Tid Bits `N Bytes - The Winnipeg PC User Group

Transcription

If undeliverable, return to:
Winnipeg PC User Group
337C Pembina Highway
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3L 2E4
Tid Bits ‘N Bytes
Newsletter of the Winnipeg PC User Group Inc.
“A Charter Member of the Association of PC User Groups (APCUG)”
August - September 2005
Upcoming General Meetings
• The General Meeting, August 18, 2005, will be held at Assiniboine Park,
in the Pavilion picnic area west of the Pavilion. We will be having our annual
picnic. Food, refreshments, contests, prizes and cake will be provided. .
• The General Meeting on September 15, 2005 will be held at the Resource
Centre and the presentation will be Konfabulator 2.0 - a demonstration by
Roger Buchanan. Yahoo liked this program so much they bought the company!
Announcements
• If you can pick up your copy of the newsletter, to save the group on mailing
costs, please let Doug Hutsel, our membership secretary, know!
40599174
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August 2 0 0 5 / September 2 0 0 5 P a g e 2
The 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.
••• ••• •••
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 to all members of the group
and to all other User Groups who reciprocate with a copy
of their newsletter.
••• ••• •••
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.
••• ••• •••
Monthly Meetings are held on the 3rd Thursday of each
month, except December when the meeting is held on the
second Thursday. The Executive meets on the 2nd Thursday of each month, except December when the meeting is
held on the third Thursday. Members are welcome.
Volunteers for many activities are always needed.
ISP Dial Up Number
975-0200
Website: http://www.wpcusrgrp.org
COPYRIGHT POLICY & LIABILITY WAIVER
WPCUG Board of Directors
Elected Officers for the period ending October 2003
Home Phone
President & Program ......... Jon Phillips .......... 888-9180
<[email protected]>
Vice President ...................... Paul Kesson .......... 489-7617
<[email protected]>
Treasurer ............................. David Estey ......... 489-3728
<[email protected]>
Exec. Secretary ................... John Kesson ......... 489-7617
<[email protected]>
Membership ......................... Doug Hutsel .......... 831-7478
<[email protected]>
Online Services Manager .... Greg McClure ....... 942-3301
<[email protected]>
Group Buyer ........................ Rodd Provencher ..
<[email protected]>
Forum Coordinator .............. Ryan Rapson ........ 475-1568
<[email protected]>
Advertising ........................... vacant ...................
<[email protected]>
Appointed officers
Bookkeeper ......................... Werner Wiebe ....... 269-1584
<[email protected]>
Resource Centre Mgr. ......... Arnold Zatser ........ 488-8765
<[email protected]>
Web Master ......................... Ryan Rapson ........ 475-1568
<[email protected]>
Internet Service Admin. ....... Brian Lowe ............ 478-3561
<[email protected]>
Internet Service Support ...... Greg McClure ....... 942-3301
<[email protected]>
NEWSLETTER
Home Phone
Editor
Paul Stephen ................ 284-2810
<[email protected]>
Co-editor
Tom Howard ................ 224-3430
<[email protected]>
Co-editor
Glen Ash ...................... 489-2474
<[email protected]>
Co-editor
Bill Webster ................. 888-3544
<[email protected]>
Please do not call Board/Executive
members after 9:00 P.M.
Resource Centre 24-hour information line ...... 958-7228
Resource Centre FAX .......................................... 958-7229
ISP Line ................................................................. 975-0200
This publication is © Copyright, Winnipeg PC User Group Inc., 2003.
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.
All copy must be prepaid and must reach the
Resource Centre before the second Thursday of the
month. Other size rates are available.
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.
All copy should be in EPS or TIFF (300dpi) file
format. If you need help with this, please ask for
help.
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
Members are entitled to one FREE Ad (4 line 42
Char.) Non-commercial - per issue. Others $3.75 per
4 line ad, extra lines $0.90 each. Please ask for further
information.
Winnipeg PC User Group Inc.
Mailing Addresses
General Correspondence: Attn.: Executive Secretary
Membership:
Attn.: Membership Secretary
Mail to the Resource Centre
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3L 2E4
Newsletter Exchange & Review Software
Paul Stephen
401-1025 Grant Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3M 1Y4
Yearly Membership Dues
Junior Membership (under the age of 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 may attend the
User Group General meetings. After an adult membership
has been purchased, additional associate memberships may
be purchased which include a draw ticket at the general
meeting, 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 (membership@
wpcusrgrp.org or 831-7478) for further details.
Contents Of This Issue
Mail Merges -------------------------------------------------- 5
Search Engine Tips & Tricks ------------------------------ 12
Konfabulator ------------------------------------------------ 15
Shreware Awards for 2005 --------------------------------- 19
People’s Choice Awards ----------------------------------- 20
General Meeting for May 2005 ---------------------------- 21
Adventures in Linux Land --------------------------------- 22
How to Record your Cassette Music on CD ----------- 23
Security - Simple Password Practices -------------------- 24
Another Silent Attack On Our Computers -------------- 27
Calendars ---------------------------------------------------- 29
Meeting Schedule ------------------------------------------ 30
Forums ------------------------------------------------------- 31
Internet Application ---------------------------------------- 31
Advertisers
Healey Visual Inc. ------------------------------------------- 4
Ink Jet Refills ------------------------------------------------ 16
Dave’s Quick Print ------------------------------------------ 26
WPCUG ISP ------------------------------------------------ 32
Full page
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7.5
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Members are entitled to one free ad
(4 lines - 42 characters) - per issue.
others $3.75 per 4 line ad.
Extra lines $0.90 each
6
$270
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Newsletter Submissions
The editor will accept almost anything you wish to
contribute. Short submissions may be in any form what so
ever. If you have a favorite Shareware programme 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.
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 word processors. Special formatting such as
autonumber cause great problems for the special software
that we use to prepare this newsletter. Remove extra
paragraph and line feeds. DO NOT “format” your text PLEASE!
This newsletter is produced using the following software
and hardware tools: Microsoft Word 97, OmniPage Pro,
Graphic Workshop Professional, for conversions and
graphic library control. Printing is done using a HP Series
5MP LaserJet. Adobe’s Acrobat is used to produce the
PDF files. A special friend of this User Group is the Corel
Corporation and we use Corel Draw 10. Other hardware:
HP ScanJet 4300C, 638 megs of memory, 400 MHz
Pentium II CPU.
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Some Reflections on Doing Mail Merges
and Why There Are No Maytag User Groups
by John Robin Allen
Dedicated to the memory of Jeffrey Raskin
(1943-2005)
Jeffrey (“Jef”) Raskin, who
died this past February 25th,
was an amazing gentleman. He
invented Apple’s “Eighty
Column Card” that changed
computer screens from the
forty columns of capital letters
on the old Apple II computers
to eighty columns in upper and
lower case letters on the Apple IIe. Raskin’s own
Apple II computer had the serial number “2”. His
most famous creation was, no doubt, the Macintosh
computer, which he named after his favourite apple,
the McIntosh. (Apple had to change the spelling of
that name to avoid copyright problems with a
manufacturer of Hi-Fi equipment.) You learn more
about Raskin, from Wikipedia at http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jef_Raskin, which provided
the photo to the left. His official web site is http://
jef.raskincenter.org/home/, which gave us the photo
at the end of this article.
I never had the pleasure of meeting Raskin, but
we were in correspondence in the early 1970’s
when he was a member of the University of
California at San Diego Visual Arts Department and
was also the software editor of Computers and the
Humanities. I had submitted an article to that journal
on “Two Routines for Computer Assisted Language
Instruction Programs,” and he accepted it for
publication.
The simplicity of use that guided the development
of the Macintosh is reflected in one of Raskin’s
favourite questions: “Why are there no Maytag user
groups?” The answer, obviously, is that washing
machines are so simple to use that there is no need
for a network to help persons fathom the mysteries
of washing clothes automatically. Raskin wanted to
make the Macintosh as simple to use as a washing
machine. He insisted, for example, that its mouse
have only one button, although the original mouse
developed at Xerox’s PARC [Palo Alto Research
Center] had three buttons. Before the release of the
Mac, he had succeeded in his quest so well that
Steve Jobs stopped working on the Lisa and,
instead, took control of Raskin’s machine. In the
end, Jobs took credit for what was largely Raskin’s
creation, Apple made a lot of money, made a lot of
persons happy, and it took years before Microsoft
could develop Windows to try to approach that
simplicity. No doubt the development of the GUI
[“graphic user interface”] of the Macintosh and
Windows parallels the drop in worldwide
membership of all computer user groups. As
computers become easier to use, there is less a need
for organizations such as ours.
Yet not everything to do with computers is as
simple as Raskin would have wanted. Take using
mail merge in Microsoft Word, for example. That
enables us to write a letter and then personalize it
with information contained in another file so that
different versions of the same letter can be sent to
persons, with each letter containing comments and
personal information unique to the recipient.
It should be quite a simple task to do mail
merges with Microsoft Word, but due to some poor
programming decisions, one ends up with two
annoyances and two major bugs. We still need user
groups and newsletters to learn how to overcome
the following problems. As they used to say in
Rome, praemonitus praemunitus (‘forewarned [is]
forearmed’).
Annoyance 1: No matter where you store merge
letters, the default location for mail merge data for
those letters is “My Data Sources,” a subdirectory
of “My Documents.” If you want to store your data
elsewhere, perhaps in a directory of mail merge
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letters that you write, you can do so, but it requires
some extra work. Each time you want to link a data
file with a letter, you have to start from “My Data
Sources” and then move from there to where you
actually have the data. You can never make that
other directory be the default location for mail merge
data.
