C C C C N E W S L E T T E R
CENTRAL COAST COMPUTER CLUB
Santa Maria, California
VOLUME XVII: NUMBER 2 February, 2002
NEXT MEETING: February 19, 2002 7:00PM KNOLLWOOD VILLAGE 4012 S. BRADLEY
PRESENTATION: Q&A session with Kevin Walters of Comstar Computers
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| CONTENTS |
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(1) Officers, Helplines, S.I.G.s
(2) President's Corner Charles Barney
(3) CCCC BYLAWS CHANGES Ray Isenson
(4) Editor's Comments/E-mail Addr. Dick Trissel
(5) January Internet S.I.G. Dick Trissel
(6) Web Wanderings Gil Smith
(7) February Windows SIG Session Amy Malicki
(8) How a computer virus scan works 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
Gerry Miller 934-1396 Amy Malicki 925-5780
Gmiller@pronet.net amymal@juno.com
Secretary Hardware & DOS
Barbara Godwin 934-9885 Ray Isenson 937-6938
yung.bag@verizon.net risenson@juno.com
Treasurer AOL
Dick Savage 928-4932 Frank Maciel 922-2318
1642 N. Alison frm8198@aol.com
Santa Maria CA 93458
rsavage65@hotmail.com
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
Program Chairman
Ray Isenson 937-6938
risenson@juno.com
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (S.I.G.s)
Windows 95/98/ME/XP (6:00pm) Internet (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 February 2002
PRESIDENT'S CORNER
by Charles Barney
We kicked off our first meeting of the new year on January 15th with a good
crowd of over 70 folks at the clubhouse. Joining us for the first time were
new members Pat Petrarca and Frank Peeples. I'd like to extend a hearty 4Cs
welcome to you both! It is our sincere wish that you will find your time
with us a rewarding experience and that you will feel right at home in our
group. While not a requirement for membership, active participation in the
club's activities and discussions is strongly encouraged. After all, it's
the members that make the club!
Local author and technology buff Dan Logan was our guest speaker for the
evening and gave us a most enjoyable presentation. Dan brought along several
interesting products that vendors supply him with for review. Some of these
included an e-book (electronic book reader), a Palm Pilot personal digital
assistant, a program that offers a number of "skins" to customize the look
of Windows, CD media and burning/labeling software, various organizers and
the digital imaging program PhotoImpact 7 from Ulead. So many toys...so
little time!
While it's fun to try out different new programs and devices with our
computers, Dan left us this sage advice: "If you have something that works
just fine and you like it, stay with it!" Amen.
The only member eligible for the Order of the Crying Towel was Peter
Dettelis, who was the first one selected by the club computer for a door
prize but was not present. All the rest subsequently called were in
attendance and thus winners when their names appeared on the screen as
follows: David Lowry - Corel Photo Paint 9, Cheri Holmes - PowerQuest
Partition Magic 6.0, Spencer Stimler - Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe
2002, James Miller - Any Time Deluxe Edition and John Simko - Mindshare All-
Purpose Carry Bag.
I'd like to see another good turnout at our next meeting on February 19th.
Kevin Walters, owner and operator of the local shop, Comstar Computers, will
host a Question and Answer session during the main program. Kevin is
returning for his third time to speak with us and has always been very well-
received by the members. His easy going, personable style and extensive
knowledge of computers are something you won't want to miss. I'll see you at
the clubhouse. -Charles
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CCCC Page 3 February 2002
CCCC BYLAWS CHANGES By Ray Isenson
For reasons that will be presented at the February general meeting of the
CCCC, the Executive committee will offer a motion proposing an amendment to
so much of the existing by-laws as pertains to dissolution of the
organization. The existing paragraph is presented at A:, below; the
proposed replacement at B:. Amendments to the motion will be considered at
meeting if and as offered.
A: Current statement:
"XIV. DISSOLUTION
Dissolution of the Club will require a majority vote of the general
membership at a scheduled meeting plus mailed-in ballots to survey the Club.
In the event of dissolution, net assets of the Club will be donated to a
charitable organization as suggested by the Executive Committee with
agreement by a simple majority vote of the members, and no assets will
accrue to the benefit of any individual members of the Club."
B: Proposed changed statement:
"XIV DISSOLUTION:
A. A motion to dissolve the club may be made and seconded at any general
meeting or meeting of the executive committee. In either case the motion as
made will be published in the next issue of the Central Coast Computer
Club's newsletter. Or, if for any reason, there should be no such
publication, notice shall be mailed to each current member. The newsletter
or mail-notice will detail the arguments for dissolution, solicit counter
arguments and schedule voting at the next general meeting or by mail should
a general meeting be impractical. A simple majority of those voting in
favor of the motion shall suffice to pass it.
