Back to the top of the page

Newsletter 4, March 13, 2004

Backup, Backup and Backup!

This can not be said too often. It´s actually quite simple, back up your work if you can´t afford losing it.

So how can it be done?

You need to copy your work to another storage media, that means, it has to be copied from the computer in one way or another. Burn a CD is what most people do today, many new computers have builtin CD-burners and even if you don´t have it builtin you can add an external CD-burner. Floppys work too but the size of datafiles today are often far too big for this media. Zip-disks would be to prefer over floppys since they can hold up to 75 times the data compared with a floppydisk. An external harddrive is what I use, since this gives me a big advantage I´ll explain all about in a second. If you only have a relatively small amount of important files you could also E-mail them to someone you trust and just ask them to keep the mails in case you need to go back to an older version for some reason. You can also transfer data from one computer to another if you have a home/office network.

Why do I need to backup? Isn´t my data safe forever on my computer?

I wish I could say yes, but computers are machines and the part where the data is stored, the hard drive, can break down in several ways, most of the time when the computer stops working the information on the harddrive is safe, so don´t take "Sorry, we can´t get your data back" for an answer, I´ve saved work from laptops that the owners have accidentally spilled coffee or water in, the computer itself is most of the time damaged so bad that a repair would be close to what it´s worth, but the data can be transferred to another computer or CD´s. E-mail and addresses can be imported to the new system.

Another reason to back up is if the computer is stolen or if the hard drive stops working, there are ways of recovering data from a dead harddrive, but then it starts costing a lot of money. And if this is the case, the hard drive is an extremely delicate piece of hardware, so don´t even think you can repair it yourself! The only ones that can do that is trained experts, not regular technicians you find in any Apple Store on the street.

If you hear strange metallic clicking sounds from the computer at a frequency of 1 Hz it is most likely a sign of a hard drive failure, shut down the computer immediately and call me for advice. Another sign of serious problems can be that it won´t let you save your work to the hard drive.

How often should I backup my work? The question you need to ask yourself is:

How much time can I afford to lose? One month of work? One week? One day? How much information changes on your computer is another good question. How much E-mail can you lose without problems, or how many new addresses do you add to your Addressbook per day/week/month. The difficult part is to know exactly which files needs to be backed up to be able to restore things after a disaster and where to find them. This is different for every user, I can answer that if you contact me.

Another important thing is this. Let´s say you back to a single zipdisk. You drag your work files to the zipdisk every friday evening and replace what´s there since last friday. Now let´s say you find a document that you can´t open for some reason. You go to your zipdisk just to find that the document there also is corrupt, now what? You can avoid this by using several zipdisks, mark them first friday of the month, second and so on. Then use the disk only once per month and you have 4 generations of data to go back to, this eliminates the risk of losing work. What I do is to backup every week to an external harddrive, I create a folder with todays date on it and copy all files to it, then I know exactly when the backup was made and I can later decide how many copies backwards I want to save. For some types of work it might be interesting to see what a changing document looked like at a specific time.

The idea with a backup is that you should not use it for the daily work, just keep it safe in case of disaster. If you need to use a document from a backup, be careful to not replace any newer version on your computer. NEVER open a backed up file from Palm or your E-mail program by doubleclicking on it, this can cause problems.

Lock your Mac

If you need to leave your computer unattended you might want to lock it to an object in the room, there are good solutions for this, ask at the nearest FNAC or any store that sells computer equipment. There are wires with a lock that fits in most laptops and they often have a loop at the other end so you can attach the wire itself with a padlock to something in the room, a radiator or water pipes. There are wires that are especially hard to cut off. Don´t buy a cheap one, the price should be around 50 euro.

Don´t choose the type of lock that just has a combination, you´d be surprised how fast it is to try a 3 digit code before it opens, I know, I forgot my suitcase code the night before I was going on vacation last year, it took me 15 minutes to open it. (no, it wasn´t 000, but I started with that).

If you have further questions, contact me for a session in how to keep your data safe.

Been getting strange messages from your Internet Service Provider?

Some people have been getting messages that don´t make sense. The most recent example is Wanadoo who had sent a mail telling a person that he has sent SPAM and suggested that he installs a firewall and updates his virus software. I´m 100% sure the real problem is as I have described before, the PC-virus that abuses E-mailaddresses and makes it look like you are the sender.

In OS X there is a builtin Firewall, but it´s off by defult, turn it on like this: Apple menu/System preferences/Sharing, the second tab is Firewall, Click on the Start-button and it´s on. Noone I have spoken to has yet even heard of a virus for OS X and the Macintosh news websites says the same. If you install Norton or any other antivirus software they might alert you and tell you it has has discovered a virus and erased it, most likely it is a PC-virus and it will not damage your Mac anyway.

