http://macvalley.org/phorum5/index.php Mon, 6 Oct 2008 16:05:06 -0500 Phorum 5.2.8 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,119,119#msg-119 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,119,119#msg-119
LaCie has sent me an offer, expiring September 26th, for a 500 Gb external hard drive with Firewire 400, USB 2.0, and eSATA ports. In addition, you'll get a set of their new USB speakers. All for just $139.99.

If interested, I'll forward the ad to you. Please send me an e-mail at thomasbriant@mac.com.

tom briant
Editor, MacValley Voice]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:38:19 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,118,118#msg-118 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,118,118#msg-118
http://gizmodo.com/5049756/review-efix-dongle-perfectly-transforms-pc-to-mac

An article on this Web describe how to use a gadget from Europe to transform the appropriate PC hardware into a Mac. The big advantage of this device is that it can use stock, unmodified Leopard DVD's and updates downloaded direct from the Apple Web site. No more fiddling around with the BIOS settings of a Hackintosh.

Do I recommend this product for those of you with little hardware hacking experience(installing expansion cards in PC's) No. You need to build your own PC to run this device. Fortunately the Web site www.EFI-x.com has a list of Intel (sorry no AMD or VIA chips) processors, motherboards, and video cards they have successfully tested.

So what's the big deal for those of us who plan to run OS X on our Macs? Well, the popularity of the Mac OS X has grown to the point that people will spend money trying to build a custom Mac of their own to enjoy the smooth Mac experience. Apple is somewhat publicly upset that people want to run their OS X on stock PC software. Privately, I have to imagine a smile on their faces that OS X has proven so much more popular than Vista.

By contrast, Microsoft has to adopt the approach of the old Folger's commercials. they show an initially skeptical participant their "new" OS "Mojave". The unwitting participant oohs and aahs over the "new" operating system. When told it's really the same old Vista, they gasp and say they want to buy it.

Tom Briant
Editor, Macvalley Voice
Notice, though, the ads do not show us the screens shown the "survey" participants.]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:42:48 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,117,117#msg-117 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,117,117#msg-117 Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:24:33 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,115,115#msg-115 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,115,115#msg-115
Paintbrush is at http://paintbrush.sourceforge.net

Artrage is at www.artrage.com

Scribbles is at www.atebits.com




As for other programs I didn't cover, well I imposed 3 arbitrary rules:

Full version is $25.00 or less

You can create art in 10 minutes or less

Has to run on my Macbook running 10.5.4.

If you feel another program deserves attention, then write about it! Or at least bring my attention to it.

And if you do create art with any of these programs and want to share it with us, that was the whole purpose of the Voice going on line! So MacValley could see art in color.

Yes, I want to see it! Upload it by Christmas.

Tom Briant
thomasbriant@me.com]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Fri, 5 Sep 2008 18:52:24 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,113,113#msg-113 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,113,113#msg-113 Thanks.
Dorismcn@sbcglobal.net]]> DorisMcNary MacValley Members Phorum Tue, 2 Sep 2008 14:02:25 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,111,111#msg-111 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,111,111#msg-111 ddcat MacValley Members Phorum Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:54:25 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,109,109#msg-109 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,109,109#msg-109
I am new to the MAC and MACValley.

I manage www.sober.org, for which I have been using Hypertext Studio and WS_FTP. Hypertext works only on the PC, however.

My HTML skills are modest. What about Rapid Weaver or Sandvox or ????

Your steerage will be appreciated.

Thank you, Thomas]]> Thomas_Blount MacValley Members Phorum Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:39:03 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,108,108#msg-108 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,108,108#msg-108 Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Sun, 4 May 2008 17:50:14 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,106,106#msg-106 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,106,106#msg-106
Simple. Log out and switch to your other identity. Try using the program from that identity. It worked for me when I have had trouble with Mail recently. I couldn't send mail from Apple Mail. I tried setting up Thunderbird in my regular identity and was still thwarted.

So finally I switched to another user account, set up my mail, and lo and behold, it now works. Since you set up in Apple Mail under the preferences what your preferred Mail program IS, that's probably affecting the mail preference file!

Of course, now I have to go back and figure out what went wrong in my regular account, but that's part of the fun of owning a Mac!

Note: If you try this with shareware, you'll probably find that you have to set up the license again if you want to use the program for more than the trial period.

