Author Archives: Maria Langer

Comment Moderation: Fighting Spam and Trolls

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A few tips from a long-time blogger.

As any blogger with even a slightly popular blog can tell you, good comment moderation is an absolute requirement to maintain a good, readable blog.

The way I see it, comment moderation serves two purposes:

  • It prevents your blog from being an advertising platform for people who don’t contribute real content. I’m not just talking about obvious spam here, either.
  • It prevents your blog from being a platform for offensive or abusive people who don’t contribute real content. And yes, I am talking about trolls here.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these two points.

Comments by Spammers

There are two kinds of comment spam.

One type — the most prevalent — is mostly automated spam posted by software commonly referred to as spambots. Once your blog gets on the radar (so to speak), automated spam can be quite significant. This blog, for example, attracts more than 500 automated spam comments a day.

This kind of spam is pretty easy to recognize. One type, for example, includes multiple links for things like online gambling, prescription medication, or pornography. The other type puts its link in the comment form’s URL field and then fills the comment field with text that may or may not make sense but has nothing to do with the content of the original post. Here’s an example from my post titled “Five Tips for Composing a More Effective Social Networking Bio“:

I precisely had to thank you so much all over again. I am not sure the things that I could possibly have accomplished in the absence of the entire tricks contributed by you on my problem. It truly was a very frightening case for me personally, nevertheless viewing your specialized manner you handled the issue forced me to leap over delight. I’m just happy for the assistance and believe you are aware of a great job that you’re getting into training other individuals via a site. More than likely you haven’t encountered any of us.

Huh? I get hundreds of comments like this every day.

It should be noted that a lot of this spam appears on posts that may be quite old. This particular one appeared on a post that was 2-1/2 years old. This is one reason why bloggers use plugins to automatically turn off the commenting feature on older posts.

Fortunately, spam prevention tools can detect and catch 99% of this kind of spam. I use Akismet on my WordPress site and it does a great job of catching and corralling this garbage so it never has a chance to appear on my blog. If you’re not using a spam prevention tool and are manually going through this crap, what are you waiting for? Don’t you have better things to do with your time?

The other kind of spam is more insidious. It’s posted by a real person and it looks like a legitimate comment. But its sole purpose is to promote a product, service, or Web site — not to engage you or other blog readers in a conversation about the original post’s topic.

In many cases, the spammer doesn’t put any real effort into his comment. It might contain a sentence or two that’s vaguely related to the post. The spam delivery is in the commenter’s name and URL. Rather than being something like “John” or “Mary Smith,” it’ll be something like “John’s Carpet Service” or “Discount Vitamin Shack.” The URL will be the URL for the site John or Mary want to promote. In most cases, the email address will be something that’s likely fake or never checked for incoming mail — usually a Gmail or Yahoo! account — but sometimes a legitimate-looking email account is included.

To me, this is a gray area — is it a legitimate comment or spam? Considering the content and purpose of the comment should guide you. Your site’s comment policy should help; I’ll get to that in a moment.

Trolls

A far worse problem these days is what many people refer to as trolls. Trolls are people who post offensive or controversial commentary on blogs or discussion forums. Their goal is apparently to make themselves look smart or superior at the expensive of you or other commenters. By posting comments, they’re “trolling” for an argument — much like a fisherman might go trolling to catch fish.

This is where good comment moderation is vital to your blog.

You see, if you allow offensive commentary — including personal attacks on yourself or blog commenters — you do two things:

  • You discourage legitimate commenters from sharing their thoughts. After all, they could be the victim of the next troll attack.
  • You encourage more trolling activity by current and future trolls. After all, you let one offensive comment out there, you’re likely to allow others. They see your blog as a good place to troll for new victims.

Is that something you really want?

I have seen too many blogs and forums completely devastated by the comments posted by trolls and the offensive and defensive comments posted in response. Back in the early days of the Internet and newsgroups, we used to refer to this as “flame wars.” There’s nothing useful or productive about the comments by trolls or the resulting flame wars. Why allow them on your blog?

The Freedom of Speech Argument

The biggest defense against firm moderation that would prevent trolling activities is that it’s “censorship” and that you’re violating the commenter’s “freedom of speech.” They often use the phrase “First Amendment Rights.”

Let’s look briefly at the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. [emphasis added]

Where exactly does it say that I have to put up with offensive commentary on my blog? All it says is that the government can’t make a law abridging the freedom of speech. I’m not the government, I’m not making a law.

So I don’t think “free speech” is a valid argument. After all, should anyone have the right to say anything they want — no matter how offensive — on your blog?

If people want to spout hate and offensive commentary, they can do it on their own blog.

Creating a Comment Policy

One way to fight back against spammers and trolls is to create and uphold a site comment policy. This policy should clearly state what is and/or isn’t allowed in the comments on your blog. Linking to this policy in an obvious place — or even placing a short version of it right above or below the comment form — will make it clear that you don’t tolerate spam or bad behavior.

Want some examples of good comment policies? Here are a few to give you ideas:

  • An Eclectic Mind. This is the comment policy for my personal blog. It’s a bit wordy — what do you expect from me? — but it does cover all the bases. You might also be interested in another post on my blog, “I Love Blog Comments Here.”
  • Stonekettle Station. Jim Wright doesn’t put up with crap either. That’s the short version of his comment policy. The long version, which address trolls and free speech, can be found here.
  • Whatever. John Scalzi’s comment policy. Simple and to-the-point.
  • Lorelle on WordPress. Lorelle knows more about WordPress blogging than I ever will. Here’s her site’s comment policy. You might also be interested in another post on her blog, “Comments on Comments.”

This topic was also addressed back in 2007 by Lorelle VanFossen in The Blog Herald.

Do you have a site comment policy you want to share with readers here? Post it in the comments for this post.

Maintaining Order

Creating a policy isn’t enough. You also have to maintain it. That means objectively reviewing every comment on your site and deleting the ones that violate the policy.

Yes, deleting them.

My advice is not to edit them, or allow them but reply with a warning, or do anything else. If a comment violates your policy, just delete it.

Don’t even send the commenter an email message telling them that you’ve deleted their message and why. If a commenter lacks the courtesy to be civil and follow your established rules on your blog, does he deserve any courtesy from you?

More important than that is the entire concept of “feeding the trolls.” When you respond in any way to a troll, you encourage more trolling activity. You see, these people just can’t let it go. They see any response as having a victim on the hook and they keep up their trolling behavior.

Ignore them and they will go away. Really.

You need to keep this in mind no matter where you see trolls. If you can’t delete their offensive crap, just ignore it. (Or, if it’s offensive enough, contact the site owner directly and tell him/her what you think and how it makes you feel about their blog/site/forum. A responsible site owner will take care of the problem.)

And if the whole concept of trolls is new to you, I urge you to read the entire “Troll (Internet)” entry on Wikipedia. It’s excellent and it clearly shows how bad these people can be for an Internet community like a blog.

Steps to Take

To sum up, I want to review the steps you might want to take to moderate and control the comments on your blog.

