GNU/Linux Sig

TheMonthly NewsletterCursor of the Washington Area Computer User Group Meeting Location Next Meeting: Fairfax County August 16, 2008 Government Center

for the Office suite of programs has Presidential Bits been changed for the first time in August 2008 Meeting years. Such “opportunities” often By Paul Howard win praise from new users to these urt DeSoto’s July presenta- programs, but provide challenges to tion on the “Digital Tele- long time users. Join us on the 16th vision Transition” drew and find out Bob’s take on this and a big crowd and was very appre- other features of this latest iteration Kciatively received, as many mem- of the “standard” suite of programs bers were able to clarify the many used by business and home users. nuances of the DTV revolution, Don’t forget the program that al- and the termination of most ana- lows WACUG members to sign up log broadcasting on February 17th, for a variety of telecommunications 2009. Kurt’s presentation, and links services from Verizon, including Table of Contents to a variety of resources are available FiOS. Using a special phone num- on the Recent Meetings page of the ber and a numeric code identify- group’s web site: http://www.wacug. ing WAC, your order will result in org/recmtgs.html Bring your flash Verizon’s sending a contribution to Lloyd’s Web Sites (thumb) drive or a blank CD-R to the group. An order for a full range of The Month...... 2 one of our WAC meetings to obtain of FiOS services - TV, internet and 50 megabytes of material from a vast telephone - will result in a $65 do- GNU/Linux Sig...... 3 number of government and com- nation to WAC, for example. The Skype 4.0...... 8 mercial sources Kurt has compiled fine print notes that some other pro- TM on this topic. Neal Grotenstein dis- motional offers may not be available AutoMatting ...... 8 cussed several methods for conceal- through the donation program - but ing your email address from address we hope you’ll try this approach if collection robots, when your email you require telecom services. Call 1- Bonus Articles in the has to be posted on a web site. 888-695-5299, and use WAC’s code Download Edition Our August 16th meeting will be - 12426. - Converting CD-based Mu- held at the Fairfax County Govern- Do you have a computer or related sic to MP3... ment Center, from 12:30 to 3:30 technology interest you’d like to tell - Painter 4 Essentials a First PM. WAC’s Bob Mason will be your WAC colleagues about? We’re Impression... presenting a discussion on the latest looking for additional presentations version of Microsoft’s productivity - Recovering Files from a suite - Office 2007: What’s New See PBits page 2 Hard Drive and Worthwhile? The user interface Lloyd’s Web Sites for August, 2008 PBits from page 1 by Lloyd Johnson, WACUG Member http://www.wacug.org/ is the URL for the Washington Area Computer for the remainder of year - please User Group. Visit it for past issues of Web Sites with hyperlinks contact [email protected]. Sites for August 2008  1. Check a broker’s history – www.nasd.com also www.nasaa.org 2. Map and Driving Directions – www.us.map24.com – This site provides maps and driving directions for the USA, Canada, and Europe. 3. U.S. Postal Service Home Page – www.usps.com NCTCUG 4. Old Farmer’s Almanac 2008 version – www.almanac.com – Fun Visit our “sister” user group. and practical information for everyday life including moon calen- The National Capital Tech- dars, planting charts, recipes, weather predictions, and more. nology and Computer User’s Group meets the first and www.weather.com – 5. Weather.com – Consistently rated in the fourth Wednesday of the Top Five for News, Entertainment, and Information web sites by month. They meet in Carlin Media Metrix, www.weather.com features current conditions and Hall in Arlington at 5711 forecasts for over 77,000 locations worldwide, along with local South 4th Street. Visit their and regional radars. web site for more informa- 6. – www.guinnessrecords.com/default. tion, a map and directions: Guinness World Records http://www.nctcug.org/ aspx.Home page for the Guinness World Records. Free sign-up Meetings start at 7:00 PM required for some features. 7. How GPS Receivers Work – www.howstuffworks.com/gps.htm. –For less than $100, you can get a pocket-sized gadget that will tell you exactly where you are on Earth at any moment. As long as you have a GPS receiver and a clear view of the sky, you’ll never be lost again. 8 U.S. Mint 50 State Quarters Program – www.usmint.gov/mint_ programs/50sq_program/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=faq_50sq Washington Area User A series of circulating quarters being issued from 1999 - 2008. Group Partners www.kids.gov – 9. Kids.gov – Kids.gov is Uncle Sam’s family-friend- Working Together For ly site that links to over 500 websites from government agencies, schools, and educational organizations, all geared to the learning Our Members level and interest of kids. 10. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – www.nhtsa. CPCU dot.gov – (NHTSA). Includes many driving tips and car and truck safety features.  NCTCUG

