Mac Net Journal

It sounds like it is still pretty early in development, but TheMacMind has an interesting post today about iPod Linux - more news on making the iPod even more useful.

The passing of a Mac creator
Sunday, February 27, 2005, 10:32 PM

Jef Raskin may have died yesterday, but as one of the creators of the Mac user interface, his influence will live for years to come.

Cult of Mac has a nice look at his career. All I can say is that the age of 61 is way too young to go...

On using an iPod for more than music
Wednesday, February 23, 2005, 9:55 PM

John Moran writes in the Hartford Courant: You can use an iPod for much more than music. These are the kinds of tips that could win over aging guys like me who find a $400 music player a bit ridiculous...

Playing today to help respond to a real attack tomorrow
Wednesday, February 23, 2005, 6:16 PM

I am sitting home tonight and recovering from a headache caused by the education I received as a participant in a drill at the Puyallup Fairgrounds. The aim of the drill was to respond to a mock terrorist atttack on one of the country's largest fairs, just up the river from my home town of Tacoma. The drill was confusing and challenging - just what it should be in order to make sure that if and when a real attack would happen in my part of the country, I will be ready to gather the facts and help communicate accurate information to the public.

Among the things I learned - plans will go awry, it pays to make the most of the resources at hand to gather the news and coordinate getting it out to the media and public, and no one has all the answers when the world is falling apart around me. The other thing I learned...my cell phone I use for work is a piece of shit. The battery died on the thing about 3/4 of the way through the day, forcing me to use my personal cell phone to finish out the drill.

Lessons learned...

All iPod, all the time
Wednesday, February 23, 2005, 6:08 PM

After announcing an overhaul of its iPod line today, with new versions of the popular music players at even lower prices, Apple has made it clear that it plans to continue riding the wave of popularity for the iconic iPod for the forseeable future. Apple also rolled out an updater for iPods today...

Another photo from yesterday's morning outing
Tuesday, February 22, 2005, 6:00 PM

I posted another photo from my cold morning explorations yesterday, this time on the City of Tacoma home page. The photo is a Bald Eagle...

New OS X Security Update deals with Java issues
Tuesday, February 22, 2005, 1:38 PM

Apple has released another security update, this time tackling issues with Java under Mac OS X. Here are the release notes for the 16.4MB update (on my up-to-date Mac OS X 10.3.8 installation):

Security Update 2005-002 delivers a number of security enhancements and is recommended for all Macintosh users. This update includes the following components:

Java Web Start

JavaPluginCocoa.bundle

JavaScriptCore

Core Java classes

For detailed information on this Update, please visit Apple's more detailed release notes online.

So, how is the update working for you? |

A follow up on yesterday's photos
Tuesday, February 22, 2005, 7:46 AM

A couple of people have asked about the lens I used to shoot yesterday's photos of the Red-tailed Hawk. The shots were taken with a Canon EF 75-300mm f4-5.6 lens fully zoomed to 300mm - which of course is bigger than 300mm on the Canon EOS 20D due to the image area of the digital chip. I was holding the camera in my hand for the hawk photos, as I will do for most action shots, but the photo would likely be better with a relatively slow lens like this if I was using a tripod.

Previously all of my close up shots of birds were taken with as Nikon Coolpix 950, which I crafted a simple adapter for that allowed me to hold the camera up to our spotting scope for digiscoping. The frustrations with this setup, which I will probably still use now and then, included the inability to get action shots because I had to focus both the scope and the camera on the subject of the photo, and the fact that nine out of ten photos I took with the setup would be blurry - the slightest movement of the camera or the subject would throw things off. |

No, I am not Steve Wozniak
Monday, February 21, 2005, 7:43 PM

I forgot to mention a funny piece of snail mail I received Saturday from a local community college. The mail was sent to my home business, White Rabbit Publishing, but it was addressed to "Steve Wozniak". Either I have a high-profile employee I didn't know about, or someone is having some fun with my connection to Macs...

