Bournemouth — Dec 16th 2008

Even better attendance than last time - it must have been the attraction of the mince pies that did it! This month there were two presentations. One by Michael showing some of the (useful) free applications that can be found on the internet. A dozen were featured, but had to be shown briefly, with a quick description of what they do. Anyone interested can have a list of the relevant URLs for downloading. The applications were :

Applejack, ClamXav, Grand Perspective, Gutenprint, Koolclip, Monolingual, Onyx, Picasa Web Uploader, Preferential Treatment, Sketchup and SMARTReporter. A full description of what each does is on the relevant web site, but briefly Applejack sorts out permissions and much more, as does Onyx - in other words, housekeeping stuff. ClamXav is a barrier against viruses (virii?), not currently needed for Macs, but a help in not passing them on to Windows users, Grand Perspective shows the size of each file, folder or application, graphically to show how much disk space each uses, Gutenprint is for setting up unusual or older printers, Koolclip extends the capabilities of the clipboard to accept dozens of items rather than just one, Picasa is a web-based photo album, Preferential Treatment examines preferences and reports on faulty ones. Sketchup is a powerful 3-D drawing program, and SMARTReporter warns of impending disk failure.

Lionel gave a presentation on another free application - Photoshop Express - and also showed ClamXav in action.

Finally, there was a Mac-based Christmas quiz, thanks to to London Mac User Group, which had people scratching their heads - do YOU know what the original Apple logo was?

So a Happy Christmas to everyone and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year - we have yet to have our dates confirmed by Solutions, but foresee no probnlems with the 3rd Tuesday of the month as at present.

Comments

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Mark Ford said…

Great to see the revival!
As to the logo; was it someone [Newton?] sitting under an [apple] tree ?

John Surtees said…

The original logo was drawn by Ronald Gerald Wayne and there is more info on <http://www.512memo.com/2008/09/inside-story-of-apples-original-logo.html>

If you ever feel you've made a bad decision in your life. Just read about this guy.

Another excellent Bournemouth meeting in Solutions cellar. Lets hope the attendance keeps growing in 2009.

For the future, is there any chance of getting a musician to demo how he/she uses their Mac?

Happy Christmas

John & Joy Surtees

Roy Rainford said…

An interesting & enjoyable meeting. Thanks Michael & Lionel for the presentations - & for the mince pies!
Looks as if someone has already been on the Mulled Wine with the 'to to probnlems'!!
Best wishes for the Festive Season to all. Roy

Michael Corgan said…

Hi all. I am pleased to say that our dates at Solutions until May are now confirmed and on the Calendar. And strange as it may seem, January's subject is Msic - we are waiting on knowing whether we can get a demo on Garageband from Fareham, and have a demo lined up opn transferring vinyl to CD or DVD. See you all on January 20th!
Michael
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