ACUG

The Cursor — August 16, 2008 Page — www.wacug.org crosoft Windows CE core 5.0 erto Rico. The built-in database operating system, has a 3.5” color has 1.5 million points of interest touch-screen, includes a vehicle (POIs), including restaurants, 12V DC cigarette lighter adap- gas and vehicle repair stations, ter, an AC adapter, a USB cable, libraries, parks, etc. The user can a suction cup windshield mount store custom POIs and frequent- and cradle, and tools and manual ly used addresses. Addresses can on CD-ROM. A built-in rechar- be entered by zip code, city name geable battery provides up to 8 or nearby POI and street address hours of continuous use. The unit using the on-screen keyboard. accepts Secure Digital (SD) me- The unit has very clear graphics mory cards (not included), which with 2D and optional 3D split are used to backup and restore window views of upcoming free- GNU/Linux SIG GPS data (address book, way- way exits. The text to speech fea- By Geof Goodrum, WAC points, tracks), MP3 files, and ture announces upcoming turns Review: Magellan Crossover photos. The unit is sealed to IPX- very clearly by street name up to GPS 4 specifications, which means it twice before the turn and with is sealed against rain, but cannot a user-selectable chime, bell, fter juggling maps and be submerged. or beep at the turn. If a turn is making unplanned de- missed, the unit is very quick to tours during an April The unit I purchased came with calculate a new route. The user trip to southern California, I de- an older version of the GPS A firmware, but Magellan provides can also select to avoid toll roads, cided it was time to buy a Global use the fastest route, the shortest Positioning System (GPS) unit a free firmware upgrade down- route, minimize or maximize use that I could use in my car and on load after registering the product of freeways, and exclude particu- travel. However, I also hike and through their web site. I highly lar roads from the recommended wanted an outdoor GPS with to- recommend checking the firm- route. Up to 20 destinations can pographic maps to help me na- ware version, as the upgrade has be added into a single trip, but the vigate, particularly in the desert a much better user interface. Ma- destinations are in user-defined with no marked trails. gellan also includes the firmware upgrade on CD with an update to order – the software does not op- In May, I found the Magellan the street maps and points of in- timize the order of the destinati- CrossoverGPS™ (eBay, factory terest on SD card (CrossoverGPS ons. The user can set a preference refurbished, $220), which com- NA Map and Software Update to automatically suggest detours bines vehicle, outdoor/hiking, V2, retail $79.99). The pre-in- if the freeway speed falls below and marine/boating navigation stalled street maps do not accu- 15 MPH for a user set period functions in a single unit. The rately represent the new Spring- of time. The unit also supports unit also features a basic MP3 field Mixing Bowl exits nor the an optional TrafficKit accesso- music player and a JPEG and Wilson Bridge project. With the ry (retail $99.99) with a built-in BMP format image viewer. The major road projects currently un- FM receiver for real-time traffic GPS modes, MP3 player, and derway in the Washington, DC information, which the GPS can image viewer are mutually ex- area, I believe it is better to wait use to find the quickest route to a clusive functions – you cannot for a future map update. destination. The TrafficKit inclu- listen to MP3s while using GPS des three months of service; an or view topographic maps while For vehicle navigation, the Cros- annual subscription is available routing in GPS vehicle mode. soverGPS includes street maps for $60. The coverage area inclu- The CrossoverGPS uses the of Canada and the US, inclu- SiRFstarIII GPS chipset, Mi- ding Alaska, Hawaii, and Pu- See Crossover page 4

The Cursor — August 16, 2008 Page — www.wacug.org Crossover from page 3 movable green rubber covering runs on Microsoft Windows to protect the case, though the 2000 or XP) is required to upload des major metropolitan areas in display is still exposed. At 9.4 and manage music and images. the US, including Washington ounces with the covering, the Being a GNU/Linux user, I tried and Baltimore. GPS is a bit heavy, probably due loading files directly onto the SD For hiking, the CrossoverGPS to the large capacity battery. The card, but the unit did not reco- includes built-in 90 meter reso- unit will just barely fit in a shirt gnize them. I have not looked for lution topographic maps for the pocket with the rubber cover in an Open Source program to re- 48 contiguous United States (the place. place Magellan‘s limited softwa- unit is also compatible with Ma- I have not used the marine/boa- re. However, I have used Open gellan 30 meter resolution Map- ting navigation mode, but the Source software such as Viking ® Send Topo maps, available sepa- features correspond to those in and GPSBabel to read and con- rately). The unit can record and the outdoor/hiking mode. The vert my GPS hiking tracks and save tracks (continous latitude, built-in map appears to be the waypoints from the SD card to longitude, altitude and time) and same topo map used in outdoor/ my Gentoo Linux system and waypoints (user defined point), hiking mode, but Magellan offers overlay the navigation informati- and has easy entry of the current detailed MapSend BlueNav™ on on maps. On my next desert location as a base camp. The POI marine and MapSend Lake maps hike, I plan to use the same soft- database is also available, so hi- as additional cost add-ons. ware to upload trail waypoints to kers can search for and plot bea- the unit. I am also learning how Some users reported gripes. The rings to the nearest services. In to geotag digital photos with lo- CrossoverGPS does not have an addition to the topo map view, cation information so the photos external volume control; volume there is a simulated compass can be linked to trail maps. is only adjustable through the view that shows the current di- on-screen menu (7 levels plus In summary, the CrossoverGPS rection of travel, direction to the mute). Many users report that works extremely well as a vehicle next waypoint, and direction to Magellan‘s telephone support navigation GPS, with a clearly sun and moon, as well as lati- is very poor. A hiker noted that understandable menu and text tude, longitude, elevation, date/ there is no way to recharge or re- to speech pronunciation of street time, speed of travel, and trip place the built-in battery while names (with v2.14.00.01 firm- odometer. There is a hold button on extended hikes. ware upgrade). It is less well ad- that reduces power consumption apted for outdoor use compared (dims display) for longer hikes. In my personal experience, the to dedicated outdoor GPS units, The unit also comes with a re- CrossoverGPS intermittently re- but provides a reasonable com- ported poor signal and inaccurate promise if you don‘t want to carry locations during a mountain hike multiple GPS units on trips. The in Shenendoah National Park, music player and image functions although it reported multiple are basic function and limited by GPS satellites in view. I found the fact they cannot be used while that sometimes turning the unit the GPS navigation is operating. off and on again helped to reac- These features would be better quire a reliable GPS signal. The if the music and image file ma- unit was unable to maintain a nagement was built into the GPS good signal from a window seat instead of relying on proprietary during a jet flight to Denver. I MS Windows software on a PC tried the MP3 and image view- to do this. er functions, but it appears that Magellan PC Tools (which only See Crossover page 5