  1. Install and use spam prevention tools. Akismet is the best one (in my opinion) for a WordPress blog. It’s free.
  2. Write and post a site comment policy. Use the ones linked to above to give you ideas.
  3. Set up your blog to require moderation of all comments. On a WordPress blog, you do this in Discussion Settings.
  4. Regularly check for and approve (or delete) new comments. I’ve created a bookmark in my browser to quickly go to the comment moderation panel for each of my sites. I check for comments every morning and sometimes during the day so few comments are ever held in moderation for long.
  5. Resist the urge to respond to trolls on your blog. Don’t respond in comments or in email. You will regret it.
  6. Ignore the comments posted by trolls on other sites and in online forums. Don’t feed the trolls.

Please use the comments for this post to share your thoughts, experiences, and questions about this topic.

Lion and Rosetta

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One solution if you need to run Rosetta software.

I’m one of the poor idiots who didn’t switch from Quicken 2007 — the most recent full-featured Mac version — to something else before Lion was released. And now I’m one of the many people who can’t access my accounting records from my computer running Mac OS X Lion.

I did, however, find a workaround. That’s what this article is all about.

Unfortunately, I can’t explain how to run Rosetta software under Lion. To my knowledge, that’s not possible — and please do correct me if I’m wrong! Instead, this article explain show to keep running that Rosetta-dependent software under Snow Leopard (or Leopard) while your computer runs Lion.

Curious? Read on.

What You Need

To take advantage of this workaround you need four things:

  • A computer capable of running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or Leopard. That’s basically any recent Mac released before Lion was released in July.
  • A Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard installation disc. The disc (or thumb drive) that came with your computer should do the trick — in fact, it’s your best starting point.
  • A USB 2 or FireWire external hard disk. If your computer has two internal hard disks, you could actually use one of those. You could also partition your internal hard disk and use one of the partitions. But I prefer an external disk. It doesn’t need to have a very high capacity, but it should be blank because you may have to format it. You can buy a suitable portable disk — which makes it possible to use it on any computer capable of running Snow Leopard (or Leopard) — for well under $100 at Costco or Best Buy or on Amazon.com. The kind that draw power from their USB or FireWire connection are best for this use.
  • The installation disks for the Rosetta software you need to run. In my case, it’s just Quicken 2007.

At this point, if you’re not a complete newbie — which I assume is the case because you need to run ancient software — you should have an idea of where I’m going with this.

The Plan

The plan is to install Mac OS X 10.6 (or 10.5) on that external hard disk. You can then boot from that disk and install the ancient software you need to run. Once that’s done, you can boot from that disk any time you need to run that ancient software.

Now stop your whining! I can hear you all the way from here.

The sad truth is, there is no other alternative. If your problem is Quicken — as mine is — lots of Web sites are telling you to switch to the Windows version of Quicken and run it under Parallels or Windows running on Boot Camp. But do you really want to run Windows? I don’t. And do you really need to use that software all the time? I don’t. And isn’t this just temporary until you find replacement software that’ll run on Lion? For me, yes!

So this is the solution that’ll work without costing a fortune. Chances are, you already have an old external hard disk lying around somewhere. I sure do.

About My Emergency Boot Disk

True story. I was about 95% done with my Mac OS X Lion book when the internal hard disk on my iMac died. Fortunately, I had backups of all my files, so I didn’t lose any data. But I was stuck living in my RV in the middle of farmland, 100 miles away from the nearest Mac consultant capable of replacing an internal hard disk on an iMac.

What did I do? I went to Costco and bought a portable USB 2 drive. I then installed Mac OS X and the applications I needed to finish the book on that disk, along with my backed up documents. Although I expected Mac OS to run very sluggishly from that external hard disk, I was pleasantly surprised at how peppy it was. Not as good as running it from the internal disk, but certainly bearable.

And the reason I want to use an external hard disk? So that when I do find a replacement for Quicken (which I hope is soon), I don’t have to worry about getting all traces of an older OS off my second internal hard disk or a partition on my internal hard disk. And I can always use the external hard disk as an emergency boot disk if I need one for any computer capable of running that version of Mac OS. Or I can reformat it and use it for something else.

Installing Mac OS

First, try to install Snow Leopard (or Leopard) on the external hard disk without reformatting. If you prefer to reformat first, skip ahead to the section titled “If You Have to Reformat” and come back here when you’re done. I’m assuming you don’t want to reformat the hard disk because it contains data you need to use.

  1. Disks on DesktopConnect the external hard disk to your Mac. Depending on how you configured Finder preferences, its icon may appear on the Desktop or in a Finder window’s sidebar.
  2. Insert the Snow Leopard (or Leopard) installation disc or thumb drive. Remember, you must install a version of Mac OS that your computer can run. That’s why its always a good idea to install from the installation disc or thumb drive that came with your computer. In this illustration, icons for my external hard disk (Mobile Backup) and MacBook Air installation thumb drive appear on the Desktop.
  3. Mac OS X InstallIf necessary, open the installation disc/thumb drive icon. Then double-click the Install Mac OS X icon in the Mac OS X Install window. In this illustration, I’ve opened the icon for my MacBook Air’s thumb drive to install Snow Leopard. This launches the Installer.
  4. Follow the prompts to restart your computer. It will boot from the installation disc/thumbdrive. (That’s why its important to use an installer that your computer can run.) It may take a while to start up.
  5. Follow the prompts to choose your language, start the installation process, and agree to the license terms.
  6. In the window that asks which hard disk to install on, be sure to select the external hard disk. Your internal hard disk should not be selectable because it already has a later version of Mac OS X. If your external hard disk cannot be selected either, it likely needs to be formatted; if this happens, Quit the installer, restart from your internal hard disk, and skip ahead to the section titled “If You Have to Reformat.”
  7. After selecting your external hard disk, click the Customize button.
  8. In the window that appears, turn off the check boxes for Additional Fonts, Language Translations, and X11 (unless you need any of them). Turning these items off makes the installation smaller and may speed up running Mac OS X from an external hard disk. Be sure to turn on the check box beside Rosetta. Then click OK.
  9. Back in the main installer window, confirm again that the correct hard disk is selected. Then click Install.
  10. Wait while Mac OS X is installed on the external hard disk. It could take a while. Go get a cup of coffee or take your dog for a walk. When the installation is complete, your computer will automatically restart.
  11. Follow the onscreen prompts to complete the Mac OS setup on the external hard disk. I recommend not transferring your information from another source. (I’m one of those people who like a clean install of everything.) Eventually, you’ll be dumped into the Finder so you can start using your computer with the new OS on the external drive.
  12. Optional: Run Software Update to update Mac OS and its components to the most recent version.

You can eject the Mac OS installer disc/thumbdrive.

If You Have to Reformat

If you have to reformat your external hard disk — or if you want to, just to start with a clean slate — you can use Disk Utility to get the job done. Just remember that following these instructions will completely erase the hard disk, so don’t do this if the disk contains files you need.

With the external hard disk connected, follow these instructions:

  1. If necessary, start your computer from its internal hard disk and Lion installation.
  2. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder in your Applications folder.
  3. Disk UtilityOn the left side of the window, select the name of the hard disk you inserted.
  4. On the right side of the window, click the Erase button near the top of the window.
  5. Make sure Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is selected form the Format pop-up menu.
  6. If desired, enter a new name in the Name field.
  7. Click the Erase button near the bottom of the window.
  8. In the dialog that appears, click Erase.
  9. Wait while the disk is erased. It shouldn’t take very long.
  10. Quit Disk Utility.

