Content Insider #116 --Security By Miles Weston Software and hardware manufacturers have introduced and continue to develop some of the best computing and online security solutions to protect you and your content from being not just compromised but stolen and used. Lose your hardware and yes it is a pain but it can be replaced. Lose your data and your identity can be used in the blink of an eye. The best and most expensive security solutions in the industry seem to be useless against relentless thieves and your own stupidity or careless action. ...Read More »

The Great After Effects Mac/Windows Smackdown: CS4 Edition By Kevin Schmitt Last summer I got curious. With the advent of Intel Macs, Boot Camp, and Universal builds of After Effects, for the first time it was possible to forget about all the Intel vs. PowerPC benchmarks that had been run to that point and effectively remove hardware from the equation, focusing solely on the OS and how well AE was tuned to it. XP took the prize back then, but I'm curious again, and with Mac OS X Leopard, 64-bit Vista, and After Effects CS4 at my disposal, it's time to find out where things stand today. ...Read More »

Content Insider #111 - Cloud Computing By Miles Weston Netbooks. They are the neat little items that fit comfortably between workhorse notebooks and small, convenient iPhone/Blackberry units. They've got it all--instant on, lightweight, no software updates, long battery life, little bitty solid state drives, cheap cost! Sounds great. Works-- less so! ...Read More »

Numbers 08 Essential Training: Selecting text By David Rivers In this Lynda.com video training clip, host David Rivers continues working with text in a spreadsheet, and opens with formatting your text, such as changing the font, the size, style, and other text attributes. In this clip, he also talks about the different ways that you go about selecting text, so you can choose what text to format. ...Read More »

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Essential Training: Spotlight Search Field By Christopher Breen In this Lynda.com video training series, host Christopher Breen looks at the Spotlight search field and the times when you need a bit more search. In such a case you are going to want to get a better view, such as going up to the Spotlight search field type in your word and Show All, which produces a Finder-like window, which enables you to do a lot of the same things you can do in the Finder. ...Read More »

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Essential Training: Anatomy of a Window By Christopher Breen In this Lynda.com video training series, host Christopher Breen looks at the Mac OSX Finder menus, and the important things that you can do in the Finder. He details the information that you can find under the Finder menu and details what each menu item is and what it covers. ...Read More »

Insider # 110: Incredible Shrinking Computing By Miles Weston At last month's Intel Developers Forum (IDF) they showed us systems of every size, shape and price. The "hot n sexy" subject was netbooks that would be so light you'd carry them with you all the time and do all your work/storage in the cloud...as long as the cloud wasn't overcast. Sure kids can thumb them but touch typing is a lost cause. Sorry, not ready for carpel thumb syndrome yet... ...Read More »

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Essential Training: External hard drives and Time Machine By Christopher Breen In this Lynda.com video training series, host Christopher Breen discusses the first things you need to do before you get comfortable with you new Mac and one of them is to go to the store to get an external USB/FireWire hard drive to take advantage of Time Machine, which enables you to essentially reset your computer to a different day, restoring your files, how your system loooked and so forth. ...Read More »

Thinking about switching to a Mac? By Robert Jensen My original plan was for this to be a straightforward review of Apple's updated 24-inch iMac that was announced in April. In such cases I ask the manufacturer for a review unit, they send it to me on loan, I TEST it for a few weeks, write my review and finally pack everything back in its box and ship it back. ...Read More »

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Essential Training: The Apple Menu By Christopher Breen In this Lynda.com video training series, host Christopher Breen discusses the Apple Menu, which you should pay special attention to because it is going to be there all the time, the Apple Menu, located in the upper left corner. Breen covers all of the commands that are under the Apple menu, including About this Mac, the Build of the OS, and the serial number. He also covers how to configure the Dock, Recent items, Force Quit, Sleep, Restart, Shut Down, and Log out. ...Read More »