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The Newsletter for Sonoma County’s Mac and Windows Users
February 2008
Vol.1 No 2
HOW TO BACK UP
YOUR DATA
MAC EDITION
Date: Saturday, 2/9/2008
Place: Sonoma Public Library
Time: 9 am to 10:30 am 755 West Napa Street
Table of Contents
User Group Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
February Mac Meeting Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Backing Up Your Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
How Often Do You Backup Your Data? . . . . . . 9
BackUp Your Photos On The Road . . . . . . . . 10
Backup Your Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Thoughts on Time Capsule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
E-Books on Backing Up Data, Etc. . . . . . . . .
Mac OS X Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Macworld Expo S.F. Experiences . . . . . . . . . .
16 Superlative Macworld 2008 Products . . . .
Pix for Mysterious Word 2008 Crash . . . . . . .
13
16
17
17
23
31
Sonoma Valley
Computer Group
OFFICERS FOR 2007
President
Beth Pickering
bethpick@emailx.net
Secretary
Eleanor Laubly
elaubly@yahoo.com
Treasurer
Joan Fabian
JKFabian@vom.com
Newsletter
Kathy Aanestad
aanestad@vom.com
Members-at-Large George Pick
ggpick@comcast.net
Jeannette Woods
jeanette@vom.com
Elizabeth Palmer
elizabeth@vom.com
Jackie Smith
latblumr@comcast.net
SVCG Evangelist Veda Lewis
lap@vom.com
Webmaster
Kathy Aanestad
aanestad@vom.com
Board Meetings
Usually following General Meeting.
Open to all members. Call 9356690 for further information.
Memberships
S.V.C.G. Annual Membership:
$20.
S.V.C.G. Family membership: $30
(residing at same address). Membership renewals are due and payable at the beginning of
each year.
General Meetings
S.V.C.G. meets second Saturday
of each month at Sonoma Public
Library, 755 West Napa Street;
hours: 10AM to 11:30AM unless
otherwise notified. Meetings free;
guests welcome.
Donating
Used
Computer
Equipment
The URL listed is for the
free and easy. All you have to do is
answer a few, short questions in our
ongoing, online survey, which you
can access on any book page. Don't
worry.
All of your information stays with
us--we won't sell it or give it away
to anyone. After you've filled out the
Computer Recycling Center. All profile, you'll save 20% automatiof the info needed (and then cally whenever you log on to http://
some) is listed on the site.
www.newriders.com as a member.
http://www.crc.org/
It's that easy!
Thanks to Wayne Till for that Note that you may use your User
tip.
Group Coupon Code ON TOP of
your Club Member savings. Just
remember to log in first when making a purchase and then enter the
code at checkout as well! Contact
Kathy for code.
SVCG UG
Benefits &
User Group
Discounts
O’Reilly
Members receive a 20% discount on O'Reilly books and
conferences. Contact Kathy for
the code.
New Riders Books
http://www.newriders.com
BECOME A NEW RIDERS
CLUB MEMBER. You can save
up to 20% on all books every
day at newriders.com simply
by becoming a New Riders
Club Member. Membership is
About this publication
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter is published monthly by Sonoma Valley Computer Group.
Desktop publishing services donated by: Kathy
Aanestad. Call: (707) 935-6690, email aanestad@
vom.com. © 2007, SVCG. All rights reserved.
Sponsored by our local ISP, DataProfessionals, on
19480-8th St. East.
PeachPit
JOIN THE PEACHPIT CLUB
You can save 30% on all books
every day at peachpit.com simply by
becoming a Peachpit Club Member.
Membership is free and easy. All you
have to do is answer a few, short
questions in our ongoing, online survey, which you can access on any
book page. Don't worry, all of your
information is confidential and stays
with us--we won't sell it or give it
away to anyone. After you've filled
out the survey, you'll save 30% automatically whenever you log on to
http://www.peachpit.com as a member. It's that easy!
USER GROUP COUPON CODE
User group members should note
that once you've become a Peachpit
Club member, you may use your
user group coupon code ON TOP of
the permanent savings you earn as a
member of the club. Just make sure
you've logged onto the site before
Mailing Address:
Sonoma Valley Computer Group
PO Box 649
El Verano, CA 95433
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
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MEMBERSHIP DUES
you make a purchase to ensure this permanent discount
will be in effect, then enter coupon code (case-sensitive) at checkout! This coupon code is an exclusive
offer that may not be used in conjunction with any other coupon codes. Contact Kathy for code information.
Your membership for 2008 — it's time to renew!
Please mail your check (see pg. 4 for form)
today or bring it with you to Saturday's meeting.
Individual fee = $20, Family fee = $30.
FEBRUARY MEETING
Greetings. Remember, the Sonoma Valley
Computer Group has two
separate meetings. Mac
users meet from 9am 10:30am and Windows
users meet from 10:30am
- noon. Mac users, please
enter the Library thru the
back entrance.
This meeting will gear
around users' concerns, questions and input for
future meetings. Kathy Aanestad will spearhead the meeting. Using an iBook connected
to the Library's projector everyone can follow
along as she attempts to answer your questions
with step-by-step demos. If you have a laptop,
ELECTIONS
bring it with you to follow along. The topic for
Saturday will be "HOW TO BACK UP YOUR
DATA".
SATURDAY 2/9/08
MEETING
9 a.m. in the deLong
Room, Sonoma Public
Library.
SVCG
( Plugged into Technology
February is the month you volunteer as a candidate
for 2008 officer and the slate is presented to the
membership. The slate is voted on in March when
the new Board takes over. Please consider running. The job is not difficult or time consuming.
9
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The Board (which consists of officers and membersat-large) will meet quarterly. Meetings are either at the
Library or someone's home and don't last much longer
than an hour. Not only will you give back to your community by volunteering, but you have FUN!!! :)
YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Membership Application/Renewal Form
New Applicant c
Renewal c
Name:______________________________________
Address:_ ___________________________________
___________________________________________
Home Phone:_________________________________
Work Phone:_________________________________
E-mail Address:_______________________________
Platform:
Operating System:
.
Computer Make/Model:___________________________ Send c $20 (individual) c $30 (family) check to:
Sonoma Valley Computer Group
POB 649
El Verano, CA 95433
Mac cPC c
OS Tiger c Win c
OS Leopard c
OS X c
WinXP
WinVIsta Linux
Win98
How did you hear about SVCG?
cclass c club member c newspaper c newsletter
User Level:
c I give permission to use this info in the club roster which is for members only
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
c
c
c
c
4
c Novice
c Advanced
c Intermediate
c Expert
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BACKING UP YOUR DATA
Backing up isn't
hard to do
By Jon Canfield
absolute best CD media available, in my opinion,
and is now available in DVD media as well. I also
use the TDK Armor Plated DVD-R. These discs
are very scratch-resistant and have a longer shelf
life than standard DVD-R discs.
When is the last time you backed up your important
computer files or images? Thought so. Most people
have never done a backup of their files for a variety of
reasons. Many users complain that backing up is too
hard, too complicated, or too confusing until the day
comes (and trust me, at some point it will come) when
a hard drive fails. Would you like to start over from
scratch after losing all your photos?
For backing up to CD or DVD, most software—
such as Roxio EZ CD Creator and Nero Express—
includes utilities to perform simple backups. I
suggest investing in a dedicated program such
as the Dantz Retrospect mentioned above. These
programs make it much easier to copy only new
and changed files to disc, and if the need arises to
restore files, they make it easy to find the right disc
out of many.
Backup used to be a royal pain. Floppy discs were slow
and held very little, and tape drives were expensive and
difficult to work with. Few people had CD/R drives, or,
for that matter, a second hard drive. But today, there are
a number of fast, easy, and affordable options available
to keep a safe copy of your important work.
Hard drives
Conclusion
Don't wait any longer to back up your important—
and in many cases irreplaceable—memories. It's
easier than ever and more affordable than you
might think.
The simplest option for backing up files is often an
external hard drive. Available with USB 2.0 or FireWire
connections, external hard drives have the advantage
of huge capacity, speed, and convenience. Some, such
as the Maxtor One Touch, can start a backup when you
press a button on the external drive that starts a copy of
files you've previously selected. The Maxtor One Touch
is available in capacities of up to 300 GB and costs about
$1.00 per GB, making it an affordable and cost-effective
choice. The Maxtor drives come with a copy of Dantz
Retrospect, which I think is one of the best backup programs available. You can configure Retrospect to make
copies of files, folders, or entire drives on a schedule
that you determine, such as every night at 2:00 A.M. By
pressing the button on the drive, you can start an immediate backup. And, as in most good backup utilities, you
can choose to back up only the files that have changed
and therefore greatly reduce the amount of time required
to make subsequent backups.
There are CD and DVD writable drives. Most new
computers include at least CD/RW, and many are now
including DVD/RW. For effective backup you'll likely
want the higher capacity of DVD (4 GB versus 700 MB
on CD). Whichever disc type you choose, it's important
to use good media. All discs aren't created equal and I
wouldn't trust my critical backups to those discs that
come in a 100 pack for $10. Delkin Archival Gold is the
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
Backing Up Your
Computer System
From William T Lasley,
When your personal computer
crashes, it can be a real pain to get
everything back up and running
again. But when your business
computer crashes, it can become
a major disaster! Since I've just
spent several days recovering my own computer
system, I made notes on what information you
need to back-up in order to help you get things up
and running again in the event that your hard drive
bites the dust.
There are lots of ways to back-up data. There are
online services, extra hard drives, tapes, CDRs and
several other ways to save data. How you do it is
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up to you. (I simply burn data onto blank CDs every
month.) The point of this article is to teach you what
information needs to be saved. How you do it, is up to
you.
Data
Remember things like customer receipts, pending show
applications, inventory sheets and the data from all
accounting software you use for your business.
(Oh, and don't forget to save all those digital pictures
you have too! Nothing is sadder than losing all you pictures of your child’s first few years of life because you
never took the time to save them to CD.)
