A visit to AUS

If there’s a place in the UAE made for Mac lovers, it has to be the School of Architecture and Design at American University in Sharjah (AUS). It is only natural that the computers predominantly serves the school’s computer needs. We spent a few hours touring the school with Abdul-Hakeem Sanni, IT Manager for the school. He told us they have some 500 Macs in all, distributed among students and faculty, and ranging from old G4 iMacs (the ones with monitor on a swinging arm) to the latest Intel iMacs, MacBook Pros and Mac Pros.

The school’s main working area is very cleverly laid out. It encompasses three levels, with a large opening in the middle so you can see all the levels. At the bottom are all the new students. They don’t work with computers, instead they work manually, the old fashioned way, exploring their creativity with free-hand styles and designs. Then in the second year they move up one level and they get to work with computers. The computers are a mix of PowerMac G5 and iMacs, and it’s all laid out in an open plan solution, with teacher’s offices around the edges of the open area. This should encourage participation and dialogue between faculty and students, which is essential in education. In the third year, the students again advance one level up, and into different surroundings too. Then they have their own MacBook Pro, and they share a pretty big room with six or seven other students, where they all can work on their projects. The school also have more traditional computer labs with various types of equipment, including special sound-proof video editing suites. All in all, the school has about 120 Macs in labs, another 300 or so portable Macs that students have, and around another 80 Macs for faculty and staff. In total, the IT support staff serve around 500 Macs, which should mean that the School of Architecture and Design at AUS is one of the largest, if not the largest, user of Macs in the UAE. In total the school has around 7TB of storage on servers, distributed among G4 PowerMacs, xServes with xRaid, Mac Pro, and other types. The School of Architecture and Design is accepting around 100 students back for their third year in August, and they all have to buy a MacBook Pro. EmiratesMac will try to be present to distribute shuffle and help the students out with any questions they may have about their new Macs. You can find more information about AUS at www.aus.edu and the School of Architecture and Design at www.aus.edu/arcdes/.

by Magnus Nystedt

Photoshop Tutorial: Extend Borders

I have seen this effect some years back in Photoshop User Magazine, and have seen it in many advertisements and articles in the 7Days newspaper for instance in the sports section. The same effect could be done in QuarkXpress or InDesign using different techniques. Here I have a picture of a car, I will use Adobe Photoshop to apply this technique. you may use any picture where the centre object is extending his/her arms, head, or kicking a football on the field. Please download the file from from http://www.emiratesmac.com/newsletter/resources/august2007/race_relations_2.psd.

Zaid Al-Hilali is an Adobe Certfied Instructor operating from Dubai. You can reach him on +971 50 736 2306. You can also find him hanging out at www.emiratesmac.com and www.digitalmediame.com.

STEP1
Start by duplicating your background layer from Layers menu. This way we can crop this layer without losing the original image. Now use any one of the selection tools to create a selection around your centre object (red commodore in my image) to place it on a separate layer in next step. Keep selection active.

STEP 2
From Layer menu, choose New > Layer via Copy to place selected object on its own layer, Choose Select > Deselect. Target background copy layer (centre layer), then use the Rectangular Marquee tool to draw a square selection around the centre object.

STEP 3
From Select menu choose Inverse, then hit the backspace key on the keyboard, or choose Edit > Clear to remove unwanted objects other than our selection. Choose Select > Deselect. Now hide the Background layer.

STEP 4
Add a new layer under the background copy, draw a slightly bigger square than the square above it using the Marquee tool, then fill it with white to resemble a border by going to Edit > Fill and choose white color. I have added a temporary grey background in order to get white border visible for you, I’ll delete this grey layer later.

STEP 5
Target top most layer where we have our centre object residing, we are going to add Drop shadow to it. From menu Layer > Layer Style > Drop Shadow inter some reasonable amount of shadow, and direct light angle in logical manner.

STEP 6
We want to add a drop shadow under the background copy this time. Target the white border layer that we created in step three, from menu Layer > New > Layer via Copy to duplicate it. Drag the new white border copy layer and position it under the original white border layer. Name it “picture shadow”.

