C C C C N E W S L E T T E R
CENTRAL COAST COMPUTER CLUB
Santa Maria, California
VOLUME XVII: NUMBER 1 January, 2002
NEXT MEETING: January 15, 2002 7:00PM KNOLLWOOD VILLAGE 4012 S. BRADLEY
PRESENTATION: Technology writer Dan Logan will present a
"show-and-tell" on various new hardware and software products.
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| CONTENTS |
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(1) Officers, Helplines, S.I.G.s
(2) President's Corner Charles Barney
(3) TAXACT
(4) Editor's Comments Dick Trissel
(5) January Windows SIG Session Amy Malicki
(6) Web Wanderings Gil Smith
(7) Review: PQ's DriveImage V5.0 Chuck Saylor
(9) Windows XP Upgrade 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 & 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 (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 January 2002
PRESIDENT'S CORNER
by Charles Barney
A cheerful group of about 70 folks came to our traditional 4Cs potluck
Christmas party on December 18th. Instead of the regular SIGs, business
meeting and main program, the attendees socialized, listened to holiday
music and feasted. The great variety of food brought to the event was most
delectable! Many of you have noticed my decreasing waistline over the past
several months, but it's a good thing we only have these parties once a
year. Otherwise I'm afraid there would be a dramatic reversal in this
trend!
I'd like to say thank you to the people who stayed after the meeting to
clean up the clubhouse. It will be our enduring goal to keep the place tidy
so that we do not jeopardize our privilege to use the facility for our
monthly meetings. The continued effort from all of you in this area is
imperative.
The door prize drawing capped off the evening with great anticipation. I
chose all hardware items for this year's prizes and began "bargain
shopping" for them months in advance. I try to get the very best value for
the dollars that are taken out of the club treasury for this purpose. The
overwhelming majority of you have indicated your approval of this practice
and I will continue to do so in my current term to supplement the prize
items otherwise obtained through vendors and donations.
Without further adieu, the lucky winners of the raffle drawing were as
follows: Charles High - Memorex USB color flatbed scanner; Frank Lemmon -
Kensington PC video camera; Ray Isenson - Samsung internal CD-RW drive;
Hank Dolsini - Belkin 520VA UPS battery backup; Spence Stimler - Windows
spill-proof keyboard; Marie Stimler - Belkin surge protector; Kathy
Campbell - carrying case with 48 CDRs; Charles Curry - 100 pack of CDRs;
Win Campbell - ream of HP printer paper; George Keys - Telex desktop
computer microphone. Congratulations to all the winners!
Are two operating systems better than one? Well, that remains to be seen,
but the Windows XP Home Edition upgrade I had ordered several months back
for the club laptop computer finally arrived from Sony. Thanks to the
valiant efforts of our resident guru Ray Isenson, we now have both the
original Windows ME and the new XP in separate bootable partitions on the
machine's hard drive. This arrangement was decided on by the Executive
Committee in order to better serve the members by staying current with the
ongoing evolution of Windows.
Our next gathering on January 15th will feature Dan Logan, local author and
technology columnist as the guest speaker. Dan has a number of high-tech
toys that he wants to show us and it should be an interesting program. Hope
to see you all there. -Charles
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CCCC Page 3 January 2002
TAXACT 2001
This is the latest information from 2nd Story Software on the user group
discount offered to CCCC. Use the Web links listed below. The free
Federal Standard Preview 2001 version (6.1Mb) is available for download at:
http://www.taxact.com. All versions are downloads. CD's are $5.95 extra.
From: Traci Heithoff [TraciH@taxact.com]
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 16:14:16 -0600
Subject: Re: User Group rates
I've assigned Central Coast Computer Group special order links for the User
Group Special. They will need to follow these links to get the special
offer.
For the Ultimate TaxACT Bundle (TaxACT Deluxe and TaxACT State) for $16.00:
http://www.taxact.com/special_offer.asp?sc=0163017
For TaxACT Deluxe (federal) only for $7.95:
http://www.taxact.com/special_offer.asp?sc=0163018
Thank you for supporting TaxACT!
Sincerely, Traci Heithoff
2nd Story Software, Inc.
5925 Dry Creek Lane, NE
Cedar Rapids, IA 52402
www.taxact.com
Phone: 319-373-3600x1028
Fax: 319-261-0397
tracih@taxact.com
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CCCC Page 4 January 2002
EDITOR'S COMMENTS
by Dick Trissel
CCCC BENEFITS
I think it's a good idea to periodically remind both the old and new
members of the benefits of the Central Coast Computer Club, such as-
Monthly meetings with:
technical presentations,
door prize drawings,
50/50 drawings,
Windows and Internet
Special Interest Groups;
Monthly 10 page newsletter with:
activity reports,
technical articles,
software reviews,
popular Web sites;
CCCC Web site with:
announcements,
Web site bookmarks,
computer help references,
past CCCC newsletters and
list of contents,
link to APCUG newsletters;
Local technical help contacts;
EXTRA4C e-mail messages;
and, of course, personal and social camaraderie.
