E-mail Cleaning

It has been quite a while since I posted any thing here. The season has begun at Bentsen Grove so I guess it is time to add something. I have had a couple questions about e-mails so that might be a good subject.

Some of the things that happen to emails when they are sent to the server computers I do not understand. There are additions to sent emails that have to have come from a program that someone has written. Why anybody would write a program to simply add "garbage" I have not figured out. But that is apparently what they have done. I am sure that you have seen the type of thing that I call garbage. When every line is preceded by by a bunch of "< < < < < < <" or every so often in the text there is "=BR" or similar types of additional characters.

There are a couple ways to clean the garbage out of emails. There are others but these two ways are the most efficient that I have seen.

The first method - PaperCut - emailSTRIPPER
This has been recommended by several members of the BGRCC.
This is a small program that can be downloaded from the Internet at

http://www.papercut.com/emailStripper.htm



In the e-mail either select the part to be cleaned or Select All with Ctrl-A. Then left click 1. Paste
The e-mail will appear something this. Note the column of >'s on the right side.



Next simply left click 2. Strip It! All the >'s will be gone.



The last thing to do is to left click 3. Copy. This will copy the clean text onto the computer clipboard so that a "Ctrl V" will paste it into a new e-mail or into a word document.

The problem with this is that there are some things that it does not recognize as what I am calling garbage, nor does it remove any e-mail address that may be carried along with the e-mail or some of the things that are sometimes inserted into the text like the "=BR's" Many e-mails come with large blocks of other people's addresses. The blocks of addresses often take up much more space than the actual e-mail. It is a good idea and a courtesy to remove those before forwarding. The recipient will receive a much cleaner e-mail that is a lot easier to read and it will also send and receive much faster.

It has been a while since I have seen the "=BR" but a few years ago they seemed to be in every e mail.

Another thing about e-mail stripper is that it will add an advertisement for the stripper every time you strip. That is a bit irritating.

Therefore---The second method (alternative) uses the word processing program on you computer.

The first step is the same as the first method. Select in the e-mail either select the part to be cleaned or Select All with Ctrl-a. It is of course better to not copy the address blocks. Hold down the control key and highlight the section to be cleaned, right click and copy it to the editor.

Copy the selection into the word processing program. In the toolbar at the top of the window is an icon that indicates the "Find and Replace" command or use Ctrl-F to open the dialog box. In Open Office the symbol looks like a pair of binoculars. Left clicking on it will display a drop down box with a "Search for" and a "Replace with" space. Into the "Search for" area type in "> " or "=BR" or other garbage words and symbols that you wish to remove. Leave the "Replace with" area blank. Then left click the words "Replace All" and the symbols and letters selected will disappear. Note that many times the ">" is followed by a space, so put the space in the box to be removed also. I have removed over 500 of these symbols in a single click. It was a DIRTY e-mail, symbol wise at least.



If there are several uniques strings of text that have to be removed, each will have to be removed separately. The sequence to be removed can be copied and pasted into the removal box if desired.

Any email addresses that remain in the text can be highlighted and removed with the delete key, if any were left when highlighting and copying the text to paste into the editing page.

A third method is to highlight the text and pictures that you want to forward and that will be just about all that is forwarded. This is a new method to me and the few e-mails that I have forwarded has add the address of the person from whom I originally received the e-mail.

The only method that I know of that will eliminate all advertisement and e-mail addresses is to create a totally new e-mail with the second method using the word processor. There are other procedures that will get you to the same clean endpoint but I am use these methods.

The Shortcuts I Like

Back about 1983 or 1985 when I first saw what can be called a early modern computer I was rather amazed by the potential. Today if I had to work with that computer I would likely call it a worthless piece of junk. Actually it was pretty good for its time. It was a Apple II-E if you remember those. At that time I had never heard of a mouse for a computer. It may be that such a thing did not even exist except in theory for the average person. So there was no such thing as point and click or click and drag. If you wanted to do anything it was necessary to use keystrokes. I learned how to accomplish my desired tasks and when I saw the first mouse I was reluctant to use it. I will guarantee you that is was not as convenient as the mouse of 2009. If fact most, not all, of the mouses (mice?) that I saw were located in the middle of the keyboard and resembled the eraser of a pencil. For a while it seemed to be more convenient and reasonable to use the keyboard strokes. These keyboard strokes came to be called shortcuts. There are some people that still do a great deal of work on a computer using "shortcuts."

