July started at a Thousand Trails park in Indiana and ended at a ROD park (another membership park) in Ohio on the shores of Lake Erie. But the main event was the FMCA International Convention in Bowling Green, Ohio. We presented 7 seminars, plus our hands-on Computer Boot camp in the evenings.

Next up it will be on to Essex Junction, Vermont where we will present a couple of our seminars at the FMCA Northeast Area Rally from August 12 - 14.

July Articles

So you don't miss anything, here's the other articles we've written this month.
Picasa Tip: Make a Movie
Picasa Tip: Resizing Photo Files
Picasa Tip: A Picasa Plug-In for Live-Writer
Picasa Tip: Search by Color
Picasa Tip: Storing Pictures on an External Hard Drive
Do you turn your Computer Off?
We Like RV Parks with Wi-Fi
Keep your Online Favorites ... Online!
Google Earth and Corps of Engineers Parks

In this newsletter

• Should you Upgrade to Windows 7?
• What is 'Following' a Blog?
• Stitching photos together for a Panorama

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Should you Upgrade to Windows 7?

by Jim Guld
Windows 7 has just moved from testing to the RTM phase.  That means that Microsoft says it is ready to go, or Released To Manufacturing. What does that mean to you?  Windows 7 is the computer operating system that will succeed Windows Vista.  It will be in stores October 22.

Why People didn't Like Vista

It needs more RAM than most people have: Vista got a bad reputation when it was released nearly 3 years ago.  Most of the bad press was because Vista needed more system resources than its predecessor, Windows XP.  Computer manufacturers were loading Vista on under-powered systems and it just didn't work very well. When Chris got her laptop with Vista it had 2GB of RAM Memory and she had problems. We upgraded her to 4GB of RAM ... problems gone. Most computers in stores today do come with 3-4GB of RAM.  

It works differently than XP: XP had been around for several years and was the most stable Windows OS to date.  People got used to that and liked it.  It was very similar to the previous version of Windows.  But it had some serious flaws when it came to security. 

Vista was substantially different than XP in looks as well as "under the hood."   Some who bought Vista were confused and frustrated because Vista didn't work the same as XP.  And, more importantly, if the computer didn't have enough resources of memory (RAM), speed (processor), and disk space, it didn't hardly run at all.

Windows 7 continues on the Vista track

Windows 7 looks much the same as Vista and expands on the good points of Vista.  You will have to change the old (XP) way you find and run programs.  Use Search.  It makes computing so much easier. We will have a series of Windows 7 'Show-Me-How' videos for our members by the end of the year. For now, the Vista 'Show-Me-How' videos have helped many people get friendlier with the new interface.

If you have older peripherals like printers or scanners, you may need to upgrade those.  Make sure they have drivers for Vista.  So far, I've found everything that works with Vista will work with Windows 7.

Pay attention to 32 bit or 64 bit

It's in the small print - Vista and Windows 7 both come in 2 distinct flavors - 32 bit and 64 bit. Make sure you know which one you're getting. 32 Bit is what works for most existing programs, but doesn't take advantage of the speed and performance of newer technology. 64 Bit is the way things are going, but some programs don't like it.  If you choose the 64 bit OS, make sure your programs will work with it, or that you can upgrade to a 64 bit version. You can check your software at this compatibility chart. And, here is more information about understanding 64 bit PCs.

Computers in stores today all come with fast processors, big hard drives and 2 or more gigs of RAM.  I recommend 4 Gigs for the 32 bit version and 8 Gigs for the 64 bit version for both Vista and Windows 7.

Recommendation

My recommendation is if you are using XP, don't upgrade that machine to Windows 7.  Wait until you need a new computer and get it with 7 installed.
If you are running Vista, go ahead and upgrade.  You might want to add memory at the same time for best performance and speed.

Are you being Followed ?

by Chris Guld
Have you noticed on Blogger blogs that many of them now have a section called 'Followers?' What does that mean? And, how do you use it?

First an example, if you go to our personal travel blog, you'll see a section that says, 'Join this site' with Google Friend Connect. This is Google's "Follower's" gadget. You can add it to your blog simply by editing the Layout and adding the gadget called Followers.

Here's the basics: each little icon represents a person who has visited our blog and wants to keep up with our story. Some of them are family and dear friends, some of them are people we've never met. All they did to get on this list is to click the Follow button. Then there is a screen that asks if you want to Follow publicly or Follow privately. The difference being whether or not your face shows up on the gadget.

So, what does this do for the Followers? Assuming they also have a Blogger blog (you don't have to, but it helps) - all the blogs you are Following show up on your Blogger dashboard with the most recent posts. This gives you a quick way to check in on everyone all from one screen. You will not get any email from this - you still need to check your Dashboard's Reading List - but all the blogs you follow will be here in one place.

The blog's you follow will also show up in your Google reader, if you have a Google account. I use the reader more regularly than the Blogger dashboard. And I have lots of sites listed there that aren't Blogger Blogs.

Another reason that people 'follow' blogs is in the hopes that others will in turn follow them. See and Be Seen! If you click on the little picture of anyone in the Followers gadget, you will see information about them, including their blog, if they have one. Then, you may as well forget about the rest of your day, it's shot now!

Panorama Photos with Windows Live

by Chris Guld
Have you seen that cute TV commercial for Microsoft where a 7 year old girl takes 3 or 4 photos and makes a panorama? The point being, if she can do it, so can you! The ad is for Microsoft's Photo Gallery software. Since Panoramas is a feature that Picasa lacks - I always perked up when I saw that ad. But, I looked at Photo Gallery in Windows Vista several times and couldn't figure out how to do it.

Am I going to let a 7 year old outsmart me? ...don't answer that Jim!

The Rookies: Alexa, Age 7

I took me a while, but I finally figured out that they were talking about Windows Live Photo Gallery for Vista, not the Photo Gallery that comes with Vista. How silly of me, right? Is anybody else confused?

So, here's the deal, Windows Live Photo Gallery is free. You download it from Microsoft. When you install it, it does not replace the Photo Gallery that comes with Vista. I now have Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Picasa, and my high-end photo editor - Fireworks. They all work on My Pictures. I use Picasa 90% of the time.

The Panorama feature is pretty slick. It's 1-2-3. 1)select the photos, 2) click Make - Create Panoramic Photo and 3:Save. The saved photo is now in My Pictures and can be managed by Picasa right along with all your other photos.

We need to keep an eye on Windows Live. Once you let go of the initial confusion - there's some pretty cool stuff there. That's where you get Windows Live Writer for creating your blog posts offline. I'm using that every day now! And SkyDrive gives you 25GB of password protected online storage ... Free! Windows Live is an entire family of downloadable software and online services. I think this is where Microsoft is headed.

That's all for now. We hope you learned something. 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.

Happy Computing!

The Geeks on Tour website is an online classroom for Travelers who want to learn to use their computers for managing digital photos, making blogs, using maps and other online resources. Anyone can watch our free sample videos, read articles on our Articles and Links Blog, sign up for our free monthly newsletter, or Picasa weekly tips. A small fee makes you a 'member' and you can then view any of our 140+ video tutorials on these subjects.