Oct / Nov

Transcription

Oct / Nov

Mel or
Corel or...??
Either Mel Orecklin will present
the latest
Tid Bits N Bytes
from the
U.S. Robotics’ Jamie Cutburth
Visits in October
HOT
games
or Corel will present its WP8 Suite
November 19, 1998
WINNIPEG PC USER GROUP, INC.
A Charter Member of the Association of PC User Groups (APCUG)
VOLUME 17
NUMBER 2/3
OCT/NOV, 1998
80XXX
1. It’s time for User Group elections again at our Annual Meeting in October. All voting
members are eligible to run in the elections and ALL positions are open. George Bowman and Brian Lowe are NOT running for the positions of President and Executive Secretary, respectively.
2. General meetings are held at the Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute, Jubilee
Auditorium, 181 Riverton. Meetings start at 7 p.m. The facility is wheelchair accessible.
3. The October General Meeting (Thursday, October 15th) will feature a presentation of
the latest communications technology by Jamie Cutburth, Sales Program Specialist
from 3Com. You’ll get info about the new v.90 U.S. Robotics modems and other great
3Com products. This is the first visit by USR/3Com to our User Group so please attend!
4. The November General Meeting will be held on Thursday, November 19th at MBCI.
Mel Orecklin will show us the latest games on the market and other items that might
make festive gifts OR Corel will demo its WordPerfect 8 Suite OR ??????.
5. A special H-E-L-L-O to all the high school students who will receive our newsletter this
month. We’d love to see some of you attend our October meeting! We aren’t a bunch of
“old fogies” even though our hair might be a bit grey!
6. This month the newsletter was mailed out “in house” to save the UG some $$. You too
could participate in this fun event. Contact Art Cavenagh for details!
7. If you haven’t made your initial $28.50 (incl. PST/GST) deposit towards our Internet service, bring along your VISA or MASTERCARD to this meeting. You can also enroll by
charging it to your “plastic” by opening the door called INTRNET on the BBS. Renewal of
your User Group membership can also be made through the BBS using your credit card.
Just open the door JOINUG and follow the on screen instructions.
Winnipeg PC User Group, Inc.
Volume 17, Number 2/3, Page 2
October/November 1998
T
he Winnipeg PC User Group, Inc. is a non-profit organization formed to provide those with an interest in
the IBM Personal Computer or compatible computer,
with an opportunity to come together and otherwise assist
one another in the use and understanding of these computers.
The group serves as a forum to exchange ideas, to discuss the
latest developments, and share information.
♦♦♦♦♦♦
This periodical is published monthly for the purpose of advising members of the various group activities and sharing of
information between other similar User Groups around the
world. It is mailed by bulk mail to all members of the group
and to all other User Groups who reciprocate with a copy of
their newsletter.
♦♦♦♦♦♦
The group is not affiliated with any commercial organization
and receives no financial support other than through membership dues and paid advertising in the periodical. The officers
are volunteers and only receive the following benefits: they
learn more about their computer; gain satisfaction from having helped others and meet many people with common interests and problems.
♦♦♦♦♦♦
Group By-Laws describing the purpose of the group, can be
obtained from the Executive Secretary at no cost.
♦♦♦♦♦♦
Membership Information can be obtained from the Membership Secretary, explaining the various benefits of membership.
♦♦♦♦♦♦
Monthly Meetings are held on the 3rd Thursday of each
month. The Executive meets on the 2nd Thursday. Volunteers for many activities are always needed.
WPCUG ONLINE sERVICES
Winnipeg PCUG BBS
Elected Officers for the election year ending Oct. 1998:
Home Phone
President
George Bowman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 2658
Past President
Roger Buchanan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475 2936
Vice Pres.
Jon Phillips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 888 9180
Treasurer
Perry Exley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488 6830
Membership
Art Cavenagh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 888 1432
Exec. Sec.
Brian Lowe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478 3561
Online Serv. Mgr.
Michael Kendrick (acting) . . . . . . . . . . . TBA
Newsletter
Paul Stephen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 2810
Shawn Zayac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 9230
Group-Buyer
Greg McClure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 942 3301
Advertising Mgr.
Bert Gutzmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 932 3357
Forum Coordinator John Kesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489 7617
(Please do not call executive members after 9 P.M.)
Home Phone
George Bowman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 2658
Program
BBS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 958-7280 (28.8 kbps)
Resource Centre “Voice Line” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 958 7228
Resource Centre “FAX Line” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 958 7229
*** N E W S L E T T E R ***
Editor
Co-editor
Home Phone
Paul Stephen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 2810
Shawn Zayac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 9230
Res. Centre Mgr.
Bert Gutzmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 932 3357
Contributors To This Issue:
L. Loh, B. Randle, G. McClure, G. Bowman, B. Lowe, B. Gutzmann, S. Vincze,
N. Longmuir (photos), D. Gonse (our cartoonist), J. Kesson and P. Stephen.
Deadline & Ad Sizes
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COPYRIGHT POLICY & LIABILITY WAIVER
This
publication
is
(C)opyright,
Winnipeg
PC
User
Group,
Inc.,
Ad. Size
1998. The reprinting in another publication, of original material appearing in this newsletter must give credit to the Winnipeg PC User
Group Inc. and to any author indicated. Such material may be reprinted at no cost, but a copy of the publication in which it has
been reprinted must be provided at no cost to the Winnipeg. PC
User Group Inc. Some images copyright www.arttoday.com.
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Views and opinions expressed are those of the author indicated (or
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The
group, contributors, and the editor of this newsletter do not assume any liability for damages arising out of the publication or
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Members entitled to one FREE Ads 4 (42 Char.)
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Contents Of This Issue
Mailing Addresses
General Correspondence:
Membership:
Attn: Exec. Sec.
Attn: Membership Secretary
Page
Advertisers
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Winnipeg PC User Group Inc.
P.O.Box 3149
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3C 4E6
Yearly Membership Dues:
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Controlled Escape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mel OR Corel in November . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
OEM Hardware and Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The President’s Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Print House Magic 3.0 — Canadian Eh!! . . . . . . .
Elections in October . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Generic Internet Exec Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . .
Group Meeting Schedule / Coming Attractions . . . . .
For Better or for Worse — Windows 9X . . . . . . . .
Two Remarkable Members of the
Winnipeg PC User Group . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Infoselect 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
UPDATE: Important Changes to Our Internet Service
V.90 Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Report of the August 1998 General Meeting
of the Winnipeg PC User Group . . . . . . . . . . .
Preview Enfish Technology’s Tracker Pro! . . . . . .
A Deal from Aladdin Software . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The ATI Rage128 Launch and User Group Retreat . .
The Olympus D500L Digital Camera . . . . . . . . . .
WPCUG Finances and Membership . . . . . . . . . . .
The BUG Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Report of the September General Meeting . . . . . . .
Winnipeg PC User Group Forums . . . . . . . . . . . .
Internet Access Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Items This Month
Periodical Exchange & Review Software:
Paul Stephen
401-1025 Grant Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3M 1Y4
Junior Membership(under age 18)
Adult Membership . . . . . . . .
Associate Membership . . . . . .
Corporate Membership . . . . . .
Cache Computers — Welcome Back!
Dave’s Quick Print . . . . . . . . . . .
Healey Visual Inc. . . . . . . . . . . .
Tellier Electronics . . . . . . . . . . .
Winnipeg PC User Group ISP . . . . .
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$49.95
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. $125
With an adult membership you receive one copy of our periodical and any member of your family (age 12 and under)
may attend the UG meetings. After an adult membership has
been purchased, additional associate memberships may be
purchased which include a BBS ID, draw ticket, but no periodical. A corporate membership entitles you to two copies
of the periodical and any member(s) of your organization
may attend our general meetings. Ask Art Cavenagh for further details.
Periodical Submissions
The editor will accept almost anything you wish to contribute. Short
submissions may be in any form whatsoever.
Longer submissions should be made on 5.25/3.5" floppy disks or
uploaded to our BBS. Files must be zipped before uploaded. If you
use the BBS, send a message to Paul Stephen, and use the SA
(save attachment command) to attach the file to the message.
Other acceptable formats include: WordStar 3.x—5.0, WordPerfect
4.x—5.1, Word 4.0, XyWrite and ASCII. If you use one of the above
wordprocessors, DO NOT put blank lines between paragraphs or attempt to “format” your text!
The Periodical
Toolbox
This periodical is produced using the following software and
hardware tools:
WordPerfect 5.1 (donated by the WordPerfect Corporation),
WordStar 4.0, Corel Publisher, HiJaak (donated by Inset Systems), Adobe PostScript Cartridge (donated by Adobe Systems), HP Series 4M LaserJet.
A special friend of this User Group is Corel Systems which
has provided us with CorelDRAW! and and an entire CDROM system. Thanks to its CEO, Dr. Michael Cowpland!
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Healey Visual Inc.
891 Wall Street
Winnipeg, MB R3T 2T9
(204) 772-9638 FAX (204) 772-9645
http://www.healey.mb.ca
1-888-432-5390
ITS EASY TO HAVE IT
ALL WITH THE IN
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brilliance second to none, theres
really only one choice -- the In
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Winnipeg PC User Group Members!
Receive a 30% discount on any rental of LCD equipment
Supplier of LCD Presentation Equipment
to the Winnipeg PC User Group Monthly Meeting
Controlled Es ape
c
✍ by Paul Stephen
[email protected]
W
hen I left you, the leaves were turning green — now
they’re turning red and falling — why does time fly
so fast!
In the interim, I’ve decided to upgrade to a 400 MHz system,
with 128 megs of RAM, a 21" Optiquest monitor and ATI’s
All-in-Wonder Pro 8 meg AGP graphics card. I’ve also purchased USR’s Voice Faxmodem Pro 56K external modem
(true v.90). Have I lost my mind! I don’t think so, but after
getting the results of the UG Survey, I felt like I was driving
a Model-T while the rest of you were driving Porsches! Of
course, this system will soon become obsolete as well — I
just hope it will serve me for 5-6 years.
The motherboard in my system (ASUS P2B-D) supports dual
CPUs and has PS/2 input ports for the keyboard and mouse.
My current keyboard is Northgate’s 102 Omnikey which
has an AT input plug. Fortunately, Jon Phillips, whose company Vistorm Systems put this system together for me, is
got me an AT > PS/2 adapter so I can keep on using my
Northgate. PC Computing magazine (now 10 years old) did
a retrospective of the best and worst computer products during the lifespan of their publication and they had this to say
about the Northgate keyboard: If there was a company that
inspired loyaty in its customers, it was Northgate. It made a
keyboard so good that even now, years after the company’s
demise, you can find loyal users who buy, sell, and discuss
the products on line. As one devotee said to another recently:
‘You can have my Northgate keyboard when you pry it from
my cold, dead fingers.’ I second that emotion!
Viewsonic/Optiquest Repair Depot Returns to Winnipeg!
If you’ve been holding back on the purchase of a Viewsonic
or Optiquest monitor because there was no authorized warranty repair depot in Winnipeg — good news! Viewsonic has
now appointed the National Electronic Service Association
at 1580 Erin to be their repair depot.
Jon Phillips has been “bugging” Viewsonic about this matter
for quite some time. Yours truly fired off a fax to them complaining about this deficiency about three weeks before the
announcement was made. Hey — maybe computer companies do listen!
A Surprise E-Mail
We all like to get surprises. How’d you like to find the following in your e-mail “in box”?
You’re invited to ATI’s User Group Retreat
Greetings!
ATI would like to invite you to a Press Tour and User Group
Retreat. ATI is launching its next generation technology at a
worldwide media event in Toronto August 27th, 1998!
I guess you’d get pretty excited. Me too — even although I
couldn’t attend! Brian Lowe was sent as our ambassador and
will be reporting on the event elsewhere in the newsletter.
There were only about 14 UG reps invited to this affair and
the WPCUG was the only Canadian UG on the list (other
than the Toronto PCUG).
The person who organized the retreat for ATI was Steve
Bass, the president of the Pasadena IBM PC Users Group.
Steve writes the @Home column for PC World magazine.
We’d met at COMDEX and exchanged e-mail over the years
so I guess that’s why I was on his list.
All UG attendees received ATI’s “All-in-Wonder Pro” 8 meg
graphics card (with a choice of the PCI or AGP version). ATI
felt so sorry that I couldn’t attend the event that they sent me
one too. Brian has commented on the PCI version of the
board in his article. I’ll give you my thoughts on the AGP
version when I get it installed in my new system.
The Newsletter Wins An Intergalactic Award
Our electronic newsletter was entered in the New York
PCUG’s Intergalactic 11 newsletter contest— part of the
PC Expo show back in June. In the Electronic Newsletter
contest we won for “Taking Advantage of PDF Facilities”.
You can see all the winners of the website and newsletter
co mp etitions by going to: http://www.catalog.com/cgibin/var/nypc/index.htm.
A Win31 Warm Boot on WCCO
In May, I was watching a broadcast of the weekend edition
of Access Hollywood on WCCO (in fact it was the last
broadcast of that show on that station — it has “moved” to
KARE. It was around 2:30 a.m and I was dozing away on
my chesterfield when it appeared to me that I was watching a
warm boot of a PC on my TV screen. Up came the autoexec
file commands and then a load of Win31. Curiosity got the
better of me so I sent e-mail to the station’s manager, Jan
McDaniel. A day later she notified me that she would forward my e-mail to their engineer, Skip Erickson. Here’s his
e-mail to me:
What you saw on Saturday night was indeed a PC warm reboot to Windows 3.1.
We use a PC-based system to automatically format and air
severe weather alerts from the U.S. weather service. Our onair signal passes through this PC and chroma keys the alert
data on our program signal before heading to the transmitter.
Since you were watching that night, you know we’d had some
pretty wild winds and storms pass through the Twin Cities.
