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April 2006 iMeeting write up

1. Online Training Resources - JF Aubarbier
   
   
2. Windows on a Mactel - Neil Herber
   
   
3. Questions and Answers

March 2006 iMeeting write up

1. OmniGraffle - Ben Schmidt
   
   
2. NoteBook - Dale Robertson
   
   
3. Comparing iPhoto and FotoMagico! - Wally Cherwinski
   
   
4. Questions and Answers

February 2006 iMeeting write up

1. iLife 06, Intel iMac and MacBook Pro, Animusic - LeRoy Lees
   
   
2. iWeb and Automator - Ferris High
   
   
3. MacMania IV Cruise to Mexico - Wally Cherwinski
   
   
4. Graphics SIG update - Lynda Matsumoto & Laurence Head
   
   
5. Questions and Answers

January 2006 iMeeting write up

1. Reports from MacWorld attendees: LeRoy Lees and Ferris High
   
   
2. FileMaker Pro 8 by James Hea
   
   
3. Posture for a computer user Part III with Dr. Groulx
   
   
4. Questions and Answers

November 2005 iMeeting write up

1. Election of MUGOO Executive & Club News
   
   
2. Final Cut Studio Overview - Dave Martin
   
   
3. New Apple Products Overview - LeRoy Lees
   
   
4. Questions and Answers

October 2005 iMeeting write up

1. Connecting Your Mac to an HDTV with Laurence Head
   
   
2. Blogs and .Mac with Ben Schmidt
   
   
3. Cleaning Up Your Mac Tips with Paul Timmins
   
   
4. Apple News (Paris and other recent announcements) with LeRoy Lees
   
   
5. Q&A -- Audience participation

September 2005 iMeeting write up

1. eBay with Wally Cherwinski
   
   
2. Travel log with Ferriss High - Portugal
   
   
3. Mighty Mouse with Paul Timmins
   
   
4. Photos and Rogers HSE Customers with Paul Timmins
   
   
5. Q&A -- Audience participation

August 2005 iMeeting write up

1. Sport devices and the Mac -- Ben Schmidt
   
   
2. Plextor's Personal Video Recorder for Macintosh -- Mike McCarthy
   
   
3. Vonage - a transition to VOIP -- Paul Timmins
   
   
4. Q&A -- Audience participation

July 2005 iMeeting write up

1. Apple & Intel review - Rahul Virmani
   
   
2. MacWorld Report - Lynda Matsumoto
   
   
3. BlueTooth & your Mac - Ben Schmidt
   
   
4. iTunes 4.9 -- podcasting revisited
   
   
5. Questions & Answers

June 2005 iMeeting write up

1. Jamie Johnston - Remote Weather Station
   
   
2. Laurence Head - Firefox web browser
   
   
3. Ben Schmidt - Apple Forums / Discussion Groups
   
   
4. LeRoy Lees - Véronic DVD
   
   
5. Questions & Answers

May 2005 iMeeting write up

1. Best Tobogganing in Canada Video - (As seen on Rick Mercer's Sunday
   Report)
   
   
2. Ben Schmidt - Griffin Radio Shark
   
   
3. LeRoy Lees - Apple G5 updates & a Visit to the Apple Store in Toronto
   
   
4. Questions & Answers

April 2005 iMeeting write up

1. Mark Maclellan of Apple reported on Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4)
   
   
2. Dale Robertson - Text Wrangler
   
   
3. Neil Herber - demonstrated the ease of calling around the world with SKYPE
   
   
4. Questions & Answers

March 2005 iMeeting write up

1. David Pogue - Delicious Library
   
   
2. Christopher Breen - iMovie Tips
   
   
3. Steve Jobs - QuickTime 7
   
   
4. Paul Timmins - PodCasting
   
   
5. Neil Herber - MUGOO Message Board
   
   
6. Questions & Answers

February 2005 iMeeting write up

1. MacMania Cruise -- Peter Bain
   
   
2. David Pogue Video
   
   
3. Google power searching -- Paul Timmins
   
   
4. Portfolio 7 vs. iPhoto 5 in cataloging images-- Ross Slade
   

January 2005 iMeeting write up

1. Dr. Groulx - Chiropractor -- Part II of his Healthy Computing Series
   
   
2. Christopher Breen -- Breen's Bungalow
   
   
3. Macworld Review -- Paul Timmins & Ferriss High
   
   
4. New Product Review -- LeRoy Lees
   
   
5. Question & Answers
   

December 2004 iMeeting write up

1. We had our annual member show-and-tell
   
   
2. Question & Answers;
   

November 2004 iMeeting write up

1. MUGOO Executive Elections 2004-5;
   
   
2. Review of MUGOO Financial Plan;
   
   
3. Breen's Bungalow
   
   
4. Neil Herber - Something Phishy and Identity Theft and Wikis: Neil has created a temporary Wiki for the club to see what it is all about. He cautions that it may disappear at any time: http://neil.eton.ca/wiki/index.php