Once this is done, you can follow the instructions in the section titled “Installing Mac OS” above.

Installing Your Rosetta-Dependent Software

Once Snow Leopard (or Leopard) is installed on the external hard disk, you can install your ancient, Rosetta-dependent software on it.

  1. If necessary, restart the computer from the external hard disk. One way to do this is to hold down the Option key while the computer is starting up and then choose the disk you want from the options that appear onscreen.
  2. Insert the original installation disc for the software you want to install.
  3. Open the installer.
  4. Follow the prompts to install the software.

Note that you might be prompted to install Rosetta. While I realize that if you followed the instructions in the section titled “Installing Mac OS” above Rosetta should already be installed, for some reason, it wasn’t installed for me. No big deal. Your computer can use its connection to the Internet to download and install Rosetta on demand.

When the installation is complete, you can open the software. You’ll find it in the Applications folder on the startup disk — your external hard disk.

Running that Old Software

From that point forward, any time you need to run that old Rosetta-dependent software, you’ll need to restart your computer and make sure it starts from the external hard disk. Yes, this is a pain in the butt. But hopefully, you won’t need to do this often — or forever.

You should be able to keep the data for the application on your internal hard disk — for example, my Quicken data files reside in my Documents folder in my usual Home folder. Quicken, when launched from my external hard disk, can still access them. In fact, I normally launch Quicken by opening one of its data files.

If you expect to need to use the application and its documents on multiple computers, save the files to the external hard disk’s Home folder. The data becomes just as portable as the hard disk. Just don’t forget to back it up periodically if the disk is not backed up with your other data.

When you’re not accessing that other software, you can unmount and disconnect the external hard disk. Just remember to restart your computer from its internal hard disk before you try to pull the plug.

That’s about all there is to it. What do you think? Will this solution work for you? Please share your comments. Just try to refrain from bashing Apple for dropping Rosetta or Intuit for not updating Quicken for Lion. Those two horses have been beaten to death so there’s no need to beat them here.

Dragon Dictate 2.5: Visual QuickStart Guide

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Now available!

Dragon Dictate

Dragon Dictate 2.5: Visual QuickStart Guide walks readers through how to train Dragon Dictate, allowing it to recognize the way readers speak. Readers will learn how to add specialized words and names and how to control Mac applications using their voice. The book then moves on to editing text documents, allowing readers to select, delete, capitalize and work with text. The book also covers having Dragon read text back to the user, allowing the user to proofread and edit dictated documents. Finally, the book covers more advanced topics, such as creating new voice commands for controlling Mac applications and controlling the mouse via voice commands.

Buy from Peachpit Press
Buy from Amazon.com
Buy from Barnes & Noble
Buy from Apple’s iTunes Bookstore

My latest Peachpit Press book, Dragon Dictate 2.5: Visual QuickStart Guide, is now widely available from all major online booksellers and in bookstores that sell computer books. You can buy it in traditional print format or as an ebook in Kindle, iBooks, NOOK, and PDF formats.

About the Book

I first became interested in Dragon Dictate when I began using the Dragon Dictation app on my iPad. I was extremely impressed by the software’s ability to understand what I was saying — without any voice recognition training. Later, I was on hand at Macworld Expo in San Francisco for a demo of the Mac OS software package, Dragon Dictate, on the show floor. I was blown away. It was exactly the kind of software I’d been dreaming about — software that could type what I said as I said it.

I bought a copy right then and there.

I started talking to Peachpit Press about a Dragon Dictate book this past spring. We contacted for it, but soon put it on the back burner so I could finish my Mac OS X book revision for Lion. When that was finished, I began working on the Dictate book. I finished it in October.

Dragon Dictate 2.5: Visual QuickStart Guide follows the usual illustrated step-by-step format that makes Visual QuickStart Guide books so popular with readers. But in addition to that, it also provides numerous tables of commands that work with Dragon Dictate. It’s these handy guides that I think are the most valuable resource in the book. I can imagine readers using a highlighter to highlight the commands they use most — that’s what I’ll be doing with my copy!

Buy the Book

Right now, the book is available from many booksellers. If it’s not readily available in your favorite bookstore, try one of these sources:

It retails for $19.99, but I’ve seen prices as low as $14.99 (Amazon.com). The ebook is widely available for just 9.99.

Additional Material, Feedback, and Support

You can find additional material about Dragon Dictate on this site. Just follow the Dragon Dictate topic link.

You can also post questions and read questions and answers on the book’s support page.

MacVoices TV Interview about Making Movies Book

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Interview by Chuck Joiner now online.

Screen GrabI’m extremely pleased to announce that my interview with Chuck Joiner on Mac Voices TV went live today. I hope you’ll check out MacVoicesTV #1182: Maria Langer Helps You Make Movies.

This was the first time I’d appeared on MacVoices TV; usually, I’m on the audio-only version, MacVoices. In the background, you’ll see the covered up stored furniture of my new office in Phoenix. You’ll also get a chance to see my horrible haircut six full weeks after I was scalped. (Hint: There’s still not enough to do anything with it except spike it.)

Chuck is a great host who always asks good questions. As usual, it was a real pleasure to be on his show. I hope you’ll take the time to explore the other MacVoices episodes on Chuck’s site. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of interest there.

You can find a complete list of my recent interview appearances on my personal website.

2Do

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Better than Apple’s Reminder app.

I’m one of those people who can’t remember anything unless it’s written down somewhere. (Indeed, I often consult my books to remember how to do something I actually wrote about!) So it should come as no surprise that I lean heavily on my Mac and iOS devices for a to do list or reminders.

Until recently, Apple did not provide any app that synchronized reminder items between iCal on a Mac and the iOS calendar apps. Not content to wait until they added such functionality, I tried two different reminder applications. The one I settled on — and still use daily today — is called 2Do by Guided Ways Technologies Ltd.

2Do App IconRight from the get-go, 2Do enabled me to synchronize reminder items between iCal and the 2Do app on my iPad and iPhone. It did this through MobileMe, which was very convenient. (2Do now supports iCloud, too.) I could create reminder items on any device, synchronize, and see the items on every device. I could also change or mark an item as complete on one device, synchronize, and have the item change or be marked complete on all devices.

2Do on iPad
In this example, I’m viewing 2Do’s reminder items in my “Air” calendar on my iPad. The grouping is customizable.

What I like a lot about 2Do is that it offers a wide range of fields that you can use to enter information about a reminder item. So not only can I add an item title, description, calendar, and other iCal-supported information, but I can also add fields for a start date, location, recurrence, tags, audio note, and pictures. I can customize the item entry form to include only the fields I use most in the order in which I want them to appear; I can access other fields with a tap. With the location features, you don’t need Siri on an iPhone 4S to take advantage of location-based reminders.

2Do supports three kinds of reminder items: ToDo, Checklist, and Project. A ToDo is a standard reminder. A Checklist is a reminder that includes individual checkable items. A Project is a reminder that includes individual ToDo items. Although I mostly use simple ToDos, Checklists and Projects are especially handy for grouping related tasks that you might need to focus on without creating a separate calendar for them.

