Monitor - Capital Personal Computer User Group (CPCUG)

Transcription

No July 1997 Issue
August 1997
Volume 16 Number 7
$3.00
®
Features
16 Spreadsheets Made Easy by Gene Gould
19 Databases Made Easy by Gene Gould
22 Cascading Style Sheets: The Easy Way To Give Your
WWW Home Page Style by Scott Mohnkern
26 Euphoria v1.5: Small, Fast, Cheap MS-DOS
Programming Language by Paul Smith
Reviews
54 Product Reviews Coordinated by Richard Biffl
OmniPage Pro 7.0 for Windows 95
MediaPaq Manager
Any97 1.0
Book Reviews:
How To Set Up and Maintain A Web Site,
Second Edition by Lincoln D. Stein
Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Developer’s Workshop,
Third Edition by John Clark Craig
Advanced Java: Idioms, Pitfalls,
Styles and Programming Tips by Chris Laffra
Columns
36 Rich’s Ramblings by Rich Schinnell
38 Gene’s Scene by Gene Gould
42 Microletter by Paul Shapiro
Departments
4
6
8
10
Publishing Post
President’s Notes
Calendar of CPCUG Activities
33
45
60
General Meeting News
SIG Reports
Helpline Directory
Training Notes
GENERAL MEETING, Monday, August 11
Any97 From Anysoft: Transforming Your Windows Computer to an Open,
Cross-Application Environment. Raffles! [See review on p. 56.]
Coming—September 8—Schools, Education, the Internet, the Future
NIH Masur Auditorium, 7:00 to 9PM
FREE SATURDAY SEMINAR, August 16
Selecting the Proper Media for Training and Marketing
Coming—September 20—ThinkQuest Competition Workshop
NIH Lipsett Amphitheater, 9AM to NOON
The Magazine of the Capital PC User Group, Inc.
M O N I T O R
Monitor (ISSN 1070-2792) is published monthly, except for July, by the
Capital PC User Group, Inc., 51 Monroe Street, Plaza East Two, Rockville,
MD 20850-2421. Membership is $35
($65 for two years; $90 for three years),
or $50 per year for overseas members.
Overseas members should make their
checks or money orders payable to
CPCUG in U.S. funds, drawn on a U.S.
bank. Periodicals postage paid at
Rockville, MD. POSTMASTER: Send
address changes to Monitor, Capital
PC User Group, Plaza East Two, 51
Monroe Street, Rockville, MD 20850.
STAFF
Publisher/Editor
Barbara Conn (202) 508-1494
Executive Editors
Michael Kane (202) 801-8652 (pager)
Richard Biffl (301) 927-8753
Activities Editor
Barbara Conn (202) 508-1494
Product Reviews Coordinator
Richard Biffl
Contributing Editors
Gene Gould
Peggy Ireland
Mark Ives
Lillian Milliner
Ranjit Sahai
Eldon Sarte
Rich Schinnell
Paul Shapiro
Helpline
Elliott Fein (301) 762-6261
Reporter
Paul Van Akkeren (301) 603-0837
Photographer (Digital)
Rich Schinnell (301) 949-9292
Web Pages
Eldon Sarte (703) 426-0617
MIX Liaison
Fred Holmes
Business Manager
(301) 762-9372
Advertising Sales
Peggy Ireland (301) 423-1618
Editors Emeriti:
Eldon Sarte, 1994–1997
Alan Blandamer, 1990–1994
Bob Morrison, 1989–1990
Walter Knorr, 1987–1989
Jerry Schneider, 1986–1987
Doug Thompson, 1983–1986
Ramona Landberg, 1982–1983
2
B O A R D
O F
D I R E C T O R S
Executive Committee
Title
Member
Phone/E-mail
President
Lillian Milliner
First VP
Rich Schinnell
Capital Area VP
Randy Steer
Maryland VP
Virginia VP
Herb Fredricksen
Luis Garcia
Secretary
Donald Stein
Treasurer
Patrick McVeigh
Past President
Greg Smith
D (301) 933-1717
EVE/WE (301) 963-9053
Fax (301) 963-9386
[email protected]
EVE/WE (301) 949-9292
[email protected]
D (202) 395-3164
EVE/WE (202) 745-5932
[email protected]
EVE/WE (301) 840-2056
D (301) 457-1451
EVE/WE (703) 425-6902
[email protected]
D (703) 697-1130
EVE/WE (301) 530-6109
[email protected]
D (301) 881-7900
EVE/WE (301) 963-7304
[email protected]
EVE/WE (301) 869-5443
[email protected]
Appointed Directors
Build or Buy Program Chip Dodge
Buying Group
Chip Dodge
Community Services
Rene Thirion
Corporate
Communications
Barbara Conn
Corporate Information
Systems
Education and
Training
Industry Relations
Internet Services
K–12 Education
Henry Noble
Vacant
Larry McGoldrick
Carol Hyatt
Library Services
Ann Dorsey
Medical Computing
Bill DeRoche
Membership
MIX
Vacant
Michael Kane
Monitor Editor
Barbara Conn
Program
Peggy Ireland
Public Relations
Science Fair
Coordinator
George Ely
Walter Houser
Software Library
Volunteers
Vacant
Paul Shapiro
Access (MS)
Rick Shaddock
Alpha 4/5 Database
Brian Abell
Mark Ives
D (703) 767-3619
EVE/WE (703) 425-7038
[email protected]
D (703) 767-3619
EVE/WE (703) 425-7038
[email protected]
D (703) 765-7286
EVE/WE (703) 256-6764
[email protected]
D (202) 508-1494
EVE/WE (202) 452-7484
[email protected]
D/EVE/WE (301) 963-3737
[email protected]
D/EVE/WE (703) 383-6971
[email protected]
[email protected]
D/EVE/WE (301) 948-3748
[email protected]
D/EVE/WE (301) 320-7984
[email protected]
D (202) 927-4585
EVE/WE (301) 530-9699
[email protected]
D (202) 801-8652 (pager)
[email protected]
D (202) 508-1494
EVE/WE (202) 452-7484
[email protected]
D/EVE/WE (301) 423-1618
[email protected]
[email protected]
D (202) 273-8012
EVE/WE (301) 299-0593
[email protected]
D (301) 770-9512
EVE/WE (301) 770-7899
[email protected]
Special Interest Groups
Capital PC User Group • Monitor • August 1997
D (703) 486-2222
[email protected]
D/EVE/WE (301) 870-8222
[email protected]
[email protected]
B O A R D
O F
Title
AutoCAD
Baltimore
Member
David Drazin
Bill Lutz
Beginners
Paul Shapiro
Clipper
Naseem Saab
Delphi
Richard Maley
Electronic Publishing
Mary Thekla Brosnan
Framework
Bill Redisch
GeoWorks
HTML
Herb Fredricksen
Walter Houser
Internet
Gabriel Goldberg
Investment
Leisure World
Andy Thompson
Roy Rosfeld
Multimedia
Alta Oben
OS/2
Kevin McCrory
Paradox
Peachtree
Robert Clemenzi
Norman Risch
Project Management
Ruben Worrell
Reston
Jane Benson
Seniors
Jack Carlson
Shareware
Statistics
Vacant
Charles Hallahan
Virginia
Luis Garcia
Visual Basic
Ruben Worrell
Windows
Patrick McVeigh
WordPerfect
Les Le Vine
D I R E C T O R S
Phone/E-mail
EVE/WE (301) 279-7593
D/EVE/WE (410) 256-9403
[email protected]
D (301) 770-9512
EVE/WE (301) 770-7899
[email protected]
D/EVE/WE (703) 860-5022
[email protected]
D (202) 736-3929
EVE/WE (301) 840-1554
[email protected]
D (703) 207-0477
EVE/WE (703) 799-4751
[email protected]
D (301) 286-6203
EVE/WE (301) 279-7929
[email protected]
EVE/WE (301) 840-2056
D (202) 273-8012
EVE/WE (301) 299-0593
[email protected]
D/EVE/WE (703) 941-1657
[email protected]
EVE/WE (301) 270-6790
D/EVE/WE (301) 598-2825
[email protected]
D (703) 847-5820
EVE/WE (703) 938-5831
[email protected]
EVE/WE (703) 443-0162
[email protected]
[email protected]
D (301) 681-8088
EVE/WE (301) 754-0735
[email protected]
D (703) 276-3000
EVE/WE pager (202) 490-0166
[email protected]
EVE/WE (703) 715-1032
[email protected]
D/EVE/WE (301) 474-7091
[email protected]
D (202) 501-6928
EVE/WE (703) 532-2930
[email protected]
D (301) 457-1451
EVE/WE (703) 425-6902
[email protected]
D (703) 276-3000
EVE/WE pager (202) 490-0166
[email protected]
D (301) 881-7900
EVE/WE (301) 963-7304
D (301) 540-2775
[email protected]
Capital PC User Group Information
CPCUG Home Page
Office Manager (Lynne Sturtz), 10 am to 3 pm, weekdays
After-Hours Answering Machine
FAX
Training Registration
Member Information eXchange (MIX) Bulletin Board System:
Main Number
Maryland, non-metro
Virginia, non-metro
http://www.cpcug.org/
(301) 762-9372
[email protected]
(301) 762-9374
(301) 762-9375
(301) 762-5216
(301) 738-9060
(301) 220-0543
(703) 319-0069
M O N I T O R
Monitor is your publication.
As such, you are encouraged to
submit articles for publication.
If you would like to discuss an
idea for an article or column,
please contact the Editor.
PUBLICATION SUBMISSIONS
Guidelines. We prefer WordPerfect 5.0
format. However, any word processor or
text editor capable of producing straight
(ASCII) text files may be used. Please do
not justify your text. Single space between
lines and double space between
paragraphs. Paragraphs should not be
indented. Recommended line length is 65
character spaces. Include your name, address, and day and evening telephone
numbers at the top of your article so we can
contact you if we have any questions.
Submittal. Articles should be zipped
and uploaded to the MONITOR Conference
of the MIX BBS (301) 738-9060. (See box on
this page for Maryland and Virginia numbers.) Give your article the extension MON
and indicate that the file is an article for
Monitor. Leave a non-private message in
MONITOR Conference telling the editors the
file name and format. If you do not have
communications capability, you can mail it
on diskette to Editor, Monitor, 51 Monroe
Street, PE2, Rockville, MD 20850.
Articles must be received at least 60 days
before publication. All articles are subject to
editing. Articles accepted for publication in
the print version of the Monitor will also
appear in the Internet Web pages of the
Monitor and in the files section of the MIX.
NOTICE TO MEMBERS
Address Changes. Please send change of
address notices with current phone numbers
to Capital PC User Group, Attn: Membership Director, Plaza East Two, 51 Monroe
Street, Rockville, MD 20850. Monitor is
mailed at periodicals rates and is not forwarded unless you have made special
arrangements with your post office.
Renewals. One renewal notice is sent to
members. You may renew your membership by sending your check for $35 ($65 for
two years; $90 for three years) along with
your mailing label to the address above.
Five dollars of the membership fee is for a
subscription to Monitor. Be sure to correct
your mailing label if any of the information
has changed, and always include your
current phone numbers and membership
number.
The fine print: Unless specifically stated otherwise,
the opinions expressed in any article or column are those
of the individual author(s) and do not represent an official
position of, or endorsement by, the Capital PC User
Group. CPCUG is an independent, nonprofit user group
and is not affiliated in any way with any vendor or
equipment manufacturer.
Copyright © 1997 by the Capital PC User Group, Inc. All
rights reserved. Permission for reproduction in whole or in
part is hereby granted to other nonprofit and computer
user groups for internal, nonprofit use, provided credit is
given to Monitor and to the author(s) of the reproduced
material, and attribution of copyright is included. All other
reproduction without the prior written permission of the
Capital PC User Group is prohibited.
3
Publishing Post
by Barbara Conn
S
taring at this blank screen, I am reminded once again that
although I sometimes write, I am not really a writer. I am an editor.
And now I am the Editor of our Monitor. It is bound to be an interesting journey for all of us. I hope you find the Monitor helpful, informative, timely, and sometimes entertaining and challenging as well.
This Issue
In this issue we have something
for everyone.
For those relatively new to computers, new to their many uses, or
just thinking about getting started,
we have two great articles by Gene
Gould: “Spreadsheets Made Easy”
and “Databases Made Easy.”
For those with Web pages on the
Internet or thinking about creating
Web pages, cascading style sheets
will make your life easier, and Scott
Mohnkern tells us in clear and concise terms just how to use them in
his article “Cascading Style Sheets:
The Easy Way To Give Your WWW
Home Page Style.”
Those who have never done programming and want to know what’s
involved, without spending a fortune in time and money, will appreciate Paul Smith’s article, “Euphoria
v1.5: Small, Fast, Cheap MS-DOS
Programming Language.” Experienced programmers will find
Euphoria a powerful and delightful
surprise. Game programmers might
want to consider it as an alternative
to C, for example. To get started
with Euphoria, CPCUG members
can just download Euphoria and a
tutorial from our MIX.
We Need Help!
You don’t need to be a professional writer to be the author of an
4
article for our Monitor. If you’re a
CPCUG member and you’ve been
learning (or teaching) some aspect of
computer software or hardware,
others in our group are likely to be
interested in your efforts. How about
sending me e-mail ([email protected])
about a potential article—let’s “talk.”
You don’t need a Pentium Pro or
Pentium II either—a file saved to
WordPerfect 5.0 or a plain ASCII text
file is ideal for Monitor production
purposes.
Want to help with the Monitor
but don’t want to write? That’s ok.
The Monitor needs CPCUG volunteers in many other skill areas. We
need editors, graphic designers,
illustrators, and proofreaders, for
example. If this is you, send me email at [email protected].
Thank You, Eldon
Eldon told us in his June “Publishing Post” that “it took a while to
find a replacement” for him as
Editor. Does this surprise anyone
on the face of the planet? Eldon has
done a remarkable job as Editor of
our Monitor for 3-1/2 years! He
recruited feature writers, columnists, and reporters; he gathered
many superb articles; and when
that wasn’t enough, he wrote fine
articles for us himself. During the
last 8 months he continued even as
he was waging an epic battle to
regain his health.
Eldon, other CPCUG members
are amazed at your ability to persevere under difficult circumstances
and produce a magazine of quality.
I am in awe. I want to thank you
for the splendid work you have
done for all of us. I also want to
thank you personally for your
guidance and helpful hints that
eased the transition.
The Good News
Eldon is not abandoning his connection to the Monitor. He has
agreed to continue creating and
maintaining Monitor Web pages
(http://www.cpcug.org/user/monitor/).
In addition, he will continue his
Monitor SOHO Solutions column
on an occasional basis. He tells me
we can look forward to his next
SOHO Solutions column on “Producing Your Own Self-Running,
Distributable, Multimedia
Applications” this fall.
Our Next Issue:
Education
Our September issue, the first of
several special theme issues, is on
education. Randy Steer has written
an article about Tech Corps volunteers working together to wire our
schools in preparation for the addition of computers and the Internet.
Carol Hyatt has written an article
about volunteering to help teachers
and students learn to use computer
technology for educational purposes and an article about
ThinkQuest, the Internet-based
educational competition for student
teams. The prizes for this competition total $1 million, including a top
prize of a $25,000 scholarship for
each student on the winning team
(and cash prizes of $5,000 each for
the adult mentors and schools of the
winning student team members). In
addition, Walt Moore has written
about what responsible parents
need to know to safeguard their
Internet-savvy offspring. And much
more.
Future Theme Issues
The plan is to have theme issues
four to six times a year. The Internet
will be our theme in November—
another topic broad enough to have
something for everyone. Then in
December, in conjunction with
CPCUG’s winter “Before You Build
or Buy Your Next PC” seminar (and
the holiday gift-giving season), the
theme will be computer hardware.
To finish off CPCUG’s fiscal year,
the February 1998 topic will be
money management. I’m looking
into the possibilities of having a
games issue in June 1998, appropriate for both student summer vacation time and Father’s Day.v
Barbara is CPCUG’s Director of
Corporate Communications and Editor
of the Monitor. She’s the one filling
CPCUG member e-mail boxes everywhere with a continuing stream of questions: Are you conducting a meeting
(class, seminar, workshop) this month?
What’s the topic? Who’s the speaker?
Where will it be? Is it for a fee or free?
Will there be Q&A, a handout, a raffle?
What’s the prize? Who won last
month’s raffle? When’s your next meeting? . . . When you have answers (or
even questions or comments), she can be
reached at [email protected]. If you
don’t have or absolutely hate e-mail, you
can reach her at (202) 452-7484.
Capital PC User Group, Inc.,
Conference Room Available for
Member Rental
Location
51 Monroe Street, Plaza East 2,
Rockville, MD
Size
Approximately 1200 square feet
Hours
8AM to 5:30PM weekdays, other hours by
negotiation
Options
This room has a movable center divider that is
soundproof. When closed, two meeting rooms
with separate entrances are created.
Capacity
75, in theater-style seating
44, as classroom with portable tables
Video
Sharp XGE1000 ceiling-mounted video display
with inputs for video cassette player output
and computer graphics [SVGA (PC or Mac)
600 × 800 dpi].
Sound
Built-in audio amplifier and speaker system
with inputs for supplied microphone, computer
sound card, or VCR
Services
A coffee machine with supplies is included in
the daily cost.
Catering is available by prior arrangement.
Computers are available separately.
External telephone line and modem are
available.
Cost
$300.00 per day ($250 without video
equipment)
$75.00 for the first hour, $65 per hour
thereafter ($60 per hour without video
equipment)—2-hour minimum
Terms
Payable in advance
Check, VISA, or MasterCard accepted
Discounts
CPCUG members receive a 10-percent
discount off daily rates.
Multiday discounts are available.
Contact
Richard Schinnell, CPCUG Facilities Manager,
(301) 762-9372 or [email protected] or
[email protected]
5
President’s Notes
by Lillian Milliner
W
ell, it is time to give you just the facts. CPCUG is broadening its horizons in many areas. Member volunteers are
carrying the load with new-found creativity. Here is just a
sample of what has transpired over the last 2 months.
The June General Meeting
at NIH
Binh Ly, of CyberMedia, presented First Aid 97 along with several other packages. He did a great
job. After he raffled off various
products to attendees, he graciously
presented CPCUG with a full set of
CyberMedia’s entire line of products
for our office. Vendors like CyberMedia allow us to test products
before we buy—a great opportunity
for our members. Walt Houser distributed another round of science
fair awards to students who had
been unable to attend our May
awards presentation. Once again, I
wish to thank Walt, the students,
parents, mentors, and judges for
making the awards night so grand.
I would like to mention again the
following CPCUG members who
graciously gave of their time to
judge student science fair projects:
Richard Biffl, Robert Clemenzi,
Craig C. Cornell, Tom Hill, Peggy
Ireland (who covered three county
fairs), Peter Kimmel, Scott Langill,
Bob Morrison, Rene Thirion, and,
of course, Walt Houser. I hope we
have even more people participating as judges in 1998.
Certificates and Sweet Baskets
were also awarded to outstanding
members of CPCUG at our 15th
Anniversary General Meeting in
June. (See their pictures in the
“General Meeting News” section of
this issue of the Monitor.)
6
Greg Smith, the Past President of
CPCUG, was honored for his dynamic leadership and assistance
over the last few years. Greg has left
the area for opportunities in New
Mexico. We will miss him, but he
promises to e-mail us. He gave a
farewell speech thanking everyone
for their contributions and support.
Eldon Sarte, past Editor of the
Monitor, was unable to attend, but
continues to recover from his illness.
He has been diligent despite his
physical challenges, and we sent
him God’s blessing in all his
endeavors. He did send us a message thanking us for the neat certificate and the gift basket. And the
following: “Working with CPCUG
and the BOD has been really wonderful, and I wish you all the best. I
hope that you will all give our new
Editor, Barb, the help that you’ve
given me—and more—over the past
few years. She’s a truly great person
to work with, as some of you already know, and, in all sincerity, I
really do feel that she’ll do much
better as Editor of the Monitor than I
ever did. She’s got some great plans,
and I urge you all to give her the
assistance she needs. After all, her
success is CPCUG’s—and
your—success. Again, thank you.
See you around . . . .”
Bill Spillane, the man behind the
scenes, also was recognized for his
efforts. It was a pleasure to honor
Bill who constantly, month after
month, makes sure we have every-
thing we need at the NIH meetings.
A man of few words but plenty of
action, we could not thank him
enough for his dedication.
Clifford Porter, our former
Secretary of the Board of Directors,
was recognized for her years of writing and distributing the minutes of
our meetings along with all the other
related tasks. She continues to sign
up new members and cheerfully
greet current members at the entrance to our NIH General Meetings.
Whenever we need an extra hand,
Clifford is faithful to our cause.
Bob Wilson, who works in our
office processing membership applications, along with various other
duties, was recognized for his dedication, joy, and zeal in his duties.
He brings a freshness to the job
daily and is a pleasure to work with.
I guess Bob’s award should have
said, “Most Likely To Be Smiling in
the Midst of a Storm.”
Finally, we added one more
awardee to the list, Rich Schinnell—
he received a baseball that reads “To
a Guy That Always Pitches In—
Thank You.” Rich has been involved
with CPCUG from the beginning.
He has held many of the BOD offices
over the last 15 years and is truly
part of the furniture. I believe God
always places guides in my life
when I need help, and Rich Schinnell has truly been one of them.
Unlike some of the other awardees,
Rich is not going anywhere, but we
thank him for staying and doing
what he does best—guiding us to
the next millennium.
The Monitor
Barbara Conn has set some firm
article deadlines. This is to ensure
that the publication is mailed on
time. Our busy writers (including
yours truly) often forget the Editor
has a deadline, too. This pattern of
behavior will improve for Fall. Barb
has also met with our printer and
distributor to ensure that this goal is
met. So those of you who have
raised the timeliness of the Monitor
as an issue will have one less thing
to be concerned about.
Training Department
Class size is a factor in class cancellation. So if you are thinking about
registering for a particular class,
please do so as early as possible. The
registrar may not receive your late
sign up in time and may cancel the
class prematurely. Thank you for
your consideration in this matter.
Don’t forget, when a CPCUG
member signs up for a class, he or
she gets a $10.00 discount! That’s not
all! If that same member signs up for
two courses, instead of $10.00 off,
the lower priced class will be free!
This offer ends on August 30th, 1997,
and is limited to one free class per
member. To receive this discount,
you must request it when you register and have your membership number handy. To register, call Frank
Anoskey at 301-762-5216, 10AM to
2PM Tuesdays and Thursdays, or call
anytime and leave a message with
information about the best time for
Frank to return your call.
National Awards
In June at the 10th Intergalactic
User Group Officers Conference in
New York, CPCUG was nominated
for awards for the Monitor and for
our Internet site. Our members’
great works were recognized by the
Intergalactic group, and we won
awards for both. Lorin Evans from
the Washington Apple Pi computer
user group in Rockville, Maryland,
graciously accepted on our behalf.
We received two certificates, software, and a book.
Public Service
Announcements
Public Service Announcements
(PSAs) for CPCUG have begun air-
ing on both Montgomery Community channels 21 and 49 between
regularly scheduled programs.
Local Trade Show
Participation
CPCUG members provided literature and information about our
organization at the following local
events:
• June 10, as part of the Secretary’s
Open Forum, State
Department/U.S. AID,
“Electronic Commerce and
International Trade”
• June 20, as part of the Corel
Roadshow, by Corel, event officially launching WordPerfect 8,
and presenting CorelDRAW 7
and WebMaster Suite
• June 30-July 2, as part of the
International Teleconferencing
Association (ITCA), “TAC ‘97
Teleworking: Today and
Tomorrow” (also sponsored by
TAC—The International
Telework Association)
• July 8th, State Department/U.S.
AID, “Crisis Diplomacy and
Information Technology”
COMDEX
COMDEX was great for a people
person like me. I made contacts
with vendors, other user groups,
media, and the locals. What was
very apparent to me is that the people at the booths thirst for attendees
who really want to know more
about their products. A few companies that exhibited were truly innovative. I look forward to seeing
several of them at our monthly
meetings in the Fall. One of these
companies is Anysoft out of
Cambridge, Massachusetts. They
have a product named Any97 that
can make the data transition from
your old files to new documents a
piece of cake, no matter what new
Windows product you are using. To
find out more, read Peggy Ireland’s
review of Any97 in the “Reviews”
section of this issue of the Monitor
and come to our August General
Meeting on August 11 at NIH to see
the product demonstrated by the
president of Anysoft.
Changes in Membership
Price
CPCUG has not changed its
membership fee for years. On July
7th the Board of Directors voted
after much discussion to increase
the membership fee. This change
will take place October 1, 1997, corresponding with the introduction of
improved and additional services.
For example, the Training Department is being revamped this summer to provide an enhanced training schedule. Starting this month
members will be able to rent our
conference room at CPCUG HQ at
51 Monroe Street, Rockville,
Maryland, during the day for training and/or presentations; and a
catering service will even be available at a discount. You can look
forward to many new improvements this Fall.
If you wish to extend your current membership or purchase gift
memberships for friends and colleagues, you may still take advantage of the old pricing by acting
before October 1, 1997. Someone is
in the office to answer your questions about membership between
10AM and 3PM, Monday through
Friday, (301) 762-9372.v
Period
Current
rate
Rate after
Oct. 1, 1997
1 year
2 years
3 years
$35
$65
$90
$42
$78
$110
Lillian Milliner is the Executive
Director of a Maryland-based computer
training company. She can be reached
at (301) 963-9053 evenings, or at
[email protected].
7
Capital PC User Group Activities
July 27–September 6, 1997
8
Capital PC User Group Activities
September 7–October 4, 1997
PLEASE COPY AND POST THIS CALENDAR ON YOUR OFFICE BULLETIN BOARD
• All SIG and General Meetings are free. SIGs meet at
the Capital PC User Group offices on Monroe Street
in Rockville unless otherwise noted.
• All meetings at NIH are held in the Clinical Center,
Building 10. General Meetings are held in the Masur
Auditorium and others are held in the Lipsett
Amphitheater.
• Send e-mail to Rich Schinnell at [email protected]
regarding the calendar.
• For updates—Web: http://www.cpcug.org/user/comm/
MIX: NOTICE Conference (47)
Phone: General Meeting information: (301) 762-9372,
Monday to Friday, 10AM to 3PM.
Program Notes
General Meeting: Monday, August 11, 1997, 7:00PM, NIH Masur Auditorium
Any97 From Anysoft: Transforming Your Windows Computer to an Open, Cross-Application Environment.
Raffles! [See review on p. 56.]
Coming—September 8—Schools, Education, the Internet, the Future
9
Training Notes
Compiled by Mark Ives
W
e still need coaches to assist instructors in hands-on training, and I need your ideas to make our training program the
best it can be. If you have some great training ideas or want
to volunteer to assist, contact me or Frank, and let us know. Call Frank
Anoskey at (301) 762-5216, or me at (703) 383-6971.
Mark Ives has over 15 years of computer and software experience in government and private industry. He is
currently a Senior Analyst with
Strategic Resources Inc. in Falls
Church, Virginia. Mark provides assistance in training development and Web
page design for NASA and FDA projects. He can be reached at (703) 3836971 or e-mail [email protected].
TECH RATING CODES:
★
For the beginner, no experience necessary and no
prerequisites.
★★
Assumes some basic familiarity of the subject but
is not a technical course.
★★★
Assumes that the student
is somewhat familiar
with the subject and will
discuss some technical
material.
★★★★
Assumes that the student
is competent in the material and will be a technical
discussion.
NR
No rating. A general
overview course.
BASIC BASICS of PCs for VERY
BEGINNERS
Course #1000
Description: This course will provide
a good place to start for those who
wish to begin learning about computers. It will provide an overall picture
of PCs and their uses, an introduc-
10
tion to computer concepts, and a
clarification of fundamental ideas
behind them. It will cover basic
terminology and answer such questions as “what is an operating system?”, “what does 80386 stand for?”,
“what is the difference between a
floppy disk and a hard drive?”, and
“what is a spreadsheet?”. The purpose of the course is to bring the
student up to speed enough to know
what questions to ask when shopping for a computer. It will provide
information necessary to understand
a typical computer advertisement,
and provide a good foundation for
taking other computer courses, and
interchange of ideas with others.
