% Editor, Art Gresham 249 East Vermont Ave Escondido, CA 92025

~~----.:!.~~~_~
;
_~~~
r~
-....:.-.~_
.~
% Editor, Art Gresham
249 East Vermont Ave
Escondido, CA 92025
November 2003 ~
UCHUG NEWSLETfER
Expire: 12/1/2003
ARTHUR W. GRESHAM
249 EAST VERMONT AVE.
ESCONDIDO CA 92025
Meeting Place: San Diego County Education Center, 6401 Linda VistaRoad, November 5 , 2003 at 7 :00 PM. In Room
\
PAGE
NOVEMBER
2
PAGE 15
DRIVE LIGHT
More words on PASSWORDS
During the recent meeting presentation
on XP and the topic of Passwords was
discussed at some length.
UCHUG NEWSLETTER
The P~ez' Co~ne~
by G\v-e9 Skalka
[email protected]
The Saga of One
Computer Upgrade - Part LVI
It is either feast or famine. Each
month I seem to have either little to
say or a lot to convey. This is one of
those months that I have to decide
what to leave for the next issue.
Chapter 97
Broadband for Bonzo
I've had broadband (cable) Internet
access for three weeks now. It is fast.
I can usually get over 2 Mbps
downloading, and over 300 Kbps uploading. Unfortunately, my cable
setup is not quite ready for prime time.
r am the only person in my household
able to use it right now, and it is not
that convenient even for me.
Rather than tell this tale through
flashbacks, I'll start at the beginning.
At the end of last month, I finally gave
in to my family and decided to get
broadband. I had been researching it
for the previous month, and decided to
get broadband cable from EarthLink.
Of my cable options, it was tfueleast
expensive. My cable company, Time
Warner Cable, offers three broadband
choices, Roadrunner (their own service), Earthl.ink and AOL Broadband.
Each is priced the same on Time Warner's website, and eaoh has the same
Internet access, as Time Warner supplies access for them all. There are
some minor differences in things like
e-mail, but all appeared to be pretty
much the same. I have two friends on
EarthLink broadband, and they
claimed that EarthLink was advertising
a special introductory rate. On both
Time Warner and 'EarthLink's sites,
new subscribers got abeut half off for
the first three months. I did find from
my investigation that EarthLink's site
advertised a lower normal rate than
Time Warner's site for the EarthLink
service. When I called Time Warner
and asked about it, they acknowledged
that I could get the same EarthLink
the PREZ' Comer
(Continued on page 4)
In August, The Langa List featured the
subject of regaining access to your own
PC when the password has been lost
< htlp:llwww.informationweek.com/
storylshowArticle.jhtml?
articlelD=131 00343 >
The top reasons for people using the
service are not what you'd expect and
serve as cautionary advice.
Fourth place is registry file corruption
often due to an unexpected power loss.
Third place is forgetfulness.
Second place is when a oomputer has
just been removed from a Windows demain without first checking that the local administrator password was known.
A 'Domain Administrator account would
have been used to authorize the computer leaving the domain but, after a
reboot, only local acoounts are valid.
The single most popular reason why
people lose access to their computer is
because the computer, usually a home
one, was set to auto-logon, and something has happened to disturb the autologon process. The user is seeing a pass-
word prompt for the first time and has
no idea what to enter.
My advice is that M matter how much
you hate a password on yOW"home computer it's safer to have a simple one that,
by typing it in every day, you won't forget.
It's interesting to note that in the last 3
years the average home computer has
changed from having a trivial, usually
non-existent, password requirement
(95/98) to a serious unforgiving password-based security system (2000IXP).
The Linux boot disk is certainly a powerful tool but I find that no single
method works 100% of the time and so
it's best to use a collection of techniques
then, if "Plan A" fails there's always
Plans B and C to fall back on, It's very
rare for all methods to fail.
Sometimes when off ..line access to a
computer's hard drive is proving difficult the simplest way can be to extract
the lost password from a recent backup
of the registry.
One last tip: there are a surprising number of computers around where the administrator password is blank so give
that! a try if you get stuck.
Got Spam?
This report is a few months old, but still 100% germane:
From the Business Section ofthe Washington Post... a study of spam & why
we're receiving it by the Center for Democracy & Technology.
<hftp:llwww.cdt.org/speech/spam/030319spamreport.shtml>
....
'
NOVEMBER
PAGE 14
DRIVE LIGHT
.
,
A Linux Positive ...
It's based on Red Hat 9, maintains full compatibility it, but
tweaks it to include all the good multimedia features a home
desktop user need. It also has a very helpful forum to receive
support from it's community ....which is excellent BTW.
Deleting "Internet Logs" and ZoneAlarm Log
Here's the newest iIDd'll).ostpowerful batch file in this popular hard-drive-cleanup
series. <http://WVIiw:langa.c6m/cleaI19x.htm> , Note that you can evenintegrate Clean9x.Bat into your Recycle Bin menu!
And in a recent update to cleanvx.bat slightly modified to find Temporary Internet Files in other locations. For example:
C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files
C:\WINDOWS\Protiles\(name]\Temporary
Internet Files
C:\WINDOWS\Protiles\[name]\Local
Settings\Temporary Internet Files
C:\WINDOWS\LOcai Settings'Temporary Internet Files
While looking space I could free up today I came across a folder which had 152
megs offiles in C:\wrNpOWS\Internet
Logs
,
It contained tiles with names like ZALog2003.07.02.txt and xDBE335.TMP but
the big one was tvDebug.log (24 megs). "The folder Internet Logs is created by
ZoneAlarm ..."
Using Google I found an explanation at
http://forums.tech,!uy.orfJIt128272/s4752770a473af3b76974a60050857fd8.html
,
Secretarv 5
Reports
Free ;LINUX versian available
Just thought I'd pass along a link to a linux
distribution based on Red Hat. It's called JAMD and is
available at http://,,,,ww.j~d-linux.coI?/
.
PAGE 3
'Ray :ferfjyache
[email protected]
C. eneral Meeting
q October 1, 2003
The meeting was held in Room 401,
San Diego County Office of Education complex; 6401 Linda Vista Rd.
The meeting was called to order by
President Greg Skalka at 7:12, The
president welcomed approximately 41
members and guests.
REPORTS:
President: The President discussed
the meeting events. Complementary
copies of the Drive Light were passed
out to visitors.
'
Membership: The chairman discussed the benefits and cost of being
part of the UCHUG,
................
;..'
....
Webmaster: The Webmaster displayed our WebSite and discussed the
new items on the site for the membership. We now have free e-mail accounts for UCHUG members. Use
from your browser or a POP3 email
program, If you are interested please
contact us at the following address:
webmasters@uchug,org
The President introduced the Slate of
Officers for the next year. There was a
motion from the .110orto accept the
slate as recommended. The motion
was seconded and approved by voice
vote. The Board is looking for a replacement Treasurer.' wn is expecting
to do some traveling next year and
asked to be replaced. No other nominations were made from the floor. The
Board of Directors was accepted for
service next year.
Jim Berger reported on a supply of
information and vender products
available from the ACPUG
(Association of Personal User
Groups) Conference held in August.
We ask that you send an EMail to any
vender which has provided you with
products as a Thank You and to keep
up the support of User Groups, Please
give the group a.Review of any products you may use for their information,
"
,','
}
Reports (Continued on page 6)
PAGE
4
the PREZ' Corner
NOVEMBER
(Continuedfrom page 2)
service for $3 less per month by ordering it through EarthLink, rather
than through Time Warner. That's a
no-brainer. I called EarthLink.
