Money 99 Financial Suite Deluxe

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FEATURING ARTICLES BY COMPUTER CLUB MEMBERS
“GETTING MORE OUT OF YOUR COMPUTER”
Money 99 Financial
Suite Deluxe
PCCT
read.me, Volume 18, Number 7
July 2000
Contents
Canadian Edition
By Jonathan Hines (PCCT)
It took me about a year to do this
review but I do believe that it was
well worth the wait.
spreadsheet, accounting) does Microsoft Money 99 stand out? There are
two products that I know of in this
The idea of spending money to make
money was a bit of a hard concept to
get into my head at first but I believe
this product, Microsoft Money 99
(Canadian Edition) at a cost of $69.99,
proved it works.
Teach Yourself Microsoft Money 99
in 24 Hours, Sams Publishing
www.samspublishing.com, ISBN 0672-31367-7, Cost 28.95.
Operating Systems? The program
needs Pentium 90 or higher
processor.
Memory needs: 16 MB of RAM for
Windows 95.
Needs 40-120 MB of available harddisk space. Runs on Windows 95,
98, and Windows NT workstation
Installation: Easy. It allows Drive
and Folder Selection and it automatically configures your system
category of software, Intuit Quicken
99 and Money 99 (Money 99 easily
converts Quicken files.)
What comes with the
product?
A CD, a 90-page booklet named
Strategies for Success—The Canadian
Money 99 Companion.
What are its major
features?
Within its category of software (i.e.
Is it easy to use?
Pros
I found the software was easy to use
and so were the Help features in
showing me the best way to do things.
·
Recovered the money I had spent
·
Easily converted Quicken files
The program was very easy to install.
The interactive startup had three parts
Money asked you about:
Cons
Publication Mail Agreement 1464248
I had to make a commitment to faithfully keep up my day by day recordkeeping. I found the biggest gain was
that I discovered where my money
went and by taking the time to enter
the data in my computer, I found that I
could stop the dipper of waste. Using
this product I found that I could save
time and money and make paying bills
and writing cheques easy and fun.
Address Label
3
4
Dif
fer
ent Str
okes for
Differ
ferent
Strokes
Dif
fer
ent Folks
Differ
ferent
By Angela Haberhauer
(PCCT)
4
Remarkable TTraining
raining CD
By Trevelyan Beard (PCCT)
5
Why I Did It…
By Mathew Skala (BB&C)
5
InoculatIT
By Trevelyan Beard (PCCT)
6
Lightbulbs to Y
ottabits
Yottabits
By Jim Carroll and Rick
Broadhead
Requirements:
Microsoft positions this product as
“The Complete Financial Solution”.
Did the product meet its stated
purpose? “Manage Today’s Finances, Plan Tomorrow’s Goals?”
Yes, the product did live up to this
expectation and more. The reason
that I purchased this software was
that I wanted to gain control of my
money, with my goal to balance my
check-book, manage bills and reduce
debt.
Other Books on
Money 99
Plan Now
for Autumn Classes
By Dorene Jacobs (PCCT)
·
Online banking
·
Integrated financial planning
·
Personalized financial advice
·
Small business features
How difficult is the
learning curve?
I found Money 99 easy to learn and
very easy to use. I really do use the
product and I recommend it!
· Does not show payment due on
Microsoft Outlook Calendar. ❖
1. Your financial needs
2. It then created a personal action
plan for using Money
3. Help to stay on track with reminders about where your money is going
Documentation
What is supplied? The product comes
with a 90 page booklet named Strategies for Success—The Canadian Money
99 Companion. It provides a eleven
ways to use Money effectively. It was it
concise and helpful.
NB:
Canada 2000
Windows World—
Networld + Interop
Linux Business Expo
July 12–14, 2000 Metropolitan
Convention Centre, Toronto,
Ontario
Show Hours:
Wednesday July 12 10:00 am–5:00 pm
Thursday July 13 10:00 am–5:00 pm
Friday July 14 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
July 18 Meeting
Columnist Richard
Morochove returns for
July Meeting
Star columnist and computer consultant,
Richard Morochove will be be the
featured speaker at the July 18th General
Meeting, the week following COMDEX/
Canada.
Mr. Morochove has been a regular
speaker at the Personal Computer Club
of Toronto and July’s topic, “Splitting
the Giant—Implications on software/
hardware trends for 2000 and beyond”,
will include insights on what the split
of Microsoft would mean to the
computer industry as well as other
general personal computing trends. Be
sure not to miss this last entertaining
and informative talk at the General
Meeting before the summer break.
The fall will bring more of the same—
interesting and topical speakers and
vendors from the computer industry.
Stay tuned to the September issue of
README and of course the club
WEBsite! www.pcct.org
Special Interest Groups
The Basics SIG
General Meeting
July 18, 2000
Admission for non-members – $5.00
6:30pm: Meet and discuss—your ideas for PCCT with some of our Board
members and volunteers.
7:00pm: General Meeting—starts with a Question & Answer session.
The Personal Computer Club of Toronto
PCCT
Mailing Address
P.O. Box 5429 Station A
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
M5W 1N6
July, 2000
Volume 18, No. 7
ISSN 0848-8983
Telephone/Fax
(416) 633-6971
Website
www.pcct.org
PCCT Board of Directors For 2000
Directors con:
Board of Directors
President
Karl Stanley
[email protected]
Res: 1-905-836-5222
Vice President
Doug Colquhoun
[email protected]
(905) 460 - 0758
Treasurer
Arthur Robertson
[email protected]
(416) 638-0278 h.
