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TheMonthly NewsletterCursor of the Washington Area Computer User Group Meeting Location Next Meeting: Fairfax County July 19, 2008 Government Center

Brueggeman’s wide-screen Toshiba Presidential Bits Satellite laptop. July 2008 Meeting Get A Free Digital TV at Our Next By Paul Howard Meeting hile June’s meeting Learn How to Convert Your was lightly attended, Analog TV to Receive Free Digital no doubt because of Channels beautiful weather, those who W Kurt DeSoto will discuss the Federal were there witnessed successful trouble shooting projects, and an government’s mandate for TV informative series of videos on stations to transition from analog repairing laptop computers by to digital channels by February 17, author Scott Mueller. 2009, and what it means to viewers. Topics to be covered include: (1) Geof Goodrum helped Neal the differences between analog Grotenstein set up a Wifi wireless TV, digital TV, standard definition router for use with a laptop computer. television, and high definition TV Scott Hanak worked with Henry sets and broadcasts and how to Kennedy to overcome an error Table of Contents determine the capabilities of your message that appeared every time TV sets , (2) how to configure your Henry booted his computer, and existing analog sets to receive free also worked on troubleshooting Lloyd’s Web Sites of The over-the-air digital channels by a printing problem. Don Ferret using a converter box subsidized by Month...... 2 brought in a laptop with several the government, (2) how to submit issues, including Internet Explorer GNU/Linux Sig...... 3 an order online during the meeting freezing on closing. With Scott (or later at your convenience) for up Linux DOM...... 3 Hanak’s assistance, that issue was to two $40.00 coupons from the resolved by removing Google and Thought about Trying government to help defray the costs Yahoo toolbars. Other problems Linux...... 4 of the boxes, (3) when and how to were cured, or troubleshooting connect the boxes to your analog Digital TV Delimma? 7 paths were suggested. sets, and (4) how to keep getting E-mail Etiquette...... 7 After the board of directors’ meeting, low power analog channels, such E-mailing Photos...... 8 held now at Wegman’s dining room as foreign language channels. If on the second level of the Fairfax time permits, Kurt will provide Plus Bonus Pages in the store, the gang was able to verify Download Edition that three memory modules worked See PBits on page 2 properly, and installed two in Jim Lloyd’s Web Sites for July, 2008 PBits continues from page 1 by Lloyd Johnson, WACUG Member http://www.wacug.org/ is the URL for the Washington Area Computer an actual demonstration of how User Group. Visit it for past issues of Web Sites with hyperlinks to hook up a converter box to an analog TV set so the group can 1. MIT: OpenCourseWare–Want to look at MIT courses? http://ocw.mit.edu/Oc- watch cartoons in digital format for wWeb/web/home/home/index.htm OCW is a free publication of course materi- the rest of the meeting, since it is als used at MIT. OpenCourseWare shares free lecture notes, exams, and other Saturday after all. Gosh. resources from more than 1800 courses spanning MIT’s entire curriculum Neal Grotenstein will provide a 2. Yahoo! Shine – http://shine.yahoo.com Yahoo! Shine is a new website for wom- short discussion about protecting en. The site offers nine categories ranging from Fashion & Beauty to Parent- your email address from Internet ing, and will feature content from many of the most popular lifestyles publish- email address harvesting programs. ers, including Conde Nast Publications and Hearst Corporation. (The following web page link to ac- 3. Project Gutenberg – www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page Project Gutenberg cess a list of Digital TV Stations re- is the Internet’s oldest producer of free electronic books, eBooks, or eTexts. ceived in this area was inadvertently There are over 20,000 free books in this collection left out of last month’s “Keeping www.sba.gov/servic- 4. Small Business Administration: Free Online Courses – Up” column: http://www.wacug. es/training/onlinecourses/index.html Available courses are identified by topic. org/recmtgs.html ) You can learn about the specific courses by clicking, ‘About these Courses.’ In general, the courses are all self-paced and should take about 30 minutes to  complete. Most of the courses require a brief online registration. 5. FindLaw – www.findlaw.com FindLaw is the most comprehensive set of legal resources on the Internet for legal professionals, corporate counsel, law students, businesses, and consumers. 6. Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations – www.bartleby.com/73 2,100 entries in this collection of quotations. 7. How Recessions Work – http://money.howstuffworks.com/recession.htm In this HowStuffWorks article, you will find out what recessions are, see why NCTCUG they occur, and examine the criteria economists use to identify them. Site also looks at the effects of recession as well as explores some of the ways a Visit our “sister” user group. country can turn the economy around again. The National Capital Tech- nology and Computer User’s 8. U.S. Major Metro Newspapers – http://newslink.org/metnews.html A listing Group meets the first and of U.S. major metropolitan newspapers. fourth Wednesday of the www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/under- 9. Understanding Your Telephone Bill – month. They meet in Carlin standing.htm l The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Truth-in- Hall in Arlington at 5711 Billing rules require telephone companies to provide clear, non-misleading, South 4th Street. Visit their plain language in describing monthly services for which you are being billed. web site for more informa- Here is a detailed description of some of the charges or line items that may ap- tion, a map and directions: pear on your traditional wireline telephone bill, your wireless telephone bill, or http://www.nctcug.org/ both. Meetings start at 7:00 PM 10. English Pronouncing Dictionary – www.howjsay.com Enter the word you want and when it appears in pink, mouse over it to hear it spoken as often as you want. Each word is individually pre-recorded and no form of synthetic speech is used. Both American and British spellings are provided. Pronunciation is in Standard British English, with World English alternatives. Over 82,000 words listed. 

