Vol. 29 number 2 February 2012 The newsletter of the Ottawa PC Users' Group Calendar OPCUG General Meeting National Museum of Science and Technology 1867 St. Laurent Blvd. Second (*first) Wednesday of each month, 7:30pm Beginner SIG After the OPCUG General Meeting, at the Museum. Linux SIG After the OPCUG General Meeting, at the Museum. Beer BOF (Wing SIG East), after all the SIGs, at 10 p.m. Liam Maguire's, 1705 St. Laurent at Innes (formerly Hooters) Please note that unless otherwise noted, SIGs meet at 9:00 p.m. (immediately following the OPCUG General Meeting). ____________________________ Coming Up... February 1st, 2012 (*first* Wednesday in February) The Annual General Meeting will be held. Our president, Chris Taylor, and Treasurer, Alan German, will briefly discuss the general state and financial status of the club. A speaker will follow (TBA). Check the OPCUG website at http://opcug,ca for updates. ____________________________ February Raffle Courtesy of Wondershare, we have 4 - count 'em - four copies of LiveBoot 2012 for the February raffle. This recovery program is designed to allow you to recover from just about any disaster Windows can throw at you - difficult to remove malware, corrupted registry, forgotten passwords, deleted files, formatted drives, and more! You can see more details about this program (value: $50) at http://www.wondershare.com/boot-cd/ and read the review published in the October issue of Ottawa PC News at http://opcug.ca/public/Reviews/LiveBoot2012.htm Because of the way Wondershare does its promotional copies, winners will have to supply a valid email address which will be passed to Wondershare. Winners will then receive an email from Wondershare with a download link and a license key. Tickets are, as always, a good deal at $1 for one, a great deal at $2 for three or the unbelievable bargain of $5 for ten! And since we will be drawing 4 - count 'em - four tickets, your chances of winning are pretty good! ____________________________ January Prize Winners Four of the attendees at the OPCUG meeting of January 11, 2012 took home a door prize copy of the Kaspersky 2012 AV Software Suite. Congratulations to Max Alvarado, Micheline Johnson, Martin Pagnan and Harry Gross. The raffle prize winner was Bernard Lipski who won a brand new, full copy of the Windows 7 OS. Many thanks to our prize suppliers. ____________________________ Treasurer's Report 2011 by Alan German Balance Sheet, 2011 Assets Current Assets 1000 Cash Account (TDCT) 1,814.95 1100 Investment Account (ING) 20,832.29 1200 Membership float 40.00 Total Assets 22,687.24 Equity Owner Equity OPCUG, Capital December 31, 2010 22,593.56 Total revenue 6,134.65 Total expenses 6,040.97 Net income 93.68 OPCUG, Capital December 31, 2011 22,687.24 Total Equity 22,687.24 Income Statement, 2011 Revenue 2011 ($) 2010 ($) 2100 Bank Interest (ING) 258.65 227.10 2200 Membership Income 2,900.00 3,125.00 2300 Raffle Income 1,301.00 1,656.75 2400 Merchandise Income 1,675.00 0.00 2500 Workshop Income 0.00 0.00 2900 Miscellaneous Income 0.00 25.00 Total revenue 6,134.65 5,033.85 Expenses 3100 PUB II Expense 950.36 974.01 3200 Newsletter Expense 2,208.17 2,071.00 3300 Office Supplies Expense 7.83 166.44 3400 Bank Charges 59.40 59.40 3500 Barbecue Expense 632.60 697.16 3600 Facility Rental 180.00 200.00 3700 Workshop Expense 0.00 0.00 3800 Merchandise Expense 1,952.61 0.00 3900 Miscellaneous Expense 50.00 0.00 Total operating expenses 6,040.97 4,168.01 Net income 93.68 865.84 ____________________________ Article Movie Making At Home For Fun (Not Really For Profit) by Phil Sorrentino Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. Movie making has become possible for anyone who has a digital camera, a reasonably capable computer, and lots and lots of time, with an emphasis on the time. I'm not talking about full feature length movies that could be shown in your local movie theater, but rather movies that document an occasion or activity, using pictures, videos and music. Just look at Youtube to see how many movies (videos) are available for all sorts of reasons like entertainment, education, and "how to (accomplish something)". Youtube makes finding and watching movies possible. Movie Maker and your digital camera make creating movies possible. I am using Movie Maker as an example because everyone who has the Windows Operating System, from XP on to Windows 7, has a version available to them, at no extra cost. Many other applications can accomplish the same task. Some have many more features and some are more sophisticated, but usually at a price, starting around $60. Among these applications are Corel Video Studio Pro, Adobe Presentation Elements, Photodex Proshow Gold, Pinnacle Studio, Sony Vegas Movie Studio, and CyberLink Power Director. There are even some free