Author: John Clark

BCMUG meeting presentation; March 11th, 2010

I presented the topic of password management at our local Mac User Group last night. Here are a bunch of links to things we covered:

• To download a stand-alone version of the Apple’s built-in “Password Assistant” tool, visit CodePoetry.
• Next, a link to the website for my preferred password management program, 1Password.
• Here are a scant handful of links to sites discussing the difference between ‘passwords’ and ‘passphrases’, in the interest of giving folks a new take of the painful task of creating secure logins:
– First, the Wikipedia entry on the topic.
– Next, an interesting semi-random blog post…
– From the folks who created 1Password, another blog post, in a similar vein.
– Lastly, another blog post, this one describing a unique technique for “Creating and Remembering Complex Passwords”
Oh, almost forgot… Here’s a link to the site that provides very enlightening information about the relative strength of passwords, depending on length and variation in characters. This site is where I gleaned my recommendation that a secure password should be at least 8 characters long, and always contain at least one capital letter, one punctuation character (!@#$%^&*()[]?<>) and one number.
I hope everyone who attended the presentation got something out of it; it’s a pretty dry subject, but a critical one more than ever!
Until next time, here’s to safe secure browsing!
JC

Mac classes – March ’10

March is here; Spring can’t be far off! Hooray!

Mac class news for the month:

 This month, the regular FREE “Overview of Mac OS X” class will again take place on the last Wednesday of the month, Wednesday, March 31st from 5-7 p.m. These overview classes are held in the computer lab at the Ridgway Library. There are only eight seats available, and the Library has asked that I handle the sign ups, so give me a call at 970-417-8434 (or drop me an email) if you’d like to attend. (Be aware that first-timers take priority over anyone who has taken the class before, but there are often openings for repeaters).

There are six Macs in the computer lab, so only two of the eight attendees need their own laptops. This class is beginner-oriented, but we cover some different things every month; repeat attendees are encouraged (when there’s room)!

I’m offering two other classes every month through May. I’ve settled on the second and fourth Saturday morning of each month.

On Saturday, March 13th, from 10 a.m. to noon, I will be covering that venerable behemoth of word-processing programs: Microsoft Word. There will undoubtably be something for everyone in this class!

On Saturday, March 27th, from 10 a.m. to noon, due to popular demand, I’ll be revisiting iPhoto. If you’ve missed it in the past, or simply want to refresh your skills, then I hope this is a timely class for you!

These classes are always held in the small meeting room at Ridgway Town Hall, and carry a fee of $20 for the two-hour session.

Both of these classes are open to drop-ins, with no sign-up necessary…

Let me know if there’s something else you’d like me to consider covering in these Saturday sessions.

Social Networking Class – February 27th 2010

Links from yesterday’s Social Networking class:

• New York Times article that covers the latest Facebook privacy setting changes, and how to change them…
• Facebook page that explains the new homepage view…
• Twitter.com, where you can set up your new account (or not)…
• Twitip.com, a great site I found that gives you tons of great tips on using Twitter…
• Blogger.com, the site where you can set up a blogspot blog like this one…
• BloggerBuster.com, where I found definitive instructions for inserting Google maps into your blog (and which is even better than how I did my original maps to the class locations on the right…)
That last one is not a trivial set of instructions, but I’m confident that you’ll do just fine figuring it out as you get more confident using your Mac. If, however, you go a little cross-eyed trying to figure it out, just drop me and email or give me a call, and I’ll help you figure it out…

Internet/e-mail class

From the “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Internet & E-mail” class that I did this morning, here are a few links:


• First, for the Safari “plug-in”, Glims, that I was using which gives you auto-save/restore of last session’s windows and tabs, auto-closing Downloads windows (and much more), look here:


• Second, for the Google search tips blog entry that I used to demonstrate all the cool custom search tricks you can use with Google, look here:


…and for the downloadable cheat-sheet put out by Google themselves:


• Lastly, for a ton of tutorials from Apple dealing with how to get the most out of their built-in Mail program, look here:


If you have questions or run into problems, don’t hesitate to let me know, I’ll see what I can do to help!

I’ll post more links to helpful info as I come across it…

Mac classes – February ’10

February is here already? Boy, does time keep flying by; seems like it’s faster every month…

Mac class news for the month:

 This month, the regular FREE “Overview of Mac OS X” class will again take place on the last Wednesday of the month, Wednesday, February 24th from 5-7 p.m. These overview classes are held in the computer lab at the Ridgway Library. There are only eight seats available, and the Library has asked that I handle the sign ups, so give me a call at 970-417-8434 (or drop me an email) if you’d like to attend. (Be aware that first-timers take priority over anyone who has taken the class before, but there are often openings for repeaters).

