Hi,
I'll try to fill in where I can make some additions to what's already
been mentioned.
On Nov 7, 2008, at 11:16 AM, Dj Paddy wrote:
a self confessed geek! I've used all the Windows OS's bar Vista. I
am looking forward to installing Vmware Fusion and getting Linux up
and running on here.
If you have some Unix/Linux background, you might be interested in
reading: "Top Ten Mac OS X Hints for Unix Geeks":
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2002/10/22/macforunix.html
This old (but updated) web page gives information on items like
running terminal commands, shells, and system directory structure.
5. Podcasting.
What application is people using for this? I've noticed Podcast
Catcher in Utilitys but again it's asking me for a password along
side my username?
The easiest application to use for subscribing to and downloading
podcasts is iTunes (assuming you mean listening to podcasts rather
than producing them). The podcasts section of the iTunes Store is
probably the most comprehensive single location for finding podcasts,
and iTunes lets you set options for subscribing, downloading, and
managing podcasts in automated fashion or manually. You don't need an
account at the iTunes Store to subscribe to podcasts. You can do a
simple search for podcasts within iTunes by selecting the iTunes Store
in the Sources Table and entering the name of the podcast followed by
a carriage return in the Search Text Field, then you can move to the
search results in the iTunes Store and optionally sample or play
podcast episodes, read episode descriptions. download specific
episodes, or subscribe to a podcast.
You can also subscribe to podcasts by supplying a URL for the podcast
feed, as with other podcatcher programs. This is a way to use iTunes
for podcasts that don't have entries at the iTunes Store -- like ACB
radio's Main Menu. Use the "Subscribe to Podcast" option in the
Advanced Menu on the iTunes menu bar (VO-M and press "A" to navigate
to the Advanced menu and arrow down to "Subscribe to Podcast" and
return) and type in the URL of the feed, then press return. If you
have been using another podcatcher, you can import the OPML file into
iTunes using the File menu.
Downloaded episodes will appear in the Podcasts section of your iTunes
Library, organized in folders by podcast name. To access these,
select "Podcasts" in the Sources Table, then navigate to the Songs
Table to find your episodes. You'll need to expand a folder (VO-
backslash, where backslash is the rightmost key below the delete key
and above the return key on US keyboards, acts as a toggle to expand
or collapse folders here or in Finder) to view the podcasts. The
number of new (unplayed) podcasts is reported after you hear
"Podcasts" in the Sources Table, so you are alerted to new downloads.
New episodes are also flagged in the first (status) column in the
Songs Table for podcasts and their folders.
You can automate management of your podcasts by using the two buttons
reached by VO-right past the Songs Table for podcasts: the first will
let you change your subscription status (Subscribe or Unsubscribe) to
your selection in the Songs Table, the second will let you specify
your settings for having iTunes check for new podcasts episodes -- how
frequently (hourly, daily, weekly, manually), what to do when new
episodes are available (download all episodes on feed [can be enormous
on some feeds] or latest episode), which episodes to keep (all, all
unplayed, most recent 2, 3, 5, 10, etc., manually manage). You can
also customize your preferences by podcast subscription and use even
more options from the contextual menu in the Songs Table to exempt
specific episodes from the automatic management rules (e.g. "Do not
auto delete" -- which is automatically set for any episode you
manually download). There's also a refresh button (VO-right past the
one for "Settings") that will let you manually update your check of
all the podcast feeds at any time.
Podcasts that you subscribe to through iTunes will automatically
"bookmark" so that their last played positions are remembered if you
stop in the middle. If you use an iPod and sync contents your latest
played position will transfer between devices, for continuous
listening of podcasts and audiobooks.
Although simple searches will let you sample the latest episode and
subscribe to podcasts without interacting with the HTML area of the
iTunes Store, navigating into HTML area lets you access a page for
each podcast that gives a complete list of all currently available
episodes (that you can individually sample or download without
necessarily subscribing to the series), navigate links to the
corresponding web page for the podcast, and view what other podcasts
subscribers to this podcast listen to.
There is also a Power Search link at the iTunes Store that you can use
to search for podcasts by title, author, description, category, and
language. So, for example, if you do a simple search by selecting
"iTunes Store" in your Source Table, then navigating to the Search
Text field and typing "Screenless Switchers" without quotation marks,
then pressing return, you can VO-right to the Songs Table and
interact, and find the single entry (for the latest episode) and
sample it by pressing return. You can also VO-right to the column
where you hear "Free" and route your mouse cursor to your VoiceOver
cursor (if you don't have your Mouse Cursor set to track your
VoiceOver cursor), and press (VO-space) to subscribe. However, if you
had interacted with the iTunes Store HTML area just before your VO-
right to the Songs Table, you could have subscribed by pressing (VO-
space) the "subscribe" button (without cursor routing) or you could
have chosen the link to either the Screenless Switchers podcast or its
artwork and pressed it (VO-space) to go to its podcast page. The
podcast page includes a full description of the podcast series and a
subscribe button, along with links to the website, and a list of
"Listeners also subscribed to" links to other podcasts. Moreover, if
you stop interacting and VO-right to corresponding Songs Table, you'll
get a list of all available episodes with release date and episode
description. If you VO-right to where you hear "free" you can
download individual episodes. If you stop interacting and VO-left
back to the iTunes Store HTML area and interact there, you can
navigate back (Command-left bracket) just as you do for web pages.
You can also select the "Power Search" link on that page and press "VO-
space" it. This will allow you to set popup buttons for store
categories (e.g."Music" or "Podcasts" and enter search terms under
title, author, description, etc.). Another item of note is the
"iTunes U" category. These are podcasts released by Universities,
Libraries, radio stations with special educations programs, etc.
9 Further learning.
Any recommended resources other than the Voice Over Daisy manual for
teaching myself?
Erik and others have already mentioned some resources. There's also
Tim Kilburn's VoiceOver web pages:
http://homepage.mac.com/kilburns/voiceover/
and Greg Kearney's VoiceOver Compatibility pages for checking
accessibility of software:
http://w3.wmcnet.org/vo/
Greg also has links to some useful workflows and utilities at that
page, and he's put over some of his Daisy books and documentation at
the Curtin University pages:
http://www.cucat.org/books.php
There are various items at the projects page, such as links to eSpeak
for the Mac, and the Olearia Daisy player at:
http://www.cucat.org/projects.php
Also, try the guides at I can work this thing:
http://www.icanworkthisthing.com/docs/mac_with_voiceover/
Personally, I use the search facitilies at the Mail Archives for this
list a lot:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
Some of the search features are summarized in the archived post
listed below, which I got to by using the above link, pressing tab to
go to the search field, and typing:
from:"Esther" erik searching tips
to give you an idea of how it's done.
See:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg36943.html
With regard to Mobile Me, Erik's remarked:
Hi man, I thought .mac/mobile me was a subscription service? The
reason I didn't sign up was because I thought the screen said it was
going to be over $100 per year.
You can get a 1 year subscription through Amazon for $79, I think.
But in any case it's possible to get a free 60-day trial although the
signup web site may still not be accessible so that you have to call
Apple support. One reason people do this is to use iChat, which
requires either a .Mac/Mobile Me account or and AOL account. After
the trial period the login name should still work for iChat, unless
things have changed.
Thanks heeps for any and all answers, I knwo this is a lot but I'm
pressed for time as I was meant to have had this system 7 weeks ago,
(granted it means I got the new Mac Pro now), but I need to get up
to speed here as quickly as possible for final year projects.
Dj Paddy
HTH
Cheers,
Esther
