Macs For Dummies E-Book

Edward C. Baig

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 521

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

Whether you're thinking of switching to a Macintosh computer,are looking into the latest Apple products, or have a Mac and wantto learn about Mac OS X Leopard, then Macs For Dummies, 10thEdition will get you going. Here you'll learn all abouthow to compare the different desktop and laptop models to chooseyour perfect match, make Mac OS X Leopard work your way, use thenew iLife 2008 digital lifestyle applications, get online andconnect to a wired or wireless network, and run Windows on your Macso you can keep the Microsoft programs you need. You'll alsodiscover how to: * Navigate your way around the Mac interface and work with iconsand folders * Best utilize OS X, work with the new Photo Booth, and manageclutter with Exposé and Spaces * Get connected, start a Web-browsing Safari, use e-mail andiChat, and shop online * Join .Mac and take advantage of iDisk backups, IMAP mail, andWeb Gallery * Explore all that iTunes offers, process digital photos withiPhoto, make iMovies, and have fun with GarageBand * Use Windows on your Mac and transfer Windows files It's a perfect time to join the Mac generation, especiallyif you're a Windows user who's been thinking ofdefecting. Macs For Dummies, 10th Edition will get youthere, helping you pick peripherals, download freebie programs, setup user accounts, implement security secrets, troubleshoot yourMac, and experience the iLife.

Leseprobe

Macs For Dummies®, 10th Edition

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

How This Book Is Organized

Part I: Freshman Year at Drag-and-Drop Tech

Part II: Mac Daily Dealings

Part III: Rocketing into Cyberspace

Part IV: Getting an iLife

Part V: The Creepy Geeky Section

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Freshman Year at Drag-and-Drop Tech

Chapter 1: Adventuring into the Mac World

Mac-Spectacular Computing

Checking out shapes and sizes

Matching a Mac to your needs

Selecting handy peripherals

Communicating with Your Mac

It’s a GUI

With great tools for you

And output, too

Living the iLife

Reaching Outside the Box

Getting online

Networking with or without wires

Staying Safe and Trouble-Free

Chapter 2: The Nuts and Bolts of Your Mac

Turning On and Tuning In Your Mac

The on button

Getting credentials

Creating an identity

Clocking in

Registering your Mac

Making acquaintances

Shutting down

Giving your Mac a nap

Mousing Around the Interface

Left- and right-clicking

Pointing and clicking on a laptop

What a drag

Knowing What’s Handy about the Keyboard

Finding the major functions

The keys you use every day

More keys to success

Taking a shortcut

Storing Stuff on the Hard Drive

Memory Essentials, or RAM On

Locating the Common Ports and Connectors

Peripherally speaking: USB versus FireWire

Two of a kind: The phone jack and Ethernet

Jacks of all trades

Chapter 3: Getting to the Core of the Apple

Navigating the Mac Desktop

Clicking the Menu Bar

Understanding Icons, Folders, and Windows

Windows dressing

A stunning view

By icon

By list

By columns

By Cover Flow

Have a Quick Look

What’s Up, Dock?

What you’ll find on the dock

Loading up the dock

Docking the dock

A minimizing effect

Stockpiling Stacks

Quitting time

A Gaggle of Freebie Programs

Staying organized

Tooling around for a reference

Chapter 4: Here a Mac, There a Mac, Everywhere a Mac Mac

Intel’s Inside?

Two chips are better than one

But are you giving up something to get something?

Big Mac or Little Mac? The Laptop versus Desktop Decision

If a Desktop Is Your Poison

iMac

Mac mini

Mac Pro: A Mac with muscle

Going Mobile

MacBook Pro

MacBook

MacBook Air

Taming the Trackpad

Keeping Your Notebook Juiced

Part II: Mac Daily Dealings

Chapter 5: Making the Mac Your Own

Establishing User Accounts

Ranking user accounts

Creating new accounts

Entering the Photo Booth

Taking a Photo Booth picture

Applying special effects

Admiring and sharing Photo Booth photos

Using Parental Controls: When Father (or Mother) Knows Best

The Lowdown on Logging On

And logging off

Pulling a fast one

Letting Someone Go

Changing Appearances

Altering buttons and the desktop

Choosing a screen saver

Tidying Up with Exposé

Getting Spaced Out

Moving from space to space

Moving windows between spaces

System Preferences: Choosing Priorities

Getting in sync with date and time

Displays

Sound

Software update

Universal Access

Chapter 6: Apple’s Feline Fetish

How Many New Features? Let Me Count the Ways

Searching with Spotlight

Rummaging through your stuff

Intelligent searching

Fine-tuning Spotlight further

Searching your way

Smart Folders

Fiddling with Dashboard Widgets

Unleashing Automator

Chapter 7: Handling All That Busy Work

Form and Function: The Essentials of Word Processing

Creating a Document

Selecting Text in a Document

Dragging and Dropping

Cutting and Pasting

Changing the Font

Revealing the Font Book

Printing fonts

Formatting Your Document

Saving Your Work

Making Revisions

Taking Out the Trash

Never Mind: Retrieving What You’ve Tossed

Making an Alias

Chapter 8: Printing and Faxing

Choosing a Printer

Inkjets

Lasers

All-in-ones

What else to think about

Connecting and Activating a Printer

Ready, Set, Print

Printing it your way

Previewing your print

When Printers Stop Printing

Running out of ink or toner

Running out of paper

Hooking Up a Scanner

Turning the Mac into a Fax Machine

Sending a fax

Receiving a fax

Part III: Rocketing into Cyberspace

Chapter 9: Stairway to the Internet

Dialing In

Taking the Broadband Express

DSL, cable . . .

Always on, always connected

Let Me In

Going on a Safari

Just browsing

Clicking links

Using bookmarks

Employing the tools of the trade on your Safari

Using an Alternative Browser

The Skinny on Search Engines

Google this

MSN and Yahoo!

