Another Day In Cyberville

Hurricane Season Focuses Weather On Web

2008-06-04T09:53:00.000-04:00

June begins the Atlantic hurricane season, and with it, a need for up-to-date weather information for the next several months.

While local television weather is a good and valuable source, real-time weather that is often equivalent or better is available through through the Internet. A savvy Web weather user can access nearly all the same data used by local meteorologists to access the latest weather information.

A good starting point is the office of the National Hurricane Center at www.nhc.noaa.gov. The Coral Gables-based NOAA office remains the central source for hurricane information. From this site you can access the latest reports, forecasts, discussions and tracking data as issued by the National Hurricane Center.

The NHC has also begun a pilot program that will send e-mails with the latest reports to a designated mail address. However, the program has also asked that subscribers sign up for the minimum number of reports possible in an attempt to not crash NOAA's mail servers.

The NHC has also begun offering weather information that can be accessed through cell phones – links are available through the NHC home page, and include advisories, graphics and satellite images.

More sophisticated weather users will want to visit the Weather Underground site at www.wunderground.com. Wunderground is generally the most detailed weather site available online.

Both hurricane and storm tracking information are prominently featured at Wunderground. Click on the Tropical/Hurricane link and you can access hurricane data for locations worldwide.

When a storm becomes active, Wunderground provides nearly all the data available through various weather sources in one package.

Among the features offered are tracking forecast models from several computer models, detailed dropsonde information from “Hurricane Hunter” aircraft, a variety of satellite and radar imagery, and nearly all the information available to meteorologists.

Wunderground's radar data is especially useful not only for hurricanes, but severe storms in general. Bring up the radar image for a given area, and Wunderground allows users to add storm forecast tracking information, lightning data, rainfall totals, multiple radar images with detailed zooming capabilities, and tornado vortex signature data. The radar data can also be tuned to provide information on hail likelihood, hail size, wind speeds and storm cloud heights.

The best Web site for keeping current with Weather alerts remains the NWS Weatherbug (www.weatherbug.com). Weatherbug features a program that is loaded into the PC system tray after downloading and installation. From their the latest forecast can be brought up on an instant basis, as well as radar images and travel weather. Weatherbug can be set up to alert users to weather warnings much like a dedicated weather radio.

Another useful Web site for weather information is www.accuweather.com. Accuweather is one of the television industry's leading weather suppliers, and its Web site features easy to read graphics and information. Of particular note is a 15-day forecast for any given location.

Finally, the Weather Channel (www.weather.com) also provides detailed weather information, including hour-by-hour daily forecast information.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Web Can Ease Summer Travel Costs

2008-05-15T16:14:00.001-04:00

The soaring price of gasoline has put a damper on travel across the country. Already pressed airlines have been struggling to maintain passenger loads, and more and more families are having to question whether summer travel is affordable.

While the Internet can't help much with the price of gas, it can often be an extremely useful tool in lowering overall travel costs. Learning how to use a few of the many available Web sites that offer or provide information about travel bargains can make the difference between an affordable vacation and one that never happens.

Some of the most useful sites include:

BiddingForTravel – This site (www.biddingfortravel.com) is basically a Web forum where customers share information about what hotels and cars they were able to obtain from Priceline (www.priceline.com), the Internet's most popular travel discount site.

Priceline's biggest issues for most travelers are the fact that they are unsure of what hotels they are in fact bidding on, or how much to bid to get the best deals.

BiddingForTravel provides viewers with lists of hotels categorized my state and Metro area that give actual examples of winning Priceline bids, the total cost of the stay including taxes and fees.

Priceline bids are non-refundable and non-changeable once accepted, so be certain you are firm on travel plans before placing a bid there.

While BiddingForTravel can be a good predictor of what hotels are likely to be available in a given area, Priceline bidders should be aware there are no guarantees you will either be able to book a hotel at rates that have been accepted for others, or that you will receive the exact property you expect.

In my experience it's possible to achieve a 60-80% certainty that you will in fact receive the hotel you expect at the price bid, but I have also been surprised by receiving a different hotel than the one expected.

The same scheme applies to rental cars, where information is available on what cars and classes are likely to be provided from a given airport location and what amount was bid to actually obtain a rental.

Hotwire – If Priceline's uncertainty has you a little skittish, the next best bet can be Hotwire, which offers hotels, flights and cars at fixed prices. Like Priceline, Hotwire (www.hotwire.com) doesn't actually reveal the the name of the provider until after you have committed to buy.

An insider's guide for Hotwire is also available, however, at www.betterbidding.com. BetterBidding (which also includes information about Priceline providers) can often give travelers a good idea of what hotel they are likely to receive, based on the location and amenity codes included in a Hotwire description.

Hotwire also offers often deeply discounted rates on rental cars, which can be another large savings.

Another source for large savings can be the Web sites of airline and rental car companies themselves.

Recent examples I've seen include a three-day weekend rental from Avis of a large-size car for less than $40 including taxes and fees from a major U.S. airport.

Airline Web sites can be a good place for package deals including hotels and rental cars, especially on short notice. It's often possible to find a multi-day package at a savings of 40% or more that includes flights, hotels and a car through some major airline sites.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Multiple Web Browsers Make For Easier Surfing

2008-04-30T12:12:00.001-04:00

For the better part of the past decade Microsoft's Internet Explorer Browser has dominated the online surfing world. And with good reason, as it was well integrated with Windows, especially once Windows XP became available, and it was generally reliable in displaying nearly any page on the Web, if not especially fast.

In the past year or so, however, Microsoft's dominance has shown some cracks as Version 7 of Internet Explorer was released with less than universal applause. Meant to compliment Windows Vista, IE 7 implemented a wide range of additional security features that many users found annoying.

IE 7 was also found to be slower and buggier by many users, and even after being offered as a “high-priority” download by Microsoft's Windows Update, many users uninstalled IE7 and went back to IE6, which is often seen as being more reliable and easier to use with Windows XP.

Although Web browser usage statistics vary widely by source, a number of Web browsers now offer a significant alternative to Internet Explorer, and for at least some users will load pages faster and more reliably than IE 7.

By far the most popular of the browser alternatives is Firefox, which was developed from the Mozilla project, an Open Source browser that can trace its roots in part back to the popular Netscape browser of the 1990's.

While Netscape was eventually acquired by AOL, and finally announced earlier this year that it would effectively close its doors, Mozilla began development of what eventually became Firefox in earnest in 2002.

Firefox began to first be generally noticed in 2004, and has since gone on to achieve a market share of around 18%, according to the latest statistics from MarketShare by Net Applications. Internet Explorer's various versions come in at around 75%, according to the same source.

Firefox and Mozilla also offer Thunderbird, a free e-mail application that competes with Microsoft's Outlook Express and Windows Live Mail. Both applications can be found at www.mozilla.com.

Apple released its Safari Browser for the Mac in 2003, and subsequently a Windows version was released in 2007.

While the initial Windows release of Safari was found to have considerable bug problems, Apple has continued development, and the latest version is considered to be more reliable.

Part-time Mac users, as well as users of Apple's iTunes music service will likely appreciate the browser's interface and speed.

Apple's Steve Jobs has trumpeted Safari's speed versus other Windows browsers, but most tests report little functional speed difference between it and other popular browsers in everday use. Safari can be downloaded from Apple's Web site at www.apple.com.

A fourth browser choice, and one deserving more attention, is the Norwegian-developed Opera. While Opera has been around for more than ten years, its most recent Version 9 offers speed, ease of use, and some useful features including a page loading indicator that shows how large a page is, and whether a page has frozen during loading. Opera 9 also maintains the useful Stop/Refresh button Microsoft moved in IE 7. Opera also makes a free browser that is extremely useful in many Web-enabled cell phones, as well as browsers for game and other platforms. You can download Opera free at www.opera.com.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Cyberville Q&A On Word Documents & SD Cards

2008-04-16T16:17:00.001-04:00

Here are a few of the latest questions (and answers) from the Cyberville inbox:

Q: I recently received a document from a business partner that was in a “.docx” format. When I try to open it in Microsoft Word, all I get is gibberish. How can I open it?

A: In Office 2007, Microsoft changed the long-time default formatting that had been used in Word 97, 2000, XP and 2003 to an XML-based standard.

While that allows for more creative documents to be easily be produced in Word 2007, it also means earlier versions of Word can't open the documents. The same applies to new versions of files from Excel and PowerPoint.

There are a number of ways to deal with this issue. Once of the easiest is to ask the sender to use the “Save As” function and select an earlier version of Word, Excel or PowerPoint, and resend the document in a compatible format.

If you have an earlier version of Word, you can download the Microsoft Office Compatibility pack, which will allow users of Office 2000, XP and 2003 to open Office 2007-formatted documents. Be aware it is a large download, however (more than 27mb). It can be found at Microsoft.com, Download.com and several other sites.

Users of Sun's free Open Office Suite may have more difficulty. There is a compatibility tool that can be downloaded from Sourceforge (do an online search for Open XML Translator), but it may not always work. Microsoft is involved with developers to improve the reliability of this tool and has promised an updated version in the near future.

If you don't have Office, and need to open a .docx document, there are other options available.

One is to ask an online file translator service to do the conversion for you. I recently used the free Zamzar service (www.zamzar.com) to translate a .docx file to a .pdf and .doc file type, and got back a link to download the conversions about 20 minutes later. The conversions generally worked.

If you want even faster results, you can download a free program called “Docx2RTF” from NativeWinds Software which can convert a file to either the common RTF format than can be used by nearly any other word processing program, or save the document as a PDF (Adobe Acrobat/Reader) file for quick viewing. Docx2RTF can be found at a number of sources online including Download.com and others.

Q: I have a digital camera that uses SD cards, and would like to get one of the larger size cards so I can shoot more pictures at once. What is the difference between SD and SDHC?

A: This issue is one of the more confusing, and common to come along in a while in consumer devices.

2GB was the limit for SD memory cards until recently, when the SDHC standard was introduced which will allow for a 32GB card. However, in many cases it will take a firmware update for the cards to be used in a given device, so check your manufacturer's support page to see if one is available.

There have also been 4GB standard SD cards introduced recently which will work in most devices, but they can be difficult to find, and some brands don't work in some devices. The best bet is to go with 4GB SD cards from Transcend, which are available in standard (40x), 133x and 150x speeds, but may still not work in older SD devices. The faster speeds are better for cameras that can shoot multiple images in succession.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Hard Drive Maintenance A Growing Issue

2008-04-03T09:32:00.000-04:00

The move into the digital age has meant more and more critical data, images, music and video are being stored on hard drives than ever before. While in most cases that's been a blessing, it also means understanding and maintaining hard drives is something that is becoming increasingly important.

A hard drive consists of a series of one or more thin metallic platters on which data is written and read by a head which travels across and up and down these platters at breakneck speeds, generally equivalent to the “redline” in most automobile engines, in excess of 5000 RPM.

One of the key realities of hard drive-based storage is that all hard drives eventually fail. No hard drive used on a daily basis will last forever, and they need to be treated as such.

Search engine giant Google uses hundreds of thousands of consumer-grade hard drives to power its search engine, and in 2007 published a study showing, among other things, that the key times for hard drive failure were when hard drives were new, and after three years, with regular failures occurring on an ongoing and increasing basis after that time.

