Vol. 31 number 7 Sep 2014 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 2014: Sep 10, Oct 8, Nov 12, Dec 10 2015: Jan 14, Feb 11, Mar 11, Apr 8, May 13, Jun 10 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... Wednesday, September 10th, 2014 Topic: Basic Digital Photo Editing Speaker: Chris Taylor, OPCUG Is your hard drive bulging with digital photos you have taken over the years? Do you get the feeling there is something maybe not quite up to snuff with many of them, but you are not sure how to fix them? At the September meeting, Chris Taylor will take you through some very simple steps to edit digital photos and correct common flaws. Both free and commercial editing programs will be used to show you don't have to spend a lot of money to turn your photos into something you will be proud to print and display. At the September meeting, we will also be providing details on a photo contest to come up with an image of the Canada Science and Technology Museum for the OPCUG web site. Wednesday, October 8th, 2014 Topic: Web Comics (to be confirmed) Speaker: Mark Shainblum (to be confirmed) 2014/2015 meeting dates: September 10, 2014 October 8, 2014 November 12, 2014 December 10, 2014 January 14, 2015 February 11, 2015 March 11, 2015 April 8, 2015 May 13, 2015 June 10, 2015 (pizza and meeting) ____________________________ September Raffle Prize For the September raffle, we have a really special prize – a 7" Android tablet computer! The UbiSlate 7Ci Android tablet runs Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) and weighs only 320 grams. It boasts a 7" TFT touchscreen, a 1.0 Ghz Cortex A8 processor with HD video co-processor, 512MB memory and 4GB internal storage (expandable with a micro-SD card to 32GB). Equipped with WLAN WiFi 802.11b/g/n connectivity, miniUSB, built-in microphone, headphone jack, built-in speaker and a front-facing camera. The UbiSlate 7Ci will meet the average user's needs in mobile connectivity. For details see http://ubislate.ca/product.php?prodid=1 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. Don’t miss out on your chance to win this terrific raffle prize! ____________________________ June Prize Winner The raffle winner of Windows 7 Ultimate (full version) at our June 2014 meeting was William Palamar. Congratulations William! And thanks again to our President, Chris Taylor, for donating the prize. ____________________________ Another successful eWaste event! The inclement mid-June weather did not deter environmentally conscious individuals from taking part in the OPCUG’s 2nd annual eWaste event held on June 11th at the Science & Technology Museum. Thanks to the coordination of Jocelyn Doire, the event featured two key themes: reuse and recycle. By day’s end, 1454.5 kg of discarded and end-of-life electronics were disposed of responsibly through our recycling arrangement with Evolu-TIC Outaouais. A diversion alternative was also available thanks to an initiative with CompuCorps Ottawa and, as a consequence, a few computers and peripherals were diverted for re-use by the charitable organization and will find their way back into service and into the homes of the less fortunate in the Ottawa area. The OPCUG wishes to thank Evolu-TIC and CompuCorps for their participation, Blair Craword (Ottawa Citizen) and Erin McCracken (Ottawa South News) for their media coverage, all the volunteers who pitched in at the event and, of course, everyone who brought their discarded and end-of-life electronics to the event thus making it such a success! We collected 1.4545 ton x 150 $ = 218.18 $ (21 screens, 22 TV, 24 Casing, 1 Laptop, 24 Printer, 21 scanner, 26 Keyboard, 4 VHS player, 6 DVD, 45 Radio, 42 Phone, 19 Router 13 Cell, 3 Sound System, 5 Camera, 2 decoder, 1 Server, 11 Controller, 2 Projectors 2 Microwave). For more information, please check our history web page (http://opcug.ca/public/history/index.htm). ____________________________ Half Century - And Counting! This issue of the newsletter contains the OPCUG Free Software Guide - Part 50. In the past five years, we have listed a total of 374 freeware or open-source software packages in the guide. These have included programs of all descriptions, from word processors to image editors, web browsers to media players, utilities to games, and everything in-between. A complete list of the program titles, with live links to the relevant newsletters, can be found on our web site by navigating to: SIGs - Linux / Open-Source Software - Free Software - OPCUG Free Software Guide. In putting all of this material together, Alan German, the guide's primary complier has been ably assisted by seven co-contributors (multiple contributions noted in brackets), namely: Bill Bradwin (7), Jeff Dubois (2), Micheline Johnson (5), Mike McClemens, Dunc Petrie (4), Chris Taylor (4) and Brice Wightman. Thanks to everyone who contributed - and to all those who commented on the utility of the individual software listings. Time to start on Part 51. Contributions anyone? ____________________________ Product Review Downloading YouTube Videos Alan German YouTube videos come, and YouTube videos go, or at least, YouTube videos can