ea rly s - BigBearCC.org

Volume 7
April 2007
B
y
l
r
ea
Byte
s
Award Winning Newsletter of Big Bear Computer Club
www.bigbearcc.org
Next BBCC Meeting: Tuesday,
April 10, 2007 at 5:30 PM
In This Issue
March Meeting
BBCC Club Information
Presidents Message
February BBCC Calendar
BBCC Helpline
About Bearly Bytes
Membership Report
Sunshine Corner
Software Review
Software Review
Review Products
Books For Sale
Photography Workshop
Raffles
Window Tip
Cash Flow Report
Roadmaster
BBCC General Meeting
Door Prize Winners
Discounts, Offers & Deals
Acronis Software
Word Tip
Excel Tip
Windows Tip Continued
Opportunities Available
Membership Benefits
Membership Application
Map To Meeting
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FBI COMES TO
BIG BEAR
COMPUTER CLUB
FBI Agent John Pi will be the April 10th
Presenter. He will be speaking on Counter
Terrorism and Cyber Intrusion. Agent Pi is on
the Counter Terrorism Unit; as well as on the
FBI Swat Team
Everyone is Welcome!!
Bring your computer questions and bring your friends!
Besides informative computer related presentations we have
Our ever-popular RAM (Question and Answer) session
This is where you will meet friends who share your computer interests
Member’s Drawing for FREE Software products
BBCC Club Information
BBCC Officers and
Key Leaders
President...............................Yomar Cleary
878-5622 [email protected]
Vice President.......................Karen Tangeman
585-7413
[email protected]
Secretary...............................Rosemary Lloyd
584-9358 [email protected]
Treasurer...............................Barbara Moore
585-7981
[email protected]
Reviews Editor.......................Karen Tangeman
585-7413 [email protected]
Director-at-large......................Elaine Tennity
584-7158 [email protected]
Director-at-large......................Kent Gale
585-6460 [email protected]
Publicity...................................Yomar Cleary
878-5622 [email protected]
Equipment Director..................Don Odekirk
585-6728 [email protected]
Technical Director...................Jim Lloyd
584-9358 [email protected]
Webmaster...................Bill Flanagan
866-9379 [email protected]
Newsletter Editor....................Gordon West
(909) 584 9776 [email protected]
Membership Director..............Dorothy Sirk
585-3449 [email protected].
Parliamentarian......................David Philipson
585-9389 [email protected]
NameTags.................................Phyllis Jaeger
866-3895
[email protected]
Sunshine Coordinator................Grace Fross
(951) 769-1225
[email protected]
Page 2
President’s Message
It is great to see Spring
upon us and Winter behind
us….you say what winter?
We have some exciting news
….the Bear Valley Parks &
Recreation has opened up the
Computer Lab to the Computer Club for our use to conduct
computer classes or workshops. This will be a great fundraiser for the club. Our first
workshop will be a Beginner Computer Workshop that will be
held on April 21st. This workshop is open to the public so if
you know of anyone who needs help, please convey the information. We are only asking for a $5.00 donation to cover for
the handouts and materials.
Another Workshop coming up will be a photography
class as one of our club members, Rick Edwards, is a professional photographer. See the article in this newsletter on the
Photography Workshop. If there is anyone in our club who
would like to help either the instructor or would like to teach
a specific subject, please let me know. You don’t have to be a
geek or guru in computers. We certainly could use your help.
We would like to extend our sincere appreciate to Jim
Applebury and Bob Kopolow for being our in-house gurus
when it comes to the RAM session at our meetings. If you
have computer related question(s), bring them to the meeting
as other members probably have the very same question you
have.
I will be leaving on a cruise to Hawaii the day after our
meeting……so until I get back….
Aloha,
Yomar Cleary, President
BBCC Calendar
BBCC Events Calendar -- April, 2007
Sunday
1
Monday
Tuesday
2
3
9
15
22
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
4
5
6
7
10
11
12
13
14
16
17
18
19
20
21
23
24
25
26
27
28
April Fools Day
8
Easter
Earth Day
29
Page 3
BBCC
MEETING
5:30 PM
Board meeting
2:30 PM
30
Beginner
Computer class
11:00-2:00 PM
BBCC
Help Line
The following members have
Generously offered to help
you with your PC problems by
phone or by e-mail.
