MacWorld
SF 2005 Report
Tips and Neat Stuff for Homeschoolers
from Apple and other vendors
Dateline: 1/15/05
by Ann Zeise
I've been at MacWorld SF most of this week and thought I'd
report back what I saw and heard that might most interest homeschoolers
and homeschool webmasters.
For those of you on Macs and looking for a "buy,"
BBEdit is having
a show special on their website development software of 20% off
ending January 21st.
Fill your shopping cart
Enter MW20perc in the Promo Code and hit "apply."
You know the folks, CafePress,
who have long provided logo-encrusted t-shirts? They now are
set up for self-publishing! You provide the book content, and
they publish on demand! For those of you who want to publish
your own "how to homeschool" resource book for your
association or support group, this might be just the solution.
I bought a new browser. Actually paid for it. It is called
OmniWeb.
The reason I bought it primarily was because of its cool tab
feature. You can just drag links from a page you are checking
into a sidebar, one after another as fast as you are able. The
pages all pre-load there! Then you can click on each thumbnail
and BAM! the large page shows in your main window. Going to save
me HOURS of link checking! Oh, and they have educator pricing,
too :D There are a bunch of other cool features, too. Mac only.
Sorry.
Apple introduced the
Mac mini, 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, SuperDrive - MB139LL/A
 .
I see this as a great second computer! Pricing begins at $479
for educators, homeschoolers included, then it depends on how
you soup it up. You supply the monitor, keyboard and mouse. I
can see getting one in order to show off my site at homeschool
conferences where I wouldn't want to lug my tower, but wanted
to use my large LCD monitor. I can see my friends who are sick
of getting PC viruses getting one for their internet life, isolating
their PCs with their "important stuff" from the internet.
Comes with iLife, so it would be great for photos, home movies
and burning DVDs.
Apple has a new even tinier iPod, too, called the
iPod shuffle, 2GB - Blue - MB520LL/A
because you can randomize the play list. Being that I don't like
to walk around with earplugs, I haven't figured out yet how I
would justify buying an iPod. Maybe for listening to recorded
books. MacWorld was JAMMED with iPod
Accessories. Should have called it "iPod World" instead. Fancy cars
are incorporating them in. Two Mercedes there: the most expensive
iPod accessory at the show!
I've set up a page I'm calling The
Apple Store for Home Educators where I'll have the link for
the educators' discount, as well as being able to update with
cool apple products, too.
Use PhotoShop? Digital Gem
has plug-ins 25% off with special show code. I liked the airbrush
that automatically smoothed skin. Use offer code tshow5.
Offer ends 3/1/05.
On Wednesday I left early to make it to the Computer
History Museum in Mountain View. There I actually finally
got to meet Steve Case, the fellow behind AOL. Apple inventor
and now 5th grade teacher, Steve Wozniak, too, was there, and
I caught a glimpse of him, but he was busy, so I missed getting
to meet him. Darn. Steve Case did say something I know you'll
all get a kick out of. Someone asked him what teacher had inspired
him. He looked like he was thinking real hard, but then said,
"None I can think of!" I did get a chance to thank
him for the great forum host training I got on AOL which now
allows me to create this cool environment online for homeschoolers.
At MacWorld I heard Steve
Broback talk about blogs and RSS feeds. If you are considering
a new format for your website, look into a blog engine! Steve
has a blog called RawFormat
that is of interest to digital photography buffs. If you live
near Seattle, consider going to the Blog
Business Summit. Oh, both those sites are blog engine sites.
Blogging is not just for making an online diary, but an excellent
way and easy way to create a database driven website with the
ability to allow community feedback.
David Pogue was his
usual hilarious self. There was a kid about 9-10 sitting in front
of me, though, that kept interrupting him with sometimes bright
and witty comments, but he got to be annoying after awhile. I
just KNEW this was not a kid who had sat in a classroom. Sure
enough, he was homeschooled. Pogue is the author of Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition.
If Pogue couldn't figure something out, the homeschooled kid
would offer a suggestion, even down to using Terminal commands.
Pogue joshed with him, "I was just like you when I was young!"
he quipped, trying to get the kid to quit interrupting. Ever
want to copy text from a 2-column PDF file in Preview? Hold down
the Option key and then you'll get just one column of text!
Mark Space was selling
a product to make Macs and the new Palms behave together better.
Calls it The Missing Sync.
Russell Brown had
all sorts of wonderful Photoshop "power" tips. Learned
some cool ways to use dodge and burn to easily make masks. I
suppose the tips would be on his site, too. Often I can't follow
Photoshop speakers through their command-option-shift click on
menus that show up only if you are in a specific hidden place,
but Brown was good and careful enough to make the paths clear.
I just wish he had had handouts.
Now, to spend some time to PRACTICE all these things I just
learned.
MacWorld
SF Session Listings
Pro and User Conference presentations provided to us by the Macworld
Conference Faculty have been posted online and are available
to you. Updated presentations will be available until July 2005.
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