YML News

On Saturday, Shawn and Sly walked around the (very) touristy area of Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco - taking pictures of sea lions, blimps and boats!

MacSpeech sends us to Expo, it's Lesa's favorite time of the year, Griffin Presents the YML Rocks Expo Party, there's a Bus Trip to the Apple Company Store in Cupertino and we've got details for the Official Hotel of YML!

We arrived in San Francisco this morning after a wonderful First Class flight from JFK and, while out running some errands, found ourselves in the middle of a peaceful protest march!

So I got out the Nikon D3 on loan from LensProToGo and started playing photojournalist.

Congratulations to:

Furthest travelled from outside North America: Michael House, Tokyo, Japan

Furthest travelled from inside North America: George Canellis, Bellport, NY

Random draw winners:
TJ Ferreira
Michelle Grajales
Paul Trentham
Terry Swensen
Devon Goss
Dan Neal

See you at Macworld Expo next week!

(If you're getting last week's show when you tune in live, you click on Quicktime Preferences in your Quicktime Menu, then click on browser and then click on Empty Download Cache (or uncheck the "Save Movies" in disk cache")

This week on Your Mac Life, sponsored by RadTech, SmileOnMyMac and Circus Ponies - "Happy Holidays from YML!"

Live Video is on Your Mac Life thanks to MacOSG.com! You can watch the show live at this URL:
http://www.macosg.com/group/yml.html

Or you can listen in to the plain old audio feed at:
http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/QT/stream.mov

You can also join the Chat Room that runs during the live show - on the Live Video Feed itself or on the dedicated IRC Server at irc.netmug.org in the #yourmaclife Channel.

Make sure you listen in this and every Wednesday evening from 5:30pm to 8pm PT or from 8:30pm to 11pm ET, for the most fun you'll have listening to your Mac.

(If you're getting last week's show when you tune in live, you click on Quicktime Preferences in your Quicktime Menu, then click on browser and then click on Empty Download Cache (or uncheck the "Save Movies" in disk cache")

This week on Your Mac Life, sponsored by RadTech, SmileOnMyMac and Circus Ponies - "Are 99 Cent Apps Bad & is this the End of Macworld Expo?"

Live Video is on Your Mac Life thanks to MacOSG.com! You can watch the show live at this URL:
http://www.macosg.com/group/yml.html

Or you can listen in to the plain old audio feed at:
http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/QT/stream.mov

You can also join the Chat Room that runs during the live show - on the Live Video Feed itself or on the dedicated IRC Server at irc.netmug.org in the #yourmaclife Channel.

Make sure you listen in this and every Wednesday evening from 5:30pm to 8pm PT or from 8:30pm to 11pm ET, for the most fun you'll have listening to your Mac.

The nice folks who make MacSpeech's Dictate, the premier speech recognition solution for the Macintosh, are sending Your Mac Life to Macworld Expo!

MacSpeech Dictate provides a whole new way to interact with your Mac. Instead of typing, use your voice to input text; rather than clicking your mouse, just speak commands. With MacSpeech Dictate, it's easy. We were very impressed with how well it worked in our testing a couple of months ago and are extremely happy to welcome MacSpeech as the Trip Sponsor for "YML @ Macworld Expo!"

Of course, MacSpeech will be at Expo - their booth is in the South Hall, #1025. They won many Best of Show Awards (including YML's!) at last year's Expo for the first version of Dictate and will be demoing it throughout the 4 days of Macworld Expo. So head over to their booth, say hi, get a demo of Dictate and say thanks for sponsoring YML!

It's official, Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual is on the presses as I type! I'm also happy to announce that O'Reilly Media has graciously extended a 40% savings to Graphic Reporter readers who buy the book straight from O'Reilly (the discount will beat Amazon's price). It applies to both the printed version and the eBook, and you'll find the link a little further below. The book should be on the shelves by Dec. 29, 2008, which means it will be in O'Reilly's booth at Macworld Expo. Yay!