ISP Account Settings
Keep your user name and password, and ISP phone
numbers in a handy place. If you do not have this information memorized, you will need to either contact your
ISP or dig through your old paperwork to find it. One
of the first things many businesses need after a crash is
Internet access so be sure you can quickly reconfigure
your new system to connect.
Email Account Settings
You will need your user names, email addresses and
server settings (incoming, outgoing mail) for each email
account you have to get things set up again for email.
You should also save your address book periodically by
exporting the file onto a backup disk. If you have ever
lost your entire contact list due to a crash, you know how
frustrating it can be to find everyone's email address
again!
Programs
Programs are easiest set up when you have the installation disk, so keep those CDs in a safe place. If you purchase and download software online, keep the installer
file as well as any product activation codes you receive
for reinstallation of these programs. Some subscriptiontype sites will let you download the software again, so
be sure to keep a hard copy of any login information you
will need to get back to their site.
equipment to reinstall it after a crash. Keep all these
disks together in a safe place! I once spent a week
searching for an old cd that came with my camera
to reinstall it. I finally found it in the box it came in
buried under other boxes in my basement! I could
have saved a lot of time by just keeping the cd with
the printer and scanner cds in the same place!
Favorites/Bookmarks
If you use the Internet for your business, you probably have lots of bookmarks to Web sites saved.
This can be to financial accounts, suppliers, sites
to shows you attend and even forums. Most Web
browser software makes it easy to back up your
bookmarks. Do it on a regular basis and you'll be
safe when the inevitable crash and burn happens to
your computer.
Data Backup is
The Best Data
Protection
From Susan Ward,
Part 1: The 3 Steps to Successful
Data Backup
Data protection is crucial for protecting your business's continuity. If your only data
backup is on a computer, and the hard disk fails or
is damaged by a power surge, your business data
is gone. And having paper copies of business data
isn't adequate data protection; what if your business
premises burn to the ground or experience severe
flooding? Once again the data you need to carry on
your business could be irretrievably lost.
For adequate data protection, you need to establish a
data backup system that follows these three steps:
* archive business data regularly;
* create data backups on reliable media;
* keep updated data backups in a secure, off-site
location.
Passwords
If you are like me, you probably use the built in features
of your Web browser to automatically put in passwords
to sites when you visit them. You should keep a copy of
any login information you use so that you won't have to
rack your brain trying to remember that credit card login
information after you set up your new computer.
The basic rule for business data protection is that if
losing the data will interfere with doing business,
back it up.
Peripherals
This includes your printer, digital camera, scanner and
anything else you use with your computer. Most of
the time you will need the software that came with the
You can reinstall software programs if you need to,
but recovering the details of transactions or business
correspondence is impossible if those files are lost or
damaged beyond repair. The rest of this article out-
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lines each of the steps listed above so you can establish
a data backup system that will effectively protect your
critical business data from disaster.
1) Archiving Critical Business Data
Archiving business data is more than a matter of good
housekeeping; it could be a matter of your business's
survival. There are two steps to archiving business data
for successful data backup;
* identifying the critical data that needs to be
archived
* and using a data archiving method on a regular
schedule.
What needs to be archived in a data backup? Executables,
such as software programs, don’t need to be. You don’t
create new versions of executable programs and, as
I’ve said, if a software program was lost or corrupted,
you could reinstall it fairly easily.
However, all of the files that you’ve created and/or
modified should be regularly backed up. For many
businesses, this includes everything from accounting
files through email.
You can simplify your backup archiving by keeping
all the files that will need to be archived on a single
drive on your computer. For instance, suppose I need
to back up accounting files, word-processing documents, spreadsheets, photo and email. Putting Simply
Accounting, Microsoft Office (including Outlook) and
Paintshop Pro all on the D:/ drive makes it easier for
me to archive all the files I’ve created or modifed using
those programs. All I have to do is back up the drive.
While I don’t have to back up executables, it doesn’t
hurt them if I do.
Once you've selected the critical data to be archived,
it's a simple matter to install and use a backup software
program to archive your business data on a regular
schedule.
I recommend backing up your data nightly. There
are many backup software programs available that
allow you to set a schedule that will archive your data
automatically. Look for backup software that zips and
encrypts files to save disk space and increase data
security.
If possible, backup over your computer network, keeping your data backup files on a separate hard drive
from the original files. If this isn't possible because
you have a stand-alone computer, put your data backup
files in a separate directory, and increase your schedule
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
for creating physical backups.
What kind of physical data backup system is best for
data protection? Continue on to page 2...
Part 2: Part 2: Which Data Backup Media is Best?
The second step of data protection is creating data
backups - not just once, but on a regular schedule.
But before you do this, you need to be aware of the
different backup systems available and the limitations of some backup media.
2) Creating Physical Data Backups
Physical data backups are necessary because of the
possibility of computer failure or damage. Even a
minor accident such as spilling a cup of coffee onto
your laptop could destroy all your data, if that's
the only place your data resides. You should create
physical data backups of your business data at least
once a week, or even more often if your business
generates large amounts of new data daily. There are
several methods of transferring your backup files to
another media, but some data backup systems are
more reliable than others.
Which backup media should you use?
Using CD-Roms as data backups
Using CD-Roms as data backups is popular.
Blank CDs are inexpensive, and copying data onto
CDs is easy. However, this is the most unreliable
method of all the data backup methods listed here.
Who hasn't had the experience of putting a CD into
a drive only to find that the data is unreadable and
the disk "doesn't work"? CDs, like the floppy disks
they've replaced, have a limited shelf life. I don’t
recommend this method of data backup for any
small business. If you are writing your data backup
files onto CDs, make sure that you make (and keep)
multiple copies over time.
Using tapes as data backups
Tape backups are ten thousand times as reliable as
CD-Roms, but tape drives and their associated media
are much more expensive than CD-Rom writers and
CDs. A good tape drive can still cost over $1000,
and individual tapes for the drive can cost up to $40
each. If you can afford the equipment, however, tape
backup is far and away the best backup method.
Using external hard drives for data backups
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For small businesses, buying and using an external
hard drive for data backups is the method I recommend. External hard drives are cheap compared to tape
drive systems ; you can get one for several hundred
dollars. They’re also easy to use; in many cases, all you
have to do is plug the hard drive into your computer’s
USB port. And while hard drives do fail, their failure
rate is much lower than that of backup media such as
CDs.
Using Online backup services as data backups
There are many companies offering online backup
services, but I can't recommend this method. Besides
the potential of bandwidth problems, there are just too
many security issues that have yet to be dealt with.
Firstly, the method is only as reliable as the company
offering the online backup service, and Internet service
companies have been coming and going faster than the
common cold lately. Secondly, if your business data is
sensitive, (and whose isn't?), why would you want to
put it on the 'Net?
3) Off-Site Data Backup
drive and meticulously adhering to a regular data
backup schedule won't help if all your data backup
copies are in one place and that place is struck by
disaster. You must store copies of your backups offsite if your business data is to be truly secure.
Many businesses keep their data backup copies in
security boxes at banks. (The fee for a security box is
tax-deductible, if you need further incentive.) Some
small business owners keep multiple data backup
copies of their records at the homes of different
friends or family members. It doesn't really matter
where you choose to keep them, as long as the site
you choose for off-site data backup is secure and you
have regular access to it.
Don't run the risk of losing your business data.
The best defense against such a disaster is proper
data protection. By creating a backup system that
includes archiving and backing up your business
data regularly and properly, you'll ensure that your
business will be able to weather whatever storm it
faces and carry on.
The only businesses that should be keeping their data
backups on-site are those with fire-proof, indestructible safes. Investing in a tape drive or external hard
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How often do you
backup your data?
In a poll that was conducted by Macworld magazine
several months ago, the question was asked:
“How often do you back up those files that you consider
'very important’?”
One respondent said: “I do it yearly...but feel guilty
about it. The "Macs never crash" option is also a good
one...and fairly true. The operating system (OS) may not
crash...but hardware does fail...as I found out when my
iBook's hard drive froze up and died a few months ago.
Backup is definately a must...even with a stable OS...
because you may get the one in a thousand hard drive
that dies.”
And one very experienced user reported: “I'm a writer. I
hate losing text! So, I have several methods all running
concurrently.
(1) I run Retrospect to DVD on an old Mac which backups five Macs and one Windows laptop. It runs daily.
(2) I use Deja Vu to backup my home account on my
laptop to my iPod on demand. Usually I do this daily to
weekly depending on my current project.
(3) I make snapshot CD images of my working directory
when preparing for a trip. I give these to my parents who
live 500 miles away.
(4) I have written a Perl script that runs hourly under
cron. It visits my working directories and makes a 5060 MB copy of those files which are Most Recently
Touched. This MRT archive is then mirrored, using
psync (installed by Deja Vu) onto my .Mac partition.
The OS then mirrors this archive to the Apple Servers,
and then back to the home machine running Retrospect.
So even on the road, my home Retrospect backups are
picking up any changes I make.
So at any given time, my current project will be mirrored over several computers, off-site on Apple's servers, manually burned to CDROM, backed up to DVD by
Retrospect, and copied to my iPod.
The interesting thing is that I don't feel that this is at all
excessive.”
Firewire HDD every Sunday.
I used to use Disk Copy to create an image file of
this folder (with "compressed" & "AES-128 encryption" set) and use that file as my backup, but it took
a long time to produce and recently crashes with
error 999 (maybe cause the folder is 12GB in size),
so now I just copy it over.
As with most people here, the data in my computer
(Powerbook G4 12") is worth more than the computer itself, so I at least duplicate the data. Which
reminds me.. I have to back up my Email, iTunes,
and iPhoto also! I guess I'll copy over my home
folder.. I'll do that monthly tho; I'm too lazy. :O)”
He backs up at different times: “Like many other
people, I back up different files at different frequencies. This ranges from daily (working files) to never
(system files). Working with a laptop in a semi-public location, I'm mostly paranoid about theft. I'd be
much more depressed about the lost work than the
lost hardware.