sometimes be hard to re-locate if you see something interesting but don’t bookmark the URL. An alternative is to download the video of interest to your hard drive for future viewing – but how? Enter YTD Video Downloader, a freeware package that makes downloading YouTube videos, and video files from several other web sites, a simple task. YTD will even convert video formats for you. Supported file types include mp3, mp4, wmv, flv, mov, 3gp, and avi. Having downloaded and installed the program (watch out for bundled software that you don’t wish to install!), you simply need to copy (Ctrl-C) the URL of a video to the clipboard, and hover the mouse over the "Paste URL" window. Like magic the web address for the video will appear in the window – there is no need to actually paste it! Now, it’s simply a matter of choosing the desired settings for download quality, video file format, etc., although the default settings may be just fine. One setting that you probably should change is "Save to". By default, this uses some obscure documents’ folder for a given user. Since I never use such folders, I found it hard to locate my first download, and so opted to use the folder on my data drive where I normally store file downloads. After that, hitting the Download button does precisely what it says and in no time at all – well, in a period appropriate to the size of the file and the speed of your Internet connection – the video is available to play from your hard disk. Even better, YTD has a built-in viewer so you can see the results immediately. And, just in case you were wondering, the example (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJYcHrwE1ok) shown above is a home-made, how-to video of Adam, The Northern Tech, installing a solid state drive in an Acer Aspire One netbook. In consequence, it’s a freely-available file (i.e. no copyright) – and a great example of the utility of YTD in allowing the file to be downloaded for future reference – such as when you are in the middle of major laptop surgery and need a little help! Bottom Line: YTD Video Downloader Basic (Freeware) Version 4.8 GreenTree Applications SRL http://www.ytddownloader.com/ ____________________________ Product Review Keeping Secure by Chris Taylor I have given seminars on computer security at OPCUG meetings. I give them on an on-going basis at the Ottawa Public Library – http://opcug.ca/public/OPL.htm. It would be an understatement to say I care about computer security. A few years ago, I had to stand in front of audiences and tell them they must keep their software patched for security vulnerabilities. I would tell them that Microsoft has a decent service for keeping their products patched called variously; Windows Update, Microsoft Update, or Automatic Updates, depending on what they felt like calling it any particular week. Okay, maybe it just feels like they change product names that often. Then I had to keep a straight face and tell people that they should visit the vendor web sites for all their other software, search for security updates for the version they used, and install those updates. And that they should do this every month or two. A few years ago, I ran across a wonderful, free program from Secunia called Personal Software Inspector (PSI). Secunia is tracking over 20,000 programs for security vulnerabilities, and PSI can apply security patches for you. I wrote a review of PSI in the January, 2011 issue of the newsletter - opcug.ca/public/Articles/1101.pdf I knew Secunia gave away PSI free for personal use in order to spread the word and get people to tell their administrators at work about how great it is (there is a commercial offering that costs money) and also to find out about programs they were not yet tracking for security vulnerabilities/security patches. In late February Secunia sent out an email, saying the Secunia Vulnerability Review 2014 was available. It turns out that Secunia is also collecting anonymous data using PSI to find out about the programs we use and our exposure to security vulnerabilities. According to Secunia, the average user has 75 programs installed. Of course, I am proud to report that PSI found 160 programs on my main desktop computer! Without PSI, I wouldn’t have a hope of keeping up-to-date on security patches for all of those. Secunia reports that, in 2013, an astounding 2,289 vulnerable products from 539 vendors were discovered with a total of 13,073 vulnerabilities in them. This represents a 45% increase in vulnerabilities over five years, and a 32% increase from 2012 to 2013. Secunia also looked at various versions of Windows itself. It is interesting to note that all versions of Windows had about the same number of vulnerabilities found in 2013. The larger number of vulnerabilities in Windows 8 actually stems from the fact that Adobe Flash Player is integrated into Internet Explorer in Windows 8. I have to wonder if Microsoft regrets that decision! Remove the 50 (!) vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash Player and the vulnerabilities found in Windows range from 99 in Windows XP to 104 in Windows 8 – essentially a dead heat. This also makes me wonder