Take a look at the new and improved Apple Discussion feature. Formerly the "Discussion Forum," it's been replaced with the Apple Support Communities. Art Gorski comments that when he was looking for the solution to a Mac problem that was the place to search, but this new system is a more social set of forums. Thanks, Art, for this link.
Adobe Critical Update
Adobe calls it a "critical update" and you'll want to read about it here. Thanks to Jim Hamm for alerting us this afternoon. Go to Adobe here to see what version you already have installed. Then go to this help page to specify settings you want for privacy, storage, security, notifications, playback settings, and peer-assisted networking panel. Are you giving permission for companies to access your computer's microphone and camera?
Ready to Blog
Ready to blog? Why? Why not? It's fun, it's easy. Take a tour, watch the video, read the Buzz. Maybe you've noticed this PMUG newsblog and have seen the results of the new template: "Simple." You have other choices in Template Designer.
(Double click to enlarge the following illustrations.)
| It's easy to post text, photos, links. You can restrict who can view it or set it up so it is available to all on the Internet. |
Note: you must allow Cookies in order to post to your blog, but you can delete them and change to "Never" when you're finished posting.
Like other features on Mac you will have fun experimenting and learning by doing. Take a look at other blogs and see what you like. Type "blog sites" and explore.
This is the menu bar for our PMUG blog.
This is the menu bar for our PMUG blog.
Try it -- you'll like it. If you have a blog ready to view let us know.
(The above is the April 16, 2011 handout at the PMUG meeting from Elaine Hardt.)
New IPv6 Info is Here
Boring? Sort of. But we do have a need to know. Jim Hamm keeps us on our toes with info about IPv6. Maybe a brush-up look at Wikipedia can get our brains going with the history, features, timeline, and references of the Internet Protocol. A chart lists Application Layer, Transport Layer, Internet Layer, and Link Layer. Scrolling down to the end notes it was last modified April 15, 2011. So far, so good.Now, we're ready to plunge into Jim's info. "This isn't something we need to sit up nights and worry about, but the availability of IPv4 addresses is coming to an end. Asia has recently run out. "Out of curiosity, I checked my internet connection with Cox Communications here in Scottsdale and it is only IPv4 at this time. I'll soon be back up in Prescott and will take this test with Cableone. I'd guess it is only IPv4 also, at this time. "What I wonder is, when ISPs start converting to IPv6 addresses, do the old IPv4 addresses have to be converted, or can a dual address system be operating?"
Privacy Features in Today's Update
Earlier today we found out that Apple plans to add a new privacy feature to Safari that keeps online advertising networks and other tracking tools from monitoring user activity. We posted this and we thanked David Passell for this info.
Later this afternoon after reading what MacObserver said up came notification for Security update 2011-002 for Leopard and Snow Leopard, iPhone, and Safari. Read all about it, and keep up with these great improvements.
Travel Adventure with iPad
The iPad is finding a home in outdoor sports. Jim Hamm suggests, "Take a read on this article. Be sure to watch the video on 'snowboarding with a splitboard.' Can't believe someone does that, and calls it fun. Look at some of the steep mountain sides they come down on. Mighty scary, and dangerous too. It's possible this was filmed with an iPad, but I'm not sure."
These tips for adventure travel from National Geographic conclude, "Starting in May, Apple is going to offer free travel app workshops for consumers at their 200+ U.S. stores. At these workshops, Apple instructors will show the latest and best travel apps available."
Botnet News
The FBI in an unusual move, closes in on a zombie PC gang involved in botnets. David Passell sends us this BBC news article dated 4-14-11. For more information read these two earlier reports (one) (two) about botnet crime. The second article states an estimated 2.2 million PCs in the US were found to be part of these networks of hijacked home computers.
Look at Lion
A sneak preview of Lion, Apple's new OS X 10.7, comes from Jim Hamm who mentions this About site. Going to Apple's site brings up big photos and more detailed descriptions. Read about new features such as App Store, Launchpad, full-screen apps, Mission control, Gestures and animations, Auto save, Versions (which records the evolution of a document as you create it every hour while you’re working on it), Resume, Mail 5 full-screen with improved search and Conversations that groups messages, AirDrop, All-new FileVault, and Lion Server. Sounds like fun!
