Newb looking for advice...

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I've never worked with wireless before.
Currently I'm on my Powermac G5, running ethernet into a linksys. Also have a dell laptop hooked up (with wires) through the linksys.
I just picked up an older ibook G3 yesterday, and I'd like to be able to connect wirelessly with it.
Could someone just give me a breif rundown of what exaclty I'd need (again, I'm a newb, so sorry).
The G5 does not have airport, and right now, neither does the ibook. I'm not looking for speed, just would like to be able to connnect the ibook wirelessly.

The G5 does not have airport, and right now, neither does the ibook. I'm not looking for speed, just would like to be able to connnect the ibook wirelessly.
As a minimum, you'll need an original AirPort card for the iBook G3, and the April 2005 and earlier Power Mac G5s are compatible with the AirPort Extreme card. The later Power Mac G5s are not. Instead, these models require a special combo AirPort/Bluetooth card which must be installed by an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP).

Similar Messages

Newbie looking for advice on spry tabbed panels for record view/add/edit

I have just got CS 5.5. Although old hand at IT this is fist use of DW. Have been through "The Missing Manual" and I am now trying somethings out.
I have an SQL DB and some "management" tables. I thought that in the admin section I could use the Spry tabbed panel to create a List, Add, Edit and Delete panel.
linking on a row in List will set the value of a variable (unique column) which is used by the Edit and Delete tabs. Add is just the wizard.
I am only trying things out. Is this is a sensible approach or should I look to have a page for each of the 3 functions which are linked from the list of rows. As given in the example in the book?
Regards

Thank you for this. I see that spry is now dead but I have the bit between my teeth for working this out. Partly because it helps me understand the way things are put together. So although Spry is not important. Understanding the system that I will then adapt into other circumstances and other variants is. So please bear with me.
So if anyone out there has some SPRY experience you may be able to tell me what knowledge I am missing here.
So at the moment I have a tabbed panel within a tabbed panel.
Header tabbed panel is called "TPMain"
Sub TB is called "TPAges"
TPAges has 4 tabs "List", "Add", "Edit" and "Delete"
"List" being the default tab.
Link style 1
Playing with forms and links, I have worked out that I can create a repeat region in the list and add a column with 1 hidden value (the id) and a submit button to set the value of the id, but the code to end up showing the Edit panel is not functioning. This is the form code in the table of the List Tab
     <form action="testtab.php?tab=3&panel=3#TPAges" method="post" name="FrmEdit" id="FrmEdit">
                      <input type="hidden" name="EditID" value= <?php echo $row_rsAges['oid']; ?>/>
                        <input type="submit" name="btnEdit" id="btnEdit" value="Edit">
                      </form>
In the edit tab I have the code
     <p><?php echo "*".$_POST['EditID']."*"; ?></p>
The page reloads but on TPMain and on the first tab (people) and not the second tab (Ages)
The value is correctly shown but with teh slash (/) character at the end?
Link style 2
I thought I would try and access it via an href. From googling I came up with this on one of the columns. I know it doesn't set the variable but I wanted to know if I could make it show the panel.
     <a href="javascript:; onclick=TPAges.ShowPanel(3)"><?php echo $row_rsAges['description']; ?></a
No errors just does nothing.
I'm off to hunt for jQuery tab as osgood suggests but would like to crack this out of sheer bloody mindedness.
Regards

I have a MacBook Pro 5,4 running OSX 10.6.8 and Safari 5.1.10. A website i like has a known bug with 5.1.10 and recommends I install a newer version of Safari or use Firefox or Chrome. Just looking for advice on the best approach. Thanks!

I have a MacBook Pro 5,4 running OSX 10.6.8 and Safari 5.1.10. A website i like has a known bug with 5.1.10 and recommends I install a newer version of Safari or use Firefox or Chrome. Just looking for advice on the best approach. Thanks!

Unfortunately, Safari cannot be updated past 5.1.10 on a Mac running v10.6.8.
So, the options are to upgrade to a newer OS X or use Firefox or Chrome.
Be aware, Apple no longer support Snow Leopard v10.6 > www.ibtimes.com/apple-kills-snow-leopard-os-x-106-no-longer-receives-security-u pdates-1558393
See if your Mac can run v10.9 Mavericks > OS X Mavericks: System Requirements
If so, you can download and install Mavericks for free from the App Store.
Read prior to upgrading > Upgrading to 10.7 and above, don't forget Rosetta! | Apple Support Communities

Is MS exchange the only way to keep mail synced across all devices? Can Mac mail do this without exchange? I have iPhone,iPad and new MacBook Pro, and looking for advice please.