Annoyance 2: Part of the work in doing a mail
merge is to insert different fields from the source
data into the proper places within a letter. You locate
to where you want a piece of data to appear in the
letter, and then you click on the “Insert Merge
Fields” button to open up a dialogue box. (One has
to use the mouse because there are no keyboard
shortcuts to insert merge fields.) You then click on
the field to insert in the letter, for example the first
name of the addressee. If you then want to type a
space and insert the last name, you cannot. You first
have to use the mouse to close the dialogue box.
After a few seconds while the hard disk grinds
away, you then get control back and can add a
space or move to the new location where you need
to insert the next item. Then you have to use the
mouse again to reopen the “Insert Merge Fields”
dialogue box, page down to the last name (or
whatever field you want), click on it and click to
close the dialogue box again. That is not the way
that God intended “Insert Merge Fields” to work.
It is frustrating, but we can work around those
annoyances. We can manually switch to a different
directory to get data, and one can take the time to
close and reopen the “Insert Merge Fields” dialogue
box each time we need to insert a different piece of
information. The bugs described below, however,
are far more serious and can prevent persons from
using mail merge for anything but the smallest of
letters.
Bug 1: If you use a spreadsheet like Excel to
hold data and one or more of merge fields are
numbers, you may have serious problems using that
information in a mail merge letter. During the
academic year, I use mail merge approximately once
a week to let students know their current mark along
with all the marks they received on a few dozen
previous tests, quizzes and essays. Depending on the
grade in question, I have the spreadsheet display
numbers either as integers (e.g., “76%”) or
calculated to the nearest tenth of a point (e.g.,
“75.9%”). Excel, however, is much more accurate
than that. It calculates all numbers to fourteen
significant digits before it displays the results.
The bug is that when I put numbers such as “76”
or “75.9” into a mail merge letter, the numbers
appear with all fourteen digits, to display not
“75.9%” but “75.9479395371853%.” Anyone
receiving a grade calculated to the quadrillionth of a
point will know that the letter was not written by a
human being. Even worse, due to round off errors
some integers display erroneous decimal values. If a
student missed three classes, instead of having a
merge letter say “… you missed three classes,” it
can say “you missed 3.00000000000002 classes.”
To solve that problem, I could, of course,
manually edit all the numbers in the mail merge
output, but with sixty students each of whom writes
forty tests, quizzes, or essays in the course of a year,
then I would have an average of 1,200 numbers to
change in each weekly mail merge mailing. Over a
course of twenty-six weeks, that comes to 31,200
editing changes to make. One session of editing
numbers in that way made me find a simpler solution
for subsequent letters: to preface each with an
apology for the bug in Microsoft Word that would
not let me send simple grades to students.
Fortunately there is a better way to solve the
problem
Bug 2: A more serious bug that prevents many
persons from using mail merge at all is that it can run
out of memory, no matter how much RAM is in the
machine. If you have several fields of data to put in a
mail merge letter, say more than fifteen or twenty
items to send to thirty persons, when you reach
whatever internal memory limit exists in MS Word,
the program will try to combine several items into
one field and will also let you know that your data is
bad. It will try to destroy references to the “bad”
data in the letter, and you cannot get out of the loop
that asks whether it should remove this and that
reference in the letter or make the references point
to incorrect data. You have to answer that question
for each “bad” reference, and only when the
program has destroyed perhaps twenty or thirty
items will it let you look at the letter. At that point
you have to close the file without saving it, unless
you want the job of using the clumsy interface
described above under “Annoyance 1” to put back
each reference that the program destroyed. The only
solution appears to be is to go back to the
spreadsheet and delete the less important items you
first wanted to have appear in the letters.
In any but the smallest of letters, this bug also
prevents one from inserting merge fields into running
heads (such as “Your Name / Recipient’s Name, p.
2”). To be more accurate, we can insert a recipient’s
name in a running head to appear at the top of
pages, but the name will not change in letters sent to
other persons. Only the first recipient will see his or
her name correctly in the header.
There are some elegant solutions to those
problems. We can make it very easy to locate to the
“My Data Sources” or to any other directory. We
can customize commands in MS Word to make it
easy to insert merge fields with either the mouse or
the keyboard. We can also convert Excel data to
another format that uses less memory and will
display numbers properly. Let’s do just that. Let’s
coin a new verb, “to Maytag”, meaning (a) to clean
up something and (b) to make it more simple. Let’s
“Maytag” Microsoft Word, à la manière de Raskin.
Mail Merge Without Toil
With apologies to the O’Reilly Press, the
following are “missing manual” directions on how to
do mail merge letters. We need to do three steps
and work with two files. In the first step we create a
document with the words that will appear in each
letter. The second step has us create a data file to
contain in-formation that individualizes the letter for
each recipient. The third step combines the two files
to generate the letters to be sent. If you already
know how to do a standard mail merge, you can
skip the first parts of the steps below. You may,
however, want to read certain marked sections in
those steps: The “Hints” paragraphs give some extra
advice on mail merges, while “Disaster Relief”
paragraphs indicate steps to take to avoid the
problems described at the start of this article.
Step 1: Writing the letter in MS Word
This is simplicity itself. One just decides what
sort of a letter to send, and then one writes it. For
example, we might want to send a “personal”
invitation to a dozen persons, addressed to each
individual or couple and calling the recipients by
name, to invite the person or couple to attend a
lunch. Later we might want to send the attendees a
personal note to thank them for coming and to recall
something that each might have said or done at the
lunch. Another example: we may want to send a
two- or three-page personalized Christmas letter to
five hundred of our closest friends and make each
recipient feel obliged to write a three-page reply.
Just write whatever should appear in each letter we
will send.
Hints: Imagine that you are writing a letter to a
single person and write the letter accordingly. You
want to avoid giving that impression that what you
are writing is really meant for a group of persons.
Do not hesitate to make personal comments
destined for the specific person or couple to whom
you are writing. Of course you should avoid
expressions such as “all of you”, “persons reading
this letter,” and so forth. This letter is supposed to be
addressed to a single person or couple.
Save the document, perhaps in a separate
directory named “Mail Merges.” If it is a Christmas
letter for 2005, we could name the file “MM Xmas
2005 mm dd” where “mm” is the current month in
two digits, and “dd” is the current date, again it two
digits. (“MM” of course stands for mail merge.) If
we make changes in the document tomorrow before
sending it, we can save the document under the
same name but with a slightly revised date. In that
way, we can always go back to earlier versions of
the letter, and the different versions of the letter will
sort chronologically in Windows Explorer or My
Documents.
Disaster Relief: We should permanently
customize Word a bit for this and for future mail
merges. The following steps need be done only
once. Click on “Tools” > “Customize” (or right click
one of the tool bars at the top of the screen and
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choose “Customize”). In the dialogue box that then
appears, click on the middle tab at the top, the one
that says “Commands”. The left window of that
dialogue box shows different categories of
commands. If we press the letter “m” on the
keyboard, the cursor will jump to “Mail Merge” in
that window. (One can also just page down in the
window a bit to get to that category.) One of the
“Mail Merge” commands in the window to the right
is “Show Mail Merge Toolbar”. We need to drag
that command to inside the “View” menu at the top
of the screen. Click on the command, keep the
mouse key down, and drag the command to the
“View” menu. If you hold the cursor for a second or
two on “View”, the menu opens up and you can
drag the command inside of that menu to put it
wherever you want it to appear. Do that and then let
go of the button. The command will stay there.
The dialogue box is still open and just beneath
the command we just copied is another important
command: “Insert Merge Field ?”. Click and drag
that command to insert it inside the “Insert” menu at
the top of the screen. Since this command has no
shortcut key, we should place it at the very top of
the “Insert” menu. In that way we will be able to
access it more easily with the down arrow (“?”).The
“Insert Merge Field” (singular) command has a
different and better interface than the “Insert Merge
Fields” (plural) command on the Mail Merge
Toolbar,
Click on the “Close” button to close the
“Customize” dialogue box. Note that in Word
version 2000 or changes are lost unless we click on
the “Close” button. With Word version 2003 we can
also close the window by pressing the “Escape” key,
but that will not work in the earlier version. It closes
the window but throws away any changes we made.
We need to do one more customization. Press
Ctrl + “o” (or click on “File” > “Open”). To the left
of the dialogue box that appears are some icons
designating “My Recent Documents”, “My
Documents”, “Desktop”, and so forth. Since the
next step will add another icon to those already
there, we should make them as small as possible. If
we right click in that column, one of the choices will
be either “Large Icons” or “Small Icons”. If you see
“Small Icons”, click on it and the icons will all switch
to a smaller size. If it says “Large Icons”, then your
icons are already small and you should not change
them.
At the top of the dialogue box, next to the words
“Look in:”, the window will normally show “My
Documents”. If it does not, click on the “My
Documents” icon in the left column. Then look for
the directory called “My Data Sources” in the big
window. If you have trouble finding that directory,
click on any-thing in the big window and then keep
pressing the letter “m” until the cursor highlights “My
Data Sources”. When you have found that directory,
click on it to highlight it or to open it. Then, with the
dialogue box still open, click on the “Tools” menu at
the top right of the box. Then select “Add to ‘My
Places’ ”. That makes “My Data Sources” appear
as one of the choices at the bottom of the left
column. If you can-not see it, the dialogue box is
also resizable, so you might want to adjust its
bottom border to make it display all the locations we
have available.
We can then close the dialogue box by pressing
the Escape key. We will use “My Data Sources” in
the next step.
Step 2: Create a Data File in Excel:
To do a mail merge, we need to store the data
that will change with each letter. We could put them
(the data) in a table in another Word document, but
it is easier to use an Excel file. (See the “Hints”
section below.)
