MEETING NO TICE

September Tuesday, the 26th 7 PM Nashua, NH

In sideRe views and In for ma tion

Comic Life is for more than Comics 1

LaCie Rugged All-Terrain Hard Drive 6

Six Hard-learned Lessons About Democracy 7

iMac Line Adds Core 2 Duo Chip 8

Parallels Desktop Updated 9

Interarchy 8.2 10

OmniWeb 5.5 10

Regular Features

Secretary’s Report 3

Coming Events 3

The Presidents Corner 11

SNAC Application 12

SNAC HelpNet 12

September2006

No. 324

17 HUTCHINSON STREET, NASHUA, NH 03064

SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIREAPPLE CORE

Established April 1979

PlaceStampHere

FORWARDING AND ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

MAILED FIRST CLASS TO:

Visit us at: http://homepage.mac.com/applepower

SNAC TIME

Continued on Page 4

October Meeting

GarageBand Revisited

September Meeting

Setting Up and Using Encrypted Email

Comic Life Is For More Than Comics

By Bill DaviesA product bundled with all new consumer Macs in 2006 is a little application called ComicLife. At fi rst I dismissed this product as a gimmick application with little value to me, but then one day I decided to try playing with it.

I’m here to report that ComicLife is addicting. And I’m not using it to make comics. For anyone who needs to make a single-page fl yer that contains a lot of graphics, ComicLife is just about the perfect tool. You can start by choosing a template, which contains panes just like you would see in a comic book. The twist here is that each of those panes on the page can receive a graphic just by dragging a graphic on top of it. So literally you can choose a template with fi ve panes, drag a picture to each of the fi ve panes, the graphic wraps inside of each pane and automatically crops itself. Then you add some text by dragging out a text box, and you’re done. (See Comic Life’s Work area on page 4)

Can you do more professional fl iers in InDesign or perhaps Pages? Maybe, but for me, I don’t need or want a $600 program just to make a simple fl ier. And ComicLife is so completely Mac-like, letting me just drag in my graph-ics or pull them in from my iPhoto library. (You can also capture from your iSight camera.) I don’t have to go to the menu and “insert” a graphic or object. I don’t have to crop it fi rst in Photoshop. It all just works so seamlessly. (I should add that ComicLife does do multi-page layouts

PAGE 2 September 2006

...Some of the People that help make SNAC Work...

PRESIDENT Paul Bendeck 603-672-0084 pbendeck@verizon.net

VICE-PRESIDENT Don Lemoine [603] 889-4295 donspiano-service@comcast.net

SECRETARY Bill Bryant [603] 882-7338 billbryant21@comcast.net

TREASURER Bill Bryant [603] 882-7338 billbryant21@comcast.net

SNAC TIME STAFF Tim Adams [603] 595-9522 teadams2003@earthlink.net Wayne Labatte [603] 882-4500 waynepl@comcast.net

SNAC ON THE INTERNET http://homepage.mac.com/applepower/ Rick Branscomb, webmaster ebranscomb@mac.com

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS No Interest groups active at this time!

VENDOR CONNECTIONS

User Group Ambassador Kevin McLaughlin [603] 429-4626 kmclaughlin@mac.com

Visit our web pages at:

http://homepage.mac.com/applepower/

MEMBERSHIPS ABOUT TO EXPIRE

Harold DavisKarl D. Meacham

Eiji Miki

NEW MEMBERS & RENEWALS

George GinsburgRich Kovars

Welcome and have some fun!!

SNAC TIMEPublished monthly, by the Southern New Hamp shire Apple Core computer club as a dues sup port ed service to its members. Published using Adobe InDesign 3.0.1 and an HP DeskWriter.

Contributed articles become the property of SNAC, with publication on a space avail able basis. Au thors’ views and opinions are their own, and SNAC waives responsibility for ed i to ri al or ty po graph i cal errors herein. Re-pub li ca tion of articles orig i nat ing here in is permitted on a non-commercial basis, with both au thor and SNAC credits given.

