At this rate she will never be a movie star...

Why so complicated?! For a long time now, I have wanted to spend some time understanding digital video formats and moving videos to and from various devices. I have TWO camcorders (one a mini DV and another a mini DVD) that I have NEVER been able to get video from. I can video all I want, but I can not get the video transferred to my computer so that I can burn it to DVD or even share it online. All this expensive equipment and I have to rely on a $200 Kodak Easy share for any video that I want to actually show anyone via the web. I have my very expensive Nikon D40 camera and I still keep the Kodak laying around and charged up because I can take videos quickly, easily, and I can even more importantly GET THEM OFF THE CARD and onto the computer easily.

Now that my daughter is 1 year old, I have VOWED to get this figured out. I WILL get videos from this damn camcorder. I WILL get them on DVD. It WILL happen.

A former co-worker told me that he uses the free version of Windows Movie Maker and it does everything that he needs. So I downloaded it. And I figured that it would be the easiest if I started tinkering with it in order to edit and title and prepare the videos that I already HAVE on my computer. Well, that wouldn't work. And frustration and time constraints have prevented me from figuring out why. Today I realized that a new baby would be coming in the new year, and I still have all of Ardyn's mini DVDs that I can't access, organize, or burn to a regular DVD.

So I researched. And found that
1. Most Digital Cameras take videos in the .mov format, which is the apple/quicktime format. Because it's apple, you can't open it in Windows Movie Maker (Argh.) and therefore in order to use WMM (Windows Movie Maker) for any .mov files from a digital camera, you would first have to download and convert all of your movies to a more compatible format, such as .avi

2. My Camcorder Disks cannot be read in a regular CDRom or DVDRom Drive until they are finalized. In order to finalize them, the Camcorder must be running on AC power from the wall adaptor. Unfortunately, we don't HAVE the cord to use as a wall adaptor, so we have to ORDER it for $16.95 plus shipping.

3. If you try to play a disk in your computer's CDRom Drive or a DVD player without finalizing it, not only will it not work, but you may inadvertently ruin the information on the mini DV, making it unusable and losing the videos. So, unfortunately, I have the fear of god that I may have ruined some of my daughter's videos of her first year, because this is exactly what I did.

And people wonder why the average joe gets all confused when trying to deal with videos. I will conquer this, and soon. But seriously, this is not simple folks. And to be honest with you, by the time I have time to sit down and study all of this again, it will be confusing and my head will be swimming and it will feel like I am starting from scratch. But maybe it will help if I come back and read this post first?

By the way, sorry that I missed the November meeting. I was getting ready to go out of town for a long weekend without my daughter or my husband, so there was alot of preparing to do at home and I had already been to Princeton twice that day. In fact I was asleep on the couch during the meeting. I was exhausted!

And in case anyone is reading this... the new baby is a boy!

SEPTEMBER MEETING CANCELLED!

Spread the word. The September meeting has been cancelled.

The library has a meeting policy which states (rightly so) that library events as well as specific community events have precedence- and therefore get dibs on the meeting room, and there is a conflict on our regular meeting date. We considered rescheduling, but we were all equally busy this month and the dates just didn't work out.

We will see you in October and hope that you are gathering your helpful websites for the next meeting. (please see previous post for details!)

Solution: give it a new name

Sometimes I need my fellow geeks to keep me in line. That being the case I would like to thank Meagan for calling me on the yarn I spun with my last blog entry and apologize to all of you who are in love with your wireless keyboard and mice. Type and click on.

Also on a side note, as some of you know I recently got married (two weeks ago today) and I would like to take this opportunity to tell the world how blessed I am to have ended up with the woman I ended up with. She is wonderful.

Anyway, I have a funny thing to tell about something I saw while watching Fox News video's online (O' Reilly Factor). Fox News inserts video ads in between video segments so you can't help but watch them. One of the ads almost had me for the first half. In this ad, people were asked, "Why haven't you switched to Windows Vista", and people gave their reasons (I will spare you mine). Next the interviewer asked the people to try out Window Mojave. I was somewhat excited at this point. I thought, "Well, Microsoft might have something better to offer. Cool enough." The people were excited and remarked on how good the product was to use. Then the bomb was dropped when the interviewer explained that they were just using Windows Vista and that they had renamed it for the purpose of the commercial interview experiment. Whoa!!!! Microsoft has stumbled onto a tactic that many other companies have tried. If people don't like your product, change the name. Don't like Coke, try Diet Coke. Don't like sour cream, try fat free sour cream. Don't like Windows Vista, try Windows Mojave. It's a gas. I think that it is totally funny that Microsoft thinks that computer users of any education level will buy into a cheap trick like that. I urge you to not be like the people in this commercial. WINDOWS MOJAVE IS WINDOWS VISTA, no matter what Microsoft says.

