June, June, June. School’s out, weddings are popping up everywhere, dual chip processing will show up in quantities and prices you will like, and summer vacations will begin. The first couple of items are about creating digital photos or slide shows from the old hard copy versions of your pictures.

Scanning 35mm slides for photos

I want to convert some of my father's 35mm slides to digital photos. I scanned some slides myself and sent some to Wal-Mart. I set my scanner to 550x781 pixels at 600 dots per inch (dpi). Wal-Mart scanned the slides to 1,228x1,818 at 96 dpi. Will the slides scanned at Wal-Mart provide satisfactory prints if my children decide to print them some time in the future?

It’s great to hear that you want to pass on those precious family photos! Getting those slides into a digital format will save them. Scanning your slides protects them from scratches and fading. You can save the images and pass them on to all your children.

This tip is only for scanning 35mm slides. Scanning photos is a different ball game.

It sounds like Wal-Mart scanned your slides for viewing on a computer monitor or television. An image scanned from a slide at 96 dpi might not make a satisfactory print. But it would be fine for a computer or television.

It is possible that the person at Wal-Mart did not give you the correct dpi. Stores often ship this work out to a photo lab.

The best way to find out if the images will print well is to test them. Get some images printed to at least 4x6 inches. Ask Wal-Mart to print some photos from the images on the CD. Or print them yourself with your home printer.

Slides that you plan to print are generally scanned at 2,000-4,000 dpi. The minimum dpi that I would use for scanning slides is 600.

Let me explain dpi resolution. A standard computer monitor has a resolution of 72-96 dpi. This is why a photo at 96 dpi looks good on your computer but blurry when printed.

Your printer’s maximum resolution has nothing to do with the resolution you should use when scanning. Slides that you plan to print are generally scanned at 2,400 dpi or higher.

Today’s inkjet printers produce photos at 300 dpi or higher. It is commonly thought that the higher dpi the printer has, the better the quality of the print. Truth is, a 300 dpi printer with four separate colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) is just fine for photos.

If you want to scan the slides yourself, I can help. You want the photo to print with good quality. But you want to keep the file size small. Remember, the higher the pixel settings, he larger the file will be.

Here are the scanner settings for your 35mm slides. If you only want 4x6 inch prints, then 550x781 pixels is enough. A pixel size setting of 1,024x768 will give a good quality print size up to 8x10 inches. If your scanner has a 2,400 dpi setting, use it. The higher the dpi setting the higher the quality of the photos printed.

Often, a photo-editing program will have a feature to scan slides and pictures. If you have a photo program, use it to scan your slides.

Patience is required; it can take 30-60 seconds to scan each slide. If you are planning to edit the photos, use the JPEG format. If you or your children are going to edit the images, use the TIFF format.

Create photo slide shows

I want to create a slide show from old photos for senior night at the school. I have digital photos and some 35mm prints. I would also like to include music with the photos. Should I use PowerPoint? Also, how would I project it onto a screen from a laptop? Or can I make a DVD? I'm using Windows XP.

This is one cool project. I bet it will help many people do something special for not only graduations but other types of gatherings, too. It sounds like you're starting from square one. So let's lay out the best way to do this.

First, gather up your digital photos and organize them. This might be by month, grade or activity. If you need a program to help you organize your photos, try Picasa.

Once installed, it will scour your hard drive for images and then present them by dates. As a side bonus, the program offers some photo-editing features. Best of all, it’s free. I love that price.

The 35mm prints must be scanned into your computer. If you want to project the image full screen, it’s best to scan it at the resolution used by the laptop. In other words, if your monitor uses 1280x1024, scan the picture at that resolution.

To find your laptop’s display resolution, right-click an empty part of the desktop. Click Properties and select the Display tab. Check the setting under Screen Resolution.

Your scanner’s software will probably ask you for a dpi (dots per inch) setting, too. For projection purposes, 75 dpi should do. However, if people want to print the photos off the DVD, scan them at a minimum of 150 or 300 dpi.

Now, you can start creating your slide show. I recommend Microsoft’s Photo Story 3. It’s a free program that will do exactly what you need. Plus, it’s more intuitive than PowerPoint. It requires Windows XP, 256 megabytes of RAM and a 700MHz processor.