(416) 665-8248 o.
(416) 665-8248 f.
Director
Dorene Jacobs
SIG COORDINATOR
(416)-486-1609
[email protected]
Editor
Joan Latchford
Tel. (416) 340-9272
Fax (416) 340-1104
[email protected]
Director
Ottokar Lang
ONLINE SERVICES
(416) 445-0680
[email protected]
Audio/Visual Specialist
K. Praba
[email protected]
(416) 696-6000
Director
John Mahler
MARKETING
(416)-920-8627
[email protected]
Secretary
Jim McIntosh
[email protected]
(416) 292-8126
Director
Clive Apps
GEN MEETING FLOOR MANAGER
(416) 510-0020
[email protected]
Director
Jack Grossman
MEMBERSHIPS
[email protected]
(905) 771-1789
read.me
Database Wrangler
Craig Faichney
[email protected]
Programs
Dave Hanson
(416) 233-1250
Director/Past President [email protected]
Robin Wright
VENDORS/ADS
Visitors Table
(905) 842-4696
Charles Bull
[email protected]
(416) 221-8125
[email protected]
Equipment Manager
Joe Stadler
George Chambers
(416) 241-9856
(416) 751-7559
[email protected]
Floor Manager
Murray Dobbs
[email protected]
(416) 366-4663
Membership Manager
Ver Cruz
Webmaster
Daniel ffolliott
[email protected]
(416) 222-3042
Software Library Manager
Henry Kliewer
(416) 293-5735
The Personal Computer Club Of Toronto (PCCT) is an independent, not-forprofit association for people who use PC microcomputers. Our philosophy:
Users helping Users.
Leader: Frank Latchford (416) 340-0999
Learning Windows 95/98 SIG. This SIG is intended for those who are new to
Windows 95/98. We will discuss how Windows works and how to use it on a daily
basis. The intention of this SIG is to teach––not to entertain. We will start at the
beginning and go to the end. You should have learned to use some aspect of
Windows by the end of the evening.
DayTime SIG
Leader: George Chambers (416) 751-7559
This is a discussion group that covers a wide range of topics relating to IBM and
compatible computers. It is for novice, intermediate and advanced users.
Digital Imaging SIG Leader: Ron Caine [email protected]
Interested in scanners, photography, digital cameras and the software to run all
that? Then this SIG is for you. We will go over all facets of manipulating pixels to
give you the results you want.
Morgan (416) 491-1932
MahlerKen
([email protected])
Investment SIG Leader: JohnLeader:
Analytical techniques, use of spreadsheets, graphical display of investment analysis
all play an important part in these meetings. Also, considerable use is made of video
training tapes on investment subjects.
Internet SIG
Leader: David Paikin (416) 225-1057
This SIG concentrates on how to access and utilize the various resources of the
Internet. If you are having difficulties using the Internet or simply wish to learn
more, then this SIG is for you. The first 15 minutes of the SIG are used to answer
general communications issues.
Linux SIG
Leader: Brendan Birmingham (905) 883-5127
Linux for Beginners, How to Install, Configure, Use and set up a Graphical
user interface. It is almost free, robust and reliable. Come on in and have look
see.
New Users SIG
Ken Morgan
Leader: Henry
Crane (416)
(905) 491-1932
884-5443
This is a group arranged specifically for novice computer users. It holds informal
friendly discussions on the essentials of personal computing. You will get clear concise
explanations of computer terms on your personal level of understanding, help with
what to learn and how to learn it quickly and cheaply, purchasing, upgrading and
problem solving advice that can save you many hours and dollars.
Leader: Jonathan Hines
Office SIG
Leader Andy Hagan [email protected]
Learn how to use the Microsoft Office suite of programs: Word, Excel, Powerpoint
and Access. A SIG geared to helping small business make effective use of this
software.
Leader: Henry Crane (905) 884-5443
Visual Basic SIG
Trevor Pedley 416-751-2396 [email protected]
Learn Visual Basic, a popular programming language. This group follows a beginners’
level text with a structured learning environment. Easily learn sophisticated ways to
program applications in the Windows environment by attending this group.
SIG Leaders: Trevor Pedley & Jim McIntosh
Windows SIG
Leader Steve Rakus [email protected]
Here is where you can learn how to get and use the maximum from MS Windows.
You will enjoy an information-packed, entertaining evening while you learn how to
use all the Windows tools, and make Windows run more efficiently on your machine. You can participate in the monthly training session and become an expert user
in less than a year. You will learn tips and tricks that will save you hours. You will
meet many power users, see the latest Windows products and perhaps win a
valuable door prize.
“read.me” is the newsletter of the PCCT, published 11 times a year, featuring
articles by club members and members of other user groups from around the
world. Opinions expressed are those of the writers and not necessarily of the
PCCT.
All Rights Reserved. Original material may be reproduced unedited by nonprofit organizations provided that credit is given to “read.me” and the author,
and a copy is forwarded to the club.
Please note: Fees, dates, and specifications are subject to change without
notice.
The PCCT does not assume responsibility for damages arising from the publication or non-publication of any advertisement in this newsletter. Acceptance of
advertising does not imply endorsement by the club.
