Saturday’s Apple: First Weekly Column

You know how in papers they have writers who put in one column, often not very long, once a week about some particular topic? Writing a column seems like a particular art, and I’m not professing to be any good at it, or indeed even understand that art, but I wanted to have a go at doing it.

So here it is, the weekly column about anything Apple or tech, and I’ll do my best to keep it coming to you every Saturday from now on.
Of course I have an ulterior motive for doing this. That is that it forces me to write something every week, and perhaps once in a while one of these weekly columns can turn into something useful for ShuffleGazine.

Another reason, and this is personal, is to see whether I can commit to doing a weekly column like this, and whether I can keep writing one that is at least half-way decent. I already write quite a bit of stuff for ShuffleGazine every month, and lots of other pieces of text for many other things, but this would be the only weekly text I have to finish, so it’s quite a challenge.

I don’t want to make these weekly columns very long because then many of you won’t read them. Perhaps around 400-500 words I think would be suitable, but even then many won’t read it. Are we just so busy in our daily lives that we can’t afford to read stuff anymore? I remember living in Scotland years ago and every Sunday morning I’d go across the street, buy a few Sunday morning edition newspapers for a few pounds, and then we had breakfast and read our papers for a few hours.

That was fun a very cheap form of entertainment and we got educated at the same time. But here in the UAE we’ve not done that, even though our Sunday morning would now be Saturday morning.

Not that I have much space left now, but let’s dig in to what happened in the Apple world during the week. Of course the main news was that Apple had another record-breaking quarter but analysts had expected more so they were disappointed - nothing much new there. And Apple bought a company that designs processors, and the rumors are rampant about the reasons behind the purchase. Perhaps they just wanted the company’s intellectual property, their engineering skills, or perhaps they really want to use their processors in products in the future. Whichever is true, personally I think it’s nice to see Apple putting some of their billions of dollars to good use. Apple has often grown in terms of products and solutions in the past by acquiring other companies and their products and I’d like to see that continue, and what happened this week was a good sign that is is.

On another note, assuming Steve Jobs was involved in the negotiations for this purchase, how would you feel sitting across a conference table from him? I think I’d be pretty nervous myself.

Illustration: Copyright 2008 iStockPhoto/prawny

by Magnus Nysted

Working With Styles in Word 2008

by Magnus Nystedt

ShuffleGazine.com Launched

This is the brand new web site for ShuffleGazine, monthly magazine about all things Apple in the Middle East. After its former home at EmiratesMac.com, it was decided that Shufflegazine should be given a bit of a facelift with new name, new format, and new web site.

So on this web site you can see all the issues of Shuffle going back to November 2006 and you can read most articles that have appeared in all the issues so far.

We hope you will enjoy this site and that you will keep enjoying Shuffle… sorry, ShuffleGazine. We at the EmiratesMac Apple User Group as well as CENTIMETERCUBE Publishing will continue to work hard to bring you news, tutorials, features, etc. about Apple stuff in the Middle East and we hope you join us as a reader, as a writer, as a supporter or in any other role you choose.

Article of the Month April 2008

Each month, courtesy of Salam Studio & Store, the author of the best article in Shufflegazine will receive an AED250 gift certificate to be spent at any Salam store. This month’s winner is Yousuf Barakat for his series of articles about iPhoto. We’re looking forward to many more articles from Yousuf on iPhoto and other topics. Congratulations Yousuf!

What’s In Your Bag?