Windows Beginners.....................Carole Allen
866-7677 [email protected]
Windows 95,98,ME,XP..............Bob Kopolow
584-7747 [email protected]
Outlook Express.......................Joan Kiehl
585-7894 [email protected]
MS Outlook....................... Bob Kopolow
584-7747 [email protected]
MS Word........................Karen Tangeman
585-1734 [email protected]
MS Excel.............................Yomar Cleary
878-5622 [email protected]
MSPublisher........................Yomar Cleary
878-5622 [email protected]
Digital Photos....................Barbara Moore
585-7981 [email protected]
Bearly Bytes
Bearly Bytes is the official publication of Big Bear Compute Club. Winner SWUGC & APCUG newsletter contests. Views
expressed in Bearly Bytes are those of the authors and do not
reflect the opinions of Big Bear Computer Club. Other computer
user groups are welcome to reprint our articles as long as they
acknowledge the author and the source as Bearly Bytes,
Big Bear Computer Club. Editorial Staff: Gordon West, Editor. Columists: Larry Smith, Barbara Moore, Carole Allen,,Karen
Tangeman, Yomar Cleary & Rosemary Lloyd. Submissions: All
BBCC members are encouraged to send letters, articles, questions and comments to Bearly Bytes for inclusion in future issues.
Submi plain text via e-mail and graphics or photos on disk in TIFF
or JPEG format. Bearly Bytes Editor, Gordon West editorbbcc@
charter.net Box 4548, Big Bear City, CA 92314 (909) 584-9776
Membership Report
January & February 2007
Welcome New & Renewing
Members
Christine Knight
Jeannie Saunders
Eberhart Feigler
Sherry Worden
Quicken...........................Michael Homan
584-2277 [email protected]
Kent Gale
Karen Tangeman
Hardware..............................Bob Kopolow
584-7747 [email protected]
Dorothy Evans
Jim Messinger
CD Burning.............................Larry Smith
584-1284 [email protected]
Join our Help Line
Volunteers!
You don’t have to be an expert;
just help others find the
answers.
Contact any BBCC Board Member
to join.
BBCC members are encouraged
to attend Board Meetings and
make suggestions about member
Benefits, events, services, etc. Please
Join us and share your opinions.
Page 4
Sunshine Corner
My name is Grace Fross and I am
your Sunshine Person for 2007. I am going to need help from each of our members. If you know of someone who is ill
or has been hospitalized, please let me
know as soon as possible so I can spread
some club sunshine to them! My email
address is: [email protected].
Software Review
BootItNG
Reviewed by Bob Kopolow [email protected]
On the TeraByte website, they describe Boot It Next Generation by saying:
BootIt™ NG is a partition and multiboot manager with a powerful and simple-to-use set of tools for partitioning, imaging,
and multi-booting your computer. It combines the features of several standalone products costing hundreds of dollars
more.
Reviewer’s comments:
The first thing I noticed about BootItNG was the cumbersome installation. I was required to create a bootable
floppy with the installation program on it. I was also required to create a floppy with the registration strings on it. A beginning computer user would find all this difficult to impossible. After installation, I decided to repartition my 140MB C: drive
into a 70MB C: drive and a 70MB D: drive. This repartitioning took about 15 minutes. After the restart, chkdsk gave me
hundreds of errors like “Correcting error in index $I30, recovering orphaned files.” Then I got “Windows could not start
because the following file is missing or corrupt”. Not a good thing. It appeared my Window operating system had been
corrupted. I performed a complete system rebuild requiring hours of my time. I was NOT a happy camper. At this point,
I decided NOT to continue experimenting with this program.
Although my experience with BootItNG was horrific, I’ve read good reviews of the program. One of my favorite newsletter
authors, Fred Langa, uses it and recommends it. Perhaps I simply wasn’t up to the challenge. In any case, I would
NOT recommend this program to anyone but the most sophisticated of users. It could end in tragedy.
Operating Systems: Windows 95 thru Vista
Retail price: $34.95
Manufacturer:
TeraByte, Inc. dba TeraByte Unlimited is
currently located in Las Vegas, Nevada,
and can be reached using the following
e-mail addresses:
Sales:
[email protected]
Technical Support:
[email protected]
General:
[email protected]
Page 5
Bob Kopolow has been a computer consultant for 27
years specializing in PCs for personal or small business
use. He is experienced in computer security, purchasing PCs for clients, and replacing or adding hardware or
software. He is a volunteer to the BBCC Hotline and lives
full-time in Big Bear Lake. He owns and operates Equinox Tech Systems.
Software Review
NTI Backup Now! Deluxe Suite 4.0.20.0
Reviewed by Bob Kopolow [email protected]
On the NTI website, they describe this software by saying: “NTI Backup Now! 4 Deluxe Suite delivers a total
solution for all your data backup needs. It is the first and only software title to provide full image backup and specific file
backup for a wide range of storage media.”
Reviewer’s comments:
The first thing I noticed was the ease of installation of this suite. No problems. A novice computer user would have
no trouble installing this software.
The NTI Backup Now suite contains two separate programs. NTI Backup Now is a program that backs up selected
files and folders from local and mapped drives. DriveBackup is a separate program that can perform a full image backup
of your entire hard drive or a hard disk partition, allowing you to save all your data and Windows settings.