PRIOR REGISTRATION FOR THIS
CLASS IS REQUIRED.
LOCATION: Monroe
INSTRUCTOR: Marty Shinko,
(301) 253-1743
TECHNICAL RATING CODE: H
RATE: $35
DATES
TIME
08/09/97(Saturday)1:00PM–4:00PM
BEFORE YOU BUILD OR BUY
YOUR NEXT PC
Course #2100
Prerequisite: No hardware experience required.
Description: This seminar is for those
who are ready to build or to buy
their next PC. You will learn about
memory, monitors, CPUs and BIOS.
Extensive discussions about pricing
and vendor issues. Vendors will be
present to answer your questions.
You MUST attend this Seminar in
order to register for the BUILD
YOUR OWN PC WORKSHOP because you will be assigned your
mentor at this Seminar.
REGISTRATION: 8:30–9:00AM
LOCATION: Lipsett
INSTRUCTOR: Contact Chip Dodge,
(703) 425-7038
TECHNICAL RATING CODE: N/A
PRICE: Free(Optional $10 for handout)
DATES
TIME
12/06/97 (Saturday) 9:00PM–1:00PM
BUILD YOUR OWN PC
Course #2500
Prerequisites: Completion of the
BEFORE YOU BUILD OR BUY
Seminar. No soldering and no prior
hardware experience is required.
Description: You will bring your
components to the Workshop and
you will build your 486 or Pentium
under the watchful eyes of hardware experts. DO NOT USE THE
REGISTRATION FORM FOR THIS
CLASS. REGISTRATION FOR THIS
WORKSHOP IS DONE AT THE
SEMINAR BEFORE YOU BUILD
OR BUY.
LOCATION: Monroe
INSTRUCTOR: Contact Chip Dodge,
(703) 425-7038
TECHNICAL RATING CODE: N/A
RATE: $75
DATES
TIME
09/13/97(Saturday)8:00AM–9:00PM
01/10/98(Saturday)8:00AM–9:00PM
A DOS PRIMER
Course #3000
Prerequisites: This is a hands-on
class for people with some
keyboard experience. No prior
knowledge of DOS is required.
Description: The basic DOS commands will be covered including
creating directories, copying, deleting and backing up. PRIOR REGISTRATION FOR THIS CLASS IS
REQUIRED.
LOCATION: Monroe
INSTRUCTOR: Richard Washington,
(202) 708-2885 (Day)
(301) 649-3562 (Evening)
RATE: $35
10/19/97(Sunday)
11/16/97(Sunday)
12/21/97(Sunday)
01/18/98(Sunday)
02/15/98(Sunday)
3:30PM
3:30PM
3:30PM
3:30PM
3:30PM
WORDPERFECT 6.1 FOR
WINDOWS 3.1
Course #3922
This course will be a step-by-step
demonstration of the basics of
WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows 3.1:
2. Working with documents creating, saving, opening, printing.
3. Moving around in the document,
using keyboard and mouse.
4. Editing documents, inserting and
deleting text; using undo and
undelete; selecting text for editing changes (bold, italics, etc.);
reveal codes.
5. Copying and moving text.
6. Using Spell Check.
DATES
TIME
08/17/97(Sunday) 3:30PM
09/21/97(Sunday) 3:30PM
1. Overview of screen, menu bar,
tool bar, power bar, status bar,
scroll bars, text area.
If time permits, additional topics
such as QuickCorrect, changing font
sizes and font styles will be cov-
Registration and Information
Training Registration Form
LOCATION CODES
• Lipsett = Lipsett Amphitheatre, NIH, Clinical Center, Bldg.
10. Parking is free under the building.
• Monroe = Irving W. Samuels Meeting Room, 51 Monroe St.,
Rockville. Parking under the building is free in the evenings
and on weekends.
• METEC = (Modern Educational Technology Center, Inc., 58
West Gude Drive, Rockville, MD. Parking is free adjacent to
the building.
• ENFOLINC= 6551 Loisdale Court, Suite 500, Springfield, VA.
Parking is free.
(Not for the BUILD YOUR OWN PC)
REGISTRATION
To assure your place in a class, register at least six days prior to
the class. For weekend classes, registration ends at 1PM on the
Thursday prior to the class. To register, fill out the Training
Registration Form or appropriate Coupon and send it, with your
check, to 51 Monroe Street. Phone registration will only be accepted when paying with VISA or MasterCard. You are considered registered when payment has been received. Classes are
subject to cancellation one week prior to the class date. SATURDAY SEMINARS, SUNDAY SEMINARS, and PREBUILD SEMINARS (at NIH Lipsett Amphitheater) do not require pre-registration; just show up. They are open to the public and free of
charge. There may be an optional handout available for reproduction costs.
GUIDELINES
For more information about a specific class, call the instructor.
DO NOT call the instructors for class registration. Anyone not
there at the actual start time for a hands-on course will not be
admitted to the class. Unless specific arrangements are made 48
hours in advance regarding your inability to attend, “no-shows”
will forfeit the course fee. To be rescheduled into another class,
contact the office at (301) 762-9372 or leave a message at (301)
762-9374.
NOTICE OF CLASS CANCELLATION
We cannot always notify registrants of class cancellations. Please
check the NOTICE conference on the MIX or check with the
Training Phone (301) 762-5216 for any changes in scheduling.
Course Name:
_________________________________________________
Course Number: ____________ Class Date: _________
Fee Amount Enclosed:
_________________________________________________
Member Number:
_________________________________________________
Name:
_________________________________________________
Address:
_________________________________________________
City:
_________________________________________________
State: ______________________ Zip: ________________
Daytime Phone:
_________________________________________________
Home Phone:
_________________________________________________
Please send the fee and the registration form to:
Capital PC User Group, Inc.
Registrar, Training & Education
51 Monroe Street, Plaza East Two
Rockville, Maryland 20850
Training Phone (301) 762-5216
FAX (301) 762-9375
11
ered. PRIOR REGISTRATION FOR
THIS CLASS IS REQUIRED.
LOCATION: Monroe
INSTRUCTOR: Les Le Vine,
(301) 652-2532
RATE: $40
DATES
08/02/97(Saturday)
10/04/97(Saturday)
12/06/97(Saturday)
DATE
TIME
09/06/97 (Saturday)1:00PM–4:00PM
11/01/97 (Saturday) 1:00PM–4:00PM
TIME
1:00PM–4:00PM
1:00PM–4:00PM
1:00PM–4:00PM
COMMUNICATING WITH THE
“MIX” (CPCUG’s BBS)
Course #4225
Prerequisite: Basic familiarity with a
PC keyboard and some basic knowledge of data communications is
required. You should have your
modem attached and your communications software installed on your
PC before attending this class so
that you can immediately apply
what you learn in class. (There will
be homework!)
Description: This class steps you
through signing on to the MIX,
handling messages, uploading and
downloading files. PRIOR REGISTRATION FOR THIS CLASS IS
RECOMMENDED.
LOCATION: Monroe
INSTRUCTOR: Fred Holmes,
(703) 560-5234 (H)
(703) 841-3441 (W)
RATE: Free
INTERNET PRIMER
Course #4405
Description: If you need answers to
any of the following questions, this
Internet Primer is for you. What is
the Internet? What can I do with
Internet access? Are all Internet accounts alike? How do I pick an
Internet provider? What’s a web
browser? What computer hardware
and software do I need to use the
Internet? You will learn in the class
“what” can be done, rather than
“how” it is done. Some people say
that the Internet isn’t good for much.
Others say it’s the ultimate. After
you’ve taken this class, you’ll be
better able to decide if you want to
give it a try and how to go about it.
Objectives—By the end of the class,
you will be able to:
• Give a general description of the
Internet and identify for what you
might like to use it.
• Contrast services provided by an
e-mail only service, an online
service such as AOL, and an
Internet Service Provider so you
can decide if any of them are for
you.
• Identify questions you might ask
when talking to Internet
providers
• Know if you would prefer to use
text-based or graphical-based
software to interface with the
Internet.
• Contrast features and service level
requirements of e-mail packages
such as Eudora, PINE, and Juno.
• Recognize differences among
Internet features such as e-mail,
web browsing, and file transfer.
PRIOR REGISTRATION FOR THIS
CLASS IS REQUIRED.
LOCATION: Monroe
INSTRUCTOR: Paul Shapiro
(301) 770-7899
RATE: $35
DATES
TIME
08/31/97(Sunday) 1:00PM–4:00PM
11/30/97(Sunday) 1:00PM–4:00PM
INTRODUCTION TO UNIX
Course #4420
This course assumes that you’ve
dealt in some way with a PC before
and that you’d like to learn enough
about UNIX to interact happily
with your Internet provider in general and CPCUG.ORG in particular.
You will learn how similar Unix is
to DOS in general, and what the
particular differences are that might
trip you up. Topics include: basic
commands, pipes, redirection, file
protections, shells, aliases, editors,
& mailers. PRIOR REGISTRATION
FOR THIS CLASS IS REQUIRED.
LOCATION: Monroe
INSTRUCTOR: Neal Grotenstein,
(301) 871-6232
This coupon good for either
$10 Off
the price of any CPCUG class
or a
FREE CPCUG Class
with the purchase of a second CPCUG class of equal or greater value
Offer limited to one FREE class per CPCUG member
Expires August 30, 1997
12
TECHNICAL RATING CODE: HH
RATE: $35
DATE
TBA (Saturday)
TIME
9:00AM–12:00N
INSTALLING AND USING WINDOWS 95 MSIE SOFTWARE FOR
GRAPHICAL INTERNET ACCESS
VIA CPCUG.ORG
Course #4455
Prerequisites: Experience in using
Windows 95 is assumed. Experience
in using a modem and communications program is desirable, but not
required.
Description: New users on CPCUG’s
Internet domain, cpcug.org, receive
MSIE installation disks for graphical access to the Internet if they run
Windows 95. Current cpcug.org
users can download free Windows 95 MSIE installation software.
The installation and use of this software will be demonstrated for Web
browsing, e-mail, and newsgroups.
Copies of MSIE installation disks
for Windows 95, along with documentation, will be available at the
class. PRIOR REGISTRATION FOR
THIS CLASS IS REQUIRED.
CLASS LIMIT: 20
LOCATION: Monroe
INSTRUCTOR: Bob Mills
(301) 738-0097
RATE: $35
DATES
TIME
08/16/97(Saturday) 1:00PM–4:00PM
09/20/97(Saturday) 1:00PM–4:00PM
CREATING WORLD WIDE WEB
PAGES (HANDS-ON VERSION)
Course #4480
Prerequisite: Familiarity with
Windows and the World Wide Web.
Description: This is a new HANDSON version of our popular 4480
course. This is an introductory class
for people who want to learn how
to create attractive World Wide Web
pages. During class, students will
create a multi-page web site complete with hypertext links and images, and learn the Hyper Text
markup Language (HTML) code
and techniques needed to create
even more complex Web pages.
Bring a floppy disk to take your
Web pages home with you. This
course is NOT an intro to the
Internet or World Wide Web. PRIOR
REGISTRATION FOR THIS CLASS
IS REQUIRED. CLASS SIZE
LIMITED TO 12 PEOPLE.
LOCATION: Monroe
INSTRUCTORS: Dave Hennessey,
(301) 652-1569
[email protected]
RATE: $45
DATE
TIME
08/09/97(Saturday) 9:00AM–12:00N
09/20/97(Saturday) 9:00AM–12:00N
USING NETSCAPE TO SURF
THE INTERNET
Course #4500
3 Hours Hands-on
Course Description:
You’ve heard about Netscape and
may have seen it demonstrated
many times, but have you had a
chance to really learn to use it?
Well, here’s your chance. You’ll use
Netscape and search tools available
on the World Wide Web to find
information you’re seeking. You’ll
learn how to access, read, and contribute to open discussions among
people from all over the world
using the Internet’s newsgroups.
We’ll even send and receive electronic mail from Netscape. Once
you find sites of interest, you’ll
learn how to make it easier to get
back to them again and to share
them with your friends. If you
wish, you may download and take
home a freeware program for decompressing files you transfer to
your PCs from web sites.
Prerequisites:
Moderate level of experience using
a mouse with Windows or the
Macintosh operating system.
Introduction to the Internet seminar
recommended for an understanding
of what is available on the Internet
and the vocabulary. PRIOR REGISTRATION FOR THIS CLASS IS
REQUIRED.
LOCATION: Enfolinc
INSTRUCTOR: Alta Oben,
(703) 938-5831
RATE: $55
DATES
TIME
08/23/97(Saturday) 1:00PM–4:00PM
09/27/97(Saturday) 1:00PM–4:00PM
USING EUDORA TO HANDLE
ELECTRONIC MAIL
Course #4550
2 Hours Hands-on
Course Description:
If you expect to get a fair amount of
electronic mail with your Internet
account, you may want to consider
using an application specifically for
handling your mail. Eudora comes
in free and commercial versions,
and even the free version has many
very useful features. You’ll not only
send and receive e-mail with
Eudora, but you’ll learn to use it to
send and receive attached files,
organize your e-mail messages, and
create an address book of your frequent correspondents. Attendees
will receive an installation disk of
the freeware version of Eudora.
Prerequisites:
Moderate level of experience using
a mouse with Windows or the
Macintosh operating system.
Introduction to the Internet seminar
recommended for an understanding
of what is available on the Internet
and the vocabulary. PRIOR REGISTRATION FOR THIS CLASS IS
REQUIRED.
LOCATION: Enfolinc
INSTRUCTOR: Alta Oben,
(703) 938-5831
RATE: $40
DATES
TIME
08/23/97(Saturday) 10:00AM–12:00N
09/27/97(Saturday) 10:00AM–12:00N
FREE SATURDAY SEMINARS
August 16, 1997, 9AM–12N
Selecting the Proper Media for
Training and Marketing
by Tommy L. Kirk, Ph.D.
Focus: Current trends in delivery
methods of training and the benefits
and drawbacks of using advanced
multimedia to deliver training and
marketing initiatives.
Speaker: Tommy has more than 23
years of experience in NASA and
13
Department of Defense programs,
specifically in the fields of technical
writing, manpower, personnel,
training, and curriculum development. He is an experienced public
speaker and teacher who develops
multimedia training programs and
products for various government
agencies.
• Adult Web page mentors for
student ThinkQuest competitors.
For more information about the
ThinkQuest competition, see
http://www.advanced.org/thinkquest/
ALL SATURDAY SEMINARS ARE
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
LOCATION: National Institutes of
Health, Lipsett
Amphitheater (west on
Center Drive from
Rockville Pike [Wisconsin
Avenue] to the Clinical
Center, Building 10, at
West Drive), 9000
Rockville Pike, Bethesda,
MD
September 20, 1997, 9AM–12N
ThinkQuest Competition
Workshop
Audience:
• Educators using the Internet to
enhance educational opportunities for students.
Get on the INTERNET
with CPCUG!
Special LOW RATES
available only to CPCUG members
For information and
application forms, call
Millkern Communications, Inc.
at
301-738-0097
CPCUG.ORG Dial-Up Access Numbers
(301)
(301)
(301)
(703)
(410)
(410)
(301)
(301)
(301)
(410)
220-1555 Washington DC Metro
207-0191 Northern VA
792-4115 Baltimore MD
296-0479 Baltimore MD
220-0258 Berwyn MD
414 0091 Frederick MD
714-2010 Hagerstown MD
819-8570 Easton/Kent Island/
Centerville MD
(410) 758-2515 Chestertown MD
14
WANTED
The Monitor is
always looking for
feature writers,
reporters,
columnists,
product reviewers,
illustrators,
photographers,
and
proofreaders.
Product Reviewers,
call Richard Biffl at
(301) 927-8753.
Columnists,
call Michael Kane at
(202) 801-8652 (pager).
Everybody Else,
call Barbara Conn at
(202) 508-1494
Feature
x
Spreadsheets
Made Easy
by Gene Gould
“Boxes, little boxes, made of Ticky Tacky
And they all look just the same.”
R
emember when Pete Seeger reminded
us that if we wanted a cheap house, we
got a little box? For your trivia lesson of
the day, Pete didn’t write the song. It
was written by San Francisco song
writer Malvina Reynolds.
For the power users and our many
members who make a living with
spreadsheets, this article is not for
you. However, I’ve been using
spreadsheets for 7 years, and I
learned something I didn’t know in
the process of writing this article—so
skip it at your own risk. The article
was written for our many new members who are still in the process of
learning not only how to use a computer, but some of the things for
which they are useful, besides writing letters and playing Solitaire.
The simplest definition of a
spreadsheet is “Boxes, little boxes,
Spreadsheet Program: In computer science, an application
program commonly used for budgets, forecasting, and
other finance-related tasks. In a spreadsheet program, data
and formulas to calculate those data are entered into
ledgerlike forms (spreadsheets or worksheets) for analysis,
tracking, planning, or “what-if” evaluations of the impacts
of real or proposed changes on an economic strategy.
Spreadsheet programs use rows and columns of cells; each
cell can hold text or numeric data or a formula that uses
values in other cells to calculate a desired result. To ease
computation, these programs include built-in functions
that perform standard calculations. Depending on the
program, a single spreadsheet can contain anywhere from
thousands to millions of cells. Some spreadsheet programs
16
all in a row.” Those little boxes are
truly marvelous in their abilities,
even in the most simple spreadsheets, such as the ones that come
as part of Microsoft Works or Lotus
Works. For a more complete definition of spreadsheets, see the accompanying box, into which I have
copied and pasted the article from
Encarta 97, which I reviewed for the
Monitor. [Editor’s Note: The review
of Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia
is to appear in the September issue.]
Note that the article even provides
its own footnote citation.
The name “spreadsheet” comes
from the distant past of the accounting world when bookkeepers
with eyeshades sat on stools and
entered numbers in ledger sheets
consisting of columns and rows.
These were called spreadsheets. If
you are going to write a letter, an
article such as this, or a book on
your computer, the tool to use is a
word processor. It is designed for
that purpose. If you are using numbers, then the basic computer tool is
the spreadsheet.
People not familiar with spreadsheets have been known to use a
word processor to make tables of
numbers by using tab stops to format the columns. Sure you can do
it. You can also cut down a 300-
can also link one spreadsheet to another that contains
related information, and can update data in linked spreadsheets automatically. Spreadsheet programs may also
include macro facilities, and some can be used for creating
and sorting databases. For printed output, spreadsheet
programs usually provide graphing capabilities and a
variety of formatting options for both printed pages and
text, numeric values, and captions and legends in graphs.
“Spreadsheet Program,” Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia.
1993–1996 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
[Editor’s Note: A review of Microsoft Encarta 97
Encyclopedia will appear in our September Monitor as part
of our Education issue.]
foot-tall redwood tree with a hatchet if you have lots of
time and energy. It can be done, just as you can use a
text editor to write a letter, but once you learn to use the
computing tools designed for specific tasks, these tasks
become a lot easier to perform.
In the history of personal computers, a few software
titles are famous. In word processing, WordPerfect and
Microsoft Word are the best known. In spreadsheets, the
claim to fame goes to Lotus 1-2-3, although Quattro
gave it a hard run and was the spreadsheet of choice for
many. While Microsoft’s Excel also dates back to the
days of DOS, it did not reach its status as the primary
spreadsheet until the advent of Windows. (Thanks to
Bill Redisch, who responded to my request for sample
screens from different spreadsheets in the SPREAD
Conference on the MIX and provided an illustration
from the Excel tutorial, figure 1.)
The thing to remember is that all spreadsheets are
nothing but a lot of boxes. You can change their sizes
and you can put either numbers or text in them. To
identify them, the vertical columns are labeled alphabetically, and the horizontal rows are numbered. Each
box is a cell, and the address of any given cell is the
intersection of the column and the row.
The price difference between the simple spreadsheet
function included in Microsoft Works and, for example,
Excel is the difference between about $50 to $70 for
Works, around $300 to $320 for Excel or Lotus, and
around $400 to $500 for MS Office, which includes
Excel. I can’t imagine anything that you need to do
at home that you can’t do in the MS Works spreadsheet.
While financial management software programs such
as Quicken and Managing Your Money (MYM) have an
investment section for stocks and mutual funds, for a
good permanent record of the date, price paid, number
of shares, commission paid, stock splits, dividends used
to buy shares, or whatever, the spreadsheet is ideal. You
can tailor it to your particular needs and whims. If you
are ever audited by IRS, I believe you will find that a
complete record of transactions on one spreadsheet will
be more helpful than printing the asset sections out of
either Quicken or MYM.
New tax laws may eliminate the necessity of keeping
records of capital improvements on your home if capital
gains taxes on the residence are eliminated; however, I
intend to keep the records that support the cost basis of
my house over the amount I paid for it. Instead of just
throwing receipts into a shoe box, you can create a
spreadsheet that gives the date and purchase price of
the home, closing costs, points, and all other pertinent
data. When capital improvements are added, keep the
records including the dates, the contractors, building
permit numbers, and the cost of the improvements in a
spreadsheet. Then throw the receipts in a shoe box.
Refinancing of mortgages has become a popular pastime in the past 10 years or so. Figure 2 shows how to
play “what if” games with mortgage rates, monthly
payments, and length of mortgage. In addition to the
ability to build spreadsheets with amortization tables,
figure 3 shows the major commonly used business and
Figure 1. Excel tutorial screen.
Figure 2. MS Works amortization options.
Figure 3. MS Works business and scientific functions.
17
Figure 4. MS Works format menu.
Figure 5. MS Works chart functions.
scientific functions available in a simple spreadsheet
such as Works. I have no idea how many functions are
available in Excel or any of the major spreadsheets—but
it’s a lot more than you or I would ever need or use.
I frequently use a spreadsheet instead of a word
processor when I need tabular columns. The big reason
is because I’m a bit lazy, and I can set up column
widths on a spreadsheet faster than I can set up tab
stops on a word processor, and, in addition, I can print
all of the grids if I wish.
Figure 4 shows the format menu that allows you to
display numbers in various ways as well as the toolbar
buttons. If you look at the toolbar buttons, you will see
a sigma symbol Σ. That particular button is the “autosum” button. It permits you to add columns or rows
without the necessity of typing formulas. For those who
like graphic presentations, all spreadsheets provide a
chart function that graphs your data. Figure 5 shows
those available in MS Works.
This article has barely scratched the surface of uses
for spreadsheets. Remember that the personal computer
you own is a very expensive tool for household use. If
you do not use it to its full potential but instead limit
yourself to word processing functions, you might just
as well have a little word processor typewriter.
Your computer probably came with an integrated
package such as MS Works or Lotus Works, possibly
even MS Office or Lotus Suite. In either case, you already have spreadsheet software. Learn to use it. You’ll
soon wonder how you ever got along without it.
Next in the series: the third of the major computer
tools, databases.v
Gene Gould, a member of CPCUG since April 1993, retired
from the Boeing Company in 1991. He was the manager in
charge of office leasing and facilities management of leased
offices for Boeing Computer Services in the eastern half of the
United States from 1979 until his retirement.
This coupon good for either
$
10 Off
the price of any CPCUG class
or a
FREE CPCUG Class
with the purchase of a second CPCUG class of equal or greater value
Offer limited to one FREE class per CPCUG member
Expires August 30, 1997
18
Feature
Databases
Made Easy
by Gene Gould
W
hen I wrote “Word Processing Made Easy”
(Monitor, April 1997, p. 16), I hadn’t really
intended to write an extended series. But then it
grew to a series on the three major computing
tools, and I tossed in “ASCII Text Files Made
Easy” (Monitor, May 1997, p. 12) on the side.
Remember the rule, “The right
tool for the job makes any job easier.” I don’t know whose rule it is,
so if you want to call it “Gene’s
Rule,” it’s okay. If you are going to
write, the tool designed for the job is
the word processor. If you are going
to “keep books,” analyze numbers,
or deal with numbers in general, the
spreadsheet is your primary
weapon. Human nature being what
it is, we like to keep lists. We keep
phone lists, inventories of our coin
and stamp collections, catalogs of
our books, lists of birds we have
seen, but you get the point.
The list of lists is endless. For
insurance purposes you should
maintain a list of your household
property, including everything that
is in it. The tool for this type of job
is the database. Following the
precedent set in “Spreadsheets
Made Easy” (appearing elsewhere
in this issue of the Monitor), I have
included in a box the article on the
database from Encarta 97. It provides a good definition and description of the database, and I was
taught not to invent any more
wheels than necessary.
I joined CPCUG in April of 1993,
and it was not until 1995 that the
thought occurred to me that we did
not have an index for Monitor articles. I am a slow study at times.
The last year the Monitor had been
indexed was 1990, and the index
appeared in the May 1991 issue. I
asked for format suggestions on
several conferences on the MIX.
One of the suggestions I received
was that I should prepare the index
in a text editor. Right! As far as I’m
concerned, a text editor is good for
playing with system files.
Figure 1 is a section of the
Monitor index. At the top of the
Issue column you will see “93/01,”
Database: Any collection of data organized for storage in a
computer memory and designed for easy access by authorized users. The data may be in the form of text, numbers, or
encoded graphics. Since their first, experimental appearance
in the 1950s, databases have become so important in industrial societies that they can be found in almost every field of
information. Government, military, and industrial databases
are often highly restricted, and professional databases are
usually of limited interest. A wide range of commercial,
governmental, and nonprofit databases are available to the
general public, however, and may be used by anyone who
owns or has access to the equipment that they require.
anyone who could link up to them by computer—first
appeared in the 1970s. For the home user, the equipment
required includes a computer terminal, a telephone, and a
modem, which enables the terminal and the database (usually some type of search-service system) to intercommunicate. (Modified television sets can also be equipped to receive some specifically designed database services.) The
user simply dials the number of the service, provides a
password code for identification and billing, and types in
questions to a chosen database on the terminal’s keyboard.
The data received may either be displayed on a terminal
screen or printed out.
Small databases were first developed or funded by the U.S.
government for agency or professional use. In the 1960s,
some databases became commercially available, but their
use was funnelled through a few so-called research centers
that collected information inquiries and handled them in
batches. On-line databases—that is, databases available to
“Database,” Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia. 1993–1996 Microsoft
Corporation. All rights reserved.
[Editor’s Note: A review of Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia
will appear in our September Monitor as part of our
Education issue.]
19
Figure 1. Section of Monitor index.
Figure 2. Format screen.
Figure 3. Form view blank screen.
and at the bottom right corner you will see the number
“596.” That is the number of records in the index from its
start in January 1993 through the December 1996 issue.
20
The most difficult part of the job of preparing any
index like this is trying to contain the titles in a reasonable amount of space. Our authors have a lot of trouble keeping their titles short—I suspect that may be the
result of too many doctoral theses. In figure 2, I have
pulled down the format screen on a section of the index,
and you will note that I am currently allowing 40 character spaces for the title. This is still not enough in some
cases. In fact, for purposes of the database itself, the
field size can be any length. The only problem arises in
preparing the database for printing. If you check the
January 1997 issue of the Monitor, you will see how I
selected the fields from the nine fields in the complete
database and formatted them for printing.
The title of this article is “Databases Made Easy.”
Okay, let’s show you how easy they are. Again, I am
assuming that your machine came with some sort of
integrated software such as Microsoft Works or possibly
Lotus Works. If you bought the less expensive version
of Microsoft Office, it is possible that you did not get the
big guy, Access.
If you don’t have a database in any of your software
packages, I strongly suggest that you buy at least an
integrated package containing one. The MIX files contain a shareware database, but it is very limited. I was
never able to figure out how to make it change the sort
on the fields. A database program is a major and primary use for your computer—it is a tool that you need
just as you need a word processor and a spreadsheet. I
currently am maintaining about 40 separate databases
on my hard drive. Some are small, but one has nearly
1500 records and 7 fields.
