Attendance: 15 Mac users

Topics Discussed:
The Big Island now has it's very own Apple Tech from Mac Made Easy located on Oahu. They are looking at a possible retail location in downtown Hilo...

A new iPhone will be released in July, but don't expect to be able to use the 3G network on the Big Island for a while. They're still updating the coverage here...

The new Mac OS 10.6 will be called Snow Leopard. Apple is focusing on overhauling the code rather than providing new features, and should be released sometime next year.

For those interested in de-fragging their hard drive (which is unnecessary with Mac OS X), you can use DiskWarrior US$99.95 or TechTool Pro US$98. Please don't try to use Norton System Works, as it may create problems...

Natec demonstrated hands on how to record and make a movie in iMovie 6. I recorded the demonstration and will post it here soon...

The group decided to raise the fee from $1 to $2 since we have been consistently short the last few meetings of reaching our rental fee.

Attendance: 14 Mac users

Topics Discussed:
Looked at the redesigned web site for the group and discussed how it could be improved. Feel free to send in any links that you think should be included in the links section that are somehow Mac related. Also, spread the word about our group to your Mac friends and give them our web site address for more information.

Someone brought in a copy of iCreate magazine for the group to look at. It has Mac reviews, guides, and tutorials with a British twist to it since it's published out of the UK. Subscriptions for 13 issues are £80, or US$155.89 according to Calculator's currency conversion tool. You may want to check out Borders for a copy instead.

Ann showed us a short iMovie (her camera wasn't as waterproof as they thought) that she made of their fish sanctuary in their backyard. May her camera rest in peace...

Foxnews reported about a woman who was able to recover her Macbook that was stolen:
"Woman Remotely Logs in to Her Stolen Mac to Catch Thieves"
"Back to My Mac" comes with a .Mac membership, but here is a list of some other applications/services that do the same thing:

• Mac PhoneHome - $29.95 one time fee
• Secure Notebook X - $12 shareware fee (last updated 2002)
• XTool - $40 - $175 annual fee
• Computrace Complete - $99.95 annual fee
• LoJack for Laptops - $49.99 annual fee

Stop hanging outside to use your cell phone...come inside to your zBoost cell zone. Install this product to get cell phone reception inside your building...

Read this article from Apple for powerbooks that use lithium-ion batteries. Please note that despite what was said during the meeting, batteries should be stored at a 50% charge! Don't want to fool with the process? NewerTech sells an Intelligent Battery Charging Station for $149.95. Check out these articles for information on older powerbook batteries:

• Article 18241
• Article 60655
• Article 86797

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. With an RSS reader like Safari, you can subscribe to RSS feeds and quickly find the information that you want from recently updated web sites. And no, our web site will NOT have an RSS feed...the only pages that will be updated on a regular basis is the Minutes or Links page.

Monolingual is a program for removing unnecessary language resources from Mac OS X, in order to reclaim several hundred megabytes of disk space. But with the size of hard drives today...what's the point???

The public library is a great place to find books about Macs that you can check out in Hawaii. If they don't have it on location, you can place a request for it. But don't expect brand new releases tho...

You don't need to install the software/drivers that came with your camera or camcorder in OS X. Use iPhoto with the USB cable that shipped with your camera to download your camera's pictures. Use iMovie with a firewire cable to download your camcorder's video. You'll only want to install the bonus applications if you think they'll be more usefull than iPhoto or iMovie...

Apple's web site as well as your Mac or application's Help is a great place to look for more information about a particular subject...
Feel free to join our Yahoo Tech Group and ask your questions there too. And don't be afraid to search the internet for answers to your questions either. More often than not we'll do the same thing if we don't know the answer right off the top of our head.

Attendance: about 13 Mac users

Topics Discussed:
VMware Fusion performs faster than other Windows emulators such as Parallels or Virtual PC, but may be less compatible because it doesn't emulate hardware that isn't present on your Mac. Virtual PC hasn't been released for Intel Macs yet, tho...

Both Safari and Firefox save login information (passwords) for web sites unless the site specifically disables this feature. This information is saved in the browser's preferences, not your keychain. So be careful when clearing private data! Tabs is a good way to save a lot of time and prevent confusion. In the latest version of both applications, you can rearrange the order of your tabs by simply dragging the tab where you want it. I like to open links on a page by using the right mouse button, especially when viewing eBay actions. And don't forget to pay close attention to message windows that pop up while you are working. If Safari starts acting up, I would suggest rebooting your Mac first! This more often than not fixes any problems that I encounter with Macs, not just Safari (like I can't connect to the network, Mail refuses to connect to SMTP servers, etc.). If that fails, try running Disk Utility.

Prices on hard drives are beginning to drop! Especially keep your eyes on Office Max for their special bargins. Internal hard drives will always be cheaper than external hard drives. And make sure that it's compatible with your Mac because there are many different types of hard drives: SCSI, ATA, SATA, USB, & Firewire to name just a few.

We are now an official Peachpit partner. What does that mean? You can get special discounts of up to 30% off on their books...

The Mug Center is a great resource for Mac User Groups. You can also get discounts on limited time offers from vendors. You'll need to email Dawn for the login information to take advantage of these great offers.

You can't arrange events in iPhoto. You must create an album and add pictures. Then you can drag and drop the pictures in the order you want them. Also, be aware that clicking on the red button in the top left corner will close iPhoto.

Dawn then showed us how she uses Billable in her business to write and keep track of invoices. It integrates well with your Address Book, but unfortunately not with your tax software...