No amount of special cooling or temperature control made a significant difference in improving the life of drives, other than avoiding truly excessive heat or cold. And drives that received heavier data use were also not significantly more likely to fail than those that did not, and in fact were somewhat less failure prone as time wore on.

The study also showed that drives that had one or more physical errors reported on the drive surface were far more likely to fail completely in the next 60 days, and that S.M.A.R.T. hard drive monitoring (a technology built into all recent hard drives) did not predict a significant percentage of hard drives that would fail prior to physical failure, although it did predict a majority.

Today's giant hard drives also have higher data error rates than their smaller predecessors, and my experience has been that these drives require somewhat more attention as a result.

One of the key things to check is when drives are first installed, when data is loaded to the disk. I have now begun a practice of, after installing the operating system and key programs, running the Windows drive error-checking program (fdisk) that is available under My Computer/Properties for each drive.

I have found that new large drives, when first loaded with data, sometimes tend to have errors that can be corrected quickly without data loss by using this practice. I also now recommend on drives of 300GB or above in desktops, and 120GB or larger in laptops, of running a monthly error check/fix cycle to help maintain data integrity.

Two key questions continue to come up on a regular basis from consumers and businesses when it comes to drives and PC's. First, I continue to recommend systems always be left on, rather than constantly switched on and off. While power savings may be minimal for systems that are switched, power supply failures are much more common in systems that are not left on continuously.

Hard drive defragmentation and other maintenance is also much more easily scheduled and completed overnights when systems are left on and not being asked to do other tasks.

Of course, backing up hard drives is now more important, and less expensive, than ever, with large external hard drives with built-in backup programs costing under $200. Installing one of these will be one of your best PC investments of 2008.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Microsoft Releases First Major Service Pack For Windows Vista

2008-03-20T09:34:00.000-04:00

Microsoft's long-awaited first Service Pack for Windows Vista is finally being released, and none too soon. A standalone installer is now available, and Windows Update will shortly begin offering Vista SP1 to all Vista users.

The first version of this Service Pack was available to some users back in February, but Microsoft delayed issuing the full release until now in order to try and better address lingering driver incompatibility issues.

The driver compatibility improvements Microsoft is touting as part of Vista SP1 are welcome, and overdue.

While it is helpful that Microsoft claims the number of Vista-compatible devices has gone from 13,000 to 54,000 according to Microsoft, the fact that a four-fold increase has even been possible speaks volumes about why so many users have desperately turned away from Vista in search of compatible drivers for Windows XP.

Microsoft has used the error reporting process in Vista to target the largest problems for fixes, and now claims nearly all have been resolved in the top hardware and software issues.

Again, while that is an improvement, users of older hardware and programs should be aware that driver and software compatibility issues will continue to be a problem.

It is wise to research Vista and whatever hardware or software you may be dependent on before performing a Vista upgrade. Microsoft's release notes with Vista indicate that while hardware driver compatibility has been significantly improved, software that did not function with the original release of Vista will also likely not function with SP1 because of basic compatibility issues.

What is also not stated in the driver compatibility improvements for Vista are separate figures for fully compatible 64-bit driver versions, which lag far behind. In many cases users of 64-bit Vista are compelled to either buy new hardware or run minimal drivers with reduced functionality, if any are available at all.

When upgrading to Vista SP1, be aware that this is by far the largest download I have ever seen offered through Windows Update, and even on a fast system and connection it will take a considerable length of time to download and intall. There will also be, for many users, a series of other patches that must be installed first before Vista SP1 will be able to be installed.

Computer administrators are being advised in Microsoft's Vista newsgroups, and I concur, that because of the size of the download, it is wise to obtain a separate standalone installer from the Microsoft Web site, which was well over 700mb alone when I recently downloaded same.

Vista SP1 will also generally report when 4GB of RAM is installed in a machine, a major complaint of the original OS. However, users should be aware that the 32-bit version of Vista will use no more than 3GB of system RAM, and a system must also have a motherboard BIOS capable of using 4GB of RAM, even with 64-bit Vista, before a system can actually use more than 3GB of RAM.

My lack of love for Windows Vista is, to regular readers of Cyberville, no particular secret at this point. Microsoft intends to try and force users to switch to Vista over the next two years, first by not allowing OEM installs of XP after June of this year, and then ending “mainstream support” for XP after April, 2009, although I, for one, expect that date will be pushed back, with the possibility that even Congress will enter the Vista fray.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Make Smart Choices To Keep Your PC Secure

2008-03-13T11:59:00.000-04:00

Online security remains a genuine issue for nearly anyone connected to the Internet. Maintaining that security should be a major concern, especially as more and more financial transactions are being done online.

There are a number of steps and best practices that go along with being a savvy computer user. Making sure you are familiar with them, and making them part of your daily routine, will minimize the chances you'll encounter a major security problem in the future.

Secure passwords – It's a long standing computer security protocol that passwords need to be secure. Although most home users don't need the high levels of password security demanded by the military and large corporations, there are a few simple steps you can take to reduce the chances your password will be stolen or hacked.

One of the most common ways is to use a mix of letters and numbers. Many Web sites require a mix to become a member of a group, for example, but it's a good policy to put this into place for all your accounts.

It's also a good idea to use multiple numbers and letters that are familiar to you, but not easily guessed by someone else. Birth dates are a common choice, but it's more secure to choose the birthday of someone other than yourself you can easily remember, and then mix letters with that choice.

It's also a good practice to use separate passwords for sensitive accounts that involve financial data, such as bank or credit card accounts, PayPal or others. In doing that your financial accounts are protected should one of your e-mail or other accounts be compromised.

It's also a bad idea to store a list of passwords on your computer that can be easily found. If you do choose to store passwords, make sure the file you use is encrypted with a password itself, such as can be done with a program like Microsoft Word. A simple text document containing all your passwords is an open invitation for your information to be compromised.

It's also a good idea to make sure the firewall on your computer is engaged. Every Windows XP and Vista computer comes with a built-in firewall – make sure it is turned on. If you have a home network using a router, it contains one or more firewalls which add additional layers of protection.

It's also a must to have current and up-to-date anti-virus protection. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition (http://free.grisoft.com) and Avast! Home Edition (www.avast.com) are both full-power anti-virus programs which can be downloaded and added to your computer at no charge.

It's also important to add another level of protection for trojans and password-stealing programs. My favorite free choice is Spybot Search & Destroy, which can be downloaded from various sites around the Web. While Spybot has to be updated and run manually to be effective, it remains one of the best tools for finding spyware that may have been loaded onto your computer.

Other common best practices include being sure that your e-mail is being scanned for viruses, and not opening unknown .exe or .scr files from strangers or friends, no matter how well you may know someone.

Users of Windows XP and Windows Vista also have access to the free Windows Defender, which helps keep spyware and adware off your computer. You can download it via Microsoft.com or other popular download sites.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Portable Audio Recorders Becoming Smaller & Better

2008-03-06T10:18:00.002-05:00

It wasn't that long ago that producing quality live recordings required bulky tape machines, large microphones and yards of cabling, not to mention readily accessible AC power. All of those factors made field recording an expensive and difficult proposition for musicians and others interested in recording live events including meetings and presentations.

Yet another benefit of the increasing miniaturization of electronics has been the release of a growing series of high quality tiny recorders, some so small they can fit in a shirt pocket.

When these units first began appearing a couple of years ago, prices were often over $1000. Like most other electronics, an increasing number of competitors has come into the market, and prices have now fallen below $500, and in some cases as low as $200.

Falling prices mean these units are now affordable to nearly anyone with even an occasional need to make high-quality field recordings. Here are some of the best of the current choices:

Zoom H4 – The Zoom H4 has become a favorite of many musicians and others since it was released in 2006. At a retail price now often under $300, the H4 won't fit in a shirt pocket, but can easily be carried by hand or in a purse.

The H4 features onboard stereo microphones, as well as the ability to plug in nearly any professional microphone through a range of connectors. The H4 can be set on nearly any flat surface when using the onboard microphones, and with a few button pushes is ready to record.

Recording is done to a standard SD flash card, and recent firmware improvements mean SDHC cards up to 8GB in size are now compatible. The H4 runs for several hours off AA batteries, and using rechargeable batteries can keep costs down and performance up for frequent users.

Zoom now has a less expensive, and smaller, entrant field recorder in the H2. At a retail price of around $200, the H2 can fit in a shirt pocket, yet also record four-channel surround sound through four onboard microphones.

The H2 also comes with its own stand, allowing, for example, the recorder to be placed on a table or stand in the center of a conference room and capture sound from the entire room, which is handy for those recording conferences with questions from an audience.

The H2 also uses SD flash cards and AA batteries, allowing up to six hours of recording from one pair of AA batteries. The H2's size and portabilty should make it a favorite of podcasters and others looking to make inexpensive field recordings.

A somewhat more expensive unit that is a favorite of many musicians is the Edirol R-09. Another unit small enough to fit in a large shirt pocket, the R-09 is also available with an optional stand anc case that allow for optimal positioning.

I recently saw a pianist with an R-09 discreetly positioned on top of his piano on its tiny tripod. Just before he began playing, he reached up, pushed a button, and... instant live recording.

A number of other entrants are also making this a major area of competition, including Sony's PCM-D50, the latest in a long line of portable Sony field recorders. One of the newest entrants at around $400 is the very slick looking Olympus LS-10, a stereo professional recorder from the company that has a successful and long track record in the area of handheld pocket voice recorders.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Sony Wins Protracted Fight Over High-Def DVD's

2008-02-27T10:59:00.000-05:00

Back in the 1980's Sony and JVC fought a consumer war over hope video tape standards. Sony, which had tried to develop a partnership with Matsushita for home video tape systems in the mid-1970's, chose instead to develop Betamax, a smaller tape format.

JVC was the primary developer and advocate of VHS, and even though most video experts thought Betamax was the better format, JVC eventually won out over Sony, costing Sony billions of dollars in potential revenues and marketing costs.

A similar war has been engaged, albeit on a smaller scale over the past two years in the area of high-definition DVD.

In this case Sony's rival has been Toshiba, which advocated for the HD-DVD format over Sony's Blu-Ray. But unlike the format wars of thirty years ago, in this instance, Sony has emerged as the victor.

Toshiba recently announced that it will no longer produce and market HD-DVD after March, 2008. Already retailers with HD player stocks are beginning to liquidate their remaining inventories.

Although prices may be attractive, there appears to be little reason to pick up one of these players, as most movie studios are expected to stop releasing HD-DVD titles, and all are now in support of Blu-Ray.

Consumers, for the most part, should find the end of this particular format war to be helpful in making a decision to go to a true high-definition format.

Another issue that's helpful is pricing of DVD players on the retail level. In the 1980's it wasn't uncommon for VCR's to cost $500 or more, with high-end models exceeding $1000.

Sony's Blu-Ray disc players, while more expensive than comparable HD-DVD units, are now under $500, and prices can be expected to continue to fall. However, it's likely to take years before Blu-Ray falls into the sub-$100 price level consumers have become accustomed to for standard DVD players.

Sony is usually known for being at the upper end of the retail price scale for most lines of consumer electronics. How widely Blu-Ray will be licensed to other companies, and at what cost, is still an open question.