Your Favorite Websites: September

So, for the September Meeting, we are asking each person to bring in AT LEAST one website that they use on a regular basis, that may be of help to another user. Hopefully these will be NEWER websites and not things that we have discussed in the past. We are not limiting these to computer websites, in fact, it would be nice to see some websites that are quite the opposite!

Bring your sites and we will compile them into a list!
See you in September.

We are ON for our August meeting

I wanted to put a note out there to let you all know that We re ON for our August meeting. The First Tuesday of the month at 6:30pm at Matson Public Library. The library director himself will be letting us into the building and I *suggest* that you don't arrive early unless you want to be standing outside. :) He will be there at 6:30 and I don't think much earlier.

Hope to see you then!

Is a keyboard a keyboard?

First off this is an issue that I got punched in the face with a few days ago. I have since gotten over it (I think), so I feel comfortable talking about it. The subject is horrible, frustrating, and it strikes fear in the heart of most IT people. This is WIRELESS KEYBOARDS AND MICE. In case some of you have them and swear by them, just hear me out. First off, they drain batteries. This is just one more item to troubleshoot when someone is having trouble. If you have used these devices in an office environment with many people around using the exact same wireless keyboard and mouse. This brings me to the second problem. Say for instance one mouse goes bad, their wireless connection device is still working fine, and someone at a desk a few feet away has the exact same mouse. Any guess what happens next? Yup, the person who has the working mouse is now able to control the pointer on the other person's computer which leads to massive confusion. My main gripe is this: I feel that when a keyboard/mouse poops out, that's it and you get another one. With these wireless devices, you generally have to buy a whole new setup in order to keep the all of the devices working.

The main complaint that I have heard towards wired devices is, "The cord is too short". Well I have a novel idea. Let's pay $15 for a 6' USB extension cable. With this simple item you not have to deal with these pitfalls that I have mentioned above.

NOTE: This entry was basically a rant about something that happened this last week. Give me a post back if you feel my pain. PEACE!!!!!!!!

Last night I dreamt....

OK, this might be a little freaky, but I am going to recount a dream I had last night to you. Don't worry, it's clean.

I was walking around a building of some type (I think it might have been our local hospital). Then to my surprise there stood Billy Gates himself. Well, in spite of my anti-Microsoft mindset I had to say hello to him. So I ran up to him and said, "Hello Mr. Gates". "Hi", he replies. I proceeded to tell him who I was followed by some minor smalltalk, but he turned and walked away. What gives, I thought. I happened to glance down at the t-shirt I was wearing. In bright white letters along with the logo was printed Ubuntu Linux. I couldn't believe it.

Now, if anyone has dreams that are that ironic and humorus from a geeky standpoint, leave a comment below. Keep it real. Keep it clean. Keep it geeky. PEACE!!!!!!!!!

AVG is still free!

I have had several people contact me this week. They have been frantic because their computers told them that AVG (the free antivirus that we love and that is so widely used) needs to be upgraded to the new version (8.0) and that the old version (7.5) will no longer be supported. Most people didn't notice that there is STILL a free version of AVG 8.0, and that they do NOT Have to pay for the new AVG 8.0 if they want to continue to just use the free AVG Antivirus. You may notice, however, that AVG makes it a little more difficult to find the "Free Download" with each upgrade. It's their way of selling more antivirus. For your convenience, I am providing a direct link to the AVG Free Antivirus, Version 8.0. If it's time for you to upgrade, feel free to follow the link and do so. If it's something you want to try, be sure to remove ALL Antivirus programs from your machine, and download and try it. But be sure to remove all old antivirus programs (McAffee, Norton, etc) before you install. Enjoy!

http://free.grisoft.com/ww.download?prd=afe

The Public Restroom Wormhole

OK, I have been crazy busy with work, helping my fiance get our wedding going, and day-to-day stuff which she is very good about helping with (thanks Jenn). Anyway, I thought I'd write something that was completely unrelated to computers.

