August has been a play month for us. Our goal was to fill in the one blank area on our 'visited states' map. That was New England. So we visited Niagara Falls in New York, went to the Lobster festival in Maine, 'climbed' Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, and ate at Mystic Pizza in Connecticut. Now we're visiting family and friends on Long Beach Island in New Jersey. All the links above are to blog posts - check 'em out.

Coming up is one of our favorite rallies: Gypsy Journal's 'Gypsy Gathering' rally in Celina, Ohio. In addition to our normal seminars, we are holding a pre-rally Computer Boot Camp on September 13-14. If you're in the area ... or even if you're not ... this is well worth the travel and the cost. We hope to see you there!

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In this newsletter

• Spotlight on How Picasa handles edits
• 7 Tips for buying a new computer
• Back up your Cell Phone

Spotlight on Picasa - understanding why you don't have to save your work

On the home page of our website, we are spotlighting the tutorial video about How Picasa Handles Edits. While this video is in the spotlight (a couple weeks) it will be free, it is normally for members only. Just go to our homepage at www.geeksontour.com and click on the play button.

Picasa is different. With most programs, we teach .. Save, Save, and Save often. With Picasa, we teach - Don't Save!

This is important for maintaining the quality of your photos. Usually your photos are .jpg type of files. These type of files are compressed. Every time you re-save them it goes through the compression process and you lose some quality. This is called 'Lossy' compression. If you want to understand it, I found this good article on the .jpg format. Basically, every time you make a change and re-save a .jpg picture, you are degrading the quality of that picture by one generation. If you crop it and save, you're 2d generation. If you then add some fill light and save again, your picture is now 3d generation, and on and on.

Picasa does not allow you to overwrite your original photo. When you make edits, Picasa stores them in its picasa.ini file. When you look at a photo using Picasa you are seeing thru the eyes of this .ini file - with all the edits you made - but your original remains untouched. When you print, or email, or upload, or export - Picasa applies the edits on the fly so you see what you expect. Using this technique, your end result will never be more than 2d generation. If you do use the save command Picasa will save your original in a hidden file, thereby duplicating the amount of space taken up on your computer.

Our recommendation is: Don't Save! Let Picasa do it's thing. Make sure to watch the video to see exactly how it works.

7 Tips for Buying a New Computer

A complete article on buying a new computer would be a book! These are just a few of our opinions.

1. Buy a new computer before your old one dies.
I'm sure you make good backups (right?)... but, it is a lot easier to set up a new computer when the old one is still working. You don't want to be buying a new computer under the pressure of having nothing. So, how do you know when is the right time? Four years is about the maximum expected life span of a laptop computer these days. If you're having any kind of hardware-related problems, or even just very slow performance, and your computer is 3 years or older - it's time to start looking.

It is not worth putting more money into a laptop computer that is more than 3 years old. A desktop computer is a bit of a different story. My desktop is still working fine even though it is 5 years old. But it can't run the software that my newer dual-core Vista laptop can run.

When you get a new computer - and your old one is still working - you can transfer all the files by connecting a cable between the two. With a program called PCMover from Laplink, you can even transfer programs and settings!

MAC or PC? We are PC professionals - so that is what this article is about. Macintoshes are now based on the Intel processor, so they can - with special software - run PC programs as well. That means that you get 2 computers in one! If you're thinking about doing that - you're beyond us!

2. Get a laptop and a USB keyboard & mouse.
If you do any traveling with your computer, a laptop is the way to go. Then you can carry it to the Wi-Fi hotspot if needed. But I hate the laptop keyboards. For $20 - $50 you can buy a full size keyboard that plugs into the the USB port of your laptop. Now you have the best of both worlds. You should also buy a USB mouse.

3. Recommended minimum specs:
Processor: Intel Core-Duo or Centrino Duo. Jim says he would not buy a computer with an AMD processor or a Celeron.
System Memory (RAM): Minimum 3GB, 4GB is best
Hard Drive Size: 250GB hard-drive is pretty standard now - and plenty for most people. If you have a video camcorder and want to edit video, you'll need more.
Operating System: Vista Home Premium. The 'Basic' version is too limited, the Business version does not include the fun, creative stuff that travelers want, the Ultimate version is fine, but not necessary. Be wary of the 64 bit version - although it is the latest and greatest, check that your software will run on it.

4. Connectors / Ports
Make sure the computer you buy has the connectors you need. If you have a camcorder, you will need a Firewire (1394) connector. You'll want at least 3 USB 2.0 ports. A built in card reader for your camera is nice. If you have a PC card type of adapter for your Wi-Fi or cellular wireless Internet, you may have trouble finding a laptop with the appropriate slot now. We recommend the USB type of adapters.

5. Brand Names:
Jim loves his Sony VAIO. My Toshiba Satellite is great too. Most all name brands today are pretty good. We've seen a lot of problems with Acers and would stay away from them, as well as Compaqs. Your mileage may vary :-)

6. Price Range:
It's mind-boggling the computer you can get today for $700! Up until just a few years ago, you needed to spend $2,000 to get a good laptop. We still think $800 - $1,000 is to be expected. Sale prices can go as low as $650. Be sure to check the processor - not just the brand name (see #3 above.) I would be suspicious of anything under $650. Do not consider a used computer ... see # 1 above!

7. Other equipment:
External Hard Drive: We highly recommend buying an external USB hard drive for backup purposes. You can now get 250GB for under $100, and 500 GB for under $150. We have a Western Digital 'Passport' and an Iomega.
Printers etc.: You should also be aware that your old printer or scanner may not work with Windows Vista. Check the manufacturer's website and see if they have drivers for Vista. Be prepared. You can get good printer/copier/scanners today for $50 - 100! Good names are Brother, Cannon, HP, Epson and Lexmark.

Back up your Cell phone

If you travel a lot, like us, your cell phone may be your only phone. I love the feature that you can keep your little black book of phone numbers right in your phone. Then, when someone calls who is in my phone list, I even see their name on the caller ID. If I lost this phone, or it broke, it would be difficult or impossible to recreate that phone list.

You know we are evangelists for doing backups on your computer. Well, cell phones today are also computers. So I was thrilled when a friend mentioned that he uses Verizon's free service to back up his phone online! I'm not sure if other carriers offer this service, but for Verizon, you go to www.verizonwireless.com and log into your personal account. If you haven't created a personal online account, you will need to register.

Once you're logged in, find 'Tools & Applications' ; Business/Tools ; Backup Assistant. You need to download this to your phone. On my phone (the LG enV) I did it with the option for 'Tools on the Go' and then, 'Get New App.' You would need to find the instructions for your phone. Once it is downloaded, it will automatically backup your address book every day! As long as the phone is on, and it has signal - the backup happens automatically. How cool is that!?  There is a mention of $1.99/mo fee, but that is waived if you are a Verizon customer.  hmmm - does that mean it is available for non-Verizon customers?

Once the backup is done, you can access your address book on your computer as well as on your phone. So, if you should ever lose your phone you can just download the numbers to your new phone!

That's all for now. Thanks for reading. Your next issue will be next month. Any questions, please email us. If you like this newsletter, please forward it on to your friends! If you received this issue forwarded by a friend you can subscribe to get your own copy delivered to your in box - it's free. To see the archives of past newsletters, go to www.geeksontour.com/newsletters.

Chris Guld
www.GeeksOnTour.com