APPLE, the APPLE LOGO, MAC & MACIN TOSH are registered trademarks of Apple Com put er, Inc. Additional company and prod uct names may be trademarks or reg is tered trademarks of the in di vid u al com pa nies and are respectfully acknowledged.

SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE APPLE CORE

SNAC is a not-for-profi t, dues supported or ga ni za tion, with membership open to any one wish ing to partici-pate in our in ter est in the use and en joy ment of Apple Com put ers. Club ser vic es in clude libraries of public do main software, a web site, and this news let ter.

SNAC TIME is an independent publication not af- fi l i at ed or otherwise associated with or spon sored or sanctioned by, Apple Com put er, Inc. The opin ions, statements, po si tions and views stated herein are those of the author(s) or pub lish er and are not in- tend ed to be the opin ions, statements, po si tions or views of Apple Com put er, Inc.

M e m b e rM e m b e r

MUG User Group Store

http://www.applemugstore.com/

For current username and password informa-tion email teadams2003@earthlink.net

September 2006 PAGE 3

Coming EventsFor 2006/2007

SNAC's Main Meetings is held at the Nashua Pub-

lic Li brary, 2 Court Street, Nashua, NH. Meetings are held on the last Tuesday of

each month at 7PM.

SNAC Meeting Schedule

July 25, 2006August 29, 2006

September 26, 2006October 31, 2006

November 28, 2006December 26, 2006January 30, 2007February 27, 2007

March 27, 2007April 24, 2007May 29, 2007June 26, 2007July 31, 2007

Newsletter Article Deadline

August 18, 2006September 15, 2006

October 20, 2006November 17, 2006December 15, 2006January 19, 2007February 16, 2007

March 16, 2007April 13, 2007May 18, 2007June 15, 2007July 20, 2007Help SNAC Grow!

Bring in a Friend and Neigh bor

to the meeting!!!

Help SNAC Grow!

Bring in a Friend and Neigh bor

to the meeting!!!

Bye - Till next month...

Place: Nashua Public Library, 2 Court St., Nashua, NH

Presided By: Paul Bendeck

This meeting was held in the NPL Theater downstairs at the Nashua Library.

Reports:Secretary’s Report - The minutes from the last meeting were approved as printed in the August 06 newsletter.

Treasurer’s Report - The Treasurer reported $1087.46 in the checking account. $20 was received for one renewal. No payments were made. This report was accepted.

Newsletter Report - Articles for the next newsletter are due September 15th to Tim. Past issues of the newsletter are available on the ApplePower home page under the link for Newsletter Archive.

Renewals: Checks were received for two renewals at this meeting. New attendees introduced themselves and were invited to join us at this or the next meeting.

Apple News:Rich Kovars discussed recent news from the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference held this month regarding the new Mac Pro and some of the features to be in MacOSX 10.5 (Leopard), due about March of 2007.

Problems and Discussions:The club provides and interactive session during every meeting for members, and guests too, to ask questions about any problems they might be having with any Apple computer or software product. There are usually several knowledgeable people available at every meeting to help answer these questions. Here are some of the problems discussed

at the last meeting: G4 powerbook problem Airport Card G4 accessing iTunes radioRemember, whenever you have a hardware or software problem with your Apple computer, a good place to start looking for information is the Links and Resources page on the ApplePower home page.

Old Business:None

New Business:Paul asked for help in handling the vendor offers that are received by the club. He also asked for someone to “Welcome” new members, by handing out applications, a current newsletter, and other information introducing new members to SNAC. See the President’s Corner for more details.

Demo:Rich Kovars demonstrated how to run Windows on the new Intel Macs. He discussed the various options for running Windows on a Mac, and then demonstrated a couple of these programs. Thanks Rich for another fi ne demo.

PAGE 4 September 2006

From page 1

Com

ic Life’s w

ork area

September 2006 PAGE 5

PAGE 6 September 2006

if you do want to write a comic book, but I’m happy just using it for fl iers.)

ComicLife then lets you resize panes (and their associated graphics) just by dragging. Add text by using the text bubble tool. Drag it, rotate it, re-size it. You have your fl ier.

