Next Event: Tuesday, July 7dacs.org/newsletter-pdf/dacs1507.pdf · 2015. 7. 1. · July 2015 Volume...

July 2015 Volume 26, Issue 7 $2.00

Next Event: Tuesday, July 7The walls protecting Americans’ most precious datahave been breached. What we can do to secure ouridentity and our vital information.

2 • July 2015 http://www.dacs.org

DACS, its officers and directors as-sume no liability for damages arisingout of the publication or non-publica-tion of any article, advertisement, orother item in this newsletter. The editors welcome submissionsfrom DACS members. Contact RichardTeasdale ([email protected]). Ad-vertisers, contact Charles Bovaird at(203) 792-7881 ([email protected])

Nonprofit groups may request permission

to reprint articles from dacs.doc orhttp://www.dacs.org by sending e-mail to [email protected]. Re-printed articles shall credit thecopyright holder and a copy of thefinal publication shall be mailed to:

Danbury Area Computer Society, Inc.65 Legion Rd,New Milford, CT 06776

MembershipMembershipMembershipMembershipMembershipInfInfInfInfInfororororormamamamamationtiontiontiontion

dacs.doc, ISSN 1084-6573, is publishedmonthly by the Danbury Area ComputerSociety, 65 Legion Rd, New Milford, CT06776. Annual subscription rates: $60to regular members, $40 electronic ac-cess (included in dues).

PPPPPostmasterostmasterostmasterostmasterostmasterSend address changes to Danbury AreaComputer Society, Inc., 4 Gregory Street,Danbury, CT 06810-4430.

Editorial CommitteeEditorial CommitteeEditorial CommitteeEditorial CommitteeEditorial CommitteeManaging Editor: Richard TeasdaleProduction Editor: Allan Ostergren

Bill Saturno APCUG [email protected]

President’s File

CopyrightCopyrightCopyrightCopyrightCopyright

ContributorsContributorsContributorsContributorsContributorsCharles Bovaird Richard CorzoDrew Kwashnak Lisa LeifelsDave Mawdsley Bruce PrestonBill Saturno Jim ScheefAnnette van Ommeren Andy Woodruff

THE VIDEO RECORDING of Tom Zarecki'sSocial Media April presentation will be

available on Char-ter Cable commu-nity access chan-nel 192.

Tuesdays, July2 & 9 at 3 pm and

T h u r s d a y s ,July 4 & 11 at 8 pm.

It will appearon their YouTube

channel after the July 11 airing at https:/www.youtube.com/user/CommunityVision21.

Some of our members can't attend ourmonthly meetings and have asked if there issome way they could attend remotely. Thisis why the last 3 General Meetings have beenrecorded. I hope to produce a recording ofour meetings on a regular basis but we needyour help! I encourage everyone who wantsto learn to create or edit better video, whetherit's from your smart phone or using profes-sional equipment, to participate in a newVideo workshop that will be hosted atCharter headquarters in Newtown, CT . Tolearn more just send me email [email protected].

Tell us what new presentations youwould like to see or email us directly [email protected]. If you like what weare doing, please help to spread the wordabout DACS, our excellent presentationseach month, our new video productions,and the workshops we run and co-spon-sor with other groups throughout themonth. Use social media to spread the word.Speaking of which . . .

The second in the series of Social Mediaworkshops will be on Wednesday, June 24that our Resource Center. Tom will continue

where he left off with Twitter and will exploremore in depth how to use and benefit fromeach of the popular social media applicationsas the workshop series continues.

I am pleased to announce that we havetwo WCSU interns helping us at DACS -They are seniors majoring in ManagementInformation Systems and are both on theDean's list. They (and I) are being mentoredby Jim Scheef and Richard Corzo, learningthe fundamentals of Apache, PHP, MySQL,CiviCRM, and Wordpress. We hope to givethem valuable and marketable skills they canuse when they graduate next May and lookforward to their assistance to document andfine tune our system as part of their training.

25th anniversary - Let's make this year-long celebration a success. We want tocreate a much broader awareness of DACSas we participate in new activities, and cre-ate collectables of interest to DACS mem-bers and the general public. Talk about yourideas with Cathy Quaranta at the check-intable at our next general meeting or let herknow by email.

Enjoy your summer.From mobile to desktop, we inform,

enlighten, and educate.

- Dick Gingras, President

2015 APCUGInternational Computer &

Digital TechnologyConference

September 25-27, 2015Las Vegas, Nevada

Whether you are a computer ormobile device user, your preferenceis for Windows, Mac or Linux, oryour fingers do the walking on anAndroid or Apple mobile device,there will be something that willinterest you.

Workshops include: Digital Pho-tography, Microsoft’s WindowsServer, “iPad instead of a PC,”Facebook, Instagram, Linux,Internet Security, Social media,“Traveling with your iPad,” plusmany more.

