Meetings

We were conspicuous in our absence during the November meeting. Sorry about that.

Our January 25th meeting will be a joint meeting with Leisure World and will feature Charlie Downs as our presenter. Charlie is well known for his knowledge of the Macintosh and the Mac Operating Systems. He does not hesitate to share his background with you, and if he does not have the answer immediately at hand, will search it out.

Unfortunately, at this writing, we have been out of communication for a few days and do not have a location for the January meeting. Watch the bulletin board and will try to contact as many of you as we can by e-mail once we know the location.

The January meeting will be held at the normal time at the Resource Center. The Leisure World people backed out on attending so we will not need a larger fatality. -(Ed)"

Chris Breen in one of his Macworld's Daily Tips, noted that when you toss a file into the trash and then empty the trash, that file has not been vaporized. The data's still on your drive, just the pointer to it has been removed. That data can be recovered unless you take pains to prevent recovery by overwriting the sector of your drive where that data lives.

It just so happens a tool for helping you is Michael Watson and Paul Jenen's "Burn". This free utility will toss and overwrite any files or folders you drag onto its icon. You can find a copy at MacDownload

For those of you planning to, or are now using the Internet for investment information, you might want to take a look at Douglas Gerlach's Invest-o-rama that provides links to information from sources such as Zack's Reports, the EDGAR data base, Morningstar, etc. The site also indicates whether the linked information requires registration for a membership fee. Most of the information is free, however. Boxes along the side make it easy to search for investment ratings, annual reports, quotes, and more on the company for your choice.

You are probably aware that the iMac has been upgraded. How can you tell whether the one you are looking at is Rev. A or Rev B? The Rev. A comes with 2MB of video ram, Mac OS 8.1 and the ATI RagIIc graphics accelerator chip. Rev. B models at an additional 4 MB of video RAM, ship with Mac OS 8.5, upgrade the graphics chip to the ATI Rage Pro, and include a copy of Adobe PageMill 3.0. While you can't tell from the outside of the iMac, check the model number on the carton. Model number M6709LL/B says that it contains Rev B version.

Not long ago we reviewed our members meeting attendance. We list 256 members, of whom 183 only attended one or two meetings in the past year. Only thirty-five listed members have consistently attended our meetings. We realize that first time attendees can be overwhelmed by the jargon, but the way we learned about our Mac, was by keep coming back. In time we began to understand what was going on at the sessions. Learning about your computer is like learning a language or how to use a complex tool. It takes time and practice. So it is at our meetings. There is no such thing as a "dumb" question. Speak up and ask for a clarification.

See you at the January meeting. Don't miss Charlie Downs, you will be sorry if you do.

Our December meeting was both tasty and occasionally a little testy. Someone suggested that upgrades should be referred to as "down grades". There are times one gets that feeling, especially when you get new bugs to replace the old ones. Over all it was fun and the AMUG Internet group benefited from the leftovers.

By popular demand, our February meeting will feature using scanners. Two different scanners will be demonstrated. Aurora Oberloh will lead this session. We are looking forward to learning more about scanner techniques.

Looking ahead, our March meeting will feature the Investment Group, and our April meeting will feature the Genealogy Group. Looks like we are off to a very interesting year.

We recently had a conversation with acquaintances who have a home in Cornwall County England. What we learned was that our use of the telephone and connecting to the internet is a pretty good deal as compared to that of our British cousins. In addition to the basic monthly telephone service charge, each local telephone call is billed. To pick up the phone to start your call costs thruppence (three pence) or five cents US. In addition the call will be billed one pence per minute, or 1.66 cents per minute US, Thus a twenty minute phone call would cost thirty-eight cents US.

The folks had been communicating with family and friends in the US by fax. Since each e-=mail or fax was billed as a local call. It did not take long to figure out that having e-mail ready to send in a batch took a lot less time than fax. Now correspondence is confined to e-mail, not only less costly than fax, but also much less costly than snail-mail.

For those of you who are comfortable with ResEdit (we are not that adventuresome), here is a way to be able to resize Sherlock's window. Launch ResEdit and use it to open a copy of Sherlock, of course you are always working with a copy. Now double-click on the wctb resource and then open the only resource you find within the Find Window resource. At the top of the resulting window you'll see a string of different window types. Select the one to the far left, click the close box, and save your changes.

Now when you launch this copy of Sherlock you'll b e able to drag the bottom right corner of the window to resize it. &emdash;By Chris Breen, MacWorld Daily Tips.

Now that we are into the year 1999, you may want to look for calendars of historical events, or perhaps celestial events, or even thought of the day calendars. If so you might check try Calendar Zone

If you are using a HP InkJet printer, the printer will feed about 3/16" before it accepts your margin settings. If you have set 1/2" margins top and bottom, the top margin will print 11/16" from the top of the sheet and 5/16' from the bottom of the sheet. So, in making greeting cards (or whatever) and using the portrait view, for true 1/2" margin at top and bottom, set the top one at 5/16' and the bottom at 11/16". Of course, if you are using the landscape mode, you would reduce the left margin and increase the right margin as above. For those of you setting margins using decimals of an inch, make your initial corrections by 0.187 of an inch. Naturally, you make similar adjustments to your graphic and/or text blocks to allow for the printer variation.

Our January meeting featured Charley Downs with his usual insight in the use of the Mac Operating System. When Charley is there, it is always an informative and helpful session.

The group extended, via telephone, get well wishes to Bob Charnetsky. Bob had triple by-pass surgery plus a heart valve replacement. We also signed a get well card from the Sr. SIG and also one from AMUG, We hope to see Bob at our next meting.

Our March meeting will feature members of the investment SIG. Here is a chance to learn more about "on-line" investment information, investment software and experiences from people we know. There is a wealth, no pun intended, of information out there on the net.

One URL you might want to check out is Media General Financial Services This site lets you quickly access reports on more than 8,000 public companies. The quickest way to access a report is to enter its ticker symbol, but you can use the symbol look up feature if you know only the company's name. The home page lists various statistical reports available through the service.

Our April meeting will feature members of the Genealogy SIG. Again, there is much information available on the internet. Sherlock is a great tool in searching names, as well as individual subjects.

For those of you who may want to have disks of genealogical information in your own file, Parson Technology (a Broderbund Company) has many disks on different subjects. Prices range from about $19.95 for some single disks to $199.95 for a 11 disk set of U.S. Census data. The disks are available in both Windows and Mac format. You might like to check out Parsons Com

For you Photoshop users, here is an easy way to take measurements. Double-click on the Line tool in the Tools palette and enter 0 (zero) in the Line Width field. Now select Show info from the window menu or click the info tab. Place your cursor where you would like to start the measurement and click and drag to the position where the measurement stops. The Info palette displays the distance from the beginning of the drag to the end. Ha! Instant Photoshop tap measure. Thanks to Chris Breen, MacWorld Daily Tips.