While on vacation with my bride-to-be and my folks, we stopped along the way at a Wendy's for a bite to eat and a much needed potty break. One thing that really gets me is that any establishment that clearly has room to facilitate a few dozen patrons only has a one-hole john (for each gender, of course). As is usually the case in those instances, especially when need has reached critical mass, there were two guys in line ahead of me who must have had an over-abundance of some food that was inhibiting them, or so it might seem. It could be that certain people, upon entering the bathroom, create what scientists theoretically call a wormhole. While this person in question is doing their business, those of us waiting outside are pulled through the mouth of the wormhole and sent through the space time continuum forward or backward in time. Either way, we end up doing the pee-pee dance in the hall waiting to be pulled back the present. Of course, on this particular day, the ladies room was not rendering the same effect on those waiting. For a moment I was tempted to thrust my way back through the wormhole and take momentary refuge in the other restroom, but due to modesty and fear of leaving the seat up I remained trapped for the next 8 minutes or so. This theory is inconclusive of course. I have no actual proof that the restroom wormhole exists. But, I feel that the evidence given above is undeniable and this theory should be adopted by the scientific community at large.

If you read this, thanks. Some times I just have the urge to write a wacky entry. I will try to get some technology stuff up on the blog soon. Keep getting your geek on.

P.S. I did actually research wormholes. For more information, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole.

A cheap shot at Microsoft

Once you start reading this, I am sure you are going to think that I am a complete Anti-Microsoft Nazi. Well, I'm not. I see many Microsoft products as the industry standard. I do, however, think that Microsoft has settled for mediocrity in many of their products for the sake of the almighty buck. It is for this reason that I am taking a cheap shot at Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer.

As a person who loves Google, I am constantly looking at their products and development platforms. I think that Google will come up, at least, in the top 5 internet software providers. I did recall reading an article in USA Today a year or so ago in which Ballmer was quoted describing some features of Google's Document application as saying, "You can't even put a footnote in. Now, last time I checked, that's still kind of important to give attribution. (Laughter.)" I'm sure Steve-O wasn't born yesterday and missed out on the break-neck speed with which Google has implemented many web-based services that are extremely robust. Unless Steve was thinking about Google not making any innovations to their product (like his company, HA!!), I am sure he could foresee them adding this feature. I personally saw this remark like telling an aircraft carrier mechanic that a pebble dinged up against the hull when it left port. I think that Steve was taking a cheap shot at a company that could be a real threat to Microsoft.

As a side note, I checked Google Docs earlier today and they have implemented a Header/Footer functionality to their program. Sorry Steve. Reload and take another shot!!!

To read the original article from USA Today, click here.

The Amazon Kindle: You'll want one, too

I just happened to be surfing YouTube (a future past-time of mine, I'm sure) and I came across a video describing a piece of consumer electronics manufactured and marketed by Amazon.com. WAIT!!!! Amazon is the internets answer to Borders, Walmart, and every other store. Why would they make their own gadget? Well, as many of you know, Amazon started out simply as an online book store, ergo the Kindle was made.

The Kindle is a an e-book reader. But, unlike any other e-book reader, the Kindle allows you to buy books in electronic format from Amazon and download them directly to your Kindle. The technical cretique of how this is accomplished is a bit long winded. Let me just say that it's not dependant on Wi-Fi and there is NO SUBSCRIPTION FEE!!!

OK, so this is just another way for Amazon to make a buck, right? Of course, they plan on making millions on digital book sales, I'm sure. But what if I have an electronic file (word document for example) that I would like to have available on my Kindle? Well, through some conversion features offered by Amazon, they will take your document, convert it into an acceptible format, and deilver the converted file to you so you can put it on your Kindle. WAY COOL!!!!!

I have to say, as an avid user of PDF's and digital documentation, I have been waiting for a device like this for years. I hope this takes off like a rocket. Here's a video describing the Kindle.

The Best of Network TV Online

In spite of the fact that I can't get CBS to come in on my new digital TV tuner, they are quickly becoming my favorite network TV website (www.cbs.com). I am a person who overall favors the classic TV shows (with the exception of Lost). If you want to catch some reruns of classic TV shows like MacGyver, the original Star Trek, or the Twilight Zone, you may be forced to either buy an expensive DVD set or wade through your local TV schedule to find these. But where other networks have failed to step up and make use of the internet in this way, CBS has succeeded by streaming video-on-demand of many classic TV shows from their website. This is a wonderful thing that they have done and I hope other networks follow suit. Please check out all of the great classic TV shows on www.cbs.com.

