C C C C N E W S L E T T E R
CENTRAL COAST COMPUTER CLUB
Santa Maria, California
VOLUME XX: NUMBER 2 FEBRUARY, 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,
Access to the clubs software library, Disk of the month (usually for $1),
Help-line support, Monthly presentations, Valuable door prizes, Question
and answer sessions.
NEXT MEETING:February 15, 2005 KNOLLWOOD VILLAGE 4012 S. BRADLEY
PRESENTATION: Gil Vela on Home Networking and Wi-Fi
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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) WHY FOR WI-FI? Dick Trissel
(7) MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER SYSTEM Gene Barlow
(8) XP PREFETCH FILES
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OFFICERS HELPLINES
President Juno
Spence Stimler 938-0217 Gilbert Smith 925-3743
SPENCE923@msn.com colgil1@juno.com
Vice President Windows 95/98/ME/XP & VoiceControl
Bill Corning 934-0775 Amy Malicki 925-5780
foster95@juno.com savvyforseniors@juno.com
Secretary Hardware and Windows XP
Dorothy Raupp Ray Isenson 937-6938
dort32Raupp@AOL.com 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 Fred Adams 934-1128
foster95@juno.com fredeadams@verizon.net
Newsletter Editor
Dick Trissel 937-7572
rtrissel@juno.com
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (S.I.G.s)
Systems (5:45pm) Word & Windows (6:00pm)
Dick Trissel Amy Malicki
rtrissel@juno.com savvyforseniors@juno.com
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CCCC Page 2 February 2005
PRESIDENT'S CORNER by Spence Stimler
At the Jan 2005 mtg we passed around a sign up sheet to procure cookies for
the balance of the year. The results are as follows:
Jan Dick Jones
Feb Ken Stiffler
Mar Howard Williams
Apr Loretta Thomas
May Gloria Davis - Carolyn Latos
Jun Joe Koerner
Jul Ray Shafer
Aug
Sep Ben Middleton
Oct
Nov
Please note that we need volunteers for Aug, Oct, and Nov. Let me know if
you are willing to take one of these months. Also, remember that you do
not have to pay for the cookies (except to get them out of the store). We
will reimburse you for your costs. There is plenty of money donated each
month to take care of the cost of the coffee and cookies.
Our Feb. meeting will feature WI-FI networking with Gil Vela and Dick
Trissel. Since so many of us are going to broadband and have routers, it
makes it easy for visitors and relatives using laptops to make use of our
high speed internet connections. I think the working display they have
planned will be an interesting subject for all.
We are still looking for additional member sign ups for 2005. Remember
that the door prize drawings are made from a list of paid up members. If
you haven't renewed your membership yet, your name will not be on the list
but will be added to the following month after you renew. The Feb drawing
will consist of members who signed up on or before Jan 21.
We need your input for subjects for future meetings. Let us know what you
want reviewed and we'll do our best to come up with a speaker. At present
we are looking to having Pat Keith of Computer Works return. Also, there
has been an interest in burning CDs and DVDs. What would you like to have
discussed?
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CCCC Page 3 February 2005
EDITOR'S COMMENTS by Dick Trissel
Here's an idea. How about some of you writing reviews for the newsletter
on the free software available--especially the "malware" stoppers? For
example, ZoneAlarm, Spybot S&D, AdAware, or any other favorite program you
use. It doesn't have to be elaborate or even grammatically correct.
MSWord is good at fixing errors. And several reviews on the same program
would be of value to get different points of view and experiences. Be sure
to mention which operating system you used. Just send your writeup to me
in any form you choose at: rtrissel@juno.com
The process of publishing the club's newsletter is as follows. I compose
it from several inputs. It is then rough draft printed and proofread by my
proofreader (my wife). Then the final draft is archived to CD. It is put
on the club's Web site (http://member.apcug.org/fourseas) two days before
it is sent by e-mail to the members. The e-mail to the members is done on
the second Tuesday of each month, one week before the monthly meeting on
the third Tuesday.
At the January club meeting, only one person said they didn't receive the
e-mail newsletter. I didn't think about it again until I got home. Then I
realized, I couldn't remember sending the January e-mail newsletter.
Further investigation indicated I had not. So, it got sent late the night
of the January meeting, instead.
