8 Gifts you can get the computer enthusiasts in your life that they'll appreciate

If you have someone in your life whose life revolves around their computer and you don’t know what to give them…this is Uncle Tom’s list of 8 non-computer items a computer enthusiast will find helpful. 

 

I’ve used computers personally for close to 30 years now. This is what I’d find useful as a gift:

 

1. Brother P-Touch labeler and extra batteries and label tape. The enthusiast will have lots of items that look identical and they’ll need to know which one is which. Your gift helps distinguish them at a glance.

2. Power strip. You can never have enough outlets. Get one with a long cord, too.

3. A shredder that can handle DVDs and CDs. 

4. A $50 Amazon gift card. They’ll need to order something after the holidays.

5. Stand alone physical kitchen timer with a loud annoying bell. This is for when they’re engrossed on-line, yet doing laundry or cooking at the same time.

6. Ream of copy paper. Occasionally they’ll need to print something. Sometimes they’ll even need to print it on nice paper for someone else to look at.

7. A box of Zip-Loc style bags and a box of snap-top containers. This goes well with Present #1.The enthusiast will have lots of small items they need to keep separate from each other. 

8. A box of personalized Post-It or Sticky type notes. The P-Touch is for permanent labeling situations. Your enthusiasts will need to make quick temporary notes on many occasions.  

 

Feel free to add your suggestions in the comments.

 

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog

 

 

 

The editor's views on various topics

Some policy remarks

 

This blog will start to cover the use of Linux as a complement to OS X. I am not engaging in ridiculous comparisons of OS X 10.10 to some Linux distro touted as a “Apple killer.”

 No distro of Linux will kill off OS X. Linux lacks the financial wherewithal to challenge OS X on its home turf. Yet OS X can’t challenge Linux on its own turf.

 I will show you how to use Linux applications to complement OS X. As I have previously written, Linux has two good iTunes music streaming applications in Tangerine and forked-daapd. If you own a nice MacBook Air or one of the latest MacBooks, you probably lack the space on the SSD for all your music. An iTunes streaming program provides one answer to your problems. Stuff a 1 TB drive into a old mini-tower and your music storage needs are satiated.

 Now to the other news and views of the day. Tim Cook got stock valued at 58 million dollars. Great news for him and for us. Executives who keep their business delivering great products deserve to be compensated. 

 On the bad news side for Tim, his e-mail to Jim Cramer of CNBC will earn him some scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission for a violation of regulation FD. You’re not supposed to disclose information about a company you head without immediately releasing to the public. The fact that Cramer probably can’t stop talking about anything is no defense. So Tim and Apple may have to pay a fine. A small fine. Violating  an SEC regulation versus staunching the bleeding on the stock exchange? Worth it. 

 In Newz you can Uze, “Crazy” John Moltz, skewed observer of the Apple scene, wrote an article for Macworld.com. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and stop migrating your versions of OS X. Sometimes you have to back it up-three times!-format the hard drive or SSD, and start all over again. This may be the only way to get rid of years of digital dust bunnies.

 Jason Snell of Sixcolors.com wrote a column at his former home, Macworld, about the iPad. The iPad does not sell these days as it once did. Oh, it sells. But once I got mine...I didn’t need another one. The darn thing runs and runs without any problems. 

 So I await the legendary iPad Pro. Will it have a USB-C port replacing the Lightning port or in addition to it? Will it come with a special stylus? Will it be 4K in resolution, like some of the big Android tablets? I don’t know. I’ll wait till the day of the announcement. Maybe this September.

 This is a Mac blog. I try to squeeze mentions of the iOS devices, but my focus is what my eyes focus on. An ASUS monitor hooked up to a mid-2011 Mac Mini running Yosemite and Windows 10 caged up in a virtual Parallels installation. 

 Yes, I got Windows 10 to work by upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. I was patient and waited my turn for the word from Microsoft to upgrade. It still works.  More to follow.

