Dorchester — Feb 8th 2011
We started the new format of the meeting with Q&A's on a variety of problems, including how to sort out Wireless Networks, what a convert from the PC could use in place of MS Access - Filemaker was recommended. Canon PIXMA printer problem, where the solution was possibly to be found by downloading up to date drivers. Speech to text software was also discussed, and that by Dragon, who had since been taken over by another company, was mentioned.
Following an excursion to the bar, David Moon spoke on NAS (Network accessible storage) using a RAID (redundant array of independent devices). He was using a RAID, a Synology disc station, into which one had to install hard drives. He had found this to be a cheaper, and presumably more reliable alternative to Apple's Time Capsule, and used it with Time Machine. It could be used to store data as a 'sparse bundle', which only uses an amount of storage equal to that used, as opposed to a disc image, where the volume of data equates to that of the device upon which it resides (i.e. including the empty space).
Mark then introduced 'odds and ends', which is intend to include very brief, informal presentations, which people were invited to bring along on a memory stick. John - Caffeine, a useful programme, free on the App Store, which, by a click on an icon in the menu bar, prevents mac from going to sleep. A new book on the Macbook (and in the local library) was also flourished by Tom. Euan then gave us a tour of the Finder, and demonstrated some lesser known features,
The meeting closed with a presentation by Michael on Skype and iChat, including: How to set up iChat / Skype, and a comparison of the two, which identified the considerable versatility of iChat, which was offset by the fact that it can only be used for communicating between macs.
JSR
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