johnhendron.net: hendron’s digest - a weblog

Presentation Zen did a review of Jobs’ Keynote this past week at Macworld.

I agree with all the points made, the thing I liked best is something I try to do in my own presentations: tell people where I’m going; give them a roadmap.

Too many presentations… you’re not sure where you are going. I liked the idea of “four things.” I can sit here now and name off the four things: MacBook Air, Leopard and Time Capsule, iTunes and movie rentals, and the iPhone update.

Some tips for laptop screens at The Unofficial Mac Weblog.

Today, NewsGator, creator of several RSS aggregators for Windows, NetNewsWire for Macintosh, and an online aggregation service, has released all of their desktop applications for free.

This came too late for my book, where I recommended these products, but noted their cost. I’d recommend everyone to consider these (now) free tools alongside other choices that they may be using.

I’d begun using Vienna for Macintosh, but now I think I’ll check out what’s up with NNW3–I stopped using it at version 2.

Introduction to NetNews Wire for Macintosh from John Hendron on Vimeo.

After installing Leopard, I didn’t do any printing for some time. When it came time to print on my Canon Photo Printer, the i9100 large format model, I couldn’t print (well). It would start-out fine, but stop mid-print. The processors in my G5 would rev-up, and all printing would stop.

I downloaded new Canon drivers after removing the old.

1. Go to /Library/Printers/.
2. Remove the Canon folder. I moved it to the ~/Desktop.
3. Install the new drivers from Canon.
4. Restart.
5. Add your printer. Mine is connected from USB to my Airport Extreme.
6. It works!

The step I think was important, and worked for someone on an Apple forum, was the removal of the OS X-installed drivers first.

Safari Trackback from John Hendron on Vimeo.

Changing Themes in Keynote from John Hendron on Vimeo.

Deb Cross and I look at simple copy and paste. But how do you make the text take on new style attributes?

Pasting Text with out “Style” from John Hendron on Vimeo.

Deb Cross and I explore the printing options unique to Apple’s Keynote.

Printing Options in Apple Keynote from John Hendron on Vimeo.

Deb Cross and I produced this video for zooming-into things on a Macintosh.

Zooming Tips on a Macintosh from John Hendron on Vimeo.

Update: After writing this, my second attempt at a migration failed, too. In both cases, it tripped-up on a folder containing portfolio materials I created from a class I took. I removed this folder from the queue for migration, and attempting a 3rd run.

Thus far, my migration to Mac OS X Leopard hasn’t gone real smoothly.

I started by installing a new hard disk into my PowerMac G5. This drive would be the “Leopard” disk. Still in the computer was my older master disk, the “Tiger” disk. I installed a “fresh” copy of Leopard on the new drive, and used Migration assistant to copy-over my information to the new drive.

The first migration, which took place while I slept, failed.

Seemingly, it couldn’t move the Applications, only copied half of my files, but then it couldn’t create a new account in doing so. One suspicious thing it left in the folder name for my “non” user was “.noindex.” Once Leopard discovered my Tiger drive, it began indexing it with Spotlight. I have read that the two indexes, the Tiger and Leopard variants for Spotlight, are not compatible. So… I told Leopard NOT to index my older Tiger drive.

Then I ran the Migration assistant. And surprisingly, it failed.

So this morning, I did index the drive in Leopard, and have run Migration Assistant again. It’s currently at the 3 hours, 5 minutes mark.

I chose this method for getting started with Leopard to avoid having to make a backup clone of my Tiger drive. The new drive afforded me more space, etc. I have several options awaiting once this is complete for using Time Machine.

This weekend I updated my iPhone to the new version that includes the Wi-Fi music store. This is also the version that makes “bricks” out of “hacked iPhones,” whereby owners tried to leave AT&T.

My iPhone works well with the update. Among the things to notice (of course), is the iTunes Music Store, with its purple button hanging off alone there in the bottom row. The keyboard includes new foreign characters (such as the upside down question mark used in Spanish), and then there is the case of my ringtones.

My custom ringtones are listed, but they do not sound. They fire blanks. Not happy.

Apple is in the business of selling ringtones. Er, snippets of songs you already bought and want to cut-up into a less-than 30 second chunk and pay for again. I have no interest. None of the songs I’ve bought on iTunes are ringtone-capable. In fact, I made some of my own ringtones based on pieces of music I composed myself.