 But back to OS X and LInux. Linux offers those with an itch to do over their computer’s stock look with all kinds of options. A plethora of desktops, ways to make it look like everything from Windows XP to an Amiga. You can’t do that in OS X. El Capitan will apparently nail down Apple’s idea of a user interface. 

 Most old Windows computers come with a DVD drive, so I shall show you how to rip CDs in a variety of audio formats. That’s my next article.

 LInux and OS X share some under-the-hood software, such as the CUPS printing system. Article on exploiting that coming up, too.

 As for the Apple Watch, it has much promise. Right now, I believe it’s a bauble for the rich and famous to flaunt on Instagram.

 

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog

 

 

It's time to uninstall Adobe's Flash from your Mac - here's how

It's time to uninstall Adobe's Flash from your Mac - here's how: ""

(Via.)

 

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to get rid of Flash. Follow the instructions at the link from Appleinsider.

No tricky terminal commands needed. You just download the appropriate Flash uninstaller from Adobe. 

If you need Flash, consider installing the Google Chrome browser with its sandboxed version of Flash. 

 

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog

The Editor States his opinions...you might agree with some

Hi, I’m Tom, the editor of this blog. I have written sporadically, but a few things changed in my life recently that will affect how I write.

First, I turned 60. The odometer of life turned to all zeros. I realized that I was not a kid of 21 anymore. I have often fancied myself a kid of 21, for 21 was an important year for me. I remember the Popular Electronics cover story about the Altair 8080 personal computer that came as a kit. I knew I would own a personal computer some day.

But now I’m 60. I have set opinions determined after some experience.

Second, don’t worry, I’m not engaging in political rants. Turn on your car radio if you want that. No, my rants will concern computers and how to get the most from them.

Third, I’m a writer first and foremost. Writers used to collect fancy pens; I collect various types of writing apps. I will write about them and how to wring the most of their features. 

I listen to music, I love music (classical, jazz, and some rock), but I don’t write or play music. I also don’t intend to subscribe to Apple Music at this time. I have written about recording music on my Mac so I could move it to a CD or an external hard drive or iOS device for future enjoyment. Expect articles on that topic.

Same with graphics applications. I can’t paint or draw. My photography skills are limited, too. I can use screen captures and the Preview application to illustrate my articles. My graphics talent stops there. 

If YOU, though, want to express your opinion on Apple Music and Garage Band and Logic Pro and the plethora of music software out there, I’d enjoy hearing from you. Submit a manuscript in 500 words or less in Rich Text Format (.rtf), Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx),  Pages (.pages) or Plain Text (.txt). If I can read it, I’ll accept it at thomasbriant@me.com. I’ll edit it for grammar and spelling, then I’ll send it back to you for final approval.

The same goes for graphics applications and games. 500 words or less in a Mac-compatible format. If you want to include pictures, please include them as a separate attachment. 

 

Fourth, I will write about Windows and Linux as well as Macs. If you work for a large organization, as I do, you’ll have to work with Windows. I have tried out the previews of Windows 10 and I think it’s definitely better than Windows 8.1. Having said that, I am certain that a cottage industry will flourish for improvements to Windows 10. For example, Windows 10 has an app menu; but for those demanding the Windows XP/7 Start Menu, you’ll need a 3rd party program. 

As for Linux, I like it. I use derivatives from the Ubuntu version of Linux to meet my needs. I quintuple-boot between 3 versions of Linux, Windows 7, and  Windows 10 Preview. I’m a mega-nerd. 

I regard Linux as the garage bench for testing out ideas about operating systems that you’ll see in Windows and OS X in the future. For example, Linux has had app stores called “repositories” for years before OS X and Windows put them in. The interface lacked the slickness of the OS X and Windows App Stores; but you had a choice of numerous programs that someone had checked for malware before you tried them.

Fifth, I want my readers to take away something they can use to improve their experiences with the computer. I will assume that a lot of my readers regard the computer as promising, but somewhat alien. “How do I…?” comes to your minds.