I did consider DSL as well. Another
friend has SBC Yahoo DSL and pays
about $10 per month less than my normal rate. Though less expensive, they
require a one year contract, and my
friend reports his download speed is
about half of mine. My father has
also been looking into broadband, and
signed up for SBe Yahoo DSL. After
I signed up with EarthLink, a Time
Warner installer was able to come out
within three days to
set up my access. It
has been nearly two
weeks since my father
signed up for DSL,
and he has yet to receive his access.
13
December Party Reminder
in the mail that day. I was on the Information Autobahn!
Remember that December is our annual holiday auction. Clean up .your workbench,
and desk, clean out that Techno-geek-closet today for unused software and hardware
donations. So arrive early to look over the bargains that the other members have donated. You might find some gifts for the grandkids, or fill that missing space on your
own network.
. Chapter 98
The Cable Amp
Since I was not set up for full Internet
security yet, I surfed a few web sites
to make sure the connection worked,
and then disconnected the cable modem and hooked my cable up as before. My plan was to split the incoming cable into two lines. One would
go over a new RG-6 coax cable across
the garage to my office (above the
garage), where the cable modem and
router would be located. The other
would go into
my video amp, and
out to my TVs.
Later I would put
splitters on the amp
outputs to supply
video to new cable
runs I would install
••••for additional TVs. I
was even going to
pull a second coax cable to my office,
in case I wanted to install a TV tuner
card some day (rather than split my
feed to the cable modem).
PLUS We will have raffle tickets on sale for our big gift certificate prizes and some
of the best of the donated items. You could walk away with a $100 gift certificate, or
a computer, printer or other fme item.
oi, and did we mention the food? Well, our policy is that if you bring it, we will eat
it. So the smorgasbord will include everything home made candies, KFC, Chip &
Dip, Nuts 'and Bolts, and some old family recipe specialties. But only if YOU bring
it! We will bring the drinks. You bring the donations, cash and food.
Party On
_----------_line
Our yresU{ent is
fina{{y on the
Information
5t.utobahn!
I didn't have cable
•••••
run to any of the computers in the house yet, so I had the
cable installer hook up to my laptop in
my garage, where the cable comes
into the house. I was running my cable through a two-output video amplitier to the two televisions in the house
I fastened lengths of 3/4" PVC sprinon cable. The installer did not recom- . kler pipe to the rafters in the garage to
mend using the amp, and so gave me a both support and protect the new coax
3: 1 splitter to hook up to the cable
going to my office. I installed two
modem he provided. After running
lengths of RG-6 coax and one CATS
some tests on the cable and connectEthernet cable through the sprinkler
ing and powering the modem, he gave
pipe to my office. If some day I
me a Time Warner High Speed Online
wanted to switch to DSL, I could use
installation CD. After installing the
the CATS to carry the phone line up
software on my laptop and connecting
to my office to the DSL modem.
to the modem with an Ethernet cable,
I was connected to the Internet. I::Ie
After setting up the cable modem in
also gave me a duplicate of the Earthmy office, I tried it again with my lapLink welcome packet I had received
top, but found the access as slow as
PAGE
DRIVE LIGHT
.50utnwest
User Group Conference Wrapup
by Jim Berger
Seven or more members of UCHUG
attended the 10th annual Southwest
User Group Conf~rence on .August 8th
t~ough the 10th nght here ill San
DIego.
The conference gave participants a
chance to explore issues ranging from
communicating to members, to pocket
PCs. In fact, hats off to Don Baker of
Klassic Specialties for his excellent
presentation, "Demystifying Inkjet
Printers & Paper." We may even get, a
chance to see Don at one of our
.
UCHUG meetings.
fi
A marathon raft1e of goods from vendors who helped sponsor the event was
held on Saturday night. It was not announced as a marathon, but after an
hour-and-a-half, at the very end of the
evening, all attendees who remained to
the end were thoroughly exhausted.
Nevertheless, the grand prize for the
evening was an IBM Think Pad that
was given away by the representatives
from Intel.
The conference marked a good chance
to compare notes with other user groups
in the region and even from further
reaches across the country. And the
vendors were generous, both in terms of
the product that they gave away and
through their joint sponsorship of the
conference as a whole. Through corporate sponsorship, cost to attendees was
held at 40 dollars.
Conference organizers have asked attending user groups to recognize the
vendors, who provided prizes, brochures, and other material for the attendees.
Much of the material from one attendee
bag was made available to the UCHUG
members at the October meeting. The
remaining materials will be at the next
meeting as well.
If you benefited from any of those items
please write an email to the vendor expressing your appreciation for their participation in the Conference
PAGE
12
NOVEMBER
dial-up. I used an online speed test
on <www.dslreports.com> and
found my download speed was only
40 Kbps, and my upload speed was
18 Kbps. What was wrong? Was
there too much loss in the 40 ft. coax
cable run to the modem? Was there
something wrong with my newly purchased 2: 1 cable splitter? I brought
the laptop and cable modem back into
the garage and speed-tested the cable
coming into the house, which gave
2400 K down / 250 K up. I tried the
cable guy's 3:1 splitter, and it was
OK. I tried my 2:1 splitter and the
amp, and the access was slow again.
I put the cable modem back in my
office to try with the 3:1 splitter, but
found I couldn't use the speed test.
That web site allows only about four
tests per day per IP address.
UCHUG FALL COMPUTER CLINIC REMINDER
Remember that the meeting time this month will be devoted to a public computer clinic. If you, or a friend, has a computer with a problem you may bring
it ( with your friend!) to the November Meeting. Please note the following
carefully:
1.•EMail us ( [email protected]) before the meeting so we may plan to
have enough table space.
2. Bring the full system. We may not have the unique parts needed to
power up your system. Checklist the following;
0' Computer box, with power cord
0' Monitor with power cord and cables
0' Keyboard and mouse
0' Other peripherals that may be involved ( External modem, Scanner,
EMAIL: Members helping Members
Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003
Editor: Since seven UCHUG members use ADNC for E Mail, I thought
this information would be of interest
if they are not already aware of a
problem.
is being ignored. So those of us who
use ADNC and have need to contact
any att.net user is out ofluck at this
time.
When I got back to testing a few days
later, I found the cable up to my office and the 2:1 splitter were OK.
What apparently was causing the
problem was the video amp, even
though it was installed downstream
from the cable modem. It was an inexpensive, 10 year old video amp that
must be putting interference out on its
input port and disrupting the signal to
the modem. I'd have to look into getting a better amp to drive all my TV
feeds, but for now, I'll just use the 3:1
splitter.
Thought you might consider this information worthy of consideration for
the DRIVE LIGHT.
Att.net is using a program that block's
ADNC EMail messagestoatt.net
Thanks Frank Tabor; Member.
recipients. I discovered this when
my daughter (who uses att.net) failed
to receive E Main sent to her reThe editor forwarded Frank's email
cently. Undelivered mail revealed that to all current UCHUG members with
host gatewayl.att.net {204.127.134.
either ATT or ADNC addresses. The
23}said:
following Email updated the incident:
"550-206.251.248.23 blocked byblacklistmail.ops.worldnet. att,
net.550". Att.net advises if you feel
the email was incorrectly rejected to
contact [email protected] and
include your email server IP Address.
The problem is that the IP Address is
classified information, according to
ADNC, and att.net knows that.
