NVMUG eNews June 17 Meeting Report
Northern Vermont Macintosh User Group
June 24, 2000 Next Meeting
No meeting is planned for July, there will be a July - August combined meeting early in August, probably on August 5 or 12.
Geof Gonter will show us how to put together an ethernet network at Martinsen Industries in the industrial park in Wolcott, across from the covered railroad bridge a few miltes west of Hardwick on Route 15. We will send more information later.
In this NVMUG eNews
1. iView by Stephen Farber
2. Digital Cameras by Warren Walker
3. Ten Mac Secrets from MacWorld Mac Secrets
4. iRing
5. Suggestions
6. Dr. Seuss Explains Computers
1. iView by Stephen Farber
iView multimedia™ is based upon Apple’s QuickTime, which gives it its real programming strength. Basically it is a catalog and display program for images, fonts, sounds, and even movies, but is so flexible that it has many other uses.
Quark does not play well with others, but iView has an extension for Quark’s files. iView works with Photoshop, PageMaker, FreeHand, Illustrator, fonts, and QuickTime files in formats including JPEG, TIFF, PICT, BMP, GIF, EPS, MPEG, and MIDI among others. It will skip past icons unless you use a program such as Icon Viewer to first change the icons to a PICT format .
Your digital camera records data about each picture in a Photoshop standard; information such as bit depth, compression, date, f-stop, and resolution. iView can capture this information into a text database. That is, iView supports the Photoshop annotation format, and the EXIF annotation standard used by most digital cameras.)
iView can search through a folder, and pick out and catalog files of items it can catalog.
Stephen showed a map showing where he lives that he obtained using MapSurfer. This lead to a discussion of which Internet map program was the best. Stephen pointed out a flaw in this map where it showed a road as a through road which actually is two disconnected roads because there is a cliff in the way. This lead to a discussion of wouldn’t it be nice if you could draw a road on a map, and have it make the real road. What you would really like to do is to tell the scale what you want to weigh, and have it change your weight when you get on it. Check web site http://www.h2g2.com
for hitchhikers guide to the universe.
The catalog of a 12 meg file with thumbnail images records used only 757k, so working with them is very fast.
Once you have the catalog file you can sort it by name, file type, label, and a number of other characteristics. You can “mark” images or files, and select marked ones. You can move items or selected groups of items. iView is scriptable, can directly talk to data ase applications, and can even create HTML-based sharable catalogs of your images with just a couple of clicks.
You can display multiple images, sounds, movies, or fonts on one screen. This makes it easy to compare them. You can delete items, but be careful not to delete the original file!
iView can present a slide show of images, or of sounds, or of sounds in conjunction with images. You can tile a screen with one image to make wallpaper. iView is a very flexible program.
Files can be added, or moved to other documents, by copy and paste, or drag and drop. When you drag an image form the catalog it goes into a PICT file. When you copy a picture from the Internet, iVew crates a thumbnail and saves the URL.
Stephen recommends using iView for managing the files, Photoshop for doing the work, and GraphicConverter. I asked Stephen to review this, and he added:
<In retrospect I would add emphesis to:
iView's Export cababilities:
Print thumbnails (very flexible)
Slide Show
Quicktime movie of slide show
Tab delimited text of files attributes( selectively and rearrangabley)
HTML catalog for web projects or cross platform distibution
Drag and Drop arrangement to other cataloges, or the Finder and other media.
Learning more each time I use this "elegant" tool. >
Digital cameras focus the image onto a microscopic array of photo detectors changing the light into numbers. This microscopic array is only 1/3 of an inch square. That is why it cannot just replace the film in a regular camera where the lens is designed to focus on a larger area.
The best digital camera for you depends upon what you are going to do with the pictures. You will want to consider the camera itself, the kind of memory it uses, and how you get the pictures from the camera to your computer.
Warren bought a Nikon because of their clarity and color quality as a result of their high quality lenses. He also wanted 2 megapixels, and waited until the price dropped to $700. At 300 dpi, a 1600 x 1200 pixel image is 5 1/3 by 4 inches. The TIFF file is 5.5 MB and one removable memory card holds only 4 images. The same size compresses to only 640k in a JPEG image with practically the same high quality 300 dpi image, and one memory card holes 28 images. A 1024 by 768 image condenses to a 316k JPEG image for a 300 dpi 4 by 2.5 inch picture, with twice as many photos on a card. A smaller 640 by 480 pixel image, or 2.1 by 1.6 inch picture at 300 dpi requires only 156k in JPEG.