Tom Briant
Editor, MacValley Voice]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Fri, 2 May 2008 23:15:43 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,105,105#msg-105 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,105,105#msg-105
Investigation by www.gizmodo.com and Charles Arthur of the Guardian Unlimited have uncovered some interesting information. None of which leads to the conclusion that you can securely order a Psystar OpenComputer with your credit card via the Internet and expect the delivery truck to drop off product at your door with 7-10 working days. No, no, no....

Curiously, Apple has not unleashed its lawyers publicly to present Psystar with a cease and desist order. Hmm...

My conclusions are:

1. Look at Psystar's Web site at www.psystar.com all you want; but don't even consider ordering one of its machines.

2. If you want to build your own Macintosh from stock PC parts, that's not so hard. Getting the illegally modified OS from a Bit Torrent site to download and then successfully install and boot up is another matter. If you want to look at what it takes, go to http://lifehacker.com and search for "Hackintosh"

3. This looks like a subplot from a Carl Hiassen novel. His novels are full of Florida scam artists trying to make a fast buck.

tom briant
Editor, Macvalley Voice.]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:36:00 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,104,104#msg-104 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,104,104#msg-104
I have replaced an All-in-One Printer, Scanner, Copier, Fax with a new model. Do you want the HP PSC 2210? It is in good condition, except, it suddenly thinks there are no cartridges in it.

Both the black and color cartridges are fairly new and I have a new black cartridge. It even has a beautiful HP blue vinyl cover.

I feel foolish if I just throw it away. Seems like such a waste. Ray :-)]]> RayBoston MacValley Members Phorum Fri, 4 Apr 2008 18:25:41 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,103,103#msg-103 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,103,103#msg-103
The April 2008 MacValley Voice is out. I know, the link still says "March 2008", but I checked and it's now the April issue. So read it and give me your reactions.

Tom Briant
Editor, Macvalley Voice]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Wed, 2 Apr 2008 18:55:37 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,101,101#msg-101 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,101,101#msg-101 Yesterday my laptop fell hard on to the floor. When I went to turn it on I heard the startup noise, and can hear the fan and also see the caps lock button being green when I press on it but the screen won't turn on. It is all black and looks like how it does when it is turned off. I have a G4 POwerbook which I bought 4 years ago. Does anyone have any suggestion of what I should try before I bring it to the MAC store? Is it a completely hopeless situation?]]> persiarican MacValley Members Phorum Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:17:20 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,100,100#msg-100 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,100,100#msg-100
This is your MacValley editor. I'm writing an article for the April Voice on digitizing old tapes.

Personally, I've used Roxio's CD Spin Doctor with iTunes, Amaedeus II 3.8x, and Audio HiJack Pro.

I've also used Griffin Technology's iMic USB interface to cut down on noise.

Tell me what equipment and software you've used to digitize tapes. Has anyone used one of the turntables with USB output?

In a future issue, I'll cover digitizing old records, so write about that experience to me, too.

Thomas Briant
Secretary and Editor, Macvalley Users Group

Sincerely]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:27:37 -0600 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,95,95#msg-95 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,95,95#msg-95
Thanks,

Kris]]> Kris MacValley Members Phorum Tue, 5 Feb 2008 23:17:45 -0600 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,91,91#msg-91 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,91,91#msg-91
Tom Briant
Editor, Macvalley Voice]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Mon, 21 Jan 2008 22:44:41 -0600 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,89,89#msg-89 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,89,89#msg-89
Version 5 of Mariner Software's MacJournal software has serious bugs. It would NOT import my data from my version 4 database.

I successfully reverted to version 4.13, which works well on Leopard, too.

I have sent an e-mail to Logan Ryan of Mariner Software, who had sent me an e-mail about how my upgrade experience went. I feel that Mariner software probably rushed this product out the door to get it announced by Macworld.

I'll give them a month to fix the bugs. Until then, stick with version 4.13.

Tom Briant
Editor, MacValley Voice]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:57:10 -0600 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,88,88#msg-88 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,88,88#msg-88
If you need to run Internet Explorer 6 on your Mac, you don't need to install Parallels and Windows Vista. I'm using Darwine and IES4OSX to successfully run IE 6 on a test machine running Leopard.

You will need to install X11 for this to work. X11 is an optional install for Tiger and Leopard installs it as part of the default installation.