Constructing a database is almost as simple as making a grocery list separated into categories such as produce, dairy, meats, fish, or some other groupings. A
database is different from a document or a spreadsheet
in that there are three views of it available by clicking
on the toolbar. These are the form view, the list view,
and the report view.
The term “field” is the important word to learn as
“cell” was in spreadsheets. Each of the categories you
want in your list is a “field.” Each piece of information
you enter becomes a “record.” The Monitor index contains eight fields including subject, author, and title.
To build a database, you start with a blank screen, just
as you do with a word processor. Figure 3 shows the
form view. You begin by entering field names. Figure 4
shows the field names I use for my household inventory
for insurance purposes. You enter your first field name,
in this case “Item”; and you type a colon after it; and
then press the <tab> key. This enters the field name into
the database, and a menu automatically comes up
proposing a field width. (See figure 5.)
When you have entered your last field name, you can
begin filling in the information in the form view by
using the <tab> key to move from one field to the next.
When you hit the bottom of the record, it automatically
goes to the next. Don’t worry if you forget one, it is easy
to add, delete, or change the sequence or the size of the
fields. Once the fields are set up, I often change to the
list view to enter the data. Figure 1, which shows a section of the Monitor index, is the list view.
Figure 4. Sample form view field names.
The third view is the report view. I have a seashell
collection. Figure 6 is the report view of the seashell
database. The report view is used to select just some of
the fields available in the database for printing. This is
the way I built the printed Monitor index for the January
issue. In addition, the report view is the place where
you can perform mathematical functions of your data.
Figure 7 shows the screen used to select and name the
fields for your report. It also allows you to change the
sort of the fields so you can easily change the report
from being sorted in class/order as they now are to
common name.
Do you still want to do this kind of work in a word
processor, or maybe a text editor? Simple lists such as
the seashell list could easily be done in a spreadsheet,
but the spreadsheet does not permit the flexibility in
sorting and report preparation that is offered by the
database. If you haven’t experienced the excitement of
the database, download the Monitor index from the MIX
files and play with it. As I remember, it is INDEX.ZIP.
I read a lot, and have a list of the books I have read
since I was a kid. I don’t include textbooks for classes or
the manuals for DOS, Windows, or related works of
computer jargon. This list contains around 1200 records.
If I give it the word “treasure” and ask it to find “all
records,” I instantly am given a list of all the books I
have read in which the word “treasure” is contained in
the title. There are five: Treasure Island, 1938; Janvier’s
Aztec Treasure House, 1944; Traven’s The Treasure of Sierra
Madre, 1958; Keith Laumer’s The Star Treasure, 1972; and
Clive Cussler’s Treasure, 1992.
If you haven’t done databases, you don’t know what
you’re missing. Like word processors and spreadsheets,
they are easy to learn and are the third leg of the tripod
of tools that make our personal computers worth all
their costs in money and sometimes grief.v
Gene Gould, a member of CPCUG since April 1993, retired
from the Boeing Company in 1991. He was the manager in
charge of office leasing and facilities management of leased
offices for Boeing Computer Services in the eastern half of the
United States from 1979 until his retirement.
Figure 5. Field size menu.
Figure 6. Report view.
Figure 7. Sort options screen for reports.
21
Feature
Cascading
Style Sheets:
The Easy Way To Give
Your WWW
Home Page Style
by Scott Mohnkern
C
ascading styles sheets (or more commonly, “style
sheets”) provide a way for an HTML author to control
the way a Web page is displayed to a viewer, and decrease the size of documents by reducing repetitive
tags. Here I’m going to give you a brief introduction to
how to use style sheets in your WWW documents.
First, some important things to
remember. Style sheets are not supported by all WWW browsers, and
not always the same way. What
you’ll find in this article works for
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 3.x,
4.x for Windows 95, and Netscape
Communicator (aka Netscape 4.0).
Be sure to check your documents
with a variety of Web browsers to
see how they look. With other
browsers, your mileage may vary.
Also, some of what you read here
may not be consistent with the
World Wide Web Consortium’s
(W3C) current specifications for
style sheets. Neither of the major
browsers (Internet Explorer and
Netscape Communicator) follow
the specifications exactly. Hopefully, the next official release of the
WWW browsers will support style
sheets fully.
22
To try anything described in this
article, you need a style sheet compatible Web browser, a text editor,
and the knowledge to create and
save HTML documents with that
editor. If you don’t know how to do
these things, consider taking an
introductory HTML course through
CPCUG before you try what is here.
Enough with the warnings! On to
making our document.
A style sheet can be generated in
one of two ways: (1) by putting the
style sheet information inside the
header of the HTML document or
by (2) creating a style sheet file and
linking to it in your HTML document. At present the most common
way is to put the style sheet information in the HTML document, so
that’s what we’ll do here.
The style sheet information (often
called the definition) is located be-
tween a <STYLE> and </STYLE>
tag of the document. It would look
like this in an HTML document:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<STYLE>
<!-Style Sheet Information
-->
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
The body of your document.
</BODY>
</HTML>
Most of this is “standard” HTML
code, the only unusual things are
the  lines. These lines
turn the style sheet definition into a
“comment” for Web browsers that
don’t support style sheets. It’s
merely a way to keep your document compatible with as many
browsers as possible.
As you read through this article,
we’ll talk about what goes “inside”
the style sheet information section.
Setting the Size of Text
The first thing we are going to
do is create large text. I know you
can already do that with the <H1>
and <H2> tags, but you can’t control how large the text is, because
that’s defined by the browser. Open
your text editor and type in the
following:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>My First Style
Sheets Page</TITLE>
<STYLE>
<!-H1 {font-size: 24pt}
-->
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<CENTER><H1>My First Style
Sheets Page</H1></CENTER>
</BODY>
</HTML>
What’s new here, that we haven’t seen before is the line
H1 {font-size: 24pt}
and the <CENTER> tag. The H1 {font-size: 24pt} tells
the Web browser that any time it encounters text between the <H1> and </H1> tags, it should display it in
24-point type. The <CENTER> tag just tells the browser
to center the text. Go ahead and save this (I used the file
name css.html, but as long as you use an extension of
.htm or .html, any name will work) and load it with
your Web browser.
When you open it, you say, “Hey, wait, that looks just
like a normal <H1> tag, that’s not exciting.” Well, go
back to your text editor, and change “font-size: 24pt” to
“font-size: 72pt.” Save the document, and reload it.
Now you’ll see huge text, in fact it probably doesn’t
even fit on one line. This goes to show you how much
control you now have over size. Even better, once
you’ve done this, any time you put text between the H1
tags, it will appear this size.
Let’s change the 72 pt back to 24 pt, to make the document look “reasonable.” Well, you’ve done your first
style sheets work, let’s go to the next step.
Setting Text Colors
You can also change text colors using style sheets.
Let’s modify our HTML document so it looks like this:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>My First Style Sheets Page</TITLE>
<STYLE>
H2 {color: blue}
<HR>
<H2>
Here you’ll find examples of how you can
spruce up your Web pages using style sheets.
</BODY>
</HTML>
Setting the Font
Before we get into this, a quick word of caution. Just
because you have a given font installed on your computer doesn’t necessarily mean that someone else viewing your pages will also have it, and style sheets won’t
download fonts—yet. (It’s being discussed, but no one
has figured quite how to do it “right” yet.) If you are
going to use fonts, make sure you use fonts that are
common, like Times Roman, Courier, Palatino, etc.
Go back to your text editor and add the following to
your document after the line defining H2 in the style
sheet definition section of your document:
H3 {font-family: System}
and then add this after the </H2> in your document:
-->
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<CENTER><H1>My First Style Sheets
Page</H1></CENTER>
</H2>
The lines changed or added to our first document
appear in the reversed boxes so you can find them
easily. From here on, I’ll just tell you what to add, and
where, but won’t show you the entire document until
the end.
After you’ve made the changes using your text editor,
save the file, and reload it in your Web browser.
Amazing! The text is blue. You can create a similar
effect by using <FONT COLOR=”BLUE”> and
</FONT> around the text you want to make blue, but
after you’ve added the style sheet information, you
don’t need to type these long tags (or, for that matter,
even remember them).
If you are curious, the acceptable “word” colors are
aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon,
navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow.
In addition, you can use RGB numeric definitions of
colors, but I’ll leave it to you to discover how to do that.
Well, now we’ve set the type size and color of text in
our document, let’s change font next.
<H3>You can also control what font is
displayed.</H3>
Go ahead and save your document, and then reload it
in your browser. You’ll see that the font for our new text
is different. I used the System font here, because almost
everyone has it, but you can use any font. Remember,
however, that the person on the other end has to have it
also in order for your page to be displayed correctly.
There are five “generic” fonts. If you use one of them,
the browser will look to see if the system has a font
that’s “close to” what the HTML author intended. These
generic fonts are Serif, Sans-Serif, Cursive, Fantasy, and
Monospace. As an experiment, modify your style sheet
so it uses one of these, and see how your page comes
out. Internet Explorer 3.x does not currently support the
generic Fantasy font.
We’ve now changed size, color, and font. Now we’re
going to get fancy and change the background color of
text.
23
Setting the Background Color
Go back to your text editor, and in the style sheet
definition, add the following after the definition for H3:
H4 {background: green}
And then the following after the </H3> tag:
<H4>You can change the background color of
text.</H4>
Save it, go to your browser, and reload the document.
You should now see a new line of text that has a green
background. The acceptable colors for background are
the same as they are for color, discussed earlier. Play
around with the different colors and see what you like.
It’s important to remember that the style sheet background definition is different from the tag
<BACKGROUND COLOR=“XXX”> in that the style
sheet background definition doesn’t impact the background of the whole document, just the text of the sections you’ve defined in the style sheet. In fact, you can
even include both the <Background Color=“XXX”> tag
and a style sheet definition tag in the same document to
create some fun effects.
We are down to our last type of definition, margins.
<H6>You can also combine different
options.</H6>
An extremely important note! While the order in which
these options appear isn’t supposed to make a difference, I’ve discovered that it does when adjusting the
font. If you don’t follow a specified order, you may get
“style bleed” that will impact not only the definition
you are working on, but any definition that occurs after
it. For those curious, the “current” official order for
setting font styles is as follows:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
font-style
font-variant
font-weight
font-size
line-height
font-family
background
color (or foreground)
You haven’t seen some of these before, but you might
want to explore them to see what they are about.
The Complete HTML Code
Setting Margins
Adjusting margins in an HTML document has always
been difficult at best, and annoying at worst. Most authors end up turning to complex tables, or sometimes
frames, to create text that isn’t justified at the left or right
side of the page. Now we’ve got a way to do this easily.
Go to your text editor and add the following into
your style sheet definition section after the H4 definition in your document:
H5 {margin-left: 10%}
and add the following after the </H4> in the body of
your document:
<H5>You can even indent text easily.</H5>
Save this, go to your Web browser, and reload the
document. Here you’ll see text in which the margin is
indented 10 percent. You can also set the right margin by
using margin-right instead of margin-left. It is supposed
to be possible to use point definitions instead of percents,
but currently neither of the major browsers supports this
very well, if at all. For now, just use percents.
Putting It All Together
You’ve seen several examples of changing definitions
one at a time. For our final example, let’s combine several different settings. Put the following after the H5
definition in the style sheet section of your document:
H6 {font-size:24pt; font-family:sans-serif;
background:green; color:white}
24
and the following after the </H5> in your document:
If you’ve done everything in this article, the code for
your HTML document should look something like this:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>My First Style Sheets Page</TITLE>
<STYLE>
H2 {color: blue}
H3 {font-family: System}
H4 {background: green}
H5 {margin-left: 10%}
H6 {font-size:24pt;font-family:sansserif;background:green;color:white} -->
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<CENTER><H1>My First Style Sheets
Page</H1></CENTER>
<HR>
<H2>Here you’ll find examples of how you
can spruce up your Web pages using style
sheets.</H2>
<H3>You can also control what font is
displayed.</H3>
<H4>You can change the background color of
text.</H4>
<H5>You can even indent text easily.</H5>
<H6>You can also combine different
options.</H6>
</BODY>
</HTML>
That’s all there is to it.
If you are looking for additional
information on style sheets, visit the
Web page sponsored by the WWW
consortium at
http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Style/
It’s got more information than
you’ll ever need.
Two last things to remember:
(1) Not all browsers support style
sheets—make sure you take this
into consideration when you author
pages with them.
(2) Have fun!v
Scott Mohnkern is president of
Millkern Communications, Inc., and
can be reached at mohnkern@
cpcug.org or mohnkern@
millkern.com. Check out his Web page
at http://www.cpcug.org/
user/mohnkern.
ThinkQuest
Is
Coming!
Correction
In the June 1997 Monitor article by
Scott Mohnkern entitled “JavaScript
Cool: Five Ways To Spruce Up Your
Web Pages With JavaScript” (p. 16),
there are several sections throughout
the article where there is code that
looks like this in the article:
<!—
and
// —>
Actually, these should be—
ATTENTION ALL MEMBERS:
Help Support and Expand
CPCUG’s Vital Programs
Capital PC User Group, recognized by the I.R.S. as a
charitable and educational foundation tax-exempt under
Section 501(c)(3), encourages the financial contribution of all
its members. Contributions may be tax-deductible. Please
mail your most generous gift to Capital PC User Group,
Plaza East Two, 51 Monroe Street, Rockville, MD 20850-2421.
Make your check payable to “CPCUG.”
<!-and
// -->
as appeared in Scott’s original electronic file. Unfortunately, the typesetting conversion program used
during magazine production automatically converts two consecutive
hyphen characters to an em-dash
character. If you look closely, you’ll
see that the erroneous characters are
actually not hyphens at all, but the
longer em dashes. In any event,
having only one instead of two
hyphens causes an error in the code.
Once you make these corrections to
your scripts, they should run without error.
You might also want to consider a contribution of appreciated securities or remember Capital PC User Group in your
will or trusts. There are often tax advantages available by
planning your current and future giving. To discuss planned
giving opportunities, please contact CPCUG President
Lillian Milliner by calling (301) 762-9372 or writing Lillian at
CPCUG headquarters.
Capital PC User Group’s vital programs are needed now
more than ever, with computer technology used increasingly
in so many endeavors. Your generous financial support is
critical to our success. All of us with Capital PC User Group
thank you for your consideration.
“Before You
Buy A Computer”
July 26, 1997,
Seminar Handouts
Available
Send $15 (includes P&H)
to Build Handout,
Capital PC User Group,
Inc., 51 Monroe St., PE2,
Rockville, MD 20850.
25
Hello,
World.
Feature
Euphoria v1.5:
Small, Fast, Cheap
MS-DOS
Programming
Language
by Paul Smith
E
uphoria is a new (1993) MS-DOS procedural programming
language. Euphoria programs run in 32-bit protected mode
using a built-in memory expander. They happily coexist
with Windows, Windows 95 (including long file names),
and OS/2. The host and target machines for a Euphoria program must be 386 or higher with VGA or SVGA video.
Euphoria comes with an interpreter, a compiler, a debugger, a multifile colorized-syntax editor, eight function libraries with source, and
over 40 demonstration and benchmarking programs with source. All
are freeware placed in the public domain by Euphoria’s creator,
Robert Craig. Version 1.5 of Euphoria is available for download on
our MIX with the filename EUPHOR15.ZIP.
The language is a possible
replacement for QBasic or AWK as a
quick one-off file manipulation tool;
for QBasic, Fortran, or extensible
matrix packages for coding mathematical or statistical procedures; for
Qbasic or Pascal as a beginner’s first
procedural language; and (most
interestingly) for C or assembler as a
language for fast, all-out action/arcade DOS game programming.
26
Euphoria is not a visual rapid
application development (RAD)
tool for the corporate client-side
programmer nor a Web language
for the Web site administrator:
Delphi/Power++ and Java/PERL
are safe for the moment, but the
rest of the procedural world may be
in play. Nor should the RAD vendors look back, because Robert
Craig and his wife, Junko Miura,
have formed Rapid Deployment
Software (a Canadian firm) and are
working on a Windows 95 GUI
version right now—Rapid
Deployment Software certainly
sounds like RAD to me.
No one has to learn Euphoria to
stay employed. (Count of hits on
www.amazon.com: C++, over 1000;
Java, over 400; Euphoria, zip). On
the other hand, for those of us who,
through duty or delight, crank
programs out daily, this new language is worth a glance. Rapid
Deployment is an exact description
of the capability Euphoria delivers
to the procedural programmer.
“Small, Fast, Cheap” is a mantra
not much older than Euphoria itself,
but it is briskly rotating into view as
a business maxim. I’ll use it to organize my summary of the features of
Euphoria because the match is
exact. However, tradition requires
that I first show the language’s
“Hello, World.” (See figure 1.)
Oops, sorry, my mistake. That
was applet Java. See figure 2 for
Euphoria. The first parameter is a
file handle, using 1 for StdOut as in
DOS or C. Euphoria takes a few
features from C, such as include
files for function libraries and clean
parameter and indexing punctuation—this(x) is a parameter, that[x]
is an index—but almost nothing
else. Let’s see what it does have.
Small
Euphoria is a small language. C
and C++ have char, short, int, long,
float, double (with signed and unsigned variants) and pointers of one
or another of these forms as built-in
scalar types. Euphoria has “atoms.”
Since Aho, Weinberger, and
Kernighan’s AWK in 1977, interpreted languages have handled
scalars automatically, in machine
import java.applet.Applet;
import java.awt.Graphics;
public class HelloWorldApplet extends Applet {
public void paint(Graphics g) {
g.drawString(“Hello, World.”,50,25);
}
}
Figure 1.
puts(1,“Hello, World.\n”)
Figure 2.
language. Thus a coder need never
bother with whether something
could happen more than, say, 65,535
times before the user reinitializes
the Patriot battery. There are real
benefits to languages that work this
way—not all of them limited to
combat.
All scaling in Euphoria is internal.
Counts don’t overflow. If the decimal value for an ASCII character is
sent to a function that speaks ASCII
(like puts), then that value goes out
as ASCII character. The use of a
single scalar type should make
Euphoria interesting to those who
analyze statistical data, track the
national debt, or transform text files.
atom a,b,c
sequence d,e,f,g,h,i
a = ‘a’
b = ‘ ’
c = 10
d = “”
e = “ ”
f = {10}
g = “Hello, World.\n”
h = {a,b,c,d,e,f,g}
i = {{a,b,c},{d,e,f},{g,h}}
There is only one other primary
built-in type: the sequence. A sequence is, simply, a sequence of
none or more atoms or sequences.
The concept is a bit startling, like
LISP’s lists. It is much more than an
array, because it can nest to any
depth and does not require equal
“sizes” in its elements, rows,
columns, and so on. There are some
subtle conventions in Euphoria’s
syntax (see figure 3) that come into
play here. (They must be subtle,
they threw me on my face over and
over before I got the idea.) Examples
are that single quotes surround only
atoms (single characters or numbers) while double quotes surround
sequences (strings of none or more
characters or numbers).
The double dash is Euphoria’s
only comment designator. The braces
are a sequence forming operator. For
----------
lowercase a, ASCII 97
blank, ASCII 32
scalar value 10, also LF
an empty sequence
a sequence of one blank
a sequence of one 10
a sequence of 14 atoms
a sequence
a sequence of sequences
Figure 3.
atom j
j = i[3][2][7][6]
-- finds the comma
Parsing: i[3] is {g,h}
i[3][2] is h, a sequence that is {a,b,c,d,e,f,g}
i[3][2][7] is g, a sequence that is “Hello, World.\n”
i[3][2][7][6] is an atom = 44, an ASCII comma
Figure 4.
example, d = {} is exactly the same as
d = “”, and completely different from
d = ’’ which is, after all, illegal since
an atom must exist rather than be
only an empty molecule!
The index operator can pick out
the comma inside the g that is inside the h that is inside the i. (See
figure 4.)
Euphoria takes from Pascal and
spreadsheets the double-dot convention in indexing. To set k equal
to the phrase “Hello,” we only have
to say what is shown in figure 5,
and all indexing is bounds checked
at run time. There are no “wild
pointer” errors in an executing
Euphoria program. Of course, there
are no pointers either.
sequence k
k = g[1..5]
-- is “Hello”
Figure 5.
Note the smallness of the syntax:
Parentheses only group arithmetical
expressions and function parameters. Braces only group sequence
definitions. Brackets only group
sequence indexes. And there are
only two primary built-in types,
atoms and sequences. Yet these are
enough to reproduce almost all the
complex types and structures of all
other procedural languages. I’ll
discuss the exceptions later.
Actually there are two secondary
types built in, but they are idioms
rather than independent species: An
object is a variable that can be either
an atom or a sequence, and an integer is a signed atom with 30 bits,
about 1 trillion. The atom tops out
as a signed double floating point
value of about 10 to the 300th
power with 15 or 16 significant
decimal places. It’s fun to tell the
kids “Well, the biggest numbers I
use are somewhere between a
google and a googleplex.” The
whole Euphoria math package is
standard IEEE double precision,
and it includes the infinities and not
a numbers (NANs) of Intel’s floating point processor.
Despite having only two primary
built-in types of data structures,
Euphoria is a strongly typed lan-
27
guage. Type checking is automatic
even at run time, but can be turned
off for speed. The programmer is
free to define new types, as he or she
pleases. The type definition facility is
unique—it tests whether a variable
meets its definition. (See figure 6.)
The return statement in the type
function definition is merely testing
that atom x is indeed printable: It
returns true if it is, or false if not.
The interpreter/compiler yells if x
was not an atom to begin with, or if
the printable function returns false.
Euphoria’s type definition facility is
similar to modern database languages with enforced data definitions and business rules built into
the defining mechanism—all under
programmer control and all alive at
run time. Euphoria is completely
type safe.
Now, to see the payoff to
Euphoria’s very simple variable
architecture, we can use the contents
of figure 7, and have the character
from the upper left corner of the
color screen page just as in QBasic.
But all will have the whole screen
display area, characters, and attributes together. Peek is a machine
language function built into the
Euphoria language itself and runs as
fast as the silicon can pump. Poke
bytesprays in the other direction.
Many other machine language routines are provided as built-in functions, including memory-to-memory
copy and the usual bit twidlers.
Euphoria provides a complete
graphics library for both text and
graphic VGA/SVGA modes with
the full panoply of line, polygon,
ellipse, pageflip, color, palette,
sound, mouse, and cursor tools. It
reads and writes BMP files with
native functions. These are just
what the wild young talent writing
the successor to Doom™ needs.
Euphoria’s atoms and sequences
do it all. They just do it very, very
fast.
The rest of the language is just as
clean but a little more conventional.
All the arithmetic, relational, and
logical operators are in Euphoria,
and with common precedence. (See
figure 8.) Powers and remainders
are functions rather than special
symbols. Sequences can be concatenated with & although there are
also append and prepend functions.
28
type printable(atom x)
return x >= 32 and x <= 128
end type
printable l,m
l = ‘ ’
m = ‘m’
--printable ASCII
-- a printable blank
-- a printable lowercase m
Figure 6.
atom address
address = #B8000
object one, all
one = peek(address)
all = peek({address,4000})
------
address of color screen
in Euphoria hexadecimal
maybe atom, maybe sequence
come one
come all
Figure 7.
arithmetical:
relational:
logical:
+ - / *
< > <= >= = !=
and or not
Figure 8.
sequence counts, totals, details
counts = repeat(0,10) -- repeat(x,n) assigns x n times
totals = repeat(0,10) -and we zero totals, too
details = {15,123,23,76,34,5,67,23,34,12345} -- 10 of them
counts = counts + 1
-- adds 1 to all 10 counts
totals = totals + details -- adds all 10 details to totals
Figure 9.
An assignment statement in
Euphoria is, indeed, a statement
rather than an expression as it is in
C. The double equal sign (==) in C
for the relation of equality is not
needed because an assignment
statement and a relational expression can never be confused in
Euphoria’s syntax.
The list of operators in Euphoria
is small, but in Euphoria small is
powerful. (See figure 9.)
All Euphoria’s operators are vectorial, including the relational and
logical operators. If the parameters
are both atoms, the operator works
as it usually does in other languages. If the parameters are an
atom and a sequence, the operator
applies the atom to every member
of the sequence. If the parameters
are two sequences of equal length,
the operator applies elementwise
along both sequences. Any other
combination gets an error message.
The results arrive at a furious
rate. This feature turns a personal
computer into something very like a
vector processor. Deep in the innermost loop of a linear algebra package is an operator always called
“saxpy” for “scalar a times vector x
plus vector y.” In Euphoria that is a
single statement. (See figure 10.) Of
course that’s true for Cray Fortran,
too. Statisticians, spreadsheets, and
physicists all use code built upon
such vectorial operators. They also
come in handy for updating players’ scores in a game and their position vectors.
Euphoria is still under construction. Two language facilities are missing. The first is scalar accumulation
along a vector operator. For example,
cumulating the sum of the products
of a vectorial multiply. This is the
physicist’s scalar or dot product, the
statisticians’ variance/ covariance
summation, and (when the operator
atom a
sequence x,y
-- scalar
-- vectors
y = a * x + y
-- an updating saxpy
if
Figure 10.
is != not equal) the game programmers’ collision detector. (Babel’s
curse: each discipline renames the
basic math concepts, often several
times.) Of course these functions can
be programmed in Euphoria, but
nothing can match the speed of a
built-in function, and Euphoria’s
design cries out for a scalar inner
product symmetrical with the vector
outer product it already provides.
The other missing syntactic feature in Euphoria (as in AWK) is the
run-time function specifier. C, C++,
and Java all use a pointer-to-function scalar type, and these are the
only pointers that Euphoria’s index
syntax can’t replace. More powerful
languages (like LISP, Scheme, Forth,
or PERL) have an eval, apply, or
interpret function built-in that will
evaluate a string and apply the
function it specifies.
Euphoria will have to gain at
least the function pointer to become
an object oriented programming
language (OOP) because the “member function” is the only missing
ingredient for completely encapsulated “class” definitions. Notice that
Euphoria’s type definitions are
otherwise completely inheritable.
The same facility is at the heart of
simulated annealing, genetic algorithms, nonlinear function maximization, and other generalized
tools of modern numerical analysis.
It is also the key to “strategy” routines in game programming.
The last small features of Euphoria
are the statements themselves, and
there are only a few of them. The
three control flow statements are if,
while, and for. (See figure 11.)
atom this
sequence that,s,t
if this = that[1] then
puts(1,s)
else
puts(1,t)
end if
Figure 11.
As a great improvement over
Java’s switch statement (“Death to
the switch statement!” Peter van der
Linden, Just Java, SunSoft Press,
1996, p. 106), Euphoria adds a simple elsif clause to the if statement.
(See figure 12.) The while statement
is also simple (figure 13), and the for
statement is classic. (See figure 14.)
The indexing variable in the for
statement is local to the loop and
disappears outside it. Euphoria also
has a modern namespace structure
where variable and function names
are local to their enclosing procedures or include files. A function or
procedure must be marked as
global if its name is to be exported
beyond its namespace.
Both the while and the for statements can have an exit statement
within them that exits to the first
statement following the innermost
enclosing loop. Euphoria suffers
nothing comparable to Java’s labeled continue statement.
There are no semicolons at the
end of lines—or, as in Pascal, at the
ends of some lines and not others.
Euphoria is a modern stream language with new lines as white
space. We may break up any statement as we please, or put several
on a single line. The indentation
wars should be glorious.
This small language has only two
built-in types, full type definition
facilities, run-time type checking,
full IEEE math, vectorial operators,
run-time bounds checking, structured syntax, streaming statements
with simple delimiters (“end if”),
and modern namespaces. It is an
ideal language for the beginner
because there is only a little to learn
now and nothing to unlearn later.
Fast
Euphoria is an interpreted language, just like AWK or QBasic. The
programmer codes in the swift edittest-edit cycle without waiting for
compile/link operations. Have you
ever used QBasic to code a pesky
this = 1 then
that = “One”
elsif this = 2 then
that = “Two”
else
that = “Many”
end if
Figure 12.
while length(s) > 0 do
puts(1,s[1]) -- forwards
s = s[2..length(s)]
end while
Figure 13.
for i = length(t) to 1 by -1 do
puts(1,t[i])
-- backwards
end for
Figure 14.
one-off job simply because you were
too impatient to put up with the
interminable chugging of the sophisticated C++ integrated development environment? Euphoria has an
integrated debugger built into the
interpreter and also has a compiler
to turn debugged code into a distributable EXE file—the best of both
worlds in one small fast language.