How to add pictures to your Address Book:

1. open the picture in Preview
2. edit the picture if you like
3. copy the picture by selecting "Copy" from the "Edit" menu in Preview
4. open Address Book
5. select a name and then click on the "Edit" button near the bottom right corner
6. click the default picture to the left
7. select "Paste" from the "Edit" menu in Address Book
8. click the "Edit" button when you are finished

To use iChat, you need a .Mac ($99.95 a year) or an AIM (free) account. After you've setup iChat, then you can enter a person's AIM username in your Address Book to have the picture associated with their name show up beside their screen name in iChat.
Another instant messenger application you may want to try is Adium, because it supports multiple instant messenger protocols.

Worth Godwin speaking about his new learning series on DVD.

We kicked the meeting off showing the first part of the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote address.  This was in the form of the PC/Mac ads with the PC man telling all the developers to go home because, among other reasons, it builds character for Mac users to experience viruses and error messages.  However, we didn't have speakers for this presentation, so we didn't watch much.

Presentation:
Margaret Strubel – Adobe Illustrator CS tutorial.  Margaret explained the usefulness of Illustrator from easy tasks to more complex artistic techniques.  Margaret explained the difference between a vector based program like Illustrator and a raster based program like Photoshop.  The crispness of fonts with their high degree of flexibility was highlighted in the demo. Margaret demo'd a flyer, the design of a logo, using a logo in the making of business cards, and the auto-trace tool. Abram showed off his new Mac Book!  It was much fun to see how the built-in iSight camera worked.  Abram was proud to show us the cool features of the MacBook: the larger trackpad, the glossy screen meant for outdoor use, the magnetic power cord plug.  Thank you Abram!

Next Meeting is at the Aloha Outpost on 16 Sep at 2pm.  See you there!

Big news!  Chuck Joiner interviewed Christopher Breen.  We listened to the interview. Breen's Bungalow is coming back for the user's group.  We then watched a Breen's Bungalow.  He used to be the senior editor for MacWorld.  He showed us some iLife06 tips and tricks.  This is on our CD of The Month.

Tip for iPhoto:  Cntl click the plus mark on iPhoto to create a smart library.

Tip for iTunes:  Gaps between iTunes songs- drag songs into iMovie and position the songs so they are seamless.

Garage band: musical typing.  Each key will have a prerecorded sound.  Drag sound to a key on the keyboard for your own custom sound.  This is a great way to create your own sample player.

Q&A:
Multiplexing problem with iDVD – what's the answer?  Shrugs.

Want to email MS Money but don't want to use Mail-how do I change it so I use another email program?  Check preferences to see if you can change it.

There was grousing about Hawaiian Tel and the frustrations with email.  Changing keychains and making sure Hawaiian Tel is the only server can help out.  They are STILL having trouble since they fired a bunch of people.

Applecare is really important to have.  This can save you a bundle.  We can't emphasize this enough.

By the way: The 1 year warranty only covers hardware.

For Backups:
Set Carbon Copy Clone for an incremental backup to only backup those files that have changed; set this up in preferences.

Presentation:
Mars Cavers -"Books from iPhoto".  Make an album that either you or Apple can print.  She showed off some high quality versions of the ones she's done, very impressive.  Easy for any skill level and time saving for all.

You can't print from iPhoto – pdf it and then print the pdf.  However, you have to add a cover page, a blank inside page at the front if you want to print this as a book because otherwise the cover may be page 1.

Steve Pollard suggested One on One software to get rid of excess pixilation of photos.  He didn't remember the exact name.  I could not find this in a quick web search.

Our next meeting will be 17 August in Hilo at Kope Kope café!

June 15, 2006 - Hilo Lagoon Center

Dawn was saying that we organizers of the MacNuts have been falling down on the job.  We need more input from everyone.  Everyone seemed to like the spring cleaning demo.  We were going to have an iLife demo but it fell out.  Another guy was going to do an iSight ichat.  No longer internet access here at Hilo Lagoon Center.  Internet has been pivotal.  So, the meetings will be moving to Kope Kope in the Hilo Shopping Center. Kope Kope has wireless and it's another 2/3 bigger than the Lagoon Center room.  

12 people attended our meeting. Peet says that people aren't here because we are bimonthly -we've dropped off in attendance.

Oceanview Mars may start up West Hi to the Macs.  East meets west.  

Compucycle was very (overly) successful.  Some guy took most of the Macs for kids.

.Mac  Patrick talked about the highlites, said people were selling it on ebay for $50. Really good deal! Sync to iDisk for backups or if you have multiple Macs is one of the highlights.

April 20, 2006 - Hilo Lagoon Center

Dawn's 50th birthday party! There was a Beautiful Cake and lots of food. It was a fun and relaxing meeting. But we did talk Mac too...

Computer maintenance: Spring Cleaning your Mac Demo by Dawn
Disk utility is very very important.  Can put into dock for easier access.  1st aid more advanced than OS 9.  Repair disk permissions -if similar things come up all the time, what is it?  Usually enough to fix problems.  But, if there are persistent problems, use ops disk (make sure you use the correct start up disk, must label it if you have multiple computers.)

To fix pesky problems:

1. stick in startup disk
2. restart
3. hold c key
4. disk utility from there opens, select HD-  can click verify or repair disk.

Zapping pram- pram governs settings for your computer.  if you are freezing, restart, option/apple + p+r keys  hold til chime happens it will turn off.  Hold till chimes 3 times.  May need to reset settings. (Applecare says so too).  Personal settings.  System preferences.  Desktop: Clean it up because many files on there eats up ram.  Screen saver: it only makes sure there is no image burned in your monitor.  Energy saver: recommend put on never for computer maintenance.  Chron scripts will then run if Mac is on all the time for daily/weekly/monthly maintenance.  As long as it's not sleeping, chron scripts will still be running.  After pram zapping, reset date/time.  