Mossberg calls Mac a great mainstream alternative
Monday, February 21, 2005, 3:17 PM

In a recent column, Wall Street Journal writer Walter Mossberg offers his recipe for the kind of Windows user who could benefit from switching to the Mac:

The bottom line is that the Mac is a great alternative for mainstream consumers doing mainstream tasks who are sick and tired of the Windows security crisis. But it isn't for everybody.

While the column takes it too easy on Microsoft for making its OS less and less useful in a spyware and virus-plagued environment, it is good to hear the Mac referred to as a great alternative for mainstream users. Who would have thought a columnist would write that in say the late 1990s?

At play with the Canon EOS 20D on Presidents Day
Monday, February 21, 2005, 3:02 PM

I spent all morning doing an informal bird survey along the shores of Commencement Bay, and along the way I enjoyed getting some local bird photos with our Canon EOS 20D digital camera. The shot above is a Red-tailed Hawk sitting in a treetop along Marine View Drive in the northeast portion of Tacoma, Washington. Apparently the hawk didn't like me paying so much attention, so it took to the air, giving me a nice view of the underside of the raptor. The skies around Tacoma were full of raptors on this cold morning, including four Peregrine Falcons and four mature Bald Eagles. What an excellent sunny day to be out exploring!

A happy NetNewsWire camper at work
Friday, February 18, 2005, 12:20 PM

I am now a happy NetNewsWire camper at work. I just downloaded and installed the latest beta version of my favorite newsreader for Mac OS X during a break from my job at the City of Tacoma, and on a whim I decided I would check to see if the program could now download my news through the firewall at work - something I haven't been able to do since I started working here last June. Much to my delight, it works! Thank you Brent!

New Canon digital cameras
Thursday, February 17, 2005, 11:49 PM

Canon rolls out new digital cameras, camcorders - At the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) trade show today in Orlando, Canon introduced a number of new digital imagaing products, including the EOS Digital Rebel XT SLR camera, new PowerShot compact cameras, and a trio of camcorders... [MacMinute.com]

The new Digital Rebel sounds particularly interesting, although still lower-powered on the feature set when compared to the Canon EOS 20D that Natalie and I bought a few weeks ago.

iPod shuffle tips and tricks
Wednesday, February 16, 2005, 9:12 PM

iPod shuffle Tips and Tricks - The iPod shuffle is the easiest-to-use iPod to date. But that doesn't mean you can't customize how you listen and upload music. Scott Knaster shows you some very handy tips and tricks for the shuffle and iTunes 4.7.1. [O'Reilly MacDevCenter.com]

A video mirroring problem with my PowerBook
Monday, February 14, 2005, 12:55 PM

Last night after doing a slide show of photos from my recent Florida trip for friends, I ran into the first new problem I have found since updating my first generation 12-inch PowerBook G4 to Mac OS X 10.3.8. After doing the slide show and disconnecting from the TV that I used for the display, the cursor no longer displayed on my PowerBook. I could mouse over items in my Dock and choose whatever programs I wanted, so the mouse was working, but the pointer would not display. I tried sleeping the machine and waking it again to see if that would restore the pointer, but that didn't work. The only solution was to restart my machine.

I will have to see if this issue continues when I hook up to a projector for doing presentations - something I will be doing more often in the next few months as Natalie and I go on the road to birding festivals in our state to help promote our new Birding Washington book. Hopefully this is isolated to using the S-video and RCA adapter on my PowerBook and doesn't cause problems with hooking up another monitor through the VGA adapter... |

My latest software buys - OmniWeb, OmniOutliner Pro
Sunday, February 13, 2005, 9:55 PM

Today I took advantage of my relative downtime and continuing recovery from jetlag to install the latest Mac OS X updates (no problems so far...) and to buy a couple of pieces of critical software. I picked up an upgrade to the newest version of OmniWeb, which is my main browser thanks to its value-added features like workspaces and browser persistence. I also bought a family license for OmniOutliner Pro. I debated on the latter, since I use Tinderbox for so much of my writing and outlining, but OmniOutliner was a major part of my effort to write Birding Washington. It was time to rejoin the fray.