The Cursor — July 19, 2008 Page — www.wacug.org programs from Windows 3.1 to XP. Pioneer Linux 3.2 The Wine Project plans to support Sabayon Linux 3.5 Scientific Linux 5.2 64 bit Windows applications in the sidux 2008-02 future. StartCom Enterprise Linux 5.0.2 While not every Microsoft Win- SystemRescueCd 1.0.4 dows software runs well under VectorLinux 5.9 Wine, a wide variety of games and Voltalinux 2.1 productivity applications do. The Zenwalk Linux 5.2 Zenwalk Live 5.2 Wine Project maintains a community database of application compa- Linux Software of the Month tability reports and configuration The software described below is advice at http://appdb.winehq.org/. downloadable at the links provided There are also commercially sup- or may be requested on CD. In addi- ported versions of Wine that are GNU/Linux SIG tion, WAC can provide CD-R and optimized for various programs, By Geof Goodrum, WAC DVD±R media for any download- such as CodeWeavers (http://www. able GNU/Linux operating system Now Serving Wine (1.0) codeweavers.com/) and the closed distribution (e.g. Fedora, Mandriva, source Cedega Gaming Service After 15 years of development, the Ubuntu, Debian, Knoppix). Please (http://www.cedega.com/). Wine Project released stable versi- note that download versions of on 1.0 on June 17. 2008 (v1.1.0 was GNU/Linux Distribution commercial distributions do not in- th Releases released on June 27 ). As described clude official technical support nor by the Wine web site (http://www. GNU/Linux distributions are com- printed documentation. winehq.org/), “Wine is a translation plete GNU/Linux operating system layer (a program loader) capable of Discs are available only by pre-or- and application software collections. running Windows applications on der. Contact Geof Goodrum by e- Many are freely downloadable or Linux and other POSIX compa- mail ([email protected]) at least 48 can be ordered on CDs or DVD at tible operating systems. Windows hours before meeting day to order or low cost. DistroWatch.com lists the programs running in Wine act as for more information. Single CD-R following distribution release an- native programs would, running discs are available with a $3 dona- nouncements for the period June 5 without the performance or memo- tion; GNU/Linux distributions on – July 2, 2008. ry usage penalties of an emulator, multiple CD-Rs or single DVD±R with a similar look and feel to other Distribution are available with a $6 donation. 64 Studio 2.1 applications on your desktop.” For July 2008 Arch Linux 2008.06 Floola - v3.0. http://www.floola.com/. example, when a Windows program ArtistX 0.5 requests user input, Wine substitu- CentOS 5.2 Freeware executable by Tomas Camin. tes an equivalent X-Window Sy- Damn Small Linux 4.4 Floola is an application to efficiently stem function for the Microsoft® eAR OS 1.10 manage your iPod or your Motorola Windows® OS function. Finnix 92.0 mobile phone (any model supporting GoblinX 2.7 “Mini” While GNU/Linux has excellent iTunes) under Linux, Mac OS X, and Greenie Linux 3.0.2H Windows. It can be run directly from open source replacements for most Kurumin NG 8.06 your iPod and needs no installation. It common Windows applications Linux Mint 5 such as web browsers and office MilaX 0.3.1 supports all commonly used iPod fea- suites, there are niche applications Molinux 4.0 tures including photos, artwork, pod- and games that are not available for Myah OS 3.0 “Box” casts, and smart playlists. It automati- Linux. Wine allows users to transi- Myah OS 3.0 “Dragon” cally converts any incompatible audio or Network Security Toolkit 1.8.0 tion to GNU/Linux while bringing video file so that you can copy almost NexentaCore Platform 1.0.1 their favorite Windows programs any file to it. It even allows adding openSUSE 11.0 YouTube and MySpace videos with with them. Wine works with DOS Pardus Linux 2008 programs as well as 16 and 32 bit Parsix GNU/Linux 1.5r0 See Linux page 4

