Location: Apple Store Ginza Theatre.

TOPICS

MC -TBA

Firefox 3

Speaker: Gen Kanai 

Overview of Firefox 3 on Mac OS. Judging from Gen’s blog, we can look forward to readable Japanese URLs due to UTF-8 support in the location bar and a number of other enhancements. Feel free to download the Firefox 3 release to test out while following along with Gen’s talk.  

Gone Phishing

Speaker: Matthew Watson

While we all would like to believe that most websites we visit with are well intentioned, there is obviously a reasonable risk associated with interacting with sites run for nefarious purposes. How do you tell the good from the bad? Where does e-mail and spam factor into this? Enlightening our fear of the unknown, Matthew will unveil tips to a safe journey through the internets. 

3G iPhone in Japan

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco finalized the details of the iPhone’s arrival in Japan. Look forward to a lively discussion on the ins and outs of getting one, plus a special Ringo surprise of our own…

Location: Apple Store Ginza Theatre.

TOPICS

MC Kilian Muster

1) Return to sender…

Speaker: Lang Craighill
… or how to send mail from anywhere, using the mail account your ISP provided you with.

Depending on your ISP it might not be possible to send mail from a network connection other than your ISPs. So if you’re abroad it might happen that your ISP blocks you from sending mail via your own mail account. Some people use gmail or other browser based email services to overcome the problem, but then your mail ends in several locations. Lan knows how to bring back some sanity and get the issue solved once and for all.

2) Life is… a Comic

And sometimes it’s Magiq.
Speaker: Kilian Muster

Plasq have done it again. After Comic Life (most likely came bundled with your Mac, so you might want to check your Applications folder). They now have come out with a completely rewritten application Comic Life Magiq. Similar title, but this is a totally new and entirely different application. Kilian will show you some of the highlight features of this application and what you ca do with it.

3) Misc.

We will also talk about the speed-bumped iMacs, Mac news and do a quick revisit to the presentation Mickey did last time about having multiple clipboards.

Location: Apple Store Ginza Theatre.

TOPICS

(Kilian will be available as master of ceremony)

Boost your productivity

Presented by Kilian Muster
Introduction to keyboard based application launchers for the Mac, and why it’s not really about launching applications anymore. Kilian will focus on LaunchBar, a utility he has used for years, and will show you how to increase your speed and productivity by keeping your hands on the keyboard.

He’ll introduce you to lightning fast ways to find information in iTunes, your address book, your bookmarks, on the Web, or in the mess that is your filesystem. Using LaunchBar to its fullest you might even stop using the Finder for browsing completely.

He will also do a quick comparison between LaunchBar and other solutions like Spotlight or Quicksilver and Butler.

Clip Doubler

Presented by Mickey Chaplan
Clip doubler allows you to have multiple clipboards… essential for word processing. Mickey Chaplan will introduce you to this little software gem from Northern Softworks.

Location: Apple Store Ginza Theatre.

TOPICS

(Kilian will be available as master of ceremony)

The final Part of the Podcasting Series

Presented by Kilian Muster
The presenter has been producing a German-language podcast (“Kilians Podkost”) since 2005. This will end his 4-part-series about podcasting. The series covered the following topics:

Part I: Discover Podcasting

What is a Podcast?
How and where to find podcasts.
How to watch/listen to podcasts.

Part II: Roll your own

Producing podcasts yourself (recording, shooting, RSS feeds). Necessary equipment, and tips & tricks.

Part III: Your Voice be Heard

How to get your podcast out there. Podcasting portals. Web and MP3 file hosting. RSS feed review. And other services for Podcasters.

Part IV: Quit Your Dayjob

Making money with podcasting.

Dictate

Presented by Robert Hancock
Written from the ground up for the Mac, MacSpeech Dictate’s features, accuracy, and capabilities make it as fun, productive, and intuitive to use as the Mac itself.

Robert will show us how to install and setup Dictate to become a Mac “dictator”.

Location: Apple Store Ginza Theatre.

TOPICS

(Kilian will be available as master of ceremony)

Part III of the Podcasting Series

Presented by Kilian Muster
The presenter has been producing a German-language podcast (“Kilians Podkost”) since 2005. Over the next few Ringo meetings he will do a 4-part-series about podcasting. He’ll cover the following topics:

Part I: Discover Podcasting

What is a Podcast?
How and where to find podcasts.
How to watch/listen to podcasts.

Part II: Roll your own

Producing podcasts yourself (recording, shooting, RSS feeds). Necessary equipment, and tips & tricks.

Part III: Your Voice be Heard

How to get your podcast out there. Podcasting portals. Web and MP3 file hosting. RSS feed review. And other services for Podcasters.

Part IV: Quit Your Dayjob

Making money with podcasting.

Location: Apple Store Ginza Theatre.

TOPICS

(Kilian will be available as master of ceremony)

Part III of the Podcasting Series

Presented by Kilian Muster cancelled.

(1) Securing Computers:
Practical And Theoretical Considerations

Presented by Matthew Watson

This talk considers various methods of defense against a multitude of common attacks, assessing their merits and demerits as well as their practical implementation. Attention is given to firewalls, firmware passwords, user accounts, password policy and host-based IDS.

(2) Automator

Presented by Bill “the other one” Nace

Auto-Pilot your Mac with Automator.

Location: Apple Store Ginza Theatre.

