My wife clued me in to this nice little feature introduced in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. She does a lot of online shopping, and when you buy something online, you usually get a screen that says something like, “Print this right now if you want a receipt.” You can’t usually save these screens effectively, […]
Category Archives: Mac Lab Report
Not everyone can afford the latest computer and all the new software that accompanies it. Some teachers have older machines; others have only one or two machines available. Here at Low End Mac we often take the position of recommending refurbishing older machines to get something in the classroom.
Last time we discussed deciding what to ask for with grants in Need Macs for Your Classroom? Write a Grant. today we talk about writing the application. Next time we’ll look at finding support from stakeholders and making your application stand out.
In our previous articles on grantwriting, we addressed establishing a purpose and identifying expenses to write into your grant. This article addresses the concept of getting others interested in your project – and why you should try.
According to ExtremeTech, NASA’s Curiosity rover is powered by a RAD750 motherboard that contains a PowerPC 750 CPU, which is equivalent to a PowerPC G3 in the Mac world.
This is a very simple and easy-to-build project that provides a sensor on the pedal crank of any exercise bike and generates keyboard output triggering Google Maps Street View to advance via the up arrow key.
I recently (nearly) completed a novel that I started over the summer. If you check my publication history, you can see that the rate at which I have published columns on Low End Mac has dwindled to nearly zero. That’s because nearly all my free time for writing has been dedicated to writing a novel.
Did you ever see a command or an option in a control panel or a utility in your Applications folder and not quite know what it was for?
It’s not as easy as you might think to infect a Mac with a virus or other malware program.
I have a small collection of web pages for my various projects. Some of them have an associated blog. Try as I might, I cannot get my students to click on a link on my class web page to take them to the blog. “I can’t find it,” or “There’s too much stuff on your […]
I was reading about Zune, Microsoft’s recently announced music system, the other day, when I ran across Zune vs. iPod: Why Microsoft Might Lose the Battle at Playfuls.com:
My seven-year-old son enjoys taking screen shots of scenes in movie previews so he can print them out and hang them on the wall of his room. He recently decided he wanted a screen grab from a DVD he was watching, but – as many of you know – that function isn’t available when using Apple’s […]
I just got back from a conference where professional scientists present “poster sessions”. For a scientist, presenting a poster is a grown-up science fair, except there is no judging or best of show. You do, however, have to hang around your project and answer questions.
As part of our ongoing efforts to build a small classroom planetarium at our school, we have opted not to go with a package deal from a single vendor and instead assemble components from different vendors.
I got a number of responses to How to Digitize Your Old Tapes, LPs, and 45s with Your Mac, my article about converting cassettes and LPs to digital format. Several readers wrote to recommend software and/or hardware if you have more music to convert than I do and don’t want to go through the complex rigmarole […]
It isn’t as easy as ripping MP3 or AAC files from your CDs, but it is possible to digitize your old tapes and records so you can listen to them with iTunes.
Last year I began fiddling around with a program called A-OK! The Wings of Mercury, a computer program written by Joe Nastasi that completely simulates a Mercury space mission from the 1960s. Nastasi realized that today’s computers are sufficiently advanced that they can replicate not only the interior of a Mercury capsule and simulate its […]
I have just finished reading your article on how to make a bootable emergency CD for the Mac, OS 9 and below. While I found most of the article to be an invaluable resource (I’ve already printed it to PDF), there’s one thing you mentioned at the end that does concern me.
A short while back, I wrote an article about the history of the Apple Command key and why it looks the way it does. One of the many benefits of writing for Low End Mac is all the interesting people you get to correspond with – and I got mail from all sorts of folks […]
During one of those endless Web searches the other day, I ran across one of Those Little Things I Never Knew – the origin of the “splat” symbol on the Mac keyboard, officially known as the Command (cmd) key.
2002 – This week’s Mac Lab Report is an annotated outline based on the presentation I did two weeks ago for our school. We have purchased several iBook laptop carts, and my job is to configure the carts for classroom use and train teachers on how to use them. Only teachers who have received the […]
2002 – I had a couple more thoughts plus some email regarding my comments about AppleWorks last week, and thought I’d share them with you.
2002 – AppleWorks is a fine Office suite. As it is, I like how well integrated the suite is and the fact that it runs smoothly in Mac OS 9 and OS X. Additional features, such as the slide presentation module (added since version 5), have been most welcome. However, I still feel the need to retreat […]
2002 – This is one part of a multi-part series on setting up laptops for use with Apple’s iBook laptop cart. Today’s article deals with mechanical issues and configuring the AirPort base station.
2002 – In a few weeks, I have to train my colleagues how to check out, use, maintain, and return one of several iBook carts our school has purchased. In the meantime, the carts have to be prepared with certain multiple user settings, passwords, site licensed software, and network settings.
2002 – Here are four free (not shareware) programs you might find handy when teaching math, physical science, astronomy, or biology. Everything works under Mac OS X either natively or in Classic Mode except as noted. Enjoy!
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” – Lord Acton
2002 – Having had some time to reflect on my experience with the flat-panel iMac G4 at Macworld Expo, I have come up with five ways to improve the product which range from the impractical to the irresistible.
2002 – One of the things that limits the ability of semiconductor manufacturers to make large chips is the nature of optics.
2002 – I agree with most who’ve tried out Apple’s new iPhoto software: It has an intuitive interface that’s easy to learn, can manage large numbers of photos easily, and meshes nicely with iTunes and iMovie, Apple’s other digital hub software for consumers.
