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Front Range PC Users Group Newsletter k-Byte |
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| v. 22, n. 9/10 September/October 2005 | Users Helping Users |
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Contents 1 The Latest on DVD's - Bob Elgines 2 About k-Byte 3 Keep `Em Clean 4 Computer Hysteria: Crash! - Berry F. Phillips 6 Tech News - Sue Crane 7 Computer Jargon Translated 8 Tip of the Month - Mike Morris 10 Dual-Core Processors are Coming! - Tomothy Everingham 12 A Virus and Incident Checklist - Rob Rice 13 Everyone's a Publisher, and Blogs are Our Printing Presses - Gabe Goldberg 14 Calendar of Events 16 October/November Calendars 18 Membership Application 19 First Phishing, Now Pharming - John Pearce 20 Medicare Prescription Drug Options 21 Digital Camera Scene Modes - Larry Horn 24 Deep Impact Mission Update - Lucy McFadden 25 Figuring Out How Spammers Get E-Mail Addresses - Dave Gerber 28 Software and Website Reviews - Herb Goldstein 30 Trading Post 31 FRPCUG Contacts Sir Fred Hoyle - British Astronomer The Latest on DVDs by Bob Elgines, Colorado River Computer Club Editor, Lake Havasu, AZ The DVD world is going crazy. The price range is from $59 to $130 well within most of our budgets. DVD blanks are down to 50 cents a piece, almost as cheap as CDs. The top four recorder manufacturers are Plextor, Toshiba, Pacific Digital, and Memorex. Speed is up to 16X, which is max on the outer part of the disk, but only 8X blanks are readily available. Dual layer (8.5 GB of data space) is labeled as the latest big deal, but is it really? These disks are hard to manufacture and are very expensive. The most important thing is, what will they play in? Well not much of anything. Most DVD players will not recognize the format and neither will your older recorders. So I don't look for this to do anyone much good even in the future. What is in the future (next year)? The digital world has still been undecided on DVD-R and DVD+R formats, so most of your recorders will do both. Now we come to the future of introducing two new formats named "HD-DVD" and "Blu-ray". These new formats have been developed to use the new blue laser, while the red laser is used in our present recorders. Red laser single level DVDs have 4.7 GB of capacity where the Blue-laser single layer DVDs will have a capacity of 15 (HD-DVD format) to 25 GB (Blu-ray format) at present. A HD (High Definition) two hour movie uses about 17.4 GB with out max compression. The compression schemes (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, etc.) will be the same for both, so there will be no big difference in playback quality. Here we go again, new DVD players will be needed and this reminds us of the old video tape war on formats "Beta" and VHS". Remember VHS won out due to more recording time and lower costs. Will this be true of the two blue-laser formats? Only time will tell. These Blue-laser recorders and players will be coming out near the end of this year or the start of next year, but I think we are going to have to wait and see if they can decide on a format for the blue-laser. Published bi-monthly, k-Byte is the official newsletter of the Front Range Personal Computer Users Group (FRPCUG): our mailing address is PMB 152, 305 W. Magnolia, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521. Opinions expressed in k-Byte are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the group or its members. Publication of information in k-Byte constitutes no guarantee of accuracy. Use of any information found in this publication is at the sole risk of the user. Neither k-Byte, nor its officers, nor k-Byte, nor its editors or contributors assume any liability for damages resulting from use of information in this publication. Submissions Articles, letters and short items of interest on computer-related topics are welcome and encouraged. All items submitted for publication are subject to editing. Send your contribution to the editor via e-mail attachment or submit on disk. If you have questions about a submission, please contact the editor for information. Copyright k-Byte is copyrighted ©2005 by the Front Range Personal Computer Users Group. Unless otherwise noted, other nonprofit users groups may reprint or quote from any articles appearing in k-Byte without prior permission, provided that proper author and publication credits are given and that a copy of the publication in which the article appears is sent at no cost to k-Byte at the above mailing address. User groups wishing to exchange newsletters with FRPCUG are invited to send a copy of their newsletter together with an exchange request. IBM PC, OS/2, Compaq, MS-DOS, UNIX, Windows and other trademarks occasionally mentioned in k-Byte are registered trademarks of International Business Machines, Inc., Compaq Corporation, Microsoft, Digital Research, AT&T or their owners respectively. Neither FRPCUG nor its newsletter k-Byte are connected in any way with any manufacturer or seller. We, however, gratefully acknowledge sponsorship of our group by Data Service Center, Jim Becker, owner. Advertising Classified advertising is free to members for non-business ads. See "Trading Post" for pricing for camera-ready display ads. Charges for ad makeup from sketches, etc., are available on request. Deadline for camera-ready and classified ads is listed in the Calendar of Upcoming Events. Deadline for ad-makeup is the same as for articles. About FRPCUG FRPCUG is an independent nonprofit computer society, so incorporated with the State of Colorado and open to anyone interested in MS-DOS, Windows, or UNIX/LINUX microcomputers. Its purpose is to provide an educational and scientific forum of mutual benefit for members of the micro-computer community. FRPCUG holds a monthly meeting and conducts various special interest groups (SIGS) and seminars. Members have voting privileges, subscription to k-Byte newsletter, SIGs and selected seminars. Annual dues are $25 for individual/family membership and $50 for corporate/group membership. Your CD's or DVD's, whether video, music or data discs, may not work properly unless they are clean. Heat and moisture can damage the discs (so don't leave them in a hot car or in direct sunlight). Here is a consensus of tips from various sources on correct handling of CD's and DVD's: Keep fingers and hands away from the information area of the disk. Handle a disc by placing your thumb through the center and your fingers around the outer edge. If you mark the disk, use a soft marker (such as a felt tip pen) or a label (on the label side). Do not use pens, pencils, or any sharp objects on the disc-on either side. Some sources claim a scratch on the label side can also cause problems. There are a variety of paper and plastic storage envelopes available, but for long term storage of frequently used discs, the use of plastic "jewel" cases is recommended. If a disc needs to be cleaned, use a moist cloth and dry it with one that is dust-free (facial tissues can leave behind damaging paper dust). When cleaning and drying, drag the cloths from the inner to the outer edge of the disc. Never use a circular motion. Follow these guidelines, and your CD's and DVD's should last for a very long time. by Berry F. Phillips, Member of the Computer Club of Oklahoma City and a regular writer for the CCOKC website and the eMonitor; bfpdata@gbronline.com Crash! Crash! That was the sound of Stephen King's sledgehammer bashing the car that hit him while jogging. Perhaps he thought Christine from his earlier horror novel had come back to haunt him! Crash also strikes terror in the hearts of computer users. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project approximately two thirds of Americans use the Internet and about 87% of them through connections in their homes. While there is no research data on the number of computer users that cannot master their computers, there is evidence of anger and frustration with computers that could escalate into what one psychologist calls "computer rage." University of Maryland Professor Kent Norman says, "Men and women are taking out their frustrations on the computer and unfortunately, sometimes misdirecting it to other people." Norman, who directs the Laboratory of Automation Psychology and Decision Processes at the University, conducted an online survey where twenty percent of the respondents admitted they dropped a computer on the floor out of anger. They described smashing, microwaving, and cursing their computers. One claimed he threw his laptop in a fryer and several claimed to have shot hardware. The study further suggested computer users were most annoyed by: e-mail snafus including spam, waiting while a computer completed a simple task, having to redosomething because of a glitch and having to upgrade obsolete programs. Microsoft ranked high on the list of objects of ire. With the increased popularity of wireless networks, DVD players, and game systems, the possibilities of irritations are almost endless.  You can lower your cyber blood pressure by taking some preventative medicine. Increase your knowledge to make yourself a more-informed user. Join the [Front Range PC Users Group] (www.frpcug.org) and network with other computer users and learn from their experiences (misery loves company!). Do NOT go on the Internet without a regularly updated and weekly-maintained complete computer security system including antivirus, anti-spyware and firewall software. Not having the money for commercial applications is no excuse as there are several excellent freeware security software programs available online. Often forgotten is a good registry and unnecessary-file cleaner that has automatic backups, which can substantially reduce your crashes. Defrag weekly if needed and scandisk [or check disk-CHKDSK] at least once a month. Do not forget to make an emergency boot disk. Finally, in case of a crash, do not panic. Write down what you did immediately prior to the crash, and any instructions you receive from your computer. Make sure you have been taking fruit to lay at the feet of your computer guru or lay money on your friendly computer tech. The life you save may be your own computer. SOS stands for Save Our System! by Sue Crane, Vice President & Editor, Big Bear Computer Club, California. Sue.crane@charter.net http://www.bbcc.org [The items included in this newsletter have been selected from a longer article] Man vs. SuperComputer Michael Adams, United Kingdom's strongest chess player, is the latest player to take on a supercomputer. Adams and the Hydra computer will play up to 6 games for a prize fund of $150,000. Some experts are already predicting that Hydra will win the contest. But correspondence chess grandmaster Arno Nickel, who recently beat Hydra 2-0 in a correspondence match, has predicted that Adams could secure a 3-3 draw. According to the team that developed Hydra, it can calculate 200 million moves per second and see up to 40 moves ahead. Laptop Batteries Recalled Batteries in some notebook computers from Fujitsu Siemens can overheat, with a risk of fire. The company has recalled the batteries in some of its Amilo notebook computers, and will replace affected batteries free of charge. No IE7 for Win 2K According to an unnamed employee, Microsoft will not be releasing IE 7 for Windows 2000 as this would involve a lot of work for an operating system that is in the later stages of its lifecycle and some of the security work in IE 7 relies on operating system functionality in XP SP2. Win 2K users argue that Microsoft is committed to provide extended support to Windows 2000 through 2010. Microsoft was also criticized for building a Web browser that cannot run independently of the operating system. IE 7 will be available in beta this summer, offering improved security features, basic tabbed browsing and improved standards support, including support for CSS 2 and PNG transparencies. Digitally Enhanced Photos May Be "Too Good" Kacie Powell, a photographer for Centre College in Danville, Ky., tried to get some digital photo shots printed at Wal-Mart, but employees said they looked "too professional." She ended up signing an affidavit that included pictures of college employees who were authorized to print her pictures. When a colleague whose portrait was included among the authorized photographers went to Wal-Mart with some candid shots from graduation, she got turned down too. Photo Labs, fearful of being sued by professional photographers, are in a tough spot: should they anger their customers or risk a lawsuit? Don't be surprised if your digitally enhanced personal photos are turned down by Wal-Mart and other fast-photo labs. Do the walls have ears? The experimental system--which consists of a series of sensors under a baby's mattress and a camera mounted on a wall--will monitor a child's heart rate, temperature and movement; stream video of the infant; and even take pictures. Captured data is sent to a parent's PC. In another experiment, researchers have tagged all of the items in a person's house with RFID sensors that effectively will tell a remote computer whether the occupant has moved a spoon or turned on the television. Though it might sound Orwellian in the abstract, the system is being designed to provide relatives or professional caregivers information on the daily habits of the elderly. $100 Computer A little-known company called Novatium plans to offer a stripped-down home computer for about $70 or $75. Adding a monitor doubles the price to $150, but the company will offer used displays to keep the cost down. Check http://www.wikipedia.org for both non-technical translations of computer jargon, and links to additional information for the more technically minded. This site has an excellent discussion on DVD's, for example, including some history on the development of the DVD format(s). QUICK AND EASY PARAGRAPH INDENTATION IN MS-WORD by Mike Morris, Front Range PC Users Group There are times when you need to send a letter or memo to someone with a list of "To Do" items. For example, if you are part of a charitable organization that is planning a fund raiser, your list might include finding a suitable location, finding a speaker, checking on the public address system, etc. If you create that memo in a word processor, you have a wide variety of ways to format it for greatest impact. Since the topic of discussion here is writing a memo, not writing a book or doctoral dissertation, what is needed is a shortcut-and that is exactly what this feature is called. This shortcut makes use of the `Ctrl' and `M' keys on the keyboard. You may have read about this feature in one of the many books on MS-Word, but its usefulness is never fully explained. Returning to the fund raising memo, start by typing it without any special formatting:
