The New Orleans Personal Computer Club Newsletter MotherBoard

Volume 28, Issue 2 February, 2010 This Month Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and other Social Media -- What They Are All About and How you Can Use Them for Business and Pleasure Facebook, Twitter, With social media making the news as an essential new Linked In and communication tool, the club will present author and social media consultant Michelle Cullison to cover the use of the other Social new media tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress Media (blogging) YouTube and more in business and pleasure. by Michelle is co-author of Facebook Best Practices (July Michelle 2009), Twitter Best Practices (Sept 2009) and Author of Lost Cullison in MySpace Parenting Guide (Nov 2009).

For further information Inside this issue: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellecullison .

Downloading and The public is invited to attend the Converting YouTube 2—3 The New Orleans Personal Computer Club’s monthly meeting on Wednesday,

Cryptography - a big February 3, 2010 at the Harahan Senior Center, word that helps keep 4—5 100 Elodie Street in Harahan, from 6:30pm-8:30pm. the internet secure.

The New Orleans Personal Computer Club has been feeding the in-

terest of computer users since 1981. Informative, consumer related Advertisements 6 meetings are held the first Wednesday of each month at the Harahan Senior Center. Organization president, Walt Christensen, invites the public to join the organization at a monthly meeting. Christensen Calendar of Events 7 noted, “NOPCC is a wonderful opportunity to meet others who share NOPCC Directory an interest in computers, the internet and the intricacies that make both tick”. Guests are invited to participate in a meeting free of charge. Annual membership is $40.00. Visit our web site at http://www.nopc.org/

For more information about the New Orleans Computer Club, contact Walt Christensen at [email protected] or 504-982-3705 PAGE 2 MOTHERBOARD VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 Downloading and Converting YouTube times! DownloadHelper places a small icon on Videos the bottom edge of the browser window con- By Ira Wilsker sisting of three colored balls; when the balls become animated, the DownloadHelper menu WEBSITES: becomes available by clicking on the icon. Left http://www.forinside.com – Online download clicking on the icon shows the title of the , and conversion and clicking the title downloads the video in http://www.downloadhelper.net – Add- YouTube’s native FLV format to your computer. on and converter Right clicking on the icon opens the menu http://www.orbitdownloader.com – Automated which allows the user to convert the video into downloader any of many popular formats. Alternatively, http://www.download-youtube.com – Online clicking on the three-ball icon that appears to download the left of the video title at the top of the screen http://www.videolan.org – Free universal video opens a one-click menu that offers all of the player options. The one that I use most often is the http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/ “Download and Convert” which can download for_video_free/ and convert the video in a single action. For http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/free-dvd-video- compatibility purposes, especially when em- .htm bedding the video in PowerPoint, I mostly se- lect the WMV (Windows media format), but I frequently get emails from readers of sometimes choose the QuickTime MOV, or AVI this column and listeners of my radio show re- formats. For those who do not have FireFox garding problems they are having. While I can- installed, it is available free at getfirefox.com , not guarantee an effective answer, I can at and does not interfere with any other browser least try to help them out, or tell them where on the computer. they can find a solution. Some of the more in- For those using any browser, there are teresting, or more common questions I will oc- several free online services that will download casionally post here under the premise that if a YouTube (and other) videos to your computer, few of you are having a similar problem, then and some will also convert them to popular for- many others are having a similar problem. mats for you. Even though its server is fre- Last Friday I was forwarded an email quently busy and located in Brazil, I like Forin- that had been bouncing around one of the de- side , at www.forinside.com . Forinside is ex- partments at Lamar University about how to tremely easy to use; all the user needs to do is download YouTube videos and convert them to copy the URL (web address) of the video and a format that can be used in PowerPoint. paste it into the textbox, and use the pull down Some of the faculty have rightly found that menu to select a format. Clicking the download there is some useful content on YouTube that button will start the process. Forinside can is applicable to academic lectures, and they convert online videos into any of the 10 most would like to use this information in class. For- widely used formats, and can download videos tunately, there are several good solutions. and audio from YouTube, MySpace, Google Video, and Mp3Tube. For those who already My personal first choice in downloading have videos on their computers that they would YouTube videos and converting them into a for- like to convert into other formats, Forinside of- mat that can play in PowerPoint, or on most fers that service for free. Simply click on the video players, is a free add-on for the FireFox orange “File” tab, then “Browse” your hard drive browser called DownloadHelper for the file you want converted. Use the pull (www.downloadhelper.net ). DownloadHelper is down menu to select any of the 10 formats extremely popular with FireFox users, having been downloaded and installed about 54 million (Continued on page 3) PAGE 3 MOTHERBOARD VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