Photo Story walks you through the slide show process. Simply create a new slide show and click Import Pictures to get started. You can add music and voice-overs to your photos. It will even animate them.

Now, let's discuss how you'll output this extravaganza. You'll need a projector to put the slide show on a screen. These are expensive for a one-shot deal; maybe the school will lend you one. Otherwise, a projector will probably cost you nearly $1,000, at minimum.

Before buying the projector, there are places that rent them by the day. I called a few rental shops around my town. An LCD projector runs about $75 to $100 per day. The screen will cost another $50 or so to rent.

The projector should have various ways of hooking to the laptop. If the laptop has an S-video output, use that. If nothing else, you can use the VGA output on the computer. The projector should have a VGA input. If you do choose to rent, bring your laptop with you to the store. Have them show you how it all connects and run a quick test.

You can also connect your laptop to a television. If you have an S-video jack, use that. Older computers require a VGA to television adapter. These run about $150 at electronics stores.

All that assumes the TV has input connections. If it only has a coaxial connection, you need a VCR. Connect the computer to the VCR and the VCR to the TV.

If you want to share your slide show, you can burn it to CD. Photo Story gives you this option once you’ve created your slide show. The slide show is saved as a Windows Media file. It will play on computers with Windows Media Player 7 or later. This will work as long as the file is less than 700 megabytes.

If it is bigger, make a DVD. To create DVDs playable on DVD players, use the Sonic DVD plug-in for Photo Story. It is about $20.

Connect Laptop to TV

How can I show digital photos on my TV using my Sony laptop? I just want to hook my laptop up to my TV so the family can see the pictures.

One of the great things about computers is the ability to construct very cool slide shows. When you’re done, you can show them on your television for all to see. I will tell you the specifics how to make the magic happen for your laptop. But you can use this information for any computer.

Regardless of the type of computer, you must find a way to connect the computer to the TV. I know, you knew that. To do that, you need an output connection on your laptop, an input connection on the TV and a cable to hook the two together.

As it happens, most laptops these days have an s-video output. S-video has a decent picture. The jack is round and takes four pins and a small plug. If your TV also has an s-video plug, you're all set.

If your TV only has other inputs--such as coaxial cable--you can still use your s-video plug. However, you will need an RF (radio frequency) modulator. The RF modulator converts (modulates) the signal so it can be read by the TV input. Once it is in the TV, the signal is demodulated. This will degrade the signal. So it will not be as good as it would with an s-video to s-video connection.

According to Sony, you may need an updated video driver. There is more information on Sony's site.

When it’s all connected, you then tell your computer to use the television as the monitor. It’s pretty easy.

On some laptops, that is done on the keyboard. My laptop has a button that switches the view from the laptop’s screen to an external source, such as a monitor or TV. Other laptops might require you to use Windows Display Properties. To access that, right-click the desktop. Click Properties and select the Settings tab. You may need to click Advanced to find the setup area.

At a minimum, it is possible to use the VGA port on your computer to connect to a TV. This port, normally used for a monitor, has 15 female pins. It requires an external signal converter which costs around $175. The picture quality is poor, so I do not recommend it.

Once you're hooked up, turn on the TV and change the input to video using the TV/Video button. You may have to experiment with screen resolutions on the computer.

You may also want audio from your computer. Connect your audio line out to the TV’s audio line in, usually red and white RCA jacks.

Another alternative is to use a DVD player. Use a slide show program to burn the pictures to a CD-R. Before buying, be sure the DVD player can handle CD-Rs.

Assuming you use the TV as a monitor, you can click through the pictures as you show them. However, you can easily assemble a professional quality slide show. I suggest you use Microsoft's Photo Story 3, which is free. Photo Story 3 can also be used to create a slide show on a CD-R.

That’s all there is to it. You’ll be stylin’ in no time at all.

More Geek Speak

A. "IP"

The term 'IP' stands for Internet Protocol - the rules for getting stuff from us to you in one piece over the Internet.


B. "POP account"

POP stands for Post Office Protocol. It's simply a set of rules that are followed on the Internet with respect to the arrival of your email in an inbox. You receive mail into a POP account if you use Outlook Express, Fedora, Pegasus, or some other email client to check your mail.

