PAST MEETINGS

August 19, 2013 - Hammondsport Mac Users Group

ATTENDING: Tom B, Ed W, Nancy B, Bob S, Dottie E, Nancy D, Luanne G and Gene N.

TOPIC: MORE STUFF (Q+A)

A wide variety of questions, topics and comments were shared at the meeting.

All were invited to bring a photo of themselves before age 10 which showed something about their early lives. See some samples.

Tom demonstrated how to use a Wacom tablet for direct notetaking on the projection screen using any painting or drawing application such as Pixelmator. Word apps such as TextEdit can also be used with a Wacom tablet by turning on the System Pref called lnk - see how here.

Pixelmator - download available from the Mac App Store ($14.99) - Free 30-day Trial (download 40MB)

Apple ID Account - sign in (or sign up) here

Audacity - using this free application running on an old PowerBook G4, Tom recorded the audio of the entire meeting (1hr 52min) - Audacity download available for Mac or PC.

Dropbox - this free application allows easy transfer of large files between computers and people worldwide - very handy for sharing large photo, video and music files with friends or relatives

Skype - free download - free to use with others who have a Skype account worldwide - step by step.

Printers - read how to save printing ink - set parameters for Cheap Black, etc.

VLC - free utility which will often play those stubborn audio and video files that don't want to play

TIPS

Command-Shift-4 - if there were no other reason to buy a Mac, this would be enough.

Gene shared some additional keyboard screenshots in OSX

Click and hold on the System Prefs icon in Dock to launch a quick pop-up list of all prefs.

Turn on 'tapping' for trackpad in System Preferences

Enlarge your cursor in System Preferences > Universal Access > Mouse+Trackpad > Cursor Size

Guest Account - check this option in System Prefs to provide your guests, friends and relatives easy access to internet without messing up your computer - Guest Account reverts back to default setup on logout.

NEWS

< Go to this site and start clicking on the photo to zoom in.

GIGAPIXEL - Are you hidden in the crowd? Cameras are now being used in public areas which can capture 21,000 Mega Pixels! (that is a picture 70.000 X 30,000 pixels). These cameras cannot yet be purchased by the public but are being used in places such as Canada. You can double click to zoom closer to see faces at high resolution. Also a feature called Giga Tag allows you to 'tag' your name and friends names to faces and share on Facebook. Scary. Just for comparison to 21,000 Megapixels , an average point & shoot cam might be capable of 3 to 12 megapixels in resolution while 24 megapixels would approximate the resolution of a good 35mm film.

Bottle Light - In 2002, a Brazilian mechanic named Alfredo Moser had a light-bulb moment and came up with a way of illuminating his house during the day without electricity, using nothing more than plastic bottles filled with water and a tiny bit of bleach - read news article - or watch this short YouTube video called 'Liter of Light'

Link to all so-called 'humor' from past HMUG meetings.

Hammondsport Mac Users Group - Hammondsport, NY 14840 - www.hportmug.com