The system stores alerts (and graphics) in RAM and it appears we locked up when we used up all the memory.
The master control operator did the re-boot before she bypassed the auto alert system. When this happens the PC
grabs control of the video card, drops the chroma key function and puts the SVGA output of the PC on the air.
So it was operator error that allowed you to see that Windows screen. It’s nice to know that we’re watched in your
area.....I hope you enjoy our programming.
Now if I’d have sent that e-mail to a local station I likely
wouldn’t have received any answer at all. Kudos to the
friendly folks at WCCO in Minneapolis!
Out of the Past
A few months ago I received an e-mail signed by the VP of a
sports company that has a database on the WWW. Normally I
would have just hit the delete key, but I looked at the name
and it was Debra Gassewitz! For those of you who attended
the first demo of CorelDRAW we ever had (in the Faculty of
Agriculture’s auditorium), Debra was the gal that did the fantastic presentation! She left Corel a few years ago and joined
SIRC (Sport Information Resource Centre). Its URL is:
http://www.sportquest.com.
The job was a perfect fit because (and this was a bit of a
surprise to me) I discovered that she is a professional figure
skating coach. She is now married and has two children. It’s
a small world out there and getting smaller every day as electronic communication brings us all closer together.
A Statistic
CNN’s Fortune television newsmagazine reported in June
that $US1,000 of Microsoft stock purchased in 1986 would
today (June) be worth (from dividends and increased stock
value) — $US257,000!
Rebates
Are rebates driving you nuts! Man, the software/hardware
companies are offering rebates on everything. PC World has
wr itten
a
p iece
on
th ese
programs
at:
http://www.pcworld.com/watch335/rebate.
You can get real deals if you do in fact get your rebate. In
June I sent Neil Longmuir off to Future Shop to buy me
two packages — Corel’s Print House Magic and
Mindscape’s PrintMaster Gold Deluxe. According to the FS
“ad”, these packages were essentially free, once the rebates
were applied. Now old Paul just can’t refuse that sort of bargain <vbg>.
The ad stated that with the Mindscape package there was a
$30 rebate from the manufacturer and a further $10 rebate
from FS. When I looked at the picture of the “box” in the ad,
there appeared to be a US$15 rebate from the manufacturer
— which doesn’t translate to $CAN30. On my actual package, it appeared that this rebate sticker had been removed
from the front of the package. When I opened up the box,
there was a rebate coupon all right — for US$15 which expired in January of 98. I sent Neil off to FS to “complain”,
and I went to the Mindscape website. FS said the rebate had
been changed and the company said in a terse e-mail response that “what’s stated on the coupon is the offer”—
period. Never mind. I sent in the expired coupon and figured
what do I have to lose? And guess what — I received a
cheque in the mail for $US20 (indeed $CAN30) from
Mindscape!
And my other rebates I thought were a sure thing? The Corel
rebate just arrived but I haven’t heard anything from FS.
There are all sorts of deals to be had. Check out the “coupon
rack” at your favorite computer store. You can get a Targus
Backpack free (shipped from Canada) if you’ve bought any
v.90 U.S. Robotics 56K modem or 3Com Megaherz PC card
between August 1, 1998 and September 30, 1998. If you
bought a Windmodem (Model 5683) the offer is good from
June 9th to September 30. I bought my U.S. Robotics
voice/fax modem on June 12th. Sigh — shafted again —
twice — as the price has also dropped substantially since I
purchased it! (You’ve got until Oct. 31 to send in proof of
purchase.)
Webauction.com
As I mentioned above, I purchased Viewsonic’s 21" monitor.
What screen real estate compared to my old 14" screen! In
August, I noticed that webauction.com was having a “tent
sale” of Viewsonic monitors. These monitors were “refurbished” and came with a 1 year warranty. When I first
viewed the webpage, the minimum bid on the 21" monitor
was US$359 plus shipping. Normally this monitor retails at
over CAN$1500!
Was I excited! There were 20 units up for grabs and I thought
I’d get one for sure. Well, as the week progressed the bids
kept increasing — but the action really went wild in the last
hour. The low bid zoomed to $US689, which is still a good
price if you live in the US. But the sad state of our Canadian
dollar and the fact Canadian shipments are only sent by Airborne Express made the purchase impractical. There are
good deals though if you do your research.
Food and Drug *.COM URLs
Have you folks noticed how many URLs are becoming sites
for pills? Viagra.com, tylenol.com, etc.
I went to the kelloggs.com site a few months ago to voice my
displeasure over the “vanilla” taste of their Kelloggs Rice
Krispie squares (I like Westfair’s “No Name” ones better).
Within a few days I got a pleasant e-mail response expressing
regrets about my dissatisfaction with their product and within
2 weeks a coupon arrived in the mail which gave me my
choice of any Kelloggs’ product. The Internet is a great way
to give feedback (positive/negative) about a company’s products.
If you want to download a free game called The Lost Island
of Alanna (unfortunately it appears Canucks can’t order the
CD — I did anyway), head off to cherrycoke.com. Sometimes I wonder about web site designers — the screen says
US residents only and then asks for “Country” on the request
form!
CIBC
The CIBC offered its customers Money 98 on its Internet
banking service two months or so ago. I ordered my copy but
it didn’t arrive. A query brought me a copy within a week.
So, if you are in the same boat, send a piece of e-mail to
Francis Savage at [email protected] and you might still be able
to get a copy too. (CIBC customers only!)
Digital Music Technology
Every time I load a music CD and play a selection I am
amazed that I can access and play any track so easily. I guess
purchase FreeSpace for just $US19.95 until Oct. 31st from
I don’t take technological progress for granted. When it
mijenix.com. If you want the retail box with manual, you’ll
works, computing is fantastic — but when it doesn’t — it’s
pay an additional $US6 for shipping.
hell.
And Now For Something Completely Different
The Internet is essentially a virtual disk drive for us all. AdPaul and Prominent Winnipeggers
vances in compression technology (for all kinds of data
(sound, video) will make our lives even more interesting.
You may ask what this topic has to do with computing.
We’ll be able to make our
Nothing. I just thought you
own custom CDs and downmight be interested in a few
load or listen to our favorite
personal anecdotes.
music from the net. Check
I wonder how many of the
out mp3.com for the latest
readers of this newsletter
in audio compression techknow or are familiar with
niques.
Nick Ternette. Nick has run
There’s a product out there
for mayor, had his own TV
n ow called CD Streamer
show on Videon, and is a
that will give you up to
“regular” on the radio talk
94% compression of digital
shows. Well, folks, believe it
audio! The program uses
or not, Nick Ternette was
Real Audio compression
captain of the bowling team
technology. According to its
I was on at United College.
publisher, SuperPlanet, 30
Watching Nick bowl was a
hours of mu sic can be
real “experience”. If you
stored on 1 gig of hard disk
had a vocabulary that did
space. With the average
not include “expletives” —
song being 3 minutes in
Nick would have given you
length, that means about 600
pretty well the entire list afOpera -- The Browser to Beat?
songs (30-60 CDs) could be
ter your first bowling match.
p ut on an Jaz or SparQ
Nick was a bowling fanatic
platter. And they’d be all
and if he missed the headpin, “XXX###@@@”!
genuine hits of your choosing. You can take a “test drive” of
At the end of the bowling season, our team was told we
this software by heading off to superplanet.com. The softhadn’t made the playoffs. Nick didn’t question the numbers.
ware “lists” for $US34.95, but Real Networks was offering
I did. The numbers were, in fact, incorrect — we made the
it for $US19.95 at this URL:
playoffs, and won the championship. So if you look in the
https://secureforms.real.com/specials/cd/index.html?src=q3_817_cd
1967
United College yearbook (the next year it became the U
only. This offer might have expired by the time you get
of W) you’ll see our picture. Imagine — Paul at a sports
this newsletter. (I bought myself a copy.)
award dinner — it boggles the mind!
Of course I predict that within 20 years CD players will be
And now for a story which involves a fellow whose initials
outdated — information will be delivered/stored on solid
are RM. RM and I stayed in the Graham Hall residence
state devices which won’t require any moving parts. This
during our years at United College.
sort of thing can already be seen in digital cameras and teleAbout six GH residents were students in an economics
phone answering machines. Quantum, I see, is selling solid
course — our instructor was a Professor Mulvaney. Well
state disk drives already. They are expensive and small (1 gig
yours truly was a bit “fearful” of this prof because he seemed
is about the maximum right now) but that will change drato be unpredictable. Of course, most of the other GH resimatically in the years to come.
dents were fearless — missing classes left and right. One
Opera — The Browser to Beat?
morning, I slept in. I rapidly dressed and rushed to the class
Bill Gates has said a lot of things, but when he says that
but realized I would be 10 minutes into the session. Rather
Microsoft is vulnerable to any clever software developer he
than interrupting the class I returned to residence and waited
is right on the money — especially in the relm of browsers.
in my room until lunch.
While the professional talkers/writers keep babbling on about
At about 11:45 a.m. I headed for the cafeteria. One resident
Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator a tiny software
who also attended the economics class met me and said,
group in Norway has been developing Opera, one compact
“Paul, Mulvaney through a surprise test this morning which
and powerful browser. Yes, it does cost you $US35, but it
was worth 50% of the final grade!” “Yikes,”, I thought —
offers some very nifty features not found in the other two
but perhaps this fellow was only joshin’ me. After getting
browsers. You can get a 30 day demo of the product by
lunch I went looking for a table. A bunch of other residents
downloading it from http://www.operasoft.com.
(including the aforementioned RM who was “leader of the
Software Offers
pack”) in unison yelled out, “Hey Paul, you missed a test this
morning!” Panic set in. The fellow I met earlier was not at
There are severeal software offers this month in the newsletthis table — it must be true.
ter. One that arrived at deadline is from Mijenix. You can
Well, that afternoon I went back many times and knocked on
Prof. Mulvaney’s door. No answer.
That evening the brain kicked in. Could it be that these
slackers had all shown up that morning and saw that I
wasn’t there and made up this entire story?
So, I went up and visited one of my “friends” who was in
this class and poured out my heart to him. I really went overboard — the reason being that his roomate didn’t take this
course and I figured he might “spill the beans” to him if there
really was a conspiracy to get me.
He advised me to try contacting Prof. Mulvaney the next
morning. I made like I was leaving, but left the door slightly
ajar. Seconds later a howl of laughter eminated from my
classmate as he told his roomate the details of this joke.
I opened the door and said, “Thanks, Nestor”. Was he disappointed that I’d shot down their practical joke.
Both those folks are lawyers today — and RM — who is
he? None other than Ray McFeetors, CEO of Great-West
Life and whose company is paying me my disability benefits.
I’m a shareholder of GWL and I just received a document
that lists the 1997 salary of Mr. McFeetors — $557,500, a
bonus of $312,500 and stock options. I guess Ray learned a
lot more than me in that economics class! But, hey — can he
set his own font sizes? <har>
Quotes of the Month
To turn $100 into $110 is work. To turn $100 million into
$110 million is inevitable. — Edgar Bronfman. And ain’t
that the truth!
Time is like money — you can only spend it once — CTV’s
Headline News Financial Reporter, J.T. Yaccato. However,
you can earn more money — you can’t earn more time — so
spend that time productively!
And in Conclusion
In one of my e-mail lists, I was advised about a new website
called paulisdead.com. That’s not a URL I can get excited
about!
Don’t forget that its election time in October — and if the newsletter editor position is contested I would appreciate
your support.
Shawn will bring you the December/January newsletter. He has asked me
to notify you that creating an HTML
version of the newsletter from PageMaker is not possible at this time as the
software does not create acceptable
HTML code automatically.
Paul
November Meeting Mel or Corel or..??
At press time, it was learned that Mel Orecklin may not be
able to make his annual GAMES presentation.
Keith Bradley, the President of the Creative Retirement
Computer Group, had asked Corel to make presentations to
both our User Groups. Corel advised Keith that November
was open and so they possibly could fill the empty slot!
However, we asked for a presentation of Corel’s WordPerfect Suite 8. It now comes with Dragon Software’s speech
recognition software so this would make for a very interesting meeting.
At press time, it was not known if this presentation could be
made. Therefore, check your e-mail and the BBS to find out
who will be making a presentation at the November meeting!
OEM Hardware and Software — Beware!
I
✍ by Paul Stephen, Winnipeg PCUG
n my quest for a new system, I included the brand new
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! card as part of my
system. One vendor (who shall remain nameless) listed
the card in his quote and stated it to be an OEM version of
the hardware. The vendor could not tell me what, if any, software shipped with the OEM version of the card, so I decided
to ask Creative Labs. Here’s the reply from the SB Live!
evangelist Chris Owens:
Your question is a good one, but the answer is complicated.
With many of our products, we sell what we call ‘system integrator’ packages. These typically contain 20 units of hardware, and one copy of the installation or drivers software.
Occasionally, we also sell single quantities for the same purpose, in a white box with just drivers and a stripped down
manual. These are intended to be sold with a new system, but
often they aren’t.
It sounds like you are getting a new system, so your dealer is
okay there, but what’s odd is this: We haven’t shipped any
system integrator packages with Sound Blaster Live!.
If I was a betting man, I would guess one of three things is
happening.
1. He may not know what the Sound Blaster Live! is, and
is assuming he can get a system integrator kit.
2.
He may think Sound Blaster Live! is another name for
one of our other products, and may put that other product in your system.
3.
He’s collecting Sound Blaster Live! installation CDs because he’s short on coasters in his home, or needs toys
for his dogs to fetch.
This came off the Firestorm Technology website: Microsoft
Office Pro OEM — Have you seen the great deals some vendors are giving on this product? Here’s the reason — they’re
fake!! Only six OEM’s in the WORLD are authorized to sell
Office Pro to their customers, so unless you’re buying from
one of the big six, you’re being had.