One other reason why things get backed up at different frequencies is that I'm never completely satisfied
with my routine. I keep wishing that .mac Backup
would act as a reliable option for simple, brainless
offsite backups. But the darned thing won't ever,
ever completely work as advertised. Get what you
pay for, I guess. Unless you're a Retrospect Express
user, in which case you are just hosed and have to
start over from scratch. Grrrrr.”
Couple of smart people: “Every time I do anything
important I back up the body of work. If you dont
you will end up in a very bad situation. Address
book etc I back up every month depending on how
many new people I aquire. Ive seen the night mares
this can cause in production so I choose not to have
these problems.”
“Vital projects I'm working on get backed up
constantly. Basically, any time I make significant
changes to something, I back it up. While using
Word I constantly hit the save icon; I've had it crash
before, and even rewriting <b>one</b> really good
paragraph sucks. Some things you just can rewrite,
especially if you were in a certain mood when writing it.
Other stuff probably gets backed up quarterly.”
Here’s from a person who backs up data weekly: “Great
poll! I back up weekly.. I store all of my data in one
folder, then just copy that one folder to a 160GB external
Importance of ‘off-site backup’: “I have two hard
drives in my Windows desktop. Each night, data is
synced from one hard drive to the other (including a
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bootable version of the OS). The theory was that if
one drive died, I could boot and retrieve data from
the second. This has served me well for many
years. That is until I accidentally wiped (using
DoD standards) BOTH drives on my desktop.
Please, don't ask ;)
vacation just so you can archive or organize your
digital pictures. A laptop not only adds weight and
heft, but is also vulnerable to theft and damage.
Luckily, you have other options. Our recommendations will help ensure that all your photos come
home safely with you.
Fortunately, I had a backup on my PowerBook of
most of the important files. Much of the "archival"
data was already saved to DVD / CD. What really
saved me was my "daily email" where I compress/encrypt my super-important files each night
and email them to myself. That email, combined
with my other backups meant I did not lose very
much.
Stock up on memory cards
Today, I still back up to my second hard drive
and email my self each day. However, I have a
brand new 250 GB FW800 drive attached to my
PowerBook that backs up my XP/Linux/Mac
machines at work and my XP/Linux/Mac at home.
I used psync to backup my PowerBook and rsync
via SSH to backup my XP and Linux machines
(both at work and at home).
The psync and rsync commands are all scripted so
I type one command 2-3 times a week and just sit
back and watch. Access to remote hosts is possible
via SSH public/private key authentication.
Once the backup is down, I dismount, disconnect
and unplug the FW drive from my PowerBook to
prevent any future "accidents" ;)
The question I ask people with regards to backups
and off-site backups is imagine your home/office
burns down to the ground. How much data will
you lose? While I never said, "That will never
happen to me", I did say, "I really should do something else with my back-ups one of these days".
Now I do ;)
All this is to say, regardless of what you backup
scheme/frequency is, make sure you also back-up
"off-site" in case of stupid accidents, random acts
of nature or any other catastrophic event.”
Prices of memory cards have dropped so much
recently that it’s feasible to buy as many cards as
you need. Since last year, for instance, the price of
a 1GB CompactFlash (CF) or Secure Digital (SD)
card has fallen from well over $50 to between $10
and $30 with rebates. Dealram frequently points to
sales and specials.
So how many cards do you need? If you anticipate
shooting 500 photographs with a 6-megapixel camera, you’ll need more than 1GB of storage (each
picture is roughly 2MB). For flexibility, that would
mean bringing at least two 1GB cards.
You’ll want even more storage space if you plan
to shoot video with your digital camera too. Every
minute of footage can fill 100MB or more of storage. To save space, you may want to edit video
on the camera to remove the less interesting parts.
This kind of feature is available on newer Canon,
Olympus, and other cameras. It’s no iMovie, but it
typically allows you to trim a series of frames from
the beginning or end of a clip.
Create backups
There’s a downside to relying solely on media cards
for storage: if a problem develops with your card,
you could lose all your photos. Flash-memory cards
are susceptible to accidental erasure and even corruption. They’re also small (especially SD cards),
and therefore easy to misplace. That’s why it’s
a good idea to back up images. Here are some
options:
by Jeff Carlson, Glenn Fleishman
Transfer to an iPod Using the $29 Apple iPod
Camera Connector, you can transfer images from
a digital camera to a photo-capable iPod (except
the iPod nano, alas) via your camera’s USB cable
(see “Image Go-Between”). You can even preview
images and view slide shows on either the iPod or
a TV (using yet another optional adapter, the $99
iPod AV Connection Kit). Before you choose this
route, make sure your camera is on Apple’s list of
supported devices.
There’s no point in lugging along a laptop on your
Buy a Photo Storage Drive Another option is a dedi-
Back up photos
on the road
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
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cated photo storage device, such as SmartDisk’s 40GB
FlashTrax XT ($400), Epson’s 80GB P-4000 ($700), or
Digital Foci’s Media Buddy (40GB, $189; 60GB, $219;
80GB, $249). All three devices include memory-card
slots for transferring photos and can run on batteries.
The FlashTrax and P-4000 also have LCDs for previewing photos.
Use an Online Service
Between the large number of Internet cafés and the
increasing number of hotels that offer connected computers for guest use, transferring pictures to a photo- and
video-hosting service has become a realistic option.
These services offer several advantages. First, because
you’re storing photos on a server in another location,
you can’t lose them. Also, friends and family can view
your pictures while you’re still enjoying your adventure.
Use Your Cell Phone
Depending on your location and hardware, you
may be able to upload images to a cell phone. For
instance, by inserting your camera’s SD card into
the Palm Treo’s card slot, you can e-mail photos to
yourself or to a special Flickr address that adds them
to your online album. Just beware of international
roaming rates for data. They can be crazy—sometimes $20 per megabyte and up—so call your carrier
and get the details. Cingular, for instance, offers an
affordable global plan that includes 100MB of data
transfer.
Burn and Mail
If transferring photos over the Internet isn’t practical, consider using optical media to archive images.
Even if you’re not sure you’ll use them, it can’t hurt
to pack some blank CDs or DVDs.
Choosing a service comes down to whether you want
to store and share images at their highest quality. Most
services impose data-transfer or -storage limits; some
even downsample images after you upload them. We
like Yahoo’s Flickr best. For $25 a year, you can upload
full-resolution images, up to 10MB each in size, and
Flickr won’t downsample them. You can also upload
2GB per month, with no storage limits.
Of course, this option requires a computer with a
built-in disc burner. Many Internet cafés have systems with CD and DVD burners, and practically anyone you visit who has a computer should have at least
a CD burner. Another option is to visit a photo store
or self-serve photo kiosk. Besides printing out your
pictures, many of them can burn images to disc.
If you’re looking for straight-up file storage and you
don’t care whether others can see your photos, try a network storage service such as Box.net (1GB, free; 5GB,
$5 a month) or Xdrive.com (5GB, $10 a month).
If you plan on erasing your memory card, burn two
copies. Keep one with you and send the other home
or to a photo service such as Shutterfly, which will
transfer your images to its servers at no charge.
If disaster strikes
If you plan on using an online service, we recommend
packing a USB 2.0 memory-card reader. Or, if your
camera uses SD cards, consider SanDisk’s Ultra II SD
Plus cards. These clever devices fold in half so you can
plug them straight into a USB slot, no adapter required.
Prices range from $55 for 512MB to $135 for 2GB.
A few tips on using Internet cafés: most places charge
by time usage—and some, such as those in small towns,
might not have a broadband connection. So think about
limiting the amount of data you transfer. One option is
to set your camera so it’s not shooting at the highest
resolution. Or cull any unwanted photos before uploading your images.
Also, when using public computers, take precautions
against possible keystroke-logging software or other
spyware. Before you leave for your trip, change the
passwords for those accounts to something you don’t
use on any other accounts. Also, when logging out of
an online photo service, empty the browser’s cache and
then quit the browser program.
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
If Disaster Strikes
So what happens if the data on your card becomes
corrupted or you inadvertently press Erase All on
your camera? Don’t panic. Memory-card recovery
software such as DataRescue’s $29 PhotoRescue
can reconstruct lost bits by reading the card’s data
directly rather than relying on its file catalog, which
is the part that’s probably corrupted. (See “Master
Your Memory Card” for more on the different types
of erase functions.) If you plan to use PhotoRescue
when you get home, don’t shoot any more pictures
on the troubled card until you’ve run the software (
click here for details on using PhotoRescue).
Master your memory card
Master Your Memory Card
At some point, you’ll have to erase pictures from
your memory card—but what’s the best way? Here
are the different delete commands and advice on
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when to use each.
[from an online friend]
Erase All
This command deletes all images from the file index,
much like moving a document into the Trash and emptying it.
Format
This erases the directory and storage structure markers,
effectively eliminating recovery. It’s a good idea to use
Format instead of Erase All periodically to guard against
directory corruption.
Low-Level Format
Necessary for recalcitrant memory cards, this command
writes zeros onto every bit of the card and creates a map
of unusable bits. There’s no way to recover images after
performing a low-level format—not without involving
the NSA.
[ Jeff Carlson is the managing editor of TidBits and
the author of iMovie HD 6 and iDVD 6 for Mac OS X:
Visual QuickStart Guide (Peachpit Press, 2006). Glenn
Fleishman writes for the Economist , the New York
Times , and Popular Science.]
Image Go-Between: Apple’s iPod Camera Connector
lets you move pictures from your digital camera to your
iPod.
“One thing to consider is redundancy while traveling. Sometimes "stuff" happens.
My wife and I were in Spain, and I had transferred
my photos to the iPod the night before we went to
Valencia. In the process, to free up space, I wiped
the CF card after the transfer. In Valencia, I left my
iPod in the car's glove box while we spent a number
of hours in the "City of Arts and Science" complex.
When we returned, we found that a thief had broken into the car with a screwdriver in the lock, and
had stolen my iPod from the glove box. Since I had
wiped the card in the camera and been shooting on it
that day, our old pictures were basically gone. Had I
used the iPod as a "backup device", I wouldn't have
had this problem.
