C C C C N E W S L E T T E R
CENTRAL COAST COMPUTER CLUB
Santa Maria, California
VOLUME XVII: NUMBER 12 NOVEMBER, 2002
NEXT MEETING: December 17, 2002 6:00PM KNOLLWOOD VILLAGE 4012 S. BRADLEY
PRESENTATION: CHRISTMAS PARTY
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| CONTENTS |
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(1) Officers, Helplines, S.I.G.s
(2) President's Corner Charles Barney
(3) Editor's Comments Dick Trissel
(4) Web Wanderings Gil Smith
(5) November Systems S.I.G. Dick Trissel
(6) Epilogue To Backup Ray Isenson
(7) System Backup Dick Trissel
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OFFICERS HELPLINES
President Juno
Charles Barney 937-1240 Gilbert Smith 925-3743
cbarney@lightspeed.net Gs5081@aol.com
Vice President Windows 95/98/ME/XP & VoiceControl
Amy Malicki 925-5780 Amy Malicki 925-5780
amymal@juno.com amymal@juno.com
Secretary and Book Librarian Hardware & DOS
Barbara Godwin 934-9885 Ray Isenson 937-6938
yung.bag@verizon.net risenson@juno.com
Treasurer AOL
Gerry Miller 934-1396 Frank Maciel 922-2318
2741 Banyan Way frm8198@aol.com
Santa Maria CA 93455
Gmiller@pronet.net
Disk Librarian Help With Any Problem
Sharon Allen 928-2209 Dick Savage 928-4932
sallen4060@aol.com rsavage65@hotmail.com
Publicity Help With Any Problem
Bill Corning 934-0775 Fred Adams 934-1128
foster95@juno.com wd64acj@netzero.net
Newsletter Editor Visual Basic
Dick Trissel 937-7572 Gerald Miller 934-1396
rtrissel@juno.com Gmiller@pronet.net
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (S.I.G.s)
Windows 95/98/ME/XP (6:00pm) Systems (5:45pm)
Amy Malicki Dick Trissel
amymal@juno.com rtrissel@juno.com
CCCC Membership is $15 for twelve months ($20 family). For this you
receive:
Monthly newsletter
EXTRA4C E-mail Messages
Access to the clubs software library
Disk of the month (usually for $1)
Helpline support
Monthly presentation
Valuable door prizes
Question and answer sessions
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CCCC Page 2 December 2002
PRESIDENT'S CORNER
by Charles Barney
November was election month for the 4Cs and ballots were cast at our
meeting on the 19th to choose club officers for the year 2003. There were
no surprises here since, as usual, only one candidate was running for each
position. Hey, the way I see it, one candidate is 100% better than none!
I will be returning as your President for one more year. I know, that's
what I said last year, but this time I really mean it! Joining the staff
for the first time, I'm pleased to announce, will be Richard Holmes as Vice
President. Returning officers are Barbara Godwin, Secretary and Jerry
Miller, Treasurer. I'm grateful to have these fine folks serving as fellow
officers. Their continuing efforts will be a big help to me and a great
asset to the club.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the following other folks who
have volunteered their time and efforts over the past year to help make our
user group the outstanding one that it is: Amy Malicki-Vice President and
SIG Leader; Dick Trissel-Newsletter Editor, SIG Leader, and Web Master; Ray
Isenson-Program Chairman and Advisor; Sharon Allen-Disk Librarian; Bill
Corning-Publicity Manager; Gilbert Smith-Past President Advisor; Barbara
Flood and Eldean Voris-Kitchen Technicians (new title this year!); Fred
Adams and Carl Geisler-Clubhouse Setup; Vic McLaughlin-50/50 Drawing
Manager and Equipment Setup. I know there have been others of you who have
filled-in when we needed subs and have helped out in many other ways (you
know who you are). A heartfelt THANK YOU to you all!
Our own Ray Isenson gave us an informative presentation on a subject that
many of us tend to avoid like the plague - backing up our hard drives. The
valuable data that delicately resides on the rapidly-spinning platters
inside these drives deserve as much care as we can muster. Ray talked about
how data is stored on hard drives and how these devices can fail. He
demonstrated a simple backup method using the built-in Wizards provided in
PowerQuest's Drive Image program.