about Microsoft’s assertion that newer versions of Windows are more secure. If anyone wonders why I recommend they remove Adobe Acrobat Reader and install a replacement such as Foxit Reader, only need look at the 67 (!) vulnerabilities found in Adobe Reader vs. the 1 vulnerability found in Foxit Reader. The report also has information on browser security, the top 50 apps, zero-day vulnerabilities, criticality of vulnerabilities, time-to-patch, and more. The full 20-page report is available at http://secunia.com/vulnerability-review/ ____________________________ Product Review Checking Out with Unchecky Alan German In a recent article (Installation Caution; Ottawa PC News; June, 2014 - http://opcug.ca/public/Articles/1406.pdf), I noted some of the sneaky ways that software developers try to get you to install bundled software – that you don't want – together with a specific application – that you do! In essence, as part of the installation process, the user is left to carefully study all the options offered and ensure that check boxes that will install undesired software are unchecked. Enter Unchecky. This little utility loads as a terminate-and-stay-resident program and sits quietly in memory monitoring for software installations. If it finds that you are installing an application that tries to bundle other products, it will uncheck the relevant boxes – automatically – in the background! – and allow the main installation to proceed without any further action on your part. For software that doesn't use a standard Windows' installer, Unchecky will warn you of any bundled junk and provide you with the opportunity to gracefully decline the offering. Bottom Line: Unchecky (Freeware) Version 0.2.14 RaMMicHaeL http://unchecky.com/ ____________________________ Product Review Finding Duplicate Image Files by Alan German You probably have lots of duplicate files scattered over your hard disk. However, today’s hard disks are huge and so retaining a number of duplicate files isn’t necessarily a major problem. The problem is more likely to be that, because your hard disk is so big, tracking down the duplicates in order to delete them is quite difficult. This can be especially true for digital image files (each of which can be several MB) since you may well have the same image stored in different folders and under different file names. Wouldn’t it be nice if a software utility would search the content of images rather than just the file names? Well, if this is what you want, give VisiPics a try. Implementing a scan is simply a matter of navigating to a disk or folder, pressing the "Add folder" key (the right-arrow with the plus sign), and pressing the "Start" button (the green forward arrow). After a few seconds, thumbnails of prospective duplicate images are shown in the left window. By default, VisiPics starts up with a "Loose" setting for its image comparison algorithm; however, a slider lets you quickly make the comparisons much more strict and hence limit the number of false positives. Note for example, in the above screenshot the loose comparison has identified many "duplicate" images. A review of a few of these hits proves to be quite instructive as to how the program can be useful, and why using a tighter file comparison is likely desirable. The first pair of images selected were inspiron_installed_01.jpg and inspiron_installed_02.jpg. Note that these have different file names, the reason being that they are screen captures of the list of installed programs from "Uninstall a program" in the Windows’ control panel. Since the list would not fit on the screen, I captured two (different) screen images to record the two halves of the list. So, while the two images do have the same general format, the actual content (the files listed) are in fact quite different. In contrast, while the second pair of images also has different file names – img_3084.jpg and img_3084_small.jpg – these are actually the "same" photograph. However, in this case, the "small" version has been resized for use as a thumbnail on a web page. Finally, note the three "under construction" signs near the bottom of the left window. Two of these are copies of the very same file, with the same file name, but located in different folders. Thus, these two files are true duplicates (albeit deliberately stored in different folders for different purposes). The third is the original image, with a different file name, a larger file size, and stored in yet another folder. If the VisiPics’ slider is set to "Strict", all of the near-comparisons noted above are removed from the list of hits and only the two, true duplicate, construction signs remain. So, this slider becomes a powerful tool for drilling down to the level of image duplication that suits an individual user. VisiPics also includes an image viewer. Hovering the mouse over any thumbnail displays the underlying image in the lower window and shows the path, file name, image size and date. Left-clicking on any thumbnail "marks" the image for future action – either delete or move. Using this feature multiple duplicate images can be quickly marked and sent to the Recycle Bin. So, if you think your hard drive is full of duplicate image files that could readily be removed to save space and keep things tidy, why not give VisiPics a try? Bottom Line: VisiPics (Freeware) Version 1.31 Guillaume Fouet http://www.visipics.info ____________________________ OPCUG Free Software Guide – Part 50 Compiled by Alan German This guide features an annotated list of free computer programs. To mark the fiftieth issue of this guide, the listings have been restricted to truly "free" software – all the programs listed are open-source offerings! 