2Do’s interface is completely customizable to display specific calendars in the order you want to see them in. You can view reminder items by calendar, tags, or location. If you specify a start date for an item in the future, it will not clutter up your current reminder list.

Reminders App
My “Air” calendar’s reminder list in the Reminder app on my iPhone.

2Do plays nice with Apple’s new Reminders app. When you sync 2Do to iCloud, that data is automatically pushed to Reminders. Likewise, when you make a change in Reminders, that’s automatically pushed to iCloud so it’s updated when you sync 2Do. While it’s true that syncing is not automatic — at least not right now — it is quick and does not require WiFi (as other iOS reminder apps do).

Although folks with very basic reminder needs may find Apple’s Reminders app good enough to meet their needs, I think the power and flexibility of 2Do makes it worth the nominal purchase price. Its additional features and fields help keep me organized, whether I’m planning my next 1200-mile helicopter trip or just trying to remember what to pick up at the grocery store.

Making Movies: A Guide for Serious Amateurs

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A step-by-step approach to making quality video productions.

Making Movies book cover

Tired of turning video footage into ho-hum productions that make people yawn? Or, worse yet, just putting raw video out there and hoping for the best? If so, this guide is for you. It clearly explains how to research, plan, shoot, assemble, edit, and fine-tune video productions for just about any purpose. Richly illustrated with stills from an example movie, it’ll get you on the right track to making movies that’ll inform, entertain, and impress your audience.

Buy from Amazon’s Kindle Bookstore

I’m really pleased to announce that the first book in the Maria’s Guides series — Making Movies: A Guide for Serious Amateurs — is now available.

About the Book

I originally wrote the first draft of Making Movies as a personal guide to help me remember how I created my first “watchable” movie, Cherries: From Tree to Truck. Later, I rounded it out into a series of articles for InformIT. To create this book, I added and revised content and formatted it for print and ebook publication.

This book differs from most of my computer how-to books in that it concentrates on theory rather than specific how-to tasks. For example, it doesn’t explain how to edit moves in iMovie or Final Cut Pro. Instead, it tells you about the kinds of clips you should acquire and why. It also goes into a great deal of detail about the part of movie-making that’s most overlooked by inexperienced movie-makers: the planning process. The idea was to write a book that could benefit all first-time movie makers — not just the ones using a specific camera or editing software package.

Inside, you’ll find chapters for the following “steps”:

Introduction
Step 1: Explore the Topic
Step 2: Plan the Shoot
Step 3: Shoot the Video
Step 4: Create the Rough Cut
Step 5: Fine-Tune and Complete
Step 6: Publish and Share
Conclusion

The printed version of the book runs 66 pages, including cover, front matter, and index.

The book uses two examples throughout the text: the existing cherry harvest video I created and a hypothetical home movie of a kid’s soccer game. There are screen images and other figures to help illustrate important points.

I think the book is a great guide to help new movie makers learn the lingo and get a feel for making good movies. Its step-by-step approach can help keep readers focused on the tasks that need to be done to ensure success.

Buy the Book

The book is available in four formats from three sources (so far):

EPUB and Kindle Ebook

I wrote the book primarily for distribution as an ebook. As such, it’s available in EPUB and Kindle formats from two popular sources at a very reasonable $3.99:

Print and PDF Ebook

The book is also available in print and in a PDF-style ebook format from MagCloud.

MagCloud is a print-on-demand publisher that calculates printed cost by the page, so the longer a book is, the more it costs. The printed version, which is in full color, is available for $12.95 plus shipping. Be advised that it may take up to two weeks for the book to arrive.

MagCloud also offers a ebook version of the book. Unlike the EPUB and Kindle versions, the MagCloud version is based on a PDF, so it’s formatted exactly like the book. The cost of this ebook version is $3.95 and it downloads immediately upon purchase.

Note that when you buy the print version, you get a free copy of the ebook version.

Additional Material, Feedback, and Support

You can find additional material about making movies on this site. Just follow the Movie Making topic link.

You can also post questions and read questions and answers on the book’s support page.

Broken Link Contest

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Help me clean up this mess — and maybe win a prize.

I’ve been building content on this site since 2003. In eight years, I’ve collected a lot of junk.

Broken Link ImageAs I revise this site, I’m going through every single post, deleting the ones I don’t think are relevant anymore, and fixing up the ones that remain. Along the way, I hope to hunt down and destroy all broken links.

But I’m only one person and can only check so many links in a day. So I’m asking for your help. And I’m willing to reward the folks who help me most with a free copy of any one of my books still in print.

Here’s how you can enter to win:

  1. Browse the site as you normally would.
  2. When you find a broken link*, open the comment for this post. (I put a link to it in the sidebar so it’s easy to find.)

    3. Check all the preceding comments to make sure your broken link isn’t already listed. I can’t give points for duplicate entries!

  3. If the broken link isn’t already listed, use the Comments form at the bottom of the page to enter the following information:
    • Your name and email address. (This might not be necessary if you’ve already commented here.) Please use your real email address; I will use it to contact you if you’re a winner. I will not share your address with anyone else or spam you. I promise.
    • The URL of the page where you found the broken link. It must begin with http://www.mariaguides.com/ — I’m not interested in rewarding folks for finding broken links on other sites.
    • The URL of the broken link. The easiest way to get this information is to either Control-Click (Mac OS) or Right-Click (Mac OS or Windows) on the broken link and use the Copy Link Location command in the contextual menu that appears. You can then paste it into the comment form.
  4. Submit the comment.
  5. Repeat as necessary. The more broken links you report, the better your chances of winning.

When I approve the comments — all comments are moderated here — I’ll check your findings. If you’ve correctly identified a broken link, you’ll score a point and I’ll note that in a reply to your comment.

At November month-end, I’ll award prizes to the top broken link finders.

Does this sound like a plan? I hope so. l could really use the help.

—
* A “broken link” is a link on a Web page that, when clicked, displays a “Page Not Found” error or something similar. In other words, it doesn’t display what it should for whatever reason.

How To Determine What Formats Your Optical Drive Can Write To

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Use the System Information app.

Wondering which optical media formats your computer’s optical drive can write to? You can quickly find this information in the System Information app.

  1. Hold down the Option key and choose Apple > System Information. The System Information application launches and displays the Hardware Overview screen.
    Apple - System Info
  2. In the left column of the window, select Disc Burning. The right side of the window displays detailed information about your optical drive.
    Disk Burning
  3. To learn the burn speed of the optical drive, insert a CD or DVD and choose File > Refresh Information, or press Command-R. The display in the right side of the window changes to show this information.
    Burn Speed

Note that the System Information application was called System Profiler in previous versions of Mac OS.

Category Feeds Being Removed

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As part of the site revision process, I’ve decided to do away with the category-specific feeds. These feeds, which cover Excel, Mac OS, Word, and WordPress content, are being utilized by less than 100 people. If you’re reading this message in your feed reader, YOU might be one of them.

Within a month or so, these feeds will simply not work. Delete them from your reader.

