How to Find Macs on eBay
Eric Buczynski February 1, 2007
If you’re in the market for a specific part for your Apple computer, you probably know that Apple charges retail prices for their products. Third-party resellers often charge the same amount for these products, or even a little more if they’ve marked up the price. So, sometimes the best place to look for Apple parts is eBay. Where do we start? Let’s try searching for baseball cards first, just as an example.
Internet Safety for Families
Charles Thacker January 31, 2007
School districts across the United States provide Internet access for students and staff through their district networks. The purpose of this access is to provide an additional resource for the educational environment and meet the needs of an increasingly dynamic instructional model. Technology in general, and the Internet specifically, is just a tool. It is inherently neither good nor bad - it just is, until it’s used. Like many new advances in our society, the Internet has brought out the best and the worst in humanity.
Effective Technical Writing
Adam Engst January 31, 2007
Tip: This article was originally submitted to coach tutorial contest contestants. We liked it so much that we’ve left it online – hopefully it will help other writers. Greetings, writerly ones! I’ve been asked to offer you some sage advice, but since holiday preparations have left me rather short on thyme, I’ll settle for these recommendations for effective technical writing. First, and most important, write directly to your reader, and write in the active voice.
What Can Be Done Using Revolution?
Joe Wilkins January 30, 2007
Since this column is going to be an evaluation and, hopefully, a guide to using Revolution to assist you in solving your problems, the very first thing we need to do is cover some of the most important general programming tenets. When an idea for resolving a problem or issue that we encounter in everyday life occurs to us, our first hurdle is to come up with a method of “doing it” with our computer.
A Guide to Great Mac Books
Ric Getter January 29, 2007
We’re not going to do any conjecturing as to why, but it seems like some of the best computer books you can buy are written about the Mac. We’d like to think that the platform simply attracts the most talented and creative writers. Here’s a brief guide to some of the Mac’s most popular authors and publishers. Not Really For Dummies You may not see these books displayed prominently on your local computer guru’s bookshelf, but we bet if you look closely you’ll find a few.
Taking Great Screenshots in Mac OS X
Kirk McElhearn January 28, 2007
Tip: This article was originally submitted to coach tutorial contest contestants. We liked it so much that we’ve left it online – hopefully it will help other writers. While most people, when they think about writing tutorials, focus on the actual writing—the words, sentences, paragraphs and overall structure—the graphics and screenshots you use in tutorials are just as important. While the old saw which says that, “a picture is worth a thousand words” may be an exaggeration, screenshots in technical documentation can not only give users more information than words may provide, but they may also be much more efficient.
Shopping for Macs at Thrift Stores
Eric Buczynski January 25, 2007
If you’re like me and don’t feel the need to have the latest-and-greatest Mac equipment, the best thing you can do for your Mac and your wallet is shop at thrift stores. It’s a crap shoot, but on a good day you may walk out with more than you expected. There are a variety of stores to select from, including the Salvation Army, The Goodwill, American Thrift Centers, and my personal favorite: The Red, White and Blue thrift store.
District Spotlight: Farmington Municipal Schools
Charles Thacker January 24, 2007
We’ll occasionally reference school districts in our articles to illustrate concepts or identify how technology can be implemented, and it will be helpful if some general information about the districts is available. We’ll call these articles ‘Spotlights’. Public school districts in the United States vary greatly in many aspects. The size (in students and geographical distances), available funding, socioeconomic factors of the community, internal leadership, and age of a school district are all important ingredients in how technology is implemented.
Why Would Ordinary People Want to Program?
Joe Wilkins January 23, 2007
Last week’s article was supposed to have been labeled a “Prelude”; hence this one is the real introduction, but first a short note about the responses I received from the first article. The responses were not numerous, although the ones I did receive were very enlightening and probably represent a cross section of the nearly 1,800 readers who did take the time on the first day it was posted to look at what I had to say about Revolution and what is planned down the road.
How to Write Tech Stuff Really Good
Robin Williams January 23, 2007
Tip: This article was originally submitted to coach tutorial contest contestants. We liked it so much that we’ve left it online – hopefully it will help other writers. Be active. This is passive: In case of emergency, the red button should be pressed. This is active: In case of emergency, hit the red button. Passive is good only when you don’t want to hold anyone responsible: There was a red button pressed this morning.