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Messages - rsutter

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106
Hello All,
Here are my Notes from the SLO Bytes Photography Group Meeting of 07/10/2022

TOPIC: New Skills, New Thrills Again

Ralph Sutter opened the meeting with comments about sensor cleaning.
He posted relevant information on the SLO Bytes Photography website at
https://www.slobytes.org/digital/links.html
Ralph then offered a variety of images highlighting the background removal feature of Luminar Neo; https://skylum.com/luminar
He also shared images of marauding deer munching on his succulents planter. These were taken with the Vikeri Trail Camera; https://vikeri.tech/product/vikeri-waterproof-trail-camera

Kaye Raul visited Port San Luis/Avila Beach before showing images of house plants, tree forms and charming Eto Park; https://tolosapressnews.com/eto-park/ in San Luis Obispo.

Alan Raul showed images shot with his Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max of the newly remodeled tunnel under the 101 Freeway in Pismo Beach.
He also had pictures of the downtown Pismo Beach area including the ever-so-famous lighted "Pismo Beach" sign.
These were show in RAW with the built-in camera app and the ACDSee Pro app.
None of the images were cropped or modified.
NOTE: The Apple iPhone Pro Max has a triple-camera array on the rear of the device.
It features a 77mm (equiv.) focal length (3x) telephoto module, a 13mm (equiv.) F1.8 ultrawide module and a 26mm (equiv.) F1.5 wide module.
One of Alan's pictures of Harry's bar used the 26mm F1.5 wide module setting.
See https://www.apple.com/ph/iphone/compare/
See https://apps.apple.com/us/app/acdsee-pro/id968591710

Stanford Brown shot images of the sand festival in Cayucos. He then asked other members of the Photography Group for advice in improving his image of a frog sculpture; https://www.slobytes.org/digital/frog.jpg.

John Waller showed off the impressive photographic capabilities of his recently purchased Samsung S22 Ultra phone; https://www.samsung.com/ca/smartphones/galaxy-s22-ultra/
The 10+ optical zoom produced sharp results of distant objects. Hand-held lo light photos were also sharp and realistically colored.
Switching to his Canon full sensor DSLR, John captured dramatic video of the Pismo Beach 4th of July fireworks

Our next meeting will take place via Zoom on Sunday, August 14th beginning at 2:00 pm.
An invitation with credentials to join will be sent several days before that date.

The topic is once again New Skills, New Thrills Explore different photographic techniques and share the fruit of your efforts with the group.
Taking up Stanford Brown's challenge to improve his image of the frog sand sculpture, I have uploaded his original picture to the SLO Bytes Photography website.
Download it from https://www.slobytes.org/digital/frog.jpg and edit it.  Make note of what you did and share the results with the group.
The meeting schedule for the remainder of 2022 is as follows
   September 11
   October 09
   November 13
   December 11
All meetings begin at 2:00pm
See the Links page for tutorials and other resources at https://www.slobytes.org/digital/links.html

Ralph Sutter

107
General Discussion / APCUG Free Wednesday Webinars for July 2022
« on: July 10, 2022, 06:46:10 AM »
Hello All,
This is a re-post of a message received from SLO Bytes' parent organization, APCUG.
Ralph Sutter

JULY 2022
WEDNESDAY WORKSHOPS
9 am PT, 10 am MT, 11 am CT, 12 pm ET
 
July 13, 2022
Is the future of money digital currency?
Chris and Jim Guld, Geeks on Tour
and
QR Codes and More, John Krout, PATACS
 
July 20, 2022
Learning Linux - Networking
The Linux Team
John Kennedy, Orv Beach, & Dave Melton
 
July 27, 2022
Apple Apps
 
Mac Find My app and AirTags
Craig Wright, Columbus Computer Society and
Deborah Neff, Prescott Macintosh User Group
 
Apple Maps -- Flyover Tours and City Guides
Brooke Thomas, Central Kentucky Computer Society
 
Intro to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote
Jerry Rogan, Sunland Springs Village Technology Club
 
7/13/22 - Register for this workshop here -- https://forms.gle/9NHNAKym3DKKHELp7
 
Is the future of money digital currency? Chris and Jim Guld. Is it the emerging technology of the decade? What are Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin? All this and more will be covered in Chris’s presentation with Jim handling the technology.
 