Blu-Ray discs can also be expected to become more widely available in video rental stores as retailers will no longer have to dedicate shelf space for two competing formats.

With the looming transition to full digital broadcast TV in the U.S. now less than a year away, the ending of High-Def DVD format wars will likely produce a further uptick in the sale of larger digital televisions which have the capability of showing off the advantages of Blu-Ray.

Buyers of Sony's PS3 game systems have Blu-Ray built in, and it can also be expected to help sales in that area. Microsoft, which has reportedly sold hundreds of thousands of HD-DVD add-on players to its Xbox 360 game consoles, has announced it is also pulling the plug on HD-DVD.

Doubt also exists, however, as to how long it will take for consumers to fully embrace Blu-Ray. The reality is that for most homes the standard DVD provides excellent quality, and upconverting DVD players (which now cost as little as $50) provide even better picture quality on large screens.

While Blu-Ray is better still, many will find it hard to swallow Blu-Ray at a time when consumers are moving in droves to purchase pricey digital televisions in an economy otherwise less than stellar.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Web-Based Services Allow Sending Large Files

2008-02-20T09:12:00.002-05:00

Two of the biggest improvements in personal computing of the last several years have been the availability and speed increases in high-speed connections, and the rapid increase in the size of low-cost, fast hard drives.

These improvements have helped bring on an explosion in using computers for recording and editing video, downloading music, and storing and editing digital photography.

And in turn, users want to share that media with friends, relatives and business associates via the Web.

Unfortunately, one improvement lagging behind is the size of e-mail attachments, with 20MB usually the largest file size able to be attached, and often less, through most e-mail and Internet providers.

To help supplement that need, a number of providers of large file sending services have appeared in turn over the past several years.

These services allow users to upload files through their sites, which are then stored for a limited time period. In turn, users can select who they want to receive these files, and the recipients receive an e-mail with a link directing them to where the file can be downloaded.

A number of these services offer free limited large file sharing services meant for occasional usage, and offer paid monthly plans for musicians, photographers, artists and others who have a regular need to share large files with clients.

Here are some of the most popular and useful sites allowing users to send large files.

YouSendIt (www.yousendit.com). YouSendIt is one of the oldest and most popular large file sharing services. YouSendIt's free Lite accounts allow you to send files up to 100MB in size, with a 1GB monthly download limit. Each file can be downloaded up to 100 times. YouSendIt also provides an address book feature, so you can keep track of your friends' and family's email addresses in one location.

Files remain available for 7 days - recipients have a week to download the files you've sent. YouSendIt is also HIPAA Compliant for sending private medical records –details are available on the site.

YouSendIt is also now offering a plug-in for Outlook 2003 and 2007, allowing users to attach large files within standard e-mails while avoiding e-mail server limits.

SendThisFile (www.sendthisfile.com). SendThisFile is another popular service. SendThisFile's biggest advantage is that it doesn't limit file sizes. It's free plan is limited in that users only have three days to pick up files, and each file can only be downloaded three times.

Send6 (www.send6.com). This excellent service has recently brought back a free plan to go along with its paid offerings. As the same suggests, Send6 users can send up to six files at one time. Send6 offers pickup confirmation, showing that users received the file desired.

DropSend (www.dropsend.com). DropSend's free Basic Plan allows users to send files up to 1GB in size five times per month. It also offers a PC and Mac client allowing users to send files directly from the desktop.

Other file sending services worth checking out include SendSpace (www.sendspace.com) and TransferBigFiles (www.transferbigfiles.com).

I use these services on a regular basis to transfer video, music and other files, and they can be a godsend when the need arises.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

New Tech Means Better Looking CD's and DVD's

2008-02-07T10:40:00.000-05:00

You've just spent weeks putting together your favorite vacation or other videos. Or maybe you've created what you think is the greatest music compilation CD of all time. Or you want to add your resume, photos and other information to an audition CD. Or distribute copies of a presentation you've made to a corporate board.

It's occasions like these where grabbing the trusty Sharpie to scribble a title and some information on a burned CD or DVD just isn't enough.

In the past, CD labeling systems usually involved sticky labels and some sort of clumsy application system. If you managed to get the label printed right, getting it applied flat to a CD or DVD wasn't always easy. Then one day in heat or humidity would start to peel the label, which could in turn gum up whatever player tried to digest it.

Fortunately, a new generation of labelers is out there that offers permanence and professional-looking results. If you spend a little time experimenting and trying out different options, you can produce CD's and DVD that have labels worthy of the content inside.

One system that is gaining popularity is LightScribe, developed by HP. LightScribe uses special CD and DVD blanks. After data is burned to the recordable side of the blank, the disc is then flipped over, and the laser is able to burn a silkscreen-style pattern into the LightScribe side of the disc.

The printable side of the disc can contain text, images, designs, or a combination.
For example, you can capture a frame from the video on the disc as a picture, and then add it to the LightScribe label as a background. Add title, date and any other iformation, save the file, and then print the LightScribe label.

Three shades of darkness are available, the longest of which takes 15-30 minutes to produce a completed disc label image. Lighter shades burn faster.

Because of the way LightScribe works, the images and text do not smear or degrade, and there is no ink to buy, only the proper LightScribe blanks.

LightScribe works best with high-contrast black and white images, and most digital photo programs have an option to convert an image to black and white, as well as contrast and brightness controls.

Grayscale images are all that LightScribe can produce, although blanks now come in different background colors to add some variation.

Costs for these blanks have been falling as more manufacturers have started selling LightScribe, to where CD and DVD blanks can be had on sale for as low as 50 cents per piece.

If you don't have a LightScribe drive built into your system (many newer PC's do), fast USB 2.0 external burners are available for as low as $50.

A second system similar to LightScribe is Labelflash. This system also uses a special media to burn text and images to a blue background disc. Because Labelflash isn't as widespread as LightScribe, blanks are harder to find and are more expensive, costing as much as $2. Prices can be expected to fall during 2008 as this newer technology is introduced with more new computers, especially from Gateway.

For those looking for the ultimate results, Espon includes a CD tray and special design and print program with some of its photo and multi-function printers (including the pictured Espon Stylus Photo R280).

Using special printable media, these printers print images and text in full color directly to CD's and DVD's. Epson includes an easy-to-use but powerful design program called Epson Print CD with these printers. The end results are nearly as good, in some cases better, than commercially available CD's and DVD's. Add tray and case inserts and users can produce professional-quality complete packages from a home PC and printer, which cost as little as $100.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Free Programs Help Make The Most Of Digital Photos

2008-01-24T07:54:00.000-05:00

These days it's getting harder and harder to find good freeware programs to do some of the most common tasks for many computer users.

One of the areas where there continues to be an abundance of good free programs, however, is in the area of digital photo processing.

One of the first things to check your computer for is to see what photo programs may have been included with the preload of your PC. In many cases, useful programs have been loaded by the manufacturer that are not trialware like so many other PC offerings.

The second place to look is at the programs that came with your digital camera. Again, in many cases, there are solid programs that are included as a part of the software included with most digital cameras.

A third source of excellent programs for digital photography that you may already own are those included with flatbed scanners, or with the very common all-in-one printer/copier/scanner combination units.

Once you've looked for those items, the Web is a great source for more free programs that can be used to process and catalog digital photographs. Here are some worth checking out:

Picasa – This freeware program from Google is one of the most useful and easy to use photo cataloging and processing tools out there. And while it's photo precessing tools are limited in number, they are some of the easiest and most useful ones most home photographers will need.

Although there are plenty of photo album programs out there, Picasa is one of the most useful of any of finding all the pictures on your computer, cataloging them by folder and date, and then presenting thumbnails of a size useful enough to be readily visible.

Once the program has done its initial cataloging, every time you open it it scans your computer again and adds new pictures as they are available. Unlike a lot of other album programs, Picasa doesn't show many computer program-related pictures that are included by the thousands on most computers.

If you think your computer has an image on it that you can no longer find, install Picasa and if it exists, Picasa will dig it out. Picasa also finds most common movie formats and presents a thumbnail of their opening frame as well.

Picasa's photo processing effects include basic exposure controls, film effects, and a very useful fill light feature.

Picasa can also create quick slideshow movie files small enough to e-mail that will play through almost any video player. You can download the program at www.picasa.com.

Another useful free photo program is Serif PhotoPlus 6.0. The program features an interface similar to older versions of the famous Adobe Photoshop program.

An upgraded version of the program can be had for an additional $10. Either can be downloaded at www.serif.com.

A third useful free program is the long-available IrfanView. This program offers a simple user interface for common photo editing features, but also contains many more powerful tools for the photographic pro. Find it at most major Web download sites or via www.irfanview.com.

Finally, for those who really want to get into heavy image editing, GIMP is a free Open Source image editing program that will do almost anything possible with a digital image. You can get the latest version of GIMP with an easy Windows installer via www.majorgeeks.com.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Video Card Upgrades Need Careful Choosing

2008-01-17T12:02:00.000-05:00

One of the most common upgrades to a desktop computer is the video card. Most often, it's due to users seeking better performance for gaming and graphics, or a desire to run multiple monitors from one PC system.

However, these choices are often confusing and prone to mistakes, which can lead to frustrated returns to stores and mail order firms and hefty shipping and restocking fees.

The most common mistake made in choosing a video card upgrade is selecting the wrong interface. Many inexpensive desktop computers come with built-in graphics on the system motherboard, but those graphics are often quickly overwhelmed when faced with much more than Web surfing and simple video playback.

Many recent low-priced desktop systems from vendors such as Dell and HP came with onboard graphics, and they also offer a variety of possible slots for upgrading graphics, with many offering only a PCI slot. A few small-form cases also require a “low-profile” card to fit in the case.

There are three choices available for video card upgrade, PCI, AGP and PCI Express. The fact most major video card retailers offer similar looking packaging for many cards makes selecting the correct card even more confusing.

If you're looking to do an upgrade, you need to find out which video interface your system has. This is the slot in your computer where your card will plug in.

PCI slots are available on nearly every computer, but are also the slowest for running gaming and other graphic-intensive applications.

If your system has either an AGP or PCI-E(xpress) interface, be sure to choose a video card that will use that, rather than PCI, as it will provide better performance, often at lower cost. In a future column I'll talk about choices in AGP and PCI-Express cards.

PCI video cards also use slower graphics processors than other choices. Two basic current video card chipset providers are available, NVIDIA and ATI.

In the NVIDIA chipset the choices include the FX5200 and FX5500, and the GeForce 6200 GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). Cards are available with either 128 or 256MB of graphics memory. A good rule of thumb is usually the higher the number of the GPU and the more RAM, the better the likely performance (and the higher the price).

ATI-based cards are generally sold under the Radeon banner by companies including Visiontek, Sapphire, MSI and Best Data/Diamond.

The current Radeon PCI choices are the X1300 and X1550 with either 128 or 256MB of RAM. The ATI cards offer somewhat higher performance than the NVIDIA cards in many cases, but are also more expensive. ATI drivers also often provide fewer choices in resolutions, especially in common 5x3 HDTV capable monitors (such as 1366x768).

It's also important to check the monitor output choices, which vary from card to card. Some video cards, especially the NVIDIA FX5200 and FX5500 series, only come with a standard 15-pin VGA output, and don't have a DVI connector.

