Feb / Mar - The Winnipeg PC User Group

Transcription

If undeliverable, return to:
Winnipeg PC User Group
337C Pembina Highway
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3L 2E4
Corel is coming
in March!
Tid Bits ‘N Bytes
Newsletter of the Winnipeg PC User Group, Inc.
“A Charter Member of the Association of PC User Groups (APCUG)”
VOLUME 20
NUMBER 7/8
FEB/MAR, 2002
http://www.wpcusrgrp.org
80XXX
http://www.apcug.org
1. General meetings are held at Montrose School (Grant and Montrose). Meetings start
at 7 p.m. This facility is wheelchair accessible.
2. The February General Meeting will take place on Thursday, February 21st. Neil
Longmuir will be demonstaring Digital Imaging devices (cameras, scanners, etc.)
3. The March General Meeting will take place on Thursday, March 21st. The Corel Corporation will be making a special visit to show us Corel Essentials which includes
PhotoPaint 9 and a light edition of CorelDRAW 9. Special pricing will be available on all
Corel Products!
4. FLASH! ISP rates have been LOWERED! The yearly rate (paid in advance) is now just
$192 (plus GST/PST). The base monthly rate (40 hours) is now $14/month (plus taxes)
with $0.25 charged for.each additional hour up to a maximum of $20/month (plus taxes).
5. Pay your membership and ISP fees with
more info!
Telpay. Click on the icon on our website for
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.
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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.
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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.
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Group By-Laws describing the purpose of the group, can be
obtained from the Executive Secretary at no cost.
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Membership Information can be obtained from the Membership Secretary, explaining the various benefits of membership.
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Monthly Meetings are held on the 3rd Thursday of each
month (except December when we meet on the 2nd Thursday). The Executive meets on the 2nd Thursday (except December). Volunteers for many activities are always needed.
NEWSLETTER
Editor
Co-editor
Home Phone
Paul Stephen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 2810
<[email protected]>
Tom Howard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 3430
<[email protected]>
Major Contributors To This Issue:
G. McClure, N. Longmuir, J. R. Allen, B. Lowe, A. Cavenagh,
J. Kesson, P. Kesson and P. Stephen. Photography by
Neil Longmuir.
Volume 20, Number 7/8, Page 2
February/March 2002
Elected Officers for the election year ending Oct. 2002:
Home Phone
President/Program Art Cavenagh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 888 1432
<[email protected]>
Past President
Bert Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668 8861
<[email protected]>
Vice President
Jon Phillips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 888 9180
<[email protected]>
Treasurer
Perry Exley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488 6830
<[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.
Lorin Berard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 5337
<[email protected]>
Forum Coordinator Paul Kesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489 7617
<[email protected]>
(Please do not call executive members after 9 P.M.)
Res. Centre Mgr.
Arnold Zatser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488 8765
<[email protected]>
Trevor Exley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488 6830
<[email protected]>
Webmaster
ISP Line
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 975 0200
Resource Centre “Voice Line”/FAX LiNE. . . 958 7228/958 7229
Deadline & Ad Sizes
All copy and all advertising MUST reach the newsletter editor no later
than the third Thursday of each month. 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.
Ad copy MUST be submitted as an EPS or PDF file.
Width
Full Page
Half Page
-
Quarter Page
Eighth Page
COPYRIGHT POLICY & LIABILITY WAIVER
This publication is (C)opyright, Winnipeg PC User Group, Inc., 2002.
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.
Length
7.5"
7.5"
3.5"
3.5"
7.5"
3.5"
7.5"
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
10"
5"
10"
5"
2.5"
2.5"
1.25"
No of Insertions
(Dollars)
Ad. Size
1x
3x
6x
165.00
85.00
30.00
270.00
135.00
60.00
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.
Full Page
Half Page
Business Card
Flyer Inserts
65.00
35.00
10.00
225.00
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.
Classified
Members entitled to one FREE Ads 4 (42 Char.)
line ad. - non-commercial - per issue,
others $3.75 per 4 line ad. Extra lines $0.90
each.
Mailing Addresses
General Correspondence:
Membership:
Attn: Exec. Secretary
Attn: Membership Secretary
Winnipeg PC User Group Inc.
P.O.Box 3149
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3C 4E6
Resource Centre
337C Pembina Highway
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3L 2E4
Newsletter Exchange & Review Software:
Paul Stephen
401-1025 Grant Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3M 1Y4
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
Longer submissions should be made on 3.5" floppy disks, or sent to
my e-mail address: [email protected]. Files should be zipped before being uploaded or attached to e-mail messages.
Other acceptable formats include: WordStar 3.x—5.0, WordPerfect
4.x—5.1, Word, and ASCII. If you use one of the above
wordprocessors, DO NOT “format” your text — PLEASE!!
This newsletter is produced using the following software and hardware tools:
WordPerfect 5.1, WordStar 4.0, Microsoft Word 97, SnagIt (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.
A special friend of this User Group is the Corel Corporation which
has provided us with CorelDRAW! 5 and Corel Ventura Publisher 8.
Other hardware: 2 - 60 gig Maxtor drives, 21" V115 Optiquest Monitor,
HP and LG CD burners, 640 megs of memory, 400 MHz Pentium II CPU.
Advertisers
Dave’s Quick Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Healey Visual Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Tellier Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
WPCUG Inkjet Refill Kits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
WPCUG ISP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Items This Month
Controlled Escape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Tid Bits ‘N Bytes Puzzle Corner. . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Remembering Telephone Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Report from the December 2001 General Meeting . . . . 13
PowerQuest’s DriveImage 5.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Winnipeg PC User Group Calendar of Events . . . . . . 17
Corel Corporation’s Visit on March 21 . . . . . . . . 18
The President’s Roundtable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
WordPerfect Office 2002 Professional
with Dragon Naturally Speaking . . . . . . . . . 19
Solution to the Profit and Loss Puzzle . . . . . . . . . 24
The BUG Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Virus Alert! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Report from the January 2002 General Meeting . . . . . 28
Winnipeg PC User Group Forums . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Internet Access Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Bargain Corner CD — Volume 3
Once again the
WPCUG has compiled a
CD filled to the
brim with useful and
entertaining
programs. Get
yours for just
$15 (taxes are
WPCUG
inluded).
Most of the
Winnipeg PC User Group Inc.
programs
on the CD
are listed
on the
WPCUG
website.
Just click
on the
nd
Bargain
Corner
CD
,M
ow
8
9
s 95 ,
link.
Thanks to
Myles
Munro and
Volume 3
his crew for
producing
this
compilation!
People Helping People Use Computers Since 1982
i
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.
Contents Of This Issue
W
The editor will accept almost anything you wish to contribute. Short
submissions may be in any form whatsoever.
February/March 2002
Do
not m
a
ke Copies of T h
i sk
is D
E
February/March 2002
February/March 2002
Controlled ^ape©
Copyright 1985-1999 ©Paul Stephen
W
? by Paul Stephen
[email protected]
The Twentieth Anniversary of the WPCUG
ell, hope everyone had a nice holiday season and
that you all got what you wanted as far as computer
Well, 2002 marks the twentieth anniversary of this User
hardware and/or software goes. If you used “plastic”
Group. I certainly hope we can have a couple of special
to purchase gifts and are now in debt, my sympathies.
events over the course of this year. How about a dinner
meeting ($15-$25) at a spiffy hotel or wouldn’t you memFor those of us on fixed incomes it’s getting harder and
bers be able to afford
harder to bring in insuch an outing? There
vestment income. The
are only 12 months in
stock market isn’t the
2002, so if you would
place to risk major cap“War is God’s way of teaching
like to suggest some
ital, and gee, those regspecial events or would
ular Canada Savings
Americans geography.”
like to have a dinner
Bonds are paying a
meeting and/or a big
“whopping” 1.8% interAmbrose Bierce, writer (1842-1914)
picnic at Assiniboine
est (which dropped to
Park during the sum1.55% on a second isFrom the pages of the Orange County PCUG
mer, let your executive
sue). If you invested a
know A S AP ! S e n d
million dollars you’d
your thoughts by email
get the princely sum of
to: [email protected]. It would be SO NICE to hear
$18,000 (in Year 1) from the Government of Canada (more,
from the silent majority of this group!
of course, if you purchased the Premium Series).
High Speed Burners
In November I realized my CSBs (Series 44) were maturing.
I thought I’d take a look at my investment income in last
I’m delighted with the performance of my LG burner. I now
year’s income tax form (prepared with QuickTax). Guess
have two burners in my system (I sacrificed my ASUS CD
what — the ruddy program now thought I had downloaded
drive — just couldn’t bear to scrap my HP 8100 burner).
it from the net and wanted an activation code to run —
This likely was a mistake from a performance point of view
when, in fact, I purchased it at Staples on a CD for $29.95!
because I can only copy CDs at 8X speed. The Adaptec
(That infernal registry or perhaps an INI file strikes again!)
software notified me that my HP drive can’t copy at 16X.
However, even at 8X, I can copy CDs in a little over 6 minSo — I uninstalled the program and reinstalled it off the
utes — and do it reliably, thanks to the newer “burnproof”
CD. I don’t have Quicken installed, so didn’t opt to have
technology.
those support files installed. Then I remembered I had to run
a “patch” to fix the program, but where did I put that? So,
The really big difference in speed occurs when you format
off I went to quicken.ca and got the patch — again. (It’s a
CDRW disks with DirectCD. With my older HP drive, this
good thing I did because it has recently “disappeared” from
operation takes up to 90 minutes. The LG drive, with certithe site.) When I ran the patch program, it stopped half way
fied 10X media, takes approximately 13-15 minutes. It’s
through saying it needed a file that wasn’t present. So I reinamazing that the burning software can determine the media
stalled QT again but this time installed all the files. Then the
type and then set the optimal writing speed.
patch program worked! Folks, should a paying customer
When you have two burners in your system it appears you
have to go through all of this NONSENSE?
have to be running DirectCD 3.xx or greater. Version 2.5
Then in my quest for a better interest rate, I wrote the largseemingly only supports one burner, although I could be
est cheque of my life and forgot to move funds from my
wrong on that one.
savings account to my chequing account. For that transgresOf course, after I went and purchased the new burner I realsion, the CIBC whacked me $87.90! That amount included
ized the newest burners are rated at 24/10/40 or even
$75.45 for interest! I wish I had ever seen that much interest
32/10/40 and new combo DVD reader-CDRW drives are
for their use of my money. Oh well, live and learn. Now my
now arriving. I’d like to know why manufacturers never
money is parked in Achieva Financial and Outlook Finanseem to bring out new hardware until after I buy something!
cial, both Internet-only institutions which are divisions of
Prices on burners are dropping dramatically. I’ve seen the
the Cambrian Credit Union and the Assiniboine Credit
LG burner I purchased going for about CAN$100 on eBAY
Union, respectively.
(Future Shop had it for $99 with a rebate just before Christmas). You can get 24/10/40 burners for a bit more. Just remember that if you buy one of the 10X rewritable burners
you’ll have to buy 10X CDRWs to get faster UDF-formatting.
A lot of burners come with the BASIC version of Roxio‘s
Easy CD Creator burning software. Usually it is version 4.x.
Now supposedly that version won’t run under WinXP, so you
have to go out and buy Version 5.x, which will set you back
$99 if you get it at Future Shop. Now Microsoft says it’s
patched WinXP so Version 4 will run. I don’t know who’s
correct on this one.
While on the subject of burning software, I have run into
problems with Roxio‘s software and DirectCD with Version
5, anyway. I had two backup files on a CDRW disk and
added another file to the UDF-formatted disk. Boom — suddenly an error message popped up and I couldn’t access the
disk. So, seeing as many people are recommending Ahead‘s
Nero software I gave that a whirl, and used their
packet-writing program InCd. With Ahead‘s software I was
able to copy the two files off my CDRW disk to my hard
disk. Then I figured that I could use the Roxio software to
erase the CDRW disk and re-format it. I did those operations, but at the end of it all the disk was still not formatted
correctly. It indicated there was data “on board” the disk. So
I used Nero to physically format the disk, and then had it do
a logical format. That worked! It looks as though I’m joining the Ahead fan club!
Windows XP
I finally got around to installing my WinXP RC2 download
which is good for six months. I’m going to have to “eat
crow” on past comments. Hey, this is a nice OS!
When I first installed it, the program didn’t want to go into
the partition I’d created for it using Partition Magic, but I
was able at the install step to delete that partition and use
the recovered space to hold WinXP. During installation I was
also asked to input information about my Internet connection, but as I was using DSL and the program, Enternet, I
just bypassed those steps. I installed Enternet, but it didn’t
work. I went to the Enternet website and sure enough, the
support page said it wouldn’t work under XP. So, I fired off
an email to MTS and the next day received complete information on how to configure XP for use with DSL. It turns
out PPPoE is built into XP. Before I’d received that information the program “miraculously” was able to contact the
Microsoft website and activate the program — there was really no rush as I had 14 days to activate it. It appears it has
some net protocol code “built in” that allow it to do this
magic.
