The MacValley blog
Welcome to the MacValley blog, your first stop for all the latest MacValley news and views.
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The MacValley blog Editor: Tom Briant
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Tuesday, December 22, 2015
20 Mac Power User Tricks - How to - Macworld UK
20 Mac Power User Tricks - How to - Macworld UK: ""
(Via.)
You may know some of these, but you probably don’t know all of them.
Tom Briant
Editor, MacValley Blog
Saturday, December 19, 2015
Kurt Masur Dies at 88; Conductor Transformed New York Philharmonic - The New York Times
Kurt Masur Dies at 88; Conductor Transformed New York Philharmonic - The New York Times: ""
(Via.)
I know this isn’t Mac or even computer related. But I write this blog and I want to pay tribute to a great man and a great musician.
Tom Briant
Editor, MacValley Blog
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth's Weekly Web Wrap Up for December 18, 2015
The 25 best iPhone apps of 2015, according to Apple
http://www.businessinsider.com/apples-top-iphone-apps-of-2015-2015-12
The 27 best apps of 2015 for doing your job
http://www.businessinsider.com/best-work-apps-2015-10
A big Mac initiative by Apple is showing signs of failure
Sketch, a popular Mac app that lots of designers actually liked better than Adobe Photoshop, has left the Mac App Store. In a blog entry, Sketch developer Bohemian Coding said that there were several reasons why it took the app off the Mac App Store.
Apple forces developers to remove parts of their apps to comply with app-store rules.
Worse yet, it seems as if developers just aren't making a lot of money from the Mac App Store.
The real issue isn't so much Apple's 30% cut, because plenty of developers gladly pay that. It's worth it to have Apple handle hard problems like payments and updates, while also getting the app out in front of more customers.
It's more that Apple is asking developers to make a lot of compromises, on the app itself and on control of their relationship with customers, that they don't have to accept at all if they only choose to publish the app itself.
http://www.businessinsider.com/sketch-leaves-apple-mac-app-store-2015-12
Finding the perfect email app is hard, especially when the app you love dies
This author loved to use MailBox to read and send E-mails.
To his dismay, the publisher has decided to stop supporting MailBox.
And the author has yet to find another E-mail app that’s anywhere near as good.
http://www.businessinsider.com/mailbox-email-app-shut-down-what-next-2015-12
Apple has been making a lot of bad design choices lately
http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-accessories-designs-2015-12
The Internet’s Loop of Action and Reaction Is Worsening
there’s also a way in which social networks seem to be feeding a cycle of action and reaction. In just about every news event, the Internet’s reaction to the situation becomes a follow-on part of the story, so that much of the media establishment becomes trapped in escalating, infinite loops of 140-character, knee-jerk insta-reaction.
The spiraling feedback loop is exhausting and rarely illuminating.
The Internet wasn’t supposed to be this ugly. In its earliest days its pioneers harbored grand ideas about the web’s expanding our democratic discourse.
The Internet can make how we talk to one another better or worse. And for now, and maybe for the foreseeable future, we’re leaning toward worse.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/technology/shut-down-internet-donald-trump-hillary-clinton.html?emc=edit_ct_20151210&nl=personaltech&nlid=11893479&_r=0
IBM's hair dryer hackathon for women in tech doesn't sit well with women in tech
Several social media comments from Women -- working on much more important stuff than hair dryers.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ibms-hair-dryer-hackathon-for-women-in-tech-doesnt-sit-well-with-women-in-tech-2015-12-07
Recovering a Stolen Gmail Account
Google has two plans of action for compromised Gmail accounts, and the one you use depends on whether you can still sign in to the hacked account.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/technology/personaltech/recovering-a-stolen-gmail-account.html?emc=edit_ct_20151210&nl=personaltech&nlid=11893479
The latest cyberthreat is stealing your house
Deed fraud on the rise in New York, Chicago, Detroit
Interesting story about one person whose home was "sold" fraudulently.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-latest-cyberthreat-is-stealing-your-house-2015-12-09
The 14 scariest hacks of 2015
A serious zero-day vulnerability was found in Mac OS X.
A hacker built a $30 gadget that can open car locks.
Just to name a few.
http://www.businessinsider.com/14-of-the-scariest-hacks-in-2015-8
Here's what MacKeeper is — and why you should avoid it
accidentally exposed the details of over 13 million users, according to a researcher.
many users claim that the software doesn't work as advertised.
