Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Netbook Computers for $129.99 to $219.99

I have become a big fan of "netbook" computers. These laptop computers are about the size of a VHS videotape, typically weighing two pounds or less. They have screens as small as seven inches although the fancier and more expensive ones may have ten or eleven-inch screens. The keyboards typically are less than full size as well. Almost all of them include built-in wi-fi wireless networking, and most include web cams. Best of all, most of them sell for $250 to $400 – a steal, in my opinion.

I bought my first netbook computer about a year and a half ago and have since carried it to New Zealand, England, and all over the U.S. as well as on two cruise ships. That little Asus Eee computer has served me well. I don't use it much when at home, but it became my favorite computer to take traveling. I now leave the 6.5-pound Windows laptop at home. I have connected to the Internet from hotel rooms, airport lounges, and cruise ships. While traveling, I have sent and received e-mail, surfed the web, written newsletter articles,  posted those articles, and made a number of international phone calls via Skype. When in New Zealand, I called home free of charge most every day, using Skype on that tiny netbook computer. Not bad for a computer that slips into an overcoat pocket!

Jump Drives: Bigger Capacities and Cheaper than Ever

I have written a number of times about jump drives, also called thumb drives, USB drives, flash drives, memory sticks, and a number of other names. They are all about the same, regardless of name used. These devices are great for short-term backups and for transporting data from one computer to another. Want to copy data from your desktop to the laptop computer? Use a jump drive. Want to copy data from your cousin's genealogy database and take it home with you? Use a jump drive.

I suggest that every computer-owning genealogist should own at least one of these tiny devices. You can purchase one for less than five dollars.

iPhone 3G S First Impressions

Apple started selling the latest version of its popular iPhone this morning. Rather than wait in line at a local Apple store, I ordered mine online a couple weeks ago with a promise of delivery today. Sure enough, the UPS driver appeared in my driveway at 9:05 AM.

As I signed for the package, the UPS driver asked, "New iPhone, eh?" Then he started asking lots of questions. I think he was more excited about the iPhone than I was. He also told me it was his first delivery of the day to a private residence, and he decided to deliver to me first as he realized the package contained a new iPhone. The driver had other deliveries to make, so he didn't wait around for me to open the package.

Nanotech Memory Could Hold Data For 1 Billion Years

One of the fallacies that you hear often is that "storing data digitally is not good for long-term data storage." The 10 to 100 gigabits of data per square inch on today’s memory cards has an estimated life expectancy of only 10 to 30 years.

Indeed, writing once to today's digital media is not a good long-term solution but that totally ignores the topics of data maintenance and data replication. Whatever the process, many people still believe that the only media that is suitable for long-term storage is paper and/or microfilm.

A new technology has been announced that should put an end to such beliefs.

ASUS Eee PC 1008HA Netbook Now Available for Ordering on Amazon

I have written before about tiny "netbook" computers. You can read my earlier article, Is a $400 Netbook Useful?, at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/12/is-a-400-netboo.html.  I took my 2.2-pound MSI netbook to the recent NGS Conference and demo'ed this newsletter to many conference attendees on the tiny system. Now Amazon is accepting orders for what appears to be the hottest new netbook on the market but is not yet promising a ship date.

ASUS Eee PC 1008HA is being sold for $409.99 and includes Windows XP, a 160 gigabyte hard drive, one gigabyte of memory (expandable to two gigabytes) and a 10-inch screen. It also includes built-in wi-fi wireless networking, a wired ethernet networking connection, and a 1.66 gigahertz Atom CPU (central processor). It has a keyboard that is 92% the size of a standard keyboard which should be sufficient to meet the needs of touch typists. It also has a 9.5-hour battery! Yes, you can use it for nine and a half hours before charging it.

Kindle DX: Amazon's 9.7" Wireless Reading Device

I ordered an Amazon Kindle the day they first became available, and I love it. I use this handheld book e-reader to read newspapers and some books. I love it for newspapers, magazines, and reference materials (dictionaries, encyclopedias, "how-to" books, etc.) but probably will never use it to read a novel. I read the Wall Street Journal on the Kindle every day. The Journal is delivered by a wireless data connection during the night.