Look for more details on theDACS Website

IN THIS ISSUEPRESIDENT’S FILE 2

DIRECTORS’ NOTES 3

HELPLINE 3

REVIEW: VIDEO PRODUCTION BASICS 4

PREVIEW: INFORMATION SECURITY 5

WORKSHOP NEWS & NOTES 6

JULY CALENDAR 7

MEMORY CARDS 8

BUCKY MILAM CARTOON 8

TRAVELING WITH TECHNOLOGY 10

FUTURE EVENTS 12

http://www.dacs.org July 2015 • 3

DACS GENERAL NUMBER: (203) 744-9198PRESIDENT: Richard Gingras [email protected]

VICE PRESIDENT PROGRAMS: [email protected]: Bert Goff • TREASURER: Bert Goff

Officers

HelpLineHelpLineHelpLineHelpLineHelpLine

[email protected]

Richard Corzo (203) 797-1518 [email protected]

Richard Gingras (203) 426-1780 [email protected]

Bert Goff (860) 355-8895 [email protected]

Lisa Leifels (203) 416-6642 [email protected]

Jim Scheef (860) 355-0034 [email protected]

Bill Saturno (203) 437-0611 [email protected]

Cathy Quaranta [email protected]

Andy Woodruff (203) 744-9588 [email protected]

Tom Zarecki [email protected]

CommitteesNEWSLETTER: Richard Teasdale: [email protected],

PROGRAM: [email protected]

WEB MASTERS: Richard Corzo ([email protected]), (203) 797-1518

Annette van Ommeren ([email protected]), (914) 232-0149

PRESS RELEASES: Richard Teasdale ([email protected])

APCUG LIAISON: Bill Saturno (203) 437-0611

MARKETING: Cathy Quaranta ([email protected])

MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR: Charles Bovaird: [email protected]

RESOURCE CENTER: (203) 748-4330 • WEB SITE: http://www.dacs.org

Our former telephone HelpLine has been replaced by our web-based DACSCommunity Forum at http://forum.dacs.org. We have topic-specific forums whereDACS members can post questions. Questions may be answered by Workshopleaders or other DACS members. If none of the categories fit your question, just postit to the Ask DACS forum.

Topic Forum

.NET Programming ASP.Net and C#VB.Net WorkshopDigital cameras/scanners/image processing Digital Imaging WorkshopContent Management Systems Drupal WorkshopLinux Linux WorkshopMac and iPhone/iPad/iPod touch Apple WorkshopPC maintenance PC Maintenance WorkshopSmartphones & Tablets Mobile Devices WorkshopVirtual machine software Virtual Computing WorkshopDesktop publishing and website design Web Site Design WorkshopWindows Windows Workshop

Directors’ Notes

Directors’ Notes, Cont. on page 11

Danbury Area Computer Society (DACS)Board of Directors – Meeting MinutesDACS Resource Center – 198 Main Street,Danbury CT

Date of meeting: Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Opening and recurringmonthly activities

Meeting called to order at 6:40pm by D.Gingras.

Last meeting minutes approved unani-mously.

Current membership (D. Gingras):29 grace members + 95 regular members

= 124 current members

Attendance at June general meeting:29 + 4 guests from charter = 33 total

attendanceTreasurer’s report (Bert), submitted

separately.Related discussions to treasurer ’s re-

port include:a. Revenue continues to increase.b. $340 deficit this month due to…

(a) $149 SSL certificate for 3 years,and also(b) lower dues, this month onlyvia paypal, no checks received.

c. Emails have not been going out onschedule.

Postcards encouraged to be sent tothose at end of grace period.

d. Changing registration procedures atgeneral meetings, so DACS can be moreproactive to find lapsing members or thoseneeding renewals.

e. Discussion of credit card swipemechanism to get credit card info at gen-eral meetings, or create QR code for simpleconnection.

Meeting DiscussionsLong discussion on subject of numer-

ous people attending John Patrick’ s ses-sion who did not want to register and howto get their email info. No conclusions.

Discussion of the closing moments oflast night’s meeting done by host Tom Z inan organized, professional manner.

Discussion of post-meeting raffle itemschanging to not feel/look like cheap items.

Program Committee Update Next month’s presentation topic:

Internet/cyber security, by Ira Wilsker.


Meeting Review

Video Production –with Charter Community Channel 192

By Cathy Quaranta

VIDEO PRODUCTION was thetopic of the June GeneralMeeting, but sharing the stage and

the spotlight was a “revitalized” DACS.The presentation was a clear example ofthe new emphasis on increasing technicalskills, creating new workshops and buildingthe DACS community.

Tom Zarecki started the meeting withsome DACS info about the new workshopsand then introduced the feature presenta-tion – ‘Video Production’ by the local Char-ter Community team – Greg Van Antwerp,Franny Hannigan, Mark Ingram and Lind-say Kelkres.

Just a minute for some background –to give you an idea of what goes into ‘revi-talizing’ DACS – and prepping for this pre-sentation –

• In April, Franny came to video the DACSSocial presentation,

• In May, some of the DACS Board mem-bers went over to the Charter Commu-nity Studio and offices in Newtown for atour and quick training session,

• and now, DACS Board member LisaLeifels is taping and producing the Junemeeting.

The Charter Community team pre-sented several things –

• Greg introduced public/community tele-vision

• Franny explained the training sessions ° Mark demonstrated the equipment ° Lindsay helped Lisa with the video re-

cording and taking picturesGreg Van Antwerp loves working with

the community and promoting communitytelevision. The ‘C’ in CTV is for Communi-cations and Community. This is a commu-nity project, bringing people together andgetting people to work together . Gregexplained that the Charter Community stu-dio and offices are in Newtown, CT. Thecoverage area includes 14 local towns andarrangements can be made for others. Com-munity Television is also known as ‘PublicTelevision’ – sharing local events – publicmeetings like DACS meetings and work-shops. It is for niche audiences – people’sopinions and hobbies, not mass communi-cations. New producers are needed – tocreate and share things in their communi-ties. The CTV online hours are from 9am to

10pm most days, and the Community Bul-letin Board list of events runs when thereare no shows. The Community BulletinBoard repeats numerous times throughoutthe days and weeks.