I will assume that my readers have learned how to ride bicycles in their childhood. You started out with training wheels, you advanced beyond them, albeit with a few skinned knees and soon you expanded your range outward.

I have set as my goal of getting you back on the bicycle seat, so to speak, and giving you advice as to how to stay upright and moving forward. 

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 29th-Windows vs OS X-Be There!

So let’s get ready to rumble as we did in 1995, when Windows 95 went up against System 7. 

Now the odds look in Apple’s favor. Apple has sold more desktop computers than Windows has as of late.

Microsoft has announced that Wednesday, July 29th, marks the beginning of retail sales for Windows 10. The Home version will cost $119 and the Pro version will cost $199. If you buy the Home version and want to go to Pro, that’ll cost you $99. 

Now Microsoft has announced that current users of Windows 7 and 8.1 (for which I have valid licenses) will get a notification to reserve their copy of Windows 10. So far, nothing on the TaskBar. But I recall it took Apple awhile to get around to me for the Public Beta tester program. Never fear, I will give you reports on how Windows 10 looks and works as compared to OS X 10.10.4

Getting back to Apple, I expect my productivity to decline a bit while I sneak looks at live coverage of the WWDC keynote speech. I’m not looking for new features as much as I’d like serious bug squashing and security vulnerabilities fixed. It took 10.10 until 10.10.3 to really solve the problems I’ve experienced with it. 

I lack a crystal ball to look into the future, so for the best informed speculation turn to this article at Macworld UK. They even think they know what the name will be. 

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog

 

 

 

 

Holiday Floobydust

So what’s going on vs a vs Apple Computers?

Apple rumored to release MacBook Pro with Retina Display (2880 x 1800 pixels) in the Second quarter of 2012.

Steve Jobs not named “Person of the Year” by TIME Magazine. Instead he got a “Fond Farewell” with Tim Cook noted as a “Person Who Mattered”.

Samsung ramping up production of the A5 chip used by the iPad and iPhone 4S at its Texas facility. The facility has created over 1,000 jobs in Texas.

I can’t explain the relationship between Apple and Samsung. They cooperate on the chip for the iPhone and iPad, yet they fight over Samsung’s Galaxy tablet looking too much like the iPad. You married people should leave a comment here.

Apple’s rumored investment in Israeli flash memory maker Anobit makes sense. Anobit’s technology is already used in the iOS devices and the MacBook Air. See this article in Appleinsider for more details.

Apple's investments in acquiring flash memory expertise and technology appear to be centered around packing more storage capacity into Macs and iOS devices at lower prices, with the same level of component reliability and longevity.

On more immediate matters, Christopher Breen shows you how to set up the perfect holiday playlist at Macworld.com.

At Maclife.com, they give you 10 tips for extending the usability of an older Mac. This doesn’t include gutting the insides and making an aquarium out of it.

And in news of other tablets, Amazon announced that it had sold “millions” of Kindle Fire tablets, although no specific sales figures were supplied. Will Amazon erect a golden arch with “millions sold” emblazoned on it?

Analysts have pulled studies out of their…files and concluded that Apple’s market share of the tablet market will slip from 61.5% to 59%. Still more people prefer an iPad as a gift to either Obama or Romney on their doorstep singing Christmas carols. So I wouldn’t worry about the iPad.

A survey of analysts’ spouses and kids showed a 100% iPad favorable response to “Would you like an iPad for the holidays? Or would you prefer an Android tablet running Peanut Brittle or whatever version of Android is available?”

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Voice

Why You Want a Mac this holiday season

If you want my opinion on which computer to get a loved one or yourself, I’d say “Go with a Mac instead of a PC”. I have several reasons for suggesting a Mac.

