MacGathering & SoHo Tech Show, LA 2006 • Saturday's Seminars
Saturday seminars begin at 9; exhibit hall is open 10 - 6.
Saturday Seminar Details
Mastering Mac Basics
~Rick Thues
With Rick's easy to understand, solid introduction to the Mac, you'll be so comfortable on the Mac that you'll be able to create documents, file them away, and find them later. You'll be able to get to your applications with ease, then get around in any application (aka program). This introduction will provide all the basics you need to start being highly effective on the Mac. If you're totally new to computers, are switching from any version of Windows, or are moving from Mac's older OS 8/9 to OS X, this seminar is for you. And even if you're been using Mac OS X for a while, you'll probably pick up some helpful knowledge.
Rick will also tell you about some helpful books and websites so you can continue to build on your foundation of knowledge.
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Deb's Mac Efficiency Picks
~Deborah Shadovitz
Part of the greatness of the Mac is that you can easily customize it, and that great, inexpensive utilities abound.
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Be Your Own Help Desk - part 1
~Jim Mitchell
Be Your Own Help Desk (Two Session Seminar)
The Mac is low maintenance, but no system in infallible. Happily, a few simple maintenance tasks can keep your Mac happy or cure ills. In this session you’ll learn the keys to maintaining your Mac using Apple’s utilities, shareware, and such. This session will also discuss backup.
In the first of two sessions, Jim shares the must have tools of the trade, and shows you how to use them in order to keep your system healthy and running smooth. Topics include maintenance, backing up, and disk repair.
Save calls to your tech person for things you really need help with. Learning these techniques will save you some of those calls.
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Be Your Own Help Desk - part 2
~Jim Mitchell
Be Your Own Help Desk (Two Session Seminar)
The Mac is low maintenance, but no system in infallible. Happily, a few simple maintenance tasks can keep your Mac happy or cure ills. In this session you’ll learn the keys to maintaining your Mac using Apple’s utilities, shareware, and such. This session will also discuss backup.
In the second session, Jim builds on the first by showing the average user how use the tools of the trade to troubleshoot problems using the same methods Apple Technicians learn as part of their certification process.
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Intro to Making Music on the Mac
~Oscar Garza
You've heard the Mac is great for stuff like audio and video, and that you can easily create music on it. But how? Come see and learn in this seminar. You'll learn how to hook up a midi keyboard and perhaps other instruments and use them to create music with Apple's Garage Band. You can also create music with Garage Band alone, and Oscar will show you that as well. (This seminar description will be fleshed out more fully very soon.)
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Getting Your Voice into Your Mac
~Dan Klass
What do you need to record your voice onto a Mac? This seminar will answer that question in stages. First the most basic, then to provide better quality, and then even better. From the most inexpensive or free solution to the high-end for mic mixing and premium quality, you'll get the info you need right here.
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From Vinyl or Tape Into the Mac: the Import & the Clean-up
~Gabe Khofri
Gabe will show you how how to digitize cassettes and LPs using a variety of hardware
-Using Typical Home Stereo Equipment (Turntable, Cassette Deck, Stereo Amplifier)
-Using an inexpensive USB Audio Interface (Turntable, Cassette Deck)
Once digitized, he'll show how to do the following:
-Boost Levels
-Perform basic edits (fade in/out, etc.)
-Split long recordings into tracks
-Remove unwanted background noise (tape hiss, or clicks/crackles/, rumble, buzz, etc.)
-Create Red Book format Audio CDs
-Create mp3 or AAC files to use in iTunes/iPod
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[Mostly Mac/Win] Podcasting 101
~Shelly Brisbin
Podcasting is the latest Internet buzzword, but it's also a genuine phenomenon that's gotten the attention of corporate radio in record time. Just what is a podcast, and what do you need to know to produce a show of your own? This session will introduce you to the basics of podcast production. Learn what hardware, software and skills you'll need to make your first show. We'll cover planning, recording and uploading your show to the Web. Some specific topics include:
- Basic tools you need to record a podcast on your Mac or PC?