About those viruses - An acquaintance of ours uses a lap top to communicate with family, when he is out of the country. He uses one of those other types of computers, and for some reason, has not been concerned about viruses. A few days ago he started up and got nothing. Digging out a start up disk he had made, again there was nothing on his hard disk. He lost all his data, the hard disk driver and the system files. He now has, after the fact, a virus detector, and his lap top is in the shop being sanitized. If you are in doubt about some e-mail you see listed on you screen, trash the suspicious mail. Not being cautious can be fatal to your system.

Our February meeting featured the joint efforts of Aurora Oberloh and Kal Kaufer. The two had spent the Friday afternoon before the meeting, setting up the program on the meeting room computer. By Monday morning the gremlins and/or Murphy's law had set in and there were problems galore. Real shame after so much preparation work. Aurora was able to demonstrate several features of scanning software, and also presented the output from several different printers.

Our April 26th meeting will feature use of the internet for genealogical research. This should be one of interest most of us. Researching family history has become one of the major hobbies.

For those of you who may want to have disks of genealogical information in your own file, Parson Technology (a Broderbun Company) has many disks on different subjects. Prices range from about $19.95 for some single disks to $199.95 for a 11 disk set of U.S. Census data. The disks are available in both Windows and Mac format. You might like to check out Parson's URL <www.parsonstech.com> for more information.

We recently obtained a copy of Reunion v. 6. The manual is on the disk, so we have been printing a chapter at a time. We find that more and more software comes with the manual on the CD. Quite a cost saving for the publisher.

If like us, you are a clip art nut, you might want to consider the following: most updates from 25,000 to 40,000 or whatever, have a few new bits of graphics on top of the old. There are a number of packages out there at reasonable prices, and we go for packages from different providers for different selections. Since these packages usually include a large number of fonts, this process also gives us some fonts that are not currently in our file.

It has been our practice to use a gigabyte Jazz drive as our primary backup. We also use a Zip drive to provide back up for items from individual programs and templates. The other day, our Jazz drive died, but fortunately we had 95% of that data also on Zip drives. By the way, this was our first disk drive failure and it is making us a believer in multiple back up of items you want to save over the long term. Suspect that our next addition to the system will be a CD-RW drive. Of course even with the best storage medium, we still face the possibility of equipment failure.

It was good to see Bob Charnetsky back and we extend our best wishes to Geno Fortunato. Hope to see you all at the April 26th meeting.

Our April 26th meeting will feature use of the Internet for genealogical research. This should be one of interest most of us. Researching family history has become one of the major hobbies. we are looking forward to the session.

Our May 24th meeting will feature an in depth look at OS 8.5. We are looking forward to this. We have yet to explore all that is available with in the system. Following the summer tradition, our June meeting will probably be questions and answers.

There is a browser named Google. Don't let the name fool you, it is more focused in its searches than most others. Developed by students who wanted to be able to search with a reduced number of irrelevant hits you can narrow the field. Example: fuel injection. Google assumes that you wan the words to be near each other. If you want to search for an exact phrase you would type "fuel injection" in the search box. Google also supports the minus sign (-) as an operator. If you enter fuel-injection, google finds documents that contain the word "fuel" and do not contain the word "injection".

Once again ˜ save frequently, back up frequently and keep you Antivirus software up to date. There are some devious people out there on the net.

Traditionally, our December meeting is held on the third Monday of the month rather than the fourth. Be sure and mark December 20th on your calendar. This has always been a festive meeting and we look forward to this years gathering. Details will have been discussed at the November meeting.

Al Coir was back for our November meeting and both he and we enjoyed the give and take. Budde King, who had made copies of software for us, left several more floppies for distribution to those who did not obtain any in the past. If you did not receive one or both of the two discs, we will have them available at the December meeting, or as long as they last.

We have not gone for System 9 as yet. We have been visiting the MacFixit URL and following the give and take. This site does keep you up to date in regard to the reported incompatibilities and also lists the latest updates that are compatible with OS 9. Trust that most of the "bugs" will soon have been identified the appropriate patches made available.

For those of you who have purchased and installed OS9, here are a couple of tips we picked up from MacWorld Chris Breen.

-New Keyboard Function

Intermediate

Under OS 9 you can now launch applications by pressing function keys. Here's how it works:

Open the Keyboard control panel and press the Function Keys button in the resulting dialog box (you can also get to this control panel by pressing one of the function keys on your Mac's keyboard). You'll see a list of function key mappings in the next window.

To assign an application to a function key either press a function key button in the Hot Function Keys window and pick an application from the Open dialog box or drag and drop an application into one of the open function key fields.

Note that certain Macs -- the iBook, for example -- have a number of prearranged function keys (for changing brightness and volume or number lock, for example) and you can not launch applications with these prearranged keys.

Another tip from Chris.

Tip: Speedier Sherlock 2 Indexing

Tip level: Intermediate

To cut down on the time it takes Sherlock 2 to index your drive, select Preferences from Sherlock 2's Edit menu, click the Languages button, and select only those languages you'd like Sherlock to index. This not only speeds up indexing but the resulting index will take up less space on your hard drive.

By the way, there is an update to Claris Works, which not only makes it compatible with OS9, but also enters the century numbers in four digits, rather than two.

Hope to see you at the December meeting. If not, best wishes of the season and a "not too buggy 2000".

Our February meeting will be on Monday February 28th We hope that this will be another great session. Our November meeting was a real success. We have often mentioned that you should write down your questions and brig them with you. One of our members did just that and not only did she receive answers to her questions, but from the looks on their faces, several members received answers to their unasked questions. The way to go!

Our December meeting started off with much discussion and ended on a very merry note Food! It was very enjoyable. Also copies of TechTool 1.1.9 were passed out. We will have a very few more available at our January meeting. If we have requests later, we could make copies at a future meeting. Version 1.1.9 is compatible with CPUs through G-4 and we believe is compatible with OS 9, though we have not yet verified that.

We have a daughter living in Maine. Dottie was having a problem printing the printer would not print. We were on the telephone a few times going back and forth, but did not solve the problem. At our suggestion, Dottie found a guru in a nearby city who came out to her home and worked on the problem. He finally asked "when was the last time you optimized the hard disk. From the look on Dotties face, he then said "We had better do that". After the optimization cleaned up the disk and provided some open space, the printer was back in business.

Dotty mentioned to the young man, that her father belonged to group called AMUG. His face lighted up and he said "The Arizona Macintosh Users Group, that is an elite organization, one of the very best user groups in the country". Nice to hear good words about our organization from, Down East.

We are still reluctant about installing OS9. Keep putting it off until we get this or that done. Meantime, we keep checking on the updates that may be required. Some of the recently received catalogs are starting to list "OS 9" compatible That is comforting. Just hope our MacInTax is also OS 9 compatible.