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-mackeeper-and-should-you-avoid-it-2015-12
A Bad Review Is Forever: How to Counter Online Complaints
A good story of a restaurant owner who got bad reviews, made some changes and then got good reviews.
“The minute you see a bad review, look for a shard of truth,” Barbara Schenck said. “Is this something you can improve? Look for what you can fix.” But don’t fight fire with fire by getting into an argument with a reviewer, she added.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/business/smallbusiness/small-business-counter-bad-reviews.html?emc=edit_ct_20151210&nl=personaltech&nlid=11893479
NASA, Google reveal quantum computing leap
In an experiment, a quantum computer outperformed a conventional machine by 100 million times
The researchers see it as a promising step, but it comes with some caveats -- not the least of which is that the computer was engineered for the specific optimization task it was tested with.
Quantum computers rely on fundamentally different principles to today's computers, in which each bit represents either a zero or a one. In quantum computing, each bit can be both a zero and a one simultaneously. So while three conventional bits can represent any of eight values (2^3), three qubits, as they're called, can represent all eight values at once. That means calculations can theoretically be performed at much higher speeds.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3013214/nasa-google-reveal-quantum-computing-leap.html
researchers emphasized that quantum computing is still in the experimental stages and has yet to be commercialized. Rupak Biswas, deputy director of exploration technology at NASA Ames, likened the state of quantum computing to the early development of conventional computers during the 1930s and 40s.
Some scientists have taken issue with D-Wave, which built the quantum computing system at NASA Ames, because they say the machine is not a true quantum computer. They say it uses some quantum computing technology, but that it does not entirely meet their definition because it can only solve a limited range of problems.
http://fortune.com/2015/12/08/google-nasa-quantum-computing/
This epic slideshow tells you everything you need to know about bitcoin and blockchain right now
http://www.businessinsider.com/magister-advisors-report-on-bitcoin-and-blockchain-ecosystems-2015-12
two utterly different framings of what surveillance is about: the law-enforcement framing, and the surveillance-studies-style framing. James Comey has come out repeatedly with these sort of talking points from the law-enforcement framing. I don't believe they ultimately stand up to close scrutiny.
It involves a whole bunch of related beliefs, starting with the fact that privacy and security are in opposition with one another, and that there are all these "bad guys" out there, and technology has been a boon to them, because now they have encryption at their disposal.
"We run the risk of going dark." That's the phrase that James Comey uses. A world of dark, locked closets. I think the entire framing is this sort of discourse in fear, to make people believe that we need this almost father figure to protect us, and that we're going to have to give up some civil liberties to do so, but that's somehow for the social good.
I don't think any of it ultimately makes sense, starting from the beginning, that privacy and security are routinely in opposition to one another, and going on through the presumed effectiveness of denying the population access to effective privacy tools, that that will somehow help in a fight against terrorism.
journalism is quite threatened by the possibility of being continually surveilled. It's surprising to me that journalists aren't fighting harder to ensure that they have good and easy access to the tools for privacy.
in a world in which journalists are denied access to sources that can speak up free of fear of governmental intrusion, I think this shuts down an enormously important aspect of what makes democracy work. I don't think you can have a healthy democracy without healthy journalism, and I don't think you have healthy journalism without the ability to conduct a private conversation.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/the-moral-failure-of-computer-science/420012/
I made a phone call the NSA probably can't listen to with this free app
It's called Signal, and it's an incredibly easy-to-use app for iPhone and Android that allows both encrypted text and voice communications.
It's end-to-end encryption — meaning there is no middleman to intercept — and it just works.
"I use Signal every day," Edward Snowden tweeted.
http://www.businessinsider.com/signal-phone-app-2015-12
There are now programs that anyone can use to extort money from you
Ransomware as a service is a variant of ransomware designed to be so user-friendly that it could be deployed by anyone with little cyber know-how. These agents simply download the virus either for free or a nominal fee, set a ransom and payment deadline, and attempt to trick someone into infecting his or her computer. If the victim pays up, the original author gets a cut — around 5% to 20% — and the rest goes to the "script kiddie" who deployed the attack.
http://www.businessinsider.com/ransomware-as-a-service-is-the-next-big-cyber-crime-2015-12
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Cristael's column from December 2010 about Hanukkah
Our late President of MacValley’s birthday is tomorrow. In honor of that occasion and of Hanukkah, here is a column she wrote for the MacValley Voice in December 2010
Tom Briant
Editor MacValley Blog
Hi Tom --
Here's the column for December, along with a photo that will be emailed separately. I can't think of a headline for this one, so I'll leave that up to you & Wayne.