Is MS exchange the only way to keep mail synced across all devices? Can Mac mail do this without exchange? I have iPhone,iPad and new MacBook Pro, and looking for advice please.

As Bob says, any iMap service can do this. GMail can, iCLoud mail can too.
Both of these can be used with Mail on any device.

New at this and looking for advice

Hi, I am new at Qmasnter and looking for advice. Myself and a few of my other co-workers have been using FCP2 and we have been tossing around the idea of making a Cluster with our computers on our campus. Two of us run on MacBook Pro's, and the other on a 24" iMac, there is also 2 MacPro's and another 24" iMac we would like to toss into the cluster. I know it seems backwards, the ones that are doing all the editing are on the slower machines, but our organization operates backwards and not logically anyways. The question is what happen to the cluster when a node is turned off? Should the laptops be a node in the cluster? All the computers are running on a gigabyte network, so the network can handle it. Just looking for peoples wisdom before I cause my own headache, and learn for others mistakes.
Thanks
Randy Kennedy

Hi Jon,
I've also started investigating the qmaster.
I'm following this guide you posted on digitalrebellion :
http://www.digitalrebellion.com/blog/posts/usingcompressor_with_multiplecores.html
but I the 'options for selected service' is greyed out when I click on compressor.
I can selected the 'options for...' when I click on rendering, but it just allows me to add another computer (but my only choice is 'this computer'. I see the option for SSH, but if i'm logged into another computer, shouldn't I be able to see it in the list?
Sorry for the noob questions. I"m trying to figure it out.
I have the following at my disposal:
mac pro 2.66 (main machine)
imac 2.16
macbook pro 2.2
powermac g5 2.0
cheers,
Keebler

Passing cursor record values to procedures - looking for advice

I frequently use cursors in my programs and need to pass the values from said cursor around in the program to other procedures/functions. I am looking for advice on the best or recommended way of doing this.
Currently the majority of my programs do something like this:
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY some_pkg AS
     CURSOR some_cursor IS
          SELECT t.col1,
                           t.col2,
                          t.col3,
               FROM some_table t;
PROCEDURE sub_proc
     (p_cursor               IN      some_cursor%ROWTYPE)
IS
BEGIN
     dbms_output.put_line(p_cursor.col1);
END sub_proc;
PROCEDURE main_process
IS
     l_cursor          some_cursor%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
     FOR l_cursor IN some_cursor LOOP
          sub_proc(l_cursor);
     END LOOP;
END main_process;
END some_pkg;
Basically I create the cursor as global so I can use it's %ROWTYPE as a parameter datatype in my procedures.
I understand there are other options such as using a defined record type, or ref cursors, but I'm not totally clear on how ref cursors would help me, I don't really understand them well.
Can anyone provide some feedback on how I currently handle this situation vs. the alternatives?
Thanks

I am not sure what you need to do.
You can base records on cursors or tables using the %ROWTYPE operator.
Cursors can be defined in the package header and used elsewhere by using normal cursor functionality (untesed)
create or replace package my_package as
cursor my_cursor is
    select *
      from dual;
my_procedure;
end my_package;
create or replace package body my_package as
procedure my_procedure is
my_record my_package.my_cursor%rowtype;
begin
    for r in my_package.my_cursor loop
      my_record := r;
    end;
end my_procedure;
end my_package;
This can allow you to define the cursor in one place and reference it elsewhere.
Reference cursors are pointers to result sets. They reference actual datasets and can be passed between routines if defined in package headers. There is a little more overhead using reference cursors but they support dynamic sql if needed (it usually isn't). and you MUST carefully coordinate FETCH commands to receive the values the cursor is selecting (this is harder than it looks)(untested)
create or replace package my_package as
type my_refcur_type is sys_refcursor;
my_procedure;
end my_package;
create or replace package body my_package as
procedure my_procedure(p_refcur out my_package.my_refcur_type) is
begin
    open p_refcur for 'select * from dual';
end my_package;
--elsewhere
my_package.my_procedure(my_cursor);
fetch my_cursor into v_dummy;
Hope this helps

