.Mac: under-used or under-documented features?

Is it telling that there have been no replies posted to this inquiry (or is it a function of the transition to the new server)?

[I don't believe there were any technical issues with this thread. -Adam]

My response: Other than for Internet storage (for Web page use), I hardly take advantage of it at all. There is little there (save for the occasional software title or discount) that I would use. Perhaps Virex, but I found Backup to be a complete disappointment. I don't think it is worth $100/year, and will likely discontinue using it when it comes time for renewal.

[I guess the question is, then, what would .Mac need to do to be worthwhile to you? -Adam]

> [I guess the question is, then, what would .Mac need to do to be
> worthwhile to you? -Adam]

* Include OS updates with .Mac membership. I'd join in a minute if this
was offered. I paid quite a bit of money to upgrade to Jaguar and then
to Panther. Knowing that I'd get Tiger as part of .Mac membership would
certainly be worth it. I think it would be worth it for Apple too,
income wise. Yes, Apple charges $350 for "upgrading" to the latest and
greatest OS, but a lot more people would upgrade if this was part of
.Mac membership.

* Add domain registration. A lot of people pay about $100 per year to
not only register their own domain, but also have a place to host that
domain. These services include multiple email accounts, multiple
webpage subdomains, file storage, etc. Even GoDaddy, the Walmart of
domain hosting services, charges about $100 per year for a complete set
of services. Yahoo charges at least $144 per year for this service.
.Mac offers many of these services, but all are with the .mac.com
domain. How hard would it be for Apple to add domain registration and
forwarding to the offer?

* More sophisticated web page development. Doesn't Apple own
WebObjects? Are they available to .Mac? How about CGI scripting? Heck,
even throw in Microsoft FrontPage, and Bill Gates will personally
underwrite the whole adventure.

* More business oriented options. Yahoo does a lot of business helping
local shops setup "web stores". These range from a local pizza place
that allows customers to order delivery via the web to large companies
that have simply found it easier to have someone else handle their web
commerce.

David Weintraub
Support me in the Tour de Cure!
<http://www.weintraubworld.net/tour>
davidweintraubworld.net

I agree pretty much with all of David Weintraub's comments, although I don't quite see how the .Mac price would fit with free OS upgrades ... or the delivery of them.

I realise the original question was about certain of the services, but frankly, I don't really see how you can separate them. They're all part of the .Mac package. In view of this, my one *major* request for .Mac, is to have multiple 'public' folders on my iDisk, each with it's own password.

I've found that iDisk is a tremendous way of sending large files to clients, for the occassions when they don't use iChat or are on PC, or something equally weird.

The only other problem I have is with Backup. I can't see the point in a Backup solution which doesn't maintain a true copy of your folders and files. Currently if you move a file or folder between backups, the next time you do a backup you just get a second copy of it in the backup. This can lead to a lot of confusion and subsequent loss of files and if the files are large, as in my case, it's a huge waste of disk space. So Backup 3 needs to be a real backup solution.

iSync is just fantastic.

Grant Symon

The greatest is iSync, to sync my 3 computers and palm. What is especially nice is that it syncs my Safari bookmarks as well as Address Book.

iCal is nowhere near as good as Palm Desktop. Apple should buy it back from them. Syncing iCal isn't too valuable.

Backup bothers me as I cannot read the backup format without the Backup program AND a connection to .mac. I use Prosoft Data Backup II.

The University where I work has started installing firewalls all over the place - with no standards. Now it is difficult to exchange files > 3mb with different departments. .mac solves that problem very well. But then, so does my ftp site on my home computer, running OSx on cable. (my cable address has stayed the same for a year, and I pay $8/year for a dhs.org address)

It would be useful as a web site for my genealogy, but that is on my home computer also.

I'd say that the most valuable service is iSync. Also my korimac.com email address. I'll keep it just for those two uses.

For me, .mac is worth it for the ability to keep a calendar and address book synchronized on my three Macs. iSync has been invaluable! That, alone, is worth the price for me. I think .mac’s value is definitely greater for someone with multiple Macs.

Also, for those times that I need to share a large file that chokes on my ISP’s email file size limitations, I drop it into my iDisk and email a link to the file for the recipient to download.

So far I haven’t had the time to view some of the Apple online training available to members only. For someone just getting started with Panther or the iLife apps, it could be a great visual introduction, resources all in one place (although there is a wealth of great resources—books, CD, DVD—available in bookstores and online). Taking the time to watch some of this training might just teach me about useful features that I don’t know about. Oh, for more hours in the day...

I don’t care for Virex (I use Norton Antivirus), nor do I use Backup (I use Retrospect—it handles my large volume of files more efficiently).

Occasionally .mac offers some good deals on third party software and utilities, too (a few that I've purchased).

Primarily, keeping multiple Macs in sync (so easily!) has made .mac membership worth it to me.

Judy Morse

Backup bothers me as I cannot read the backup format without the Backup program AND a connection to .mac.

Backup doesn't do anything at all to the stuff it backs up, except put it all into a neat 'package'. There is no compression or encryption or anything.