If you use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook
Express, one way to create a data file is to use the
contacts directory from either of those programs.
With Outlook, open the program and click on “File”
> “Import and Export” > “Export to a File” >
“Microsoft Excel” and then choose “Contacts” from
the directory of things you can export. If you use
Outlook Express, the procedure is almost the same.
Click on “File” > “Export” > “Address Book” >
“Text File (comma separated values)”. In either
case, the computer will ask what we want to name
the file and where we want to save it. The choice is
yours, but since you will probably use the data file to
send other letters, I would suggest you choose a
general name like “MM Data.xls” or “My
friends.xls” and then store it in the same Mail Merge
directory where we had just stored the letter. In that
way we can keep almost all the Mail Merge source
files in one directory.
Another way to get a data file is simply to create
one from scratch in Excel. In the top row of an
empty worksheet put the names of the different
fields you need, fields such as “First Name”, “Last
Name”, “E-Mail”, “Address1”, “Address2”, and so
forth. Then from row two on down, put the specific
data for each person to whom you intend to send
this letter, one row for each recipient. Let’s also sort
the rows by the last name column.
Hints: It is important that we use a spreadsheet
rather than a word processor to hold the data. Word
document tables are limited to the width of the page
we are using. We could artificially expand the page
width to twenty-two inches, but that would not help
very much. In contrast, Excel data can spread out
over as many pages as we need, as long as we stay
within the 256-column limit of the spreadsheet. To
make the data more manageable, it helps if we
ensure that the data is not restricted to a single cell.
That is the default, and we can check it with the
commands “Format” > “Cells” > “Alignment” (the
tab at the top) and if the “Wrap text” box is
checked, we should uncheck it.
We should have three or four fields with specific
comments for individuals. Go back to your original
letter and see whether anything in was directed
toward a specific individual, the one to whom you
imagined you were sending the letter when you first
wrote it. Use “cut and paste” to move those
comment into individual fields for that person in the
Excel data file. Then see if you can think of
comments for other persons to put in the same field,
eventually to appear in the same location in the letter.
There is no obligation to put comments for each
person there, but you might want to have more than
one recipient seeing something there. Any blank
fields are ignored in the letters so that the recipients
see no empty spaces, while fields with data simply
push the following words so that they wrap around
the field and leave no trace that the inserted words
are any different than the words that precede or
follow the inserted field. It is up to us to ensure that
any inserted words are followed by a space while
there is no space in the letter after the inserted field.
Make these additional personal comments more
than just a few words. They should be at least two
or three sentences long to make each letter appear
more personal. Open a new and temporary word
document for composing comments so that the
computer can check for spelling errors and
grammatical infelicities before you put them in the
Excel file. If what we write takes more than a
paragraph, we have to put individual paragraphs into
separate fields. When we have finished writing
comments for one person in the temporary
document, “copy” (not “cut”) and “paste” the words
into the data file. We should copy the words
because parts of a comment for one person may
well be the basis of a comment we might write for
some-one else. It is easier to “cut and paste” those
words than retype them.
Disaster relief: When we have finished working
with the Excel data file, we should save it as one
would normally save any Excel file, preferably in our
“Mail Merge” directory that we set up earlier for this
sort of work. Then click on “File” > “Save As” (Alt
+ “f”, “a”) to save the file again in a different format.
When the “Save As” dialogue box opens, there are
three changes to make before we can actually save
the file. First, click on the “My Data Sources” icon
we made earlier so that the file will be saved in that
directory. Second, whatever general name we have
for the data file, now specify s name appropriate to
this specific mailing. If we are working on a 2005
Christmas letter, then “MM Xmas 2005.xls” could
be an appropriate name. A luncheon invitation could
have a name like “MM Lunch 2005 08 15.xls” to
indicate a luncheon invitation sent on August 15,
2005. Finally, and most importantly, tab to or click
on the “Save as type” window just beneath the file
name we just specified and press the letter “t” twice
to get to the choice “Text (tab delimited) (*.txt)”.
With those three changes are done, click on
“Save”. The computer will raise some objections: It
will warn us that text files do not support multiple
sheets in a work book. Just click on “O.K.” (We
are trying to save memory, and multiple sheets cost
Tid Bits N’ Bytes
extra memory.) The program will warn us that text
files do not support all the features of an Excel file
and ask whether we really want to lose that
information. Just click on “Yes”, since we are saving
it in this format to save more memory and also get
rid of the weird Excel formatting of numbers. The
program may also say we already have a file with
that name. We can then choose to replace that other
file (because it contains defects that we have
corrected with this new version) or we can choose a
different name. If I have not yet sent the letter, I
normally overwrite previous useless versions of the
file, but if for some reason you want to keep earlier
versions, chose a similar name but change the date
at the end.
When you have saved the file, close it (“File” >
“Close”). Even though you have just saved the file
and have done nothing else with it, the computer will
again ask if you want to save the file. (Microsoft
would call that a “feature” and not a “bug”.) Just
click on “No”, and then open the file again in Excel
(“File” > “1”). The program will ask us to confirm
that the file has fields delimited by tabs. It is. You
can check that the different fields appear properly
separated, or you can just click on “Finish” to work
with the file. Any formatting we had (and still have)
in the original file will be gone, all hidden and
grouped rows and columns will be visible, all rotated
text will be horizontal, and it will look beautiful.
Then, to make the file as small as possible, we
should delete any columns that we do not need for
the mail merge. If we are sending an E-Mail
message, we do not need the “Address1” to
“Address5” columns. If we are mailing a normal
letter to be delivered by the post, we can delete the
E-Mail field and possibly also the “Address”
columns too since those are really just for making
the envelopes. We should also delete any
unnecessary rows, for example persons to whom we
do not want to send this letter. When that work is
done, we can save the file again as a text file. The
program will again ask whether we really want to
save it in text format. We do, and now we have
finished the second step.
August 2 0 0 5 / September 2 0 0 5 P a g e 1 0
Step 3: Insert the data file information in the letter
file:
Go back to the original letter file. We may have
to reload it again if you closed it earlier. If this is the
first time you have done a mail merge, you might
want to go through the wizard to see how the system
works (to start the wizard, click on “Tools” >
“Letters and Mailings” > “Mail Merge …”).
Hints: (There is no “Disaster Relief” in Step 3,
because we have already done everything we need
to do to avoid the annoyances and bugs mentioned
earlier.) If you feel adventurous, we can work more
quickly by skipping the wizard. We will need the
mail merge toolbar, so click on “View” > “Show
Mail Merge Toolbar” (the command we put there
back in Step 1 above). The bar shown below
appears.
The second button from the left on that toolbar is
the “Open Data Source” button. Click on it to
display the “My Data Sources” directory.. Click on
the text version of the data file back in Step 2 and
our two documents are linked. Now all we have to
do is show where the different fields in the data file
should appear in the letter.
Find and click on the first place in the letter
where something from the data file should appear.
Then click on “Insert” > “Insert Merge Field”. We
can use the Alt + “i” key sequence to get to the
Insert Menu, but the “Insert Merge Field” command
has no shortcut key. However, since we put the
command at the top of that menu, all we have to do
is press the down arrow “(?)” > “Enter” to move to
and select it. A drop-down menu appears with all of
the fields. Click on the appropriate field, and the
program inserts the field into the letter and the menu
closes. If so desired, we could have used the “Insert
Merge Fields” (plural) from the Mail Merge Toolbar.
The disadvantages of that, as described as an
annoyance at the start of this article, is it requires
using the mouse rather than the keyboard and we
have to click on a button to close the box after
inserting the reference.
To see how the letter looks, the button to the
immediate right of the “Insert Word Field” button is
the “View Merged Data” button. When we press it
down (by clicking on it), the letter shows the actual
data from the Excel file. If we click on it again, the
button pops up and we revert back to showing the
name of each data field. Normally one would want
to see the actual data, the way the letters will appear
to the recipients, but if a number of fields have
similar data (for example when writing to students to
show them their grades on tests), then one would
want to see the names of the fields to make certain
the references are correct.
The buttons on either side of the window with a
number let us look at each letter as it will appear
when sent. In the course of looking at those, we may
think of something else to say or see an error.
Spaces give particular problems. If in certain letters
a field is blank, there should be no space after it. Put
spaces at the end of fields in the Excel file rather
than in the letter that will display the fields. If you see
an error or two, it is easy enough then to close the
file, return to the original Excel data to correct the
error, save the file again as a text file under the same
name you had before, and then reopen the Word
document. MS Word will then ask us whether we
want to attach that data file to the document we are
opening, and, of course, we do. The two files are
again linked and the errors you saw or the additions
you wanted should all be in place.
Finally we must let Word know how it is to send
the letter. If it is to go as an E-Mail, the “Merge to
E-Mail” button toward the right of the toolbar leads
to some simple questions: Which field has the EMail address? Should the letter be sent as plain text,
HTML (i.e., formatted), or as an attachment? What
should we put in the subject line of the message?
(Although the letters can be individualized, the
subject line has to be the same for all the letters.)
The other possibility is to print the letters on
paper and then send them by snail mail. If so, we
should check to see whether the letter takes up
more than one page and should thus need a running
head with the name of the recipient on the second
and subsequent pages, as in “Your Name /
Recipient’s Name, p. 2”, etc.” When the file is ready
to print, the most important button to avoid pressing
is the choice “Merge to Printer”. There will almost
always be one or two letters that have “Sincerely
yours” at the bottom of one page and your name at
the top of the next page. To avoid that problem,
choose instead to “Merge to New Document”. That
produces a second Word document that we can
check and edit to ensure that there are no awkward
page breaks. When all the errors are corrected, we
can print the file to get all the letters printed in a form
suitable for sending. We will then probably want to
make a new mail merge document to print the
envelopes with addresses to send the letters to
individuals. Our work is done.