There was a dual purpose at tonight’smeeting – teaching and producing – learnsome new skills and then watch the finalproduct replay online. Three DACS Boardmembers went to the Charter studios tolearn about video production and prep forthis meeting. A BIG THANK YOU to DACSBoard member Lisa Leifels and Charterstaffer Lindsay Kelkres, for videotaping themeeting. They will be editing it for broad-cast on the Charter Community Channel192. Stay tuned to dacs.org andCommunityvision21.COM for more infor-mation to watch the online replay!

Greg mentioned that the presentationstarted with a brainstorming session, to(re)start the Digital Imaging / VideoWorkshop / Special Interest Group. Techand video are moving so fast these days.Charter CTV is now on television chan-nel 192, transitioning from 21, and onYoutube as well. Another tech change isthat Youtube and Facebook are nowused to express community interests.Charter is expanding its Community out-reach training. By the time this articlehits the press, the Charter CommunitySummer Training classes will be in theirsecond week of video production.

Franny Hannigan has been with Chan-nel192 for 3 years now. He went throughthe training, his dream came through, andhe became part of the team and now coor-dinates the video production training de-partment. Franny came to video the AprilDACS meeting and tonight he gave somehighlights of the training sessions and cur-rent programs. The ‘Studio 21’ music showpassed the 50 shows mark – showcasinglocal musicians of all levels. There are manyparts and roles in video productions – andthere is a need for citizen volunteers. LastThursday was the graduation celebrationfor the Winter/Spring training session. Thenew Summer training program is starting intwo days – Thursday, 6/4/2015. Trainingsessions are FREE – 15 weeks of hands-onexperience – fundamentals like editing, therule of thirds, three point lighting, two studio and two truck shoots to create ashow. The ‘Primitive Technology: Maple

Sugaring’ video clip was the first made us-ing a student’s iPhone. Other sampleshows included ‘The Bee Show’ fromWoodbridge Farm and Farmers Market,the Still River Ramblers from Brookfield,American Chopper, and Project Runway.The Charter Production Training classwas awarded the 2014 Beacon Award forExcellence in Education.

Mark Ingram said that Video Produc-tion is THE BEST hobby you can ever do –you can use it to video all of your otherinterests. They are hooked for life. Markdemonstrated some of the portable equip-ment they brought to share. Three of thefour primary pieces fit in one bag the sizeof a plane carryon. It includes a portablecamcorder with an attached microphone, awireless lavalier microphone and somecables. The fourth piece is an optional tri-pod that fits in another shoulder bag. Thecamera has automatic buttons and menusoptions. The studio has 3 cameras and acontrol room with monitors, a videoswitcher, graphics generator, audio mixer,and editing tools for video productions.Mark mentioned that there is no cooler feel-ing than being the director in the controlroom – or maybe using the 11,000 poundlocation truck and working other videocrews like the WTMH HD Hummer crew atthe Senate debate.

Greg showed some slides and pic-tures of previous training sessions –there has been a wide range of partici-pants. The last class had 18 video pro-duction students. They produced 1 hourshows in 17 weeks for community accessTV, Youtube and Facebook. There is nopressure and no money or equipment arerequired. Students are taught how tobuild audiences and how to be success-ful with content creating challenges.Video production is 50% art and 50%technology. Both are a process. Greg dem-onstrated Final Cut Pro v10 – the softwaretool they use for editing and producing thevideos. There are three areas – a bin of clipson the left, the viewer window in the middleand a timeline section on the right. Final CutPro allows multiple users and producers toshare files. Charter uses it on their Apple/Mac machines and he recommends gettingextra RAM. Final Cut Pro costs about $300and it has a free 30 day trial option packageso you can try it before buying it. Greg men-tioned the sharing (producing) options – tothe cloud, DVD burners and Facebook andthen he demonstrated the Youtube sharingoption.

The meeting concluded with a ques-tion and answer session with the audience.Some answers to the audience questionsincluded:


Meeting Preview

Internet SecurityBy Lisa Leifels

IT’S GETTING TO THE point thatevery time you turn on the news thereis another story about a security

breach that compromises a large group ofpeople’s personal data. The most recentattack involved at least four millioncurrent and former federal employees’social security numbers. In 2014, hackerspenetrated Home Depot’s computer net-

work and stole theircustomers’ creditcard data and emailaddresses. In 2013,40 million credit anddebit card accountswere impacted byTarget’s data breach.This is the perfecttime to learn how toprotect yourselffrom these types ofattacks. Please joinus on Tuesday, July7th at the Danbury

Hospital to hear Ira Wilsker educate usabout Internet Security and how we cankeep our private information from gettinginto the wrong hands.

Ira has done several presentationson cyber security and cyber war. He hasserved APCUG as an advisor anddirector and is part of the SpeakersBureau. Ira has an MBA from the

University of Maryland and is anassociate professor in the business de-partment at Lamar Institute of Technol-ogy in Beaumont, Texas, where heteaches courses on business, law , andcomputers. Ira has also been writing thepersonal technology column everyweek for over 10 years for the Examinernewspaper.

Ira will give us a deeper understand-ing of what we need to be concerned withwhen we use our computers to do onlinebanking or buy merchandise over theinternet. He will help us answer the ques-tion, “Are we under a cyber attack?” Hewill be shedding some light on what thesecurity industry has been well aware of,that the U.S. has been subject to a num-ber of sustained cyber attacks for severalyears now. Most of the general popula-tion is unaware that our entire network ofpower grids, pipeline systems, water/sewer systems, air traffic control and othercritical infrastructure has been compro-mised by terrorists and foreign powers.

