Halloween is coming! Do not miss the opportunity to send unique Halloween greeting cards to your friends, family members, colleagues or others. These free Stationery templates from iPresentee are designed to be used with Apple Mail and include five awesome templates: Happy Pumpkins, Bloody Letter, Halloween Coffee, Skeleton and Hot Pumpkins. If there is ever a time for the beauty of ugliness and the delight of terror, Halloween must be it! Mail Stationery templates require any Macintosh computer running Mac OS X 10.5 or higher.

Click here to download>>

Once Mail is set up, notice that the Junk folder does not automatically appear in the sidebar under Mail’s Trash. Here we have our Inbox selected, but no Junk folder:

To turn on Junk filtering, start by going to the Mail Menu and choosing Preferences:

Next, click on: (1.) the Junk tab, (2.) check “Enable junk mail filtering”, (3.) select  ”Move it to the Junk mailbox” :

Once you click the “Move it to the Junk mailbox” option, a pop up window will appear with the option to move all messages currently marked as junk to the newly created Junk Folder. Go ahead and select the Move option:

Close out of Mail’s Preferences and you’ll now see the Junk Folder in Mail’s Sidebar. At this point, junk filtering is enabled. Now incoming email that Apple Mail marks as junk will be automatically placed into the Junk Folder. If something gets through that is not marked as Junk, simply select it and click the Junk button in the menu bar. If it is not junk, select it and click the Not Junk button in the menu bar.

For most users the built in defaults for Junk filtering are sufficient and nothing further needs to be done. For those who want to explore more options and perhaps customize junk filtering a bit, the following will get you started:

In the Junk Mail Preferences, select:

(1.) “Perform custom actions” and then

(2.) Click the Advanced button:

Here we are offered a virtual unending menu of options:

By experimenting and setting custom rules, you can filter junk in just about any conceivable combination. Just look at all the available options:

You can even change the text color of junk if you wish:

You can always back out of any changes by clicking the Cancel button:

That’s basically it. Setting up and using junk filtering in Apple Mail is a snap. Although junk filtering can get quite complicated, from simply turning the filtering on to customizing it to suit personal needs, this tutorial has hopefully provided enough information to get you started.

The Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter 1.1 converts files that were created in Office 2008 for Mac or 2007 Microsoft Office system so that you can open and edit the files in Office 2004 version 11.4 or later and Office v. X version 10.1.9 or later. Word documents, Excel workbooks, and PowerPoint presentations that are created in Office 2008 for Mac or 2007 Microsoft Office system are saved in the Open XML Format.

Click here for more information and download link>>

Cleaning the scroll ball is really a snap. Simply lay a sheet of plain white typing paper on a sturdy, smooth flat surface. Turn the mouse upside down and with light pressure, move your mouse in a circular motion with the ball against the paper for about a minute. Don’t press too hard – you don’t want to damage your mouse. You’ll start to see little lines of gunk appear on the paper as the scroll ball is cleaned.

After a cleaning, your Mighty Mouse should be mighty once again!

For the sake of clarification and perspective, the following information is provided:

• Dial-up has a top speed of 56 kbps. 1000 kbps is equal to 1 mbps.

• Some Excerpts from Wikipedia: Broadband is often called “high-speed” Internet, because it usually has a high rate of data transmission. In general, any connection to the customer of 256 kbit/s (0.256 Mbit/s) or greater is more concisely considered broadband Internet. Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just broadband, is high data rate Internet access—typically contrasted with dial-up access over a 56k modem. Dial-up modems are limited to a bitrate of less than 56 kbit/s (kilobits per second) and require the full use of a telephone line—whereas broadband technologies supply more than double this rate and generally without disrupting telephone use. Although various minimum bandwidths have been used in definitions of broadband, ranging up from 64 kbit/s up to 1.0 Mbit/s, the 2006 OECD report is typical by defining broadband as having download data transfer rates equal to or faster than 256 kbit/s, while the United States FCC, as of 2008, defines broadband as anything above 768 kbit/s. The trend is to raise the threshold of the broadband definition as the marketplace rolls out faster services.

It would appear that there are numerous conclusions one could draw from this snipped Wikipedia info, and that ISP’s may use the somewhat vague FCC definitions to their advantage. Even though I personally consider charging a customer $30 a month for a 184kbps internet connection borders on criminal, in all fairness my client did sign up for the plan. I do take exception with plans of 184kbps being marketed as “High Speed”, as the case surely can be made that they are anything but “High Speed” (Yes COMCAST, I am talking to you).

Conclusion: Regardless of whether you understand the above technical mumbo jumbo or not, I encourage you to take the time to look over the statement from your ISP. Pay attention to what you are getting for your money and periodically check with them to see if their plans have changed. It may be worth your while to do a little cost comparison in your area as well. As technology progresses, so do internet speeds.

Buyer Beware.

<End Rant>

OS X contains a built in Dictionary that you may or may not be aware of. It is an application that can be found in the Applications folder. It not only functions as a standard dictionary but contains channels such as a Thesaurus, a Wikipedia section (when your computer is connected to the internet) and an Apple specific dictionary. And much, much more……..

To use the Dictionary, simply navigate to your Applications folder and double click the Dictionary icon to open it. You can then click on the desired channel and type a word for the result:

Here, we typed in the word “Belongs” and received the following return:

But what if we want to quickly find a definition without having to go through the trouble of opening the Dictionary application? Perhaps we want to find the definition of a word in Safari such as this:

By pointing on a word, right clicking and selecting “Look Up in Dictionary” from the ensuing contextual menu…

Dictionary will open and show us the definition of the word we selected:

Pretty cool. But we still have the open Dictionary window cluttering up our work space. What if we could see the definition of the word without opening Dictionary?? By holding down the Command + Control + D keys simultaneously and then mousing over the word we would like to view the definition of, the floating Dictionary window pops up showing the definition of the word!

Taking this a step further, we can get around having to remember the keyboard command by modifying Dictionary’s preferences just a bit. Start by opening your Dictionary and then selecting Preferences from the Dictionary menu:

Change Dictionary’s contextual menu result by selecting “Open Dictionary panel” and then close out of the Dictionary.

Now when we right click on a word and select “Look Up in Dictionary”…..

The floating Dictionary panel will appear showing us the definition of the chosen word. If you want to open the Dictionary from here, just click on the “More…” option in the bottom right corner of the floating panel:

That’s it! Keep in mind that the floating Dictionary panel works in all Apple applications and some third party apps, but not all. You’ll have to test it with the apps you use.

Don’t know how to right click? Click here to find out!>>

Click here for more information and download link>>

Follow MacNutsAndBolts on Twitter here!>>

Avoid FileZilla

Not being able to efficiently find things is a pain, but only one of several problems resulting from a cluttered desktop. Storing numerous items on the desktop can not only slow you and your computer, depending on how many items and the size of those items, your machine can really bog down. As the computer keeps tabs of all items on the desktop, every time you start up, restart, wake from sleep, or perform simple Finder level tasks, the system expends resources and uses valuable memory to do so.

Also, in 10.4 and earlier, Safari was set to place downloaded items onto the desktop. Depending on ones download behavior, this could drastically add to the clutter.

Solutions

1. Arrange Icons on Desktop. From the Finder’s View Menu, you can choose the Clean up Selection or Arrange By options to physically arrange items on your desktop. Although this will help you find items you are looking for more efficiently, files and folders still remain on your desktop.

2. Create Desktop Subfolders. Creating folders that stay on the desktop and then storing files in them allows us to sort our items more efficiently. It is also more efficient for our computer, as the system only keeps track of the folders on the desktop, not what’s in the folders. To create a new folder, from the File Menu choose New Folder and then when the new folder appears on your desktop, title it what you wish.

3. Create Safari Downloads Folder (10.4 and earlier). Create a new folder as described above and label it Downloads. Then launch Safari, and from the Safari menu choose Preferences. Click on the General tab and then tell Safari to save downloads in this newly created folder. Although 10.5 has a Downloads folder that by default lives in the user folder and has an icon in the Dock, you may change the download destination in 10.5 as well by using this same method.

For additional information on View Options, check out these previous posts:

Finder View Options – Part I>>

Finder View Options – Part II>>

For your viewing pleasure:

Note: I found these somewhere online a while back. If you are the creator of these, please let me know and I’ll either credit them or take them down.

That’s it. I’m off to clean my room…..

- Know what you have: With Pantry, you can see at a glance how much spaghetti sauce, dog food, or toilet paper you have left. When you run low, the item will automatically appear on your shopping list on your iPhone.
- Syncronize with others: Family members see the same list. If you run out of milk while a family member is out, milk will automatically appear on his or her iPhone Pantry list. It’s as simple as that!

If you try this, please post feedback on what you like about it!

Click here for more information and download link>>

There’s really no such thing as bad stuff, but you have to make sure your computer doesn’t have too much of it. Too much stuff can become a bad thing.

(This article was originally posted in January. It is being reposted as a reminder)

Your computer’s Hard Disk Drive holds all of your stuff and more. It contains the Operating System Software that makes your computer work. It contains your Applications that you use. It contains, well, just about everything. As we are quite capable of constantly adding more and more stuff to our computer, the capacity of our hard drive is a fixed size.

OS X requires a certain amount of available free space to work efficiently. A general rule of thumb is 10% – 15% available free space. For example, if the size of your drive is 120 Gigabytes, your system would require 12 – 18 Gigabytes of free space to function properly. Some would suggest that the 10% – 15% rule is a bit cautious, but if you are getting down that low, you need to at least start considering options.

But how do we know the size of our hard drive, how much space we are using and how much free space is available? Here’s how:

1. Working in the Finder, click on the Hard Drive one time to select it.

2. Go to the File Menu and select Get Info:

3. Now we have the Get Info box open for our Hard Drive. Notice that this particular drive has a formatted capacity of 74.4 Gigabytes. It has 21.87 Gigabytes of Stuff in it, with 52.53 Gigabytes (roughly 70%) of available free space.

