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Charles Clark is the President |
March 2010
Protected passwords. Keychain Access, located in your Utilities folder, is the preferred keeper of your passwords for logging on to websites that insist on passwords, such as iTunes, Apple Care, news sites, your bank, and on-line stores. Over the years I have created an AppleWorks document five pages long with many passwords, many obsolete and a distant memory. However, it is bad practice to have your passwords readable in a document that any other user of your Mac can access. I finally became familiar and comfortable with using Keychain Access. Keychain Access works automatically when you set up a new account on a website, provided you check “Remember this password” during the account setup. Keychain Access can also be used to manually create new passwords. I have been doing more of this lately. The key feature of Keychain Access is that it requires your administrator’s password to access your passwords. If you leave your Mac open to other users, or if your Macbook is lost, your passwords are protected.
Here is a brief tour of Keychain Access: Inside Keychain Access, highlight the login Keychain at the op of the left sidebar, and in the Category section below, select Passwords. The list that appears shows the name of each website/account, the kind of account, the kind of password (Internet or application), and the date modified (created or edited). To find your password for that website/account, double-click on the item of interest. Click the checkbox “Show password,” enter your administrator password, and click Allow. This will make your password visible.
Another useful category of Keychain Access is Secure Notes. You can write one or many Secure Notes. To access your note later, you must provide the administratorÕs password. I recently copied and pasted my long AppleWorks list of passwords into a Secure Note and it worked well. Rather than having a list of passwords in an easily accessible text document, I now have all my password safe in Keychain Access.
February 2010
Board Matters. Louise Doslu, Instructor and Supervisor for Monday morning at our Learning Center, was recently elected to the Board of Directors. Louise is an iPhone enthusiast. If you ask Louise a question about the iPhone she will smile as she opens her ever-handy iPhone. Filling LouiseÕs Mac Board Associate position is Dennis McGovern, our Friday morning supervisor. Dennis is an experienced FileMaker Pro user. Dennis has developed an online membership roster using File Maker Pro. When GRF requested our club roster for their records, Dennis filled out their new new online form in a jiffy using "copy and paste." The roster was received with a BIG THANK YOU. I have been told that not all clubs know how to “copy and paste.” Dennis is now looking at automating our Mac Room Library circulation system.
Using iCal. At the January general meeting, Forrest Blanton and Dave Silverberg, Apple Creatives and Geniuses at the Apple Spectrum store, showed us how to add events to our iCal calendar. Anne’s Corner in this newsletter has a tip on how you can add the Mac Club calendar to your iCal program. I did it yesterday. I also added the Lakers and Clippers calendar in my iCal calendar. To see other calendars you can add ("subscribe to"), go to
Printer misbehaving? If your printer will not print, turn the power off and disconnect the data cable. Wait a few seconds. Also restart your Mac. Reconnect the printer and turn the printer on. If you need instructions on how to change ink cartridges, go the manufacture’s web site. Each printer brand has their own sequence of steps to perform. If you have the printer’s User Guide handy, place it under the printer for rapid access.
January 2010
Welcome 2010. Thank you, members, for renewing your Mac Club membership. If you have not yet renewed, please drop in at the Mac Learning Center before the end of January and fill out our ‘really short’ membership form with your check for $10. Nonresidents are welcome for $20 (one per household), subject to Golden Rain’s “10 percent membership“ limit.
House Calls. I have received a few calls recently for help in reconnecting to the Internet. If you call West Coast Internet for help, they will tell you to disconnect the power plug from the cable modem, wait a few seconds, and reconnect. Works 99% of the time. Not so in a recent visit. After verifying cable connections for Ethernet, power, and coaxial, and seeing the green lights on the cable modem, there was still no connection. I decided to enter the cable modem’s web interface number: In your browser's web address field, type 192.168.100.1 and press Enter. This will display the status of your cable modem. I saw that the Cable Modem Status was “Disabled” instead of “Operational.” In the “Configuration” page, you can click the “Restore Factory Defaults” button. I clicked the button, waited a few minutes, and closed the browser window (click the red window button). Voilà! The Internet connection was working. I cannot explain how the cable modem became 'Disabled' in the first place.
