LAUG 2.0 News

A podcast from the August meeting of the Lawrence Apple Users Group. This month’s topic included a presentation on Living the Microsoft Free Lifestyle by Dave Greenbaum.

The meeting opened up with introductions, recent Apple news followed by a discussion of alternative office suites for the Mac. This included everything from iWork, Open Office, Mariner Write and host of others.

The meeting concluded with questions from group members and our monthly door prize, which included Andy Ihnatko’s iPod Fully Loaded and MacBackup by Macxware.

Click here for a PDF or Powerpoint file of Dave’s presentation at the meeting.

Check us out on the web and subscribe to the podcast at http://www.laugks.org/news/.

 

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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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This month’s meeting started out with a few pieces of business. Dave was able to network with many vendors, on behalf of the user group, at Macworld. Because of this, we have been receiving lots of free giveaway items. Our goal is to have a free prize for everyone who attends our meetings. At every meeting,we have a free giveaway table where you can find back copies of Mac related magazines, demo software, etc… You will also find a “tip jar” where you can make financial donations to the group. These donations help to defray the cost of office supplies and Web site hosting. We hope to never charge admission to our meetings. We want to thank Jeff Huffman of Jeff’s Audio/Video, jeffsaudiovideo.com, for the use of a projector for tonight’s meeting.

The next regular order of business was introductions. Those present were asked to tell the group what they do to keep their Mac in shape and if they had ever experienced a system crash. As expected, there were virtually no reports of major system failures from the group.

The next topic covered in the meeting was Apple news. The annual Macworld was held in San Francisco in January and many new products were announced and demonstrated. Apple is in the process of switching to the use of Intel-based processors from the G-series.

The new Intel-based iMacs are now shipping. The new MacBook Pro laptop was announced and Apple is currently taking orders for an imminent ship date. The use of the Intel processor will not affect the performance and reliability of the products. The new Macs operate in exactly the same way as the previous G5 units. Features of the new MacBook Pro include a built-in iSight camera and the new MagSafe power connector. In order to make the transition to the new processor architecture, Apple has created a technology called Rosetta that allows any OSX software to run on the new machines. The new machines will no longer support classic (OS9) software. All new software versions for the Mac will be written in a new code called Universal Binary. Universal Binary programs are designed for the Intel Macs but will also run on any of the previous, G-series, Macs.

On the software side,Apple is now shipping new versions of iLife and iWork. iLife 06 comes standard on all new Macs but can be purchased from Apple. iLife has consisted of five applications, iTunes, Garage Band, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD. A new application has been added to iLife called iWeb. The new iPhoto can handle a greater number of photos and responds much faster and features more photo editing options and effects. iWeb is a new Web page editing application. iWeb includes built-in templates and is targeted toward amateur web pages for personal photo albums, etc… The program is designed to easily publish to your .mac account. iMovie is a video editing program for your digital videos. One new feature in iMovie 06 is live video previews with special effects. The new GarageBand includes new features for creating podcasts. New features in iDVD include new themes and support for wide screen format. A new iWork 06 was released at MacWorld but few new features were added.

The main program of the meeting concerned Mac repair and maintenance utilities. Norton Utilities is no longer being produced for the new Macs.OSX 10.3 (Panther) introduced Journaling technology. This makes it easier to recover from problems. Consequently, the utility market has been greatly diminished since Panther was released. Defragging your OSX volume is no longer necessary for the average user. The system now incorporates those processes in its regular maintenance routines. The most effective maintenance strategy is to leave your Mac on at all times. The system will run periodic maintenance routines on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

