SSC #86 Long time no see!

As I'm sure you're aware, I've not done the StraightShootinComputin article for a little while now.  I feel I've covered most of the basics and some advanced topics.  And while the computer industry may change fairly rapidly, for the needs of most of my readers, not enough changes to fill a weekly article.  All of my past articles are still available at http://straightshootincomputin.blogspot.com, and will continue to be indefinitely. Lately though, I've been busy with a new project that I feel has a wider reach and can help a lot more people in more specific ways.  With the help of some friends, I've started a podcast called the Free Linux Helpline.  This is a weekly internet radio show where people can call or write in and ask questions.  In my StraightShootinComputin articles, I talked often about Linux and tried hard to convince readers to switch or at least check it out.  Some of you did, a lot of you didn't.  I had dismal results hosting Software Freedom Day events in Russell County.  With the Free Linux Helpline, I can continue to help new computer users on a regular basis, but on a specific subject that I am much more drawn to.  It is also not limited to the local community.  My co-hosts and I have helped several people around the world already and will continue to do so on a weekly basis. At the time of this writing, we have had eleven shows.  They vary in length from 60 to 90 minutes and each is centered around a topic that new Linux users would find helpful.  We try to answer questions as they are given to us, but sometimes we cannot, and when that happens, we invite our listeners to contact us with the answer which we can share on the next show. All in all, its pretty informative, and a lot of fun.  If you've been using Linux or are curious about Linux, I invite you to come and check it out at www.freelinuxhelpline.net.   And if you've got any questions, you're free to write in and ask 'em! The address for the show is mail@freelinuxhelpline.net Hope to hear from you! Jeff Smith StraightShootinComputin

SSC #85 A reader question

Dear Mr. Smith: I recently tried to upload a video to a website, and could not get it to go. I increased my web hosting space to 20GB and still could not get it to work. I'm sure how big the video is, but it is over an hour church service. Any information/advise would be appreciated. Now I am looking at DVD burners and duplicators. What would you recommend that would duplicate videos of that size? Thank you, Hello reader, It sounds like you have an interesting problem on your hands.  I think that with a little more understanding on your part, you'll realize what is going wrong. The first thing to understand is that video can come in a lot of different sizes for the same length.  One hour of video can be as small as 300 megabytes, or as big as 10 or 20 gigabytes.   The size of the file is a result of the codecs used, the level of compression employed within the codec, and the bitrate of the video.  Also the resolution of the video has a large part to play. To define these terms, a codec is basically a system to encode or decode something.  There are codecs for both audio and video.  There are many different codecs for each.  You're probably familiar with MP3 files, right?  MP3's are just audio files encoded with the MP3 codec.  When you play an MP3 on a computer or a portable device, the device uses the same codec to decode the file into an audio stream.  A DVD player hooked up to your TV for instance uses the MPEG-2 video codec to decode the files on the disc and show you video.   Not all codecs are created equal.  Some are better for some tasks than others. Bitrate is a measurement of how many bits of information per second the file uses.    The higher the bitrate, the more data is used to render each second of video and/or audio.  The more data used, the higher the quality, and at the same time, the bigger the file size.  There's also something called variable-bitrate which allows the bitrate to change over time to adjust to the needs of the video.  This makes it so that high-action scenes in the video get a higher bitrate and hence look less choppy, while scenes with little movement can use a lower bitrate to save space. Compression is simply a way to crunch files down so that they are smaller.  If I went through this letter and every time I used the word "the" I put a number 6 in its place then by the time I got to the end of the letter, I'd have saved a lot of keystrokes.  I would just have to make sure to start out the letter by explaining that everywhere you see a 6, to mentally replace that with "the"... Compression works in the same way.  By identifying repeating patterns of data within a file, and then using a system to reduce it. Again, to relate to something you're likely to be familiar with, MP3 is a compressed audio format.  If you were to uncompress a 4 megabyte MP3, you'd get about 20 to 25 megabytes of data. Resolution is simply a measurement of how many pixels high and how many pixels wide the video is.  A pixel of course is one colored dot that makes up the picture.  Your computer monitor is likely displaying a resolution of about 800x600 or higher.  For the sake of arguement, we'll assume 800x600.  If you multipy the two numbers you get 480,000 pixels.  Thats 480,000 little dots of color that get updated every time your screen changes.  If each pixel only uses one bit of data for each change, then you're looking at 480k of data for each fullscreen change. And you want a decent framerate so that it doesn't look choppy, so around 30 frames per second.  So 480k times 30 = 14,400k or 14.4 megabytes of data, for one second!  or 843 megabytes for one minute or around 50 gigabytes for an hour.  Thats huge! Thats also uncompressed and assuming that every pixel changes throughout the entire video.  But you can see that sizes can theoretically be very big, hopefully you'll also see that they don't have to be.  By reducing the resolution to 400x300 you'd reduce the theoretical size to just 12 gigabytes.  By using compression you'd reduce that to about 1 gigabyte or smaller.  And by using a codec that doesn't change the color of pixels unless they need to be changed, you'd reduce it even further. Ok, now that you have all of that to think about, I'll try to answer your question a little more directly.  You should use a video converter to convert the file to a lower bitrate and use a more efficient codec.  Depending on what you did the recording with, your video is likely in MPEG-2 format (suitable for DVD players).  Converting it using something like the DivX or Xvid codecs could reduce the filesize by a factor of 10 if you choose an appropriate bitrate. For hosting video on the web, you're going to want something that is small and easily downloaded.  If you intend for it to be played in a web browser then you're going to want it to be a codec that facilitates that.  I'm not sure what kind of website you're trying to use, but if the file is too big, people won't be able to stream it.  And since you said it is an hour of church services, there's not likely to be a lot of action, or the need for hi-definition quality.  So you can probably get away with a smaller resolution like 400x300 and a low bitrate (say around 500 or less).  This should end up with a file that is small enough to for people to download quickly and possibly even stream with little or no choppiness. There are lots of video conversion tools out there.  You likely already have Windows Movie Maker on your computer, and this will convert it to a WMV video  (WMV stands for the Windows Media Video codec) which is very common and widely used.  Its very easy for beginners, but it only has the option of outputting to the WMV format, so you may find that it will not suit your needs if that codec is incompatible with what you're trying to do.   If you want to use something a little more robust with more options and that can re-encode the video in a wide array of codecs, then try out MediaCoder which you can get free at http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/ MediaCoder is free and open source, and it will DEFINITELY re-encode your video into something you can use, though it may take a little more time to figure out how to use the program effectively. As far as DVD burners, the capacity of recordable DVD's is 4.7 Gigabytes.  To go higher than that you'll be getting into BluRay which can be very expensive and is something that the congregation is not likely to be able to play anyway unless you buy them all BluRay players.  So in picking a DVD burner, go for speed and quality.  I can't really recommend a single brand as they all have their successes and failures, I would just recommend you search online for some reviews on individual models before you buy.  If you plan on using this to burn 10 or 20 copies at a time, it could wear out quickly if it's not built for heavy use. If you use a program such as Nerovision Express to make the DVD it will re-encode the video to fit on the DVD, so filesize shouldn't be a problem so long as you don't expect to get 20 hours of video on a single disk. If you try all of this and you still can't get it to upload to your site, you may have some networking issues or the site may just not allow that type of file. I hope this helps! If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to http://www.straightshootincomputin.com If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.