Windows XP and speech recognition

A customer of mine asked if me speech recognition was built into Windows XP. He would like to use it to dictate his documents. However, he couldn’t find it on his computer.

Strictly speaking, speech recognition isn’t part of Windows XP. However, some computer manufacturers install Microsoft’s speech recognition software with XP. This software will turn spoken words into text. You can also execute commands by voice.

To find out if the speech software is on your computer, click Start>>Control Panel. Then double-click the Speech icon. If there’s a Speech Recognition tab, it’s already installed. You can “train” the software from this dialog box. For more on “training,” keep reading.

If it isn’t on your computer, you have two options. First, you can buy Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP. You’ll find this at your local computer store for about $30.

Your other choice is to purchase Microsoft Office or Microsoft Word. The version you need is XP (2002) or 2003. Of course, Word and Office are both pricey. A full version of Word is about $200. Full versions of Office start around $400. If you’re a student or teacher, look for the Academic version of Office. It’s about $150. Learn more from Microsoft.

To make matters more confusing, Office and Word don’t always install speech recognition. You must opt to install it.

To install the speech recognition component in Word, click Tools>>Speech. Click Yes when asked if you want to install the speech software. Have your Office/Word disk handy. You’ll probably be prompted to insert it.

If Speech isn’t on the Tools menu, you must use your Office/Word disk. Select Add or Remove Features and click Next. Then click “Choose advanced customization of applications” and click Next. Click Office Shared Features>>Alternative User Input. Click the arrow beside Speech and select “Run from My Computer.” Click Update.

After the installation is complete, click Tools>>Speech to “train” the software. You will be given a passage to read. This will help it learn your particular speech patterns and pronunciation. A profile must be created for each user on the computer.

When you train the software, speak as you normally would. Over or under enunciation will cause problems. I know someone who read the passage as if he were reading to a child. It was not successful.

Keep in mind that speech recognition is far from perfect. You’ll have to make lots of corrections at first. But you can do more training with the software to increase accuracy.

Also, you need a good microphone. Get the noise-canceling headset type. Expect to pay about $30. And read the packaging. It will say if it’s suitable for speech recognition.

Microsoft recommends at least 128MB of RAM and a 400MHz computer. This is the bare minimum. Speech recognition uses a lot of computing power. Make sure your computer can handle it. I recommend a minimum 512MB of RAM and 1.5MHz processor.

First Look: Netscape's Two-Headed Browser

Netscape 8 lets you view Web pages using either the Firefox or Internet Explorer engine.

Like something out of Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory, the programmers at Netscape have resurrected a browser that most Internet users had left for dead. At the same time, they have created a two-headed monster of a browser in the new Netscape 8, which lets you choose to view pages as you would either in the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox version 1.0.3 or in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6.

Unlike other browsers Netscape 8 features both the Firefox and IE engines; with a single click you can switch between the two browser views. And if you happen to visit a Web page that has problems opening in the engine you're currently using, Netscape will automatically reload the page with the other browser engine. How accommodating can one browser be?

Unfortunately the news about Netscape 8 is not all positive. The browser loses much of Firefox's simplicity and a few of its useful features, while gaining plenty of extra heft: Netscape 8 takes up 35MB of hard-drive space on my test PC, compared with less than 16MB for Firefox. Surprisingly, Netscape 8 uses Firefox 1.0.3, not the more recent 1.0.4 build that corrected recent security breaches. According to AOL, the vulnerability that 1.0.4 plugs didn't affect Netscape 8, so no update was required.

Seeing Double

One of the first things you'll notice when you open the new browser is the icon on the far left of the Status Bar at the bottom of the screen, which indicates whether the current page is loaded in Firefox or IE. If you click the down arrow located next to that icon, you'll see options for displaying the page in the other browser engine. (The engine is the core part of the browser, which instructs the Web page elements on where and how to display.)

This icon also allows you to open the browser's Site Controls. You might expect to be able to add the current page to your list of trusted sites automatically from the Site Controls dialog box, but no such function is offered there (you have to use the option on the page's tab). In fact, when it comes to trusting sites, with Netscape 8 it's an all-or-nothing proposition: You either go with all of the company's Trust Ratings (sites verified by Web security firms Truste and VeriSign as trustworthy or unsafe), or none at all. You can't add or remove sites manually from either list.