Page 2
The Personal Computer Club of Toronto
read.me
July 2000
Adventures in Learning,
Plan now for autumn
classes*
Leader: Frank Latchford
In Memo
riu
m
Memoriu
rium
Betty Robinson,Club Supporter
By Dorene Jacobs (PCCT)
Elizabeth Robinson, beloved spouse of Arthur Robertson,
passed away peacefully in her sleep on Tuesday morning,
June 27. She had battled lung cancer for the last few
months. Many will remember her as backup for Arthur,
who had helped with many Club activities and had hosted
the Board meeting for the last few years. Betty, sister of
Douglas and Rowena, her daughters Jennifer, Laura and
Cynthia, granddaughters Tehera, Lisa, Sara and Crystal
Ann, will be remembered always by her family and friends.
A Memorial Mass was held at St. Wilfred’s Catholic Church.
Interment followed at Glendale Cemetary. Memorial
donations to the Canadian Cancer Society were in lieu of
flowers. Goodbye Betty, with our love and thanks.
This is a good time to start thinking about and planning for computer courses to
take this fall.
Courses offered by the Continuing Education program of the Toronto District
School Board will start in late September or early October. The Overland Learning Centre has released its schedule for the fall of 2000 (and can be picked up at
their office—see below); other Board offerings will be listed in their calendar
which is generally available in public libraries sometime around the middle of
August. I have now taken six computer courses at Overland since January 1999
and can attest to the excellence of both their instruction and the hands on
computer facilities available to students.
This fall Overland is offering 54 computer courses. They include Computer
Fundamentals (4 courses); Windows 98 (5); Windows 2000 (5); Adobe Illustrator (1); AutoCad LT (2); Microsoft Access 2000 (1); Microsoft Word 2000 (4);
Microsoft Word 97 (2); Microsoft Excel 2000 (2); Microsoft Excel 97 (1); Internet, Hands On (4); Computer Repairs (2); Scanning and Printing (1); Micro-soft
Outlook 2000 (1); Quark Express (1).
In the Programming area, the offerings are: HMTL & JavaScript (1 course);
Visual Basic (3); Visual C++ (2); FrontPage 2000 (3). Courses In Graphics, Web
Design and Presentation Software include: Flash 4 (2 courses); Dream-weaver3
(1); Fireworks (3); PhotoShop 5.5—Beginner (2); PhotoShop 5.5—Intermediate
(1); Publisher 2000 (1); Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 (1); and Microsoft
Publisher 2000 (1).
Classes are usually two hours in length and all run for nine weeks, except Scanning and Printing which has three sessions (more of a show-and-tell procedure
rather than hands on).
Overland Learning Centre is located at 55 Overland Drive, Don Mills, M3C 2C3,
just off the Donway West (near the Don Mills Shopping Centre at Lawrence East
and Don Mills Road). Parking is ample. Registration begins August 23rd and
classes begin the week of October 2nd (Saturday classes on October 14th). For
registration information, call 416-395-5080.
As for other Board of Education locations, last year computer courses were held
in some 22 locations with a great variety of course topics and presumably the
same will be the case this coming year. While almost all Overland courses this
fall will be offered at the beginning level, some of the other sites do offer intermediate or advanced level courses. Class length may vary at some of these other
locations.
Tuition fees are standardized throughout the District Board and are based on
$3.50 per instructional hour ($1.75 for seniors, 60 years of age and over). This
means that a senior taking a nine week course of two-hour classes at, say, Overland, would pay $30.50. In addition, a materials fee is usually charged which
varies from location to location; it is standardized at Overland at $5.00 per class,
but in some schools could go as high as $90 or more. At Overland and one other
school I attended, the materials fee covered photocopying which was relevant to
the course content; presumably, the higher materials fees elsewhere could mean
more manual-type material may be provided.
Note that the School Board calendar usually covers courses for the fall and
winter terms. Overland is one of the few which also has a spring term and it
issues its own listings for both winter and spring as those seasons approach.
One of the key instructors at Overland is PCCT’s own Andy Hagan who teaches
such courses as Windows, Microsoft Excel, Access and Power Point. As leader of
PCCT’s Office SIG, Andy has been attracting ever larger numbers of club members and enrolling in his classes at Overland provides the opportunity to take
further advantage of his excellent instructional skills. (This is not meant to
detract from the capabilities of other instructors, but why not give one of our
own a plug?)
*The Profiles of SIG Leaders series will resume in the fall.
July 2000
Advertising in read.me
By popular request the members only business card advertising will become a
regular feature of each edition of Read.Me. The regular price for one time business
card size advertisement is $25.00.
Special members only price $10.00. If you would like to pay in advance for the
next 9 editions $75.00. The next 9 editions will include 3 ComputerFest Shows
and COMDEX in July.
Payment must be made to the Treasurer, cash or cheque payable to the PCCT.
You may also pay month by month. Please let me know which payment option
you have chosen.
Content should be forwarded directly to the Editor. Deadline for each edition is the
general meeting prior to publication.
Confirm your intention to advertise in each edition and your preferred payment
option. Robin Wright
The Personal Computer Club of Toronto
read.me
page 3
Different Strokes
For Different
Folks…
By Angela Haberhauer, PCCT
Do you want to do something useful during the summer—something that gives
you an excuse to spend time inside, in air-conditioned comfort, and at the
computer? How about learning a new program with the help of a book and a CD
ROM?
