The Mac Experience in Business & Home: Help, Tips, Discussion & Radio Show Notes

We like Firefox, for all platforms, especially when used in conjunction with Zimbra, the enterprise e-mail, calendaring, contact and document sharing software. And we all know how easy it is to take screenshots on a mac. But have you ever wanted to take a screenshot of an entire webpage, especially one that scrolls beyond the size of your screen? And what about when using Firefox on a PC using WindowsXP or Linux? Well, now you can, with Pearl Crescent, a new Firefox extension. You can get Pearl Crescent here . It comes in both a free basic version, and a Pro version for $15. For independently written software, those are great prices, especially for what it can do. We know around here we are going to be recommending this often to our users.

I’ve had this wonderful little freeware application for many years now. And, since I had to yet again refer to it to definitively answer a call that just came in to the OnDeckTech helpdesk, I thought I’d pass it along to y’all as well. MacTracker is a database with a nifty-looking front end, that does just as it says. It gives you information about every model of Macintosh computer ever made. It even does iPods now as well. You can read more about it, and download it here . And, since it is freeware, if you find yourself relying on it, please consider donating, so that the authors can continue to develop it.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked me if I knew how to do this, as he was writing up a document about a PC-only application in which he wanted to include screenshots, and rather than switch back and forth between Mac OS X and Windows XP, it seemed easier to do it all in Microsoft Word on the PC partition of his MacBook Pro. After a little googling, we found this wonderful little article that explains how easy it is to accomplish this task. Now go forth and PrintScreen!

There are so many different ways to set something like this up. This final installation of this blog series if going to mainly focus on what I’ve experienced so far, and what I plan on doing with my network.

So, my network at this time includes:
Airport Extreme
Airport Express
Cable Modem
Epson R200
LaCie 250GB External
Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro
Core Duo Macbook
tv or Mac Mini eventual purchase

As you may have noticed by now, I’m pretty serious about this project. I have been ripping DVDs every day since the tv was initially announced back in September under the code name “iTV”.

I had no idea where I would end up when I started, but now that I am finished with Parts One and Two, I know what I need from here. I will share with you know some things to consider.

At this point, you are either finished with, or well on your way to having all of your media ripped into Quicktime format, and assembled into a massive iTunes Library. You will start to get an idea of how large your Library will be, and should be planning accordingly regarding a means for storage (more on this in part 3).

Right now, we are going to focus on organization - getting all your music and video in the same library, and properly tagged.

Since you have no doubt heard by now that the tv has been delayed, I thought this would be an excellent time to share some tips that will make your impending digital home theatre experience all the more sweet. As an added challenge, I will try to subtitle each entry with a Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers song. So, here we go!

In this installation, I want to tackle content. Apple offers movies on the iTunes Store now, but who wants to pay for iTunes-compatible versions of movies they already own? Who wants to wait for all the legal battles to be fought so that they can finally download their favorite films on iTunes? Not this Mac addict.

Everyone’s talking about the iPhone (although no one is talking with it yet), and while this article is about communication, this is the last sentence that will mention the iPhone. For the moment, pass on, you hordes of latest gadget-lovers! We have other fish to fry. Last Website Wednesday Night we had a caller bring up the question of video conferencing between Macintosh OS X and Windows XP. In the past we’ve promised we’d share at least one way to make this work, and today is that day.

This show, on WGN AM 720 broadcast from the Tribune tower in downtown Chicago is, for tonight, dedicated to novice computer users! We’re spending time talking about the basics, thinking many people in the audience may have just received computers over the holidays, remembering a short dozen years ago how Steve and Johnnie left their computer in the box for months before working up the courage to open it…

For those of you who’ve just gotten your Macs, you may want to visit Apple’s web page devoted to first-time users, Mac 101: http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/ .

We’ve had reports of some issues from a variety of customers regarding Apple OS X Mail. The issue seems to cause sent messages to occasionally end up in the Drafts folder, and appear as though they have not been sent, though they have. I have done some research to try and find a solution to this, but so far have been unsuccessful. I have noticed in my research, however, that people from all over the Apple community are experiencing the exact same issue with all kinds of different mail services, including Apple’s .Mac Mail. Evidence suggests that this is an existing bug with Mail.app.
Here are some examples:
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8300945231/m/
http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-57000.html
http://forum.joyent.com/viewtopic.php?id=600