Likewise, Netscape 8's method of choosing which engine to use when opening a particular Web page is determined by a whitelist of safe sites as verified by Truste and VeriSign, and a blacklist of risky sites that Netscape claims to update three times a day. Sites on the whitelist open in Internet Explorer, with ActiveX and all other functions on. If you visit a site on the blacklist, you see a warning. If you click through the warning and open the page anyway, the browser blocks cookies, Java, and other potentially unsafe functions automatically.

Any site that isn't on either list will open in the Firefox engine by default. If you decide to view a page in the engine other than the one Netscape picks for you, the browser will remember your selection the next time you visit that page.

Features: Creeping In

Netscape 8 shares many of Firefox's features, including automatic pop-up blocking and tabbed browsing, which puts each open page under its own tab in a single window. One big difference between the two products, however: While Firefox takes pride in offering only the functions you need for browsing, the feature-creep in Netscape 8 is readily apparent.

The first not-so-welcome addition is a Web mail option on the browser's Personal toolbar that supports Gmail, Hotmail, and other such services in addition to Netscape Mail. Firefox gets along fine without an e-mail component, and accessing Web mail sites through the browser's address bar is almost as easy. Another obtrusive addition is Netscape 8's Datacard and Passcard, which fill in Web forms automatically. While Firefox lets you save the data you enter in forms and password fields, Netscape 8 provides much more control over your Web form management, such as separate billing and shipping addresses.

Packaging such extras with the main browser runs counter to Firefox's modular, austere, less-is-more approach. Firefox gives you only the browser features you require, leaving you to decide which extra components to add. Not so in Netscape 8. For example, I don't use automatic form fillers, so the Datacard and Passcard features are useless to me. For people who like having their Web forms filled automatically, the browser helps by highlighting fillable fields on Web pages by default. Still, most people will be thankful that the default setting for the program's option to fill and submit forms with a single click is off.

One important feature missing from Netscape 8 is Firefox's great pop-up controls, which let you create a list of sites for which pop-ups are allowed. No such option is available in Netscape 8; nor does the new browser let you list the sites that are permitted to install software or load images, as Firefox does.

Toolbar Customization

Netscape 8 outshines Firefox in one area: custom toolbars. Firefox lets you add items to toolbars simply by dragging them from the Customize window onto the toolbar itself. Netscape 8 extends this functionality to news feeds, travel and weather information, shopping sites, and even movie times. To remove the item, just drag it off the toolbar and back into the Customize window. You can even create your own custom toolbars--called "multibars"--on which you combine your personal toolbars. (Just remember to leave enough room in your browser window for the Web page itself to be seen.)

When you install the program, you're given the option to import either your Firefox settings and data (including bookmarks and cookies) or your IE settings, but not both. Your bookmarks are then available regardless of the browser engine you're using.

If you're happy with IE but are concerned about that browser's poor security, switching to Netscape 8 might give you the best of both worlds: ActiveX support and other IE features combined with the safety of Firefox when venturing onto unknown Web sites. (Of course, you may have to do without some of your favorite IE toolbars, which aren't yet available for the Netscape browser.)

Even with the ability to reload misbehaving Web pages in either the Firefox or IE engine with a single click, the new Netscape browser feels like a case of subtraction by addition. The features added to Netscape 8 may make it look more like a conventional browser, but it loses Firefox's simplicity (and some of that browser's most useful features) in the process.

Here’s a look at the intro page of this new browser:

Tabbed Browsing
Tabbed browsing lets you have multiple web pages open in one window.
Great for organizing and freeing up desktop space.

Site Controls
The new Netscape Browser gives you more ways to make your browser more
secure.

Multibar
Multibars let you customize up to ten different browser toolbars you can access
with a single click.

Form Fill/Passcard
The Netscape Browser makes remembering your site passwords and filling out
information forms on sites simple.

Live Content
With Live Content you can have one-click access to information important to you.

Take the Tour

Well, here’s wishing you fair winds, following seas, and low gas prices for your trips this summer. See you next month.