The Cursor — August 16, 2008 Page — www.wacug.org Crossover from page 4 The WGR614L is supported by net WAN port and a four-port See page 7 for images of Geof‘s a dedicated open source router 10/100 LAN switch, incorpo- GPS community, www.myopenrouter. rates an 802.11g access point to com, Press Release: NETGEAR which provides open sour- support wireless connectivity at WGR-614L Wireless Router ce firmware downloads, forums, speeds of up to 54 Mbps. The blogs, articles, source code, and WGR614L supports static and Open Source Wireless-G Rou- user guides, and provides users dynamic routing with TCP/ ter (WGR614L) Delivers Hig- with dedicated and responsive IP, VPN pass-through (IPSec, her Processing Power and More support by open source experts. L2TP), NAT, PPTP, PPPoE, Memory for a Wide Variety of “The launch of the WGR614L DHCP (client and server), and Customized Applications and is Bigpond. A Stateful Packet In- Supported by a Dedicated and is significant to the open source community as there has been a spection (SPI) firewall protects Responsive Open Source Com- the network from intruders, and munity growing demand for more powerful platforms to support a rapidly the wireless connection is secu- SANTA CLARA, Calif. – June red with support for 40-, 128- ® growing segment of open sour- 30, 2008 – NETGEAR , Inc. ce enthusiasts that are seeking and 152-bit WEP encryption, (NASDAQGM: NTGR), a to create more robust, commer- Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), worldwide provider of tech- cial-grade applications for their WPA2-PSK, and Wi-Fi Protec- nologically advanced, branded wireless routers,” stated Som Pal ted Setup (WPS). Additional se- networking solutions, today Choudhury, senior product line curity features include: Exposed announced the launch of the manager for advanced wireless Host (DMZ), MAC address Open Source Wireless-G Rou- at NETGEAR. “In addition to authentication, URL content fil- ter (WGR614L), a full-featured adding a more powerful proces- tering, logs and e-mail alerts of wireless router designed to serve sor and additional memory to the Internet activity. as a reliable, high-performance proven Broadcom® platform, the The NETGEAR Open Source platform to support a wide varie- most popular open source firm- Wireless-G Router (WGR614L) ty of applications created by the ware, Tomato and DD-WRT, is backed by a one-year hardware open source community. are available on WGR614L ma- warranty and is available now via The high-performance WGR- king it easier for users to develop select retailers, direct marketers, 614L, which is “Works with a wide variety of applications. An e-commerce sites and value ad- Windows Vista” certified, fea- important feature of our offering ded resellers at a retail price in tures a 240 MHz MIPS32® CPU is the dedicated and responsive the U.S. of $69. core with 16 KB of instruction open source community which About NETGEAR, Inc. cache, 16 KB of data cache, 1 KB enables users to easily exchange NETGEAR (NASDAQGM: of pre-fetch cache, and incorpo- ideas and troubleshoot issues. NTGR) designs technological- rates 4 MB of flash memory and New applications currently being ly advanced, branded networ- 16 MB of RAM. In addition to developed by this community in- king solutions that address the an external 2 dBi antenna, the clude traffic shaping applications, specific needs of small and me- WGR614L integrates a second redirections to captive portals for dium business and home users. internal diversity antenna to pro- hotspots, guest access via a sepa- The company’s product offerings vide enhanced performance and rate SSID, upstream and down- enable users to share Internet range. The router supports free stream QOS, and intelligent ® access, peripherals, files, digital open source Linux -based Toma- bandwidth monitoring.” multimedia content and appli- to and DD-WRT firmware and The NETGEAR Open Source cations among multiple personal will soon support OpenWRT. Wireless-G Router (WGR614L), See NetGear Page 6 which features one 10/100 Inter-

