MacFest

Sat, 19 Dec 2009
Machines, 1Utama
8:00 - 10:00pm

Report : Azul Adnan
Photos : Samuel Tan, Azul Adnan

Another year dawns to a close. Lined up for this MacFest were Ian, Mok, Jeyadev and Jimin. But at the last minute Ian had to go overseas.

Mok from AntiVirus365, the sole distributor for Kaspersky (the software endorsed by Jackie Chan), did a presentation on antivirus. What? Antivirus for Macs?? Yup, Mok explained how we Mac users were not immune to trojans, worms and other PC-type malware. He explained who writes viruses and why and how easy it is to commit cyber crime.

Mok showed that Apple itself recommends installing antivirus and that Snow Leopard includes limited antivirus protection, all this proving that Macs are now more susceptible to attacks. Mok illustrated how a malware works and what Kaspersky can do to protect our Macs. At the end of his presentation he handed out Kaspersky goodies like car screen shades and towels.

Next Azrin and Jeyadev showcased two recently released Apple hardware: the Apple Remote and the Magic Mouse. Azrin talked about the new remote which is now aluminium instead of plastic. The Menu and Play/Pause button is now separated from the circle control.

The Magic Mouse is slimmer than the Mighty Mouse, is wireless and has multi-touch technology on its surface. In fact it's the world's first multi-touch mouse. It's like a little portable trackpad. You can do screen zooms and two-finger swipes on it.

Jeyadev talked about a freeware called BetterTouchTool which extends the functionality of multi-touch. With this installed on your Mac you have the ability to define lots more things your Magic Mouse can do.

The last presentation (of the year!) was from Jimin. He showcased his recent 360° VR photography works. He explained how he created these images using a custom-made lens clamp (ordered from the Internet) with his Nikon D700, attached to a monopod. Two software are used in the process: PTGui Pro, for stitching the photos together, and Pano2VR, for creating the VR image.

Jimin then demonstrated how quickly it was to create a 360VR image by taking four shots of the MacFest room with his fish-eye lens, downloading the photos to his Mac, stitching them into a panorama and outputting a VR Flash file. All in mere minutes!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW JIMIN'S 360VR IMAGE OF MACFEST

At the close of the evening a couple of Apple books, Apple pouches and a keychain/pen were given away for the lucky draws. There were also some free software kindly donated by Ian.

Finally, congratulations were in order for three attendees who recently became dads: Samuel, Jimin and Zainul!