Powerbook Titanium user looking for advice on MacBook Pro

Hello, all,
After almost 10 years of faithful service, I'm afraid that my 15" TiBook is showing signs of age and may soon need replacing. For financial reasons, I can't spring for a brand-new, top-of-the-line MBP, and I was wondering if you had any advice about what I should look for in a reconditioned model from the AppleStore. Aside from basic functions like emails and web, I'd be using it primarily for the Adobe Creative Suite (no animation or any really heavy stuff) and for watching DVDs when away from home. How do you feel about the glossy screens, for example? On the French AppleStore, there are a couple of MBPs from early 2011, but I'd seen that there were concerns with the temperature/fan noises… I realize that almost anything I may buy now will be light years faster and more powerful than the 667 Mhz that I have now, but I'd like for the replacement machine to be as impervious to ageing as the PB has been.
Any and all advice would be most welcome.
Thanks for reading.

My suggestion since you prefer to maximize your computers lifespan is to get either the new:
1: High res, anti-glare 15" 2.2 Ghz or above
2: High res, anti-glare 17" 2.2 Ghz or above.
(The 13" MacBook Pro is integrated graphics, the 15" 2.0 has a dedicated graphics card that is as weak as the integrated graphics. Both are very poor choices for the long term.)
The two models I've mentioned have the top of the line i7 Quad cores that simply blow the dual cores away in every way possible. The 1GB Radeon 6750M GPU is a monster video card that will satisfy ANY need you have for a long time.
If your trying to save money and going for a used dual core i5, your doing yourself a great disservice because those machines are soon destined for the scrap heap.
I opted for the anti-glare because with a laptop it's a necessity unless you live in a basement or a cave.
The glossy forces you to seek dark locations to see the screen because it reflects dam near everything, even your face.
Some people say to get a aftermarket anti-glare film, but those are expensive, they dry out, peal and bubble, not very nice looking and need occassional replacement.
You will not give a flying ratts *ss four days later if you don't have a snazzy black bezel, your going to want to use the machine as intended in nearly any location. The matching case bezel is just wonderful and the new anti-glare (not ugly matte like before) screen is of a higher quality, looks fantastic being able to see every inch of the screen all the time.
You can do a Google image search for "Mac glossy anti-glare" and get hundreds of pictures for your decision making process.
The new machines are easily opened up to add more RAM or switch out the hard drive with a 00 micro-phillips screwdriver and a plastic compartmentalized holder to place the screws in order so the right ones go into the right holes. Won't void your warranty as long as you don't do any damage. Don't strip the screws.
Do get AppleCare and a good case, even a MacTruck.
Use the keyboard and trackpad as little as possible, use a wired or wireless instead to keep the wear off the machine.
Keep the keyboard area covered and away from food/liquids, it gets behind the keys easily and will fry it.
If you use the keyboard and trackpad, take off any jewelry and use a pad protector as you'll wear the case and 3 years from now it will look ugly as sin.
Snow Leopard is a great OS, Apple plans on major changes in the next one to make OS X look like a iPad, you might not like it. The grumbling has already started.
So get a Snow Leopard machine now with the iLife on the installer disks while you have a chance, a few weeks from now you might not have that option as all new machines will be forced into Lion.

New to photoshop, looking for advice on creating a stencil design, can anyone explain how to do this

Heya,
So I'm hoping to get back into photoshop, my knowledge at the moment is pritty minimal, but i'm going to start learning how to use it again.
I'm new to this forum and don't intend to come on here often for advice but i hope that someone would be kind enough to point me in the direction that i'm looking for, i would be very grateful.
Firstly, i haven't yet decided which adobe photoshop product is best suited for what i'm looking for and i aim to go and explore the trials first to find out.
I'm looking to create designs with software that doesn't really have any limits in terms of creating designs.
I was wondering if someone could give me some links to a tutorial or something that explains how to create the stencilling effect in the image that is seen as a tree with a cityscape in the background, and possibly the other effects seen on the t-shirt. I know it might be a lot to ask but it would really mean a lot if someone could explain how you create effects like this.
Here's the image:http://www.gifts.com/products/Kohls/Mudd-Tree-Tee?p=6886:1945256129:35
I know that the image is small, it was the best i could currently find, i hope that you can still see it well enough.
Thank you in advance
I really appreciate it!!

