I n f o B u l l e t i n

Smile first, grimace later!

Most of us own a camera and enjoy taking pictures, but often they 'come out wrong' - after

1. you have left the lens cap on, or
2. you have created a tree growing out of your subject's head!

Well, with a digital camera you can see instantly what the picture is going to look like and retake it on the spot if necessary. Later, you just print out the ones you really want, saving a lot on reprographic fees and a little embarrassment when you show your friends and colleagues.

How do they work ?

Standard film cameras basically work by light travelling through a lens, then on to photo-sensitive film - the bit you have to get 'developed'. Digital ones work differently in that the light is channelled onto a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) imaging array, although still through a standard optical lens. This CCD acts as the photo-sensitive film and captures the image. Some cameras come with a Super CCD, which gives a better, sharper image and digital video cameras may pack a 3-CCD system that is sharper still.

CCDs are made up of tiny cells, each one converting the light it receives into a signal which can be stored in the camera's memory to form the complete picture. The term 'pixels' was rapidly coined by marketing departments after it was reckoned the phrase 'picture-cells' was far too techy and anyway didn't sound futuristic enough.

How sharp are the pictures ?

The most important specification to determine is the number of these pixels your chosen camera will have as this equates to the degree of 'graininess' that appears in the final picture.

The image quality is measured in 'MegaPixels', the higher the better, and 1 MegaPixel is one million pixels. A 1.3 MegaPixel camera can produce a good 7x5" Print, and a 2 MegaPixel can produce a good 10"x8" print, but remember, the image will only come out as well as your printer can manage!

Can't visualise a pixel ?
'Try before you buy' with this experiment on any PC.

Compare these pixel densities with what you have on your computer monitor.

Your present screen is probably set at a resolution of 800x600 or maybe 1024x768. To find out these figures on a Windows PC :
Right-click the desktop, then Properties | Settings tab.
Find a Web image you like with your browser and right click on it | Save As Wallpaper.
Now look at the table below and you'll see that the 1024x768 resolution only just scrapes in at 0.48 MegaPixels. Only the best 1600x1200 dot Desktop Publishing monitors (1.9 MegaPixels) compare favourably with a 1.3 MegaPixel camera, so if you're looking at cameras with lower resolutions than this, you can (to some extent) simulate them by changing your desktop properties. As you can see, they are all a long way from achieving the resolution of film-based cameras, although you can get these 'for a price'.

Resolution (Width x Height)	Pixels	MegaPixels	Monitor standard
640 x 480	307,200	0.3	VGA
800 x 600	480,000	0.48	SVGA
1024 x 768	786,432	0.79	SVGA
1600 x 1200	1,920,000	1.92	DTP
2000 x 1500	3,000,000	3.0	no equivalent
2500 x 2000	4,500,000	4.5	no equivalent
2880 x 2160	6,221,000	6.2	film-based equivalent

What can they be used for ?

Digital Cameras can be used for many different applications both at work and at home. In the work environment you create pictures for websites, brochures, catalogues, presentations, emails and can be inserted into almost any document - they're not reserved for the Desk Top Publishing experts. For speed and usability, 'digital' rates better than 'film' and you have control of the whole process, from eyeball to exhibition.
Even a cheap, low-resolution camera will be ideal for web-publishing small pictures of leaflets, conference facilities, staff portraits or posters that are too big to scan. These 'thumbnails' are handy for just putting up a representation on your site and also take a fraction of the Web space of photographic quality images.

At home, they can be used for everything a standard camera can: special occasions, holidays and you can view the pictures straight away on the LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen that is often built in, so you can retake it if you are not 100% happy with it.

Digital web cams are brilliant for providing your web site visitors with real time images of a subject; many TV and radio stations do this to get the audience more involved. These work in a slightly different way to a video camera, the image is taken as a still and then updated frequently (every 2 seconds or so) to create a movie-like result. Read the background in our previous IB Web cam article.

Once the image is downloaded onto a PC it can be manipulated (read about editing software), and then printed out. If you use heavy weight glossy paper and high resolution on your printer, the results can be excellent, and you don't have to waste time and money printing all the pictures, you can just choose the best.

What types of camera are there ?

So you go down to the local "Cam-U-Like" and immediately you're overwhelmed by the variety and combinations of cam technology on offer. Here's a brief run-down of the types :

1. Film-based camera:
   One that needs film to be processed, usually 35mm. These cameras are often shown in catalogues jumbled up with digital ones, so "APS" (Kodak's Advanced Photo System standard) is a key word to look for.
2. Digital cam:
   The basic digital camera we're looking at here. Takes 'stills' (fixed images)
3. Web cam:
   A camera you attach to your PC for video-conferencing or to monitor a particular location, like a busy reception area, capturing stills or moving pictures. These often come with motion-detection software where a largely static scene is being viewed, so that the camera only captures another image when something moves.
4. Video cam:
   A digital camera specifically designed to capture moving images or to make 'movies'. Usually has specific interfaces to video recorders (S-Video, SCART) as well as PCs (USB).