You can see inside the package by using the Contextual menu (Cntrl-Click) or the 'Action Menu' and choosing 'Show Package Contents'.

Grant Symon

Cool, little known .Mac feature: iCal publishing to the Web (viewable with a Web browser on any platform) - This might be under-documented and/or under-used; either way, it's a nice feature. It may not be enough in itself to warrant getting a .Mac account, but it certainly makes iCal more useful as a publishing tool.
(I wish I could do this with my own Web server--if anyone knows how, please let me know or point me to the source of such info.)

On my wish list: an elegant blog feature - seems like this one is over due, considering the popularity of blogs these days. And shouldn't be too hard to do, since most of the Web publishing stuff is already there. Apple could contribute some nice, elegant templates that show the rest of the messy blog world how it's done. I'd like to see it work with any of several blog apps (or maybe Apple's own--buy iBlog, fix it up and add it to iLife), in a similar way to iCal, using WEBDav for publish and subscribe.
(Again, not sure if I would actually use this myself--I'm working through the frustrations of setting up Movable Type for myself--but it would certainly be something that I would recommend to a number of people who've asked.)

Mark

> I don’t care for Virex (I use Norton Antivirus), nor do I use Backup (I
> use Retrospect?it handles my large volume of files more efficiently).

I just got my PowerBook hard drive replaced (for free, I love AppleCare.
They "upgraded" the CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive I had to CD-RW/DVD-ROM. Not sure
if that was accidental) and I did find one thing I like about Backup vs.
other tools such as Retrospect.

I didn't want to restore everything, just my Address Book contacts and iCal
calendars. With Retrospect or other backup tool I would have to know what
files make those up, and dig around in different folders to find the
various components. With Backup I just told it to restore Address Book and
iCal and got everything i needed.

My other data files, and one or two preference files, I pulled back from a
"real" backup I'd made of everything to my server.

Kevin

Would anybody like to point out any part of the Mac Universe that is
'Over documented?' No I can't think of anything, either. Certainly not
in comparison to my 1,000 page Ragtime Solo handbook.

But as people like TidBits and TakeControl authors are in an
independent position and able to do a better job than developers who
live on top of their projects for years... I'm sure it all works out:
once the real documents start flowing.

On 29 Apr, 2004, at 07:25, judymorseearthlink.net wrote:

> For me, .mac is worth it for the ability to keep a calendar and
> address book synchronized on my three Macs. iSync has been invaluable!
> That, alone, is worth the price for me. I think .mac’s value is
> definitely greater for someone with multiple Macs.

I have only one Mac but do have three hard discs; I could keep systems
and apps synchronised on the drives, couldn't I?

> Also, for those times that I need to share a large file that chokes on
> my ISP’s email file size limitations, I drop it into my iDisk and
> email a link to the file for the recipient to download.

Yes, this is a life saver. I just did a software tutorial and saved it
to a Snapz-Pro processed QT video. Try emailing a 50MB movie! And a lot
of people want this movie, too. I may be able to put some MacWest MUG
meetings on my iDisc: I'm certainly going to try for members who can't
get to meetings.

The .Mac web pages are easy too, for photographs that distant members
of the sailing club can see.

> So far I haven’t had the time to view some of the Apple online
> training available to members only. For someone just getting started
> with Panther or the iLife apps, it could be a great visual
> introduction, resources all in one place (although there is a wealth
> of great resources—books, CD, DVD—available in bookstores and online).
> Taking the time to watch some of this training might just teach me
> about useful features that I don’t know about. Oh, for more hours in
> the day...

Underpromoted rather than underdocumented. I'm recommending our MUG to
look at them for possible beginner's evening topics.

> I don’t care for Virex (I use Norton Antivirus), n! or do I use Backup
> (I use Retrospect—it handles my large volume of files more
> efficiently).
>
> Occasionally .mac offers some good deals on third party software and
> utilities, too (a few that I've purchased).

'StickyBrain' is better than 'LeakyBrain' – I'm with you on these
utilities. Now to Mind Map the StickyBrain notes so that I can
remember what to look for. When you have a perfect feeling for what is
in the SickyBrain's mind, but can't put words to it to drag it out of
hiding... It's frustrating.

George Wade

At 12:41 -0700 30/04/2004, Mark Altenberg wrote in Re: .Mac:
under-used or under-documented features?:
>Cool, little known .Mac feature: iCal publishing to the Web
>(viewable with a Web browser on any platform) - This might be
>under-documented and/or under-used; either way, it's a nice feature.
>It may not be enough in itself to warrant getting a .Mac account,
>but it certainly makes iCal more useful as a publishing tool.

If you don't want to sign up for .Mac just to publish iCal calendars
then iCalX will do it for free. I've published my calendar of
training courses via iCalX for a couple of years now.

http://www.icalx.com/

<http://www.icalx.com/html/miraz/month.php?cal=Miraz32Jordan32Training32Courses&getdate=20040530>

Cheers,

Miraz
--
Writer Trainer Web-Designer Learner
Blog: [http://mactips.info/blog]

On Apr 30, 2004, at 12:41, Mark Altenberg wrote:

> On my wish list: an elegant blog feature - seems like this one is over
> due, considering the popularity of blogs these days...Apple could
> contribute some nice, elegant templates that show the rest of the
> messy blog world how it's done. I'd like to see it work with any of
> several blog apps (or maybe Apple's own--buy iBlog, fix it up and add
> it to iLife)...

iBlog is free for .Mac subscribers, can automatically publish to your
.Mac website, comes with some nice templates, and can get pictures and
music from iPhoto and iTunes.

iBlog could use some improvements, but overall it's a nice program that
makes it very simple to start blogging with .Mac.

