Rick and I will both present latest developments and I will take a look at Twitter and a quick overview of chat applications, so you can talk to PC users without phone bills. I might also show FreshBooks, if anyone is interested.

Fred suggested we also discuss video adapters for laptops (miniDVI) and all the variants. While we’re discussing such things, we can do power adapters, too.

Bring your issues, we’ll try to solve them. Bring your experiences, and we’ll commiserate or celebrate, as the case calls for.

-Rich
El Semihemidemi Presidenté
Sierra Mousetrap Mac User Group

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Media User Group
We had a wonderful Media meeting about Image formats, such as, jpg, gif, png, and so forth.

Here is a link to the 44 different image formats that there are, but remember, these are not really images, just files that an application renders them as images to the eye, so there are… ah just read the info on the page. They already wrote it up, why do it again.

Another link to some image information at WIKI.

If you have any questions after reading, like say you are still confused. just contact us for immediate help. or wait till next meeting; we had a great group of people wanting to give their knowledge on the subject — it was great!

Next meeting will cover video formats and review images again.

Mac User Group
Rich was not there and I was a bit nervous, but with the experience and long time members that were there, the meeting actually ran itself — sorry Rich, we really are not needed other than to moderate and keep the meeting moving forward, but I didn’t do too much of that any way.

We introduced ourselves and then right to the questions. AMAZING!! All questions, or at least 99% of them, were answered on the spot; just two eluded us, but we came to the conclusion that it is not possible to create a script or function key to paste the same text into different types of documents except to us quickkeys. We’ll know more next month on how it went.

Thanks for everyone who showed and shared their skills and information. Again, if there are any questions that cannot wait till June’s meeting then contact me (since I am putting my services and time out there).

- gerry

Tonight at 6pm, Gerry Davenport will host the Media group. If you’re interested in the difference between different file formats such as GIF, JPEG, TIF, etc. you should definitely attend.

At 7pm, discussions about iLife. Gerry will host this meeting as well, since I’m fighting a flu bug of some kind… and don’t want to be a disease vector (any more than usual, anyway).

Those of you interested in stuff Rick mentioned in his demo:
rEFIt: Allows you to boot into multiple systems and access certain utilities.

Kill-a-Watt: Plug it into the wall, then plug an appliance into it, and it monitors power usage so you can see the cost of running that appliance. One unit acts as a power strip for your  computer stuff, or entertainment systems. Includes an LCD to view electrical usages stats.

AppleJack: Run diagnostics and repairs outside the OS X normal environment. This allows you bypass/work around the “User Friendly” isolation from system tools that OS X is famous for.

DVD Imager: Creates an “autorun” dvd.

Popcorn: Makes duplicate DVDs. 49.95 from Roxio.

Mac the Ripper: Works around some copy protection (DRM) schemes.

DVD Authoring on Wikipedia

DVD Remaster

VLC

RipIt

Handbrake

MPEG Streamclip

http://ripdifferent.com

Rick Hartmann will be presenting how to copy DVDs. He’s also our best source of deep technical info, so bring your questions! He may not get back with us until the Sierra College semester ends..

Also, don’t forget: at 6pm we’ll be talkin’ Media. Audio, video, photography… we’re trying to get this group to critical mass, so tell a friend.

Last summer, John Powers had the idea to start a special interest group for Final Cut Pro. Great idea! But, we’ve never gotten a lot of attendees. Gerry Davenport took over running the group last month from John, and last night we discussed broadening the basis of the group to make it useful to more people.

So, starting next month, we’re going to start with a new idea: The Mac Video, Sound, and Image Group (we can work on the name!)

- We’ll cover video creation from iMovie amateur to Final Cut Pro, including Adobe Premier and After Effects
- We’ll cover digital photography from cameras to iPhoto to Photoshop, Aperture, Lightroom, and more.
- We’ll cover digital audio, too, if there is interest.

Any member is welcome to attend either meeting, or both.

As always, what this group becomes — what it focusses on — is all about the wishes of those attending.

I welcome any feedback on this idea… and invite all who are interested to attend.

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Our next meeting will cover a review of MacWorld Expo, new products, and an intro to the Mac for newbies, if we have any attending. Come on down. If you’re new to the Mac or iPhone, or you just want to hang out and discuss the Mac, you’re welcome to come on by. The first two meetings are free. Here’s where our meetings are held.

The following items are free:

• HP 4400C ScanJet scanner (USB)
• EasyPhoto Reader (Mac serial)
• TelePort Platinum Fax-Modem (Mac serial, 28 kbps)
• Adara Starlight Scanner (SCSI includes cables)
• Epson Stylus Photo Printer Model 785EPX
• Epson Ink Cartridges T0441 (black) and T0442 (Cyan) (new, still factory-sealed)

A donation to Wildlife Rehabilitation and Release (www.cawildlife911.org), a local area, all-volunteer wildlife group, would be appreciated.

Contact John Powers (john@poohbah.com) for more information or to arrange for pick-up.