- Mobile podcasting with an MP3 recorder
- Simple things you can do to improve your sound
- Adding music and other sound to your show
- Post-production processing and compression
- Creating a podcast RSS feed
- Finding a home for your podcast
We'll also talk a bit about the podcasting community and about recent commercial podcasting ventures.
Tip: Consider taking the other audio sessions offered this day to provide a solid background. Then join Shelly for a discussion about podcasting immediately following this session. We'll have several expert podcasters there to discuss issues and answer questions.
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iPhoto, a Power Intro
~Fielden Lundy
Apple has given us a free/highly affordable, flexible and powerful application in iPhoto. Yet it's easy to use. Join Fielden Lundy for a fun demonstration of what iPhoto can do for you. He'll start with how to get your images out of your camera and onto the Mac, then show you how it can help your photography, how it can help you organize your pictures in new and different ways, how it can take you beyond basic photography and much more. Come with questions and suggestions and your own experiences to share.
If you're new to the Mac, considering Mac, or use Mac but haven't gotten into iPhoto deeply yet, the seminar should have something of value for you.
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iMovie, Seriously
~James Alguire
iMovie comes free on the Mac and provides the opportunity for you to create professional looking videos with little learning. You will learn how to use iMovie, starting with getting your video out of your camera and into the Mac. James will then show you the basics, then quickly go beyound so you can see just how serious you can get with it. Learn about separating audio and video, doing a blue screen effect, and other high-end tricks.
Whether you want to create a business communication video, a how-to for your business, a commerical for cable TV, video for your website, or home movies for posterity, you'll find this session very helpful, or maybe even all you need.
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[Mac only] Secrets of Scanning
A pragmatic approach to a scanning workflow
-Chuck Behrman
Professional photographer Chuck Behrman will demonstration, in real time:
• How to calibrate and profile your scanner
• How to scan a print
• How to scan a transparency (slide)
• How to scan a negative (color and black & white)
• How to quickly correct your images for color, contrast and exposure within Photoshop
• The differences between 8 and 16 bit scans for photographs.
During the class a majority vote will determine whether the demonstration focus will be color negative, transparency (slide), or reflected art (print). A CD covering all techniques will be available for purchase for a special show price.
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[Mac/Win] Intellectual Property Camp
~Michael Leventhal [tentative]
What is IP? Who owns the work you do? Who owns the work you hire others to do? What happens when you incorporate other people’s creations into your projects? What happens if something you create for one company turns out to be applicable to many? These and many other riveting and frightening questions will be answered by Michael Leventhal at this session. Don’t miss it! You can’t afford to!
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[Mac/Win] Demystifying Wireless
~Mark Hartman
Learn about the various wireless technologies such as Bluetooth. What they are, how they work. Real world uses and those realities. For example, printing: how many printers can you have, at what distances, etc.
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[Mac/Win] DIY Wi-Fi (Do it yourself wi-fi)
~Bruce Brown
Tired of cables tethering you to the Internet? Ready to break free and go wireless? This session will introduce you to the basics of wi-fi. Learn what to expect with an Apple Airport or another popular brand. Learn about hardware placement and reception range.
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There's no need to limit your Mac to just one person. Several people can share the same Mac, each still having his own user experience. Using your Mac at home or for a home office? You'll learn how to make your Mac easy for young children while keeping your own files safe, or to set up an older child. Using your Mac in an office or home office? You'll also learn how to enable co-workers to share one Mac without worry about employees seeing sensitive data. Learn the pros and cons of a multi-user setup over having multiple Macs.
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[Mac/Win] Mac-Windows: coexistence, communication, and file-sharing
~Charles Edge
Do you work on a Mac and need to work with others who have PCs? We will show you how to make this connection using software you already have built into OS X.
Or maybe you have a Windows machine that needs to be shared with a Mac? Everything you need is already built into Windows XP too — and We'll show you how to set it up.
It can be just as easy to share files across the internet as it is to share on your local network — if you know how.
If you'd like your small office to take advantage of the best of each platform, or if you work freelance, This session can be highly useful for you.
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Steve Martin's Final Cut Pro Power Tips, part 1
~Steve Martin
No one knows Final Cut Pro the way Steve Martin does. He'll fill this hour and a half with some of his best FCP tips. Details coming soon.
