Packed full of goodness, MyMacMini Podcast 2 has Guy Serle and the 45th DashBoard Minute, part two of Nemo’s interview with Artie, a Speedy Review of three iPod speakers by Robert Hazelrigg, and David Cohen looking at printing on a PC network in Fenestration. Plus Tim and Chad interviewing Julian Miller of Script Software.

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ScriptSoftware
iWoofer
Banshee
iThunder
Break.com Widget
Amnesty Singles

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Tim and Chad look at the Microsoft Zune idea. We cover the weeks Mac and iPod news, including Aquaman, Metallica, Amazon Video service, iTunes Kiosk, wireless Mighty Mouse, AMD buying ATI, and more.

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This podcast is sponsored by SmallDog.com, RamJet.com, and Inno-Tech.com.

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Links from the show:
Zelek Software
Kinamax Notebook Cooler USB-Powered Quiet 3-Fan
Xpad4Laptop
Laptop Cooling & Comfort Station
Metallica in iTunes

The first MyMacMini Podcast features Nemo with an interview with recent switcher Artie Alinikoff, a Speedy Review from Robert Hazelrigg of the new huey Monitor Calibrator from GretagMacbeth. The Dashboard Minute kicks off the show with Guy looking at MySpace Search and Currency Converter.

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Links from the show:
GretagMacbeth Huey
MySpace Search
Currency Converter

This is Edward Shepard, filling in for Don this week. Don has been very busy up in Burlington with various meetings with Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR.) If you’ve read Kibbles & Bytes through the years, you probably know that Don is Chairman of VBSR, and that running a socially responsible (SR) business is one of his passions. Small Dog Electronics endeavors to operate as an SR business. Every employee here is a part of that effort. It’s not a matter of Don preaching some gospel of social responsibility, with the employees simply tolerating his zeal. We all contribute to the mission of running Small Dog as a profitable, open, and fair business that seeks to have a positive impact on our community with a minimum impact on our planet.

Employees of Small Dog Electronics have good health insurance and a livable wage, and are encouraged to volunteer and contribute to various causes at work and at home and to treat each other with respect on the job, regardless of our social and political points of view. Those are all basic SR practices. It’s more difficult for us minimize the impact of our business on the Earth. The electronics industry is not known for doing any favors for the environment.

Small Dog has a very active electronics recycling program. Recently someone brought in a 900-pound load! We run our buildings as efficiently as possible, and, of course, recycle and reuse many of the paper and packaging products we use. You may have noticed that we are sending shipments  in random boxes rather than our nice printed Small Dog boxes. The random boxes are remainder and waste boxes turned inside out. Interestingly, they are not much less expensive than the brand-new boxes we used to buy.

We are looking for ways to further reduce our impact on the planet, other than simply shuttering our doors and going out of business. We are very interested in the idea of carbon offsets. According the NRDC:

"Carbon offsets are projects that reduce or prevent the accumulation of global warming gases in the atmosphere to make up for the gases that you have inadvertently put there. They achieve this either by increasing the availability of renewable energy, supporting energy- efficiency improvements by industry or capturing and sequestering emissions."

Carbon offsets are basically a way for us to pay for the removal and reduction of the carbon that our business creates. The NRDC has a list of the major players in the carbon offset industry here:

http://www.nrdc.org/thisgreenlife/0606.asp

We’re interested to hear other suggestions you might have for us. Email Ed@smalldog.com with your ideas. We hope to hear from you!

Ed @ Smalldog.com

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Apple’s Amazing Third Quarter By Ed @ Smalldog.com

This article started as a blog post at our blog, Barkings. Read the blog here:

http://blog.smalldog.com/

Apple released its 2006 third-quarter financial report on Wednesday. To summarize, Apple, Inc. is booming. Big time. Third-quarter results roundly exceeded analyst expectations. Apple has a quarterly profit of $472 million, which works out to 54 cents per diluted share, from a net revenue of $4.37 billion dollars. Billion! Profits are up 47% from a year ago.

Apple is the number four player in the U.S. computer industry. According to Gartner, Dell has 32% of the market, while HP has 18.9%, Gateway has 6.2%, and Apple has 4.6%. A year ago, Apple was at 4.3%. Somehow this means Apple has grown 15% in the past year. These are the second-best quarterly results in Apple’s history.

iPod sales are still growing, though slower than the previous quarter. Overall, 8,526,000 iPods were sold in this quarter. Sales of desktops are down 14% from the previous quarter, but sales of laptops were up over 60% from the previous quarter. There was 12% growth in overall Mac sales – 1.33 million Macs were sold this quarter.

Reuters features this quote from Steve Jobs:

"’We’re thrilled with the growth of our Mac business, and especially that over 75 percent of the Macs sold during the quarter used Intel processors. This is the smoothest and most successful transition that any of us have ever experienced,’ said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. ‘In addition, iPod continued to earn a US market share of over 75 percent and we are extremely excited about future iPod products in our pipeline.’"

I was surprised to read that international sales accounted for 39% of Apple’s revenue.

Shares of Apple’s stock (AAPL) rose 8% on the news, and rose another 12% on Thursday. Shares are down 25% this year, trading at about $61, down from their all-time high of $85.59 on January 13, 2006. Overall, analysts rate AAPL as a "buy."

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Deciphering Intel’s Line of Processors By Ed @ Smalldog.com

Steve Jobs has said that he wanted Apple to complete the transition to Intel processors by the end of 2006. Only two machines in Apple’s current lineup are are still waiting for Intel chips: the Power Mac G5 and the Xserve G5. Some people expect the Power Mac to be updated in August at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Apple-watchers are debating which Intel chips Apple will choose for the G5 replacement. I’ve been reading about the current and known upcoming chips from Intel, and thought I’d try and summarize and speculate here.

First, Intel uses code names for their chips, and these code names are sometimes used in the press. Instead of a Pentium 3 or 4, we have Yonah, Woodcrest, Conroe, and Merom. The Yonah is the Core Solo and Core Duo, while the upcoming Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Duo Extreme are also called Conroe. The powerful Xeon is sometimes call Woodcrest. It quickly becomes confusing, so I’ll try and break it down in human language.

The Core Solo and Core Duo (code name Yonah) and Xeon (code name Woodcrest) chips are commercially available now; the Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Duo Extreme (code name Conroe) chips are expected at the end of July. Merom will be released at the end of August.

The Core Duo and Core Solo (Yonah) processor is currently being used in all Intel-based Apple computers. The Core Solo is only used in one Mac, the entry-level Mac mini, while all other Macs use the Core Duo. The Core Duo is a powerful chip, and was designed for portable computers. Apple showed its competitive, aggressive side when it chose the Core Duo for the MacBook; most people expected Apple to use the slower, less powerful Core Solo chip in the MacBook.

Moving up from Core Duo, we come to the brand-new Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Duo Extreme (Conroe) chips. Core 2 Duo is the big brother to Core Duo. As PC magazine says, the Core 2 Duo "goes for the jugular." Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme are designed for desktop computers. They are 64-bit capable chips and are very fast. According to DailyTech, the Core 2 Duo "will have clock speeds of 1.86 GHz, 2.13 GHz, 2.4 GHz and 2.67 GHz while the Core 2 Extreme will clock in at 2.93 GHz." Prices range from $183 to $999 for per chip. This would be a logical chip for use in the replacement for the Power Mac and could eventually be used in the next generation iMac. The Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Duo Extreme chips will be released at the end of the month. In many ways, they are a logical choice for Apple to use in the Power Mac replacement. They will feel very fast, are power efficient, and have a good path for future improvement.

Many people are hoping Apple throws down the gauntlet and uses the Xeon 5100 (code name Woodcrest) processor in the replacement for the Power Mac. The Xeon is out now and is intended to be used in servers. The Xeon 5100 chip is based on a 64-bit Core 2 chip. The top of the line 3 GHz Xeon processors cost $999 wholesale, and supposedly Intel has a one price for every vendor model. So this is an expensive chip, but it offers awesome performance and can be combined in dual- processor systems, giving "quad-core" performance. A Power Mac replacement with a Xeon processor running OS X would instantly become the machine of choice for many demanding computer users – high- definition video editors, audio editors, scientists, and lab technicians. Simply put, the Xeon 5100 in the replacement for the Power Mac would be awesome.

The next chip is Merom, which should be released at the end of August. This is the 64-bit mobile version of the Core 2 Duo. It would be more efficient and cooler, for portability. They’ll start with clock speeds of 1.66 GHz to 2.33 GHz. I’ve read that they can be used in machines with a regular Core 2 chip, which means that current iMac and Mac mini users might, possibly, be able to upgrade their processors in the future. This chip could possibly be used in the MacBook Pro. Who knows, maybe there will be an all-new case design for the next-generation MacBook Pro, running the Merom chip. (That’s just speculation.)

It’s all speculation. No one knows what Apple will do. A year and a half ago, to say Apple would run Intel chips would have been heresy. But now we see the logic of Apple’s switch to Intel – a broad and ever-expanding line of processors and processor pricing. Apple never had this luxury with Motorola, and especially with IBM.