First you may want to google »photoshop tutorial distresssed«.
As for combining images like that a combination of Blend If-settings (one can split the handles by alt-click-dragging them)), Layer Groups set to Blend Modes other than Pass Through and Grtadient Maps may be employed to maintain high editability.
One could also just use the images as Layer Masks for Solid Color Layers (and use Levels or Curves to get the intended contrast), though.

New System Build For Premiere 5.5 Looking For Advice

Hi there, this is my first time on here and it looks like this is the best place for advice.
So I've been tasked to build a new computer for a client for Premiere 5.5. He's running a very basic studio setup and his main complaint is how it takes
such a long time to render video. He told me it takes him about 6 hours to render a 40 minute sequence to MPEG2 standard(this is what he mostly renders as). I did some playing around and it turns out that his current system is relatively good but it uses a HD 6990 as its GPU(which can't even take advantage of Premier's hardware rendering capability!)
Now initially I was going to go the all SSD route with a a budget of about $2500 or so. However, after doing some reading on here, I've decided that this
isn't necessarily the best way. So I will only run the OS of an SSD. Here is what I have so far:
PROCESSOR:
Intel Core i7-2600K Quad-Core Socket LGA1155, 3.40Ghz, 8MB L3 Cache
(I will overclock this as much as possilbe with the Noctua cooler)
MOTHERBOARD:
Asus P8Z68-V Pro Socket 1155 Intel Z68 Chipset
RAM:
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series DDR3 1600MHz (PC3-12800) 16GB (4x4GB) Dual Channel Kit
VIDEO CARD:
EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD Superclocked 1280MB GDDR5 (012-P3-1573-AR) nVidia GeForce GTX 570Chipset(797MHz) 1280MB GDDR5 Memory(3900MHz)
POWER SUPPLY:
OCZ ZX Series 1000W Fully Modular 80 Plus Gold Certified Power Supply (OCZ-ZX1000W)
HARD DRIVES:
OCZ Vertex 2 SATA II 2.5" 120GB Solid State Drive (OPERATING SYSTEM DISK)
Western Digital VelociRaptor (WD3000HLFS) 300GB SATA II 10000RPM 16MB x2 (Project Disk Run in RAID 0)
Western Digital VelociRaptor (WD3000HLFS) 300GB SATA II 10000RPM 16MB x2 (Output Disk Run in RAID 0)
CPU COOLER:
Noctua NH-D14 Six Heatpipe Dual Radiator CPU Cooler
OPTICAL DRIVE:
ASUS DRW-24B1ST Black SATA
Now if there are any suggestions, PLEASE let me know how I can improve this build. I really don't want to disappoint the guy, especially if he isn't going to get a great performance boost in terms of rendering time. Considering he can't use GPU acceleartion right now on his $600+ card, I would imagine this should be a better build.
Also, will there be a problem if I run four hard drives in RAID 0 mode using the motherboards onboard RAID capability?

Photomaster,
I think you are on the right track to speed up this guys system (2600k w/ OC, dual RAID 0) and I second Harm's comment about large 7200 drives being better than the prev. generation VR 300GB drives (HLFS series).
Be aware however that "rendering" does mean different things, and if you are thinking that MPE will increase AME rendering to MPEG2-DVD by 10x you will be very disappointed! Here is the rest of the story...
Timeline rendering, as benchmarked in PPBM5, will indeed speed up on the order of 10x with the addition of MPE using the appropriate nVidia hardware. PPBM5 is a test carefully constructed test that represents how long it takes for Adobe Premiere Pro to prepare (render) a timeline for playback. In actual use, your results will vary. Some timelines may only be sped up by 2x (i.e. very complex and/or using non-MPE effects, filters, etc.) to more than 1,000,000x faster for the case where a non-MPE system requires rendering, whereas the MPE system can play back the timeline without ANY rendering (i.e. simple SD timelines with MPE compliant effects).
Next, full timeline rendering and "exporting" from a Premiere Pro timeline to MPEG2-DVD format are both sped up, but more on the order of 2x. On my fast quad-core system, I'm getting about a 1.8x improvement from MPE assistance using the PPBM5 project for testing.
Finally, using Adobe Media Encoder (AME), and I can only speak for CS5, the MPE hardware does not even come into play and does not speed things up at all. On a positive note, Harm has reported that AME ver. 5.5 ran just over 2x as fast as ver 5.0.3; possibly the newer version is in fact tapping the MPE hardware for this gain?
Regards,
Jim

Web Based Messageboard (JSP, XML, XSLT) - Just Looking For Advice Please!