I’ll start with the Backup Now program. Although the latest version of the program comes up with a screen that says it’s
version 4.7, everything else indicates it’s really version 4.5.7 which is their latest version. When the program comes up, I
found it strange that I couldn’t resize the window; it was either full screen or a size which they had preset. Nonetheless,
the first screen was self explanatory. It shows steps 1, 2, and 3 on the left side. As you click on each, the program indicates what to do. The first step is to choose what to backup. A list of folders and files is displayed on the right and one
merely chooses by checking off folders or files. Besides backing up Files and Folders, there’s another option to backup
ones “profile”. This option lets you backup Outlook data, Outlook Express data, or My Documents data very easily…a
nice addition. The second step is where to backup. My DVD drive was displayed but it told me no media was present.
This prompted me to insert a DVD. The third step asked me if I wanted to backup all selected files or only those that
had changed. The next step was to choose the Start button to begin the backup. It was very intuitive and I’d say it was
the easiest backup program I’ve ever used. The full retail version came with a 92 page instruction manual which I never
needed.
Backup Now currently supports over 500 different CD/DVD drives and the list is ever-expanding. Under the tools
pull-down menu is a Live Update entry. Clicking that will update your program with the latest database of supported
drives.
NTI Backup Now easily spans CDs or DVDs. It also allows compression of the data it writes, although this seems
to slow down the backup which is already pretty time consuming. And even though this program isn’t perfect, it’s the best
and easiest to use backup program I’ve reviewed yet.
The version of NTI DriveBackup I reviewed was 4.0.20.0 which was part of the suite with the same version number. It too was easy to install, but did require a reboot on my XP system. Upon opening, I found that this program too
was impossible to resize. Nonetheless, it looks very similar to BackupNow with the same 3 steps on the left. Step 1
was what to backup. It gives choices of all partitions and drives. Step 2 was where to backup and I was reminded here
also to insert a DVD disk into my drive. Step 3 asked whether I wanted data compression and some other options. This
program can create an “Emergency Recovery CD/DVD” which boots into a version of NTI DriveBackup that will let you
restore from a drive image it creates on CD or DVD. It worked perfectly, but took a lot of time to backup the full drive image even though my DVD is a fairly fast newer model. I tested the DVD which it created and it booted right into a version
of DriveBackup.
In summary, this is the best backup program that I have reviewed so far. It is easy to install and easy to run. It
has some additional features, like backing up ones profile that I really like. I’d recommend this to
Manufacturer:
NewTech Info Systems, 5 Mason Ave., Suite 150, Irvine, CA 92618
Phone: 949-421-0720,
E-mail: [email protected], web: www.NTIus.com
Retail price: $79.99 full retail version, $69.99 download version
Operating Systems: Windows 98 thru XP
Page 6
See Review on
page 5 for Bob
Kopolow’s bio
Review Products
This is your review editor Karen Tangeman
from Big Bear Computer Club. Microsoft has graciously sent us a list of available review software for
our club. Many of their games are included. If you
do not see a software title that you wish to review,
let me know and I will ask our Microsoft representative if it is available.
Look the list over and if you are interested
in reviewing any of this great software contact me
at [email protected] or 585-7413. Only one
program at a time can be reviewed by the Computer
Club from this list and after the review is submitted
then another program can be selected. If you see
something you want to review, get on the waiting
list. Remember if you review it, you get to keep it.
Games
Age of Empires Ill
Age of Empires Gold
Age of Mythology Gold
Combat Flight Simulator 3
Dungeon Siege 2
Halo for the PC
Fable The Lost Chapters DVD
Flight Sim 2004 Century of Flight
Flight Sim X
Zoo Tycoon 2 Endangered Species DVD
Zoo Tycoon 2 Zookeeper Complete Collection
Zoo Tycoon 2 African Adventure
Rise of Nations: Gold
For HP Pocket PCs: Entertain Pak 2.0 WinCE CD
For HP Pocket PCs: Entertain Pak 2004 WinCE Zoo Tycoon 2
Pocket Streets 2005 for Pocket PC or Smartphone
Program Software
Digital Image Standard 2006
Digital Image Suite 2006
Digital Image Suite PLUS
Encarta 2007
Encarta 2007 Premium
Money Deluxe 2007
Money Premium 2007
Money Home and Business 2007
Office Mac 2004
Office Mac Professional 2004
Office Small Business Accounting 2006
Plus! SuperPack for Win XP
Shared Computer Toolkit for WinXP 1.0 with book
Streets and Trips with GPS Locator 2007
Streets and Trips 2007
Student 2006
Student with Encarta Premium 2007 Windows XP Pro x64 bit Edition
180 Day Direct CD Trial *no review required
Virtual PC 2004
Virtual PC for Mac 7.0
Virtual PC for Mac 7.0 with Windows XP Home
Virtual PC for Mac 7.0 with Windows XP Pro
Voice Command 1.5 for mobile devices
Windows Live OneCare 1.5 for both XP and Vista
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Ultimate
One Note 2007
FrontPage 2003
Books for Sale
We have numerous computer related books that will be going on sale at 50% off. These books are “brand new”
computer books. They have never been used. Since there are too many to carry to our meetings, only 4 books will be
brought. Here is a list of the books that are for sale. If you see one that you are interested in please contact [email protected] or call 585-7413. I will make a point to bring the book you are interested in to the following meeting.
