Category: ‘Lagniappe’

Winaero Tweaker – Originally Published March 2019

March 3, 2019 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

I’ll admit it.  Sometimes I suffer from mild OCD.  It kicked in again the other day when I was looking at my desktop and saw all those useless little arrows on my icons.  You know the ones I mean.  They indicate that the icon is just a shortcut to open a program.  I already knew that.  After all, it was me that put the shortcut there to begin with.  I remembered reviewing a program years ago.  In the December 2014 newsletter, I told everyone about my experiences with the Windows Shortcut Arrow EditorWindows Shortcut Arrow Editor.  It was a simple utility that did only one thing ‑ removed the shortcut arrow.  I plugged in my backup drive, went to the proper folder and found that the program only supported Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

I opened the developers website and sadly, I found that this simple utility was no longer there.  Instead, I found this message, “After years of development, I decided to release an all‑in‑one application which will include most options available in my free Winaero apps and extend it as much as possible.  I would like to introduce Winaero Tweaker ‑ universal tweaker software which supports Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.”  Although I am not a fan of all‑in‑tweaking programs, I decided to download and give it a try.

An apt one word description of the software is “awesome”.  It actually makes changes to the Windows Registry without opening a registry editor.  This makes it far less likely that the user will make irrecoverable changes to their computer.  When you download and install the program, it will detect your operating system and display the appropriate interface.  (Note: I have only tested the software on Windows 10 machines.

All the possible tweaks are organized by category, such as Appearance, Behavior, Desktop and Taskbar, etc.  At the very top, Winaero Tweaker also provides your basic system information.  The various options are all described with clear language.  Clicking an option will give you greater detail.  Each tweak also has a link that says, “See in detail how this tweak works.”  Clicking the link will take you to the Winaero website for a detailed description of what the program will change on your system.  There is also an option in the “File Menu” to reset to defaults.

Another useful section is the “Bookmarks” where you can add tweaks that you use most often.  For instance, many users like to change their screen colors, themes, etc.  There are far too many tweaks for me to explain them all in this short article.  For a complete list check out the developer’s web site: The list of Winaero Tweaker featuresWinaero Tweaker features.

The program is freeware.  You can download Winaero Tweaker by downloading the ZIP filedownloading the ZIP file.  Extract all the file from the ZIP and run WinaeroTweaker.exc.  The FAQs have indicated that this might change in the future.  If that happens, I will give some serious consideration to purchasing it.

By to way, my desktop looks a lot better without all those shortcut arrow.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Categories: Lagniappe

phpBB Originally Published January 2019

January 19, 2019 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
By Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

This month I’m doing a different type of free software review.  phpBB is a program that most people will probably have no need for. phpBB is a free flat‑forum bulletin board software solution that can be used to stay in touch with a group of people or can power your entire website.  With an extensive database of user‑created extensions and styles database containing hundreds of style and image packages to customize your board, you can create a very unique forum in minutes.  The software was first released to the public December 16, 2000.

Why should you care about phpBB?  It is the software that is used to power the forums section of the club’s website.  It is an addition to some of the other features we have: Coppermine Photo Gallery, club members special e‑mail addresses and many others.  Unfortunately, most members don’t utilize many of the features.  Forums are online communities where people exchange thoughts, ideas and opinions.  Depending on what a forum is about, people can help one another, expose each other to different cultures, practices and more.  That is why forums have grown very popular.  The phpBB is one of the oldest, and without any possible doubts, the most used forum software around the world.

One of the reason that phpBB is the most popular forum software is that it is absolutely free to use.  Anyone can just go to their website, download and install the program and they are off and running.  The software can be easily customized as can be seen on the portal page of the club website.  Anti‑spam measures are great.  Tom and I haven’t had to delete an unwanted registrant in several years.  Users can easily manage and edit their profiles and avatars.  There is an excellent message system where members can send private messages to each other.