The Davids to the search Goliaths

Chapter 10: Going Postal Over E-Mail

Understanding E-Mail

The Worldwide E-Mail Exchange

Setting Up a New E-Mail Account

Before You Click Send

Addressing your missive

Composing messages

Choosing stationery

Saving drafts

Attaching files

Spell checking

Signing off with a signature

Managing the Flood of Incoming Mail

Choosing what to read

Opening mail from strangers

Junking the junk

Tips for avoiding spam

Setting the rules

Smart Mailboxes

Searching mail

Opening attachments

Making the Most of Your Mail

Take Note (and To-Dos)

Note-taking 101

Much ado about to-dos

Chapter 11: Caught Up in the Web

Chat Rooms

Communicating One-on-One: Instant Messaging

iChat AV

Hey buddy

Chatting

Seeing is believing; hearing too

iChat Theater

Screen sharing

Having an Online Voice

Newsgroups

Blogs

Social Networking

The Virtual Meet Market

Buying Stuff Online

Managing travel

Chapter 12: Joining MobileMe, the Club That Will Have You for a Member

Why Belong?

Setting Up MobileMe on Your Mac

iDisk Backups in the Sky

Other Backup Methods

MobileMe Mail

Back to My Mac

Sharing Your Digital Masterpieces

Chapter 13: Mounting a Defense Strategy

The Truth about Internet Security

Spies in our mist

Gone phishing

Firewalls

FileVault

Password Management: The Key to Keychains

Logging In and Logging Out

Entering a Time Machine

Setting up Time Machine

Going back in time

Part IV: Getting an iLife

Chapter 14: Living in an iTunes Nation

Choosing Your iPod

iPod Classic

Nano

iPod Shuffle

iPod Touch (iPhone lite)

iTunes: The Great Mac Jukebox

Managing Your Music

Ripping audio CDs

Importing other ditties

Creating playlists

When playlists get smart

When playlists get even smarter

Loading tunes onto the iPod

Burning audio CDs

Tuning in to Internet radio

Finding Music (and More) Online

Seeking online music recommendations

iMixes

The search for great music continues

When you’re ready to buy

Allowances and gifts

Sharing music with other computers

iTunes: More Than Just Music

Listening to audiobooks

Capturing podcasts

Catching up on Lost and Family Guy

Buying and renting movies

iPod games

The App Store

iTunes U

Chapter 15: Taking an iPhoto Close-Up

Getting Pictures into the Computer

Connecting a digital camera

Importing images from the camera

Importing images from other sources

Finding and Organizing Images

The Photos View

Events planning

Skimming events

Splitting and merging events

Finding pictures by date

Assigning keywords

Assigning ratings

Placing your work into albums

Creating a smart photo album

Viewing pictures

Something to hide

Touching Up Your Photos

The full-screen treatment

Rotating an image

Cropping an image

Repairing blemishes

Straighten

Enhance and adjust

Reducing red-eye

Special effects

Admiring and Sharing Pictures

Creating slideshows

E-mailing pictures

Booking them

Cards and calendars

Themed prints

MobileMe Gallery

iPhoto Meet iWeb

Preserving Your Digital Shoebox

Chapter 16: Shooting an iMovie Screen Test

Shooting Your Oscar Winner

Using a digital camcorder

From Here to Eternity: Camcorder to iMovie

Using a tape-based camcorder

Using a DVD, hard drive, or flash memory camcorder

Importing videos from other destinations

Using an iSight (or another camera) to record directly to iMovie

Mastering Post-Production

Staging events

Milking the Skimming feature

Playing around with playback

Working with video

Marking video

Cropping video

Improving the sound

Giving birth to a project

Adding music or sound effects

Recording a voiceover

The cutting room floor

Adding transitions between clips

Adding titles

Adding photos to a movie

Sharing Your Blockbuster

When iMovie and iDVD Get Together

Choosing a theme

An iDVD slideshow

Altering buttons

Map view editing

OneStep DVD

Making a Magic iDVD

Burn Baby Burn

Chapter 17: The Show Must Go On

Forming a GarageBand

Keeping on track(s)

Getting loopy

Building an arrangement

Multitake recording

Mix it together, maestro

Magic GarageBand

Creating Podcasts

Ducking

Importing video

Sharing Your Work

Sharing podcasts

Sharing music projects

Part V: The Creepy Geeky Section

Chapter 18: Networking Madness

Networking Done Right

The wired way

Cutting the cord

Landing safely at the AirPort

Boarding the AirPort Express

AirTunes

Testing your network

Let’s Share

Brushing Up on Bluetooth

Getting discovered

Pairing off

Chapter 19: Surviving in a Windows World

What Mac and Windows Have in Common

Making the Switch

Move2Mac Software

Help from Apple

Burning a disc

External hard drives

Using an existing network

The KVM switch

Enlisting in Boot Camp

Basic training

Switching operating systems

A Parallels (and Fusion) Universe

Chapter 20: Handling Trouble in Paradise

A Cranky Computer

A Frozen Computer or Program

Force Quit

When a program quits on you

Forcing a restart

Safe boot

Disk Utility

Permissions granted

Repair job

Get S.M.A.R.T.

Startup Problems

Reinstalling OS X

Reinstalling OS 9

Common Fixes to Other Problems

A jumpy mouse

A stuck CD

My Mac can no longer tell time

The wrong program answers the call of duty

Kernel clink

SOS for DNS

Curing the trash can blues

Useful Routine Maintenance

Purge unnecessary files and programs

Backing up your treasures

Updating software

Summoning Outside Help

Third-party software

AppleCare

Consulting Einstein

Help, I need somebody

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Chapter 21: Ten Clever Dashboard Widgets

Cocktail

Countdown Plus

Gas

Hurricane Tracker

iStat pro

Movies

pearLyrics/Sing that iTune

Send SMS

Wikipedia

Word of the Day

Chapter 22: Ten Indispensable Mac Web Sites

AppleInsider

MacFixIt

MacOSX Hints

MacRumors

MacSurfer

Macworld

Other World Computing

The Unofficial Apple Weblog

VersionTracker

And Last but Not Least, Apple.com

Chapter 23: Ten Things to Leave You With

Remote Madness

If Math Moves You

Speaking Another Language

Zip It in the Bud

FYI on FTP

Screen Capture

Watching TV on a Mac

Read Magazines

Would You Like to Play a Game of Chess?

