By Woodson Gannaway
(Editor's note: Woodson is an occasional contributor to Mad Mac News and lives and teaches in China.)
News of the demise of the DVD (as burned from my Apple anyway) must not have reached a large majority of the world's population, and it is the most direct way for me to publish my video material and be assured that my friends can enjoy it.
So I shot two hours of 1920 x 1080 HD video of some excellent ping-pong practice sessions and prepared it to give away. Or maybe I should say prepared it as best I could, for somehow Apple hasn't made it easy or straightforward for me to do that now. A couple of years ago and from Standard Definition video it was no problem doing the same thing. Now something has changed.
My good camera shoots good HD video. Was it 2006 we got iMovie HD and the assurance that the HD age was here? Well the pieces didn't come into place and I'm still having to burn HD on DVDs as standard PAL 16:9 format stuff. Windows doesn't do mp4s (the native format of the camera) without extra stuff and my friends gave me a blank look when I asked them about it. So it was a DVD.
Except that, this won't work and you can't do that, and so on and so on. No I'm not going to spend more $$$, shouldn't have to. Yes I'm going to drop the movies directly into iDVD, shouldn't have to use iMovie necessarily and when I tried to it only made things worse. IDVD won't let you make a menu choice that plays all the movies sequentially.
So I used the "Combine" feature on the video camera which reduced the 27 clips to four. The camera itself has some limitations, this one probably related to the SSD card format choice. However much I would have liked to have one movie, four is a big improvement over twenty-seven.
Encoding the video showed me (via Activity Monitor) that it tops out at about 130% on my two cores. JES Deinterlacer will use 185% and sometimes more. Just how much would it bother Apple to improve the iDVD code a little to take advantage of the multiple cores more efficiently? Everybody doesn't live in that small subset of the so-called First World where broadband internet access can be presumed to have supplanted any need for DVDs.
IDVD does allow me to put a tad under 2 hours video on a single-layer DVD when I use the professional-quality encoding choice. Don't know how much under, I burned 116 minutes my first try.
2012-06-02
2012.06 Article: Resetting PRAM and Repairing Disk Permissions
By Holly McEntee
PRAM stands for "Parameter Random Access Memory" and is pronounced "pea-ram". PRAM is a type of memory found in Macintosh computers that stores system settings. These settings include display settings (like screen resolution and color depth), the time-zone setting, speaker volume, and the startup volume choice. The system settings that are stored in the computer's PRAM differ from Mac to Mac, but the purpose of the memory remains the same. When something goes wrong, a technician may ask if you've reset the PRAM, because resetting the defaults is like throwing a large net over small problems to make sure the problem isn't a simple issue before delving into the internals of the unit.
Resetting defaults is not a sure-fire cure-all. However, it is free and an easy way of possibly fixing the issue (ranking right up there with repairing disk permissions). So, it is definitely worth a shot.
How to reset the PRAM:
Many programs you install on your Macintosh in OS X are package files (.pkg), each of which contains a file or files with the extension .bom (standing for, quaintly, bill of materials). This little .bom file contains a list of permissions, "rules" that control your ability to view or make changes to the contents of the file. Occasionally in OS X some key file ownership and permissions get changed for whatever reason by applications and more frequently, program installers. When ownership and permissions get changed, things just don't work as they should. The symptoms might be programs quitting unexpectedly, preferences not being remembered, programs not launching, etc.
If you notice these types of problems, one very easy diagnostic procedure you can perform is to Repair Disk Permissions. (Plus it makes you sound smart to say off-handedly to the guy at the Genius Bar "Oh, sure, I repaired the disk permissions, but it didn't seem to help" ... especially if you can combine this with the previous article and add nonchalantly "I even reset the PRAM.").
Repair Disk Permissions is a Mac OS X utility, which is part of the Apple Disk Utility program. It corrects the ownership and permissions according to Apple specifications. Frequently, this corrects many system and program errors. To Repair Disk Permissions, follow these steps:
(Editor's note: See diagrams of the process.)