1. A Mac in the long term, if not the short term, will give you less grief. I recently spent a Friday evening and all of a Saturday trying to upgrade my aging Windows XP PC. Now I’ve added memory, an extra hard drive, and a new Ethernet card to this 7 year-old machine with no trouble. When I tried to add a new video card, a fancy one featuring an Nvidia GeForce 6200 processing unit, I thought I’d have the cat’s pajamas. Instead I might as well have tried to bath a cat. I finally gave up, put the new video card back in its box for another day or another owner, put the system back the way it came, and chalked it up to experience. Bad experience. And let’s not go into what reinstalling a Windows operating system involves. The horror!

2. You pay a premium for a Mac the same way you pay a premium for a really good car. I plan to buy myself a Mac Mini for roughly $950 next spring. That’s a lot of money for such a small computer. But my Mac Mini will come with sufficient memory, lots of hard disk space, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and two video outputs. It also comes with a Thunderbolt port (?) for when the Thunderbolt external peripherals start coming down in price to the level of ordinary mortals. Best of all, it comes with the Mac operating system, which is what Microsoft wants to beat.

3. What about the “Mac tax”? As I said, you do pay more for a Mac than a Windows machine on sale at Frys. But what else comes with that. Well, I’ll bet the machine at Fry’s comes with trial-offer software, aka “crapware.” You’ll get a free subscription to Norton Anti-Virus. After the free trial, you get socked with an annual subscription for an overly complicated program. This is my advice. If you do have to settle for a Windows machine this holiday season, install Windows Security Essentials. It’s a FREE anti-virus program from Microsoft itself. Just Google “Microsoft Security Essentials” and you’ll find the specific place on the Microsoft site for the program.

4. You’ll probably find a trial offer on a Windows computer for Microsoft Office. It costs over $100 after the free trial runs out. Here’s my advice. Check out your work or your child’s school/college for a cheaper version. If you work for the Federal Government, Microsoft wants so desperately to get a copy of Office into your hot little hands that they’ll give it to you for $9.95. Check out your agency’s Web site for the Microsoft Home User Program. The Home User Program also offers Microsoft Office for Mac for a similar price.

5. If $100 is too much for a word processor, here’s my next suggestion. Google “LibreOffice” and get a free office suite. That’s right, FREE. They will ask for donations, but that’s another matter. You can get a perfectly good office suite for FREE for Windows or Mac. Note: LibreOffice is derived from the Open Office project. The developers had a fight, and the majority split off to form LibreOffice. Same great software. If you get documents from an Open Office user, they work transparently in LibreOffice. And LibreOffice works with all versions of Word and Excel and even WordPerfect!

6. What if your beloved already has a computer and likes their printer, keyboard, mouse, and monitor? They just want to get away from Windows? You want a Mac Mini as I plan to get. Now in addition to the Mac Mini, you’ll need to get a PS/2 to USB converter cable at Staples, and adapters for the kind of monitor your beloved has.

7. Now if they use a big-screen TV as their computer’s screen, a Mac Mini is already set to go. If they use a flat-panel screen for their computer, they’re set to go when they unwrap the package. If they still use a big hot heavy tube as their computer screen, then you need to go to the Apple store to ask for a “VGA adapter for the Mac Mini”. That’s about $20, but it beats having to wait until the Apple Store is open again.

8. Got any questions? Put a comment in the blog or e-mail me at thomasbriant@me.com

9. Happy Holidays, everyone!

A Few Words about the Kindle Fire

In my opinion, the Kindle Fire is a classic case of “hit ‘em where they ain’t”. The price point of $199 and the size factor make it plain you have an alternative to the Wi-Fi 16 GB, particularly if you want to think of your tablet as a service like a cell-phone or ISP. You often get a discount on a cell-phone when you buy a mobile phone contract. My Wi-Fi equipped router came free from AT&T. I expect that AT&T has made up for the cost of the router through charges on my phone/TV/Internet bill.

So I would expect the same with the Kindle Fire. Amazon will sell it to you at a very nice price for you to consume entertainment with it. You would get TV and movies through Amazon Prime. You get a free deal on Amazon Prime with the initial purchase, just like the free deals with premium TV. You would buy music through Amazon MP3. Amazon would offer you books and magazines. You could also shop for other merchandise through Amazon.