A firewall doesn´t protect you from SPAM and junk mails, it´s to be compared with an extra lock on your door, it keeps strangers out of your computer.

Back to the top of the page

July 7, 2004

On the road with your Mac:

Since many of you will be travelling with your computers I thought I´d explain some things that you can encounter when beeing on the road.

If you use Mail, OutLook or Entourage for checking your email:

Don´t change the settings for POP-server, this is still the same wherever you are in the world, if using wanadoo, it should be "pop.wanadoo.fr" regardless or where you are connected to the internet.

But the SMTP-server setting is likely to be another, this let´s you send out mail and should be the server belonging to the internet servivce provider you are connected with for the moment, you might need to ask someone else who is using the same connection for the name, here´s some of the most common ones in france:

Noos: "mail.noos.fr" or "smtp.noos.fr
Wanadoo: "smtp.wanadoo.fr"
Club-internet: "mail.club-internet.fr"
Free: "smtp.free.fr"
Freesurf: "smtp.freesurf.fr"

If you use Internet Explorer and a webmail interface, you don´t have to do anything except to make sure you have your password with you, the login is almost always the emailaddress itself. Just think of that if you go to a cybercafé, make sure there is not a checkbox saying "Remember my id on this computer" or else someone else coming after you could get in to your mail. Make sure to shut down Internet Explorer after a webmail session.
some common webmail-addresses:

http://webmail.noos.fr/
http://www.wanadoo.fr/ Click on "Consultez votre messagerie" just under the top banner
http://imp.free.fr/
http://www.freesurf.fr/ the login in on the left side

Power on the road:

The voltage is different between France and the US, in the states the Voltage is 110-120 Volt and in France it is 220-240 Volt.
This means that if you bring equipment from the states to France you MUST check that it is can handle the higher voltage. Or else you will set off the smoke alarm when plugging it in. If you look at a power supply on a portable Mac it says Voltage 110-240 Volt, ths means you can plug it in in both countries with problems, the only thing you need is an adapter to be able to physically plug in the device.
If you bring something to the states and it was working fine in France, it normally works in the states too.Read more about coming to France with a Mac here:

http://www.intransit-international.com/

Click on Computer help down on the left side, just under "Living on France"

A little tip for those of you who often compare documents, looking for size information or creation dates by using the APPLE-I command for Get Info, also found in the File menu in the Finder. Try this instead: select the item you want to know more about, press ALT-APPLE-I and you get what´s called the inspector window, it stays on the screen and gives you information about the item/items that is/are currently selected.

The next generation of OS X, 10.4 Tiger is on it´s way.

Spotlight
a fast smart new way of finding and organizing anything on your Mac.

iChat
now works with for 4 people in the videochat and up to 10 for audiochat, now it has developed into a real videoconference tool with zero setup just as before.

Safari RRS
a new version of Safari that can in new ways help you find and organize news and headlines, forget the old days when you had to browse through lots of webpages to find the news you want.
Another interesting feature is that this version of Safari can be set to not save or cache ANY information concerning visited websites and passwords you have used, this makes your banking and internet business a lot safer.

Dashboard
similar to Exposé but developed with new functions.

Voiceover
talk to your Mac instead of using the mouse of keyboard, enhanced compared to the old speech that worked best with a US accent.

.Mac and iSync
most of it is already available in 10.3 Panther, you can synchronize your entire Address book, Internet favorites and calandars between several Macs automatically, great for keeping the home and office computer up-to-date without any user interaction at all, I´ve tested it.

Automator
this is a tool to help you create automatic functions for boring repetitive work.read more here:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/

Back to the top of the page

October 14, 2004

File extensions are important between Mac and PC

The file extension is what you see at the end of a filename, for example "yourdocument.doc", it helps the system to know which application it should use to open the file, if you share documents with Windows-users you need to make sure you have the extension in the filename. The newer versions of the Office suite has a checkbox in the Save dialog, make sure it´s ticked, It says Append File Extension. It´s there on Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
If you create a lot of presentations, I suggest you check out Apple's own software, Keynote, it´s easier to use than PowerPoint and makes it possible to create stunning presentations with effects that you can't do in PowerPoint. Costs around 100 euro. And of course it opens presentations made with PowerPoint.

You will find more info about file extensions in a previous newsletter, links at the top of this page.