Clearly, with today's available software tools and affordable storage
media, there is really no excuse for us to be caught unprotected when
things go amiss with our hard drive.
No less than ten of you walked away with a door prize after the meeting,
thanks in part to the generous PowerQuest folks. Lucky members included:
Allen Alderson-PowerQuest Drive Image 2002; Eldean Voris-Map'n'Go+Street
Atlas USA; Jim Burress, Don Feragen, Sandy Ashby, and Al Cooper each
winning a copy of the Discovering Your Hard Drive CD by Gene Barlow; Ken
Baur-Screen Creator Deluxe; Jerry Miller-Mindshare Baseball Jersey and Cap;
Ray Isenson-Hoyle Classic Casino; and Maureen Morrow-Wheel of Fortune, 2nd
Edition. The only no-shows called were Howard Williams and Ferd Sobol.
We'll be having our annual Christmas potluck party at the meeting on
December 17th, and no SIGs or regular programs are scheduled. Please bring
a plate of "finger foods" to share if you are planning to attend. Beverages
and utensils will be provided. Santa has been advised that you all have
been exceptionally good members this past year and he has prepared a bevy
of really nice computer-related hardware prizes to give away at the party.
Come on out and join us if you can make it. It'll be great!
May you all have a joyous holiday season and a blessed new year. -Charles
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PARTY TIME
Our annual December Christmas potluck party at 6:00PM on Tuesday, December
17 will be in lieu of the usual CCCC meeting. All members and their
families are welcome. Please bring a plate of "finger foods" to share if
you are planning to attend.
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CCCC Page 3 December 2002
EDITOR'S COMMENTS by Dick Trissel
In keeping with the holiday spirit, I've devoted this month's Editor's
Comments to a classic cooking recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as I
have.
AUNT EDNA'S BEST RUM COOKIES by Aunt Edna
Aunt Edna originally submitted this recipe in 1991. It is by far the best
cookie recipe ever.
Here's what you'll need:
1 or 2 quarts of Rum
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup dried fruit
1/4 cup chopped nuts
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. lemon juice
Before you start, sample the Rum to check for quality. Now go ahead.
Select a large mixing bowl, measuring spoons and cup, mixer and ungreased
cookie sheet, etc. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Check the Rum again--it
must be just right. To be sure the Rum is of the very finest quality, pour
1 level cup of Rum into a glass and drink it as fast as you can. Rinse and
repeat. With an electric mixer, beat 1 cup of butter in a large, fluffy
bowl. Add one round seaspoon thugar and beat some more, again. Meanwhile,
go back and make sure the Rum is of the assolute finest quality. Try
another cup. Open second quart if necessary. Add 2 arge leggs, 2 cups
fried druit and beat up high. If druit gets stuck in beaters, just pry it
loose with a drewscriber or spoom. Sample the rum again, checking close
for tonsicitricy. Nest, shift 3 cups of pepper or salt (it really doesn't
matter) and sample Wum more some. Shift pint of lenom juice. Fold up
chopped butter and strain your nuts. Add 1 bablespoon brown thugar or
whatever color's handy. Wix mell. Grease oven and turn cookie sheep down
to 305 gredees. Now dump the whole mess on a cookie sheep; toss it right
into the boven and ake. Check the Wum again and then bo to ged.
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CCCC Page 4 December 2002
WEB WANDERINGS
By Gil Smith
FLIGHT FOLLOWING
You can get up to the minute flight information, including position, speed
and departure/arrival airports and times for flights in the U.S. and
Canadian airspace. Go to this web site and watch the progress of a flight
from take-off to landing. Really neat when you have to meet a friend or
relative at the airport. All you need is the Airline Name and the Flight
Number. It sure can save you the time you might have to wait at the
airport to meet a delayed flight.
http://www.flightview.com
BAR-B-QUE
Do you like to cook on the grill? Here's a site that has everything
you need to make yourself into a barbecue expert. You'll find "how to"
recipes for everything from steak to fish, plus lots of advice on
maintenance, temperatures, spices and more. I think you will enjoy
spending some time on this site.
http://www.barbecuen.com/
BUYER'S GUIDE
Are you looking for a new computer component? Rather than wasting most of
an afternoon trying to find the best possible price, check out Cnet's
Shopping area. You tell the system what you're searching around
for and it gives you a list of places that sell it, along with prices and a
rating for the company.
http://shopper.cnet.com/
MOVIE MADNESS
Don't you hate to spend $6 or more to see a movie, especially when it turns
out to be a "loser". Here's a movie review site that not only posts what
the site's movie critic thinks, but also what it's visitors think as well.