Where do you get these programs? Google "ies4osx" and the first Web site you see is "www.kronenberg.org/ies4osx"

the order of program installation is :

1. X11 (if not already installed)
2. Darwine
3. ies4osx


ies4osx was adapted from ies4linux. The two developers have worked together.

Remember, this is Intel-only. Have fun and give your comments.

Tom Briant
Senior Writer, MacValley Voice]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Tue, 1 Jan 2008 16:44:50 -0600 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,87,87#msg-87 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,87,87#msg-87
My Mac specs:Power Mac G4, Memory:1.25 GB

Thanks for any replies to this post...my phone number is 818-708-1961.
Micki Love


P.S. I am also a very good cook : )]]> mickimac MacValley Members Phorum Fri, 7 Dec 2007 15:00:28 -0600 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,86,86#msg-86 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,86,86#msg-86
You can't boot from the Tiger firewire clone! You can't select that Tiger volume in the Startup Disk System Preference!

Solution: Choose Restart from the Apple menu in the upper left-hand corner. Now hold down the Option key.

Now you'll see both the Leopard volume (probably your main internal hard disk) and the Tiger volume on the Firewire drive. Click on the Tiger volume and your system boots up in Tiger.

Now if you do a software upgrade while in Tiger that requires a system reboot, such as upgrading from 10.4.10 to the latest 10.4.11 system software, you must remember to hold down the Option key when you reboot and manually select the Tiger volume when it appears on the screen next to the Leopard volume.

Otherwise, you'll boot back up into Leopard, which is NOW THE DEFAULT VOLUME.


2. Check out the Print Dialog in Leopard. When you select Print, the default is for a minimal rectangle. That's fine for most print jobs.

But click on the arrow on the right-hand side of the box showing the name of the printer. Now you'll see a preview of your printout, starting with page 1. Check on the arrows below the preview and see a thumbnail of each page.

3. Safari 3.0 works better with Citibank, my bank. To get it to work with other sites, such as Wamubroker.com, you'll need to download the latest version of Tinkertool. Go to macupdate.com or versiontracker.com for that.

Once you've installed it, you'll need to choose the Safari menu. One of the selections is "Enable the Debug Menu" Yes, Safari 3.0 still has the Debug menu, intended for developers. Look for the user agent item on the Debug menu. It flies out to the right, offering you a choice of Web browser identities. You want to choose MSIE 6.0 as your identity. Now with that, you can work with sites that ordinarily reject Safari.

Reboot your system for best results. Now start up Safari and you should see the Debug menu at the far right, just right of the Help menu.


That's it for now. See you at the December meeting for cookies and apple juice and the display of the latest in casual gaming.


Tom Briant
Secretary, Macvalley User's Group]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Mon, 21 Jan 2008 22:41:58 -0600 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,85,85#msg-85 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,85,85#msg-85
I, the President and Editor, have not installed Leopard yet. So these notes do not reflect personal experiences.

But I have checked the Internet for information:

www.digg.com/apple
www.macfixit.com

and this is what I get.

1. For best results, before you install Leopard, do a back up of your Tiger/Panther system to an external hard drive using Carbon Copy Cloner or Super-Duper. They will give you a bootable backup that you can work from in case everything turns to poop.

2. When you install, do an Archive and Install, not merely an upgrade. Leopard has been reported to conflict with haxies from Unsanity. In particular, the APE system-level software installed by the haxie causes problems. Unsanity has acknowledged this in an e-mail.

An Archive and Install will install fresh system software on your computer and place all your old Tiger and Panther system software into an archive folder. Note that you CANNOT boot from this folder if you don't like Leopard or it doesn't like you. That's why I told you to make a bootable backup in Step #1.

3. If you depend on Classic applications for anything, DO NOT INSTALL LEOPARD. Leopard does away with Classic mode. Stick with Tiger 10.4.10.

Tom Briant
President and Editor and Art Director
(As well as Big Chicken who's not messing with his system until all the facts are in!)

Some Leopard upgraders see 'blue screen of death'

Gregg Keizer

October 27, 2007 (Computerworld) Eds. note: The code at the end of this article has been changed since the article's initial appearance at computerworld.com.

A significant number of Mac owners upgrading to Leopard on Friday reported that after installing the new operating system, their machines locked up, showing only an interminable -- and very Windows-like -- "blue screen of death."