Speech Recognition

Macs For Dummies®, 10th Edition

by Edward C. Baig

Personal Technology columnist for USA TODAY

Macs For Dummies®, 10th Edition

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2008940367

ISBN: 978-0-470-45678-1

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Author

Edward C. Baig writes the weekly Personal Technology column in USA TODAY and is co-host of the weekly USA TODAY’s Talking Tech with Ed Baig & Jefferson Graham video podcast. He is also coauthor of Wiley’s iPhone For Dummies.

Before joining USA TODAY as a columnist and reporter in 1999, Ed spent six years at Business Week, where he wrote and edited stories about consumer tech, personal finance, collectibles, travel, and wine tasting. He received the Medill School of Journalism 1999 Financial Writers and Editors Award for his contributions to the “Business Week Investor Guide to Online Investing.” That came after a three-year stint at U.S. News & World Report, where Ed was the lead tech writer for the News You Can Use section but also dabbled in numerous other topics. Ed fondly remembers putting together features on baseball card investing, karaoke machines, and the odd things people collect, including Pez dispensers, vintage radios and magic memorabilia.

Ed began his journalistic career at Fortune, gaining the best training imaginable during his early years as a fact checker and contributor to the Fortune 500. Through the dozen years he worked at the magazine, Ed covered leisure-time industries, penned features on the lucrative dating market and the effect of religion on corporate managers, and was heavily involved in the magazine’s Most Admired Companies project. Ed also started up Fortune’s Products to Watch column, a venue for low- and high-tech items.

Ed has been passionate about gadgets and technology since buying his first reel-to-reel tape recorder and shortwave radio as a boy. He has also purchased 8-track cartridge players (still in the attic somewhere) and the Magnavox Odyssey video game console, not quite the Xbox of its time. These days, when he’s not spending time with his family or at the keyboard of his myriad computers, Ed can be found rooting for the New York Giants and New York Mets, listening to music of all types, and watching movies.

He has a BA in Political Science from York College and an MBA from Adelphi University.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my remarkable and gorgeous kids: daughter Sydney, who at a very early age became fascinated with the iTunes Visualizer, and son Sammy, who cannot resist pounding (quite literally) on the keyboard. This book is also dedicated to my beautiful wife Janie, who does amazing things large and small every day, and to my canine “son” Eddie for continuing to remind me through his barks that it is I who live and work in his house, not the other way around. Finally it is dedicated to my mom Lucy, for the values you instilled in me and are starting to instill in your grandchildren. I love you all.

Author’s Acknowledgments

No book like this is ever written in a vacuum and I’ve received wonderful support from lots of people. Let me start by again thanking my agent, Matt Wagner, for turning me into a Dummies author.

At Wiley, I’d like to thank Sr. Acquisitions Editor Bob Woerner, Project Editor Susan Pink (the very model of patience), and Technical Editor Dennis Cohen — your services are simply invaluable. Lots of other folks at Wiley do amazing work behind the scenes. I don’t know all your names, but please know you have my utmost respect and appreciation.

I also couldn’t pull this off without considerable help from many people at Apple. So special thanks to Katie Cotton, Steve Dowling, Natalie Kerris, Teresa Brewer, Greg (Joz) Joswiak, Tom Neumayr, Jannette Barrios, Jennifer Hakes, Keri Walker, Amy Bessette, Amy Barney, Bill Evans, and others in Cupertino.

Thanks too to Jim Henderson, Geri Tucker, Nancy Blair ,and my other USA TODAY colleagues and friends for your encouragement and for putting the newspaper’s stamp of approval behind this project.

Last but certainly not least, thanks to all my friends and family members who not only urged me to write this book but forgave me for my disappearing acts during those periods when deadlines loomed. I have no more excuses.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions and Editorial

Project Editor: Susan Pink

Sr. Acquisitions Editor: Bob Woerner

Copy Editor: Susan Pink

Technical Editor: Dennis Cohen

Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Patrick Redmond

Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, Reuben W. Davis, Sarah Philippart, Christine Williams

Proofreaders: John Greenough, Toni Settle

Indexer: Broccoli Information Management

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Introduction

What an amazing time to get to know the Mac. For years these elegantly designed computers have been a model of simplicity and virus-free stability. But that’s never stopped Apple from making these machines even harder to resist by applying stunning changes.

Consider Apple’s seismic embrace of Intel a few years ago. It means you, Mr. or Ms. Computer Buyer, can have your cake and eat it too. (I love a good cliché when I need it.) You can benefit from what remains the best marriage in personal computing (the blessed union between Mac hardware and Mac software), but you no longer have to ditch the Microsoft Windows–based software you currently use out of habit, due to business obligations, or because you don’t know any better.

Indeed, this book is partially targeted at Windows vets who are at least thinking about defecting to the Mac. It is also squarely aimed at people who are new to computers — and the Internet — period. And though this is primarily a book for beginners, I trust people who have already dabbled with computers in general and Macs in particular will find it useful.

About This Book

A word about the For Dummies franchise I’m proud to be a part of: These books are built around the idea that all of us feel like dopes whenever we tackle something new, especially when the subject at hand (technology) reeks of a jargon-y stench.

I happen to know you don’t have a dummy bone in your body, and the publishers at Wiley know it too. Au contraire. (How dumb can you be if you speak French?) If anything, you’ve already demonstrated smarts by purchasing this book. You’re ready to plunge into the best computing environment I know of.

Because you’re so intelligent, you’re probably wondering “who is this guy asking me for 400 pages or so of my time?” Go ahead and read my bio, which appears just before the Table of Contents.

What you won’t find there is this: I’m a relative latecomer to the Mac. I grew up on MS-DOS computing and then migrated like most of the rest of the world to Windows. I still use Windows machines every day.

But I’ve since become a devoted Mac convert and I use my various Apples every day too. (No snide remarks, please; I find time for other pursuits.)

When writing this book, I vowed to keep geek-speak to a minimum. I couldn’t eliminate it entirely, and to be honest, I wouldn’t want to. Here’s why:

You may come across absurdly complicated terms in advertisements and on the Web, so it’s helpful to have at least a passing familiarity with some of them.

Nothing says we can’t poke a little fun now and then at the nerds who drummed up this stuff.

