The NorthEast Ohio
Computer-Aided Genealogy Society
QUARTERLY
A Summary of Events and Topics of Interest
to Online Genealogists
Vol. 12 No. 1--2007
compiled by Luther Olson
NorthEast Ohio Computer-Aided Genealogy [NEOCAG]
serves Eastern Cuyahoga,
Lake, Geauga, Ashtabula, Portage & Summit
Counties.
Regular
meetings 2nd Saturday of each month
St.
Bartholomew Episcopal Church
435
S.O.M. Road, Mayfield Village, OH.
Jerry Kliot—President
IN THIS ISSUE:
> No Rush to Adopt Vista
> Residential Genealogy Online
> I Hate It When I Lose Things!
> Digital Genealogist
> Linux Genealogy Desktop CD Version 2.0
> Win 98 Is Dead
> NASA, Google aim for virtual space travel on Web
> Google Delivers Major Blogger Update
> Allen Co. Library carts off gen. books--Collection reopens in
new building
> No Rush to Adopt Vista
Windows Vista has
been on the market for nearly a month now, but enterprise users and industry
experts agree that Microsoft's latest and greatest OS still isn't yet ready to
replace XP. The problem is not with the software itself--by most
accounts, Vista is technically solid--but with myriad peripheral issues that
Microsoft must work out to take the pain out of using Vista.
Take patching, for
example. On December 12, Microsoft released an Internet Explorer 7 fix that
improved the performance of IE's phishing filter. The software had been bogged
down by Web sites with a large number of frames, and users had been
complaining. Microsoft patched the problem for Windows XP and Server 2003
users, but not for Vista. That update will come after the consumer release of
Vista hits the market some time in January, according to a spokeswoman for
Microsoft's public relations agency. And although Microsoft is now issuing
security patches for Vista, performance-related updates such as the phishing
filter are being handled on a case-by-case basis, she said.
Microsoft won't say
why it is holding off on some Vista patches even though the product is commercially
available for business customers, but Russ Cooper, a senior information
security analyst at Cybertrust, has a theory. "I say Microsoft never
intended anybody to run Vista prior to January," he said. "What works
on Vista, beyond Office 2007?" he asked. "I'm going to Vista... when
my VPN supplier tells me that they have drivers that work, and when my
antivirus vendor tells me that they have non-beta versions that work."
Cooper brings up a
good point: Application compatibility is another problem for Vista, and VPN and
antivirus software are among the applications at the top of the list that users
say must work before they will move to Vista. Right now, the most popular
software in those categories, as well as other mainstream applications many
business customers use, won't be available for Vista until after the consumer
version of the operating system is released on January 30, 2007. Some of the
applications that still aren't compatible with Vista include IBM Lotus Notes e-mail
and collaboration suite; Cisco's and Check Point Software's VPN clients;
Intuit's accounting software QuickBooks 2006 and earlier versions; and
antivirus software from Trend Micro.
Intuit even took
time in mid-December to warn QuickBooks users in a note that they should hold
off on upgrading to Vista until after the U.S. tax season ends in April, citing compatibility with older versions
of its software and "potential reliability issues" with Vista. IBM
said Lotus Notes will support Vista by mid-2007; Lotus Notes 8, the next
version of the suite, also will be available at that time on Vista. Cisco's VPN
will support Vista some time in the first quarter of 2007.
QuickBooks, Check
Point's VPN client, and Symantec and Trend Micro's antivirus software will
support Vista following the consumer release. However, in some good news for
users, McAfee already has Vista antivirus software on the market. Even some
of Microsoft's own products still don't run on Vista. SQL Server 2005, the
latest version of Microsoft's database, won't be available for Vista until
after the consumer release.
Still, while there
may be some lag time in Vista adoption as users wait for applications to catch
up to the new OS, companies will eventually have to make the switch to Vista no
matter how painful it is. Most analysts predict that enterprises will begin
moving over to Vista in earnest by 2008.
"Once Vista is
being shipped by OEMs on all new PCs, we won't be debating why people should
move," said Andrew Brust, chief of new technology with consulting firm
TwentySix New York. "It will be clear that they will need to do so, sooner
or later. And honestly, people can argue until they're blue in the face about
how XP is fine, but the reality is that it's five years old, technology has
changed, and a new OS is necessary."
Robert McMillan and Elizabeth
Montalbano, IDG News Service Thu Dec 28, 10:00 AM
ET
===============================================================
> Residential Genealogy Online
Would you
like to know who lived in your home many years ago? Or perhaps you want to find
the home of your ancestors in the 19th century. A new online site can help.
Historic Map Works has unveiled a new way to link people and places throughout
history.