Conclusion: Keep an eye on your Hard Drive. If you have a lot of photos or music or both, occasionally check to make sure your Drive has plenty of room available for all of your current and future stuff.

MacFixIt has a good roundup of issues, causes and potential fixes.

If you have questions or concerns, please leave a comment.

Look for a summary of issues and install recommendations sometime on Monday. ~Dave

If you have tried to install it and it seems to be taking a long time to complete the install, be patient.

Notes:

1. If you have installed the Safari 4 beta, you’ll get a notice that you have a newer version of Safari and cannot install this update. (Thanks for the heads up Dee!)

2. The Safari update for Leopard requires OS X 10.5.7.

3. The Safari update for Tiger requires 10.4.11.

Safari 3.2.3 for Leopard (10.5.7) Click here for more information and download link>>

Safari 3.2.3 for Tiger (10.4.11) Click here for more information and download link>>

Not sure what version of OS X you have? Click here for info on how to find out>>

As usual, I will be testing this update and will report findings and install recommendations in a few days.

For what’s new in 10.5.7 and tips for installing, please continue reading…..

Installation recommendations from Apple:

• Backup your computer prior to installing any updates.
• Quit any open applications before starting the installation.
• Do not interrupt the installation process.
• You may experience unexpected results if you have third-party system software modifications installed, or if you have modified the operating system through other means, or if you have moved Apple applications from their default locations (the /Applications or /Applications/Utilities folders). (This does not apply to normal application software installation.)

What’s new in this update?

Address Book
• Improves reliability of Address Book syncing with iPhone and other devices and applications.

AirPort
• Improves the reliability of AirPort connections, including improvements when roaming in large wireless networks with an Intel-based Mac.

Client management
• Improves reliability of synchronizing files on a portable home directory.
• Fixes an issue in Mac OS X 10.5.4 and 10.5.5 in which managed users may not see printers that use the Generic PPD.
• Client computers that use UUID-based ByHost preferences now respect managed Screen Saver settings.

iChat
• Addresses an issue that could cause an encryption alert to appear in the chat window.
• Setting your iChat status to “invisible” via AppleScript no longer logs you out of iChat.
• Resolves an issue in which pasting text from a Microsoft Office document could insert an image rather than text.

Graphics
• Includes general improvements to gaming performance.
• Includes graphics improvements for iChat, Cover Flow, Aperture, and iTunes.
• Includes fixes for possible graphics distortion issues with certain ATI graphics cards.

Mail
• Includes overall performance and reliability fixes.
• Improves Connection Doctor accuracy.
• Fixes an issue that could cause messages identified as junk to remain in the inbox.
• Fixes an issue that could cause Mail to append a character to the file extension of an attachment.
• Addresses an issue that could prevent Mail from quitting.
• Improves reliability when printing PDF attachments.

MobileMe
• Contacts, calendars, and bookmarks on a Mac automatically sync within a minute of the change being made on the computer, another device, or the web at me.com.

Networking
• Improves Apple File Service performance, especially when using a home directory hosted on an AFP server. Important: If you are using Mac OS X 10.5.6 (client) to connect to a • • Mac OS X Server 10.4-based server, it is strongly recommended that you update the server to Mac OS X Server version 10.4.11.
• Improves the performance and reliability of TCP connections.
• Improves reliability and performance for AT&T 3G cards.
• Updates the ssh Terminal command for compatibility with more ssh servers.

Printing
• Improves printing for the Adobe CS3 application suite.
• Improves printing for USB-based Brother and Canon printers.

Parental Controls
• Addresses an issue in which a parentally-controlled account could be unable to access the iTunes Store.
• Includes general fixes for time limits.
• Resolves an issue that prevented adding allowed websites from Safari via drag and drop.

Time Machine
• Fixes issues that could cause Time Machine to state the backup volume could not be found.
• Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.

Safari
• Improves compatibility with web proxy servers.

General
• Includes Mac OS X security improvements. See this website for more information.
• Addresses inaccuracies with Calculator when the Mac OS X language is set to German or Swiss German.
• Improves the performance and reliability of Chess.
• Improves DVD Player performance and reliability.
• Performance improvements for iCal are included.
• Fixes an issue when running the New iCal Events Automator action as an applet.
• Adds a Trackpad System Preference pane for portable Macs.
• Improves compatibility with smart cards such as the U.S. Department of Defense Common Access Card.
• Updates time zone data and Daylight Saving Time rules for several countries.

About a year ago, I did a post entitled “Finder Menu Bar and Menulets” which explains what menulets are and how to manage them. I encourage you to take a few minutes to go back over that post. Once you have re-acquainted yourself with what menulets can do for you, head over to MacAttap.com. Our friend Dan has posted an incredible list of third party Mac menulets available to us Mac users. Most of them free, this extensive list contains a slew of menulets ranging from simple, everyday applications like weather and iTunes controllers to more technical functions such as web server monitoring. Have fun exploring!

Click here for the MacAttap Menulet List>>

According to my friend Lori B., menulets are not only functional, they’re cute too!!

With the built in Character Palette in OS X, inserting any one of an incredible collection of these special characters is a snap, but you’ve got to know where to get them. Here’s how…..

When working in most applications, you may invoke the Character Palette by selecting Special Characters… from the Edit menu:

This will bring up the Character Palette. Notice at the top left of the window that it displays the default view, and in this case, Roman:

Clicking on the view menu present a list of options, including the option to view an incredible amount of categories by selecting All Characters:

Now that we have selected to view all categories, take a look at the category sets on the left hand side of the window:

Here I have select to expand the Symbols set to further view the Symbol categories. The categories are on the left and the symbols related to the category appear on the right:

I can continue exploring and once I find a character I wish to use, simply copy and paste it into a document, email or spreadsheet. Double clicking the character will also insert it into the current document.

If I know the name of a character I’m looking for, I can simply type the name in the search box at the bottom of the window:

Although the Character Palette is available via the Edit menu in most applications as I mentioned above, we can also make it available to us anytime. To do so, go to Apple Menu > System Preferences and click on the International icon:

Once in the International Preferences, click on the (1.) Input Menu at the top and then make sure both (2.) Character Palette and (3.) Keyboard Viewer are checked. Finally, make sure (4.) Show input menu in menu bar is also checked:

Now close out of System Preferences and notice that you now have a new icon in your Menu Bar. If your computer’s primary language is set to US English as mine is, the icon will be that of an American Flag. Clicking on this icon will show you the option for invoking both the Character Palette and the Keyboard Viewer:

Clicking on the Show Character Palette option will bring up the Character Palette, just as choosing Special Characters from an application’s Edit menu did above. In addition, we now have the option of Show Keyboard Viewer. This presents us with an onscreen keyboard that when we click it’s keys or type on our keyboard, shows us the available characters base on the keystroke we perform. For example, if we hold down the Shift Key, all of the characters will visually become uppercase, as they normally do when holding down the Shift Key.

Conclusion: Take a few minutes to explore and have fun with this. The Character Palette is an incredibly useful tool, although an unfortunately little know one.

I’m usually not enthralled by screensavers and desktop images, but this is pretty cool.

Click here for more information and download link>>

Our friends at SEO Trade News have posted this awesome in-depth overview of what Twitter is and how to get started with it.

Check out the full story here>>

And then follow MacNutsAndBolts on Twitter here!>>

If you do experience connectivity issues, here are a few things to try/consider:

1. Start here: Apple Support Document on Troubleshooting Wireless Keyboard and Mouse issues

2. Make sure your computer’s software is up to date. Simply run Software Update under the Apple Menu.

3. The expected 10.5.7 update should be out soon. With some of it’s reported fixes being in the area of Bluetooth reliability, hopefully this update will solve any Bluetooth connectivity issues.

4. Some people are experiencing a loss of connectivity after waking their computer from sleep. Try going to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Energy Saver and setting your computer’s sleep option to “Never”. If Bluetooth is having a connectivity issue after waking from sleep, this would help (setting the display to go to sleep is fine). It’s a workaround, not a fix, but would get you by until the release of 10.5.7, if the 10.5.7 update does indeed provide the expected reliability enhancements.

For what it’s worth, I’m not a big fan of Sleep anyway. Although to sleep or not to sleep is a topic of much debate, I like to have my machines respond immediately (among other reasons).

Have any thoughts or tips on Bluetooth connectivity? Leave a comment. You just might help someone out!!

MacNutsAndBolts friend, Mac guy extraordinaire, and all around Apple Junky, PeteZ, put this together which shows a slightly different side of it. You have got to see this.

Brilliant!

Pretty cool stuff and I recommend taking it a step further to save some potential headaches in the future. You see, most external drives come pre-formatted from the factory, with most of them formatted in the MS-DOS (FAT) format scheme. Although OS X can certainly read and use this format, I recommend re-formatting your Time Machine drive in a more Mac friendly format.

Here’s how……..

————————————————————————————-

The following information is presented to help people who are generally comfortable using their Mac. The situations described below are common, but please know there could be some variations based upon your computer’s setup. Please read through this post entirely and if you are uncomfortable with the procedure, don’t do it. Consult your local Macintosh Tech for help.

————————————————————————————-

First Things First

As I mentioned, in most instances as soon as you plug in that new hard drive, you’ll get the dialogue box asking if you want to use this new drive as your Time Machine backup. You should dismiss this query by clicking the Cancel button:

Reformat The Drive

Next we’ll use Disk Utility to reformat the external hard drive. You can find Disk Utility located in Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilities. Once you find it, double click it’s icon to open it.

