October Newsletter

MCC
Landlines

Malvern Computer Club
October 2008

First Steps Meeting.
24th October 7.30 p.m. at the Primary School Library.
Club Membership includes Club CD.
Casuals $5/night students $2. Yearly subs are $25 for a family. Students $10.
Also the use of the CD Writer is free and $1 for a CD/R.
Phone Marcel 3188232 or Vikki 3183741
Any enquiries email to
landlines@xtra.co.nz
website;
http://www.geocities.com/malverncc/
Blog
http://malvernlandlines.blogspot.com/



Hello,

The weekend did not go as planned and because I am always doing things at the last moment it was not too good. Still I think the newsletter will be there in time.
There seems to be still problems with the blog, I was even hearing some today. It was blamed on slow connection speed but I said if Marty Lucas can contribute it must be possible at any download upload speed because he claims to have the slowest download speed in the district. I have not had a look at the Blog for a few days but will have a look before I am finished editing this newsletter. As usual Denis was prompt in delivering his contribution that forms the backbone of this publication.

Agenda
Welcome
Apologies
Matters arising from the Newsletter & last meeting
Any problems

The Blog is still causing problems


From Denis

Thanks to Herman and Marty for their Blog contributions. Apart from Marcel, Herman, Audrey and Denis nobody has a favourite program, no-one has any questions or criticisms and nobody else want to sign up - or won't say they are having problems. Is the Blog not wanted as it is - or at all? Should there be more MCC Blog members, Malvern residents, reduced sub., visitors subs. for meetings but with author rights for the Blog? Think about it!


File Extensions
Extensions,the three letters which follow the period in a full file name, and which indicate the file type cropped up again at the last meeting. More than one program can have access to a type of file such as a pdf, jpg, doc, or txt to name but a few. To avoid confusion, Windows opens a particular type of file by the same program every time; it is associated with that program, eg pdf with Acrobat Reader. A file type may be opened by many programs but may be associated with only one. This default association can be over-ridden by right clicking the file and clicking Send To. For example, pdf files can be sent to Foxit Reader which does almost the same job as Adobe but much quicker. In my setup the association is changed around so that Foxit is the default and opens the file in a flash but if I then find I need to search it or use other features which Foxit does not support, I use Send To and temporarily switch to Acrobat.The problem put to the meeting was that Thunderbird had stolen a default association from Outlook Express. Marcel demonstrated how to restore it to OE, and then Marty put the Blog to good use and posted a full pictorial demonstration of file associations. Those who are missing out on the Blog, try again and use Marcel's very recent re-invitation email and sign up. In the meantime to associate a file with the program of your choice go to: Start, Help and Support, Type 'Extensions' in the search box, choose "To associate a file with a program'' and follow the instructions. There are no pictures.


Photo Noise

Best Free Photo Noise Reduction Software http://tinyurl.com/6x3rl8 Noise on a digital image looks like random speckled-colour dots in areas where the colour should be more even. The more you zoom into the image the more prominent the noise becomes. All digital images include some noise just as all traditional photographs have some grain. The amount of noise varies considerably between cameras but it also varies with how you use your camera, a higher ISO or sensitivity setting increasing the noise.
Noise-reducing programs cannot eliminate noise from your digital photos but they can make it less obvious. But, there is a cost: any noise improvement you make will inevitably lead to some loss of detail to your images.
There is no outright winner here for top noise-reducing program as there are two excellent contenders:
Noiseware Community Edition. It has drop a down box that enables you to make simple choices (automatic noise profiling), but I considered this to be a blunt instrument. If you want to start using the automated profiles then I would recommend starting with 'Weaker noise'. If 'Weaker' noise has too little effect then further adjustments can be done manually with the preview box turned on. This is a gentle start and as you get to know these programs you will quickly learn to only do things in very small steps, otherwise the image is very easily spoilt. All of options in the 'More Controls' section are not available on the free version, but very good results are still possible. Just how good, will depend on your skill and patience as it is unlikely the automatic fixes will give a satisfactory result. Thankfully, there is a good help file.
Website: http://www.blogger.com/www.imagenomic.com/nwsa.aspx
Download page: http://www.imagenomic.com/download.aspx
Version: Noiseware v2.
Download file size: 1.46MB
Open files: JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF (24 and 48 bpp) Save files: JPEG
License: Freeware for personal use
Operating systems supported: Windows XP/Vista Operating system requirements: 256MB RAM, 10MB HDD