Conventions Used in This Book

Anyone who has skimmed the pages of this or other For Dummies books knows they’re not exactly War and Peace. Come to think of it, it’s too bad Tolstoy got to that name first. It would make a great title when the definitive account of the Apple-Intel alliance is written.

Macs For Dummies makes generous use of numbered and bulleted lists, and screen grabs captured, by the way, using a handy little freebie Mac utility (invaluable to writers of books like this) called Grab. See, you haven’t even escaped the introduction, and I threw in your first Mac lesson, just like that.

You’ll also note several sidebars in the book, containing material that’s not part of the required syllabus (well, nothing is really required). I hope you’ll read them anyhow. Some sidebars are technical in nature, and some provide a little historical perspective.

How This Book Is Organized

The beauty of the For Dummies format is that you can jump around and read any section you want. You are not obliged to follow a linear structure. Need to solve a problem? Head straight to the troubleshooting section (Chapter 20) and do not pass Go. Want to find new music to listen to while pounding away on the computer? Meet me in Chapter 14.

An organizing principle is at work here. This edition of MacsFor Dummies is split into a half-dozen parts. If you’re new to computing, you might want to digest this book from start to finish.

Part I: Freshman Year at Drag-and-Drop Tech

In Part I, I lay out the groundwork for your Mac education: from turning the machine on to navigating the Mac desktop. You are introduced to ports and connectors, the dock, freebie programs, and the various Macs models.

Part II: Mac Daily Dealings

If Part I was mainly for seminars and lectures, Part II is where you get to do lab work. You find out how to process words and print and how to start taming the Leopard operating system.

Part III: Rocketing into Cyberspace

Part III covers all things Internet. You find out how to get connected, conduct online research, shop, and send e-mail. I also introduce Time Machine, the slickest and easiest computer backup anywhere, and MobileMe, Apple’s fee-based online club.

Part IV: Getting an iLife

In Part IV you really move into the fun stuff, the programs that may have driven you to purchase a Mac in the first place: iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand, and iWeb.

Part V: The Creepy Geeky Section

Part V is the part of this computer book that you might imagine is most, well, like a computer book. Don’t worry, you can read the chapters in this section without being branded a nerd. In any event, it’s chock-full of practical information on networking and diagnosing problems.

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Listmania is a For Dummies trademark. Check out Part VI for ten Mac-flavored Web sites, ten dashboard widgets, plus ten more nifty things a Mac can do, from playing chess to telling a joke.

Icons Used in This Book

Sprinkled in the margins of these pages are little pictures, or icons. I could have easily mentioned icons in the “Conventions Used in This Book” section, because icons are For Dummies conventions too, not to mention essential ingredients in today’s computers. I use four of them throughout this book.

A remember icon means a point of emphasis is here. So along with remembering your spouse’s birthday and where you put the house keys, you might want to retain some of this stuff.

I present the tip icon when a shortcut or recommendation might make the task at hand faster or simpler.

Some percentage of For Dummies readers will get so hooked on computing they will become the geeks of tomorrow. These are the people who will welcome the presence of these pointy-faced little icons. Others among you would rather swallow turpentine than read an overly technical passage. You can safely ignore this material. (Still, won’t you be the least bit curious about what it is you might be missing?)

This icon is my way of saying pay heed to this passage and proceed gingerly, lest you wreak the kind of havoc that can cause real and possibly permanent damage to your computer and (by extension) your wallet.

Where to Go from Here

I’ve made every effort to get things right and present them in a coherent manner. But if I’ve erred in any way, confused you, made you mad, whatever, drop me an e-mail at [email protected]. I truly welcome your comments and suggestions, and I’ll do my best to respond to reasonable queries in a timely fashion. Mac people aren’t shy about voicing their opinions. Oh, and since all writers have fragile egos, feel free to send nice e-mails my way too. Above all, I hope you have fun reading the book, and more importantly, I hope you have a grand old time with your Mac. Thanks for buying the book.

Part I

Freshman Year at Drag-and-Drop Tech

In this part . . .

Even at a party school, you have to enroll in a few academic classes. In these early chapters, the course work provides you with your first glimpse at the tools and programs that make Macs so appealing. Plus, the homework is light.

You’ve selected an excellent major.

Chapter 1

Adventuring into the Mac World

In This Chapter

Discovering why your computer is special

Conversing with your computer

Introducing iLife

Going outside the box

Computing safely

Forgive me for getting too personal right off the bat, but next to your spouse or significant other, is there anyone or anything you touch more often than a computer keyboard? Or gaze at more intensely than a monitor?

If this is your initial dalliance with a Macintosh, you are probably already smitten — and quite possibly at the start of a lifelong affair.

Despite its good looks, the Mac is much more than a trophy computer. You can admire the machine for flaunting intelligent design, versatility, and toughness. A Mac can take care of itself. As of this writing, the Mac has avoided the scourge of viruses that plague PCs based on Microsoft Windows. Apple’s darlings are a lot more stable too, so they crash and burn less often.

Mac-Spectacular Computing

You shouldn’t be alarmed that far fewer people own Macs compared with PCs. That’s like saying fewer people drive Ferraris than drive Chevys. Strength in numbers is overrated.

Besides, as a new member of the Mac community, consider the company you are about to keep. Mac owners tend to belong to the cool crowd: artists, designers, performers, and (can’t resist this one) writers.

Sure, these same people can be smug at times. I’ve had Mac mavens go ballistic on me for penning positive reviews that were not flattering enough. Or for even daring to suggest that Macs aren’t always perfect.

The machines come pretty darn close, though, so if you’re new to the Mac you’re in for a treat. It has been suggested that most Windows users go to their computers to complete the task at hand and be done with it. The Mac owner also gets things done, of course. The difference is that machines branded with the Apple logo tend to be a labor of love. Moreover, now that Intel is inside newer Macs, Apple’s computer can double as a pretty darn effective Windows machine.

Oh, and you will always remember the first time.

Checking out shapes and sizes

When people speak of the Mac, they may refer to both the physical machine (or hardware) and the operating system software that makes it all tick. One is worthless without the other. On a Mac, the operating system is called OS X (pronounced “oh-S-ten”). The sixth major release of OS X also carries a ferocious moniker, Leopard (see Chapter 6 for more on the operating system).