The only thing missing for me in terms of .Mac integration is that it
doesn't automatically add a link to the blog to the links at the top of
each .Mac website page.

--
Chris Page - Software Wrangler - Dylan Pundit

  That's "Chris" with a silent *and* invisible "3".

On Apr 30, 2004, at 1:41 PM, Mark Altenberg wrote:

> Cool, little known .Mac feature: iCal publishing to the Web (viewable
> with a Web browser on any platform) - This might be under-documented
> and/or under-used; either way, it's a nice feature. It may not be
> enough in itself to warrant getting a .Mac account, but it certainly
> makes iCal more useful as a publishing tool.
> (I wish I could do this with my own Web server--if anyone knows how,
> please let me know or point me to the source of such info.)

PHPiCalendar does this beautifully. Works on any server that's running
PHP.

http://phpicalendar.sourceforge.net/nuke/

Very easy to install and run. Combined with some of the publish via FTP
utilities available for iCal, it makes for a very simple way to build
on-line schedules.

>
>What are your favorite features, or, conversely, what are the features you
>really wish you could learn how to use quickly?

One under-documented feature is the email-only accounts. I will be
unable to leave .mac now, even if I wanted to. Reason? Because 6
other people have email-only accounts that are "tied" to mine. And...
it seems to slip these guys minds that I have to pay for their email
accounts annually! :)

I also think the custom iCard feature is very very nice and unique,
but underused. Well, I don't see people sending me any, and I don't
use the feature as much as I would like. The reason being that it
involves dragging a picture to the iDisk, and then navigating through
a slow .Mac web site just to send card. Which essentially is just a
customised jpg file. There is a 3rd party application that does what
iCard does, but it's shareware.

I know that I can host web sites via my iDisk, and this is useful. It
also follows that I could put my eBay photos there, and point to it
via HTML. Good feature to have, I must say. eBay allows one free
photo only. And even then, the web browser upload interface annoys
me. It would be nice if I could do this automatically: take picture,
rename it, shrink it, drag it to iDisk, then add HTML to point to
picture instantly.

We can actually share iCal calendars via free WebDAV servers. One
such one is http://www.sharemation.com. It works really well, and I
recommend it to my email-only account holders.

This has been mentioned in earlier posts: One effect of .Mac is
having a mac.com account (whether full or trial). On a broadband
connected Mac, it's nice to create a new profile on a Mac, go to the
.Mac preferences pane, and enter my details. The sit back and allow
iSync, iChat, and Mail to work automagically. Safari boomarks, and
iCal are also synced. Nice when travelling, and someone lends me a
Mac to use. Also nice when my wife and I swap our PowerBook/iBooks,
and we just change profiles on whatever machine we are using.

One feature of the Apple Address Book I would like to figure out is
the "Directories" bit in the "Groups" column on the main Address Book
page. Is it possible for me to set up an LDAP server for myself and
people on my network? If so, is it easy? And how is it done?

Thanks.

--
Chik chikmac.com

On 5/3/2004 7:48, "Chik" <chikmac.com> wrote:

> One feature of the Apple Address Book I would like to figure out is
> the "Directories" bit in the "Groups" column on the main Address Book
> page. Is it possible for me to set up an LDAP server for myself and
> people on my network? If so, is it easy? And how is it done?

OpenLDAP, in the form of slapd (the daemon which listens for LDAP
connections and does the work) is present in Panther, as is slurpd (the
daemon which, on the "master" server of a cluster updates the "slave"
servers when a change is made to the master).

So presumably one could set up a directory service. Is it easy? Nothing
about setting up LDAP is easy. (I've never done it...our guru does it for
the various servers we have.)

You would need to allow the people on your network to reach port 389.

  --John

John W. Baxter wrote:

>
>So presumably one could set up a directory service. Is it easy? Nothing
>about setting up LDAP is easy. (I've never done it...our guru does it for
>the various servers we have.)
>
>You would need to allow the people on your network to reach port 389.
>
> --John

Not sure how good or accurate the information is but AFP548.com has some
basic information on setting up LDAP on OS X. They have a forum for
more detailed questions.

<http://www.afp548.com/Articles/Jaguar/emailsharing.html>

In the one week I had my PowerBook G4 back from AppleCare (before the
new hard drive they gave me disintegrated) I used their free VaporSec
program to setup an IPSec tunnel to my home network. It's pretty basic
and has some things I'd like to see changed, but it did work. And it
was cheaper than VPN Tracker (but VPN Tracker is way easier to use.)

[I think our context is failing, so let's either try to come back on topic or let this thread die down. -Adam]

Kevin