Adobe - The Rochester Computer Society, Inc
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1. Ask Mr Modem call their Customer Service department With that information in hand run several speed tests using a site such as speedtest net bandwidthplace com or cnet com internet speed test Connection speeds can vary greatly throughout the day and night so conduct tests at varying times over several days If your average upload and download speeds fall below what you should be receiving contact your provider s Tech Support In that way you will have evidence to support your assertion that the connection speeds you are receiving are not what were represented and your provider can investigate from there Q I received a message from Yahoo Mail telling me that I m running out of storage space and that I need to provide my password so they can increase my capacity You ve warned us about anybody that asks for our passwords so I m suspicious Is this for real or what A Your suspicion is justified Pm glad you remembered what I so frequently yammer about Never provide your password or voluntarily confirm any other personal or account information The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 5 when requested to do so by email No legitimate organization or service will ever ask you for that information Just delete the message you received and don t give it another thought Q In my old version of Firefox I was able to bookmark a site to a folder But now if I click the star it doesn t allow me to select a fol2. have been posted on Amazon with 922 reviewers giving it 5 stars and 352 giving it 4 stars with the remaining 231 giving it lower scores with an overall average of 4 3 out of 5 stars I agree with the consensus of many of the reviewers who stated that Cocked included a good blend of both humor and drama In terms of accessibility the Amazon Prime streaming media including the videos and the million plus streaming music titles are available on almost all internet connected devices including computers tablets Amazon s Fire devices Apple and Android powered devices set top streaming media boxes and sticks and gaming consoles Personally I have watched a reasonable selection of Amazon s SVOD Streaming Video on Demand directly on my desktop computer browser mostly Firefox my Android smart phone and on my primary flat screen TV On my smart phone I use the basic Amazon app to access my prime account and then click on the menu icon on the top left corner of the screen to select the desired media types and then choose the specific music or videos that I want Any movies or TV shows with the Prime logo across their top left corner are available to Prime subscribers for free while some of the new releases under the Shop categories without displaying the Prime logo are available for sale or rental On my primary flat screen TV I use an inexpensive but powerful Amazon Fire TV Stick which plugs directly into an avail
3. 2 3 Ol For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day Every time they repainted the lines in the road you would have to buy a new car Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason You would have to pull to the side of the road close all of the windows shut off the car restart it and reopen the windows before you could continue For some reason you would simply accept this The oil water temperature and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation warning light The airbag system would ask Are you sure before deploying Occasionally for no reason whatsoever your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lift the door handle turn the key and grab hold of the radio antenna Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car You d have to press the Start button to turn the engine off RCSi Officers President Steve Staub re a a ee eee a eee n nes 429 9877 srstaub1 rochester rr com VP Dai ROCHTUSS ss 5 5052c2 2 apc haha le aha a ah a a ee aa 347 6020 dr123498 hotmail com Secretary Arpad Kovacs 0 0 00 ccc ce eee eee nena 467 9270 podman rochester rr com Treasurer Dennis P MacMahon 0 0 0 0 cece ee ees 235 1260 taxaccuracyinc
4. However law enforcement agencies reevaluated how when and what information to release to the public to prevent what they now call The Richard Jewell Syndrome Devices come with instruction manuals and warning labels Unfortunately speech does not come with this message WARNING Engage brain before engaging mouth People also seem to have lost their common sense and consideration Why would you discuss your life publically on your social media page or someone else s That is part of the problem with 1925 South Ave social media very few 7 C f South A d think before they post POD ESce rear Rd O East Henrietta Rd The other problem is that ee edge mu 244 2240 marked either public or private but most people What we do do not pay attention to i Windows Mac and Linux this Furthermore that z PC Repair private post you just sent Mac Repair can in turn be resent and gt Virus Removal made public by your M j Custom System Builds friend Another s Desktops starting at Data Destruction interesting point is that Rochester Computer Society EI k ectronics Recyclin even emails that are sent Members recieve 10 off ene must have membership card to redeem across a public network otherwise known as the The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 8 internet are considered public messages according to copyright law So no one DOES NOT have
5. I went to lunch and at the diner I remembered something I had to do at home Then when I get home I have two computers I use one for playing my multimedia and one I use in my home office Throughout the day I need to update my notes of what has to be done Stickies are great but most really only work well on one computer If this is a problem you face then have a try of Nimbus Note You can have one account that is in sync with a range of devices Windows PC Android and IOS mobiles It can handle notes audio messages photos and movies Its TODO list has time based and location based reminders http www techsupportalert com content nimbus note htm Watch The World s Hackers Live On This Stunning Site One of the reasons that web sites go down is that they re targeted by hackers in something called a DDoS attack A plain DoS attack stands for denial of service which basically means bombarding a web site with so many requests that it falls over with the pressure The extra D makes the attack Distributed Here instead of all those requests coming from a single computer they are launched from hundreds of thousands of machines all over the world all of which have been the victim of a particular botnet virus and can now be controlled by their new owner into launching a co ordinated attack on demand Technology company Norse owns thousands of data centres and key internet hardware around the world By monitoring the attack