So, make sure you know exactly what you’re getting in terms
of both hardware and software when your friendly local computer dealer specifies it’s an OEM bundle.
The President’s Report
✍ by George Bowman, President Winnipeg PCUG
[email protected]
T
31/99. The move to this new location is expect to take place
his will be my last report to the membership in my
on or around October 15, 1998, The membership
capacity as president of the Group. As I anwill be kept informed as developments in the opnounced at the September meeting on Thurseration of our Internet Service at our new location
day 17th, 1998 I have done another flip in my flipoccur.
flopping on whether to stand for re-election at the
October Annual General Meeting. Due to altered
Your Board of Directors has been busy requesting
circumstances from those which pertained earlier, I
software vendors for copies of their more popular
will not allow my name to stand for re-election.
software for use on our Forum machine at the Resource Centre and by our newsletter editorial staff.
Through the medium of this report I would like to
Such copies would have two uses. First they would
bring to the attention of our membership the time
be available for use by the Forum leaders during
and effort that Karl Strieby has expended in suptheir various forums. Second, members who visit
port of the Group. I refer specifically to the Septhe Resource Centre could try out the features and
tember meeting. Jasc had undertaken to be present
advantages of such software to see if such software
and demonstrate the features of Paint Shop Pro 5.
would be of use to the individual member. A sort of try beThen the North-West Airlines and Air Canada pilots strike
fore you buy. Principally, thus far we have obtained copies of
hit. Jasc was forced to cancel a previous date with a User
Conversions Plus from DataViz, Inc., and Jasc has donated
Group in Ottawa because there simply wasn’t any way for
copies of Paint Shop Pro 5.0. I might point out that the Jasc
them to get there. The Group was warned on the fifteenth of
copies were in addition to those donated as door prizes at the
September that they would likely have to cancel, for the
September monthly meeting. Thanks to DataViz and Jasc for
same reason, and re-schedule their visit and demonstration.
these recent donations.
Karl was asked if he could, on such short notice, give the
presentation that had been planned for the December meetMembership in the User Group is vital for several reasons.
ing. Not only did he agree to do this, he arranged to get the
Principally of course it is the yearly subscription fees of each
seventeenth off from work so he would have time to put the
member which contributes to the cash flow of the Group. At
finishing touches on, and rehearse, his presentation. Then
the last monthly meeting the Membership Secretary’s (Art
Jasc notified the Group on
Cavenagh) figures indicated
Sept. 16th, that they would be
that our current total memberhere in Winnipeg after all, havship is 425 members. This is
ing found some means of getDue to altered circumstances from those down considerably from the
ting here. Karl was told that
530+ members we had exactly
Jasc had said that they would which pertained earlier, I will not allow my one year previous. Art and our
be here, but would he prepare
Treasurer (Perry Exley) have
name to stand for re-election.
his presentation, and be preput together promotional matepared to present it that evening
rial for use by members in rein the event that Jasc’s travel
cruiting new members from
arrangements broke down again. He agreed.
among their friends, acquaintances and employers. Of the 52
envelopes, containing this promotional material, which were
I, along with the rest of the Board of Directors, appreciate
on Art’s table at the meeting, 51 had been picked up by
Karl’s cooperation in this matter. It would have been most
members. As I said to those who attended the meeting, our
embarrassing if we had no presenter for that evening. The
membership can do more to recruit new members than can
shortest monthly meeting of the year would have been the
the Board of Directors — we are much fewer in number so
result. Well done and thanks very much, Karl you are a good
it is heartening that our members are taking the problem of
example of what volunteers can contribute to the smooth opdeclining membership seriously. Congratulations.
eration of our Group.
I wish to take this opportunity to wish the new board, to be
We have signed, or are in the processing of signing, the folelected at the Annual General Meeting, October 17th, every
lowing, in connection with the WPCUG Internet Service: a
success as it tackles the day-to-day and month-to-month acone year contract with MTS Advanced for 512k bandwidth
tivities and problems of the Group’s operation. I particularly
effective Nov. 1/98 through Oct. 31/99 (under this contract
wish every success to my successor, whoever s/he may be, as
we get Oct/98 free); a one year contract with MTS Commuelected by the membership. I will be Past President, a de jure
nications for the T1 connection Oct. 15/98 through Oct.
member of the Board of Directors and thus available for the
31/99; a one year contract with Metronet for 23 Dial In
new president to call upon for advice, particularly in the matLines Oct. 15/98 through Oct. 31/99; a one year lease-to-own
ter of programme arrangements for 1999.
contract with United Leasing for our Bay Networks V90
Server effective July 13/98 through July 13/99; a one year
I also wish to thank the Group for giving me the honour of
lease for our new Internet Service location. We have plans in
being your chosen presiding officer since the extraordinary
motion to contract with Business Networks to supply them
meeting last spring.
with 128k bandwidth effective Oct. 15/98 through Oct.
Print House Magic 3.0 — Canadian Eh!!
P
✍ by Barb Randle, WPCUG
and language writing tools. The suite has
its own Uninstaller and on-line help.
A short Tutorial is included in the printed
manual to help you get started, with step
by step lessons on how to create a simple
project using Print House.
Also in the printed manual are “thumbnail” reproductions of the clipart, fonts,
photos, etc. that your will find on the
CDs. The thumbnails are grouped by cate• Photo House 2
gory and file name.
• Corel Family & Friends
Upon launching Print House or Photo
House, you are advised that your resoluIncluded in the suite are 300 fonts, 25,000
tion must be changed to a minimum of
clipart images, 5,500 photographs, 1,000
800 X 600 if it is currently set at a lower
phrases for greeting cards, 200 backresolution, such as 640 X 480. Clicking
grounds and 150 borders, plus pre-deOK on this message allows the program
signed samples, all of which are accessible
to make the necessary changes to the
from the CDs.
resolution for you, and then opens the
And, if that’s not
“Desktop” view.
enough clipart and
NOTE: If you comphotos to suit your
monly use a resoluneeds, you can order
tion of 640 x 480,
Corel’s add-on proy ou can obtain a
gram called Gallery
free utility from the
Magic with an addiMicrosoft web site
tional 200,000 imcalled
QuickRes,
ages.
(one of the “Power
You can also import
Toys”). QuickRes
clipart and photos
sits on the task bar
from other software
of
yo ur
Winapplications, as well
dows95/98 desktop
as pictures and phoand allows you to
tos you have scanned
change resolutions
and saved in popular
“on the fly” without
formats such as bmp,
h av ing to r esta rt
pcx, g if, jpg and
Windows.
more.
The left pane of the
Imagine — a “For
“Desktop” is called
Sale” sign with your
the “Notebook”, and
mother-in-law’s phothe right pane is the
tograph on it!!
viewing area called
the “Project WinTh e p re -d esigned
dow”, as well as the
sam ples include
The Desktop View in Print House Magic
typical Menu Bar at
Card s, Bann er s,
the top, a ToolBox,
Sign s, Kid Stuff,
a Color Palette, and
Calendars, labels, ena Styles Toolbar.
velopes and more, all of which you can edit to your individual preferences.
The “Notebook” on the left is made up of multiple pages
accessible with a mouse in a hyper-link fashion, and is broThe installation of Print House Magic was simple and
ken down into three main categories: GUIDES, EFstraight forward, allowing for a Typical Install (57MB) which
FECTS/STYLES and CATALOG.
includes all three applications plus 50 True Type fonts, or, the
Custom Install (up to 89MB) which includes additional fonts
From these categories you can access clipart, photos and
rint House Magic by Corel Corporation, is described as “A Powerful
Suite of Applications designed to
help you create exciting printing projects
in no time at all”.
The Print House Magic suite consists of
three individual applications, and comes
on 3 CDs:
• Print House 3
samples with the CATALOG tab; get assistance with your project via the GUIDES
tab; and add special effects and edit your
project with the EFFECTS/STYLES tab.
At this point in Print House the “Project
Window” is blank and the “Notebook” offers you choices to OPEN an existing project, OPEN a sample, START from scratch,
or OPEN the last used project.
As it happened, I had a simple project to
prepare so I chose START from scratch
and created the sign shown below using
Print House. The sign was completed from
start to finish in a very short time, despite
the fact I had never used this program before (a good indication of how intuitive
and user friendly the program is).
Anyone want to buy a Piano? How about a
cute little dog?
As you create your project, by double
clicking or dragging the clipart, photos
and borders into the “Project Window”,
and adding text using the font of your
choice, the screen is updated with each
change or addition, and WYSIWYG
(what you see is what you get) when
printed.
You can view your project in three different ways; Colouring Book, Grey Scale
or Full Colour to help you visualize what
the finished product will look like when printed.
The third application included in the suite is Corel Family &
Friends. This application is basically a PIM, and is included
to keep track of birthdays, anniversaries, addresses, phone
I
Elections in October!
t’s time once again to elect officers to the Winnipeg
PCUG BoD. As usual, ALL positions are open. Members of the current board intending to stand for re-election
include:
Jon Phillips
Vice President
Perry Exley
Treasurer
Art Cavenagh
Membership Secretary
Greg McClure
Group Buyer
Paul Stephen
Newsletter Editor
Shawn Zayac
Newsletter Co-editor
Advertising Mgr.
Bert Gutzmann
Forum Coordinator John Kesson
ISP On Line Mgr.
???
Our President, George Bowman, has given notice that he
will NOT be seeking re-election as President of the User
Group. We need a leader, so any members who wish to take
on this onerous responsibility please step forward!
Brian Lowe has indicated that he too will no longer be running for executive office, leaving the position of Executive
Secretary open.
numbers and events by way of the Calendar
and Address Book. Also included is the List
Book to help you organize information, such
as your CD Collection or books, using records and fields to enter your data.
Overall the Print House Magic suite is very
easy to use, yet powerful enough to create
professional looking and fun projects for the
home user.
In addition to being user-friendly, the suite
is very “price- friendly” as well.
It’s hard to beat a retail selling price of
$29.99 US for this excellent suite of applications from Corel — a real bargain!!
Its big sister, Print House Magic Deluxe,
sells for $45.99 US.
(Price information obtained from the Corel
website).
The minimum requirments for Print
House Magic are:
• 486DX processor
• CD-ROM
• SVGA Monitor
• 800x600 resolution with 256 colors
• 45-89 MB hard disk space
• 8 MB RAM for Windows 95 or
• 12 MB RAM for Windows NT
Support is available via the Internet at www.corel.com, via
phone in Canada at 1-800-772-6735 or 613-728-6891, FAX
on Demand at 613-728-0826 ext 3080, Compuserve and the
Corel BBS.
Generic Internet Exec Addresses
These addresses will always put you in touch with the current
person in charge of various UG activities.
Internet Address
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Current Recipient
George Bowman
Roger Buchanan
Jon Phillips
Brian Lowe
Perry Exley
Art Cavenagh
Bert Gutzmann
Greg McClure
Paul Stephen
Shawn Zayac
Mike Kendrick?
George Bowman
Bert Gutzmann
ISP — Greg McClure
Group Meeting Schedule
Regular meetings are held on the 3rd Thursday (2nd Thurs-
The General Meeting format is as follows:
day in December!) of each month. Mark your calendar now
so you dont miss any of the great sessions that will be
6:30 p.m.
Doors open get acquainted
happening through all of 1998.
7:15 p.m.
MAIN PRESENTATION!!!
Meetings are held in the Mennonite Brethren Collegiate In-
8:30 p.m.
Break
stitute Jubilee Auditorium located at 181 Riverton Ave-
8:50 p.m.
Questions/Answers, Mini-SIGs
nue. Free parking for 150 cars and lots of on street park-
9:30 p.m.
Adjourn
ing. Ramp access for wheelchairs. Call any member of the
executive for more information.
COMING ATTRACTIONS
December: Karl Strieby will demonstrate the HTML web
authoring package called NetFusion.
At press time no presentations had been scheduled for
1999.
Contact the president of our UG ([email protected])
for suggestions on vendor presentations.
Always attend meetings if at all possible. An attendance of
150 or more will mean we can still attract major vendors.
For Better or for Worse — Windows 9X
W
✍ Bert Gutzmann, WPCUG Marketing and Advertising Manager
indows 98 is f inally here, fully integrated with the controversial Internet Explorer.
We
have
used
it
for
several
months now. The question we must ask ourselves is was it
worth the upgrade? Of course new machines shipping now come
with Windows 98 preinstalled. Will the new features interest Win95
users to spend the $125 or so to upgrade? In this article I will discuss some of the new features in Windows 98.
As far as I’m concerned this version of Windows is basically a
glorified bug fix (3000 bugs) of Windows 95, and we get more
bug- riddled “new features”.
Windows 98 major new features benefit users in many ways.
The new file allocation table, FAT 32 file system enables support of hard drive partitions well over the 2 Gig limit of Windows 95. With FAT 32, the 4Kb cluster size (drives up to 8GB)
means much less wasted space on partitions over 500MB. As an
example of this — on a 1.2GB hard disk there were approximately 80MB of free space. After the upgrade was completed
Windows Explorer reported 365MB free — an almost 24 percent
space increase. However, there is one drawback to this feature
— if you want to convert back to FAT 16 you will lose all your
data on the hard drive. [EN: PowerQuest’s Partition Magic 4.0
gets you around this problem.]
The full Universal Serial Bus (USB) support with new systems,
finally gives the true meaning to the term “plug & pray” —
oops — “plug and play”.
The Win 32 driver model greatly improves the mix of Windows
95 and NT environments. With this feature, one driver can be
used for a device in both NT and Windows 98. The enhancement
of the TCP/IP stack and other networking upgrades results in
faster Internet/Intranet access. The Point-to-Point Tunnelling
Protocol (PPTP) is built into Windows 98 network providing native virtual private network (VPN) support.
