It’s May. (At lease it was, when I started writing this.) National Bike month, according to the League of American Bicyclists, a fine organization of which I am a card carrying member.
Too bad the League’s national offices are down there in Washington, and not up here in Boston. With May typically being cold, wet, and windy, they might consider moving Bike Month to July. “The Season” is getting into full swing. The bike shops are doing land office business on weekends, with hard-core racers standing in line alongside soccer moms, waiting to purchase the best goodies they can afford. (I know they’re soccer moms. I see the enormous SUV’s, with their “Al Gore” bumper stickers, parked in the vicinity of every well-known shop. There’s something of an “oxymoron” there, I think)
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How to Do Everything with iMovie2
Tony Reveaux, Gene Steinberg
Osborne McGraw-Hill
ISBN 0072222670
Price: US $24.99
402 pages not including index
How to Do Everything with iMovie2 is a bit of a misnomer. Nowhere in the 402 pages did I find a shortcut, work around or key combo explaining how to get iMovie to cut my lawn. It’s a shame, because if I had some extra time I would spend it making nearly unwatchable movies with iMovie2. Or maybe, after reading the book, my movies won’t be so abhorrent to the average viewer.
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Last month I asked MyMac.com’s writers why they prefer one Macintosh operating system over another. In my consulting and tutoring, I’m getting a lot of resistance to OS X, and I needed words of wisdom from more experienced X-men and women.
Now, four weeks later, I realize that OS X is not for everyone, but it is well suited to brand new Macintoshers and seasoned “power user” veterans. What follows are comments from MyMac.com staff, and we all welcome your rebuttals and cross-examinations.
Jeffrey McPheeters begins with a well-reasoned account:
Assuming the person has not already moved to OS X (some have and shouldn’t have bothered), here’s what I recommend:
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Special Edition Using Mac OS X
Brad Miser
Que Publishing
ISBN 0-7897-2470-7
796 pages
USA $39.99 Canada $59.95
Brad Miser is going to make sure you learn OS X, even if it takes 796 pages (including a good index) to do it! No stone is left unturned, no moss is left ungathered, and no OS X tip, trick, and obscure “didjaknowthat” goes unmentioned in this weighty tome.
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Due to the high-tech slowdown, I’m out of a job. I’ve been busting my butt daily to try to find one yet I keep dreaming of the perfect job. Continue reading »
“Welcome Bob. Please, have a seat. My name is Athena and I run the IT department around here. I’d be your boss if you were hired on for this position. Let me first tell you about us and ensure that you’d like to work for us before we go much further.” She leaned against the corner of her desk.
Mac OS X Advanced
Visual Quickpro Guide
Maria Langer
Peachpit Press
ISBN 0-201-74577-1
312 pages
USA $24.99 Canada $37.50
Maria Langer’s Mac OS X Advanced Visual Quickpro Guide is another addition to Peachpit Press’s Visual Quickpro series. The Quickstart and Quickpro series are designed to fill a specific niche: books that tell you how to accomplish specific tasks using short textual explanations and graphics.
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Dear Diary. When I was a child I kept a diary, one of those kind that had the little locking tab on the front with the teeny tiny key. In it I recorded my pre-adolescent fantasies about Richard Duvall and Mike Nichols, the atrocities committed upon me by my two sisters, and anger at my parents. It was kept hidden in a secret cubbyhole in the bedroom I shared with my sisters.
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SohoRAID SR3000
Computer Platform Independent (FireWire Needed)
Company: RAIDON Technology Inc.
Price: $449.99
http://www.raidon.com.tw
My day to day operations in my “pay all the bills” job forces me to manager a fairly large RAID system. For those who do not know what a RAID is, let me explain.
What is a RAID? Continue reading »
A RAID is a simple, elegant solution to make using server space more efficient. For example, if you run a large business that calls for many people to access stored information on your server, chances are you will be running a RAID on that server. It lets you connect many cheaper hard drives together to increase your storage size, without the user seeing a lot of different connected hard drives. While the server has four 10GB hard drives connected to it, from the users perspective, they see one single 40GB drive (or “Volume” as they are officially called). More likely, in this scenario, they would see one 20GB Volume, as the other 20GB of the RAID would work in the background, quietly mirroring (copying) everything the users do to the other 20GB. Call it a self-backup if you will. This is a typical RAID1 setup.
Recently, I wrote an article on how Apple is following Pixar’s roadmap for success called “Geri’s Game.” It was a look at how I believe Steve Jobs is applying what he’s learned at Pixar to Apple’s business strategy. Now I’d like to take a look at some of the new features of OS X 10.2 Jaguar that Apple recently showed off at the Worldwide Developer’s Conference, WWDC. ‘Cause I think those features might be revealing how Apple is also going to steal a page from Microsoft’s playbook and use it to continue Apple’s success.