Jef Raskin’s question about why there are no
Maytag user groups was certainly not meant to
suggest that PC User Groups are useless. Quite the
contrary: while in an ideal world there would be no
need for them, we live in the real world, where user
groups help us simplify life. I hope that this article
will do just that. Eventually no doubt Microsoft or
some other software publisher will make mail
merges simple, eliminating all the bugs that currently
annoy or even prevent persons from using mail
merge with MS Word. I hope that in the meantime
this article can serve as a small tribute to a gentleman
who did so much to simplify life.
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Professor John Robin Allen, Department of French,
Spanish, and Italian at the University of Manitoba, has
lunch with other members of the Winnipeg PC Users
Group each Saturday at the
Park Tower restaurant on
Portage Avenue (Winnipeg),
just east of the footbridge to
Assiniboine Park. You are
welcome to join the entire group
there or you can contact Allen
by E-Mail at
[email protected]. You
can also phone him at his home
at (204) 889-3561.
Tid Bits N’ Bytes
Search Engine Tips and Tricks
By Richard Johnson, TUGNET, Granada Hills CA
www.tugnet.org
Part 1: Google
I don’t have to tell you about Google, which has
for many years been the search leader. Aside from
the quality of its searches, a big plus is that all
Google’s paid listings are clearly distinguished, and
do not even appear in the same part of the page.
This is unfortunately not the case with other search
services such as Yahoo, which intersperses undifferentiated paid and unpaid listings.
Newbies will want to know they can initiate a
Google search at www.google.com. All the services
I’m recommending here, most of them from Google
but a few from other sources, are entirely free.
Google Toolbar
If you don’t already use the Google Toolbar,
you’re missing a terrific navigational aid. Its features
are really too numerous to detail here, but I find
especially useful its ability to:
• readily bring up a parent Web page,
• search within a website,
• find pages similar to what you’re looking at,
• find sites linking to that page,
• translate a page into English,
• browse by name (if you don’t know the URL),
• highlight search terms on the page,
• find on the page your search terms or any other
terms (more handily than with your browser’s
“Find” function),
• fill forms, and
•block pop-ups.
(There are better pop-up blockers and form fillers,
but Google’s may suit you fine.)
The toolbar enables most of the standard Google
tasks, including some described in the next section.
Not only are all these tasks easily accessible, but
also you won’t have to re-type your search terms
(for example, when you search for an image after a
standard search).
I strongly recommend version 3, which adds
many useful tools, the best of which will allow you to
• spell-check what you’ve typed on a Web form by
clicking a toolbar button,
• bring up a map page (using the impressive new
Google Maps—see below) just by clicking on an
address, and
• track a delivery by clicking on its tracking number.
Since it’s still in beta, version 3 is not publicized,
and won’t automatically replace your present
Google Toolbar. To get it, go to
www.toolbar.google.com/T3.
Other Google Goodies
Google Maps and Google Local
Google has recently introduced its own map
system, that’s head and shoulders above the competition. It’s available as a stand-alone service at http://
maps.google.com and as an adjunct to the more
established Google Local, at http://local.google.com.
Compared to other online maps, the area of a
Google map is huge, taking up more than half the
screen, and expanding to fill any additional space
(for example, if you move to a full-screen view).
Zooming (in or out) is very quick, and re-centering is
instantaneous. A new feature brings up a birds-eye
view if you click on “Satellite.”
Google Maps and Google Local are now pretty
much the same service: A page brought up by
Google Maps has a link to “Local Search,” which
provides the local data on the same page; and a
page brought up by Google Local includes the map
(which, although smaller, can be expanded with one
click). The local data includes the names, addresses,
phone numbers, and websites of businesses, and,
often, third-party reviews (like restaurant reviews).
You can now get to Google Maps by typing a
location in the standard Google search bar. And
you’ll find a link to Google Local at the top of every
page of Google search results.
The best of the rest.
The following are, in my experience, the most
useful (or most interesting) of Google’s non-standard
services. You do not need the Google Toolbar to
employ them:
Google’s image search at www.google.com/
imghp, touted as the Web’s most comprehensive,
indexes (according to Google) over 880 million
images.
Google will give you a business address and
phone number. The easiest way is through the
ResearchBuzz! form at www.researchbuzz.org/
archives/001408.shtml.
Google will bring up one or more definitions for
nearly any word. In the Google search box just type
“define:” (without the quotes), followed by the word
of interest. This service is now multi-lingual.
Reverse phone directory. In the search box type
the area code and phone number (with a space
between them), and there’s a good chance you’ll
bring up at the top of the results page not only the
person or company name for that number, but also
the address.
Google offers special searches, limited (for
example) to U.S. government or to Microsoft. Go to
www.google.com/options/specialsearches.html.
For those who like to purchase through the use of
catalogs, Google’s catalog search is at http://
catalogs.google.com.
Google will enable you to view a page that’s been
removed from the Web. Look for the “Cached” link
after the description of the page in a search result.
(Or click the Page Info button on the Google
Toolbar.) This function will give you access to many
closed-down sites not yet available via the Internet
Archive. (The Internet Archive — not a Google
service — is at www.archive.org.)
The Google Directory at http://directory.google.
com combines the Open Directory Project (the
Web’s largest human-edited directory) with
Google’s proprietary ranking system. Use of the
directory is helpful to narrow down what might
otherwise be an overly broad search. (This tool is
also available from the Google Toolbar.)
Google Answers at http://answers.google.com/
answers is a paid research service—but users are
free to browse previous answers, which can be quite
helpful.
Weather forecasts are easily obtained by typing in
the Google search bar the word “weather” followed
by the city of choice (for example, “weather canoga
park.”) The forecast will speedily appear at the top
of a page of search results.
Froogle, a comparison service for online shopping
whose listed vendors pay neither for inclusion nor
placement, is at http://froogle.google.com/froogle.
Google Print gives you access to books’ contents
and lets you search within those books. Look for the
“book results” entry in standard search results,
accompanied by the Google Print logo.
Google Suggest, at www.google.com/
webhp?complete=1&hl=en, appears and acts like
the standard Google search, except that as you start
typing your search request, Google types its own
suggestions. These could save you time and also
point you to related searches.
Google Desktop, to search files on your own
computer, can be downloaded from http://
desktop.google.com. Unfortunately, it’s available
only for users of Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Gmail, which on March 31 started offering rich
text formatting, has as of April 1 doubled its storage
capacity to a whopping 2 gigabytes. Gmail is not yet
open to the public, but invitations can be obtained
from various sources, including this writer.
Tid Bits N’ Bytes
Note that without re-typing you can extend your
standard Web search not only to Google Local but
also to Google Images and Froogle (as well as to
Google Groups and Google News), by clicking on
links at the top of every results page. Or you can
skip the Google entry page and go to Xtra Google at
www.xtragoogle.com for a selection of twenty
Google tools, all tied to one search box.
Google Tips
Toolbar tips
Use Alt-G to enter search terms in the search box.
For your news search, don’t enable the separate
news button, but instead use the Search News
option in the drop-down Search the Web menu.
That way you’ll be able to use the Alt-G shortcut to
enter your news search query, and to use the same
query for news and general Web searching, without
retyping.
When using the word-find function, hold down the
control key to find the exact whole word, and
similarly use the shift key to move backwards.
Other Google tips
For academically oriented results (often the most
useful), try typing site:edu either before or after your
search terms. This will eliminate commercial sites,
and limit results to those from educational institutions.
Although Google now implements “stemming”
(automatically searches for variants of words as well
as the words themselves), you can cover still more
bases by using the tilde [~] symbol right before a
search term (leaving no space). This will tell Google
to use synonyms as search queries. For example, a
search for ~food ~facts will turn up cooking information.
Don’t worry too much about misspelled words.
With any search engine, a search query with a
misspelling might get you some good results that you
wouldn’t see otherwise! Google will suggest a
corrected spelling along with its search results, but if
the initial search comes up empty will correct the
spelling on its own and re-run the search.
Google will ignore some common short words
(like a, on, and by) in your queries. The best way
around these so-called stop words in most cases is
simply to enclose the phrase in quotes, which will
force Google to search only for the phrase as given.
(A phrase search will of course come in handy on
other occasions as well.) Otherwise, you can
precede a suspected stop word with the plus sign
(for example, +on).
Google recognizes the OR operator, or, in its
stead, the vertical line. So if you’re seeking search
results concerning cats or dogs (but not both), you
could type “cats OR dogs” or “cats | dogs” [without
the quotes]. Use the minus sign right before a search
term for “not.” (“Animals -dogs” [without the
quotes] would ignore dogs in the search.) For
complicated queries, you can if necessary group
search words within parentheses.
Instead of clicking on the main link at the top of
each Google search result, try clicking on the word
Cached. The page that will come up will now have
your search words highlighted. (Don’t use this
technique if you need to see the most recent page
revisions.)
Google supports word wild cards. That is, you
can in your query use the asterisk [*] as a stand-in
to represent any word. (This won’t work in Google
for parts of words.)
Next month: Beyond Google.
Richard Johnson is a writer and editor, and
founder/administrator of FREE FOR ALL The
Skills Pool, a 29-year-old membership organization (http://theskillspool.org). He is a volunteer
with TUGNET HelpContact for assistance with
Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and Gmail.
You may reach him at [email protected].
Konfabulator 2.0
by Roger Buchanan
Past President, WPCUG
Editor’s Note:
This review is timely as Yahoo liked this
program so much that they bought the
company! Konfabulator is now likely to
undergo a name change and be called
Yahoo! Widgets . It is now available for free
from Yahoo.