Ira will be doing his presentation re-motely from Texas, but he will be avail-able to answer questions that come up byusing Skype. This is a chance to learnmore about the various hazards that weneed to be aware of. This presentation isfree and open to DACS members and thegeneral public, starting at 7:30 pm on Tues-day, July 7th, in the Creasy Auditorium atthe Danbury Hospital. There is plenty offree parking in the guest parking garage ad-jacent to the auditorium. After the meeting,everyone is invited to the Danbury Hospi-tal Praxair Café for additional networking.

Date: Tuesday, July 7, 2015, 7:30 PMLocation: Danbury HospitalCreasy AuditoriumPresenter: Ira Wilsker

• There are no statistics (no Nielsens) for Com-munity TV. People do call in asking or more,some for series produced by a trainee.

• The programs are shared with Frontierchannel 99 and a Comcast channel.

• The Facebook 192 page ‘group’ has theschedule.

• The Community Bulletin Board playswhen they are not on the air.

• Non-Profit Organizations (like DACS),can’t do ads, commercials or calls toaction.

• The ‘People in Action’ show series isproduced by one of the training sessiongraduates.

• The equipment is HD, but the channel isnot broadcasting in HD yet.

• All equipment is provided for the train-ing sessions.

• You can bring your own equipment foradditional training.

• Charter Community does not have asatellite or TriCaster equipment.

• Final Cut Pro is available on Mac andWindows machines.

• Other video editing programs are SonyVegas Pro, Adobe Premier Pro CC andWindows Movie Maker.

• Add tags to your videos and clips tomake them searchable.

• Vimeo can be used for lar ger files andYoutube expanded the length restrictions.

• The training sessions teach content man-agement – how to size your new show –

to get people engaged to watch a half houror an hour.

• To increase interest, people can use Re-verse Images or lighting options and/or addgraphics.

• Different Resolution Formats effect thevideo quality – they use 1080x.

• Composition skills include camera angle,editing and graphics.

• PSAs (Public Service Announcements) arenot usually done because they are too short(30 seconds), not enough air time or fre-quency. CTV is for more in depth, inter -view programs.

• New programs are shown four times –twice on prime time and daytime, over twoweeks.

Do you have a special tech-nology interest you wouldlike to share or learn moreabout? Join a DACS Work-shop or start one. You don’thave to be a nerd or a guru—just have a curiosity forwhat’s out there and an in-terest in sharing or discov-ering with others like you.Send an e-mail [email protected], ortalk to one of ourofficers at the next meeting,and say something like “Iwant to start a Workshop!”or “Wouldn’t it be nice if wehad a Workshop on . . .?”


Workshops

WWWWWorororororkshop NOkshop NOkshop NOkshop NOkshop NOTES:TES:TES:TES:TES: J J J J Julululululy 2015y 2015y 2015y 2015y 2015

Workshops News & Events

Apple. Focuses on all aspects of the Mac and iPhoneoperating systems.Contact: Richard Corzo ([email protected]).Meets 2nd Tuesday, 7 p.m. at DACS Resource Center.Next Meeting: July 14

Digital Imaging. All about digital cameras, retouching, andprinting using various programs.[Note: SIG is suspended until further noticeDrupal. Covers all things on Drupal, the open sourcecontent management system (CMS) .Contact: Jim Scheef ([email protected]).Go to the DACS Community Forum - (http://www.dacs.org/forum/) within the Members only area.Next meeting: Look for future announcements.

Jobs. Networking and jobs searchContact: Charles Bovaird, 203-792-7881 (aam@ mags.net). Go toDACS Community Forum (http://forum.dacs.org for job listings.

Linux. Helps in installing and maintaining the Linux operatingsystem. Also of interest to Apple owners using OS X.Contact: Dave Mawdsley, [email protected] 3rd Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. at the DACS Resource Center.Next Meeting: Sept. 16

Mobile Devices/Windows 8. Smartphones, tablets, and e-readers of all makes and models.

Contact: Richard Corzo and Jim Scheef ([email protected])

Meets fourth Thursday 7 p.m. at the DACS Resource Center

Next Meeting: Workshop Suspended

PC Maintenance. Review of PC hardware and OpSysmaintenance and use.Contact: Charles Bovaird, 203-792-7881 (aam@ mags.net).Go to DACS Community Forum (http://forum.dacs.org).

Single Board Computers Workshop. Explores varioussmall cheap computers like Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Netduino,Beaglebone, and more. Meets on third Thursday at the DACSResource Center.Contact: Jim Scheef ([email protected]), or go to theDACS Community Forum: http://www.dacs.org/forum/,within the Members-only areaNext Meeting: July 16

Social Media: Master the basics of Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn, and Instagram.Contact: Tom Zarecki 914-548-4948; email [email protected] on the 4th Wednesday of the month at 6:30pm, usu-ally at the DACS Resource Center, but check the monthlyschedule.Next Meeting: July 22Web Design and DTP. Learn how to work with HTML,CSS, CMS Systems, WordPress, SEO and more.Contact: Annette van Ommeren ([email protected]).Meets 3rd Tuesday, 7-9 p.m. at the DACS Resource Center.Next Meeting: July 21

Apple. In June we discussed the announcements that Applemade the day before at their World Wide Developers Confer-ence. They announced the new features of the next version ofiOS (iOS 9) and OS X (10.11), and their newest operating sys-tem watchOS 2, which will be an update for their recently-re-leased Apple Watch.

