The Computer Club Newsletter

October 2004

By Ron Uncapher

I would like to welcome you all to the November meeting of the Tellico Village Computer Users Club. The meeting will feature a presentation on "How to Back Up Your Computer". I’m sure you will want to come and find out just what "Back Up" is. I’ll give you a clue. You can not use reverse gear unless you first back up. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004 on the upper floor of the Yacht Club. A beginner Basics session will start at 6:30 PM and feature a short basics presentation. After a 10 minute break, the General Meeting will begin at 7:30 PM. Howard Jones will be the presenter.

In the mean time, it will help some to be able to "burn" a CD. Most of you who have bought a new computer in the last three to four years probably have a CD ROM burner in your computer. No, it is not a place to dispose of old Compact Discs. A CD ROM player has been in computers for many years. Most software distributions are purchased on a CD, inserted into your CD ROM drive and installed, usually automatically. A CD ROM will also play a music CD's. Your computer probably came with a software program that opens and plays a music CD when you place it in the drive; again, it probably starts and plays automatically. Newer computers may have DVD ROM players. As with the CD, you place a movie DVD it in the drive, close the drive door and it starts to play.

A CD ‘Burner" is a step above a reader. A burner will allow you to record data, music, or in the case of a DVD burner, video from your camcorder, or movies. There are many terms surrounding these compact disc recorders. They involve how the drives format the data or music on the disk and where or if you can play them back on another device. Beyond the format is the recording speed. Newer drives can read and record much faster that older models. For example, an older CD will read at 4X, or 4 times some reference speed, i.e. 4 X 120,000 bits per second. A newer reader will read at 52X. Similarly an old recording drive may record at 4X and a newer one at 48X.

The format in which a CD disk is recorded is less important that that of a DVD. There are two types of CDs, recordable, –R, and rewritable, –RW. When you buy a CD-R disk you can record on it only once. It can’t be erased. On the other hand, a CD-RW disk can be recorded, erased, and re-recorded up to one thousand times. A CD drive will record on a CD-R disc faster that on a CD-RW disk, hence the designation "18/12/48". This means it will record on a –R disk at 18X, record on a –RW at 12X, and read both at 48X. For most users the differences are not too significant. You might record a full disk in 4 minutes or 12 minutes. It is more important to match the media with the drive. For a 4X drive, buy 4X CDs. For a 48X drive, buy a 48X CD. Don’t expect a 4X CD to write faster in a 48X drive!   The speed of your drive may be found in the user’s manual of your computer. The record or read speed of a CD is found on the packaging.

This article is too short to go into how to record on a CD. If you have a CD-R or –RW, your computer came with a program that will allow you to record data or music and probably copy CDs. Windows Media Player 9 will allow you to copy CDs or "rip", edit a play list of music pieces and then record them to a CD. The term "rip" merely means copy off the music from a music CD to your computer’s hard drive. As an added note, the term MP3 is a compression format that allows you to pack more music on a CD, about ten times more that the normal music wav or wmp format. The normal wmp format of a music CD will play up to 75 minutes of music on a CD. MP3 formatted music will play about 12 ½ hours, but only on a device that can read the MP3 format.

Now that you can record a CD, what do you record? How about rip music from your CD or other source? Skip the pieces you don’t like, and record the good stuff on another CD. Or save your photos off the computer onto CDs that you can view on your television set or send to the kids. Or back up your files or entire computer.

One of our members, Bob Mugge, put me on a great site for learning about all sorts of computer technology, including CDs, DVDs, and MP3. Go to www.PCSTATS.com . On the left of the home screen is a list of sections. At the top is Beginner Guides. Click on it. The next screen will have the list of guides. About 15 lines down is "Burning CDs and DVDs". A great source. And there is a lot more.

By the way, now is the time to make sure your anti virus program is up to date. Also, if your Windows is not set to automatic update, get the security updates now. For club members, the club just received a pack of Windows XP SP-2 update disks. Especially if you are on dial-up you will want come to the next meeting and get one. It will save hours and hours of downloading.