The Cursor — July 19, 2008 Page — www.wacug.org Linux from page 3 platforms (stable 2.6.25.9 and pre- well. patch 2.6.26-rc8). a single click. Once you have your CD in your hot little hands, trying Ubuntu is Freenukum – v.0.2.6. https://launch-  as simple as placing it in your CD- pad.net/freenukum/. Free GNU Ge- ROM tray and rebooting your sys- neral Public License source code by tem. If system will boot from the the Freenukum Team. The Freenu- For Anybody Who CD and after a short moment you’ll kum Jump‘n Run game is a clone Has Thought About be greeted with the Ubuntu wel- of the old EGA graphics based 2D Trying Linux come screen. game Duke Nukem. It uses the ori- If you want to “try before you buy,” By Drew Kwashnak, Linux SIG ginal Duke Nukem level and gra- Leader, Danbury Area Computer then you can choose the default “Try phics files. Society, CT Ubuntu without any changes to your computer” and your hard drive Geotag – v0.055. http://geotag. www.dacs.org dacseditor(at)dacs.org will not be touched during your ses- sourceforge.net/ . Free GNU General sion unless you choose to. You don’t or anybody who has thought Public License source code by Pablo even need a hard drive to select this about trying Linux, it has d‘Angelo. Hugin is a toolkit for stit- option; you just will not be able to become easier than ever be- ching digital photographs and as- install it from the session. sembling panoramas, together with fore with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Hardy F If you are more certain or just dar- Heron. As with most Linux dis- an easy to use graphic front end. tributions, Ubuntu is available as a ing then you can go straight into the Nload – v0.7.2. http://www.roland- free download and is freely distrib- installer and in about 60 minutes riegel.de/nload/. Free GNU General utable. it is even available alreadyin- (45 minutes if you know what Dif- Public License source code by Ro- stalled on Dell computers. ferent Strokes For Anybody Who Has Thought About Trying Linux land Riegel. nload is a console appli- The most common method is down- by Drew Kwashnak you are doing) cation that monitors network traffic loading the ISO image from Ubun- you’re booting to your new Ubuntu and bandwidth usage in real time. It tu’s website (http://www.ubuntu. installation. visualizes the in and outgoing traf- com) and burning it onto a CD. Ubuntu will scan your hardware fic using two graphs. It also provi- From the site, you can download the and load the modules and drivers des additional information, such as Desktop version or Server for 32-bit necessary for your system. If you the total amount of transfered data and 64-bit systems. There is even an have hardware that has proprietary and the min/max network usage. option to download what is called drivers available, Linux cannot in- an alternative version which is just Kernel Source – http://www.kernel. clude them in the CD for legal rea- the installer and does not include org/. 2.6 kernel source code for all sons. Ubuntu works around this by the LiveCD portion, which also providing a Restricted Drivers tool includes an installer. If you are like that lists all such hardware found me, until a couple months ago, and on your system and provides the living on dial-up or you do not have ability to download and install the a CD burner handy or just don’t necessary drivers in a click or two, want to put in that much effort then legally. you can order a free CD through the corporate sponsor of Ubuntu, Now that you have Ubuntu up and Canonical, ShipIt department. running on your system, what can you do? Plenty! Ubuntu brings you I have been very pleased with the a fullfeatured operating system speed with which their CDs arrive. complete with: Alternatively, the website contains links to vendors where you can buy • Firefox 3.05 beta web browser the CDs from under $5 to more, See Trying Linux page 5 and they can handle large orders as

The Cursor — July 19, 2008 Page — www.wacug.org Trying Linux from page 4 saved from session to session, and Drew Kwashnak: Has been losing you are hesitant to partition and more nights of sleep with Linux • OpenOffice.org 2.4 full featured install the full operating system on since 2002 and just can’t keep from office suite compatible with pre-Of- your hard drive Ubuntu offers yet downloading and trying the latest fice 2007 Word, Excel, PowerPoint another alternative called Wubi. versions! When not working with and some Access files. Wubi is, from the Ubuntu website: Linux he works with ASP.NET • Evolution personal information “Wubi is an officially supported and Microsoft SQL Server for a manager for email and calendar Ubuntu installer for Windows us- small financial company. goodness, a Microsoft Outlook user ers that can bring you to the Linux He is also the DACS Linux SIG can feel comfortable with. There is world with a single click. Wubi al- leader and a father of 3. even plug-ins to allow Evolution to lows you to install and uninstall Links: access existing Microsoft Exchange Ubuntu as any other Windows ap- Ubuntu: servers. plication, in a simple and safe way. http://www.ubuntu.com • Pidgin multi-protocol instant Are you curious about Linux and Get Ubuntu: messenger including Yahoo, MSN, Ubuntu? Trying them out has never http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu AIM, Jabber, IRC and more. been easier!” ShipIt: • Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Wubi can be downloaded as an .exe https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ Program), a powerful Photoshop- file directly. With Linux the in- Obtained from APCUG with the stallation is not the end, only the like image editing program that author’s permission for publication by beginning! Whether you try the includes filters, layers and a host of APCUG member groups. goodies. LiveCD, Wubi or a full installation you will find a wealth of quality ap- This article has been provided to AP- • F-Spot image manager for cat- CUG by the author solely for publica- plications, refreshing freedom and a egorizing and minor editing of all tion by APCUG member groups. All community unlike any other! If you of your pictures as well as easily im- other uses require the permission of the have problems, questions or want to porting pictures from your digital author (see e-mail address above). find out more then you need look no camera. further than the third Wednesday of  • And much, MUCH more… every month for the DACS Linux If Ubuntu doesn’t come with a SIG at 7:30 p.m. in the DACS Re- particular application, thousands of source Center! free applications are available from the Ubuntu online repository which are easily installed and updated from the Synaptic package manager. When you decide to install Ubuntu onto your hard drive or virtual machine you only need to click the “Install” icon on the desktop to start the process. After seven or so easy Washington Area User Group Partners questions the installer will copy the Working Together For Our Members files over to the hard disk. Depend- ing on your system’s speed this could take about 60 minutes, more or less. CPCUG NCTCUG WACUG It will even detect if you have Win- dows installed and offer to transfer over your files and compatible settings from your Windows accounts! Of course, if the limitations of the LiveCD, such as settings are not

The Cursor — July 19, 2008 Page — www.wacug.org The Digital TV Dilemma? Have Questions? Not sure if your tv is ready for digital?

Special Workshop: Entering the Digital TV World

Saturday, June 28 10:30 a.m., Room 229

Practical help on how to transition your analog TV to receive digital signals. Certificates for conversion boxes will be available.

