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Mac20Q Podcast 42 The Mac Mommy

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Melissa is totally in mommy mode and in the process of producing another baby too. Still has time for the using and loving of the Mac. During the interview she tells me a story about a mouse eating one of her peripherals. Melissa uses a MacBookPro and passes her old machines on to her husband, hang on that’s not right ! Oh it’s OK she is the geek of the family. She can be found at Moms Gone geek and The Mac Mommy

A favourite gadget is called a Huckleberry that she keeps in a Tupperware container (Such a Mommy thing to do). She showed it to Alison Sheridan @Podfeet of the Nosillacast when they met up. This gadget is a periscope so that she can video things on the other side of the computer, she is not limited to filming herself sitting in front of her MacBookPro.

The Mac Mommy is a fan of iWork and likes using Numbers, recently using it for collating all the figures for the tax man. Used to be a designer when she left school and used the pro applications for that, but now that she teaches the ‘Snow Birds’ how to use computers. Due to teaching people with bog standard computers, as in not tricked with the likes of QuickSilver for example, she keeps to the applications that you can find on all Macs mostly.

I recommend Bean and Melissa has used it too. We both can’t stand Microsoft Word and the inconsistencies of the formats within it. When will people realise that you DO NOT need to get Word just because other people are using it. Bean makes doc files and so does Pages in iWork. I just bought Scrivener the other day too. Pretty pleased with it. Melissa says that if the person receiving a document from you and they don’t need to edit it then just send them a PDF. That makes sense.

The Mac Mommy does not have an iPhone yet but would like one, despite being unwilling to change to AT & T. I didn’t want to change to Telefonica but had to, mind you it has been OK so far, so I will stop complaining.

In Safari the tabs at the top are good for The Mac Mommy as it is good for using with the senior citizens that are snow birding it in Arizona, and learning about computers while there. Used to love FireFox though. For Twitter Melissa likes Nambu. I was using Nambu but found that it needs more development, wasn’t behaving itself somtimes. I think she will be trying Tweetie soon although likes Twirl a lot.

Melissa made up to the family for eloping with her husband by having a big wedding for the one year anniversary. She made the wedding music with iTunes, did all the printing end of things with iWork and iLife. Sounds like it was a mammoth task but totally enjoyable. Probably did the photos in iPhoto also. Could have used PhotoBooth to take the pictures of all the guests one by one.

The back up strategy is an ABC method Archive, BackUp and Clone. You have to listen to how that works, it is a lesson to all those out there that don’t back up. What!?? you don’t back up?? Listen to Melissa for her great strategy. Get SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner and get 2GB of Free back up with Mozy

In the process of saving cash Melissa has turned to Boxee to not have to pay for cable TV. I don’t think we can get Boxee here in Spain. U.S. only.

For the rest of the information in the show go and listen. I recommend that you subscribe in iTunes though so that you don’t miss any episodes.

Mac20Q Podcast 30 Michael King

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Michael is from Houston in Texas and has a plethora of Mac computers that he uses for business and pleasure. He makes training films using Final Cut Pro and is a heavy user of Aperture. Michael has a pedigree with Macs going back to the Apple 2. Obviously this amounts to a huge amount of experience with the Mac.

He tells us a little about using classic and changing to OS X. He is not keen on using a Mouse preferring to use a trackball. He uses a Heil PR40
and USB Edirol mixer to connect it up. He reckons his PR40 is the best mic to use when you consider the antique clocks he has chiming in the background from time to time.

I use a Samson C03U mic similar to the Samson Multi-pattern Condenser Mic
both are USB mics.
I recommended AmadeusPro to him and he said he is off to the shop to buy it after we finish recording. I even passed on some tips about selecting part of a sound wave to delete so that you don’t get and extra clicks in the audio.
He reckons that Adobe will probably take some time to get a version out for Snow Leopard because they can drag their feet a bit some times in reaction to new operating systems. Multi Threading is going to be the big thing with Snow leopard and being about to make use of the multi core computers.
He told me there is a huge difference between having 2GB and 4 GB in the MacBook. So I will have to do something about putting in the extra in my MacBook too.
The office he works in is a mixture of Macs and Windows and has to use MS Excel because it is the only spreadsheet that will open the spreadsheets that get sent to him. For his personal office type of thing he will use iWork. He wishes that it wasn’t totally necessary to revolve around microsoft products in business.
Not quite a cool aid drinker but will always recommend a Mac to people when the ask what sort of computer to get.
Michael likes to use Firefox for the add ons you can use and will sometimes go back to Safari and now and then Camino. Depends on which is working the best right now, and for now it is Safari 4. Fluid gets a mention also, this is an app which you use to make a application specific to a web site.
Oovoo is used for some video chatting  with his mates which include Mark Sheppard who was featured in the previous podcast and Rob Saunders who will be in a Podcast here soon and Michael  uses a Logitech web cam to get the video in.

Recommended sites

Michaels pictures

  • http://gallery.me.com/mking8#100058
  • http://gallery.me.com/mking8#100074

michaelking@im-podcast.com

Elaine Giles Mac20Q Podcast 10

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I’m talking to Elaine Giles, an IT consultant based in Manchester, UK.In her professional life Elaine runs training courses in applications for end users, develops web sites, works as a system administrator and generally undertakes a myriad of other computer related tasks.

Elaine is also Co-Chair of the North West Institute of IT Trainers and User Group Manager of the North West Adobe Users Group there are regular meetings so if you’re in the vicinity feel free to say Hi.

Elaine  switched to a Mac in April 2006 after what proved to be a life changing visit to an Adobe event previewing Lightroom.

Elaine likes to use a Fujitsu ScanSnap S510M scanner to create a paperless office. She scans everything and organises it with Devonthink Office Pro which has OCR capabilities. She even uses the computer for the TV program watching, something I would like to set up  and for this the hardware is EyeTV Hybrid from El Gato

BROWSERS! Thats right Elaine has an addiction. I was listening to the podcast and she claimed to have 17 web browsers, so I think there are some that have been left off this list.
- Safari
- Opera
- Firefox
- OmniWeb
- Shiira
- Camino
- iCab
- Sunrise
- Netscape Navigator
- Fluid

Microphones are really important because Elaine is a podcaster too, mostly she uses  the Blue Snowball Microphone and has a Blue Snowflake to use with the MacBookPro.

Back Up software

Backing up is important for all of us and here are two of Elaines’ recommendations SuperDuper and  ChronoSync

Software Pick

Scrivener I have been trying this one out also on a recommendation from Andy Inhatko last week on the Mac Break Weekly Podcast. It is a very good toolkit for writers.

iPhone Apps

OmniFocus for being organised, Evernote for collecting information and being more orgainsed, and Tweetie for telling everyone how organised you are.

PODCASTS

MacBites *of course* because she is the co host of the podcast.
PhotoshopUserTV
InDesign Secrets
Instant InDesign
Layers Magazine
Pixel Perfect with Bert Monroy