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Front Range PC Users Group Newsletter k-Byte |
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| v. 18, n. 9/10 September/October 2001 | Users Helping Users |
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Contents 2 About k-Byte 3 August/September Meeting Reports - Mike Meyer 4 Free Internet Discussion Group 5 State of the Group - Rick Mattingly 5 Windows Insider - Valerie Ryan 6 Hardware Info For 95/98 - Lowell Shatraw 6 BigFix - Rick Mattingly 8 Carnivore Update - Rick Mattingly 9 Storage Media Is Not Forever - Rick Mattingly 10 Save Time When Typing - Coco Johnston 11 Backups: Who Needs Them? 12 Top Ten Signs: Rip Off 14 Calendar of Events 16 October/November Calendars 18 Membership Application 19 CD-RW Tips 20 Building Your Web Site - Robert Sanborn 26 Vinyl LP To Audio CD Or MP3 Files - Bruce Fries 27 USB Survival Guide - Jan Axelson 29 Checking Which Programs Load At Startup - Guenter Schott 30 Trading Post 31 FRPCUG Contacts  America has suffered a horrible tragedy at the hands of a group of demented savages but fear not as we are not alone in the community of the civilized world. Take heart in the incredible display of world unity found at the following Web address: http://uweb.ucsb.edu/~deter/thankyou.htm Scribe's Corner August Meeting Report by Mike Meyer No meeting due to maintenance at the Fort Collins Senior Center. September Meeting Report by Mike Meyer 32 people attended the meeting. There was no August meeting, due to the unavailability of the Senior Center. During the Announcements Period, President Rick Mattingly discussed the status of the FRPCUG website and stated that there would be a meeting about its organization on Saturday, Sept. 15th, at the JYMIS office at 10 a.m. Rick also mentioned that the October and November meeting programs would both deal with computer security issues. More information on this subject has frequently been requested by the membership. Bert Broekstra announced that he had developed a method to convert material on vinyl records to computer format and would be happy to share it with interested members. Doug Boicourt then discussed the status of the newly modified bulletin board system. Once again, Rick stepped in yeoman fashion to present the Main Program, since the guest speaker was called out of town by his company. The subject was "The Road Warrior", a discussion of the use of computers and accessories while traveling on the road. He first gave a brief overview of the subject matter, and then discussed variations in printers, modems, batteries, cell phones, the hand-held computers, PDA's, use of faxes, etc. He and Glen York, who helped to contribute greatly to the presentation, provided some very handy tips to consider (e.g., hotel data lines, foreign travel accessories, airport security issues). Rick and Don Anderson discussed the relatively new Compaq IPAQ and its use in quite some detail, along with newer versions of hand-held and PDA operating systems. The discussion also included use of GPS, computer networking, and added software. Additional information was provided on protective packaging techniques, proper equipment storage (e.g., temperature effects), and appropriate insurance coverage. As usual, there were several questions during the Open Forum session, which included a problem with the dial-up function, once a laptop computer had gone into the "sleep mode". The usual virus issues surfaced again, including a newly identified one called W32/APOST@MM, which apparently had infiltrated at least one corporate system thought to be reasonably well protected. JYM Information Systems and the Barnes & Noble Book Store on South College Avenue in Fort Collins are sponsoring a monthly "Internet Safari" discussion group. This group meets at 7 PM in the Barnes & Noble Book Store the first Monday of each month. This is an open discussion and we examine current issues involving the Internet, how to use the Internet and subjects raised by those present. This group is open to the public without cost or obligation. This is a good chance learn how others are using the Internet. State of the Group by Rick Mattingly For presentations this fall we are going to concentrate on information that most members should find useful. In October we will be talking about protecting your system from virus threat and hackers. This issue is becoming epidemic and, with increased usage of always-on services, it is imperative that you know how to protect yourself. In November we will be talking about backup techniques. In today's world of huge hard drives and massive programs the old backup techniques just don't work anymore. Fortunately, there are new hardware and software options now available to tame that giant system. As part of this presentation, we will also revisit an important topic which is related to effective backup-the lost art of proper hard drive management. Remember, if you have an idea for a presentation topic which you would like to see, let us know. IP Address (95, 98) Want to know what your current PC IP Address is? In Windows 95/98, select Run from the Start menu. Now type WINIPCFG and hit enter. A small box will appear. If you are connected to the Internet via a dial-up connection, then select PPP-Adapter. Your IP address should now show up. by Valerie Ryan WORM REPELLANT In my last tip, I warned you about Worm.ExploreZip, a Trojan horse virus that releases destructive files into your system. I also mentioned the best way to protect yourself against this virus: If you're an Outlook or Exchange user and you receive an e-mail that reads, "Hi [recipient's name]! I received your e-mail and I shall send you a reply ASAP. Till then, take a look at the attached zipped docs. Bye." DON'T OPEN the attached file (zipped_files.exe), regardless of who sent you the message. Instead, delete this message (and then remove it from your Deleted Items folder, if necessary). If it's too late and you've already received the message, Windows 95 and 98 users can prevent the virus from doing any more damage by following these steps: 1. Delete the line run=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\Explore.exe from the WIN.INI file. (You'll find WIN.INI in your Windows folder.) 2. Delete the file C:\Windows\System\Explore.exe from your system. (Don't just send it to your Recycle Bin. Give it the ol' Shift-Delete to send it into oblivion.) 