Macintosh Help, Los Angeles

MacBook Air hacked first...

2008-04-08T03:06:00.001-07:00

A hacker in a contest remotely took control of a MacBook Air when the computer was sent to a website run by the hacker. A Windows Vista machine was also hacked but it took longer. Apparently Vista on that machine had just been updated with a brand new Vista upgrade which surprised and held up the hacker.

I read some speculation that perhaps the MacBook Air was hacked first because it was very desirable. The hackers got to keep the computers that they took control of, and they were able to prepare before the contest, so it is possible that the hackers put in extra time preparing to hack the MacBook Air.

For anyone wishing to dig into this more, some computer experts (and non-experts) discuss it on TidBITS Talk: http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1928

Inexpensive Bootable Backups for Your Mac Now Possible

2008-04-01T03:04:00.001-07:00

"Bombich Software has released Carbon Copy Cloner 3.1 (CCC), a notable update to the popular disk cloning and backup software."

This is very good news because a) it is very inexpensive, b) you don't have to pay unless you like it, and c) it has passed the tests for duplicating your hard drive exactly which makes it reliable for creating a bootable backup (you can start up your computer from the backup)--see the front page of their web site for details.

This article goes into more details and gives a link to the home page for downloads: http://db.tidbits.com/article/9524

Fortune Magazines says Apple is #1

2008-03-10T18:49:00.001-07:00

Apple is #1 in Fortune Magazines most admired companies list.

http://db.tidbits.com/article/9488

Launchbar or Quicksilver

2007-06-06T00:43:00.001-07:00

I use Launchbar which is a competitior of Quicksilver.

I haven't tried Quicksilver, but I sure love my Launchbar. As just one example of how I use it, if I want to go online to Wells Fargo Bank, I type Apple-Spacebar and then "well" and Launchbar opens Safari and takes me to the Wells Fargo log-on screen (regardless of what program I am using at the time). But what is really great is that I didn't have to teach it that shortcut. Launchbar learned it on its own.

I gather that Quicksilver is very similar. Quicksilver is free and Launchbar is $20 or $32 for 5 computers in a family.

Why pay money for Launchbar when Quicksilver is free? Well the way I figure it, if someone doesn't help to keep something there, after a while it won't be there. So I am helping to keep Launchbar there. Of course, you could probably donate to Quicksilver, and if you are a fan, I suggest you do that.

Launchbar:
macworld.com/weblogs/macgems/2005/12/launchbar4/index.php

Quicksilver:
macworld.com/weblogs/macgems/2006/01/quicksilver/index.php

Launchbar and Quicksilver compared:
http://blog.samdevore.com/archives/2006/04/26/launchbar-vs-quicksilver/

TidBITS Talk on Launchbar vs Quicksilver

Backing up your Macintosh computer

2007-06-06T00:34:00.001-07:00

Recently, I ran into a lot of discussion on the subject of testing back-up programs for Macs.

Most of the programs tested didn't copy all the extra data associated with files in OS X (called metadata - creation dates, file types, etc., etc.).

The bottom line was that after a lot of testing by various people, Superduper! came out the best.

(So thanks Charlie for the good info on that.)

If you have an external hard drive, you can use Superduper to make an exact copy of your hard drive and that will allow you to get back up and running quickly if something happens to your computer. (If your external drive is a lot bigger than the hard drive in your computer, you might want to partition your external drive to make one of the partitions the same size as the one in your computer.) Just attach your backup drive to another Mac and restart from the backup.

Recently, a client's hard drive just suddenly up and quit working. Luckily there was a recent back-up made by Retrospect, but it took some time to get everything restored to normal. It would have been faster with Superduper!

So after hours of reading many web pages, for personal use, I am jumping ship to Superduper. (However I still recommend that people keep extra copies of financial files such as Quicken data in case the original gets corrupted (ie messed up) and have a copy at another location in case of fire, theft or computer meltdown such as a power failure just as your computer is backing up--an unpleasant thought I am sure. Also for backing up data from a number of computers on a network, I will still be using Retrospect.)

Lastly, do NOT backup Filemaker data if the files are open. I inadvertently did that one day and all the data disappeared. (Luckily I had a good backup.)

Saving money on color prints

2007-06-06T00:13:00.001-07:00

At the last Los Angeles MacFair, I met a gentleman who was displaying a method for printing color pictures inexpensively using large bottles of ink attached to an ink jet printer. The quality was very good and the system worked with a number of Epson printers. He also sells laser cartridges. I would suggest contacting him for suggestions on what printer to get for your needs. (He doesn't sell printers as far as I know, but I'll bet that he can suggest a printer that works with less expensive ink or toner.)