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Making Our Radio Ads By Ed @ Smalldog.com

Small Dog Electronics produces all of its radio ads in house. We use a PowerBook G4, the M-Audio Podcast Factory, and Soundtrack Pro. Before we used Soundtrack Pro, we used GarageBand. It’s a lot of fun to make these ads, and it usually only takes us a half hour or so to record, mix, and export them. GarageBand 3 and Soundtrack Pro both have great sound effects libraries and special effects, which we’ve used to simulate recorded telephone calls to great effect. Soundtrack Pro also has a great set of tools for repairing bad audio, which we’ve occasionally had to use.

When the ad is finished, we export it from Soundtrack as an AIFF file. We then compress it into an MP3 in iTunes. This is emailed to the radio station, and they promptly put it on the air.

Our radio campaigns have notably improved since we started to record the ads ourselves. The radio stations have been very pleased with the creativity and quality of our ads. If you have a business or organization, it might be worth trying this too!

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Font Book By Holly @ Smalldog.com

Until recently I was stymied about to how to share a particular font with a coworker. I would drag a font from my font folder and put it in an email, but I wasn’t sure that was the best way to do it. So when Ed asked me to share a particular font I was using the other day, I decided to see if Font Book had an export feature.

Let me digress for a second. I think managing fonts can be a real pain (note I said _can_). If you just use the fonts that come with your system, then it’s not difficult at all. However, graphic designers usually add to those and when their collection(s) get large, it affects the performance of the computer – meaning very slow performance. There is some great font management softwares out there (check out Extensis Suitcase Fusion <http://www.smalldog.com/product/ 39937>). I don’t have a huge font collection, but it’s just big enough that I want a little extra help.

Exporting a font in Font Book is easy:

1) In Font Book, select the fonts you want to export (to select fonts that are not adjacent to one another, press the Command key and click). 2) Choose File > Export Fonts. 3) Type a name for the folder and choose where you want to place it. 4) Click Save.

Installing new fonts is just as easy:

1) Open Font Book. 2) Under the File menu, choose Add Fonts. 3) Choose the font folder you wish to add. 4) Click Open.

The font should now appear in Font Book.

Here’s a website I occasionally go to because it has Mac fonts and it’s FREE!

http://www.freemacfonts.com/

A general overview of Font Book: You can install, preview, search for, activate, and deactivate fonts, and according to Apple, "you can have thousands of fonts on your system without fear of slowdowns during installation or everyday use." One particularly cool feature is the Advanced Typography, with which you can manipulate the font ligatures, kerning, number spacing, rendering fractions, swashes, number and letter casing, and so on. You can also preview a character rendering, provided the font is active, with the Character Palette. Did I mention that Font Book comes with every current Mac? It’s part of the Operating System on OS 10.3 and higher.

New features in Tiger include:

- Scriptable Font Book: Control every element of the Font System. Scan documents for fonts, quickly create collections, manage fonts automatically based on certain actions, and more.

- Advanced Font Validation: Automatically check your fonts for problems and see a detailed report about each one.

- Font Export: Package up a set of fonts for colleagues or service bureaus with just a few clicks.

- Font Libraries: Quickly activate fonts from any folder on your system or network.

- Spotlight Font Search: Use Spotlight to search for a rich set of font attributes, or metadata, including copyright, foundry, and more.

You can also use OS X’s Automator to complete repetitive Font Book tasks. For example:

- Find Font Book Items        - Get Selected Font Book Items        - Filter Font Book Items        - Select Fonts in Font Book        - Activate Fonts        - Add to Font Library        - Deactivate Fonts        - Export Font Files        - Filter Fonts by Font Type        - Get Files for Fonts        - Get Font Info        - Get Fonts from Font Files        - Get PostScript Name of Font        - Remove Font Files        - Validate Font Files

It never ceases to amaze me how many useful and easy-to-use applications are built in to the Mac’s operating system. Yet another reason to buy a Mac!

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Keyboard Shortcuts in Tiger By Ed @ Smalldog.com

Keyboard shortcuts can be a real timesaver. There are a few I use everyday, such as  the Command-Shift-Tab key shortcut to quickly flip though applications. The Command key is the one with the Apple or clover figure on it (depending on the keyboard) next to the space bar. I want to expand my repertoire of keyboard shortcuts, so I’m going to try and learn a new one every couple of days until the end of summer.

Some of my favorite key commands:

- Hold down Command-Shift-3 if you want to take a snapshot of your entire screen. If you want to take a snapshot of a particular item on your computer’s screen, hold down Command-Shift-4.

- Hold down Control-Eject to bring up the restart, sleep, and shutdown dialog box.

- Option-Command-Eject or Option-Command-Power will force the computer to go to sleep almost instantly.

Command-Space opens Spotlight (Mac OS X 10.4 or later).

- When you have a Finder window open, you can switch views for icon, list, or column by pushing Command-1, or Command-2, or Command-3.

- Hold down the Option key while dragging an item from one folder to another folder to make a copy of the dragged item in the new location while leaving the original copy of the item in its folder.

- Make a new Finder window by holding down Command-n.

- Make new tabs in Safari or Firefox by holding down Command-t. (I use that shortcut a couple dozen times a day).

- And, as mentioned above, hold down the Command-Shift-Tab keys to flip quickly though applications.

There are hundreds of keyboard shortcuts. Apple has a great list of common shortcuts here:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459

You can create your own keyboard shortcuts. According to Apple, here’s how:

Go under the Apple menu (the blue Apple in the upper left corner of the screen), browse to to System Preferences, and choose Keyboard & Mouse. When the dialog appears, click on the Keyboard Shortcuts tab, then click the plus (+) sign at the bottom left of the dialog. Another dialog will appear. Choose Finder from the Application pop-up menu, then type the exact name of the menu command for which you want to add a shortcut. Now type the shortcut you want to use and click the Add button.

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Specials!

Here are the specials for this week, valid through July 21 or while on-hand supplies last. Be sure to use the wag URL to get this special pricing.

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M-Audio Podcast Factory – $139!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/wag16834/mymac

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Back-to-School Add-on Bundle – Office, 512 MB Flash Key, Lock, More – $174 PLUS $50 Rebate!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/mymac

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Apple iPod 40gb Clickwheel with Dock, Griffin iTrip (Dock connector), Kensington Case – $224!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/mymac

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MacBook 13.3-inch 2.0GHz with 2GB RAM/60GB HD/SD/AP/BT white – $1509

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/mymac

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Brenthaven Edge II Light Blue case 15.4in for MacBook Pro – $49.95 with FREE 3-day express shipping!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/mymac

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Brenthaven Edge II Black case 15.4in for MacBook Pro – $49.95 with FREE 3-day express shipping!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/mymac

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EZQuest Monsoon 300gb FireWire 400/USB 2.0 Drive – $152!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/mymac

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Micro Accessories 65 Watt AC Adapter for PowerBook or iBook – only $29.00!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/mymac

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Ogio Jackpack Redline Messenger Bag – with Free Shipping- $40!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/mymac

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MacBook Pro 15-inch 2.0GHz 1gb/100/SuperDrive (r), Black MacCase Sleeve for MacBook Pro – $1949

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/mymac

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iMac 20-inch Intel 2GHz 512/250/SuperDrive, Epson Print/Copy/Scan, Office, LaCie 250, More – $2179!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/mymac

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Black MacBook 13-inch 2.0GHz with 2 GB RAM/80 GB HD/SuperDrive/AP/BT, AppleCare – $1889!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/mymac

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iMac 17-inch Intel 1.83GHz 512/160/SuperDrive, Canon Print/Copy/Scan, Office, LaCie 160, More – $1699

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/mymac

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MacBook Pro 15-inch 2.0GHz 1gb/100/SuperDrive (r), Office, Case, 1 GB Flash Key – $2079 + $50 Rebate!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/wag16828/

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Enjoy this peak summer weekend. I’m going to a microbrew festival on the waterfront of Lake Champlain. So, if I’m not in on Monday, you’ll know why.

I’m looking forward to hearing the suggestions you have for how Small Dog can continue to reduce its impact on the environment. Thanks once again for reading Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes crew,

Don, Ed, and Holly

The Nielsen name has been around for some time giving us our US television ratings so we know without actually having to bother to judge for ourselves what programs are so popular that we’ll be pariahs if we don’t watch. With the gradual fall of the big three networks (four if you count Fox, five if you count the WB..um..UPN..err..that other one) because of cable and satellite TV, they just don’t have enough to do I guess so they are also apparently checking out who’s doing what online.

Now they are looking into podcasting. For those living in a cave (or still using dial-up, I’ve heard there is some difference), podcasts are in essence downloadable radio shows that you can listen to as you like on your own schedule from any digital music player that can also play mp3 files. Since Apple’s iPod and by extension iTunes is the most popular player, these audio programs were nicknamed podcasts. Seems silly now, but if Apple hadn’t made the iPod, we might be calling them RioCasts, ZenCasts, or NoMadCasts instead.