(Continued from page 2) and audio CDs; upload and download videos available, click on “Convert” and Forinside will and music to your computer, iPod, PSP, iPhone upload the original video to its server, convert it and BlackBerry; perform basic editing of audio to the chosen format, and then download it to and video files.” This bundle, reviewed and top your computer in the new format. Your original rated by several of the major download sites, video remains intact on your computer. As may be a worthwhile bundle to download and stated above, the Forinside server is often very install. busy. If there is a need to convert the YouTube Another service that can download You- FLV videos, or any other video formats, into a Tube videos directly to your computer is more useful format, such as WMV or MOV, a Download-YouTube.com . This site is very easy utility called “Any Video Converter ” to use from any browser. Simply open the de- may be useful, as it supports dozens of video sired YouTube page, and in the address bar of and audio formats, and can easily convert files your browser insert the phrase “download- between these formats. This software is avail- “ (download hyphen) before the word “YouTube able for download from “ in the URL, and the user will be directed to the www.any-video-converter.com/products/ Download-YouTube web page. On the for_video_free , and according to its publisher, Download-YouTube page either click on the has been downloaded over 25 million times. “Click here to download” link, or right click and The online service CNet gave Any Video Con- “Save Link As” or “Save target as” and the file verter Freeware its highest 5-star editors’ rat- will be downloaded in the native YouTube FLV ing. format. If your only need is to play downloaded One of the easiest free YouTube YouTube videos, there is an easy and free so- downloaders is , available at lution that does not require any conversion utili- www.orbitdownloader.com . This download tool ties. YouTube’s FLV format can be played on has some of the highest editor and user ratings the universal video player (free) VideoLAN - on the popular download sites, and can accel- VLC Media Player ( www.videolan.org ). The erate downloading of not just YouTube videos, VLC media player is one of the most widely but most general downloads as well. Orbit used video players in the world, with over 110 Downloader integrates seamlessly into Internet million downloads, and has earned a very loyal Explorer, FireFox, and , and includes a following. VLC media Player can play almost “Get It” button that appears when connecting to every available video and audio format without YouTube that offers a single click download. the need for any plug-ins or add-ons, and is YouTube videos will be downloaded in their na- available for free, and will run on almost every tive FLV format. . There is a free bundle of video software With these utilities and services, that can download YouTube and other media, downloading YouTube and other videos and convert them to most formats, and even edit converting them into another useful format is video and audio files. The software bundle simple. I routinely use such downloads in class aptly named “” contains 23 video both as individual videos, and as videos em- and audio utilities, and is a 30 Meg download bedded in PowerPoint. There is much that can available for free download from be done with online videos, and these utilities www.dvdvideosoft.com/free-dvd-video- and services are worthy of a try. software.htm . According to the publisher of This article is provided by the author for APCUG Free Studio, “With this free software you can members only for use in their newsletters. Any other use convert video and audio files