If you want to continue receiving content from this site via RSS, please subscribe to the main feed, using one of the following URLs:

Major Site Update Planned

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I am embarrassed about this mess and will start fixing it today.

It boggles my mind how bad I’ve let this site become. Cluttered, tiny print, bad links, missing files, out-of-date content. And what’s with the missing spaces after certain punctuation? I typed them there — why don’t they appear?

Why do you let me get away with this?

Well, help is on the way. I begin reconstructive surgery on this site this afternoon. Not only will I be changing it’s entire look and interface, but I’ll be removing a lot of very old material and all the bad links that frustrate visitors to no end.

I expect the changes to take about a week to finish, so hang on and bear with me. Feedback is always welcome; you can add your comments to this post and get a discussion going. Be sure to tell me what you do and don’t like as things progress. And, if you have any wish lists for the site, now is the time to speak up.

Ready? Let’s get to it then!

October 26, 2011 Update:
I’ve finally started work on the changes. So far, I’ve changed the site’s overall design, removed a bunch of outdated content, and reorganized topics. I’ve also restructured the menu system at the top of the page. More changes coming. Bear with me as I continue working on this.

October 27, 2011 Update:
I’ll be spending most of today going through the 400+ posts uploaded here since 2003, weeding out the old junk no one cares about, and recategorizing and tagging what remains. Can you say tedious? But I think it’s worth it to have good, easy-to-find content here.

October 30, 2011 Update:
I finally finished going through all the posts on this site. I removed more than 100 out-of-date or uninteresting posts, leaving behind a total of 317 for your reading pleasure. All posts have been properly categorized and tagged. I also fine-tuned the layout, increasing the font size of the sidebar so people like me could read it. (Getting old sucks.) Next up, I’ll convert pages to posts and fit them into the hierarchy. I’ll also re-add the information about my work and contact form. Would love to get some feedback about the site changes so far. Comments, anyone?

How to Safely Use Find My Friends

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A few tips to retain your privacy.

Where in the world is?I love cool new apps — especially ones that keep me in touch with my friends and family members.

Find My Friends, an app that works on iOS 5 devices, is one of those apps. It plots the location — with stunning accuracy — for the people I connect with.

I wasted no time experimenting with it yesterday. By this morning, I had the locations for friends in Arizona, New Jersey, New York, Canada, England, and New Zealand. Zooming in on the map on my iPad put their dots on a street map. Tapping their bullets displayed their names, location label, and approximate street address.

MikeHeck, as my husband drove off to work this morning, I could see his progress as he drove down the street! How cool is that?

But wait a minute. Is it really a good idea to let people know exactly where you are at any time of the day or night?

The answer is: it depends. Specifically, it depends on:

  • Who you’re revealing your location to. Are these close friends and family members you know well and can trust? Or are they “friends” you met on Facebook or Twitter who might use your location information in ways you might not like?
  • Why you’re revealing your location. Do you honestly want people to know where you are, perhaps for a meet-up or to keep track in a crowded mall or amusement park? Or is it just a cool feature to play with because its new?
  • When you’re revealing your location. Are you sharing your location when you’re out in public and want to connect with people or keep them apprised of where you are? Or are you also sharing location information when you’re asleep, at work, or visiting other friends and family members, thus revealing their locations as well?

Find My Friends can be a great app for keeping in touch with your friends. Or it can be a tool for stalkers or burglars who can use your location information for their own purposes — which are not likely what you intended at all.

Here are a few things you can do to safely use Find My Friends:

  • Only share your location information with people you know and trust very well. A good rule of thumb is this: If you have to provide a “friend” with your email address, there’s a good chance he’s not quite as “trusted” as he should be to have this information. Make sure those people understand that your information is not to be shared with others. Also make sure they understand the implications of sharing their own location.
  • Temporary ShareMake use of the Temporary Share feature. This enables you to create an event with a definite end time. Anyone who accepts the invitation to share their location using this feature will automatically stop sharing at a predetermined time. This is a great way to connect with friends at a park or mall without having to worry about them seeing where you are once the event is over.
  • Hide from FriendsDisable Find My Friends when you don’t need it. On the device broadcasting your location (my iPhone, in my case), tap the Me button. Then set the option labeled “Hide from Followers” to ON. This removes your location from their devices. (I like to think of this as “stealth mode.”)

There are a few other security features built into Find My Friends:

  • If you choose to decline an invitation to share your location, the person who invited you will not be able to see where you are. If you don’t know someone who is inviting you, be sure you don’t accept their invitation to share location!
  • If you don’t lock your device, each time you enter Find My Friends, you’ll have to provide your Apple ID password. This is to prevent someone who has stolen or found your device from seeing the locations of your friends. You can disable this feature by requiring a password to access your device. You do this with the Password Lock option of General Settings.
  • If you’re a parent, you can set up restrictions on your child’s device to prevent him or her from hiding. You do this with the Restrictions option of General Settings.

In conclusion, I have to say that I really do like the Find My Friends app. Sadly, other than checking to see how close my husband is to arriving home and possibly meeting up with friends at an outdoor venue, I don’t think I’ll get much use out of it. Right now, it’s just a fun thing to play with — with people I trust.

What do you think? Share your comments here.

Photos from Facebook

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Use your Facebook photo galleries on your WordPress-based site.

This past summer, I built a simple WordPress-based website for a friend of mine’s business. A designer/developer wanted $8K to build the site and he just couldn’t see spending that much money. While I know that the site I built for him isn’t nearly as polished as what the designers would have created, it certainly meets his primary needs: to provide basic information about his business to people who need it. You can see and judge for yourself here.

WordPress is an excellent tool for building Web sites. What I like about it is that once the site has been set up with the design and features needed, anyone with Admin access can modify its contents. That means that when he has a price change or hours change or some other change, he can go in and change it for himself. No need to bug me or wait for me to get around to it.

But what’s even better than that is the multitude of plugins available to add or enhance content.

Here’s an example. My friend has had a Facebook presence for some time now and his company is “liked” by a considerable number of people. They frequently check in to see what’s new. Yesterday, I helped him add about 10 photos of some work he’s been doing. The photos on Facebook were a big hit with his Facebook friends. I wanted to add the photos to his website. I poked around the plugin directory at WordPress.org and found one called Facebook Page Photo Gallery. This was even better than I’d hoped: it would take the photos I’d already uploaded to Facebook and present them on his WordPress-based site.

I decided to test it here before I went live on his site. I soon discovered that it works only with public photo galleries on Facebook — which meant it would not work with my personal Wall photos. (It probably would if I could figure out how to tweak the settings on Facebook, but I really don’t think it’s worth the bother.) It would, however, work with the Wall photos for Flying M Air‘s Facebook page. And it worked very well, as you can see here:

Show more

Did you notice that when you point to an image, it displays the caption?

This is a huge time-saver for me. Rather than have to re-upload and arrange the photos on the website, I can enter a WordPress shortcode with a few variables and a wonderful image display is created automatically. What else could I ask for?

How to Automatically Post Your Google Calendar Events to Twitter

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Get those events tweeted automatically when you create them.