Putting your Mac totally asleep will not allow these processes to run. Set your Energy Saver preferences to adjust your sleep preferences. A good surge protector is a worthwhile investment. Several shareware and free programs exist that force your Mac to run these maintenance processes and can be found at versiontracker.com. Another excellent tool that comes standard with OSX is the Disk Utility application found in your Applications>Utilities folder. This program allows you to repair your file permissions using the Repair Disk Permissions function. Fixing the file permissions solve 80% of all software problems. Disk Utility also has a Repair Disk function. In order to use this function on your boot drive, you must boot your Mac from the CD that came with your Mac. Another reason Mac users don’t need to run a lot of utilities is because of the current absence of viruses, spyware and other malware that effect the Mac. Software utilities can do nothing for hardware failures. If you hear clicking or whining emanating from your hard drive, make sure you have a recent backup copy of your important files because the hard drive will fail soon. Recovering lost data that has been overwritten is almost impossible or, at least, very expensive. There are three major commercial utilities that you can purchase. TechTool has replaced most of the functions of Norton. TechTool is recommended as the first major utility to try if none of the Apple installed utilities work for your problem. Disk Warrior creates the structure of your hard drive. This is a good second line tool if TechTool doesn’t find the problem. Drive Genius is a much more professional/technical program and not useful for the average user. Backups are critical. All hard drives fail eventually and a good backup will save you hours of trouble. There is software that can recover some lost data. The first thing is to not use the computer after a critical file is deleted. Any use may overwrite that data. Critical files that have been totally lost can usually be recovered by a company such as Drive Savers. A typical file recovery by Drive
Savers costs $2500.

Apple frequently issues software updates through the Software Update preference panel. It is recommended that you set Software Update to the manual setting within the Software Update preference panel. Run a disk utility or the Repair Disk Permissions function in Disk Utility before running a major software update.

Remember, in most cases, you may never have to do any maintenance on your mac and it will work for years. That’s why you bought a Mac!

Dave Greenbaum opened the meeting by declaring it “officially a standing-room only meeting.” Because of the confusion about last month’s meeting, we have set a policy to only cancel meetings if and when USD 497 cancels classes. Next were introductions from those in the room. Participants were asked to relate whether Santa had brought them an iPod or other technology gift.

There was no new Apple product information because the meeting was only a week away from the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco where new product announcements are made. Dave would be going to the convention and promised to send reports by email to the club.

Matt Kappenman began tonight’s main topic discussing myths about iTunes. You can use music from any source. It doesn’t, necessarily, have to be purchased from the Apple Music Store. Music can come from your CD collection and, even vinyl records and audio tapes. Matt suggests that you change your import settings using the iTunes preferences(use the iTunes menu > preferences selection). This is done under the advanced >importing tabs in the preferences box. Change the “Import using:” field to “MP3 Encoder” and use a setting of around 160 kbps. This allows for good dynamic range but still makes the file small enough to fit many songs on your hard drive or iPod. One of the most useful features of iTunes is the ability to organize your music into playlists.

Another interesting way to enhance your listening experience on iTunes/iPods is with podcasts which are like radio shows on the internet. Virtually all podcasts are free to receive and are updated daily, weekly. Matt also described the process to buy songs from the Apple Music Store. This involves using iTunes to create an account with a credit card. You can download individual songs or whole albums. These songs are limited to five computers but can be burned to a CD.

The Apple Music Store also has narrated books for sale. If you find yourself buying narrated books on a regular basis, you should consider a subscription to audible.com. These books can be loaded on your iPod and are bookmarkable. That means that you can stop listening anytime and pick up, later, where you left off. An audible.com subscription also allows you to download the book as often as you need or if you just need another copy.

The newest thing from the Apple Music Store is video content. These videos can be stored and viewed on the new video iPods as well as iTunes. Programs available include shows on ABC, NBC, USA, Sci-Fi, etc TV programs are $2 per episode. Software is available to convert DVDs to iPod-ready video files. This process may take several hours for full-length movies. Another way to download video content is bittorrent.com which is a peer-to-peer network similar to Napster.

Another capability of late-model (4th gen.plus) iPods are for presentations. If you travel and do presentations, you can put them on your iPod can be used to arrange JPEG images into a slide show before loading onto the iPod. The slides can then be played directly from the iPod.

Additional third-party applications are available for the iPod including one that converts text to notes that can be viewed on the iPod. The iPod can also be used as an external hard drive to transport or backup files and as a boot drive to start your Mac if you are experiencing internal hard drive problems.

A myriad of accessories exists for the iPods. One good source is drbott.com. Make sure to identify which iPod you have (model, size, generation, etc.) before ordering accessories. Accessories include cases, FM modulators (to listen to your iPod on your car radio like the iTrip), car stereo conversion kits, audio cassette deck adapters and high quality head- phones. Any set of headphones will work on any iPod.