Our March meeting will be on Monday March 27th, and our featured presenter will be Charles Downs. His presentations are always informative and interesting. Charles is an associate editor for Ted Landau's MacFixit web site, A site we refer to very frequently for the latest info on problem solving. He is also author of "The Well-Healed Mac" which appears weekly on the Arizona Republic's AZ Central Web Site

3. And Ted Landau's (MacFixIt) presentation at MacWorld, "Why Mac Crashes Happen and What to Do About Them."

For those of you who have not been to the Resource Center recently, the parking has been improved with the addition of many more spaces. Now that you can find a parking place, why not join us?

We believe the predicted demise ot the floppy drive has been premature. While we like having a Zip Drive built into our G4, at times we feel as though we have one hand tied behind our back. Some things still arrive on floppy disks, and most of us have rather large libraries of those handy little gadgets. While we have moved most of our data over to Zip Disks, we frequently find one we not only missed, but need the info contained thereon.

There has been some discussion about the possibility of, on an occasional basis, producing CDs with helpful info, freeware and shareware for distribution at our meetings. The cost of a CD write only is about equal to that of three floppies, We would like to hear from you about that.

We recently received the Apple User Group's up date CD, which contains around 110 updates to support OS9. This saves a lot of time searching the net. We have found our membership in the AppleWorks Users Group helpful. By the way, AppleWorks 6.0 is due out shortly. The AWUG news letter had a good preview in the last issue.

We are also looking at a future meeting reviewing hardware. Sound interesting? If so, let us know. We are trying to meet your needs.

Our April meeting was held on the second Wednesday of April, rather than on Monday the 24th. The decision to make change the meeting dates was made at the March meeting and after the AMUG News had gone in the mail. Our meetings are now scheduled for the second Wednesday of each month. This should also avoid conflicts with holidays.

Our May Meeting will be at 10:am on Wednesday the 10th, AMUG Resource Center. Check the Sr SIg site for details.

Charles Downs made a great presentation at our March meeting. He always has much to offer, and is much appreciated.

If you have updated to AppleWorks 6 and have had problems transferring your clip art from V. 5, here is a tip from Breen, MacWorld Tips:

Yes, you can import AppleWorks 5 clippings into AppleWorks 6 and no, doing so isn't completely intuitive. Here's how it works:

You must drag the individual clipping library files into the root level of the AppleWorks 6.0 Clippings folder (found inside the AppleWorks 6 folder). If you try to drag these clippings files into one of the sub folders found inside the Clippings folder or drag the AppleWorks 5 Library folder or any of its sub folders into the Clippings folder, these files won't appear in the AppleWorks 6.0 Clippings window. (Ed Note: This will work but the AW5 libraries so installed will be LOCKED and nothing within them can be changed. added or deleted.)

A few months ago, we mentioned symbols for use to represent feet and inches. The marks we suggested are called prime marks and these are becoming available in most of the current fonts. Used as symbols for repeating, feet and inches (5-6 tall) or as minutes and seconds (46-22´-36*) gives your work a more professional look. In some of the older fonts, that do not have these prime symbols, try the single and double quotes in Italics. We have several books that show character sets, but so far, non have shown the prime characters. So once again, for the single prime mark use Option+shift+E and for the double prime mark, use option+shift+G.

Our May meeting was held on the second Wednesday of May, which our new meeting time. Our June meeting will be at 10:am on Wedbesday the 14th, in the AMUG Resource Center. Check the Sr SIg internet site for details. Al Coir presented Apple Works 6. The presentation was made using AMUG's Power PC and Apple Works 6 appeared to be very slow, with much waiting for things to open. It may be that version 6 is optimized for the G3 and G4 CPUs. On our G4 is seems to run at a good speed.**We did have to turn off ATM so that it would not crash on start up. It should be noted that if you have a 68X CPU Apple Works 5 is the latest version you will be able to use.

We were impressed by a slide show Al presented and look forward to trying our hand. For those of you who envied the folks with the iMac DV, the software is available for sfree download. The download does not include the manual. If you order the CD ($19.95) you get both the software and manual. We tried to orer the CD from the Apple store but could not find it listed there. Here is a tip from MacWorld. Tip level: Intermediate AppleWorks 6's Auto-Save feature places an alias of the document you're working on in the Startup Items folder. If your Mac crashes while you're working on this document, AppleWorks launches automatically when your Mac restarts and the auto-saved version of the document appears. If you'd rather that AppleWorks not perform this trick, there are three ways around it: 1. Disable the Auto-Save feature in the Files section of the Preferences dialog box. 2. After the Mac's extensions start loading, but before the desktop appears, hold down the Shift key. This disables anything in the Startup Items folder. 3. Hold down the Space Bar on startup to cause Extensions Manager to appear. Select View as Folder, deselect your AppleWorks document, and click Continue. We look Forward to seeing you at the June meeting.

** Note from Editor: Al Coir. There is a new update for AppleWorks 6.0 changing it to version 6.0.3. . This update seems to speed up the application and adds some new features. If you use AW6 you should make this update. Click the following to download the update.AppleWorks 6.0.3

Our August meeting will be at 10:00 am on Wednesday the 12th, in the AMUG Resource Center. Check the Sr SIg internet site for details. Al Coir presented Conflict Catcher and showed many of the ways he uses it. Am sure most of us discovered some ideas that will be helpful to us. Have you noticed that many of the boxes of software contain only the CD Rom. Well something is being done about it. David Pogue, back page author for MacWorld and author of many books related to using the Mac, has joined with others to form POGUE PRESS/O'REILLY to produce the missing manuals. Now available are the manuals for AppleWorks 6, iMovies, OS 9 and others We have the AppleWorks 6 volume and believe it to be well done and understandable. We want to thank Lea Bromely for her article in the July AMUG newsletter. she did a beautiful job presenting the physical characteristics of type. In addition to setting up "type sheets", we like to check out magazines and books for examples of good type. setting. Yes, when we think we are just typing copy, in this day and age we are actually setting type. A few years ago we were reading a novel by Rosamunde Pilcher and were impressed the with the openness of the pages and how easy the type was to read. What we found was that the pages were set in Garamond 12/14 (size 12 point, leading 14point). We secured the Full Adobe Garamond set and to this day, it is our choice for our news letters and correspondence. You probably prefer some other type face, but seeing what type faces others use and how they set the type can be very helpful. Today's Tip: AppleWorks 6 Generic Icons Tip level: Intermediate You may have noticed that the Newsletter and Templates icons found in the Web tab of AppleWorks 6's Starting Points window appear as generic white icons that do absolutely nothing when you click on them. Apple suggests this fix to make these icons operate as Apple intended: Quit AppleWorks and open the AppleWorks folder. Now open the Starting Points folder and the Cache folder within that folder. Drag all the files within the Cache folder to the Trash and re launch AppleWorks. The Newsletter and Templates icons should now work properly. We look Forward to seeing you at the August meeting .S