The Cursor — August 16, 2008 Page — www.wacug.org NetGear from page 5 Ulteo Applications System degree angles. The player must xPUD 0.7 then get the AI to crash into computers and other Internet- Linux Software of the Month their wall while avoiding hitting enabled devices. As an ENERGY The software described below is the AI‘s own wall themselves. STAR® partner, NETGEAR of- downloadable at the links pro- Those were the humble begin- fers products that prevent green- vided or may be requested on CD. nings of Armagetron Advanced‘s house gas emissions by meeting In addition, WAC can provide game play, which has now blos- strict energy-efficiency specifica- CD-R and DVD±R media for somed into 16 player mayhem, tions set by the U.S. government. any downloadable GNU/Linux with highly advanced AI, net- NETGEAR is headquartered operating system distribution work game play, and, of course, in Santa Clara, Calif. For more (e.g. Fedora, Mandriva, Ubuntu, all in a 3D environment. information, visit the company’s www.netgear.com Debian, Knoppix). Please note Mozilla Firefox – v3.0.1. http:// Web site at or www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/. call (408) 907-8000. that download versions of com- mercial distributions do not in- Free Mozilla Public License GNU/Linux Distribution Re- clude official technical support source code and executable by leases nor printed documentation. the Mozilla community. Firefox GNU/Linux distributions are Discs are available only by pre- is a graphic web browser that is complete GNU/Linux operating order. Contact Geof Goodrum fast, secure, and is customizable system and application softwa- by e-mail g ([email protected]) at by the user through add-ons and re collections. Many are freely least 48 hours before meeting day themes. Top features include: downloadable or can be ordered to order or for more information. Password Manager - Remember on CDs or DVD at low cost. Single CD-R discs are available site passwords without ever see- DistroWatch.com lists the fol- with a $3 donation; GNU/Linux ing a pop-up; One-Click Book- lowing distribution release an- distributions on multiple CD-Rs marking - Bookmark, search and nouncements for the period July or single DVD±R are available organize Web sites quickly and 3 – July 30, 2008. with a $6 donation. easily; Improved Performance August 2008 - View Web pages faster, using Distribution – Armagetron Advanced v- less of your computer’s memory; Absolute Linux 12.1.05 http://armagetronad.net/ Smart Location Bar - Find the BeleniX 0.7.1 0.2.8.1. . Free GNU General Public Li- sites you love in seconds—enter BLAG Linux And GNU 90001 a term for instant matches that CentOS 5.2 Live CD cense source code, RPM execut- make sense; Instant Web Site Debian GNU/Linux 4.0r4 able package, and Ubuntu ex- Devil-Linux 1.2.15 ecutable package by the Arma- ID - Avoid online scams, unsafe Foresight Linux 2.0.4 getron Advanced development transactions and forgeries with Gentoo Linux 2008.0 team. Armagetron Advanced is simple site identity; Full Zoom Gibraltar Firewall 2.6 - See any part of a Web page, up GoblinX 2.7 “A Tron clone in 3D”. Tron was an arcade game based on the close and readable, in seconds; GoblinX 2.7 “Micro” Platform-Native Look & Feel - GoblinX Premium 2008.2 movie of the same name, released Browse with a Firefox that’s in- IPCop 1.4.20 by Disney in 1982. The original LinuxConsole 1.0.2008 game consisted of 4 sub-games, tegrated into your computer’s op- NimbleX 2008 the only one of concern is the erating system. This release fixes Parsix GNU/Linux 1.5r1 ‘Light Cycles’ one, in which the security issues in version 3.0. Parted Magic 3.0 jobBuddy – v0.3.1. http://job- player uses a left/right joystick Poseidon Linux 3.0 buddy.sourceforge.net/index.html. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 to control a ‘Light Cycle’ which Ubuntu 8.04.1 leaves a wall behind it wherever See jobBuddy page 7 Ubuntu Muslim Edition 8.04.1 the cycle goes, turning only at 90

The Cursor — August 16, 2008 Page — www.wacug.org jobbuddy from page 6

Free GNU General Public Li- cense executable Python code by Sam Pottinger et al. jobBuddy searches six top job sites and dis- GPS Compass plays listings in a single interface. It can also hide jobs users don‘t want, and can update results at a later time. There is no registrati- on or third party service involved, so searches can be directly sent to the sources. Users can “dig dee- per”+ into search results to see a wider spectrum of job options. A duplication checker ensures that you don‘t see the same listing GPS Location more than once. Sockso – v1.0.5. http://sockso.pu- gh.com/. Free GNU General Pu- blic License executable Java code and source by naph. Sockso is a personal music server for everyone. It‘s designed to be as simple as possible so that anyone with a mouse and some MP3 music files can get their friends listening to their music across the Internet in GPS Street minutes. Kernel Source – http://www.kernel.org/. 2.6 kernel source code for all platforms (stable 2.6.26). 