October 2004 iMeeting write up

1. Election preview of MUGOO executive and other club news;
   
   
2. Jamie Johnson did a presentation on Audible.com;
   
   
3. John Cebasek with a presentation on his own software 'iCollect' (for
   banknote collectors); and
   
   
4. Rahul Virmani did a presentation on how to use the iPod for MORE
   than music.

September 2004 iMeeting write up

1. Paul Groulx R.N. / D.C. -- We learned some ideal ergonomics in the workplace from a chiropractor.
   
   
2. Christopher Breen (MacWorld writer) video on syncing
   
   
3. Apple Expo Paris - iMac G5 news
   
   
4. iMac G5 and Generation 4 iPods - LeRoy Lees
   
   
5. Photo Exposure Repair - Laurence Head explored some Photoshop techniques
   to repair your images with poor exposure.

August 2004 iMeeting write up

1. Chris Breen's (MacWorld writer) video on Mac OS X Cool Apps
   
   
2. Presentation of Apple Airport Express - Setup and Configuration
   
   
3. Hardware Showcase - iPod Mini & 23" Cinema Display - LeRoy Lees
   
   
4. iMovie & iDVD challenges
   
   
5. Question & Answers

July 2004 iMeeting write up

1. Chris Breen's (MacWorld writer) video on Hidden Capabilities of OS X
   
   
2. Presentation of Konfabulator
   
   
3. Apple's World Wide Developer Conference News - LeRoy Lees
   
   
4. DVD Tips & Tricks - Neil Herber

June 2004 iMeeting write up

1. Chris Breen's (MacWorld writer) video on the mini iPod
   
   
2. Family tree presentation challenges - Ferriss High
   
   
3. Apple's new hardware was presented - LeRoy Lees
   
   
4. Mac OS X Tips & Tricks - Paul Timmins

May 2004 iMeeting write up

1. GarageBand - Chris Breen (MacWorld writer)
   
   A high quality 15 minute video created exclusively for MUGs
   on GarageBand was presented.
   
   
2. The Newton MessagePad - 'Technology too tough to die' with Wally
   Cherwinski
   
   Thoughts on the birth, death and resuscitation of Apple's original PDA
   and a look at some of its charms and features.
   
   
3. AppleWorks - Part III - Drawing and Presentations - Jean François
   Aubarbier
   
   This was the 3rd AppleWorks installment and JF showed how the package
   can be used for drawing and as a presentation tool.
   
   
4. Q&A
   
   Attendees got some group support.
   

April 2004 iMeeting write up

1. Hemera (http://www.Hemera.com) - Joe Donnelly and Alison
   Canavan reviewed their spectacular graphic resources and offered club members a 25% discount on Hemera products until May 9,2004. Contact an executive member for details if you didn't get a coupon at the meeting.
2. SOMA Media (http://www.soma-media.com) - Romy Randev and David Bergevin
   demonstrated their stunning DVD production of the 2003 Siggraph conference proceedings. The dual DVD is really good with multi screen, speaker, slides and video,
   all synced. They had 60 hours of stuff on 2 DVDS, one a single sided, and one a double sided. They used iShell, as the software of choice, because it is cross
   platform, run-time and effective. Quicktime is the heart of their product because it allowed them to index the presentation in chapters and sync two screens very accurately to one another. The Sorenson video CODEC was used to crunch all of their original video into a manageable size to squeeze onto the DVDs. You can order a copy for $79.95 US at this website (http://www.siggraph.org/s2003dvd/index.html). It is well worth exploring these discs to see the resources that are now available to major conferences to offer their attendees and the interested public. If you are in the business of web graphics or high end graphics for film or video it would be a no brainer to pick up a copy of this excellent reference material. To see more of the kind of quality multimedia this Ottawa company produces check out their web site (http://www.soma-media.com). Oh ya, did I mention this was all created on Macs!
3. AppleWorks - Part II - JF Aubarbier continued with his series on
   Apple's handy software showing off some of its graphic and spreadsheet capabilities