Many other cards feature one VGA and one DVI connector, with others including an S-Video or component video output which can be used to hook a computer to a standard television monitor.

Still others include two VGA or two DVI connectors, which can be handy for attaching multiple monitors to one computer.

It's also extremely important to check the size of the required power supply, as a few cards (such as the Diamond x1550PRO), require a power supply well in excess of 300 watts, and can burn up the cheaper power supply found on many inexpensive desktop computers.

PCI video card upgrades can cost from $50 to $150, so be careful to make the right choice.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Good Ideas In Wireless Accessories

2008-01-10T09:04:00.001-05:00

Wireless devices have been around for a long time, but in recent years have become both more reliable and more useful. It's worth taking a look at what's out there to see how going wireless can help improve your computing and other high-tech experiences.

Bluetooth Headsets – One of the best developments in recent years have been Bluetooth headsets, mainly for use with cell phones.

A number of states are mandating that drivers must use a headset if they want to use a cell phone while driving. Having a Bluetooth headset can make a world of difference in minimizing distractions and maximizing safety when it comes to cell use at the wheel.

A Bluetooth headset allows you to accept calls automatically without having to reach for a cell phone. On many headsets audio quality is as good or better than it will be using the phone itself, and the person on the other end of the call will often notice the difference as well.

Optional voice dialing plans available with some carriers and phones also allow users to make calls without using a keypad, which can be extremely useful for those needing to make calls from their vehicles.

If the phone is used for music playback and is stereo capable, Bluetooth stereo headsets such as the Motorola HT820 provide full stereo while continuing to serve as a phone headset.

Costs of Bluetooth headsets have fallen dramatically over the last year, with discounted units selling for under $25.

Wireless Keyboard/Mouse Combos – Many PC users have gone to using Wireless keyboard and mice over the past few years. The main reason for doing so has been to eliminate the need for cords to be running across desktops and workspaces, and the optical mouse has largely eliminated the need for mouse pads.

However, a somewhat harder to find item can be even more useful – the wireless keyboard containing a built-in pointing device.

The keyboards come in three general types, those with a trackball, others with a joystick that also functions as a mouse, and a few that feature a laptop-style touchpad with mouse buttons.

The trackballs in these keyboards are optical as well, allowing for greater precision and avoiding dirt. Mouse buttons and scroll wheels are located elsewhere on the keyboard, and most normal buttons including volume control, media playback and related functions are also enabled.

On keyboards with a mini-joystick, the joystick functions as either a mouse or a game controller, which can be especially handy for PC gamers who have their PC's hooked up to large monitors in a living room-type setting.

A third style featuring a laptop-style touchpad functions much the same as a laptop keyboard, with touch tapping and mouse buttons.

Many newer HDTV monitors have PC style DVI or VGA inputs, and computers designed for gaming and HD or Blu-Ray high-definition DVD playback are becoming more common. Hooking a PC up to one of these large monitors can make a huge difference, especially for gamers.

Both laptop and desktop computers are also available with Digital TV tuners and TIVO-style capture capability, making the long-touted Media Center PC ever-closer to reality, especially when used with a wireless keyboard combo.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Latest PDA Phones Make Even Better Choices

2008-01-02T06:55:00.000-05:00

It seems like every week there's a new phone on TV being touted for it's high-tech features. However, obtaining most of these phones at the advertised prices requires a two-year commitment with a specific carrier, so choosing the right phone is an important choice.

PDA Phones offering the convenience of a PDA/Mini-Computer continue to expand choices and features. There are a bewildering variety out there, but a few phones stand out from the pack.

Apple's iPhone has come down in price from its original hyped launch to a more palatable $400 for the 8GB model. While it isn't as advanced as Apple's super-slick advertising leads most to believe, it does what it does better than most phones. Web browsing, picture taking and music and video playback are better than on any other phone out there.

The iPhone's biggest drawback continues to be its sole availability through data-slow AT&T EDGE network, and its pricey phone plans. An announcement of an improvement to full 3G connectivity for the iPhone is rumored to be happening shortly. While the iPhone takes some of, if not the best pictures of any cell phone, it doesn't take movies. Instant Messaging is another missing feature from the iPhone some will find lacking.

Windows Mobile 6 is now in full release, and there are a number of excellent devices out there that use the improved Microsoft mobile operating system to good advantage.

One of the best is the new HTC Mogul from Sprint, sold as the XV6800 by Verizon. This phone is the successor to the very popular PPC-6700, which was the clear leader in Windows Mobile 5 PDA phones.

The Mogul/XV6800 uses the fastest EV-DO data netorks, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for the strongest connection options of any device on the U.S. market. It features a large slide-down keyboard, a blessing for those seeking a larger keypad to type large amounts of instant messages or text.

The Mogul/XV6800 can also be used as a high-speed modem to connect to a laptop, a handy feature for road warriors, especially in areas where free Wi-Fi can be difficult to come by.

It also records decent video and pictures, and can be used for video playback much like a video iPod. Sprint continues to lead the way in having the most reasonably priced data/voice combination plans in most cases.

AT&T's best bet in Windows Mobile 6 phones is the Tilt, which features a leading edge 3 Megapixel camera, multiple Bluetooth pairings including stereo, Wi-Fi, slide-down keyboard and a tilting screen that makes it the easiest to use for working on Microsoft Office documents or video watching. The Tilt is probably the most capable Windows Mobile 6 phone on the market, save for its lack of EV-DO data capability.

T-Mobile's best choices include the Sidekick LX, Blackberry 8800 with GPS navigation, and the Wing, which resembles the Mogul/XV6800 in having a slide-down keyboard, large display screen, Windows Mobile 6 and Bluetooth/Wi-Fi connectivity.

Palm's future has again become uncertain, and while its Treo line of phones remains the most popular and useful to true PDA Phone junkies, its lack of genuine improvements in the past year is beginning to show. The Palm Centro, the latest offering, offers a slicker looking device that has few real improvements over the 700-series phones that set the standard for PDA phones in recent years.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Cable's Lack Of Interest In HDTV

2007-12-26T06:31:00.000-05:00

2007 was the year the government, broadcasters, and equipment manufacturers finally began to get serious about the February, 2009 transition to digital television.

The first step was setting the date of February 17, 2009 in essential stone for the transition, with the Congress fending off a last attempt to delay the date early in the year.

The number of cheap analog-only TV's available for sale has dropped at the retail level, with more digital-ready sets at the ready. And the retail push for HDTV has been generating more interest in large-size screens good for movies and sports programs.

Strangely on the sidelines have been most of America's Cable companies, who have taken the position that they will be the last to the HDTV table in any wholesale sense. Cable has apparently decided it will be more profitable to continue to limit video capacity and wait for the final transition than add capacity, especially to aid broadcasters.

Cable has instead concentrated much of its development in the area of Internet access and telephone service, which require less ongoing investment and no programming negotiations, with cable serving as little more than a bandwidth provider.

Cable's seeming lack of interest in HDTV has opened up a major window for satellite television, which not long ago was teetering on the brink of disaster. Many of cable's most profitable customers have left for the dish, even with its numerous weather and service problems, in order to try and get a broader range of high-definition programming.

Cable's apparent willingness to let these customers go is a strange one, but a likely strategy is becoming apparent in doing so.

In largely ignoring HDTV, Cable can maintain its present amounts of video bandwidth and limit the development of additional channels of programming that are viable enough to either compete for advertising or demand significant rights fees.

As America's cable companies continue to own part or all of dozens of the most popular cable networks, limiting video bandwidth protects cable-owned network audiences from dilution by additional significant program sources.

By not carrying both the HDTV and analog signals of broadcasters, cable also has inhibited the development of local broadcasting's HDTV audience, as well as any additional revenues broadcasters have hoped to develop from using their FCC assigned bandwidth in additional ways, including the provision of Internet access.

This has left broadcasters absorbing many millions of dollars of costs at each station with essentially no growth in revenue from digital television to support it. Which in turn helps local cable compete better for advertising against weaker broadcasters.

Cable also sees an opportunity to drive penetration into the last of America's broadcast-only households, as analog-only sets become dark in February, 2009. After that date they will either require a converter, or a cable box. Cable will be more than happy to supply the latter, and you can expect a major push to do so in 2008.

In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court held in the 5-4 decision in "Turner Broadcasting System vs. FCC" that cable functioned in many respects as a vertically integrated monopoly. I served as the lead expert witness for the winning government and broadcasters in that case, and generated more than 100,000 pages of original research.

In watching Cable handle the transition to digital television, it's becoming apparent that the same thinking present ten years ago is still largely controlling the cable industry today. Cable wants to continue to control programming access to America's homes while expanding its reach into non-video markets.

This behavior portends yet another round of regulatory and judicial fights, which the Cable industry likely thinks it can win in this go-round, as the Court has become even more conservative.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Essential Utilities Help Make PC's More Useful

2007-12-12T14:25:00.000-05:00

Most of today's new computers come with a minimal software load and a lot of junk and trialware. One of the first things many users have to do is get rid of all the trialware and add the programs needed to make PC's more productive.

Here are some of my current recommendations, nearly all of which I install on the systems I set up and service.

Adobe Reader 8 – Adobe's free Reader software (formerly Acrobat Reader) has been around for years as the standard for reading web-friendly PDF documents. The latest version of Reader, although a somewhat large download (about 22MB) contains some useful added features including the ability to fill out forms online (if properly set up and offered). You can download Reader at www.adobe.com.

There are also Web sites available if you need to create your own PDF documents, including www.pdfonline.com, which can create or convert to PDF for free online in only a few minutes.

7-Zip – At some point nearly everyone will have a need to create a compressed Zip file containing several pictures or documents. These files can be handy for e-mail or distribution of multiple documents.

There are a number of well-known Zip applications around such as WinZip, but I've found the freeware Z-Zip works just as well, is smaller, and doesn't contain any ads or other annoyances. You can get it free at www.7-zip.org. 7-Zip also opens compressed files in multiple formats, and can be especially handy for those exchanging files with Mac users.

Weatherbug – Although there are a number of system tray weather applications out there, Weatherbug continues to offer the best information in the easiest to use interface.

Weatherbug installs in your system tray and provides instant access to temperature, forecast and emergency bulletins on a 24/7 basis. It's emergency bulletin handling is most useful, as it can instantly alert you to any weather bulletins in your specific area, and offers better alert targeting than conventional weather radios.

The free version of Weatherbug requires you select an ad sponsor from time to time, but it's a small price to pay for a highly useful freeware application. You can get it at www.weatherbug.com.

IObit Smart Defrag – One of the most common problems on PC's is fragmentation of data on hard drives. Although Windows contains a disk defragmenter, it cannot easily be set to run automatically or in the background when the system is idle.

Iobit's Smart Defrag freewware does that, allowing for regular scheduled complete defrags on multiple drives, as well as automatic defragging in the background of disk data, Regular disk defragmentation can speed PC performance and reduce wear and tear on hard drives. You can get Iobit Smart Defrag at www.iobit.com.

CleanCache 3.5 – Although its developer is no longer in business, this handy utility is still available to get rid of all kinds of cached, temp and history files.

