C C C C N E W S L E T T E R
CENTRAL COAST COMPUTER CLUB
Santa Maria, California
VOLUME XX: NUMBER 12 DECEMBER, 2005
Meetings are held on the third Tuesday of every month at the Knollwood
Village Clubhouse 4012 S. Bradley Dr., Santa Maria.
General meeting at 7:00 PM. Special Interest Groups sessions are at
5:45pm and 6:00pm. Guests are welcome.
Check out our web site: http//member.apcug.org/fourseas for the latest
program schedule information.
Membership is $15 for twelve months for individuals, $20 for families.
For this you receive: Monthly newsletters, EXTRA4C E-mail Messages,
Help-line support, Monthly presentations, Valuable door prizes, Question
and answer sessions.
NEXT MEETING:December 20, 2005 KNOLLWOOD VILLAGE 4012 S. BRADLEY
PRESENTATION: There will be no presentation--the December meeting will be
the Christmas Party.
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| CONTENTS |
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(1) OFFICERS, HELPLINES, S.I.G.S
(2) PRESIDENT'S CORNER Spence Stimler
(3) EDITOR'S COMMENTS Dick Trissel
(4) WEB WANDERINGS
(5) SYSTEMS S.I.G. Dick Trissel
(6) SLOW CONNECTION, BAD ADVICE Fred Langa
(7) TO DEFRAG OR NOT TO DEFRAG Kim Komando
(8) WINDOWS PICTURE AND FAX VIEWER Kim Komando
(9) WE FROM IE OR TASKBAR Jim Tonge
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OFFICERS HELPLINES
President Juno
Spence Stimler 938-0217 Dick Trissel 937-7572
SPENCE923@msn.com rtrissel@juno.com
Vice President Windows 95/98/ME/XP & VoiceControl
Bill Corning 934-0775 Amy Malicki 925-5780
foster95@juno.com savvyforseniors@juno.com
Acting Secretary Hardware and Windows XP
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
gandamiller@verizon.net
Disk Librarian Visual Basic and Genealogy
Sharon Allen 928-2209 Gerald Miller 934-1396
sallen4060@aol.com gandamiller@verizon.net
Publicity Help With Any Problem
Bill Corning 934-0775 Ray Isenson 937-6938
foster95@juno.com risenson@juno.com
Newsletter Editor
Dick Trissel 937-7572
rtrissel@juno.com
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (S.I.G.s)
Systems (5:45pm)
Dick Trissel
rtrissel@juno.com
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CCCC Page 2 December 2005
PRESIDENT'S CORNER by Spence Stimler
We normally do not conduct business at our Christmas Party. This year will
be an exception, but it will be of a very short duration. We have a slate
of candidates for 2006.
President: Ray Isenson
Vice-president: Spence Stimler
Secretary: Barbara Godwin
Treasurer: Gerry Miller
Unless objections are raised, we will conduct a voice vote of the members
present. A favorable vote for the slate will confirm their election and
automatically considered them installed.
The party begins at 6:00pm on Dec. 20, 2005. Guests are welcome. Bring
finger food to share and we will have tables set up for a buffet. The club
will provide coffee and hot cider. As in the past, the club will purchase
gifts of a computer nature to be awarded to the lucky ticket holders.
Members will receive a ticket for the drawing. Each winner will have the
opportunity to select his prize. Sorry, but only members will be eligible
for the prizes.
Please plan to attend and enjoy the evening with your fellow computer
enthusiasts.
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CCCC Page 3 December 2005
EDITOR'S COMMENTS by Dick Trissel
Well, here we are at the end of another year of learning about computers.
It is hard to believe it's been a year since the last great Central Coast
Computer Club Christmas potluck dinner--I do like potlucks!
2005 was a good year for CCCC with a gradually expanding membership. We
started the year with over 80 members and grew to 100. I think that's the
most we've had since I've been a member (about 8 years). Even though the
membership grew, the meeting attendance stayed pretty much the same--same
number (between 40 and 50), and mostly the same people. Apparently there
are many getting value from the club's correspondence and helplines.