One brand that is highly recommended is Etymotic. These are earplug style headphones that deliver high quality audio and block environmental sounds. A pair of Etymotic head-phones was donated to the club and given as a door prize.

Any iPod can be used to play back on your home stereo system. The necessary cable can be found at your local Radio Shack. Many companies make “iPod stereos” that vary in cost and quality, and some are very good. Apples Airtunes software in conjunction with an Airport Express device can be used to stream music to a home stereo or other audio device.

Many iPod malfunctions can be corrected with a utility that comes with every Mac called iPod Software Restore found in the folder: Applications > Utilities > iPod Software Updater. This application allows you to reinstall your iPod software (caution: this will erase your iPod) as well as to update your iPod software. A utility is available that allows you to copy songs from your iPod to your Mac (this capability does not come with iTunes) called iPodRip. This program can be found on versiontracker.com. www.ipodresq.com is a company based in Olathe, KS that repairs iPods (as well as notebooks) at their location or via overnight shipping. The Linux operating system can be installed on an iPod to give you other capabilities such as professional grade audio recording.

The meeting continued with questions from participants. The iPod can be used as an audio recording device. The stock audio quality is fairly low but is useful for dictation, voice memos and recording lectures and meetings. These recordings can be synced back into iTunes to be emailed, burn to CD, etc….A question was posed about using USB-based iPods with older Macs and whether anyone makes FireWire to USB2.0 adapters. The best solution is to install a USB2.0 in your Mac tower if you have one. One often asked question is, “why does iTunes automatically erase the music that you put on your iPod using someone else’s computer?” This is because your iPod is set to auto sync mode which is the factory default. This can be changed in the iTunes preferences, iPod tab. If you set this to “manual” you can drag your music to the iPod and decide which songs are loaded on it. This setting change should be made on your home computer while connected to your iPod. Another question is, “how can one get music off of an iPod onto their Mac?” As mentioned before,a program such as iPodRip allows you to copy music from your iPod to your Mac. iTunes music is played as separate files which causes a break between tracks of albums that were intended to be a continuous piece of music. This is due to the nature of the system and cannot be remedied. Classical music pieces can sometime be confusing because of the artist/composer issues and how the piece appears on the iTunes library list. Similar issues occur on narrated books. Artist info can be changed on individual or a selected group of tracks. iPod Shuffles can only hold one play list at a time, set the Shuffle to “repeat” instead of “shuffle” to play a list. The best solution to putting multiple play lists on a Shuffle is to make multiple play lists in iTunes and load a specific list before going to workout, etc….The group discussed the potential hazards of listening to loud music on headphones and concluded that moderation was the best policy. A question was asked about the care of iPod batteries. Lithium Ion batteries don’t need to be discharged periodically as did earlier rechargeable batteries. Batteries can be replaced by the consumer, by Apple, or by third-party vendors such as ipodresq.com.

A good resource for new Mac users can be found on the Apple site as tutorials and many books can be found at local bookstores. Robin Williams and David Pogue are well-respected authors in the field of Apple Computer products.

The last meeting of the Lawrence Apple User’s group unfortunately had to compete with one of the biggest snowfalls we’ve seen in a generation. After the Board chatted, Dave determined that it was too late to get the word out about the meeting cancellation, and we’d have the meeting even if it was Dave talking with himself. This is the second time a meeting of our user group has had weather problems. We’ve set the policy that, like many other businesses, our meetings will be cancelled if USD 497 (Lawrence schools) closes.

In spite of the weather, we had six people attend. I doubt if a PC group could say that. We were unable to obtain the equipment to do a podcast this month. Our speaker, David Chutka, was a representative of the Apple store on the Plaza. David walked us through the entire product line. It reminded us a bit like Goldilocks and the 3 bears. In most of the product lines, there seemed to be a papa, mama, and baby.

The baby Mac is the Mac Mini. David recommends this model to people who are interested in the Mac, but not quite ready to fully commit. Since it doesn’t come with a monitor or keyboard, he generally thinks it’s a poor choice to replace an existing desktop Mac. This model is ideal for switchers or people who want an extra Mac around.

The middle of the road Mac is the iMac, and is the Mac David generally recommends to most of the people that come into the Apple store. It is a clear value and an extremely popular model because it comes with a monitor, webcam, keyboard, mouse, and a full software suite.

