LAUG 2.0 News

The April meeting started with the announcement of this month’s door prizes. The grand door prize was a year’s subscription to MacTech Magazine. Also, everyone present at the meeting received a free copy of the magazine. Dave explained how our monthly newsletter will be offered in blog format in the future. Introductions of those in attendance included their memories of April 1976 in honor of the 30th anniversary of Apple Computer. Some of our younger group members related their first experience with a Mac.

The next order of business is Apple News. An update to Tiger (OSX 10.4) was released. The latest version stands at 10.4.6. More and more software, including Apple’s “Pro Apps” are coming out in UB format to run on the new Intel-based Macs. The biggest news, however, was the release of Boot Camp. This software allows you to run Windows XP on a new Intel-based Mac. This software is, currently, in beta testing and will be included in the next OSX version that will be code-named Leopard. You must purchase a copy of Windows to install on your Mac and are advised to install all security updates from Microsoft and make use of anti-virus and spyware software for your protection. Mike provided a short demonstration of Boot Camp and booting into Windows on his MacBook Pro. It is not possible to access files on the Mac partition while booted in Windows and visa-versa. Therefore, the Mac OS partition cannot be infected by malware. Apple will never condone the use of Mac OS on a PC.

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A podcast from the April meeting of the Lawrence Apple Users Group. This month’s topic was “What is a torrent?” by Mike Silverman. Check us out on the web and subscribe to the podcast at http://www.laugks.org.

Note: My podcast rig (microphone and recorder) had a little bit of interference in the last meeting, and thus some of the content is cut off here and there. No need to worry as the meeting is completely intact with just a couple drop outs. Enjoy the podcast!

 

 Enhanced Podcast [79:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1)

Every once in a while a product comes along that does one thing, and does it really well. The only question is “do you need it” With modern LCD screens and sleep/energy save modes, screen savers are virtually unnecessary. That’s really the point of Aquazone, it has no practical value, but it is very cool.

Before we got our little dog Tova, we had a fish tank for a number of years. I do miss some of the relaxing aspects of watching fish swim around and interact. Fish are generally low maintance and considered by many a key stress reducer. I think of this screen saver program as a virtual tamagotchi or a aquatic version of the Sims. You can do everything you would do with a normal fish tank: add and remove fish, feed them, tap on the glass (or the keyboard in this case). Even better, you can mix fresh water and salt water, no worries about two male Betas in the same tank Fortunately you don’t have to clean the tank and you don’t get algae. If you want fish not included in the tank, you can buy some more at www.aquazoneshop.com.

If you ( or someone you know) enjoys fish and want to buy something fun and rather frivolous, this is a great program. If you aren’t into fish, probably not worth buying

Pros: Does exactly what is says, creates a virtual fish tank
Cons: Probably a productivity waster at the office, gotta love fish to enjoy the program.

4 out of 5 dog cows