Our September meeting will be at 10:am on Wednesday the 9th, in the AMUG Resource Center. Check the Sr SIg internet site for details. The July meeting featured Bob Chernetsky. Bob has been taking a Community College course in Photoshop, and took time to share some of his new knowledge. Thanks Bob! We have missed the last couple of Sr. SIG meetings. Our travels this summer have blocked out the second Wednesdays of July and August. We are looking forward to joining in at the September session. Meantime, we picked up a copy of MacFormat, an English Mac magazine, though at a price of $13.95 U.S. we do not do that very often. The July issue is an interesting one and includes reviews of shareware, a feature we wish the U.S. publications would include from time to time. One of the problems we often have when visited by very young grandchildren, is entertaining them. We keep a stack of paper, crayons and felt tip pens on hand for these visits. A shareware program titled Etchelon Macdoodle lets them enjoy coloring while using the Mac, and it is a lot cleaner. At $7.00 U.S. it is hard to beat, even less expensive than taking the young ones out to Baskin Robbins. Once in a while, we have weird messages appear on our monitor. A couple of our friends from England reported the following: When trying to load an old MusicWorks on a 5200, "This program can not run on a Lisa. Get a Macintosh"; "Couldn't complete the last command because this is a muxed MPEG file, one that contains both audio and video. At present Sparkle cannot handle these files, but I'll fix that as soon as I can. Result Code = 32767";and last " The command could not be completed, because sit is use." Perhaps you have had some odd comments appear on your monitor and would like to share them with the gang. Once in a while we get a message that we don't know how to handle the recommended fix. The following Breen tip may help car up one of those messages. Tip level: Intermediate If you use AppleWorks' Labels Assistant you may see this message along the way: "Be sure to select "No gaps between pages" in Page Setup - Options (in the File menu)." In an attempt to be cooperative you then search in vain for this option in Page Setup. It's not there. What's up? That warning applies only to formed printers such as the ancient ImageWriter. If -- as is likely -- you don't use a formed printer, feel free to ignore this message. Adobe recently announced their new Open Face Fonts. To us the description seemed to be a reinvention of Apples Quick Draw GX. We enjoyed using the "smart fonts" available for Quick Draw GX and were sorry when Apple discontinued GX. So, when we read that Adobe has released what they term as Pro fonts (There are four of them) we hopped on their internet site to check out the Garamond set. Guess what? They were not there, as had been advertised. By the way, to get full advantage of them (when available) you must have software written to fully use their capabilities. At the moment Adobe's InDesign is the only compliant software. Adobe reports that a new version of ATM that will support the Pro fonts will be available in the future. We have finally developed enough courage to use InDesign for our newsletter production and find that we like it. We are not as comfortable with it as with PageMaker, but getting there. It has many features we like, including very flexible handling of type. We do find the handling of graphics a bit awkward, but may get used to that in time. Frankly, for most seniors who have purchased a Mac with AppleWorks installed, you have a good desktop publishing program. While it may not have all the bells and whistles of Quark, PageMaker or InDeisgn, it is easy to use, produces a great product and in effect came free with your Mac. Many people under estimate the power of AppleWorks. Enough preaching. Looking forward to seeing you at the September meeting.
Jim Roose

Sorry to be so late, but hope the attachment is in time.Sr SIG News for October By Jim Roose Our October meeting will be at10:am on Wednesday the 11h, in the AMUG Resource Center. We are looking forward to a Photoshop demo by a "Pro", and that should be interesting. Check the Sr SIg internet site for additional details. Our September meeting featured Al Coir demonstrating his digital camera and touching up the photos using Photoshop Lite. We all enjoyed the demos and the discussion that followed. Many folks are now carrying thier laptops owith them on their travels. Going to lspend some time in Europe? Well here is a tip from Breen (MacWorld). There seems to be enough discussion on the Mac 911 forum(http://macworld.zdnet.com/mac911/forum.html) about the topic of using Macs in countries other than the U.S. and Canada that I thought it might merit mention here. Most Mac made in the past 12 years are capable of operating between 100- and 240 volts and 50- to 60 Hz. Some older Mac carry switches that allow you to switch between 110 and 220 volts. If your Mac has such a switch and you're taking up temporary residence in a country that shoots a different flavor of juice through its power lines, be sure to set this switch to the appropriate voltage before plugging in your Mac. Regardless of whether your Mac has such a switch or not you must use an adapter that allows you to plug your Mac into the variety ofsocket found in your new location. On the day of our September meeting, Apple released to the public OS X Beta Version.We know there will be a lot of comment on this Beta version, and have ordered a copy so that we can add our own comment. Buddy King has agreed to "hold our hand." See you at the October meeting, mean time enjoy your Mac.

Our December meeting will be at 10:am on Wednesday the 13th, in the AMUG Resource Center. For the subject of our December meeting, check the SR SIG site on theAMUG net site. This is always a good site for Sr SIG News.

Our November meeting featured Ted Finch , and we are sorry we missed it. Unfortunately we have been in the process of moving to a new residence and the move interfered with attending the AMUG SR SIG meeting. We might add, having been off-line from the internet for about three weeks, we are suffering sever withdrawal symptoms. Hope that we will be back on line long before you read this. It is amazing how much we become dependent on the internet service.

Tip from Chris Breen:

Tip level: Intermediate

If you use AppleWorks' Labels Assistant you may see this message along the way: "Be sure to select "No gaps between pages" in Page Setup - Options (in the File menu)." In an attempt to be cooperativeyou then search in vain for this option in Page Setup. It's not there. What's up?

That warning applies only to form feed printers such as the ancient ImageWriter. If -- as is likely -- you don't use a form feed printer, feel free to ignore this message.

We recently acquired the Enhanced Edition of IBM's ViaVoice. Unfortunately, when we try to load it, we are told there is a folder missing. By next month we hope to report on using this software.

Our January meeting will be at 10:am on Wednesday the 10th, in the AMUG Resource Center. For the subject of our January meeting, check the SR SIG site on the AMUG net site. This is always a good site for Sr SIG News.

Our December meeting was our usual seasonal feast with some show and tell. We enjoyed those meatballs that Al Coir always brings.

Tip from Chris Breen:

Tip level: Intermediate

Tip level: Intermediate

If you happen to have your browser open and would like to take a peek at a QuickTime movie file sitting on your desktop, there's no need to launch QuickTime Movie Player. Just drag and drop the movie into your browser window. The QuickTime plug-in (if installed) will play the movie from within your browser.

While we were moving, our scanner bit the dust. Broken glass and cracked frame. We checked the adds and saw that the Max Astra 6450 as advertised for Macs, came with firewire connection a copy utility. When After we unpacked the scanner and read the manual we learned that the copy utility only worked with Windows. This is the second time we have seen a UMax scanner advertising "Copy utility included", but not clearly stating that the utility would not work with the Mac. With a little working around, Our old 1200 had that copy capability. We tried to use the old copy utility, but it does not work with the later software. All we can say is "Shame on UMax" for being deceitful.