The papa bear is the PowerMac G5. The PowerMac G5 is insanely fast and…well….powerful. It requires the purchase of a additional monitor. However, it is highly expandable and supports a large amount of ram and expansion slots. Most people who buy the PowerMac are the graphic artists or digital imaging professionals that need the raw power.

The Mac portable line has two basic choices of the iBook and Powerbook. Similar to the differences in the desktop Macs, most people would do fine with an iBook. David sees the base Powerbook as not a great value. For iBooks, David suggested the 14-inch model, which for a bit more money then the base model gives you a bigger screen and a DVD burner.

For the iPod line,we have the basic Shuffle which is great for working out or as a starter iPod due to its durability and relative low cost. Moving up, there’s the Nano, which is very cool looking and also uses flash memory, making it good for an active lifestyle. The top of the line iPod uses a small hard disk to give you tons of storage and it can also play videos, making it good for audiophiles with large music collections.

David discussed the “battery myth” about iPods. While it’s true that any battery loses its ability to hold a charge over time, the Apple geniuses will replace any battery that goes bad during the warranty period (or longer if you have AppleCare). Even if the warranty has expired, Apple will replace the battery for a relatively inexpensive price if it fails.

Finally David discussed the advantages of buying at the Apple store. Unlike other places or the internet, you can walk in to the Apple store with money and walk out with a product in your hands. The store works hard to make sure they have plenty of stock of even the most popular Apple products. He also reminded us that people affiliated with education institutions can get their discount directly from the Apple store, giving people another option of where to buy Apple hardware and software.

We also discussed the advantages of purchasing Apple’s extended warranty, AppleCare. AppleCare extends your Apple warranty from one to three years and your free phone support from 90 days to three years. One of the under-promoted perks of AppleCare is when you purchase an Apple Monitor at the same time as your CPU, both items are covered for the same price. The relative value of this warranty somewhat depends on the model being purchased, but it is generally a very good value for fragile items like PowerBooks and not a good value for inexpensive Macs such as Mac Minis.

The December meeting was very informative and was a good help for those of us heading into the holiday buying season with some cash burning a hole in our wallets and Apple toys on our minds.

Dave Greenbaum opened our November meeting with introductions around the room. In keeping with this month’s theme,the meeting participants were asked to relate their experiences with eBay.

The next order of business was Apple product news. Once again, a large portion of the apple product line has gone through some changes since our last meeting. New iMacs were introduced.The new models are thinner in size and the Apple iSight camera now comes built in to the unit. Two new applications were added exclusively to the new Macs; Photo Booth and Front Row. Photo Booth is a fun application that lets you take photos with the new built-in camera as you would in a traditional, drug store photo booth.

Front Row is Apple’s foray into the “ten foot interface” market. The program allows the user to use the iMac from across the room using the new integrated remote control and large-scale icons. The four main parts on the interface are Music, Photos, Video and DVD. Apples intention is that you would use your iMac as an media hub connected to your entertainment system. Apple’s iTunes music store now offers individual episodes of popular television series such as Lost and Desperate Housewives as well as music videos for $1.99 a pop. These videos can be transferred to your new video iPod. The new iPod has a larger screen than the previous Photo iPod and , physically thinner. The new iPod can be purchased in black or white colored cases and include and cable that allows you to connect it to a traditional television so you can view your videos and photos on a large screen. New PowerBooks were released in the previous month. The new laptops feature higher resolution screens, longer battery life and reduced pricing. All PowerBooks now ship with standard SuperDrives. The Power Macintosh line was updated with the introduction of a G5 “Quad”. This is a double dual-core machine stuffs four 2.5GHz processors in a single Mac. Dual-layer DVD burning capability and PCIX bus architecture was also added to the new machines. A new photo workflow application called Aperture is now available for high-end Macs. This program allows photographers to manipulate uncompressed “raw” images. An incremental update to OSX was put out. The current version is 10.4.3.