ADNC is in contact with att.net, but
Chapter 99
SpinRite Security
Wed: 15 Oct 2003
Editor; it appears that ADNC and
AIT.NET have smoked a peace-pipe
because the last two test messages to
my daughter cleared their blocks
without a problem. Maybe your message to other ADNC users inspired
protests that bore fruit.
Frank
--
-
----
PAGE
DRIVE LIGHT
Steve Gibson, of Gibson Research
author of the old
hard disk testing utility SpinRite, is
now into Internet security. He has a
lot of great information on his web
site, as well as a security test, Shields
<www.grc.com>
__
I
5
UP! I used his site to configure my
laptop to close Microsoft's network
security loopholes. While I don't yet .
have my router set up, and am not yet
using firewall software, it is a start.
Rotten Rebates
I use rebates a lot. I usually have
more than 10 rebates pending at any
given time. I keep track of my rebates in my DayTimer, and so far
have managed to get almost all I have
submitted. Costco is excellent, as far
as rebates go. The rebate forms print
on their cash register tape, and you
often don't have to submit the product's UPS label. I always receive
their rebates well ahead of the time
they say to allow for.
At the opposite end of the rebate
spectrum are those rebates handled by
TCA Fulfillment Services, the rebate
processing company with the web site
of <www.wheresmyrebate.com>
After my experiences with them, I
believe their web site is well named,
as that is probably what most consumers dealing with them are asking.
This month I finally received my $10
rebate for a product I purchased in
November 2002!
I purchased a Netgear PCMCIA
Ethernet adapter for my laptop last
November, with a $10 rebate. I submitted everything on time, and waited
my 8 weeks with no check arriving in
the mail. I called the number on the
rebate form, which was for TCA Fulfillment Services, which must have
been hired by Netgear to handle their
rebate processing. They said my submission was approved, and the check
the PREZ' Corner
(Continued on page J J)
NOVEMBER
PAGE 6
DRIVE LIGHT
(Continued from page 3) Reports
The "I Teach You" web site was
brought up and we continued our support of Gini Pedersen and her site at
<http://www.iteachyou.com>.
Gini
runs a question and answer feature on
the Site to help anyone with a problem.
The membership is urged to help by
visiting the site when you can and helping answer the questions. [ see spotlight
article about Gini on page 8]
The President described our UCHUG
Computer Clinic which will be the
main effort at next months meeting.
Bring your problems in for us to help
you solve. The group asks that you
bring your complete system so that
problems may be recognized if it is in
the support equipments. We must also
say the Group can not be liable for the
condition of any machine worked on at
the Clinic. We ask the member to keep
track of his or her machine and to do a
backup of the data files prior to the
meeting.
PROGRAM:
The President gave a Power Point Presentation which the we received from a
firm in Los Angeles who presented at
the ACPUG Conference. The subject
was "Computer and Credit Fraud". The
presentation went through all the scams
and ways that people have had their
Identity and Personal Information stolen and used to steal money from the
individual.
A short Random Access was held.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:56.
the PREZ'
~
oard Meeting
OOctober
15,2003
The meeting was called to order at the
home of Mike Trempe at 7:20 p.m. by
President Greg Skalka In attendance
were Greg Skalka, Al Brengle, Abbott
Brownell (Welcome back from Maine),
Dave Marston, Art Gresham, Bob
Woods, Mike Trempe, Ray Ferbrache,
Jim Berger and Wil Wakely.
IJ
The board welcomed a new member
David Marston to the group. David is a
very experienced computer person with
a lot to bring to our table. WELCOME!
REPORTS:
President - Vice President - SecretaryNothing to report.
Treasurer - Reported intlow of funds
for the month 01'$190.00 with and outtlow of $134.70 tor a gain of $55.30 tor
the month. The board discussed getting
a second signature on the checking account (President) and the need tor a
replacement Treasurer. For any member of the Group who would like to participate on the board, this position is
open but we would welcome' a Member
at Large and would get another of the
board to fulfill the duties of the Treasurer.
Membership - Reported 2 new members last month. We currently have 61
active members with 2 up for renewal
in October and 2 in November. The
active membership is holding above the
60 mark.
Reports (Continued on page 7)
Comer
(Continuedfrom
page 5)
would be mailed in two months. When I
called again after two months and two
weeks, they said my check had been returned by the Post Office as undeliverable. The address they had for me was
correct, so they tried to send it again.
After a second return, I gave them my
work address to send it to. This attempt
they also claimed was returned by the
Post Office as undeliverable. Meanwhile, I submitted a $25 rebate for another company's product that they also
were processing, and also claimed was
undeliverable to my home address. I
was beginning to see a pattern here, that
TCA seemed to not want to send me my
money. Perhaps they get a cut on any
rebates not paid. In any case, I continued to battle with them over both rebates
until the $lO check finally appeared out
of the blue at my work. I'm still waiting
for my $25 check.
Now I will avoid any rebates handled by
TCA Fulfillment Services, and I have
~tarted writing letters to companies that
use them for processing their product's
rebates. The rebate saga continues ...
Gy;
2002 - UCHUG - 2003
EXECUTIVE BOARD
"
President ..
VP
.
Secretary ..
Treasurer ..
WebMaster
Editor. ....
Membership.
O-a-L.
.
O-a-L.
.
O-a-L.
.
O-a-L.
.
O-a-L.
.
Greg Skalka
Al Brengle
Ray Ferbrache
Wil Wakely
Bob Woods
Art Gresham
Sandy Shapiro
Abbott Brownell
Virginia Faber
Mike Trempe
JirnBerger
David Marston
858.484-7024
619.588.0674
619.275-2718
858.274-6043
858.486-4485
858.354-6939
858.454-2341
619.698-1506
619.276-4775
619.283-3543
619.460-8338
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
r
PAGE 10
NOVEMBER
WHAT'S BUrning??
4/~~~~
Dateline: Tuesday, Oct 28, 2003
Hey Editor,
,
No "What's New ??"this month. My
mind has been on other things the past
few days.
We were out of town until Saturday.
Woke up Sunday to billowing clouds of
smoke. By Sunday afternoon we were
packing up to leave and we have yet to
unpack for obvious reasons. Fire moved
fast coming very close (about a mile)
and burned several homes on the hillside
opposite our development. Stood and
watched from the front on Community.
For awhile we were watching two fire
lines as they burned around the Poway
business park and on through Scripps
Ranch and on our opposing hills. Currently it is still burning about two miles
away as the crow flies up by the rodeo
park and soccer fields off Twin Peaks
and Espola Road and up as far as Lake
Poway and east to Highland Valley
Road. They were even considering for
awhile when the wind changed yesterday
evacuating Pomerado Hospital and surrounding areas. - Your old stamping
grounds. We have friends down that way
who have also packed up ready just in
case.
Today the wind has completely died
out - Thank God - but the smoke is so
thick you can barely see the next house.
It's been twilight for most ofthe day and
is already getting dark. Very eerie. I've
[email protected]
been home for the past two days, S.D.
City Schools are closed, [ ALL schools,
ALL week-ed ] Bob was home yesterday and is back today but lots of his coworkers are out. Many have homes in
Alpine, Valley Center, Scripps Ranch,
and Tierrasanta Hopefully, you're well
out of it where you're are. Unfortunately, the smoke is everywhere.
Take care and stay safe.
We know that many of our members have
been affected by the San Diego county
fires this past week. We know many live
in areas very close to the fires.