My point here is, treat your pictures like your
identification and credit cards: have redundant
copies in different locations. Losing pictures is the
worst!”
“Using the 5G ipod, the drain on the battery isn't any
worse than watching a movie, and in fact is a weebit better, since the screen isn't on. (One should note
that the battery indicator will almost immediately
jump to 50%, regardless that it's good for several
more hours...) OTOH, it's a slow process: 4 gigs of
photos takes almost an hour to transfer.
Two in One: SanDisk’s Ultra II SD Plus cards fold back
to reveal a USB connector.
Advice Regarding
Backing up photos
on the road
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
I'm not positive about this, but I believe the 5g
iPod will take photos from just about -any- camera,
whether or not the camera is on Apples 'approved'
list; the issue is whether or not you can view them
on the iPod screen. I use my iPod to back up the
25 meg (each) raw files from my Fuji S3 Pro....
although, frankly, it's a last resort: I simply carry
spare memory cards with me...”
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Backup Your
Address Book
There are few things more annoying than losing your
entire Address Book that you have carefully created
over the past year or two. One way to backup your entire
Address Book is to select everyone in the Name column
(or just select the important names), then drag that block
of names to the Desktop. This creates a vCard file that
you can then store on another disk for safekeeping. You
can also send this vCard to someone else on a Mac; she
double-clicks on it and the addresses get automatically
entered in her Address Book.
Thoughts On Time
Capsule
By Ryan, ryan@smalldog.com
Apple does it again for backups! When Leopard and
Time Machine were released, I was dazzled by the
thought that finally the average consumer would be more
enticed to backup his/her data and avoid the inevitable
tears that ensue by losing it! Upon installing Leopard it
was originally my assumption that Time Machine would
work wirelessly with a hard drive attached to an Airport
Extreme to backup my data. Unfortunately, this was not
the case due to technical reasons.
The new Time Capsule wireless base station/backup
hard drive is fantastic in my opinion. Offering the functionality of the airport extreme combined with a 500GB
hard drive for $299 it is the most convenient way to
back up.
What is Time Machine?
Time Machine is the breakthrough automatic backup
that’s built right into Mac OS X. It keeps an up-to-date
copy of everything on your Mac — digital photos,
music, movies, TV shows, and documents. Now, if you
ever have the need, you can easily go back in time to
recover anything.
Apple Says Set it, then forget it.
To start using Time Machine, all you have to do is connect an external drive (sold separately) to your Mac.
You’re asked if you want it to be your backup drive, and
if you say yes, Time Machine takes care of everything
else. Automatically. In the background. You’ll never
have to worry about backing up again.
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
Back up everything.
Time Machine backs up your system files, applications, accounts, preferences, music, photos, movies,
and documents. But what makes Time Machine different from other backup applications is that it not
only keeps a spare copy of every file, it remembers
how your system looked on a given day — so you
can revisit your Mac as it appeared in the past.
Go back in time.
Enter the Time
Machine browser in
search of your longlost files and you see
exactly how your
computer looked
on the dates you’re
browsing. Select
a specific date, let
Time Machine find
your most recent changes, or do a Spotlight search
to find exactly what you’re looking for. Use Quick
Look to verify the file’s contents if you wish. Then
click Restore and Time Machine brings it back to
the present. Time Machine restores individual files,
complete folders, iPhoto libraries, and Address Book
contacts. You can even use Time Machine to restore
your entire computer if need be.
How Time Machine works.
Beneath the hood, Time Machine is every bit as
remarkable as it is on the outside. It’s based on
stable and secure Mac OS X core technologies (like
the HFS+ file system), automatically tracks file
changes, and is aware of file system permissions
and user access privileges. Bottom line: It’s working
with more information than other backup utilities
and doesn’t need to bother you for input.
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Pick a disk. Any disk.
You can designate just about any HFS+ formatted
FireWire or USB drive connected to a Mac as a Time
Machine backup drive. Time Machine can also back
up to another Mac running Leopard with Personal File
Sharing, Leopard Server, or Xsan storage devices.
Time Machine hard drive
icon
Back up the whole family.
The moment you choose a
Time Machine drive, a single
folder is created on the drive.
Inside this folder is a subfolder for each Mac being backed
up. (Yes, multiple Mac systems can share the same
backup drive.) And within
each subfolder is another list
of folders — one for every backup performed on that
Mac. Time Machine uses a standard file system to store
all of its information. Nothing hidden anywhere.
Anatomy of a backup.
For the initial backup, Time Machine copies the entire
contents of the computer to your backup drive. It copies
every file exactly (without compression), skipping caches and other files that aren’t required to restore your Mac
to its original state. Following the initial backup, Time
Machine makes only incremental backups — copying just the files that have changed since the previous
backup. Time Machine creates links to any unchanged
files, so when you travel back in time you see the entire
contents of your Mac on a given day.
Timing is everything.
Every hour, every day,
an incremental backup of
your Mac is made automatically as long as your
backup drive is attached to
your Mac. Time Machine
saves the Time Machine
iconhourly backups for the
past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month,
and weekly backups for
everything older than a
month. Only files created and then deleted before the
next hourly backup will not be included in the long term.
Put another way: You’re well covered.
Working on your schedule.
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
Say Time Machine is in the middle of a backup and
you want to shut down your Mac or put it to sleep.
Who wins? Like you have to ask. Time Machine
simply stops the backup process and remembers
where it is. It automatically resumes when your Mac
is active again.
Back up only what you need.
By default, Time Machine backs up everything on
your Mac. If you want to exclude certain files, just
go to Time Machine preferences, click Options, then
select the folders you wish to skip. Time Machine
backup window Want
to delete
all instances of a file
or folder
previously backed
up? Easy
enough.
Launch
T i m e
Machine,
select the
item to be
deleted, then choose "Delete from all backups" from
the action menu in the Finder toolbar.
Backing up to a full disk.
One day, no matter how large your backup drive is, it
will run out of space. And Time Machine has an action
plan. It alerts you that it will start deleting previous
backups, oldest first. Before it deletes any backup,
Time Machine copies files that might be needed to
fully restore
your disk for
every remaining backup.
(Moral of the
story:
The
larger
the
drive, the farther back in
time you can
back up.)
Migration
with style.
To make setting up a new Mac even simpler, Time
Machine shares its data with other Mac utilities. Use
Migration Assistant to copy portions of any Time
Time Machine finder iconMachine backup to a new
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Mac, or select “Restore System from Time Machine”
in the Leopard DVD Utilities menu. Choose any date
recorded in Time Machine to set up your new Mac
exactly as your previous Mac was on that date.
Ready when you are.
When your mobile Mac is connected to your backup
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
drive, Time Machine works as you’d expect. When
it isn’t connected, Time Machine also works as
you’d expect. It keeps track of which files have
changed since the last backup and backs them up
to your backup drive the next time you connect. On
any Mac, if Time Machine is unable to perform a
backup, that’s duly noted in its preferences pane.
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New Leopard
Ebooks Help
with Backups,
Maintenance, and
More
Leopard has been out for three months now, giving
us time to explore its quirks and figure out where
Leopard users need help. Whether you want help with
Time Machine, need to put your Mac on a regular
maintenance schedule to avoid problems, or could use
some guidance on how to use Leopard's marquee features, we have new ebooks for you.
"Take Control of Easy Backups
in Leopard"
---------------------------------------Written by Joe Kissell, author
of the massively popular "Take
Control of Mac OS X Backups,"
this concise ebook explains how
to create a complete Leopard
backup system with archives, a
bootable duplicate, and offsite
backups - but without significant effort. If you'd like to
know how buy and prepare a backup drive, if you want
to make (and recover data from) reliable backups in
Leopard, then this ebook is for you. "Take Control of
Easy Backups in Leopard" covers the ins and outs of
Time Machine, and it also looks at seven cases where
Time Machine doesn't cut the mustard. (We're giving
this ebook away for free to owners of the second edition of "Take Control of Mac OS X Backups;" click
that book's Check for Updates link to download your
free copy.) $10, 83 pages.
"Take
Control
of
Maintaining Your Mac"
------------------------------------The best way to avoid
problems with your Mac
is through regular maintenance, and we're not talking a cursory clearing of the
Desktop and swipe at the
dust on your screen. In the
latest version of "Take Control of Maintaining Your
Mac," best-selling author Joe Kissell has returned to
the topic of how to keep your Mac - whether it's running Tiger or Leopard - running at peak performance.
All of his recommendations have now been updated
to account for changes in Leopard and for the latest
helpful utility software. Joe provides daily, weekly,
monthly, and yearly schedules for how to best do
preventative maintenance under Leopard or Tiger,
helping you keep your Mac running smoothly and
efficiently. The ebook also helps you monitor your
Mac's health, find and remove unnecessary large
files from your disk, keep your software updated,
clear your caches, and much more. The update is free
for the thousands of people who benefited from the
original version; click the Check for Updates button
to download it. $10, 87 pages.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/maintainingmac.html?14@@!pt=TRK-0032-TCANNOUNCE>
Want both of these ebooks? You can get them,
together with "Take Control of Mac OS X Backups"
and "Take Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac,"
for 25% off - check the left side of either book's Web
page for a bundle link.
"Macworld Total Leopard
Superguide"
----------------------------------This visually appealing new
ebook from our friends at
Macworld provides an overview of a huge collection
of new features in Leopard,
teaching you how to be more
< h t t p : / / w w w. t a k e c o n t r o l b o o k s . c o m / l e o p ard-easy-backup.html?14@@!pt=TRK-0057TCANNOUNCE>
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
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productive and have more fun along the way. You'll
find a compendium of savvy information about getting the most out of what's new in Leopard, whether
you want to navigate the the Finder faster, search
Spotlight more effectively, automate your applications with Automator, share screens with others, or
use core applications like Safari, iChat, Mail, and
iCal. Contributors include several Take Control
authors: Glenn Fleishman, Ted Landau, Joe Kissell,
and Kirk McElhearn, along with a who's-who of
other well-known writers. $12.95, 92 pages.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/mw-total-leopard.html?14@@!pt=TRK-0059-TCANNOUNCE>
When you visit the "Macworld Total Leopard
Superguide" Web page, be sure to check out the discounted bundles with "Take Control of Customizing
Leopard" and "Take Control: The Mac OS X
Lexicon."