That’s what I did last year, and I was quite happy with the results. The program
that I learnt was MS PowerPoint. You can, of course, teach yourself other programs in this way, too.
I had considered all the other options of learning how to use PowerPoint: enroll
in a hands-on, instructor-led course. That’s how I had learnt WordPerfect and
Lotus 1,2,3. The instructor had been quite entertaining. But such a course would
be spread out over too many weeks, and, on top of it, the course would not have
started right away.
Then I had considered taking a self-paced course at a school that uses computerbased instruction programs, where a couple of talking heads on the screen would
be the teachers (a live person was available in case of problems). In addition,
there would be exercises and tests on the computer and a paper workbook to
follow. I had tried this method before and it had worked but I thought I might
have graduated to a slightly more self-sufficient way of learning.
The most obvious learning method would have been to buckle down to teach
myself at home with the help of a book I had and the on-screen help menu, since
I owned MS PowerPoint as part of the MS Office suite of programs. The book
“Getting Results with Microsoft Office 97” had come with MS Office, along with
my Dell computer. But I found it not very enticing. And PowerPoint itself seemed
very strange and different from other programs.
Since I did need some help, I decided to visit my local Chapters store. I found
PowerPoint books galore, enough to build a foot-high pile on the floor next to my
chair. The selection was fairly easy. I picked the Microsoft PowerPoint 97 Exam
Guide published by QUE orporation. It is Microsoft Office Approved Courseware.
Oops, with my purchase, I must have supported poor rich Bill Gates some more. I
would have selected another book if it had come close to the methodical and
very thorough ways of this “Exam guide”—and if it was as brief as the exam
guide, which had about 300 pages, as opposed to some of the other unwieldy
PowerPoint tomes. They told me at Chapters that the 1997 edition by QUE
Corporation is no longer available, but other companies have published guides
with CDs as preparation for the Microsoft Office User Specialist exams.
I never intended to take a Microsoft-sponsored exam, but I did all the exercises
and I prepared my own “final exam” to get some confidence about what I had
learnt. I believe that the book let me know practically everything about
PowerPoint. I would not have been happy with a watered-down instruction book
for just the most important functions. I preferred to decide myself what to leave
out—like chapter 28 that talks about Presentation Conferencing over the Internet.
The book I worked with was not perfect: On the CD, lessons 25, 26, and 27 were
missing…these lessons can be downloaded from the quecorp.com web site, but I
was too eager to get to the next lessons so I did not bother to check or complain,
especially since the written instructions were sufficient for me…
I was able to devote enough time to my PowerPoint course to finish it in about
four weeks. Soon after, I got to practice at work a little bit of what I had learnt: I
opened an existing PowerPoint presentation and I printed some transparencies.
At home, I created my own pretty practice presentation.
When a friend heard about my successful learning adventure, she borrowed the
book and the CD. But even though she knows many other programs, it turned
out this style of learning or this book in particular did not appeal to her at all.
She proceeded to take an instructor-lead course instead.
I must admit that I have not used PowerPoint much since I stopped working as
an employee and formed my own company shortly after I had learnt PowerPoint
(I specialize in English/German and German/English translations). But I am glad
that I learnt that program. I might even go back to Chapter 30 of the book, which
was originally of no immediate use to me. It deals with using PowerPoint presentations on the Internet. When I build my company website, I would love to make
some lines of text phase in one by one just like in a PowerPoint presentation. But
that will be another adventure in learning. ❖
Page 4
The Personal Computer Club of T
or
onto
Tor
oronto
On the photo, the plaque is the Dr. John Ngai Trophy for Best Documentary.
Entitled “My Happy Toronto” in 1998/1999 won by Trevelyan Beard. “I took
shots of construction workers, striking teachers, festival on Bloor, sidewalk
characters, cherry-picker hydro worker, etc. All people smiling and looking
happy and contented”.
Pic’ O the Month
A Remarkable
Training CD…
for Adobe Premiere 5.1
review by Trevelyan Beard, PCCT
For the purpose of editing videos, it’s generally agreed that the top program is
Adobe’s Premiere 5.1. Premiere is ‘time-line’ based whilst others are ‘story-board’
based. I much prefer the time-line method if for no other reason than this is what
I have spent years using. Premiere is so well thought of that many plug-ins are
written for it by independent authors and there are many books about the
subject. Together with it’s major companion Adobe After Effects, you can do
anything the professional programs can. Premiere is loaded with transitions and
filters and other goodies and has been around long enough to become reasonably
troublefree.
There’s a fair learning curve for you to work through to master this Non Linear
Editor (NLE) but because of its universal popularity there are several good
tutorials around. I’ve just come across a very good one and the price is a scant
$49.99 US. Although I have used Premiere for several years I decided to work
through it. The result has been well worth while - I have learned more than a
‘thing or two’ and enjoyed the exercise.
The tutorial is called “Premiere 5 Tutorials - Vol. 1”. It’s put out by Adita Video
Inc. in Alberta (Tel: 403 274-7494).
You print the 300 pages that constitute the text book (this is the reason for the
low price). It’ll take half a day to work through each chapter as the authors
believe in making the student apply him(her)self thoroughly - they are determined that you will become an expert.
I enjoy a course that has been prepared by a practical mind and this course is
very practical. There are 7 chapters or tutorials on the one disk and they take you
from the fundamentals all the way to the stage where you can match the experts.
The many sample clips help enormously in understanding the work.