I can even run the Norton Commander and WordStar in the
DOS emulation mode (cmd.exe). I first “discovered” this
fact in Windows 2000. So, although “Big Bill” said “goodbye to DOS” at the WinXP launch, you can still run at least
some of your DOS apps in the new operating system.
Morpheus/KaZaA — Deadly
It looks like Morpheus is taking over where Napster left off.
February/March 2002
This is one pernicious app because not only does it support
music downloads, but software as well. KaZaA, the original
Dutch publisher of the software, and has licensed it in the
US to Streaming Networks (MusicCity/Morpheus). In late
January KaZaA sold its file sharing software to an Australian firm, Sharman Networks. I see I’m a bit behind in this
area because over 32 MILLION people have already downloaded Morpheus from CNET.
The WordPerfect Story
For those of you who are WordPerfect afficionados, Pete
Peterson, who was a VP in the original Utah company,
wrote a book called Almost Perfect which chronicles the history of the company from his perspective. I missed the book
when it was first published and it’s now out of print. However, you can read the whole thing as Pete has put it up on
the net. If you’re interested, the site is:
http://fitnesoft.com/AlmostPerfect/. It’s very interesting
reading.
Product Key Location
Have you ever misplaced your Windows98 manual and
wanted to re-install Windows? Then, of course, you remember that the “product key” is found on the front page of that
manual! Fear not — you can find it in your registry file. Just
start up regedit.exe and then click on this path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion and look for the variable “Product Key” which will contain the needed information.
At this point, make sure you write those alphanumerics
down and keep them in a safe place!
Bootable Disks for Windows XP
From a Lockergnome newsletter: Unlike Windows NT and
Windows 2000, you can’t create a set of Setup Boot Diskettes for Windows XP right off of the CD, but help is here
for machines that are not capable of booting from the
CD-ROM drive. You’ll need six diskettes to create the full
set, up from the four that Windows 2000 required, but then
again, there’s a lot more to Windows XP‘s Setup process.
Available in this article are download links for the various
languages, but make note that the sets are different for Professional and Home Edition, so be sure to pull down the
cor rect one f or your needs . H ead t o: ht t p : / / su pport.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q310994
for the files.
Marc Camm and Hart Macklin
In the vein of Entertainment Tonight‘s “Where are they
now?”, here’s where Marc and Hart are employed.
Marc was at Juice Software but things didn’t work out.
He’s now working for a Montreal/Boston company called
Grand Virtual which specializes in back infrastructure and
gaming systems. In other words they supply turnkey systems
for casinos on the net. Marc says, “It is BIG Business.”
Their software is a bit unique in that North Americans cannot use real money to play the games. You can try out your
luck “for fun” by downloading their software at:
www.casinolux.com. (I regret to say that this software is a
bit “clunky”, but now that Marc has arrived maybe that will
change. <VBG>)
And where is our former President, Hart Macklin? Well,
he’s working at an AT&T call centre in the city giving
broadband support.
Bingo!
I’ve seen some wacky gambling sites but this one takes the
cake. It’s called “skill bingo” and is a division of bingo.com.
EVERYBODY gets the same bingo cards. So who wins?
The bingo player who correctly calls “Bingo!” first. The operators of this site claim they have “evened the playing
field” so that all players, regardless of their net connection
have an equal chance of winning. Yeah — how are you ever
going to prove that? It seems to me more like a lottery than
a bingo game.
Avoid SPAM!
If you are forced to enter your email address in order to
download some trial software and are afraid this might lead
to spam clutter, here’s a suggestion for you. Go to
http://www.mailexpire.com. Quoting their website:
Mailexpire is still the simplest, cleanest way for you to keep
your inbox spam-free. Our system allows you to create a
free email alias for yourself. For a period you choose, from
12 hours to 3 months, anything sent to this email alias will
be passed on to you at your actual email address. You can
now give this alias to that salesman you’re not sure of. If
you get appropriate email from him, that’s great. However, if
you start receiving spam, you know where it came from, and
you only have to put up with it until your alias expires. If
you want to extend your mailexpire alias, or kill it instantly,
just use our unique control panel. Simple, isn’t it?
CorelDRAW Tricks
If you are a long time member of the group you no doubt
will recall the presentations given to us by Corel on
CorelDRAW. Those folks always whipped up some pretty
spiffy effects by filling in appropriate values into dialog
boxes. The trouble was that after a meeting I could never recall exactly what they did to create those effects!
Well, a company called Unleashed Productions Inc. has
produced a series of CDs that guide you through the creation
of such special effects. They use Lotus‘ ScreenCam as the
“player” for these tutorials. The company sells a huge 22
CD ROM set which costs $US400, but from time to time
they offer individual CDs from the set for $US6.95 (Reg.
price $24.95) plus shipping. In October they offered Volume
6 from this collection (Shaping Effects), so I ordered it. The
tutorials are great! You can download a few sample tutorials
from their website (http://www.unleash.com) if you’d like to
see how effective they are.
Vanna Loves Technology
The LA Times reports that Vanna White loves email. She
has a portable Macintosh (Titanium G4) while her children
have both Apple and PC computers. Vanna isn’t going to get
lost on LA’s freeways because she’s got a GPS system built
into her car. For television viewing she has a four foot Sony
Plasma television set and a “home theatre” as well. Turning
February/March 2002
letters has been a very lucrative career for her!
Game Consoles
I don’t know about you, but to me the “XBOX” is right up
there with those “network computers” which went nowhere
in the marketplace. Who can afford $CAN600 for a game
console which is really just a stripped-down PC? Well I
guess there are quite a few out there are purchasing the unit
so what do I know! Has anybody in the UG bought a unit? If
so, let me know and tell me how you like it. Supposedly
Nintendo is doing very well with its “GameBoy”. That
makes me happy as it uses a video chip from ATI and my
shares in that company are going UP! (I own Microsoft
stock too, however.)
DVD Players
Rather than purchasing a DVD player for my computer I decided to get a stand alone unit that could be hooked up to my
television set. I purchased Panasonic’s model KV31. There
are a bunch more alphanumerics in the model number —
they mainly indicate that the unit has been “fixed” to play
only Region 1 DVDs. You can buy players that are “region
free” and have the Macrovision scrambling circuitry “turned
off”. That circuitry prevents users from making VHS tapes
from DVDs.
The KV31 will not only play DVDs, but also CDR and
CDRW disks. I created a disk full of MP3 files (192
tracks/chapters) and it played perfectly on my unit.
DVD Movies
There’s a lot of wacky stuff going on with the release of
movies on DVD. For example, the hit comedy “Planes,
Trains and Automobiles” starring Steve Martin and John
Candy was first released on DVD in November of 2000!
And even stranger, the “Back to the Future” trilogy has
never been released on DVD. I am a great fan of those movies and was fortunate enough to grab a collector’s box set
(VHS format) on eBay. Out of curiosity, I purchased them
again on six VCD disks (two disks/movie). This set was supposedly legally manufactured in Malaysia. (A VCD is created on standard CDR disks using MPEG1 compression.
DVDs, on the other hand, use MPEG2 compression and require a DVD burner.)
I decided further research was needed regarding BTTF and
so went to one of the best DVD sites on the web
(http://www.dvdtalk.com/), and found another link in a forum
to a Back to the Future website (http://www.bttf.com/dvd/).
My gosh, Universal has been promising the trilogy on DVD
disks since July of 1997! On this site you can see all the
promises Universal has made about releasing the BTTF trilogy. The latest prognostication? — “2nd quarter of 2002”.
Here’s Johnny...
If you were one of the many folks who stayed up late to
watch The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, you can
now relive those moments on DVD. The VHS tapes have
been on sale for many years, but the DVDs are relatively
new. At www.johnnycarson.com these disks cost a whopping
US$79.95 plus shipping! However, a Canadian company is
selling them on eBay in Dutch auctions. One lucky bunch
February/March 2002
got them for $US36 (plus shipping) just before Christmas.
One internet site in the US is selling them for $US45.60
plus shipping (www.deepdiscountdvd.com).
Television Thoughts
I’m enjoying watching TechTV, especially “The Screen
Savers” show. It is a bit ironic that although the network is
based in San Francisco, TechTV is not carried by the local
cable company in that city!
“Digital TV” isn’t cheap, however. I decided to opt for 10
channels and my cable bill now costs an additional $9.95
plus tax per month! Shaw previously tacked on another 75
cents/month on other channels I get.
Remember the days on Channel 11 when it was devoted to
“Community Access”? I thought that was a provision of the
cable operator receiving a license. Now what we’ve got is
Tracy Koga showing us how the rich folks live, Peter
Grant showing us how the rich folks eat and Bob Baril
showing the poor folks how to make booze!
Taxation Software
If you used Cooltax to do your taxes you’re out of luck this
year. It is not available. Users of that program are encouraged to use TaxWiz Deluxe (http://www.taxwiz.com) as a replacement. It’s only $CAN18 if you download it from their
website. Intuit, of course, is once again selling QuickTax
and QuickTax Deluxe, which sell for $29.95 and $39.95 respectively. Get those programs at your favorite computer
store or at http://www.intuit.com. If you attend the February
general meeting of the WPCUG you might win a copy of
one of these programs!
Zairmail.com
Now I’ve seen everything. At this site you can send a real
letter to anyone within the US for free (up to two letters a
day). Mail can’t be sent outside of the U.S. however, because the service is paid for by American advertising offers.
It does seem nutty that you now create email which is converted to physical mail! It’s a good idea if your recipients
don’t have access to a computer, however.
Ashleigh Banfield Returns
If you get MSNBC you no doubt have seen their “star” female reporter, Ashleigh Banfield. Just in case you don’t
know, Ashleigh is a former Winnipegger and worked for a
short time at CKY-TV. She is returning to our city on May
4th to act as an “MC” for a reunion at her old alma mater,
Balmoral Hall, from which she graduated in 1985.
A Senior Moment?
I thought I used to be able to drop to DOS in Win98, and using the Norton Commander I could create subdirectories
with the extension ZIP on my CDR/RW disks. As I have
ZipMagic 4 installed, copying any files into such folders
compressed these files “on the fly”.
Well, after installing an LG 16*10*40
burner, I no longer could create these
zipfolders on CDR or CDRW media using
the NC. I can still can create zip folders on
my hard disk drives and floppy disks at the
DOS level. Now I can still accomplish this
task using ZipMagic, but it’s just one of
those things that’s going to eventually put
me into an insane asylum! <VBG>
Paul
Tid Bits ‘N Bytes Puzzle Corner
? by John Robin Allen, WPCUG
WPCUG Puzzle No. 2 : The Winnipeg PC User Group
Officers Talk about Profit and Loss
[EN:] This puzzle was printed several issues ago, so in case
you’ve misplaced that issue here it is again. The answer is
found elsewhere in this newsletter. Don’t cheat and look at
it! The WPCUG takes no responsibility for these puzzles affecting your mental health! <VBG>
The following is an imaginary conversation and disagreement between three of the Winnipeg PC User Group officers, Jon Phillips, Greg McClure, and Perry Exley. Can
you figure it out what happened and find the truth? Jon
talked about some recent transactions he made. He sold a
modem for $100, then bought it back again for $80, thereby
making $20 because he had the same modem he had before
and $20 besides. Then, having bought it for $80 Jon then resold the “used” modem for $90 and made an additional $10
profit so Jon was happy with the $30 total he made.
On the other hand, Greg noted that Jon started off with a
modem worth $100, and at the end of the second sale had
just $110. How could Jon’s profit have been more than $10?
His first sale at $100 was nothing more than an exchange,
with neither profit or loss, but when he bought the modem at
$80 and sold it for $90, he made $10 and nothing more. For
Greg, the matter was quite simple.
Perry now entered in the discussion. He said that when Jon
sold something for $100 and bought it back for $80, he unquestionably made a $20 profit, because he had the same
modem as before and $20 extra. When he then sold the modem for $90 that is the mere exchange Greg was talking
about, and it showed neither profit nor loss. It did not affect
his first profit so Jon made exactly $20 in all.
These were simple transactions that of our members should
be able to figure out mentally without a computer, yet we
have three different answers about Jon’s profits. Which person in your opinion is right?
(Adapted from a puzzle by Sam Loyd.)
February/March 2002
Remembering Telephone Numbers
D
? by John Robin Allen, Winnipeg PCUG
like ketchup. Heinz ketchup always advertises that it is one
o you have trouble remembering different telephone
of the “Heinz 57" brands. That leaves only the 33 to rememnumbers? Most persons do, but you can solve the
ber, and that gives me a problem. One might think that the
problem fairly easily. Years ago when I was growing
Nazi party came to power in 1933, but how many persons
up in Buffalo (New York), my father had a system for
can remember that date and come up with ”33"? The numchanging telephone numbers into simple mnemonics so that
ber 33 is also 3 times 11, but that still seems an unpromising
one could remember them more easily. In those days in Bufway to remember part of 269-5337. To find some solution, I
falo, phone numbers had only six digits, the first two of
once asked persons in the WPCUG clubhouse how I could
which were the first two letters of some location. My
remember “33". The only answer they gave me was that it is
mother’s office phone was MAdison 3298, which in our cur1 more than 32. Since then, I just
rent digital world would be 62-3298.
remember 33 as a number that I
My father used his system to change
4
5
6
7
8
could not think of any way to rethat to “MA FAWT” (Mother fought). 7
member.