Cristael
*****
In my first year of teaching third grade in Paradise Hills, one of my Jewish mothers came to our classroom for a special event. She brought with her a mystery box, and she also brought some cookies that smelled so good. Both teacher and kids knew that we were all in for a special treat.
The mother and her two daughters took a beautiful menorah out of the mystery box, along with a lovely cloth to place the menorah on. And then they told the story of Hanukkah, of how the Jews had won a great victory in a war with the King of Syria.
Right after the victory, the Jews rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem, in order to cleanse the Temple from the desecration it and the Jewish people had suffered under Syrian rule.
But the Jews quickly realized they had a problem. On the day of the rededication, it was found that sacred flame that was always kept burning in the Temple, had only enough oil left to last for one day.
Yet, to the joy of all the Jewish people, that sacred flame miraculously burned for eight days, which gave the priests time to press, prepare, and consecrate fresh olive oil for the flame. All twenty-five kids listened with wide eyes as they were told the story of Hanukkah.
Then mother and daughters lit the first candle in the menorah. And they sang a song of praise and thanks for the miracle of the container of the oil.
Finally, they talked about the joy of the holiday, and all the fun they had as a family. When the daughters told about getting a present for each of the eight days of the Hanukkah holiday, all the kids said, “Wow! You get that many presents?”
And the mother leaned over to me and said softly, “Yes, until the money runs out.”
After the telling of the story of Hanukkah, the fun part started. All the children got to play ‘Spin the Dreidel’, substituting toothpicks for the ornamental coins or ‘gelt’ used at home.
Mother and daughters also brought paper plates and napkins, so that the children got to eat some of the special cookies made for this holiday. Afterwards, everyone agreed they had all had a really good time.
This was the beginning of what became a yearly tradition in my classroom. I always enjoyed having my Jewish mothers come to our classroom. It was a special time when my third grade children not only enjoyed a little bit of the fun of this wonderful Jewish holiday, it was also a lesson for all my third-graders in valuing diversity, and in seeing the good in everyone. And above all, it celebrated peace. And isn’t that what this Holiday Season is all about.
In this special season, we wish the Happiest of Holidays to each and every MacValleyite, and throughout all the world may there be Peace.
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth's Weekly Web Wrap-up for 12/6/2015
FDA regulations.
since many of the more sophisticated offerings help people diagnose their own illness, FDA says they meet the definition of being a medical device. That makes them subject to a regulatory scheme that was crafted more than 40 years ago, before these technologies were ever imagined.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottgottlieb/2015/12/04/why-apple-dumbs-down-your-smartphone/
‘Freeform Canvas’ from OneNote gets the job done
I'd never used Notability before my Pencil tests, but it quickly became my favorite tool for marking up and sharing documents.
The other two apps don’t quite get the job done.
http://www.cio.com/article/3012002/mobile-apps/putting-apple-pencil-to-work-with-evernote-onenote-and-notability.html
New drone flyover gives up-close look at Apple’s rapidly progressing Campus 2
http://9to5mac.com/2015/12/04/drone-flyover-apple-campus-2-december/
This Is Phil Schiller's Grand Unified Theory of Apple
http://fortune.com/2015/12/04/schiller-apple-theory/
But after months of use, it’s increasingly clear that this is what needs to change the most. The watch needs to be untethered from the iPhone for speed, independence, and direct access to the power of the cloud. Or it will never be more than a cute sidekick.
The transition to detachable tablets signals a shift in how people are using the touchscreen machines, from casual interaction to productivity
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ipad-pro-and-its-rivals-are-changing-the-tablet-market-2015-12-01
Brian Raub runs a travel review site called Lakelubbers.com that employs 3 editors and 20 paid freelancers who review lake vacation spots across the country. The website's content is original and earns revenue through web advertising, but Raub was recently tipped off to a handful of paid iOS apps that repackage and resell content from his website.
Apple eventually pulled the 11 piracy apps from the App Store.
http://9to5mac.com/2015/12/02/piracy-apps-copyright-infringement-apple/
Why Developers Are Shunning Apple's Mac App Store
The choice of whether to be in the store or not often comes down to what a developer wants a specific app to do. And that choice often hinges on one word: "sandboxing."
Those restrictions were designed to reduce the risks of malware gaining access to your Mac's most sensitive bits. But they effectively tied the hands of software developers.
They also cite Apple's review process.
Developers point out that virtually all these problems are solvable - but they aren't sure Apple has any desire to solve them.