Now that you have Disk Utility open, this is what it looks like. Pay particular attention to the following:

1. The external hard drive’s volume partition. This will have the same name as the external hard drive’s icon on your desktop. The icon should be orange in color as it is here. CLICK IT TO SELECT IT.
2. This is the erase tab you click to get into the format function. CLICK IT TO SELECT IT.
3. This is the section where you will select the desired volume format.

Next, well select the format option. Click on the pop-up menu next to Volume Format and select “Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)”:

And then give your drive a new name and click the erase button (I gave my drive the name LaCie):

You’ll then be presented with a dialogue box asking if you are sure. Click the Erase button to proceed:

Your drive will then undergo a reformatting process and when finished, show you the new format. You can verify that format here:

Time Machine Swings Into Action

Almost immediately, you should be presented with a dialogue box that looks like this. It will contain the name that you gave your new drive (I gave my drive the name “LaCie” for this demonstration.)

Conclusion

Congratulations, that’s it! Time Machine now swings into action and begins backing up the entire contents of your drive. From then on, Time Machine will perform hourly, daily, weekly and monthly backups. Once again, please make certain you understand the tutorial completely. If not, don’t do it.

You can also use this procedure to re-format a drive you have already been using, but please be aware that it will erase the entire contents of the drive. If you are not absolutely sure of what you are doing, don’t do it!

For more information on Time Machine, visit Apple.com

Click here to read the full story>>

Screen Sharing via iChat

In order to use Leopard’s screen sharing function, both machines must be running Leopard, both machines must have iChat launched and ready, and you must both have broadband internet.

I prefer to start a session with someone via video or audio first, but you don’t have to. To initiate a Screen Sharing session, select the person you wish to share with by clicking on them in your iChat Buddy List, then click the Screen Sharing icon at the bottom of the Buddy List:

You’ll be presented with the option as to which screen you would like to share, yours or theirs. Once you make a selection, your buddy will be presented with a dialogue box asking them if they wish to accept the screen sharing invitation. Once accepted, Screen Sharing swings into action and you’ll then be able to each see the screen and control the mouse and keyboard input of that screen. Whenever you initiate a screen share via iChat, the audio function of iChat remains active so that you can converse with your sharing partner. Pretty cool!

It takes a bit to get the hang of it, but it’s really quite easy to use.

Tip: You can copy files from one computer to the other during a session by dragging and dropping files from one screen to the other (when you do this, the transferred files wind up in Leopard’s Downloads folder).

Advanced Screen Sharing

Some people may want to use Screen Sharing without going through iChat. There are a number of reasons for this which I won’t go into here.

To use Screen Sharing without going through iChat, you’ll need to launch the Screen Sharing application by going to Macintosh HD/System/Library/Core Services.  Just double-click Screen Sharing to launch it, and then enter the IP address of the computer you want to share screens with. You can also drag Screen Sharing to your Dock for easy access, just be sure to leave the original where you found it because that’s where your Mac and iChat expect it to be.

Also, keep in mind that if you are sharing screens with someone outside of your local network, you’ll need to make sure that the computer you want to connect to is actually reachable on the Internet. That means the remote computer either needs to be connected to the Internet outside of a firewall, or if behind a firewall, port forwarding (5900-5902) should be on and set to route the sharing connection request to the appropriate computer.

Excerpts from the article:

After the release of iWork ’09 earlier this year, a Trojan was discovered circulating in pirated copies of Apple’s productivity suite of applications (as well as pirated copies of Adobe’s Photoshop CS4). Security professionals now believe that the botnet (from iServices) has become active. Although the potential damage range is projected to be minimal, an estimated 20,000 copies of the Trojan have been downloaded.

AND

A botnet is a group of computers unknowingly linked together and remotely administered to perform specific tasks. Most commonly, they send out e-mail spam and collect and report personal information.

AND

Although it is extremely unlikely that most users have an infected computer–currently the only way to get the Trojan is by illegally downloading iWork ’09 or Photoshop CS4, typically from peer-to-peer Web sites, installing it, and entering your administrator password–there are a few ways to check your system.

1. Most antivirus software has been updated to block the iServices botnet. Companies such as SecureMac offer removal tools specifically designed to block iServices.
2. You may be able to neutralize the activity of the Trojan by deleting these folders:
1. “System/Library/StartupItems/DivX”
2. “System/Library/StartupItems/iWorkServices”
3. The most effective way of staying safe is by not subjecting your Mac to even the possibility of being infected by malicious software–most abundantly distributed in pirated software packages, so don’t download pirated software.

Click here to read the full MacFixIt article>>

MacNutsAndBolts says:

Once again, don’t go to an unknown website, download software that you should be paying hundreds of dollars for, try to install it, give it your admin password, and then sit back proud of yourself that you got something for free. You just might get more than you bargained for!!!

If you frequently travel with your laptop, you may want to consider a portable hard drive. Small, lightweight and affordable, these drives now have the capacity most of us need in a backup drive. And one of the coolest features is that they draw their required power from the computer. No power cords to plug in or cumbersome power supply “bricks” to lug around.

I like the Western Digital My Passport Essential series. They are priced at around $120 for the 500GB model which is plenty of room for most users. Weighing in at 9.6 ounces, these drives are not only the perfect travel companion for any Macintosh laptop, they work great for desktop machines as well!

Available from Amazon.com, these drives come in multiple colors and are backed by a 3 year factory warranty.

Click here for more information and direct link to Amazon.com>>

Here we have an open Finder window viewing the contents of the user “macnutsandbolts”. But how exactly did we get there? What if we go deeper and deeper into folders and then get lost??

We can see exactly where we are in any folder at any time by turning on the Path Bar. In the Finder with a window open, go to the View Menu and select “Show Path Bar”:

With the Path Bar now showing, you can see exactly where you are just by looking at the path in the bottom of the window:

Taking it a step further, if you double click on one of the folders in the path, that folder will open. Or, if you desire more control, by right clicking (or holding down the control key and clicking if you do not have a multi-button mouse), a contextual menu will appear giving you more navigational options:

That’s it! With a little practice, the Path Bar can be an invaluable tool.

In case you missed it and have a .Mac HomePage, I have pasted the contents of the email here:

From: “MobileMe”
Date: April 9, 2009 4:53:09 PM EDT
To: MobileMe member
Subject: Important information regarding .Mac HomePage.

MobileMe Account Notification

Dear MobileMe member:

On July 7, 2009, the .Mac HomePage web application will be discontinued. As of this date, you will no longer be able to create new pages or edit existing pages using HomePage. Any pages you’ve already published will remain live at their current web address for as long as you like. If you need to make changes to your existing pages, please do so before July 7.

Instead of HomePage, we recommend the other sharing features of your MobileMe membership. With MobileMe Gallery, you can share photos online directly from iPhoto or the web application atwww.me.com. And using iWeb on your Mac, you can create custom websites and blogs and publish them to MobileMe.

We apologize for any inconvenience this change may cause. For more information, please read this FAQ. And thank you for being a MobileMe member.

Sincerely,

The MobileMe Team

Click here for more information and download link>>

Here is a screen shot of what coconutBattery shows you. Notice the Current Battery Capacity section. This battery is capable of holding a charge that is 91% in relation to when it was new:

System requirements: iBook, Powerbook, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air. Works with both PPC and Intel based Macintosh computers running OS X 10.4 and higher.

To start, open Apple Mail and go to the Edit Menu > Attachments and make sure “Always Send Windows-Friendly Attachments” is checked:

Additionally for 10.5 users, checking the “Always Insert Attachments at End of Message” option is helpful:

If you have set your email to these setting and your Windows friend is still having trouble viewing your attachments, we can try changing the way our outgoing email is formatted. While discussing formatting, we’ll use the following terms:

• Plain Text: This format can be read by everyone’s email program. It is simple, straight forward text without any formatting such as Bold, Italic, Underlined, etc.

• Rich Text: This format can’t be read by everyone because it uses different fonts, text styles, and formatting. If a recipient’s computer doesn’t have the same font that you use in your messages, another font is substituted and sometimes this substitution causes the email to look strange.

I have found the Plain Text format to be easiest for Windows to handle. To make any email you are composing Plain Text, have the email open and go to the Format Menu and select “Make Plain Text”. If the email is already in Plain Text format, the menu will say “Make Rich Text”. In this case, your message is already Plain Text and you don’t need to do anything.

Conclusion: Sending someone an attachment they cannot open is truly frustrating. Maybe the attachment you are sending is an important work document, or perhaps it’s just a funny photo you want a friend to see. Either way, if you have experienced the dreaded “I can’t open what you sent me” reply, these tips may help.

Need an office suite of apps but don’t have much cash? Give this a try!

NeoOffice is a full-featured set of office applications (including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database programs) for Mac OS X. Based on the OpenOffice.org office suite, NeoOffice has integrated dozens of native Mac features and can import, edit, and exchange files with other popular office programs such as Microsoft Office.

NeoOffice is one of the most stable office suites for Mac OS X and has been adapted to the unique needs of Mac users by taking the features in Sun Microsystems’ OpenOffice.org office suite and adding improvements such as:

- Fast, free, and friendly support for all users
- Extremely stable Mac OS X code that has been in daily use by hundreds of thousands of NeoOffice users since 2003
- Significant speed improvements to the OpenOffice.org code
- Dozens of features requested by our users designed specifically for the Mac

What’s New in this Version
- Mac OS X Services support
- Media Browser support
- Native floating tool windows
- Magnify and swipe trackpad gestures
- Menus available when no documents are open
- Import images from scanners and cameras
- Many more enhancements.

Both Intel and PPC downloads available.

Click here for more information and download link>>

Conficker.C, a variant which surfaced earlier this month, reportedly shuts down security services, blocks computers from connecting to security Web sites, and downloads a Trojan. It also reaches out to other infected computers via peer-to-peer networking and includes a list of 50,000 different domains, of which 500 will be contacted by the infected computer on April 1 to receive updated copies or other malware or instructions.