Microsoft is the undisputed master of gaining market share. Even if Bill Gates doesn’t know what market share is, they sure know how to gain it. I’m wondering if Apple might be using Microsoft’s own strategy against them? If you step back and look at some of the features of Jaguar, it seems to be pointing towards that very thing.
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Robin Williams, the author of The Little Mac Book and multiple other books about Macs and desktop publishing is known for saying, “You’re attitude is your life.” I would tend to agree with her. How you approach life in attitude does truly effect how your life is lived. It might also explain why Macs are easier to use.
His name was Johnny. He was Windows geek. He was helping me by setting up dual monitors on my Windows NT 4.0 workstation. Talk about attitude. Though his name was Johnny, he was not nearly as friendly as his name would seem. How does that happen? People with friendly names turn out to be extremely hostile?
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MYOB FirstEdge™
Company: MYOB
Price: Full Version $99
http://www.myob.com
Less is more, so the old saying goes. MYOB takes a forward step backward with their new accounting program FirstEdge, which gives small business owners and entrepreneurs a piece of workable software that is not bloatware. FirstEdge is a powerful accounting program that has been slimmed down for the one-person business. Bookkeeping can be a daunting task for those who are not familiar with balance sheets and profit and loss statements. FirstEdge is written in a way so that if you can keep track of a checkbook, you can manage your finances with this program.
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QuarkXPress Power Shortcuts
David Blatner
PeachPit Press
ISBN: 0-7897-2433-2
Price: $21.99 US
Someone must think my last name is Nemorovski or something, what with all the book I have been getting via UPS the last few weeks. Fortunately, I am a fast reader, and I enjoy reading computer books, so writing reviews of free books is a small price to pay for to learn new things. And that is what this book, QuarkXPress Power Shortcuts, is all about. Learning new ways to use QuarkXPress, specifically many of the keyboard shortcuts to use while using QuarkXPress.
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TDK “veloCD” External FireWire CD-RW Drive
Company: TDK
Price: $240 approximate street price (see article for details)
http://www.tdk.com
If you have been keeping score during our ongoing series of CD-RW drive reviews, both LaCie and EZQuest make top-rated burners. You may want to read our previous coverage before continuing below, because a lot of relevant information is included in our earlier appraisals.
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RipGO! Mini CD-R Burner and Digital Audio Player
(Reviewed with Mac OS 9.2.2)
Company: Imation
Price: $299 MSRP (check the Imation web site for rebate offers)
http://www.imation.com
This phase one review was conducted in OS 9.2.2. Our OS X comments will follow as soon as RipGO hardware and software are compatible with X.
EXCITEMENT AND MIXED REVIEWS
RipGO! was the most intriguing new product concept introduced at January’s Macworld Expo. Is it an MP3 player? Yes. Is it a CD-R burner? Also yes. Is it small, light, and affordable? Definitely. Does it have any competition? Not really, because it is one-of-a-kind, at least for now.
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Poor Richard’s Building Online Communities: Create a Web Community for Your Business, Club, Association, or Family
Margaret Levine Young and John Levine
Top Floor Publishing
ISBN 0-9661032-9-7
US $29.95
372 pages not including index
This is the second book in the Poor Richard’s series to come my way, and it’s another winner. The authors, Margaret Levine Young and John Levine, have been seriously involved in building an extensive online community for a large nonprofit organization since “way-back” in 1994. [note: though it's never been scientifically proven, Internet Years are something akin to Dog Years!] Their knowledge and grasp of the many vehicles for creating and maintaining online communities is apparent in the very first chapter, where I found out that MUD and MOO are not necessarily what my 6 year old thinks!
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There is something I must confess to all of my readers. (Both of them) Something that is dark and sinister, something I have kept secret for some time. But, I’ve decided to share it with you. Are you prepared to assimilate this knowledge? Good, I thought you would be.
I am a member of an organization that is subversive and illegal. We meet late at night, behind closed doors. We don’t have any code words, or even a “secret handshake” yet, but we’re working on it. We don’t even have an official name. I suppose you might say that we are “the nameless ones.” We have our enemies, and they are very powerful. They seek to conquer us, to bend us to their will. Even Microsoft, with all their wealth and power, pale in comparison to the power of our enemies. So, what activities are myself and my fellow subversives involved in? What is it that makes us so dangerous? Cellular telephones: We don’t use them.
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MyMac Podcast #385
MyMac Podcast #384