3. Restart Windows. Footloose and worm-free! Finally, the best way to protect yourself against a computer virus is to never, ever, detach, open, or install a file on your PC from a source unknown to you, especially a file with the EXE extension. by Lowell Shatraw There will be a time when you need the help of a hardware person and of course that person will ask you about your machine. When this happens, actually BEFORE it happens, you need to gather all the information about your PC so you can to help the technician. (This information will also help you understand more about the hardware of your PC.) Access the Start | Run menu and type the following: hwinfo /ui This will run a program called the Hardware Info Utility. Be patient because this may take a few seconds--15 or 20 or so--before the screen opens and displays all the information. At the very bottom of the document is a color code key explaining what all the various colored text means. You can print this information so you can have it for later reference. You can save the information to a file. In either case, you now have some important information. So, the next time you seek help, be ready with a copy of the HARDWARE INFO information. The Lowell Link, Lowell Shatraw, CUGG Newsletter, May, 2001 by Rick Mattingly BigFix is an Internet service which contracts with software vendors to disseminate patches and updates to registered product users. BigFix collects patches and updates from software vendors, in the form of "Fixlets" and automatically notifies users as they become available. The installed BigFix application on the users system sets in the Task Bar and checks for available Fixlets in the background whenever the user is online. If a new Fixlet is available, the user is notified. After reviewing available Fixlets, the user chooses to update the particular application from the BigFix menu. In such event, the patch or update is downloaded to the user's system and automatically installed. Vendors involved in the BigFix service also notify registered end users of critical operating system patches and updates which effect the performance of their software product as well. BigFix is a neat idea. If the vendor of your installed software product is a subscriber, with BigFix installed you never have to worry about keeping your application current. The registered user is notified immediately as an relative patch or update becomes available. The following information is duplicated directly from the BigFix Web site to further explain how the BigFix system works. "Can A Computer Take Care of Itself? Sure it can, with BigFix™! BigFix is a great new technology that can fix all kinds of problems on your PC -- before they can negatively affect your computer. With BigFix, you are automatically protected from bugs, security holes, and problems caused by outdated software, letting you work more and crash less every day. And BigFix is always up-to-date, checking the Internet daily for newly discovered problems that could harm your computer. Best of all, BigFix is completely free! Dowbload BigFix at: http://www.bigfix.com/website/main1.html BigFix will keep your computer working better every day. What is BigFix™? BigFix is a great new application that drastically reduces the number of bugs and conflicts that affect your computer. Using the proprietary Relevance Engine™, BigFix can automatically check your computer for bugs, configuration conflicts, and security holes, and let you fix them with a simple mouse-click. Most of the time, BigFix can even alert you to a problem before any damage is done, helping you avoid painful downtime. BigFix is a great way to worry less about computer problems, and focus on more important things. Do I have the right system configuration for BigFix? BigFix requires Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000 or NT 4.0 with IE4 or higher installed (Internet Explorer does not have to be your active browser). 20 MB of disk space and 16MB of RAM are recommended. How much do I pay for BigFix? Nothing." Yep, that's right. The BigFix service is completely free to the end user. Which makes sense, considering the fact that the service should make the vendor's life much easier in that the BigFix service takes care of notifying end users of updates, many times preemptively, before a problem actually arises. Many software vendors are now notifying registered product users of the BigFix service directly as the vendor becomes a member. Should any of your software product vendors notify you that they are online with BigFix, jump at the opportunity and accept the option to download and activate BigFix. I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me. - Dave Barry by Rick Mattingly Recently, the Federal Bureau of Investigation created quite a controversy by divulging that it would be using a new wiretap software known as Carnivore to monitor suspicious Internet email and browser usage. The F.B.I. monitoring system, now officially known as DCS1000, caused quite a stir within the Internet community regarding concern about the potential for misuse and invasion of privacy. The indication from the F.B.I. is that DCS1000 would only be employed after receiving a court warrant for a specific suspect's Internet account. In response to Congressional concern, the House of Representatives passed a bill on Monday, July 23 that would mandate that the F.B.I. maintain detailed reports to be made available to Congress annually to monitor the actual application of the DCS1000 system. The bill must now be passed by the Senate. While application of Carnivore and the DCS1000 system would certainly appear to be intended as an important and useful crime fighting tool, past experience has shown some public entities and employees to be less than trustworthy. The Internet community has House Majority Leader Dick Armey, and other concerned lawmakers, to thank for following up on concerns over Carnivore. However, the true issues regarding this matter will not be known for some time. Continued vigilance is definitely in order. From information as reported by Rueters, Tuesday, July 24, 2001 TO EXERCISE OR NOT TO EXERCISE 1. It is well documented that for every mile that you jog, you add one minute to your life. This enables you, at age 85, to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $5,000 per month. 2. My grandmother started walking 5 miles a day when she was 60. She is now 97 and we don't know where the hell she is. 3. The only reason I would take up jogging is so that I could hear heavy breathing again. 4. I joined a health club last year, spent about $400. Haven't lost a pound. Apparently you have to show up. 5. I have to exercise early in the morning before my brain figures out what I am doing. 6. I don't exercise at all. If God meant us to touch our toes, he would have put them further up our body. 7. I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. 8. I have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them. 9. The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier. 10. If you are going to try cross country skiing, start with a small country. 