Those letters correspond on the
A
J
M
P
T
phone to the number “62-3298.” Sim- P
The problem of how to remember
ilarly, our home phone number was P
33 leads to a third way that helps
B
K
N
R
U
one sometimes to remember phone
Arkside 5678 (74-5678). My father’s R
numbers: The individual digits ofsystem changed that to the result of
ten form a pattern on the telephone
“Ma’s” fight: “PA LOST”, letters S
C
L
O
S
V
keypad that is easy to remember. In
equivalent to 74-5678.
the case of “5337", those numbers
His system was quite easy to use. He
Buffalo Mnemonic Table
align in a neat diagonal line, from
simply made a table that showed
the upper-right ”3" on the phone
which letters corresponded to the digpad
to
the
lower-left
“7".
The numbers are not in sequence
its of a phone number. For example our home phone number
along
that
line,
but
if
I
remember
that 5 and 7 (i.e., Heinz
became: One can then work around the various possibilities
57) are the starting and ending digits, the middle ”33" digits
in that table to come up with “Pa lost” rather quickly. Imjust fall in place.
possible-to-pronounce combinations eliminate themselves
One can see a quite different pattern in the phone number of
and only a few choices are left. Sometimes nothing works
a colleague of mine, whom I reach by dialling 9086 from
out unless one uses unusual spelling as in “MA FAWT” for
my office at work. Those numbers form a neat rhombus on
“Ma fought”.
the telephone keypad. I see a different pattern in the phone
Another ways of remembering phone numbers is to work
number of a buyer where I work. Her number is 9875.
out something about individual numbers within a phone
Those digits make me type a line at the bottom of the telenumber, perhaps something mathematical. One of the memphone keypad (987) and end it with a floating dot just above
bers of the Winnipeg PC Users Group (WPCUG) has the
the centre of the line, the number 5. Of course I have to rephone number 832-9681. To help me remember that nummember
that the line I imagine for her number goes from
ber, I calculate that the first number, 8, is 2 to the third
right
to
left
(987) rather than left to right (789).
power (2 times 2 times 2). The next two numbers, 32, equal
For persons who do not want to work out letter combina2 to the fifth power (2 times 2 times 2 times 2 times 2).
tions, who do not want to think of mathematical patterns,
Those two calculations provide the first part of his number,
and whose numbers to remember form no neat pattern on
832. The last four digits are a bit harder. If I add the last
the telephone keypad, there is still hope. One can seek
number I calculated, 32, to 2 to the sixth power (64), I get
words in phone numbers at (at least) two web sites.
96 (= 32 + 64), which form the next two numbers. The final
PhoneSpell (http://www.phonespell.org/phoneSpell.html) is
two digits are child’s play: they equal 9 squared (9 times 9
very easy to use. One simply types in a number, presses the
= 81).
“Enter” key (or clicks on “Submit”), and a new page shows
That system does not always work out: one cannot always
a number of combinations of words and, sometimes, numfind easy-to-remember calculations that form a phone numbers. For Lorin Berard’s number, 269-5337, it suggested
ber. The advertising manager of the WPCUG is Lorin
such improbable combinations as “ANY KEEP” “COW
Berard, whose number is 269-5337. To remember the first
LEER”, “COY JEEP” and so forth. Certain numbers can
part of that number, 269, I simply remember that there are
also suggest a number of 8-digit combinations that, of
26 letters in the alphabet, and that 9 is the largest digit in a
course one can use for dialling 7-digit numbers, for example
decimal system. Those two calculations give me the 269
“COY LEERS”.
part. The 5337, however, gives problems. The two surroundA more powerful web site for seeking such combinations is
ing numbers, 5 and 7, are easy enough to remember if you
PhoNETic (http://www.phonetic.com/). While that site will
not automatically give 8-letter combinations for 7 digit numbers, it allows one to choose from five languages: English,
French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish. It also lets one
choose between three options: 1) Do not use Q and Z, 2),
Use Q and Z, and 3) let 7 = PQRS and 9 = WXYZ. The usage of PhoNETic is not intuitive. One types in the number
to be analysed and then one presses a button named “Convert” to make the program seek words in the target and in
the phone number. That gives a simple list of words, but in
alphabetical order rather than as they appear in the phone
number. To see how those words can fit into the phone number, one then has to click on the words “Show all combinations”, and the main part of the screen fills with different
combinations.
The PhoNETic site allows 2-letter state abbreviations, other
abbreviations (e.g., “TTY”) and it freely mixes digits among
the words. That produces more results for a given number
than PhoneSpell. The results, however, can be daunting, so
while I usually use both sites to locate combinations, my
preferred site is PhoneSpell for its simplicity. Unfortunately,
neither site will produce misspelled words such as the
“FAWT” for “fought” in the MAdison 3298 number mentioned at the start of this article. For that, one has to go back
to my father’s pre-computer solution described at the start of
this article. Since most persons reading this are members of
the Winnipeg PC Users Group, the remainder of this article
describes ways to remember phone numbers relevant to that
group.
1.
February/March 2002
3.
SR-1, HI-NO: Art is of course our leader, the senior
member of the WPCUG executive. He is number one,
senior man on the totem pole or, as they say “Sr-1”.
Does that make him drunk with power? No! He may be
our senior member, number 1, but he is never high or,
as we always say, “Hi-No”. (Of course the problem in
remembering this is the “No” at the end. One is
tempted instead to type a zero, which gives only six
numbers and gets one nowhere.)
4.
5.
All those zeros preclude finding any words. Phone Spell
says “Believe it or not, we did not find any interesting
mnemonics for 975-0200. Everything is working fine,
this is not a bug. Some numbers just have such odd
combinations of letters and/or too many zeroes and ones
that they simply do not have good mnemonics. Sorry.
Perhaps you might like to try again with the number
568-3569 for an example of how the system works.”
The first three numbers are, in reverse sequence, the
three largest odd digits: 9-7-5. The pattern on the keyboard of the last four digits, 0200, are like a bouncing
ball that starts from the lowest position on the keyboard,
0, shoots straight up to the top at “2” and then bounces
back to its starting position, “00”.
Jon Phillips, Vice-President of the WPCUG:
888-9180
A. VT-TX-180. John has many different wonderful
qualities, as different as Vermont is from Texas, two
states that are 180 degrees different from each other.
Just remember that Vermont, Texas [are] 180 [degrees
different from each other]: VT-TX-180. Vermont precedes Texas because Vermont is nearer to Canada than
Texas in both geography and culture, and because Vermont is further north than Texas, and because Jon
would not like things to be in alphabetical order.
WPCUG Clubhouse: 958-7228
WPCUG Internet Service: 975-0200
Art Cavanagh: 888-1432 (home)
TUT-1-HE-2. Once when he had nothing to do at home,
Art challenged King Tut-ankh-amen to an arm-wrestling
match. It was for the best out of three trials. King Tut
won one of the matches, but in the end, it was Art who
took the match with two wins. Said the scorekeeper,
pointing to Art, “Tut: 1, He: 2”.
95-US CATS. The first version of Windows for the PC
was Windows 95. You have to remember that number,
because all the mnemonics for the clubhouse begin with
“9” or “95”. (“9-Jura-at” gets you to the clubhouse, but
it’s not an interesting combination.) It’s eas to remember Windows-95” and the fact that the members of the
WPCUG are pretty cool cats. Indeed, they know it.
They always refer to themselves as “us cats”.
2.
Art Cavanagh, President of the WPCUG: 771-4466
(cell)
B. 888-9-180: Once at the weekly luncheon meetings of
the WPCUG, Jon ate and ate and ate (“888”). When
asked if he wantedto stop, he answered in German
“Nein”, which is pronounced as “9”. Then he made a
180-degree turn to go back for more food.
6.
Perry Exley, Treasurer of the WPCUG: 488-6830
IT-VOTE 0. Did Perry vote in the last election? Of
course but did his computer vote? That would be illegal,
so one can safely say that with respect to Perry’s computer, that “It vote 0”.
7.
Brian Lowe, Executive Secretary of the WPCUG:
488-3561
IT 8 FLO 1. This is a family magazine, so I won’t explain how to remember that mnemonic.
8.
Arnold Zatser, Resource Centre Manager: 488-8765
HUT-TROLL. Arnold is obviously a hut troll, one of
those fairy tale creatures that come out of his hut every
so often to troll around the forest trying to save users
money by refilling old printer cartridges. Of course,
“HUT TROLL” comes to eight letters when all you
need are seven. It does not matter, for you are connected to the troll before you type the eighth letter, so
you don’t even have to type it. One regrets that “HUT
TROLL” is not that of Doug Hutsel, whose number is
described above. While “Hut troll” is very easy to remember, one also notes the neat way that the last four
digits move down in sequence from 8 to 5.
9.
D oug Huts el, Membership Secretary of t he
WPCUG: 831-7478
The first three digits have no equivalent words, but they
form a nice triangle on the telephone keypad. The remaining digits spell “SHRUB”, “SHRUG”, or “SIRUP”.
It comes to eight digits, but it still works.
10. John Kesson, Group Buyer of the WPCUG; Paul
Kesson, Forums Coordinator: 489-7617
February/March 2002
net with his computer. I don’t know how late he sleeps
in the next morning, but one can probably assume that
he will be up again by ten AM. In general when I want
to bug him about something that appeared in the newsletter, I can generally reach him around ten at night or
at ten in the morning. I therefore remember this simple
rule for bugging him: “Bug at 10.”
13. Tom Howard, Co-Editor of the WPCUG Bits ‘N
Bytes Newsletter: 224-3430
A. BAH! FIE! Zero! [=0]! Those are words one can
never say about all the excellent work Tom does for our
newsletter.
B. CAGE IF 0: However, if for the next issue Tom comes up with no articles better than this drivel about
phone numbers, one might think of putting Tom in a
cage until he finds at least one article better than this
one. The rule to remember is “Cage if zero.”
A. The first four digits, 4897, spell “GUYS”. The last
three digits evoke the old expression “either at sixes or
at sevens”. Here “6” and “7” are separated by the number 1.
14. Lorin Berard, Advertising Manager of the WPCUG:
269-5337
B. If that seems too far-fetched, the first five digits spell
“I TYPO” (and the digits can spell some other things
that make no sense; obviously I do make typos, so “I
typo” makes perfect sense for me). That leaves the
prime number 17, the oldest age you can be and still be
legally considered a child.
15. John Robin ALLEN (the one who wrote this claptrap): 889-3561
11. Bert Block, Past President of the WPCUG: 668-8861
A. NO TV TO 1. Once a few years ago Bert got mad at
his local cable service for TV. He cancelled his subscription to it, and as a result his friends would always
say “No TV to [this] 1”
B. 66 TV TO 1. On the other hand, Bert decided to get
a satellite dish that could receive sixty-six channels, and
from that point on, his friends and admirers always said
“Sixty-six TV [stations] to [this] one.”
See the main text of this article above.
A. TUX-ELM-1: He wore a tuxedo on Elm Street just
once.
B. TTY-FLO-1: He sent a Teletype message to Florence
just once. (Since JRA is married to his beautiful wife
Else, from Denmark, “Florence” is obviously a reference to an Italian city and not another human of the female persuasion.)
Why not try to figure out some way of helping your friends
remember your own phone number? As you can see, it is
very easy to simplify meaningless digits into something
much easier to remember, something that will not get lost in
different piles of notes and business cards.
C. NOT 8 TO 1: The odds that the above two scenarios
are true are less than eight to one.
The Ultimate Bulletin Board System is a web-based BBS
system for the exchange of messages. It cost this UG
$US295 to purchase — so PLEASE... use it!
Go to: http://ubb.wpcusrgrp.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi
D. 66-88-86-1: all those numbers dance around just
three keys, 6, 8, and at the very end, 1. Dial two sixes,
then two eights. Repeat backwards: 8, 6. Then follow
the biblical saying “The last shall be first.” The last
digit of Bert’s number is number 1.
Click on the TelPay Icon!
12. Paul Stephen, Editor of the WPCUG Bits ‘N Bytes
Newsletter: 284-2810
BUG AT 10: Paul likes to work at night, roaming the
Save the UG some $$$$ when you renew your membership
or pay your ISP fees. Go to the User Group’s homepage at:
http://www.wpcusrgrp.org and click on this icon for more
info!
February/March 2002
Dave’s QP ad
February/March 2002
Report from the December 2001 General Meeting
P
? by Brian Lowe, WPCUG@
resident Art Cavenagh opened the meeting at 7:00
p.m., welcoming members and guests.