I have a general question - I am not looking for any code, just some advice if possible. I am studying on a Masters course and I have been given an assignment to do which I am having difficult getting started. I have worked a lot with Java up until now, however this is the first time I have had to JSP on my course.
My current assignment is that I am required to create a simple web based message board, using JSP and XML, which allows users to post messages to the board, and also to reply to messages. The content of the message board is stored in an XML file, and there is no database involved. The message data needs to be formatted for viewing in a browser using XSL transformations.
I am stuck as to how to go about starting the project, and this is all I am asking for advice in. I have created the basic XML file which has some preliminary data stored within it, and I have created an XSL stylesheet to transform this data, however I am stuck with the JSP. Do I need to create a seperate JSP page for each page of the website? How does this link in with the XSLT?
I would welcome and really appreciate any advice, but I stress that I am not looking for anyone to give me any code or anything like that.
Thanks.

You can use XSLT to convert XML to HTML. Then include this HTML in your JSP. Further on you've a plain HTML form with an input field for a message which you submit to a servlet. In the servlet validate/convert/whatever this message and add it to the XML file and then forward/redirect the request back to the JSP.

Looking for advice on fixing my Ibook

Hello all,
First post here and it's going to be a long one, so I apologize in advance for that and thank anyone who manages to wade though to give advice. Trying to get as much info into this to hopefully help you help me.
I have an Ibook G4 that was handed down to me in the last year due to my old comp dying. It was working perfectly until approximately one month ago.
The issues started with the original hard drive. Without doing anything new on my computer I started randomly having strange issues with various apps. I rebooted the computer and got the kernel panic message telling me to reboot the computer. I did so and then immediately went to the ?/finder icon screen. After trying Disk utility from the disks that came with the laptop, I just got errors when trying to repair the disk and repair permissions was not even available.
I took my laptop into my local apple store for advice and after they saw what it was doing they told me my hd had failed and offered to happily replace it for somewhere around $200. I happily thanked them for their help and went on my way.
I picked up a western digital 160 gig eide drive and installed it myself without problems. I was able to install the os from the included disks and then upgraded to 10.4 plus all downloaded updates. It worked fine for a couple days and then I decided all was well so started adding music to itunes since I finally have the hd space to add new music to my ipod. After a couple days of use Itunes started giving me errors while changing songs in Itunes and while clicking on any screen other than Itunes. Firefox then started acting strangely so I decided to reboot.
I was unsuccessful at getting fully loaded in again so I booted from the included disk and repaired permissions and disk using disk utility. This fixed the problems temporarily, however itunes was immediately giving me the error messages again. Continue forward a bit and now I get errors in disk utility saying that it failed to repair the disk.
I then gave up and decided to just wipe the drive and start over again. I used the erase the writes 0's over the whole drive which errored out towards the end. I suspected I might just have a bad drive but decided to reboot and just erase (basic quick one), partition, and install the os. That install also failed towards the end of disk one install. Went into best buy where I bought the hdd for advice and they agreed it sounded like a failed hdd too. Bought another one (to return the prior one for a full refund after I swap it out) and install it.
At this point I am getting pretty comfortable to dismantling this laptop so it only takes me around 1.5 hours or so fortunately, however as soon as I got the hd installed and tried to format in disk utility it wouldn't even show up on the screen even though I could hear it spinning. I was suspicious of the hd cable since it just doesn't seem like there is enough of it to make a good connection to the logic board, so I took the bottom of the comp off and just messed with the cable/logic board connection a bit. This was able to get the hd showing up in disk utility.
Got 10.3 and downloads installed because I don't have the 10.4 disk with me right now. Every time the computer rebooted during the update process, it went to the ?/finder icon screen. I had to hold down the power button to shut down and then power back up after which it would boot up fine. Already concerned about what this meant but just went with it.
Due to the issues I haven't tried installing anything else or even using many apps. I downloaded firefox and a couple other dmg's in preparation for upgrading the os in the morning. I moved a couple of those files to my partition successfully but after trying to move a final one the finder locks up. Nothing would load after finder reloaded so I rebooted. Now the computer just goes to the gray screen with the apple on it and a loading circle on the bottom but never gets past it. I also periodically get the kernel panic reboot computer message on this screen as well (not every time though)
My next step for trouble shooting will be trying to pick up a new hd cable, however this may be difficult without access to a computer I can do online ordering on.
Now for some of my thoughts. After all of that and many many hours spent using google and searching these forums I have seen a couple suggestions which could apply. The kernel panic messages could indicate that I am having memory issues, however I just can't see where that would cause files getting corrupted and causing me to have to repair permissions and disk. I can see where the hd cable failing could be causing issues, but I don't understand how that could account for everything when I don't even move the computer and it starts having issues.
I am to the point of desperation with this computer. I want nothing more than to just throw it on the ground and jump on it and maybe introduce it to a sledge hammer, however I just cant fit in purchasing a new computer right now. Paying my local apple store hundreds of dollars to try to fix something they may not even be able to fix also just doesn't seem like a viable option when I feel capable of fixing a large portion of issues myself (more familiar with pc's at this time unfortunately though).
Thanks to any of you out there who make it through this book where I probably give far too much detail. I am open to any advice you have to give to me at this point for where to go from here.

