Archives for June, 2006

Topic

Adobe Flash Animation

Presenter

James Twing

When

Friday June 9th 2006, 7:30pm – 10pm

Where

Room M129, Building M, ACCC Mays Landing Campus

Flash animated content is everywhere on the Net these days thanks in large part to its combination of compact size, dazzling capabilities and compatibility with pretty much every computer around. Web based games, videos, cartoons, interactive product demos, anything involving animated graphics and sound is being done using Flash. Tonight we’ll get a peek behind the scenes as Jim shows us what goes into creating Flash animations.

2006-Jun-28 Update Adobe has officially released version 9 of the Flash browser plug-in, the installer can be downloaded here. At the moment the plug-in in PowerPC only, there is no version for Intel Macs though Adobe does provide instructions for a work-around.

Apple has released the latest update to Mac OS X 10.4, a.k.a. “Tiger”, available via Software Update and via direct download in various flavors:

• Mac OS X 10.4.7 Update for PowerPC Macs
• Mac OS X 10.4.7 Combo Update for PowerPC Macs
• Mac OS X 10.4.7 Update for Intel Macs
• Mac OS X 10.4.7 Combo Update for Intel Macs
• Mac OS X 10.4.7 Server Update for PowerPC Macs
• Mac OS X 10.4.7 Server Combo Update for PowerPC Macs

Unless you have an Intel Mac or use Mac OS X Server you probably want the Mac OS X 10.4.7 Combo Update for PowerPC Macs, assuming you have a high-speed connection, to minimize problems.

I’ve successfully used the combo updaters on three Macs (G4 Mac mini, G5 Tower and MacBook Pro.) Don’t panic if the reboot at the end of the install takes a bit longer than usual, that’s normal behavior.

What’s New in this Version

READ MORE …

On June 8th Sharon’s husband and Carolyn’s son-in-law Larry Betz passed away after a long, hard-fought battle with cancer.

The ACAMUG board sent a fruit basket on behalf of all of us, individual members wishing to show their support can send contributions to the American Cancer Society, 1851 Old Cuthbert Road, Cherry Hill, NJ 08084 or online at:

• American Cancer Society Home Page
• Make a Donation Online

Larry managed to confound his doctors to stay as long as humanly possible with Sharon and daughter Abbie, who benefited from his intelligence, humor, dedication and love. And a life-long predilection for bib overalls is a small price to pay for that.

Google just released what could be one of the coolest Firefox extensions ever — a drop-in extension for Firefox 1.5+ that will synchronize your browser settings across multiple computers.

If you’ve ever suffered the heartbreak reaching for a bookmark you’ve made, only to remember belatedly that it’s ‘on the other machine’, you may want to take a look:

http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/browsersync

Yes, we know…all you .Mac© account holders already have something similar. But for the rest of us, who are not yet convinced it’s worth the $10 a month splash for .Mac© (heresy!), this could be an extremely useful widget.

Best of all, if you’re forced by your workplace IT staff to use a Wintel box at work, yet use Firefox on both your work PC and your home Mac, the sync still works — seamlessly, and without complaint. Almost like the Mac itself…

Not directly Mac related, but definitely worth mentioning!

Assuming you’re lucky enough to own a new Apple MacBook, you may want to check the fan exhaust openings to ensure they are not blocked. Apple just released a press report admitting that some of its new MacBooks have left the factory with a piece of protective plastic (which would normally be removed during the assembly process) still inside the notebooks. This plastic can obstruct the airflow from the MacBook fans, preventing the machine from cooling itself. Erratic behavior after heavy or prolonged use is one of the symptoms. Wisps of smoke curling elegantly over the top of the case from the direction of the CPU housing is usually a bad sign.

The solution? “Remove and discard it”, advises Apple. The plastic apparently serves no function in a fully operational MacBook, other than to annoy and/or frustrate its users.

Original story here.