Historic Map Works
is a collection of 19th and early 20th century American city, town, and county
maps. The detailed maps show every building and every street in each city or
town. Each single-dwelling home contains the name of the family who resided
there, either on or beside the building on the map. Apartment complexes
contained the property owner's name.
The new site should
be of interest to history buffs, genealogy searchers, and real estate agents.
Can you imagine the realtor listing the details of a family that used to live
in the house being offered for sale? I suspect that amount of detail might
increase the sale price!
The maps are
visible on the web site free of charge while higher quality printed maps are
offered for sale.
Historic Map Works
provides the following description of their site: Through this online business,
finding a specific historic home or building is easy, as the map collection is
linked with modern mapping technology that references existing street names and
numbers. By simply typing in an address, users can follow the progression of
buildings and neighborhoods through time-in some cases up to 250 years.
The interactive
website has already attracted broad appeal, says Charles Carpenter, the founder
and president of the company. "Anyone who has ever lived in an older home
has, at some point, wondered who the earlier occupants might have been. Even if
they live in a modern home, they may also wonder how their neighborhood
evolved: which homes were built when, and the progression of neighboring
streets. Historic Map Works provides the answers without the endless hours of
library research," he said.
Like modern digital
maps (i.e. Google Earth), Historic Map Works' maps are extremely detailed and
comprehensive, showing the location and footprint of nearly all structures of
the period. Unlike its modern counterparts, the antique maps often list the
contemporary owner's and/or occupant's names adjacent to the structures. This
facilitates research into the history of places and structures as well as about
the people who have occupied and owned them-creating an exciting new culture of
Residential Genealogy.
While looking
through the archives of their neighborhood, users cannot help but notice that
the hand-drawn maps are examples of exquisite craftsmanship. Carpenter is
confident that people will want to acquire these high-quality reproductions,
which are printed with premium paper and inks to ensure their durability.
Those desiring to
do more detailed historic, commercial or genealogy research will appreciate
another time-saving feature of the site, as well. In addition to the
inscriptions of previous owners and occupants on the maps themselves,
www.HistoricMapworks.com also allows users to access its extensive database of
other contemporary records. The linked antique city directories, census records
and phone books enhance the ability of researchers to trace not only the
history of any location but also the people in these locations back in time.
Carpenter, started
his business as a means to share his enormous collection of antique atlases,
which he has gathered over 30 years. His library includes more than 30,000 maps
and is believed to be the most extensive collection of county atlases, outside
of the U.S. Library of Congress. When Carpenter first began collecting these
atlases, he quickly became fascinated by the exceptional qualities of the
antique maps. "Each one was like finding a treasure chest filled with fine
art and history."
Over the past two
years, Carpenter and his staff have worked with state-of-the-art computer and
imaging equipment in his renovated 19th Century barn - an artistic treasure in
and of itself - to digitize the massive map collection.
Historic Map Works'
initial city and town map offerings are in New York City and Carpenter's
hometown of Portland, Maine. County maps are also available for nearly every
county from Maryland north to Maine. Maps extending along the entire east coast
will follow this 2-city, 8 state launch, which are now available for the public
to search online, or to purchase to frame and hang in their historic homes and
offices.
I will share one
experience I had. I first went to the Historic Map Works web site, clicked on
one map for a town where some of my ancestors lived, and then clicked on zoom.
Imagine my surprise to see my great-great-uncle's house listed in Scarborough,
Maine. I had only been on the web site about fifteen seconds!
I cannot guarantee
that you will have the same level of success that I enjoyed, but you can find
out for yourself at http://www.historicmapworks.com.
The preceding article is from
Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter posted by Dick Eastman on August 22,
2006, It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information
about the newsletter is available at http://www.eogn.com.
===========================================================
> I Hate It When I
Lose Things!
I have many
old documents, pictures, old 8-mm movie film, and other things that I wish to
keep. It certainly is embarrassing when I go to look for something and cannot
find it. I think I know how NASA feels.
It seems that NASA
videotaped one of the most significant events in the history of mankind. Neil
Armstrong's "one small step" on the moon is considered among the most
important events of the 20th century. But the original NASA videotapes have
been mislaid in a labyrinth of archives in the United States. NASA and the U.S.
National Archives cannot find the tapes.
Six hundred million
of us watched the event on television. I remember how "grainy" the
pictures from the moon appeared. It is not widely known that the Apollo 11
television broadcast from the moon was a high-quality transmission, far sharper
than the blurry version relayed instantly to the world on that July day in
1969.