I expect all Mac owners using OS X to know their Admin User Name and its password. Guess what? I can assure you that I do not know your password. This is the password you use to install your Mac's software updates. If you forget, Apple has a back door that allows you to reset your password using the Mac OS X system disc that came with your iMac. Do you know where your system discs are? If not, I'll use mine. If you know your password, I suggest you write it on a Post-It note and affix it to the bottom of the keyboard for easy retrieval. The last sentence will bother security purists but not me.
December 2009
Board Matters. We have two new Board members: Ted Miller and Lee Wight were elected Directors at our November Board meeting. They will fill two vacancies. Louise Doslu was appointed Mac Board Associate. An Associate is a non-voting Board member who acts as an advisor to the Board. I am very pleased that Ted, Lee and Louise want to help manage the Mac Club. Meanwhile, Bob Payne will resign his position on the Board at year end. Bob has been very helpful in explaining Broadband issues, high-definition television and broadband Internet, facing the community. We wish Bob and his wife, Virginia, the opportunity to do what they want to do.
Just one more thing. The Club officers were reelected for another year term beginning next year. The officers are Charles Clark, President; John Hansen, Vice President; Anne Clark, Secretary; and Wim Vermolen, Treasurer.
I thank the Directors and Officers for their contribution and service. We are always looking for volunteers; play an active role in your Club.
New iMacs. Five new 24-inch screen iMacs were installed in the Learning Center. These lovely iMacs replace the now obsolete white flat-panel iMacs with the dome bases. The flat-panel iMacs will be sent to the PCM maintenance warehouse on Via Campo Verde for sealed bids by residents and employees of the community. Watch for announcements in the Globe for the bidding announcement. The funds go to Golden Rain, not to the Mac Club.
Year-end Wishes. See you next year. To Good Health and Happy Mac Computing. May your printer print, your email work, and your browser be always connected to the Internet.
Happy Holidays!
November 2009
Gladys Greene. Gladys Greene, former newsletter editor and Board member, has moved to Arizona to be with her family. Gladys fought this move for months, but after she tripped over her beloved dog, she consented to the move. Call for Volunteers. We have several openings in our Mac Board. If you wish to make an impact on our club and make some nice friends, please contact me (837-6080). I can invite you to a Board meeting so you can see for yourself if you are a fit. Common sense is a plus. Technical skill, not so much.
Renewal time. Your 2009 membership dues will expire at the end of the year (unless you joined on or after September 1, 2009). Dues are $10 for residents, $20 for nonresidents. Combined with our 'world-class' Learning Center, your membership is very special and very affordable. While $10/$20 dollars is a nominal amount, your dues do help the Mac Club maintain the Learning Center, paying for ink, toner, paper, and the printing of newsletters. New members signing up now will have their membership extended to the end of 2010.
Mail Call, Not. The Post Office now requires bulk rate users, such as us, to deposit their mailings at the Santa Ana Processing and Distribution Center, not at the Laguna Hills office where we enjoyed good relations for many years. This has proved to be a hardship. The Board has decided to use first class stamps for the November and December mailings. Cost is a bit more but saves in gas and time. Furthermore, the Mac Club will no longer mail newsletters to members after the December issue. You may pick up a paper copy in the Learning Center or at our general meetings. You may also read the newsletter for free at our website, www.themacclub.org/newsletter.html. You can even print out a copy at your printer.
Happy Thanksgiving!
October 2009
Annual Membership Dues Our 2010 membership renewal drive is open. Your dues are good for one year and expire on December 31. Dues for Laguna Woods Village residents are only $10 per person ($15 per couple, if applying/renewing together). Your dues are important to the club.
You may renew either in person at the Learning Center, where we have application forms and a Supervisor can assist you. Or go to our web site, www.themacclub.org/application, and fill in the online application. Full remittance instructions are on the application form. $10 is quite a bargain.
New members who join now will receive membership for the remaining months in 2009 and the full year 2010 for $10. The Board has reduced the $15 first-year membership dues to only $10, same as the renewal dues.
Slow eMac Recently a member needed help with his eMac that had become sluggish when surfing the Internet. Memory was insufficient. The eMac had only 384 MB of memory. Due to owner inexperience, no maintenance routines had been performed, such Repair Disk Permissions and Repair Disk.
