MAC Users Group 1/28/14

Meeting 1/28/14

Larry started the meeting with a motivational presentation which was well received.  

iMovie

by Dave & Irene Hall

We were given a excellent presentation on using iMovie by Irene and Dave.  One glitch at the beginning as no one seemed to know for sure how to download a movie from an iPhone.  The mystery was solved by help from various members and on we went.  It seems the new iMovie that uses Mavericks is enough different from earlier versions that the folks with it had difficulty following the instruction. 

I've included a Mavericks tutorial site to help out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Toj7n6jdHCk  Hope this helps.  

Also I've included a link to a tutorial for some of us who are behind the times.  http://macmost.com/imovie-basics.html  

Other difficulties cropped up when it was discovered some folks didn't have iMovie installed.  

Apparently some earlier versions of OSX didn't include it.  iLife needs to be purchased:  Amazon sells old versions of iLife which include iMovie.    

Here is a link for Apples' iMovie advice: http://www.apple.com/support/mac-apps/imovie/

Irene and Daves' instructions were for us to just go ahead and try the program and enjoy it.  I thought it was a lot of fun.  So go ahead.  

very much to Irene and Dave

Jack told us about a program from the Apple Store, "Disk Doctor" for $2.99.  He thought it good for clearing space on a cluttered drive.  Thanks Jack.  

Disk Doctor.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Toj7n6jdHCk

Next Up, Next Week and further:

Browsers:  Safari, FireFox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera.  

E-mail Systems:  Mail etc.

Keychain

More on Finder's menus and great things we can do with them.  

Also how to create a BLOG.

Make a bookmark for Palm Creek in whatever browser you use so you can find our blog or any of the other blogs for activities in the park.  http://www.palmcreek.blogspot.com/ Once you have a bookmark for this site you can easily find any others.  Or you could use NextDoor and get to read lots of irrelevant emails.  

See you next week.  

Your faithful servant, 

Mike

MAC User's Group 1/21/14

Goals

1.  Users group of MAC computers 

2.  Inform members of new technology

3.  Provide education on new softward

4.  Broaden horizons

5.  Develop community to support each other

NextDoor

Sandra Moran was kind enough to present us with information on how to use the site and what rules applied.  

Here is a link to the site:  https://nextdoor.com/  If you're already signed up you can use your email and password to view and change your way of using it.  Here is another link with instructions.  https://help.nextdoor.com/customer/portal/topics/350840-how-to-use-nextdoor/articles  Give it a try.  

Our local neighborhood has almost 800 members.  The following are excerpts  from my notes.  

1.  You have to be invited

2.  Social Network for local neighborhoods and is private

3.  Share info:  about safety, sales of items, events 

4.  Recommend services

5.  Locate other members

Thanks to Sandra

Jack & Finder

Jack talked quite a bit about using the menus and here is a link for a tutorial.  The ad is only about 10 seconds long.  http://blip.tv/macmost-video-podcast/macmost-tutorial-finder-windows-198432  

Jack also told us about force quit:  

Command, Option, Escape

Do you remember Command W?

Here is a link to keyboard commands for the MAC.  Possibly more than you'll ever need.  

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1343

Smart Folders

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4158  A website from Apple about how to setup and use smart folders.  We may need a class on this.  

iPad Class in the San Tan Room @ noon until 2PM.  

Taught by Sandra Morin.  

Next Week:  

More Finder stuff but most important a class on iMovie.  The presenters want us to take a movie with our phones or whatever device we have of short duration and they will show us how to import  and enhance with iMovie.  I've already got mine!  

iMovie

See you next week 1/28/14.  

MAC Users Meeting 1 14 14

Meeting Contents 

Since your faithful servant was late to the meeting Tom Gottfried, who had taken good notes, emailed him the following capsulation:  

These notes are from 1 PM to 2:30 PM Attendance: 30

As I recall, there were 8 new attendees

Jack reviewed the basics with emphasis on System Preferences. Some of the things he pointed out. 

1. Command Q A short cut for getting rid of programs that you don’t need or use. 

2. For those who have not upgraded to Mavericks,you should click on your “Apple logo”

in the upper left corner and click on “About this Mac” if not at the current version of 10.9.5, make sure to click on “software update” and update your computer so that during the meetings you are on the same page as the rest of the class.

3. Since the operating system called Snow Leopard, all upgrades come through the internet. Getting them on a disk is a thing of the past.