NASA's video
signals in 1969 were incompatible with standard television standards. As a
result, NASA could not directly rebroadcast the live video from the moon. What
all of us at home saw was created by a standard television camera placed in
front of one of NASA's non-standard video monitors. It worked, but a lot of
resolution was lost. We saw a poor reproduction of the video that the NASA
engineers watched.
Only a handful of
people ever saw the high-quality original images shot at 10 frames per second
and beamed back to the Australian tracking station at the CSIRO Parkes
Observatory in New South Wales. "What was broadcast to the world was
nowhere near as good as what was received," said John Sarkissian, a CSIRO
scientist stationed at Parkes for a decade. Even Polaroid photographs of the
screen showed that the original images received by Parkes are significantly
sharper than what the public saw.
Luckily, NASA
recorded all the original video on videotape. Not so luckily, NASA then lost
the tapes. When the images reached the tracking station, they were transferred
onto one-inch, 60-frame-per-second tape and sent to NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Houston for safekeeping. All the Apollo mission flights and moon
landings were captured in this way and transferred onto one-inch tapes. The
tapes were stored in 2614 boxes containing five reels of tape each and held for
years in the National Archives in Maryland, outside Washington D.C.
No one knows why,
but in 1984 about 700 boxes of space flight tapes there were returned to
Goddard. "We have the documents to say they were withdrawn, but no one
knows exactly where they went," Sarkissian said. He also states that many
people involved in the videotapes and their later transfer have since retired
or died. Only two of 700 original Apollo 11 tapes have been found. Also among
tapes feared missing are the original recordings of the other five Apollo moon
landings.
The only known
equipment on which the original analogue tapes can be decoded is at a Goddard
Center set to close in October, raising fears that, even if they are found
before they deteriorate, copying them may be impossible. A NASA spokesman
admits that even if the tapes eventually are found, they may be corroded beyond
the point where the information can be retrieved.
I think I'll go
make some duplicates of my own videotape collection.
The
preceding article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, August 21,
2006, and is copyright 2005 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with
the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at
http://www.eogn.com.
=================================================================
Here's info about a new magazine
in PDF format known as Digital Genealogist. Many of you will
remember that Liz Kerstens spoke to us at NEOCAG regarding CLOOZ and
Geneweaver. Brent Morgan
> Digital Genealogist
Many of you
know that I have been the editor of Ancestry's Genealogical Computing for the past
nearly seven years. Ancestry has chosen to discontinue the magazine, effective
with the July/August/September 2006 issue that is currently in the mail. I
still believe there's a need for a magazine devoted to genealogy and
technology. To that end, I am starting my own magazine later this year. It will
be called Digital Genealogist and will be delivered to subscribers as a PDF. It
will be similar in format and content to Genealogical Computing. In fact, a lot
of the authors and columnists will continue to write for me in the new
publication, including Drew Smith, popular Cybrarian columnist. The first issue
of Digital Genealogist will be send out via PDF attachment to subscribers in
November 2006.
If you are
interested in subscribing, the annual rate is $20. You can subscribe at
www.digitalgenealogist.com. Payments are being taken through PayPal by clicking
on the PayPal button on the Digital Genealogist website. Subscriptions will
begin with the first issue. One of the advantages to subscribers of a PDF is
that the URLs in both articles and ads will be live links, allowing you to
immediately explore ideas suggested by authors and websites of advertisers. I
am hoping that the format will be agreeable to
subscribers.
Liz
Kelley Kerstens, CG, CGL Editor, Digital Genealogist
=============================================================================
This
article was written with OpenOffice.org, a free word processor included with
the Linux Genealogy Desktop CD version 2.0 and was sent on to us by our
president, Jerry Kliot. I believe this is the first time we have seen any
discussion of Linux in this newsletter, and if it is becoming newsworthy it
would be nice to see more information on this (no longer) new OS. Thanks,
Jerry.
The
article is quite lengthy and while inserting it I intended to go through it and
edit out all material that was not especially relevant. (This is
something I do with most articles.) However, I was so taken by the
subject that I ended up without the deletion of a single word—especially when
reading how one can install Linux into an old computer and use it to
experiment. GREAT IDEA.
Is
anyone using this software? Let us know if you have this in your
machine. LO
> Linux Genealogy Desktop CD Version 2.0
The genealogy
program GRAMPS 2.0 was released in February. A few weeks ago, the Linux
Genealogy Desktop CD version 2.0 was released. The two are separate products:
either one may be used without the other. However, they are also very
complementary products. I will write two separate articles, one for each
product. However, I will frequently refer to the other product in each article.