It's good to be home, and looking back
Sunday, February 13, 2005, 4:38 PM

After a whirlwind of a day yesterday, when Natalie and I battled jetlag while getting ready to host the annual membership banquet for Tahoma Audubon - where I played the part of master of ceromonies, today is thankfully a day to unwind and look back on our vacation in southern Florida. We will have friends over in a few hours, and I have been spending time culling through the best images from our vacation to do a short slide show tonight. The image of the Green Heron above was taken on a walk along the Anhinga Trail in the Everglades National Park last Monday night.

We took more than 600 photos during our trip, and it is really hard to pick favorite images from the eight-day exploration. Below is one more shot - this time of a bird that we can't see here at home in the Pacific Northwest. The shot, taken out our car window by Natalie, shows a group of White Ibis feeding in a yard in the south part of Miami.

In all during our trip we drove more than 700 miles in Florida, visited three premier birding sites and added 51 new life birds. Not bad at all for a trip that was split between four days of birding and exploration and four days of being more stationary in Key West. We plan to go back sometime, because there is much more to see! |

Another travel day
Friday, February 11, 2005, 10:10 AM

Today will be another long travel day, as Natalie and I fly out of Key West around 5:30 p.m. EST en route to Atlanta, and then from Atlanta to Seattle with an arrival time around 11 p.m. PST. I hate these kinds of travel days...

A travel regret about missing the Tinderbox Weekend
Thursday, February 10, 2005, 11:07 AM

One regret about my soon-to-be-finished vacation trip to Florida is that I am not able to stay on the East Coast through the weekend. If I didn't have an annual Audubon banquet to help host and MC in Tacoma on Saturday then I would sure enjoy taking in the Tinderbox Weekend in Boston that will be happening at the same time. Dang it...

On the choice between shooting video or still images
Thursday, February 10, 2005, 10:52 AM

CNET takes a look at digital cameras and video cameras that are starting to cross the line, with abilities to shoot both still images and video: Video or still? You needn't choose any more...

From what I have read, I think the headline simplifies things way too much. But the convergence of video and still images is definitely a direction some camera makers are exploring right now. I don't think they are there yet.

GraphicConverter 5.5
Thursday, February 10, 2005, 10:30 AM

GraphicConverter 5.5 adds, enhances many features - Thorsten Lemke on Wednesday published an update to GraphicConverter, his utility for manipulating digital images and converting them between different formats. Version 5.5 offers such new features as a function for smudging and blurring pictures, a keyword window, the ability to undo up to 40 steps, a brightness and contrast function, added import capabilities and more. GraphicConverter 5.5 also improves photo RAW import, 16- and 12-bit grayscale TIFF import, UTF8 handling in XMP records and more. This is a free update for current users -- the full software is US$30 as a download or $35 delivered on CD and it requires Mac OS X v10.1. [MacCentral]

I point out this update from yesterday because GraphicConverter remains one of the tools I use nearly every day for working with images on my Mac. When Photoshop would be overkill, GraphicConverter is just right. And it works much faster than Photoshop on my two-year-old PowerBook...

Securing your wireless email in OS X
Thursday, February 10, 2005, 10:25 AM

Chris Cummer points to an interesting article about creating secure wireless email connections on Mac OS X. This is something I should consider while on these road trips - even though the road trips will be less common after I return home from Key West.

Apple releases Mac OS X 10.3.8
Thursday, February 10, 2005, 10:16 AM

Apple has rolled out an update for Panther users, Mac OS X 10.3.8. Here are the release notes:

The 10.3.8 Update delivers improved compatibility and reliability for Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther" and is recommended for all users.