I installed 1 GB of memory. Increasing memory is the best investment you can make in your Mac. Memory prices are very reasonable. I also installed a newer operating system. If you are two or three versions behind the current operation system, your Mac will miss out on improvements and support for new equipment.
Finally, I used my favorite tune-up script, AppleJack. The use of AppleJack was written up by Anne in last month's Anne's Corner. One AppleJack feature I like very much is purging your user cache files. Over time these cache files grow in large numbers (thousands), and any performance improvement is offset by the delays in finding and reading the cache files. AppleJack deletes all cache files. Your Mac will be snappy, and you will be happy.
September 2009
Murray Massin, Board Member, Instructor, and past Program Chair, passed away this July. He will be missed by everyone who knew him. I have written a long essay about Murray in the September newsletter.
Our beloved Board Member, Newsletter Editor and Supervisor, Gladys Greene, has resigned her positions with the club due to recent infirmity. With great sadness on her part, she reluctantly gave up her Pealings newsletter that she created so diligently for many years. She mastered PageMaker and InDesign publishing software. Gladys was an early member of the club. In the days when we had no permanent meeting place, she would open her house and be a gracious host for members to learn more about ’Macintosh.’ I now hope, with her responsibilities lifted, she will be able to recover.
Kevin O’Conner, recently retired from the performing arts field, has accepted the job as Newsletter Editor. He was recently elected Board Member, and he continues as an Assistant Supervisor. I still have his written note stating his interest in helping the club. I expect him to do well. Welcome aboard, Kevin.
Ted Miller answered my call for volunteers. He is the Monday afternoon Supervisor, skilled in Photoshop, and was recently appointed Mac Board Associate. Welcome aboard, Ted.
Recently two members had the same printer problem: printer won’t print. Step one to try in cases like this is to open the “Print & Fax” System Preference and click on the ’Open Print Queue...’ button. If printing was stopped, click the “Resume Printer” button. If that does not work, turn off the printer and disconnect the USB cable from the printer and the Mac. Wait a moment and reconnect the USB cable. Turn on the power. Check that the printer appears in the “Print & Fax” System Preferences Printers list.
July/August 2009
Safari 4. The new Safari 4 browser for Mac and PC users has been released and it is fast, very fast. The download is free. Coming in September is OS 10.6 also known as Snow Leopard. The announced price is $29 or $49 for a family pack.
OS X v. 10.6 Snow Leopard. Coming in September is OS 10.6 also known as “Snow Leopard.” The announced price is $29 or $49 for a family pack.
New One-to-One Apple Training Rules. Apple has expanded their person-in-store One-To-One membership. First major change is One-To-One is offered only at the time of purchase of a new Mac at an Apple Store or Apple Online Store. You must choose One-To-One at the time of your new Mac purchase. Current One-To-One members can renew one more year without the purchase requirement. Lapsed member? Sorry, you have to buy a new Mac at Apple.
One-To-One offers overnight transfer of files from your old Mac or PC and installation of new Apple software, both in the right place. You still make one hour appointments for a training session. The requirement for one weekly session is replaced with unlimited appointments provided the new appointment made is after the current One-To-One session. So if you want, you can have hours of training in a day or week, depending on Apple’s available schedule, provided that the sessions are scheduled one at a time. New is “Personal Projects.” For example, if you need more than one hour to build your web site, make a Keynote presentation, or learn that Pro application, you can get a three hour training slot with a Apple Creative trainer. I envision that there will a group of attendees, each with their own project, and one roving trainer to guide you through your questions.
Finally, One-To-One members will have access to the One-To-One web site with many training videos and other aids as well as your scheduling portal.
June 2009
Welcome Kevin O'Connor. Kevin joined our club last year and has offered to help run the club. Therefore, I am pleased to announce Kevin is our latest Assistant Supervisor. He will fill in when a Supervisor is absent from the Learning Center. Kevin’s mother is a Laguna Woods Village resident and he is a resident of Laguna Hills. He recently retired as Director of the Downey Civic Theatre. Kevin has extensive Mac experience, starting with the first Macintosh. Over the years he has had a Mac Plus, LC III, and currently works on a MacBook Pro. Kevin grew up in the circus world where he learned, among other things, how to revive sick animals with a wee bit of brandy. He also attended the same high school that Shell did, Fairfax High, except Shell preceded Kevin by twenty-two years.