Leopard has been out for three months now, giving
us time to explore its quirks and figure out where
Leopard users need help. Whether you want help
with Time Machine, need to put your Mac on a
regular maintenance schedule to avoid problems, or
could use some guidance on how to use Leopard's
marquee features, we have new ebooks for you.
Get the Last
Word on Mac OS X
Terminology
Adam Engst
TidBits
We Mac users sling technical
jargon around every day, but if
you've ever felt uncertain about
what a term actually means,
help is here in "Take Control:
The Mac OS X Lexicon." The ebook is a mad romp
through over 500 Macintosh- and Internet-related
terms. You'll learn how to figure out if your optical
drive can write to a double-layer DVD, why 404 and
501 are interesting numbers, how to work with the
three main types of dashes that you can type on a
Mac, and much more. We're not talking about some
dry old dictionary here - these definitions are loaded
with useful tips, practical advice, humor, and empathy. If you enjoy the serendipity of discovering useSonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
ful tips in unexpected places, you'll love this ebook.
< h t t p : / / w w w. t a k e c o n t r o l b o o k s . c o m /
mac-lexicon.html?14!pt=TRK-0053TCMUG&cp=CPN31208MUG>
Written by veteran Macintosh authors Andy Baird
and Sharon Zardetto, the 191-page ebook extends
the familiar Take Control design with handy alphabetic navigation tabs on every page, oodles of custom graphics, and over 2,000 internal links. Want to
learn more about a particular entry? Margin icons
link to hand-picked external Web sites, TidBITS
articles, and other Take Control titles. Save 10% off
the $15 list price right now with the MUG discount
embedded in the link above.
Book Details:
"Take Control: The Mac OS X Lexicon" by Andy
Baird and Sharon Zardetto PDF format, 191 pages,
free 39-page sample available Publication date: July
19, 2007 Ebook Price: $15
For a download of the FREE
LeopardSampler or Time
Machine Sampler, go to:
http://33thingsbooks.com/
personal
macworld expo
2008 experiences
[from an online friend]
Well, we took Mary's advice and drove down to
Judah area Wednesday,. parked and rode the metro to
Montgomery station (3 blocks away from Moscone).
Apart from traffic in Marin (which would have
affected.buses too) and a bit of time looking for
parking in the residential.area it was a great way to
go. Left Penngrove a little after 8:00 AM.and were
in the exhibits at 11:00. Had the ultimate in time.
flexibility as well as choice of restaurants near where
we parked for.dinner. $25 Cost for gas, toll and
metro saved $7 over two folks on a.GG bus and $14
over parking near Moscone as well as the craziness
of.driving in that area.
Next year i will spend some of that savings on the
$2 to have my.badge sent. Even on the second day a
half hour after the show opened.it was a crazy zoo.
First going to South hall entrance and being told.
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West hall was not connected, walking over to West
hall, waiting in.line that was totally blocking access
to other registration areas as.well as entrance to the
west hall. What a mess. So much for "express.badge
pick-up". Only to find there was a place in the south
hall to.get badges after all.oh boy!
But the floor in both halls was packed. I didn't go last
year (out of.town) and yes the last two years before
that seemed like iPod expo..This year I saw more
diversity than ever. Logitech, Grffin and Belkin.all
moving into home electronics in addition to computer/ipod/ip[hone.accessories. Tons of iPod speakers and a few actually sounded good..Epson, Canon
and HP all neatly lined up next to each other (Save
10%.at Epson store online through 1/20 with code
82JASTG) Everybody has.small photo only.printers
now like Kodak (were they even there?.Nope). As
always, greatly enjoyed the developers small booth
and.didn't spend as much time as I should have there
talking one on one.with the creators of amazing software.
Deals galore - show only, at the booth, at a reseller
on the floor. (Unitech and Dr. Bott jammed, Best
Buy employees entertaining each.other), order online
from the booth, order online from home, oops
no.website ordering yet cuz we are new but you can
fax the order with
my.hand written
discount - hmmm)
booth only but my
credit card thingy.
isn't working so can
EASY DRAW-->
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
I trust you to go online when you get home and.confirm your purchase and I will give you the cd and
codes now -.really! - And yes I did! Better make sure
I don't get.charged twice)
Some items of note in no particular order:
Bento by Filemaker - the simplified DB that should
be included in.iWork but is $49 At the end of each 30
min demo they gave away a.copy.- Bento alternating
with FM Pro 9. FM is $499. Bento is $49..Shouldn't
they be giving away 10 copies of Bento each demo?
I tried.twice to win to no avail.MacJournal 5 by
Mariner software. I bought this despite a botched
one.on one demo. Now will I use it?
The MacWorld Napping Lounge - Front of West
Hall - little pods you.could nest in listening to exclusive composed music that is reputed.to increase
creativity, productivity, success and dynamism. They
will.bring these things to your office (for a hefty fee
I'm sure). The.company is pzizz. I could have stayed
a while then I thought about.invasion of the Body
Snatchers and hopped out!
Easy Draw - Mac draw or Claris draw on steroids
(this is a good.thing?). Basically $95. More if you
wanted a CD and more more of you.wanted a printed
manual (350 page). Interesting 9 month demo for
$20.after which you had another 2 months to apply
the $20 to purchase..Creative options - maybe they
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were in a pzizz pod before expo!
Applications
Capabilities
EazyDraw is a new design tool for use on the Mac
OS X platform. Its uses range from simple technical drawings, flow charts, business communications,
commercial line art illustrations to graphic elements
for application software and web design elements. Educators are also finding EazyDraw to be perfect
for introducing new user to computer drawing.
EazyDraw is a vector based drawing application for desk top publishing (DTP) with Apple's
Macintosh OS X (Mac OS-X) operating system. It
is an illustration or drawing software application that
offers vector-based graphics editing and creation
capabilities for creating simple not-photographic
drawings, technical diagrams and illustrations such
as logos, icons, buttons and stylized art.
And...EazyDraw was designed for you
There are several specialized drawing applications
available for the graphic arts, or architectural professional. We all know how much these cost and
how hard they are to master. EazyDraw is drawing
for the rest of us who want to have fun exploring
the creative potential of this great new Macintosh
technology.
Now With User Libraries
EazyDraw is very configurable, customize drawing
elements like arrows, gradients and dash patterns. Improve productivity with user configurable shortcut keys. Create your own drawing tools and custom
tool palettes with User Libraries and their powerful
"Tool" mode.
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
Optimized for Intel: (4 - 5 times faster)
With version 2.0, EazyDraw is provided as a
Universal Binary. As you may know, some Macs are
now powered by the new Intel Core Duo processor,
while for the past several years Macs have been built
with a PowerPC processor. EazyDraw has been
made to run on both Intel- and PowerPC- based Mac
Computers. Simply install as usual and EazyDraw
will automatically run at peak performance for you
Mac's architecture.
If you are lucky enough to have one of the new Intel
Macs, it is even more fun to draw with EazyDraw on
your Mac. The Intel processor is generally 4-5 times
faster than a PowerPC processor. Now, for many
applications you might not notice a big difference;
it may be that the application is not that CPU intensive, or the application's core technology may be a
carry over from OS 9 and therefore does not utilize
the new CPU's capability. But for EazyDraw users
working with vector based graphics CPU speed is
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very important. EazyDraw is a new project, designed
from the ground up exclusively for OS-X (a "Cocoa"
app), with no design constraints from other operating
systems (OS9, or Windows).
At the Cross Roads of Graphic File Formats
EazyDraw is true native OS X application. Graphic
exchange with other modern OS X application is quite
seamless with full vector quality support for PDF. Our
title bar export short-cut icon provides customizable
drag and drop export to other applications. But in todays
world one must exchange creative content with numerous other technologies: other operating systems, older
technology applications, archive graphic files, the world
wide web, and electronic publishing work flows -- just
to name a few. EazyDraw is the perfect solution for
these interesting times.
EazyDraw provides a rich suite of supported graphic file
formats for both import and export. This will allow you
to use or provide high quality graphic images to or from
other applications, other operating systems or the web. And, of course, full seamless support for PDF is "built
in" since EazyDraw is a true native Mac OS X application. In most cases you should not need to involve
a separate graphic converter application in your work
flow. Our "ungroup" capability will let you edit PDF,
EPS and PICT content.
File and desktop graphics exchange with older OS 9
technology applications that have been ported to OS
X can be a problem for native OS X applications. Programs like Microsoft Word, Power Point and Excel
do not provide vector quality support for the PDF graphic information format, they also have limited support for
transparency. EazyDraw provides file and desktop paste
board support for the "Classic PICT" file format and a
"Opaque Copy" option for use with these applications. These legacy file format options provide a method to
include the older technology applications in your modern OS X workflow.
For Web publishing EazyDraw provides export to several widely used graphic bitmap formats. These include
the Windows formats of BMP, ICO and even favicon. Full support for transparency is provided with all graphic file formats that support transparency.
Electronic publishing is supported with vector PDF
and EPS import and export. Color space management
and conversion is provided with our professionally
grade Export panel for these industry standard formats. Nearly all publishing or printing companies will accept
the EPS vector format for graphics and typeset text. Professionals and perfectionist avoid font problems by
converting type set text to Bezier paths before exportSonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
ing to EPS, EazyDraw lets you do the same with a
simple menu click.
Easy to Use - Easy to Own
We'll have you downloaded, licensed, and drawing
in no time with our 9 month license ($20) or single
user license available at our secure online store .
Our $20 trial license is a very popular option. You
get a full use license, no limits or constraints, with
free updates for 9 months. You may apply the $20
license fee toward the purchase of EazyDraw (download or CD) anytime within the first 2 months.