Although Confiker does not pose a direct threat to OS X, Macintosh users could experience some residual issues such as network slowdown and the inability to access certain websites.

One of its issues is the tendency to slow down over time. What happens is that with every new file you create, AppleWorks makes an alias of the file so that it appears in the Recent Items tab in the Starting Points window. Then every time you launch AppleWorks, it loads these aliases in Starting Points so they are available to you. After a period of time, the Recent Items folder becomes so laden with files, it takes longer and longer to start up. To fix this issue, we need to delete these aliases. To do so, quit AppleWorks and go to:

HD/Users/username/Documents/AppleWorks User Data/Starting Points/Recent Items

Drag all of the files in the Recent Items folder to the Trash. (Don’t worry, your actual files are safe and exactly where you normally keep them. But just to be safe, don’t empty the Trash until you are sure.)

Now launch AppleWorks. It should spring to life and be much faster!!

Take the good looks of Mac OS X and mix liberally with the popular “Windoze” Minesweeper puzzle/game. You get BombSquad – a nimble rip-off of a classic game. BombSquad is fantastic freeware for Mac OS X. BombSquad thinks different with features like “Crunch Time”, “Zap Clicks”, and other names unworthy of trademark protection. It also features an online record book and individual preferences for sound, training, and difficulty.

Click here for more information and download link>>

To start, select the Group you wish to print. If you have not created any groups, simply select “All”:

Once you have made a selection, go to the File menu and select Print:

To show the available print options, click the arrow to expand the set:

Now that we can view the available options, select “Lists” from the Style menu and select the items you wish to print in the Attributes section. If you have quite a bit of data, changing the print orientation to landscape can make your printed list easier to read.

Once you have it set the way you want it, simply click the print button!!

Command + Shift + 3 captures your entire screen. Simply hold down all 3 keys at the same time and if your speaker volume is up, you’ll hear what sounds like the shutter of a camera.

Command + Shift + 4 turns your cursor into cross hairs. Place the cross hairs in the upper left where you would like to start the selection. Hold down the mouse button and then drag down and to the right to the place where you want to end the selection and then let go of the mouse button.

The captured images will appear on your desktop and will be titled Picture 1, Picture 2, etc…

Another useful screen capture tool is Grab which can be found in your Utilities folder. The Utilities folder is located in your Applications folder in the Macintosh HD. Grab gives you a bit more control over what you capture by using it’s Capture Menu:

Try experimenting with these and you’ll quickly get the hang of it. Have fun!

An open-source, cross-platform, flight simulator. The goal of the FlightGear project is to create a sophisticated flight simulator framework for use in research or academic environments, for the development and pursuit of other interesting flight simulation ideas, and as an end-user application.

Remember MicroSoft’s Flight Simulator?????

Available for OS X 10.4 and higher. It weighs in at a healthy 263MB so please don’t try downloading it via dial-up!!

Click here for more information and download link>>

Click here for more information and download link>>

Once we returned home, Lynn uploaded the images to her computer (a Mac, of course; hence the somewhat loose relevancy of posting this to MacNutsAndBolts!).

Enjoy, and please feel free to pass it on!

(click on an image to enter the slideshow)

A simple paint program for Mac OS X, reminiscent of Microsoft Paint and Apple’s own now-defunct MacPaint. It provides users with a means to make simple images quickly, something which has been noticeably absent from the Mac for years. (Requires OS X 10.5 or higher)

Click here for more information and download link>>

More and more of us are relying on email as a primary form of communication. From business use to personal entertainment and interaction, we send and receive a lot of email. As internet speeds increase, the quantity and size of our email also increases, especially the funny videos we get like the one where the cat is smacking the paper coming out of the printer! Have you seen that one?? It’s hysterical! Anyway……

If you have ever received a notification from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) stating that your mailbox is almost full, you are not alone. Here we’ll explore how and why this happens and what to do about it.

In a previous post, I explained some different email protocols. In this post, we will be discussing POP mail only.

When you create an email account through your ISP or your web hosting company, you are given a mailbox associated with that email address. When someone sends you an email, it travels through the internet with it’s final destination being that of your email addresses mailbox at your ISP. When you turn on your computer and launch your Mail application, Mail connects with this mailbox at your ISP and asks for any mail that is there. Once your username and password is successfully transmitted, your ISP sends a copy of the emails sitting in your mailbox on the server.

Notice that I emphasized “sends a copy”. Once your ISP sends the copy, it must be told what to do with the email still on the server by Apple Mail. We can control what Apple Mail tells the server to do with these copies by going to Mail > Preferences:

Then, to view the settings and manually remove any email that is currently on your mailbox on the server, do the following:

1. Click on the Accounts tab.
2. Select the email account that you wish to work with if you have more than one.
3. Click on the Advanced tab.
4. Click the Remove Now button

If you click on the Pop-Up Menu under “Remove copy from server after retrieving a message”, you can dictate how long you wish the server to keep a copy. Although this is something that is personal preference depending on your needs, for most, “after one week” is a good starting point:

Now that you have these settings in place, here is a little advanced tip. Sometimes we get a rash of email during a week which all contain large attachments (the cat video I mentioned is huge!). Even though we have our settings to delete the copies on the server after one week, our mailbox on the server can fill up. When in Mail, by holding down the Command Key on your keyboard and then typing an “i”, you can get a window directly into your mailbox on the server:

You can see the number of email messages on the server, how much room they are taking up and you can select and delete them one at a time or select and delete them all. Once you make a selection and click the Remove From Server button, you’ll get a dialogue box asking you if you are sure. Make absolutely sure you wish to delete the messages you select as this is undoable. If they have already hit your inbox in Apple Mail, then deleting them from this window will not delete them from Apple Mail.

View all of these incredible useful tools at MacAttapp.com

As usual, I will be testing this update and will report findings and install recommendations in a few days.

For what’s new in 10.5.6 and tips for installing, please continue reading…..

Installation recommendations

• Backup your computer prior to installing any updates.
• Quit any open applications before starting the installation.
• Do not interrupt the installation process.
• You may experience unexpected results if you have third-party system software modifications installed, or if you have modified the operating system through other means, or if you have moved Apple applications from their default locations (the /Applications or /Applications/Utilities folders). (This does not apply to normal application software installation.)

What’s new in this update?

Address Book

• Improves reliability of Address Book syncing with iPhone and other devices and applications.

AirPort

• Improves the reliability of AirPort connections, including improvements when roaming in large wireless networks with an Intel-based Mac.

Client management

• Improves reliability of synchronizing files on a portable home directory.
• Fixes an issue in Mac OS X 10.5.4 and 10.5.5 in which managed users may not see printers that use the Generic PPD.
• Client computers that use UUID-based ByHost preferences now respect managed Screen Saver settings.

iChat

• Addresses an issue that could cause an encryption alert to appear in the chat window.
• Setting your iChat status to “invisible” via AppleScript no longer logs you out of iChat.
• Resolves an issue in which pasting text from a Microsoft Office document could insert an image rather than text.

Graphics

• Includes general improvements to gaming performance.
• Includes graphics improvements for iChat, Cover Flow, Aperture, and iTunes.
• Includes fixes for possible graphics distortion issues with certain ATI graphics cards.

Mail

• Includes overall performance and reliability fixes.
• Improves Connection Doctor accuracy.
• Fixes an issue that could cause messages identified as junk to remain in the inbox.
• Fixes an issue that could cause Mail to append a character to the file extension of an attachment.
• Addresses an issue that could prevent Mail from quitting.
• Improves reliability when printing PDF attachments.

MobileMe

• Contacts, calendars, and bookmarks on a Mac automatically sync within a minute of the change being made on the computer, another device, or the web at me.com.

Networking

• Improves Apple File Service performance, especially when using a home directory hosted on an AFP server. Important: If you are using Mac OS X 10.5.6 (client) to connect to a Mac OS X Server 10.4-based server, it is strongly recommended that you update the server to Mac OS X Server version 10.4.11.
• Improves the performance and reliability of TCP connections.
• Improves reliability and performance for AT&T 3G cards.
• Updates the ssh Terminal command for compatibility with more ssh servers.

Printing

• Improves printing for the Adobe CS3 application suite.
• Improves printing for USB-based Brother and Canon printers.

Parental Controls

• Addresses an issue in which a parentally-controlled account could be unable to access the iTunes Store.
• Includes general fixes for time limits.
• Resolves an issue that prevented adding allowed websites from Safari via drag and drop.

Time Machine

• Fixes issues that could cause Time Machine to state the backup volume could not be found.
• Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.

Safari

• Improves compatibility with web proxy servers.

General

• Includes Mac OS X security improvements. See this website for more information.
• Addresses inaccuracies with Calculator when the Mac OS X language is set to German or Swiss German.
• Improves the performance and reliability of Chess.
• Improves DVD Player performance and reliability.
• Performance improvements for iCal are included.
• Fixes an issue when running the New iCal Events Automator action as an applet.
• Adds a Trackpad System Preference pane for portable Macs.
• Improves compatibility with smart cards such as the U.S. Department of Defense Common Access Card.
• Updates time zone data and Daylight Saving Time rules for several countries.

Click here to download>>

What’s interesting (but certainly not surprising) is the incredible sound of hyperventilation being generated by PC tech writers proclaiming the revelation that Apple Computer has finally (FINALLY!) admitted that Mac OS X is not immune to malware. Some of these pundits have even gone so far as to gleefully claim OS X is as unsecure as Windows. Wow! Does misery crave company or what!

Case in point is a CNET article published yesterday addressing the topic with the opening line of “In what appears to be a first, Apple is recommending that Mac users install antivirus software.”

Really? Just out of the blue? A first? What about the June 2007 support document? If the CNET so called “Tech Writer” would have done just a bit of research…..

