Mac Net Journal

News: Apple releases Mac OS X 10.4.3 - Apple on Monday released an update for Mac OS X, bringing both the client and server versions of the operating system to 10.4.3. Among the changes in the update are improvements to Safari, Mail, iChat and Apple's desktop searching tool, Spotlight. [MacCentral]

I will try this out myself tonight, once I take the prudent measures of backing up my system and running a disk utility on the system for good measure...

Getting pumped for Tinderbox Day in Seattle
Monday, October 31, 2005, 12:50 PM

Tinderbox creator Mark Bernstein writes today about the upcoming Tinderbox Weekend in San Francisco and Tinderbox Day in Seattle. I will be joining the fun on Nov. 16 in Seattle, and I look forward to seeing what others are doing with this great software tool.

By the way, November 6 will mark the three-year anniversary of my move to use Tinderbox as my tool for maintaining Mac Net Journal. I made the switch from Radio back in 2002, when I was still working from home as a contractor and freelancer and I had much more time to write about how I was using my Mac to get real work done. I haven't had nearly so much time to write on MNJ this month - I think this is the weakest month in my history of running this site. But I have reasons for my relative silence. Among them, I helped plan and run two major events as president of Tahoma Audubon, the local chapter of the National Audubon Society, and I am now in the last two weeks of writing our latest book, Washington Disasters and Heroic Rescues. Add the pressures of my regular job in the community relations office of the City of Tacoma, where I am helping lead a major project to redesign the city's Web site, and it has been one blur of a month. At least it is far from boring.

What else has been going on in the last month? Well, I bought and have been using a Palm Lifedrive to organize my life, which means I am not living in Tinderbox as much as I would like. Maybe I can find some tips for integrating portable note collecting with the Palm with my Tinderbox tools during the Seattle event.

Are you going to Tinderbox Day in Seattle? |

An easy way to rip DVDs for iPod video playback
Monday, October 31, 2005, 12:33 PM

Rip Your Existing DVDs to Play on iPod video - HandBrake is open source software that lets you convert existing DVD content to MPEG-4 for playing on the new iPod. [O'Reilly MacDevCenter.com]

Disk partitioning saves the day
Monday, October 31, 2005, 12:30 PM

Rob Griffiths writes a useful article about disk partitioning and how it can save the day in some situations.

I used to partition all of my disks, back in the days of Mac OS 9.x, but I haven't done so under Mac OS X. This article may make me think twice about partitioning.

Rob Galbraith looks at Aperture
Sunday, October 30, 2005, 10:10 PM

Bringing Aperture Into Focus - Watching Aperture run, we couldn't help but think that we've put up with the poorly-designed interfaces of certain applications, and the seriously slow underpinnings of others, for far too long. Aperture appears to demonstrate that there is a better way to design certain aspects of applications for pro photographers. By Rob Galbraith [myapplemenu]

Job application tool rejects Mac users
Thursday, October 27, 2005, 12:33 PM

Need a job? Don't use a Mac - Software at company fielding job applications doesn't support Mac browsers, leaving some prospective employees in the lurch. [CNET News.com]

There's nothing like screening out some of your most creative potential job applicants based on the lack of cross-platform support in a job application tool.

Wildlife info from the Lewis & Clark Expedition
Wednesday, October 19, 2005, 1:13 PM

Details of the wildlife encountered during the Lewis & Clark Expedition are now available in digital form online, thanks to Oregon State University. Very cool! The Cascadia Scorecard Weblog offers details...

Aperture: Interesting, but not for PowerBooks
Wednesday, October 19, 2005, 11:55 AM

It looks like only G5 users will meet the processor requirements for Apple's new $500 Aperture photo management program. That's too bad...

Finally! New PowerBooks, photo tools from Apple
Wednesday, October 19, 2005, 10:33 AM

Apple offers some compelling new tools for portable computer users and photographers today. I will have to look into the announcements more tonight, but new PowerBooks and the Aperture program look pretty interesting at first glance. The new G5 desktops are interesting too. MacCentral has the full story for now.

Dabbling with Thunderbird
Wednesday, October 12, 2005, 8:12 PM

I have been giving my old Powermail program a rest this week and doing a test run with the open source Thunderbird program from the folks at Mozilla.org. I made the switch on a test basis about a week ago when I needed to send out an HTML e-mail about next weekend's Audubon & Artistry auction to benefit Tahoma Audubon. It worked well for that task, and it seems functional for the rest of my needs too. And best of all, it is speedy - almost as fast as Powermail. It just feels more modern.

I'm still keeping my archive of e-mail in Powermail, for now...

Meanwhile, I have also been using Firefox more and more. It is simply faster than OmniWeb, if not as full featured.

A video iPod, a new iMac, new iTunes and Quicktime...
Wednesday, October 12, 2005, 8:00 PM

So, Apple rolled out the long anticipated video iPod along with a surprise upgrade to the iMac G5, but PowerBook users were left once again to look on with envy and wait for meaningful updates to the once lucrative line of portable computers. Of today's announcements, the iMac seems the most interesting new development. But I also wonder about the parts of the traditional Mac lineup that are being neglected - the desktop machines and the PowerBooks. How long will users wait to have more modern machines? Until the Intel-based machines happen next year?

Impatient in Tacoma...

Related: Apple bloggers hot for iMac, not for iPod (CNet)

Congratulations due for Brent Simmons
Tuesday, October 4, 2005, 9:08 PM

It looks like one of the good guys won today with the news that Brent Simmons' great software creation, NetNewsWire, has been purchased by NewsGator. You can read all about the news here. And as a NNW user since the program entered beta testing years ago, it feels good that things look hopeful that I can continue using this software on my Mac well into the future.

Way to go Brent! And congrats on the new gig!

A challenge - building one catalog, print and Web
Monday, October 3, 2005, 11:39 PM

I have a quick project to finish over the next week or so. The challenge: To efficiently create a print catalog for our upcoming Audubon & Artistry auction event, complete with photos and artist descriptions, and at the same time create an online catalog with thumbnails each art item that is clickable to a larger image. The perfect solution would be one tool to rule them all, the holy grail of design once, export and feel the love. What I am trying to avoid is a drawn out solution that is twice the work and not even half the fun.

Ideas? How well does the HTML export work in Apple's Pages application?

Update: A little quick research answered my question about Pages and HTML export. Apparently, it sucks: As noted here and here.

Oh yeah, I have little in the way of a budget to work with here. |

Another interesting article about outliners
Monday, October 3, 2005, 9:20 PM

Ted Goranson has written another interesting piece in his series of articles about Mac outliners. This time he compares OmniOutliner - one of the tools I use every day - and TAO, which I have yet to use. Read all about it: TAO and OmniOutliner Pro

A reprieve, and more writing to do
Monday, October 3, 2005, 9:12 PM

Thankfully, our Washington Disasters and Historic Rescues book will still see the light of day sometime next spring. We have until Nov. 15 to finish the second half of the book - still a challenge, but not unbelievable like our first deadline.

Much work to do...

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