by Dan

The Bag
Crumpler (http://www.crumplerusa.com). When I purchased my first Apple Mac notebook I bought a Crumpler bag to carry it. This company’s bags are sold in every Mac store I have ever been in, including iStyle in Ibn Battuta. The bag seemed part of the Mac ethos and therefore seemed like the bag I should buy. I have since upgraded and replaced my Crumpler with a larger one. Crumpler bags are tough as old boots and large enough to carry everything you want, including the kitchen sink.
The Contents
MacBookPro: The work notebook with Intel Core 2 Duo processor (2.4GHz, 4GB/120GB). The apps I run most of the time include: NeoOffice for word processing, spreadsheeting and such (http://www.http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php), FireFox for web browsing of course (http://www.mozilla.org/), iTerminal is the Terminal on steroids (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16799), Adium is a multi protocol chatting app (http://www.adiumx.com/), TheBrain is a visual information manager, with which I keep my world turning (http://www.thebrain.com).
PowerBook: The Security “ohh so fun” notebook. This is complete with L33T (“Hack Naked”) sticker. Specs are G4 1.67GHz, 80GB, and it runs OpenBSD 4.2. The apps I run include WireShark, Nmap, Nessus, TCPDump, Kismet (http://www.insecure.org, http://sectools.org/).
PSP: Sony PSP, aka the Wireless Sniffer, and generally good for keeping me entertained (www.sony.com).
Sony CyberShot DSC-T5: Slimline 5 Megapixel Camera. It’s great for taking photos of random goodness, with a nice 2.5-inch prevewing screen (http://www.sony.com).
GPS Device: This is a GlobalSat Bluetooth-enabled GPS device. It talks to the Blackberry and feeds TeleNav with location data so that I can see where I am going. Also hooks into Kismet for extra free Wifi hot spot tracking and finding (http://globalsat.com/html/).
Apple iPod: This one’s for entertainment. It has my music and my favorite TV shows on it. I also have a selection of iPod accessories like chargers, RCA connectors, etc.
External HDD: External 120gig hard drive, USB2, formatted as EXT3. Stores a backup copy of my iTunes, folders, random tech documents, and a copy of my home directory. I have a cron job setup so it backs it up once a week.
2GB SanDisk Flash drive: Great for transferring random files from location to location. Also stores a copy of my public crypto key, should I need to do a key swap.
HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy:
Never Leave home without it! I can never get tired of reading this most awesome of books.
Linksys WRTSL54GS: This is a running packet protector, which runs a security enhanced Linux distribution for embedded devices. It’s great for when I find myself in random hotels and need to make secure connections back to home base via OpenVPN. Also great for setting up random hotspots.
Sony Ericsson P900i: Awesome phone, I’ve had this one for years. Quite possibly my longest running and still working phone. If I end up spending greater than a week in a location, I grab a local pay-as-you-go number and slap it into the P900i.

Peel the Apple

by Magnus Nystedt

Get answers to your Apple tech support questions. Email techsupport@emiratesmac.com

Q: What is BootCamp?
A: BootCamp is free software from Apple (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/bootcamp.html) with which you can install and run Windows on an Intel Mac. When you run it you first partition your hard drive, and then with an original Windows installation disc (XP or Vista) it installs Windows for you. Then whenever you reboot your Mac you can choose to start Mac OS X or Windows. You could even set it to always automatically boot Windows - but why would you want to do that when Mac OS X is so much better?

Q: I purchased my [Apple] laptop in Sydney, Australia. I have misplaced my receipt and I’m now living in Dubai. My computer is still under warranty, is there anything that can be done?
A: I can only assume you’re having problems with it, and so need to get it repaired. Apple has worldwide warranty on their laptops, so the warranty will be honored here. There shouldn’t really be any problem with you taking it to a store here for service, but they could perhaps not be as cooperative with you as they would be if the Mac were bought from them in the first place.

Q: I have a MacBook and would like to know where to reset the SuperDrive’s region settings. I reside in the UAE and the drive was set to Region 1.
A: A quick Google search (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/13801) reveals a utility with which you can change the region code for the Mac. You can also use something like VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) to play DVD.

Q: Tell me one thing, since my MacBook Air has no drive and I don’t have that external drive, how can I install [software] using my iMac?
A: If you don’t have the external SuperDrive for the MacBook Air, you can install software and copy files from CDs or DVDs over a network from another Mac using Remote Disc. You need the Remote Disc software, which is available on the installation disks that came with the MacBook Air, or it’s included in Mac OS X 10.5.2 Leopard. After that it’s as easy as enabling “DVD or CD Sharing” in the Sharing Preference Pane, and you should be able to see any disc you insert into the “host” Mac on the MacBook Air. This is one feature Apple seems to have thought about quite a bit, and it generally works very well.

Q: I have an issue, my friend accidently deleted an Album from iPhoto and I can’t get it back, and I have no idea how to get the pictures that were on that album back. What can be done to get the album back or at least the images put in that album?
A: Don’t worry. Deleting an album in iPhoto is just like deleting a playlist in iTunes: it doesn’t actually delete the photos or songs it contains. The album is just like a placeholder for any number of photos, it doesn’t actually hold the original photos. So after you delete an album the photos are still in the iPhoto library. If you click on “Photos” in the iPhoto sidebar you will be able to see all the photos in the library - and you can then create new albums from whatever photos you want, including recreating the original album you deleted.

