Meetings

Meeting Summary for September 25, 2003

The meeting began with Prachi giving a summary of the new products Apple released at the Apple Expo in Paris, including the new Apple Wireless Keyboard and Mouse, and the new PowerBooks.

After that, Prachi introduced Stephen Heard, the new UAMUG Secretary/Treasurer. Stephen then told everyone about the RSO fund allocations for the UAMUG: we received a whopping $53.68 for a recruitment meeting in February. That's basically money for pizza and drinks.

After that, Prachi gave a summary of some past and future UAMUG-related events. On September 16 there was a Panther and G5 Demo at Mullins Library, and on September 30 there was to be a vendor day at the University Computer Store, where an iSight would be given away.

Eric then talked a little about the UAMUG site. He reminded members that they can contribute content for the site; in particular, we need each member to write a short bio for the People section. That should include each member's AIM/iChat name, a picture, and some other basic info you want to share. It was also suggested that members write reviews, editorials, or how-to's for the website, in any Mac-related subject they feel confident with. This information can be e-mailed to mug@cavern.uark.edu. Also, members that use iChat were urged to turn on Rendezvous messaging so that they can automatically see other members on the same subnet that also use iChat, thus aiding in meeting other Mac users.

After that, Philip talked a little about iChat AV, Apple's new audio/video conferencing app and Apple's new webcam, the iSight. Prachi then joined Philip to demonstrate using iChat AV and iSight together.

Then, Prachi talked a bit about the pros and cons of purchasing a .Mac account. He gave a brief overview of the member services: an mac.com email address, an online address book, integration with Apple's iApps, Apple's HomePage tool, a virtual online iDisk, and various backup and virus scanning software packages. A demonstration was then given. To read a more in depth review of .Mac and its services, Prachi has written an article called .Mac - The Perfect Complement to your Mac, which is in the Articles section of our site.

The Mac Help section was next; this is the part of the meeting where members ask other members about problems they are having with their Mac, and the members of the group respond and try to help that person. We helped Wendy Moss find a better Jabber client, and we showed Hannah Mills how to set up Mail to check her university email account.

Announcements were then given, and a vocal survey of the group was taken about how future meetings should commence. Here are a few ideas taken from members:

• Demonstrate the basic functions of the iApps, and include "neat tricks" one can do with them.
• Talk about changing Mac OS X's appearance with themes and new icons sets.
• Every meeting should have a Mac Q & A.
• Talk about the UNIX side of Mac OS X, including how to use the Terminal, how to write scripts, etc.
• Talk about older Macintosh systems, and tips for keeping them up to date.

Then Prachi talked about how ultimately the meeting format and the UAMUG's direction is entirely dependent on what the members want to do, and asked that members keep the ideas coming.

Download slides from this meeting

The slides are in PDF format with a file size of 2.77MB. To view these slides, you must have a PDF viewer like Apple Preview (comes with Mac OS X) or Adobe Reader.