Easily the heaviest-trafficked thread on the Leopard support forums as of late Friday, "Installation appears stuck on a plain blue screen" told how after a successful Leopard install using the default "Upgrade" option and the required restart, some users' Macs refused to budge from the blue screen. Although many gave up after 30-60 minutes and rebooted, others were more patient and let their Macs be as long as six hours.

"Hmmmm. I feel like a windoze user now," said Doug Mcilvain. I have re-installed and it has been sitting there with a blue screen for 4 1/2 hours."

Almost everyone who added to the thread -- which included more than 200 messages and over 7,400 views by 10:30 p.m. Friday, Pacific time -- selected the Upgrade option. Set as the default, Upgrade is the least intrusive of the three install options. "Most of your existing settings and applications are left untouched during an upgrade," Apple states in an online support document. In fact, some reports speculated that the glitch might be related to a third-party program that installs a base-level framework that modified OS X.

Frustrated users who rebooted to the install DVD then upgraded a second time using the "Archive and Install" option reported success, and no lingering blue screen after restart. "I grew impatient after the first hour and rebooted to DVD and then reinstalled choosing the Archive/Install option," said volksapple. "That worked just fine. Despite this small hiccup, it's far better than any Windows upgrade I've suffered through."

Other users, however, waited it out, or were told to by Apple support personnel. One user, James Mitchell9, said the blue screen finally vanished at the 75-min. mark. Others claimed they had been told the long blue-screen-of-pause could last as long as two, or even three, hours.

Still others jumped in with instructions to manually uninstall APE (Application Enhancer), a framework created by Unsanity LLC for use with its Mac customizing haxies such as ShapeShifter. "Please note that this does involve manipulation of files from the root prompt," cautioned Chris Mcculloh, who first made the suggestion. "This is not for the faint of heart, or those who are unfamiliar with the UNIX file system/command structure."

Mcculloh listed the steps as:

Reboot into single-user mode (hold Command-S while booting)
Remove the following files by typing each line below:
rm -rf /Library/Preference Panes/Application Enhancer.prefpane
rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/Application Enhancer.framework
rm -rf /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/Application Enhancer.bundle
rm -rf /Library/Preferences/com.unsanity.ape.plist

Exit, to continue booting normally, type:
exit
For those who have not yet installed Leopard, the Unsanity APE app provides an uninstaller that can be used first to remove the framework before the new OS is installed. Alternatively, users can use the "archive and install" option, which places a new copy of Leopard on the user's computer while moving older OS files to another folder. That would have the effect of moving the potentially offending APE software to a location where it can do little to interfere with the installation process.

Apple was not available for comment Friday night, but an Australian user claimed support said the phones had been ringing "non-stop" over the problem since 9 a.m. local time. Australia was one of the first countries where Mac users got their hands on Leopard.

A few took the install screw-up in stride, or at least kept their sense of humor. "I don't remember seeing the option in setup under Installation Type that said 'Wait indefinitely while you stare at a blue screen and eventually go mad'," said Phill Horrocks1.]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:49:38 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,84,84#msg-84 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,84,84#msg-84 Isn't Revolutionary,
But It Beats Microsoft's
October 25, 2007; Page B1
The Mac is on a roll. Apple Inc.'s perennially praised but slow-selling Macintosh computers have surged in popularity in the past few years, with sales growing much faster than the overall PC market, especially in the U.S. By some measures, Mac laptops are now approaching a 20% share of U.S. noncorporate sales, up from the low single digits where they once seemed stuck.


Personal Technology columnist Walt Mossberg says the new operating system keeps Apple ahead of Microsoft, but it's not revolutionary, with only a handful of core novelties. (Oct. 25)
There are several reasons for this, including the security problems in the dominant Windows platform from Microsoft; spillover from Apple's blistering success with its iPod music players; the fact that Macs can now run Windows programs; and Apple's highly successful chain of company-owned retail stores.

But another key factor has been the Mac operating system, called OS X, which came out in 2001. It has proved to be as powerful and versatile for mainstream consumers as Windows, yet easier to use and more secure. And Apple has upgraded OS X far more rapidly than Microsoft Inc. has upgraded Windows, bringing out major new releases roughly every 18 months, while Microsoft struggled for more than five years to produce the latest Windows iteration, Vista, which came out in January.