Solid State Drives (SSD) Discussed
"Here is a good, understandable guide to solid state drives (SSD)," begins Jim Hamm. And now John Carter adds to the information.First, from Jim, "The article clarifies the importance of using a program like TRIM with an SSD. As I understand it, the new Mac laptops with Thunderbolt do support TRIM, and OS X 10.7 (Lion), when it comes out this summer, also supports TRIM. Whenever I purchase my next Mac laptop, it will be with SSD. I think this is the storage technology for the future, although, as the article states, spinning hard drives will be around for years." This article has a link to download or read online a 21 page "Hard Drive of the Future" booklet. John writes, "There’s no reason to wait until LION comes out to upgrade to an SDD with any OS. TRIM is not hardware dependent. You can use the Mac Disk Utility as explained here to fake a TRIM operation. In the MakeUseOf article, they identify several SSD vendors that provide standalone TRIM utilities, but probably not any that work with the Mac. "Be aware that you need to know which SATA interface to specify for the SSD. My iMac and MacBook Pro have the SATA I interface. The much faster and more expensive SSD drives are SATA II (3GB/s vs 1.5GB/s), and then the newest SATA III is 6GB/s. Please do NOT purchase a SATA II device to plug into a SATA I connector -- you do NOT get the speed advantage of the SATA II device." And John recommends we read this article.
Spring Cleaning for Mac
How do you keep your Mac keyboard - trackpad - Mighty Mouse - etc. clean? With spring cleaning in mind I queried Ruth Davis who spoke to PMUG last year. She passes along info from support.apple:
Scroll down the page for cleaning tips for iPads, iPhones, iPods, Displays, Computers and Peripherals.
Thanks to Macintosh trainer Ruth Davis, who publishes the Mac to School Tip of the Week for more than 400 subscribers. In closing she adds, "If you want to feel more confident and be more productive on your Mac, sign up for a FREE subscription to the tips at www.mac2school.com."
Speed Up Your Mac
A free system maintenance and cleaning utility for Intel Mac OS X 10.6 or later is brought to our attention by John Carter. He asks, "Does it take a long time to launch an application? Tired of waiting for 20 seconds or more for iPhoto to come up? Would 4 seconds be better? Is Mail launching almost instantly?
"You can vastly improve the performance of your Mac by running a third party application called Maintenance. If it doesn't automatically install in Applications > Utilities, I suggest moving it there."
John suggests, "When you run Maintenance, I recommend selecting all the options at least the first time. Otherwise, the defaults are probably good enough unless you don’t see a major improvement in the time to launch your favorite application.
"Be aware that after running Maintenance, the first time you launch any application it will take much longer. Also, if you use Spotlight to find and launch an application it won’t be found the first time you attempt to find an application after running Maintenance, so you have to launch the application from Finder the first time. In addition, it will take longer the first time you are able to launch an application from Spotlight after running Maintenance, but subsequent launches are much quicker.
"To confirm that running Maintenance actually improves the launch time, I opened Gimp before running Maintenance. The time was 22 seconds. Then I ran Maintenance. The first time I opened Gimp it took 28 seconds. I closed Gimp and X11 (which is required for Gimp) and reopened Gimp. It took 8 seconds. A similar performance improvement was noticed with iPhoto and NeoOffice. Mail now launches almost instantly (after the first time)."
John concludes, "Actually, Maintenance is provided by the same developer that provides Onyx, a similar, free application. And the download page for Titanium shows different versions of the apps for different versions of Mac. (I've got to look deeper into Deeper. Pun Intended) I have used Onyx, but never got the performance improvement from it like I did by using Maintenance. Each application has its own benefits and has different features."
A Look Back at the Osborne 1 Computer (updated 8/26/2015)
Remember back to April, 1981? This article makes an interesting observation of the Osborne 1. Jim Hamm remarks, "I knew nothing of the Osborne 1 then, and had the same lack of knowledge about computers: period. If any of you had or used an Osborne 1, I'd be interested in hearing about it."
Summary of Internet Security
This report from ArsTechnica declares that social networking sites are a huge target for malware. They also mention that URL shortening services mask the actual URL. Smartphones are attracting malware. Thanks to Jim Hamm for keeping us informed.
Do Taxes Online? Consider This . . .
It's Tax Time and here's a sobering message from Jim Hamm first thing this morning. He writes, "According to this article, Intuit was not affected by the recent hack into Epsilon's e-mail data file, but warns its customers to be careful anyway. We use Intuit's Turbo Tax online system to do our tax return each year. The possibility of a breach of a company's security system is one downside, and risk, of storing personal data online. But, with the popularity of online shopping, banking, etc., it's almost impossible not to do so."
Listen to the Music
Ah, time for a break from the really serious stuff. How about some music? Where do you keep yours? Jim Hamm suggests we store music on an external hard drive. He says he's not a big fan of cloud storage or of streaming music from the cloud. There's a lot of useful info and links in this article about Amazon's Cloud Drive and Cloud Player.
Things About Trojans You Need to Know
Ever watchful, here's from Jim Hamm. With the title, "I Smell a RAT" we know that there's something here to read! What are trojans and how do you get them? How do you protect your Mac? Jim comments, "It's oft been said the best protection from the malware lies between the chair and the computer!" While you're at it, you might want to sign up to get Small Dog Electronics' Tech Tails.
