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MacMania 16 Seminars

Rhone River • November 29–December 6, 2013

The conference fee is $1,395 and includes all 16 seminars below.

SAL SOGHOIAN

LEX FRIEDMAN

JOE KISSELL

LYNNE LANCASTER, PH.D.

• • • SAL SOGHOIAN • • •

25 Things You Need to Know About OS X

Finally, a way to master the basics of using a Mac! Even seasoned Apple veterans don’t take advantage of the numerous features of OS X. In this hands-on class, you’ll learn and apply the shortcuts and custom settings used by the pros. Bring your laptop.

Introduction to OS X Automation

The “hidden gem” of OS X is its suite of incredible automation technologies, including AppleScript, Automator, and Services. Unrivaled in power and abilities, these built-in tools are ready to save you time and toil. Take a few moments to finally learn how to take advantage of these unique technologies in a relaxed “learn-by-doing” class. You’ll be surprised by what you can do with your Mac!

Instant E-Publishing

It’s official, the world has moved to an electronic format for publishing, creating a growing demand and challenge to move new and existing documents to digital formats viewable on both computers and mobile devices. Fortunately, Mac OS X offers built-in automation tools that make it easy to create high-quality digital publications from standard source materials.
          In this hands-on class, you’ll learn how to:

  • prepare electronic media for publications and distribution
  • quickly create and publish articles in web-app format
  • easily create digital books in universal EPUB format

         Bring your curiosity and a laptop running Mac OS X Lion, and you’ll be creating digital publications in minutes — guaranteed!

Make Your Own Cloud

Nowadays, it’s all about the “Cloud” and “cloud-based services” for everything from shopping, to parking, exercising, and even finding your wandering dog. And all of these services want you to “trust them” with your personal information and files. But did you know that for a small investment and a minimumal amount of time, you can keep your data private and safe at home, by setting up your own “cloud,” using great Apple software and hardware? In this class, you’ll learn how to setup a Mac-based “cloud” that can store, share, and even distribute your data securely, to all of your favorite devices. Bring your curiosity!

• • • LEX FRIEDMAN • • •

Mac OS: Offloading Your Brain

Apps and tools you can use so that you needn’t stress remembering important things. You probably already know how to use the Reminders app on your Mac or iOS device, but we’ll cover powerful tricks for using it more effectively and efficiently. We’ll also look at hidden features and brain-offloading handled by other core apps like Notes and Calendar, third-party utilities like Fantastical, and how you can depend on underlying technology like iCloud and Siri to never fear forgetting. We’ll also look at technologies like RSS, apps like Instapaper, Yojimbo, and Evernote, features like Reading List, and more.

Drive Your Mac from the Keyboard

Most Mac users already know about Spotlight. You might even know about powerful keyboard utilities like LaunchBar, Quicksilver, or Alfred. We’ll cover the best features of all those tools, but we’ll also dive into how you can frequently eschew the mouse entirely. Learn the secrets of keyboard navigation, the many places you can type a few characters to access something more quickly, and all the ways keeping your fingers on the keyboard can make you more efficient.

Oh, the Things You Can Make

An overview of content creation on the iPad. You know your iPad isn’t consumption, and after this talk, you’ll be ready to prove it. We’ll go over photo editing, comic-stylized photo album assembly, movie making, and interactive cartoon creation. To do so, we’ll put a slew of affordable apps through their paces, touching on their basics and even some advanced features.

Improve Your iOS Efficiency

iOS is a pleasure to use because it’s so simple. Master a few tricks, and you can push the joy of using your iPhone or iPad into overdrive, by maximizing your — and your iOS device’s — efficiency. We’ll cover techniques like mastering touch-typing on a touch-screen, learning to love autocorrect, teaching your iPhone and iPad more about how you type, creating custom keyboard shortcuts, leveraging third-party utilities, maximizing battery life, becoming a better iOS multitasker, and more.

• • • JOE KISSELL • • •

Stay Safe Out There

These days the news is full of reports about hacked accounts, stolen password lists, malware, and other security threats that can affect Mac users. Don’t panic! You can keep your data safe and protect your privacy if you understand some basic principles, including how the “bad guys” think. In this essential session on Mac security, we’ll start with the most important security precaution of all: good backups. We’ll move on to creating, storing, and using excellent passwords — as well as how to manage weak links such as password reset systems and security questions. Then we’ll explore topics such as when and how to use two-factor authentication, how to avoid the Internet’s sketchiest neighborhoods, and exactly what to do if you find out (or suspect) that your security has been compromised.