Not everyone is
happy with the continued domination of the desktop computer market by Microsoft
Windows. Some of us "malcontents" prefer to use either Macintosh or
Linux systems for any number of reasons. Suffice it to say that, if you are
considering a switch to a more reliable operating system, you will find it easy
to do so these days. Once there, you can find alternative genealogy programs
for the better operating systems. There are not as many genealogy programs for
Linux or Macintosh to choose from, but some of the ones that are available are
excellent.
I have the luxury
of using several computers, including Windows XP, Macintosh OS X, and three
different versions of Linux. Each operating system has various advantageous and
disadvantages; there is no perfect operating system that I would recommend for
everyone. I prefer Ubuntu Linux for my own work, however. The advantage of
Linux is that it is faster and more reliable than Windows. It also never
crashes or locks up the operating system. Finally, Linux is available free of
charge, unlike Windows and Macintosh.
One confusing
difference is the many Linux variations available. Windows always comes from
Microsoft and looks about the same when used on any computer. The Macintosh OS
X operating system is available only from Apple and, again, it always looks
about the same when installed on Apple's computers. In contrast, there are
dozens of versions of Linux, and each Linux producer customizes the operating
system as they see fit. Each vendor is also free to add various applications.
Red Hat Linux will look very different from Xandros Linux, and both of those
will still be quite different from Ubuntu Linux. The underlying Linux
"kernel" will be the same on all of them, but the "look and
feel" as well as the included applications will vary widely. The rest of
this article focuses on Ubuntu Linux and a customized version of it made for
genealogists.
NOTE: The word
"Ubuntu" is found in several African languages. It means
"humanity to others" or "I am what I am because of who we all
are." The nonprofit Ubuntu community represents the efforts of many people
who work together to provide a complete Linux-based operating system, freely
available with both community and professional support. The Ubuntu Philosophy
states that "software should be available free of charge, that software
tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any
disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customize and alter
their software in whatever way they see fit."
Further information
about Ubuntu Linux may be found at http://www.ubuntu.com.
Earlier versions of
Linux were difficult to install and awkward to use. However, major changes in
the past few years have changed all that. Most major Linux versions are now
easier to install and use than Windows. If you can move a mouse, you can use
Linux. Using word processors, spreadsheets, web browsers, genealogy programs,
and more on Linux is now as easy as doing the same things on Windows or
Macintosh. Installing new programs on Ubuntu and several other versions of
Linux is actually much easier than installing new programs on Windows.
This week I
obtained a free product called the Linux Genealogy Desktop CD version 2.0. It
is a complete implementation of the latest version of Ubuntu Linux along with
several pre-installed genealogy programs. The Linux Genealogy Desktop CD fits
everything you need onto one CD-ROM disk and operates in two modes: live
session and as an install disk. Let me first explain the differences.
The Linux Genealogy
Desktop CD allows you to take Linux for a "test drive" on any modern
computer that will also run Windows. Best of all, you can use the Linux
Genealogy Desktop CD without disturbing anything on your present Windows
operating system. All you need to do is insert the Linux Genealogy Desktop CD
into your Windows computer's CD-ROM drive and then reboot your computer. The
computer then loads Linux from the CD-ROM disk and operates as a complete Linux
system. You can run the genealogy programs, word processors, web browsers,
games, and more, directly from the CD-ROM disk without using the computer's
hard drive at all. The Linux Genealogy Desktop CD never writes any data to your
computer's hard drive unless you specifically tell it to. Once you are
finished, you remove the CD-ROM disk from the drive, reboot the computer, and
go back to Windows as before. Nothing has been changed on the computer's hard
drive.
Using a live
session is an excellent way to experiment and learn about Ubuntu Linux and the
various Linux genealogy programs. You can insert the CD and reboot to use
Linux, or you can remove the Linux CD-ROM disk and reboot again to use Windows,
as often as you wish. There is no need to ever change your Windows operating
system if you don't want to. Using a Linux live session CD also can be a
lifesaver when your Windows system dies and refuses to boot. Assuming the hard
drive is not the problem, you can boot from a Linux live session CD and then
copy all your documents and other critical files from your hard drive to
another computer.
While you can run
programs from the CD-ROM disk, saving information obviously requires some sort
of disk drive for storage purposes. While you always have the option of storing
data on your computer's hard drive, other choices for storing data include
floppy disks, USB jump drives, and CD-ROM disks.
The second mode of
operation is as an install disk. In this case, you boot in exactly the same
manner as before. However, once loaded, you click on an INSTALL icon and then
follow the menus to install Ubuntu Linux and several Linux genealogy programs
onto your computer's hard drive. Then you then can either use Linux as your
only operation system, or you can dual boot: have both operating systems
installed side-by-side and choose which one you wish to use each time the
computer is booted. You won’t need the CD-ROM disk after you have installed Linux
onto the hard drive. You will also notice that Linux runs much faster when
loading from a hard drive than when loading from a CD-ROM disk.