I recently helped a friend set up a new Web site for his small but growing winery. I also set him up with Google Calendar and a WordPress plugin so he could create events and have them appear on his site’s sidebar in a calendar. You can see how this looks at BeaumontCellars.com as well as on one of my sites, FlyingMAir.com.

Although he’s not exactly “computer savvy,” he does do a lot of texting with his iPhone. So I set him up with Twitter and linked his Twitter account to his winery’s Facebook page. He can tweet what’s going on and its automatically posted to his Facebook page’s wall. This has been a huge help for him because it makes it so easy to update Facebook, where he has quite a few fans.

The next logical step was to have his Google Calendar events posted on Twitter so they could also get posted on Facebook. After a little bit of research and experimentation, I came up with this method.

Step 1: Create and Configure Your Google Calendar

The first step is to set up your Google calendar for sharing and copy the link for the calendar’s RSS feed.

  1. If you don’t already have a Google account, set one up and log in.
  2. Go to google.com/calendar. You may have to follow additional instructions to create and access your calendar; just follow the prompts that appear onscreen.
  3. If necessary, create a calendar to share events with Twitter.
  4. Calendar MenuIn the list of calendars on the left side of the window, point to the calendar you want to share and click the menu button that appears. A pop-up menu offers options.
  5. Choose Share this Calendar.


  6. Make PublicIn the page that appears, make sure the check box marked “Make this calendar public” is toggled on.
  7. Click the Calendar Details link.


  8. Calendar AddressScroll down to the Calendar Address area.


  9. Calendar AddressClick the XML button. A Calendar Address dialog pops up with the address for your calendar.
  10. Right-click the link and choose Copy Link from the menu that appears. The link is now in the clipboard so it can be pasted elsewhere.
  11. Close the Calendar Address dialog.

Step 2: Set Up the Feed in TwitterFeed

Next, you’ll set up the calendar’s feed in TwitterFeed.

  1. If you don’t already have a TwitterFeed account, go to TwitterFeed.com to set one up and log in.
  2. In the Feed Dashboard window, click the Create New Feed button. The New Feed screen appears.
  3. Name Feed and Add SourceIn the Feed Name box, enter any name you like for the calendar feed.
  4. Click in the Blog URL or RSS Feed URL box to position the insertion point there and press Command-V (Mac OS) or Control-V (Windows)-V to paste in the calendar address you copied to the clipboard in step 10 above.
  5. Click the test rss feed button. A green message “Feed parsed OK” should appear. (If it doesn’t, you’ll need to make sure the link you copied is correct and try again.)
  6. Make sure the Active Check box is turned on.
  7. Click Advanced Settings to display additional options.
  8. You can set these options as you see fit. My suggestions are as follows:
    • Choose Title from the pop-up menu in the Post Content area. (Remember, tweets are short; the description probably won’t fit within the 140 character limitation.)
    • Make sure the Post Link check box is turned on in the Post Content area.
    • Enter “New Event:” in the Post Prefix box.
  9. Click Continue to Step 2.
  10. In the Feed Publishing screen, click the Twitter link.
  11. Choose Twitter AccountChoose an account under Authenticated Twitter Account or, if the account is not listed, click the Authenticate Twitter button to log into the Twitter account you want to use.
  12. Click the Create Service button. After a moment, the name of your Twitter account appears beside the Twitter link, along with an checked Active check box.
  13. If you wanted to post to other social networking services, you can use their links to set them up.
  14. When you’re finished, click the All Done button.

Step 3: Test

Finally, test to make sure it works as expected.

  1. Go back to your Google Calendar and, if necessary, log in.
  2. Create a calendar event. Be sure to set the date and time and include a description. If you have more than one Google calendar, be sure to assign the event to the calendar you’re sharing with Twitter.
  3. Sign out of Google. You want to be able to check the event and see it as anyone else would.
  4. Tweet
    Monitor your Twitter account. If you did not make any changes to the frequency setting on Twitter Feed, the event should be posted to your Twitter account within 30 minutes.


  5. Event DetailsClick the link in the tweet. A Google Calendar page with the details you set for the event appears in a browser window.

Conclusion

To me, there’s a huge benefit it being able to post something one place and have it appear automatically in others. Using a tool like TwitterFeed to connect Twitter to RSS feeds is a great way to automate Twitter posting for your Web site or business.

Get more from your software.Want to learn more about using Twitter? Learn online at Lynda.com. Recently revised and expanded, my Twitter Essential Training course includes more than three hours of video training material that’ll help you get more out of Twitter. Check it out. If you’re not a Lynda.com subscriber, be sure to visit to try some of the free videos. I think you’ll be hooked.

Ten Lion Tips for Snow Leopard Users: Introduction

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What to expect when you step up to Snow Leopard.

Mac OS X Lion Visual QuickStart GuideI’ve just finished work on my latest book, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion: Visual QuickStart Guide, for Peachpit Press. This new edition of my best-selling OS X book is a complete ground-up revision that reorganizes and adds lots of material. I’m very pleased with the way it turned out and I hope you’ll check it out in print, as a Kindle book, or in Apple’s iBookstore.

To help spread the word about the book, Peachpit and I put together a video tentatively titled “Ten Lion Tips for Snow Leopard Users.” (The video will be online soon; when it is, I’ll link to it here.) The idea is to show Snow Leopard users some of the things that have changed from Snow Leopard to Lion. I’m not necessarily talking about new features — I cover the big new features like Mission Control, Launchpad, and Full-Screen Apps in individual videos available from Peachpit Press, where I can really dig in and show how they work. Instead, the “Ten Lion Tips” video concentrates on ten changes that Snow Leopard users may notice right away — the changes that might have them wondering what’s going on.

You can learn more about how Lion will rock Snow Leopard users’ worlds on Peachpit’s Web site in an article I wrote titled “Ten Lion Tips for Snow Leopard Users.” Of course, the ten things covered in the article (and video) aren’t everything you need to know about Lion. It’s just a start.

Lion is a great new version of Mac OS, one with plenty of new features and interface changes to help make you more productive. I dug deeply into Lion while working on my book and was very happy with what I found. I’m excited about Lion and thrilled to be using it on my Macs. I think you’ll feel the same way!

Mac OS X Lion: Visual QuickStart Guide

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Latest Mac OS X Visual QuickStart Guide now available.

Visual QuickStart Guides, designed in an attractive tutorial and reference format, are the quickest, easiest, and most thorough way to learn applications, tasks, and technologies. The Visual QuickStart Guides are a smart choice and guide the learner in a friendly and respectful tone. Visually presented with copious screenshots, the focused discussions by topic and tasks make learning a breeze and quickly take you to exactly what you want to learn.

The latest update of this best-selling Visual QuickStart Guide will have you up and running in no time with Mac OS X Lion. Respected, best-selling author Maria Langer will take you through all of Mac OS X Lion’s groundbreaking capabilities and new features including Multi-Touch Gestures, Launchpad, Mission Control, the App Store, Mail, and much more. With plenty of screenshots to clearly illustrate techniques, this effective tutorial and reference is packed with practical information for people who want to jump in and start working and playing with OS X Lion.