The Windows Update feature is completely new to Windows 98
and is similar to the IE 4.0 Product Update. The Windows 98
Update Website can check your system for driver and software
upgrades, and install them right off the Microsoft site. This feature makes upgrading to Windows 98 worthwhile (if you don’t
run into any problems upgrading from Windows 95, which will
be covered in next month’s article) even for the non-technical
user, because it makes it simple to keep system components and
drivers up to date.
If you need to install or update a driver, Windows 98 asks where
it should look for it. In Windows 95 the system would search the
floppy disk, CD-ROM, and then give the option to specify a
location. The new system lets you specify a location at the beginning. The System Information program is a feature that lets
you see your system up time, driver conflicts, installed devices,
currently running tasks, and a history of device and driver
changes. This program can be a lifesaver when trying to diagnose system problems.
One more feature is the Windows 98 Maintenance Wizard. It
runs system checking and repair utilities to keep your computer
in tip-top shape. The maintenance schedule is completely customizable, allowing system checking. By default, Scandisk, Disk
Defragmenter, and Disk Cleanup can be set to run every night
between midnight and 3 a.m.
In the next issue I will discuss some of the bugs upgrading or
installing Windows 98, workarounds in eliminating these
bugs, as well as some tips and tricks.
Two Remarkable Members of the
Winnipeg PC User Group
M
✍ by Lucien Loh, Winnipeg PCUG
does not stop her to help her fellow members. First and foreany of you know that my mother tongue is Chinese,
most, she is the leader of not one, but two forums (or fora if
that my second language is French and that English
you want to stick to Latin grammar): the Beginner’s Forum
is only my third language. It goes without saying that
and the Introduction to Computers’
my command of English leaves much
Forum. Attendees to these two foto be desired. And that is precisely
rums all enjoy and profit from Barb’s
the reason for which I have never
lectures. By the way, during her forum
ventured to write anything for our
sessions, we not only learn about
newsletter. The second reason is that,
computers, we also share Barb’s wisin terms of computer savvy, I am just
dom. I still remember her two favorite
a beginner. I know not much neither
maxims: Don’t fix it if it works and It’s
of software, nor of hardware.
easy when you know how.
Lately, our newsletter editors are
Barb does not help us only during fopressingly soliciting articles from the
rum sessions, she is available at anymembership at large. I then said to
time. She starts every forum session
myself that if a computer ignoramus
Barb Randle and Greg McClure
writing on the board her BBS and ewho did not know how to properly
mail addresses. Anytime you have a problem, she can be
express himself in English volunteered to write something,
reached via BBS or e-mail. Never she fails to answer you,
then more adept members would certainly not spare their efand she answers you promptly. I have taken advantage of her
forts to contribute. I hope therefore this worthless article will
availability not just for the problems of my own computer,
open up the floodgate to a continual flow of interesting and
but also of my daughter’s and my grand-children’s. What is
informative materials on the part of the rest of the memberamazing is that she always has an answer in readiness, and a
ship.
problem-solving answer at that.
The preamble written, let me now get to the substance.
Sometime ago, my Iomega Ditto back-up program became
In our User Group, we are fortunate to have a large number
faulty. As it was too complicated to deal with through e-mail,
of dedicated members. When I say dedicated members, our
Barb came down to the club house and spent a whole afterexecutives immediately come to our minds. However, I will
noon looking into that problem. After hours of trying, she
not talk about them this time, I will mention here only two
got, with the assistance of Greg McClure, my Ditto to work.
members from whom I personally have received a whale of
I can talk on and on about Barb Randle, but I am afraid
friendly and selfless help. And I know, as a matter of fact,
readers may find this prolix. In order not to tax their patience
that other members too have benefitted as I have, are benefitto the limits, allow me to get onto Greg McClure.
ting as I am, and will benefit as I will, from their knowledgeable and generous assistance.
Have you noticed, dear readers, that whenever you go down
to the club house, Greg, like Jon Phillips and George BowDo I have to name these two members? I am sure you have
man, is always there. I wonder if he is not the scion of an
already guessed, and you have guessed right. One is Barb
arch rich family, who does not have to work to make a livRandle and the other is Greg McClure.
ing. It seems that he spends his days working for the WinBarb Randle is a busy person. She has a full time job and
nipeg PC User Group. He also must consecrate an enormous
she enrolls herself now and then in various computer courses.
amount of time perusing software companies’ web-pages in
She has a family to look after, and although parenthetically,
order to alert us of bugs and glitches. He regularly contribbut I feel very strongly that I have to add that she spends a
utes to our newsletter, answers internet related questions,
good deal of her time to take care of her dear mother, Enid.
takes care of group buys, fixes and helps maintain our ISP,
Her filial love for the latter is most touching, to me espeand so on and on, almost ad infinitum.
cially, as we Chinese value highly filial love. Christianity had
I have benefitted, on many occasions, from his expert and
at first a hard time to establish a foothold in China, because
willing services.
Chinese people worship ancestors. Ancestor worship is simply a natural sequel of filial love. As an old Chinese adage
I remember that, after purchasing my Pentium II, the Service
says: the worst evil is debauchery, and the supreme virtue is
Department of the store did not know how to transfer the
filial love. Barb would make a perfect Chinese.
files from my old IBM 486 onto my new Pentium. At that
time, there was still no Install/Drop-in Forum. Greg volunWell, I have the bad habit of digressing and I am doing this
teered to come to my home and spent two long afternoons to
again. From Barb Randle, I wandered to far-off China. Let
help transfer the files. I know for sure that many group memme get back to the subject.
bers have been, like me, beneficiaries of Greg’s generous asThe above is to say that Barb is a busy person. However, this
sistance.
Barb Randle and Greg McClure are more knowledgeable
than most of us. They readily share their expertise with us,
and donate their time for the benefit of the membership.
However, from their facial expressions and the tone in which
they address us, we easily perceive that they remain modest
and unpretentious. They do not parade their superiority. They
stay approachable, friendly and they continue to treat us on
equal terms. This absence of vainglory makes them all the
more grand morally.
I think to myself that the services I am receiving from Barb
and Greg alone pay off my joining Winnipeg PC User
Group. What do you think?
[EN: Lucien, you have more command of the English language than I do. I guess I shouldn’t have used all those Coles
and Monarch notes handbooks in my English classes. It’s a
good thing I have an electronic thesaurus, because you used
a couple of words I’ve never ever seen before! <vbg>
Thanks for the great submission and giving well-deserved
praise to these two hard-working members!]
InfoSelect 3.0
✍ by Paul Stephen, Winnipeg PCUG
[email protected]
Figure 1. Main InfoSelect Screen (compressed)
M
The program stores all its data in one file (OVERany years ago I saw an ad for a DOS program called
VIEW.WD2) and that file is automatically created (if it
Tornado Notes. It looked very interesting because it
doesn’t exit) or loaded by the program at startup. (The deworked the way I work — I collect bits and pieces of
fault filename can be overridinformation from all over the
den — see Network Features
place (usually scribbled on pabelow.)
per or stuck in a bunch of
“txt” files) and then have to reThe program comes delivered
member where they all are!
with an “overview” file that is
Well I never got around to
essentially a tutorial to the proworking with that program, but
gram. Figure 1 shows the layrecently I was given the opporout of the main screen. There’s
tunity to look at its Windows
a toolbar along the top, a “Sesuccessor — InfoSelect 3.
lector” area along the left side
of the screen and a work area to
I am going to say this right
the right. The size of the Selecnow — this is a very slick
tor/Work areas can be adjusted
piece of software for managing
for optimal use of screen real
free form, unrelated data. If
estate. After initial installation,
you don’t work like I do, you
Figure 1 (compressed vertically
can move to the next article —
to save space in this review)
but if you do work like I do, I
Figure 2. Expanded Overview File in InfoSelect
has one “selection” in the Selecwould suggest you read on.
tor Window. The status line at the
How Does It Work?
bottom of the screen gives the file size, the number of items
I like to think of it as a program that allows you to fill boxes
stored in that “box” and a clock/date display is present to
with data. The data may be simple text (notes), organized
keep you in touch with the “real world”. When in the “work
information (databases) or even calendars.
area” this status line gives information on the row, column
and page being edited in “Notes” mode.
In Figure 1, the Selector shows just one entry — the entire
“Overview” file. Note the “Book” and “Disk” icons that are
displayed with this entry. The Book (Topic) icon is like a
browser bookmark that be expanded to display sub-entries
such as notes, databases or calendars, and the disk icon informs the user that this entry’s data is contained in a separate
disk file. If you click on this entry, up comes another Topic
Item (Supplied Topics), and opening this topic by clicking
one more time reveals the entire outline (contents) of the
Overview file (Figure 2).
In this expanded view, you can see that two other icons are
present — one belonging to “Calendar” and the other, “Database” (Names & Addresses). Again, simply clicking on either
of these selector entries displays their data in the work area.
Fig. 3 Calendar Options
Calendars
Calendars can be created to define either “one-time” or recurring events. With some software this process can be quite
tedious, but not with InfoSelect! Recurring events can be set
for days, weeks, months, “months on the” and years. It is
easy to create consistent recurring events — such as the UG
meeting, but if there are variances (such as the meeting date
changing to the 2nd Thursday in December) you cannot override this singular event. It’s all or nothing. You can however
make Jan.-Nov. recurring 12 month events on the third
Thursday and make the Dec. meeting a recurring monthly
event on the second Thursday. The meeting topic cannot be
“added”, because again it’s “all or nothing”. You can, of
course, simply add a regular event defining the topic for specific monthly meetings. Ticklers can be added for tasks on
any day.
Your “day” can be predefined. If you work at night, you can
simply set your work hours to be from say, 7 p.m. — 7 a.m.
— or you can have your “day” be set for the full 24 hour
period — shrinking it just makes it a bit easier to define time
periods for events. This can be accomplished using a slider
bar, or by tweaking Time/Span buttons. Events can have default time periods (15, 30 or 60 minutes). Again, the
Time/Span buttons allow for “fine tuning” an engagement.
Warning alarms can also be set to go off to advise you of
upcoming activities. You must ensure (at least in Win31 that
“Enable System Sounds” is checked in the Control Panel.
Warning messages are also delivered for future defined
events. If for example, you’ve set your alarm to go off 7
days prior to an event and this is now “true”, the warning
message appears at midnight if you have the program running or on startup. It will reappear each day until the date of
the event is passed. The program will also inform you about
any “missed” events.
When an event/tickler task has been completed, you can put
a checkmark beside it — or if it hasn’t been completed just
drag and drop it on another date in your calendar.
You can also easily add “links” to any event in your calendar.
If you wish to see a specific “note” in conjunction with a
scheduled event, just select the note, use the “link tool” button and the link will be created (a notation is added to the
event as well.). When the event is to take place, just click on
the Find Link toolbar and up comes the text. Nice!
At this point, I should mention that the toolbar is customizable. You can add or delete tools you use or don’t use at
will. The Find Link button wasn’t on the default toolbar but
was easily added!
I thought that it might be possible to create calendars that
would automatically position you to a specific month. Although this is true while the program is loaded, on “reload”
the calendar reverts back to the current month. You can create multiple calendars with different events for different people.
Notes
Notes are just ASCII files. You can create them simply by
positioning the cursor over the selector area and a defined
item. The note will be created below this item. Keyboarding
“N” automatically moves you to the work area to input your
data.
If you wish to sort lines within a given note, no problem.
You can, by adding an identifier, sort each line of text based
on the character in any column of a particular line.
Notes can also be sorted within a topic. They can be sorted
by the first letter of their caption, or by a data marker which
preceeds the sort character and which may be present in anywhere in the caption. For example notes with the captions
“Rec#2ord”, “Record#1", ”#5Record" and using the data
marker “#” could be numerically sorted easily. Sorts may be
ascending or descending.
Frames to hold notes (or any other data types) can be full
screen (no extraneous clutter to view), full or thin.
Importing/Exporting Data
If you have external files in ASCII, no problem. Just import
them into InfoSelect. The program will also import files in
comma delimited, cardfile, note delimited format or database
(dbf) formats.
If you have created databases, notes, etc. in InfoSelect that
you’d like to export in native formats of other applications
you can do that as well.
I imported the User Group database to test out the import
feature and it worked flawlessly. DBF files are imported into
the main WD2 file, whereas cardfile imports remain in a
separate WD2 file that is accessed from the select menu.
Speaking of Databases
Databases are another topic that can be created with InfoSelect. You simply click on Insert|Database and it is created for
you as a topic in the Selector area. You then can insert fields
defined as either Text, Number or Date. With each field insertion in the selector area, a corresponding box is opened up in
the work area. The size of this box can be adjusted by the
user. The boxes can be placed anywhere in the work area and
the fieldname can be placed either to the left of the box or on
top of the box.
After you’ve created the fields in your database you simply
input the data into the fields and press the Insert key to add
new records.
In the selector area, the database can either display the field
names or all the real data contained within a specific field.
For example, if your database contained three fields,
FirstName, LastName, and Phonenumber, you could put your
cursor over LastName, press Ctrl-Tab and then, instead of
seeing the names of the fields you would see all the LastNames of every individual in your database. I really liked
this feature.
Printing
Printing items out of InfoSelect is a snap. Just select any entry from the selector area and you can customize a printout
for that selection that is saved so the next time you want to
print that entry you don’t have to do any further customization. You can print an “open” topic and all entries under that
icon will be printed as individual entries. If the topic icon is
“closed” you will get a continuous printout with each item
printed with the header you’ve associated with that item.
Network Features
By setting up WD2 files on a shareable drive to hold “email” (exported items from the program). You can have the
program check for updated information sent from other InfoSelect network users at defined intervals. If anything new
has been received, a dialog box pops up asking if you’d like
to import the information into your personal workspace — if
that is declined, it can be obtained later by a forced “read”.