Maintenance program: Cocktail.  Definitely plug in your computer due to power issues, because it eats a lot of energy during backups.  Just run this, not necessary to pick special options unless you know stuff what you want to clean.  Do this 1 time a month.

Defrag the computer.  Do not use Norton Utility, not useful for Macs.  If you run intensive programs (Photoshop, Dreamweaver), putting big files on, taking them off: this is good to clean up the disk.  if you set up your computer to journal, it will defrag in the background (set this up in Disk Utility). Start up from Disk Utility and defrag from that.  Defraging takes spaces out of HD and minute instructions to look for files all over the place, which makes it run faster.  Should defrag once a year.  Backup everything beforehand. Also: Carbon Copy Cloner recommended by Patrick.  It does a copy of your system, not a bit by bit copy. 

Applecare tip: After you call them the 3rd time about the same issue, you can directly ask for Protech- they are the real experts.

We had a "Meeting in a Box" from Peachtree press.  We watched clips from a variety of software companies and highlights from MacWorld.

February 16, 2006 - Hilo Lagoon Center

This month we unveiled our new Mac Nut Learning Library that we will charge for benefits: $30/yr. Members are able to borrow for 1 mo.  Members can borrow as many as they want. Log into members section to get information on this. Steve Pollard will be our librarian. Also: we are accepting donations to the library. Have training CDs that you don't need anymore that others could use? Please consider adding those to the library.

The Q&A Section/Show and Tell:
Silver keeper is good for backups.

Email - I can download mail but not send out. You don't have the prefs from the person with the wireless connection.

Automator - for repetitive actions, make your macro, better than Apple script. More drag and drop but still hard to figure out.

iPod News! Airplay 2 - set what channel you want before you go in your car.  Next step up from iTrip.

WEP = incoding incryption

iLugger.  Big luggage for iMac.

Garage Keys.  $70 for keyboard from MacMice.  Works well with Garage Band; velocity sensing; usb connection.

Dawn upgraded to faster router. Buffalo products have much better tech support and are very plug and play.

Ann showed off her awesome run-over-by-a-vehicle Powerbook. In case you were wondering, Apple care does Not cover this.

This meeting featured Photoshop in a box from Peachpit Press. We raffled off books and club cards from Peachpit.   Thank you Peachpit!

December 15, 2005 Hilo Lagoon Center

19 people attended our Holiday Party!

We also discussed: Google Earth; a Mac Nut Garage Sale; an Apple user group digest featuring the latest Apple news; the iPod Updater; Firefox; Cocktail, the super duper back up program; and an error code list.

Surprise:  CD was given out with many fun goodies!

The Q&A Section:
Where do I purchase a monitor? Answer: go to Office Max, 19" for $300 - order online, pick up from store (but they are discontinuing this service in January)

I need to burn DVDs- which program do I use?  Answer: Mac the Ripper.com. Excellent results.  Toast 7 is good, nothing earlier. Popcorn is built into Toast 7.

Ann discussed the newer version of Airport software: it ruined the computer's signal.  Had to go back to previous version to make Airport work.

I can't get earthlink dial up with Airport - it works, but very slowly. Answer: tricky handshake, so that's why.

I need to get an ISP in Hamakua. Answer: Coconut wireless - works very well in Hamakua, Puna.  But very expensive...$400 to get on, plus $40/mo.  Then you install the attenna, etc.

Starbucks now free wifi, maybe need a password.  Verizon Broadband National can be used on a Pc and Mac.  Have to get a Pc card for your Mac.  $56/mo.  Have to have a Powerbook, not an iBook.  Phone number is separate.  Go at the Verizon store.

eBay is not necessarily good to get Macs from due to shipping costs.  Everystore is selling iPods now. Everyone MUST buy apple care when buying Mac stuff - worth it's price if it breaks down once.

ProTools tutorial.

We discussed vtc.com and lynda.com. It's possible to get monthly/ semi yearly passes. Then we had a raffle: Lynda.com pass - one won by Michelle Deis!

Ann's iPod video was in the house!! She had a video of her dogs on Mauna Kea; save the video in iDVD for iPod video. Easy, Easy.

Go to www.apple-discounts.com - all the stuff that's for sale, great prices.

September 15, 2005 - Aloha Outpost Cafe

10:23 start

Photoshop tricks scheduled for this week has been postponed, we will reschedule for a later date, instead we have an iPhoto demo.

Items on this months disk - bad addresses, podcasting video, and more widgets.

Announcing the new iPod nano-Steve Jobs 1000 songs in your pocket, can fit in the small pocket of Levis. It's Flash based so it is shock absorbent. $200 2g $249 4g

Looking for apple deals? Check out Secret place on Apple store home page - scroll down to the bottom right, look for Sale tag, find good deals. Can get kit to chg out battery of iPod.

Q: Can we get credit on the sales at the apple store for our group.
A: We're working on it.

Also new is the Motorola phone that will play up to 100 songs on the phone, you have to pick them. Check your area for service first.

Our next meeting will be on October 20th.

Q&A:
Q: Will chron scripts run when computer sleeping?
A: No not while it's sleeping. Suggest running cocktail which is a housekeeping utility that your schedules when more convenient. Concomputer does on a weekly/daily/mo-ly thing.

Can make custom settings for certain things like film editing that will optimize your energy savings.

Q: Is it ok for your computer to be on all the time?
A: yes especially good here where the humidity is high.

Q: When is the next recycling event for old equipment?
A: May 2006.

Q: With regards to Tiger: have you found the need to upgrade many programs? Most of the biggest programs - smaller programs that will need upgrading are Disk Warrior, Tech Tool, and Acrobat. Don't get CS2, slows things down.

