Previous NYPC General Meetings

A Look at Amazon’s Kindle and other E-Book Readers

January 21, 2010
Presented by William Ginsberg

For Christmas I decided to get my wife a Kindle E-Book reader. I read many reviews of the new large Kindle DX and the updated classic sized Kindle-2. My wife has always been a heavy duty reader but her eyes were changing and she was having trouble reading pocket books. One day at the library I took out a large print hard cover mystery which she finished in a day. So I had an Ah-hah moment and realized that since you can change the font size on the Kindle that might work well for her.

So which Kindle would be best for her? I just could not decide. Fortunately Amazon has a generous holiday return policy for gifts through the end of January so I am trying both and one will go back by the end of the month. At this writing I am new to the Kindles but I am very impressed with many of their features. And Amazon’s customer service gets an A plus.

Being able to download a new book or periodical wirelessly without a computer in 60 seconds is terrific. Think summer on the beach, or winter on the ski slopes. The English writer, W. Somerset Maugham was famous for taking a foot locker of books on his vacations. With a 10 ounce Kindle one could download and carry every book he wrote along with all of Shakespeare, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Mark Twain and—well you get it.

You can transfer your book to a smart phone or a computer and continue reading. The Kindle server keeps track of your place so when you go back to the Kindle or switch books you are back to the point where you left off. Very neat indeed! Amazon lets you transfer a Kindle book but says like a paper book: only one person at time can read the same copy. If you have two Kindles on the same credit card either one can read a book, but only one at a time. Having two Kindles on a vacation may save some marriages.

You can dog ear pages and underline passages without incurring the ire of the librarian. You can search for words or passages, add your own notes, and clip sections or articles that can be download to your computer via a USB connection. Your notes are in a separate file that can also be saved to your computer.

When you move the cursor over a word the built in free New Oxford dictionary shows a brief definition on the bottom of the page, and the full dictionary with synonyms is a just couple of clicks away.

I can hear you saying “I like the feel of a real book” and so do I. The Kindle is not for everything but it is really very nice for many things. Think of it as one of the tools in your intellectual tool box. The real test is how does it feel to read a novel on this device? So far it’s pretty good.

Minuses So Far
* You cannot organize your books, articles, or clippings into folders
* This reader is not for an art or photo book. Illustrations and photos are only black and white and the size is limited.
* You can read a newspaper or a magazine but you do not see the whole page layout so you can’t scan the content.
* Reading in the bath tub is not recommended.
* The keyboards are so so.
* The newer models no longer have an external memory card.
* The unit has to be mailed back to Amazon change the battery, but all of your books, clippings, and annotations are saved on their server.

In my opinion there are far more pluses than minus. This is a good product from a great company.

PC Utilities That Make Your Computing Better

December 17, 2009
Presented by multiple NYPC members

NYPC Regulars did short demos of their favorite utilities and shared some of their favorite tricks. Here are some examples. A program that analyzes your computers components and tells you not only how much memory you have but who made it, if you can expand it and what kind of additional memory will be compatible. A small free program lets you create a PDF from your documents. There are simple back up programs and more robust commercial ones like Acronis Drive Image that mirrors your whole hard disk so it can be restored in case of a crash or a bad virus attack. Anti virus, anti spyware, and pop up blockers either free or paid are more examples. Firefox has extensions and Photoshop has plug-ins. Both are small utility programs that enhance the main large program. True Crypt is a free program that lets you protect a part of your hard drive and encrypt everything you store there – a great place to hide your Holliday Shopping List. Short of a CSI investigation no one will know what Santa knows.

On the agenda:
WinDirStat       Disk space usage by folder as a picture
SyncBacPro     Backups that you can read
Folding@home     Distributed Computing for Science like the (Seti Project)
cc Cleaner       Free Drive Organizer, Optimizer and Registry Cleaner
Wipe Drive       Does What it Says – Erases your Hard Drive
Acronis True Image  Disk image backups that can be restored in case of disaster
Fred Kahn’s Tips & Tricks     You just have to be there
Text Pad         A more powerful Text Editor than Notepad
Photo Organizers     The good and bad about various organizers

B&H Photo
Digital Essentials and Tech Toys for people who will really appreciate them

November 19, 2009
Presented by David Brommer

Once again the digital shopping season is just around the corner and the holidays are a great reason to get presents for yourself: and other worthwhile friends and relatives. This is a special event for NYPC hosted by David Brommer, B&H's Event Space Coordinator. David is a proficient photographer and a great gadget guru. His experience ranges from wet lab platinum prints to today’s pixels.

Since the advent of digital imaging, photography and computers are a marriage made in heaven - or in this case on West 34th Street. He has a knack for clearly describing and explaining the features and shortcomings of various cameras and related technologies. This year he will go beyond cameras and include other technologies that will appeal to NYPC’s diverse group of computer users, and yes today’s cameras are indeed computers with a lens on the front end.

Speaking of cameras, David is great at separating important features from marketing hype, and he is not shy about offering his personal opinions. Like desktop data - images need to be backed up, organized, enhanced, transferred, and emailed. External USB storage has come way down in price, but all brands are not all created equal. On the higher end there is network attached storage and there is no law against storing all your digital files and images together as long as you remember the most important rule in all computing – Backup – Backup – Backup.

B&H has earned my respect. They have many knowledgeable sales people who are often professionals in their field. In other stores if a salesman feels he can't make a sale in 5 minutes he is gone. No one here works on commission, so they are free to spend more time answering detailed questions. I have spent a half hour getting a staff member’s opinion on an inexpensive attachment without making a purchase. In due course I have returned and personally spent enough at B&H to qualify for a commendation from Obama for my help in stimulating the economy, and I would greatly appreciate it if this does not get back to my wife.

Secure Wi-Fi Networking
Both at home and when traveling

Everything you ever needed to know about being safe and secure on a wireless Wi-Fi network was in this one little lecture. For protecting your home/office network, Michael will discuss the various types of encryption offered by WEP, WPA and WPA2. In addition, he will talk about configuring your router for the best security. For traveling, he will discuss VPNs and Operating System tweaks to insure the bad guys don't get into your computer or see what you're doing.

Michael's articles on this topic:

• The Best Security for Wireless Networks which discusses WEP, WPA and WPA2
• Being Secure on Public Wi-Fi: VPN, Firewalls, File Sharing which, as the title implies, discusses being secure on public wireless networks
• What your mother never told you about VPNs which discusses consumer Virtual Private Networks

September 2009 Meeting Canceled

Due to assorted circumstances the September General Meeting was canceled. This presentation was moved to October.

Making Video Games Fun Again

The Wii changed everything. It proved to the video game industry that there was money to be made from the "casual gamer", someone who doesn't obsessively play complex or violent games for hours a day. For many people the controller and complex rules got in the way of having fun. The Wii showed that people were willing to get up off the couch to have a good time.

About a year ago Nintendo introduced the Wii Fit. An $80 balance board that allowed for new kinds of interactivity. Even more important it turned the Wii into a platform for fitness games. Fitness games are now the fastest growing category of video games. Laura Balsam showed the Wii console and controls as well as the Wii Fit balance board and the new Motion Plus add-on for the Wii controller. If you thought video games would never interest you come and keep an open mind.

Why Fraud is so Successful and How to Avoid It

What distinguishes aggressive marketing from fraud? Why can’t government agencies like The FTC, The IC3 or the FBI control marketing schemes which border on or cross over the line between truth and fiction.

How many Americans fall prey to unscrupulous sellers every day? How can the average citizen protect themselves from such people who want to separate them from their hard earned money.