QR Codes and More, John Krout. QR codes provide a great variety of info and are popular for communicating Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), also known as web page addresses. Find out how your smartphone can read QR codes and other barcodes. In particular, find out about the info stored about you in the barcode on the back of your driver's license or state ID card. Some stores, including grocery stores where the presenter lives, now scan that barcode when alcohol is purchased. The scan obtains a great deal more personal info than your birth date.
=============================================
 
7/20/22 - Register for this workshop here – https://forms.gle/LNm3qG9KVy4jvY6T8
 
Learning Linux – Networking with the Linux Team (John, Orv, and Dave)
There have been some requests from attendees regarding “networking” in Linux. However, being a wide topic with no real specific questions for the team, we’ll try to put together a presentation on networking that we feel relates to Linux. The workshop will be of more value to someone if they have a Linux box and more than one Linux box that can be networked together (if you don’t have at least two, you can’t have a network). This would include running Raspberry Pi’s. But even if you don’t, you might learn something and give networking a try.
 
We’ll start out with the basics of networking; Orv will begin at the beginning with information on IPv4 (we won’t be covering IPv6), addresses, netmasks, gateways, and using DHCP vs. Manual assigning of addresses. He will focus on networking in the terminal. John will share some screenshots of different distro’s GUI windows for setting up networking. Then Dave and John will present options for remote access including SAMBA, Warpinator, AnyDesk, and basic usage of the ssh/scp command in the terminal. Time permitting, Orv may share information of the more modern sftp command. After the formal presentation, we’ll open things up for others to share their knowledge about networking in Linux.
 
=============================================
 
7/27/22 - Register for this workshop here – https://forms.gle/xwVpN3TQ3zi4UAHs6
 
Mac Find My app and AirTags, Craig Wright & Deborah Neff. Have you misplaced your Mac, various devices, or personal items? Before that happens, learn to set up the Find My app – it can help you locate and protect your valuables. Also learn how to use an AirTag to help you track your keys, wallet, purse, backpack, luggage, and more.
 
Apple Maps -- Flyover Tours and City Guides, Brooke Thomas.
 
Intro Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, Jerry Rogan. All of these apps are on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Jerry will demonstrate the ability to Open and View Microsoft Office files and create new documents and save them as Office documents, PDFs, or other formats.

108
Hello All,
Skylum Luminar Neo just added One-click Background Removal for Portraits to version 11.0 (9807)
Access it by opening a portrait in Neo
Click on Layer Properties
Click on Masking
Click on Portrait Background
Click on Remove
Ralph Sutter

109
Hello All,
Here are my Notes from the SLO Bytes Photo Group Meeting of 06/12/2022
TOPIC: New Skills, New Thrills Again

Ralph Sutter opened the meeting with images of his recent landscaping project as well as shots from his orchard and vegetable garden.  Ralph added a video of rocks sliding downward as he scooped them into a wheelbarrow.

Kaye Raul offered weather-worn barns, scenes from Oceano and Port San Luis before demonstrating the use of the level horizon tool in Adobe Lightroom

Alan Raul showed images shot with his Sony A7iv with a 35mm F2.8 lens of the north end of Pismo Beach at low tide. He then showed images shot with his 24-70mm F4.0 lens of the sand dunes and the Pismo Beach Creek area. Images were modified with a variety of image editing software to get the desired effects he wanted to share.
Alan's photography gear is listed on DP Review  https://www.dpreview.com/members/9828863162/gearlist

Stanford Brown
found fractured trees and scenes high above Las Vegas before retreating to Paso Robles where he added angles inside his house and local landscapes.

John Waller demonstrated the use of luminosity masks inside Adobe Lightroom.  This technique allowed him to enhance yellow flowers in a field of yellow while affecting the flowers but not the field behind.  John then applied the technique to trees in Morro Bay and the iconic rocks of Yosemite.