There are several different kinds of removable storage. Some digital cameras have none, so the pictures have to be transferred to your computer before you take more. There are different little removable cards and smart cards, and regular floppy disks. Some little cards hold as much as 256 MB, and one new one the size of a matchbook will hold 340 MB.
There are different methods of downloading to a computer. Downloading using a serial port found on older Macintoshes, like mine, is slow. Some download through a parallel port as found on most PCs. More cameras download through the faster USB ports found on newer Macintoshes. Some digital movie cameras download through the much faster FireWire port. Ease of downloading is a factor too, not just speed.
If you are going on a trip and cannot download you pictures to a hard disk, or put them on a CD, the number of pictures you can take will depend upon the number of pixels per image, and how many memory cards and what kind of cards you have.
What digital camera you should buy depends upon what you are going to do with the images. The Internet does not require high quality. For use on the Internet with Photoshop, 320 by 240 pixels may be enough. If you are going to use the whole picture, there is no point in a picture that is better than the final output.
One of Warren’s brothers has a Sony D700 with 1.3 megapixels. He wanted a single lens reflex. Another brother has an Olympus C200 with 2 megapixels and good photo quality which he could adapt to his 10 inch telescope for amateur astronomy.
Cameras also vary in the extras they have. One desirable extra is an LCD display with which you can preview images and selectively delete those you do not want to keep. If you get an LCD display you will want to carry extra batteries. Warren’s Nikon has a lens that swivels which gives more room for optics within a small camera. With it you can turn the lens to take a self portrait while watching yourself in the LCD display.
Warren’s camera has a macro lens which will focus down to 0.8 inches. He wanted that feature for taking pictures of model boat building. Now he plans to use the camera to document his building of a full size wooden kayak. Fish eye, wide angle, and telephoto lenses are available for his Nikon. Several digital cameras are slight and literally shirt pocket size.
Warren advises to Know what you want first. Then check places like http://www.steves-digicams.com
for camera, printer, and accessory reviews and information.
3. Ten Mac Secrets from MacWorld Mac Secrets
Scott Pelok told me that MacWorld Mac Secrets was the best source of information about the Mac. I bought the book, read it, and agreed. I picked out what for me seemed to be the ten most useful secrets in the book, and took them to a NVMUG a long time ago.
Midge asked if I would do it again to fill out this meeting because she found the one about increasing memory so useful in stopping crashes. I forgot that I had created the top ten list,so I used the CD copy of MacWorld Mac Secrets 5th Edition, and searched for “ten.” I found Ten Macintosh Application Basic Techniques We Think Everyone Should Know, and Dave ‘n’ Joes Ten-step Setup Guide. So, I asked Midge to send me the old list. I was surprised to find that I was still not remembering to use them all. We discussed the three lists at the meeting.
Here is my original list of ten.
1. DE-BLOAT A REMOVABLE DISK: Dragging the contents of a floppy disk to the trash does not restore all of the disk’s memory. I had been reinitializing the disk to get the remaining memory back, but that is not necessary;. Simply hold down OPEN-APPLE-OPTION as you insert the disk to clean up the disk’s desktop file and restore its memory.
2. MAKE AN ALIAS: In OS 8.x, OPEN-APPLE-OPTION-DRAG an icon to create an alias in italics and to put it where you want it without the appended “alias.”
3. SELECT COMPLETE WORDS: Double click on a word to select it but keep the button down and drag sideways to select text in complete word segments.
4. DUPLICATE TEXT: Use OPEN-APPLE-OPTION-DRAG AND DROP to put duplicate text in another location.
5. SORTING WITH NUMBERS: To make Chapter 2 appear before Chapter 10 when you sort an alphabetic listing, type a space before the number 2. Use this when naming documents (doc 10 and doc 2) to control their sort order.
6. BACK TRACK TO AN OUTER WINDOW: OPEN-APPLE-CLICK on a window’s heading to backtrack to an outer window. OPTION-OPEN-APPLE-CLICK to backtrack to an outer window and close the current window.
7. FEWER SYSTEM CRASHES: If you are having trouble with computer crashes, look at the programs you are using; highlight each,go to File=>Get Info, and increase the Preferred Memory size by 20% or more.
8. SELECT-ALL: OPEN-APPLE-A is the same as “select all” in any dialog box, and in programs like AppleWorks. You can OPEN-APPLE-A an item in a dialog box, then key in the change to replace it.
9. WHEN A PROGRAM FREEZES: Try selecting OPEN-APPLE-OPTION-ESC to quit just that program, so you can save other work or whatever before rebooting. It it doesn’t work, press OPEN-APPLE-CONTROL-POWER KEY to restart the computer.