Announcements
The third edition of the Bargain Corner CD-ROM is now
available: lots of really good software, plus a collection of
maps — only $15.00 (taxes in).
We’re planning on mailing the newsletters this upcoming
Monday. You can help the group reduce expenses by picking
up your newsletter at the Resource Centre or at the general
meeting.
Presentation — WordPerfect 10
User Group member Lorin Berard was our presenter tonight, showing off Corel WordPerfect 10. WordPerfect is a
word processing program, and one of the old mainstays that
managed to make the leap from DOS to Windows, and even
to Linux. Its current claim to fame is its position as the primary competition to Microsoft Word, refusing to capitulate
to the pervasiveness of the other product. It continues to enjoy a solid audience, and is much used in law offices.
Version 10 offers several new features and enhancements:
· The program supports variables: a certain word can be
placed in a document, and then assigned a value, and every
place in the document where the variable appears it is replaced with the value assigned to it earlier, like an automatic “replace all”. Makes updating form letters quite
simple.
· WordPerfect documents can be published to PDF and
HTML, making them readable by a larger audience.
aspects of setting up your computer system. His primary recommendation was to partition your hard disk drive, or even
install a second hard disk drive into your computer, and
store all your personal documents on that. In this way, if you
have to reformat your C: drive to fix a severe problem or get
rid of a virus, you do not lose all your data as well.
The audience thanked Lorin for a most interesting presentation with a round of applause.
Random Access
Q. When I go to shut down Windows, it complains that I
have a copy of Netscape running, even though I have
shut down all the instances. When I call up the task list,
it still shows Netscape running.
A. This appears to be a problem with Netscape 6. Try installing the older 4.79 version. [EN: A somewhat similar
problem happens to me with version 4.78. I suddenly
cannot make any web connections and have to shut
down Netscape entirely using the task list before reloading a “fresh” copy.]
Q. I have several files with a .MP3 extension, but they are
zero length.
A. No ideas were forthcoming from the audience.
Q. A user is running into a problem with Asus Probe monitor software. It’s supposed to shut down the computer
in the event of problems, but instead the program is consuming all the memory on the machine, causing Windows to crash.
· Users can preview the effects of applying formatting codes
such as columns, drop caps, fonts, bullets, and numbering.
A. It was recommended not to run the software unless it
was essential to do so.
· Automatic case changing: WordPerfect can automatically
correct problems with the case of letters, such as accidentally typing in all caps, or the user forgetting to type the
first character of a proper noun in upper case.
Q. A member has three RAM DIMMs in his computer, two
from one manufacturer, and third from another. When
all three are installed in his computer, 128 megs of
RAM disappear.
And there are, of course, the old standbys that have made
WordPerfect what it is:
· Reveal Codes. As a user, reveal codes lets you see exactly
what WordPerfect is doing to your document. No guessing
as to where the “italic” code starts or ends; no wondering
just where you may have changed the paragraph layout.
Unlike its primary competitor, WordPerfect lets you see all
the formatting codes, making it a snap to put new codes
exactly where you want them, or delete offending codes if
something goes wrong with the formatting.
· The spelling and thesaurus dictionary includes definitions.
As part of his presentation, Lorin briefly touched on some
A. Jon Phillips has seen this in the past, where RAM from
different manufacturers does not cooperate with each
other.
Q. A member is attempting to clone a disk using Norton
Ghost, and receives a message saying, “File size is different than reported size.”
A. Try copying the file to another name, then renaming the
original to a name ending with “.save”, then renaming
the copy back to the original name.
A. Try running scandisk or chkdsk.
NOW..
49K+
Connects!
WPCUG
February/March 2002
Internet Service
“Let us connect you to the world!”
Need help getting set up?
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PC to the
Resource Center
for “hands on” help.
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and the Resource Center
improve, not just the Internet
þ Your own e-mail address
þ No disconnection policy
no matter how long you
are on
Service, but all the other
services the User Group
provides as well.
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!
February/March 2002
Door Prizes
This being our Christmas meeting, we gave away several
door prizes.
Computer carrying bag: Allice Ross
Wrapped gift: John Schneider
Various T-Shirts: John LaRue, Denise Bellemare, Frank
Privat, Brian Lowe, Doug Hutsel, Greg McClure
Buck For Your Butt
T-Shirt from Quicken/QuickTax/QuickBooks
FreeBSD operating system from BSD
Hat from Elmer’s Row Crop Equipment
Winner: Tim Evans
T-Shirt from Hayes
Program: NotePage 2.5 from NotePager
Hand-held fan (battery operated) from Linux Business Expo
Winner: George Froese
Program: Burn & Go from Valuesoft
MSN Notepad
Winner: Stuart Fleck
Program: Kool Karaoke from Eatsleepmusic.com
Computer Rear View Mirror
Winner: Paul Kesson
T-Shirt from e-greetings.com
Program: Media Browser 2000 from ArcSoft
Fanny-pack / bottle holder from NetSpective
Winner: Tim Evans
PowerQuest’s DriveImage 5.0
A
? by Paul Stephen
[email protected]
QuickImage “definition” file. When this definition is run
s the price of CD burners and CD ROM media deDriveImage drops to DOS and carries out the backup.
crease, backing up your data to CDR/RW disks is becoming more popular.
“Power users” who need
PowerQuest, best known for
more tools to manage their
its Partition Magic software,
data can bypass the Windows
also sells a program called
front end program and maDriveImage which makes
nipulate their partitions at the
backing up hard drive partiDOS level immediately. As
tions extremely easy.
the program is compatible
with Windows XP, you may
In earlier versions (prior to
wonder how DOS can be acVersion 4) you had to first
cessed as that OS no longer
create hard disk image files
contains DOS. Well, the wizof partitions which you then
ards at PowerQuest have
could copy to CDR/RW mecreated a virtual floppy imdia. Now, users can backup
age of Caldera DOS which
directly to CDR/RW disks.
loads allowing for the execuUnfortunately hard disks
tion of the DI 5 DOS modhave become so large that a
Creating a QI “definition” using DI’s QuickImage Program
ule.
single CD can’t hold all the
data stored in a drive partiSome Examples
tion so spanning data over a number of CDR/RWs is often
Suppose you have a hard disk partitioned into C, D, E and F
required.
drives. Partition C contains your operating system, D conMany backup utilities do not “drop to DOS” in backing up
tains your programs, E contains your data while F has a fair
data. PQ‘s DriveImage does — and for good reason. Many
amount of free space and is used mainly to hold the Winfiles are open when Windows is running and cannot be
dows swap file.
“touched” by other application programs. At the DOS level,
The ideal time to do backups is when you are sleeping.
all files/bits are available for copying so that if you need to
Using QuickImage you can build definitions that will backup
restore a zapped hard disk you get back exactly what was
partitions C and E at separate times during the “wee small
there previously.
hours”. There are a myriad of time/date options available
Backing Up — An Overview
for you to set in your definitions.
In DI5 there are two ways to back up the partitions on your
While it is often desirable to write backups directly to CDR
hard disk. DI has a Windows “front end” called QuickImage
or CDRW disks, let’s face facts. You can only store (in high
that allows the user to schedule the backup of any partition
compression mode) about 1000 megs (1 gig) of data on a 74
at a specific time. This information is stored in a
minute CD. Don’t bother purchasing 80 minute/700 meg
CDs for backup with DI because at the DOS level the software can’t use/“see” that extra space.
DI does support “auto spanning” of CDR/RW disks (many
backup programs don’t), but if you have a lot of data to
backup you aren’t going to be around to change disks at 2
a.m. In this instance it makes more sense to temporarily
backup to partition F. You can specify the maximum size for
PQI (PowerQuest Image) files so they will fit on CDs later.
You can then copy these image files from your hard disk to
CDR/RW disks the next morning. Of course if your partitions are relatively small and you have time to kill during
the day, then you can write your backups directly to CDs.
February/March 2002
matically boot into DOS and load the DriveImage program.
If, however, you wish to recover only certain files in a partition, you will have to be able to load Windows and then
ImageExplorer. For that reason, some other programs that
backup to the zip-compatible format may be more desirable.
Creating/Editing Virtual Floppy Disk (VFD) Files
The package also contains an editor which is mainly to be
used to add device drivers to the predefined VFD file. As
everything worked fine for me, I had no need to use this
module.
DataKeeper — Backup Data “On Demand”
or “Continuously”
Selecting Partitions to Backup at the DOS Level
If you are a more experienced user or are doing major renovations to your hard disk environment, you probably will
use DI for DOS. You won’t be able to do any scheduling,
but with this module you can easily: display drive information, create extended partitions, delete disk partitions,
hide/unhide partitions or set the active partition. The program also makes it easy to duplicate a partition on one hard
disk to another hard disk.
Data Recovery
Once you’ve backed up a partition you can either restore an
entire partition (a DOS operation), or, using another program
called ImageExplorer you can retrieve individual files from
the partition archive (a Windows operation).
Retrieving individual files might be your only alternative if
you have added data to a partition. Restoring an entire partition destroys all data on that partition replacing it with the
information in your PQI file(s).
ImageExplorer allows you to add PQI files to its database
and to actually split or combine pre-existing PQI file(s).
If you have a computer that will read bootable CDs, and
wish to restore an entire partition, just boot from the CD
that contains your PQI image file. The program will auto-
BONUS Program: DataKeeper
Datakeeper is a program that allows you to automatically
backup files that you are editing in a compressed format in
another location on your hard disk or on removable media
such as CDR/RW disks. Your data files are stored in a compressed (or uncompressed) “zip-like” format (I see the first
two characters of the compressed files contain the late Phil
Katz’s initials) and can be password protected if desired. I
discovered I could open any of these “*.dkb” files with
ZipMagic so they must be zip compatible.
Each time you save a file in a directory that is being “monitored” (you define those folders up before the monitoring
begins) a copy of that file is saved in one of two Datakeeper
folders (if one location fills up, the secondary location is
used). You can specify the number of backups you wish to
keep with the ability to keep daily/weekly/monthly archives.
The archive option maintains archive copies, even if the
number of copies has been exceeded. For example, if you
specify that DataKeeper should maintain the last five vers i ons of a backup, t hen you s el e c t Ke e p
daily/weekly/monthly archive, DataKeeper does the following:
· Saves the most recent five versions of the specified files.
· Overwrites the five files in rotation, replacing the oldest
file each time.
Continued on Page 18
February/March 2002
Winnipeg PC User Group Calendar of Events
February 17, 2002 - March 23, 2002
Sunday
Feb 17
Monday
Feb 18
Tuesday
Feb 19
Wednesday
Feb 20
Linux Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Feb 24
Feb 25
Feb 26
Feb 27
Games
Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Mar 3
Mar 4
Marketing
Committee
7 pm - 9 pm
Mar 5
Mar 6
Home
Networking
7 pm - 9 pm
Mar 10
Mar 11
Mar 12
Mar 17
Mar 18
Mar 19
WordPerfect
Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Mar 20
Linux Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Friday
Feb 22
Feb 28
Mar 1
Internet/
Hardware
10:30 am 12:30 pm
Mar 2
Install/Drop
In Forum
10 am 4 pm
Mar 8
Mar 9
Investment
Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Mar 14
Computer
Basics
10:30 am 12:30 pm
Mar 15
Mar 16
Executive
Meeting
7 pm - 9 pm
Mar 21
Saturday
Feb 23
Intro to
Computers
7 pm - 9 pm
Mar 7
Web Design
Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Mar 13
Windows
Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Thursday
Feb 21
Gen. Meeting
"Digital
Imaging"
7 pm - 9 pm
Install/Drop
In Forum
10 am 4 pm
Mar 22
Mar 23
Gen. Meeting
Corel
Corporation!
7 pm - 9 pm
Internet/
Hardware
10:30 am 12:30 pm
March 24, 2002 - April 27, 2002
Sunday
Mar 24
Monday
Mar 25
Tuesday
Mar 26
Games
Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Mar 31
Apr 1
Easter
Apr 7
Apr 14
Marketing
Committee
7 pm - 9 pm
Apr 2
Home
Networking
7 pm - 9 pm
Apr 8
Daylight Savings--set
ahead 1 hour
Apr 9
Windows
Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Apr 15
Wednesday
Mar 27
Apr 16
Apr 3
Web Design
Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Apr 10
Digital
Imaging
Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Apr 17
Linux Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Apr 21
Apr 22
Games
Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Apr 23
Thursday
Mar 28
Intro to
Computers
7 pm - 9 pm
Apr 4
Friday
Mar 29
Good Friday
Apr 5
Investment
Forum
7 pm - 9 pm
Apr 11
Apr 12
Marketing
Committee
7 pm - 9 pm
Apr 25
Intro to
Computers
7 pm - 9 pm
Apr 6
Apr 13
Computer
Basics
10:30 am 12:30 pm
Apr 19
General
Meeting
7 pm- 9 pm
Apr 24
Install/Drop
In Forum
10 am 4 pm
Install/Drop
In Forum
10 am 4 pm
Executive
Meeting
7 pm - 9 pm
Apr 18
Saturday
Mar 30
Apr 20
Install/Drop
In Forum
10 am 4 pm
Apr 26
Apr 27
Internet/
Hardware
10:30 am 12:30 pm
All Forums and Board Meetings are held at the Winnipeg PC User Group Resource Centre 337 C Pembina Highway
Our General Meeting is held at Montrose School 691 Montrose Street at Grant Avenue — Please use the east door on Grant Avenue
February/March 2002
DataKeeper to create incremental-type backups of all your
important files. You can create separate definition files to
backup different partitions on your hard disk. Also, because
DataKeeper allows the use of command line options it is extremely easy to make a customized set of file backups.