The evening’s main topic was eBay. Dave started the discussion by talking about how one must register with eBay before buying or selling. A credit card is needed for verification purposes however sellers are only charged for their activities. Dave examined a couple of the common myths about buying on eBay. A buyer is never, 100% committed to a purchase after they’ve won an auction. If you make a mistake, you do have the right to cancel and/or retract your bid. Scott demonstrated the bidding process by placing a bid on a media card for his digital camera.One of the main skills is being able to search for the item you want from a seller you can trust. The value of feedback ratings was discussed. Be sure to consult the Help section of eBay for information on the definition of common terms. Another issue is shipping costs. Many sellers add large shipping charges to small items to make extra money. Sellers are charged for a percentage of the sales price but not for shipping costs. One cannot talk about eBay without including a discussion of Paypal. One of the objections are that Paypal charges a percentage for the transaction. Paypal does allow for refunds for non delivery of items. Other things to look out for include “Shill Bidding” which is when a seller will bid on their own auction in an attempt to drive up the high bid. Ebay does have rules against this practice.

Another thing to consider is “proxy bidding” vs. “sniping.” Proxy bidding is when you bid the full amount you want to pay from the start. Sniping is when bidding takes place in the final moments in order to attempt to win the auction against others who are also bidding in the same auction. Scott demonstrated auctionsniper.com, a web-based service that helps you to place a bid at the last moment.

Several tips and tricks for eBay sellers were offered by Dave and Scott. Again, issues of packing and shipping need to be considered when posting an auction. Be familiar with the item and type of item you are selling. A good practice is to research how an item you would like to sell is listed (category,terms,conditions,etc…) by others selling the same thing and how well it sold.

Photos make a big difference in the success of an auction. It is advised that you take your own picture to show the actual item you are selling. Pictures should show the features and package contents of an item. A photo can either be uploaded directly to the eBay site or posted on your own Web account. Other selling strategies include choosing a starting bid, duration, and auction closing time. Ebay bills your credit card or PayPal account when an auction is posted. Auction listings can be revised before any bids are placed and can be added to after a bid has been placed. Then Alan Cowles was the winner of this month’s door prize book about eBay.

Dave Greenbaum opened the meeting at Signs of Life bookstore and told the attendees that we were experimenting with recording the meeting for possible podcasting and asked attendees what podcasts they were subscribed to.

Matt Kappenman gave the Apple news, where we learned that Apple will no longer make the iPod Mini. It has been replaced by the iPod Nano, which uses flash memory instead of a harddrive, and displays color photos on its viewer screen. We also learned about the iTunes Motorola® ROKR phone which holds over 100 songs, and iTunes 5, which has an updated interface, more in line with Tiger apps. The Harry Potter iPod was mentioned, which has a Hogworks engraving on the back, and comes with all Harry Potter audiobooks.

Joshua Montgomery, one of the founding directors of Lawrence Freenet (http://www.lawrencefreenet.org) was the special guest speaker. He talked about Lawrence Freenet, a 501c non-profit organization formed to create a broadband umbrella over Lawrence with an ultimate goal of expanding that umbrella over the entire state of Kansas. Their system uses new frequency-hopping technology called WiMAX
that promises a 30 mile range with speeds of 75 to 100 mb/sec and is twenty times faster than DSL. The city-wide network operates in a mesh network that has antennas on water towers and beams to individual neighborhoods “like a chain link fence,”Joshua said.

Joshua explained how conventional broadband internet is overpriced. His service charges $180 to install the device that receives the signal. This is only if the resident can afford that. Otherwise it’s free. The users are asked to donate $15/month to help keep the service available for those who can’t afford it. He said that so far 80% of the users have been making monthly donations.

He asked the rhetorical question, why bother? In identifying the need of the project, they did some “war driving” in Lawrence where they drove around and looking for wireless computer networks. They found that the south west area of Lawrence had approximately 400 wireless hubs per square mile. In North Lawrence, only 113 wireless networks could be identified per square mile. He said his findings were not very statistically accurate but that it demonstrates that folks in NorthLawrence have less access to it. He said that problems can arise for people when they apply for jobs and companies like Boeing only take applications from the internet, or to apply for financial aid at a university.

The all-volunteer group that has come together to build the network is working with various agencies, the IRS, and city officials to explain the organization’s goals. But selling that idea hasn’t been easy. “We’re a community networking project… and we are fighting various battles on a legal front to establish ourselves as a legitimate non-profit that performs a valuable service to the community.” Joshua said.