Is this product suitable for a legal brief or a fi ling with the Securities & Exchange Commission? No. That’s not the point. The point is that if you think this product is just for making comic books, you’re sorely mistaken. I’ve done two birthday invitations and a fl ier for a fundraiser, (see the picture on page 5) and the results are just so much more interesting than anything I’ve ever seen done with Appleworks or Microsoft Word.

If you thought you never had the talent to design an interesting fl ier using your own photographs, it is time to try ComicLife. Once your fl ier is done, you can publish it to .Mac or export it to Quicktime, iPhoto, or to a JPEG or TIFF.

For more information, buy a new Mac, or visit www.plasq.com. The product costs a whopping $29 if you don’t get it free on your Mac.

LaCieRugged All-Terrain Hard Drive

Reviewed by: Maria O. Arguello

I fell in love the moment I saw the LaCie Rugged All-Terrain Hard Drive, gorgeously designed by industrial designer Neil Poulton. It has an orange shock-resistant rubber bumper and a protective aluminum shell for durability. It is a looker; fast, durable and I had to have it. It comes in three sizes: 80/100/120 GB with varying rpm depending on the model. I am testing the 80-GB/ 7200 rpm/ 8 MB internal cache. The rear of the casing displays its three-way connection with socket plugs for the USB 2.0, FW 400, FW 800 and power connection.

The speed of copying fi les is very fast when using FW 800 (60 MB/s). It also mounts very quickly on the desktop with FW 400 (40 MB/s).

I never use USB 2 (40 MB/s) when using this hard drive,

I simply prefer FW whenever available.

I demoed it at the August, 2006 PMUG (Princeton Macintosh Users Group). It is great for taking on the road to back up or to transfer fi les. The Princeton color is orange, what a coincidence. Everybody loved it. It works great with my Mac Book Pro and my dual 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5. I like the portability and ruggedness of this beautiful pocket drive. It is replacing my older 60-GB pocket drive, which recently died.

And don’t forget that LaCie gives a free software application called Silverkeeper for automatic backup and fi le verifi cation with Mac OS 9 & Mac OS X. It comes with four cables: FireWire 800 (9-to-9 pin), FireWire 400 (6-to-6 pin), Hi-Speed USB 2.0 (USB 1.1 compatible), and a USB 2.0 power-sharing cable for systems where the USB Bus power is not enough. The Quick Start Guide is very helpful, clearly written, and easy to understand. I used it to fi nd the correct format to suit my needs. I have Windows Professional XP installed on my MacBook Pro but I opted not to partition the drive to read Windows and

September 2006 PAGE 7

Mac. I spend 99.9 % of my time on the Mac side and have my most precious fi les there. Therefore I formatted the drive MacOS Extended (Journaled). Clear explanations for other possibilities are easy to follow in the Quick Start Guide.

It also includes a CD-ROM with the following free software: LaCie 1-click Backup Software, SilverKeeper Backup Utilities (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X), Silverlining® 98 Drive Management Utilities (Windows 98SE), Silverlining® Pro Drive Management Utilities (Mac OS 9.x), User’s Manual.

The enclosure can be re-used if the drive inside fails out of warranty. Simply buy a new one and put it in your beautiful case. At this rate, you’ll always have the case to admire. That’s what I did with an old LaCie pocket drive. I bought a new 2.5-inch hard drive, 80 GB this time, 5400 rpm, from Other World Computing, and put it in the case. It’s a great way to reuse LaCie’s cases. I buy a lot of hardware from OWC because their tech support is superb. They helped me choose the correct hard drive for this project. LaCie’s tech support is also very helpful. They helped me with my questions about taking out the old hard drive and re-using the external case.

I would have liked for LaCie to have retained the activity light indicator the older models had to see hard drive activity. At least the light gave me an indication that it was on and something was happening. The green light would turn amber and fl icker when I was copying or transferring fi les or when it was mounting on my desktop. The LaCie Rugged All-Terrain Hard Drive does not have an indicator light.

I had to wait a long time for this review unit because “it is a very popular item,” said the LaCie representative and I don’t doubt it. If you’re looking for a reliable and a good-looking hard drive, buy this one. You will be the envy of your user group friends.

