HMAUS sponsored three diverse and interesting Hawaii Geek Week offerings about new ways of doing things. The presentations took place at ING Direct Cafe on three evenings.  They focused on capitalizing on the reach and power of today’s Internet and computers . . . without programming expertise.  That means they’ll work for a lot of us!

October 20, 2009  ”TechHui” by Daniel Leuck was about a science, technology and media arts social network that has taken on a life of its own.
October 21, 2009 “Do you really need a webmaster?” by Mark Johnson answered the question, “no you don’t!”
October 22, 2009 “Mac OS vs Windows 7″ was a fun side-by-side look at the two big operating systems presented by Rolf Nordahl and Jeff Litvinoff.

October 21, 2009
Daniel Leuck,  CEO of Ikazyo, the creator and principal sponsor of TechHui demonstrated how such a diverse community can work as a source of information, job leads, marketing and social and intellectual interchange.  He showed the underlying Ning structure and the multiple options for interactivity and information management Ning and various plugins can offer.  At this point, group formation and content at TechHui are user driven, an essential characteristic of a dynamic social community.  Join the new HMAUS group at TechHui that Rico Moreno created for us.  Mahalo to Rico, Daniel and Mika for helping us create our group and spreading the word about Hawaii Geek Week and Mactoberfest!  http://www.techhui.com/group/hmaus

October 21, 2009
Mark Johnson, CEO of logicspin.com and menumill.com presented “Do you REALLY need a webmaster?” He demonstrated a variety of online services that allow you to build a website using templates that  you then customize your content, without knowledge of coding.  Mark reports his product, Menumill.com offers clean code, user friendliness, customization and affordability. Regardless of the provider you choose, he stressed the importance of putting effort into first thinking through your site’s purpose, the nature of its content, and the type of user experience you want to present.   Then it’s much easier to create a site that’s coherent, easily navigable and focused.

October 22, 2009
Rolf Nordahl of Macmouse Club and Jeff Litvinoff of Personal Touch Computers put Snow Leopard and Windows 7 on two side-by-side monitors for a features comparison. Both offer simple navigation, speed and  claim stability. The Live Task Bar in Windows 7 is nice.  You can list favorite files for each open application and view them as jump menu popups from the task bar. A touch screen feature is possible with the right hardware and application. Some of the advanced Premium features will only work on new computers but there are several options to choose from. Rolf says “the war is over” the systems are becoming closer in functionality and usability.  Is it time to load Windows 7 on your Intel Mac?  A resounding “maybe!”

We thank our presenters for sharing with us and broadening our perspectives about what’s possible.  Mahalo to the members and new friends who joined us and the staff of the Waikiki ING Direct Cafe for again hosting us so graciously!

Rolf Nordahl, owner of MacMouse Club compares features of Mac OS X with the soon to be released Windows 7.  Mac OS X has 10 built-in apps for pictures, movies, music, calendar, address book and mail, and they are all superbly integrated.  Snow Leopard. the latest OS’s big sell is it’s speed.  BUT on the other side of the table is Jeff Litvinoff, owner or Personal Touch Computers and Windows 7 with it’s new bells in whistles, faster processing, greater stability, all the things you’ve been waiting to hear.   This you need to come for!

Free.  ING Direct Cafe 1958 Kalakaua Avenue.  Parking in back of the cafe or in Niu St. employee parking lot.  Come early to get a drink or food and get a seat!

This presentation is part of Geek Week and Mactoberfest 09.
For more information and other interesting presentations Geek Week and Mactoberfest workshops click here.

Last Saturday’s MacLearn was a winnah.  Mahalo to the 25 new and long time members who came out in force, and to Norm Hallett and Kimo Sutton for the pictures! Mahalo nui loa to Rolf Nordahl of MacMouse for giving us an information packed morning.  Rolf took questions and topics from the group then proceeded to fill the two hours with lots of great tips.  He first covered Mail, a built-in Mac app that lets you gather all of your mailboxes (.mac, Gmail, Yahoo) in one spot, then manage your messages.  It has drag and drop convenience for adding pictures and files as attachments. Rolf then covered backups, Apple’s billion dollar server farm and answered questions about browsers, DSL vs Cable, and Safari.