In addition to providing internet to the community, his organization provides a place for at-risk teens to volunteer their time and help keep them “out of trouble,” Joshua said. Joshua said its a great opportunity for people to volunteer to help the local community. In that spirit, to market the service to neighborhoods they have block parties and show movies while educating citizens about their service. As the discussion went on, Joshua passed around antennas and receivers that are used in the system and answered various questions. He said they have had seed money in placed to start up the service, but a donation of $20,000 would have the city covered in a matter of months.

After Joshua’s presentation on the Freenet project, general Mac questions were taken from the group. What can you do about increasing spam? The spam filter built into the OSX Mail program gets smart enough to remember spam. Dave Greenbaum also suggested using Spamfire, a program that works with any email client. The website is http://www.matterform.com. Someone said they were having a lot of kernel panics.Kernel panics are always hardware-related. Ram is a likely cause. Try running the hardware test cd that comes with the computer.

Another person was having trouble using Safari with their online banking service. It was suggested to try to use Firefox. The best way to find the latest version is to go to http://www.verstiontracker.com. A question was asked about trouble getting Yahoo email on a G4. Suggested to try to reset Safari. Then,if that didn’t work, trash preferences for safari. A general troubleshooting strategy for problems like this is to create a new user profile. A group member had an older G3 ibook. Errors keep coming up. Everyone suggested that he reformat the hard drive and start fresh. Another question pertained to a G5, where Safari,Address book and several other applications wouldn’t run. Try cleaning caches,leave computer on. Try a new user profile. A lot of free programs like Yasu and Cocktail let you to run maintenance tasks. The drawing was made for the door-prize and after Matt Kappenman forfeited the prize, Micah Rolfs won a license for Spamfire. The next meeting is on how to repair your Macintosh.

Dave Greenbaum convened our October meeting with the usual housekeeping duties. Index cards were passed around so that people could sign up for the door prize and newsletter. Dave explained the problem we had with this month’s meeting announcement email via Yahoo. We will make a better effort, in the future, to see that the meeting announcements go out as planned. He also reiterated our continuing call for input from the group for meeting ideas and articles for the newsletter. If you a review an item (hardware or software) for our newsletter, you can usually get the item for free.

Our next order of business was for those around the room to make their introductions. This month’s attendees were asked to relate their worst Mac repair experiences. The next item on the agenda was Apple product news. Some people have been experiencing defects with the screens on the new iPod Nano. Apple is replacing the units that are effected. Backup 3.0 came out for .mac users and the available disk space has been increased to 1GB. Mac Minis have been silently upgraded. Some people are getting more powerful computers than thee labeling indicates. A Mighty Mouse (the new 4-button roller mouse) was passed around the room. The pending change of Apple computers to using Intel processors was discussed. The general opinion was that now is as good a time as any to purchase a new Mac. Some reasons given were: avoiding the initial transition period and supporting the current product line.

Dave introduced Ryan Arter from MacResQ http://www.macresq.com/ which is located in Olathe, KS. MacResQ and has been in business since 1994. The company was started in California and moved to Kansas after a merger. MacResQ offers “24-hour” mail-order repair service. When a customer contacts the company, they are sent an overnight box that includes instructions, packing and return labels. Once the service center receives the item, they call the customer within 24 hours with an estimate. After the repair is completed, the item is overnighted back to the customer.

Ryan remarked that the advantage of being located in the Midwest is the reduced cost and time of shipping items to and from the shop. The company is planning to restructure the front of their building to accommodate an increasing amount of walk-in business. MacResQ is a third party, independent repair center and thus does not provide warranty repair service. Warranty service requests are usually referred to Best Macs in Lawrence. Ryan shared with the group some unusual and humorous repair work orders that they’ve recently handled (My iPod spent
about an hour under water…). A commotion occurred in the room when Ryan announced the evening’s door prize, a new iPod Nano, and more index cards were passed around. MacResQ publishes a weekly email newsletter that announces specials including coupons for parts and service. You can sign up for the newsletter on their Web site. The shop repairs a hundred iPods and 15-20 Powerbooks a day and employs 15 people. Most of their business is iPods and Powerbooks because of the practicality of shipping those items. MacResQ also sells upgrades for iPods such as high-capacity batteries and larger hard drives. Powerbook upgrades (hard drives, optical drives and batteries) are also available.