Admittedly, you could use the darn book as a doorstop--it's comprehensive and weighs in at 800+ pages, plus there are a few bonus appendices available at the book's Missing Manual web site. As I was going through the printed manuscript and filling in page references, I just couldn't believe all those words came out of, well, my fingers!

The book is written for beginners and advanced users alike, whether you're using CS3 or CS4. In the true Missing Manual tradition, this book spells out every concept and technique in great detail, and you'll know if it's something specific to CS4.

(If you're getting last week's show when you tune in live, you click on Quicktime Preferences in your Quicktime Menu, then click on browser and then click on Empty Download Cache (or uncheck the "Save Movies" in disk cache")

This week on Your Mac Life, sponsored by RadTech, SmileOnMyMac and Circus Ponies - "TidBITS Holiday Gift Guide & the Original Macworld Cover!"

Live Video is on Your Mac Life thanks to MacOSG.com! You can watch the show live at this URL:
http://www.macosg.com/group/yml.html

Or you can listen in to the plain old audio feed at:
http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/QT/stream.mov

You can also join the Chat Room that runs during the live show - on the Live Video Feed itself or on the dedicated IRC Server at irc.netmug.org in the #yourmaclife Channel.

Make sure you listen in this and every Wednesday evening from 5:30pm to 8pm PT or from 8:30pm to 11pm ET, for the most fun you'll have listening to your Mac.

We are very pleased to announce a special guest presenter for our December 11th meeting: iStockphoto evangelist Lesa Snider King. Don't miss what promises to be a very entertaining and enlightening session. Her talk is sponsored by iStockphoto.

An image really is worth a thousand words! In this presentation you’ll learn where to get some of the most amazing (and affordable) stock imagery you’ve ever seen, and how to use it in conjunction with your own photos to create unique pieces of graphic art. You’ll learn partial color effects, artistic edge treatments, creative collages, and more!

Lesa is the evangelist for iStockphoto and author of the upcoming book “Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual,” from O’Reilly. All who attend will receive $10 in iStockphoto money & coupons for her book.

January is fast approaching and that means Your Mac Life is furiously planning its presence at Macworld Conference & Expo 2009 in San Francisco, which includes the YML “Rocks Expo” Party!

Once again, the great folks at Griffin Technology have thrown their hat into the ring, joining us as Headline Sponsors for the 2009 YML "Rocks Expo" Party.

Along with our friends at Griffin, other party sponsors include:
Smile on My Mac
Radtech
Circus Ponies
Mackenzies Chocolates
Mariner Software
Brenthaven
Family Eye Care Group
Company Stuff

(If you're getting last week's show when you tune in live, you click on Quicktime Preferences in your Quicktime Menu, then click on browser and then click on Empty Download Cache (or uncheck the "Save Movies" in disk cache")

This week on Your Mac Life, sponsored by RadTech, SmileOnMyMac and Circus Ponies - "Coloring between the Lines and Safe Holiday Shopping!"

Live Video is on Your Mac Life thanks to MacOSG.com! You can watch the show live at this URL:
http://www.macosg.com/group/yml.html

Or you can listen in to the plain old audio feed at:
http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/QT/stream.mov

You can also join the Chat Room that runs during the live show - on the Live Video Feed itself or on the dedicated IRC Server at irc.netmug.org in the #yourmaclife Channel.

Make sure you listen in this and every Wednesday evening from 5:30pm to 8pm PT or from 8:30pm to 11pm ET, for the most fun you'll have listening to your Mac.

(If you're getting last week's show when you tune in live, you click on Quicktime Preferences in your Quicktime Menu, then click on browser and then click on Empty Download Cache (or uncheck the "Save Movies" in disk cache")

This week on Your Mac Life, sponsored by RadTech, SmileOnMyMac and Circus Ponies - "Your Mac Life back Home and Live Tonight!"