Attribution Information:

Copyright © 2006 Maria O. Arguello. This article may be reprinted by any Macintosh User Group in their newsletter or publication distributed on paper or online, with credit given to the author and original publishing user group (Maria O. Arguello, MLMUG, <arguello10@comcast.net>). Commercial or other publication prohibited unless the author grants specifi c permission.

More articles by this author available at: http://Mlmug.org/Reviews.html.

The MLMUG Journal, in PDF format, may be downloaded from: http://Mlmug.org/past.html.

About the author: Maria O. Arguello is president and vendor liaison of the Main Line Macintosh Users Group (MLMUG) also member of PMUG, NCMUG, MUGSNJ, SJAUG, and CCPMUG. She is the Apple User Group Regional Liaison for the Northeast United States, as well as the Liaison for Online Groups.

Company: LaCie, LTD Price: $169.00 Minimum System Requirements: A computer with FW 400, FW 800 or USB. Test System: Dual 2.5-GHz PowerPC G5, 4 GB DDR SDRAM, OS 10.4.7 and MacBook Pro 2.0-GHz, 2 GB RAM, 100-GB HD Review date: September, 2006 Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 apples Design Rating: 5 out of 5 apples

Six Hard-learned Lessons About Democracy

by Filipp Lepalaan

There are many eMugs out there. Ours is the Estonian Macintosh User Group (www.emug.ee) which, founded by 4 Mac geeks in 2000, has grown into a blog covering important news in the Mac world, an Estonian Wiki of All Things Mac, a free, “poor man’s .Mac” service and a forum with over a thousand registered users. Our website receives over 20 000 unique visits a month and we’ve even been the top “emug” on Google - twice! And we almost met Woz once... but he couldn’t make it.

We’re the defi nition of a “loosely-knit group” - we don’t have any power hierarchy, no membership “certifi cate” or fee, practically no administration. All major decisions are simply followed through by the most active members which at the moment mean two people. Anyone can register freely to write news or columns, or use the forums to suggest improvements or make feature or story requests. We don’t even have a proper logo - in other words, we’re just a bunch of people tied together by a common interest utilizing todays technology to exchange experiences. Pretty much your standard defi nition of a modern-day user group.

When one of our members, in March of this year, came up with the idea of designing a T-shirt for the group for the coming summer season, I was of-course excited. What a better way to show yourself than “minority apparel”. Since, through this it became apparent that we don’t even have a logo, I thought it best to ask people to send in their designs and set up a poll for both the best logo and T-shirt design. If the winning design would happen to be a logo, it would then be simply put on a shirt, I thought.

PAGE 8 September 2006

Lesson 1: When voting, never vote for two totally separate things at once (like a logo and a t-shirt design). If one of the options is dependent on the outcome of another vote, settle the vote for the fi rst one, *then* poll for the other.

I hadn’t heard of Lesson 1, so I set up a polling program (a WordPress plugin called Democracy, if You’re interested) and uploaded every single contestant that was sent to me. We got a few designs in during the fi rst few days, but then the submissions trickled down to about 1/week.

Lesson 2: You can set deadlines all you want, but there will always be late-comers. That’s the way things are and it’s no reason to *not* set deadlines. In other words, make sure people know the deadlines and stick to them.

After a while we had a collection of 55 images each one totally different, many for T-shirt designs, some for logos, clothing catalog mockups, hand-drawn B/W drawings and colored pictures. What do we do next, set up another poll?

Lesson 3: When setting up a poll, state the rules of the poll clearly. Don’t just say “Send us a graphic of what you think would make a cool T-shirt”. Be specifi c. If possible, provide templates.

Our members were really excited about this project, and at 6 552, the T-shirt competition thread’s read count is topped only by the MacBook Pro announcement (6 922 reads) in our News forum. People’s expectations were high and a lot of time had been spent on reading and writing on the subject.

Lesson 4: Listen to your people. If, in the middle of brainstorming for a new logo design, someone says “This whole project will probably crash because the rules are too vague”, don’t be too proud to set aside your leader ego and think about it for a moment. They might be right.

