What to do with old Macs
Regarding your story about what to do with honest-to-god Macs ( “ New Life for Old Macs , ” April 2007 ): Another path to responsibly dispose of an old calculator — and many other utile affair — is through Freecycle.org . Registered drug user can give away items or take items offered by other users . I have given off a couple of former Macs this way . This world organisation state , “ Our mission is to build a world give move - ment that slenderize wasteland , saves precious resources and eases the load on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community . ”—Catherine Byrne
Here ’s another use for an old Mac : Although I have an Intel Mac , there ’s one Classic program I still need to apply for work . So I have an erstwhile G4 connect to my Ethernet LAN , and I can get at it remotely , thanks to DevonTechnologies’Desktop Transporter($30 ) . Running the Classic program on the old system , I can proceed to apply it.—Dana Sutton
The speed of light
In your review of DSLR cameras , Ben Long wrote , “ A 1.8 lens is considered quicker than a 3.5 lens of the eye because it tuck light so quickly that it can mesh with a very wide aperture . ” Certainly I wo n’t be the only reader to point out that a 1.8 lens is view quicker because it can be used at a faster shutter fastness with the same light conditions . The wider aperture allows more light source onto the focal plane in the same amount of time.—Sam Peterson
In a literal sense , you ’re right . But it ’s vernacular to look up to calorie-free - gathering speed when you ’re talking about optics . say that the lens gathers visible radiation quickly is the same as saying that you could use a degraded shutter speed . The practical upshot is the same , no matter what the wording.—Ben Long
The luggable Mac
If you ca n’t yield a MacBook as a second Mac ( “ Macs on the Move , ” April 2007 ) , then consider turning an iMac into a movable Mac . I ’m compose this on mine , using the wireless connection of an extended - stay hotel . An iLuggercarrying instance , project specifically for the 17- and 20 - column inch iMacs , provides dependable transport at one - tenth the cost of a MacBook.—Mark Maisonneuve
Must music be free?
I am a professional instrumentalist and have been since I was 10 geezerhood old . It ’s all I ’ve ever done , all I ’ve ever known . After 35 age in the business , I ’m in the end making money and can open to buy Macs and iPods . So imagine my foiling when I open your magazine to see that you ’re telling people about places to getfreemusic without have a missive from the RIAA ( “ rule Free Music,”Playlist , April 2007 ) . There ’s nothing ill-timed with free music . But there ’s also nothing untimely with letting people bonk that when they de jure buy professionally recorded music , they ’re not only getting bully euphony but also allow thousand of people like me to make a life at what we were put up to do . allow ’s contain perpetuating the myth that musicians are evil because we require that the people who revel our music ante up for it.—Jimmy Nichols
Making room
I enjoyed the column about reclaiming your laptop ’s hard - disk space ( “ Reclaim Hard - Drive Space,”Mobile Mac , March 2007 ) . Is there anything untimely with deleting some of the old software system in the /Library / Receipts folder in gild to reclaim more disk infinite ( century of megabytes)?—John Trowbridge
Although it ’s possible to get disembarrass of some , you take to know which gross are safe to delete and which are n’t . OS X uses some of these receipts for repairing permissions and Software Update , and some third - party applications use them for their own software system - updating features . This is one folder that I ’d get out alone.—Dan Frakes
Here ’s another agency to release up space : If you do n’t practice GarageBand , get rid of the Apple Loops depository library ( in /Library/ Audio ) . That ’s a couple of gig of useless data sitting on your drive . If one day you do need the library , you may easily reinstall it.—Philip Murray
New and improved spam filters
Joe Kissell ’s “ Stop Today ’s Spam ” ( Working Mac , April 2007 ) cater the perfect method for filtering annoying image spam . I noticed , however , that after I ’d follow out it , even though Mail was properly rootle rubble substance to the dust postbox , it would still play the New Mail speech sound . To silence the junk e-mail , I made a written matter of one of the organisation sound file ( situate in /System / Library/ Sounds ) , and then used Sound Studio to turn it into a one - second recording of silence . I hold open it as an AIFF file cabinet called No Sound in my own /Library / Sounds/ pamphlet . Then , in Mail , I added an military action to that image - spam ruler : after choosing Play Sound from the drop-off - down list , I select Add / Remove at the end of the useable sounds . I then tally the blank strait file I ’d created to the listing of sounds , and take it for the rule . Voilà ! No more New Mail sound for the effigy spam.—Kevin Rohrman
That ’s a very apt solution . Thanks for let us know!—Joe Kissell
After I congeal up your rule to divert range of a function spam , another musical composition of detritus chain armor slip right through . On close investigation , I found that it did n’t contain a
Power to the people
Macworldperforms a caboodle of very useful tests on ironware to help consumer decide which products are best . But one examination is lack : power consumption . As electricity price rise and as spherical warming increment , the environmentally conscious among us would wish to lessen our fossil - fuel usage but still have access to great Mac technology . recite us which products use the least amount of mogul , and on the button how much big businessman each product does use , would be a real service . state us whether a product is Energy Star - compliant is not enough . We take you to punch Macs , monitors , printers , and other products into some sort of power - intake meter , rent them break away for a while , and then recite us how much business leader they consume in different types of usage.—Joe Edgell