The Windows desktop. When we think
of a virtual desktop we envision piles of
applications, a start button, some shortcuts
and maybe a taskbar. Yet look at the
physical desktop that your computer sits
on. What do you see? Likely it will include
items like a dictionary, a clock, maybe a
picture frame, a to-do list and the like.
Konfabulator bridges the gap between
your computers virtual desktop and your actual
physical desktop through the use of neat little items
called “widgets”. Version 2.0 comes with new
widgets, and many updated widgets. I’m getting
ahead of myself though.
Yes Konfabulator 2.0 ($19.95 US), a product of
Pixoria Inc., was originally developed for, aaccckkk,
err, the Mac. That said, it is still a darn good
application, and it’s original platform should not be
held against it. Konfabulator for Windows
XP is quite simply Konfabutastic! Besides
that, using it is downright fun at times.
Konfabulator is a shareware application
that is available for download at http://
www.konfabulator.com/. Konfabulator is
the interface control between you and your
widgets. Widgets are individual little task
oriented applications. Some are designed
to just display information, like a clock
widget or a weather widget. Other widgets
offer interactive functionality like the search
bar widget, ftp widget or to-do list widget.
Just like the various items on your real
desktop you can position your collection of
widgets anywhere you like on your virtual
figure 1
desktop. Needless to say this poor misguided user
has been “Konfabulated”.
My personal Konfabulator setup can be seen in
Figure 1. If ever there was an application that made
me want to have a bigger monitor Konfabulator is it!
I’ve played a fair number of games, edited lots of
digital still images, even ran some video, but only
Konfabulator has gotten me thinking of higher
resolutions, smaller dot pitch and larger screen size.
Once I set up my Konfabulator configuration I was
figure 2
Tid Bits N’ Bytes
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productive like never before. I easily tripled my
current rate of virtual work with this new style
desktop. See Figure 2 for my collection of widgets.
A: Chrome Clock
B: FTP icon
C: Power Down/Log Off
D: To – Do List
E: Thesaurus/Dictionary
F: Variable Engine Search Bar
G: System Resource Monitor
H: E-mail Monitor
I: Current Weather Monitor
It takes time to get the Konfabulator desktop set
up the way you like though. There are just so many
widgets to choose from http://
www.widgetgallery.com/. The last time I checked
there were almost six hundred widgets comprising
various categories. Widgets are open source
applications where the functionality is provided
through the use of JavaScript, and the appearance is
developed by using XML (eXtensible Markup
Language). All widgets submitted for “publication”
on the widget gallery site are first reviewed by the
folks at Konfabulator (i.e. Pixoria Inc.) You’ll have
to reference online material, or an expert, for any
more information on the development of widgets
though.
With version 2.0 you have even more added
widget functionality. There is now “COM” support,
“Widget messaging” allows Widgets to accept
messages, “Image Tiling and Clipping” and
“Colorization/Adjustments” are also offered. Now
there are “Context Menu Items” available that can
be added to a Window, image, text and text area
object. As if that was not enough, “Timers” have
been updated and there is now “Multiple Window
Support”. “Multi-Click Handlers” now better follow
mouse clicks and “Multi-Pane Preferences” are
now available in all widgets. The list of upgrades and
functionality just goes on and on and on. The folks at
Pixoria, the makers of Konfabulator 2.0 don’t just
sit around all day, they work hard! Go to their
website to get even more insight into this app.
With Konfabulator installed, and your selection of
widgets made, you still have to configure their
figure 3
functionality. An e-mail monitor will require your
account information. An FTP widget will require
your server, account and password. The list goes on
and on, depending on the variety of widgets you
have.
Widgets do have a number of features in common
however. Widget Preferences are divided into at
least two panes, “General” and “Window” (Figure
3), though there can be many additional panes. They
all have user defined degrees of opacity. You can
have a Chrome Clock widget in plain sight, but it is
opaque to a degree that allows you to see your
application underneath. Widgets also share a feature
called “Level of Window”. This feature adds even
more functionality. With items like the Chrome clock
or the system monitor you can have them “Floating”
so that you can see them, but not really interact with
them. When a widget is floating you can work with
the application that is beneath it, just as if that widget
wasn’t there. Other widgets, ones that require you
to input information, like the to-do list or the search
bar can be put “Topmost” where they can stay on
top of an application waiting for your input. The
other levels are self-explanatory. I use either floating
or topmost widgets for all my work.
Tid Bits N’ Bytes
In spite of my new found functionality using
widgets I did get to the point where I had effectively
“widgetized” myself. Control lost I switched over to
viewing requirements. Finally, when I widget myself
right outta my gourd, I always have Konspose
Mode for total widget control.
It has been a long long time since I
was this excited to write about an
application. Konfabulator just enthralls
me with it’s myriad of configuration
options. Now I can have a desktop that
is truly mine, and unique in its
functionality. This application is for
anyone who is longing to get away from
the dreary virtual desktop that comes
with the default Windows configuration.
Highly recommended!
Want More? Version 2.0.1 was
released just after this review was
completed. Here is the link to a list on
what else is new http://
www.konfabulator.com/versionhistory .
figure 4
Registration is free now that Yahoo
has purchased the program.
“Konspose” mode by hitting the F8 key (Figure 4).
Konspose mode gives you access to all of your
The single user license is good for two computers
currently running widgets, and is a boon when you
running on the same platform (i.e. both Windows, or
spin out of control.
both Mac OS), that are not being used at the same
time.
I did run into a problem in a couple of instances
where my widgets suddenly, and inexplicably turned
Requirements: Windows XP or Windows 2000
into nothing more than rectangular cyan coloured
Roger Buchanan is a long time member of the WPCUG. He
boxes. A quick email was fired off to the support
has written for the newsletter in the past. Owing to his
team at Konfabulator. The reply was prompt and
long term standing as a “poor misguided user” he can
informative and easy to follow. Following the
often be heard muttering “what did I do wrong this time”
instructions I was quite relieved that the problem
over weekend lunches at the Park Tower restaurant.
seemed to have nothing to do with running
Konfabulator 2.0. It is nice to know that support is
there when you need it.
If I had to list my top three features regarding how
“I” use Konfabulator they would be, in no particular
order: The “Floating levels” of the widgets, the
ability to click “through” a widget to use the app
below it, and last but not least “Konspose Mode”.
There is certain information that I always want
access to, and the widgets that float on top of my
apps provide me with this feature. That I can click
through the widget to the app below means I don’t
loose any functionality. Remember, you can set the
opacity of each widget individually to suit your
The shareware industry held an awards gala recently and announced the best shareware of 2005.
The following is the official news release.
Fourteenth Annual Shareware Industry Awards Winners
The Shareware Industry Awards Foundation
news release by Michael E. Callahan, SIAF Chairman, at 1-888-882-7423
The Shareware Industry Awards Foundation was
pleased to announce the winners of the fourteenth
annual Shareware Industry Awards during a gala
awards banquet held recently.
- Best Action/Arcade Game
Astrogeddon by ORT Software
- Best Program for PDA’s
Google Mobile by Google, Inc.
Awards were given in nineteen categories:
- Best Overall Utility
TuneUp Utilities 2004 by TuneUp Software GmbH
- Best Application
UltraEdit by IDM Computer Solutions, Inc.
- Best Graphics Program or Utility
SnagIt by Techsmith
- Best Desktop Enhancement
Microangelo Creation by Eclipsit Corporation
- Best Photo Program or Utility
Images: In Context! by Liquid Mirror Software
- Best Application Using .Net
Guitar and Drum Trainer 2 by Renegade Minds
- Best Utility Using .Net
Filehand Search by Filehand, LLC.
- Best Sound Program or Utility
Microsoft Media Player by Microsoft Corporation
- Best Vertical Market Program or Utility
Help and Manual by EC Software
- Best Business Application or Utility
Black Hole Organizer by Lincoln Beach Software
- Best Educational Program or Game
Cherokee Trails by Pharos Games
- Best Hobby or Personal Interest
PhotoMix by fCoder Group, Inc.
- Best Internet Enhancement
FTP Voyager by Rhino Software, Inc.
- Best Internet Communication
FeedForAll by NotePage, Inc.
- Best Web Enhancement
HTML Match by Salty Brine Software, Inc.
- Best Server Program or Utility
Servers Alive by bvba Woodstone
- Best Non-Action Game
No Limits Roller Coaster Sim
The Shareware Industry Awards Foundation is a
non-profit corporation that was created in 1991 for
the purpose of hosting the annual Shareware Industry Conference. The SIC is attended by software
developers, e-commerce providers, vendors, and
others involved in the shareware industry from
around the world. The conference features educational sessions on a wide range of topics of interest
to software developers including marketing, Web
site design, press releases, and more. The conference is sponsored by a number of companies both
large and small.
For more information on the Shareware Industry
Conference, the Shareware Industry Awards, and
the SIAF People’s Choice Awards, please visit the
SIAF Web site at http:// www.sic.org. Or call
Michael E. Callahan, SIAF Chairman, at
1-888-882-7423.
Editor’s Note:
The Shareware Industry Awards are awarded
annually. This is the 15th annual selection. They
are awarded by the SIC board based on many
factors. In addition there is the People’s
Choice Awards.
Do check out their website at www.sic.org
There you will find the lists of winners and
runners up. Each has a link with downloadable
files. It you will be entertained for many months
to come following up on these many leads to
great shareware.
Tid Bits N’ Bytes
Shareware Industry Awards Foundation’s
“People’s Choice Awards” 2005
Best Overall Utility
WinZip by WinZip Computing, Inc.
