background photo
2006 snow, Norman Early

Web Maintenance

E-mail Jamie

August 28, 2009 Meeting

DEFUNCT G4 iBOOK KEYBOARD

APPLEBYTE ONLINE

The Christchurch-based Apple User Group of Canterbury (AUGC) monthly magazine Applebyte in PDF format. To download the August issue, click on this link:
http://www.appleusers.co.nz/pdfs/AUGCApplebyte200908s.pdf (3MB)

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

REJECTED DVD’s
When I insert a DVD, my computer’s disk drive ‘spits’ it out again. What should I do?

• Unfortunately, the disk drive is broken – get it repaired. For a desktop computer, you could consider replacing it with an external DVD drive, but these are inconvenient to use with a laptop (where portability is needed).
  

BROKEN USB PORT
One of my computer’s USB ports has been damaged. Can I get it repaired? ?

• Yes, at a price. Alternatively, you could make further use of another port by plugging a USB Hub into it, which would give you additional outlets – prices at Dick Smith’s range from $25+ (unpowered) to $50+ (powered):
  
• Bunnings sell a multi-box with USB ports which includes a surge protector.
• Some unpowered USB devices (eg. some external memories) require 2 ports.
  

PARTITIONING HARD DRIVES
Do I need to partition my computer’s hard drive?

• Not usually, but you may want to if your computer has more than one user, so that files are kept separate.
• If you do want to partition the drive, you normally need to do so before using it, although if you have Disk Doctor you can partition an existing drive.
• Bootcamp (the application which runs Windows on an Intel Mac) automatically created its own partition on an existing drive, so that the Windows files are kept separate from the Mac.
  

UNRECOGNISABLE FILES
I copied some image files onto a flash-drive for a friend, but his PC won’t open them. Any idea why ?

• Files to be opened on a PC computer must have a suffix which tells the PC which type of file they are, eg. JPEG image files need to be labelled with a .jpg suffix. Macs don’t need this label – they already know what types of file they’re handling.
  

FLASH-KEY NOT RECOGNISED
I took some images on a flash-key to be printed, but the machine would recognise it - why?

• Probably because most image-processing machines are looking for drives such as flash-keys to be in Windows format, not Mac. This problem was raised at a meeting earlier this year. Reprinted from the May Minutes:
  

A memory stick used in a Mac computer doesn’t need to be formatted (or can be formatted as MacOS Extended Journaled). However, if you are going to use it to take image files to be printed, the outlet is likely to be expecting a Windows format, and you will therefore have to format your memory stick as MS-DOS (ie. Windows format). This must be done before you put your photo files on it, as the formatting process erases all data on the drive.

To format the memory stick:

1. Insert it in a USB port, then open Disk Utility application. This is found in your Utilities folder; get to it quickly from the Finder’s Go menu (select Utilities/Disk Utility), or by typing Command+Shift+U.
2. Click on the Erase tab near the top of the Disk Utility window.
3. Select the memory stick from the list at the left of the window. Do not select the volume contained within it (eg. below, select Imation Nano, not GPS R1 Drive).
4. Choose MS-DOS (FAT) as the volume format.
5. Click on the Erase... button below. The memory stick will be reformatted so that it will be readable by Windows-operated systems (and also by your Mac, which can read either format).
   

Thank you to the various members who helped in this session.

SESSIONS

SNOW LEOPARD

Thank you Barry for this session.

iPHOTO LIBRARY MANAGER

Thank you for introducing this useful application, Neville.

• Xtra provides a good service at reasonable rates, and has a good spam filter in its e-mail service
• Maxnet provides Net Guardian, and has recently upgraded its spam filters.
• If you exceed the amount of the plan you’ve signed for, some providers have high charges for the extra ‘traffic’, and some slow the download rate considerably.
• Telstra Clear is not expensive for extra ‘traffic’.
  

Thanks to those who contributed to this session.

WEB BROWSERS COMPARED

• Security: both Safari and Firefox have very good security features, but overall security may also depend on the ISP you are using (Telstra Clear was rated highly for security).
• Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is no longer supported for Macs.
• Snow Leopard contains an updated version of Safari.
• Some sites (particularly some containing forms to fill in) don’t work well with some browsers, although this now seems to be less of a problem than formerly.

Thank you Hugh for leading this session.