On Friday evening, Apple will release yet another new version of OS X, called Leopard, to replace the current version, known as Tiger. I've been testing Leopard, and while it is an evolutionary, not a revolutionary, release, I believe it builds on Apple's quality advantage over Windows. In my view, Leopard is better and faster than Vista, with a set of new features that make Macs even easier to use.

VOTE



How likely is it that your next home-computer purchase will be an Apple rather than a PC? Cast your vote in the Question of the Day.Leopard will come preinstalled on all new Macs. It can also be purchased for $129 as an upgrade to existing Macs that, depending on configuration, can be as many as six years old. Unlike Vista, which is sold in four noncorporate upgrade versions ranging from a $100 stripped-down "basic" edition to a $259 deluxe "ultimate" edition, there's only one version of Leopard. It includes all the features, from those aimed at novices to those aimed at power users.

For me, the marquee features in Leopard are a new function called Time Machine that automatically backs up your entire computer in the background; two new methods, called Cover Flow and Quick Look, for rapidly viewing the contents of files without opening any programs; and new techniques that allow you to access the files in, and to remotely control, other computers on your network or connected over the Internet with a few clicks and no technical expertise.


Plus, Apple's free software for running Windows on a Mac, called Boot Camp, which was formerly an add-on users had to download and install, is now built right into the operating system. And, in my tests, the third-party Fusion program for running Windows and Mac programs simultaneously continued to work fine in Leopard.

I did notice a few drawbacks, but they were minor. The menu bar is now translucent, which can make it hard to see the items it contains if your desktop picture has dark areas at the top. The new folder icons are dull and flat and less attractive than Vista's or their predecessors on the Mac. While Time Machine can perform backups over a network, the backup destination can only be a hard disk connected to a Mac running Leopard. And, on the Web, I ran into one site where the fonts on part of the page were illegible, a problem Apple says is known and rare and that I expect it will fix.

While Apple claims the new system includes more than 300 new features, there is nothing on the list that could be considered startling or a major breakthrough. Some of Leopard's features are unique, but many others -- such as backing up data and quickly viewing files -- have been available on both Windows and the Mac via third-party programs or hard-to-find geeky methods buried in the operating systems. Leopard has made them easy to find and use.

When I upgraded my personal iMac desktop to Leopard, it took less than an hour, and after the process was complete, all my programs, including the Mac version of Microsoft Office, the Firefox Web browser and Adobe Reader, worked rapidly and fine. I was still able to run Windows XP via Fusion. And my previous installation of Boot Camp, which turns the iMac into a speedy, full-fledged Vista machine after a reboot, worked perfectly. All my Vista programs and files continued to function properly.


With Cover Flow, users get a visual preview of a computer's files without having to open programs.
In fact, every piece of software and hardware I tried on two Leopard-equipped Macs -- a loaned laptop from Apple and my own upgraded iMac -- worked fine, exhibiting none of the compatibility problems that continue to plague Vista. My old Hewlett-Packard inkjet printer, for which Vista lacks the proper software, worked instantly in Leopard, even over the network. And, unlike with Vista, it was able to print on both sides of the page. I popped my old Verizon cellphone modem card into the test Leopard laptop and it worked, too, with no software installation or tweaking.

Leopard felt about as fast as Tiger, and it started up much faster than Vista in my tests. I compared a MacBook Pro laptop with Leopard preinstalled to a Sony Vaio laptop with Vista preinstalled. Even though I had cleared out all of the useless trial software Sony had placed on the Vaio, it still started up painfully slowly compared with the Leopard laptop.

It took the Vista machine nearly two minutes to perform a cold start and be ready to run, including connecting to my wireless network. The Leopard laptop was up, running and connected to the network in 38 seconds. In a test of restarting the two laptops after they had been running an email program, a Web browser and a word processor, the Sony with Vista took three minutes and 29 seconds, while the Apple running Leopard took one minute and five seconds.

Here's a rundown of some of Leopard's key features. Much more detailed information is available at apple.com/macosx.

File management: Apple's Finder, the equivalent of Explorer in Windows, now offers two new ways to quickly see what your files contain. You can still view them as icons or lists. But you can also use Cover Flow, the same system Apple uses in iTunes and on the iPhone to display album covers for music. In Leopard, a large preview of each file you select appears above the list of files in a folder, and you can rapidly scroll through these icons. These previews are live, and their contents can be viewed without opening the program that is normally needed to display them.