11. And last, but not least, I don't jog - it makes the ice jump right out of my glass. Thanks to Ken Oyler by Rick Mattingly I know that the following information may come as a shock to some, but storage media does not last forever! Floppy disks, tapes, Zip cartridges, etc. all will eventually wear out or become damaged. If one particular media (a diskette, tape, or cartridge) consistently causes problems when reading or writing -- bite your lip and dispose of it. Yes, tapes for your tape backup device and cartridges for your cartridge drive are relatively expensive but you are flirting with disaster by attempting to force your critical data onto a faulty storage media. Do not do it! Scanner Basics - Color is for color images from photographs, books, or magazines. - Gray is for black and white photographs, for color items made to look black and white, or for drawings and patterns employing shading and texture. - Line Art is for black and white text or drawings that have no shading or texture. They are pure black or white. - Color images should be scanned at 72-100 dpi for the majority of general uses such as wallpaper, e-mail and web pages. For high-quality printing, they can be scanned at 150-250 dpi. - Gray images should be scanned at 72-100 dpi for uses such as wallpaper, e-mail and web pages. They can be scanned at 150-300 dpi for most high quality printing, and in some cases the dpi can be as high as the maximum grayscale resolution of the printer, usually around 600 dpi. - Line Art images should be scanned at 300 dpi for sharp reproductions of drawings and text documents. by Coco Johnston Email: coco@mo-net.com FI Computer Club For those of you who have to type a lot using Word or WordPerfect, and type the same phrases or titles over and over, there is a little trick that will save time and work. Let's say you have to type the phrase F1 Computer Users' Club a lot. You can use your Spell Check dictionary to create a shortcut. In WordPerfect: In the Menu Bar at the top of your screen Click on Tools Select Quick Correct In the box labeled Replace, type an abbreviation you want to use (example: F1) In the box labeled With, type the full phrase you want to appear (example: F1 Computer Users' Club) Make sure there is a check mark in the box marked Replace words as you type Click OK In Microsoft Word: In the Menu Bar at the top of the screen Click on Tools Select AutoCorrect Type the abbreviation in the box labeled Replace Type the full phrase in the box labeled With Now every time you type the abbreviation (F1) and hit the space bar, the entire phrase (F1 Computer Users' Club) will appear automatically. Another good use for AutoCorrect and QuickCorrect is that if there is a word you always misspell, and that word is not in your computer's dictionary (like your mother-in-law's name), you can add the misspell and put the correct spelling into your dictionary. You can also add words that don't appear in your dictionary, such as Cassville or Berryville, simply by clicking ADD in the dialog box that comes up during Spell Check Check your HELP files in other applications for similar features. Look up Spell Check, and see what your options are. Coco Johnson is past President and current editor of the FI Computer Club in Shell Knob Mo. "The United States is the only country where it takes more brains to figure your tax than to earn the money to pay it." - Edward J. Gurney 'How Often does a Hard Disk Actually Fail?' It's hard to believe, but somewhere in the world, a disk drive fails every 2 seconds. Even though the average MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) may be 200,000 hours (22.83 years), what that really means is that if you have 200,000 hard disk drives running in a controlled environment under ideal conditions, one of them will fail approximately every hour. The number of disk drives shipped in 1999 was approximately 174,290,000 with 2000 forecasted at 204,051,000 units (source IDEMA). Let's forget about the number of drives that were manufactured before 1999 or this year. That would give us around 378,341,000 hard disk drives. If we divide the number of drives by the average MTBF of 200,000 hours, we would get somewhere around 1,892 drives failing every hour. Now if we divide that by 60, we get about 32 drives failing every minute or one drive every 2 seconds. Now take into account that the aforementioned failure rate is under ideal conditions, and not real world use. If we add the drives that have been in service for several years, if it's not happening to you yet, be prepared. Just last October of 1999, Western Digital recalled 400,000 disk drives due to a defect that can cause the drive to fail to spin up after only 6 months (4,380 hours) to 1 year (8,760 hours) of use. If you are an IT person, you can't afford not to know whether a drive is about to fail for mechanical reasons. Even if you regularly back up your servers, desktops and all other storage devices, usually by the time the backup is complete, it's already obsolete. Bugletter, July, 2001 The problem with email these days is it's becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between legitimate "offers" and a scam rip-off . The old Madison Avenue adage "If it doesn't sell, they don't keep advertising" is always true - so it's obvious that unsolicited email (aka: UCE, Spam) must be working or they'd no longer be doing it. So, all you folks out there who actually respond to to spam, please don't. Here are ten key rules to think about before you click the reply button: 1 -- If there are more than two slashes in the domain... trash it. Look at the domain. If you can count more than ONE slash after the dot-com, beware. All of the following said they would send me 25,000,000 email addresses on CD for just $299.00. Here's a flash: you can't get that many email addresses on a CD... SCAM. All four, and many others like them lead to dead ends, only wanting your money : http://homex.coolconnect.com/member3/justhits/ http://www.megspace.com/internet/justhits/ http://www.stas.net/3/justhits/ http://www.freehost.nu/members/justhits/ (These are also freebie hosting sites, see #9 below.) 2 -- If the domain is numeric ... it's out to lunch. Any self-respecting and on-the-level business, with an honest offer will NOT use an IP number instead of a URL address. Instead, they use these to avoid detection, and to rip you off... http://207.173.123.243:524 spells trouble. 3 -- If they say use this or that ... use neither. Con artists these days know they'll be shut down -- it's only a matter of time. So in order to sucker in more people they'll list several domains, hoping you'll move to the second one if the first one already got shut down. Many even say "If one doesn't work, use the other!" That's your queue to use neither. 4 -- Who sent it is not who gets it ... don't let them get you. Look carefully at the address of the sender. Now go through the piece and look at any email addresses in the post, including headers. If they're not the same -- beware! They should at least be from the same domain. (That's the part after the "@".) . 5 -- No real name means no real person dhckj@msn.com, i27452@compuserve.com? eyzjygeynf@yahoo.com ... who are they trying to kid? These addresses are generated by spam robots who open accounts at the freebie web sites, send mass mailings, change the name, send more, then cancel the account before they're detected. They should be outlawed. 6 -- If they tell you to talk to a robot ... tell'em no! Many get-rich schemers and rip-off artists today tell you to call their toll free number, leave your name, address and phone number so they can call you back. They prey on the very poor, and the elderly. Their yarn is convincing -- but don't expect them to call back... in reality all they want is to SELL your address to other marketers. 