And you read correctly, they are 50% off the listed retail price. The books are:
MRP
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Page 7
Access 2003 for Starters The Missing Manual (2 books)
Fixing Access Annoyances
Access Hacks Tips & Tools for Wrangling your Data
Dude, You can do it! How to build a Sweet PC
The Outlook Answer Book (for Outlook 2003) Tips, Tricks
Photoshop Elements 3 for Windows One-on-one
Photoshop Elements 4 The Missing Manual
Photoshop Elements 4 One-on-one
Windows Vista The Missing Manual
HTML and CSS
$19.95
$19.99
$24.95
$24.99
$34.99
$35.95
$39.95
$34.95
$34.99
$18.29
50%
$10.00 each
$10.00
$12.50
$12.50
$17.50
$17.50
$20.00
$17.50
$17.50
$ 9.15
PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
The Big Bear Computer Club is offering a Photography Workshop on Monday, May 14, 2007 from 9:00 am until
1:00 pm. The Workshop will be held at the Parks and Recreation Computer Lab, 41220 Park Ave, Big Bear Lake, CA.
The instructor, Rick Edwards is an associate of The Royal Photographic Society who perfected his photography while
living in Nairobi Kenya watching wildlife in the many parks in Kenya. During his last two years of his stay in Kenya he
became the official photographer for the Kenya Wildlife Service. Ricks work can be seen in numerous brochures, magazines and books on wildlife and his beloved Kenya.
The Workshop will cover many aspects of photography including the basic skills in photographic composition in
order to elevate an ordinary shot to an extraordinary one. Rick Edwards, instructor, is dedicated to developing the essentials that will help you add an extra dimension to your photographs. The Workshop will cover a range of photographic
topics like learning all the essential photographic techniques and cover all the vital elements in photography. Included
in the composition are: format, subject placement, lines, patterns, etc. The tools of composition are: lens focal length,
depth of field, and so on. Another aspect covered will be light and time which includes form, texture, times of day, shutter
speed, modifying light and much more. . Basic Photoshop use will be also be included in the Workshop. A donation of
$5.00 for the workshop will reserve a space. .
Residents interested in attending this Photography Workshop need to register by calling Rick Edwards at (909)
547-0109.
Raffles
One of the benefits of being a member of BBCC is the possibility of winning computer items. Microsoft has been very
generous in donating (from the APCUG Conference) 2 laptop shoulder bags and 2 Microsoft Vista Launch kits for us to
raffle. One item will be raffled at the next 4 meetings. The Microsoft Vista Launch Kit includes:
1 Microsoft Vista Product Guide (Instruction Book on Vista)
1 Windows Vista Mouse Pad
2 DVD’S of useful tools and demos on Vista
1 Belkin easy transfer cable (Worth $39.99)
1 Windows live 128MB USB Key (worth $10.00)
1 Microsoft Office Live trial card
1 SanDisk Cruzer® Micro with 2GB (enhanced for Windows ReadyBoost™ worth $50)
1 T-Mobile DayPass for WiFi
1 Windows Vista Magazine
1 game Flight Simulator X (worth $69.99)
The Launch Kit alone is worth aprox. $170.00. Tickets for the raffles are $1.00 per ticket or 6 tickets for $5.00. The first
raffle was started at the March 13th meeting with 1 of the laptop shoulder bags being raffled. A Launch Kit will be raffled
at the April meeting, a laptop shoulder bag in May, and the final Launch Kit in June. I hope every one will buy a ticket or
two to help us raise money for the club, and good luck in winning one of these great products. By the way, make sure
you look for the purple tickets.
Page 8
BIG BEAR COMPUTER CLUB
CASH FLOW STATEMENT
WINDOW TIP
By Larry Smith
February 2007
1.While Google is a great search engine, you’ve
probably noticed that when you do a search, Google usually returns more results that you can comfortably chew.
But how can you limit Google’s search results?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_document_format
Cash in Bank
$2,673.99
CASH RECEIVED
Membership Dues
$75.00
Fundraising Equipment
$0.00
Donation 50/.50
$29.00
Donations
$1.00
Advertising
$0.00
Bank Discount Earned
$0.00
Other Income
$0.00
Total Income
$105.00
$2,778.99
CASH DISPERSED
Petty Cash
$0.00
Dues & Fees
$0.00
Fundraising
$0.00
Newsletter
$132.11
Equipment
$0.00
Promotion
$50.00
Programs
$0.00
Advertising
$0.00
Supplies
$0.00
Other
$0.00
Total Expenses
$182.11
$2,596.88
2. How can you fix the browser or even reinstall
the program if it becomes corrupt?
If you don’t yet have the very latest Internet Explorer, you can fix many problems by visiting http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and updating to the latest
version. If you’re already up to date, however, the site
won’t let you reinstall the program. You need to fool the
system into thinking you don’t have the latest version.
