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Who's in the corner?
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Sunday, August 24, 2003 |
Random thought:
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Learn PowerPoint (live) & save $50PowerPoint is an application that just about everybody has. It's easy to use, but a bit harder to use well. Rick Altman, who has been putting on Ventura Publisher and Corel Draw seminars for the past 14 years is branching out. PowerPoint Live is coming up in mid October at Tucson. Listen to Rick's interview to learn how you can save $50 on the registration fee! If you're wondering why Rick sees PowerPoint as a logical extension of the
programs he's been running for so long, it's because a lot of PowerPoint
users create graphics for their presentations in Corel Draw ... To claim your $50 discount, head over to PowerPointLive, find the registration form, and mention the $50 "Technology Corner" discount in the comments field. That's all there is to it. By the way, I will be in Tucson for the event. Rick and I will be talking about how digital photography has revolutionized presentations and I'll also have a session on modifying and improving images for use in PowerPoint. The program also features other speakers who know what they're talking about. Questions and answersSome people make the mistake of asking for my advice. If they're lucky, I lose the request before I can take action on it. In some cases, though, they get a reply. Some questions take two or more tries. George Gugle's question was like that. It was a Mac question and I didn't have access to my Mac at the time (and I'm not exactly a Mac expert, but I'm working on that), but how could I ignore a question posed this way: Please, I beseech thee, O Technology Tsar. I offer up to you an Apple Newton as a sacrifice! Seriously, my parents have an IMac--the original which looks like a reborn Admiral TV. Apparently, according to my Dad, when he logs onto AOL he no longer here's the familiar "ding." This seems to cause great consternation with him. In an effort to help him "get his 'ding' back," is there a volume setting on an ersatz control panel which I can access and check, or does he need to have the sound card checked by a certified IMac professional--you know, a 16-year-old female dressed in black and with more piercings than General Custer! I await your answer O Great and Beneficent Technology Tsar! Reply #1: Hmmm. Offhand I would suggest hiring the 16 y/o described above and equipping her with a small xylophone. She could be assigned the task of watching the monitor to see when the computer was connected to AOL. Whenever that was the case, she would strike the xylophone and cause it to ding. [In retrospect, I realize that I should have suggested hiring the 16 year old's elder sister or waiting at least 2 years to avoid running afoul of certain state, federal, and local laws.] I suspect that will not be a workable solution, however, so my next suggestion is that they immediately discard this old technology and purchase the latest flat-panel iMac (the one that looks like it's the result of a soccer ball meeting a chain saw. If that isn't possible and he would prefer not to obtain a Windows-based personal computer, then let me know if he's running OS 9 or OS X. If he's running OS X (not likely on an Admiral TV), I might be able to figure out where the ding went. If he's running OS 9 (with which I have about 2 weeks of experience) I might be able to remember enough to give you the appropriate clue. But if the machine is running OS 8 or earlier, y'all got the wrong tsar. Later, after I realized that Apple designs volume controls the way radio manufacturers designed them in 1956, I tried again. This answer may actually have some merit. It occurs to me that at least SOME Macs waste THREE function keys to control the volume. One is a mute/unmute toggle -- I think that's F2. Then F3 and F4 are used to raise and lower the volume. So first I'd check to see if sound has been muted. Does the computer make sounds otherwise? If that's not the problem, then I'd take a look at the AOL software to see if there are preferences settings. There may be a way to turn the sound off or to assign different sounds. The on-line sound may have been assigned to "nothing" or the file it is assigned to might have gone missing. And watch out for General Custer. Question: I have a Mac G4 new to me. When I attempted to set up the fax, it told me it is in an invisible folder so unopenable. Mac Help goes straight to folders and ignores the invisible part. That makes sense, I suppose, but it is a bit maddening. Help? Buy a PC? You'll still be frustrated, but at least then you'll know why. That's one of the Mac's most annoying "features" -- the attitude that you don't need to know what we're doing so we're not going to tell you how we do it, and we're damn sure not going to give you a manual that tells you how to do it, so if you want to know how, you'll have to figure it out for yourself or buy a book by David Pogue. (This is not to suggest that David Pogue isn't a nice person or that he doesn't deserve any money he can make from explaining to people what Apple should have explained to them but didn't.) Related (and just as useless) note: I've received a message from a person who is so frustrated with her Mac that she's asking which parts can be cannibalized and used in a PC. [Additional information added later: I, too, purchased a Mac G4 and spent a good 10 days trying