Send us your tech support questions

Send your Apple tech support questions to techsupport@emiratesmac.com. Your questions are answered by Magnus Nystedt, a Certified Apple Help Desk Specialist, with experience of Macs going back to the Mac Plus. Also with over ten years of teaching IT at college and university, he’s in a perfect position to help you sort out your problems. You can reach Magnus at magnus@nystedt.org or at www.nystedt.org.

Shuffle in Print: One-Year Anniversary

Shuffle started as a dream in 2006 and it’s developed amazingly well over just a year and a half. It just shows you what a bit of love and dedication can accomplish. Here is a brief timeline of Shuffle’s brief life so far:

November 2006
The first Shuffle was published. For the first few months it was only published as a PDF, and for all we knew that was all Shuffle was ever going to be.

April 2007
After a few months, we faced the first major event that the EmiratesMac Apple User Group had arranged - the Apple TV Event of March 2007. For this event we thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a printed copy of Shuffle that we could hand out to attendees of this event.” In April 2007 our first issue of Shuffle was printed. It was actually published on March 29, 2007 (during the Apple TV Event), but that’s a small technicality. The first print run was 1000 copies.

May 2007
In May 2007, we increased printing to 2000 copies. Doubling the circulation so quickly after just starting to print was amazing. Summer was approaching though, and we had to make sure content was ready for the summer months; since we know many people leave the UAE to escape the heat during the summer months. We did manage to publish all summer of 2007, which was a testament to how dedicated the people working on Shuffle really are.

September 2007
The next major milestone was in September 2007 when we published the special GITEX issue. We took a big risk and increased the printing to 5000 copies and started an Arabic section in Shuffle. Counting on Arabic readers sending us articles in Arabic was a gamble (and we still need more Arabic articles for each issue), but immediately after launching the Arabic section we started hearing from users how much they appreciated it.

December 2007
As if the increase to 5000 copies and inclusion of Arabic wasn’t enough, we took another major step forward in December when, in cooperation with Arab Computers in Saudi Arabia, we almost doubled the circulation to 9000 copies of which 5000 were to go to the Kingdom. This was obviously a major development, and one that we’re still fully assessing the impact of - but clearly we’re excited about bringing Shuffle to more readers.

April 2008 and the future
Now we’re at the one-year anniversary of Shuffle being printed, and as I wrote back in November 2007, for the one-year anniversary of Shuffle’s inception, it’s been a rough ride with a few bumps along the way. However, Shuffle is doing very well. We’re seeing new writers attach themselves to Shuffle and write great content. We’re seeing more and more people around the region actually starting to look for and ask about Shuffle each month. And we’re seeing growing interest from countries to which Shuffle has not yet been distributed on a regular basis, including Kuwait and Jordan. We will do our very best to keep bringing you Shuffle each month. But you can also try to help us by forwarding to us any potential advertising leads, by writing articles, and most of all by regularly reading Shuffle and giving us your feedback. This is a true community effort, and I think Apple-fans across the Middle East should be proud of what they’ve accomplished.

Adobe Tutorial: Ken Burns Effect in Flash

The Ken Burns Effect is a panning and zooming effect that can be done in Flash to create the impression that a camera is moving from left to right and is zooming in, over a still image. It’s named after American filmmaker Ken Burns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Burns) who made it famous in his American Civil War series. He only had old still photographs and drawings to work with, so he needed them to come alive. The effect of panning and zooming accomplished just that. Burns was not the first person to do this, but he was the one who made it famous, hence it was named after him.

Brian is an Educationl Technologist trying his best to learn as much Adobe software as possible.

by Brian Nielsen

Step 1
Create a new Flash document in the Flash Document Window. Click File > Import to Stage > Browse to the image you wish to use.

Step 2
The image you use should be wider than the stage itself. In the following example the image is 800 pixels wide by 300 pixels high and sits on a shorter stage (colored blue in this example) of only 600 pixels wide by 300 pixels high.

Step 3
Go to View > Pasteboard. Reduce the magnification if necessary until the whole image is visible within your Flash workspace.

Step 4
To provide a good view of both the image and stage, turn on “Show all layers as icons” (the green square icon, located on the left side of the timeline). Ensure that the leftmost side of the image on frame 1 is up against the leftmost side of the stage.

Step 5
Select frame 60 on the timeline. Then select Insert > Timeline > Keyframe.

Step 6
With the keyframe in frame 60 still highlighted, choose Modify > Transform > Scale. Increase the size of the image to about 140% its original by pushing against both the top and bottom of the Transform Bounding Box.

Step 7
Choose any frame on the timeline between the keyframe on frame 1 and the keyframe on frame 60. Select Insert >Timeline > Create Motion Tween to create the panning and zooming camera effect.

Step 8
Turn off the “Show all layers as icons” by clicking the green square icon on the left side of the timeline. Press Control > Test Movie to test the Ken Burns effect that you have created in Flash.

Step 9
To make the panning and zooming effect last longer, simply add frames by first clicking the timeline then hitting F5 on the keyboard repeatedly until you have added all the frames you want. You can also make the animation stop by adding the script “stop();” to the last frame.

Peel the Apple

Q: How can I use dual monitors with my Mac and why would I want to? A friend of mine has two monitors with his PC, so I thought I might want that too.
A: You don’t say which Mac you have, so I can’t say for sure whether you can use two monitors - but if you have a Mac notebook, an iMac, or a Mac Pro you definitely can. As far as I know, you can’t use two monitors with a Mac mini. The reason why you’d want to use two monitors is to be able to keep more windows open on the screens. That way you could have your Photoshop windows on one screen and your Safari windows on another. You can accomplish a similar thing with Spaces in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, but sometimes it’s just better to be able to see more at the same time.

Q: Hey there Magnus, I see you (or Crystal) have created a site. I don’t remember, but at the bottom of the site it said “Created on a Mac” or something like that, which leads me to this question: My friend wants to create a website where she can sell things she makes and stuff. What do you think she should do? Sign up for a .Mac account and use iWeb or something, or go to Etisalat and have them provide her with the tools?
A: It depends what she wants to do. If she wants a shopping cart on her site and for people to be able to pay her with credit cards, then she’d have to build her site in something other than iWeb. But if she wants a site that displays her products and services, then iWeb and .Mac is a good choice; and with iWeb 08 she could even use her own domain name with her .Mac site.

Q: I want to bring pictures with me on a flash drive and show them in a slideshow, but I don’t want to import the pictures into an iPhoto library. How would I do that?
A: You can do this quite easily with Preview, which comes with every Mac. Just select all the pictures and open them in Preview. Then click the Slideshow button and you’re done. You don’t get any transition effects, and other expected slideshow controls are also missing - but it does the basics and it does them well.

Q: About a month back I upgraded my operating system from 10.3 to Leopard. The Leopard OS is extremely cool. But somehow I feel that it has slowed down my system speed a lot. Presently I am using a G5 1.8 GHz Power PC with 1.5 GB DDR SDRAM. Is this kind of configuration suitable enough to run Leopard?
A: According to Apple (http://www.apple.com/macosx/techspecs/), the minimum specifications required to run Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard are an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor, 512MB of memory, DVD drive, and 9GB of available disk space. This means your Mac should be more than fast enough to handle Leopard. Whether that means it’s going to run fast or not is a different issue altogether. I would suggest you repair permissions on your hard drive and make sure you have plenty of free space on it. Perhaps you can minimize the number of things that start up and run in the background, and you can run fewer applications at the same time. But other than that there’s not much you can do, other than upgrading the machine.

Profile of a Mac Seller

Name: Jerico Yacat
Title: Sales Executive
Store: iStyle, Ibn Battuta Mall, Dubai

Q: When did you start working for iStyle?
A: January, 2008.

Q: What did you do before working at iStyle?
A: I worked for Powermac Center in the Philippines as a Supervisor.

Q: When was the first time you used a Mac and what was your first impression?
A: That’s way back 2004. My first impression was that I was amazed at how fast and easy to use it was. The Mac impressed me with the unique but simple style.

Q: What’s the best part of your job?
A: Helping people and giving assistance as to what computer they need.

Q: What is your favorite Apple product and why?
A: For me it’s the PowerBook G4 12-inch because I like the small size and when Mac shifted to Intel processors because of how fast the processor and Apple is also more competitive now.

Q: Do you have a funny story about something that has happened in your job?
A: One customer phoned me regarding his iMac 24-inch which he bought that day and he said it doesn’t work. I asked if he had checked if the power cord was plugged in and he laughed and said he hadn’t noticed that cord.

Q: What is the most challenging part of your job?
A: Multi tasking because there are a lot of customers in the store and we do replenish the stock, technical support, sales and more, all at the same time.

Q: Is there any particular product you wish Apple would release?
A: Notebook with multi-touch screen, a small pocket-size notebook.

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