For most of this
article, I will focus on the live session; using Linux without touching the
computer's hard drives. The INSTALL option is described near the end of this
article. I downloaded the Linux Genealogy Desktop CD image from the developer's
web site and saved it onto a blank CD-ROM disk as an ISO image. This can be
done on most any Windows, Macintosh, or Linux computer. It does not need to be
the same computer that you want to use with the Linux Genealogy Desktop CD.
More information about creating CD-ROM disks from ISO image files can be found
at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iso_image.)
Next I inserted the
CD into an old 800-MHz Pentium 3 computer that I have not used in some time and
then re-booted the computer. A few seconds later, a menu appeared, listing
several options. I chose the first item on the list: boot from CD-ROM disk.
About a minute later Ubuntu Linux finished loading. My computer's screen
displayed a modern-looking user interface, not the same as Windows or
Macintosh, but not radically different, either. Seven icons appeared on the main
screen:
1.
Start Here
2.
GRAMPS Genealogy System
3.
GRAMPS Live Chat
4.
GeneWeb (a genealogy program)
5.
LifeLines (an older genealogy program for Linux)
6.
Examples
7.
Install
While not displayed
as icons on the desktop, I also later found PhpGedView and GenealogyJ, two more
genealogy applications that the CD installed on my computer. All are available
at any time from the live session without touching the information on the
computer's hard drive.
A toolbar appeared
across the top of the screen with many pulldown menu options. (If you wish, you
can move the toolbar to the bottom or side of the screen.) I clicked on the
various menus and found many applications available: FireFox web browser,
Thunderbird e-mail program, OpenOffice.org word processor and spreadsheet
program, GIMP graphics editing, various CD-ROM recording programs, games, and
more. This free disk includes a lot of applications equivalent to those on
Windows or Macintosh that cost hundreds of dollars.
I selected "Start
Here" and soon was reading a lot of information about how to use the Linux
Genealogy Desktop CD and its applications. I then spent a lot of time
experimenting with the many free applications, including several of the
genealogy programs.
I eventually
decided to end the Linux session. I used the mouse to find the shutdown
commands. The system eventually prompted me to remove the CD-ROM disk and press
the Enter key. I did so, and then the computer booted back up, loading Windows.
Nothing had been altered on my Windows system; everything functioned exactly
the same as it had before I experimented with Linux.
I was not entirely
happy with the Linux operation from a CD-ROM on my older 800-MHz Pentium 3
computer. It operated properly but was a bit slow. At the same time, it seemed
to be no slower than the hard drive's Windows 2000 that I normally use on this
computer. I know from experience that placing Windows XP onto a 800-MHz Pentium
3 would result in glacial performance, so I have never done that.
I moved the Linux
Genealogy Desktop CD to a 2.4-gigahertz Pentium 4 system and went through the
same procedures as before. Using a computer with three times the processor
speed and double the memory made all the difference in the world. Now the Linux
system was flying! In fact, Linux on a CD runs faster on this system than does
Windows XP on the same computer's hard drive.
I spent more time
experimenting with the various genealogy applications included with the Linux
Genealogy Desktop CD. I will write about GRAMPS 2.0 in a separate article
later. I have written about the other included applications before:
PhpGedView:
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2005/09/phpgedview.html
GeneWeb:
http://eogn.com/archives/news0250.htm
GenealogyJ:
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2005/05/genealogyj.html
LifeLines: This is
a very old-fashioned genealogy program that I would not recommend for anyone
other than a hard-core Linux character mode aficionado. I have no plans to
write a review of this program that hasn't been updated much since 1994.
However, you can find a lot of information about LifeLines at http://lifelines.sourceforge.net.
All in all, I am
pleased with the Linux Genealogy Desktop CD. In fact, I am so pleased with it
that I inserted the disk into my regular Linux system and re-booted. Once
loaded, I selected INSTALL and then followed the menus to install this Linux
system and its genealogy applications to my hard drive. Several installation
options are available; I elected to completely reformat my computer's hard
drive and install the Linux Genealogy Desktop as the only operating system on
that computer. I could have elected to "dual boot," have both Linux
and Windows installed side-by-side and then choose which one I wish to use
every time the computer is booted. Since I already have other computers with
Windows installed, the dual boot option isn't of much use to me. However, if you
have only one computer, you will probably prefer the dual boot option.
Ubuntu Linux asks
fewer questions during an installation than does Windows XP. The toughest
technical question asked during my Ubuntu Linux installation was the
requirement to set my time zone. The same installation also detected and
automatically configured my wireless network, something that Windows still
cannot do automatically. Once installed, Linux is easy to use. If you can move
a mouse, you can use Linux.