To: Board Members
Subject: Fund Raiser
From: Joe Caffeine
As requested by the board, I have prepared a prioritized list of action items for the fund
raiser:
1. Find a suitable location and determine cost and payment terms
2. Contact potential speakers for availability
3. Have public address system checked by designated member of our organization
Highlight the three numbered items. Hold down the "Ctrl" key and then press and release the "M" key twice; release the "Ctrl" key. Your memo will now look like this:
To: Board Members
Subject: Fund Raiser
From: Joe Caffeine
As requested by the board, I have prepared a prioritized list of action items for the fund
raiser:
1. Find a suitable location and determine cost and payment terms
2. Contact potential speakers for availability
3. Have public address system checked by designated member of our organization
If, during the planning meetings for the fund raiser, you need to add information to any one of the list items, it will automatically end up with the correct indentation. The CTRL+M shortcut is truly a quick and easy way to indent paragraphs without worrying about the Tabs, Indentation, or Styles features of MS-Word. by Timothy Everingham, Member of TUGNET, California teveringham@acm.org http://www.tugnet.org Both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are screaming, "Dual-Core Processors are Coming." They say they are the future of microprocessors for computers. With both companies planning to introduce these processors in the next few months it is important to understand the significance of this development. So what is a dual-core processor? Basically it is two microprocessors on the same integrated circuit or chip. Having more than one processor in a computer has been around for a long time. It is normal for servers to have them. Multiprocessor workstations (high end desktops) are used mostly for scientific, engineering and digital content creation for TV and movies. Dual-core is not Intel's hyperthreading that is on its Pentium 4s, which lets the operating system think it has two processors rather than one. In a dual-core processor there are two actual processors, each one having its own L1 & L2 caches. Why are we going to dual-core processors? One of the main reasons is heat. The higher a processor's clock speed, the more heat it produces. The 3.6 GHz Pentium 4 did have heat problems. Of course what we have been doing is just put more than one processor on a motherboard to increase performance beyond what you can get with a single processor (The general rule has been that adding a second processor improves computer speed by 60% over a single processor of the same speed). However, to make this more cost effective, similar, use less space, and reduce power requirements putting two processors together on one chip is better. This is especially true in the desktop and notebook markets. As we move to high-definition TV resolution video on computers the need for the average computer to have very high processing speed will appear, leading to dual-core processor computers being dominant a few years from now. But can you upgrade your current system to a dual-core processor? If you have an AMD socket 939 motherboard you can upgrade to an AMD Athlon 64 dual-core processor with only a BIOS upgrade. The same is true for AMD Opteron socket 940 motherboards for Opteron dual-core processors. Intel said last fall that some Intel LGA 775 motherboards would be able to use their dual-core processors, called "Pentium D", but they now say the first generation of them will have to use a modified LGA 775 socket. This of course means getting a new motherboard. For an application program to take advantage of multiprocessor systems both the operating system and the particular application you are running have to have the ability to use more than one processor (multi-threaded program). If the operating system is able to take advantage of more than one processor, but the applications you are running are not; you may get different applications running on different processors, but each will only use one processor. Windows 98 & ME are designed for only one processor, so they can only use one processor even though there are two processors on one chip, real or virtual. Windows XP Home can use only one processor chip, but up to two processors on that chip. Windows XP Professional is designed to use up to 2 processor chips and up to 2 processors on each chip. Novell's SUSE Linux is already ready for dual core processors, and Red Hat Linux soon will be. Both are multithreaded and multiprocessor chip operating systems. Most current multithreaded application programs are mid-high end scientific, engineering, CAD/CAM and digital content creation programs. This includes video editing and 2D and 3D animation and image creation/editing programs. However there are some home applications that already have this multi-threading capability, such as the Adobe Premiere Elements video-editing program. The first programs for the home user to go multithreading should be content creation/editing, multimedia, and games. There seems to be an expectation by Intel that the transition over to most programs being multithreaded will be three years from now. However, some software companies base the licensing fees of some or all of their programs by the number of processors using the program. The question then becomes will software companies start charging licensing fees per processor core on the current per processor chip? Right now it looks like the trend says no. Microsoft has already said for its programs that are licensed on a per processor basis it will continue doing so and not go to a per processor core basis. Also to consider in upgrading both Intel and AMD systems you may have software you have to activate that logs the system components. Upgrading processors and motherboards can cause these programs to say that this is now a new computer you are running the program on, which you are not authorized to do, and refuse to run. This could include your operating system. Check with your program's publisher/manufacturer to see what their policy on this is. Home and office use policies effectively have been known to be different. So when will these marvelous dual-core processors appear? [The original forecast] for Intel was the second quarter of 2005. For AMD it was mid-2005 for the high level Opterons and second half of 2005 for the desktop Athlon 64s (so check with your favorite hardware supplier). As normal, the price should originally be high, but then drop significantly over time. We are moving this year to dual core processors. They will improve the speed of computers, and reduce the related heat and power requirement issues. They will be originally for those high-end power users, but over the next few years they could easily become the norm. They will be in a computer store near you later this year. Timothy Everingham is CEO of Timothy Everingham Consulting in Azusa, California. He is also Chair of the Los Angeles Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH. He has had articles