Whether you are familiar with the shortcuts or they are something that you have not used much, there are some that are useful to know. Here in this blog I will not attempt to cover the whole array of shortcuts that are available. I will list and describe the principal ones here that I think are worthwhile for everybody to know and I think will find useful. For the most part they are the ones that I use. I will admit that my list of shortcuts I use very slowly is becoming longer. For a complete listing of shortcuts it is only necessary to "Google - shortcuts" and you will get more than most people will ever care to know. One excellent website is

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/winkeyboard.htm

There are some differences in the shortcuts that are specific to the program that you are using at the time. For example, word processing, spreadsheet, paint, web pages, or other software programs. There is sometimes a slight difference between operating systems, as in Windows 98, or XP, or Vista, but for the most part the shortcuts are fairly standard as near as I can tell. Apple does some thing a bit different also.

Across the top row of keys
F1 --- Opens the "help" files (writing in the word shortcuts here will open a dialog box of shortcuts)

F2 --- This is allows you to rename a selected item. Renaming is often done with a right click, and then selecting the rename command from the drop down box in windows explorer. F2 is new to me but is becoming one of my favorites.

F3 --- Search the folder that you have open at the moment. The normal search command will search the whole computer this key will search only in the file or files that you designate.

F8 --- Switches the output of the computer to allow a projector to show the screen.

To me these are the most desirable of the function keys. The other function keys also do various things. To see the function of them go to the website indicated.

There are several shortcuts that I use constantly.
Ctrl+A --- This will select everything in a document, picture, file or whatever is open on your screen. What are you likely to do next? Copy it somewhere else?

Ctrl+C --- This will copy all that has been highlighted and place it on the clipboard. The data will remain in the document without being disturbed.

Ctrl+V --- This will paste a copy of anything that in on the clipboard into a document, spreadsheet or other open program at the place where the cursor is positioned. Look at what key is next to it, "C". Think about Ctrl+C (copy) then Ctrl+V (paste) and note that the keys are right next to each other.

Ctrl+X --- Think of this as scissors. It will remove the highlighted data from the document. It can then be pasted into another location. It will NOT be in the original location.

Ctrl+Z --- Think of this as an undo command. If you goof up use this key to undo
what you really did not want to do. Even if you delete something this will take it out of the recycle bin and restore it to its original location. If you accidentally move something to a wrong location this will bring it back.

Ctrl+P --- This opens a drop-down box which will give you options for printing.

Ctrl+S --- Save the current document. It is a good idea to hit this every once in a while, whenever you have done more than you would be willing to lose in case there is a power failure or other problem.

Ctrl+U --- This will start or stop underlining text or underline selected text.

Ctrl+I --- This will start or stop italic text or italicize selected text.

Ctrl+B --- This will start or stop bold text or make selected text bold.

Again there are other shortcuts. Some of them may be useful to you. Check out the website and see if there is something that works for you. These are the ones I use frequently. If you don't use any of the shortcuts play around with them and I think you will surprise yourself when you decide that you like them.

If you have a suggestion or question put it in the comment box and I will get back to you.

Doug

What is an MP3 or a WAV file

At the last computer session a couple questions were asked that got me looking for more specific answers about MP3 format for music than I had sought before. I found out more information than I knew before and I also found that there is a whole lot more that I could learn and I would consider the additional amount to be more than I need or want to know. However having said that I will still go ahead and write some of it here and hope that someone wants to know a bit more and I can present it in a way that is interesting. Much additional information is available on the Internet.

All data, including music is stored in a computer storage device or on a CD by a digital system. The data is all zeros or ones. The letter A is digitally 01000001. The asterisk symbol * is digitized as 00101010. With eight 0's and 1's which would be an 8 bit system 256 different symbols can be designated. Some computers use 16 bit, 32 bit, 64 bit and even 128 bit systems.