The competition ended and it was time to read the votes. Just under half of our members had decided on the same design, with the other 60% leaning towards 11 different designs. Making matters worse, the winning design turned out to be a logo and as such could not be used as a T-shirt. Oblivious to the fact that the situation was spinning out of control, I decided to start taking orders. The idea was to let everyone order the shirt they wanted and let economies of scale do their thing (the least-popular designs would be so expensive to print that people would just opt for the most popular one).

Lesson 5: Trying to solve a crashed vote with another vote probably won’t work. I believe “fi ghting fi re with fi re” is the expression.

Order processing was a nightmare. Having to catalogue orders for 12 different “products” with different sizes, models and quantities made me wish we had a secretary for the fi rst time in our MUG’s history. When I fi nally sent the order table to a printing shop, they replied that none of the designs fi lled their minimum required quota and hence couldn’t accept the order. I could have looked around to try and fi nd a printing shop that perhaps would, but by that time I was so worn out by the whole process, that I just decided to write an email to all the people who had ordered a shirt and explain them the situation.

Lesson 6: When you want something done, consider if it would be easier to just do it. A little autocracy never hurt anyone (I said a little!), especially when, in the end, it serves the public interest.

It’s now August and we still don’t have a T-shirt nor a proper logo. I’ve decided to leave the matter be for now, and then one day work out a logo and a shirt with one of the more graphically inclined members. How well the rest of the community accepts it, remains to be seen.

iMac Line Adds Core 2 Duo Chip, 24-inch Model

by Adam C. Engst <ace@tidbits.com>

article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8671>

Last week, Apple announced two notable changes to the iMac line, available now. First, all iMacs now use Intel’s new 64-bit Core 2 Duo processor, which Apple claims can deliver up to 50 percent faster performance than previous Core Duo processors. However, in testing done by PC World on PC laptops, the Core 2 Duo chip improved performance by only 5 to 10 percent over identically confi gured laptops with the older Core Duo chip; Macworld’s benchmarks rated a 10 percent improvement. My guess is that the new iMacs with the Core 2 Duo will be faster, perhaps noticeably so in some tasks, but not so much that it would make sense to upgrade from an existing Core Duo-based iMac to a new Core 2 Duo-based model.

<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/sep/06imac.html> <http://www.apple.com/imac/><http://www.apple.com/imac/intelcore2duo.html> <http://www.macworld.com/2006/09/firstlooks/core2duo/> <http: / /www.macworld.com/2006/09/ f irst looks/imacbench/>

However, the second notable change in the iMac line may be suffi ciently compelling to cause even a recent iMac purchaser to consider trading up to a new model. That’s

September 2006 PAGE 9

because the top-of-the-line iMac now comes with a built-in 24-inch widescreen display running at 1920 by 1200 pixels (compare that with 1440 by 900 for the 17-inch display and 1680 by 1050 for the 20-inch model). The 24-inch display also offers a wider viewing angle than the smaller displays, is brighter, and provides a higher contrast ratio than the 17-inch display (though slightly lower than the 20-inch display).

<http://www.apple.com/imac/graphics.html>

Interestingly, there are a number of other differences between the 24-inch iMac and the smaller models besides some added size and weight. The 24-inch iMac uses a faster Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT graphics processor (or an optional Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT) in favor of the Intel GMA 950 (in the 1.83 GHz 17-inch iMac) or the ATI Radeon X1600 (in the 2.0 GHz 17-inch iMac and the 20-inch iMac). Instead of a pair of FireWire 400 ports, the 24-inch iMac features one FireWire 400 port and one FireWire 800 port. It also doubles the power of its internal digital amplifi er from 12 watts in the 17- and 20-inch iMacs to 24 watts.

<http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html>

**A Plethora of Possibilities** -- Confi guring an iMac is a bit more confusing than in the past, since the low-end 1.83 GHz 17-inch iMac, priced at only $1,000, can be confi gured only with more RAM (512 MB standard, up to 2 GB), with an Apple Remote, and with a modem. It comes standard with a Combo drive, a 160 GB hard drive, Intel GMA 950 graphics processor, and AirPort Extreme, but not Bluetooth. This basic confi guration was introduced in July 2006 for education buyers (see “New iMac Replaces eMac for Education”, 10-Jul-06); it’s now available to anyone (and it still costs $900 for educational customers).

