May 3, 2005 Meeting
Apple Senior Engineer David M. Marra Unleashes Tiger

An audience of ninety MUG ONE members and guests caught the excitement of Mac OS 10.4 Tiger at the May 3 MUG ONE meeting featuring Apple Senior Engineer David M. Marra.

Dave gave an update on Apple's latest hardware and software releases including iLife '05 and iWork, the Mac mini and the just updated iMacs and eMacs, then wowed the audience with over two hours of demonstrations of the many facets of Tiger. Spotlight, Tiger's phenomenal new searching capability, was a particular crowd pleaser. Brian Foley took photos of the meeting and the dinner beforehand.

Special door prizes from Apple, BeLight, O'Reilly, Osborne/McGraw-Hill, Take Control, Peachpit, Sybex and You Software and refreshments made the evening even more memorable. Many thanks to the vendors, MUG ONE's Board members, meeting attendees, and most of all to Dave Marra for making this a truly special meeting.

April 5, 2005 Meeting
Viruses, Backing Up, and Help Desk Hints

MUG ONE Program Co-Chair Jesse Hogue shared his favorite Mac maintenance recommendations, back-up suggestions and help desk hints with a large and appreciative audience at the April 5 MUG ONE meeting. He also clued us in on Mac viruses (there are none to speak of) and dealing with spam. Jesse's excellent handout from the meeting in PDF format can be downloaded by clicking here.

Many thanks to Jesse for an excellent presentation!

February 1, 2005 Meeting
Macworld Expo SF 2005, Tasty Tech Tidbits

At February's well-attended MUG ONE meeting, Elsa Travisano brought us up to date on January's Macworld Conference & Expo San Francisco with an iPhoto slide show and commentary on the hardware, software and user group events that made this Macworld memorable.

John Maas, Brian Foley and Sven Anderson then served up a smorgasbord of tech tips and tidbits. Sven introduced us to the software available at www.apple.com/downloads/macosx, John gave us a tour of Contextual Menus, and Brian demoed Grab and other screenshot utilities.

Jesse Hogue was scheduled to show some of his favorite maintenance utilities but was thwarted by the lack of an iBook video cable (his was lost and MUG ONE didn't have one to loan, a problem since remedied). Jesse promised to include the missing demo in his March presentation.

Door prizes, refreshments and cheerful networking rounded out the evening. (Elsa answered so many tech questions that she was practically hoarse.) Thanks to all the presenters and participants for making this meeting a memorable one.

2004 MEETINGS AND EVENTS

MUG ONE Officers Elected for 2004-5

The November 2, 2004 MUG ONE meeting began with election of officers for the upcoming year. The current slate of officers were re-elected by common acclaim, and Jesse Hogue volunteered to serve as Program Co-Chair.

MUG ONE's officers for 2004-2005

Elsa Travisano, President
Sven Anderson, Vice President
Terry Helser, Secretary
Joanne Johnston, Treasurer
John Maas, Program Co-Chair
Brian Foley, Program Co-Chair
Jesse Hogue, Program Co-Chair
Johanna Koenig, Librarian

Congratulations to the officers. Thank you for your willingness to serve.

December 7, 2004 Meeting
Annual Holiday Meeting and Party

MUG ONE members enjoyed demos and "show and tell" sessions of some of the latest Mac software, hardware, books, magazines and iPod accessories and were treated to a tour of the iTunes Music Store at the December 7 holiday meeting. Tickets were drawn for some extra-special door prizes including software, books, iTunes Music Store gift certificates, and a USB jump drive. Afterwards we feasted on the impresssive array of holiday goodies brought and shared by the members. A good time was had by all.

Brian Foley demonstrating Office 2004 for Mac on November 2

November 2, 2004 Meeting
Office 2004 for Mac & MUG ONE Elections

The meeting began with the election of officers. Brian Foley then gave an information-packed presentation on Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac. He demonstrated many of the cool new features including built-in recording, the Notebook layout in Word, the many enhancements to the Entourage mail program, and the Project Center that pulls together Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage. He fielded several challenging questions and left the crowd inspired by the capabilities of Office 2004.

Courtesy of the Macintosh Business Unit, every attendee went home with a Microsoft Office for Mac 2004 demo disk, a set of refrigerator word magnets and an entertaining "mystic wheel." Office for Mac tee shirts, an insulated Office cooler and a stylish messenger bag were among the special prizes for the evening. The lucky winner of Office 2004 was Miriam Solloway, who joined MUG ONE just last month. Congratulations to Miriam and to all this month's door prize winners.