10. HIDE A PROGRAM EN ROUTE TO ANOTHER (including the finder): Press OPTION and either:
1. choose a program from the Application menu or palette,
2. click a program’s icon, or
3. click a background window to bring it forward.
You can then see what you want to do. After you are done, clicking on the application again restores the windows that were open.
4. iRING
Like most of us, Midge has only one telephone line in her house, and she is
on the Internet a lot. When people call, her line is busy. She found a device called iRing. It can be used with either platform and is easy to install. It just attaches to your telephone.
When she receives a telephone call while she is on the Internet, iRing interrupts the Internet connection without disconnecting for about 10 seconds. It also comes in three colors, black, white and i-Blue. It gives Midge 3 rings to answer the telephone and a few seconds to find out who it is. now she no longer feels guilty when she is on the internet.
It comes from Taiwan. Midge found it through http://www.xoom.com
and it cost $44.95 plus shipping. I tried the URL and it worked, but I was unable to find the iRing.
NOTE: This site is extremely slow to open. It took something like 9 minutes
to find out that GRANDEX stands for GROW and EXPAND. You might want to try going directly to the iRing products page; http://www.grandex.com.tw/Products/I-Ring_I/i-ring_I.html
and find from them where to buy it.
5. Suggestions
During the meeting, some interesting ways to improve working with a Macintosh were described.
Stephen suggested that you turn off Recently Used Applications to speed up your computer.
Stephen also said to make sure that virtual memory is turned on to increase your computer’s speed and reduce the amount of memory that applications require.
And, Stephen said, if you can spare 10 megs of memory, try putting your browsers disk cache into a RAM disk. You will be astounded at the speed with which you can go back to a previous page.
Stephen downloads files to a folder anchored to the bottom of his screen. I save most everything to a similar popup folder. I use the launcher where I have applications sorted into five partitions, and I have some frequently used documents and folders.
I also have a popup folder at the bottom of the screen called Aliases. I keep Stuffit aliases, and programs like Can Opener there. When I drag an item to the popup folder, it opens up, and I drag the item on top of the alias of the program I want to act on it.
And I suggested putting an empty folder on your desk top to hold clippings. Then when I see a bit of text or image that I would like to save, I drag it out of the document or browser window which turns it into a clipping that I then save in this ideas folder rather than filling the desk top with clippings icons.
If you have some favorite operating methods or organization of your desk top, let me know so we can share them.
6. Dr. Seuss Explains Computers
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port, and bus is
interrupted;
as a very last resort, and the address of the memory makes your
floppy
disk abort, then the socket packet pocket has an error to report.
If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash,
and the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash,
and your data is corrupted 'cause the index doesn't hash,
then your situation's hopeless and your system's gonna crash!
If the label on the cable on the table at your house,
says the network is connected to the button on your mouse,
but your packets want to tunnel on another protocol
that's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall,
and your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss,
so your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse,
then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang,
'cause as sure as I'm a poet, the sucker's gonna hang!
When the copy of your floppy's getting sloppy on the disk,
and the microcode instructions cause unnecessary risk,
then you have to flash your memory and you'll want to RAM your
ROM,
Quickly turn off the computer and be sure to tell your mom.
NVMUG eNews Note from Midge 6/24/00 Sorry, I just sent the eNews of the June meeting, and started clearing the work files. There it was, I hadn't included this note from Midge. Don't you hate it when that kind of thing happens? Anyway, I appologize to Midge, and I hope this give Midge's note the extra attention it should have.
Happy Summer MUGers,
Finally the weather is almost in tune with the season. Speaking of the summer season, and of the vacations people take and many outdoor activities there are for the next several weeks, we have decided to skip the July meeting and enjoy our weekends.
Unfortunately, Richard & I will be in NYC on the day we usually have our regular August meeting, so at the June meeting, everyone there discussed having the
August meeting on the weekend before.
I spoke to Don Webb, the President of the Stowe MUG and he expressed the same problems that plaugue our group
1. increasing our membership and even more importantly,
2. involving more of our present members so they participate more
If anyone has any ideas about this, please send me a note at nvmug@mac.com.
Also, if there are any topics that you would like to see or software you would like to see demonstrated, please let me know. We may be able to obtain a copy for the group and do a meeting about it.
Some of the upcoming topics are Appleworks 6.0, digital cameras, putting together an ethernet (this will be the August meeting), I am writing to Intuit to see if we can get an up to date version of Quicken and possibly a video and setting up a website.
See you all in August, enjoy the summer and please keep those cards &letters coming in.
Midge Lubot
Sorry Midge. Everyone else, please send your suggestions to Midge and enjoy the summer weather.