We often mention "Save, Save, Save" and "Have you cleaned your mouse lately?" Now we will add "Have you cleaned your key board lately?" That may be why you are having some intermittent keystroke problems.

See you in January. Happy New Year and Happy Macing.

By Jim Roose

Top of Page

February 14, 2001 - AMUG Senior SIG Meeting

10:00 AM - AMUG Response Center

Subject - Q and A

Presenter - Al Coir

February meeting will be at 10:am on Wednesday the 14th, in the AMUG Resource Center. Gary Fields will discuss and demonstrate tools he has and does use in the graphic arts field and those he uses to protect his data. Gary has years of experience in the graphics publishing field and we are grateful that he shares this experience with us.

Since this meeting will be on Valentine's Day, if you have made some special ones, why not share them with us?

Our January meeting presenter was Ted Finch, who demonstrated burning CDs and passed out information on CDs, burners and storage items. It was a very good show. Our thinks to Ted for all the work he put into the presentation.

Tip from Chris Breen for those who use Word:

Yesterday I told you how to print a list of your customized keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Word. Today I'd like to tell you how to print a complete list of Word's keyboard commands.

Select Macros from the Macro sub menu in the Tools menu. In the resulting Macros window, select Word commands in the Macros In pop-up menu. Scroll down the list of macros and highlight List Commands. Click Run and in the next dialog box choose either "Current menu and keyboard settings" or "All Word commands."

Word will then generate a Word file that lists all the keyboard commands. Print this list at your leisure.

We have been reading a book titled "Defend and Protect', written by Richard North Pattrson and composed by Stratford Publishing Services. While we have enjoyed reading the book, our reason for mentioning it is the Adobe Garamond type face that was used by the composer.

Claude Garamond (1480 -1561) developed a graceful and elegant type face that has been known over the centuries as Garamond. Robert Slimback designed the Digital type face known as Adobe Garamond. It is quite faithful to the original and is one of the most readable type faces available today. For the past several years, Adobe Garamond has been our type face of choice for desktop publishing and correspondence.

By Jim Roose

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March 14, 2001 AMUG Senior SIG Meeting

10:00 AM - AMUG Response Center

Subject - Troubleshooting

Presenter - Charlie Downs

Once again, our newsletter deadline precedes the Senior SIG meeting. For information as to the content of the March 14th meeting please refer to the Senior SIG bulletin board. There is always something of interest there. Really "Good Stuff." Have you noticed the drop in cost of RAM cards recently. We did and added another 256MB to our CPU. Also we brought the RAM in our printer up to full capacity. With the chip makers sitting with an oversupply in their warehouses, this seems to be a good time to shop. We are easily handling some pretty large print jobs these days. Some of the fun things we do with our internet service is to visit around the world. A few years ago we visited the Lourvre in Paris. Construction on the new subterranean mall had just begun and that area was boarded off. We could not get inside for the first couple of hours, the workers were on strike. With that settled, we did get in for a few short hours. What we saw on the internet looked much better than the way we remembered it from our visit. We are now researching the cities we hope to visit during a cruise this coming summer. This helps us plan our activities and for this we use Grolier's, Britannic and various sites on the internet, including the National Geographic. While most cities in Europe have computer cafes, we understand that this year our ship will also have internet service available for checking in at home and/or with family. We have been attending an introductory course to Windows versions of Microsoft Word and Excel. While there interesting and instructive. Some of the "tricks" that are boastfully mentioned, we have successfully tried on some of our Mac software including ClarisWorks 6. By-the-way, we understand Ted Finch is taking an advanced course in Photoshop. Perhaps we will be able to get him to share some of his new knowledge with us. Many folks we know, like to print business cards listing all sorts wild activities, such as the Gibbet Works, etc. Whether in fun or seriously, printing your own is very flexible, and you only need to print a few at a time. How many of us really need five hundred of the same card? We print a dozen at a time, for our self, our wife and the two of us. Most of the cards have been printed on 38lb. stock with a preprinted design from Papers Direct. Recently we have printed some on plain 110lb stock, by taking advantage of hand feeding straight through from the rear of the printer. If your printer permits hand feeding from the rear, you have more options in the paper stock upon and 80lb. stock. While they recommend that you take the 80lb. stock to a printer for printing and cutting, we like the limited quantities we can print at home. While they feel that the 80lb. stock is too stiff for the average home printer, if you have the hand feed from the rear option it should work. By the way, the heavier stock is not microperfed as is the 65lb. cover stock. We use a Fiskars trimmer for cutting our business cards, as well as final trimming on greeting cards.Hope to see you at the March meeting, Meanwhile, HAPPY MACING.

- JIM ROOSE

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April 11, 2001 AMUG Senior SIG Meeting

10:00 AM - AMUG Response Center

Subject - Gadjets and Gizmos

Presenter - Gary Fields

Also, here's a little something that the folks don't seem to want us to know . No search engine searches more than about 10 percent of he World Wide Web. Yahoo!, Google, Infoseek, whatever -- each knows about only a tiny fraction of the world's Web pages. The task of reading or listing every Web page on earth is simply too overwhelming. If you're having no luck finding a piece of information online, try using multiple search engines -- or try using a "meta-search engine." Meta-search sites like DogPile [http://www.dogpile.com] or MetaCrawler [http://www.metacrawler.com] send out your request to numerous search pages simultaneously. Could be worth a try. Anything that works. Have you "backed up" recently? If you have a CD-Rom burner, this is a nice way to backup your data, and the cost per disk is relatively inexpensive. Also a rather neat way to move data from you old computer to that new Mac. We think that routine maintenance is important and try to rebuild our desk top on a weekly basis, Zap the PRAM on a monthly basis, and optimize our hard disk at least once a month. We also run Tech Tool Pro about once a month to try and untangle any software problems before they become to large. Your need will vary with your use. In line with the times, we were reading an article purported to explain the percentages in capital gains taxes. After a very confusing explanation (no help at all) the article closed with, "If you are still confused go to a tax accountant or use your TurboTax program." Looking forward to seeing you at the April meeting.

The big day has passed and now the Mac OS X is available and some of our Amug members are now using it. We were not quite that brave, but after hearing some local favorable comments, we will get with it.

It is our idea, that in addition to performing routine tasks, computers should also be fun. For many folks that means games. We will admit to not being a games fan. We do have some solitaire games and also a flight simulator program. That last satisfies our love of flying though we no longer have our airplane. So, for some of you model railroad fans, there is Fiddler's Green. You can down load printouts of buildings in either N or HO scale. They are in color and when printed on 80lb or 110lb paper are easy to paste up into rather nice looking buildings. The site also has models of airplanes, including sport planes, racers, W.W.I. W.W.II and so on. For a look go to fiddler'sgreen.com.