6. I also compensated for the perspective distortion resulting from the wide angle lens As a result the image on the right is much closer to what your eye would see The changes here are modest in an attempt to keep the result realistic You can easily go off the rails and produce results that belong in a comic strip The improvement is possible because the camera records 12 bits per pixel per color while a JPEG image has only 8 In other words the raw image has 16 times the dynamic The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 9 range of the JPEG one In photo terms this means that the raw image has two to three more f stops of range that a corresponding JPEG The screen shot below shows an image being processed by RawTherapee le Raw Therapee 40110 DFe rowe P o Dmss os x FEFGOORKXN Prote Loaded Lan Saved White Balance PPD Changed Matural 1 Cepesure Compessation o Shodow Mighlight trable Motows Lent Distection Corsection 0016 Crap Pheto Sherpeniog Amowst ther pening Radius gt Vibras Walse Reduction Cradle Wa Method gt Channel Miner Wt Luminance gt HSV Equalizer 100 Coler Tempereture 225 1 106 gt RGS Curves gt Color Management Oe Hase och EED AAAKRm A Xb http rawtherapee com for Linux OS X and Windows The panel on the right shows the tools availalbe and these are grouped with tabs The color adjustment tab has been selected and the white balance tool with
7. a language game that lets you practice your vocabulary in one of eleven different languages including my native Svenska When you arrive at the site click Play to begin and select the language you want to practice by clicking the country s flag graphic For a real challenge you can practice in a randomized assortment of languages In the top right corner you will see your score There are two numbers Your cumulative score and the score for the language you are currently playing This site presents a fun way to practice vocabulary in different languages http babadum com Crossword Puzzles If youre a crossword puzzle enthusiast this is an online treasure trove of puzzles With a repository containing more than 32 000 crosswords you are guaranteed endless hours of entertainment or escapism www crosswordpuzzlegames com Pica Pic Created by Hipopotam this site features a digitalized collection of handheld games These games triggered a wave of nostalgia for me I can still remember playing my Little Mermaid game on the school bus and almost being beaten to death Good times indeed Use the menu at the bottom to select a game and use the arrows at the left and right of the screen to scroll back and forth A down arrow shows which game is currently selected If you mouse over the game a Play button appears If you want to play that game click it to begin This will enlarge the game and display its controls The games feature the same sounds as i
8. also allowed the press to publish verified facts and editorials without recrimination The key here is VERIFIED facts The Watergate scandal was actually exposed to by two reporters which then led to criminal investigations However that does not give one carte blanche to say whatever one wants This is evidenced by the existence of cease and desist orders gag orders restraining orders retractions and the like emanating from defamation and harassment cases Defamation is defined as the action of damaging the good reputation of someone and encompasses both slander and libel Slander is SPOKEN defamation or false statements Libel is WRITTEN PRINTED or PICTORIAL representation which unjustly damages an Individuals reputation OR the act of presenting such a statement to the public Harassment is disturbing or irritating persistently All of these actions may land one in court The fastest growing concern in police departments is Cyber bullying Perhaps part of the problem is that the parents are really not supervising what their children are doing on As one Suffolk County Police officer stated Would you just drop your kid off at Times Square at 10 00am and go back at 5 00pm to pick them up Well what do you think you re doing when you hand them an I Pad and never look at what they re doing Additionally there is a marked increase in pedophile crimes due to internet communications Some recent evidence of statements
9. favorite free backup software so I never have to worry about remembering to do it There s a chapter in my ebook with step by step instructions and screen grabs for doing exactly that When my hard drive refused to boot up and I couldn t even detect a single file on it I didn t panic because I knew that every single file was safely backed up As I mentioned in my last posting CONFIDENCE beats HOPE every time I actually take my backups 2 or 3 steps further but I ll discuss my personal backup strategy in my posting next Monday To those who say I don t need to do backups let me point out that ve had TWO instances in the past six months where a new hard drive went on the fritz and it seemed like a total loss Stuff happens hardware failure viruses power surges data breaches and natural disasters Things can get lost stolen wet or broken And there s always human error and those annoying senior moments So YES Everyone who uses a computer needs a backup And ideally you should backup everything automatically and often Hard Drive CHECK What Else Any backup is better than nothing but hopefully ve convinced you that it s a good idea to make full system image backups Free software is available to make it a simple and automatic process All you need is an inexpensive USB flash drive or an external hard drive And in my book you ll learn about free online backup options So that covers the hard d
10. no one like you You are an answer to the prayers of all of the computer internet technology ignorant people like me Thanks and keep it up please I hope you don t mind me sharing that I ve been writing about computers and the Internet since 1994 answering questions and as another reader put it translating for the technology impaired Feedback that like really inspires me to keep pressing on The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 1 So let s get down to business One of the most common things I ve heard from readers when discussing backups is confusion or strong opinions about what really needs to be backed up Some say they occasionally copy their documents to a CD or flash drive Others have a list of folders that they routinely back up to an external hard drive A few mentioned that they use Google Drive or Dropbox to keep files or folders synced to online storage Some prefer the simplicity of online backups with Mozy Carbonite or iDrive which attempt to identify and back up your important files Others make a clean distinction between system files program files and user files Some create partitions on their hard drive to separate each type of data They do backups for all files and folders that are created by them and the software they use But they don t back up the operating system and installed software because it can be re installed from CDs in the event of a hard driv