I do not run nor do I recommend virus protection for OS X. If you wish to purchase and run it, Apple offers a few choices in the support document. I have attached both the latest document and the original from 2007 for your viewing pleasure:

UPDATE: Apple has since removed this Support Document from its website

—————-

Updated Support Document:

Mac OS: Antivirus utilities

Last Modified: November 21, 2008
Article: HT2550
Old Article: 4454

Summary
Learn about antivirus utilities available for the Mac OS.

Products Affected
Consumer Software, Mac OS

Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult. Here are some available antivirus utilities:

Intego VirusBarrier X5, available from the Apple Online Store
License: commercial

Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 11 for Macintosh, available from the Apple Online Store
License: commercial

McAfee VirusScan for Mac
License: commercial

Important: Information about products not manufactured by Apple is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute Apple’s recommendation or endorsement. Please contact the vendor for additional information.

——————

Original Support Document:

Mac OS: Antivirus Utilities

Last Modified on: June 08, 2007
Article: 4454

This article describes the antivirus utilities that are available for the Mac OS.

Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one program to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult. Here are some of the available antivirus utilities:

Intego VirusBarrier X4
Publisher: Intego
License: commercial

Norton Anti-Virus for Macintosh (formerly SAM)
Publisher: Symantec
License: commercial

Virex
Publisher: McAfee
License: commercial

This article provides information about a non-Apple product. Apple, Inc. is not responsible for its content. Please contact the vendor for additional information.

Click here for more information and download link>>

You may want to grab a pillow…..

Getting Started

When we talk about email transfer protocols, it’s really just a fancy way of stating how mail gets from here to there and back to here. As you may know, there are protocols for receiving incoming mail (POP, IMAP) and protocols for sending outgoing mail (SMTP).

Receiving Mail

POP (Post Office Protocol)

Most of us use an email protocol called POP. It is currently the widest used form of email management. POP (or POP3) is the protocol, or “language”, that’s used to download your email from your ISP to your mail program. But why “POP”? or 3?

“POP” is pretty simple; it’s an acronym for “Post Office Protocol”. A communications “protocol” is just the language used between your email program and your ISP’s mail server. POP3 is simply the current revision of the POP protocol just like OS X 10.3, 10.4, 10.5 etc…

To configure a POP account you need three pieces of information:

• The name of your ISP’s mail server that holds your email. Typically it’s something like “mail.example.com” or “pop.example.com”.
• The name of the account you were assigned by your ISP. This may or may not be your email name, or something like it, or something completely unrelated. Check with your ISP for details.
• The password to your account.

That’s it. With that properly configured, you can download email from your ISP directly to your computer.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)

The whole point of IMAP is that your email is stored on a remote server. It is especially useful to computer users who use more than one machine. I use IMAP extensively as I regularly use a desktop and a laptop. With IMAP, if I send or receive from one machine, the next time I launch Mail on the other machine, my mailboxes are synched with the remote server so as to be identical on both machines.

IMAP also supports several modes of operation. In “offline” mode, IMAP enables the user to continue working on new draft messages and stored copies of old incoming mail, and then synchronizes everything as necessary when a network connection is available again.

IMAP brings extra features that go way beyond what POP offers. It allows the client access to multiple folders, and indeed the right to manipulate folders directly on the server. There’s also the option to share folders with other users; with this in place, people can collaborate on work without the need to endlessly copy or forward messages among one another. IMAP offers users the chance to create their own flexible folder hierarchy. It’s a far more powerful protocol than POP, although that makes it somewhat more complicated to use.

You configure an IMAP account with the same basic information you use for a POP account.

Sending Mail

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

Sending mail uses a different protocol: SMTP. Again, another language used between your email program and the SMTP server to which you will send your email.

Typically your SMTP server will be the same as your POP3 server, though that’s not always the case. If so, it doesn’t really imply that the two are related, just that the same machine is acting as a server for both protocols.

Like POP3, the SMTP server may require you to log in first; often with the same account information that the POP3 server used. (If it doesn’t require you to authenticate somehow, it’s called an “open relay” and may be a major contributor to internet spam.)

So to configure your outgoing mail, you’ll specify the name of the outgoing server, and possibly the login information it will use.

Final Word

Note that all of this really applies only to email programs that you run on your own computer, like Apple Mail. Web-based email (webmail) such as Hotmail, Yahoo and the like, simply display the email directly from their servers in your web browser – no configuration needed, other than logging in.

Also keep in mind that you must check with your ISP on the exact settings it requires for incoming and outgoing mail configuration.

• Display the last time the daily, weekly, and monthly OS X Maintenance Scripts (a.k.a Cron Tasks) were run.
• Run the OS X Maintenance Scripts on demand. Just enter your administrator password and click the Run Scripts button.
• Select which scripts you want to run (the daily script must be run at all times).
• Works with admin accounts that don’t have a password assigned.
• Click Daily/Weekly/Monthly labels to open logs in the Console (for the adventurous).

Now you can keep track of when your Mac runs the scripts, and force them to run in case you need to. These maintenance scripts perform the following tasks:

• Daily:
  • Removes old logs
  • Removes scratch and junk files (temporary files)
  • Removes scratch fax files
  • Backs up NetInfo data
  • Checks subsystem status
  • Cleans mail queue
  • Gathers account statistics
  • Cleans up asl.log
  • Rotates logs: system
• Weekly:
  • Rebuilds locate database
  • Rebuilds whatis database
  • Rotates logs: ftp, lpr, mail, netino, ipfw, ppp, secure
• Monthly:
  • Runs login accounting
  • Rotates logs: wtmp, install, fax

Requires 10.4.3 or higher (including all versions of 10.5).

Click here to download>>

Click here for more information and download link>>

Radar In Motion grabs radar images from the Weather Channel or NOAA and displays the animation. Access the radar for a given city in the United States or get a regional map, including several international maps.

Click here for more information and download link>>

Writer is OpenOffice.org’s word processor: use it for anything from writing a quick letter to producing an entire book with embedded illustrations, cross-references, tables of contents, indexes, bibliographies, etc. Auto-complete, auto-format, and realtime spelling check make light work of the hardest task. Writer is powerful enough to tackle desktop publishing tasks such as creating multi-column newsletters and brochures — the only limit is your imagination.

Use Calc to bring your numbers under control. This powerful spreadsheet has all the tools you need to calculate, analyse, summarise, and present your data in numerical reports or sizzling graphics. A fully-integrated help system makes entering complex formulas a breeze. Sophisticated decision-making tools are just a few mouse clicks away. Pull in external data using the Data Pilot, and sort it, filter it, and produce subtotals and statistical analyses. Use previews to select from thirteen categories of 2D and 3D charts including line, area, column, pie, XY, stock, and net with dozens of variants. Many more features.

Click here for more information and download link>>

The default Mail Toolbar in OS X 10.5 looks like this:

To customize your Mail Toolbar, begin by going to the View Menu and selecting “Customize Toolbar”:

The Toolbar Menu sheet will then drop down displaying all of the function buttons available:

Take a close look at the icons as the names are pretty self explanatory. To add a button to your Toolbar, simply drag the desired button up into the Toolbar:

By default, your toolbar items appear in the toolbar as icons with text. If you prefer to have them appear as icons only or text only, you may change the way they appear with the “Show” function:

To remove unwanted items from your Toolbar, simple drag them out of your Toolbar and release them. They will still be available in the Toolbar Menu Sheet if you change your mind later. Once you have your Toolbar customized the way you want it, click the “Done” button in the lower right hand corner.

- Fixed a problem where users were unable to retrieve saved passwords or save new passwords.
- Fixed several security issues.
- Fixed several stability issues.
- Fixed a number of minor issues with the layout of certain web pages.
- Fixed several theme issues that affected right-to-left locales.
- Many more enhancements.

Click here for more information and download link>>

Click here for more information and download link>>

Mac OS X 10.5.5 Combo Update [601MB] – updates from any version of Mac OS X 10.5.x
Mac OS X 10.5.5 Delta Update [316MB] – only updates from Mac OS X 10.5.4

HOW IT HAPPENS

When signing up for a new online email account, you are asked a series of questions during the process. One piece of information requested is the ‘Secret Security Question’, which is used to validate who you are in case of a required password reset. Generally, there are some pre-written questions to choose from such as “Your Mother’s Maiden Name”, “Where were you born”, “What High School did you attend”, etc… If you ever need to reset your password for any reason, you simply fill out a web form, answer the question correctly and the email account password is then reset.

Once the hackers have the email address of the person they wish to target, they filled out the online form to reset the password which gives them access to the secret question. Armed with this secret question, they then were able to do a little research to find it’s answer and subsequently highjack the targeted account!

TIPS FOR PROTECTING YOURSELF

Keep in mind that public figures and officials generally have plenty of readily available information on the internet about them. This volume of information can make it easier for crooks to mine potential answers to security questions. As most of us don’t have anywhere near the amount of information online about us, if you use online services that require logins and have password-reset functions, this sort of attack should be of some concern to you. Here are some simple tips that can really make you safer:

• Use non-sensical words for passwords and answers to security questions. Non-sensical words are made up words not found in a dictionary. If you are the only one that knows your made up word, the safer you are.

• Pre-written questions are designed to make it easy for you to remember the answer but most are not all that secure. Definitely avoid pre-written questions with answers that could be easily found. For instance, where you went to High School is an example of a secret question with an answer that could be gained with minimal effort. We suggest taking it a step further by answering all security questions with a non-sensical word that only you know.

• The ability to define your own secret question is offered by some services. With the ability to create your own question and answer, you can insure that the question you choose (and its corresponding answer) does not appear anywhere on the Internet.

CONCLUSION

The more we do business and have a greater presence online, the more potential there is to become a target. Putting a little thought into security and implementing a few steps to make us less vulnerable can really pay big dividends.