Time Machine backs up files.
For instance, if the file is a video, you can just click on it, and it will play. If it's a multipage PDF file, you can click on it, and arrows will appear allowing you to flip through the pages.

An even better and deeper look can be obtained using a feature called Quick Look. Just hit the space bar or click on a toolbar icon, and a preview of any selected file zooms out. You can even view multiple sheets in an Excel file via Quick Look without launching Excel.

Another quick new way to see your files is available in the Dock, the Mac's equivalent of the Windows Task Bar. Here, any folder you place on the right side of the dock will display its contents, after a single click, either as a grid of icons displaying miniversions of the file or as a "fan," or arc, of such icons. These special Dock folders are called "Stacks." Leopard includes one by default that is the destination for everything you download from the Internet, so your desktop will no longer get cluttered with downloads,

Time Machine: This built-in feature will continuously back up all of the contents of your Mac to either an external hard drive directly connected to the computer, or to a hard disk connected to another Mac running Leopard that's on your network. The initial backup, in my tests, took all night, but after that, the system updates the backups hourly and I didn't notice any slowdown during the process.

To recover any file you deleted, you simply click on the Time Machine icon, and you are taken to a view that shows file folders -- or your email or address book or photo collection -- in a stack of windows that appear to go on infinitely. You click on an arrow and the stack of windows zooms until you arrive at the last view in which the missing file existed. Then, you click "restore," and the file is recovered in your normal desktop view. You can also restore whole folders, groups of files, or even an entire hard disk.

Shared computers: In Leopard, any computer that has been set to be shared on your network shows up on the left side of every Finder window. Click on it, and you can access whatever folders have been shared on those machines. Depending on the remote computer's security settings, you may first have to enter a user name and password. It's the simplest method I've ever seen for accessing other computers on a network. And it works with Windows PCs as well as Macs. When I first turned on the Leopard laptop in my office, it immediately found a shared folder on my colleague's old Dell running Windows XP. She hadn't even remembered sharing the folder, which contained files from 2003.

You can copy or move files to and from these shared computers, or view their contents with Cover Flow and Quick Look, or open them in programs on your own computer.

If you are a member of Apple's optional .Mac service, which costs $100 a year, you can use a feature called "Back to My Mac," which can access your Macs from thousands of miles away over the Internet. However, this feature works only over certain kinds of routers (not all of them Apple's) and, as my router didn't qualify, I couldn't test it.

Remote control: For any Mac in your shared-computers list for which you have permission, you can take over the screen by simply clicking on a button called "Share Screen." You can also remotely control distant Macs over the Internet using Apple's built-in iChat instant messaging program, as long as you have permission and the Macs are running Leopard.


Stacks displays the files in folders in the dock.
iChat: Apple now allows you to use its instant messaging program with Google Talk as well as AOL's AIM service, and you can set up a video chat in which you can present a slide show or display a document. You can also add special backgrounds that can make it look as though you're someplace else, like Paris. In my tests, this even worked with someone on the other end using a Windows XP computer running the latest version of AIM.

Spaces: In order to cut down desktop clutter, Leopard lets you set up as many as 16 different desktops that can run simultaneously, with different programs open in each. You switch among these desktops by using keyboard commands or a menu.

For instance, you might have your iPhoto and iTunes running in one "space," or desktop, your Web browser and email program in another, and Windows XP in another.

Leopard isn't a must-have for current Mac owners, but it adds a lot of value. For new Mac buyers, it makes switching]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:14:53 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,83,83#msg-83 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,83,83#msg-83

"One aspect about the imminent Leopard upgrade that has blindsided me a bit is that I've just, somewhat belatedly I guess, discovered that there will be no Classic Mode runtime environment support in Mac OS 10.5. I suppose it had to end sometime, but I wasn't expecting the coup de grace quite so soon.

Of course, Classic support has been passé for nearly two years now for users of Intel-based Macs under Tiger, but one of the reasons I chose 21 months ago to stick with a PowerPC machine through one more system upgrade cycle rather than upgrading early to MacIntel was Classic Mode support, and I had assumed that Classic Mode would continue to be supported in OS X for as long as the PowerPC processor is. Never assume.

