Jun / Jul - The Winnipeg PC User Group

Transcription

If undeliverable, return to:
Winnipeg PC User Group
337C Pembina Highway
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3L 2E4
June 17th
COREL!
Tid Bits ’N Bytes
Newsletter of the Winnipeg PC User Group, Inc.
“A Charter Member of the Association of PC User Groups (APCUG)”
VOLUME 22
JUN/JUL, 2004
http://www.wpcusrgrp.org
OR http://wpcug.ca OR
http://wpcug.net
http://www.apcug.org
80XXX
1. General Meetings are usually held at Montrose School (Grant and Montrose). Meetings
start at 7 p.m. This facility is wheelchair accessible.
2. The June, our General Meeting will take place on Thursday, June 17th at Montrose School.
You asked for external vendors and we have delivered! Robert MacDonald of the COREL
CORPORATION will be here to show us CorelDRAW 12! Super door prizes and M&Ms for
all!
3. The July General Meeting will take place on Thursday, July 15th. This meeting will be held at
the Resource Centre. Nothing is scheduled at press time. In August, instead of a meeting
we will have our yearly picnic at Assiniboine Park. See picnic details inside this issue!
4. Have you been thinking about getting on the Internet? Join the WPCUG ISP and if you are a
first time user of our system you’ll get the first 40 hours for your first two months FREE! And
if you’re a first time user and sign up for our yearly plan, your first year of service will just
cost you $160 (non-refundable). GST is additional.
5. The CAP program has funded the purchase of three desktop and two laptop computers for the
Resource Centre. We need volunteers to ensure our 15 hours/week “contract” is maintained.
40599174
Winnipeg PC User Group, Inc.
T
he Winnipeg PC User Group, Inc. is a non-profit organization formed to provide those with an interest in the
IBM Personal Computer or compatible computer, with an
opportunity to come together and otherwise assist one another
in the use and understanding of these computers. The group
serves as a forum to exchange ideas, to discuss the latest developments, and share information.
uuuuu
This periodical is published bi-monthly for the purpose of advising members of the various group activities and sharing of
information between other similar User Groups around the
world. It is mailed by bulk mail to all members of the group
and to all other User Groups who reciprocate with a copy of
their newsletter.
uuuuu
The group is not affiliated with any commercial organization
and receives no financial support other than through membership dues and paid advertising in the periodical. The officers
are volunteers and only receive the following benefits: they
learn more about their computer; gain satisfaction from having
helped others and meet many people with common interests
and problems.
uuuuu
Group By-Laws describing the purpose of the group, can be
obtained from the Executive Secretary at no cost.
uuuuu
Membership Information can be obtained from the Membership Secretary, explaining the various benefits of membership.
uuuuu
Monthly Meetings are usually held on the 3rd Thursday of each
month (except December when we meet on the 2nd Thursday). See
the front page of the newsletter for the exact dates or check our
website. The Executive meets on the 2nd Monday (except December). Volunteers for many activities are always needed.
Volume 22 Page 2
June/July 2004
Elected Officers for the Election Year Ending Oct. 2004
Home Phone
President
Jon Phillips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 888 9180
<[email protected]>
Past President
Bert Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668-8861
<[email protected]>
Vice President
Paul Kesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489 7617
<[email protected]>
Treasurer
David Estey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489 3728
<[email protected]>
Membership
Doug Hutsel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831 7478
<[email protected]>
Exec. Secretary
Brian Lowe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478 3561
<[email protected]>
Online Serv. Mgr.
Greg McClure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 942 3301
<[email protected]>
Newsletter
Paul Stephen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 2810
<[email protected]>
Tom Howard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 3430
<[email protected]>
Group-Buyer
John Kesson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489 7617
<[email protected]>
Advertising Mgr.
VACANT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TBA
<[email protected]>
Forum Coordinator Ryan Rapson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475 1568
<[email protected]>
Appointed Officers
Res. Centre Mgr.
Bookkeeper
Program Chairman
Webmaster
Internet Admin.
Internet Support
Co-Editor
Home Phone
Paul Stephen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 2810
<[email protected]>
Tom Howard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 3430
<[email protected]>
Major Contributors To This Issue:
N. Longmuir, C. Gervais, I. Wilkser, G. Barlow, J. Dodd,
B. Mobray, J. Hall, A. Nallawalla and P. Stephen.
Photos by N. Longmuir.
COPYRIGHT POLICY & LIABILITY WAIVER
This publication is (C)opyright, Winnipeg PC User Group, Inc., 2004. The
reprinting in another publication, of original material appearing in this
newsletter must give credit to the Winnipeg PC User Group Inc. and to
any author indicated. Such material may be reprinted at no cost, but a
copy of the publication in which it has been reprinted must be provided
at no cost to the Winnipeg. PC User Group Inc. Some images copyright
www.arttoday.com.
Views and opinions expressed are those of the author indicated (or the
editor) and not necessarily of the group or Executive. The group, contributors, and the editor of this newsletter do not assume any liability for
damages arising out of the publication or non-publication of any advertisement article, or other item herein.
The WPCUG does not assume responsibility for damages arising from
the publication or non-publication of any advertising in this newsletter.
Acceptance of advertising does not imply endorsement by the group.
. . . . . . 488 8765
. . . . . . 269 1584
. . . . . . 888 9180
. . . . . . 475 1568
. . . . . . 478 3561
. . . . . . 942 3301
(Please do not call officers after 9 p.m.)
NEWSLETTER
Editor
Arnold Zatser . . . . . . . . .
<[email protected]>
Werner Wiebe. . . . . . . . .
<[email protected]>
Jon Phillips . . . . . . . . . . .
<[email protected]>
Ryan Rapson . . . . . . . . .
<[email protected]>
Brian Lowe . . . . . . . . . . .
<[email protected]>
Greg McClure . . . . . . . . .
<[email protected]>
Telephone Numbers for WPCUG Services
Dialup ISP Line (WPCUG ISP Service) . . . . . . . . . . . 975 0200
Resource Centre “Voice Line” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 958 7228
Resource Centre “FAX Line” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 958 7229
Deadline & Ad Sizes
All copy and all advertising MUST reach the newsletter editor no later
than the THIRD THURSDAY of Jan/Mar/May/Jul/Sep/Nov. A cheque
or Money Order MUST accompany ad copy. Classified ads MUST be
submitted in typed form and must not exceed four 42 character lines.
Commercial ad copy MUST be submitted as an EPS or PDF file.
Width
Height
Insertions
1
3
6
Full Page
7.5"
10"
$65
$165
$270
Half Page
7.5"
5"
$35
$ 85
$135
Business
Card
3"
5"
$10
Flyer inserts are $225. Members are entitled to one free ad (4
lines — 44 characters) per issue. Others: $3.75 per 4 line ad.
Extra lines are $0.90 each.
Mailing Addresses
General Correspondence
Attn: Exec. Secretary
Membership:
Attn: Membership Secretary
Winnipeg PC User Group Inc.
Resource Centre
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3L 2E4
Newsletter Exchange & Review Software:
Paul Stephen
401-1025 Grant Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3M 1Y4
Yearly Membership Dues (includes GST):
Junior Membership(under age 18)
$25.00
Adult Membership
$49.95
Associate Membership
$20.00
Corporate Membership
$125.00
With an adult membership you receive one copy of our periodical and any member of your family (age 12 and under)
may attend the UG meetings. After an adult membership has
been purchased, additional associate memberships may be
purchased which include a draw ticket, but no newsletter.
A corporate membership entitles you to two copies of the
periodical and any member(s) of your organization may attend our general meetings. Contact Doug Hutsel ([email protected] or 831-7478) for further details.
Newsletter Submissions
The editor will accept almost anything you wish to contribute. Short submissions may be in any form whatsoever.
If you have a favorite Shareware package that you use, (or
one that is unregistered and you’d like to have registered),
write me up a 1-2 page review of the product and I’ll try
and get you a FREE registration! Contact the editor if you
would like to review a specific software package.
Submissions should be made on 3.5" floppy disks, or sent to
my e-mail address: [email protected]. Files should be zipped
before being attached to e-mail messages.
Other acceptable formats include: WordStar 3.x—5.0,
WordPerfect 4.x—5.1, Word, and ASCII. PLEASE DO
NOT IMBED SCREENSHOTS into your text!!
Please NOTE that we are now having all mail sent to the
Resource Centre. Our Post Office Box will soon be discontinued so DO NOT send correspondence there!
Volume 22 Page 3
June/July 2004
Contents Of This Issue
Page
Advertisers
Andy Corrigal Upholstery Services . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Computer Boulevard (NEW ADVERTISER!) . . . . . 32
Dave’s Quick Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Healey Visual Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
WPCUG Inkjet Refills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
WPCUG ISP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Items This Month
Controlled Escape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
‘It’s Never Too Late to Learn’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Survey Prize Winners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
News!!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Please Don’t Fall for HOAXES and URBAN LEGENDS 11
Corel to Show CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 . . . . . 13
Letter from Gene Barlow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
To Build or Not to Build
Reasons Why You Should & Shouldn’t Assemble
Your Own PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
‘Picnic in the Park’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
BIOSOFT Releases FigSys
A New Scientific Graphing/Charting
Data Analysis Package. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Pics Print V2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Whither the Yellow Box? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Getting to Know Google . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Do You Use One Space or Two Spaces
at the End of a Sentence? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Winnipeg PC User Group Calendar of Events . . . . . . 28
Make Web Cash! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Winnipeg PC User Group Forums . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Internet Access Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Newsletter Toolkit
This newsletter is produced using the following software and hardware tools:
WordPerfect 5.1, WordStar 4.0, Microsoft Word 97,
SnagIt 7 (for screen captures) and Conversions Plus.
Printing is done using an HP Series 4M LaserJet.
Adobe’s Acrobat is used to produce the PDF files.
Corel Ventura Publisher 8 and CorelDRAW Essentials
was used to publish this edition of the newsletter..
Other hardware: 2-200 gig Seagate drives, 21" G220fb
Viewsonic Monitor, LG CD burners, 1 gig of memory,
2.53 GHz Pentium 4 CPU.
Mark Loeppky, David Estey and Frank Privat are busy
working on a computer system at the Resource Centre.
WPCUG RC is Now a Community Access Point
for the Net
The Resource Centre is now “open for business” as a
CAP Centre. Anybody needing Internet access can
drop into the RC on Tuesday/Thursday (1 p.m. to 4
p.m.), Wednesday evening from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
and on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Volume 22 Page 4
June/July 2004
Volume 22 Page 5
June/July 2004
Controlled ^ape©
Copyright 1985-2003 ©Paul Stephen
? by Paul Stephen
[email protected]
F
Strange but True
or at least fourteen years I’ve been drinking my tea out
of a promotional mug I received from Datastorm, the
One of the newer “profs” at the University of Manitoba has
company that was initially responsible for Procomm,
the name, Trust Beta — and as the late Jack Paar would
the software I used when connecting to our old BBS.
say, “I kid you not”. She should be workin’ for Big Bill!
I just knew someday I was going to break that mug. Well toIt’s getting very depressing having to put the adjective “late”
day, Feb. 7th, (you see I start working on this newsletter
in front of so many people’s names. I wonder where that
MONTHS in advance) it happened. I just loved that mug. It
term came from? You certainly aren’t going to be “early” if
fit my hand perfectly. And now it’s gone.
you’ve passed on. It seems others have similar questions,
one being, “Is it possible that we are dead now and this is
OK, a $5 mug isn’t that important, but the data on your
supposed to be the better after life?” I’d never thought of
hard disk most likely is! So I hope you keep it backed up for
that!
that day when you get the dreaded “Boot Disk Failure” message on startup.
Lots more of these “queries” can be found at the
We all take things for
site on a whole range of
granted these days —
whether it’s our computer
“God created cocaine as a way of telling you that topics. For example, If
you w ant t o se t y o u r
systems, our electricity or
water supplies, and the you’re making too much money.” — Robin Williams password to ‘******’
how do you prevent it bemost complicated system
ing shown when you type
of all, our body. We just
it
i n?
He a d
to
assume when we turn on
www.gadzillionthings.net for more of this wackiness.
the power, the tap, or arise from a deep sleep that everything
will be “tickety boo”.