What is interesting to me is that only one person noticed they didn't get
the newsletter. I get a tally of the access to the club's Web site, and
there was no large number of hits. So, not many read it there.
What all this says to me is that the old adage "You don't notice what's not
there" certainly applies to the newsletter. There's another saying, "I
feel so unnecessary".
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CCCC Page 4 February 2005
WEB WANDERINGS
PICK A COLOR, ANY COLOR
What color is your favorite shirt? If you had to repaint your house,
which color would you choose. What does color say about a person?
According to this site, the colors you choose for things in life say
a lot about you. Part of my results said, "You are a very practical
person. It's more important to you that the things you own are useful,
rather than nice to look at." That's really true!
While today's site isn't very scientific, it's a fun place for the
middle of the week! (You may receive a warning that a file is being
opened. This Flash file is safe.) To visit this site, go here:
http://www.chinapaint.com/eng/flash/colorandme_en.swf
WHAT TIME IS IT?
Some states observe Daylight Saving Time, and some don't. This makes
for confusion when communicating with people in other states--is it 3
hours to New York or 2?
This Web site helps eliminate those questions. It displays the
official U.S. time for all 50 states and U.S. territories. It also
has a map of the world. Lighted areas are regions with daylight and
the dark areas represent night time.
http://www.nist.time.gov/
BE A GROUPIE!
Do you have a hobby or enjoy a specific band or movie genre but have
no one to discuss it with? Just because you like gardening doesn't mean
your spouse or friends do. Start talking to people with similar
interests with Yahoo! Groups.
Yahoo! Groups allows you to post messages on a virtual bulletin board
and share files and pictures. There is a huge variety of groups--music,
politics, religion, sports. You name it, there's probably a group for
you. If not you can create your own!
You can also use it to keep in touch with your family. Create a group
just for your family. You can make a group public or private. If you
are going to create a group for your family, I encourage you to make
it private.
http://groups.yahoo.com/
DOCTOR MOM
If you are occasionally called upon to play doctor. WebMD makes
diagnoses easier with a comprehensive but simply written guide to soothing
life's boo-boos.
Open the Web site, and the patient is waiting. (FYI, the patient is an
unclothed mannequin.) Now you can play doctor! Click the part that
hurts, and up pops a list of symptoms. Tips help with the diagnosis and
tell you when to visit a real doctor.
Also on WebMD are a drug and herb decoder, a medical library, and a
physician search.
Especially helpful are the Health Tools. These include calculators, guides,
quizzes and self-assessments to better manage your family's health. For
example, thinking about baby-proofing your home? A room-by-room diagram
gives you any help you may need.
http://my.webmd.com/medical_information/check_symptoms/default.htm
WATCH THINGS BEING MADE
At the Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing at the Stanford University
Web site, you can watch things being built. All kinds of
things--like cars, candies and clothes. The choice is yours.
There is a virtual tour in which you can watch a Boeing 777 being built
from scratch. It took seven minutes--on film, anyways. Included was a neat
clip of some Rosie the Riveters during wartime.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to enjoy How Everyday Things
Are Made. Anyone will like watching raw stuff become finished stuff
through manufacturing.
http://manufacturing.stanford.edu/
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CCCC Page 5 February 2005
SYSTEMS S.I.G. by Dick Trissel
What a mob scene! We had over 35 members and guests in the Systems S.I.G--
standing room only. As a consequence, we spent most of the time "solving"
problems. Well, maybe not all of them. Here are some of the items we
covered, and some I intended to but ran out of time.
One question is what does it mean when you get an area on the screen with a
little red X in a square in the upper left corner? This is a graphic that
can't be displayed for some reason. If it is while browsing a Web site, it
may be because the "Show Pictures" is unchecked in the Internet Options.
If so, you can usually do a right-click and choose "Show Picture". I
sometimes operate with graphics off because Web pages come down faster
without graphics enabled.
In e-mail, the problem may be because the sender hasn't made the graphic
file an "embedded" graphic. Instead, it is referencing a file on his
computer.
There was a little discussion about having a second harddrive in a "RAID"
configuration. The concensus of opinion was--don't. This should have led
to a discussion of the advantages of a USB external drive--either as an
integral unit, or in a HD case with a replaceable HD. Know that a HD
connected through a USB port will probably NOT be bootable. This is
because most computers can't see the USB port unless Windows is running.
