From marty.swartz at gmail.com Wed Feb 1 19:20:30 2012 From: marty.swartz at gmail.com (Marty Swartz) Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2012 21:20:30 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] excuse me, has this MacBook been stolen? Message-ID: Here's the strangest question you'll hear today. An impulsive acquaintance purchased a used 13" Intel MacBook via Craigslist. Turns out to be too small for the intended use, so now he wants to sell it. Being ex-law-enforcement and ex-military, he has a certain ... curiosity, bordering on paranoia. Today that is manifesting as "is there any chance that this is stolen property?" In our privacy-sensitive age, Apple won't tell him who the original purchaser is. Cops (local and state) have no indication that it is stolen. It's an odd question. Usually we are concerned with recovering our own gear, and the new service in iCloud is called "Find My Mac" for that reason. Does anybody have an app for "Where has THIS Mac been? " I told you it was strange... - Marty Swartz -- Never let your past experiences harm your future. Your past can't be altered and your future doesn't deserve the punishment. -Unknown -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120201/66a985ff/attachment.htm From dave at davesevick.com Wed Feb 1 20:19:46 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2012 22:19:46 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Facebook Files for IPO - WSJ.com Message-ID: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204879004577110780078310366.html Facebook Sets Historic IPO By SHAYNDI RAICE Facebook Inc. filed for an initial public offering Wednesday that could value the social network between $75 billion and $100 billion, putting the company on track for one of the biggest U.S. stock-market debuts of all time. The company hopes to raise as much as $10 billion when it begins selling shares this spring, said people familiar with the matter. Potential buyers got their first look at its financials Wednesday, which showed the company produced a $1 billion profit last year from $3.71 billion in revenues. The company derives 85% of those revenues from advertising, with the rest from social gaming and other fees. In just eight years, Facebook has become the world's social bazaar, where friends gossip, play games and swap 250 million photos per day. It has also emerged as a potent political tool, helping to topple regimes across the Middle East last year. But for all its success, the question remains just how Facebook will manage its growth into a mature, global business, keeping both advertisers and subscribers happy while balancing demands of privacy and profits. The filing left a few clues that Facebook's founder, 27-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, is worried about how wealth and public scrutiny may change the company's culture. At Facebook's offices, employees went about business as usual Wednesday, said one person, enjoying a lunch of lobster bisque, braised beef, Moroccan couscous and apple, cream and honey galette for dessert, said another. A stack of giveaway posters left in a kitchenette at Facebook headquarters read "Stay Focused & Keep Shipping," according to a photo shared by Facebook employees. Mr. Zuckerberg shared a photo on Facebook of the flyer on his desk. Looming a few months away is Facebook's giant offering, which would top rival Google Inc.'s 2004 IPO. It holds the record for the largest U.S. Internet IPO by raising $1.9 billion at a valuation of $23 billion. Among U.S. companies, only Visa Inc., General Motors Co. and AT&T Wireless have held larger offerings than $10 billion. While Facebook is growing fast?revenue grew 88% from a year earlier?the sales figures it released were lighter than some had expected. One widely cited outside estimate from research firm eMarketer pegged Facebook's revenue for 2011 at $4.27 billion. Still, Facebook's membership growth has been staggering. The company said in its filing that it has 845 million users globally, up 39% from a year earlier. The IPO is set to unleash a wave of wealth across Silicon Valley and yield potentially $100 million or more in fees for Wall Street banks managing the offering, including Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The company chose "FB" as its ticker symbol but hasn't decided whether it will trade on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq Stock Market. Mr. Zuckerberg had been famously reluctant to push forward with an IPO. In early 2010, he told The Wall Street Journal that he was in "no rush" for Facebook to go public. The CEO owns around 28% of the company and holds 57% of its voting share power, according to the filing. Mr. Zuckerberg will sell shares in the IPO and will use the proceeds to pay taxes, it said. The filing doesn't say how many shares the CEO intends to sell. People familiar with Mr. Zuckerberg's thinking said he has long been fearful of the damage an IPO could do to the company's culture. He wants employees focused on making great products, not the stock price, they said. Mr. Zuckerberg's thinking began changing when Facebook realized in 2010 that it would have more than 500 shareholders by the end of 2011, which would trigger a regulatory requirement that the company start publicly reporting financials. Mr. Zuckerberg decided it made more sense for Facebook to go public and reap some financial benefit from an IPO. Facebook also still faces questions about its commitment to its users' privacy, an issue that had dogged it since its earliest days. Despite a settlement last year with the Federal Trade Commission in which the company agreed to independent privacy audits for 20 years, privacy advocates worry about the vast trove of user data it owns. Mr. Zuckerberg has promised users he is committed to protecting their privacy. Facebook takes pains to mention the importance of privacy, mentioning the word 35 times in the filing, and even listing its "privacy and sharing settings" as one of the ways the company creates value. In a letter to potential shareholders, Mr. Zuckerberg?who has long eschewed the business side of Facebook?said he plans to continue focusing on building products, rather than sales growth. "We don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services," Mr. Zuckerberg wrote. "These days I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximizing profits." Overall, Facebook's annual revenue growth is slower than other tech companies who have staged IPOs recently. Groupon's revenue grew 695% for the nine months ended September 2011 from a year earlier. Zynga's revenue more than doubled for that same time period. Unlike some other newly public Web companies, Facebook is profitable, with 2011 profit up 65% from the year earlier period. But growth has its costs. The company's research and development expenses ballooned last year to $114 million in 2011 from $9 million in 2010, primarily due to growth in employee head count and equity compensation. Facebook's costs and expenses are going up faster than revenue. It employs 3,200 as of December, up from 2,172 a year earlier. Debra Williamson, an eMarketer analyst who had estimated Facebook's 2011 revenue at $4.27 billion, called the company's revenue "disappointing." But Kevin Landis, portfolio manager of Firsthand Technology Value Fund, Inc., which has bought Facebook shares in the secondary market, said he wasn't disappointed and hopes to buy more stock when Facebook goes public. "This is a company that has only just begun to scratch the surface of making money off those hundreds of millions of people getting on Facebook every day," he said. Social gaming has become an increasingly important part of Facebook's business. The company generated $557 million in revenue from partners such as Zynga who sell virtual goods last year. Facebook's revenue is still driven by online ads. The number of ads delivered on the site grew 42% and the average price per ad grew 18% over 2011 from 2010, according to the filing. The company attributed the improvement to a vast trove of information that allows marketers to "show their ads to a subset of our users based on demographic factors such as age, location, gender, education, work history, and specific interests that they have chosen to share with us on Facebook or by using the Like button around the web or on mobile devices." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120201/b5ee0f20/attachment.htm From dave at davesevick.com Thu Feb 2 06:11:11 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2012 08:11:11 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] =?windows-1252?q?Apple_OS_X_users_=96_it=92s_Security_Upd?= =?windows-1252?q?ate_time_again!?= Message-ID: <38C003D2-2538-4394-93BC-BF2229C65050@davesevick.com> http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/02/02/apple-os-x-users-its-security-update-time-again/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nakedsecurity+%28Naked+Security+-+Sophos%29 Apple OS X users - it's Security Update time again! If you're a Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) user, you'll need the 200Mbyte Security Update 2012-001, which requires you to be at the latest point release of that version first. (That's 10.6.8, which came out back in June 2011. You updated to 10.6.8 long ago, did you not?) If you're using Lion (OS X 10.7), you get 700MBytes to 1.4Gbytes (depending on what sub-version of 10.7 you are currenly using) of full-blown new point release, which takes you to 10.7.3. A reboot is required on both Snow Leopard and Lion. Apple's description of the security issues fixed in these updates can be found in Support Article HT5130. This sounds like the sort of update you would ignore at your peril. It includes 39 fixes, addressing 52 different Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) issues (plus one problem - various dodgy SSL certificates - not covered by a CVE identifier). 