The wifi connection in my hotel is really, really slow. Reminds me of dial up. Must have something to do with 35,000 Mac users in town. Speaking of which, there were only 300 less people in attendance today than there were the first day of last year's Macworld. Vendors on the show floor were caught totally off guard and were calling in reinforcement staff to help with the crowds. There were less give-aways. No free tote bags at the door, no free pens in all the booths -- economy measures are evident everywhere (there aren't even free lunches in the press room), but attendees are buying.
The new products I have seen are awesome and I will mention some of them tomorrow when I have time to pull info together. This morning we heard David Pogue speak and what a hoot he is. I had no idea he was such a performer. He performed several parody songs that I understand are available on uTube. One makes fun of long waits for phone tech support, another is about wanting an iPhone. He also held a contest on Twitter for fake iPhone apps and shared some of them - such as an app that lets you watch paint dry. Ten years ago he wrote a column based on the movie I't A Wonderful Life in which he starred Steve Jobs instead of George Bailey - showing how bad things would be if there had never been an Apple Computer. David turned it into a play and had several people act it out on stage. The part of Steve Jobs was played by the actor LaVar Burton.
The next big event was a preview of six outstanding products. Again I will talk about a few products tomorrow, but I will say now that the one thing I have observed about this whole conference is that there are a lot of little companies with innovative products that are really exciting.
Paul Kent with IDG, the company who puts on Macworld, has done an outstanding job of creating the "new Macworld" and it is great to be here and be part of the action.
[ add comment ] ( 1 view ) | permalink |
( 2.7 / 28 )It happened again last night. It always does. I am getting ready to go to Macworld, getting ready for our user group meeting this week, handling business matters for my father who can no longer do it for himself, and I get the call from a friend.
"My screen is all white except for this little folder in the middle with a question mark on it. How do I make it go away?" In the background I can hear her restarting her machine over and over.
I'm not a technical person, but I know this is bad, so I say to her "Do you have everything backed up?" She uses her Mac for work.
She doesn't. I have told her over and over that she needs to back up her Mac, told her how to do it, and what software to use (SuperDuper is my recommendation), She always says that she will do so as soon as she can afford to buy an external hard drive. External hard drives are around $100.
When I researched her problem on the internet last night it seems very likely that her hard drive has died. That means she has lost all her applications and data. All her email, all her address book entries, all her photos, and all her calendar entries - not to mention her work documents.
She said, "The staff at the Genius Bar will be able to get it all back won't they?" I told her that if her hard drive is dead there are places that can try and retrieve some of her information but it will cost in the thousands to have it done.
Since she couldn't get on the internet, I made an appointment for her to go to her local Apple store first thing this morning to have them look at her Mac so they can tell her what is wrong.
If her hard drive is bad she may be able to get a new one or she may have to replace her machine. For less than $150 she could have protected all her important applications and information. No matter how good our Mac's are, they are still just machines.
[ add comment ] | permalink |
( 3 / 40 )I was teaching a class this past weekend when one of the attendees told me about a cool little application that allows you to create colored folders and then label them in large letters.
It sure makes it easy to find the folder you are seeking and it is very easy to use.
The app is called FolderBrander. You can find it at http://www.yellowmug.com/folderbrander/
A single user license is $9.95 and a family pack is $12.94. There are versions for OS 10.4 and later and for OS 10.3.
I'm really pleased to find out about this because I keep a lot of working folders on my desktop. You might want to check it out as well.
[ add comment ] ( 1 view ) | permalink |
( 2.9 / 52 )If you use a computer very long, sooner or later you will accidentally put an item in the trash that you didn't mean to throw away. Assuming you have not emptied the trash, you can get back.
It used to be the case that the only way you could retrieve it would be to click on the trash can to open it, search for the item, and then drag it back onto your desktop or back into a specific folder.
With Snow Leopard there is a somewhat faster way.
Right-click on the item and select "Put Back" from the contextual menu. The file will return to the where it was before you threw it away.
[ add comment ] ( 1 view ) | permalink |
( 2.9 / 115 )One of the really cool things about the Mac operating system is the ability to deal with a frozen application without the need to shut down your whole computer. In all the latest versions of the OS you can select the Apple Menu > Force Quit and highlight the frozen application and click the Force Quit button.
In Snow Leopard there is an even quicker way to Force Quit a frozen app. In the Dock click option-click on the application icon and one of your options will be Force Quit. Select it and the application will quit.
[ add comment ] ( 1 view ) | permalink |
( 2.9 / 101 )
Calendar