7 -- If there's no address... you don't want to go there! Check the spammers web site for a physical address. If you don't find one, there's a reason why: they don't want to be tracked down by anyone who they've done wrong... most especially the FBI. If there's a phone number, call it. Ask for their address. A recent spam from "Vortal Toner Supplies" absolutely refused to give an address -- another said they didn't give out the address to anyone no matter what. They turned out to be an illegal, off-shore gambling operation owned by a company in LA. Never reply or buy. 8 -- If it's off-shore money ... don't touch it! If it has to do with money but they're from another country other than your own -- get away quickly. Email has exploded with insurance quotes, bogus stock tips, shady refinancing debt services or home mortgages from the likes of Great-Loan-Rates@6aaa.fsnet.co.uk, whpost10986@avtechk.com.cn. These people cannot fulfill their promises... they're ripping you off. 9 -- If they're using a freebie account... you can't afford it. If you think about it for a moment, it's rather obvious that you wouldn't want to do business with anyone using a freebie email account. If they've got nothing to loose, then they've got nothing for you! Several of those below admit openly that their clientele is 88% spammers. All of the following freebie sites are responsible for the majority of spam: angelfire.com another.com arabia.com bangkok.com building.com china.com consultant.com email-prom.net email.com excite.com golfmail.com hotmail.com iway2000.com loudpages.com lycos.co.uk lycos.com mail.com megspace.com metahoo.com mundomail.net netcolony.com netdest.com netnet.com.sg newmail.net oceanfree.net postmaster.com prontomail.com telsurf.net turbomail.net usa.com verizon.net verizonmail.com virtualactive.com bigfoot.com webmail.co.za wickedspeed.net yahoo.com India.com freehosting.com 10 -- If it's too good to be true... it is! The other day a UCE told me I could look like Cindy Crawford in two weeks. (Picture that!) Another said I no longer had to worry about the IRS... yet another said it could get me out of financial trouble... dozens of them each day want to sell me millions of email addresses. All of these are blatant lies, and most certainly a rip off. Most spam today wants only to get your email address validated. So never, ever reply. Never. They want to sell the names to other spammers, or poor suckers who actually think they can get rich sending unsolicited email. These ten warning signs are the main things to watch out for. There are others which I'll explore in a future issue. Just keep them in mind, and laugh at them as you drag them to the trash... where the email, and their senders belong. Fred * Note: for you disbelievers out there, I challenge you to attempt to track down all the spam you get in a month. You'll discover very quickly how many scammers there are out to get you. I have received 4,223 spams since January 1, 2001. Here is a list of the most frequent spammers. All the rest sent under 24 spams. As you can see, the top spammers are the 'freebie' sites. 286 Yahoo.com 276 hotmail.com 156 china.com 112 aol.com 106 msn.com 61 usa.net 55 lycos.com 42 netscape.com 42 angelfire 41 headwind.de 41 earthlink.net 39 uole.com 37 looksmart.com 32 compuserve.com 32 wshost.net 31 verizonmail.com 30 mac21.com 30 arabia.com 27 myrgv.com 25 email-prom.net 24 neovi.com Fred Showker is a designer, consultant, writer and speaker. He has published 60-Second Window and DT & G Magazine online since 1990, and is director of The Graphic Design Network which includes The Design & Publishing Center at www.Graphic-Design.com. (1994) He was a co-founder of both The User Group Forum on America Online (1987), and The User Group Network at www.User-Groups.net. (1994) He originally founded Showker Graphic Arts & Design in 1972, has been an avid computer activist and supporter since 1984. User Groups Network Newsletter - IMPORTANT NOTICE - FRPCUG meetings are held at the Fort Collins Senior Center. Check below for directions to the Senior Center. October General Forum Meeting We will meet at the Fort Collins Senior Center on Tuesday, October 2 at 7:00 pm. Meeting Agenda 7:00 - 7:15 Announcements 7:15 - 8:30 Security I-An important discussion on protecting your system from virus and hacker attack. 8:30 - 8:45 Break 8:45 - 9:30 Open Forum November General Forum Meeting We will meet at the Fort Collins Senior Center on Tuesday, November 6 at 7:00 pm. Meeting Agenda 7:00 - 7:15 Announcements 7:15 - 7:30 Nominations for 2002 Officer Elections in December 7:30 - 8:45 Security II-A timely presentation on hardware drive maintenance and real-world backup techniques. 8:45 - 9:00 Break 9:00 - 9:30 Open Forum See you at the meetings! Directions The Fort Collins Senior Center is located at 1200 Raintree Drive. This site is situated at the northwest corner of the Shields and West Drake intersection, on the north side of the Raintree Shopping Center. Check the marquee at the main entrance for directions to the specific meeting room. Up-Coming SIG's, Seminars and Meetings Board Meeting FRPCUG's executive board meets on Wednesday of the week following the General Forum Meeting at 7:00 p.m. All members are welcome and are encouraged to attend. These meetings are held at the offices of JYM Information Systems: 311 S College Avenue in Fort Collins. LINUX SIG This SIG, supports LINUX and other non-Windows operating systems for PC compatible hardware. This includes all distributions of LINUX, the BE Operating system, and OS2. These meetings are held at the offices of JYM Information Systems: 311 S College Avenue in Fort Collins. For more information contact Chuck McJilton at 493-2987 or email linuxsig@jymis.com. Northern Front Range Netware Users Group NFRNUG meets at 5:30 pm on the second Wednesday of each month at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife building, 2101 Oakridge Drive in Fort Collins. NFRNUG meetings are open to any users that are involved with Novell networking products and integration of other networking products into the Novell environment (Unix, NT, Mac, etc.). Contact Jim Stephens at 303-541-3376 or jcsteph@concentric.net or contact Chuck Kluko at 970-663-4770 or c.kluko@ix.netcom.com for further membership information. Yearly dues are $000.00 (yes, FREE) with pizza and pop served at 5:00 pm prior to meeting. Saturday labs and training sessions open to NRFNUG members only, space is limited. Rocky Mountain Internet Users Group Meets on the second Tuesday of 'odd' months at NCAR in Boulder. Meetings start at 7:00 pm, but members are encouraged to arrive at 6:30 pm for informal networking and refreshments. NCAR is located in Boulder at 1850 Table Mesa Drive. For more information see the RMIUG Web site at: http://www.rmiug.org/. Telecommuncation SIG The Telecommunications SIG covers topics related to computer