Table of Contents

Introduction
PART I: Getting Started with Mac OS X
Chapter 1: Setting Up Mac OS X Lion
Chapter 2: Finder Basics
Chapter 3: File Management Basics
Chapter 4: Window Views
Chapter 5: Getting Help
PART II: Managing Files
Chapter 6: Advanced Finder Techniques
Chapter 7: Searching for Files
Chapter 8: Storage Devices & Media
Chapter 9: Backup & Recovery Features
Chapter 10: Multiple Users
PART III: Using Applications
Chapter 11: Application Basics
Chapter 12: Standard Application Menus
Chapter 13: The App Store
Chapter 14: TextEdit
Chapter 15: Address Book
Chapter 16: iCal
Chapter 17: Music & Video Applications
Chapter 18: Other Mac OS X Applications
Chapter 19: Dashboard
Chapter 20: Desktop Management
PART IV: Mac OS Utilities
Chapter 21: Fonts
Chapter 22: Printing
Chapter 23: Disk Utility
Chapter 24: Mac OS Utility Applications
PART V: Network & Internet Connectivity
Chapter 25: Networking
Chapter 26: Connecting to the Internet
Chapter 27: Internet Applications
PART VI: Customizing Your Mac
Chapter 28: Customizing the Finder
Chapter 29: Customizing Finder Windows
Chapter 30: System Preferences Basics
Chapter 31: Personal Preferences
Chapter 32: Hardware Preferences
Chapter 33: Internet & Wireless Preferences
Chapter 34: System Preferences
PART VII: Reference
Appendix A: Menus & Keyboard Shortcuts
Index

Related Posts

For more content related to Lion, be sure to check out the Mac OS topic link.

Twitter Essential Training, 2011 Edition

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2011 revision goes live.

Get more from your software.I’m very pleased to announce that my latest Lynda.com course, a revision of my 2009 and 2010 Twitter courses, is now online. Here’s the official description from the good folks at Lynda.com:

In Twitter Essential Training, author Maria Langer explains how to use Twitter, a social network for sharing short bites of information instantly with others. This course covers how to sign up for a Twitter account, send and read Twitter updates (called tweets), and build a network of followers. The training also describes how to get the most out of Twitter by customizing an individual profile, setting privacy options, following trending topics, and tapping into third-party resources that make it easier to follow and send updates.

Topics include:

  • Uploading a profile picture to an account
  • Setting account options to meet specific needs
  • Using lists
  • Sharing photos and Web content with friends
  • Adding Twitter feeds to web sites
  • Searching for people and tweets
  • Following and blocking users
  • Tweeting by SMS
  • Establishing a business presence
  • Understanding Twitter interface changes

Twitter Users Wanted

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Need active Twitter users for upcoming Twitter course.

Twitter logoI’m getting ready to revise my Twitter course for Lynda.com and, as usual, am looking for about 20 active Twitter user accounts to follow while recording the course. These accounts will be included in the timelines displayed onscreen.

If you don’t mind your Twitter account appearing in the course — or perhaps you’d really like it to appear in the course — take a moment and drop me an e-mail message. I’ll send you the release form we need signed and returned to be a part of this project.

Keep in mind that volunteering to show your tweets does not guarantee they will be shown. Because of the nature of the course material, we need to avoid displaying Tweets that are “R-rated” (or worse), including Tweets with foul language, tweets with offensive humor, or Tweets that include inappropriate images or themes. I hope you understand.

If you’ve volunteered before and would like to do it again, just let me know. I should still have your paperwork on file.

Learn More on Lynda.com

Get more from your software.Want to Learn More about Using Twitter?
Learn online at Lynda.com. Recently revised and expanded, my Twitter course includes more than three hours of video training material that’ll help you get more out of Twitter. Check it out. If you’re not a Lynda.com subscriber, be sure to visit to try some of the free videos. I think you’ll be hooked.

How to Disable Hot Linking to Images

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Roll up your sleeves and prepare to edit your .htaccess file.

Important Note:
Messing with your Web site or blog’s .htaccess file is very dangerous. Indeed, if you make an error, the entire site may stop working. Keep that in mind when using these instructions. I will not be held responsible for any problems that result from using this code.

Hot linking is when another Web site links directly to images or other files that reside on your Web server to embed them in their own Web pages or make them accessible to their own site visitors. For example, someone may like an image on your Web site that he/she wants to show off on his/her own. Rather than linking to the page on your site that displays the image, they might use the HTML IMG SRC tag to embed the image on their own site.

There are two problems with this:

  • In many cases, because the image actually appears on the other site, visitors are led to believe that the image belongs to that site’s owner — instead of you. Sometimes the other site owner might provide credit or even a link back to your site. But often times he/she does not. In my book, that’s image theft.
  • Because the image still resides on your server, each time the image is viewed on the other site, your server is required to serve up the image. That uses up your bandwidth. Obviously, if this happens a lot, you might see a slow-down in your site’s response time or your hosting company may begin to charge additional bandwidth fees. In other words, you’re paying to host images on someone else’s site.

The best way to stop hot linking is to modify your site’s .htaccess file to include code that prevents it. In researching this problem, I found several different collections of code. The one that I wound up using as a basis for my final code (shown below) can be found at “How to Disable Hot Linking” on the Online Marketing Blog.

Here’s my code:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www.)?<em>mydomain.com</em>/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !google\. [NC] 
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !search\?q=cache [NC]
RewriteRule .(jpg|gif|png|pdf)$ http://<em>myotherdomain.com/images/StopStealing.jpg</em> [R]

Here’s how it works:

RewriteEngine on

Enables mod_rewrite.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$

Allows requests made directly for the image without a referrer. You would include this line if you wanted to allow requests from browsers and other sources without referrers. (I commented out this line in my file, but may allow it.)

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www.)?<em>mydomain.com</em>/.*$ [NC]

Allows requests made from your Web site. Obviously, you’d replace mydomain.com with your domain.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !google\. [NC] 
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !search\?q=cache [NC]

Allows requests made from Google and search engines. If you don’t want your images to appear in search results, don’t include these two lines.

RewriteRule .(jpg|gif|png)$ http://<em>myotherdomain.com/images/StopStealing.jpg</em> [R]

Prevents images with .jpg, .gif, and .png extensions from appearing on pages with any other referrer. Instead, it shows the image shown here.

If you don’t want to include the image, you can use this line instead to result in a broken image icon:

RewriteRule .(jpg|gif|png)$ - [F]

Keep in mind that using this approach will prevent images from appearing in feed readers, too, so it’s not a good idea if you share your images with others via RSS.

Of course, to add or modify a .htaccess file, you need to know how. That’s beyond the scope of anything I’ll ever write. These instructions assume you already have some idea of how to do this. If you want to learn more about using .htaccess to control access to your Web site, be sure to check out this tutorial.

One more thing…please don’t expect me to help you debug your .htaccess file. Believe me, I know only enough about .htaccess to be dangerous; you would be better off without my help. Good luck!

How to Install Raw Camera Update 3.5 without Buying iPhoto ’11 or Aperture

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And why you might want to do that.

I recently purchased a Nikon D7000 camera as an upgrade from my nearly 4 year old Nikon D80. (What an upgrade!) It was part of my attempt to improve my photography by using better equipment. Another part of that was shooting in raw and using processing tools like those available in Photoshop to fine-tune my images.