PRAM stands for "Parameter Random Access Memory" and is pronounced "pea-ram". PRAM is a type of memory found in Macintosh computers that stores system settings. These settings include display settings (like screen resolution and color depth), the time-zone setting, speaker volume, and the startup volume choice. The system settings that are stored in the computer's PRAM differ from Mac to Mac, but the purpose of the memory remains the same. When something goes wrong, a technician may ask if you've reset the PRAM, because resetting the defaults is like throwing a large net over small problems to make sure the problem isn't a simple issue before delving into the internals of the unit.
Resetting defaults is not a sure-fire cure-all. However, it is free and an easy way of possibly fixing the issue (ranking right up there with repairing disk permissions). So, it is definitely worth a shot.
How to reset the PRAM:
- Shut down the computer.
- Locate the following four keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in Step 4.
- Turn on the computer.
- Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
- Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
- Release the keys.
Many programs you install on your Macintosh in OS X are package files (.pkg), each of which contains a file or files with the extension .bom (standing for, quaintly, bill of materials). This little .bom file contains a list of permissions, "rules" that control your ability to view or make changes to the contents of the file. Occasionally in OS X some key file ownership and permissions get changed for whatever reason by applications and more frequently, program installers. When ownership and permissions get changed, things just don't work as they should. The symptoms might be programs quitting unexpectedly, preferences not being remembered, programs not launching, etc.
If you notice these types of problems, one very easy diagnostic procedure you can perform is to Repair Disk Permissions. (Plus it makes you sound smart to say off-handedly to the guy at the Genius Bar "Oh, sure, I repaired the disk permissions, but it didn't seem to help" ... especially if you can combine this with the previous article and add nonchalantly "I even reset the PRAM.").
Repair Disk Permissions is a Mac OS X utility, which is part of the Apple Disk Utility program. It corrects the ownership and permissions according to Apple specifications. Frequently, this corrects many system and program errors. To Repair Disk Permissions, follow these steps:
- Open the Disk Utility program found in the Applications > Utilities folder on your hard drive.
- Click on the "First Aid" tab in the window that opens.
- In the list to the left, click once on the icon/name of your hard drive to select it as the disk whose permissions need repairing.
- Click on the button labeled "Repair Disk Permissions". (Why not "Verify Disk Permissions"? Because "Repair" verifies them anyway, then goes ahead and fixes them.)
- The repair process begins, and may take several minutes. This is normal. (Do not be intimidated by a progress bar indicating you have hours left to go. It's lying.)
- After the repair is done you will see a long (or short) list of files that were repaired. You need not study this or write it down. If you want to print it to a PDF and save it for future reference, do so.
- Quit Disk Utility.
(Editor's note: See diagrams of the process.)
2012-06-01
2012.06 Article: Hands-On with Five Antivirus Apps for the Mac
By Jacqui Cheng (Excerpt only; read full story here.)
(Editor's note: The full article was recommended by fellow Mad Mac members, and it goes into great detail with images on each of the apps mentioned below. I have not used any of the mentioned products, and Mad Mac in no way endorses any of them.)
So Mac invulnerability to malware is a myth. And although such a blunt statement may be a blow to the ego of some Mac users, it remains true. Security researchers from all walks have long argued that it was only a matter of time before the Mac became popular enough that virus, malware, and spyware makers would come calling. Overconfidence precedes carelessness, especially when it comes to technology.
Is it time to begin installing antivirus software on our Macs? We leave that up to you to decide for yourself, but given the spike in questions we've been receiving about which antivirus software is the best, we thought we'd take a look at a handful of the most well-known apps out there for Mac users:
We're not arguing that Mac users have to install antivirus software if they want to avoid the zombie malware apocalypse. Infection numbers — even for Flashback — are still relatively low when compared against the global number of Mac users. However, we also don't think it's wise to pretend that OS X is completely immune to attacks. It's not — we know it, you (hopefully) know it, and security researchers know it. Even if you feel comfortable navigating the scary old Internet yourself, you may want to consider setting up your less-experienced friends and family members who just can't help themselves when it comes to playing Java games online or opening random e-mail attachments from foreign countries.