There's the possibility that the new hard drive you purchased has a problem. The only way to really check that is with another computer with no known issues.
Do you need the computer to be portable? If so, pick up a portable enclosure. Otherwise, any enclosure that will house the hard drive would be fine. Get the drive into the enclosure, then install the OS to it. If it runs fine while in the external enclosure, there's some connection inside the machine--possibly the cable--that has failed you. If you still have problems when the drive is in an enclosure, that suggests a problem with some part of the logic board or perhaps the drive itself is faulty.
~Lyssa

Mac Newbie looking for short answers to multiple questions...

My computer experience started with the Commodore 64 in the 1980's and progressed to building my own Core Duo PC with 4 GIG RAM running 64 bit Vista Ultimate and several flavors of Linux. My only Mac experiences happened when I visited my elderly parents, who insisted on only using Mac's, generally ancient Mac's that they bought on eBay.
I was not interested at all in Macs and found the GUI very confusing to use. All that changed when my dad showed me the Mac Mini he bought. Instead of the hulking, slow, underpowered behemoths he usually used, this little machine was amazing. I had to have one, and yesterday bought a Mac Mini with superdrive and 512 MB of RAM, along with Bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse. This was amazingly easy to set up, just starting with all of the PC stuff I have lying around.
Now, I need some one-line opinions from people who use Mac's, nothing complicated, just opinions. I don't need help configuring this machine, I just want to know what I can do with it. I find most people enjoy giving opinions!
--Is it worth it to upgrade the RAM to 2 GB? I wanted to do that at the store yesterday, but the salesman said that the procedure was too complicated in a Mac Mini to do myself, and I wanted to take the computer home right way.
--I use Photoshop Elements 5. Is it worth it to get Photoshop Elements 4 for Mac, or does my machine come with imaging editing software that does the same thing, just as well?
--I use Quicken 2007. I read a couple of reviews of Quicken for Mac from unhappy customers. Any comments?
--Can I use my existing external USB 2 or Firewire drives with my Mac Mini, even though they are partitioned as FAT32 and have many backup files from PC's on them? Do Mac Mini's write to FAT32 like Linux does, or do I have to reformat the drives?
--I use Acronis True Image to backup & image my hard drives so I can restore them if disaster occurs (as it seems to, rather often). How do you image a hard drive with a Mac, and is it worth doing?
--Is it worth it to use antivirus software on a Mac?
--Does anyone have any experience using open source software like Open Office or GIMP on a Mac?
--Are there any decent flight simulators that work on a Mac?
Please don't flame me or tell me to read the manual. I am looking for opinions, not instructions. I am also not interested in running Windows software on my Mac - I have had mixed results trying to do this under Linux, and I also have plenty of Windows machines to operate Windows software. Remember, the more people like me who are interested in switching over to Mac's, the better and cheaper the platform should become. Thanks in advance!