Unfortunately, the difference between 2,3 and 4 is becoming blurred as their functions increasingly overlap and they converge into single units.

Storing the images

Digital cameras have no 'film' as such, and images are recorded onto digital media.

There are three main types of plug-in card media :

• Smart Media,
• Compact Flash and
• Sony's own memory stick.

Features

Most come with a LCD screen and a manual viewfinder. It is worth getting one with both, as framing the perfect picture can be difficult just using the LCD, especially on cheaper screens that are impossible to see in bright daylight! Also the screen consumes battery power very quickly, so it is best to use it only when necessary. A few models now combine viewfinder and LCD in one, saving on power, though reviewing shots on such a tiny screen is a drawback.

Auto-focus and auto-exposure are now standard - as in most film cameras - so you can concentrate on framing the picture and have the focus and light levels done for you. If you want top quality images, then finding one with manual adjustments could be worthwhile, but you will pay a lot more for this. Look for zooms, contrast control and sharpening tools on higher spec models. However, these functions can be achieved once you have the image on the PC using an art package, which is worth considering, particularly for "Death Becomes Her" type special effects when you want to turn portraits into caricatures. All come with software to allow you to download, and some include picture editing programs too, so this cuts down on further shopping around. Additional bundled features like sound capture are appearing, but again you will pay more for these so it's worth weighing them up against your outlay.

Optical zoom v. Digital zoom

Optical zoom works in a similar manner to film cameras: an optical mechanism moves the lens(es) - to zoom say 2x or 3x - so that the picture appears to be taken from closer in with a narrower field of view. Since the whole picture always covers the whole of the CCD area throughout the optical zoom range, the resolution of the picture does not change. For this reason and because optical mechanisms are more expensive to manufacture than digital ones, the degree of optical zoom tends to increase the price.

Digital zoom is more like 'blowing-up' a picture when producing prints or photocopying. Since a smaller number of pixels, say the centre 800 x 600 pixels of the total 1600 x 1200, form the final picture, there may be some loss of resolution. Various cameras deliver fixed steps of digital zoom, eg 1.5x, 2x, but not 1.7x, or may automate the combination of optical and digital zoom.

How much are digital cameras ?

Prices vary considerably depending on how many MegaPixels and features they can boast. Fuji, HP, Cannon, Kodak and Logitech, all make high quality cameras. A simple guideline is £100 per MegaPixel. Expensive ones are beginning to come in at this price level but if you're paying double this (£200/MegaPixel), expect mega-features too. For a good quality 1.3 MegaPixel camera with standard features such as auto-focus and flash, prices start from around £200, and for a more advanced model with up to 3.3 MegaPixels, added features such as zoom and contrast control, prices can be £450 and higher. For a film-based equivalent resolution (6+ MegaPixels), you'll be looking at over £800.

Because of so many models out there and large prices differences, it is worthwhile taking some time to see what features you really want and what the camera is to be used for. Once you have one you will want to use it all the time, it can be a lot more fun than a standard camera and you can save time and money on development!

Benefits

What is it ?

You want to publish documents in HTML format on the Web, or maybe just in-house, but you don't know how to write HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and you don't especially want to start grappling with new HTML-editor software.

Is there a simpler way?

How to make it happen

Here are some suggestions - all varied solutions, so one of them should suit you.

• Hits4Me online converter
  At http://www.hits4me.com/html_texttohtml.asp you get a simple box into which you paste your text. Hit the button marked "Generate my HTML code" and your converted code appears in the next box for you to copy and save as a page. The conversion is also sent to an email address you provide.
  There are 2 options to select regarding "How to convert text beginning http://", eg turn them into HTML links and "How to convert line breaks" eg turn them into <BR> tags.
• Netscape Composer
  Part of the free Netscape suite which can be downloaded from http://browsers.netscape.com/browsers/. After installing, just paste your text in and pull down the File | Save As menu, which saves as HTML by default.
• Microsoft Word too has a "Save As Web Page" feature. However this application isn't free (although you may get it as part of an MS Office suite) and Word 2000 inserts additional MS-specific XML tags, thus swelling the size of the finished page considerably. Even Web people using advanced editors advise you to keep a copy of Word 97 for simple Text to HTML publishing because it adds a smaller 'tag overhead'.
• A utility that converts Rich Text Format (RTF) to HTML, called, logically, "RTF2HTML" can be found at :
  http://www.logictran.com/. It converts word processing documents into HTML or XML and is available across a wide range of platforms Windows 9x/NT/2000, Macintosh (68k or PowerPC), Unix (Linux, SCO, FreeBSD, Solaris, AIX, IRIX) and features high speed conversion of single documents or large collections without having to open each individually.
  Logictran also offer image converters (wmf/bmp to png/jpg; png to/from jpg) on the same site.

