[DM-MUG] Tonight's meeting

[John Kisner]

The OS X Mac is pretty amazing, but as I get older I find myself  
sticking with "what I know" and not tapping the full power.  For  
instance, "drag & drop" is a new-fangled idea to me -- and that has  
been around for ages.  I do think there it is not the business of  
DMMUG to worry about OS9 anymore, but the OSX present is itself rich  
in meeting topics.  I'm personally beyond redemption when it comes to  
clever alternatives to old-fashioned cut & paste, but there are lots  
of fairly mundane subjects that would certainly draw me toward more  
meetings.

Topic ideas for the rest of us:

Using style sheets to control format in a word processor.

Organizing picture libraries using keywords -- how to approach a  
large family album in iPhoto.

Using automator in the real world.  Is it for home users too?

Managing a household with multiple computers and users.  Account  
password settings, iTunes/music issues, keeping everything up-to-date.

Demonstration of taking some film and turning it into an iMovie.

Using .Mac to create a family web page that includes both "picture  
pages" and text-heavy pages.  Are there other user-friendly ways to  
create web pages on the space many ISPs provide (without having to  
buy something like GoLive).

Related to the above, how do you set up a blog and use something like  
MacJournal to speak to the world?  What all the buzz about  
"podcasting" and why do the rest of us want to get involved?

"DMMUG Eclectic" presentations.  Give people who signup 10 minutes  
(or whatever) to demonstrate some cool software that isn't mainstream.

And finally, am I wrong to feel that Apple's trying to force me to  
throw away a perfectly good computer, my G3 iMac, just because it  
doesn't have a DVD drive?  Both Pages and Tiger don't ship with CDs,  
and I'm getting frustrated.  (Not really a topic idea, just a vent.)   
You'd think for the price of a Tiger family pack, they could include  
media for all the machines that are theoretically supported.