Connie Sutter looked at trees and the shadows that they cast.  She then shifted focus to a rock outcropping that she excavated as part of her landscaping project.

The session closed with Kaye’s positive review of several lesser known lenses for her Sony A7iv camera.  Alan called attention to the free web space offered by DP Review where he posted details of his camera gear and showed samples of his photos. 
See https://www.dpreview.com/members/9828863162/gearlist 
Ralph showed some of the camera resources that he posted to his web site at https://www.fullbean.com/camera/camera.html

Our next meeting will take place on 07/10/2022 beginning at 2:00 pm.  The topic is once again New Skills, New Thrills; Learn and share that knowledge.  A Zoom invitation will be sent shortly beforehand.
The meeting schedule for the remainder of 2022 is as follows
   August 14
   September 11
   October 09
   November 13
   December 11
All meetings begin at 2:00pm
See the Links Page, https://www.slobytes.org/digital/links.html for tutorials and other resources
Ralph Sutter

110
General Discussion / June APCUG Workshops
« on: June 05, 2022, 07:44:48 AM »
Hello All,
This is a re-postng of an announcement from Juidy Taylour of SLO Bytes' parent group, APCUG announcing their free webinars for June 2022
Ralph Sutter

06/8/22 – Touring the Web with JB Burke
 
Register for this workshop here -- https://forms.gle/WvEz7JFv87oxLcQk6
 
The World Wide Web, or just "the Web," is immense. A quick search tells us there are about 4.2 billion indexed pages. Some are interesting, informative, educational, or entertaining, and some are plain weird. JB looks for all those while making his morning coffee, eating lunch, and whenever he finds a spare moment and saves them to create this program he calls "Touring the Web." It consists of web pages, videos, images, and other tidbits that will, he hopes, keep you entertained for an hour or so. JB's presentation changes every couple of months, just like the Web.
 
6/15/22 -- In-depth Tour of Distrowatch with Cal Esenault and a Roundtable with the Linux Team
 
Register for this workshop here -- https://forms.gle/driDUe95FcpMKMgU7
 
We hope you enjoy our planned activities for June. We'll start off the workshop with Cal Esenault giving us an in-depth tour of the website Distrowatch. He will share with us all the features (visible and invisible) that it offers Linux users and those interested in learning about Linux. Distrowatch isn't just for beginners or experienced users. Cal will help us understand the Ranking system it uses for the different distros and help us know it isn't really indicating which ones are the top distros. Find out why it's one of the best resources on Linux. Then continuing the theme of "resources," the team will share some of their favorite websites to get news and information about Linux and what some of their favorite Linux YouTube channels are. During the open mic part of the workshop, you'll be able to share any that might not have been mentioned.
 
Our second part of the workshop will be another Roundtable where we can all share thoughts and ideas and ask questions about Linux. We will be responding to polls, (like we did sometime last year) to use as discussion starters, where we'll find out a lot about the people in attendance and their travels with Linux. Please join us and take part. We think we'll learn a lot about what's happening in the Linux world.
 

111
Hello All,

SLO Bytes is a member of APCUG; The Association of Personal Computer User Groups.  The latter organization presents regular free workshops via Zoom.  Afterwards, they often post on line the content of those presentations.  I will mirror some of that content on the SLO Bytes website at https://www.slobytes.org/apcug/workshops/workshops.html.  For more visible access, I have also added the tab, APCUG Workshops to the left hand menu of SLO Bytes opening page.

Ralph Sutter

112
Hello All,
APCUG speaker Bill James presented an in-depth exploration of Modems, Routers, and Wi-Fi on 05/07/2022.  I have attached the two handouts from that presentation as well as a link to the Zoom video of the event.