Like all software, there are a few things about phpBB that aren’t great.  The application is crafted for running forum serving as the only option.  It is impossible to run a blog or any other kinds of websites with phpBB.  This can be circumvented by making the phpBB forum a menu choice on a landing menu such as is done on our website.  There is a pretty large learning curve for setting up and managing forums, members, etc.  Fortunately, there are so many phpBB forums in use that a web search usually finds answers to any questions.  My biggest complaint is that I have only ever had one update go smoothly.  Like many others, I tend to wait for a while before attempting to install an update.  My advice is to search for problems before updating.  Give yourself plenty of time and follow instructions slowly and carefully.

So why would an individual want to install forum software on their website?  I’ve often thought of installing a forum on my personal website for family members to communicate with each other.  It would be a great alternative to posting on social media.  The only members would be brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, etc.  If you would like to find out more about phpBB, see demos, or download the software, check out the phpBB Creating Communities website.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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PDF-Echange Editor – Originally Published November 2018

November 4, 2018 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

Did you ever notice how the default programs in Windows often aren’t always the best?  Take Adobe PDF Reader as an example.  It is a program that likes to use a lot of memory and run all the time, even when you aren’t using it.  Adobe usually installs unwanted programs when you do updates, changes your system settings and many other things that you may not want.

There are a lot of good alternative PDF viewers.  The one that I usually use is PDF‑Xchange Editor from Tracker Software.  This program is the successor to the PDF‑Xchange Viewer.  Its design has been totally overhauled, making it much clearer and easier to use.  The program is easy to use with many different tools for working with documents including typing text and editing it, drawing diagrams, creating stamps, underscoring and styles, entering commentaries, notes and more.  In fact, I haven’t personally used every free editing feature.

Here is a partial list of free features:
● Full Document Spellchecker
● Multi-Language document OCR
● Full Page Text Content Editing
● OCR image based/scanned PDF to fully text searchable PDF files
● Add Comments and Annotations to any PDF file (subject to security settings)
● Mark-up pages with text and objects
● Type directly on any PDF page
● Export PDF pages or entire files to any one of the supported Image formats
● Extract text from a PDF page/File
● Fill and Save forms to disk, email or ‘post’
● Full Java-script engine included
● Plug-Ins for major browser
● Auto Highlight Fillable Form Fields
● Document Search
● Add/Edit Hyperlinks to pages
● Support for PDF File Attachments
● Send PDF files via email from viewer
● Undo/Redo functionality for text editor
● Add/Edit/Move Bookmarks

You can also extract or delete entire pages from a long PDF file and embed new content like text, images, blank pages or entire PDF documents.  PDF‑Xchange Editor can also convert documents between PDF and Word formats.  It even includes an OCR (optical character recognition) for converting scanned documents into editable text.  Note: I haven’t tested the OCR.

One of my favorite features is the tabbed interface.  This feature comes in handy for things like when I edit the “History” column for the club newsletter.  I can open all the PDF newsletter files for a given month and easily shift from one to another for viewing.  If I want to repeat an item from an older newsletter, the copy and past feature makes it easy for me to “cheat”.  You can also extract and/or export individual pages or the entire document.

Installation is simple and fast.  When you run the program, you get every feature of the licensed program.  When clicking on various items, a pop‑up window opens and informs you if you are attempting to use an enhanced feature.  You can still use the feature, but any pages will be watermarked.  This is a subtle method of getting you to purchase a license.  If you do a lot of PDF editing, it might be a worthwhile purchase.

Like many programs, there is a “free” and licensed option.  Very few free editors will let you add new content to documents.  This alone is a good reason to make it your new default app for PDFs.  You can download PDF‑Xchange Editor from the publishers web site.  There is only a Windows version.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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FreeFileSync – Originally Published September 2018

September 9, 2018 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

If you’re like me, you’ve got a file or two that you keep on more than one computer.  With a plethora cloud storage services, I don’t use this option as much as I used to.  There are some files that I don’t keep anywhere except on my computer(s).  One example is my passwords file.  I’ve used KeePass for many years.  I like to keep my passwords local on all my machines.  Another example is keeping backup files on a separate drive.

There are several methods of transferring files.  You could cut and paste when you make a change.  You could use the OS backup program.  Easiest of all, you could use FreeFileSync, a folder comparison and synchronization software that creates and manages backup copies of all your important files.