NEF in FinderI shot my first bunch of images last week and was very surprised to find that the raw images, which have Nikon’s .NEF file extension, did not appear with preview images in the Finder (shown here). I also could not use Quick Look, or open the raw images in any application on my Mac.

The reason this surprised me is that I could see, preview, Quick Look, and open the .NEF images created by my Nikon D80.

I did some research and discovered that the raw format is camera specific — a fact I’d kind of known all along — and I set out to find the software update that would allow me to see them. I was rather surprised that I’d missed the update, since I use Software Update and generally install all updates, whether I need them or not. I assumed I’d somehow skipped this particular update.

Raw 3.5 UpdaterI found the Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 3.5, which included support for the D7000, on Apple’s Web site, downloaded it, opened the disk image (DMG) file, and started the installation. The splash screen clearly stated that the updater added raw camera compatibility for a handful of new cameras to Aperture 3 and iPhoto ’11. I didn’t have either one of these installed. I don’t own Aperture — I’ve been using Photoshop forever — and I hadn’t yet updated to iPhoto ’11 from iPhoto ’09. But I assumed that an Apple update would add support to Mac OS X 10.6.6, which was installed on my Mac, so at least I’d be able to see previews of NEF images in the Finder.

Can't InstallMy third surprise (if you’re keeping count) came when the installer told me it could not install the software. The message made it clear that I needed to have Aperture 3 or iPhoto 9 (confusingly, this is the version number for iPhoto ’11, not iPhoto ’09) installed to install the update.

I was stuck.

I did more research and discovered an alternative method for viewing previews and using those Nikon D7000 raw images. More on that in another post.

But then I discovered a workaround for the installation problem. Apple offered a free Aperture 3.1 trial on its Web site. Several Twitter friends had recommended Aperture and I was interested in giving it a try. So I downloaded the trial version and installed it.

You can probably guess what’s coming. Because I now had Aperture 3.1 installed, I could also install the Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 3.5 software. I ran the installer and it successfully installed on my hard disk.

Quick Look NEFAfter running Aperture once — just to make sure my Mac knew I had it installed — I went back to the Finder folder full of NEF images from my D7000. Still no icon previews, but I think that’s because my Mac expected to open them in Photoshop CS3, which did not support the D7000 NEFs either. But when I selected an image and used Mac OS X’s Quick Look feature (Command-Y), the NEF preview appeared in the Quick Look window.

Oddly, a preview icon also appeared for some (but not all?) of the NEF files in the photos folder on the SD card. I’m not sure why only some of them were affected, but they were the later ones. Maybe they’ll all show up as icons the next time I insert this disk? When I copied the folder to my hard disk, all the NEF files appeared with preview icons.

So I guess I can say that I set out to do what I wanted to do. I can only assume that the support for NEF file icon previews will continue even if I decide not to buy Aperture and remove it from my computer.

Did this help you? Can you add anything to help me or others? Use the comments link or form to speak up. Just don’t attempt to start a Nikon vs. Canon debate; I don’t think that would add any useful information to the discussion.

Dragon Dictation Trials and Errors

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I try an iPad-based dictation tool.

Note: This blog post was dictated into my iPad. Although I’d originally hoped to display the text in two columns to show unedited and edited text (as referred to in the post), I later decided to use DEL and INS tags to show actual text edits required — places where Dragon Dictation actually got it wrong. I did not correct my failure to dictate punctuation or my poor use of words, since those are my errors and not the software’s. A few additional comments are included in square brackets in the text.

I am trying something different today. I’m writing a blog post by dictating into my iPad.

I’m using a program called Capps dDragon caps dDictation. I downloaded it for free on my iPad not long after I bought the iPad. I’ve tried it a few times, and was very pleased with the results. Unfortunately, there’s a lot more to using dictation software and simply saying what you want to say.

These first two paragraph are good example. On the left you see my dictated version. On the right you see my edited version. Notice the changes I needed to make. It’s really not bad, but not exactly perfect.

The main problem with using dictation software. See is that you have to dictate everything you want to type. That means you have to dictate your punctuation, capitalization, quotes, and any other information that you want to put in your text other than the exact words.

You also need to speak clearly directly into a microphone. On the iPad that’s not exactly convenient since the microphone is at the top of the iPad. Right now my iPad is standing up on my table with the microphone close to my mouth so that so that Dragon dictation can understand what I’m saying. Of course if you have an external microphone it will work with that as well.

You also need to be careful about what you say. Any mistakes you make will be transcribed. This makes dictation a useful tool for getting out of a first draft, but not for getting final text. You’ll still have to go through the document and make changes to it as necessary to correct errors and rephrase sentences.

As I dictate this today, I see that I’m quickly getting the hang of it. Although it’s not natural for me to do this, I don’t think it will be difficult to learn. What amazes me the most, is the way the software can recognize exactly what I’m saying. I haven’t edited any of this text other than what you sought saw at the top of this post. [Not true; read note at top of post.] Get Yet as you can see dragon dictation has managed to understand almost everything that I’ve said. This absolutely amazes me. What I don’t understand, however, is how many people reported that dragon dictation could not understand them. The overall reviews in the iTunes store for the app are very low. I can only assume that these people are not speaking slowly and clearly so that the software can understand them.

What I do find a little bothersome about this software is that it needs an Internet connection to work. As I speak it evidently records what I say and then when I’m done it sends it to the Dragon dictation website words where it’s translated and returned to me. This isn’tthe best solution if you don’t have an Internet connection all the time. But given the price of the software, which was free, I really can’t complain.

Another thing I find a little bit bothersome is the fact that it evidently has a buffer. I can’t just go on talking for a long period of time and expect the software to be able to translate. Instead it automatically cuts me off gets the translation in and puts it in the software sometimes while I’m still talking. [Boy, that previous sentence could sure benefit from some commas.] This means that I need to stop at the end of every long paragraph let it translate and then start again.

It’s interesting to me also how the software does not recognize upon a pause as a place to put a comma or period it’s also interesting to me that it probably just inserted those two forms of punctuation instead of the words that I just set. Let’s see. That’s funny it’s got the words as I said them and didn’t put in punctuation. I guess it does take a little bit of time to get used to this. [This whole paragraph is a good example of experimenting. Believe it or not, Dragon dictation made only one error; the other errors were mine.]

As a writer, it’s a dream to be able to say what you want to say and have it automatically typed for you. But the reality is and not so sweet. In reality, I can type a lot faster than I can do this dictation. I can also make a lot fewer mistakes. And I can edit as I go along.

Still, I think the thing that bothers me the most, is that I have to stop at the end of every long paragraph to let Dragon dictation catch up. I don’t type like this. I don’t think like this. I tend to type thing [I corrected myself here but DD didn't know that.] right write a lot more a lot more fluidly. I also don’t think about the comments commas that I need to put in my documents.

Overall what do I think of this? I think it has its uses, but I can’t see using it as a normal writing tool. I’ll keep experimenting with it, but I’m not sure whether it will ever be something I use daily.

If you have an iPad or my phone iPhone I recommend giving this a try. You might like it. And if you like it a lot. You might want to buy the regular software that they self sell for your computer. They have a Windows version and a Mac version.