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Glad you found your way to the Mac in the present incarnation of MacOS. Earlier flavors of it were perhaps somewhat less elegant, though I have always had a liking for the relative simplicity and the integration of features which tend to make some work more easily accomplished than on the PCs I have also used.
--Is it worth it to upgrade the RAM to 2 GB? I wanted to do that at the store yesterday, but the salesman said that the procedure was too complicated in a Mac Mini to do myself, and I wanted to take the computer home right way.
Yes, the memory upgrade is very worthwhile. A stock mac mini runs perfectly well, but when taking into account the RAM used by the on board video, and the possibility of using Rosetta if you're using any non-native software, 512Mb is really not enough for smooth operation. Indeed, you'll tend to get pauses which can become annoying, particularly if you want to run multiple applications.
The salesman really should have pointed out that while the procedure to upgrade RAM isn't really all that difficult, the mini is not intended to be opened by the user at all because there are no user serviceable parts inside. However, RAM is readily available from third party suppliers and with a little on-line research, is a fairly simple job to undertake. Two things to watch for: 1) that the memory comes from a supplier who will swap it without question, because Macs are rather more fussy about RAM than PCs tend to be, and 2), when completing the memory upgrade, ensure you reconnect the tiny fan control cable - failing to do so will leave the fan running at full blast all the time. It's an easy omission, and even the experts forget it sometimes!
--I use Photoshop Elements 5. Is it worth it to get Photoshop Elements 4 for Mac, or does my machine come with imaging editing software that does the same thing, just as well?
Depends on what kind of editing and image adjustment you generally do. The mini comes with iLife, which includes iPhoto, which has all the usual array of adjustment tools for brightness, contrast, color balance etc, plus a useful one for tilting images to straighten them if taken at an angle, but it doesn't include the filters and effects of a true image editing application. Photoshop Elements on the other hand is feature rich and easy to use, though at a cost. Personally, I don't like iPhoto much and use Photoshop Elements, though there is also a truly excellent shareware application called GraphicConverter, which started life as a tool to convert images from one format to another (hence the name) but is now a very feature-rich image processor in it's own right. Worth a look and can be tried out for free. Have a look at http://www.lemkesoft.com/xd/public/content/index.cGlkPTE5Mw.html
--I use Quicken 2007. I read a couple of reviews of Quicken for Mac from unhappy customers. Any comments?
No experience of this personally, but I'd check those reviews and any others you can find to see what it is the writers liked or didn't like about using the software, and see if that helps you. There are always unhappy customers though, so reviews in magazines may be more objective.
--Can I use my existing external USB 2 or Firewire drives with my Mac Mini, even though they are partitioned as FAT32 and have many backup files from PC's on them? Do Mac Mini's write to FAT32 like Linux does, or do I have to reformat the drives?
You can use your FAT32 formatted drives with the Mac though you are limited to files of 4Gb maximum.
--I use Acronis True Image to backup & image my hard drives so I can restore them if disaster occurs (as it seems to, rather often). How do you image a hard drive with a Mac, and is it worth doing?
It IS worth doing, yes. I use SuperDuper! which is first rate and free for making complete duplicates of a drive, or $29 for the paid/registered version to allow incremental backups. Works like a charm. If you use a drive partitioned in the GUID scheme (as the mini's internal is) you can even then set that drive, and the cloned copy of your system to boot the mini.
--Is it worth it to use antivirus software on a Mac?
Personally I'd say yes. ClamXav is open source (thus free) and reliable, has a marginal hit on CPU load and helps ensure you don't inadvertently pass on infections (it can also spot types of malware such as phishing scames). As yet, however, there are no known viruses/worms/trojans that affect MacOS, so it isn't critical at this time. However at some point it is likely there will be - in my view it's better to be prepared than to be left to react at the time.
--Does anyone have any experience using open source software like Open Office or GIMP on a Mac?
Yes. Like all open source projects, there are some good and some bad, but by and large the open source community for MacOS based systems is active and effective. Both Open Office and Gimp work well for example.
--Are there any decent flight simulators that work on a Mac?
X-Plane springs to mind.
There really are very few people you'll find in Apple Discussions who would flame you for asking such questions. Indeed, answering such things is one of the prime reasons we're here, and while there's always value in reading the manuals, it must also be said that in many ways getting useful information out of them means you have to know enough already to be able to work out what information you need from all the stuff available. Questions are easier to ask and pertinent information easier to give as a result!