FreeFileSync has a fairly standard layout for a file syncing program.  There are two file comparison boxes, which display differences between your source and destination folders.  Sync locations are easily found by clicking the browse button in each comparison box.  Although I have never used it, you can also specify locations to sync by dragging and dropping them.  After you select your two locations, click either the Compare or Synchronize buttons at the top of the screen.

The software supports several different synchronization methods: Two way, Mirror, Update and Custom.  These and many other settings can be specified in the Synchronization Settings screen.

FreeFileSync has lots of other features:
• Copy locked files (via Windows VSS)
• Binary file comparison
• Automate syncs as a batch job
• Error reporting
• Long file path support
• 64-bit support
• Macros, such as %time% and %date%
• Supports SFTP (on Linux) and WebDAV (on Windows)
• and more. For a complete list, click here.

Of course, my favorite feature of the program is the cost of $0.00.  There is also a donation version that allows you to parallel copy and get automatic updates.  The program is open source software available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux.  Be careful when downloading as there is sometimes additional software bundled.  You can download FreeFileSync here.  Give it a try. You might like it.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Reviewing a Review – Originally Published July 2018

July 5, 2018 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1.  A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2.  An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

This month I’m going to do something a little different.  Instead of reviewing a program, I’m going to give you my opinion on 101 of the Best Free Software and Apps for Your Windows PC.  The link is to an article on Make Tech Easier, one of my favorite tech sites.  It was published on June 24, 2018 and is a comprehensive list free software in some major categories.  Here are my thoughts on the programs.

Gaming Tools: I don’t play many games and haven’t tried any of these programs.

Office Suite: I’ve tried all of these programs except for Calligra.  They all work well.  WPS Office was my default program for many years.  I quit using it when it the Chinese government started funding it.  I sometimes use Google Docs if I need to do a quick edit or I am writing something on a mobile device.  I started using Libre Office when Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems and quit supporting Open Office.  Over the years I have become familiar with Libre and use it almost exclusively.

Note-taking apps: Evernote is one of the few programs that I actually pay for.  I have had an annual subscription for four years now.  The free version just doesn’t do everything I need.  I’ve tried all of the others except for Apple Notes.  Every year when my subscription is due, I usually once again review all of the others.  They have gotten much better, but I’m still giving Evernote my $70.  Maybe this year will be different.

Web Browsers: I change my default web browser more that some people change their underwear.  All of the tech sites tell us how fast each on is at rendering web pages.  A millisecond or two has never made much difference to me.  Between all of my active computers, I usually have about twelve browsers installed.  I do this mostly for testing my various websites before uploading.  For daily use, I mostly utilize Firefox and Pale Moon.  I normally use the Chrome Browser only when I need to access my Google account.  On Linux machines, I use either Chromium or Firefox.  Over the years, I’ve tried to like the Opera browser, but I never could.  I don’t know why.  I only have one Windows 10 computer where I use Microsoft’s Edge.

Media Players: Years and years ago I used SMPlayer and Potplayer.  Now I use VLC to play all of my media files.  It plays almost everything.  I might be a little old fashioned, but I still use Windows Media Player for MP3 files.

File Compression: Does anyone compress files anymore?  With the size of hard drives there is almost no need to do so. I  keep 7-Zip installed on my computers.  I can’t remember the last time I compressed a file.  I mostly use it for extracting files that I’ve downloaded from the internet.

Instant Messaging: How quaint. I don’t think that I’ve sent an instant message since ICQ was the best program.  I haven’t tried any of these programs and I don’t intend to.  There is no one I want to either bother or be bothered by.

Email Clients: I may be the only club member that still uses an e‑mail client instead of web mail.  I usually have between 60 and 100 active e-mail addresses.  I like the control that Thunderbird gives me.  I haven’t tried any of the other three, but Mailbird looks interesting and I may test it.

Torrent Managers: I have BitTorrent installed on one of my computers, but I don’t Torrent very often.  I haven’t tried any of other managers.

