Vol. 30 number 7 September 2013 The newsletter of the Ottawa PC Users' Group Calendar OPCUG General Meeting National Museum of Science and Technology 1867 St. Laurent Blvd. Second (*first) Wednesday of each month, 7:30pm 2013: *Sep 4, Oct 9, Nov 13, Dec 11 2014: Jan 8, Feb 12, Mar 12, Apr 9, May 14, Jun 11 Beginner SIG After the OPCUG General Meeting, at the Museum. Linux SIG After the OPCUG General Meeting, at the Museum. Beer BOF (Wing SIG East), after all the SIGs, at 10 p.m. Liam Maguire's, 1705 St. Laurent Blvd. at Innes Rd. Please note that unless otherwise noted, SIGs meet at 9:00 p.m. (immediately following the OPCUG General Meeting). ____________________________ Coming Up.... September 4th, 2013 (FIRST Wednesday) TBA (check http://opcug.ca/public/regmtg.htm for updates) October 9th: TBA November 13th : "Computer hardware, choices, maintenance and repair". We are looking for volunteers to talk about various hardware parts, in a similar format as our "Members' Favourite Software". Contact the Meeting Coordinator jocelyn.doire@@opcug.ca With the new 2013-2014 season, the OPCUG is now looking for new presenters; There are already many prospects, but more are needed, so if you could take a few minutes or your time and see if you can find someone that could make an interesting presentation, that would be great. The OPCUG has a proud history of over 30 years of non-stop presentations, let's keep up with that fine tradition and all make a concerted effort. We just added a new web page to the OPCUG's web site (http://opcug.ca) under the "Speakers" tab (http://opcug.ca/public/history/speakers.html) that has a lot information about the OPCUG, its meetings, contact info and the benefits to speakers, so don't hesitate to consult it and let any potential presenters know about it. Thanks in advance to all. Jocelyn Doire, OPCUG Meeting Coordinator ____________________________ REMINDER - Parking fees As of May 1, 2013, the Canada Science and Technology Museum is charging parking fees at a rate of $1 per half hour with a maximum $6 per day, paid in advance, so expect to pay $6.00 if you park from 7:20pm to 10:10pm. Payment methods include coins, VISA, and MasterCard, and the proof of payment must be left in the car and be visible in the windshield. Alternatively, there is some free street parking just before the museum, on Gladwin Crescent. Check the street panels. ____________________________ September Raffle Courtesy of the Microsoft MVP program, we have a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate for the September raffle. This is the full version (not the "upgrade only" version) that can be installed on any PC. Valued at $350. If you are still using Windows XP (for which there will be no security patches produced after March 14, 2014) and you don't want to move to Windows 8, this is the perfect raffle prize for you! Tickets are, as always, a good deal at $1 for one, a great deal at $2 for three or the unbelievable bargain of $5 for ten! ____________________________ June Prize Winner After we all had an excellent Pizza dinner before our June meeting, Lill Limoges' evening got even better after she won our evening's raffle prize - a copy of McAfee Total Protection 2013. Congrats to her. Thanks to McAfee for the prize donation as well as a big thanks to the various OPCUG members who organized our pizza feed for us again this year. ____________________________ June eWaste event a success! The OPCUG got its first eWaste event at our last June meeting in parallel with the PizzaQ and in collaboration with our March presenter, Doug Drouillard of the KRC (Knights Refurbishing Computers) INC. The event was a big success, well over everyone's expectation, collecting 36 computers, 34 monitors/TVs, 160 computers accessories, 150 audio/video equipments, and earning $158.70 for the OPCUG. Check our history page for more details and some pictures of the events. Thanks to all for making that event such a success! ____________________________ National Capital Freenet - Call for Volunteers The National Capital Freenet is a volunteer driven organization that provides reasonably-priced DSL service in the National Capital Region. We operate as a not-for-profit. The small amount of money we make from reselling Bell DSL, along with a profit from selling modems, helps to fund dial- up service to national capital residents who might not otherwise have access to the internet. To keep operating costs low, the NCF office relies on volunteer help. Do you have a few hours every week to offer help to NCF members? We can use help with testing and configuring modems, troubleshooting computer problems, transcribing voice mails, and general member service issues. If you are computer savvy and can offer help to those that are not, your help would be greatly appreciated by NCF members who find it challenging to sort out their computer/modem set up. Even if you are not a computer wizard, you can be of help. We can train you to configure modems and help troubleshoot basic connectivity issues, or you can help with reception or voice mails. We get dozens of voice mails and e-mails every day, and help is needed