Now what about the next disk which will be called Volume 2?. Not out yet, it will
be focused on specific project-oriented tasks such as editing a wedding video, a
corporate training video, a music video, a play or skit, etc. I’ll write about this
later.
The one CD-ROM is formatted to work on both the PC and the Mac. You won’t
be disappointed.
read.me
July 2000
1999
9
Why I did it
Matthew Skala, BB&C
Many of my friends were surprised when Mattel, Inc., and their subsidiary
Microsystems Software, sued me and a Swedish colleague for alleged copyright infringement. I have a reputation for helping computer beginners and
setting a high ethical standard. Why would I help “break” a piece of software
designed to protect children from dangerous ideas? In this article I’ll try to
answer that question.
My local user group, BB&C, actually deserves a good measure of credit or blame
for my activities. I joined when I was ten years old, and immediately started
using the club’s bulletin board system (BBS). On the BBS, nobody had to know
that “Matthew Skala” was 10 years old unless I chose to tell them. Prejudiced
people who would never dream of conducting a serious discussion face to face
with someone my age, were perfectly willing to give me all the respect my ideas
could command, in the electronic realm.
There aren’t many other places where our society treats children as fully human.
About the only other public place I could count on a little respect, was the public
library. Naturally, I grew up with a lot of respect for the written word. Over 13
years of writing messages on a daily basis on the BB&C BBS, and Usenet when it
became available, I’ve had a lot of practice in expressing my ideas in words. My
experience on the BBS may have something to do with the high grades I’ve always
gotten in English, and the recognition I’ve received for my writing in various
places.
I think I’m a better person for having been able to use computer networks as a
child without any restrictions. Anyone who tried to tell me I couldn’t have full
access because of my age, would have been doing me a grave disservice. If I’d
been limited to a “suitable for children” subset of the online universe, it would
have been worthless to me.
So whenever someone suggests that we ought to limit what children can see on
the Net, my fingers itch, and I reach for my keyboard. Many of my peers in the
computing community had similar childhood experiences to mine. There are a lot
of people who believe that it’s a good thing for children to have unrestricted
access to the Net.
But one of the bad things about allowing the general public onto the Net is that
the general public includes some people you really wouldn’t want to meet. I’m
especially unhappy about the fact that we ever allowed advertisers onto the
Internet, but other people have been making noises about pornography and hate
literature. Everyone agrees that there are things on the Net that they don’t like.
That’s where “parental control” or “censorware” packages like Cyber Patrol come
in. These packages are based on lists of forbidden Web sites; if you try to visit a
Web site that’s on the list, you’re prevented from doing so. These systems promise to
technologically solve the human problem of undesirable material on the Net.
This kind of claim seems to be based on the idea that ideas are things with a life
of their own that can harm people’s mental health in the same way that a biological virus could harm people’s physical health. That seems to be the basis for
“protecting” children from the Internet. It’s obvious that the computer isn’t about
to explode and kill your kid—but could something more insidious happen?
I’d take the biological analogy one step further. If you want to protect someone
from infection, do you do it by keeping them in a sterile plastic bubble? People
raised in such environments fail to develop normal immune systems. Someone in
quarantine like that often dies from an infection that a normal person would
have resisted. Children grow up eventually. Do you want them to grow up with
functioning immune systems?
In just the same way, I believe that “protecting” children from “harmful” ideas
hurts them. Much better to let them develop the critical thinking skills, the
mental immune system, that can only derive from exposure to the complete
range of human thought.
For people who disagree with my view, it may seem attractive to buy a computer
program that will relieve parents from the irksome necessity of paying attention
to their children. I suppose people have a right to disagree with me, and parents
even have a right to use this software. But I believe I have the natural right to
look critically at any idea that comes my way. I have the right to take things apart
and see how they work.
It’s especially interesting to take apart censorware packages. Censorware packages are a good challenge; they’re usually designed to resist analysis because the
manufacturers consider their lists of “harmful” Web sites to be valuable secrets.
There are documented cases of censorware companies copying each others’
blocking lists without permission, or hiding political agendas in their software.
Anyone who wants to have an informed debate on the topic of censorware will
benefit from knowing exactly what the software blocks. There is also a consumer
protection angle: parents who might buy censorware have a right to know what
they’re getting.
July 2000
Maybe it’s okay for private individuals to buy censorware without knowing what
they’re getting. But these packages are marketed aggressively to schools and
libraries. With censorware in a school or library, the software publisher is setting
policy for a public institution. Because the blocking list is secret, the teacher or
librarian can’t even find out what policy is being enforced.
The first censorware break I remember was brought to public attention by
Bennett Haselton, of Peacefire. He published a way to break the embarrassingly
weak encryption used by CYBERsitter. Its list of forbidden “pornographic” sites
included www.now.org, the National Organization of Women. CYBERsitter
retaliated for Haselton’s criticism by adding his organization to its block list. In
fact, a later version of CYBERsitter would actually scan the user’s browser
history, and refuse to install (with a mysterious error message) if the user had
recently visited the Peacefire Web site.
Last year I encountered an article called The Reversal of NetNanny, written by a
programmer in Sweden named Eddy Jansson. The NetNanny essay took a
tutorial approach, giving details of the steps involved in analyzing the software.
Eddy’s NetNanny essay drew a lot of favorable comment from people who teach
computer programming; reverse engineering is an important skill for computer
programmers. There’s even a reverse engineering research group at the University I attend.