Best Internet Communication
ICUII by Cybration, Inc.
Best Application
NoteTab Pro by Fookes Software
Best Web Enhancement
Mozilla Firefox by The Mozilla Foundation
Best Graphics Program or Utility
Paint Shop Pro by Corel Corporation
Best Non-Action Game
Pretty Good Solitaire by Goodsol Development
Best Sound Program or Utility
Blaze Media Pro by Mystik Media
Best Action/Arcade Game
UnReal Tournament by Epic Games
Best Vertical Market Program or Utility
Macro Express by Insight Software Solutions, Inc.
Best Program for PDA’s
Pocket Informant 2005 by Web Info Solutions
Best Bussiness Application or Utility
Microsoft Office 2003 by Microsoft Corporation
CNET “Most Votes”
Ad-Aware SE by Lavasoft Sweden
Best Educational Program or Game
AceReader by StepWare, Inc.
Simtel “Most Votes”
Registry First Aid by Rose City Software
Best Hobby or Personal Interest
Picasa 2 by Google, Inc.
Tucows “Most Votes”
Spyware Doctor by PC Tools
Best Internet Enhancement
Ad-Aware SE by Lavasoft Sweden
PC World “Most Votes”
Spybot Search & Destroy by Patrick M. Kolla
General meeting Report May 19, 2005
Greg opened the meeting and introduced our
presenter for the evening: Neil Longmuir. Neil had
come out to show us four utilities that work with
Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Elements, two of
the most popular programs for editing digital images
under Windows.
DIGITAL GEM airbrush Pro
- smoothes skin surfaces
DIGITAL GEM Pro
- reduces image noise and grain
DIGITAL ROC Pro
- restores and balances image colour
DIGITAL SHO Pro
- optimizes contrast and exposure
Neil started by directing our attention to the
demonstration disks that were available at the group
buyer’s table. They contained a time-limited copy of
Digital Ice, a program that does a very good job of
removing ‘dust’ and noise from digital images that
were scanned with imperfections. The disks were
free for the taking.
He then talked about Adobe Elements 3, the
newest version of the image editing program. Neil
said that it is much improved and now includes a
copy of Photoshop Album. It also includes many
tutorials that you can take on-line.
Many digital cameras available today allow you
to save an image in a raw format. In other words,
rather than being in a ‘jpg’ or ‘tif’ or some other
format, it is simply a copy of the information that
was read from the sensor in the camera. While
Elements can read many of these files and convert
them into a standard image format (eg. ‘jpg’) Neil
stressed the importance of doing any image
corrections *before* you convert to another format.
This is because the raw format has the maximum
amount of information. Once you do a conversion,
some of the data is lost and this is especially true
when your output file is a ‘jpg’.
After giving us a quick tour of the other plug-ins,
Neil showed off the capabilities of Digital Roc Pro.
He had scanned several forty to fifty year-old slides
provided by members. Even though the slides had
been stored properly, the colours had shifted. One in
particular (a shot of two horses) was predominantly
red with the other colours muted or missing. Neil
then applied the plug-in in automatic mode, letting
the program make its best guesses as to what the
slide should look like. The results were astonishing!
What was an unacceptable image now had naturallooking colours. While you could achieve the same
results by ‘hand’ (given enough skill and time), the
speed and quality of the processing certainly justified
the cost of the plug-in. Other ‘off-colour’ images
showed a similar improvement.
But Neil had some cautions too. For one thing,
the plug-ins he showed us are all eight-bit products
while the computer industry is moving to 32-bit. For
another, these utilities have no preview function: you
must apply a change and then ‘undo’ it if you don’t
like the result. Also, batch processing closes the files
after making the change(s) rather than leaving them
open for further modifications. Because of antipiracy schemes used by Adobe you can’t install any
of the products on two machines: for instance your
desktop and your laptop computers. And if you
decide to upgrade to a new computer you can’t
install the software on the new machine without
calling the manufacturer.
The plug-ins sell for about US$50.00 each. Neil
was pleased to say that he had arranged a deal with
Kodak to give User Group members 25% off the
price of any plug-in until 1 June, 2005.
We gave Neil an appreciative round of applause
for his presentation.
In Random Access a member had an interesting
and unusual problem: if he selects a ‘favourite’ in
Internet Explorer, the web page is displayed and
immediately sent to his printer. Greg said he would
do some checking and report back to the group.
Tid Bits N’ Bytes
Adventures in Linux-land
By Siles Bazerman, APCUG Representative,
Orange County IBM PC Users’ Group, California
As many of you know I became bored with
Windows XP a while ago. Bored with both writing
about it and actually using it. Windows went from
“Gee, look what I found!” in Windows 3 to using an
appliance in Windows XP with the release of SP2.
Very usable but not much fun to play with.
I decided to give Linux another try. The first time
was with Red Hat 3 back in 1998-1999. At that
time it was not ready for Prime Time and there was
still a lot to discover in Windows 98 and 98SE.
Also, there were only one or two other distros
(distributions) available and little in the way of a
GUI, so you used mostly command line.
Now there are many, many distros out there,
some commercial and some free. Red Hat went
commercial, but is available as Fedora for free
download. One of the more popular free distros is
Debian (Debra and Ian Murdock, authors). It too is
available in several varieties. The two most useful for
beginners to Linux are Knoppix and SimplyMepis. I
use the latter. Both of these are downloadable, fit on
one CD with a number of useable programs, and
can run from the CD without installing on your hard
drive. You can also install them if you so desire.
After downloading Mepis, using it and finally
installing it, I decided I needed more information
than was available on line. I found a book Point and
Click Linux by Robin Miller that was written to
exactly parallel the CD. For less than $22 from
Barnes and Nobel on line I received the book, a CD
(exactly the same as the download) and an instructional DVD. The distro uses the KDE (K Desktop
Environment) and includes several editors, Open
Office Suite (similar to Microsoft Office, but free), a
CD/DVD writing program, GIMP graphics program
(GNU Image Manipulation Program) and Mozilla
web browser. There are numerous other programs
included but I have listed the main ones. Also you
can download and install many other programs free
to enhance or replace the ones on the CD.
If all you want to do is send and receive email,
browse the web, do some word processing or
similar things, then you can use Mepis as installed.
Web browsing is relatively virus free and almost
totally popup free. Both Mozilla and its successor,
Firebox, are also available for Windows, but windows update will not work in any other browser but
IE. Linux is relatively free of viruses for two reasons.
First, it represents only a very small percent of
desktop installations and virus writers want the
biggest “bang for the buck” so they don’t bother.
Second, you work in Linux as a user, but all changes
to the system must be done as either an administrator or “super user” which are not accessible from
outside and are password protected. Also the
browser does not allow popups. This would be
labeled EASY.
If you wish to do customization or add established
Debian packages then it can be easy or difficult
depending on the need for the command line interface. Many of the commands are arcane and rather
like in a foreign language, although they are really in
English. I believe much is written in C, Perl, and
Python. I am sure some other programming languages are involved also. Many of the free backup
programs are written for Tape Backup Units,
although they might be configurable for other media
such as HD or CD/DVD. These things would rate
DIFFICULT.
I have one MUST HAVE, no substitutes allowed,
program. It will run only in Windows, not in Linux or
on a MAC, or any other operating system. I have
tried to port it to Linux using four different Windows
Emulators. The commercial three all have free trials
available that are time limited but otherwise full. The
free qemu (Q EMUlator) requires an installation of
Windows 98 from a full install, and does not seem to
ever access the CD drive or, for that matter, any
drive outside the virtual machine. This prohibits the
addition of other programs. Of the commercial ones,
Crossover Office allows installation of Microsoft
Office and a number of other programs whose
hooks are built in. It will also allow the installation of
some others but it is hit or miss. Paint Shop Pro 7
will install and work, but will not print, as an example. Newer versions of PSP will not even install.
Photoshop 6 or 7 will work but not later versions.
Crossover Office does NOT require a copy of
Windows to work. All the others do.
VMWare never did load on my system as I could
not find one compatible with the kernal version I am
using, and I do not have sufficient knowledge to
recompile one myself; besides who wants to bother?
That leaves the two versions of Win4Lin, regular and
Professional. The regular version works with all the
DOS-based Windows up and including Windows
ME. The Pro version works with Windows 2000
and XP. I did find that loading WINDOWS XP in
the pro version was about like loading Windows 3.1
on my old 286. S——l——o——w. It loaded
Windows 2000 about the speed it loaded on my P3;
I am running an Athlon T’bread 2600+ with 1G of
memory. Under Windows XP, when I tried to load
my program I received the message “Catastrophic
Failure.” What the Hey? Under 2000 it installed but
when run would fail with “ActiveX could not create
a database module.” I spoke to one of the programmers of my program and he never heard of the first
and could not suggest how to fix the second. As a
matter of fact, he asked me to call him if I had any
success in porting it over. He knows of no one else
even trying. (Figures) I could devote several pages
to just this area, but not now. This whole area is
very FRUSTRATING.
Keep tuned and I may present more Adventures
in Linux-land in the near future. That is if I don’t find
playing more appealing than writing.
The Editorial Committee of the Association of
Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an
international organization of which this group is
a member, brings this article to you.
How To Record Your Cassette
Music to a CD!
By Bob Elgines,
CRCC Editor, [email protected]
Most of the equipment you already have includes
the Soundboard and a Cassette player. Next of
course things needed are a recording program, such
as Musicmatch Jukebox and a cable to connect your
cassette player with your computer. This basic
Jukebox software is available free at:
www.musicmatch.com (go to JUKEBOX tab and
click on “Free Jukebox download”, it is over 24
MB in size) The cable is made up of 1/8” Phone
Plugs (RS 274-284c) and a three wire shielded
cable. This cable can be purchased or made on your
own. (Some of the older cassette players will use a
larger ¼” Phone plug.)