March 2004 iMeeting write up

1. Shawn Kimmel - demonstrated his service for transfer film to digital video
2. JF Aubarbier - AppleWorks Series Part I - Drawing, Word Processing and Page Layout
3. Ferriss High - iMovie Tip for wandering audio
4. LeRoy & Paul - iChat some more!
5. Q&A session - your questions and answers!

Febuary 2004 iMeeting write up

1. Club News covered
2. John Moore demonstrated his QuickTime video generated in iMovie
3. Ruth Sprott showed us her recent DVD project
4. Ross Slade cooked with PhotoShop!

January 2004 iMeeting write up

Our first show of the year:

1. CRYPTOCard [http://www.cryptocard.com/] (Best of Show, MacWorld San Francisco 2004) is an Ottawa area company. John Cebasek filled us in on the details.
2. MacWorld Download
3. iLife '04
4. 20 years of Macintosh

December 2003 iMeeting write up

This month we had member show-and-tell. People showed off:

1. Keynote presentations
2. Homemade DVDs
3. Homemade VCDs
4. Websites
5. iPhoto slide shows

All co-ordinated by Paul Timmins ...

November 2003 iMeeting write up

This month we had no MUGOO Elections (everyone was acclaimed) and the following presentations:

1. Club News
2. Printing your pics at home with Portraits & Prints - Neil Herber
3. Printing your pics on line with FotoWire - LeRoy Lees
4. Posting your pics on line with several products - Paul Timmins

It was a photo finish!

October 2003 iMeeting write up

This month we had MUGOO Election nominations and these presentations:

1. PhoneValet by Parliant’s CEO Kevin Ford
2. Panther - a first look by Ross Slade

September 2003 iMeeting write up

This month we might have had these presentations:

1. Snapz Pro by JF Aubarbier
2. Backup Options by P Timmins
3. G5 redux by CL Lees
4. Q&A

August 2003 iMeeting write up

This month we had these presentations:

1. iChat AV by LeRoy and Gordon "special effects" Wolford on the internet
2. "The Terminal is your friend" by Andrew Lauzon
3. Return of the long gone Q&A session by Paul Timmins
4. The keysigning party was not held
5. No G5 presentation because none had actually shipped

And Paul did not show us the ants in his pants ...

July 2003 iMeeting write up

We had four presentations promised:

1. MacWorld Creative Report (Ian and LeRoy are back from the Big Apple event)
2. GPG and secure email (Jay is passionate about email privacy)
3. Safari 1.0 tips and tricks (Tony takes us on a Safari)
4. Panther preview (Paul digs this cat) --- not presented

So put that ice tea down and get ready for the main event.

June 2003 iMeeting write up

Just read the following in the past tense:

Apple has decided that the fourth Monday of June is a good day to start the World Wide Developers Conference. This type of event generates a grinding of gears for rumour sites -- each trying to out-predict each other. So, by Monday evening we'll know a lot more than we do right now about the direction of Apple hardware, Mac OS X, and/or Apple applications. We'll try to keep track of all the introductions and have a short report at the meeting.

Besides 'news', we are also going to review two email applications. Email software may be the most used application on your computer today. Since you already are up to your elbows with your software package, choosing to change software is a big decision. So two advocates will be vying for your support. Neil Herber will show off Eudora and Al Banner will try to persuade you with MailSmith.

Finally, for those video editors out there, Apple has released an update to their professional editing tool, Final Cut Pro. LeRoy Lees will review some of the major changes.

May 2003 iMeeting write up

It is strongly rumoured that we had:

• Ross Slade , leader of the Graphical SIG, somehow got double-booked! Oh well. He is going to miss the summer iMeetings so this should help make up for that. First, Ross will walk us through Smart Sound, the multimedia audio application. Following that, Ross will have his way with SketchUp. SketchUp is a unique 3D application.
• Jamie Johnson has also offered to demonstrate .... outliners galore! And here is a link to his presentation notes.

