Conflow

Hi Snuggleball, Yes, Ken Cox is absolutely correct, you are obliged to 'pay' or use Royalty Free Music and the following simple insight into the 'copyright quagmire' should let you know what you are up against:- There are 4 basic Copyright issues:- * Artistes' Copyright ~ They earn their living from their origional Music and its Performances either Live or Mechanically Reproduced. * Performance Copyright ~ That repays both the CD/Record Companys' investment and the Artists for making the Materials available to the General Public by way of Public Performances in Hotels, Bars, Shops, Factories, Stadiums, etc,etc. * Mechanical Copyright ~ Which mean's that if you want to make "Copies" of the contents of a CD/Record you have to pay for the use of the Materials contained therein. * Lawful Use ~ This is limited to a maximum of 30 seconds sample-rendition for the purposes of Demonstration of a Musical piece. Record and CD Stores and Web Stores use this facility for Demonstration purposes solely. Musical Copyright Legislation is virtually 'water-tight' and carries punitive Fines in default of the Legislation(s) this irrespective of Nationality as most Nations now have Copyright Laws dealing with all Media's. Hope this helps you.... Brian.Conflow.

Granpt, With respect, I think you have made an assumption and got the 'wrong end of the stick' ~ I did not suggest nor assume that your New Utility carried a trojan ~ others said that ! In fact I was defending your situation by letting Readers know that 'Trojans' are most often spread by careless ISP.Providers (I gave an example) and I also suggested that Web.Uploaders like yourself should check with their ISP.Providers when such things are reported back to you. I also included an explaination as to how these things operate. Concerning "AutoIt Program" I know absolutely nothing about it ~ I have no reason to use it. In the past year, every Program I downloaded is submitted to the 'Spynet Community' via 'Microsoft Beta 1.3 Anti-Spyware Utility' ~ this has guaranteed me absolute security, the Utility is "Free" and perhaps you would like to try that for yourself. I used to check Programs for others, but gave that up, as its a time consuming 'thankless task' and Microsoft Beta 1.3 can do the job much more effectively than I can..... Brian.Conflow

Granots' Play Sound Utility - Trojan. The PWS.Agent reported with this Sound Utility is usually one of those (simple) incipid Trojans thought up by Hi-School Students flexing their newly acquired knowledge in Computer Skills, ie: "Morons" ~ but none the less dangerous. PWS.Agent.XXX is a broad family of 'Data-Stealing' Trojans which usually operate as follows:- a) They usually reside in the 'Header Section' of your Home Page or Search Page but lately they tend to be dropped into the Header Section of your ISP.Providers' Home Page. So if you are depending on an ISP.Provider to "upload" your Web.Pages this rubbish can appear to origionate from your PC where in fact it is coming from your ISP.Provider without their (supposed) knowledge ~ Report the 'alledged infection' to your ISP.Provider and if they "will not check it" change your Provider. We had to do just that some years ago when we were deluged with +1300 Nasties over a 6 month period of in-activity with a certain ISP.Account. They didn't give a damn who they infected so we reported them to our Government PC.Security Authority ~ their attitude soon changed when they saw the imminent demise of their Licence. Hope this helps.... Brian.Conflow.

Seasons' Greetings....

Ken and Stonemason, Many thanks for the quick replies and in response, the Film's I was using were AGFA ISA 400's Pro which were purchased in Germany and colour corrected for Alpine usage with deep shadow. (The Film is actually made for those conditions, it does not 'flare-out' neither has it any Colour-cast in Hi-contrast situations) Agfa did warn me about Airport X-Ray Systems and they were not satisfied with Airport assurances as to "safe-scanning" even with the New Systems in use. The problem does not effect ISA 200's only 400's and 800's and appears as a 'Fog Cast' superimposed on the developed positives. They also advised storage in a Metal Container. Ken, It seems that you have been down this Road before ~ many thanks for the "Links" to Lead-Clad Film Containers, they are a lot more reasonable in price than what I would have imagined. 29 Dollars is not a lot for peace of mind and I take your point about...."where posible, get the Film's developed before you leave the destination".... Memory Cards. Again thank you both for the assurances that they are not effected by X-Ray Scanning... Brian.Conflow.