19 of the fixes are for problems listed with an impact of arbitrary code execution. That's vulnerability-speak for "could perhaps be used by a cybercrook for a drive-by infection." These now-patched exploitable vulnerabilities involved a wide range of file types. In most cases, simply using a data file could have been enough to expose you to the vulnerability, for example: previewing a font, listening to an audio file, watching a video, viewing an image, or reading a PDF document. Since data files aren't supposed to contain executable code - or, if they do, that code is supposed to be just-so-much harmless data - we quite reasonably treat images, podcasts, videos and so forth as implicitly safe for Macs and PCs. So cybercrooks adore remote code execution vulnerabilities which let them sneak program code onto your computer under perfectly innocent-looking cover. The crooks are willing to pay good money for data-borne exploits; you need to be willing to patch the underlying vulnerabilities as soon as you can. Over to you. Click on the Apple menu, choose Software Update..., and take it from there! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120202/55dd9072/attachment-0001.htm From charles at firthconsulting.com Thu Feb 2 07:27:47 2012 From: charles at firthconsulting.com (Charles Firth) Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2012 09:27:47 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Airport Utility 6.0 and 5.6 Message-ID: <98D1A650-322B-4440-9479-BAF7F18ACE32@firthconsulting.com> In addition to the security update and 10.7.3 released today, Apple also released Airport Utility 6.0 (which will pop up in Software Update) This version of Airport Utility sports a brand new look - basically the same as the Airport Utility for iOS. This includes some nice new features (like easily seeing what client devices are attached to what airport base station) but is also buggy, and frankly really annoying if you've got a large number of airports (like, for example, at a school or large business). It also doesn't support the older b/g Airports, only the new "n" ones. Fortunately, Apple has also released Airport Utility 5.6, which has some updates and supports the older Airports alongside the new ones, and has the older interface (much easier for large numbers of Airports) - it's not available via Software Update, but you can download it here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482 Frankly, I'd recommend installing both, and only using the new 6.0 version if you need to track down the client device to base station connection. In particular, 5.6 seems to work a lot better for updating firmware (which also had an update today) Charles -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120202/6c243ba6/attachment.htm From robertadonaldson at gmail.com Thu Feb 2 13:08:12 2012 From: robertadonaldson at gmail.com (Bob Donaldson) Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2012 15:08:12 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Apple security update breaks Rosetta Message-ID: If you are dependent on PowerPC applications on Snow Leopard, do NOT install yesterday's Apple security update. It breaks the Rosetta emulator those apps require. Bob Donaldson Staff Photographer Pittsburgh Post-Gazette bdonaldson at post-gazette.com 412-779-5860 Sent from my iPhone From robertadonaldson at gmail.com Thu Feb 2 17:04:27 2012 From: robertadonaldson at gmail.com (robertadonaldson) Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2012 19:04:27 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] More Apple Security Update breaks Rosetta.... Message-ID: I urge all of you to read this thread on MacInTouch.com of the crippling issues resulting from installing yesterday's Apple Snow Leopard Security Update. Many, many applications dependent on the Rosetta emulator for PowerPC applications are affected. http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/snowleopard/index.html#d02feb2012 Robert A. Donaldson robertadonaldson at gmail.com mobile: 412-477-9188 From ronladams7 at gmail.com Fri Feb 3 17:34:54 2012 From: ronladams7 at gmail.com (Ron_A) Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 17:34:54 -0700 Subject: [NPMUG] Apple revises Snow Leopard security update | Macworld.... "clunky again" Message-ID: http://www.macworld.com/article/165216/2012/02/apple_revises_snow_leopard_security_update.html#lsrc.rss_news Apple revises Snow Leopard security update by Dan Moren, Macworld.com Feb 3, 2012 4:57 pm Suffering from bizarre errors related to the latest Snow Leopard security update? Apple?s already on top of things. On Friday, the company released Security Update 2012-001, version 1.1, for Snow Leopard Macs. In its usual fashion, Apple only says that the update is ?recommended for all users and improves the security of Mac OS X.? But if we had to place a wager, Vegas-style, we?d guess that the update in question has been issued to replace version 1.0 of Security Updated 2012-001, released on Wednesday, which had some nasty side effects. Many users who applied the security update on their Snow Leopard found they could no longer use applications designed for PowerPC-based Macs, thanks to the fact that the update wreaked havoc on files crucial to Apple?s Rosetta technology. It seems likely that the update fixes that problem, although we haven?t yet confirmed it for ourselves. If the update fixes issues for you, let us know in the comments below. There?s no sign, however, of an update to fix the issues with the latest Lion update, Mac OS X 10.7.3, which saw some users having problems launching applications or experiencing weird textures. Security Update 2012-001 version 1.1 is available via Software Update, but as of this writing was not on Apple?s support downloads site. ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120203/85651bd6/attachment.htm From robertadonaldson at gmail.com Fri Feb 3 17:57:33 2012 From: robertadonaldson at gmail.com (robertadonaldson) Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 19:57:33 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Goodwill CRC update, Friday, February 3, 2012 Message-ID: Dear Mac friends: Many thanks to Charlie Hutchens, John Hamill, Marty Swartz, Dave Sevick, Noah Covert and his dad, Damon, for joining me today for our weekly workday at our Goodwill Computer Recycling Center "annex." It was good to see our friend Noah today after a prolonged absence due to his moving into middle school this year. He's now 11. It was also good to find out he's a lot more interested in our inventory of classic Macs that anyone else. Noah spent the day pulling them out from the nether regions of our space and plugging them in to see if they booted. Most did, which leads us to believe their previous owners sort of just quit using them as they acquired newer, speedier Macs. Here's one happy guy: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 020312_Noah_Covert.jpeg Type: image/jpg Size: 57657 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120203/aebb601d/attachment-0001.jpg -------------- next part -------------- Please note these Macs were obsolete when he was born. The newest one is seven years older than him. One final word about Noah. Never, EVER, play Macintosh trivia against him. I'll bet you don't know the variations in the power supplies of classic Macs, or the sizes and model numbers of cooling fans in a dozen different Macs. He does. Think of it as him saving your brain from having to remember this stuff. Today, our percentage of winners vs. losers greatly increased over the past few weeks. We refurbished 14 Macs and de-manufactured just three. Our all time total is now 3,217. None of them are Noah's classic Macs; they still need much work. Anyone with a 400k Disk Tools floppy, just holler out... Here's hoping this week's Snow Leopard Security Update didn't bite you, and your beloved copy of AppleWorks is still working. We'll have another workday next Friday, February 10. We hope to see you there! Robert A. Donaldson robertadonaldson at gmail.com mobile: 412-477-9188 From edjb at zoominternet.net Fri Feb 3 19:09:23 2012 From: edjb at zoominternet.net (Edwin Borrebach) Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 21:09:23 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] NPMUG Digest, Vol 74, Issue 2 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <381A862B-0462-4255-ACC0-CED9422A7114@zoominternet.net> Regarding messages 2 and 3, I had lost use of Photo Studio 4 and Panorama Maker 3, two programs I use a lot. The problem was fixed by this program as discussed as follows in the Macworld Daily News: The problem appears to involve several files changed by Apple in its latest patch; thankfully, affected users can attempt to fix the issue by using a patch developed by a group of system administrators at a Nebraska high school. The installer,RosettaFix, attempts to locate all the files that affect Rosetta and replace them with their pre-Security Update 2012-001 counterparts. Ed Borrebach On Feb 3, 2012, at 7:57 PM, npmug-request at davesevick.com wrote: > Send NPMUG mailing list submissions to > npmug at davesevick.com > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://davesevick.com/mailman/listinfo/npmug > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > npmug-request at davesevick.com > > You can reach the person managing the list at > npmug-owner at davesevick.com > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of NPMUG digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Airport Utility 6.0 and 5.6 (Charles Firth) > 2. Apple security update breaks Rosetta (Bob Donaldson) > 3. More Apple Security Update breaks Rosetta.... (robertadonaldson) > 4. Apple revises Snow Leopard security update | Macworld.... > "clunky again" (Ron_A) > 5. Goodwill CRC update, Friday, February 3, 2012 (robertadonaldson) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120203/94352d8f/attachment.htm From dave at davesevick.com Sat Feb 4 08:01:13 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2012 10:01:13 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] =?windows-1252?q?Feb_4_on_the_eve_of_Super_Bowl_=282006?