April 2003 iMeeting write up

Just read the following in the past tense:

With the NHL playoffs well underway, I'm sure we all could use a little break from the stress of double-overtime and bone-crushing checks. This month MUGOO has something old, something new, and something borrowed.

Something OLD:

Reunion is a favourite software for tracking your family tree. Recently a new version was released and Keith Hanton is going to step us through how this specialized tool can help you keep track of your past.

Something NEW:

Doggiebox is a locally grown application that turns your Mac into a drum machine. Ben Kennedy will show us his baby.

Something BORROWED:

File sharing small files is normally handled with a quick email. But what about the big files a large number of files? Tom Sheppard will try to help us understand the power of Mac OS X and its granular control over security and sharing.

So don't miss this meeting or you might be BLUE.

March 2003 iMeeting write up

Just read the following in the past tense:

The hills are a live with the sounds of ... spring! And that means the MUGOO agenda is a little more relaxed this month. We're going to sit back and look at movies, listen to music, write a letter and shop for a laptop.

• Still Life, a photo motion tool, has been updated to version 2.0 and Paul Timmins will demonstrate its features.
• Frank Eadie is going to review his recent audio digitization project.
• Ferriss High will show us how Apple's InkWell works with a tablet and Mac OS X.
• Apple's laptop line is more complete than ever. LeRoy will cover the spectrum to show us which one could be a nice spring treat.
• With the remaining time, we'll review Mac issues from the audience.

See you there.

February 2003 iMeeting write up

Just read the following in the past tense:

Right on the heels of last month's introduction to Apple's X11 by Mike Potter, Jay Lawrence has offered to show us how this technology has helped open the door to new software such as OpenOffice [http://www.openoffice.org]. OpenOffice is a productivity suite at an attractive price - FREE. The ongoing development has taken OpenOffice for Mac OS X into final Beta. Find out if this software project could help you get some work done and save you some money.

Speaking of Mike, he's back. This time he wants to wow us with Konfabulator, [http://www.konfabulator.com]. Konfabulator is a JavaScript runtime engine for Mac OS X that lets you run little files called Widgets that can do pretty much whatever you want them to. Widgets can be alarm clocks, games, can tell you your AirPort signal strength, will fetch the latest stock quotes for your preferred symbols, and even give your current local weather. This has gotten Mike pretty excited, so we're in for a treat.

Photoshop Essentials is the baby brother of Photoshop. Priced at around $150, it also represents a great value to the image conscious consumer. Digital photographers will enjoy Ian Stoddart's review of PSE 2's features to enhance, scale, crop, and doctor photos.

And if all of that is not enough, Paul Timmins and LeRoy Lees will try out the iLife suite. iMovie, iPhoto and iDVD upgrades were introduced at MacWorld SF.

In summary,

• OpenOffice with Jay Lawrence
• Konfabulator with Mike Potter
• Photoshop Essentials with Ian Stoddart
• iLife with Paul Timmins and LeRoy Lees

See you out there.

January 2003 iMeeting write up

Just read the following in the past tense:

We hope you will put on your boots and touque, haul out that extra long scarf and rush down Woodroffe Avenue to make it out to a very packed meeting.

Three MacWorld attendees will report on their escape from Alcatraz and the mobs in San Francisco. Mark, LeRoy and Ferriss have each touched a 12 and 17 inch PowerBook. What was it like? You can find out here.

Paul Timmins sez:

For the last couple of years I have been asking myself what software Steve used for his keynote. I knew it wasn't PowerPoint because Steve was doing stuff that PowerPoint couldn't do. I also didn't think he'd stoop that low! Well, my answer came out during Steve's keynote ... and it is called Keynote. Keynote will be demoed by Ross Slade and if you want to add presentation pizzazz, this product might just help.

Mike Potter works for a well known contributor to Mozilla, the open-source browser. This month he's going to connect us to the Calendaring features that his company donated to the open-source code base. If you're struggling with other solutions, Mike may have an alternative for you. **** WAIT!! A CHANGE!! ***** Mike Potter sez the Calendar component of Mozilla is still a little flakey. Instead of presenting this, he's going to show Apple's X11.

To round things out, we are going to push the envelope and try to demonstrate a little MUGOO magic with freshly downloaded copies of iPhoto 3 and iMovie 3. This is two thirds of the new iLife suite update. iDVD will follow in the coming months.