Image Correction
Helicon Filter. This is really a general purpose image correcting suite but it includes an excellent noise reduction filter. Other filters in the suite
include:
* Noise reduction filter
* Red eye filter Sharpening filter
* Colour adjustment filter Text inscriptions and Frames filter
* Crop & Resize filter Distortions filter '
* Clone' brush 'Change brightness' brush
* 'Change colour' brush
* 'Change saturation' brush
* 'Blur/sharpen' brush 'Fix red eye' brush
* 'Erase changes' brush.
The noise filter has an excellent visual interface as well as a useful help system to guide you through the noise reduction process. It offers some automatic noise profiling, with the ability to make your own. It supports RAW, TIFF, JPEG2000, JPG with support for external PS-plug-ins but the free version cannot itself be used as a Photoshop plug-in. The free version also has fewer noise reduction options than the paid but excellent results are still possible.
And the other filters in the suite are just as good as the noise reduction filter. So good that you'll be tempted to use these even if you have Photoshop, Gimp or another image editor as Helicon is quicker to load and easier to use.
Website: http://www.heliconsoft.com/
Download page: http://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconfilter_downloads.html
Version: Helicon Filter 4.86 (14.04.2008) Download file size: 21MB Open files: RAW, TIFF, JPEG2000, JPEG.
License: Freeware for personal use
Operating systems supported: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Vista x64

Another Image Filter
NDNoise is another filter which is good but less user friendly
Website: http://absolutedenoiser.free.fr/ or http://ndnoise.free.fr/ Download page: http://absolutedenoiser.free.fr/ or http://ndnoise.free.fr/ Java download http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html
Multiple image format support: PNG, JPEG, GIF, ... (prefer lossless PNG compression !)
Author: Etienne
Version: V0.4
Download file size: 870kb
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS-X, Linux
Sounds like software Spike would get really exited about.


SuperAntiSpyware

John Hoetjes talked at the last meeting about the new Antivirus program he is using and he sent me the following info
thought that you would be interested in SUPERAntiSpyware to help keep your PC safe from online threats. Please visit the following link to download your free copy: http://www.superantispyware.com/?tag=FRIEND Because you were referred by john.erna@ihug.co.nz, you are eligible for a 25 % discount on your purchase of SUPERAntiSpyware Professional. Please use the discount code FRIEND to receive this instant discount when ordering. This is not spam e-mail. It was sent to you by John
Your name has NOT been placed on any mailing nor provided to any other company as a result of this email.
It had me worried for a second and I can say I have not received any spam that I can link to the superantispyware.
I will download it and stick it on my pen.

PC Rubbish

I actually went to the national e-day collection depot to leave some of my treasures behind.
Electronic waste (e-waste) can seriously harm the environment, wildlife and human health when dumped in landfills.
eDay is a cars-only drive-through recycling event which gives you the opportunity to recycle old computers or mobile phones in an environmentally sustainable way.
Kiwis cleared their homes of approximately 946 tonnes of old computer equipment and mobile phones in New Zealand's second national eDay – held on October 4th and 5th.
More than 16,600 carloads of electronic waste (e-waste) was dropped off at 32 centres on
Saturday (and Hamilton on Sunday) – over double the 415 tonnes collected at the first
national eDay in 2007 where 12 centres across New Zealand took part.

I was amazed at the help I got to unload my car everything got labelled and noted down, I had about 7 screeens,5 computers, 4 printers, keyboards, speakers, hard dives, the mother of loads it was called.
I started saving up for next year already.

Faster broadband the goal of all parties
Fast, affordable broadband-for-all is a common goal of all political parties in this election. All also recognise that Telecom is not going to deliver such a service anytime soon.
Except for Act, all parties favour the Government stepping in and investing in "fat pipe" fibre optic services to our homes in order to lift our dismal OECD ranking in broadband.
All also accept that the private sector should run this infrastructure and pay the rest of the cost.
Election are great aren’t they?
See you at the meeting.

Marcel landlines@xtra.co.nz