= =?windows-1252?q?=29_=85_David_Pogue_of_the_New_York_Times_came_to_Pittsb?= =?windows-1252?q?urgh?= Message-ID: <2213B35A-7EDD-464F-9CA9-296B99C01AE9@davesevick.com> 2006, Feb 4 David Pogue came to Pittsburgh to speak to three Apple Users Groups about Tiger Mac OS X 10.4 .... L to R : Peter Carras (COWMUG), David Pogue (NYT) , Dave Sevick (NPMUG), Giancarlo Pitocco ( Penn State MUG ) Proceeds from the event ( approx $1900 ) held at the Carnegie Science Center, on the huge IMAX screen, went to The Center For Hope in Ambridge, where we once recycled computers. In the Feb 6, 2006 issue of the New York Times David Pogue wrote: A Computer and Some Hope By DAVID POGUE Published: February 6, 2006 This weekend, I spoke at a benefit for something called the Center for Hope in Pittsburgh. (The talk was at the Carnegie Science Center; in fact, my laptop was projected onto the Imax screen. You think you have a big screen? Try a 100-foot-tall monitor. The cursor's bigger than you are.) The Center for Hope is an ingenious project, the four-year-old brainchild of computer consultant Dave Sevick. He and other volunteers take people's old junker computers, clean them up, refurbish them and give them to Pittsburgh's neediest citizens when they show up at the Center for Hope's food kitchen. "They get a loaf of bread and a computer," Dave jokes. He soon discovered, however, that you can't just give people computers; you have to teach the recipients how to use them. So Dave's team also offers free training to the computers' new owners, scheduled to fit with the Pittsburgh bus schedules and other factors. So far, he's provided nearly 400 computers to area families (mostly Macs, since that's what Dave knows best). He prides himself, in particular, on the number of recipients who, now having a marketable skill, have gone on to land jobs and pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Just goes to show you: what the world needs isn't always money. It's time and attention. Here's wishing the best of luck to this program and others like them in cities across the country. ======= Note that as of Friday Feb 3, 2012 Bob Donaldson reports our total computers refurbished for community reuse at 3,217 A lot can happen in 6 years. Our history can be found here: http://computereach.com/history.html Thanks to all the volunteers for keeping this project at Goodwill going. Dave -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120204/ac2592cf/attachment-0001.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: all4.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 23987 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120204/ac2592cf/attachment-0001.jpg From ronladams7 at gmail.com Tue Feb 7 09:58:52 2012 From: ronladams7 at gmail.com (Ron_A) Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 09:58:52 -0700 Subject: [NPMUG] CARPE DIEM: Amazing Fact of the Day: Just Apple's iPhone Alone is Now Bigger Than All of Microsoft Message-ID: <46DE6674-A9C1-4840-817E-FCC4E801491E@gmail.com> http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2012/02/apples-iphone-alone-is-bigger-than.html Amazing Fact of the Day: Just Apple's iPhone Alone is Now Bigger Than All of Microsoft From Henry Blodget at Business Insider: "Apple's iPhone business alone is now bigger than Microsoft. Not Windows. Not Office. Microsoft. Think about that. The iPhone did not exist five years ago. And now it's bigger than a company that, 15 years ago, was dragged into court and threatened with forcible break-up because it had amassed an unassailable and unthinkably profitable monopoly. The iPhone also appears to be considerably more profitable than Microsoft. In the December quarter, Apple's iPhone business generated $24.4 billion of revenue. Microsoft's whole company, meanwhile, from Windows to Office to servers to XBox, generated $20.9 billion (see chart above). If we assume that Apple generates the same operating profit margin on its iPhone business that it generates on its overall business--38%--the iPhone business generated about $9.3 billion of profit in the December quarter. All of Microsoft, meanwhile, generated only $8.2 billion." MP: Let's hope that the Apple iPhone's phenomenal success doesn't trigger any government antitrust investigations, Congressional inquiries into "windfall profits," or legislation calling for a "Reasonable Profits Board" to control Apple's profits. ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120207/2e2c8589/attachment.htm From ronladams7 at gmail.com Tue Feb 7 12:30:58 2012 From: ronladams7 at gmail.com (Ron_A) Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 12:30:58 -0700 Subject: [NPMUG] The Reason Behind iPhone Fear | Cobweb Message-ID: <14443F77-6056-4E70-8C74-82D5A54837AD@gmail.com> Siri, be afraid, be very afraid?. http://www.boiseweekly.com/Cobweb/archives/2012/02/07/the-reason-behind-iphone-fear ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120207/5de19f88/attachment.htm From patrick at cranstoninc.com Wed Feb 8 06:54:48 2012 From: patrick at cranstoninc.com (Patrick Cranston) Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2012 08:54:48 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Programmer Needed Message-ID: <714CEDC3-47B3-40B7-B385-7833626D3F48@cranstoninc.com> Hi, I'm currently involved in project that requires some basic programming to trigger USB relays attached to the shutter releases of DSLR cameras. The project would probably take about 50-100 hrs to complete and has immediate availability. If you are a programmer or know a programmer that has an interest in the project please contact me. Sincerely, Patrick Cranston. From fstifel at verizon.net Thu Feb 9 08:19:11 2012 From: fstifel at verizon.net (Flaccus M. B. Stifel) Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:19:11 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] iPod Classic needed Message-ID: Does anyone have an iPod classic lying around they no longer need, maybe you've upgraded-- I have a good friend who is looking for one. If you can help, please email me off list. Thanks! Flacc -- Flaccus M. B. Stifel 2979 Clearview Road Allison Park, PA 15101-3157 (412)486-8067 From dave at davesevick.com Thu Feb 9 10:45:15 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2012 12:45:15 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Huffington Post: Steve Jobs FBI File Details Startling Information Message-ID: <8DC40686-5963-458D-9A72-9E82B176AC0C@davesevick.com> Steve Jobs FBI File Details Startling Information A 191-page file on Steve Jobs released Thursday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation includes more than two dozen interviews with scores of Jobs' colleagues,... Sent via iPhone 4S -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120209/e1c2902a/attachment.htm From ronladams7 at gmail.com Thu Feb 9 23:40:06 2012 From: ronladams7 at gmail.com (Ron_A) Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2012 23:40:06 -0700 Subject: [NPMUG] Apple again highlights Siri with new 'Road Trip, ' 'Rock God' iPhone 4S ads Message-ID: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/02/10/apple_again_highlights_siri_with_new_road_trip_rock_god_iphone_4s_ads.html ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120209/52508366/attachment.htm From Dave at davesevick.com Mon Feb 13 07:44:34 2012 From: Dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:44:34 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Mooresville School District, a Laptop Success Story - NYTimes.com Message-ID: <3391E3BD-4B45-4F77-BA27-893D3BFB6EC2@davesevick.com> Many thanks to Marty Swartz for passing this Feb 12, 2012 story from the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/education/mooresville-school-district-a-laptop-success-story.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1 Mooresville?s Shining Example (It?s Not Just About the Laptops) MOORESVILLE, N.C. ? Sixty educators from across the nation roamed the halls and ringed the rooms of East Mooresville Intermediate School, searching for the secret formula. They found it in Erin Holsinger?s fifth-grade math class. There, a boy peering into his school-issued MacBook blitzed through fractions by himself, determined to reach sixth-grade work by winter. Three desks away, a girl was struggling with basic multiplication ? only 29 percent right, her screen said ? and Ms. Holsinger knelt beside her to assist. Curiosity was fed and embarrassment avoided, as teacher connected with student through emotion far more than Wi-Fi. PBS story on Mooresville - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt-i--gBa48 Apple's page - http://ali.apple.com/cbl/pilot.