Future
Meetings
Below is a list of dates for 2007, these dates have been confirmed.
May 16th
June 13th
August 8th
September 5th
October 3rd
October 31st
November 28th
December 19th
Last
Month….
We looked at those free packages that are little gems and you
wonder what you did without them. Derek presented the first package
on offer - Net meter. It can be downloaded for free from the Internet.
This small package is used to track downloads/uploads and keeps
a running total of usage. This comes into its own if you currently
run an Internet Service package that limits monthly usage. The
package can be obtained from http://service.gmx.net/de/cgi/hpad
His
second offering was Belarc, a package that offers pretty well
everything you would want to know about your computer systems
profile including serial numbers of installed software, current
levels of Windows security patching and virus protection status.
The programme is extremely comprehensive and a must for those
who want to know what really is inside their computers. Once again
the package is a free download and can be obtained from http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
Steve Orrell came up with a diverse range of packages that he
had found very useful. His first offering was Audacity that as
its name implies is a sound recording and editing program that
can also support and convert .mp3 files. The package is open source
and works across Windows, Mac and Linux. There is a huge range
of features, which makes this a very powerful audio editing tool.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
His second offering was CD_BurnerXP Pro 3, a full-featured disc
burning programme that will support pretty well all the functions
you would expect from a commercial package. It will allow multi
session burning until the disc is full and even offers a simple
cover-printing feature. Available from http://www.cdburnerxp.se/
CCleaner is one of those packages that allows you to clear out
all sorts of rubbish from your machine. It will clear your temp
Internet folder, URL History files and Cookies. It will also clean
up much, much more of your system and even offers a registry cleaning
facility – not for the faint hearted. It is extremely fast,
so be warned. Available from http://www.ccleaner.com/
Perhaps Steve’s most impressive offering was The Gimp, a
free image manipulation software package offering a phenomenal
array of features. The whole front end is very professionally
presented and can even manipulate .raw files. As with many of
these open source packages, many dedicated programmers support
it and the website offers a vast range of user support including
in depth documentation. If you a looking for a good image manipulation
package, this could be for you. http://www.gimp.org/
Some other packages that Steve had for us included LAME is a nice
little .mp3 music file encoder. http://lame.sourceforge.net/index.php
Lost all your free space? Here is a small package called i.Disk
that will show you where it all went by scanning all your hard
disc partitions and displaying total used space in an easy to
use format. http://www.memecode.com/idisk.php
MP4CAM2AVI an .mp4 video file converter/joiner to .avi video files
for digital MP4 cameras. http://sourceforge.net/projects/mp4cam2avi/
SUPER
a simple multimedia encoder and player. It will convert all sorts
of media files and play them as well. http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
Struggling to watch a video file. X Codec Pack may well be the
answer. It is a media player that will run just about anything
thrown at it.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Codec-Packs-Video-Codecs/X-Codec-Pack.shtml
Got lots of picture files you want to view and/or edit, then Irfanview
could be for you. Compatible with most image formats it boast
loads of plug-ins and filters and will even show your pictures
in a slideshow.
http://www.irfanview-stop.com/index.asp?s=go-uk&a=irfanview&kw=irfanview
A small programme that I have found useful is called Restoration.
It is an easy to use tool to undelete files that were removed
from the recycle bin or directly deleted from within Windows,
it is also capable of recovering photos from a Flash card that
had been formatted. You can scan for all files that may be recovered
and also limit the results by entering a search term or extension.
In addition, it also provides the option to wipe the found files
beyond simple recovery. Very useful for cleaning an old, surplus
hard drive of personal or delicate information. The program is
small and standalone, it does not require installation and can
also run from a Floppy disk. Restoration works with FAT and NTFS
as well as digital cameras cards
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html
If all this wasn’t enough to whet our appetites, Alan Danbury
offered us a website that lists hundreds of utility programmes
that will keep you going forever going to need. Have a look; there
is something there for everyone from Ad & Popup tools to Windows
Services. http://lists.thedatalist.com/
Alan also offered us some other packages that may be of use to
members.
ERUNT (emergency recovery unit NT) allows you to keep a complete
backup of your registry and restore it if necessary. http://www.snapfiles.com/get/erunt.html
Fresh Devices is a suite of utility programmes to enhance operation
and optimize Windows. They include Fresh Diagnose, Fresh FTP,
Fresh Download, Fresh UI and Fresh View. http://www.freshdevices.com/
Foxit Reader is a replacement for Adobe Acrobat and is a free
.pdf file reader and printer. It claims to be incredibly fast
and can convert PDF documents to text files.
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php
Finally an interesting one that was submitted by Mike Taylor.
This is a crossword puzzle compiler. The fruits of this package
will soon be seen by all as Mike is busy compiling his first puzzle
for the newsletter.
http://www.greeneclipsesoftware.com/eclipsecrossword/
Thanks to all that contributed and made it an interesting evening.
Dave
Robb
Subscriptions
It’s the time of year you have all been waiting for, yes
it’s subscription time. The rates have again remained unchanged
at £ 12.00 for full membership and £ 1.00 for associate
members. At the next meeting Derek will be available for you to
pay your subscription. If you are unable to attend the meeting
you can post a cheque for the correct amount to Derek Taylor.
All cheques should be made payable to Melton Computer Club
New
Google Maps Feature - 2.5D Buildings
Google is yet again adding features to Google Maps which bring
it closer to Google Earth. In February Google added building outlines
to major cities when you zoom in close. Now Google has added 2.5D
buildings to some of those cities for Google Maps. You can't rotate
or tilt your view, so it's 2D. But, the buildings have shaded
3D-like projections from an angle so you get an idea of height
and shape of the buildings. See an example by going to http://maps.google.com/maps
. Looks like about 35 cities have the buildings in the US, and
Tokyo.
By the way, I believe these buildings are directly coming from
those old "gray 3D buildings" Google has had in Google
Earth since it was released back in June 2005. Now that I think
about it, I'm kind of surprised Google didn't implement this 2.5D
version of the buildings in Google Maps sooner. Of course, it
probably took a while to create the 2D projections, optimize the
imagery, and generate the database for all zoom levels possible
for Google Maps. And its not like Google hasn't been doing lots
of other interesting things to the Geo products!
This
month we will be taking a second look at the Multimedia PC that
Steve Orrell demonstrated in it’s early days.
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