Anti-Spyware and Anti-Virus: Whenever I set up a new computer, Malwarebytes is one of the first programs I install.  I have never tried AdwCleaner.  I don’t let toolbars and adware get installed in the first place.  I’ve demonstrated Kaspersky TDSSKiller to the club several times.  It is a great stand‑alone program.  I haven’t tested USB Disk Security but have put it on my list of things to do.  The best way to protect against USB drive infections is don’t plug in any USB drives you do not know the source of.  I quit installing third party anti‑virus programs about two years ago.  I have found that Windows Defender is adequate.  I still use Avast on one of my computers, but will probably remove it.

The Other Stuff: FTP clients are necessary if you do a lot of uploading (or downloading).  I’ve used all of these and they all work well.  CoreFTP is my choice.  I’ve long urged the use of password managers.  I’ve used KeePass for many years.  Windows integrated ISO software works fine for me.  I don’t use a download manager.  Windows Snipping Tool works fine for all of my needs.  There are hundreds (or maybe thousands) of code editors for users that need them.  I usually use KompoZer or BlueGriffon.  Paint.net is my graphics editor of choice.  I even converted Tom into using it.  Does anyone read an e‑book on their computer?  I haven’t run a game emulator for years.  Same thing with diagrams and charts.  Windows backup works fine for me.  Finally, the only optimization program on this list that I use is CCleaner.  I didn’t even know that PC Decrapifier was still around.

All of the programs on this list are free for personal use and as far as I know, they are from reputable sources.  If you find anything that looks interesting or useful, why not download it and give it a try?  If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Belarc Advisor – Originally Published May 2018

May 13, 2018 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

I’ve got a lot of programs that I use to upkeep and maintain my Windows computers so that they operate smoothly.  To help me do this, it is important to know substantive information about my different machines.  I get much of this data by using Belarc Advisor.

Belarc Advisor scans your PC and builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware in the form of an HTML report that you can view in your browser.  This information includes local drive volumes, memory modules, printer information, installed licenses, installed software, multimedia information and much more.  All of your PC profile information is kept on your PC and is not uploaded to any web server.

After installation, you simply need to run Belarc Advisor and wait until the initial analysis of the computer system is completed.  This process may take time, depending on the speed of your computer, number of peripherals, programs installed, etc.  Once the analysis is completed, Belarc Advisor will display in your default web browser a Computer Profile Summary.  This is generated as an HTML file and is stored on your computer.

Depending on the number of the programs installed on your system, the length of the page and the amount of information will vary from computer to computer.  Belarc Advisor identifies and reports the following information:

• CPU(s) installed on your motherboard
• Motherboard make, model, and serial number, plus BIOS data
• Hard drive and optical drive data, including total capacity and free space, as well as volume details like the drive letter and file system
• Total amount of RAM, plus number of modules installed
• Mapped network drives
• Local user and system accounts, last logon time stamps, and locked/disabled status
• Installed printers and which port each is using
• Storage controllers
• Video card and monitor make, model, and serial number data
• USB, eSATA, and similar controller data
• Sound card or other audio hardware
• Anti-malware program installed program and definition version data, last scan time stamp, and current status
• Group policy data
• Service tag of the computer model, and possibly a support link to the manufacturer’s website
• Networking, Bluetooth, and other communication hardware and protocol data

One of my favorite features is in the programs report section.  There you can check the last time that you have opened any installed program.  This can help you decide whether you might want to uninstall old, unused software.  I run the program every month or so.  That way I always have a fairly up to date report of my system(s).  The information doesn’t usually change too much.  I haven’t included any screenshots of my computers.  You can find many pictures with an internet search.

I like this program and have been using it for several years.  After installation, it only uses a little over 6MB of space on my hard drive.  Belarc Advisor runs on Windows 10, 8.1, 7, Vista and XP SP3.  Both 32‑bit and 64‑bit Windows Operating Systems are supported.  The license allows for free personal use only.  You can download Belarc Advisor from this link.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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PDF Link Editor – Originally Published March 2018

March 11, 2018 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

I’ve often commented on how I have a lot of utilities installed on my computers that do only one thing, but do it better than larger “do it all” programs.  One of my favorites that I use almost every month with the club newsletter is PDF Link Editor.