Conclusion
If you need a program that will efficiently backup your system and allow for fast retrieval of archived files, then
DriveImage 5 may be just the program you need. Documentation is first rate — it even comes with a giant “poster”
(similar to those shipped with HP‘s scanners) to get you up
and running very quickly.
User Groups have always received excellent support from
PowerQuest and thanks to the efforts of Gene Barlow and
his wife Linda, you can purchase DriveImage 5 at 50% off
list price ($US35 +$US5 shipping) by heading to:
http://www.ugr.com/order. Indicate the special price code of
EVAL02 on the above webpage.
Continued from Page 16
· Saves up to seven daily, five weekly, and 12 monthly archive copies in addition to the five most recent files.
· Does not create a daily, weekly, or monthly version of files
that have not changed since the last backup.
· The program logs all backup operations as well.
You might think the use of this program is a waste of good
disk space, but if something goes terribly wrong during a
save operation, or you accidentally delete a file you were
working on, you always have the safety of those “mirrored”
backup files.
I use DataKeeper all the time when working with Ventura
Publisher. When I save a publication all the files are not
only saved in a default location defined by Ventura, but in
the DataKeeper storage vault as well. This program gives
me “peace of mind”!
PowerQuest has recently upgraded DataKeeper to run under Windows XP. I presume the CD they now ship will come
with the new version of DriveImage, but if not, I’m sure
you’ll be able to get the update from PQ.
Remember that DriveImage is a MACRO backup program.
That is, it backs up entire partitions, not individual files. It
does not do incremental backups. However, you can use
DriveImage 5
PowerQuest Corporation
1359 North Research Way, Bldg. K
PO Box 1911
Orem, Utah 84059-1911
http://www.powerquest.com
$CAN109.99
Program:
Publisher:
WWW:
SRP (FS):
Corel User Group Program
The Corel Corporation will be in
attendance at our March 21st
General Meeting presenting
CorelDRAW Essentials.
Special pricing will be
available ONLY on the night of
the meeting.
Shipping and taxes are extra
and are shown on the full order
form that will be available at the
meeting.
®
WordPerfect Office 2002 Standard Edition
CorelDRAW 10 Graphics Suite
A State-of-the-Art Tradition™. A powerful software package that
delivers time-saving features and outstanding compatibility.
True creative power™.
*
Windows .........upgrade (SRP $249CD) $186.75CD
full ( SRP$599CD )
$539.10CD
®
WordPerfect
Edition
Office 2002 Professional
Power up your office with time-saving innovations and outstanding
compatibility.
*
Windows .... Upgrade (SRP $349CD)
Full (SRP$799CD )
Bryce 5
Windows®/Mac®...... Upgrade.(SRP* $229CD) $171.75CD
Full (SRP $449CD)
$404.10CD
Windows .......upgrade (SRP $369CD) $276.05CD
$692.10CD
full ( SRP $769CD)
Corel® GRAPHICS SUITE 10 for Macintosh®
What will you make of it?™
®
WordPerfect Family Pack 3
®
Make the most of your home computer with WordPerfect Family
Pack 3
*
Mac®......
$300.00CD
$719.01CD
CorelPHOTO-PAINT® 10 for Macintosh®
®
www.corel.com/usergroups
*
Upgrade (SRP $399CD)
Full (SRP$799.99CD )
Mac ......
1600 Carling Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1Z 8R7
®
Is an easy way to create, explore and animate extraordinary imagery.
It’s perfect for multimedia, video and the Web.
*
Windows ..................... (SRP $129CD) $116.10CD
Corel
Corporation
$261.75CD
$719.10CD
*
Full (SRP$399CD )
$209.75CD
$359.10CD
®
CorelDRAW ESSENTIALS
CorelDRAW® 10 for Macintosh®
Your Total Creativity Package
Mac®....
*
Windows ...................(SRP $149CD) $134.10 CD
*
Full (SRP$549CD )
$186.75CD
$494.10CD
February/March 2002
President’s Roundtable
T
? by Art Cavenagh, President, WPCUG
here is currently a lot going on at the Resource Centre. It is exciting to see so
many dropping in on Saturdays and using this facility.
We are currently negotiating a
new lease for the clubhouse.
We hope to offer a Preventative Maintenance service for
o ur members ’ com puters.
Thanks to Trevor Exley, details
of this initiative have been
posted on the Group’s website.
A proposal for a basic computer education course is also being developed at the present time. A small charge has been
suggested to cover the cost of supplies. A certificate would
be issued upon completion of the course.I hope this proposal
will result in the clubhouse being used during the daytime.
Volunteers will be needed to staff the facilities.
We are very pleased with the work Trevor Exley is putting
in to redesign the web site. A lot of work is required but the
results to date are wonderful.
I must mention the work Brian Lowe and Greg McClure
have put into the ISP. The
change over to WiBand and the
development of systems to monitor the usage on the ISP has enabled us to run the ISP much
more efficiently. Thanks so
much.
One last item: Everything isn’t
great. The Saturday Install Forum is busy and this is good.
When it was started, we intended that members who brought
their machines in for repair should donate something for the
work done. This service is valuable and is provided by computer professionals who just happen to be members of this
User Group. Most computer shops in Winnipeg charge
$55.00/hr or more for such work. The amount donated in
the last 3 months was less than $100.00. Are our services
only worth $0.50/hr???? Maybe some are not aware that a
donation is expected? The bucket is still there. My own
opinion is that a minimum donation of $20.00/hr should be
expected.
“Are our services only
worth $0.50/hr????”
WordPerfect Office 2002 Professional
with Dragon Naturally Speaking
W
? by Neil Longmuir, WPCUG
ordPerfect Office 2002 Professional with Dragon
Naturally Speaking is without a doubt the best upgrade since WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS.
WordPerfect Office 2002 brings to the Windows platform what WordPerfect 5.1 did for
DOS — rock solid stability. If you are currently a WordPerfect user, drive to your favorite software store and purchase this upgrade.
The WordPerfect Office 2002 Professional
Edition with Dragon Naturally Speaking package contains WordPerfect 10, Quattro Pro 10,
Corel Presentations 10, CorelCentral 10, Paradox 10, Dragon Naturally Speaking and an excellent 430 page end-user guide. And if the
applications aren’t sufficient, Corel has also
included 11,000+ clipart images, 1000+
TrueType fonts and 200+ photos. This product
is excellent value for your money.
Personally, I must salute the staff who put together the User
Guide. It is one of the most informative and helpful guides
that I have seen, regardless of product. There is more than
sufficient information to help the new/novice user get up to
speed using any one of the applications. Now if you require
additional help, there are two excellent books, Stephan E.
Harris’s “WordPerfect Office 2002” and Alan Neibauers’s
“WordPerfect Office 2002 The Official
Guide”.
Hardware Requirements
Like any software there are minimum system
requirements and preferred system requirements. WordPerfect Office 2002 minimum
system requirements are as follows:
· Windows 95, 98, Me, NT 4.0 with Service
Pack 6 or higher and Windows 2000 (I
would recommend that Windows 2000 have
Service Pack 2 installed)
· Pentium 166MHz processor or higher
· 16MB RAM (32MB recommended)
· 150MB of hard disk space (250MB is used for a typical installation)
· CDROM drive to install the software from
· VGA monitor
· Mouse or tablet
· Note: some features also require a sound card, microphone
and speakers
Installing Dragon Naturally Speaking requires a more powerful system:
· Pentium 266MHz processor or higher
· 64MB RAM
· 260MB of hard disk space (380MB is used for a typical installation)
· A 16 bit sound card quality equal to or greater than a
Sound Blaster 16 is required for sound output
Remember these are guidelines set by Corel. My personal
experience is that Windows itself and Windows applications
love memory. The more memory (up to 512MB) the better
and lots of spare hard disk space doesn’t hurt either. My test
system is an Athlon 1.2 GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 40
Gig hard drive, 19-inch Hansol monitor and a Plextor 16X
CD-RW running under Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2
applied. The total installation ran in about five minutes including registering the product.
Note: I have some friends running WordPerfect Office 2002
on 400MHz machines with 128MB of RAM and the performance is fine. Also, WordPerfect Office 2000 performs acceptably on a 100MHz system with 64MB of RAM, so I can
see no reason why WordPerfect Office 2002 would not perform as well. I took the time to install this copy of
WordPerfect Office 2002 on a 100MHz system with 64MB
of RAM and it worked well. While it was slower than on the
faster systems, performance was certainly more than adequate. So just because this is a new piece of software doesn’t
mean that you have to mortgage the house for a new computer.
What’s New in WordPerfect Office 2002
WordPerfect Office 2002 provides improved stability and
performance, while the individual software enhancements to
each of the office components create greater compatibility
with other office suites. This stability and the new suitewide enhancements and improvements make WordPerfect
Office 2002 a must have upgrade. I will discuss some of
the new features of each component separately, but the following four suite-wide new enhancements deserve special
mention.
The Corel Application Recovery Manager (Corel A.R.M.)
is the best new feature to be added to any office suite in
some time, regardless of vendor. It helps you recover from
most application failures without losing your work. “The
Corel Application Recovery Manager is an online wizard
that opens automatically at a program failure and then offers
three course of action:
· save the document and close the application
· exit the application without saving the document
February/March 2002
· continue working”
However, if you choose to continue working, all bets are off.
There is no guarantee that you will be able to recover any
work since the document was last saved. Your data is only
as safe as you make it. When someone gives you a chance
to recover any data take it. There may not be a second
chance. While I’m on the subject, take time to make a
backup. CD-RW, CD-R and floppy disks are cheap and your
data is expensive.
The Corel Application Recovery Manager creates a log file
containing the details of the application failure which can be
used to create a report that can be sent over the Internet to
Corel. Receiving these day-to-day reports from you, the end
user, will enable Corel to review the problems and work on
fixing them for the next service pack. Paradox 10 does not
use the Corel A.R.M. because it already has builtin application recovery procedures.
Not only will they tell Corel a user is having problems, they
will help Corel understand exactly the problem that was encountered. So it’s a win/win situation. Corel gets information to help them correct problems and the end user sends
problems to Corel that they may never have seen. It is important to report problems. If Corel does not know that you
are encountering problems, they cannot resolve them.
The Location Manager
Have you ever had a program fail because it cannot find a
file or particular component? If you answered yes to this
question, then you will appreciate the location manager utility component of WordPerfect Office 2002. The location
manager will make sure that the suite will start without errors even if there are missing or damaged files. “When you
start a WordPerfect Office 2002 application, the location
manager ensures that all the required files are present on
your computer. If the file is missing (due to being moved,
renamed or deleted) or if it is damaged, the location manager will repair the problem by replacing the file. This
means that instead of receiving an error message and not being able to start the application, the location manager will
automatically repair the problem and start the application as
expected. This greatly reduces downtime and virtually eliminates the need to call technical support for errors caused by
missing or damaged application files.” As an end-user, the
location manager prevents frustrations, improves productivity and reduces operating costs.
The Pocket-Oxford Dictionary
Regardless of your profession, whether a professional writer,
novice, student or someone who does routine word processing for your own use, a dictionary is a huge asset to have
online at your fingertips. The online Oxford dictionary has
been a standard for a century and contains 30,000 words, including their meaning, history and pronunciation. If 30,000
words isn’t enough for you, the pocket dictionary can be upgraded to a larger version. Now we have a nice integrated
solution in an office suite.
The Corel Connection
Have you ever needed some help with some aspect of a program, but it’s late and the technical support phone lines are
closed? Now with an Internet connection you can use the
thin client that is built into each of the Corel office applications to access newsgroups, updates, online technical support
and the Corel Knowledge Base without leaving the
WordPerfect Office 2002 application that you are currently
using and get the answers you need now. Corel Client Services team supports their products. The following is a list of
self-serve tools available to address technical questions 24
hours a day, seven days a week:
Help Option
How to access the help option
Support newsgroups
http://www.corel.com/support/newsgroup.htm
Knowledge Base http://kb.corel.com
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
http://www.corel.com/support/faq
AnswerPerfect
http://www.corel.com/support/answerperfect.htm
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
ftp://ftp.corel.com
FTP information
http://www.corel.com/support/ftpsite/ftpindex.htm
Online Help Type keyword Technical Support
Interactive Voice Answering Network: 1-877-42 COREL
Automated Fax on Demand 1-877-42 COREL
Also, you can e-mail specific customerservice or product information questions to [email protected], or visit the
Corel Web site at http://www.corel.com/support. Corel has
spent a lot of time and effort trying to give you the answers,
so use the sources you have available.