The next step upwards is the byte which is defined as 8 bits. 1024 bytes is 1 kilobyte. 1024 kilobytes equals 1 megabyte. 1024 megabytes equals 1 gigabytes. Just recently the terabyte has become common and it is 1024 gigabytes. Why does a kilo equal a thousand in the metric system but a kilobyte equals 1024? It simply is easier to say 1 kilobyte instead of being exact and saying 1.024 kilobyte. And why 1024 instead of 1000? Again it is simple. There are 2 numbers used in the binary digital system, a 0 and a 1, which has also been called yes and no, or open and shut. When the number 2 in multiplied to the power of ten it is 1024. Or another way to show it is 2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2= 1024

WAV (or WAVE), short for Waveform audio format, is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard. This is the format that most CDs use to store music. On a standard CD-R a laser shines a beam of light at the disc and reads the reflection of the beam. If the light is reflected to the sensor it is a one, if the light is not reflected to the sensor it is a zero. When the music is read from the CD there are 44,100 readings taken every second. Each reading is 2 bytes or 16 bits long. In a stereo system a reading is taken for each speaker. So each second of music on a CD requires 1,411,200 bits or 176,000 bytes. This is 44,100 samples/second x 16 bits/sample x 2 speakers/8 (bits per byte). Thus a three and half minute song requires almost 37 million bytes or 37 megabytes of space. This means that a standard CD could only hold about 18 songs. A few more songs can be put on if they are shorter in length.

MP3 is an abbreviation for Moving Picture Experts Group audio Layer-3. You can see why the name was shortened. It is a different format that is called a lossy format. It simply means that some of the information that is used on the lossless WAV format of a CD is lost when it is converted to the MP3 format. The loss is considered acceptable based on three characteristics of the human ear. 1. The human ear does not hear certain sounds. 2. Certain sounds are heard better than others. 3. Of two sounds the human ear hears the loudest but not the softer sound. Using these three facts parts of the music is eliminated without causing noticeable quality loss for most people. The rest of the music is compressed, shrinking the size of the file by a large amount. An MP3 files is about 1/10 the size of the lossless standard CD music. This allows music to be transmitted across the Internet in minutes instead of hours. Most burners recognize any format of music including MP3 and will burn them so that the average CD player can play them. More music cannot be burned to a CD and have an average CD player read the music. The computer hard drive or a thumb can hold nearly ten times more MP3 music than it can the regular CD music format. It will play on the computer or can be uploaded to a MP3 device.

There are many small files that will convert WAV files to MP3 files available for free on the Internet simply by searching for MP3 conversion. If you are like me the quality of a MP3 file is as good as I can hear and I don't miss the information that is lost when it is converted. However if your are an audiophile and your ears are extremely sensitive you may notice the lost information.

Backing Your Computer

BACKING UP YOUR COMPUTER

Recently in the timespan of two weeks I was asked three times something that led to a discussion of how to backup a computer. This is something that needs to be done on a regular basis. There is a place located in the control panel of the computer that will automatically backup the contents of the computer. While this seems to be a logical place to go and activate the action I have some problems with it. My problem with the program is that it seems to backup everything that needs to be backed up PLUS a tremendous amount of information that is not necessary. Specifically it will backup the programs that people have on CDs, like Quicken, Photoshop, Corel, Greeting Card Maker, etc. Plus it makes copies of the games that people have loaded from CDs that they have in their possession. Since the computer may want to backup weekly it quickly requires a tremendous number of Gigabytes or a large number of CDs to hold all the information. Also I was saying that the computer did not ever delete any files to clear the space for future backup.

I want to feel that the information that I provide here is both correct and as complete as I know how to make it. So with that in mind I sent an e-mail to a person that I would guess forgets more each week than I will ever know. But on another hand I also think that he likely learns a lot more new things in that week than he forgets. His name is John Abbott and he lives in Bentsen Grove where I have spent the last three winters. My e-mail to him follows.......

Hi John

One of the things that I have promoted in the computer sessions and advocate when I talk to people is backing up their work. When I am talking about this I am meaning to back up the pictures, the word documents, PDF files, or in other words any document, form, or picture that I have actually created myself. As I see it there are CDs that have the operating system, games, programs, etc and they can be used if necessary.