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120213/aade2d20/attachment-0001.htm From robertadonaldson at gmail.com Mon Feb 13 17:48:02 2012 From: robertadonaldson at gmail.com (robertadonaldson) Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:48:02 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Goodwill CRC update, Friday, February 10, 2012 Message-ID: <5B18FAD0-9D15-4FB1-9AF5-1EC249E20FD9@gmail.com> Dear Mac friends: Many thanks to Charlie Hutchens, Rich Fitzgibbon, John Hamill, Marty Swartz, Dave Sevick, and Mary Jo Smiley for joining me last Friday for our weekly workday at our Goodwill Computer Recycling Center "annex." It was wonderful to see Mary Jo Smiley again after such a long time. She was able to work in a visit around her patient load on Friday. Our streak continues! We just can't figure out what's going right. It was another high-percentage week. We refurbished 13 Macs, mostly G4 Power Mac Towers, and de-manufactured just three. Our all time total is now 3,230. The stock of these high-quality donations is getting low, and we will soon turn our attention to several of the original iMac models. Just as good was the soup for lunch at Cafe Davio. Feb. 3 was a great clam chowder; last Friday was a delightful ham, bacon potato chowder made from scratch. We can't wait for lunch this week... We'll have another workday next Friday, February 17. We hope to see you there! Robert A. Donaldson robertadonaldson at gmail.com mobile: 412-477-9188 From ronladams7 at gmail.com Tue Feb 14 20:13:39 2012 From: ronladams7 at gmail.com (Ron_A) Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:13:39 -0700 Subject: [NPMUG] Cook: Apple will lead the way in improving working conditions | Macworld Message-ID: <4AFF88E0-5D91-4776-97B0-915FA91FE754@gmail.com> Successful companies that design and make things must always fight a natural devolution?. Apple is no exception. Generally (an opinion), the negative process goes as follows: -Everything starts with engineers that strive for the perfect product. Vision leads to excitement which leads to superior products. -The company goes public and the pressure to produce quarterly results becomes the priority. Finance and Marketing start to drive output. Implementation and execution becomes a problem. -Success and the Public Shareholder can lead to risk aversion. The legal department grows. -The organization reaches a size where the basic assumption is "we will always be successful" which leads to distractions. -Pressure from outside forces take hold to fix society and the planet. "Don't be greedy" -Eye is taken off the ball -The competition grins http://www.macworld.com/article/165380/2012/02/cook_apple_will_lead_the_way_in_improving_working_conditions.html#lsrc.rss_news Cook: Apple will lead the way in improving working conditions by Philip Michaels, Macworld.com Feb 14, 2012 4:55 pm Apple CEO Tim Cook defended his company?s record on working conditions for the employees that make the parts and assemble the products that Apple sells. And he noted that Apple is continually assessing how it does business, with an eye toward improving the lives of its workforce. Cook?s comments came during a wide-ranging session Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, in which the Apple CEO fielded questions from analyst Bill Shope on everything from iPhone sales to Apple?s vast cash holdings. But Cook?s comments on working conditions at assembly plants may have been the most noteworthy remarks to come out of Tuesday?s hour-long event. For starters, much of the financial data Cook covered on Tuesday had been discussed during last month?s quarterly earnings announcements. Also, Cook?s comments were the most extensive public statements an Apple executive has made on the issue of working conditions at Apple suppliers since a New York Times report on Chinese assembly plants. Previously, Cook had commented on the Times report in an email to Apple employees, and he issued a statement on Apple?s commitment to a safe, fair working environment in announcing the Fair Labor Association?s audit of final assembly suppliers earlier this week. ?No one in our industry is doing more to improve working conditions than Apple,? Cook told attendees at the Goldman Sachs conference. ?We are constantly auditing facilities, going deep into the supply chain, looking for problems, finding problems, and fixing problems. And we report everything because we believe that transparency is so very important in this area. I am so incredibly proud of the work our teams are doing in this area. They focus on the most difficult problems, and they stay with them until they fix them. They are truly a model for the industry.? Get the highlights of Tim Cook?s talk at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in our edited transcript of the event The issue is clearly one of importance to Cook, who was Apple?s chief operating officer before he was appointed CEO last year. But Cook noted Tuesday that his experience with factories wasn?t limited to his time as an executive?earlier in his career, he worked in an Alabama paper mill and an aluminum plant in Virginia. ?Apple takes worker conditions very seriously, and we have for a very long time,? Cook said Tuesday. While supply chain issues can be complex, Cook acknowledged, the company?s philosophy toward the people that assemble its products is very simple: Every worker has the right to ?a fair and safe workplace, free of discrimination, where they can earn competitive wages and they can voice their concerns freely.? Suppliers have to agree to that to do business with Apple. To that end, Cook touched on a few hot-button issues concerning worker treatment. On the issue of underage labor?a practice Cook called ?abhorrent??Apple?s goal is to eliminate it entirely from its supply chain. As detailed in this year?s supplier responsibility report, which Apple released last month, the company found no cases of underage labor at the plants responsible for final assembly of Apple products. Intentionally hiring underage workers is a firing offense, according to Cook. Apple also doesn?t let its suppliers cut corners on safety, Cook said, with the company focusing on every last detail when it audits a facility. ?If there?s a fire extinguisher missing from the cafeteria kitchen, then that facility doesn?t pass inspection until that fire extinguisher is in place,? he said. Excessive overtime is a focus of Apple?s supplier responsibility program this year. Apple caps its work week at 60 hours for suppliers. In January, the company began collecting weekly data on more than 500,000 employees in its supply chain. About 84 percent were in compliance with Apple?s cap, Cook said??significantly improved from the past, but we can do better. And we?re taking the unprecedented step of reporting this monthly on our website, so that it?s transparent to everyone what we?re doing.? Apple?s monitoring isn?t limited to workplace conditions. The company?s Supplier Responsibility Program also puts an emphasis on worker education and development, offering classes in subjects such as English and entrepreneurship. More than 60,000 employees have attended these classes, according to Cook, who noted that this enrollment number exceeds that of the largest public university in the U.S. This week, Apple asked the Fair Labor Association to begin inspections of its final assembly suppliers. Cook called the audit, which will include Foxconn factories in China, ?probably the most detailed factory audit in the history of mass manufacturing,? and said that he was looking forward to seeing the results. ?We know that people have a very high expectation of Apple,? Cook said. ?We have an even higher expectation of ourselves. Our customers expect us to lead and we wil continue to do so. We are blessed to have the smartest and most innovative people on Earth, and we put the same kind of effort and energy into supply responsibility as we do with our new products.? While working conditions and supply chain issues highlighted Cook?s talk at the Goldman Sachs conference, they weren?t the only topics covered Tuesday. Cook also touched on Apple?s most recent iPhone sales figures, in which the company sold 37 million phones during the October-to-December holiday season. ?It was a decent quarter,? Cook said, to the laughter of those in attendance. As big as that number might be, Cook sees the opportunity to make it even larger. He noted that Apple?s iPhone sales made up only 27 percent of the smartphone market and just 9 percent of the overall market for handsets. That means for every person who bought an iPhone last quarter, nine other people were buying some sort of other phone, be it a competing smartphone model or a more simple handset. ?The truth is that this is a jaw-dropping industry,? Cook said. ?It has enormous opportunity to it.? ?So what we?re focusing on is the same thing we?ve always focused on, which is making the world?s best products. And we think if we stay laser-focused on that, and continue to develop to the ecosystem around the iPhone then we have a pretty good opportunity to take advantage of this enormous market.? The iPhone is also helping Apple gain a greater foothold in markets where it previously hadn?t done a lot of business. The iPhone ?introduced our brand to people who had never met Apple before,? Cook said. Consider that in 2007?the year before the iPhone arrived in markets outside the U.S.?Apple tallied $1.4 billion in combined revenue from China, parts of Asia, India, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Those same markets generated $22 billion in sales for Apple last year. On the iPad front, Cook continued to show little concern about stepped-up competition for the iPad, particularly from lower-priced tablets. (Selling 55 million iPads in the two years since introducing the product probably goes a long way toward alleviating those kinds of worries.) ?Price is rarely the most important thing,? Cook said. ?A cheap product might sell some units and somebody may get it home and you know, they feel great when they pay from their wallets, but then they get it home and use it, and the joy is gone.? Cook was also unconcerned about the possibility that the iPad would eat into Mac sales, though he acknowledged as he has in past conference calls with analysts that Apple believes this is happening to some extent. ?The way that we always view cannibalization is, we prefer we do it than have somebody else do it,? Cook said. ?And so we never want to hold back one of our teams from building the absolute greatest thing, even if it takes some sales from another product area. Our high-order bid is, we want to please customers, we?d like them buying Apple stuff.? Other topics covered during Tuesday?s talk included: Apple TV: Reiterating the Apple TV sales figures Apple unveiled last month, Cook provided a little bit of clarity on why Apple describes the set-top box as a ?hobby.? ?We don?t want to send a message to you or our shareholders that we think that the market for it is the size of our other businesses,? said Cook, adding that the ?we?ve always thought there was something there? with the potential for a product like the Apple TV. Apple?s cash: Apple ended its fiscal first quarter with $97.6 billion in cash, fueling speculation that the company might buy back stock or issue a dividend in the near future. Pressed by Goldman Sachs?s Shope, Cook declined to spell out the company?s plans, even disputing the notion that Apple has held on to its cash. (?We?ve actually spent billions in the supply chain,? he said. ?We?ve spent billions on acquisitions and including the acquisition of [intellectual property].?) But Cook conceded that Apple?s cash holdings are a source of ?active discussion? among the company?s executive team. ?I only ask for a bit of patience, so that we can do this in a very deliberate way and make the best decision for the shareholders,? he said.? Succeeding Steve Jobs Asked by Shope how he hopes to leave his mark on Apple now that he?s CEO, Cook spoke quite passionately and deliberately about the company?s unique culture. ?And I?m not going to witness or permit the slow undoing of it, because I believe in it so deeply,? he said. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120214/50df2616/attachment-0001.htm From dave at davesevick.com Thu Feb 16 03:05:16 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 05:05:16 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Swiss Scientists Preparing To Launch "Janitor Satellite" To Clean Up Space Debris Message-ID: Many thanks to my son in law Tom Rusu, an aerospace engineer working at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, for passing this story on to us. NASA - NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center www.nasa.gov/goddard/ Fascinating video about "space junk" floating around the earth and the aerospace professionals using Apple computers (and PCs) in that research. Narrated by Swiss engineers. Tom uses a MacBook Air. :-) http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/02/15/swiss_scientists_preparing_to_launch_quot_janitor_satellite_quot_to_clean_up_space_debris.html Swiss Scientists Preparing To Launch "Janitor Satellite" To Clean Up Space Debris By Matthew Yglesias Posted Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012, at 8:31 AM ET Outer space is the final frontier of garbage collection. Decades of sending objects into orbit around the earth and beyond have litered the immediate vicinity of the planet with discarded objects and collision fragments that pose a threat to further exploration. But now scientists at the Swiss Space Center at the ?cole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne think they have the solution, a garbage-collecting satellite: This is an interesting, depoliticized version of the general issue that environmental degradation is tending to push out of the utopian economics launched by the industrial revolution and back toward something more like the diminishing returns economics of the classical world. If you posit a constant state of space exploration technology, then the growing debris problem would leave us actually moving backward in our ability to do things outside the atmosphere. We need substantial technological and organizational innovation just to stop the side effects of existing technology from strangling us. The larger and more consequential clean energy issue exhibits the same basic dynamic?we need to move forward with out electricity-generating technology just to avoid moving backward. YouTube: http://youtu.be/qTAv7TsnjzA?hd=1 ``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` Dave Sevick Apple Certified Support Professional Helping people use technology in Pittsburgh Western PA, WV, OH MD ... Since 1988 724.779.0099 mobile/office dave at davesevick.com http://www.davesevick.com ``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120216/dcdfbd13/attachment.htm From markd at borkware.com Thu Feb 16 09:54:56 2012 From: markd at borkware.com (Mark Dalrymple) Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:54:56 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" Message-ID: Hi All, Looks like Mac OS X will start doing the once-a-year update treadmill like iOS. I'll reserve my opinion on that :-) But figured folks here might find this interesting. Gruber has a scoop : http://daringfireball.net/ . It's currently in developer preview, with expected release summery. Cheers, ++md From ronladams7 at gmail.com Fri Feb 17 00:17:45 2012 From: ronladams7 at gmail.com (Ron_A) Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:17:45 -0700 Subject: [NPMUG] Apple sold more iOS devices in 2011 than all the Macs sold it in 28 years | asymco Message-ID: http://www.asymco.com/2012/02/16/ios-devices-in-2011-vs-macs-sold-it-in-28-years/ ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120217/3e24d1df/attachment.htm From robertadonaldson at gmail.com Fri Feb 17 15:53:49 2012 From: robertadonaldson at gmail.com (robertadonaldson) Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:53:49 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Goodwill CRC update, Friday, Febuary 17, 2012 Message-ID: <6D398F32-7814-48CE-BA5E-0FB764DF8189@gmail.com> Dear Mac friends: Many thanks to Charlie Hutchens, Rich Fitzgibbon, John Hamill, Marty Swartz, Bob Wray and Dave Sevick for joining me today for our weekly workday at our Goodwill Computer Recycling Center "annex." Today brought a wonderful surprise. In one of the donation bins this week was an original slot-load CD iMac box. Scrawled on the box in marker was "Computer-put on truck." What was left of the shipping label pointed to the defunct Apples for the Students program, which had a warehouse on Noblestown Rd. in Pittsburgh. The box had been opened, probably to look inside. And inside was a brand-new, still wrapped, circa 2000 350 mhz slot-load CD iMac, complete with all paperwork and software. The cords were still coiled and tied. The keyboard was still in it's plastic. And it has 64 mb of RAM and a 6 gb hard drive. It's never been turned on. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 021712_Marty_new_G3_iMac.jpeg Type: image/jpg Size: 52618 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120217/3b5a3c17/attachment-0002.jpg -------------- next part -------------- -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 021712_new_iMac_paperwork.jpeg Type: image/jpg Size: 44631 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120217/3b5a3c17/attachment-0003.jpg -------------- next part -------------- Our first inclination was to make a parody video of the unboxing of an antique iMac, but then we realized it would make at least a couple of Mac sites and possibly a sardonic mention on Daring Fireball. We just couldn't live with that kind of humiliation... So if you fancy yourself a collector, give us a holler. Goodwill would like your money.... :-) We ran out of luck on the workbench this week, and our high-productivity streak is at an end. We refurbished just six Macs to bring our all-time total to 3,236. We de-manufactured six others. We've exhausted our supply of G4 Towers, and now will turn our attention to those pain-in-the-you-know-what tray-load CD iMacs next week. Of course, we'll happily postpone that task if the the donation bins bring something better... We'll have another workday next Friday, February 24. We hope to see you there! Robert A. Donaldson robertadonaldson at gmail.com mobile: 412-477-9188 From patrick at cranstoninc.com Sat Feb 18 13:47:26 2012 From: patrick at cranstoninc.com (Patrick Cranston) Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:47:26 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Mac Graphic Designer / PrePress Technician Message-ID: Unity Printing, Latrobe has the current job opening. > Seeking detail oriented individual with a minimum of 3 years on the job graphics experience. Full time position with benefits and 401K. Thorough knowledge of electronic prepress, digital imaging and printing processes and procedures. Proficient in the following Macintosh/PC programs: QuarkXpress, InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. Apogee PDF workflow and Microsoft Office a plus. Submit resume to jmelle at unityprinting.com http://www.unityprinting.com/companyinfo/employment.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120218/fbeb241b/attachment.htm From dave at davesevick.com Sun Feb 19 17:48:33 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:48:33 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Apple's Mountain Lion Makes the Mac More Like the iPad - NYTimes.com Message-ID: <93EB8AF4-EC24-4551-9A6F-B77207D80E51@davesevick.com> http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/apples-mountain-lion-makes-the-mac-more-like-the-ipad/ Apple?s Mountain Lion Makes the Mac More Like the iPad Apple?s iPhones and iPads get most of the attention, but Apple is now directing the spotlight on the Mac. The Times?s technology columnist, David Pogue, keeps you on top of the industry in his free, weekly e-mail newsletter. Sign up | See Sample There had been rumors swirling that Apple was back-burnering the Mac, but that?s hard to believe after Thursday?s announcement: from now on, Apple will update Mac OS X once a year. It will start this summer with Mac OS X 10.8, code-named Mountain Lion, only a year after the Lion version was released. Now you?ll have to decide once a year whether or not to succumb to paying annually the $30 (or whatever Apple winds up charging) for the privilege of remaining current. The real shocker, though, is that for the first time, Apple decided to give tech reviewers an early, early version of Mountain Lion ? not just months before its release to the public, but even before its release to its developer (programmer) community. When Lion came along last summer, the big changes were all about making the Mac more like an iPad. Trackpad gestures simulated the multitouch gestures on an iPad screen. Lion features like Full Screen mode, Auto Save and Launchpad