In late January of 2000, Eddy Jansson invited me to help with his project of
reverse engineering Cyber Patrol. We worked together on Cyber Patrol for about
six weeks, eventually finding holes in virtually all of its security features. We also
found some questionable entries on the block list. We posted an essay on the
Web called The Breaking of Cyber Patrol(R) 4, and the rest is history. For the
complete story, please check out http://www.islandnet.com/~mskala/
cpbfaq.html ❖
Matthew Skala is a graduate student in Computer Science at the University of
Victoria, Victoria BC Canada. He is the winner of a prestigious Natural Sciences
and Engineering Research Council of Canada scholarship. He is also the Systems
Director of Big Blue and Cousins and the Secretary of the Victoria Linux Users
Group. This article is brought to you by the Editorial Committee of the Association
of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an International organization to
which this user group belongs.
InoculatIT
by Computer Associates
review by Trevelyan Beard, PCCT
There was a time when I viewed the virus situation with a jaundiced eye. Not
knowing a soul that had been affected, I thought it mostly media oversell. But
that was before I was ‘struck’ with one. Now I view viruses like I view getting
run over. It’s essential to take adequate precautions.
Enter InoculateIT Personal Edition by Computer Associates. The price—free. Update
support—free (this is the important ‘free’). And InoculateIT works automatically in
the background like having had an inoculation. When you boot up, the program
does a quick check (a mere 3 or 4 seconds). When you first install, the program
asks you to create a Reference Disk which saves a copy of your boot sector. Should
a virus corrupt your boot sector, this Reference Disk will enable you to get up and
running again.
When you feel uneasy at any time you can go to the program menu and click on
“Auto Down” (for automatic download) and download the latest ‘armour’ and
then run the program through.
It’s because everything is completely automatic that I like it (I’m tired of climbing learning curves), moreover, Computer Associates is big enough that if they
say it’s effective, then I believe them. With 44 offices around the world, they
must be doing something right. Download from www.cai.com. Now to put on
my school teachers cap!
Typical targets for a virus are:
1. DOS boot sector. 2. Master boot record. 3. Executable files (example, those
with exe and com extensions). 4. Files containing an executable code (example,
Word or Excel documents containing auto-macros). 5. Not as common are
viruses which infect device drivers and batch files.
You cannot get a virus by reading your mail from the internet but you can get one if
you open an attachment. It’s for this reason that so many people will never, never
open attachments. Well, good news - InoculateIT will look after you in this case. Go
ahead and open attachments. If you look behind you, you will see InoculateIT
standing there with a baseball bat ready to ‘konk’ any virus that appears.
Hiding places that viruses use can be in memory, the Interrupt Table and the
DOS buffer area.
Other menaces that act like viruses are Worms and Trojan Horses. In case you
missed it—download from www.cai.com. And now for that cup of tea. ❖
The Personal Computer Club of T
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PC World
Health Check
By Greg McClure,
Excerpted from “The Bug Report,” Tid Bits and Bytes, the Winnipeg PC
User Group Inc.
Now for something completely different. The following items, including bugs,
were reportedly found in computers in Britain by the Technicians at PC World
Healthcheck Clinics.
Play-dough:
The customer explained he had caught his son feeding plasticine into his his PC
through the floppy disk slot. The machine had been running with the play-dough
inside for 18 months seemingly unaffected (obviously play-dough is safe for both
children and PCs to ingest!)
A severed finger tip:
According to the customer her husband had been installing a graphics card
when the monitor (which had been precariously balanced to one side) slipped
onto the lid forcing the PC casing to slam closed severing the tip of his finger.
(OUCH! Hopefully I will never do that during a Saturday Install Forum. <CBG>)
Chicken Wishbone:
Placed inside the Central Processing Unit (CPU) by a customer to prevent the
machine crashing. (Gee, I wonder if it was a Windows Box?)
Mouse (deceased): The PC World Technician who discovered the dead rodent
believes the mouse had squirmed into the body of the PC through and empty
card slot in a bid to keep warm. The mouse presumably died from either starva-
Review by Frank Latchford, PCCT
Lightbulbs To
Yottabits
tion or electrocution.
Spider (very much
alive):
A spider measuring two
inches across came crawling
out of a CPU during a
Healthcheck in Croydon.
The insect was destroyed by
a fairly shaken PC World
Technician and was later
identified to be native and
not poisonous.
Pot pourrie:
A customer admitted to
placing a small pile of forest scent pot pourri inside their PC to, “improve the
machine’s smell”.
Love letters
Several love letters were found tucked inside the back of a PC. The customer
denied any knowledge of the author or origin of the letters.
Credit card:
According to the customer someone using the PC had misinterpreted an instruction while shopping online and literally inserted her credit card details by
pushing the card into the floppy disk drive slot. (Wonder if they also used the
CD-ROM tray for a coffee cup holder?)
Diamond ring and knitting needle:
Dropped inside the machine by a customer who was conducting her own PC
cleaning. The knitting needle had been employed to try and fish the ring out but
the attempt failed.
£125: in notes discovered by a PC Healthcheck technician and delighted customer who claimed he’d purchased the second hand PC from a local church fair. ❖
money they will adapt their offerings to reflect this. This is probably the
most significant prediction of the book.
The book is crammed full of facts—and extensions into the future of these facts.