If you wish to help the Mac Club please come to Clubhouse 1 at 5:30 p.m. on monthly meeting nights and offer to help set up the projector and other equipment; visit the Learning Center often, and attend our monthly Board meetings. You are always welcome.
Web Browsers. I currently use Safari Version 4 Public Beta. This is the browser that will ship with the next Mac OS, Snow Leopard, hopefully without the ‘Beta’ handle. Being an Apple product, Safari should be a robust browser for you. Firefox 3.0.10 is the latest from the Mozilla Organization, and they have announced version 3.5 to be released soon. Firefox is good to have when your primary browser has an issue loading a particular web page. OmniWeb 5.9.2 and Opera 9 are also powerful browsers in their own right. If you want to try a different browser, please try my long-time favorite, Camino 1.6.7. It is finely tuned for the Mac. I find it worthwhile to have more than one browser handy in case something funny happens in your web browser.
May 2009
Unreliable Mac Fixed. Recently, one of our members confronted her ill-behaving eMac. Over several months the computer would not start up or, if it did, would display a blue screen with stripes of video patterns. When called in to assist, I performed the usual routines: check the power cable, repair disk permissions, reset the parameter random access memory or 'pram' to use the common vernacular. Pram manages the computer settings that must be kept active when the computer is shutdown. Apple lists nineteen settings that need to feed off the trickle charge your computer continues to consumes when it is powered off. Most important is the startup disk setting. I would revive the computer and wonder what processed the computer.
I took it home for further analysis but found nothing wrong. This was the pivotal clue. I remembered a story Murray Massin had told me years ago about his Mac. He had a similar problem but more subtle as I recall. Murray told me that his problem was solved when he replaced his old surge protector whose status light had been off or blinking.
When I checked with the owner of the eMac, I learned that she, too, was using an old surge protector. I suggested that she replace the surge protector with a new one. Voilà! I have not heard from her since. The lesson learned for you, gentle reader, is to look at your power strips or surge protectors and look for blinking or off power lights.
I was reminded of this lesson later when my radio could not tune in some rather powerful station signals. I removed the rather old surge protector and replaced it with a new one. The radio sounded a lot better.
April 2009
Happy 20th Birthday, World Wide Web. Twenty years ago Tim Berners-Lee, now Sir Timothy, invented the World Wide Web (WWW or Web) in his quest for a better method to link electronic documents between the numerous scientists at the rather large European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva, Switzerland. The first Web server ran on a NeXT computer, a computer invented by Steve Jobs. Sir Timothy next envisions a world of linked data including data held in offline databases. Think of Google searching every bit of data in the world. An example is combining genomics data and protein data for an Alzheimer’s cure.
Obsolete iMacs. Three iMacs, G4 700 MHz flat-panel iMacs have been sent to the warehouse for sale. All are in good operating condition. Look for a sale notice in the Globe, in the Village web site or better yet, visit the warehouse on Via Campo Verde to learn about the bidding process. These are the white half-dome iMacs that are elegant looking.
Blogging 101. Last month Anne conducted a Saturday class on blogging. She demonstrated Google’s Blogger. I learned that the actual production of your blog is quite easy. You need a few photos to flatter your earnest remarks on subjects you care about. The cost is zero. The results exceeds expectations. I tried it and I like it.
However, I used Tumblr.com which was recommended by a web site I visit often. My blog can be found at
macmatters.tumblr.com. I thought I would publish hints to make your use of the Mac easier. However, I am currently more interested in the history and events taken that created our current financial upset. I added a short, pithy comment to each link. Try it, you may like it. Some day your data will be linked with other blogs in an meaningful way.
March 2009
2009 Membership. The 2009 membership renewal campaign is over. The club membership, as of mid-February is 361. Thank you for renewing your membership. Welcome to our new members. I urge all to participate in the club activities. You can become an instructor's assistant or an associate Supervisor. Last month I mentioned Margo McCartney, our new 'cookie mom' serving cookies at our general meetings. Another way you can help is to email your thoughts or suggestion to me or Anne. We recently had a member send us an email with a list of topics she would like to see taught in the Learning Center. The degree of difficulty in the list ranged from easy to challenging.