It will give you a decent indication of whether the movie you're about to
shell out your hard-earned money for is any good.
http://www.joblo.com/
HAVE SOME FUN
Check out this fun site. They have stuff like IQ tests, games, puzzles,
brain-teasers, and tons more. It would take several days (at least) to
explore this one. Have fun!
http://www.afunzone.com/
NEWS OVERLOAD!
This is basically a search engine for news-related sites. Click on a
category or enter a search term and it delivers links to all the most
relevant news sites. Whether you're looking for a specific story or just
wanting to keep on top of things, this site is a must see.
http://www.totalnews.com/
MONEY
Check out Money Magazine online, News, stocks, investing, and more.
Here's a little blurb from their site: At money.com, our goal is simple: to
provide you with the advice and interactive tools you need to make
important decisions about your investments, home, cars, retirement, college
-- all aspects of personal finance. We've got the Internet covered as
well, with exclusive reports that will help you make sense of this new
frontier.
http://www.money.com/money/
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CCCC Page 5 December 2002
NOVEMBER SYSTEMS S.I.G.
by Dick Trissel
The November Systems S.I.G. spent a lot of time discussing e-mail problems.
We also spent some time discussing the Juno ISP.
The first item about e-mail was the results of some spam tests I ran on the
several free e-mail accounts I have. To boil it all down, the accounts
that have never been used to register online, never used for e-mail
subscriptions, and never used to respond to spam, they never receive
unwanted e-mail other than the ISP's ads. We may be doing it to ourselves.
Sometimes having your e-mail address grabbed by spammers is not your fault.
There are Web sites that you may visit that will capture your address and
sell it to spammers. Here's a direct quote from the www.yahoo.com privacy
policy. "...may use health or medical information for marketing...and may
contact you to interest you in other services or products and does not
allow you to remove yourself from marketing/mailing list". Reportedly
there are programs available to alert you when a site is not a P3P
(Platform for Privacy Preferences) member.
How do you avoid spam? Setup more than one account--hey, they're free.
Use one account for registration (the one you don't give to family and
friends). For example, I use Juno for my everyday e-mail. I use Hotmail
for registration (you have to have a valid ISP to register--they check). I
access my Hotmail just frequently enough to keep it active (after two
months without activity and it goes inactive).
Here are some suggestions from Business magazine to help avoid spam.
Before giving a company permission to send you e-mail, read the privacy
policy on its Web site. Report an address violation to the Federal Trade
Commission (ftc.gov). Get a junk mailbox. Use filtered access from your
provider or by subscription. Watch out for spam disguised as e-mail from
legitimate merchants. Contact legitimate marketers to request stopping
unwanted e-mail. Don't use your address in chat rooms or online
sweepstakes, etc.
One member pointed out the ability to use e-mail blocking in Outlook
Express. In OE (with a message present) go to Message and choose Create
Rule For Message and Block Sender.
E-mail attachments always seem to be a topic of interest. First, when you
save the attachment (and you should always save it to a folder on your
drive), remember where you put it. I recommend creating a folder directly
under the C: drive (select the C: drive, File / New / Folder). I use the
folder name Atemp because it will be near the top of the folder list.
You may get an attachment with an extension (file type) that is either
unrecognizable by an application (no association), or incorrectly
recognized (wrong application). This is where the Open With feature is
handy. Select the file, hold the shift down, right click, and find the
application that should be used for that file type. Don't select the
option to always use this association until you are sure that is the one
you want for all files of that type. You can have several types for any
one application, but you can only have one application for any one file
type (what did he say?). Read that sentence carefully.
There was a question about accessing Juno e-mail when you are away from
home. My understanding is that your Juno account access will not be
available if you are out of your area code. However, you can use any
Internet access available (like a library or friend) to go to www.juno.com,
log on to your account, and read your e-mail. It will be left at Juno so
you can retrieve it from your account when you get home.