STEP 7
We need to colorize the picture shadow layer in black, in the Layer panel, Click on the Lock transparent pixels button. From Edit menu choose Fill… then Use: Black for Contents. and hit OK button.

STEP 8
Although we colored the picture shadow, yet we still can’t see it. Choose Edit > Transform > Warp to display warping handles. Play with it a little to familiarize yourself with it, then reset it and drag two or three corners conservatively to stretch the shadow out. Then press Enter/Return to execute the warp.

STEP 9
Let’s give the shadow a bit of blur. First reduce layer opacity to say 47% then unlock the Transparency lock for the shadow layer in the Layers panel, then from the menu Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur just drag the Radius slider to a reasonable degree, hit OK and it’s all done.

by Zaid Al-Hilali

Switcher Interview

Name: Sumudu Gunaratne
Job: Airline Manager
Mac: iMac 17-inch Intel
Switch date: March 8, 2006

Q: Why did you switch?
A: A friend at work had talked to me briefly about Mac Mini and so I fancied the idea of trying some thing new and different. So one evening I went over to Apple Store in Ibn Battuta Mall and bought my self a iMac.

Q: How did you find the Mac to start with?
A: Setting up was a piece of cake ! Just taking my iMac out of the box and connected the keyboard & Mouse. Once powered it up and turned on the’ fashionable & sexy thing’ for the first time, I was taken through the Mac OS X set up process to set up my user account painlessly. Plugging up my ADSL router, automatically detected router’s settings and configured itself to hook on to internet.

Q: What were the best things about it?
A: Simply, it’s a sleek, lovely and beautiful looking machine with an innovative OS. It has always been a pleasure and fun to work on my iMac. You got everything (software) you’d need coming with it for your family computing and home entertainment & stuff.

Q: What did you find difficult?
A: Well, in the beginning, it was mainly to get used to keyboard short cuts and that was it!

Q: Do you still use WIndows at all?
A: I have been using Mac for all my computing needs at home, including my nine year old daughter Stephanie. I don’t have PCs at home. However, at work; yes I use windows.

Q: Would you ever switch back?
A: I’ve been a home PC user since mid 90’s and discovered the Mac only last year and I wish it had been a much earlier; so I don’t think I’d go back.

Q: What would your advice be for other Windows users considering switching?
A: Just go for it ! I’ve had my lovely iMac since March last year and in the beginning I purchased and installed antivirus software, because of my unpleasant experiences with Windows previously. With Mac, I can’t believe no viruses, no trojans, no adware and no spyware. I think, this alone should be reason enough to switch from Windows to Mac!

Peel the Apple

Q: I’ve just got a new MacBook and with the Intel processor I thought it would run a lot faster than my iBook, but it doesn’t seem to be that much faster. What can I do to check to see if something’s wrong?
A: More than likely you’re running some PowerPC program. On an Intel Mac old PowerPC code runs in Rosetta which translates the PowerPC instructions to Intel ones, something that takes time and requires a lot of RAM. If you click on an application’s icon in the Finder and select Get Info from the File menu, you can see whether that application is PowerPC or Universal. You can also check Activity Monitor (Applications > Utilities) in the column named Kind. If you don’t see the Kind column go to View > Columns > Kind. For everything running it will say whether the code is PowerPC or Intel. You want to eliminate as much PowerPC code as possible so look at what the Process Name is. If you run PowerPC code, go to the manufacturer’s web site on the Internet and see if the software is available in a Universal Binary version.

Q: At work we share computers between many users. Like my iMac is used by at least three people every day. I don’t really want the others to be able to see what pages I go to online. What can I do to protect my privacy?
A: You have at least two options. You could create an account for each user and they have to log in to their account to browse. Then other users cannot see what they’ve done, at least as long as they always log out when they’re done. Another alternative if you’re using Safari is to select Private Browsing in the Safari menu. Safari then does not add anything to the browsing history, download history is automatically cleared, and no AutoFill information from forms is saved. You could also manually clear out the history and cookies when you’re finished.