WordPerfect 10
I’ve been a WordPerfect end-user from day one. My original
serial number for WordPerfect 2.0 is less than 1000 and in
my opinion, WordPerfect is the best word processor on the
market today, bar none. WordPerfect 10 can be used to produce newsletters, articles, memos, books and create HTML
web pages with ease. WordPerfect has come a long way
since Version 2.0, so here are some of the new additions to
WordPerfect 10.
Taking a page out of Corel Draw, “the align and distribute
tool lets you align and distribute objects in relation to themselves and the page.” An example of how to use this tool is
to create and print the company letterhead as it is needed
rather than ordering it pre-printed. The align and distribute
tool will let the company logo be placed exactly where you
want it and it will not move. The same will be true with
other graphic objects such as clipart and photos. Create a
PerfectScript macro and save those extra printing costs.
When you save a document for the first time, it used to be
that you had to enter a name for that file. Now WordPerfect
February/March 2002
will automatically insert a suggested file name. Failing to
save a document will make you really appreciate this feature. I’ve only done this once, but that document I failed to
name was 40 pages. I was lucky, because I had a timed
backup, but the auto-suggest filename would have been invaluable.
Occasionally I’m asked to review a document from an editor
friend. It’s not unusual for these documents to be 400 pages
or more. Now, WordPerfect 10 adds a document review
margin marker, which will alert the author or editor that a
change in the text has occurred.
How many of you use tables in your final documents that
you would later like to import into a database? Now tables
to text lets you convert a table to delimited text for import
into your database or spreadsheet. As well you can now take
a delimited text file based on a user defined-delimiter and
create a table in your document. I know several web designers who prepare their web pages using WordPerfect and who
bought WordPerfect Office 2002 upgrade because of the enhanced HTML support for cascading style sheets (CSS).
So as you can see there is something for every user, whether
an author, editor, or web designer.
Now in two page view, you can use reveal codes and writing tools. In the past, you had to go to either draft or single
page view. I like this feature, because you can preview your
document and look for inconsistencies and correct them
right on-screen.
As you can see there are enhancements. I have imported
older WordPerfect documents in excess of 400 pages without
any problems whatsoever. These files were final copies of
books that were being sent to a printer. While reviewing one
of the documents, I noticed a couple of sentences that
seemed a bit vague, so I used the document margin markers to alert the author and editor that I thought there was a
problem. As it turned out, the author meant to say one thing,
the editor thought he said something else. To make a long
story short, the end result was the text in question was
changed before going to the printers.
So the moral of the story is, upgrades are a fact of life.
Don’t be too ready to pass up an upgrade when there may be
several features that can make your life easier and your office run better. Ease of use will often be worth more than the
cost of the upgrade.
The next logical question is, “How good is the Microsoft
Word file import function? The answer: excellent. I’ve imported various versions of Microsoft Word except XP and
they came in just fine. However, I was unable to test equations in a document as no one had any, so I cannot say for
sure that they will import correctly.
There are other changes in WordPerfect 10 that were not
available in previous versions. I’m a great believer in Corel
Real Time Preview. I like to preview documents before
printing them, just to be sure they look right. Today with
nineteen inch monitors, it’s easier to see the final page on
the screen before you print. Now Corel RealTime Preview
supports underlining, QuickFonts, Drop Caps and other for-
matting in real time. It’s really great to see the final look of
the document before printing. As well it can proofed by others before being distributed.
The merge feature has been undergoing change in both
WordPerfect 9 and WordPerfect 10. WordPerfect 10 allows
more fields than previous versions and the keyboard merge
dialog has been improved. In late November 2001, a new
WordPerfect user who had never used a word processor before asked me to show her how to create “the Christmas letter” and merge the names at the beginning of the letter. To
be honest, I have not done a mail merge since I retired four
years ago, so I went to the on-line help and looked up merge
in the help index. This task turned out to be even easier than
I expected. First, we created her mail label list following the
online help. Then we typed the Christmas letter and made
sure it would fit nicely on the fancy paper. Then the real surprise came when we did the merge. We were able to print directly to the printer without saving the intermediate file with
each name and letter in the file and then doing the print.
Several days later our Christmas card came. On the envelope
was a nice printed label and a return address label. I did not
mention that we could do this at the time we created the
Christmas letter because we did not have the labels on hand.
When I asked how she did it, she said she saw me check the
help index, so she did the same with the labels and just followed the instructions. I would say the merge feature is now
bullet-proof. If a first time novice user can do it, then Corel
has done their job in making the feature easy to use and
that’s what it’s all about.
Publishing to Adobe Portable Document Format now supports hyperlinks and watermarks. One thing you should be
aware of is that while you can publish to PDF, WordPerfect
does not read PDF files. To read PDF files you must use
Adobe Acrobat Reader which is supplied on the installation
CD. The current version of Acrobat Reader is 5.05.
This current version of WordPerfect has been great to work
with. Without a hesitation this version has been the best one
I’ve used and that includes WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS. The
only problem I’ve encountered has occurred when importing
a WordPerfect 9 file that uses parallel columns. The text in
the left column is in French while the text in the right column is in English. As well, there are three or four inch by
inch and a half black and white photos on the right hand column margin of the French text and on the left hand column
margin of the English text. The problem I’ve run into is
whenever the text is edited or changed, the photos do not
stay where they were placed. I’ve been in contact with Corel
and we are working on the problem together.
Quattro Pro 10
Quattro Pro is a first-rate professional spreadsheet. It has all
the tools necessary to let you manage your data, create reports, lists, databases, charts and all other data management.
The Quattro Pro data notebook can be printed to paper, electronic media or the Internet. Not only can your data be presented in charts, it can also be presented in CrossTab reports.
February/March 2002
As an end-user, you should be aware that starting with
Quattro Pro 9, the old Lotus 1-2-3 DOS slash command
macro language is not supported. So if you have old Quattro
Pro spreadsheets or Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets with DOS slash
macros, be sure to leave a copy of Quattro Pro 8 on your
machine. Quattro Pro 8 is fully compatible with the old DOS
slash Lotus macro language.
Quattro Pro 10 has several new features starting with a new
improved charting engine that allows you to present your
spreadsheet data in chart or graphic form using different
chart types and styles. Also improved in the charting and
graphics are customized titles and legends, along with advanced rendering and lighting options. In the past Quattro
Pro supported Undo/Redo, but now you can Undo/Redo up
to 200 past actions. In 1988 while at the Software Developers’ conference in San Francisco, I had a chance to meet
and discuss with Philippe Kahn from Borland some features
Paul Stephen and I wanted to see in Quattro Pro 2 for DOS.
The feature we wanted was automatically fitting the data to a
column. We got our wish and it’s been in the DOS versions
of Quattro Pro ever since. Now QuickFit (change the column width to the widest entry in the column) menu option
lets you optimize the structure of your spreadsheet in the
Windows version of Quattro Pro.
Two new File Menu Command additions will be very useful,
namely Close All and Save All. Quite frequently you have a
number of spreadsheets open at the same time. Closing and
saving them one a time is time consuming. This can now be
accomplished with two mouse clicks.
I brought in a fair number of older Quattro Pro spreadsheets,
including some with PerfectScript macros. I can report they
all came in and all the PerfectScript macros ran just fine. I
also decided to open several of my old spreadsheets with the
old Lotus 1-2-3 DOS slash macros. The data came in, but as
one would expect, the old DOS slash macros were not supported. Now I have the job of converting all these spreadsheets to either PerfectScript or Visual Basic macros.
I also opened several dozen Excel spreadsheets. The basic
Excel spreadsheets opened properly in Quattro Pro 10 with
the exception of Excel spreadsheets that contained Visual
Basic for Application macros. All the information came in
from the Excel spreadsheet, but the notebook that contained
the Visual Basic code for the macros was blank. Because
these spreadsheets are totally Visual Basic macro driven, the
macros failed in Quattro Pro 10. I checked out the Quattro
Pro online help and there was no additional information on
how to deal with Excel spreadsheets with Visual Basic for
Application macros. I will be doing further research on this
and see if I can get them up and running. So for now, Excel
compatibility is at best just okay but not great. This is one
area that needs further work.
Using Quattro Pro 10 for new spreadsheets was just great.
Starting a new spreadsheet from scratch worked very
smoothly indeed. Quattro Pro 10 has become an even better
spreadsheet in the areas of user friendliness and ease of use.
February/March 2002
Paradox 10
Paradox has always been a powerful easy-to-use database. In
the past (the good old DOS days) working with a database
was a chore. Today it’s a whole lot easier with Paradox 10.
I’ve had very little experience working with databases, so I
expected this to be a real challenge. However, I did read the
user guide before doing any work with Paradox.
To test this current version of Paradox, I was able to obtain
a copy of a database I created 13 years ago. When that database was first created, it only had several thousand records.
Thirteen years later there are over a million records, so this
would prove to be a real test. I really expected there would
be problems, but I had the database given to me in two different ways: the actual Paradox database and as a comma
delimited file. To my surprise, both files came in flawlessly.
I also imported several uncomplicated Access databases
without any problems.
I did use the “Experts” to create forms and some reports.
Using the Experts, I was able to accomplish what I wanted
to do, but don’t ask me to give a demonstration on Paradox
just yet. I’m just not up to speed! The user guide says the
print engine in Paradox 10 has been improved to better reflect what’s on the screen on the printed page. My reports
were simple and the printed report matched what was on the
screen.
I’m an avid photographer who’s just getting into digital photography. The support for scanners and digital cameras really intrigued me. Now I can acquire images from Twain devices directly into graphic fields or objects on a form. I’m
looking at creating a database for the CDs I put my images
on. I would like a thumbnail of the photo, CD number, file
name, date, film and location. This will be an ambitious project but I’m going to spend some of my free time on it as
those archival CDs are starting to pile up.
I will no doubt be working through the WordPerfect Office
2002 User Guide for Paradox 10 manual to get up to speed
with the product. My first experiences with Paradox 10 have
been positive and I’m sure as one gets more familiar with
the product, the real power of Paradox will be
realized.
CorelCentral Day Planner
“CorelCentral 10 is a suite of applications
(commonly called a Personal Information
Manager) that helps you manage time, tasks,
appointments and e-mail and facilitates communication in a corporate environment.” Being retired now gives me a chance to organize
all my computer facilities on one machine at
home and I can print out weekly schedules of
appointments ahead of time. As well, I can
insert appointments and set alarms for each of
those appointments I have every month easily
so I’m not likely to forget. I can also print the
address book so I have a hard copy when I’m
not on the computer. I’ve never been a beCorelCentral’s E-mail
liever in Personal Information Managers, day
A good product has become an even better product. The
only area I found the documentation lacking was in the use
of Visual Basic for Applications. It is now included in the
online help menu, but there is very little information to help
you write a Visual Basic macro. I did not find any examples,
but there may been some that I haven’t found. I did find
some information on the Internet about writing Visual Basic
macros, but due to the lack of time and a publication deadline, this will have to be a topic for another article.
Corel Presentations 10
Corel Presentations has always been a super slide presentation tool, but it seems the only product people know about is
PowerPoint. Corel Presentations does not take a back seat to
any other presentation software. It’s a very powerful tool to
create professional looking multi-media slide shows complete with sound and animation. No matter whether you
need a flyer, some drawings for a proposal or a sign for the
office, Corel Presentations 10 can do it all easily.
The new additions to Corel Presentations 10 just make it a
more powerful presentation package. Font embedding/font
matching are useful when sharing files with others because
the person with whom you’re sharing the file with may not
have the same fonts as you have. Embedding the fonts assures the other person that what they see is exactly what you
see. Also sound can now be attached to an animation. Other
improvements include being able to publish to a
Macromedia flash (*.swf) file using the Corel Internet Publisher. Up until now if you had an MP3 sound file you were
out of luck. Now Corel Presentations 10 fully supports MP3.
It also has improved import and export filters for such
Microsoft Power Point 95 and 97 items as bulleted text, subtitles, background layers and fonts. I imported several uncomplicated Power Point presentations without any problems.
Presenters can also print speaker notes for the audiences or
they can create an Adobe PDF file for putting on a web
page or other distribution. One feature I really like about
WordPerfect 10, Quattro Pro 10 and now Corel Presentations 10 is Print Preview. Now you can see
exactly how a slide show
or presentation will be
affected before you actually print it. Don’t automatically count out
Corel Presentations 10 if
you have a presentation
to do. It’s a very powerful and easy to use product. Once again, the
WordPerfect Office 2002
User Guide instructions
on how to use Corel Presentations are excellent.
Read the guide!