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. LyX LyX is an open-source document processor that combines the power and flexibility of TeX/LaTeX with the ease of use of a graphical interface. There is a fully-integrated equation editor and support for lists of references and index creation. Use the built-in document layouts to produce everything from letters to academic articles or novels! Current Release: Version 2.0.7.1 Web Site: http://www.lyx.org/ Eraser Eraser is a secure data removal tool for Windows. It completely removes sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. Current Release: Version 6.0.10.2620 Web Site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser/ NAPS2 NAPS2 (Not Another PDF Scanner 2) is an open-source document scanner with a focus on simplicity and ease of use. Scan your documents from WIA- and TWAIN-compatible scanners, organize the pages as you like, and save them as PDF, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, and other file formats. Current Release: Version 2.6.3 Web Site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/naps2/ LICEcap This open-source utility will let you make animated screen captures – simply! Select an area of your desktop and save it as an animated GIF. Check out the neat demo. on the developer’s web site. Current Release: Version 1.24 Web Site: http://www.cockos.com/licecap/ ProcessHacker Do you need more details than Windows’ Task Manager provides? This powerful, open-source, multi-purpose tool will help you monitor system resources, debug software and detect malware. Current Release: Version 2.33 Web Site: http://processhacker.sourceforge.net/ TAudioConverter This open-source program is an advanced, multi-threaded audio converter-extractor and CD Ripper. It can convert any audio format to aac, mp3, wav, flac, ac3, ogg, opus, mpc, ape or tta. It can also, extract audio streams from video files, and can apply various effects to audio streams. Current Release: Version 0.9.3 Web Site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/taudioconverter/ Hide In Picture Want to try steganography? Hide In Picture is a program that allows you to conceal files inside bitmap pictures, using a password. The pictures look like normal images, so people will not even suspect they contain hidden data. Web Site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/hide-in-picture/ Krita This full-featured digital painting studio is professional grade and is available for both Windows and Linux. Current Release: Version 2.7 Web Site: http://krita.org WinMerge This open-source tool will show you what has changed between file versions, and then merge the changes. The program displays side-by-side line differences, and highlights differences inside lines. Current Release: Version 2.14.0 Web Site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/winmerge/ BillardGL BillardGL is an OpenGL pool billiard simulation, which was developed at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Current Release: Version 1.75 Web Site: http://www.billardgl.de/index-en.html ____________________________ 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: $25 per year. Mailing address: 3 Thatcher St., Nepean, Ontario, K2G 1S6 Web address: http://opcug.ca/ Bulletin Board - PUB II (BBS): http://opcug.ca/default.htm Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/opcug President and System Administrator: Chris Taylor, chris.taylor@@opcug.ca, 613 727-5453 Meeting Coordinator: (Mr.) Jocelyn Doire, Jocelyn.Doire@@opcug.ca Treasurer: Alan German, alan.german@@opcug.ca Secretary: Gail Eagen, gail.Eagen@@opcug.ca Membership Chairman: Mark Cayer, Mark.Cayer@@opcug.ca, 613 823-0354 Newsletter: Brigitte Lord, Brigittelord@@opcug.ca Email: (Mr.) Jocelyn Doire, Jocelyn.Doire@@opcug.ca Public Relations: Jeff Dubois, PR@@opcug.ca, 613-366-7936 Facilities: Bob Walker, 613 489-2084 Webmaster: Brigitte Lord, opcug-webmaster2@@opcug.ca Privacy Director: Wayne Houston, privacy2@@opcug.ca Special Events Coordinator: Bob Gowan, bob.gowan@@opcug.ca Beginners' SIG Coordinator: Chris Taylor, chris.taylor@@opcug.ca, 613 727-5453 Linux / Open-Source software SIG: (vacant) Note: We added an extra "@@" to the emails to reduce spam. Parking: Ample parking is available for a flat fee of 3$ after 5pm, paid in advance. 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. We will refund the parking fee for our speakers. For those who don't mind a couple of minutes easy stroll, there is free parking just before the museum along Gladwin Crescent. (c) OPCUG 2014. 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.