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Steve Martin's Final Cut Pro Power Tips, part 2
~Steve Martin
No one knows Final Cut Pro the way Steve Martin does. He'll fill this hour and a half with some more of his best FCP tips. Details coming soon.
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[Mac/Win] Photoshop in Motion: Creating animation using Photoshop & ImageReady
~Jeff Foster
Did you know that ImageReady can produce full-resolution animation for video & HDTV? Learn how to animate & tween layers, layer styles, text warping and rotoscoping effects to produce QuickTime movies, plus learn how to composite them quickly & easily in your video editor.
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3D Effects: Creating 3D stereographic moving images from stills
~Jeff Foster
If you're looking for a new way to add depth, interest, motion, and wow to your still shots, you're in for a treat. Visual artist Pixel Painter Jeff Foster, has created a technique that certainly makes your pictures "pop." Forget descriptions; see what we mean for yourself on Jeff's portfolio page or jump directly to this example or this one.
More description coming very soon.
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Taking it with you: PDAs and the Mac
~Bruce Gerson
You CAN take it with you, contrary to the old saw. There are hundreds of devices which can give you instant access to the information you'll normally find on your home or office computer including your address book, calendar, to-do list, memos and notes. You can even take your Microsoft Office (or compatible) word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, as well as FileMaker Pro databases and even PDFs. Virtually any document you can produce on your computer can be displayed (and, in some cases, edited) on your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).
This seminar is for anyone who is considering a handheld device (PDA or cellular phone), just bought one or is an old hand at this. You'll explore different devices and the options for storing your data PDA and synchronizing it with your Macintosh desktop or laptop.
Focus will be on the PalmOS-based devices running with Macintosh OS X but other PDA operating systems will be touched upon.
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Syncing your data with Tiger: Sync Services
~Bruce Gerson
Macintosh OS X 10.4 "Tiger" advances the state of the art by integrating intelligent, high-performance sync services right into the operating system. In Tiger, the preferences and controls for what, when and which devices you want to sync appear inside your favorite applications, such as Safari, iCal, Address Book and Mail — including multiple Mail accounts, Mail rules, signatures and Spotlight-driven Smart Mailboxes.
However, with all of this power comes problems keeping this centralized database from creating problems when synchronizing your Macintosh, your PDA or cellular phone and your address book, calendar, to-do, memos and notes applications from different software developers.
In this seminar, we'll cover what Sync Services is, how it stores information and how it interacts with Apple's own Address Book and iCal. We'll explore third party conduits and plug-ins and transport systems such as Mark/Space's Missing Sync and how they can use Sync Services to move your data back and forth. We'll touch on third-party applications which use Sync Services such as Microsoft Entourage, Chronos' SOHO Organizer and StickyBrain, as well as some third-party applications which don't use Sync Services but can still be used. You'll learn how you can use Sync Services to synchronize your desktop and laptop. We'll also cover what to do when Sync Services takes a bite out of your data and either "loses" some of your contacts or appointments or when it suddenly creates three copies of your calendar's business categories.
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[Mac/Win] What you need to know about Finance Tracking for Small Business
-James Cliame
~Gary Zweig
As a small business or simply a self-employed individual, there are certain finances you need to track. This seminar will tell you what you must track, then will familiarize you with your software options. What software is right for you? Which computer platform? Can you work on Macs if your accountant uses Windows - or vice versa?
We expect to have a CPA along to help you understand the money/tax issues.
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[Mac/Win] Design for Non-designers
~Andrew Shalat
Looking good is a must for any business, or any organization that wishes to achieve its goals.
With any brochure, contract, letter, web page, banner, poster or other written document, your visual impression matters as much as your actual content. In fact, with the wrong look your content may not even be read! Come learn some simple layout tips that can help you look more professional in all of your visual communication.
Whether you're creating your own materials, asking your staff to do them, or hiring are hiring a designer, you can benefit from this seminar. Andrew is, by the way, author of the new book, Mac Design Out of the Box.
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This page was last updated May 2006.
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