Airport X-Ray Baggage Scanners Hello All, I have two questions to ask, and I wonder if any Forum Member has any Travel experience in putting their Photo Equipment through "Airport X-Ray Baggage Scanners" ? ITEM.1. In the past I experienced damage to (AGFA ASA 400) Holiday Films which were passed through X-Ray Scanners - they fogged up. Despite AGFA's advice to have them 'Hand-Checked' my request was ignored at 'Check-In' and they were put through the Scanner, you know the rest, and you also know that you don't argue with these people ! Question.1 Is there any way of getting Films safely throught 'Check-In' ? ITEM.2 Digital Camera XD-Type Memory Cards. Question.2. How safe is it to let 'XD-Memory Cards' through these Security X-Ray Scanners ? ~ please appreciate now that its nearly 'strip-search' when one is going through 'Check-In' ~ no exceptions allowed. If anyone has any recent experience's and suggestions ~ It would really be appreciated. Brian.Conflow.

Hi Guys, Yes,I agree ~ there are times when the 'Nav-Bar' is really needed, particularily when you wish to have 'Multi-Control' over the Slide Show. Some time ago I suggested to Igor why not have the 'Nav-Bar' to automatically disappear ~ similar to the way you can select the Mouse Icon to disappear after 3 secs. It could be organised that when you move the Mouse it automatically re-appears. The old "MGI Photosuite" Program had that facility ~ I still use the program just for that purpose alone ! Brian.conflow.

Hi John, To add to the good advice from Alan (UK) and Jim (Canada) I notice that you are compounding your own problem's. (a) Given that you may be using a Lo-Sensitivity Mic and that your Recording Levels may be too low,you are also making the 'classic mistake' of speaking directly into the Mic which is causing the 'cracks' and 'pops'you are experiencing (this is due close-coupled Pressure Waves from your mouth) which pushes the Mic beyond its limits in trying to achieve good volume. ( The best way of using a Mic is some 4~6 inches below your Chin level or above your Forehead or to the side of your Face and speak across the Mic not into it ~ you will get the hang of it ! (c ) Personally I use a utility called "Audio Recorder Pro" which incorporates 'Stereo Bar-Graph Meters' by which I can precisely set the Music Level to -10 db (to allow for peaks) and then fade down to -20 db for 'Mic Voice Overs' which usually never exceed -3 db level. This utility also converts the 'Voice-Overs' directly to Mp3 or whatever other format I wish to use. It also has 'Auto-fade' and a host of other useful features. (d) Microphone:- You really need a good quality Uni-Directional, Balanced Dynamic Mic (what a mouthful !) About 600 Ohm Impedance and a decent Output Level around -60 db with a Noise-less Switch. I use a G-146 Sound-Lab as it is fairly insensitive to Desk Noise and Rear-pickup. People such as Maplin Electronics (U.K) and other's stock these things ~ try out www.maplin.co.uk and have a good "read-up" on Microphone. You will need to do that.... The Technicals:- To give you an idea: 0 db= .746Volt@600 Ohm, -10db is a third of that, -20db is a tenth of it, -40db is a hundreth of it, and -60db is a thousand of it. So a -60db Mic will give 7millevolt output. Sorry about the Technics but you are going to need some idea of Signal level in order to choose your New Mic. Brian.Conflow.

Good Man Roger, Well said, and good practical advice also. Keep the head well down whilst the ppi missives fly and you will live to fight another day....I too share your sentiments ! Brian.conflow.

Dead correct Al, In fact I was alluding to your 'Shows' ~ I should have said 'Effect Duration Times' Brian.Conflow.

Roger, Qualification:- The minimum Transition Time of ½.sec applies to really fast PC's ~ Tests with a fast Win '98 were on the absolute limit of stability, so I would not recommend this for 'slow' PC's irrespective what Operating Systems they are using. If in doubt use the default Transition Time of 1½ secs and proceed with the algorithm as suggested. Brian.Conflow.