11. 1 http www msn com en us money technology in amazon netflix battle consumer is the winner ar AA8aEhj http finance yahoo com news analyst says amazon prime reach 185905585 html http www nasdaq com article should netflix inc and amazoncom be making movies cm438851 http www marketwatch com story netflix is the favorite in streaming market 2015 01 16 http www marketwatch com story amazon unveils 13 new shows 2015 01 06 http www nasdaq com article overstockcom is no threat to netflix or amazoncom cm438935 http www forbes com sites dorothypomerantz 2015 01 22 netflix and amazon will have a harder time with movies than they did with tv money cnn com 2015 01 11 media amazon netflix golden globes index html https gma yahoo com blogs abc blogs amazon amzn movie plans shake hollywood 154658496 abc news deals htm https au finance yahoo com news amazon produce acquire original movies 230111020 html https en wikipedia org wiki Netflix https en wikipedia org wiki Amazon com Amazon_Prime Investigate Slow Connection Q Pm using high speed Internet over a phone line It works okay but on occasion it goes so slow that most sites never finish downloading Is this a provider problem I would start your investigation with your Internet service provider and initially determine what connection speed range you should have Your provider s Web site will have that information or you can r www MrModem net ATRE ia ae ES did mna
12. The Rochester Computer Society Inc a computer club for everyone Founded 1982 MONITOR Vol 32 No 3 March 2015 Next Meeting Tuesday March 10 Additional Browser Tips with Mark Zinzow Contents Should You Back Up Everything Bob Rankin 0005 1 Amazon Prime Streaming Media Takes on Netflix Ira Wilsker 3 Ask Mi OOO cb ete h ete e eee Rocio edund ttle hg ee ete h tele 7 Free Speech on the Internet Diane Fahlbusch 9 Imagine Processing Software Dick Maybach 0005 13 Microsoft to Releasse Windows 10 FREE Ira Wilsker 17 GIZMO s Freeware o2043 shad ade de Gade ee Oe ae de ee RGA ts Kee ae ees 16 Society NEWS cecckencchabeiurdidcnincaldiniuddisdunawnekeuwaas 16 The LIGHT el Side ice spunea celee an nanan Rom Re Mok Gale deans apes 17 E vag E Member of o the Association of Personal Computer User Groups Should You Back Up Everything What Files and Data MUST Be Backed Up by Bob Rankin askbob com efore I begin I want to share something that happened just this morning The doorbell Be the dog barked and I could see the mailman waiting there with two packages and a stack of letters One in particular caught my attention It was a handwritten letter from James one of my AskBob readers The final paragraph of his letter absolutely made my day 7 Jove what you are doing in providing so much information about computers and internet There is
13. able HDMI port to access the extensive Prime libraries as well as content from several other streaming services In my experience the extensive collection of over 40 000 free movies and TV shows as well as over a million free music titles was totally adequate for my needs While the streaming media and delivery services such as Netflix helped lead to the demise of much of the DVD rental industry such as disappearance of Blockbuster the current technology of widely available broadband internet along with the reasonably priced SVOD Streaming Media on Demand services consumers have several good choices for digital entertainment I have to agree with Therese Poletti in her January 14 MSN story In The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 4 Amazon Netflix battle consumer is the winner We all benefit from competition between strong competitors Watch for even more upcoming enhancements from Amazon and Netflix as they battle with each other for market share Just as Netflix appeared from nowhere and defeated Blockbuster and Amazon is now taking on Netflix do not count out the upstart competitive services from Walmart Overstock com Hulu Plus and other services We really do live in interesting times Websites http www amazon com Cocked dp BOORSGI10U http www amazon com gp help customer display html nodeld 200444160 http www amazon com Prime Instant Video b ref sv_atv_0 _ encoding UTF8 amp node 267688201
14. al startup menu with many Windows 8 users installing third party software that recreated the Windows 7 or XP startup menu Windows 10 new startup menu will open to a full screen displaying programs and apps with a more traditional appearance the view of which can easily be customized by the user Another new desktop feature that will be a first for Windows PCs and other devices running Windows 10 will be familiar to users of Android devices Windows 10 will have an Action Center which when opened quickly displays icons and settings for Wi Fi Bluetooth and the other common settings for the devices Currently in development and testing for Windows 10 is Continuum which will allow the user to quickly switch between available input methods such as a keyboard and mouse to a touch screen method of input Microsoft has been promoting its Cortana which it describes as an intelligent personal assistant which was originally on smart phones running Windows 8 1 as a competitor to Apple s Siri Recent builds of the beta versions of Windows 10 include Cortana named after the artificial intelligence character made famous in Microsoft s Halo game series Cortana as an intelligent application can set reminders interpret natural voice commands and respond to spoken inquiries by accessing Microsoft s Bing search engine Cortana can instantly respond to verbal questions about the weather conditions anywhere in the world sports scor
15. arlier operating systems the way in which it will be marketed to the general public will also be new to Microsoft the current plan for the first year is to offer Windows 10 as a free upgrade The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 12 for most Windows 7 and Windows 8 1 computers While Microsoft has not officially announced the hardware requirements for Windows 10 over a million copies of the public beta or pre release builds of Windows have been downloaded and installed on Windows 7 and 8 computers for the purposes of widespread testing and the gathering of performance issues and information The completed gold or production release of Windows 10 is expected to be available later this year 2015 Windows 10 is expected to be a revolutionary new operating system rather than an evolutionary operating system In addition to the many new features and enhancements built into Windows 10 including frequent updates and upgrades it is also intended to combine the features of many Microsoft products and services into the operating system as well as provide a single interface to different products running Windows 10 including desktop computer laptops tablets phones game consoles and nontraditional devices encompassed in the IoT or Internet of Things Windows 10 has recreated the desktop icons in a manner that will look the same regardless of the device being used Many users of Windows 8 hated the integr