ssc #84 Abakt backup

If you've ever lost valuable documents due to a computer crash or virus infection then today's article is for you.  If you've ever been told by friends that you need to back up your files, but never found the time, then today's article is for you.  If you've never had a problem and never saw a need to back up important data, then today's article is DEFINITELY for you. Crashes happen.  Files get lost every hour of every day due to viral infections, hardware failure, power fluctuations and just plain stupidity.  If you've never lost any important files then either you're really lucky, or you just don't have any files that you consider important. Today I'd like to share with you a very useful little program I found called Abakt. Abakt is an open source backup utility.  Essentially, you set up Abakt to copy your important files and folders to a specific location and then you can use the Windows Scheduler to make it back everything up on a regular basis. Abakt has the ability to compress your files when it backs them up, and also can delete backups when they've become too old, making sure that your storage space isn't filled up with zip archives of out-dated data. Another thing that Abakt can do is group a bunch of backup profiles into a group and then you can run them all by starting up the group. Whats even better for those of the geek persuasion is that Abakt can be called by DOS commands.  Essentially you can use a batch file (.bat) with all of your Abakt arguements and then use a command line email utility called Blat (http://www.blat.net/) to email you after the process is complete to let you know if everything went ok.  If you use gmail you will need to use a program called "stunnel" (www.stunnel.org) which provides a secure ssl tunnel for blat to talk to Gmail. You can get Abakt at:  http://www.xs4all.nl/~edienske/abakt/ Below is an example of a batch file designed to run Abakt and then email me the results of the process. --------------------- set BLAT="C:\Program Files\blat\blat.exe" set ABAKT="C:\Program Files\Abakt\Abakt.exe" set PROFILE=<the profile name you wish to use> set GROUP=<the group name you wish to use> set BODY="<put in the full path to a .txt message you'd like included in your email>" set HOME=C:\Documents and Settings\<your user name> set LOGFILE1="%HOME%\Application Data\Abakt\Log\%GROUP%.log" set LOGFILE2="%HOME%\Application Data\Abakt\Log\%PROFILE%.log" set TOEMAIL=intendedaddress@wherever.com set FROMEMAIL=youraccountaddress@wherever.com @rem == This next line prepares Blat with your email server %BLAT% -install smtp.gmail.com %EMAIL% @rem == This line actually starts up Abakt @rem== If you want to use a profile it should be "%PROFILE%".abp %ABAKT% -b -x -l -m "%GROUP%".abg goto result%ERRORLEVEL% :result0      @rem OK (0x00)     set BACKUPA=FilesCopied_OK         @goto end :result2     @rem OK+WARNING (0x02)     set BACKUPA=Files_Copied_With_errors     @goto end :result1     @rem ERROR (0x01) :result3     @rem ERROR+WARNING (0x03)     set BACKUPA=File_Copy_FAILED     @goto end :end @rem==this line actually sends the email %BLAT% %BODY% -s "%BACKUPA%" -to %TOEMAIL% -f %FROMEMAIL% -server 127.0.0.1 -port 25 -u <email_username> -pw <email_password> I hope thats helpful to some of you.  I've sure found it to be a great program. If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to http://www.straightshootincomputin.com If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.