Intuit Changes QuickTax
Well, life isn’t like that. Savor every moment, because one
Last year I went on a “rant” about only being allowed to
day, one or more of those things you do take for granted
print my tax form six times. Now, for tax year 2003, as long
(like that heart of yours which beats over 100,000 times
as you don’t change the name, SIN, etc. for a form, you can
each day or 38 million times a year!) will conk out. If you
print the form as many times as you want. I guess it pays to
make it to age 70, it will have kept that blood supply of
complain. (This is a bit late, I realize... but it bodes well for
yours going by beating over 2.5 billion times.
next year’s tax software.)
We usually don’t appreciate people, our health or “things”
Mind Blowing Software
until we lose them.
This is a bit dated, but if you aren’t using Nero 6 Ultra
I guess “old age” and too many hospital visits — seeing
which includes Nero Digital you are missing out on a powpeople with multiple amputations, individuals working their
erful piece of software. I hadn’t taken that app for a spin,
way back from strokes, etc. has made me appreciate the
but one Saturday night I decided to see what kind of quality
“small things” in life even more.
I’d get by putting one of my PURCHASED DVDs onto a
CD.
COREL Visits This Month!
I have tried using Dr. Divx and XVID software to create
The survey I conducted earlier this year indicated that memsome sort of MPEG video but these apps took a LONG time
bers wanted to see presentations from EXTERNAL vendors.
to create a CD, and Dr. Divx, after spending close to 5 hours
So, to make y’all happy, Robert MacDonald of the Corel
churning away on my PC produced a movie where the titles
Corporation will be giving us a presentation of CorelDRAW
were not positioned properly — so much so that they were
12 this month (and other graphics products if there’s time).
off screen entirely.
Now that the User Group has delivered on one of your surThe new MPEG 4 compression codec allows for this degree
vey requests. I expect to see a FULL HOUSE at the General
of compression — but at what cost? How can you possibly
Meeting on June 17th at Montrose School!!
put a movie that runs over 90 minutes on a CD and end up
And don’t forget — all attendees are going to get a package
with anything of quality? Well, surprise, surprise! Aside
of M&Ms — courtesy of “ME”! I believe in keeping a “trafrom a few dropped frames (a tad annoying), you can put a
dition” going...
Volume 22 Page 6
June/July 2004
get an answer there!
movie on a 30 cent CD
that is perfectly suitable
Winnipeg’s “Pixel Alto take with you to view
bum”
on a plane (if, of course
Do any of you remember
you have a Notebook
the “Software Vending
equipped with a CDROM
Machine?” which was
d riv e — mos t all do
heavily promoted by a
these days), — or several
former President of our
gigs of free disk space on
gr oup — H a r t l e y
your hard disk. You will,
Macklin. The device alof course have to have
lowed you to bring a
Nero 6 Ultra installed on
floppy disk to a kiosk
your laptop too — you
and for $2 you could
n e e d their M PEG 4
copy a Shareware procodec. Down the road,
gram off its internal hard
MPEG 4 codecs will be
disk. Those were the days
“built into” standalone
of the “BBS”. Then the
DVD/CD players. Some
Internet arrived. Adios —
do have support for the
“Software Vending MaDivx and XVID formats
chine”.
already (these formats are
Well it WAS adios — I
MPEG 4 files too, so
see that CompUSA has
possibly such players
SnagIt 7 — One Great Program!
introduced a similar maMIGHT support Nero
chi ne f or CO M M E RMPEG 4).
CIAL
software
and
coined
it
“Software
To Go”. And it
Here’s a brief “primer” on how you create such a CD. First,
would
appear
that
the
same
concept
will
eventually
be used
head off to http://www.dvddecrypter.com and download the
for commercial music.
rip p ing utility you will find there. Then go t o
Now another “strange” idea (at least to me) has come down
http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/131 and follow the instructhe pike — “Pixel Album” — one in which “The Donald”
tions in that article. It will guide you through the options
(as in Trump) supposedly has bought into. The deal is that
available to you in Nero 6 Ultra. And then be amazed!
hotels license the technology from a Winnipeg firm which
Don’t forget you will need either a drive with DVD ROM
allows vacationers to “dump” their digital pictures to a
capabilities or a DVD burner to be able to read your original
server in Chicago. The images are stored on the server for
DVD disk.
up to 30 days. This concept allows their digital media cards
The FULL Internet Explorer 6
to become “virtual”.
This item won’t be of interest to most of you, but if you
Well, I don’t get it. First, even at broadband speed it takes
ever want the FULL version of IE and not the “on-line” intime (something that’s precious on a vacation) to upload
stall (that sometimes goes awry), you can download the
megapixel images. Second, you have to spend time downwhole installation package to your local computer and then
loading all those images when you get home. Third, you
install the software. This is great also when you are upgradmight forget to download them — adios pictures. Fourth,
ing multiple machines that might not have Internet hookups.
prices of media cards are becoming so cheap, why wouldn’t
Just follow these instructions I found on the web: First,
you just buy another storage card? Fifth, if you didn’t want
download the IE6 SP1 setup program from Microsoft (500kb
to buy another card, couldn’t you just use your hotel’s PC,
basic setup program.
equipped with a multi-card reader, to transfer all your imGo to the folder where you’ve placed the above file. Open a
ages to a 30 cent CD? Cost to the hotel would be less than
Command Prompt (CMD) in that folder, then run the follow$50 for the hardware to do this.
ing command in the CMD window:
I guess things just have to be more complex than they need
ie6setup.exe /c:"ie6wzd.exe /d /s:""#E"
to be. Prediction — adios “Pixel Album”.
Note: Just copy and paste the above line. Don’t try to be a
SnagIt Version 7
wise guy. Copy the %$#@ line! I’ve received quite a few
I decided to upgrade to Version 7 of SnagIt. What a great
feedbacks about the accuracy of this tip, and they always
new
interface! It’s so easy now to make a myriad of customgot the syntax wrong. Copy and paste! Oh, and yes, this tip
ized
profiles and although you can return to the “classic” inworks for IE 6 SP1 too, and so will older IE versions. Just
terface, I wouldn’t for a million years! Admittedly you could
replace the “6" in the previous line with a ”5" and so on.
create hot key combos for various capture configurations in
The above was found via a link on http://www.tek-tips.com.
Version 6 — but I’d always forget them. Now everything is
I’ve mentioned that site before, so if you have a problem
right in front of you. See the figure accompanying this artiyou can’t get solved locally you most likely will be able to
Volume 22 Page 7
June/July 2004
links and you can’t get back
c le and then go to
to the screen showing the
www.snagit.com and take
“deal” you found.
the program for a spin. You
will LOVE it!
Deals from Gene Barlow
Free E-Mail Tracker
Pay a visit to www.ugr.com
and you will see that Gene
If you’d like a nifty piece of
now sells more than just
software to monitor your
PowerQuest products. You
e-mail accounts (I’m always
can purchase the Home Verc hecking), then go to
s i on of A l p h a F i v e f o r
http://www.eprompter.com
$US69 or muVee video softand get yourself Eprompter,
ware for $US40 — plus, of
what else!
course, shipping. See Gene’s
You’ll be glad you did. See
“letter” in this newsletter.
the screenshot.
EPrompter is a very usefuly e-mail tool!
Web Forms
Mount R ainier and
Don’t you just love it when
CDRW Disks
you
spend
time
filling
out
a
web
form, whacking the submit
Most of the newer CD burners have the ability to burn
button
and
finding
you
get
an
error
message or having your
CDRW disks using the Mount Rainier formatting scheme.
browser
just
lock
up
on
you.
Even
if
you use the browser’s
HOWEVER, if you take a disk that has been formatted us“back button” many times everything you’ve entered is lost.
ing this scheme and put it into an older burner that does not
If you have to fill out a form and want to be safe put your
have the ability to read/write disks with this format, you
message into a text file using Notepad and then do a “copy
may get a surprise. Instead of seeing all the files you’ve
and paste” of that text into the form’s entry box. Better to be
written to the disk using your newer burner, you might see a
safe than sorry!
text and EXE file. By clicking on the EXE file you install a
“We Don’t Ship to Canada”
UDF reader that allows the disk to be read. These two files
are completely hidden if the disk is placed into a Mount
The above line seems to be more prevalent on Internet sites
Rainier burner. It appears that some older burners will not
lately. I wonder if it has something to do with our stance on
allow you to write to a UDF disk that has been “full-formatthe war in Iraq? Usually sometimes the “excuse” is that Cated” in a new Mount Rainier burner.
nadian shipments sent by the USPS get “lost”. Well, I’ve
bought over 25 items from eBay, most were sent via USPS
X10.COM
and NONE were lost.
If you want to automatically turn on/off your lights, fans or
If companies DO ship to Canada, they seem to want to send
WHATEVER, X10.com is the site for you. I know they are
things by the MOST EXPENSIVE means possible.
“bad boys” because of their “pop unders” but they do sell
good stuff.
L as t s um m er I pur chas ed m i ni - D V t a p e s f r o m
www.taperesources.com — an excellent company. I just tried
I decided to order another bunch of controllers and was
to buy some more tapes from them and was told they no
given an instant discount because of the amount of my purlonger ship to Canada. I asked them “WHY?” but received
chase. The screen showed a voucher number and $US22 was
no answer. So, off I went on the net and found a company
taken off the order. Normally I do a screen capture at this
willing to send mini-DV tapes to Canada. It turned out their
point, but this time I didn’t. When I pressed the “Submit orprices were 30 cents a tape cheaper than Tape Resources.
der” button, everything appeared but NO discount. So I went
Only one problem — they only ship to Canada using FedEx
back in and recreated my order, capturing the discount
Air — so much for any “savings”.
voucher number this time. I sent two e-mails to the company
telling them of this problem but received no reply.
Fortunately I have friends in the US to whom I shipped the
package (after “conversations” with VISA) and who will
Then my VISA statement showed that I was billed for the
reship it to me via USPS. [Update: After writing the above
full amount — no discount. I phoned their “800" number. I
my friends went and shipped the package to me by FedEx
gave the fellow the ”re-created voucher number — I have no
Air! Sometimes you just can’t win.]
idea if the voucher number was the same as that on the
“original” order. I was told that the rebate would be credited
An exception to this “madness” is tigerdirect.ca. It is so nice
to my account — but they definitely wanted that voucher
to get a price in Canadian dollars that includes delivery to
number!
your door by trackable UPS with NO “hidden” brokerage
fees. Most orders arrive in 5 days or less.
They keep switching prices/offers so often on their website
that it becomes a bit “boggling”. So — if you buy from
Doesn’t it seem “strange” that Americans order drugs from
X10, make sure you get screenshots of the page that shows
Canadian internet pharmacies which usually are shipped
any voucher credits. And if you find a “good deal” on an
through the USPS? If such “losses” were extremely prevaitem you are interested in, save that link! Often they hide
lent in the USPS would Canadian Internet pharmacies be us-
ing that delivery medium? I hardly think so.
The Survey
As I said in the Feb/Mar newsletter, you WPCUG members
are a diverse lot. I received a total of 69 surveys. I understand the other 130 or so of you were just too busy. Here are
some stats about your fellow members that might interest
you: 60% have broadband internet, main OS (Windows
98/35%, Windows XP/42%, Windows 2000/16%), main word
processing program (Word/58%, WordPerfect/28%), 41%
have 512 megs of RAM and 36% have more than one hard
drive. The size of hard drives in your systems ranged from 1
gig (1.4%) to 200 gig (1.4%). Most had drives ranging in
size from 40 gig (29%) to 120 gig (9%). About 76% of you
have CD burners while only 6% have DVD burners. 42% of
you own a digital camera, while only 7% own a digital camcorder. When it comes to printers 78% use inkjets while
35% use laser printers. As I said in a previous newsletter —
“you are a diverse lot”.
Canadian User Groups
I decided I’d take a look at what those BIG CITY Canadian
User Groups were up to. Unbelievably the Vancouver User
Society is sporadically distributing their newsletter with a
DOS-based reader. Can you spell S-A-D?
The Toronto User Group doesn’t have a newsletter editor.
The last issue on their website is dated November 2003 and
it appears they published three 8 page issues last year. So
much for Toronto.
One Canadian User Group that is “active” — publication-wise is the Victoria, BC user group — Big Blue &
Cousins. That group appears to be full of artists so their
newsletter always has a snazzy front cover.
So, seeing as we are a relatively tiny city compared with Toronto and Vancouver, I think we’re doing a pretty good job.
ATI’s Graphics Drivers
I don’t know about you, but upgrading my video driver
scares me silly. Fortunately this fear always compels me to
make a complete up-to-date image file backup of my OS
partition.