GPS Topographic

The Cursor — August 16, 2008 Page — www.wacug.org TM Skype 4.0 I’m using it and it seems to work AutoMatting real well. This full screen mode will By Joe Nuvolini, Webmaster – Unique Digital be very useful for the computer user & APCUG Rep, Pikes Peak group community. Matts ... Computer Application Society, CO http://ppcompas.apcug.org/ While at the Association of PC Extraordinaire nuvo(at)nuvolini.com User Groups (APCUG) Conven- From Image Trends Inc. – The Science of Imaging ’ve been a Skype subscriber for tion held in conjunction with the January 2008 Consumer Electron- by Neil Longmuir, a member of the some time now. What is Skype, Winnipeg PC User Group Inc., ics Show (CES) attendees in their you say? Well, it’s an online Canada forum with the vendors discussed chat/phone/video service which www.wpcusrgrp.org I presentations at user group meet- has, as of the end of March, some longmur(at)ms.umanitoba.ca ings. Over the years, the cost of 309 million registered users. Last I “AutoMatting automatically cre- heard, that is more subscribers than sending representatives out to user groups for the purpose of promot- ates a unique matt for each im- all the US telephone services com- age which is designed to make the ing their wares has become no lon- bined! It allows you to make com- photographer’s work more attractive ger cost effective. We discussed the puter to computer calls free world- and appealing to the customer in a wide. It can support 12 million users use of Webinars (live presentations slide show or viewing mode.” Au- at a time. In addition to audio and across the Internet). toMatting is a digital matting soft- video chat, you can instant message, This new version of Skype looks to ware program that creates a unique send text messages to phones, and be ideal for such a program and it matt for each image. The traditional share files. You can call from com- can be done at little or no cost to way to display photographs, was to puter to phone as well. the vendors and user groups. If you mount the photograph to a matt board, and fit that mounted pho- haven’t tried Skype, you should. It has three levels of service for the tograph into a matt opening cut to You can download the current ver- computer to phone service. For $2.95 the size of the photograph. Matting per month you can make free com- sion (3.8) at: http://www.skype. a photograph helps separate the puter to phone calls anywhere in the com/download/skype/windows/. If photograph from the surrounding you are adventurous and want to try background. Matting a photograph US and Canada. The $5.95 service http://www.skype. includes the US, Canada, and Mex- 4.0 beta go to: gives each photograph it’s own vi- com/intl/en/download/skype/win- sual unique and attractive look. ico City, Guadalajara, and Monter- dows/bets/ rey Mexico. For $9.95 per month . The way images are shown to cus- you get unlimited free computer to By the way, if you have wireless tomers, friends or family tends to be phone calls worldwide. They point Internet access you can purchase a bit boring. A set of prints is made out that unlimited means up to a WiFi phone at the Skype online from a roll of film or digital images. 10,000 minutes per month. Let’s store and it will allow you to make The pictures would be taken out of see, 10,000 minutes is over 6.9 days! calls whenever and wherever you the photo lab envelope and passed around to customers, friends and I’m currently subscribing to the have wireless Internet access. There’s family to look at. $2.95 service. To call overseas with a lot more information which you my service it runs about 2.1 cents can checkout at their Website: This approach is fine if there are per minute to Europe or from Eu- http://www.skype.com. only a few pictures, but what if there are a large number of images. One rope back to the States. Skype has This article has been provided to AP- solution is to create a slide show. been offering video calling as well CUG by the author solely for publica- Creating a slide show takes time since 2005. Their data compression tion by APCUG member groups. All to create. One major problem with allows quality voice transmissions other uses require the permission of the a typical computer monitor or TV on a bandwidth of as little as 2kbs author (see e-mail address above). display is that the aspect ratio of the and video on 6kbs. It has a new ver- Obtained from APCUG with the monitor or TV is not the same as sion, 4.0, which is in beta testing. author’s permission for publication by the standard typical 3x2 aspect ratio It allows you to see the person you APCUG member groups. of the images. Then, when we mix are calling full screen. For this fea-  See AutoMatting page 9 ture to work well you need 90kbs.