16. as a key to the investigation They also selectively exposed facts about his personal life to present an unsavory character And even when he was cleared by the police a few weeks later no one bothered to repeatedly show his picture and state that he was actually a hero He was a temporarily employed security guard making little more than minimum wage yet he risked his life to help others And of course most people cannot name the actual bomber For the record it was Eric Rudolf He first became a suspect in 1998 and pleaded guilty in 2005 after eluding arrest for five years As an immediate aftermath of this Freedom of Speech Richard Jewell found that he was unemployable after all of the press coverage Not only would potential employers rip up his resume and or job application when they saw his name but he was cursed at thrown out of potential employers offices and sometimes had things thrown at him Even strangers on the streets of Atlanta and other towns bombarded him with verbal and physical abuse spitting punching and kicking He had no choice but to sue those who had maligned him The NY Post NBC and CNN just settled quickly although they maintained there was no wrongdoing But Cox network owners of a string of news stations and publication took the case to court and dragged it through the appeals court Sadly on both accounts the case was dismissed in August 2007 after Richard Jewell s death because there was no plaintiff
17. being curtailed involves Twitter and Facebook postings Some are blatant stupidity as in the March 29 Facebook posting by Colleen Chudney that she did drink but did not get caught by the breathalyzer test by her parole officer The 22 year old was on probation for a 2012 drunk driving offense and part of her parole was that she refrained from consuming any alcohol Her parole officer saw the posting and called her She hung up on him which is another parole violation He insisted on a urine test to check for drinking within the previous 80 hours She was granted another 93 days in jail instead of her parole ending just a few weeks later A recent case involved a man who posted a public message about his estranged wife on Facebook On November 28 2011 Mark Byron posted the hate filled rant It sparked great debate on the online circles while the case was pending Of course most of the commentators ignored the fact that a court order of protection had already been issued to his wife and son after he was convicted of civil domestic violence against her last year On February 23 2012 ajudge ruled that he had to post a lengthy apology and corrections to his previous inaccuracies on his Facebook page for 30 days or face 60 days in prison and 500 fine Musician Courtney Love s 2010 public Twitter posting to reporter Alan Cross about an unnamed attorney who was bought off is another recent example The attorney Rhonda Holmes brought a defamation
18. case against Love Surprisingly the case was decided in Love s favor on January 25 2014 since the attorney was not named the posting was quickly removed once Love realized she had marked it public instead of private and although the statement was false and injurious to Holmes s reputation the case itself restored that reputation Each state s laws have nuances to them Sie networking has allowed people to express themselves to either select people or to The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 7 However Love had to pay 430 000 in damages when she was sued in 2011 over statements posted on Twitter and Myspace regarding fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir There is currently another case still pending brought by Simorangkir against Love based on accusations of theft on the Howard Stern s radio show and taunting on the social media site Pinterest The press has also become one of the greatest violators in the past few decades They do not always verify their facts before reporting a story and news stories are really editorials rather than reporting The best example is the man accused of setting off a home made pipe bomb at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 Almost everyone remembers his name Richard Jewell because for 10 days the news stations kept flashing his picture and name and basically stating that he did it Numerous newspapers also made the same claim They could have chosen to say that this man w
19. ch 45 million U S and UK subs by the end of 2015 They could be pretty close to it now I think they re probably really close to Netflix in terms of U S subs According to Tullo Amazon Prime subscribers are attracted to both the instant video content and the free two day shipping not one or the other Once they see the platform I think they like it Tullo said of those who accepted a trial offer I like it it s easy to use and it s got a full content offering It s very synergistic with their Amazon s business While most readers of this column are at least somewhat familiar with Amazon s Prime services many are not probably aware of the breadth and depth of the Prime offerings currently available for a 99 annual membership Subscription discounts are available to students with an edu email address new mothers Amazon is the largest seller of diapers in the US Prime subscriptions given as a gift new Prime subscribers may qualify for a discount and Prime may be available as a free affinity benefit from some of the premium credit card companies One time free trials of Prime are also available from Amazon While Netflix at about 8 per month predominately provides the benefits of SVOD Streaming Video on Demand Amazon provides somewhat competitive streaming media as well as many additional benefits not available to Netflix subscribers The list of Amazon Prime benefits are extensive and incl
20. der I have to move it into a folder after the fact by opening all bookmarks Is there an easier way A In the current Firefox you can instantly create a bookmark by selecting the star icon at the top right of the browser When the star turns blue your bookmark is created so tap or click the star again Medical Tip When you turn blue call 9 1 1 You will see options to edit the bookmark You can also drop it into an existing folder using the drop down menu or create a new folder Q When I installed the latest version of Microsoft Office on my Windows 8 computer all my favorite keystroke combinations such as ALT F V for Print Preview are gone Now I have to use the mouse or touchpad click in the corners scroll here and there it drives me crazy Any suggestions Mr M A The good news is that most of your favorite keyboard commands are still present but have been changed Why Because it would obviously make too much sense to leave them as they were Your beloved Print Preview is now ALT CTRL I Accessing a list of all keyboard commands is as simple as clicking the question mark in the upper right of the page Word Help will open Type keyboard shortcut and you will find a complete listing I tested a bunch of them out under both Windows 7 and Windows 8 and didn t run into any problems so I think you will be very pleased with the results Mr Modem s DME Don t Miss Em Sites of the Month Ba Ba Dum Ba Ba Dum is