E-mail is inserted at the top of the selector area and the topic
is defined as e-mail with a date/time marker. If a single
note/calendar/database is retrieved, it is put at the top but not
defined as being “e-mail” (that is, an e-mail topic is not created).
Even although I don’t have a “real” network, the e-mail feature worked just great on my stand-alone system.
I did discover one thing that makes working with the program easier in network environments. Once a WD2 file has
been created and totally “cleared”, it can then be duplicated
for many workstations. Different users can have the program
load more personalized WD2 files by simply creating customized start-up icons using an execution time option with a
format such as — ISW3.EXE /O:E:\IS3DTA\PAUL.WD2.
Options
There are a myriad of options available to customize this
program. You can set the default “save” time interval, create
custom color backgrounds for various notes, and create letter
macros to quickly execute InfoSeek tasks.
Conclusion
InfoSelect 3 truly lives up to its moniker, “The Adaptable
Personal Information Manager”. It is not as powerful as some
other PIMs, but then with power comes a steep learning
curve, and if you don’t need the “power” features, why have
them get in the way?
It is really nice to have a “one-stop shop” to find all your
data. Having a location to store my URLs is great for harried
newsletter editors. And as a bonus this application loads very
rapidly. I highly recommend InfoSelect if you’re in the market for an easy to use personal information management program.
Product:
Publisher:
WWW:
InfoSelect 3.0 (Windows 3.x)
Micro Logic Corporation
P.O. Box 70
Hackensack, N.J.
http://www.miclog.com
UPDATE: Important Changes to
Our Internet Service
V.90 Implementation
W
✍ by Greg McClure, Winnipeg PCUG ISP Support
e are in the process of implementing the V.90 ‘standard’ that has been recently agreed upon by the major
modem manufacturers. This will allow us to provide
you with the ability to connect to the Internet at speeds up to
53KB since current telephone regulations limit the receiving
speeds. If you want to connect above speeds of 33.6KBps
then you must use a V.90 modem or a 3COM/USR modem
which has the older x2 technology code. Those with the
56Flex technology modems, which have not yet upgraded to
the V.90 ‘standard’, will have their highest connect speed limited to 33.6KBps. Older modems will still be able to connect
at 33.6, 28.8 or 14.4 KBps.
This upgrade means we will replace the current USR Sportster and Courier modems currently in use on the service. We
will also replace the corresponding analog phone lines initially, with 23 digital phone lines. When we install the new
digital phone lines there will be a new phone number, yet to
be determined, for the Internet service. At this time the
planned implementation date will be late in the week of October 18th. We will remind all users of the Internet service of
the upcoming changes as well as indicating the new phone
number via several global email messages prior to the implementation date. So it is VERY IMPORTANT for all ISP users
to check their email regularly for any updates.
Since the above changes will involve installing new hardware
as well as some reprogramming we will endeavor to do as
much testing as possible before the implementation date.
However as the old saying goes “the best laid plans of mice
and programmers...” so we hope that you bear with us during
the switch-over period.
Greg McClure
WPCUG Internet Service Support
<[email protected]>
Report of the August 1998 General Meeting
of the Winnipeg PC User Group
P
✍ by Brian Lowe, Winnipeg PCUG
resident George Bowman called the meeting to order at
7:00 p.m. After recognizing our guests, George called
on Glenn Dukelow, Imaging Specialist for Polaroid
Canada, to make the evening’s presentation.
Polaroid Although best known for instant photographs, Polaroid also has a line of digital imaging products for the PC.
Glenn arrived with an impressive array of equipment. In addition to his laptop, he brought along an ArTec flatbed scanner, a PhotoPad photograph scanner, a SprintScan slide and
negative scanner, an Epson Stylus Photo printer, a ColorShot photograph printer, and special photo quality inkjet paper.
Glenn began his presentation with the comment that although
many companies want to get into digital imaging, they are
uncertain which route to go. Surveys results from Polaroid’s
travelling Imaging Expos indicate 85% of the people attending had been looking at purchasing a digital camera. But after taking in the presentation and qualifying what their needs
were, 70% had switched to considering a scanner.
Applying a method long used by computer system analysts in
designing systems, Glenn said any company considering an
investment in digital imaging should first consider what its
output will be. Do they need graphics stored in computer
files for archival purposes, a quick method of sending a picture of a crop circle to Charlottetown, or bright full-colour
printouts on glossy paper? Will they be printing on laser for
the company newsletter, dye sublimation for pre-press copy,
or just posting the file to an Internet website? Is the output
going to be large or small?
After determining the output requirements, the next step is to
decide what editing needs to be applied prior to output. Companies may need to do OCR (optical character recognition, a
computer assisted conversion of text on a printed page to text
in a computer file), colour balancing and tonal correction, or
full graphics editing for producing reports and brochures the
output and editing requirements are set, the input device
should be obvious. After that it comes down to a matter of
purchasing the equipment and sof tware that will do the job
at a decent price.
Glenn gave a brief overview of some of the equipment available for digital imaging. For input, he displayed a digital
camera and three different scanners: one for photgraphs, one
for 35mm slides and negativesm, and the now familiar flatbed. The digital camera was a PDC 3000, capable of taking
pictures at 1200 x 1660 resolution and storing them in a removable data cartridge. The camera is available only with a
SCSI interface; there is no parallel interface available for it.
Although Polaroid has produced their own scanners in the
past, the market changed too quickly for their liking. So they
have now teamed up with a company called ArTec to provide them with a flatbed scanner. It is sold as part a kit that
includes their DirectPhoto software and a Polaroid Spectra
instant camera. The scanner connects to the PC through the
parallel port.
One of the areas where Polaroid is an industry leader is
35mm scanners. These devices are capable of scanning a
slide or a 35mm negative in under a minute at resolutions of
up to 2700 dots per inch. (In this mode, the average file size
of a single image is 20 megabytes.) Resolutions as low as
300 dpi are available. Like the PDC 3000 camera, the 35mm
scanner attaches to the computer using a SCSI interface.
The photo scanner, a logical extension of the transparency
scanner, does photographs up to 5" x 7" in size. With a much
smaller footprint than a flatbed, the photo scanner is ideal if
you do not need to scan full sized pages into the computer.
Moving on to output devices, Glenn demonstrated the ColorShot film printer. This little device creates output by exposing a standard Polaroid instant photograph, then letting it develop just as if the picture had been snapped with an instant
camera. Special film packs that do not include the battery
required to run an instant camera are available for the ColorShot. In its original design the printer connected only on the
USB port, although due to popular demand Polaroid has
come out with a parallel port version.
For more conventional output using inkjet printers, Polaroid
offers a line of specially formulated papers for photographic
quality output. When used in conjunction with a good inkjet
printer (Polaroid has teamed up with Epson to offer one) the
output is almost indistinguishable from a photograph.
After presenting the hardware, Glenn moved on to their software. Polaroid’s entry in this field is DirectPhoto, a basic
but functional photograph manipulation program. It works
For all your printing needs call:
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PRINT
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Desktop Publishing
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Wedding Invitations
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Kodak Colour Laser Copies
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Social / Drink Tickets
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High Speed Kodak
Photocopying
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Invoices/Statements
Packing Slips
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Business Stationery
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Annual Reports
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Offset Printing
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Professional Sales Consultants
Dublin Square
1650 Field Street - Winnipeg, Manitoba
Call: 985-9625
Fax: (204) 783-8548
with any TWAIN compliant scanner, including the ones offered by Polaroid. Using tools on a brightly coloured button
bar, the user can modify a picture’s brightness, contrast,
gamma, colour balance or saturation; and resize, sharpen, or
crop the image. The program can save in BMP, JPG, and
TIFF formats.
In addition to the three image formats just mentioned, DirectPhoto can collect multiple images into a single EXE file
that can be attached to an e-mail message and sent on any
e-mail system. The EXE contains a DirectPhoto viewer for
Windows and the images themselves, with the ability to save
the image as a BMP file or send it to a printer.
In response to a question from the floor, Glenn said much of
this hardware is available through Polaroid dealers in Winnipeg, especially Don’s Photo, which has locations downtown and on north Main Street.
At the time of the meeting, the approximate prices for the
hardware and software were as follows:
Door Prizes DirectPhoto/3"x5" postcard paper: Art Kaebe
DirectPhoto/8"x11" inkjet paper: Neil Longmuir
In addition to the door prizes, Polaroid donated to the User
Group a copy of DirectPhoto, 20 sheets of 4"x6" paper, 20
sheets of 3"x5" postcard paper, and 10 sheets of 8"x11" paper.
Buck For Your Butt Prizes (Book) Software Bible from Microsoft; thin film mouse pad from Strauss Communications; (CD) TuneUp from Quarterdeck; (CD) Build Your
Own Home Page: André Saive.
(Book) Windows 95 Registry for Dummies; thin film mouse
pad from Strauss Communications; (CD) Mutual Funds
Prospector; (CD) Marilyn Munroe: Jonathan Edwards
(Book) XML for Dummies; thin film mouse pad from
Strauss Communications; (CD) Stock Vue 2.0 by Alpha
Connect; Wild Cards CD: Stan Hyman
Survey Prizes
PhotoPad Photo Scanner
SprintScan Scanner
Flatbed scanner kit
ColorShot Photo Printer
Epson Stylus PhotoPrinter
DirectPhoto software
The Best of Tucows
The Best of Tucows
The Best of Tucows
The Best of Tucows
Free Space!:
Zip Magic:
$2000
(price not available)
$329
$449
$400
$39
Preview Enfish Techology’s
Tracker Pro!
French Prescott, formerly of Quarterdeck and now with Enfish Technology (remember I told you folks all about this
new startup company many months ago — ENFISH — ENtering, FInding and SHaring data) sends us this friendly
note.
I’m sending you this product announcement on behalf of Enfish Technology. It may be of interest to the Winnipeg PC
User Group and readers of Bits n Bytes who are using Windows 95, 98, or NT.
Enfish Technology is introducing its new product — Enfish
Tracker Pro.
First introduced at PC Expo, Enfish Tracker Pro uses patented DEX technology to search through and then track information on the PC harddrive, on networked files, in emails, word processing documents, spreadsheets, personal
databases, and bookmarked Internet sites. It locates files
based on search criteria you pick, and then continues tracking
them so you can have a constantly updated guide to the files
that relate to whatever topic, event, person, etc., you need to
work with.
Enfish is making a preview product of Enfish Tracker Pro
available for free download from www.enfish.com. The preview product is full-featured with a 45-day use limit. The
offer is valid until October 31.
To sign-up for a download of the preview version of
Enfish Tracker Pro, interested users should go to the
www.enfish.com site and click on “Club Enfish”.
CD:
CD:
CD:
CD:
Bruno Martens
Denise Bellmare
Ken Hocken
Enid Freese
William Leanders
Don Carlson
A Deal from Aladdin Software!
Dear User Group Member,
Aladdin would like to offer user group members of the WPCUG the opportunity to
purchase Aladdin FlashBack 1.1 for the special low price of $19.95!! This is a savings
of $50 off SRP! This special offer is for a limited time only and will expire October 31,
1998. This pricing is for user groups only, so pass the word, and tell your members
about this incredible offer!!
Buy Aladdin FlashBack, the software that provides unlimited “Undos” for any application with instant access to all previous versions of a document. It’s $19.95 for a limited
time, and only for you.
Here’s what the press have to say about Aladdin FlashBack —"It’s software that tracks
up to 999 versions of the same document. Want your first draft back? No prob. FlashBack can retrieve what you’ve done — and done over, and over. Now the waffler in all
of us can “undo” in perpetuity." NEWSWEEK, July ’98
At $19.95, Aladdin FlashBack is available ONLY from Aladdin’s Online Store.
http://www.digitalriver.com/Aladdin/FlashBackUG
To take advantage of this special user group offer, just double click on the URL above
and you have instant access to your new software. Aladdin accepts Visa, MasterCard,
American Express, or Discover Card. If you need to use a check or purchase order, call
our Customer Service department at:
Voice:
Fax:
Email:
Website:
800-732-8881,
831-761-6206;
[email protected]
http://www.aladdinsys.com/
ALADDIN FLASHBACK 1.1
Aladdin FlashBack provides unlimited “Undos” for any application with instant access
to all previous versions of a document. With Aladdin FlashBack, you can create, compose, edit and save documents in any application without the fear of ever losing your
work. It recovers previously saved versions of any FlashBack- protected document, even
if the original file is lost, damaged, overwritten or erased. It tracks and records only the
changes made to a document each time it is saved, eliminating the need for “Save As....”
Aladdin FlashBack is a cross-platform application (Windows and Macintosh) that works
with any application, including graphics, word processing, spreadsheets, databases,
audio, video, HTML, multimedia programs and more. Documents are selected for FlashBack to track and the rest is automatic. FlashBack works in the background, and has the
ability to track and recall changes to any document on local hard drives or remote
servers. The user works with their files in the normal way, but can access any previous
version quickly and easily.
Aladdin FlashBack is compatible with Windows 98/95/3.11 or any Macintosh family
computer running System 7.1.1 or later. FlashBack is Year 2000 compliant.
Regards,
Nicole Rowland, User Group Coordinator, Aladdin Systems, Inc.
The ATI Rage 128 Launch and
User Group Retreat
Monday, July 20
almost didn’t read it. The e-mail header (which I ignored)
said “Re: FW: You’re invited to ATI’s User Group Retreat,” and the text started out:
Read the following very, very closely. If you
are free on the date mentioned ...