The new version of OS X will be called El Capitan, after arock formation in Yosemite National Park. Yosemite is the nameof the current version of OS X running on Mac computers. Per-haps reflecting the close relationship in name, El Capitan ap-pears to be just a refinement of Yosemite, and not a majorupdate. There will be a Split View allowing two full-screen appli-cations to appear side by side on the desktop, which couldcome in handy, for example, if you’re trying to refer to someinformation in the Safari web browser while you’re composingan e-mail in the Mail program. With the improved Mission Con-trol you can more easily find a particular application among youropen windows, and dynamically create a new desktop space.Spotlight will now be able to understand natural language que-ries you might type, like “all Word documents I created lastmonth,” but Siri will not come to the Mac (as some predicted, toprocess your spoken questions). Apple is also promising per-formance improvements in El Capitan.

Mac applications will also be improved in El Capitan. AppleMail will allow you to access other parts of Mail when you have

opened a dialog to compose a new e-mail. The rather simpleNotes application will be beefed up to compete with the likes ofEvernote and Microsoft OneNote. You’ll be able to add media toyour notes, and instead of just bullets, there will be a checklistfeature that allows you to check off items when completed. Thesewill sync across all your Macs and iOS devices. The new Photosapplication (which recently replaced iPhoto) will support exten-sions that allow for more powerful editing of photos. Maps willnow include public transit directions.

iOS 9 will run on the same iPhone, iPad, and iPod touchmodels that iOS 8 runs on, and will have a much-reduced foot-print for installing it, make it easier to upgrade on models withlimited storage capacity. A new News app, promising better for-matting of magazines, newspapers, and now blogs, will re-place the Newsstand app. The Notes app will receive the samenew features being added on the Mac in El Capitan. Similarlythe Maps app will gain transit directions, catching up with GoogleMaps, and will have a Nearby feature, showing establishmentsnearby. Wallet will replace the Passbook app to reflect its addi-tion of store credit cards and loyalty/rewards cards. Apple Paywill add Discover card to the list of major credit cards alreadysupported (American Express, MasterCard, and Visa), and you’llnow be able to pay with some store credit cards.

Workshops,, Cont. on page 11


July 2015Danbury Area Computer Society

Web Design& DTP

Annettevan Ommeren7:00 - 9:00 PM

[email protected]

Linux7:30 -9:30 PMDave Mawdsley

[email protected]

Apple 7:00 PMRichard Corzo

[email protected]

Board ofDirectors7:00 PM

DACS.DOCDeadline

MembershipCommittee

7:00 PMJim Scheef

860-355-0034

Single BoardComputersWorkshop

7:00 PMJim Scheef

860-355-0034

General Meeting6:30 PM

Social Media

Tom Zarecki6:30 - 8:00 PM

[email protected]

Online BusinessWorkshop

6:30 - 8:30 PMIn hiatus until Sept

PR & MarketingCommittee

6:30 - 8:30 PM


Memory CardsBy Dick Maybach

Backup Tools

USB MEMORY STICKS and SecureData (SD) cards are the mostconvenient media for transferring

data among computers. Both are com-pact, inexpensive, and rugged and havecapacities of up to several Gbytes. Abovethis, you have little choice but to use aconsiderably larger, more fragile, and moreexpensive external hard disk. CDs andDVDs are less expensive, but are larger, morefragile, and have lower capacities; more-over, fewer modern portable PCs have op-tical media drives than in the past. Finally,writable optical media have reliability is-sues, especially if they are subjected to hightemperatures or humidifies. It's also truethat memory sticks and cards experiencefatigue in that they will fail after a finitenumber of write operations. However, thelimit is so large that you can ignore themfor devices used for the applications we'rediscussing here, although it is a consider-ation for internal solid state disks.

For many years, I've carried in mykeycase a USB memory stick with two par-titions, one with a bootable diagnostic op-erating system and the other with a FAT32file system that is available to Linux, OS X,and Windows. Thus, I always have withme a computer toolkit and a means of trans-ferring files. (If you do the same, make thefirst partition the FAT32 one. While a PCcan boot from any partition, once Windowsis running it can read only the first parti-tion on a memory stick. Other operatingsystem don't have this limitation.)

We have seen three generations ofUniversal Serial Bus (USB) devices. USB 1has a top speed of 12 Mbits/s, which be-cause of protocol overhead results in a prac-tical data transfer rate of about 1 Mbyte/s.Such devices are now obsolete. USB 2claims a speed of 480 Mbits/s, and proto-col overhead reduces this to no more than35 Mbytes/s, but only the fastest memorysticks can approach this. Finally, USB 3 hasa maximum transfer rate of 5 Gbit/s, whichcould allow transfer rates of over 600Mbyte/s, but this is faster than what cur-rent memory chips and readers can achieve.Actual test results show that, dependingon the reader, USB 3 memory sticks are atmost twice as fast as USB2 devices, and insome cases the difference is negligible. Thegood news about USB is that there are fewcompatibility issues; you will experiencereliable data transfers with almost any com-bination of memory stick and reader.