communications hardware and software including modems, xDSL, networking, ISDN and the Internet. The meetings are held at 7:00 PM on the third Thursdays of each month at the offices of JYM Information Systems: 311 S College Avenue in Fort Collins. For more information contact Chuck McJilton at 493-2987 or email telecomsig@jymis.com. Web Design SIG If you're an HTML author/WEB page designer, or would like to learn, contact SIG coordinator Doug Boicourt at 495-6949 or e-mail db@jymis.com for the date and location of the next SIG meeting. Internet Safari This free Internet discussion group meets the first Monday of each month at the Barnes and Noble book store 4045 S. College. This group covers any topics and questions relating to using the Internet and is open to beginners and experienced Internet users. Meetings start at 7:00PM. For more information call JYM Information Systems at 416-9286 or email info@jymis.com. Upcoming FRPCUG Meetings Along with presentations of new hardware and software, we will certainly continue to present tips, hints, solutions, as well as what is new with Public Domain and Shareware offerings. If you have ideas for presentations which you would like to see at future General Forum meetings or seminars, please let us know. We would appreciate the input and opportunity to improve your meetings. Know of a another computer-related meeting in our area? Please let us know so we can post it here. 2 FRPCUG General Forum Meeting 7:00PM 10 FRPCUG Board Meeting 7:00PM NRFNUG Meeting 5:00PM 18 Telcomm SIG 7:00PM 25 LINUX SIG 7:00PM 28 Daylight Savings Time EndsNovember 2001 6 FRPCUG General Forum Meeting 7:00PM 11 Veterans Day 14 FRPCUG Board Meeting 7:00PM NRFNUG Meeting 5:00PM 15 Telcomm SIG 7:00PM 22 Thanksgiving 29 LINUX SIG 7:00PM The following is quoted from an article from the HP Invent Web Site: "Whatever your reason, you may be considering adding a CD burner to your computer system. Called "burner" because they use a laser to burn data onto a compact disc, CD-ReWritable drives (CD-R and CD-RW) are quickly becoming the favored means for saving large collections of files that can be easily shared from computer to computer. The primary difference between a CD-R and CD-RW drive is that the former only allows you to record one time on a CD, while the latter lets you record and re-record as often as desired. However, some older CD-ROM drives and most audio CD players will not play CD-RW discs, so think about what you intend to use your drive for before you buy." http://homeandoffice.hp.com/ "Whenever a man's friends begin to compliment him about looking young, he may be sure that they think he is growing old." - Washington Irving Optical scanning questions have you overwhelmed? Jump on the web and visit the following site for the answers you are looking for. "A few scanning tips" Web site by Wayne Fulton at: http://www.scantips.com/index.html Wayne Fulton's site is just a treasure trove of important information pertaining to this subject. What is even better is that Wayne has the knack of presenting the information in such a way as to be understandable by the average computer user. Wayne's site is also now available in hard copy format. Check his web site for details on ordering the book. Rum Cake Recipe Before you start, sample the Rum and check for quality. Good, isn't it? Now, go ahead and select a large mixing bowl, measuring cup, etc., and check the Rum again, for quality. It must be just right!! Try it again. With an electric mixer, beat 1 cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add 1 teaspoon sugar and beat again; meanwhile, make certain that the Rum is of the finest quality. Add 2 large eggs and 2 cups of fried fruit and beat until very high. If the fruit gets stuck in the beaters, just pry it loose with a screwdriver Sample the Rum again, checking for consistency. Next, sift in 3 cups of backing powder and a pinch of Rum, 1 seaspoon toda and1 cup pepper or salt. Anyway, fon't dret. Just tample the Rum again and mist in 1/2 pint of jemon luice, fold in chopped buttermilk and the strained nuts. Tample Rum agan. Now, 1 bablespoon srown bugar, or whatever color is available. Mix well, grease oven and curn on the take pan to 350 degrees. Pour the whole mess in the oven. Cake turn rake out after mifty finutes. Thanks to Brad Kell for sharing this (hic!) great recipe! by Robert Sanborn, ICS So you have been living in the dark ages for years and have finally decided to build a web site. Well, it is about time but there is so much that you need to consider before plopping down a bunch of cash. Part of this is because there will be a number of upfront costs relating from setting up the site and selecting a host to a number of ongoing costs from annual host site fees to the cost of maintaining your web site. And that is all before we start to think about what will be on your web site so it is really best to go through all of this thinking and planning beforehand as planning things out will save you time, money, aggravation, and probably, even keep you from losing customers. Planning, Planning, and More Planning Primary in your planning should be cost, how much are you willing to expend on the project. This makes a major difference on what is included in the content and presentation of the web. Also it impacts on how often it is updated. By coming up with a budget for initial expenses and ongoing maintenance and fees, you can then build the web site to suit your expenses and then compare that to what your expectations are. We will get back to this shortly. Second in your planning is identifying what is your intended audience is and how often you want them visiting your site. Are you looking for people that have never heard of your business before? If so, you will probably be very disappointed. Do you have any clue as to how many web sites and news groups there are out there? Or how many search engines that need to be updated? Unless you have something very specific to present, you may discover that a search will bring up thousands and thousands of pages and yours will certainly get lost in the morass of millions of web pages out there already. So if it is new customers you are looking for, then be prepared to come up with a strategy of attracting them. From the emails I get, there are probably a thousand people out there that for an X number of dollars will guarantee a top hit on the search engines. Don't believe them, you would only be throwing money away. There is no silver bullet but there are some software packages available to help you at least come close. If you are interested in making information available to current customers and known prospects, then you already have your audience and this can be an excellent way to keep them informed of your products, updates, and news so what you need to do is to come up with a list of what you need to keep them informed about. This is the kind of site that many small businesses put together. The last type of web site would be just a general information site for prospects and casual browsers. Here