The biggest drawback of the Kindle I have been using is screen size. The display is crystal sharp but is only about 6 inches on the diagonal. Now Amazon has announced a new Kindle DX with a 9.7-inch screen and is accepting pre-orders. I suspect the larger screen will be even easier to read although the first model was rather easy on the eyes. The new screen is roughly the same size as a printed magazine. In fact, with its adjustable font sizes, the Kindle is often recommended for people with vision problems. Its crystal sharp display is easier to read than printed pages. If a word or phrase is difficult to see, it can be instantly magnified into huge letters that vision-impaired readers will appreciate.

Build a High-Speed Book Scanner from Trash and Cheap Cameras

Now here is a project: instead of purchasing a book scanner for $15,000 to $100,000 or more, build your own from scrap parts and cheap digital cameras.

Digital books change the landscape. After suffering through scanning many of my old, rare, and government issue books, I decided to create a book scanner that anybody could make, for around $300.

You can find step-by-step instructions at: http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-High-Speed-Book-Scanner-from-Trash-and-Cheap-C.

A Neat Scanner

I have recently spent a lot of hours using a really neat scanner. I know it is neat, as that word is embossed on the top of the scanner: Neat. It is sold by The Neat Company of Philadelphia. The model I have been using is called the Neat Receipts for Macintosh Mobile Scanner. The company also produces an identical unit, except for the included software, called the Neat Receipts for Windows Mobile Scanner. After using it for about ten hours, I must say that I am very impressed with this tiny scanner that slides into an overcoat pocket.

Admittedly, I did not purchase this scanner to scan genealogy documents (although it can do that) or to scan old family photographs (although it can do that also but with some reservations). Instead, I purchased this scanner to prepare my income taxes.

Pogoplug: the Simplest Method of Sharing Files over the Internet

Would you like to place your family tree information online? How about some old family photographs? Or pictures of your grandchildren? Maybe you are a writer and wish to publish your work. You could even write a blog. Perhaps you would like to place MP3 music files of your barbershop quartet online or make video files available of your last vacation. Maybe your local genealogy society wishes to place information online. Indeed, there are thousands of reasons for making files available on the Internet.

So how do you put your information online? There must be dozens of methods of accomplishing just that at varying levels of complexity. You can upload your genealogy information to any of a dozen or so genealogy sites. You can place pictures of all sorts on photo sharing sites. You can publish pictures and brief text information on FaceBook. You could even purchase an expensive web server and install it in your home or rent space in a professional data center. I am guessing there are dozens of methods of placing information online, at varying levels of expense and complexity.

I believe the simplest method, however, is to use a Pogoplug.

The Asus Eee 1000HE Netbook Reviewed

"Netbooks" is a rather new word in my vocabulary. The word refers to tiny laptop computers, usually weighing 2.5 pounds (roughly a kilogram) or less. These tiny systems seem to be taking over the marketplace. A year ago they were almost unheard of and yet today they are the hottest sellers in the computer stores.

I own a couple of these little computers and am very impressed with them. All is not perfect, however. Computers of this size typically have smaller-than-normal screens, smaller-than-normal keyboards, and usually have no CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive at all. (You can plug in an external USB drive or use a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive that is in your desktop system by hooking up a simple network or file transfer cable.)

These computers are extremely successful because they are useful and because they are cheap. Many of them sell for less than $400. In fact, the local department stores near me are selling some netbooks for as little as $250. At that price, you get a 7-inch screen (which can be hard to see), a very small keyboard, a small disk drive, and the Linux operating system. However, as you move above $300, the netbooks typically include a 9- or 10-inch screen, a larger keyboard, a 160-gigabyte disk drive, and Windows XP. I find a 10-inch screen to be easily readable.