As popular as these podcasts are becoming, most people doing podcasts don’t actually make money doing so. For every Dawn and Drew on Sirius Satellite, there are countless others just putting there stuff out with little hope for compensation for their efforts. Tim and Chad have been doing the most excellent (with apologies to Bill and Ted) MyMac.com podcast (with the DashBoard Minute by yours truly among other segments) for almost 2 years and whatever money comes in from advertising mostly just pays the bandwidth bills. Unless they’re holding out on me. Hmmm…nevermind.

For the last few years, people have been trying to figure out a way for someone other than a corporate shill to make some coin doing this. The biggest problem in my opinion is that there is no buzz for podcasts amongst the big advertisers. The Coca-Colas, MasterCards, and McDonalds of the world seem to have mostly ignored podcasts so far. I’m not sure why since most podcasters would gladly take a pittance for commercials on their podcasts as compared to the umpteenth rerun of Bewitched* on Nick at Night and probably have darn near the same number as far as audience goes. After all, people who listen to podcasts also eat quickly prepared cardboard food, drink carbonated acidic beverages, and amass unpayable debts just like everyone else.

So how do you get the advertisers to pay attention? Easy! Just get the Nielson Ratings company to assign some meaningless numbers to how many people listen to podcasts and what their demographics are. There’s nothing like industry buzzwords thrown into a blender to get them to take notice. You can type in this address into your web browser to read their report (http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_060712.pdf) or carry on with this blog to get my take on it. Here’s a hint: Mine will be funnier, but not by much.

In the pdf they released, they spend the first sentence patting themselves on the back for how great they are. Then they start with the numbers. Apparently, 6.6 percent (9.2 million) of the US adult population have recently downloaded an audio podcast and 4 percent (5.6 million) have grabbed a video podcast. The good news is we just beat out those pesky online print bloggers (4.8 percent) and online daters (3.9 percent). This would be a great place to make fun of people who use online dating, but since I met my wife through a dating service almost 15 years ago, I’ll refrain from doing so. Now we still have a ways to go to catch up with people view and pay bills online (51.6 percent) or search for jobs (24.6 percent), but we’ll get them. We’ll get them all!

The next part is a statement from a Nielson analyst (careful how you spell that) that makes me want to retch. Not because of the words in particular, but for the sheer smarminess of how he said it. I’ve met used car salesmen with better patter than this.

“The portability of podcasts makes them especially appealing to young, on-the-go audiences (hurl mode activated). We can expect to see podcasting become increasingly popular as portable media players proliferate.”

The next statement I take umbrage with. Apparently, since I’m now 45 years old, I’m less likely to create or download podcasts (HEY, you kids! Get off my lawn!). To paraphrase; “Typical with new technologies, young people between 18 and 34 are more likely to download podcasts than senior citizens above the age of 45.” OK, that’s not EXACTLY what they said, but the meaning is pretty close. I am VERY offended. I’m down with those hep youngins and I’ll smack them with my walking cane and drool all over anyone saying different.

The next part of the report was a bit of a surprise. People who download podcasts also enjoy using Apple products and visit Apple related websites. Thank you Captain Obvious! What truly was surprising was that the Safari and FireFox were the primary Internet browsers of choice by 3 to 1 or more over Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Microsoft shouldn’t feel TOO bad as they did beat out AOL and Netscape (snicker).

As far as where these “youth is wasted on young” types are surfing to is documented as well. Audio pod people are hanging at MacWorld, Lycos, and Slashdot for content, and Nike, Apple, and iTunes for e-commerce. Nothing too unusual there right? NOW, we come to video podders. For content, they’re hanging at StarTrek.com (no, I’m not kidding), Live365, and Fark. Their e-commerce is dedicated to Live365, eMusic, and Nike. Most of this is fairly understandable, but Star Trek? STAR TREK? A show that hasn’t even been on the air or had a movie made in the last few years? I mean, I love the shows and some of the movies (Sorry Bill, Star Trek V: The Search for Plot, was just awful), but why spend so much time looking for Star Trek? Obviously video podders have some “issues”. Maybe it’s the whole first adopter thing that they have going on while Apple is busy creating a real iPod with video.

OK, I think I have the magic formula down now. I need to create a video podcast that can also be an audio only cast without losing focus that caters to Apple, Nike, and Star Trek. It also has to be appealing to potential advertisers, but not so multi-dimensional that I lose my “creds”. No wonder no one making money on podcasts yet.

*Bewitched: A TV show that appeared on ABC in the 1960s, featuring a then yummy Elizabeth Montgomery as a hundreds of years old witch married to a mortal named Darrin. A very similar show called “I Dream of Jeannie” was on at nearly the same time on NBC and starred an also very yummy Barbara Eden. None of this has anything to do with Apple, iPods, or Podcasts. I just like thinking about Elizabeth Montgomery and Barbara Eden.

Safari Books Online

http://safari.peachpit.com/

Books are great. You can curl up with one by the fire, or drop it in your briefcase to read on the morning commute. Books don’t need electricity.

The first e-books appeared several years ago, as Adobe Acrobat PDF files. Other formats followed. Tablet e-book readers came and went, without making much of a dent in the marketplace. But paper books still dominate the marketplace, because they’re so darn practical.

But the biggest drawback to paper books (other than leaving them out in the rain) is searching, especially searching a number of titles. Table of contents and indices notwithstanding, it’s difficult and time-consuming to for that needle-in-a-haystack bit of info in your library.

First, you have to own the books. Even if you acquired your library at Amazon prices, a comprehensive technical library ain’t cheap. Don’t let it get out of date; make sure you buy the latest titles. Then you need shelf space, more and more of it!

So, you’ve bought the books, and given them a good home. You need to search all the OS X books for information on the Mac OS X NetInfo database. One by one, the books come down, and you check the Table of Contents and/or index. If and when you find what you’re looking for, do you dog ear each page, or add a Post-It note?

Clearly, this is a laborious process.

If you subscribe to PeachPit Press’ Safari Books Online, you’ve got Web access to thousands of technical manuals for programmers, IT professionals, and general readers. The current library holds 3800 titles, and it’s growing every day.

PeachPit Press gave Nemo and I a one-month free subscription. I jumped right in and began to explore.

There’s no shortage of titles to pick from. Publishers include:

O’Reilly Addison Wesley Sams Prentice Hall Que Cisco Press Microsoft Press Peachpit Press New Riders Publishing Alpha Books Course Technology IBM Press Macromedia Adobe Press Syngress Financial Times Prentice Hall Muska & Lipman MySQL Press No Starch Novell Press Premier Press Prima Publishing SitePoint Wharton School Publishing

Subscriber can create "bookshelves" of their favorite titles, which makes them available from the "My Bookshelf" link. MyMac.com is a Mac-centric web site, so I created a bookshelf of eight Mac OS X-related titles, and one Windows XP title (I use a Windows application for work).

Apple Training Series: Mac OS X Support Essentials By Owen Linzmayer

iMovie 6 & iDVD: The Missing Manual By David Pogue

iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, 4th Edition By J.D. Biersdorfer

Mac OS X Help Line, Tiger Edition By Ted Landau – with Dan Frakes

Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition By David Pogue

Mac® OS X Unleashed By John Ray, William Ray

Office 2004: The Missing Manual By Paul Berkowitz, Franklin Tessler, Mark Holt Walker

Running Mac OS X Tiger By James Duncan Davidson, Jason Deraleau

Windows XP for Starters: The Missing Manual By David Pogue

I’ve reviewed most of these books, and they take up almost two feet on my bookshelf.

On Safari, they’re spaceless and weightless.

For any Safari book, whether in your bookshelf or not, you can view the Table of Contents and Index, read it online, or download chapters for offline reading.

On-line reading of hundreds of pages is a non-starter for most people. The traditional paper book is far better suited for digesting and entire book. However, having the ability to save specific chapters or paragraphs is very valuable.

Searching one or hundreds of book simultaneously is Safari’s real power. You can search for any text you like, and restrict the search to your bookshelf titles, or search the whole Safari enchilada of thousands of books.

I searched my bookshelf titles for "Access Control List," a method of setting certain file and folder permissions. The page that shows the search hits is well-designed. There were two hits, each with links to the desired page.

At the bottom was another set of links, presenting related articles. One of the best things about actually having real books to search is that you sometimes stumble across valuable information you weren’t looking for. Safari’s inclusion of related links is a rough digital equivalent of finding unexpected yet useful information.

Doing the same search on the entire Safari book list gave me a page separating the multitude of hits into categories: Operating Systems, Networking, and Programming. Each group had subgroup links to help pare the results down to size. The right side of the page display each hit for a particular title in context; a snippet of text is displayed in context so you can better judge its relevance.

Given the importance of searching, I was somewhat disappointed in Safari’s search power. The Advanced Search link allows you to search for word(s), exact phrases, or at least one or more words. You can apply those search terms to full text, code fragments (great for programmer types), book Section titles, and tips/how-tos. Further restrictions for more precision include words in book titles, authors, book categories, and publisher.

The main shortfall is the lack of regular expression (grep) searches. In spite of the Advanced Search features, I found myself longing to do grep-style searches, especially wildcard searches.