Coding is faster because
Euphoria supplies 8 function libraries containing 40 functions in
addition to the 48 built into the
language. The function libraries
cover graphics, image processing,
mouse reading, file and directory
operations, command-line wildcard
specifiers, sorting, keyboard input,
and full machine access to user
assembly routines, interrupts, and
memory assignments. The libraries
(and the editor) are all in open
source so the programmer can lift
and learn rather than recreate. Add
the 40 sample programs (also in
open source), and one can get up to
speed very quickly.
Notice that there is no “dimensioning” in statements defining
Euphoria’s sequences and no arbitrary length or end markers for text
strings. The programmer doesn’t
have to work out how to fit objects
into 64-kbyte blocks or the 640
kbytes of lower memory. Euphoria
has a built-in memory manager that
29
gives the whole 32-bit flat address
space of the machine’s memory to
the programmer, and then automatically pages out to disk if more is
function scanline(object linein)
needed. A compiled Euphoria program carries the whole virtualized
memory mechanism right along
with it—and almost always
-- unjust.ex
object lineout
-integer blanks, chars,
char, oldchar
-chars = length(linein)
-lineout = {}
-oldchar = linein[1]
-if oldchar = ‘ ’ then
blanks = 3
-else
blanks = 0
-end if
for i = 2 to chars do
-char = linein[i]
-if char = ‘ ’ then
blanks = blanks + 1
-lineout = lineout & oldchar
-elsif char = ‘.’ or char = ‘?’ or
char = ‘!’ then
-blanks = -1
-elsif blanks != 2 then
blanks = 0
-else
blanks = 0
--end if
oldchar = char
-end for
lineout = lineout & oldchar
-return lineout
outputline
counts and characters
built-in function
output line
keep 1st char
keep initial blanks
nonblank initial
all after 1st
get char
count blanks
passout prior char
sentence terminals:
count 3 (not 2)
blanks, delete 1
nonblank not after
2 (or 3) prior
nonblank after 2 or 3
blanks, just skip
save current char
last char was new line
end function
Figure 15.
BEGIN { FS = “” }
/^\32+$/ { next }
NF > 0 {
line = $0
while(match(line,/([?!.]
[^ ])¦([^ ] [^ ])/) > 0) {
line = substr(line,1,RSTART) substr(line,RSTART + 2)
}
print line
next
}
{
print “”
next
}
END {
}
Figure 16.
30
produces an EXE file smaller than
200 kbytes.
How does Euphoria’s memory
management help? Well, if you
have Windows 95, just drop to DOS
and SORT a text file with lines
longer than 512 characters. Buggy,
right? Older DOS versions of SORT
had arbitrary limits on the size of
the text file they could sort. That
doesn’t happen with Euphoria
(FILESORT.EX is one of the demo
programs). The secret is that in addition to the memory manager and
virtualized memory paging to disk,
Euphoria has an exceptional
garbage collection algorithm that
recaptures and reallocates unused
memory automatically.
Euphoria code executes very
rapidly: Creator Robert Craig claims
10 to 20 times the execution speed
of QBasic and 8 times the speed of
Java. He provides sample programs
so we can test his claims on our
own machines. (True, by the way,
on both of mine.)
But no one ever thought of
QBasic and Java as fast. What happens if we put Euphoria up against
a program its own size? AWK is
small, fast, and designed for transforming text files. A CPCUG member properly complained about the
pseudojustification in captured man
(manual) files from cpcug.org,
which contain extra spaces that
right-justify all the text lines.
Figure 15 is a Euphoria routine to
remove exactly one blank from a
pair enclosed by nonblanks, or
from a trio following a sentence
terminator.
I now know how to write a much
faster version of this routine, but
fair’s fair. The whole program is
on our MIX under the filename
UNJUST.ZIP. Figure 16 is the whole
AWK program to do (almost) the
same thing.
I don’t offer to explain AWK—but
I just counted the number of AWK
programs on my hard drive. There
are 165. I write AWK for a living;
take my word that the AWK routine
is just as fast as I could make it. I
raced Euphoria against AWK, unjustifying five copies of nn.man and
sending the output to the bitbucket.
Processing 1.2 Mbytes of text file,
AWK took 25 seconds. Euphoria
took 18 seconds. Euphoria, the gen-
eralized programming language,
was 39 percent faster than specialized AWK working on its home turf.
I am very impressed.
Euphoria is fast to learn, fast to
code, and flies when it executes.
Euphoria is fast.
Cheap
Robert Craig has placed the
whole Euphoria version 1.5 package in the public domain. The only
limitation is that the debugger cuts
off after the first 300 source language statements (very fair: only
five of the demo programs exceed
300 lines). For $44 the registered
version of Euphoria is available
(order blank included) with an unlimited debugger, a spiral-bound
manual, and a disk. The documentation in the freeware version has
everything in the manual so the
extended debugger for large programs is the only real inducement
to register. I found the documenta-
tion to be excellent and complete,
but I learned from the open source
code in the freeware version.
But Euphoria itself is only the
beginning. Robert Craig’s “Official
Euphoria Programming Page” is at
“crash course in game design” that
uses the game to illustrate the fine
points of game programming. I
have not tried the commercial version, but I worked my way through
the free chapters at
http://members.aol.com/FilesEu/
http://exo.com/~lgp/euphoria/
and contains many additional free
source files plus links to other
Euphoria sites around the world.
David Guy has written a Beginners Guide to Euphoria, version 1.01,
that is an executable tutorial to the
language. It is also freeware and on
the MIX as BEGIN101.ZIP. I found
it excellent and, with open source,
illuminating:
http://www.interlog.com/~moggie/
Euphoria
For the game programmer, Lord
Generic Productions sells OidZone
for $45. It is both a game and a
and found them clear and clever.
Other Euphoria programmers (too
many to list) have home pages providing free code covering everything from windowing editors
through matrix algebra routines to
games, games, games. I found the
most value from joining the
Euphoria LISTSERV mailing list. To
subscribe, send e-mail to
[email protected]
with
subscribe euphoria Your Name
31
as the body of the message. Afterwards you may want to read the
instructions you receive to set your
subscription to digest. There are half
a dozen messages a day, usually
from programmers exchanging code
and helping others debug.
Euphoria is a small, fast, cheap
programming language and a true
gift to young programmers. But the
Euphoria community itself is the
most striking part of Robert Craig’s
creation. If you were around in the
early days of DOS assembler coding
when the free sources from Toad
Hall and Snippets were flying
about, or at the start of comp.sources
for Unix, you remember the variation on our “Users Helping Users”
that was programmers helping
programmers with glee and spots
of genius. Euphoria is a new language that has brought back something old that I am glad to share
once more. That is the reason I
wrote this article.v
Paul Smith programmed the IBM 7070
and 1401 in the early 1960s and has
been the research director for a nonprofit, using donated hardware and
obscure languages, for the last two
decades.
E-Interview With Euphoria Developer Robert Craig
SMITH:
CRAIG:
SMITH:
CRAIG:
SMITH:
CRAIG:
SMITH:
CRAIG:
32
How long have you been working on
Euphoria?
For several years, sometimes full time,
sometimes part time. Currently I’m working on Euphoria full time with my wife,
Junko Miura. We met in Toronto at IBM
where we were developing compilers.
Junko recently started helping me with
Euphoria.
Why develop Euphoria in the first place?
It started as a hobby. I wanted to define a
really simple, really high-level language,
and then see how fast I could make it run.
Why is the garbage collector so fast?
Many garbage collectors are written in
such a way that execution periodically
halts while the garbage collector cleans
things up. Euphoria uses reference counting, and cleans up storage as soon as it is
seen to be free (reference count of 0). I
studied several other methods of garbage
collecting, but concluded that reference
counting is the best for Euphoria.
Euphoria’s use of reference counting has
been highly optimized, so there is not
much effect on performance.
Why the single general data structure?
(Not since LISP . . . ).
For many algorithms, arrays (sequences)
are what you really want, not lists.
Interpreted languages can benefit from
the ability to manipulate large data objects in a single statement. It cuts down on
the “interpretive overhead” because the
main interpreter can jump to a fast machine language subroutine that loops over
SMITH:
CRAIG:
SMITH:
CRAIG:
the data structure at the machine level,
rather than having the user’s code loop at
the slower, high-level language level.
Euphoria’s sequences are loosely based
on the sequences in a language called
“FP” proposed by John Backus in his
Turing award lecture of 1978.
I wanted Euphoria to have as few concepts as possible.
Why is the syntax so “pure” in contrast to
Java?
Java inherits its syntax from C++. I personally find C++ to be horrendously complex. I prefer the style of “end if,” “end
while,” etc., to C’s way of using “}” to end
each block. It makes it easier to match
things up.
Why the open and collaborative spirit
that pervades the distribution, the Web
sites, and the LISTSERV e-mail distribution list?
I’m very happy with this spirit. I don’t
know if I can explain it. I’m surprised at
the number of people who send me their
code, with full source, to put on the
Euphoria Web page. I’m also surprised at
the degree of sharing of code that has
taken place. People will often post a program that credits three or four others for
having supplied key components. Often
someone on the list will ask how to write
a certain program or routine, and within a
day, three or four others will provide advice and supply complete implementations consisting of dozens of lines of code.
I hope your members will enjoy reading about Euphoria.
General Meeting News
June General Meeting
by Jesse Roth
T
he opening of the meeting was delayed a few minutes to enable those present to visit the displays in
the lobby of prize-winning science fair projects of local area youth. The meeting opened with the
recognition of the youth. They, and the judges, were introduced by Walt Houser. President Lillian
Milliner presented each of the youth with a plaque and award.
Robert Baden receiving award from
President Lillian Milliner.
Brian Bentley receiving award from
Daniel Griffie receiving award from
William Hafer receiving award from
Jennifer Kramer receiving award
from President Lillian Milliner.
Award winners pictured left to right: Robert Baden, Brian Bentley, Jennifer
Kramer, Daniel Griffie, and William Hafer.
33
In the business portion of the
meeting, Peggy Ireland suggested
that anyone who wants announcements made at the General Meetings
speak to her. She announced that on
Tuesday, June 24, there will be a
financial work session for the
Capital PC User Group; anyone with
suggestions is invited to attend.
Lillian Milliner recognized several
members for outstanding service to
CPCUG. She presented certificates
of appreciation and awards to Bill
Spillane, Rich Schinnell, Eldon Sarte
(not present), Greg Smith, Bob
Wilson, and Clifford Porter.
The evening’s presentation was
made by Binh Ly of CyberMedia
who described his company’s three
main products. Oil Change identifies all your software and hardware
Mrs. Clifford Porter receiving her
certificate.
August General Meeting:
Any97 From Anysoft
by Peggy Ireland
Want to transform your Windows
computer into an open crossapplication environment? Anysoft
President Illan Poreh will show us
how Any97 software can do just
that. Read the review of Any97 in
the “Reviews” section of this issue
of the Monitor, then come to the
General Meeting on August 11 to
see Any97 and ask questions of the
president of Anysoft.
Greg Smith saying goodbye.
Bob Wilson receiving his certificate.
and then retrieves and installs the
latest software updates and hardware drivers, as desired, from the
Internet. First Aid 97 fixes tens of
thousands of PC problems, protects
your work in the event of a crash,
provides a complete PC checkup,
and warns about an imminent hard
disk failure. UnInstaller uninstalls
any application, identifying and
removing all unnecessary files. It
can also move applications from
one folder or drive to another with
all links complete.
Bill Spillane.
Rich Schinnell.
Eldon Sarte.
CPCUG Membership Pricing Change
October 1, 1997
CPCUG’s first membership price increase since 1989 will take
effect on October 1, 1997. The new pricing will be as follows:
Period
Current rate
Rate after
Oct. 1, 1997
1 year
2 years
3 years
$35
$65
$90
$42
$78
$110
If you wish to extend your current membership or purchase gift
memberships for friends and colleagues, take advantage of the
old pricing by acting before October 1, 1997. Someone is in the
office to answer your questions about membership between
10AM and 3PM, Monday through Friday, (301) 762-9372.
34
12 Benefits of CPCUG Membership
Your CPCUG membership entitles each member of your family living in your household to
all CPCUG membership benefits—
1. Expert advice from friendly and knowledgeable user group members—when you join
CPCUG, you can call volunteer “Helpline” participants listed in our Helpline
Directory—experts in a wide variety of computer hardware and software topics are available and are listed—experts who patiently help fellow CPCUG members with hardware
and software questions and problems
2. Separate Internet e-mail accounts through our electronic bulletin board system for each
member of your family living in your household—no extra cost
3. Our award-winning magazine, the Monitor, with its practical tips for computer users,
CPCUG event calendar, Special Interest Group and Training program information, technical articles, regular columns, and CPCUG-member-authored reviews of the latest software, hardware, and computer-related books (one copy of the Monitor per family)
4. Technical information and support from users of our electronic bulletin board system
called the MIX (Member Information eXchange)—members of CPCUG have greater access time (two hours per family member) and freeware/shareware and other file downloading privileges not available to nonmembers
5. Very affordable (and sometimes even free) computer education and training classes, seminars, workshops, and labs
6. Discounts on selected software and hardware items that are made available by vendors
to members of our user group
7. The opportunity to become a member of the Product Review Coordinator’s Team—
participants receive a byline in our monthly magazine, the Monitor, and are entitled to
keep reviewed software and/or books in exchange for timely publishable reviews
8. Shell access to the Internet (extra charge item)
9. Opportunities to gain professional experience (and to augment resumes) by participating in and/or organizing CPCUG-sponsored computer-related activities that serve our
communities
10. Free monthly educational seminars and bonus semiannual “Before You Buy Your Next
PC” seminars to learn how the latest in computer hardware and software can help you
(nonmembers may attend as well)
11. Your choice of almost 30 special interest groups (SIGs) whose members share informa-
tion about specific hardware or software issues (and employment and consulting opportunities)—you may participate in as many as your schedule allows (nonmembers may
attend as well)
12. Answers to your computer questions—at our monthly General Meeting we often have
general Q&A sessions during which you can ask your computer questions and get the
answers you need, learn from the answers to questions posed by others, and then learn
about the latest in computer hardware and software during the main presentation (nonmembers may attend as well)
35
Rich’s Ramblings
by Rich Schinnell
COMDEX
W
ell, the Spring ‘97 COMDEX (COMputer Dealers Exposition)
was not that great a show. Even though Atlanta, Georgia, in
June is normally very hot, this time I thought I was in
Seattle. I arrived on Friday, the 30th of May, and it was cool and raining. Anyway, the company I was in made up for the rainy weather.
The Association of Personal
Computer User Groups (APCUG)
had events all weekend long for
User Group leaders as they do during every COMDEX in the Spring
and Fall. I took on the responsibility
for shepherding some of our leaders
through the events. Everyone
thought it was really interesting to
talk to other user group leaders and
find out we are not alone. Everyone
is having money troubles as membership in many groups is declining
and volunteers are not as forthcoming as in the past. I guess it is time
to come up with new ideas and
goals for Capital PC User Group.
Our president, Lillian Milliner, has
written that she needs help in lots of
areas to turn us around. I endorse
her request with my own admonition. Get involved and don’t just sit
back and expect other volunteers to
serve you. We volunteers are not
paid and really don’t get much glory
for all this work. Most of us enjoy
helping others and hopefully it will
rub off on some of you. If you don’t
have the time, or feel you don’t yet
have any expertise the group can
use, if you can afford it, send your
tax deductible donation to the office.
Earth to Rich:
OK, now get off the soap box!
Back to COMDEX—I did not think
that the Atlanta COMDEX was that
36
big a deal. Lots of vendors did not
show up because a New York Expo
starts the middle of June, just 2
weeks after the Spring COMDEX.
This show was not like the big show
in Las Vegas in November, where
everyone who is anyone in the computer trade has a booth or shows up.
Fall COMDEX is the biggest and,
of course, the most exciting. All
those goodies combined with the
glitz of Las Vegas are sometimes too
much for the average geek.
Notorious for being a bit on the
overly cautious side in parting with
money, computer geeks don’t do
much gambling while in Las Vegas.
So the price of hotels is jacked up
from the standard $50 a night to
over $300 a night in some cases.
Many are in the range of $200-$250
per night. With over 200,000 people
attending, it is exciting and
crowded. This year, from the 17th
through the 21st of November,
don’t try to get a hotel room in Las
Vegas, unless you’re on a package
tour or are a big spender on the
gambling tables.
I already have my flight and hotel
reservations because APCUG has a
special deal in a new hotel for user
group directors. The price is great,
and this year the expo should be
good. I first went to COMDEX in
1983 and have made the Las Vegas
trip most years since. Next spring
COMDEX moves from Atlanta to
Chicago, but I think I will pass on
that one.<G> Chicago traffic is
worse than the beltway at 5:30PM
on a Friday night.
More Computer Talk
Let’s again talk about backup.
Some of you are living on the edge
of the knife. If you don’t at least
copy some of your critical files off
to floppy disks, you’re really asking
for a fall. Do so now by deciding
which files would make you cry if
you lost them. I hate to see grown
people cry, and sometimes there
isn’t any solution to the crash of
your hard disk unless you have a
good backup.
If time or space is critical for you,
then don’t waste time backing up
your applications software because
you can always restore your programs from your original disks. If
you have a tape drive, then go for it
and do a complete backup.
Some of you may have bought a
machine with all the software already installed. Many times these
machines include a CD-ROM to
reinstall everything on your computer in one fell swoop. Reading
some of the documentation on these
systems leads me to believe that
many actually reformat your hard drive
and re-create your hard disk setup as it
was when you picked it up from the
store. Be careful if you have created
things like calendars or mailing
lists. Also take care to safeguard
your word processing files and
such. Try to copy these to floppy so
that you can then restore them to
your hard disk after you reformat
your hard disk. All in all, backup is
not a dirty word.
So, remember: Backup-backupbackup!
Hardware Accessories
I bought one of those little U.S.
Robotics Palm Pilot devices that can
fit inside your shirt pocket. They
have the memory to keep lots of
names, addresses, and telephone
numbers handy. I used to keep this
info in a database file on my computer, but now I have it with me
(most of the time). One neat thing is
that the software and interconnection stays on my main computer,
and I can add and edit data on my
desktop computer. I can also edit
and add data on the little palmtop
Pilot device. When I return home,
all I have to do is to plug the Pilot in
and synchronize the two. Really nice
and easy to use. I find the price a bit
high ($299.00 locally), and the screen
is hard to read. Get the version with
backlighting ($399), as that is worth
the effort. Buy a stock of AAA batteries. They last a while, but you
better have two spares when the
battery indicator shows low. One
nice thing is that if you do lose the
battery power, you can always synchronize from your main computer.
The software is easy to install. If
you are the boss, you can install the
software on your network server so
your secretary can update your
files. Then when you return to the
office you just plug it in and synchronize. But it does take a serial
port. I sure wish that they would go
to the new universal serial bus port
that is coming out on many of the
new Pentium motherboards. Then
there would be more ports to hang
these kinds of devices onto.
Internet Goodies
If you have access to the Internet
and are using Windows 95, I recommend that you visit several of the
Windows 95 specific sites and pick
up a couple of programs. One neat
program is called Atom Time. Atom
Time version 1.2a is a 32-bit
Windows 95 Internet (Winsock)
application that will connect over
the Internet to the Atomic Clock
time server in Boulder, Colorado,
and fetch the current time. It compares this value to your PC’s time
and displays the difference. You
then have the option to update your
50587 97-05-19 10:41:54 50 0 0 50.0 UTC(NIST) *
DATE
TIME in GMT
Figure 1. Sample time display from the Web.
PC clock to match the atomic clock
value. It can be set to continually
reset your time if you’re doing really crazy time-related calculations.
But the best is also last: it’s free.
You can, of course, always use
the URL
http://time-A.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov:13/
and get the time back as in figure 1.
But Atomic Time descrambles
that mumbo jumbo and allows you
to reset your system date and time
from the more accurate Internet
server.
I use both Netscape Navigator
(NN) and Microsoft Internet
Explorer (MSIE) because they are
both great products. MSIE is free, so
the price is right—but I like the options in Netscape Navigator a bit
better for things like mail and newsgroup reading. I also like the file for
NN called BOOKMARKS.HTML.
Explorer creates a subdirectory with
your favorite sites in it and a separate file for each site. NN creates one
file with the URLs for your favorite
sites in it; you can carry it to another
machine and install. Each browser
has beta versions that are trying to
outdo each other and take control of
your computer desktop. Watch out
installing and accepting the default
install options. Some will change the
look of your computer; you could
have trouble getting it back to what
you have grown to love and hate.
I have a spare e-mail account on
juno.com, primarily because it is
free. I only use it for correspondence with a few people. Oftimes
JUNO offers products for sale at a
reasonable price. The e-mail is free
but you do have to put up with
commercials when you use it. I
received a message from JUNO
administration that they had a special on the Hewlett Packard ScanJet
4S for a total price of $119.
I jumped at the chance and the 4S
performs as advertized—it’s a great
single sheet scanner. It’s not for
color, but it does come with some
very good OCR software. The
PaperPort OCR software that is
included (HP licensed it from
Visioneer) is pretty darn good. I
scanned several letters and articles
into WordPerfect, and there was
very little cleanup to do. Of course,
as always, your mileage may vary.
I think it is a good deal for a
quick and dirty scanner. The price
was correct, and the only downside
is that you need another communications port. I was very fortunate
and had a spare serial port that I
could install as my COM 3. I was
running out of IRQs and had to put
it on IRQ 2, but it worked great. I
am about out of IRQs and addresses
on my machine, having an external
modem on one port, my U.S.
Robotics Palm Pilot on another port,
and now the HP Scanjet 4S on the
third port. I think that my option to
use the PS/2 style mouse port on
the motherboard was a good choice.
The HP 4S footprint is very small.
It now sits on top of my HP Deskjet
but is one more thing to plug into
my powerstrip. It just sits there
waiting for me to insert a letter,
photograph, or business card into
the scanner. The install software
searches for word processors and
graphics programs to copy scanned
image or text to. After scanning a
letter, it can be transfered to
WordPerfect as text. The OCR automatically converts the scanned
image to text. And it works!v
Rich Schinnell is retired from the U.S.
Navy and Vitro Corporation. Now he is
on his own doing a bit of small business
consulting. He loves new toys and sometimes has a life.<G> He has been very
active in CPCUG since day one and
continues to enjoy helping members with
their problems via our Helpline. He is
available to help CPCUG members in
the evenings from 6-9PM at (301) 9499292, or most any time via e-mail at
[email protected] or his ego home
page at http://www.cpcug.org/user/
schinnel.
37
Gene’s Scene
by Gene Gould
Color Inkjet Printer
Maintenance
A
m I alone in feeling that with personal computers, it is always
something? For the first 6 years of owning a home computer, I
used an Epson 24-pin dot matrix printer. It was slow, noisy,
and didn’t do a lot with graphics, but it was reliable. All it ever
needed was the occasional ribbon. A little over a year ago, I bought a
new Hewlett Packard Deskjet 660C color printer. I went through one
set of cartridges pretty quickly making fancy greeting cards, posters,
and banners. As I approached the bottom of the second black
cartridge a few months ago, I started getting smears in the black ink.
Going through the various maintenance procedures, including
cleaning the nozzles, had no effect.
HP includes a help section called
Dr. Deskjet. (See figure 1.) All indications were that the “dried ink
crusted” situation was the problem.
The User Guide instructs you that if
cleaning the nozzles with the utility
does not correct the problem, then
you should remove the cartridge,
use a damp lint-free cloth and gently clean the gold contacts on the
cartridge and the cartridge cradle. It
got a little better, but it still wasn’t
right. The User Guide section on
smearing is not terribly helpful.
I called Printers Plus at Tysons
Corner and was politely informed
(I could visualize the nose in the
air!) that they did not work on such
things as HP660C printers. They
were not in the least helpful, and I
was given the impression that they
would rather I not call again unless
I had a big dollar problem.
One evening on the MIX there
was a discussion of sources for
38
monitor repairs, and Marinco in
Sterling, Virginia, was recommended. I have a slightly sick monitor, and Marinco is less than 15
minutes away. I called and concluded by asking if they did anything with inkjets. Maria suggested
that I bring it over and I was told
that it could be just a matter of
cleaning the nozzles. If it was something they couldn’t fix, they could
send it to HP for me.
I took it over on Friday, and on
Monday they called and said it was
ready. The charge was $75. I talked
to the technician who cleaned it
and asked if the problem was paper
lint or dust. It was dust. My next
purchase is a dust cover and a can
of compressed air to blow it out
every few months.
My word of advice is that inkjets
are a lot fussier about dust than dot
matrix printers. The room my
equipment is in is reasonably clean
and dust free. My wife is not a fanatic, but she does keep a clean
house. There are no visible dust
bunnies. A dust cover and a can of
compressed air are small investments compared with $75 for
cleaning. Need I say more?
Exiting Windows
To Run DOS?
One thing has continued to
bother me ever since I joined
CPCUG and started prowling the
conferences on the MIX. It is not as
common as it was perhaps a year
ago, but people still describe exiting Windows to run a DOS program. Am I missing something? Is
Figure 1. HP deskjet help.
this a method of maintaining mastery over a machine or what? Like,
“Change directory, damn you!”
It is true that there are DOS programs and some games that will not
run under Windows. Last night I
loaded my old DOS version of
KidPix by Broderbund. On my
486/33 with 8 Mbytes of RAM, it
wouldn’t load in Windows. I was
curious to see if my new machine
with 32 Mbytes of EDO RAM made
a difference. So I set it up and it
proceeded to “load and lock.”
On the other hand, I believe that
most of the old DOS programs that
people use are not graphics programs, but word processors, spreadsheets, and databases, plus the occasional utility. I admit to still using
QDos 3.0 instead of Windows File
Manager and fully intend to continue
using it until someone reboots me.
It seems as if the problem may be a
lack of understanding of the File |
Properties function of Windows. I
managed to locate a backup copy of
my disks for Microsoft Word 5.0 for
DOS and installed it on the hard
drive. The next thing was to open the
File | Properties menu and tell
Windows where it was located. (See
figure 2.) The final part of the process
was to click on “Change Icon.”
Of course, there weren’t any
Windows icons. Not being
sufficiently ambitious as to want to
create one for this experiment, I
checked “Browse.” In my opinion,
the icons furnished in PROGMAN.
EXE and in MORICONS.DLL are
very limited. I mostly use Iconlib,
which contains more than 300 icons
and is available in the MIX files section as ICONLIB.ZIP. If you don’t
already have it, you should get it. In
zipped form it is only 53,373 bytes,
so it is not a big download.
I then clicked the file ICONLIB.
EXE in my Windows directory.
Instead of looking at them a few at
a time in the slider window, you
can open the file and see them on a
full screen and then scroll down.
(See figure 3.) I chose one that
suited my taste and placed it in a
“Program Group” of miscellaneous
programs labeled “Gene” and
placed it in the upper left corner.
(See figure 4.) The “Smoke Test”
Figure 2. Windows File | Properties menu.
Figure 3. Icons available in ICONLIB.ZIP.
Figure 4. Customized “Program Group” Gene.
39
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40
was then conducted by clicking the
Word “Icon.”
It loaded instantly, as I knew it
would, and performed as any other
Windows program with a few exceptions. The Windows fonts aren’t
listed in the available fonts, and it
doesn’t have printer drivers for HP
deskjet color printers, and a few of
the other things we take for granted
in Windows programs.
So my question is, Why? Why the
compulsion to exit Windows, then
proceed to perhaps change the
drive (you will note I installed it on
F: drive), then type CD to the direc-
tory, and then type the execute command? Are you telling me there is
an advantage to doing this instead
of clicking twice on an icon?
