Amazon has Snow Leopard Mac OS X version 10.6 (the upgrade to Leopard) available for pre-order on its sites for $29. Their Free-Shipping option works even to Hawaii! Hey, it’s either this or Windows 7, which one are you going to choose! 
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This post was written by markmcmahon on August 4, 2009
May 23rd, 2009, HMAUS is putting on their annual MacSpringfest. This year will be at JAIMS in Hawaii Kai (Google maps). There is plenty of parking and lots of activities planned, so you can stay for the day or as long as you can. The event is FREE — though to help support the HMAUS organization, please renew your membership, or sign up as a member. (More membership details about HMAUS (Hawaii Mac & Apple User Society, Inc.) can be found HERE.)
The full list of speakers is HERE — highlights include; Peter Kay, Andy Bumatai, and Bert Lum on topics like iLife ‘09, Mac 101, Adobe Lightroom, and Social Networks and Livefeeds. You may want to arrive a little early for some of the speakers to get a good seat. The JAIMS buildings will be filled with Mac enthusiasts, experts, and “switchers” (PC users just starting to use Macs). So, no matter YOUR level of expertise, you’ll find someone there to learn and chat with.
You should bring some money with you, especially if you like bargains. The Professional Photographers of Hawaii and HMAUS will have a swapmeet — expect to find goodies for cameras and computers. And, if you plan to stay the entire day, order a little bit for the tasty bento meals now: link is HERE.
If you like to blog, bring your camera and computer to capture the events. HMAUS sponsored HawaiiGeekWeek last year and brought out lots of social networking fans; posting to Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and videoblogs. We’re hoping to see lots of great posts about “MacSpringFest” this year!
As with HMAUS’s Mactoberfest, there will be some fun prizes and giveaways, and this time someone will win an iPod Touch!
If you’d like to volunteer to make this years MacSpringfest the best ever, just let us know, we could sure use extra help!
That’s pretty much it, be sure to review the days events HERE so you don’t miss the topics you are most interested in. Tell a friend and see you there!
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This post was written by markmcmahon on May 22, 2009
Join HMAUS Saturday May 23rd from 9 – 4pm as we present our MacSpringfest at JAIMS (6660 Hawaii Kai Drive). Plenty of great speakers, ono food, and a camera and computer swapmeet by the Professional Photographers of Hawaii and HMAUS, just to name a few…
Place your lunch orders HERE -- Order yours NOW to make sure you’ll get one. Limited quantities except for pre-orders.
HMAUS presents MacSpringfest '09
You can read all the details of speakers and events HERE. Get the a copy of the flyer HERE.
Sponsors
Hawaii Macintosh and Apple User’s Society http://www.hmaus.org
Professional Photographers of Hawaii http://www.pphawaii.org
TAPA Communications http://www.tapa.com
Peachpit Press http://www.peachpit.com and
O’Reilly Books http://oreilly.com
Hope to see you there!
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This post was written by markmcmahon on May 8, 2009
Backing up your data is a very wise thing to do. Hard drives fail, files and folders get deleted accidentally, and sometimes you just can’t remember where you put something any more. I recommend a two-layer backup plan. Your first layer is to have an external drive connected to your computer that runs a automated backup application. For Mac, Time Machine and Time Capsule are perfect; they work great together, look BEAUTIFUL (best recovery GUI ever!), and you can connect wirelessly. However, you may not want to shell out all that money ($300+) to get that Apple product.
In that case there are many external hard drives that would work. Here’s an example: the 1TB WD Home Studio is around $150 from Amazon comes with Firewire and USB2 connections, and includes an automated backup system designed for Macs. Both Time Capsule and the WD Studio are pretty much set-and-forget. If you need to recover your files, you mount the drive, browse to the folder, and copy it over. Easy enough.
But you may want to add a second layer to your backup plan. What happens if your external hard drive dies? Or, what happens if your house floods and you lose both your computer and backup hard drive? That’s where a secondary, “cloud-based” backup plan can really save you.
Read More…
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This post was written by markmcmahon on March 31, 2009
If you visit lots of websites, you’ve probably started to accumulate a LOT of passwords for each site. For security reason, you should have SEPARATE passwords for each site. (Else, if someone learns that one password of yours, they could access any other site you visit. Not secure.) Also, these passwords should be “strong”; at least 6 characters with a variety of letters and numbers. Wow: lots of sites, lots of different passwords, all of them not easy to remember! That’s where you need a program to store your passwords — you enter one password to that program and it shows you all your other passwords.
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This post was written by markmcmahon on March 29, 2009
Man, I like this product! Evernote is like Yojimbo with tentacles, “Tako Yojimbo”. Let me explain. Evernote is like a journal that you can type in, paste in, add screen shots, even drop files into, and it will sync those across multiple platforms. Evernote is available for Windows, Mac, iPhone, and Windows Mobile. Plus you can log into their site and add/edit/delete notes there. Or, send an email to your Evernote account and that will get synced.
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This post was written by markmcmahon on March 25, 2009
I’m someone who works in both the PC and Mac worlds. My home machine is a Mac. But at work I (have to) use a PC. There are plenty of times when I need to share files easily between machines. Not only share, but SYNC the files.
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This post was written by markmcmahon on March 19, 2009
The Targus File Share Cable allows 2 Macs or a Mac and PC to share files. It has a large USB connector on one end for the destination computer and small USB connector on the other end for the remote computer. After plugging in the cable, Easy Suite’s EasyMacCopy software icon appears on each desktop. There is no installation needed because the software resides in the cable. Double-clicking both icons opens a file viewer window with top and bottom panels (see screenshot) on both desktops. Using the file viewer on the destination computer, it’s as easy as dragging and dropping files from top to bottom panels.
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This post was written by kahuna on November 12, 2008
I’m testing one of the new Targus Bluetooth Laser Mouse for Mac. They’ve designed a whole series of accessories for Mac users, all are streamlined, using the same design styling.
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This post was written by markmcmahon on October 25, 2008