The Secure Digital Card (SDC) situationis more complex, as it includes four familiesand three physical sizes. The families are SD(standard capacity), SDHC (high capacity),SDXC (extended capacity), and SDIO (whichcombines storage and input/output func-tions, such Bluetooth). There is also anSDXC family that is designed for use in videocameras and uses the proprietary MicrosoftexFAT file format. The three sizes are stan-dard (32 x 24 mm), mini (21.5 x 20.0 mm), andmicro (11.00 x 15.00 mm). Adapters are avail-able that allow the use of mini and micro cardsin standard slots. Early SD cards had an "x"rating, where x was equivalent to 1.2 Mbit/s;for example an 8x rating implied a read speedof 8 x 1.2 = 9.6 Mbit/s (about 1.2 Mbyte/s),with write speeds being substantially slower.Modern SD cards have a class rating thatimplies a minimum read and write speeds.

• Class 2 - 2 Mbyte/s• Class 4 - 4 Mbyte/s• Class 6 - 6 Mbyte/s• Class 10 - 10 Mbyte/s• UHS Class 1 (U1) - 10 Mbyte/s• UHS Class 3 (U3) - 30 Mbyte/sUHS cards are intended for HD video re-

cording and require slots designed for them.Because of their wide ranges of perfor-

mance, there are significant compatibility is-sues with SD cards, and this is made worseby the shoddy quality of many low-cost read-ers, including some incorporated into laptops.Before purchasing an SD card, check the re-

quirements of the device that will use it. Newcards may have greater capacities than olderdevices can address. Version 2 of the SDspec changed the interface, with the resultthat new cards may not work in old devices,and old cards may not work in new devices.Finally, you should avoid SDX and UHScards unless you are using hardware andsoftware that specifically requires them.

I prefer USB memory sticks to SD cardsfor transferring data among PCs.

• On USB sticks the connector pins are pro-tected, while on SD cards they are externalwhere they can become dirty and can allowstatic electricity to damage the card.

• Most USB sticks have a mounting pointthat allows them to be carried in a keycase or on a key ring; SD cards do not.

• Every modern computer has USB con-nectors, but most desktops lack one forSDCs. I have seen claims that after-mar-ket SD readers for desktops and thoseincluded on many laptops are not reli-able, and some have damaged cards.

• The small size and black color of SD cardsmakes them easy to lose.

• USB sticks are thicker and appear to bemore rugged than thin, plastic SD cards.

• There are fewer compatibility issues withUSB memory sticks than with SD cards.

However, SD cards are the standardremovable storage element for cell phonesand digital cameras.

All the above assumes that you buyname-brand devices from established andreputable dealers. There is a lot of counter-feit merchandise floating around, USB 1devices with USB 3 labels, low-speed SDCswith high-speed labels, and low capacity


You may see the warning shown below , which appeared inthis case on a device that was formatted to F AT32. If this is theonly such message the test produces, you can ignore it.

The following screen shows the test in process.

After you click OK, you'll see the following screen. Note thatthe "Write + Verify" button is grayed out. The device is now fullof test files and you can run only the read test. As message in theprevious screen says, you will have to delete these to rerun thewrite test.

ones with high-capacity labels. Some of the latter, will lie abouttheir capacities to your file manager; a claimed capacity of 16Gbytes doesn't mean it can actually store that amount. If you finda really low price, it may be a bargain, but the only thing you knowfor sure is that it's cheap.

You can use the Windows program H2testw, available at http://www.heise.de/download/h2testw.html, to test any SD memorycard or USB storage device to find its capacity and data transferrate. (The Web site is in German, but you can run the program inEnglish). Just download the zip archive, unpack the program andits German and English readme files into the directory it creates.(The program is self-contained and runs from its directory; youdon't install it.) Click the "English" button to obtain the first screen;then click the "Select target" button and choose the device totest. (I used an old, tiny USB stick for this demo, because althoughslow, its 120-Mbyte capacity means it's quick to test.) The processwill destroy any data the device holds, so save anything importantfirst. Start the test by clicking the "Write + Verify" button.

Here are the complete results, showing the actual devicecapacity and its read and write rates. Note that you have theoption of copying them to the clipboard.

With this software you can verify the capacity and ensurethat it works well. The speed measured however depends on boththe stick or card and the host device. The tiny capacity of thedevice in this example resulted in a test time of about a minute;expect much longer times for modern multi-Gbyte devices. Never-theless, it's worth taking the time to check a new SD card beforetrying to use it in your camera on a trip to Europe.

DICK MAYBACH is a member of Brookdale Computer Users' Group (NJn2nd (at) att.net; www.bcug.com).

This article appeared in the December 2014 issue, BUG Bytes,and is reprinted by permission for APCUG user groups.


SO, YOU HAVE A TRIP coming up,maybe you will be doing planes,trains, and automobiles. Or maybe

you are going on a cruise (lucky you!) andyou are wondering if you should take yourcomputer, iPad, or iPhone with you. Well,the answer is yes, and don't forget thepower charging cords, adapters, and ear-phones too. So what can you expect aboutusing these devices when you travel? Let'sstart with the iPhone or "smart phone".

SMART PHONES use the cellularphone network to make phone calls ANDthey use a wireless connection to theinternet too. (The wireless internet con-nection is called Wi-Fi). In order for youto make and receive cellular phone callsyou have to be in an area where there isa strong enough signal to use it. Turnon your phone and you should be ableto see a certain number of "bars" or"dots" at the top of the window whichindicates your signal strength. MyiPhone uses the AT&T cellular networkand at the top left of my phone screen Isee a row of five "dots" next to "AT&T".Naturally a strong signal is four or fivedots and a weak signal is one or two.The dreaded "no service available" mes-sage means you are out of luck. Some-times your phone will not work in an areaof weak service (i.e. one or two bars ordots) but it seems that using your phonefor texting in those weak areas may work.