I would appreciate it if someone
would explain it to me.v
Gene Gould, a member of CPCUG
since April 1993, retired from the
Boeing Company in 1991. He was the
manager in charge of office leasing and
facilities management of leased offices
for Boeing Computer Services in the
eastern half of the United States from
1979 until his retirement.
Darby Digital
Communications
1412A Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
Voice: (703) 548-1512
Fax: (703) 549-3028
e-mail: [email protected]
WWW: www.darby.com
When your
image is
on the line . . .
Directories
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AND ENTREPRENEURS-TO-BE!
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Target audience:
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Saturdays, August 16 and September 20, 12:15PM
Lipsett Amphitheater • Clinical Center (Building 10)
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Site Development
Graphic & Web Page Design
Keyboarding
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This activity follows CPCUG’s FREE Saturday Seminars.
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Send e-mail to [email protected] with the subject “EC SIG.”
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41
. . . dedicated to the dissemination
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users of IBM PC-compatible personal
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Microletter 102
by Paul Shapiro
Installing Windows 95
. . . Again
A
fter one more Windows 3.1 crash, I decided to give Windows
95 another chance. I had installed it in June of 1996. After
being unable to reinstall 2 weeks later when I had
unsurmountable difficulties, I went back to Windows 3.1. This time
around I used a different approach and got up and running in 5 hours
(instead of the 30 minutes estimated after the first 15 minutes), but not
without some difficulties.
Now I am quite satisfied that I
made the upgrade.
It was my own inertia that kept
me from even trying for months.
Having had trouble with
WordPerfect for Windows 6.1
(WPWIN) in my 1996 Windows 95
installation, I preferred to use
Windows 3.1 just to have access to
WPWIN. A change in philosophy
helped me have the best of both
worlds—WPWIN and Windows 95.
Another stumbling block that I
encountered was in trying to create
more room on my 128-Mbyte partition. I spent an inordinate amount
of time trying to move my free 53
Mbytes on my F: partition to the C:
partition. PartitionMagic would not
let me add the 53 to the 128, so I sat
on my thumbs for months.
The different approach that I
used this time around was to perhaps forego WPWIN and make
room on the C: drive. I moved my
42
WPWIN stuff (about 28 Mbytes) to
my F: drive, and that was enough
extra room for Windows 95, which
when installed as an abbreviated
“short” version, required 93 MBytes
on top of my Windows 3.1 stuff.
The workaround that I used to
write here was to move half of the
WPWIN files back to C: after the
Windows 95 installation. It was
quite a pleasant surprise to see that
it worked!
Preparing for and installing were
not quite as easy. First I deleted my
.bak, .tmp, and other obviously
useless files from the hard disk to
make more room. Then I defragmented the C: drive, turned my
screen savers off, and inserted the
CD-ROM install disk.
In the installation, Windows 95
started copying files from the
CD-ROM to the hard disk. It
stopped midway through the copy
operation, and I could do nothing
more but turn off the computer and
try again. (Messages advised me not
to use the <ctrl>+<alt>+<delete>
key combination while installing.)
This was downright exasperating.
In my 1996 reinstall attempts, after
a lockup in the copy process, I just
could not even get the setup program to start to install again! That’s
why I then “decided” to go back to
Windows 3.1; it did not appear as if
I had any other choice. My options
seemed to be dwindling along with
my enthusiasm.
So I started over. Somewhere
along the line I got a message saying I had general protection fault
errors, the install was forcefully
terminated, and a scandisk showed
corrupted files. I turned the computer off for a while, then decided
to give it another whirl. The same
protection fault message came up
again, about an hour and a half
after I had originally started.
Windows 3.1 still seemed intact so I
then decided to do some other
things using 3.1. Half an hour later I
was back to Windows 95 installation for another crack at it.
This installation created a system
startup disk (wonder of wonders),
updated config files, set up hardware and the control panel, prepared help files for first usage, told
me I should reduce the number of
program groups to ease Windows
95 startup, and then said “Welcome
to Windows 95”!
The long haul was over. This time
around I had opted to install
Windows 95 on top of Windows 3.1
instead of in a separate partition.
Everything was working! I did
not have to reinstall any of the 3.1
programs as was the case in 1996.
My access to the Internet was
straightforward, so much so that I
immediately created some shortcut
keys, something I had remembered
how to do from last year.
Another thing I remembered was
that if I went into the hidden text
file MSDOS.SYS and added the line
logo=0 in the [options] section, I
would avoid having the Microsoft
logo appear at boot time. It’s bad
enough taking five whole minutes,
plus, just to boot the computer.
Later I cut this down to about three
with some deletions from my retained AUTOEXEC.BAT file. I will
work on this.
Using the compression program
Stacker to get 199,524,352 bytes on a
ZIP drive had been pretty neat, I
thought, before I installed Windows
95. I had previously loaded files on
to such a formatted ZIP disk. When
I “shelled” to MS-DOS with Windows 95, I was confronted with
“Cannot load STACKER.EXE under
Windows. Please exit Windows,
load STACKER.EXE, then re-enter
Windows.”
How was I ever to access my
“stacked” files? The shelled DOS
was considered part of Windows 95.
By pressing the <F8> key just after
booting the system and selecting
the command-line option, I was
able to get at the files outside of
Windows. This seemed more of a
nuisance than it was worth (time is
of some value), so I copied all of my
files from the compressed ZIP disk
to the hard disk, removed the compression from the ZIP disk, then
copied files back to the uncompressed ZIP disk. Now I “only”
have 100,427,776 bytes available on
the ZIP disk to start with, instead of
having 143,507,456 free bytes, so I
was now back to 71,999,488 free.
These are the numbers shown on
my screen before and after compression. I can live with them.
A strange thing then happened.
My CD-ROM drive and ZIP drive
partition assignment letters were
reversed. Now I had an H:
CD-ROM drive and an I: ZIP drive,
the reverse of what I had prior to
installation. That meant pointers
and paths had to be adjusted, an
annoying inconvenience.
The efforts to upgrade have finally been worth it. I am beginning
to see the benefits.
It has always been my feeling
that sooner or later I would work
harder to get Windows 95 installed.
How much later did surprise me,
but there was the threat of
Windows 97 looming on the horizon. Ain’t progress wonderful?!
Passwords
A problem that is developing for
some of us these days is remembering our password.
It used to be that all you had to
do was remember your password
for the single program you used
that required a password. CPCUG’s
bulletin board system, the MIX, for
example, was the classic one that
frustrated most of us with memory
difficulties for such things.
So ways were invented to get
around this. Write it down on a
sheet of paper and put it in a safe
place. Write down on another sheet
of paper where you put that first
slip of paper, and so on.
Or make up a password that is so
easy to remember that you just can’t
forget it, such as WIMPWIMP
(What Is My Password? What Is My
Password?).
Or get more sophisticated and
create a script file that automatically
logs you onto a system with the
password built in (print the file to
have a hard copy if you know
where to save it). This is quite convenient but has one drawback: If
you are using a computer such as
the demo machine in the Irving W.
Samuels Room at CPCUG’s
Rockville Headquarters, you’d better not forget your password. The
script file is not there.
You can use certain communication programs, such as ProComm,
to set up a macro key so that, for
example, typing <ALT><3> will
automatically enter onto your
screen something like
when you depress those keys at a
log-in prompt.
We are always admonished to
avoid simple names and familiar
words, and we are restricted often
to a specific number of characters.
For many of us this is just too
much. We figure out a “neat” password, with a foolproof way (to us)
of remembering it all the time. And
then we use the same password for
everything we do. That’s fine and
dandy, and will work for many, but
I’m aware of two drawbacks.
One, eventually you may slip up
in a public place or someone may
somehow find out that password,
opening the door to everything you
have.
Two, you may die and all your
stuff becomes inaccessible, which
may actually be well and good. I
COMING
ATTRACTIONS
Paul Shapiro password <enter>
September
Education
November
Internet
December
Computer Hardware
February
Money Management
Watch for
these
special issues
of your
magazine,
the Monitor!
43
know of a computer illiterate new
widow who was additionally burdened by the knowledge that many
of her financial secrets were on her
late husband’s hard disk and she
was fraught with concern over her
inability or someone else’s ability to
access the material on the home
computer. The way to get around
that is just to include that master
password among the papers in a
safe deposit box.
The best thing to do, I think, is to
keep a master list of multiple passwords, either on a file, hard copy, or
both; to know where that list is, and
to keep it in a safe place.
Almost every time you turn
around on the Internet you are
asked for a password. Access to the
specific Web site may be free, but
passwords allow the Web site owners to gain a record of the number
of registered users. It can be a chore
to remember each different password, and some places even allow
you the option of automatically
logging on with the same password,
or asking for it again.
By the way, if you forget your
password on the MIX, you can contact the SYSOP who will get you
straightened out once you give him
positive identification that you are
who you claim. The way to do this
by dialup is to log on as a new user
with a name other than the one you
used with the forgotten password; if
you originally logged on as John
Doe, then sign on as J. Doe, new
user, and plead your case. But it’s
much easier to remember the password in the first place.
E-Mail Spell Checker
A favorite e-mail program these
days has been Eudora Lite, available from CPCUG or directly over
the Internet. For the fuss-budgets
who are picky about spelling, this
program has a shortcoming, the
lack of a spell checker. Although
other versions do have such a
checker, the immense popularity of
the program, and others like it with
similar shortcoming, has sounded a
wakeup call; and wouldn’t you
know, there is a shareware adaptation of Eudora Lite (and Pegasus)
that includes a spell checker.
44
It is called AutoSpell and was
found at URL
http://www.pygmy.com/autospell/
downlode.htm#4.0
for version 4 when I acquired it.
It will also work with America
Online (16 and 32 bit), Netscape,
and Notepad, among others, according to the documentation.
Once installed it creates its own
icon, after which the mailer program loads and runs as if there is
nothing different. Make a mistake
in spelling that it can catch, and up
pops a Window entitled “Word Not
Found in Dictionary.”
There’s a twist: If there are
spelling errors in the original message being responded to, those errors will be caught also! I found
myself in the strange situation of
correcting errors in such messages. I
wonder if the originators noticed
when I included corrections to their
messages in my quoted responses.
My first “error” occurred when
the time zone in “7/2/97 EST” was
flagged as a spelling error! I was
actually grateful for that because it
showed that the spell checker was
working. New “words” can be
added to the dictionary, and
replacement possibilities are
selected from a list window.
A nice option, which I did not
select, permits joined words.
This is another program that will
become obsolete in the near future
as spell checkers are more commonly available in the original software. In the meantime you have 30
days to try it before registering.v
Paul Shapiro conducts the Beginners’
SIG monthly at 51 Monroe Street, the
third Sunday of each month, from
12:30-3PM. Contact him at Internet
address [email protected], particularly
if you would like to receive an e-mail
advance notice of the meetings.
ThinkQuest
Is
Coming!
GENERAL MEETINGS
August 11
September 8
SIG Reports
Any97 From
Anysoft:
Transforming
Your Windows
Computer to an
Open, CrossApplication
Environment
compiled by Barbara Conn
Schools,
Education,
the Internet,
the Future
Potential Entrepreneurs and Consultants SIG
Computer consultants and entrepreneurs using
computers
When:
Third Saturdays, 12:15PM
August 16: Business Plan Software (tentative)
September 20: Rich Schinnell Discusses His
Experiences As a Computer Consultant and Small
Business Owner
October 18: Scott Mohnkern Discusses Startup and
Operation of Millkern Communications, Inc.
Where:
Lipsett Amphitheater, Clinical Center (Building 10),
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD,
following CPCUG’s free Saturday seminars
Contact:
[email protected]
E-mail list: Send e-mail to [email protected] containing the line
Who:
Meetings are held in the Masur
Auditorium in the main hospital
building at NIH in Bethesda,
MD. The time is 7PM for a SIG
presentation or for Q&A. The
main presentation starts at 8PM,
lasts one hour, and is followed
by a raffle. At 9:15PM, after some
meetings, SIG representatives are
available to discuss SIG activities. The locations will be announced during the meeting.
Meetings are free and all are
welcome.
Call the CPCUG office from
10AM to 3PM weekdays if you
have questions about the Capital
PC User Group, (301) 762-9372.
subscribe conent-l <firstname> <lastname>
Access (MS)
FREE SATURDAY SEMINARS
August 16
Selecting the
Proper Media for
Training and
Marketing
September 20 ThinkQuest
Competition
Workshop for
Internet-savvy
educators and
adult Web page
mentors for student ThinkQuest
competitors
Time:
9AM to NOON
Location:
NIH, Lipsett
Amphitheater,
Bethesda, MD
• Monthly, first Sunday, 2:00
• Arlington, VA: Computer Instruction
Corporation, Crystal Plaza One,
Suite 211, 2001 Route 1 (Building
access: On Sundays, visitors to the
building must use the outside phone
to call Kastle Systems for entrance
and to use the elevators; the password is “Access Users Group.”)
• Free parking: Available three blocks
away at 2320 South Eads Street (yellow house) or even closer on the
street at meters.
• Metro: Close.
• URL—http://www.cpcug.org/user/
comm/ sig-supp.html#access
• Contact—Rick Shaddock, d: (703)
486-2222, [email protected], or ACCESS
Conference (83) on the MIX
2:00–2:30
2:30–3:30
3:30–4:00
For seminar and course descriptions, see “Training Notes” elsewhere in this magazine.
Q&A
ACCESS 97
CONTINUATION OF MAIN TOPIC
OR A SECONDARY TOPIC
AUGUST 3
SEPTEMBER 7
OCTOBER 5
Our Access SIG has been meeting
and growing. Come join us!
Alpha Four and Five Database
• Jan.–Oct.—Monthly, fourth Sunday,
4:30-6:30
• Nov. & Dec.—Second Sunday, 4:306:30
• CPCUG HQ
comm/sig-supp.html#alpha
• Contact—Brian Abell, d/e/w: (301)
870-8222, fax: (301) 475-5888,
[email protected], 73173.3345@
compuserve.com, ALPHA4 Conference
(5) on the MIX
AUGUST 24
SEPTEMBER 28
OCTOBER 26
The Alpha Four and Five Database
SIG frequently has planned presentations or training sessions, but we also
have several meetings a year reserved
entirely for member questions and
immediate group problem solving.
45
Where To Go Online for Alpha
Database Information
The most comprehensive source for
just-released Alpha Four and Alpha
Five database information continues to
be the CompuServe Information Service
(GO ALPHAFORUM). This is an official
technical support area for Alpha
Software Corporation. As a CPCUG
member, you also have a local source of
support in the MIX. Just post your
Alpha software questions in the ALPHA4
Conference, and our own SIG members
will provide prompt and helpful information. A good starting point on the
World Wide Web is Alpha Software’s
site at http://www.alphasoftware.com. Be
sure to check the links to the Web pages
of the Alpha database user groups in
Boston and New York.
Help Wanted
Our SIG leaders are seeking a volunteer Pagemaster or assistant to help us
create and maintain our own Web page
in the cpcug.org domain.
AutoCAD
• Monthly, first Tuesday, 7:30
• CPCUG HQ
autocad/
• Contact—David Drazin, e/w: (301)
279-7593
AUGUST 5
SEPTEMBER 2
OCTOBER 7
Baltimore
• Monthly, usually last Thursday, 6:30
• University of Maryland, Baltimore
County (UMBC, which is southwest
of Baltimore, near Catonsville),
University Center/Bookstore, Third
Floor, Ballroom Lounge
• From I-95: Exit on I-195/Route 166
north toward Catonsville. Once on
Route 166, move to right and take
first exit (on right) to UMBC. If possible, park in the two-tier parking lot
straight ahead.
• From I-695 (Beltway): Take the 12C
Wilkens Avenue exit south toward
Catonsville. Turn at first left, Walker
Avenue. At the stop sign, turn right
onto Loop Road. Locate the two-tier
parking lot.
46
• From two-tier parking lot: Use the
walkway that passes the 10-story
Administration Building to the courtyard. The University
Center/Bookstore is on the left.
• Baltimore BBS (operated by
Baltimore SIG member): (410) 7650889
• Taped message: (410) 455-2790
comm/ sig-supp.html#balt
• Contacts—Bill Lutz, d/e/w: (410)
256-9403, [email protected]; Robert
Pettigrew, d/e/w: (410) 358-5840,
[email protected]
AUGUST 28—NO MEETING
SEPTEMBER 25 (TENTATIVE)
OCTOBER 30 (TENTATIVE)
ington, DC, area, (2) to help its members learn about new technologies, (3) to
help those with Clipper experience
make the transition to future products
and languages, and (4) to help newcomers to the Clipper world appreciate and
learn about the power of the language.
The provisional Clipper SIG Chair is
Naseem Saab, [email protected],
(703) 860-5022, and the provisional
Assistant SIG Chair is Jim Fauntleroy,
[email protected]. The Clipper SIG is scheduled to move from provisional to full
SIG status in August.
AUGUST 28
SEPTEMBER 25
OCTOBER 23
May 22 Meeting
E-Mail Announcement List
To receive a monthly e-mail notice of
meetings, send an e-mail request to
[email protected].
Beginners
• Monthly, third Sunday, 12:30
• CPCUG HQ
beginner/
• Contact—Paul Shapiro, d: (301) 7707899, [email protected]
AUGUST 17
CREATING A BATCH FILE; PROPERTIES
SEPTEMBER 21
OCTOBER 19
Some meetings start with planned
discussion topics and then move into
Q&A. Others are designated as strictly
Q&A to deal with the many questions
generated by beginning computer users.
Have questions now? Send e-mail to
[email protected].
Clipper
• Monthly, fourth Thursday, 7:00
• CPCUG HQ
• Contacts—Naseem Saab, (703) 8605022, [email protected]; Jim
Fauntleroy, [email protected]
The Washington Area Clipper Users
Group (WACUG) has become the
Clipper SIG of the Capital PC User
Group. Clipper is a DOS-based compiler for DBase. The mission of the
Clipper SIG is (1) to form a presence for
Clipper programmers in the Wash-
Mark Lincoln showed us how to use
object-oriented programming in Clipper
without third-party libraries.
To be put on the mailing list for all
meeting announcements and discussions, send an e-mail request to
[email protected].
Delphi
• Monthly (except July), first Thursday,
7:00
• CPCUG HQ
• Luncheon meetings—usually third
Thursday, 11:30AM (odd months at
Tysons II Eatery in Virginia; even
months at Montgomery Mall Eatery
in Maryland)
delphi/
• Contacts — Dick Maley, d: (202) 7363929, e/w: (301) 840-1554,
[email protected]; Rick
Rogers, d: (301) 816-0772,
[email protected]
AUGUST 7
VOICE ENABLING DELPHI APPLICATIONS;
George Palmer, Speech Solutions
BLOBS AND SPECTRAL PROCESSING IN AN
APOLLO DATABASE APPLICATION; Brian
Dickens
AUGUST 21
INFORMAL LUNCHEON GATHERING, 11:30AM,
MONTGOMERY MALL EATERY
SEPTEMBER 4
OCTOBER 2
If you know of other Delphi developers, please let them know about our
meetings. We have presentations, technical discussions, contests, door prizes,
leads, and fun.
Come early—sometimes there’s
standing room only!
meetings, send an e-mail request to
Dick Maley at [email protected].
Electronic Publishing
• Monthly, first Wednesday, 7:30
• CPCUG HQ
comm/sig-supp.html#e-pub
• Contact—Mary Brosnan, d/e/w:
(703) 207-0477, [email protected]
SEPTEMBER 3
OCTOBER 1
Framework
• Bimonthly, even months, third
Thursday, 7:30
• CPCUG HQ
framework/
• Contact—Bill Redisch, d: (301) 2866203, e/w: (301) 279-7929,
[email protected]
AUGUST 21
SELECTED FEATURES
Bob Werner
OF
FRAMEWORK V;
OCTOBER 16
FRAMEWORK IV AND V UNDER DOS, OS/2,
AND WINDOWS 95
We are a small group whose members
still use the versatile DOS-based
Framework integrated software. Our
meetings usually start with questions,
problems, discoveries, tips, and techniques brought by participants—we
never seem to run out of interesting
topics to discuss (frequently not just
about FW). Often we move into a discussion about how best to use Framework in conjunction with other (modern) applications and operating systems,
including programs for the Internet.
Newly released FW V, as well as FW
IV, is often run under DOS, Windows
95, and/or OS/2, with features compared for those SIG members still using
FW III. There are still things that good
old Framework can do better, or more
easily, than the newer GUI programs.
We learn something useful each session!
June Meeting
Despite problems with the overhead
projector and Windows 95, Framework
V was run under good old DOS while
SIG members gathered around a large
monitor. Some interesting topics were
discussed (such as turning TSRs on and
off under Windows). It was noted that
the SIG had not yet received its
promised upgraded copy of FW V from
the vendor.
We confirmed that closing FW V (and
FW IV) when running Windows 95
sometimes brings up a “Winoldap
error” dialog box. This is not a problem,
just an inconvenience that requires extra
steps to shut down the Framework
application under Windows 95.
We connected to MIXNET Conference
150 on the CPCUG MIX to demonstrate
five different methods of using FW for
sending e-mail over the Internet.
Barbara enlightened the group as to
how to prevent blank lines from confusing the MIX—just have your settings on
full page rather than line editing. All
members of CPCUG automatically get
an e-mail address as part of membership, [email protected].
One of our SIG members signed onto
the MIX for the first time and received
messages!
The export/import capability of FW
V was discussed. Exporting FW databases for use in word processors (as
opposed to other databases) was highlighted at a member’s request. FW has
always had an excellent ASCII text
export feature, and saving a database as
text removes all tabs and faithfully
replaces them with spaces. So importing
into other word processors gives
WYSIWYG from the screen of FW into,
for example, Word. Columns (fields) can
be hidden by sizing them to 0 width (or
deleting them); rows (records) can be
hidden by filtering (or deleting them).
We compared FW’s spreadsheet with
Excel and concluded that FW still wins
in a comparison of functionality, but is
eons behind in formatting capability.
Several members are still interested in
using the Zmodem protocol with FW. It
was noted that the FW V pulldown
menu (Telcomm Phone/Telecomm
Sessions Connections/ZModem Download) indicates that it will be included
with FW V, but it is not yet available.
GeoWorks
comm/sig-supp.html#geo
• Contact—Herb Fredricksen, d/e/w:
(301) 840-2056, fax: (301) 840-5251,
12-B Linda Court, Gaithersburg, MD
20877
HTML
• Monthly (except August), fourth
Monday, 7:30
• CPCUG HQ
• URL—http://www.cpcug.org/user/html/
• Contact—Walt Houser, d: (202) 2738012, e/w: (301) 299-0593,
[email protected]
7:30
8:00
Q&A
PRESENTATION
AUGUST—NO MEETING
SEPTEMBER 22
OCTOBER 27
The HTML (hypertext markup language) SIG discusses the creation of
Web pages and the use of the World
Wide Web to collect and disseminate
information. Specific topics of interest to
the group include elements of Web page
design, HTML editors and other tools
for Web publishing, common gateway
interface (CGI) scripts, PERL, interaction with databases and textbases,
graphics and images on the Web, Web
security, standard versus nonstandard
document-type definition (DTD) for
Web pages, Java, JavaScript, Netscape
frames and plug-ins, and Shockwave.
The SIG is for those who have taken
two or more of the HTML classes offered by CPCUG, or who have equivalent knowledge and skills. Discussions
and presentations are oriented toward
experienced Web page developers. The
skill levels of those attending range
from seasoned Webmasters to novices.
If you have a question or see a neat
technique on the Web, please join us.
Future Meetings
Topics of upcoming meetings in the
planning stages include designing Web
sites for the technologically challenged
and the topics in SIG Chair Walt
Houser’s new classes (see Web page
addresses at the end of this report).
To receive one or two e-mail notices
of meetings each month, send e-mail to
[email protected] containing the
line
SUBSCRIBE HTMLSIG-L
<firstname> <lastname>
47
E-Mail Discussion List
To join CPCUG’s HTML discussion
list, send e-mail to
line
SUBSCRIBE HTMLSIGD-L
SIG Member Web Pages of Interest
“Creating Web Pages: A CPCUG
Beginner’s Guide to HTML” by Walt
Houser at http://www.cpcug.org/user/
houser/html/training/index.html
“A Novice’s Hands-On Introduction
to the Internet” by Walt Houser at
http://www.cpcug.org/user/houser/html/
windows/index.html
“Advanced HTML: Enliven Your Web
Pages” by Walt Houser at http://
www.cpcug.org/user/houser/html/training/
advanced.html
“Writing CGI Scripts for the Web” by
Walt Houser at http://www.cpcug.org/
user/houser/
“Basics of PERL for Web Programming” by Walt Houser at http://
www.cpcug.org/user/houser/
“Searching Cyberspace” by Kushal
Khan at http://www.cpcug.org/scifair
Internet
• Monthly, usually second Tuesday,
7:00
• Washington Gas Auditorium, 6801
Industrial Road, Springfield, VA
(Occasional meetings may be elsewhere and will be noted)
internet/
• Contact—Gabe Goldberg, d/e/w:
7:00
Q&A (INCLUDES A 7:15
RAFFLE)
7:50
8:00
9:00
ANNOUNCEMENTS
PRESENTATION
RAFFLES
AUGUST 12
“PUSH” TECHNOLOGIES FOR
PUBLISHING—POINTCAST, MARIMBA,
NETSHOW, BACKWEB, LANACOM
(HEADLINER), NETSCAPE, MICROSOFT, ETC.
Curtis Generous, Chief Technology
Officer, UUCOM, and Greg Dupertuis,
President, The Adrenaline Group
This talk will describe Web publishing technologies such as “push” and
48
“pull,” Web crawlers, and how to find
the information you’re really interested
in on the Web.
Speakers: Greg has spent the major
part of 16 years as a consultant, primarily with the Federal Government. He
joined FreeLoader in 1996 and, as
Director of Application Development,
was responsible for development of its
flagship product.
Curtis C. Generous is Chief Technology Officer of UUcom Inc, an internetworking technology firm specializing in the design and support of
large-scale TCP/IP wide area networks.
Curtis has been involved with the
Internet for more than 15 years and has
worked during his career on NASA,
Lawrence Livermore Labs, Department
of Defense, CIX, and commercial ISP
networks. Currently he is involved with
the deployment of several large-scale
backbones that interconnect at many of
the U.S. and European meet points.
Curtis is also involved in several largescale e-mail distribution projects and
the use of multicasting technologies for
efficient distribution channels in “push”
type technologies.
SEPTEMBER 9
THE GROWING WASHINGTON, DC,
“NETPLEX”—INTERNET COMMUNITY
Mario Morino, Potomac KnowledgeWay
and Morino Institute
OCTOBER 14
INTERNET DIRECTORIES AND SEARCH
ENGINES—FINDING NUGGETS
Rob Pegoraro, The Washington Post
It’s a cliche that the abundant information on the Internet is sometimes
hard to manage and explore. Rob will
contrast characteristics of Internet directory sites that categorize information
using human insight (for example,
Yahoo) with search engines that are
fast/exhaustive/automatic/dumb (such
as AltaVista). He’ll suggest strategies for
locating information and resources, and
probably tell us strange and wonderful
stories about searches he has known.
We’ll discuss various sites/techniques
for finding information and resources
such as files/people/businesses/lists/
newsgroups/whatever—and give practical applications for and insights into
the best uses of the numerous search
engines and directories available on the
Internet.
Speaker: Rob co-conspires on The
Washington Post’s “Fast Forward” coverage of technology, and can be investigated at http://www.cais.com/robp/
home.html.
Meeting Notes
Internet SIG meetings begin with a
general question/answer dialog. This is
an opportunity to discuss Internet triumphs achieved, information/resource
treasures found, or mysteries to be
resolved. Internet novices are most
welcome. We encourage grizzled Internauts to help novices gain expertise by
answering their questions in complete
sentences consisting primarily of
English words understood by all.