With this program I can quickly check and easily edit URL links.  The program is a convenient, easy to use application that allows you to edit all the hyperlinks within a PDF document quickly and smoothly.  The first image is a screenshot of the start up screen.  You can see that all of the options except “Add PDF” are grayed out.  In the second screenshot, I’ve loaded last months newsletter.  You can see that the newsletter is in the right panel.  The scroll bar on the right allows you to view different parts of the PDF file.  In the left panel there is a list of all the HTML links, the associated URL, the document page number of the link and a check box.

    

The document preview is helpful in another way.  You can also click hyperlinks in the document to see where they lead.  That way, you do not need to open the PDF file with another program just to figure out which links need to be replaced, extracted or removed.

After selecting links you are ready to utilize the core functions of the software.
1. Clear PDF hyperlinks will erase the selected links from the document.
2. Extract PDF links will create a text file of all of the links in the document.
3. Replace links will change the link URL to a new destination.
4. Add links will allow you to search the document for a “link anchor” and add a new hyperlink.

After performing your editing, the program opens a pop up save window.  The default save settings are to append the document name with whatever adjustment you just made.  That way you will not accidentally overwrite the original PDF.

I do have a few minor quibbles with the software.  The window size cannot be adjusted.  A full screen would be much more useful as a larger preview and more links could be seen.  The default link replacing hyperlink is for Google.  I would prefer this to be blank.  Some fonts do not render correctly in the preview screen.

Beside the minor inconveniences, there is one that I definitely do not like.  When you click on “About”, a standard program information window opens.  A few seconds later, your default web browser opens to the company’s home page.  In my opinion, this is not only aggravating, but unnecessary as well.

All in all, PDF Link Editor is a great tool for users who need to manage links in PDF files.  It is easy to use for both novices and advanced users.  There is almost no learning curve.  The program is small (less than 20MB) and utilizes 27.1MB of hard disk space.  The best part is the price of $0.00.  You can download PDF Link Editor here.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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CoreFTP LE – Originally Published January 2018

January 1, 2018 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the standard network protocol used for the transfer of computer files between a client and a server on a computer network.  As the name suggests, FTP is used to exchange files between computer accounts, transfer files between an account and a desktop computer, or access online software archives. I use FTP whenever I update websites that I maintain.

Years ago, transferring files via FTP could sometimes get complicated.  It was usually done with the command line, which required a lot of typing, hopefully without typos.  Like many other things, there have been advances in computer software.  Most people use FTP client software.  As the Wikipedia chart shows, there are many clients you can use.

Over the years, I have tried several of the free or open source programs.  For the last year or so, I’ve exclusively used CoreFTP Lite.  I have found the program to be fast, easy to use and reliable.  The feature list is pretty standard: HIPAA compliance, SFTP/ SSH, SSL/ TLS, FTP/ HTTP/ SOCKS proxy, IDN, drag ‘n drop, site manager, session manager, queue manager, custom screens, bandwidth control, caching, auto-transfer, retry/resume, auto-reconnect options, auto S/key, remote file-searching, advanced directory listings, start/stop/resume of transfers, full recursive chmod, browser integration, site to site transfers, file viewing and editing, firewall support, custom commands, FTP URL parsing, command line transfers, filters and more.

Although the different protocols might seem intimidating, most users will not need all of the features.  The default setting will probably work just fine.  I use it mostly for uploading files to the websites that I manage (mostly the club website).  Core also has a Micro FTP server you can download and install for PC to PC transfers.  I haven’t used this so cannot comment on its proficiency.

Using the program couldn’t be simpler. There are four panes in the interface.  The upper pane tells you connection status.  The left is a file list on your local computer.  The right pane a file list of the server you are connected to.  Finally, the lower pane is the upload/download status when you are transferring files. To manipulate files, you can simply mouse over the icons and view the popup menus.  Personally, I find it easier to right click on files and select an action.