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/why-developers-are-shunning-apples-mac-app-store-190138113.html
there are great STEM toys that offer exciting opportunities for girls to build a strong foundation of skills in science, technology, engineering, and math. The best STEM toys, like the toys in this guide, will always be the kind that offer a wide range of opportunities at varying levels of difficulty. Metaphorically speaking, these are the kind of toys that grow with a child.
http://qz.com/566034/the-toys-that-will-actually-teach-your-girls-engineering-skills/
Every social media web site is different
If staying on message is the first rule of corporate communications, it is also the cardinal sin of social media.
Different social media web sites should have different messages.
You don't want to see the same thing everywhere.
Don't disappear. Always show up.
Companies can get a lot of mileage from posting five times a day on Pinterest, while two posts on Instagram is sufficient.
A restaurant chain can start the day with a tweet promoting its breakfast options and end with a post about its dinner menu.
And three more good tips.
The author recently tried out three programs for getting rid of used electronics. The programs, Amazon, Gazelle and Best Buy, are available nationwide. Each one was simple to use and headache-free, and he even managed to get a decent amount of money his my old electronics.
Amazon’s trade-in program was his favorite of the three because it accepts such a wide variety of products
Best Buy says it teams up with responsible recycling companies like Electronics Recyclers International and Regency Technologies. Most gadgets can be dropped off for recycling free at Best Buy, though some states require consumers to pay a small fee to recycle certain items, like old TVs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/technology/how-to-sell-or-recycle-old-electronics.html?emc=edit_ct_20151203&nl=personaltech&nlid=11893479&_r=0
AW comment: Don’t forget about Apple’s recycling program at
http://www.apple.com/recycling/
"In the next four to five years, computers will be as good as humans" at understanding the words that come out of your mouth, Huang says.
http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-chief-scientist-xuedong-huang-on-the-future-of-speech-recognition-2015-12
That's the crazy thing about artificial intelligence and the Singularity. Right now it's a thought experiment. But if it ever comes to fruition, life on Earth will be changed forever.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Tech Tips for New Mac Users from David Pogue, his readers, and me
Back on October 2, 2008, David Pogue wrote a seminal column in Pogue’s Posts for the New York Times. He entitled it “Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User”.
He introduced it with an anecdote. He had watched a book editor at a publishing house slowly drag their cursor across a word to select it. They did this again and again. Finally Pogue couldn’t stand it anymore. He exclaimed, “Why don’t you just double-click on a word to select it!?” The book editor had no idea you could do that.
So with that in mind, here is my recompilation of tech tips for the basic computer user. I claim no originality to these tips. I am cribbing liberally from Mr. Pogue and his readers who left comments with their own tips. It is not originality that counts here; it is spreading the word and making life easier.Where a tip has both Windows and Mac versions, I will try to list both.
Text Selection Tips
Double-click on a word to select it.
Triple-click on a word to select the entire paragraph.
To exercise fine control over what words in a sentence to select, click at the beginning of the selection. Hold down the Shift key while using the arrow keys to select just the text you want to copy or cut. Use the right and left keys to select character by character. Use the up and down keys to select a whole line or paragraph.
To copy selected text, it’s Control + C in windows and linux, and Command+C for OS X
To cut selected text, it’s Control + X in windows and linux, and Command+X for OS X
To paste selected text, it’s Control + V in windows and linux, and Command+V for OS X
To select a rectangular block of text, hold down the Alt or Option key while dragging your cursor across and down the area of text you wish to copy or cut.
To select a large block of text extending across multiple paragraphs, click at the beginning of the selection. While holding down the Shift key, click at the end of the selection.
To select the whole document, use Control + A in windows and Linux, and Command +A in OS X
To undo a selection, press control+Z for windows and Linux, and command+Z for OS X
To put a selection in bold, you have two ways to do it.You can hit control +B/command + B before typing the selection and then hit control + B/command + B again to stop bolding the text. You can select text using the tips above and then hit control + B
For italics, use control + I/command + I
For underderling, use control + U/Command + U.
You can combine these effects by hitting them one after another to bold italicize
Screen Magnification Tips
On the Mac, go to the Accessibility System Preference (see below) and set Screen magnifier. You can choose which modifier key to use-control, shift, or alt/option. Control is the default key.
After you’ve set it, hold down the selected modifier key while using the wheel on your mouse or sliding up with two fingers on your trackpad to magnify your screen.