What is it ?

Someone has sent you a "PDF" file and you need to copy some text from it.

Copying text from a PDF file

Caveat: Assume copyright protection applies unless you know better!

You need to have installed an Adobe Acrobat Reader to view PDF files. See Contacts below to find out where to get it.

1. With Adobe Acrobat Reader open and displaying your chosen PDF file, you probably have the Hand Tool/cursor selected by default.
2. To pull up the Text Select Tool/cursor, simply press "V" on the keyboard or click the "T" button on the toolbar at the top.
3. You can now highlight and copy text as usual into other documents. Simply right-click or pull down the Edit menu.

Editing a PDF file

To create or edit PDF files, you must either :

What is it ?

Fed up with reading endless emails that aren't really relevant to you?
Isn't everyone!!

Most users view their emails in latest date order, simply because that's the way it's always presented and they don't know it can be changed. Here are a few different ways to slice and dice your inbox :

1. Use your header buttons:
   Inboxes and mail folders are always presented as columns, but the headers of those columns in most email clients are also 'sorting buttons', which toggle the direction of the sort order. Clicking the "Subject" header button arranges all emails alphabetically with common subjects together, so you can view a whole project or discussion easily. Clicking "Subject" again sorts in reverse alphabetic order.
   Use these header buttons to see incoming mail in different contexts and either move the less important ones into folders or just keep them for later.

2. Move messages into folders:
   The "Divide and Rule" method: if you're the strictly organised sort, you may find it easier to move all the readily identifiable messages off into folders first, leaving you with just the 'white mail', as the mailing industry calls it.
   To automate this process, most email clients have filtering rules to select the contents in the From, To, CC and message body sections. Find the filtering rules here:
   • In Microsoft Outlook:
     Pull down Tools | Rules Wizard
   • In Pegasus:
     Pull down Tools | Mail filtering rules | Edit new mail filtering rules
     or click the red 'funnel' button on the toolbar
     
   • In Netscape Messenger:
     Pull down Edit | Message Filters

3. Who is it to? Just looking at the From, Subject and Date details doesn't always give away much about whether the content (message body) is relevant. Even mails marked URGENT only reflect the sender's opinion and doesn't necessarily represent your take on it. Easier to arrive at a better judgement if you know whether it's strictly personal or a blanket office round-robin ...
   
   • In Microsoft Outlook, add the "To:" column (if you don't already have it) so you can see who emails are addressed to:
     Pull down View | Current View | Customize Current View | Fields button
     Click the "Add" button so that the "To:" field appears in the "Show these fields" box and click OK until back at the Inbox. Recipients are shown in the "To" field. Adjust the width of fields by dragging the edge of header buttons.
   • In Pegasus, colour messages brown if they are, say, to a group or distribution list:
     Start the filtering rules as above and choose to "Apply when folder is opened"
     Click "Add rule" button | Headers button | tick the "To" box
     In the box "Contains this text" type the name of the distribution list (eg mailusers). If connected to a NetWare server, you can type just a "#" (hash) character here and the rule will pick up all mails addressed to all groups
     In the "Action" box, pull down "Highlight" and set a colour, eg brown
     Click OK and Save to get back, re-open the New Mail folder. All the group emails show up coloured brown.

Benefits

What is it ?

In Microsoft Word, pulling down the File menu displays the Recently Used Documents.

The number of previously edited documents you see in this list is four, by default.

It's possible to make this list longer or shorter - anything between 0 and 9 entries.

How to make it happen

What is it ?

The latest round of hoaxes has prompted us once again to issue some gentle guidance. Posting this up for users will go along way to reducing panic, as well as saving on wasted work time and phone bills.

Would you be fooled by this ?

Dear Receiver,

You have just received the DIY virus.

This is a MANUAL virus.

Please delete all the files on your hard disk and send this mail to everyone you know.

That's great, many thanks.

Hopefully not, but this is just what the "SULFNBK" hoax does, which turned up recently, being recycled for the umpteenth time :

Subject: Urgent: You need to delete this virus sulfnbk.exe

These same hoaxes pop up again and again, fuelled simply by a few people hitting the panic button - in this case the button is called "Send Email".
Email is effectively a powerful publishing medium. Think before you speak, do you really know what you're talking about?
If you can't persuade users to inform themselves or curb an untrained desire to use their initiative, then perhaps the humiliation of just appearing daft in a very public arena will help apply the brakes - to wit the number of "Ignore that last virus email" type messages that do the rounds of mailing lists.