Video Link Modems, Routers, and Wi-Fi Saturday Workshop:  https://youtu.be/FbRNI4z3OY0

Ralph Sutter

113
Hello All,
Here are my notes from the SLO Bytes Photo Group meeting of 05/15/2022

TOPIC: New Skills, New Thrills Again

Ralph Sutter began the meeting demonstrating focus stacking with Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021. This required purchasing the after market add-on, Elements+; https://elementsplus.net/. Sutter then showed a video; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdrkURWyRsQ of the flight, crash and recovery of his DJI drone in conjunction with the autonomous flight software, Dronelink; https://www.dronelink.com/

Kaye Raul shared images taken with her new Sony A7 IV full frame camera; https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1667800-REG/sony_ilce_7m4_b_alpha_a7_iv_mirrorless.html. Her subjects included shots of Guadalupe, Main Street Beach and local strawberry fields.

Alan Raul showed images of Shell Beach including the construction project of a new seawall, staircase and sidewalk along the oceanfront. Later in the day (when it was cooler) using his Sony A7iv with a 35mm F2.8 lens; https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=sony%2035mm%20f%202.8&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma he ventured into the dunes near the Pismo Beach Creek to capture images of the creek and dunes area.

Stanford Brown used his Vikeri Trail Cam; https://vikeri.tech/ to capture images of 4 footed nighttime visitors around his house. He then reminded the group of the capabilities of the free Microsoft Photos app; https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/microsoft-photos/9WZDNCRFJBH4?hl=en-us&gl=US. It allows image and video viewing, slideshows and simple video editing. program,

John Waller introduced log exposure photography in conjunction with density filters. The filters allowed him to take much longer exposures and capture details of dark scenes that otherwise wouldn't be visible.

Bob Styerwalt shared several closeups of roses growing in his back yard.

Our next meeting will take place on 06/12/2022 beginning at 2:00 pm.  The topic is once again New Skills, New Thrills; Learn and share that knowledge

Here is the meeting schedule for the remainder of 2022
   July 10
   August 14
   September 11
   October 09
   November 13
   December 11
See the Links page for tutorials and other resources

Ralph Sutter

114
General Discussion / May 2022 APCUG Free Workshops
« on: May 16, 2022, 08:32:58 AM »
Hello All,
This is a re-post of an announcement sent by SLO Bytes parent organization, APCUG
Ralph Sutter

MAY 2022
WEDNESDAY WORKSHOPS
9am PT, 10 am MT, 11 am CT, 12 pm ET
 
5/18/22 -- Learning Linux: Headless Raspberry Pi
 
Register for this workshop here -- https://forms.gle/mmerpNPj2ArUmKM76
Registration closes at 6:00 pm PT on 05/17/2022

If you want to learn to drive a car, you have to get behind the wheel. Similarly, if you're going to learn Linux, you have to run a Linux computer. Curt will give us a tour, from 10,000 feet, of a Raspberry Pi (an inexpensive, single-board computer, SBC). Then he'll show a viable way to set up a Raspberry Pi without a lot of equipment (e.g., keyboard, monitor, cables, etc.) and space beyond the computer we now use every day. He'll only be using a Raspberry Pi (almost any model would work) and one (for power), maybe two (if a wired network connection is needed), cables. If time allows, he may even install Pi-hole to block many/most pesky ads for all the devices on our home network.
 
After the presentation has been completed, if you are someone that is similarly using a Raspberry Pi as Curt (headless, without extra hardware), please share with us (and the other attendees) what you are doing so we get other ideas of what can be done. And if there's time, we'll welcome other uses of a Raspberry Pi using the extra hardware.
=============================================
 
5/25/22 -- Adding NAS to your Router and The meaning and use of IP addresses and port numbers
 
Register for this workshop here -- https://forms.gle/13FtGLaXuC78v8FD9
Registration closes at 6:00 PM on 05/24/2022
 
This presentation introduces the concept and utility of Network Attached Storage (NAS) for home local area networks (LAN) by connecting any USB drive to the USB port on a home router. This can be any portable storage devices, such as a flash drive, USB solid State Device (SSD), portable hard drive, and storage that requires AC power. You might wonder how storage can be connected to a home LAN and shared instead of connecting to a computer. Just about any router, including a USB socket, can act as the LAN connection for storage. Not all routers include a USB socket, but many current routers do, and some routers even have a second socket for more storage or for connecting a USB printer to the network. This presentation will show an example of a router with a USB socket and the steps for preparing storage to be connected to a router. Also, the presentation shows how to find and use the router-connected NAS using Windows File Explorer, Apple's File app on iPhones and iPads, and the Samsung My Files app for Android devices.
 