Using downloads from fiddler'sgreen.com we knave cut out and pasted together a castle tower, English country home, Piper J3 Cub and a Pietenpol Aircamper. The later is a home built for which plans were made available in the early 1930s. I obtained a set of plans while in high school and started with making the wing ribs. My father saw them being assembled the garage, and when he learned they were for an airplane wing, that ended the it was fun brought back many memories.

Day-Glo Color Corporation is now producing fluorescent ink jet cartridges for many printers. If you are interested, or just curious, check out dayglostore.com. We found that they did not cover our particular printer, but did list many Epson, Cannon, and HP printers. While we wonder if these inks might not be subject to clogging, it still might be fun to experiment and see what might be the best uses for them.

We have noticed that programs updated for OS X are not showing up. One of them is that wonderful Graphic Converter software. It is certainly one of the handiest tools to have on your desktop.

By the way, Iomega has introduced "Fotoshow" which can be connected to your TV using the included RCA cables. It also as a USB port for connecting it to your Mac.They claim you can store up to 300 high-resolution images on a 250 Zip Disk. While a bit pricey at $250.00, if your are really into providing your family and friends with all your treasured family pictures using the TV set, this may be for you. A FotoShow Auto-Adapter is available, which could come in handy when your digital camera becomes full while on the road.

Be sure and check into the AMUG Senior site for current meeting information, member comment, questions and answers. Also, if your are and AMUG member try the members only site. If you do not know the code words check with Mike Bromley. Some real cool stuff at that location.

Hope to see you at the May meeting. Meantime, enjoy your Mac and don't forget to "back up".

Jim Roose

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June 13, 2001 AMUG Senior SIG Meeting

10:00 AM - AMUG Response Center

Subject -

Presenter

Gary Fields made an impressive and informative presentation at our May meeting. Along with demonstrating his "Gary's Gadgets", he distributed an information sheet listing the items of software; and hardware. Included on the list were the current prices, the name of the producer and/or manufacturer plus the e-mail addresses.

When we went to the address for Aladdin Systems to order Spring Cleaning, we were informed that it was not available. However, we were able to order it from another source. We were not able to determine whether Aladdin is discontinuing Spring Cleaning, or what happened.

We have, over the years, been grateful to Apple for the evolution of its system software, rather than drastic, incompatible changes. With the introduction of OS X, we seem to have entered a gray area. An example is Claris/Apple Works. Through system 8.0x all updates performed smoothly and on all Macs. For version 5 users that seemed to be the end of the line. Now for those users there is update 5.0.4. Probably good to get this one and use it.

With Claris Works 6 things began to change, with this version being limited to the more recent Macs and operating systems. If you are running Claris Works 6 using systems 8.1 through 9.0x you probably have updated to 6.0.4. Then to be compatible with OS 9.1, Apple Works 6.1 was introduced. Now with OS X officially introduced we have an update 6.1.2.

In an effort to keep us afloat, this version is compatible with OS 8.1 on through OS X, but with some variations on the way. First of all, if you have not already updated to 6.0.4, you must do so before installing the new update. Now starts the variations. If you are running systems 8.1 through 9.0x it updates Apple Works 6.0.4 or 6.1 to 6.1.2.

If you are running system 9.1 or later (including OS X) it replaces 6.0.4 or 6.1 with a package called "Apple Works 6.1.2", which contains two versions of Apple Works. If you launch using 9.1 it runs 6.1.2. If you launch running OS X it runs a preview (public Beta) version of Apple Works for system OS X. This version is supposed to be replaced in September with the regular version of AppleWorks for OS X.

Now we have OS X which is coupled with 9.1 or the Classic mode. In theory, our existing programs will run in the classic mode, while newer software will run with the new system. As is with most anything new, so far not quite everything works that way. We have reports of some things not working with the "classic version", rather it is a good idea to have 9.0.4 or early 9.1 also available.

For us to want to use OS X , we want to be able to use our scanner, printer and Zip drive. That means that there should be the appropriate drivers. While there do not appear to be that many drivers available that work with OS X, Hewlett Packard has issued Laser Jet 1.0 an OS X driver for most Laser Jet printers.

A couple of other bits of software available that are said to be OS X savvy, include that good standby Graphic Converter 4.0.7 and Adobe Acrobat 5.0 . One biggie is Toast 5. While there is also quite a bit of shareware online, most of the "big stuff" is slow coming around.

We like the looks of the new ibooks. Very attractive, well fitted and nicely priced. Looks like Apple has come up with another winner. One county school system has already ordered 23,000 of them.

Most of you will remember Larry Blackmon showing us pictures taken from his trips. He used his computer to research many of his outings and print the results. This spring we were doing much the same thing. While we will be taking a scheduled cruise, with good background information, the better choice we well be able to make of the tours offered at each stop. We are also looking for computer cafe listings at the ports. Since we do not have a laptop, in addition to the shipboard e-mail service, they can be handy for sending messages home. Some of the tools we have used so far, are Goodies, Britannica, Tourist information sites and national Geographic. Certainly a lot of "stuff" out there.

Be sure and go to the Senior SIG page at AMUG for specific news about our June meeting. Al Coir does a great job keeping this up. While there check out the Q&A and chats pages.

Looking forward to seeing you at the June meeting.

Jim Roose

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July 11, 2001 AMUG Senior SIG Meeting

10:00 AM - AMUG Response Center

Subject - Q and A

Presenter Al Coir & SrSIG

Our July meeting will be on Wednesday the 11th. Check the Senior SIG bulletin board for the subject. While many of our participants have headed for cooler climes, those still here and faithful seem to be enjoying the summer meetings.

Our May meeting featured Jim Sorrels showing us a look at some of what he has done with Photoshop. He really held our interest and gave us some food for thought. We saw some things we would like to try.

We have mentioned before that we think using our Macs should be fun, at least some of the time. In line with that idea, have you scanned a banana lately? I'm serious. For something different and to obtain some graphics we recently experimented with scanning various objects. These included carrots, pliers, screw driver, stainless steel place setting, cut glass, etc. We tried tenting to help control the light. Those who have experimented with table top photography will know what I mean by tenting. When we get a better control on this, we will share our experiences with you. We have been having a lot of fun. Why not give it a try?

Also, we are becoming acquainted with Photoshop 6. It has some neat things for us non-artists to use. One of the items added is a series of templates for use in shaping text. These include arches, fish shapes, wavy lines and other distortions. Trying out the new items we learned more about many of the old tools.

Recently we received a "Political Editorial" which was sent to just about every one and his brother. Well, that started a ruckus, and e-mails were flying in all directions, many of which objected to being sent the editorial in the first place. It got down to name calling and the participants soon sounded like children. Finally, after about ten days the fracas has quieted down. Our point is, while it is to easy to send out bulk e-mail, we should use consideration in what we send out and to whom. A couple of the participants tried to hide behind pseudonyms, while at the head of the message their names were in the originating e-mail address. By the way, when we saw our copy, we hit delete and thought no more about it, that is until all the back and forths filled up our mail box.

