Diablo Blue

The Newsletter of the Diablo Valley PC Users Group

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March 7, 2008 MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT

Burning and Ripping: What, Where, When, and How
Presenters: Alan Mildwurm, Barry Brown, Nick Chase, and Ron Ogg - DVPC

CD+R. CD-R. CD-RW. DVD. Dual-Layer. Blu-ray. Rip. Burn. Good grief, what is all of this stuff? All you want to do is copy a few pictures you took to a CD to send to your relatives. Or you want to make a backup copy of a DVD. Or copy a couple of tracks off of a CD you purchased to your MP3 player. Do you really need to know all of this stuff? It just seems so... complicated.

Well, we have a surprise for you. It's not all that complicated. Our team of Alan, Barry, Nick, and Ron will show and tell everything you need to know about ripping and burning CDs and DVDs at the March 6 DVPC monthly meeting. And it's all rather straightforward, even if it sounds complicated.

If you're interested in backing up files, or copying data, music, and video, you'll learn how. You'll also learn about what's legal, and what's not, and what's maybe okay / maybe not.

This month's meeting will be fun, interesting, and informative. We'll see you on Thursday, March 6, at Diablo Valley College.

NOTE: Diablo Valley College has replaced all of the old parking permit dispensers that required quarters with new models that take dollar bills as well as quarters, and will at some time in the future take credit cards. No longer do you have to have a collection of eight quarters to buy your parking permit!

Where and When We Meet

Our monthly meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. at Diablo Valley College In Pleasant Hill, California, on the Main Campus located at 321 Golf Club Road. We meet in room H109 in the Humanities Building. See the campus map on the About DVPC page for driving directions, parking information, and how to get to room H109. Remember: there's a $2.00 parking fee, payable at the ticket machines in each lot. These ticket machines take dollar bills and quarters, but do not give change so be sure to bring correct bills and/or coins to buy your parking ticket. Place the ticket face up on the driver's side of your dashboard.

We have a Networking Table from 6:30 to 7:00; if you have something to sell or trade, need technical help, or just want to exchange views, visit the Networking Table. The regular monthly meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. with Random Access where you can ask questions or report on technical problems, followed by a presentation by our guest speaker. Also, as usual, we'll have SIG news and some of our usual great door prizes.

Driving Directions:
680 Northbound:
Exit at Willow Pass Road
At the end of the exit ramp turn left onto Willow Pass Road
Continue on Willow Pass Road to the second signal and
turn right onto Contra Costa Blvd.

680 Southbound:
Exit at Concord Ave.
At the end of the exit ramp turn left on Contra Costa Blvd.

Direction into the Campus:
Continue on Contra Costa Blvd. to the signal at Golf Club Road and turn into Golf Club Road. At the second entrance into the campus turn left then immediately right to parking lot 7. Turn left into lot 7. Park (but don't use parking spaces that are reserved for faculty and staff only), then purchase a parking permit (see Parking Fees below) and put it on your dashboard. Click on this link (www.dvpc.org/about.html) to see:
> a detailed DVC map showing parking and our meeting room
> a map for driving to DVC
> an aerial view of the DVC campus

Parking fees:
On the Pleasant Hill campus parking permits are $2.00 per day for short-term parking. You can purchase permits at the parking permit machines marked with a red star on the maps above and below. Parking permit machines only take dollar bills and quarters. DVC permits are required Monday through Friday at all times that classes are in session. That includes the times that DVPC meetings are held! Do not park in metered or faculty/staff spaces.

You need to purchase a parking permit and place it face up on your dashboard so it is clearly visible through the windshield. If you attend classes at DVC and have a campus parking permit, you can use it when you attend DVPC meetings.

Some members park (for free) in the College Park High School lot across Viking Drive from the DVC campus. Do so at your own risk!

Parking violations:
Be sure to purchase a parking permit! Fines range from $35 for parking in a regular space without a permit, to over $275 for illegally parking in a space reserved for the handicapped.

Parking alternatives:
Some members carpool and share the parking fee; they park at Sun Valley Mall, have dinner at one of the many restaurants in the mall, then take one car to the meeting. Some members park in the lots in front of College Park High School, which is across Viking Drive from DVC. Remember: if you decide to use any of these parking alternatives, you do so at your own risk!

Diablo Blue Password Access
by Ron Ogg, DVPC

You will need the monthly login ID and password to access the current issue of Diablo Blue, the DVPC newsletter. If you are a paid-up member of DVPC you'll receive an email message, usually on the Weekend prior to the meeting, with the password.