Now we are ready to setup your computer and
programs. Connect your cable between the “Output” (might be labeled Headset) of your Cassette
Player and the “Line in” of your computer Sound
board.
Do a right click on your Speaker icon located on
the right hand side of the task bar. Select (or left
click) “Adjust Audio Properties”, click on “Audio”.
Under “Sound Recording” click on “Volume”. Select
“Line in” and set the input level at approximately
20%, this may have to be changed later, so you can
leave this on the screen if you wish.
Next activate Musicmatch Jukebox, then go to
“Options”/ “Recorder” / “Settings”. Set “Recording
Format” to WAV, “Recording Source” to LINE IN.
Now click on “Advance”, set “Fadeout” to 1, and
under “End of Record Notifications” uncheck “Play
sound” & “Eject CD”. Click OK
On the bottom left click the red “Record” button.
Another window appears with a number “one” on
the right. You can click on here and change the name
now or do it later. If you are going to record the
complete side of the cassette under one file then
name it now, otherwise if you are going to record
one track (or song) at a time then you can change
the name later.
continued on page 25
Tid Bits N’ Bytes
Simple Password Practices Keep
PC and Online Data Secure
By Gabe Goldberg, APCUG Advisor and Columnist, AARP Computers and Technology Website
Password dilemma: We can’t live an online life
without them, but if they’re too numerous to remember, they encourage unsafe practices. What to do?
First, basics. A password is just the key that
opens a computer lock. It may gain access to a
newspaper’s online edition, protect banking records,
let you bid on auctions, open a frequent-flyer
account, or do anything requiring verified identity.
Some Web sites assign passwords; most allow
choosing them. Rules for selecting passwords are
easy to find but are often impractical. Don’t use
easily guessed familiar names or words; use letters
and numbers and special characters? OK. Avoid
anything related to facts about yourself? Makes
sense. Don’t share passwords with anyone? Good
advice. Change passwords periodically? Oops, it’s a
memory test [http://www.evalu8.org/staticpage?
page=review&siteid=8906]. Use unique passwords
everywhere? Hm, that takes a *lot* of passwords.
Don’t write them down or store them in a computer
file? Tilt!
Maintaining passwords is a nuisance. So some
people use one password for everything — a bad
idea, since sharing or compromising one access
opens them all. Password hierarchies are common:
use one password for financial matters, another for
commerce, and one for trivials such as newspaper
sites. That avoids revealing your sensitive e-mail/
password combination to junk Web sites.
But don’t use a common password for all ecommerce sites (amazon.com, buy.com, etc.) since
they’re occasionally hacked. And treat sites like
PayPal as financial rather than e-commerce. And
don’t just guess which password you used on a site;
some sites lock accounts after just a few failed
logins.
As passwords proliferate, it’s common to store
them in a computer file. And having too many siteassigned passwords guarantees the need to record
them. But please, don’t call the file “passwords.txt”
and don’t use the word “password” in it. The
paranoid and geeky encrypt such files, but that risks
losing the file by forgetting the encryption key.
You can print and save registration pages, but that
leads to bulky files, cumbersome to search and
requiring updating. Some people use an address
book or print lists of sites and accounts, then
handwrite passwords. But that still needs updating,
and can be lost, destroyed, or found by someone
untrustworthy.
If you have multiple email addresses, note which
you use on a given site, since that’s often the key for
logging in or receiving password reminders.
Hackers use special software to attack logins,
applying dictionary word lists and other guessing
techniques. Passwords are described as “strong”
(hard to crack) if they have at least eight characters,
include upper/lower case and punctuation characters
and at least one digit. So even if you use a memory
aid for remembering passwords — such as words
from a poem — convert them to strong passwords
in a way that only you will know.
High-tech devices can add security, but they’re
usually used only in business settings; they include
biometric devices which check fingerprints or eye
structure and random logon-key generators.
Software password managers are more practical.
These record and secure passwords and then autofill online logins. Good ones offer a “don’t remember/don’t ask” option to avoid recording info about
sensitive sites. Encryption is desirable but not
mandatory; it should be possible to secure the
password manager itself with a master password.
Many managers are free, some are bought, and
common software such as Web browsers and e-mail
clients often includes it. Google returns many hits
related to “password manager” and classy software
site Tucows [www.tucows.com] numbers 300 such
tools. Before installing one, make sure it supports
your software applications, especially if they’re nonMicrosoft.
Many people don’t secure home computers —
but consider cleaners, workers, friends wandering
through, perhaps even having permission to use the
computer. Suddenly security becomes more appealing. If you handle money online, check banking/
financial sites occasionally for unauthorized transactions.
Remember that you may occasionally need access
to secure sites while away from your computer. You
can copy passwords to a thumbdrive or PDA or
simply print them, but remember that they’re powerful keys and must be protected. Before traveling,
check your passwords so you’re not surprised on
the road. If you leave your computer running, you
can access it remotely via tools such as
GoToMyPC.
On business-owned PCs, separate personal from
work-related material. Determine whether your
office has policies for personal computer use and
monitoring of computer activity. Some businesses
install keystroke loggers which can capture passwords before they’re encrypted. And remember that
system administrators can often defeat security
measures as part of their job, so you may not want
to store sensitive personal material at work.
Work and home PCs both need disaster preparation, so family members or colleagues can access
what’s needed in an emergency. Work-related
passwords and instructions can be stored securely
so they’re available but can’t be secretly used.
For home computers and facilities such as e-mail
and finance, remember that many ISPs and companies have privacy policies prohibiting revealing
information to family members, even in cases of
illness or death. Instructions and important passwords should be stored with essential family
records. Note that changing situations may require
special care — for example, a divorce might motivate tight security.
This article appeared originally on AARP’s Computers and Technology Web site, [www.aarp.org/
computers]. (c) AARP 2004/2005. Permission is granted for reprinting and distribution by non-profit
organizations with text reproduced unchanged and this paragraph included. Please e-mail the
author, Gabe Goldberg, at [[email protected]] when you print or post it.
The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.
continued from page 23
Now play your cassette to check out the input
level for no distortion listening to it on your computer
speakers. If it is to loud and there is distortion then
reduce the input level or the volume out of the
player. Rewind the cassette.
We are ready to roll, start your player and press
the “Record” button on the lower left window.
When the song is over press the “Stop” button, then
press “Record” again because the next song will
start within a second or two. The press “Stop”,
continue this until each song is recorded from the
cassette.
Now we have them in the computer, let’s name
each one, but keep the names short. Use “Windows
Explorer” and go to “My Documents” / “My Music”/ “Artist” / “Album”. Here you will find your
recordings and you can rename them by doing a
right click on each one. After you are finished, exit,
go to your CD recording program such as “EZ CD
Creator” or “Nero”. Now you can grab all of the
recordings you made and make an AUDIO CD.
(Do not record any faster then 8X, because most
players will not accepted anything faster)
Another method can be used and that is by using
MP3 sound files. If you covert from WAV to MP3
files, you can put up to 150 (or more) songs on a
CD instead of just 15.
continued on page 29
Tid Bits N’ Bytes
Daves Quick Print AD
Another Silent Attack on Our Computers
by Ira Wilsker, APCUG Director; Columnist, The Examiner,
Beaumont, Texas’ Radio Show Host; Police Officer
WEBSITES:
http://research.microsoft.com/rootkit
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/
rootkitreveal.shtml
http://www.f-secure.com/blacklight
http://www.f-secure.com/blacklight/rootkit.shtml
with a rootkit produces what was known as full
stealth viruses in the MS-DOS environment.”
Because rootkits are currently very effective at
hiding malware from our antivirus and anti-spyware
scanners, it is quite possible or even probable that
our computers are infected, despite repeated scans
with properly updated software.
At the recent computer security symposium in
Microsoft, and other vendors, have acknowlCorpus Christi, one of the speakers mentioned
edged the threat and are now beginning to produce
something that I was vaguely aware of as a threat.
software that can detect and destroy the rootkits on
The threat is considered as a silent attempt to invade our computers. The software is still in its infancy,
our computers for the purposes of installing viruses, and lacks the ease of use, automation, and attractive
Trojans, worms, or other malware devices. This
graphical interfaces that we are used to with our
silent threat may be used by terrorists to launch a
antivirus software. It is inevitable that as word of the
coordinated attack on our infrastructure, steal our
rootkit threat spreads, and more computers are
personal information, or otherwise wreak havoc. So identified as having stealthy rootkits hiding viruses
insidious is this threat that it would sound like the
and other threats, that the small current crop of
content of an urban legend, yet it is documented as
rootkit detecting software will improve, and other
real. Imagine a threat that would be undetected by
competitors, probably the major antivirus vendors,
the current antivirus, firewall, and anti-spyware
will join the fight. If rootkit technology continues to
software, yet be so powerful as to effectively take
spread, the current crop of generally excellent
over our computers, without our knowledge. This
computer security suites from the likes of Symantec
threat, formerly considered solely as an unproven
(Norton), McAfee, Panda, TrendMicro, and others
concept, is now known to be real. This threat is
will be forced to add rootkit protection to their
also now implicated in taking over countless comrespective suites, or face competitive obsolescence.
puters. This contemporary threat is known by the
Fortunately for us, there are a few rootkit detecinnocuous term “Rootkit”.
tors already available, mostly for free! This first
A rootkit is defined on the Sysinternals website
generation of products still needs much refining to
as, “ … the mechanisms and techniques whereby
enable the average person to scan for rootkits with
malware, including viruses, spyware, and trojans,
ease, but they are still a very good first step. There
attempt to hide their presence from spyware
are a few rootkit detectors available which are
blockers, antivirus, and system management utilities. currently free. One “RootkitRevealer” is from a
There are several rootkit classifications depending
company known for its excellent and often free
on whether the malware survives reboot and
software, Sysinternals. This software uses a patentwhether it executes in user mode or kernel mode.”
pending technology to detect rootkits, and is curThe security software company F-Secure expands
rently available for download at
the definition with, “Rootkits for Windows work in a www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/
different way and are typically used to hide malicious rootkitreveal.shtml. RootkitRevealer will run on
software from for example an antivirus scanner.
almost any Microsoft operating system, NT4 and
Rootkits are typically not malicious by themselves
later, which includes Windows 2000, and XP.
but are used for malicious purposes by viruses,
Another rootkit detector is from F-Secure, a
worms, backdoors and spyware. A virus combined
Tid Bits N’ Bytes
well-known computer security company headquartered in Finland, with offices in the US and elsewhere. F-Secure’s product is “Blacklight”, available
as a free beta (pre-release) version until July 1.