B. In the event of dissolution each of the physical assets of the club will
be liquidated by sale to the highest bid from a current member. A current
club member being defined as any person or family that has been a paid up
member for a period of at least three months prior to the date of voting to
dissolve.
Any consequential unsold assets will be donated to CCCC club members, other
clubs, or a charitable organization as suggested by the Executive Committee
with agreement by a simple majority. After membership dues have been
returned to those members who joined within the prior three months, the
remaining liquid assets will be dispersed equally among the current
qualified members with a family membership counting as one member."
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CCCC Page 4 February 2002
EDITOR'S COMMENTS
by Dick Trissel
I keep saying that the monthly newsletters can be read on the CCCC Web site
(http://member.apcug.org/fourseas) but I've never discussed how to save a
newsletter to your computer, assuming you ever want to.
There are five ways to save a particular Web page, and I don't mean just the
screen, but the whole document or parts of it. The following explanation
applies to the use of Internet Explorer (IE). The Netscape user probably
has the same or equivalent steps available.
1. Save the entire document as a text file.
In IE: Edit / Select All; Edit / Copy; in Notepad: Edit / Paste; File / Save
As / filename.txt
2. Save a selected part of the document as a text file.
In IE: Select some text; Edit / Copy; in Notepad: Edit / Paste; File / Save
As / filename.txt.
3. Save the entire document as an HTML file to be viewed offline with a Web
browser (IE).
In IE: File / Save As; filename.htm (graphics files will save as
subfolders); View offline with Internet Explorer.
4. Save the entire document as HTML source code to be viewed Offline with a
Web browser (IE).
In IE: View / Source (will put document in Notepad window); in Notepad: Edit
/ Save As; filename.htm; view offline with Internet Explorer.
5. Use Windows Explorer on C:\Windows\Temporary Internet Files; double click
the .htm file for the document desired (you may have to put Internet
Explorer into the Offline mode with File / Work Offline).
________________________________________________________________
REQUEST FOR E-MAIL ADDRESSES
Dick Savage maintains the CCCC membership database. He does not have E-mail
addresses for the following members who have paid for 2002:
Donald G. Calhoun,
Robert J. Carmichael,
Charles Currey,
Peter Dettelis,
Johannes Magnusson,
Edward Sage,
John Simko
If you have an E-mail address and have no objection to having it in the club
database, please send an e-mail message to:
rsavage65@hotmail.com
so he can update the database.
The club member e-mail addresses are confidential and are only distributed
to club staff when necessary.
You also may want to consider subscribing to the CCCC EXTRA4C e-mail
bulletin. Send request to: extra4c@juno.com
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CCCC Page 5 February 2002
JANUARY INTERNET S.I.G.
by Dick Trissel
With two months since the last S.I.G., there were plenty of questions and
comments. I think we could have gone on for hours. Here are some of the
items worth forwarding.
There were several comments about JUNO. They've changed the toll-free phone
numbers for this area--only one in Santa Maria and one in Nipomo. It's a
good idea to save a copy of the JUNO address book (C:\Program
Files\Juno\User0000\
addrbook.nv). It's also a good idea to save a copy of the entire JUNO
folder to another folder on your system so a re-installation is not needed
if your JUNO should stumble--it happens.
I demonstrated an easy way to cleanup Internet Explorer's Temporary Internet
Files and Cookies. Some users may have a thousand or more files in the TIF.
In IE, go to Tools (View in IE4)\Internet Options\
Temporary Internet files,
press Delete... and then Delete. In the TIF window, press Settings, View
files... and delete the Cookies files. Also, the maximum size of the TIF
area can be set there. The deletion process was demonstrated on the
computer. There was a comment that the same things can be done in Netscape.
There was a question about the difference between a system disk and an
emergency startup disk. A system disk is a floppy with a system boot track
and a minimal set of files to run from the floppy. An emergency startup
disk is a floppy with much more capability to run the system and do problem
debugging. The startup disk can be made by going to the Control Panel/Add
and Remove programs/Startup Disk/Create. This was demonstrated on the
computer.
A problem was presented of too large a size of scanned graphics for e-mail.
The suggestion was made to reduce the size during scan, or reduce the
scanned image. Armando Perez found a free resize program at:
www.mihov.com/eng/ir.html.
A person commented they found over 3000 files in their Windows Temp folder--
that's a bunch. They were able to delete all but one file. It was
suggested they right click the file and remove the attributes and try again.