However, the new Dell laptop computer has a BIOS that DOES see the USB port
during startup, and therefore, may be able to boot from a USB bootable HD.
We discussed the new law that "taxes" purchases of most computers and TVs--
a recycle fee. I suggest going to Staples and asking for their handout
sheets explaining some of the details. The manager there said the amount
of money charged with a purchase is dependent upon the weight of the
device--about $0.16 per pound ($6 to about $10), and the money goes to the
state of California. An enquiry to the recycling center resulted in them
saying you will still have to pay them to recycle computer equipment.
Some members reported having problems with the new free anti-virus program
AVG7 that replaced AVG6 (no longer supported). Some recommendations were
to use the free program AVAST. Users of broadband Internet connections
MUST have some AV protection. Most dialup modem users aren't connected
long enough to have their temporary IP address detected by the bad guys.
But DSL and Cable modem users are usually connected with the same IP
address for hours.
Along that line, I read recently that many broadband users are so disgusted
with the problems with viruses and such that they are switching back to
dialup modems. Another report stated that over half of the people
accessing the Internet are still using dialup modems.
Internet Explorer 5.0 isn't as vulnerable to viruses as later versions. I
usually stay with Internet Explorer 5 (Windows 98SE). However, I found
recently that some Web sites won't give you access unless you are using
version 6 (comes with XP or can be installed over 5).
The free browser FireFox is not attacked by viruses as much as Internet
Explorer. However, some Web sites are not compatible with FireFox because
it doesn't have the Microsoft ActiveX support. Also, FireFox is open
source code, so it's just a matter of time until the bad guys decide there
are enough users to warrant attacking it.
Apparently, some members aren't aware that they can "block" most spam e-
mail. Most ISPs have the options to select what e-mail gets put in your
inbox, what gets "quarantined" (so you can review it if you wish), and what
gets permanently deleted. Check with your ISP to find out how to set these
options.
There seems to be a misconception that the size of a harddrive has an
effect on the computer's overall speed. It is not the size of the drive
that is the determing factor, it is the amount of "stuff" on the drive--
especially the size of the registry and the Temporary Internet Files (TIF)
folder.
The registry is loaded into memory at startup and is accessed in some way
with just about everything you do on the computer. There is a free program
that will clean up a lot of the registry. It is the Toni-Arts EasyClean
program. It will work in XP, but you have to set some exclusions to keep
from damaging the registry. The exclusion window should read:
Norton,help,LowDateTime
The files in the TIF (including the cookies) can be deleted. As this
folder gets bigger, it takes longer to search through it at each Web
access. Do a search on the word temporary to find the TIF folder(s)--XP
has several, but only one is used if there is only one user. Also know, in
XP, going to the Help and Support window always put entries in the TIF
folder. I don't know why. I make a shortcut on my Desktop to the TIF
folder to make it easier to clean it up.
There are many other areas in a computer that should be cleaned up, but
it's too much to go into here. And I've written about this before (see the
past newsletter contents on the club's Web site
http://member.apcug.org/fourseas).
I occasionally work on other peoples computers in their homes and need to
know what the computer's configuration is. If I don't have my AIDA disk or
Belarc Advisor installed, I use the builtin utility called msinfo32. To
use it, go to Start / Run and type msinfo32 and press OK. It isn't as
complete as the third party programs, but it's pretty good.
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CCCC Page 6 February 2005
WHY FOR WI-FI? by Dick Trissel
The February CCCC club meeting presentation is going to be about networking
(especially in the home) and wireless networking (Wi-Fi). Why the world
calls it Wi-Fi for Wireless Fidelity, I don't know. Maybe it's poetic
license because it rhymes.
With the cost of computers so low, many homes have two or more computers.
It is a big advantage to be able to have all the computers connect to the
Internet through a single broadband modem, share files and folders, and
have them able to access remote peripherals like scanners and printers.
A few years ago, computers were connected by running cables all over
the house in order to connect the computers over a network such as an
Ethernet network. This required a network card in each computer, a central
routing device such as a hub or router, and lots of cabling.