The Cursor — July 19, 2008 Page — www.wacug.org Digital TV Email Etiquette If you don’t click on ‘Forward’ first, Dilemma? you won’t be able to edit the mes- By John Roy, President, The PC sage at all. Users Group of Connecticut By Kurt DeSoto, WAC Member (2) Whenever you send an e-mail www.tpcug-ct.org/ ave Questions about the johnroy1(at)comcast.net to more than one person, do NOT February 2009 change- use the To: or Cc: fields for adding over to all Digital Broad- o you really know how to e-mail addresses. Always use the casting? forward an e-mail? It is BCC: (blind carbon copy) field for H estimated that over fifty Kurt DeSoto will discuss the Fed- listing the e-mail addresses. This is percent of email users do not know eral government’s mandate for TV D the way the people you send to will how to do it properly. Do you won- stations to transition from analog only see their own e-mail address. der why you get viruses or junk to digital channels by February 17, If you don’t see your BCC: option mail? Email messages get forwarded 2009, and what it means to view- click on where it says To: and your countless times without concern for ers. address list will appear. Highlight the security of the previous sender’s the address and choose BCC: and Topics to be covered include: addresses. that’s it, it’s that easy. When you (1) the differences between analog Every time you forward an e-mail send to BCC: your message will au- TV, digital TV, standard definition there is information left over from tomatically say ‘Undisclosed Recip- television, and high definition TV the people who got the message ients’ in the ‘TO:’ field of the people sets and broadcasts and how to de- before you, namely their e-mail who receive it. termine the capabilities of your TV addresses and names. As the mes- (3) Remove any ‘FW:’ in the subject sets sages get forwarded along the list of line. You can re-name the subject if addresses builds and builds creating (2) how to configure your existing you wish or even fix spelling. a huge resource for spammers. All analog sets to receive free over-the- it takes is for someone to get a virus (4) ALWAYS hit your Forward air digital channels by using a con- and the infected computer can send button from the actual e-mail you verter box subsidized by the govern- that virus to every e-mail address are reading. Ever get those e-mails ment, that has come across that comput- that you have to open 10 pages to (3) how to submit an order online er. Even if the address collection read the one page with the informa- during the meeting (or later at your doesn’t result in a virus it surely will tion on it? By forwarding from the convenience) for up to two $40.00 be harvested by spammers or some- actual page you wish someone to coupons from the government to one looking to make a couple of view, you stop them from having to help defray the costs of the boxes, cents for a listing of good email ad- open many e-mails just to see what you sent. (4) when and how to connect the dresses. How do you stop or at least boxes to your analog sets, and minimize the propagation of email (5) Have you ever gotten an email addresses? There are several easy that is a petition? It states a posi- (5) how to keep getting low power steps that we should all practice. tion and asks you to add your name analog channels, such as foreign and address and to forward it to 10 language channels. If time per- (1) Before you send out a forwarded or 15 people or your entire address mits, Kurt will provide an actual e-mail, DELETE all of the other book. The email can be forwarded demonstration of how to hook up a addresses that appear in the body on and on and can collect thousands converter box to an analog TV set of the message (at the top). That’s of names and email addresses. A so the group can watch cartoons right, DELETE them. Highlight FACT: The completed petition is in digital format for the rest of the them and delete them, backspace actually worth a couple of bucks meeting, since it is Saturday after them, cut them, whatever it is you to a professional spammer because all. Gosh. know how to do. It only takes a second You MUST click the ‘Forward’ of the wealth of valid names and  button first and then you will have email addresses contained therein. full editing capabilities against the See E-mail Etiquette page 8 body and headers of the message.