between different requires prior permission from the author formats and to iPod, PSP, iPhone, BlackBerry ([email protected]) and other portable devices; burn and rip VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 MOTHERBOARD PAGE 4 Cryptography - a big word that helps icon on the browser when you went to a keep the internet secure. “secure” website? Well, cryptography is behind By Phil Sorrentino, all that security. Cryptography is used to secure President, Sarasota PCUG, Florida Internet and even telephone communications. July 2009 Monitor Cryptography is nearly as old as written lan- www.spcug.org guage itself. It was invented to address the president (at) spcug.org age-old question: How can I communicate with my friend, so that no one else will know what You may have asked yourself some of the fol- was communicated? Cryptography becomes lowing questions. How secure is the internet? necessary whenever one is attempting to com- What has been done to make the Internet se- municate private information over an “un- cure? How safe is my private information dur- trusted” medium, such as the Internet. Typi- ing an internet transaction? If so, read on; if cally, you can be sure that the message you you are a very trusting individual and figure that send over the internet will get to its destination, “they” will keep the internet secure, jump to the but you cannot guarantee that intermediaries next article. During this time when the Internet (computers along the way) will not be able to provides essential communication between see and read your message, unless it is pro- tens of millions of people and is being increas- tected. With a collection of not-so-expensive ingly used as a tool for commerce, security has equipment and a good deal of knowledge, a become a very important issue. And when it message on the internet can be intercepted comes to computers, “security” is of concern on (sniffed), and if it is “plain text”, it can be read. many different levels. There is physical security For mundane e-mail messages, this is not that keeps your computer hardware from being much of a concern, but for messages that con- stolen. There is software security that keeps tain private information, such as passwords or people out of our private files. There is bank account or social security numbers, this “” security, that keeps your computer could be an invitation for Identity Theft. software from being infected with viruses, spy- ware, worms and the like. And finally there is Cryptography to the rescue. Cryptography “network” security that keeps private data pro- (from the Greek for "hidden writing") is the an- tected as it goes from one computer (or ) cient science of encoding messages so that on the internet to another computer (or server) only the sender and receiver can understand on the internet. This article deals with network them. Cryptography can be defined as the con- security, which is ensured by applying cryptog- version of data (plain-text) into a scrambled raphy to messages that are transmitted on the code (cipher-text) that can be sent across a Internet. network, and deciphered by the rightful receiver at the other end. There are two main tech- niques used to encrypt data, Symmetric and Asymmetric. Symmetric encryption uses the same key for encryption as it does for decryp- tion. Symmetric encryption is also called Se- cret-key encryption because the key is kept a secret between the two cooperating parties. Asymmetric uses separate keys for encryption and decryption. Asymmetric encryption is also called Public-key encryption because one of the keys is allowed to circulate in the public (and one is kept private). Cryptography is now available to everyone thanks to the develop-