Have a great summer, keep cool and Think Snow. If you are around, why not join us for the July meeting? We pick some tidbit at each session.

Our September meeting will be on Wednesday the 12th. Check the Senior SIG bulletin board for the subject. We hope that many of our members will have returned to the valley in time for this one. Be sure and check the AMUG Senior SIG bulletin board for the meeting subject or subjects.

Al Coir did a great job demonstrating sending photos by e-mail and including them in e-mail letters. This was a subject that brought many requests and questions. Al answered some of our questions, and am sure he did the same for may others, especially the questions we were afraid to ask.

Well we got our new toy, a Nikon 880. We now believe that in addition to the word pixilated, we should have the word "pixelated", also meaning confused. Trying to rationalize all we are reading about pixel dimensions, picture quality, picture file size versus printer resolution, etc. etc. We feel that we are "pixelated".

Budde King suggested we pick up a copy of Dennis P. Curtin's booklet of the Nikon 880, and it has been a great help. We also are referring to John Paul Caponigro's book on using PhotoShop and find it very useful. Trying to rationalize quality versus file size for using the camera is something. With a 64MB card we can store 6 full quality files and if we modify the quality by compressing the files we can store 81 files. With further compression we can store around 400 files. This would be using JPEG compression. The problem with JPEG compression is that it reduces the file size by throwing out data, and the further you compress a file the more is thrown out and the quality is reduced. Unfortunately you cannot upgrade a compressed file, once data has been thrown away it is gone.

There is that good word "pixilated" meaning confused or addled. Now having studied pixel dimensions, file sizes, relation of file size to printer resolution for printed results and storage card capacities, we feel that the word "pixelated" should be added to the dictionary. Not sure when, in spite of our current confusion, we will have finally put all that pixel stuff in order for our use.

We missed the August meeting, but hope to see you at the September gathering.

Meantime, slainte, Jim Roose

We are sorry that we have missed three meetings in a row. We should now be back for the winter. For What is going on at the meetings, check ou t the Senior SIG web site. Always up to date. Al Coir does a great job.

They say that you cannot teach old dogs new tricks, but then they were nots peaking about our age group. We have found that the newer Macs and and system 10 require that we learn some new definitions. That coupled with the
digital cameras keeps us on a learning curve, and that keeps us both active and at times a bit frustrated.

Did you check out the article on Haiku poetry in a recent issue of the
Arizona Republic. Two that caught our eye were:
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent and reboot.
Order shall return.
and
A file that big?
It might be very useful,
But now it is gone.

We have not had time to really experience OS10, though so far it has been a bit rough. In trying to load OS X we had a freeze and could not eject the CD, which kept acting as the startup disk. We have often said that you cannot hurt your computer, but that is not true when you resort to needle nose pliers. They just do not agree with computers and CD trays. Bryan slapped our hand on that one.

Someone remarked that the best way to load OS X is to buy a new computer on which it has already been installed. We now have a 733Mrz G4 with both OSX and OS 9.2, plus ClarisWorks 6.2. We have been alernating between the two systems.

At this time, our experience with OS X is limited and not quite sure what to say about it.
Our boot time seems to be on the slow side, but the new OS X.1 (which we just ordered) may speed that up a bit. It took us a while to setup the internet and e-mail on OS X, We have tried ClarisWorks 6.2 and believe it is more stable that 6. It is taking us a bit of time to get used to the new interface. One experience was doing the news info using AW6.2 and OS X, only to have it disppear. The new Sherlock says can't find it because I had not indexed the hard drive.

We are anxious to become familiar with OS X in that many of our favorite items of software now will run natively on X or will in the next few months.In spite of the old saying about teaching old dogs new tricks, it just takes us a little longer to catch on.

How many of you remember that first game for the Macs, a solitaire game called Klondike? We lost our copy a long time ago, but found it again, now at version 7.7.1. It is still shareware and it was fun to pick up a old friend from the old Mac 516 days and have it work with the current systems. We notice that the new Micorsoft system will not be back compatible to much of anything.

Along with backing up your hard disk, do you also register each purchase of software or hardware? Our printer crashed the other day (a Friday) and afer trying various software solutions, HP noted that the priner was still in
warranty and that a replacement would be delivered before noon on Monday. They were true to their word. Resgistering does sometimes pay off.

Hope to see you in November. Meantime, enjoy your Mac.

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At our October meeting we had three presenters, all of whom made a valiant effort, but were thwarted by a recalcitrant bulb in the projector. Theintermittent operation made their presentations difficult. We understand the the bulb has been replaced and that the projector is functioning properly. We did pick up some things about tools that could be useful in evaluating our portfolios. Our thanks to Bob Charnetsky, Kal Kaufer and Bill Leopold for their efforts and information in spite of the difficulties involved.

Encouraged by the presentation, we logged onto NAICs home page to check out their software. Our daughter uses their analysis software on her Mac. What I found out was that the Mac software was discon tinued when the new software was developed, and that new software is only available in Windows. Checked back with our daughter and she confirmed that the Mac version was not updated and is no longer available. Sooo if you have the old Mac version, take good care of it.

A nostalgic note. Saturday, October 20th we participated in the last 'Labeling party' at the Resource Center. Mike Bromley has gone on to other employment and it appears that the days of the Resource Center are numbered. Lea and Mike Bromley have been very active in supporting AMUG for many years. Lea was editor of the news letter for many years, and the 'Labeling Party' has been a feature for several years. It always reminded us of grandmother's quilting bee. Several people working diligently and all the while doing a bit of gossiping. We enjoyed the sessions and will miss them.

We want to add our thanks to Al Coir who does a great bit of work in maintaining and updating the Sr. SIG. bulletin board at the AMUG net site. Be sure and check it for info on our December meeting.

We have installed 10.1 and are using it as much as we can. Unfortunately, to use our scanner and a couple of other applications, we spend a good deal of our time using OS9.2.1. At the moment the only 10 native applications we have are File maker Pro 5.5 and AppleWorks. We hope that Adobe will get in gear and bring up applications such as Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator to mention a few. We visited the new Apple Store in Chandler and saw a number of graphic and publishing applications by other companies that are now OS10 native. We enjoyed our visit to the store and will get back for some software as time goes along.

The year 2OO2 brings a lot of change. We no longer have our AMUG Resource Center and will need to find a new meeting plac3e. For this reason, if no other, be sure and check the SR SIG Board at amug.org for meeting information. It is our hope that, in spite of these recent changes, that Bryan will be able to maintain his service to us needy Mac users.

Did you notice that we used the letter O in the year rather than 0s. We think it looks pretty classy, and our thanks to Thomas Rubarth who we believe introduced this in an earlier article. Better enjoy this combination now, it will be a thousand years to 3OO3.