The download version of EazyDraw is only $95. You simply place an order at our on-line store (Visa,
Master Card, American Express or Discover) and we
send you a license code. You enter the code and the
demo restrictions are removed. This will all happen
automatically, 24-7 anywhere on the planet, it only
takes a few minutes and a credit card. If you burn
the download disk image to a blank CD, you will
have an installation disk that you may use to install
EazyDraw on any CPU.
Or you can order a nice printed and boxed CD from
us. This is $119.04 and includes free shipping anywhere on the planet, priority post is used in the US
and air mail post is the shipping method for other
addresses. If you choose the CD, we'll still have
you up and running instantly. A temporary license
is provided 24-7 from our online fulfillment server,
and you receive the CD in just a few days.
Free Demo
Don't let the 9 month trial license confuse you, we
still provide the industry standard Free Demo . Our
demo policy limits the number of individual graphics that you may create to about 20. But you can
print and save all of your work, no hassle there.
Great to use as a "Free Reader" . In the unlicensed
mode your colleagues may view, edit, and print any
EazyDraw drawing no matter how large. This policy
lets you send original high quality EazyDraw artwork to other Mac users, they just need to download
the 16 Meg install image to view or collaborate with
your EazyDraw drawing.
Or if you just have a small drawing project, go ahead
and knock it out with no purchase. Something like a
simple business card, or abbreviated restaurant menu
can easily be completed in the demo mode.
20
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Datapilot - Mac software to manage your cell phone
contacts on your computer plus picture, music and movie
downloading, ringtones,.wallpapers, photo uploading,
transfer between new and old cell phone.via your mac.
With cables or via bluetooth - $29.95 - 79.95
futuro - very cool looking USB phones to use with
skype - $50 - 95
iTornado - coming soon - instant file transfer micro
computer. USB to.USB - no software or flash drive.
Content of both computers show up.on both screens.
Move data back and forth. Retractible cables PC
to.mac, drag and drop. Not yet out - $79.95 msrp.
datedrivethru.com or.thetornado.com
solio - not new but still cool and getting cheaper
- solar power.storage units to charge cell phones,
ipods,.etc. solio.comblurb.com - download their free
bookmaking software and add photos.and or text
with iphoto or lightroom integration. Pick your book
-.soft or hard cover - 4 sizes and and they will print
you bookstore.professional quality books starting at
$12.95. As my friend said -.what a great way to present your book to a potential publisher.
Safari books online by peachpit - looks like searchable
digital.library of many of their titles - too bad it is not
also like.Audible.com but for technical books. Could i
learn while I sleep? Cost?
reQall.com - just remember to go there. Call 1-888-9737255 if you.need to remember something and can't write
it down and they will text.it or email it to you - free! (for
now) just remember!
matias folding keyboard for travel - if you want
a fullsize keyboard.for your laptop on the road (I
use metias tactile pro keyboard - like.the old Apple
Extended II)
lapdome to use your LCD laptop in the sunlight
(think miniature popup.tent for your macBook). Can
I get a Celldome so i can use my phone in.the sun?
my.vu - watch ipod (or portable DVD players) video
(and listen) on a.pair of glasses..$299 - $499 depending
on resolution (read image.size) but oh so cool - maybe
more cool than the MB Air
MemoryMiner - digital storytelling that starts with your
photos -.very neat - Best of Show last year so I guess it
isn't new. Like.Digital Scrapbooks or storyboard.
etchamac - custom laser engraving for you ipod,
iphone or laptop
photostamps.com - design your own postage stamps
with photo or.images, order online and they send you
your stamps (by mail of course). PhotoStamps for
Mac is a FREE download that makes it incredibly
easy to turn digital images into PhotoStamps, right
from your Mac!
PhotoStamps for Mac has extra options and flexibility made just for Mac users.
* Integrates seamlessly with iPhoto
* Turn photos into PhotoStamps in seconds flat
* Choose from unlimited border color options
Go to: www.photostamps.com to download your
free software!
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
21
http://www.vom.com/svcg/index.html
merax.com - one shot photo studio - studio quality lighting kit with.two lamps, reversible background, camera
stand and 22" lightbox that.collapses into a carrying
case. Also software for maac and windows fo.editing
adding watermark etc. Perfect to go with Garage Sale
- mac.software to sell on eBay. $99 (reg $149)
And last and least (silliest product seen at expo) drum
roll please
Boombags.com - Travel speakers are now obsolete.actual speakers.for your ipod built into luggage - The
Ultimate Ipod travel companion.seriously - doubles as a
public address system - make real money.panhandling or
audtioning for American Idol the street version.
So after 6 hours we were pooped, losing the battle of
restraint with.the credit card but, as usual, left with a
bag full of swag and demo.disks that will probably be
unopened and unread 6 months from now and.still that
sinking feeling that I was missing out on some great
deal.and if I could only come another day
Ah, another rewarding MacWorld Expo. EB
From another Mac enthusiast:
Not that I have anything to journal but this one <http://
preview.tinyurl.com/gvq7c> always seemed interesting
too. Never could.decide between 'em; decided my life
wasn't that interesting anyway.and talking to imaginary
friends is weird. ; )
I bought Storyist, <http://www.storyist.com/> word processor/ scriptwriter/page layout/storyboarder for novels,
screenplays,.research articles etc. Best feature is it combines word processing.with a virtual cork board of also
virtual 3 x 5 cards for all your.importable bits of info-and you can move em around to arrange in the.order of
appearance in your document. Great for working in the
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
quotes.and factoids. Screenwriting softwares include
similar; this one was.just a restive interface and the
guy used to work for Apple years.ago, obviously
brilliant. $45 at show. S 205..Stupidly I didn't.check
that it allowed custom 'paper' colors as white backgrounds in.Apple apps on Cinema displays are my
pet peeve, (undoubtedly designed.by the same guy
who put blue type on black in terminal).
Somewhat along that line, I checked up on (mislisted) FrameForge 3D. Studio (really at the Dr.
Bott booth), a storyboarding previsualization app
that is greatly improved since the last time I.saw it.
Lets you mock up various scenes in 3D, using lots of
drag and.drop components and simple constructions,
choose your lens(es) and.camera aspect ratio, set
camera height and angle (multiple views run.across
the top of the main window) then save the frame
as a.storyboard
frame
whose
printout includes
all the camera
data for.shooting. Last version
let you export the
frames to Painter
or other.for artistic fluffing, then
back into program
for printout. Has.
camera moves but
can't remember if
it lets you do a
Quicktime across.
each frame then
join those into
a longer Quicktime to 'play' the.storyboard, kind
of like an animation. Excellent tool for thinking.
through a film project; my sister was a pro in that
business for.years and the flyer actually got her to sit
22
http://www.vom.com/svcg/index.html
up on the couch.
<http://www.frameforge3d.com/ff3d-in-10.php>
photostamps.com - design your own postage stamps with photo
orimages, order online and they send you your stamps (by mail
of.course).
Endicia is always a good one to remember if you mail a lot.
Perfect to go with Garage Sale - mac software to sell on eBay.
Vectorworks Architect (or Designer version including also
separately.available Landcape and Mechanical Design). Import
your SketchUp. conceptual models and generate code construction drawings for the.building dept. For all the architecture/contractor types on the list. — TX
paging through docs. Another whizbang is
a graphical representation in varying type
sizes and colors of your spending 'tags' (no
longer has categories). To me this was silly-randomly placed words like 'prescriptions'
in various point sizes--the bigger the spending the bigger the font--as if anyone but
a graphic designer could figure out that
24-point means 57 % of spending and 22point means 46%. And *randomly placed*
type in the window too, not in a column
of biggest type to smallest with attendant
percentage or dollar figures next to the
words. Takes visual representation into
outer space, where there is no light.
But, the kicker when it comes out in the
fall--no investment tracking in the release
version. So hold onto your v 7 folks until
they add in that minor feature. — TX
Another Mac Enthusiast:
Oddly Stox isn't on their website as a product!
http://www.prosoftengineering.com/products/index.php
I saw it, but blanked out, it may be a
replacement for my PowerTicker, which
has not been updated lately.. Not as many
features, apparently, either.. It was once
known as myStock... It does appear under
JoeSoft...
http://www.joesoft.com/products/stox.php —GM
A TX followup:
A small program called Stox at the ProSoft booth. Tracks your
stocks obviously with configurable multiple tickers whose news
items are clickable links. Each stock has an rss feed too so when
news items come in the rss symbol is added next to their name.
Has charting features and reports (which don't yet have colored
type--I like to see those greens and reds!). Can't remember if
there is an overall bottom line in the main screen. That's what I
want to see without having to make a report. But it was cool.
This prompted a trip to the Quicken booth to see what they were
up to as their interface is about 10 years out of date. Blithely
commenting on Apple's "hard to ignore" market share (after they almost--did--can the program for Mac until Jobs talked them out
of it) the guy showed a beta of Quicken 8. Redesigned from the
bottom up, thank goodness for small mercies, it has cover flow
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
23
16 Superlative
Macworld
Expo SF 2008
Products
by TidBITS Staff <editors@tidbits.com>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9423>
It's once again time for our annual roundup
of all those things at Macworld Expo
that caught our attention for one reason
or another and deserve to be called out.
http://www.vom.com/svcg/index.html
Contributions this year come from Adam Engst, Glenn
Fleishman, Tonya Engst, and Rich Mogull.
**Most Welcome Fix for Glaring iCal Failing**
-- BusyMac shipped their BusySync software a few
months ago, but brought a new feature to Macworld
Expo that's sure to help. BusySync is a tiny server product that runs in the background and lets multiple people
share iCal calendars as if they were completely readable
and writable over a local network or via the Internet.
One computer acts as the calendar host, but other Macs
with BusySync can have as much access to that calendar
as the publisher chooses to offer. BusyMac's limitation is
that it can't work over the Internet without the publishing
computer for a given calendar having a publicly reachable IP address.
<http://busymac.com/>
The latest version of BusySync - due to ship in February
2008 - skirts that problem by supporting Google Calendar.
You might use Google Calendar already, but if not, you
can adopt it as a sort of publishing relay to enable synchronizing between a Mac with a private IP address
and computers elsewhere on the Internet. With Google
Calendar support, you publish a calendar to Google,
then other computers subscribe to that Google Calendar.