published throughout the United States and Canada plus Australia, England, & Japan. Further information can be found at http://home.earthlink.net/~teveringham by Rob Rice Much has been said about virus and malicious software prevention, but what if all of your precautions fail? So there you are, happily clicking along the Internet when suddenly a popup ad obstructs your view. You start to close it and then another and then another pops up so that in just a few seconds there are so many pop-up ads that you cannot possibly close them all as they just keep coming. So what do you? Delete them as fast as you can in hopes that they will stop? Turn off the computer? Suddenly a program appears from nowhere and informs you that you have been infected with a trojan virus and the program needs to scan your system so that the trojan can be removed. The problem is that you do not remember ever having installed this program. Do you trust it? There are some industry-accepted procedures for dealing with this type of incident and any virus or trojan infection. Just follow these five simple steps in the following order to minimize damage: 1. Do not turn off your computer unless you are certain that your files are being actively deleted! 2. Disconnect the network cable from your computer and/or turn off your wireless connection. 3. Write down any error messages and the names of any programs or software that was running at the time the infection occurred. 4. Mark the computer "Do Not Use". 5. Run any of your applications that you are certain are yours and that might have opened identifying a virus attack. Next, run your antivirus, anti-trojan tools. Step One: Do not turn off your computer. Not every trojan and virus is the same so this rule will have exceptions, but generally you do not want to turn off the computer unless you can see that the virus is deleting your files. If you think that it can be stopped from deleting your files without turning off the computer, then this is a better option than turning off the computer. The reason is that while turning the computer off will temporarily stop the damage more harm can come when you turn the computer back on. System files can be infected when loading, boot sectors contaminated, hard drive partitions erased, registries corrupted. For example, on a Windows system every time you make a major system change one of the first things that it wants you to do is reboot, "To allow the changes to take affect". In the case of a virus or trojan, the last thing we want to do is to allow the changes to take affect. Step Two: Disconnect the network cable from your computer and/or turn off your wireless connection. Trojans are designed to open a door and let other trojans, spyware and viruses in. Physically disconnecting its link to the Internet stops this behavior, prevents your personnel information from going out and prevents other machines from being infected. Many checklists have this action rated number one and for good reasons. I rate it here as step two because step one is simply a quick decision that can have a significant impact on the recovery outcome. Step Three: Write down any error messages that appear and the names of any programs or software that was running at the time the infection occurred. This is important not only for repairing the system but also for identifying which alerts are real and which ones are bogus. Error messages that contain misspellings and poor grammar are likely bogus and generated by the virus. Step Four: Mark the computer "Do Not Use". This is in case you get called away and have to leave the system alone for any length of time. Step Five: Run any of your applications that you are certain are yours and that might have opened to identify a virus attack. Next, run your antivirus anti-trojan tools. It's possible that your antivirus or anti-trojan software may have detected the attack and started running a system scan or is prompting you and waiting for instructions. If you are certain that it is your software then let it do what it wants to do and let it clean the system. If you have any doubts as to whether the program is in fact one of your programs then DO NOT RUN THE SOFTWARE! Some trojans actually install and run a program pretending to be antivirus/anti-trojan software and scan your system all the while claiming to be cleaning your computer. In reality it is part of the trojan. Some of these programs look very commercial and very polished so be careful! Rob Rice is a computer specialist working in Anchorage, Alaska. Rob can be contacted at articles@isp.com by Gabe Goldberg, APCUG Advisor and Columnist, AARP Computers and Technology Website Just when we think we understand technology and its buzzwords, it all changes. E-mail, chat rooms, Web boards, instant messaging, and cell phone cameras -- haven't they been around forever? But one of this year's hot words is still a bit mysterious: blog. It's neither the villain in a Star Wars movie nor a weather phenomenon: it's simply an abbreviation for "Web log". A blog is an online diary or journal, usually casual and open for all to read. Blog topics vary as widely as the people who create them. They can be personal how-was-my-day recordkeeping; focus on topics such as politics, technology, religion, etc.; and include pointers to other online resources -- such as other blogs! To be interesting and effective, blogs need constant care and feeding. Blogs attract visitors, links, and buzz by being timely, so people are unlikely to visit blogs that don't frequently show new and interesting content. But before you learn to read blogs-and it's often as simple as visiting Web sites!-you'll need a reason to do so. Searching Google for "blog" and "senior citizen" yields almost 30,000 hits. That's too many to explore but shows that blogging offers something for all ages. So I'll explore a few interesting blogs, then describe ways to explore the "blogosphere" (the world-wide and ever-growing collection of blogs). Hosted on a colleague's Web site, Dr.John Huth's blog [jimbuie.blogs.com/john_huth/] highlights his personal crusade to reduce senior citizens' isolation through computers. Recent posts include "Video-Conferencing: the Killer Application to Reduce Isolation and Depression Among the Elderly" and "Bedside Computers in Hospitals". TravelPod [http://www.travelpod.com/], an elaborate and polished Web site, describes itself as the Web's "original travel blog". The assortment of travel journals, travelogues, travelers, and destinations inspires me to hit the road! You can browse highlighted stories or search on interests. For example, having enjoyed a trip to Denmark about 15 years ago, I found dozens of bloggers discussing the country. Web site Moreover collects news and information from thousands of editorial sites and more than a million blogs. Its "Consumer: Senior News" page [p.moreover.com/cgi-local/page?index_seniors] includes varied material such as travel, insurance, retirement, and crime. John Woolington hosts a simple but deep technology blog well worth visiting [maturetechnology.blogspot.com/]. Titled "Technology Is Not The Simple Life", it includes observations and opinions about coping with change. For anything-goes fun, visit Wil Mosher's blog [dailysnooze.blogspot.com/]. He's a curmudgeon and proud of it, noting that he "hides in his hole by day, emerging at night to frolic and ...." Ken's Weblog [kengory.blogspot.com/] proudly shows a fellow's family, friends, politics, humor, and favorite Web links. It's clear that having a blog is like having your personal TV station or magazine! Gossip Cooler [http://www.seniorcitizens.com/weblog/gossipcooler.html] is a daily blog about growing older. The site it's on has useful info and links interleaved with many advertisements; since there's no hint who writes or runs the site, be careful. A woman artist/activist/writer's blog [windchimewalker.blogspot.com/] offers her responses to world events, disability, and life. Describing herself as a "raging granny", she leaves no doubt where she stands on issues. Blogs like this show the Internet's power to share ideas and create communities by allowing readers to comment on what Patricia says. A simple blog [http://www.lazydazers.com] lets you read about and see pictures of a couple's RV travels and adventures. Finally, the Ageless Project [jenett.org/ageless/] is a fascinating compilation of Web sites (not all are blogs) illustrating that "the personal, creative side of the web is diverse and ageless". Blogs and RSS are becoming increasingly popular and are getting good press coverage [techweb.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=57700173]. You can visit the blogs I've referenced as simple Web pages with normal hyperlinks. Many blogs are also readable via RSS (Rich Site Summary), an Internet technology which can bring material from multiple publishers/blogs to you as it's published, without your having to visit multiple Web sites. I read RSS "feeds" via my email software, Mozilla Thunderbird, and through a Web site which collects RSS feeds [http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs]. - IMPORTANT NOTICE - FRPCUG meetings are held at the Fort Collins Senior Center. Check below for directions to the Senior Center. September General Forum Meeting We will meet at the Fort Collins Senior Center on Tuesday, September 6 at 7:00 pm. Meeting Agenda 7:00 - 7:15 Announcements 7:15 - 8:00 Wireless Networking 8:00 - 8:15 Break 8:15 - 9:00 Open Forum October General Forum Meeting We will meet at the Fort Collins Senior Center on Tuesday, October 4 at 7:00 pm. Meeting Agenda 7:00 - 7:15 Announcements 7:15 - 8:00 RSS Feeds 8:00 - 8:15 Break 8:15 - 9:00 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 in the Staff Board Room of the Fort Collins Senior Center. New Technology SIG The LINUX SIG and the Telecommunications SIG have been combined to form the new Advanced Systems Support SIG. This SIG provides advanced support for all PC-related operating system and telecommunication issues. The meetings are held at 7:00 PM on the third Thursday of each month at Bluebird Manufacturing Inc., 1421 Webster Avenue, in Fort Collins. For more information contact Chuck McJilton at 493-2987 or email telecomsig@jymis.com. 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/. 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. 4 FRPCUG General Forum Meeting 7:00 PM 12 FRPCUG Board Meeting 7:00 PM 20 New Technology SIG 7:00 PM November 2005 1 FRPCUG General Forum Meeting 7:00 PM 9 FRPCUG Board Meeting 7:00 PM 17 New Technology SIG 7:00 PM 24 Thanksgiving Day First Phishing, Now Pharming by John Pearce, Pikes Peak Computer Application Society, Colorado Springs, CO First, there was phishing-trying to collect personal information. A newer attack called pharming is trying to do the same thing in a more technologically sophisticated way. You need to be on guard but neither phishing nor pharming should keep you away from the Internet. Let's take a quick overview of both. Phishing starts with an e-mail, typically from a financial institution, with a message that some dire consequences will happen if you don't immediately verify your account information. A web site link is conveniently provided for you in the e-mail. The provided link is to a web page that looks like the real web site but is actually a web site controlled by the bad guys. The fraudulent web page asks you to enter credit card and billing information or possibly user name and password information. You can imagine what the bad guys are going to do with the information they collect. Pharming is a way for the bad guys to redirect your web browsing to a site which they control. Pharming is also known as DNS (Domain Name System) cache poisoning. DNS is what converts human friendly names like webboard.apcug.org to numerical addresses like 192.160.122.122. The bad guys want to impact the largest number of Internet users possible so ISP's and large corporations are the most likely targets of pharming attacks. One goal is to download spyware or adware to your PC. Protecting yourself from phishing attacks is as simple as ignoring the e-mail. All but one of the dozen or so phishing e-mails I have received have been from banks where I don't have an account. In that case, delete the e-mail and go on with your life. If you have an account with the financial institution and are concerned, use the telephone and ask to speak with their Internet security department. If you go to the web site to login, type the web site URL into the browser. Do not use the link provided in the e-mail. Protecting yourself from pharming attacks takes a little effort. Start by keeping your browser updated with all the security patches. Next, you should be sure the padlock icon is displayed on any page where you enter personal information such as username, account number, or password. The padlock icon indicates you are connected to the legitimate owner of the URL and the data you enter is protected by SSL encryption during transmission. The bad guys would have to know the private key of the site in order to make the padlock appear. You can view the security information by double clicking the padlock icon on your browser. You can also use a tool like SpoofStick to confirm the URL of the web page you're viewing. Two other exploits are worth a quick mention. The first is an instant messaging worm that changes the content of the hosts file on your PC. This is effectively the same as DNS cache poisoning. The other exploit is domain hijacking which is done by manipulating the domain name registrars. Domain hijacking is what happened to Panix, a New York ISP, in January. Being aware of phishing and pharming along with a little care and caution will keep your web browsing safe from the bad guys. [Ed. Note: information in this article was extracted from the medicare website. For more complete information, connect to http://www.medicare.gov and/or ww.medicare.gov/MPCO/Static/Resources.asp] Starting January 1, 2006, Medicare will offer insurance coverage for prescription drugs through Medicare prescription drug plans and other health plan options. Medicare's new prescription drug coverage will typically pay over half of your drug costs next year, for a monthly premium. It will also provide peace of mind because it protects you once your out-of-pocket drug spending is more than $3600 a year. Insurance companies and other private companies will work with Medicare to provide a choice of plans that cover both brand name and generic drugs. To enroll, you must have Medicare Part A and/or Medicare Part B. You can first enroll in a plan in your