TOPICS

(Kilian will be available as master of ceremony)

How Computers Get Hacked:
An Introduction To Computer Security

Presented by Matthew Watson
Matthew has been an active member of the international security community for 7 years and has spoken at security conferences in the UK and US. He has taught IT security and worked as a pen-tester.

His talk will cover the basics that need to be considered when securing a computer. No previous knowledge is required.

Part II of the Podcasting Series

Presented by Kilian Muster
The presenter has been producing a German-language podcast (“Kilians Podkost”) since 2005. Over the next few Ringo meetings he will do a 4-part-series about podcasting. He’ll cover the following topics:

Part I: Discover Podcasting

What is a Podcast?
How and where to find podcasts.
How to watch/listen to podcasts.

Part II: Roll your own

Producing podcasts yourself (recording, shooting, RSS feeds). Necessary equipment, and tips & tricks.

Part III: Your Voice be Heard

How to get your podcast out there. Podcasting portals. Web and MP3 file hosting. RSS feed review. And other services for Podcasters.

Part IV: Quit Your Dayjob

Making money with podcasting.

Location: Apple Store Ginza Theatre.

TOPICS

(Kilian will be available as master of ceremony)

To celebrate Ringo 2.0 and the start of the podcasting talks by Kilian Muster, Ringo gave away an iPod^® nano!

(1) “More than making websites…”

Michael Sheetal, Director, UltraSuperNew Inc.
Now that making Web content and complex online interactions is getting so easy, it becomes more and more important what you make and who you make it for.

(2) Part I of the Podcasting Series

Presented by Kilian Muster
The presenter has been producing a German-language podcast (“Kilians Podkost”) since 2005. Over the next few Ringo meetings he will do a 4-part-series about podcasting. He’ll cover the following topics:

Part I: Discover Podcasting

What is a Podcast?
How and where to find podcasts.
How to watch/listen to podcasts.

Part II: Roll your own

Producing podcasts yourself (recording, shooting, RSS feeds). Necessary equipment, and tips & tricks.

Part III: Your Voice be Heard

How to get your podcast out there. Podcasting portals. Web and MP3 file hosting. RSS feed review. And other services for Podcasters.

Part IV: Quit Your Dayjob

Making money with podcasting.

(3) Ready for disaster: backups on OS X

Brought to you by the Ringo Geekadores.

Summary will follow.

Location: Apple Ginza Store Theatre

TOPICS

After a long and hopefully refreshing hiatus, Tim Exley returned and served as master of ceremonies for the June meeting.

Tim’s Bits

Tim ran through the meeting’s agenda in his inimitable style, and gave a shout out to Koh who was unable to make the meeting. Skeptical audience members questioned Koh’s dedication to the club… To see their comments and Tim’s intro, click here (6.8Mb / 4:21). :) One other note worth mentioning - the webstreaming of our meetings is finally back up and running! Special thanks to Robert Hancock for setting up the server for the meeting. We had six people remotely tuning in last time, and hopefully we’ll be able to increase that number now that the streaming should be more reliable from now on out. Cheers Robert!

Video on Your Intel Mac - YouTube, Apple TV, and Joost

Tim continued on from his introduction, and gave a lengthy discussion on the various ways one can get video onto their Mac. Each service profiled had its own strengths and weaknesses. YouTube was fast at getting content up (of questionable legality), but the quality was often poor. Tim was less kind about the Apple TV - he considered it overly expensive and with content from Apple that was not of high enough video quality for a true HD experience. But the a few in the audience at the ASG shouted down his criticism saying it works well for them - particular since you can personally rip and then place the content you want onto your Apple TV. But then Tim demoed Joost - which is a new free internet streaming TV service available only for the intel-based Macs. Using the same technology platform as Skype, Joost gives you free on-demand high-quality streaming TV from major TV networks around the world. The catch - there’s advertising occasionally. But still, the quality of the broadcast was very impressive. Worth checking out - although sorry, the video chops off at 20 minutes. To see Tim’s demo, click here (32.8Mb / 21:24), and for more info on Joost, you can go to their website and sign up to be a Beta tester here. Just a small note - you get about 90% of Tim’s demo from the video link - about 2 minutes of discussion was lost when the streaming application crashed on my machine. Mea culpa.

Nike and iPod - Staying fit in Tokyo

Karen demoed how she manages to stay in great shape here in urban Tokyo - running with her iPod Nano and her Nike iPod Sports kit. The sports kit consists of two parts - a small sensor that you put in your shoe, and a receiver that plugs into the bottom of your iPod Nano. As you run, the sensor transmits information to the receiver, and all of that run information (distance covered, time, calories burned, distance to go, etc) is relayed to you through your headphones. After the run, the information is uploaded to a website, and you can track your running performance over time. Check out the first part of Karen’s demo here (20.1Mb / 12:01), and a demonstration of the Nike website and some Q and A here (21.15Mb / 14:10).

If you’re interested in learning more about the Nike iPod, check out this link.

Using Your Mac for Your Translation Business

Phil is a professional translator here in Japan, and he gave a very interesting presentation on the all the different ways he uses his mac for his business. From file management to translation software, backup software to key combos, Phil gave us an in-depth talk on his best tips and tricks. Check it out if you’re looking for better workflow as you use your Mac, or if you’re looking for better software to help your own translation needs. You can watch his presentation here (45.1Mb / 29.47).

After the Meeting

After the meeting, a group of 20 or so Ringoites wandered over to Duffy’s Pub in Ginza…. I assume the various Ringoites behaved themselves…

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Notes: Peter Smyth

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