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2003 General monthly meetings

December 16, 2003, Annual holiday party and raffle

PMUG's annual holiday party will take place at our normal meeting place in Jadwin Hall. Bring all those items you no longer wish to take up valuable closet space and have them raffled off to benefit PMUG. All we ask is that it be Mac related and in nominal working condition (or at least good for parts and labeled accordingly!). Dee Silver will start accepting items for raffle at 6:00PM. PMUG members will get 1 raffle ticket for free and can purchase 12 more for $5, non-members can purchase tickets at 6 for $5. The raffle will begin around 8:00PM. Please note that all items not won in the raffle must be taken home at the end of the night.

Terry Wilson will take in all your donations for the eat and drink part of our party starting at 6:00PM. To help you decide what to bring Terry has setup a handy website for party contributions.

You will even get a reminder email as the party date approaches! Make your favorite dishes, or bring some snacks, soda, or tableware just let us know by using the website link above. Dinner will be served around 6:45-8:00PM. Come one come all to eat, drink and be merry!

November 11, 2003, Adobe InDesign CS

Our speaker for this month will be Noa Edell, Adobe's Business Development Manager for Cross Media Publishing.

Noha will present an inside look at the innovative tools in InDesign CS, such as Photoshop DCS support, stroke styles, improved support for tables, a Story Editor, an enhanced User Interface, expanded PDF support and tight integration with the rest of the Adobe Creative Suite, including a special "package for GoLive" feature.

Ms. Edell has more than 15 years experience in the Pre-press and graphics market. Besides having operated her own training and consulting business, Noha managed the Educational Services Department at Essex Computers. As an instructor at Parson's School of Design in NYC, Noha taught Illustrator, Photoshop, and Quark XPress. Currently, as Adobe's Business Development Manager for Cross Media Publishing in the East Coast of the U.S., it is her responsibility to evangelize and promote Adobe's next generation publishing tools. Noha is an Adobe Certified Expert in InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, PageMaker and Acrobat.

October 14, 2003, Mac Browser Comparison with Chris Jarocha-Ernst

A side-by-side comparison of the most popular Mac OS browsers will be given by Chris Jarocha-Ernst. Netscape/Mozilla, Explorer, Safari, and OmniWeb will be compared: what are the pros and cons of these contenders for taking you out on the web? Plus tips on customizing, and getting the most out of your web browsing.

Chris Jarocha-Ernst has worked for Rutgers University Computing Services for 20 years. He is currently a senior consultant for the faculty/staff computer system, specializing in e-mail and web issues. In addition to his professional interests, Chris has also written A CTHULHU MYTHOSBIBLIOGRAPHY AND CONCORDANCE (Armitage House, 1998), a guide to works using the fictional mythology created by H. P. Lovecraft.

September 9, 2003, Automation with AppleScript

Benjamin S. Waldie, president and founder of Automated Workflows, will speak on using AppleScript for workflow automation. He will present a brief overview of AppleScript, a list of benefits, return on investment information, some basic script writing, some AppleScript demonstrations, and a question and answer session. In addition, he will provide some demonstration scripts for distribution to the audience.

Benjamin Waldie has been an evangelist of AppleScript and a developer of professional AppleScript-based solutions for businesses and individuals across the globe for many years. Some of the companies that Benjamin has provided automation to in the past include TV Guide Magazine, Adobe Systems, and The Associated Press.

He has also been featured as a presenter at various seminars and events, including MacWorld Expo and Seybold Seminars. Benjamin is the president and founder of The Philadelphia Area AppleScript User's Group, and is currently a contributing editor on the MacScripter.net web site.

August 12, 2003, Installing OS X the right way

Jeff Gorman of Creative Computing will show the right way to install OS X with a hands-on demonstration using PMUG's iMac computer. As this software loads, Jeff will give an overview of some of the basic features of OS X. He will describe and show the optimum location and organization of applications and files when using this operating system.

Adding additional RAM memory in your computer may be an intimidating thought, but not after you've seen it done. Jeff will show how easy it is, as he upgrades the club's iMac.

To round out the program, four PMUGers will speak about their impressions of MacWorld, held in NYC during July.

Jeff started Creative Computing, the only authorized Apple Service Center in Princeton, in 1996. Located on Witherspoon Street, Creative Computing sells and services all Apple/Macintosh products.

July 8, 2003, iMovie tips and tricks with Andy Baird

Apple's iMovie and iDVD emphasize ease of use...but what if you need more power? Before you lay out hundreds or thousands of dollars for Final Cut Express and DVD Studio Pro, check out what can be done on the cheap with the programs you already have. You'll be surprised at what iMovie and iDVD can accomplish with the aid of a few plugins and add-ons...some free, others thirty bucks or less.