It's a hack, but it's a nifty one, as Google Calendar is
free. BusySync 1.5 currently costs $19.95 per computer,
but the price will rise to $24.95 for version 2.0. Buying
1.5 now gets you a free upgrade (and thus $5 discount)
for 2.0 when it ships in February. Discounts kick in for
licenses purchased for five or more computers. [GF]
flip a card to pick what aspect of the song should be
identified (artist name, album name, etc.), and press
Play on the iNo. The first person with an answer
presses her remote control button, which stops the
music and lets her guess, checking against the iPod
for the correct answer. Additional buttons help keep
score. The game lists for $99.99 but is available
from Amazon.com for $49.99. The plastics of the
iNo seemed a little flimsy, but it looked like something that could be a lot of fun with friends. [ACE]
<http://www.sababatoys.com/>
<http://www.sababatoys.com/admin/gallery/
MEN11_SUB545_iNo3_lo.jpg>
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000RNCNIC/
?tag=tidbitselectro00>
**Most Welcome Brain Transplant** -MacSpeech has been working with a good, but not
world-beating speech-recognition system in their
iListen product for years, before scoring the deal that
they apparently wanted all along: a license to use the
engine that drives Nuance Communications' Dragon
NaturallySpeaking; Nuance's software is and has
been available only for Windows. (David Pogue
wrote up how this came to be in his New York Times
column last week.) It's going to play extremely well,
because many Mac users were running Windows simply to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I saw a short
but effective demo of the pre-release MacSpeech
Dictate software at the Expo under extremely noisy
conditions and was suitably impressed. The software is slated to ship in February 2008, with a lot of
improvements to come within six months, including
learning from corrections and specialized medical
and legal dictionaries. MacSpeech Dictate will cost
**Most Social Use of an iPod** -- iPods generally
encourage anti-social behavior, but it doesn't have to be
that way. With the new iNo from Sababa Toys, you can
use your iPod's music collection as the basis of a fourperson music trivia game. Plug your iPod into the iNo,
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
24
http://www.vom.com/svcg/index.html
$199 with a headset; upgrades from iListen 1.8 will cost
either $79 (for purchases made in 2007) or $29 (for purchases in 2008). [GF]
<http://www.macspeech.com/pages.php?pID=53>
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/technology/
personaltech/24pogue.html>
<http://www.macspeech.com/pages.php?pID=52>
**Coolest Booth** -- I always enjoy checking out the
Crumpler booth, but this year it took me some time to
realize the laptop bag company was indeed inhabiting
a booth enclosed in black-and-white illustrated flexible
walls (be sure to check out the closeup) that reminded me
of some of Hieronymus Bosch's crazier work. [ACE]
<http://www.crumplerbags.com/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2008-01/Crumplerbooth.jpg>
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2008-01/Crumplercloseup.jpg>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch>
**Worst Demo Video of a Product That Appears
Useful** -- Despite what appeared to be shrinkwrapped boxes in the Data Drive Thru booth, Mac
switchers, consultants, and others who want simple,
ad-hoc file transfers between Macs and PCs will
have to wait until March 2008 to purchase iTornado,
a $79.95 USB device that picked up a lot of buzz at
Macworld Expo despite the company's hucksterish
infomercial. From the small, round iTornado, you
unspool two retractable USB cables, which you then
plug into a Mac and a PC. Handily, you need install
no software. Instead, the device mounts like a USB
flash drive, and you run software on it to view the
file structure of each computer in a dual-pane window. To transfer files, simply drag them from one
pane to the other. iTornado is based on The Tornado,
a similar device meant to facilitate PC-to-PC file
transfers. Both devices come with a separate copy of
PC Eraser, Windows software that erases a PC's hard
disk to U.S. Department of Defense standards, so if
you wish to get rid of the PC after transferring your
important files, you needn't worry about them being
accessed by others. The only useful information I
could find about iTornado on the company's Web site
is a press release in PDF format. [TJE]
<http://thetornado.com/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2008-01/iTornado.jpg>
<http://www.datadrivethru.com/press/iTornado(0108-08).pdf >
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
25
http://www.vom.com/svcg/index.html
**Best New Enterprise Backup Server Option**
-- Code42's CrashPlan Pro is an innovative backup program we've written about on a number of occasions, but
it has always been aimed at the individual user and home
office markets, emphasizing as it does how you can back
up to another version of CrashPlan Pro running on a
friend's Mac or PC. You could also back up to CrashPlan
CrashPlan PROServer itself is free, and desktop
agents are licensed on a per-seat basis with prices
ranging from $38 to $48 depending on volume, with
a yearly support license adding $12 per seat. [ACE]
Central for less than $1 per gigabyte per year, but
Code42 has never encouraged use of CrashPlan Central
because they felt it was simply better and cheaper to do
mutual backups with a friend. However, the news from
Macworld Expo is the release of CrashPlan PROServer,
which is essentially the back-end software Code42 uses
to run CrashPlan Central. That moves CrashPlan into the
enterprise backup space by giving a system administrator control over which computers back up, how often
they back up, where their backups are stored, and so on,
all via a Web-based management console. CrashPlan
PROServer is distributed as a VMware virtual appliance that works with the Mac, Windows, and Linux.
**Most Appreciated Return to the Mac Industry**
-- Although CrashPlan PROServer offers a great
deal of power and flexibility for organization-wide
backups, long-time Retrospect users will be pleased
to hear that EMC is once again putting significant
effort into that product, rewriting it based on the
code base of the Windows version and giving it a
much-needed interface update. Retrospect X will
support multiple simultaneous backups from separate sources, the capability to expire backup sessions
when a drive starts to fill up, and more, but most
important, it will retain key features such as being
able to run Retrospect Client on versions of the Mac
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
<http://www.crashplan.com/business/frontpage.vtl>
26
http://www.vom.com/svcg/index.html
OS back to Mac OS 9, support for tape drives, and
the unusual capability to create bootable duplicates
over a network. But don't go looking for a download
today - EMC is expecting to release a public beta of
Retrospect X in the third quarter of 2008. [ACE]
<http://forums.dantz.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/
Cat/0/Number/105537>
EMC Retrospect delivers powerful yet easy-to-use
data protection for your servers, 24x7 applications,
desktops, and
notebooks. It
protects your
personal
information
and
business from
data
loss
due to user
error, computer failure,
or site-wide
disasters.
Retrospect
protects millions of computers worldwide
and
consistently
earns
top
awards and
broad industry acclaim for its unique patented technology.
Easy to set up and manage
Robust data protection doesn’t have to be complex. Retrospect’s intuitive wizards get you up and
running quickly. Backup operations are automatically adjusted to ensure that all computers are protected without requiring manual intervention. With
Retrospect there is no need to write new backup
scripts each day to keep backups running smoothly.
And user-initiated restores enable end users to perform fast onsite recovery of their data without putting a strain on IT resources.
Avoid weekly full backups
Unlike other backup applications, Retrospect delivers fast incremental backups while still providing
accurate restores. Retrospect does this by creating
a list of hard drive contents during each backup.
Retrospect later uses this list to select the exact data
necessary to perform an accurate restore to a prior
point in time. With Retrospect you get a perfect
restore every time. Other software doesn’t utilize
such a list and therefore can only provide an accurate restore to the day a full backup was performed.
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
Simplifies management of backup media
Traditional backup software requires a complex strategy to protect against failure of backup media or a sitewide disaster. Multiple sets of tapes must be created,
tracked, and rotated offsite in a rigid and unforgiving
manual process. Retrospect eliminates complex tape
rotation strategies. Simply create two sets of tapes.
Keep one set onsite for backups and restores. Send
the other offsite for safety. Rotating tape sets is easy
and fast.
Disk-todisk-to-tape
backups
Retrospect
protects
more computers in less
time when
utilizing disk
as a backup
destination.
For offsite
protection,
create synthetic full
sets of tapes
by rapidly
streaming
data from the
backup disk,
eliminating the need to perform another backup over
the network so applications and users remain unaffected. Establish a policy that retains a set number
of backups and automatically removes older data to
make room for newer backups. You never have to
perform a full backup again. Highest level of security for backup media
Retrospect delivers the strongest possible security
for your backup media using U.S. government-certified 128-bit and 256-bit AES encryption. With AES
encryption, unauthorized individuals cannot access
information stored on backup media in the event that
it is lost or stolen.
Other features include:
* Bare metal restore
* Universal binary for Intel and PowerPC based
Macs
* Advanced backup to disk
* Customized reporting
* Email notifications
27
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**Most Exciting New USB Device** -- Yeah, it's cool
that you can launch foam missiles via USB, but for you
James Bond-wannabes, it's even cooler that you can
password-protect your Mac with the Eikon fingerprint
scanner. Made by Upek using the same technology that's
been showing up in recent PC laptops, the Eikon lets you
swipe your finger across the device's sensor when your
Mac asks for your account password. You configure the
device with any finger, and you can set your Mac to
accept only your fingerprint, your fingerprint _or_ your
password, or your fingerprint _and_ your password. I
company munged together by connecting their parts
to a partly disassembled Apple computer. A MacBook
has its keyboard, trackpad, and display removed, and
replaced with a tablet screen designed to work with
a pressure-registering stylus.
<http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook>
At this year's show, Axiotron not only had dozens
of units on the floor, all with the finish one would
expect from a shipping item, but also partners of all
sorts showing how a tablet Mac could be used for
drawing, location finding, handwriting recognition,
note-taking and markup, and other purposes.