Launch REGEDIT from the Start menu’s Run dialog and navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{89820200-ECBD-11cf-8B85-00AA005B4383}. In
the right-hand pane, double-click on the DWORD value
IsInstalled and change it from 1 to 0 (no matter whether
you choose Decimal or Hexadecimal). Close REGEDIT
and go to the Windows update site again. Now it should
let you “update” IE and, with luck, fix the problems.
By the way, you can do the same thing if you need
to repair Outlook Express, but at the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active
Setup\
Installed Components\{44BBA840-CC51-11CF-AAFA00AA00B6015C}.
Continued on page 14
Philipson & Erdmier
Attorneys
~ Criminal Defense
~ Workers Compensation
~ Personal Injury ~ Civil Litigation
~ Family Law ~ Probate Law
Page 9
719 Pine Knot Ave, Big Bear Lake
909.866.4140 or 909.878.2118
ROADMASTER ANNOUNCES
SCROLLING MESSAGE SYSTEMS
FOR CARS
Personalize your Car with Warnings and Announcements!
Roadmaster USA Corp. www.roadmasterusa.com, the leading automotive company providing mobile & home audio equipment,
auto accessories, and car care products, announced today Roadmaster scrolling message car systems: the Roadmaster Scrolling
Digital License Plate Frame (Model RLPF100) and Scrolling Rear
Deck Message System (Model RRDS100), which let your personalize your car with your own messages or ads that scroll on your
license plate or in the back window of your car.
Both priced at $69, the scrolling systems come with 99 pre-set
words and phrases, including “Help me,” “Slow down,” “Turning left,”
“Your lights aren’t working,” “Baby on Board”, and they also let you
program 5 interchangeable messages of up to 120 characters each.
Messages can be combined or repeated and the speed and brightness of the LED can be adjusted with the included wireless remote.
The scrolling systems are easy to install and include 12 Volt hardwiring.
Scrolling Messages for Cars
The Roadmaster Scrolling Digital License Plate Frame and
Scrolling Rear Deck Message System are great for announcing the
sale of your car with the price and phone number; showing your website URL or store name; or for giving warnings and sending notes to
other drivers and friends. The systems can also be used for news
and fun phrases, such as sports games results, holiday greetings, or
your personal philosophy or motto.
Scrolling Rear Deck Message System for Trade Shows, Stores, and
Cars
In addition to its use in cars, the Roadmaster Scrolling Rear
Deck Message System version is a stand alone device that can also
be used at trade shows or in stores to display special sales, openings and closing times, and other business announcements.
All states allow non-scrolling messages to be displayed in
moving cars, but some states may restrict the use of scrolling messages while the car is on the road and may only allow their use when
the car is parked or stationery. Roadmaster recommends that customers check their state and local regulations to see if scrolling LED
products can be used while their car is in motion.
The Roadmaster Scrolling Digital License Plate Frame (Model RLPF100) and Scrolling Rear Deck Message System (Model
RRDS100) are available immediately through most major superstores, retailers, and car dealerships, both priced at $69. For more
information, see the website: www.roadmasterusa.com.
Page 10
SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS
We have four Advertisers supporting
our Bearly Bytes newsletter; one way to say
“thank you” is by supporting their business.
They are: The Paper Clip Stationers: Gear
Works; Philipson & Erdmier Attorneys and
the Abacus Group. If you or you know of
someone who would like to advertise in the
club newsletter, contact Yomar Cleary at
[email protected]. The cost is very minimal $10 per month.
Door Prize Winners
March 2007
CD-R by Verbatim - Bill Flanagan
CD & DVD Label Maker by Acoustica - Don Meline
Family History T-Shirt by Family History - Jim Applebury
MediaOne by InterVideo - Gordon West
Door prizes graciously donated to us by our
Presenter Terry Currier
DVD+ R by Verbatim - Kathy West
Backpack by Moxi - Bob Kissinger
1.0 GB Micro SanDisk Cruzer by Skype - Yomar Cleary
50/50 WINNER $37.00 - Bob Kissinger
Laptop Computer Bag by Microsoft - Barbara Moore
BBCC GENERAL MEETING
April 2007
Club President Yomar Cleary welcomed all of the members. She introduced the other board members in attendance. Individuals on the board gave brief reports.
Barbara began with letting the members know about the Beginning Computers Workshop 101. The date is April 21,
2007 from 11:00 AM until 2:00 PM at Rec & Parks. It is open to the public. A $5 donation is requested. Barbara passed
around a sign-up sheet.
Rosemary asked for volunteer tutors to teach future classes at the Community Computer Lab.
Kent welcomed guests.
Elaine asked for volunteers to bring refreshments to future meetings.
Yomar introduced two special raffle prizes. The March drawing was for a Microsoft laptop carry bag. In April a Microsoft
Windows Vista Launch Kit will be raffled off.
