Click Here Technology Columns

Book Review: Netbooks, the Missing Manual

2010-01-27T09:09:00.000-06:00

Netbooks are the bright spot in the world of personal computers. More powerful than a mobile phone, but without the bulk nor the power of a laptop, netbooks represent the "just right" mix of features, portability and price.

The earliest netbooks came with various versions of Unix which made them downright scary to non-technical users. Then after some negotiations with Microsoft, a majority of netbooks now have Windows XP. Netbook owners running Windows XP will find little value in this book. The book assumes no background with Windows and walks the reader through the very basics of setup and usage such as configuring email or an Internet connection. What is missing for Windows netbook owners is general tips and tricks specific to the unique characteristics of netbooks. Biersdorfer briefly covers some ideas for backup and synchronization, but doesn't go in enough depth to really be useful and worth the price of admission.

In contrast, Biersdorfer's coverage of Ubuntu is invaluable for owners of netbooks that come with Ubuntu, such as the Dell Mini. I know when I first encountered a Mini with Ubuntu I was completely lost. While Ubuntu is intuitive, it takes some getting used to. Ubuntu doesn't come with a manual and Dell tech support as of this writing won't answer Ubnutu questions. Coverage of printer and email setup is something of value to Unix based netbook owners. All this stuff is out on the Internet, but this book is designed for the non-technical end user. The author's coverage is excellent and comprehensive.

If you have a Windows-based netbook, take a pass on this book as a majority of the explanations apply to any Windows based computer. However, if you have a Ubuntu based netbook, you'll find this book an invaluable resource to translate your Windows knowledge into the Ubuntu world.

Pros: Excellent coverage of Ubuntu for netbooks
Cons: Few netbook specific tips and tricks for Windows users

Book Review: Apple Training Series: iWork '09

2010-01-24T19:25:00.001-06:00

The Apple Training Series is designed to replace the classroom environment for learning a particular Apple program and it rarely disappoints. iWork '09 is no exception to this trend. This is not a manual on how to do certain functions within the program, but rather a comprehensive training program complete with a DVD full of sample content. Not only does this book walk you through real world examples of using Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, but this edition of the book focuses heavily on integration of iWork components with each other as well as with the Macintosh Operating System. Complex functions such as mail merges with Pages and Numbers are included. The book does not cover every esoteric aspect of the programs but rather focuses on the functions the average user would need.

This book relies heavily on brilliant full color examples of the concepts being taught. The reader is easily able to compare what is in the book to what is on their Mac's screen. "Teacher, did I do it right?" is easily answered by looking inside this book. Additionally, a review quiz is included at the end of each chapter to make sure you understand the current lesson before moving on.

While instructor-lead programs allow the student to ask questions and interact, the Apple Training Series is about the closest thing you can come to an instructor-lead program without having to leave your home, office, or coffee shop. I always love how the Apple Training Series includes a suggested time frame it takes to do the particular chapter so you can plan your schedule accordingly.

Pros: Excellent real world examples and clear instructions and output specifications
Cons: Absolutely none

Five out of Five Dogcows.

This article used with permission by the Lawrence Apple Users' Group. The original article written by David Greenbaum aka DoctorDave™ or incorrectly Dr. Dave can be found here.
RSS Feed for Dave's writings

Article was republished by the Lawrence Apple User's Group 2.0 here as well as other groups listed on the right

Get your Sync on between a Droid and a Mac

2010-01-20T23:05:00.000-06:00

This article was picked up by quite a few blogs, but I wrote it for TheAppleBlog. If you want to know how to sync an Android based "google" phone with your Mac, my article's got the answers

Book Review: SEO Warrior

2010-01-17T23:01:00.000-06:00

This book by O'Reilly has an accurate title because there is a war on the web...the battle to get placement in search engines.

This very up to date book is your arsenal for either advancing your position or maintaining your ground on the web. O'Reilly books tend to be highly technical and SEO is no exception. About a quarter to a third of the book is simply not accessible to people who don't know how to set up servers or write advanced scripts. I know basic HTML and hand code my websites, but I found discussions of such topics as advanced XML a bit over my head. That's OK, because the rest of the book was great for novices

"SEO Warrior" is a complete guide to getting your page noticed by search engines. It's not just about Google rankings and keywords, thought that's clearly a focus. This book takes a 360 degree approach to Search Engine Optimization. It considers not just the code on your website, but such things as your ISP and host, external rankings by others, social media marketing and link building. I've read other books on SEO and this is the most comprehensive guide I've seen to help a business owner create a complete marketing campaign on the web. More technical readers will be able to copy and paste much of the code and examples directly into their website. Web design novices like me will be able to find tools online to help implement the key portions of the strategies found in the book.

