For those of you wondering why there is no MacCamp form in this issue, it's due to the fact that MacCamp is sold out already. Very seldom does this happen as early as the 8th of March; most of the time we are still working the week before Camp to fill the last spaces. Thanks to all the early MacCampers, now I get to spend time working on the extra events, rather than trying to fill the rooms and classes. So thank you one and all—we will see you at Camp. For those of you who wish to take a class and not attend the whole camp, this can be arranged. Please feel free to contact me at charles@pmug.org with the class(es) you wish to take.

Microsoft appears to be playing Symantec these days. Very little innovation, and a lot of buying companies who do innovate. Sooner or later MS will run into the same problem that all really big corporations do; they will run out of good products to buy. Most companies stagnate under these rules and their founders jump ship to lead leaner, more agile organizations. It's a good thing that some companies with really good products cannot be bought and are owned outright by small groups of investors.

As long as I am on the topic of Microsoft, it has been announced that the company will be dropping support for MSN for Mac OS X. Customers of the service started receiving notifications as of March 12th. These customers will now access MSN services and features by using their preferred browser and by setting up a MyMSN page if they want shortcuts to their favorite online destinations. Microsoft said that customers will retain their MSN email address, address book, account data and mailbox size. They followed this with a statement of how committed they are to the Macintosh platform. Yeah, and if you believe that, I have an old LC I will sell you for only $1200. The only thing this division of the MS platform is committed to is making tons of money while investing very little.

I have always tried to figure out why people feel they have to move up to the newest edition of the System software as soon as Apple releases it. There have been times when I have waited until several updates have gone by before updating my computer's system software. Sometimes Apple gets it right, and sometimes they really screw it up. Talking to several of my friends who did the 10.3.6 upgrade and then spent hours trying to get back online with no idea of what caused the problem was interesting. They asked me what I had done to avoid that glitch. Simple, I said, I didn't go there. Skipped 10.3.6 and 10.3.7, went to 10.3.8 and it seems to work fine. When I did update, I waited for the combo updater to come out, downloaded it to my hard drive, repaired permissions and installed. After installing, I repaired the permissions again and then checked everything with DiskWarrior 3.0.2.

I have found that Microsoft Office is currently the only reason to install a virus scanning application on OS X. That's right, the only reason you need it is all the macro viruses that affect Word and Excel, or any that are passed through our machines by Outlook. We don't get the Outlook viruses, but we can forward them on if we forward an email that contains them to some of our PC friends. While we are on the subject of MS Office, be aware that Office 2004 has an updater called 11.1.1. Be sure to turn off "Office Notifications" in Entourage before attempting to install this update or the installation will stall out and not complete. Also, a problem with Norton Auto-Protect (a part of Norton AntiVirus) can cause problems if it is left on during the install. Please be sure to turn things back on that you have turned off after these installs.

Apple has joined the Blu-ray consortium to back their standard of reading, writing, and copy protecting DVDs in its new format. This new format allows 8 Gigabytes or more to be written to this new media. As in most industries, several companies are trying to control the standards of new technology. This gives them the edge over their competitors and also zooms them into the leadership role in that area. Yes, for those of you who are shaking your heads, it's just like the Beta and VHS wars. The winner takes all and the people who choose wrong end up with worthless equipment.

For buyers and users of most computers running OS X, the recommended amount of RAM for your machine is 512 megabytes. This seems to be the magic number that is needed to keep virtual memory from reading and writing too much, causing a slow down of your computer. The slow down is actually virtual memory writing out to the hard drive because there is not enough real RAM in the machine. Of course, if you can afford lots more RAM than that, please feel free to put in more, as well as bigger hard drives!

Another tip is that you keep 20% of your hard drive unused to prevent disk problems. This tip cost me an upgrade to a 200 Gig drive after my 80 Gig started filling up really fast. I really do suggest that you be proactive on these things rather than reactive. The reactive folks usually have some damage before they do anything to upgrade their computer.

