From dotto1208 at aol.com Thu Jan 5 09:01:22 2012 From: dotto1208 at aol.com (dotto1208 at aol.com) Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2012 11:01:22 -0500 (EST) Subject: [NPMUG] Firefox 9 Message-ID: <8CE99DA6732EA1E-12DC-77C36@Webmail-d111.sysops.aol.com> Has anyone downloaded Firefox 9? Any problems? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120105/17ef4245/attachment.htm From dave at davesevick.com Sat Jan 7 08:07:24 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 10:07:24 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Could Apple power cables help you remember your passwords? Message-ID: http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/01/06/apple-power-cable-password/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nakedsecurity+%28Naked+Security+-+Sophos%29 Could Apple power cables help you remember your passwords? Have you ever forgotten the login password on your MacBook? Fortunately, there's an option to receive a hint reminding you of what your password might have been. Which is terrific, unless - of course - someone else is able to work out your password from that hint. Someone like, for instance, the guy who has just stolen your MacBook. Let me give you an example. Imagine my password was "Doctor Who". Admittedly, it's not a very good password - but we know many people don't choose passwords wisely. And imagine that my password reminder hint was "The greatest TV show ever broadcast". Anyone who stole my laptop might be able to guess my password from the hint, or discover my love of "Doctor Who" via the breadcrumbs of evidence I've left across various message boards over the years. Apple believes that many people choose "either not to use a password at all or to use a trivial password" because they worry about losing access to the computer if they forget their password. And that's a problem. The New Scientist has uncovered a new patent from Apple that shows how a power cable could help users access their computing devices when they forget their passwords - and perhaps improve security. Specifically, the patent aims to stop thieves of laptops, iPads and iPhones gaining unauthorised access to the portable computing devices. The patent notes that although such devices are commonly stolen, thieves rarely also steal cables (perhaps because the owner of the device hasn't taken the power adapter out with them - let's face it, the battery life on the iPad is so good that you may not have to lug a power lead around with you.) Apple's idea is that a memory chip on your power charger could store information about your password - such as, for instance, an encrypted version of your password reminder hint. That way, if you've forgotten your password you could just plug your laptop into the wall, to receive the secret password hint. That all sounds kind of neat, so long as the bad guys don't steal your power adapter alongside your computing device. And it would mean that rather than the current scenario of anyone who stumbles across my laptop being able to see my "greatest TV show ever broadcast" password hint, only those who have my power cable will know. It's not a lot of extra security, but it would make life somewhat trickier for opportunistic thieves. Security is boosted further by another idea in the patent, which would require authentication from a network server before the password hint is served up. I can imagine, for instance, that the network server segment of the password reminder might only be delivered if the user has instructed Apple (perhaps via their Apple ID?) that they are attempting to recover their computer's password - something you wouldn't do if the device were in the hands of a thief. What impressed me a little less were some of the other scenarios Apple describes in its patent. For instance, they detail how the technology could be used not just to provide a password reminder hint but to actually recover the password itself. That could make it child's play for someone sharing your house, or with access to your office, to break into your plugged-in laptop and cause mischief. No password guessing required! Presumably Apple has included these less secure implementation methods to widen the scope of their patent, rather than because they think they are particularly sensible without additional authentication. The patent goes into much more detail - explaining, for instance, that password information could be stored not just on power cables, but any type of peripheral device associated with the computer - your printer, an external monitor or a wireless router, for instance. Whether we'll ever see Apple incorporating this technology into their products remains to be seen. But as battery performance improves in computing devices, there might be an increased attractiveness in needing more than the laptop, smartphone or iPad itself to be reminded of your password hint. As Apple says, "If password recovery can be provided in a convenient way, then the user is more likely to use a password, and protection will be increased." So, look forward to a possible future where you have to keep an eye on your power cable as well as your laptop. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120107/03e8fec9/attachment-0001.htm From robertadonaldson at gmail.com Mon Jan 9 18:14:18 2012 From: robertadonaldson at gmail.com (robertadonaldson) Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2012 20:14:18 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Goodwill CRC update, Friday, January 6, 2012 Message-ID: <94BBED46-1E68-4D16-A9EF-EA9A928FB211@gmail.com> Dear Mac friends: Many thanks to Charlie Hutchens, Rich Fitzgibbon, John Hamill, Marty Swartz and Dave Sevick for joining me last for our weekly workday at our Goodwill Computer Recycling Center "annex." It was our first workday in 2012. Rich Fitzgibbon won the Christmas Gift Showoff competition with his swell Jawbone bluetooth speaker box. We spent the day streaming tunes from iOS devices and Macs from everyones bags. Really terrific sound from just a small thing. Just don't take a phone call on your iPhone when playing a classic hit from the 70s... Rich's prize is he gets to bring it EVERY week. Next tunes up: Phantom of the Opera. Or else.... The new year brought even more donations, and we're really cooking right off the bat. We also have more memory chips for testing than thought possible to put in one place. It will take John Hamill weeks to go through these things.... We refurbished 12 Macs and de-manufactured 11 others. Our all time total is now 3,174. We'll have another workday this Friday, January 13. We hope to see you there! Robert A. Donaldson robertadonaldson at gmail.com (H) 412-922-3303 (M) 412-477-9188 From sevick at computereach.com Thu Jan 12 07:58:09 2012 From: sevick at computereach.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:58:09 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Press Release - January 12, 2012 - Google supports ComputeReach at 16 Pittsburgh neighborhoods Message-ID: <87891078-CE14-49E0-AA0E-14A4410E677D@computereach.com> For immediate release: January 12, 2012 Pittsburgh PA ComputeReach, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit that places refurbished computers in underserved neighborhoods, has received the generous financial support of Google Pittsburgh for sixteen specific projects undertaken by ComputeReach in 2011 in Allegheny County. Google Pittsburgh?s funding enabled ComputeReach to provide 170 computers to after-school programs under the auspices of the Beverley Jewell Wall Lovelace Children?s Program, and Head Start programs in several Pittsburgh neighborhoods. All of the computers were obtained from recycling centers and upgraded with educational software, larger hard drives, and additional memory. A dedicated team of ComputeReach volunteers prepares, delivers, and provides training and support to schools, community centers, and afterschool organizations with limited resources. Google Pittsburgh's funding covers the cost of the computers, delivery, installation, teacher training, and ongoing support of the computer sites. For more information on ComputeReach please contact Dave Sevick, sevick at computereach.com, 724-779-0099, http://computereach.com -------------------------------------------- Dave Sevick Executive Director ComputeReach, humanitarian computer outreach http://computereach.com 724-779-0099 sevick at computereach.com -------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120112/76871a45/attachment-0001.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: computereach_1x3.gif Type: image/gif Size: 10619 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120112/76871a45/attachment-0001.gif From robertadonaldson at gmail.com Thu Jan 12 16:24:13 2012 From: robertadonaldson at gmail.com (robertadonaldson) Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:24:13 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Goodwill CRC workday update for Friday, January 13, 2012 Message-ID: <7EC1A6E0-654C-4517-849A-DE5C86F8F04D@gmail.com> Dear Mac friends: There's bad weather in the forecast for overnight and early Friday morning with the possibility of ice, followed with a coating of snow. If you're planning on attending our scheduled workday tomorrow, please check in with me at the number below. If the weather is too bad, we'll postpone our workday. Robert A. Donaldson robertadonaldson at gmail.com mobile: 412-477-9188 From radonaldson at mac.com Fri Jan 13 15:20:21 2012 From: radonaldson at mac.com (Robert A. Donaldson) Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:20:21 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Goodwill CRC update, Friday, January 13, 2012 Message-ID: <3B1DE16B-D333-492F-B52C-2DA4E23738EA@mac.com> Dear Mac friends: Many thanks to Charlie Hutchens, Rich Fitzgibbon, John Hamill, Marty Swartz and Dave Sevick for joining me today for our weekly workday at our Goodwill Computer Recycling Center "annex." We dodged our first weather bullet today, with our travel unaffected by the previous day's predictions of morning ice and snow. In fact, Charlie and I arrived earlier than normal due to less traffic than usual. Despite the ominous Friday the 13th date, we had an unusually uneventful workday. There were no surprise crises, with the working Macs we handled refurbishing smoothly. Aside for a balky ethernet port on an iMac Charlie refurbished, it was smooth sailing. The de-manfactured Macs were obvious parts kits. We refurbished 10 Macs and de-manufactured 6 others. Our all time total is now 3,184. We'll have another workday this Friday, January 20. We hope to see you there! Robert A. Donaldson radonaldson at mac.com robertadonaldson at gmail.com (H) 412-922-3303 (M) 412-477-9188 From dave at davesevick.com Fri Jan 13 19:17:48 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:17:48 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Special concert to Benefit the Red Cross - Joan Osborne at The Strand Theater in Zelienople Message-ID: <9FF64952-0BF1-4B62-97D4-E7D18ED0661D@davesevick.com> I am posting this to help a good friend .... Thursday Jan 19, 2011, 7:30PM ..... This is a benefit concert with a "meet and greet" with Joan Osborne ( remember "What If God Were One Of Us" ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4CRkpBGQzU She is on tour ... and the new Strand Theater is a very cool new theater in Zelienople, PA. 119 North Main Street Zelienople, PA 16063 724-742-0400 http://www.thestrandtheater.org/ Tickets for this benefit concert are $45 Thanks and back to your regularly scheduled Mac programming .... Dave -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120113/67af0a6e/attachment-0001.