Amazon, of course, would recoup the cost of the Kindle Fire through your purchases.

Amazon’s use of its cloud servers strikes me as the most interesting part. The Kindle Fire only comes with 8GB of storage. You would store your music and books and magazines in the cloud, and you would rent your own little piece of it from Amazon. Cha-ching!

To make use of the cloud, Amazon expects that you would stay in proximity to pervasive Wi-Fi.

Amazon’s interface differs from other Android tablets. So far, I’ve read positive reviews of this interface, based on what reporters at Amazon’s New York press conference saw. They didn’t get to touch. It’s like Fashion Week, gawk at the models all you want, photograph them, too; but you don’t get to take one home.

Amazon will release it on November 15^th. So I’m waiting for the reviews and for the chance to touch one at Staples.

But I’m still budgeting for an iPad next year.

News and Views

LaCie has announced the first sub-$1000 Thunderbolt peripherals. They are a pair of hard drives, one for $399.95 featuring two 500 GB hard drives and another for $499.95 featuring two 1TB hard drives. You have the option of setting them up as RAID 0 or 1. More details here.

Apple has taken the criticism of Final Cut Pro X to heart and released a major rewrite. They also offer a 30 day free trial! Want details? Go here.

When is iOS 5 coming? Well, according to analysts (not just bloggers in their underpants), iOS 5 Gold Master should go out to the contract factories between Friday, September 23, and Friday, September 30. More details? Go here.

Finally an iPad joke: "L.A. restaurants installed table-fixed iPads Friday, letting people place their orders by themselves. Waiters will be laid off. When Charlie Sheen saw the story he apologized to the executive producer of Two and a Half Men and asked for forgiveness and reincarnation."

Thanks to Argus Hamilton for that bit of levity and we'll see you later

Artists Needed for Macvalley's Fall

I want your passions!

We have arrived at September, traditionally the season of fire danger, Santa Ana winds, and sending the kids and grandkids back to school. We steel ourselves for the approaching holidays in November and December. Some of us even plan to go skiing.

Right now, though, I want to know about your passions connected with the Mac. What do you use your Mac for? Even if the Mac is not central to the task at hand, I want to know about it. I’m not concerned about Mac technical proficiency.

I WANT YOUR PASSION!

Dale Carnegie the motivational speaker discovered years ago that if a speaker has a passion for his topic, their passion will grab the audience’s attention. They’ll get swept along as the speaker rhapsodizes about azaleas or collecting MatchBox cars or using the Mac to catalog their collection of 78s. Excel may not be that interesting, but what if your Excel spreadsheet include Enrico Caruso?

You may say, “I’m not a good writer.” That’s OK. I’m a good editor. Send your article to me and between us, we’ll improve it. Only the most arrogant professional writers think their writing is beyond improvement. And those writers generally end up in the round file.

Your article doesn’t have to be black and white text. If you prefer photographs or drawings, send them to me. If you think in terms of PowerPoint or Keynote slides, I’ll work with them, too.

And if you want to write under a pseudonym, that’s fine, too.

Holiday Humor Writing Submissions!

If you have a favorite piece of holiday humor about any holiday from Labor Day to Easter, I’d love to have it. Right now, I just recycle submissions from my cousins. My cousins are great people, but your cousins are great people, too. What have they sent you in terms in holiday humor? What have you sent them?

It's here at last!

Lion has finally come to the desktop. I will not attempt to review it, because (1) I don’t have a machine to run it on, and (2) far better reviewers spent weeks reviewing it under non-disclosure agreements. Now they can release those reviews.

I’d start with the PC Magazine review. Yes, that bastion of Windows succumbed to Lion’s charms. It comes down to “you’d better have a good reason for running Windows, because OS X is just so much better.”

If you’re just too kool for skool, check out Wired magazine’s review. They said, “It’s OK...but it tries to be too much like iOS” And you say that like it’s a bad thing!