I look for even more interest in computers in the coming year. It's been 4
years since Windows XP was introduced, and by now everyone has mastered XP
(grin). By this time next year there will be a new Windows operating system
(Vista) in all the new computers. Those people that want or need a new
computer at that time will get to start all over learning a new system.
During the past year we had a lot of exchange of experiences and information
at the Special Interest Groups and the Q & A sessions. And we had some
interesting and beneficial presentations by a few members and some guest
speakers. The presentations chronologically starting in January were:
Ray Isenson on TaxAct,
Gil Vela on Home Networking,
Pat Keith (ComputerWorks),
Amy Malicki on CD Burning,
Question and Answer Session,
Lee Otsubo (The Digital Guy),
Amy Malicki on Scanners,
Will Gordon (ABRO Computers),
Gil Vela on Wi-Fi-Security,
The Geek Squad (BestBuy),
and Dick Trissel on Preparing for Backups
Thanks to the four officer candidates and volunteer helpers, we will have
another interesting and beneficial year in 2006.
And by the way, CCCC membership dues for 2006 are due at the January
meeting.
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CCCC Page 4 December 2005
WEB WANDERINGS
DEEP SEA EXPLORATION
Each time I scuba dive, I am amazed by the ocean's colors and life. The
deepest I have gone is about 100 feet, which is nothing compared to today's
site.
For many, the deep sea is just as mysterious as outer space. There is so
much there that the average person has never seen.
The Ocean Explorer site seeks to remedy that. Start by viewing the Lost
City, a hydrothermal field in the Atlantic Ocean.
Learn about the Lost City's geological formations, plants and animals. If
you have QuickTime, you can even watch videos captured by deep sea rovers.
It is otherworldly!
If you want to continue your explorations, there's plenty to keep you
occupied. Stunning photographs and videos abound of oceans all over the
world.
http://tinyurl.com/8dlqu
SO, HOW HOT IS IT?
There are plenty of weather sites on the Web. They're full of detailed
information, such as dew points, barometer readings, temperature, wind speed
and radar screens.
Today's site does all of that and more.
There are forecast maps, aviation maps and computer model maps. Check out
the personal weather stations, too. Who knows? Maybe someone down the street
is collecting weather data.
If you want to know anything about the weather, it's here.
www.wunderground.com
PONDERING HISTORY
America has a varied past. If you haven't reflected on it lately, now's your
chance to do so. And it's fun!
At Great Questions of History, you'll find 21 questions about America's
history. You can relax, though - this isn't a pop quiz. Rather, the
questions make you contemplate important events in our history.
Your answers are tallied along with other viewers' responses. Then, you can
view a graph of the results.
You'll also see how historians answered the questions. You'll be surprised
by some answers.
www.greatquestionsofhistory.com
A CHANGE OF SCENERY
Ever get bored when you look out the window? Wouldn't a change of scenery be
great?
Well, you probably can't change what's outside your window. But you can look
out someone else's window. Just visit WebCam Central. It links to Webcams
all over the world.
Search by category or location. Or, if you're feeling lucky, click random
cam. It will choose a cam for you. Who knows what you'll see.
There are thousands of Webcams on the Internet. Some are mundane, like the
view of a highway outside a pancake house in South Carolina. Others are more
exotic, like a panda cam in China.
I was transfixed by the Loch Ness cam. Unfortunately, I didn't catch a
glimpse of old Nessie. All I saw was a couple of sheep.
www.camcentral.com
JUST A LITTLE TOUCH UP
Photoshop is a difficult program to use. There are so many features that
novices often get confused.
But experienced users can do incredible things with the software. Today's
Cool Site shows you what an expert can do with a photograph. This step-by-
step tutorial will amaze you.
You'll pick up some good tips for working with your own photos. But there is
something more important to be learned. You can't believe the pictures you
see in fashion magazines (or any magazines, for that matter).
