Mac Meetup: 17th July 2007

"So, want to see my Leopard?"
"What mac do you use?"
"Can i see your iPhone demo?"

The first question sounds suspiciously deviant. But only if you're not aware that it's not a reference to the animal or a body part, but a Operating System.

Those were some questions I overheard at tonight's ME@N Mac Meetup (ME@N stands for "Mac Evangelists At Nanyang"). A bunch of us occupied an entire row at Suntec's MacDonalds for about three hours. Of course we gave MacDonald's business too (I, for one, ate there for the first time ever).

Pictures that Siva "live blogged", here.


At one point, conversations suddenly hushed. It was quiet enough to hear a Mac start up. Kevin played his iPhone demo. I saw a guy (not from our group) at other table turn and watch the video in rapture. [Kevin is in the midst of uploading the video as I write this.]

One reason why I turned up was to find an answer to this question: What do Mac users do at Mac Meetups?

I got my answer gradually, as the French Fries got chomped and the talk got going.

The Macs were brought out of their bags. Apps (applications) being explained. Kevin was, as usual, in his element by showing some game that involved him waving and gesturing in front of his mac camera (photos here, here and here).

But very little tech talk, apparently.

OK, I admit I have a stereotype of any gatherings involving geeks. I thought we'd be going gah-gah over the latest downloads or patches or hacks. Like, you know, hardcore stuff? But no. Nothing we discussed was that different from what most young computer savvy users won't be discussing nowadays.

I picked up new things here and there. Useful tidbits. Like how you didn't have to reboot the Mac to detect a projector; most Mac users don't seem to shutdown their machine but put them to Sleep mode; I was told of a Search app for my Nokia e61 phone (not mac related at all).

It was like sitting with a bunch of car enthusiasts, who rave about car performance parts. Or with soccer fans talking about their favourite teams. Or librarians all choked over taxonomies and AACR2 (nah, I'm just kidding about the part about librarians).

I met familiar faces and new ones. Some names I've known from the group postings and finally attaching a face to the pleasant personalities in the ME@N list.

There was Gayle the student (who's on a term break from her studies in Scotland and currently working during her vacation time); Timothy whose job designation says "User Research Specialist" (check out his business blog); Ann (whom I'd met at the MacRitchie Brisk Walk but I couldn't recognise her initially without her bandana).

Incidentally, Ann exclaimed, "I thought a librarian's job is just to tell you where the book is!" while Gayle said it was the first time she met a librarian in real life.

Heh.

There's something therapeutic about such informal sessions. You forget about whatever worries you have from work. You listen and you talk to people. You learn more about them as fellow human beings.

I'm pretty convinced it's not the geek or tech that makes people turn up for such sessions. In this case, the Mac computers are just convenient excuses for people to build and cultivate associations and friendship.

That's what I think.

Saturday humour: Who's the real blogger?

Xylo the Cat says, "Rats! Caught in the act. Now that Siva has discovered that I can blog, I'll have to get rid of him."
Or
"Rats! The secret's out. Now you know who's the REAL blogger behind Otterman Speaks."

Seriously though, did you know there's a computer program to "detect cat-like typing?" (Siva rediscovered it, thanks to his cat Xylo).

How to convert MP4 audio files to MP3 using iTunes

Here's something I learnt -- how to convert MP4 audio files to MP3 using iTunes version 7.x on a Mac (if you're using iTunes 8.x, the Import option has been moved to: General-> Preferences-> Import Settings-> Import Using):

NOTE: THE FOLLOWING STEPS WORK ONLY FOR NON-PROTECTED FILES.

Background: I'd created my Saturday In May in GarageBand and it was saved as an MP4 audio file. Apparently some of my friends were unable to play in that format so I searched for a way to make the conversion. Kevin described broadly how it could be done via iTunes.

I'd also found this freeware called Switch (www.nch.com.au/switch), which worked quite well but I realised iTunes, while a bit cumbersome compared to using a software convertor, allowed more control over the conversion (e.g. setting the bit rate and overall sound quality). So here's a step-by-step process of how a conversion could be done using iTunes (click on the images for larger sizes):

#1 - Open iTunes:


#2 - At iTunes, select the song you want to convert. In this case, I've selected "Saturday In May" among my other song titles:


#3 - Go to your iTunes menu bar, select Preferences (or you can press 'Command' and 'comma' keys, i.e. "⌘,"):


#4 - At the Preferences window, select the 'Advanced' option:


#5 - At the 'Advanced' section, click on the button that says 'Importing' and then for the part on 'Import Using', choose 'MP3 Encoder':


#6 - Under Settings, choose 'Custom' (you can choose any of the options there, but 'Custom' settings ensures you set the right bit rate as you will see in step #7):


#7 - If you've selected 'Custom', you'll see this window; just check that your Stereo Bit Rate and Sample Rate are to your desired settings (sorry, I can't give through explanation on audio settings. I just know that it's safest to set the Sample Rate at 44.1 khz or else the audio file you upload might playback with a Sped-up High-pitched Chipmunk effect)


#8 - Close the Preferences window; here I'll just double check that I've selected the right song


#9 - At the iTunes menu, select Advanced -> Convert Selection to MP3 and the conversion would start (note: If you've selected something else in Step #5, you'll see that respective option. E.g. if you've selected 'AAC Encoder' under 'Importing' at Preferences earlier, you'll see Convert Selection to AAC instead)


#10 - Once iTunes has completed the conversion, you should now see TWO songs of the same title, like so:


#11 - To confirm, select that song title and press the '⌘' and 'i' keys to view the file information, and you should see a new window with the file details:


[Also posted at MyRightBrain]
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