If anyone knows of someone in our
group who lost homes or property please
let the group know at any of our email
addresses on the executive board
In the meantime, go to our website:
WWW.UCHUG.ORG
There you will
find our :
• LIBRARY
LINKS, updated every
month with new jewels, useful things
you might not have found yet.
• TIPS that you can use right away to
improve your system
• COOL STUFF for really neat new
hardware
• DRIVE LIGHT "LIGHT" with all
the links printed in the newsletter,
conveniently entered for your point
and click enjoyment.
Reminder: For easy access to all these WWW links visit our website
and go to the DRIVE LIGHT 'lIGHT' page. No More Typing!
DRIVE LIGHT
(Continued/rom
page 6) Reports
Editor - October is a long month with
the meeting falling a week into the
month. Inputs were requested by the
26th.
WebMaster - Presentation on the Security and Fraud will be posted to the
UCHUG web site for all to download
and view at their leisure.
PROGRAMS:
November - UCHUG Computer Clinic.
Bring your problems to the meeting and
get answers (Fixes) and help others. We
are concerned about the total number of
people who may show up. Please come
and participate. The President will get
notices forwarded to the San Diego
computer Society for their Web Page
and to Computer Edge for the upcoming edition.
December - Annual Holiday Cheer and
Auction. The Group will hold its get
together and party in room 401 as usual.
Bring your favorite finger food or snack
to share and bring your outdated or un-to
used computer/software item for the
raffle.
January - The tentative program is on
Knoppix. <http://www.knoppix.
netf'>This website is about Knoppix, a
Free and Open Source Live Linux CD.
Knoppix is a GNUlLinux distribution
that boots runs completely from cd. It
includes recent Linux software and
desktop environments, with programs
such as OpenOftlce.org, Abiword, The
Gimp, Konqueror, Mozilla, and hundreds more quality open source programs. More information can be obtained from the local LINUX group's
PAGE
7
website at
<http://www.kernel-panic.org/>
February - Will Wakely will inform us
on the state of the art in voice recognition software. He will demonstrate
"Dragon dictate" - The Dragon
NaturallySpeaking 7 family of products
is the fast, easy and accurate way to
turn speech into text. Users can dictate
into virtually any windows-based application at speeds up to 160 words per
minute and achieve higher levels of accuracy than ever before. More information can be found at <http://www.
scansoft.com/naturallyspeaking/>
There was no Old Business.
New Business: The Board discussed
the gift certificates for the drawing at
the Holiday Party. There will be 1 $100
and 2 $50 gift certificates provided by
the Group as part of the Auction ana
Raffle.
The Board agreed to have more information on the WebSite with links to
.other groups and places of information
get better Exposure/Accessibility for
members surfing the UCHUG.ORG
Remember our
holiday auction
at the December
meeting. Check
your workbench,
and desk today for
unused software and
hardware donations.
------
PAGE 8
NOVEMBER
The Woman Behind
ITeachYou.com
'By Jim 'Berger members-at-large
UCHUG has been blessed over the
years by it's association with one
well organized, master of computer
basics in the person of Gini Pedersen. When she gives a presentation
on writing HTML code or working
with Visio, as we saw this past
spring, the process flows like hot butter. Valuable tips and techniques
gush forth in a cogent, wellconsidered design.
Although rarely seen at UCHUG
meetings (she keeps a busy schedule), Gini has captured our interest
and enthusiasm for our shared dedication to demystifying computers.
In addition to being an excellent instructor, Gini maintains a significant
Web site at <http://www.iteachyou.
com>. UCHUG now dedicates its
knowledge base toward addressing
questions on Gini's internet, question/answer board at that Web site.
But what can be said about the dynamic woman of computers in our
community?
Gini is so modest that you won't find
anything at her Web site, so I asked
her directly and give you Gini Pedersen's story in her own words:
I started working with computers in the
early 70s -- teaching customers how to
use a clumsy, bulky mag ledger Philips
accounting system. Even got into a
little programming (punched cards, assembler language) on these systems.
Next experience with computers was
~
--~~
while working at the Chargers, from
1979 to 1985, entering down/distance/
field position info (taken from game
films) for our upcoming opponent so
the coaches could plan offense and defense strategies.
Meanwhile, I bought my first Apple
(lIe?) computer and, of course, needed
to try some programming on it too,
when I got tired of playing one of the
few games available at the time.
It's been computers, computers, computers ever since. And then Idiscovered community college teaching and
finally found ajob I truly enjoy. I
started teaching office skills and graduated into teaching computers as soon as
they arrived in the classroom. Other
than a brief, full-time stint in private
industry (experiencing my share of layoffs), I've been teaching continuously
at SDCCD since 1986 with no end in
sight (if State budgets cooperate). In
addition, I still do a small amount of
development and delivery of training
programs for private industry.
When I started my first Web-based,
message board several years ago-yes,
my hope was to help students in my
classes, but I also had a selfish reason
too--it allowed me to comfortably say
"I don't know" when asked questions I
didn't know and encourage the questioners to post their questions on the
message board, which, of course, gave
me time to look up an answer and learn
more along the way, myself. In addition, since many of the questions peo-
DRIVE LIGHT
pie have are similar to questions that
had already been asked, I was able to
update and re-use answers.
In time, I added a hit counter, which
allowed me to learn that many, many
more people were reading the various
postings than were actually posting;
themselves (about 10 to 1). So it became clear that others were benefiting
from the questions different people had
asked.
A couple of years ago, I found that I
couldn't keep up with the volume of
questions and that many of the questions were outside my areas of know 1edge or reach. It was then that I joined
forces with two other individuals -- Lutz
Winkler, from Senior Computer Group
and Ken Loomis, a teaching colleague
and computer consultant. And between
the three of us, we could handle more
types of questions.
PAGE 9
my association and friendship with fellowette UCHUGer, Virginia Faber. I
fondly recall many hours together as we
collaborated on the first Internet classes
to be taught at SDCCD --sneaking them
under the curriculum-review radar under the guise of "Telecommunications."
And, of course, no self-respecting computer geek is without a Web site. Mine
is www.ITeachYou.com. which I
started developing in 1996.
Come visit me at www.ITeachYou.com
and check the "My Pup, Rosebud" link
to meet my adorable mini-doxie (well.
maybe midi-doxie)--who allows my
hubby Roger and me to live in her
home.
Also be sure to click the "Ask a Question" link to join in on Our Message
Board. We welcome your questions and
responses you care to share with others.
Also, please feel free to add a signature
file with your posting that includes a
mention of the UCHUG group and Web
site.
But, even the three of us get stumped
frequently and have been so grateful for
added help from Sol Schumer of SDPC
User Group, Dick Lennon of Seniors
Computer Group, John Amrein, and the
list goes on. But still we get stumped at Gini Pedersen, Instructor
times--and occasionally get a bit behind FREE Classes at North City CET
http://www.iteachyou.com
in responding.
One of my greatest pleasures has been
Fraudulent Email Involving
Cox and Ebay
Some Cox High Speed Internet customers have received unsolicited email messages (SP AM) from individuals posing
as representatives of eBay and Cox.net.
The ernail requests that you enter both
your. eBay and Cox.net passwords.
Please be aware that these are fraudulent
emails, which are not sent by either
eBay or Cox! Cox recommends that you
refrain from providing any personally
identifiable information on unsolicited
email forms; hackers frequently use
these forms to illicitly obtain your password.
Changes to your password can only be
made through the Cox support site
(support.cox.net) or by calling a Cox
technical support representative.
The sender is posing as [email protected].
