You are currently at Monthly:Announcements
Monthly User Group Details

July Meeting - July 10, 2009. See the extended Calendar!
The Q&A will start at 7:00 and run to 7:30 PM.

bradThis month Bradley will demonstrate his process by way of example, of cleaning out a Mac so it can run faster, more like when it was new. We all have this problem to some extent, we’ve updated the operating system and the application, tried out a few things that seemed useful but never spent any time throwing out the old stuff. It takes time and you have to make decisions about what you might need.

Sure, if we had the money, the time and the space, we’d have a top-of-the-line MacPro with a pair of 30-inch monitors with terabytes of disk space and gigabytes of RAM. But we don’t, (well I'm pretty close) so let’s make the most of our current Mac. If we still could run the kinds of simple software we had years ago, it would run super fast on a modern Mac, but we push our old Mac with newer software and we’re not about to go backwards. Who says Microsoft Word 5.1 would even work anymore?

Brad’s going to cover the task of finding out what’s taking up so much room on our hard drive and toss out the stuff we don’t need. Note that word “need”, not want. There is probably some long forgetting stuff wasting space and slowing down your system. Just don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.

catYou could easily be running a bunch of stuff in the background that never shows up in the Dock, but is using up memory and using up your CPU’s time. We are going to prune back stuff so your machine will spend more of it’s time on useful stuff. Sometimes the Mac needs some monitoring to see if you are getting decent network performance or if you are running out of memory, so we will talk about that.

Performing regular maintenance will keep your Mac running smoothly, so we’ll go over some suggestions. Often that could include installing newer versions that work better with your computer and current operating system. If all else fails, there maybe some cost effective hardware upgrades to your old Mac that should put off buying a newer model.

Finally, optimizing your use of the computer can make the difference. Learn some keyboard shortcuts and install some software to make your use of the computer more efficient. You and your Mac are a team.


The December meeting had a presentation of Holiday gifts for Mac users.
For those still interested in links to the suggestions, please click here.

The August meeting will feature again Barbara Mehlman's presentation on Searching for what you want on the Internet -
How to be faster and more effifient!


You’re Invited to the MacBasics SIG
No, that’s not an error or new SIG. There’s been a name change.
The Beginners SIG is now the MacBasics SIG. In order to meet the needs of a wider range of members and not put off those with more than beginning skills, we’ve changed not only the name but also the focus of our SIG. We will still cover applications like AppleWorks and simple procedures like setting up your first Mac, file systems and using utilities, but we’ve also matured, as much of Apple’s software and hardware has. We plan to delve into Apple’s iLife and iWork suites to give you, the users, some working knowledge of these two very important application sets. We will also continue to try to show you how to integrate your Mac and its software into your daily life. So come on down. We'll be where we’ve always been, doing what we’ve always done, but with a new slant and a new name.

The SIG meeting is broken into two sessions. The first is from 7:00 to 7:30PM, during which we will have our own basic level question and answer session. We’ll break for the featured presentation and raffle and come back for the main portion of our SIG meeting from 8:30 to 10 o’clock. The June Mac 101: Getting your ‘award-winning independent digital film’ into iMovie. In case connecting a digital camera to your Mac and capturing the video is still a mystery to you.

Of course before our MacBasics main demonstration we'll have our own novice Q&A session across the hall, while Bradley's dealing with the more complicated problems in the main room.


The DTP/Photoshop SIG, is lead by Brian Revere. This month Brian is going to cover more Photoshop Elements 6 tips.


The Multimedia SIG, lead by Albert Zygier, may or may not meet, depending on interest in the future. Contact Al if you
would like some topic covered for a future SIG meeting, and if there will be a meeting, look in this space and the home
page for an announcement and a topic.


Apple’s 2nd New York City area flagship store opened in Manhattan at 767 Fifth Ave. at E 59th Street.
Read about this site’s storied past. Also check out photos from our local Smith Haven Mall Apple Store Grand Opening.

Board meetings schedule The executive board meetings of LIMac are open to any interested member to attend in a
non-voting manner. There are no secrets here. There is an updated picture for the 2007 board.

[Return to Home page]

This page last modified on 6/23/09.