These days, it is standard practice to "touch up" photos before they're
published. Unfortunately, they set an unattainable standard for
impressionable youths. If you have children, show them this site. It will
enlighten them.
www.lunacore.com/photoshop/tutorials/tut018.htm
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CCCC Page 5 December 2005
SYSTEMS S.I.G. by Dick Trissel
There were 3 announcements made to start the SIG:
1. ZoneAlarm 6 has problems. You can still use version 5, but there are no
more updates available.
2. There will be a Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Windows XP--after the release of
the new Windows operating system Vista late next year.
3. There is a new Web structure called Webrings. Its purpose is to connect
Web sites with common interests. http://dir.webring.com/rw
There were 2 demonstrations (and a third we didn't have time for):
1. The use of Start /Run / msconfig. Be very careful with the use of the
General tab. Use the Selective Startup option. By unchecking the
unnecessary programs, you can reduce the startup time and the amount of
memory being used. The unchecked items do not remove anything--it just
deselects them. Make note of what the current settings are. One suggestion
made by member was to use the Alt-Print Screen key combination to put the
open window into the clipboard. Then, paste it into Windows Paint and save
the graphic file. You may have to make several images if you have a lot of
items listed.
2. How to use Start / Help and Support to use the Restore Checkpoints to
recover past system settings.
3. There's a handy option for the mouse called "SnapTo". When enabled, it
automatically places the mouse pointer on the default button in a dialog
box. If you don't have that option, you may have to install the
Intellimouse program (go to Google and search for it).
We then did our monthly discussion of Windows Explorer:
1. Moving or copying files and folders can be done several different ways.
One way is to select the item to be moved or copied, right click and drag it
to the destination, release the button, and click on Move or Copy. A copy
retains the source item. A move deletes the source item after moving it.
You can also copy by holding down the CTRL key while dragging. Or do a move
by holding down the Shift key while dragging. However, be careful just
dragging a file--it will automatically be a move--you will delete the source
file.
2. How to "Tile" (split screen) multiple programs. With two or more
programs running, left click a blank area in the Taskbar. Choose from the
popup window either Tile Vertically or Tile Horizontally. The individual
tiled screens can be accessed just as if they were single. This is
particularly convenient for comparing stored files an CD or floppies.
Moving and copying can be done between Windows Explorer windows.
3. The question was asked how to get the vertical dots in the folder pane of
Windows Explorer. Go to Tools / Folder Options / View and uncheck the item
Display simple folder view..., click Aply and OK.
4. While demonstrating the usual ways to start Windows Explorer and the
respective default opening folder panes, a suggestion was made by a member
that you could use Internet Explorer, type in the path of the folder you
want to start at, and Go. For example, to start at the C: drive Windows
folder, you would enter C:\windows. However, the folders pane will not be
open. To open it, go to View / Explorer Bar and click on Folders.
5. It's a lot easier to just create a shortcut to C:\Windows\Explorer.exe
and then right click the shortcut, click on Properties and edit the Target
window to read C:\Windows\Explorer.exe /e,c:\
or whatever path you want. Putting the shortcut in the Quick Launch area of
the taskbar makes Windows Explorer available no matter what window is open
(provided you have the Taskbar unhidden).
During the presentation I mentioned getting the Backup program for Windows
XP Home (it isn't installed with the operating system as it is in XP Pro).
The Backup program is located on the XP Home installation CD (the real one,
not the restore sets) at Valuadd\MSFT\Ntbackup\Ntbackup.msi. Executing it
should put Ntbackup.exe in C:\Windows\System32. Be sure to read the
Readme.txt file that is with the Ntbackup.msi file.