Setup is fairly easy, and CleanCache works on multiple browsers such as Explorer, Firefox and Opera at the same time. You can also set it to clear your Internet history, temp files, and other material on your drive that's not needed. One the program is configured, you can open and run a complete cleanup in only one click. You can get CleanCache through several major file services including www.majorgeeks.com.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Best High-Tech Gift Bets For 2007

2007-12-05T12:36:00.000-05:00

It's holiday gift-giving season again, and there are plenty of choices this year for those looking for electronics and other high-tech gifts. Retailers are reporting electronics are some of this year's hottest sellers, so any of the choices below are likely a good bet.

Plasma HDTV's – Plasma televisions used to be reserved for those with near-unlimited budgets when making the switch to digital television. However, the past year has seen a plunge in the price of plasma televisions to levels much closer to their DLP and LCD competitors. Even in larger sizes, plasma televisions are now usually only a small premium, and the quality of pictures is often worth it.

DLP sets are also a good choice, but will eventually require an expensive projection bulb replacement that cannot be avoided. I recommend when buying any set to be sure it displays native 1080i resolution, the maximum digital standard that will be used by the broadcasting industry for the foreseeable future.

Satellite HDTV – America's cable companies have often been woefully slow to offer many HDTV choices, and have sometimes charged a hefty premium for even a few channels. This has opened the door for DBS satellite carriers to gain an unprecedented foothold in delivering digital television services.

Even with a February 2009 switch to fully digital television on the horizon, the only way most consumers can get much full digital television is via DBS. Both DirecTV and Dish Network now claim to offer more than 70 channels of HD programming, with dozens more on the way.

Upconverting DVD Players – Although competition is often healthy in high-tech areas, occasionally it leads to competitive problems where differing formats can lead to headaches for the consumer.

Such is the case with high-definition DVD systems, where the competing Blu-Ray and HD formats have reached a near-stalemate in offering true high-definition video, with no resolution likely in the near-term future. That leaves movie buffs having to buy multiple DVD playback systems or very expensive dual-format players that can handle both systems.

A better choice for now for many will be an upconverting DVD player.. These DVD players can electronically scale standard DVD's to HDTV monitors, and offer an improvement over standard DVD players at only a small premium in cost. Prices in the last year have fallen to well under $100 in many cases for upconverting DVD players, in some cases less than $50. They are a good choice to go with that new HDTV set.

iTunes Gift Cards – It seems nearly every teen, and many adults, have an iPod. As such, gift cards for the iTunes music service are often a well-appreciated gift. Available at most major retailers and in a variety of denominations, these cards offer access to the millions of songs and videos contained in the iTunes library.

Flash Memory Cards – Another item that has seen a precipitous price drop in the past year are flash memory cards used in digital cameras and phones. These cards can store thousands of pictures and songs, and a 2GB card has now dropped to under $30 in most cases.

Be sure you know what format the phone or digital camera takes from the many possible choices, or just buy a gift card instead to be sure the right one is chosen.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Connectors Are Key In Digital Audio & Video World

2007-11-27T23:59:00.000-05:00

The move to high-definition television and digital audio has brought with it a huge expansion in the number and types of video connectors seen in audio and video equipment.

The importance of understanding these connectors was driven home to me recently when I saw a major retail chain advertising a name-brand upconverting DVD player for $30, a new low in retail pricing for a player that converts standard DVD's to something closer to high-definition video.

However, the cable required to connect the cable to a high-definition TV was $35, and if you wanted to add a coaxial digital audio cable for output to a surround sound system (provided the receiver had the correct input), you would have to fork out another $10-20.

So as you ready yourself for holiday electronics purposes, here's an idea of what to look for:

Composite Audio/Video – These connectors, known commonly as “RCA Plugs”, have been the standard audio and video connectors for decades for most equipment. They were only designed, however, for analog signals. RCA connectors remain what you'll find packed, in many cases, with most DVD players and televisions, leaving you to have to buy additional connecting cables. And this is where things begin to get tricky.

S-Video – Around twenty years ago the first attempt to improve video was made through S-Video connections for the video portion of the signal. While still in the analog realm, these connectors kept the red, blue and green signals separate until they reached the television, allowing for higher-quality video at somewhat greater resolution.

DVI – With the advent of digital video, things began to get trickier. The first commonly used digital video connectors were DVI connectors. These look like a larger version of the VGA connector that computer monitors commonly use to this day. DVI connectors are now almost exclusively digital, but some early connectors were actually DVI-A (for analog), making things even more confusing.

Coaxial Digital Audio – This single cable uses RCA plugs, but is substantially different (and not compatible) with regular RCA cables. It is most used to output true digital audio to receivers used in 5.1 and other digital surround sound environments.

Component Video – Yet another variation on the video cable and connector maze is component video. These connectors also use RCA-style plugs, but keep the video separate in red, green and blue like S-Video. Because of their design and heavier construction, they allow for high-definition signals to be passed to monitors which have the correct inputs.

Optical Audio – These light fiber connectors use light to transfer digital audio signals, and are some of the best cables available in terms of issues like noise. Their connectors tend be be somewhat fragile however, and they are not commonly used as a result.

HDMI – These simple but expensive cables are among the easiest to connect and carry both digital audio and video, and are the best choice for large monitors that have their own built-in surround style-systems. However, be prepared to add another type of cable to output digital audio to a receiver, unless the DVD in question has multiple HDMI outputs and your corresponding equipment has the required inputs.

It's also common for a DVD player to have an HDMI output, while a monitor may only have a DVI input. An HDMI-to-DVI adapter cable can handle the job.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Travel Sites Provide Genuine Discounts With Smart Shopping

2007-11-21T02:56:00.000-05:00

The major holiday travel season is here, and millions of Americans are looking to the Web for travel bargains. The number of travel sites that have useful information has grown in recent years – here are some of my favorites to help make traveling a more cost-effective experience.

There are two major online discount travel providers, Priceline (www.priceline.com) and Hotwire (www.hotwire.com). Each takes a slightly different approach to offering sometimes substantial discounts to travel bargain seekers.

Priceline is the better known of the two for offering discounted hotel rooms, car rentals and air travel.

Priceline's biggest saver is usually in hotel rooms. Select a destination and dates through the “Name Your Own Price” option, and you'll be presented with a list of available room types according to a grading system between one and five stars, and a map showing the general area where the hotels are located.

Major metropolitan areas often have several areas defined, such as “Airport” and “Downtown”, so it's usually possible to find hotels in the area you're seeking.

Enter a date range and price along with the star level you desire, and in a few seconds you'll receive an answer as to whether your price was accepted.

Priceline also offers a bid your own price service for airfare, auto rentals and cruises. The airfare service is usually for travelers who have the most flexibility, as you must be prepared to take any flight offered on a given day in order to have a chance of winning. Car rentals on Priceline are by days, location and vehicle class.

Hotwire offers specific hotels according to grading and location at a specific price without bidding. Hotwire also offers discounted car rentals by car class and location.

Neither service reveals the specific hotel, flight or car chosen until after a bid has been received, accepted and charged to a credit card. Both add a small additional booking fee to hotel rentals, and both add taxes as required to whatever the base amount charged is.

Travelers will also need to contact the hotels directly to insure they receive bed and smoking preferences. In most cases, hotels are willing to accept such requests, but they are not guaranteed at the time of payment.

The biggest issues with each service most travelers have is the fact they are not guaranteed a specific hotel, and this is indeed a limitation.

However, two user forums often provide information that with a little research, can provide both the likely hotel to be received, as well as the lowest amount to bid on Priceline likely to be accepted.

BiddingForTravel.com is often an excellent resource for hotel pricing information. With some practice you can often know ahead of time what hotel you'll receive in a given zone at a given star level, as well as the total cost with taxes and fees.

From my experience when using BiddingForTravel, I receive the specific hotel I am expecting about 70% of the time. However, any traveler has to be prepared to accept a different hotel than the one expected when using Priceline.

BiddingForTravel also contains feedback about car rentals and airplane rates, although air travel feedback is often very limited.

Another site offering user feedback on Priceline and Hotwire is BetterBidding.com. This site is especially useful for Hotwire, as travelers can often tell the specific hotel offered based on the amenities shown in the Hotwire description.

With a little practice, using these services can usually save travelers hundreds of dollars on hotel and other charges on a week-long stay.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Web Browser Wars Return To Surfer Benefit

2007-11-14T04:05:00.000-05:00

The world of the Internet browser has been a pendulum, of sorts, since the Internet first started to become a factor in people's lives in the early and mid-1990's.

Back then, Netscape's Navigator software ruled the Web browser world for PC's, and Microsoft's Internet Explorer was looked upon as a poor stepchild in comparison by most users.

This lack of focus was in large part due to the vision, or in this case lack thereof, of founder Bill Gates, who in 1993 was quoted as saying “The Internet? We are not interested in it”.

It didn't take long for Gates to realize his mistake, and by the time Windows 98 was released, Microsoft had developed and integrated a Web browser into Windows.

Internet Explorer had also rapidly became more functional, while Netscape's Navigator seemed content to largely hold its ground, largely failing to see the impact multimedia would eventually have on the Web.

In 1999 Netscape was purchased by America Online, who many thought made the purchase to switch its then-dominant AOL Internet access service away from using an integrated version of Internet Explorer.

However, that effort was stillborn, and AOL was never released, short of a single Beta version, with Netscape as the integrated browser.

For several years, Internet Explorer continued as the unchallenged leader in Web browsers, but also failed to do much additional development. Again, this lack of focus created an opportunity for other players to gain a foothold, which has now become a full-fledged competition again.

As Web pages have become more complex and media intensive, the pressure on the Web browser to use as few system resources as possible while rendering as much content as possible has grown considerably.

One of Microsoft's biggest problems has become its overriding goal of security, which has led it to hamstring Internet Explorer's functionality, and make the process of acquiring Internet content both cumbersome and resource intensive.

The reality has been that this security has become so onerous as to cause some users to switch it off almost entirely, while others have set out in search of a less difficult browsing experience.

The biggest winner in all of this has been Mozilla's Firefox, which has grown in three years from near-zero to nearly 15% of the browser market as of October, 2007.

Firefox was the one of first to offer tabbed browsing, allowing users to open tabs, rather than new windows, for each Web page visited. It also integrated an anti-phishing scheme to prevent browser redirects and takeovers.

Firefox was born of developer desires to strip down the browser and let users add on specific features as needed, rather than bloating the browser with more and more features many users didn't need, and slowing the entire experience as a result.

My recent experiences have been that certain Web sites including GMail and MySpace often render faster, and better, with Firefox than they do with Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer 7 had a ton of bugs when it was released, and although many of those have now been resolved, it still often has trouble with certain Web sites, especially those with lots of content it sometimes fails to properly cache.

So, if you're looking for an alternative Web experience, try Firefox. It too has its quirks and issues, but it's a worthy add to most PC's.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

64-bit Windows Vista A Largely Empty Promise

2007-11-07T05:22:00.000-05:00

For the last several months I have been using a laptop computer designed for Microsoft's new top-of-the line operating system, Windows Ultimate 64-bit. I have actually ended up using the system more than first planned because of a concurrent hardware failure in a Windows XP laptop.

Doing so has given me more of a taste of Vista than I first imagined, and as a long-time Microsoft Partner, I wish I could say the news is better. In all fairness, it is not.