February/March 2002
the next. The one thing that really stood out was the rock
planners etc., but this product has changed my mind.
solid stability when I had several of the applications
It should also be pointed out that the mail client in
(WordPerfect 10, Quattro Pro 10 and Corel Presentations 10)
CorelCentral 10 sends and receives e-mail as well as managopen at one time. I was able to get information from one aping several e-mail accounts at one time. The e-mail client
plication to another by simply dragging and dropping it from
supports “S/MIME encryption and authentication technology
one application into the application I wanted it in. With the
which lets you use digital signatures and digital certificates
exception of Quattro Pro 10 being a bit weak on Excel Vito ensure authenticity of email messages that you send and
sual Basic macro driven spreadsheets, this office suite is
receive.” Not too shabby and while all this is happening,
worth every penny. The inclusion of Dragon’s Naturally
“the quick view tool lets you view attachments in over 225
Speaking voice recognition system gives this package even
file formats without opening a separate application.”
more value for the dollar.
Dragon Naturally Speaking
As if the basic applications are not enough, WordPerfect OfWhen I installed Dragon Naturally Speaking
fice 2002 Professional also includes the folon my system, I had not done any work in
lowing added-value items:
the area of speech recognition. Being a first
· multilingual writing tools for numerous lantime user to the technology is always a good
guages, including French, German, Spanish
test as to how far a product has come in the
and Italian
development process. At first my wife
thought I was talking to myself: File, Open,
· VXI Parrot headset
WP2002.wpd etc. I went through the process
· Bitstream Font Navigator
of training the system and as one would expect I ran into a few problems. Not with the
· Quick View Plus for viewing up to 225 file
product but the operator. My voice is a little
formats
low and more than once I did not speak
· Adobe Acrobat Reader 5
slowly or clearly enough. Once I slowed
down, productivity with the headset im· Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications
Neil Longmuir using
proved dramatically.
· 11,000+ clipart images
I’ve been using it more and more to become Dragon Naturally Speaking to
more familiar with the system. I will concontrol WPO 2002.
· 1,000+ True Type fonts
tinue using it even more in the future. It’s a
· 200+ Photos
great product, but you must speak clearly
and not too fast. Also, don’t mumble because if you do,
Also, if you’re planning on buying a new computer, be sure
there will be some pretty funny looking text.
to ask your dealer to include a copy of WordPerfect Office
Conclusion
2002. It will be a purchase you will not regret. If you’re running a previous version of WordPerfect Office, upgrade.
Without a doubt, WordPerfect Office 2002 is the best upWordPerfect Office 2002 is a must-have upgrade, no ands,
grade since WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS. The individual comno buts or maybes.
ponents work very well together and from one application to
R
Solution to the Profit and Loss Puzzle
eaders will recall that this puzzle dealt with some
business transactions between WPCUG members Jon
Phillips, Greg McClure, and Perry Exley. Jon sold a
modem he had for $100 and then bought it back again for
$80. It was the same modem he had before, but now he had
it plus $20. He then sold it again for $90, i.e., $10 more than
the price he had paid to get it back. He thought that $20 plus
the additional $10 made a clear $30 profit. Greg said that he
had a modem worth $100 but after the two sales he had only
$110, so it was just a $10 profit. Perry said that Jon’s first
transaction netted him a clear $20 profit, but the second sale
was a mere exchange of a $90 modem for $90. Jon’s profit
was just his original $20. Readers were asked to decide
which of the three possibilities was the correct one: a $30
profit, a $10 profit, or a $20 profit.
The answer is that all three answers could be correct. It all
depends on how much the modem had originally cost Jon.
After the two transactions, Jon has sold the modem and has
$110. If the modem had originally cost him $80, then his
profit is $30. If it cost him $90, his profit is $20. If it had
cost him $100, his profit was $10.
[EN: John Robin Allen has a few more mind benders for
you that will be featured in the next few issues of the newsletter.
I hope you didn’t have to swallow too many Tylenols in attempting to solve this one.]
February/March 2002
The BUG Report
W
? by Greg McClure, WPCUG
ell it is time for another bug report and this report
will be covering some bugs that have been reported
in the last month or so of 2001. Usually I can report
on bugs and fixes for products from several companies.
However, this issue will be devoted entirely to Microsoft.
The first item concerns a cumulative update for Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0. This patch fixes three new problems as
well as incorporating past fixes for Internet Explorer. The
three new problems include some serious security holes. In
Internet Explorer 6 it may be possible to fool the browser
into thinking that a file is of a different type. This means
that a dangerous executable which normally would not be
automatically run by IE, may fool IE into thinking that is a
simple TXT or text file. IE would therefore run this dangerous file without asking for permission. The file could be
used to transmit a virus, install a trojan or back door program, etc. The second problem fixed by the patch is also in
IE 5.5 and 6.0. This one could allow a malicious web site to
open two browser windows, one on your computer and the
other on the their computer. This would allow the web site
operator to read any file on your system that is displayable
in a browser as long as they knew the path. Finally the third
bug patched is one that a could fool IE 5.5 and 6 into downloading a file that pretends to be something else again bypassing security.
For a more detailed explanation and a link to the patch you
can visit
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/
default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/ms01-058.asp
Microsoft only tested version 5.5 and 6.0 of Internet Explorer for this vulnerability. They do not offer any updates to
older versions of Internet Explorer as they are no longer being patched.
The patch should also be available by using the Windows
Update feature in Windows 98x/ME/2000/XP.
If you want to check if your copy of IE has already been
patched visit the above link and look under the “Verifying
patch installation” heading. I received the following email
from Microsoft:
“Because Microsoft recognizes the importance of security
and reliability when using Internet software, we have now
made available free browser security upgrades to better protect your online information. We strongly recommend that
you check now to see whether your browser needs one of
these security upgrades by going to:
http://securitycheck.passport.com/default.asp.”
It appears that Microsoft is trying to calm fears of their recent security holes and enhance their push to the .NET technology where they want you to use applications from their
servers and store your information on their servers some-
where out on the Internet.
Microsoft indicated that with respect to the above IE problem they did not bother to test versions of IE prior to 5.5 for
the above vulnerability. This is because Microsoft is phasing
out supporting previous versions of their operating systems
and applications (like Office95 which they stopped supporting at the end of 2001).
For a detailed list of the applications whose support period
has been or is about to be terminated see:
http://support.microsoft.com/
default.aspx?scid=%2Fdirectory%2Fdiscontinue%2Easp
Microsoft has also provided a “Product Lifecycle Roadmap”
in which they outline the three phases of their operating systems. In the first 3 years of the product’s availability (Mainstream Phase) Microsoft will provide support and licenses
for the product. When the product in question enters its
fourth year (Extended Phase), licenses will no longer be
available and only online support will be available. In the
fifth and subsequent years of the product’s life (Non-supported Phase), only online support will be available and
Microsoft may terminate this phase with 12 months advance
notice. This means that updates to these old products may no
longer be available via their web site and support via the
Microsoft knowledge base (support.microsoft.com) could be
removed.
T he w eb page ht t p: / / w w w.m i cr oso f t . c o m / wi ndows/lifecycleconsumer.asp indicates that Windows 95 entered the non-supported phase on November 30,2001. This
web page also indicates that Windows98/98 SE is scheduled
to enter its Extended Phase on June 30,2002 followed by its
Non-supported phase on June 30,2003. WindowsME will be
entering its Extended Phase on December 31,2003. It has
been mentioned that Windows XP will also be following
these guidelines. Concerns have been raised concerning Windows XP and its activation key. What happens if five years
from now you have to reinstall Windows XP from scratch
and require the unlock code. Will you be able to receive
such a code since by this time the product will be in its
Non-supported phase?
While I am on the topic of Windows XP (which Microsoft
touts as the “most secure operating system ever"”) I’d like to
mention a security patch to fix a gaping hole in the operating
system’s Universal Plug N Play (UPnP) service. The following is a description from Steve Gibson’s web site
(www.grc.com) regarding what Universal Plug N Play is:
What is “Universal Plug & Play” and why don’t I need
it?
Universal Plug & Play is not related to the established Plug
& Play hardware standard for PCs. Microsoft presumably
adopted the name “Universal Plug & Play” because it is a
warm and fuzzy feel-good name. A more descriptive name
would have been “Network Plug & Play” since that is exactly what it is.
UPnP is a set of communications protocol standards that allow networked TCP/IP devices to announce their presence
to all other devices on the network and to then inter-operate
in a flexible and pre-defined fashion. There is nothing
wrong with the idea, though even in the absence of security
mistakes, it is not difficult to be concerned about the overall
security of the system. If you want to learn more, the Universal Plug & Play Forum web site has additional information.
As for why you don’t need it; unless you actually have
some UPnP devices on your local network, there is no one
for the Windows UPnP system to talk to. It was bizarre and
irresponsible for Microsoft to turn every Windows machine
into a Universal Plug & Play Internet server, opening every
machine to wide ranging Internet exploitation. It is still irresponsible today.
T h e s ecurity problem can also be present i n
Windows98/98SE/ME computers if Internet Connection
Sharing is installed and is using a Windows XP machine to
share an Internet connection. The UPnP has what is called
an unchecked buffer that can allow a hacker to install and
run malicious programs on your computer, disrupt the operation of your computer, or use your computer to attack another computer. All users of Windows XP are strongly
urged to install the patch which is available from .
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/
Release.asp?ReleaseID=34951
If you are using Windows XP Internet Connection Sharing
on Windows98/98SE you should apply the patch available
at the following URL to your Windows98/98SE machine.
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/
Release.asp?ReleaseID=34991
If you are using Windows XP Internet Connection Sharing
on a WindowsME system you should apply the following
patch to your WindowsME machine.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/winme/
Update/22940/WinMe/EN-US/314757USAM.EXE
For further information regarding this security problem you
can visit Microsoft’s web site at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/
bulletin/ms01-059.asp?frame=true
As I mentioned Steve Gibson (who developed Shields Up a
web site to test your firewall’s security) has a page devoted
to the Universal Plug N Play problem. The page called Plug
N Pray (http://grc.com/UnPnP/UnPnP.htm) has a very good
description of what Universal Plug N Play is used for and
explains the difference between it and Windows Plug N
Play. He also has a very small (22KB) utility to turn off this
“feature” of Windows XP to ensure that other possible exploits that may be floating out on the Internet are not un-
February/March 2002
leashed on your computer.
Still with Microsoft’s newest operating system, (Windows
XP) there is a problem with computers which had Windows
XP pre-installed at the factory. A leftover file from the installation may cause data loss if an in-place upgrade or installation is later done using the Windows XP CD-ROM.
The items that may be lost include such things as shortcuts,
Startup items and files in the Shared Documents folder. The
leftover file is in the \Windows\System32 folder and is
called Undo_guimode.txt. The quickest way to prevent the
problem is to rename this file using Windows Explorer.
Windows XP Professional has another problem that could
be encountered when upgrading from Windows Me or Windows 98. The upgrade may generate one of the following
error messages:
Error:
Cannot get main entry point for
C:WINDOWSSYSTEMVIPERSTI.CPL. Error:127
[ERROR=127 (7Fh)]
Error:
The signature for Windows XP Professional Edition Setup is
invalid. The error code is fffffdf0.
The system cannot find message text for message number
0xfffffdf0 in the message file for Syssetup.dll.
Fatal Error:
Setup failed to install the product catalogs. This is a fatal error.
The upgrade will be unable to continue. The problem is
caused by stray files from the previous installation that were
not removed out of the catroots2 folder. See
http://support.microsoft.com/
default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q307153 for a solution.
If one is installing Windows XP on systems that use the
Intel i815 chipset and have a USB mouse and keyboard the
system may hang. The problem occurs if legacy USB support is enabled. Since Windows XP does not use Legacy
USB, disabling the option will allow the install to run. If the
problem occurs but the Legacy USP support option is NOT
enabled then the workaround is to use a PS/2 mouse and
keyboard during the installation process only. Once Windows XP is configured the USB keyboard and mouse can be
reconnected. For further information see:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/
articles/q282/1/95.asp?id=Q282195
&sd=GN&fr=0&ln=EN-US
The last Windows XP item concerns a lockup that may occur on systems using Asus P2B motherboards. When one is
viewing the Processes tab in the Task Manager it will show
100% CPU utilization. If you go into the system’s BIOS
and disable “Wake if mouse is moved” the problem should
disappear.
The final bug for this issue concerns Microsoft’s Excel and
February/March 2002
PowerPoint. They have a bug whereby a malicious person
can write a macro in an Excel or PowerPoint document that
can avoid detection and run automatically regardless of the
security settings specified by the user. This means that a
macro so designed could among other things:
·
·
·
·
read, write, delete or modify data either locally or open
on file shares
modify security settings (including macro virus protection
settings)
send email
post data to or retrieve data from web sites
The affected Windows versions of Excel and PowerPoint
are:
Microsoft Excel 2000 for Windows
Microsoft Excel 2002 for Windows
Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 for Windows
Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 for Windows
More information concerning this exploit and the patch for
these versions is available from:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms01050.asp?frame=true
Till next issue be careful and make sure to squash all those
bugs :).