It seems to me that when the computer backs up on it own it backs up a lot of things that would normally be on external CDs. In the last two weeks I have been asked by three different people about this. One of them was being asked to burn over a dozen CD-RWs and still had a long way to go. Another had 60 gig on an external drive that was a redundancy of programs that were on the computer. I told all three that they should backup as I indicated above.

Right or wrong please give me your opinion.

Doug

I got the following response back from John and felt a lot better about the advice that I was giving. I will point out here that I think that John has great writing style and he will write more complete than I do. There is a lot of information about the pro and cons that I would never have verbalized. That I believe is good. I have changed his font to emphasize what he wrote. I will have a further note about my opinion after his e-mail to me.

Greetings Geeks and almost Geeks.

In a conversation with Doug Peace we agreed on a couple of backup policies. I agree totally with Doug that backing up your entire system is ludicrous. Just backup your personal data! If you properly store the original disc that your OS is on, and any application or program you have purchased, then backing them up is meaningless. I operate Linux exclusively so I'm not concerned about virus and worms and such. I am worried about hardware failure, lightening strikes, house fires, hurricanes, flooding - etc etc. Here is my thinking on backing up and protecting data.

Protecting Your Data

Emergencies can happen anytime, anywhere. This is why it is important to be prepared at all times. At Emergency Essentials, we seek to give people the information and supplies that will aid them in surviving such a situation. We want to encourage people to prepare by obtaining food storage, water storage, shelter, clothing, warmth, and other necessary items such as first aid and medication.

Securing important information is an additional topic that we urge you to address as part of your emergency preparedness plan. Whether you have priceless memories captured in a photo or journal entry, important legal and informational documents, or irreplaceable data files for your computer programs, safeguarding these assets from the unexpected is of extreme importance. Photos, videos, documents, and data files are commonly destroyed by natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and tornadoes. These items can also be stolen or lost due to a house fire or computer malfunction.

Insurance policies protect assets in the event of a disaster; however, we often overlook insuring our valuable information. With current technology, many pieces of our lives are either already in or can be easily converted to a digital format. We encourage you to back up this information immediately and often as new and changed files are added.

As you develop your data backup plan, keep in mind the principle of backing up to a remote location. If a disaster threatens your digital information and if your original and backup files are stored in the same location, loss of both copies is possible. For example: A fire would destroy the computer as well as the backup if they are stored in the same building. In addition to using a remote location, regular backups are also important. Photos are continually added to your collection, and changes to files occur often. A backup is only as good as the last time it was executed.

In general, there are four methods you can use to back up your data: USB Flash Drive, CD/DVD, External Hard Drive, and an on-line backup service. We recommend utilizing more than one of these backup sources.

USB Flash drive

A USB Flash drive is a convenient, quick way to back up your data.

PROS: Flash drives are small and can easily be transported. They are relatively simple to use and have a data retention span of up to 10 years.

CONS: Due to their small size, flash drives have a limited amount of storage space and often get lost or damaged. Flash drives are typically kept in the same location as the computer source, violating the principle of backing up to a secure remote location. Flash drives generally do not have a way to perform regular backups without human intervention. Some experts also warn that using USB flash drives as a main source of backing up critical information can expose you to reliability issues.

CD/DVD

CD/DVDs are small, stack-able disks that allow for hard copies of your data to be stored easily. Depending on the manufacturer of the CD and the humidity and temperature where it is stored, the shelf life of an unscratched CD or DVD can reach 20 to 100 years (exceeding our life span considerably).

PROS: CDs and DVDs are convenient ways to back up data because most people know how to use them and how to keep them from being damaged.

CONS: CDs and DVDs have limited storage and often require multiple CDs/DVDs to complete a full backup of all your data. CDs and DVDs can also become corrupt from damage and degradation over time. CDs and DVDs are typically kept in the same location as the computer source, violating the principle of using a secure remote location. Back ups generally are not automated and require human intervention.

External Hard Drive

External hard drives are essentially a second hard drive that is not internally located in your computer They typically attach to your computer through a USB port for backup purposes.