Running Linux from
a hard drive is much faster than running from a CD-ROM disk. I now run the
latest version of Ubuntu Linux and have all the better-known Linux applications
already installed and available. These are all full applications; there are no
demos or otherwise "crippled" programs. I also no longer need to use
the CD-ROM disk. The cost to me? Zero. The software is free, and I used an
older computer that I already owned.
Again, the Linux
Genealogy Desktop CD software is available online as a 690-megabyte file. That
will be trivial for anyone with a broadband connection, but I wouldn't try it
on a dial-up line. Either way, use the BitTorrent download option if at all
possible. (Information about BitTorrent is available at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bittorrent. For Windows, I strongly recommend
µtorrent available at http://www.utorrent.com.)
If you do not have
a high-speed Internet connection or a CD-ROM drive capable of creating ISO
image disks, you can purchase a Linux Genealogy Desktop CD disk for the modest
price of $14.99 (U.S.) or $15.00 (Australian). While the software is free, the
producers of the disk have to charge money to cover the cost of the disks,
labor, and postage.
If I owned only one
computer, it would be a PC with both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux installed in a
dual-boot configuration. That way, I could have the best of both worlds. My
second choice would be a Windows computer and a Ubuntu CD-ROM disk that I could
insert and run in a live session whenever I wished.
For more
information about Linux Genealogy Desktop CD version 2.0 or to download this
great free genealogy package, go to http://www.gramps-project.org and click on
"Linux Genealogy Desktop CD 2.0 released."
The preceding article is from Eastman's
Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2005 by Richard W. Eastman. It is
re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the
newsletter is available at http://www.eogn.com.
========================================================================
> Win 98 Is Dead
By Labs Director Jim Rapoza of PC Magazine
Less than a year
ago, I wrote a column extolling the virtues of Windows 98, calling it probably
the most successful Windows operating system of all time and proudly
proclaiming the fact that one of my home systems was still running the aged but
still-spry OS.
But, like many
other users, I bid Windows 98 farewell on July 11, the day that Microsoft
ended all support for it (as well as for Win 98's sibling, Windows ME).
I've since upgraded that home system to Windows XP. I'm guessing
that there are many other users still purchasing new computers with
Windows XP installed, thankful that they won't have that end-of-support sword
hanging over their heads anymore. But they shouldn't rest too easy, because
that same sword could be hovering again much sooner than they think.
Like a lot of
people, I tend to refer to Windows 98 as an 8-year-old operating system. But,
as a reader posted on the eWEEK Labs blog (at
blog.eweek.com/blogs/eweek_labs/), it's not that old for many users—a lot of
people didn't run out and purchase Windows 98 or Windows ME the day it was
released. In fact, quite a few people and businesses were buying Windows 98 and
Windows ME well into 2002, which means that the product is now considered
obsolete just four years after they bought it.
Think about
that—just four years until product obsolescence. Outside of food products (not
counting Twinkies), is there any other product that you'd expect to be obsolete
four years after you purchased it? Heck, when my car was 4 years old, I still
thought of it as brand-spanking-new.
Some people will
say, "Hey, that's just the nature of software—technology speeds
ahead," and all that. But when I look at any one of my desktop or server
systems, I see plenty of software that is a lot older than four and is working
just fine. When you get down to it, Windows 98 and ME aren't functionally
obsolete; they're just being forced into obsolescence.
But I guess that's
all out of our hands, and we're just going to have to run out and get copies of
the most current version of Windows—namely, Windows XP. (If you plan to jump
straight from Windows 98 to Vista, you'll be taking the risk of running an
unpatched Win 98 system for the next several months.)
Then, in four more
years (or possibly less), we'll get to do the whole thing all over again,
because it's pretty much a solid bet that Microsoft will follow its M.O. and
enact the same sort of kill of Windows XP within that time frame. I can see the
columns in three or four years already. "What are people doing still
running Windows XP? It's a dinosaur full of bugs and unable to run the latest
in DRM'ed software and movies. Now that Vista Service Pack 6 is out, the OS is
rock solid, so there are no more reasons to hold off on upgrading. And, of
course, the new Windows Ciego is just around the corner." To people who
bought Windows XP when it was first released, this will probably seem like
common sense. But for those buying brand-new copies right now (just $129 for XP
Pro on Amazon.com), three to four years of support won't seem like much support
at all.