When Microsoft launched Vista almost one year ago, expectations were high that PC users were about to enter a world of vastly improved multi-tasking, multimedia, security, and computer performance.

The unfortunate reality is that Vista has mostly failed to deliver on all of those fronts, with 64-bit computing and all it promises largely left behind, while Microsoft pushed forward an operating system that failed to capitalize on nearly every advantage originally touted.

I spoke with Microsoft representatives in Redmond several months ago about what the realities of 64-bit Vista in fact were, and then decided to give Vista 64 more of a chance than what my original conclusions had led me to believe.

The interim period has in fact only affirmed what I first concluded – that nearly all the promises of 64-bit computing, the original reason a switch to Vista made potential sense, have been left behind to be adopted at some unknown point years away in the practical future.

Let me be frank here – a viewing of the User Support Forums at any of the major PC manufacturer Web sites will show hundreds, if not thousands, of people desperately seeking Windows XP drivers for new machines in the hope of returning computers to a more usable state. The number of persons seeking help in this area borders on staggering.

The reality is that many new machines only have Vista drivers available, and users are scrambling to make systems work with older applications.

One PC tech in a major office supply store I spoke with reported a customer buying a new top-end desktop was incensed after being quoted a $300 charge to load XP onto his new machine, with no promises everything would in fact work properly after same.

Microsoft claims that the vast majority of Vista users are in fact very satisfied with their new computers. While that may be true for many basic users, more sophisticated users have often found Vista lacking.

What's more remarkable, and less reported, is the fact that, according to Microsoft, less than 1% of machines being sold at the retail level are loaded with 64-bit Vista.

Let me repeat that – less than 1%.

There is nothing inherently safer about 32-bit Windows Vista than 32-bit Windows XP. While Vista may do a better job of using more RAM, its touted Aero interface, especially when used with the Sidebar feature, is a tremendous resource gobbler in and of itself.

My experience with most users is that they are far more concerned with having a system that is usable, reliable, and easy to maintain than they are how pretty the interface might be. Microsoft lost the pretty interface crowd to Apple years ago, and Aero isn't about to bring Mac users back.

What Microsoft should have done, rather than spend a fortune touting Vista as the "next big thing", which it only can be in a true 64-bit environment, was to devote some of the gigantic marketing budget to providing developers incentives to write native 64-bit applications, and then sold users on the idea of truly enhanced performance, rather than a prettier shell.

What should have been the next major advancement in computer performance has instead become the latest, and by far the largest, empty promise in the recent history of personal computing.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Music Industry Continues Attack On File Sharing

2007-10-31T06:27:00.000-04:00

One of the scarier stories in recent weeks for computer users was a judgment of $222,000 against a 30 year-old Minnesota single mother convicted of uploading 24 songs to a popular file sharing service.

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is the leading enforcer of copyright rules for the music industry in the name of protecting artist rights and revenues. In doing so they have become synonymous with tactics many music lovers see as Gestapo-like, the Minnesota case being the latest and most egregious example thereof.

The RIAA has also recently sent pre-litigation letters to 19 major U.S. universities, including the University of South Florida, threatening legal action if immediate steps are not taken to block campus networks from being used to download music from file sharing services.

A recent case in German courts has also put a significant dent in the eDonkey file sharing network, closing many of the primary servers that contained user file information that resided on German soil. Although servers from other countries have stepped in, the number of available files and users have both seen a significant drop since the ruling in the German case.

The reality is that the traditional music industry has seen a shakeup unlike anything in its century-old history prior. And that same industry has been left reeling from its own mistakes and ineptitude, while often blaming file sharing as the sole reason profits and revenues have been in a tailspin for years.

The real reasons for the decline of the traditional music industry run much deeper, and most often end with a mirror-view the business seems loathe to accept, as in “We have seen the enemy, and he is us”.

First and foremost, the industry did not see the advantage of digital file sharing through services such as iTunes and Napster until long after the horse had left the proverbial barn. The growth of pirate file-sharing networks was such that the industry was caught off guard, and even legal services such as iTunes were able to negotiate rates for music purchases that set a lower standard than today's market would likely demand.

In the meantime, artists have also begun to rebel against the traditional music business like never before. The popular band Radiohead made huge headlines recently in allowing users to download their new album and pay whatever they wished to do so, without any support from a record company.

One of the band's cited influences, composer Joseph Byrd, filed a letter in the 2002 Napster case stating he'd never received a penny from album sales totaling in the hundreds of thousands of units for nearly four decades from a major record label. Dozens of similar stories exist, especially from artists who became famous in the 1950's and 60's.

Another story circulating among musicians is an accounting from singer Courtney Love, who details how $10 million became nearly nothing after paying production, promotion and touring expenses from a recent contract.

These conflicts have made musicians extremely wary of traditional music companies, and most new artists now try and self-produce their own music with varying degrees of success. The music business has responded by supporting fewer upcoming bands and trying to rely more on mass-market appeal, which has in turn lowered the overall quality and diversity of music being offered.

One other key factor has been the wholesale change of MTV from a music promotional vehicle to something that often has nothing to do with music at all, prompting a plea from singer Justin Timberlake on a recent awards show.

It's likely this shift will continue, driven by the Internet and historic industry practices that no longer seem to work. The eventual winners will be those who figure out how to actually make a profit in the increasingly digital age while embracing the new technologies that millions have adopted.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Use Common Sense To Avoid Online Scams

2007-10-24T08:20:00.000-04:00

Amazingly, some online frauds that have been around for years continue to be advertised day and day out via e-mail and Web sites worldwide.

Even though many of these scams are well-known, the fact they continue to generate millions of spam e-mails means only one thing – that some Internet users still fall prey.

Here are some of the most common scams and frauds out there, which should be studiously avoided at all costs.

Offers To Transfer Large Sums Of Money From A Foreign Source – The usual offer here is that the family of some dignitary, often from Africa, is in need of a conduit to receive a large amount of cash in the U.S.

If only you will provide a small amount of deposit “capital” to assist in moving these funds, potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars will soon be winging its way to you in return.

Winner of Internet or Foreign Sweepstakes – You receive an e-mail one day that indicates that you have been chosen as a lucky winner in an Internet or foreign sweepstakes, often from Ireland, In return for s small deposit to cover expenses of the money transfer, you'll be awarded a huge cash prize.

Russian Women Who Want To Come To The U.S. And Marry American Men - Another scam that has been around for years, this one plays on the idea that there are millions of Russian women that are desperate to come to the United States.

While that may or may not ultimately be true, the scam here is that these women are ready to jump on a plane at a moment's notice to fly to the U.S. and meet men in return for travel finds and expenses.

These “women” often send lengthy letters full of details and pictures from their current lives to men found on online dating sites. There are a few legitimate agencies that handle these American/Russian meetings, but all of them advise men to travel to Russia to meet women in person, rather than vice-versa.

Phony E-Mail & Web Sites Looking For Financial Information – One of the most common schemes, called “phishing” . If you receive an e-mail from your bank or credit card company asking you to provide financial or personal information, be immediately suspect.

These businesses do not use e-mail to request credit information from users. In most cases the scam involves a computer breakdown or security breech which calls for you to verify your credit information, often linked to a dummy Web site that looks much like the real thing for a bank, eBay or PayPal.

Password Stealing – Another online scam is to gain the passwords of e-mail or other accounts to that can be used to send out spam mail or announcements of various types.

One of the newer tricks here is to post what appears to be a YouTube video in e-mail or on MySpace, which when clicked requires the user to re-enter a user name and password. If you've already entered a user name and password on MySpace to enter your personal Web page, you should not need to re-enter it to view a video.

The old adage is “If something seems too good to be true, it most likely is” is even more applicable in the world of the Web.

The best way to deal with these schemes is to err on the side of caution. If you even think you may have inadvertently supplied financial information or passwords, immediately log in and change passwords on those accounts, and if need be, contact your financial supplier by phone to have transactions frozen.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Use Folders To Keep PC & Mail Organized

2007-10-17T09:20:00.000-04:00

More and more correspondence is being transferred from the printed world to computers and e-mail.

While there are plenty of advantages to this, the need to keep mail and programs organized is just as great, if not more so, on your personal computer.

Much like the need for a filing cabinet and folders for important bills and correspondence, a PC needs folders to do the most effective job of keeping track of information.

For example, most computers I see that use e-mail programs like Outlook Express have a single Inbox folder, often containing many thousands of messages.

What I recommend users do instead is to select their most frequent subjects and clients and create folders within the Inbox where all related incoming mail can be easily dragged and dropped.

To create a new Inbox folder in Outlook Express, for example, highlight the Inbox folder with a left mouse click, then right click the mouse and choose “New Folder”.

Type in a short name for the desired subject, and you'll have created a folder that any correspondence related to that subject can be more quickly reviewed and retrieved.

The same procedure can be followed for the Sent Folder as well if needed. Use the Edit and Find functions in Outlook Express, and you can locate all your correspondence on a given subject and move it to the specific folder.

Using folders has several advantages including faster location and retrieval of relevant mail, the ability to look at all your correspondence with a given client quickly and easily, and less chance of a gigantic Inbox file becoming data corrupted, which can result in a disastrous loss of information.

The same type of system can generally be adopted for any popular e-mail programs including Outlook, Thunderbird, and Entourage. Some Web mail programs, including the latest version of Yahoo! Mail, allow users to create additional folders.

Creating additional folders on computers is useful in at least two additional areas as well.

The first is in the main Programs List which contains all the shortcuts to launch programs on a PC.

Highlight “Programs” in the All Programs list, and then right click to Open All Users. When presented with the list of programs under Start Menu, highlight Programs, then click File and New and create a new Folder.

The main idea in doing this is to group multiple relevant programs together in a single folder, much like Windows, for example, includes numerous programs under the Accessories Folder, and then uses Sub-folders like System Tools for PC maintenance programs.

Some of the like folders I often create include Audio & Video, Web Browsers & Mail, Photo & Graphics, and PC Health, where I place all anti-virus and system maintenance programs in a single folder.

I find the latter especially helpful in serving as a reminder of what programs should be run on an ongoing basis to keep a PC in best operating condition.

The other way I use folders is for organizing program and other downloads. Create a New Folder via Windows Explorer on your hard drive for each program you download. It's also a good idea to put any relevant serial numbers and purchase information in the same folder for ready reference.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Convert Video for Portable And Online Playback

2007-10-08T05:42:00.000-04:00

As the demand for video online and in devices like video iPods increases, so are the options for getting it into the proper format. With some practice and patience, a variety of tools exist to help transfer home movies and other video to online and portable formats.

In some cases freeware programs exist, in others programs you already own may include a video converter.

As an example, the popular Nero software supplied with some cameras and computers includes a program called Recode which allows users to convert videos to sources compatible with iPods and other portable playback devices.

One of the more recent improvements in video encoding is the H.264, or AVC, encoding standard.

Use of this latest standard is becoming widespread throughout the video production and online video businesses because of its ability to create high-quality video with considerable detail in both compressed and high-definition formats.

The Nero Recode software allows users to insert video from DVD's and other sources and customize the output to match the desired device.

A set of custom profiles including Mobile, Portable and High-Definition are built into the Recode software. Recode can also be used to prepare video from cameras to be burned onto CD's and DVD's in a few clicks.