Newbie looking for maven-based web projects

I'm looking looking for maven-based web projects so I could learn how to orginize and configure code and configuration files respectively. Thx in advance.

Tones of good material exists at the Maven2 site:
http://maven.apache.org/
Another very good place where to find information:
http://www.sonatype.com/book/
To search for free jars (very useful)
http://www.mvnrepository.com/search.html
It is kind of difficult to start, but it worth the effort.
I cannot imagine to start a project without Maven + Continuum

Ubber Newbie Looking for Basic Samples

Hello- I've spent the last 3 hours or so trying to create a very basic calculator in Flex (aka: add a couple input cells). Spent time looking through videos, reading documentation, etc. Much of it assumes programming background or web development experience of which I have little.
So, wanted to find some very basic application samples I could take apart and learn from. I found some, but they are pretty advanced and most depend on communication to/from the internet (tons of facebook and photo apps).
I'm just looking for a simple calculator/mortgage calculator application I can take apart and learn from.
Anyone know where I can find examples for super basic users?
Thanks!
- Mr. Bill

Here is an extremely basic example of one way it can be done. You of course would need more operators, conditional code to handle those operators, and several other functions and formulas - especially for mortgages - but hopefully this will get you started on the basic method.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute" height="208" width="444">
   <mx:Script>
     <![CDATA[
     private function BasicCalc():void
     var CalculatedValue:Number=Number(TextInput1.text) + Number(TextInput2.text);
     ResultText.text=String(CalculatedValue);
     ]]>
     </mx:Script>
    <mx:TextInput id="TextInput1" x="24" y="41" width="50" textAlign="right" text="1"/>
    <mx:TextInput id="TextInput2" x="24" y="71" width="50" textAlign="right" text="2"/>
    <mx:Text id="ResultText" x="44" y="101" text="0" width="30" textAlign="right"/>
    <mx:Button id="CalcButton" x="82" y="41" label="Calc" width="57" height="52" click="BasicCalc()"/>
</mx:Application>

Looking for advice on small office use ...

I'm looking for options to share our photo library in a small office environment. Essentially we have a single person (ie, our photographer) who is responsible for maintaining our program's photo library. What we're looking for is a way for him to very easily "publish" the photos which would allow other staff in our environment to quickly find and use images when necessary. We're a pure mac environment, although our photographer is currently a bridge / CS3 user (ie, not Aperture). I'm an experience Aperture user at home, and I'm trying to see if it could be used in a shared environment.
If not - does anyone have any suggestions ?
Thanks,
Paul

Tell us about your "shared environment." I assume the various Macs are connected via a local network. Do you have a dedicated server? (A mac that is used to store files and is always on - that all other macs can access via cable or wireless.)
If so, it seems that Aperture may be the wrong app for this. Since "everyone else" just needs to access pictures that the photographer has adjusted (using AP), what you need is software that accesses a "library" of image files. I'm thinking of something like the old iViewMedia Pro (now MS Expression Media, yes it's available for the Mac). So, basically you need a good DAM (digital asset management) app for everyone to use.
What I envision is this (not sure if this is the workflow you are thinking about) - photog processes RAW or other image formats in AP and exports adjusted images to jpg or tiff. These are then stored in some folder hierarchy. "The DAM Book" discusses a strategy for this - folders in the
<year>
<month>
<day>
hierarchy, but you can use some other organization like
<year>
<subject>
Once the photog has processed the images and exported the final products, you import each new batch of images into each of the DAM software on each Mac. This software should be able to read metadata like keywords (you'd have to be sure the AP exported image files have XMP sidecar files or DNG files with embedded metadata that includes keywords - keywords are the important data you really need for everyone to use when searching for images). Unfortunately, DNG is still not well supported in AP, it's better handled in Lightroom. However, others here may want to add some ideas. I believe you can add some metadata like keywords directly inside other image file formats (tiff, jpg??). Don't know if AP handles this.
At any rate, look into Expression media or something similar that others here might suggest.

Newb looking for advice...

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