And that's probably
just what will happen. Up until very recently, people who purchased Windows XP
Home Edition were facing end of support at the end of 2006. (Imagine buying a
brand-new copy this December that would be instantly obsolete.) Microsoft has
amended its policy for consumer products: End of support now comes two years
after the next version of a product is released. And, of course, recent history
has shown that they'll probably extend support if enough people complain.
But all of this is
shaping up to be a never-ending cycle. Even if Windows XP turns out to be
excellent at handling any task three or four years in the future, it's a good
bet that Microsoft will kill off its support of the OS anyway. (Actually, that
would make it even more likely, as XP would be stiff competition for Vista.)
So, goodbye,
Windows 98. It was a great run, but there's a new Windows in my life. Given
Microsoft's track record, though, I think I won't get too attached to this one.
Check
out eWEEK.com's Windows Center for Microsoft and Windows news, views and
analysis.
Labs
Director Jim Rapoza can be reached at <jim_rapoza@ziffdavis.com>.
PC Magazine
========================================================================
Following
through the December NEOCAG presentation on using the various Google search
engines as a way to further your genealogy research efforts, I am
including two additional items of interest. The second one describes how
genealogists can create and use blogs to keep in closer touch with each
other. Our group has now had a listserve for many years that has been a
useful part of our group information, whether to ask or answer questions, or to
notify every member of possible snow day cancellations (three times one
year). However, Council has always recognized that our general membership
has not made use of this benefit as much as we had hoped.
Would
the creation of our own NEOCAG blog make a difference, and get more of us to
join in general conversations of personal benefit? This article informs
of us a new Google Blog software that should make this project a bit
easier. This might be a worthwhile topic for discussion in future Council
meetings.
As for
the following article on NASA and Google joining to create various space
experiences—you may well ask what this has to do with genealogy. The
answer is “absolutely nothing.” However, I have been spending many hours
in recent weeks exploring the surface of Mars as if I were circling the planet
at a very low altitude with instruments that give me much data and a
spectacular view. Because of my excitement I feel I have to inform you of
this new Google creation that is greater than any science fiction.
Imagine actually
seeing volcanic mountains with major lava flows that obviously ended in an
ocean that created complex surrealistic formations unlike anything we have
seen, giant canyons with detailed signs of liquid erosion still sharp,
extremely large dunes inside the lava cone of ageless volcanoes-but made of
volcanic basalt sand unlike the silicone grains on earth, and clear views of
where giant asteroids once slammed into Mars surface at an angle the spewed out
debris still visible over large areas on the opposite side of the crater—most
perhaps created millions of years ago. And—many of these features on a
scale vastly greater than anything on earth. In addition, there are many
other new and exciting things still to come from this NASA/Google union.
LO
> NASA, Google aim for virtual space travel on Web
LOS ANGELES
(Reuters) - Web surfers may soon be able to explore the canyons of Mars and
experience a virtual flight over the surface of the moon thanks to a deal
announced on Monday between Web search company Google Inc. and the NASA Ames
Research Center. The Space Act Agreement is the first in a series of
collaborations between the Mountain View, California-based Internet company and
the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
NASA and Google
said they will work together on a wide range of technical problems and will
make NASA's space exploration work, much of which is currently scattered across
the Web, more accessible to the public. One project would let viewers see
details of Mars and Earth's moon in a format similar to satellite picture views
of the world made popular by applications such as Google Earth.
Percival Lowell's
map of the western hemisphere of Mars This map of Mars, published by Percival
Lowell in 1895, was the result of many years spent carefully studying the Red
Planet through his telescope. Now you can do the same through your web browser.
In collaboration with NASA researchers at Arizona State University, we've
created some of the most detailed scientific maps of Mars ever made. If
you have half as much fun exploring them as we did making them, you're in for a
great time.
We've included
three different types of data in Google Mars:
Elevation
- A shaded relief map, generated with data
from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor
spacecraft. This map is color-coded by altitude, so you can use the color key
at the lower left to estimate elevations.
Visible
- A mosaic of images taken
by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. MOC
is like the digital camera you have at home. Basically, this is what your eyes
would see if you were in orbit around Mars.
Infrared
- A mosaic of infrared
images taken by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars
Odyssey spacecraft. Warmer areas appear brighter, and colder areas are darker.
Clouds and dust in the atmosphere are transparent in the infrared, making this
the sharpest global map of Mars that's ever been made.
Eventually, they
aim to offer real-time weather visualization and forecasting, high-resolution
3-D maps of the moon and Mars and real-time tracking of the International Space
Station and the space shuttle from the screen of any computer with Internet
access, they said in a statement.