Guidelines

Broken Windows ?

Sometimes you need to restore a Windows system file because it's disappeared or become corrupted.

How to make it happen

You'll need a set of original Windows system CDs or alternatively access to a copy of the 'cabinet' files (*.CAB).

In Windows98 and Windows2000 a utility called "SFC" (System File Checker) does it all for you, including a tab that scans for altered files. There is an option to back up existing files before you replace them.

1. Start | Run | type "sfc"
2. Click OK
3. Start "Scan for altered files" and follow the instructions.

1. Start | Run | type "command"
2. Go to the location of your Windows source files, eg
   Type "cd\ win95" OR
   "cd \windows\options\cabs"
3. Type "extract /A win95_02.cab [name_of_file]"
   where [name_of_file] if the file you want
4. Shutdown applications and Windows and restart in MS-DOS mode
   Start | Shutdown | MS-DOS command mode
5. Copy [name_of_file] to C:\windows or C:\windows\system
   Type "copy [name_of_file] C:\windows\system"
6. Switch off/on to restart PC

Co-Operative Systems is a supplier of IT services and equipment to the charity and NGO sectors. Typical projects are supply and installation of computer networks - including total project management, installation of Desktop PCs with general office software, configuration of servers plus set up of email and web connections to the outside world.

Post-install we provide on going IT management and support. We run Support Contracts that ensure quick resolution of problems such as network crashes. We also provide Facilities Management (FM), regular scheduled visits where we assist users with using IT perhaps help with mailing lists, or managing computer systems such as carrying out software updates.

Co-Operative Systems services

Service	Description	Charges
Installation	A once-off job. You get something new like a set of PCs, a server or an upgraded Internet connection or access to another office site.	Usually priced as a single cost.
Facilities Management (FM)	FM is best understood as "hiring your own IT manager for a day". Your chance to get us to tackle your longer term jobs, proactively prevent problems and optimise the reliability of the network.	Charged per day or batch of days.
Support	We are a phone call away to talk you through everyday IT problems. For more serious problems we dial in to your network or come out to fix it.	Charged quarterly or yearly as a flat fee depending on your equipment inventory.
Application help	We can help you to set up mailing lists, mail-merges, document templates and most office applications. We leave you with the knowledge so you're a self-starter next time around.	Usually priced as a single cost.
Regular visits	We help you assess the weaker points of your system and identify appropriate upgrade paths within your budget. Our audits of your IT equipment put you on a sure footing by generating a personal inventory for contract and insurance purposes.	Usually priced as a single cost.
Training	Our Network Manager training is a good introduction for beginners and usually follows a new network installation.	Usually priced as a single cost.

What we don't do

We don't do full-blown IT strategy work, linking business needs to defined IT solutions, though we do know some good consultants in this area. If you want some free sensible advice we're a good starting point.

We don't develop information systems such as databases. However, we do have a close working relationship with a specialist in this area, very good company called "the Information Works" (who used to be part of Co-Operative Systems).

What's special about us ?

We're people people.

We understand that IT - whilst offering exciting benefits - can often be a frustrating business and many of our clients just want things to work and not be swamped by technical issues. IT is not just about equipment, it's about usability, and should help you achieve things.
We're also aware that different clients will have different goals and budgets. And we're very easy to work with, both friendly and flexible.

We think long-term

In a fast moving world, we're proud of the fact that we've been working with many of our clients for 5 years plus and some of them for over 10 years. If we retain a client for one year, there is a 95% chance that they'll ask us to do further work in the following year. The same applies to our staff, many of whom have stayed with Co-Operative Systems for over 5 years.

We are reasonably priced

Co-Operative Systems is committed to providing good value. For similar skill sets, we often find our day rates are considerably less than those of other companies.

We don't quibble

If something minor is missing from an order we'll throw it in without charge.
If you want to return something we'll usually be able to take it back.
If you are regular client with a payment that's running late by a week or so we'll still work with you.
If the software people say "It's the network that's the problem", we'll listen and take appropriate action.
(And we'll do all this without form filling).

We have expertise

Our team has over a 100 person/years of IT experience. The breadth and depth of our knowledge enables us to tackle projects that overlap with other areas such as Telecoms or Web services.

We're committed to ongoing development

We want to develop our staff and our skill sets. With this in mind we became "Investor in People" accredited, to make sure our staff were being provided with a framework for self development, and a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider so that we would stay up to date on new developments.

We stay in touch

Activities with all clients are reviewed on an annual basis, and in many cases quarterly or monthly. We proactively suggest improvements that can be made.
Monthly we publish Info-Bulletin via email which contains IT ideas and articles that are relevant to our client base.

Contacts