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Joan_Osborne.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 61041 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120113/67af0a6e/attachment-0001.pdf From ronladams7 at gmail.com Fri Jan 13 22:05:27 2012 From: ronladams7 at gmail.com (Ron_A) Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:05:27 -0700 Subject: [NPMUG] Tech + Dolphins... Message-ID: <66C1955F-BE7C-4309-A7E8-5C23997967B1@gmail.com> http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/01/militarys-weapon-against-iranian-mines-high-tech-dolphins/47384/ The Navy Is Depending on Dolphins to Keep the Strait of Hormuz Open If Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Navy has a backup plan to save one-fifth of the world's daily oil trade: send in the dolphins. The threat of Iran closing the strait has reached a fever pitch, reports today's New York Times, with U.S. officials warning Iran's supreme leader that such moves would cross a "red line" provoking a U.S. response. Iran could block the strait with any assortment of mines, armed speed boats or anti-ship cruise missiles but according to Michael Connell at the Center for Naval Analysis, ?The immediate issue [for the U.S. military] is to get the mines.? To solve that problem, the Navy has a solution that isn't heavily-advertised but has a time-tested success rate: mine-detecting dolphins. "We've got dolphins," said retired Adm. Tim Keating in a Wednesday interview with NPR. Keating commanded the U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain during the run-up to the Iraq war. He sounded uncomfortable with elaborating on the Navy's use of the lovable mammals but said in a situation like the standoff in Hormuz, Navy-trained dolphins would come in handy: KEATING: They are astounding in their ability to detect underwater objects. NPR's TOM BOWMAN: Dolphins were sent to the Persian Gulf as part of the American invasion force in Iraq. KEATING: I'd rather not talk about whether we used them or not. They were present in theater. BOWMAN: But you can't say whether you used them or not. KEATING: I'd rather not. The invasion of Iraq was the last time the minesweeping capability of dolphins was widely-touted. "Dolphins - - which possess sonar so keen they can discern a quarter from a dime when blindfolded and spot a 3-inch metal sphere from 370 feet away -- are invaluable minesweepers," reported The San Francisco Chronicle. In 2010, the Seattle Times reported that the Navy has 80 bottlenose dolphins in the San Diego Bay alone. They are taught to hunt for mines and drop acoustic transponders nearby. The photo above shows a dolphin with a tracking device attached to its fin. According to a report in 2003, the dolphins only detect the mines. Destroying them is left up to the Navy's human divers. Still, the mammals are large enough to detonate a live mine, a prospect that doesn't delight animal rights groups. When this was an issue in 2003, lobbying for the rights of dolphins was much more politically sensitive given that scores of U.S. men and women were being sent into battle as well. "We're not going to second-guess the Navy at a time of war," said Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the Humane Society. "But we don't support the use of marine mammals for military use." According to the Chronicle, the two groups emphasized that "they were not placing the lives of animals above those of troops. But they questioned the ethics and wisdom of using wild animals to ensure safe passage through hostile waters." Petitions have also been sent to the Defense Department protesting the use of dolphins: [Since] forces regard the Navy dolphins as enemy dolphins, there might be attempts on the dolphins lives. There is also the risk of indiscriminate killing of wild dolphin populations because any dolphin can potentially be an enemy dolphin. Also, the inherent danger that a dolphin may be injured or killed in mine-hunting operations remains a very real threat. Back in 2003, Tom LaPuzza, a spokesman for the San Diego-based Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, cast aside the skepticism about how the dolphins were treated: By nature, dolphins are naturally reliable and trustworthy animals who seem to enjoy pleasing their human handlers, LaPuzza said. When they are released into the ocean for missions, "they come back to the handler, the trainer" ashore or on a ship. Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at jhudson at theatlantic.com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire. John Hudson ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120113/027d609b/attachment.htm From dave at davesevick.com Sun Jan 15 12:25:45 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:25:45 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Man's marimba iPhone ring stops Mahler symphony dead Message-ID: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/12/10141114-mans-marimba-iphone-ring-stops-mahler-symphony-dead By Kari Huus, msnbc.com. Concertgoers at the New York Philharmonic Tuesday night did not have to be musicologists to work out that the marimba was not part of the famous work. Conductor Alan Gilbert halted the performance of Mahler?s Ninth Symphony when the offending iPhone ringtone sounded -- and persisted. ----- clip ----- http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/12/10141114-mans-marimba-iphone-ring-stops-mahler-symphony-dead -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120115/efb9da2d/attachment.htm From pcarras+ at pitt.edu Tue Jan 17 12:08:58 2012 From: pcarras+ at pitt.edu (Peter L. Carras) Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:08:58 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] How to access Wikipedia during its SOPA blackout Message-ID: <4F15C74A.90407@pitt.edu> On Wednesday the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, will be unavailable in protest of proposed federal legislation. Here is a link to a C|NET story that tells how to get information from Wikipedia during the blackout, using Google's cached pages. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-57360269-52/how-to-access-wikipedia-during-its-sopa-blackout/ - Peter -- Peter L. Carras From charles at firthconsulting.com Tue Jan 17 15:06:12 2012 From: charles at firthconsulting.com (Charles Firth) Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:06:12 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] How to access Wikipedia during its SOPA blackout In-Reply-To: <4F15C74A.90407@pitt.edu> References: <4F15C74A.90407@pitt.edu> Message-ID: <1B75E610-EADC-4DD7-AEC5-1043FDD6E65E@firthconsulting.com> A lot of sites are going "dark" to protest SOPA and PIPA - I won't go off on a political rant, except to say I also oppose these bills and recommend everyone look into them, particularly if you've ever dealt with similar laws in China, Iran, Syria, etc. On Jan 17, 2012, at 2:08 PM, Peter L. Carras wrote: > On Wednesday the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, will be unavailable in protest > of proposed federal legislation. > > Here is a link to a C|NET story that tells how to get information from > Wikipedia during the blackout, using Google's cached pages. > http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-57360269-52/how-to-access-wikipedia-during-its-sopa-blackout/ > > > - Peter > > -- > Peter L. Carras > > > _______________________________________________ > NPMUG mailing list > NPMUG at davesevick.com > http://davesevick.com/mailman/listinfo/npmug From dave at davesevick.com Thu Jan 19 05:57:51 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:57:51 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Obama Says So Long SOPA, Killing Controversial Internet Piracy Legislation - Forbes Message-ID: <9C1D1354-C1C1-45DA-B702-E00C5DAE65FA@davesevick.com> http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/01/16/obama-says-so-long-sopa-killing-controversial-internet-piracy-legislation/ Obama Says So Long SOPA, Killing Controversial Internet Piracy Legislation The growing anti-SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) support that has swept through the gaming and Internet community found a very big ally today. With websites like Reddit and Wikipedia and gaming organizations like Major League Gaming prepared for a blackout on January 18th ? the same day that the House Judiciary Committee hearing on HR 3261was scheduled in Washington, DC ? President Barack Obama has stepped in and said he would not support the bill. SOPA has been delayed, for now. The House has agreed to revisit the issue next month, but they now know the White House will veto any bill that?s not more narrowly focused. Much to the chagrin of Hollywood, the Entertainment Software Association (which has been a backer of the bill from early on), and Internet domain company GoDaddy.com (which lost many accounts as a result of its support for the bill); SOPA has been shelved. The Motion Picture Association of America, one of the bill?s largest sponsors, is expected to regroup. California congressman Darrell Issa, who has been opposed to the bill from the beginning, praised the Internet action that has swept like a virus across the Web the past week. ?The voice of the Internet community has been heard,? said Issa. ?Much more education for members of Congress about the workings of the Internet is essential if anti-piracy legislation is to be workable and achieve broad appeal.? But there remains another similar bill, Protect IP (the Enforcing and Protecting American Rights Against Sites Intent on Theft and Exploitation Act), that poses a problem for gamers and Internet users. This legislation is scheduled to go before the Senate on January 24th. Both SOPA and Protect IP attempt to combat online piracy by preventing American search engines like Google and Yahoo from directing users to sites distributing stolen content. Both bills also would enable people and companies to sue if their copyright was infringed. Obama has come out against both bills, which killed SOPA and puts pressure on senators come January 24th. The full White House response can be read here. ?Any provision covering Internet intermediaries such as online advertising networks, payment processors, or search engines must be transparent and designed to prevent overly broad private rights of action that could encourage unjustified litigation that could discourage startup businesses and innovative firms from growing,? said The White House. ?We expect and encourage all private parties, including both content creators and Internet platform providers working together, to adopt voluntary measures and best practices to reduce online piracy.? Just like piracy itself, this debate isn?t over. Expect more bills to move forward, although the wording in future legislation is expected to be more narrowly focused in an attempt to appease the current administration. But given the current economic climate and the upcoming Presidential election, there could be a different administration entering The White House soon, changing the landscape for these types of bills. Follow me on Twitter @JohnGaudiosi ``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` 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/20120119/4418f1a6/attachment-0001.htm From marty.swartz at gmail.com Thu Jan 19 18:39:52 2012 From: marty.swartz at gmail.com (Marty Swartz) Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:39:52 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Dead iBooks .. as art Message-ID: If you like to tangle computers and art, take a look at this, and you will never look at a dead iBook in the same way again. Look closely. http://michaeldinges.com/3/Image.asp?ImageID=488176&apid=1&gpid=1&ipid=1&AKey=CDS8CGNT (or) http://michaeldinges.com (then) Portfolio > Dead Laptop Series - Marty Swartz -- "Peace of mind is not the absence of conflict from life, but the ability to cope with it." From charles at firthconsulting.com Thu Jan 19 20:20:48 2012 From: charles at firthconsulting.com (Charles Firth) Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:20:48 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] This is How Apple Changes Education, Forever Message-ID: In case you all missed today's announcement: http://mashable.com/2012/01/19/this-is-how-apple-changes-education-forever/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120119/73d99081/attachment.htm From wtjames at mac.com Thu Jan 19 20:27:11 2012 From: wtjames at mac.com (William James) Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:27:11 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] This is How Apple Changes Education, Forever In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <42598B35-E4C9-47A8-9291-AF5676611C25@mac.com> Long live steven d. jobs On Jan 19, 2012, at 10:20 PM, Charles Firth wrote: > In case you all missed today's announcement: > > http://mashable.com/2012/01/19/this-is-how-apple-changes-education-forever/ > > _______________________________________________ > NPMUG mailing list > NPMUG at davesevick.com > http://davesevick.com/mailman/listinfo/npmug William James -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120119/761e3064/attachment.htm From robertadonaldson at gmail.com Fri Jan 20 18:26:18 2012 From: robertadonaldson at gmail.com (robertadonaldson) Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:26:18 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Goodwill CRC update, Friday, January 20, 1012 Message-ID: <2528C6D9-0E31-478B-8D39-EAB2F578EF8F@gmail.com> Dear Mac friends: Many thanks to Charlie Hutchens, Rich Fitzgibbon, John Hamill, Marty Swartz and Dave Sevick for joining me today for our weekly workday at our Goodwill Computer Recycling Center "annex." We think we may have discovered an answer to a perplexing problem we've had for some time. Tucker Trainor (remember him?) once observed that certain early models of Power Mac G4 Towers (350 and 400 mhz) would not netboot, making them unable to image with our OS X package. He noted they all had opaque start buttons. Today we had another one on the bench, and sort of knew it would be a turkey. It was a really clean machine, so I began to work on it. Sure enough, it would not netboot at the appropriate time. Well, now what? In the course of playing around, I accidentally zapped the Mac's PRAM a second time. Suddenly, it netbooted. We don't know if this is THE solution, but we'll be looking for those opaque button G4s to try it again. And now, we get to needle Mr. Trainor by remote control. Change another diaper, pal. We've got your back.... I'm told the pumpkin spice french toast at lunch was really swell.... Just like last week, we refurbished 10 Macs and de-manufactured 6 others. One Apple display was forwarded for responsible recycling. Our all time total is now 3,193. We'll have another workday next Friday, January 27. We hope to see you there! Robert A. Donaldson robertadonaldson at gmail.com (H) 412-922-3303 (M) 412-477-9188 From dave at davesevick.com Sun Jan 22 22:54:29 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:54:29 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Mike Dailey comes to Pittsburgh to perform the monologue "The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" Message-ID: <16FFF823-C087-4079-B66F-71EC6FD7E900@davesevick.com> Dear Pitsburgh Apple users, I am searching for the right words to express how much Mike Daisey's stage performance at the Byham Theater truly moved me on what is good about Apple. And troublesome. http://mikedaisey.blogspot.com/ There are hidden human rights concerns about work conditions at FoxConn in Shenzhen, China. He travelled to Shenzhen undercover as a "businessman" and interviewed workers while he had access to the plant, inspecting where our iPhones, iPads and many other devices by Dell, Nokia, and others are made .... by human hands more than machines. Much to Apple's credit, new CEO Tim Cook wrote this reassurance to Apple employees: http://forum.china.org.cn/viewthread.php?tid=30547&extra=page%3D5 ======== Mike Daisey is a true Apple "fanboy" and proved it in side-stitching rant lasting 2-hours in a non-stop, brilliant monologue rocking the packed Pittsburgh audience at the Byham .... His one-man act best is described in an article by Adam Ludwig in the Nov 11, 2011 issue of Forbes Magazine : http://www.forbes.com/sites/techonomy/2011/11/04/mike-daisey-is-mad-at-steve-jobs-and-he-wants-you-to-get-mad-too/ This show was a major eye opener. Dave -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120123/d825242d/attachment-0001.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Mike_Daisey.png Type: image/png Size: 102442 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120123/d825242d/attachment-0001.png From ronladams7 at gmail.com Sun Jan 22 23:27:15 2012 From: ronladams7 at gmail.com (Ron_A) Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:27:15 -0700 Subject: [NPMUG] "Those jobs aren't coming back" Message-ID: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley?s top luminaries for dinner in California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president. But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke, President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: what would it take to make iPhones in the United States? Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas. Why can?t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked. Mr. Jobs?s reply was unambiguous. ?Those jobs aren?t coming back,? he said, according to another dinner guest. The president?s question touched upon a central conviction at Apple. It isn?t just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple?s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that ?Made in the U.S.A.? is no longer a viable option for most Apple products. Apple has become one of the best-known, most admired and most imitated companies on earth, in part through an unrelenting mastery of global operations. Last year, it earned over $400,000 in profit per employee, more than Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil or Google. However, what has vexed Mr. Obama as well as economists and policy makers is that Apple ? and many of its high-technology peers ? are not nearly as avid in creating American jobs as other famous companies were in their heydays. Apple employs 43,000 people in the United States and 20,000 overseas, a small fraction of the over 400,000 American workers at General Motors in the 1950s, or the hundreds of thousands at General Electric in the 1980s. Many more people work for Apple?s contractors: an additional 700,000 people engineer, build and assemble iPads, iPhones and Apple?s other products. But almost none of them work in the United States. Instead, they work for foreign companies in Asia, Europe and elsewhere, at factories that almost all electronics designers rely upon to build their wares. ?Apple?s an example of why it?s so hard to create middle-class jobs in the U.S. now,? said Jared Bernstein, who until last year was an economic adviser to the White House. ?If it?s the pinnacle of capitalism, we should be worried.? Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone?s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight. A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company?s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day. ?The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,? the executive said. ?There?s no American plant that can match that.? Similar stories could be told about almost any electronics company ? and outsourcing has also become common in hundreds of industries, including accounting, legal services, banking, auto manufacturing and pharmaceuticals. But while Apple is far from alone, it offers a window into why the success of some prominent companies has not translated into large numbers of domestic jobs. What?s more, the company?s decisions pose broader questions about what corporate America owes Americans as the global and national economies are increasingly intertwined. ?Companies once felt an obligation to support American workers, even when it wasn?t the best financial choice,? said Betsey Stevenson, the chief economist at the Labor Department until last September. ?That?s disappeared. Profits and efficiency have trumped generosity.? Companies and other economists say that notion is na?ve. Though Americans are among the most educated workers in the world, the nation has stopped training enough people in the mid-level skills that factories need, executives say. To thrive, companies argue they need to move work where it can generate enough profits to keep paying for innovation. Doing otherwise risks losing even more American jobs over time, as evidenced by the legions of once-proud domestic manufacturers ? including G.M. and others ? that have shrunk as nimble competitors have emerged. Apple was provided with extensive summaries of The New York Times?s reporting for this article, but the company, which has a reputation for secrecy, declined to comment. This article is based on interviews with more than three dozen current and former Apple employees and contractors ? many of whom requested anonymity to protect their jobs ? as well as economists, manufacturing experts, international trade specialists, technology analysts, academic researchers, employees at Apple?s suppliers, competitors and corporate partners, and government officials. Privately, Apple executives say the world is now such a changed place that it is a mistake to measure a company?s contribution simply by tallying its employees ? though they note that Apple employs more workers in the United States than ever before. They say Apple?s success has benefited the economy by empowering entrepreneurs and creating jobs at companies like cellular providers and businesses shipping Apple products. And, ultimately, they say curing unemployment is not their job. ?We sell iPhones in over a hundred countries,? a current Apple executive said. ?We don?t have an obligation to solve America?s problems. Our only obligation is making the best product possible.? ?I Want a Glass Screen? In 2007, a little over a month before the iPhone was scheduled to appear in stores, Mr. Jobs beckoned a handful of lieutenants into an office. For weeks, he had been carrying a prototype of the device in his pocket. Mr. Jobs angrily held up his iPhone, angling it so everyone could see the dozens of tiny scratches marring its plastic screen, according to someone who attended the meeting. He then pulled his keys from his jeans. People will carry this phone in their pocket, he said. People also carry their keys in their pocket. ?I won?t sell a product that gets scratched,? he said tensely. The only solution was using unscratchable glass instead. ?I want a glass screen, and I want it perfect in six weeks.? After one executive left that meeting, he booked a flight to Shenzhen, China. If Mr. Jobs wanted perfect, there was nowhere else to go. For over two years, the company had been working on a project ? code-named Purple 2 ? that presented the same questions at every turn: how do you completely reimagine the cellphone? And how do you design it at the highest quality ? with an unscratchable screen, for instance ? while also ensuring that millions can be manufactured quickly and inexpensively enough to earn a significant profit? The answers, almost every time, were found outside the United States. Though components differ between versions, all iPhones contain hundreds of parts, an estimated 90 percent of which are manufactured abroad. Advanced semiconductors have come from Germany and Taiwan, memory from Korea and Japan, display panels and circuitry from Korea and Taiwan, chipsets from Europe and rare metals from Africa and Asia. And all of it is put together in China. In its early days, Apple usually didn?t look beyond its own backyard for manufacturing solutions. A few years after Apple began building the Macintosh in 1983, for instance, Mr. Jobs bragged that it was ?a machine that is made in America.? In 1990, while Mr. Jobs was running NeXT, which was eventually bought by Apple, the executive told a reporter that ?I?m as proud of the factory as I am of the computer.? As late as 2002, top Apple executives occasionally drove two hours northeast of their headquarters to visit the company?s iMac plant in Elk Grove, Calif. But by 2004, Apple had largely turned to foreign manufacturing. Guiding that decision was Apple?s operations expert, Timothy D. Cook, who replaced Mr. Jobs as chief executive last August, six weeks before Mr. Jobs?s death. Most other American electronics companies had already gone abroad, and Apple, which at the time was struggling, felt it had to grasp every advantage. In part, Asia was attractive because the semiskilled workers there were cheaper. But that wasn?t driving Apple. For technology companies, the cost of labor is minimal compared with the expense of buying parts and managing supply chains that bring together components and services from hundreds of companies. For Mr. Cook, the focus on Asia ?came down to two things,? said one former high-ranking Apple executive. Factories in Asia ?can scale up and down faster? and ?Asian supply chains have surpassed what?s in the U.S.? The result is that ?we can?t compete at this point,? the executive said. The impact of such advantages became obvious as soon as Mr. Jobs demanded glass screens in 2007. For years, cellphone makers had avoided using glass because it required precision in cutting and grinding that was extremely difficult to achieve. Apple had already selected an American company, Corning Inc., to manufacture large panes of strengthened glass. But figuring out how to cut those panes into millions of iPhone screens required finding an empty cutting plant, hundreds of pieces of glass to use in experiments and an army of midlevel engineers. It would cost a fortune simply to prepare. Then a bid for the work arrived from a Chinese factory. When an Apple team visited, the Chinese plant?s owners were already constructing a new wing. ?This is in case you give us the contract,? the manager said, according to a former Apple executive. The Chinese government had agreed to underwrite costs for numerous industries, and those subsidies had trickled down to the glass-cutting factory. It had a warehouse filled with glass samples available to Apple, free of charge. The owners made engineers available at almost no cost. They had built on-site dormitories so employees would be available 24 hours a day. The Chinese plant got the job. ?The entire supply chain is in China now,? said another former high-ranking Apple executive. ?You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That?s the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours.? In Foxconn City An eight-hour drive from that glass factory is a complex, known informally as Foxconn City, where the iPhone is assembled. To Apple executives, Foxconn City was further evidence that China could deliver workers ? and diligence ? that outpaced their American counterparts. That?s because nothing like Foxconn City exists in the United States. The facility has 230,000 employees, many working six days a week, often spending up to 12 hours a day at the plant. Over a quarter of Foxconn?s work force lives in company barracks and many workers earn less than $17 a day. When one Apple executive arrived during a shift change, his car was stuck in a river of employees streaming past. ?The scale is unimaginable,? he said. Foxconn employs nearly 300 guards to direct foot traffic so workers are not crushed in doorway bottlenecks. The facility?s central kitchen cooks an average of three tons of pork and 13 tons of rice a day. While factories are spotless, the air inside nearby teahouses is hazy with the smoke and stench of cigarettes. Foxconn Technology has dozens of facilities in Asia and Eastern Europe, and in Mexico and Brazil, and it assembles an estimated 40 percent of the world?s consumer electronics for customers like Amazon, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Nintendo, Nokia, Samsung and Sony. ?They could hire 3,000 people overnight,? said Jennifer Rigoni, who was Apple?s worldwide supply demand manager until 2010, but declined to discuss specifics of her work. ?What U.S. plant can find 3,000 people overnight and convince them to live in dorms?? In mid-2007, after a month of experimentation, Apple?s engineers finally perfected a method for cutting strengthened glass so it could be used in the iPhone?s screen. The first truckloads of cut glass arrived at Foxconn City in the dead of night, according to the former Apple executive. That?s when managers woke thousands of workers, who crawled into their uniforms ? white and black shirts for men, red for women ? and quickly lined up to assemble, by hand, the phones. Within three months, Apple had sold one million iPhones. Since then, Foxconn has assembled over 200 million more. Foxconn, in statements, declined to speak about specific clients. ?Any worker recruited by our firm is covered by a clear contract outlining terms and conditions and by Chinese government law that protects their rights,? the company wrote. Foxconn ?takes our responsibility to our employees very seriously and we work hard to give our more than one million employees a safe and positive environment.? The company disputed some details of the former Apple executive?s account, and wrote that a midnight shift, such as the one described, was impossible ?because we have strict regulations regarding the working hours of our employees based on their designated shifts, and every employee has computerized timecards that would bar them from working at any facility at a time outside of their approved shift.? The company said that all shifts began at either 7 a.m. or 7 p.m., and that employees receive at least 12 hours? notice of any schedule changes. Foxconn employees, in interviews, have challenged those assertions. Another critical advantage for Apple was that China provided engineers at a scale the United States could not match. Apple?s executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company?s analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find that many qualified engineers in the United States. In China, it took 15 days. Companies like Apple ?say the challenge in setting up U.S. plants is finding a technical work force,? said Martin Schmidt, associate provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In particular, companies say they need engineers with more than high school, but not necessarily a bachelor?s degree. Americans at that skill level are hard to find, executives contend. ?They?re good jobs, but the country doesn?t have enough to feed the demand,? Mr. Schmidt said. Some aspects of the iPhone are uniquely American. The device?s software, for instance, and its innovative marketing campaigns were largely created in the United States. Apple recently built a $500 million data center in North Carolina. Crucial semiconductors inside the iPhone 4 and 4S are manufactured in an Austin, Tex., factory by Samsung, of South Korea. But even those facilities are not enormous sources of jobs. Apple?s North Carolina center, for instance, has only 100 full-time employees. The Samsung plant has an estimated 2,400 workers. ?If you scale up from selling one million phones to 30 million phones, you don?t really need more programmers,? said Jean-Louis Gass?e, who oversaw product development and marketing for Apple until he left in 1990. ?All these new companies ? Facebook, Google, Twitter ? benefit from this. They grow, but they don?t really need to hire much.? It is hard to estimate how much more it would cost to build iPhones in the United States. However, various academics and manufacturing analysts estimate that because labor is such a small part of technology manufacturing, paying American wages would add up to $65 to each iPhone?s expense. Since Apple?s profits are often hundreds of dollars per phone, building domestically, in theory, would still give the company a healthy reward. But such calculations are, in many respects, meaningless because building the iPhone in the United States would demand much more than hiring Americans ? it would require transforming the national and global economies. Apple executives believe there simply aren?t enough American workers with the skills the company needs or factories with sufficient speed and flexibility. Other companies that work with Apple, like Corning, also say they must go abroad. Manufacturing glass for the iPhone revived a Corning factory in Kentucky, and today, much of the glass in iPhones is still made there. After the iPhone became a success, Corning received a flood of orders from other companies hoping to imitate Apple?s designs. Its strengthened glass sales have grown to more than $700 million a year, and it has hired or continued employing about 1,000 Americans to support the emerging market. But as that market has expanded, the bulk of Corning?s strengthened glass manufacturing has occurred at plants in Japan and Taiwan. ?Our customers are in Taiwan, Korea, Japan and China,? said James B. Flaws, Corning?s vice chairman and chief financial officer. ?We could make the glass here, and then ship it by boat, but that takes 35 days. Or, we could ship it by air, but that?s 10 times as expensive. So we build our glass factories next door to assembly factories, and those are overseas.? Corning was founded in America 161 years ago and its headquarters are still in upstate New York. Theoretically, the company could manufacture all its glass domestically. But it would ?require a total overhaul in how the industry is structured,? Mr. Flaws said. ?The consumer electronics business has become an Asian business. As an American, I worry about that, but there?s nothing I can do to stop it. Asia has become what the U.S. was for the last 40 years.? Middle-Class Jobs Fade The first time Eric Saragoza stepped into Apple?s manufacturing plant in Elk Grove, Calif., he felt as if he were entering an engineering wonderland. It was 1995, and the facility near Sacramento employed more than 1,500 workers. It was a kaleidoscope of robotic arms, conveyor belts ferrying circuit boards and, eventually, candy-colored iMacs in various stages of assembly. Mr. Saragoza, an engineer, quickly moved up the plant?s ranks and joined an elite diagnostic team. His salary climbed to $50,000. He and his wife had three children. They bought a home with a pool. ?It felt like, finally, school was paying off,? he said. ?I knew the world needed people who can build things.? At the same time, however, the electronics industry was changing, and Apple ? with products that were declining in popularity ? was struggling to remake itself. One focus was improving manufacturing. A few years after Mr. Saragoza started his job, his bosses explained how the California plant stacked up against overseas factories: the cost, excluding the materials, of building a $1,500 computer in Elk Grove was $22 a machine. In Singapore, it was $6. In Taiwan, $4.85. Wages weren?t the major reason for the disparities. Rather it was costs like inventory and how long it took workers to finish a task. ?We were told we would have to do 12-hour days, and come in on Saturdays,? Mr. Saragoza said. ?I had a family. I wanted to see my kids play soccer.? Modernization has always caused some kinds of jobs to change or disappear. As the American economy transitioned from agriculture to manufacturing and then to other industries, farmers became steelworkers, and then salesmen and middle managers. These shifts have carried many economic benefits, and in general, with each progression, even unskilled workers received better wages and greater chances at upward mobility. But in the last two decades, something more fundamental has changed, economists say. Midwage jobs started disappearing. Particularly among Americans without college degrees, today?s new jobs are disproportionately in service occupations ? at restaurants or call centers, or as hospital attendants or temporary workers ? that offer fewer opportunities for reaching the middle class. Even Mr. Saragoza, with his college degree, was vulnerable to these trends. First, some of Elk Grove?s routine tasks were sent overseas. Mr. Saragoza didn?t mind. Then the robotics that made Apple a futuristic playground allowed executives to replace workers with machines. Some diagnostic engineering went to Singapore. Middle managers who oversaw the plant?s inventory were laid off because, suddenly, a few people with Internet connections were all that were needed. Mr. Saragoza was too expensive for an unskilled position. He was also insufficiently credentialed for upper management. He was called into a small office in 2002 after a night shift, laid off and then escorted from the plant. He taught high school for a while, and then tried a return to technology. But Apple, which had helped anoint the region as ?Silicon Valley North,? had by then converted much of the Elk Grove plant into an AppleCare call center, where new employees often earn $12 an hour. There were employment prospects in Silicon Valley, but none of them panned out. ?What they really want are 30-year-olds without children,? said Mr. Saragoza, who today is 48, and whose family now includes five of his own. After a few months of looking for work, he started feeling desperate. Even teaching jobs had dried up. So he took a position with an electronics temp agency that had been hired by Apple to check returned iPhones and iPads before they were sent back to customers. Every day, Mr. Saragoza would drive to the building where he had once worked as an engineer, and for $10 an hour with no benefits, wipe thousands of glass screens and test audio ports by plugging in headphones. Paydays for Apple As Apple?s overseas operations and sales have expanded, its top employees have thrived. Last fiscal year, Apple?s revenue topped $108 billion, a sum larger than the combined state budgets of Michigan, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Since 2005, when the company?s stock split, share prices have risen from about $45 to more than $427. Some of that wealth has gone to shareholders. Apple is among the most widely held stocks, and the rising share price has benefited millions of individual investors, 401(k)?s and pension plans. The bounty has also enriched Apple workers. Last fiscal year, in addition to their salaries, Apple?s employees and directors received stock worth $2 billion and exercised or vested stock and options worth an added $1.4 billion. The biggest rewards, however, have often gone to Apple?s top employees. Mr. Cook, Apple?s chief, last year received stock grants ? which vest over a 10-year period ? that, at today?s share price, would be worth $427 million, and his salary was raised to $1.4 million. In 2010, Mr. Cook?s compensation package was valued at $59 million, according to Apple?s security filings. A person close to Apple argued that the compensation received by Apple?s employees was fair, in part because the company had brought so much value to the nation and world. As the company has grown, it has expanded its domestic work force, including manufacturing jobs. Last year, Apple?s American work force grew by 8,000 people. While other companies have sent call centers abroad, Apple has kept its centers in the United States. One source estimated that sales of Apple?s products have caused other companies to hire tens of thousands of Americans. FedEx and United Parcel Service, for instance, both say they have created American jobs because of the volume of Apple?s shipments, though neither would provide specific figures without permission from Apple, which the company declined to provide. ?We shouldn?t be criticized for using Chinese workers,? a current Apple executive said. ?The U.S. has stopped producing people with the skills we need.? What?s more, Apple sources say the company has created plenty of good American jobs inside its retail stores and among entrepreneurs selling iPhone and iPad applications. After two months of testing iPads, Mr. Saragoza quit. The pay was so low that he was better off, he figured, spending those hours applying for other jobs. On a recent October evening, while Mr. Saragoza sat at his MacBook and submitted another round of r?sum?s online, halfway around the world a woman arrived at her office. The worker, Lina Lin, is a project manager in Shenzhen, China, at PCH International, which contracts with Apple and other electronics companies to coordinate production of accessories, like the cases that protect the iPad?s glass screens. She is not an Apple employee. But Mrs. Lin is integral to Apple?s ability to deliver its products. Mrs. Lin earns a bit less than what Mr. Saragoza was paid by Apple. She speaks fluent English, learned from watching television and in a Chinese university. She and her husband put a quarter of their salaries in the bank every month. They live in a 1,080-square-foot apartment, which they share with their in-laws and son. ?There are lots of jobs,? Mrs. Lin said. ?Especially in Shenzhen.? Innovation?s Losers Toward the end of Mr. Obama?s dinner last year with Mr. Jobs and other Silicon Valley executives, as everyone stood to leave, a crowd of photo seekers formed around the president. A slightly smaller scrum gathered around Mr. Jobs. Rumors had spread that his illness had worsened, and some hoped for a photograph with him, perhaps for the last time. Eventually, the orbits of the men overlapped. ?I?m not worried about the country?s long-term future,? Mr. Jobs told Mr. Obama, according to one observer. ?This country is insanely great. What I?m worried about is that we don?t talk enough about solutions.? At dinner, for instance, the executives had suggested that the government should reform visa programs to help companies hire foreign engineers. Some had urged the president to give companies a ?tax holiday? so they could bring back overseas profits which, they argued, would be used to create work. Mr. Jobs even suggested it might be possible, someday, to locate some of Apple?s skilled manufacturing in the United States if the government helped train more American engineers. Economists debate the usefulness of those and other efforts, and note that a struggling economy is sometimes transformed by unexpected developments. The last time analysts wrung their hands about prolonged American unemployment, for instance, in the early 1980s, the Internet hardly existed. Few at the time would have guessed that a degree in graphic design was rapidly becoming a smart bet, while studying telephone repair a dead end. What remains unknown, however, is whether the United States will be able to leverage tomorrow?s innovations into millions of jobs. In the last decade, technological leaps in solar and wind energy, semiconductor fabrication and display technologies have created thousands of jobs. But while many of those industries started in America, much of the employment has occurred abroad. Companies have closed major facilities in the United States to reopen in China. By way of explanation, executives say they are competing with Apple for shareholders. If they cannot rival Apple?s growth and profit margins, they won?t survive. ?New middle-class jobs will eventually emerge,? said Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist. ?But will someone in his 40s have the skills for them? Or will he be bypassed for a new graduate and never find his way back into the middle class?? The pace of innovation, say executives from a variety of industries, has been quickened by businessmen like Mr. Jobs. G.M. went as long as half a decade between major automobile redesigns. Apple, by comparison, has released five iPhones in four years, doubling the devices? speed and memory while dropping the price that some consumers pay. Before Mr. Obama and Mr. Jobs said goodbye, the Apple executive pulled an iPhone from his pocket to show off a new application ? a driving game ? with incredibly detailed graphics. The device reflected the soft glow of the room?s lights. The other executives, whose combined worth exceeded $69 billion, jostled for position to glance over his shoulder. The game, everyone agreed, was wonderful. There wasn?t even a tiny scratch on the screen. David Barboza, Peter Lattman and Catherine Rampell contributed reporting. ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120122/4d4a333c/attachment-0001.htm From dave at davesevick.com Mon Jan 23 04:32:21 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2012 06:32:21 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] =?windows-1252?q?OK_=85_2_corrections_=2E=2E=2E__Mike_Dai?= =?windows-1252?q?sey__and_the_Fair_Labor_Association_Letter?= Message-ID: Tip: Don't write letters when you are half-asleeep ! ---------- Mike Daisey is the monologue performer. The letter to Apple employees addressing Foxconn condtions: http://appadvice.com/appnn/2012/01/apple-cook-fla -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120123/befe27e4/attachment.htm From kim at equiparts.net Mon Jan 23 06:53:10 2012 From: kim at equiparts.net (Equiparts - Kim Coles) Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:53:10 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Mike Dailey comes to Pittsburgh to perform the monologue "The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" In-Reply-To: <16FFF823-C087-4079-B66F-71EC6FD7E900@davesevick.com> References: <16FFF823-C087-4079-B66F-71EC6FD7E900@davesevick.com> Message-ID: <725FAD7B-C615-4FED-96E4-45D9C1DE701A@equiparts.net> Apple dedicated several pages on their site regarding this topic including a list of suppliers. http://www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/ On Jan 23, 2012, at 12:54 AM, Dave Sevick wrote: > Dear Pitsburgh Apple users, > > I am searching for the right words to express how much Mike Daisey's stage performance at the Byham Theater truly moved me on what is good about Apple. And troublesome. > > http://mikedaisey.blogspot.com/ > > There are hidden human rights concerns about work conditions at FoxConn in Shenzhen, China. He travelled to Shenzhen undercover as a "businessman" and interviewed workers while he had access to the plant, inspecting where our iPhones, iPads and many other devices by Dell, Nokia, and others are made .... by human hands more than machines. > > [see attached file: Mike_Daisey.png] > > Much to Apple's credit, new CEO Tim Cook wrote this reassurance to Apple employees: > > http://forum.china.org.cn/viewthread.php?tid=30547&extra=page%3D5 > > ======== > > Mike Daisey is a true Apple "fanboy" and proved it in side-stitching rant lasting 2-hours in a non-stop, brilliant monologue rocking the packed Pittsburgh audience at the Byham .... > > His one-man act best is described in an article by Adam Ludwig in the Nov 11, 2011 issue of Forbes Magazine : > > http://www.forbes.com/sites/techonomy/2011/11/04/mike-daisey-is-mad-at-steve-jobs-and-he-wants-you-to-get-mad-too/ > > This show was a major eye opener. > > Dave > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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/20120123/456a337d/attachment.htm From dave at davesevick.com Mon Jan 23 19:16:39 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:16:39 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] New York Times explains why we live in an "Apple iPhone Economy" via an animated story Message-ID: <7E939A4B-4619-4E13-9F2A-1752B1A6870F@davesevick.com> Many thanks to Ed G. for passing this on. It is a clear explanation of where we have come since the 1960s to the present economy. Really simple and helpful. The iPhone Economy By AMANDA COX, CHARLES DUHIGG, XAQU?N G.V., MIKA GR?NDAHL, HAEYOUN PARK, GRAHAM ROBERTS, KARL RUSSELL | Send Feedback Sources: Government Accountability Office; Bureau of Labor Statistics; S&P Capital IQ; iSuppli http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/01/20/business/the-iphone-economy.html?smid=fb-nytimes&WT.mc_id=BU-E-FB-SM-LIN-TIE-012312-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click Dave -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120123/186a9e36/attachment.htm From dave at davesevick.com Mon Jan 23 20:01:13 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:01:13 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Fake Camera+ app hits the iPhone App Store Message-ID: <49BFCAA7-6681-40FC-B99B-A5675A4965E7@davesevick.com> http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/01/23/fake-camera-app-hits-app-store/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nakedsecurity+%28Naked+Security+-+Sophos%29 Fake Camera+ app hits the iPhone App Store How much trust do you put in Apple's stewardship of the App Store - the online marketplace where you can download apps for your iPhone or iPad? Chances are that you don't think twice about installing software from the App Store - after all, all the software up there has been verified by "Apple", right? Well, just because Apple has put in procedures to police their App Store, and - unlike the Google Android platform - pre-approve each app, doesn't mean that fake or malicious apps have never appeared. This weekend the iPhoneography blog spotted a bogus app posing as the popular Camera+ application. Fortunately, iPhoneography's Glyn Evans realised something fishy was afoot and contacted Tap Tap Tap, the real makers of Camera+, and asked them to confirm whether the app - which claimed to be "THE MOST AMAZING CAMERA+ VERSION YET" - was legitimate or not. We haven't been able to get our hands on a copy of the bogus app, so we cannot confirm if it contained any malicious functionality. It is possible that the popular app's name was being taken in vain, simply in order to try to earn some money from online purchases. The good news is that, once notified, Apple quickly withdrew the bogus software from its App Store. But questions still remain as to what went wrong with Apple's approval process. Why didn't they notice that someone was uploading a false version of such a well-known app? After all, Camera+ is currently the 14th best-selling app in the App Store - Apple should surely recognise if someone other than Tap Tap Tap tries to submit it to the store? As always, be careful what applications you install on your computing devices - even if they come from the Apple App Store. It's not just fake software you have to watch out for, malicious code has made it into the App Store in the past. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120123/7d6ad0e4/attachment.htm From jbauerlein at yahoo.com Tue Jan 24 08:06:33 2012 From: jbauerlein at yahoo.com (John Bauerlein) Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:06:33 -0800 (PST) Subject: [NPMUG] Some Thoughts Following Mike Daisey's Pittsburgh Performance Message-ID: <1327417593.31722.YahooMailNeo@web160101.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> I sat in the front balcony of the Byham Theater (Pittsburgh) this past Saturday night, and listened as carefully as I could (given the fact there was no sound reinforcement being used with the "chamber-room voice" of Mr. Daisey). ?The next day I listened to a good part of his monologue from "This American Life," and got some of the vague sounds more clearly defined. ?You can listen to it here--- ? ? ? ? ? ??http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory I came away with a number of questions. ?How does this "efficiency mode" differ from the late nineteenth/early twentieth century in this country when there were huge factory and coal mine complexes, with workers living in company housing and working such lengthy shifts that in some cases people became handicapped or lost their lives? ?What corporate executive wanted regulations that would protect the worker?. ?Even so, we know how women were made slaves (for example, working in locked clothing factories), and that 12 and 13 year old children worked 12 to 14 hour-days in terrible conditions. ? Does this always have to be the price for economic growth (and in some people's minds define what some refer to as the "American way")? Now that we have some work protection regulations in this country, is this what American corporations should now "foist" on the vulnerable in other countries? ?If Apple is making profits averaging over $400,000.00 per employee, why can't more Apple (and other American tech company) jobs be brought back to this country---even if it means it would lessen the profit motive and perhaps raise the product price by a modest amount? ?Is the joy of having these toys (or as Mr. Daisey called it - our "shit") worth the exploitation of the human condition? I realize Apple has made some moves in recent days to examine and hold accountable some of Foxconn's practices. ?However, after reading what they sent out, I would like to see them spell out more specifically the way they view how labor should be treated, and in doing so define a more firm implementation. What is Al Gore and other Apple Board members saying about these issues? ?It will be interesting to see how this discussion develops. John Bauerlein ? ? http://www.johnbauerlein.com "It is more important to surpass oneself than to overtake the others."?Ronald Zollman -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120124/3ad2d454/attachment-0001.htm From dave at davesevick.com Tue Jan 24 18:19:21 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:19:21 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Laurene Powell ( Steve Jobs' widow ) to be a guest at the State of The Union Address tonight at 9PM tonight (full guest list included) Message-ID: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57364961-503544/michelle-obamas-state-of-the-union-guest-list-released/ The White House today released the list of guests who will sit with First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden's wife Jill Biden during tonight's State of the Union address. The guests include San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro; Laurene Powell Jobs, the founder and chair of Emerson Collective and widow of Steve Jobs; Mark Kelly, astronaut and husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords; Adam Rapp, who underwent cancer treatment after benefiting from health care reforms; and Colonel Ginger Wallace, an Air Force intelligence officer who benefited from the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Warren Buffett's secretary Debbie Bosanek will also be in the first lady's box. Check out the full list below: SGT Ashleigh Berg, USA Malibu, California SGT Ashleigh Berg is from Malibu, California, and joined the United States Army in July of 2004. SGT Berg has been stationed in South Korea and Germany, and has served two tours of duty in Iraq. Her husband, SGT Matthew Berg, USA is currently deployed to Afghanistan on his 3rd combat tour. SGT Berg is currently assigned to the 94th Army Missile Defense Command in Fort Shafter Hawaii, and is serving a three year tour as the Commanding General's Executive Administrative assistant. Alicia Boler-Davis Plant Manager, General Motors Orion Assembly Detroit, Michigan Alicia Boler-Davis lives in Detroit with her husband, Fitzgerald, and their two young sons. She is the plant manager at General Motors Orion Assembly and Pontiac Stamping, and is responsible for overseeing the production of the first new small car program from General Motors to be manufactured in the United States. Last October, Ms. Boler-Davis led President Obama and President Lee of South Korea on a tour of the General Motors Orion Assembly and Pontiac Stamping. President Obama and President Lee traveled to the GM plant to highlight the free trade agreements and the resurgence of the American auto industry. Debbie Bosanek Assistant, Berkshire Hathaway Bellevue, Nebraska A Nebraska native, Debbie Bosanek has worked for Berkshire Hathaway for 37 years and has been Warren Buffett's secretary for almost two decades. Last September, the President proposed the "Buffett Rule" as part of comprehensive tax reform, and is working to build an economy that works for everyone, including Americans like Ms. Bosanek, not just a wealthy few. Ms. Bosanek lives in Bellevue, Nebraska with her husband of 23 years and their son, and spends most of her time and energy trying to keep up with her boss. Jackie Bray Process Operator at the Siemens Charlotte Energy Hub King's Mountain, North Carolina Jackie Bray is a single mother from King's Mountain, North Carolina. Last January she was laid off from her job as a high speed packaging mechanic. That is when she enrolled in Central Piedmont Community College to prepare for Siemens pre-hiring test. After finishing the course and passing the test, Ms. Bray was hired by Siemens in August of 2011. This type of partnership between businesses and community colleges is exactly what President Obama hopes to strengthen to maximize workforce development strategies, job training programs, and job placements. Ms. Bray now works as a process operator, combining her machinist background with new skills she has been trained on since working at Siemens: laser training, robotics training, penetrant inspection training, and product orientation. Mayor Julian Castro San Antonio, Texas Mayor Castro was first elected mayor of San Antonio in 2009 and at 37 years old is the youngest mayor of a top 50 American city. He is a former city councilman and founder of a law firm. He graduated from Stanford University and earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2000. During his Administration, the Milken Institute ranked San Antonio as the best-performing city in the nation in 2011. In January 2012, Mayor Castro announced that CPS Energy, a municipally-owned utility, has entered negotiations to bring at least 800 jobs and $100 million in capital investment to San Antonio. This is expected to be one of the nation's largest solar projects resulting in 400 megawatts of zero-emissions solar energy. Bruce Cochrane President and CEO of Lincolnton Furniture Lincolnton, North Carolina Bruce Cochrane comes from a family that has manufactured furniture in North Carolina for decades, but when Cochrane Furniture was sold in 1997, the new owners moved manufacturing to China. Two years ago, Mr. Cochrane decided the time had come to start his own furniture company back in his home state. In January 2012, production began at Lincolnton Furniture in the same plant his family once ran. Lincolnton Furniture is expected to add 130 new jobs to the area. Mr. Cochrane attended President Obama's Insourcing American Jobs Forum earlier this month. Sara Ferguson Teacher, Columbus Elementary Parkside, Pennsylvania Sara Ferguson teaches literacy and math at Columbus Elementary, and has worked for the Chester Upland School District for 20 years. She is a third generation educator in Chester Upland, and a proud product of that district. When the Chester Upland School District faced bankruptcy earlier this year in light of severe state budget cuts, Ms. Ferguson vowed to continue teaching even without being paid, saying "we are adults; we will make a way. The students don't have any contingency plan. They need to be educated, so we intend to be on the job." Dr. Hiroyuki Fujita Founder, President and CEO Quality Electrodynamics Cleveland, Ohio Dr. Hiroyuki Fujita is founder, president and chief executive officer of Quality Electrodynamics (QED), in Cleveland, Ohio. Coming to America from Japan in 1988 and after receiving his Ph.D. in physics from Case Western Reserve University in 1998, Dr. Fujita chose to continue his professional training in America. In 2006 he started his own company, QED, which is a developer and manufacturer of highly proprietary state-of-the-art MRI radiofrequency antennas. QED is now one of the world's largest suppliers of these products and ships throughout the globe. In 2010, Dr. Fujita founded his second company, eQED, a solar energy-related electronics development and manufacturing company. With the founding of both QED and eQED, today Dr. Fujita is creating high tech, advanced manufacturing jobs in the healthcare and energy sectors in the United States. Mahala Greer Student Denver, Colorado Mahala Greer grew up in Paonia, a small town in rural Colorado. She is currently a student at the University of Colorado Denver majoring in Spanish, and has just been accepted into Teach for America as a Bilingual Education Corps Member. In May she will graduate with more than $35,000 in student loans. Last October, Ms. Greer introduced President Obama when he spoke to students at CU Denver about how his Administration is working to make college more affordable and reduce student loan debt. Adrienne Howard San Diego, California Adrienne Howard is a military spouse from Lynchburg, Virginia, and currently lives in San Diego, California with her three children. Her husband, Commander Colby Howard, USN, is currently on a seven month deployment. Mrs. Howard has moved 14 times during her husband's career, and their oldest child has attended 9 different schools along the way. For nearly 20 years, she has been heavily involved as a volunteer in family readiness groups and Navy spouse organizations. This past September, Mrs. Howard was inspired by First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden's Joining Forces initiative to reach out to her community, and the response was overwhelming. Mrs. Howard shared her story of rallying her community to 'adopt' a Sailor on the Joining Forces Blog. Mike Krieger Co-founder Instagram San Francisco, California Mike Krieger is the co-founder of Instagram, the fastest growing social mobile startup in the U.S. today, with over 15 million registered users. Mike was born in S?o Paulo, Brazil, and moved to California in 2004 to attend Stanford University, where he studied computer science and cognitive science. In 2010, he joined up with Kevin Systrom to co-found Instagram, and now employs a talented, growing team of designers and engineers. After graduation, Mr. Krieger worked for a year on his student F-1 visa, later applying for and receiving an H-1B visa as a high-skill worker. Mr. Krieger wants to permanently stay in the U.S. and has applied for a green card. Captain Mark Kelly, USN, Ret. Mark Kelly is an American astronaut, retired US Navy Captain, best-selling author, and an experienced naval aviator who flew combat missions during the Gulf War. The winner of many awards, including the Legion of Merit, two Defense Superior Service Medals and two Distinguished Flying Crosses, Kelly was selected as an astronaut in 1996. He flew his first of four missions in 2001 aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour, the same space shuttle that he commanded on its final flight in May 2011. He has also commanded Space Shuttle Discovery and is one of only two individuals who have visited the International Space Station on four different occasions. Already a celebrated American, Kelly became the center of international attention after the January 2011 assassination attempt on his wife, US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. In their best-selling memoir, Gabby, the couple shares their story of hope and resilience with the world. Lorelei Kilker Analytical Chemist Brighton, Colorado Lorelei Kilker is an analytical chemist for an environmental laboratory, and lives in Brighton, Colorado with her domestic partner and their two children. In October of 2011, Ms. Kilker was one of a class of women who benefitted from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) investigation of alleged systematic sex discrimination at her former employer that resulted in the award of back wages and significant remedial relief, arrangements that were achieved through a cooperative process between the employer and EEOC. Since the creation of the President's Equal Pay Task Force in January 2010, EEOC obtained almost $50 million in monetary relief through administrative enforcement for victims of sex-based wage discrimination, obtained changes to workplace practices that benefit over one quarter of a million workers, and filed five cases including sex-based wage discrimination claims. Admiral William McRaven, USN Admiral McRaven assumed command of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) on June 13, 2008. Prior to assuming command, he served from June 2006 to March 2008 as commander, Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR). In addition to his duties as COMSOCEUR, he was designated as the first director of the NATO Special Operations Forces Coordination Centre (NSCC), where he was charged with enhancing the capabilities and inter-operability of all NATO Special Operations Forces. Adm. McRaven has commanded at every level within the special operations community, including assignments as deputy commanding general for operations at JSOC, commodore of Naval Special Warfare Group 1, commander of SEAL Team 3, task group commander in the CENTCOM area of responsibility, task unit commander during Desert Storm and Desert Shield, squadron commander at Naval Special Warfare Development Group, and SEAL platoon commander at Underwater Demolition Team 21/SEAL Team 4. Adm. McRaven's diverse staff and interagency experience includes assignments as the director for Strategic Planning in the Office of Combating Terrorism on the National Security Council Staff, assessment director at U.S. Special Operations Command, on the Staff of the Chief of Naval Operations and the chief of staff at Naval Special Warfare Group 1. Adm. McRaven's professional education includes assignment to the Naval Postgraduate School, where he helped establish and was the first graduate from the Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict curriculum. Joan Milligan Orlando, Florida As deep rooted Orlando, Florida, residents, Joan Milligan and her husband Bill share a strong commitment to their community and volunteering. Faced with losing their home, President Obama's Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) allowed Joan and her husband to refinance their existing loan when other means of refinancing were not open to them. As Mrs. Milligan has said, "I can't believe how easy the process was. The bank bent over backwards to accommodate us". The Milligans will celebrate 50 years of marriage in October 2012. Amber Morris Virginia Beach, Virginia Amber Morris, a Virginia Beach resident, responded to the White House's call in December asking Americans "What does 40 mean to you?" saying, "Forty dollars a pay check means that I'll be able to pay my bills, but most months it'll be a tight squeeze. It means that I'll have no spending money which means I can't do my part in encouraging my local economy. Forty dollars a paycheck may not seem a lot, but it could mean a steady job for me and my coworkers or unemployment." Ms. Morris graduated from Northeastern Law School in 2008 and found herself unable to find a job in her field. She was working for a non-profit in Boston, but after they lost funding she found herself unemployed in 2009 and forced to move back home with her parents. She's since found work as a waitress in a local restaurant and although it's less than ideal, she feels "lucky to have paycheck" to help pay student loans and help save up for the Virginia bar exam. Laurene Powell Jobs Founder and Chair of Emerson Collective Palo Alto, California Ms. Laurene Powell Jobs is founder and chair of Emerson Collective, an organization focused on harnessing the potential of individuals from underserved communities to help them build a better life. Ms. Powell Jobs also serves as president of the board of College Track, an after-school program she founded in 1997 to prepare underserved high school students for success in college. Started in East Palo Alto, College Track has expanded to serve students in Oakland, San Francisco, New Orleans and Aurora, Colorado. The program's intensive academic and extracurricular program is designed to ensure admittance to and graduation from college. All of the program's graduates have completed their secondary education and gone on to college. In addition to her work with the Emerson Collective and College Track, she serves on the boards of directors of NewSchools Venture Fund, New America Foundation and Conservation International. She also serves as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Ms. Powell Jobs holds a BA and a BSE from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Earlier in her career, she spent several years working in investment banking and later co-founded a natural foods company in California. Adam Rapp Fall Creek Township, Illinois Adam Rapp lives in Fall Creek Township, Illinois, and is the only child of Stephen and Lisa Rapp. On his 23rd birthday, he was diagnosed with cancer, and without the Affordable Care Act he would have lost health insurance coverage the