You can learn more
about these images on the JMARS data distribution page. To learn more about
Mars in general, you might start with the NASA Mars Missions home page. There's
also a pretty good search engine that could aid you in your quest. ;)
Google and NASA
first partnered last year to build a new campus at NASA's research center in
Silicon Valley. The deal called for Google to develop up to 1 million square
feet (93,000 square meter) of real estate within the Moffett Field research
park. The collaboration marks another step in a partnership announced 15 months
ago when Google unveiled plans to build a 1 million-square-foot campus at the
NASA center, located a few miles south of the company's Mountain View
headquarters.
Under the
arrangement, Ames will feed Google with its weather forecasting information,
three-dimensional maps of the moon and Mars, and real-time tracking of the
International Space Station and space shuttle flights so the pictures and data
are available to anyone with an Internet connection.
"This
agreement between NASA and Google will soon allow every American to experience
a virtual flight over the surface of the moon or through the canyons of
Mars," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said in a statement.
Google already
draws upon some of NASA's imagery to provide Web surfers with interactive tours
of Mars as part of a 9-month-old service. Ames and Google also have vowed to
work together to solve complex computing problems, including large-scale data
management. "Partnering with NASA made perfect sense for Google, as it has
a wealth of technical expertise and data that will be of great use to Google as
we look to tackle many computing issues on behalf of our users," Google
Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in a statement.
If you have
comments or questions about Google Mars, we'd love to hear them. Please write
to us at labs+googlemars@google.com.
Mon Dec
18, 2006, Yahoo! News
====================================================================
You enter the
e-mail address of a person to whom you want to grant access, and the Google
account associated with that address will be given access. If an address is not
associated with an account, that person will be sent an invitation to sign up
for a Google account. Blogger.com, which
was acquired by Google in 2003, has helped to make blogging a more ubiquitous
activity, especially as more people have grown up using the Web and are adding
to the already large blog community of readers and writers. With more
advanced smartphones that support new user experiences, the blogosphere is
growing every day. In recent history, the enterprise has begun to feel the
effects of the blogosphere, with some firms recognizing the benefits of
open-mindedness and encouraging employees to blog outside of their corporate
networks. Right now, blogs
double in number every six months, according to Technorati, a blog search
engine. And, as of October 2006, there were 56 million blogs on the Web.
However, despite their strong numbers, the average life span of a blog is
merely three months and shrinking daily, according to new research from
Gartner. Gartner recently
published a controversial report in which analysts predicted that the blogging
trend will level off in 2007. "Today's over
exuberance will give way to a steady state of at least 30 million active
bloggers and 30 million frequent community contributors worldwide," wrote
Gartner analysts Ed Thompson, Adam Sarner, and Esteban Kolsky. "The steady
state will grow again, but much more slowly, as the global Internet population
rises." The Gartner report
also noted that traffic at MySpace and Facebook -- two kingpins of the Web's
social-networking movement -- have dropped 4 percent and 12 percent,
respectively. Those numbers were based on figures from tracking firm
Nielson//NetRatings.
Copyright
© 2006 NewsFactor
Network, Inc. Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All Rights Reserved
=====================================================
> Library carts off gen. books--Collection reopens in new
building
Library worker Beth
Avila steers a cart of genealogy books Tuesday in preparation for the move.
People looking to research their family history at the main branch of the Allen
County Public Library will be out of luck for about a month.
The downtown
library’s genealogy department closed Saturday and about 100 employees began
moving the materials to the new library Tuesday. A $64 million new main library
will open on Webster Street on Jan. 27, while the branch locations remain open.
All of the library
will close Jan. 8 so workers can begin moving the rest of the materials to the
new location. The main library moved from Webster Street to its temporary
quarters at Berry and Clinton streets in early 2003. Workers started
moving much of the genealogy department’s 750,000-piece collection
Tuesday. The microfilm machines and microfiche cabinets had already been
moved.
Employees took
books, newsletters and other materials off the shelves and placed them on a
wheeled cart, which was then taken to a truck waiting at the dock. The carts
were loaded into the trucks, which were then driven to the new location and
unloaded, said Cheryl Ferverda, community relations and development manager.
“It is as close to taking them off the shelf in order and putting them on the
new shelves in order as you can get,” Ferverda said.
Genealogy is one of
the two biggest departments in the Allen County Public Library, on par only
with reader’s services, Ferverda said. The Allen County Public Library’s
genealogy collection is second only to the one at the headquarters of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City.
Kelly
Soderlund <ksoderlund@jg.net>
The
Journal Gazette, Ft.
Wayne Wed, Dec. 27,
2006
=========================================================
CONTRIBUTIONS:
When you
come across something you think would be of interest to others who are involved
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Previously published in RootsWeb Review: Vol. 5, No. 40, 2 October 2002.
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