So, to sum up:

1. MacWorld Download - LeRoy, Ferriss, Mark
2. Keynote - Ross Slade
3. Mozilla & Calendaring - Mike Potter
4. iMovie & iPhoto - Paul Timmins

See you at the Sportsplex!

December 2002 iMeeting write up

This is what Neil reported:

The December meeting was held on the 9th to avoid the Christmas rush. It featured a special once-in-a-lifetime MUGOO home DVD movie night! People brought the DVD slideshows and movies they had created on their Macs. Some even showed stuff that was NOT produced on a Mac. Could you tell??? Everyone got to show the 5 best minutes and got to talk for 5 minutes about how they did it.

This is what Paul reported:

December's iMeeting was a treat. Presentations by more than half a dozen members made us laugh and made us cry. I'll never look at a stone pig the same. Many thanks to Mark, Ferriss, Jamie, Tom, David, Neil, Noel, and Lynda for showing us what we can do with our Macs.

David has provided his PowerPoint instructions as a file for download. This file shows how to construct a sequence of slide shows that are linked and automatically open in succession. Why would you need to do this? High quality photos can quickly overpower PowerPoint. By breaking the images into several separate files, you can achieve better results automatically.

November 2002 iMeeting write up

The meeting went as follows:

1. Paul Timmins announced that there we no challengers to elected positions so all current executive members were acclaimed.
2. Alan Cameron exposed his funny bone as he demonstrated his Photoshop Elements handiwork. He showed off his artwork that lampooned retiring coworkers and friends by mocking up a special "Special" Something For Dummies book covers or tricking out a few digitized images. Definitely someone to keep the old photo album away from!
3. Clifford Crabe stepped up and organized a review of iCal, Apple's latest iApp. Clifford showed the free software to be useful and simple but with a few shortcomings characteristic of version 1.0 software. Of course, this means that Cliff has to attend all future iMeetings because it is in his calendar!
4. Andrew Lauzon wowed the audience with his rendition of Fink. Fink is a technology that takes application source code designed for UNIX based computers and re-compiles it for Mac OS X. Not for the newbie, this is an important application because it provides Mac users with access the thousands of powerful yet free applications that would otherwise need to be ported to Cocoa or some other Mac OS X technology.

The meeting wrapped up at 9:30 and a big crowd showed up a Kelsey's on Merivale road for a nice light post-meeting snack.

October 2002 iMeeting write up

October had a Halloween theme. It featured Count Paul doing all of the scary presentations.

First there was the warning that next month would start with Executive Elections. Paul the Prince of Darknes then demonstrated all the scary ways you could wipe out your hard drive forever using the Mac OS X Disk Utility. Then, without any wires and without any other visible means of support and (yikes!!!) without any rehearsal or script, Paulenstein demonstrated using iChat to talk to ethereal spirits.

Just before the break was the scariest feature of all - Mac2Phone (Free Mac to Mac voice over IP). This application is fully cross platform. It doesn't work on any of them as far as Paul could find out.

After a short break to pick garlic and sharpen some wooden stakes, Paul the Friendly Ghost tried to list, describe, and demonstrate all of the 150 new features of Jaguar. It was terrifying!

September 2002 iMeeting write-up

The Semptember 2002 iMeeting was held on Sept 30 - one week later than normal. Hope you didn't miss it!! Or come a week early!!!

1. MUGOO News & Info with the inimitable Paul Timmins.
2. .Mac with Mike Potter. Do Apple's web services suit you? Mike Potter showed us some of the features to help you make up your mind.
3. PVR - Personal Video Recorders. VCRs record video to tape. If you want more and less, you should have checked out this presentation with Jamie Johnson and Paul Timmins. Featured products were MyTV and EyeTV - can't these guys find original names? Not to be confused with the Bell Expressvu PVR.
4. Drag Thing. This is a powerful utility that has a large following. Tom Sheppard showed us the ropes. The author has kindly donated a copy for MUGOO to award!

We also gave away some Apple donated T-shirts, a club-member-donated Apple watch, a boxed version of HyperCard and a whole bunch of other goodies. Twas a blast.

Many thanks to Baldwin Presentation Systems for their continued support for our projector needs.