to get it to run reliably. Between the constant crashing and the invariable kernel panics, nothing much was happening with the G4. Finally it occurred to me that Apple had built a lemon. Any computer company can do that, but somehow it seems ironic when Apple does it.] Question: My father died recently and we are now trying to decide what to do with all the slides (conservatively 5,000 of them). Is there anything available to transfer old slides to make a computer slide show? Answer: I'm sorry to hear about your father, but it's good that he left you a treasure trove of images. There are several ways to go about this. The easiest (but most expensive) way would be to deal with someone who will scan the images for you. A friend in California could handle that task. You can reach Jim Vormelker at jim@jvormelker.com -- tell him I sent you. (He's also a glass artist -- seee http://www.jvormelker.com/ ). It would cost less but take much more time to do the job yourself. You would need a slide scanner. Nikon and Minolta both make good units, some as low as about $300 -- but I'd recommend avoiding those and going with the $500 and up units. Avoid at all costs the under $200 units from no-name manufacturers. If you want to go that route, take a look at Nikon Coolscan IV ED (LS-40), 2900 dpi, 35mm, Film Scanner ($630) Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite II, 2820 dpi, 35mm, Film Scanner ($720) These are both in stock at B&H Photo Video in NYC (bhphotovideo.com). The resolution (dpi) is less important than the dynamic range (dMax). The Minolta I noted has a dynamic range of 4.8 and the Nikon has a dynamic range of 3.6. The are logarithmic scales, so the difference between 3.6 and 4.8 is more than it would seem. The Minolta also has a Firewire interface, while the Nikon uses USB 1.1. As much as I like Nikon gear, I'd go with the Minolta. Question: I have Mac G4, Sawtooth, 350 (1999) that you helped me troubleshoot before. It still doesn't work. [I helped troubleshoot a Mac and it still doesn't work? Should this surprise anyone?] I've tested everything: power supply (including every plug coming from the power supply), memory, hard drive, video card, reseated everything that can be reseated (many times), took the cover off the power supply to check for loose connections, looked under the heat sink just because I could, new battery, zapped the PRAM (many many times), disconnected all peripherals, tried booting it with every key combination I've found, and it won't start it from a CD, including the system CD and DiskWarrior. Someone gave me this computer, and it has been used less than 100 hours. Everything worked, then it slowly started circling the drain (although nothing had been added, removed, or changed) so that now there is not even a start up chime. As it was imploding, it seldom did anything consistent: sometimes it would chime, sometimes not; it would turn on, then the monitor would freeze; gray screen, no gray screen; flipping question mark and happy face, nothing; beeps, no beeps. It is consistent now, though: fans work, hard drive is spinning, light on monitor turns on (although it stays orange), etc., but no chimes, beeps, clicks, pops, or anything else. It was running OSX when it quit. I'd upgraded from OS9 a couple of months before it tanked and connected it to a Linksys Ethernet router before that, but otherwise no new software or hardware. I've spent literally dozens of hours researching and playing with the G4. After perusing (and I mean that in the strict dictionary sense) hundreds of board posts I've found a few that have the same problem, but there has never been a fix suggested. The closest I've found are lots of suggestions to do everything I've done, then, "Take it to an Apple repair shop." I've even found a few people who said they replaced the logic board and/or power supply and the problem still wasn't fixed. After reading so much about Apple I'm less than thrilled with their snobby proprietary attitude and lack of support for their authorized repair shops to work on older computers, and I don't want to spend the outrageous price for a new logic board that might not even work (and just who buys an untested, as-is logic board from E-bay just because it looks good? Mine looks fabulous.). The closest Apple shop is a 3-4 hour round trip (although I live about 10 miles away as the crow flies), and their attitude on the phone has been that I'm just a dumb girl, so they'll have to start troubleshooting from the beginning (because they won't believe that I have half a clue as to what I'm talking about). Finally, my question: [She takes longer getting to a question than I do!] Do you know if it's feasible to turn the G4 into a PC? It has the beautiful Apple Studio Display (unfortunately, with the #$*&%proprietary ADC) and a lovely case that's so easy to open over and over and over again. I know I'd have to modify the case to fit a new logic board, but I'm trying to find out if any of the hardware will work with a PC (hard drive, power supply, DVD drive, graphics card, memory) I'd like to keep the monitor digital, but I don't know enough to know if it's possible. I'm not having much luck finding relevant hits using lots of different search strings. I'm also not prepared for the avalanche of "What kind of an idiot would choose to turn a Mac into a PC" comments I'd get if I posted this exact question to message boards. This computer is an extra one, used mostly for Internet, e-mail, word processing, and IM, so I'm not going