MARCH 2003 - Vol 19 - Issue 03

Newsletter - Internet Edition

Last months program on `Vinyl to Cd' is covered in an article here in this month's news letter for those that missed it. You won't always be so lucky, not all presenters make an article out of their meeting, so be sure not to miss a meeting with a topic you are interested in!

This month, March, will be a demonstration on GPS Navigation & StreetPilot. Brian Paugh from Premier Aviation at the Elkhart Airport will be our presenter.

During the next couple months, look forward to presentations on Microsoft products, Uninterruptible Power Supplies (Back UPS), music from a midi player to sheet music and back again, and possibly creating videos.

Bob Hess would like to hear from you, on how you like what we are doing with programs, if you have something you would like to see, or any suggestions you have on the meetings. Be sure to let him know if you like what's going on in EPCUG today, too!

Converting your cassettes and LPs to CDs is really a simple task, and relatively inexpensive, too. I will explore some of the hardware and software needed to do the task and discuss some of the ways to do it.

If you can set your stereo/tape deck/turntable near your computer, a single cable with one end having RCA jacks, the other having a 1/8" stereo jack, will suffice. If you are wanting to leave the stereo in the other room, then you will need a longer cable, and probably a converter end for that cable, as it will probably have RCA jacks on both ends. You should also be sure that the cables are `shielded' for better quality control.

Plug the RCA jacks into the output of the stereo, and the 1/8" jack into the `LINE IN' hole in your sound card. (Be sure to note that you may have a newer or higher quality sound card that comes equipped with RCA connections and you will not want the 1/8" plug on one end.)

Next, click START/SETTINGS/CONTROL PANEL/SOUND on your computer. Under the heading of AUDIO locate the section on RECORDING. Under ADVANCED, bump up the `sampling' rate to `best'. Click OK.

Then under VOLUME, still in the RECORDING section, set the volume control for the incoming volume, sometimes it is defaulted nearly off. Also, and most important, make sure to click the `select' box under the control for LINE-IN. It is usually defaulted to `microphone' and that does you no good if you are sending the sound into the line-in jack!

With a tape in, or record on the turntable, you are ready to open your recording program. There are many programs which will do this job, some extremely intense, some simple and basic. Check the various programs out, depending on your intended results, they run from inexpensive to moderately expensive. An excellent site to find a listing of many of these programs is a page called `Vinyl Rippers' at the Record Collectors Guild - an organization of vinyl record collectors - http://www.recordcollectorsguild.org/rippers.html

Most CD burning software that comes with your CD-RWs now contain a music recording program. Easy CD Creator, by Roxio (a division of Adaptec) comes with `Spin Doctor', and Nero comes with Wave Editor. Both can convert one file type to another, such as WAV to MP3, or record from one source to another, such as your cassette or LP to file or directly to CD. Both have editors included to clean up files, removing silence or noise where needed.

Also, many of your conversion programs (often focused on as MP3 rippers) will contain this feature two examples are MusicMatch and CoolEdit. MusicMatch Jukebox is currently on sale for $14.95 instead of $19.95.

ACID Xpress is a free limited version of Sonic Foundry's ACID program, but beware, it's a 30MB download! Also, it needs DirectX 8.0 (another 6MB download). The full version of ACID is really cool as you can really get into the editing of your recordings and making sure there are no scratches, clicks, or pops from the original. In addition to the amazing midi/digital effects that have nothing to do with what we are doing here!

One feature that is important is the splitter feature. If your program does not have a splitter feature, the simplest way to record cassettes and LPs is to record an entire side to either one large MP3 or WAV file with multiple songs, and then use a cutting or editing program to divide them up into individual songs. (The location of one of these is listed on the site above.) Both softwares that come with Roxio and Nero have this feature. You can set it to start a new file when there is X amount of silence, and then it starts a new song.

With Roxio, I'm assuming also with Nero, you can actually burn straight from the source onto the CD. By setting it to start a new song after X number of seconds of silence, then hitting pause to turn the source over at the end of side one, you can burn a cassette or LP directly to CD without going to the hard drive first.

This is a time saver, BUT there are disadvantages also. One, it counts those little mic-on noises at the beginning and end of cassettes as separate tracks. You really only notice them when you look at the CD on the digital display because they show up as 3-11 second tracks! Without BOSE Surround Sound, I doubt that just listening you would really notice them. After all, they were barely noticeable when you were listening to the tape. But still, it is a flaw. Also, you cannot edit out any extra scratches, pops, or clicks that the presets didn't catch. Better to record them to the hard drive where you can listen to them again, edit them if needed, and then burn them to a CD.

So hook up, set up, start up, and record those LPs then cut them to a CD. Either as proper CDA format so that your regular stereo can play them, or as MP3s for use with a player or on your computer.

The Elkhart PC Users Group Genealogy Special Interest Group's first meeting at the Greencroft Sr. Center was a great success. Verco Jones' work in arranging this meeting place paid off with a fine meeting and many compliments on the facility. Twenty genealogists attended and were very comfortable in the meeting room. Amy Schini, Greencroft Sr. Center Building Activity Coordinator and her crew spent hours setting up the room for our meeting. We all owe her a vote of Thanks!

The meeting began with a session on computer and genealogy questions answered by various members of the group. Refreshments and coffee were provided by the various members for our break and personal discussion period. Also discussed was the meeting scheduled for April 12. The April meeting is also scheduled to be held in the Greencroft Sr. Center.

Our meeting program period was about using the computer and the Internet to locate various legal documents that might tell us more about our ancestors. We had a handout giving hints and Internet sites to use to try to locate these documents.

Several attendees said they really enjoyed this meeting and got a great deal of help out of the session!

Our meeting after the meeting was held at American Mortgage and Financial Services. Jim Mathias presented a program on making your own genealogy web page. What material to use, how to arrange it, how to setup the information so internet search engines can find your genealogy page and information on collecting statistics about who is using the information found on your web page.

The GenSIG meetings are open to all EPCUG members and their guests. Please come and bring a friend.

Turn Off for Internet Access

No Sharing C Drive's Root

Well, we got enough interested volunteers rounded up last month and this month to have Build Days. We even have enough Chiefs to lead the Indians! Things went smoothly transitioning from the leadership of Bruce Von Deylen & Bob Brown to Jon Slough, Sherry Nisly, and Cal Donner. We even had new faces, new requests, and new ideas.

With a very nice recent donation of several good systems, we can continue to steer clear of older 486 systems, but will still consider high end ones (DX2 or DX4 100+ coprocessors) especially if they have working sound cards, CD-ROM drives, and larger hard drives

As always, we continue to ask members to be on the lookout at their schools, workplaces, and other community locations for upgrades that might result in donations to the SIG.

We also encourage members to be on the lookout for likely candidates for receiving computers. Do you have a person in mind that could be helped in their rehabilitation, or whose life in general could benefit from the use of an older computer? Why not contact an organization that is involved in their care, or take the leap yourself, to get this person a computer? Do you think they would like email? Or have a need for a wordprocessor? Could they be stimulated to more physical activity or mental improvement by using a computer? Do you know a student or someone unemployed who would benefit from the knowledge they could gain with a computer and would sincerely put it to use?

All that is required is an organization or EPCUG member vouch that this person will utilize and benefit from this computer and could not possibly afford anything on their own. We ask you to be certain it is not someone that will just sell it (like their gonna get big bucks for it???), nor let it sit and go to waste. Then write (or have the organization write) a letter to the Board of Directors, Attn: Recycling SIG, PO Box 13, Elkhart, IN 46515-0013.

The letter should state why the person needs or would benefit from the donation, and what they plan to do with it. If they are planning to do email, they would need a modem, if they will never do email, we can save the modem for someone who needs it. If they will be using it for a specific class or course of study, they may have specific requirements, such as the amount of RAM or video requirements to run the software that comes with the course. These types of things should be put in the letter to the Board.

It is also important that you stress that no Board member, nor SIG member, is responsible for teaching them how to use the computer, nor troubleshooting it if it has problems. While we have been known to work on them after being donated out (after all, used systems do come to us for a reason: they aren't new, they're old, and often have had a problem), we generally rely on the interceding party (whoever requested the donation for them) to get the computer back to us for needed repairs or problem solving. Also, that `possible future assistance' comes with a time stamp, usually `Whenever we can get to it'. Nobody is going to take time from their job to come fix a donated computer, and most only come on Build Days. So, this is an important thing to stress.

Another factor is receiving donations. The first thing all members need to keep in mind is that it is NEVER acceptable to drop off a donation to any members home or work place without having been told to! This has been done in the past, and will not be tolerated. That is one stipulation both Jon and I made before getting our feet back in the water with the SIG. If either of us have stuff on our front porch or living rooms, it will be because we expressly permitted it, and Jon should never have stuff at his office!

Cal Donner is in charge of receiving donations, but that does not mean he has agreed to have stuff on his porch, living room, or trunk, just because you have possession of it. You MUST make arrangements for getting the stuff off your hands before taking the donation, or be willing to keep it until it can be received. That may be a month, so be cautious. We want donations, but we are volunteers, we are not employees. We have no obligation to interrupt our lives for this project, no matter how worthy we feel it is.

Sound like tough rules? Well, maybe not really, they just need to be stated very clearly so that there are no misunderstandings. Please give the Recycling SIG some thought, maybe you would like to learn how to install a new hard drive? The SIG is where to come learn how, by helping rebuild a computer. Want to learn how to reformat and reinstall your computer? Get yourself to a Build Day, we do it nearly every month, we will let you be at the keyboard and learn first hand. Come on down, we can use your help and you will be surprised at what you can learn! Already know how to do these things? We definitely can use you to help teach others, remember, that's what this User Group is all about - Users Helping Users! See ya in the pit!