Battery recall on 15-inch Powerbooks bought early this year

There has been a series of batteries with a potential safety issue sold in the first half of 2004, these batteries can overheat. There are no known cases where people have been injured. But it´s better to be on the safe side so I suggest that you look at the serial number of your battery if you have one of these computers. Unplug the computer from the main power and take out the battery using a small coin to open the lock. There is a label under it.Model Number: A1045
serial numbers that begin with: HQ404, HQ405, HQ406, HQ407, or HQ40

Read more here if you have a 15-inch PowerBook and a battery matching these numbers.

http://www.apple.com/support/powerbook/batteryexchange/


Norton AV corrupts mailboxes

I've seen many reports of Norton Antivirus for OS X behaving in a weird way, if it finds a virus (a PC-virus since there are no viruses for OS X) it does something to the mailbox to quarantine the virus, but it corrupts the mailbox at the same time so you lose the other mails in the same place.

My best advice if you have Norton, don't let it off the CD, meaning, DO NOT install it. If you think you need it, run it from the CD instead. Most of the time you don't really need to run Norton, DO NOT run it unless it´s absolutely necessary. I've heard so-called technicians in shops in Paris suggest Norton for problems that will never be solved by Norton. For example to solve an issue with getting strange date formats in the Finder window list view, it´s because of customizing the Date Formats wrong.

new iMac

Have you seen the new iMac G5? It´s flat, very flat, makes you wonder what happened to the computer.
It´s just 2 inches thick and everything is built into the screen, power supply and CD/DVD-drive. If you use a wireless Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and an Airport network to connect to the internet the only cable you will have on your desk is the power cable to the iMac.

You can hook up your Rendezvous-supported printer to the Airport or the Airport Express and print without a printer cable between the computer and the printer. You can even play your music directly to your home stereo wirelessly using the Airport Express. Put one in each room and you can stream your music to any place in your home just by selecting the room to play it in from iTunes.

Cost for wireless?

Airport Express 150 euro, a speaker system is 50 euro if you don't need a fancy brand.

PS. Requires Airport Extreme card for setup, but works from the Classic airport card once installed and set up. The range on the Airport Express is less than with the regular Airport base Station, it works best in combination with one of the base stations. It also extends the range of your existing network.

http://apple.com/imac


More Tiger news

The next release of OS X, 10.4, code-named "Tiger" is coming in the first half of 2005. As always, tons of new exiting features you just can't live without.

Safari RSS for getting and personalizing news in a way never seen before

Dashboard for getting fast access to small useful functions like the calculator and a world clock among other things, some of you might recognize the application Konfabulator, now it will be built into the system

Spotlight for finding your files or anything on your computer, also lets you create smart folders that automatically gets updated when new search results appear. You can search for a name and spotlight will return a result with documents that this person has emailed to you, it will give you appointments from your iCal calendar that includes this person, show you pictures or documents with the name inside the contents of the document, and it´s extremely fast because the system indexes everything on your computer in the background.

and my favorite:
a new version of iChat AV that supports up to 4 persons at the same time in a video-chat, or up to 10 in a audio-chat.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/

New versions of software often requires that the system is up-to-date

I´m sure some of you have experienced problems when installing new softwares, it´s more and more common that a software requires a minimum of system version that is higher than the one even an almost new computer was delivered with. Today it´s more important then ever to make sure your system is up-to-date. You can do it from the software update function, it´s in the Apple menu if you have OS X 10.3 (or higher). It´s not just the system itself that it is important to update, there are many components in the system that also is a good idea to update, the Java updates improves Safari, Apples own web browser so it supports certain webpages better. For banking over the internet for example.

The Keychain application

The keychain sometimes pops up and asks for different things so you know it´s there, but what is it really doing for you?
It remembers passwords, but that's just one function, it can also be used by you to read passwords if you forget them, and it can help you lock the screen to keep people out of your computer when you leave it. You find a program called Keychain Access in the Utilities folder, select a password and mark the checkbox "Show pass-phrase" put in your user password and voilá, it shows you the password in clear text. If you look in the View menu you can choose "Show status in menu bar" it puts a little padlock in the menu-bar at the top of the screen, select "Lock screen" and it will start your screen-saver, the only way to get back into your computer is to type in your password. You can also log in as a different user.

Some useful tips about Mail and AddressBook

in the Addressbook - choose "Edit distribution list" from the Edit menu, it makes it easier to handle your mailing lists, you can very easily see which address is used for different mailing lists. Just click on the second address to select it instead of the one being displayed in bold text.

in Mail, when you have prepared a mail for sending to a group, if you want to see who is on the list directly in the mail window, just aim for the address and wait, the entire list will be displayed after a few seconds. Just like some buttons display a help text to tell you what they do when you click on them.