October 5 MUG ONE Meeting | Author Adam Engst

October 5, 2004 Meeting
Adam Engst Returns!

Internationally renowned author, editor, speaker and Mac pundit Adam Engst spoke to an enthusiastic crowd at MUG ONE's October 5 meeting. Adam shared tips and tricks from his three most recent books, "The Wireless Networking Starter Kit, "iPhoto 4 for Mac OS X Visual QuickStart Guide" and "Take Control of Panther, Volume 1," talked about his innovative and successful Take Control electronic book series (www.tidbits.com), and answered an avalanche of questions as we enjoyed Terry Helser's incomparable brownies. A great time was had by all!
Adam has already penciled in a return visit for October 2005.

September 7, 2004 Meeting
Tips and Tricks and Macworld Expo Boston Report

John Maas, Sven Anderson and Brian Foley fielded questions and shared tips about email, phishing, cookies, and why switch to Mac at a friendly and informal September meeting. Elsa Travisano was home with bronchitis, so the Macworld Expo Boston report was postponed to another time. Thanks to our presenters and attendees for getting the fall meetings off to a great start!

June 1 MUG ONE Meeting | Tom Fitzpatrick and Sven Anderson

June 1, 2004 Meeting
iLife '04 and Photoshop (not GarageBand)

Tom Fitzpatrick gave meeting attendees a fascinating overview of iPhoto 4, iMovie 4, iDVD 4, and iTunes 4.5, and showed us how he uses all the iApps together to create team highlight DVDs for the Oneonta High School soccer team banquet. Sven Anderson held off on GarageBand for another day, and instead shared some terrific Photoshop tips.

May 4, 2004 MUG ONE Meeting | Apple Senior Engineer Dave Marra

May 4, 2004 Meeting - Apple Product Overview
Apple Senior Engineer David M. Marra

Apple Senior Engineer Dave Marra wowed the crowd at MUG ONE's May 4th meeting, packing an enormous amount of information into one short evening for MUG ONE's third annual Apple Product Overview.

We started with a tour of new Apple hardware, including the latest models of the iBook, Powerbook, and Airport Extreme (which now includes an ethernet-powered version that doesn't need to be plugged into a wall outlet), as well as the XServe G5 and the iPod mini. We then delved into Final Cut Express 2 and a demo of iLife '04 – featuring iTunes 4, iPhoto 4, iMovie 4, iDVD 4 and GarageBand. Dave used an M-Audio electronic keyboard to show how easy it is to combine elements into musical compositions in GarageBand, then use those compositions in iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD, then wrapped up the evening answering our questions.

For more information about Dave, visit his web site at www.marrathon.com.

While Dave set up for his demo, Elsa gave a tour of the door prizes. During Dave's demo we drew tickets from the hat, wrote each winning number on the chalkboard and quietly helped winners choose their prizes. Our "silent door prize drawing" gave Dave more time to present, and members more time to choose – a winning combination. Attendees selected from a jaw-dropping assortment of door prizes from Adobe, Apple, McGraw Hill/Osborne, Microsoft, O’Reilly, Peachpit, Sybex, Tidbits/Take Control, Total Training and You Software. The prize table also held a number of recycled books for people running older Macs and applications. Attendees came away with catalogs, coupons, demo CDs and a handout filled with vendor discounts and special offers for user group members.

Many, many thanks to Dave Marra for traveling to Oneonta and giving a first-rate presentation, to the vendors who provided so many generous door prizes, and the members and guests (seven of whom became members that night) who made the evening so successful.

March 9, 2004 Meeting - Mac Computer Art Lab Tour & Macworld Expo Report – Sven Anderson and Elsa Travisano

Computer art professor Sven Anderson hosted our standing-room-only March meeting in S.U.N.Y. Oneonta’s newly Mac G5-equipped computer art lab. Sven demoed some Photoshop and Studio Artist techniques and reported on his visit to the Apple and Pixar campuses in California. Then Sven's student Benjamin Barnard showed how he creates three-dimensional virtual worlds and animated characters with Maya.

Elsa Travisano and Annika Anderson introduced the group to wireless internet video conferencing using two Powerbooks equipped with Apple's iSight cameras and iChat AV. Shades of Star Trek! Elsa wrapped up the program with photos from January’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

2003 MEETINGS AND EVENTS

December 2, 2003 Meeting - Hardware & Software Showcase and Holiday Party

Many thanks to everyone who braved the weather and made the December 2 MUG ONE meeting such a success. John Maas has pulled together an elegant page of links for some of the software and hardware demoed by members. No links to the holiday treats, alas. We ate 'em all!