21. e available for a year commencing the official release of 10 I will probably get a copy but take a wait and see approach before giving up my proven Windows 7 Courtesy of Mr Wilsker Websites http windows microsoft com en us windows 10 about http www theverge com 2015 1 21 7866679 windows 10 will be a free upgrade for windows 7 The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 14 and 8 1 users http www theverge com 2015 1 22 7871919 skype for windows 10 features http news yahoo com windows 10 xbox app now 214800126 html http forwardthinking pcmag com none 331430 windows 10 ambitious but realistic http betanews com 2015 01 25 windows 10 technical preview build 9926 hands on making good on earlier promises http techcrunch com 2015 01 21 windows 10s mobile debut reveals cross platform features and skype integration https en wikipedia org wiki Windows_10 https en wikipedia org wiki Microsoft_Cortana http www businessinsider com this is what happened to windows 9 2014 10 http www theverge com 2015 1 21 7865539 microsoft windows 10 event what you need to know Gizmos Freeware Sync Notes and To do Lists Across Windows PC Android and IOS mobiles This may be almost the answer for a problem we have discussed here many times The problem is that many of us work on different computers and mobiles and we need to write notes and update our TODO lists For example today at work I worked on my computer
22. e crash Theory and Practice In theory there s nothing wrong with any of those ideas But in practice it s not the best approach unless you re a bit geeky and have lots of time on your hands If your hard drive fails you ll need to re install the operating system apply any needed security patches and updates reconfigure all your customizations and personal settings then install all your programs Locating the software installation media CDs or downloaded files and license keys for paid software can be a big hassle Only then can you restore your user files from backup That whole process can take many hours often requires a bit of technical know how and you re never quite sure that everything is put back the way it was Quite often people find that they forgot something A critical file or folder is missing from the backup A Better Way and my success story By contrast I recently had a hard drive go bad It took me just 23 minutes to restore 60 gigabytes of data and I was back up and running like nothing happened I was able to recover so quickly and easily because I do full system backups also called image backups every Sunday and incremental backups every weekday at 3AM An image backup rolls EVERYTHING on your hard drive into a single file that can be stored on a flash drive or external hard drive It can be used to restore the entire drive or just selected files and folders All that happens automatically with my
23. er Fire phone Fire TV Fire Tablets iOS devices Android phones and hundreds of other Internet connected TVs Blu ray players set top boxes and gaming consoles In addition to its paid Prime subscribers Amazon also makes the streaming media available for free to those with a 30 day trial of Amazon Prime or Amazon Prime Instant Video The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 3 Amazon s current collection of movies and TV shows is smaller than that of Netflix but Amazon is constantly increasing its selection of available media with the clear intent of going head to head with Netflix Amazon also offers one of the largest collections of streaming music in the industry with millions of titles available for free to subscribers In addition to licensing content from the Hollywood movie houses and national and international TV networks Amazon also had a massive collection of movies shows and series created by the pay per view and subscription media companies such as HBO Amazon like Netflix has started to finance the production of quality media and movies exclusively for its subscribers According to a January 14 article published by MSN In Amazon Netflix battle consumer is the winner by Therese Poletti of Market Watch The video streaming battle between Netflix and Amazon com Inc is intensifying as both companies seek to become more like Hollywood producers with Amazon upping the stakes this week in a big conte
24. es stock quotes traffic conditions and most other information which can be located by Bing This information such as stock quotes and sports scores can be displayed by Cortana on a popup if desired by the user Cortana also has a Concert Watch feature which will recommend music genre s bands and musicians which it learns by monitoring previous Bing searches Cortana will also be integrated with other Microsoft apps which can track flights or remember where a user parked his car by communicating with Microsoft s maps app verbally saying Cortana where did I park my car will display a local Bing map with the car location highlighted along with a route and directions to locate the car Old Microsoft utilities such as Messenger and Internet Explorer will be replaced by newer more efficient and powerful utilities providing enhanced functionality Messenger the popular instant messaging service will be replaced by the much more capable Skype which is already well established as a voice telephone remote presentation and texting application which can instantly be synched between devices Internet Explorer will be replaced with a much more sophisticated and capable web browser currently code named Spartan along with a web rendering engine code named Edge which is backwardly compatible with older webpage designs and coding languages The new Spartan web browser is also integrated with Cortana and will display addi