Apple Computer has a tremendous advantage over the companies promoting Windows PCs because it is the single entity responsible for producing not only the computer itself but also the important software that choreographs the way the system behaves. Everything is simpatico.

That’s in stark contrast to the ways of the PC world. Companies such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard manufacture hardware. Microsoft produces the Windows software that fuels the machines. Sure these companies maintain close ties, but they just don’t share Apple’s blood relationships.

You will find a variety of Macintoshes meant to sit on top of your desk, thus the term desktop computer. These are discussed in greater detail in Chapter 4. Just know for now that the main examples of the breed are the iMac, the Mac mini, and the Mac Pro.

Mac laptops, so named because they rest on your lap and are portable, include the MacBook, the MacBook Pro, and the Twiggy-thin MacBook Air. They are sometimes referred to as notebookcomputers or just plain notebooks. As with spiral notebooks, they can fit into a briefcase.

Matching a Mac to your needs

Haven’t settled on which Mac to buy? This book provides assistance. Cheap advice: If you can eyeball the computers in person, by all means do so. Apple operates more than two hundred retail stores worldwide, mostly in North America. But there are also retail outlets in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan. Trolling through these high-tech candy stores is a delight. Of course, you can also buy Macs on the Internet or in traditional “brick and mortar” computer stores.

Just be prepared to part with some loot. Although the gap between the cost of PCs and Macs is narrowing, you will typically pay more for a Mac versus a comparable unit on the PC side.

(Uh oh! The Mac diehards are boiling at that remark: I can practically see their heads exploding as they rant: “There is no such thing as a comparable Windows machine.”)

Keep in mind that students are often eligible for discounts on computers. Check with your college or university bookstore. Apple also gives breaks to faculty, administrators, and K-12 teachers.

You might also qualify for a corporate discount through your employer.

Selecting handy peripherals

As you might imagine, a full range of peripherals complement the Mac. Although much of what you create in bits and bytes, to put it in computer-speak, stays in that electronic form, at some point you’re probably going to want to print your work. On old-fashioned paper, no less. Fortunately, a number of excellent printers work with Macs. I provide details in Chapter 8.

You may also choose a scanner, which in some respects is the opposite of a printer. That’s because you start with an image already in paper form, and scan, or translate, it into a form your computer can understand and display. Okay, so you can also scan from slides or microfiche but you get my point.

Some machines combine printing and scanning functions, often with copier and fax capabilities as well. These are called multifunction, or all-in-one, devices.

Communicating with Your Mac

The Mac isn’t at all standoffish like some human objects of affection. It is friendly and approachable. In this section, I tell you how.

It’s a GUI

Every mainstream computer in operation today employs what’s called a graphical user interface, or GUI. The Mac’s GUI is arguably the most inviting of all. It consists of colorful objects or pictures on your screen, plus windows and menus (for more, see Chapter 3). You interact with these using a computer mouse or other pointing device to tell your machine and its various programs how to behave. Sure beats typing instructions as arcane commands or taking a crash course in programming.

Even though GUI is pronounced “gooey,” there’s nothing remotely yucky about it.

With great tools for you

Given its versatility, I’ve often thought a Mac would make a terrific product to peddle on one of those late-night infomercials. “It slices, it dices. Why it even does more than a Ginsu Knife or Popeil Pocket Fisherman!”

Indeed, have you ever paused to consider what a computer is anyhow? Let’s consider a few of its most primitive (albeit handy) functions. A Mac can

Tell time

Display family portraits

Solve arithmetic problems

Play movies

Let you chat with friends

I dare say you didn’t surrender a grand or two for a simple clock, photo album, calculator, DVD player, or telephone. But it’s sure nice having all those capabilities in one place, and as that announcer on TV might bark, “That’s not all folks.”

I can’t possibly rattle off all the nifty things a Mac can do in one section (besides, I encourage you to read the rest of the book). But whether you bought or intend to buy a Mac for work, play, or more likely some combination of the two, some little birdie tells me the contents of the Mac’s tool chest will surpass your expectations.

And output, too

I’m confident that you’ll spend many pleasurable hours in front of your computer. At the end of the day, though, you’re going to want to show other people how productive and clever you’ve been. So whether you produce legal briefs, spiffy newsletters for the PTA, or music CDs for your fraternity’s big bash, the Mac will make you proud.

Living the iLife

All the latest Macs are loaded with a terrific suite of software programs called iLife to help you master the digital lifestyle you are about to become accustomed to. (On older systems, you can purchase the upgraded iLife suite of programs.) I dig deeper into the various iLife components throughout Part IV. Here’s a sneak preview:

iPhoto: The great photographer Ansel Adams would have had a field day with iPhoto. This software lets you organize and share your best pictures in myriad ways, including placing them in calendars or in coffee table books.

iMovie: Can an Academy Award be far behind? iMovie is all about applying cinematic effects to turn your video into a piece of high-minded art that would make Martin Scorsese proud. Who knows, maybe Apple boss Steve Jobs will find work for you at Disney or Pixar.

iDVD: Use this program to create DVDs with chapters, like the films you rent at the video store.

GarageBand: Did somebody mention groupies? GarageBand lets you make music using virtual software instruments. The latest version also helps you create online radio shows, or podcasts.

iWeb: This member of the iLife troupe is all about helping you create your own Web site.

Reaching Outside the Box

The modern computing experience extends well beyond the inner workings of the physical contraption on your desk. Computing is more about what occurs in the magical kingdom of cyberspace, better known as the Internet.

Getting online

In Chapter 9, you discover all there is to know about finding your way to the Internet and the many paths you can take once you get there. The Mac comes with the software you need to get started and (depending on your model) the circuitry required to connect online through fast broadband methods. Older machines may still dial up the Internet, though that is increasingly rare.

Networking with or without wires

Ask a few people to explain what networking is all about, and they’ll probably utter something about trying to meet and cozy up to influential people who might help them advance their careers or social lives.

A Mac can help with such things, too, but that’s not the kind of networking I have in mind. Computer networks are about having two or more machines communicate with one another to share files, pictures, music, and most importantly, a connection to various online outposts. Even on a Mac, this networking business can get kind of geeky, though Apple does as good a job as anyone in helping to simplify the process. You can network by connecting certain cords and cables. The preferred method is to do so without wires. This is all explained in Chapter 18.