And they disabled these?

While they may feel they have the right to disable ringtones I made from CDs, to disable my own sounds/music seems rather presumptuous. Of course, I subscribe to the idea that these ringtones for $1 bit is obnoxious to start with.

The ringtones started a number of Apple complaints being posted online. I am finally feeling the complaint personally now.. that the iPhone is a tad “too closed” for my taste. While I honor Apple’s right to sell me music, and too ringtones, I don’t have to buy them. But come on, I can’t make my own? Isn’t Apple about creative content sharing? I write a GarageBand song? Why not on my iPhone?

I think ultimately the device that is open enough for people — for apps or ringtones of whatever else — will ultimately be the favored product. iPhone won’t have the interface/experience advantage forever…

iWeb for e-mail?

But the reason I’m using iWeb is because the mail “forms” that are promised in Leopard aren’t yet here! The reason I’m using iWeb is to send out a fancy e-mail newsletter.

Once I publish my page, I visit the page online. It’s important that you publish it to a web server.

Then, in Safari, I choose “File > Mail Contents of Page”. Make sure Apple Mail is your default e-mail program.

This sends everything…the CSS, links, graphics, and scripts.

As long as they’re using a HTML compliant browser, like Apple Mail (or even Microsoft Entourage), they get the webpage in the email… voila, a web-page enhanced email newsletter.

As a bonus, an archived version is online for folks to refer to.

See this week’s edition: TechTimes Newsletter - September 14

Today I downloaded a new Mac-based news aggregator (reader) called Vienna, which looks pretty cool.

It runs pretty snappy, and to boot, it’s free. Get yours online.

I recently procured iLife ‘08, Apple’s suite of fun and creative apps: iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, and Garageband. And we shouldn’t forget iWeb!

Specifically, I’ve played with iPhoto the most, and like the new “events” organization. It also feels very snappy.

I made an iMovie and used it to produce a video I shared for our work website. A few things happened which I didn’t care for: I asked for 250kbit/rate on my exported movie, and it gave me 350 instead. I asked for 15fps, and I got 30. Twice. Perhaps recording in 60i fps on the camcorder was the issue, but I don’t like asking for one thing, and getting another.

Also, iMovie takes some getting used to. It did speed up the editing time, a bit, but only for videos that you will edit in a particular way. The “fine-tuned” control felt missing, and I think in some ways, the “new” paradigm and interface are steps backwards. But it is screaming fast.

It felt maybe this could have cooked longer in the labs. Few transitions and effects and “looks,” and no more themes.

iDVD feels the least-amount touched; it still looks like the old iMovie. I think this program needs the MOST help and improvement, over the past 3 cycles. I still find it confusing to use. More themes here, but not much else to write-home about.

GBand looks interesting; I used the Magic GarageBand. It was cool. Not sure if its useful, but it was FUN. And I can see the educational implications, too.

The software is all good, and still a value at $79. Oh, and there’s iWeb.

iWeb is not a favorite program; it feels backwards to me. Of course, I design websites. For our teachers, they loved it… the idea of drop-drag-documents is appealing. It feels backwards if you’ve been using blogs or CMSs for too long, though. The new additions are welcome, as were the new templates. The concept of putting photo sharing on the web (an extension of iPhoto’s capabilities) is interesting, as Apple attempts to put Web 2.0 spins on their iLife apps.

Apple had the opportunity to make a world-class blogging client with iWeb and .Mac but didn’t present that. Instead, they strengthened their earlier attempt with the iWeb model of document-style publishing. iWeb will be of primary concern to folks who use .Mac and want something simple to use.

I’m personally considering dropping .Mac services, as I already pay for website hosting and have enough e-mail accounts.

Apple has announced the feature set for Leopard. The general consensus for Mac users is… lukewarm towards the announcements.

Jobs promised “top secret” features, and these new features were mainly cursory and suspect.

• A transparent menubar
• Stacks
• 3D Dock
• “New” Finder

Let me have a few lines to express my own dismay on these features/updates.

The menubar is clearly an attempt to show “Apple can do transparent windows” like Windows, but not with the Window. It looks stupid. I want to clearly see my menu bar. Not have to look at a glass version of it. At the worst, make it an option. Don’t make me use this!

