Meeting Recap - July 16, 2006

July meeting photo by Joseph Grey Our July meeting took place July 16th, 2006. This meeting was all about dotMac. First Terry took us through a Keynote slideshow which was an overview of the features of dotMac. Then he jumped right in by logging in to the dotMac site. He showed how to access your dotMac email and how to access your contacts that can be set to automatically sync'd from your Mac. He showed how to use the built-in Homepage feature to create a webpage using your images. Terry showed the dotMac Learning Center which features all kinds of tutorials on various Mac applications including Tiger. He also showed the new Groups feature which enables you to create your own discussion email based groups complete with iCal calendar integration and a group slideshow. Next he showed how to use the iDisk and how to access the software that Apple gives dotMac members for free. Terry ended by showing how to use Apple's Backup App to do backups of your most important data.

Q&A from the Meeting

Q. At the meeting you mentioned cheaper ways to get dotMac than the $99/year?
A. Yes, places like Amazon.com typically discount dotMac on a regular basis. I often see it there for $79.

Q. If I'm already on dotMac, but wish to save money on my next renewal, how do I do that?
A. You can buy dotMac at the lowest price you can find. Then log into your dotMac account on the web. Set your account NOT to automatically renew. You'll get email reminders anyway when your account comes up for renewal. Then you can simply enter the code from the package you purchased at a discount.

Q. Does dotMac offer any other statistics other than a page counter if you have a website with them?
A. Unfortunately no! However, MacGroup member Jamie Feldman recommends this free site which can be used in conjunction with dotMac to provide you with stats on how popular your site is.

Q. With iWeb 1.1 Apple introduced commenting. However, this feature only works with sites hosted by .Mac. Is there another way to add comments to your blog pages?
A. Yes, MacGroup member Jamie Feldman found this neat little app to allow you to have comments on non-dotMac hosted sites.

Q. I don't like the long unfriendly URLs that dotMac provides to my site. Can I have my own domain and something simple to access my site?
A. Yes, most domain name service providers not only sell domain names, but many offer domain name forwarding. This is a service that you could have www.myname.com point to web.mac.com/myname. In most cases they charge a nominal fee for the forwarding aspect of the account. There may still be some free ones out there.

The Afterglow

The Afterglow took place at the Panda Buffet. Thanks goes to Brian Stone for this suggestion. The food was yummy and since it was a buffet there was no wait. We'll continue to search out restaurants in the area so that we can have a couple to rotate between.
If you have any suggestions feel free to email them to Terry.

Special Thanks

I would like to thank the meeting volunteers that helped out at our last meeting. Especially Shirley Kussner (who stands during the entire meeting operating the camera even with a broken arm), the Grey's and the Stones for working the registration table as well as Loretta. Also the Genius Table folks: Bill, Phyllis, Yvonne, Chita and Jack. Lastly Joseph Grey for taking photos.

Watch the last meeting via QuickTime Streaming

If you missed the last meeting you can watch it via QuickTime streaming here.

Order this meeting on

Next Meeting August 20, 2006 - Main Meeting Topic - Come Celebrate our 20th Anniversary. Special Guest - Steve "Woz" Wozniak. Special meeting admission - Members FREE - Guests $3.00