His name is Don Baker and he can be reached at dbaker@klassicspecialties.com.

His web site is http://www.klassicspecialties.com

Comparing the cost of Macs and PCs

2006-09-30T18:41:00.000-07:00

A recent price comparison of high-end computers found the new Mac Pro cheaper than a comparable Dell. See
http://www.macworld.com/2006/08/features/macproprice/index.php

That article also contains links to price comparisons on Mac laptops versus Dell's. When the machines are comparably configured , the Macs are priced about the same (although it wasn't possible to configure the two machines to be totally identical).
http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/02/14/pricecomparison2/index.php

Admittedly, if you don't need all the features provided, you can leave out some features and get a cheaper configuration of a Dell.

However that is not the whole story. What is the "total cost of ownership" (TCO) of a Mac versus a PC as you go forward down the road. Here is a quote from an article on the subject by a security expert who uses both Macs and PCs:

"The results of this TCO astounded me. For my small enterprise, owning a WinTel box for three years costs twice as much as owning a MacTel. When I talked with several of our clients, I found that the burdened cost of ownership per PC - just for support - ranged from $1,300 to $4,000 per year."

You can read the rest of the article at this link and also download his spreadsheet and a pdf with suggestions and instructions on using the spreadsheet to calculate your own total cost of ownership.
http://www.networkworld.com/best/2006/022706bestbreaker-schwartau.html?page=1

Turns out that Macs are much cheaper to own when all costs are considered.

Doug

Stationary with Apple's Mail.app

2006-09-20T01:24:00.000-07:00

One of the features that Eudora has which I enjoy is stationary. Recently I figured out a way to implement stationary with Apple's Mail.app.

1) Create an email and choose "Save as draft" from the File menu.
2) Close the email and go to your "Drafts" folder. (If you don't see your "Drafts" folder, go to the View menu and choose "Show Mailboxes".)
3) Click on your recently saved Draft and choose "Copy" from the Edit menu.
4) Choose "Paste" from the Edit menu to make a copy of your Draft.
5) Now when you want to use your "stationary", just double-click on the copy of the draft.
6) Make another copy the next time you need it.

MacWorld answers questions about Apple's move to Intel chips

2005-06-08T23:54:00.000-07:00

As a Mac user, you may feel a little like the sky is falling--Apple is moving to Intel chips. Ah...

Well, in my opinion, the people at Apple have a lot more inside knowledge about their computers than I do, so I imagine that they are making the right decision. So how do we handle that feeling of panic which some may be experiencing. Whatever happens, do not run for the cliffs. Oh never mind...ah that's the lemmings that do that.

Okay, I read this nice article in MacWorld that helped. It has answers to numerous questions about the whole situation. Here is a link to that article.

http://www.macworld.com/2005/06/features/intelfaq/index.php

People, we will survive, the Mac will survive. It has to, because I don't want to live in PC world. :-)

It's a good time to be a Mac User

2005-03-29T17:48:00.000-08:00

Many of us have received fraudulent emails saying that our eBay account or Paypal account or (fill in the blank) account needs to be updated and giving a link to click on so that we can hand over our account data and passwords to tricksters. These attacks are called "Phishing".

The latest version of this activity takes control of people's computers and directs them to fake web sites to steal their credit card data, etc.

So far, I haven't heard of this happening to Mac Users but from the sounds of it, the PC world is under siege. This link leads to an article about it:
http://www.internetweek.com/

If your friends ever ask why you use a Mac, you might want to pass on this article:

"OS X is world's most secure operating system, report concludes"
http://macuser.pcpro.co.uk/

Seems to me that PC users have been bombarded by viruses, spyware, and other nasties for so long, they think that is just the way life is. Some of them, however, are starting to wonder if there is an alternative and discovering that , so far, the Mac world is virus and spyware free. The number of Mac users is on the rise.

Hooray for Macs!

Because backing up is hard to do...

2005-03-17T18:10:00.000-08:00

Backing up our data is an easily forgotten task, but unfortunately
every hard drive will fail sooner or later. And that isn't the only
source of data loss. I once had a file get corrupted so that only
half of my checks showed up in Quicken. The rest disappeared into the
ether.

Macworld has published two free excerpts from a book on backing up
your Macintosh computer. I recommend them as valuable reading for all Mac users.
(Actually the data is equally applicable to PC's except for some of the software mentioned.)
http://www.macworld.com/2005/02/features/takecontrolexcerpt1/
http://www.macworld.com/2005/02/features/takecontrolexcerpt2/

The book itself is $10 and is available for download at
http://www.tidbits.com/takecontrol/backup-macosx.html

No, I don't get a commission. But I do like to save people from pain...
which is what you will feel if you don't have a good back up when
your hard drive fails.