What is a Blog

Since you are looking at this article and it is on a Blog, I can only assume you know what a Blog is. But, what is the advantage to a Blog over traditional internet media sources or even traditional non-digital media? Blogs are able to harness the main advantage of the internet: worldwide instant communication. This video was made by the same people who made the RSS video I posted a while back and it is very informational.

A True Digital Library

If you have been exposed to the internet for any length of time, you have more than likely heard of the analogy comparing the internet to a huge library. Well, I have found a few websites that are truly a digital library, providing classic literature, reference, and archives of all sorts.

The first site is a reference site of sorts: www.ibiblio.org. This site contains a plethora of reference information on topics from literature and theology to technology and mathematics. This site also offers scholastic news articles and many radio stations of a public nature.

The next two sites go together in their main purpose: www.librivox.org and www.gutenberg.org. The purpose of these sites is to disseminate classic literature in audio and print format respectively. Project Gutenberg (as the name implies) provides literature in print format. For the literary works used on this site copyright is not an issue, as all of the offerings have entered the public domain. Librivox is an extension of Project Gutenberg. Taking the print literature from Gutenberg, librivox uses millions of worldwide volunteers to read the literature and provide it in audio format for download on their website. All your favorite Mark Twain and L. Frank Baum are available for free in print and audio format.

The final website is a very general archive of all sorts of content: www.archive.org. To start out with, the Internet Archive offers a video library including many things from educational videos to full-lengthpublic domain movies. They also have a library of audio content which includes music, audio books, and much more. Like any good library, the Internet Archive has many thousands of articles on many subjects. In my opinion, the most valuable feature of the Internet Archive is the Wayback Machine (the name harkens to Adventures of Peabody and Sherman). This is a feature that allows you to search for versions of almost any website that may have existed in the last 15 or so years.

Check out all of these great useful websites. You might find something of interest to you.

Meeting Announcement

With the adverse weather and the prediction of up to 20 inches of snow on the way, we would like you to determine whether or not it is safe for you to travel to our meeting tonight, and plan accordingly. At this time Meagan will not be attending (babies and their mamma's are better off at home), and Dorene is going to try to make it in. She has a new toy that she wants to demo! At last word, Andy too was planning on attending.

If the weather gets worse than it is at 4pm, Dorene will stay home.
Tonight's presentation will be a practice presentation and will be given again in March, so please don't feel that you will miss something important if you decide not to attend. Happy traveling, or in my case, happy staying home! Have a lovely evening!

Free Phone Services

Back in December we discussed some phone services that are available for use for FREE!!!!! Let recap what was covered.

First we covered a directory assistance phone number: 1-800-FREE-411. This is a great 411 (Directory Assistance) number. It allows you to look up any residential or business from any phone. It also allows free connection to any business (I became aware of this feature since the presentation).

Another 411 service we looked at was 1-800-GOOG-411. This is a service provided by Google. GOOG-411, unlike the FREE-411, is only able to search business listings. Google's service also offers the free connection. Even though GOOG-411 has less features than FREE-411, I am still holding out. Google has created some great products and I don't think they will leave GOOG-411 where it is.

The final service we spoke about was Google SMS. SMS (Short Message Service) is a technology used to send and receive text messages on cell phones. If you send a formatted text message to 466453 (the numeric value of GOOGLE), Google will send back information based on the message you sent. For information on how to format your text messages, go to www.google.com/sms/. This is a perfect example of some of the great services offered by Google.

RSS: What is it anyway

Hello everyone. I'm working on getting a posting out detailing my phone number presentation in December. But I ran across a video online and thought it best to share it. I feel that among most computer users, something that is very useful and not well understood is RSS. RSS (which stands for Really Simple Syndication) is a method of retrieving news headlines with links to the whole article without going out to many sites. Take a look at this video. It's really helpful.





See y'all next month. PEACE!!!!!!!

No Meeting Tonight!

Tonight's meeting of the Princeton Computer User Group will not be held.
See you in February! (Bring your sweetheart and maybe I will bring mine?)

The Library Classes held on the 2nd Wednesday of each month will now be held at 10am. Mark your calendars!

Happy New Year!!!