Thank You Arnold Woodworth for Today's Articles

I would like to thank Arnold Woodworth, our Vice President, for the links he provided.

If you, a Macvalley member, want to forward links to be posted on the Blog, they would be welcomed!

Tom Briant

Editor and Media Manager, MacValley UG

Does the Cellphone Eat up your families budget? Pro and Con

Cellphones Are Eating the Family Budget .

Government data show people have spent more on phone bills over the past four years, even as they have dialed back on dining out, clothes and entertainment-cutbacks that have been keenly felt in the restaurant, apparel and film industries.

What's Really Eating the Family Budget? It Ain't Smartphones

How the Telecom Lobby is killing Municipal Broadband

In 2005, Colorado passed a state law preventing local governments from essentially building and operating their own telecommunications infrastructure.

Behind the law was, not surprisingly, the telecom lobby

The Space Shuttle goes to the California Science Center in Exposition Park

Thank you, Arnold Woodworth, for going out and taking these fantastic pictures!

Tom Briant

Editor and Media Manager, MacValley UG

The Space Shuttle goes to the California Science Center in Exposition Park

Thank you, Arnold Woodworth, for going out and taking these fantastic pictures!

Tom Briant

Editor and Media Manager, MacValley UG

How to change your login photo to one of your choice-not the Mac's!

Have you noticed that your Mac assigned a picture other than your smiling face as your ID picture on the log-in screen? Do you want to change the icon? Do you want your own face up there? Do you want a picture from the Internet as your ID picture?

This article will walk you through the steps necessary to change the ID picture to the one you want.

Step One. Where is the picture in the first place? You'll find it in the Users & Groups preference pane in System Preferences. (Figure 1)

So go to System Preferences. It looks like a gearbox in versions 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8.

Double-click on System Preferences and choose Users & Groups in 10.7 and 10.8, and Accounts in 10.6. Whatever the name, the icon of several heads in silhouette is the one you want. (Figure 2)

Step Three. Double-click on Users & Groups/Accounts and you'll see this window. (Figure 6). Notice the picture well. You'll use this to change the picture.

Step Four. Place your mouse/pointing device pointer on the picture well. Do Not Click on Anything. Note that a small downward facing arrow appears in the lower right-hand corner. (Figure 4)

Step Five. Now you can click on the arrow in the lower right-hand corner. The following box should pop up in 10.8. You'll see similar in 10.7 and 10.6. You see a grid of icons to use as your ID photo under "Defaults". You can scroll this grid of icons up and down. (Figure 5)

You also see "Recents" to let you choose a recently taken photo. Finally, you see "Camera" which lets you use your iSight or Web cam to take your picture.

Step Six. I assume you want "Camera" Double-click on it. You get a preview of your picture-yes, it's video, so stay still-And an icon of a camera (Figure 6). Click on the camera icon and remain still. You'll see a 3-2-1 countdown and your screen will flash white to act as a flashbulb.

Now you've got your picture. If satisfied, click on "Done" and the picture goes into the picture well.

Step Seven. If you want a picture from another source-your high school graduation picture, snapshots from the beach or a picture taken from the Internet-you get the picture onto your Mac as a .PNG or .JPEG file. If it's huge, I'd use Preview's Tools > Adjust Size…to shrink the picture down to 320 x 240 pixels. Save it under another name!

Step Eight. Now open up the Users & Groups preference pane and drag your picture into the picture well. It should take it and you have a new ID photo when logging in.

Thomas Briant

Editor and Media Manager, MacValley UG

Let's Get Ready to Rumble!

Apple knows how to do a publicity striptease. There’s no doubt about it. They just issue a press invitation for next Tuesday, 10/23/2012, telling us as little as possible; and the press of all sorts goes into a “what if?” frenzy. Everyone from the Reader’s Digest to Glamour to Macworld speculates on what they’ll bring on to the stage. I’ll point you to some speculation at MSNBC that seems to hitMSNBC that seemsto hit the high points.

All we at MacValley will say is “Don’t buy a 13” MacBookPro or MacBook Air until next Tuesday. Don’t buy an iMac until next Tuesday. Don’t buy a Mac Mini until next Tuesday.”

And try to remember that this new hardware won’t make you write better or create a better movie. If you want a product that can improve your looks immediately, invest in some Spanx underwear.

And as for the other item of today…was it deliberate on Micro$oft’s part to announce pricing on its Surface tablet today and then do an about-face, or is their marketing department just that bad?

Apparently they won’t try to compete with the Nexus 7 and the low-end Kindle’s at $199. No, they’re a “serious” tablet, which entitles them to charge $499 and more for the combination of cover and keyboard. See, it’s got a kickstand!

They better have plenty of apps and media available at launch for the Surface, or these things will appear at Big Lots! after Christmas for $50 with cover. They’ll get a certain amount of purchases from technology early adopters who just have to have whatever’s new and from people who wanted a tablet, but have an anti-Apple bias. After that, waddaya got that the iPad hasn’t got?

I’ll leave you with some good news for Windows 8. Stardock, a small software company that makes customization options for Windows, has a free beta version of its Start8 menu for Windows 8 Preview. The final version will cost $5. PC World predicts Stardock will make a small fortune from people relieved to find a solution to Windows 8 user interface that they can’t figure out.