Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Vertical Horizon launches MyBlood 1.0 for Windows and Macintosh

The following announcement was written by Vertical Horizon, a Belgium-based software company:

Antwerp, 23rd of November 2009. Vertical Horizon, the Belgium based software company announces general availability of its genealogy application MyBlood.

MyBlood has a number of unique features that make the product stand out towards its competitors:

• MyBlood runs on Mac OS as well as on XP, Vista and Windows 7 with the same single source code and is fully GEDCOM 5.5 compliant
• MyBlood has very strong visualization capabilities, leading to a very intuitive user interface and makes it very easy to learn
• MyBlood can handle any type of media files and allows tagging of people on pictures
• MyBlood integrates with Google Maps even allowing use locations and distance as selection criteria in its powerful search engine.
• MyBlood can run in any language and comes out of the box in English, Dutch, French, German and Spanish.

Personal Ancestry Writer II version 90 for Macintosh

Personal Ancestry Writer II (often called PAW2U) has a new release available: version 90. The program is written by Howard H. Metcalfe and released to everyone as a free program. The following was written by Howard H. Metcalfe:

I have written a freeware genealogy program, Personal Ancestry Writer II (PAWriter II), for MacOS X. It combines most of the features of the LDS Personal Ancestral File program (PAF) for the Macintosh (for which all development stopped a few years ago after release 2.3.1), with additional features that generate web pages (in HTML), word processing files (in RTF for, e.g., AppleWorks) and desktop publishing files (in MML for FrameMaker). The generated report files include genealogical dictionaries, registers, ahnentafels and lineages—such as appear on this site—as well as some interesting text files and pedigree charts.

RootsMagic Releases Free "RootsMagic Essentials:" Genealogy and Family Tree Software

I'd consider this to be a major new announcement. The following was written by RootsMagic, Inc.:

SPRINGVILLE, Utah. — November 18, 2009 — RootsMagic, Inc. announced the immediate availability of RootsMagic Essentials, free desktop genealogy software based on their award-winning RootsMagic 4 system. RootsMagic Essentials contains many core features found in its namesake that allow the public to easily start tracing their family trees.

Essential Features for Everyone
“Many of our users have told us that they have friends and family members who are interested in getting started in family history but aren’t ready to invest in a more comprehensive package like RootsMagic,” said Bruce Buzbee, president. “RootsMagic Essentials gives them the features they need to start researching and recording their family tree at a price that can’t be beat—free!”

Coming Soon: Family Tree Maker Program Update

An article by Michelle Pfister in the Ancestry.com blog describes an update to Family Tree Maker 2010. The update has not yet been released but apparently is imminent.  Here are some of the highlights:

MobileTree for the iPhone and iPod Touch

With MobileTree, New Family Search customers can access their FamilySearch data directly on their iPhone or iPod Touch. In short, you can have your online database in your pocket at all times, and the information is automatically updated without any involvement from you. There is no copying of files, no GEDCOM files, and no other systems tasks involved. Just turn the handheld device on and use it.

Keep in mind that MobileTree only works with New Family Search, the database owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. New Family Search is still in beta test and is available only to members of that church plus a few others. If you do not have a user name and password to New Family Search, the MobileTree program will be useless to you - for now. New Family Search will someday be released to the general public. When that happens, MobileTree and similar programs will become useful for everyone.

MobileTree directly accesses the New Family Search Database for its information, allowing retrieval of the Church's genealogy records. You can access those records from any location, as long as your iPhone or iPod Touch can connect to the Internet via a wireless connection. If Internet access is not available, you may view information that is already displayed on MobileTree. However you may not search for new information without Internet access. The Internet is available on the iPhone through 3G or wi-fi wireless networking. The iPod Touch only works with wi-fi.

Paint.NET - the Free Photoshop Alternative

Paint.NET is a free, fast, and powerful image editor for Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. Paint.NET is a giant leap above Microsoft Paint, and a serious alternative to bigger, bloated image editors like Photoshop or GIMP. Being mean and lean, Paint.NET doesn't do everything that its expensive competitors can do; yet, it's a great value for the price (zero).

Originally intended as a free replacement for the Microsoft Paint software that comes with Windows, Paint.NET has grown into a powerful yet simple image and photo editor tool. It handles most of the basics you'd expect from advanced image editors, and the latest version has added new effects (including new blurs and distortions), better performance, and a complete refresh of the user interface.

Update: Dropbox: Why You Need This Program

When I recently purchased a new computer, I immediately installed several programs that I would hate to live without: Firefox, Evernote, OpenOffice, and Dropbox. All of them are free programs.

Dropbox is available for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and now for the Apple iPhone. I have come to depend on this program. If you use one computer, this program can be useful. However, if you use two or more computers, such as a desktop system and a laptop system or perhaps one computer at home and another at the office, I'd consider this program to be indispensable.

ourFamily•ology Web-Based Genealogy Software Program

I have only looked at this web site for a few minutes but it does look interesting. It is a web-based genealogy program. The following announcement is a press release written by Family-Genealogy.com:

Nov 03, 2009 – FRANKLIN LAKES, NJ - ourFamily•ology today announced that, in celebration of the official launch of its website at http://www.Family-Genealogy.com, it is offering a 15-day free trial to all visitors.

CousinCalc for the iPhone

Not sure what to call that relative of yours? Is she really your "first cousin once removed?" Pull out your iPhone and check!

CousinCalc is a small program for the Apple iPhone that makes it very easy to determine the proper term for a relationship. Simply tap familiar relationship terms (like mother, sister, or aunt) just as if you were describing it to another person.

For example, to calculate the proper term for "my grandmother's sister's daughter," you simply tap Grandmother, Sister, and then Daughter and CousinCalc displays "First cousin once removed."

