Toledo PC Users’ Group

A Forum for Personal-Computer Users — June, 2006

June Program: DVD-burners

Monday, Jun 5, 2006 at 7:30 PM, UAW-Local-14 Hall, Jackman & Northover (between Laskey & Alexis Rd), Toledo, Ohio.

In This Issue ...

TPCUG Data
From the Prez
Minutes
Treasurer’s Report
Membership Expirations
RSS Explained
TOLTBBS Information

TPCUG’s Website:
http://www.toledopcug.org

Coming Meetings: Monday,
July 3, August 7, August 28, October 2, November 6, December 4.

The Toledo PC Users’ Group
P.O. Box 13085
Toledo, OH 43613

Officers
President: Floyd Miller
Vice-President: Rick Snyder
Treasurer: Steve Tryc
Secretary: Sándor Halász

Standing Committees
Computer Shows: Steve Tryc
Librarian: Open
Membership: Roy Ballogg
Programs: Lester Miller
Public Relations: Lavern & Eugene Curtis
Complaint Dept.: Helen Waite

SIG Leaders
Internet SIG: Jim Bell ............ 419-877-1109

Statement of Intent: The Toledo PC Users’ Group is a not-for-profit corporation, formed to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and information regarding the use and enjoyment of personal computers.

Affiliations: TPCUG is a member of APCUG (Association of Personal Computer User Groups), which provided the APCUG logo.

Meetings: Meetings are generally held the first Monday of each month, at UAW-Local-14-Hall, 5411 Jackman Rd., Toledo, OH. In the event of emergency, members may be reached during meetings at a pay phone in the hall, 419-473-9571.
Visitors are always welcome at monthly meetings!
Executive-Board meetings are generally held after the regular monthly meetings.

Membership: Dues are $25. per year. To obtain an application, call any officer or member.

Moving? Notify the Membership Chair to redirect your newsletters.

Copyright 2006: The Toledo PC Users’ Group, the publisher of this newsletter, is a not for profit organization. Although it asserts a copyright for the newsletter, permission is granted to reprint this publication in whole or in part for any noncommercial use, with credits acknowledged.

Newsletter Deadline is the 15^th of each month. All members are encouraged to contribute articles and reviews for this newsletter. Submissions may be made by email to the editor.

Advertizing: Business cards (2”×3½”) will be run in three issues for $5. Commercial ads: $10 for ¼ page; $20 for ½ page; $30 for ¾ page; $40 for full page. Larger ads are run in two issues from a graphics format, JPEG or GIF or … Members may place free ads for the sale of computer-related personal items on a space-available basis. Contact editor for details.

Production Notes: This newsletter was compiled with Microsoft Word 6 for Windows, Open Office 1.1.5, Brief, and Notepad.

TPCUG Mailing List: If you are on the Internet, keep in touch with club doings by subscribing to the TPCUG mailing list: Send e-mail to “tpcug-request@toltbbs.com” with only “subscribe tpcug@toltbbs.com” in the body of the message. You will then receive communications sent to the list through e-mail.

The President's Message

I have been following this topic via a “google alert” and was surprised when the following information from Clyde, Oh, was a featured alert.

Clyde to vote on high-speed Internet plan

By JIM SIELICKI
BLADE STAFF WRITER

In the city of Clyde, Ohio, high-speed Internet service could soon be as simple as plugging into the electric outlet.

Broadband-over-power-line service offers consumers another choice to obtain Internet service, in this instance, anywhere they have an electric outlet. BPL, as it's known in the industry, competes with cable, DSL telephone service, and wireless for high-speed Internet access, at speeds ranging from 300k to 2 million bits a second.

Network World, which tracks information technology, says those speeds compete favorably with its competition. And by the end of the year, Clyde residents will have access to that technology, City Manager Daniel Weaver said yesterday. One difference is the service can be less expensive than DSL and cable.

Tonight, Clyde City Council will vote on a resolution to hire a pair of New York state firms to design and provide technical support for Clyde's venture into high-speed Internet connections. Mr. Weaver said a pilot test has gone well enough to roll out a full-scale system.

Clyde would be one of a growing number of communities and utilities offering broadband over power lines. What makes it easy for Clyde, a city of 6,064 people 39 miles southeast of Toledo, to offer the service is its city-owned electric utility. Data carried on power lines is fed into fiber optic cables to the Internet service providers. Clyde will later seek a franchise for its own Internet service provider, but the city will not seek to get into the cable business. The BPL cost for Clyde residents is expected to be around $30 a month, compared with an average of $50 a month for high-speed access via cable, he said.

“One of the limitations of BPL is the shared network of homes that are served by the same transformer on the same bandwidth”, he said.

Mr. Weaver doubted whether the Clyde system will continue in its present format a decade from now.

“Eventually, BPL will become obsolete”, he said. “Ten years from now, the technology will evolve”, relying more on fiber optics that the city will extend to more households as its municipal power system offers more services to its customers. Left to the major telecommunications firms, he said, Clyde likely would never get a fiber optic network “because the return on investment is just not there”.

It will be interesting to monitor the Clyde story. Don't guess we'll be stringing a 40-mile fiber-optic line for 40 miles to tie into their system.

The calendar says it's time for a holiday—Memorial Day—a time to pay tribute to all who have defended our way of life and the freedoms we enjoy. It is a time to ponder our family history and remember those who gave us life and food and shelter and an inner circle of related people that gave us a sense of belonging. It is a “holiday” that can approach the level of being a “holy day”.

On the heels of that celebration comes our next meeting on June 5th. I hope your calendar is marked for the event and an unforgettable thought implanted in your mind. So we'll be sure to see you on meeting night.

As always: "Visitors are welcome
Members are expected”.

Respecfully submitted,
Floyd L. Miller, Your President

Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 19:40 by Floyd Miller, president.

The minutes were accepted.

The treasurer s report (current balance $1340.32) was accepted, subject to audit.

Roy Ballogg reported that there are 23 members; 10 present, with 2 visitors.

The Internet SIG meets on the third Monday night at Jim Bell s place in Whitehouse. The agenda is fluid, no two are alike, sometimes it runs far afield.

For the June program, Lester Miller plans talk of DVD-burner. Both F. Miller and S. Tryc spoke of buying and installing such on their computers.

For old bizness, J. Mack brought up increasing the dues lest the funds dwindle away. S. Tryc said that insolvency is not imminent, there is enough in the bank account for a couple of years.

There was no old bizness.

The meeting was adjourned at 19:56.

This was followed by discussion of anti-virus software, led by L. Miller.

Respectfully submitted by Sándor Halász, secretary

Treasurer’s Report

Balance Ending 4/14/06 $1340.32

Income
One renewal Snyder $25.00

Expense 0.

Balance Ending 5/15/06 $1365.32

Steve Tryc, treasurer

Expired & Expiring Memberships

June
1612, Larry Martin

July
1089, Erwin Lorenz
1632, Nina Sherman
1633, Thomas Tenny
1689, Jim Mack

RSS Explained

By Phil Shapiro, member of the Capital PC User Group, Virginia Macintosh Users' Group, Washington Apple Pi, Young Hackers' and Scholars Libre Users' Group
pshapiro on his.com

RSS—really simple syndication—is a labor-saving tool that allows people to tune into information sources that interest them. The information source could be a blog, a podcast, a videocast or any web site that includes RSS feeds.

The value of RSS accrues when you subscribe to multiple RSS feeds. You can then monitor multiple information streams with a minimum of effort.

There are many different software tools for subscribing to RSS feeds. One of the most popular is a web site named Bloglines. Some web browsers let you subscribe to RSS feeds. Safari 2.x and Firefox are two browsers that do. Firefox lets you to subscribe to RSS feeds using something called Live Bookmarks. You can also use a Firefox extension named Sage to subscribe to RSS feeds.

RSS's primary value is that it brings information to you without you having to visit multiple web sites. In a knowledge economy, anything that streamlines the flow of information from producer to consumer gives benefit to both producer and consumer. You tune into the information you do want, and tune out the information you don't want.

Some Examples of How RSS Simplifies Peoples' Lives

I asked some technology consultants to explain how RSS brings value to peoples' lives. Curtis Brown at MissionMovers.org, in Seattle, is a strong believer in RSS. He explains, RSS has invaded every part of our life, but we just don't know it. RSS is an information delivery method that gives added convenience to both senders and receivers of the information.

As an example, RSS feeds can be used by a nonprofit organization to distribute different kinds of information to different people. One RSS feed could be the organization's calendar of events or classes. Another could be a call for volunteers. A third feed might be information for funders. The more feeds an organization offers, the more narrowly tailored the information delivered to people served by that organization or supporting that organization.

Here are some other examples of RSS feeds. A used car dealer can have an RSS feed that details newly arrived used cars. A public library could have an RSS feed of newly purchased books. A police department can have separate RSS feeds for different neighborhoods, giving up-to-date information on safety concerns in each neighborhood.

Curtis Brown explains that information received in an RSS feed can be filtered by keyword and colorized in text. So you have control over the RSS feed. You decide the ways in which that stream of information is going to serve your needs.

Curtis explains that RSS feeds become immensely useful when people work collaboratively in a wiki. (A wiki is a web page that different people can edit.) Changes to the web page can be monitored via an RSS feed. This allows anyone participating in the wiki to have a clear idea of who is adding the most value to the wiki. RSS allows for better monitoring and gives added transparency to the collaborative process.

Curtis goes on to explain that there are two kinds of RSS feeds—static feeds and dynamic feeds. A static feed might be sports scores or the feed from a single blog. A dynamic feed is a stream of information where there is searching going on to pull out specific pieces of information to add to the stream.

It's also possible to combine several RSS feeds into a single new feed. One web site that let's you do that is rssmix.com. Why would want to do that? Suppose you live in a metropolitan area with several different library systems spanning several counties. Each library system provides an RSS feed of the events happening within their library system. You'd like to keep track of library events in multiple counties. rssmix.com would let you combine RSS feeds in that way.

Another RSS enthusiast, Bruce Roy, in Sydney (Australia) explains, I have found the RSS facility in The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding (TNG) very useful for the family-tree site. It enables people interested in following the family tree to get information about changes to the tree without having to check the website's "What's New?" or wade through the data.

One other advantage of RSS is that it lets you tune out mainstream media and tune into alternative media and personal media. If you find the CBS Evening News a touch thin in how it covers the news, with RSS you have an alternative source of news where news stories don't need to be squeezed into 45-second slots.

Another RSS enthusiast, Winthrop Morgan, in the Washington-DC-area had this to add:

Regarding your request for examples of how RSS brings benefits into peoples' lives, I highly recommend you consider including Join Together Online as a great Win-Win-Win model.

Join Together Online (JTO) has long been a pioneer in using the Internet to support people working on substance-abuse and gun-violence issues. Every month, one million JTO web pages are viewed by over 350,000 people.

JTO uses RSS feeds to not only help their web presence spread, but also to provide vital to support state, municipal, and nonprofit drug treatment and prevention program managers and their audiences. While these programs' web masters might have a modest web presence, they lack the wherewithal to continuously produce new content, or even gather and republish it. Without new content, their audiences lack a reason to come back to their Web site. The JTO RSS service enormously increases both the return visit value of these sites and the presence of authoritative information in this highly charged information space.

To keep the RSS feeds fresh and riveting, JTO employs a small editorial staff who aggregates both online and offline news on substance-abuse funding, policies, and more from authoritative sources. They edit this news down to its essential content, and then republish it via RSS, as well as to users of their site and subscribers to their e-mail news services.

RSS Relieves Cluttered Email Inboxes

If you have traditionally received a lot of your information via email, RSS can provide some relief to your inbox. Would you like to follow a particular email list, but can't stomach subscribing to one more email list? If that list is on Yahoogroups, you can follow the list via the list's RSS feed. An excellent free tool for reading RSS feeds is Bloglines.

RSS feeds are almost always spam-free. The provider of the RSS feed doesn't want you to unsubscribe from the feed—so they treat you with respect.

Ben Sheldon, in Lowell, Massachusetts, passes along this RSS tip: "Google still only offers email news alerts, but this utility lets you use create an RSS feed out of any Google News search term. [http://www.justinpfister.com/gnewsfeed.cfm] I aggregate my name, my projects (DigitalBicycle, ServiceSpeak), and my street and city so that if something happens I should know about, I will."

If you're still with me, I'll pass along a few small tips of my own. I use RSS, Bloglines and my Digg.com account to keep track of what Digg stories my friends are digging (i.e. voting for). I just copy the RSS feed from the bottom left of http://digg.com/users/pshapiro/friends and then paste it into Add Feed in Bloglines.

Between Katie Couric and the 50 friends I have on Digg, which do you think provides the richer quality of information to me? Right. Just for kicks I subscribe to the Associated-Press RSS feed, so I'm in the loop with whatever Katie knows.

I also use the free service at Squeet.com to send me an email whenever one of my friends submits a story to Digg.com, so they don't have to let me know about their submissions. That email alert capability might well come to Digg sometime.

I use RSS to keep me posted on new items of interest to me that are posted to Del.icio.us. For example, if anyone submits an item to Del.icio.us with the tag digitalstorytelling, I find out about that really easily in my Bloglines account.

That puts me in touch with anyone doing digital storytelling anywhere on the planet. And I don't even have to subscribe to another email list to be in touch with them. I like that.

Phil Shapiro
The author is a former president of Virginia Macintosh Users Group and worked as the Washington DC Regional Coordinator for Community Technology Centers' Network, an international network of more than 1000 organizations bringing technology and technology training to underserved communities.

He can be reached at http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/pshapiro and at pshapiro on his.com. His blog is at http://philsrssfeed.blogspot.com

This article may be freely reprinted by any computer user group or nonprofit entity. The article has been distributed via the The MUG Center's Newsletter Content List and via the newsletter article exchange of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups.

This article—with associated links—can be found on the web at http://rssexplained.blogspot.com

There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author. The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.