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

So you’ve changed ISPs, tested out multiple email hosting services, and have finally settled into a small series of email addresses that you are going to stick with for awhile. Apple’s Mail.app stores all the SMTP servers you’ve used in the past in your preference file and asks what server you want to use for sending email when the default server is unavailable. This is great except for one thing - you’ve got 10 old servers that are useless for sending email still stored in the memories of the software. You’ve long since deleted the old accounts and can’t find discover where these old servers are lurking around. Here are three solutions:

How to determine if you’ve been infected.

In the last day there’s been some news about a new bit of somewhat-malware on the mac. “Somewhat” because at least in its current form, and relative to some very nasty virii out there, this code rates as just above harmless. That it was announced on Halloween is probably the scariest thing about it. Never-the-less, it is an unwanted and uninvited bit of code, and here’s how to determine if you’ve been infected.

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!

This is for users of OnDeckTech’s Zimbra hosting services, however, it also explains how to configure Eudora more generally for other users, who will have to substitute their settings where appropriate.

1. Click on Eudora in the menu bar at the top of the screen then click preferences.
2. Then click “Getting Started” at the left hand side of the screen



3. Change the Mail Server to macsuite.com
4. Change the SMTP server to mail.macsuite.com:587
5. Click “Checking Mail” on the left hand side
   
6. Make sure the mail server reads macsuite.com
7. Make sure “save password” is also selected

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.