August 2002 iMeeting write-up

August was Apple month at MUGOO. We investigated the new pro hardware and the Jaguar OS upgrade.

Apple's pro hardware line was incrementally upgraded with increased CPU speeds, improved architecture, and an updated enclosure. LeRoy Lees led us through a detailed inside look at the new G4s - all dual processor. He also had a brand new G4 and the widescreen iMac on display. LeRoy's presentation was quick and concise and finished right on time.

Following the new hardware release, Apple upgraded their flagship operating system, Mac OS X. Initially released March 24, 2001, Mac OS X has experienced several minor improvements over the first 17 months in the public eye. The really compelling upgrade story for most users involved stability. Thousands of people now use their computer every day and leave it running for months without a reboot - impossible under OS 9.

With thousands more programming hours, Apple has release a major upgrade code named 'Jaguar' and numbered 10.2. Priced at $195 (and no upgrade for current owners of Mac OS X), most beta testers and reporters indicate that this version is still worth the price. Steve Jobs boasted that it costs about $1.25 per new feature. Is it for you? Paul Timmins explored some of the improvements in excruciating detail, resulting in the longest MUGOO meeting in recorded history. He was deaf to cries of "Stop! Stop!" claiming that he was in charge and he would resign when it suited him ... no, wait. that's the OTHER guy!

This was the Agenda that was completely ignored

7:30 Welcome
7:40 News in Brief
7:55 New Apple Pro Hardware
8:15 Break
8:30 Mac OS X - 10.2 - Jaguar
9:30 Meeting end - retire to After-meeting-meeting

July 2002 iMeeting write up

July was a time for rest and relaxation. We had a slightly lighter agenda to beat the heat.

Eileen Murphy, a local business person and teacher at Algonquin college, showed us Multi-Ad Creator. Originally, this application filled a need for a user-friendly ad layout tool in newspapers. Today it is a great application for producing promotional materials and advertising materials.

After that, Paul introduced the new web site. Of course, a couple of weeks later we changed it again! Nobody noticed ...

Finally, the iMeeting followed on the heels of MacWorld New York. Several MUGOO members made the pilgrimage to the Big Apple and we benefitted because they brought back important information from vendors. Oh, and don't forget the prizes, CDs, T-shirts, hats, and photographs. Because Apple and many other vendors use this event to launch new hardware and software, there was plenty to talk about.

June 2002 iMeeting write-up

Paul Timmins started the meeting off with a quick review of the Apple news from the last month.

Immediately following the news, Mike Potter of OEone showed us some features in the recently released Mozilla, the open source browser spawned by Netscape Communicator. Mike emphasized the benefits of the browser and demonstrated how well it handled 'Style Sheets', new features such as 'Tabbed Windows', and JavaScript controls to prevent pop-up advertisements.

Al Banner followed Mike with a broader discussion on some of the other alternatives to Internet Explorer. This included Opera, OmniWeb, Chimera, Netscape, and iCab. If you are not completely satisfied with the big blue E, one of these should turn your crank.

Printing in colour should be easy. But do you sometimes have printouts where people look like Martians and the cloud-free sky a classic shade of Indigo? Ross Slade, our Graphical SIG leader offered advice on how to get better results. He also reviewed a few of the features of SuperCal, a new shareware utility that assists in calibrating a monitor.

May 2002 iMeeting write-up

May was a big month for Apple. They released the eMac and xServe, updated the iBook and Titanium PowerBook, participated in the World Wide developer Conference, and preview the generation of Mac OS X called 'Jaguar'.

Besides the huge news segment, Andrew Lauzon introduced us to mini-fonts. These intentionally small fonts were designed for sharper on-screen viewing. What can I say, they work!

Finally, the meeting concluded with an iDiscussion amongst attendees. Questions were asked and most were answered. Thanks for participating.

April 2002 iMeeting write-up

April was a hodge podge of applications and interests.

Though Disk Warrior (http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html) may not be as well known as Norton Utilities (http://www.symantec.com/nu/nu_mac/) it has quietly fostered a reputation for reliability with techies. Since the magic of Disk Warrior is hidden behind a couple of buttons, testimonials from members who have used the product helped inform others about the value of this product.