The Joy of (Plain) Text

Yes, it’s the 21st century, and we all have tools to create high-definition video, 3D rendering, and breathtaking interactive multimedia books. Even so, good old-fashioned plain text is increasingly becoming the weapon of choice for hard-core Mac geeks, who often prefer to keep their hands on their keyboards at all time (as Lex explains in his "Drive Your Mac from the Keyboard" session). There’s a method to this seemingly “retro” madness — plain text is fast, flexible, and universal, and modern tools you can use to work with it are amazingly powerful. Whether you want to write a novel, create beautiful blogs and Web sites, communicate online, or make your Mac jump through hoops, you’ll find a powerful ally in plain text. We’ll discuss text editors, regular expressions, command line tricks, and other ways you can be happier and more productive by using plain text.

Living on a Desert Island with Only Your iOS Device

More and more people are ditching their laptops and using an iPad as their sole mobile computing device. That’s not as hard as it once was, but what if we took that to the extreme? You’re stuck indefinitely on a desert island (which, fortunately, has Wi-Fi and an AC outlet!) with only your iPad or iPhone, and you have to do every single business and personal computing task with just that device. Can you pull it off? (Hint: Yes!) In this sequel to Lex’s "Oh, the Things You Can Make" session, we’ll go a few steps beyond content creation. We’ll look at some of the most challenging computing tasks and find clever, creative ways to do them with nothing more than an iPhone or iPad.

50 Things You Didn’t Know Your iOS Device Can Do

Your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch has a user interface so simple and obvious that a child can use it in minutes. But it also has an astonishing number of hidden capabilities you might never find, even after months of use. In this session, we’ll explore obscure gestures, novel uses for notifications and accessibility features, secret Siri tricks, little-known uses for earbud buttons, useful customization options, and much more.

• • • LYNNE LANCASTER, PH.D. • • •

Introduction to Culture and Technology in Gaul

Gaul was influenced by the Iberians, Celts, Greeks, and Romans from their colonies and the annexation of Gaul during the Roman rise to power. Each of these cultures brought their own skills and cultural preferences to the area that is now modern France. Take a look at introduced technologies such as town planning, architecture and construction, mining of salt and metals, and the adoption of coinage (a technology in its own right). We end by looking at the ways in which the politics of colonization, initiated by the Greeks and Romans, influenced the modern history of France and her own exploitation of the natural resources of her colonies in the Roman territories of North Africa.

Fire-Based Technologies in Gaul: Terracotta Production and Metal Working

The creation of terracotta and metal objects require the mastery of heating technologies that go far beyond attaining high temperatures. Whether controlling the color, durability, and permeability of clay based objects or creating alloys of various base metal or carburizing iron to create steel, early artisans had to master techniques of balancing chemical interaction to achieve the desired results.

Take a look at the sophisticated methods achieved by Greek potters to create the black and red figure decorated pottery and then explore how this knowledge was adopted by the Romans who eventually established a pottery industry in southern and central Gaul that mass produced and exported pottery on a scale never before seen. Learn about modern technologies for examining ancient clay products that allow us to understand better how this mass production was achieved and who the actual artisans were.

In contrast to this imported knowledge we also examine the Celtic metal working skills for which the Celts were known long before the Romans incorporated the Celtic world into to the empire. We will focus in particular on the forging of military gear such as swords, chain mail, and chariots.

Building an Amphitheater

Southern France has some of the best preserved theaters and amphitheaters from the Roman world: the theater at Orange, and the amphitheaters at Arles and Nimes. We will look at the process of building such monumental structures by focusing on the greatest one of all, the Colosseum. Along with bath buildings, the construction of amphitheaters represents one of the greatest investment a community could take on. It involves preparing the site for enormous loads, quarrying and transporting great numbers of stone blocks, and raising those blocks and setting them into place. Moreover, the complexity of the myriad of stairs leading fans to their seats created structural issues for which the Roman builders devised ingenious methods of transferring loads through the structure to prevent cracking and settlement. Enrich your appreciation of ancient architecture in the Roman world and beyond. This lecture will precede a visit to the well-preserved amphitheater at Arles.

Aqueducts, Baths, and Water Mills

Just outside the city of Arles is one of the most remarkable water mills known from the Roman world. It was built on a hillside at Barbegal and fed from a branch of the main aqueduct serving Arles. The mill had 16 water wheels each attached to mill stones that ground wheat into flour. It was long assumed that the Romans did not make use of such technology due to their reliance on cheap slave labor, but more evidence such as the Barbegal mill, which has recently been dated earlier (2nd c. AD) than previously assumed (4th c. AD), shows that the Roman were exploiting water technology not only for grinding wheat but even for powering saws for cutting stone blocks into slabs much earlier and on a greater scale than has been realized. This was all possible due to the mastery of aqueducts, one of the most spectacular remains of which supplied the city of Nimes, the famous Pont du Gard. We will explore the principles behind the laying out and functioning of Roman aqueducts including the use of inverted siphons, tunnel cutting, and arch construction. We will be visiting both the Barbegal Mills and the Pont du Gard.
 

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