Well, things haven't got much simpler, but they sure are a lot easier. Now
you put a network adapter in one computer, cable it to a wireless router,
and put wireless network cards in the other computers. If you have a
laptop with wireless capability (a builtin wireless card, or use a
PCMCIA (PCcard) wireless network card), you can roam around the house while
accessing the other computer, internet, or whatever.
The Wi-Fi technology is becoming so widespread that you can take your
wireless adapted laptop around town and use what they call "hotspots" to
access the Internet. Most of them are not free--you either pay the
facility (hotel, restaurant, etc.) for the use of their connection, or
there are a few free hotspots. Here in Santa Maria the S.M. Library is one
of the free places. This is especially handy for us that are still using
dialup modems when we need to do some large downloads or just want to spend
a lot of time browsing the Internet without using our allotted ISP time.
Some municipalities are constructing Wi-Fi connections that cover the
entire city. Lompoc is supposed to be working on doing this. The usual
fee is around $20/month. A few small towns have Wi-Fi for free. I just
read that Pennsylvania just outlawed any government supported Wi-Fi
hotspots.
How much does it cost to get Wi-Fied? I bought a wireless router and a
wireless laptop PCcard for $20 each after rebates (which I did get promptly
from Staples). As I write this, Best Buy is having a sale on 802.11g
wireless D-Link equipment at $20 each (with $20 mail-in rebate). Not on
sale, the equipment cost is about half again that much. A desktop computer
internal network card costs about $5 on sale.
Word of warning--not all brands of equipment work together. I have two
routers--Belkin and Airlink. A D-link PCcard works with the Airlink, but
not with the Belkin. The Belkin PCcard doesn't work with a D-link router,
either.
Unless you need the extra speed or range of the 802.11gs (Superg protocol),
the cheaper 802.11g will suffice. I wouldn't mess with the older 802.11b
devices. The g and Superg are compatible and are downward compatible to
the 'b' protocol.
The 802.11g wireless protocol is good for about 30-40 feet, depending on
what is between the devices (walls, metal, etc.). It is rated at
54gigabytes per second, but rarely reaches that. The Superg is rated at
108gigabytes per second and has a longer range.
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CCCC Page 7 February 2005
MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER SYSTEM by Gene Barlow
User Group Relations
Copyrighted January 2005
Many users buy a new computer during the holiday season when sales are
everywhere and prices are low. Perhaps you got a new computer recently,
too. By now, you have your new computer all set up and you are busy
learning all the new things you can do with it. But, you find that you miss
having a familiar program or some files from your old computer on your new
computer. How can you move your programs and data files from your old
computer to your new computer is a question I hear often. Done a step at a
time, this can be a long and hard process to complete. Finding all of your
programs and files on your old computer and then installing them and
getting them to work on your new computer is not the easiest thing to do.
There is a software utility called Move Me by Spearit software in New
Jersey that can make this process a quick and easy thing to accomplish. Let
me share with you this month a bit of information about this amazing
software utility.
First, you place your old computer and your new computer next to each other
on a work table or counter. Then you connect the two computers together
with one of three different communication cables that will let your two
computers talk to each other and move files between them. The fastest of
these communication cables is a standard local area network (LAN)
connection. If both your old and new computers have ethernet ports on them,
you can connect the two with either an inexpensive CAT-5e UTP Crossover
cable (under $5 typically) or a couple of standard LAN patch cables
connected to a LAN Hub. If you don't have ethernet ports on both computers,
but have USB ports on both of them, you can use a special USB1.1 or USB2
File Transfer Cable ($30-40 from www.spearit.com) to connect your old and
new computer. The third option is to use a special parallel transfer cable
($12) between the two parallel (printer) ports on the two computers. While
this is slower than the other two connection options, you can always count
on your computers having parallel ports.
When you have your old and new computer connected together with one of the
three cable options above, you run Move Me on both computers. Before you
begin to transfer your files between the two computers, Move Me needs to
validate your serial number with Spearit software. You will need an
internet connection on one of your two computers or even a third nearby
computer to do this. The Move Me screen on your old computer will tell you
where to connect to and what information to submit in your Validation
internet run. Move Me is licensed for moving files from a single computer
and cannot be used to move files from another computer later on. The
validation takes only a minute or two to complete and then you are ready to
start moving all of your files from your old computer to your new computer.
