The CapMac Blog

I’ve just posted a new special discount for members from TidBITS.  This is time limited, so check it out quickly.

Nancy

Our one time Special Event SIG — Maximizing Boot Camp:  Simplifying Windows On a Mac, is scheduled for this Saturday, June 27th.  The meeting is from 1 - 3 at the newly reopened North Village Branch Library, now located at 2505 Steck Ave.  Both members and visitors are welcome to attend this special event.  Learn how to get the most from “the other side” of your Intel Mac.  The session will be taught by Jesse McJohnson and you can address any questions you may have to Jesse at jessemac12@mac.com.

The very popular Take Control Books has just published “Take Control of Safari 4″ by Sharon Zardetto.  CapMac members get a 30% discount.  More information is available in the Members Only Forum.  Check it out.

O’Reilly has announced a free webcast to be held next week.  The information follows.

Join us for this free, live webcast

In this webcast, author John Graham-Cumming presents a tour of 32 places from his book, The Geek Atlas, in 32 minutes. From Jaipur to Hawaii, via Spain, Paris, London, New York and beyond, The Geek Atlas covers places that will fascinate anyone interested in science, technology or mathematics.

Attendance is limited, so register now. We’ll send you a reminder before the webcast. And please feel free to share this invitation with others.

Date: Wednesday, June 24th at 10 am PT
Price: Free
Duration: Approximately 60 minutes
To register: oreilly.com/go/32places
Questions? Please send email to

About John Graham-Cumming

John Graham-Cumming is a wandering programmer who’s lived in the UK, California, New York and France. Along the way he’s worked for a succession of technology start-ups, written the award-winning open source POPFile email program and churned out articles for publications such as The Guardian newspaper, Dr Dobbs, and Linux Magazine. His first effort writing a book was the obscure and self-published computer manual GNU Make Unleashed which saturated its target market of 100 readers. Because he has a doctorate in computer security he’s deeply suspicious of people who insist on being called Dr., but doesn’t mind if you refer to him as a geek. He is the proud owner of a three-letter domain name where he hosts his web site: http://www.jgc.org.

CapMac’s own Bob LeVitus will explain Snow Leopard which is scheduled to be released in September.  Bob has written a book about Snow Leopard which he probably will not be able to sell yet.  Be sure to attend because meetings with Dr. Bob are always a hoot.

Several CapMac members were in attendance this last weekend at the first annual Austin Photo Expo sponsored by Precision Camera & Video at the Norris Conference Center at Northcross. The Expo included feature booths from most of the major camera & lens companies such as Nikon, Canon, Sony, Sigma, Tamron, Olympus and Tokina as well as numerous manufacturers of camera related software, hardware and accessories such as Bogen, Austin’s own Bibble Labs, Nik Software, Hoya, Giottos and many more. Attendees were treated to a wide assortment of seminars from various leaders in photography such as Bill Fortney, John Isaac, Kevin Ames, John Woodward, Will Crockett and more.

Plans are already underway for next year’s expo, which will likely be at another location due to the overwhelming positive response and attendance to this year’s event. Precision Camera & Video has been a supporter of CapMac, sponsoring meetings of the Advanced Photography SIG and donating door prizes for the Photo SIG meetings. They are also one of Austin’s Apple Authorized Resellers.

If you are looking for a special deal on a refurbished Mac you should check out the Members Only Forum.  A local retailer is offering special prices for CapMac members.

Nancy Gravley

CapMac Webmaster Craig Gowens will give a tour of the refurbished CapMac web site and demonstrate how to make the most of all it has to offer before opening the floor to questions and comments on how the site can better server the CapMac membership.

Additionally, Apple’s WorldWide Developer Conference kicks off June 8th with a keynote presentation by Apple Senior VP Phil Schiller. CapMac will give a run down of the announcements made in the keynote including potential product releases and the impending release of the next iteration of Mac OS X: Snow Leopard. 

CapMac received a generous donation of seven used G4 Powerbook notebook computers from RGM Advisors, LLC. The CapMac board has decided to use the donation as a fundraiser by auctioning off the computers in a silent auction at our annual CapMac Social on May 12th at Sherlock’s Baker Street Pub.

The specifications of the computers to be auctioned are

All items are G4 Powerbook notebook computers.

The rules for the auction will be as follows:

1. Participants must be members in good standing of CapMac. Non-members can join CapMac in order to participate, but membership payment must be received via PayPal or by the membership coordinator before the close of the auction.
2. Auction will be a Silent Auction.
3. A piece of paper will be beside each computer and bidders will write their name, along with their bid.
4. Bidders may bid as many times as they wish, on as many machines as they wish.
5. Bidding will begin at 7:00 P.M. and end at 8:00 P.M.
6. Winners may pay for their computers by credit card using PayPal, but there will be a 3.5% service fee added to the winning bid amount.
7. Cash or check will also be accepted.

The slide presentation on Composition: Way Beyond the ‘Rule of Thirds’ from the March meeting of the Advanced Photography SIG.

Full Resolution version (QT slideshow, 1024×768, 112.3 MB)

Medium Resolution version (QT slideshow, 512 x 384, 10.4 MB)

Requires Quicktime.

All images contained in the slideshow are © Craig K. Gowens or their respective owners as identified within the slide and are presented here for educational purposes only.

A new member only product discount has been posted to the member only section of the CapMac forums.  This is for a product called Prizmo that lets you scan with a digital camera.

Our May CapMac meeting will be our annual social function.  This is your chance to talk to your Mac friends who are experts and can help answer almost any Mac question you may have.  Bring your spouse or significant other and introduce them to your friends.  CapMac will provide some food for the evening but your drinks are your own expense.  

We will also have seven used PowerBook G4 notebooks for auction (3 with 15 inch and 4 with 17 inch screens).  The silent auction will run from 7 to 8 PM and the bidding starts at $100. Only CapMac members may bid on the computers, but non-members can join CapMac to become eligible to bid.  The winners will be in the right place to get help configuring their new computers.  See the blog for further details.