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CCCC Page 6 December 2005
SLOW CONNECTION, BAD ADVICE by Fred Langa
from LangaList newsletter
Q. Perhaps you can offer me some guidance with my DSL connection speed
problem. I recently went from dial-up to Verizon DSL ($15/month). Verizon
has a speed test and with my desktop, running w98, I only get "64.6KBits
8.1KBytes", whereas with my laptop (XP home) I get in the neighborhood of
730KBits. I complained to Verizon. Their response was that my desktop was at
fault, that I needed 80% system resources free. So I mucked around and got
to the 80% with NO change in speed. They also suggested that I probably had
a virus. So I ran AVG, Panda and Housecall, none of which showed a virus. I
ran Lavasoft and spy-bot again with no change in speed. My desktop is
several years old and has accumulated lots of junk. Can any of that be
causing the problem? I realize that I am asking a very broad question, but
what I am looking for is guidance as to where I should be expending effort
to get a handle on the speed problem.
A. Man, that old chestnut? "80% system resources free or your connection
slows down" has been around for years, and it's always been wrong. We even
discussed it way back in 2001. Back then, I was still running Win98 as my
main OS, and wrote:
Windows9x will work reliably down into single-digit resource numbers. The
problem is not "low resources" but when you run OUT of resources (or nearly
so). If you have, say 20% resources left and start an action that requires
30% resources, then you'll have trouble.
But if you have 40% resources left and start a 30%-consuming action, you'll
still run fine with 10% resources left, as long as nothing consumes the
remaining 10%.
I normally run with many apps and tools open, and routinely have 20-30%
resources free, and yet my system is quite stable. Twice a week, during some
intense web/business sessions I have to do, I'll run resources down to
around 10%, or sometimes less. Things still run fine and stable.
In your case, the support techs are being lazy. They want your system to be
running nothing but their software. That simplifies their job (and your
setup) and indeed may make your machine more stable by limiting interactions
among programs. As such, they may be looking at free resources as a
shorthand way for them to ensure your system doesn't have much other
software running. But your problem is NOT resources per se, and they
shouldn't represent it as such.
So, Resources aren't the problem. What about malware? Again, not likely to
be the cause of a slow connection. You did the right thing in running scans-
-that's always a good thing to do. But I think it's a red herring with
regard to connection speed.
Junk files, though, are something else. Although I'd guess that this isn't
the whole story with your slow connection, a too-large browser cache (10MB
or so is all you need for a high-speed line), too-full Temp file areas,
etc., all can slow down your system. The browser cache (Temporary Internet
Files folder) in particular may make your browser and OS work harder than
they have to, with the side effect of making the connection seem slow.
So, what does that leave? My best guess as to the number one cause of your
slow connection is a mismatch in your system's network settings: Win9x was
optimized for slow-speed dial-up connections, not for high-speed cable or
DSL feeds. (XP, on the other hand, usually does pretty well with high- speed
connections right out of the box.)
Broadbandreports offers a great, free, connection-tweaking tool called
"DrTCP:" http://www.broadbandreports.com/tools . Using that tool, plus their
online tweak tester, and the info in their online forums, you can manually
adjust the Win9x internal settings to "fit" your DSL connection better. Once
your PC is set to receive data with exactly the same parameters your DSL ISP
is using to send it, I bet you'll see your connection speeds start to fly!
(BTW, DrTCP also works on Win2K and XP; and may be able to fine-tune your
connection settings to do even better than the default settings of those
OSes.)
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CCCC Page 7 December 2005
TO DEFRAG OR NOT TO DEFRAG by Kim Komando
from Komando newsletter
Q. I heard computer-savvy people are advising against defragmenting Windows.
Supposedly, this causes hard-drive wear, since information is written to
opposite sides of the disk. Is this correct?
A. To defrag or not to defrag? There's not much proof on either side of this
argument. But more importantly, there's not much of an argument. An
overwhelming majority of computer professionals recommend regular disk
defragmenting, including me.
I agree that the hard drive works hard during defragmentation. It's also
true that each operation brings it closer to eventual breakdown. However,
that ignores the long-term benefits of defragmentation.
I usually recommend defragmentation to return some speed to a computer. But
it can also spare your hard drive from wear and tear. A fragmented drive
will suffer the stress that you're looking to prevent. The read-write head
will skip around the disk to find fragments of files. If you regularly
defrag, the hard drive gets an occasional workout. If you don't, it can be
stressed constantly. And the more fragmentation, the worse the unnecessary
wear becomes.
