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Archive of Meetings - 2008

Tuesday 9th December 2008 - Christmas Quiz

Due to a clash of bookings this months meeting was held on Tuesday 9th December 2008. It was our annual quiz competition night again, with the quiz nearly completely compiled by Tony Hawes, as every year. This time he did not start off by assuring us all that this years questions would be much easier. We never believed him anyway. As usual the quiz consisted of twenty questions with four possible answers. As the papers were being marked we had coffee or tea with mince pies while we waited anxiously for the results. The winners were, first Paul Kuzmin and second equal, Francis Jacques, Laurence Fenn, Mike Bray and Dave Thomas. I go no further down the list to avoid embarrassment. It is a great quiz as all contesters managed to get a prize.

The superb range of prizes were donated by Corel, Logitech, Magix, Norton, Paragon and others to whom we are very grateful.

The quiz questions and correct answers are on the web site from here.

Monday 10th November 2008 - Logitech Z5 speakers and Nero 9

Our meeting on Monday 10 November was in two parts. It started by Tony Hawes showing the new Logitech Z5 speakers designed for use with a laptop. These are small Omni directional stereo (2.0) speakers powered from your computer's USB connection. Being Omni directional the stereo experience fills the room. Tony demonstrated them by playing extracts from CDs and a DVD. This included a wide selection of music which included the following:

1. Jazz: The Jacques Loussier Trio's famous recording of Bach's Air on the G String from the album "Play Bach". This recording was used in the Hamlet cigar advertisements for over 35 years.
2. Vocal 1: Katherine Jenkins singing Pie Jesu from her new album "Sacred Arias".
3. Vocal 2: Elena Kats-Chernin singing "Eliza's Aria" from the "Wild Swans" ballet. "Eliza's Aria" features in the Lloyds TSB advertising campaign.
4. Instrumental: Alison Balsom playing the first movement of Hummel's Trumpet Concerto from her album "Haydn and Hummel Trumpet Concertos".
5. Orchestral: Elgar "Coronation Ode 1902 - Land of Hope and Glory" finale.
6. DVD: Walt Disney's "Fantasia 2000". Camille Saint-Saens "Carnival of the Animals" (finale).

We were all very impressed by the quality from such small speakers. They came on the market about a month ago priced at about £60.

The second part of the evening consisted of a demonstration by Laurence Fenn of the Nero 9, the latest version of the world's best selling digital media suite. Laurence found the installation tedious, taking over four hours. He had to download the updates from the website in order tog et it to install. It is a major revamped interface. In addition to CD and DVD burning it includes a wide range of functions including video editing, media streaming, and file backup. The software can now identify and remove commercials from recorded TV programmes. Some Vista enhanced features (such as the Live TV sidebar gadget) are not yet available and will appear in an update, but as details are not given in the updates as to what is included, it could be difficult to know when they are available. Taking everything into consideration including the installation Laurence was not impressed and suggests that if you're satisfied with version 7 or 8 you should stay with it.

Monday 12th October 2008 - Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 and Dyson DC25 Ball vacuum cleaner

Paul Kuzmin showed his expertise with Nuance's Dragon Naturally Speaking 10. Starting off with a minimal voice training session, using a headset/mic connected to the audio front ports of a Acer Laptop. Paul showed how easy it was to talk to the computer and get a legible stream of spoken words to appear in a MS Word document. He showed how to format the document with different font styles, paragraphs, heading etc.

He then tried the wireless headphone option using a Plantronics wireless headset. This worked brilliantly with Paul being able to walk around the computer dictating all the while. As an experiment we asked him to get as physically far away as possible from the computer to see whether the increased range would degrade the signal received by the computer. No difference was noted and again a legible stream of text was translated into the document.

Our next request was for him to talk as quickly as possible to see whether it was possible to overload the signal processing capabilities of the program (and computer) in transcribing speech into text. Again the program coped very well indeed, there was a short delay between Paul's dictation and the result appearing on the screen, but it did appear as an almost verbatim transcription.

