needing and finding help. A quick email brought quick replies from David Passell, Art Gorski, and John Carter. The technical details I didn't need; I just needed my printer to obey my commands. After following the suggestion to turn off the Firewall, since my Mac goes through a router, everything is fine. Anyone else finding the help you need? Want to pass the info along?
A Huge Archive is Available
"I happened upon this when I was reviewing some other material," explains David Passell. "It contains just about everything you could think of (and then some) and it is open source free."
Going to the Internet Archive was going to be a quick peek, but turned out to be a fascinating time. I went to the 46 page FAQ to find out more about the WayBack Machine, the audio, live music archive, texts and books, virtual library card, movies, and the forum. This non-profit organization has archived 150 billion pages from the Web, over 2 million texts, over 500,000 audio recordings, nearly 300,000 movies, and nearly 80,000 concerts.
Swap Meet at Saturday's Meeting
Our June 26 meeting will feature Zee Hamm as presenter.
In addition, PMUG will be holding a swap meet. All members and guests are invited to bring in their computer parts, software, books, and accessories. Put them on the back tables with description, prices, and contact information. Come and browse, then after the meeting the swap event will be held from 12 to 1 p.m. Bobbie Pastor reminds us, "Come early if you plan to set up items for the swap meet."
Zee will teach us how to work in iPhoto, creating beautiful albums called a Keepsake book. She'll be showing us some pictures of their Peru vacation. No doubt, Jim will add his 2¢ also.
Want to Go to MacWorld Expo?
Thinking ahead, Art Gorski plans to go to MacWorld Expo in January. He writes, "I'm thinking the end of January will be a good time to get the heck out of Prescott and was considering making a road trip to Macworld Expo. I'm willing to drive (my car is quite comfortable...and fast!) and wanted to know if anyone wants to come along. I could take a couple of people, but my back seat is small, so the third person better be, too! Any interest?" Contact Art.
The NEW iPhoneS is Finally Here
With eagle eyes Bill Williamson has found what we've been looking for. He announces, "Finally, the new iPhoneS for seniors is out after long years of development and test trials to find exactly the correct keypad! Someone snuck out a photo of it over the weekend."
Postpone the OS X Update?
You might want to postpone downloading that latest OS X update. According to David Passell it is reported to contain an out-of-date and vulnerable Adobe Flash Player. You can read the full story here. David says, "I installed the update, and I believe the machine speeded up in its responsiveness. I haven't yet gone to the Adobe Flash Player site to get their latest as advised in the article."
Today David adds, "I don't think postponing the OS X update is necessary. However, after doing the update you should go to the Adobe web page and install the 10.1 update."
Finding a Virus
David Passell tells about some virus precautions. He begins, "Thanks to Allen Laudenslager for info on ClamXav (CXA) ( posted on this newsblog on June 11)." David explains the procedure he followed.
"You are right in that some things aren't obvious in the setup. I find it difficult after following instructions, etc. to recall exactly what I did, however:
1. You should create a folder on your desktop and name it something like 'quarantined stuff.'
2. After you get CXA installed, you may be asked to update virus definitions. You should do this and note the small progress bar on the bottom of the screen. The process will take several minutes.
3. Go to preferences > quarantine > select quarantine file.
4. When a list of files opens, navigate to your desktop and select 'quarantined stuff.'
5. Now you are ready to do a scan.
6. In the left hand pane (source list) I found my user home at the top so I selected it and ran it.
7. My most recent scan yielded the following. Please note that second item. That is the E-mail from Dorothy Gonzales that came to the board yesterday. (Double click to enlarge this screen shot)
8. The zip attachment contains a .exe which will run on XP. It's antivirus spotted it (I won't go into details on that since not everyone will be running a Windows program in Parallels).
9. If you open your folder 'quarantined stuff' you will see them there. I move them to the trash and 'secure erase' them.
"That is about it for my initial stumbling about. I'm sure there are a lot more features that I may be missing. I ran it yesterday and found some other viruses, a couple going back to 2006. They all seemed to be related to mbox."
Do You Agree?
"Here's an interesting blog," begins Jim Hamm. The subject: An Open Letter to Steve Jobs. Jim goes on to suggest, "Worth your time to read, I think. At the least, food for thought. Of course, not everyone will agree with his observations, but here's one comment he made that's sure to strike a spark or two: 'Remember one thing: If it weren't for Apple, we'd all be stuck with lame computers and phones.' Remember, he said this -- I didn't," Jim concludes with a grin.
MobileMe Update
Art Gorski brings the following to our attention, "MobileMe has been updated with a completely new web-based Mail interface, a Find My iPhone app for iPhones, and some other new features.
"The most interesting to me is server-side Mail Rules. Now you can define rules on MobileMe instead of in Mail on your Mac and they will also work with your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch."
What Happens on WiFi & the Internet
"Interesting to read what can -- and seemingly does -- happen on WiFi and the Internet these days," Jim Hamm comments. "Two thoughts on the following article: first, people using unencrypted WiFi are just putting themselves at risk. Not too smart. Second, I find it hard to believe Google -- or any other enterprise, for that matter -- would put a program out on the street and not test, or know, what it was doing or capturing.
"Google said: 'Google's intention was only to record the identity and position of Wi-Fi hotspots in order to power a location service it operates, the company said. However, the software it used to record that information went much further, intercepting and storing data packets, too.'
"Now, I ask you, why didn't Google know that beforehand?" ... Jim
AT&T: Undelivered
Thanks to Jim Hamm for the following report: "We tried ordering the new iPhone 4 yesterday morning when the Apple store opened - we had an appointment for 10 am. Big mess all around, both with Apple and AT&T. We were not successful. The Apple store couldn't help us, so they said why don't you download and install this new store app that Apple just came out with. We did, we tried, we failed, we left, we frustrated.
"Both Apple and AT&T are not prepared to handle a new product introduction such as this. And, they don't seem to learn anything from past experience. It seems to me they should say, for example, if your last name starts with A to D, you can order on such a date; if it is E to J, then order on such a date, and so on. This would break up the ordering process and place less of a load on all their servers.
"Ah well, Apple fans that we are, we'll just wait till the crowd dies down and try again. We don't mind waiting - the frustration comes when Apple/AT&T states pre-orders are available, then it seems they should be available.
"Now, after all this ranting and raving, I feel better already. I think I'll go and have a cold beer...