This revelation is a significant disappointment, and creates a real dilemma for me in the context of upgrading to Leopard. There are still a couple of Classic applications that I depend on as production tools, one being the superb little text-only Web browser WannaBe, for which there is no all OS X native substitute or alternative that comes even close to being satisfactory, There are some OS X text browsers, but I find them just to geeky and un-versatile compared with WannaBe. The other is Microsoft Word 5.1, which I originally bought back in 1993, and still use for accessing the hundreds of archived files I have in Word 5.1 format.

Aside from those apps., I've pretty much left Classic behind, although I find it no hardship and sometimes a major convenience to be able to fire up other Classic applications."

Tom Briant]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:00:28 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,79,79#msg-79 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,79,79#msg-79
I also belong to the MacValley User's Group which going to start becoming more actively involved in the months to come. Any comments would be appreciated if they could be sent to rag1@earthlink.net I was just at the Apple store yesterday, Friday, September 28 they wanted me to bring my Mac in the only thing was the turnaround time is seven to ten (7-10) days I am not sure I want to be without it that long so I am turning to the Mac Valley User's Group for help!

Richard Gump
rag1@earthlink.net]]> rag1 MacValley Members Phorum Fri, 5 Oct 2007 13:06:28 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,78,78#msg-78 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,78,78#msg-78
IBM has announced that their derivative of OpenOffice.org, Lotus Symphony, will come out with a Mac version in the first half of 2008.

So MS Office 2008 will have competition.

Tom Brianat]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Tue, 9 Oct 2007 23:01:53 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,77,77#msg-77 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,77,77#msg-77
This is a hack I just came across on howto.wired.com.

1. Open your Terminal.
2. Make sure you're in the Home Directory by entered "cd ~" Without The Quotes. Then press return.
3. Enter this sequence without the quotes: "ln -s /Volumes Volumes" and press Return.
4. You will then have a link inside your home directory called Volumes that you can use to get to any drive that was connected to your Mac.
5. It works with either Macs or Windows machines. I presume it would work with Linux, too; but I don't know for sure.

Tom Briant]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Sat, 18 Aug 2007 18:24:48 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,76,76#msg-76 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,76,76#msg-76
This is a hack I just came across on howto.wired.com.

1. Open your Terminal.
2. Make sure you're in the Home Directory by entered "cd ~" Without The Quotes. Then press return.
3. Enter this sequence without the quotes: "ln -s /Volumes Volumes" and press Return.
4. You will then have a link inside your home directory called Volumes that you can use to get to any drive that was connected to your Mac.
5. It works with either Macs or Windows machines. I presume it would work with Linux, too; but I don't know for sure.

Tom Briant]]> Thomas Briant MacValley Members Phorum Sat, 18 Aug 2007 18:16:20 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,75,75#msg-75 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,75,75#msg-75
The following are OS 9 only

Norton Anti Virus 7.0 - FREE
Corel Print Office (3 discs) - $10
Reunion the Family Tree - $5
Print Explosion - $15
Corel Print House - $5
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Game - $5
Fonts4Teachers - $5

iLife '05 Family Pack (up to 5 Macs) - $25
Toast Titanium 5 - $10

First come first serve. I'll sell the everything for $50.

Mike
drovla@mac.com]]> drovla MacValley Members Phorum Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:31:27 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,72,72#msg-72 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,72,72#msg-72
Trish Huffman with the Apple User Group Advisory Board suggested I post here.

I am a filmmaker/journalist who has recently survived a tragedy. I have lost everything in life. My most treasured possession, my computer, is gone too. Below please find a link to an article in the Denver Urban Spectrum about what happened to me:

http://www.urbanspectrum.net/aug07/writers/rental_fiasco_alexander.htm

I have been planning on buying a Mac for awhile, but I'm having a hard time generatin an income now without a computer. My writing is really suffering. Do you have a donor laptop or know of anyone who has one that could be donated to my company, ebony i productions? This would really help me get back into the swing of my career. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.]]> sonyaa2 MacValley Members Phorum Sun, 12 Aug 2007 15:27:09 -0500 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,68,68#msg-68 http://macvalley.org/phorum5/read.php?1,68,68#msg-68
Any ideas?

Thanks.]]> scotsweet MacValley Members Phorum Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:16:05 -0500