Watson (http://www.karelia.com/watson/) is a software product that caught Apple's eye and was showcased as a great Cocoa application at Macworld San Francisco in January 2002. Andrew Lauzon stepped us through this shareware's features.

iPhoto (http://www.apple.com/iphoto/) makes sharing files on the Internet simple. LeRoy Lees helped us through the process of taking a group of photos and posting them to an iTools (http://www.apple.com/itools/) account. Well, he tried to!

After the break, Jean-François Aubarbier demonstrated an application for language translation. Reverso Mac (http://www.softissimo.com/dirige-e.asp?page=products/reverso_perso-e.htm) takes much of the pain out of translating text from one language to another.

March 2002 iMeeting write-up

In March, Ottawa Mac fans enjoyed three quite diverse presentations. (Well they enjoyed some of them!)

Toon Boom Studio

First, Lynda Matsumoto showed her passion for Toon Boom Studio http://www.toonboomstudio.com/, an innovative two and a half dimension animation program. Two and a half? Linda explained. You had to be there.

iPod

Second, Tom Sheppard demonstrated the iPod. Apple released this portable hardware just before Christmas and sales have been brisk. Tom showed how this innovative device works with your Mac and (stealing the name from the next presentation without permission) he showed us some Stupid iPod Tricks. You had to be there.

Stupid OS X tricks

Finally, Neil Herber had promised to provide Mac OS X tips and tricks. As usual, he was put on stage last so that people could leave without insulting the first two presenters. And also as usual he was given far too little time to explain the great carloads of stuff he had brought along. As if this wasn't enough, the demo Mac he was supplied had a password that required access to the Enigma machine. As a result, Neil was unable to show some of the best bits. Maybe next time.

Neil showed 2 classes of items: pure OS X tricks (things hidden in the OS) and downloadable utilities that help you get the best from OS X. The pure OS X tricks are too hard to explain here. You had to be there. As compensation, check out http://www.macosxhints.com/ for an excellent resource, the OS X Guidebook.

Neil divided the OS X utilities into "essential" and "useful" categories, but they are listed here in no particular order. They are ALL worth checking out.

• FruitMenu is a "haxie" that customizes and enhances Apple Menu in MacOS X.
• Xounds is a haxie that brings Appearance Sounds back to MacOS X.
• LaunchBar provides lightning fast access to thousands of files, web-bookmarks, email-addresses and applications just by entering short abbreviations.
• X-Assist was created to assist in the much loved but missing features of OS 9 in OSX.
• Many hidden options of Mac OS X can be activated with the TinkerTool utility.
• XRay is a flexible and powerful "Get Info" program for Mac OS X.
• Classic Spy installs a status bar icon, indicating whether the Classic Environment is running or not.
• CopyPath lets you control-click a document, application, folder, mounted volume, zip disk, anything, and copy the full path directly to the clipboard.
• RBrowserLite, the free cousin of RBrowser, is a full featured free graphic FTP client.
• StreamCatcher is a Mac OS X graphical interface for the Unix utility streamripper that records streaming audio direct to disk. ****As of April 2003 StreamCatcher for MAC OS X was discontinued - have a look at StreamripperX instead. StreamripperX has been renamed RadioLover. Geez! That's as far as I will take these updates!!
• Skeleton Key uses a simple drag-and-drop interface to allow you to execute programs as root just by dragging them onto the Skeleton Key icon. Use this powerful feature to totally screw up your hard drive and files. Fun for the whole family.

February 2002 iMeeting write-up

Though February is the shortest month, our meeting was as jam-packed as ever.

Corel procreate Presentation

Marc Belanger, from procreate, demonstrated their Mac OS X ready products: Painter™ and Ulitmate Knockout™. Painter™ is a tool for the artistically inclined. Used in combination with a computer tablet and your Macintosh, this software simulates hundreds of situations – be it a horse-hair brush, oil paints, and canvas or soft yellow chalk on a green chalkboard. With hundreds of tools, dozens of surfaces and control over the type of paints or inks, artists may find themeselves running short of ideas before discovering the end of the application.

Ultimate Knockout™ is a tool for desktop publishers and people interested in digital photo manipulation. These people use it to selectively extract portions of an image from the rest of the image. Though this is possible with other tools, Ultimate Knockout™ will save you time and money and almost always produce superior results.