Q: Since Mac will be switching to the intel chip, should we buy now or wait til the new technology hits the shelves, and will the current technology become obsolete more quickly?
A: Since the launch of system X, they have been building in PC substructure, so the impact will be minimal. So the question really is: Do you need this computer right away? If so, go ahead and get it now and don't wait for the next generation.

iPhoto Demo - Ann
Presentation of how you can take pictures from your digital camera, import into iPhoto, alter and create a slide show. Anne took some flower image, connected camera to her laptop and iPhoto launched automatically. The new version of iPhoto recognizes most cameras but not all.

Press import button, the go immediately into a new library. From there, you can chg photo many ways. It's recommended that you make a duplicate first so you have the original image intact. When you click Adjust, you can sharpen, change contrast, etc. The red eye works, but not on cats. Select a bunch, highlighted blue, make slideshow. Your slideshow can become your screensaver which you would select in your system preferences. One cool new effect - the Ken Burns effect, start in on a small area, zoom out, swirl. Can chg the transition effects, dissolve, etc. Anne also showed how the other iLife 05 programs work well together, picking a song to play during the slideshow from her iTunes library, and bringing slideshow into iDVD to create a professional looking presentation that run on a mac or pc. This is a fun way to share your pics with friends and family. You can also email images from iPhoto if you use apple mail program. If not, open in mail then drag and drop into your email program of preference. Another neat tip is that you can drag picture onto to photoshop dock icon, and it will open it.

All in all, it was a good presentation that showcased how you can use in practical terms the new iLife 05 upgrade and how much time it can save you doing things that you most likely already do. Or if you haven't yet, you certainly can and do it quite easily.

TIPS:
Optical mouse, needs to be on a non-reflective surface. Does not work well on woodgrain, glass, or metal surface.

Walmart has good altec lansing speakers which work really well, keep an eye out, because they tend to be gone as soon as they restocked.

When burning CD's Don't use a sharpie to write on the surface. You can purchase Cd writing pens at Office Depot or Walmart.

who will vett notes for Margaret: Kim Olsen

Question was posed to users group attendees - What presentations would we like to see, and would anyone like to present?

We'd like to see Apple Remote Desktop, podcasting- newscasting audio format. update on Garage Band , how to archive old family photos, LP to digital to CD, Cintinque- Steve pollard. 120gb hd in his laptop. vcr- to vhs, and scanning.

Ended around noon

Expanding the knowledge of "Mac" to the Big Island.

The first in a series of presentations will be Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, "Essential Training" from the Learning Library series produced by Lynda.com.

The program will be presented over 8 weeks starting on Wednesday, August 24, 2005 in the Pahoa Marketplace from 6:30pm to 8pm and will run every Wednesday night through October 12th.

If you are thinking about upgrading to Tiger - OS X 10.4 or just want to find out more about this Operating System please join us. We will be asking for $2 from each person that attends to cover basic costs.

Topics include:

• Getting Started with the Basics
• Setting up your Mac
• Changing settings safely
• Places to Tread carefully
• Being Productive
• Gathering Information about anything
• Organizing your Life
• Communicating over the Internet
• Entertainment on your Mac

September 14, 2005:

• System Preferences: Which Ones Can't Hurt You

September 21, 2005:

• System Preferences: Which Ones to Watch Out For
• Printing

March is more than St. Patrick's Day... it's our Patrick's birthday!!!

Patrick's iPod demo.

Mac Nuts watching video demo.

Patrick & Jackie and his birthday cake.

Happy New Year MacNuts

Yes, your fearless leader has finally returned! And what a long strange trip it's been . . . . I feel very bad that we so quietly passed our 1 year anniversary, and didn't get to celebrate , but am open to suggestions as to how you would all like to make that up. I know the holidays tends to sap everyone and we don't start pulling together till February, BUT, we at least have our January meeting to look forward to.

Steve Pollard has had the foresight to book our regular room at the Hilo Lagoon Center for the next year. So one thing is for certain, we WILL be meeting the 3rd Thursday of each month there, at 5:30 pm, starting with January 20. Steve will be re-sharing his experience with converting tape to CD.

Speaking of which, I have pulled together a New Years CD present for the group. It has a current copy of the 10.3.7 combo upgrade , Cocktail, Garageband Jampack 1, 2, & 3, an article from Macworld on Tape to CD, and a few other goodies. Be sure to bring a blank CD to our meeting so we can burn you a copy. Another highlight for the meeting will be Steve Jobs keynote speech from the January Macworld conference in San Francisco, which at this writing is still one day away. We are promised to hear some wonderful announcements about all things Macintosh. If you haven't heard the leaks, and want to snoop, one of my favorite Mac news sites is:

Not only do they have their own news, but links to some other very relevant news sites concerning Apple. This should more than quench your thirst for Mac News.

In the next year we want to grow our little organization a bit more. We have already grown in membership. We started with 7 members that day in November of 2003, and we now number 178 Mac enthusiasts. And our numbers are growing. It seems with the advent of the iPod, switchers are on the rise, and they certainly need our support. It would be great to plan some kind of public exhibition . We once thought of having a recycle Mac event of some sort. Maybe someone out there has a good idea brewing? We also need to pull our organizational skills together a bit. I was gone on a family emergency for nearly 2 months, and the group kind of limped along, so I want to prevent that from happening in the future. I do need to extend a very warm MAHALO to Patrick Donegan for taking charge of the meetings in my stead. Are there a few more folks who have the time and inclination to take a task to help keep us on track. With all the eggs are in one basket, when that basket gets waylaid, we don't all want to starve, do we? If we just have a few more folks who are willing to do one task and possibly attend a planning meeting once a month, that would help. So far it's myself organizing the meeting content, newsletters, and email, Margaret Strubel doing press releases, and Ann Kalber holding up our website. See a place you can fit in?