As each month's issue is uploaded, it's placed in a password protected folder on dvpc.org. When you click on the link to go to the newsletter, a dialog box will be displayed asking for the login ID and password from the email message. The password is case-sensitive; either copy it from the email message or make sure you type it correctly.

As we add the current month's newsletter, the password on the prior month's newsletter will be removed so anyone coming to the DVPC website can access older issues of Diablo Blue.

If you have any problems accessing a password protected newsletter, please email webbie@dvpc.org.

Watch for Updates!
by Ron Ogg, DVPC

With our new method of producing and publishing the monthly Diablo Blue newsletter, we can easily add updates to each month's issue. For example, we added an update to the October issue, a news article about Barry Brown demonstrating the new version 6 of Photoshop Elements at the PE SIG meeting.

When we add a new article "mid-month" it will be shown in red in and will be at the bottom of the Table of Contents.

President's Message
by Alan Mildwurm, DVPC

Whither User Groups? 

Let me start this President’s message with an apology. I hate writing a ‘less than enthusiastic’ column and I am assuming that those who read it may also find it somewhat less than upbeat. Having just returned from APCUG’s annual meeting in Las Vegas which coincides with CES, it is hard to not to see the problems and issues facing us. For the last several years, user group attendance has been decreasing. This is due to a number of factors:

1) Computers work right out of the box;
2) The internet is an enormous resource for information, research and technical support;
3) The generation Y’ers (MS Word doesn’t think that is a word either) grew up with computers and computing and see the computer as a tool — how many microwave oven user groups are there?
4) There are other things to do than attend a user group meeting.

And I suppose we could think up more reasons but these four are pretty devastating. To make matters worse, at APCUG there appears to be a political battle brewing about whether to continue the annual meeting in conjunction with CES or alternatively having several regional conferences (one weekend) around the country. It seems that 2008 was the first year that fewer than 200 user groups were represented at CES. More individuals regularly attend some of the regional meetings than the main meeting in Las Vegas with CES right there. Amazing. This is a great battle shaping up within APCUG. I think the coup that is trying to take over APCUG favors abandoning the CES conference and just having regional's. (The Southwest Conference in San Diego is presently our closest option.) Not unlike the problems we face in our group, getting vendors to present is getting more and more difficult. Even our good friends Gene and Linda Barlow have retired from the road. I think DVPC may have been their last stop — no, it’s nothing we did.

SO what does that have to do with DVPC? Perhaps nothing, except it exemplifies that our declining membership is part of the “larger problem” as opposed to a local situation. As usual, with the exception of the user groups in retirement communities, most user groups are suffering a declining membership and greater difficulty in getting outside speakers and vendor support.

With this in mind, what can we do? Shortly you will receive a survey. We would greatly appreciate your filling it out and returning it. We know the “hassle” of the $2.00 parking is a sore spot for some. The problem is simply finding another location which can meet our needs (and budget). The plus side of DVC is that our room has excellent acoustics, a good screen, fast internet, safe parking and (relatively) comfortable seating. We know we will have a room there (perhaps our specific room may shift, but we will be accommodated.) Many locations do not allow for a long term reservation. In my time as a member, I recall meetings at the Water District where someone had to call in precisely at the right day and time to reserve the room for the next meeting. First call, first served. Sometimes we were out of luck. We also met at the Real estate board- problem there — almost $300.00 a month in costs. We were enormously fortunate to have the long run at Bank of America — I guess we were victims of 911 — they secured the building and we were out. Finding an affordable room ain’t easy.

We also struggle to come up with interesting programs each month. Without your feedback, we don’t know if we are hitting the mark. Seems like digital photography and “how to’s” are popular. What about it? We hear grumbling about raffle prizes. Many remember the meetings when we raffled off hundreds (and at November’s Window’s Night meetings, thousands) of dollars worth of prizes. Do the math: fewer vendor supplied raffle prizes = fewer raffle prizes. Using our strained resources to buy prizes doesn’t make sense. As it is, many of us go to Fry’s, buy the zero cost after rebate stuff and send in for the rebate. You now know our secret prize source! Thanks to you that do that and to those who donate stuff.

I personally still feel I get a lot out of DVPC. I would hate to see it whither away. While they have since reversed their position, a few years ago, Microsoft thought all user groups should just be an on-line community and not have physical meetings. Goes to show, even they can blow it! (Insert laugh here.)