PROS: External hard drives allow you to back up all of your data onto one drive. Essentially all you do is drag and drop from the hard drive on your computer to the external hard drive. This differs from the USB flash drive and CD/DVDs because you can keep all of your data in one storage drive.

CONS: External hard drives are more delicate than a flash drives and CD/DVDs. They aren't very shock resistant and require more care when being transported. External hard drive also have a higher chance of getting corrupted from bad sectors in the data or by close contact with an electromagnetic field that could potentially destroy all data on the drive. Like flash drives and CD/DVDs, unless a diligent person remembers to keep this additional drive in a separate place, the principle of a secure remote location is violated.

On-line Backup

on-line backup is a relatively new backup technique that has grown in popularity in recent years. You install the backup provider’s software onto your computer, set up the configuration, and backups run automatically; the on-line backup software takes care of everything else. Your data is usually encrypted when sent over the Internet so it can’t be seen by others.

PROS: With the rise in popularity and availability, the cost of backing up on-line has decreased. An on-line backup is a fairly easy method to back up your data. Many on-line backup services automatically back up your data as new items are added and existing files are modified, meaning you don’t need to remember to perform a backup. The servers, where your data is stored, are typically kept in temperature-regulated, tamper-free rooms, where data is highly unlikely to become corrupted or stolen. on-line backups also follow the principle of using a secure remote location.

CONS: Typically there is a monthly or an annual fee associated with the on-line backup, Depending on the provider, some fees can be high. Also, your on-line backup is dependent upon your Internet connection. A slow or nonexistent connection can affect your ability to perform and have access to your backups.

Recommendations

It is a best to utilize a couple different backup methods in case one fails. While flash drives, CD/DVDs, and external hard drives can be valuable secondary backups, we recommend that your primary backup be an on-line backup. Backing up on-line ensures that your most vital data is off-site, secure, and the least prone to common backup problems. If a disaster occurred in your home, all other forms of data backup could be lost, while an on-line backup keeps your files secure.

If you have a trusted friend, you might want to consider having them exchange backups with you. This friend would be out of the immediate area so that a natural disaster would not effect both of you. I started thinking this way when faced with having to generate a Disaster Recovery program for the bank where I was IT and responsible for the data. Banking law requires off site backups so we simply rotated the information between branches. You can do the same with a group of trusted friends. Just a thought.

But no matter which of the methods you chose - use more than one - and do it routinely.

If I have created questions - good! Send me an email and lets discuss it!!

During the four and a half years that we have been traveling full time on the road we have seen one park model and two motor homes burn, plus we parked by one new motor home that was purchased because the owners motorhome also burned. To be sure we have seen many thousands of motor homes and park models that have not been burned. The percentage of ones that burn may be small but it does happen.

Whichever method you use, BACK UP your personal information, your pictures, and anything else that you do not have a CD to reload with. In addition make sure that you have a backup of some sort several miles away from your computer that will be safe from a fire, flood or tornado or thief if one hits your house. I personally have an external hard drive in case the computer crashes, CDs in case the computer and external hard drive both crash and CDs in New York in case my motor home becomes totaled. I will say that I need some more CDs sent to New York.

This is what I would suggest--Insert the connection of some sort of external storage device into a USB port. Open "Windows Explorer". There are several ways to find it, one is to go to --"Start" -- "All Programs" -- "Accessories" -- "Windows Explorer" --all with left clicks. Down towards the bottom of the window you will find "Computer", left click the triangular arrow to the left of the word Computer. This will display the external drive in the list. It will be called "Removable Disc (f)" or perhaps "The brand of thumb followed by a letter which could be "(e),(f),(g),(h)" The computer determines the letter according to the sequence in which the USB ports are used. Whatever the name assigned it, "Right click it and you will see a drop down box, choose "New" -- "Folder". This will create a folder on a thumb, or external drive that you can name something like "01 Backup Files 04-15-2009". The "01" will put this folder at the top of the list of contents and keep the files in order of age. (See further down in the instructions) The "Backup Files" tells you what is in the folder. The "04-15-2009" (or whatever date you choose) indicates the day that you created the folder.

