AAUG - Goodies, Prizes, Auction, and Info

The Alaska Apple User Group met last night. While there are tons of places on line to get information, there is something nice about being able to ask a live person questions. This picture shows the table of books, software, and accessories that you can take and keep if you do a review. Last night I took a Mouse Pad with a gel wrist rest, a book on podcasting, and "internet cleanup" - software to 'Protect Your Privacy on the Mac.' So far, I've tried the mouse pad and I'm not sure there is an improvement. The book looks good because my wife - who has a strong audio background - is looking for a digital recorder, with possibly podcasting in the future. Haven't loaded the software yet.

I also talked with an ichat video conference user whose going to help me work out the connection to my mom. I've got a friend with a pc and we haven't been able to make that connection work. What I downloaded from the web said he needed to disable his firewall and he wasn't willing to do that. But my mother has a Mac and we haven't been able to make that work either. This guy is also exploring Skype as an alternative cross platform video chat forum. We'll see.




This other picture shows the library, where you can check things out for a month. And then there is a raffle and auction. All the goodies are donated by manufacturers who obviously want some exposure for their products. Seems like a good deal all around. Even my skeptical nature sees this all as a good thing. Am I missing some lurking evil here? Again, this is a community, like the automaticwashers.org, that exists pretty much below the radar of most people, but has proved to be a real help. Oh, did I mention their free weekend seminars? Actually, I may have in a previous postabout our first AAUG meeting. And also the post on Naked Conversations, a book on blogging I reviewed.