So what do we do? Please help us keep the club relevant to you by letting us know what you want to see. If you have an idea for a meeting, speaker, location — share it. VOLUNTEER!

Our annual elections will be held at the April meeting. We can use some new blood... uh, let's make that new faces at the Board of Directors meetings and some new ideas, too. How about it? VOLUNTEER!

DVPC Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
by Tom Krauss, DVPC

Because Tom wasn't available to attend last month's Board of Directors meeting, your Newsletter Editor has dug into the archives and dusted off [cough, cough] a long-forgotten set of Board of Directors Meeting Minutes. This is from the February 2000 meeting and appeared for the first (and, I'm sure, Tom thought the last) time in the March 2000 issue of Diablo Blue. That's eight years ago, folks! So, enjoy this brief excursion into the past!

DVPC Board Meeting Date: 02/10/99          Time:   7:00 pm

Movie Review: Galaxy Quest

Arriving five minutes late, I was relieved to see that the pizza had not yet been delivered. Last month I was right on time and the pizza was half gone. As I settled in someone mentioned the movie “Galaxy Quest”, starring among others Tim Allen and Sigourny Weaver, marvelously disguised as a blonde (she looked so different that at the end of the movie I still thought there was a 50-50 chance it was a different Sigourny Weaver from the one of “Alien” and “Ghost Buster” fame).

This movie is a delightfully entertaining satire of the “Star Trek” phenomenon, reminiscent of the Saturday Night Live skit in which William Shatner played himself attending a Star Trek convention and at one point bellowed at the crowd of adoring fans to “Get a life!”.

We went with some friends, and the wives were not overly enthusiastic. My wife has little interest in science fiction, Star Trek, or even movies in general. She strongly dislikes Tim Allen. But this movie had her laughing out loud along with the rest of us. She even said she would like to see it again.

If you haven’t seen it, I and those of the Board who have strongly recommend it. It reminded Craig of a Star Trek convention he had attended, and he treated us to some of the goings on there, but he wouldn’t tell us what costume he wore.

What does this have with the DVPC Board meeting? About as much as 90% of our usual discussions do.

Old Business:

Network: March will be Build a Network Night, and there is a hint of nervousness in the air. Those Board members who will not actively participate in this urged at least a modest degree of planning and possibly even a rehearsal. Those who will be performing remained outwardly cool and calm, but did entertain the possibility of at least a meeting a day or two before to make certain all the required parts are available and will work together. An actual rehearsal was ruled out, as then the additional effort of dismantling prior to the general meeting would be incurred. Also, it was felt the demonstration would then lack that spontaneity that today’s jaded audiences crave.

This casual approach reminded me of my approach to my college education. Once I learned that I could think fast enough and write well enough to make my professors think I knew what I was talking about, I ceased reading assignments and studying for tests. (This attitude may have something to do with my transformation over 4 ½ years from an A- student to a C- student, but I doubt it.)

Anyway, the March meeting will definitely be entertaining and probably educational, too.

Elections: (This should probably be under New Business because elections are two months away, but I put it under Old Business this month because it was under New Business last month, so it is really Old Business this month.)

April will be the Board election meeting. We discussed the number of positions opening up on the Board, and it was really beyond our ability to finalize the count. Jessica will continue as Treasurer, but only for a few months. In the fall she will go away to college, where she will probably fall for a young man with five pounds of stainless steel hanging from various parts of his anatomy who is studying the social implications of diversity among the lower classes of Afghanistan. So we will need a new Treasurer. This lucky person will have six months on-the-job training at the side of our current, most excellent Treasurer before going it alone.

Scotty, I Need More Power!
by Alan Mildwurm, DVPC

When my kids were young, I bought batteries by the bushel. All of their toys required some batteries. The phrase “batteries not included” raised almost as much terror as “some assembly required.” I still recall going out one Xmas morning in search of “C” size batteries because we missed the warning on the box. (7-11). One very cool pool toy took 16 batteries- in 3 sizes.