When my old 20 GB iPod threw a hissy-fit last week, I knew that I needed some troubleshooting tips. The iPod has a diagnostic mode, but I could not remember how to access it.

Safari to the rescue. A quick search for "iPod diagnostic" gave me thirty-five hits. The contextual snippets allowed me to get the right reference without having to wade through a bunch of extraneous links. Bam, in and out in about 30 seconds. With the information, I put my iPod into the built-in diagnostic mode, and found out it was probably as good a dead. But that’s another story.

Pricing
There’s a tremendous amount of value in Safari, if you need what it has to offer. Don’t confuse "value" with "cheap." O’Reilly’s Safari is not cheap, but neither is buying a shelf-load of paper books. Personally, I wouldn’t subscribe to read books on-line. While you might read extracts on-line, Safari is far better used as a reference library, not as a bookstore. Use it as a search tool.

Peachpit offers two pricing plans, Safari Basic and Safari Max. The primary difference between the plans is that Safari Max includes the ability to download chapters.

Safari Basic Bookshelf Size
Basic Starter – 5 slot Bookshelf USD $9.99 per month USD $109.99 per year Basic Small – 10 slot Bookshelf USD $14.99 per month USD $159.99 per year Basic Medium – 20 slot Bookshelf USD $24.99 per month USD $269.99 per year Basic Large – 30 slot Bookshelf USD $29.99 per month USD $329.99 per year

Safari Max – Includes ability to download chapters Bookshelf Size

Max Small – 10 slot Bookshelf USD $19.99 per month USD $219.99 per year Max Medium – 20 slot Bookshelf USD $29.99 per month USD $329.99 per year Max Large – 30 slot Bookshelf USD $34.99 per month USD $379.99 per year

While these prices are not cheap, the alternative is buying and maintaining an extensive reference library. Amazon might charge an average of $30.00 for a technical title; a library of ten books is $300. And even then, you don’t have the ability to search anything other than what you physically possess. Updates? You’re on your own.

If you actually use Safari on a regular basis, and need access to a variety of titles, the economics become persuasive. If your needs are slim, and cover only a few books, you may be satisfied with owning paper.

If you’re not sure, Safari offers a free two-week trial. Anyone thinking about jumping into this great on-line resource would be advised to sign up for the trial.

With the exception of the lack of regular expression searching, I found Safari Books Online to be an easy-to-use an very comprehensive resource. It’s not for everyone, but it may be right for you.

MyMac rating: 4 out of 5

This week we interview the famous Macintosh evangelist Guy Kawasaki. We talk about his time at Apple, Garage.com, blogging, the Macway EvangaList, Hockey, and so much more. If you are a fan of the Mac, this is the interview you want to listen to.

Leave audio feedback by calling 801-938-5559

This podcast is sponsored by SmallDog.com, RamJet.com, and Inno-Tech.com.

Get the show from these links:
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Links from the show:
Guy Kawasaki Blog

WARNING: The information you are about to read is strictly confidential, you shouldn’t share it with anyone you know, and you will even forget any encounter of reading this article.

I had written an article about pirated software, movies, and video games in Saudi Arabia. during the time of writing that article, I was listening to one of MyMac’s podcasts, where Chad and Tim were talking about pirated movies, which encouraged me to give you a picture about the situation in Saudi Arabia.

According to a report by an US industry body, nine out of ten software packages used by government organizations in Saudi Arabia are pirated. The same report also claims that over half of all business software used in the Kingdom is illegal. I don’t want to stretch this side of the story further, simply because it might get me in hot waters, but I have seen a lot.

The piracy rates runs at over 90% for entertainment software products alone. I remember the days where you could just walk in any computer store and ask for any pirated piece of software, simply pay for it and take it back to your home or office. It was so easy and widely spread that Saudis never thought that what they were doing was wrong, and that they should buy original copies instead of pirated. To make things even worst, in most cases it was so hard to find original software, but even if you did there was no real reason to buy them.

This was caused by a lot of factors which are covered thoroughly on the original article, but one of those factors was that most of the software dealers, who have exclusive rights to sell software, placed inflated mark-up prices, since they had a monopoly on those brands, adding up shipping, marketing, PR, sales, storage, and under-table customs lubricating expenditure on the average customer’s back. This leaves the every day joe thinking "Why would I pay so much, when I can get the latest and greatest software for US $2.70". The buyer would think "Since it works like the original, why would I pay so much for an original?".

Although software developers have created ways to prevent crackers from running their software, crackers have developed smarter ways to crack the new software. In the old days you would get a floppy disk or CD-ROM that contains a copy of the software with a serial number to install and run it on your computer. Nowadays software developers have came up with ways to prevent pirated software users from doing so, such as having a user has to register that copy on the internet or by phone to generate a key that the software requires to run on the machine. Crackers have developed softwares that would provide you with the generated key once the software prompts you to get it. I personally saw that in action when a user successfully installed a full version of Adobe CS2. I thought it was amazing how software’ crackers came up with this easy method.

I remember running Windows Longhorn (AKA Windows Vista) in mid 2005. I got the DVD from an Indian IT magazine that I bought from a magazine stand. When I popped the DVD in, I thought I was getting a sneak-peek of Longhorn. I was surprised to get the whole (beta) OS! When it was booting the screen read "Windows Longhorn Copyrights 2006". When I dug around, I found out that hackers in Malaysia managed to get the copy off Microsoft’s servers somehow, and distributed it fearlessly. And in case you’re wondering, Microsoft is outsourcing their own bread and butter OS. I sat with a young programer in India once who told me all about this, so you could imagine how thing could get out of hand.

I thought that those rules applied only to the Windows platform, but I was shocked when I switched to Macintosh, to discover that because we were a minority around here, some Mac users would provide the latest pirated software to other Mac users for free. "Here’s my cell phone number" offered a guy who works at one of Apple’s distributors in Saudi Arabia, "Call me anytime you need a free copy of any software".

Today when you buy pirated software you will get it on a CD with a text file that contains a serial number and a key generator software. After you generate the required key, you place it where the software’s dialogue box or installation wizard asks you to, and you have a full functioning registered software, that can even be updated from the internet.

But you might wonder where would a "normal user" find such pirated software. If you imagined dark alleys and back streets you’re wrong, the irony is that it is widely sold wherever computers are sold. The Saudi government is trying to crack down on those stores, so instead of selling it openly in front of walk-in costumer’s eyes, the customer would flip through a graphical catalog, choose what they want and the store’s clerk would phone a hidden back room where they make you a fresh hot copy. If you look at this procedure from a business perspective, the store managed to eliminated the cost of storing hundreds of pirated copies, as making a copy on CD would take them less then five minutes. While the customer waits, he or she might fancy buying a flash drive, or even decide on getting another software title.

I wish the problem stoped at computer software, but it extends to video games as well. A copy of the latest Playstation 2 or Xbox 360 titles can range between US $2.70 to US $5.30, and when I say latest I mean as soon as it hits the US market, and in most cases even before it does, people here get to enjoy the latest games at least a month before their American and European counterparts.

But in the case of video games, it is a little different then computer software. Video game console manufacturers, develop hardware that prevents pirated software from running on their machines, and here is where creativity kicks-in full fledge. Stores sell you consoles that are modified with a cracking chip hidden inside the console’s case. Those chips are manufactured, mostly, in China. The modification process is so easy all the seller needs to do is open up the case, attach the chip on the device’s motherboard, then screw the case back shut. You can’t even tell if that device has that chip running on it or not.

The added advantage to those modified devises is that the chip won’t only enable the device to run pirated video games, it enables the hardware to run Japanese, European, and American games on the same machine, and it barely costs the thrilled gamer an extra US $26.

Gamers would never even think of buying original games unless the title is a keeper, and the game developer offers a bonus pack. Otherwise a cheap pirated copy would do the job, and the selling store would even provide the buyer with a one year warranty on the hardware and a guarantee that the software will work flawlessly.

So if you live here and would like to find a game for your Xbox, Xbox 360, Playstation 1 or 2, or even Nintendo 64 or Cube you will find all the titles whether they are imported from the US, Europe, or Japan.

Now we reached the last part of the pirated underworld in Saudi Arabia. People here can buy the latest movies right off the streets literally, since the internet connection is too slow. People can decide whether they want a copy stolen off a movie theater or a copy from the original DVD. These are widely available on the streets, or under-table in stores that sell original VHS movies which no one buys or even rents any more.

I remember once in Istanbul, Turkey, observing a guy who managed to smuggle a camcorder and was recording a movie right off the screen in front of my own eyes.

The Saudi government is enforcing everything it can to stop all this, but the whole thing has been rooted deeply into the regular buyer’s minds. A psychological approach should be taken, aided with realistic original copy prices. I saw a DVD movie once that had an advertisement in the beginning telling people that buying pirated DVDs and CDs is a crime, on a pirated DVD!

Copyright © 2006 Mazen Al-Angary, All Rights Reserved.

To beat Apple at the iPod game you need to start with a complete system. The problem with all of the other MP3 players and cell phones on the market today is that they are all missing one of the following key ingredients:
• An intergraded music store to make your purchases. (lacking for most MP3 players)
• An application for your PC to easily manage your music library. (lacking for most cell phones)
• An easy to use, seamlessly intergraded, and well designed player.