Staying Safe and Trouble-Free

As noted, the Mac has historically been able to avoid the nasty viruses and other malevolent programs that give Windows owners the heebie-jeebies. In the nastiest scenarios, those Windows machines (or certain programs) are shut down and personal information is surreptitiously lifted. In this day and age, not even Mac owners should let their guard down. (And remember, in some instances the Mac can double as a Windows machine.) Chapter 13 offers counsel on avoiding online dangers.

No matter how much care and feeding went into producing these beautiful computers, when all is said and done we are talking about physical contraptions filled with circuits and silicon. Machines break, or at the very least get cranky. So drop by Chapter 20, where I outline common troubleshooting steps you can take to ensure that you and your computer develop your relationship gracefully. It’s the high-tech alternative to couple counseling.

Chapter 2

The Nuts and Bolts of Your Mac

In This Chapter

Turning on the computer and getting set up

Taming the mouse

Keying in on the keyboard

Saving to the hard drive

Mastering memory

Finding common ports and connectors

Have you taken the plunge and purchased the computer? If so, you’ve made a fabulous decision.

I bet you’re dying to get started. You may even have begun without reading these initial instructions. Fine with me. No offense taken. The Mac is intuitive, after all, and the title on this cover notwithstanding, you’re no dummy. I know because you had the good sense to buy a Macintosh — and this book. Besides, what would it say about Apple’s product designers if they couldn’t make you understand how to turn on the computer?

If you didn’t jump the gun, that’s cool too. That’s why your humble servant, um, author, is here.

Turning On and Tuning In Your Mac

To borrow a line from a famous musical, “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start . . .” In the Do-Re-Mi’s of Macintosh computing, plugging the computer in the wall is a very good place to start. It doesn’t get a whole lot more complicated from there.

The Fab Four chime?

That musical chord you hear just after pressing the on button may sound vaguely familiar. For a long time I thought it was the same chime that ends the Beatles’ A Day in the Life. Former hippies, flower children, baby boomers, and just about everyone else conscious during the 1960s may wish it were so. For one thing, Macs are sold with iLife software. Wouldn’t it be groovy to make a nexus between iLife and the Beatle’s Life? Moreover, John, Paul, George, and Ringo famously recorded on the Apple record label. (Anyone remember records?) And Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, like so many of his generation, is a Beatles fan. The sad reality is that the Beatles’ Apple Corps had a history of suing Apple Computer over trademark issues. But despite their litigious past, the two companies finally gave peace a chance.

The on button

Take a second to locate the round on, or power, button. Where it resides depends on the Mac model you purchased, but finding it shouldn’t be too taxing. I’ll even give away the secret on recently issued models. On the latest iMac, the on button is on the lower-left back panel of the monitor (when you are facing the monitor). On Mac laptops, the button is to the right of the keyboard.

Go ahead and press the on button now. Explosive things are about to happen. Not those kinds of explosives; it’s just that igniting your first session on the Mac makes you da bomb (translation: college slang for awesome or cool).

To let you know that all is peachy (or should I say Apple-y), you hear a musical chime (see the sidebar) while the Apple logo briefly shows up on the screen in front of a gray background.

Getting credentials

Powering up a new Mac for the first time may make you feel like you’re entering the United Nations. After the Apple logo disappears, a lengthy interrogation process commences.

You are kindly instructed to pledge allegiance to a particular language. Deutsch als Standardsprache verwenden and Gebruik Nederlands als hoofdtaal are among the seventeen choices in a list box. If you don’t know what either of these means, you should probably make another choice. In any case, choose your selection by clicking with the mouse (see details later in this chapter) or pressing Enter or Return on the keyboard.

If you select Use English as the main language (as I did), you’re treated to a short movie welcoming you in several languages to OS X Leopard, the Mac’s operating system software. Next, you get to tell your nosy computer your country or region (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and so on). There’s no need to whip out a passport.

At this stage you have the option to hear instructions for setting up your Mac. To do so, press the Escape key.

If you happen to own another Mac, you can then transfer network settings, user accounts, documents, applications, files, e-mail, and various preferences from that other computer to this one. The process typically involves connecting a FireWire cable, which you discover more about later in this chapter.

With the introduction of the MacBook Air notebook, Apple upgraded its software so that you could migrate from another Mac wirelessly over a computer network. The reason: Air does not have FireWire.

You also are presented with the option to transfer information from another partition on this Mac. That’s a geeky term we’ll skip for now.

And you can migrate from another Mac volume using Leopard’s Time Machine feature. Read Chapter 13 to find out how to go back in time.

Of course, if this is your maiden voyage on the SS Macintosh, the previous choices are unimportant. Instead, select the box “Do not transfer my information” and click Continue.

As the cross-examination goes on, you get to choose a keyboard layout and then select any available wireless Internet service to use.

The next step is to enter your Apple ID, assuming you have one. Such credentials let you buy stuff later.

Before completing this drill, you are also asked to reveal your name, address, phone number, and (again if you have one) e-mail address. You can’t say no, (though I suppose you can fib).

Distrustful types can click to read Apple’s privacy policy. Best I can tell, no one will ask for your social security number or driver’s license.

Still, the prying goes on. Apple next wants to know what you do for a living (“Other” is a safe choice in the menu) and where you will primarily use the computer. You also get to tell Apple whether to keep you abreast on company news, software updates, and the latest products and services. Opting-in is entirely up to you. Just be aware that you have to remove the check mark in the box to opt-out.

Creating an identity

You’re almost ready to begin touring the computer. But not quite. An important step remains. You must choose an identity, or user account, to tell the Mac that you are the Grand Poobah of this particular computer. As this almighty administrator, you and you alone can subsequently add accounts for other members of your family or workplace, each with a password that keeps them from snooping into one another’s computing workspace (see Chapter 5).

Type the name of the account holder (for example, Cookie Monster), the short name (Cookie), the password (chocolatechip or better yet something that’s harder to guess), and the password again to verify it. You are also asked to type a password hint (yummy flavor) as a gentle reminder should you ever forget your password. Failing to remember things may not happen to you, but it sure happens to me.