Live Video is on Your Mac Life thanks to MacOSG.com! You can watch the show live at this URL:
http://www.macosg.com/group/yml.html

Or you can listen in to the plain old audio feed at:
http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/QT/stream.mov

You can also join the Chat Room that runs during the live show - on the Live Video Feed itself or on the dedicated IRC Server at irc.netmug.org in the #yourmaclife Channel.

Make sure you listen in this and every Wednesday evening from 5:30pm to 8pm PT or from 8:30pm to 11pm ET, for the most fun you'll have listening to your Mac.

After a one year hiatus, Your Mac Life is returning to Cupertino. Well, ok…we’re planning on returning to Cupertino with our listeners to shop til we drop in the Company Store at Apple Headquarters.

As you may know, Apple logo wear is at times harder to get then a top designer label, but we’re going to make it possible for a few listeners to do just that.

Date: Monday, January 5, 2009
Cost $20 - $30 per person depending on numbers.

We will need at least 20-25 people to make this trip happen. If you’re interested, please email Sly at slyatyourmaclifeshow.com with the number of people in your party. Spots on the bus will be on a first come first served basis. Money for transportation costs and lunch will be collected during the trip down to Cupertino.

Do you have what it takes to break the record of over $700 spent at the Apple Company Store? If so, then this trip is for you. Hope you can make it!

Click here to read all the details on how you can join YML at Apple Headquarters to shop in the Apple Company Store!

~ Sly

This week on Your Mac Life, sponsored by RadTech, SmileOnMyMac and Circus Ponies - "Your Mac Life in Italy!"

Tonight's Your Mac Life Show is tape delayed - Your Mac Life is in Firenze (Florence), Italy!

Shawn and Lesa have embarked on a Grand Tour of the Mediterranean - first spending a couple of days relaxing in Rome, then on a cruise ship out of Genoa, Italy for MacMania 8 and now 12 more days in the picturesque Umbrian and Tuscan region of Central Italy.

That makes doing a live show difficult so we've pre-recorded a bunch of segments.

On tonight's show, we talk to ILovePhotos.com's CEO Lorenz Sell, author of the "Little Digital Video" book, Michael Rubin, CEO of TechRestore.com Shannon Jean and his manager of their service department, Chet Mallory. We also take some time to talk to a wonderful bartender of a cool little Irish pub in Florence, Rodrigo of the Lion's Fountain Pub in the Piazza Silvermini.

As I write this, we are on the penultimate day of the MacMania 8 Mediterranean cruise - five countries and eight ports of call in ten days.

This was my first MacMania Cruise and my first time on a cruise ship so I had little information to go on as to how this would all come together - and, for the most part, it has gone about as well as can be expected.

We've taken over two thousand pictures and uploaded over 600 more to our Flickr site. Here is a "Best of MacMania 8" representative set of the best 60 or so shots for your viewing pleasure.

Going on your first cruise is exciting, fun, scary, challenging, frustrating, aggravating… And sometimes, all of that within moments of each other.

We boarded the ship (and what a ship it is - almost 300 meters or 320 yards long, 86 thousand tons with 900 crew members, 12 decks and a top speed of 22 knots or more than 25 mph and built in Helsinki, Finland in 2000) on Wednesday. According to several MacMania veterans, the boarding process on this particular ship took much longer (4 hours) and was much more disorganized than previous cruises on the Holland America line.

(Add to that the seeming European inability to stand in line and not push, shove and butt their way in front of you makes patience and calm an exercise that would make Buddha kick a puppy…)

But once on board and in our lovely cabin at the rear of the ship (we’ve had great views all cruise!), we discovered the wonders of life on board - ridiculously happy and friendly crew, a clean and attractive ship with plenty of facilities (several places to eat, at least half a dozen bars, 2 pools and hot tubs, a gym and, yes - even a shuffleboard court) and a whole bunch of fellow Mac users!