Now you have a folder to use for backup purposes. Be aware that you can open TWO or more "Window Explorer" windows. I usually do just that. Now with a click and drag and drop between the two "Windows Explorers" you can COPY files from one location to another. When you click, drag and drop from one drive to another drive you will create a new copy of the data. When you click, drag and drop WITHIN a drive you only move the location that the information is located and you do not create a copy. Into this folder I would suggest that you copy the following folders, "Documents", "Videos", "Pictures", "Music". If you are like me anything that you write, photograph, or save from the Internet is somewhere in those folders. By right clicking any folder and selecting properties you can see the size of contents of the folder.

When you have copied, with click, drag and drop all you need to backup into the folder described on the external drive check the size of it with the sub-folders inside with right click and properties. Knowing this will give you a handle on the number of times you can backup your data before you will run out of space.

In a month, or sooner if you like, follow the same procedure again, but this time call the folder "02 Backup Files 05-15-2009" This folder will be next in the list to the original backup folder. In another month create "03 Backup Files 06-15" At four month create "04 Backup Files 07-15-2009" Each succeeding backup has every change that you have made in the month previous. Thus the newest folder has any corrections you may have made, plus any new data or picture you have created. When your external storage device is getting full you can safely delete the oldest backup folder. It is the most incorrect of all the backups. When backing up do not replace old files. When replacing files the first thing that is done is that the old file is erased and then the new file is created. If by any accident you should have a power spike or failure it is possible to lose information. I believe that has happened to me. I was lucky to have an older backup to save my cookies, so to speak. Actually it saved my pictures.

One exception that I do in my backups is this. I have a large number of pictures that have been taken prior to 2008 that have been backed up several way, CDs in New York, CDs in storage and on an external hard drive. I will absolutely never change these pictures or add to them. New pictures will be added to 2009 and 2010 folders. Since I will not change the labels on those pictures or add to them and I have redundant backups I do not backup those every month. But also I will not ever delete the old backups of pictures prior to 2008 and next year prior to 2009 etc. This saves a lot of time required to do a back up.

Please backup your data and pictures in some manner as described here. I have talked to several people who lost a lot of information when their computer crashed. It was their stuff that was lost but it hurt me to hear about it. In the 2008-2009 season at Bentsen Grove I know of four computer crashes with loss of information. Remember that it is not a question of "Will my computer crash?", but "Will I be prepared to recover my information when my computer DOES crash?" It will crash sooner or later whether it is ten days from now or ten years from now. Lets hope for the ten years and be prepared for the ten day.

Sepia With A Splash Of Color

I was out taking pictures of saguaro nearly a year ago just about sundown. Erma, my wife, said something about the landscape looking like a picture that was done in sepia. This triggered a thought that the splash of color pictures might look good in sepia in addition to black and white. So I tried it a bit later and it does give a different twist to the pictures. This of course opens up the door to many kinds of hue changes that might give an interesting twist to many photos. It is simple to create a sepia picture with a splash of color. Almost all the instruction are the same as putting color into black and white. There was an earlier posting called "Splash Of Color" on February 18, 2009. The only differences are as follows. This is using Irfan View software, but of course many photo processing softwares would work the same way.

Step 1 Open the original picture with Irfan View.
Step 2 Select -- image -- effects -- sepia.
Step 3 Save the picture and then paste the "splash of color" just like you did into the black and white.
Step 4 Save with unique name.

Sometimes the paste command in paint acts "weird." A way to circumvent some problems works this way.

P1 Open a blank paint canvas, fill the entire canvas with a bright color, (any color actually, I just like bright)
P2 Paste the sepia picture over the color you just made.
P3 Paste the "splash of color" just like you did into the black and white.
P4 Save with unique name.

By adjusting the color of the shades of gray to create other colors different effects can be created. The number of effects is limited only by your imagination. If one combination does not look good, throw it away and try something else. No matter what you do have fun doing it.

Grandpa was swallowed

I recently received this from a friend and I thought that it was so appropriate for many people that have attended the sessions of the Bentsen Grove Computer Club. I hope that this is seem by all of the people that were at the sessions. I think we have had a good season and accomplished a lot. We are not quite done for this season but I am already looking forward to the next season and hope that it will be even better.