Andy Baird was a founding member of PMUG, and has served as its software librarian and newsletter editor (simultaneously, believe it or not!). He's the author of "The Macintosh Dictionary" (Addison-Wesley, 1992), which originated as a PMUG publication, as well as many articles on Mac topics. Currently a user-interface designer at the Educational Testing Service, Andy has made many presentations to PMUG over the years on topics ranging from ResEdit and HyperCard to digital still cameras and video editing.

June 10, 2003, Games for the Mac

Gerrit Goossen, of Freeverse, will tell how games for the Mac are conceived and developed, with some demonstrations of about-to-be-released Macintosh games. These will include realMYST, Active Lancer, and Burning Monkey Solitaire 3.

With the recent announcement of a study that shows computer games are good for you (they develop coordination skills), we'll classify this meeting as "self improvement."

Gerrit Goossen is an Associate Programmer with Freeverse, responsible for Xpression!, an OS X icon customization utility. It enables users to customize the look of their Macs with a few simple clicks, apply themes to their whole system, removing about 160 steps from the process of giving your Mac a complete makeover. Before venturing into the gaming arena, Gerrit developed a utility called Scouter, last released in 2000. Scouter was a Mac version of Scour Exchange, the ridiculously popular music, movie and image sharing program for Windows. If Napster were radio, Scour Exchange is television and Scouter was the Mac way to connect to it all.

May 13, 2003, Resolution demystified: Image taking for the Web & print

You want to scan a photo and use it for a web page, a printed newsletter, and a photo quality print from your inkjet printer. How do you scan it? How do you save it? You just got a 5 megapixel digital camera. Which quality setting do you use for the same three projects? What's the scanned equivalent to a 5 megapixel image? What about film scanners? Why does something scanned on a film scanner print out like a postage stamp? What's the difference between dots per inch, pixels per inch, and lines per inch?

PMUG's own Terry Wilson will answer these questions in non-technical language with real world analogies to help you understand the voodoo behind resolution. Samples printed from an Epson printer will be passed around the room comparing different resolutions. A Nikon LS4000 film scanner will be demonstrated using VueScan software. (For those curious about batch scanning, the scanner has a roll film adapter for scanning entire rolls of film or slides in one unattended session.)

Terry Wilson is a graphic artist currently working in the website medium. Before that, she was a graphic artist and typesetter, with a stint as a graphics and web design instructor for corporate clients. Also a serious photographer, she spends considerable time with her film and digital cameras. Terry has been a member of PMUG since the late 80s, and has more Macs and peripherals than you can shake a stick at.

April 8, 2003, Which Operating System Is Best?

Macintosh users wondering whether to stay with the older OS 9 operating system or to switch to the newer OS X system will find their questions answered.

Two experts will debate the pros and cons of each system. Bill Achuff, of the UserGroup Alliance, will advocate OS 9, and Rob Golding, former Apple Solutions Consultant, will present the advantages of OS X. Each will rebut the arguments of the other, as well as answering questions from the audience.

March 18, 2003, Make Your Own Custom CDs

Don McGinnis will show how to create a personal music library, by creating MP3s from your old vinyl records, tapes, and CDs. The MP3s can be organized in iTunes and used to create your own custom CDs.

During his talk Don will demonstrate the burning of CDs, and PMUGers and guests are invited to bring a few of their favorite CDs and a blank CD-R disk to the meeting.

Don McGinnis studied music at Glassboro State College, followed by 32 years teaching music in New Jersey elementary and high schools. Before retiring from the Cherry Hill Music Department, he purchased his first Mac. After a brief retirement, he started a second career at Gloucester County College as lab assistant for the Graphic Arts Dept. and general Mac technician.

February 11, 2003, Gary Brock and 4D

The 4D database software development tool will be demonstrated by Gary Brock, an Evangelist for 4th Dimension, Inc.

Gary was a senior trainer for 4th Dimension in the early '90s and left to become a custom database application developer of 4D databases in 1995. He rejoined 4th Dimension in January 2002 and now develops and conducts 4D University Online training sessions (Webinars), and writes 4D Online Video Tech Tips, Tech Tips, and Tech Notes.

January 14, 2003, Video production made easy with iMovie and Final Cut Pro

Seth Mellman, Producer/Director of SMP Video in Princeton, will demonstrate just how easy video production is on the Mac. Video footage shot at the PMUG SIG Meetings just minutes before the main presentation will be quickly edited into a high quality finished video production using Apple's iMovie and Final Cut Pro applications. See how these two applications allow anyone from a video novice to a major Hollywood studio to produce polished projects.

With PMUG members as subjects of the video, followed by their live input into the editing decisions, the evening promises to be both informative and entertaining, resulting in a lively self-portrait of the club.

Seth Mellman began his video career in Los Angeles as an associate director/stage manager for network television and a freelance video producer. SMP Video, now in Princeton, produces programs for corporate training and promotion, TV commercials, documentaries and special family and business events. As a member of the Directors Guild Of America since 1992, he also continues his work in network television on such shows as Good Morning America, Hollywood Squares and MTV Video Music Awards, often traveling to New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and other exotic locales.

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