Warning About Email Swindles
Alert for security breaches, the latest breaking news about Epsilon grabs our attention. We heard from Jim Hamm who has been notified by Chase Bank.
Jim sends us this article from ComputerWorld which lists 32 companies who are involved. The writer advises, “Keep your security software updated. If you feel like you really must open an email from one of these companies, then mouse over the link to see if the domain name matches the company. Check for HTTPS. Don't give out sensitive personal information unless you are 100% sure you are dealing directly with the company as these emails can open the way to identity theft."
Function Keys Can Help
Making good use of those function keys or a combination of several keys? Both John Carter and Jim Hamm passed along some tips today. Want to know a lot more? Maybe ask them to do a PMUG presentation?
Jim started off with this: "Here's a Mac tip I just discovered. To turn the display screen off (and not put the Mac to sleep): Shift + control + keyboard eject button. Moving the cursor brings the screen back on.
"When might a person use this, you ask? Say, for example, your Mac is in your bedroom and you want to stream and copy something into your Mac in the middle of the night and don't want the bright screen on. Or, say you're using a laptop, not plugged in to electricity, and want to conserve the battery. Turn the screen off.
"Here's another tip I occasionally find useful: to minimize all open windows quickly, press the shift button. For example, I may be typing an email and want to look at something on the desktop. Tap shift, take a look, tap shift again to return to the email. There are other ways to do this, as well."
Trying to replicate this didn't work for me. A query to Jim brought a quick reply, "At this point, I don't know or recall how I did this. I checked all my settings and don't see anything about this setting. It works just on the right shift key, but not the left. The left 'shift' key does the normal shift function. If I come across the setting I'll let you know.
"Here's something to look at. One might be able to click the desktop, then +, then add shift key to see if that would work. Or look at this one."
John shed some light on the function keys with his input. "The action of the function keys, whether you have to press the fn key plus the function key or just the function key to get the desired action is determined by a preference setting. With a standard Mac keyboard, in System Preferences > Keyboard, you should see a box like this:
"So, if you press the F12 key and this increases the sound volume, that box is not checked. With the box checked, pressing the F12 key brings up the Dashboard.
"The is different for different keyboards used. I use the Logitech diNovo Keyboard Mac Edition on my iMac. That box is not even available for that keyboard.
"So what’s the ideal setting? If you look at the function keys on your keyboard, the symbols for the special features are large and the letters for the standard features are small. To some, this would indicate that the default action when pressing a function key would be for the special feature, not the standard feature, so the box would not be checked. The choice is really yours."
And John concludes with this additional information about assigning keyboard shortcuts, "Assigning any of the modifier keys (Shift, Control, Option, Command) to perform a special function with a single press is contrary to the 'normal' and 'customary' method of using those modifier keys (aka meta key). The developer’s intended usage is that one or more modifier key is always pressed with one or more other key which is not a modifier key (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, space, symbol, function key). To see all the keyboard shortcut assignments, open System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts. Unlike the modifier keys, the function keys can be reassigned to suit your own needs, but such reassignment is best done for use with a particular application."
It's the People Who Make It Special
Only 30 seconds long, this iPad commercial touches both mind and heart. And you might agree that it's the same with Mac and the PMUG people. Thanks to Jim Hamm for sending this link.
Mac Email Tip
Want to make your emails look neater, more professional for your recipient? John Carter explains a quick, nifty procedure which works for Snow Leopard, not Tiger or Leopard:
"If you find a website that you want to share with someone, the best way to send the URL is to embed the URL as a link in some part of the body of the message. For instance, let’s say you just looked at the YouTube video Two Dogs Dining. Great for a laugh! What follows are instructions for embedding a link in an e-mail message using Apple Mail to create a really clean looking message.
1. Copy the link of the website from the address bar in the browser.
2. Open a new message in Apple Mail (the postage stamp in the Dock).
3. In your own words in the body of the new message, tell your friend what it is you want them to look at. Something like this: “Hi. I just saw a great YouTube video called Two Dogs Dining. What a great laugh I had. Click here to see it for yourself.”
4. Now, double click the word “here” to highlight it.
5. Press Command-K on your keyboard. A window will pop up.
6. Paste (Command-V) the link you copied from the browser address bar:
7. In this case, the link wasn’t all that long, but it could have wrapped around that window three times.
8. Now click OK. The word “here” will now have the link embedded in it and it will look like this:
Click here to see it for yourself.
And if you click on the word “here” in the line above, it will take you to the YouTube video Two Dogs Dining.
If you attempt to embed a link in a plain text message, you will get a prompt asking if you want to convert the message to RTF or leave it as plain text. You cannot embed a link in a plain text message."