Ryan shared several tips for prolonging the life of your iPods and Powerbooks. Be careful not to jar your iPod. Hard drives are easily damaged by mechanical shocks. Dropping it from a distance can either immediately kill or shorten the life of a unit. Don’t leave an iPod in extreme heat or cold such as on the dashboard or outside during the winter months. The Shuffle is the most durable of the iPod line because it doesn’t have a screen or hard drive. There has been a misconception that the Nano was virtually indestructible (Steve Jobs pulled
one out of his pocket during a demonstration) but the screen can be damaged by any bending or crushing. Powerbooks are also susceptible to extreme heat. Leaving a laptop on while inside a bag or in a hot car can melt the plastic parts, etc…. Shut off a Powerbook before stowing it in your carrying case. Again, dropping a laptop can shorten the life of its components. A Powerbook is not greatly effected by freezing. However, allow it to warm up to room temperature before starting it up again. “Heat is the number one killer of all electronics — anything electronic.” If you spill something on your laptop, the best thing to do is to shut it off immediately and send it in for cleaning and diagnosis. Don’t try to use it after getting it wet even if it continues to function. A question was asked about cat hair in a computer. Generally hair will not cause damage to a Powerbook. Lastly, iPods are not waterproof! A little humidity is fine but do not immerse them. The winner of the drawing for the new iPod Nano was Jane Hazard.

Smiles lit up the faces of LAUG members and new guests as they rounded the corner to the meeting area of Signs of Life in downtown Lawrence. What they saw warmed their hearts as the glowing screens of original Macintosh computers were happy booting up and operate after so many years. Participants were recalling first time Macintosh experiences and comparing models that were present. There was a Macintosh 128K computer, a 512K, an SE30, two Powerbook 170s and an Apple II. In the spirit of the evening, the notes for this meeting were typed on one of the Powerbooks.

The meeting was much more casual than usual, as people continued to recall stories of their early Mac experiences. Dave Greenbaum called the meeting to order and introductions were made around the room. It was determined that on this night, the fastest computer in the room was a Powerbook Wallstreet (250 MHz.) The oldest computer was the Apple II and owner Alfred Lata received a copy of Tiger software for bringing in his machine. A few questions were covered at the meeting. Someone had a Pizmo computer that wouldn’t boot. It was suggested to reset the power manager, and on that computer it’s done with a combination of keyboard buttons. Other questions were brought up about Blue & White G3 machines,

iPhoto issues, eBay inventory management on a Macintosh. An application called “Delicious Library” was described. Using an iSight camera as a barcode reader, you can index all your personal media. Visit http://www.delicious-monster.com/ for more info. New Apple products were mentioned including the Mighty Mouse which finally includes two-button clicking options for Mac users. Some speedbumps were announ-ced in the laptop computers and Mac mini has a memory increase.
Next meeting we will explore wireless networking including guest speakers from the Lawrence Freenet project.

At our July meeting of the Lawrence Apple User’s Group, security was the topic for our meeting at the Signs of Life bookstore. The meeting opened with Dave Greenbaum handing out cards for people to fill out their names to be used in the drawing for the door prize. This night we had a new book on Tiger, written by Robin Williams.

Lots of news emerged in the world of Apple since the last meeting just a month ago. Steve Jobs’ announcement of Apple’s move from IBM Freescale processors to Intel seemed to cause a stir among the user-base. By 2006 Macs will have Intel processors. The concerns were if Apple computers would suddenly be susceptible to the same viruses that Windows computers fall prey to. We will discuss this more in the future, but be assured, the Windows operating system is quite different from Mac’s OSX. There are photos of the developer’s computers on thinksecret.com clearly showing an Intel motherboard inside a G5 case. iTunes released version 4.9 of the music software that included support for Podcasting, (covered in our May meeting) which is the subscription to RSS feeds of radio shows online. Apple now has that feature built in.

The iPod lineup changed with the color screen being added to all premium iPods among other pricing changes.Back-to-school shoppers can also receive a FREE iPod Mini when they purchase any PowerBook models, all iMac models, all Power Mac models, and all iBook models excluding the 12-inch iBook CD through September 24, 2005. Visit apple.com/education for more details.

We discussed education pricing, and how and where to get it.The KU Union has a store in the bookstore that students and faculty can purchase Apple product at a lower price with their school IDs.The educational pricing is also good at the Apple store on the Plaza or Bestmacs in Lawrence.