“A novel approach to the time-worn ‘Make
Money Fast’ pitch,” I thought, jumping to the
next message. But later that day, wider awake
and more perceptive, I observed the note had
come from user group president George Bowman. It deserved closer scrutiny. It had been
sent to him by our editor Paul Stephen, who
had received it from Steve Bass, known for
his @Home columns in PC World. The message went on to read, in part, ATI would like to
ATI’s CEO,
invite you to a Press Tour and User Group Retreat. ATI is launching its next generation
technology at a worldwide media event in Toronto August
27th, 1998! ...
I’m helping ATI coordinate the User Group portion of the
event. Details are below. Please direct questions to *both*
me and ATI’s Brian Hentschel. If a
critical issue arises, you can contact Brian at [telephone number]
although we’d prefer doing everything by e-mail...
ATI will provide all airfare, hotel,
meal and ground transportation
expenses and will make all required arrangements. Upon confirmation of your participation in
this User Group Retreat and
global media launch, ATI will provide you with a pre-registration
package, UG credentials, invitation and other program material...
Finally realizing I was being offered a free trip to Toronto with
all the trimmings, I responded enthusiastically to George.
Next day I arranged with my employer to take three days
vacation. Paul posted an announcement to the exec mailing
list, and a flurry of congratulatory messages came into my
mailbox over the next week.
I later discovered Paul was the original invitee, but being unable to attend he asked George if he would consider me. After some discussion, he and Paul decided to ask the board
member who had served the longest and could provide the
group a detailed report.
Thanks, guys!
I
Tuesday, July 28
Federal Express arrived at my door, bearing gifts from ATI.
To my amazement, the package contained an All-in-Wonder
Pro graphics/TV tuner card decked out with a
full eight megabytes of RAM. Inluded were
four CDs: drivers and MGI’s VideoWave editing suite (both of which I loaded), and two
games, Incoming and G. Police (neither of
which I bothered with.)
The card installed easily into its PCI slot and
the Windows 95 programs loaded smoothly. The
card performs admirably and is capable of providing 16 million colours at 1280 x 1024 resolution. ATI’s Player application is fun to play
with: a TV tuner built into the card allows the
program to display television signals on the
PC’s monitor. In addition, an impressive collecK.Y. Ho
tion of supplied cables, both composite and SVideo, allows a video camera or VCR to provide signals to the card. And if you’re willing to suffer 640 x
480 graphics mode, it can send a usable NTSC video signal
to a TV or VCR.
A great time waster is the program’s Closed Captioning support
(for me, at least; my hearing is
adequate.) The software can write
a transcript of the program’s captioning to a file for later review.
But while it is visually impressive,
Player suffers from some frustrating deficiencies in its user interface. Large areas can be scrolled
only by grasping the slider with
the mouse pointer: standard keystrokes are ignored and clicking in
the scroll bar accomplishes nothing. The interface buttons change
depending on the type of input being received: one set for the TV
tuner, another for video from a
camera, and yet another for AVI files.
Capturing still frames is more art than science, for they have
to be grabbed while the video is rolling. Yes, you can record
video into a AVI file and use the Player’s editor feature to
zoom directly to the frame you want to save, but the “Capture Still” button is missing from both the video editor and
the AVI playback controls. I got the impression the program
was actually proof-of-concept software and not intended for
serious distribution.
Finally, a bug in the driver installation program nearly defeated my attempts to run the card with OS/2. I was fortunate
itself. It is a serious piece of hardware: 8.3 million transisenough to have a CD-ROM from an OEM version of another
tors, a superscalar 3D rendering engine that can handle 32
ATI card that I had purchased with my computer a year bebits per pixel, a 128-bit memory interface, on-chip pixel and
fore. After a frustrating evening of combining the installation
texture caches, and high-quality alpha and fog effects. Its 250
programs on the OEM CD with the drivers from the All-inMHz DAC supports resolutions up to 1900 x 1200 pixels.
Wonder Pro’s CD, I managed to get OS/2 to talk to the card
And if all that were not enough, ATI added full DVD and
in more than baseline 640 x 480 x 16 VGA mode.
MPEG2
decoders. OpenGL support at the hardware level inWednesday, August 26
stantly makes the chip attractive to a large set of industry
The flight from Winnipeg to Toronto was uneventful. I was
programs that are written to the OpenGL API. In addition,
met at the Toronto by Lawrence Lobay, a
ATI worked closely with Microsoft to ensure it
member of the WPCUG travelling as a media
would fully support all the features of DirectX
guest from the Winnipeg Sun. He had flown
6.
on the same flight and had recognized me
As well as offering the Rage 128 to OEMs,
when I boarded. On the sidewalk outside the
ATI is building three graphics boards around
terminal we met Paul Pihichyn from the Free
the chip: the Rage Fury, designed for serious
Press. We wondered briefly if Jonathan
gamers, the Rage Magnum, for high-end
Strauss of the Computer Post would be joinworkstations and business applications, and the
ing us, but none of us had seen him on the
XPERT 128 for budget PCs. Both the Fury
plane.
and Magnum offerings have 32 megabytes of
We caught the attention of a representative
RAM on-board, while the Xpert has 16. With
from ATI who was there to meet incoming
the Rage 128 chip and the Rage Fury boards,
flights, and he hailed a limo for our trip to the
ATI appears to be making a serious bid for the
hotel. ATI put us up in the Westin Harbour
gaming market, an area where they have tradiATI’s Brian Hentschel
Castle, a first class facility on Toronto’s wationally been perceived as weak.
terfront. That evening we discovered the full
And then they played the demo. Titled “Rage Dawning,” the
scope of the event to which we had been invited: two large
spectacular video started with a fly-through of a canyon, light
tour buses arrived to shuttle guests from the hotel to the
reflecting off walls and a lake reflecting the canyon itself,
Hockey Hall of Fame for the opening function. Ed Gronwhile the presenter carefully explained everything was being
dahl, ATI’s vice-president of product marketing, made a
rendered in real-time by the chip itself. Entering what apbrief speech welcoming us to the launch, then the Hall of
peared to be an stone structure built along Aztec lines, a
Fame and Museum were opened up for the guests to tour.
shining robot figure clad in gleaming chrome armour grew
Jonathan Strauss finally appeared: he had come in on a
and morphed its way into existence, then walked out of the
later flight.
room and into the next. There a ball of light flew in and
Thursday, August 27
floated over to pedestal, bringing into existence a graphics
board to which a Rage 128 chip descended. This action was
Launch day for the Rage 128 chip. A large conference room
had been set up for the gala. After receiving a multi-compartviewed from overhead, with the board slowly rotating one
mented bag containing my press kit and a work-in-progress
direction while the “camera” rotated in the other. The demo
ended with a zoom-in on the board to show the Rage 128
CD for an upcoming game called Expendable, I entered. It
was a dark, eerie place: black curtains covered the walls, the
chip.
lights had been dimmed down, and red spotlights swept over
Following the demo, to the accompaniment of a stunning disthe room, cutting laser-like beams through the stage smoke.
play of smoke, flashing lasers, and brilliant fireworks, ATI
Two podiums had been set up at each end of the the large
officially launched their Rage 128 chip.
stage, which was dominated by a full width floor-to-ceiling
The launch complete, we broke for lunch; a quiet affair for
mockup of a video card. A large projection screen was built
300 under a tent on the rooftop patio of the hotel. I joined a
in to this backdrop, and two oversized monitors had been set
lively table of people from user groups around North Amerup on the floor for the benefit of the people sitting near them.
ica. Steve Bass was there, too, and ribbed me with spurious
Nearly three hundred media guests were in attendance, with
tales of OS/2 Version 4.5 being available for download from
simultaneous translation provided in four languages. Ed
IBM.
Grondahl served as master of ceremonies. For the next hour
After lunch we gathered again in the conference room for a
a parade of guests, including ATI’s president and CEO K.Y.
series of industry presentations. Representatives from MiHo, and James Wilson, the Minister of Energy, Science, and
crosoft, Silicon Graphics, and other companies took the
Technology for the government of Ontario, made speeches
stage for a few minutes each to talk of their visions for comhighlighting ATI’s rise in the video card industry. ATI now
puter graphics in general and how the Rage 128 chip would
boasts itself as the largest supplier of graphics chips to the
assist them with their plans. Included in these was the ancomputer industry, with a 24 per cent market share and over
nouncement that ATI and General Instruments had teamed
a billion dollars in sales for the period from January to Auup to build the next generation of interactive digital cable
gust 1998 alone.
set-top boxes based on the Rage 128. These boxes are deThe second hour was dedicated to the new Rage 128 chip
signed for the “convergence” market: the coming together of
TV, Internet, and telephone services.
The industry presentations over, I joined Steve Bass and the
other user group representatives for a session with Brian
Hentschel from ATI. Brian is a public relations specialist
and is in charge of setting up ATI’s User Group program.
For the next hour and a half we discussed user groups, their
importance in the computer community, how they could assist ATI in getting the word out about their products, and the
details of giving a good presentation to a diverse audience.
Brian asked many questions and took many notes. He said he
does not expect ATI to have their program up and running
until the spring of 1999, but when he does he will be giving
special consideration to the fifteen groups who had come to
the launch.
The long and busy day was topped off with a spectacular
dinner at Toronto’s historic Casa Loma.
Friday, August 29
Comedian Dave Broadfoot said Niagara Falls was a honeymooning couple’s third great disappointment. But a bus of
some forty people attending the launch made the trip to the
historic waterfall, and were not disappointed. In a whirlwind
tour we boarded the Maid of the Mist, enjoyed an excellent
lunch, stopped by the Niagara Whirlpool, visited a winery,
and spent a couple of hours in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Our
arrival back at the hotel signalled the end of the planned activities, leaving us free to spend the evening as we pleased. I
boarded a ferry to the Toronto Islands and spent an enjoyable three hours exploring the attractions.
Saturday, August 30
I arrived back in Winnipeg in the late afternoon, carrying an
hour of video, a roll of film that needed processing, and a
wonderful carry-bag that should give my MERP materials a
good home for many years to come.
I was left wondering: was it worth it? Was all the money ATI
spent on this event put to good use?
I think so. For ATI, the Rage 128 chip will form the basis of
their chip offerings for the next few years before it is replaced with the next generation. The chip should launch them
into prominence as the leading maker of graphics chips and
video cards. Even if it does not, it is a shining example of
what a Canadian company can do.
For me, the event probably will not generate any lasting
friendships with people in the computer industry or relationships in the user group scene. The video card ATI gave me is
already dated, for it it connects using PCI and not with the
state-of- the-art AGP. [EN: Attendees were given the option
of asking for either a PCI or an AGP card.] The software
that came with it will probably be outdated before 1999 gives
way to 2000.
But I’ll always have the video, the photos, and the carry bag.
And the memories of three wonderful days in Toronto.
The Olympus D500L Digital Camera
W
✍ by Steve Vincze, Winnipeg PCUG
ith the advent of faster CPUs and better computer
graphics we want more options over what we can create and print. This is especially true
in the graphics area where there are
increased options and activities in the
use of scanners and digital input devices. At COMDEX, I had the opportunity to try out an Olympus
Digital camera.
Before I get into the actual details of
my experience with an Olympus
D500L camera I’ll cut to the chase
and say that I would definitely consider buying this camera
for a business or hobby photography. This technology has not
reached the point of providing high-resolution photography
that a professional photographer is used to at a price consumers can afford. It is however more than enough for printed
media, Internet publication, as well as most people’s photo
needs. One important caveat I will mention right up front is
that the quality of your printouts will vary with your printer,
the paper used, and the resolution of the recorded image.
The Olympus D500L is a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera
whereby you actually look through the same lens that the
camera uses to capture the image. This is different from
many digital cameras on the market
in that they look through a separate
viewfinder or have you frame your
photo via an LCD display on the
back of the camera. While the
D500L has a LCD panel as well,
this only comes on after taking a
photograph (comes on automatically
for a short period of time) or is used
for reviewing the recorded images
in either single or multiple (9) shots
at a time.
The LCD display panel brings out the first advantage of digital photography. You can see the photo you take almost immediately. This allows you to review the photo for content
therefore showing up things like people or objects not there
when we pushed the shutter button. You can also check for
things such as is everyone smiling or looking the right way.
Another common issue is the Red Eye with flash photography. The D500L has built in Red Eye reduction as well as
allows the user to review the photo and see if there is a problem. The LCD panel is very useful but not perfect. The small
size makes it difficult to see the fine details and even the fine
focus some photographers may like to have. If you require
reading glasses they will probably
be required to see the panel (yet
not for actually taking the photo!).
This brings us to the second advantage of digital photography.
Once you have taken your photo(s)
you can edit the keeper from the
one you don’t want to save. This
means you can reuse the recording
media thereby eliminating the bad
photos. The D500L uses removable Smart Media which is a very
thin small, almost square, card that
slides into the camera. The Olympus unit came with a single 2MB
unit that allows for 3 to 24 photos
depending on the resolution you use. You should be aware
that the photo content does impact the size of the image file
the camera stores. For this very reason manufacturers cannot
state just how many photos will fit on a given storage media.
The Smart Media is available in 2, 4 and 8MB capacities and
I would suggest buying at least one extra 4MB media card to
ensure you don’t have to erase photos
you may want to keep (I typically created 20 some photos per 4MB Smart
Media at HQ settings). The Olympus
D500L stores its files in JPEG format
and is not changeable. The JPEG file
format can be read by the majority of
the graphics packages on the market
as well as by most recent Internet
Browsers. The camera comes with
software for the PC and the Mac.
Now that we have the camera and the
photos, what can we do with them?
The camera kit includes a RS232 cable for connecting the camera to your
PC or to a Mac via a conversion connector also included. A CD containing
Drivers and Utilities (including Twain drivers) along with
various versions of Adobe’s PhotoDeluxe are also included.
