It’s great that the Computer Center folks are going to offer to back up people’s documents before the end of the year, but for heavy users of their machines, it’s a little scary to cede control of your backup to somebody else.

For such as we, owning your own external hard drive for backing up is essential. You can use any USB 2.0 external drive, but I would stay away from those made by Western Digital — some are difficult to make into boot drives.

Once you own a drive, what backup software should you use? I have personal experience with three options:

Good:

Use iBackup: it’s free; it does not require an admin password; it backs up all your files and your settings; downside: it does not give you the ability to use library files (like iTunes and iPhoto) while your laptop is being repaired/updated, etc. upside: you can use your USB drive to back up more than one machine.

Better:

Use Carbon Copy Cloner: it’s free; it gives you a bootable clone of your machine that you can plug into any Intel Macintosh (2006 and later) and work as though you are running your laptop; any changes you make while working this way will then be passed on to your laptop when you get it back; downside: unless you are a pretty sophisticated user, you can only back up one machine to the USB drive; you must ask Computer Center folks to enter the admin password every time you run it.

Best:

Use SuperDuper: $27.95; as above, it gives you a bootable clone of your machine that you can plug into any Intel Macintosh (2006 and later) and work as though you are running your laptop; any changes you make while working this way will then be passed on to your laptop when you get it back; downside: as above, unless you are a pretty sophisticated user, you can only back up one machine to the USB drive; upside: you only need to ask Computer Center folks to enter the admin password one time — after that, you can update the clone by yourself any time you want.

• “Battle at Kruger” has become a TV show.
• Firefox just gets better and better. Keep up with the betas as they come out.

Blogging/iMovie

• Ovenstone — a WordPress blogsite featuring an iMovie hosted at DailyMotion.
• Baseball homage to brother Tom; TwoEcho band (examples of using iMovie/YouTube to share essentially personal videos)
• (If you need it, download iMovie from here)

iMovie and iMovie HD tutorials

• Apple
• University of Texas
• UC Berkeley

1. Keynote presentations using digital projectors
2. Setting up a WordPress blog (we hope)

• If you have QuickTime Pro, here’s a bookmarklet for forcing YouTube to load a clip as an “mp4″ QuickTime file, ready for downloading and use in other programs. Go to YouTube>QT and drag the text in the box to your bookmark bar. To use it, find your clip at YouTube, then click the bookmarklet. The YouTube page will re-load with the clip as QuickTime file instead of Flash. (If a blue “Q” shows on the screen, the video is not available as a QuickTime file.) Wait till the clip has fully loaded, then click on the drop-down arrow in the lower right-hand corner, and choose “Save as Source…” Name the video, adding “.mp4″.
• Doodim is a free program that allows you to dim — or black out entirely — everything on your screen but the foremost window. Useful for eliminating screen clutter when showing a low-res QuickTime movie if you don’t own QuickTime pro.

Keynote

• Tutorials at Apple (same as on class CD)

General Presentation Tips and Issues

• tips from 43 Folders and LifeHacker
• (and others at my Delicious account)

• iTunes
  • Gimme Some Tune
  • Google search for “smart albums”
  • Apple’s “Hot Tips” for iTunes
  • iLounge iPod Book pdf (full of iTunes hints)
  • Amazon mp3 downloader (need admin password to install)
• podcasts
  • NPR podcast list
  • PBS NewsHour podcasts
  • Washington Week in Review podcasts (NOT one-click subscription)
  • WNYC RadioLab
  • This American Life
  • Bowdoin podcasts
  • UC Berkeley podcasts
  • Podcast list at MediaFly
  • “Best” podcasts of 2007
  • Podcatcher (“Catcher in the Rye,” read by me; accessible in school only)
• iPod hardware
  • Nike + iPod
  • Griffin iTrip car adapter/charger

Video

• Real Player Beta 11
• iSquint