Strait Macintosh User Group (SMUG), December 4, 2018
Notes by Kathleen Charters
Election of officers
President – Sabrina Davis
Treasurer – Chris may be willing to take this on from Jim Clark (using treasurer email); recommendations: stay here until we stabilize the User Group; need a plan for the organization.
VP for Programs – Lawrence Charters
Webmaster – Ray Benson, and maintains the Bulletin Board; officers listed with a link to email
Set-up – Rick has the club’s equipment for doing presentations.
SkyView app – Glen offered to do a presentation on this.
General topics vs. more specific topics with a smaller target audience.
Mailing list of members, late 2017, last update, 25-30 regular attendees in 2018.
Even-month meetings in Sequim.
Meeting room $40 donation to St. Luke, WiFi SMUG or SMUG1234 based on upgrade.
Find a new location with Internet access?
Monday Computer Clinic troubleshooting 1:1.
Community Center Sequim IT sharing with Blondie’s Restaurant – iPhone essentials 10 attendees.
Newspaper Community Activities section – free to publicize schedule of meetings (Glen).
Shipley Center (no age restriction on activities)
Membership $45/year.
Posted to Next Door: Apple Device User Group (not just Macs) – Kris.
Dorothy White – responded to posting.
Meeting called to order.
Sabrina – President, started with computers at age seven in S. CA User Groups with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.
David Hammond, Blue Sky Mac business in Sequim; SMUG past president; publishing background.
Website: StraightMac.org; not secure and not compatible with browsers; OlyPen is the provider; needs a certificate.
Treasurer Report: no dues paid over the last 2 years, $2506.45 balance; projected expenses: $120 ($10/month for OlyPen), $40 (domain names annual), paid through May of 2019; St Luke donation $40/meeting X 6 meetings; posted on Website.
Meeting Announcement on the Forum – officers can post there; members can ask questions and get answers; set up by topics.
Discussion of how to find the meeting information.
Discussion of what needs to be changed – inaccurate information.
Topic: Troubleshooting.
How to help others help you.
Describing the problem helps with solving the problem.
What kind of device do you have? Is it currently supported?.
The way it looks has nothing to do with the name.
Start with how to find out what kind of machine you have Рuse the “About”.
Model, capacity, processor, memory, name of machine, serial number – can see if covered by Warranty.
Learn how to do this when the machine is working properly, and put this information somewhere where you can access it if your machine has problems.
Tabs on “About”.
Display – internal and external.
Storage – bar graph showing how much space is used for each type of service/application; iCloud; amount of free space – need free space twice the amount of RAM to function well; reserve space for what is open.
Error message – may not be true, may say you are out of disk space when you have many apps open.
Service tab – Support manuals available.
Software update – can check to see if the machine is up-to-date.
System report – detailed information about what the device can do/access; 64-bit application works best on new OS, less may not run as well (e.g., 32-bit software will not run as well).
Mojave upgrade – a benefit for most people, security and speed improved; will not allow running some software that is known to be intrusive and certificates revoked; most machines run faster; old hardware may not work.
Compromised androids compared with secure iPhones; 8% androids have a current OS.
QuickTime can be used to display an iPhone on a laptop, making a movie: Settings, General, About.
Model, OS version, carrier, capacity.
WiFi Router – change name to something that is not identifiable; password-protect with a longer password/pass phrase.
Do the same for iPad.
OnePassword – government requirements for a password do not make sense; may make mistakes or put on a sticky use a passphrase at least 14 characters; make the username not obvious.
Turn off the list of user names under System Preferences, groups.
Keychain – Apple technology to store passwords on devices, which can sync between devices.
OnePassword – Mac App or iTunes store, sync to iCloud so all devices have the same information.
iCloud – 5GB for free, can buy more as needed; allows you to keep devices in synchronization.
Q&A
How much is on the desktop? The more you have, the slower your machine is.
Putting things on the Menu Bar can slow down the machine; when the device asks to do that, say No; third-party control panels can destabilize; Flash abandoned by Adobe; Websites use it, but page loads faster if you turn Flash off.
Early 2006 iMac with 10.6.8 and new hard-drive 4TB; backed up and restored from Time Machine; when re-booted the drive would not work; may not be able to handle drive larger than 1.8TB; permission issue; Disk Utility says cannot be repaired if unplug and plug in or if reboots; mean time between failure rated at 1 million but if fail will fail early on;.
Smart Reporter from Mac App Store – a good tool to look at the connection between the computer and the hard drive – internal and external, if it has smart telemetry.
Mojave and Word must be newer than Word 10; Office (purchase annually and get on up to 5 devices) vs Pages and Numbers (less capable).
Libre Office – open source software to industry open formats; limitation in how others can access; security is an issue, not as polished; learning curve to use; current version is a full suite; downloaded but not installed previous versions.
Google Office Suite used by NOAA – easier to use than Office, but requires a good Internet connection, shareable without emailing large attachments; can secure it.
Software compatibility – what will not work with Mojave?.
Future SMUG topics of interest
Browser bookmark and favorites management; how to delete; how to organize.