Karen talked about available review software, including games and other software from Microsoft.
Karen then introduced Terry Currier, our presenter. He started with some computer trivia questions from trivia.
com. Also, he tested us with some Microsoft Word commands.
Then he went on to discuss some of his favorite utilities. They are all free.
First was ‘A Really Small App’. It shows information about your computer and other computers that are connected to
yours. The next utility tells what hardware is on your computer, i.e. processor, memory, etc. It is very user friendly and
fast. It reveals product keys and drive size, as well as performing benchmarking functions.
The FastStone viewer is used to look at digital photos. It is photo manipulator, too. Go to FastStone.org to download
it. There are lots of handy features for cropping, resizing, removing red eye, zooming, adjusting color balance, checking
camera settings, etc. Another photo program, PhotoRazer makes it easy to downsize photos. It is available at Stormdance.net. FreeCommander may be easier to use than Windows Explorer. FreeCommander also shows network connections and a DOS window. Next, Terry showed a program uninstaller. MyUninstaller is more complete and gives more
information about the programs on the computer. It looks at the uninstaller provided by the software manufacturer.
GoodSync is used to back up files to another computer, an external hard drive, thumb drive or CD. It is easy to select files
to back up and restore. The next program runs off of a thumb drive. SIW.exe is the name. It shows programs, license
keys, file associations, what automatically loads on boot, running programs and more. It is a very small program.
After Terry’s presentation, Jim Applebury and Bob Kopolow answered a few questions in the RAM session. One
member has a copy of Windows XP that is not showing as genuine. It may be Microsoft’s problem with Windows Genuine
Advantage. It is important to get updates for security, especially Service Pack 2.
There was some discussion regarding high speed Internet service vs. dial-up.
How do people find out what programs and hardware will work with Vista? Run the Vista Upgrade Advisor on Microsoft.
com. What does it take to get on the Internet wirelessly? What is the difference between a Hot spot and cellular service?
Remember to lock down your wireless router so others cannot surf using your Internet service wirelessly.
After the door prizes were given out, we concluded the meeting. Thus ended another productive and educational
evening.
Submitted by Rosemary Lloyd, Secretary
Page 11
DISCOUNTS, OFFERS & DEALS
UG Discount from Total Training
Total Training is pleased to offer 15% savings on our products to Adobe UserGroups. Our full product line offers comprehensive video tutorials on creative design, web design, digital video, and digital photography. Use coupon code
“save15ug” to order any of our point products. Please share this discount with the members of your group and let our
Adobe experts do the rest. Offer is not valid on closeout or bundle products. http://www.totaltraining.com/home.asp?c=u
sergroup&n=010107 Coupon code: save15ug
O’Reilly Books
As for new books, O’Reilly has 5 new titles for Vista alone (“Windows Vista: The Missing Manual,” “Windows Vista for
Starters,” “Vista in a Nutshell,” “Vista: The Definitive Guide,” and “Windows Vista Pocket Reference” and 8 Microsoft Office 2007 titles which include a Missing Manual and For Starters book each for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Access. We
also have the long-awaited “Rails Cookbook” just in time for Rails 1.2. We have many new releases’ for this month.
For the full list of new titles, go to: http://www.oreilly.com/store/newreleases.csp For New Releases on Books, PDFs, and
Rough Cuts: Get 35% off from O’Reilly, No Starch, Paraglyph, PC Publishing, Pragmatic Bookshelf, SitePoint, Syngress,
or YoungJin books you purchase directly from O’Reilly. Just use code DSUG when ordering online or by phone 800-9989938. http://www.oreilly.com/store/ Free ground shipping on orders of $29.95 or more. For more details, go to:
http://www.oreilly.com/news/freeshipping_0703.html Did you know you can request a free book or PDF to review for your
group? Ask your Review Editor for more information.
GEAR Software
Software and Developer Tools for DVD and CD Recording
The GEAR PRO Product Family is cross-platform, full-featured professional recording solutions
For complete information, please go to www.gearsoftware.com
APCUG 20% Discount for GEAR Software
http://www.gearsoftware.com/products/APCUGactivation.cfm
Promotion Code: ACU20
Peachpit
We provide your group members with a 30% discount off the list price of any of our books. At checkout, right before
they put their credit card number in, they must enter the user group coupon code UE-23AA-PEUF (case-sensitive). This
coupon code is an exclusive offer that may not be used in conjunction with any other coupon codes. www.peachpit.com
ACOUSTICA
SPIN IT AGAIN
Transferring your old records and tapes to CD or MP3 has never been easier with SPIN IT AGAIN!
CD-DVD LABEL MAKER
Create your own CD/DVD labels and CD jewel cases with ease!