you want to provide information to the general public and if you do catch a prospect, great. The third issue is then how active your web site will be. I tend to lump them all into four major categories. A dead web site is one that has been forgotten by the owners. An static web site is one that is updated once a year, an inactive web site is one that changes maybe once a quarter, and an active web site changes at a minimum weekly. So, if you are interested in having people return to your site on a regular basis, then you need to consider the content and the kinds of information that will change on a regular basis to keep them coming back. Nothing kills return visitors more than coming back to a web site a couple of times and finding nothing new there. They stop coming back. Unfortunately, this means having the means, money, and effort to come up with something new for those return visitors. Options for information that change on a regular basis can include third party news organizations headlines that appear on your web site, an online newsletter that is updated daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly, new Information articles and reports that change, and finally, reviews and updates from the industry or government that you can reprint. If you also add a "Links Page" to point people to other sites of interest, be sure to check them on a regular basis. Features for Your Web Site Once you come up with answers to the major issues, come a ton of smaller ones and each one could add considerably to your ongoing expenses. As you hit each item, note them down as when it comes time to talk to a host provider for your web site, you will need to see if they can support that and at what cost. Do you want a private area for your customers? This could be as simple as a separate web area not available from your main web pages or one that requires a user id and password to access. Do you want a secure area for your customers? How much do you really want to keep other people and hackers out of this area. Will you be selling products on the web using an online shopping basket approach? If so, we get into credit arrangements and banking issues to ensure payments are collected before your goods go out the door. Do you want to give your customers access to your data files and databases on the web? This gets into the real of online databases and security becomes a major issue and expense. Will you be making files and downloadable documents available on the web? Files can get to be quite large and time consuming to download via dial up access and this also increases the space required for your web site at an additional cost. Will you be collecting personal or business information from people on the web? There are things like guest books and information pages that collect such information even to the point of setting up "cookies" to keep track of where people have been and what they last looked at. Do you want to be able to show video clips, sound, and movies on the web? This also adds to the size of the web site and the need to make content small enough to download at dial up speeds. You will probably also have to put in links to pages that provide the players for what ever type of content you will be including so that people will be able to look at the clips. If you haven't already done so, be sure to start looking at web sites out there that have the type of information and content that you want to provide. You want your site to be eye appealing as well as full of useful content for your customers. So now that you are committed, or should be, getting started is actually pretty easy. Getting Started With A Name and Site The first thing to do is to come up with your dot com name. This exercise should really be done on paper before hand and I would suggest you come up with your ideal name and then a long list of alternatives. With as many sites out there already, you may find your choices are very limited. The easy way of course to see if it is taken or not is to simply get connected to the internet, fire up the browser, and then tell it to look for www.yourfavoritename.com and see if it exists. You do have some alternatives if the name you really want is not available. One is to see if .org, or .net is taken, another is to look for another country code might work for you. How about www.yourfavoritename.tv ? Many countries will allow you to use the name with their high level domain for a fee and usually, those fees are very reasonable. My advise though is to stick with the dot com, dot net, dot org, or one of the new dot names coming out that are licensed by ICANN, the internet policing agency. There are a number of web sites out there that will tell you if any of these names are available and what I usually do is to go to Network Solutions, www.networksolutions.com and check through them. If you do find a name available, then by all means, get it locked in and buy the name. The cost will be usually $70 for two years. The next thing to do is to select a host site to "host" your web name. I have done considerable research on this and have found that www.hostway.com out of the Chicago area, is very competitive, has a lot of features, is reliable, and at a good value. This is the company that I have used to host my personal web site and my business site. Cost of the host site ranges from $10 per month to over $250 per month depending on features and that is where the list above of features we talked about is important. The $10 site gets you one mail box, limited features, and space for a basic site with limited traffic to the site. This is what I have done with my www.sanbornsoftware.com site. You can look at that and see it is a basic, few frills and features, web site. Additional monthly costs will include multiple mail boxes and accounts, secure site for shopping carts and the like. When selecting your web host, you need to consider access to it as well. Most host sites, including Hostway, have no dial up access for getting your email and updating your web site so you need to have regular internet access. Now most people, already have internet access from companies such as AOL, Microsoft MSN, Earthlink, or a local internet access provider like I use. This gives me access to the email, internet, and to allow me to update my web pages. But remember, you are paying extra for that access to that provider from usually $20 to $25 per month so when selecting the web host, you might check with your local provider to see what the cost is and if it includes local access. You may find the additional cost of hosting not that much more. Of course, if you are concerned with things like your site being always up and online, you might decide that a larger company is warranted. Now comes the difficult part of determining content, how extensive the site is to be such as the features discussed above, graphics, and how often it is to be updated. Developing A Web Site If you look at some of the splashy web sites out there such as Microsoft, Pepsi, CNN, and ESPN, you will see there is a ton of