In those days, rechargeable batteries were garbage. Most rechargeables were  nickel-cadmium and with a memory that made them useless after a few charges. Shelf life was a joke and power output dismal. For several years, I bought throw away alkaline batteries at Costco because they were cheaper than those clever bunny batteries. Not environmentally friendly, but definitely kid toy friendly. As the kids grew up, their needs for batteries diminished (actually they now buy their own), but my need for batteries is increasing. Wireless keyboards, wireless mice, gps, wireless game controllers (the Wii-mote takes 4 batteries per controller and there are 4 controllers), iPod external power units, camera accessories and on and on. I am going through more batteries now with my toys than I ever did with the kids!  Luckily, rechargeable battery technology has come a long way.

Sanyo produces the eneloop (www.eneloop.info). According to their spec sheet, the AA battery is rated at 1.2 volts and 2000 mAh. Not bad for a rechargeable. (A disposable usually is 1.5 volts.)      

There are two sizes of eneloop batteries, AA and AAA. They also produce C and D size cylinders in which you insert AA batteries.

From their site:
eneloop is a totally new type of battery, which satisfies
in a unique way the needs and expectations of the consumers.

Consumers would like to have a battery, which

• can be used right after the purchase
• has a high performance
• has a long shelf life with no loss of energy
• can be used everywhere
• is cheap in purchase and usage
• is environmental friendly
• is easy to use

So far these requirements could not be satisfied by a single type of batteries. 
The consumer had the choice between disposable batteries or rechargeable batteries.

Disposable batteries have several advantages: 

• they can be used immediately
• they have a long shelf life with low loss of energy
• they are rather cheap in purchase
• they are easy to use and no charger is required

These advantages of disposable batteries however, had to be seen alongside several clear disadvantages:

• can be used only once and therefore mean substantial waste and risk for the environment.
• have to be purchased over and over again and are therefore expensive considering the life-time of your equipment.
• are not quite powerful enough in certain applications (like digital cameras)
• are being offered in many varieties and special application-specific types, which confuses the consumer. 

The classical advantages of rechargeable batteries are:

• high performance, especially if high discharge currents are required ( like in digital cameras)
• cheap in use, because they can be recharged many times.
• environmental friendly, because one rechargeable battery replaces 1000 disposable batteries.
• good performance at low temperatures.

Given these advantages, rechargeable batteries also have some disadvantages, which made consumers reluctant to exchange disposable batteries by rechargeable batteries:

• After purchase, rechargeable batteries have to be charged before they can be used. 
• Rechargeable batteries lose the stored energy rather fast.
• The state of charge is hard to determine.
• Continuous charging or frequent charge (without complete discharge ) can destroy the battery.
• Proper charging is complicated for an average consumer
• The charging takes quite long and rapid chargers are expensive. 

All these negative attributes have one root-cause: self discharge. 

Self-discharge means, that a charged battery slowly discharges itself without any equipment consuming any current. This is the reason for rechargeable batteries being sold in discharged state. And this is the reason for that keeping charged batteries for some time did not make any sense. When you needed then, the energy was gone.

How was the self-discharge reduced? (For you techy folks!)

Modern Ni-MH batteries consist of two metal stripes (anode and cathode), 
which are separated by a non-conductive porous plastic foil ( separator ).
These three stripes are laid on top of each other and are wound to a coil.
This coil is put in a metal can and immersed with a liquid (electrolyte). 
Then the metal can is closed with a cap. 

The self discharge of Ni-MH batteries is caused by three main reasons: 

• the chemical decomposition of the cathode,
• the natural disaggregation of the anode,
• Impurities of the anode.

Now, how could the self-discharge in the eneloop been reduced?

The chemical decomposition of the cathode has been reduced substantially by the use of a new superlattice alloy. As an additional benefit the superlattice alloy increases the electrical capacity of the battery and reduces the internal resistance, which allows higher discharge currents. Another advantage of the reduced decomposition of this alloy is the fact that less Cobalt is needed to stabilize the alloy. The anode has been strengthened by another new material, which reduces the natural disaggregation. Additionally the separator and the used electrolyte have been optimized for low self discharge of the eneloop. 

They really are good batteries!

I have been using eneloops for several months. They work fine. I have both a wall charger and two battery (AA or AAA) USB charger. Both chargers work very well. I like the USB charger and I love the fact that they come charged and ready to go.

The kit shown below lists for $50.00 but is available at Amazon for $32.00 It comes with 4 AA, 2 AAA, and 2 spacers each for C and D plus a charger. I have found even better deals with more batteries  at Costco!!