During my trial I actually used a PC Card (formerly called
PCMCIA) that accepted the Smart Media from the camera
and looked like another drive to my Notebook Computer. Accessing the files was as simple as pointing to this new device
and opening or copying the file(s). Unfortunately, I did not
have a CD drive at the time so could not check out the included software or the serial cable connection. The software
will allow you to manipulate your photos for content, effects
and even some custom items such as calendars, business
cards and invitations.
But I want hard copies of my creations. Can I print out the
photos? The camera has a high speed parallel port connection
for directly connecting to an Olympus P-300 printer (cable
not included with camera) so you need not have a computer
to create photographs with this technology. You can also print
to any color printer (you must have the necessary drivers).
The quality will vary by printer type (ink jet, laser, BW,
Color), paper used as well as the
resolution at which the image was
created. The area of color printing
is a large topic in and of itself and
may be covered in an article that is
being considered.
I will attempt to address the differences in resolution. The Olympus
D500L has three recording resolutions. The SHQ resolution will create the largest image file containing th e mo st detail. I would
probably use this setting for photos
I wanted to enlarge or do more
than minor manipulations. Most
photos I would shoot would be at
the HQ setting. This allows for a decent 4x6 or 5x7 printout.
It also uses less space for the image file. The final setting is
the SQ setting. This creates a 2.25x4.5 sized print and the
smallest file footprint and is ideal for publications where file
size in important such as the Internet. I took several shots at
the three different resolutions and offer the following file
sizes for two photos shot at three different settings. Photo one was 543kb
using SHQ, 163kb using HQ and
66kb using SQ. Photo two was 525kb
using SHQ, 180kb using HQ and
73kb using SQ.
What about the pictures themselves
— are they any good? If you can hold
the camera steady and have basic
photo framing skills (setting up a
good shot that is) you will be very
pleased with what this camera can do.
It is not possible to show in this publication all the photos I took (both the
good and bad) so I can only hope the
sampling included with this article
will do justice to the camera. The
Macro capabilities were very good including night shots using the built in flash. The shot I took of a helicopter clearly
shows the rotating blades in a night shot. The issues that did
arise are not unique to this camera but are common to all
automatic focus and auto aperture cameras. Issues such as
mixed lighting and moving objects can become apparent in
the photograph. With some forethought and applying photographic principles this too can become a non-issue. I had actually expected the majority of the low light shots to be the
problem area but this did not materialize. Daytime and artificial lighting photos were just like a standard 35mm camera
including the greenish hue that fluorescent tubes tend to create.
This brings me to my only real reason to “Nit Pick” about
digital cameras. They are hard on batteries (especially the
LCD panels). While the batteries are standard AA cells (included with the D500L), my immediate reaction was that
what I save in film costs could be eroded by the battery
costs. There is however a solution. There are excellent re-
All
33.6
modems!
WPCUG
than alkaline batteries and can be used over and over. I
would strongly recommend at least 2 sets and a good charger
to avoid getting caught short. As an example of battery life,
during the course of 2 days and 250 saved photos, I used 5
sets of batteries. The manufacturer does not recommend Lithium Ion batteries due to heating concerns.
Now for the benefit of those who understand cameras, lens
and computer-related specifications. The Olympus D500L
has in addition to items mentioned above:
• 7 element Aspherical Glass Lens
þ
þ
• Progressive Scan CCD with 850k pixels (gross)
• 1024 x 768 and 640 x 480 pixel resolution
• 2 modes (playback and record) - 1 year warranty
[See Steve to view many more of the shots he took with this
camera. He’s got them on a CD!]
“Let us connect you to the world!”
People helping people
þ 30 hours/month FREE
þ PPP dial up access
þ Guaranteed user/modem
þ
• Auto Flash with red-eye reduction, fill flash, auto lowlight, back-light and forced off
Internet Service
use computers
þ
þ
• F2.8 50-150mm (3X zoom) Lens
Need help getting set up?
Call ahead and bring
your PC down to the
Clubhouse for “hands on”
help.
$15/Month
$0.25/hr after 30 hours
Maximum billing of
$25/month
Setup Fee -- Just $10!
ratio of 15:1
t
r
po 8
up er/9 !
T1 to the Internet
S
0
b
r!
v.9 vem ONe
Preconfigured software
o
n
SO
r
to get you connected o
There is just one thing needed
to make this
2 MB of disk space
service to our membership
for your own home page
better -- YOU!
Full Telnet shell access to
We run on a cost recovery
maintain your home page
basis. Every dollar goes to
Unlimited technical support
improve, not just the Internet
via e-mail, phone, BBS
Service, but all the other
and the clubhouse
services the User Group
þ Your own e-mail address
þ No disconnection policy
no matter how long you
are on
provides as well.
Please remember that the Internet Service is a
cooperative effort. Give others a chance to
connect. Hang up when you are not actively using
the Internet! Thanks!!!
Make the RIGHT connection so YOU
don’t end up like this!
WPCUG Finances and Membership
✍ by Perry Exley, Treasurer,
O
email: [email protected]
and Art Cavenagh, Membership Secretary,
ur fiscal year end for 1997/98 was August 31, 1998.
During fiscal year 1997/98, the Winnipeg PC User
Group experienced our first Net Ordinary Income loss
($1661.44) and our largest Net Income loss ($8060.51) during the last six fiscal years. To a large extent, the losses experienced during 1997/98 were due to a drop in membership
from 581 on September 1, 1997 to 423 on August 31, 1998.
The Profit and Loss Statement included in this newsletter
shows actual Profit and Loss from fiscal year 1992/93
through 1997/98 as well as the approved budget for 1998/99.
It should be noted that our approved budget shows a Net Ordinary Income profit of $6223.41 and a Net Income profit of
$1343.37. The Board of Directors will work hard to maintain
this profit position during 1998/99.
The Internet and Membership Statistics charts show the membership levels during 1997/98, the number of new and nonrenewing members for each month, and the membership renewal rates. Clearly, our reduction in membership is due to
the large number of non-renewals during the first half of the
fiscal year. The membership numbers have stablized since
April 1998, largely because of the followup carried out by
your Membership Secretary and myself (on ISP account holders). However, all the followup in the world can only help
maintain our membership numbers at the present levels. In
order to maintain the viability of the Winnipeg PC User
Group, we need your help in recruiting new members. To this
end, your Board of Directors has endorsed several initiatives
where we will be asking for your help. The following initiatives are planned:
A: Each member has been requested to approach his/her employer about a Corporate membership. A special letter to
email: [email protected]
managment is available from the membership secretary;
B: A special recruitment drive is planned for junior and senior high schools. Two copies of the Newsletter will be
available to every computer lab and we will put up posters encouraging students to join as Junior members. It is
hoped that we can encourage the teachers involved to become members also.
C: Every member is asked to consider an Associate membership for his/her spouse, son or daughter. Often the
spouse, son or daughter could take advantage of the forums to learn about the computer.
D: We plan a Corporate drive to sell Membership subscriptions to our Newsletter. The proceeds from this initiative
will help build new computers for the Resource Centre
which will better educate our members and other interested persons.
The Internet and Membership Statistics charts also show our
total and average Internet billings each month during fiscal
year 1997/98. It should be noted that we began charging PST
and GST with our April 1998 billing, but must remit both
taxes based on Interent Income for the entire fiscal year. The
number of Internet billed accounts has decreased from 264
for September 1997 to 224 for August 1998. The number of
internet billed accounts has stabilized over the last three
months of the fiscal year. Reductions during May and June
were primarly due to weeding out account holders who were
no longer members of the group and didn’t wish to renew
their membership.
Profit & Loss
$100,000
$90,000
$80,000
$70,000
$60,000
$50,000
$40,000
$30,000
$20,000
$10,000
$0
-$10,000
1998/99 Budget
1997/98
1996/97
1995/96
1994/95
1993/94
1992/93
Total Income
$74,935
$74,443
$99,401
$97,675
$71,041
$80,149
$74,665
Total Expense
$68,711
$76,058
$99,022
$86,803
$56,044
$66,202
$61,634
Depreciation
$4,880
$6,399
$8,219
$11,516
$13,500
$8,088
$3,428
Net Income
$1,343
-$8,014
-$7,839
-$644
$1,497
$5,859
$9,603
Total Income
Total Expense
Depreciation
Net Income
Internet and Membership Statistics
Internet Regular Billing
$4,000
3749
3692
Members
3976
3630
3510
3555
3735
3417
3492
3611
3700
3637
$3,000
$19.00
600
543
500
44
$17.00
400
$2,000
$15.00
60
513
496
480
459
439
426
426
23
22
30
23
20
1818
14
$13.00
10
100
$0
$11.00
Sep- Oct- Nov- Dec- Jan- Feb- Mar- Apr- May- Jun- Jul- Aug97
97
97
97
98
98
98
98
98
98
98
98
Billing Revenue (No Tax)
6
6
264
262
258
250
249
245
242
230
200
225
Oct- Nov- Dec97
97
97
224
224
7 7
50
3
0
1
1
1
1
2
4
3
1
7
4
5
Oct- Nov- Dec97
97
97
Billed Accounts
Jan98
4 4
1
Feb- Mar- Apr- May- Jun- Jul-98 Aug98
98
98
98
98
98
Additions
30
100%
25
80%
10
6
0
Sep97
10
6
3
2
Feb- Mar- Apr- May- Jun- Jul-98 Aug98
98
98
98
98
98
New
Non Renewals
3
44
22
36
21
39
21
10
23
20
18
17
20
38
33
33
32
6
23
60%
15
12
5
7
3
Membership Renewal Rate
16
5
Jan98
Total Members
9
100
20
7
6
0
Sep97
20
150
6
17
0
Average Billing Revenue
242
6
4
Internet Regular Billed Accounts
250
50
423
40
300
200
$1,000
427
423
36
21
300
463
18
40%
5
20%
0
0%
31
Sep97
37
Oct- Nov- Dec- Jan- Feb- Mar- Apr- May- Jun97
97
97
98
98
98
98
98
98
Deletions
16
20
Renewals
Jul98
Aug98
Non Renewals
Adobe PhotoDeluxe Version 2.0
A First Look
I
✍ by Steve Vincze, Winnipeg PCUG
cameras, scanners, CD (including PhotoCD®), Internet as
’ve often wondered why so many digital camera manufacwell as any other device you can connect to a video capture
turers bundle PhotoDeluxe with their product. I have
card or parallel device. I used both a CD and a flat bed scancome to the conclusion that it’s because it’s one cool proner with very good results. Retrieving an image was straightgram.
forward and the help system
The installation process from
seems to be fairly good being
the CD was straightforward and
only a single click away (not
quick on my Windows 98 syscontext sensitive!). PhotoDeluxe
tem. There were few questions
allows you to create your own
to answer that would require
album of photographs that intechnical knowledge of the
clude a thumbnail sketch of
hardware and configuration of
each element/photo. This makes
your computer. The program
it easy to catalogue your photos
uses about 85MB of disk space
by an y catego ry you may
of which temporary work files
choose.
could consume 40MB. I’d say
Once you have an image copied
not bad for a graphics package
Two sides of Kim Zayac! Which is the REAL one?
into the PhotoDeluxe program
of this sort. You will also reitself you can get creative. It allows you to do various correcquire at least 16MB of RAM and I suspect the more you have
tive actions by stepping through a guided process (and tabs)
the quicker the redraws will take place. Since we are talking
or once you are proficient, you can use the advanced mode
about photograph manipulation primarily, your system will
and push the program to its limits. The basic actions one
need to be capable of displaying 256 colors at 640 x 480
would expect are included right at the first tab level of Get
pixels or greater. To help a new user get started, there is a
Photo. This includes adjusting the photo (for color/red eye),
five-minute video clip that covers the basics of using this inrotation and size.
tuitive product.
The next Step/Tab is Special Effects. This is where you can
PhotoDeluxe can be used to edit and create art/graphics from
apply effects to a photo to change the look and feel of the
various input media. There are options for input from digital
photo. You can twist, stretch, distort, antique, posterize and
so on to your heart’s content. My only complaint was I could
only do a single undo. This is a weakness especially when in
the learning mode. Unless you save your work at various
stages it may be difficult to get to a specific point in the trial
and error or build process. This problem may have been inherited from the big brother product PhotoShop 4.0. Otherwise the effects are fun and will allow you to poke fun at
your friends and family. This is where I spent a fair amount
of my time — experimenting with various settings to see the
impact even a minor change can make.
Now that you have created your masterpiece you may want
to publish it or share it. The next three tabs allow you to add
your photo to various output items. You can create calendars,
business cards, greeting cards, sports cards, labels, magazine
covers and a number of other fun things. If you want to share
the photo digitally you can add the image(s) to your web site
(Internet tab) or export it (Send tab) to most of the popular
file formats for import into other programs or giving to your
friends and family.
The final component is the Advanced tab. It is here that you
can access the Layers palette. This is how the various
changes, effects and multiple photos are tracked to build your
finished product. In this mode you will not have the guided
cue cards and tabs to help you. I believe you can rename and
change the order of the layers although I didn’t actually try
it. The printed manual is brief but helpful as a Getting
Started Guide. The best way to learn this product seems to be
just trying it. As with other photograph manipulation products it is difficult to teach the end user the techniques of
photo correction while sharing how to become creative artistically.
The Bug Report
W
✍ by Greg McClure, Winnipeg PCUG
ell once again the harvest season is here and we have
been able to grow a good crop of software bugs. The
following is a some of software features (aka bugs)
that have been unearthed lately.
Our first series of bugs covers software from Symantec and
their Norton Utilities 3.0 for Windows95. If you have downloaded this product from their Web site you should be aware
of an important procedure that should be followed for a successful installation. One should run Norton Integrator and
launch each application to unencrypt each module. After doing this, restart Windows95 before trying to run their Live
Update process.