25. f you were playing the original handheld version Www pica pic com Use Promo Code MODEM when entering your six month subscription to Mr Modem s award winning weekly computer help newsletter and receive one month for free Visit www MrModem com Free Speech on the Internet and More by Diane Fahlbusch ICON PC User Group CONPCUG Long Island NY The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 6 the public Unfortunately many posters do not exercise restraint claiming it is their right Freedom of Speech is a highly treasured right granted to Americans However it is also the most misunderstood and abused rights granted under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States To quote it directly Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances But does this give one the complete freedom to say whatever whenever and however one wants The original purpose of Freedom of Speech was to allow for religious freedom and different political views to be expressed When the USSR started making some changes it was jokingly phrased that citizens still had the same long lines to wait in but were now allowed to complain about them This is something Americans take for granted The Constitution
26. h results from my particular lens a wide range zoom Better lenses have less distortion and some cameras correct for it in their raw images To get the best results from LightZone you must start from a raw image as JPEG has discarded much of the photo s dynamic range Since the program can t correct lens distortion you would pass the developed image file to GIMP in TIFF format to avoid degrading it with JPEG compression There you would correct he image in GIMP perhaps by comparing it to a JPEG version of a photo as processed by your camera The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 11 The combination of GIMP RawTherapee and LightZone will provide the tools to do almost all your image processing I ve introduced these because they have good reputations and I m familiar with them However an Internet search using image processing software will reveal dozens of alternatives both free and commercial References e Montabone Beginning Digital Image processing Using Free Tools for Photographers provides a good overview of the tools I ve discussed although the book is less helpful than it could be as all the example images are in black and white http www cambridgeincolour com contains many very valuable tutorials on photography and image processing If you check only one photo Web site this should be the one Make a search for RawTherapee 4 User Manual to find a very good manual hosted on G
27. in it From left to right the tabs are exposure detail color transform raw processing and metadata Histograms for luminance and the three primary colors are visible at the top of this panel The left panel shows the history of the changes and the center one the current state of the image If you look carefully you will see a button on the bottom just to the left of the orange Ready button Clicking this develops the image and sends it to GIMP as a 16 bit TIFF file As I noted in the previous article the current version of GIMP is capable of only 8 bit processing so it immediately converts the file to 8 bit TIFF Hopefully this butchering will stop with the next version of GIMP The next button to the left outputs a JPEG TIFF or PNG file directly I frequently skip GIMP altogether as RawTherapee can often do all the processing I need RawTherapee is a non destructive editor that is it makes no changes to the image file Instead it creates a separate script file that specifies the processing to be done when the raw image is developed The processing occurs in the order the program deems optimal As a result the order in which you perform your editing is unimportant This is much different than with a program such as GIMP which changes the image directly in syne with what you do In the latter case the order of the editing steps is quite important RawTherapee requires some persistence to master partly because it has no help file Expec
28. ing Skype will seamlessly integrate or synch between Windows 10 devices such as a phone desktop and laptop A new unified build of Microsoft Office including Word Excel Outlook and PowerPoint displays similar appearing screens and documents regardless of the device used with synchronization between the devices The new Office also supports printing from a mobile device while Microsoft s cloud based OneDrive storage service will automatically collect photos and images from all connected devices remove duplicates and organize them in albums that can be accessed by the authorized user from any compatible device Microsoft will be distributing and promoting Windows 10 more heavily than its predecessor operating systems Microsoft has announced its intention to release automated frequent updates and upgrades to Windows 10 in order to keep all systems up to date with the latest features and security enhancements Microsoft has also publically stated that with the current plan to keep Windows 10 updated to incorporate emerging technologies there are no current plans for a Windows 11 or 12 I decided to forgo Windows 8 and have Windows 7 on my primary desktop and laptop computers While Windows 10 appears intriguing I may wait a while before taking advantage of Microsoft s upcoming offer of a free upgrade to Windows 10 providing my hardware meets the new system requirements Since the free Windows 10 offer is currently planned to b
29. lick on an icon Each window is one application of an editing tool which can apply to the whole image or just a portion If you delete a window the changes you made using that step are also discarded When you develop the image the processing is done in the same order as the tool windows so unlike RawTherapee their order can be important You can reorder the processing by drag and drop moving of the tool windows You can also change the way in which the effects of each tool are combined in the final image The left hand panel shows the editing history Here I ve adjusted the white balance applied the relight tool which lightened the shadows and darkened the highlights and further lightened the shadows Then I used the color selector to select the very bright areas the window and the sun lit highlights on the table and reduced the luminosity of only those regions Finally I rotated the image All this takes longer to describe than to do The screen shot shows a region selected based on its luminosity but I could have based it on color or just by drawing an outline Like RAWTherapee LightZone has several pre defined styles and often applying one of these is the only thing you need do to obtain a satisfactory result Unlike RawTherapee and UF Raw LightZone has no provisions for correcting distortions If you look carefully at the La SEMIAVES ORF 20 Ligt Zone window frame and the bookcase you can see some curvature whic