content, video clips, active buttons, and the like. They are very cool, great to look at, and they cost a bundle to develop and maintain. My recommendation is to keep it simple. Nothing frustrates someone looking at a web page more than waiting a long time for graphics to download so keep them small. The best size for a graphic is the smallest you can make it and still keep it visible and recognizable. When scanning for the web and building graphics, keep them no more than 90 dpi in resolution size. Also when building your image, be sure to consider that most computers are still looking at images at a screen resolution of 800x600. The more you can put together in the way of content, graphics, and images, the lower the cost of the project especially if you are using an outside source for development and if you do use an outside source for development, by all means, get copies of everything they do. If things go wrong with that developer, you want to be able to immediately pull the plug and move on to someone else. Doing the web site yourself can actually be pretty easy with so many tools available today. It seems that every high end word processor, publisher package, and even many of the minor publishing programs will build the web HTML code for you. Tools that I use for web development include for graphics, Paint Shop Pro from Jasc software, and Photoshop from Adobe. For web development, I use Go Live from Adobe. Alternatives are Front Page 2000 from Microsoft, and Page Mill from Adobe. For uploading the finished web products to the host site, any FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program will work and I use WSFTP, available on the web. Finally, as to cost, developing a web site can be quite expensive if you are having it done with outside help. This is especially true if you depend on the developer to do all the design work, scan images, build graphics, and the like. This type of work can take a long time and can be very expensive. The same holds true if you want them to develop the shopping cart, secure site, passwords, and database information on your site. For these types of features, look at what the host site can provide for you. More and more companies are doing incredible things on the web from customer relationships management to selling all sorts of products and finding that it really enhances business. Then again, there are many who have sunk tons of cash into their web sites to only find that no one visits and those that do don't stay long enough to see who you really are and what your business is. That is were the initial planning really pays off in the long run and it should for you and your business. Robert Sanborn is an Independent Personal Computer Consultant, and the Program Chairman for the Indianapolis Computer Society. Reach him through the net at robert@sanbornsoftware.com This article is brought to you by the Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an International organization to which this user group belongs. by Bruce Fries - author of The MP3 and Internet Audio Handbook. With a good sound recording and editing program you can take those old scratchy LPs and 78s record them through your sound card, filter out all those clicks and pops, and then burn the music to an audio CD or store it as an MP3 file. The following process also works for recording audio from other external sources, such as cassette tapes and microphones. Use a program like CoolEdit 2000 (www.cooledit.com) for the PC or Peak (www.bias-inc.com) for the Mac. Demo versions of both programs can be downloaded for free. Connect Your PC to Your Stereo: The first step is to connect an adapter cable from the tape out (or record) jack of your stereo receiver to the line input of your sound card. These cables can be purchased from most consumer electronics stores, such as Radio Shack, Best Buy and Fry's Electronics. Newer turntables with line-out jacks can be connected directly to the sound card. Set the Sampling Rate and Resolution: The next step is to create a new file in the sound editing program. If you intend to create an audio CD, you must choose a sample rate of 44,100, two channels (stereo) and a resolution of 16 bits. This will create a file that takes up approximately 10MB of space for every minute recorded, so you will need plenty of free disk space. For voice or music to be embedded in a Web page, you can use a lower sample rate, a single channel and 8 bit resolution to create a much smaller file. Set the Recording Level: Now play part of the track and use the Volume Control program to set your recording levels. In Windows, the first screen of the Volume Control program is for playback levels. To get to the Recording Level screen, choose Properties from the Options menu and select the checkbox for Recording. Make sure the checkbox for the Line-In volume control is also selected. Click OK and the Record Level screen will appear. Set the Monitor Record Level option in your recording program to On, and, as the track plays, adjust the adjust the slider for Line-In so the level meter shows a strong signal, but not so strong as any peaks cause the meter to go into the red area. Record the Audio: Lift the stylus and queue up the beginning of the track. Click the Record button in your recording program and then lower the needle. Make sure no other programs are running while you record. When the track is finished, click the Stop button and lift the stylus. Remove Clicks, Pops or Hiss: Play back the track to hear how it sounds. Trim off any silence at the beginning and ends of the track. If you have an audio clean-up plug, use it to automatically remove any clicks, pops and hiss. If you don't have an audio clean-up plug-in, you can zoom in to each click or pop, select an adjacent cycle of the waveform at the zero crossing points, copy it to the clipboard, and then paste it over the cycle that contains the click. Listen to the track again and run the hiss removal if necessary. Normalize the Volume: Normalize the track to adjust the volume up or down so that all tracks will play at a similar level. A value of 97% usually works well if your software normalizes by peak level. More advanced programs, such as CoolEdit Pro, can normalize by average levels, which is much more accurate. At this point, you may want to add a fade-in or fade-out. Some CD recording programs, such as Nero (www.nero.com) can automatically crossfade tracks as the CD is recorded. Save to a WAV or MP3 File: If you intend to record the track to an audio CD, save it to a PCM format WAV file (PC) or an AIFF file (Mac). Save the file to MP3 format if you want to play it from your computer or on a portable player. Record an Audio CD: Now you can use a CD-Recordable drive to create a Red Book audio CD that can be played in most CD players. Avoid using CD-RW media because it will not be compatible with most CD players. It pays to experiment with a short clip before you record and clean-up an entire album. Find out which settings work best for different types of recordings and write these down for future