to screen them and put them into the appropriate queue for follow-up by our small staff. These may be with regard to help with signing up for dial-up or DSL, making changes to payment info, making donations, addressing service interruptions, questions about moves and other account changes, as well as for support with modem configuration, e-mail set-up/malfunctions, and other miscellaneous technical questions. We are a friendly bunch and would love to welcome some new volunteers to our office. Have a look at our website at http://www.ncf.ca and contact Jane at ad739@@ncf.ca if you can offer a bit of your time. ____________________________ Free Membership Since 2008, members of OPCUG have been making presentations on various computer-related topics at branches of the Ottawa Public Library (see article below entitled "Ottawa Public Library Presentations" or http://www.opcug.ca/public/OPL.htm for up-coming presentations). Part of these presentations has always been a brief description of OPCUG and its activities, including details of future meetings, and the availability of the newsletter and The Pub. In recent months, as an additional bonus, we have made a free, three-month, trial membership in the club available to those members of the public who have attended our library sessions. The club's Board of Directors would now like to extend such trial memberships to family members and friends of existing club members. So, if you know of anyone with an interest in personal computers, we would like you to extend an invitation to these individuals to accept a three-month trial membership in OPCUG - absolutely free of charge! Please have your friend or relative contact us at: free- trial@@opcug.ca The limitations on this offer are that individuals receiving free membership must not be a current member of OPCUG, nor have previously been an OPCUG member. (Such people know very well the benefits of membership in our club and have no need of a free trial.) In addition, individuals who take advantage of our free trial membership will be able to subscribe to and receive copies of the electronic newsletter but, in order to control our costs, such members will not be eligible to receive hard copies of the newsletter by postal mail. At the end of the free-trial period, each individual will be sent a renewal notice indicating that full membership is available for the next twelve-months for the usual, princely sum of $25.00. If people wish to join OPCUG on this basis, that's just fine - we will be happy to see them as new, full members, and provide them with all of the services that go with OPCUG membership. Should they choose not to join - that's fine too. But, we hope that they found the trial membership worth the money! ____________________________ Article Windows 8: The Start screen vs. the Desktop by Chris Taylor I have many serious reservations about what I find to be the most schizophrenic operating system ever released by Microsoft; Windows 8. Oh, it works, security seems decent, it appears to be quite stable, and it is only the second operating system released by Microsoft that actually requires less system resources than its predecessor to operate well (Windows 7 being the first and most dramatic example of this.) But I am constantly - okay, frequently - forced to hop back and forth between the Metro interface (yes, I know it is no longer called Metro but I just can't call it ... what are they calling it now?) and the old familiar desktop, which seems to have gone through a serious neutering. And I am constantly asking; Why??? I fail to see why - for example - I have to jump through so many hoops to add a program icon to my desktop. I don't normally have many icons on the desktop, but with the Start button MIA on the Windows 8 desktop, I figured it was the best approach. In Windows 7, I could easily click right- click and drag any program item from the Start button onto the desktop and select Create shortcuts here. But in Windows 8? With no Start button on the desktop, I resorted to opening the Start Menu folder in the file system and copying the icons I wanted from there. I wonder how many users would know how to find the correct Start Menu folder in the file system. I think most people probably go back to the Metro Start screen and launch their desktop apps from there. It just feels so disjointed to be switching back and forth from the desktop to the Start screen. But that's not the only switching back and forth you are faced with in Windows 8. Why, when you go to PC Settings in Metro and select Language preferences in the General section, are you are taken to Control Panel on the desktop? But if you go to User Accounts in Control Panel on the desktop and want to add a new user, you are taken to the Users section of PC Settings in the Metro interface. Oh, and if you want to make the new account an Administrator, you have to go back to Control Panel on the desktop to do that. Made sense to someone, I guess. And it is not just Microsoft foisting strange and not-so- logical behaviours on me. When I installed Google Chrome it put an icon on the desktop. When I double-clicked it to launch