The Cursor — July 19, 2008 Page — www.wacug.org E-mail Etiquette from page 8 APCUG member groups. to make a photo e-mailable. The This article has been provided to first is to resize or resample the picture. We want to change the pic- If you want to support the petition, APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member ture width from 3000 pixels to 800 send it as your own personal letter groups. All other uses require the pixels, for instance. This process is to the intended recipient. Your po- permission of the author (see e-mail called resizing or resampling. We sition may carry more weight as a address above). have to pick the best 800 pixels out personal letter than a laundry list of of the 3000 to represent our photo. names and email address on a peti-  Well, no, that is not exactly correct tion. (Actually, if you think about it, but it simplifies things to think of who’s supposed to send the petition it that way. We don’t have to worry in to whatever cause it supports? E-Mailing about it because a lot of very smart And don’t believe the ones that say programmers have developed ways that the email is being traced, it just Photographs (algorithms) to help us. Just remem- isn’t so!) By Richard Kennon, Editor, ber, you want to resize or resample (6) One of the main ones I hate is Amador Computer Users Group, to get the photo down to a size con- CA the ones that say that something venient for e-mailing. I usually use www.acug.net like, ‘Send this email to 10 people 800 pixels or 900 pixels width for Drtrdguy(at)volcano.net and you’ll see something great run pictures I attach to e-mails. (See im- across your screen.’ Or, sometimes irst, we must understand that age 1 on page 10) they’ll just tease you by saying photograph (image) size in The second thing to do to make a something really cute will hap- the camera and in the com- photo e-mailable is to save it in pen IT AIN’T TRUE, IT’S NOT puter is measured in pixels. These F JPEG format (.jpg). That is a for- GONNA HAPPEN!!!!! (Trust me; are the basic dots of color that make mat that reduces file size a lot and I’m still seeing some of the same the picture. Do not pay any atten- picture quality a little so the picture ones that I waited on 10 years ago!) tion to anything that says “inches” can be downloaded more quickly I don’t let the bad luck ones scare or “pixels per inch.” These terms are and still be nice to look at. Some me either, they get trashed. (Could meaningless when we are consider- software programs give you choices that be why I haven’t won the lot- ing a picture either in the camera of compression amount with num- tery?) or in the computer. They may come bers ranging from 1 to 10. One will into play later if we want to print (7) Before you forward an Amber result in a very small file but the pic- the photo on paper. But, that is an- Alert, or a Virus Alert, or some of ture quality will not be good at all. other subject for another time. For the other ones floating around now- A 10 will give the very best quality now, we think only of pixels. Most adays, check them out before you but with a very large file size. A rea- cameras record too many pixels to forward them. Most of them are sonable compromise is to use 5 or 6. e-mail. For instance a 6 megapixel junk mail that’s been circling the net I usually use 6. for Years! Just about everything you camera will make a picture about How do you do this? First, I will receive in an email that is in ques- 3000 pixels wide by 2000 pixels describe how to do it with a free tion can be checked out at Snopes. tall and the file size may be several Microsoft program. Then I will try Just go to http://www.snopes.com/. megabytes. Our screens are usually to look at some other programs. It’s really easy to find out if it’s real only about 1000 pixels wide (some or not. If it’s not, please don’t pass are larger and some smaller). So, if Microsoft Power Toys for XP has it on. we e-mail the native picture, it will a Resize Pictures toy that is slick be wider than the screen for the re- and easy but feedback says it only So please, in the future, let’s stop or cipient and the file will be so large, works on XP. It can be downloaded at least minimize the junk mail and it may take “forever” to download to at http://www.microsoft.com/win- the viruses by taking the steps out- the recipient’s computer. It is pos- dowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xp- lined above. sible the service provider will not powertoys.mspx. Right click on an Obtained from APCUG with the even accept it. author’s permission for publication by There are two things we must do See E-Mailing Photos page 9

The Cursor — July 19, 2008 Page — www.wacug.org E-Mailoing Photos from page 8 want one of the best editing pro- There are many other editing programs, I highly recommend it. (See grams that I haven’t mentioned and image name or thumbnail in Ex- image 4 on page 10) have no experience with. In all cases plorer or My Computer and choose you want to change the picture’s size Resize Pictures. You are limited to Let’s look at Picasa2. It is a free program from Google and looks really in pixels by resizing or resampling. four specific sizes but they are good Pay no attention to anything that choices. They don’t tell us what good but I do not have much experience with it. By all means, try it first says “inches” as that will have no compression they are using but the meaning for this process. Sometime results look OK. Unless you tell because the price is right! When it comes to e-mailing photographs, it later we will talk about printing pic- them under Advanced to replace tures and then we will use inches. the image in the file, it will make is a little more automated but not a copy. That’s good. They will add any easier to use than Elements. Obtained from APCUG with the the word, “Large”, “Medium” or First, click on Tools>Options>E- author’s permission for publication “Small” to the end of the name you Mail. Then select the width you by APCUG member groups. have chosen. want in pixels. There are six choices. This article has been provided to Then click on Apply and OK. (See APCUG by the author solely for If you are happy with this solution, image 5 on page 10) then read no further. But, if you publication by APCUG member want to use a picture editing pro- The next step is to click on File>E- groups. All other uses require the gram, maybe this will help. Mail and you will get three choices permission of the author (see e-mail of how you want to e-mail your address above). In Photoshop Elements 5, click on photos. Fortunately, I use Outlook  Image>Resize>Image Size and Express so my choice is listed. this window will pop up. Note When I clicked on Outlook Express, Screenshots for this article appear that there is some garbage at the on the following page — Editor bottom about “inches” but we will an e-mail page popped up with the ignore that. First we will click the photo attached. At this point we can Resample Image box. That puts the write something else on the e-mail Pixel Dimensions in play and that is and send it. I recommend this so the what we want. I selected the Width recipient will know it is really from box and changed the width to 800 you and not something sent out by pixels. Since the Constrain Pro- a virus. When I receive e-mails that portions box is selected, that is all I only say “Attached”, I Delete them have to do. (See image 2 on page 10) without looking at the attachment. This saved me one time when I re- Note, down at the bottom, that we ceived a virus from my sister-in-law have several choices of sampling al- that she did not know she sent. She gorithms. This is frosting on the cake. spent weeks and dollars getting her I read somewhere that I should use computer back up. Oh, I digress. Bicubic Sharper when downsizing If you want to send more than one so that is what I do. (See image 3 on picture (and, who doesn’t?), you page 10) Most programs don’t give must select the picture and click on us all these choices. Then we should the Hold button near the bottom of click on File>Save As and give the the screen. Do this for each photo photo a new name. I often just use you want to send and they will all be the same name and add “_800px” so attached to the e-mail. The program the next time I will know it is ready automatically chooses JPEG format to e-mail. Here we can choose the and a compression ratio but does not JPEG format and the compression tell you. That is OK as the pictures I amount. Photoshop Elements 6 is tried looked good. Picasa2 has con- out now and sells for about $100. If siderable capability for editing pho- you are able to spend that much and tos in many respects. Try it!

