A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away

The other day I looked at my Mac's screen saver and thought, I can do better. About 20 minutes later I found a few runner-ups but my clear favorite is the StarWarsScroll from KillerRobots. It is everything I want in a "way too nerdy" sort of way. Basically, it's the Star Wars crawl you see in the beginning of the movie, set against a background of stars. It even has the logo and the famous text in blue. The great part is they have every crawl from every thing that has ever had one, like Clone Wars or some barely known special.You can turn any of them off or on and choose the crawls you like. None of it looks pixelly or fuzzy.
So, if you need to upgrade your screensaver, try out StarWarsScroll.

Note: The above screensaver is Mac only.

A runner-up, Screenstagram - Grabs your feed from Instagram. Pretty cool!

"Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education." Mark Twain

I have many students that come to my classes that use Macs. They ask about classes on Apple products and I tell them realistically there is very little chance I could ever do it. The reason is simple. Apple is a minority in the computer world and Windows is the majority and to this we offer both computers and classes on windows machines. It does make sense. But what about the Apple people then? First off if a student is taking a class about something on the web or even some Microsoft products then it frankly doesn’t matter because they are basically the same. OK fine but what about learning the system and its applications? Well I have an answer but it is not free but still good nonetheless. Apple features a service called OnetoOne training. It is a $99 bucks for a year’s worth of training. What you get for you money is a once a week session with an Apple rep* for 52 weeks. You just make a reservation online and you walk in. They teach you pretty much anything you might have an interest in. They do have a curriculum if you want to follow it but it seems fine to go off topic at anytime. I have recommended this to both friends and family and it has really reduced the phone calls I get. The one joking question I get after a class is “Do you make house calls?” Training is so very necessary especially with programs becoming more and more powerful. People try earnestly to learn this stuff but when they go home they often feel they have been left on a raft to drift in the sea of computer problems. This is the reason why I have a “Ask a question feature on the site. I recommend this OnetoOne service because I believe the price is right for a solo tutorial when you want it. I should also mention they have free classes as well that have multiple students in them. So if you have a Mac and you don’t see the class you want for free then give this a try.

“If the person you are talking to doesn't appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.” Winnie

Everywhere I go I see people with MP3 players. People are listening to more through their headphones than ever before and it is not just music. The listening public are listening to news, talk shows, radio programs, concerts, etc. Some are even having their RSS feeds and emails read to them. (Subject for another post) At this point the most popular player is the iPod. I get many questions about the Apple player. I usually refer students to the Apple store where they can ask questions with their iPod in hand and that seems to work out well. However what happens if you do not have a store near you or they cannot seem to answer your questions? Then it is time to head to iLounge. iLounge has been around for quite a while now and offers everything iPod. They have all the news you could want about the iPod. They also sell items related to the player but the real reason I send you here is the forums and help section. Every time I have a strange question about how to do something with my iPod I head to those sections and do a search. They have recommendations to find free legit music and video plus concerts and music blogs as well. I know I am mainly focused on music when it comes to iLounge but it is a music player after all. The site is very user friendly and helpful. Give it a try.

“Get your feet off my desk, get out of here, you [Steve Jobs] stink, and we're not going to buy your product [the Apple Computer].” Joe Keenan

Being a Mac user has always been a two edged sword. The positives usually outweigh the negatives by a large margin. I have been a Mac user since 92 and since then the question has always been should I buy a new model now. Historically the moment you purchase a new Mac a new cheaper one with extra stuff will be released and so you wait. The problem is that if you get into this mindset you will never purchase a new model ever for fear of making a poor choice. Generally there are a couple of rules that I live by for general sanity when it comes to the company that is Apple. One is never ever purchase anything the first year out from Apple no matter how cool it is. The early adopters will over pay and will find all the glitches. Once that period is done they will come out with a way better one. This goes for operating systems as well. The second rule is to understand that just because something is new does not mean I need to purchase it. A Mac has a long shelf life. This is why even an older one still fetches high prices while similarly aged products drop like a stone in price. Recently I came across a great site that helps to make Apple purchasing decisions a bit easier. Mactactic takes into account Apple’s replacement schedule plus anything going on in the Mac world and gives you advice on whether you should purchase. As an example the Mac Mini has not been replaced and is overdue for a new model so this is a good time to wait on that one while a new iMac is a recommended purchase. They do have a blog as well but it is not updated much because of the space between new official product info. If you are considering switching to a Mac definitely give this one a try.

“I worked with a wild leopard, who bit me. But I kept on working with him, because I have a wild side." Bai Ling

Recently a new operating system came out for Macintosh computers and it is entitled Leopard. I have heard great things about the new features like spaces and time machine and how long it takes to install However I will say what I said when Vista came out. WAIT! Give it several months to a year to let someone with multiple computers work out the bugs. No matter who puts out a new OS there are always glitches that need to be addressed right away. I know the desire is there for a whole new OS because it has new features and abilities but it is not worth losing your data because someone forgot to correct a small bug. This is one I have to say give it a try…um….eventually.

“You really can't beat that. Having some good friends and going out to eat some good barbecue.” Andrew Ray

So I am home and I am with a bunch of friends trying to decide where to eat. Nobody can remember all the places and we are just waiting for someone to make a decision. Enter Dine-o-Matic, my favorite widget. Widgets are small programs devoted to one specific action. Unfortunately they are only for the Mac operating system. Windows has something similar in the Vista OS. Dine-O-Matic is my personal favorite widget. You type in all the restaurants that you frequent and then choose the type of cuisine it is like Italian or Chinese. Once setup it is just a matter of clicking and it will randomly choose a place to go and show you with an accompanying picture specific to the cuisine. It is a beautiful design and simple and best of all it works. So if you have a hunger, indecision, and a Mac give it a try.