After the presentation has been completed, if you are someone that is using a network-attached storage (NAS) device in a similar way as John, please share with us (and the other attendees) what you are doing so we get other ideas of what can be done.

After you register, you will see pop-up registration acknowledgments.

115
General Discussion / Update Zoom from the Ubuntu Terminal
« on: May 03, 2022, 02:03:19 PM »
Hello All,
This is how I update Zoom when running it from Ubuntu

To find out if you are running the latest version of Zoom, open that program and click on your face icon.  If you are told that an update is available, do not download it now.  At least for me, allowing Zoom to download the newest version and install it always fails.

Instead, I proceed as follows

First uninstall Zoom
From the Ubuntu Terminal, enter 
sudo apt remove zoom

Download Zoom from the Terminal typing
wget https://zoom.us/client/latest/zoom_amd64.deb
 
Go to the Downloads folder (or whatever folder to which you extracted Zoom) and enter the following command
sudo apt install ./zoom_amd64.deb
It may be necessary to restart the computer for Zoom to recognize the update
Check to see if you successfully updated as indicated at the beginning of this post

Ralph Sutter

116
Hello All,
Below, I have posted an announcement that I received from Judy Taylour, our APCUG Representative.  The event is free.
Ralph Sutter

Saturday Safaris
Exploring Technology In-Depth
 
May 7, 2022
9 am PT, 10 am MT, 11 am CT, 12 pm ET

Modems, Routers, and Wi-Fi with Bill James
 
Register Here https://forms.gle/AreDvWh2BurBzDR17
 
In the early days of networking, the term modem was used to describe a device that transformed speech into analog signals (and vice versa) to be transmitted over telephone lines. This presentation will discuss Modems, Routers, and Wi-Fi and how to set up your devices for the best performance since we all want fast, reliable, and secure Internet. Bill will give us information on the latest modems and router hardware developments and best practices for setup and deployment. Next, he will discuss Wi-Fi as the best option and how it fits into Home Automation, demystifying terms like WPA, Wi-Fi 6, 802.11, Ethernet, and DOCIS 3.1. He will also cover the pros and cons of using a professional tech service to solve technical difficulties. If one or more of these topics piques your interest, this 2-hour workshop is for you.
 
Bill's presentation will be followed by a discussion on whether to 'rent' or 'buy' your modem and router.

117
General Discussion / Re: Ubuntu 22.04 Install - Version Update
« on: April 30, 2022, 06:39:50 PM »
Today I performed an in-place update from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS to 22.04 LTS on an HP Pavilion laptop.
I did so from the Terminal with the command sudo do-release-upgrade -d, the same approach that Alan used.
I didn't do an in-place version update on the computer that I described earlier.  It contained 4 separate desktop environments.  The documentation that I read recommended that I uninstall three of them before opting for the in place version upgrade.  I didn't want to do that so the first Ubuntu 22.04 LST installation that I described was a clean install.

With my latest install installed 22.04 LTS over 20.04.
It was largely unattended but it paused several times and asked me to make choices. Once that I did so, the installation continued.  The process took about 2 hours. 

When it finished, my printers were enabled and as far as I can tell, all of the programs that I had installed in 20.04 were present in 22.04.  In some cases, the programs had been updated to the current version
Ralph Sutter

118
General Discussion / Windows 11 Speaker Configuration Troubleshooting
« on: April 26, 2022, 06:46:30 PM »
Hello All,
For a long time, my Dell 8930 computer has had issues with sound quality.  Out of the box, the sound quality was distorted.  Rather than solve the issue, I simply installed an external USB sound card.  That solved the issue but eventually the external USB sound card failed.

Since I wasn't after studio-quality sound, I bought an inexpensive Logitech USB powered speaker pair.  That gave acceptable sound.
I later added a Blue Yeti USB microphone and paired it with a OneOdio Pro 50 headset.
The Yeti/OneOdio pair worked well.  I connected it to a USB hub and switched between it and the Logitech speakers without incident... at least for a while.