For more information on these programs go to www.acoustica.com
For a 20% discount, use coupon CLUB2007
Page 12
Acronis Software Support of WindowsVista
By Gene Barlow - User Group Relations - Copyrighted March 2007
On February 7, 2007, Acronis, Inc. announced that it will “fully support Microsoft’s latest operating system, Vista,
with its products for desktop operating systems”. This statement of intent has already been accomplished for two of their
most popular products for home users – Acronis True Image 10.0 Home and Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 . This article
will show you how to obtain these Vista supporting utilities.
Acronis True Image 10.0 Home: This is the top rated backup utility on the market today. It helps you backup your
important data files as well as your entire computer -- operating system, application programs, and all. Used regularly
it will protect your important files from hard drive crashes and other system problems. Acronis True Image 10.0 Home
edition was released three months prior to the release of Vista, with full support of Vista included in the product. Earlier
this month, Acronis made available build 4942 of True Image to correct any problems with their new release. You should
install this new build to give you the latest True Image software.
Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0: This is an outstanding partitioning utility to help you organize and manage your
computer’s hard drive. Using this utility, you can have both Windows XP and Vista running on the same computer. This is
a much safer way to start to use Vista rather than instantly replacing your stable XP system with Vista. Earlier this month,
Acronis made available build 2160 of Disk Director Suite to provide full support of Vista in this excel lent partitioning utility.
So, how does this announcement affect you? There are three options to consider as follows:
Not a User of Acronis Utilities: If you do not already use one or both of these excellent Acronis products, now is the
perfect time to get them. We are offering both of these products that normally list for $50 each at our user group discount
price of just $29 each. That price includes a special tutorial with each product to help you start to use them quickly and
safely. To order either or both of these Acronis products, go to www.usergroupstore.com and place your order using our
secure online ordering system. The order code for this special price is UGNL0307.
Use Older Acronis Utilities: If you already have one or both of these Acronis products, but are still using an older
version (prior to version 10.0), you should get the latest release (version 10.0) to be ready for Windows Vista in the future.
Our user group discount prices for these products is lower than the upgrade price from Acronis, so order a new license of
the product from us at a great discount price and get the tutorials as a bonus. To do this, follow the ordering instructions
in the prior paragraph.
Use Version 10 Acronis Utilities: If you already use version 10 of these Acronis products, then it is important that
you download the new builds for these products to get the full benefits of your software. The process to download these
new builds is quick and easy to accomplish. There is no charge for these updates as long as you are a current owner
of version 10 of these products. For those that we promised a free update of Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 with Vista
support, this is what you need to do. Follow the instructions below to download these new builds and install them on your
computer.
Downloading New Builds from Acronis: To download the new builds from Acronis is quick and easy to do. There
are three steps to accomplish this. First, you must set up an account on the Acronis web site. Next, you must register the
Acronis products you use in your account. Finally, you can download the latest builds of your registered products from
your Acronis account. I describe these three steps in detail at www.ugr.com/questions.html. Print out these instructions
and follow them carefully and you will have your new builds installed quickly.
I hope this information helps you take advantage of the Vista support in Acronis True Image 10.0 Home and Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0. Download and install these new builds and your Acronis software will be ready for Windows
Vista when you are. If you have questions about this article or the downloading of new builds, please send a note to
[email protected] and I will try to assist you.
Gene Barlow - User Group Relations - [email protected] - PO Box 911600 - www.ugr.com - St George, UT 84791-1600
This is one of a series of monthly technical articles that I distribute to those that have subscribed to this newsletter.
You can subscribe at www.ugr.com/newsletters.html. Watch for them and learn more about your computer and its hard
drive. If you do not want to receive these newsletters, simply reply and ask to have your name removed from the list and
I will do so immediately. User group newsletter editors may print this article in their monthly newsletter as long as the
article is printed in its entirety and not cut or edited. Please send me a copy of the newsletter containing the article or a
pointer to the article on your web site so that I can see what groups are running the articles.
Page 13
WORD TIP
By Karen Tangeman
AutoCorrecting for Your Common Errors
Chances are good that you
already know what AutoCorrect is
and that it can be a boon for those
words you habitually mistype.
(Exactly why I invariably mistype
some words, I’ll never understand.)
However, setting up AutoCorrect to
compensate for your mistyping can
be a bother. Here’s a quick way
to make short work of adding your
mistyping’s to AutoCorrect:
1.
Assuming that Word flags
the mistyped word as misspelled,
right-click on it. A Context menu
appears.
2.
If spelling corrections are
offered in the Context menu, there
should also be a menu choice
called AutoCorrect. Choose it and
you will see the same spelling corrections in the resultant submenu.
3.
Choose the correct spelling
in this submenu.
What you have just done is
tell Word that you want to create
an AutoCorrect entry that will automatically correct the mistyped word
using the selected spelling. Fast,
neat, and easy!
This tip applies to Microsoft Word
versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003
Page 14
EXCEL TIP
WINDOW TIP
By Yomar Cleary
Keep a cleaner desktop when
multitasking
Are you one of the many
busy Excel users who frequently
have two, three, or more workbooks open at once? If so, you
know that kind of multitasking can
create a lot of screen clutter. In
the Windows taskbar, you’ll have
an icon for each open workbook.