Speaking of Juno, I recommend staying with Juno version 4. Version 5 has a
few problems, and Juno 6 (the 2 minute download from www.juno.com) is just
like Netzero--it doesn't have the direct dial e-mail capability. If anyone
wants the Juno 4 CD, let me know and I'll make a copy.
When using Juno's e-mail reader, if you want to delete a message without
opening it, hold the CTRL down when you select it, and then click Delete.
Juno now has more toll-free phone numbers in this area. However, I found
that for my modems, one number connects at a slower rate than the others--
it is the 357-0155 number. This may be just an incompatibility between my
modems and theirs on that line. Anyway, the free Juno Web is now available
again for this area.
One person mentioned the KMART Bluelight ISP CD is available again. I
picked up a free CD at KMART. The CD cover says $8.95 per month unlimited.
I went to the Bluelight Web sight (I started with www.bluelight.com, but
got sent to www.kmart.com and then on to other Bluelight sites). One Web
site said $9.95 unlimited. Another said one month free and then $8.95 for
a few months, and then $9.95. Another site said $8.95. Anyway, there are
5 toll free phone numbers: 3 Nipomo and 2 Santa Maria.
The problem of successfully doing file downloads was mentioned. Always
choose to Save to Disk, not to install. When you choose to save to disk,
put it on your hard drive in the Atemp folder I mentioned above. Then you
can save it to a floppy, if it is less than 1.4Mbytes, or save it somewhere
convenient. This is for future reference so you don't have to download it
again if needed. Some people download to the Desktop and then copy it from
there. Whatever works for you.
There was a question of any way to make a file so that it could not be
deleted. In my experience, the only way is if it is a file that is
currently in use by the operating system or certain applications, but not
every application. No one knew of any deliberate way. If any one knows,
let me know.
We didn't have time for this next item, but I think it is worth mentioning.
One club member had about $10 worth of CD-RW discs that he couldn't format
with Adaptec Direct CD. His equipment could format any other brand; just
this one brand was a problem. He could erase that brand of CD-RWs, so his
burner was hot enough to format (the most heat is required to erase a
disc). It just could not successfully complete the formatting--it kept
spinning forever. What we found would salvage the CDs was to let the
formatting process go until it displayed the "Verifying" mode. Then do a
CTRL-ALT-DEL and End Task the Direct CD job. After restarting Direct CD, a
"Quick Format" operation (2 minutes) would write the "File System
Structure" that was supposed to get written at the end of the Verify. It
works.
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CCCC Page 6 December 2002
EPILOGUE TO BACKUP
By Ray Isenson
Immediately after my presentation on simplified backing up of one's
computer hard drives, several members approached me with what I thought to
be excellent questions. I apologize for not having had the foresight to
anticipate some of the more general questions during the discussion. Dick
Trissel has kindly offered me the opportunity to address the matters here.
1). Q: The backup program that comes with Windows 9x or XP seems to offer
the better capabilities of DriveImage or Veritas Simple Backup. Why should
I buy third party programs?
A: The image created by any of the backup programs is a compressed
version of the original. It isn't a file that can be simply copied back to
its original location. Each of the third party programs include provisions
for restoring; i.e., decompressing the backed up material to its original
location, starting the computer using floppies if there is an operating
system failure. The emergency boot disks for Windows 9x or XP don't have
this capability.
2). Q: In the demonstration, DriveImage created a new backup partition to
store the backup files it created. If, at some future date I want to make
an updated backup will DriveImage overwrite the image I already have or
will it allow me to keep both of them?
A: When you indicate that you want the originally backed up partition
to be backed up again, DriveImage will ask whether you want to overwrite
the original. If you decide not to overwrite, DriveImage will check to see
if there's enough space for both images and may suggest that you increase
the size of the backup partition. The same thing will happen if you
originally had a second partition, say, with applications, and want to add
a backup of it.
3). Q: You showed in the Start Menu Programs that there is a program within
DriveImage called Image Explorer and said that you could use it to restore
a small part of the backup image. Is it difficult to use?
A: Image Explorer looks and works very much like the Windows Explorer.