Your smart phone also uses a wire-less (Wi-Fi) connection for the internet.On my phone, also at the top of thescreen, is a series of "arches" (a smalldot with one or two arches over it, sortof like tiny eyebrows). This shows thesignal strength of the Wi-Fi network. Ifboth arches are there above the dot youhave a strong signal, if just the dot withno arches, your signal is weak and maynot work for the internet.

Remember, wireless Wi-Fi connectionsto the internet are almost all FREE (but mayrequire you to enter a password to use),but using the cellular phone network isNOT free, and you pay monthly charges touse it.

iPADs and TABLET COMPUTERSare smaller than laptops and much easierto take with you on a trip. iPads come intwo different types - one type can useEITHER the cellular network OR a Wi-Finetwork to connect to the internet. The

other iPad (usually lower-priced) canONLY use a Wi-Fi network. You do notusually use an iPad to make cellularphone calls, although you CAN use it torun Skype or other "apps" that use theinternet to communicate.

LAPTOP COMPUTERS connect tothe internet on a Wi-Fi network, not us-ing the cellular phone network. (How-ever, you can use your laptop AND asmart phone to connect your laptop tothe internet using the cellular phone net-work. But let's not talk about that kindof hookup here). Your laptop will showyou the signal strength of the Wi-Fi net-work you are using in the lower right ofthe screen (on my Windows 7 computer)or, on some computers, on the top baron the screen. Look for an icon thatlooks like a small bar chart. Click on itwith your mouse and it will open a win-dow with your network connection in-formation. If you are not connected tothe internet at all, it will tell you and showyou the Wi-Fi networks available to you,the strongest signal network first. Clickon the one you want to join (when youare at a restaurant, library, or hotel) andyou may have to enter a password toconnect.

So are you confused yet? Let's see ifI can summarize things up and give youthe big picture. Basically what you needto know is "Am I connected to theinternet?" and "How am I connected tothe internet?" As an easy example, let'ssay I am traveling with my iPad. Thereare many "apps" (applications or pro-grams) I already have installed on my I-Pad many of which are games or books Iwant to enjoy on my vacation. Theseapps are available to me whether I amconnected to the internet or not. So, if Iwant to play a game like checkers (againstthe computer) or read my book, these arealready on my iPad and I can play themanywhere anytime, even on an airplane.However, if I want to play checkersagainst a real opponent via the internet,or if I want to download a new book tomy iPad, I need an internet connectionto do that. Any Wi-Fi connection will letme do it. If, however, I am in an area withNO Wi-Fi available, AND if I have an iPad with cellular network capability, ANDif I am paying for cellular connection withmy iPad, then my iPad will use the cel-

lular network to connect to the internet.This will result in charges (could be sig-nificant) for using the cellular network.

So no matter what device you want totake with you on your travels, you shouldunderstand how to find out on your de-vice IF you are connected to the internetand HOW. There is really no reason to usethe cellular network to connect to theinternet if you can find a Wi-Fi spot thatis free.

Whatever device you use I know youwill be glad that you brought it along. Justusing a free Wi-Fi connection provides youwith the whole internet of entertainmentand fun for you whenever you want -- andyou won't feel "disconnected".

JIM CERNY, is 2nd Vice President, SarasotaTUG, FL. www.spcug.org; jimcerny123 (at)gmail.co

This article appeared in the November 2014issue, Sarasota Technology Monitor, and is re-printed by permission for APCUG member usergroups.

Traveling with TechnologyBy Jim Cerny

Tips for Trips

Online BusinessWorkshop

The Online Business Workshopwas launched in April, 2015 tofulfill an interest of members tocreate an online stream of income.Led by Sean Henderson and SteveHarkness, the workshop meets onthe second Tuesday of the monthat Brookfield Town Hall, or in otherarea locations to be determined.

Meetings are informal, andguided by the needs and interestsof attendees. The July meeting willbe conducted in Virtual/Webinar.

Members are invited to connectwith the workshop through theDACS Forum at http://forum.dacs.org/forum-38.html.


Directors’ Notes, Cont. from page 3Skype is prohibited by Danbury Hos-

pital for variety of reasons.Before presentation at DH, audio/video

inputs/outputs must be tested in order forWilsker to do his presentation from aremote location, and backup plan forcontent needed in case the connectiondoesn’t work that evening.

Windows 10 presentation by Jay Ferron.Scheduled for August 4th General Meeting.

Internship update: two students so faras IT applicants, still need marketing intern.

Discussion of requirements for market-ing intern still needed.

Civimail still problematic: Dick sug-gests MailChimp as alternate email server.

Further discussion of email accountconnectivity, no conclusions.

MS Office workshops could become a

The iPad will get a lot of attention with the iOS 9 update inthe form of multitasking on the screen. Slide Over will permit aside column from another app, such as Mail or Contacts, toslide over the top of the current app in view. Split View, limited tothe iPad Air 2, will for the first time allow two full screen apps toappear side by side with an adjustable divider, just like in Win-dows 8.1 on devices like the Microsoft Surface. Picture in Pic-ture will allow a small window, such as a video, to be movedanywhere on the screen over the top of the current app.