Q: How to make a second Airport Extreme base station as a network extender? Should I still have two base stations recognized or having two basestation as one network???
A: First set up your Airport network with the first base station. Make sure you check the box which says Allow this network to be extended, on the Wireless tab of the Airport Utility software. Then on the second base station you select Extend a wireless network for Wireless mode in the Wireless tab. Enter the details of the network you want the base station to join and you should be set.

Q: Can we install Windows via BootCamp in multiple hard drives that are in RAID?
A: I’ve not tried it myself, but my best guess is that the answer is no, and after researching the issue, it seems that others agree. With RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Devices), multiple hard drives can be used to create what appears as one large hard drive to the computer, or to mirror information betweens several drives. It can increase the speed and reliability of your storage, but it requires several hard drives. The problem with installing BootCamp on a RAID set in Mac OS X is that it’s a software RAID meaning the RAID is managed by Mac OS X. Hardware RAID solutions typically have a dedicated card that controls the RAID. If someone knows of a way to install BootCamp and Windows on Mac OS X RAID volumes, please write to us.

Experiences of an Apple fan across the world - Part 4: Hong Kong

Another of my Mac travelogue and this time it is my experiences in Hong Kong. I have just three more - Sydney, Brisbane – Australia, Barcelona – Spain and Singapore to recount, the rest is all covered. Now that I have written four of my experiences, I realized that I am just penning what I went through and did not cover these experiences from your perspective. Hopefully I am going to rectify that mistake this time – there should be a purpose in narrating my experiences and some benefits for you since you have taken the trouble to read this.

Hong Kong – what a city! I have been there three times in the last one year and every trip has been an experience in itself. Shopping, eating, and just wandering aimlessly amongst the shopping districts of Hong Kong is something I look forward to every time I visit there. Since I am an Apple fan and as I mentioned that visiting Apple stores in any of the new cities I visit is sacrosanct, I did not miss an opportunity to explore the Apple stores in Hong Kong. My favorite haunting place is Wanchai Computer mall. Take the MTR to Wanchai station and exit through A4 exit and take the left turn and you come across this huge mal. Wow!! Abode for Hong Kong geeks and IT enthusiasts. You can spend the whole day exploring the latest stuff here. You can get the originals as well as the Chinese made, since the “mass” production houses are just a few hours away. You want a Hewlett Packard (HP) or Jewlett Hackard (JH – of course you can’t differentiate between the HP logo and the JH logo). Every brand has it’s clone just that they might have a different alphabet replaced somewhere in the spelling but the beauty is that the name would sound very similar if you pronounce it. The same goes for most of the branded stuff – I came across so many Kalvin Cliens, Pommy Tillifiger, In fact, a road side cart guy was selling Tommy pull my Finger T-Shirts. Unlike in other parts of the world, where you hardly find any presence of Apple in the computer malls, here you come across stores which sell Apple products. I found quite a few of them selling Apple software but no hardware and some of them selling old Mac books and Macs. Though I spent quite some time in the mall, I could not find an Apple store here, maybe I missed it. I am sure there has to be an Apple store in this mall.

Luckily for me, the Apple store was close to the place where I was staying (Marco Polo) in Kowloon. I found this accidentally. One of the days, I just finished my work quickly and came back to explore the area where I was staying and to my surprise, the Apple store was just a few minutes away from Marco Polo. Once I found this, the next few hours, rather till the store closed, ie., till 10PM I was in the store exploring what they had to offer. For once, this store was crowded unlike most of the Apple stores and the guys manning the store were fast, courteous and thoroughly professional. Also the range of products from the Apple stable and Apple world were amazing. They had three floors displaying all kinds of Apple stuff: iPods, Macbooks, Macbook pro, imacs, software, books – name it and you could get it here. What was nice was the way the products were displayed, it was easy to feel them, work on them and browse endlessly without anyone hovering over you to sell some thing. The best demo of a MacBook that I have seen was here. The guy was too good. He showed the power of what a MacBook could do. Most of the sales guys end up showing the feature without highlighting the use of the feature, whereas this guy was at his best. For every feature he could reel out two benefits. The way he showed off iPhoto, PhotoBooth, and iMovie was amazing. I think he knew what was my soft spot and went for the kill. Unfortunately for him, I was as undecided about buying a MacBook then as I am now though I regret not picking up the MacBook in Hong Kong as the price differential between Dubai and Hong Kong is almost 20-25%. Almost all the Apple products in Hong Kong were far cheaper than in most of the places I visited and definitely cheaper than in UAE. I guess, one can come close to experiencing the Apple halo here. I guess the price differential must be because of the size of the market. From what I hear, Hong Kong and Singapore are supposed to be the biggest markets for Apple in Asia outside Japan. Inspite of the size of the market they don’t have iTunes yet. Could it be because Apple wants to have one iTunes store for entire Asia or would they have different stores for different countries in Asia, if that is the case then I guess we poor souls have to wait for another decade before UAE can have it’s store. There are one another computer mall which is worth visiting – Windsor House, three floors dedicated to IT and yes, you come across Apple products other than iPod. Hope you enjoyed reading this experience and you could get some sense of what you can expect if you go to the Apple store in Hong Kong.