Fred Kahn, eBay Education Specialist, will be our guide through this devious dangerous underworld of which eBay is just a small part.

There are online scams, email scams, phishing, phone cons, credit check scams - a notice that your account is about to expire, identity thefts - and the really dangerous ones that neither you nor I have heard of yet. Hackers are no longer just teen agers playing tricks. Fred is bringing literature from the FBI to hand out at the meeting.

Fred Kahn is a professional photographer, eBay guru, internet detective, scam buster and one of our favorite speakers. He has been to the White House to discuss Internet fraud with government officials.

Gadgets, Gadjets, Gadjets

Many NYPC members have discovered and use many great gadgets, and they will share their finds and favorites with all comers. And all comers are most welcome to bring their own favorites to show and share. Beyond the straightforward use of the computer, much of the joy of technology revolves around gadgets...simple or complex. Such as iPods and Palm Pilots, label printers, and a magic mouse that lost its tail.

Some gadgets fit inside a computer; many are computers on their own. Some are complex others are simple attachments that make things work better such as a simple cord to bring the USB port to the front of the computer, or an USB extender that lets you plug two chubby devices side by side into your laptop.

I have thrown away several drugstore digital fever thermometers because they took too long and were so inconsistent that they were useless. Come have a look at a new digital wonder that takes 1000 reading per second. Yes per second. Just pass it over your far head and it displays the highest reading it found in less than 5 seconds. Cool, well maybe hot if you have a temperature. The evenings Gadget show is mostly computer related but some may just be clever things that make life go better, be more interesting or just be more fun.

There will be a drawing for my new favorite magic Logitech wireless mouse. You just plug a little transmitter into any USB port and it works right away. No software, no configuration, it just works. The USB transmitter is half the size of a flash drive and it stores inside the mouse when not in use. I have had other wireless mice and keyboards in the past and they were a pest. When the battery died you had to call India to help you reconfigure the device which involved many steps and much frustration. The new model is truly plug and play. Also in the drawing will be Michael Horowitz’s selection of 30 portable apps on a thumb drive and a CD of NYPC’s pick of free anti malware programs.

Using RSS

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, or some people prefer to call it Rich Site Summary. Either way it will be simple when Laura shows us how to set up our computers to automatically download news feeds, Podcasts, and Videos.

RSS is a great way to save time and keep up to date by following the topics that are important to you. Instead of going from website to website you can follow the RSS feeds to see all the articles listed in one place. Your RSS software can even keep track of what you have already looked at.

News feeds are RSS feeds of text articles. Audio and video RSS feeds are usually called podcasts. You don't need an iPod or a Mac, you can use any MP3 player or computer. All you need is RSS software, often called an RSS client or reader.

Laura Balsam will talk about using RSS, and show FeedDemon and Miro. FeedDemon is a free text RSS reader. Software for the PC and an online version can sync up. So you can have faster access to your feeds when you are at your computer and web based access from anywhere.

Miro is free open source software available for most operating systems. With Miro you can subscribe to video and audio podcasts automatically, watch or listen to downloaded podcasts and keep track of it all. It also has BitTorrent built in for the feeds that use BitTorrent for distribution. Miro will handle most video formats so you can also use it instead of other software for viewing the odd downloaded video.

Major web sites like, The New York Times and CNN have many different feeds, so you can pick and choose what you want to keep up with. Many smaller sites have one feed , virtually every blog is available as an RSS feed.

If you want info on computers, from gadgets to security to Photoshop tutorials there are news feeds and podcasts for you. The terminology is confusing but using RSS is easy. Laura will explain the terms and show you how to get started using RSS.

FeedDemon - http://www.newsgator.com/individuals/feeddemon
Miro - http://www.getmiro.com

Tune Up an Old PC or Buy a New One?

April 16, 2009
There were three parts to the evening:
-- Mike Ostrowe, who runs NYPC’s teach and tune workshops at our office, will be in the lobby working on computers
-- NYPC member Mary Ellen Kennel spoke about Computers for Youth
-- A panel of NYPC gurus addressed the practicality of keeping your computer running well vs. buying a new one

Pinnacle Studio

Presented by Heather Little
March 24, 2009

If you want to produce and edit videos, but you are not George Lucas, or a video pro then Pinnacle has a lot to offer you. If you don’t have a year or two to spend learning the software then Pinnacle has a lot to offer you. If you are not inclined to take out a second mortgage for video software then Pinnacle has a lot to offer you. Heather Little, Pinnacle’s local rep demo'd how to create better movies and slideshows from your digital cameras.

Many digital still cameras, even simple point and shoot cameras can make videos. Or better yet if you have a camcorder you can make longer videos with higher definition. Ahh but here is the rub. Yes you can make videos, long boring unedited movies because it was well just too much trouble to edit them. Special effects? Oh they were out of the question.

This software makes editing possible for the rest of us, and just think about what George Lucas could have accomplished if he had this program as a kid. Capture, edit, and make movies, that’s Pinnacles promise. Want to make videos for You Tube? A little light duty editing will make them better.

But if you are ready to make movies with lots of special effects there are many well thought out tools and features such as audio and visual time line editing. Cut out blank spaces or Uncle Charlie. You can add titles, change fonts, add graphics and animation. Are you ready to try some text on a path? How about smooth scene transitions?

If you really want to run with the pros a green background cloth is included with some versions of Pinnacle. Yup the green screen is used for combining a background with another sequence. When you watch the weather on the 11:00 o’clock news the meteorologist is actually standing in front of a green screen and the weather map is added to the output. If you don’t plan to film a meteorologist you can film your kids or Cousin Minnie against a Green screen and magically transport them to Disneyland or Washington, or Never Never Land (all of which may turn out to be the same location). When the editing is done you can burn High Definition DVD’s. Pinnacle’s web site is www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/uk/Home/

Security Software

Presented by: A panel of NYPC members
February 19, 2009

Several NYPC computer pro’s discussed the security software and systems they use and recommend for their clients. Some people prefer to make their own combination of various stand alone programs. Others prefer security suites. Some pros pick and choose from various vendors of firewalls, anti virus programs, or spyware catchers, while others prefer software suites. Some programs are free, and some are paid versions. Some are easier to use, and some good ones are just plain difficult to configure and understand. There are some good free virus scanning programs, and some to avoid. Our speakers are very experienced computer people with differing approaches and opinions. The opinions varied.

Laura Balsam discussed the ZoneAlarm security suite. Michael Horowitz discussed, OpenDNS, Malwarebytes's Antimalware, Avira's AntiVir antivirus software and a zap to disable autorun. Mary Ginsburg also spoke as did Mike Ostrow. See the Security Software page on this site for more on this topick.

Intellectual Property Rights in the Digital Age

Presented by Eric Prager
January 15, 2009

Copyright laws have been around for a long time, but the digital age is - well pretty new. Are the old laws really inadequate? Is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act a good thing? Can you legally photograph in the subways, City Streets, Grand Central Station, Central Park, Disneyland, etc. How about photographing private property within view of a public street, such as store windows?

The answer to many of the above questions is: it depends. Fortunately our speaker, Eric Prager, is an intellectual property lawyer and focuses much of his practice on digital media and content issues. He will address copyright issues associated with digital photography and other content, publicity/privacy rights, and model releases. Eric will also touch upon image rights that some building owners claim to have in the appearance of their buildings. Eric took questions on intellectual property issues.

