Video Splicing

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Sometimes a full Video Editing program is not needed to do a simple splice of a video. A small tool is available for cutting part of a video and saving it as a new file. the program is called 'LossLessCut'. It is a free program for Windows, Mac and Linux. It does nothing else than that, but is useful for removing that unwanted false start to a home movie or not ending when it should. Mark the start point and then the end point of the wanted section. Click on the Scissors Icon and the wanted part will be saved while the original video is left unaltered.

Newsletter

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November 2017 

Googles 'Nest' cameras come to NZ

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Nest is a company owned by Google that produces Indoor and Outdoor Cameras, Thermostats, Smoke alarms and other Security related devices. They are designed to connect to mobile phones with intruder alert messaging. They also have integration with Google Home which is a Voice controlled device similar to the Amazon Echo. New Zealand is now one of 18 countries that has full support for these devices.

Newsletter

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October 2017 

September 2017

New life for computers made redundant

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As XP is no longer updated old computers soon become useless. Loading an alternative lightweight Linux system has become increasingly more difficult as the CPU is no longer supported. Greece can no longer afford to buy new computers, especially the young with a 45 percent unemployment rate, so a group of system programmers have come up with a solution called Antix. As Linux is open sourced they have put back the old CPU drivers, used a simple low resourced Desktop. They also added the latest firefox, Youtube viewer, media player and a simplified office suite. The performance is adequate for use as simple home computer, as long as fast action games are not required. Any computer that ran XP should run Antix equally well but without the maintenance worries.

Newsletter

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July 2017

August 2017 

Elementary OS

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As Windows gets more complex with every version as a never ending array of features are added, some of us prefer a simpler system. Elementary OS, aptly named, provides only this. There are no menus, just a Panel similar to the Mac at the bottom and an Icon based dropdown Panel, like Android, from the top. A single click on any Icon launches the Application. There is a repository for a few extra Apps and as the system is maintainance free there is little else to learn about it. China has a few outlets to buy it as a complete Laptop but I suspect these are repurposed unsold Windows 10 machines due to the lack of power. Like the Chromebook these devices need only a minimal specification, and will not slow down with time. Any settings change is done from a control Panel similar to Android.

Samsung's new Desktop

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Samsung's new Smartphone 'S8' has an accessory named 'DEX'. This allows the Phone to sit in a cradle which is connected to a Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse and effectively becoming the Desktop computer. Although it only works on the premium model at the moment, in the next couple of years all mobile phones could follow suit. Android 7 has the ability to run and resize several applications at once making it a good fit as Desktop Operating System. Microsoft wanted to do this with Windows Mobile 10 but as the phone was a failure this never happened.

Windows 10 S

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Noticing the success of the Chromebook in the Education Sector Microsoft is introducing the Windows 10 S to compete, mainly on price. Windows 10 S is a Restricted version of Windows 10 Pro that only allows Windows store software on it. Other caveats are the only Web Browser is the 'Edge' and 'Bing' is locked in as the search engine, not Google. All this is similar to the failed Windows 8 RT. If this is found too limiting a payment of $US 50 will upgrade it to Windows 10 Pro. If the Education Sector don't buy these they will probably end up on the retail shelves as cheap PC's. These are not copies of the Chromebook as both operate and maintain on completely different ideologies.

Android versus Windows

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Android is now the most used Operating System for Internet search usage globally. As Windows does not have any real participation in the mobile computing field the accompanying chart is showing the difference between Laptop and Phone users in the home. Streaming media on a TV, such as 'Netflix' is probably not included in these figures.

Raspberry Pi Software for PC's

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Raspberry Pi is a tiny low power single board computer that was designed for students to learn to program. All the software is open source allowing full access to all sections of the computer. Originally only a few thousand would be made but the producers under estimated the demand and after two years 10 million had been sold. Raspbian is the official Operating system and this has now been ported to run on a standard Laptop using a Live CD or bootable thumb drive. As this does not interfere or rely on the main Operating system it is quite safe to use and won't compromise the Laptop's warranty. Raspbian comes with an up to date browser and email client, an office suite, photo viewer and media player as well as several installed programming languages. The image file can be found by Googling Raspbian x86 pixel.

Intel Compute card

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Intel are developing a computer in a card which is designed to be slotted into a PC similar to the way a SD memory card is inserted. The card will hold the processor, memory, graphics, audio and solid state disk drive. The connector at the bottom will be similar to the usb-c allowing media for the screen to be delivered and inputs for the keyboard, mouse and USB ports. Upgrading a computer will happen when a more powerful card is inserted. The case, power supply, screen and keyboard will not need to be changed, removing the built in obsolescence that exists at present. The major PC companies will be begrudgingly producing these this year as they fear that if they don't the phone manufacturers will. The cards are optimized for Windows 10, Windows Embedded, Android and Linux. These cards may well end up as the computer for Smart TV's and other devices.