We’ve had very good weather in each city so far (5 ports of call to this point with 3 more to go) even though there have been some spectacular thunderstorms in the evenings while we are at sea. 60 minutes before our fascinating tour of the ruins of Pompeii we had torrential rains that threatened to force us to cancel the excursion but the weather cleared and I think I got some really nice photos of it and Italy in general.

At a certain point in your life, your mind can't be blown. You've been there, done that and bought the t-shirt.

Luckily, yesterday at the Great Pyramids at Giza, I proved that I'm nowhere near that point.

We've all seen the Pyramids and the Sphinx - on TV, movies and in pictures - but nothing, and I do mean *nothing*, can prepare you for seeing them yourself.

Their scale is greater than anything you can imagine. Not just their size - there are bigger, taller buildings - but their history, the culture, the *reason* for them being there is absolutely incredible.

Part of it is Egypt and Cairo itself - while the Egyptians are a "progressive" people, they are sill relatively poor by Western standards and to see their standard of living is a surprise to us. Although, if it hadn't rained much in your hometown for three centuries, it would be as dirty as Cairo too!

The pyramids are covered....in vendors who are hawking various goods and services. You can ride an incredibly stinky camel for "only" 20 Euros or buy a 10 cent Sphinx head for only 5 Euros. And, if you say no, they'll ask again...and again....and again...

But let none of that ruin your enjoyment of one of the most amazing sites and places in the world. They are not the "Pyramids at Giza" - they are truly the "Great (Spectacular, Amazing, Awe-Inspiring, Incredible...) Pyramids at Giza.

I hope you enjoy the pictures but, keep in mind, the Pyramids are not being done justice by my puny digital efforts. Go and see them for yourself.

Click here to see the pictures from our visit to the Pyramids.

Check this out - someone has set up a camera pointed at the Great Pyramids of Giza! Watch tomorrow (Sunday) and see if you can spot us. :)

We're not there yet but....

Had our "orientation session" for our trip to the *4,500 year old* Great Pyramids of Giza if the guide is right, it's going to be an "adventure" - in both the positive and negative sense.

First thing he said was, "Forget all notions of personal hygiene"....Oh oh....

Words can barely express this trip - excitement, nervousness, anger, resentment, fun, scary, challenging, frustrating, aggravating...

But the pictures and places so far have been worth it!

We set sail from Genoa/Savona and headed to Naples where Shawn got to visit the ancient ruins of Pompeii. Unfortunately, Lesa stayed on board to work on the Photoshop CS4 Missing Manual - how's *that* for dedication?

After Naples, the ship sailed to Messina, Sicily. We both stayed on board to work - how's *that* for dedication? :(

The ship is now (1am Ship Time on Friday night/Saturday morning) approx 1/4 of the way to Alexandria, Egypt where Lesa will be forced on a bus to go see the Great Pyramids of Giza - Missing Manual deadline or no Missing Manual deadline...

We are slowly (Dear God - is it ever *slowly*) uploading pics to our Flickr site - our apologies for the chaotic order of the pics but the Net access on board the ship is *very* spotty and often times out. :(

While we were told that we would have "internet access" on board the ship, the Powers That Be weren't exactly clear on how that was defined.

Turns out, "internet access" on board a ship means the Web - no FTP, no POP email, no iChat, no IMAP, no IRC, no....Show... :(

The show is done - if you have an Audible.com account it should show up in your Audible account very soon.

But if you want to listen to the streamed archive, you'll have to wait until the cruise ship decides whether or not to turn those services on. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

This week on Your Mac Life, sponsored by RadTech, SmileOnMyMac and Circus Ponies - "Your Mac Life in the Mediterranean!"

Tonight's Your Mac Life Show is tape delayed - Your Mac Life is in Genoa, Italy!