------
PAGE 8
NOVEMBER
The Woman Behind
ITeachYou.com
'By Jim 'Berger members-at-large
UCHUG has been blessed over the
years by it's association with one
well organized, master of computer
basics in the person of Gini Pedersen. When she gives a presentation
on writing HTML code or working
with Visio, as we saw this past
spring, the process flows like hot butter. Valuable tips and techniques
gush forth in a cogent, wellconsidered design.
Although rarely seen at UCHUG
meetings (she keeps a busy schedule), Gini has captured our interest
and enthusiasm for our shared dedication to demystifying computers.
In addition to being an excellent instructor, Gini maintains a significant
Web site at <http://www.iteachyou.
com>. UCHUG now dedicates its
knowledge base toward addressing
questions on Gini's internet, question/answer board at that Web site.
But what can be said about the dynamic woman of computers in our
community?
Gini is so modest that you won't find
anything at her Web site, so I asked
her directly and give you Gini Pedersen's story in her own words:
I started working with computers in the
early 70s -- teaching customers how to
use a clumsy, bulky mag ledger Philips
accounting system. Even got into a
little programming (punched cards, assembler language) on these systems.
Next experience with computers was
~
--~~
while working at the Chargers, from
1979 to 1985, entering down/distance/
field position info (taken from game
films) for our upcoming opponent so
the coaches could plan offense and defense strategies.
Meanwhile, I bought my first Apple
(lIe?) computer and, of course, needed
to try some programming on it too,
when I got tired of playing one of the
few games available at the time.
It's been computers, computers, computers ever since. And then Idiscovered community college teaching and
finally found ajob I truly enjoy. I
started teaching office skills and graduated into teaching computers as soon as
they arrived in the classroom. Other
than a brief, full-time stint in private
industry (experiencing my share of layoffs), I've been teaching continuously
at SDCCD since 1986 with no end in
sight (if State budgets cooperate). In
addition, I still do a small amount of
development and delivery of training
programs for private industry.
When I started my first Web-based,
message board several years ago-yes,
my hope was to help students in my
classes, but I also had a selfish reason
too--it allowed me to comfortably say
"I don't know" when asked questions I
didn't know and encourage the questioners to post their questions on the
message board, which, of course, gave
me time to look up an answer and learn
more along the way, myself. In addition, since many of the questions peo-
DRIVE LIGHT
pie have are similar to questions that
had already been asked, I was able to
update and re-use answers.
In time, I added a hit counter, which
allowed me to learn that many, many
more people were reading the various
postings than were actually posting;
themselves (about 10 to 1). So it became clear that others were benefiting
from the questions different people had
asked.
A couple of years ago, I found that I
couldn't keep up with the volume of
questions and that many of the questions were outside my areas of know 1edge or reach. It was then that I joined
forces with two other individuals -- Lutz
Winkler, from Senior Computer Group
and Ken Loomis, a teaching colleague
and computer consultant. And between
the three of us, we could handle more
types of questions.
PAGE 9
my association and friendship with fellowette UCHUGer, Virginia Faber. I
fondly recall many hours together as we
collaborated on the first Internet classes
to be taught at SDCCD --sneaking them
under the curriculum-review radar under the guise of "Telecommunications."
And, of course, no self-respecting computer geek is without a Web site. Mine
is www.ITeachYou.com. which I
started developing in 1996.
Come visit me at www.ITeachYou.com
and check the "My Pup, Rosebud" link
to meet my adorable mini-doxie (well.
maybe midi-doxie)--who allows my
hubby Roger and me to live in her
home.
Also be sure to click the "Ask a Question" link to join in on Our Message
Board. We welcome your questions and
responses you care to share with others.
Also, please feel free to add a signature
file with your posting that includes a
mention of the UCHUG group and Web
site.
But, even the three of us get stumped
frequently and have been so grateful for
added help from Sol Schumer of SDPC
User Group, Dick Lennon of Seniors
Computer Group, John Amrein, and the
list goes on. But still we get stumped at Gini Pedersen, Instructor
times--and occasionally get a bit behind FREE Classes at North City CET
http://www.iteachyou.com
in responding.
One of my greatest pleasures has been
Fraudulent Email Involving
Cox and Ebay
Some Cox High Speed Internet customers have received unsolicited email messages (SP AM) from individuals posing
as representatives of eBay and Cox.net.
The ernail requests that you enter both
your. eBay and Cox.net passwords.
Please be aware that these are fraudulent
emails, which are not sent by either
eBay or Cox! Cox recommends that you
refrain from providing any personally
identifiable information on unsolicited
email forms; hackers frequently use
these forms to illicitly obtain your password.
Changes to your password can only be
made through the Cox support site
(support.cox.net) or by calling a Cox
technical support representative.
The sender is posing as [email protected].
r
PAGE 10
NOVEMBER
WHAT'S BUrning??
4/~~~~
Dateline: Tuesday, Oct 28, 2003
Hey Editor,
,
No "What's New ??"this month. My
mind has been on other things the past
few days.
We were out of town until Saturday.
Woke up Sunday to billowing clouds of
smoke. By Sunday afternoon we were
packing up to leave and we have yet to
unpack for obvious reasons. Fire moved
fast coming very close (about a mile)
and burned several homes on the hillside
opposite our development. Stood and
watched from the front on Community.
For awhile we were watching two fire
lines as they burned around the Poway
business park and on through Scripps
Ranch and on our opposing hills. Currently it is still burning about two miles
away as the crow flies up by the rodeo
park and soccer fields off Twin Peaks
and Espola Road and up as far as Lake
Poway and east to Highland Valley
Road. They were even considering for
awhile when the wind changed yesterday
evacuating Pomerado Hospital and surrounding areas. - Your old stamping
grounds. We have friends down that way
who have also packed up ready just in
case.
Today the wind has completely died
out - Thank God - but the smoke is so
thick you can barely see the next house.
It's been twilight for most ofthe day and
is already getting dark. Very eerie. I've
[email protected]
been home for the past two days, S.D.
City Schools are closed, [ ALL schools,
ALL week-ed ] Bob was home yesterday and is back today but lots of his coworkers are out. Many have homes in
Alpine, Valley Center, Scripps Ranch,
and Tierrasanta Hopefully, you're well
out of it where you're are. Unfortunately, the smoke is everywhere.
Take care and stay safe.
We know that many of our members have
been affected by the San Diego county
fires this past week. We know many live
in areas very close to the fires.
If anyone knows of someone in our
group who lost homes or property please
let the group know at any of our email
addresses on the executive board
In the meantime, go to our website:
WWW.UCHUG.ORG
There you will
find our :
• LIBRARY
LINKS, updated every
month with new jewels, useful things
you might not have found yet.
• TIPS that you can use right away to
improve your system
• COOL STUFF for really neat new
hardware
• DRIVE LIGHT "LIGHT" with all
the links printed in the newsletter,
conveniently entered for your point
and click enjoyment.
Reminder: For easy access to all these WWW links visit our website
and go to the DRIVE LIGHT 'lIGHT' page. No More Typing!
DRIVE LIGHT
(Continued/rom
page 6) Reports
Editor - October is a long month with
the meeting falling a week into the
month. Inputs were requested by the
26th.
WebMaster - Presentation on the Security and Fraud will be posted to the
UCHUG web site for all to download
and view at their leisure.
PROGRAMS:
November - UCHUG Computer Clinic.
Bring your problems to the meeting and
get answers (Fixes) and help others. We
are concerned about the total number of
people who may show up. Please come
and participate. The President will get
notices forwarded to the San Diego
computer Society for their Web Page
and to Computer Edge for the upcoming edition.