are total iPad rip-offs, too; if Apple hadn?t stolen these features from itself, it would surely be suing for copyright infringement. Well, don?t look now, but Mountain Lion brings even more of the iPhone/iPad features to the Mac. The juiciest payoff here is the suite of Mac apps that now mimic what?s on the iPhone/iPad, like Reminders, Notes, Messages and Game Center. Through your free iCloud account, all of these apps are synced instantly and smoothly across all your Apple gadgets. On the Mac, you type a reminder to yourself; it appears simultaneously on your iPhone. Notes is cool: you can add photos to your notes, or change the font styles and sizes. (The font and size changes sync over to your iPhone/iPad, but not photos.) You can also pin a note to your desktop to make sure it grabs your attention. Messages is particularly awesome. Now you can type little messages ? or shoot photos or videos ? to anyone else with an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Mountain Lion Mac, right from your computer. These may feel like text messages, but they?re free and don?t involve the cellphone company. And because everything is synced up, you see the same conversation thread on all your gadgets. If you started a chat with your boss on the phone, you can get home from work, sit down at your Mac and see the whole transcript so far. This new Messages app replaces the venerable iChat. Or, actually, adds onto it; all the old iChat features are still there. And you can download an early version of this app from Apple?s Web site. Twitter is now built into many Mac programs, like Safari, iPhoto, Photo Booth, and Quick Look, so you can tweet almost anything. A Share button is built into many Mac apps now, too. For example, in the Safari Web browser, you can click it to share a Web page via Mail, Messages or Twitter. In Notes, the Share button offers to send a note by Mail or Messages. In Preview, the button offers Mail, Messages, Twitter, Flickr or AirDrop (the effortless Mac-to-Mac file sharing feature). My favorite new feature, though, is the Notifications Center. It?s that handsome dark-gray list of everything that has been trying to get your attention: incoming e-mail, Messages, alerts and reminders. On the iPhone, you summon this list by dragging your finger down from the top of the screen. On the Mac, you?ll swipe two fingers from the right edge of the trackpad into the center. Wild. (You can also click a special button on the menu bar.) When you do that, the Notifications Center slides onto the screen from the right, shifting the rest of the desktop to the left. It?s gorgeous and Apple-like. As on the phone, programs that want your attention can display either a banner (it appears for a few seconds at the upper-right corner of your screen, then disappears) or an alert box (which requires a click on a Close button, or a Show button to jump to the program that is waving its hand). You can specify which type you want (or none at all) on a per-program basis. Already, Calendar, Safari, Reminders, Messages, Mail, App Store, Software Update, Facetime and Game Center can display these notifications, and developers can tap into the Notification Center in their own apps. And how do you avoid being bombarded by alerts for every single incoming e-mail all day? A new feature lets you flag certain people as V.I.P.?s ? you click a little star icon in the new Mail app next to their names. Only messages from V.I.P.?s try to catch your eye in the Notification Center. There are lots of other little changes (over 100, Apple says). A few highlights: ? The Game Center, a central hub for pairing up anonymous players of games across the Internet, now comes to the Mac, too. Apple says that 100 million people have signed up for Game Center on the iPhone/iPad, and 20,000 games are compatible ? and now that the Game Center is on the Mac, you can play against all those people on their phones and pads. ? If you have an Apple TV, you?ll love this: Now you can project whatever is on your Mac to your TV, wirelessly. Yes, the iOS feature called AirPlay has now come to the Mac. Think slide shows, classroom demos, YouTube videos, Netflix movies ? with one click, it?s all on your TV, at 720p hi-def resolution, instead of only on your little Mac screen. ? When you open one of the iWork apps, like Pages or Keynote, you see two buttons for opening or saving your documents: ?iCloud? and ?on my Mac.? That is, you can now keep and edit your documents online, for easy access (and syncing) from any Apple gadget. Within this filing screen, you can create folders the iPhone way: by dragging documents onto each other. ? Gatekeeper is a new security system. It controls which downloaded apps you can install on your own Mac. You have three choices: Mac App Store Only (that is, apps approved and prechecked by Apple); App Store and Identified Developers (software companies Apple knows about); and Anywhere. Viruses and other malware have not been a real problem on the Mac, but this new blockade will be ready if they become one. ? The app names have been changed to match the iPhone/iPad. So Address Book is now called Contacts; iCal is now Calendar; iChat is now Messages. ? Lots more features for Chinese users, including a character-recognition system that updates the Mac?s Chinese dictionary as new words enter the popular lexicon. The Chinese equivalents of Google, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook are now integrated with Share buttons and other spots, just as they are on the American version. ? There?s a Search button on the Launchpad (Lion?s app launcher screen, like the Home screen on the iPhone/iPad). ? When you?re screen-sharing with another Mac (great for tech support), you can swap files by drag and drop. ? Safari has a unified search/address bar. ? You can fill out PDF forms right in Preview, the built-in PDF reading program. ? In Calendar, the list of categories (Family, Work, Kids, etc.) is once again a sidebar panel that you can leave open. (Apple acknowledges that making it a pop-up bubble in Lion was sort of a mistake.) ? There?s a Groups column in Contacts. ? There?s a new widgets browser in Dashboard. Over all, Mountain Lion shows that Apple is continuing to unify its ecosystem ? to bring the same apps, interfaces and data to all Apple gadgets. It?s a calculated, evilly smart way to make staying within the Apple family even more desirable, comfortable and useful. All your data is waiting for you in identical format and placement on every Apple gadget. All of its operating systems are starting to look more alike, and all of your data is becoming more synced and more accessible. You have to wonder how Apple intends to keep up this pace of change to Mac OS X every summer without gunking it up. You also have to wonder how Apple will keep numbering Mac OS X, since it?s already at version 10.8. (Actually, Apple?s people told me: They have no problem with double-digit decimal points, like Mac OS X 10.10, Mac OS X 10.11, and Mac OS X 10.12.) The bigger question is how long it can keep coming up with big cat names. Mac OS X Bobcat? Mac OS X Cougar? Mac OS X Really Fat Tabby? Editors? Note: David Pogue writes books about technology, including how-to guides, among them titles covering the Mac operating system. These projects are neither commissioned by nor written in cooperation with the product manufacturers. ``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` Dave Sevick Apple Certified Support Professional Helping people use technology in Pittsburgh Western PA, WV, OH MD ... Since 1988 724.779.0099 mobile/office dave at davesevick.com http://www.davesevick.com ``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120219/91073fb4/attachment-0001.htm From charles at firthconsulting.com Mon Feb 20 06:22:19 2012 From: charles at firthconsulting.com (Charles Firth) Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:22:19 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Apple's Mountain Lion Makes the Mac More Like the iPad - NYTimes.com In-Reply-To: <93EB8AF4-EC24-4551-9A6F-B77207D80E51@davesevick.com> References: <93EB8AF4-EC24-4551-9A6F-B77207D80E51@davesevick.com> Message-ID: <4F52A289-A88C-4DFE-86E5-FD25F454D458@firthconsulting.com> Another minor change they haven't spoken about: Software Update in 10.8 now goes through the App Store, and it's not working so well. :) On Feb 19, 2012, at 7:48 PM, Dave Sevick wrote: > > http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/apples-mountain-lion-makes-the-mac-more-like-the-ipad/ > > Apple?s Mountain Lion Makes the Mac More Like the iPad > > Apple?s iPhones and iPads get most of the attention, but Apple is now directing the spotlight on the Mac. > > > The Times?s technology columnist, David Pogue, keeps you on top of the industry in his free, weekly e-mail newsletter. > Sign up | See Sample > There had been rumors swirling that Apple was back-burnering the Mac, but that?s hard to believe after Thursday?s announcement: from now on, Apple will update Mac OS X once a year. > > It will start this summer with Mac OS X 10.8, code-named Mountain Lion, only a year after the Lion version was released. > > Now you?ll have to decide once a year whether or not to succumb to paying annually the $30 (or whatever Apple winds up charging) for the privilege of remaining current. > > The real shocker, though, is that for the first time, Apple decided to give tech reviewers an early, early version of Mountain Lion ? not just months before its release to the public, but even before its release to its developer (programmer) community. > > When Lion came along last summer, the big changes were all about making the Mac more like an iPad. Trackpad gestures simulated the multitouch gestures on an iPad screen. Lion features like Full Screen mode, Auto Save and Launchpad are total iPad rip-offs, too; if Apple hadn?t stolen these features from itself, it would surely be suing for copyright infringement. > > Well, don?t look