Carry Your Software With You: Portable Applications on a USB Drive
        - and -
Netbook Computers: Show and Tell

December 18, 2008

Have you ever been frustrated while trying to work on an unfamiliar computer, perhaps at the library or a relative’s house? The hardware is fine, but the interface is different, slowing you as you look for the right tool or menu item. Now you can carry your software with you...on a USB (aka flash or thumb) drive. That is, some applications are packaged in a totally self-contained way. Everything the application needs is in a single folder. They therefore do not need to be "installed".

Not all applications are portable, for example Microsoft Office is not. But there are portable applications available to meet most of your needs and many of them are free. For example, there is a portable version of Open Office, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Thunderbird and the Foxit PDF reader. There are also system utilities such as WinAudit, StartupList and Startup Control Panel. And there is no reason a portable application has to run from a USB flash drive, it can also run on the C disk.

Mary Ginsburg and Michael Horowitz presented on the topic of portable applications.

Also: Netbook computers. Show and tell by Michael Horowitz who brought along a trio of Netbook computers. Are they the next big thing or, are they just too small? Michael explained the pros and cons and brought an Acer Aspire One running Windows XP Home, an MSI Wind running XP Home and an Asus Eee PC running Linux, in addition to normal laptop with a 12 inch screen.

B & H Photo: A Digital Holiday Goodies Guide

November 19, 2008

The holiday shopping season is just around the corner. Digital cameras and associated gear make great presents for others or yourself. This is a special event for NYPC hosted by David Brommer, B&H's Event Space Coordinator.  David is a proficient photographer and a great gadget guru.  His experience ranges from pixels to platinum.  Since the advent of digital imaging, photography and computers are a marriage made in heaven - or on 34th Street.

Buying cameras and accessories can be very confusing.  David will talk about options from inexpensive first point and shoot cameras to professional level cameras.  There are many manufactures and far too many choices.  People find it harder to buy a camera than a computer.   He is great at separating important features from marketing hype, and he is not shy about offering his personal opinions.

We will see and hear about big cameras, tiny cameras, digital photo frames, MP3 players, portable data storage, playback devices, pocket sized video cameras, head phones. There is a new single lens reflex with a full frame sensor that takes hi-definition video at 1920x1080 resolution! There are cameras from Canon, Nikon, Leica, Olympus, Sony, and well who knows what else we will see? You will just have to be there to find out.

I have come to respect B&H. They have many knowledgeable sales people who are often professionals in their field. In other stores if a salesman feels he can't make a sale in 5 minutes he is gone.  At B&H no one works on commission, so they are free to spend more time answering detailed questions.

Once someone has started with digital photography buying them a gift is easy, there is always some new accessory, program, lens, memory card etc... And do note there is no law or restriction about tech gifts for yourself - after all who can appreciate them more than you? See www.bhphotovideo.com

All Things Wireless

October 16, 2008

Well maybe not all things wireless, we only have a few hours, but we will certainly know a lot more about all that stuff flying by in the ether by the end of the evening. Our speaker is Joe Plotkin a board member of NYCwireless. He will do his best to cover the following subjects, and of course answer your questions.

Wireless Security Considerations

Are you connecting to the web wirelessly? Are you secure? Should you care? Sure you can go to Starbucks, or the library, or the park and connect up to world with relative ease. But should you do your banking, buy stocks, or send really personal emails, or business emails?

What is that nerdy kid nearby doing on his laptop? Does he have a sniffer, or a key logger program, and did he really just copy your pin number and login? What else can he see on your laptop? How about i n your apartment, you see signals from your neighbors, what can they see or do on your network? The good news is you can make it really hard for the snoops - if you know how.

Then there are lots of other privacy issues. Even Bill Gates found out that his emails were not really private.

Net Neutrality

This is could affect all of us online and there is a lot of rumors and misinformation coming from both sides of the debate. Have your heard this? Some broadband services want to have tiered pricing. People who pay a higher fee would get faster better service and the others would get a lesser level of service. If you are in the cheap seats your emails, photos, music or videos will get to you - eventually, but it might take a day or two. Is that true? What about Skype or Vonage? Will they slow down or not work at all?

Why has net neutrality become such a hot issue just in the last few years? What triggered this battle?

How will Net Neutrality, or the lack of it affect the next innovative invention? Will it promote or stifle rich media on the web - the next Skype or the next Bit torrent?

Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web; choose not to patent his brainstorm, and made it the great open source medium we all enjoy. Is Net Neutrality merely a tiered service, or is it a fundamental threat to the openness of the internet?

There have been a series of unresolved Net Neutrality bills bouncing around congress and there are many unanswered questions. Joe works for an internet service provider. He is very knowledgeable, close to the action and personally concerned with these issues.

Here is Joe’s Bio

Joe Plotkin is Director, Marketing/DSL for Bway.net, the independent ISP in New York City, and on the Board of Directors of NYCwireless. Bway.net is pro-privacy, anti-censorship, and supports net neutrality. Bway was an early champion of the free public wireless Internet movement, and hosts the monthly meetings of NYCwireless. NYCwireless is a non-profit organizat ion that advocates for, and enables the growth of free, public wireless networks.

Plotkin is also Senior Strategist for TeleTruth.org, an alliance for customer rights in telecommunications. An outspoken advocate for broadband connectivity as well as regulatory fairness, Plotkin has lobbied on behalf of ISPs in Washington, D.C. and has been quoted frequently in the press. Plotkin received a Master's degree from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program.

Running PC Programs on a Mac

August 20, 2008 was the FOURTH time this presentation was offered

There are several ways to run PC programs on a Mac. One is Boot Camp, which is free from Apple. The down side is that you need to shut down one OS and re-boot the other. Also, you can't cut and paste between applications running in different OSs. Another approach is virtual. Using Parallels Desktop for the Mac software, Windows and OSX can both be running at the same time (assuming the Mac has the newer Intel chips).Why bother?

Most programs are written for one operating system only. I am an architect, the bricks and mortar kind. I have always been involved with graphics; the Apple was by far the better graphic choice when I started except they had zero architectural programs, so I bought a PC and had Font Envy during the early years.

The PC had a very good architectural program, DataCAD that I still use today. DataCAD and AutoCAD are Windows programs. Now there are good cad programs written for the Mac but once you have invested a lot of time and money learning one program you really don't want to start again. If Parallels had existed when I bought my first computer it would have been an Apple.

Parallels has been updated and improved from their earlier versions. Many of the early criticisms have been resolved. Gamers are happy because Windows-only 3D games are supported. USB ports are now recognized, setting up a USB printer works nicely with plug and play. You can easily cut and paste files from an application running in one OS to another application in the other OS. I hear though that file sharing is still a little tricky. And Note: you do need to buy a copy of Windows XP or Vista.

Here is a quote from the Parallels website: "Parallels Desktop for Mac is the first solution that gives Apple users the ability to run Windows, Linux or any other operating system at the same time as Mac OS X on any Intel-powered iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook or MacBook Pro. Now, users can run important Windows applications like Outlook, Project, Internet Explorer and Visio without having to give up the functionality of their Mac desktop, even for a few minutes."

VMware also makes virtual machine software for the Mac that competes directly with Parallels. It too lets you run Windows and OSX concurrently. This will be discussed but not demo’d at the meeting.

If you are thinking of buying a Mac, Tekserve is a very good place to go. They have had an outstanding reputation for many years. Their advice on configuring a new machine or upgrading an old one is very worthwhile, and if you are thinking of buying Parallels they will install it for you so you are up and running on day one.

This meeting was held at Tekserve. NYPC has a Mac SIG that meets in the hotel New Yorker. The SIG leader is Betty Henderson and her email is MacSIG@nypc.org.