December - Annual Holiday Cheer and
Auction. The Group will hold its get
together and party in room 401 as usual.
Bring your favorite finger food or snack
to share and bring your outdated or un-to
used computer/software item for the
raffle.
January - The tentative program is on
Knoppix. <http://www.knoppix.
netf'>This website is about Knoppix, a
Free and Open Source Live Linux CD.
Knoppix is a GNUlLinux distribution
that boots runs completely from cd. It
includes recent Linux software and
desktop environments, with programs
such as OpenOftlce.org, Abiword, The
Gimp, Konqueror, Mozilla, and hundreds more quality open source programs. More information can be obtained from the local LINUX group's
PAGE
7
website at
<http://www.kernel-panic.org/>
February - Will Wakely will inform us
on the state of the art in voice recognition software. He will demonstrate
"Dragon dictate" - The Dragon
NaturallySpeaking 7 family of products
is the fast, easy and accurate way to
turn speech into text. Users can dictate
into virtually any windows-based application at speeds up to 160 words per
minute and achieve higher levels of accuracy than ever before. More information can be found at <http://www.
scansoft.com/naturallyspeaking/>
There was no Old Business.
New Business: The Board discussed
the gift certificates for the drawing at
the Holiday Party. There will be 1 $100
and 2 $50 gift certificates provided by
the Group as part of the Auction ana
Raffle.
The Board agreed to have more information on the WebSite with links to
.other groups and places of information
get better Exposure/Accessibility for
members surfing the UCHUG.ORG
Remember our
holiday auction
at the December
meeting. Check
your workbench,
and desk today for
unused software and
hardware donations.
NOVEMBER
PAGE 6
DRIVE LIGHT
(Continued from page 3) Reports
The "I Teach You" web site was
brought up and we continued our support of Gini Pedersen and her site at
<http://www.iteachyou.com>.
Gini
runs a question and answer feature on
the Site to help anyone with a problem.
The membership is urged to help by
visiting the site when you can and helping answer the questions. [ see spotlight
article about Gini on page 8]
The President described our UCHUG
Computer Clinic which will be the
main effort at next months meeting.
Bring your problems in for us to help
you solve. The group asks that you
bring your complete system so that
problems may be recognized if it is in
the support equipments. We must also
say the Group can not be liable for the
condition of any machine worked on at
the Clinic. We ask the member to keep
track of his or her machine and to do a
backup of the data files prior to the
meeting.
PROGRAM:
The President gave a Power Point Presentation which the we received from a
firm in Los Angeles who presented at
the ACPUG Conference. The subject
was "Computer and Credit Fraud". The
presentation went through all the scams
and ways that people have had their
Identity and Personal Information stolen and used to steal money from the
individual.
A short Random Access was held.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:56.
the PREZ'
~
oard Meeting
OOctober
15,2003
The meeting was called to order at the
home of Mike Trempe at 7:20 p.m. by
President Greg Skalka In attendance
were Greg Skalka, Al Brengle, Abbott
Brownell (Welcome back from Maine),
Dave Marston, Art Gresham, Bob
Woods, Mike Trempe, Ray Ferbrache,
Jim Berger and Wil Wakely.
IJ
The board welcomed a new member
David Marston to the group. David is a
very experienced computer person with
a lot to bring to our table. WELCOME!
REPORTS:
President - Vice President - SecretaryNothing to report.
Treasurer - Reported intlow of funds
for the month 01'$190.00 with and outtlow of $134.70 tor a gain of $55.30 tor
the month. The board discussed getting
a second signature on the checking account (President) and the need tor a
replacement Treasurer. For any member of the Group who would like to participate on the board, this position is
open but we would welcome' a Member
at Large and would get another of the
board to fulfill the duties of the Treasurer.
Membership - Reported 2 new members last month. We currently have 61
active members with 2 up for renewal
in October and 2 in November. The
active membership is holding above the
60 mark.
Reports (Continued on page 7)
Comer
(Continuedfrom
page 5)
would be mailed in two months. When I
called again after two months and two
weeks, they said my check had been returned by the Post Office as undeliverable. The address they had for me was
correct, so they tried to send it again.
After a second return, I gave them my
work address to send it to. This attempt
they also claimed was returned by the
Post Office as undeliverable. Meanwhile, I submitted a $25 rebate for another company's product that they also
were processing, and also claimed was
undeliverable to my home address. I
was beginning to see a pattern here, that
TCA seemed to not want to send me my
money. Perhaps they get a cut on any
rebates not paid. In any case, I continued to battle with them over both rebates
until the $lO check finally appeared out
of the blue at my work. I'm still waiting
for my $25 check.
Now I will avoid any rebates handled by
TCA Fulfillment Services, and I have
~tarted writing letters to companies that
use them for processing their product's
rebates. The rebate saga continues ...
Gy;
2002 - UCHUG - 2003
EXECUTIVE BOARD
"
President ..
VP
.
Secretary ..
Treasurer ..
WebMaster
Editor. ....
Membership.
O-a-L.
.
O-a-L.
.
O-a-L.
.
O-a-L.
.
O-a-L.
.
Greg Skalka
Al Brengle
Ray Ferbrache
Wil Wakely
Bob Woods
Art Gresham
Sandy Shapiro
Abbott Brownell
Virginia Faber
Mike Trempe
JirnBerger
David Marston
858.484-7024
619.588.0674
619.275-2718
858.274-6043
858.486-4485
858.354-6939
858.454-2341
619.698-1506
619.276-4775
619.283-3543
619.460-8338
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
PAGE
12
NOVEMBER
dial-up. I used an online speed test
on <www.dslreports.com> and
found my download speed was only
40 Kbps, and my upload speed was
18 Kbps. What was wrong? Was
there too much loss in the 40 ft. coax
cable run to the modem? Was there
something wrong with my newly purchased 2: 1 cable splitter? I brought
the laptop and cable modem back into
the garage and speed-tested the cable
coming into the house, which gave
2400 K down / 250 K up. I tried the
cable guy's 3:1 splitter, and it was
OK. I tried my 2:1 splitter and the
amp, and the access was slow again.
I put the cable modem back in my
office to try with the 3:1 splitter, but
found I couldn't use the speed test.
That web site allows only about four
tests per day per IP address.
UCHUG FALL COMPUTER CLINIC REMINDER
Remember that the meeting time this month will be devoted to a public computer clinic. If you, or a friend, has a computer with a problem you may bring
it ( with your friend!) to the November Meeting. Please note the following
carefully:
1.•EMail us ( [email protected]) before the meeting so we may plan to
have enough table space.
2. Bring the full system. We may not have the unique parts needed to
power up your system. Checklist the following;
0' Computer box, with power cord
0' Monitor with power cord and cables
0' Keyboard and mouse
0' Other peripherals that may be involved ( External modem, Scanner,
EMAIL: Members helping Members
Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003
Editor: Since seven UCHUG members use ADNC for E Mail, I thought
this information would be of interest
if they are not already aware of a
problem.
is being ignored. So those of us who
use ADNC and have need to contact
any att.net user is out ofluck at this
time.
When I got back to testing a few days
later, I found the cable up to my office and the 2:1 splitter were OK.
What apparently was causing the
problem was the video amp, even
though it was installed downstream
from the cable modem. It was an inexpensive, 10 year old video amp that
must be putting interference out on its
input port and disrupting the signal to
the modem. I'd have to look into getting a better amp to drive all my TV
feeds, but for now, I'll just use the 3:1
splitter.
Thought you might consider this information worthy of consideration for
the DRIVE LIGHT.
Att.net is using a program that block's
ADNC EMail messagestoatt.net
Thanks Frank Tabor; Member.
recipients. I discovered this when
my daughter (who uses att.net) failed
to receive E Main sent to her reThe editor forwarded Frank's email
cently. Undelivered mail revealed that to all current UCHUG members with
host gatewayl.att.net {204.127.134.
either ATT or ADNC addresses. The
23}said:
following Email updated the incident:
"550-206.251.248.23 blocked byblacklistmail.ops.worldnet. att,
net.550". Att.net advises if you feel
the email was incorrectly rejected to
contact [email protected] and
include your email server IP Address.
The problem is that the IP Address is
classified information, according to
ADNC, and att.net knows that.
ADNC is in contact with att.net, but
Chapter 99
SpinRite Security
Wed: 15 Oct 2003
Editor; it appears that ADNC and
AIT.NET have smoked a peace-pipe
because the last two test messages to
my daughter cleared their blocks
without a problem. Maybe your message to other ADNC users inspired
protests that bore fruit.
Frank
--
-
----
PAGE
DRIVE LIGHT
Steve Gibson, of Gibson Research
author of the old
hard disk testing utility SpinRite, is
now into Internet security. He has a
lot of great information on his web
site, as well as a security test, Shields
<www.grc.com>
__
I
5
UP! I used his site to configure my
laptop to close Microsoft's network
security loopholes. While I don't yet .
have my router set up, and am not yet
using firewall software, it is a start.
Rotten Rebates
I use rebates a lot. I usually have
more than 10 rebates pending at any
given time. I keep track of my rebates in my DayTimer, and so far
have managed to get almost all I have
submitted. Costco is excellent, as far
as rebates go. The rebate forms print
on their cash register tape, and you
often don't have to submit the product's UPS label. I always receive
their rebates well ahead of the time
they say to allow for.
At the opposite end of the rebate
spectrum are those rebates handled by
TCA Fulfillment Services, the rebate
processing company with the web site
of <www.wheresmyrebate.com>
After my experiences with them, I
believe their web site is well named,
as that is probably what most consumers dealing with them are asking.
This month I finally received my $10
rebate for a product I purchased in
November 2002!
I purchased a Netgear PCMCIA
Ethernet adapter for my laptop last
November, with a $10 rebate. I submitted everything on time, and waited
my 8 weeks with no check arriving in
the mail. I called the number on the
rebate form, which was for TCA Fulfillment Services, which must have
been hired by Netgear to handle their
rebate processing. They said my submission was approved, and the check
the PREZ' Corner
(Continued on page J J)
PAGE
4
the PREZ' Corner
NOVEMBER
(Continuedfrom page 2)
service for $3 less per month by ordering it through EarthLink, rather
than through Time Warner. That's a
no-brainer. I called EarthLink.
I did consider DSL as well. Another
friend has SBC Yahoo DSL and pays
about $10 per month less than my normal rate. Though less expensive, they
require a one year contract, and my
friend reports his download speed is
about half of mine. My father has
also been looking into broadband, and
signed up for SBe Yahoo DSL. After
I signed up with EarthLink, a Time
Warner installer was able to come out
within three days to
set up my access. It
has been nearly two
weeks since my father
signed up for DSL,
and he has yet to receive his access.
13
December Party Reminder
in the mail that day. I was on the Information Autobahn!
Remember that December is our annual holiday auction. Clean up .your workbench,
and desk, clean out that Techno-geek-closet today for unused software and hardware
donations. So arrive early to look over the bargains that the other members have donated. You might find some gifts for the grandkids, or fill that missing space on your
own network.
. Chapter 98
The Cable Amp
Since I was not set up for full Internet
security yet, I surfed a few web sites
to make sure the connection worked,
and then disconnected the cable modem and hooked my cable up as before. My plan was to split the incoming cable into two lines. One would
go over a new RG-6 coax cable across
the garage to my office (above the
garage), where the cable modem and
router would be located. The other
would go into
my video amp, and
out to my TVs.
Later I would put
splitters on the amp
outputs to supply
video to new cable
runs I would install
••••for additional TVs. I
was even going to
pull a second coax cable to my office,
in case I wanted to install a TV tuner
card some day (rather than split my
feed to the cable modem).
PLUS We will have raffle tickets on sale for our big gift certificate prizes and some
of the best of the donated items. You could walk away with a $100 gift certificate, or
a computer, printer or other fme item.
oi, and did we mention the food? Well, our policy is that if you bring it, we will eat
it. So the smorgasbord will include everything home made candies, KFC, Chip &
Dip, Nuts 'and Bolts, and some old family recipe specialties. But only if YOU bring
it! We will bring the drinks. You bring the donations, cash and food.
Party On
_----------_line
Our yresU{ent is
fina{{y on the
Information
5t.utobahn!
I didn't have cable
•••••
run to any of the computers in the house yet, so I had the
cable installer hook up to my laptop in
my garage, where the cable comes
into the house. I was running my cable through a two-output video amplitier to the two televisions in the house
I fastened lengths of 3/4" PVC sprinon cable. The installer did not recom- . kler pipe to the rafters in the garage to
mend using the amp, and so gave me a both support and protect the new coax
3: 1 splitter to hook up to the cable
going to my office. I installed two
modem he provided. After running
lengths of RG-6 coax and one CATS
some tests on the cable and connectEthernet cable through the sprinkler
ing and powering the modem, he gave
pipe to my office. If some day I
me a Time Warner High Speed Online
wanted to switch to DSL, I could use
installation CD. After installing the
the CATS to carry the phone line up
software on my laptop and connecting
to my office to the DSL modem.
to the modem with an Ethernet cable,
I was connected to the Internet. I::Ie
After setting up the cable modem in
also gave me a duplicate of the Earthmy office, I tried it again with my lapLink welcome packet I had received
top, but found the access as slow as
PAGE
DRIVE LIGHT
.50utnwest
User Group Conference Wrapup
by Jim Berger
Seven or more members of UCHUG
attended the 10th annual Southwest
User Group Conf~rence on .August 8th
t~ough the 10th nght here ill San
DIego.
The conference gave participants a
chance to explore issues ranging from
communicating to members, to pocket
PCs. In fact, hats off to Don Baker of
Klassic Specialties for his excellent
presentation, "Demystifying Inkjet
Printers & Paper." We may even get, a
chance to see Don at one of our
.
UCHUG meetings.
fi
A marathon raft1e of goods from vendors who helped sponsor the event was
held on Saturday night. It was not announced as a marathon, but after an
hour-and-a-half, at the very end of the
evening, all attendees who remained to
the end were thoroughly exhausted.
Nevertheless, the grand prize for the
evening was an IBM Think Pad that
was given away by the representatives
from Intel.
The conference marked a good chance
to compare notes with other user groups
in the region and even from further
reaches across the country. And the
vendors were generous, both in terms of
the product that they gave away and
through their joint sponsorship of the
conference as a whole. Through corporate sponsorship, cost to attendees was
held at 40 dollars.
Conference organizers have asked attending user groups to recognize the
vendors, who provided prizes, brochures, and other material for the attendees.
Much of the material from one attendee
bag was made available to the UCHUG
members at the October meeting. The
remaining materials will be at the next
meeting as well.