area from November 15, 2005 through May 15, 2006. If you have limited income and resources, you may qualify for extra help that will cover between 85 and almost 100 percent of your drug costs. Most people who are eligible for this extra help will pay no premiums, no deductibles, and no more than $5 for each prescription. The amount of extra help depends on your income and resources. Medicare prescription drug plans will vary, but in general, this is how they will work. When you join, you will pay a monthly premium (varies depending on the plan you choose, but generally about $37) in addition to any premiums for Medicare Part A and/or Part B. You will pay the first $250 per year for your prescriptions. This is called your "deductible." After you pay the $250 yearly deductible, here's how the costs work: You pay 25% of your yearly drug costs from $250 to $2,250, and your plan pays the other 75% of these costs, then You pay 100% of your drug costs from $2,251 until your out-of-pocket costs reach $3,600, then You pay 5% of your drug costs (or a small copayment) for the rest of the calendar year after you have spent $3,600 out-of-pocket and your plan pays the rest. To enroll, you must have Medicare Part A or Part B. You can first enroll from November 15, 2005 through May 15, 2006. This is called the "initial open enrollment period." Enrolling is your choice. Note: After this initial open enrollment period, you can change your plan during the open enrollment period, which will be from November 15 through December 31 each year. Your Medicare prescription drug plan will begin January 1 of the following year. To join, you will need to decide how you want to get your prescriptions. You can get all your health care benefits and prescriptions through a Medicare Advantage Managed Care Plan that offers optional coverage for prescription drugs, get your health care benefits through the Original Medicare Plan and choose a Medicare prescription drug plan, or get your health care benefits through another type of Medicare Advantage health plan or a Medicare Managed Care Plan that isn't a Medicare Advantage Plan. In these kinds of plans, you may be able to choose a Medicare prescription drug plan. by Larry Horn, Editor & Review Coordinator, pcugsj@comcast.net PC Users Group of New Jersey http://www.pcugsj.org You have purchased a digital camera now you have to learn how to use it. The instruction book mentions "Scene Modes" and you see a lot of funny icons on one of the dial of your camera so what are they and what do they do? The picture below is from an Olympus D8060 digital camera, so yours will probably look somewhat different but they are generally similar.  The first thing to remember is this a still a camera and you get a picture by having the right amount of light hit the film or light sensor in a digital camera. You do this by adjusting the size of the lens opening (Aperture), or the length of time the shutter is open (Shutter Speed ). How you adjust the two of these in tandem will create a different picture. Without going into a long photography course, I will briefly explain what each of these does. The Aperture controls how much light is hitting the sensor at any instant and the depth of focus. If I want everything in the picture to be in focus, both near and far objects, I will choose a small aperture. If I want selective focus, for example taking a portrait with a blurred background, you adjust the camera the other way. The Shutter Speed controls how long the shutter is open so the light can get to the sensor. For a sporting event where you want to stop the action, you would use a short shutter speed but if you want to burl the movement to imply motion, you would use a longer shutter speed. You would also use a very long shutter speed for night shots with motion you want to capture like fireworks. How does this relate to Scene modes? In its Default setting, the camera guesses at the best exposure, adjusting the Aperture and Shutter Speed without really knowing what you are taking a picture of. It goes for an average setting. By selecting a "scene" on your camera, you are telling the camera what you are taking a picture of so it can make a better choice of how to set the camera. It generally gives more accurate and pleasing results than the default Auto mode. What are some of the more common Scene Modes? I have listed them below and apologize for not drawing the actual icons but my art work is not that good. P Program or Auto: This is the default where the camera makes all of the settings based upon an average. A Aperture Preference: Here you set the aperture according to the effect you want and the camera sets the appropriate shutter speed. S Shutter Preference: You set the shutter speed - fast for sports or slow for a motion- blur effect and the camera sets the appropriate aperture. M Manual: With this setting you select everything with no help from the camera. Reserve this for experienced users who want to get creative. My Mode: This is an Olympus term which lets you set everything manually and then save those settings. This is useful if you are frequently taking pictures in a set location and lighting setup. An example would be if you frequently sell items on eBay and want to include pictures so you set up "stage" where you take your pictures and want to easily remember the correct settings. Movie: Many digital still cameras can now take short movies limited in length by the size of the memory card. They are low resolution and generally limited to only 1 or 2 minutes or less. Night: This sets a slow shutter speed to capture the available light and may also allow for the use of flash for a subject close to the camera. Landscape: This setting is self-explanatory. Action/Sports: This is really a shutter priority mode setting a high shutter speed to freeze the action. Portrait: Used for taking pictures of people with the background blurred. Play: This us usually a triangle similar to the play button on a CD player. It is used to view the pictures you have taken on the LCD screen. Macro: You would use this setting to take close-up pictures. Some cameras, like my Nikon CoolPic 4100, do not have all of these icons on the main dial but rather have a setting that says SCENE which brings up a menu on the LCD screen where you can set them. The Nikon even has scene modes for Party/Indoor, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Museum, Fireworks and others. The Nikon also has an additional feature they call Assist Modes. These modes actually place lines over the image in the LCD screen to assist you in positioning the subject in a more pleasing way and/or line things up for panoramas or architecture. You might even find a Burst or Multi-Shot mode for firing off a set number of pictures in rapid succession. I used this to get some great action shots at a bull riding competition last year. I suggest that you pick up a good book on basic photography when you get your camera. Even with the camera's help, good pictures require the picture taker to understand the basic principals of photography and graphic composition. We have reviewed several in the Cache. Digital or Film, it is still photography. Additional suggestions: Check camera manufacturers' web sites. They frequently have lessons and tips. Kodak is an example. Go to: http://www.kodak.com then click on the Taking Great Pictures box on the top of the page. Olympus also has lessons which are more geared toward their cameras for examples but they are still informative: http://olympusdigitalschool.com/photo_lessons/index.html. I hope I have given you some enlightenment as to what Scene Modes are and what they do. I encourage everyone to read their camera's manual to see what is available. The end result is more successful pictures that you will be proud of. by Lucy McFadden http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/update.html The Deep Impact science team gathered in Hilo, Hawaii the last week of July for a working retreat to examine the results from Deep Impact's encounter on July 4th. Collaborating astronomers from around the world joined them both in person and via videoconference. The impact of comet Tempel 1 was scheduled to be observable from the ground while the comet was above the horizon in Hawaii, the location of some of the darkest and driest skies in the world. Many of the astronomers who used telescopes at Mauna Kea attended the workshop to learn about the impact from the Deep Impact science team's perspective, which would enable them to better interpret their own data. It was truly a collaborative effort, as the science team is interested in ground-based and space-based results to give us perspective on the Deep Impact spacecraft data. While about 50 people were present at the workshop, we had colleagues attending by videoconference in Germany, and Maryland, USA. We spanned 12 time zones, and didn't know whether to say "Good morning" or "Good Night". We settled on "Aloha" and appreciated our distant colleagues wearing their Hawaiian shirts to feel closer to the pulse of the meeting. Group photo made at Hilo meeting. Our tasks involved reviewing some of the most interesting data that we collected, reporting on the calibration, checking it and crosschecking, and discussing possible interpretations. We also defined additional questions we need to have answered in order to arrive at robust interpretations of the nature of the comet before impact, the phenomenon of the impact itself, and the effects of the impact afterwards. From the images posted on the web pages, it is known that the Deep Impact spacecraft returned spectacular data from the collision. Bright dust glowed and illuminated space shortly after impact. The comet zipped by and the spacecraft looked back to see what effects had been made. So much dust was kicked up by the impact, that the science team is still analyzing the images to measure the size of the crater. This analysis continues. The spectrometer showed spectral signatures of water, hydrocarbons, CO and CO2. We continue the analysis of the spectra to determine how hot the water was (between 1000 and 2000 K) and how long it remained hot. The interpretation is a challenge, because the spacecraft and the comet were in motion. That is both an advantage and a challenge. We continue to put together the story of what we saw, when, and how fast the spacecraft was moving. Initial reports from ground-based and space-based observers are varied. Some telescopes saw dramatic changes as a result of the impact, while others did not. One has to recall that the results depend not only on how large a telescope is being used, and its sensitivity, but also at what region of the spectrum the data are acquired. The physics of the impact is not active in all spectral regions. There is a lot of information to be gleaned from both positive and negative results from ground-based and space-based data. Combining those results with that of the Deep Impact spacecraft, that was right there when it happened, but carried only two types of instruments (visible imagers and an IR spectrometer) will provide an interesting scientific story when we get it all sorted out. At week's end we had compiled contributions to a manuscript to be submitted to Science magazine that is scheduled for publication in September 2005. The full set of raw and calibrated data are scheduled to be delivered to the Planetary Data System in January 2006. The Planetary Data System releases the data to the public. The photograph below, taken just prior to impact, has the title "So Close You Can Almost Touch It."  by Dave Gerber, Dave's Bits & Bytes, A Periodic Newsletter for the Members of the Sarasota PC User Group and the World!! Director, Sarasota PCUG, Florida http://www.spcug.org Spammers employ a variety of methods to acquire e-mail addresses. Some methods take advantage of the e-mail addresses readily available on the Internet, whereas others employ different levels of trickery, from harvesting to outright stealing. Harvesting from the Internet Spammers (and their assistants) utilize a technique called harvesting to acquire e-mail addresses. While harvesting requires a lot of bandwidth, it is ingeniously simple: Simply download the right pages from select Web sites and extract the e-mail addresses that are there for the picking. Some of the tools and sources employed in harvesting e-mail addresses from the Web include the following: Web spiders: Spammers employ Web crawlers and spiders that harvest e-mail addresses from Web sites. It's common for Web sites to include mailto: URLs as well as unlinked user@domain addresses. Put your e-mail address on a Web site, and you're spam bait. These spiders are not unlike the spiders and Web crawlers used by Yahoo, Google, and others that scan the Internet's Web sites in order to keep Web search indexes fresh. Except that e-mail address harvesting spiders are up to no good. And where do these spiders get domain names? With over 90 million .com domains in existence, it's easy enough to just guess domain names in order to come up with quite a few. Newsgroups: It's a straightforward task to harvest e-mail addresses from Usenet newsgroups: Just pull in a big news feed and extract the e-mail addresses with a simple shell or Perl script. Newsgroup volumes are still increasing exponentially-at a rate of at least several gigabytes per day. This means lots of e-mail addresses are there for the taking. Any spammer with enough bandwidth can slurp up all those bits and just sift out the e-mail addresses. Groups, blogs, and discussion boards: Yahoo! and Google have their groups and mailing lists, many of which make their members' e-mail addresses available. There are thousands of blogs and discussion boards out there, too, that contain easily acquired e-mail addresses. Test messages: In this method, spammers send test e-mails to recipients whose addresses they simply guess - so-called test e-mail messages sent to addresses like service@, info@, test@, marketing@, security@. Spammers at one time could reliably conclude that, if they receive no "bounce-o-gram" back from the domain, that the e-mail address must be legit. This is because e-mail servers used to routinely send nondelivery receipts (NDRs) back to the sender of a message sent to a nonexistent address. But that ain't necessarily so any more: More servers are opting to stop sending NDRs. Unsubscribe links: Many spam messages include an opt-out or unsubscribe link so that the recipient can request not to receive more spam. However, often the real purpose of unsubscribe links is to confirm a valid, active e-mail