On models with a built-in camera you will also be asked at this stage to choose an account picture. Better not be camera-shy, because this too you can’t refuse.

Clocking in

Because it probably already seems like day is turning into night, this is as appropriate a time as any to, well, select your time zone by clicking near where you live on the world map that appears. If you’re connected to the Internet, the computer already knows the date and time. If not, you can enter them now.

Registering your Mac

When all is said and done, the nice folks at Apple would also like you to register your Mac. You can put this off till later or skip it. Letting Apple know who you are gives the company the opportunity to flood you with promotional e-mail. But you can register and opt-out of promotional e-mail.

Making acquaintances

Depending on how you set things up, you may see a welcome screen listing all the people on the computer with a user account, each with a personal mug shot or other graphical thumbnail next to their names. Click the name or picture next to the thumbnail. You’re asked to enter your password (assuming you have one). Type it properly, and you are transported to the main working area, or desktop.

The desktop I am referring to here is the interface you see on the computer display, not to be confused with a desktop-type machine.

Shutting down

We began this chapter with a noble discussion of how to turn on the Mac. (Humor me if you didn’t think the discussion was even remotely noble.) So even though you barely have your feet wet, I’m going to tell you how to turn the dang thing off. Don’t you just hate people who not only give away the ending (it’s the butler) but also tell you to do something and then tell you why you shouldn’t have done it?

Okay. Ready? Sayonara time.

Using the arrow-shaped cursor, which you control with your mouse, stab the small Ú logo found at the upper-left corner of the screen. Click once, and a drop-down menu appears. Move the cursor down until the Shut Down entry is highlighted. You know a command or an entry is highlighted because a blue strip appears over its name.

Pressing Enter on the keyboard or clicking Shut Down brings up what’s called a dialog box (see Figure 2-1). I’m no shrink, but it’s obvious based on the question the computer asks inside this box that it suffers from separation anxiety. “Are you sure you want to shut down your computer now?”

Figure 2-1: Are you sure you want to shut down?

Do nothing, and the machine will indeed turn itself off in a minute on Leopard machines or two minutes on older Macs. If you want to say “so long” immediately, click the button labeled Shut Down. If you hold down the Option key when choosing Shut Down, this dialog is bypassed.

Having second thoughts? Click Cancel.

Giving your Mac a nap

Apart from guilt, why not shut down? The main reason is that you can let the computer catch a few Zs without turning it off. A sleeping Mac consumes far less energy than one that’s in a conscious state. Mac’s don’t snore, but you know they’re alive because of a dim blinking light. As it turns out, your machine is a light sleeper. You can wake it up right away by pressing any key on the keyboard. Best of all, whatever you happened to be working on is just where you left it. You have to begin from scratch when you restart a Mac that you had completely shut down.

If you’re going to leave the Mac on for an extended period of time, make sure it’s plugged in to a surge protector that can protect the machine from lightning. More expensive surge protectors have backup batteries.

You can make a Mac laptop go to sleep immediately by shutting its cover. To make a desktop machine go to sleep, click the Sleep command on the Ú menu.

Mousing Around the Interface

By now you’re catching on to the idea that this computing business requires a lot more clicking than Dorothy had to do to get back to Kansas. She used ruby slippers. You get to use a mouse.

A computer mouse is generally less frightening than that other kind of critter. In keeping with this Wizard of Oz comparison, not even the Cowardly Lion would be scared of it. And though your high-tech rodent can get finicky at times, you’re unlikely to set traps to bring about its demise.

Some mice connect to the computer through cords. Some mice are wireless. (And laptops use trackpads.) In each case, they’re called pointing devices because — brace yourself for this advanced concept — they’re devices that sort of point.

I’ll explain. You roll the mouse across a flat surface (typically your desk, perhaps a specialized mouse pad). As you do so, a cursor, or insertion point, on the screen miraculously apes the movement of your hand gliding the mouse. (Note to self: The mixed metaphor police, a.k.a. my editor, must love the mention of a mouse and a monkey in the same breath.) If the mouse loses touch with the surface of your desk, the cursor will no longer move.

When you place the cursor precisely where you want it, you’re ready for the clicking part. Place your index finger on the upper-left portion of the mouse, press down quickly, and let go. You’ll hear a clicking sound, and in some cases your entire body will tingle with satisfaction. You have indeed mastered the fine art of clicking.

Don’t get too cocky. Now try double-clicking, an action often required to get something accomplished. You’re pretty much repeating the preceding exercise, only now you’re clicking twice in rapid succession while keeping the cursor in the same location. It may take a little practice. But you’ll get it.

Left- and right-clicking

If you’ve been using a Windows computer, you’re accustomed to working with a mouse that has two or more buttons. More times than not you click, or double-click, using the upper-left button. That’s where the remarkably unoriginal name of left-clicking comes from. Left-clicking usually serves the purpose of selecting things on the screen. By contrast, the opposite action, right-clicking, brings up a menu of shortcut commands.

Until recently, the typical Apple mouse had just one button, the functional equivalent of the left button on a Windows mouse. (Apple’s programmable Mighty Mouse, included with recent Macs, can behave like a multibutton mouse.) Having just one button on a Mac is less of a big deal than you might think. That’s because you can effectively right-click, or bring up a shortcut menu, with a one-button Mac mouse anyway. To accomplish this great feat, press Control on the keyboard while you click.

Pointing and clicking on a laptop

You can attach a regular mouse to any Mac laptop, but it is not always convenient to use one when you’re on a 747 or working in tight quarters.

Fortunately, Mac portables have something called a trackpad, a smooth area just below the keyboard. You glide your finger on the trackpad to choreograph the movement of the cursor. The button just below the trackpad handles clicking chores.

What a drag

The mouse is responsible for at least one other important bit of business: dragging. Position the cursor on top of the symbol or icon you want to drag. Then hold down the mouse button and roll the mouse across your desk. As you do so, the icon moves to a new location on the screen.

Knowing What’s Handy about the Keyboard

As with any computer — or an old-fashioned typewriter for that matter — the Mac keyboard is laid out in QWERTY style, meaning the top row of letters starts with Q, W, E, R, T, and Y. But a computer keyboard also contains a bunch of specialized keys that the inventors of the typewriter wouldn’t have dreamed of.