I Bought a Windows 7 PC

This time I took my own advice. Last week I wrote an article that points out that the price of purchasing a new PC with Windows 7 already pre-installed isn't all that much more expensive than purchasing the Windows 7 software upgrade alone: $299 versus $120 or so, depending upon where you shop. This week I purchased a $299 desktop computer (after rebates) with 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium pre-installed.

To be sure, at this price you don't get a "barn burner" with top-of-the-line performance. However, it is a reasonably good machine, moderately fast with a lot of disk storage space and quite a bit of RAM memory. You can find these bargain PCs at almost all the discount computer stores. All have roughly the same specifications with minor variations. I purchased mine at Staples but similar bargains are available at most other discount stores: BestBuy, OfficeMAX, Fry's, MicroCenter, and more.

Computer Virus Tutorial

Are you mystified by computer viruses? The "Computer Virus Tutorial" is an informative tutorial that explains what a computer virus is, a history of computer viruses, and more.

It is a free tutorial and is available at http://www.cknow.com/cms/vtutor/cknow-virus-tutorial.html.

Windows 7: Read Before Upgrading

Windows 7 will be released on Thursday. I suspect that some people are planning to upgrade their Windows XP systems to Windows 7 soon after the release. If you are a Windows XP user who is thinking of upgrading, I'd suggest that you first read the instructions carefully. The upgrade path from XP to Windows 7 is a bit rocky.

Buy Windows 7, Get an Almost Free Computer

Windows 7 will be released the day after tomorrow. I am thinking of purchasing a  copy so that I can write software reviews while testing the programs on Microsoft's latest version. This morning I read a sales flyer to check out prices. In this case, it was an advertisement from MicroCenter, a chain of 22 computer stores. I think most other discount computer stores have similar pricing.

MicroCenter will start selling Windows 7 full version software on Thursday morning for $199.99. An upgrade version sells for $119.99. (You might note than only Vista can be upgraded. All older Windows operating systems will require a full reformat of the hard drive and a new installation, not an upgrade.)

I couldn't help but notice the same sales flyer lists a number of laptops being sold with Windows 7 pre-installed. Prices begin at $299.99.

You mean that I can buy a complete computer for only $100 more than the cost of the operating system? In effect, MicroCenter is saying, "Buy the operating system and we will throw in a complete computer for another $100."

Still More About Backups

In a comment on the end of the recent "(+) Life Expectancy of Audio Tapes and VHS Video Tapes versus CD and DVD Disks" Plus Edition article, a newsletter reader asked, "Do you suggest that I copy all my old 3 and 1/2 inch floppies that I have backed up from my earlier research from my hard drive? Do you know of life expectancies for these?"

I thought I would share my answer here.

FamilyBee, a Genealogy Viewer for the Google Android Phone

FamilyBee, a genealogy viewer for the Google Android phone, has been released in Beta version. This viewer includes all data in a genealogy file, including family, pedigree and descendants views, notes and sources.

FamilyBee is advertised as "an industrial strength family tree browser.  Allows viewing of all details for individuals and families in GEDCOM genealogy files." The beta test version is available free of charge although it will stop working some day. The developer expects that, once the beta is complete, the regular version will sell for $10.

Microsoft Office 2010 Starter Edition To Be Offered For Free, But With A Catch

In the face of growing competition from several free word processing and spreadsheet programs, Microsoft has announced that the next version of Microsoft Word and Excel will add a stripped-down version that will be available free of charge. However, it will not be available to everyone.

The present versions of Microsoft Office sell for $150 to $600, depending on which programs are included. Word and Excel are always included in all versions, but Outlook, Access, Publisher, and other Microsoft Office programs are generally not included in the cheaper versions.

Ordinance Tracker Stand Alone Released

The following announcement was written by Ohana Software:

Ordinance Tracker was first released as an integrated part of the program FamilyInsight. Because of its success, Ohana Software has now released Ordinance Tracker as a stand alone. The program is new in that it gives LDS genealogists the ability to print and track ordinances in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get interface. When you bring up your reserved ordinances, it actually looks like a bunch of ordinance cards stacked up by type. Three stacks, pink, blue, and yellow. When asked about this design, John Vilburn said "The simple design is meant to be intuitive. You pick up the ordinance card and put it into the ordinance request preview, then click print. There's not much to learn."

Possible Data Loss on Macintosh

I've frequently written about data losses and often have singled out Windows security problems. Now a similar bug has been detected in the latest version of Macintosh's operating system.

The Macintosh bug concerns the use of the Guest account. If you switch from an Administrator account to a Guest account and then back again, there is a risk of wiping out the home directory data in the Administrator account. It doesn't happen every time, but does happen occasionally. Of course, happening even once can be disastrous, if you don't have backups. The problem exists only in Snow Leopard, the latest version of the Macintosh operating system.

Free Anti-Virus Program from Microsoft

I have written before about free anti-virus programs. Now a new program is available from a company that knows quite a bit about Windows' security problems: Microsoft.

Every Windows computer needs to have an anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-rootkit, and anti-Trojan program installed. You can find several to choose from at your local computer store for perhaps $20 to $60 or so. However, knowledgeable computer users have successfully used free anti-virus programs for years.

Note: While all the free anti-virus programs do seem to protect against viruses, not all of them protect against the other problems: spyware, rootkits, and Trojans. The new program from Microsoft claims to protect against all of those.

unpaper - Post-Processing Scanned and Photocopied Book Pages

Have you scanned bound books, only to find that the pages are curled near the center binding? You also may have noticed that some of the pages are skewed. A program called "unpaper" may solve those problems. Please note that the software only runs on Linux systems. I haven't yet used unpaper but it looks promising.

Quoting from the unpaper web site: