SGVAUG

SGVMUG General Meeting – Nov. 19th, 2007
Time: 7:00 pm Location: Pasadena Public Library, Main Branch Auditorium

Whatever your field of interest, at some time you may be called-upon to present a lecture or seminar – it may be about your work, your hobbies, your travels, or whatever. When that time comes, knowing how to prepare and deliver an effective presentation will save you the embarrassment of standing in front of your audience and fumbling with your script, the slides, or even the basic task of organizing your materials effectively.

This presentation will not tell you how to organize your thoughts, but it will help you to understand how to put them together into a meaningful and carefully crafted computer-aided slide show.
Continue reading →

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20071026082852658

Friday, October 26 2007 @ 08:28 AM PDT
Philosophical and practical notes on installing Leopard

Herewith, a short philosophical and practical guide to upgrading to Leopard.

Your ground of being should be caution and forbearance. Consider the situation both for Apple and for developers:

*

Apple, having allowed this shipment to slip six months already, has had to get Leopard out the door before the end of October by hook or by crook. You may reasonably conclude that this cake is probably not entirely baked. As with Tiger, an early software update (10.5.1) will likely be needed to correct a multitude of issues. Until then, consider yourself a beta tester.
*
Continue reading →

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20071023091749337

Tuesday, October 23 2007 @ 09:00 AM PDT
Special Report: Preparing for Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Installation — Avoiding issues before and after updating

This, Apple officially releases Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) — a major update that will be installed by thousands of early adopters in its first few hours of availability.

The following guidelines are aimed at reducing common issues that occur during as a result of the upgrade process, including pre-update preparation, proper installation, and post-update maintenance.

Backing up your data: A prerequisite Performing a backup prior to embarking on a major Mac OS X upgrade is essential.

Apple offers some excellent tips for standard backups that can be accomplished using the Terminal, or the .Mac Backup application in Knowledge Base article #106941, but for most users, a cloning utility like SuperDuper! proves more useful.
Continue reading →

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20071024094829561

Late-Breakers
Wednesday, October 24 2007 @ 09:30 AM PDT
Warning: Do not run DiskWarrior or similar utilities on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

DiskWarrior and other tools that modify or rebuild the directory of volumes should not be run after installing Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) until further notice or updates from the developers of these tools.

As part of our special report on preparing for Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) published yesterday we noted that previous major Mac OS X releases have made significant disk directory changes that can react adversely to the processes used by these applications.

Alsoft, the developer of DiskWarrior, has now released a statement on compatibility that is somewhat confusing. It reads:

“[…] until we have a copy of the final build of Leopard, we cannot completely comment on Leopard compatibility.

“We will absolutely support Mac OS X 10.5. While we have the early builds of Mac OS X 10.5 to test with, Apple does not tell us ahead of time what changes or enhancements they plan to make until they provide us with the software and documentation. Apple engineering may make changes right up to the last few days before the release and we wouldn’t know about them until after the fact.
Continue reading →

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20071024141811643

Late-Breakers
Wednesday, October 24 2007 @ 02:00 PM PDT
Apple confirms no Classic support in Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5)

We previously reported that Mac OS X 10.5 does not support the Classic (Mac OS 9 runtime) environment for PowerPC-based Macs. The only option for running Mac OS 9 applications after updating to Leopard is to boot your system into Mac OS 9 (if it supports the OS) or booting into a Mac OS X 10.4.x or earlier volume.

Apple has now confirmed this information with a Knowledge Base article that states:

“Classic applications do not work on Intel processor-based Macs or with Mac OS X 10.5. Upgrade your Mac OS 9 applications to Mac OS X versions. Check with an application’s manufacturer for more information.”

SendStation, makers of adapters to get more use out of your iPod is currently giving away 1000 FireWire PocketDocks. PocketDocks allow you use various cables (in this case FireWire) to connect your iPod to our computer and or other devices. For more info check the following link –

http://www.sendstation.com/us/products/pocketdock/fw.html

As with the last version of Office, Microsoft is giving recent purchasers of the Suite a chance to buy the next version for a steep discount. Buy Office between Sept. 25th, 2007 and March 15th, 2008 and get Office 2008 for 10 dollars plus tax. For more information check the following link –

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/go/promotions/

The Apple Expo in Paris is where Microsoft announced updated info on Office for Mac 2008. According to Jim Dalrymple of Macworld magazine the pricing is as follows –

Microsoft details Office 2008 for Mac pricing

Office will be available in three versions: Office 2008 for Mac ($399.95; $239.95 upgrade), Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition ($149.95) and Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition ($499.95; $299.95 upgrade).

Office 2008 for Mac remains the core suite that includes Word 2008, Excel 2008, PowerPoint 2008 and Entourage 2008. A new bundle called Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition, features the Office 2008 applications and adds the Microsoft Expression Media digital asset management system. This edition also includes Exchange support and Automator tools.

The final bundle is the home and student edition that gives users the basics of what Office has to offer. According to Microsoft this version includes three user licenses, but does not have Exchange support or automated workflows.

All versions of Office 2008 for Mac support the new Open XML file format and are Universal applications that run natively on Power PC- and Intel-based Macs.