About 6-8 months ago I tried installing new ATI Radeon
drivers for my 8500DV board and the install messed everything up! Fortunately that image file saved my goose! In late
February I decided to “try again”. After 15 or more hours of
diddling and fiddling, encountering error messages, more
reboots than I care to remember, etc. I finally got the video
driver working.
If you have a Radeon board and are using Jasc’s PaintShop
Pro and try to crop a photograph you may not see the outline of the area you are cropping. This is fixed if you use an
updated ATI driver. So it pays to upgrade — even although
it may take you some time for the installation.
Speaking of Jasc, they sent me a free upgrade (8.01) to
PaintShop Pro. I like companies that do such things for their
customers!
Volume 22 Page 8
June/July 2004
Synergy
The more video gizmos I’ve purchased for my system has
enhanced my computer enjoyment immensely. I can make
movies, create DVDs, VCDs, or generate great looking
MPEG4 video on regular CDs. Of course if you are going to
play around with video you need a very fast processor and
GIGABYTES of free disk space. But it’s a great hobby.
I’ve been recording bits and pieces of television video on
hundreds of videocassettes over a 20-30 year period. Now I
can merrily extract some favorite clips of old shows that
have been archived on VHS tape. When I first recorded
them they really weren’t watched, but now, after the passage
of so much time this is going to be interesting viewing and
I’m going to have fun transferring this video to DVDs.
A Movie Script in Ten Seconds!
Due to my hearing problems, closed captioning of movies
makes things much more enjoyable. Certain movies are not
closed captioned but it appears that with the appropriate
software you can add subtitles to a ripped movie. I went to
one site and downloaded the entire caption set of “When
Harry Met Sally” in about ten seconds. The script of a
whole movie in 10 seconds — amazing — truly amazing!
Paul’s Domains
Back in March I registered the domain names paulipeg.com
and winniepeg.com. I registered them through a company
located at 1and1.info. With their web hosting package I received a slew of software including NetObjects Fusion 7.5. I
am very impressed with their service. They sent me two letters, one containing a booklet on use of their system, and the
other contained two manuals and a CD containing the “free”
software they offered.
If you really want to learn about HTML, FTP, etc. you
should shell out $60/yr and start up your own website.
Oh — if Michael Eisener, the beleaguered CEO of The
Walt Disney Company, ever wants my “winniepeg” domain, I’ll be happy to sell it to him... (Right after I wrote
this the Disney organization cancelled our “Pooh Day” at
Assiniboine Park. I must be a jinx!)
Learn by DOING
And not by watching somebody else do it. The people who
really get their money’s worth out of this computer group
are those who PARTICIPATE — Forum Leaders, our ISP
crew, the hardware and software gurus such as Jon Phillips,
Greg McClure, Brian Lowe and Paul Kesson, webmaster
Ryan Rapson, writers for the newsletter, etc. When you
have to DO something, you learn a great deal more than
when you’re just a casual observer.
Fletcher Markle
I wonder how many of you remember this CBC television
personality? I had forgotten all about him and then while perusing CNN’s website I spotted the death of Mercedes
McCambridge to whom he was married from 1950-1962.
She had a son in an earlier marriage named John Lawrence
Volume 22 Page 9
June/July 2004
stuff? What if we ALL put our CVs “on line”? I think the
Fifield who later took the last name of Markle. Tragically,
world would run out of disk space. <g>
John killed his wife and children and himself in 1987.
Free Visual Basic .NET
Mercedes provided Linda
Blair’s “satanic voice” in “The
Microsoft is running a special at
Exorcist”. And where was
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio
Fletcher born? Winnipeg. He
for Visual Basic .NET. Click on
died in 1991. Aren’t you glad
Visual Basic at the Movies. All
you have “The Simple Life”?
you do is view and rate five short
vb.net programming movies (5-6
A GREAT Movie
minutes each). Then sign up to reI guess I must have slept
ceive your redemption code email
through the year 2002 or noentitling you to a complimentary
body bothered promoting this
Not-For-Resale copy of Visual Bamovie despite what I now see
sic .NET 2003 Standard Edition.
was given “glowing reviews”.
Spelling Errors!
The movie? “13 Conversations
About One Thing”. I happened
In my last issue I put a “*” in a
to catch it at about 2 a.m. on
photo caption instead of Denis
one of my premium movie
Beaulieu’s name. I was planning
channels. It stars Alan Arkin,
Paul Kesson and Prof. J.R. Allen could solve
on looking it up to ensure I spelled
Matthew McConaughey and
it correctly, but forgot.
this puzzle “in a flash”. Not me.
John Turturro among others.
I would love to say I was able to
If you like movies that make
produce one “goof free” issue, but
you THINK, I KNOW you’d enjoy this picture.
it appears that will NEVER happen to me. I’m not Martha
Your Editors Need Writers!
Stewart — that’s for sure. Never mind. You folks can just
laugh at my errors.
Unfortunately it appears Brian Lowe no longer has time to
write summations of “what happened” at our General MeetRemember Edd “Kookie” Byrnes from 77 Sunset Strip?
ings. I hope that at least one member who attends monthly
Edd played a detective in the popular TV show in the 50’s.
meetings on a regular basis would consider submitting such
“Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb” was a record Edd
reports.
made with Connie Stevens which was based on the characI’d also like to get a “Dr. PC” column going. Surely a small
ter’s fascination with keeping his hair well-groomed. Well,
group of our members could put together a column containEdd celebrates a birthday on July 30th. He will be 71. Kim
ing answers to questions posed by members.
Novak hits that candle-marker too! How time flies...
Email me at [email protected] if you are interested in helpRay McFeetors — the “Million Dollar Man”
ing out in such projects. Thank you.
A few years ago I told you about the joke Ray McFeetors
It’s So Nice to be “Normal” or Maybe “Abnormal”
pulled on me while we were students at United College. We
stayed in the men’s residence, Graham Hall.
I just visited http://tinyurl.com/2t5m2. I realize “officially”
I’m not Mensus material. Oh JOY! <ROTFL> I thought
Well I see Ray pulled in a few “bonuses” in 2003 as CEO of
while I was at the above site I was back in my high school
Great West Lifeco. His income soared to over $4 million. I
gymnasium taking one of those wacky IQ tests.
quickly calculated that it would have taken me well over
100 years to make what Ray earned last year. Never mind.
I remember the Guidance Councillor asking me after that
I’ve got a nice computer system — who could ask for anytest if I was thinking of a career in Engineering. I said, “No
thing more! <SIGH>
way!”. She just said, “Good.”
Have a Nice Summer
There are things that I can absolutely NOT COMPREHEND
— they are: blueprints, financial reports and wacky symbol
Enjoy your summer in Winnipeg. I see lots of movies will
algorithms. One of these gems is shown in this article. I
be filmed here again. Why not try out to
used to feel “stupid” because of these deficiencies. Now I
become an “extra”? And, as usual, get out
could care less. I’m growing old. I have also realized that
to our festivals: The Red River Ex, The
the next generation is much “smarter” than I ever was. How
Folk Festival and Folklarama.
I ever got through this life beats me!
I’ll see you back here for the Oct/NovemIf you’d like to feel “deficient”, take a look at the President
ber issue. Tom Howard will be in charge
o f the U niversity of Manitoba’s “CV ” at
of the August/September issue.
http://tinyurl.com/2nm64. Wooo... she has recorded literally
everything she ever did in her life. I wonder who reads this
Paul
Volume 22 Page 10
June/July 2004
‘It’s Never Too Late to Learn’
? by Claudine Gervais, “The Metro” Community Newspaper
She said she hopes others like Cheung, will continue to vol[This article originally appeared in the April 7th issue of
unteer after they have met the course requirement.
“The Metro”. It is reprinted with permission of its author.]
“They can provide such an enjoyable part of life for resiarina Cheung came to Vista Park Lodge to teach.
dent s ,” s ays Pa se sh n i k .
What surprised her
“T hey f ocus o n t h e i r
were the lessons she
strengths.”
had to learn.
Percy and Helen aren’t going
“I never imagined I’d be the
to win any awards for speed
one learning. They have
typing, but they have entaught me a lot. Never give
joyed learning to use their
up on life, and live life to the
new computer.
fullest,” says Cheung of
Percy and Helen Ward, resi“It’s quicker than a typedents of the personal care fawriter,” says Percy, who procility.
vides much of the material
for the home’s newsletter, inNewlyweds Percy, 94, and
cluding the jokes and poems
Helen, 77, were married at
he contributes.
Vista Park last Dec. 27. One
of the gifts to the couple was
“I use one finger, but I’m
a new computer.
getting pretty quick,” he
says.
Cheung, a student at the University of Manitoba, arrived
A stroke “wiped me out
at Vista Park to fulfill the
Helen Ward (left) and husband Percy are learning
quite badly three years ago,”
volunteer requirement of her
computer skills from Karina Cheung.
says Helen, who has had to
pharmacy course. She was
learn to use her left hand to
matched with the Wards by
keyboard.
Janet Paseshnik, the home’s recreation manager and volunThe
computer
will
help
her
keep
in touch by e-mail with her
teer co-ordinator.
daughter and granddaughter who live in Ottawa. Helen says
“Karina’s gone above and beyond the call of duty,” says
she has learned to keep herself open to new things — and
Paseshnik, who is also pleased with the Faculty of Pharmore than just computer skills. She was open to love, even
macy’s new community-based learning partnership.
she didn’t know it at the time she first met Percy.
Even though the students are required to spend a relatively
“I didn’t think he took a bigger shine to me. I wasn’t thinkshort time — just over 40 hours — volunteering, the quality
ing anything about finding a male personality,” she says
of the students and their skills makes it worth the time
with a smile. “I feel Percy and I have a wonderful opportuPaseshnik spends orienting them to the facility and its resinity.”
dents.
“It’s never too late to learn,” says Percy.
K
Survey Prize Winners!
The winners of the survey prizes were:
John Kesson John Madden Football
Curtis Bars:
Logitech’s Quickcam 4000 Pro
Thanks to the 69 individuals who took the time to fill out the
survey.
I’d just like to know why the REST of you didn’t participate.
No doubt you were too busy figuring out ways to shelter all
those capital gains you made in 2003. <g>
NEWS!!!
A BIG WELCOME to Fran Mickey who recently
joined the WPCUG
The BEST way to get VALUE from your membership is by participating in User Group events. Attend Forums, General Meetings and our Annual Picnic!
A Microsoft Access Forum led by Harvey Zimberg
will debut in September. It will meet every third
Tuesday at the RC from 7-9 p.m.
Volume 22 Page 11
June/July 2004
Please Don’t Fall for
HOAXES and URBAN LEGENDS
T
? by Ira Wilsker, Golden Triangle PC Club
hey are still at it. People are still creating and forwarding amazing and cute stories as facts that are in reality
hoaxes and urban legends. To add credibility they allege to reference known sources such as Paul Harvey, CNN
or Oprah, or local resources such as “my minister”.
Recently I have received many such emails that the senders
claim are true because it came to them from a trusted person
who is too smart to fall for hoaxes. Sometimes when I reply
to the emails, I cite references and documentation that their
stories are urban legends, and I receive an angry rebuttal that
the story is true because it was on the Internet.
In recent days, I have received several emails from local individuals about Mel Gibson‘s movie “The Passion”. Uniformly, the emails claim that the sender’s pastor or minister
gave a sermon about the making of the movie, citing a Paul
Harvey report, and that Mel Gibson had divine inspiration
to make “The Passion” due to a horrible incident. The
emails explain how Mel Gibson wanted to be a circus performer or an actor. Unable to find work as an actor, he found
work in a local shipyard.
On his way home one day he was attacked and beaten by
some robbers who “mashed his face with their boots, and
kicked and beat his body brutally, leaving him for dead.
When the police happened to find him lying in the road,
they assumed he was dead and called for the Morgue
Wagon.” Finding that he was alive, he was instead taken to a
hospital where it was found that he had no face, so severe
were his injuries. After a year in the hospital he was released, but his face was horribly disfigured. He was unable
to find work until he was hired for a circus freak show as
“The Man Who Had No Face”.
One day he sought solace at a church and a priest took pity
on him. In exchange for a promise to be the best Catholic he
could be, the priest would help him find peace. The priest
arranged for the best plastic surgeon in Australia to rebuild
his face at no charge, and the series of operations were successful. The man then married, had children, and was a success at life. His story became the movie “The Man Without
A Face.” The email states that “He is to be admired by all of
us as a God fearing man, a political conservative, and an example to all as a true man of courage.” The man was, of
course, Mel Gibson and his latest movie “The Passion” was
his tribute to the church that saved him.