(Editor's note: The full article was recommended by fellow Mad Mac members, and it goes into great detail with images on each of the apps mentioned below. I have not used any of the mentioned products, and Mad Mac in no way endorses any of them.)
So Mac invulnerability to malware is a myth. And although such a blunt statement may be a blow to the ego of some Mac users, it remains true. Security researchers from all walks have long argued that it was only a matter of time before the Mac became popular enough that virus, malware, and spyware makers would come calling. Overconfidence precedes carelessness, especially when it comes to technology.
Is it time to begin installing antivirus software on our Macs? We leave that up to you to decide for yourself, but given the spike in questions we've been receiving about which antivirus software is the best, we thought we'd take a look at a handful of the most well-known apps out there for Mac users:
- Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Mac ($39.95 per year)
- Intego VirusBarrier X6 ($49.95 per year)
- F-Secure Antivirus for Mac ($39.99 per year)
- Sophos Antivirus for Mac Home Edition (Free)
- Avast! Free Antivirus for Mac (Free)
We're not arguing that Mac users have to install antivirus software if they want to avoid the zombie malware apocalypse. Infection numbers — even for Flashback — are still relatively low when compared against the global number of Mac users. However, we also don't think it's wise to pretend that OS X is completely immune to attacks. It's not — we know it, you (hopefully) know it, and security researchers know it. Even if you feel comfortable navigating the scary old Internet yourself, you may want to consider setting up your less-experienced friends and family members who just can't help themselves when it comes to playing Java games online or opening random e-mail attachments from foreign countries.
2012-05-01
2012.05 Editorial: Off the Mousepad
By Holly McEntee
Hi everyone! We had a really spirited meeting on April 18, with several members chiming in to both help answer questions raised during the first hour and during Dave's presentation on e-books. (See below for a summary.) That's great, we love audience participation — a users' group is all about users helping each other! But now we on the board need your help in a different venue: While the board members have a lot of knowledge among us, we don't know everything (gasp!) and sometimes we receive excellent suggestions for Mad Mac presentations that none of us know anything about. In the newsletter two such topics are offered, and we're interested in any members who can help us out by doing presentations on them. Don't be shy — we're all friends at Mad Mac!
During the 6:00 Q&A at the April meeting a member alluded to the "voice recognition" capabilities on his iPad 3 and asked if there was an Apple-branded voice-to-text app available. A couple of members mentioned Dragon and MacSpeech, but the general consensus that no such app existed. The next day I got an e-mail from the member who explained that what he'd assumed was voice-to-text software was, in fact, Siri: the microphone icon disappeared when he disabled WiFi. (He did not have 3G capability enabled.) So for those who were hoping for an Apple-branded iOS voice-to-text app, you'll have to wait a bit longer.
Ho hum, on April 24 Apple announced 2nd quarter revenue of $39.2 billion and a quarterly net profit of $11.6 billion. Ye gods! I tried putting these numbers into perspective somehow to try and get my head around them, but no luck even with multiple internet searches (some of which led me into very strange territory, indeed...).* Makes the $25 million raised by a local public figure seem downright paltry. On that note, remember to participate in the primary on May 8. You should always welcome the opportunity to exercise your right to vote. For information on voting locations in Madison visit
http://www.cityofmadison.com/election/voter/where.cfm
I hope to see you at the meeting next week!
Sincerely,
Holly
*Info supplied by membership coordinator: The total equalized property valuation of the City of Madison was $21,965,2211,700 in 2011. In other words, Apple made enuf money in 3 months to buy the whole city and still have enuf left over to match the entire economy of Afghanistan.
Hi everyone! We had a really spirited meeting on April 18, with several members chiming in to both help answer questions raised during the first hour and during Dave's presentation on e-books. (See below for a summary.) That's great, we love audience participation — a users' group is all about users helping each other! But now we on the board need your help in a different venue: While the board members have a lot of knowledge among us, we don't know everything (gasp!) and sometimes we receive excellent suggestions for Mad Mac presentations that none of us know anything about. In the newsletter two such topics are offered, and we're interested in any members who can help us out by doing presentations on them. Don't be shy — we're all friends at Mad Mac!