Raffles
Donated raffle prizes are an Internet
SIG meeting tradition. At least one prize
will be awarded to someone at the SIG
meeting by 7:15PM. The remaining prizes
will be raffled off at meeting end. At
each gathering, Millkern Communications, Inc. (http://www.millkern.com),
administrator of the CPCUG Internet
domain cpcug.org, donates three months
of access to cpcug.org Internet service.
The winner can either extend an existing
account or establish a new account.
At recent meetings other prizes have
included the full version of Microsoft
Office97 (http://www.microsoft.com), three
months of Internet access from Mindspring, and two hours of free in-shop
PC consulting/support from Advanced
Computer Creations (ACC; http://
www.acctoday.com) of Laurel, Maryland.
Other frequently offered prizes include
related books from O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. (http://www.ora.com). A relatively new raffle prize being offered is a
subscription to Internet World magazine,
donated by Interactive Development
Corporation (http://www.idev.com/).
Giveaways
At the April meeting, all who arrived
by 7PM received a gift of the Professional Edition of Microsoft’s Visual J++
software.
Comfort
The Washington Gas auditorium is
often surprisingly cold. If you’re sensitive to chilly surroundings, dress
warmly or in layers, or bring a sweater
or a companion.
Transportation
From Pentagon City Metrorail stop: Val
Tepordei will pick up and deliver up to
three people from and to the Metrorail.
Contact him by e-mail at vtepordei@
hotmail.com or by phone at (703) 648-
7728 (office) or (703) 685-0425 (home,
for last-minute cancellations or
requests). Make sure that Val confirms
your reservation—he can only transport
three passengers. Please, if you ask Val
for a ride, ensure that you’re at Metro to
meet him on time!
From northwest Washington, DC, near
the University of the District of Columbia
at the Van Ness Metrorail stop: Harold
Goldstein drives to most Internet SIG
meetings from the University of the
District of Columbia. To arrange a ride,
send him e-mail ([email protected]) or
call him at (202) 966-9091).
SIG business. The list does not allow
subscriber postings.
Direct questions about the Internet
SIG mailing list to Clark Edwards via email at [email protected].
Potential E-Mail Discussion List
I’m considering creating a second
mailing list for discussion of Internet
topics, especially those related to the
Washington, DC, area. Please let me
know if you’d be interested in joining
and participating in such a list, so I’ll
have an idea of its potential value.
Reply to [email protected].
After-Meeting Dinners
After meetings, dedicated Internauts
seek a late dinner. Join us for a friendly
meal and personal networking! After
meetings in Springfield, we dine at the
nearby Mike’s American Grill, 6210
Backlick Road in Springfield, (703) 6447100. After Bethesda meetings, we dine
at Foong Lin at 7710 Norfolk Avenue.
We’re adding some planning and
organization to the dinners—Keith
Bennett has offered to collect names,
count noses, and call Mike’s for a reservation, so that SIG members can dine
together at a large table. Contact Keith
via e-mail (preferred) at kbennett@
cpcug.org or by phone at (301) 871-7696
before 3PM on meeting day. We’ll also
survey the SIG meeting for additional
diners, and Keith will call the restaurant
at about 8PM, just before the main presentation begins.
Watch for last-minute e-mail notices
sent to the Internet SIG mailing list
regarding weather-related changes and
cancellations. These will be accurate
and may supersede information printed
in CPCUG’s magazine, the Monitor, or
posted elsewhere. If you attend Internet
SIG meetings, it’s worth subscribing to
be sure of getting all the late-breaking
news. The Internet SIG e-mail distribution list, hosted by America Online,
allows self-service registration and
subscription maintenance. To subscribe
to Internet SIG mailings, send e-mail to
[email protected] containing the line
SUBSCRIBE NETSIG-L
You will receive a simple request to
confirm your subscription. After confirmation, you will receive a few e-mail
notes each month regarding Internet
Investment
• Monthly (except August), third
Wednesday, 7:30
• Workshop, FastTrack Mutual Fund
Database Software, quarterly, fifth
Thursday, 7:00
• CPCUG HQ
invest/
• Contacts—Andy Thompson, d/e/w:
(301) 270-6790; John Matthews,
d/e/w: (301) 589-7612; Ferd Hassler,
d/e/w: (301) 718-6253; Harley
Wilbur, d: (301) 949-8131,
[email protected]
6:45
7:30
8:00
9:30
FASTTRACK SOFTWARE
DISCUSSION
Q&A; ANNOUNCEMENTS
PRESENTATION
“MARKET WATCH”
DISCUSSION WITH DOMINICK
DEMARCO, HARLEY WILBUR,
AND OTHERS
Investments in the Pacific Rim, Gold
Futures Roll-Forward Strategies, and
seminars on Telescan and Reuters
Money Network). This is one of the best
meta-lists, with a solid collection of
links . . . The list is very professional.
Bookmark it!”
FastTrack Group Seminar
On Friday evening, March 7, we had
our first-ever hands-on “Introduction to
FastTrack Software” seminar for our
SIG’s novice FastTrack users. We were
able to take advantage of CPCUG’s new
hands-on equipment, and with two
students per machine, we accommodated 12 participants.
Postcard Meeting Notices
To receive notices by postcard the
weekend before each meeting, call John
Matthews, (301) 589-7612, with your
name, membership number, and address. Postcards include information
about the topic of the main presentation, the presenter, and the FastTrack
meeting at 6:45PM.
Leisure World
• Monthly, second Wednesday, 3:30
• Olney, MD: Leisure World,
Clubhouse I (check bulletin board)
comm/sig-supp.html#lw
• Contact—Roy Rosfeld, d/e/w: (301)
598-2825
SEPTEMBER 17
OCTOBER 15
AUGUST 13
SEPTEMBER 10
OCTOBER 8
OCTOBER 30
FASTTRACK MUTUAL FUND DATABASE
SOFTWARE WORKSHOP
Our computer center has six PCs, and
our members meet to learn more about
a wide variety of subjects. Recent gatherings have included presentations and
discussions of Quicken, WordPerfect,
Buying or Upgrading, Using Maryland’s Sailor Services, Using DOS
Directories, and Windows 95.
Our Web Pages
Have you visited our Investment SIG
Web pages? Do you visit regularly? If
not, you should. In his book, Making
Money Online, Dr. Paul B. Farrell, CEO
and Editor-in-Chief of Wall Street News,
an Internet broadcaster, states, “One of
the best meta-lists for serious investors
is InvestSIG, a special interest group of
the Capital PC User Group . . .
InvestSIG’s Web site appears to be the
work of a sophisticated investment
club, complete with mention of their
monthly seminars (on subjects such as
Multimedia
• Monthly, usually third Tuesday, 7:30
(Note: different location for August
meeting)
multimedia/
49
to [email protected] containing
the line
• Contacts—Alta Oben, e/w: (703)
938-5831, [email protected]; Marie
Pinho, [email protected]
7:30
8:00
SUBSCRIBE MMSIG-L
Q&A; ANNOUNCEMENTS
PRESENTATION
AUGUST 19, 7:30PM, BOOZ-ALLEN &
HAMILTON, HAMILTON BUILDING, 8283
GREENSBORO DRIVE, TYSONS CORNER, VA
DEBABELIZER; Chris Ach, Equilibrium
[Tentative joint meeting with
MetroMUG]
To join CPCUG’s multimedia discussion list, send e-mail to
line
The OS/2 SIG’s mail list processor,
hosted by CPCUG member Pete Norloff
and the OS/2 Shareware BBS, is used
for SIG business only. Traffic on this list
is limited to OS/2 SIG meeting
announcements and (occasionally) other
items deemed (by the SIG officers) to be
of general interest to our members.
To add your name to the mailing list:
Send e-mail to [email protected]
with subject
subscribe
Chris Ach, from Equilibrium, will
show us DeBabelizer. This is a popular
graphics program on the Macintosh,
which has recently become available for
Windows 95 and NT. It automates many
popular processes such as optimizing
images for digital video or preparing
graphics for Web delivery. DeBabelizer
also supports most PhotoShop import,
filter, and export plug-ins. The multiimage file capabilities of DeBabelizer
Pro are awesome! Multiple frames can
be converted into AVI movies and optimized for any target platform with full
compression support.
SEPTEMBER 16
AUTHORWARE: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE;
Joe Ganci (tentative)
Speaker: Joe Ganci is an internationally acknowledged expert of the
Authorware development language.
Since 1983, he has designed, developed,
and managed hundreds of hours of
multimedia applications. His projects
have included courseware, presentations, kiosks, prototypes, and related
applications for Xerox Corporation, Bell
Atlantic, the Don & Mike National
Radio Show, Price Waterhouse, the U.S.
Geological Survey, Mobil Oil, the U.S.
Social Security Administration, every
branch of the military, and many other
commercial companies, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies. He
has taught Authorware hundreds of
hours at George Washington University
and other organizations, and has written several books on the topic. His Web
site is at http://www.MrMultimedia.com.
OCTOBER 21
Multimedia SIG meetings, send e-mail
50
SUBSCRIBE MMSIGD-L
OS/2
Paradox
• MD: Monthly, second Wednesday,
7:00
• CPCUG HQ
• VA: August 14 only, 7:00
• URL—http://www.os2bbs.com/os2sig/
• Contacts—Kevin McCrory, (703) 4430162, [email protected]; Patrick
Zilliacus, e/w: (301) 384-0972,
[email protected]; Kirby
Thornton, [email protected]
6:00
7:00
8:00
9:00
(one word only). You will receive a
confirmation message.
BEGINNER Q&A
GENERAL Q&A;
ANNOUNCEMENTS; PRODUCT
NEWS; SIG NEWS
PRESENTATION
RAFFLES
AUGUST 13—MARYLAND
AUGUST 14—LAST VIRGINIA
MEETING
TRIALS OF BATTLE, A NATIVE OS/2 GAME
FROM STARDOCK SOFTWARE
• Monthly, second Tuesday, 7:30
• CPCUG HQ
paradox/
• Contact—Robert Clemenzi,
[email protected]
AUGUST 12
SEPTEMBER 9
OCTOBER 14
Peachtree
• Monthly, third Thursday
• Odd months: 7:30PM, CPCUG HQ
• Even months: 6PM, Darby Digital
Communications, 1412A Duke Street,
Alexandria, VA, (703) 548-1512
peach/
• Contacts—Norman Risch, d: (301)
681-8088, e/w: (301) 754-0735,
[email protected]; Ruben
Worrell, d: (703) 276-3000, e/w
pager: (202) 490-0166,
[email protected]
SEPTEMBER 10—MARYLAND
SEPTEMBER 11—NO VIRGINIA MEETING
ELECTRONIC CONFERENCING AND DATA
COLLABORATION; Databeam Corp.
AUGUST—NO MEETING
SEPTEMBER 18 (TENTATIVE)
OCTOBER 16 (TENTATIVE)
Those unable to attend this meeting
in person can also participate in the
meeting remotely. If interested, please
contact Kevin McCrory (kmccrory@
mnsinc.com) prior to the meeting for
instructions. A JAVA-enabled browser
and an Internet connection are required.
Project Management
OCTOBER 8—MARYLAND
VIDEO CONFERENCING FOR OS/2;
Zydacron Inc.
• Monthly, third Monday, 7:00
• CPCUG HQ
comm/sig-supp.html#pm
• Contacts—Ruben Worrell, d: (703)
276-3000, e/w pager: (202) 490-0166,
[email protected]; Bruce Cottom,
e/w: (301) 869-5690,
[email protected]
7:00
7:30
AUGUST 2
SEPTEMBER 6
OCTOBER 4
Q&A AND DISCUSSION
PRESENTATION
AUGUST 18
SEPTEMBER 15
OCTOBER 20
Participants are encouraged to bring a
copy of Microsoft Project 4 For Windows
Step by Step from Microsoft Press to all
meetings. Presentations begin at 7:30PM,
but there is also a question and answer
and discussion period from 7:00 to
7:30PM.
Please share this information with all
interested friends and colleagues.
Reston
• Monthly, third Wednesday, 7:30
• Reston Community Center, Hunters
Woods Village Center, 2310 Colts
Neck Road, Reston, VA
• URL—http://www.shirenet.com/
restonsig
• Contacts—Jane Benson, e/w: (703)
715-1032, fax: (703) 715-8455,
[email protected]; Sharon
Kennedy, e/w: (703) 715-9452
7:30
8:00
9:00
OPEN FORUM AND GENERAL
INFORMATION
VENDOR PRESENTATION
Q&A; SOFTWARE DRAWING
(WHEN AVAILABLE)
AUGUST 20
HELIX NUTS & BOLTS
SEPTEMBER 17
MACROMEDIA FREEHAND GRAPHICS SUITE
OCTOBER 15
meetings, send e-mail to jbenson@
shirenet.com with the words “Reston SIG
Notice” in the subject line.
The Seniors SIG is for everyone, from
beginner to expert, and we welcome
both CPCUG members and visitors. At
our SIG meetings we discuss current
computer trends and problem areas
encountered by our attendees. We want
to choose our subjects far enough in
advance so you will know what to
expect at each meeting. To do this, you,
the members, have to tell us what subjects you want to have presented. You
tell us what you want to know more
about, and we will find someone who
will enlighten us on the subject. Be sure
to log onto the MIX, read the messages
in the SENIORS Conference (89), and join
in the discussion of topics to be covered
at future meetings.
Because of the interest expressed in
the MIX at our meetings, we start each
meeting with a brief discussion of its
use. Next, Bob Mills of Millkern Communications demonstrates some facet of
the Internet or Internet connectivity in an
“Internet Minutes” segment. In addition,
we spend at least 10 minutes of each
meeting responding to and discussing
attendee questions—here’s an opportunity to get your questions answered.
Help in solving computer-related problems is available both from the members
of our SIG and via the MIX.
When you attend Seniors SIG meetings, be sure to bring a blank 3.5-inch
high-density diskette. Someone might
have found a shareware or freeware
program of interest to you. This rather
informal group has loads of information
to share among its users helping users.
Don’t be shy—volunteer to participate in
the organization and get to know officers
and members. You can bring a friend(s)
when you attend our meetings at 9:30AM
on the first Saturday of each month. The
door to the CPCUG meeting room will
be propped open after about 8:30AM. You
are invited to visit with fellow earlybirds
before the meeting begins, or to take
advantage of CPCUG’s library of
computer-related books.
out at meetings. He is willing to create
and produce the newsletter, but needs
your help in generating ideas for articles. Call him at (301) 652-2532. Les
reminds us that to learn more about
using WordPerfect to fulfill word processing needs, there’s the CPCUG
WordPerfect SIG. It meets on the second
Thursday of each month from 7:30 to
9PM right here in our meeting room.
And WordPerfect is what I am using to
write this report to send to Barbara
Conn for her to put into the Monitor.
June Meeting
At our June meeting we had 27 people, including Rich Schinnell. It is great
to see so many happy faces at our
Saturday morning meetings. I know it is
tough getting up and traveling to the
meetings so early. Keep it up and bring
a friend—I can’t think of a better thing
to do on the first Saturday morning of
each month.
July Meeting
At our July meeting we had about 20
people, including Rich Schinnell—a
good showing for the Independence
Day weekend. Rich took the audience
on quite a trip through the Internet with
some connections even Jack had not
heard about. Thanks a lot, Rich, great
job! I trust that attendees and other SIG
members will heed Rich’s request to
help CPCUG generate lots of revenue so
we can continue to live in the grandeur
to which we have become accustomed
at our Meeting Room.
Shareware
• CPCUG HQ
• URL—http://www.cpcug.org/user/share/
• Contact—Rich Schinnell, e/w (301)
949-9292, [email protected]
Meetings are suspended until a new
SIG Chair is found. If you are interested
in becoming Shareware SIG Chair,
please contact First Vice President Rich
Schinnell at [email protected].
Door Prizes
Seniors
• Monthly, first Saturday, 9:30AM to
noon
• CPCUG HQ
• URL—http://www.cpcug.org/
user/comm/sig-supp.html#sr
• Contacts—Jack Carlson, e/w: (301)
474-7091, [email protected]; Jack
Hepburn, d/e/w: (301) 460-1168,
[email protected]
At most meetings, we have a door
prize to give away!
Newsletter
Les Le Vine started a Seniors SIG
newsletter. Help him develop subjects
to write about. The first edition “hit the
street” after the February meeting.
Distribution is easy—Les hands them
Statistics
• Monthly (except June), usually second Wednesday, 12:30
• 1301 New York Avenue, NW, Room
1208—call to arrange entrance to the
building (202) 501-6928
• URL—http://www.econ.ag.gov/sigstat/
• Contact—Charles Hallahan, e/w:
51
AUGUST 13
S-PLUS 4.0 (BETA VERSION) DEMO
S-PLUS 4.0 is a major new release
that integrates the complete functionality of the S-PLUS data analysis system
and object-oriented programming language with a user interface that is full
featured and customizable. Data sets are
managed through an intuitively designed visual interface. Editing presentation-quality graphics is as easy as
pointing and clicking. The S-PLUS 4.0
user interface contains six types of windows: the object browser, data editor,
graph sheet, command window, script
window, and output window. New
statistical features include functions for
multiple comparisons, bootstrapping
and jackknifing, linear and nonlinear
mixed effects models, a clustering library for six methods of cluster analysis, two functions (hexbin and rayplot)
designed for visualizing spatial data,
and a function validate for validation.
Information on S-PLUS can be found at
http://www.mathsoft.com/ splus.html
SEPTEMBER 10
OCTOBER 8
• URL—http://www.nmaa.org/
members/lgarcia/vasig
• Contact—Luis Garcia, d: (301) 4571451, e/w: (703) 425-6902,
[email protected]
AUGUST 18
INTERNET BROWSER TIPS
AND
TRICKS
SEPTEMBER 15
OCTOBER 20
The Virginia SIG chapter was successfully reborn on March 17, 1997. The SIG
meets at Washington Gas in Springfield,
Virginia, on the third Monday of each
month. The planned format for meetings is a Q&A session at 7:00PM followed by the main presentation at 8PM.
Suggested topics for future meetings
include genealogical software from the
user’s perspective, and children’s educational and game software.
If you’d like more information or
would like to participate in the planning and administration of this SIG,
please contact CPCUG Virginia Vice
President Luis Garcia, (301) 457-1451
(d), (703) 425-6902 (e/w), or lgarcia@
census.gov. Or contact the CPCUG office
at (301) 762-9372 on weekdays between
10AM and 3PM.
Meeting Notes
Most meetings of the Statistics SIG
are held in room 1208 at 1301 New York
Avenue, NW—midway between the
Metro Center and McPherson Square
Metrorail stations. If you’re attending
your first meeting, contact Charlie
Hallahan at (202) 501-6928 or hallahan@
econ.ag.gov to leave your name for entrance to the building.
Our Web Pages
The SIGSTAT page (found at
http://www.econ.ag.gov/sigstat and at the
CPCUG members/SIGs pages at
http://www.cpcug.org) contains an extensive set of links to Web pages of interest
to statisticians. Each month we’ll look at
some sites relevant to that month’s
demo.
meetings, send e-mail to Charles
Hallahan, [email protected].
Virginia
• Monthly, third Monday, 7:00
52
Visual Basic
• Monthly, fourth Tuesday, 7:30
• Washington Gas, Small Auditorium,
6801 Industrial Road, Springfield, VA
• URL—http://www.cpcug.org/user/vb/
• Contact—Ruben Worrell, d: (703)
276-3000, e/w pager: (202) 490-0166,
[email protected]
AUGUST 26
SEPTEMBER 23
OCTOBER 28
The Visual Basic SIG does a lot of
Q&A, which is great for beginners and
advanced users alike. Occasionally
someone will bring a project and/or
problem on diskette. These turn into
excellent learning sessions for everyone.
We discuss coding, Visual Basic news,
and other issues that arise. Periodically
we invite vendors to discuss and
demonstrate the latest VB-related products. The Visual Basic SIG is not just for
Visual Basic; we also support those
using the Microsoft Office product line
who want to delve into automation
with Visual Basic for Applications.
Internet provider or online service, you
can send and receive e-mail via MIXNET
on the MIX. Cancellations are posted on
the MIX in the BASIC Conference (9).
Windows
• Monthly, fourth Wednesday, 7:30
• CPCUG HQ
windows/
• Contact—Pat McVeigh, d: (301) 8817900, e/w: (301) 963-7304,
[email protected]
AUGUST 27
SEPTEMBER 24
OCTOBER 22
If you have suggestions for future
topics, or would like to make a presentation, e-mail Pat McVeigh at
[email protected].
To join CPCUG’s Windows discussion
list, send e-mail to
line
SUBSCRIBE WINDOWSIGD-L
WordPerfect
• Monthly, second Thursday, 7:30
• CPCUG HQ
comm/sig-supp.html#wp
• Contact—Les Le Vine, d/e/w: (301)
652-2532, [email protected]
AUGUST 14
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WORDPERFECT 6.1
AND 7.0, AND MAYBE SOME WP 8.0;
Susan Kousek
SEPTEMBER 11
WORDPERFECT 5.1, 6.0, 6.1,
DOS; Bill Adler
AND
6.2 FOR
OCTOBER 9
FOURTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
SIG; Mary Van Engelen
OF
WP
Volunteer(s) Needed
E-mail is sent to those on our mailing
list. Remember—even if you have no
Do you know WordPerfect? Would
you like to make a presentation for our
friendly group? We need volunteers for
future meetings.
SUBMITTING
REPORTS
Newsletter
We distributed the first issue of our
newsletter, “The WordPerfect Sig,” prior
to our March meeting. It is now available at CPCUG HQ. See your name in
print by sending your ideas for articles
and contributions to Les Le Vine, Editor,
at [email protected].
To submit reports for your SIG, send e-mail to [email protected], or log
onto the MIX, join the MONITOR Conference (45), and send a message
to Barbara Conn. When attaching a file to the message, use
WordPerfect 5.0 or ASCII text format and PKZIP to create a ZIP file.
Having a bad communication day? Fax (202) 508-3698 or send snail
mail to 1730 K Street, NW, Suite 304, Washington, DC 20006.
July Meeting
If your future SIG meeting plans are not yet confirmed, tell us about
your recent meetings. Your SIG information is important—please be
included—submit your report 6 weeks in advance of publication date.
We had a great July meeting.
We were most fortunate to have
Marie Parker step in to substitute for
our planned presenter. Marie works for
the American Speech Language and
Hearing Association as Director of EndUsers Services, and is in charge of
Training and Technical Support. She did
a very interesting presentation showing
us how she uses WordPerfect at work.
Also at our July meeting we were
pleased to meet the new regional Corel
WordPerfect representative, Barbara
Semple, who promises to return soon to
talk to us about up-to-the-minute Corel
WordPerfect goodies.v
Barbara Conn, CPCUG Director of
Corporate Communications, CPCUG
Monitor Editor, and Technical Editor at
Beacon Writing Services Corporation,
provider of writing, editorial, and production services for communicators, can be
reached at [email protected] or on
the MIX, CPCUG’s electronic bulletin
board, at (301) 738-9060 in MONITOR
Conference (45).
ThinkQuest
Is
Coming!
WHERE TO FIND UPDATES FOR ALL CPCUG EVENTS
Web Page
See the CPCUG Corporate
Communications Internet home page
at http://www.cpcug.org/user/comm/.
meetings (with the most up-to-date
information available on meeting
topics), classes, seminars, workshops, builds, volunteer events, and
irregular special activities, send
e-mail to—
The MIX, NOTICE Conference (47)
Weekly activities summaries
Activities reminders (DING!)
Meeting information updates
of standard lower ASCII characters
only.)
Your name and e-mail address will
be hidden from view. The distribution list does not allow subscriber
posting.
[email protected]
To unsubscribe, send e-mail to the
above address with the subject—
containing the line—
SIGNOFF CPCUGCAL-L
Internet Newsgroups
CPCUG.NEWS
DC.GENERAL
MD.GENERAL
VA.GENERAL
MD.MONT
MD.PG
BALT.GENERAL
COMP.ORG.USER-GROUPS.MEETINGS
CPCUG Weekly E-Mail Calendar
To receive the weekly e-mail calendar of all CPCUG activities including
general and special interest group
SUBSCRIBE CPCUGCAL-L
No subject line entry required.
The calendar will arrive each Friday
or Saturday and contain CPCUG
events for 9 days, from Saturday
through the following Sunday. It will
be similar to the weekly “Capital PC
User Events” messages posted in
Internet Newsgroups. (It will consist
No subject line entry required.
To subscribe online to this and other
CPCUG announcement and discussion lists, go to—
http://www.cpcug.org/list
53
Product Reviews
Coordinated by Richard Biffl
T
he Monitor frequently receives hardware,
software, and books for review. Members
interested in writing a review can find a
list of available products in Bulletin 13 on the
MIX BBS, (301) 738-9060, or on the Monitor
OmniPage Pro 7.0
for Windows 95
Reviewed by Mike Stein
The pitch on the box was clear:
“Never retype another document.”
Well, that’s what optical character
recognition (OCR) is supposed to be all
about, right? And so, I started on my
evaluation of Caere’s highly acclaimed
OmniPage Pro 7.0 for Windows 95.
To start, I must tell you that I’ve had
a long history of awe and experience
with OCR products. Awe with dedicated $100,000+ machines of the late
‘60s and early ‘70s that didn’t do much.
Personal experience with products on
PCs that evolved from useless to notbad-at-all.
54
Web pages at http://www.cpcug.org/user/
monitor/. For more information, contact the
review coordinator, Richard Biffl, at (301) 9278753 or in the MONITOR Conference on
the MIX.
To be useful, an OCR product must
first and foremost be accurate in converting text from the printed page to a
computer-editable file. Fancy formatting
is nice (maybe), but if the accuracy isn’t
there, what’s the point?
Now, about that formatting, is it important? Well, sometimes, but I find that
when I want to capture text by OCR, it’s
usually the content I’m interested in,
not the original publisher’s print format. But sometimes format is important, such as when you want to take a
document and publish it on the Web as
an HTML document that retains the
look of the original—more on that later.
Installing OmniPage Pro was a snap,
and “only” 15 MBytes of disk was gobbled up. There was no problem in recognizing and setting up drivers for my
Microtek scanner. One of the plus features of OmniPage Pro is “OCR aware”
applications, a Windows-95-enabled
facility that puts links to OmniPage Pro
as “Acquire text” options under the file
menu of other applications (figure 1).
The documentation described how to
make applications “OCR aware,” but I
was pleased to see that the installation
process automatically enabled Notepad,
Wordpad, and WordPerfect. Want text
scanned into a document? It’s a no
brainer with “OCR aware.”
Entering OmniPage Pro from its own
icon, the user is presented with a fairly
well laid out screen: the standard menu
bar, a row of Windows 95 type buttons,
and another row of large buttons with
pull-down options. In my testing, the
winner was the first of the buttons on
this last row. It is labeled “AUTO,” and
its options are AutoOCR and OCR
wizard.
Figure 1. Corel WordPerfect linking
to OmniPage Pro.
I’ve been turned off by the “wizard”
options of most applications—they
always seem to want to jump into a
process with no choices for the user,
and I rarely like their choices. Interestingly, the opposite is true with OmniPage Pro. OCR wizard leads the user
through a smooth and meaningful set of
options for scanning, OCR, and file
saving (figure 2). One irritant with the
Auto OCR option was the tendency of
OmniPage Pro to put text into boxes,
until I finally hunted down a too-
Figure 2. OmniPage Pro scanning, OCR, and file saving options.
Figure 3. OmniPage Pro OCR and check option.
obscure option to “remove frames on
export.” No such problem with the
wizard.
As I said at the beginning, accuracy is
key to OCR. Without it, you can spend
as much time checking and correcting
results as you might have spent rekeying the whole document. OmniPage Pro
is pleasingly accurate, and life is made
easier by the “OCR and check” option.
This process steps through all questionable text showing you the actual scan
image, OmniPage Pro’s guess, and
possible alternatives. You can then click
away to ignore, accept, or change
OmniPage Pro’s suggestions (figure 3).
This makes editing almost a snap.