RAID Explained
by Lynn Oakleaf, DVPC

You've probably hear the term "RAID" and wondered what it was. In general, it's a way of storing data on a set of disk drives connected to a RAID controller that protects the data through redundancy and/or speeds up data access. It's used in corproate networks, but now, with the declining prices for large hard drives, RAID capability is being introduced in the home office / home user markets.

There are several variants of RAID:

RAID 1 — Mirror / Duplex — two drives and is redundant — good now that we have large drives as the storage is only as large as one drive — a single drive failure is compensated for, two different drive sizes can be used, but the storage size is determined by the smallest of the drives — needs two drives but slight loss of read performance. Since it is limited to two drives it is often too small for large systems that will use RAID 5 instead. This is what we use in "duplex" as we had two SCSI boards — otherwise it would be "Mirroring". I recommend this with another backup of data onto another computer, an online service, CD/DVD or tape backup process incase your computer is stolen or the office burns down or

RAID 0 — Array striping but no redundancy (no parity) — used for high speed performance read and write — but will lose all data if (when) any one of the drives fails and the more drives the more chance the drive failure so must have a backup system — good for lots of small drives that add up to a large volume - needs a minimum of two drives.

RAID 5 — Same as RAID 0 but with parity — so it is redundant, good for lots of small drives that add up to a large volume. The "distributed" parity across all drives which may equal one drive volume that is not used for storage — a single drive failure is compensated for — fast read, slower write as also writes parity, Minimum of three drives, often used with five drives or more in a large systems (that need much larger data storage ten Raid 1 can provide).

These are unlikely to be of any value to home users:
RAID 4 is like RAID 5 but the parity is on one drive — random write performance takes a hit, read is good.
RAID 3 is similar to RAID 4 — read is OK, not fast. Write is fair to good.
RAID 2 is not sold or used by any longer (a RAID 2 subsystem requires 39 separate disk drives).

Oh so you want to know what RAID means? RAID = Redundant Array of Independent Disks. Aren’t you glad you asked?

2008 Southwest Computer Conference
by Judy Taylour, SWCC

Leadership Workshops! Vendor Tech Sessions! Vendor Presentations and Meals! Vendor Expo! Hospitality Suite! Door Prize Drawings! Networking! T-shirts and Welcome Bags! You will find all of this and more at the Conference. And all DVPC members are invited.
 
You will have an opportunity to network with computer club leaders and members who have similar interests: share ideas and experiences as well as solutions to problems. Bring your meeting calendar to schedule meetings; you will also have the chance to meet and talk with vendors.
 
The conference begins on Friday afternoon, May 30 and continues through Sunday, June 1 at the Town and Country Resort & Convention Center in San Diego.

 
The conference registration fee is $60 per person, if postmarked by May 1. If your registration is postmarked by May 15, the fee is $75; May 16 through the conference date the fee is $100. Your conference registration fee includes admittance to all workshops and tech sessions, the Vendor Expo, meals and vendor presentations, a Welcome Bag and T-shirt and a chance to win door prizes featuring some of the latest and greatest technology products. To ensure that attendees receive their choice of T-shirt size, registration must be received by May 1. Attendees registering after that date will receive an XL T-shirt. The registration form is attached and you will find the fillable form at: http://theswcc.org/registration/registration.htm    
 
The conference will be held at the Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, 500 Hotel Circle North, San Diego. Town and Country is offering attendees a special group rate of $119.00, single or double occupancy. To make your reservation, please call their toll-free reservation number (800-77-ATLAS) by May 1 and identify yourself as attending the Southwest Computer Conference. Information about the hotel may be found at: http://theswcc.org/hotel/hotel.htm   
 
The Conference rate is available from May 22 through June 6, 2008, on a space-available basis. Bring the family - plan a vacation over the Memorial Day weekend and end it with the Conference. Check out places to visit in San Diego at: http://theswcc.org/hotel/hotel.htm   
 
Stay at the host hotel and you are automatically entered into a drawing to receive one of your conference nights FREE.
 
All conference attendees are invited to enter the Digital Photo contest. A user group with at least one member in attendance at the Conference may also enter their Digital Photo Contest 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners. The contest guidelines may be found at: http://theswcc.org/Contest/photo/photocontest.htm   
 
Attendees do not need to belong to a user group -- bring a friend. Maybe attending the conference will entice them to join your group.

Interested in carpooling from the Phoenix area or sharing a room - contact Judy. If you are coming from the LA or Orange County areas, think about taking the train. You get off in San Diego, walk a very short distance and take the trolley that stops at the back of the Town and Country (you do have to take two trolleys). Just walk across the street and through the hotel's back parking lot and then call for a cart to take you to the front of the hotel to register.