On all iOS devices Siri will continue to gain improvements.It will allow a deeper search that can find things buried withinthe apps installed on your device. A new proactive assistant willlearn your habits on your Apple device, anticipating what youmight want to do next, but, respecting privacy, it will not sharethis information in the cloud as happens with Google and itsGoogle Now feature on Android devices. Speaking of which,Apple will have a Move to iOS app on both Android and iOS, tohelp people migrate from an Android device to an iOS device.

Finally, watchOS 2 will allow for native third-party apps. Nolonger will they have to suffer the performance penalty of run-ning on your iPhone and only being able to display informationon the watch that is supplied from the iPhone. Native apps willalso gain access to more of the Apple Watch hardware featuressuch as the Taptic Engine, Digital Crown, accelerometer, heartrate sensor, speaker, and microphone. So the Apple Watch isdestined to become a more interesting device this fall whenwatchOS 2 becomes available. El Capitan and iOS 9 will alsobe available sometime this fall, all free upgrades from Apple.

The last announcement was a new Apple Music streamingservice that will replace the iTunes Radio feature. So we finallyhave the expected fruit of Apple’s acquisition last year of BeatsMusic. An Apple Radio station will have music curated by threeDJs scattered across the globe. Much of Apple’s iTunes musiccatalog will now be available for streaming (subject to negotia-tions with the music labels) for a fixed monthly fee of $9.99. Theservice will kick off on June 30th with a three-month free trial.

—Richard Corzo

Single Board Computer. Home automation has been a fasci-nation of mine since someone said a computer could control athermostat. At the May meeting Tom Gerhard showed us sev-eral years’ worth of his home automation projects. I was disap-pointed when we ran out of time just as Tom was going to get

into the bits and bytes of the code used in his Raspberry Piprojects. So this month I invited him back to do just that.

Tom is a former UNIX administrator so doing things fromthe command line is second nature for him. He runs his Rasp-berry Pi’s “headless” which means there is no screen or key-board. Instead of sitting at the Pi, he uses SSH to connect overthe network from the comfort of his Macintosh.

This month we also had a surprise guest. William Kommritzis a student at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) workingon a Computer Science degree. He is our draft pick for the Julymeeting – topic to be determined. —Jim Scheef

Social Media. The new Social Media workshop kicked off its firstmeeting in May. Meeting attendees talked about their personalexperiences with social media and what they’d like to get fromthese workshops. The similarities and differences between themajor social media, specifically Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,and LinkedIn, were explained. Ways to build your network offollowers / friends / connections on social media were reviewedand we discussed these techniques.

We also discussed various ways to get followers (on Twitteror Instagram), friends (or Facebook), and connections (onLinkedIn), and reasons/ways to communicate with those you’veconnected with, or those that are connecting with you. We out-lined typical concerns with privacy issues on each platform, andways to privately message (Direct Message or Instant Message)others on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. There was a discus-sion of the hashtag, its role as a search index tool, and howresults can be useful / meaningful / effective in your life and inbuilding your own network. A roundtable dialog followed about anumber of issues/concerns that others have concerning socialmedia in general and about these platforms specifically.

Finally, we decided to make the next meeting (June 24th) allabout Twitter. At the next meeting, each person’s Twitter accountwill be examined and ways to improve effectiveness from theuser’s perspective will be discussed. We will also cover thefollowing: How Hashtags Help, Finding Followers Fast, Writingfor thousands to see, What to look for...and why, and Posting toTwitter AND Facebook at the same time.

Next meeting: June 24th, 6:30pm - 8:00pm., at the DACS Re-source Center, 198 Main Street, Danbury. Open to all DACSmembers. —Tom Zarecki

DACS workshop series soon; wrapup meetingwith Microsoft, SCORE, and DACS June 4th at11am.

Jim Scheef agreed with others thatstudent Rob Willard’s student grouppresentation to Tom Zarecki’s marketingclass at WestConn was excellent.

Dick says the current DACS tag line isnot consistently used throughout all plat-forms and should be until new tag line iscreated and approved. FYI current tag lineis: “from mobile to desktop, we enlighten,inform and educate”.

Dick considering attending APCUGconference in Las Vegas later this year.

New BusinessPR piece for newly-elected DACS officers

should go to press contacts – Tom Z to write

this and send to R. Teasdale for distribution.Cathy – discussion of hashtags and

handles for DACS; Tom Z provided someelaboration and explanation and possibleoptions. No conclusions reached.

Board agrees to look into DACS t-shirtsby size.

Some DACS Board members will attendthe Virtual Density workshop on patentsand trademarks at the Danbury InnovationCenter tonight after this meeting.

New DACS workshops possible: MS Of-fice and Video Production strong possibilities.

All DACS workshops need to be addedto the DACS calendar, some are still missing.

Meeting adjourned at 8:35pmRespectfully submitted,

Tom Zarecki,Acting Recording Secretary

Workshops, Cont. from page 6

Future Events:

dacs.docDanbury Area Computer Society65 Legion RdNew Milford, CT 06776

Voice forJoanie

Help give thegift of speech

Call Frank Ruizat 203 770-6203

and become aVoice for Joanie

volunteerwww.voiceforjoanie.org

Ira WilskerInternet Security

JJJJJulululululy 7y 7y 7y 7y 7

When you come to the next DACS meeting,why not bring a friend?

August 4August 4August 4August 4August 4

TBASeptember 1September 1September 1September 1September 1

Jay FerronWindows 10

October 6October 6October 6October 6October 6Mike Kaltschnee

Live demonstration onbuilding an Android

application Oc

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