applications available for download, like Video Spin, Avid FreeDV, and Wax, none of which I have tried. Movie Maker and most of the other applications mentioned above provide all the basic tools for assembling and organizing your pictures, videos and music into a movie. The movie can be composed of pictures only, videos only, pictures and videos, or more typically pictures, videos and music together. The formats of the pictures, videos and music must be those that Movie Maker accepts. (There are some small differences between versions for XP, Vista, and Windows 7.) Pictures must be .jpg, .bmp, or gif. Videos must be .avi or .wmv (Windows 7 will also accept .mov). Music must be .mp3, .wav, or .wma. The pictures and videos are usually put into a time sequence, or timeline, and then the music is added as one or multiple audio tracks. (Movie Maker supports only one audio track, which can be used for music or voice-over. You may be able to play some tricks to implement two tracks, but if you need more than one audio track you would be better off using one of the other applications that easily support multiple audio tracks.) The audio track can then be added to the picture and video timeline. Music or voice-over can be intermixed as components of the total audio track. Integrating voice-overs and music, while timing the voice- over with the picture sequence can sometimes become a real challenge, but it is usually worth the effort. Here are some basic steps for producing a movie with Movie Maker. Gather all the pictures and videos you need for the movie. Bring along more than you think you might need because it is very easy to eliminate pictures and videos if you have too many for your desired audience. Actually, it is good to have the desired audience and a target time in mind before you start to create the movie. Not everyone might want to see 65 minutes of your California Vacation, though some close friends might make an effort to stay awake. Brevity is sometimes the best policy, but that is up to you, the director. So, for some movies you might target only 10 or 15 minutes, while some others maybe 30 or 40 minutes, where you know your audience wants to savor every last detail. Given that you have a target time in mind and you have more than enough pictures and videos to fill that time, (and probably a little more), and some music identified to go along with the pictures, fire up Movie Maker. Different versions of Music Maker will look different because of the Operating System that it is built for, but all will provide the basic movie making functionality. All Movie Maker home screens will provide a set of tools or tasks, a collection area where you can add pictures, videos, and music, a preview area, and a timeline. There are many ways you can approach the general task of making a movie. You, as director, can certainly approach this in any way that makes the most sense to you. After creating a few movies, I have settled on the following sequence of events. The first activity to accomplish is to add all your pictures to the collection area. It is probably best if you have copied all the pictures, videos, and music into one folder for use with Movie Maker, making things easy to find. Next is to move the pictures on to the timeline. If your pictures are in the proper sequence for your movie, you are done with the pictures, but that is not typically the case, so drag-and-drop the pictures around the timeline so that the sequence tells the story that you want told. Once the pictures are in the proper sequence, go back to your source folder and get the videos. Place the videos in the sequence of pictures so that they support the story being told by the picture sequence. I have found that short videos, maybe around 15 seconds have a good impact, but sometimes a very long video is necessary. Once the videos have been sprinkled around the movie, it is time to see if you are approaching your target time. I know this is a hard thing to do, but if you are above your time by a lot (maybe 10% or more), it is time to pare back some of the pictures or videos, (or change your target time). Once you have the sequence of pictures and videos that tell the story, it is time to add effects and transitions. Effects are animations that can be added to pictures (and videos, although sometimes effects on top of videos are distracting, but that is a judgment call to be made by you, the director). Effects basically add motion to still pictures, almost like turning a picture into a short video. These effects are sometimes called "Ken Burns Effects", named after the person who made them popular. Transitions are the way one picture morphs into the next, maybe a page turn, or a wipe, or a dissolve. Transitions can be added to both pictures and videos. Use the fancy transitions