to spend a lot of money trying to fix a 4-5 year old machine (although it's practically new usage-wise). But it's driving me crazy that I can't fix it because it has to be a simple problem. Any suggestions as to where to look for more information? I know quite a lot about PCs and have been gearing up to build one, when it suddenly occurred to me that I might be able to kill two birds with one stone. If not, I'm going to get the biggest stone I can find and just kill the Mac. Answer: At the office we had a machine like that once. An IBM AT. Over a couple of years, we replace the memory, the video card, the mother board, and everything else. We finally decided that the room was haunted. Apple can be difficult. The machines, unlike PCs, don't have a lot of utilities -- although the G4 should come with a diagnostic disc of some sort that will boot. To boot from the CD, try holding down the C key during start-up. I'm not sure if you have to hold this key down from the instant of power on or press it later. I know you said you didn't get the start-up chime, but maybe this is worth a shot. Some of the stuff should be usable. Apple has, over the past few years, converted to "generic" parts. My little iBook has an ATI video card in it. Instead of SCSI disks, Apple uses IDE drives now. The current crop of machines seem to be able to take some "standard" PCI bus peripherals. For a machine that's 4 or 5 years old, the question would have to be whether it's one that has parts you can use (but that's what you asked me). If you're sure the thing just won't ever go again, you could just take it apart and see what's in there that could be attached to a PC. The monitor should work. The video card might. The keyboard probably won't, but Apple's keyboards are goofy. Memory might. The HD probably will (even if it's SCSI -- you'd just need a SCSI controller and some of those are cheap). Question: A listener (Jim Patterson) described the problem he had with Intuit software:
I did install & used Blocks "Tax Cut' for my 2002 taxes and am ready to dump Quicken for MS Money! As a long time Quicken & TurboTax advocate, I am now turning against Intuit and their products. Any help you can provide would be appreciated. Tell them for me, they should rethink their security efforts and fix their online help! Answer: I couldn't duplicate the problem. I sent Jim's information to the PR folks at Intuit. (This is often a way to for people like me to get to higher level technicians.) Intuit did not reply. I then sent a reminder to ask about the lack of a reply. Intuit did not reply to that, either, but we do know that they won't be using copy protection next year because it caused problems for too many people this year. Question: Where does a regular guy go to buy a new computer? I'm not the nerd type but have learned how to survive in the PC world as one must do now. My present system is a hand-me-down. I believe it's a Pentium 1 (Acer is the brand name) however the monitor is from an old Power Spec 486 we got back in 1994. I have no sound and can only get text message in my e-mail (running Windows 95). Do I go to one of the big super stores, or have one built at the local computer store? Answer: Take a look at TCR Computers (Pickerington). They're good, reasonably priced, build to order, and have been around for years. The big Mac attack?Did I make a mistake by being critical of the Mac? If so, now I'm REALLY in trouble even though my tongue was firmly in my cheek for some of what I wrote above. Uh-oh. I said something critical of the Mac. After last week's show, I heard from a listener who uses both Macs and PCs. He feared for my safety: "Do you have any vacation time? If so, you may consider using it now because the you will without doubt receive verbal lashings from the Mac Community. I could tell you tried to be diplomatic in your explanation of the problems you experienced with your Mac, no doubt in anticipation of this backlash. Please let us know how rabid the responses are about your criticisms." I think most Mac owners who hear the show just think I'm nuts and ignore me. I expected some trouble when I asked for help on MacOSXHints.com -- or at least some teasing. Instead, I got good information, help, and sympathy. Fortunately, I'd owned the iBook for a couple of years, so I knew the constant crashing I was seeing wasn't normal. "I use Macs and PCs also. I also like Macs, but recognize they are not perfect." That's the key. No computer is perfect or is likely to be anytime soon. I really like the Unix underpinnings of OS X, but I really dislike Apple's refusal to "borrow" something as simple and useful as the Start Menu from Windows. There must be at least a dozen 3rd-party applications that try to replicate the Start Menu on the Mac. You'd think that would tell the guys in Cupertino something. I really like the way XP works, but the ongoing security problems are clear indications that Microsoft is clueless in that area. "My conclusion about the defensiveness of many in the Mac Community about the Machine is that they are like the proverbial short guy who is always trying to make the most noise so he won't be discounted." I think that's the case. I've now encountered several people who use both platforms and readily admit that both have strengths and weaknesses. I sincerely hope that OS X is enough to attract the interest of some computer geeks. That's still not going to do much for market share, but it could be a start. If the Mac's market share continues to drop, the