30. live com Board Members at Large Term ends 9 17 Tony Dell lo seresa a PP aaa ee 734 6149 tonydel techie com Term ends 9 16 Bob Avery 2 0 0 eee nee eee ene eens 385 4491 bobajr sprynet com Term Ends 9 15 Sally Springett csc ak chia RRR CRRA CREM U RRR AR GS 442 3776 sspringe rochester rr com The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 16 Standing Committees FOS TAS ce tesserae etait een aa ans naan na i as a hay a ab an a ae a a UNN EANANA Tony Dellelo Membership 0 0 een ee ee eens Steve Staub MODItO T asien ak a a a a a E A E L E E R EU UR ad Sally Springett Webmaster me serue ie to AeA Neca stig EE eat et EE AEE cece EE feos Bob Avery webmaster rcsi org re po Gis cota esha e a a a a E a a Carl Schmidtmann unixgeek faultline com Rochester Computer Society Inc Articles by RCSi members may be reprinted by other user groups without special permission provided they are unaltered and the publication sends a copy to RCSi 2 Bambi Lane Rochester NY 14624 Articles by authors from other organizations retain their original copyright Articles pro vided by the Association of Personal Computer Users Groups may be reprinted if credits remain intact Deadline for the April issue is March 10 2015 The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 17
31. nt deal Amazon fresh off two awards at the Golden Globes for its new show Transparent announced a deal on Tuesday with filmmaker Woody Allen to write and direct his first television series In an article by the Motley Fool dated January 31 Amazon announced plans to launch a dozen original movies starting this year In addition to original movies Amazon is also actively producing a large collection of new series ten of which the pilots have been completed and are currently available to Amazon Prime and Prime Instant Video subscribers to view and evaluate The ten recently released pilots joining the stable of already released series include several animated series for children Buddy Tech Detective Sarah Solves It and the Stinky and Dirty Show a fully acted children s series Just Old Magic and several comedy action and drama series including The New Yorker Presents Point of Honor Man in the High Castle Cocked and Mad Dogs Amazon Studios Vice President Roy Price is quoted on Amazon com as saying Our first pilot season of 2015 brings some of the greatest storytellers in the business to Amazon customers with works of novelty and passion We re very excited by the shows and look forward to getting customers reactions I recently viewed Cocked and found it totally entertaining and well done from an artistic view Many other viewers of Cocked have had the same impression as 1535 reviews of Cocked
32. oogle Books This is essential as the program has no help feature http sunburntandinneedofashave blogspot com 2010 03 lightzone beginners tutorial well sort html will get you started with LightZone although the program does have very good help From the March 2014 issue of BUG Bytes newsletter of the Brookdale Computer Users Group NJ Courtesy of APCUG Microsoft To Release Windows 10 FREE for Many Windows 7 and 8 1 Users by Ira Wilsker There is no doubt that there are still countless users of the obsolescent Windows XP which is no longer supported by Microsoft The successor to windows XP was Windows Vista which was enormously unpopular with its users Windows 7 with its several iterations had some successes in the market place effectively displacing Vista but not winning over many of the huge installed base of XP users except when the users purchased newer computers Windows 8 on the market for only a few years never met with the sales success that Microsoft had hoped for with relatively few Windows 7 users upgrading to Windows 8 as hoped for by Microsoft and also with many purchasers of new computers explicitly requesting that Windows 7 be installed on the new machines instead of the Windows 8 heavily promoted by Microsoft While many users of Windows 8 who have touch screen devices found the manipulation of the interactive tiles advantageous many users of more conventional computers found the Windows 8 tile dis
33. play somewhat confusing and inconvenient In early 2014 Microsoft first publically displayed the next generation of its flagship operating system developed under the code name Threshold now known as Windows 10 Several of the online pundits have brought up theories about what happened to Windows 9 as the series numbering went from 7 to 8 to 10 bypassing an official release of Windows 9 Some pundits alleged that skipping a 9 series was to minimize any confusion with the old Windows 95 and 98 but that is not the official Microsoft line In recent interviews both Tony Prophet head of marketing for Microsoft and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella responded to the question So what happened to Windows 9 The official Microsoft response about Windows 9 was It came and it went Tony Prophet also wanted to separate any public associations between Windows 8 and 10 Microsoft is building a totally new operating system with Windows 10 rather than simply upgrading the somewhat disastrous Windows 8 operating system Prophet stated Windows 10 is not going to be an incremental step from Window 8 1 Windows 10 is going to be a material step We re trying to create one platform one eco system that unites as many of the devices from the small embedded Internet of Things through tablets through phones through PCs and ultimately into the Xbox While the new Windows 10 operating system may be totally new and not just a rewrite of e
34. rive on your desktop or laptop Have you thought about the data on your mobile gadgets If your phone was stolen or went through the wash just imagine losing your address book photos apps and text messages And here s something else to consider More and more our lives are moving online What would you do if your email your 99 66 The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 2 Facebook account or online files got hacked wiped out or your password was lost Amazon Prime Streaming Media Takes on Netflix by Ira Wilsker s I type this the extremely popular streaming media company Netflix is operating in Ace 40 countries and has in excess of 50 million paid subscribers Originally known for its mail based DVD rental service Netflix is currently the world leader in streaming media subscriptions Once thought of in monopoly terms Netflix is now facing serious competition from a multitude of sources including the online retailer Overstock com retailing megalith WalMart and the marketing powerhouse of Amazon While the lesser streaming media competitors if anyone could ever consider Walmart a lesser competitor have barely dented Netflix dominance in the streaming media market Amazon s growth as a direct competitor has been explosive According to Rich Tullo the Director of Research for the old line Wall Street firm of Albert Fried amp Company It looks to me like they are very close to or preparing to approa