TIMING PROBLEM'S At the end of the day, surely it's all about enjoying PTE and what it can do ~ and within reason ~ that assumes one chooses 'realistic parameters' for the Show to work properly. It's the reason that the Program 'default parameters' are there in the 1st.instance. They are there to allow for variations in factual Processor Timeout's. (The speed at which a particular Processor can execute a given task). That's nothing to do with the 'Operation System' nor the 'Clock Speed' but everything to do with the internal IDE-Buss Processing Speed and available Virtual Memory. One must appreciate that PTE has to work with older '95s, throught '98 and and 2000 and XP's right up to the fastest XP's available, consequently 'default parameters' are set so this operational range can be achieved for all users. Software:- I don't know of ANY Software Product that can't be fooled into making errors by stepping outside it's operational parameters and I have tries the best of them ! Here's a little 'Tip' where you can be assured that PTE will work properly. * Total Music Time -minus- Total Transition Times x 1.25 = Total Available Slide Timeline. * Where each 'Slide-Time' must be at least 1.5 times its preceeding Transition Time. * The minimum reliable Transition Time is ½sec (for faster PC's) For me, this algorithm works every time without failure ! Now back to enjoying my PTE Program..... Brian.Conflow.

TAZA, If you go down the page (25 Posts down) and look for "Problems with downloader Pte2" by Ronnie Boothwest you will find what you are looking for. Simple "Autoruns" work best with short Filenames (less than 10 Characters) with no breaks nor spacing !!! Use the "PTE Icon" if you have no experience working with Icon's ~ they can be dodgy at the best of times. Brian.Conflow.

Hi Igor, That's nice of you to investigate Gary's problem and indeed you found a 'soft-bug' with his Midi-File. Now I also use Midi Files with some of my Shows and I never had a problem with them on my 2000 Pro that's the reason I was trying to advise him concerning proper usage of his 512 Memory Stick. Of course like everything else with PC's it all depends on how the Music File was created and how the Show was downloaded to the Memory Stick in the 1st. place and certainly we here at BSL Computers have had many problems with large Memory Sticks and I thought that was only fair to point that out. I hope that did not cause any confusion, and perhaps someday one of your Technicians could 'Post' some instructions on the Forum as to how Members should download a PTE Show to a Memory Stick because this appears to be the future development in 'Solid State Recording & Playback' of PTE Presentations. Regards, Brian.Conflow.

Hi Gary, Just to give you a few leads:- When a PC is Manufactured it has no Operating System except for the internal Microprocessor Dos Commands. Your OEM Supplier such as Dell etc,etc installs a 'Licenced Operating System' such as Windows XP or Win 2000 or Linux or Apple Mac,etc.... The 'Operating System' also contains a (popular) Library of 'Device Drivers' which will give simple 'Functionality' to Hard Drives, Printers, Scanners, Modems, Sound Cards, Graphic Cards etc,etc. You know these devices as 'Plug and Play Devices' ~ They are ONLY Plug and Play if in the 1st. instance the Device Manufacturer made his product compatible to the generic Microsoft Drivers ~ most do ! However with the rampant advances in Technology it is impossible for the generic Drivers to cover everything, thats why most 'Modern Devices' come with an Installation Disc (even Hard Drives) the reason being to install the proper Drivers for the 'New Hardware'. I not that you have 'Quick Stick Removal' selected ~ in your case thats a wrong choice, it should be 'Optimised for Performance' as you are running an Exe from the Stick. You also have the 'Write Cache' disabled which means that the Stick is trying to "stream data" to an unknown Computer ~ in 90% of 'Demonstration Showroom Laptops' that won't work because the Laptop needs to talk to the Stick and 'cache' the download in blocks of data which it can digest. The same thing happens when you access your Hard-Drive although it's not apparent to you. For example 'older' Laptops fail to render a PTE Show either because they have no Memory resources but more likely the Hard-Disc Cache is so small that its virtually useless for anything other than Documents and a little Music. The 'Modern Laptops' are up to the job but need to be told what to do ~ It makes sense really ! Ken Cox recently commented to someone 'RTFM' ~ it was good advice (although naughty) ~ you need to spend a little time getting to grips with how these things work. It's time well spent as the days of the Generic Drivers are coming to an end, unfortunately that's not good news for those who rely on Plug & Play devices. Best of luck, hope this points you in the right direction.... Brian.Conflow.