Screen Navigation Tips
To access the Dock from your keyboard, hold down the Control key while pressing the F3 function key. If you have a laptop keyboard, press and hold the Control and Fn keys together with one hand while pressing the F3 function key.
To access the Menu Bar from your keyboard, hold down the Control key while pressing the F2 function key. If you have a laptop keyboard, press and hold the Control and Fn keys together with one hand while pressing the F2 function key.
To get a QuickLook of a document, select it in the Finder and press the Space Bar. Alternatively, you can use Command + Y.
To get to the OS X Finder, click on a blank spot on the desktop. The Finder will become the foreground program, which you can access with with a click on the screen.
To get to a blank spot on the screen, press the F11 key to temporarily clear the screen.
To get to the Windows Explorer, hold the down the Windows key and press the letter E.
To get to the print dialogue in OS X, press Command + P.
For the Windows print dialog, press Control + P.
To quickly get to your User Directory, press Shift+Command+H. The H stands for Home Directory, which is the UNIX name for your User Directory.
If you want to use a Windows keyboard in place of a Mac keyboard, the main thing to remember is that the Windows key substitutes for the Command key. The Shift, Alt/Option, and Control keys work the same
Screenshot Keyboard Shortcuts
To capture the whole screen on a Mac to a file, hold down the Shift and Command and the number 3 keys. You will hear a shutter sound and the file will appear on your desktop. The default format is PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
To capture just a portion of the screen to a file, holder down the Shift and Command and the number 4. Your cursor becomes a cross. Now press down on your pointing device’s left button while dragging down and to the right. Release the button. You hear the shutter sound and a file appears on your desktop.
To capture just an open window, move the cursor over the window. Now press the Space bar. The cursor will switch to a camera. Now press the left button on your pointing device. You’ll hear the shutter sound and the picture file will appear on your desktop
Add the Control key to these combinations to direct the screenshot to the OS X Clipboard instead of a file. In case that becomes too complicated, see the next section on how to modify the keyboard shortcuts to meet your own needs.
OS X Keyboard Customization Tips
Luke or Leia or whatever your name is, use the force! In other words, if you feel dissatisfied with the keyboard shortcuts in OS X, change them (within limits) to suit your needs.
Go to the Keyboard System Preference and select Keyboard Shortcuts. I’ll show you how to modify the OS X keyboard shortcut for taking screenshots.
In Keyboard Shortcuts, click and hold on the shortcut you wish to change. In this case, I’ll change Control+Command+Shift+3, the shortcut for capturing your entire screen and putting it on the clipboard.
You highlighted the entry you wanted to change. It will have a blue background with black letters. Now by clicking and holding down the left-button of your mouse or other pointing device, you will see the background of the keyboard combination change from blue to white. That is crucial.
Now press the keyboard combination you wish to switch to. If you use a Windows keyboard with your Mac and wish to use the Print Screen key, press it. You will see the key combination change to F13.
Now with one finger, you can save a screenshot of the desktop to the clipboard, just like in Windows.
That’s it for today. A thousand words of tips. I’ll post more. Now remember to BACKUP!
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Patina is the most fun I've had painting on my Mac and you can get it for free (Until December 9, 2015)
I have played with Microsoft Paint on Windows. It’s fun to play with. Finding something equivalent to it on the Mac, though, has proved problematic. I’ve used the open-source Paintbrush app in the past, but it’s updated sporadically at best. I’m not talented enough for Corel Painter and I’m not going to waste a lot of money on that fancy a painting app.
The new Patina app by Atek, based in Fountain Valley in Orange County, caught my eye when I saw its press release on Macsurfer.com. It said it’s free for a limited promotional period ending December 9, 2015. After that, the price goes up to $2.99 on the Mac App Store.
As shown below, Patina has a simple interface. No extra palettes, just one window with drawing tools on the left-hand side and color tools across the bottom. A 4 year old child and a 60 year old man can grasp the basics within a few minutes.
I would suggest strongly that you view Patina’s demo video and tutorial video. That gives you examples of Patina’s abilities.
I didn’t encounter any bugs while using Patina, which is at its 1.0 version. I did encounter one thing out of the ordinary , which I hope future releases would fix.
You find the Help menu under the Patina Menu and not under a separate Help menu on the Menu Bar.
The Help goes to their Web site.
Other than that, install Patina on your budding artist’s Mac, have them run the tutorial and demo videos, and turn them loose.
Take advantage of this free offer while it lasts.
Tom Briant
Editor, MacValley Blog