This is very inspirational but false. The story is a well documented Internet urban legend. According to Paul Harvey, he
never told that particular story. Details documenting this as
an urban legend, as well as the history behind it are online at
http://tinyurl.com/2h946 and http://tinyurl.com/yqbqd.
I also recently received several emails alleging to document
a NASA boondoggle. The story claims that “When NASA
first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered
that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12
billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside
down, underwater, on almost any surface, including glass
and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300C.
The Russians used a pencil.” The urban legend neglects to
mention that since 1968, both American and Russian astronauts have used a commercially available pen made by the
Fisher Space Pen Company, readily available at retail. It
should also be noted that according to the Snopes urban legend website, “In December 1967, he (Fisher) sold 400 Fisher
Space Pens to NASA for $2.95 each.”
Details of this hoax are at http://tinyurl.com/38vw3 and
http://tinyurl.com/26jlo.
Another recently circulated, but very old hoax is the classic
(but also damaging) “jdbgmgr.exe Teddy Bear Virus” which
(so the story says) CNN, IBM , and Microsoft claim is a virus that will not be detected by any antivirus program and
must be manually deleted from infected computers. This is a
perfect example of how a prank can cause damage to thousands of computers by having the user delete a legitimate
Microsoft file often necessary to run Java files. Details of
this hoax are at http://tinyurl.com/4yfi, as well as on almost
all of the antivirus websites.
There are several signs that often indicate that an email being circulated may be a hoax or urban legend. Usually these
emails cite a news source or celebrity to give it legitimacy,
as well as a plea to forward the message to everyone you
know. Before forwarding any email that you receive, please
check it out at one of the major urban legend websites. My
personal favorites are http://tinyurl.com/3etzd and
www.snopes.com.
During this current political season, there are likely to be an
epidemic of politically oriented hoaxes making the rounds.
Stop these hoaxes in their tracks. By refusing to forward
them and notifying the sender that they are hoaxes, the
spread of these cute but sometimes damaging hoaxes and urban legends can be halted.
Editor’s Note: Check out http://tinyurl.com/yuok2 for additional sites to help you do your part to halt the spread of
hoaxes and urban legends.
Ira Wilsker is the Advisor for Region 8, the Association of
Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG) Representative
and Bylaws Chairman for the Golden Triangle PC Club, a
columnist for The Examiner in Beaumont, Texas, and he has
two radio shows. He also graciously shares his articles with
APCUG Editors.
Volume 22 Page 12
June/July 2004
Volume 22 Page 13
June/July 2004
The Corel Corporation is Coming to Winnipeg!
The Winnipeg PC User Group Inc.
proudly presents
Robert MacDonald of the Corel Corporation
His topic?
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12!
When? Thursday, June 17th at 7:00 p.m.
Where? Montrose School (Grant at Montrose)
Admission is FREE to ALL!
New! Smart Drawing tool – Designers are able to get their ideas down fast with professional results. Built-in intelligence
automatically recognizes shapes, smooths curves and
interprets freehand line drawings to easily create perfect shapes and objects, on the fly.
New! Export For Office – Designers can create stunning graphics and easily bring them into
Microsoft® Office and WordPerfect® Office documents.
New! Dynamic Guides – With unprecedented control, users can create a shape, draw a line, or place an object exactly
where they want it, in one step. Design time is dramatically reduced when
users can create, size and position objects easily and precisely, with fewer clicks.
Enhanced! Snap to Objects – Designers can now save significant time when laying out projects by quickly and precisely
drawing or modifying objects in relation to each other.
New! Text Features – Users can now see detailed changes to type, including leading and kerning, regardless of the zoom
level. They can view and manipulate text on-screen with ease and enjoy the same superior control over text as with
graphics.
New! Unicode Support – Users can easily share files with colleagues around the world and seamlessly incorporate
multiple languages into a single design, no matter which language version of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 is being used.
New! Touch-up brush – Users can remove defects (dust, scratches, etc.) from digital images and see results in real time.
This dedicated tool performs common image/photo touch-ups by intelligently covering unwanted areas.
Free M&Ms
to ALL!
Chance to
win a copy
of CD12
FREE!
Volume 22 Page 14
June/July 2004
Letter from Gene Barlow
User Group Friends,
We are pleased to announce our new web store for user
group members and their family and friends. You can find
the store at usergroupstore.com. You will see many exciting
products offered to you at great user group prices. Be sure to
add this location to your list of favorite web sites and check
back often to see what new items are available.
We plan to make this store a learning experience for you.
Along with the store items, you will find educational materials, technical articles, and user group evaluations of the various products. So, spend a while browsing the shelves and
learning about the technology behind these exciting products.
To help introduce this user group store, we are offering
some great bundle prices on many of our most popular products. We also expect our popular PowerQuest products to
go up in price as we negotiate a new contract with
Symantec. So, check out the great prices now and get your
order in quickly to take advantage of these grand opening
specials.
The user group store is divided into six different departments with many exciting products in each. When you decide on which items to purchase, click on one of the “Buy
Now” buttons to be taken to our secure web order form.
Complete the order form including the special order code of
UGUGS04. We will receive your order shortly after you
submit it. We normally ship all products by the following
morning. So, place your order today and you should have
your products in just a few days.
If you have any suggestions that would make this user group
store better for you, please contact me at [email protected]. We
want to make this user group store a real benefit to you.
Gene Barlow
User Group Relations
[email protected]
PO Box 275
www.usergroupstore.com
Orem, UT 84059-0275
Voice: 801-796-7370
To Build Or Not To Build
Reasons Why You Should & Shouldn’t Assemble
Your Own PC
Y
? by Jeff Dodd, Smart Computing Magazine, May 2004
ou have several options when it comes time to get a
new PC. You might choose to buy an off-the-shelf machine from your nearest electronics retailer, for instance, or maybe you’ll order a custom-built system from
any of the computer companies hawking their wares on the
Web. Or maybe you’ll build one of your own.
Don’t laugh. Although it’s much less common today than 30
years ago, when almost every personal computer was handcrafted from a mail-order kit, building a PC from scratch is
still a viable way of acquiring the digital capabilities you
need.
Weigh The Pros & Cons
Building your own PC certainly isn’t for everybody, of
course, just as building a boat or constructing your own
kitchen cabinetry isn’t for everybody. Users who build computers tend to tinker with their systems all the time, whether
to upgrade the sound card or test a beta (prerelease) version
of Windows or modify the user preferences and system settings. As these users see it, building a custom PC is the only
proper way of getting exactly what they want in a computer
system.
Nevertheless, as a reader of this magazine, you certainly
have the resources to assemble a PC, so you should think
about doing it for yourself. You just might find you like it.
The pros.
As we already hinted, the best reason to build a PC is to get
exactly what you want. No need to swap out a proprietary
graphics card, uninstall an unwanted multimedia player, or
perform any of the other system alterations that advanced
computer users like to do after buying an off-the-shelf PC.
The carte blanche approach lets you build a PC that meets
your particular specifications. You get no more and no less
than you need.
That’s not the only benefit, though. Another is that your
knowledge of PC technology will increase exponentially by
building a system from scratch. Like anything else, reading
about computers can teach you only so much. There’s no
better way to gain a practical understanding of buses,
DIMMs (dual in-line memory modules), and the like than
building a PC. In many ways, it’s the high-tech rite of passage that marks the transition from apprentice to master.
Finally, building your own PC can be fun . . . in a computer
geek type of way. You get to pick out the particular components you want and put them together: sliding cards into
slots, storage drives into bays, and cables into ports. Plus,
you get the satisfaction of booting up the machine and see-
Volume 22 Page 15
June/July 2004
ing it work as it should. Thanks to the development of
plug-and-play technologies and the acceptance of universal
standards, you can construct a system without the distractions of incompatibility issues and hardware conflicts. Building a PC these days is no more difficult than putting together a child’s toy or outfitting a home entertainment
system.
The cons.
As easy as it is to build a PC, it’s even easier to come up
with reasons not to. For example, building your own PC can
be a real hassle. It takes time to shop for parts, put them together, and test them afterward to make sure they work
right. You also have to read countless manuals, following
step after step and double-checking your work to make sure
you got it right. The task isn’t difficult, but you may be able
to find better things to do with your time.
Another reason not to build a PC is that, by doing so, you
willingly accept all responsibility for making sure it works
correctly. For example, if you encounter technical difficulties
getting the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) to recognize
the hard drive, you’ll have to figure out a solution on your
own. You can return malfunctioning components to their
manufacturers, of course, but you may have difficulty finding anyone who will provide assistance with configuration
or compatibility issues. Before you elect to build a PC, consider how much you value the ability to call someone else
for help when you get into a jam. The users who are most
inclined to build PCs will probably see technical independence as a benefit.
The third and perhaps most significant reason not to build a
PC is that it offers minimal_if any_cost benefits. Interestingly, cost savings were long considered one of the most
powerful incentives for building a PC. As recently as six or
seven years ago, you could save several hundred dollars by
doing it yourself. That’s not the case anymore.
Odds are good you will spend just as much (and possibly
more) to build a PC than you would to buy one. Why? Because computer manufacturers, who purchase hardware and
software components as commodities, can routinely sell
quality PCs for less than $1,000. At the time we wrote this
article, you could buy a Gateway 310 Series desktop PC
with a 2.8GHz processor, 256MB of RAM, a 40GB hard
drive, a CD-RW (CD-rewriteable)/DVD combination drive,
a 17-inch monitor, Windows XP Home, and Microsoft
Wor ks 7.0 f or $U S599.99 ( ht t p: / / w w w. g a t eway.com/home/products). You would have a hard time building any computer for that amount, especially when you consider the cost of software. You’d pay more than $250 for the
OS (operating system) and productivity suite alone.
Given the right circumstances, however, you might be able
to construct a PC for less than you could buy one. You
could borrow a monitor or hard drive from an existing system, for instance, and realize modest savings. The same is
true if you plan to build a PC without a sound card, a modem, or another component that typically comes bundled
with an off-the-shelf unit. But even in these situations, it’s
wise to shop around before settling on a do-it-yourself unit.
Who Should Do It?
Just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean
you should. Most of the people who have built their own
PCs in the past would probably describe themselves as IT
professionals, technology hobbyists, or computer nerds.
That’s still the case today. Putting a system together piece by
piece offers few advantages to anyone but the diehard tech
geeks who get a tangible thrill out of doing it without the assistance of anyone else. Of course, we’re diehard tech geeks
ourselves, so we offer a hearty go for it. Just don’t say we
didn’t warn you. Reprinted with permission from Smart
Computing. Visit http://www.smartcomputing.com to learn
what Smart Computing can do for you and your user group!
“Picnic in the Park”
UPHOLSTERY SERVICES
Even although it’s only early June, we plan to have
another picnic in Assiniboine Park in August.
There will be our popular “pork on a bun”, cake, soft
drinks, etc. and even more fun than in previous years.
The event will replace our August General Meeting.
And the price is right — there will be no charge to
members or members of their families.
I’d like to see at least SIXTY people out to this
event!
More info in the next newsletter.
ANDY CORRIGAL
Furniture Built or Recovered to Order
DALE PODAIMA
“All Services Guaranteed”
1874 Logan Ave.
Winnipeg, Manitoba R2R 0H5
þRestaurant
þCustom Furniture
þRecover
þRebuild
þRepair
þLiving Room
Tel: (204) 632-5400
Fax: (204) 697-1355
Services For:
þRec Room
þAutomobile
þEquipment
þSnowmobile
þBoat Seats
Volume 22 Page 16
June/July 2004
Biosoft Releases FigSys
A New Scientific Graphing/Charting/
Data Analysis Package
? by Paul Stephen
[email protected]
A
thought of Fig.P for about 10 years and a few months ago I
s some of you know, I worked for many years at the
decided to see if Biosoft and its great
University of Manitoba in
software still existed. I tossed
the Food Science Departwww.biosoft.com into my browser
ment. One of my responsibilities
and sure enough — the company
was purchasing lab equipment as
was still in business and about to rewell as computer hardware and softlease a brand new product — FigSys
ware for our department.
which would replace Fig.P. This I
Our graduate students and academic
had to try! What follows is my expestaff spent many dollars having the
rience with the new program. With
U of M draftsmen create plots from
the passage of 10 years of time, I
their scientific data. Most were desfigured I would be in for a real treat!
tined for publication in scientific
The First Surprise
journals or theses. Each plot usually
cost between $10-$15 — plus the
You would think Professors/Educatime wasted running “back and
tional Institutions would be a trusted
forth” to visit the draftsmen for corrections.
target for software sales. It
appears that the folks at
Somehow I came across a
Biosoft don’t quite think
plotting package called
this is the case. I happen to
Fig.P (Figure Processor)
agree with them. <vvbg>
published by Biosoft. The
original version was written
I remember trying to get
for DOS and was extremely
upgrades of Fig.P. I always
easy to use.
had to send back the original disk and was afraid that
But you know “academics”
sending such a disk through
(sorry, JRA <g>) — they
the U of M’s purchasing deare a skeptical lot and you
partment was like sending it
have a hard time convincto the big “mailbox in the
ing them to part with grant
sky”. Fortunately, they
money. “$US500 for a 30
never lost a disk, although
cent floppy disk?” was a
once a disk was misplaced.
typical response I received.