< h t t p : / / w w w. a x i o t r o n . c o m / u p l o a d s / p i c s /
ModBook0701-004_HeroPen-HEADER.png>
I spoke to the company's CEO and various developers and partners at some length, tried drawing tools
and handwriting recognition, and held a freestanding
Modbook to test its heft. It feels heavy when held in
one hand, despite weighing the same five pounds as
what seems like a lighter MacBook. The Modbook
has a resilient magnesium alloy that surrounds the
scratch-resistant optical glass tablet screen.
was able to make it work easily during my demo and
here at home with my own Eikon, and I hope to follow up with a thorough review. The Eikon is available
for $49.99 at Amazon.com; the Mac software appears
to work somewhat differently from the PC software
described in the reader reviews at Amazon. The question
is, what happened to the Sony Puppy fingerprint scanner we noted at Macworld San Francisco in 2003? (See
"Macworld Expo San Francisco 2003 Superlatives, Part
2," 2003-01-27.) [TJE]
<http://upek.com/solutions/mac/>
<http://ecx.images-amazon.com/
images/I/41I-ma5QGKL._SS400_
.jpg>
<http://www.amazon.
com/dp/B000PELLGS/
?tag=tidbitselectro00>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/7050>
The Modbook is for sale now via Other World
Computing in the United States and Carbon
Computing in Canada; other resellers will come
online in Europe soon. At Other World Computing,
the two available models cost $2,279 and $2,479,
corresponding to the $1,099 (Combo Drive) and
$1,299 (SuperDrive) MacBook models. [GF]
<http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ModBook>
<http://www.carbonation.com/modbook/>
<http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/
WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/?node=home/shop_
mac/family/macbook>
**Most Prodigal of Mac Sons**
-- It's arrived! The most awaited
Macworld _2007_ product that
never appeared during 2007 was
the Axiotron Modbook, a tablet
version of a MacBook that the
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
28
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**Strangest Mash-Up of 1984 and 2008 Technology**
-- A castle in Transylvania. A thunderstorm. Rain pounds
down as lightning strikes, and a developer from a tiny
company called CodeFlare chortles as thousands of
volts course through the corpse of HyperCard. Slowly,
the application launches, lines of reverse-engineered
HyperTalk compiled into Java code animating stack
after stack, each encapsulated in a life-giving Web page.
Yes, that's right, through the Web site at TileStack.com,
CodeFlare has brought HyperCard back to life. TileStack.
com can not only run existing stacks (as long as they
don't use XCMDs), but it will also enable users to write
new stacks - think of them as Web applications - using
HyperTalk, the only programming language I've ever
really liked. (There's an implementation of the Lights
Out game in HyperTalk on the site for you to try.) Stacks
store their data in an SQL database with custom extensions that enable it to mimic the way HyperCard could
store data on each card of a stack, and the CodeFlare guys
said it would even be possible to write new XCMDs to
extend HyperTalk in different ways. TileStack.com isn't
quite open yet, but if you visit today, you can sign up
for the early access program. Once available, TileStack.
com will be free; the CodeFlare guys were a bit fuzzy on
the business model, although they muttered about how
they hoped to have a desktop version available for sale
toward the end of the year. Imagine using HyperTalk to
create Web applications - the mind boggles! [ACE]
<http://www.tilestack.com/>
**Best Method to Handle a Large Array of iPods** -University and K-12 system administrators who distribute educational materials on iPods were likely drooling
on the sturdy-looking multiple iPod Dock shown by
Parat at Macworld Expo. The iPod Dock, which holds
as many as 15 to 30 iPods, can charge and sync all the
iPods to the same iTunes Library. It's also integrated into
a rolling suitcase, so it can be closed and locked for easy
transport and storage. Parat was also showing a mobile
classroom unit - called the Paradict Mobile IT Lab that charges, networks, and transports multiple laptop
computers. Parat has been making similar products for
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
Windows laptops for a while, but they only recently
began making cases aimed at Apple products, a fact
that likely explains the vagueness of their press
release, Web page, and online product literature with
regard to the exact name of their iPod Dock (there
may even be more than one) and exactly how many
iPods it can charge. [TJE]
<http://www.paratsolutions.com/apple.html>
<http://www.paratsolutions.com/sitebuilder/images/
iPod-dock-179x121.jpg>
**Most Welcome Method to Charge Multiple iDevices** -- Griffin Technology's PowerDock could let
us dump several cables while keeping our iPods
and iPhones more reliably charged. The two- and
four-slot models come with adapters or work with
Apple-supplied ones for their universal dock connector ($59.99 and $69.99, respectively). It's due in
March 2008, and with all due respect to our friends
at Griffin - a firm notable for showing products with
optimistic shipping dates - we're anxious to see the
PowerDock in the metallic flesh. [GF]
<http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powerdock>
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2008-01/
PowerDock.png>
**Best Accessory Deal on the Expo Floor** -Wandering Macworld Expo with a credit card is a
dangerous proposition. Mixing consumer products
with enterprise tools, you never know when you'll
turn the corner and run into a booth with that iAccessory you just have to have. On sale, of course. While
many vendors offered 15 to 20 percent off their
products, high-end earphone manufacturer Etymotic
Research offered over 50 percent off most products,
and substantial discounts on the rest. Etymotic is
known for their in-ear noise-blocking headphones
that use technology originally developed for hearing
aids. Unlike active noise canceling headphones that
cancel out background noise by countering them
with opposite sound waves, in-ear designs block
outside noise just like earplugs. The Etymotic ER
series are so small they barely stick out of your ears,
and offer up to 36dB of noise reduction - more than
enough to block out those crying babies on the plane.
For those with iPhones, Etymotic offers the hf2
Headset + Earphones, combining their in-ear design
with an iPhone-compatible microphone in the cord.
I succumbed to the temptation and walked away
with a pair of ER6isolators for $69 (normally $149).
Those of you who prefer over-the-ear noise cancel-
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ing designs should check out the Creative Aurvana X-Fi
Noise Canceling Headphones. Though priced at $299,
they offer impressive sound quality by combining active
noise canceling with Creative's X-Fi technology for
enhancing compressed music. [RM]
details, see "Trading In-Home Wi-Fi for Powerline
Networking," 2007-07-09). But Mac users have
been left out of one aspect of powerline networking: encryption. I think encryption is overkill for
this networking method, because to tap into it, a
sniffer would need the same gear and access to your
local electrical system - meaning access to your
home or a device plugged into an outside outlet! If
someone has that kind of access, you might have
other things to worry about. (Don't go into the
basement.)
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9050>
<http://www.etymotic.com/>
<http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/hf2.aspx>
<http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er6i.aspx>
<http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=
437&subcategory=439&product=16975>
**Thinnest Protection for iPods and iPhones** -- If
you find yourself wandering around Macworld Expo
with a brand new iPhone that mysteriously appeared in
your pocket that morning, one of your best protection
options is a set of BodyGuardz for the Apple iPhone.
These thin, durable films are made from the same material that's used to protect the fronts of cars, and they
completely wrap around your device, protecting it while
still allowing you to use the touchscreen. They're thin
enough that you can also use a case of your choice, while
still protecting your device for those times when you just
want to drop it in your pocket with a set of keys. The
film is easy enough to apply that I was able to do so in
a small San Francisco hotel room. For those of you who
like a little choice, you can also look at InvisibleShield,
made from the same film that covers helicopter blades.
In either case, if you regularly subject your beloved
iPhone or iPod to the same stresses as the front of a car
or a helicopter blade, you might want to re-think some
of your life choices. [RM]
Nonetheless, NetGear's Powerline HD Plus Ethernet
adapters - supposedly shipping in February 2008
for about $160 each - have a nifty way around the
software issue. Each adapter has a button on front.
Plug both into electrical outlets, press the button on
one, then the other, and they perform a secure key
exchange (via Diffie-Hellman, for those who like
those details), securing the network without any
additional effort. This revised unit also sports a passthrough plug in the front so you don't lose the power
outlet. [GF]
< h t t p : / / w w w. n e t g e a r. c o m / P r o d u c t s /
PowerlineNetworking/PowerlineEthernetAdapters/
HDXB111.aspx>
<http://www.bodyguardz.com/BodyGuardz_for_Apple_
iPhone_p/nl-baip-0407.htm>
<http://www.shieldzone.com/>
**Most Shocking Form of Networking** -- Powerline
networking lets you pass data over an electrical network
without any additional wiring. It's a great alternative and
complement to Wi-Fi, especially now that current powerline gear from several different firms and standards
groups has hit 200 Mbps of raw throughput (for more
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
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**Best Excuse to Watch More Television** -- Elgato
Systems just doesn't stop adding features to its television-tuning products for Macs. The new EyeTV 3 software adds a long list of new capabilities, including better
previewing through a Cover Flow-like option; better
searching; series recording; and improved streaming
support for viewing programs over the local network
or the Internet to an iPhone or iPod touch, Mac OS X,
and Windows, much like Slingbox. (The company bills
this feature as Wi-Fi Access, but any device with Safari,
Camino, or Firefox can view content over any fastenough network connection.)
<http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products/
software/EyeTV/EyeTV3.en.html>
Both the company's HDTV/analog TV tuners - the
EyeTV Hybrid and EyeTV 250 Plus - have been
upgraded to handle Clear QAM (quadrature amplitude
modulation) from digital cable providers. Clear QAM is
the unscrambled content that is used for what an EyeTV
employee at their booth said is quite a lot of regular
cable programming. HBO may be encrypted, but it
sounds like Home and Garden is not. [GF]
<http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products.
en.html>
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
Fix for Mysterious
Word 2008 Crash
by Glenn Fleishman <glenn@tidbits.com>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9437>
Here's a tip for any of you early installers of Office
2008 for Mac:
If you're experiencing a crash on launching Word
2008, try throwing out its settings file. Look in
your home directory for Microsoft's preferences
folder at ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft. Move the
Word Settings (10) file to the Desktop and relaunch
Word 2008. That did the trick (with some help from
Microsoft tech support) for me under Leopard on an
older PowerBook G4. If moving Word Settings (10)
out of the way solves your problem, trash the file.
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Sonoma Valley Computer Group
POB 649
El Verano, CA 95433
Topics:
• FEBRUARY MAC USER MEETING
Date: Saturday, 2/9/2008
Place: Sonoma Public Library
755 West Napa Street
Time: 9 am to 10:30 am
Topic: HOW TO BACK UP YOUR DATA
for Mac and Windows Users