Since we are dealing with Norton Utilities there is also a
problem with the 3.0.7 version of System Doctor. Windows98’s new fast shutdown procedure may cause system
freezes at shutdown if one is using System Doctor 3.0.7. Of
course each time Windows98 is not properly shutdown it runs
Scandisk the next time Windows is started which can be a bit
annoying. The system freeze ups at shutdown can be caused
by the following:
• Windows98 Fast shutdown is enabled
• SOLUTION: disable fast shutdown under START | PROGRAMS | ACCESSORIES | SYSTEM TOOLS | SYSTEM
INFORMATION
• Windows98 clobbered the Norton DCOM95 file
• SOLUTION: reinstall the DCOM95 file from the Norton
CD by double clicking on DCOM95.EXE in Windows Explorer
• SMARTDRV is installed in either your AUTOEXEC.BAT
or CONFIG.SYS files
• SOLUTION: place REMs in the beginning of the line in
the appropriate file
• System Doctor can not successfully close its memory sensors at shutdown
• SOLUTION: remove the sensors through System Doctor’s
File menu
• System Doctor may conflict with your video card
• SOLUTION: contact your video card manufacturer
• System Doctor may conflict with other applications running on your system
• SOLUTION: close down running applications
Windows95 users who have upgraded to Windows98 have
also encountered problems installing the latest Norton update.
After installation the user may not being able to use their
floppy drive but instead receives a “SYSDOC32 Not Responding” error message. This is a result of the the Registry
(composed of 2 VERY IMPORTANT files) not being created
properly during the Windows98 installation. One temporary
solution is to delete System Doctor from the Startup folder.
Supposedly Microsoft has indicated, using one of their standard responses, that a complete solution would involve reformatting the hard disk and re-installing Windows98 and all applications!! Symantec indicates that they are working on a
fix for this problem but have not indicated a date when it will
be available via Live Update.
Since we always have time to relax this problem concerns
gaming software. Activision who make Quake and Quake II
have uncovered several small performance issues with the
older version of the games so they have released which also
adds several feature enhancements. The two patch kits are
Quake II Patch 3.14 (mini patch) and Quake II Patch 3.14
(full patch). If you are already running version 3.13 of the
software then the mini patch is for you otherwise you will
need the full patch. The mini patch is available from
http://www.activision.com/support/show-patch.asp?patchID=19 with
the full patch from:
http://www.activision.com/support/show-patch.asp?patchID=61.
Now to a problem with a video card from Creative Labs and
Windows98. The Graphics Blaster Extreme model may lose
support for Blastercontrol and experience some incompatibilities with Direct3D support. Creative Labs has released a
patch kit containing the latest BIOS (1.44.2) as well as a
Windows9x driver update for the card. In addition the patch
adds a Disable Direct3D Support option to the Performance
tab in Display Properties. The patch is available from
http://www.soundblaster.com/aspscripts/download.asp?
file=/creative/drivers/gb/gbexbw95.exe&Agrmt=slicense.html
[combine the above two lines to make the URL]
Creative Labs also has a problem with their Sound Blaster
16/AWE32 Plug N Play sound card when running RealPlayer Plus. If you are using RealNetworks RealPlayer
Plus 5.0 and click on the stop button while playing a clip
may cause your system to reboot! Creative Labs has recently released update drivers to fix this problem. The drivers
are available from this URL:
http://www.creativelabs.com/wwwnew/tech/ftp/ftpnew.html.
Not to be left out, Microsoft has released a couple of fixes
for their software. The first problems concerns those who are
using MS Access 2.0, Access 95 and Access 97. The popular
database software has a problem in that it may cause edits
made in one Access database record to be saved to another
record! The problems is traceable to the Jet database engine
used in the products. In order to have the problem occur a
series of events must occur and are documented at:
http://odyssey.apana.org.au/~abrowne/BugBookmark.html
Microsoft has only been able to reproduce the problem in
Access97 even though the Jet engine is used in the older versions of Access. Therefore Microsoft has released a patch at
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q172/7/33.asp
Apparently this patch is only available if one has MS Office
97, Access97, Visual Basic 5.0 or Office Developer Edition
97 installed on your computer. In other words if you have an
older version of Access installed then this patch may not
work.
If this is the case you may want to see:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/access/content/datachanges.asp
which describes the problem and a work around for it. Hopefully for those who are using the older versions of Access this
workaround will ensure that this bug will not surface.
Microsoft has also released Office97 Service Pak 2. This Pak
requires one to have previously installed Service Pak 1 for
Office97. Service Pak 2 fixes numerous fixes to the various
components in Office 97 including Outlook97 and Outlook98
as well as the above mentioned problem with Jet in Access.
To see what the fixes are look at
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q151/0/20.asp
Be warned that these service paks are not small. Service Pak
1 is the smaller of the two weighing in at 4MB and Service
Pak 2 being the heavyweight at 23.5 MB! Also Microsoft
indicates that once the service pak is installed it CANNOT be
uninstalled because the files become an integral part of the
operating system. In order to return Office files back to their
previous state it will require you to uninstall Office and reinstall it.
When Microsoft released Service Pak 1 back in July there
were problems with it and had to be withdrawn and redone.
Unless you are in a rush or have a need for one of the fixes
in Service Pak 2 you may want to wait and make sure that
there are not similar problems with this Pak. Hopefully by
the time that this article is printed any bugs that MAY exist
in it have been fixed.
As security is a prime concern on the Internet, Microsoft has
also released a patch for IE 3/4.x to fix a problem that allows
hackers to read your files on your hard disk. The bugs called
the Cross Frame Navigate bug affects both the IE 3/4 running
on Win 3.x/95/98/NT and the MacIntosh. In order for the
hacker to be able to read files he/she must know the specific
name of the files. The solution for IE 4.x users is to upgrade
to version 4.01 of the browser and download the patch available from:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/ms98-013.htm
Microsoft’s solution for those still using the IE 3.x version of
the browser requires one to download IE 4.01 first then apply
the patch. This maybe a problem for some current IE 3.x users as IE 4.x requires 40MB hardisk for the barebones version as well as an additional 16MB of harddisk space during
installation. Also the minimal install download file’s size is
16 MB.
Microsoft has also released an update to Windows98. It is not
called a service pak as it apparently does not fix bugs but
merely supplies multimedia enhancements to the following
items:
• Microsoft DirectX gaming technology.
• Microsoft Media Player, with access to Windows Media
Advanced Streaming Format, QuickTime, MIDI, RealAudio, and RealVideo content.
• New Web fonts.
• Microsoft Chat 2.5.
The update is available from
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
Well that is it for now. Since Fall is quickly approaching
maybe the bugs will hibernate for the winter, yah right and if
you believe that I have some swamp land I would like to sell
<VBG>.
PowerQuest’s Gene Barlow and George Bowman
Report of the September General Meeting
O
business. He gave each of his grown daughters a Hewlettur president George Bowman opened the meeting with
Packard ScanJet 5pse scanner, and they are now charging
the announcement that next month is October, the
customers $25/hour for repairing damaged photographs.
month of our annual general meeting. Due to changing
Roger currently is using an HP ScanJet 5100C with a paralcircumstances, George said he will not be seeking re-election
lel port interface, and he wholeheartedly recommended it to
as president of the group, even though last month he had inthe members present.
dicated he would be willing to serve another term.
As a user of the program and not a professional product speWith labour strikes against both Air Canada and Northwest
cialist, Roger’s presentation featured detailed demonstations
Airlines settled only within the last few days, our presenter
of the more useful and widely
for tonight almost did not make it
used functions of Paint Shop Pro.
to the meeting. In the event he
This proved a refreshing departure
could not, a couple of days ago
from other demonstrations that
George asked member Karl
Forms for a User Group offer of
seem more like a dizzying fly-by
Strieby if he would be willing to
of all the tiny and esoteric tools
put something together. Karl
Paint Shop Pro for $US49.00 plus
that tend to get crammed into
agreed and came prepared make a
$US8.00 shipping and handling are
products these days. His love of
demonstration. It was not needed,
currently available at our
the program was evident, and his
as our secheduled presenter was
at times irreverent modifications
just able to make the trip to WinResource Centre.
to the photographs he was worknipeg. There was a round of aping with greatly amused the audiplause for Karl for the effort he put
ence. He was given an enthusiastic
in.
round of applause at the end of his presentation.
George then introduced Roger Creighton. A journalist by
Forms for a User Group offer of the program for $US49.00
trade, Roger has used Paint Shop Pro since it was a shareplus $US8.00 shipping and handling were made available at
ware program back in 1991. He is not an employee of Jasc
the meeting, and are currently available at our Resource CenSoftware, but does receive a stipend from them for his prestre, located at 337C Pembina Highway. The telephone numentations. The product Roger demonstrated at the meeting
ber of the Canadian distributor of Paint Shop Pro is (905)
was, of course, Paint Shop Pro by Jasc Software.
565-0808, but Roger was not certain if they would honour
Paint Shop Pro is a straight-forward picture bitmap (or pixelthe User Group price.
by- pixel) editing program with a few additional features. Its
Roger Creighton can be reached on the World Wide Web at
file management section features an Explorer-like interface
www.rollanet.org/~pcprimer.
that displays thumbnails of the graphic files in the subdirectory instead of icons. A user interface feature Roger said he
Door Prize Winners Jasc Software generously donated five
appreciates is the use of the right and left mouse buttons
copies of Paint Shop Pro for door prizes. They were won by
zoom in and out. Many other programs use the left button for
David Bezak, Tom Blatch, Kim Zayac, Enid Freese, and
zooming in but map the zoom-out function to a function key
Art Kaebe.
or drop-down menu item.
Buck for Your Butt Draw Program: Free Space from MiIn addition, like CorelDRAW and Micrografx Windows Draw,
jenix
separate images can be imported into the active drawing and
Book: Netobjects Fusion 3 for Dummies
stacked in layers, lower layers hiding underneath the upper
CD: The best of Tucows
ones. Operations on the picture such as resize, cut and paste,
CD: Mutual Funds Prospector
and colouring work only on the active layer.
A pen
Winner: Robert Vandergraaf
One of the most interesting features Roger demonstrated is
the tube tool. Selecting it opens a dialogue box that asks for a
Program: ZipMagic from Mijenix
category of image to use. Choices ranged from airplanes to
Book: Style Sheets for HTML and XML
insects, from small candies to beach stones. Then every click
CD: Mutual Funds Prospector
of the mouse button dropped a different image drawn from
CD: Stock Market Prospector Canada
that category into the drawing: various types of airplanes, difA pen
ferent insects, a variety of stones, etc. The categories and the
Winner: Len Driscoll
objects within them can be extended by the user.
Program: Year 2000 from Technology Enterprises Inc.
Paint Shop Pro can interface directly with a Kodak digital
Book: Beginning Active Server Pages 2.0
camera to import images. Since the program can handle imCD: Mututal Funds Prospector
ages with millions of colours, with the addition of a scanner
CD: Nature Scenes
it can be used for retouching colour or black and white phoA pen
tographs. Roger indicated this can be the basis for a small
Winner: Blaine Cumming
Winnipeg PC
User Group Forums
✍ by John Kesson, Forum Coordinator
Meet at the Resource Centre
A forum is a group of members who meet to share information on topics of mutual interest, i.e. Beginner’s Forum,
Hardware Forum. Members can help, and learn from, each
other. Each forum has one or two leaders.
Meeting Place
Unless otherwise stated, all Forums meet at the WPCUG Resource Centre (The Clubhouse) at 337C Pembina Highway
(Pembina Highway at Fleet Street).
And Now....Here are the Forums
(listed alphabetically)
Beginner’s FORUM
Meets the second Saturday of the month.
10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Leader: Barb Randle
Genealogy FORUM
Meets the third Tuesday of the month. 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Leader: Roland Verrier
Hardware FORUM
Meets the fourth Tuesday of the month. 7:00 p.m. - 9:00
p.m. except for the months of July and August.
Leader: Jon Phillips
HTML Hyper Text Markup Language
Meets first Wednesday of the month 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Leader: Shawn Zayac
Linux FORUM
CANCELLED.
This Forum requires a leader. Anyone who might be interested in
leading this Forum is asked to contact the Forum Coordinator at:
John Kesson on the BBS or [email protected]
OS/2 FORUM
Meets the first Tuesday of the month 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Leader: Karl Strieby
Scanner FORUM
Meets the second Wednesday of *alternating* months. 7:00
p.m. - 9:00 p.m. EXCEPT for the months of June, July and August, annually. October is the Scanner Forum!!
Leader: Neil Longmuir
Windows FORUM Meets the second Tuesday of the month
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Leader: Myles Munro
WordPerfect FORUM
Meets the second Wednesday of *alternating* months. 7:00
p.m. - 9:00 p.m. EXCEPT for the months of June, July and August, annually. November is the WP Forum!!
Leader: Neil Longmuir
Install/Drop-In FORUM
Meets every Saturday of the month EXCEPT the second
Saturday which is the Beginner’s Forum. 10:00 a.m. - 4:00
p.m.
Leaders: Jon Phillips and Greg McClure.
Internet Access Form
Complete and return with $28.50
[$10 registration + $15 (first month’s fee) + $3.50 (PST/GST)]
TO:
c/o Internet Subscriptions
P.O. Box 3149
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 4E6
Name: (last, First, Initial)
Home Address:
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Home Phone:Business Phone:
PC User Group Membership Number
Bill Method:
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(provide sample void cheque)
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Signature:
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Account
Date:
I authorize the Winnipeg PC User Group to charge my
bank account monthly for my use of the
WPCUG Internet connection.
Parental/Guardian signature required for members under
18.
WPCUG Membership required for ISP membership!
Tellier Electronics Ltd.
• Computer Sales and service
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1388 Spruce St. 774-1741
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Oct / Nov

Transcription

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