by Senthil

Back to School Preparations

The start of school can be stressful for both children and parents, no matter how old they are. Making a check list can help in making sure you have everything covered for the first day of school. Here are a few things you may want to think about when making your checklist for the first day of school. Here are some ideas for your checklist age 3-12 year olds.

One Month before school it is very important to set a routine for bedtime and for getting ready for school in the morning. By doing this ahead of time, you will save a lot of heartache before the first day of school. You can achieve this by setting a time that your child goes to bed and wakes up each morning. Another thing to think about is this the time to talk to your child about school, and how they are going to make new friends and have new activities. You may want to read books with themes about school and making new friends. If your child is older then it is a good idea to talk to them about the school year, the extra activities they will be responsible for, homework, practice time, and also their down time. Try to cover safety information like your child’s full name, address, telephone number, and their parent’s names. This time is a good chance to clear the clutter by the two of you going through your child’s clothes, toys, books, etc. Make sure your child tries on his or hers clothes from last year, to see if they still fit. You can talk to your child about giving the items to donation, and how that my help others.

Two weeks before school is the time to plan how your child will get to school and how they will get home. If some one else other than your self will take them and/or pick them up, set a meeting place. Also make sure that your child is aware of how they will go to school and how they will come home. If for some reason there are any changes to the plans for how your child will get to school or home, let them know ahead of time. Also make sure you know the route to school, also talk to your child about how they will get to school.

It is time to by school gear, before the rush. Call the school and get an updated list from your child’s teacher or school office and mark the supplies with your child’s name. This includes any school uniform. Visit the school with your child, this way he can see his classroom and meet his teacher. This will give a chance to explore their new space. If your child will have lunch at school, it is a good idea to practice lunch. Let your child know what is expected of them and what they may have for lunch. Plan for homework. Buy extra supplies just for the home, this will help with homework. Also let your child help pick a homework area, where they will feel comfortable for their studies. This area should be well lit, quiet, comfortable, and isn’t near distractions, like the TV. The last but one of the most important things to do is make sure your child’s medical records are updated and that the school has a copy of them. Also let the school know of any special medical needs.

One or two days before school decide on a first-day outfit, with your child, for the big day. This is a big day for them, and they want everything to be perfect as well. Plan your child’s breakfast as it is important for them to have a healthy start for school. One way to show how important school is and how proud your are for your child’s first day of school is to make sure they have a energy packed breakfast on the first day. Also make their favorite dinner the night before.

Make sure your child’s items are pack up and arranged for school in one place. Also make sure that your child’s backpack is supplied and ready for school. Your child should know where this area is and where the items go. This will help with making your morning run smoother, by not having to look for things.

It is very important to plan your goodbye; if this is their first day of school as a child, then you need to make sure you are also ready for the first day. This can be an emotional day for both of you. Even if you cannot take your child to school every day, try to make a plan where you can at least be there for the first day, as this is an important day.

Setting a bedtime routine can be a daunting thought for most parents, here are some tips for setting a bedtime routine. If your child is too young to tell time, then it may be easier than you think to get them to go to bed at an earlier time. If you already have a bedtime routine, then just move it to the correct time for school, but if your child is older, than you will need to have a talk with them about bedtime. Also you will probably have to go slowly with changing the bedtime.