Somehow I convinced one
Things haven’t changed
professor to purchase the
“security-wise” at Biosoft.
package.
When you open the package
Well, the students and staff
you discover the program
LOVED it. And with the
will generate some “hash
Figure
1.
Sample
Plot
from
FigSys.
number of plots we cranked
code” from components in
o u t w ith that s oftware
your system. I wish softpackage it paid for itself within two months. To me it was
ware developers would tell you on what this code is based.
amazing how so many features could be put on a 3.5" disk!
If they did, you would know what hardware changes might
cause the program to cease to function. Before you can use
Several years later Biosoft released a Windows version and
the program you have to send this hash code, an ID number
we upgraded to that package.
that comes with the package and your name and address to
One of the things that made Fig.P “special” was its ability to
the company by e-mail, fax, telephone or snail mail to recreate very unique multiple plots in a single figure. You
ceive an activation password. Without this password, you
wouldn’t believe some of the things scientists want to put on
can do ZILCH — not even load the program!
“the page”. Fig.P was able to do this.
Why the company couldn’t have a 24/7 server to issue passWell, I got sick and had to leave the University. I hadn’t
words automatically over the net beats me, although I guess
the volume of
sales dictates
manual registration. It is
disappointing
to dis cover
this fact on a
F r iday.
I
would like to
see the company engineer
a 2-7 day
“grace period”
into the prog ram before
th e program
has to be activated.
Moving On...
W hen I got
th e program
Figure 2. Workspace Files
going, I discovered what I
remembered about Fig.P (I must be wacky as I actually preferred the DOS version of that program) is still part of the
new program although more options are present. FigSys, however, is a completely new program.
FigSys has a moderate learning/understanding curve (or I’ve
got fewer brain cells now) but
perseverance will pay off — I
guarantee you.
Documentation
I love the documentation that accompanies the program. First, the
177+ page manual is printed on
8.5"x 6" paper which is bound
on circular coils allowing you to
quickly go to any page without
having to “flatten out the manual” or use bookmarks. Other
software companies should use
this “format”!!
It is extremely well written.
Figure 4. Wizard Helps
There is important information in
almost every sentence so you
have to read it throughly and
then reread it again and then reread it again.
Tutorials lead you through creation of your first few graphs.
The CD on which the program ships also contains around 70
“workspace” files which you can load into the program to
get a feel for creation of more complicated figures. Each
month the company posts additional workspaces on its
Volume 22 Page 17
June/July 2004
website.
T h e p r o g r a m ’s
digital help system is top notch
too, with tutorials
as well and very
comprehensive
“on-line” documentation. My
only suggestion is
t ha t p e r h a p s a
few Flash tutorials might make
learning to use
the program even
easier.
The FigSys GUI
The GUI of the
program is broken into a numFigure 3. Wizard Help
ber of sections. A
few lines of the
upper UI are reserved for quick access to various tools. You will soon discover there are many ways to achieve the same result and
that’s part of the fun in using this
package. Along the left side of
the screen are two distinct panels.
The upper panel (Fig. 2) contains
al l t he el em en t s o f y o u r
workspace which consists of three
major categories Workspace data,
Workspace files and Workspace
views. Your Workspace data
“folder” can contain a Raw Data
Element, datasets, etc. and all this
information is saved in a single
file! Below the workspace area is
a panel (Figure 3) that contains
“wizards” which assists you in
creating datasets and graphs. And
— if the default layout of the
tools isn’t your “cup of tea” you
can customize the whole GUI to
your liking. I’ll discuss the various components as we proceed.
Graphing....
to Create a Dataset.
I decided the best way to describe
the program to you and to include
just “some” of its features would be to create a scientific
graph.
One of the most used scientific plots is known as the
Lineweaver-Burk plot. It is used by scientists to study enzyme-substrate reactions and to discover the effects of various compounds or conditions (pH, temperature, etc.) on the
speed at which a product can be produced by an enzyme act-
Volume 22 Page 18
June/July 2004
Figure 5. Portion of a FigSys "Fit Report"
Figure 6. Label Editor
ing on a substrate. By examining the plots scientists can
study the effect of various components on the enzyme reaction (competitive vs non-competitive inhibition).
I spent many hours studying the enzyme polyphenol oxidase
(PPO) in a Food Chemistry course. That’s the enzyme that
causes “browning” when you slice open a potato or an apple.
As this is not an article on enzymes, I won’t say anything
more other than the X and Y data points consist of the reciprocal of the substrate concentration and initial velocity of the
enzyme, respectively.
The scientist would enter the X and Y values for each experiment.
In the program, this can be done by simply putting the
points into a “spreadsheet-like” interface which is termed the
Raw Data Grid (RDG). Then a 2D wizard assists you in producing datasets for each line/experiment by extracting data
from the RDG. You simply highlight the data cells in the
RDG or enter a range for your X and Y data (A1:A8/B1:B8,
for example) and boom, you’ve created a dataset. (Figure 4)
Once you’ve got your datasets created you can select a 2D
or 3D wizard to create your “plot”.
The program comes with a Workspace that contains a sample Lineweaver-Burk plot (Figure 1). I found that the best
way to learn to use the program was to create a new
Workspace View (the area where the graph is created/shown
on screen), set it as the active Workspace View (this tells the
program where to put the plots), and then to use wizards to
generate the basic plot. You can then customize your axes,
titles, etc. which are created as placeholders by the wizard
until your plot/figure looks like the one included with the
program.
Here’s how I created the graph shown in Figure 1. First I
created a new Workspace View (work area for the graph).
Then I chose the Plots 2D Standard Line Scatter Plot wizard.
I had previously created two datasets by extracting data from
the RDG (again using “a wizard” (Figure 4), and told the
Scatter Plot 2D Wizard that I wished to use these datasets.
The program placed these LINE plots on the figure. However, in the Lineweaver-Burk plot I wanted the program to
use linear regression to produce a straight line. All I had to
do was click anywhere on the line (except at a datapoint)
and a series of menus allowed me to have the program apply
a linear regression “fit” on that line. I did the same for the
second set of data as well.
Without getting into enzyme theory, scientists would like the
regression routine to extrapolate the lines so they both will
intercept the x axis. With a click or two the program will do
that for you as well. Also, you’d like to know where the
lines intercept the y axis when x is zero. Such a reference
line is easily inserted by just pressing the spacebar after
clicking on the x axis and clicking on the appropriate option.
Using the spacebar to bring up additional dialog boxes
(rather than “double clicking” your mouse) prevents you
from accidentally moving the selected object on the screen.
When you run the linear regression routines described above
the program gives you the equation of the best fit line. If
you’d like even more statistics, you just open up a dataset,
right click your mouse, and select equation fitting. Sixteen
Volume 22 Page 19
June/July 2004
What are “containers”, you
commonly-used “best fit”
may ask? Everything that is
plotting models appear.
inserted into the Workspace
You select linear regresView is put into the base
sion, follow the wizard and
container. After you have
up pops a screen full of
created the basic graph, by
statistics for that dataset.
r i ght cl i c k i n g i n t h e
This information can be
workspace you can view
saved as a plain ASCII file
the properties of the graph
or as a “Fit Report” (Figand view all the compou re 5) ins ide your
nents of your graph — alworkspace.
lowing
you to edit anything
Now if you have a model
very quickly!
that isn’t in those supplied
You can add components to
with the program, you can
your plot three ways. You
add your own!
could just select one of the
So far we’ve added two
icons (say the rectangle)
datasets to the figure. Now
but usually you get a “giwe can simply click on the
ant” marquee created. It is
x and y labels to insert the
much better to use your
c orrect labels for the
mouse and first draw a
“placeholders” (Title as
marquee (placeholder) on
well as X and Y axis layour gr ap h y o u r se l f .
Figure 7. Statistical Analyses on Your Data Too!
bels) that were generated
THEN, click on the rectanby the program. The editgle icon and you’ll get a
ing module is shown in
rectangle
that fits inside the marFigure 6.
quee (simply an area drawn by
The label editor allow you to
the mouse). Now the third way
quickly select a “style”, as well
of doing things is to create a
as all the usual font attributes
marquee, then click on the con(size, color, bold, etc.). You can
tainer icon (or headed container
add “special” characters by
icon) and you will have created
clicking on the “omega” icon.
an area into which you can place
Only the Arial and Character
objects such as a rectangle, line,
fonts are supported for that opetc. You may say, “why would I
tion. The triangle icon quickly
do that?” Well, once objects are
allows you to insert “marker”
placed inside a container and you
characters you’ve used in your
resize that container, most objects
dataset plots to create legends
(rectangle, ellipse, etc.) inside
for your figures. Although crethat container will increase/deation of legends is not difficult,
crease in size. It’s a lot like using
it would be nice if the program,
the “group” tool in CorelDRAW.
as an option, created them for
You may have noted that there
you — automatically.
are TWO text editors in the proOther options in the label editor
gram. The label editor contains
allow you to quickly add submore tools which are used to descripts, superscripts, etc.
fine axis labels. The textbox ediAt this point, I should discuss
tor is used when you just want to
the icons shown in the left
add text to your figure. When
Workspace View panel. These
you use this editor, text is added
icons allow you to add lines,
“i n s i t u”/ W Y SI W YG m o d e
rectangles, ellipses, textboxes,
rather than through a dialog box
Figure 8. An Example of a “Container”
labels, images (BMP, TIF, Targa
used with the label editor.
Showing its Contents — an “Arrowed Line”
or EMF), a blank 2 or 3D temI hope you see that FigSys has
plate, simple or headed “conand a Text String
great flexibility when it comes to
tainers”, insert a new X or Y
producing ANY sort of figure — be it a plot, flow chart,
axis or add an object from a binary file. (Figure 9)
etc.!
Volume 22 Page 20
June/July 2004
struments. The latter could prove to be challenging.
Object Files
Stats Too!
These files allow for the quick replication of previously created axes, titles, etc. of
Not only will the proplots. I could save such
gram produce plots, but
files, but if I inserted
it will perform statistical
them they were not the
analyses on your data
same size as the original.
too. Just enter data you
There’s a “trick” to getwant analyzed into the
ting this replication to
Raw Data Grid, right
work. First you export
click on the grid and you
the active plot to an Obcan select from 40 statisject File and then you
tical analyses which inimport that Object File.
clude various ANOVAs
This operation should
(Analysis of Variance)
not change the look of
r out i nes ,
T- t e st s,
your Workspace View at
Duncan’s test, etc. (Figall as the Object File
ure 7) The program even
should be written “on
spits out a brief reference
top” of the current file.
for each test in case you
Initially I couldn’t get
are not familiar with that
this to work. The replistatistical routine. Once
Figure 9. GUI of FigSys with Workspace View Tools Enlarged
cated object file would
the analysis is complete,
appear
“s quis hed”
you can either copy the
ABOVE the original. The “trick” is to make sure you havereport to the clipboard or save it as part of your workspace.
n’t clicked on the import function when your mouse is in the
Discovery!
area occupied by the original plot.
I guess one of the things I like about
Clicking outside this boundary solved
FigSys is that it is so feature-rich you
the problem.
“discover things” that likely are in the
One use for this feature is to allow for
manual but somehow you miss. That
the rapid creation of multiple figures on
happened to me. In the Text Label funca page. Using the Page Layout Wizard
tion you are given about nine base text
you can quickly position figures at any
templates that are “tagged” with certain
point on your page. You can easily crefont type, size, boldness, etc. I was
ate four figures containing multiple
wishing I could define my own. Well,
plots!