For anyone new to defragmentation, try Windows' Disk Defragmenter. To find
it, click Start>>All Programs>> Accessories>>System Tools>>Disk
Defragmenter. In XP and 2000, click the Analyze button. Disk Defragmenter
can tell you if it needs to run.
Fragmentation happens naturally as files are deleted and saved. Deleted
files leave gaps of space. Windows may then save new files as fragments to
fill the gaps. To open these files, the different fragments must be found
and reassembled.
[Editor's notes: Don't believe the Analyze response that you don't need to
defrag--it may or may not be correct.
The XP defrag operation does not completely defrag the disk space--just the
files and folders. Run the defrag several times consecutively for a more
complete disk defrag (or buy the Diskkeeper program).]
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CCCC Page 8 December 2005
WINDOWS PICTURE AND FAX VIEWER by Kim Komando
from Komando newsletter
Q. I'm using Windows XP Pro. I've lost my Picture and Fax Viewer program. I
tried searching the hard drive, but I didn't find it. I didn't do anything
that I know of to delete this program. So I assume it is still on my
machine, somewhere. I've not seen this problem addressed in your Tips. I
hope you can help.
A. Some people don't think much of the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. But I
really like it. It's a fast, no-frills viewer that does its job well. And
it's included with Windows XP.
Perhaps your picture files have become associated with another program. File
associations tell Windows which program to use to open a file. Windows uses
file extensions to match files to programs. For example, the .DOC file
extension is typically matched with Microsoft Word.
Try changing the file association. In Windows Explorer, find and right-click
a picture file. Select Properties from the pop-up menu. Select the General
tab. Under "Opens with," click the Change button.
You'll see a list of programs that you can choose. Windows Picture and Fax
Viewer should be included. Select it, and mark the checkbox labeled "Always
use the selected program." Then click OK. All pictures sharing the same file
extension will now open in the viewer.
Another option is to make a desktop shortcut. Then you don't have to bother
with file associations; just open the viewer directly whenever you need it.
First, right-click anywhere on the desktop. On the menu, select
New>>Shortcut.
You'll be prompted for the location of the program. But Windows Picture and
Fax Viewer is a bit tricky. First, it's technically not a program like
others under Windows. Second, its name is not at all descriptive (shimgvw).
But I did manage to find it. Here's what you should type at the prompt:
rundll32.exe C:\Windows\System32\shimgvw.dll,ImageView_Fullscreen
You'll also be prompted to name the shortcut. Use a name that obviously
identifies the viewer. Anything is better than its default Windows name.
Then you can open the Picture and Fax Viewer using the shortcut.
One of the few drawbacks to the viewer is that it lacks a file menu. To load
a picture into the viewer, drag the picture file into the viewer's window.
You can also drag picture folders into the viewer.
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CCCC Page 9 December 2005
WE FROM IE OR TASKBAR by Jim Tonge
At the November Systems SIG we discussed making Windows Explorer start in a
particular folder. Here are two other methods.
When one types a path, such as "C:\" in the IE address window, what is
displayed in the IE window is clearly WE (My Computer) but the top blue
border still says Internet Explorer. In this example, it starts in the C:
drive.
The possibility of using IE as a "shell" for navigating to various
information on the computer or the net gets more and more interesting.
I added an address toolbar to the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties.
Right click on an empty space in the Taskbar, choose Toolbars, and click on
Address. Slide the new divider in the Taskbar to reveal the address window.
When I type a web page address in this toolbar, IE opens at that web
page with IE identified in the top border (as one would expect.)
When I type a path in this toolbar, WE opens at that folder with that
path displayed in the top border. Using the up arrow takes one back to
the My Computer ID in the top border.
I see some possibilities here for easier navigation while doing a
project that requires going to:
specific folders on the computer
specific emails
related web sites.
When these are put into a favorite folder, The computer folders, emails
and Web sites are available at a mouse click.
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