The Cursor — August 16, 2008 Page — www.wacug.org AutoMatting from page 8 images using the colors and patterns agetrendsinc.com and download the in the original image plus a unique trial version for yourself. The cost to portrait (vertical) images with land- beveled edge border. The final result purchase this program is $49.95 and scape (horizontal) images the im- is an image that looks great on the is available for both the Windows ages are not the same size. Portrait display medium with no black bars and MAC platforms. This is a very images are smaller than landscape appearing on the display. Figure 1 impressive innovative product that images and have vertical black bars shows basic AutoMatting screen. works great for a new look to your on each side. Landscape images Figure 2 shows the unique matting images. have smaller black bars on the top of a landscape image while Figure 3 Neil’s rating (***** – five stars ) and bottom. The bottom line is that shows the unique matting of a por- you want your images to be visually trait image. Note in both cases there I would also like to thank the kind more attractive to the viewer. are no black bars around either im- folks at Image Trends Inc. for pro- The solution to making the images age. viding me with a copy of the Au- toMatting for review. more attractive is to use AutoMat- Conclusions ting to create a unique matte for This article has been provided to AP- each image in a folder and resize Automatting is a perfect example CUG by the author solely for publica- that image to the aspect ratio of any of a software application that was tion by APCUG member groups. All monitor or TV screen. “thinking outside the box.” This other uses require the permission of the “New Wave” thinking application author (see e-mail address above). Also, if there are sub-folders under has given all end users whether they the main folder, those sub-folders are professional photographers or Obtained from APCUG with the can be included by checking the ordinary every day photographers a author’s permission for publication by included sub-folders in the upper great way to show their images to APCUG member groups. left corner. Once the images to be everyone on whatever display me- Screenshots continue on page 10 processed are selected, press Process dium. Images at the bottom of the screen.  This is a terrific product. AutoMat- AutoMatting operates in a batch ting is available for a free “try before mode and creates a sub-folder of you buy” download. Visit www.im-

AutoMatt Fig 1

The Cursor — August 16, 2008 Page — www.wacug.org AutoMatt Fig 2

AutoMatt Fig 3

The Cursor — August 16, 2008 Page 10 — www.wacug.org The Cursor Copyright ©2008 WACUG Monthly Circulation: 100 The 2008 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

The Cursor is the official publication of the Washington Area Computer User Group (WACUG), a Virginia membership corporation. WACUG is a tax exempt organization under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions are encouraged and are tax deductible. All material is Copyright © 2008 by the Washington Area Computer User Group unless otherwise specified. Products or brand names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The contents of articles herein are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the Washington Area Computer User Group, the Board of Directors, or its members. The Cursor provides news, commentary and product information to members of the Washington Area Computer User Group.

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Dues are collected on an Annual basis and includes: downloadable links for WACUG Selected Software E-mail: (formeraly DOM), and WAC’s monthly newsletter, The Cursor, in PDF format Membership Survey: Help us to help you by completing this survey. List the computer systems you own / use (in order of preference) Individual/Corporate/Family Dues: $25.00 $12 annual surcharge for delivery of the Cursor by 1st Class mail Operating System(s): Remit payment in person at the WAC Membership Modem(s): table on meeting day, or by mail to: Printer(s): Washington Area Computer User Group 30 Fendall Ave. Other Hardware: Alexandria, VA 22304-6300 Favorite Software: Make checks payable to WAC. Please do not send Connection: (circle one) Dial-up or Broadband cash by mail. Thank you for joining WAC! Complete if you name and address do not appear Circle Your Interests: Photo Printing Investing Games on the reverse side. Include E-mail Address Name: Digital Photography Internet Access Education Music Street: Graphics/Animation Genealogy Video Finance City: Programming Language(s) State: Zip: Hardware Upgrades/Repair List others below Phone: ( ) –

The Cursor — August 16, 2008 Page 11 — www.wacug.org Next WAC Meetings: • Sept 13 • Oct 18 • Nov 22 • Dec 13 •Jan 17