This marks our first issue of our newsletter to be exclusively on our website. It was getting quite unruly to send out newsletters to everyone, so we decided to send out iCard announcements to let you know when it will be available on site.

Finally, what would you, our membership, like to see at our meetings, on our website, or as activities. Remember, we are our own resource, and can only make each other happy when we know each others needs. Kinda like a relationship , huh? Well this IS a relationship, we are all HAWAII MACNUTS! A breed that is not so rare anymore. So keep your suggestions flowing in, either in a response on our website or an email...

I look forward to seeing all of you who can make it at our January 20 meeting at the Hilo Lagoon Center conference room on the ground floor. And , don't forget to bring a show and tell. I know Santa was very busy at the Apple Store this year!

Your Head MacNut, Dawn Hurwitz

October Newsletter

Aloha Hawaii MacNuts,

This is the first edition of our newsletter to be posted on our web site. It is the most convenient way to inform you all of what we're up to. In future, you will only receive an iCard postcard directing you to the site with our username and password for the members' section.

I had a wonderful trip to Chicago and San Francisco, that of course included a trip to the LARGEST Apple store in the WORLD! (plus a few smaller ones!). The new G5 iMac is completely awesome in it's simplicity and elegance. Anyone who has not seen it, I suggest you take a stroll over to Apple's web site to have a peek.

Margaret Strubel and Ann Kalber did a great job of steering our last meeting, I'm told. Which brings to mind a subject you all may be tired of hearing, it's about having a new, larger, wired home for our meetings. Currently, Steve Pollard has graciously extended our stay at Hilo Lagoon Center (Big MAHALOS, Steve) to included the 3rd Thursday of EVERY month beginning in December, for the next year. However, it seems our group is taking on a life of it's own. Being that we live in a community who lives so far away from each other, it's easy to see how folks can get so enthusiastic about ideas and questions that they might have and go off in separate conversations about them. Sadly, this does infringe on the ears of those who are trying to focus on the presentation or discussion at large. We certainly don't want to discourage this exchange of information, but to facilitate. Stepping into the hall at this point could help, till a larger space can ease this dilemna.Or possibly save the conversation till the end of our meeting's "social hour". However don't be surprised if these separate conversations in group continue, it will bring out the mother hen in me :-)

I understand that Ann made an excellent presentation outlining how to build a web site. Carolyn chimed in a good webhosting company named Monkmedia.net . Ann's personal favorite site building program is Dreamweaver, which she uses to facilitate our site. Alex brought his Airport Express for Show & Tell.

Ann presenting

There is a new section on our site for MEMBERS ONLY .This section will allow access to more sensitive info that is not available to non-members. Also, only members can list items for sale in the classified section, which you are all encouraged to do.

Another idea brought up from a member is to submit questions before the meeting (I suggest a minimum of 1 week prior), to distribute to more experienced users so that we can have fuller answers. Also, I would like to remind everyone that we want to spend about half an hour on Q&A in the beginning of the meeting to segue into the "presentation" for another half hour, then a bit of Show & Tell into a more relaxed "Social hour" to bring us to 7:30 MAX.

You know we DO have a YAHOO group listed under hawaiimacnuts for further and more immediate discussions. Just go to Yahoo, look up Groups, and look up our group name and register. It's really quite easy. Then you can present your queries conveniently and usually get fairly swift answers.

Our next meeting is coming up pretty quick, sorry for the late notice; Tuesday October 19, 5:30pm at Hilo Lagoon Center. Presentation will be on "Garage Band". Bring a Show & Tell

We are also very happy to announce our 1st year Anniversary on November 20, which will be celebrated by a pot luck PuuPuu's social affair on that date at 4pm at Ann Kalber's home. Info will be listed in the members section with a map to get there. We do want to solicit help at this time though. We would like for some folks to commit to a few helpful positions : come early & Help set-up, stay late and help clean-up, and folks to commit to bring these items in lieu of puupuu's:

• Plastic spoons, forks, etc.
• Napkins
• Paper plates
• Beverages

You can respond to Ann or Dawn

July 2004

Backing Up-Terminology, Concepts and Software by Bob Harris

Hard Disk- the main storage component of your computer system. Disks come in different sizes usually measured in Gigabytes. These disks are the filing cabnet for your computer. There is one internal hard disk and you may connect additional hard disks either internally on towers, or externally. They can be SCSI interface, USB, or Firewire. If a Hard disk has an operating system on it, this disk can be bootable (meaning you can start the computer from this disk if it has a copy of the operating system on it), except in the case of USB disks. The hard disk must be formatted with a drive utility in order to work with your computer. The information on your hard disk is placed in sectors, and because the data over time is written in sectors that are not always next to each other, your computer finds these sectors with data by using a map called the hard disk directory or catalog. It is often called the Btree catalog. At times this directory may become corrupted an you have to fix this using a utility such as Disk Warrior or Tech Tool Pro, or Drive 10.

Volume-A hard disk may be divided into one or more volumes, or partitions. Each partition or Volume may have a different Operating system and may be booted from. Generally you have to create the partitions or volumes when you format the hard disk, which clears the disk of all the data on it.

Media for Backup. There are many choices in media for backup and each has advantages and disadvantages. Among the types of media are Hard disks, floppy disks (no longer installed on Macs but can be purchased as an external drive), removable disks such as Zip, Jazz, Optical disks, CD discs (called CDR for recordable-non erasable), CDRW for re-writable, erasable CDs, DVDs , DVD RAMs which are rewriteable, Tape drives, offsite online storage, and flash memory. CD's and DVD's are the most permanent, floppy and zips are the least. Tapes fall in the middle, but are inexpensive media for the amount of storage.