Want a $50 Laptop Computer? But there's a Catch

I have written before about "netbook" computers. You can see my earlier article at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/12/is-a-400-netboo.html. These are tiny laptop computers, typically weighing 2 1/2 pounds or less. Capabilities vary, but most of them are capable of running modern genealogy programs on Windows XP or Linux. I even modified one of these tiny computers to run the Macintosh OS X operating system. (See http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/03/-best-of-both-worlds-windows-and-macintosh-on-one-tiny-laptop.html.) Now AT&T is selling full-featured netbook computers in the Atlanta and Philadelphia areas for $50.

There is a significant drawback to the offer however: you only get that price if you also sign up for AT&T's wireless data plan. Of course, if you want a tiny laptop computer and plan to use it for checking e-mail and surfing the web while traveling, you probably planned to sign up for wireless data anyway. If so, $50 for a tiny laptop computer is a great deal. If you don't need wireless data, this offer probably won't interest you.

BookDrive Pro - A Cradle Scanner

I want one of these!

This week, ATIZ of Los Angeles introduced a brand-new cradle scanner, called the BookDrive Pro. It is designed to scan books, maps, newspapers, and other documents without inducing any page curl and with minimal handling of the documents. The result is sharper images and little or no damage to delicate documents being scanned.

I haven't had a chance to get my hands on a BookDrive Pro just yet. After all, they were only announced this week. However, I did talk today with Nick Warnock at ATIZ. He patiently answered my questions and offered additional information about his company's new scanner.

If you have ever tried to scan a bound book by using a normal flatbed scanner, you are probably already familiar with page curl. If you turn a book upside down and place it on a normal flatbed scanner, such as any of the scanners for sale at your local computer store, you will note that the outer two-thirds of each page will scan well. However, as you get closer and closer to the bound edge of a page, the image is degraded. The binding prevents the entire page from being placed flat on the scanning surface. The result is referred to as "page curl." The image is not very useful, and using OCR software to decode the words on the page will probably be impossible.

See the images in this article for examples; click on any image to see a larger picture.

Souped-Up Scanner Reads Books Aloud

Plustek scanners have long been favored by genealogists and others who frequently scan books. Many Plustek scanners have a specially designed edge and lamp that allows "zero edge" scanning (or book edge scanning design). This means the scanning module can scan right up to the edge of the scanner where the book spine is placed. The book can therefore be scanned with the pages completely flat on the glass to avoid the book spine shadow and distorted lines of text that occur when books are scanned on a traditional flatbed scanner.

Now Plustek has created something new: a scanner that reads to you. Just plunk a novel on the platen, punch a button, and away you go: you're relaxing to the dulcet sounds of Jill, a computerized voice, as she reads aloud to you. You still have to turn the pages, but you'll never have to strain your eyes again.

The scanner also produces MP3s or WAV files that you can save and listen to at a later time. Oh yes, it also saves images and even performs OCR (optical character recognition) of the text being scanned.

Is a $400 Netbook Useful?

A year ago I published a Plus Edition article describing a $400 "netbook" that I had just purchased. A "netbook" is a new term for a tiny, low-powered laptop computer, usually weighing two pounds of less. These are small computers that are cheaper and lighter than full-scale laptops.

In the year since I purchased mine, I have traveled extensively and have used it to check e-mail from many hotel rooms, airports, and other places. I have written newsletter articles using its built-in word processor and have also created web pages for the eogn.com web site using an HTML editor that I downloaded and installed on the netbook.

In short, I have used this two-pound, $400 netbook to perform almost all the same applications that I typically do with my older $1,000+ laptop.

$129 Laptop

The title is correct: you can now purchase a laptop for only $129 each plus shipping. There is one caveat however: you have to purchase a minimum of 100 units.

Perhaps you have a lot of friends.

The Impulse NPX-9000 laptop has a 7-inch screen and comes with the Linux OS. It has a 400MHz processor, 128M bytes of RAM, 1G byte of flash storage and an optional wireless networking dongle. It includes office productivity software, a Web browser and multimedia software. It runs the Linux operating system, not Microsoft Windows.