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TIME-SENSITIVE MATERIAL Please Deliver By Label August 8, 2008 Converting CD- lophane outer wrap, and the in- they become at once more search- based Music to credible detail the producers went able, more replaceable, and more Compressed Audio into in packing artistic value into portable. Files the finished product, right down Compressed audio files, though to the order the songs appear on the wonder of a shared internet By Mike Moore, Editor, Bowling the album. These days, you just database called Gracenote (for- Green Area Microcomputer User Google the album or artist title merly CDDB), contain informa- Group, Kentucky and download the Jpeg, that’s tional tidbits that can searched. www.bgamug.org about it. For a fee, a program ml.moore(at)insightbb.com On the other hand, ordinary mu- called iTunes will do this for you sic tracks on a Compact Disc have spent the equivalent of two or automatically. no information associated with three days in January, work- So why would a guy spend the them at all, not even the name ing a few minutes at a time, time to rip (compress) the tracks of the song. By converting CD- converting all of our CDs to I of a CD or other ancient audio ROM music to MP3 files, your MP3 format. I had been dread- product to MP3 files? There are database can pull up a playlist for ing this project, thinking that it a few good reasons to do this. you using information encoded would take too much time, but it in the MP3 file. Most ripping really was not that bad and the For one thing, the devices that software (such as C-Dex, avail- results are going to be worth it. play music have become decen- http://cdexos.sourceforge. tralized. What I mean by that able at A few years ago I purchased net/ is if you can imagine your com- ) will query the CDDB so a 400-CD jukebox type CD puter as the “record player,” then that you won’t have to manually player. This device has the capa- it’s not much of a stretch to think type in the names of the songs or bility of displaying a short line of playing music anywhere in the the name of the CD. containing the album’s title, us- house, car or workplace. Compressed audio files can be ing a standard PC keyboard, but stored on any hard drive in the the process is complicated with Doing this in the past meant lo- house and can be made available problems. It’s easy to get CDs in cating the song you want (which on inexpensive MP3 players, iP- the wrong slot and of course, you may or may not be an easy task), ods, and Multimedia computers can only play them in the room finding the CD (or tape, or LP) that attach directly to your sound where you’ve physically situated it’s recorded on, and hoping that system. There is usually no spe- the jukebox unit. it’s not damaged. cial hardware to buy - you can In the past few years, we’ve been Then once you’ve got it, you carry just feed the stereo output from getting away from the album and it to where ever you want to hear your computer’s sound card to becoming more focused on in- it. For me, this was often the car, the audio input on your TV or dividual songs. This lamentable and a car is a great place to scratch stereo amplifier. trend has been fueled by the 99 or otherwise ruin a CD, and I’ve Most of the MP3 player devices cent price point associated with also known friends whose entire out there do not require a lot in downloading music by the song. CD collections have been stolen the way of software - you gener- Artists and producers alike have from vehicles. Physically mov- ally plug them into a computer, vilified this process, claiming that ing music and other files from they assign themselves a drive the artistic sum worth of songs player to player is sometimes hu- letter, and you can just copy your on an album is greater than the morously referred to as “Sneaker songs to the devices as if they tunes taken as individual songs. Net” were another hard drive. There I can buy into this sadness, to a But once you begin to think of point. I remember the smell of your songs and other media in See Converting Music next page vinyl LPs, unwrapping the cel- terms of compressed MP3 files,

The Cursor — August 16, 2008 Bonus Page — www.wacug.org Converting Music from previous page audiophiles who need compres- Painter 4 Essentials, sion but don’t want any data loss, a First Impression are even self-contained wireless consider using the FLAC mode http://www.ap- By Dave Chalmers, Editor, Kern hard drives (see: of compression (See http://flac. Independent PCUG, CA ple.com/airportexpress) that will sourceforge.net for information). www.kipug.org broadcast your music wirelessly FLAC stands for “Free Lossless newsletter(at)kipug.org to any networked computer in Audio Codec” the house! orel’s demonstration of So, there are a host of reasons their products at the Compressed audio files cannot why we would want to compress recent Southwest Com- get scratched like CDs do, and our audio collection, but what is puter Conference showed one if your iPod or MP3 player is the downside? The only problem I C new product that really inter- stolen or accidentally formatted can think of is that most automo- ested me. Corel Painter 4 Essen- (happens all the time!), or even if tive and older CD players cannot tials is a real painting program, your entire CD collection is sto- recognize the MP3 or any com- not a photo editing program. It len, it’s no longer the end of the puter generated music format. has the features of being able to world. You just re-copy the files Some of the newer CD players paint or draw with a computer. back to another device and you’re can, but it’s not something that If you have a shred of drawing good to go. people generally know. So, for talent, you might really like this Though not exactly small, com- example, when I transferred an program. audio book selection to CD for pressed audio files do lend them- Now I have no talents this way my wife, she found that the CD selves much better to e-mail. A unfortunately. Why I would buy player in her car refused to play typical MP3 music file is around a program like this, being a pho- the media, even though her car 3 to 6 megabytes, which is just tographer, might surprise you. is not that old. My car, a Chevy under the threshold of being too Painter has a great feature that Monte Carlo, played the disk large to send to someone using will auto paint or draw from a without a problem even though dial-up internet. If both ends of photo. In this mode you pick a it’s an older car than hers. So the connection have high-speed, style from many artistic tech- in this situation you may want it’s no problem at all, as this niques and stand back. amount of data can be transmit- to take advantage of software ted by most DSL and cable in- that does the reverse of ripping Will this look great for all pho- ternet services in about 10 or 20 - it would take MP3 files and lay tos? The simple answer is no. If seconds. The MP3 compressed them down on the CD as if they you have a lousy picture you will format is “lossy” in the sense that were ordinary Audio CD tracks. probably end up with a lousy some of the music data is lost iTunes and many CD-writing painting. Photos that are de- during compression, compared utilities such as Nero will do this pendent on a lot of fine detail to to the original recording, howev- for you. work will also not be a good can- didate for this product. Simple er I’ve never been able to tell the Now does anyone wanna buy a landscapes or portraits or more difference between a compressed used 400-CD jukebox player? song and a non-compressed track abstract photos will probably Obtained from APCUG with the work the best. Now having said on a CD. The data you lose is not author’s permission for publication by data that manifests as part of the APCUG member groups. that, there are always exceptions music. This article has been provided to AP- that will work, trying the process CUG by the author solely for publica- only takes some time. By the way, the songs as recorded tion by APCUG member groups. All on CDs you buy are very large other uses require the permission of the You start with a photo that has author (see e-mail address above). - 50 to 80 megabytes would not See Painter 4 next page be uncommon. For those of you 