Chrome, it switched me over to a Metro-style app. What the...??? Only it doesn't feel completely like a Metro- style app - you can close it by dragging down from the top of the screen, and you are stuck with the dumb full screen view. Or you can opt for the Metro-style 1/4 - 3/4 split that is always just exactly what I wanted. (I really need a sarcasm font.) But you can't get to settings or any sort of menu by swiping up from the bottom like other Metro apps. Oh noooo - that might make sense. I did find the option to Relaunch Chrome on the desktop, and that setting seems to stick, so I am back to my familiar Chrome browser, but really??? I see some people going to great lengths to make Windows 8 act like Windows 7 ... well, really act like every version of Windows released in the past 17 years or so. One of the big things people seem to want to avoid is the Windows 8 Start screen with its big tiles. They just want to run their old familiar Windows apps that all run on the desktop anyway. Why bother with the Metro Start screen? Heck even Paul Thurrott of the Windows Supersite - who is a huge fan of Windows 8 - thinks it makes sense to boot directly to the Windows 8 desktop for people who mostly use non-Metro apps. I read an article by Greg Shultz on TechRepublic detailing a method of going straight to the desktop after you logon. You create a scheduled item that triggers at logon. It runs a copy of File Explorer, which only runs on the desktop. (Oh, and why is there no Metro-style equivalent to File Explorer?) So when you logon, Windows 8 forces you to the desktop so it can display File Explorer. There are apps out there designed specifically to avoid the Metro Start Screen, both free and inexpensive. For example, there is the free Skip Metro Suite from WinAero. And Stardock has the $5 Start8, which can give you back the Start menu on the Windows 8 desktop as well as allow you to boot directly to the desktop. Okay, they all work. You can also just hit Win-D from the Metro Start screen to get to the desktop. If you are using a touch screen, you can tap the Desktop tile on the Metro Start screen. I guess some people figure why bother having to do that every time they logon. Resources: Greg Shultz at TechRepublic - http://preview.tinyurl.com/cubd42l Skip Metro Suite - http://preview.tinyurl.com/ahqcrvg Start8 - http://preview.tinyurl.com/6tkkmgy ____________________________ Ottawa Public Library Presentations by Chris Taylor As most members know, for 5 years, the OPUG put on an annual one-day workshop in the fall. Starting in 2008 we switched to partnering with the Ottawa Public Library to give presentations. It was a modest beginning in the spring of 2008 with 4 presentations given by Alan German and myself at one branch of the Ottawa Public Library. Since then it has exploded. Andrea Wells and Jeff Dubois have joined Alan and myself as presenters and as of the end of June, 2013, we have given 139 presentations at 19 different branches. Although attendee counts were not taken in the beginning, we do know that well over 1200 people have attended presentations. For more on the history, see http://opcug.ca/public/history/OPL100th.html If you are interested in giving a presentation at the Ottawa Public Library, please speak with any board member. In addition to our English presentations, we have had a request for someone who could present in French. Twenty-five presentations have been scheduled for the fall 2013 season. For a complete list of upcoming presentations, see http://opcug.ca/public/OPL.htm. Basic Digital Photo Editing It is easy to take dozens or hundreds of photos with your digital camera. But then what? Chris Taylor, President of the Ottawa PC Users' Group will help you discover some easy ways of fixing up your photos to correct many basic flaws so you will be proud to display them. Saturday, September 28, 2:00 - 4:00 PM, Rosemount Branch Monday, October 21, 6:30 - 8:30 PM, Carlingwood Branch Wednesday, October 30, 6:00 - 8:00 PM, Hazeldean Branch Saturday, November 2, 2:00 - 4:00 PM, Greenboro Branch Tuesday, November 5, 6:15 - 8:15 PM, Cumberland Branch Thursday, November 14, 6:15 - 8:15 PM, Elmvale Acres Branch Thursday, November 28, 6:15 - 8:15 PM, Orleans Branch Clicking, Flicking and Tweeting: Social Networking Controversy The explosion of social networking websites such as Flickr, Facebook, blogging sites and Twitter has raised more than privacy concerns. Join the discussion with Chris Taylor and Jeff Dubois from the Ottawa PC Users' Group. Jeff will describe the value of social media sites, while Chris will give the cautions about using these tools so that you don't compromise your computer, your job, your identity, or worse. Monday, September 23, 6:30 - 8:30 PM, Carlingwood Branch Wednesday, October 23, 6:00 - 8:00 PM, Beaverbrook Branch Wednesday, November 6, 6:15 - 8:15 PM, Ruth E. Dickinson Branch Tuesday, November 26, 6:15 - 8:15 PM, North Gloucester Branch How the Internet works ... and doesn't Did you ever wonder how your computer communicates with servers on the Internet? Chris Taylor, President of the Ottawa PC Users' Group will explain in simple terms how