Parents receive weekly emails and online reports to keep them in touch with their kids’ online activities. Running KidZui in protected mode blocks access to all other applications and content on a computer to anyone who doesn’t have the parent password. Once a computer is secured, it will automatically re-launch back into protected mode even if it is restarted or the power is cycled. This is a great way to let your kids independently explore on KidZui without worrying about them using the adult Internet, or accidentally deleting important files.

Click here for more information and download link>>

Apple has released Mac OS X 10.5.5. This update is recommended for Mac OS X Leopard versions 10.5, 10.5.1, 10.5.2, 10.5.3 and 10.5.4. It includes general operating system improvements that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac. To update to Mac OS X 10.5.5, use Software Update or the standalone installer from Apple Downloads. You only need to use one of these methods to update your computer.

For what’s new in 10.5.5 and tips for installing, please continue reading…..

Important: Read before installing

• It is recommended that you back up your computer prior to installing any updates.

• Quit all open applications before starting the installation.

• The installation process should not be interrupted even if the progress bar remains unchanged for several minutes. If a power outage or other interruption occurs during installation, use the standalone installer (see below) from Apple Support Downloads to update.

• You may experience unexpected results if you have third-party system software modifications installed, or if you’ve modified the operating system through other means, or if you have moved Apple applications from their default locations. (This does not apply to normal application software installation.)

• If issues occur during installation–for example, if Software Update unexpectedly quits–please see this article.

What’s included?

General

• Includes recent Apple security updates.

• Addresses stability issues with video playback, processor core idling, and remote disc sharing for MacBook Air.

• Addresses an issue in which some Macs could unexpectedly power on at the same time each day.

• Resolves a stability issue in TextEdit that could be found when accessing the color palette.

• Improves Spotlight indexing performance.

• Fixes an issue in which contacts might not sync properly with PalmOS-based devices.

• Improves iPhone sync reliability with iCal and Address Book.

• Includes improvements to Active Directory (see this article for more information).

• Improves Speech Dictionary.

• Fixes Kerberos authentication issues for Mac OS X 10.5 clients that connect to certain Samba servers, such as Mac OS X Server version 10.4.

• Includes extensive graphics enhancements.

Address Book

• Addresses stability issues that may occur when creating a Smart Group.

• Resolves a printing issue with address cards containing information that spans more than one page.

Disk Utility and Directory Utility

• Improves reliability when rebuilding a software mirror RAID volume in Disk Utility.

• Improves reliability of server status displayed in Directory Utility.

iCal

• Updates iCal to more accurately handle repeating events.

• Improves performance when choosing meeting attendees.

• Resolves an issue in which the “Refresh All” option may be dimmed (“grayed out”) in the contextual menu for certain calendars.

• Fixes issues with read-only calendars.

• Addresses an issue that prevents an invitee from moving an event to a different calendar.

• Resolves an issue with syncing published calendars.

Mail

• Addresses performance issues related to displaying IMAP messages.

• Resolves an issue with SMTP settings for AIM, Compuserve, Hanmail, Yahoo!, and Time Warner Road Runner email accounts.

• Addresses stability issues that may occur when dragging a file to the Mail icon in the Dock.

• Addresses an issue with the “Organized by Thread” view in which the date does not appear when the thread is collapsed.

• Resolves an issue in which RSS feeds could temporarily disappear from the sidebar.

• Improves Mail robustness when sending messages.

• Improves reliability when saving drafts that have attachments.

MobileMe

• Improves overall sync reliability.

• Improves Back to My Mac reliability.

Time Machine

• Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.

• Addresses performance issues that may affect initial and in-progress backups.

• Fixes an issue in which an incorrect alert message could appear stating that a backup volume does not have enough free space.

• Time Machine can now back up iPhone backups that are on your Mac, as well as other items in (~/Library/Application Support).

As usual, we will be testing this update and will post a follow up in a week or so.

Here’s the proof:

Although Jason is a proficient user of PhotoShop, and is certainly capable of perpetuating a hoax, we feel confident that this photo is the real deal and was actually taken this morning in the Maine Mall. We will be posting more proof throughout the day as and if it becomes available.
For all you MacHeads in Maine, prepare to exhale!!

Way to go Livestation!!!!

Click here for more information and download link>>

Click here to download My Mail Cheat Sheet>>

- The highest quality live TV viewing experience over broadband.
- Working in partnership with the world’s leading broadcasters and publishers
- Add and watch your favourite channels from the web, all in one player
- Stand alone and always on top means you can email, network, watch and chat at the same time

(Currently requires OS X 10.4 or higher, an Intel processor and a broad band internet connection. A PPC version is reportedly in the works.)

Click here for more information and download link>>

(Note: Although Quick Look is a built in function of OS X 10.5 Leopard, OS X 10.4 Tiger’s Mail contains a button labeled “Slideshow” which functions the exact same way.)

Here we have an email that contains photo attachments:

The email’s header tells us that it contains 4 attachments and displays a Quick Look button:

Clicking the Quick Look button takes us into the Quick Look view complete with action icons at the bottom.

From left to right are:

1. Play Slide Show 2. View all images in a contact sheet 3. Full Screen 4. Add to iPhoto

The contact sheet view allows you to see all of the selected photos at once. Click on any one of them to bring that image to the front:

Once you are finished with the Quick Look view, simply click the close button (circle with an X in it) in the upper left corner to return to Mail.

That’s it. Mail’s Quick Look feature provides us with an incredibly easy way to view and save photos we receive via email. Give it a try!!

Start by selecting any image or file. For the purpose of this tutorial, we’ll be working with a set of four images:

Selecting the first image and then pressing the Space Bar on the keyboard, Quick Look springs into action and shows a preview of that image:

(Notice the two action icons at the bottom of the image. Clicking the diagonal pointing arrows resizes the image to full screen. Clicking the camera icon adds the photo to iPhoto.)

Once you are finished viewing the image, simply press the Space Bar again and the Quick Look preview goes away.

Quick Look makes it easy to view multiple items as well. Start by selecting the items you wish to preview and then press the Space Bar.

Notice that we now have a couple on new action icons at the bottom. From left to right are:

1. Play Slide Show 2. View all images as contact sheet 3. Full Screen 4. Add to iPhoto

The contact sheet view allows you to see all of the selected photos at once. Click on any one of them to bring that image to the front:

That’s it! And as always, a little experimentation should clear things right up!!!

Click here for more information and download link>>

This is probably one of the coolest internet plugins I’ve seen in a while. Formerly known as PicLens, Cooliris provides an immersive, 3D full-screen environment for viewing images and videos online. It allows you to quickly glide, zoom, and scroll through thousands of videos and images in a cinematic presentation. Be sure to play the guided tour located under the green download button!

Click here for more information and download link>>

While working in an album, select the image or images you wish to delete. Then, while holding down both the Command and Option keys, press the Delete key. That’s it. The images are now removed from all albums and the iPhoto Library and placed in iPhoto’s Trash.

Let’s start by working in the Finder with icons on the Desktop. Go to the View menu and select Show View Options:

Take a moment to look at the View Options window. Notice that the Title Bar shows us we are working with the icons on the Desktop:

Use the Icon size slider to change the size of the icons on the desktop:

By dragging the slider to the right, the icons on the Desktop get larger:

We can also change the size of the text labels from 10 point:

to 16 point:

And place the label on the right side of the icon:

If you need to see more info about your drives or folders you can:
(Although this can be handy at times, it tends to be a little cluttered for my taste)

And we can have our icons arranged automatically for us:

(The “Snap to Grid” function keeps our icons apart with an equal amount of space. Give it a try.)

As covered in Part I, we can arrange items contained within a window a number of ways. Here in the top of an open window are icons that represent different views. From left to right are;

Icon View, List View, Column View and Cover Flow View:

Be aware that the available Finder View Options change depending on the selected view. I’m not going to point out and explain each detail as most of the options should be self explanatory. Notice that some of the views have different options available. Some also have a “Set as Default” option. When this option is checked, all windows of that sort behave the same way.

These are the view options in Icon View:

In Column View:

In List View:

In Cover Flow view:

That’s it. As always, a bit of experimentation will usually clear up any questions.

Macworld: Phishing scam targets MobileMe users>>

And as always, never click on links in unsolicited emails!!

After transferring over data from his old PC to the new iMac and about an hour of “how to” instruction, he was up and running. Captain Ed now runs all aspects of his business on the Mac. From contact management to Keynote presentations, he does it all. He does his own graphic design and uses Pages to layout his advertisement brochures. At the end of the 2008 season he plans on changing his cell technology over to an iPhone.

Captain Ed was visited this past summer by Pontoon Boat Magazine. The magazine flew here to Maine to interview him for a cover story scheduled to be published this fall. He has since been selected to participate in Pontoon Boat Magazine’s annual manufacturer rollout this September in Tennessee. Ed will be testing numerous boats and providing feedback for the Magazine’s 2009 Product Review.

For more information on what Captain Ed and his boat River Runner have to offer, visit them at the River Run Tours website.

It’s awesome to see people so happy and productive after making the change from one computer platform to another. We would like to congratulate Captain Ed on his success and wish him the best for the upcoming years!

~Dave

And they’re really fun! Here’s how to use them…….

To begin exploring these stationery templates, open Mail and choose to compose a new message. Once you have the new message, notice the Show Stationery button:

Clicking this button will reveal the stationery categories. Clicking on each category will reveal that category’s available stationery designs:

Once you have found a stationery you like, simply click on it and the stationery template will embed itself into the body of the email. If you change your mind, clicking on a different stationery will change the embedded one. Also, notice that the Show Stationery button is now Hide Stationery. Once you have selected a stationery that you are happy with, click the Hide Stationery button to dismiss the template categories:

Now that we have a template embedded in the body of our email, you’ll need to change the template example text. To do this, simply click and drag across the sample text and then type anything you want to replace it:

Once you change the text, you can drag and drop any photo into the photo drop area. Also notice next to the Show Stationery button there is a Photo Browser button. Clicking this button will open a window into your iPhoto Albums, simply drag any photo from the iPhoto Browser into the stationery drop area:

All you need to do now is address the email and send it!!!