Mostly Free: Applications for your computer

July 17, 2008

You can be productive on your computer without spending a cent for applications! There is an abundance of free and inexpensive applications available for Windows, MACs and of course, with Linux, you don't even need to buy an operating system. From text editors or photo viewers to security utilities or office suites, even to Operating Systems, it is possible to run your PC without paying a penny beyond your hardware purchase.

In this General Meeting, our panel of member-experts will demonstrate and discuss a wide variety of their favorite open source, freeware, and low-cost shareware applications. You'll learn what's available and their features, where to find and download them, and how to install them. (One disadvantage of many free programs is that Barnes & Noble has few books of instruction for them...but that does not mean that you cannot find excellent support or tutorials online.)

As time permits, our panelists may also discuss the differences among freeware, shareware, and open source applications. They may also give some advice on when you might want to pay for a commercial application, even though a perfectly good free one is available. (You may opt to purchase programs--for the sake of familiarity, comfort, or support--but at least you should know your options.)

Many free and commercial applications may be run from the web; this is known as SaaS -- software as a service. Our panelists are:
* Mike Ostrowe, Chair of the TechTips SIG, who will show a variety of free utilities to keep your PC humming happily
* Mark Halegua, Chair of the DeLUGE (Desktop Linux Users Group for Endusers) SIG, who will demonstrate the strengths of Open Office, show how easy it is to get started with Linux using (K)ubuntu, and more
* Mary Ginsburg, Chair of the Photography and Digital Graphics SIG, who will introduce a number of general and specialized enhancement and organizing applications for digital photographs

This meeting is very practical; you will learn how to do more with and for your computer without additional financial investment. You may have an undying bond with Photoshop, but perhaps your mother could use the GIMP...or even Picasa. CDs containing many of the applications will be available for sale at a modest price at the meeting.

Katrin Eismann: Photos From Tasmania

April 24, 2008

Katrin Eismann, just back from her photo shoot in Tasmania presented at our April General Meeting. This is not our usual date but one week later so that she can recover from jet lag and put her photos into a slide show for our meeting.

OK let's have a show of hands, how many people have been to Tasmania? None? OK who can find it on the globe? Here is a hint, it is an island just below Australia.

Most of us have been bored watching slide shows of a friend or relative's travels. Katrin said her presentation may be a little raw because of the short time frame. You get my personal money back guarantee that no one will be bored. Well OK the meeting is free, but it still comes with my guarantee that this will be an unusually exciting meeting, and by the way Katrin's "raw" is far better than most peoples polished.

Watching her work in Photoshop or Lightroom makes it look so easy. If you pay attention, watch her training DVD's, or read her books it sure helps to make your work lots easier.

Good news, Katrin has published another book since her last meeting at NYPC; with a little coaxing I think she will tell us about it and show some examples. The book is called "The Creative Digital Darkroom". It was published in January 2008. You can find details on her website: photoshopdiva.com.

Katrin is a Photoshop superstar. She is well known worldwide as the Photoshop Diva. She teaches and lectures on photography, digital photography, Photoshop, Lightroom, and regularly writes articles for many professional magazines. You can often see her do presentations for Adobe at trade shows like the yearly PhotoPlus show at Javits. Katrin's resume is too long for this write up but it is on her website.

There is a new term describing photographs that are made using digital means. The finished work; prints and electronic images that have been manipulated with computers are referred to as "digital originals". I think of Katrin as a digital original, and there is no doubt that her work certainly is that.

Special Interest Groups at NYPC and Councilwomen Gale Brewer

February 21, 2008

Have You Ever Wondered:

• Do members of the DeLUGE SIG study floods?
• Does the Perl SIG raise oysters?
• How visual is Visual Basic?
• What is a SIG...and how does it differ from a class?

First, however, the answer to the fourth question: the acronym SIG stands for "Special Interest Group" and refers to a group which meets regularly to discuss a particular topic; the topic may be a specific software or a broader area of computing. SIG meetings give people a chance to get together with other users of the same application or programming language, or to discuss a broad or narrow aspect of computer use.

SIGs vary greatly in structure and content. In general, SIGs have a somewhat informal format, in contrast to classes, which are structured to give formal instruction. They range in participants from beginners to programmers and systems administrators. Most SIGs meet monthly; some meet every other month; occasionally, a SIG may meet more than once a month. However, within that wide variation, there is a somewhat typical format: many meetings begin with sharing of news and solving of problems, proceed to a formal presentation, and end with networking. SIGs may run for an hour, or for several. (I understand that the some members of the JAVA SIG once stayed till the wee hours of the morning.)

NYPC encourages members to take advantage of our SIGs...and to start a new SIG if there is sufficient interest. Attending a SIG is also a good way to expand your horizons...to learn about a topic that's new to you. If a NYPC member would like to start a new SIG on any computer topic, come to the board with signatures of 5 other members who would like to participate. For more info on NYPC SIG’s see our SIGs page.

NYPC has many SIGs, and we'd like to urge you to learn more about them, and perhaps try a new SIG. At the February General Meeting, many SIG leaders will describe and demonstrate what their SIGs do. You'll have the opportunity to meet the SIG Chairs, learn what the various SIGs do, and have a good time. This will be an informative evening. The meeting format will be patterned after the Class Sampler. The participating SIGs will include Visual Basic, Microsoft Exchange Server, Photography and Digital Graphics, Speech Recognition, QuickBooks, Palm Pilot, and more.

Gale Brewer
We will have a special visit with council women Gale Brewer whose district is the upper West side. Gail Brewer, Chair of the NYC City Council Technology Committee. She will give a brief presentation about NYC's technology initiatives. Gale has been very involved with providing free public access such as in Bryant Park, and has helped organize computer recycling days. Gale Brewer’s website is: galebrewer.com/biography.

Digital Video Recording on your own computer

January 17, 2008

There are many ways to record television programs. Besides Tivo, some of the cable companies, such as Time Warner, will provide you with their version of Digital Video Recording (DVR) for an extra fee. Lefty, NYPC’s Vice President, has come up with his own solutions which he demo'd at our January meeting. In Lefty's own words:

Tips, Tricks, Traps, and Treasures

December 13, 2007

Many NYPC members are computer pro’s and others have a lot of real world experience. At this meeting eight of our home grown gurus will pass on a few of their favorite tricks on specific programs they use regularly. Many of you will go home saying "Gee that looks so easy! I didn’t know I could do that."

Each presenter spoke for about 20 minutes sharing some of his or her favorite tips in their special area. After which the speaker took questions on their topic. There were hand-outs too.

• Michael Horowitz: Drop My Rights, a security program for Windows XP Our webmaster, Michael, thinks this free security program should be used by everyone running Windows XP without exception. He wrote three blog postings about DropMyRights on his CNET blog.
  • Download DropMyRights from CNET's download.com
  • Every Windows XP user should drop their rights. An introduction to the DropMyRights program. The problems it solves. August 7, 2007
  • DropMyRights part 2: Installing and configuring. August 12, 2007
  • DropMyRights part 3: Living with it August 16, 2007
• Mary Ellen Kennel, Director Digital Content NBC Universal: Google Web Analytics. How they are implemented and what it can tell us?
• Patrick McEvoy: Bart’s CD. A free software program that will help you make a CD to boot your Windows XP system in case of emergencies. Viruses, Data recovery, & lost Administrator passwords can all be fixed using the CD you make with this free utility. Don’t leave home without it.
• William Ginsberg: OLPC One Laptop Per Child. The Head of MIT’s Media Lab is building an inexpensive laptop which will be distributed free to children in undeveloped countries. Until the end of the year you can Give one and Get one. A great gift for a US child of any age and it comes with one year of free T-mobile Hot Spot access. And the donor gets a tax deduction this year.