The reason iPod sales are so good is because they have built the entire system and made it easy to use. Since Apple has a tremendous lead that means many people have a large investment in their players already. To make existing iPod users switch to a new system would require some radical new functionality users desire. Microsoft is the only possible company that has the clout to compete in Apple’s MP3 playground. So how will MS kill the iPod? To date the list of rumored functions include wireless connectivity as well as a free migration path that allows users to obtain the music they’ve already purchased from Apple.

Wireless connectivity.
Wireless downloads alone won’t be the killer function that beats the iPod. Wireless mice and key boards aren’t taking the nation by storm. Yeah they’re nice, but unnecessary. Moreover, you still need to charge your MP3 player. So plugging in isn’t a burden the masses are looking to relieve themselves from. And please don’t write to me about all the people who download songs to their cell phone from a cellular carrier. That function is nice for a few songs but only a fool would pay $3 per song for all of the songs in their entire library. And what about instant wifi purchases? When is the last time you were in Starbucks and heard a song that didn’t make you want to cut off your ears. I don’t know about you but I don’t buy CD’s from Starbucks, or Borders for that matter.

The Migration Path.
This sounds like a good idea, but also a very costly one. I currently have over 13,000 songs in my collection. Granted not all of them were purchased from the ITMS but how will MS know which songs I’ve purchased since I’ve converted all of my music to AAC. Even still it’s not a compelling enough reason. I have already invested in speakers, boom boxes, and other devises that are all designed to work with the iPods dock connector.

No, neither of these options alone or together are going to kill anything.

What I’d like to see is a wireless device that will let neighboring friends listen to what I have stored on my device. Moreover, I’d like the added ability to sell those tracks to my friends if they want a copy. Think about this: What if you could sell music to your friends via a wireless device. You would become the record store and get a small commission or credit toward a future purchase. Man-o-man would that generate sales. Pirates would no longer want to just “share” their files. Moreover, most people would tell more friends about the great new songs they have to sell. One other killer feature that begs to be added is the cell phone option. I for one am sick of carrying around a cell phone, an iPod, a camera, and a blackberry. It’s been a burden of mine since I got my first iPod in 2001. The first company to add cell phone function to the system will quickly become king of the hill. The Motorola ROKR only had 256k of memory. It doesn’t count.

The fastest way for Mr. Softy to kill the iPod is to do what he’s always done in the past. Buy a company that already makes one, stick their Windows Media app on it and court the record labels. Can MS do all that? Can MS do something cool? They did create the X-Box.

What do you think would happen if MS bought Creative?

Argo picture from Engadget.com

LineForm
Tribar Software
Price: $79

http://tribarsw.net

Over the past six months I have had the pleasure of trying several pieces of art software by smaller developers which make great, cheaper, alternatives to the big boys (ie. Illustrator, Painter, Photoshop, etc.). LineForm falls into this category as an Illustrator alternative.

Like Illustrator, LineForm is a vector illustration program. It is not as feature packed as Illustrator, but for $79 it is a great alternative for those on a budget. It even has some great features that Illustrator could benefit from.

INTERFACE

The LineForm interface is very easy to understand and use. The types of tools and effects are broken into smaller windows, which can be hidden to make the display even simpler.

DRAWING TOOLS

LineForm has your basic vector drawing tools: bezier drawing tool (Paint), freehand (Pen), squares, and circles. I really like the smoothness of the Paint tool and the feature of the lines being smoothed after you draw something. (You can also override this option.)

Like you would expect, you can edit these shapes and lines by moving and deleting the points on them. You can rotate and scale them, as well.

The one thing I didn’t like about drawing in LineForm is that every time you make a line or a shape, the tool automatically switches to the Select arrow. So, if you want to make two squares, you have to make the first square, and then click the square tool again to make the second square. This is not the end of the world, but a minor annoyance.

TEXT TOOLS

The text tools in LineForm are great. You can do your basic text box and type what you need to, but you can also be creative with your text. You can draw a shape and choose Text as the fill option, and whatever you type will take on the positive space of the shape you created. You can also choose to have your strokes be text, and as expected, the text becomes the outline of the shape. These two features could not be any easier to use. (See my sample at the end of this article.)

FILLS

I already mentioned that you can fill an object with text. You can also fill your object with the standard colors and gradients. One of my favorite features of LineForm is that you can fill an object with an image (i.e. a photograph). This is great for putting cartoons in real backgrounds, or making a picture frame and dropping in a photograph. The only improvement I’d like to see here is the ability to reposition the image inside the shape. Right now if you drop an image into a shape, where it falls is what you get. You can reshape the outline to show more of the picture, but you can’t move the picture around inside the outline.

BE ARTISTIC

Some of the great customization features you’d expect to see in a more expensive program are in LineForm. These features are artistic brushes and filters. With the brushes (see sample below) you can really change the way an outline feels and make it feel like a different art material created the line. Filters are great for adding special effects and distorting your image. A lot of the standard filters like blurs, crystalize, posterize, and more are all in LineForm,

Besides the brushes and filters, you can add drop shadows with the click of a button. You can also add sixteen different types of arrows to the ends of your lines, create dashed lines, and control the opacity of objects and lines.

LAYERS

Another feature which you normally don’t expect to see in less expensive software is layers. Lineform has layers, and they work great. You can reposition layers, lock layers, and hide layers.

IMPORT AND EXPORT

LineForm can import JPG images, which works great for making a tracing layer. You can also import EPS files, PDF files, and even Photoshop files. I was not able to import an Illustrator file, but exporting to EPS and importing the EPS file worked fine.
When it comes to exporting files, LineForm can export into BMP, EPS, JPG, PDF, PNG, TIFF, and SVG files. SVG and EPS files are fully editable in Illustrator, which is nice.

GREAT FOR THOSE ON A BUDGET

LineForm’s price of $79 makes this a great Illustrator alternative for those who are on a budget. Does it have all of the features of Illustrator? No, but it has enough to make it a fully usable vector illustration program. The $79 price also makes it a great program to get for learning vector illustration. Plus, there is an education price of $59 which makes it an even better deal for students and teachers.

With its features, ease of use, and great price, LineForm is definitely worth looking at. MyMac.com rating 4 out of 5.

This image shows the text and brush features of LineForm.

This image incorporates many of the LineForm features. I used the text tools, the image fill, drop shadows, and more.

Introduction
I have acquired some interesting tools and techniques that help me manage Safari bookmarks. Everyone has their own methods, but perhaps you’ve overlooked some of the things I do, and they’ll make Safari more fun. Mixing and matching tools, after all, is the name of the game.

What started all this is my desire to see all the individual Safari bookmarks in an indented display without having to constantly fuss with all the disclosure triangles on the Safari bookmark page. (Accessed by clicking the book icon on the left side of the bookmark bar.) I like to keep those bookmark folders closed so I can retain a sense of the organization of all the folders. When they’re all open all the time, I can’t do that.

Next, I like to have my bookmarks and bookmark folders automatically alphabetized. Finally, I want to be able to archive my alphabetized bookmarks in HTML format, not just XML

Searching for archived articles is important for a Web author. It’s possible to search through these closed bookmark folders with CMD-F, and Safari will dig into the first folder in which it finds a match and open just that folder, revealing the bookmark. Somehow, this doesn’t suit me, and I’d rather search an indented HTML page because it puts the results of my search into context with everything around it. It has other advantages I’ll describe below.

Building a Home Page
I think I may be one of the few people who creates a Browser home page with an HTML editing tool. The reason is that I’d rather look at an array (HTML table) of my favorite sites than use bookmarks or the Safari bookmarks bar to organize my daily reading. The upper left hand side is shown here.

This HTML file is named MyHomePage.html, and I make it the default home page in the Safari Preferences under General. Note that when a home page is an html file, it has to start with file:/// and look something like this:

file:///Users/john/Documents/MyHomePage/MyHomePage.html

In order to create this file which is basically an HTML table, I use Sea Monkey (formerly Mozilla) which has a built-in HTML editor. When I edit, it looks like this.

What I did was organize my favorite sites by category, specify a table size, enter the name in the cell, and then use the "Link" button to enter the URL. I like this because all my favorite reading is laid out on a grid, and one click takes me there. And I can see where I’ve been because the link changes color until I reset Safari.

Another part of that HTML table has a link to older home pages of mine and a special page which I call "Exported Safari Bookmarks.html." The file always has this name. I use the shareware tools in this article to create it.

Sorting the Bookmarks
The first tool I use is BookDog.

Bookdog is a great shareware tool and costs just $15. I highly recommend it. While it’s possible to go into Safari’s bookmark file (~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist) and write your own Perl script to sort the XML bookmarks, that’s an exercise fit only for a Perl nut case. Bookdog does it in about a second.

By the way, Bookdog will sort Safari, Camino, and Firefox bookmarks. My sorted bookmark folders look like this. The entries inside are also sorted.

