NVMUG eNews 10/13/2007
Last updated 10/14/2007
Unplanned Discussion
This month we had an unplanned and unorganized discussion circle. We covered little bits of interest for just about anybody including obsolete technology, security, quality and cost, and compatibility.
1. Obsolete Technology
Richard Lubot, Geof Gonter, Barry Hayes, Midge Lubot, and Norm Johnson in a discussion
Geof Gonter reported a shocking example of the Vermont Department of Education requiring obsolete computer technology in our schools. A report that schools submit twice a month be must sent to them on floppy disks. Schools cannot submit them electronically, by email, or on CDs. Apparently someone wrote the program to accept the information on floppy disks. No one has updated the report since floppy disks technology became obsolete.ÊSo our schools are required to maintain obsolete equipment.The Department is also locked into Microsoft and Windows making it more difficult for schools who want to keep up with the improved technology and software from Apple.
2. Security
Geof has seen estimates that 50% of all PCs have been invaded by SpyWare. Every operating system has some bugs, and when people discover bugs your computer can be invaded. The new VISTA has gone to such lengths to prevent problems that it has become annoying to use. The Apple operating system is more secure than most. When a bug is discovered, Apple has been very quick to send security updates. Geof gave an example where a security problem was corrected in two days.
The Windows operating system is standard on PCs but the computer isn't. Apple's advantage is that the drivers are there for individual devices. Microsoft has generic drivers. Del, for example, might buy a million Broadcom units and when those run out it might put in Intel units if they are are a dollar cheaper with no indication that a change was made. This makes it much more difficult for them to prevent bugs
Geof showing Lake Memphremagog where he lives in Newport.
Norm works on PCs at Lyndon State College and says that going through hoops and safety ware on PCs is a pain.
Geof said that Internet security depends upon where you go and what you do. You might see, for example, If this page does not open, click here.
If you drag your mouse over the click here
it may tell you that this is an application that you do not want to click open. It may look like your bank, but your bank would not email you to ask for information. If in doubt, telephone to check.
Geof had 134 spam messages since Wednesday. He scans his junk mail messages, but not everyday. One of the messages in is junk mail this morning was from Midge asking about todayÕs meeting. If he finds a message in is junk mail, he indicates that it is not junk to receive the message in the future.
Vicki Giella asked whether a CRT was dangerous when you are so close to the tube. Geof said it is well shielded, way below acceptable standards, and the acceptable standards are well below any level that might be dangerous.
Geof said his mac.com account gets almost no spam. An AARP bulletin is safer over the internet than by mail. The reason is that email leaves a trace that can be tracked. A lot of the time Geof does not put his name on the return address on envelopes. The post office can find him without it.
3. Quality and Cost
Apple maintains the quality of its product. For example, almost every Macintosh comes with a superdrive. Geof said that by the time a school is done buying from Dell there may be only an $18 difference in initial cost between Dell and Apple. Because of its quality and security, the Mac has a much lower total cost over the life of the computer.
Geof sent me this from the Baltimore Sun as a follow up:
The Bernstein report differs from other market share reports I've seen in that it breaks the data into five pricequintiles.Mac laptops have a whopping 29.4 percent of the top quintile (machines over $1,300) and 9.3 percent of the second. When you drop the two quintiles in which Apple does not compete (the bottom two fall under $1,100), Mac laptops still net a 13.8 percent market share in the U.S. While still a long way off from parity with the Windows competition, these numbers jibe better with real-world observations than the 5 to 6 percent numbers that reflect sales of mountains of cheap PCs to businesses.
The Baltimore Sun also says that:
One of the charts included in the Bernstein report includes a line that breaks out AppleÕs U.S. market share in the highest price category in the education and consumer markets, excluding the corporate market that the company historically has ignored. Mac laptops comprise 45.8 percent of that market. Wow.
Here is the URL for the entire article:
Baltimore Sun ArticleWhen you look at how small the difference is for similarly equipped computers, at the added cost to maintain equipment built with lowest cost parts from uncertain sources, at the much greater security problems involved in non-standard equipment, and at the free and low cost software provided by Apple with Macintosh, you wonder why our schools do not all use Macintosh computers to provide a quality education for our kids.
4. Compatibility
Norm said that his FireFox browser does not work with the Passumpsic Bank. Geof said that his does. Geof explained that when your browser connects to a web site it starts a conversation. The web site is asking if your browser is Internet Explorer, and if it isn't it says, I don't want to talk to you. Goodbye.
My notes say to look for Get Add Ons in FireFox, find User Agent Switcher, then highlight Tools emulate MS Windows 6.0. That is probably clear enough if you use FireFox.
If you use Safari, Geof recommends downloading TinkerTools from VerisonTracker.com. One of the many things that TinkerTools can do is to enable a built in debugger in Safari. In TinkerTool use the Safari menu and choose to Enable debug menu.
This enables an advanced Debug menu in Safari.
When you find a web site that does not accept Safari go to the Debug menu in Safari, find User Agent, and select Windows MSIE 6.0.
This adds a check mark enabling Internet Explorer as a User Agent. Safari will tell the web site that it is Internet Explorer. This solves 99% of site access problems.
Note: To get these screen shots down to a decent email size, they were reduced to 10% quality in Photoshop, and their size was reduced by about one third. Without these changes and without the photos this was a 260 KB document! I hope these screen shots help make this clearer. Feedback would be welcome.
5. Adobe Photoshop Lightrom Book for Digital Photographers
We added The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby to our NVMUG library thanks to Peachpit Press. A description of this book was included in the meeting announcement and is available in Reviews.
Barry Hayes has Lightroom. He also has Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Digital Photographers
and said, It's a good one.
Barry Hayes showing Lightroom
Barry Hayes showed some of Lightroom's features for locating, sorting, and comparing images to select the best ones.
6. Other Items
Norm Johnson still has the problem with wifi reception on his computer that he had last month. He took Geof's phone number to call him for help.
Russell Carlson asked about installing iTunes or Quicktime, I am not sure which.
Geof explained that to install a program like iTunes, double click on the disk image to get an icon that looks like a little white hard drive. Click to open it and there will be an Installer. Double click on the Installer and follow the instructions. When it asks you if you accept the terms, click Yes. No one ever reads the terms. If it says you will need to restart, click continue unless you had a have a big job open that you had not saved before you started the installation.
Close all your browsers before you install QuickTime so that the QuickTime plug-ins will be installed in them.
I asked for any suggestions for judging what a print will look like based upon the CRT image. Barry said to dim down the screen brightness because a print is darker. Set the profile right. You have to work with it because paper cannot look like your screen. Theoretically using the paper by your printer manufacturer should work best, but there many good papers out there. Barry said, Most of it is emotional. Color is an emotional thing.
Russell's brother sends him photos 4 or 5 times bigger that the screen. How can you change the image size? Geof said you can use Export in iPhoto. There you have choices, small, medium, large, full size, and custom.
Have you ever had anyone ask you these questions?
What state is Vermont in? Vermont is by the ocean isn't it? Not yet.