Finally, if you want every little detail about OS X, go to John Siracusa’s review over at Ars Technica. He gives the interface the kind of detail an art expert would give to a possible new Rembrandt. He’ll answer all your questions.

Actually, he won’t answer all your questions, so here are a few answers since the release this morning.

Physical media from Apple? Yes, indeed. Apple will sell you a USB stick with Lion on it for $69.99 starting in August. Of course, if you don’t’ feel like spending that much, go here to Lifehacker to learn how to make your own installation DVD or USB flash drive.

Just remember-Don’t install Lion just yet. Make the installation media following the instructions and a couple of copies of the installer on other media for safekeeping. “Other media” means another partition or even better, a whole different external drive >8 Gb or larger.

Once you’ve done that, Then Proceed to the moment of installation. I’ve seen an installation of Lion and it’s so simple and elegant and fast.

Even if you don’t plan to upgrade to Lion just yet, Apple has goodies for you today. A new version of iTunes, 10.4, and a new version of Safari, 5.1 for Snow Leopard and 5.06 for Leopard. Alas, nothing for Tiger.

Disk Drill from Clever Files-get it!

Disk Drill Basic and Disk Drill Pro

By Thomas Briant

Our user group recently received a request from Clever Files, the developer of Disk Drill, to test it out and give them an honest opinion.

Tom’s honest opinion: Download it for the great deletion protection features in the Basic version and consider upgrading to the Pro Version for the file recovery tools needed for when you deleted precious files.

The Basic Version:

The Basic Version is a teaser version with lots of pop-ups urging you to upgrade. You get a taste of this program’s power when you decide to protect a partition with the Recovery Vault with a blue shield icon.

With a few mouse clicks I protected the Users folder of my test system, which Disk Drill selects by default. You can add more folders to protect.

I then ran a simple test of the Recovery Vault. I deleted a picture from the Pictures folder and then emptied the Trash. I then went back to Disk Drill to try to recover it. In a few minutes, Disk Drill recovered the picture with the original name in the original file structure. I save the picture and surrounding folders to my Desktop, as Disk Drill warns you about the consequences of restoring a file to the same level from which you deleted it. This feature sold me on Disk Drill

I then tried another feature of the free version, backing up a partition to a disk image. You would use this to back up an ailing drive’s contents to a healthy disk drive of larger capacity. Disk Drill warns you if you try to back a partition to a smaller drive or partition.

You can scan for lost data on unprotected partitions to see if you have a chance of recovery from the Basic version. If you find the data, then you want to spend the money for a license code.

The Pro Version

Once you upgrade to the Pro version, you can recover files on unprotected drives. You can scan in two modes: Quick scan for recently deleted files and deep scan for the stuff you thought was lost forever.

I took an unprotected partition, added a folder of pictures to it. I then deleted the folder and emptied the Trash.

I then ran Disk Drill in Basic Mode. A Quick Scan found the missing pictures. The Preview feature showed them to be the ones I wanted. When I attempted Recovery, up popped the message that I needed to upgrade to the Pro version. So I entered the Pro license code that Clever Files sent to me and attempted recovery.

Complete success! I recovered all the pictures with their original names and with the same file structure.

The Competition:

Clever Files is based in Dallas, Texas. Any mention of Mac utility software from Texas must include a mention of Alsoft’s Disk Warrior. So does Disk Drill compete with Disk Warrior?

Disk Drill specifically goes after the file recovery market, while Disk Warror goes after the drive resurrection market. Disk Drill doesn’t pretend to restore life to sick disks, like Disk Warrior can.

Disk Warrior doesn’t offer any free features. You have two choices, buy it or leave it, with that program.

Disk Drill also offers the ability to recover data from Windows formatted drives. Disk Warrior works strictly on Mac disks.

Conclusion:

If you have ever deleted a file that you needed to get back, get Disk Drill for the Recovery Vault feature so that you won’t do it again. Get Disk Drill Pro for the recovery of files on partitions that you didn’t protect, like SD cards for your camera.