Note how I use an underscore in front of some key folders to make sure they appear first in the Safari bookmark bar even after alphabetization. Also, I like to keep these folders closed because I prefer to drag a URL to the desired folder rather than use Safari’s CMD-D function.

Exporting to HTML
When I have the bookmarks sorted, I use a tool called Safari Bookmark Exporter.

This program is free. It’s designed to export bookmarks for use with another Browser, but it also does a beautiful job of exporting Safari bookmarks as a linear, formatted, indented HTML file with clickable links. Its simple user interface looks like this:

The output is a very nicely formatted HTML file, the one I mentioned above, which I call Exported Safari Bookmarks.html. I always save it to a special folder with that name so that it’s always accessible from my own home page. Not only does this not take up space in the bookmark bar — which I like to reserve for folders, not files — but since it’s on the home page, I don’t need to place it in the bookmark bar of each Browser I use.

Searching

So here’s the payoff. SBE generates one single long HTML page and replaces nested folders with indented links. The very top looks like this:

Then I use the Safari search function (CMD-F) to look for key words. I prefer searching through this kind of page rather than having Safari dig into its own nested folders. I think it’s because I like to see more of the surrounding content. Also, when one clicks on the book icon to view Safari’s raw bookmarks, the character size controls are dimmed. With an HTML page, this is not true. Finally, this page always looks the same, no matter what Browser I’m using. And I don’t have to synchronize all my bookmarks between browsers so long as I use the same html table as a home page with that link to the exported bookmarks.

Summary

This really isn’t a complex process once everything is set up. It takes just a few seconds to launch Bookdog and alphabetize. Then it takes just a few more seconds to run SBE and export the latest set of bookmarks. Then I’m done and ready to search the kind of page I prefer. I find that perusing the exported bookmarks page is more interesting and illuminating for me than stepping through Safari’s Bookmark menu -> Bookmarks Bar with its submenu popups — which I don’t find very helpful. Like this:

The bottom line is that Safari has a lot of features and options. When combined with some neat software tools, you can build new things that fit your own needs and personality. It’s like Perl’s motto: "There’s more than one way to do it."

http://foldoc.org/?There’s+More+Than+One+Way+To+Do+It

All it takes is a rainy Sunday afternoon and a cat in your lap.

After writing last week’s Macspiration about using .Mac and iDisk to make an online photo gallery, I decided it might be a good idea to explain all those folders inside your iDisk.

When you open your iDisk by going to the “Go” menu and choosing “iDisk” and then “My iDisk,” you are presented with a window full of folders. In my opinion these folders can fall into three categories: Hands Off, Storage, and Downloads.

Hands Off
Hands Off folders are folders where important files are stored in relation to your .Mac account. These folders include “Library,” “Sites,” and “Web.”

“Library” stores files used for syncing your computer and/or others to .Mac. Syncing lets you share information like address books and bookmarks between computers so you don’t have to retype them. It also stores the same information on your .Mac account so you can access it away from your computer. (More on syncing in a future article.)

“Sites” and “Web” are very similar. Both store website files. “Sites” stores the files created for webpages you create using Homepage, while “Web” is where files for websites created and uploaded with iWeb are stored. For most people these are Hands Off folders. More experienced users might go into these folders to tweak their websites in another program other than Homepage or iWeb (for example Dreamweaver).

Storage
“Backup,” “Documents,” “Groups,” “Movies,” “Music,” “Pictures,” and “Public” are what I consider Storage folders.

“Documents,” “Movies,” “Music,” “Pictures,” are basically folders you can drop any files into to store on your iDisk. The titles are there as suggestions to help with organization, but you can really put any file in these folders.

“Backup” can be used like the folders I just spoke of, and it is also where Apple’s Backup Software (free with .Mac) will store your backed up files.

“Groups” is similar to the folders listed above, but a little different. A feature of .Mac is that you can set up groups with your friends . The “Groups” folder is where you would store files related to the group and to share with that group. For more information on this folder click the “About this Folder” file in the “Groups” folder.

“Public” works a little differently than the other folders. While the other folders are only accessible to you, the “Public” folder is accessible to anyone who has your .Mac account name. Instead of choosing “My iDisk” from the “Go” menu, you could choose “Other User’s Public Folder…” You will be asked for the member’s name, and entering it will open their public folder. Only put files in this folder that you don’t mind the world having access to. This is great for sharing documents and files that are too big for email.

Downloads
Technically, all the iDisk folders are download folders, since you would download a file from them to your computer. However, the “Software” folder is a true Download folder. The “Software” folder contains two folders: “Apple Software” and ”Members Only.” The “Apple Software” folder contains software that you can easily get off Apple’s website. For example, the AppleWorks updater is there now. This folder is accessible to Members and those with a .Mac trial account.

The “Members Only” folder is just that, for members only. It usually contains freebies from Apple. You can find GarageBand JamPacks in there,and .Mac related software. Companies sometimes give away games, and other stuff in this folder also. Right now there is an ebook you can download. I haven’t seen games in there in a while, but they have been there.

To download anything from the “Software” folder, just click and drag the file to your Desktop. Once the progress bar disappears it is on your computer.

Your iDisk is a great place for storing backups of important files. Just remember, your iDisk space is not unlimited. The more Homepage and iWeb files you have, the less storage space you have. Your .Mac email account takes up space also (I’ll talk about customizing this space in a later article). I only store small, important files on .Mac, because I primarily use it for email and my website. You might not care about a website and want more space for files. It is up to you.

More on iDisk and .Mac to come!

The best way to learn your Mac is to watch someone show you how to do it. In this first Teach Me MyMac, Donny looks at how easy it is to email a webpage.

NoteBook 2.1
Company: CIRCUS PONIES SOFTWARE, INC.
Price: Standard License $49.95 (US)
Academic License $29.95 (US)
Family Pack License (3 users): $99.95 (US)
http://www.circusponies.com

I am such a neat freak. On both my Mac and PC I have folders logically organized for everything I need. With the spotlight technology that comes built-into Mac OS X Tiger, things can’t get any better then that.

But I have always wanted a software that can handle my daily web surfing, for throwing all those small snippets of clippings in a folder to be organized later. But things tend to get a bit messy, which can drive me crazy.

So I started my online research to find the best information organizing software for the Mac. I have been surfing the web looking for product reviews and comparisons, with no luck. So I decided to try everything myself, using my Seek & Try tactic.

StickyBrain 4:
I downloaded the trial version. It turns out that StickyBrain was considered as the crowned king of information organizing softwares, but it was too cluttered for me. I wanted something simpler, straightforward looking. But what I got was a jumbled up Mail app wannabe application.

Another thing I didn’t like about StickyBrain was it gave me a sense that it was forcing itsself over OS X, and I don’t like wise-ass software to act like that. Uninstalling StickyBrain, although easy, reminded me of the Windows approach to computing; you had to run the installer software to uninstall it, so I guess that Chronos never believed in drag & drop. (Comment to Windows users: Drag & Drop to the trash is how you uninstall software on a Mac, another reason to switch).

VoodooPad 3:
So back to square one, looking on the web for information organizing software. I ran across VoodooPad 3, with its wiki look and feel. It was an unsophisticated to organize your scraps, it was more of a text editor on steroids. It wasn’t what I would call an information organizer, maybe a teenager would get a kick out of it, but it wasn’t for me.

iOrganize:
I found iOrganize, cute, lightweight, but yet an “ultimate” StickyBrain wannabe.

K.I.T. (Keep It Together):
K.I.T. was kinda okay, if it was a beta version, which it wasn’t, for a final product it needed a lot of work to be perfect.

Let me remind you that I wanted a place where I can toss away all my clippings without feeling guilty. I ran across NoteBook, I downloaded it and got a license key to run it free for 30 days. I bought the software a day later, as it was exactly what I was looking for and more…

NoteBook 2.1:
It is simple, straightforward, powerful, and feature-loaded. I read its user guide to find more functions then I imagined I needed.

NoteBook looks like a real life notebook, you simply drag anything onto one of its pages and it will store it. And when I say anything I mean anything, you name it: pictures, movies, sounds, text, HTML, PDFs, links, and folders, they even have a specs page that shows all the formats it can take. Working with NoteBook was like pulling a snippet you come across out of your Mac’s screen to a table-side real notebook. It is amazing.

You can create a clipping service on any page in your NoteBook, which will add an option to your contextual menu to clip anything in and snap to that designated page without firing up the application. It also gives you an option to edit that clipping before you send it off to the page you want.

Although you can’t sync a NoteBook page to your Palm PDA, you can add pages to your iPod, and I guess more people own iPods then Palms. I even went ahead and synced the places I need to visit on my next Malaysian trip on my iPod so they would be there when I need them. I think this is quite cool, walking around a new city looking around and exploring while listening to your favorite music on your iPod and looking up information on its screen.

I think if one day a better information organizing software would come along and beat NoteBook, it will be created by Apple and no one else, because NoteBook gives you a feeling of seamlessly working with a Mac.

NoteBook is a must have to any Mac neat-freak.

MyMac.com Rating: 5 out of 5
Copyrights © 2006 Mazen Al-Angary, All Right Reserved.