major software houses won't write for it. Even Adobe now often launches apps on Windows first and (almost as an afterthought) on the Mac. And I heard from another Mac user who told me "You were critical of Apple, the company, but please give your new computer (when you receive the replacement--yes, that sucked) a chance. If you run into a problem with it, do research--there are plenty of resources out there to solve problems and answer questions, even for OSX. Apple.com is the LAST place I look for problem resolutions. And ask your audience for help when you need it." Excellent resource: MacOSXHints.com. The guy who runs it has worked with David Pogue (as editor) on a book of 500+ OS X hints. This is another must-have book. "I wonder if David Pogue has written 'MacOSX For Dummies' yet." Yes! He has several "missing manual" books for X and for some of the apps. They are WONDERFUL books. "It all boils down to learning your operating system inside and out and, to me, mac OS (pre OSX) has been the easiest to understand. Then you have to learn all your software inside and out....." Yep. A lot of Apple faithful are critical of Apple for moving to Unix, but they don't ever have to see Unix or know what the superuser is if they don't want to. (Those who choose not to learn at least rudimentary Unix will forego the many powerful features that are offered.) "I hope KayDee is using Quark because it's the best page layout software, but it's very complicated and can be unstable. I used it years ago as a typesetter on a G4 and loved it, but there were freezeups. PhotoShop also caused problems on the G4. Hope she has better luck on the new computer." I'm glad you called it a page layout program. It is that, although InDesign could give it a good run. I've done books (the largest was over 500 pages) in Ventura Publisher and and of the page layout tools (Pagemaker, XPress, etc) would have made me absolutely crazy. Ventura gets no respect and it's probably the most versatile publishing application on the planet. But the one and only Mac version (back around System 8) may have been one of the 10 worst applications ever written. Any Mac user who tried it would be understandably shy of trying it again should Corel port it to the Mac (which will happen about the same time Bill Gates gives away all his money and moves to a monastery.) "Have fun!" I may have to buy a Big(ger) Mac to work with. I like the iBook, but it's "only" a G3 500MHz system. Kaydee's G4 dual-processor rig really is quite nice now that it works. Nerdly NewsMore flaws, more viruses, more worms: the beat goes onIn a couple of weeks, I'll have some additional security recommendations for you, but here's the short list: Visit windowsupdate.microsoft.com regularly and get all the critical updates, make sure you have an antivirus application installed and that you check for new virus definitions every day, and install a firewall (hardware or software -- possibly both). Microsoft has released or revised several security bulletins this week. The company also released two additional security patches. The vulnerability reported in July regarding DirectX on some platforms has been expanded to include Microsoft DirectX(r) 5.2 on Windows 98; Microsoft DirectX 6.1 on Windows 98 SE; Microsoft DirectX 7.1 on Windows Millennium Edition; Microsoft DirectX 7.0 on Windows 2000; Microsoft DirectX 8.0, 8.0a, 8.1, 8.1a, and 8.1b when installed on Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows Millennium Edition or Windows 2000; Microsoft DirectX 8.1 on Windows XP or Windows Server 2003; Microsoft DirectX 9.0a when installed on Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me), Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003; Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Server with either Windows Media Player 6.4 or Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 installed; Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Terminal Server Edition with either Windows Media Player 6.4 or Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 installed. Another vulnerability was originally reported to be related to Microsoft's SQL Server (this was of concern only to those who run servers). Later, Microsoft determined that the vulnerability is actually a problem with the underlying Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) component Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), which is present in all versions of Windows. Additionally, the original patch did not install correctly on some systems because of a flaw in the way that Microsoft Windows Installer updated the System File Protection cache. It is now of interest to everyone. If you haven't obtained the numerous security updates for Internet Explorer, Microsoft has released a cumulative patch that includes the functionality of all previously released patches for Internet Explorer 5.01, 5.5, and 6.0. Spam: Legislation is not the solutionSomething odd from Washington -- admission that legislation is not the answer to a problem! Timothy Muris, the head of the Federal Trade Commission, told a technology conference in Colorado that anti-spam legislation won't work. How would a "do-not-spam" registry work, he asks, when most spammers conceal their identities. Muris know that spam raises many consumer protection challenges, but seems to understand that new laws won't do much to halt or slow the flood of junk. Let us know what you think about this program! Write to: |
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