Nero Recode also allows for simple trimming and editing of movies, as well as adding chapters to DVD's and creating single DVD's from multiple videos and sources.

Other common commercial programs found with numerous computers and cameras that often include conversion software are Adobe Premiere, Ulead Video Studio, and Roxio Easy Media Creator.

If you want to get video onto your mobile phone, one of the most popular free programs is Israel-based MediaCell Video Converter (www.download.com).

The program includes phone-specific profiles for dozens of cell phones including Apple, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony and Palm Treo.

MediaCell also provides modes for popular portable video players including the Sony PSP and Video iPod. The program has been noted for its very fast preparation of converted video files.

Another easy-to-use free program is Any Video Converter. This program offers a variety of conversion options including DVD creation, Flash movies, and movies for various portable devices including iPod, PSP and Zune.

One of the more useful features of Any Video Converter is its ability to burn a PAL-format DVD that can be sent to viewers in Europe and other countries using that alternate video format. Any Video Converter can also be found at www.download.com.

If you hope to get your video up on YouTube, remember that in most cases it must be shorter than 11 minutes in length, and less than 100MB in size. If you have movies that have been shot on video cameras or DVD's, you may well find you need to use a program like the ones above to shrink your video before it can be uploaded.

One other tip about YouTube – do not convert your video to Flash before uploading to YouTube (which uses Flash). Better quality can be achieved by using a format such as MP4 or MOV, which will show less degeneration when put through the YouTube compression process.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Multi-Messengers Keep Users In Touch

2007-10-02T01:35:00.000-04:00

One of the most common issues PC instant messenger users encounter is having friends and business associates who use different services.

AOL, Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ and Jabber are some of the instant messengers in common use today. If you use separate applications to try and keep up with instant messaging across these applications, chances are you;s tie both yourself and your system up in virtual knots.

The best answer to this issue is to use a multi-messenger that combines features and buddy lists from several applications that allow users to keep in contact with others across several platforms.

On the PC side, the best application for doing so is also a free application – Trillian (www.trillian.cc).

Trillian combines the buddy lists of AOL/AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ and IRC into one convenient list. Different color icons help identify which service each contact is using.

Trillian supports standard features such as audio chat, file transfers, group chats, chat rooms (on some services), buddy icons, multiple simultaneous connections to the same network, server-side contact importing, typing notification, direct connection (AIM), proxy support, encrypted messaging (AIM/ICQ), SMS support, and privacy settings.

The basic version of Trillian is free, does not serve ads, and does not include any spyware or adware.

Trillian Pro adds support for video chat on multiple networks, as well as other multimedia features and messengers for $25. If you don't need those features, the free Trillian will likely suit your needs.

Another free Windows IM client offering compatible versions back to Windows 95 is Miranda IM (www.miranda-im.org). Miranda keys on using as limited system resources as possible.

Apple/Mac users also have options when it comes to multi-messengers.

Adium is a program that can handle AOL, Bonjour, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber, Google Talk, MSN, and IRC in a single interface. Unlike many areas where it's often tough to find good freeware programs for Macs, Adium is a free application (www.adiumx.com).

More and more messaging is done from mobile phones, and using a multi-messenger can offer advantages over text messaging in terms of cost and versatility.

For Palm and Windows Mobile phone users, the best choice I've found is Mundu Messenger (www.mundu.com).

Mundu Messenger combines AOL/AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ, Jabber and Google Talk! into a simple interface that is easy to use on mobile devices. It's not free, but its one-time $11 price is reasonable for its usability.

Mundu also plans to release a version for Symbian mobile phones, and a new iPhone program is also available.

Another multi-messenger for the iPhone is Heysan!, which offers IM services through AIM, MSN and ICQ in a free program at www.heysan.com.

Another multi-messenger program that is designed to work with iPhones, and other Web browsers, is Meebo (www.meebo.com).

Enter your AIM/AOL, Yahoo!, MSN and Google Talk! ID's into the browser screen, and Meebo creates a Web-based buddy list without having to download any added software.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Disk Defragmenter Utilities Help Improve System Performance

2007-09-25T06:19:00.000-04:00

One of the most common complaints about PC's is that over time, they tend to run slower and slower.

Even more so than today's automobiles, computers are prone to significant performance degradation over time.

In what seems an ironic twist, today's cars containing multiple computers use those systems to require even less regular maintenance than PC's.

Fortunately, a number of freeware utilities have appeared recently that can help with maintaining PC hard drive performance. Here are a couple of my personal favorites:

Many PC owners know that occasionally (I recommend weekly) running the Disk Defragmenter found in the System Tools folder is a good idea.

Best used with the adjacent Disk Cleanup program, Disk Defragmenter reorders the data on a disk to make it faster for Windows to find data on a hard drive, improving performance.

Far fewer users know that Windows Disk Defragmenter is actually a (very) “lite” version of Diskeeper (www.diskeeper.com), a professional program that has been in use for years in professional and enterprise-level commercial applications which are required to process as much information as possible as fast as possible.

The drawback for most home PC users to Diskeeper is its cost, starting at around $50. However, two new freeware disk defragmenters have recently become available that can help improve on the performance of the standard Disk Defragmenter.

The first is the Auslogics Disk Defrag (www.auslogics.com). This simple to use free program performs additional steps beyond the standard Windows version to help reorder drive data.

I recently used this program on a system that had been serviced with Windows Disk Defragmenter. The Auslogics Disk Defrag program found the drive was still almost 25% fragmented, and was able to bring that down to under 10% by the time it was finished.

Auslogics Disk Defrag is available for Windows 2000, XP and Vista systems. It;s usually a good idea to run it once a week at night without other tasks running.

If your system is running well and has plenty of free memory, a second program can offer the same kind of “on-the fly” disk defragmentation that expensive paid programs provide.

The IOBit SmartDefrag program (www.iobit.com) actually runs continuously in the background, optimizing data and disk performance automatically.

This freeware utility has received strong reviews from most major software sites, and with good reason. It's the only easy-to-use free utility of its type that runs in the background, unlike Windows Disk Defragmenter or other programs that users have to remember to run an regular intervals for maximum usefulness.

The downside of SmartDefrag is the fact that like any program running in the background on a PC, it uses system memory that is also used for other tasks.

My experience with SmartDefrag suggests that it is best used on Windows XP systems with at least 1GB of system RAM, and on Vista systems with at least 2GB.

Keeping both of these free programs on hand and running them on a regular basis can help keep system performance at levels closer to when systems were new.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Musicians Reach Out To Fans Directly Online

2007-09-17T07:14:00.000-04:00

While the music industry's complaints about online file sharing are no secret, the flip side of music online is that finding information about musicians has never been easier.

Traditional record companies are being bypassed in favor of direct communications between artist and fans.

While traditional music promotion continues to be valuable, more and more musicians are realizing that communicating directly with potential buyers is growing increasingly important in a world where increasing numbers of consumers young, and old, are buying music directly for their iPods, rather than hoping their local record store has an item in stock.

One of the biggest drivers of this shift to direct communication between artist and public has been the social networking site MySpace (www.myspace.com).

Around two years ago, MySpace began offering free musician accounts, allowing artists to post a set of songs, combined with easy ways to accumulate members, post performance calendars, and send out information or release bulletins to those who'd joined the site.

Almost overnight, musicians and bands that had previously faced building custom Web sites requiring considerable time and expense had a way to generate an online presence in only a few hours with little or no Web site creation expertise.

MySpace also offered the means to readily recruit a set of base members by doing a search of the MySpace existing membership, and then sending an invitation to join a MySpace site dealing directly with a band or musician.

In most cases, those persons who already expressing an interest in a particular band or musician as a part of their MySpace profile are more than happy to join a MySpace page dealing with said artist.

In a nutshell, these sites provide a high-level working example of just how social networking was supposed to work – providing an opportunity for perilsons with like interests to easy find and communicate with each other.

Musicians, especially those from outside mainstream radio airplay, have found MySpace makes one of the most effective ways of reaching out to their fan base at very little cost. Some musicians are now actively posting performance samples on sites such as YouTube in the hope of drawing new listeners.

The success of MySpace musician accounts have spread so rapidly that even some of music's biggest artists, most recently Bruce Springsteen, have erected MySpace Music pages.

An example of MySpace's potential reach was seen in the creation of a home page for a 1970's latin jazz-rock group called Azteca (www.myspace.com/aztecaband).

Azteca Reunion Concert, September 15, 2007 - Photo By Tom Meek

After not performing for more than three decades, the creation of a MySpace page for the band announcing a reunion concert was a key factor in helping to create a successful concert with hundreds of fans in attendance.

The site will also be used as a key component to help promote and market a DVD being produced from the same concert event.

Thousands of musicians now have MySpace pages announcing concert events, communicating directly with fans, and providing the opportunity to both listen to and now directly sell music to consumers.

It's likely the music business will only continue to evolve in this direct marketing model, rather than relying on traditional retail delivery. Doing so may eventually mean musicians will earn a greater percentage of the income their talent ultimately generates.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Cyberville Q&A Answers Firewall and Picture Moving Questions

2007-09-10T07:40:00.000-04:00

Q: I have dial-up Internet service and want to buy firewall software for added protection. I am also considering upgrading to a home network with DSL service that will run two other computers in my house. My computer runs Windows XP – what should I buy?

A: If you stick with dial-up service, firewall software is not generally regarded as necessary. The reasons for this are three-fold.

First, your computer is assigned a different IP address every time it connects to the Intenet, and is therefore harder for a hacker to potentially locate.

Second, few potential hackers are concerned about data transfer over dial-up connections, which are too slow to be useful to most.

Third, most computers using dial-up are also using a shared phone line with voice calls, which means they are only connected to the Web on an intermittent basis.

If you switch to a home network with DSL, then you need a firewall, as your computer will generally stay connected (which is actually a good thing) to the Web at all times, and do it through either a Static (fixed) IP address, or through a range of IP addresses generally well-known to those who might wish to cause mischief.

The good news is that in either case, your Windows XP (or Vista) computer comes with built-in free firewall software as part of the operating system.

To turn it on, just go to Help and type in “firewall”. Follow the prompts and your firewall will be activated. It generally requires little attention or additional user information, and is a good choice for most home computers.

If you end up connecting multiple computers to a home DSL network, you will need to use a router. Again, the good news here is that routers also have a built-in firewall called NAT (Newtork Address Translation).

NAT effectively hides the computers on its side of the Internet, as the router presents a false IP address to any program that might be trying to search for that computer's IP address.
Some routers also offer a hardware firewall, which offers additional protection and can be configured for specific applications by a technician or high-level user.

Q: I am trying to copy most of my pictures to an external hard drive, but I cannot erase them easily from my system drive after I do. I want to leave a few pictures on the system, and move most. What can I do?

A: In your case, use Windows Explorer's “Move” command, rather than “Copy”.

Use Windows Explorer (in Accessories on most newer PC's) to open the folder, such as “My Pictures”, where the images are located.

Click Edit, then Select All. If you want to leave some pictures on your PC, hold down the CTRL key, then click the left mouse button to de-select those images from being moved. Go to Edit, click on Move To Folder, and select the folder or hard drive where you want to move the pictures.

Practicing this will allow you to keep most of your picture files on an external hard drive, saving that space, and also back up your images to an external drive.