When you invoke the program a window is opened that has the same two panes
as Windows Explorer. You'll see all the drives and partitions on your
computer and you can open any folder. The main difference is that except
for the folders in the backup image, all appear to be empty. By opening the
backup image folder and successive folders within it you eventually get to
the file or folder that you want to restore. Right click on it and you get
the option of opening it or restoring it to its original source;
effectively a drag and drop.
4). Q: How do I order DriveImage over the Internet?
A: Go to URL www.ugr.com/order. Place your order and use the special
code UGNOV02 to identify yourself as a user group member entitled to the
special discount. If there is a product upgrade you will be so advised and
sent the latest version, typically at the same price. The special price for
DriveImage is $35. There is a $5 S&H charge per order, not per item.
5). Q: You mentioned a CD that was an excellent discourse of hard drives
and said that some would be given away as door prizes. Does the disk
contain more detailed information on backing up a hard drive and can you
tell me who won one?
A: The CD contains an excellent tutorial on "Discovering Your Hard
Drive" by Gene Barlow. He does touch on backing up information on a drive
but not in any great detail. Instead he describes, in layman's terms, how
the drive works. He suggests what he considers to be an optimum way to
organize a drive and offers a number of practical suggestions. Copies of
the CD Disk have been placed in the club's library. Call Barbara if you'd
like to get on the list to borrow one.
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CCCC Page 7 December 2002
SYSTEM BACKUP
by Dick Trissel
Ray Isenson's presentation and article prompted me to think about the
techniques of preparing for the inevitable loss of computer data and/or
operating systems. As he said, it isn't a matter of if you are going to
experience a data loss, component failure, or virus infection, it's a
matter of when. You can't really prevent a failure (unless you don't use
your computer). So, it's not too soon to learn how to minimize the effect.
And yes, I've had losses. Everything from system failure to boot, to hard
drive total failure (they make an awful racket when they go).
Some people feel that because they have the original CDs (and boot
floppies) they can adequately recover the operating system (OS) from the OS
CD or the computer manufacturer's "Restore" CD, and reinstall the
applications. That's fine. In fact, up until recently, that's what I did.
Why? Because, without adequate hard drive space and no CD-RW burner, there
was no convenient "backup" available to me. But now, with monster hard
drives and CD burners at reasonable prices, there are better ways to backup
part or all of your computer system. The problem is deciding which backup
method is best for you.
Nowadays, there are basically three ways (places) to backup files or
partitions (not including the inadequate tape and ZIP drives).
Option 1) You can copy to another partition on your existing hard drive.
This is good if you have the space, but it doesn't protect you from a hard
drive failure. However, you don't need any special software to simply copy
the files. Windows Explorer file and folder copy is available to all at no
extra cost, but does no compressing of the backed-up files. Windows
MSBACKUP is available on everything except XP and some ME systems. The
only advantage over Explorer is it can compress the files (usually about
40%) if space is a problem. With Explorer or MSBACKUP, in the event of a
system crash you would have to install some version of Windows in order to
be able to copy back the files. There are programs that will do the job a
little better and easier than straight copy. DriveImage (about $50) will
copy a compressed executable system to a separate partition (or will make
one if one doesn't already exist).
Option 2) You can copy to another hard drive. This is good if you know how
to open your computer and cable in a second drive. And the same conditions
apply for copying as option 1. This option has the advantage that the
backup drive can be removed to minimize wear. With the right program, it
can be structured so that in the event of the original drive failure, it
can be installed in place of the original.
Option 3) You can copy to CDs. Obviously, this is only good if you have a
CD burner and the right software to take advantage of it. The simple
approach is to make the copy to the existing drive (if space allows), and
then copy that to a CD (or multiple CDs). The Veritas Simple Backup (VSB)
program (about $30) is an example of software that will write a compressed
backup directly to multiple CDs. The restored system is bootable And, it
allows you to select what you want to backup. PowerQuest DriveImage (PQDI)
(only version 2002) will make a compressed backup to multiple CDs, but only
the entire source partition (no individual file or folder selection). The
restored partition is bootable. Both VSB and PQDI have selectable restore
capability--you can restore selected files and folders. Don't rely on
making a direct copy of files to a CD with burner software. The restored
files will be "read only" and may prevent some applications from running.
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