If there is not a routine, then this is a good time to make one. You can set up your routine by having a time for dinner, bath, brushing teeth, reading, and the good night time. The evening with the family should be a routine, and it should be kept simple, so that you can repeat it every night. After just a couple of nights, you and your child should know the clues to night-night time. If after a few weeks, your child is having problems with the new bedtime. It is time to troubleshoot. If your child is falling asleep at the new time, but is having trouble waking up, then you may need to try a earlier bed time. If this does not work, cut our any caffeine (watch out for hidden caffeine) and some evening TV watching. If your child is still having problems, you may want to check with your child’s doctor.

I hope these tips help you and your child to have a easy, wonderful time going back to school. This is an exciting time for the both of you, and with a little hard work, you can have a great start. Just remember that you child is probably excited about school, and that the way it should be.

by Crystal Nystedt

Profile of a Mac Seller

Q: When did you start working for iStyle?
A: May 2006.

Q: What did you do before working at iStyle?
A: Working in Lebanon with US Aid under SUNY for five years. I worked mainly at an IT Help Desk.

Q: When was the first time you used a Mac and what was your first impression?
A: When I arrived in the UAE I used a PowerBook. It was much better than Windows. It was more simple to use, more fun, more professional. Everything was better.

Q: What’s the best part of your job?
A: Dealing with customers and trying to make them happy. I want to give them good customer service by making sure my staff know everything about the products we sell. I always try to listen to customers to understand what they want so we can match products with needs.

Q: What is your favorite Apple product and why?
A: That would be video iPod, because I can carry with me all my photos, video, music, and even use it for files. But I think when the iPhone is out that will be my new favorite.

Q: What is the most challenging part of your job?
A: To try to figure out what customers want sometimes. Matching what they want with expectations is often very hard. But the good security in Mac OS X, the high specs of our notebooks, iLife, and the nice design, makes it easier.

Q: Do you have a funny story about something that has happened in your job?
A: It’s not a particular story, we always have Mac users coming in to the store, and it’s fun to see them talk to new customers, trying to get them to buy a Mac.

Q: Is there any particular product you wish Apple would release?
A: Touch-screen notebooks like tablets. That would be cool. And perhaps a MacBook Pro 12-inch.

EmiratesMac.com tips and tricks

Gallery
We have a nice gallery on the site, with users uploading their photos and artwork. When you upload a picture to the gallery, keep in mind that you shouldn’t upload a huge file. Even if you took something with your digital camera, make sure the picture you upload is no more than around 1200 pixels high or wide. That’s plenty of pixels for anyone to look at it on a computer screen. There’s an option when you upload called “Upload as set”. If you select this option it means that the pictures you upload will belong to a set, which makes it easier for users to view these pictures on the site. So if you upload a group of pictures that are related, photos taken at the same event, for example, put them in a set. When you are looking at a picture in the Gallery, please take some time to rate it and perhaps even leave a comment. You can rate each picture from one to five stars, and you can leave a comment for each picture. I’d encourage you to upload as many photos as you can, and also leave comments and rate other photos. It’s the community aspect of the site that makes it a joy to visit, which is also true for the Gallery.

Search the site with Google
Did you know you can use Google to search through EmiratesMac.com? You can of course go to the Search page on the site. You can also type in whatever you want to search for, followed by “site:emiratesmac.com” in a Google search box. The results you get will then be restricted to our site. On a daily basis our site submits the content on the site to Google so that the search engine will cover the pages as comprehensively as possible.

New hosting
This isn’t exactly a tip or a trick but I thought it fits in here anyway. Since the last issue of shuffle, we’ve moved our site, EmiratesMac.com to a new host. We made the move for different reasons, but the main one is that we were starting to have different problems, some at least related to the hosting plan we were at. So we moved the site to a new hosting provider, with more resources available for the site and the systems we run. The actual move took only a few hours, and although we experienced some problems, overall it was a smooth move. Since the move it seems the site works better, without any problems. It should be added that some of the problems we experienced before the move, regular users of the site didn’t see them, only administrators. But they were, taken together, enough of a reason to make the move, even though we pay a lot more for the new hosting. If you experience any problems with the site, send us an email (contact@emiratesmac.com).