now, but Mountain Lion brings even more of the iPhone/iPad features to the Mac. The juiciest payoff here is the suite of Mac apps that now mimic what?s on the iPhone/iPad, like Reminders, Notes, Messages and Game Center. Through your free iCloud account, all of these apps are synced instantly and smoothly across all your Apple gadgets. On the Mac, you type a reminder to yourself; it appears simultaneously on your iPhone. > > Notes is cool: you can add photos to your notes, or change the font styles and sizes. (The font and size changes sync over to your iPhone/iPad, but not photos.) You can also pin a note to your desktop to make sure it grabs your attention. > > Messages is particularly awesome. Now you can type little messages ? or shoot photos or videos ? to anyone else with an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Mountain Lion Mac, right from your computer. These may feel like text messages, but they?re free and don?t involve the cellphone company. And because everything is synced up, you see the same conversation thread on all your gadgets. If you started a chat with your boss on the phone, you can get home from work, sit down at your Mac and see the whole transcript so far. > > This new Messages app replaces the venerable iChat. Or, actually, adds onto it; all the old iChat features are still there. And you can download an early version of this app from Apple?s Web site. > > Twitter is now built into many Mac programs, like Safari, iPhoto, Photo Booth, and Quick Look, so you can tweet almost anything. A Share button is built into many Mac apps now, too. For example, in the Safari Web browser, you can click it to share a Web page via Mail, Messages or Twitter. In Notes, the Share button offers to send a note by Mail or Messages. In Preview, the button offers Mail, Messages, Twitter, Flickr or AirDrop (the effortless Mac-to-Mac file sharing feature). > > My favorite new feature, though, is the Notifications Center. It?s that handsome dark-gray list of everything that has been trying to get your attention: incoming e-mail, Messages, alerts and reminders. On the iPhone, you summon this list by dragging your finger down from the top of the screen. On the Mac, you?ll swipe two fingers from the right edge of the trackpad into the center. Wild. (You can also click a special button on the menu bar.) > > When you do that, the Notifications Center slides onto the screen from the right, shifting the rest of the desktop to the left. It?s gorgeous and Apple-like. > > As on the phone, programs that want your attention can display either a banner (it appears for a few seconds at the upper-right corner of your screen, then disappears) or an alert box (which requires a click on a Close button, or a Show button to jump to the program that is waving its hand). You can specify which type you want (or none at all) on a per-program basis. Already, Calendar, Safari, Reminders, Messages, Mail, App Store, Software Update, Facetime and Game Center can display these notifications, and developers can tap into the Notification Center in their own apps. > > And how do you avoid being bombarded by alerts for every single incoming e-mail all day? A new feature lets you flag certain people as V.I.P.?s ? you click a little star icon in the new Mail app next to their names. Only messages from V.I.P.?s try to catch your eye in the Notification Center. > > There are lots of other little changes (over 100, Apple says). A few highlights: > > ? The Game Center, a central hub for pairing up anonymous players of games across the Internet, now comes to the Mac, too. Apple says that 100 million people have signed up for Game Center on the iPhone/iPad, and 20,000 games are compatible ? and now that the Game Center is on the Mac, you can play against all those people on their phones and pads. > > ? If you have an Apple TV, you?ll love this: Now you can project whatever is on your Mac to your TV, wirelessly. Yes, the iOS feature called AirPlay has now come to the Mac. Think slide shows, classroom demos, YouTube videos, Netflix movies ? with one click, it?s all on your TV, at 720p hi-def resolution, instead of only on your little Mac screen. > > ? When you open one of the iWork apps, like Pages or Keynote, you see two buttons for opening or saving your documents: ?iCloud? and ?on my Mac.? That is, you can now keep and edit your documents online, for easy access (and syncing) from any Apple gadget. Within this filing screen, you can create folders the iPhone way: by dragging documents onto each other. > > ? Gatekeeper is a new security system. It controls which downloaded apps you can install on your own Mac. You have three choices: Mac App Store Only (that is, apps approved and prechecked by Apple); App Store and Identified Developers (software companies Apple knows about); and Anywhere. Viruses and other malware have not been a real problem on the Mac, but this new blockade will be ready if they become one. > > ? The app names have been changed to match the iPhone/iPad. So Address Book is now called Contacts; iCal is now Calendar; iChat is now Messages. > > ? Lots more features for Chinese users, including a character-recognition system that updates the Mac?s Chinese dictionary as new words enter the popular lexicon. The Chinese equivalents of Google, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook are now integrated with Share buttons and other spots, just as they are on the American version. > > ? There?s a Search button on the Launchpad (Lion?s app launcher screen, like the Home screen on the iPhone/iPad). > > ? When you?re screen-sharing with another Mac (great for tech support), you can swap files by drag and drop. > > ? Safari has a unified search/address bar. > > ? You can fill out PDF forms right in Preview, the built-in PDF reading program. > > ? In Calendar, the list of categories (Family, Work, Kids, etc.) is once again a sidebar panel that you can leave open. (Apple acknowledges that making it a pop-up bubble in Lion was sort of a mistake.) > > ? There?s a Groups column in Contacts. > > ? There?s a new widgets browser in Dashboard. > > Over all, Mountain Lion shows that Apple is continuing to unify its ecosystem ? to bring the same apps, interfaces and data to all Apple gadgets. It?s a calculated, evilly smart way to make staying within the Apple family even more desirable, comfortable and useful. All your data is waiting for you in identical format and placement on every Apple gadget. All of its operating systems are starting to look more alike, and all of your data is becoming more synced and more accessible. > > You have to wonder how Apple intends to keep up this pace of change to Mac OS X every summer without gunking it up. > > You also have to wonder how Apple will keep numbering Mac OS X, since it?s already at version 10.8. (Actually, Apple?s people told me: They have no problem with double-digit decimal points, like Mac OS X 10.10, Mac OS X 10.11, and Mac OS X 10.12.) > > The bigger question is how long it can keep coming up with big cat names. Mac OS X Bobcat? Mac OS X Cougar? Mac OS X Really Fat Tabby? > > Editors? Note: David Pogue writes books about technology, including how-to guides, among them titles covering the Mac operating system. These projects are neither commissioned by nor written in cooperation with the product manufacturers. > > > > > ``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` > Dave Sevick > Apple Certified Support Professional > Helping people use technology in Pittsburgh > Western PA, WV, OH MD ... Since 1988 > > 724.779.0099 mobile/office > dave at davesevick.com > http://www.davesevick.com > > ``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` > > > > _______________________________________________ > NPMUG mailing list > NPMUG at davesevick.com > http://davesevick.com/mailman/listinfo/npmug -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120220/ea4ba698/attachment-0001.htm From wexfordpa at mac.com Tue Feb 21 18:45:58 2012 From: wexfordpa at mac.com (Ralph Waechter) Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:45:58 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] A question ... Message-ID: <66B53D50-3419-4A08-9DB0-93734C748993@mac.com> NPMUG Friends, I have finally figured out most everything I think I need to reinstall the iMac operating system (currently, Snow Leopard) in order to rid myself of an increasingly problematic freezing (that little spinning wheel) of my iMac. I have figured out I think how to recover the Windows Entourage set up that one of my family member insists on using for email. I have backed up the music and photos through Time Machine (to a Time Capsule) and on a separate external drive through Super duper. I am left with really only one concern -- all of the passwords that my system has stored and that we probably don't recall anymore. Is there an easy way to print out all of the PW's? I go to Keychain and can find individual PWs, but is there a way to just make them all available in a document and then print? I suppose I could go back to an earlier version of the back up after I reinstall the OS, but I would like to minimize the amount of old system stuff I pull into the newly configured iMac. Thanks in advance for your suggestions. Ralph -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120221/e6b309c4/attachment.htm From robertadonaldson at gmail.com Fri Feb 24 15:35:33 2012 From: robertadonaldson at gmail.com (robertadonaldson) Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:35:33 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Goodwill CRC update, Friday, February 24, 2012 Message-ID: Dear Mac friends: Many thanks to Charlie Hutchens, Rich Fitzgibbon, John Hamill, Marty Swartz, Noah Covert and his dad, Damon, for joining me today for our weekly workday at our Goodwill Computer Recycling Center "annex." Lunchtime today saw our first visit to the luxurious Mim Bizic Dining Room at the Serbian Club for the weekly Lenten fish fry. The best time is 11:50 a.m. and you can whisk through the line quickly. Wait until Noon, and you'll stand in a line 30 people long. We told everyone Mim sent us, but they made us pay anyway... Today we spent our time on Macs that needed more that the usual amount of time to get running. Even with extra attention, we found more to de-manufacture than save. Fitz, Charlie and Marty fussed over G3 tray-load iMacs. Yeah, they're a pain... I spent most of the day fawning over G4 Cubes, as we got one in with a working power supply. This allowed us to fire up three others we had on the shelf. Results are promising so far, with two needing new video cards and one a new optical drive. It still won't solve the missing power supply issue, however. 