Overall this was a very good demonstration of Dragon Dictate 10's capabilities and Paul is to be complimented on his expertise in his use of the program.

We next had Mike Bray showing how easy it was to manoeuvre Dyson's DC25 Ball cleaner around our feet, under the tables and around the chairs. Given that this was Mike's first time in handling a ball cleaner he did remarkably well, even if he did dent a few toes during demo. An interesting evening.

Monday 8th September 2008 - Acer Aspire 8920G Laptop

No meeting, as usual was held in August and our meeting on Monday 8th September took the form of a demonstration of the new Acer Aspire 8920G laptop by Tony Hawes. The 8920 is a powerful computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz processor, 4GB RAM and a 320 GB hard disk. It has a 18.4 inch TFT (1920 x 1080) screen and an integrated HD Blu-Ray DVD system.

The first demonstration consisted of comparing HD Blu-Ray output with normal DVD using Sony's $quot;International Blu-Ray Demonstration DVD". The substantial benefits were easy to see and a number of examples were shown. The next demonstration was done using Dolby's "The Sound of High Definition" DVD, again a useful introduction to the benefits of Dolby's sound processing with clips from Blu-Ray Dolby encoded movies.

The laptop includes a built in 5:1 speaker system. The "HD" aspect of the sound was interesting but one wonders if this provision is justified when taking into consideration the poor quality, as you would expect, from the small built in speakers. The sound system itself, is of course to Dolby's HD Standard and would have been better demonstrated by connecting the sound output by way of the fitted HDMI interface to an external Dolby 5.1 or 7.1 sound system. On the left of the keyboard there is a very clever and useful touch-screen type control system for the DVD system. The very interesting evening continued with a demonstration of a commercial Blu-Ray DVD film "Underdog" how standard DVDs looked when played on the laptop and concluded with a short demonstration of Microsoft's Flight Simulator.

An impressive looking laptop - currently on sale at Amazon.co.uk for £899.99.

Monday 14th July 2008 - Relational Databases

The talk on Monday 14 July was given by Dennis Skinner and Frances Jacques on producing a relational data base using Microsoft Access. Dennis explained that in the 1970's separate programs or tables were produced to cover a particular event or in a company a particular project. It was not until the 1980's or 1990's that tables were being produced to use the same facts for a number of purposes or combining one set of facts with another. These tables are part of a relational database and Microsoft Access is a relational management system.

Dennis outlined a number of tables (about 13) associated with cycle racing. They covered such things as participants, venue, race length, clubs, race dates etc. and he outlined how they could be associated for a particular race.

Frances then demonstrated how the tables are created in Access, how the fields are specified, the properties of each field are set and the data type for the data the field will store. When all the tables are completed the information for a particular race at a particular venue can be set up by creating Multiple Table Queries which he demonstrated. Frances also showed how handicaps can be calculated using Excel and added by the use of a basic query.

Although the tables require detailed setting up which is time consuming the series of tables can be used for many events and can be updated as required. Frances has not yet completed the whole procedure but promised to demonstrate the complete operation at a later meeting. Members will remember on Monday 8th October 2007 Frances demonstrating on Excel and Access a program he had developed for a single race with up to 120 participants. This new program takes the documentation much further with a more general application. Frances, our treasurer, enjoys cycle racing in his spare time.

Monday 9th June 2008 - Vectrasoft

Ross Carter was supposed to be demoing Vectrasoft web author, but didn't turn up. Instead, Tony showed the press pack for one of Epson's new A3 printers, the 2880. This takes nine cartridges (one yellow, two cyan, two magenta and four different blacks) to product some great looking prints. Tony had emailed Epson some of his photos which they printed on the new printer and sent back to him in the mail. A full review of the printer will appear in ROM if we get one to review. The members that turned up to the meeting had a general chat about computer topics, but the evening finished quite early.

Monday 12th May 2008 - Microsoft One Care

Your editor showed Microsoft's Windows Live OneCare 2.0, which Microsoft describes as an all-in-one, self-updating PC care service. Windows Live OneCare has had a shaky history, but as demonstrated the latest version, Windows Live OneCare 2.0, is vastly improved and fixes most of the problems of the earlier 1.6 version whilst at the same time adding a matching set of features that complements the built-in security and PC health features as found in Windows Vista.