Shawn and Lesa have embarked on a Grand Tour of the Mediterranean - first spending a couple of days relaxing in Rome and now on a cruise ship out of Genoa, Italy for MacMania 8, a whirlwind ten day tour of 5 countries and 8 ports of call. After their cruise, they will spend 12 more days in the picturesque Umbrian region of Central Italy.

That makes doing a live show difficult so we've pre-recorded a bunch of segments.

On tonight's show, we talk to Oliver Breidenbach, CEO of Boinx.com, about the latest version of Fotomagico. Also, Jeff McGuilkin, Show Director of the PhotoPlus Expo in New York City, Jeremy White of Codeweavers.com and Jason Snell on "National Novel Writing Month".

...was even more enjoyable than the first! We went to the Vatican museums, saw the ceilings of the Sistine Chapel, learned some amazing history, made new friends, bought souvenirs and had more great food, wine and beer - pretty much all you can ask for in a day, isn't it?

Click here to see pics of the Sistine Chapel, the Colisseum and even more giant mugs of beer!

And so the “Trip of a Lifetime” Mac Mania 8 cruise, co-produced by InSight Cruises and Macworld, begins with a (much-delayed at JFK) flight into Rome’s Fiumicino Airport bright and early in the morning.

This particular cruise is in a part of the world I’ve always wanted to visit so when my wife (Lesa Snider King, author of the Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual) asked if I wanted to go with her as she teaches Photoshop classes on the cruise, I jumped at the chance.

The cruise, which begins on Wednesday, is a ten-day, five-country, eight-stop extravaganza through the cradle of civilization. Along with the on-board classes and activities, we will be visiting the ruins of Pompeii, the Great Pyramids at Giza, and—my most anticipated stop—the island of Santorini in Greece.

Shawn and Lesa will spend the month of November in and around the Mediterranean Sea!

The first day was spent acclimatizing to jet lag and the wonders that are Rome. The first batch of pictures are viewable here.

In less than 24 hours, Shawn and Lesa will be tucked warmly into their trans-Atlantic flight, happily on their way to The Eternal City, Rome....

Or...

American Airlines will have found some way to screw us and we'll still be sitting on the tarmac. :(

Either way - at some point this weekend, we anticipate actually being in Rome!

We have no idea what our internet access will be like once we get in Europe or once we board the cruise ship but we plan on updating various avenues as much as possible. Some of you may care. :)

Shawn on Twitter - Warning! I can be *very* chatty on Twitter!

Lesa on Twitter - Warning! Lesa is the exact opposite - she'll go days without saying anything on Twitter.

Sly on Twitter

YMLNation on Twitter - This account will be for more general purpose, less chatty, more YML directed Tweets.

YML on Flickr - You can either bookmark that page or, even better, add us as a contact (mouse over the pic of me in the upper left, click on the Down arrow, then "Add as Contact"). That way, whenever we send a picture to Flickr, you'll get an email.

I will also be writing "Reporter's Notebooks" on Macworld.com. No idea yet how many of those they will post so keep an eye on this site where anything that gets posted on Macworld.com will be linked to here and anything I write that Macworld.com doesn't use, will also get posted there.

(If you're getting last week's show when you tune in live, you click on Quicktime Preferences in your Quicktime Menu, then click on browser and then click on Empty Download Cache (or uncheck the "Save Movies" in disk cache")

This week on Your Mac Life, sponsored by RadTech, SmileOnMyMac and Circus Ponies - "Bob Staake, Apple Profits and MacSpeech!"

Live Video is on Your Mac Life thanks to MacOSG.com! You can watch the show live at this URL:
http://www.macosg.com/group/yml.html

Or you can listen in to the plain old audio feed at:
http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/QT/stream.mov

You can also join the Chat Room that runs during the live show - on the Live Video Feed itself or on the dedicated IRC Server at irc.netmug.org in the #yourmaclife Channel.

Make sure you listen in this and every Wednesday evening from 5:30pm to 8pm PT or from 8:30pm to 11pm ET, for the most fun you'll have listening to your Mac.