Key updates include:

improved OpenGL technology and updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers

improved file sharing and directory services for mixed Mac and PC networks

improved compatibility for third party applications and devices

previous standalone security updates

For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website.

For detailed information on Security Updates, please visit this website.

I won't install this update on my machine until tomorrow night sometime, when I return home. There's no sense risking a bad software update while on the road. How is the update working for you on your machine? |

Using a 12-inch PowerBook on the road

My vacation time in Florida is going well. At the present I am sitting in a way-too-expensive hotel across the road from Smathers Beach in Key West - where I will soon be strolling and taking photos as I walk along looking for birds and other sights. I am writing this on my two-year-old 12-inch PowerBook G4, and the little machine is performing swimmingly on the trip so far as my digital media center and connection to the Internet. I've used it to archive and view roughly 600 photos taken while on the trip - many of new bird species I had not seen until this thorough exploration of southern Florida.

By my last count I have seen 45 life birds since arriving in Florda last Thursday night, and along the way Natalie and I have visited three of the state's premier birding spots - J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and the southern reaches of the Everglades National Park, where we watched the sunset at Eco Pond at the end of the road in Flamingo. I will have to post a photo or two later today.

One clear shortcoming of my PowerBook, at least when compared with Natalie's 14-inch iBook, is the wireless reception. Staying here in the Sheraton I get one or two bars of reception on the free WiFi, while Natalie gets two or three bars. This has been consistent on the whole trip when we find free WiFi connections in hotels. She consistently gets better reception. My obvious conclusion: The 12-inch iBook would be the best traveling Mac.

On the other hand, now that I am shooting photos with our new Canon 20D, it sure would be nice to have a larger LCD to view the photos than my current 12-inch screen. Ah, the trade offs of portability vs. features...

It's a travel day tomorrow
Wednesday, February 2, 2005, 1:48 PM

Natalie and I fly east early in the morning tomorrow en-route to Florida, after a short stop at the airport in Atlanta. We will be exploring around Southern Florida and visiting some of the top nature/bird watching sites in the area starting Friday. Our plans include stops at Corkscrew Swamp, a few trails in the Everglades, possibly Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge and then back to Miami for the drive out to Key West at the beginning of next week. We'll be playing with the new camera along the way as well, and depending on the kind of Internet access I can find along the way, I should be blogging throughout the trip.

If any MNJ readers have must-see places that come to mind in the south part of Florida, let me know! |

A business case for using Pages
Wednesday, February 2, 2005, 1:08 PM

I am seeing a few interesting articles about Apple's new Pages application and its abilities in a business setting. Mike Rundle spells out some of the program's advantages, from his vantage point, in A Business Case for Using Apple's Pages.

A top ten list of AppleScript tips
Wednesday, February 2, 2005, 1:03 PM

If you have ever thought of dabbling with AppleScript and you wanted to see some useful examples of what the tool can do for you, take a look at Adam Goldstein's article Top Ten AppleScript Tips...

Derrick Story on working with RAW images in iPhoto 5
Wednesday, February 2, 2005, 1:00 PM

Writing on the MacDevCenter, Derrick Story talks about his workflow for manipulating RAW image files in the new iPhoto 5. I found the article interesting, since I am now using our new Canon 20D camera and I can shoot RAW format images to the 1GB card I bought for the camera. I have to admit that right now I have been shooting the highest quality JPEG files that the camera can produce rather than the 8MB RAW files. The smaller file size of the 3MB images versus 8MB images are one major reason I keep working with JPEG.

I should note that much of what Derrick writes about doing with iPhoto 5 has been possible to do for many months using iView MediaPro - the more feature-rich tool I use for archiving my photos, building contact sheets and Web views of the images, etc. MediaPro still runs circles around the capabilities of iPhoto, but it also carries a higher buy-in cost than Apple's iLife suite. |

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