Click here for more information and download link>>

Complete list of fixes:

Open Scripting Architecture

Impact: A local user may execute commands with elevated privileges

Description: A design issue exists in the Open Scripting Architecture libraries when determining whether to load scripting addition plugins into applications running with elevated privileges. Sending scripting addition commands to a privileged application may allow the execution of arbitrary code with those privileges. This update addresses the issue by not loading scripting addition plugins into applications running with system privileges. The recently reported ARDAgent and SecurityAgent issues are addressed by this update. Credit to Charles Srstka for reporting this issue.

BIND

Impact: BIND is susceptible to DNS cache poisoning and may return forged information

Description: The Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) server is distributed with Mac OS X, and is not enabled by default. When enabled, the BIND server provides translation between host names and IP addresses. A weakness in the DNS protocol may allow remote attackers to perform DNS cache poisoning attacks. As a result, systems that rely on the BIND server for DNS may receive forged information. This update addresses the issue by implementing source port randomization to improve resilience against cache poisoning attacks. For Mac OS X v10.4.11 systems, BIND is updated to version 9.3.5-P1. For Mac OS X v10.5.4 systems, BIND is updated to version 9.4.2-P1. Credit to Dan Kaminsky of IOActive for reporting this issue.

CarbonCore

Impact: Processing long filenames may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

Description: A stack buffer overflow exists in the handling of long filenames. Processing long filenames may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue through improved bounds checking. Credit to Thomas Raffetseder of the International Secure Systems Lab and Sergio ‘shadown’ Alvarez of n.runs AG for reporting this issue.

CoreGraphics

Impact: Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

Description: CoreGraphics contains memory corruption issues in the processing of arguments. Passing untrusted input to CoreGraphics via an application, such as a web browser, may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue through improved bounds checking. Credit to Michal Zalewski of Google for reporting this issue.

CoreGraphics

Impact: Viewing a maliciously crafted PDF file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

Description: An integer overflow in the handling of PDF files may result in a heap buffer overflow. Viewing a maliciously crafted PDF file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue through additional validation of PDF files. Credit to Pariente Kobi working with the iDefense VCP for reporting this issue.

Data Detectors Engine

Impact: Viewing maliciously crafted messages with Data Detectors may lead to an unexpected application termination

Description: Data Detectors are used to extract reference information from textual content or archives. A resource consumption issue exists in Data Detectors’ handling of textual content. Viewing maliciously crafted content in an application that uses Data Detectors may lead to a denial of service, but not arbitrary code execution. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.5.

Disk Utility

Impact: A local user may obtain system privileges

Description: The “Repair Permissions” tool in Disk Utility makes /usr/bin/emacs setuid. After the Repair Permissions tool has been run, a local user may use emacs to run commands with system privileges. This update addresses the issue by correcting the permissions applied to emacs in the Repair Permissions tool. This issue does not affect systems running Mac OS X v10.5 and later. Credit to Anton Rang and Brian Timares for reporting this issue.

OpenLDAP

Impact: A remote attacker may be able to cause an unexpected application termination

Description: An issue exists in OpenLDAP’s ASN.1 BER decoding. Processing a maliciously crafted LDAP message may trigger an assertion and lead to an unexpected application termination of the OpenLDAP daemon, slapd. This update addresses the issue by performing additional validation of LDAP messages.

OpenSSL

Impact: A remote attacker may be able to cause an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

Description: A range checking issue exists in the SSL_get_shared_ciphers() utility function within OpenSSL. In an application using this function, processing maliciously crafted packets may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue through improved bounds checking.

PHP

Impact: Multiple vulnerabilities in PHP 5.2.5

Description: PHP is updated to version 5.2.6 to address multiple vulnerabilities, the most serious of which may lead to arbitrary code execution. Further information is available via the PHP website at http://www.php.net/ PHP version 5.2.x is only provided with Mac OS X v10.5 systems.

QuickLook

Impact: Downloading a maliciously crafted Microsoft Office file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

Description: Multiple memory corruption issues exist in QuickLook’s handling of Microsoft Office files. Downloading a maliciously crafted Microsoft Office file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue through improved bounds checking. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.5.

rsync

Impact: Files outside the module root may be accessed or overwritten remotely

Description: Path validation issues exist in rsync’s handling of symbolic links when running in daemon mode. Placing symbolic links in an rsync module may allow files outside of the module root to be accessed or overwritten. This update addresses the issue through improved handling of symbolic links. Further information on the patches applied is available via the rsync web site at http://rsync.samba.org/

Click here for more information and download link>>

Hold down the Control Key and then move your mouse’s scroll wheel (two finger scroll on MacBook/MacBook Pro). Your display will zoom in and out as you move the scroll wheel back and forth. Once you have zoomed in, if you release the Control Key and then move your mouse, your screen will move with it.

Click here for more information and download link>>

~ Dave

Press Release:

Maine Hosting Solutions, the largest internet web hosting company in the state of Maine, is pleased to announce the addition of Dave Koenig to it’s talented group of professionals.

A native Texan and retired U. S. Navy Chief Petty Officer, Dave has been residing in Bath, Maine for the past five years. Recent employment has been with Mac-Care, a Macintosh service and support business in Bath, and website administrator of TheFineArtPrintGallery.com also located in Bath.

Dave brings with him a resume of computer expertise and internet knowledge to further enhance Maine Hosting Solutions’ widely renowned reputation for superior quality and customer service in the Web Hosting and Design industry.

When working with files and folders in an open Finder window, we can arrange them a number of different ways to suit our needs. We will start by looking at the Finder’s View Menu and working with these menu items:

(Note: OS X 10.4 has the top three items only. OS X 10.5 added the Cover Flow view option)

Here in the top of an open window are icons that represent different views:

Taking a closer look, these icons from left to right are:

1. Icon View    2. List View    3. Column View    4. Cover Flow View:

Icon View

Icon view shows your files and folders as icons. It can, however, get rather messy if you have a lot of files and folders in one window:

List View

List view shows files and folders in a list. Notice also that folders have a little right pointing arrow icon to the left of them. Clicking on this arrow will expand the folders revealing their contents. Clicking on the arrow again will collapse this expanded view:

Column View

Column (or Hierarchy) View can be a bit confusing until you get used to it. This view shows the contents of a selected folder in the right column. Here, with the macnutsandbolts user folder selected, it’s contents are displayed in the window to the right. Windows users will be familiar with this view:

Cover Flow View

New to OS X 10.5, Cover Flow shows that window’s files and folders, and allows you to shuffle through them. The functionality of this view is certainly debatable. It’s really slick, but I find it rather cumbersome. The coolest thing about this view is if you select a document or photo and then press your keyboard’s Space Bar, it brings up a Quick Look preview of the file or photo:

That’s it for Part I of Finder View Options. In Part II we’ll explore the other View Menu options.

“MobileMe services are now available

We have recently completed the transition from .Mac to MobileMe. Unfortunately, it was a lot rockier than we had hoped.

Although core services such as Mail, iDisk, Sync, Back to My Mac, and Gallery went relatively smoothly, the new MobileMe web applications had lots of problems initially. Fortunately we have worked through those problems and the web apps are now up and running.

Another snag we have run into is our use of the word “push” in describing everything under the MobileMe umbrella. While all email, contact or calendar changes on the iPhone and the web apps are immediately synced to and from the MobileMe “cloud,” changes made on a PC or Mac take up to 15 minutes to sync with the cloud and your other devices. So even though things are indeed instantly pushed to and from your iPhone and the web apps today, we are going to stop using the word “push” until it is near-instant on PCs and Macs, too.

We want to apologize to our loyal customers and express our appreciation for their patience by giving all current subscribers an automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription free of charge. Your extension will be reflected in your account settings within the next few weeks.

We hope you enjoy your new suite of web applications at me.com, in addition to keeping your iPhone and iPod touch wirelessly in sync with these new web applications and your Mac or PC.

Thank you,
The MobileMe Team”

Click here for complete details on the automatic extension>>

Way to go Apple.

Now I know this person was not in Africa and I immediately flagged it as being a hoax. I spoke with several mutual friends, and they too had received the very same email. One of these recipients even responded to the hoax email questioning it’s authenticity and received a prompt reply from someone attempting to assure him that it was really her. Now that’s brazen!!

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there attempting to get into your wallet or steal your identity and we hear all too often of people falling for these scams. The FBI’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) has seen a steady increase in complaints that involve some form of unsolicited e-mail directing consumers to a phony “Customer Service” type of web site. These scams are contributing to a rise in identity theft, credit card fraud, and other Internet frauds.

“Spoofing,” or “Phishing,” frauds attempt to make Internet users believe that they are receiving e-mail from a specific, trusted source, or that they are securely connected to a trusted web site, when that is not the case. Spoofing is generally used as a means to convince individuals to provide personal or financial information that enables the perpetrators to commit credit card/bank fraud or other forms of identity theft.

In “E-mail Spoofing” the header of an e-mail appears to have originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. Spam distributors and criminals often use spoofing in an attempt to get recipients to open and possibly even respond to their solicitations.

“Link Alteration” involves altering the return address in a web page sent to a consumer to make it go to the hacker’s site rather than the legitimate site. This is accomplished by adding the hacker’s address before the actual address in any e-mail, or page that has a request going back to the original site. If an individual unsuspectingly receives a spoofed e-mail requesting him/her to “click here to update” their account information, and then are redirected to a site that looks exactly like their Internet Service Provider, or a commercial site like EBay or PayPal, there is an increasing chance that the individual will follow through in submitting their personal and/or credit information.