I recommended users get and use the Resource Kit file that is on the
Windows95/98 system CDs. It is an excellent source of information about the
operating system and computer hardware. Unfortunately, most users don't
have the real system CD, just a "Restore" CD that doesn't have the file. I
suggest getting the Windows98 version. Since it is a 3.2Mb file, it is not
easily distributed. Nor is it available on the Internet (at least I
couldn't find it). However, it can be put on three floppies using WinZip.
E-mail is only possible for some users as the file size exceeds some mail
server allotments. A further discussion will be presented elsewhere in this
newsletter.
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CCCC Page 6 February 2002
WEB WANDERINGS
by Gil Smith
BUZZWORDS
Don't you hate buzzwords? Unfortunately the Internet is chuck full of them.
If you would like to avoid looking bewildered when someone is talking about
"dot-bombs" or "data cholesterol" head to this site. They cover just about
any buzzword you can think of.
http://www.buzzwhack.com/
SO YOU WANNA TRAVEL?
No matter where you're traveling to, you need to be careful of travel scams.
To avoid losing your cash, property, or anything else, check out Discovery
Travel's guide to avoiding travel scams. You'll be glad you did.
http://travel.discovery.com/tv/wmdangr/scams.html
FIGURE IT OUT
Are you looking for some information? Check out Knowledge Hound. Tons of
great information on just about everything. Great for the grandkids in
school too.
http://www.knowledge.com/
NATIONAL ANTHEMS
Wanna hear the national anthem for Luxembourg? Or Slovakia? Or even the US?
Here's a site that features national anthems from just about every country
on the planet. Check it out.
http://www.imagesoft.net/flags/anthems.html
NEWS OVERLOAD!
Here's a cool site that 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/
STREET STUDIO
Here's a different one. Take a couple of guys, give them a backdrop, and
send them out on the streets of New York to take pictures of people. What
do you get? A site with lots of good pictures, that's what. Although the
site is a bit of a pain to navigate (symbols instead of pictures), it's
still worth taking a look at.
http://www.streetstudio.com/index2.html
TV TRIVIA
Get ready, couch potatoes, because here's your chance to test your skill and
knowledge. Play television and movie trivia, or find lots of neat pictures,
sounds and links.
http://www.triviatribute.com
QUACK MUSEUM
The next time you go to the doctor, just be glad that they don't use any of
these devices. Take a tour of the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices
and be glad that we have regulations against these things now.
http://www.mtn.org/quack/index.htm
PHOTOS FROM SPACE
This is a site that will truly amaze you. Photos from outer space from all
parts of the world. See the population densities by the lights at night
plus much more.
http://antwrp.qsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg
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CCCC Page 7 February 2002
FEBRUARY WINDOWS SIG SESSION
by Amy Malicki
We had BOTH (Windows Millennium) ME and (Windows Expert) XP systems on our
Club computer last month (thanks to our GURU, Ray Isenson, who added a few
gray hairs in the process). We had the option of working with either one.
At startup both names appear on the screen. If, after a few seconds, no
choice is made ME (the default) loads automatically.
We went over some of the XP options, then switched to ME and worked with
Word. We discussed the problem of downloaded Internet pictures that are too
large to print. If your computer does not have a copy of Adobe Photoshop or
a similar program to manipulate images, it's possible to make the picture
small enough to print by INSERTING it in a Word Document.
Using the INSERT MENU in Word, click on Picture, then "From file". A Dialog
Box will appear offering some Clip Art files. Pull down the "LOOK IN" menu
by clicking the small TRIANGLE at the right and click on the drive or folder
where the picture is stored. The "files of type" line should say,
"pictures" or something similar. Be sure it does not say "Word Files". If
it does, perhaps you forgot to Click on the Insert Menu. The picture will
not show up as a Word file at this time.
Once the picture is on your screen, position your mouse on the lower right
hand corner. When you see a diagonal arrow, press the left button and drag
upward to reduce the size. If you are not able to see the lower right hand
corner, change the way you view the screen. Click VIEW Menu, then ZOOM. In
the Zoom Dialog Box, click on 75% or type 50 in the percent box to Zoom to a
smaller version of the page.
You can also use this Dialog Box to increase the size of type if you have
trouble reading words as you type. Average "font" (typed character) size is
10 or 12 points. Increasing Font size to 14 or 16 pts. will make the type
larger than normal letter size when it is printed. Check your View, Zoom
Dialog Box, if it is set at 100% and the words are still hard to read, try
typing 125 or 150 in the percent box. This will increase the size of the
type, but won't affect the size of printed words.
To resize a picture, go to any corner (preferably bottom right). Make sure
the cursor changes to a diagonal arrow, not vertical or horizontal, or your
picture will be distorted. The diagonal arrow preserves the scale of the
picture. If you decide to crop it or sharpen it, etc., Click on the VIEW
Menu, then Toolbars, then Pictures and a new Toolbar will appear
NOTE: Take the time to check out all the interesting Toolbars that are
available to you.
