Agenda
1) What's news with you? (Everyone ~20 min)
2) High Dynamic Range image process (Laurence Head ~30 min)
= Break =
3) Handbrake - making your DVDs "Plex ready" (Paul Timmins ~20 min)
4) Using iWeb and other online tools to launch a trip resource (Wally Cherwinski ~30 min)
Overheating Laptop Discussion
- Some relief observed from using the utility CoolBook (http://www.coolbook.se/CoolBook.html) which allows lowering the CPU voltage and frequency to reduce heat generated, hopefully at the cost of an insignificant, or at least tolerable, reduction in performance.
- Online discussion that overheating can be due to too much thermal paste applied at time of manufacture between the CPU chip and its heatsink. This can be corrected by a qualified technician, as per: May 2009, iFixit.com (http://ifixit.com)'s Installing Computer Thermal Paste (http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Computer-Thermal-Paste/744/1).
- Suggestion to contact Apple (1-800-MY-APPLE) under warranty and/or AppleCare, had been followed but w/o success.
- Further suggestion to repeat call, but this time reporting specific, numeric temperatures on the CPU and GPU (Graphics chip). These temperatures, as well as others on the various sensors built into each mac, can be displayed with a utility such as iStat Menu (http://islayer.com/apps/istatmenus/) or iStat Pro (http://islayer.com/apps/istatpro/). For other options, just use a keyword of 'temperature' to search versiontracker.com (http://www.versiontracker.com/php/qs.php?mode=basic&action=search&str=temperature&srchArea=macosx&submit=Go) or macupdate.com (http://macupdate.com/search.php?keywords=temperature&os=mac).
- One mitigating measure in the interim: drive the laptop fans at higher speed using smcFanControl (http://www.eidac.de/?cat=40)
Transfer of photos from iPhone to iPhoto failed- Discussion of problem where iPhone photos successfully xferred to iPhoto, then delete original photos pressed, then computer froze. After reboot, iPhoto said photo database damaged, repaired it, and then the transferred photos were not in the rebuilt photo database!?
- Suggestion one: try searching for recovering recovering photos from damaged iPhoto database in the iPhoto section (http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=143) of discussions.apple.com (http://discussions.apple.com) or on macosxhints.com (http://macosxhints.com) or its forum (http://forums.macosxhints.com/).
- Suggestion two: ugly, not for the faint of heart, and a real longshot. Jailbreaking an iPhone would allow one to view the entire directory structure. If the photos were still there (and haven't yet been overwritten), this might allow recovering them from the iPhone. The definitive and best jailbreaking code is maintained on blog.iphone-dev.org (http://blog.iphone-dev.org/), with more accessible steps found on clarified.com (http://www.iclarified.com/entries/index.php?caid=2&scid=11&seid=2). Once jailbroken, the iPhone directory structure can be walked through via a terminal.app connection from a computer. Alternatively a jailbroken iPhone can have the cydia program Netatalk installed which then allows mounting the entire iPhone filesystem as a network share. Netatalk lets you transfer files between iPhone and your Mac wirelessly (http://www.simonblog.com/2008/09/07/netatalk-lets-you-transfer-files-between-iphone-and-your-mac-wirelessly/)
Online, Free Family Genealogical software- Geni.com (http://www.geni.com/)
- Note ability to email family members
OS X Printer drivers for older printers- Gutenprint 5.2.4 (http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php)
- To be extra careful, one member clones his harddrive onto another harddrive, and then boots off that drive, before installing Gutenprint - using a utility such as SuperDuper (http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html) or CarbonCopyCloner (http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html)
iPhone 3GS shortages- Tip: When iPhone supplies are short, Apple naturally trys to ensure its own company stores have stock. The trick to getting one of these phones is that you must make an appointment before coming to the store -- with an Apple Sales rep who has the appropriate Rogers account to activate iPhones.
- Related article: Macnn.com, 19 Aug: iPhone 3GS still in short supply in Canada (http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/08/19/canadian.iphone.shortages/)
Fujitsu ScanSnap upgrades software- Newest software version can even convert highlighted text into PDF keywords which are searchable
- Software is backward compatible with older versions of ScanSnap S510M document scanner
- An older MacWorld, Dec 2007 article, ScanSnap S510M document scanner (http://www.macworld.com/article/131313/2007/12/scansnaps510m.html)
- One member recommended the 3rd-party scanner software, VueScan (http://www.hamrick.com/vsm.html), which works with most scanners.
Stop Annoying Flash images on webpages- Safari Add-on inhibits display of Flash content on webpages - but still lets you click to see it.
- Web pages load faster; less annoying Flash content
- Feb 2009 MacWorld review: Promising Prospect: ClickToFlash (http://www.macworld.com/article/138751/2009/02/clicktoflashprospect.html)
- Jon Rentzsch takes over upkeep: ClickToFlash is Dead; Long Live ClickToFlash (http://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/01/27/clicktoflash-rentzsch)
- Download ClickToFlash (http://github.com/rentzsch/clicktoflash/tree/master)
Safari Books Online- SafariBooksOnline.com (http://www.safaribooksonline.com)
- Try out the 10-day trial (https://ssl.safaribooksonline.com/trial), if you're interested in uptodate, current tech books
Please note that, contrary to the comment made in the MacWorld article on the SnapScan, the scan-to-email function of this new model DOES interface well with Entourage, not just Apple Mail.
Graham
Links for presentation on iWeb/blog
Don McAllister, ScreenCastsOnline
http://www.screencastsonline.com
Program #208
Wally's iWeb travel site -
http://web.me.com/cski/Arizona/On_the_Road.html
Posterous-
http://posterous.com/
Tumblr -
http://www.tumblr.com/
Posterous vs Tumblr comparison -
http://mashable.com/2009/06/29/posterous-vs-tumblr/