FBI Tips on How to Protect Yourself

• If you encounter an unsolicited e-mail that asks you, either directly, or through a web site, for personal financial or identity information, such as Social Security number, passwords, or other identifiers, exercise extreme caution.

• If you need to update your information online, use the normal process you’ve used before, or open a new browser window and type in the website address of the legitimate company’s account maintenance page.

• If a website address is unfamiliar, it’s probably not real. Only use the address that you have used before, or start at your normal homepage.

• Always report fraudulent or suspicious e-mail to your Internet Service Provider.

• Most companies require you to log in to a secure site. Look for the lock at the bottom of your browser and “https” in front of the website address.

• Take note of the header address on the web site. Most legitimate sites will have a relatively short internet address that usually depicts the business name followed by “.com,” or possibly “.org.” Spoof sites are more likely to have an excessively long strong of characters in the header, with the legitimate business name somewhere in the string, or possibly not at all.

• If you have any doubts about an e-mail or website, contact the legitimate company directly. Make a copy of the questionable web site’s URL address, send it to the legitimate business and ask if the request is legitimate.

• If you’ve been victimized, you should contact your local police or sheriff’s department, and file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center at http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/.

Quite simply, awareness is probably the number one way to protect yourself against these kinds of attacks. Please help spread the word by passing this information along.

Click here for more information>>

Click here to watch a guided tour>>

Enjoy!

Click here for more information and download link>>

To start, go to the Apple Menu and select System Preferences:

Click on the Print & Fax Preference Pane:

In the left hand printer box, hold down the control key and click anywhere in the box. Then select Reset printing system… from the contextual pop-up menu:

You’ll then be presented with the following dialogue box asking you to confirm that you want to reset the printing system. Click the OK button and then enter your admin password if asked:

Now that the printing system has been reset, you’ll need to re-add your printer. Make sure that the printer is turned on and properly connected to your computer, then click the + button:

You should then see your printer in the list. Click on it one time to select it and then click the Add button:

(Be patient as it make take several seconds for the Add button to become selectable)

If all went well, you should now see your printer in the printer list:

At this point, close out of System preferences or Printer Setup Utility as appropriate and try to print something.

I have also pasted the information directly in this post, just click Continue Reading.

Directly from Apple’s website:

———-

Last Modified: June 06, 2008
Article: HT1307
Old Article: 60446
Summary
This article describes the best way to clean an LCD panel such as those used on PowerBook computers and Apple flat panel displays.

Products Affected
Displays, eMac, iMac, PowerBook, MacBook, MacBook Pro, iBook, MacBook Air

To clean the LCD:
Turn off the computer or display. You may need to turn off the computer in order to turn off some Apple displays.
Dampen a clean, soft, lint-free cloth or paper with water only.
Wipe the screen. Do not spray liquid directly on the screen.
You may also use a mild glass cleaner that contains no alcohol or ammonia. Most office supply stores sell cleaning kits specifically designed for this purpose.

While there are many commercial products available that will work without damaging the plastics, Apple has tested a product called Klear Screen made by Meridrew Enterprises (http://www.klearscreen.com) and found it does not cause any harm to the plastics. This product may not be available worldwide.

The answer is simple.

As we are seeing people switch from PC to Mac daily, I get a lot of “I used to do this on my PC, how do I do it on my new Mac” type questions. A list of answers to some of these questions can be found at this link: Switch 101

The list is pretty extensive, so if you are a recent switcher I’m sure you’ll find something useful. If you know of anyone who has recently switched or is thinking of making the switch to Macintosh, please pass it on. And make sure you send them MacNutsAndBolts!

Have a great Fourth of July everyone! ~Dave

Apple has released Mac OS X 10.5.4. This update is recommended for all users of Mac OS X Leopard. It includes general operating system improvements that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac. The update is available via Software Update and the following download links:

Mac OS X 10.5.4 Combo Update [561 MB] – updates from any version of Mac OS X 10.5.x
Mac OS X 10.5.4 Delta Update [88 MB] – only updates from Mac OS X 10.5.3

What’s new in Mac OS X 10.5.4:

• General
- Includes recent Apple security updates.
- Resolves an issue with saving and reopening Adobe Creative Suite 3 files on a remote server.
- Includes additional RAW image support for several cameras.
- Addresses an issue that may result in a partially installed X11 application.
- Improves L2TP VPN client reliability.

• AirPort
- Addresses AirPort reliability issues with 5GHz networks.
- Addresses AirPort issues that may result in slower performance in Logic Studio or MainStage.

• iCal
- Improves overall iCal reliability for meeting requests, cancellation notices, delegation, and syncing with iPhone.
- Resolves an issue that prevents deleting an iCal event without notifying the creator.
- Addresses an issue in which events in all calendars affect availability. A checkbox now enables information-only calendars to be transparent from free/busy lookups.
- Resolves a UI issue preventing delegated calendars from showing up as a separate window.
- Addresses an issue with copying and pasting attendees from one event to another.
- Resolves an issue in which iCal may not delete events after a speci?ed time interval, even when set to do so in iCal preferences.
- Addresses an issue in which To Dos cannot be marked private.

• Safari
- Addresses a potential performance issue when loading secure web pages.
- Resolves issues that may be encountered when accessing secure web pages with client certificates that reside on a smart card.

• Spaces and Exposé
- Addresses an issue in which switching from a space with a Finder window keeps the Finder as the active application instead of the application residing in the destination space.
- Fixes an issue in which dragging an application from the list of application assignments in Spaces System Preferences does not assign the application to the desired space.
- Resolves an Exposé issue that may result in only a subset of windows being shown.

Click here for more information and download link>>

Click here for more information and download link>>

iChat utilizes the AIM (AOL Instant Messaging) network. In order to use the AIM network, you must have a screen name. There are two ways to get a screen name:

1. If you have a .Mac account, your .Mac member name (membername@mac.com) is a valid screen name on the AIM network, even if you no longer subscribe to .Mac. When you launch iChat for the first time a screen comes up asking if you want to get a .Mac name. You can sign up for a 60 day free trial of .Mac and register a .Mac screen name good for iChat. After 60 days, even if you do not keep .Mac, you can still use this member name for video conferencing with iChat.

2. To register for an AIM screen name go to this AOL web page. Fill in the desired screen name and other fields and follow the instructions. After you register, AIM sends you an e-mail allowing you to confirm your registration request.

(Although I do have a .Mac account and use my .Mac username for iChat, I recommend registering a screen name through the AOL webpage above. There are several reasons for this that I will not go into here.)

Once you have a screen name ready to go, launch iChat by clicking it’s icon in the Dock. If the iChat icon has been removed from your Dock, simply locate it in the Applications Folder.

The first time you launch iChat 4, you’ll be presented with this dialogue box. Simply click the Continue button:

Next, from the Account Type pop-up menu, select wether the screen name you have setup for use is .Mac or AIM:

And then enter your screen name and password and click the Continue button:

Now you are ready to use iChat! Click the Continue button:

iChat should now launch showing you your empty buddy list:

In order to chat with someone, you’ll need to obtain and enter their information. In the lower left corner of your buddy list, click the + button and select “Add Buddy”:

Enter your buddy’s information. Start by selecting wether your buddy is using a .Mac account or AIM:

Then enter your buddy’s account information and click the Add button:

Now that our MacNutsAndBolts account has a buddy added (davekoenig1@mac.com), we can click on our new buddy’s phone icon to initiate an audio chat. If your buddy’s icon is that of a camera, clicking their camera icon will initiate a video chat.

It’s really pretty simple. Once you have it set up and add a few buddy’s, it’s a snap to get the hang of it. You can also use iChat to conference with your PC using friends as long as they are on the AIM network. Enjoy!!

Click here for video tour of Firefox 3 >>

Click here for more information and download link >>

With help from my friends at Maine Hosting Solutions, we set them up a website:

Tour de Bocrie

Lori is carrying a MacBook running 10.5.3. We plan to be in touch via iChat during times they stay in motels. With the current version of iChat’s built in screen sharing function, I’ll be able to help if they have any computer issues.

We chose Blog.Mac as the blog software for several reasons. Although Lori is an experienced computer user, she’s new to blogging and with the software being extremely easy to use, it was a perfect choice. She can write posts along the way, save them and then publish them when she gets to a place with internet access. Blog.Mac also has a media browser that provides built in access to iPhoto, so adding photos to a post is a snap. I plan on doing a complete review of Blog.Mac in the future.

The comments engine on the site is through HaloScan and the web counter is by Easy Counter.

Jerry is carrying a device called SPOT. It’s referred to as a Satellite Messenger, which is basically a GPS tracking locator that, among other things, broadcasts their position every 10 minutes when they are moving. On the left side of their site under the Links category, if you click on the WHERE ARE WE NOW? link, you’ll get the real time tracking page. With Google Maps integration, you can change from Map to Satellite view and zoom in and out.

That’s basically it, I just wanted to share this project. What we are doing with computers and peripheral devices is really cool. If you’d like to check on their progress, just go to the site. And if you feel compelled to leave them a comment of encouragement, please do.

~Dave

Click here for more information and download link >>

Mac OS X 10.5.3 Combo Update [536 MB] – updates from any version of Mac OS X 10.5.x
Mac OS X 10.5.3 Delta Update [420MB] – only updates from Mac OS X 10.5.2

MacTimer makes it a cinch to keep track of time, with unlimited timers that can be minimized to the Dock or enhanced with MacTimer’s fullscreen mode. Create multiple timers. Stop & start at leisure with simple, direct controls and keep track of multiple timers with individual labels.

Click here for more information and download link >>