July-August 2008Double Click

Main Meeting Report

(If any Double Click member is interested in helping out with the newsletter, please contact one of the Double Click officers.)

Our July meeting included a Beginners presentation, a Q&A session, the yearly Double Click elections, the main presentation and ended with our monthly prize raffle. Attendance was about average.

The August meeting encompassed the annual Double Click picnic, which was very well-attended this year. We sincerely thank Mal Bertsch for hosting the picnic.

Beginners Session - July

Mac Web Information Sources

The Web has a wealth of information sources for the Macintosh. We dis-cussed a number of them at the July meeting.

Apple

What better place to start looking for information than at the “mother ship”?

http://www.apple.com/macosx/

From here, you can branch out to a variety of topics, or you can just enter a selected URL. For example, let’s move to the page for Apple’s iWork suite of applications:

http://www.apple.com/iwork/

If you want to check out Apple’s Pages ‘08 application, just click on the link on the iWork page or use this:

http://www.apple.com/iwork/pages/

Suppose that you’ve got a technical question. Go to Apple’s Online Support page for some answers:

http://www.apple.com/support/

Maybe you want to download an update to OS X. From the Support page, you can click on the Downloads tab, or you can use this URL directly:

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/

Going back to that technical question, Apple has an extensive number of discussion forums that you can access from its Apple Discussions page from its Support page or by using this URL:

http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa

New to the Mac or just want to brush up on some basic information? Check out Mac 101:

http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/

MacSurfer’s Headline News

This is an excellent site for Mac-related news and information. I find it so handy that I made it my home page for my web browser. I often find arti-cles here that give me ideas and material for the Beginners SIG. MacSurfer’s Headline News also has links to scores of “Tracked Sites” (such as MacFitIt.com, MacInTouch.com, Version Tracker, etc.). Use of the site is free. You can help support the site and get the ability to customize your view of the site’s extensive material by opting for the $30 annual subscrip-tion. The site continuously offers extended subscriptions to new subscribers for the same price. Here’s the URL:

http://macsurfer.com/

The Unofficial Apple Weblog

TAUW, as it’s often abbreviated, has a variety of Mac news stories and arti-cles. Find it here:

http://www.tuaw.com

TAUW also has an excellent Mac 101 section which it bills as “a crash course on everything mac.” You can reach the Mac 101 page via TAUW’s home page or by using this URL:

http://www.tuaw.com/category/mac-101/

My First Mac

I discovered the My First Mac website a few months ago. It has numerous articles and references for the new Mac user. Check it out at this URL:

http://www.myfirstmac.com/

MacWorld

MacWorld is one of the veterans in the Mac publishing business. It’s website is full of information:

http://www.macworld.com/

For MacWorld’s focus on help and tips, click on the Help & Tips like at the top of the home page, or use this URL

http://www.macworld.com/howto.html

MacWorld has also published several of what it calls its Superguides. These are PDF-based books containing (as MacWorld says) “packed with practical how-tos, in-depth features, tips and tricks, and more.” Each one contains over 70 to 90 pages of material and costs $12.95 for the download. While I don’t want to be a commercial for these guides, they do contain a lot of useful reference and learning material. Assess the Superguides page from the MacWorld home page or via this URL:

http://www.macworld.com/superguide/

Your Mac in a Minute

Your Mac in a Minute is a relatively new site. It’s offering some commentary on the Mac world as well as several training tutorials. Its author has worked for Apple retail and left in 2007 to begin private training. As he states, “This website is an extension of my passion for helping new users learn their Macs.”

http://yourmacinaminute.com/wordpress/

Mac OS X Hints

Not always for the faint of heart, this site offers a plethora of hints for your Mac ranging from customizing to troubleshooting. Take note, however, that many require the use of the Terminal program to enter Unix commands which affect system level functions. Some hints are simple and straightfor-ward, while others are quite involved. Find Mac OS Hints at:

http://www.macosxhints.com/

Macsimum News

As the site states: “Macsimum News is an online newspaper about all things Mac that features, news, reviews (software, hardware, movies, books and music), cartoons, polls and technical support information from their part-ners at Mac Owners Support Group (MacOSG)--an online Apple User Group.”

http://www.macsimumnews.com/

MacInstruct

MacInstruct is a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching people how to use their Macs, and it’s run by volunteers. It provides free tutorials on using your Mac. At the moment, the “How-Tos” section of the site is the most complete:

http://www.macinstruct.com/

Take Control eBook Series

Jim Macak has discussed the offerings on the Take Control website before, but it’s worth noting again. The eBook offerings here are first rate and well worth the cost, which is generally around $10 for the PDF file.

http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/default.html

October 19th Beginners SIG Presentation

In August, Double Click holds it annual picnic instead of a formal meeting, so the next Beginners SIG would normally be in September. However, I have another obligation for a couple of weeks just before Double Click’s September 21st meeting. So, although I hope to attend the meeting, I don’t expect to be able to prepare a topic for a Beginners SIG presentation in September. That means the next Beginners SIG presentation will be at the October 19th Double Click meeting.

-- Steve Parker

”Q & A” Sessions / Announcements

The July Questions and Answers session (as usual) covered a wide range of topics.

Double Click member Dan N. briefly discussed phone service via magicJack, which is a USB computer peripheral that, in combination with internet phone service from the related YMAX Corporation, allows one to make low-cost internet-based phone calls. The USB magicJack device holds both the software necessary to place internet-based telephone calls (via your high-speed internet connection) and the electronics which allow the attachment of a conventional landline telephone.

Viewing and saving internet video content was also discussed. Noted were:

• YouTube Downloader, a freeware software utility that will help you to download and manage your favorite video files from YouTube

• Perian, a freeware plugin that enables QuickTime application support for additional media types

Note: We would like to expand the meeting report coverage of his discus-sion and need someone to help take notes of the questions and answers during this session at our monthly meeting. If any member can do this for us on a regular or semi-regular basis, please volunteer!

Member Presentation

Double Click members have an opportunity to address their fellow members at a main meeting.

The “3 Minute Ticker” is an opportunity for you to tell the rest of us at the meeting about a great computer program or feature you came upon... or something that turned out to be a waste of money! You could tell us about your best (or your worst) computer purchase, hardware or software, or perhaps about a good or bad experience relative to computer service. Share it with the rest of us! As the title of this feature implies, members will have three minutes to tell their story. A limited number of speakers (one or two) will be featured each month. “Tell Us About Your Business” provides Double Click members an opportunity to introduce the group to their business in a five to 10 minute talk. Suggested points that you may wish to address would be: • are you the owner, or a key employee? • when did your business start? • what product or service does your company provide? • tell us about the Mac computers you use. • how can Double Click members help you?• what do you consider a good referral? Your membership in Double Click provides you access to computer expertise... now it may also improve your customer base. There may be customers for you right in the room! Members interested in presenting a “3 Minute Ticker” or “Tell Us About Your Business” talk should email the member talk coordinator, Jerry Smaglik, at <jsmaglik@wildblue.net>.

Main Presentation

“iMovie ’08: Video Production Basics”

Presented by Andrew Sears.

With the release of iMovie ’08, Apple sought to streamline basic video pro-duction with an entirely new way to import, sort, and view your video clips. These advances open a whole new field of view for the “amateur producer.”

Andrew demonstrated how to get those digital video clips out of the camera and into a well-polished production using iMovie ’08. Finally, he noted how to take the next step and share the finished movie with family and friends using Apple’s simple software solutions.

Andrew Sears is currently majoring in Visual Communications at Westwood College in DuPage, IL. Andrew has been working with non-linear editing, and A/V production for almost eight years, using a variety of editors includ-ing Final Cut Studio, Avid, Adobe Premier, and Apple’s iLife suite.

September 21st Meeting Preview:

“Yahoo Groups”

Presented by Chuck Floading.

Check the Double Click website for more meeting information:

www.double-click.org

This electronic newsletter is Copyright © 2008 by Double Click, Inc.