Backups can be different types. First is a complete backup or copy of everything on your disk. Under OS9 and below you could do this by making a Finder Copy from one hard disk to another by simply dragging the entire Volume Icon from one Volume to a second volume on a different hard disk. If the disk was small enough you could do this to an optical disk as well. The copy would be bootable as well Under OSX you cannot make a Finder copy of a Volume and have it be bootable. You must use a utility for this.

Archive a copy of your data made at a certain time or date, usually for long term storage. Generally if this is an archive for a long time, the best choice is a CD or DVD. Usually an archive is just a backup of data rather than an whole hard disk.

Backups to different media require some thought about the way backups are made.

Backing up a hard disk from one disk to another with a utility in OSX is called Cloning the disk. All the files are copied and the two volumes match, and both are bootable. Several free and shareware utilities can be used for this:

Apple's Disk Restore part of Disk Utility, Carbon Copy Cloner, Synchronize Pro, Super Duper, Xupport, Retrospect, MacBackup See complete list from Randy Singer Below

When you do this the downside is that you may be copying a corrupted file and will have no way to go back unless you have an archive of the earlier version, or are using a software program that allows incremental backups

While you can do an incremental backup to a second hard disk, it is often better to make an incremental backup to a removable media set such as CD's, or Tape, or DVD using s program like MacBackup, or Retrospect. In such cases you can go back in time to a saved version that is earlier in case something is copied later that is no good. In some cases this earlier version is called a Snapshot.

full backups. During an incremental backup only the files that have changed since the most recent backup are included. That is where it gets its name: each backup is an increment since the most recent backup.

The time it takes to execute the backup may be a fraction of the time it takes to perform a full backup. Backup4all uses the information it has recorded in its catalog file (.bkc) to determin whether each file has changed since the most recent backup.

The advantage of lower backup times comes with a price: increased restore time. When restoring from incremental backup, you need the most recent full backup as well as EVERY incremental backup you've made since the last full backup.

For example, if you did a full backup on Friday and incrementals on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and the PC crashes Thursday morning, you would need all four backup container files: Friday's full backup plus the incremental backup for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. As a comparison, if you had done differential backup on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then to restore on Thursday morning you'd only need Friday's full backup plus Wednesday's differential.

Full backup is the starting point for all other backups, and contains all the data in the folders and files that are selected to be backed up. Because full backup stores all files and folders, frequent full backups result in faster and simpler restore operations. Remember that when you choose other backup types, restore jobs may take longer.

Read full backup page for more details. Our backup software performs full backups.

Differential backup

A differential backup contains all files that have changed since the last FULL backup. The advantage of a differential backup is that it shortens restore time compared to a full backup or an incremental backup. However, if you perform the differential backup too many times, the size of the differential backup might grow to be larger than the baseline full backup.

Read differential backup page for more details. Our backup software performs differential backups.

Incremental backup

An incremental backup stores all files that have changed since the last FULL OR DIFFERENTIAL backup. The advantage of an incremental backup is that it takes the least time to complete. However, during a restore operation, each incremental backup must be processed, which could result in a lengthy restore job.

Read incremental backup page for more details. Our backup software performs incremental backups.

Mirror backup

A mirror backup is identical to a full backup, with the exception that the files are not compressed in zip
files and they can not be protected with a password. A mirror backup is most frequently used to create an exact copy of the backup data. It has the benefit that the backup files can also be readily accessed using tools like Windows Explorer.

From Randy Singer Author MacBible

The Restore tab in Apple's Disk Utility (OS X 10.3-only) works almost exactly like CarbonCopy Cloner. It makes an exact copy of a disk or a disk image to another disk. It can even make a bootable clone of your disk. The only options are to erase, or to leave alone the data on the destination disk, and to do a checksum integrity test of the data being copied.

However, this feature is not designed to do incremental backups. So it really is more of a cloning tool rather than a complete backup program.

With a .Mac subscription you get a copy of Backup:
http://www.mac.com/

Retrospect
(There are several versions with different capabilities and pricing,
including Express $49, and Desktop $129.)
http://www.dantz.com/index.php3?SCREEN=products&sid=4YZg8c0aVUlm6Kdo

Data Backup $49
http://www.prosoftengineering.com/products/data_backup.php

Deja Vu $20 (comes highly recommended by users I've spoken with)
http://propagandaprod.com/dejavu.html

Intego's Personal Back-Up $60
http://www.intego.com/personalbackup/

Carbon Copy Cloner (donation requested)
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

iMsafe $15
http://homepage.mac.com/sweetcocoa/

iBackup free
http://www.grapefruit.ch/grapefruit/iBackup/

SuperDuper $20
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Revival $25
http://allmacintosh.xs4all.nl/files/revivalosx.hqx

Synchronize! Pro X $100
http://www.qdea.com/

Synk X (now free)
http://mypage.uniserve.ca/~rvoth/synk4_target.htm
http://mypage.uniserve.ca/~rvoth/ (says Synk is nowfree)

Tri-BACKUP $49
http://www.tri-edre.com/

BackupToolkit $50
http://www.fwb.com/html/backup_toolkit.html

LaCie SilverKeeper (FREE!)
http://www.silverkeeper.com/

BUUP4_for_cron ($5)
http://www.m-t-software.com/software-backup.html

Psync (Free and open source)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/psyncx

SwitchBack ($30 and up)
http://www.glendower.co.nz/switchback.html

Folders Synchronizer X $40
http://www.softobe.com

Chronosync, $20:
http://www.econtechnologies.com/site/Pages/chrono_overview.html

DiskGuardian $70 (A multi-function integrated application.)
http://subrosasoft.com/thestore/product_info.php?products_id=3

Impression $25
http://babelcompany.com/impression/
Can back up directories to multiple optical discs (CD-R, CD-RW, and DVD-R) with multi-directory backups, incremental/differential backups, and direct-to-disk archiving.

