UGN Info Manager UGN Info Manager
In an article on InfoWorld, Tom Yager sayst that "the companies unwittingly and reluctantly help the market shed its addiction to low expectations." (Don't think Apple does much unwittingly." Recently both companies shipped new products. AMD shipped its dual-core Opteron and Athlon 64 X2 server and desktop processors on April 21. Apple of course, shipped Mac OS X 10.4 a few days later. He also says "...AMD and Apple both implement their technologies with 100-percent consistency across notebook, desktop, and server products.
...Interestingly, they approach I/O the same way: They use the uniquely fast and scalable HyperTransport bus technology invented by AMD." He thus makes the assumption that AMD and Apple will eventually work together. But then, we heard that about TiVo and Apple too. Read the full story at: infoworld.com
To my knowledge in the past, only the full version of Adobe Acrobat would let you get images out of PDF documents. PDF Image Extractor can be used to get images and save them to a disk, or even converting them to other formats. Download the $9.95 shareware program at: cristallight.com
During a discussion about spyware and cookies on the AUGD discussion list Christina Zeeh posted one of the more complete and informative one-page articles we've read on the topic. Must reading for all computer users!
Apple may have lost Virginia schools, but they picked up a nice contract in Georgia The Cobb County district's program, named "Power To Learn," plans for Apple to provide iBook G4s to every student and teacher in the district, starting with deployment this fall of more than 17,000 iBooks for teachers district-wide and students at four high schools designated as demonstration sites. Pending school board approval, the second and third phases of the program will equip all Cobb County high school and middle school students with iBooks beginning in 2006, resulting in a total deployment of 63,000 iBooks. ... see the full story...
It had to happen. I bought an iMac G5 just two weeks ago. Then, on May 3rd, Apple announced new machines with 2.0 GHz PowerPC G5 processors, built-in AirPort(r) Extreme and Bluetooth wireless connectivity and Mac OS(r) X version 10.4 "Tiger." And I really like wireless too. Read the full release at: www.apple.com
In this InformationWeek article, the staff writes about how AOL is now providing Blog tools to anyone that has an AIM account, even those who are not AOL members. The service was started two years ago for members, but now others can join in. You can register at: AIM.com and read the story at: www.informationweek.com
The Macintosh Business Users Society of Greater Philadelphia has announced the start of an annual scholarship program created to identify and reward students who show likely promise as future business-oriented Macintosh users. See: MacBUS Scholarship
Mac OS X Technology Guide to Automator by Ben Waldie is the essential guide to the Automator software included in Apple Computer's new Mac OS X Tiger. Automator
iClip productivity software for Mac OS X enables users to quickly store, organize, and access snippets of information without having to save them as entire documents. iClip lite is a free Dashboard Widget for Tiger... coming soon Tiger Ready iClip
(From Chicago Sun-Times) Andy Ihnatko says that Apple has 'shattered Windows with Tiger' in his latest column: "Apple's acting like a bunch of jerks about how much better they are at these things than anybody else. I mean, they're really rubbing Windows' nose in it with this one..." You can read the whole article at the Sun Times
In the Mac arena this week several dozen selected out of hundreds of upgrades for Tiger: iStitch, iBiz 2.4 time-billing, On-Target, iTaskX, CodeWarrior, TouchCAD 3D, Count PDF Pages, iMage, Ultralingua dictionary, Mellel WP, Grammarian spelling, dictionary, thesaurus, OnSync, Popcorn DVD Copier, iDive video management, FuzzMeasure, MMEmail Preview, Cyberduck FTP, Mail Fixer, RapidWeaver, OmniWeb, Yummy FTP, SafariSpeed, Intaglio, Bonjour, iListen, HotApp keyboard, Growl, xScope, EarthBrowser, Backup Simplicity, Retrospect and more. UGN Shareware
Brigadoon Software, makers of MacPhoneHome(TM) have launched a new version 3.0 of their theft deterrent software solution for Macintosh -- your Mac gets stolen, it calls home! Mac Phone Home
A lively, inspiring, and pragmatic approach to managing projects that draws on hard lessons learned from more than a decade of work in the industry. ... see the full story...
avoids unnecessary technical jargon and delivers straightforward guidance and instruction on everything Elements newcomers--and even power users want to know Read more...
covers the quintessential 'tricks' of image editing from switching faces on bodies to digital elastic surgery, to special effects makeup -- the most fun you'll have with PS Elements! ... see the full story...
The UG Network's Safe Netting department says: "this is an important message for all parents -- issues that should not -- cannot -- be ignored. You only have to look at one day's spam to see Rebecca Hagelin has good reason to be afraid. And you should be too. ... see the full story...
The Real Story behind the High-Rolling Hucksters Pushing Porn, Pills, Enlargements ... and the shadowy world of the people responsible for today's junk email epidemic. Read more...
In my humble opinion ... two pieces of email we received last week have increased my faith in the User Group ideals.
Over twenty years, my involvement in organizations such as the User Group Academy and Apple's User Group Advisory Board (UGAB) allowed me to help spread the MUG ideals and missions. Both the UG Academy Awards and the Grants programs were, in part, intended to leverage internalized group activities into externalized community awareness. Sadly, few groups grasped the concept with sufficient initiative to act. In 1999, more than half of the Mac groups registered by MNS and UGN (over 1,500) had ceased to exist, and by the turn of the century, the user group community was experiencing a severe decline in membership. These trends were due largely to lack of interest and a lack of initiative to do something about it.
Last week however, for the first time and quite a while, news reaches our desk of UGs taking on projects to step beyond the boundaries of their own internal membership.
The Macintosh Business Users Society of Philadelphia new annual scholarship program is a superb example of leveraging a group activity to benefit the greater community while raising community awareness and involvement. All MUGs should learn from this MacBUS program and see if its model can work for them as well. It's a simple program that can pay off in terms of attracting new members -- and revenue -- to the group.
The second piece of news appeared in the AUGD list with the Austin Texas Mac User Groups' plans to launch a community-wide "BEST OF" program tied in with the leading local newspaper. While this one is not launched yet, we'll follow it with great interest because it too is a textbook example of good PR leverage.
Our hats are off to both of these groups. Their programs are a very positive step toward growing and spreading MUG ideals and therefore their own groups' missions. They have recognized a valid technique of not only giving back to their communities, but for getting noticed as well.
There may be others, but these two have stepped up to the plate to get noticed. If you know of others, please let us know. We'd like to help tell the world. If your group sincerely wants to start a push to leverage externalism, let me know. I'd be happy to lend a hand in making it a success!
Fred :-) See: MacBUS Scholarship
This web site specialises in Mac games. They even have a great deal of free Mac games listed. Check it out at: macgamesandmore.com
"Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness and the word happiness would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness."
- C.G.Jung
"The power of imagination makes us infinite."
- John Muir
Have a great week... (See last week)
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