address. Malware: Spammers sometimes use Trojan horses, viruses, and worms to extract e-mail addresses from individual users' computers. If mass-mailing worms can extract the contents of a user's e-mail address book for the purpose of propagating spam, then it's going to be easy to perform the same extraction and simply send the list back to the hacker's lair. This would probably be easier, in fact, because this activity is far less likely to be detected than a mass-mailing worm. Unsubscribe requests: A good number of spam messages contain "unsubscribe me" links that a user clicks to opt out. However, many spam operators actually continue to send spam to e-mail addresses submitted to "unsubscribe me" links. When a user submits such a request, the spammer knows that the address being sent is a valid e-mail address. Do you think they'll actually stop sending spam to a known valid address? Not on your life! Buying and stealing addresses Among spammers and e-mail address brokers, e-mail addresses are a traded and sold commodity. If you know where to look, you can purchase CDs and downloads containing e-mail addresses by the hundreds of thousands or millions. And of course, everyone has heard the stories of Web sites that collect your e-mail address and promise not to sell it (ha!). But they sell, trade, or give away e-mail addresses anyway, even when their privacy policy says they won't. A few high-profile companies have been prosecuted and/or fined for this practice. Business and service provider e-mail lists are also stolen and sold to spammers. In mid-2004, a former AOL employee was charged with stealing 90 million screen names and 30 million e-mail addresses from AOL and selling them to a spammer for $100,000. This is not an isolated case, but it is a noteworthy one because of the size of the heist. So much for privacy, eh? by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor Sarasota PC Users Group http://www.spcug.org/reviews/ HOSPITAL INFORMATION The federal Department of Health and Human Services' site provides information on how your hospitals rate in terms of care provided. Find out how they treat major conditions such as heart attack. You'll also learn why particular procedures are important. There are other tools to help you choose the right hospital. There are questions you should ask your physician and insurance company. Plus, there's a list of things to look for when you visit the hospital. If you have questions on Medicare, link to organizations that can help. Best of all, you'll find links to information on disease prevention. http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov IF YOU HAVE A COMPLAINT with a company, you can do something about it. Tell the Federal Trade commission! The FTC has created an online form that handles a variety of complaints. Complaints can be about media violence, multi-level marketing, privacy issues, and more. You can even report spam! You fill out your contact information and then provide information on the complaint. The FTC doesn't settle individual disputes. However, your complaint can lead to legal action if the company was fraudulent. This means you can help others from falling victim to unscrupulous organizations. There are also links to forms for reporting identity theft. Or, if you're on the National Do Not Call Registry, forms for reporting violations. https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01 PROCESS EXPLORER V9.0. Windows Task Manager tells you what applications and processes are running, but some process names aren't very clear to the casual reader. Process Explorer (free) helps you get to the bottom of things by digging down to see which application started a process and which resources that app is currently using. This excavation can be a big help when you're trying to figure out which background processes you dare shut down. It can even help sniff out spyware, too. http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml AN INVALUABLE MEDICAL RESOURCE. The Merck manual is one of the most respected sources of medical information. It's also one of the best-selling medical texts around. Now you can access the Merck Manual online for free. (The only thing better than trustworthy health information is free trustworthy health information!) You can search by disease or condition in a number of categories. Then pull up the information you need to understand the condition and treatment. There are also multimedia presentations. Access videos of medical procedures, audio files and photographs. Additionally, animations will help you understand specific concepts. But that's not all. You can view anatomical drawings and read about medical tests. Then, once you're done, learn how to pronounce all the difficult medical terms! http://www.merck.com/mmhe THE VIRTUAL HOSPITAL is a service of the University of Iowa. It contains a wealth of health-related information. Search for information by topic, symptom, body location or medical specialty. Then, link to articles to learn more about health conditions. Most of the information is aimed at adults. But you'll also find articles that specifically address pediatric health. So parents will find this helpful. Most importantly, articles on prevention will help keep you and your loved ones healthy. Doctors' understanding of medical conditions changes regularly. Fortunately, the Virtual Hospital features a news section. The monthly updates will keep you abreast of advances in the medical field. http://www.vh.org GIF WORKS. This online image editor allows applying special effects, resizing, colorizing, optimizing, and even animating GIF images. There is nothing to download or install and it's free. http://www.gifworks.com/ DLL INFORMANT. A DLL, short for Dynamic Link Library, is a tiny bit of data that tells computer programs how to act. DLL Informant tells you what DLL's you have in your system, what your computer is using them for, and it identifies what duplicate DLL's are hanging around just wasting space. Download free at http://www.jps.at/dllinfo.html TRAVELLING WEATHER? The Weather Channel's Web site offers a solution to the problem. Before you travel, visit its travel tool. Put in your departure city and your destination. Then, specify the dates of travel. You'll get a forecast for your travel dates. Along with the forecast, you're given tips on what to pack. For example, it might tell you to pack short sleeves and shorts. It even reminds you if you need to bring an umbrella. You can also check the weather at an airport. Or, you can check on a flight status. If you travel frequently, bookmark this site - it's super handy! http://www.weather.com/activities/travel/businesstraveler MYUNINSTALLER is a free alternative utility to the standard Add/Remove applet, provided by Windows. It offers more information for each installed program, including product name, company, version, uninstall string, installation folder and more. You can uninstall selected items or remove the entry from the list and also export the list to text or HTML format. http://www.nirsoft.net/ 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 Rick Mattingly at 970-613-8968 or email rmatt@jymis.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 Rick Mattingly for information on this service at 970-613-8968 or email rmatt@jymis.com. |
