Chairman’s Notes

The result of the AGM was that we continue much as before, except that have decided to suspend subscriptions for the time being and monitor the situation.  Jim’s announcement that that he is leaving shortly leaves us with an even more desperate situation as regards to the membership.  The meeting on Wednesday will cover the administration of the web site so that someone else will be able to do this in the future.

Computer Aid International

The Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment Directive aims to reduce such material going to landfill.  From July 2007 manufacturers of such equipment will have to have arrangements for collecting for recycling, mostly this will by contributing to schemes to pay for recycling of equipment taken to the local tip.  Recycling for refurbishment and reuse is encouraged and Computer Aid International has been doing this for 10 years and accept donations of PIII and P4 PCs for refurbishment and supply to developing countries.

Vista PCs

Microsoft’s new operating system, Vista, is due next year and will contain a function called ReadyBoost.  This uses flash memory on SD or Compact Flash card or USB flash drive to store data for almost instant access (PC memory forgets the data on power down, flash memory does not).  Flash memory can accept up to 5000 requests for data per second, hard drives only 100-200, making boot up faster.

YouTube

YouTube is a video sharing site where you can upload short video clips to share with others.  A video version of Flickr or Google Images.  The site has a problem controlling content as a large amount of copyright TV footage ends up there.

BT Vision

www.bt.com/vision allows the download of films and TV programs in conjunction with the sale of DVDs.  See what you think of it.

 

Instant Messenger

Services from Yahoo and AOL were connected a while ago but now Microsoft has joined in.  Soon if not already you will be able add friends on another system to your contacts.

Core 2 Duo

Core 2 Duo processors are available now for notebooks, 25% faster than Core Duo and droping into the same slot and with no extra power requirement.  The notebook variants use less power than the desktop ones by the use of more aggressive power saving features, which inevitably reduce speed slightly.

GoogleOffice

GoogleOffice is a cut down office program where the program is held on the Google servers and the data files on your PC much as thin clients in existing office networks have worked for years.  Only now with ADSL is the bandwidth available for this to work.  Unfortunately the level of complexity of the word processor and spreadsheet may not be sufficient for most people who would attempt to use it.  Given that there are free office applications available this release may be too premature.

VisualRoute

www.visualroute.com offer free ADSL speed checking software as well as a more comprehensive package, which will indicate why your connection is slow (this is available as a 15 day demo).

JPEG

JPEG has been the file format of choice for photo compression, it was a godsend in the 1990s when storage was at a premium and PCs began to be able to handle 24bit colour.  File sizes were enormous until JPEG offered 10:1 to 20:1 compression at almost no loss of visual effect.  Even 100x compression is possible for a low quality image.  Despite the apparent good quality of the image data is lost during compression, so the picture cannot be restored exactly by uncompressing it.  This is one reason why you should not apply photo-manipulation techniques to JPEG files, uncompress the original file, modify it to your hearts content and the recompress it.  JPEG is seen everywhere and is a universal file format in the public domain and free to use, then along come Microsoft with WMPhoto.  It does have advantages, it offers loss-less conversion at up to 2.5:1 and slightly less loss up to 25:1 but more importantly it works in black and white (with jpeg even a b&w picture was coded in 24bit colour) and higher colour like 48bit.  For business use it offers CMYK support for colour separations and for web pages alpha variable transparency is included (needed .png before).  It will also handle multiple images in one file so you can include the original plus variations.

PC Myths

The government regularly reads all our email – False – The Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act (2001) gives the police powers to read your emails if they believe you are indulging in illegal activities.  The problem is that other counties do not have the same protection of privacy and your email may well leave the country on its tortuous route to your friend down the road.  Never entrust confidential information to email, other people could read it.

Mozilla Firefox is safer than Internet Explorer - True – Firefox is free web browser (www.mozilla.com) and is an interesting alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and provides greater protection against Spyware but it is not immune, it does have security problems for which patches are posted at intervals.  Whichever browser you use you needs to have antivirus and a firewall.  It must also be noted that many web sites are designed with IE in mind and do not always function correctly or as intended with Firefox.

Apple Macs don’t get viruses as PCs do – False – Apple Macs do get viruses, not as often as PCs but there are viruses and worms specific to the Mac.  Things are getting worse as the popularity of iTunes software is attracting the attentions of the virus writers.  The macro viruses based on Word and Excel are carried by Macs until transferred back to PCs.  See www.sophos.com for more information.

It’s safe to open emails from people you know – False – Many of the most dangerous viruses move to and infect PCs via email.  When a virus enters a machine it tends to check the contact list send itself on to everybody on the list, i.e. people you know.  Never open attachments unless you are expecting them and know exactly what they are.  Make sure your antivirus program is up to date with the latest virus definitions.

Windows XP product activation stops you from re-installing XP on your PC – False -

It is an anti-piracy system that should prevent XP being installed on several different PCs.  It checks a number of components and links them to the serial number, it you come to reinstall XP the components should still be the same so there should not be a problem.  Even if you have upgraded some components it still should work but if not a Microsoft telephone number provided during the install should allow manual reactivation.  Every 120 days the list of products at activation is reset, so provided you have not reinstalled recently it should work without problem.

 


Calendar 2006

Club night Wednesday October 11th 2006 

      Club web site - Jim 

 

Nov 8th 2006  to be decided

 

MCC Committee 2005 - 2006

Contact/Chairman     Robert Huggett     01628 623712

RobertVHuggett@aol.com

Treasurer       Dave Grant  

Hints & Tips:   Alan Everett     aeverett@btinternet.com

Web-site    Jim Borg-Cardona        jimbcuk@aol.com

 

Editor     All contributions to this Newsletter should be sent to: Robert Huggett, 5 The Points, Maidenhead. SL6 3AE                   Tel: 01628 623712        Email:       RobertVHuggett@aol.com

(All contributions to be received 2 weeks before the next meeting to ensure inclusion)

Contributions may be sent on:­3.5’ PC disk in almost any format, E-mail attachment, or hardcopy.

Please Note: Selected items from this Newsletter may also be published in MCC’s pages on the Internet. 

 

Internet Home Page: http://website.lineone.net/~mcchome

 

The club meets on the second Wednesday of each month at the offices of Zinsser Analytic, Howarth Road, Stafferton Way Maidenhead. Time 8.00 to 10.00pm

DISCLAIMER:  This Newsletter represents the ideas and expressions of the members of Maidenhead Computer Club, and is circulated to members only by subscription. The views and opinions contained within are not necessarily those of the Editor of the Newsletter and/or the Maidenhead Computer Club Committee. The Editor and the Committee expressly disclaim responsibility for the ideas and expressions contained in the Maidenhead Computer Club Newsletter Please note that articles in the Newsletter are copyright of the authors and the Editor, permission of both being needed for reprinting or other reproduction. (Requests should be via the Editor)