B & H Digital Photography - Holiday Buying Guide

November 15, 2007

The holidays are approaching and David Brommer was back with his encyclopedic knowledge of digital cameras, and intriguing tech gear for children of all ages. B&H holiday presentations have become one of our most requested events.

There is a lot of great stuff out there, perhaps too much to get a handle on. Technology advances so quickly that deciding on the right gear can seem overwhelming. David is a proficient photographer and gadget guru. He talked about options from inexpensive "first" cameras to professional level cameras, and separate the important features from marketing hype. Do you really need 12 mega pixels for a 4x6 postcard print?

Big cameras, tiny cameras, digital photo frames, MP3 players, portable data storage and playback devices, pocket sized video cameras, head phones, and much more.

B&H Photo is conveniently located a block from NYPC at 34th Street and Ninth Avenue. They are one of the world's leading sources for camera and video Equipment. Their salespeople are very knowledgeable, very nice and they do not work on commissions so they can take more time with questions. See: www.bhphotovideo.com

David Brommer is a NYC based photographer who currently works as the B&H Event Room manager. Well versed in photography from pixel to platinum David has built up a body of work centering on portraits of fringe society. David operated the gallery "Suspect Photography" in Seattle during the 90’s and continues to explore new technology and old techniques.

At the meeting B&H will distribute a booklet of special discounts for all who attend, and there was a drawing for several B&H Gift Certificates.

Converting Vinyl LP Records to CD’s

Presented by Mike Ostrowe. October 18, 2007

Do you have stacks of LP’s and shoe boxes of cassette tapes that you would really like to transfer to CD’s, DVD’s, iPods, Zen, or MP3’s? Why not transfer your old media to new media?

Outside conversion services are expensive and hard to find, and many records or tapes are not available on CD’s or for downloads. It is really not that hard, nor that expensive to convert your old media to new media, you can do it yourself. Not only that, but the end product may be considerably improved. It is often possible to remove pops from records and hiss from tapes. You can rebalance the sound, such as adding bass and diminishing treble, or some of each to suit your personal taste.

No turntable? No problem, Mike will show how to use a new, inexpensive, turntable with a USB connection. Just plug this into your computer, use software like Roxio’s CD Creator and you are set to go. I have a lot of LP’s and a working turntable but my music system is not located near my computer, this turntable is a practical solution.

Mike Ostrowe, our presenter, is an avid music collector and a Tech Guru. He is the co-chair of NYPC’s Tech Tips SIG with Kathy Petruzzi. The Tech Tips SIG focuses on technical tips and tricks to make computing more enjoyable and efficient. He teaches our A+ class, and runs NYPC’s Teach and Tune PC Clinic. He has taught Build Your Own Computer Classes, and several other hardware related courses.

Mike will offer a class on Transferring LP’s to CD’s in the near future. This will be a hands-on class and he will go into much more detail on the equipment needed, and the configuration of the software. If you would like information about this class send an email to vinyl-to-CD@nypc.org.

Copyrights are very complex with many, varied interpretations. Here are some references for Copyright Issues and Other Aspects of Digital Rights.

• Copying Music to CD: The Right, the Wrong, and the Law by Robt. A. Starrett.
• Home Recording Rights Coalition
• Copyright law
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of the best resources for learning about digital rights and about current efforts to diminish or preserve them.
• A view from Australia

Alfred Poor: Making Sense Out of HDTV

10 Things They Won’t Tell You in the Big Box Store
July 19, 2007

Last year, 30% of U.S. households had at least one HDTV, and about a third of those own two or more. The share of households with HDTVs is expected to grow to 36% in 2007. In spite of this broad adoption, about half of the people with HDTVs don’t have any high-definition service. For those who don’t have an HDTV yet, the whole process can be confusing and a bit intimidating.

Display industry veteran Alfred Poor explained the key concepts about HDTV, and covered what you need to know in order to make an informed choice for your next television.

Alfred Poor is an independent technology industry analyst, freelance writer, and publisher of Alfred Poor's HDTV Resource Center. He is a Senior Research Associate with Pacific Media Associates, a market research firm serving the display industry. In addition, Alfred is a member of the Society for Information Display, an international organization of professionals in the display technology industry.

Here in New York City, Alfred can be heard weekly on The Personal Computer Show along with Joe King, Hank Kee and Michael Horowitz.

For decades, Alfred Poor was one of the most widely read experts on computer troubleshooting and display technology, with monthly readership in magazines and on the Web measured in the millions. His column in Computer Shopper magazine, Alfred Poor's Computer Cures, ran from 1994 to 2006. At PC Magazine, he wrote feature articles and reviews from 1983 to 2005, was a contributing editor from 1989 to 2005, and was the magazine's first Lead Analyst for Business Displays. Other magazines he has written for include Family PC, PC Week, PC Sources, Windows Sources, and Computer Life.

Alfred has written numerous computer books, including Troubleshooting Your PC published by Microsoft Press that he co-authored with M. David Stone.

An Evening of Random Access & Q&A

Everything you wanted to know about computers but were afraid to ask

Our panel of computer pros have many years of experience in solving computer problems for themselves and others. Here is a chance to tap into this collective knowledge bank. NYPC has been the computer college for many of us and the tuition is really really low.

Panelists Include:

Lefty NYPC's Vice President. A computer consultant and frequent instructor for NYPC Classes. He maintains networks for his clients, banishes malware, and builds firewalls.

Mike Ostrowe - A certified Cisco Systems installer. Mike Teaches NYPC's A+ classes. He prefers to build computers rather than buy them. Later this summer he will host an NYPC meeting about turning your vinyl records into Digital formats.

Ted Cohn. Ted is very passionate about the Palm Treo and is co-chair of NYPC’s wireless and Treo SIGs. Ted's first computer was a Palm Pilot, and his second computer was another Palm to back up his first one. He has since discovered desktop computers which are useful for downloading programs for his various Palm devices.

Fred Kahn - Professional photographer, A+ certified hardware geek, and eBay expert. Fred will have just returned from a national eBay conference. He will bring news, tips, tricks & goodies from eBay land.

The evening was split between answering previously emailed questions, and questions from the audience.

The Sony Reader and Visual Aids for the "Hard of Seeing

The Sony Reader has been described as an iPod for books. Its screen uses E Ink technology and looks more like a book than a computer display. The Reader is much easier on the eyes than a computer screen, and you can enlarge the fonts. It is great for anyone who likes to read and wonderful for people whose eyes are not as good as they used to be.

Sony and National Association for Visually Handicapped both made presentations.

NAVH talked about their organization, types of software and hardware available and showed devices that help people with poor vision read normal books, newspapers, etc. The local distributor for these devices, CTech, was on hand to demo the devices and answer questions.

Sony demo'd the Reader and discussed e-books. The Reader is about the size of a trade paperback, but thinner and lighter. It uses the battery only when changing the page, so battery life is measured in page turns rather than hours of usage. You can go for days or weeks without recharging, depending on use. It is great for travelers or anyone who wants to carry a number of books.

The Reader can display Sony's own proprietary XML based format as well as RTF and PDFs. It will also play MPEG audio, but this drains the battery more quickly. Sony's Connect e-book store sells over 13,000 books of all types. They are adding more every week.

Links
www.sony.com/reader
www.eink.com
www.navh.org
www.lowvisionproducts.com

Note from Laura Balsam

I was born visually handicapped. As I have gotten older I am having more and more trouble reading normal sized books and publications. Twelve point type is becoming difficult for me.

I purchased the Sony Reader in early December. It is wonderful. I can read for extended periods of time without eye strain. It is very comfortable to use and the charge lasts for weeks or days, depending on usage. I whole heartedly recommend it.

The National Association for Visually Handicapped is aimed at the millions of us who are not legally blind, but have trouble seeing. They are a non-profit health organization located in New York City. They have a "toy room" where you can go to try out the gadgets and other aids to see if they will work for you. You can also purchase them through NAVH at very reasonable prices.

Katrin Eismann demos Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Katrin is one of our most admired presenters and we are lucky to have here back again. This time she showed Adobe’s new program Photoshop Lightroom.

Everyone who takes digital photographs takes many more than they did with film, and pros take a great many more. A wedding shoot can easily be several thousand images and a family occasion can be several hundred. How do you deal with so many images, some good some bad, some great and most that can be improved by some tweaking.

Adobe listened to digital photographers and designed a program to better handle all those clicks. Katrin Eismann – the Photoshop Diva, will show us Adobe’s new program Photoshop Lightroom. Each program is a good tool and she will explain how she uses them together to increase productivity and creativity. Lightroom is not only great at organizing your images but many photographers will use it for adjusting exposure, changing color balance, cropping, and printing. These adjustments are non destructive, you still have your originals and you can work easily with camera raw files. Lightroom is described as “The professional photographer's essential toolbox, providing one straight forward application for managing, adjusting, and presenting large volumes of digital photographs.

For many years Kodak’s slogan was “You push the button, we do the rest”. But Katrin can help all of us be image improvers. Anyone who has seen her books or web site knows that she can do magic. Katrin turns a demo into a performance and it is always a treat.

Katrin Eismann is a distinguished artist, teacher, and author on the subjects of imaging, restoration, retouching, and the impact of emerging technologies upon creative professionals. She received her BFA degree in Photographic Illustration from the Rochester Institute of Technology and her MFA degree in Design from the School of Visual Arts. She is the author of Photoshop Restoration & Retouching and Photoshop Masking & Compositing and co-author of Web Design Studio Secrets, Adobe Photoshop Studio Secrets, and Real World Digital Photography. Katrin is the Chair of the Masters in Digital Photography department at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her website is: www.katrineismann.com

David Pogue on Windows Vista

David Pogue writes a weekly column in the Circuits Section of the New York Times called “State of the Art”. Many people buy the Thursday Times just for his column which always appears above the fold in the Business Section. OK if you want to save a tree you can read his print column online and subscribe to an additional online column. You can watch his frequent Video Podcasts; you may as well check out his blog, and if you are up Sunday mornings you can often see him on CBS News. Somehow he has found time to write some 40 books. David created the “Missing Manual Series” with O'Reilly Press. These are the books that should have been included with the programs. 

David will talk about Microsoft’s new Operating System and his two latest books: Windows Vista: the Missing Manual, and Vista for Starters: The Missing Manual. That’s the Demo, the Show will be when he sings and plays his very funny computer spoof songs. 

Sooner or later most of us will migrate to Windows Vista, and David’s missing manuals are ready when we are. This is a reference book, not a novel. You need not feel committed to a cover to cover read. But when you take on a new Operating System it is really nice to have a readily understandable reference that was written for people who want use the new program daily in the real world. You don’t need a degree from MIT to understand this book, and his lighthearted approach will have you chuckling instead of groaning at impenetrable Techo-Babble. You may be surprised to find even Microsoft’s new operating system, Vista, can be a fun read. Programmers and uber geeks can check out Microsoft’s knowledge base.

Spoof Songs Too

David was not born with computer genes; in fact he had not even used a computer until his last year in college. He graduated as a music major and then spent 10 years on Broadway "…arranging, conducting and playing synthesizers in theater pits." Nowadays David is a technology writer with an unusual talent for making complex computer jargon simple, readily understandable and often quite funny. He credits coming late to computers as an advantage. "And to this day, I believe that fact to be my ace in the hole. I'm one of them; I'm one of the newcomers." 

Well that’s only half the program. The last time David came to our meeting he talked about his book Piloting Palm, which is about Jeff Hawkins’ inventing the Palm Pilot. It reads like an adventure story. He asked if we could get a cheapie electronic keyboard so he could sing some of the computer spoof songs he had written. We were unable to get him a cheapie keyboard but we did provide a concert grand and his songs were great. The auditorium at PS 41 has two Baby Grand’s. Who knows what is in store for us this time. 

O’Reilly books will be available at a substantial User Group Discount, and David will sign copies. Our thanks to Marsee Henon and O’Reilly Press for organizing this meeting, for donating books for our raffle, and for their continued support to User Groups. Consider this an Off, Off, Broadway show. The songs alone are worth the price of admission, which after all is free.
www.missingmanuals.com 
www.davidpogue.com 
www.davidpogue.com/pogue_unplugged/songspoofs.html 
pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/12/13/13pogues-posts-5/ 

15 Free Classes

Our 2nd Annual Education Sampler. There were three 45 minute sessions with multiple mini-classes offered each session. You can take a different class each session. You do not need to sign up in advance. This is one of New York’s Best Bargains! Get a feel for the educational offerings of NYPC.

Among the classes offered will be: Smart Phones, Selling on eBay, Photography for eBay, SOHO Networking, Discovering Excel's Power, Getting Started With Excel, Computer Safety Beyond Anti-Virus, Converting LPs to CDs, Getting Acquainted With Windows Vista, Running Windows on a Mac, Open Office, Get Your Own Internet Domain and Backing Up Your Computer.

Vista Exposed

This was a Joint Meeting with NYACC, the New York Amateur Computer Club. The presentation on Windows Vista was by Constantine Kaniklidis, a Microsoft Operating Systems Expert. His presentation included: why and how to upgrade, a tour of best new features, upward compatibility issues and gotchas, and what to avoid.

A. Windows Vista Editions
B. Upgrading: Hardware Requirements
C. Aero, Glass, Sidebar and Powershell: The New User Interface
D. IE 7: The Good, Bad and Ugly
E. MP 11: Hot Functions, not so hot Digital Rights
F. The New Backup and Restore Center
G. Windows Mail (replaces Outlook Express) 
H. Windows Vista Security
I. Cautions: Vista "issues" and gotchas

Ready or not here comes Vista, Microsoft’s new Windows operating system. The corporate version has been released and after January 31st all new computers will shipped with a Vista. Should you upgrade right away? Is your existing equipment Vista ready? Will your existing printers, scanners, and other peripherals still work with the new OS? Which of the five versions of Vista will be best for your needs? How many bugs will be included, free of charge?

If you are in the market for a new computer now should you wait until February 1st so Vista will be included or rush to place your order in January so that the new CPU will be shipped with Windows XP with it’s five year track record? Will you get a free upgrade certificate for Vista, and how much trouble will it be for you to upgrade later?  The Vista interface has been reported to really look good. Mac users say it looks very familiar. So far so good.

The new Google like search feature is in a text box at the bottom of the Start menu. Type some key words or phrases and Vista quickly finds every folder, file or program that contains your phrase, including deeply nested folders. This may truly change the way you interact with your computer. There is a side bar with gadgets, (Apple calls them widgets) small useful programs such as weather, stocks, photo gallery and a DVD burner.

Security issues have been a big deal (thank goodness) with Microsoft’s planning. However, all is not coming up roses here. It has always been true that the more security measures implemented, the more they get in the way of the user. Whenever you or a program wants to make a global change affecting the system a dialog box pops up, stops everything else, and make you confirm the change. This sounds like a good safety feature, but many people will hate it and turn it off. Oops, you are back skating on thin ice.