Volunteer. Ted Miller is our newest Associate Supervisor. Ted is a long time Mac user and is competent using the rather complex photo editing software, Photoshop. An associate supervisor is called upon to replace those Supervisors that are absent due to illness or vacation. Welcome Ted.
User Agent. If you are trying to access a bank, brokerage, or insurance website and you are not granted access because you are not using Windows Internet Explorer (and why should you), don't get mad, get even. Safari, Firefox, and Opera have a user agent feature that tells the website your browser application name, version, your operating system, and language that you are using. For example, you can select a user agent from your Mac browser to pretend that you are browsing with Windows Internet Explorer on a PC using Windows Vista. In Safari (v3.2.1), go to Preferences..., click on the Advanced tab, and check 'Show Develop menu in the menu bar.' Under your new Develop menu, select User Agent, roll down to Internet Explorer 6.0. Firefox has a different method of enabling its User Agent. Google search 'user agent.'
February 2009
Member Margot McCartney has taken it upon herself to bring cookies to our general meetings at her own expense. Members of the Village have a reputation for attending events that provide FREE food. This must be the reason for the good turnout at our January meeting. Thank you Margot for the cookies; you are appreciated.
Board members Faye Pearl and Metche Franke have taken over conducting the monthly Beginners Computer Information Session that Murray Massin conducted for several years. Faye and Metche will bring their own ideas to help new computer users have FUN with their Macs. The session is held early in each month. See the Newsletter or our website for future dates.
Anne Clark gave the first Saturday afternoon class on January 24, entitled "How to write a Blog." If there is interest in a Saturday class, different subjects may be offered in future months by different instructors. If you are interested in a Saturday class, and have a class idea, for example Basic Troubleshooting, File Maker Pro, TurboTax, Quicken, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, iCalendar, iWeb, Printer Won't Print, Attachments, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, iPods, Google Docs, Blogging, Mail, Safari, WiFi, Skype, iChat, Time Machine - or any other topic - please let us know by sending an email to Anne (aclark@comline.com), subject Saturday Classes, who will share it with the board of directors and the other instructors.
Browser Choices. I use to be a primary user of the Camino browser. Camino is published by the Mozilla Foundation which also publishes Firefox. Camino is specially programmed to work seamlessly on the Mac and it is still a good browser. I then tried Firefox. Firefox is excellent and is gaining a reputation for strong, secure browsing. The current version, 3.05, requires Mac OS 10.4 or higher. The PC version is being adapted by more PC users as they find Internet Explorer is not secure. When Apple's browser Safari reached version 3, I tried that. Safari is excellent, and I now use Safari as my default browser.
January 2009
2009 New Year’s Greetings! Have you heard this, “Had I known I would live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.” If you share my sentient, may I suggest we work on a healthy fitness plan. Perhaps 30 minutes a day for three days a week at the Fitness Center followed by computer tasks at home or in the Mac Room. Working on a Mac increases brain function. Who knew? I wish all members a healthy new year. When one has health, the rest of life's vicissitudes will sort themselves out.
Goodbye Apple at Macworld Expo. Steve Jobs will not give the keynote speech at the Macworld Expo 2009, January 5-9, in San Francisco. This will also be the last MacWorld Expo Apple will attend. End of an era. The cancellation is a result of Apple’s getting more consumer exposure in their retail stores. Wim Vermolen will report on his Expo visit in January.
Sick Mac. On a home visit I witnessed a new iMac not working well: no Internet connection and some applications not opening. An inspection of the Desktop showed many individual applications had been moved out of the Application folder to the Desktop. Turned out the grand children were using granddad’s iMac. Moving Applications out of the Applications folder is very poor practice because applications use support files. These support files expect the application to be in the Application folder. When an application is moved, it may not work.
Standard Account. One way to protect your Mac is to create a Standard Account for each guest. Go to the Accounts System Preferences and click the “+” sign in the lower left pane. If you make the guest user a Standard User, their attempts to move application will be greeted by a warning that the user does not have the privilege to do that move. The new Standard user can “mess up” all they want and not affect your personal correspondence and emails. This is also good advice for couples who share a Mac.