During the 6:00 Q&A at the April meeting a member alluded to the "voice recognition" capabilities on his iPad 3 and asked if there was an Apple-branded voice-to-text app available. A couple of members mentioned Dragon and MacSpeech, but the general consensus that no such app existed. The next day I got an e-mail from the member who explained that what he'd assumed was voice-to-text software was, in fact, Siri: the microphone icon disappeared when he disabled WiFi. (He did not have 3G capability enabled.) So for those who were hoping for an Apple-branded iOS voice-to-text app, you'll have to wait a bit longer.
Ho hum, on April 24 Apple announced 2nd quarter revenue of $39.2 billion and a quarterly net profit of $11.6 billion. Ye gods! I tried putting these numbers into perspective somehow to try and get my head around them, but no luck even with multiple internet searches (some of which led me into very strange territory, indeed...).* Makes the $25 million raised by a local public figure seem downright paltry. On that note, remember to participate in the primary on May 8. You should always welcome the opportunity to exercise your right to vote. For information on voting locations in Madison visit
http://www.cityofmadison.com/election/voter/where.cfm
I hope to see you at the meeting next week!
Sincerely,
Holly
*Info supplied by membership coordinator: The total equalized property valuation of the City of Madison was $21,965,2211,700 in 2011. In other words, Apple made enuf money in 3 months to buy the whole city and still have enuf left over to match the entire economy of Afghanistan.
2012.05 News: Results of Board Elections
At the April 18 membership meeting a motion was set forth by member Calvin Bruce and seconded by member Barbara Leuthner to elect the proffered slate of nominees, as all were unopposed, for the following board positions as presented. The following were so elected by a unanimous show of hands:
- President - Dave Weston
- Vice-President - Robert "Doc" Huntington
- Secretary - Holly McEntee
- Treasurer - Raul De Luna
2012.05 Announcement: Volunteers Needed!
The Mad Mac board is seeking volunteers among the Mad Mac members (and even those who aren't members) to step up and share your knowledge and familiarity on the following topics, which have been suggested as meeting presentations:
- a compare-and-contrast demo of Windows 7 (on a non-Mac) vs. Parallels or Bootcamp on the Mac. How close are they?
- genealogy software for the Mac
2012.05 History: April Q&A (Selected)
Dave Weston, Quizmaster
Q: Recently there was a lot of coverage (newspaper, websites) about a new Mac virus that seemed to be a real threat. What do I need to know?
A: The recent Mac "virus" was actually a Java trojan that connected infected Macs to a server that allowed hackers to connect to the infected machines, upload and download files, take screenshots, and even take over the infected machines. A followup trojan used a security flaw in pre-2008 Microsoft Word to infect Macs. Apple issued an update to Java via Software Update to combat the first trojan, and updating your version of MS Word / Office will protect your Mac from the second.
Q: What is Java, anyway? Is it the same thing as JavaScript?
A: Java is a cross-platform programming language or engine that is used to code tools that work in a web environment. Java is what makes parts of complex webpages work, say for example drop-down menus from which you can choose your state of residence or your gender (if you're filling out an online survey). JavaScript is minimally related to Java, but contains a smaller, simpler set of commands and tends to be easier for first-time programmers to learn. However, JavaScript apps are compiled at runtime (when you open a webpage), whereas Java apps are compiled prior to runtime.
Editor's note: For more information visit:
http://tinyurl.com/2wst7lj
http://tinyurl.com/c5rzte5
Q: What is that weird square picture you see on ads and coupons? It looks like a UPC symbol.
A: It's called a Quick Response Code, or QR code for short. It was first invented by a subsidiary of Toyota to track vehicles throughout the assembly process. It's now widely used for advertising purposes, thanks to the ability of smartphones to "read" the patterns in a QR code like a UPC symbol and link viewers to a company's website for product information and coupons or deals.
