GreerMUG January 2008 Meeting Highlights


Pre-game Show
Tonight's pre-game show was created by Matt using PulpMotion!
What a fun look back at two years of GreerMUG meetings! Show Notes is sorry if you missed it.

Opening Moments
Mike opened with the same possum joke he used at the VERY FIRST GreerMUG meeting two years ago this month. Woo-hoo, it's our second birthday!!! Mike told some other jokes, too. Show Notes is sorry Mike didn't get the sense of humor from Santa that he asked for. We feel your pain, Mike, we feel your pain.

MemberDock
Matt gave us a very special edition of the MemberDock with a look back at where we've been and a look ahead to where we are going. Thanks, Matt.

Matt Chandler's Shareware Report

Buddi
The first one is totally free. It's called Buddi. Buddi is a personal finance and budgeting program, aimed at those who have little or no financial background. In making this software, the Buddi folks have attempted to make things as simple as possible, while still retaining enough functions to satisfy most home users. It's like a free little Quicken. Check it out.

Buddi is found here http://buddi.thecave.homeunix.org/en/index.php
or here http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/business_finance/buddi.html

Default Apps
Here's a delightful free program that lets you set the default application that gets used to open different file types. Example: do you want a jpeg file to be opened in Preview, iPhoto, or Photoshop Elements? Some of these settings are scattered in OS X in different places like Safari or Mail. Default Apps pulls it all together. Improve your workflow with Default Apps.
Default Apps' home is http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/
Website of the month
Each month Matt is going to share with us a helpful website. This month there are two. The picks are Seminars.apple.com and Macheist.com.

Seminars.apple.com provides some free online seminars on a variety of topics. Here's thousands of dollars worth of seminar info all for free. Some of it is very specific in terms of its subject matter and some of it is advanced, but check it out! It's free!
http://www.seminars.apple.com/sol/us_en/?locs=us_en

Macheist.com is not a website for shady characters. It's another bundle-of-software site where you can buy a $428.65 bundle of programs for ONLY $49!! You'll feel like you're stealing this stuff! There's some nifty little programs here in this collection of a dozen apps. A portion of every purchase goes to charity and there's a list of ten charities you can choose from so you can direct your part of the giving. Show Notes says Cool.
http://www.macheist.com/



Core Presentation
This month's Core Presentation was a quick look at a couple of the applications that come in the bundle of software that is offered for sale at the MacUpdate promo website.

Here's the link for Mac Update: http://www.macupdate.com
And for Mac Update Promo: http://www.mupromo.com

Swift Publisher
Matt shared with us a little of what Swift Publisher can do. It's a great little alternative to Pages.
It's from BeLight Software and they have several other nifty programs. Affordably priced, too.
Here's the link for Swift Publisher:  http://www.belightsoft.com/products/swiftpublisher/version2.php

PulpMotion
Next, Matt shared with us a look at PulpMotion - the same software he used to create tonight's opening slideshow.
It's a different way to present your photos, but WATCH OUT!, Matt says. Don't be misled by the demo video - it's easy to get the idea that PulpMotion does more than it actually does. But what it does do, it does really well.
Here's the full link: http://www.pulpmotion.com/

Give-away
Tonight's give-away is a copy of iLife '08! Whoa! Awesome giveaway!!
Tonight's winner is: Marsha Fountain! Congratulations, Marsha!!

SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT!
Check out Tim's blog at TimothyGodby.com. A cool Mac blog - it coolness begs for your interaction. Tim has done a great job pulling together lots of news and stories of interest to the Mac community. Check out the latest today!

Also, check out Matt Chandler's site NewMacUser.com !

Preview
Our next meeting will be Tuesday, February 19th.

After Meeting
It's our birthday!!!! Let them eat cake!!!!! (We did.) Show Notes kinda liked the icing. Yum.