If you plan to do more than re-size the image, then open the Toolbar FIRST.
The Toolbar has an INSERT Button, which works the same as the INSERT Menu.
The Toolbar offers many options for cropping; changing contrast, brightness
and color; adding borders and text, etc. You can even create a transparent
watermark with the image on your personal stationary, or insert it as a tiny
picture next to your name and address. You can crop the picture by cutting
its size or by using the crop tool. (This time Teacher learned something
from the students).
When you crop a picture, the original information is saved along with the
file so it can be restored or edited again in the future. To create a
Letterhead Template: Click File, then New. In the Dialog Box Click the
first "Blank" Icon, and move the radio button DOT on the lower right hand
side from Document to Template. If you open the file as a Template it will
be saved as a permanent accessible file (with a file name of your choice),
and will appear in the Dialog Box every time you Click File, NEW.
Next meeting we will discuss Microsoft Publisher. Bring any Windows
Questions. See you there!
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CCCC Page 8 February 2002
HOW DOES A COMPUTER VIRUS SCAN WORK?
Extracted by Dick Trissel
Answer posted January 14, 2002
Geoff Kuenning, a professor of computer science at Harvey Mudd College,
provides this explanation.
Malicious software comes in several flavors, distinguished primarily by
their method of propagation. The two most pervasive forms are viruses and
worms. A virus attaches itself to an existing program such that, when that
program is executed, bad things happen. Like a biological virus, it cannot
live without a host. In contrast, a worm is an independent program that
reproduces itself without requiring a host program. Depending on the form, a
worm may be able to propagate without any action on the victim's part. Most
malicious software today consists of worms rather than viruses.
Worms and viruses require slightly different protection mechanisms because
of their different propagation methods. A virus scanner operates by
searching for the signatures of known viruses. A signature is a
characteristic pattern that occurs in every copy of a virus. It might be a
string of characters, such as a message that the virus will display on the
screen when activated, or it might be binary computer code or even a
particular bit of data that is embedded in the virus. These patterns are
identified by technicians at organizations specializing in computer security
and are then made available on security Web sites. Virus scanners can then
download the patterns to bring their internal pattern lists up to date.
There are three complications with this scheme. The first is that the
patterns, if ill chosen, can legitimately appear in uninfected files. For
example, a pattern containing just the word "hello" would not be very
useful. Part of the technicians' job is to find patterns that are unique to
the viruses.
The second complication is that virus writers do not want their viruses to
be detected, so they engage in a war of stealth techniques.
For example, many viruses store themselves in an encrypted form, varying the
encryption key as they travel so that the encrypted patterns are different
on each victim machine. Virus scanners can beat this technique either by
setting their patterns to search for the part of the program that decrypts
the virus (this code must necessarily be unencrypted) or by duplicating the
decryption operation before doing their matching.
The third complication has to do with performance. Theoretically, a virus
could attach itself to any executable program. On a modern computer, there
may be hundreds or even thousands of potential host programs.
Scanning every one of these programs every time the virus scanner is run
would take an unreasonably long time. So virus scanners usually limit
themselves to a smaller list of probable hosts.
For example, floppy and removable disks are common virus vectors, so
removable disks are usually scanned whenever they are inserted. On Microsoft
Windows, programs in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder are popular virus targets,
so a virus scanner will usually check those files. The scanner's internal
pattern list can also identify other files that are known to be targets of a
particular virus.
Because worms are independent programs, they are somewhat easier to detect
than viruses. Being independent, they must reside in a file of their own
somewhere and that file must be constructed such that the computer will
automatically execute it. These constraints place limits on such
characteristics as where the file can appear and how it is named. The
scanner can simply check those well-known places and then apply the same
pattern-matching techniques that are used for viruses.
Present-day scanners also look for known vectors for worms. Since most worms
propagate through e-mail, a scanner can be set up to look at incoming e-mail
before it is delivered to the user and to scan outgoing messages as they are
sent. If a worm is detected, it can be removed from the message. If the worm
is in an outgoing e-mail, it must, of course, also be removed from the
infected computer.
Cleaning up after a worm or virus is relatively straightforward. If a
software manufacturer provided an infected file, it can be replaced with a
clean copy. Private files cannot usually be replaced but it is possible to
delete the infected portion or overwrite it with something harmless. As well
as detection patterns, the scanner's master pattern list can contain
instructions about what files are normally infected by a particular piece of
malicious software and how to clean them up. Like the patterns, security
technicians create these instructions, normally at the same time as the
patterns themselves.
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