Like previous versions, it combines antivirus, anti-spyware, and firewall security features with PC tune-up functionality and a first-class PC backup and restore service. But the latest version takes these features to the next level with centralised multiple-PC management, monthly progress reports, online photo backup, and other new features. One particular feature that Tony enthused over was the Start-time Optimizer. While Windows users can turn to a number of places in the User Interface to control what applications run when Windows boots, there's never been a truly excellent and centralised control panel for this kind of functionality. OneCare 2.0 seeks to fill this need with a new Start-time Optimizer, which is available via the Tune-up tab of the OneCare Settings dialog.

Among the other features the anti-virus trapped Tony's pet nasty virus in its tracks and the Firewall appeared safe whilst backup backed up working files on a daily basis, with very little in the way of impact on resources.

A fine set of tools with a demonstration that made for an interesting and informative evening.

Monday 14th April 2008 - AGM and Encyclopaedia Britannica 2008

The evening started by holding the AGM. As the Chairman position is vacant the meeting was opened by Tony Hawes, the Editor of ROM. Tony emphasised the importance of ROM and but said it was still an uphill struggle to get articles. He thanked these who regularly provided contributions but asked for more members to give some thought to it.

The Secretary, Bryce McCrirrick, pointed out how important it was to increasing our numbers. It is only with a considerably larger audience that we can reasonably invite representatives of manufacturers to come and discuss their products. The last five or so months the talk has been given by Tony, and we are very grateful to him for this but he must be running out of subjects. The Treasurer, Francis Jacques, presented the accounts. Under the new management of the hall our rent expenditure over the last year has decreased and we are still in the black and showing an increase in our reserves. He recommended that the subscription for the next year should remain at £20. The committee then stood down.

Tony Hawes was proposed and seconded as Chairman and Editor of ROM which was agreed unanimously. The other positions of Secretary, Treasurer and Web Master remained with the incumbents who were elected unopposed by the members present. The first action of the new committee was to propose that the subscription remain at £20 as suggested by the Treasurer. This was agreed and the AGM closed.

The evening talk was given by Paul Kurmin and his subject was the new DVD Encyclopaedia Britannica 2008. He started by comparing Britannica with Encarta. He found that Britannica was considerately more academic than Encarta which was rather "theme park" but commented surprisingly, with examples, that Encarta gave more emphasis to British matters. Britannica was rather "Americanised".

Britannica includes over 100,000 articles, 20,000 photos and illustrations and over 2,000 maps and organises them in a logical way with a browser-style presentation with a clear row of icons at the top.

The user is introduced to three age categories: Britannia Elementary Library for ages 6 to 10, Britannica Student Library for ages 10 to 14 and Encyclopaedia Britannica Library for older students and adults. Each category had a further subdivision such as (for the main library) Brainstorm, Timelines, Workspace, Explore, Atlas and Dictionary with a A-Z Browse down the left side. The atlas division, however, Paul felt was disappointing in that it did not provide detail and was to a small scale. Paul will be writing an article for ROM giving more details and installation information. A most interesting DVD and so different from the early 90's with its Britannica Encyclopaedia in 32 volumes (which I once had a copy of). The DVD is priced at £40.

Monday 10th March 2008 - Microsoft Office Publisher 2007

On Monday 10 March Tony Hawes demonstrated Microsoft Office Publisher 2007. This is part of the Microsoft Office Professional 2007 suite of programs but can be purchased separately. Tony said that 2007 seemed very similar to Microsoft Publisher 2003 which he uses for the production of ROM every second month, except that with the 2007 version it is now possible to download an add-on for the creation of PDF and XPS files. There appears to be an increase in the number of pre-designed templates for various projects.