35. s that come into its own hardware it can work out the location and severity of all the major DDoS attacks that are taking place at any time As a chart of numbers such data isn t particularly interesting But turn it into animated coloured shooting arrows that fire across an on screen map of the world and you really get a feel for how much DDoS traffic is in circulation at any one time It really is amazing to watch http www techsupportalert com content watch worlds hackers live stunning site htm Society News Here is the lastest link for the virtual machine slides from Francis Chao I revised all of the presentation files and uploaded them to The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 15 https app box com s 690peke8jydm8ldloxq3gmetkurx1zia The Lighter Side Haiku his files not in cloud but are on the local drive is afraid of heights enhanced our lives read on At a recent computer expo Bill Gates reportedly compared F all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have the computer industry with the auto industry and stated If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has we would all be driving 25 00 cars that got 1 000 miles to the gallon In response to Bill s comments General Motors allegedly issued a press release stating If GM had developed technology like Microsoft we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics J
36. t to spend some time reading the manual and searching the Web for examples before you become comfortable with it Finally although it should run on a 32 bit operating system without difficulty a 64 bit one is recommended RawTherapee has a unique ability to correct for lens distortion When your camera saves an image in raw format the file includes a JPEG thumbnail in which the lens distortion has been corrected providing that if your camera has a removable lens it s compatible with the camera The program uses the thumbnail to correct any distortion in the raw image All other programs that incorporate automatic distortion correction including Photoshop use databases The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 10 and these don t cover all combinations of cameras and lenses Indeed RawTherapee can use the same Adobe camera and lens profiles used by Photoshop but it is a non trivial process to adapt them Lightzone http www lightzoneproject org for Linux OS X and Windows is a raw developer with a much different approach For one you can specify only a portion of the image for a particular processing step while RawTherapee always works on the entire image It can also show you which portions of the image have similar luminosities which is frequently helpful The screen shot below shows an image being edited in LightZone In the right hand panel the icons below the thumbnail bring up windows a new one each time you c
37. the RIGHT to say whatever pops into one s head especially on social media or any other media And remember the first four letters of Twitter spell Twit Act responsibly and don t be one From the June 2014 issue of The ICONPCUG Graphic news etter of the ICON PC User Group Long Island NY Courtesy of APCUG Image Processing Software Part 2 by Dick Maybach Brookdale Computer Users Group NJ n the first article February 2014 newsletter available at www bcug com we discussed see retouching using GIMP GNU Image Processing Program However GIMP does not develop raw files for that you need a program such as RawTherapee Why would you want to bother with this extra step In the picture inside a church the frame on the left is the JPEG image as produced by my camera while the one on the right is the same image but I used RawTherapee to process it from a raw file I have my camera set up to save every picture as both a JPEG and a raw image and decide what processing to use after I see the results i A s This example shows one advantage of working with a raw images In the JPEG the roof is essentially black with no visible detail while in the processed raw image the details are visible This is not a simple exposure compensation as you can see by noting that the highlights in the two images for example as seen through the open door on the right have about the same brightness While adjusting the brightness
38. tional context sensitive information such as airline flight information or restaurant recommendations Gamers and multimedia enthusiasts will appreciate the Windows 10 integration with the Xbox entertainment system with an integrated Xbox app Gamers will be able to view their library of available games including the PC and console versions from within Windows 10 The Windows 10 Xbox One app will enable the PC user to engage in Xbox One activities The Rochester Computer Society Inc Monitor March 2015 13 including messages friends lists Xbox Live chat and view some console content on the desktop The Game DVR feature allows gamers to save the last 30 seconds of a game being played which can readily be shared as desired Xbox One games can be streamed over the local network in Windows 10 The implementation of DirectX12 will produce console game like performance on Windows 10 with reduced hardware CPU and graphics driver overhead To support the advanced multimedia needs of modern computer aficionados native graphics support CODECS will be added to a new Windows Media Player that supports Matroska HEVC and FLAC multimedia formats Since Windows 10 is intended to present a single interface on multiple device types different builds of Windows 10 will be released for different devices such as a build for smart devices with screen sizes of less than eight inches which includes almost all of the smart phones Major Microsoft apps includ
39. udes free two day shipping on most items sold by Amazon Prime Instant Video which includes over 40 000 titles of unlimited streaming of movies and TV Prime Music which includes unlimited ad free access to hundreds of Prime Playlists and more than a million songs for members Prime Photos secure unlimited photo storage on the Amazon Cloud Drive Prime Pantry where members can purchase low priced grocery household and pet care items for a flat delivery fee of 5 99 for each Prime Pantry box Prime Early Access where bargain hunters can get 30 minute early access to select Lightning Deals on Amazon Kindle Owners Lending Library where Prime members can borrow for free many of the otherwise paid Kindle e books Kindle First where members can download a new book for free every month from the Kindle First picks Membership Sharing where Prime members may invite up to four eligible household members living at the same address to enjoy the shipping benefits of a Prime membership at no extra cost While the majority of Amazon Prime members apparently join to get the free two day shipping benefits the other major reason why according to Tullo Amazon Prime has tripled its membership in the last couple of years is its rapidly expanding library of streaming media According to Amazon Prime members can watch thousands of movies and TV shows at no additional cost You can instantly stream Prime Instant Video titles from your computer s web brows
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