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The Cursor — July 19, 2008 Page 10 — www.wacug.org The Cursor Copyright ©2008 WACUG Monthly Circulation: 100 The 2007 WAC Board of Directors, SIG Leaders and other Volunteers Directors: President:...... Paul Howard, 703-860-9246, plhoward(at)verizon.net Vice-President:...... Geof Goodrum, 703-370-7649, ggoodrum(at)bigfoot.com Secretary:...... Bill Walsh, 703-241-8141, bill.walsh(at)cox.net Treasurer:...... Bob Rott, [email protected] Director Emeritus: ...... Lu Spriggs, 843-467-9022, luspriggs(at)aol.com Newsletter Editor...... Chuck Rogerts, 703-876-9787, chrobe(at)cox.net Registered Agent:...... Jorn Dakin, 703-534-8691, Idakin(at)alumni.uchicago.edu PC Software Team:...... Jim Brueggeman, 703-450-1384, bigjimo1(at)aol.com PC Software Team:...... Bob Mason, 703-503-9324, Bob.Mason(at)remjem.com Member at Large:...... Mel Mikosinski, 709-978-9158, melvin22003(at)aol.com Volunteers Linux SIG Leader, Membership Chair:...... Geof Goodrum, 703-370-7649, ggoodrum(at)bigfoot.com Internet Columnist:...... Lloyd Johnson, lloydhj(at)aol.com Vendor Contact:...... Chuck Roberts, 703-876-9787, chrobe(at)cox.net Web Site Team: ...... Paul Howard and Chuck Roberts Meeting Setup/APCUG Liaison:...... Bill Walsh, 703-241-8141, bill.walsh(at)cox.net

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TIME-SENSITIVE MATERIAL Please Deliver By Label July 11, 2008 The New, The Best, was again denied. Mike installed Windows XP on and The Worst - There is a lesson to be learned from a new drive and put the old wreck May 2008 this. The Windows XP operating in an external hard drive enclosure system runs on a partition config- connected to a USB port of his com- Collected by Pim Borman, ured in the NTFS format. When puter. The old drive was unreadable Webmaster, SW Indiana PC Users data files are saved in that format, at this point. Still unwilling to give Group Windows XP (and Vista) by default up, Mike tried the old standby, swipcug.apcug.org protect those files from access by Windows’ checkdisk with the /F swipcug(at)gmail.com others. That is a nice safety feature parameter (for “fix”) to let Windows ales of Woe for those who really need it, but it try to repair salvageable parts of the Sorry, Folks, but this makes the data unavailable over drive. It worked! After several re- month I can’t think of any your network, or evidently even peats of the procedure he was able New and/or Best to report on, only from a DOS prompt. You can be- to recover most of his lost files that T meanwhile also had become acces- Troubles, with a Capital ‘T.’So let’s forehand designate specific data get started. files to be shared, but it is a lot of sible. So much for Spinrite, mark one up for good old DOS. Spinrite 6. bother, easily forgotten. Here is the lesson: store all your data files Acronis Son Mike’s computer recently re- on a separate partition set up in the fused to boot, and his main concern After creating the Spinrite disc, and older FAT32 format, and they’ll be was the potential loss of some recent before using it on Mike’s computer, available whenever and wherever data files that he had not yet backed I tested it on my desktop computer you need them. Even better, also up. Regrettable, but it happens to by doing a routine check of my hard back them up to an external drive in the best of us - literally. The local drive, expecting it to be in perfect FAT32 format. school system lost all the students’ shape. To my surprise Spinrite test results of the current term be- At this point I remembered reading halted about 5% into the inspection cause the computers crashed. The about a terrific file recovery pro- because the hard drive was over- data were not securely backed up. gram, Spinrite 6, available for $89 heating. Newer serial (SATA) hard Whom to blame? No one other from Gibson Research Corpora- drives are equipped with a SMART than the operator, IBM, symbol of tion, owned and operated by Steve program that reports many operat- computing excellence. According to Gibson, the well-known computer ing parameters of the drive. Win- the local paper, the IBM represen- guru (www.grc.com). We down- dows can’t read SMART, but Spin- tative claimed that this had never loaded the program and converted rite can. On inspection I found that happened before and could not be it to a bootable disc. After booting the cooling fan for the hard drive explained. Sound familiar? Mike’s computer with the Spinrite compartment was kaput. It was eas- disc it immediately announced that ily replaced by the local people who Back to Mike. When it was clear his drive was subject to imminent built my computer, but even then that he could not boot from the failure. Well, that’s what we spent the drive continued to overheat, a hard drive, not even in safe mode, the $89 for. We started the file re- clear warning that it may fail any the next step was to use a Windows covery mode, with a warning that time. XP setup disc and use its Repair this could take a looong time, think function. Windows labored might- I bought a new 500 GB Maxtor drive 24 hours or so. ily, trying to repair his drive, but (on sale for $99!) which came with a kept getting bogged down with a Several days later, after running utility, “MaxBlast” to copy an exact variety of obscure error messages. something like 60 hours during image of my setup to the new disc, At one time he got a DOS prompt which the program every so often avoiding the necessity to reinstall that allowed him to list the files on would get bogged down and had everything. The way it wanted to go his computer, but when he tried to to be restarted, the program had about it was to do a three--way par- copy them he was denied access. progressed to 93% completion tition of the 500 MB drive, similar When we booted his computer with and refused to go any further. to the 3 partitions in the old (250 No indication that any files were a Live Ubuntu Linux CD he could See New, Best, Worst next page also see his precious files, but access available to be recovered.