Using Office Publisher 2007 he demonstrated how he prepares ROM. He starts by dividing the A4 page into three columns and places a text frame in each. On the front page he has a fourth text frame across the top for the headings. He showed the effect of various fonts and colour combinations to attract attention. He then imported text into the columns demonstrating how it can be made to flow from one column to the next and even to the next page.The inserting of pictures with their captions within the text and how the text wraps round them was shown. The rather tricky job of page numbering and labelling was discussed and the "Continued on page xx" and "Continued from page xx" link facility was shown.

The evening ended by illustrating what can be accomplished using the various templates for calendars, greeting cards, business cards, brochures etc which are provided. Tony's final demo was to show how easy it is to create individual "Lost and Found" and "For Sale" notices complete with photographs etc.

Monday 11th February 2008 - Plustek OpticFilm 7500i AI film scanner

On Monday evening, 11 February, Tony demonstrated this scanner and for comparison brought along his three year old Epson Perfection 4990 flat bed scanner to see how the results of the two compared.

He emphasised how important it was to transfer to a digital format the many 35mm transparencies or 35 film strips that we all have, r ecording memories of past occasions. Many of them, with the passage of time and handling, have scratches and colour loss. The Plustek 7500i AI is a professional scanner costing £395 and is fully described in the ROM article together with the software included.

The results of the tests of the Plustek compared to the Epson were very disappointing. The scratches were still showing and the colour loss was very obvious. The Plustek was slow, at 1200 dpi taking 6 minutes to scan and remove imperfections with the hardware rectification built into the scanner and the bundled SilverFast software. In the case of the Epson; corrections for scratches and the removal of dust and spots was carried out using their [Epson] bundled Digital Ice image correction and enhancement program. The colour loss was corrected using the EpsonScan software, but this scanner too was very slow, taking the same 6 minutes for a 1200dpi scan.

What could not be ascertained was whether the Plustek scanner or the supplied software was responsible for the disappointing results. Plustek comes with a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop permitting direct operation of the Plustek scanner via Photoshop, but as Tony does not have Adobe Photoshop installed on his computer it was not possible to assess whether this would have made an improvement. It was an interesting evening.

Monday 14th January 2008 - Windows Movie Maker

At our first meeting of the 2008 New Year on 14th January we had a practical demonstration of how to use Windows Movie Maker, a free application that comes as part of Microsoft's Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems. The demo on a 64-bit Notebook used the latest Windows Vista version of Movie Maker, but there is not too much difference between this and the version that comes with Windows XP (SP2).

Windows Movie Maker introduces an easy and intuitive new interface that can help you turn your video memories into winning videos. The improved effects and multiple transition options in Windows Movie Maker, together with the high-end graphics power of today's PCs, can help turn just about anyone into a movie director.

With his JVC Camcorder connected to the computer via the Firewire port our Editor showed how easy it is using Windows Movie Maker to import video from a Camcorder, to Edit and trim video footage, add Music and narrations, create titles and end credits etc.

Having opened Windows Movie Maker, selected "Create a new project" and downloaded the footage to be demonstrated, we were shown how the unedited clips could be dragged to the Storyboard for editing. Next we were shown how to use the Timeline to edit these clips by trimming (cutting) unwanted footage and how to 'split' clips into two or more sections to make for easier editing. We were then shown a selection of the various transitions that could be inserted between clips to make for smooth scene changes. Our Editor also gave advice as to what to what transitions to avoid and what to use if one wants to wind up with a 'professional-looking' edited video. Following this we were shown how to select and add still photos into the Storyboard as part of the edited video, how to create and add titles, add music to the audio tracks and 'stretching' the tracks to fit and match the video footage.

Finally we saw a six-minute edited home video created with Windows Movie Maker which was ready for burning to DVD using Windows DVD Maker. Windows DVD Maker is only available in Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate, but not with Windows XP, which allows one to create professional-looking video DVDs that can be viewed on DVD players, regardless of geographical region codes.

Although Windows Movie Maker doesn't have all the bells and whistles of 'full' consumer video editing programs, for those on a tight budget or just wanting to experiment with video editing, Microsoft Movie Maker is surprisingly capable (and free) when it comes to editing your Camcorder home video footage.