Gary Williamson entered the meeting room carrying his presentation materials for Griffin Technologies, a Lawrence-based company located at 916 Massachusetts.They have been in the computer business security field for 12 years.They have developed a product called Securikey. It comes with two USB keys that plug into a computer and can add another layer of security to your laptop or desktop computer. It runs on either Macintosh or Windows computers.

The software installs in 3 minutes, is assistant driven and “grandma proof,” as Gary described. Once installed the physical key must be in place to allow access to the computer. Extra keys are available. There are also enterprise versions for businesses. In those versions, a local administrator can program the keys for employees on site. The company is also working on a version for home computers to limit Internet access on Windows machines for kids. Visit www.securikey.com for more details about the company and their products.

Dave Greenbaum then opened up a Keynote presentation which started out with the question, “Can a Mac get a virus or spyware?” (You can download an Adobe .pdf version of this presentation at our club website, www.laugks.org).

“Currently, there is no active virus or spyware that can automatically infect OS X over the Internet.” There are several keywords in that statement that deserve particular attention. “Currently:” that could change tomorrow, “Automatically:” These files exist, but need human intervention. And “Active:” some viruses and spyware have been created in the lab.

Macs can be carriers malicious viruses and spyware. Forwarding emails that contain spyware can infect other people’s computers. MS Word documents, and attachments you can’t read that you send to PC friends. A note for the future is the recent announcement that Apple will be moving from IBM processors those made by Intel. It is Windows that gets these viruses and spyware, not an Intel processor. Apple’s move in no way should directly change the security of the Mac. Viruses and spyware for the PC will be unable to infect a Mac. If someone installs Windows on an Intel-based Mac, however, “all bets are off,” Dave said.

Which raises the question - Why do Windows PCs have these problems? First, Windows is such a big target. Secondly, the integration of browser, email and operating system means if you are inside one of those programs, you are in all of them. Eighty-six percent of viruses are transmitted via Outlook Express email.

When Windows does offer security fixes, about half are proactive, to plug potential leaks and the other half are reactive when someone finds the flaw and sends malicious code on the Internet to take advantage of that
flaw.

Why don’t Macs have these problems? When OS X was designed it is a completely separate operating system from OS9. So viruses written before that time were obsolete. OS X is based in Unix, which always had built-in security protections. The lack of relative popularity of Mac, and its smaller market share has made it a less attractive target. And the email, browser and operating system are separable. With Macs, the first and last line of defense is passwords. When a program asks for a password, you handing it the keys to your entire computer. Mac passwords can be bypassed and changed using a boot disk. Good passwords are words that are not in the dictionary. They are a combination of letters and numbers. They can have punctuation marks. Dave’s personal favorite is song titles, using the first letter of a lyric for your password. An example would be “TAYRATOOT,” = “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Around The Old Oak Tree.” There is a password assistant feature in Tiger. Click on the key in a keychain when adding an item and it gives suggestions based on length and rates it’s security level with a quality rating.

Another danger on the Internet that can affect any computer, Mac, PC, Linyx, etc., is Phishing, or when criminals make fake website that appear completely legitimate, yet steal personal information. Requests come from email to update or validate your “account,”(regardless if you have an account with those services or not.) Being on a Mac is no protection against Phishing. Sites that are often spoofed include Paypal and eBay. Often the emails have spelling errors and lack of personalization. Don’t follow any link in an email you suspect is a possible scam. Links can be highlighted, and look legitimate, but often take you to sites in other countries waiting to steal your personal information. Visit Paypal.com and spoof.eBay.com to learn more about these schemes.

Another new threat is called “Pharming,” where your isp setting is changed so that if you call up a site like Paypal.com you end up going to a non-legitimate site. It’s also called DNS poisoning. There is no protection from Pharming.

Wireless has its own security considerations. There is a technique called “War Driving” where people troll neighborhoods looking for insecure wireless networks. You are responsible for any data that travels over wireless connection that you manage. Make sure that the network is not open, and has some form of password and encryption is in use.
Lastly, we discussed, “Evil Twins.” This is where you can be looking for a wireless ISP at a public space and someone can spoof the network name, hooking you up to their computer.