Blacklight can be downloaded at www.fsecure.com/blacklight.
I have recently tried both products, and I personally found Blacklight the easier to use. It seemed
effective at detecting and eliminating rootkits.
Microsoft will shortly be making available its
rootkit detector, the “Strider GhostBuster”, details at
research.microsoft.com/rootkit.
Persons unknown who wish to do us harm, either
at a personal level such as stealing our account
information and committing the crime of identity
theft, or the impersonal level, such as cyber terrorists
intent on shutting down our critical infrastructure,
may use the rootkit technology to bypass our
otherwise necessary defenses.
Until such time as the integrated computer security
suites catch up with this threat, I will now have to
add a rootkit detector to my recommended list of
essential computer security utilities, alongside
antivirus software, a good firewall, and a spyware
detector. It is also imperative that all four of these
utilities be frequently updated to ensure a reasonable
degree of personal security. We will also have to
add rootkits to our vernacular of cyber threats,
along with the now ubiquitous terms “virus”,
“spyware”, and “hacker”.
I shudder to wonder what may be coming down
the pike next.
continued from page 25
To covert the WAV files bring up your “Jukebox”
program. Go to “File” / “Convert”, then select your
Source folder that contains your music files. Select
“Source Data Type” and set to WAV, then click on
“Select all”. Next select your Destination folder and
select your “Destination Data Type” setting it to
MP3. Click on the start button and it will now make
MP3 files out of your selected WAV files.
After you are finished, Exit, go to your CD
recording program and record your MP3 files on a
CD as data files (do not make an audio CD), this
MP3-Data CD will now play in a DVD Player or
computer capable of having over 150 songs.
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7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
16
17
Ins tall/D rop-In
Forum
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
18
19
Powe rPoint
Forum
21
Acce s s Forum
26
27
22
23
WPCUG
Ge ne ral M e e ting
cancelled for this month
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
25
20
Inte rne t/
Hardware Forum
7:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
at Re s ource Ce ntre
28
24
10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
29
30
All Forums and Board me e tings are he ld at the Winnipe g PC Us e r Group Re s ource Ce ntre 337C Pe mbina Highway.
NOTE: Winnipe g PC Us e r Group Ge ne ral M e e ting is he ld at M ontros e School, M ontros e & Grant.
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Group Meeting Schedule
Regular meetings are held on the 3rd Thursday (2nd Thursday in December) of each month. Mark your calendar now
so you don’t miss any of the great sessions that will be
“happening” through all of 2003 & 2004.
Meetings are held in the Montrose School -- located at
691 Montrose St at Grant Avenue. Free parking,
wheelchair accessable. Call any member of the executive
for more information.
The General Meeting format is as follows:
6:30 p.m.
7:15 p.m.
8:30 p.m.
8:50 p.m.
9:30 p.m.
Doors open -- get aquainted
Main Presentation
Break
Question/Answers
Adjourn
Don’t miss it!
Winnipeg PC User’s Group Annual Picnic August 18, 2005
at the picnic grounds adjacent to the Pavilion.
W i n n i p e g P C U s e r G r o u p F o r u ms
b y R y a n R a p s o n , F o ru m C o o rd i n a t o r
Fo rums @ wpc us rg rp. o rg
A fo rum is a gro up o f me mb e rs who me e t to s ha re info rma tio n
o n to p ic s o f mutua l inte re s t, i. e . Be ginne r' s F o rum, Ha rd wa re
F o rum. M e mb e rs c a n he lp , a nd le a rn fro m e a c h o the r. Ea c h
fo rum ha s o ne o r two le a d e rs .
M e e ting Pla c e
Unle s s o the rwis e s ta te d , a ll F o rums me e t a t the Winnip e g P C
Us e r Gro up Re s o urc e C e ntre a t 3 3 7 C P e mb ina Highwa y
(P e mb ina Highwa y a t F le e t S tre e t).
And N o w . . . He re a re the Fo rums
(lis te d a lp ha b e tic a lly)
M icros oft Acce s s FORUM
Meets every third Tuesday of the month.
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Leader: Harve y Zimbe rg
Compute r Bas ics FORUM
Meets the s e cond Saturday of the month
10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Leaders Barb Randle /Jim Roy
D ig ita l I ma g ing FOR UM
M e e ts the s e c o nd We dne s da y o f the mo nth.
7 :0 0 p . m. - 9 :0 0 p . m.
Le a d e r: N e il Lo ng muir
Exce l XP Forum
Meets the s e cond Thurs day of the month.
7 :0 0 p . m. - 9 :0 0 p . m.
Le a d e r : G l e n A s h
Ha rdwa re /I nte rne t FOR UM
M e e ts the fo urth S a turda y o f the mo nth
1 0 :3 0 a . m. - 1 2 :3 0 p . m.
Le a d e rs : J o n Phillips & Gre g M c Clure
I ns ta ll/D ro p-I n FOR UM
M e e ts 1 s t & 3 rd S a turda y s o f the mo nth.
1 0 :0 0 a . m. - 4 :0 0 p . m.
Le a d e rs : J o n Phillips a nd Gre g M c Clure
I ntro duc tio n to Co mpute rs - M e nto ring
O ne o n O ne M e nto ring is a va ila b le to ne w me mb e rs who ha ve
little o r no c o mp ute r s k ills . Yo u will b e ta ught the b a s ic s k ills to
he lp yo ur ge t up a nd running with yo ur c o mp ute r. The re is no
c ha rge fo r this s e rvic e . Yo u jus t ha ve to b e a me mb e r o f the
gro up . C a ll Ba rb a ra a t 6 6 7 - 6 4 7 4 to ma k e a rra nge me nts .
I nv e s tme nt FOR UM
M e e ts the firs t Thurs da y o f the mo nth
7 :0 0 p . m. - 9 :0 0 p . m.
Le a d e r: Art Ca v e na g h
Linux FOR UM
M e e ts the third Tue s da y o f the mo nth
7 :0 0 p . m. - 9 :0 0 p . m.
Inte rim Le a d e r: B ria n Lo we
Windo ws FOR UM
M e e ts the s e c o nd Tue s da y o f the mo nth
7 :0 0 p . m. - 9 :0 0 p . m.
Le a d e r: M y le s M unro
Al l f o r u m s a r e s u b j e c t t o l a s t m i n u t e c a n c e l l a t i o n !
P le a s e r e a d t h e U G w e e k ly e - m a il " b la s t " o r v is it
o u r w e b s it e t o v ie w o u r m o n t h ly F o r u m C a le n d a r s !
Internet Access Form
Complete and return with $15.96
[ $ 14 monthly fee (first month’s fee) + $1.96 (PST & GST)]
To:
c/o Internet Subscriptions,
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3L 2E4
Name: (Last, First, Middle Initial)
Home Address:
City:
Postal Code:
Home Phone:
Business Phone:
PC User Group Membership Number:
Bill Method::
Pre Pay
Visa
Mastercard
Card #:____________________________________
Expiry Date (Mo/Yr) ____/____
Direct withdrawl from bank account (provide a
sample void cheque)
____________ _______________ ______________
Bank
Branch
Account
I authorize the Winnipeg PC User Group to charge my
bank account monthly for my use of the WPCUG
Internet Service.
Signature:______________________ Date:_________
Parental/Guardian signature required for members under 18.
__________________________________________
49K+
Connects!
WPCUG
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Internet Service
“Let us connect you to the world!”
WPCUG
Need help getting set up?
Call ahead and bring your
PC to the
Resource Center
for “hands on” help.
People Helping People Use Computers Since 1982
**
0
n
** TUP
SE E!!
FE
þ *40* hours/month FREE
þ V.90 Support
þ PPP dial up access
þ Guaranteed user/modem
ratio of 15:1
þ 2 MB of disk space
for your own home page
þ Full Telnet shell access to
maintain your home page
þ Unlimited technical support
via e-mail, phone, Web BBS
and the Resource Center
þ Your own e-mail address
JUST $14*/Month!!
$0.25/hr after 40 hours
Maximum
billing of
*
$20 /month
(*Plus PST/GST)
Make a one time payment
of $192 (plus taxes)
and get UNLIMITED ISP
Access for a year!
We run on a cost recovery
basis. Every dollar goes to
improve, not just the Internet
Service, but all the other
services the User Group
provides as well.
If it weren't for the ISP, the RC
would close its doors!
Please remember that the Internet Service is a
cooperative effort. Give others a chance to
connect. Hang up when you are not actively using
the Internet! Thanks!!!
Make the RIGHT connection so YOU
don’t end up like this!