Lately, if I tried to switch between Logitech and Yeti/OneOdio, the latter didn't work.  Fiddling with Sound via Control Panel and Device Manager, I usually got everything working again.  Sometimes, the only sound source that appeared was the audio that I disabled long ago.

After much frustration, I learned from a Google Search, that I could access various sound settings directly and troubleshoot them if I simply right clicked the speaker icon found on the Windows 11 Task Bar at the far right.  Running the troubleshooter from that location fixed the issue that hadn't been solved when I drilled down at Control Panel or the Device Manager. 

Simpler is better.  For repairing sound issues, start by right clicking the Task Bar Speaker icon

Ralph Sutter

119
General Discussion / Re: Ubuntu 22.04 Install - Version Update
« on: April 24, 2022, 03:12:06 PM »
In my initial setup of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, i discovered several settings that needed to be configured before they worked properly.
I installed Simple Screen Recorder.  When I tried to play back the video that I had captured, it failed.  I reasoned that this was because it either didn't have a program capable of playing .mp4 files or hadn't been told which one to use.
I downloaded and installed VLC.  With that, Simple Screen Capture did indeed perform video screen captures and play them back.

I ran into a similar problem with Zoom.  My recording of a test session failed.  Once that I set VLC as the default player, it worked as expected.

Setting up my printers worked out-of-the-box.  Ubuntu automatically detected and installed my Brother MFC J870DW ink jet printer.  It didn't detect the Brother HL-2770DW laser automatically but set it up properly when I added it.  Ubuntu 20.04 also autodetected the MFC printer but couldn't set up the laser printer until I downloaded drivers from Brother.

I was able to set up the Home Directory files from 20.04 by simply copying them over from a backup source to the corresponding directories in 22.04.
Ralph Sutter


120
General Discussion / Ubuntu 22.04 Install - Version Update
« on: April 24, 2022, 10:50:03 AM »
Hello All,
I have been running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on my Hp laptop.  It is dual booted with Windows 11 Professional.
Here are the details of the computer
   HP Pavilion Laptop 15-eg0xxx
   Windows 11 Pro
   2.80 gigahertz Intel 11th Gen Core i7-1165G7
   16Gb Ram

The machine is dual booted with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS running on a separate partition. 
I wanted to upgrade Ubuntu to 22.04 LTS that was released on 04/22/2022.

I downloaded the ISO file and attempted to create an installation disk on a
SANKESU USB C Flash Drive 64GB, 2 in 1 OTG USB 3.0 + Type C Memory Stick

I first tried creating an installation disk with Ventoy; https://www.ventoy.net/  That failed and bricked the flash drive.
I then switched to Balena Etcher; https://www.balena.io/etcher  … failed
Followed by Rufus; https://rufus.ie/en/  … also failed
I finally tried Universal USB Installer; https://universal-usb-installer.en.lo4d.com/windows .  That completed the process but indicated that a configuration file had not been copied.

Not to be discouraged, I inserted the flash drive in the laptop, pressed F9 so that it would allow me to boot from the flash drive and successfully began the installation.

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS was created, running in memory.  I was satisfied that it would work so I clicked on the icon to install it.

A screen appeared asking me if I wanted to replace Ubuntu 20.04 LTS with 22.04 LTS.  I said yes.
At that point, the new setup began.  I was not asked any more questions about how I wanted to configure the various partitions. 
The setup finished in short order and instructed me to remove the flash drive before rebooting the laptop.

I complied and rebooted the machine.  It booted directly into Ubuntu 2204 LTS with no option to boot into Windows 11.
After setting up some features, I shut down the computer.  This time, at reboot, I was presented with the option to boot into Windows 11 or Ubuntu 22.04.  I managed to do both without incident.

My next task is to update the content of my home directory in Ubuntu 22.04 with data that I backed up from 20.04 LTS.
While I haven’t done much with the current version of Ubuntu yet, I have been very impressed by the simplicity of the version upgrade.

Ralph Sutter

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