If you want to hide the recipients addresses from being displayed to all members of the group in the mail you send out you find the setting here, Mail menu / Preferences / Composing - uncheck the option "When sending to a group, show all member addresses"

.Mac 10 Mb limit on messages now and a total of 250 Mb, 125 for email, 125 for iDisk

for anyone who uses .Mac for email and publishing webpages, calendars and the iDisk for moving files over the internet when traveling this is good news, you now get a total of 250 Mb of storage, and the limit for emails has been set up to 10 Mb. This let's you send and receive larger attachments.
There´s also more and more softwares available for download free for .Mac members. Games and Norton Parental Control for example.

Back to the top of the page

November 7, 2004

iPod Photo, Why should your ears have all the fun?

There is a new iPod out there. It´s called iPod Photo and can store your digital images as well as music, your calendar, Addressbook and other data. It plays slideshows with music. You control it with iTunes 4.7 and it automatically synchronizes all your pictures or just the albums you choose.

http://www.apple.com/ipodphoto/

iTunes 4.7

With iTunes 4.7 comes some interesting new functions. You can check for duplicate songs, but as mentioned in the last newsletter, you need to update a couple other things for it to work properly, fortunately this is easy. System preferences / Software update / Click on Check now and then Install

Something I´m using right now on my old faithful iMac is a setting in iTunes preferences, you can set it to automatically import music from a CD upon insertion and eject it when done, so all you have to do to get your music onto your Mac is simply feed the discs in and iTunes does the rest.

Ordering online

I have never had any major problems when buying things from a website, but being careful is always advisable. If the connection between your computer and the website is secure there is an indication of it somewhere on the browser window, if you use Safari there is a padlock at the top right corner of the window. In Explorer the symbol is in the down left corner.
If you´re not comfortable with putting your credit card number on a website, look for a telephone number, very often there is a number to a client service.
Don´t use the browsers Back-button or click several times on a Submit button as this can cause problems like ordering several times or losing the orders you´ve made sofar.

Updating your wireless mouse and keyboard.

Some time ago there was a firmware update for the Apple wireless keyboard and mouse. You might have to run these yourself. Look for them in the Utilities folder, there are 2 called Wireless Mouse / Keyboard Updater. Run them manually and follow the instructions carefully. If they already have been installed it will tell you.

Using the audio-chat with iChat as a phone?

More and more people discover that it´s now possible to use the internet as a free phone. iChat is one way to go. You don´t need a fancy headset, if you have a portable there is a builtin microphone and iChat does all the setup for you. All you need is an account to use it and a friend with a similar account. Either .Mac-account or an AIM-account (which is free but does less things for you) at www.aim.com

Daylight savings time, let the computer do the job.

If you want your system clock to always show the correct time it´s easy to do. Go to System Preferences in the Apple menu, then select Date & Time, there is a checkbox for Set Time and Date automatically, make sure the Time Zone is correctly set.

How many of you use a lot of batteries for different things?

Some eight months ago I decided to see if there is any differences between really expensive Energizer-batteries and cheap ones from LIDL. Have a guess, after trying myself my conclusion is that the cheaper ones last longer, and not just a little longer. I´ve tried 2 sets of cheap ones, they worked fine for 3 months each, while the Energizer lasted 3 weeks. I´m not buying batteries with a fancy box again. I´m not saying this is absolute scientific proof, but it´s good enough for me.

Read more about batteries for Powerbooks and iBooks here:
http://www.apple.com/batteries/

If you prefer rechargeable batteries you find a very nice little electronics shop on rue D´Odessa close to Montparnasse.


Have you seen the .Mac Slides button in iPhoto?

What this does is to upload the album of your choice to Apple´s .Mac-server so others easily can use your pictures as a screensaver!

What you need to do:
Create an album in iPhoto and click on .Mac Slides, it will ask if you´re sure you want to do this, click Publish. It will upload your pictures, don´t worry about the format or anything else, it´s completely automatic. Your part is done now.

What your friends need to do:
-open System Preferences / Desktop and Screensaver, click on the Screensaver tab
-Choose .Mac in the left column, click Options
-type in the .Mac member name, mine is "oniel" (as in my E-mail "oniel@mac.com") if you want to test it right now. You might want to uncheck .Mac public slideshow unless you like to see pictures of computers... Click OK.
-next time the screensaver goes on you see the pictures I just uploaded, when I change them you will automatically get the new ones.
You need to be connected to the Internet for this kind of screensaver.

To create your own slideshow you need a .Mac account and specify your member name in System prefs / .Mac
http://www.mac.com/

If you have friends who you think might be interested in receiving the newsletter directly in their mail, ask them to sign up at the top of this webpage.

Back to the top of the page