<http://db.tidbits.com/article/8595>

The 2.0 GHz 17-inch iMac ($1,200) can be upgraded to a 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo processor and comes with a 160 GB hard drive, upgradable to 500 GB. In contrast, the 20-inch ($1,500) and 24-inch ($2,000) iMacs both come with a 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, upgradable to 2.33 GHz, and they both have 250 GB hard drives, with 500 GB options. All three of these models come with an 8x double-layer SuperDrive, 1 GB of RAM (upgradable to 3 GB), and built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0.

Standard equipment for all iMac models includes a built-in iSight camera, three USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire ports, Gigabit Ethernet, mini-DVI out, built-in stereo speakers, a built-in microphone, optical digital audio in/out jacks, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, and iLife ‘06.

**Mac mini Speed Bumped** -- Although the also-updated Mac mini doesn’t share the iMac’s switch to the Core 2 Duo chip, Apple has speed-bumped the low-end Mac, dropping the Intel Core Solo processor entirely while keeping prices at their previous level. The $800 Mac mini moves from a 1.66 GHz Core Duo processor to a 1.83 GHz Core Duo processor, and the $600 model drops its 1.5 GHz Core Solo processor in favor of a dual-core 1.66 GHz Core Duo processor. All other specs remain the same.

<http://www.apple.com/macmini/>

Re-printed from TidBITS #846/11-Sep-06

Non-profi t, non-commercial publications and Web sites may reprint or link to articles if full credit is given. Others please contact us. We do not guarantee accuracy of articles. Caveat lector. Publication, product, and company names may be registered trademarks of their companies. TidBITS ISSN 1090-7017.

Parallels Desktop Updated for Mac Pro and Leopard

by Mark H. Anbinder <mha@tidbits.com>

article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8669>

Parallels, Inc. last week announced a release candidate for an update to their Parallels Desktop for Mac, adding compatibility for Apple’s new Mac Pro computer and the developer builds of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. The “Update RC,” a free update for all Parallels Desktop users, adds additional improvements such as improved compatibility for Solaris and OpenBSD 3.8 guest operating systems, and an improved Parallels Tools package.

<http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/>

The $80 Parallels Desktop allows owners of Intel-based Macs to run Windows or other Intel-based operating systems in a virtual machine while still running Mac OS X. Apple’s Boot Camp solution, still a public beta until Leopard’s release, requires the user to restart the Mac to switch between Mac OS X and Windows operating systems. Parallels offers a 15-day free trial of their software. (Don’t forget that you can save $10 off the cost of a Parallels Desktop license using a coupon from Joe Kissell’s “Take Control of Running Windows on a Mac” ebook, rendering the ebook free.)

<http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/>

PAGE 10 September 2006

<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/windows-on-mac.html?14@@!pt=TRK-0034-TB846>

Another option for Intel Mac users who wish to run Windows applications is CrossOver Mac, a forthcoming product from CodeWeavers, Inc., released as a public beta late last month. This application doesn’t even require the user to install Windows. Based on Wine, which re-implements the Windows developer APIs, CrossOver Mac lets Mac users run many, though not all, Windows applications in their own separate windows under Mac OS X.

<http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/> <http://www.winehq.com/>

Re-printed from TidBITS #846/11-Sep-06

Non-profi t, non-commercial publications and Web sites may reprint or link to articles if full credit is given. Others please contact us. We do not guarantee accuracy of articles. Caveat lector. Publication, product, and company names may be registered trademarks of their companies. TidBITS ISSN 1090-7017.