Finding the major functions

The top row of the Mac keyboard carries a bunch of keys with the letter F followed by a number. From left to right, you go from F1, F2, F3, all the way out (in some cases) to F16. These are your loyal function keys, and their particular marching orders vary among Mac models. Depending on your setup, pressing certain F keys has no effect at all.

With some exceptions, the F9, F10, F11, and F12 relate to a Mac feature called Exposé, which I explain in Chapter 5. In the same chapter I discuss the role F8 has in launching a new feature called Spaces.

On Mac laptops, the F1 and F2 keys can raise or lower the brightness of your screen. On other types of Macs, F14 and F15 perform those functions. Again there are exceptions.

Those various F keys may be difficult to spot at first on a laptop. They have teeny-tiny labels and share keys. You’ll have to press the fn key at the same time you press a function key to make it, well, function as a function key. Otherwise such keys will perform their other duties.

The keys you use every day

Quick quiz: Guess which keys you employ most often? Too easy. The keys you use every day are the ones representing vowels and letters with low point values in Scrabble.

Naturally, these aren’t the only keys that work overtime. The spacebar, comma, and period are darn busy. If you’re into hyperbole, the exclamation mark key puts in an honest day’s effort too. Don’t let me shortchange Shift or Return. And I know you accountants in the crowd spend a lot of time hammering away at all those number keys.

More keys to success

You’ll find these other keys extremely useful:

esc: The great Escape key. The equivalent of clicking Cancel in a dialog box.

: These raise, lower, or mute the volume of the computer’s speakers, though in laptops certain function keys perform these duties.

: No doubt this is James Bond’s favorite key. Press it, and one of two things is supposed to happen. On most newer Macs, a CD or DVD loaded inside the guts of the computer spits out of a hidden slot. On other models, the tray holding the disc slides out.

Delete, delete: You are not reading double. Some Mac keyboards have two delete keys, each with a different assignment. Regular delete is your backspace key. Press it, and it erases the character directly to the left of the cursor. The second delete key, which sometimes appears as Del and sometimes as delete accompanied by an x inside a small pentagon, is the forward delete key. It wipes out the character to the right of the cursor. Confusingly, on some laptops and with a new aluminum keyboard, you can purge the letter to the right of the cursor by pressing fn and delete at the same time.

Home, End: The jumpiest keys you will come across. Press Home and you’re instantly vaulted to the top of the document or Web page window in which you are working. Press End and you often plunge to the bottom, depending on the application.

Page Up, Page Down: A keyboard alternative for moving up or down one huge gulp or screenful at a time.

Option: Pressing Option (labeled Alt Option on some keyboards) while you press another key generates symbols. You can’t possibly recall them all, though over time, you’ll learn the key combinations for symbols you regularly call upon. For example, press Option and 2 for ™, Option and V for √, and Option and R for ®. Feel free to play around with other combinations.

Control: The Control key and the mouse click make a powerful combination. Control-clicking yields pop-up contextual menus that only make sense in the moment. For example, Control-clicking a term in the Microsoft Word word processing program brings up a menu that lets you find a synonym for that word, among other options. Because finding a synonym doesn’t make a lot of sense when you control-click a picture in iPhoto (Chapter 15), the action opens up different possibilities, including editing, rotating, and duplicating an image.

Ô: Pressing this cloverleaf key at the same time you press another keyboard character creates keyboard shortcuts, a subject worthy of its own topic (see the next section).

Taking a shortcut

If you hold the mouse in high regard, you may want to give the little fellow time off now and then. That’s the beauty of keyboard shortcuts. When you simultaneously press Ô and a given key, stuff happens. You just have to remember which combination of keys to use under which circumstances.

To understand how such shortcuts work, consider the popular act of copying material from one program and reproducing it in another. You are about to practice copy-and-paste surgery.

I present two ways to do this. One leaves pretty much everything up to your mouse. The other, while still using the mouse a little, mainly exploits keyboard shortcuts.

The first option follows:

1. Use the mouse to highlight, or select, the passage you want to copy.

2. On the menu bar at the top of the screen, choose Edit⇒Copy.

3. Move the mouse and click to place your mouse at the point where you want to paste the text.

4. Choose Edit⇒Paste.

The copied material magically appears at its new destination.

Here is the keyboard shortcut method:

1. Highlight the text you want to copy.

2. Hold down the Ô key while you press the C key.

The result is the same as if you had clicked Edit and Copy.

3. Move the mouse and click to place the mouse at the point where you want to paste.

4. Press Ô and the V key.

You just pasted the text.

Many clickable menu items have keyboard equivalents. These shortcuts are displayed in the various menus to the right of their associated commands, as shown in Figure 2-2. Note that some keyboard shortcuts shown in the menu appear dimmed. That’s because the commands can’t be used at this particular point. And some shortcuts require both the Ô key and one or more additional modifier keys, as in Shift+Ô+N for a New Folder.

Figure 2-2: To use a keyboard shortcut or not to? That is the question.

Storing Stuff on the Hard Drive

You keep lots of things on a computer. Software you’ve added. Photos, songs, movies. Your graduate thesis examining Simon Cowell’s grip on young American divas. Apple left a lot of stuff behind too, mainly the files and programs that make your Mac special.

The bottom line: Computers are a lot like houses. The longer you stick around, the more clutter you accumulate. And despite your best rainy day intentions, you almost never seem to get rid of the junk.

Besides, you have plenty of treasures worth holding on to, and you need a place to store them. The great storage closet on your computer is called the hard drive, and just as with a physical closet, the bigger it is the better. You may even choose to add a second or third hard drive. You can almost always take advantage of the extra storage. Plus, you can use an additional hard drive to back up, or keep a copy of, your most precious digital keepsakes. For that matter, an additional hard drive is required for Time Machine — and as we’ll discover later, it’s a feature well worth exploring.

Indeed, this is a point I cannot ram into your heads hard enough: However you choose to do so, back up, back up, back up.

Memory Essentials, or RAM On

Notice my not-so-subtle use of the word ram in the preceding section? That’s to get you thinking about the other kind of RAM. It stands for Random Access Memory or, mercifully, just memory