The computer swallowed Grandpa. Yes, honestly it's true
He pressed "control" and "enter" and disappeared from view

It devoured him completely the thought just makes me squirm
He must have caught a virus or been eaten by a worm

I've searched through the recycle bin and files of ever kind,
I've even used the Internet, but nothing did I find.

In desperation, I asked Jeeves my searches to refine.
The reply from him was negative, not a thing was found on line.

So, if inside your "Inbox," My Grandpa you should see,
Please "Copy", "Scan" and "Paste" him And send him back to me.

This is a tribute to all the Grandmas and Grandpas who have been fearless and....
Learned to use the Computer......
They are the greatest!!!

Recording Cassettes

My intent was to post here about once a week. That is proving harder than I expected but it is still a good plan. So I will put in some information here that I have had a request to create.

CONVERTING CASSETTES TO DIGITAL CDS

With the changing technology it seems that there is a frequent need to convert the old technology to the new technology to be able to access some of our memories. It was not many years ago that most music came in the form of 45 rpm records. And then came 33 1/3 rpm and long play albums. After that came 8 track tapes which were shortly replaced by audio cassettes. It was easy to get the music from a record to a cassette. Now there is a need to get the music from the cassettes to the computer so that CDs can be burned. The effort required to get the music onto the computer is about the same amount as the effort of getting the records to cassette. There is software that can be used to clean up the digital signal from stereos or cassettes players, but I am not going to discuss that here. This will address only the transfer of music to the computer.

There are five items required to make a convenient transfer. Starting with a computer with a jack for a recording input. All computers that I have seen in the last ten years have that jack. Second a "jumper wire" with an 1/8" stereo phone plug on each end is required. Don't make the mistake that I made and get one that is too short. I bought an 18" length and I wish I had a 36" one. Radio shack has wires for about $6.00 to $10.00. While it is not absolutely necessary a stereo to stereo headphone adapter is very desirable. Good quality adapters are available at Radio Shack for about $6.00. If you want to hear the music being recorded then one is necessary. A set of earphones, or ear buds is required. Of course a boom box or other cassette playing device is required.



The procedure is actually simple once all connections are made. First find the sound recorder on your computer. It can be found in programs/accessories on Vista and somewhere in programs on other systems. Look for the picture of the microphone. It can also be found by making a search for "Sound Recorder". When it is opened it will appear like this. This is the control that starts and stops the recording.


Plug the double ended "jumper" wire into the input jack of the computer. You may get a drop down box that looks like this. Select microphone, and left click OK. Plug the other end of the wire into the stereo to stereo headphone adapter. Plug your headphones into the other female opening. Plug the male stereo plug into the headphone jack on the boom box. Except for plugging in the boom box into an electrical outlet, provided you have not done that already, you have made all the connections necessary to record cassettes to the computer.



Place a cassette in the player. Press the play button until you hear the first note of the first song. Stop, back up the tape just a slight amount. This can be effectively done with the small finger on the cassette tape itself. Failing to do this is apt to cause a long silent lead-in before the music starts. On most boom boxes there is a pause button, press that down. Then press the play button. As long as the pause button is down nothing will happen. With one hand release the pause button on the boom box AND at the same time with the other hand left click the start recording icon of the sound recorder. You will hear the music through the earphones, the red circle on the sound recorder will change to a blue square and a green bar indicating the recording volume will appear on the sound recorder. It will also show how long recording has been going on. This is handy when the cassette indicates the length of the song.



When the song ends press the pause button on the boom box at the same time as left clicking the stop recording icon on the sound recorder. The computer will automatically pick a location to save the sound clip and assign it a name. The default location will likely be your documents and the name will be Untitled (?) with a number. I would suggest at this point that you write in "01" followed by the actual name of the song. The next song will be "02" etc through the number required for the whole cassette. This will keep the songs in the same order as on the cassette. Later create a folder with the name of the cassette and move all the songs into that folder with a left click and drag. This folder with all the songs in it can be moved to a location in the computers music folder or where ever you desire.