SSC #83 Splashtop

There's a new technology on its way and if you blink, you might just miss it. Splashtop is just one instance of a new quick booting technology that the motherboard manufacturer ASUS is putting on all its new offerings. The purpose of Splashtop is to provide a fast booting simplified desktop with a few essential aplications.  Its not designed to replace a full operating system, but instead it allows you to turn your machine on and within a few seconds have access to a web browser, Skype webphone, and possibly more.  Splashtop will run in read-only mode, which means you won't be able to make changes to it or install new applications, but it also means you won't be able to mess it up. For laptop users on the go, this means you'll be able to boot up very quickly into a low power desktop that you can use to get online, check your mail and shut down before a full operating system would get fully booted up. For home users, this means that if your desktop suddenly catches the flu and refuses to start up, you have an emergency system that you can use to get online and find out what to do to get it up and running again. The reason I said if you blink you might miss it is that its likely that this will be an option that you have to select at boot time by pressing a specific key or key combo.  Without selecting it, it won't come up.  And if you never see it, you may not even know that it is there.  ASUS is leading the pack on this technology, but its doubtful that they'll be the only one to release products featuring it.  Other companies may not call it Splashtop, but it will be very similar. This technology promises to have lots of potential for future applications.  Assuming just a few more advances in Virtual Machine technology, a Splashtop VM Manager seems not only inevitable, but undoubtedly awesome.  If you're geek enough to understand what this means, you'll no doubt agree to its usefulness. All in all, Splashtop is definitely a technology to watch, and buy, when it becomes available in the coming months. Oh, and did I mention that Splashtop is Linux based?   Yeah.  Its that cool. If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to http://www.straightshootincomputin.com If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.

SSC #82 Net Neutrality

Many of you have probably heard the term "Net Neutrality" bandied about on the news lately.  A lot of people seem to be talking about it, but not many are showing signs that they really understand what it is all about. Net Neutrality is a concept that the internet should be nothing more than a set of "dumb pipes" that transfer data from one point to another.  They should not give precedence to one transfer over another, and that the internet should not block traffic or deliberately slow traffic going across it.  This is how the internet works as of right now, and in the past. At odds with this concept are the companies who collectively provide internet service to all of us.  Complaining of network congestion and an inability to reliably offer promised speeds to their customers, they claim that giving some traffic preferential treatment over other traffic is not only desirable, but necessary. If Network Neutrality is not upheld, there could be many consequences as a result of its downfall.  ISPs could begin to offer tiered priority schemes to different content providers.  This would, for instance, allow companies offering paid services (such as Netflix's movie streaming service) to gain a higher priority over the video conference you're having with your sister in Oregon.   It wouldn't just stop at legitimate services like Netflix though.  It would be something that would be offered to any company paying the price.  Full motion video advertisements would begin loading faster than the text based web pages on which they resided.  And as a result, our collective bandwidth would suffer.  This also means that any new high-bandwidth services starting up that couldn't afford the internet fast lane would hardly be able to compete since their service would appear choppy and slow. Another possible outcome would be that you wouldn't necessarily be able to do wherever you want to with your internet connection.  You may have to pay one amount for web browsing, and another amount of money for chat or email.  Transferring files or encrypted data may be something else entirely. Really there's no way of knowing how it would eventually end up.  But one thing is for sure... once Net Neutrality is broken, things will only get worse for the end user. While I understand that it is a hard task to manage a congested network, the answer lies not in abolishing Net Neutrality.  The answer lies in abolishing spam (which accounts for far too much of internet traffic) and in adopting new faster technologies. In America we have the privilege of having one of the first country-wide information networks.  And while this might be a mark of pride for some, when you think about it, its one of the things that is holding us back.  Countries that did not build their information networks until recently got to take advantage of newer and better technologies that did not exist when our own was built. Many technologies have come to light since our nation's network was built.  But either by overbearing regulation or simple ignorance, they never seem to manifest for our use. One thing that is for sure is that Net Neutrality is something that we should all keep an eye on.  It is the internet equivalent of free speech.  While the corporations may own the networks, they were paid for using our monthly service subscriptions.  And the corporations should keep in mind that if they take away the freedom that makes the internet what it is, they'll find a lot of those subscriptions canceled.  Mine included. If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to http://www.straightshootincomputin.com If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.