If you benefited from any of those items
please write an email to the vendor expressing your appreciation for their participation in the Conference
....
'
NOVEMBER
PAGE 14
DRIVE LIGHT
.
,
A Linux Positive ...
It's based on Red Hat 9, maintains full compatibility it, but
tweaks it to include all the good multimedia features a home
desktop user need. It also has a very helpful forum to receive
support from it's community ....which is excellent BTW.
Deleting "Internet Logs" and ZoneAlarm Log
Here's the newest iIDd'll).ostpowerful batch file in this popular hard-drive-cleanup
series. <http://WVIiw:langa.c6m/cleaI19x.htm> , Note that you can evenintegrate Clean9x.Bat into your Recycle Bin menu!
And in a recent update to cleanvx.bat slightly modified to find Temporary Internet Files in other locations. For example:
C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files
C:\WINDOWS\Protiles\(name]\Temporary
Internet Files
C:\WINDOWS\Protiles\[name]\Local
Settings\Temporary Internet Files
C:\WINDOWS\LOcai Settings'Temporary Internet Files
While looking space I could free up today I came across a folder which had 152
megs offiles in C:\wrNpOWS\Internet
Logs
,
It contained tiles with names like ZALog2003.07.02.txt and xDBE335.TMP but
the big one was tvDebug.log (24 megs). "The folder Internet Logs is created by
ZoneAlarm ..."
Using Google I found an explanation at
http://forums.tech,!uy.orfJIt128272/s4752770a473af3b76974a60050857fd8.html
,
Secretarv 5
Reports
Free ;LINUX versian available
Just thought I'd pass along a link to a linux
distribution based on Red Hat. It's called JAMD and is
available at http://,,,,ww.j~d-linux.coI?/
.
PAGE 3
'Ray :ferfjyache
[email protected]
C. eneral Meeting
q October 1, 2003
The meeting was held in Room 401,
San Diego County Office of Education complex; 6401 Linda Vista Rd.
The meeting was called to order by
President Greg Skalka at 7:12, The
president welcomed approximately 41
members and guests.
REPORTS:
President: The President discussed
the meeting events. Complementary
copies of the Drive Light were passed
out to visitors.
'
Membership: The chairman discussed the benefits and cost of being
part of the UCHUG,
................
;..'
....
Webmaster: The Webmaster displayed our WebSite and discussed the
new items on the site for the membership. We now have free e-mail accounts for UCHUG members. Use
from your browser or a POP3 email
program, If you are interested please
contact us at the following address:
webmasters@uchug,org
The President introduced the Slate of
Officers for the next year. There was a
motion from the .110orto accept the
slate as recommended. The motion
was seconded and approved by voice
vote. The Board is looking for a replacement Treasurer.' wn is expecting
to do some traveling next year and
asked to be replaced. No other nominations were made from the floor. The
Board of Directors was accepted for
service next year.
Jim Berger reported on a supply of
information and vender products
available from the ACPUG
(Association of Personal User
Groups) Conference held in August.
We ask that you send an EMail to any
vender which has provided you with
products as a Thank You and to keep
up the support of User Groups, Please
give the group a.Review of any products you may use for their information,
"
,','
}
Reports (Continued on page 6)
PAGE
NOVEMBER
2
PAGE 15
DRIVE LIGHT
More words on PASSWORDS
During the recent meeting presentation
on XP and the topic of Passwords was
discussed at some length.
UCHUG NEWSLETTER
The P~ez' Co~ne~
by G\v-e9 Skalka
[email protected]
The Saga of One
Computer Upgrade - Part LVI
It is either feast or famine. Each
month I seem to have either little to
say or a lot to convey. This is one of
those months that I have to decide
what to leave for the next issue.
Chapter 97
Broadband for Bonzo
I've had broadband (cable) Internet
access for three weeks now. It is fast.
I can usually get over 2 Mbps
downloading, and over 300 Kbps uploading. Unfortunately, my cable
setup is not quite ready for prime time.
r am the only person in my household
able to use it right now, and it is not
that convenient even for me.
Rather than tell this tale through
flashbacks, I'll start at the beginning.
At the end of last month, I finally gave
in to my family and decided to get
broadband. I had been researching it
for the previous month, and decided to
get broadband cable from EarthLink.
Of my cable options, it was tfueleast
expensive. My cable company, Time
Warner Cable, offers three broadband
choices, Roadrunner (their own service), Earthl.ink and AOL Broadband.
Each is priced the same on Time Warner's website, and eaoh has the same
Internet access, as Time Warner supplies access for them all. There are
some minor differences in things like
e-mail, but all appeared to be pretty
much the same. I have two friends on
EarthLink broadband, and they
claimed that EarthLink was advertising
a special introductory rate. On both
Time Warner and 'EarthLink's sites,
new subscribers got abeut half off for
the first three months. I did find from
my investigation that EarthLink's site
advertised a lower normal rate than
Time Warner's site for the EarthLink
service. When I called Time Warner
and asked about it, they acknowledged
that I could get the same EarthLink
the PREZ' Comer
(Continued on page 4)
In August, The Langa List featured the
subject of regaining access to your own
PC when the password has been lost
< htlp:llwww.informationweek.com/
storylshowArticle.jhtml?
articlelD=131 00343 >
The top reasons for people using the
service are not what you'd expect and
serve as cautionary advice.
Fourth place is registry file corruption
often due to an unexpected power loss.
Third place is forgetfulness.
Second place is when a oomputer has
just been removed from a Windows demain without first checking that the local administrator password was known.
A 'Domain Administrator account would
have been used to authorize the computer leaving the domain but, after a
reboot, only local acoounts are valid.
The single most popular reason why
people lose access to their computer is
because the computer, usually a home
one, was set to auto-logon, and something has happened to disturb the autologon process. The user is seeing a pass-
word prompt for the first time and has
no idea what to enter.
My advice is that M matter how much
you hate a password on yOW"home computer it's safer to have a simple one that,
by typing it in every day, you won't forget.
It's interesting to note that in the last 3
years the average home computer has
changed from having a trivial, usually
non-existent, password requirement
(95/98) to a serious unforgiving password-based security system (2000IXP).
The Linux boot disk is certainly a powerful tool but I find that no single
method works 100% of the time and so
it's best to use a collection of techniques
then, if "Plan A" fails there's always
Plans B and C to fall back on, It's very
rare for all methods to fail.
Sometimes when off ..line access to a
computer's hard drive is proving difficult the simplest way can be to extract
the lost password from a recent backup
of the registry.
One last tip: there are a surprising number of computers around where the administrator password is blank so give
that! a try if you get stuck.
Got Spam?
This report is a few months old, but still 100% germane:
From the Business Section ofthe Washington Post... a study of spam & why
we're receiving it by the Center for Democracy & Technology.
<hftp:llwww.cdt.org/speech/spam/030319spamreport.shtml>
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November 5 , 2003 at 7:00 PM. In Room
ESCONDIDO CA 92025
ARTHUR W. GRESHAM
249 EAST VERMONT AVE.
~xpire: 12/1/2003
UCHUG NEWSLETfER
..,..
.::~::::~::::::::.::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::;:::;:::;::~:::::::::::;:::::;:::;:;:::;:;:;:;:;:;:::;:;:::;:;:;:;:;:;:;:::;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;~~~~~::;:~~~~~:;~~~~~~~~~~~
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Meeting Place: San Diego County Education Center, 6401 Linda Vistaj,oad,
% Editor, Art Gresham
249 East Vermont Ave
Escondido, CA 92025
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