Computer Info – May 3, 2000

This Week’s Program

        Demonstrate two programs – Planetarium Gold and RioPort Audio Manager.

Planetarium Gold

        Planetarium Gold is a program that we recently purchased – so thought we would share our information on the program with you.
        The program contains information on stars, galaxies, and planets complete with the scientific data and vivid photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. All of the objects shown on the Planetarium screen can be selected and clicked by using the mouse to display detailed information.
Some of the special features of this program are:
        You can observe the sky from any virtual position in the world!
        20 Million stars are included based on GSC (Guide Star Catalog) from NASA.
        Over 200 galaxies, star clusters, and nebulae are displayed.
        Sun, Moon and the planets are shown with their 3D relative position displayed in real-time.
        The phases of the moon can be displayed in real-time.
        The sky can be displayed and updated in real time and is updated automatically.
        The Planetarium view can be printed in high resolution.
        Display information about an object by right-clicking on it with the mouse.
The cost is about $30.00.

Rioport Audio Manager

        This is a new ripper program that we read about in the Access magazine. The program can be downloaded at
                  http://www.rioport.com
        This program allow you to
        rip (Ripping is the process of extracting raw audio files from a music CD. Ripping is the first part of making an MP3 file. The files that MP3 Rippers make are called WAV files, and they are quite large in size. After the recording process, it is necessary to convert the wave file to MP3 format. This is done with an MP3 encoder.).
        write (burn) audio CD (You can take your MP3 or WAV files and create an audio CD that you can play on any audio CD player)
        create playlist and play the music on your computer (this allows you to create a special list of songs for playing on your computer. You can create as many playlists as you wish)
        copy your music to a portable device (If you have a portable digital audio player, you can use Audio Manager to transfer and manage tracks on the device.)
        Secure digital music Digital rights management (DRM) technologies protects the rights and interests in digital information. InterTrust Technologies Corporation is a leading provider of digital rights management. InterTrust’s DRM technology enables content providers to sell, and music fans to purchase, secure digital music over the Internet.
        InterTrust DRM allows music labels to provide digital music to consumers in a variety of music formats in a secure DigiBox ™ container. Audio Manager identifies the protected content and then presents you with offers that are specified by the content provider. You can choose between a variety of offers such as pay-per-view, free preview or purchase. The music remains protected even after purchase, so you can forward the file to your friends who are then presented with the same offers.

        You can download the demo program which will allow you to rip 50 songs and write 25 songs. This should be enough to let you get familiar with the program to see if you would like to purchase it.

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