We
will have our regular meeting August 20th and the special interest
group meeting the 27th.Back
in June I mentioned the new toy I purchased for capturing video from cameras
and DVR’s (digital video recorders).I
planned to show this at the picnic but the rain cut the picnic a little
short.I will have this at the next
meeting so you can see how it works.Pinnacle
makes this unit that actually is a TV receiver with audio and video inputs.This
unit worked great to capture the video to my laptop, then I simply burned
the DVD.In addition to the video
inputs I mentioned the TV receiver.This
receiver is both NTSC (standard analog TV) and ATSC (new digital TV).With
both tuners it will bring in most TV signals.As
a bonus the unit will store up to two hours of TV programs in its own memory.The
unit has two Gig of flash ram built in for storage.Also
the software needed to run this unit is included in the flash ram.
Also
this month I have a new time waster, Amazing Adventure Around the World.This
is another seek and find game that can consume more time than you might
want it to.
Pop
Cap games has been coming out with some new and interesting games this
summer.Many of the games are geared
to children but I enjoy the seek and find games.The
items you look for at each location change every time you visit a new place.When
you solve the game you are then allowed to complete the entire game again
without a time limit.In addition
to finding items at a location you also have puzzles to solve.Some
are move and rotate the puzzle pieces, others are find the differences
in two pictures, etc.
I haven’t been keeping up on technology on the Web to well this summer.With all my projects, and traveling the summer has passed very fast.So this is a rather short article.I will do better next month.
|
SPECIAL
INTEREST GROUP MEETING 7:30 P.M. AUGUST 27TH CCC ELECTRONICS
LAB |
Email
Etiquette
By John Roy, President,
The PC Users Group of
www.tpcug-ct.org/
johnroy1@comcast.net
Obtained from APCUG
with the author's permission for publication by APCUG member groups.
Do you really know
how to forward an e-mail? It is estimated that over fifty percent of email
users do not know how to do it properly. Do you wonder why you get viruses
or junk mail? Email messages get forwarded countless times without concern
for the security of the previous sender’s addresses.
Every time you forward
an e-mail there is information left over from the people who got the message
before you, namely their e-mail addresses and names.As
the messages get forwarded along the list of addresses builds and builds
creating a huge resource for spammers. All it takes is for someone to get
a virus and the infected computer can send that virus to every e-mail address
that has come across that computer. Even if the address collection doesn’t
result in a virus it surely will be harvested by spammers or someone looking
to make a couple of cents for a listing of good email addresses. How do
you stop or at least minimize the propagation of email addresses? There
are several easy steps that we should all practice.
(1) Before you send
out a forwarded e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in
the body of the message (at the top). That's right, DELETE them. Highlight
them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know
how to do. It only takes a second You MUST click the 'Forward' button first
and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers
of the message. If you don't click on 'Forward' first, you won't be able
to edit the message at all.
(2) Whenever you send
an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for
adding e-mail addresses. Always use the
(3) Remove any ‘FW:'
in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you wish or even fix
spelling.
(4) ALWAYS hit your
Forward button from the actual e-mail you are reading. Ever get those e-mails
that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information
on it? By forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view, you
stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see what you sent.
(5) Have you ever gotten
an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your
name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address
book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of
names and email addresses. A
(6) One of the main
ones I hate is the ones that say that something like, 'Send this email
to 10 people and you'll see something great run across your screen.' Or,
sometimes they'll just tease you by saying something really cute will happen
IT
(7) Before you forward
an Amber Alert, or a Virus Alert, or some of the other ones floating around
nowadays, check them out before you forward them. Most of them are junk
mail that's been circling the net for Years! Just about everything you
receive in an email that is in question can be checked out at Snopes. Just
go to http://www.snopes.com/. It’s really easy to find out if it's real
or not. If it's not, please don't pass it on.
So please, in the future,
let's stop or at least minimize the junk mail and the viruses by taking
the steps outlined above.
E-Mailing Photographs
By Richard Kennon,
Editor, Amador Computer Users Group, CA
www.acug.net
Drtrdguy@volcano.net
Obtained from APCUG
with the author's permission for publication by APCUG member groups.
First, we must
understand that photograph (image) size in the camera and in the computer
is measured in pixels. These are the basic dots of color that make
the picture. Do not pay any attention to anything that says “inches”
or “pixels per inch.” These terms are meaningless when we are considering
a picture either in the camera or in the computer. They may come into play
later if we want to print the photo on paper. But, that is another subject
for another time. For now, we think only of pixels. Most cameras record
too many pixels to e-mail. For instance a 6 megapixel camera will make
a picture about 3000 pixels wide by 2000 pixels tall and the file size
may be several megabytes. Our screens are usually only about 1000 pixels
wide (some are larger and some smaller). So, if we e-mail the native picture,
it will be wider than the screen for the recipient and the file
will be so large, it may take “forever” to download to the recipient’s
computer. It is possible the service provider will not even accept it.
There are two things
we must do to make a photo e-mailable. The first is to resize
or resample the picture. We want to change the picture
width from 3000 pixels to 800 pixels, for instance. This process is called
resizing or resampling. We have to pick the best 800 pixels out of the
3000 to represent our photo. Well, no, that is not exactly correct but
it simplifies things to think of it that way. We don’t have to worry about
it because a lot of very smart programmers have developed ways (algorithms)
to help us. Just remember, you want to resize or resample to get the photo
down to a size convenient for e-mailing. I usually use 800 pixels or 900
pixels width for pictures I attach to e-mails.
The second thing to
do to make a photo e-mailable is to save it in JPEG format (.jpg).
That is a format that reduces file size a lot and picture quality a little
so the picture can be downloaded more quickly and still be nice to look
at. Some software programs give you choices of compression amount with
numbers ranging from 1 to 10. One will result in a very small file but
the picture quality will not be good at all. A 10 will give the very best
quality but with a very large file size. A reasonable compromise is to
use 5 or 6. I usually use 6.
How do you do this?
First, I will describe how to do it with a free Microsoft program. Then
I will try to look at some other programs.
Microsoft Power Toys
for XP has a Resize Pictures toy that is slick and easy but feedback says
it only works on XP. It can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx.
Right click on an image name or thumbnail in Explorer or My Computer and
choose
Resize Pictures. You are limited to four specific sizes but
they are good choices. They don’t tell us what compression they are using
but the results look OK. Unless you tell them under Advanced to
replace the image in the file, it will make a copy. That’s good. They will
add the word, “Large”, “Medium” or “Small” to the end of the name you have
chosen.
If you are happy with
this solution, then read no further. But, if you want to use a picture
editing program, maybe this will help.
In Photoshop Elements
5, click on Image>Resize>Image Size and this window will pop up.
Note that there is some garbage at the bottom about “inches” but we will
ignore that. First we will click the Resample Image box. That puts
the Pixel Dimensions in play and that is what we want. I selected the Width
box and changed the width to 800 pixels. Since the Constrain Proportions
box is selected, that is all I have to do.
Note, down at the bottom,
that we have several choices of sampling algorithms. This is frosting on
the cake. I read somewhere that I should use Bicubic Sharper when
downsizing so that is what I do. Most programs don’t give us all these
choices. Then we should click on File>Save As and give the photo
a new name. I often just use the same name and add “_800px” so the next
time I will know it is ready to e-mail. Here we can choose the JPEG format
and the compression amount. Photoshop Elements 6 is out now and sells for
about $100. If you are able to spend that much and want one of the best
editing programs, I highly recommend it.
Let’s look at Picasa2.
It is a free program from Google and looks really good but I do not have
much experience with it. By all means, try it first because the price is
right! When it comes to e-mailing photographs, it is a little more automated
but not any easier to use than Elements. First, click on Tools>Options>E-Mail.
Then select the width you want in pixels. There are six choices. Then click
on Apply and OK.
The next step is to
click on File>E-Mail and you will get three choices of how you want
to e-mail your photos. Fortunately, I use Outlook Express so my choice
is listed.
When I clicked on Outlook
Express, an e-mail page popped up with the photo attached. At this point
we can write something else on the e-mail and send it. I recommend this
so the recipient will know it is really from you and not something sent
out by a
virus. When I receive e-mails that only say “Attached”, I Delete
them without looking at the attachment. This saved me one time when I received
a virus from my sister-in-law that she did not know she sent. She spent
weeks and dollars getting her computer back up. Oh, I digress. If you want
to send more than one picture (and, who doesn’t?), you must select the
picture and click on the Hold button near the bottom of the screen. Do
this for each photo you want to send and they will all be attached to the
e-mail. The program automatically chooses JPEG format and a compression
ratio but does not tell you. That is OK as the pictures I tried looked
good. Picasa2 has considerable capability for editing photos in many respects.
Try it!
There are many other
editing programs that I haven’t mentioned and have no experience with.
In all cases you want to change the picture’s size in pixels by resizing
or resampling. Pay no attention to anything that says “inches” as that
will have no meaning for this process. Sometime later we will talk about
printing pictures and then we will use inches.
From My
by Rob Limbaugh, President,
www.dacs.org
relimbaugh@dacs.org
Obtained from APCUG
with the author's permission for publication by APCUG member groups.
Just about every year
I make some sort of ‘major’ effort to move forward with technology in some
way on my primary home workstation. I periodically wipe out the machine
and start a fresh OS install from scratch. I reasoned that as laborious
a reinstall is, I may as well bite the bullet and this time make the move
to
Check Compatibility
When loading an OS
it is important to make note of your hardware and key software. Vista Update
Advisor will highlight any hardware or software compatibility issues of
which to be aware. In my case, the only issues to address were applications
that would be replaced with new
checked out OK. Last
I had heard, my ATI All-In-Wonder 2006 video card was not yet supported
in Vista, so I double checked the AMD (they now own ATI) website and confirmed
there are now Vista drivers and software. It’s a Go!
Backup Data
Next, I made backups
of all my important data. This time around I used an external USB hard
drive and just dragged and dropped the data to a ‘backup’ folder. I wanted
to start fresh and clean, so I didn’t bother making a backup of my Windows
or Office user settings. There aren’t any new BIOS updates for my motherboard,
so I was all set to go.
Time for Install
I started the install
process around 8 p.m., electing to wipe all partitions on the hard drive.
My first boot to the desktop post install was shortly after 10 p.m. So
far, so good. And, considering this is a P4 2.4GHz machine, I was rather
impressed. Vista’s graphics worked from the get-go because the ATI All-In-Wonder
2006 uses an ATI Radeon 9600 compatible chipset for which
Aero! Now we’re cooking!
Post Install Issues
A notice appeared that
Windows detected hardware and needed to install drivers. My
system’s motherboard
has an integrated Realtek AC’97 sound card. Unfortunately there isn’t a
Vista driver for the
Watching TV is one
of the things for which I built this machine, and I expected to use
Reality Check
In my consumer opinion,
lack of proper drivers for an OS is the fault of the hardware integrator
and not the OS maker. AMD is blaming Microsoft’s changes in DirectX 10
D3D (which happen to address performance and security) as why the ATI TV
Tuner software doesn’t work. Well, AMD, how come SnapStream could figure
it out? AOpen has not released any new drivers for their implementation
of the AC’97 chip on my motherboard. I can live with AOpen’s choice because
most people don’t use the
Supporting Apps
Along with Beyond TV,
I installed what I consider ‘Base Supporting Apps’. These included Avast!
Antivirus, Notepad++, Pidgin, Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash Player,
Adobe Shockwave Player,
TrueCrypt, PrimoPDF, and WinSCP. Office Ultimate
2007 is going to round
out the Office Suite. Everything installed smoothly. No issues, arguments,
or contentions between apps.