sparingly; they can be very distracting if over used. Every once in a while, preview the movie or at least sections of it to guarantee that the transitions and effects are adding to the story, rather than adding distractions; again, it's your call. Now it's time for the music. Add the music to the collection and then add it to the timeline to go along with the sequence of pictures and videos. The music should help tell the story and add to the overall multimedia experience. Try not to use music that distracts from the story being told by the pictures and videos. Music should probably go from beginning to end, so you may need a few music selections, depending on the length of the music selections and the length of the movie. Typically, music selections are about 3 to 4 minutes long, so for a 15 minute movie, you might need from 4 to 6 selections for the complete movie. (Voice-overs can be any length you so desire.) Now that you see the process and some of the details, if you feel that you don't have enough control over the process or would like some other features, you might make a note to look into one of the more capable movie creating applications when you get a chance. The last thing in creating the movie is to add a title, although many directors might do this first, and a credits frame at the end. The title introduces the movie, and the credits give credit to whomever you feel should be mentioned or thanked, like the cameramen, participants, and a mention of the music if it is copy-righted music. The really last thing is to Publish your movie. Publish it to a .wmv file and review it. If it is not just perfect, make the appropriate changes and re-publish it to a .wmv file. Once it is just what you want, and you have Vista or Windows 7, publish it to DVD, which will create a DVD that will play on any living room DVD player. When that is finished, invite the audience, pop the popcorn, distribute the drinks and lean back and enjoy the applause. This article was originally published in the October, 2010 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. (http://www.spcug.org), and is reprinted here with the permission of SPCUG. ____________________________ OPCUG Free Software Guide - Part 28 Compiled by Alan German and Bill Bradwin This guide features an annotated list of free computer programs. The software mentioned has not been reviewed (except where noted) nor have any tests necessarily been conducted. Consequently, no guarantees are provided that the individual programs will perform as described. Rather the list of available software is provided for the information of our members who may find one or more of the programs useful. AVS Audio Converter Do you need to convert an audio file to a different format, edit an audio file, or capture an audio track from a video? AVS Audio Converter handles these tasks for many file formats, including MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC and OGG. Current Release: Version 7.0 Web Site: http://www.avs4you.com/AVS-Audio-Converter.aspx Comodo System Cleaner Deep clean your system registry, hard drive, and Internet settings with Comodo System Cleaner, The package offers a file cleaner, disk registry cleaner, and a privacy cleaner, together with a utility that will safely recover any files deleted in error Web Site: http://www.comodo.com/home/support- maintenance/system-cleaner.php XBoot Do you have a number of bootable CD's or USB memory sticks containing different packages? Do you wish you could consolidate all the different systems onto a single device and just select which one to boot? This is precisely what XBoot will let you accomplish. Current Release: Version 1.0 Beta 14 Web Site: http://sites.google.com/site/shamurxboot/ Photoscape Photoscape is a fun and easy image editing software that enables you to fix and enhance digital photographs. Current Release: Version 3.5 Web Site: http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php FileSeek This utility will find a file anywhere on your computer or a text string inside a file. FileSeek doesn't use back-ground indexing, but is lightning fast, small, and easy to use. Current Release: Version 2.1.4 Web Site: http://www.fileseek.ca/ Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder This freeware utility will retrieve your Product Key (the CD-key that is used to install Windows) from the registry. It also has a community-updated configuration file that will retrieve product keys for many other applications. Current Release: Version 2.0.8 Web Site: http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/ WinSplit Revolution This small utility allows you to easily organize your open windows by tiling, resizing and positioning them to make the best use of your desktop real estate. The program is especially useful for large LCD