We are in for a heat wave in Vermont this weekend. The "eye on the sky" on Vermont Public Radio says this is the first official heat wave in several years. That makes it time for that old debate as to whether it makes any sense to own an air conditioner in Vermont. When Small Dog Electronics was up at my house we had so many people and computers in our office that we really had to have AC. I think most of the heat was generated by the computers, because the winter heating bills were a lot lower than they are now. When we moved the company to our current headquarters in Waitsfield, I ended up giving the air conditioners to my mom because I am of the theory that AC is not needed in Vermont. I guess we’ll see this weekend if I have to sleep in the basement. Actually I do have some passive air conditioning, first of all my house sits on the side of Prickly Mountain and we almost always have a breeze but I have also rigged it up so I can blow the cool air from my cellar upstairs using the fans from my heating system.

We had a great weekend last week for the Mad River Run & Rally and the Highland Games here in Waitsfield. Hapy convinced Artie to join the games and loaned him one of his spare kilts. It was funny to see these two guys in kilts. Artie was in the lightweight class and Hapy was in the heavyweight class so the kilt Artie borrowed was wrapped about his waist about 5 times. Art is now ranked #17 of the 40 amateurs in the USA. Not bad for his first meet!

My grandkids and their parents came over on Sunday and while I was working on my motorcycle doing some upgrades, my son-in-law, Ismael was upstairs watching the World Cup. Every now and then I’d hear some shouting upstairs and I’d run up and check out the action. I know that football is perhaps the most popular sport in the world and I have to respect that but I find it pretty boring. When the game came down to penalty kicks it sure seemed like an anticlimactic (and lame) end to a close fought game.

In a victory for press freedom and a good indication of the growing influence of blogs and on-line news sources a California appeals court ruled that the Apple-oriented blogs(Appleinsider and PowerPage) that had been sued to reveal their sources of a leak about an upcoming Apple product enjoyed the same right to protect their sources as traditional reporters. Apple let it be known this week that they were not going to pursue this case any further. I do not think this is a green light to steal confidential company information and I fully expected and support Apple’s rights to protect that information, however, it does recognize that on-line journalism is a vital part of the freedom of the press today.

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Nike + iPod: First Impressions By Ed @ Smalldog.com

This article began as a post on Small Dog Electronics blog, Barkings. You can read this here:

http://blog.smalldog.com/

I love listening to music when I run. I experience music best that way. Once I ran the Burlington marathon while listening to an old 2nd generation 20 GB iPod. That poor iPod froze halfway though the event, at about mile thirteen. I couldn’t believe it – I thought I was sunk, when suddenly, a couple of miles later, the iPod came back to life. My spirits lifted and my pace picked up. I created a 4 1/2 hour playlist for that marathon.

When the Nike + iPod kit was announced, I knew I had to try it. Besides being an occasional runner, I’m also an information junkie. The idea of carefully tracking my walks and runs through my computer was too good to pass up. About a month ago, I went on the waiting list for the Nike + iPod kit, and a new pair of Nike + Ready Zoom Moire sneakers. The big red box arrived yesterday.

The $29 Nike + iPod kit contains a small receiver that attaches to an iPod nano, and a bean-sized pedometer with built-in transmitter that goes into your shoe. When you walk or run, the transmitter in the shoe communicates with the receiver on the nano, relaying information about how fast, far and long you’ve walked or run. When you sync the nano with your computer, this information goes into iTunes, and can be uploaded to the Nike + website, allowing you to track your progress, and set running or walking goals in an interactive graph. You can see a demo here:

http://www.nike.com/nikeplus/

Nike hopes you will buy their special Nike + Ready shoes to go with the Nike + iPod kit. The Air Zoom Moire shoes I chose feature a love- it-or-hate it red, black and white color scheme and futuristic design. They are very light weight, and so far, extremely comfortable. When I put these shoes on, I want to run. I typically don’t wear Nike shoes, so it’s great to try them out. Right now there are five shoe styles available for men, and six for women.

The Nike + Ready shoes feature a special pocket under the foam insert inside the shoe, over the sole, for placement of the transmitter. The pocket seems very secure, and Nike says it’s "virtually unbreakable." So far, I haven’t had any problems with the transmitter popping out of it’s pocket.

I can confirm that the Nike + shoes aren’t required for the transmitter to work. You can cut a hole into the inside sole of your existing fitness shoes, or otherwise figure out how to situate the transmitter in your shoes, and the system will still work. It seems the transmitter is designed to go under your foot, not on top of it or to the side of the foot.

To use the Nike + iPod kit, you have to use iTunes 6.0.5 or higher, and an iPod nano with iPod software 1.2 or higher. These are both free software updates from Apple.com.

Once your software is up to date, and you attach the Nike + transmitter to your iPod nano, you’ll notice a new menu on the nano that says "Nike+iPod." Here is where you choose your workout goal (time, distance, calories, or open ended) adjust settings, and review previous workout session details, including your personal best.

Apple has long been rumored to incorporate spoken feedback into the iPod; this would be great for driving, for example, when you can’t read the iPod’s menu. The Nike+iPod software is the first officially recognized iPod software that features spoken feedback.

When you want to start a workout, browse to "Nike+Plus" on the nano, then choose the playslit you want to listen to while working out. A male or female voice (your choice) says "Press menu to begin workout." When you pause your workout, the voice says, "Pausing workout. Press the menu button to resume workout." When you are halfway through a timed workout, the voice says "You are at the halfway point of your workout," and proceeds to tell you how far, fast and long you’ve run, and how long you have left to go.

You can access this information at any time during your workout by pushing the menu button on the nano.

The voice that reads the workout information sounds human, and is not at all like the Mac system voices (Vici, Agnes, Princes, and Kathy).

One annoyance: when you are working out and using the Nike+iPod features in the nano, you can’t browse individual song titles, only playlists. This will force me to be more creative with the song selections in my playlists. Also, when you are working out, and you change the playlists you’re listening to, the voice comes on and says "workout paused." I couldn’t find a way to change the playlist I was listening to without pausing the workout. The workout resumes when the music starts playing.

Everyone who has seen this system in use has been impressed. There is something magical about interacting with the iPod through movement, without wires. I’m having fun tracking my movement throughout the day – and I admit, seeing bold graphs of how much (or little) I’ve moved makes me want to move more.

So far, the Nike + transmitter only works with the nano – it does not work with the iPod video, and it does not work with any 4G iPods, including the iPod mini. Perhaps an update will fix this in the future.

Remember when you were a kid, and you’d get a new pair of shoes that made you feel like you could run fast enough to fly? That’s how I feel about my new Nike + shoes, and the Nike + iPod kit.

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Resetting Safari By Don @ Smalldog.com

I use Safari for about 95% of my browser needs. Sometimes I will launch Safari on a shared or public computer and will use it to check my dotMac account or some of the private Small Dog internal sites. Even though all of those sites are password protected, it doesn’t make any sense to leave those addresses in the history, cache or have cookies installed on the public machines.

Fortunately, Safari has a handy feature that will clean all that up. If you go under the "Safari" menu item and choose "Reset Safari" Safari clears the history, empties the cache, clears the Downloads window, and removes all cookies. It also removes any saved user names and passwords or other AutoFill data and clears Google search entries. In addition, any open windows are closed and a new window opens. The new window has a new history for the Back and Forward buttons and the SnapBack buttons.

One thing to keep in mind is that resetting Safari may also remove cookies that are saved by other applications such as Sherlock.

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Restoring your iPod to Factory Default By Don @ Smalldog.com

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the 5 "R"s of iPod troubleshooting and repair. The last "R" was restore and several Kibbles & Bytes readers asked for more information about restoring their iPod to factory defaults.

Since the main library of your music is resident on your Mac or PC and not on your iPod you only really sacrifice some time to restore the iPod and re-sync it with your computer if you feel you need to get a fresh start for the iPod. Here’s some instructions on how to restore your iPod to factory default condition. Remember, doing this procedure will erase all of the data on your iPod and you will need to re-sync to restore the music and other data. This procedure is for the Mac – there is a different but similar procedure for PCs but Kibbles & Bytes is for Mac folks so…

1) Put your iPod preferences to the default condition. That is, iTunes automatically opens whenever you connect your iPod. You can restore a Mac with USB if it is running 10.3.4 and your iPod has a dock connector. When restoring some iPod models with USB you will have to disconnect the iPod from the computer and attach it to the iPod AC Adapter to finish the restore (a graphic of a plug on the iPod will indicate if you have to do this). Some iPod models connecting via USB, including iPod mini (Second Generation) and iPod nano, do not need to be connected to the AC power adapter.

2) Surf over to http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/ and download the latest iPod updater or open the iPod Software Updater application that is on your hard drive. It’s in the Utilities folder, which is in your Applications folder. Open the iPod Updater showing the most recent date in the filename.

3) Connect your iPod to your Mac.

4) When the iPod becomes available, click Restore. An alert box appears to confirm you want to restore iPod.

5) A dialogue box will appear prompting you to enter an administrator’s name and password.

6) A progress bar appears on the computer screen.