The Cursor — July 19, 2008 Bonus Page — www.wacug.org News, Best, Worst from previous page ward with technology in some way on my primary home workstation. I using Linux, but on both occa- periodically wipe out the machine MB) drive, but twice as large. It was sions where I convinced someone, it and start a fresh OS install from going to copy everything on the old turned out that Ubuntu was incom- scratch. I reasoned that as laborious drive to the new drive, including my patible with their systems. Com- a reinstall is, I may as well bite the Linux programs in their partition, puters with integrated graphics and bullet and this time make the move with the warning that the Linux many laptop computers have low- to Vista. What made the timing system would no longer be bootable. cost proprietary hardware (made in right was that Microsoft gave Win- That was not what I had in mind, I China) that is attuned to Windows, dows Vista Ultimate 32-bit w/SP2 just wanted to copy an image of the but unlikely to have Linux drivers. for those who attended the APCUG C: partition from the old to the new Standard graphics cards from ma- 2008 LDC. Here’s my experience. drive. Since MaxBlast turned out to jor manufacturers are more likely be version 10 of disk manager Ac- to have Linux drivers available, and Check Compatibility ronis, I gave Acronis-11 a try in the those based on the NVidea chip set When loading an OS it is impor- hope that it would be more flexible. have Linux support from the manu- tant to make note of your hardware I uninstalled MaxBlast and tried to facturer. and key software. Vista Update Ad- install Acronis 11, but it balked. I You can try to run Ubuntu from visor will highlight any hardware tried to remove all traces of Max- the CD-ROM without installing it or software compatibility issues of Blast from the Registry, but Acronis on the hard drive, a so-called “live” which to be aware. In my case, the still wouldn’t install. I uninstalled installation. If that works, your only issues to address were applica- as much as possible of Acronis and system is probably compatible and tions that would be replaced with tried to reinstall MaxBlast. No luck; you can proceed with a permanent new Vista versions—no big deal. darn. So much for Acronis. installation. If it doesn’t work, not In terms of hardware, my machine- After clean installations of Windows much is lost since the distribution checked out OK. Last I had heard, XP and Ubuntu Linux on the new is free. In any case, Linux is a large my ATI All-In-Wonder 2006 video drive, Windows could not find my program and requires at least 256 card was not yet supported in Vista, Internet connection. After strug- MB of RAM and 10 GB of hard so I double checked the AMD (they gling several days I finally realized drive space. now own ATI) website and con- firmed there are now Vista drivers that my motherboard needed to be Obtained from APCUG with the and software. It’s a Go! software-configured and that I did author’s permission for publication by not have the correct drivers. Thanks APCUG member groups. Backup Data to the local availability of the guys This article has been provided to AP- Next, I made backups of all my who originally built the system I got CUG by the author solely for publica- important data. This time around the correct drivers and all was well. tion by APCUG member groups. All I used an external USB hard drive Ubuntu never had any problem. It other uses require the permission of the and just dragged and dropped the downloaded and installed the re- author (see e-mail address above). data to a ‘backup’ folder. I wanted quired Linux drivers automatically.  to start fresh and clean, so I didn’t Ubuntu bother making a backup of my Win- Windows Vista is not the only op- dows or Office user settings. There erating system with compatibility aren’t any new BIOS updates for my problems on installation. Ubuntu From My Vista motherboard, so I was all set to go. and other Linux distributions have by Rob Limbaugh, President, Time for Install more than their share of installation Danbury Area Computer Society, I started the install process around 8 problems. Most of these appear to CT p.m., electing to wipe all partitions be due to proprietary graphics sys- www.dacs.org on the hard drive. My first boot to tems for which Linux has no driv- relimbaugh(at)dacs.org ers (yet). I have been recommending ust about every year I make some See My Vista next page for years that people ought to start Jsort of ‘major’ effort to move for- The Cursor — July 19, 2008 Bonus Page — www.wacug.org My Vista from previous page to Vista). is now the fourth time I’ve installed Reality Check Vista on a machine—first time on one I plan to use regularly. All said the desktop post install was shortly In my consumer opinion, lack of and done, the experience has been after 10 p.m. So far, so good. And, proper drivers for an OS is the fault pleasant and not anything like the considering this is a P4 2.4GHz of the hardware integrator and not horror stories I’ve heard. At the machine, I was rather impressed. the OS maker. AMD is blaming time of this writing it’s been about Vista’s graphics worked from the Microsoft’s changes in DirectX two weeks and all continues to work get-go because the ATI All-In- 10 D3D (which happen to address well. This article was typed on that Wonder 2006 uses an ATI Radeon performance and security) as why system using Word 2007 and sent 9600 compatible chipset for which the ATI TV Tuner software doesn’t to the editors with Outlook 2007. Vista loaded drivers. Sound worked. work. Well, AMD, how come Snap- Networking worked. I expected Stream could figure it out? AOpen From my vista, Vista works just SOMETHING to be wrong, due has not released any new drivers for fine. to all the horror stories I had heard! their implementation of the AC’97 Vista Upgrade Advisor: My machine even received a 3.2 on chip on my motherboard. I can live http://www.microsoft.com/win- the “Vista Experience Index”. That with AOpen’s choice because most dows/p r o d u c t s / w i n d o w s v i means I can use people don’t use the MIDI inter- s t a /buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor. mspx Aero! Now we’re cooking! face feature of sound cards. AMD has no excuse for not supporting an Post Install Issues Compare Vista Editions: expensive video card that is bought http://www.microsoft.com/win- A notice appeared that Windows for the very feature they aren’t sup- dows/products/windowsvista/edi- detected hardware and needed to porting. My buying habits will be tions/choose.mspx install drivers. My system’s moth- adjusted accordingly in the future. SnapStream Beyond TV: erboard has an integrated Realtek Supporting Apps http://www.snapstream.com/ AC’97 sound card. Unfortunately products/beyondtv/ there isn’t a Vista driver for the Along with Beyond TV, I installed MIDI interface. If I want to hook what I consider ‘Base Supporting Obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by up MIDI devices in the future, I will Apps’. These included Avast! An- APCUG member groups. probably need to disable the built-in tivirus, Notepad++, Pidgin, Adobe This article has been provided to sound card and install a properly Reader, Adobe Flash Player, Adobe APCUG by the author solely for supported one to gain MIDI inter- Shockwave Player, TrueCrypt, Pri- moPDF, and WinSCP. Office Ulti- publication by APCUG member face functionality. groups. All other uses require the mate 2007 is going to round out the Watching TV is one of the things permission of the author (see e-mail Office Suite. Everything installed address above). for which I built this machine, and I smoothly. No issues, arguments, or expected to use Vista Media Center. contentions between apps.  This is where my second issue came up. While AMD (they bought ATI) Where I Stand has released updated Vista driv- My machine has paid its dues many I’M ASKED... ers and software for the ATI AIW times over and the driver issues 2006 video card, they didn’t actu- didn’t affect my ability to use what By Bill Funk, a member of the ally ‘fix’ the issue with how the ATI I needed, so I was OK with that. Arizona Association for Computer Hydravision software accesses the Others with more particular needs Information, inc. (ASCIi) TV Tuner. I searched around for a should be aware that integrated www.asciigroup.org solution and came across a Home soundcards, atypical hardware, old editor(at)asciigroup.org Theater application called “Beyond devices, and fancy graphics capture Obtained from APCUG with the TV” by SnapStream. So far that cards may require special attention. author’s permission for publication seems to solve my issue. Beyond Replacements may need to be con- TV has a ton of cool features (worth sidered. I’m not suggesting every- See Asked next page looking at even if you aren’t going one run out and install Vista. This