computers find each other and connect so they can exchange information. As well, Chris will give some hints on how to trouble-shoot things when they don't work as they are supposed to. Wednesday, November 20, 6:15 - 8:15 PM, Rideau Branch How to buy a digital camera When buying a digital camera, you are faced with a bewildering array of choices. Chris Taylor, Ottawa PC Users' Group President will help "focus" your search for the ideal digital camera. Thursday, December 5, 6:15 - 8:15 PM, Sunnyside Branch How to Buy a PC When buying a PC, you are faced with a lot of choices, laptop or desktop, dual or quad core processor, AMD or Intel, how big a hard drive, how big a monitor, is it better to buy a faster processor or more memory ... Chris Taylor, President of the Ottawa PC Users' Group will help sort out the choices so you can buy the computer that is right for your needs. Thursday, September 26, 6:15 - 8:15 PM, Sunnyside Branch Tuesday, October 22, 6:15 - 8:15 PM, Ruth E. Dickinson Branch Saturday, November 16, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM, Nepean Centrepointe Branch Thursday, December 12, 6:15 - 8:15 PM, Elmvale Acres Branch How to Secure a Home Wireless Network Most wireless routers do not default to the most secure configuration. Make sure you are not the "low hanging fruit" that someone will decide to attack. It is surprisingly easy to make sure your network is secure. Chris Taylor, President of the Ottawa PC Users' Group will show you just how easy it is. Thursday, October 24, 6:15 - 8:15 PM, Sunnyside Branch Tuesday, November 19, 6:15 - 8:15 PM, Stittsville Branch Tuesday, December 10, 6:15 - 8:15 PM, Manotick Branch Protecting Your Computer The average time it takes for an unprotected computer to be compromised after connecting to the Internet is under 15 minutes. Don't let it be yours. Chris Taylor, President of the Ottawa PC Users' Group will show you the simple steps you need to take to keep your computer from being hacked. Saturday, September 21, 10:15 AM - 12;15 PM, Main Branch Wednesday, September 25, 6:00 - 8:00 PM, Beaverbrook Branch Tuesday, October 29, 6:15 - 8:15 PM, Orleans Branch Thursday, November 7, 6:15 - 8:15 PM, Rosemount Branch Wednesday, December 4, 6:15 - 8:15 PM, Ruth E. Dickinson Branch Free registration is required at http://www.biblioottawalibrary.ca/events/todayevent_e.cfm ____________________________ OPCUG Free Software Guide - Part 42 Compiled by Alan German This guide features an annotated list of free computer programs. The software mentioned has not been reviewed (except where noted) nor have any tests necessarily been conducted. Consequently, no guarantees are provided that the individual programs will perform as described. Rather the list of available software is provided for the information of our members who may find one or more of the programs useful. Bootmed Your Windows machine has crashed and the OS is irrecoverable? No worries. Linux rides to the rescue. Bootmed is a (bootable) live-CD that provides a whole host of tools - and a tutorial - to help recover your system Web Site: http://www.bootmed.com/bootmed/ SyncBackFree Backup files in their native format. Create a customized profile for your backup job and run it on a user-defined schedule. SyncBack will synchronize directories, can use external drives and FTP servers, and runs on Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista, and XP. Current Release: Version 6 Web Site: http://www.2brightsparks.com/SyncBack Digital Janitor Are your file folders a mess? You need a digital janitor. Set a few rules (e.g. all .doc files are to be stored in C:\Documents) and this utility will sort and move your files into the appropriate locations at the press of a button. The program can even sort MP3 files by artist and album! Current Release: Version 5.3 Web Site: http://davidevitelaru.com/software/digital-janitor/ Media Player Classic - Home Cinema MPC-HC is an extremely lightweight, open-source, media player for Windows. It supports all common video and audio file formats available for playback. With its wide array of options and custom toolbars, MPC-HC will fit almost any needs. Current Release: Version 1.6.7 Web Site: http://mpc-hc.org/ Fotor With Fotor's state-of-the-art photo processing engine, it's easy to process high quality photos quickly. Adjust exposure, brightness, contrast, white balance, and saturation, sharpen/blur, add a vignette, or crop, straighten, rotate and much more. Current Release: Version 1.0.0 Web Site: http://www.fotor.com/desktop/ SearchMyFiles Easily search for files by wildcard, date/time, file attributes, file content (text or binary), file size - or combinations of these. This utility allows powerful searches that cannot be done with Windows search. Current Release: Version 2.35 Web Site: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/search_my_files.html Web of Trust WOT is a free add-on for the Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari browsers. A "traffic light" next to web site links shows you which sites people trust - green for good, red for bad, and yellow as a warning. Web Site: http://www.mywot.com/ Arena This powerful freeware chess tool will let you play games but will also provide detailed analysis of the thinking process of chess engines. Advanced chess players will find a challenge, while novices can readily learn the basics of the game from the instructional material provided. Current Release: Version 3.0 Web Site: http://playwitharena.com/ ____________________________ OTTAWA PC NEWS Ottawa PC News is the newsletter of the Ottawa PC Users' Group (OPCUG), and is published monthly except in July and August. The opinions expressed in this newsletter may not necessarily represent the views of the club or its members. Member participation is encouraged! If you would like to contribute an article to Ottawa PC News, please submit it to the newsletter editor (contact info below). Deadline for submissions is three Saturdays before the General Meeting. Group meetings OPCUG normally meets on the second Wednesday in the month, except in July and August, at the National Museum of Science and Technology, 1867 St. Laurent Blvd, Ottawa. Meetings are 7:30-9:00 p.m. and Special Interest Groups go until 10 p.m. Fees: OPCUG annual membership: $25 per year. Mailing address: 3 Thatcher St., Nepean, Ontario, K2G 1S6 Web address: http://opcug.ca/ Bulletin Board - PUB II (BBS): http://opcug.ca/default.htm Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/opcug President and System Administrator: Chris Taylor, chris.taylor@@opcug.ca, 613 727-5453 Meeting Coordinator: (Mr.) Jocelyn Doire, Jocelyn.Doire@@opcug.ca Treasurer: Alan German, alan.german@@opcug.ca Secretary: Gail Eagen, gail.Eagen@@opcug.ca Membership Chairman: Mark Cayer, Mark.Cayer@@opcug.ca, 613 823-0354 Newsletter: Brigitte Lord, Brigittelord@@opcug.ca Email: (Mr.) Jocelyn Doire, Jocelyn.Doire@@opcug.ca Public Relations: Morris Turpin, PR@@opcug.ca, 613 729-6955 Facilities: Bob Walker, 613 489-2084 Webmaster: Brigitte Lord, opcug-webmaster2@@opcug.ca Privacy Director: Wayne Houston, privacy2@@opcug.ca Special Events Coordinator: Bob Gowan, bob.gowan@@opcug.ca Beginners' SIG Coordinator: Chris Taylor, chris.taylor@@opcug.ca, 613 727-5453 Linux / Open-Source software SIG: (vacant) Note: We added an extra "@" to the emails to reduce spam. Parking: Ample parking is available but as of May 1, 2013, the Canada Science and Technology Museum will charge parking fees at a rate of $1 per half hour with a maximum $6 per day, paid in advance, so expect to pay $6.00 if you park from 7:20pm to 10:10pm. Payment methods includes coins, VISA, and MasterCard, and the proof of payment must be left in the car and be visible in the front windshield. There is no gate at the entrance, but if they find that your proof of payment is expired or missing, you will get a city of Ottawa ticket. Note that we will refund the parking fee for our speakers. Alternatively, there is some free street parking just before the museum, on Gladwin Crescent. Check the street panels. (c) OPCUG 2013. Reprints permission is granted* to non- profit organizations, provided credits is given to the author and The Ottawa PC News. OPCUG request a copy of the newsletter in which reprints appear. *Permission is granted only for articles written by OPCUG members, and not copyrighted by the author. ____________________________ Newsletter by email: To receive the newsletter by e-mail, send a message to listserve@@opcug.ca with the plain text "subscribe NewsletterTXT" or "subscribe NewsletterPDF" (without quotes) in the body of the message. No subject line is required. To cancel e-mailing, send a message to listserve@@opcug.ca with the plain text "unsubscribe NewsletterTXT" or "unsubscribe NewsletterPDF" (without quotes). To change your e-mail address, cancel using the old e-mail address and re-subscribe using your new e-mail address. Cancelling the Paper Newsletter: You can help the environment and save us some costs by sending an email to Mark.Cayer@@opcug.ca asking to cancel the delivery of the paper version of the newsletter (or ask him in person - Mark is usually at the back of the auditorium at General Meetings). Announcements Mailing List: To subscribe to the Announcements List send an email to listserve@@opcug.ca, leave the subject blank and in the body of the message put "subscribe announcements" (without the quotes). Within a couple of minutes you will receive a confirmation message from the list server. OPCUG clock/calendar/calculator and mug: Check out the clock/calendar/calculator and thermal coffee mug sporting our club logo at the back of the auditorium at General Meetings! OPCUG insulated mugs are $15 and OPCUG clocks are $20. Reuse, recycle: Bring your old computer books, software, hardware, and paraphernalia you want to GIVE AWAY to the general meetings, and leave them at the table near the auditorium's entrance. Please limit your magazines to publication dates of less than two years old. If you don't bring something, you may want to TAKE AWAY something of interest, so look in on this area. Please note: If you bring anything for the recycle table, you are responsible to check on your way out and if the items you brought are still there, you must take them home with you.