NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, August 2006
President's Corner
by Bill Moeller, President
wmoeller@arkansasusa.com
(click to email author)


I once had a friend who always used to say, “It’s a good day when you learn something new.” Our meetings are always good days for me because I always learn something new, and our July meeting was no exception. Thank you, Bill Shook, for your excellent presentation on The Ultimate Boot Disk.

At meetings like this, I not only learn about what the speaker intends to get across to me, but also pick up delightful little tidbits of a general nature. In this case, it was all about using the Copy and Paste approach to backing up files. I have always used the drag and drop technique which works well, but which sometimes presents difficulties getting the source files and the destination in the appropriate windows at the same time. Copy and Paste avoids these difficulties. Thank you, Bill.

We haven’t had a presentation on digital photography this year, so let me mention here that some of the forecasts we made for that technology last year are now a market reality. While looking into alternatives to having my favorite camera repaired last month, I found that the great megapixel marketing wars do indeed appear to be over, and the focus is shifting rapidly to other aspects of the technology. Among these, 16 bit image files and larger sensor sizes. 16 bit image files yield much finer tonal gradations and make the images much more tolerant of extreme correction, but also require some fairly heavy PC horsepower and upgraded software for processing. Larger sensor sizes permit an improved signal to noise ratio, which allows higher ISO settings for noise free images under poor lighting conditions or where higher shutter speeds are needed. These improvements, on top of sensor resolutions of 10 megapixels or better, allow larger prints that clearly equal or exceed 35mm film capabilities, even in black and white. I am very excited about this, but not enough to go out and replace everything I have just yet.

Our meeting next month will be Q&A. Bring both, and we will have our usual lively and informative discussion. See you then.

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