Within the Excel window, you can
navigate between workbooks by
pressing [Ctrl][F6] or by opening
the Window menu and selecting
a workbook from the list of open
files.
Excel offers an option that
can help you avoid screen clutter
while keeping as many workbooks
open as you like. To try it out,
open three or four workbooks,
and go to Window | Hide. When
you do, Excel erases all traces of
the current workbook from your
screen. The workbook is still open,
but you can’t see it.
To make a hidden workbook visible again, go to Window
| Unhide, and you’ll see a list of
the hidden workbooks. Select the
workbook name that you want to
display, and click OK.
Don’t worry about forgetting
that you have a workbook open. If
you close Excel while a workbook
is hidden and you haven’t saved
your changes, Excel asks if you
want to save the changes to any
unsaved
By Larry Smith
From page 9
Wireless Network Information,
Bluetooth Information, Router Tips
and more!
This section of Tech Tips is
dedicated to all computer networking related articles. It will cover
topics such as how to build a wireless network, Bluetooth information, router tips and more. We’ve
created Tech Tips to help educate
the consumer so that they can be
smarter shoppers, and smarter
shoppers are happy customers.
We hope that Tech Tips will give
you the information and advice you
need to make the purchase that
best fits your computer networking
needs. As the Tech Tips archive
builds over time, we hope that the
networking topic you are interested
in will be listed. Enjoy!
“Wireless Networking Part 1”
“Wireless Networking Part 2 “
“Bluetooth definition, what is Bluetooth technology?”
“Voice Over Internet Protocol”
Get FREE Geeks.com Tech Tips
Newsletter, discounts, and more!
Post Our Articles!
Tech Tips Article http://www.geeks.com/techtips/
techtips.htm
OPPORTUNITIES
AVAILABLE
Don’t Forget!
Historian……………………Now this is another simple position, it’s a matter of putting press releases in a three hole
binder or can be creative and do a scrapbook which ever
works. The publicity person would collect those releases
and pictures.
Bring your empty printer
cartridges to the meeting.
Advertising Director……….Send out four invoices every
three months to our advertiser and if very energetic ask
around to obtain a couple more advertisers. Club members
can also advertise for $10 a month. This program is all set
up for you. Pick it up and run with it……..you could do it!!
The printer cartridge program is
a BBCC fund-raiser
that helps us purchase
supplies and pay for Big
Bear Computer Club expenses.
Thank you for your
participation.
Membership Benefits
Monthly Meeting with:
Presentation and demonstration of
popular hardware and software.
RAM (Question & Answer)
Session
Tech news and Virus Alerts
Member Software Raffle
50/50 Drawing
Bearly Bytes -- BBCC’s award winning
monthly newsletter mailed
to you first class.
Club Website: www.bigbearcc.org
Free software review program
Members Help Line
Members E-mail Notifications
Members only Discounts
Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
All this for only $25 per year!!
Mail your application and dues to:
BBCC Treasurer
PO Box 645
Big Bear City, CA 92314
or bring your application to a meeting
For information and directions phone
Yomar Cleary, President 878-5622
Page 15
BIG BEAR COMPUTER CLUB, INC. Membership Application
□N
ew
□R
enewal
□U
Full Name__________________________________
Mailing Address_____________________________
City, State, Zip_______________________________
Phone_____________ Message________________
Owner
E-mail address______________________________
Area you live in ______________________________
pdate Information □
□
□
□ Retired
DEMOGRAPHICS
Student
Working Adult
Business
FAMILY MEMBERS WHO WANT TO JOIN AS ASSOCIATES ($5/YEAR):
Name__________________________
_______________________________
Operating System(s)
□
WINDOWS
Beginner
□
E-mail______________________
______________________
Apple/MAC
□
Intermediate LINUX
□
OTHER _____
Advanced
Instructor
MS Office
□
□
□
□
Digital Imaging □
□
□
□
Desktop Publishing
□
□
□
□
Web Design
□
□
□
□
Other Interests:________________________________________________
□ YES! CALL ME, I WOULD LIKE TO GET INVOLVED & MEET NEW
FRIENDS.
Big Bear Computer Club Meetings are held at
Big Bear Discovery Center - 2nd Tuesday, 530PM
MEETING MAP
BIG BEAR COMPUTER CLUB, INC.
PO Box 645
Big Bear City, CA 92314
Where computer enthusiasts meet
to share knowledge and experiences
and have a lot of fun!
BBCC is a non-profit educational
community organization open to
everyone interested in computers
and how to make them more useful
and friendly.
To learn more about
BBCC:
Come to a meeting:
2nd Tuesday of the month, 530
pm, Everyone is welcome!
Visit our web site:
www.bigbearcc.org
Contact our President:
Yomar Cleary
878-5622
[email protected]
Page 16
BBCC is a proud member of APCUG and
Southern California Regional User Groups