Hot News and Rumors for July 1, 2011

Fresh Hot Apple Rumors and News

1. Apple has released a Golden Master of 10.7 to Developers. This should indicate that Apple will release the consumer client and server versions of Lion soon.

Of course, "soon" is a total weasel word. The release of Lion could come from now to 11:59 PM on July 31st. But we hope and pray that it means sooner. Even those of us planning to wait until our next tax refund to buy a new Mac with Lion installed.

2. Adobe moves in on a perceived opportunity as controversy surrounds Final Pro X. "Want to switch? Here's a 50% savings off" It is the editorial position of MacValley that fierce competition between Adobe and Apple over non-linear video editing software…is a good thing. Better to have the marketing departments slug it out than bring out the lawyers.

3. The MacBook is in short supply. Could this mean…REFRESH IS AT HAND!?

4. The HP WebOS based TouchPad is here. Finally. Is it better than all the Android tablets? How does it compare to the iPad 2? See PCMAG.com for a comprehensive review of all the available tablets. You want to go here.

5. The new Thunderbolt interface has finally had some peripherals released. They're Awesome!. Check out Macworld's review of a hyperspeed, and hyperpricy, RAID hard drive array.

In two years, we'll see Thunderbolt hard drives with cables at Apple Store for $100. I hope.

6. Well, I'm presenting at MacValley at the Wilkinson Senior Center on Wednesday, July 6th. Got any questions? E-mail me!

The Simplest Answer to the Lion vs Rosetta conundrum

I have read through the forums on Macintouch.com and elsewhere till my eyes burn. A lot of people feel upset that Apple did not retain Rosetta in Lion. They’ve grown used to Quicken 2004-2007 and don’t want to change. They’ve grown used to Word/Office 2004 and don’t want to give it up. The same with the Adobe products that cost a bundle to upgrade. They want the goodies that Lion promises, but they want to run their old applications designed for the PowerPC CPU chip. Why can’t they have both?

I feel like the healthcare practitioners who have to keep telling their patients, “No, you have to exercise more and eat less. That magic fruit you see on the Web that’s supposed to help you lose weight without sacrifice? It’s total nonsense. I’ll see you in a month with your new jogging shoes, OK?” You have to make choices in this life. This is a relatively minor one.

Dual-booting between Snow Leopard with Rosetta and Lion with the new features is the best solution I can think of, given the constraints of time, money, technical knowledge and patience. Running Snow Leopard Server through Parallels in Lion would solve the problem; but you’d better hurry up to order Snow Leopard Server at $499 a license before Apple pulls it from the market. You’ll also need more memory to run two operating systems simultaneously. And how much hard drive space do you have left? Um-hmm. Looks like you’d need an external drive to accommodate Parallels’ requirements.

So we’re back to dual-booting. It’s not as groovy as virtualization, but it does the job.

I have another idea, which would allow you to run multiple operating systems at once on a single computer. It involves the use of VNC, adequate ventilation for multiple computers, and some knowledge of networking. If you live in a cramped situation where one computer takes up too much room as is; well, go back to the previous paragraph. If you’re adventurous, wait until next month.

As for going on to other options, such as MoneyDance or iBank in place of Quicken, or Nisus Writer Pro 2.0 in place of Word 2004; I’d say,

Set up a test partition on an external drive

Clone your current setup onto this partition or do a fresh installation of OS X onto it.

Download the free trial of the program you want to try out onto the test partition and install it.

Tell us what happened.

You’re a Mac person. You can move away from the hegemony of Microsoft and Intuit. Try it and see.

I’ll give you a tip if you start setting up several of these test partitions and want to tell them apart. Use the free Onyx program to set up a custom boot screen for each one. It’s just a PNG file. Just set up a blank document in TextEdit. Type, oh, “This is my MoneyDance partition”, then press Cmd+Shift+4 to take a screenshot of just that document. Use Onyx to have it serve as the boot screen for the MoneyDance partition.