VIRUS ALERT!
T
? by Greg McClure, WPCUG
his is yet another plea for people to ensure that they
are using a virus scanner and that its virus signatures
are UP-TO-DATE! Computers of several members
have become infected recently with a variety of viruses. As
the vast majority of current viruses are spread by email attachments these members in turn, unwittingly, infect the unprotected computers of friends via email messages. Therefore one should be ever vigilant and follow these steps to
protect your computer from infection and possible loss of a
portion or all of your files:
1) Install a virus scanner program and make sure to update
the program’s virus signatures on a REGULAR basis. A
couple of the recommended scanners are McAfee’s
VirusScan and Symantec’s Norton Antivirus. These are
the two major virus scanners but there are also other
less well known ones like AVG from Grisoft and eTrust
ezAntivirus from Computer Associates. You must ensure that as soon as the program is installed you update
its signature files. This is because the program’s virus
definition files were created several months ago and are
woefully out-of-date. New viruses are discovered every
week and if your signatures are not up-to-date your
computer is not being protected. I would recommend
updating the signature files at least once a week. Both
McAfee and Symantec usually release updates on
Thursday or Friday so doing the update around this
time is advisable.
2) NEVER NEVER NEVER click or open email attachments that you were not expecting, EVEN IF THEY
ARE FROM FRIENDS OR FAMILY MEMBERS! This
is because the current round of viruses and worms
spread by emailing themselves to people using the addresses contained in Outlook and Outlook Express address books. There are also viruses that will scan the
files in your browser’s cache looking for email addresses and in turn use these addresses to send their in-
fected payload. These viruses or worms may or may not
use Outlook’s mail program to send the infected email
out. Some of these viruses come with their own email
application so that you are not even aware of the outgoing messages! If you open an attachment by clicking on
it you may be infecting your computer with a new virus
or worm that is not yet known by your virus scanner. So
if you receive an attachment from a friend or family
member and were NOT expecting the attachment, then
contact the sender and make sure that they indeed intentionally sent you the attachment.
3) Always make sure that your virus scanner is running in
the background so that it is scanning files as you open
them. I have heard people saying that they disable this
feature and scan everything that they download before
running it. That is fine if you ALWAYS remember to
scan the downloaded files, and you never open attachments, but it only takes one instance where you forget
to scan a file etc. and instead open it and wind up having an infected computer.
4) If you receive an email from someone warning you of a
newly discovered virus that will wreak havoc on your
computer and the message tells you to pass this “valuable information” on to others or to delete files from
your hard drive. DON’T. Make sure that this warning is
not a hoax. There are several web sites that you can
consult:
http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/hoax.html
http://www.antivirus.com/vinfo/hoaxes/hoax.asp
February/March 2002
Report from the January 2002 General Meeting
P
? by Brian Lowe, WPCUG
resident Art Cavenagh opened the meeting at 7:00
p.m., welcoming members and guests.
Announcements
Our next general meeting will be February 21, with Neil
Longmuir doing a presentation on digital cameras.
The group is starting a preventative maintenance program.
For $20, members can bring their computer to the resource
centre, where trained volunteers will clean out the dust, scan
the system for viruses, defragment the file systems, and look
for common problems. As part of this, we will require every
user to purchase, install, and keep up to date an antivirus
program. The group is looking at reselling one of Norton
Anti-Virus, McAfee Viruscan, or NoD32.
Members bringing their computers to the Saturday Install/Drop-in forum will be asked to sign a waiver releasing
the WPCUG from liability in the case of damage to their
systems, and requiring a monetary donation for services.
Professional shop rates for this type of work are $40.00/hour
and up, while at the WPCUG we have been receiving less
than $1.00/hour for the work. We would like to continue this
service, but not at such a low rate. The membership dues
cover the costs of the newsletter and the resource centre;
they do not include many hours of free work on your machine.
Presentation
The main presentation for the evening was “Music from the
Internet,” by long time user group member Paul Kesson.
Music is one of the things a computer can do well. Almost
every computer sold today has audio hardware of some
quality in it, and good audio cards are inexpensive. Connected to a decent pair of speakers or a home audio system,
music from the computer is as good as that which comes
over the airwaves or off a CD. Audiophiles dislike the compromises made by the MP3 format to squeeze as much audio
information as possible into very tight spaces, but most ears
are hard pressed to tell the difference.
MP3 is the format of choice. A good MP3 encoder can fit a
minute of music into about a megabyte of disk space; the
average disk drive sold today is 20 gigabytes. That’s space
enough for 20,000 minutes of music, or nearly two weeks of
round-the-clock tunes. Add to that a computer’s ability to
catalogue, index, and retrieve a given selection in seconds,
it’s little wonder that people who get bitten by the MP3 bug
find their CD players and old turntables collecting dust.
The small size of MP3 files also makes them easy to share.
Napster flashed brightly but briefly across the Internet two
years ago, facilitating the exchange of millions of pieces of
music between people all over the globe. Partly for copyright reasons, partly to protect their money making machine,
the big music distribution companies managed to shut
Napster down. But the genie is out of the bottle. Other music and file sharing programs have popped up since
Napster‘s demise, and the big music companies have been
playing whack-a-mole trying to keep them all down.
KaZaA is the latest shot in the share-vs-hoard battles that
have sprung up over music on the Internet. The popular file
sharing program has just become unavailable for download,
and the company’s ownership has changed from the Netherlands to Australia, so its fate remains uncertain. Enter
WinMX.
WinMX‘s main strength is its queuing mechanism. Unlike
Napster, which opened as many connections to a server as
were requested, the WinMX server queues requests. However, the servers are simply home computers connected to
the Internet. Servers that promised to deliver the file may
suddenly go offline before getting to your place in the
queue, costing you both the file you wanted and your the request to retrieve it.
Another important thing to consider is WinMX — indeed,
almost any file sharing program — may contain spyware
that transmits information about your files to computers and
systems other than other client computers. A good example
of this is Audio Galaxy, which offers to install a program
called Gator that will remember all your passwords, and
store them on a different server somewhere on the web!
[EN: Your data (passwords, email adddress, credit card info,
etc.) DOES NOT leave your local machine. The only password that is stored externally is a front-end password that
gives you access to those passwords on your local machine,
and putting that password in is optional.] That’s the Internet
equivalent of a man who approaches you on the street and
offers to store your money safely in his wallet. KaZaA is
persistently rumoured to have spyware in it, and the more
careful people out there typically use a compatible program
called Morpheus.
As a file sharing program, Audio Galaxy takes an interesting approach. In addition to a client program that can be
downloaded to your computer, the company operates a web
site that works in conjunction with client software to maintain the catalogue of available files and the request queues.
Through it, users can have the service search for files even
while they are offline. The website is garish, with lots of animated GIFs, and replete with ads urging you to join up as a
“Gold Access Member,” even though the information page
for that service did not say what it costs.
Unfortunately, the search engines for most of the new file
sharing programs are no improvement over Napster’s simple “AND” mechanism. Requesting information on “Marilyn
Inch,” a folk artist from the Maritimes who specializes on
the tin whistle, is more likely to yield up hits on “Marilyn
Manson and Nine Inch Nails.” That’s a different genre altogether.
Most of the file sharing programs have built-in MP3 players
... that do not work.
Next, Paul demonstrated two programs designed to create
music CDs. CD-ROMs today are created in two different
formats: CDDA (CD Digital Audio or “audio”) format for
CDs designed to played in home players, and ISO-9660 or
“data” for data CDs designed to be used in a personal computer. (Enhanced music CDs typically have several CDDA
tracks and an ISO-9660 track for the PC.)
Nero is a good program for creating audio CDs. A time limited demo is available from their website at www.nero.com,
with full version available for $US50.00. The program lets
you build a CD track by track, can play tracks so you can
preview them before committing them to CD-R, and can
even break long selections into multiple tracks so they can
be easily moved to on a CD player. The most attractive of
Nero’s features is a good set of filters to help you clean up
the tracks: normalize, de-click, stereo widening, karaoke,
echo, and equalizer.
The other CD writing program Paul demonstrated was Easy
CD Creator from Adaptec (Roxio), which is shipped with
many CD-R burners sold today. It lacks filters, but is easy to
use.
Getting music into MP3 format is accomplished by using
programs known as “rippers” which pull data off CDDAs
and create MP3 files from them. Making MP3 files from LP
or audio tape typically requires two programs: one to record
the audio from the sound card’s line in jack into WAV files,
and a second program called an “encoder” that converts the
WAVs into MP3s. Paul did not have enough time to cover
this topic, so he suggested people interested in this look for
programs on Tucows or Dave Central.
Random Access
Q. Why do I need a virus checking program? I have Second Chance, and it can roll back my computer to where
it was before I got the virus.
A. That approach has several flaws: you may be unable to
determine how far back to go; you will lose files and
changes you did between that date and today, and you
could well have passed the virus on to others in the
meantime. An antivirus program will prevent all three
problems by cutting off the virus at the source.
Q. Would keeping my address book on a floppy diskette
prevent the spread of email viruses?
A. Yes, at the cost of emasculating your e-mail program.
And that approach would do nothing to prevent the
spread of floppy-based viruses or malicious macros hidden inside word processing documents.
Q. What about Norton Anti-Virus’s email checker?
February/March 2002
A. It’s flaky. It works by setting up a proxy server between
you and your real email provider. Several recent viruses
have their own email program encoded inside them, bypassing the proxy server completely. Also, on its own
NAV checks email just after it comes in.
Q. A member has just installed a CD writer, and every time
Windows 98 boots it tries to install the drivers, and fails
with an error.
A. Try turning off Universal Plug and Play.
Q. A member got a custom version of Internet Explorer
from Videon. Now he wants to install an update to IE,
but the update refuses to install (“you already have that
version”) and he can’t uninstall the Videon version.
A. Try re-installing the Videon version again, and seeing if
you can uninstall that.
Q. Should I replace Windows ME with Windows 2000?
A. You may be able to install both on the same computer.
Be aware Windows 2000 has poorer driver support.
Q. For the last several weeks, a member’s Norton Antivirus
LiveUpdate has insisted there are no updates to be applied.
A. Try updating manually. There is a known problem with
LiveUpdate; check the support web site.
Q. Does anyone have any experience with dual-booting
Linux and Windows XP, when XP is already installed?
Will shifting the Windows XP partition down by one
cylinder to make space for a Linux boot partition affect
XP at all?
A. XP has its own boot manager, but finding documentation on it may be difficult. If you have Boot Manager
from PowerQuest, install it first, and have a rescue diskette handy.
Door Prize
Microsoft Money 2002 Deluxe
Winner: Bill Neufeld
Buck For Your Butt
Kool Karaoke from eatsleepmusic.com
Mug from TimeSlips
Stress Ball bearing the logo “Logitech iFeel”
Winner: Emil Sosnowski
Emil gave this package to another member
Program: Outcast from Infograms
T-Shirt: “Don’t Stop The Music”
Personal-size whiteboard from
Winner: Emil Sosnowski
February/March 2002
Winnipeg PC User
Group Forums
? by Paul Kesson, 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.
February/March 2002
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
P.O. Box 3149
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 4E6
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.
10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Leader: Barb Randle
Digital Imaging FORUM
Meets the second Wednesday in APRIL. 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Leader: Neil Longmuir
Games FORUM
Meets Fourth Monday of the month.
Leader: Eric Molicard
Hardware/Internet FORUM
Meets the Fourth Saturday of the month. 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Leaders: Jon Phillips & Greg McClure
Home Networking FORUM
Meets the first Tuesday of the month 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Leader: Karl Strieby
Install/Drop-In FORUM
Meets First and Third Saturdays of the month. 10:00 a.m. - 4:00
p.m.
Leaders: Jon Phillips and Greg McClure
Introduction to Computers FORUM
Meets the fourth Thursday of the month 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Leader: Barb Randle
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
Web Design FORUM
Meets the First Wednesday of the month.7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Leader: Emil Sosnowski
Windows FORUM
Meets the second Tuesday of the month
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Leader: Myles Munro
WordPerfect FORUM
Meets the second Wednesday in MARCH.
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Leader: Neil Longmuir
All forums are subject to last minute cancellation!
Please read the UG weekly email “blast” or visit
our website to view monthly Forum Calendars!
Name: (last, First, Initial)
Home Address:
City:Postal Code:
Home Phone:Business Phone:
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Bill Method:
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Card #:
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Expiry Date
Direct withdrawal from Bank Account Mo
(provide sample void cheque)
Bank
Signature:
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/
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.
WPCUG Membership NOT required for ISP Membership!
February/March 2002
Tellier Electronics Ltd.
·
Computer Sales and service
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On site service and maintenance
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1388 Spruce St. 774-1741
988-3236
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Feb / Mar - The Winnipeg PC User Group

Transcription

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