The stacks are interesting, but are presented in a very uninteresting way. That “fan” view looks stupid. It’s a half-made attempt at something un-grid like. The Vista way of doing Exposé (3D windows, in a stack) would be a much better implementation of a stack than a weird fan shape.

There have been demos of a new UI approach where stacks are made on the fly, and the icons lay on a surface organically… this is where this concept should go. In its current state, it’s laughable.

3D Dock. This is “3D” because we can. Not because it offers a new feature. In essence, it is as if the third dimension has been wasted for only eye candy. What if… clicking on a dock icon, made it move over, or twist, to see a side-view. And option buttons were displayed… in otherwords, using the 3D space for functional reasons. Hey, there’s an idea.

What about a dynamic dock that re-arranges icons based on… processor activity, RAM usage, or frequency of use… Mac OS X just knows what apps you spend the most time in… and makes them bigger, or re-orders them that way.

3D is incredible, and is where things are headed. But we’re smart enough to know working in 3D in a 2D space has serious limits. Make the new dimension of depth have a purpose… please.

The Finder is up there with the menubar, for me. The two big features, coverflow and the new preview features, are questionable. Isn’t one just the other? Coverflow… icons that are “real” previews, and require plugins for developers to write. I can’t picture Adobe doing this… but who knows.

And the preview? How frustrating to be able to read something… but not edit?! Yes, looking at PDFs and Keynotes are fine.. but what about other docs?

Seems like some good ideas that need refinement. I’d prefer to right-click on little icons and get a super snazzy animation pop up and show me.

iTunes works for iPhoto. iPhoto works for some of iMovie. But the Finder? Will someday iTunes and Finder merge? Just listening to files that happen to be music?

We need better organizational tools… not folders… and “stacks.”

I don’t have all the answers… but the solutions so far aren’t inspiring.

Mac OS X Server for 10.5 appears much more interesting…

I am currently trying to sell two Macs.

PowerMac G4

• Dual-processor tower
• 2×1Ghz PowerPC G4
• 1.5 GB RAM
• 3 internal HDD (120GBx2, 20GBx1)
• Upgraded fan unit
• 64MB video RAM
• Keyboard, mouse
• 17″ Apple Studio Display + $100 extra

Price: $900.00 obo.

PowerMac G5

• Dual-processor tower
• 2.5 GB RAM
• 2 internal HDD (300GBx1, 120GBx1)
• DVD Burner (SuperDrive)
• Keyboard, mouse
• 128MB video RAM
• 22″ Apple Cinema Display (ADB connector) +$350 extra

Price: $2K obo.

Contact me if you’d like to make an offer. I can ship, but would prefer to sell one or both locally. Both have been well-cared for in a home environment.

John Gruber reports about a guy in Mongolia who was unhappy about getting a computer that was not Macintosh. The pursuant discussion of keyboard issues reminds me of my college roommate.

He dumped grape soda in his Macintosh keyboard. I think it was one of those newer Apple keyboards at the time–still beige, but cheap and nasty in comparison to Apple’s flagship keyboard, the Extended Keyboard II.

He bought a new keyboard at ComputerCity. That afternoon, he returned it, but had instead inserted his grape-flavored one. The grape keyboard no longer functioned.

So, like Gruber’s Drexel buddy, another free keyboard.

I recommend some composure, myself.

I thought it was curious. I was practicing some music, watching my computer play back its screensaver. Which? The 20th Century Voyage by the folks at Futurismo Zugakousaku. It displays in wonderful transparency images of a globe, and important milestones and quotes from the, well you guessed it, twentieth century. What was quizzical was the juxtoposition of a quote from Picasso (”All Children are Artists”) and a factual statement, a supposed milestone from 1994: “Apple introduces first PowerPC based computer, PowerMac 6100.”

While I love Apple products, is this an important milestone in the history of the twentieth century?

A little program called Xinema (free) will allow Mac users to watch QT videos full screen, without the purchase of QT Pro.

I recently wrote a whitepaper on security issues with Mac OS X: using keychains, encrypted disk images, PGP for encrypted e-mail and files, and disc burning and USB flash drives. It’s intended audience is advanced teachers and administrators who wish to take advantage of the built-in and freely-available security measures available for OS X 10.3 and later.