OmniWeb 5.5 Goes Universal, Switches to WebKit

by Adam C. Engst <ace@tidbits.com>

article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8666>

The Omni Group has completed a deceptively minor update to OmniWeb, their feature-laden Web browser that sports iconic tabs, workspaces, RSS news feeds, site-specifi c preferences, and more. New features in OmniWeb 5.5 include support for saving pages in the WebArchive format, a warning that appears upon reloading a page that would resend a form, and a global and site preference for user-defi ned style sheets. But OmniWeb 5.5 isn’t about features - the real news is that it’s now a universal binary, providing better performance on Intel-based Macs, and it’s based on a slightly customized version of Apple’s WebKit browser engine framework, which means greatly improved Web site compatibility, rendering performance, and stability. In short, OmniWeb should now perform like Safari, which also relies on WebKit. The $30 OmniWeb 5.5 requires Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later, is a free update for owners of OmniWeb 5.x, and is a 10.1 MB download.

<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/> <http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/releasenotes/> <http://webkit.org/><http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/download/>

Re-printed from TidBITS #846/11-Sep-06Non-profi t, non-commercial publications and Web sites may reprint or link to articles if full credit is given

Interarchy 8.2 Adds Growl Support and More

by Adam C. Engst<ace@tidbits.com>

article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/8667>

Stairways Software has released Interarchy 8.2, the latest version of their highly fl exible fi le transfer tool and network utility. Notable new features include support for Growl notifi cations (an independent system-wide notifi cation method), fi le converters that automatically convert fi les on upload/download, and easier bookmarking via a Bookmark button in every window’s status bar. Most amusing, though, is the fact that Interarchy 8.2 now offers spell checking; as the release notes comment dryly, “Just what you always wanted in a fi le transfer program.” There are a slew of other minor enhancements and plenty of bug fi xes, and since it’s a free upgrade for owners of Interarchy 8.x, it’s worth the 8.3 MB download.

<http://www.interarchy.com/><http://growl.info/about.php><http : / /www.interarchy.com/documentat ion/8 /whatsnew> <http://www.stairways.com/main/download>

Rambling onTim Adams

As noted elsewhere in this issue, Apple has updated their iMac line of computers, as well as their Mac Mini’s.

Are you in the market for a new Mac? Well, if you are, you might want to spend a little bit of time looking at ALL of the options Apple now offers you. That new 24” model makes the smaller 20” model look real small. Don’t believe me? Check out the Apple Store in Salem, (where I looked at them) or one of the local dealers.

I am looking for a new computer, though I don’t plan on buying one until, most likely, after this coming MacWorld Expo in January. Why wait till then? Well, their might be something else new and these new iMac’s will be well established so any problems will be well know. But you really don’t need to linit yourself to an iMac!

September 2006 PAGE 11

T h eP r e s i d e n t ’ sC o r n e r

B y P a u l

B e n d e c kO’Reilly User Group Program:

I wanted to remind everyone that one of the great benefi ts of being an Apple User Group member is getting access to special discounts on Apple related products, books, and applications. A couple months ago, SNAC joined the O’Reilly User Group Program. You may have noticed the animated O’Reilly banner of the fl ying goose at the bottom of the ApplePower web page. O’Reilly is one of the leading publishers of computer books, such as “MacOSX: The Missing Manual”. The O’Reilly UG Program offers many benefi ts to user groups including: free review copies of books, 30-35% discounts on books purchased directly from O’Reilly, discounts on O’Reilly conferences and tutorials, and other special discount offers. If any SNAC member is interested in reviewing a free copy of any Apple related O’Reilly book, please contact your club President Paul Bendeck for details. You can learn more about this program by visiting the new link on the ApplePower web page Index “O’Reilly UG Program”.

SNAC Activities:

In case you haven’t noticed, the SNAC Apple User Group is growing! More and more new Mac users, and some Windows switchers, are showing up at our meetings and signing up as new members. Our Email Discussion List has grown in popularity covering a wide range of topics and questions, and in most cases providing useful and relevant answers, and even a few predictions. If you are not on this list yet, I urge you to join. The Email Discussion List is a great place to start when you have a question about your Apple product or third-party hardware or software. To join the Email Discussion List, just follow the link on the ApplePower web page Index.