Core FTP Lite is free for personal use. There is also a professional version with more features.  If you use FTP, give the program a try.  You can download it from the Core FTP website.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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FastStone Image Viewer – Originally Published November 2017

November 5, 2017 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

There are many good image viewer/editor programs that can be found with an internet search.  A lot of them have been around for many years.  If you talk to any computer user, they will tell you about their favorite.  Over the years, I have tested several of these reliable programs.  My personal favorite that I’ve used for many years is the FastStone Image Viewer.

The publisher’s description describes the program much better than I can: “FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor.  It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red‑eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping, retouching and color adjustments.  Its innovative but intuitive full‑screen mode provides quick access to EXIF information, thumbnail browser and major functionalities via hidden toolbars that pop up when your mouse touches one of the four edges of the screen.  Other features include a high quality magnifier and a musical slideshow with 150+ transitional effects, as well as lossless JPEG transitions, drop shadow effects, image annotation, scanner support, histogram and much more.  It supports all major graphic formats (BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, PSD, EPS, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA) and popular digital camera RAW formats (CRW, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, MRW, ORF, SRF, ARW, SR2, RW2 and DNG).”

The FastStone Image Viewer has all of the editing features you expect to find in a modern Windows image editor: resize/re‑sample, rotate/flip, crop, sharpen/blur, adjust lighting/colors/curves/levels etc.  There are many special effects that you can apply: annotation, drop shadow, framing, bump map, sketch, oil painting and more.  Image management tools include tagging, drag‑and‑drop and Copy To/Move To Folder support.

There are many features in the program that are either unique or better that those found elsewhere.  Chief among these is the full screen image viewer.  Unlike many others, you can move between images.  When the view is full screen, moving the cursor to the edges brings up different control panels.  The right panel shows the image attributes, which are editable by the user.  The upper panel opens a thumbnail browser.  This is a photo strip that allows you to easily move between images.  On the left side is the File Management Window, where you will find many file and imaging functions.  The bottom control panel is the Control Bar and Navigator Menu.

Many image viewers allow you to compare two images side by side.  FastStone goes a step further allowing you to compare up to four images.  You can view each one with separate magnification settings, compare EXIF and histogram data, etc.  The program also supports dual monitors which can be even more useful when editing photos.

FastStone doesn’t just allow you to view slideshows.  It is also an excellent slideshow maker.  With the built‑in Slideshow Creator, you can create and package your show and save it as an .EXE file.  Your slideshow can contain images, text, music and hundreds of transition effects.

In this short review, I have elaborated on only a few of the many features of the program.  I could also tell you about batch processing, image acquisition, screen capture, configurable mouse wheel support, running other programs with a single click (I quickly open paint.net) from the viewer and many more.  There is also a manual (tutorial) that can be downloaded in PDF, ePub or MOBI formats.

You can download the program directly from the publisher’s website.  The price is a reasonable “free for home users”.  Give it a try. I’m pretty sure you will add it to your images editing arsenal.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Planetarium Programs – Originally Published September 2017

September 3, 2017 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

Last month there were a lot of astronomy stories.  The eclipse that crossed the United States was on the news every day.  This has been only the latest of many extra terrestrial stories in the recent past.  Pluto was downgraded from planet status. We have been exploring our solar system in depth, especially Mars.  Deep space telescopes are finding many new planets orbiting distant stars.  Scientists are speculating that many of them might even be habitable.

Back here on Earth, you don’t need to spend a lot of money on a telescope to view the heavens.  Planetarium software will allow you to view stars as if you were actually looking at the sky.  All you need is a computer with a decent graphics card.  There are several free planetarium software programs that can bring the skies to your monitor.

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium program that shows the sky in 3D.  If you have a compatible telescope you can use the program to control it.  The program runs on Windows, Linux and MacOS.  There is also a portable version.

SkyChart is another open source cross platform program.  It also will control a computerized telescope.  There are many deep space images with more being frequently added to the data base.

C2A is a freeware program that has an excellent data section next to the sky image display.  The program is very intuitive and easy to use.  It is available for Windows only.

WorldWideTelescope has an interesting “Guided Tours” feature.  Each of the tours takes you on a multimedia trip through some aspect of the night sky.  You can either download the program for windows or view in a web browser.

If you like these programs, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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