rBackup free
http://fletcher.freeshell.org/computers/mac/rbackup

HELIOS has released an HFS-aware version of gnutar.
(Command-line utility.)
http://www.helios.de/news/news03/N_06_03.html

Impression $25
http://babelcompany.com/impression/

CopyCatX $40
http://www.subrosasoft.com/thestore/product_info.php?products_id=413

MimMac $10
http://www.ascendantsoft.com/

DV Backup is a shareware application for MacOS X 10.2 which lets you backup computer files to a domestic DV or Digital8 camcorder via a FireWire connection. You can backup about 10-15 GB on each tape.
http://www.coolatoola.com/

BRU $500
BRU for Mac OS X is a native OS X backup solution designed primarily to support standalone Xserve, G5 and G4 systems. In networked system topologies, up to 5* systems can be AFP-mounted and reliably backed-up to the system on which BRU for Mac OS X is installed.
http://www.bru.com/Macintosh-content.html

BackupScript FREE
http://www.railheaddesign.com/pages/software/backupscript/backupscript.html

Backup Simplicity $20 first year; $15/year thereafter.
http://www.qdea.com/pages/pages-bs/bs1.html

BackUp Application and ScreenSaver by LARA-A FREE
http://users.pandora.be/lara-a/software/backup/index.html

rsyncbackup FREE (a PERL backup script)
http://erlang.no/rsyncbackup/

BounceBack Professional $99
http://www.cmsproducts.com/product_bounceback_software.htm

Pocket Backup $20
http://www.pocketsw.com/PocketSoftware/pocket_backup.php

Impression
http://babelcompany.com/impression/

Courtesy of Randy B. Singer
Co-Author of: The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th
editions)

How To Deal With Common OS X 10.3 Panther Problems
http://www.macattorney.com/panther.html

Bob Harris will make a presentation on System back-ups (using Retrospect), and also printing on different papers. Bob Harris is one of our new members from Hawi. He has vast usergroup experience, particularly having organized 2 longtime Mac User Groups on the mainland.

June 2004 - Hilo Lagoon Centre - Conference Room

After the terrific Press Releases sent out by our "Publicity Concierge", Margaret Strubel, there was tremendous response. 30 members took part including 1 from Hawi , 2 from Kona, and several from Oceanview! Because there were so many new members, we all went around the room to introduce each other and our uses for Macs.

We watched a video on Hidden Capabilities by Chris Breen for Macworld. Will be happy to send a copy of the video by email (98mb). This video was made available soley for officila MUGs. Next, Carolyn Clark made a presentation on how to make a slide show in iPhoto, and export to a Quicktime file (compressing it), and being able to send to others. Another presentaton was made on Adobe CS of how to make a contact sheet.

Morgan Sky reminded to join our Yahoo group. Go to Yahoo.com and get a free email account (if you don't already have one of those 100mb deals!), find Yahoo groups and join hawaiimacnuts and click join group. Many burning questions you might have to discuss can be facillitated this way.

There was some discussion about wifi access as a result of my going to Honolulu last month and staying at the Ala Moana Hotel, and accessing the Apple Store's broadband from my balcony and the help of a free application called Mac Stumbler (download @ Macstumbler.com). A new member (who we will hear much more about) Bob Harris has info he can email you to help with further surfing outside your home; email him for wifi access to get a map of access points. We also heard of a warchalking website, where on the mainland folks mark the sidewalk corners with chalk where wifi is available. AND jambajuice in Kona has wifi. Let us know of spots you may have found.

Compression: Video & Audio
held Saturday, May 22, 2004 from 9am to 4pm
Waiakea Waena Elementary School  -  Hilo, Hawaii

Taught be Steve Szabo from Honolulu.

The Hawaii Mac Nuts would like to extend our mahalos to Steve Szabo for coming over to the Big Island and instructing our first workshop.

It was a success and we look forward to being part of more workshops on the Big Island.

Mahalo also to Waiakeawaena Elementary School for allowing us to use their Mac Lab (it was a thrill just to be surrounded by so many Macs)

Mahalo to Terri Stormont for all the work she did to coordinate with Waiakeawaena and the work she did
getting all the Macs ready for us.

Mahalo to Steve Pollard for the financial scholarships he made available and to all the participate in our first Hawaii Mac Nuts workshop.

Our May meeting showed that our most favorite topic is "Show and Tell". Steve Pollard brought his Griffin iMic, and there was a joint presentation of several members on how to record from your old cassettes or LP's to your computer.

Teri brought a whole bag of goodies starting with a Proscope ($199), which is a USB microscope to look at objects close and see them on your computer screen, WAY COOL! Also an "In Motion", by Altec Lansing ($149), a speaker system that turns your iPod into a boom box. AND a mini iPod (green) PLUS , iSight. We all oohed, ahed, and drooled over the booty, which was, she mentioned, borrowed from her grade school students!

GB Hajim played a demo of his latest animation called Strange Frame. He is also looking to hire someone who knows how to do 3D animation who likes science fiction. Poser , is the program, and just creativity is all you really need.

Carolyn Clark brought us a demo of her graphics finesse, truly awesome work. We are a group of incredible talent! She has plans in future to hold a presentation on photoshop, and has a friend who will be doing one on scanning possibly in the next couple of months.

So, please try to attend our next meeting for some more surprise show and tell, all the latest in Mac, and , well, check in our website to be really clear! Also read about our first successful event, Audio & Video Compression Workshop. Please feel free to forward this to all your Mac buddies. Encourage them to sign up as members at our site. It is still free, and that could change in the near future as we get more organized. We started in November of 2003 with 7, and have grown to 103 members this month!!!