7) When the restore process on the computer has finished, close the iPod Updater and look at the screen on the iPod. a) If you see an image of a wall power plug, connect your iPod to the AC adapter that came with it and plug it into a wall outlet and wait for the restore to complete. b) If you see a progress bar underneath the Apple logo, leave the iPod connected to the computer. c) If you had to put iPod into Disk Mode before restoring, the iPod screen may display "OK to Disconnect" and you may need to reset iPod.

After the restore is complete and the iPod is connected to the computer, the iTunes Setup Assistant window will appear asking you to name your iPod and choose your syncing preferences similar to when you connected your iPod for the first time. That’s it! Your iPod has been restored to factory settings and updated with the music and playlists in your iTunes music library.

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Small Dog’s Server Power System By Don @ Smalldog.com

Mark Engelhardt, Small Dog’s web architect and board member has designed a power system for our server farm that is pretty interesting. It’s on my mind this week because I am about to buy a new larger back-up generator for the system. I thought you might be interested in a simple explanation of how we maintain power even during power outages.

All of our servers, our phone system and other critical electrical systems are run from batteries. We have a large bank of deep-cycle batteries that are normally charged using sophisticated battery chargers. The DC power from the batteries is sent through DC to AC inverters and then supplies power to the server load. In normal operation, the batteries are being trickle charged and the system works great and provides a filter from potentially damaging voltage spikes. When the power fails, the battery bank provides as much as 4-6 hours of back-up power before under the current system the low voltage alarm goes off and Morgan’s pager starts vibrating.

With the smaller generator we have now, Morgan or one of us that lives closer to the office, has to come in and start the generator and use it to charge the batteries. It is not large enough to charge both battery banks so it is a laborious project and if the power is out for an extended period of time, Morgan is basically camping out here with flashlights. We are now installing a larger gen-set with automatic transfer switch so that process will be a bit easier.

You can buy a UPS system like this but it is quite expensive. WIth Mark’s engineering and the help of our friends across the lake at Shipstore (www.shipstore.com) we have a first class back up system that will keep Smalldog.com up and operating throughout any power interruption.

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Haste Makes Waste By Holly @ smalldog.com

In life there are many lessons, many of which have given birth to age old cliches. One I recently re-visited is "Haste Makes Waste".

I use a Griffin iTrip with my first generation iPod mini. This weekend I was in rush and hastily removed (or more appropriately yanked/ripped) the iTrip from the mini and tore off part of the little connector set on the bottom. Let me assure you the iTrip needs those to work properly. Without them instead of music you get a horrible screeching sound from the radio.

Now what to do? I use my iPod a lot in the car. However, I own two, yes TWO, types of iPods; the iPod mini and iPod photo. I wondered if there was an FM transmitter that would work for both, BUT I couldn’t block the lighter outlet because I liked to use an iPod charger. Well these two requirements were making things a little tricky, but then I saw on Small Dog’s pricelist Griffin’s Auto iTrip. It works with 3rd Generation iPods, iPod minis, 4th Generation iPods, iPod photo/color, iPod nanos, and the iPod with video through the dock connector on the iPod, AND it has it’s own charger!

Griffin iTrip Auto (Dock connect) FM Transmitter/Auto Charger – $44

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/product/39557/mymac

Wow. It looked like my prayers were answered but then I got to thinking about how I’d been just placing the iPod on the car seat. It has a tendency to slide around. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to have it level with the car dashboard, which would keep it out of view while looking out the windshield? Of course, I couldn’t use the lighter outlet because of the Auto iTrip so what were my options now?

That’s when I discovered the perfect iPod auto bundle. The Griffin Auto iTrip with Small Dog’s iPod vent mount with The Gripper in black!

Small Dog iPod Vent Mount (requires "The Gripper") – $5.50

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/product/35530/mymac

Small Dog iPod "The Gripper" (Black) – $11.00

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/product/38989/mymac

Small Dog iPod "The Gripper" (White) – $11.00

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/product/35533/mymac

Folks, this is truly a good deal. The iPod is within easy reach and view. You can charge and play the iPod with the same item. PLUS you can change the iTrip station very quickly with the up/down wheel on the iTrip LCD. No more scrolling about in the iPod!

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New Products

.Mac with iWeb Visual QuickStart Guide 2nd Edition – $19.99 In this completely updated edition to .Mac, leading software application expert David Reynolds uses crystal-clear instructions and friendly prose to introduce you everything that’s new. Filled with step-by-step, task-based instructions and loads of visual aids, this book explains how to publish your photos, movies, podcasts and blogs on the internet with iWeb; share your photo albums in iPhoto as a photocast; access your files from anywhere with iDisk; keep all your Macs in sync with another with .Mac sync; and more!

http://www.smalldog.com/product/40915/mymac

Googlepedia: The Ultimate Google Resource – $23.99 you want to learn and ultimately master Google’s web and software tools beyond what information can find through their help files? Well Googlepedia shows both casual end-users and professional web developers how to get the most out of the Google search site and Google’s powerful tools.

http://www.smalldog.com/product/40930/mymac

Macs on the Go! Mobile Computing Guide – $19.99 Now that you have a Mac laptop, you have everything you need to be a Road Warrior — a mobile computing expert. Grab your Mac laptop and let John and Robin show you how to realize the full potential of mobile computing. Be productive, be creative, or just have a lot of fun while you’re on the go! Whether you’re traveling from one room to the other, from home to office, or even to another country, Macs on the Go! shows you how to take advantage of the power of mobility.

http://www.smalldog.com/product/40917/mymac

Targus Eyelet Security Lock for iPod – $18.99 The Targus Eyelet Security Lock for iPod is a unique adapter lock designed specifically to work hand-in-hand with legacy or pre- installed Targus cable locks, or third-party cable locking solutions. It provides end-users an affordable way to secure their iPod while at work, without having to purchase an entirely new, more costly solution.

http://www.smalldog.com/product/40928/mymac

Targus Mobile Security Lock for iPod – $37.99 The Targus Mobile Security Lock for iPod is a perfect solution for those who need to secure their iPod on the go. The dock connector is easy to use and provides mobile protection for your device. This lock is compatible with iPods that have a dock connector. The 3-digit combination lock can be reset by the user at anytime for increased security. The stylish and unique housing allows for easy storage. Ideal for kids, students, mobile listeners, back packers and anyone on the go.

http://www.smalldog.com/product/40929/mymac

Kensington RDS iPod FM Transmitter Car Charger – $69 While listening to your iPod, see the song and artist’s name displayed on car stereo using our patent-pending RDS FM Transmitter/ Car Charger for iPod.

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Specials!

Here are the specials for this week, valid through July 21 or while on-hand supplies last. Be sure to use the wag URL to get this special pricing.

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Micro Accessories 65 Watt AC Adaptor for PowerBook or iBook – only $29.00!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/wag16805/mymac

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Ogio Jackpack Redline Messenger Bag – with Free Shipping- $40.00!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/wag16806/mymac

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Brenthaven Edge II Black case 15.4in for MacBook Pro – FREE 3-day express shipping – $49.95!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/wag16812/mymac

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Brenthaven Edge II Light Blue case 15.4in for MacBook Pro – FREE 3- day express shipping – $49.95!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/wag16813/mymac

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EZQuest Monsoon 300gb Firewire 400/USB 2.0 drive – $152!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/wag16782/mymac

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Two gigabytes of RAM for any Intel Mac – $196!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/wag16677/mymac

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Apple iPod 40gb Clickwheel with Dock, Griffin iTrip (Dock connector), Kensington Case – $224!

http://www.smalldog.com/wag16778/

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iBook 14" G4/1GHz 768 MB RAM/40 GB/Combo/AP, Airport Extreme Base station, Sling case – $1099!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/wag16798/mymac

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iBook 14in G4/1GHz 768 MB RAM/40 GB hard drive/Combo drive, Airport Extreme Card – $949!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/wag16797/mymac

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MacBook 1.83, Canon iP1600 Printer, Belkin Surge Protector, USB Cable for printer, Ogio Case – $1189!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/wag16817/mymac

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PowerBook 15in G4/1.67GHz 512/80/Super/AP/BT (r), MS Office 2004 – $1479 PLUS $50 Rebate!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/wag16779/mymac

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MacBook Pro 15in 2.0GHz 1gb/100/Superdrive (r), Plus 3-year Applecare Protection Plan – $2189!

To order: http://www.smalldog.com/wag16803/mymac

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Have a great summer weekend and thanks once again for reading Kibbles & Bytes. Be sure and let Ed, Holly or myself know if you have any suggestions for topics you would like to see us cover in future issues. We know that Kibbles & Bytes is a great opportunity to communicate with our customers and we are committed to bringing you interesting stories, reviews and commentary!

Your Kibbles & Bytes crew,

Don, Ed & Holly

Trouble in paradise? Seems so, as Chad has problems with his new MacBook, and Tim seemingly does as well with his MacBook Pro. Also this week, a new feature from titled Fenestration by David Cohen, Dashboard Minute with Guy Serle, Speedy Review by Robert Hazelrigg, and NoSnooze by Nemo.

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