G4 iMac Presentation

Following the procreate presentation, LeRoy Lees was going to demonstrate the new G4 iMac announced at MacWorld San Francisco. The first iMac arrived AFTER the meeting ...

iDVD 2 Presentation

iDVD 2 is an application bundled with computers that ship with Superdrives. LeRoy Lees showed that with this program, anyone can create near-commercial quality DVDs that can be played in nearly all consumer DVD players. If you are looking for a storage / delivery strategy for your digital media, you will be amazed at the quality and portablitiy of your information.

January 2002 iMeeting write-up

MacWorld San Francisco 2002 download!

The January MUGOO iMeeting at the Nepean Sportsplex was packed. A quick show of hands indicated that several were attending for the first time. We hope they enjoyed the show.

Paul Timmins started things off by revealing that the 2002 iSwap meeting (December) was an endangered species. If members were interested in saving this event, they would need to inform the executive of their wishes. He assured us that if the iSwap was not revived, alternative meeting ideas would be brought forward. Paul then reviewed some of the Mac news events for the past month.

Following Paul, Ferriss High and Linda Matsumoto provided some insights into iPhoto, Apple's latest iApp. iPhoto is a digital image management tool and was released at MacWorld San Francisco 2002. It requires Mac OS X to function but it is a free download from Apple's website.

Before adjourning to a short break, several door prizes were given away (from silly putty to t-shirts).

Attendees returned to their seats to see the new 14" iBook and video of the G4 iMac. Thanks to LeRoy Lees for providing a demonstration iBook and anchoring the discussion.

Groboto is a unique software application. Neil Herber stepped through the software and provided an entertaining look at this fascinating graphic tool. With its quirky interface, strange sounds, and incredible graphics, Neil demonstrated how people quickly became addicted to the software without having a legitimate reason for buying it.

All in all, attendees enjoyed themselves and many collected at the nearby Boston Pizza for a snack and pop after the iMeeting adjourned.

December 2001 iMeeting write-up

The December meeting was replaced by the iSwap held December 3, 2001.

Special December 12 2001 iSIG write-up

Digital Photography - a Special Edition of the MUGOO Design and Graphics Special Interest Group was held at Throop Photo Image Centre, Robinson's City View Plaza , 1516 Merivale Road, Nepean, Ontario K2G 3J6, 613-225-1745 on Wednesday December 12th at 7:30 pm.

We will had a Baldwin AV projection unit and CL Lees and Associates (an Apple VAR) and staff from Throop Photo Image Centre present, as was your presenter, Ross J Slade of RJS ID Inc.

We looked at camera options and software options. What does digital photography really mean ? What do you need to do it ? What are pixels anyhow and how many do you need ?

November 2001 iMeeting write-up

The November iMeeting was literally and figuratively one hot meeting! About 60 people crammed their way into Meeting Hall 'C' for two and a half hours. We'll be back in January with the combined Hall C and D so air flow should be much better in the future.

Speaking of the future, the new MUGOO Executive was revealed at the meeting. All five electable positions were filled as follows:

• President: Ferriss High
• Vice President: LeRoy Lees
• Secretary: Alan Cameron
• Treasurer: Steve Lawrenson
• Meeting Coordinator: Paul Timmins

Who helped with the successful show? Ian Stoddart started things off with digital camera information. He snapped a few shots of the crowd and demonstrated the Canon photo stitching software. This, of course, led to questions from the audience because of the keen interest in the technology and the approaching holiday season. The only question left for many was whether to buy the 3, 4, or 5 megapixel camera!

With so many photos and files, retrieval of an offline image or mp3 can become a difficult task. Neil Herber, flush with props and software tips and tricks, demonstrated a few of his favourite tools and utilities. Neil's 'must have' list includes (in no particular order): A Better Finder Rename, Cameraid, CDFinder (absolute must have!!!), Drop-rename, Joliet Volume Access, Extensis Portfolio, Roxio Toast Titanium 5.02, The VST Tri-Media Reader. He also mentioned QiPo, but told us nothing about it!

Finishing up the evening, Andrew Lauzon demonstrated Apple's iTools (not to be confused with iTools). This web application, free to OS 9 and OS X users, allows sharing of up to 20 Megs of data, photos, web pages and movies. Very useful for backup too!

Please send the MUGOO executive your impressions of recent meetings and suggestions. We can't improve or bask in the glory if you don't tell us!