Some of the predictions:
1. “The revenue model upon which telecommunication companies are based—
allocation of cost based upon usage—is set to disappear entirely within the next
five years.”
By Jim Carroll and Rick Broadhead
2. A large number of changes on the Internet will be transparent to the user—
things will simply appear to go faster.
If I could only purchase one book on the Internet this year, this would be the one.
As I said at the beginning of this review—this is the one book on the Internet for
the year 2000 I would buy. If you do, you will find yourself referring to it again
and again. ❖
The authors, Jim Carroll and Rick Broadhead have put together an unique book
on the Internet. It is not a “How To…” book. It is a retrospective view of the
Internet going back some five years, dwelling in the present for a while and then
making predictions for what the future five years hold. Opened at random the
book looks more like science fiction than reality. If you take the time to read
from the beginning to the end, you will find that it is not science fiction—but
reasoned, logical arguments for making the statements they do. The book’s aim
is to grab your attention and hold it to the end—this it does.
Each statement follows from an earlier statement of fact and is expanded You
Writers are Very Much Neededon to take you into the future.
What I particularly liked was their description of how the Internet works. Its
present limitations and how future discoveries will improve access. The most
painful and obvious thing to us all is the snail-like pace we connect with the
Internet now. Everything is in place to give us quicker access but it costs us two
to three times as much to take advantage of it.
With the introduction of free Internet access as well as free e-mail accounts the
gap has widened further. (I know of at least four free services).
When the bandwidth problem has really been solved at a reasonable cost to the
consumer, we will see a gargantuan increase in the Internet’s use by the consumer.
The authors contend that the major change in the Internet will be brought about
by the people that use it” As soon as companies can figure out a way to make
Page 6
The Personal Computer Club of T
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Tor
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Canadian Internet Handbook 2000
“Lightbulbs to Yottabits”, How to Profit by Understanding the Internet of the Future
By Jim Carroll and Rick Broadhead
Stoddart Publishing
Price $CAN 29.95
Song written and performed by Trev Beard at the PCCT
General Meeting, June 20th, triggered by Joan’s request
that he announce her desperate need of articles for the
Comdex read.me. (And the September, October
read.me)
You Writers Are Very Much Needed
Chorus of My Bonnie Lies Over the
Ocean.
You all know the paper called read.me,
Now bend your ears forward
please do.
Joan Latchford is sending a message
She wants stuff that’s written by you.
read.me
Chorus
She wants it pardon the expression,
For July’s issue lickety split.
So Wednesday or Thursday please
phone her,
‘Bout some chatty thing that you’ve writ.
Chorus
July 2000
1999
HONESTY,
ACCURACY:
Keys to good product reviews…
By Ken Fermoyle
After meeting notices and other club news, product reviews make up a major share
of the content in most user group publications. Therefore, it’s important—even
critical—that they be done properly. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.
In the two years since I started my column, I’ve read at least 2000 newsletters
sent to me by groups that use the articles. I don’t read every single one cover to
cover, but I do scan them and read most of the interesting material, including
reviews. Most are okay, some are very good, and some are terrible! The majority
of them would be improved if reviewers followed a few simple rules.
Honesty is the only policy—Yes, you want to keep vendors happy so they will
continue to support your group and the UG community as a whole, but your first
obligation is to your fellow members. This means telling it like it is. If you find a
flaw in the product, tell your readers about it. Be fair to readers & product—
Don’t blame the product for your shortcomings or those of your computer. If a
software program runs slower than you’d like, maybe it’s because your machine
doesn’t have enough RAM. Or perhaps you haven’t configured things properly.
You need to put things into context so readers can judge whether a flaw you
report is inherent in the product or may be pilot error.
Accuracy is vital—I’ve read many reviews in which the reviewers criticized a
product with which I was familiar. It was obvious to me that the reviewer didn’t
understand it, had not read the manual or help page carefully, and had not
sought help from a more experienced fellow member or the product’s Tech
Support before writing the review.
THE END OF AN ERA At the June 5, 2000 meeting of the Board of Directors of
the Personal Computer Club of Toronto, long time BBS Sysop, Arthur Robertson
introduced a motion to bring an end to the Bulletin Board Service (BBS). The BBS
had been in service to the club for many years. However, there was a major equipment failure in the recent weeks. Arthur made every effort to restore full service;
but, was unable to do so without incurring major costs in equipment replacement.
A check of the useage of the BBS showed that only three members had accessed
the BBS in the last month. Over the last year, the number of members using the
BBS had declined to this point. What to do? What to do? It was with regret that the
B of D approved the motion to bring an end to the BBS. The Board immediately
tendered its thanks and the thanks on behalf of the Club for the stellar service
provided by Arthur Robertson, "Mr PCCT" as Sysop for these many years. Thank
you Arthur! Karl Stanley, President
THE PCCT
HARD
WARE/SOFT
WARE
HARDW
ARE/SOFTW
BAR
GOON AUCTION T
ABLE
BARGOON
TABLE
Do you ever ask yourself the question....“what can I
do with my used equipment now that I have
upgraded?”
Well, here at PCCT we have an answer to that, the
PCCT Bargoon Auction Table.
“Can I bring in my old XT as well as my Pentium III
800mhz?” The answer is always YES! “What is it
worth?” I have a good handle on what it is worth
and offer my advice.