For further information, please contact Judy Taylour at JudyTaylour@theswcc.org.

O'Reilly News for User Group Members
by Marsee henon, O'Reilly Media

Hi there—

Recently, Near-Time and O'Reilly Media announced a collaborative development experiment for our new title "Software Craftsmanship". Now you can comment on this book as it's being written. Help authors Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye turn this into a bestseller. Read the blog post "Comment often. Watch book grow. Have fun."

The O'Reilly School of Technology just announced a new PHP/SQL Certificate. Don't forget UG members get a 30% discount with the promotion code "ORALL1".

And we are now offering video tutorials from our Tools of Change conference on DVD . Topics include Digitizing Your Backlist, SEO for Book Publishers: Beyond Book Search, XML for Publishers, and Making Mobile Work.

Travel news: Are you going to Mix 08 in Las Vegas? Let me know and I'll put you in touch with our editors attending the show. They will be showing off our brand new Essential Silverlight Up-To-Date book making it's debut at the show. And don't forget I'll be at SD West March 5-6 in Santa Clara and then off to Chicago for PyCon March 12-15.

Marsee

New Releases: Books, Short Cuts, and Rough Cuts

Get 35% off from O'Reilly, No Starch, Paraglyph, PC Publishing, Pragmatic Bookshelf, Rocky Nook, SitePoint, or YoungJin books you purchase directly from O'Reilly. Just use code "DSUG" when ordering online or by phone 800-998-9938.

Free ground shipping on orders of $29.95 or more. See details.

Did you know you can request a free book or PDF to review for your group? Ask your group leader for more information.

For book review writing tips and suggestions, go to: ug.oreilly.com/bookreviews.html

MAKE Magazine Subscriptions

The annual subscription price for four issues is $34.95. When you subscribe with this link, you'll get a free issue — one plus four more for $34.95. So subscribe for yourself or friends with this great offer for UG Members: five volumes for the cost of four.

Subscribe at: http://www.makezine.com/go/ugsub

Craft Magazine Subscriptions

The annual subscription price for four issues is $34.95. When you subscribe with this link, you'll get a free issue--one plus four more for $34.95. So subscribe for yourself or friends with this great offer for charter subscribers: five volumes for the cost of four.

Subscribe at: http://www.craftzine.com/go/craftug

 

 

O'Reilly School of Technology

O'Reilly School of Technology Courses: UG Members Receive a 30% Discount

O'Reilly School of Technology has opened its virtual doors with educational offerings and certification for IT students looking to further their careers or to launch one. As an O'Reilly User Group member, you save on all the courses in the following University of Illinois Certificate Series:

• PHP/SQL Programming--New!
• Linux/Unix System Administration
• Web Programming
• Open Source Programming
• .NET Programming
• Client-Side Web Programming featuring AJAX

To redeem, use Promotion Code "ORALL1" good for a 30% discount, in Step #2 of the enrollment process. Each course comes with a free O'Reilly book and a 7-day money-back guarantee. Register online.

Five Ways to Make Your Photos Look Better
By Derrick Story, O'Reilly Media Inc.

You are invited to a free webcast:
Five Ways to Make Your Photos Look Better
than Others

In this webcast, Derrick Story, digital photographer, blogger, and author of The Digital Photography Companion, gives you the tools to capture the high quality pictures you've always wanted--photos that will distinguish your work from others.

Thousands of pictures are recorded every day. Many of these shots are personal and not meant to be viewed as art. But what if you could capture the world everyone else sees, but in a more beautiful way? Derrick shows you five ways to make your pictures look a cut above those snapshots we typically see.

Attendance is limited, so click here to register now. We'll send you a reminder before the webcast. You'll need to login to the O'Reilly website, or join the O'Reilly community to register for this webcast.

Date: Thursday, March 27th at 10am PDT (17:00 GMT)
Cost: Free
Duration: 30-45 minutes
Meeting link: oreilly.com/go/webcast-story
Teleconference dial-in:
(select the number that is closest to your location)
East Coast US: +1 617 231-0350 and pin 8136507
West Coast US: +1 213-455-0500 and pin 8136507

Questions? Please go to our web page for this webcast, or send email to webcast@oreilly.com.

