President Bob Shayler called on eSteve to share some good news. eSteve (Esteban Zapian), after giving some background info, indicated that the SLUSD has agreed to a Mac/PC duo platform within the district. Yea!
Bob indicated that our July meeting would not be able to meet in our regular room. Info on where will be forthcoming. He indicated that by fall the construction chaos would be over. There was some discussion about the club meeting night. Some have difficulty with the first Thursday. Would Monday be better? That would be a problem for some other folk. There was no strong feeling to change our long time meeting on the first Thursday.
Stan Kline indicated that some folk have reported having problems with the recently released iTunes 4.5. He stated that he has not been able to duplicate the problems that folk have reported. He reported that the iTunes Music Store is requesting feedback from its customers regarding iTunes. Apple announced that in the first week since the release of iTunes 4.5, users have purchased 3.3 million songs from the iTunes Music Store.
Stan indicated that there are 200 plus accessories for the iPod. He brought out a number that he has purchased for his iPod(s). How many iPod accessories do you have Stan? “The TransPod FM is a neat accessory and only costs $99.” It broadcasts iPod to your car stereo via a digital drift-free stereo FM Transmitter. (See the Apple Store for details).
Stan reported that Consumer Reports likes the new Macs. Apple won the reliability and support categories hands down for both desktops and laptops. The PowerBook scored very well in comparison with the Wintels despite being two generations old. The Apple 17” Studio Display was rated the best.
Sony is a copycat … they have entered the music download business with their new music store
Longhorn’s (Windows) next release of Dark Side will feel like Mac OS 10. The final release is scheduled for 2006. It will have hefty hardware requirements according to a Microsoft Watch article.
Stan spelled out how to update Virex so it can tackle the latest viruses. Open Virex; Go to the Preferences pane; Check “Customize my eUpdate server settings”; Click the “Server Settings” button; Enter the information as follows:
type: FTP
Server URL: ftp.nai.com
Port: leave blank
username: anonymous
password: leave blank
account: leave blank
directory: /virusdfs/mac/virex7/
Then click OK twice: once to exit the server settings and again to exit the preferences. Click eUpdate. That does it.
Bob introduced Gordon Bell, sales manager, and Jennifer Mark of PROSOFT Engineering. Bob stated that PROSOFT have created an outstanding set of disk repair Utilities called the Data Safety Suite. Gordon gave some background of the company. In 1985 they worked as a software developer and have worked with Apple for a number of years developing the software for the burning of CDs in iTunes, password protection codes, etc.
Gordon led us through “Data Loss 101.” Data is valuable: pictures, music, movies, and other files. Data is lost every day. There are solutions. You can take preventative measures like backing up and monitoring the health of your Hard Drive. You can take reactive measures such as using repair utilities, recovery utilities and recovery service.
He then introduced us to the Data Safety Suite produced by PROSOFT Engineering using the projector as he talked about each of the 3 products. (Much of the information presented can be found on their web site: prosofteng.com).
Data Backup is an Award-winning, easy to use backup utility for the Mac. Data Backup includes simple backup and restore functions as well as advanced scheduling. Simply drag your files, folders or whole HD into Data Backup and select a destination. To Restore, select the files and folders you want to restore, just like backup, but reverse. You can backup to or restore from any mounted drive including CD, DVD, ATA, SCSI, FireWire, and networked volumes. Gordon prefers to backup to another drive rather than to CDs, which have to be managed. Therefore you can program Data Backup to automatically run any backup task on specific days, date or other recurring basis including specific files and folders. You can program mirrored, versioned and incremental backups. You can utilize synchronization, compression and cloning abilities of Data Backup.
Data Recycler protects against accidental file deletion. If you delete a file on accident, just find your file in the Data Recycle recovery window and undelete it. Your file is back. Data Recycler includes shredding option, which follows the U.S. Department of Defense spec to ensure sensitive file deletion. It has a built in Early Warning System for drive corruption. It continually monitors your drive for signs of data corruption. If corruption exists, you will be notified to take steps to protect or recover your data. Data Recycler includes the following features: 3 levels of protection ensure data remains safe; groundbreaking technology allows for constant monitoring with minimal impact to the operating system; protects files up to half the size of your drive; once protected, files remain protected even if the computer is turned off; search feature which allows searching through the deleted file list based on name, date and size; support for RAID; captures Apple iPhoto deletes; captures files overwritten by the Finder; file shredder meets and exceeds US DoD standards; and desktop shredder icon.
Data Rescue is the leading recovery software for the Mac. It works differently than Disk Warrior or Tech Tool Pro. Using Disk Warrior cleanup and repair directory runs the risk of writing over files it does not see. Data Rescue is the best data recovery utility on the market for recovering files from a problem hard drive. It does a quick scan in 5 minutes and about an hour or so for a thorough scan. Other utilities can cause more damage to your hard drive and files by trying to ‘fix’ the problem, instead of focusing on recovering your files. Use Data Rescue prior to using any ‘repair” utility in order to safely save important data. An optional emergency bootable CD is also available. Data Rescue can recover deleted digital pictures from your camera media after you’ve deleted them or even re-formatted your camera media card. (Wow!)
PROSOFT will provide free updates to the 3 programs. Apple Support Team thinks highly of the Data Safety Suite. The suite may be purchased direct, from Apple Store or Frys for$149 or $36 for Data Recycler; $46 for Data Backup; $66 for Data Rescue. However, tonight SLMUG members may purchase the Suite at a 25% discount or $99. (Those not present may still receive the discount from PROSOFT by using the code: MUG123 when ordering.).
Bob thanked Gordon for an excellent presentation and club members descended upon Jennifer to purchase the Data Safety Suite.
Dayle Scott, Secretary