same day. Adam's mother wrote President Obama a letter last May thanking him for passing the health reform law so that her son could remain on their health insurance policy. After undergoing treatment, Mr. Rapp is now cancer-free and engaged to be married to Adrienne Mast of Quincy, Illinois. Juan Jose Redin Attorney North Hollywood, California Juan Jose Redin was born in Ixtapan de la Sal, Mexico before coming with his mother and younger sister to the United States at the age of 10. After enduring many challenges throughout his journey to achieve his dream of higher education. Juan benefited from California's Assembly Bill 540 and was able to enroll, and excel, in his studies at UCLA. He received both his undergraduate (with honors) and law degrees from UCLA. Now a US citizen and a practicing attorney, Juan is as passionate as ever about ensuring educational access to all. Bryan Ritterby Lab Technician Holland, Michigan Bryan Ritterby had been in the furniture manufacturing industry for more than 25 years working on the manufacturing floor, in the quality department and as a field service representative, but was laid off in February of 2009. Mr. Ritterby then went through the Grand Rapids Community College Composite Technician Training Program in conjunction with a new start-up company, Energetx Composites. Upon completion of the program, Mr. Ritterby was hired by Energetx Composites as a composite technician in April of 2010. Today, Mr. Ritterby is a Lab Technician for Energetx Composites conducting material tests in the company's laboratory verifying materials to be used in wind turbine blades, as well as working on blade validation tests for all of the community scale wind blades Energetx is manufacturing. Colonel Ginger Wallace, USAF McLean, Virginia Colonel Ginger Wallace is an Air Force intelligence officer who has led airlift and intelligence operations during Operations SOUTHERN WATCH, PROVIDE RELIEF, UPHOLD DEMOCRACY, ALLIED FORCE, ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM. She currently lives in McLean, Virginia with her partner of over a decade, Kathy Knopf. In December, Ms. Knopf attended Col. Wallace's promotion ceremony and participated in the "pinning on" of Col. Wallace's rank, marking the first such event reported following the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Col. Wallace is currently training to deploy to Afghanistan in the Spring 2012 through the Afghanistan-Pakistan Hands program. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120124/5b8b0334/attachment-0001.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Laurene+Steve.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 9557 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120124/5b8b0334/attachment-0001.jpeg From ronladams7 at gmail.com Wed Jan 25 15:58:19 2012 From: ronladams7 at gmail.com (Ron_A) Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:58:19 -0700 Subject: [NPMUG] =?windows-1252?q?Apple_Passes_Exxon_As_World=92s_Most_Val?= =?windows-1252?q?uable_Company_=7C_Cult_of_Mac?= Message-ID: http://www.cultofmac.com/142522/apple-passes-exxon-as-worlds-most-valuable-company/ ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120125/f4710b34/attachment.htm From ronladams7 at gmail.com Wed Jan 25 19:23:18 2012 From: ronladams7 at gmail.com (Ron_A) Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:23:18 -0700 Subject: [NPMUG] Google Public Alerts Message-ID: <666B7DBC-8E8D-4061-9D8F-F2CFDCBA11E6@gmail.com> new and nice? http://www.google.org/publicalerts ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120125/16665149/attachment.htm From genemyrapa at gmail.com Thu Jan 26 16:14:58 2012 From: genemyrapa at gmail.com (Gene & Myra Fozard) Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:14:58 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] from: theverge.com - Apple's labor practices come under fire from former executives Message-ID: Read the article then the voluminous comments that follow immediately. Very thought/discussion provoking to say the least. http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/26/2735663/apples-labor-practices-former-executives Gene O! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120126/1a81504b/attachment.htm From ronladams7 at gmail.com Fri Jan 27 08:24:05 2012 From: ronladams7 at gmail.com (Ron_A) Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:24:05 -0700 Subject: [NPMUG] =?windows-1252?q?Apple=92s_Siri_threatens_to_damage_cellp?= =?windows-1252?q?hone_service_for_all_-_The_Washington_Post?= Message-ID: <77CB5923-FAD2-44A5-803D-C245E21FF719@gmail.com> http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/apples-siri-threatens-to-damage-cellphone-service-for-all/2012/01/23/gIQAZ1O5TQ_story.html ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120127/281c5428/attachment.htm From markd at borkware.com Fri Jan 27 09:08:56 2012 From: markd at borkware.com (Mark Dalrymple) Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:08:56 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] =?windows-1252?q?Apple=92s_Siri_threatens_to_damage_cellp?= =?windows-1252?q?hone_service_for_all_-_The_Washington_Post?= In-Reply-To: <77CB5923-FAD2-44A5-803D-C245E21FF719@gmail.com> References: <77CB5923-FAD2-44A5-803D-C245E21FF719@gmail.com> Message-ID: It's the nature of technology, especially since we're really in the early days of mobile tech. Remember back when everything was text, then images were too much for slow modems to handle so we got faster modems. Then video came along and fast modems couldn't handle it, so we got broadband. ++m "still awaiting the downloadable cars" d On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 10:24 AM, Ron_A wrote: > > http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/apples-siri-threatens-to-damage-cellphone-service-for-all/2012/01/23/gIQAZ1O5TQ_story.html > > ? > > _______________________________________________ > NPMUG mailing list > NPMUG at davesevick.com > http://davesevick.com/mailman/listinfo/npmug > From robertadonaldson at gmail.com Fri Jan 27 16:19:38 2012 From: robertadonaldson at gmail.com (robertadonaldson) Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:19:38 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] Goodwill CRC update, Friday, January 27, 2012 Message-ID: <3EFC9A8E-392A-4242-B079-04EF1301D56E@gmail.com> Dear Mac friends: Many thanks to Charlie Hutchens, Rich Fitzgibbon, John Hamill, and Marty Swartz for joining me today for our weekly workday at our Goodwill Computer Recycling Center "annex." Today we said goodbye to an old friend and suffered the return of an old nemesis. For three and one-half years we've treasured a delightful 12-inch G4 iBook as an in-house 'swiss army knife' to perform a variety of tasks from firewire imaging other Macs to running Disk Warrior directory repairs. Today we realized we have been using our personal Mac laptops or other in-house Macs to do these tasks. We wiped its hard drive and re-imaged it, and now it will head to the Goodwill ComputerWorks store for sale. It's time for this delightful little box to generate some revenue.... Remember our success last week with imaging an old G4 PowerMac Tower that had resisted netbooting? The problem came back today in spades. Two more of that particular PowerMac model steadfastly refused to netboot or boot via Firewire. I believe I set some sort of record in zapping their PRAM and double checking to make sure their firmware had been updated. In addition to the dreading opaque start button, they also sport two logic board reset buttons. If anybody has a clue to get these things to behave as their slightly newer brethren, we're all ears. Their future as OS 9 boxes is dubious. For the third week in a row, we refurbished 10 Macs and de-manufactured 6 others. It's a pattern we'd be delighted to have continue. Our all time total is now 3,203. We'll have another workday next Friday, February 3. We hope to see you there! Robert A. Donaldson robertadonaldson at gmail.com mobile: 412-477-9188 From terencejgolightly at gmail.com Fri Jan 27 22:19:59 2012 From: terencejgolightly at gmail.com (Terence J. Golightly) Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:19:59 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] =?windows-1252?q?Apple=92s_Siri_threatens_to_damage_cellp?= =?windows-1252?q?hone_service_for_all_-_The_Washington_Post?= In-Reply-To: References: <77CB5923-FAD2-44A5-803D-C245E21FF719@gmail.com> Message-ID: <4F23857F.8040308@gmail.com> On 01/27/2012 11:08 AM, Mark Dalrymple wrote: > It's the nature of technology, especially since we're really in the > early days of mobile tech. Remember back when everything was text, > then images were too much for slow modems to handle so we got faster > modems. Then video came along and fast modems couldn't handle it, so > we got broadband. > > ++m "still awaiting the downloadable cars" d > > I'd settle for a printable one :) Terry -- terencejgolightly at gmail.com From dave at davesevick.com Sat Jan 28 07:23:53 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:23:53 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] AAPL at $447.28 Message-ID: Friday Jan 27, 2012 @ 7:11 PM EST MacDailyNews reports: Apple Inc. shares today rose $2.65, or 0.60%, in NASDAQ trading on below-average volume of 10,703,953 shares to set a new all-time closing high of $447.28. Apple?s previous all-time closing high was $446.66 set on January 25, 2012. Apple?s all-time intraday high is $454.45, also set on January 25, 2012. Apple?s 52-week low is $310.50. Apple?s market value currently stands at $415.71 billion. The top five U.S. publicly-traded companies, based on market value: 1. Apple (AAPL) ? $415.71B 2. Exxon Mobil (XOM) ? $411.40B 3. Microsoft (MSFT) ? $245.26B 4. IBM (IBM) ? $220.93B 5. Wal-Mart (WMT) ? $207.91B Selected companies? current market values: ? GE (GE) ? $201.07B ? Google (GOOG) ? $188.03B ? Intel (INTC) ? $135.49B ? Cisco (CSCO) ? $105.150B ? Amazon (AMZN) ? $88.85B ? Disney (DIS) ? $70.51B ? Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) ? $55.31B ? Dell (DELL) ? $30.07B ? Yahoo! (YHOO) ? $19.52B ? Nokia (NOK) ? $18.85B ? Sony (SNE) ? $18.49B ? Adobe (ADBE) ? $15.26B ? Motorola Mobility (MMI) ? $11.66B ? Research In Motion (RIMM) ? $8.66B ? Sirius XM (SIRI) ? $7.65B ? Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) ? $4.75B ? RealNetworks (RNWK) ? $0.34B http://macdailynews.com/2012/01/27/apple-shares-hit-new-all-time-closing-high-120127/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wordpress%2FxhfA+%28MacDailyNews%29 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120128/4ccafb60/attachment.htm From dave at davesevick.com Tue Jan 31 19:12:18 2012 From: dave at davesevick.com (Dave Sevick) Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:12:18 -0500 Subject: [NPMUG] All eyes on the Facebook IPO tomorrow morning Wed Feb 1, 2012 Message-ID: <88AE9855-3C07-4123-A164-E1A91FD084DD@davesevick.com> Could be the biggest in history ... :-) http://www.bloomberg.com/video/85298650/ Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Doug MacMillan talks about the outlook for Facebook Inc.'s initial public offering. Facebook, the world?s largest social-networking service, chose Morgan Stanley to take the lead on its planned share sale, four people with knowledge of the matter said. MacMillan speaks with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg West." (Source: Bloomberg) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20120131/c5658810/attachment-0001.htm