The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group APCUG Conference 2005 Dave Botherway and Ash Nallawalla

Vendor Presentations

AMD

Jonathan Seckler, Athlon 64 Product Manager told us that the next step forward is dual core processors and that this is evolution, not revolution. Evolution empowers us end users to update our machines and software with little disruption of usability. We are increasingly using more than a single-thread application and new processors are multithreaded, multitasking and multicore. We often multitask when we are running our antivirus program in the background, surfing the Web and downloading e-mail or writing a document. AMD is leading the way on multicore processors. The biggest challenge is security and control of viruses and spam.
 
AMD has added Enhanced Virus Protection (EVP) to their new processors, which are usable by PCs that run Linux or Windows XP SP2. They can repel Code Red, MS Blaster and Slammer attacks.

It is worth getting a 64-bit CPU machine because we tend to use a machine for 4-5 years, and we will probably be using Windows XP 64-bit and LongHorn by 2007. The gaming community prefers AMD and 64-bit games will ship soon.

Adobe Systems

An ACE-certified presenter showed us Photoshop Elements 3.0 and Premiere Elements, the complementary video product.
 
In Premiere Elements, new buttons across the top of the screen explicitly deal with video clip related items. You can delete video only and add frames (photos, actually) to "black" video - timeline and audio are left intact. Or you could do the opposite: keep or add new video, delete sound, and modify video inserts with a unique effect, such as "stretch", to speed up the video inserts. He showed this with an example of a family picnic video of a child's birthday featuring a tricycle race. He even put an insert of the parents cheering them on against an adult voice-over of the race progress. You can add unlimited video lines, but they are not synchronised. You can synchronise with a utility in Premiere. The closing effects of the demo looked very professional too, such as the rolling credits.

His additional suggestion was to buy an ADS pyrocam or Dac http://www.datavideo.com unit - it's the guts of a DV camera without tape! Premiere can talk to that box and is a good way to convert 8 mm film to DV.

Photoshop Elements has an enhanced file viewer that dynamically resizes immediately as you adjust the slider bar; a mouse-over gives the date of that picture row. File thumbnails can be shown beside the main screen viewer. To do red-eye reduction, just click once on the eye. The spot healing brush can erase a dissimilar object by merely brushing over the area - no need to select a clone object beforehand. Picture package is included - you can pick out a set of images to print per sheet, so there is no wasted paper. I liked the feature where it finds similar pictures automatically and groups them.

Overall, increased functionality and more logical menus add up to an easier-to-use product. If video editing interests you, you must look at these two programs.

Smart Computing

Marcy Gunn, of Smart Computing http://www.smartcomputing.com, gave an excellent presentation on Smart Computing in plain English. This magazine is not available in print format outside North America but our members can subscribe to the online edition for US$17 annually. We liked the printed copies we saw because there was a good amount of content for Windows 98, which is still used by almost half our members.

Their Daily Tips e-mail is available for free at their Web site. They offer free Technical Support from 7 am to 8 pm Central Time, Monday through Friday. It is open to anyone needing assistance. Of course, this is an international, paid call even though it is an American toll-free number (+1 800-368-8304).

A new item, My Personal Library, is now available free to all subscribers. This enables you to create files of the articles you wish to revisit, so they are easily accessible in the future. There is no limit on the number and size of the articles. This information is also stored on their servers so it doesn't tie up your hard drive space.

Melb PC has registered, so when a member subscribes or renews, the user group receives credit towards a free subscription for every five received through the user group's ID. (This will be available soon, so don't subscribe yet). There is also a free monthly Tips & Tricks e-mail that contains two articles. These articles may be used in the user group's newsletter within 60 days.

Intel

Robert Crooke, VP and General Manager of Intel talked about what they are doing now for the Digital Home using a dual-core processor and hyperthreading technology, and 64-bit operating systems.

Of great interest to us was the use of PCs for the health/wellness sector. Intel has produced a great video showing a migrant family where the adult children and grandchildren keep an eye on grandma with a video link. Grandma's pill regimen is monitored by a computer and if she slips up, her daughter's recorded image admonishes her gently about taking her medication.

Microsoft

Microsoft demonstrated Digital Image Suite 10, a set of programs to manipulate your digital photographs. It has the usual set of features one finds in such programs, but the one that blew us away is the one that stitches several panoramic photographs, not just horizontally, but also vertically! The example shown was a waterfall where you needed to take about 12 photographs to capture the full vista.

User Group Roundtables
There were up to five roundtables running in parallel at any given time, but many were run again at a later time. Some had external presenters and others were run by officers from APCUG member groups.

The Round Tables we attended included:

• Injecting youth into your user group
  
• Leadership and communications
  
• Recruiting and retaining members
  
• Effective PowerPoint presentations
  
• Importance of being an ambassador for your user group
  
• Digital photography
  
• Creating a winning newsletter (Ash was one of the presenters)

Dave was interviewed by a local radio station and it was streamed over the Internet, so our group's fame was spread just a little further.

Digital Photography

Smart Computing Editor Rod Scher delivered an informative presentation ranging from what to look for when buying your camera, parts of a digital camera, various methods of enhancing and correcting photographs, and methods of printing and sharing your creative gems online.

He conducted a poll of attendees to determine which of three photographs we preferred. We learnt later that these were printed on Manufacturer's Paper with one of: Manufacturer's Ink, Refilled Ink, Third-Party Ink. Most attendees preferred Manufacturer's Paper with Manufacturer's Ink. This is not surprising, because the two are matched to one another, but this tends to be the most costly solution.

Entertainment Download Age
Presenter: Doug Hanley

All aspects of the Apple iPod were demonstrated. Over 200 million songs have been downloaded to date. The iPod can download and play music, download your photos, play your photos on television (it holds 25,000 photos). It also has a calendar section and a contact section. It connects to TIVO to tape television shows with you or download to your computer. It seems to be a $500 toy with all its features.

Recruiting and Retaining Members

The presenter, Steve Peyrot said that recruiting and retaining members is a task for all. Officers need to run excellent Special Interest Groups and General Meetings. Members must participate to meet the goals. Promoting throughout the community is a must. Retention is achieved by giving members what they want. Start the day the member joins. Make each member feel important and a part of the club.

Steve's own group, the East Tennessee Computer Society has a novel technique. They buy PC-cillin Suite from Trend Micro for US$20 (RRP US$49.95); their membership fee is US$30, so they sell the software for $50 with "free user group membership".

Injecting Youth Into Your Group
The presenter, Bruce Pechman http://www.mrbicep.com said that to attract youth we must think like youth. Gaming is a billion dollar industry - the speed of the computer, the video cards and the audio cards are designed with gamers in mind. Students like:

• Digital media
  
• Instant messaging
  
• Wireless
  
• Gaming
  
• Movie-making
  
• Portable computing
  
• Gadgets
  
• Pushing the bounds of technology

Mature members can mentor youth. For work experience, students can help a user group with the newsletter or Web pages. Offering free student membership can be explored. This needs careful consideration to ensure that value is received, for example, these students must donate some volunteer time. A writing contest could be arranged with specific schools (as opposed to putting out a call in the magazine for young writers).

Acknowledgment: Adapted from Daily Reports, an APCUG publication written and produced by attendees.

Reprinted from the Jan / Feb 2005 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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