Q: I have an old "hockey puck" mouse that is finally dying. I love it and want to find a replacement. Any suggestions?
A: State agencies use a service called Surplus With A Purpose (SWAP) where they can send unwanted or outdated equipment to be sold to other state agencies or members of the public (Friday mornings only). It is not unusual for older Mac equipment to appear at SWAP. You can check out the inventory at:
http://www.bussvc.wisc.edu/swap/swap.html.
Try searching on eBay as well. Any USB mouse should work with the iMac that came with the "hockey puck".
Q: Recently there was a lot of coverage (newspaper, websites) about a new Mac virus that seemed to be a real threat. What do I need to know?
A: The recent Mac "virus" was actually a Java trojan that connected infected Macs to a server that allowed hackers to connect to the infected machines, upload and download files, take screenshots, and even take over the infected machines. A followup trojan used a security flaw in pre-2008 Microsoft Word to infect Macs. Apple issued an update to Java via Software Update to combat the first trojan, and updating your version of MS Word / Office will protect your Mac from the second.
Q: What is Java, anyway? Is it the same thing as JavaScript?
A: Java is a cross-platform programming language or engine that is used to code tools that work in a web environment. Java is what makes parts of complex webpages work, say for example drop-down menus from which you can choose your state of residence or your gender (if you're filling out an online survey). JavaScript is minimally related to Java, but contains a smaller, simpler set of commands and tends to be easier for first-time programmers to learn. However, JavaScript apps are compiled at runtime (when you open a webpage), whereas Java apps are compiled prior to runtime.
Editor's note: For more information visit:
http://tinyurl.com/2wst7lj
http://tinyurl.com/c5rzte5
Q: What is that weird square picture you see on ads and coupons? It looks like a UPC symbol.
A: It's called a Quick Response Code, or QR code for short. It was first invented by a subsidiary of Toyota to track vehicles throughout the assembly process. It's now widely used for advertising purposes, thanks to the ability of smartphones to "read" the patterns in a QR code like a UPC symbol and link viewers to a company's website for product information and coupons or deals.
Q: I have an old "hockey puck" mouse that is finally dying. I love it and want to find a replacement. Any suggestions?
A: State agencies use a service called Surplus With A Purpose (SWAP) where they can send unwanted or outdated equipment to be sold to other state agencies or members of the public (Friday mornings only). It is not unusual for older Mac equipment to appear at SWAP. You can check out the inventory at:
http://www.bussvc.wisc.edu/swap/swap.html.
Try searching on eBay as well. Any USB mouse should work with the iMac that came with the "hockey puck".
2012.05 History: April Feature: E-Books
Presented by Dave Weston, summarized by Holly McEntee
What are e-books? First Dave helped us understand what e-books are not:
Dave then explained that an e-book is a new type of computer file that presents the contents of a traditional hardcopy book in a digital format that is accessed by a handheld device or computer and allows a high degree of interactivity. While gaining in popularity, the e-book industry is still in its infancy. Traditional book publishers are struggling to maintain control over the distribution of, and the prices that can be charged for, e-books. This has resulted in different e-book formats, each proprietary to specific e-book readers. (Moby and ePub are the most popular e-book formats at the moment.) Specifically, it is the copy-protection component of e-books, known as Digital Rights Management (DRM), that differs between e-book publishers and sellers. This is why not all e-books work the same on iPads, Kindles, Nooks, and other e-book devices. There are apps that allow devices to read e-books that use other companies' DRM software — for example, there is a Kindle app for the iPad that allows iBooks to read Kindle e-books purchased through Amazon.com. However not all apps exist for all devices, and even where they do the user is forced to own multiple apps just to read their e-books. Also, due to the different file formats a third-party app such as Calibre is needed if you want to organize all of your e-books simultaneously.
The advantages of e-books were noted, including:
It was noted that several schools, from grade schools to universities and tech-school programs, are moving to using e-books for their textbook needs. Embedded images, audio files, and weblinks to practice exams and discussion forums are among the features that lend themselves well to textbooks.