Your new MacBook Pro: Hints and Tips

As you return to school, I am sure you that you are excited that you’ve eventually acquired a new MacBook Pro notebook of your own. Gone are those days when you have to depend on those security-locked Mac desktops in your school’s IT-equipped teaching spaces (labs, studios etc). You can now carry out your design, rendering and other creative tasks using your powerful notebook as tool for academic, professional and personal purposes. It is my hope that the following tips, tricks and advice will go a long way in helping you get the best from your new notebook. Please note that students (especially Architecture majors) who may use Windows-based CAD software like AutoCAD will find the hints presented in this article very useful when running Windows from their secondary hard drive partition.

General care
Cables
Screens
Safe practices
Security
File Management
Backup
Wireless network
Keyboard shortcuts
Bootcamp FAQs

General Care

Pick up your notebook (each time) with care.
Do not drink or eat near your notebook.
If you do accidentally spill something into the notebook, without delay press and hold the on/off button for 10 seconds.
Do not use or expose the notebook to extreme temperatures.
Do not use the notebook near a strong magnetic field.
Do not insert the CD\DVD backwards.
Do not push the on\off switch before proper shutting down.
Do not leave your battery power fully drained for extended periods.
Don’t keep batteries fully charged for extended periods.

Cables

You will most likely need the following cables. Try to get on for yourself: Power, ethernet (network), USB, FireWire, video, security.

Screens
Do not place anything heavy on the notebook. The screen/display is made of liquid crystal (LCD). Glossy screens are much better.
Be careful when closing the notebook. Make sure that there is nothing between the screen and the keyboard.
Don’t touch the screen (especially when your finger is oily or moist).
Use lens cleaner for wiping off dust/dirt.

Safe Practices

As you move around with your notebooks, try to adhere to the following safe practices and avoid any unsafe practice.
Carry the notebook closed.
Carry the notebook in a case.
Keep your notebook on your person or keep your notebook in a secure, climate controlled location.

File Management

Organize your files by project.
All files associated with projects should reside in the project folder.
Create subfolders to organize additional files.
Do not move individual files.

Backup

It is recommended that you backup data from your notebook daily. You may also continue automating your backup process with free tools like Carbon Copy Cloner (www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html), etc.
Remember that backing up your data is cheap, could be fast and it ultimately saves you the grief of losing data.
You can consider burning (back up) your data to: CDs, DVDs, CDRWs.

Wireless

Your wireless configuration will depend on your location and the kind of wireless access points/types available to you
Most campuses offer direct connections. All you need is to ensure that your wireless (Airport) is turned on. Select the right network connection in your range.
Ask your IT support staff to help you with the activation process for secured wireless connections.
Try to avoid rendering multimedia files or printing huge files over the network using wireless connections. It is faster and more reliable to connect your network cable and use a wired connection.

Keyboard Shortcuts

You may find yourself frustrated knowing that there is a keyboard shortcut for something in Mac OS X but for whatever reasons you can’t remember what it was. This web page (www.dailytechnobabble.com/mac-tips-tricks/keyboard-shortcuts-for-macbook-pro) contains information that can help you keep track of keyboard shortcuts so you don’t have to remember them!

Boot Camp: MacBook Pro FAQs

Boot Camp lets you install Windows operating system (e.g. Windows XP or Vista) on an Intel-based Mac like your MacBook Pro. For users opting to run Windows on their MacBook Pro notebook, you will find the latest Boot Camp (1.3) help very useful.
While running Windows, note that:
Volume control is now possible using the notebook keyboard (F3, F4 and F5).
Using Apple Remote Control to control volume etc. will not work well as it does when you are running Mac OS X.
If you would like to learn answers to frequently asked questions about using Boot Camp Beta on your MacBook Pro, check out these Apple’s FAQ (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303575).