There are six Macs in the computer lab, so only two of the eight attendees need their own laptops. This class is beginner-oriented, but we cover some different things every month; repeat attendees are encouraged (when there’s room)!

I’m offering two other classes every month through May. I’ve settled on the second and fourth Saturday morning of each month.

On Saturday, February 13th, from 10 a.m. to noon, I will be covering the two main things most of us do on our computers: everything you’ve always wanted to know about E-mail & the Internet. There will definitely be something for everyone in this session!

 Then, on Saturday, February 27th, from 10 a.m. to noon, I will be covering the ins and outs of “Social Networking”. If you’ve been wondering what all the fuss is about Facebook, Twitter, Blogging and the like, then this is the class for you!

These classes are always held in the small meeting room at Ridgway Town Hall, and carry a fee of $20 for the two-hour session.

Both of these classes are open to drop-ins, with no sign-up necessary…

Mac classes – January ’10

Happy New Year everyone! I trust you all had a warm and happy holiday season.

Mac class news for the month:

This month, the regular FREE “Overview of Mac OS X” class returns to our regular schedule of the last Wednesday of the month, from 5-7 p.m. This month’s class will take place on Wednesday, January 27th. These overview classes are held in the computer lab at the Ridgway Library. There are only eight seats available, and this year the Library has asked that I handle the sign ups, so give me a call at 970-417-8434 if you’d like to attend (and be aware that first-timers take priority over anyone who has taken the class before, but there are often openings for repeaters).

There are six Macs in the computer lab, so only two of the eight attendees need their own laptops. This class is beginner-oriented, but we cover some different things every month; repeat attendees are encouraged (when there’s room)!

I’m offering two other classes this month. [And I’m going to start offering the “focused” classes on Saturdays, to allow for more folks to attend.] So, on Saturday, January 16th, from 10 a.m. to noon, I will be covering iPhoto. This class will be held in the small meeting room at Ridgway Town Hall.

Also, on Saturday, January 30th, from 10 a.m. to noon, I will be covering iTunes and your iPod/iPhone. This class will also be held in the small meeting room at Ridgway Town Hall.

Both of these classes are open to drop-ins, with no sign-up necessary…

“Disc” vs. “Disk”?

Who knew? Apple actually has a Knowledge Base article that addresses the distinction:

For those too lazy (or busy) to go and read it, the difference essentially boils down to this: “disc” refers to optical meda such as CD’s and DVD’s, and “disk” refers to magnetic media such as floppies and the hard drive in your computer…
If you’re wondering how widespread that distinction is held, I checked, and Wikipedia concurs (in the technological realm anyway).
You learn something new every day, if you’re open to it…

Long time no blog…

Greetings fellow Mac-enthusiasts!
I’m amazed that it’s been almost a year since I last posted a blog update… Just goes to show you how busy I’ve been! Anyway, I plan to make time for some new updates in the near future. I have quite a few interesting tidbits saved up to post, and the short, dark days of winter are upon us, so I should be able to find more time to post. [Yeah, riiiiigght; I hear some of you saying…] 😉
Just for a teaser, I’d like to share a link to a site I stumbled onto not too long ago
. It’s one of the most comprehensive repositories of keyboard shortcuts I’ve ever seen. This guy not only documents all the usual tried-and-true favorites, he’s also gathered all of the most obscure and rarely seen shortcuts, many of which can be indispensible when you find yourself in a bind… So, here is Dan Rodney’s:
…here’s an example from his site; a Guide to the Mac’s Menu Symbols:
He’s really done an amazing job there… Enjoy. And don’t forget to check out the rest of his site. Dan is quite an accomplished guy, with lots of talents to share. Now that I think about it, maybe I’ll try and look him up when we go to NYC at Thanksgiving to visit our daughters (who’re both in college there now…)!
That’s it for now, until next time, happy computing…

Yasu (Yet Another System Utility): a user guide

Yasu is my preferred tool for system maintenance and cleanup. You can read more about the technical details behind everything that it does on the author’s website (follow the link in my list of Recommended Software at right). When you first open the software, you’re presented with a confusing conglomeration of checkboxes. Above is a screenshot of how I recommend you configure the software before telling it to proceed.

Just be warned that after you click the OK button and enter your password to allow it to run, it will run all those various tasks, then restart your computer without further warning. Therefore, I recommend you run Yasu at the end of your workday, after quitting all other running programs, so that it can restart your computer without causing any disruption.

I find it sufficient to run the program about once a month to get things back in good working order. If, after your computer restarts following a Yasu session, the machine is still running quite slowly (including seeing lots of “spinning beachball” cursors), then I recommend you give me a call, as your hard drive may be failing. As always, make sure you have a good current backup, if not two or three!! 🙂

My number is 970-417-8434.

Good luck, and happy computing!

© Copyright 2023 John I. Clark, Ridgway's Mac Doctor