As SNAC continues to grow, so does some of the club administrative activities. The club could use some help from you the members with a few of these activities, all very simple and easy to do, some even fun. Below is a list of activities that SNAC could use some help with. If you are interested in any of these activities, please contact your club President Paul Bendeck for details.

o Membership - Welcome new members, provide SNAC

application form and copy of newsletter, review SNAC benefi ts (ApplePower web page, Email Discussion List, CompUSA Discount Program, monthly newsletter, etc.), issue membership cards for new members and member renewals. This activity could be handled by one person or a small team, and could probably be handled before or after the main meeting on an informal basis person to person.

o Membership renewal notices - We need someone to send out membership expiration notices via email to remind people that their membership is about to expire. We update the list every month, but need someone to keep track of expirations and send out an email notice. All data can be provided, so all that is needed is for someone to check the list and send out the emails as needed.

o Product Reviews - As an Apple User Group, SNAC receives many product offers from vendors asking to review their product and write a review. Many of these vendor promotions offer free or discounted prices on their new product releases which they are willing to make available to Apple User Groups. This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in test driving new applications, writing a review about the product, what you liked or didn’t like, and maybe even doing a demo for the club. These offers come up fairly often, and different products might appeal to different people. As these offers come up, we could post them to the Email Discussion List and people could volunteer to pick one and do a review/demo.

If you think you could help with any of these activities, please contact Paul Bendeck. Getting involved with any of these activities is a great way to support your User Group, meet people, and maybe learn some new Mac tricks.

I would also like to acknowledge some of the people who are currently supporting SNAC with various club activities every month, in no particular order:

Tim Adams - SNAC Times Newsletter editorWayne Labatte - SNAC membership databaseRick Branscomb - ApplePower web master, and Email Discussion List ownerBill Bryant - Secretary (meeting minutes) and Treasurer (bank account)Rich Kovars - Apple Certifi ed Help Desk Specialist, and demo presenter

See you at the next meeting Sep. 26.

PAGE 12 September 2006

-<< SNAC HELPNET >>-How it Works: To you who wish to help others:On a piece of blank paper, enter this information about yourself: Name; Phone Number; Interest. CHANGE AND DATE YOUR IN FOR MA TION WHEN NEC ES SARY. We will periodically print the updated complete listing of ev ery one on the NET supplying the information. Then, be pre pared to supply HELP to other SNAC members who see what your spe cial ties are.

If you want help, phone the person(s) whose specialty matches your problem.

NAME PHONE NO. IN TER ESTS & SPE CIAL TIES

Tim Adams 603-595-9522 Pagemaker, Quick en, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Acrobat, OS XBill Bryant 603 882-7338 Appleworks and QuickenRick Branscomb 603 424-1433 Webpages, HTML, Adobe PageMill, Adobe GoLive, Netscape Com poser, AppleWorks,Educational SoftwareJayson Lee 603 579-0339 Photoshop/Freehand/Illustrator/GoLive/FlashPaul Bendeck 603-672-0084 Installing and confi guring MacOSX and applications, hardware upgrades, AppleWorks, iTunes, iPhoto

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Can’t quite get your fi nger on the prob lem?Try the Helpnet!

SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE APPLE CORE17 HUTCHINSON STREET • NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE • 03064

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION AND SURVEY QUESTIONNAIREPlease complete and forward, together with $20.00 annual dues, to the above addressATTN: Secretary or bring it to a SNAC monthly meeting. Make checks payable to SNAC.Meetings are held on the last Tuesday of every month, 7PM, downstairs at the Nashua Public Library.

Date: ____ /____ /____ New Renewal

________________________________________________Name

_______________________________ _________________Mailing Address

______________________ _________ ______________City State Zip Code

(_____)__________________________________________Telephone Number

• Do you have Internet Access (yes) (no)

• E-Mail Address:

____________________________________________

• Apple Computer(s) which you own or use.

_______________________ (Please Specify Model)

For more information contact: Tim Adams @ (603) 595-9522, teadams2003@earthlink.net Wayne Labatte @ (603) 882-4500, waynepl@comcast.net Paul Bendeck @ 603-672-0084, pbendeck@verizon.net