Controls are not where they used to be, but the alt key and some other key will bring back the traditional menus. Some of the sidebar gadgets like Post it Notes are useful, but if you close them they are gone, gone gone. Some favorite XP features have vanished. In his column David Pogue notes that “WordPad, the built-in word processor, can no longer open Microsoft Word files. That, evidently, is a ham-handed attempt to force you into buying Microsoft Office. (Let’s hope the masses realize that they have a free alternative at docs.google.com.)”

Many legacy peripherals won’t work or will need new drivers, and still may not work. Microsoft has tried to address this with a special web site and you would be well advised to know what you are getting into. More gripes. . .

What is the difference between Vista Ultimate, Premium, Business, Home Basic, Home Premium, and several other flavors? Which version will your old or new hardware support?

Constantine Kaniklidis, a computer pro who writes for PC Magazine will be our guide to Vista’s new horizon. Our thanks to Hank Kee and NYACC for organizing this meeting and inviting NYPC.

Manage Your Email

December 14, 2006

Email has been called the "killer app" of the Internet. But Email is a double-edged sword. It can be so useful that it's often the reason for a non-computer person to learn to use the Internet. But, it's also the source of much frustration for computer users. Email has changed our communication, often making it more efficient; yet at the same time, it can be a tremendous time waster. 

How can you cope with more than 100 messages each day...deleting the spam without neglecting the important messages? E-mail management has become a vital component of time management. In the words of Mark Hurst "E-mail overload is a problem that affects nearly everyone with an e-mail account."

A panel of expert NYPC members will describe various approaches to e-mail management, demonstrate e-mail programs, and discuss their features, advantages and disadvantages. Among the applications to be discussed are: Thunderbird, Gmail, Outlook, Outlook Express, AOL, Pegasus, Eudora and web based email. As if that's not sufficient, we will also cover sending secure/encrypted email messages. The panel: 

Do you know how to set up an e-mail program so that it will automatically direct incoming e-mails to folders you set up, bypassing the Inbox altogether? Do you have an e-mail backup strategy? What's the best way to access your e-mail from both home and office? And we cover sending, forwarding, and adding attachments. Each e-mail program has at least one way to hide the recipients' email addresses when you send a single message to multiple people.

B & H Photo on Digital Photography

November 16,2006
Holiday Buying Guide

B&H came in time for the holiday shopping season. They are a great source for consumer and professional cameras, videos, TV’s, and audio gear. Many people on their staff have professional experience. Their prices are some of the best you will find anywhere, and they offered special discounts at the meeting. Once someone is into digital photography there are a lot of gifts you can buy for them. There are all sorts of accessories and gear that will really be used and appreciated. And ... you are allowed to buy stuff for yourself, which is always appreciated, and seldom returned. 

There are all sorts of add-ons one can get for a digital photographer on virtually any level; perhaps another memory card, an extra battery, cases, lenses, photo printers, and all sorts of accessories. But there are so many choices it can get very confusing. Not to mention there is a lot of new stuff out there. This lecture was a very good way to learn about the ever changing state of the art.

B&H sends very knowledgeable people to our meetings and this year our speaker, Gabriel Bidderman, was described by David Brommer, last years speaker from B&H, as “Awesome - a real Camera Guru”. If you are new to the digital world don’t be put off by his description, he will talk about the whole range of goodies from inexpensive “first” cameras, including point and shoot cameras, to heavy duty pro SLR’s. 

B & H Photo is conveniently located just down the block from NYPC at 34th Street and 9th Avenue. They are one of the world's leading sources for camera and video equipment; with knowledgeable and nice salespeople. For more information see their website:  www.bhphotovideo.com*

Many people find the Q&A during and after the presentation the best part. Having an “Awesome camera Guru” pay attention to your questions is worth the price of the meeting, which after all is free. And have you noticed NYPC is one of the best bargains in New York, are you a member? Did you renew? Please do. You need us and we need you.

Hacking the Election: Verifying Electronic Voting?

October 19, 2006

Teresa Hommel Returns

A voter goes into the booth, closes the curtain, chooses candidates, pulls the lever, or presses enter on the computer screen; then your vote is accurately tallied – Right? One registered voter, one vote – Right? …Well maybe. Over the years, particularly since 2000, there have been significant challenges. So how are votes verified? Ah there’s the rub!

Most people coming to this meeting are computer people. We have gotten used to the speed and accuracy of our machines …most of the time. But who among us has never had a computer problem? Or had a friend with a serious computer problem caused by a malfunction, virus problem, or malware? What are the necessary and reasonable requirements for us to trust computerized voting, or any kind of voting?

It seems intuitively obvious that there must be a reliable way for an independent audit of the vote tally. But some states have bought expensive voting machines that do not print out a paper ballot from vendors who will not give out their source code claiming this is a trade secret. So how are these votes verified? The vendor says the computer checks itself. Does anyone remember the story of the fox verifying the population of the hen house?

How would you feel about a bank, a restaurant, or a gas station that said “Trust me, you don’t need a paper receipt.” Hanging chads are looking better all the time, well maybe not that good. OK how about a paper ballot that can be read by an optical scanner, and if there is a challenge it can be counted by hand? I think I will invest in number two pencils.

Other vendors do allow audits, make their source code available and invite the white hat hackers to test and attack their systems. That’s better, but is it good enough?

Our speaker, Teresa Hommel is a computer pro, who will have a lot to say about all this in great detail. She is knowledgeable and a compelling speaker. There is a lot of information available on her site described as “A Web Site Dedicated to Election Integrity.”

Teresa Hommel’s website: www.WheresThePaper.org

Creative Labs Show & Tell

September 20, 2006

Pamela Szabo was our speaker. For many years Creative Labs was famous as the creator of the Sound Blaster audio cards. Now they have expanded to include a whole range of cutting edge multimedia products, including MP3 and Video players with replaceable batteries.

The Zen Vision is a 30 gigabyte portable device, smaller than a pocket mystery book that can clearly display photos, play and store music and videos. The very sharp OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) screen is 3.7 inches, and the Zen Vision can read directly from Compaq flash camera cards without a computer. A whole library of books from Shakespeare to the Da Vinci Code will fit in your pocket with room to spare.

Well while you are at it you can load 4,000 songs and listen all day, the removable battery is rated for 15 hours. Does anyone over the age of 15 actually have 4,000 songs? At three minutes per song that adds up to 200 hours of music without repeating a single song. No problem, just take along a spare battery or two. Unlike some portable music systems Zen Vision's batteries can be changed by the user. Oh by the way, that is 4,000 tunes in the shirt pocket device. Then Zen Vision holds enough to start a radio station.

Not having 4,000 tunes myself what interests me is the photo display and portable storage in this and other Zen devices. Once I got serious about digital photography I found that I was taking many more photos than I did with film. Well why not once you bought the camera and the memory card the electrons were free. Ah but here is the rub, when traveling it is easy to buy more film, but not necessarily more memory cards. So I carried a laptop and downloaded the cards.

That works but one of the Creative™ photo gadgets can store and show a lot of images in a very small, lightweight package. The Zen Vision has a 30 Gig hard drive with a screen. I consider it essential that you can view the transferred photo before deleting the image from the card. You can plug in a compact flash card directly without a computer. This is preferable to using a cable to transfer files from the camera to the Zen or a laptop because it saves the camera battery and is faster. 

If this was not enough Zen Vision has a built in radio and you can record Brian Lehrer, or the Personal Computer Show live. Leave voice memos to yourself, watch 120 hours of videos, or about 15,000 WMAs (Windows Media Audio), make slide shows, and transfer tunes from many on line music stores. No, you can't carry the kitchen sink, but you can include good photos of many of them.