Here's what happens as the move progresses. Move Me gets a file from your
old computer and looks to see if it is already on your new computer. If
not, it copies the file across the cable and installs it on your new
computer. Then it goes back and gets the next file on your old computer. It
continues this process until all files have been copied from your old
computer to your new computer. The entire process may take an hour or more
to complete, depending on the number of files on your old computer needing
to be copied and the transfer cable speed. Move Me copies all of your data
and setting files between the two computers. It also copies all of your
application programs between the two computers. It even copies the registry
entries from your old computer and merges these into the registry of your
new computer so that your application programs can run on your new
computer. The only things that are not copied to the new computer are your
operating system and any files that were already installed on the new
computer.
Your old computer is not changed in the Move Me process. So, it will
continue to run exactly as it did before the move. Your new computer should
now have all of you applications, data files, and settings on it from your
old computer as well as anything that was on it before the move began. At
this point, you should test all of your programs to make sure they run on
your new computer. Some older DOS and Windows applications may not run on
Windows XP whether they were transferred with Move Me or installed directly
on the new computer. You will need to get a new version of these older
applications from the software developer. Other low level utilities, like
PartitionMagic, will need to be reinstalled on your new computer in order
to get the WinXP version of the program on your new computer. In general,
you will find that most of your application programs will work just fine on
WinXP.
Move Me is an amazing utility that can save you hours of work migrating all
of your files from one computer to another. If you have an older computer
that you want to retire as soon as you can get all of your files off it,
Move Me is exactly what you need to use. Move Me on a CD lists for $50, but
you can purchase the same product at the user group discount price of just
$30. Look for it in our User Group Store at www.usergroupstore.com and
click on any of the yellow "Buy Now" buttons to get to our secure web order
form. Complete the form including the special user group code of UGNL0105
and submit it. You may share this discount offer with your immediate family
and close friends. These prices are not available to others not involved
with a user group.
I hope this month's newsletter has made you aware of this exciting Move Me
utility from Spearit software to help you move to a new computer. Let me
know if you have questions about anything in this newsletter by sending me
a note to gene@ugr.com. Thank you for your attention.
Gene Barlow
User Group Relations
PO Box 911600
St George, UT 84791-1600
435-652-3005
gene@ugr.com
www.ugr.com
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CCCC Page 8 February 2005
XP PREFETCH FILES
DELETE AUTOMATICALLY WITH A BATCH FILE
Contributed by Bob Dixon
Windows XP monitors the files that are used when your computer boots up and
when it starts applications programs. By monitoring these files, Windows
XP can prefetch them. Prefetching data is the process whereby data that is
expected to be requested is read ahead into the computers cache memory.
Supposedly, prefetching boot files and applications decreases the time
needed to start Windows XP and start applications.
This information is logged and stored on your hard drive taking up space
and requiring a process to be kept running, monitoring which applications
are being run. This has a performance impact on your PC. One way around
this is to delete all the files in the Prefetch folder from time to time.
Let's create a batch file to automate this process.
Click on Start, then on Run, and then type Notepad and click OK or press
the Enter key. In the Untitled - Notepad window type
"Del c:\windows\prefetch\*.*/q (without the quotes). Now click on File,
Save As, and in the File name: box type - "c:\windows\delpf.bat" (again
without the quotes) and click Save or press the Enter key.
Now, let's put a shortcut on the computer Desktop so you can run the
delpf.bat batch file and clean out the files in your Prefetch folder by
clicking on a desktop icon. Right-click on a blank spot on your Desktop,
click on New, and then click Shortcut. Now type in "c:\windows\delpf.bat"
(leave out the quotes) and click Next. Now type in a name for the
shortcut. I call mine "PrefetchClean." Click Finish and that's it - you're
done. Now you can clean out your Prefetch folder any time you want by just
double-clicking on that icon.
[Editor's note: For the brave souls that can modify the registry, the
Prefetch function can be controlled by deleting the files in
c:\windows\prefetch and then changing the value in the registry key:
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\
PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher
Set the data value to:
0 to disable prefetch, 1 to prefetch application launch files, 2 to
prefetch boot files, or 3 to prefetch as many files as possible.]
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