screens with high resolutions because it helps you to efficiently manage many active windows. Current Release: Version 11.04 Web Site: http://www.winsplit-revolution.com/ Clipboard History Do you need an improved clipboard? Clipboard History will let you store up to twenty clipboard text entries for insertion into any application. Current Release: Version 1.0 Web Site: http://www.outertech.com/en/clipboard-history Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup This open-source, single-player, role-playing Rogue-like game of exploration and treasure-hunting in dungeons is filled with dangerous and unfriendly monsters in a quest to rescue the mystifyingly fabulous Orb of Zot. Current Release: Version 0.9.1 Web Site: http://crawl.develz.org/wordpress/ ____________________________ OTTAWA PC NEWS Ottawa PC News is the newsletter of the Ottawa PC Users' Group (OPCUG), and is published monthly except in July and August. The opinions expressed in this newsletter may not necessarily represent the views of the club or its members. Member participation is encouraged! If you would like to contribute an article to Ottawa PC News, please submit it to the newsletter editor (contact info below). Deadline for submissions is three Saturdays before the General Meeting. Group meetings OPCUG normally meets on the second Wednesday in the month, except in July and August, at the National Museum of Science and Technology, 1867 St. Laurent Blvd, Ottawa. Meetings are 7:30-9:00 p.m. and Special Interest Groups go until 10 p.m. Fees: OPCUG annual membership: $25 per year. Mailing address: 3 Thatcher St., Nepean, Ontario, K2G 1S6 Web address: http://opcug.ca/ Bulletin Board - PUB II (BBS): http://opcug.ca/default.htm President and System Administrator: Chris Taylor, chris.taylor@@opcug.ca, 613 727-5453 Meeting Coordinator: Andrea Wells, andrea.wells@@opcug.ca Treasurer: Alan German, alan.german@@opcug.ca Secretary: Gail Eagan, gail.Eagan@@opcug.ca Membership Chairman: Mark Cayer, Mark.Cayer@@opcug.ca, 613 823-0354 Newsletter: Brigitte Lord, Brigittelord@@opcug.ca Email: (Mr.)Jocelyn Doire, Jocelyn.Doire@@opcug.ca Public Relations: Morris Turpin, PR@@opcug.ca, 613 729-6955 Facilities: Bob Walker, 613 489-2084 Webmaster: Brigitte Lord, opcug-webmaster2@@opcug.ca Privacy Director: Wayne Houston, privacy2@@opcug.ca Special Events Coordinator: Bob Gowan, bob.gowan@@opcug.ca Beginners' SIG Coordinator: Chris Taylor, chris.taylor@@opcug.ca, 613 727-5453 Linux / Open-Source software SIG: Andrea Wells, andrea.wells@@opcug.ca Note: We added an extra "@" to the emails to reduce spam. (c) OPCUG 2012. Reprints permission is granted* to non- profit organizations, provided credits is given to the author and The Ottawa PC News. OPCUG request a copy of the newsletter in which reprints appear. *Permission is granted only for articles written by OPCUG members, and not copyrighted by the author. ____________________________ Newsletter by email: To receive the newsletter by e-mail, send a message to listserve@@opcug.ca with the plain text "subscribe NewsletterTXT" or "subscribe NewsletterPDF" (without quotes) in the body of the message. No subject line is required. To cancel e-mailing, send a message to listserve@@opcug.ca with the plain text "unsubscribe NewsletterTXT" or "unsubscribe NewsletterPDF" (without quotes). To change your e-mail address, cancel using the old e-mail address and re-subscribe using your new e-mail address. Cancelling the Paper Newsletter: You can help the environment and save us some costs by sending an email to Mark.Cayer@@opcug.ca asking to cancel the delivery of the paper version of the newsletter (or ask him in person - Mark is usually at the back of the auditorium at General Meetings). Announcements Mailing List: To subscribe to the Announcements List send an email to listserve@@opcug.ca, leave the subject blank and in the body of the message put "subscribe announcements" (without the quotes). Within a couple of minutes you will receive a confirmation message from the list server. OPCUG clock/calendar/calculator and mug: Check out the clock/calendar/calculator and thermal coffee mug sporting our club logo at the back of the auditorium at General Meetings! OPCUG insulated mugs are $15 and OPCUG clocks are $20. Reuse, recycle: Bring your old computer books, software, hardware, and paraphernalia you want to GIVE AWAY to the general meetings, and leave them at the table near the auditorium's entrance. Please limit your magazines to publication dates of less than two years old. If you don't bring something, you may want to TAKE AWAY something of interest, so look in on this area. Please note: If you bring anything for the recycle table, you are responsible to check on your way out and if the items you brought are still there, you must take them home with you.