Dave briefly demonstrated how one could create an e-book from existing text documents, scanned images of hardcopy books, or within special e-book-creation apps. For example, the iWork app Pages has the ability to format text documents created within it to the ePub format ... which, coincidentally, is the e-book file format used by iBooks. The free app iBookAuthor (only available for OS Lion, and not for iOS) lets the user create textbooks with full color pictures and interactive content, although there are some limitations. We did not have time to talk much about e-publishing (the ability for authors to publish their work electronically without having to rely on book contracts with publishing houses) but suffice it to say that e-books and e-publishing give a greater flexibility to new authors and authors in speciality genre niches to actually get their work into the hands of readers.
The general consensus is that the concept of e-books is tremendously exciting, and as the industry matures we can expect the stability of the e-book format to improve, the variety of books available as e-books to expand, and for e-books to generally take hold in our daily lives the way so many other digital media have done.
What are e-books? First Dave helped us understand what e-books are not:
- e-books are not audiobooks. These are sound files (e.g. .mp3, .mp4, .wav).
- e-books are not text files (like TextEdit, Pages, or Word documents).
- e-books are not web pages (like reading the first chapter of a book sold by Amazon)
- e-books are not PDFs. (Portable Document Format files provide an electronic image of text or text and graphics that looks like a printed document and can be viewed, printed, and electronically transmitted.)
Dave then explained that an e-book is a new type of computer file that presents the contents of a traditional hardcopy book in a digital format that is accessed by a handheld device or computer and allows a high degree of interactivity. While gaining in popularity, the e-book industry is still in its infancy. Traditional book publishers are struggling to maintain control over the distribution of, and the prices that can be charged for, e-books. This has resulted in different e-book formats, each proprietary to specific e-book readers. (Moby and ePub are the most popular e-book formats at the moment.) Specifically, it is the copy-protection component of e-books, known as Digital Rights Management (DRM), that differs between e-book publishers and sellers. This is why not all e-books work the same on iPads, Kindles, Nooks, and other e-book devices. There are apps that allow devices to read e-books that use other companies' DRM software — for example, there is a Kindle app for the iPad that allows iBooks to read Kindle e-books purchased through Amazon.com. However not all apps exist for all devices, and even where they do the user is forced to own multiple apps just to read their e-books. Also, due to the different file formats a third-party app such as Calibre is needed if you want to organize all of your e-books simultaneously.
The advantages of e-books were noted, including:
- the reader can change the font size (helpful to those with aging eyes),
- the lighting can be adjusted on the e-book device to the reader's comfort,
- several dozens or hundreds of books can be carried around at a time in the e-book device (as opposed to toting several heavy tomes hither and yon), and
- e-books of course use no paper in their production (The environmental friendliness of this aspect is mitigated somewhat by the fact that e-book devices use electricity, contain metals that must be mined from the Earth, and are shipped to the US from halfway around the planet. Oh, well.)
It was noted that several schools, from grade schools to universities and tech-school programs, are moving to using e-books for their textbook needs. Embedded images, audio files, and weblinks to practice exams and discussion forums are among the features that lend themselves well to textbooks.
Dave briefly demonstrated how one could create an e-book from existing text documents, scanned images of hardcopy books, or within special e-book-creation apps. For example, the iWork app Pages has the ability to format text documents created within it to the ePub format ... which, coincidentally, is the e-book file format used by iBooks. The free app iBookAuthor (only available for OS Lion, and not for iOS) lets the user create textbooks with full color pictures and interactive content, although there are some limitations. We did not have time to talk much about e-publishing (the ability for authors to publish their work electronically without having to rely on book contracts with publishing houses) but suffice it to say that e-books and e-publishing give a greater flexibility to new authors and authors in speciality genre niches to actually get their work into the hands of readers.
The general consensus is that the concept of e-books is tremendously exciting, and as the industry matures we can expect the stability of the e-book format to improve, the variety of books available as e-books to expand, and for e-books to generally take hold in our daily lives the way so many other digital media have done.
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