After the song is renamed from Untitled (?) to the correct name and saved you are ready to record the next song. Again press the "Start Recording" at the same time as you release the pause button on the boom box. Repeat this process for each song on the cassette. Be sure to listen to the digitized songs to check for proper recording volumes or other problems. Too much boom box volume will cause distortion of recorded sound. Too little will cause a different distortion. You may have to experiment to get the exact settings you need. Make a short recording, not even a complete single song. Listen to it and if it sounds good digitize the complete songs.

A CD-R will hold two average cassettes. I think it would be logical to burn two cassettes of the same artist or genre to a CD. Do not burn music to a CD-RW. For some reason it will not play on most CD players.

Splash Of Color

Some time back I explained how to create a black and white picture with a splash of color within it.



Start with a picture like this.


End with a picture like this.

A Splash Of Color

Instructions for producing a “Splash of Color” in a gray scale picture. These instructions are not to be considered absolute or to be the only way that it can be done. Most things on a computer can be accomplished in several ways, this is one. Do not be afraid to experiment with the different tools that are available to work with. That is one good way to learn what things do. Have fun and enjoy.

1. Select a picture which has something that you want to emphasize.

2. Open a New Folder in which to keep your work. Anywhere that is convenient for you to find.

3. Place a "copy of the original" in the folder. This will leave the original untouched. It is suggested that you call the copy "01 + a name you like." It will be a JPEG format.

4. Create a copy of picture no. 01 and call it "02 + a name you like - gray scale". This one will be made into a gray scale, or unsaturated picture. This will also be a JPEG format.

5. Open your picture processing software and find the color adjustment drop down box. Within it will be a slider that adjusts the "saturation". Adjust this to zero or shades of gray only. Save/replace "02" with the newly created gray picture. It is still a JPEG format.

6. Open the JPEG picture named "01 ----" with the "Microsoft Paint" program. Without making any changes left click "File-Save As...". At the bottom of the pop-up box select "24-bit Bitmap, change the name "03 ----" This picture is the one that will be used to produce the "Splash of Color".

7. With picture "03 ----" open in paint, do a bulk removal of large areas of the picture with the rectangular "select" tool. This should be found at the upper left part of the screen. It looks like a rectangular box of dashes. To delete, left click at one point, while holding the left button down, drag the box around an area you want to remove. Hit the delete button of the keyboard. If you delete something you did not wish to remove, press "edit" and then undo. You can undo the last three actions. Save frequently.

8. When the largest bulk of the pictures has been deleted, switch to the free form select, which is next to the rectangular select and draw a line around the area. Again hit delete. Save frequently.

9. To do a final clean up of the undesired areas use the pencil tool, line tool and eraser tool.

10. The background will be white to begin with. By filling the white area with a color more detail can be determined sometimes. Simply select a color and fill the area with the paint bucket. Be sure to keep the picture as a bitmap.

11. When the picture is clean it is ready to be combined with the "02 ----" gray scale picture.

12. Open the "02 ----" picture with paint

13. Click "Edit", then "Paste From..."

14. Select "03 ----", this will overlay the gray scale picture with the "clean color picture". The background will likely look white, it has been pasted with an opaque background. At the bottom of the tool bar on the left side click the bottom icon. This is a transparent background icon, this will allow the background to become transparent and show the gray picture in the background. Be aware that initially the overlaid picture can be moved as long as it has a dashed line around it.

15. At this point save the picture as "04 ----". This is the final picture.

16. Send your picture to your kids and grandchildren and show them how talented you are. Just don't tell them how to do it. (At least not right away!)

The Prize In The Bag

I know that this blog was created as a demonstration of how to create a blog during the BGRCC second session. However I had a thought today. I might keep this site for a while, just to see what I might want to do.

To have some fun at the next session I am going to carry a bag. In that bag will be a candy bar for a prize. The first person to tell me what is in the bag will win the prize.

Now we will see what will happen.

DP

Second Post

This is the second posting

The First Time

I am going to make a blog at the Computer Club at Bentsen Grove. Since it failed the first time I tried again

Something happened so we will try again.