Most of the Macintosh rumor sites are saying Apple will introduce Tiger (OS 10.4) on April 1, with a shipping date of April 15th. If so, this would suit me just fine as MacCamp's Intro to Tiger is set for April 16th. However, I'm not sure Apple would do an April 1 announcement, so don't hold your breath on that date.

Running Tiger will require you to purchase QuickTime Pro 7 even if you have purchased QuickTime Pro 6. So we all get to spend another $29.95 to upgrade QuickTime Pro. Even though many of you have never purchased QT Pro, you may want to think about doing it for this upcoming version. Why, you ask, when QT does everything you need it to do now? Well maybe you don't need it, but here are a few reasons QT Pro comes in handy. It plays movies full screen with enhanced performance, allows you to save movies from the web, allows you to edit movies using copy and paste, and author content with MPEG-4. Keep in mind the current version is 6.5 and you may not get all these features unless you have a current Pro version. Several of Apple's programs have more features with QT Pro, such as iMovie and iPhoto.

There are many ways to start up your Mac if the System on your machine is in trouble. The first one we teach everyone is to hold down the C key upon restarting your computer. This may or may not work depending on what is wrong. Next, the Option key will (or should) allow you to select the volume you wish to startup from. That is, you restart your computer holding down the Option key (please note this takes a long time); as soon as the cursor turns into a selection arrow, click on the volume you want to start up from, then click on the arrow that points to the right. If this fails, try holding down the following keys upon restart: "Command-Option-Shift-Delete." This should force the machine to seek a valid boot drive like your CD or DVD drive. For those of you thinking, "well I have my Norton or DiskWarrior Utilities CD, I can always start up from them." Maybe, maybe not. Depending on what version of System software is on the Utilities disk, it may start up your machine. Your best bet is to check the disk to see if it will start up your machine before you need it. For those who have tried everything, you may want to use the Restore CD/DVD that came with your Mac. Please note that all I can do is point out the ways that might possibly help you. There is no way for me to say this will fix your problems, but it beats the heck out of researching it yourself.

Apple seems to have a really hard time producing a new product after announcing it. The Mac mini is still in short supply and the Shuffle is almost impossible to find. I'm not sure I understand what Apple is up to here. Are they not producing product fast enough, or are they having problems with the assembly line? It seems to me if you have a product that hot, you really want to fill the demand quickly before the hype dies out.

In fact, the Shuffle is so popular that it is already being copied by a company called Luxpro Corporation. They are saying they had the same idea and are even calling their product the Super Shuffle. Go to www.luxpro-corp.com/e_575d.htm for more information. However, you better hurry due to the fact that Apple's lawyers are already trying to get the product pulled. This is one case where they are most likely to win due to the fact this company has copied the look and even the way the buttons work.

Fonts in System X can cause problems with applications quitting or not printing. In most cases, the fonts are damaged or corrupted. The strange thing is that they worked fine for months, then had a breakdown. It makes me think that certain programs combined with OS X are causing this to happen. Quark seems to be one of the programs that cause this corruption to occur. It sure would be nice to get this fixed so that it does not happen, or at least to find out how it happens. I guess what the world needs now is a corrupt font detector built into the System. Seems a perfect add-on for the Font Book Apple has built into System 10.3. However if Apple can't build it, there are third party applications that say they can help.

There are many things that can make your life hard with System X, but the one I run into the most often is the "I can't remember my password" problem. There are passwords you need and passwords you can forget, but we are going to focus on the ones that are most important. The first one is the computer password: it's the one you typed into the machine when you first set it up. Write it down in several places. The second password is the one to your Keychain (if you use the Keychain). Keychain remembers all those other passwords you gave yourself to websites and online accounts. If you forget it, you will need to delete the Keychain and create another one for your user name. Next comes the password for your Internet provider. This allows you to get into your account if you are on dial-up and/or get your mail if you are on DSL or Cable. The fourth password is for getting on wireless networks with a wireless router like an Airport. Forgetting anyone of these is asking for problems. Please be sure to get this information from consultants (or friends) who set up your accounts or provider assistants who set up your mail and online information. Write it down, you never know when you're going to need help remembering.

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