This last meeting was a meeting of the iBooks, although we had a few powerbooks, but it is evidenced by the photo below. Thanks Tom for getting such a distinguished photo of our group.

We reviewed our workshop, Compression: Video and Audio. Twelve participants were needed and PC users would be encouraged to attend. Steve Pollard offered schaolarships to 3 folks who would like to attend for $25 each. Thank you Steve

Much was shared about wireless networking, especially the fact that you don't need an Airport to do so. By using a wireless router (I use a D-Link) and an airport card in your computer, you can get the same results. And even cheaper if you have cards in two computers and one of them is online that can act as a base station. We look forward to the day when we can have online access at our group and with all our laptops be able to share. It was also discussed how to set up antenae's to link your signal further.

Then there was the VERY lively surprise show-and-tell presentation by Patrick Donegen. He brought in a box of all kinds of techy gizmos and connections and passed them around the room. Here is a partial list ; Video cable to plug into powerbook, Hi grade audio cable, firwire 6 pin cable, usb hard drive, adapter for audio mic, DVD -DVI cable, Y adapters, banana jack dual plugs for speaker level. So you say it might sound boring? It was really quite informational and was decided we should have a show and tell as a regular topic. If you have a new device or idea to share, you are welcome to bring it.

There was also a lively discussion on sharing what we know , and focusing on what we use Macs for in our work. If there is something you are doing that could be shared , we would be happy to give you presentation time at a future meeting. Some of the topics brought up were; Margaret-Quark, Ann-Screen SAVER , Patrick- Security on Internet .mac, Satellite, Internet, Scanning photos Carolyn?, Old Movies 16mm or 8mm convert to digital, Dealing w/SPAM, Demo.

Some more pictures below of the meeting:

March 2004 - Hilo Lagoon Conference Room

January 15, 2004 Ann Kalber brought a very recent video shot by her husband Mick of the latest lava shower flow. It was some very impressive footage, that they sold to national news.

In future we plan to have all our announcements on our website, and you will receive an email with a link to it to remind you to visit. We are working on a different email system so as to be able to suppress the addresses as many of you have showed concern for the web spiders who collect them. Dawn Hurwitz made a small presentation on computer maintenance tips, that included a lively discussion participated by all. It was also discovered in the meeting 9 out of 10 users are using Mac OS X, an encouraging fact. We always want to address ALL users, but are happy to have a good group using the latest OS. For OSX, maintenance is slightly different now. No more rebuilding the desktop, and a new repairingpermissions system to straighten out all those little ghosts in the machine. There are also some new utilities out such as "Cocktail" and "Macaroni" which are shareware and very inexpensive. Patrick Donegon also shared how much fun one can have backing up files to a jump drive, and how easy and versitile they are to move files from one computer to another.

Ann made a FUN (and envious) demonstration of how to get online using your cellphone and a laptop. It works on CDMA or GSM systems like in Hilo, but unfortunately not digital. She got some really great help from a guy named Cameron at the Genious Bar in the Apple store at Ala Moana. A link to the info Ann received:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/maccellphone/

Terri informed us of a Photoshop cable show on UH channel 55 friday nights 8-9:15PM. The show schedule is at this link:

http://www.hawaii.edu/dlit/sched/Grid

Started at 10:30 AM

As of February 14, we are now an officially recognized Apple User Group. Nice Valentines Day present, huh? Lot's of input came in with suggestions for our site including a detailed Links page, a Rant's page with your complaints but only if they include solutions, or in the form of a question. Also a where to buy Tech stuff, and personal web page links. AND, a Bulletin Board page that could be accessed by members only.

Jim Swearington brought us some more of his wonderful undersea video's. Some really great news is that there is a computer recycle center next door to the old Fiasco's. If you have an old computer you want to get rid of, it's a good place to go so as not to fill up our land fills.

Ann Kalber has trasnsmitted the announcement of a special workshop soon to be available to us on Video Compression.Please check our website for more info.

It was brought up that we should also sponsor other workshops like a Basic Housekeeping, and Beginners, and Photoshop workshops that could be video'd and then sold as a fundraiser for our group.Other items of interest were that Mac Connection is about the only catalog house that will ship thru the post office.

We had a great presentation by GB Hajim last night at our 3rd HawaiiMacnuts meeting. What an exciting prospect to be free of a mouse or track pad and only have a pen to use onscreen? Jim Swearingtonalso showed us some of his diving films that were really terrifc. And Steve Pollard gave a demo of a dictionary program called eReference which can be found at yourdictionary.com, that we may demo again at next meeting because he wasn't able to give it a full show. Thanks so much for all your contributions to our group.

As of last night we now are 72 members strong! We also had a good discussion about where to buy products for the best price and what we use to keep up on Mac news with.

Our guestspeaker was Patrick Donegan who enlighten us on the subject of "Limewire" Patrick is a longtime Mac User, Electric Car enthusiast, and part owner of Lava Net.

We will also spent time getting to know the interests of those that attended the meeting to get a better understanding of what the Mac users on the Big Isalnd are interested in persueing, making this a viable Mac User Group for all.

The first MUG meeting was small but mighty. There were 7 people, and ready to invite all their pals. We all agreed that it would be useful to switch our meetings alternatively from PUNA TO HILO on alternating months. We still do not have a location with computers, but there are enough folks with Laptops to make it more interesting, at least. Our plans are to network each others talents, so we all know who knows what, giving us greater resources. It was also talked about to organize workshops, and a recycled computer sale.

We need to come to consensus about the next meeting time . Maybe a weekday evening would be good in Hilo, and we have a location we're checking on. Please reply to this email to give your preference:

Weekday/Evening - Saturday/Morning

Also, let me know if you are running Appleworks in System 10. I will send you a card to fill for our database.