As I said, I usually don’t want an
original document’s formatting—if I
want columns, I’ll define them; if I want
graphics, I’ll place them. But, I do want
to retain text attributes, such as size,
boldface, and italics. Although
OmniPage Pro does a top-notch job on
attributes, I’m unimpressed with its
attempts at page layout formatting. I
found it bad enough to be a burden
requiring too much cleanup—not at all
useful. I did try saving some test scans
as HTML documents and opened them
in Netscape and MS Internet Explorer.
Same results—text attributes OK, complex page formatting useless.
There is one text attribute regrettably
not handled at all—color. Too bad.
Color printers are cheap and nearly
ubiquitous; color for HTML documents
is a necessity. The inability to handle
color (by scanning an image or importing a file) also cripples OmniPage Pro’s
handling of graphics. If grayscale will
satisfy you, then OmniPage Pro makes
a reasonable attempt. For me, if I want
an image in a document, color or not,
I’m going to scan it and edit it with
image software (PhotoShop or one of its
cousins). There is an image editor link,
but it’s keyed to your application association with BMP files—unless I change
this at the system level (I don’t want to),
I’m OLE’d unwillingly into Paint as the
image editor.
Support is a big cost ticket for all
companies. Caere, like too many others,
doles out phone support on a fee
basis—though you do get a starting
credit for one access to their nottoll-free line. Caere’s Web page,
http://www.caere.com, has additional
product and support information. In
fact, it contains a rarity these days—the
actual address of the company. A tollline faxback service and e-mail
addresses (for sales only) are also listed.
While not perfect, OmniPage Pro for
Windows 95 is the best OCR package
I’ve used. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it as long as you consider what
you want to achieve with OCR software
and accept its limitations.v
OmniPage Pro 7.0 for Windows 95
• REQUIREMENTS: Windows 95, 15
Mbytes of hard disk space, 8 Mbytes
of RAM, mouse, 3.5-inch diskette
drive.
• SOURCE: Caere Corp., (800) 535-7226
X110, http://www.caere.com/.
• PRICE: $499; upgrade from OmniPage
or WordScan, $129.
Mike Stein receives e-mail as m_stein@
ix.netcom.com.
55
MediaPaq Manager
Reviewed by Lori Austin
MediaPaq Manager is a unique product—a media database management
system. It allows you to organize various types of graphical images into libraries (databases). By opening the
library, the images can then be accessed
for update and retrieval.
Each library has a visual table of contents with a thumbnail image representation of each object. It is so much easier to
find the image you are looking for when
you see the image instead of a directory
of file names. Many types of objects can
be managed including images, graphics,
video clips, sound clips, MIDI files,
animation files, and documents. Icons
within the thumbnail representation
include mini-icons that indicate whether
the object has attached notes or sound or
contains multiple pages. Text notes can
be attached to each image. Searches for a
text string can be performed across one
or more MediaPaq libraries.
Images from 70 different formats can
be imported into MediaPaq. Or images
can be dragged and dropped into an
open MediaPaq library. After dropping
the image, you are then prompted to
inform MediaPaq of the type of compression you would like to use. Once images
are in the library, they can be manipulated in a number of ways. Color, orientation, and attributes can all be changed,
and the changes can be made either to
the original or to a copy. Images can be
exported to 55 different file formats. A
catalog of images contained in the library
can even be printed for reference.
If you wish, MediaPaq will actually
store the graphics within the database
library in a compressed format, which
minimizes the amount of disk space
required to store the graphics. I took
five subdirectories of GIF and ICO files
and moved them into MediaPaq
libraries, saving over 8 Mbytes of space
on my hard drive. File compression
includes LZH for speed, LZH for size,
JPEG, no compression, reference, and
custom compression in which the user
supplies the DLL.
I used MediaPaq’s screen capture
capability to create a number of screen
shots and then converted the screen
shots to GIF images for display on my
Web page. It was quick and easy. The
screen capture can even be used to
capture only a portion of the screen.
This software is packaged as a
CD-ROM. The printed instructions are
short, but sufficient—a 10-page booklet
that also serves as the cover of the CD
case. A hypertext electronic user’s guide
56
is included on the CD. The installation
was quick and straightforward. The
installed product took about 8 Mbytes
of disk space. Technical support can be
contacted by calling a long distance
number or sending an e-mail from
MediaPaq’s Web site and receiving a
call back, usually within 24 hours.v
MediaPaq Manager
• REQUIREMENTS: Windows 3.1 or 95.
• SOURCE: MediaPaq, 531 E. Elliott
Road, Suite 145, Chandler, AZ 85225,
(800) 554-0857, [email protected],
http://www.mediapaq.com/.
• PRICE: $89.95; upgrade or competitive
upgrade, $49.95.
Lori Austin is a FoxPro programmer and
owner of HomeFront Software, which
produces software for churches and home
educators. She may be contacted at
[email protected], or via her Web
site at http://members.aol.com/
hfsoftware/hfsoft.html, or the oldfashioned way at (703) 550-8672.
Any97 1.0
Reviewed by Peggy Ireland
Well, Lillian was dragging me along
for a demonstration of this really exciting new product she saw at COMDEX.
And dragging is the right description.
“Yeah, sure Lil, really exciting, eh? But
are they giving away anything?” Hey,
you always have to have your priorities
at these trade shows, right?
Anyhow, we ended up meeting Illan
Poreh, Anysoft’s president and CEO. He
demonstrated Any97 Pro, with the
claim that it is the first user component
management system, offering true interoperability on the desktop. Quite
frankly, I was impressed. Imagine an
open cross-application environment for
Windows and Windows 95 users to
acquire information from any source,
including legacy systems, the Internet,
and PC applications. And if that’s not
enough, it appears to allow the processing, publishing, and sharing of information between applications.
Ah, yes, I have to admit that Madame
President knows a good thing when she
sees it. But still, being the slightest bit of
a cynic, I decided that I had to try
Any97 firsthand and see whether it
would really work the same way for me
as it appeared to be working for Illan.
So, when I returned home, I went to
http://www.anysoft.com and downloaded
an evaluation copy of Any97 1.0. And,
just to make it a little more interesting,
no Pentium here, Illan. I am running
Windows 95 on a 486-DX2 with 16
Mbytes of RAM. The download and
install went smoothly enough. Like
most software nowadays, it actually
installs itself and has that nice little
uninstall icon, just in case it isn’t all I
expect it to be.
Once installed, when you start your
PC, you hear some slick-sounding
music as Any97 loads and places an
Any97 toolbar on your screen. You have
the option of leaving the toolbar or
selecting a “mini display.” The Any97
toolbar consists of tabs that group and
organize the various components of
Any97. In addition to Anysoft’s own
active user components, Any97 supports user components from leading
vendors like Microsoft, Lotus, Corel,
and Borland.
I thought that by running the Any97
quickstart icon, which was in the program group, I would be able to avoid
“RTFM.” Not! It does give a nice
overview of what the program does but
was of little practical value in actually
using the components. However, the
components are actually fairly intuitive
to use, and the help screens are nicely
done.
So I was off and running and ready
to try this out myself. The various components have so many possible uses
and benefits for the end user that I’m
positive I won’t be able to cover them
all in this review or perhaps even think
of them until I need them. Anysoft
claims to have over 50 of its own active
user components available for Any97, in
addition to marketing a Component
Development Kit (Any97 CDK) to assist
commercial and corporate developers.
For more information on Any97 CDK,
contact [email protected].
The main component appears to be
AnyMarker. AnyMarker allows you to
capture any text, numbers, or images in
any source window and send the information to any destinations or publish to
any supported file format. Possible
destinations include file, printer, e-mail,
or a group of destinations. It’s a great
way to quickly and easily capture a shot
of a window for training purposes. It’s
really neat the way it allows you to
keep the original formatting.
Another component, AnyMail, will
instantly capture information from any
window and allow you to send it to email addresses without ever opening
your e-mail program. It also provides
an addressbook that allows you to coordinate all your e-mail addresses in one
location, and it is not dependant on
which e-mail program you happen to be
using. For those of us who switch between various e-mail programs and
accounts, that’s a great convenience.
AnyCalc performs calculations on
numerical information from any window, even if the numbers are embedded
in a text string. This is really a useful
tool for calculating data from a Web
site, spreadsheet, or a database on a
legacy system on the fly.
Now, the component I probably had
the most fun with is AnyGraph. I never
could figure out how to graph information. I can remember taking a college
course on spreadsheets, and the class
where we had to do graphs did not help
my GPA a bit. I’ve always had this
mental block about graphs, but
AnyGraph is changing the trend. It
allows you to create up to 14 types of
graphs by just highlighting the information from any window. And if you don’t
like how the information appears as a
bar graph, you can change it into a pie
chart with the click of a mouse. Or try
making it three dimensional. I actually
came up with some sharp-looking
graphs and had fun doing it.
Now if there’s anything that baffles
me more than graphs, it’s probably
graphics, but with AnyImage you can
manipulate any bit-mapped image in
one simple step without specialized
graphics programs.
Another component that has lots of
potential, and was kind of fun, is WordLink. WordLink components dynamically link text from any Windows document to related information on the
World Wide Web. The down side is that
the only WordLink component available
in my evaluation copy of Any97 was the
PC Webopaedia component. The PC
Webopaedia component not only links
to the related text, but rates the links on
relevancy. Anysoft says there will be
more components in the future. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what is
added.
The other tabs consisted of components linking to my Microsoft applications, more OLE applications, and a
“My Tab” that allows for customization.
Any97 software is available in two
configurations. Any97 contains the
AnyMarker and DataRouting technologies. Any97 Pro contains all the component functionality available in the evaluation copy. By the time you read this,
there should be a newer version of
Any97 available.
If you’re interested in seeing it
demonstrated firsthand, come on out to
the Capital PC User Group General
Meeting August 11, at NIH, meet Illan,
and see this new breed of applicationindependent, task-focused component
solution for yourself.v
Mbytes recommended), 10 Mbytes of
available hard disk space.
• SOURCE: Anysoft, Inc., 100
CambridgePark Drive, Cambridge,
MA 02140, (888) ANY-SOFT, (617)
868-3397, fax (617) 868-3295,
http://www.anysoft.com
• PRICE: Any97, $69; Any97 Pro, $129
Peggy Ireland is the Program Director for
the Capital PC User Group, as well as a
Contributing Editor of the Monitor.
Update
GoldMine, a contact manager for
workgroups that was reviewed in
the October 1996 Monitor, has been
upgraded to version 3.2 for Windows 95 and NT 4.0. The new version adds Internet Web import,
graphical organization charts, peg
board, spell checking, Timex data
link, and improved calendar, report
writer, and seamless ACT! import
wizard. GoldMine also links with
popular handheld devices via Windows CE and Puma IntelliSync.
Contact GoldMine Software at (800)
654-3526, (310) 454-6800, and
http://www.goldminesw.com/.
Book Reviews
How To Set Up and
Maintain A Web
Site, Second Edition
by Lincoln D. Stein
Reviewed by Claire B. Rubin
Any97
• REQUIREMENTS: PC with a 486- or
Pentium-compatible CPU, MS
Windows 3.1.x or Windows 95 operating system, 4 Mbytes of RAM (8
This book is a major reference book
on the topic of Web site development—
based on size and weight alone!—and
probably is one of the definitive books
on the subject. Having said that, it may
57
be more than most casual users ever
wanted to know about the WWW. If
you are satisfied with the Dummies
series, then this is probably not the
book for you.
This book is for those people who
like to know how to make a watch,
rather than know what time it is. (The
book contains 680 pages of text and
another 100 pages of appended material.) Additionally, a CD-ROM disk is
included, with hundreds of freeware
and shareware tools for setting up a
Web site. The disk also contains source
code for all of the book’s HTML examples and Common Gateway Interface
(CGI) scripts that readers can use in
their own Web pages.
The chapters are as follows: (1)
Introduction to the Web; (2) Unraveling
the Web: How It All Works; (3) Installing
and Configuring a Web Server; (4) Web
Security; (5) Creating Hypertext
Documents; (6) Software Tools for Text,
Graphics, Sound, and Video; (7) A Web
Style Guide; (8) Working With Server
Scripts; (9) Writing Server Scripts; (10)
JavaScript; and (11) Working With Java.
In addition, there are three appendixes,
which cover almost another 100 pages.
Appendix A, The Resource Guide, provides many sources of information that
should be of interest to serious Web site
creators. (The online version of The
Resource Guide is available at
http://www.genome.wi.mit.edu/WWW/
resource_guide.html.)
As you would expect from a large,
serious book written by an MIT faculty
member, it is thorough, sophisticated,
and a definitive reference work. It is
well written, and if one reads it carefully, complex subject matter is
explained well enough for novices to
comprehend.
I requested this product because I
want to prepare and mount a simple
58
Web home page in an area related to my
work—recovery from major natural
disasters at the community level.
Although I learned a lot from the book,
and have already shared some of the
extensive, informative source materials
with colleagues who maintain Web
sites, I found it hard to get started tackling my simple home page. I expected
more direct guidance, but instead got a
lot of advice that required me to hunt
down and download files or other bits
of instruction. Although I expected the
CD-ROM to provide such guidance, I
was disappointed that it was not as user
friendly as I had hoped.
Although I am new to creating Web
pages, I am not either an Internet or a
WWW novice. For me, this book was
both intriguing and somewhat intimidating. Nevertheless, even after having
spent considerable time reading much
of the book, I still have not made much
progress with the home page I set out to
create.v
environment and enhancements to the
language from earlier versions. The
majority of the book is dedicated to
providing examples of techniques to
solve specific problems. This limits its
value as a learning tool for beginners,
but for the intended audience, it provides a wealth of examples. The book
doesn’t cover all aspects of VB, and it
may be a stretch to find an example that
directly fits whatever problem you are
trying to solve, but the examples provided are clear, and Craig’s explanations
provide good insight into the techniques.
The book is divided into three sections: Getting Started With VB 4, Dear
John, How Do I . . . ?, and Sample
Applications.
Getting Started With
Visual Basic 4
In this section, Craig describes differences between VB 4 and previous versions, providing an overview of objectoriented features, enhancements to the
development environment and the
language, and new custom controls. He
also offers some programming style
guidelines. This section is a good
overview for any programmer to get an
idea of the capabilities of VB 4, and is
particularly useful for programmers
who have used previous versions of VB.
How To Set Up and Maintain A Web
Site, Second Edition
by Lincoln D. Stein, ISBN 0-201-63462-7,
816 pp., CD-ROM.
• SOURCE: Addison-Wesley
Professional Computing and
Engineering, One Jacob Way,
Reading, MA 01867, (800) 447-2226,
(617) 944-3700, fax (617) 942-3077,
http://www.awl.com/cp/Stein2e.html.
• PRICE: $39.95.
Dear John, How Do I . . . ?
Ms. Rubin is a consultant in emergency
management, with public and private sector
clients. Although a social scientist by training, she tries to master computer and
Internet concepts and programs. She has
belonged to the Capital PC User Group for
more than 10 years and reviewed two previous products for the Monitor.
This section represents more than
half the book, and most of the valuable
information. Each chapter focuses on a
particular aspect of development, for
example, variables, parameters, objectoriented programming, API functions,
multimedia, graphics, OLE automation,
and many others. Each chapter has
sections headed by a specific question.
Microsoft Visual
Basic 4.0
Developer’s
Workshop, Third
Edition
by John Clark Craig
Reviewed by Art Wilson
Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Developer’s
Workshop is targeted to programmers
familiar with Visual Basic (VB), particularly those familiar with VB 3.0. It describes changes in the development
For example, the chapter on database
access answers the question Dear John,
How Do I . . . Use The Data Control To
Connect an Application to a Database?
The section provides an explanation of
how to implement the technique and
sample code so you can exercise the
technique. Craig’s accompanying explanations are clear, and useful. There are
22 chapters covering various topics.
Advanced Java:
Idioms, Pitfalls,
Styles and
Programming Tips
by Chris Laffra
Reviewed by
Michael Sakhatsky
Sample Applications
In the third section of the book, Craig
includes several complete applications
to demonstrate and amplify the techniques described in the second section
of the book. All the applications are
included in source form on the accompanying CD. This is a good place for an
experienced programmer picking up VB
for the first time to look for examples of
VB applications, or for VB programmers
to discover new techniques or utilities
to help in development efforts. As in the
rest of the book, Craig’s explanations
are clear and helpful.
Workshop is an excellent book for its
intended audience. When trying to solve
a particular problem, the book is either
very good, if there is a relevant example;
or useless, if there is no example. For
developers with a lot of VB 4.0 experience, much of the information may not
be new. For developers who have experience with previous versions of VB, the
book is ideal. For someone new to VB,
the book may assume too much. The
greatest value will be to intermediate
level users—programmers with some
VB experience, but not enough that they
have already dealt with most of the
issues the book covers. In general, given
the wealth of examples Craig provides,
there is likely to be something of value
for just about anyone.v
Workshop, Third Edition
by John Clark Craig, ISBN 1-55615-6642, 584 pp., CD-ROM.
• SOURCE: Microsoft Press, PO Box
141875, Austin, TX 78714-1875, (800)
MSPRESS, [email protected],
http://mspress.microsoft.com/mspress/
Books/Des/363.HTM.
• PRICE: $39.95.
Art Wilson is Manager of Data
Warehousing at ManTech Design &
Development Corporation. He has more
than 15 years’ software development experience in various languages and on various
platforms. He may be reached during normal business hours at (410) 312-3810, or by
e-mail at [email protected].
This very thin book (compared to
other books on the same subject)
promises to be “A guide to the more
advanced features of Java. For advanced
programmers, this may be the most
sophisticated Java book on the market.
This book covers a wide variety of advanced Java topics and techniques that
are rarely discussed elsewhere.” The
author, Chris Laffra, is a system programmer with IBM’s T.J. Watson
Research Center, working on compiler
and debugger development. He also is
co-editor of Object-Oriented Computer
Graphics. With this impressive introduction, I had high expectations when I
began my review. Unfortunately, this
book fell short of my expectation.
The book contains 4 chapters, with
the first chapter consisting of 20 sections. Each section discusses a topic,
such as common programming practices and idioms, and is unrelated to the
others. These sections could be the most
interesting and useful part of the book
for Java programmers. Some sections
are very interesting. Some reflect the
author’s own opinion on the subject.
Some topics are already outdated (for
example, you can easily implement
callback functions in Java 1.1 using
inner classes).
In topic 17, “Overriding Methods and
Hiding Variables,” the author compares
C++ and Java, a topic that attracted my
greatest attention. I would not say there
is something wrong with this comparison by itself, and collating Java methods
with C++ virtual methods could be very
useful. But contrasting Java methods
and C++ common methods is
absolutely pointless and misleading. It
makes me suspicious about the quality
of the other topics.
Chapter 2 occupies more then half of
the book and serves as a user guide for
the Little Toolkit (LTK)—an AWT alternative developed by the author. All the
source code could be found on the enclosed disk. Many ideas used in this
toolkit are similar to the new Java 1.1
AWT implementation. Unless you develop new Java GUI toolkits for a living,
I do not think this chapter would be
very useful for you.
The rest of the book covers Java debugging techniques and translating C++
to Java. For debugging purposes, the
author made some changes in the SUN
Java virtual machine (VM). If you
wanted to use a similar technique with
the new Java 1.1 VM, you would have to
obtain a license on VM source code from
SUN and make all the changes by yourself. It could be very useful, but I think
the majority of the programmers would
be happy with integrated Java debuggers from Symantec, IBM, or Microsoft.
On the enclosed disk you can find a
C2J translator. It could be used to translate a large amount of code from C++ to
Java. C2J is basically a shell script that
calls sed, followed by C++-to-Java translator. You have to use either a Unix system to run it or the MKS toolkit under
Windows if you are using a PC platform.
This book uncovers many Java pitfalls and contains very interesting material. But I do not think a majority of
Java programmers would consider
spending $35 on this book worthwhile,
unless they have special needs such as
developing commercial tools for Java.v
Advanced Java: Idioms, Pitfalls, Styles
and Programming Tips
by Chris Laffra, ISBN 0-13-534348-8, 288
pp., diskette.
• SOURCE: Prentice Hall PTR, (800) 6435506, http://www.prenhall.com/allbooks/
ptr_0135343488.html.
• PRICE: $34.95.
Michael Sakhatsky is a Programming
Architect for Advanced Systems, Inc. (ASI),
a systems integration and custom software
development company. ASI provides highend programming services using Java, C++,
and Visual Basic. Michael can be reached at
(703) 698-4406.
59
HELPLINE
Compiled by Elliott Fein
This helpline listing is for use by
CPCUG members only! The volunteers
will provide assistance on their stated
subjects during the times and days they
have listed. Please be prepared to give
the Helpline volunteer your membership number; membership has its privileges! Please do not ask for assistance
outside of the stated times. If you reach
a telephone answering machine, leave a
message, as many people screen calls or
MEMBER
otherwise prioritize their time. Some
volunteers have provided e-mail addresses so that you can contact them if
you have trouble getting in touch via
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If you have a modem, you can use
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There are conferences on specific subjects, or you can use the HELP conference. You can usually reach a large
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can be found on the MIX in the CPCUG
files area, as HELPLINE.TXT.
If you would like to volunteer your
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If you have no modem, write to 5
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All
8:00p–10:00p
7:30a–4:00p
5:00p–10:00p
Reasonable
6:00p–9:00p
Evenings
Reasonable
24 hours
GRAPHICS
Jeff Levitan
DELPHI/PASCAL
Richard Maley
(301) 840-2056 All
Robert Simanski
GRAPHIC Conf.
DESKTOP PUBLISHING
Mary Brosnan
Robert Simanski
DTP Conference
(703) 207-0477 All
(703) 207-0479 FAX
(703) 481-6776 All
MIX
All
Reasonable
Reasonable
24 hours
DISABLE—HARDWARE/SOFTWARE FOR BLIND
Lloyd Rasmussen
DISABLE Conf.
(301) 946-8345 Mon–Fri 7:00p–10:00p
(301) 946-8345 Sat–Sun 10:00a–10:00p
MIX
All
24 hours
Matt Pecori
Rich Schinnell
Erwin Schmerling
Paul Shapiro
DOS Conference
Mike Focke
Jeff Levitan
Rich Schinnell
Doug Wagner
DISK Conference
HARDWARE—GENERAL
DOS
Craig Cornell
Ken Goldman
Arnie Kuzmack
HARD DISKS
(703) 838-6898
(301) 983-5905
(301) 949-3268
(301) 949-3268
Mon–Fri
Mon–Fri
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
7:30p–10:30p
Nn–10:30p [email protected]
[email protected]
(301) 949-9292 All
6:00p–9:00p
(301) 587-1283 Mon–Fri 7:00p–9:30p
(301) 770-9512 All
MIX
All
24 hours
Craig Cornell
(703) 838-6898 Mon–Fri
Wayne Dernoncourt
Mike Focke
(703) 620-2776 All
Jeff Levitan
(202) 606-2876 Mon–Fri
(301) 924-1968 Mon–Fri
(301) 924-1968 Sat–Sun
Rich Schinnell
(301) 949-9292 All
Doug Wagner
(301) 593-3505 Mon–Fri
(301) 593-3505 Sat–Sun
Steve Workings
(301) 933-3832 All
HW Conference
MIX
All
[email protected]
8:00p–10:00p
7:30a–4:00p
5:00p–10:00p
Reasonable
6:00p–9:00p
Evenings
Reasonable
9:00a–Mn
24 hours
61
MEMBER
PHONE
DAYS
TIME
E-MAIL
MEMBER
PHONE
DAYS
TIME
HYPERTEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE (HTML)
MANAGING YOUR MONEY
Harold Goldstein
Walt Houser
David Littlefield
(202) 723-9527 Mon–Fri 6:00p–10:00p
Mark Pankin
(703) 524-0937 All
Reasonable
MONEY Conference MIX
All
24 hours
24 hours
24 hours
MEDICAL COMPUTING
(202) 966-9091 All
(301) 299-0593 All
E-MAIL
IBM BASEBAND
Jim Laughlin
HW Conference
NETS Conference
(703) 241-0110 All
MIX
All
MIX
All
Bill DeRoche
(202) 927-4585 Mon–Th 1:00p–3:30p [email protected]
MEMORY MANAGEMENT
INTERNET—NOT CPCUG.ORG
Hasan Diwan
Doug Wagner
(301) 365-9569 Mon–Fri 11:00p–5:00a
Henry Winokur
DOS Conference
(301) 593-3505
(301) 593-3505
(301) 320-2104
MIX
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
All
All
Evenings
Reasonable
Reasonable
24 hours
INTERNET—ADVANCED
Hasan Diwan
Michael A. Gabor
Harold Goldstein
Edward Kachinske
Matt Pecori
John Scott
(301) 365-9569
(301) 365-9569
(703) 476-0020
(202) 966-9091
(888) 358-5194
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
All
All
All
METASTOCK PROFESSIONAL
11:00p–5:00a
11:00a–9:00p
Reasonable
Reasonable
24 hours
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Harley Wilbur
(301) 949-8131 All
INVEST Conference MIX
All
MICROSOFT OFFICE 95
Roland deWit
(301) 975-5705 Mo, Tu, 7:00p–9:00p
We, Fr
INTERNET—BASICS—NOT CPCUG.ORG
MIX, USING THE
Harold Goldstein
David Chessler
MIX Conference
(202) 966-9091 All
Reasonable
[email protected]
INTERNET—BASICS
Craig Cornell
Hasan Diwan
Mark Gollub
Peggy Ireland
Bill Lathom
(DC Metro)
in Annapolis
Rich Schinnell
Paul Shapiro
(703) 838-6898
(301) 365-9569
(301) 365-9569
(301) 670-6349
(301) 423-4526
Mon–Fri
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
All
Mon–Sat
11:00p–5:00a
Reasonable
(301) 261-8981
(410) 266-6959
(301) 949-9292
(301) 770-9512
All
All
All
All
10:00a–10:00p
10:00a–10:00p
6:00p–9:00p
ISO-9000
Edward H. Jentsch
(301) 279-0134 All
Reasonable
[email protected]
K-EDIT
Bruce Kriebel
Wayne Dernoncourt
[email protected]
LOTUS 1-2-3
Diane Cohen
Jeff Levitan
(703) 841-9360
(202) 606-2876
(301) 924-1968
(301) 924-1968
Roy Rosfeld
(301) 598-2825
All
Mon–Fri
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
All
All
Reasonable
7:30a–4:00p
5:00p–10:00p
Reasonable
Reasonable
24 hours
LOTUS 1-2-3 2.01
Mark Pankin
(703) 524-0937 All
All
Reasonable
24 hours
LOTUS ORGANIZER
(202) 606-2876 Mon–Fri 7:30a–4:00p
(301) 924-1968 Mon–Fri 5:00p–10:00p
M LANGUAGE
Bill DeRoche
(202) 927-4585 Mon–Th 1:00p–3:30p [email protected]
MACINTOSH—DOS DATA EXCHANGE
Mark Pankin
MAC Conference
7:00p–10:00p
24 hours
Craig Cornell
Doug Wagner
GRAPHICS
Conference
HW Conference
(301) 593-3505 Mon–Fri Evenings
MIX
MIX
All
All
24 hours
24 hours
NETWORK CONCEPTS
Craig Cornell
Jim Laughlin
LAN Conference
(703) 241-0110 All
MIX
All
24 hours
NETWORKS—GENERAL
MIX
All
24 hours
NETWORKS—LANTASTIC ETHERNET
LAN
Jeff Levitan
(301) 229-3984 All
MIX
All
MONITOR SELECTION
Craig Cornell
LAN Conference
(703) 524-6694 Mon–Fri 6:00p–9:00p
(703) 524-6694 Sat–Sun 10:00a–4:00p
Reasonable
24 hours
(703) 524-0937 All
MIX
All
Reasonable
24 hours
Rich Schinnell
LAN Conference
(301) 949-9292 All
MIX
All
6:00p–9:00p
24 hours
NETWORKS—NOVELL
Jim Laughlin
John Scott
LAN Conference
(703) 241-0110 All
MIX
All
24 hours
NORTON UTILITIES
Jeff Levitan
(202) 606-2876
(301) 924-1968
(301) 924-1968
Randy Steer
(202) 745-5932
(202) 745-5932
Donald Wulfinghoff (301) 946-1196
Mon–Fri
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
All
7:30a–4:00p
5:00p–10:00p
Reasonable
8:00p–Mn
11:00a–Mn [email protected]
10:00a–8:00p
Mon–Fri
All
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
All
All
All
6:00p–9:00p
Reasonable
7:30p–10:30p
Nn–10:30p
Reasonable
10:00a–8:00p
24 hours
NOVICE
Craig Cornell
Michael A. Gabor
Arnie Kuzmack
(703) 838-6898
(703) 476-0020
(301) 949-3268
(301) 949-3268
Henry Winokur
(301) 320-2104
Donald Wulfinghoff (301) 946-1196
NOVICE Conference MIX
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
ORACLE
John Scott
Michael Shunfenthal (703) 866-9729 Mon–Fri 7:30p–9:30p
62
MEMBER
PHONE
DAYS
TIME
E-MAIL
All
Mon–Th
Sat
Sun
Sat–Sun
All
All
All
6:00p–9:00p
Sunset–9:00p
Noon–9:00p
24 hours
24 hours
24 hours
OS/2
PHONE
DAYS
TIME
E-MAIL
PROFESSIONAL FILE
Keith Bennett
Shmuel Metz
(301) 871-7696
(703) 256-4764
(703) 256-4764
(703) 256-4764
C. Patrick Zilliacus (301) 384-0972
OS2APP Conference MIX
OS2GEN Conference MIX
OS2TECH Conf.