“while poking around” I discovered in
3D Plotting
the top menu under “Tools” a drop
down menu shows, “Line Palette” and
The program is capable of producing
“Text Palette”. Not only can you specify
3D plots, but text on the axes appears
additional base text templates, but you
to be quite “jaggy” even when sent to a
can create your own line styles as well!
PostScript printer. Creating 3D plots
appears to be more difficult than 2D
The Language of FigSys
plots. I wonder if some scientific jourFigSys was written using the language,
nals would accept 3D plots of this qualPython. As I’m no programmer I’d
ity. They can be quite “picky”. On the
never heard of it. Supposedly it’s like
other hand, 2D plots produce extremely
the C programming language — it’s not
high quality output!
for amateurs like me who have only
Importing Data
used BASIC. If you are a programming
whiz, however, you can write add-on
You can import data into the Raw Data
modules for FigSys yourself. The PyGrid by a variety of means — from Exthon language is “open source”.
cel spreadsheets to dBASE files. You
Figure 10. This may look confusing iniare also are supposedly able to import
Glitches?
tially, but it really summarizes how the
data from “local databases” such as Access, but for the life of me I couldn’t modules are connected! (Biosoft obviously As this is the first release of the program I found a few “glitches” (at least
figure out how this wizard worked.
used FigSys to create this figure.)
on my system). I tried importing a TIF
As well, the program can use Serial
file, and although the preview window
Ports (COM1: or COM2:) to capture data from scientific in-
showed a rather distorted image, I proceeded to load it. The
program crashed. I went back and slightly modified the TIF
in IrfanView, saved it again as a TIF file and this time the
image loaded perfectly.
This problem did not happen with other TIF files. I always
seem to pick the “wacky one”. <g>
I would advise new users to not to load a file if the preview
image looks distorted. I would also advise you to “test load”
TIF files on an empty WSP file. Sometimes loading the
“rogue” TIF file crashed the program immediately.
The program also seemed to have problems (on my system)
with the ATI drivers for my 8500DV video card. If I tried to
save a plot as an image file (BMP, TIF, JPEG or Targa) I’d
get a big black square on my screen for a few seconds, then
the screen went completely blank and a monitor message
“Frequency Over Range” appeared. In a few seconds the
screen returned with a dialog box similar to the one produced when something goes “haywire” with Internet Explorer.
I could then optionally send this problem report to ATI. (I
had never ever seen this error message before in any other
application.) This problem seemed related to resolution because if I told the program to save the above filetypes as 200
dpi files, no such problems occurred. They appeared only
when files were saved at resolutions of 300 dpi or more. No
problems occurred if the image file was saved as an EMF
file.
Unfortunately, putting multiple figures/page (described in the
Object Files section) caused the “export” problem to arise
again — even at 200 dpi.
The program always opens in a window occupying about
50% of my 21" monitor’s real estate. This was fixed by going into the program’s Shortcut Properties icon (on the desktop) and “telling” Windows to open the program in maximum mode. However, when you open windows INSIDE of
the program they don’t open in maximum mode — you always have to maximize them manually. This is a bit frustrating when you have a large monitor.
Desires
I’d like to see the program, as an option, auto-generate legends. It’s not hard to do this manually, but if the program
could produce a “legend container” it would be a nice feature.
Also, I’d like to see EPS output too. If my memory has not
failed me, I believe Fig.P had this option. Now to get PostScript-coded graphs into my DTP package I have to “print”
to a PostScript file, distill this code to a PDF, and import
that file.
I would also like to see the name of the file I am working on
displayed on the top line of the program’s main window.
Have It Your Way with FigSys
I have given you an overview on how the program works.
Let me assure you that if there is something you’d like to
customize in a plot you can do it with FigSys! You can define the thickness of lines, define precisely how you’d like
Volume 22 Page 21
June/July 2004
to display “tick marks” on your axes, size of data points,
shading, colors, line breaks, log/ln axes, etc. etc.
As you can see, the “possibilities” of the creation of a graph
can be quite complex. You may just forget some simple step
that you used to create one of your “masterpieces”. Well, the
program will help you there too, as it allows you to insert
“Notes” where you can write information on how your custom graph was created.
You can also link HTML files (HTML, JPG, GIF) to a
workspace. If you link to an HTML file, when you click on
this entry you will think you are in your browser! If you
come across a website that in some way relates to the graph
you have created you can just capture the HTML code and
have an instant reference. (I have since discovered that you
can just insert the URL to the webpage you wish to reference — although you are then “taking a chance” it may disappear from the web.)
I should also mention that picture files placed in your
Workspace View can either be linked to their location on
your hard drive or imbedded within the workspace.
If you have ever tried to position an “object” in a graphics
program using your mouse, you know how frustrating it can
be to get things positioned “just right”. Well, FigSys allows
you to use your cursor keys to move an object in any direction by just one pixel. The exact position of the object (and
size) is shown on the bottom line of the Workspace View
window.
And there are often a few ways to create the same effect.
After working with the program you can choose the “route”
that is most comfortable to you.
Summing Up
If you have read this entire article and still say, “I can do everything I need to do with my spreadsheet graphics program”, then my friend, you are NOT a scientist.
If you do see the power in this program, but are not a scientist, tell any of your friends who are scientists about this
program. And if YOU are a scientist, FIND the grant money
to buy it! (A 30 day demo is available on the BIOSOFT
website.)
Requirements
This program will run on any Windows 98/SE/ME/2000/XP
computer. You also need a VGA monitor, a minimum of 64
megs of RAM and 30 megs of hard disk space.
Program:
FigSys
Publisher:
BIOSOFT
2D Dolphin Way, Stapleford
Cambridge, CB2 5DW, UK
WWW:
http://www.biosoft.com OR
http://www.figsys.com
SRP:
$US499
PS: I am pleased to report that Biosoft offers excellent support of its products. I received a detailed e-mail from Dr.
John Lamble, Director of Biosoft, who answered questions
I had about the program.
Volume 22 Page 22
June/July 2004
Dave’s qp ad
Volume 22 Page 23
June/July 2004
Pics Print V2.0
? by Neil Longmuir, Winnipeg PC User Group Inc.
[email protected]
O
ne of my favorite programs, Pics Print has been recently updated with a great new user interface and new
features. If you own a digital camera or have scanned
your slides or negatives, then you need this program. No
and’s, if’s or but’s. Pics Prints is a must have program.
Enhancements & Improvements
Quoting from the programmer and designer, Sean Cross:
“The Version 2 development has focused on improving the
speed and use of Pics Print. The user interface has been redesigned to reduce confusion and the styling
has been significantly improved. Pics Print is
now more powerful with many new features,
such as faster printing, higher quality output
options and enhanced text formatting.” The
most significant improvements are as follows:
1. The interface has been redesigned which
makes the program easier to use. Also the
buttons have been made larger. This is a
real thumbs up for aging eyesight.
2.
A new sidebar has been added which
gives the end user quick access to the
common tasks.
3.
Borders and drop shadows can be added
to images just like Adobe Photoshop. The
difference, it’s easier to add them in Pics
Print.
4.
Printing is much faster without any reduction in print quality.
5.
Borderless printing is now supported. The
recent printers from HP, Epson and
Canon all offer borderless printing with
their print drivers. Now, Pics Print sets a
new standard, borderless printing from
within the printing software itself.
6.
High quality printing options are now
available for compatible printers.
7.
The editing of headers, footers and text
has been improved.
8.
The templates have been enhanced to
make tasks, such as, repetitive printing of
fliers and posters easier.
9.
Pics Print is now offered as a camera retrieval option in Windows XP.
10. EXIF camera information is now supported. The EXIF
gives you all the information about the picture when it
was taken. Information such as camera make, shutter
speed, aperture, equivalent film speed etc.
11. The feature I really liked was the Auto fit images to the
page. This not only saves paper, but really makes it easy
to get going with this program.
Introduction
Pics Print is a shareware image printing program that simplifies the formatting and printing of high quality photos; the creation of
beautiful greeting cards; fabulous posters; digital image contact sheets (thumbnails) and family albums. The new user interface has been
made more user friendly. In a hurry to make a
print and don’t want to take time to learn all
the features of the program now? Try one of
the supplied wizards to guide you through your
project. Using the appropriate wizards and supplied templates, professional quality prints can
be made. The images to be printed can come
from several sources, a file, directly from your
digital camera or a scanner. Take a few minutes to make some quick color corrections,
resize the image, add some text and print the
final output using your printer’s highest print
quality.
I currently have a number of subdirectories under my main image directory. To make life
easier for myself, I prepared a custom template
(yes you can do that) that was one inch by one
and a half inches. This allowed me to print 20
images per page with a line of text at the top.
My printer is an HP P1100 photo printer.
What’s unique about this printer is that it does
duplexing. I now have a catalogue of my image directory.
Installation
The time to download, unzip and install the review copy of Pics Print took less than five
minutes. Pics Print only takes 7.7 megabytes
of hard disk space. Pics Print will work with
Fig. 1. Pics Print’s
Windows
95/98/ME/2000 and XP. No mention
Explorer-Like GUI has
is made of the minimum hardware to run the
a Few Problems
software. My test machine is an AMD 3200
with New Image Filetypes. processor with a 1 gig of PC3200 dual channel
RAM, ATI video card with 64 mb of RAM, a
120 gig hard drive and a 54X CD burner. The
program ran beautifully on this configuration. The Pics Print
website has a warning for Windows 98 and Windows ME users. The warning is that the program runs slower on the 16
bit platform. When I reviewed Pics Print 1.0, I found page
formatting took a fair amount of time under Windows 98.
I’m no longer running Windows 98, but I would assume that
page formatting would still be slow. Windows 98/ME are old
operating systems. If you have not upgraded to Windows XP
then there is no better time than right now to move to a 32
bit operating system. Windows XP is a very stable platform.
Wizards
The program provides easy to use wizards that help you create posters, greeting cards, thumbnails, contact sheets and
passport photos. Follow the on screen wizard instructions
Volume 22 Page 24
June/July 2004
there are tutorials and additional help available on the
http://www.picsprint.com website. I found the user interface
easy to use without having to consult either the help files or
the Pics Print web site. The interface is very intuituve.
The following list of features comes directly from the web
site. Check them out for yourself, the features are great! The
program is available for a 30 day free trial. Download it and
try it out. Then register it for $32.50 US dollars.
·
WYSIWYG printing allows you to lay out your print
on-screen exactly as it will come out on paper
· Easily add text and filenames to your printed images
· Built in editor lets you crop, rotate, and filter images without leaving the application
· Red eye removal (registered version
only)
· Batch printing allows you to print all
images in a folder, camera, etc. with
a specific layout or size
· One click creation of thumbnail indexes (contact sheets) from your digital camera
· Wizards allow you to quickly and
easily perform common printing tasks
· Thumbnail browsing, so you can find
your images quickly
· Create multi-sheet posters (up to 20
sheets high by 20 sheets wide)
· Create Greeting cards with a simple-to-use Wizard
· Save print documents and custom
layouts for later use
· Optional Windows Explorer integration. Simply right-click to print
· Supports Twain and USB compliant
digital cameras and Handles all common image formats including GIF,
JPG, BMP, WMF, FAX, BW, RGB,
RGBA, SGI, CEL, PIC, PCD, RLA,
Figure 2. Adding Images to Pics Print 2.0 Pages
RPF, CUT, PAL, PSD, PDD, PSP,
TIF, TIFF, PCX, PNG and more
and professional quality prints can be made quickly. Pics
· Print to bitmap or PDF (registered version required for
PDF)
Print can print all standard paper sizes and posters up to 20
x 20 A4 sheets. Pics Print is WYSIWYG. “With Pics Print
your print-out is displayed on-screen exactly as it will appear
Pics Print improved speed , end user control and the auto fit
on paper. You have complete control over the size and layout
images to page are great. Combine these features with batch
of your images. Moving and resizing your images couldn’t
processing and the printing of images just became easier.
be easier, just click and drag. Or right click and choose from
Batch processing is a lot easier than selecting images one at
predefined layouts and sizes.” Personal notes, comments and
a time and placing them on a page.
filenames can be added.