Either the Zen Vision or the smaller palm sized models can become very effective portable photo albums. Aside from proud parents, there are many business or professional uses for this feature. Photographers, designers, architects, and salesmen can always have their portfolio in their pockets.

Creative Lab products have been collecting rewards. CES best in show for 2006. PC Magazine, August 22nd 2006, rated the Zen MicroPhoto and the Zen V Plus 4 out of a possible 5 points.

Pamela Szabo will be our speaker. I have heard from Pam every couple of weeks and each time she has more goodies to show. Including the Zen Vision, Zen Vision:M, Zen micro Photo and Zen V Plus. She also plans to bring her laptop with the Audigy 2 PCMCIA and the Live Motion Webcam. To learn more about all of Creative's many products, see www.creative.com

Pam brought two X-fi Extreme Music sound cards to Raffle. One raffle will be open to all comers, and the second raffle will be reserved for people who join or renew their membership. If you have renewed within the past month you will be eligible for this special limited raffle. She will also have a bag of goodies with some smaller items and T-shirts. 

Social Picnic

August 17, 2006 

NYPC's annual social picnic on the pier. Food is served on the pier, there is usually music, and you can go onboard the classic US Coast Guard Lightship. At Pier 63 (West 23rd Street) by the Lightship Frying Pan.  

• www.fryingpan.com* 
• Map and Directions* 
• More directions* 

Apple's Boot Camp, Parallels and Raffle drawing for a Compaq Laptop

July 20, 2006

Boot Camp refers to beta software that allows Windows XP to be installed in a partition on the new Macintosh computers built with Intel processors. It enables dual-booting, that is, running either the Mac OS or Windows XP on the computer (but only one at a time). Every time the computer starts up, the user gets to chose which Operating System to run. Thus, one computer is both a Mac and a Windows machine and thus can run programs for either Operating System.

This has generated considerable excitement among Windows users who long for the clean Mac interface and Mac lovers who may need to use software available only for Windows. The next release of Mac OS X, Leopard, will include the Boot Camp technology. Jim Duboise from Tekserve*, "the old reliable MAC Shop," explained Boot Camp and demonstrated how it works. 

One drawback to Boot Camp is that you have to re-boot the computer to switch between the Mac OS and Windows XP. As we all know, this can be time consuming. What if you need to frequently switch between Operating Systems? Wouldn't it be nice to run both Operating Systems at the same time. Well, you can. Jim demonstratee Parallels Desktop for Mac *, which is virtual machine software capable of running Windows XP. It treats the entire Windows XP Operating System as an application. In the same way as you would switch between Word and Excel, you can switch between the Mac OS and Windows XP. They both run at the same time. You've got to see this to believe it.

Tekserve presentations always feature knowledgeable speakers who convey their excitement about their topics. The Times of London quotes Tekserve's owner, David Lerner*, as being "really excited about this”; Tekserve has begun selling Windows XP for the first time! Since Tekserve has the reputation of selling only products it has evaluated, this sounds promising indeed. Tekserve, a company which is still "all about making the customer happy," is located in Chelsea, at 119 West 23rd Street, where it effectively combines a homey atmosphere with the latest in high tech. (Even if you don't yet own a MAC, it's worth a visit.)

• The Best of Both Worlds by Walter Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal discusses the pros and cons of Boot Camp and Parallels virtual machine. August 15, 2006 
• You can read Apple's take on Boot Camp and download the software at apple.com/macosx/bootcamp*
• More facts from Apple docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303572*
• www.macworld.com/weblogs/macword/2006/04/andrewkantor/index.php*
• www.macworld.com/weblogs/gameroom/2006/04/bootcampgames/index.php*
• www.hafl.org/

Hard Disk Partitions, Buying a New PC

June 15, 2006

Generally, new computers ship with a C disk the full size of the hard disk. Hard disks however, can be divided into logical pieces called partitions. For example, a computer with a single hard disk can have Windows assign "C" and "E" and "F" to different portions/partitions of the disk.

Have you ever noticed that Windows thinks the hard disk is smaller than it should be? One reason for this is that the computer manufacturer may have configured the hard disk with a partition that is hidden from Windows.

In this presentation, Michael Horowitz will explain what partitions are, the rules and software for creating them, and the many purposes they can serve.

One purpose is to run more than one copy of Windows on a single computer, the official term for this being "multi-booting". Why do so?

• For backup. Windows breaks and it's nice to have an extra copy lying around that you can immediately fall back to when trouble strikes. Like a spare tire in the trunk. Then, you can fix the broken copy of Windows at your leisure, or just walk away from it.
• Children. They are bound to cause problems sooner or later. With partitions, you can have a copy of Windows for the adults and a separate copy for children.
• Bug Fixes. Sometimes applying patches (a.k.a bug fixes) breaks more things than it fixes. How many of you are running Windows XP Service Pack 1 and are hesitant to apply SP2? With partitions you can have a backup copy of Windows to use in case applying bug fixes causes problems.

And you are not limited to two copies of Windows. Using partitions you can run any two Operating Systems on one computer. Want to make the transition from Windows 98/Me to XP slowly rather than in a big bang? Run them both on one computer. Partitions are the foundation for Apple's Bootcamp software that lets you run Windows XP on an Intel based Macintosh computer.

And there are more reasons to use partitions. Come hear for yourself.

Also at the meeting: A few minutes on buying a new computer.

• Should you buy an XP computer now or wait for Vista in January 2007?
• When is the best time of year to buy a new computer?
• Laptop vs. Desktop: is the convenience worth it?
• Where are best prices? Online or at a retail store?

All About Open Source Software

May 18, 2006
Are You Open to Open Source Software?

Come to the General Meeting to learn how you can get and use Open Source Software (OSS) to improve your computing experience. Our panel of open source experts includes Mark Halegua, chair of NYPC’s DeLUGE SIG, Jacob Brickman, who teaches many of our Linux courses, and others.

You’ll learn what applications are available, on what platforms, and how you can get and use open source browsers, email programs, databases, office suites, graphics programs, desktop publishing apps, and more.

The term open source refers to the free availability of the software source code. Anyone not only can use the software but make changes to it, typically publishing the code changes for comment, revision, and use by the open source community. The use of the term project to refer to open source applications reminds us that an application is not completed and out the door, bugs and all but continues to be refined by the community.

There are some complexities to the licensing of the software, but in general it gives users the freedom to run, study, modify, and/or redistribute a program for any purpose, without paying royalties to previous developers.

The alternative to open source software is closed source software, whose source code is hidden from public view. Under most licenses the user cannot modify the program or redistribute it. Note that, although open source software is typically free, Open Source Software/Free Software is not synonymous with freeware or shareware. The latter applications may be freely distributed but often carry the caveat, "You may not modify this program or any portion of it..., without author’s prior written consent."

As open source applications have matured, they have become increasingly accessible to everyone. They are easy to load, have user-friendly graphical user interfaces (GUIs), and have readable documentation. They are reliable and possess a broad support network. They typically run on Windows, MAC, or Linux—your choice.

Open source software is an increasingly viable alternative to proprietary applications for both businesses and individuals. This meeting will demonstrate the many options available in Open Source Software and explore why you should consider OSS for your computer(s).

For further reading

• The Open Source website
• Very personal listing of Open Source applications for Windows
• Open Source Freeware listing
• Why Open Source Software
• The State of California explores Open Source Alternatives
• A Corporate Viewpoint