About Derrick Story: Derrick Story is the digital media evangelist for O'Reilly. His experience includes more than 20 years as a photojournalist, managing editor for O'Reilly Network, and a speaker for IDG, PMA, and Santa Fe Workshops. He is the author of Digital Photography Hacks, Digital Photography Pocket Guide, 3rd Ed., and his latest, The Digital Photography Companion. He coauthored iPhoto: The Missing Manual with David Pogue.
Derrick likes to keep his shooting skills sharp by running his photography business, Story Photography. You can listen to his photo podcasts and read his tips at The Digital Story (thedigitalstory.com). Aperture fans might want to check out his co-authored video training on Lynda.com: Aperture 1.5 Beyond the Basics.

"Derrick Story has a unique gift for creating order out of chaos. Digital photography turns things upside down and even seasoned shooters need help. Whether you are a complete beginner or a photographer with experience, Derrick is the go-to guy. His new book "The Digital Photography Companion" fits perfectly into my camera bag and is going with me on all my assignments from now on."

-- Rick Smolan, Photographer, Creator of "Blue Planet Run" and "America at Home"

O'Reilly Media, Inc. 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472   (707) 827-7000

CD and DVD Technology and CD Burning
by Nick Chase and Ron Ogg, DVPC

Several members have asked that we include Nick Chase's CD and DVD Technology presentation and Ron Ogg's CD Burning presentation in this month's issue of Diablo Blue. OK, here they are. Both are PowerPoint slide shows that have been converted to Adobe Acrobat pdf files. You'll need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your PC to view these slide shows.

NOTE: These presentations will only view correctly if you are using Internet Explorer versions 6 or 7. They are not compatible with Firefox or Opera.

CD and DVD Technology
by Nick Chase

CD Burning
by Ron Ogg

Finally, Error Messages We Can All Understand
by Walt Parsons, DVPC

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 

 
 

 

Old Harold

I was having trouble with my computer. So I called Harold the computer guy, to come over. Harold clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem.
He gave me a bill for a minimum service call. As he was walking away, I called after him, 'So, what was wrong?' He replied, 'It was an ID ten T error.' I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired, 'An... ID ten T error? What's that... in case I need to fix it again?'
Harold grinned.... 'Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?'
'No,' I replied.
'Write it down,' he said as he left, 'and I think you'll figure it out.'
So I wrote down:   I D 1 0 T
I used to like Harold....

Photoshop Elements SIG Meeting Program
by Peggy Johnson, DVPC

The March Adobe Photoshop Elements SIG meeting would, as usual, be held on the third Thursday of each month. Due to the generosity of my dear brother, he has shared his cold with me. Instead of my then sharing it with each of you, the Elements SIG has been rescheduled to next Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 7 p.m. at my home in Concord, CA.

I do hope you all can adjust your schedules at this last minute to this new meeting date.

Barry will continue with restoring damaged photographs. Please bring any photographs you wish help with restoring. As usual, check the Elements SIG pages at www.bkbrown.net for all the latest news, information and tutorials.

The Photoshop Elements SIG meets on the third Thursday of each month; note that this is a new meeting day!

Please email Peggy for further information and/or directions, and check back here for a meeting update with information about this month's topic.

Windows SIG Meeting Program
by Walt Parsons, DVPC

The March WinSIG meeting was held on Monday, March 3, and just missed this issue of Diablo Blue.

Walt demonstrated Tornado, a self-contained USB file transfer device that includes the program needed to select the files to be transferred and the locations where they are to be copied. What's unusual is that the program is run from the transfer device itself, and does not need to be installed on either computer. Alan showed this device at our February meeting; it was one of the goodies he brought back from CES in Las Vegas. Who says "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?"

Ron demonstrated a Bluetooth wireless laptop mouse from Microsoft, and a U3 flash drive that lets you run programs from the drive itself, using the same technology as the Tornado file transfer device. We closed with a brief discussion of Knoppix (www.knoppix.org), a Linux version that doesn't need to be installed but is run from a CD or a flash drive.

The next WinSIG meeting will be on April 7 at 7:30 p.m. The April meeting will be something completely different: Bring in your best digital pictures on CD or a flash drive, and we'll put on a slide show. Be prepared to talk a little bit about your digital camera, and what you like about it. You might even bring in your camera for show-and-tell!

The Windows SIG meetings are held in the Community Room at the Concord Police Station. See the detailed directions on the DVPC SIG News page.

Today's Dilbert Cartoon
by Scott Adams