The WYSIWYG that is seen on screen, is printed exactly the
Features:
same on paper. If you don’t like the placement or order of
the images, just click and drag the image to rearrange the
The list of features for Pics Print is impressive. Check the
image where you want it on the page. If you right click on
list of features below. Also, if you need help on using the
an image, you can choose from predefined layouts and sizes.
program, there is a tutorial to comes with the program and
As well, user comments can be added to filenames.
Pics Print in Actual Use
The left hand side of the screen display is very
similar in appearance to Microsoft’s Windows
Explorer (Fig. 1). Select the directory containing your images and the images are displayed
in the bottom pane. To select all the files, click
on the first image, then hold down the shift key
and click on the last image you want to transfer
to the printed page. There are two ways to
transfer this images to the print page. First just
drag them over to the page. The second way is
to right mouse click and add the images to the
print page. To resize the images on the print
page, hold down the shift key to select the images, then click on the size you want from the
right hand size pane (Fig. 3).
Changes or Improvements
I have a lot of uncompressed TIFF and Adobe
PSD files in my image directory. In the Windows Explorer window neither of these files are
displayed. A large question mark is displayed
instead. TIFF files need to be fully supported.
See Figure 1.
Also with more and more digital cameras supporting RAW or NEF files, sooner or later the
software will have to deal with them. Currently
Volume 22 Page 25
June/July 2004
it does not. Currently, I use Nikon Capture 4.1 to convert my
Nikon Electronic files (NEF) to TIFF files before working on them. When the files are ready
for printing, I convert the file to JPEG and get
my prints done at my local one hour Fuji Frontier digital minilab. Adobe Photoshop has a $99
plug in to read RAW and NEF files for Adobe
Photoshop 7.01. Adobe Photoshop CS has full
support for the major digital cameras RAW and
NEF formats.
Conclusion
Pics Print V2.0 is easy to use and best of all, it
works! Don’t just take my word for it, download the trial version from http://picsprint.com
and try it. You won’t be disappointed. This program deserves a full five star rating.
[Editor’s Note: This is the second time we have
reviewed this program. If you are a digital photographer you’ll love it. Take it for a test drive!
Neil will be demonstrating Pics Print at his
June Digital Imaging Forum.]
Fig. 3. Set the Size
of Any Image Placed
on the Pics Print Page.
Whither the Yellow Box?
E
? By Moe Norris, Topeka PC Users Club, Kansas
astman Kodak Company, an icon in the photographic
industry for more than 100 years, dropped a bombshell last September when it announced that the company would shift its focus from film and film-based products to digital equipment and processes! And it has resolutely continued down that path. In January 2004 the company announced that by the end of this year it would no
longer be selling re-loadable film based 35mm cameras, including APS models, in the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe. The “throw away” (i.e., one-time use) cameras will
be the only Kodak film camera available in the west. The
number of different films provided to retailers will be reduced, concentrating on just the most popular lines. Production of its Carousel film projectors was scheduled to
cease the end of 2003.
Kodak said that it plans to continue providing 35mm cameras in emerging markets, such as China, India, Eastern Europe and Latin America, and will introduce six new film
cameras in those markets this year. It predicts rapidly
growing markets for cameras and film in those countries, in
contrast to what is being seen in the west where the demand
for film-related products is shrinking much more rapidly
than anticipated, while purchases of digital cameras continue to grow dramatically. Kodak’s array of digital cam-
eras now extends from point and shoot consumer models to
high-end professional (read very expensive) digital cameras
and camera backs. It will increase its production of inkjet
printing papers, and plans to introduce a new line of consumer ink jet printer models to go head-to-head with the
well-established offerings from HP, Epson, Lexmark, etc.
Kodak’s landmark shift in focus represents a profound
change for the world’s largest filmmaker, and a huge gamble. The success of the move remains uncertain. Just when
Kodak needs increasing film revenues to underwrite the
costs (in the billions) of this transition, film sales are dropping substantially. Since 1997 Kodak has reduced its
workforce by more than 30,000 jobs. Another 15,000 jobs
will be eliminated in the next two years in a further effort to
reduce costs. Success is not a given. If fortune does not
smile on Kodak, then not only may the Yellow Box disappear, but the company itself may go down the same
path—and it won’t be a Yellow Brick Road!
There is no restriction against any non-profit group using
this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit
given the author. The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member,
brings this article to you.
Volume 22 Page 26
June/July 2004
Getting to Know Google
T
? by Billy Mabray, Oklahoma City PC Users Group
hese days, whether you consciously choose it or not,
your Web search engine is probably Google
(http://www.google.com). That’s because most search
sites, whether they admit it or not, are powered by Google.
And, why not? Google rose to the top of the search engines
because its formula provided more relevant search results
than any other. Also, its deceptively simple page makes it
fast and easy to use.
I say deceptively simple bec a u se , underneath that
friendly, colorful logo is a
powerful search system that
can accept queries as complex as you want to make
them. Many people don’t realize that if they do not find
what they want on the first
try, there are techniques they
can use to improve their results. There are also ways to
search Google that are more appropriate for certain specialty
queries. And, Google is hiding a few extras that take it beyond a search engine into an amazing reference tool.
Let’s start with an example. We’re cooking dinner tonight,
and we need a recipe for spaghetti sauce that does not use
sugar. We might go to Google and type in this:
no sugar spaghetti sauce recipe
Google tells us we have about 56,000 results to wade
through. A daunting task, considering the first page doesn’t
seem to contain anything relevant. The first thing we will try
is grouping our search terms into phrases, using double-quotes. This tells Google that certain words should be
searched for together. So, we try this:
“no sugar” “spaghetti sauce” recipe
That certainly narrowed things down, didn’t it? This is a
good technique to use when your search contains a lot of
common words that could appear together in different contexts than what you are looking for. Unfortunately in this
case, our first page of results is still not as relevant as we
would like. The next thing we will try is searching for pages
that do not contain a certain term:
-sugar “spaghetti sauce” recipe
This tells Google that we want pages that are about “spaghetti sauce” recipe, but specifically do not contain the term
sugar. That seems to have done it—our first page of results
is chock full of spaghetti sauce recipes that don’t use sugar.
“Subtracting” a term can also be useful when what you are
searching for has multiple meanings. For example, if you are
researching the “Holy Grail,” you might want to add
“-Python” to your search to eliminate all the references to
the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Now, maybe spaghetti sauce is too specific—we might want
to also consider marinara sauce. In that case, we use
Google’s or syntax:
-sugar “(spaghetti | marinara) sauce” recipe
When there are multiple words that will satisfy our search,
we can group them with parentheses and separate them with
the “pipe” character—a vertical line that is most likely on
the right-hand side of your
keyboard. Google will then
search for references to “spaghetti sauce” or “marinara
sauce.”
At this point, we’ve become
so intrigued by what we can
find with Google, we’ve completely forgotten about dinner.
Now we are interested in just
how many different chicken casserole recipes we can find.
Here’s one way:
“chicken * casserole” recipe
Notice the asterisk. This is called a wildcard. It tells Google
that we don’t care what word comes between chicken and
casserole, but there should be something there. This can be
particularly useful when you know most of a title of something, but are unsure of all the words. This particular search
brings back all kinds of chicken casserole recipes. Something tells me we better just eat out tonight.
Besides its standard Web search, Google has many specialty
searches that are triggered either by a keyword or simply by
what you are searching for. For example:
site:microsoft.com “IE” patches
This searches for references to “Internet Explorer” (IE)
patches on microsoft.com only. If your favorite Web site
does not offer a search function, this is a pretty good substitute.
Maybe we want to know which sites on the Web link to the
OKC PC User’s Group Web site:
link:okcpcug.org
We can also tell Google that what we are looking for is in an
Adobe Acrobat PDF file:
filetype:pdf refrigerator manual
Google pays attention to what you are searching for, and offers helpful services based on what it thinks you want. For
example, have you ever noticed Google shows your search
words in the blue bar above your results? The search terms
that are underlined link to a definition of that word at dictionary.com. If you spell a word wrong, Google will prompt
you with the correct spelling and ask if you would like to
search for that instead.
Google has many tricks like this up its sleeves. Search for a
phone number, and Google will do a reverse lookup on the
number. Search for a name with a city and state and/or zip
code, and Google will look up their phone number. Search
for an address and you will get links to maps of that location. Include a zip code with your search terms, and Google
will offer you local results—Web sites for locations near the
zip code, ordered by distance. You can even type in a shipment tracking number, and Google will figure out who the
shipping company is and give you a link to the tracking information.
Google offers some services that have nothing to do with
searching. Try this:
68.12 + (68.12 * .2)
The Google calculator will return the result of this computation. Fun, although, admittedly, not particularly useful. The
Google calculator can be useful though, for things like conversions:
68mm = ? inches
You can do all kinds of conversions using Google—a handy
Volume 22 Page 27
June/July 2004
tool whenever you get around to making that spaghetti
sauce.
Google is much more useful than most people realize—we’ve only scratched the surface of what Google can
do. If you are interested in more, check out Hacking Google
by Tara Calishain and Rael Dornfest. It includes many more
search tips, and information for programmers who want to
include Google search results in their applications. As you
explore what Google can do, you will probably discover that
Google feels like more than just a Web site.
In fact, Google is your friend.
Billy Mabray and his wife, Angela, own Smart Goat, a local
software development and web design business. They are
members of the OKCPCUG. Comments or questions on the
ar t i cl e ar e w el com e and can be a d d r e sse d t o :
[email protected].
Do You Use One Space or Two Spaces
at the End of a Sentence?
L
? by June Hall, Editor, Windows on the Rockies User Group, Colorado
ike most people I was taught to use two spaces at the
end of a sentence when using a typewriter. But when I
started editing the company newsletter in the l980s,
was taught to use one space at the end of a sentence in published material.
If you type the question at www.google.com, the websites
are numerous and contain contradictory answers, replies, and
opinions.
Original typewriters had monospaced fonts. Monospaced
type is text produced by characters that are evenly spaced.
A “W” takes up just as much room as an “l.” Thus, around
skinny letters there was more space than around wide letters.
To clear everything up, it was decided that an extra space
should be added after a sentence to make it easier to see
where one sentence ended and the next began.
In the very early days two spaces were also used in published material, but then along came the lead-casting
Linotype machine. The linotype used wedges for spaces,
rectangles for letters. Alter filling the line as close as possible, the operator would pull a handle, and the wedges would
be forced upward, expanding (and thereby justifying) the
line o’ type, which would then be cast in lead. If the operator typed two spaces in a row, you had two wedges next to
each other, and that tended to gum up the operation. So
only one space was used.
On Woodys Watch (), Woody told us about all the
mail—friendly mail, angry mail, congratulatory mail,
w hy- don’t - you- check- your- f act s
mail,
my-teacher-taught-me-this-and-my-teacher-ain’t-stupid
mail—he received after making a somewhat tongue–in-cheek
remark about “cleaning up after people who inevitably type
two spaces after every period.” Woody ended by stating if
you want to sell what you write, use one period because
that’s the way the industry works nowadays.
A copyeditor at The University of Chicago (Chicago Manual
of Style) thinks, “In our efficient, modern world, there is not
room for two spaces at the end of a sentence.”
Publishers want single spaces after periods. Most desktop
publishers believe desktop publishing (electronic type-setting) should follow the commercial publishers rule, “One
space at the end of a sentence.”
Two spaces can cause problems with line breaks in certain
programs. Web pages use only one space between sentences. HTML is set up to only display one space no matter
how many are typed. A browser, like Netscape Navigator or
Internet Explorer, will only display one.
Some people using word processing state, ‘‘those of us who
use word processing software are no longer typists but typographers. While our typewriter keyboards limited our capabilities in creating text, our word processors allow us to
Volume 22 Page 28
June/July 2004
Winnipeg PC User Group Calendar of Events
June 6, 2004 - July 10, 2004
Sunday
Jun 6
Monday
Jun 7
Tuesday
Jun 8
Windows
Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Jun 13
Wednesday
Jun 9
Thursday
Friday
Jun 11
Jun 12
Computer
Basics
10:30 am 12:30 pm
Jun 17
Jun 18
Jun 19
Digital
Imaging
Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Jun 16
Saturday
Jun 10
Jun 14
Executive
Meeting
7 pm - 9 pm
Jun 15
Jun 20
Jun 21
Jun 22
Jun 23
Jun 24
Jun 25
Jun 26
Jun 27
Jun 28
Jun 29
Jun 30
Jul 1
Jul 2
Jul 3
Jul 4
Jul 5
Jul 6
Jul 7
Jul 8
Jul 9
Jul 10
Linux Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
WPCUG GM
Robert
MacDonald
Corel
Corporation
CorelDRAW 12!