Our November meeting, which featured Gary Fields, had one of our largest turnouts. Gary always has some good things to offer, and at this session he was especially informative in regard to scanning. We used a couple of his suggestions while working on our family newsletter and got great results. We use Cox @ Home and are sweating out whether we can send and receive E-mail. While we did bring up a lot of mail this AM, I'm not sure whether we will be able to send this or not.

What do we have to look forward to this coming year? We look for additional improvements to OS 10 and more native 10 software. We currently have AppleWorks 6, Filemaker Pro 5 and Adobe Illustrator 10. We also look forward to printer and scanner drivers that are compatible with OS 10. At present we are having to alternate between OS 9 and OS 10. A little awkward. Looking forward to the great millennium when everything works with OS 10.

What about New Years Resolutions. Over the years we have found that, New Years Resolutions like political campaign promises, seem to be made to be broken. However, we have set a couple of targets. One is to make more full use of Photoshop. We have found that, besides removing that power pole from aunt Matilda's head, that we can also modify type. Example: For our December family news letter we created antique look letters for Merry Christmas. Twas a bit of work the first time, but a lot of fun.

Have you noticed that the new software, even if it comes with a manual, you still need to buy a book to explain what the manual says. Remember when you could fire up your Mac and use MacWord and any other programs with out reading the manual? Those were the days.

May the year 2OO2 be good to you and yours, especially better than the last half of 2001. Happy New Year and Happy Macing.

As we approached the end of 2002, we reviewed our Sr. SIG meetings and some of our responses to telephone calls. Right off, we want to thank Al Coir for his many helpful presentations and filling in at the last moment on some other occasions. We are deeply indebted to Al. We Also want to thank Bob Charnetsky for faithfully sending the e-mails to remind us of the coming meeting and the presentation subject. These things take time and we are grateful that Bob makes the extra effort to provide this service for us.

At a recent meeting, we were discussing with another member, the new super CCD and VMOS chips for digital cameras that are supposed to be the thing of the future. One of our members, overhearing the conversation, gave us a call and asked about the chips. To clarify a bit, the chips are supposed be the next step up for digital cameras and may well finally produce digital photographs comparable to the best color films. To date, they have only shown up on TV and film industry cameras. We only know of one camera so equipped that is similar to our 35 mm cameras. This one has a body price of 2500 dollars and add to that the cost of auto focus lenses. For most of us, the hand held point and shoot digital cameras that have 2.0 megapixel to 5.0 megapixel chips and that will produce up to good 8X10 inch prints should be more than adequate. For these cameras the prices have come down quite a bit. We have a 3.2 megapixel with a 3X zoom that we can carry in a jacket pocket. Great for traveling and we are more than satisfied with the results, except for one thing. It will not accept an external flash and the built in flash does not always meet our needs. We recently added a 5.0 megapixel 8X zoom camera with an external flash shoe. It is only slightly heavier and more bulky than our other digital camera. Great benefit when you are having to go to and shore by ship's tender or other times when you need both hands. Also, being able to carry these cameras either in a jacket pocket or zipped inside a jacket is a weather protection bonus not to be sneezed at.

The other morning, one TV commentator noted that today's technical gadgets often cost more to repair than the original purchase price and that such items have become throwaways. When items such as scanners are often sold for well under one hundred dollars, it is no wonder that the drivers are not updated for every system upgrade. With printers the profit is in the inks that you buy. Here the original cost of the printer does not seem to part of the equation, rather the number of system users that have the printer. We purchased an ink jet printer, while the ink is a bit on the expensive side, we like the flexibility alternate paper sheet sizes without having to change trays back and forth between letter and tabloid sizes. The printer came with a post script drive compatible with Mac OS 8.5 thru Mac OS 9.1. When we checked into the manufacturers site for an update to Mac OS 10 and Jaguar, we found that the driver had not been up dated. However at the same site page, we noted that the Dos versions go from way back when to and up through Windows XP. When we were having printing problems, the manufacturer suggested that I upgrade the hardware. Not happy with that recomendation, we started playing around with the drive and now having it printing using the classic environment and Jaguar. We wonder how long that solution will last?

Bob Charzensky has installed the new version of IBM's Via Voice for Mac. He has completed the dictation necessary bring compatibility with his voice and Bob says that when he plays something back it even sounds like his voice. Have fun and make good use of that software. We are just in the process getting the new version used to our voice. It all takes time.

By the way, how many have taken advantage of the Speakable Items available with the Mac systems 8.5 though Jaguar? We have AppleWorks set up to reaad back documents. Just finished listening to this column and as a reult have made some changes. It is also possible to institute insructions to help in operating your Mac. This may be of great assistance for those of us with arthritic problems.

As we go into the new year, we are trying to look into the future. Will the Mac G5 be a 64 bit machine, rather than 32 bit? What other goodies will appear?

Have a wonderful 2003 and don't miss any of the Senior SIG meetings.

Due to many factors, for which we apologize, this edition of the Sr. SIG news will probably not be in the AMUG News letter.
As the events of the weekend of February third show, when we reach way out in science things can go wrong. It was a very sad loss, when the shuttle crew and the aircraft were lost. We hope that our congressmen will financially support the development and construction of new aircraft using the knowledge and materials now available, thus insuring our continued space efforts.

We have been using Apples Safari and find it a useful l tool. Also Sherlock has been very helpful. January twenty-eighth, our daughter flew into Phoenix via Denver. We had her flight numbers, and so were able to track her progress. When weather and connecting flights delayed departures and arrivals, we did not have to sit around at the airport waiting. Incidentally the Screen in front of United said that her flight was on time, when we knew it would be twenty-five minutes late. Hurray for our Mac. Then on Monday February third, our grandson, an airline pilot who had an over night in Phoenix, used our Mac to verify the weather for the next day, both for his flights and the flights his mother was to take home. It worked very well.

We are enjoying our Nikon Coolpix 5700. With it we are able to exercise most of the controls we are able to do with our Nikon film cameras. Another exciting tool we have picked up is Apples Keynote, Perhaps we will be able to work in a demonstration in the days ahead. We think it is pretty neat.

If you missed Budde King’s presentation, you missed a dandy. Good photography,

`JANUARY 1999`	FEBRUARY 1999	MARCH 1999	APRIL 1999
MAY 1999	FEBRUARY 2000	MARCH 2000	APRIL 2000
MAY 2000	JUNE 2000	JULY 2000	AUGUST 2000
SEPTEMBER 2000	NOVEMBER 2000	DECEMBER 2000	JANUARY 2001
FEBRUARY 2001	MARCH 2001	APRIL 2001	MAY 2001
JUNE 2001	JULY 2001	SEPTEMBER 2001	OCTOBER 2001
NOVEMBER 2001	DECEMBER 2001	JAN-FEB 2002	MAR-APR 2003

Questions? - Call 602-840-1726 or Mail to AMUG Senior SIG