11 higher-end G4 Towers (867 mhz and faster) went out to the ComputerWorks Store in Lawrenceville. They're imaged with Tiger, but all will run Leopard. We refurbished just six Macs to bring our all-time total to 3,242. We de-manufactured nine others. We'll have another workday next Friday, March 2. We hope to see you there! Robert A. Donaldson robertadonaldson at gmail.com mobile: 412-477-9188 From genemyrapa at gmail.com Mon Feb 27 10:17:53 2012 From: genemyrapa at gmail.com (Gene & Myra Fozard) Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:17:53 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] New WiFi Wireless Router - Almond Wireless Message-ID: Simple setup promoted. Competition for Airport??? http://www.securifi.com/almond -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120227/ea429b47/attachment.htm From dave at davesevick.com Mon Feb 27 21:54:50 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2012 23:54:50 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] David Pogue - What Cameras Inside Foxconn Found - NYTimes.com Message-ID: http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/what-cameras-inside-foxconn-found/ What Cameras Inside Foxconn Found I wrote about the Apple/China/Foxconn controversy in this space a couple of weeks ago, but there have been some developments, some progress and some new revelations. The story so far: Last month, The New York Times published a front-page article highlighting working conditions at a factory in China owned by Foxconn Technology, where Apple?s products are built. The problems included fatal accidents and employees injured while using a toxic chemical that can cause nerve damage. (Although Apple is the poster child for Foxconn, just about all of our electronics are made in the same Chinese factories, as the Times article noted. Foxconn also builds products for Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Asus, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Intel, I.B.M., Lenovo, Microsoft, Motorola, Netgear, Nintendo, Nokia and Vizio. The Xbox, the PlayStation and the Amazon Kindle are made here.) The article set off a firestorm of protest, petitions and demonstrations. Apple responded by vowing to take Chinese worker safety and welfare even more seriously, and it hired the Fair Labor Association to survey 35,000 Foxconn employees about their working conditions. The results of the audit will be made public next month. For its part, Foxconn responded by raising factory workers? salaries as much as 25 percent. Anyway, for me, two new sources of light were trained on the Foxconn situation: a TV broadcast and an e-mail. ABC?s ?Nightline? was invited to visit Apple?s production lines at Foxconn. Its correspondent, Bill Weir, was allowed to interview any worker, on camera or off, in the factory or outside. On Tuesday night, ABC broadcast its report. You can watch it online. To me, the salient paragraph in his script was this: We looked hard for the kind of underage and maimed workers we?ve read so much about, but we mostly found people who face their days through soul-crushing boredom and deep fatigue. Some complained of being overworked, others complained of being underworked and almost all said they were underpaid. And when I asked, ?What would you change?,? we heard the kind of complaints you might hear in any factory anywhere. It didn?t look like a sweatshop, frankly. The assembly-line work was certainly mind-numbingly repetitive ? one woman files the burrs off the iPad?s Apple-logo hole 6,000 times a day ? but that?s the nature of assembly-line work. Meanwhile, this factory was clean and modern. More tellingly, the broadcast showed 3,000 young Chinese workers lining up at the gates for Foxconn?s Monday morning recruiting session. Now, these workers know about the 2010 Foxconn suicides. They know that the starting salary is $2 an hour (plus benefits, and no payroll taxes). They know they?ll have 12-hour shifts, with two hourlong breaks. They know that workers sleep in a tiny dorm (six or eight to a room) for $17 a month. And yet here they are, lining up to work! Apparently, even those conditions, so abhorrent to us, are actually better than these workers? alternatives: backbreaking rural farm work that doesn?t prepare them to move up the work force food chain. Many observers are shocked at the child labor reported at Foxconn. Not only do these Chinese factories employ a lot of young people ? the legal working age is 16 ? but from what we saw on the ABC broadcast, all of these employees are young. That?s also what a former Apple executive told me this week: that Foxconn is not a career. You don?t see 30- and 40-year-old heads of households on the assembly lines. The young Chinese see it as ?something like a first summer job,? he told me ? a way to make some bucks for a few months before heading home, or to get some work experience before moving up. The second enlightening twist, for me, was a note sent to me from a young man, born in China and now attending an American university. My aunt worked several years in what Americans call ?sweat shops.? It was hard work. Long hours, ?small? wage, ?poor? working conditions. Do you know what my aunt did before she worked in one of these factories? She was a prostitute. Circumstances of birth are unfortunately random, and she was born in a very rural region. Most jobs were agricultural and family owned, and most of the jobs were held by men. Women and young girls, because of lack of educational and economic opportunities, had to find other ?employment.? The idea of working in a ?sweat shop? compared to that old lifestyle is an improvement, in my opinion. I know that my aunt would rather be ?exploited? by an evil capitalist boss for a couple of dollars than have her body be exploited by several men for pennies. That is why I am upset by many Americans? thinking. We do not have the same opportunities as the West. Our governmental infrastructure is different. The country is different. Yes, factory is hard labor. Could it be better? Yes, but only when you compare such to American jobs. If Americans truly care about Asian welfare, they would know that shutting down ?sweat shops? would force many of us to return to rural regions and return to truly despicable ?jobs.? And I fear that forcing factories to pay higher wages would mean they hire FEWER workers, not more. Anyway, now my aunt has been living in New York for one year after saving up money for a plane ticket and visa, and she is wonderfully happy to have escaped Asia and reunited with our family. None of this would be possible if it wasn?t for that ?sweat shop.? Of course, not all Chinese feel that way. The Times had its article translated into Chinese and published on a Chinese news site. Many comments from Chinese citizens posted to that article were critical of the dangerous working conditions at Foxconn factories. Some said that Apple was ultimately responsible and should be held accountable, the position that labor rights groups take. Plenty of Westerners remain unconvinced, too, even by ABC?s report and Apple?s investigation. ?Nightline,? for example, is a production of ABC News, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company; its chief executive serves on the Apple board, and the Steve Jobs Trust is Disney?s largest shareholder. (To its credit, ABC mentioned that potential conflict of interest in the broadcast.) Similarly, Apple is paying the Fair Labor Association six figures to conduct the audit. If the company being exonerated is also writing the checks, you have to be suspicious. And as the ABC broadcast also pointed out, Foxconn knew in advance that the Fair Labor Association?s inspectors were coming, and it had plenty of opportunity to put on a good show for them (and for ABC?s cameras). But the program also included interviews with the workers? impoverished families in rural villages, who spoke of the improvements Foxconn?s presence had brought to their lives. And it?s hard to forget those 3,000 people lining up for Foxconn jobs every Monday. In other words, the lessons of this controversy have more to do with China than with Apple. This is only marginally a technology story ? I imagine we could find low-wage, tiring jobs at every factory in China, making everything that China makes. Every toy, every houseware, every garment. You could do a year?s worth of expos?s. Still, we should be happy that in this corner of the Chinese landscape, things are getting better. On ABC?s show, a Fair Labor Association inspector, Ines Kaempfer, called the last month a ?Nike moment? for Apple. In the 1990s, Nike?s sweatshops weren?t the worst in the business, but they?re the ones that got the negative publicity. In response, it cleaned up its act, and thereby lifted the bar for the entire industry. Clearly, the recent spotlight on conditions at Foxconn has performed a similar service for the electronics industry. Better wages are good. More careful monitoring is good. Transparency ? like letting TV cameras into your assembly lines ? is good. http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/what-cameras-inside-foxconn-found/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120227/57c7dd96/attachment-0001.htm