Missed it? No problemo, you can download the Mail and Shortcuts handouts, Ross Rasmussen’s SpringFest Mac 101 Desktop handout and a full set of Mac 202 Session Notes (soon to be posted) at http://dropio.com/HMAUS_maclearn.  Read on for more of Rolf’s tips…

So what about Backups? Rolf convinced us that backups should be a part of our daily or weekly routine.  Leopard offers you Time Machine for hourly, weekly, then monthly backups…IF you attach an external hard drive, turn it on and say “Yes! please backup!”  That’s it! But is Time Machine enough?  He says no, you have to have a backup backup. Or, you can recover your data . . . for about $3,000 – $8,000.  Yes, backup!

Here were a couple of Rolf’s useful shortcuts:

• Fast Search: When you’re in a browser press Cmd-L (press the Command key and hold it down while you press the L key).  This highlights the location (URL) box at the top of your browser.  Then type just the name of the site, don’t Delete first, just type.  Press the Return key.  The typing replaces what’s in the location box, and the browser will fill in the http://www…  and .com for you.
• Switch apps fast: If you have several apps open, switch between them by pressing Cmd-tab. Keep hitting the tab key (with Cmd held down) until it rotates to the one you want.

Cool sites:

• Marcy Katz offered this for picking up mail on the road if you need to – go to http://www.mail2web.com, login  and there it is!  Try it with the above tip… Cmd-L….mail2web…..Return.
• How fast are you going? Go to http://www.speedtest.net to find out.  In a few seconds it clocks your current upload and download speeds.  Try it with Safari 4, Firefox and IE and see if there’s a difference.

Intent listeners, Rolf and his tips, his Mac Mini and cool UPS gadget.

Yumms. HMAUS treated coffee or folks bought their favorite drinks.  ING Direct has ono snacks available and $3 chili and rice for those who wanted to hang around.  Great venue.  Mahalo ING Direct!

Kimo, Dorothy Hallett, Marcy Katz and Rolf, ING Direct conf. room for hands-on training.

Rolf invites you to his free Leopard and other things Mac sessions every 1st and 3rd Saturday from 12 – 2 pm
at his shop at 627 South Street 921-8294 info@macmouse.com6

808-921-8294

What’s next??  Join us for our July MacLearn on iPhoto
Saturday July 25th 10 – 12 noon at ING Direct Cafe!
Hands-on workshop to follow one or two weeks later.

Also coming up
Image Maker’s Outdoor Family Portraits Workshop
July 19^th

A hui hou!  Be seeing you!

Directions/Parking for ING Direct and the tentative MacLearn schedule are at

http://www.hmaus.org/index.php/meetings-workshops/maclearn/

Rolf “Headcheese” Nordahl of Mac Mouse will instruct us at the amazing multimedia ING Direct coffee café.  Learn more about free apps that come loaded with OS X such as Mail, iCal, iChat, backing up, and utilities, apps you may have been sitting on without realizing their coolness.

We’ll spring for a couple carafes of coffee or you can buy all kinds of coffee drinks, Panya cookies, scones etc and even sandwiches at very reasonable prices…and they’re a bank so they can’t take tips!  Awwwww, yea!  Come if just to see the place…and us of course!

Directions:

• from Ala Moana Blvd – stay in the left lane, shoot across the intersection to Pau St.
• from McCully – stay in the left lane after you pass Ala Wai canal and turn left, then left onto Pau St.
• from Kalakaua stay in left lane, left on Pau.

Parking – please car pool if you can:

• from Pau St. turn left into the parking lot behind the café.  There are 16 spaces but please try to leave a couple open for their regular customers.  We want to be welcome guests, it’s free and fab there.
• If the lot behind has no room, you may luck out on street parking, OR drive to the end of the block, left on Ala Wai, then left on the next street.  Drive toward Kalakaua and turn into the concrete open lot for their employees.  No set way to park to make sure you don’t block anyone.
• If that’s full, there is a park and pay mauka of the employee lot.  You have to go around the block again and left on McCully this time. It’s the deserted old Jack in the Box property.
• Ok, one more – if you can’t find parking on the block go to the Ft. DeRussy parking lot on Kalia Rd. but it will cost you about $8.50.  Moral of the story – car pool and come early!

Here are the mug shots of the three chump stars of the day. Hinahina, Petey and Rolf.