July 11, 2004 - August 14, 2004
Sunday
Jul 11
Jul 18
Monday
Tuesday
Jul 12
Executive
Meeting
7 pm - 9 pm
Jul 13
Jul 19
Jul 20
Windows
Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Wednesday
Jul 14
Digital
Imaging
Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Jul 21
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Jul 15
Jul 16
Jul 17
Jul 22
Jul 23
Jul 24
Jul 29
Jul 30
Jul 31
WPCUG GM
Resource
Centre!
Topic: TBA
Linux Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Jul 25
Jul 26
Jul 27
Jul 28
Aug 1
Aug 2
Aug 3
Aug 4
Aug 8
Aug 9
Executive
Meeting
7 pm - 9 pm
Aug 10
Aug 11
"Picnic in the Park"
will be held (tentatively)
on Thursday, August 19th
Aug 5
Aug 6
Start Time: 6:30 p.m.
Don't Miss It THIS Year!
Aug 12
Aug 13
Aug 7
Install/Drop
In Forum
10 am 4 pm
Aug 14
Windows
Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
All Forums and Board Meetings are held at the Winnipeg PC User Group Resource Centre 337C Pembina Highway
General Meetings are held at Montrose School, 691 Montrose Street at Grant Avenue — Use the east door on Grant Avenue.
Volume 22 Page 29
June/July 2004
do what professional typesetters have been doing for centuries. Consequently, many of the rules we learned as typists
do not apply in the world of word processing.’’
The majority of people who never do desktop publishing
have no reason to change from using two spaces. Even
some publishers prefer using two spaces in their personal
correspondence and notes.
After getting used to using only one space at the end of a
sentence in writing for published material, I use one space
for everything—most everything. I have to watch myself if
I type a letter for my husband as he wants two spaces. One
of the first things I do when I receive an article for a news-
letter is to go to Edit/Replace and put in two spaces to he replaced by one space.
I liked the website with the info below:
Should sentences be separated by one space or two
spaces?
Yes.
Make Web Cash!
You must have a Web site with topical, informative content.
It can’t be a personal page or one on a domain that you
don’t own, such as Geocities or melbpc.org.au. For example,
you might have a site dedicated to prostate cancer, or digital
cameras, or home renovations, or programming. If your application to AdSense is approved, you are given some
Javascript code to place on your pages. This code displays
AdWords on your pages and you are paid a healthy commission by Google for every click on your page. Before you
think about it, the answer is “no”. If you click the ads on
your own pages, you will lose your earnings and be booted
out.
Under the terms of the AdSense agreement I cannot say how
much I earn but it more than pays for my Web hosting and
leaves me with something that is non-trivial. In previous
years I have dabbled in affiliate programs where I didn’t
even reach the minimum needed to get paid. I have a single
Amazon affiliate link that barely generates enough commission to buy a book, but AdSense is a breath of fresh air.
I display AdSense ads on five or six of my pages at the
most, so I cannot retire on my AdSense income. I know of
people who run busy, technical or specialist topic forums and
they have such ads on thousands of pages. It would not surprise me if they do not need any other source of income.
When I look around Melb PC’s members I am convinced
that hundreds of you have the knowledge to write a few
pages of specialist content. If you don’t know how to create
a Web site, Melb PC runs courses from time to time or you
can buy a book on the subject. Domains and hosting are very
cheap, don’t bother applying for AdSense if you use a free
site.
There is an unfortunate side to AdSense - plagiarism. My
popular article on search engine optimisation has AdSense
and other ads next to it. It was copied by someone who put
his own AdSense code on the copy. I complained to Google
under the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright
Amendment (DMCA). Initially they were very quick to remove the search result for the other site. The culprit then
placed abbreviated copies at two other domains but Google
did not remove the search results and I have not seen a
penny for any AdSense commission he has earnt by displaying my article.
? by Ash Nallawalla, Melbourne PCUG
T
here is money to be made on the Web (for little people, that is). I didn’t believe it but I do now. There are
possibly more scams there than real schemes, or some
of them are reasonable schemes that are taken up by inexperienced people who then think they were scammed. There
are real schemes too and some are within your reach.
Make Money Fast
One of the oldest Internet scams I saw over ten years ago
was the “Make Money Fast” (MMF) newsgroup posts that
were sometimes relayed as e-mails. They were the old chain
letters that asked you to send a “dollar bill” (it sometimes
translated to five Aussie Dollars) to each of five names on
the list. They promised you untold wealth if everyone played
by the rules. I haven’t seen them for a while, either because
the players all became rich and have gone to live in Byron
Bay or Lorne, or they have moved on to easier scams.
For instance, some of those “Nigerian” scams are now apparently coming from people in Western nations. There is
some twisted logic that says that poor grammar in those
messages makes them more convincing. Let me move on to
the legitimate ways of making money on the Web.
Google AdSense
If you are a user of that fine search engine, Google, you will
have seen advertisements on the right. They are known as
AdWords and each time you click one of them, the advertiser typically pays between US$0.05 and US$50 to Google.
Most of the clicks are closer to $1 each, in case you are
wondering how expensive it is for an advertiser. The more
expensive clicks occur in highly competitive industries such
as US class-action or personal injury lawyers.
In addition to displaying AdWords on the search results
pages, Google has a network of partners who display, say,
3-4 “sponsored results” before showing the “free” search results. Additionally, and this is where you and I come in, the
ads are shown on Web pages that meet certain criteria. The
official details can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/3djey and
http://tinyurl.com/upla. You are wondering by now how this
knowledge can help you make money.
49K+
Connects!
WPCUG
Volume 22 Page 30
June/July 2004
Internet Service
“Let us connect you to the world!”
WPCUG
Winnipeg PC User Group Inc.
Need help getting set up?
Call ahead and bring your
PC to the
Resource Center
for “hands on” help.
People Helping People Use Computers Since 1982
**
0
n
** TUP
SE E!!
FE
þ *40* hours/month FREE
þ V.90 Support
þ PPP dial up access
þ Guaranteed user/modem
ratio of 15:1
þ 2 MB of disk space
for your own home page
þ Full Telnet shell access to
maintain your home page
þ Unlimited technical support
via e-mail, phone, Web BBS
and the Resource Center
þ Your own e-mail address
JUST $14*/Month!!
$0.25/hr after 40 hours
Maximum
billing of
*
$20 /month
(*Plus PST/GST)
Make a one time payment
of $192 (plus taxes)
and get UNLIMITED ISP
Access for a year!
We run on a cost recovery
basis. Every dollar goes to
improve, not just the Internet
Service, but all the other
services the User Group
provides as well.
If it weren't for the ISP, the RC
would close its doors!
Please remember that the Internet Service is a
cooperative effort. Give others a chance to
connect. Hang up when you are not actively using
the Internet! Thanks!!!
Make the RIGHT connection so YOU
don’t end up like this!
Winnipeg PC User
Group Forums
? by Ryan Rapson, Forum Coordinator
A forum is a group of members who meet to share information on topics of mutual interest, i.e. Computer Basics Forum, Hardware Forum. Members can help, and learn from,
each other. Each forum has one or two leaders.
Volume 22 Page 31
June/July 2004
Internet Access Form
Complete and return with $15.96
[$14 (first month’s fee) + $1.96 (PST/GST)]
TO:
Winnipeg PC User Group
c/o Internet Subscriptions
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3L 2E4
Meeting Place
Unless otherwise stated, all Forums meet at the WPCUG
Resource Centre (The Clubhouse) at 337C Pembina Highway (Pembina Highway at Fleet Street).
And Now....Here are the Forums
(listed alphabetically)
Computer Basics FORUM
Meets the second Saturday of the month. Cancelled for the months
of July and August.
10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Leaders: Barb Randle/Jim Roy
Digital Imaging FORUM
Meets the second Wednesday of June and July but is CANCELLED
in August The Forum will resume in September.
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Leader: Neil Longmuir
Hardware/Internet FORUM
Meets the Fourth Saturday of the month. 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
(Cancelled for June/July)
Leaders: Jon Phillips & Greg McClure
Install/Drop-In FORUM
Meets First and Third Saturdays of the month.
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. (Cancelled June/July)
Leaders: Jon Phillips and Greg McClure
Introduction to Computers FORUM
This Formum has been permanently cancelled.
However, in its place an “Introduction to Computers” Mentor Program
will be offered to both members and non-members, on a one-to-one
basis, free of charge, by WPCUG volunteers.
The mentoring will take place at the WPCUG Resource Centre, at a
time yet to be determined.
To arrange for a mentor session(s), contact Barbara at 667-6474.
Investment FORUM
Meets the first Thursday of the month 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Leader: Art Cavenagh
Linux FORUM
Meets the third Tuesday of the month 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Leader: Brian Lowe
Windows FORUM
This Forum meets on the second Tuesday of the month
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Leader: Myles Munro
Excel (Glen Ash, Leader) and Word (Glen Ash/Frank Privat,
Leaders) Forums are both on hiatus until September.
Check the WPCUG website and the Sunday email “blast” for the latest
information on WPCUG Forums, Meetings and Special Events!
NEW Microsoft ACCESS Forum in September! Harvey Zimberg
will be the Forum Leader. The Forum will meet every third Tuesday
at the RC from 7-9 p.m.
Name: (last, First, Initial)
Home Address:
City:Postal Code:
Home Phone:Business Phone:
PC User Group Membership Number
Bill Method:
r
Pre Pay
r
Visa
r
Card #:
r
Mastercard
Expiry Date
Direct withdrawal from Bank Account Mo
(provide sample void cheque)
Bank
Signature:
Branch
/
Yr
Account
Date:
I authorize the Winnipeg PC User Group to charge my
bank account monthly for my use of the
WPCUG Internet connection.
Parental/Guardian signature required for members under
18.
Volume 22 Page 32
June/July 2004
Computer Boulevard Inc.
Unit B, 1250 St. James Street
Winnipeg Manitoba. R3H 0L1
Phone: (204) 772-1088
www.cbitcanada.com
Fax: (204) 775-3202 Out of Town: 1-866-255-0099
Boasting a 13,000 square foot showroom packed with over
1.5 million PC parts, accessories and peripherals,
peripherals Computer
Boulevard's retail operations are the backbone of its success in
the Winnipeg market. Our many loyal customers have come to
rely on our friendly, knowledgeable staff and wide selection
of inventory for all their PC needs. Backed by competitive
prices, Computer Boulevard is your computer connection!
Committed to customer service, Computer Boulevard's
exacting standards are second to none in Winnipeg's computer
market. With over 30,000 systems built or serviced, our
highly trained, certified staff are able to accomodate any size
order in the 3,000 square foot service department.
department With that
kind of experience, you can rest assured your system is in
good hands at Computer Boulevard.
Computer Boulevard's Networking division is staffed by highly
certified and trained individuals, whose expertise in the
deployment and maintenance of Microsoft technology has
earned CBiT recognition as a Microsoft Certified Partner. This
enables Computer Boulevard to offer a focused set of solutions
in any quantity; from small business to corporate enterprise.
Using state-of the-art software that offers advanced functions
and controls with a highly scalable and affordable range of
equipment, Computer Boulevard's DSR (Digital Surveillance
Recorder) systems offer peace of mind by allowing clients to
monitor from home , the road or around the world.
Based on an industry - proven software solution with 18 years
in the Canadian market, the POS (Point-Of-Sales) Division
can accomodate both restauranteurs of any size or type as
well as retailers, or even a mix of both in a multi-terminal
operation. Payroll, inventory, accounting, and employees are
all handled in an easy and efficient system that can grow with
your business
Computer Boulevard's I.T. Traininng Division has developed
a curriculum to meet the growing needs of the computer user
and professional, making them both competent individuals
and valuable assets to their companies. With a capacity of up
to 30 students per class in a state-of-the-art classroom,
Computer Boulevard can meet the needs of the smallest
business to the largest enterprise.
The Internet Solutions Division is geared to offering fast,
reliable and flexible solutions that add significant value to our
clients' businesses, and ensure a healthy return on investment.
As always, backed by highly trained and certified staff, your
business is in good hands at Computer Boulevard.
Computer Boulevard Inc. is your true computer IT Connection
Please visit our website www.cbitcanada.com for latest pricing and information

Jun / Jul - The Winnipeg PC User Group

Transcription

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