4. Discussion continued on the reliability of Apple’s newest operating system, Mavericks. There had been several upgrades and early issues with G-mail and “Contacts” have been resolved. Jack suggested that we should not become overly concerned about negative comments on line. Tom stated that in a recent visit to Apple’s “Genius Bar” he was told that there were indeed early issues with Mavericks but now they seem to be resolved. Comments from several class participants who have upgraded to Mavericks have been positive.

5. Emphasis continues to be placed on backing up your machine. Especially before downloading a new system.  Only a few have not backed up their machines and they know who they are.  

6. When clicking on the Apple logo and then “about this Mac”, click on More info. Click on the various boxes to find out more information on your Mac. On the menu click on Memory to see how much RAM you have. Jack pointed out that you should put as much RAM on your computer as it will hold. RAM is an acronym for Random Access Memory, and it makes your machine both faster and allows you to run multiple programs at the same time. On the menu click on “Storage” to see how much space you have left on your hard drive. If you have a program like iPhoto and you have a lot of pictures, and your hard drive is almost full, you may want to get a separate portable hard drive to keep them on.

7. The new Apple computers introduced in the summer of 2013 have solid state hard drives. The old “spinning disk” drive we are familiar with is gone. Solid state is much faster than the old drive and more reliable as well. If you are thinking of a new computer, now is the time, and get ready for “warp speed”.

8. System Preferences. Become familiar with this handy tool. It tells you how your computer is set up and allows you to make changes to suit your style. It is a great way to see how things work on your computer.

9. Jack spent time on the “Dock” and how and where to set it up and make desired changes. The “Dock”, like your desk top allows you to have short cuts to get into programs that you use regularly. All your programs are found in Finder under Applications, but Dock makes access only a click away.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mac_OS  This is a website giving a history of the evolution of the Mac OS if you're interested.  I get a kick out of wikipedia which always gives the disclaimer "don't believe everything you read here".  

Here is a list of the recent operating systems and their names.  

OS X v10.1 (Puma)

OS X v10.2 (Jaguar)

OS X v10.3 (Panther)

OS X v10.4 (Tiger)

OS X v10.5 (Leopard)

OS X v10.6 (Snow Leopard)

OS X v10.7 (Lion)

OS X v10.8 (Mountain Lion)

OS X v10.9 (Mavericks)

Jack's Corner

Next week will be more on FINDER menus and what they can be used for.  

The iPad and iPhone meeting each Sunday in the Cholla Room at 1PM.  

Thanks to Larry for conducting the meeting and especially for keeping only one going.  Also Thanks again to Tom Gottfried for his excellent notes and to Jack McCleskey for imparting some of his vast knowledge 

See you next week.  

MAC Users Group 1-7-14

January 7th 2014

Larry has returned from the cold country and opened the meeting with introductions and conducted the gathering in his normal professional style.  A number of the attendees complimented him.  

Twice the number of people attended as the meetings late in 2013 which made for lively activity.  

Passwords

Kay Nation brought her MAC expert son to the meeting and he conducted a two hour class on constructing passwords plus a lot of other info.  We thank Brad Nation very much for his thoughtful work.  

Following is a website with some instructions about passwords

http://lifehacker.com/5631203/how-to-update-your-insecure-passwords-and-make-them-easy-to-use

Happy BD Anniversary Kay!

Some Instruction

1. Create Pswd System

   
   

a. symbol + 1st letter of a sentence

b. OIASWBMA or WWLAO (first letters of a song lyric) then add a suffix, prefix, or insert, maybe vowels; in Amazon.com for instance. aao Something you can remember.

2. Recover & Change old pswds.
   1. Clean out email inbox and note when you started cleanup so you can delete the messages confirming pswd changes.
3. Use a standard username if possible. I use my Airforce serial #. Some websites won't let you do this but it makes life easier.
1. Use foolish answers to security questions. If site asks for your high school, fib or make a phony answer. Say you didn't graduate from any high school. Or make up your own.
4. Change pswds. On the most important sites.
   1. Email,
   2. banking
   3. primary shopping sites

5. Keep pswds safe.
   1. Lastpass &
   2. keepass are examples of programs which save and encrypt passwords.
   3. Don't put them in the cloud if possible.
   4. Don't save them in your browser unless you use Firefox or Keychain which encrypts them
   5. Don't let the sites remember your passwords.
   6. Change them occasionally. 6 months to a year.
      
      
      
      
      

      Next Week

      Review of KeyChain.