Igor, Whatever they done, the Counter is working again, many thanks for your help. Brian.Conflow.

Hi Goddi, I do appreciate that Igor thinks that there may be a 'soft bug' in the Pte Program, i did explained that to the BSL Computer people (they are Microsoft OEM PC.Manufacturers) and they have had a lot of problems recently with '512mB Memory Sticks' of which there are 2 Types. One version has 2x256 mB embedded Chips and the latest version has 1x512 mB Matrix Chip both versions are sold as 512mB Sticks. Other 'Sticks' such as 68mB and 128mB don't have such problems unless they are running on an older PC. Even newer Sticks all the way up to 8 Gigabyte have serious problems. Its not about 'Tweaking' the Laptop, its as follows:- When you first used your 512 Stick on your personal PC, the PC said to you:-"Found New Hardware" and then offered to install Drivers for that Hardware, it also moved your Drive Letters down one place,ie:- Your CD. D-Drive now became your CD. E-Drive ~ this is because Sticks have a higher priority than CD-Drives. The same applies to 'Eternet LAN Cards' and to 'Wireless Modem Cards' and 'PCM-Cards' and other devices. It may be that your PC was 'Ready Set-up' for you and you were not aware of the 'set-up' requirements. Again I say, its in the Manual. In the installation process the PC is re-mapping its Memory Matrix (Where everything should be) and reassigning IRQ Port Addresses so it can communicate with the new devices (Its in the PC.Manual) Unfortunately,sometimes it "Finds" Hardware that it can't map-in (because it wasn't set-up), yes it tries to run it but it chokes on it at some stage. Why should you think that a Laptop is anyway different than a PC ? One has to remember that Memory Sticks are 'add-on accessories' and "Showroom Laptops" would not necessarilly be set-up to run such devices, why should they be ? on the off-chance that a person may like to try his New Accessory with a particular Laptop. Thats more than likely the reason that some Laptops failed to reproduce the Pte Program from a Memory Stick, but not withstanding that there may be a 'soft bug' in the Pte Program, so there are 2 possible failure modes to look at ~ the question is, which one is it ! Brian.Conflow.

Hi Al, Nice to hear everything went well for you with the "A/V Supercircuit" and that all the hard 'prep work' was well worthwhile in the long run. I reckon you are well overdue for those few pints of Guinness, I must have had a few when I got the date's wrong awhile ago ! Best to Liz and yourself, Brian.Conflow.

Hi Goddie, Out of curiosity I had a chat with my people at BSL Computers concerning your "512mB USB Memory Stick"and your experience with this on various Laptops. Firstly, they advised that you CANT go from Laptop to Laptop and try out your Pte Show with your Memory Stick. The simple explaination they gave is as follows:- a) Each and every Laptop Manufacturer uses different "Memory Matrix Management" and it is absolutely vital that you read the 'Laptop Instruction Manual' to find out what 'Format of Memory Stick' is supported and 'How Much Additional Memory' the Motherboard can support and finally how that additional Memory shall be installed and managed....all this is in the Manual. Yes, all Laptop PC's will start off reading most 'USB.2 Memory Sticks' however the PC can then run into 'Memory Cache' problems of incompatibility and sometimes only recognises half the Memory Stick Matrix and then freezes. This has nothing to do with Processor Speed or amount of inbuilt RAM, its everything to do with the 'Memory Matrix Mapping' which is critical on Portables. The 1st.thing to fail will be the Video Graphics System as it uses the largest 'on board cache' provided it can get access to the data streaming from the '512 Stick' which depends on the Memory Matrix Management doing that job. c) They advise that any competent Sales Technician (not Salesman) should have advised you about this and taken the time to choose a suitable Laptop Portable capable of supporting that particular type of '512 Stick'. I hope this may be of some use to you, or at least that it point's your nose in the right direction. Regards, Brian.Conflow.