The Future of E-paper

I love e-books: books and other publications that are available in electronic format instead of on paper. I have several hundred such books stored on my desktop and laptop computers and many on an Amazon Kindle, including newspapers, books downloaded from Google Books, many blogs, and more. I read the Wall Street Journal every day on an Amazon Kindle. I almost never print anything these days; I prefer to read text on a computer screen or on the Kindle.

NOTE: I recently wrote a Plus Edition article about e-books. That article is still available at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/05/a-genealogy-lib.html.

What Might Have Been: The Census PC

The 2010 U.S. census was supposed to have been conducted by enumerators (census takers) who were carrying handheld computers. The high-tech equipment got scrubbed, as described in my earlier "'A Lack of Effective Communication Adds $3 Billion to U.S. Census Cost” article at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/04/2010-us-census.html.

All such equipment requires type approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The manufacturer of the handheld computers recently submitted a prototype for approval, even though the project has been scrubbed. I am guessing that the manufacturer still seeks approval so that similar computers can be sold for other projects.

The Care and Feeding of Flash Drives

It's official: the floppy drive is dead. Dell and a plethora of other PC manufacturers have simply stopped including floppy disk drives, thanks in no small part to the smaller, lighter, and faster USB flash drive that can carry over 1,000 times the standard 3.5" floppy.

In a recent conversation with a newsletter subscriber, I casually mentioned flash drives. These devices are also known as jump drives, thumb drives, USB drives, and probably a few other names as well. The subscriber mentioned that she had purchased a flash drive but didn't know how to use it. This article is for her and probably for a lot of other people who also have not yet used one of these great devices. I am also including information about programs and advanced uses that may be news even for experienced flash drive users.

First of all, flash drives/jump drives/thumb drives are not drives at all. So much for accuracy in naming! These pocket-sized devices contain a tiny circuit board, some amount of flash memory, and some supporting electronics. Flash memory is noted for its storage capabilities; when you turn the power off, the stored data does not disappear. It has been saved in the flash memory. You later can re-apply power and all the data will still be available, identical to what it was when the power was turned off.

The Mac Died

I’ve written often about the need to make frequent backups. This week I had a chance to “practice what I preach.”

I use several computers, including Windows, Macintosh, and Linux systems. I use a Macintosh desktop system most of the time, but I also use other systems when performing specific tasks, such as reviewing Windows genealogy software.

I went on a business trip this week and visited a number of newsletter readers in their homes. One lady I visited described how a recent hard drive crash had destroyed all her genealogy data as well as scanned photographs and everything else stored on the computer. She had never made a backup copy of anything on her system. She had hard copies of most of the data but was missing many source citations. Those were gone forever. She had her original photographs but now needed to re-scan all of them. Her multimedia scrapbooks and much or her work had disappeared in the hard drive crash. I shook my head in sympathy as I listened to her story.

ST Genie Converts Microfilm to Scanned Computer Images

The ST Genie is advertised as a low cost ($1,075) device that is used to convert microfilm to computer images. It should appeal to genealogists, historians, local studies specialists, and archivists, as well as dedicated amateurs and professional researchers. Indeed, the price is lower than other microfilm scanners I have seen. I can envision a lot of genealogy societies, historical societies, museums, and others purchasing the ST Genie to digitize microfilms for use on the World Wide Web or for conversion to CD-ROM.

Most microfilm scanners are automated. The user inserts a reel of microfilm and pushes a button. An hour or two later, the process is complete: electric motors automatically advance the microfilm one image at a time, and the conversion to scanned images takes place with little or no human interaction. Several of the major genealogy and history web sites use such automated devices for their image conversion needs. Automation costs money: many of these automated scanners cost $10,000 to $100,000 or even more.

The ST Genie is non-automated: a human must sit at the device and manually advance the microfilm, frame by frame, by turning a crank on the film carrier (the microfilm reels). Each image is produced when the same human operator pushes a button, similar to a desktop scanner. The human then must wait for the scanning process to complete on each image and then examine the result on the attached computer's screen before moving on to the next image. While tedious, the constant human interaction should result in high-quality images as each image is examined before moving on to the next scan. If the image isn't very good, the human operator can always make adjustments and rescan.