Q: Windows XP will not install correctly on my MacBook or MacBook Pro when an Apple Mighty Mouse is plugged in. Is there a workaround?
A: Use the MacBook or MacBook Pro’s built in trackpad until after Windows XP is installed and Windows recognized the mouse.
Q: Why does the battery charge seems to run down faster when using Windows XP than when using Mac OS X?
A: Mac OS X includes power management optimizations that are not available in Windows XP.
Q: The delete key on my MacBook or MacBook Pro acts like a Backspace key. Is there a workaround?
A: In Windows XP, the Delete key on the MacBook or MacBook Pro is mapped to the Backspace key. You can either press Fn-Delete or use an external keyboard with a Delete key (or Windows-compatible software that can remap the Backspace key to Delete).
Q: Does the MacBook or MacBook Pro trackpad work the same in Windows XP as it does in Mac OS X?
A: Basic tracking works, but acceleration and scrolling are not available in Windows.
Tip: To perform a right-click action, hold the right Command key while tapping the trackpad button.
Q: The Show Pointer Location animation doesn’t work on MacBook or MacBook Pro running Windows XP.
A: This is a known issue in Boot Camp Beta. It is not supported in this release.
Q: I have a MacBook or MacBook Pro with a built-in JIS keyboard but the Input method keys do not work in Windows XP.
A: The input method keys on a built-in JIS keyboard on a MacBook or MacBook Pro are not supported in Windows XP. Use an external, localized JIS keyboard.

The latest Boot Camp 1.3 beta includes:
Support for keyboard backlighting (MacBook Pro only).
Apple Remote pairing.
Updated graphics drivers.
Improved Boot Camp driver installer.
Improved international keyboard support.
Localization fixes.
Updated Windows Help for Boot Camp.

by Hakeem Sanni

The Day the Community Took Over

Digg.com is a community-driven news web site. It was started in 2004 as a place where each story was submitted by a registered user on the site, and any other user could “digg” or “bury” a story, depending on whether they liked it or not. Digg has become a phenomenon in a short period of time, and for web sites it’s a blessing as well as a curse to get linked to by Digg. It’s a blessing because it gives you traffic. But that traffic can be a curse if you get too much of it and your site goes down. On May 1st 2007, an article was posted to Digg.com which contained the encryption key for the protection of HD DVD content. With the key anyone could decrypt and watch otherwise protected HD DVD content. Digg user “CJ” had posted a story (www.cjmillisock.com/2007/05/how-i-got-banned-from-digg.html) pointing to a posting by “Rudd-O” (rudd-o.com/archives/2007/04/30/spread-this-number/) which gave this encryption key for HD DVD. CJ’s post got over 15000 diggs over night, then the comments about it started disappearing, the story itself was cut, then CJ’s Digg account was removed. According to Digg.com management this was all done because they were “acting on the advice of lawyers”. Jay Adelson, CEO of Digg wrote (blog.digg.com/?p=73): “We’ve been notified by the owners of this intellectual property that they believe the posting of the encryption key infringes their intellectual property rights. In order to respect these rights and to comply with the law, we have removed postings of the key that have been brought to our attention.” Just eight hours later, Digg founder Kevin Rose wrote (blog.digg.com/?p=74): “We’ve always given site moderation (digging/burying) power to the community. Occasionally we step in to remove stories that violate our terms of use (eg. linking to pornography, illegal downloads, racial hate sites, etc.)… after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.” So what made Digg change their position in just a number of hours? What happened was a virtual storming of the Bastille. Thousands of Digg users posted post and post containing the encryption key. In every way imaginable they included the key in what seemed like benign posts. As far as we know Digg tried to fight this for a while but they realized that it was of no use. They could either fight their users, which is a fight they couldn’t win, or take a possible fight in court later. EmiratesMac.com is obviously nowhere near Digg in terms of traffic, users, or notoriety. We’re a small, regional, web site, and we’re primarily an Apple User Group web site, not a community news web site, but there are similarities. In both cases we rely heavily on our users to supply content and make the site successful. And if users don’t like something, they’re going to tell you. That’s something to keep in mind for any person running a web site. I know I followed this story closely.

Next Page »