Igor and Goddi, One thing comes to my mind !....would it be that Goddi's Laptop has the "Power Saver Utility" switched on ? This same problem drove me mad with my Toshiba Laptop which 'blanked' the LCD Display after 20 minutes but the 'Music' kept running. Solution:-go into Power Settings and re-adjust......just a thought ! Brian.Conflow. P.S Igor, my counter seems to be running again ~ many thanks.

Hi Marianne, Sorry I can't help you on this occasion as I switched over to "Paint-2.Net" last year (It's part of Microsofts'.NET Framework System) Concerning Photoshop, yes I do agree with you, it can be a real 'chore' and gets frustrating every time you wish to bring in a new Photo. Paint-2.Net does not have that problem, you can open one Photo after the other and it also has a fast comparitor called "Recent" which stores your most recent viewings where you can jump from one to another and add layers for comparison purposes. This Program is 'Free' form Microsoft but you must have the (dot) .NET Framework System installed on your PC for it to work. Your problem is the very reason I changed over to Paint-2.Net. Paint-2.NET is Microsofts Paint Program' that was completely re-designed by Microsoft & Washington State University. It incorporates many 'Photoshop Elements' with Multi-Layering and unlimited 'Undo & Redo' and a host of powerful new extras not available in Photoshop. Put it this way...it suits all my Photo Edit needs ~ maybe someone else may have an answer to your Photoshop problem. Brian.Conflow.

ALAN, On this 'Main forum Page' go down about 9 Posts ago and find topic.."PTE Bug on my New Computer...by bharkins"....its a Sound problem similar to yours. Go to the 'reply' from Conflow and this should help you. Brian.Conflow.

Hi Guys' Many thanks for the suggestions ~ but if memory serves me correctly, the 'old' Invision Board used to incriment for each and every 'Reply' made to a particular Query. It was a simple way of keeping track of the 'replies' and to whom the 'replies' were sent to. In the New Invision Board there are 2 methods of reply: (a) That directly under/within that 'Numbered Query Page' from the Enquirer ~ my counter does not incriment when Posting a reply (as a footnote) attached within that particular Posted Page. ( The 'General Reply' option at the end of this Screen Page (Add Reply) ~ that seems to incriment O.K. c) New Topic option also incriments O.K ~ but replies posted within that Topic Page do not incriment the counter. The small 'bug' applies to answering a Member directly under his/her 'Sign-Off Signature' on their Posted Page. It may be an operational feature of the New Invision Board ~ the only problem being that you can not refer a Member to a previous 'answer' given to someone else ~ there is no current reference No: to refer back to. Then again, I might be doing something wrong....I am using Pte 4.41 Brian.Conflow.

Hi Igor, (Small Problem) It seems that my Mail Counter has 'Frozen' again ~ it's stuck on Count 326. Could you ask 'Invision' to correct this small problem ? Many Thanks, Brian.Conflow. P.S I see the problem, it only counts when I Mail a 'New Topic' but does not count replies to other Forum Members ~ strange ?

Set-Up Problem The problem you describe looks like an 'omission' in your Set-Up ~ Some Questions? 1) Is the Loudspeaker Icon in the (bottom) Screen Taskbar ? a) If not visible some 'Sound Mixer Drivers' are missing. If it is visible,double click the Icon ~Open Mixer~ make sure that "Wave" is turned on. 2) Can you play a standard Music CD ? a) If not, you need to open 'Media Player Options' ~Find Formats~ Select them all, for 'On' If correcting these common 'set-up omissions' do not work, I am afraid you will have to trace the 'Sound Drivers' (if installed) and check to see if the Version Numbers agree with those required by the Sound Card. Brian.Conflow.