It makes money for the club as a whole as well as the
individual member selling his/her own “old” equipment or software. Please see me, Martin Moss, for
details. [email protected]
Explain user benefits—Up front, preferably in the first paragraph, tell readers
what the product is designed to do for them and how it can make their computing life easier. Be specific enough so they can determine whether or not the
product would be useful for the type of computing they do most often. Specify
system requirements—We all know that requirements listed a box aren’t usually
realistic. Sure, a graphics program may run with 32MB of RAM, but it will make
a snail’s pace look speedy. Spell out exactly how your system is configured so
readers can compare it to their own setups.
Balance subjectivity, objectivity—You’re allowed to editorialize, but make it clear
when you’re giving a subjective opinion. (“This program was somewhat difficult
for me to use because the interface is different from U XYZ software that I
normally use” is a clearly-labeled subjective statement.” “It took exactly 5.4
seconds to save a 5.6MB file to this disk” is clearly objective.)
Check out tech support—Is there an 800 number? How long were you on hold
before a real live techie was available? Is a manual furnished in the package? Is
the manual helpful? (Hint: Lots of illustrations, including screen shots, and a
very complete Index, with abundant cross-indexing are characteristics of a really
good manual.) Remember the fairness factor, however, and check to see what
experiences others have had with this vendor’s tech support.
Include relevant details—Give readers the suggested price, and user group
discount, if one is offered. Add complete vendor contact information: address,
phone & fax numbers (both sales & tech support), website URL, e-mail address.
Your group may have its own set of product review guidelines. If not, it would be
a good project for an editorial committee to undertake. Such guidelines should
spell out minimum and maximum lengths, how a review should be delivered to
the editor (usually on diskette or via e-mail), what file format should be used
(plain ASCII text, Word, Rich Text Format, etc.) and other editorial requirements.
Correct grammar and spelling are certainly important, but don’t let lack of
writing experience stop you from doing reviews. Honesty, accuracy and fairness
are more important than an occasional split infinitive or misspelling. Do a spell
check, and you might want to have a third party check your opus for obvious
goofs (An ex or current English teacher would be great).
CORPAV is a diversified audio visual
services organization, providing AV
equipment rentals, convention
services, simultaneous interpretation,
videoconferencing and
computerized data projection.
CORPAV leads the large screen
computer projection market with
projectors from manufacturers such
as: HUGHES, SONY, EPSON and SHARP
Those are the basics. Follow them and you will be a real asset to your group
when it comes to doing product reviews that are effective, readable and useful
for readers ❖
July 2000
The Personal Computer Club of T
or
onto
Tor
oronto
Telephone: (416) 696-6000
Fax: (416) 696-5511
Toll Free: 1-888-88ADCOM
WebSite: http://www.adcom.ca
read.me
Page 7
PCCT Family Membership Application Form
SEND TO
First Name: _____________________
Last Name: _____________________
Street: _________________________
Apt/Suite: ______________________
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Prov./State: _____________________
The Personal Computer
Club of Toronto
Membership Director
P.O. Box 5429, Station A,
Toronto, Ontario,
Canada M5W 1N6
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Annual Family Membership Fees:
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7/2000
BBS: (416) 636-6394
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_____________________
PCCT Family
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Benefits
With your family membership you get:
• Expert help from knowledgeable computer users;
• Special deals on Internet service, software and
hardware;
• A monthly draw and an auction for great products;
• Demonstrations by leading software and hardware
companies;
• 10 monthly Special Interest Groups (SIG)
meetings;
• Access to a software library with the best of
shareware and freeware programs;
communications software;
• Monthly issues of the club newsletter you’re
holding right now!
❑
Expiry Date: ____________
Where did you pick up this copy of read.me? _____________
FREE ADMISSION . . . the night is on us ! ! !
✁
ADMIT ONE
SAVE $5 with this coupon at a PCCT General Meeting
WHERE: North York Memorial Centre
5110 Yonge Street, one floor below
the Central Library.
PCCT One-Time
Free Guest Pass
to Member’s General Meeting
TIME: 7 p.m.
One Person - One Use
7/2000
WHEN:Third Tuesday of the month.
see the calendar below.
Where did you pick up this copy of read.me? _________
Tuesday
July 2000
Wednesday
Tuesday
Thursday
4
Windows SIG
7:30 p.m.
BTS
5
Investment SIG
7:00 p.m.
BTS
6
The Basics SIG
7:00 p.m.
BTS
11
The Daytime SIG
1:00 p.m.
St. A
12
Digital Imaging SIG
7:00 p.m.
BTS
13
Visual Basic SIG
7:00 p.m.
BTS
18
General Meeting
7:00 p.m.
NYC
19
New User Group
cancelled for July
20
Office SIG
7:00 p.m.
BTS
25
Daytime SIG
1:00 p.m.
St. A
26
Linux SIG
7:30 p.m.
BTS
27
Internet SIG
7:00 p.m.
BTS
INFO LINE!
NYC
North York Memorial
Comm. Hall,
5110 Yonge St.
August 2000
Wednesday
Thursday
See
you
all in
September
Find out what is going on at the PCCT each week by calling the club hotline at:
(416) 633-6971 for the latest news on meetings.
BTS
Beth Torah Synagogue
47 Glenbrook Avenue
Dairy Queen
Coffee Time
St.A
Church of St. Andrew
2333 Victoria Park Ave
N
Beth Torah
Use rear entrance for SIG Meetings
Page 8
1999
The Personal Computer Club of T
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July 2000