CyberCoyote -- January 26, 2005

NEWS

Today, George Jester presented his approach to managing digital image "workflow" -- shooting -- moving images to your computer -- culling the junk -- basic processing -- archiving -- i.e., the digital darkroom side of digital photography. Some of his material and links to related websites will go online here soon. (I'll post a notice here.)

"IrfanView", and Microsoft's own "Image Resizer" give you two simple but powerful image resizing tools. You can use them to fit pictures to many purposes, for example, printing, emailing or uploading.
http://www.irfanview.com/ -- Use [Image > Resize/Resample] in the menu when you want to resize an image.
http://cybercoyote.org/url/162.html -- Scroll down to "Image Resizer" when you get to Microsoft's "PowerToys" page. You use Image Resizer in Windows Explorer. Right click any image(s) and select 'Resize Pictures' in the context menu. Click "Advanced" to get a custom size.

NOTES and NOTICES

Gene Barlow will be our presenter next week in NC-2. The first half of Gene's presentation will focus on the many problems that end users face by connecting to the Internet. He will warn us of the harm that Hackers can do to our computers and how we can protect ourselves from these evil individuals. There are four main tools that every user should be running on their computer to secure their computer from these Internet predators. He will explain the purpose of each of these four utilities and help you pick the best ones to use on your computer.

The second half of Gene's presentation will focus on how you need to organize your computer’s hard drive for maximum protection. He will also explain the best way for end users to back up their hard drives to prevent serious loss of your important files. Every user needs to take regular backups of their hard drive or face major problems when their hard drive fails. Don’t wait until it's too late to back up your hard drive. Learn how easy it is to protect your hard drive from failure. Gene will also have his products available for purchase for those that wish to take advantage of his "Special User Group Discount Prices".
http://www.ugr.com/store.html or
http://www.ugr.com/ -- Special User Group Code UGARIZ06

CLASSES

"Download, install and get the most out of Firefox" starts Monday. Firefox is a replacement for Internet Explorer that can be customized for many uses. This two day class will meet on Jan. 30 and Feb. 1 from 9 - 11 AM. $4 fee.

Signup has started for "Using Windows Explorer to Tame Windows". This two day class will meet Feb. 13 and 15, from 9 - 11 AM. $4 fee.

Computer Kindergarten continues on Thursdays from 9 - 11 AM. Mary Ann is using a more "hands-on" approach this season, so bring your laptop if have one. Mary Ann is looking for anyone with good working knowledge of Windows want to help with the hands-on aspect. The student fee is $2.00 per session, with no signup required.

The Windows XP class for Feb. is full, but there is still room in the last one in March. It is scheduled for March 20, 22, 24, 27 and 29, at 1:00 - 3:00 in the computer room. $10 fee.

COMPUTERS

If you're buying a new computer this year, there are some questions you'll want answers for. Windows Vista -- the successor to XP -- is slated for release late this year. Vista will increase demands on hardware -- CPU, Memory, Graphics -- and that's where most of the questions arise. Fred Langa has a comprehensive article with most of the answers. Note: Microsoft has extended support for Windows XP. It will probably end in late 2008, so that's not as much of a factor as it was a month ago.
http://cybercoyote.org/url/155.html -- Langa's article
http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20051013.html -- more
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/ -- Vista site

http://cybercoyote.org/url/162.html -- an extreme view :-)

ANNOUNCEMENT

Linux is the operating system that the majority of Internet servers run on today. They use the same Intel hardware as Windows. Desktop versions of Linux also run on Intel hardware. That means Linux will run on most of the desktop (or laptop) "PCs" that Windows does. In fact, you can run both Linux and Windows (one at a time) on the same PC. Linux offers much better security than Windows though. (Windows Vista will be a *lot* better.) I run the Ubuntu version of Linux to do my online banking.

Some versions of Linux are now well suited for the PC role. Linspire and Ubuntu are two of the best. Our club is a member of AZaac (they arrange our outside presenters) and they have a special benefit to tell us about. Linspire is offering a special discount on software, and also the "Linux Summit" this April in San Diego. No need to stampede, there will be enough for everyone. :-)
http://cybercoyote.org/articles/linspire.txt -- Linspire offer
http://cybercoyote.org/url/160.html -- Ubuntu newsletter
http://cybercoyote.org/linux/linux.html -- old, but relevant

SECURITY

SiteAdvisor is a new service that checks websites for suspicious activity. SiteAdvisor helps protect you from all kinds of Web-based security threats including spyware, adware, spam, viruses, browser-based attacks, phishing, online fraud and identity theft. They are in beta now, but you can sign up to be a beta tester. They have ratings on over a million sites already, and are continually "crawling" the web (like Google does), checking out more websites. Update: SiteAdvisor does not protect against Phishing, as that is a different kind of attack.
http://www.siteadvisor.com/

DIVERSION

Ever wonder what a Googol actually looks like? Don't confuse it with a Google, but now that I have your attention, it's simply a one (1) followed by 100 zeros. That's a 10 followed by 33 groups of 3 zeros (commas optional). You can probably imagine what that looks like. Now, can you imagine what a Googolplexian looks like?
http://www.googolplexian.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol -- more

"Do no evil" is Google's motto. Naturally, online observers critique them against their motto on a regular basis. The article in "The Onion" puts it all in perspective. :-)
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/40076 -- article