Remember the “s” in “://” and the little lock (Continued on page 5) VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 MOTHERBOARD PAGE 5

(Continued from page 4) tography are used to setup and maintain a se- ment of modern computers, which can perform cure data path from a client (your computer more mathematical operations in a second than browser) to a server (information or data stor- a human being could do in a lifetime. An ordi- age system). Because Secret-key cryptography nary PC, with the proper software, can produce is best used for long messages, a secret key codes of such complexity that the most power- will be used to encode all messages during the ful supercomputer using the best available soft- transaction. But how do we get a secret key to ware could not break them in thousands of be used by both computers for the transaction. years. Before modern times and the personal In comes Public-Key cryptography. Public-key computer, cryptography was concerned solely cryptography, which is best suited for short with message confidentiality. Message confi- messages, is used to send the secret key dentiality is conversion (encryption), of mes- (which is short) from one computer to the other, sages from a “plain-text” form into an incompre- so that both will have the secret key for encod- hensible one (cipher-text) for transmission and ing the messages that follow. The server has a then back again to the original form, at the public key for the client (your computer) and it other end (decryption). This keeps the mes- encodes a “secret key” with that public key. It sage unreadable by interceptors or eavesdrop- then sends the encoded message to the client pers who do not have knowledge of the “key” and the client can then decode the message needed for decryption of that message. (With with its private key. The private key is used to the advent of the personal computer and the decode the “secret key message” so that the proliferation of digital information, the field of client knows what to use as the secret key for digital message protection has expanded be- subsequent message encoding (i.e., the de- yond only confidentiality concerns to include coded secret key). This all sounds very compli- techniques for message integrity checking, cated, and it is, but all of this is controlled by identity authentication, digital signatures, and the “secure software protocols” and you, the password protection all of which we will leave user, don’t have to get involved at all. (I’ve ac- for future discussions.) tually simplified the operation a bit, but the es- sence of how cryptography is used is still pretty As stated above, Secret key cryptography re- accurate.) So, with the use of Public-Key, and fers to encryption methods in which both the Secret-Key cryptography, you can rest assured sender and receiver share the same key. Se- that the messages you are sending over the cret key cryptography is ideally suited to en- Internet will not be of any value to anyone at- crypting long messages, providing privacy and tempting to intercept such information. What confidentiality for messages typically used in more could you ask for - through the use of computer to computer transactions. Public Key cryptography, the un-trusted Internet can now Cryptography refers to methods in which two be used to send private messages, therefore keys are owned by each participant, one for providing secure communications, over the encryption (public key) and one for decryption Internet, for everyone. (private key). Public Key cryptography is suited to short messages and is typically used to ex- This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author’s change “secret keys” between two computers. permission for publication by APCUG member groups; all Public Key cryptography could, theoretically, other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail also be used to encrypt messages but this is address above). rarely done because Secret-key cryptography is about 1000 times faster than Public-key cryp- tography. So, just how do these schemes work in our typical computer to computer (network) com- munications? Secret-key and Public-key cryp- VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 MOTHERBOARD PAGE 6 CLUB SUPPORTERS

THE SECRET GUIDE TO COMPUTERS The Secret Guide is available at every New Orleans Personal Computer Club General Meeting. The latest printing is available for only $15.00. Or contact Ray Paternostro either at: [email protected] or (504) 737-9099.

Who Dat ! Go Saints!! February 2010

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT 1 2 3 NOPCC 4 5 6 GENERAL MTG 6:30 pm

7 8 9 ’s 10 New/ 11 12 13 SIG Intermediate 6:30 pm Users SIG Mtg

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The New Orleans Personal Computer Club (NOPCC) is a private non-profit organization chartered under the State of Louisiana. Its purpose is to provide an open forum for discussion and education of the membership in the use and application of PCs, peripheral equipment and software. The opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the author (s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the NOPCC , its members or its officers. The club does not verify for accuracy the articles in this newsletter and leaves verification of accuracy to its readers. Articles in this newsletter may be duplicated as long as credit is given to the author (s) and the NOPCC. Annual Dues Schedule: Regular Member, $40/yr.; Family Membership, $60/yr.; and Students (under 21) , $20/yr. Meetings are held at 6:30 on the 1st Wednesday of each month at J.D. Meisler Jr. High School on Cleary Avenue in Metairie, Louisiana. NOPCC Directory Elected Officers President Walt Christensen [email protected] 982-3705 Vice President Mike York [email protected] 738-5997 Secretary Ray Paternostro [email protected] 737-9099 Treasurer Kevin Kratzberg [email protected] 464-4418 Director At Large Tom Gaffney [email protected] Director At Large Bill Howard [email protected] 831-1279 Director At Large [email protected] Standing Committees Newsletter Co-Editors Kevin Kratzberg [email protected] 464-4148 Public Relations Tom Gaffney [email protected] Webmaster Sherrie Henne [email protected] 504-913-5638 Special Interest Groups Computer Programming Elliot Mike York [email protected] 738-5997 Internet Ray Paternostro [email protected] 737-9099 New/Intermediate Users Tom Ford [email protected] 985-643-3172 Other Important Numbers / Addresses Club Hotline Recorded messages. Meeting Information. Open 24 Hours 887-5746 NOPCC Web Site On the World Wide Web. Our own home page and club information. www.nopc.org