SSC #81 DropBox

I've been pretty busy lately, and it's been hard to find time to write, but fear not, I'm still here.    Today I wanna tell you about a new utility I heard about on the LottaLinuxLinks podcast:  DropBox.    DropBox is a great tool for syncing files between multiple computers.  Essentially it works by setting up a special folder on your machines that will sync to eachother.  First, install DropBox on all of your machines.  Then, if you put a picture or document into the DropBox on one computer, it will show up in the DropBox on all your other computers.  Its a great way to move files between work and home without any disks or thumbdrives to carry around with you... a no-fuss solution to a common problem.    But it can be used in other ways as well.  Say for instance that you want to share pictures with your relatives.  If you set up a family DropBox, and install it on your relative's computers, then you simply drag and drop files into the DropBox and it will show up in their DropBox shortly thereafter.    Its not a complicated looking affair, in fact it looks just like a normal folder on your desktop.  It really can't be easier than this!    DropBox also has a public component that allows you to designate files to be accessible publicly.  Public files can be accessed through a web page from any computer in the world, whether DropBox is installed or not!  Its a great way to make a small cache of highly accessible personal files.  If you'd like something to be accessible globally, but you're worried about someone getting hold of sensitive files, simply compress the files in a password protected archive before making them public.  Then, while anyone will be able to get the archive, they won't be able to open it.    I am sure you can think of more ways to use something like this... just go to www.getdropbox.com and download it. Its cross-platform meaning it has versions available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.  And they can all sync up with eachother.   If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to http://www.straightshootincomputin.com If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.

SSC #80 Duo-County Internet Speedup

In a surprising move, Duo-County Telephone has drastically raised their internet speeds. Customers of Duo-County woke up a few days ago to faster downloads and faster loading web pages.  Originally some thought it was a glitch, but it turns out that Duo-County has indeed increased their broadband speeds across the board. If you previously had Fastnet DSL Lite or Viewnet Cable Lite, you were accustomed to a download speed cap of 384kbps.  After applying the Windows Math to it (divide by 8), what you ended up seeing was around 48K download speeds in your machine.  The new speed for the service plan is 1.5Mbit, or 1,536kbps... four times what you got before, and twice what you used to get for the next tier up.  Now your top speed (in Windows Math) will be around 192K. If you had their regular Fastnet DSL or Viewnet Cable you previously had speeds of 768kbps / 96K, but now you're enjoying a whopping 4Mbit service.  Thats 4096kbps aka 512K download speed.  Thats 5 and a third times faster than what you got before!  Apparently a little competition is a good thing. From what I hear, there's a four dollar cost increase associated with these upgrades, but honestly thats not too bad considering the impressive speed boost.  Now all of those streaming web TV services should work just fine... no more stuttering youtube videos! I'm not one much for corporations or corporate types, but I do give credit where credit is due.  Duo-County has done their customers a great service here.  Now Russell County speeds are much closer in line with what you'd get in Lexington or Louisville, and thats pretty impressive. I've heard no word yet from Vortex Wireless on how they plan to react to this new development, but if and when I do I'll be sure to pass it along.  Residential FastNET DSL Internet 1.5 Mbps download speeds (256 Kbps Upload). $33.95 per month. 4 Mbps download speeds (256 Kbps Upload) $49.95 per month. Residential ViewNET Cable Internet ViewNET 1.5 - 1.5 Mbps Download and 256 Kbps Upload Speed: $33.95 per month. ViewNET 4 - 4 Mbps Download and 256 Kbps Upload Speed: $39.95 per month. $100 Installation Charge applies to new installations. Questions/Comments -- www.StraightShootinComputin.com