Where I Stand
My machine has paid
its dues many times over and the driver issues didn’t affect my ability
to use what I needed, so I was OK with that. Others with more particular
needs should be aware that integrated soundcards, atypical hardware, old
devices, and fancy graphics capture cards may require special attention.
Replacements may need to be considered. I’m not suggesting everyone run
out and install
time I’ve installed
said and done, the
experience has been pleasant and not anything like the horror
stories I’ve heard.
At the time of this writing it’s been about two weeks and all continues
to work well. This
article was typed on that system using Word 2007 and sent
to the editors with
Outlook 2007.
From my vista,
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/p
r o d u c t s / w i n d o w s v i s t a /buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor.mspx
Compare
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/choose.mspx
SnapStream Beyond TV:
http://www.snapstream.com/products/beyondtv/
I'M
ASKED...
By
Bill Funk, a member of the Arizona Association for Computer Information,
inc. (ASCIi)
www.asciigroup.org
editor@asciigroup.org
Obtained from APCUG
with the author's permission for publication by APCUG member groups.
I
just bought a Digital SLR; with the prices as low as they are, I couldn't
resist.
Since
I want to take photos of my grandchildren, and the built-in flash isn't
as powerful as I need, I bought a new flash. It's the same brand as my
camera, and is supposed to be all automatic. But, the photos aren't right.
I thought the better flash would let me take photos inside, and freeze
the movement of the grandkids, but the photos are as blurry as with the
camera's flash.
What's
going on?
You're
right, the on-board flashes on most DSLRs aren't very bright. Buying the
new flash is the right idea, but it doesn't work the way many people think
it does.
You're
probably using the camera as a Point & Shoot: setting the camera to
make the exposure decisions, and pressing the shutter button. There's nothing
wrong with that, but doing things that way won't get your flash to work
the way you want it to.
Instead,
you should use the Manual mode for exposure (check your camera's manual
for how to enter the Manual mode). While you're looking at the manual,
check to find the highest shutter speed you can use with the flash, too.
Then,
in Manual mode, set the shutter speed at, or maybe slightly below, that
speed ( I use 1/125 sec on my camera; it's fast enough to freeze most action),
then set the aperture (f/number) for the desired result as far as depth
of field is concerned, and set the ISO as desired. Set the flash to auto
(check the manual), and fire away. This way, the camera will use the settings
you chose, ignoring the amount of light in the scene. The flash will check
to see what the camera is set to, and fire itself, checking the results
as it fires to give the right amount of light to the scene. Neat, eh?
The
way you're doing it will make the flash act as a "fill" flash, meaning
the camera's exposure system will use the existing light in the scene to
set the exposure, and the flash will intelligently fire to fill in shadows,
but not be the major source of light in the scene. This is also the usual
way the camera's on-board flash works, even though many cameras will set
the shutter speed to take advantage of the flash's extra light to help
freeze motion. The problem here, though, is that the on-board flash just
isn't bright enough to light up a dark scene (such as a room) very well.
One
of the really neat things about digital photography is that, regardless
of the actual type of the camera, experimentation is cheap. In this case,
once you get the basics of flash use down, you can experiment with different
shutter speeds and aperture settings for different results. Also, off-camera
flashes like yours will usually let you turn the flash head up and down,
and side to side, for bounce flash. With bounce flash, you're bouncing
the flash off the ceiling or wall. This tends to spread the light from
the flash out to reduce that sharp look that a straight-on flash gives,
and it also reduces harsh shadows (as well as changing where the shadows
are); more to experiment with!
This brings up another
question: if you have an older flash from your film days, can you use it
with your new DSLR? The answer is a very firm: maybe. The problem is that
most older, film-era flashes have a higher trigger voltage than what DSLRs
can tolerate. In other words, using that old flash can cause some expensive
damage to your DSLR. There are some devices that can be put between your
older flash and your DSLR's flash shoe that will solve the problem. However,
a new flash will also work much better with your new DSLR, and do things
that old flash can't even dream of doing.
This article has been
provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member
groups. All other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail
address above).
ANYONE
AND EVERYONE WELCOME TO OUR CLUB