The Cursor — July 19, 2008 Bonus Page — www.wacug.org Asked from previous page era will use the settings you chose, most older, film-era flashes have a ignoring the amount of light in the higher trigger voltage than what scene. The flash will check to see DSLRs can tolerate. In other words, by APCUG member groups. what the camera is set to, and fire using that old flash can cause some I just bought a Digital SLR; with itself, checking the results as it fires expensive damage to your DSLR. the prices as low as they are, I to give the right amount of light to There are some devices that can be couldn’t resist. the scene. Neat, eh? put between your older flash and your DSLR’s flash shoe that will Since I want to take photos of my The way you’re doing it will make solve the problem. However, a new grandchildren, and the built-in the flash act as a “fill” flash, meaning flash will also work much better with flash isn’t as powerful as I need, I the camera’s exposure system will your new DSLR, and do things that bought a new flash. It’s the same use the existing light in the scene to old flash can’t even dream of doing. brand as my camera, and is sup- set the exposure, and the flash will posed to be all automatic. But, the intelligently fire to fill in shadows, This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for photos aren’t right. I thought the but not be the major source of light publication by APCUG member better flash would let me take pho- in the scene. This is also the usual groups. All other uses require the tos inside, and freeze the movement way the camera’s on-board flash works, even though many cameras permission of the author (see e-mail of the grandkids, but the photos are address above). as blurry as with the camera’s flash. will set the shutter speed to take  advantage of the flash’s extra light What’s going on? to help freeze motion. The problem You’re right, the on-board flashes here, though, is that the on-board on most DSLRs aren’t very bright. flash just isn’t bright enough to light Buying the new flash is the right up a dark scene (such as a room) idea, but it doesn’t work the way very well. many people think it does. One of the really neat things about You’re probably using the camera as digital photography is that, regard- a Point & Shoot: setting the camera less of the actual type of the cam- to make the exposure decisions, and era, experimentation is cheap. In pressing the shutter button. There’s this case, once you get the basics nothing wrong with that, but doing of flash use down, you can experi- things that way won’t get your flash ment with different shutter speeds to work the way you want it to. and aperture settings for different Instead, you should use the Man- results. Also, off-camera flashes like ual mode for exposure (check your yours will usually let you turn the camera’s manual for how to enter flash head up and down, and side to the Manual mode). While you’re side, for bounce flash. With bounce looking at the manual, check to flash, you’re bouncing the flash off find the highest shutter speed you the ceiling or wall. This tends to can use with the flash, too. spread the light from the flash out to reduce that sharp look that a Then, in Manual mode, set the shut- straight-on flash gives, and it also ter speed at, or maybe slightly be- reduces harsh shadows (as well as low, that speed ( I use 1/125 sec on changing where the shadows are); my camera; it’s fast enough to freeze more to experiment with! most action), then set the aperture (f/number) for the desired result as This brings up another question: if far as depth of field is concerned, you have an older flash from your and set the ISO as desired. Set the film days, can you use it with your flash to auto (check the manual), new DSLR? The answer is a very and fire away. This way, the cam- firm: maybe. The problem is that

The Cursor — July 19, 2008 Bonus Page — www.wacug.org