As an example, I never really understood Google Webmaster tools or Google Analytics. I worked with both after reading the book and increased my SEO campaign dramatically. I had the confidence to create such things as a site map and learned how to properly configure my meta information to get the maximum exposure for my website.

A true SEO expert probably knows this information already, so the audience of this book is beginning to intermediate users. In particular, any business owner considering a SEO campaign should read this book to get an overview of the concepts. After reading the book, you'll be empowered to hire a SEO company if necessary. You'll learn the ethical and professional concepts for SEO and learn how to avoid the unethical "black hat" companies.

Pros: Comprehensive guide to all aspects of getting your website noticed
Cons: A bit to technical for people who aren't web designers.

Four out of Five Dogcows.

Article was republished by the Lawrence Apple User's Group 2.0 here as well as other groups listed on the right

Book Review: The Non-Designer's Design and Type Book, Deluxe Edition (Paperback)

2010-01-13T22:54:00.001-06:00

Robin Williams is the queen of Macintosh design and her new book is it's Bible. The book is exactly as described: a design book for those people not trained as designers. The book is actually divided into two sections, design and typography.

The design book goes over the basic principles of how to design using a few basic concepts most anyone can learn such as white space, proximity, layout, and contrast. She gives copious amounts of real world examples to help lay people give a bit of "oomph" to such things as newsletters, business cards, and stationary. For someone trying to go out on their own, this book is an invaluable aid in basic design work while saving money to get a true expert on board. The book is a very quick read, but it's a good book to keep around whenever you do design work.

The typography portion was a bit over my head. It's all about fonts, typefaces and so forth. She clearly tries to made the topic accessible, but I found the content difficult to understand as someone not in the design field. The typography portion of the book can be used as a reference guide when deciding which font would work in specific situations.

This book is perfect for the small business owner or the group secretary who suddenly gets called on to create a newsletter or a basic identity for print.

Pros: Accessible and understandable principles of basic design made understandable to everyone
Cons: Font portions a bit over the novice's head

Four out of Five Dogcows

Article was republished by the Lawrence Apple User's Group 2.0 here as well as other groups listed on the right

Mobile Me: Is it worth it?

2010-01-10T17:34:00.000-06:00

So is it? $99 over a year isn't a whole lot of money, but still is $99 worth it. Check out my post over at TheAppleBlog and read what I and others have to say about an apparently controversial subject.

Finally, iPhone Insurance (Sort of)

2010-01-06T16:58:00.000-06:00

Doesn't everyone know someone who has cracked their iPhone screen at least once. It's bound to happen and now there is a new option for people to get their screen and other parts fixed with a new type of iPhone insurance. Read more about it in my article over at TheAppleBlog

There’s (Not) An App for That: 10 Apps Only Available for Jailbroken iPhones

2010-01-03T15:28:00.001-06:00

Over at TheAppleBlog I wrote an article all about iPhone apps it may be worth Jailbreaking your iPhone just so you can install these apps

Music in the Cloud: Heavenly or Pipe Dream?

2009-12-30T19:32:00.000-06:00

What if you never had to sync your music again. I respond to another columnist over at Gigom Pro talking about different ways of achieving it. I propose my thoughts over at TheAppleBlog. Mozy, Carbonite, Backblaze, etc. Listen up!

Apple's Media plan and Cable Companies

2009-12-27T23:07:00.000-06:00

Locally, I'm the Cable Company curmudgeon as I have serious reservations of so much power being concentrated in one place...but one could say the same thing about Apple. See them at war over who will provide media content as I analyze the issue for TheAppleBlog

Microsoft Office 2008 Visual Quickstart Guide

2009-12-23T16:48:00.001-06:00

Microsoft Office 2008 is overloaded with tons of useless features which make the program slow, complex, and bloated. "Microsoft Office 2008 Quick Start Guide" matches Office's complexity. This 500-plus page tome is a comprehensive guide to many of Microsoft Office 2008's major features.

Unfortunately, this is not a typical "Visual Quickstart Guide." One would not get a Quickstart, because probably it's hard to quickly start the digital equivalent of an oil tanker. Beginners to Microsoft Office will find this guide completely overwhelming and would be overwhelmed by all that Microsoft Office 2008 can do.

The author breaks up Office into its core components: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Entourage, and the integration of those applications. Unfortunately he covers almost all the major features which is completely unnecessary for a Quickstart guide. For example, how often do people use the Notebook view in Word or the Newsgroups function in Entourage? Similar to Office itself, adding in all these extras makes it harder for the user, or in this case reader, to find the basic functions of the program they need. This book could have easily been half the size and the reader would have understood most of what they need to know about Office.

The text was easy to understand for those functions the author was describing but there was a distinct lack of the common Visual Quickstart Guide screenshots and visual enhancements. The book was extremely text heavy and dense because of this. For a intermediate user trying to look up how to create a stock chart or brushing up on mail merging, this is a good manual. Beginning users will be overwhelmed with the comprehensiveness of it all.