Can you include movies in a Blog?

2005-01-14T02:57:00.000-08:00

Let's see if Blogger supports Quicktime movies.

I am a coach for a high school robotics team in the Los Angeles area and this movie shows our first robot. The contest was started by inventor Dean Kamen in 1991 to inspire students to purue careers in science and to make the world a better place. There are now about 1000 team.

(By the way, our team is open to any high school/middle school student in the Los Angeles area whose school doesn't have a team. See http://www.team980.com for more info on the competition and our team.)

Our first robot picking up and dumping soccer balls in a goal.

So Blogger has passed the Quicktime movie test with flying colors. Pretty cool.

Doug

My Blue and White G3 won't work with OS X 10.3 Panther

2005-01-06T05:02:00.000-08:00

I am really enjoying my Mac these days, even though it is somewhat long of tooth (a Blue and White G3). Thinking this over, I guess it has a lot to do with OS X, 10.2. It's very stable, and if one program makes me wait a bit, I just switch to another program and check my email or surf a web site that I had on my list, and then I go back to my task at hand.

My G3 runs Jaguar just fine, but interestlingly enough, will not run Panther (OS X 10.3). Why, you might ask. Well, my G3 has an 8 bit video card which apparently was shipped in some educational versions of the Blue and White, and Panther doesn't like it. However there is hope on the horizon. I have bought a 16 bit video card, and so one of these days, I will be moving up to the hallowed ground which is Panther. Of course, by that time, Tiger may be released. Hm... Should I wait and see if Tiger works with my old card? Should I wait for the new Tiger features or upgrade to Panther now? Hm... Tough decision. I will have to sleep on that one.

Alright, I slept on it. I just discovered another program that I want to run that requires Panther. It is probably a conspiracy with Apple to make people upgrade (right before Tiger is released), but I can't take it any longer. I want the current operating system. I'll let you know how it goes with finding and installing a new video card, and then finding a deal on Panther.

Happy New Year, folks.

Wow, I have a working Blog with pictures

2004-12-02T03:02:00.000-08:00

Yeh, true. I got tumbled and thrown off my riverboard...but notice I've still got a hold of it.

Okay, people can leave signed comments without having a Blogger account. They can just choose "anonymous" and then leave their name and city (if desired) at the bottom. True, I prefer the formatting for comments on Movable Type blogs, but I have heard that Movable Type requires a lot of setup, and this works nicely.

Today, I changed the style of my Blog to match another Blog I admire: Jibjab, the famous comedy web site. Check it out at http://www.jibjab.com

Now I just have to learn how to post pictures.

Edit: Well as you can see, I now have pictures. I even added them to my previous posts. A little large perhaps, but hey, it's my first time.

Somewhere I had read that to post pictures, I would need to download software or go to another web site which seemed quite complicated. However it turns out that there is a little icon above the text window (where you type in your message) for uploading pictures. You just choose a file, and up it goes. Magic. (There's also a spell-check icon right next to the picture-uploader icon.) It even pastes in some text to display the picture. In my case, I moved the text to the top of the window so the pictures would appear at the top.

Very cool!

Doug

Blogger Take Two

2004-11-30T16:48:00.000-08:00

Lower Salmon Falls on the Upper Kern River
(Up river is Upper Salmon Falls which is too dangerous for me, so I walked around, but I got to watch "Fast" Eddy go through it.)

Well I was able to upload a comment. The only downside that I can see is that I couldn't enter my name (as a commentor) unless I had a Blogger account. The entry was posted as being from "anonymous".

Hopefully that will be handled in a future release.

How to make a blog.

2004-11-27T18:38:00.000-08:00

Yup, that is me, getting ready to go riverboarding on the Kern River - an awesome experience thanks to my river guru, Fast Eddy.

This Blog is for Macintosh Users in the Los Angeles Area. (I am sorry but PC users will be ....just joking. PC users are also welcome.) Hopefully it will prove useful to Mac (and sometimes PC) computer users who are looking for resources locally or otherwise.

To start off, some people may want to know how to create their own Blog. Well I have to say that it was very easy. This Blog was created using Google's Blogger. Go to http://www.blogger.com and fill in the forms and you'll be rolling in a few minutes.

You don't even need to have a web site, but if you do, then you can choose the option of hosting your Blog at your own site as I did. Advantages? I'm not sure. I'll check it out and let you know.

Edit: Okay, I did a Google search and this is what I found out. If you host your Blog on your own site, you won't have an ad at the top. However I checked out the Blogger page for "How Stuff Works" and the ad was pretty cool, so no big deal. If you don't want to bother with hosting your Blog, Google will host it for you.

Doug