The Cursor — August 16, 2008 Bonus Page — www.wacug.org Painter 4 from previous page are logically arranged and each 3.1 which somehow disappeared segment is not too long. Painter in Windows 95 and subsequent been corrected and cropped us- even comes with a nice printed versions of the operating system. ing a photo editing program. manual, with illustrations. The This is abysmal for Windows us- Jpeg’s, tiff, and PhotoShop psd manual generally follows along ers, but profitable for third party files will work. Just open them with the tutorials. software developers. in Painter and start selecting the Retail price is $99 and the mem- It’s important to understand that artistic medium you want. Once ber price is $79. It installs on both when a file is deleted it is not the program commences you will PC’s and MAC’s. As a supple- actually removed from your sys- see a very blobby and abstract im- ment to a photo editing program, tem. Windows deletes only the age in the beginning. As the pro- I certainly recommend it. first letter of the file’s name and cess continues, details emerge; Obtained from APCUG with the replaces it with a marked for de- you can stop the drawing at any author’s permission for publication by letion character. This makes the time or let it go to completion. APCUG member groups. file “invisible” to windows, and Once done you can go into using  if Windows needs the space for your own painting efforts to add something else, it has no qualms or subtract details to enhance the about overwriting your valuable painting. A good example of this data. would be a portrait. Increasing Recovering Files What this means is that if you ac- the details around the eyes usu- from a Hard Drive cidentally delete a file, you have a ally helps the overall composi- By Vinny La Bash, a Member of limited amount of time to recov- tion. If some of the background the Sarasota PCUG, Florida er it before windows stores some- contrasts too much with the per- thing else over the same space. It son, you can blur and tone down www.spacug.org may not happen right away, but it the background. labash(at)spcug.org will happen eventually. A graphic tablet is a real plus with ave you deleted a file Since there is no way within XP Painter, as it uses the stylus for that you need and you to recover a lost file, you have to changing the brush characteris- don’t know how to get turn to a third party solution. The tics, as you go. A mouse works Hit back? The first step is to make good news is that there are sev- fine, but it doesn’t have as much absolutely sure that it has been eral excellent programs that will flexibility as the tablet. Wacom deleted. Open your Windows do the job easily. The even better makes some tablets that are fairly Recycle Bin and double-check. news is that these programs are inexpensive. Please note, a tablet Is it in there? If so, simply right- free. Isn’t that nice? is not required to get this pro- click on the file and choose Re- Use Google or your favorite gram to work. store. search engine to find FreeUnde- Printing with this program is If you have emptied the Recycle let, PC Inspector File Recovery, quite simple. It doesn’t have a Bin the next step is to restore the or Undelete Plus. All of them dedicated color management sys- file from your latest backup. You work well though you may find tem as more expensive programs, do back up your data regularly, one easier to use than another. but if you can print a good photo, don’t you? That’s a matter of personal pref- then printing with Painter is no erence. problem. Unfortunately, there is no native “Undelete” command in You need to be cautious about Painter comes with some excel- Windows XP. This is a mystery this. If you download the utility lent video tutorials that really clue because Microsoft had a nifty you in on the features and give a undelete feature in Windows See Recovering next page great how-to aspect to it. They

The Cursor — August 16, 2008 Bonus Page — www.wacug.org Recovering from previous page delete key. directly to your hard drive, you Obtained from APCUG with the run the risk of storing the unde- author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups. lete program over the very data This article has been provided to AP- you are trying to recover. If you CUG by the author solely for publica- have a second hard drive, you can tion by APCUG member groups. All other uses require the permission of the download to that or better yet, author (see e-mail address above). download directly to a thumb  drive. That avoids all danger of losing important data, and it has the additional advantage of im- mediate portability. The programs all work similarly. Direct any of the programs to a specific disk and you will get a list of all deleted recoverable files on the drive. You may also get a description alerting you that the file(s) may be wholly or par- tially recoverable. That’s good to know. Direct any recovered files to an external hard drive if you have one. Don’t save anything to your hard drive until you have recovered everything you need. Use Windows Explorer to manage the recovered files. Group them into categories to sort or group the files so you can easily deter- mine if they are program files, data files or something else. Some files may have data missing if Windows overwrote some of the sectors where it was stored. If after all this you haven’t been successful, your best alternative is to consider a data recovery service. These can be a devastating drain on your wallet, so don’t use these services to recover saved game files. Do some comparison shopping as rates can vary considerably. Good luck and watch those sticky fingers when they hover near the

The Cursor — August 16, 2008 Bonus Page — www.wacug.org