You can also take that drive with you if you want to work on another system, or show someone else the pictures now stored on the drive.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Free Software Can Outfit A New Computer

2007-09-02T20:44:00.000-04:00

Perhaps you've been thinking about buying a new computer, but have held off because of the cost of buying new software.

It's not unusual for the cost of a common set of software programs including an office suite, anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, photo processing and media recording and playback to cost more than a low-end PC.

Fortunately, there are good free alternatives that can be used to make a very functional computer, legally, without spending a cent on additional software. If you think it can't be done, read on.

Office Software – Sun's OpenOffice will take care of word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, flow charts and database needs for most individuals and small businesses.

Although you can buy OpenOffice in a retail box, it's available for a completely free download at http://www.openoffice.org/.

Open Office can also create Microsoft-compatible documents, spreadsheets and presentations, simply by using the “Save As” command for a variety of compatible format choices.

Anti-Virus – It's common to spend $50 or more for an anti-virus program. And that program will generally charge an annual subscription renewal fee that as much on top of the initial cost.

The alternative is a free program from European companies AVG or Avast!, which do the same thing as a paid program at no charge. These companies sell paid and premium versions for business customers, but offer free software to home and personal users without cost.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition (http://free.grisoft.com/) can easily be set to download updates and run full system scans every night, if you're willing to leave your computer on. Avast! Home Edition (http://www.avast.com/) updates itself automatically as long as your computer is connected to the Internet. Both programs perform the same functions as McAfee or Norton without cost.

Anti-Spyware/Adware – Spybot and Ad Aware Personal Edition make a good tandem in fighting to keep your computer free of the never-ending glut of garbage nearly any Web surfer will readily acquire.

While both programs have to be updated and run manually in their free versions, doing so on a weekly basis will rid your system of most of the annoying junk that degrades system performance and serves up annoying ads.

Add in Microsoft's free Windows Defender for XP and Vista systems, and your PC will keep running better month after month. All three programs can obtained free of charge at http://www.download.com/.

Photo Processing – A number of good free photo programs are now available. One of the best is XnView (http://www.download.com/) which offers some advanced features while maintaining a simpler interface.

PDF Reader – PDF files are a way of life on the Web and in business. The free Adobe Reader program (http://www.adobe.com/) makes reading and saving those files a snap. A quick Web search can also find freeware programs that can create PDF files online.

Media Playback & CD Creation - A host of programs make CD creation and DVD playback possible. Among the best are Real Player 11 (http://www.real.com/) Windows Media Player (http://www.download.com/) and The KMPlayer (http://www.kmplayer.com/). The KMPlayer is a stand alone DVD player with many advanced features.

Other good freeware choices are 7-Zip (file compression), Gmail (free e-mail able to be read and sent through free mail programs like Outlook Express or Windows Mail), and Mozilla's Firefox, a Web browser that's a good alternative to Internet Explorer, especially on Windows Vista. And both Vista and XP have a free built-in firewall, just type “firewall” in Help to turn it on in a few mouse clicks.

Using this set of free programs will take care of more than 90% of the needs of the average computer user.

All without costing an added cent.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Digital Superzooms Make True All-In-One Cameras

2007-08-27T11:32:00.001-04:00

One of the greatest shifts in technology has been the advent of digital photography replacing film over the past five years.

Conventional film usage has done nothing short of plummet, while the rise of digital photography has seen a huge upswing.

Digital photography's rise has generally been keyed by multiple factors – the reusability of digital media, increases in the number of camera megapixels (MP) offered at lower costs, and the rapid increase in the size of digital flash cards allowing more pictures to be taken at higher resolutions.

And now a further digital development is likely to add the Single-Lens-Reflex (SLR) camera with interchangeable lenses to the endangered species list.

The latest generation of “superzoom” cameras is here, and the cost of these cameras has now come down to where most photographers will gladly shelve their bulky camera bags in favor of a single do-it-all camera that will fit handily in a purse or pouch.

These cameras offer huge zoom ranges in compact packages for little more than the cost of a good SLR zoom lens alone. And while professional photographers may still prefer individual lenses for specific uses, the vast majority of amateur photographers will see digital superzoom cameras as being little short of a panacea for most imaging needs.

I recently had the opportunity to test, courtesy of Kodak, the Z712-IS superzoom camera.

It features a 12x optical all-glass zoom lens with a 35mm equivalency focal range of 36-432mm, licensed from respected German lens designer Schneider-Kreuznach. The lens also features a reasonably fast focal range of f/2.8–f/4.8.

Other Z712-IS features include 7.1MP resolution, allowing for high-qualty 8x10 and even larger enlargements, ISO's up to 3200 for shooting in low-light conditions, optical image stabilization, and a 2.5” color display.

The camera also takes 640x480 MPEG-4 movies with sound at a full 30 frames per second, allowing users to record well over 30 minutes of video with a 2GB SD memory card (about $30).

Using the zoom is also possible in movie mode, a newer and much-needed feature on digital cameras.

All of this and more come in a camera retailing for $250 that's easy enough for most amateur photographers to start using in a few minutes, allowing users to shoot both images and movies through a single camera and on the same memory card.

Comparable models are now available from most manufacturers including Sony, Olympus, Canon, Fuji, Casio and Panasonic.

As examples, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 adds a lens as wide as 28mm in a thinner body some may (or may not) prefer. The Canon S5 IS offers 8MP's and stereo sound recording.

Sony and Olympus have increased zoom ranges in their most recent offering, with the Sony DSC-H7 checking in with 15x and the Olympus SP-550 UZ offering a huge 28-504mm (18x).

All of these cameras are available for under $500 at the retail level, and offer a range of features that will take most users months to fully explore.

Be sure to check what type of memory any camera uses. Many newer computers come with built-in memory card slots, while an adapter may be needed for others.

Tom Meek is a computer and media consultant working with businesses and individuals on high-tech needs. Another Day In Cyberville is published weekly in print and online via The Gainesville Voice, a weekly publication of The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. You can reach Tom Meek at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Back To School Computing Tips

2007-08-16T02:10:00.000-04:00

It's time for millions of Florida students to head back to their classrooms. With computers being a near-necessity for most schools, now is a good time to prepare for another year of successful computing.

Here are some of my favorite suggestions for an annual school time tune-up.

Update Anti-Virus, Spyware and Adware Programs – Nearly every new computer comes pre-installed with some kind of anti-virus software. Most are time-limited trials that require a subscription service to keep them updated.

Any anti-virus solution is only as good as its most recent update. If you haven't kept up with your subscription, now's the time to renew and get your PC properly protected.

If you don't want to pay for an anti-virus subscription, uninstall your old dog and get a fresh download of a free anti-virus program from AVG, (http://free.grisoft.com/) or Avast! (http://www.avast.com/). Both programs offer anti-virus protection equivalent to better known paid programs, and are free for personal use.

Good freeware solutions are also available to combat the ever-increasing glut of spyware and adware slowing down nearly every computer connected to the Internet. They include Spybot and Ad Aware Special Edition.

Both require manual updates, and you'll have to remember to run them at least once per week. Doing so can dramatically cut down on the number of programs tracking your computer usage and wasting PC resources. A quick Web search will lead you to a variety of download sources.

Add System Memory – The biggest hardware reason for poor PC performance is a lack of system memory, or RAM.

Early PC's weren't optimized to use memory efficiently, but modern computers running Windows XP and Vista, and Apple's OS X, are able to use and depend on a large amount of system memory.

If you are running Windows XP, try and install 1GB of RAM, for Vista, 2GB is strongly recommended, as is a frequent recommendation for Apple's OS X.

The more memory your system can use, the better you'll be able to perform multiple tasks, work with pictures and multimedia, and speed your Web browsing experience.

Install A Home Network – For years I've recommended children have their own computer in a household. Following that rule means parents have to closely monitor children's Internet usage, and limit time online as needed to insure other activities have enough.

Sharing a broadband connection allows all the PC's in a home to connect to the Web at the same time and still maintain good performance.

Today's home networking hardware is easier and safer to use than ever. If you're not sure you can handle a network installation, invite a knowledgeable friend or computer professional to set one up for you. You'll be glad you did.

I's also like to alert Cyberville readers that after today, you can find my column online at http://anotherdayincyberville.blogspot.com/.

For nearly seven years I've had the pleasure of joining you in your homes, offices, schools and coffee shops.

I've also had the pleasure of meeting thousands of you through e-mail, civic and technical presentations, on the radio, and in person in stores and on the street.

I thank each and every Cyberville reader for their many kind words and time, and hope to see more of you in the new Cyberville online in the days to come.

You're also always welcome to reach me via e-mail at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Best wishes, and my sincere gratitude, to all.

Welcome To Another Day In Cyberville

2007-08-15T08:58:00.001-04:00

For nearly seven years I have had the pleasure of joining thousands of you in your homes, offices, coffee shops and restaurants.

When I was first asked to do this column, the Sun and I agreed that the key need was to try and make technology understandable for the average person.

At that point I'd already been involved in computers in an office setting for more than fifteen years.

I'd had the opportunity to help design computer installations for a Fortune 500 company, and it had become very clear to me that spending millions of dollars on hardware meant next to nothing if the people being asked to use it didn't understand how.

By the year 2000 I'd also sat through hundreds of computer seminars aimed at both tech professionals and small businesses. It was also clear from those seminars that the thing most often needed by computer users wasn't new hardware, but a better understanding of how to use what they already had.

I've also very much enjoyed the fact that so many of you have written to me with questions, stopped me in stores or on the street, and invited me into your homes and offices.

I've also had the chance to meet many more of you at presentations throughout the area including Lake City, Lake Butler, Gainesville and numerous others.

Perhaps the most gratifying experience from meeting so many of you online or in person is that so many readers have told me they have saved many of my columns for years.

I've even had readers bring out folders full of “Cyberville” where they've kept their favorites for future reference. From my experience it's rare that people clip and save something on a regular basis, and I hope Cyberville continues to be so.

I'd like to thank several people for their assistance to me over the past seven years – first to Jackie Levine, Managing Editor, for giving me the opportunity to begin writing “Another Day In Cyberville”. It was her impetus from reading a similar column in Syracuse that brought “Cyberville” to life.

The second would be Doris Chandler, long-time Business Editor of the Sun, who provided much of the feedback I received from an editorial side, and for her invaluable input for many years.

And the third would be Jeff Tudeen, now the Sun's Weekend and Readership Editor, who also provided encouragement and the opportunity to appear elsewhere in the Sun from time to time.

I'd also like to thank Hank Conner of WUFT-FM's “Conner Calling” for having me as a semi-regular guest on his Friday program.

Over the years we've taken calls, e-mail and instant messages from readers and listeners as far away as New England and from trucks driving through Gainesvile on I-75. With Hank's good graces, you'll continue to hear a radio version of “Cyberville” as time permits.

The majority of the many readers I've met online or in person have told me they read Cyberville every Monday and look forward to it.

As such, it's my intention online to have a new column available for readers each Monday as well. You're also welcome to contact me either through the blog, or at adayincyberville@gmail.com.

Again, it's truly been a pleasure to know so many readers have joined me along the way in exploring Another Day In Cyberville. And I hope to see many of you in the future.

Thank you.