reference. Many of these old 78s and LPs are irreplaceable, so it pays to preserve them in a digital format. If you ever have recorded a cassette or reel-to-reel tape, you should be comfortable with this process and delighted with the ability to improve the quality of the audio. For more information on recording from vinyl LPs to audio CDs or MP3 files, pick up a copy of The MP3 and Internet Audio Handbook ($19.95) from www.TeamComBooks.com or read it online for free at www.MP3Handbook.com. Bruce Fries is a writer, technology consultant and entrepreneur who lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. He is an associate of the Audio Engineering Society and the founder of TeamCom Books, a customer-focused publishing company that combines the best of traditional print publishing with new media, such as e-books and the Internet. by Jan Axelson, Making the most of USB peripherals while minimizing problems So you're in the market for a new peripheral. Maybe it's a printer, scanner, external drive, or camera. If so, chances are good that many of the products you look at will have a USB port in place of the parallel, serial, SCSI, or other port used by peripherals in the past. In most cases, USB is the way to go. It's convenient, easy, and fast. But because it's a new interface, it's not yet foolproof, and a little prevention can go a long way in saving you from possible hassles. I'll show you how. But first, a little back ground... PC and peripheral makers are phasing in the Universal Serial Bus (USB) as a replacement for the ports that have been with the PC since its beginnings. If you're running Windows 98 or Windows 2000, you can use USB for your keyboard, mouse, modem, external disk drives, printer, scanner, cameras, and more. Just about any peripheral that once used a parallel port or RS-232 serial port is likely to have a USB version available now. What's so great about USB? When you attach a new device, Windows detects it and installs the driver software for you. You don't have to worry about finding a free IRQ (interrupt request line) because all devices share one IRQ assigned to the USB host controller. You don't have to find a free expansion slot be cause USB devices connect out side the box. With inexpensive hubs, you can attach pretty much as many devices as you want (though there are practical limits to how many devices can communicate on the bus at the same time). USB's speed is comparable to the parallel port's fastest modes, and this will increase 40x with the introduction of hardware that supports the new 2.0 specification's fast mode. Another point in USB's favor is that the older ports are being eliminated from new PCs and eventually won't be an option, while new interfaces like IEEE-1394 (Firewire) aren't widely available yet. The only snag is that USB's simplicity for users means increased complexity for the developers who design and program USB devices and the software drivers that control them. Also, because USB is new, developers don't have a lot of experience with it. And although Windows 98 and 2000 have good low-level support for USB communications, developers must still write device drivers for the many peripherals that don't have class drivers provided by Windows. Of course, users don't care about any of this. You just want something that works! But the reality is that some USB devices, on some machines, just don't work as advertised. If you're in the market for a peripheral, following these recommendations will save you possible grief: 1. Before you buy, check the web boards for comments and possible fixes. Two excellent sources for user information are the USB Implementers Forum's Public Newsgroup (www.usb.org/ forums/ retail/ webboard.html ) and USBMan's USBTalk webboard (www.usbman.com). If you see a lot of users tearing their hair out in frustration with a product you're thinking about buying, look else where. 2. If you have a problem with a device, the first place to check is the manufacturer's website for updated drivers and other tips. Driver fixes are very common! 3. If you can't get some thing working, take or send it back and try something else. Don't spend a lot of time trying to get some thing going. Sometimes the problem is a flawed hardware design or software driver that the vendor is unwilling or unable to do anything about. In that case, there's really not anything you can do. On a more positive note, vendors are becoming more diligent about testing their products rigorously before they're released. More and more devices undergo compliance tests that exercise not just data transfers but also things like what happens when a user yanks the cable unexpectedly. Many manufacturers also participate in Plugfests, where every one hooks their devices to the same PC to find out if they all can co-exist. The short answer is that USB is the right choice most of the time. But for now, when selecting a peripheral, a little caution is prudent! Jan Axelson (jan@lvr.com) is the author of "USB Complete: Everything You Need to Develop Custom USB Peripherals". Jan grew up in North Plainfield and Plainfield, NJ and graduated from Plainfield High (class of '67). Her website is www.lvr.com. Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey, September 2000 ACGNJ News PRINT TO FAX If you're traveling with a notebook, but no printer, try sending documents to the hotel's fax machine via modem. You can print out meeting notes and contracts without lugging extra equipment around. by Guenter Schott, Fallbrook PC Users Group, Jan 2001 Many applications are indiscriminate about where they put files on your computer. This translates into the fact that, during a Windows 98 launch, a part of a program loads into RAM without your knowledge. It might surprise you to hear that this waste of memory could continue even after you thought you had uninstalled the application. To look at the programs that start up whenever you launch Windows, go to Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information. Then go to Tools, System Configuration Utility and click the Startup tab. From here, you can uncheck any program you do not want to launch at startup. TOGGLE Ed Note: Or, more simply, click Start/Run, enter msconfig in the box, click OK, then the Startup tab. SELL IT IN THE TRADING POST WITH A FREE AD FOR FRPCUG MEMBERS About Trading Post k-Byte runs classified ads in Trading Post for three consecutive issues. Trading Post ads up to 10 lines (or 70 words) long are free to FRPCUG members: $5 for non-members. To place an ad in Trading Post contact Will Horton at 223-2154 or email whorton@will-design.com. Commercial Advertising Specifications (Monthly rate) Full Page (8 1/2" X 7") $30 Half Page (3 1/4" X 7") $20 One Third Page (3" X 4") $15 Business Card (2 3/4" X 1 1/2") $ 5 We offer a substantial discount for repeat ads and continuing contracts. For additional charge, we will design your ad for you. Contact Will Horton for information on this service at 223-2154 or email whorton@will-design.com. |
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