Pros: Covers a vast majority of functions in the Microsoft Office 2008 Suite.
Cons: A vast majority of functions in the Microsoft Office 2008 Suite are unnecessary and overwhelming, just like this book

3 out of 5 Dogcows

Article was republished by the Lawrence Apple User's Group 2.0 here as well as other groups listed on the right

True Visual Voicemail: PhoneTag, Google Voice and AT&T’s New Voicemail to Text Service

2009-12-06T19:29:00.002-06:00

Apple introduces "true" visual voicemail that lets you read your voicemail messages via email and text...but others have already been doing it. Read a comparison between Phonetag (formerly Simulscribe), Google Voice, and AT&T in this TheAppleBlog post.

iMovie 09 and iDVD for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide

2009-11-28T14:26:00.004-06:00

Typically, Peachpit's Visual Quickstart Guide jumps you into a program giving you the "quickstart" to get working and obtain a basic understanding of the program. This book didn't follow that theme as closely as others in the series, but it's still an excellent guide to iMovie 09. If you buy only one book on iMovie, I firmly believe this should be the one. It's short, straightforward and highly accessible to someone who has never used a video camera before.

The book starts off with the essentials of movie making on your Mac, discussing important topics such as AV equipment, movie planning, lighting and composition. These preliminary chapters are an absolute gem. While I've worked with iMovie before, I never really understood the essentials of lighting, focus, and composition. A great iMovie starts out with the fundamentals and the first five chapters of the book are devoted to just this.

Next, the book gives you a "Make a Movie in a Hurry" overview of iMovie so you can quickly complete a task and have some initial success. Then, the author goes in detail about iMovie in a logical progression as to how the typical project would go: importing, editing, and exporting. Throughout the chapters the author includes tips and tricks not just about the usage of iMovie, but why a user should care about certain functions. Knowing all the features of iMovie doesn't really help unless you know how to use them in your projects to enhance your work. After reading this book, I understood much more of the power of iMovie and how to use the features of iMovie to make better movies.

Ironically, what's missing from the book is a guide to iDVD. One small chapter is devoted to iDVD and then the author directs you to his website for another 60 or so pages of iDVD info: http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/9780321601322/supplements/iDVD_Addendum.pdf That's my major con of the book: the title is extremely misleading. This is NOT a book about iDVD, it's strictly about iMovie. I can't imagine why the book was titled and distributed the way it was.

Pros: Easy to understand, accessible
Cons: No iDVD printed materials in book

Four out of Five dogcows

Four out of Five DogCows

Article was republished by the Lawrence Apple User's Group 2.0 here as well as other groups listed on the right

A Tale of Two Hard Drives: Apple’s Secret Weapon?

2009-11-27T19:24:00.005-06:00

Who would have thought a tale of two hard drive replacements would create so much comment? Apparently it did! Read on about how the same hard drive failure was so different on a Mac and PC

Apple Tech Support Tips: 4 Steps to Bend Apple to Your Will

2009-11-27T19:21:00.003-06:00

Need tips on how to get Apple to fix something they initially refuse to fix. Read my post over at TheAppleBlog on how to get Apple to fix things that are out of warranty, or not fully covered by a repair extension. Given the positive comments by Apple employees--I'm right on the mark

Opinion: Psystar Ruling Could Have Set Precedent for Upgrading Your Mac

2009-11-27T19:05:00.002-06:00

With my background in law and my initial intent to go into Intellectual Property, I was particularly interested in this ruling. What concerned me most was the idea that modifying for the Apple operating system for hardware compatibility was considered a violation. This set precedent for any compatiblity update to be in violation of Apple's EULA. Read on for more details over at TheAppleBlog

Is Backup on Apple’s Back Burner or Simply Abandoned?

2009-11-24T23:26:00.002-06:00

I admit, I've been so busy with stuff, I haven't been posting articles here and I've written a bunch recently for TheAppleBlog This was kind of a spur of the moment article as I was thinking about all the features of MobileMe and how backup was going to be the big selling point. Here is an article I wrote reflecting on that fact

Complete Guide to Apple Certification and Training

2009-11-08T23:08:00.003-06:00

So after 20 years or so of being an "uncertified" technician, I started inquiring what it means to be Apple Certified. After months of research, I hopefully have the definitive guide over at TheAppleBlog about what it means to be Certified by Apple and the alphabet soup of it all. Conclusion: I'm probably doing it, only to make my business more competitive in a crowded marketplace.

Apple Training Series: iLife '09

2009-10-15T14:19:00.001-05:00

This book is an excellent resource for someone wanting a hands-on learning tutorial about every aspect of the iLife Suite: iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD. This is not a "how-to" reference manual -- you won't find feature listings or troubleshooting tips. Its exclusive goal is training sessions with pre-developed material to be done a classroom or self-teaching format. For someone who has never been exposed to these programs, it's a great resource with which to start from scratch.

Each module has lesson files that are installed on your computer and gives you a time estimate of how long the project will take. According to the book's estimates, it will take you about 13 hours to complete; however for me the modules went much quicker. Fortunately, since the materials are already created for you on the included DVD, you don't have to actually shoot video or load pictures to understand the lessons. You'll be able to follow exactly line-by-line along with the book and compare actual results. The book is well laid out with real screen shots for every outcome, so don't be intimidated by its size. At the end of each module is a quiz to test your knowledge of the subject. Obviously this makes an excellent text book for instructor or group study.

Personally, I was new to iLife '09 but have used previous versions. The book skipped over computing basics and focused primarily on new iLife features such as Face Recognition in iPhoto. The modules were extremely well paced and I had an excellent grasp of the subject material at the end. My only major complaint is that between iLife programs, the authors did not stay consistent and the lessons at times were confusing, as not all the authors had the same skill level or approach to teaching. Nonetheless, the book was outstanding as is typical of the Apple Training Series.

Pros: Training modules for the key features of the iLife Series along with pre-developed material
Cons: Inconsistent style of lessons between modules.

Five out of Five Dog Cows

Article was republished by the Lawrence Apple User's Group 2.0 here as well as other groups listed on the right

Remote control software for the iPhone and your Mac

2009-10-02T12:42:00.001-05:00

The ultimate dream: control your Mac from anywhere in the world via your iPhone. It's possible. Reach out and touch your Mac! (just like those commercials for AT&T from way back when). Is it that easy? Found out here in this article I wrote for TheAppleBlog

iPhone Roundup: 10 Jewish Apps for the New Year

2009-09-28T22:21:00.002-05:00

As Yom Kippur is over and we say goodbye to the 5770 welcoming, many people will consider using their iPhone to enhance their spirituality this year. Here is an article telling you how to use your iPhone to help you practice Judaism. Those that aren't Jewish might still find value in the unique technological innovations these apps have to offer. Experience another culture via your iphone.

By the way, the article was supposed to run Tuesday. My apologies it got published early

iPhone 3.1: Unresponsive and No Vitals, But Not Dead?

2009-09-24T08:20:00.001-05:00

iPhone being unresponsive and refuses to wake up: it maybe suffering from iPhone coma after the 3.1 iPhone update. Check out this article I wrote for information on why it happens and what to do about it

The Macintosh iLife '09

2009-09-15T08:55:00.001-05:00

The Macintosh iLife '09 by Jim Heid

This book elegantly balances screen shots, tips, and walk-throughs for the iLife suite. This isn't a feature guide covering all the nooks and crannies of every program, thought it explains some features very well. Nor is this an exhaustive guide on how to create a DVD or podcast, although many examples are covered. If I could only own one book about iLife '09 it would be this book. It achieves a harmonic balance.

The book is extremely iPhoto heavy and Heid covers the ins and outs of iPhoto over around 150 pages, more than any other aspect of the suite. iMovie and Garage Band each get about 80 pages of coverage. Least featured is iWeb and iDVD, each given only about 30 pages. For most casual users' interest that's about right. Each two-page spread of the book covers a different aspect of the program and Heid includes detailed screen shots to enable the reader to study when they are not at the computer. The table of contents allows you to hone in on the exact feature or project you are doing. In particular, I like how the book compared and contrasted the different overlapping features of iLife. For example, what is the best way to do an iPhoto slide show? iPhoto, iDVD, or iMovie--it gets confusing. Additionally, Heid goes beyond the functions of the apps and considers real-world problems and questions an iLife user might have, such as scanning old photos into iPhoto, or the best way to record sound in Garage Band.

The target audience of this book should be the intermediate user of the Mac who has a basic understanding of what each iLife program does and why they might use it. This is for the reader who wants to dive deep into a project and doesn't want the unnecessary fluff of a beginner's manual, nor does the reader want to be distracted by the features most people never use. This book covers the classic 20% that you'll use 80% of the time.

Pros: Covers the key features of the iLife '09 suite while avoiding the time wasting feature inventory

Cons: Assumes some basic knowledge of the suite, skimpy coverage of iWeb and iDVD

Five out of Five dogcows

How-To: Resurrect Your AppleTalk Printer in Snow Leopard

2009-09-04T15:03:00.002-05:00

Ok, so you upgraded to Snow Leopard and now that old AppleTalk based printer doesn't work. Have no fear, I have the answer for you over at TheAppleBlog

Why I’ll Wait on Snow Leopard, and Why Maybe You Should Too

2009-08-27T13:18:00.003-05:00

Thinking about running out and installing Snow Leopard? After reading this article I wrote for TheAppleBlog you might have second thoughts.