Elsa Travisano - President
Tom Fitzpatrick - Vice President
Terry Helser - Secretary
Joanne Johnston - Treasurer
John Maas - Program Chair
Jo Koenig - Librarian
Brian Foley - Special Interest Groups Chair

AppleScript expert Ben Waldie

November 4, 2003 Meeting -
The Power of AppleScript with Ben Waldie

Our November presenter was nationally-renowned AppleScript expert Ben Waldie, president and founder of Automated Workflows, LLC, a Pennsylvania-based firm specializing in AppleScript and workflow automation consulting and development. Ben demonstrated how to use AppleScript, Apple's free, built-in scripting language, to automate repetitive tasks on the Mac. As an added bonus, members received a link to a collection of special demonstration scripts that Ben created. Many thanks to Ben for making the trip from Philadelphia to teach us about AppleScript.

October 14, 2003 Meeting -
Hands-On iPhoto with Adam C. Engst

Noted Macintosh author, publisher and pundit Adam C. Engst treated us to a very special in-depth tour of iPhoto 2 at our October MUG ONE meeting. He started by collecting photos taken by himself and audience members on different digital media, and showed us different ways to import them into iPhoto. Then he shared invaluable tips, tricks and techniques for winnowing out the good shots, editing the images, and assigning keywords, building albums, and generally keeping iPhoto organized. He finished the presentation by showing and describing ways to share photos, including slideshows, printing, and the best way to produce an iPhoto book. Attendees took home a treasure trove of iPhoto lore from the man who literally wrote the book on it. After the meeting, Adam generously stayed on after the meeting to answer questions and sign copies of his two latest books from Peachpit Press, iPhoto 2 for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide and The Wireless Networking Starter Guide, second edition.

Adam's next stop? The O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference in Santa Clara, CA, where he'll be a featured speaker.

Elsa Travisano, Steve Wozniak and Chuck Joiner at MD25MD Dinner

Steve Wozniak Keynotes Maryland Apple Corps MUG Dinner

Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak made a rare appearance to help The Maryland Apple Corps celebrate the group’s twenty-fifth anniversary in Baltimore, MD on June 1, 2003. Maryland Apple Corps members were joined by user group leaders from throughout the region for a delicious catered luncheon, speeches by dignitaries including a presentation by Dave Marra, and the keynote address by Steve Wozniak.The event was co-sponsored by MaMUGs, the Mid-Atlantic Macintosh User Group Team. I was pleased to represent MUG ONE and the Apple User Group Advisory Board at the dinner, along with UGAB Chairman Chuck Joiner.

Woz captivated the crowd with stories of his early days as a student and engineer (including some hilarious geekly pranks) and the founding of Apple. photos It was fascinating to hear his brilliant engineer’s mind at work as he described challenging himself to design for as few components as possible, and a real pleasure to chat with him beforehand about kids, colleges, and coping with spam. What a nice, funny, approachable, “regular guy” he is!
– Elsa Travisano

John Maas Designs "Favicon" for MUG ONE Site

If you're viewing the MUG ONE website using Apple's Safari web browser, you may have noticed a tiny blue and white icon to the left of the site name in the address bar. That's our own customized "favicon," designed for MUG ONE by John Maas. Webmaster Elsa Travisano scaled it to size and did the requisite programmimg to make it appear properly. Not seeing our favicon? Download Safari from the Apple website (requires OS 10.2 or later) and give it a whirl. Thanks, John, for personalizing our url!

May 6 Meeting Apple Senior Engineer Dave Marra Dave Marra, Apple Senior Systems Engineer gave a breathtaking overview of Apple's latest hardware and software to an enthralled audience of MUG ONE members and guests on May 6, 2003. Dave's almost three hour long presentation managed to cover all 24 new products (10 hardware, 10 software and 4 technologies) introduced by Apple since January 7. For a special treat, Dave showed us the inner workings of an XServe. Apple, O'Reilly, Total Training, Bubble Design, Peachpit Press, MacAddict and other vendors contributed a cornucopia of door prizes. Many, many thanks to Dave for making the three hour drive from his home in Pennsylvania to share his passion and knowledge with us. We hope he can continue to return to MUG ONE for many years to come.