MIX
PARADOX
Walter Clark
Larry Lynn
PARADOX
Conference
MEMBER
Donald Wulfinghoff (301) 946-1196 All
10:00a–8:00p
PROFESSIONAL WRITE
Donald Wulfinghoff (301) 946-1196 All
All
10:00a–8:00p
24 hours
PVCS VERSION MANAGER 5.2
Edward H. Jentsch
(301) 279-0134 All
Reasonable
[email protected]
QBASIC (IN MS-DOS)
(703) 690-6027 All
(301) 585-2300 All
8:00a–7:00p
Reasonable CIS: 71401, 1374
Paul Shapiro
BASIC Conference
MIX
24 hours
QEDIT
All
Harley Wilbur
(301) 770-9512 All
MIX
All
24 hours
(301) 949-8131 All
Reasonable
PASCAL LANGUAGE
Rainer McCown
(410) 730-2575 Mon–Fri 10:00a–4:00p
(410) 730-0379 Mon–Fri 6:00p-10:00p
PASCAL LANGUAGE—IBM
Paula Stein
QUATTRO PRO
Mark Pankin
(703) 524-0937 All
Sam Penner
(301) 468-1210 All
All
Reasonable
Reasonable
24 hours
[email protected]
(703) 556-0458 Tue–Fri 7:00p–9:00p
QUICK BASIC
PASCAL LANGUAGE—TURBO PASCAL
Hasan Diwan
(301) 365-9569 Mon–Fri 11:00p–5:00a
Mark Pankin
BASIC Conference
(703) 524-0937 All
MIX
All
Reasonable
24 hours
QUICK BASIC 4.5
PEACHTREE
Norman Risch
(301) 754-0735 Mon–Fri 6:00p–9:00p
(301) 754-0735 Sat–Sun Reasonable [email protected]
PEACH Conference MIX
All
24 hours
Paul Shapiro
BASIC Conference
(301) 770-9512 All
MIX
All
QUICKBOOKS (DOS & WINDOWS)
PERSONAL EDITOR II
Mark Gollub
Haytham Najjar
Rich Schinnell
C. Patrick Zilliacus
QUICKEN (DOS & WINDOWS)
(301) 949-9292 All
6:00p–9:00p
(301) 384-0972 Sat–Sun Nn–9:00p
PIBTERM
David Chessler
(301) 229-3984 All
7:00p–10:00p
PL/I
Shmuel Metz
(703) 256-4764 Mon–Th 6:00p–9:00p
(703) 256-4764 Sat
Sunset–9:00p
(703) 256-4764 Sun
BASIC Conference
(703) 351-8731 Mon–Fri 9:00a–5:00p
(703) 455-9262 All
6:00p–9:00p CIS: 74534,2651
[email protected]
MIX
All
24 hours
PRINTERS—GENERAL
Craig Cornell
Jeff Levitan
Rich Schinnell
Henry Winokur
HW Conference
(703) 838-6898
(202) 606-2876
(301) 924-1968
(301) 924-1968
(301) 949-9292
(301) 320-2104
MIX
Mon–Fri
Mon–Fri
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
All
All
All
7:30a–4:00p
5:00p–10:00p
Reasonable
6:00p–9:00p
24 hours
PRINTERS—HP LASERJET
Craig Cornell
Jeff Levitan
Rich Schinnell
HW Conference
(703) 838-6898
(202) 606-2876
(301) 924-1968
(301) 924-1968
(301) 949-9292
MIX
Craig Cornell
Mark Gollub
Haytham Najjar
Sam Penner
(301) 670-6349 All
(301) 460-6798 Mon–Fri 9:00a–6:00p
(703) 838-6898
(301) 670-6349
(301) 460-6798
(301) 468-1210
Mon–Fri
All
Mon–Fri
All
9:00a–6:00p
R&R RELATIONAL REPWRITER
Earl Gershenow
(301) 504-0626 Mon–Fri 10:00a–5:00p
(301) 299-2943 All
9:00p–11:00p
RBBS-PC
POWER BASIC
Donald Palomaki
24 hours
Mon–Fri
Mon–Fri
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
All
All
Ken Goosens
SYSOP Conference
(703) 978-4339 All
MIX
All
6:00p–9:00p
24 hours
REXX PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
Keith Bennett
Bruce Kriebel
Shmuel Metz
ADV Conference
OS2TECH
Conference
REXX Conference
(301) 871-7696
(703) 524-6694
(703) 524-6694
(703) 256-4764
(703) 256-4764
(703) 256-4764
MIX
All
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
Mon–Th
Sat
Sun
All
6:00p–9:00p
10:00a–4:00p
6:00p–9:00p
Sunset–9:00p
24 hours
MIX
MIX
All
All
24 hours
24 hours
(703) 620-2776
(301) 593-3505
(301) 593-3505
MIX
All
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
All
8:00p–10:00p
Evenings
Reasonable
24 hours
SCSI
7:30a–4:00p
5:00p–10:00p
Reasonable
6:00p–9:00p
24 hours
Mike Focke
Doug Wagner
HW Conference
SLMR
David Chessler
PROCOMM PLUS (DOS & WINDOWS)
Ken Goldman
COMM Conference MIX
All
24 hours
(301) 229-3984 All
7:00p–10:00p
SYSTEM DESIGN
Rich Schinnell
ADV Conference
(301) 949-9292 All
MIX
All
6:00p–9:00p
24 hours
63
MEMBER
PHONE
DAYS
TIME
E-MAIL
TELEMAGIC (DOS & WINDOWS)
Blair Reischer
(202) 429-2714 All
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
Mon–Fri
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
All
All
All
All
[email protected]
[email protected]
11:00p–5:00a
7:30a–4:00p
5:00p–10:00p
Reasonable
6:00p–9:00p
24 hours
24 hours
UNIX
Craig Cornell
Hasan Diwan
(301) 365-9569 Mon–Fri 11:00p–5:00a
Mark Pankin
Howard Weeks
COMM Conference
WIN Conference
Edward H. Jentsch
(703) 481-6776 All
MIX
All
Reasonable
24 hours
(703) 354-3114 All
Reasonable
[email protected]
(301) 365-9569
(301) 365-9569
(703) 476-0020
(301) 983-5905
(703) 481-6776
MIX
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
All
Mon–Fri
All
All
11:00p–5:00a
Reasonable
24 hours
Michael A. Gabor
Ken Goldman
Robert Simanski
WIN Conference
All
All
All
Mon–Fri
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
All
All
8:00a–11:00a
9:00p–Mn
7:30a–4:00p
5:00p–10:00p
Reasonable
24 hours
WINDOWS 3.1
Guy Durant
Michael A. Gabor
Jeff Levitan
Henry Winokur
WIN Conference
(202) 575-0414
(202) 575-0414
(703) 476-0020
(202) 606-2876
(301) 924-1968
(301) 924-1968
(301) 320-2104
MIX
George McLennan
Henry Winokur
Michael A. Gabor
Jim Kay
Rich Schinnell
Henry Winokur
WIN95 Conference
(301) 365-9569
(301) 365-9569
(703) 476-0020
(301) 206-3261
(301) 949-9292
(301) 320-2104
MIX
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
All
All
All
All
All
11:00p–5:00a
11:00a–9:00p
Reasonable
Reasonable
6:00p–9:00p
Reasonable
24 hours
Mon–Fri
All
Mon–Fri
Mon–Th
10:00a–4:00p
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
WINDOWS NT
Craig Cornell
Jim Kay
John Scott
John Williams
Reasonable
2:00p–6:00p
24 hours
24 hours
(301) 279-0134 All
Reasonable
(703) 354-9839 All
(301) 320-2104 All
8:00a–8:00p
Richard Chused
(202) 662-9067 Mon–Fri 9:00a–5:00p
[email protected]
All
24 hours
WORDPERFECT
Arnie Kuzmack
(301) 949-3268 Mon–Fri 7:30p–10:30p
(301) 949-3268 Sat–Sun Nn–10:30p [email protected]
[email protected]
(301) 598-2825 All
Reasonable
(301) 657-8862 Mon–Fri 7:00p–9:00p
MIX
All
24 hours
Wayne Dernoncourt
[email protected]
Hasan Diwan
(301) 365-9569 Mon–Fri 11:00p–5:00a
Ken Goldman
Jeff Levitan
Howard Weeks
WIN Conference
WP Conference
(301) 983-5905
(202) 606-2876
(301) 924-1968
(301) 924-1968
(301) 924-0400
MIX
MIX
Mon–Fri
Mon–Fri
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
Mon–Fri
All
All
7:30a–4:00p
5:00p–10:00p
Reaonable
2:00p–6:00p
24 hours
24 hours
WORDPERFECT 5+
Rich Schinnell
WP Conference
(301) 949-9292 All
MIX
All
6:00p–9:00p
24 hours
WORDSTAR
Steve Workings
(301) 933-3832 All
All
9:00a–Mn
24 hours
WORLD WIDE WEB
Harold Goldstein
Walt Houser
Edward Kachinske
(301) 365-9569
(301) 365-9569
(202) 966-9091
(301) 299-0593
(888) 358-5194
Mon–Fri
Sat–Sun
All
All
All
11:00p–5:00a
11:00a–9:00p
Reasonable
7:00p–10:00p
24 hours
Harold Goldstein
Edward Kachinske
(202) 966-9091 All
(888) 358-5194 All
Reasonable
24 hours
XYWRITE
(703) 838-6898
(301) 206-3261
(202) 686-3373
(301) 587-1720
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
WORLD WIDE WEB CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
David Lawsky
(202) 364-1944 All
Reasonable
Erwin Schmerling (301) 587-1283 Mon–Fri 7:00p–9:30p
All
24 hours
ThinkQuest Is Coming!
http://www.advanced.org/ThinkQuest/
64
[email protected]
WORD MS (DOS & WINDOWS)
Hasan Diwan
WINDOWS 95
Hasan Diwan
All
Mon–Fri
All
All
WORDPERFECT (DOS & WINDOWS)
WINDOWS
Hasan Diwan
(703) 524-0937
(301) 924-0400
MIX
MIX
E-MAIL
WORDPERFECT (5.XX & 6.0 DOS)
WHICH & WHY—DECISION SUPPORT
John Bender
TIME
WORD FOR WINDOWS 97
Matt Pecori
Roy Rosfeld
Alan Scher
WP Conference
(301) 949-9292 All
6:00p–9:00p
(301) 587-1283 Mon–Fri 7:00p–9:30p
VENTURA PUBLISHER
Robert Simanski
DTP Conference
DAYS
WORD 6.0/7.0 FOR WINDOWS
UTILITIES
Rich Schinnell
Erwin Schmerling
PHONE
WINFAX PRO
Reasonable
TROUBLESHOOTING—GENERAL
Wayne Dernoncourt
Hasan Diwan
(301) 365-9569
(301) 365-9569
Jeff Levitan
(202) 606-2876
(301) 924-1968
(301) 924-1968
Rich Schinnell
(301) 949-9292
Henry Winokur
(301) 320-2104
HELP Conference
MIX
HW Conference
MIX
MEMBER
[email protected]
[email protected]
Member Information eXchange (MIX) Bulletin Board System
The Member Information eXchange (MIX) is the CPCUG’s bulletin board system. Set your comm program for
8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, and call (301) 738-9060 (metro area), (301) 220-0543 (Md. non-metro), or
(703) 319-0069 (Va. non-metro). Multiple family members can use their family’s CPCUG membership number to
register on the MIX under their own names. To join a conference on the MIX, enter J at the menu.
Special Interest Conferences
Name
_____
Num
_____
ACCESS
ADV
ALPHA4
ASTRO
ATT
BASIC
83
4
5
6
7
9
BBS
C
CDROM
CODE
COMDEX
COMM
10
14
15
16
84
17
CONSULT
DELPHI
DISABLE
DISK
18
85
20
21
DOS
DTP
EDUC
FLAME
FOX
22
23
24
82
26
FRAMEWK 27
FUTURE
GAMES
GARDEN
28
29
86
GRAPHIC
HAM
HTML
HW
INVEST
LAN
30
31
95
33
34
35
LAPTOP
LAW
MAC
MEDICAL
MONEY
NETDEV
NETS
36
37
38
39
44
94
46
NUMBER
OOPS
51
53
OS2APP
54
OS2GEN
55
OS2TECH
56
PARADOX
PEACH
PHOTO
PRETEEN
REALEST
57
58
87
60
61
REXX
63
ROOTS
64
SCHOLAR 65
SENIORS
SHARE
SPREAD
89
66
67
Description
___________
Moderator(s)
____________
MicroSoft Access DBMS
Advanced users/programmers
Alpha Four data base
PC applications in astronomy
AT&T PC 6300 and related machines
BASIC programming language
Rick Shaddock
Jack Fong
Steve Workings
Walter Nissen
Donald Palomaki
Ray Metler
Donald Palomaki
Bulletin Board Listings and Info
Mike Focke
C/Unix
Fran Horvath
CD-ROMs for PCs
Fran Horvath
Source code repair shop
Fran Horvath
COMDEX info
Rod Wright
Communications
Fred Holmes
Gerhard Postpischil
PC consultants information exchange Lori Austin
Delphi Discussion
Walter White
Use of PCs by disabled people
Lloyd Rasmussen
Hard disks; opticals; floppies;
Mike Focke
controllers
Doug Wagner
MS-DOS; DR DOS; etc.
Charlie Dunbar
Desktop publishing on the PC
Jelks Cabaniss
Computers in education
Ross Lenet
Anything goes in FLAME!
None
FoxPro; FoxPlus; FoxBase; etc.
David Crooks
Patrick Finucane
Framework integrated software
Wayne Dernoncourt
package
Bill Redisch
Future of personal computers
Joe Gilvary
Games
Bill Larkins
Home and Garden
KC Shore
Lynne Sturtz
Graphics
Gerhard Postpischil
Computers in amateur radio
Rick White
Web page development
Bill Lathom
Hardware
Jack Fong
Investments
Warren Sanborn
Local area networks
Stanley Naudus
Susan Ellsworth
Laptop PCs
Bob Morrison
Laws/regulations affecting PCs
Seth Greenstein
Apple Macintosh
Bob Morrison
Medical applications
Bill DeRoche
Financial applications such as Quicken Gene Gould
Internet development
Walt White
Internet; CapAccess and other
Bill Lathom
public networks
Henry Noble
PC applications in number theory
Arnie Kuzmack
Object Oriented Programming
Jack Fong
Systems
Technical discussion of OS/2
Patrick Zilliacus
applications
Rod Wright
Herb Tyson
General discussion of OS/2
Herb Tyson
operating system
Patrick Zilliacus
Rod Wright
Technical discussion of OS/2
Rod Wright
operating system
Herb Tyson
Patrick Zilliacus
Paradox data base package
Mark Kantrowitz
Peachtree accounting software
Norman Risch
Photography & Computers
Mike Stein
For Kids under 13
Real estate discussion
Stan Doore
Larry McGoldrick
REXX Programming Language
Use of PCs in genealogy
George Archer
For writers; researchers; scholars;
David Chessler
journalists; humanists; others beyond Fred Holmes
the mechanics of word processing
For Senior Citizens
Jack Carlson
Shareware
Larry McGoldrick
All the various spreadsheet programs Bill Landau
Special Interest Conferences (continued)
Name
_____
Num
_____
Description
___________
SQL
68 SQL and RDBMS
STAT
SYSOPS
TEENS
TRAVEL
UNIX
WIN
WIN95
WINNT
69
70
71
88
73
77
90
78
WORDS
79 Word processing
WP
80 WordPerfect
XBASE
XFIRE
81 dBASE and Related
41 Debate on many topics
Moderator(s)
____________
Alok Nigam
Walter White
Doug Wagner
Michael Kane
Gregory Oshel
Gene Gould
Alan McConnell
Larry McGoldrick
Jeff Peters
Susan Ellsworth
Charles Kelly
Robert Oshel
Bob Morrison
Bob Morrison
Robert Oshel
Jelks Cabaniss
Patrick Zilliacus
Statistics
BBS in General
13 and Up
Travel Discussion
Unix, Linux, etc.
Windows
Windows 95
Windows NT
CPCUG Service Conferences
Name
_____
Num
____
Description
___________
BUYING
13
Buying Group
CPCUG
19
MEMBER 40
General comments &
suggestions re CPCUG
Membership questions/complaints
MIX
Comments on this MIX system
42
Moderator(s)
___________
MONITOR 45
Monitor comments and suggestions
NOTICE
47
TRAIN
72
Notices of CPCUG activities (see also
NOTICEG for non-CPCUG activities)
Information about CPCUG training
seminars
VOL
75
Volunteers
WATSON 76
CPCUG’s Watson voice response
system
Chip Dodge
George McLennan
Paul Shapiro
Rich Schinnell
Terrence Miller
Randy Steer
Lynne Sturtz
Michael Kane
Bill Feidt
Rich Schinnell
Barbara Conn
Michael Kane
Richard Biffl
Rich Schinnell
Joel Jacobson
Greg Smith
Lynne Sturtz
Fred Holmes
Sondra Katz
Fran Horvath
General Interest Conferences
Name
_____
Num
_____
ADS
1
ADSC
2
ADSGEN
3
BALT
8
HELP
32
MIXNET 150
NOTICEG 48
NOVA
NOVICE
REFER
5
49
62
VENEXP
74
Description
___________
Moderator(s)
____________
Computer related ads,
NON-commercial
Computer related ads,
commercial
Non-computer related ads
Baltimore SIG
Help
Internet E-mail
General Notices
Patrick Zilliacus
Wayne Dernoncourt
Wayne Dernoncourt
Patrick Zilliacus
Wayne Dernoncourt
Bill Lutz
Mike Focke
SYSOP
Gabriel Goldberg
Fred Holmes
Charles Kelly
Bill Landau
Northern Virginia SIG
Help for Novices
Requests for referrals for paid
assistance
Experience with local and
mail order vendors
Chris De Francisci
Patrick Zilliacus
65
Directions to CPCUG HQ Meeting Room and Office
51 Monroe Street
Plaza East Two
Rockville, MD 20850-2421
(301) 762-9372
By Metrorail
Take the Red Line to the Rockville station. Before 6:30PM on weekdays, go left
via the west exit, up two floors to the B
level, and across the enclosed walkway
toward Rockville Center, over
Hungerford Drive/Rockville Pike
(Route 355). Go into the first entrance to
the building on the left (51 Monroe
Street) and bear left.
On weekends, and after 6:30PM on weekdays, go left to the west exit, up one
flight to the street level, then diagonally
left to the traffic signal at the corner of
Monroe Street and Rockville Pike. Walk
up Monroe Street one-half block (toward
the Judicial Center). 51 Monroe will be on
your right, with a red canopy over the
sidewalk at the entrance to the building.
If the doors to the building are not open,
call 018 on the phone to the right (or look
for CPCUG on the directory by the
phone). If someone is already there, you
will be buzzed in. Take an elevator up to
the Plaza (Lobby) level. Go left after
exiting the elevator, go through the glass
door, and proceed down the corridor.
Plaza East Two is past the rest rooms and
near the end of the corridor on the left.
By Auto
Driving north on I-270, be sure to be in
the right-hand local lanes. Take Exit 5, marked Rockville Town Center-Potomac, for Falls Road, Route 189. Stay in the righthand lane of the exit ramp so that you drive east on Maryland Avenue. At the third traffic light, turn right on Fleet Street.
Turn left at the next traffic light, onto Monroe Street. Go 2 blocks and take the second right (still Monroe St.). Enter the
garage by the red awning with 51 Monroe written on it.
From (Route 355) North (Gaithersburg area)—Go toward Rockville on Route 355. Go past the Hechinger’s. Near the
Rockville Metro Station, get into the right lane. Turn right (west) onto Monroe Street. 51 Monroe Street is immediately on
your right (the high-rise building with a red awning over the entranceway). The parking garage is under the building to the
right of the entrance.
From (Route 355) South—Go north on Rockville Pike toward Rockville Center. Bear left onto Route 28 (follow signs for
Route 270). Go one block on Route 28 toward the west. Turn right (north) onto Monroe Street. (There is a Potomac Valley
Bank on the left side at the corner.) Go one block to the stop sign. Proceed on Monroe Street to the right around the corner.
51 Monroe Street is immediately on your left (highrise building with the red awning over the entranceway). The parking
garage is under the building to the right of the entrance.
Parking fees are collected until midnight on weekdays and from 3:00 to 11:00PM on Saturdays. Bring your parking ticket with you
to the office to get it stamped. Otherwise, you will have to pay the hourly rate when you leave the garage. If the doors to the
building are not open, call 018 on the phone to the right (or look for CPCUG on the directory by the phone). If someone is
already there, you’ll be buzzed in. Take an elevator up to the Plaza (Lobby) level. Go left after exiting the elevator, go through the
glass door, and then proceed down the corridor. Plaza East Two is past the rest rooms and near the end of the corridor on the left.
66
Directions to NIH
CPCUG General Meetings Are Held in the Masur Auditorium
and FREE Saturday Seminars Are Held in the Lipsett Amphitheater
of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
By Auto
Take the Wisconsin Avenue
south exit off the Beltway. Go
south on Wisconsin Avenue
(Rockville Pike) about one
mile. Turn right at the third
light onto Wilson Drive. Go to
the stop sign and turn right
onto Center Drive. Follow
Center Drive as it curves
around to the left. Turn left
onto Memorial Drive and then
immediately right into the
entrance to the garage.
By Metrorail to NIH
Take the Red Line to the
Medical Center stop. Building
10 is approximately four
blocks across the NIH campus.
(See map.)
Directions to Washington Gas
Some Virginia SIG meetings, including Internet, Multimedia,
Virginia, Visual Basic, and OS/2 (VA), are held at
Washington Gas at 6801 Industrial Road, Springfield, VA.
Industrial Road is in the Shirley Industrial Park. It intersects
Backlick Road between the Beltway and Edsall Road.
I-395
Take Exit 2, Edsall Road (Route 648) West
Turn left on Backlick Road (Route 617)
After approximately 0.7 mile, turn left on
Industrial Road
Enter Washington Gas parking lot on right
after passing sign with white lettering on
black background, “Payment Depository”
Beltway
Outer
Loop
(South)
Take Exit 5, Braddock Road (Route 620) East
After approximately 1.8 miles, turn right on
Backlick Road (Route 617)
After approximately 0.7 mile, turn left on
Industrial Road
Enter Washington Gas parking lot on right
after passing sign with white lettering on
black background, “Payment Depository”
FROM
DC
Take the 14th Street Bridge
Continue with I-395 directions
Beltway
Inner
Loop (North)
Take I-395 North
Continue with I-395 directions
67
Membership Form
Send To:
Notes for Newcomers
Capital PC User Group, Inc.
Plaza East Two
51 Monroe Street
Name
Address
City/State/ZIP
Telephone (Evening)
Telephone (Day)
Member Number
q New Membership
q 1 year—$35
q Renewal
q 2 years—$65
q Change of Address
q 3 years—$90
(Outside the U.S., dues are $50 per year)
q My company name in bold in line 1 of address in membership directory—$10
Charge fees to my:
q VISA q MasterCard
Card Number
Expiration Date
Signature (required for credit cards):
List name in membership directory
q Yes
q No
Name and address information from membership directory may
be made available to computer-related businesses as approved by
the Editor. Most often the list is released to vendors desiring to
announce their General Meeting presentations. If you do not wish
to be included in the directory, mark the appropriate box above.
Note—If paying by credit card, the Membership Form may be
faxed to (301) 762-9375.
Index of Advertisers
David Thomas Agro............................................40
Cyber Exchange....................................................41
Darby Digital Communications, Inc. ..............41
Enar Enterprises ...................................................40
Hamilton Programs .............................................40
Millkern Communications, Inc. .......................15
Symantec ...............................................................31
Technology Advancement Group.......................1
TeraTech ................................................................C4
The Internet Access Company .........................C2
Video Labs Corporation .....................................40
68
The Capital PC User Group, Inc., a support
organization for users of personal computers,
was established in 1982. Although the group
serves primarily the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, members are located all over the
world.
The Capital PC User Group provides a
forum for the exchange of information and
experience by PC users. Activities include a
telephone helpline, e-mail, a monthly meeting,
a shareware software library, educational seminars, a monthly magazine, the MIX electronic
bulletin board system (BBS), and Special
Interest Groups (SIGs) for areas of specialized
interest. Annual dues are $35; for two years,
dues are $65; for three years, $90. International
dues are $50 a year. Of this, $5 is for a subscription to the Monitor.
To become a member, please fill out the
membership form and send it, along with a
check for your dues, to Capital PC User
Group, Plaza East Two, 51 Monroe Street,
Rockville, MD 20850-2421. Please be patient.
Your membership starts with the first magazine
mailed to you. It may take 4–6 weeks before
you are included on the mailing list or receive
your membership card.
For General Meeting information, call (301)
762-9372, Monday through Friday, 10AM to 3PM.
General Meetings are held on the second
Monday of each month in the Masur
Auditorium, on the first floor of the Clinical
Center (Building 10), at the National Institutes
of Health (NIH). The main entrance is on
Center Drive; an underground parking garage
is located off Memorial Drive.
The format for each meeting is:
6:15PM: Membership registration,
Monitor sales, and software
library disk sales and
information.
7:00PM: SIG presentation or general
Q&A.
8:00PM: General Meeting main
presentation. All other activities
close.
9:15PM: After some meetings, SIG representatives are available to discuss SIG activities. Others may
be available to answer the questions of computer novices. The
locations will be announced
during the meeting.
Help the
Capital PC User Group
Expand Its Program for
Young Computer Scientists
Designate Number 7784
(Capital PC User Group)
For Your Tax-Deductible Contribution
to the
Combined Federal Campaign
of the
National Capital Area
CPCUG makes awards to middle and high school students
whose science fair projects in computer technology and related
fields are selected by volunteer CPCUG judges. Increased
Combined Federal Campaign funding means more money for
prizes, more award winners, and CPCUG coverage of more
local science fairs.
In 1997, CPCUG awarded $50 savings bonds, Special
Recognition plaques, and 1-year CPCUG memberships to 18
student winners, and Recognition certificates to 9 additional
student winners. CPCUG judges covered and awarded prizes
at 10 science fairs in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of
Columbia.
ext. 1227
Capital PC User Group
51 Monroe Street
Plaza East Two
Periodicals Postage
paid
at Rockville, MD

Monitor - Capital Personal Computer User Group (CPCUG)

Transcription

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