Next Monthly General Meeting

Thursday, February 9, 2006

Clubhouse 1, Main Lounge

6 PM - Q&A 7:00 PM Program:

“System Preferences”

by Tom Dale of the Fashion Island Apple Store

Almost everything each MAC user wants to use his machine is handled by this special Application. It covers:

Appearances such as window colors and patterns, font sizes, scrolling action etc.
Desktop patterns and screen savers
Shapes and sizes of the main display.
How date and time are shown and handled. - How sounds are selected and used.
Managing the Dock.
Options for setting sleep modes and shutting down the computer
Handling the mouse and the keyboard in the way you prefer.
Finding your startup Disks.
Selecting your Printer.
Plus many, many more PREFERENCES to be handled as we see fit for just that machine.

In his own words Tom sent us these words:

“Having moved from a rural town to suburban Irvine, I was ecstatic to learn that not only was there one Apple Store within driving distance, there were two of them. I thought, I’m already helping everyone I know with computer advice -- I might as well get paid for it!

I've been working at the Fashion Island store for about seven months now and I enjoy every minute. Having people walk in with no knowledge, feeling apprehensive and intimidated, is a great opportunity for me to show them that computers are fun and not scary at all, especially on the Mac. I can't think of a more gratifying job. Using computers with the Internet s fantasies, is an adventure for people who would otherwise be too uncertain to discover the great opportunities they offer.

Even though my Grandma has mastered her iMac, my mom (despite the constant assurances otherwise) is convinced pushing the wrong button will make the computer blow up. Computers are still complicated machines, though, and have room to improve.

Tom Dale’s expertise will help us to understand the complicated subject that we have selected for him to cover. That subject is “SYSTEM PREFERENCES.” Because of the letter “S” this APPLICATION is near the bottom of the alphabetical list, but that is far from its importance.

It all sounds overwhelming in the beginning, but as everything MAC, once the pattern is understood, it all becomes very simple. TOM DALE will do that for us. It is a meeting that will be fun and instructional.

This meeting was originally scheduled for October 2005, but it was canceled because the clubhouse was unavailable. Tom Dale, the speaker, was kind enough to reschedule his trip down to us from the Apple Store at Fashion Island, where he is one of their specialists. He is also studying Computer Science at UC Irvine.

DOOR PRIZES AND LWMUG EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNT

CompUSA has again donated some real nice door prizes for our members. Our LWMUG members also receive a storewide discount on most of CompUSA’s items by showing their LWMUG MEMBERSHIP CARD. This is a NEW arrangement that has to be handled with only Chris Burke, the Apple rep who runs the Mac Department at the store. This discount is available ONLY to LWMUG Members.