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
The CCCC monthly newsletters from February 2000 to present are archived on
the club's Web site at http://member.apcug.org/fourseas. You may want to
go to the CCCC Newsletter Contents page if you are looking for a particular
article or subject. Here are the steps to capture a document into your
computer for offline reviewing, editing or printing.
On the main page of the Web site, click on CCCC Newsletter Contents link or
CCCC Newsletters link if you know which one you want. Click on the issue
you want. If you want the whole newsletter, choose Edit / Select All.
Then choose Edit / Copy. If you just want part of the newsletter, select
(highlight with left-click and drag) the text and choose Edit / Copy. The
copy will put the text in the clipboard from which you can Edit / Paste
into your favorite text editor (Notepad, Wordpad, Word, Works, etc.).
EXTRA4C CONTENTS
Almost every CCCC member (and a couple others) has subscribed to the CCCC
EXTRA4C e-mail message service. Below is a list of the messages to date.
If anyone wants one of the past messages (or if you want to subscribe or
unsubscribe), send an e-mail to extra4c@juno.com and state your desire.
ISSUE CONTENTS
EXTRA4C 20/11/01 Introduction
EXTRA4C 21/11/01 Blue spiral notebook & pen
EXTRA4C 24/11/01 Thanksgiving poem
EXTRA4C 24/11/01 Knollwood Clubhouse Complaint
EXTRA4C 25/11/01 Microsoft Support Ending
EXTRA4C 26/11/01 instakiss Virus Warning
EXTRA4C 28/11/01 Exploring Windows Explorer Part 1 of 4
EXTRA4C 29/11/01 Trojan/Worm w32.badtrans.B@mm
EXTRA4C 01/12/01 E-mail Newsletters
EXTRA4C 03/12/01 LangaList Standard Edition 2001-12-03
EXTRA4C 05/12/01 Worm Virus Tip
EXTRA4C 06/12/01 Goner Worm Warning
EXTRA4C 08/12/01 Exploring Windows Explorer Part 2 of 4
EXTRA4C 13/12/01 Hard Drive Partition Letters, HDrive Jumper Settings,
HDrive Defrag
EXTRA4C 16/12/01 Lexmark Printer For Sale
EXTRA4C 17/12/01 Exploring Windows Explorer Part 3 of 4
EXTRA4C 19/12/01 Click/Shut Down Windows, Juno Attachments, Keybd Commands,
Timely Reminders
EXTRA4C 20/12/01 Redo: Click and Shut Down Windows
EXTRA4C 21/12/01 Monitors Wanted
EXTRA4C 23/12/01 Exploring Windows Explorer Part 4 of 4
EXTRA4C 26/12/01 Compact Disc Formats
EXTRA4C 28/12/01 Windows98 Resource Kit Book
EXTRA4C 29/12/01 Reeezak Worm Warning, WindowsXP Security Patch
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CCCC Page 5 January 2002
JANUARY WINDOWS SIG SESSION
By: Amy L. Malicki
If you haven't been to the 6 PM Windows/Word sessions lately, you might
want to give it a try. The sessions have been expanded to include some
external devices and third party (other than Microsoft) software, since the
newer Windows ME & XT programs have been geared to making the interaction
between them much friendlier.
Since the price of scanners is down to $29, and many of our members now own
them, an Epson scanner was installed on the Club's computer at one of the
meetings and some of its uses demonstrated. When installing scanning
software, it's important to read the instructions first, because some
scanners have to be connected BEFORE the software, and others have to be
connected AFTER the software is loaded.
Scanners are designed MOSTLY to copy photos so that they can be printed or
E-mailed to others, but that is only half of the story. Scanners also can
make Instant copies, send faxes, and input text from books or magazines to
a Word Processor so text can be edited, or added to.
Most users are satisfied just to copy photos, and have limited knowledge of
its many other uses. This is partly due to the software that comes bundled
with the unit. Originally complimentary software was very minimal, and if
you wanted to do more than scan and print you had to "upgrade" the software
for about $100 to $175. Today the competition has forced scanner
manufacturers to provide better software with more options in order to make
their product the "most wanted".
For those who haven't purchased a scanner yet, it pays to read the details
on the box to learn what the software can do. Most scanner manufacturers
concentrate on the "photo" aspect and are content to "bundle" photo-editing
software and little else.
It's the (OCR) Optical Character Recognition software that translates
graphic characters to editable text. The two most popular OCR programs are
Caere, an up-gradeable software that comes with some scanners, and
Textbridge, which has to be purchased separately. Some of these OCR
programs can also copy and/or create Forms that contain boxes or squares
for data entry.
Some things to remember: 1) Read your package cover before you buy. 2)
Read your instructions before you install it. 3) Make sure your SCANNER is
ON before you start the computer or the device may not be recognized. 4)
On older scanners, the light stays on all the time (they say the light
should last as long as the scanner - not sure if that's good or bad);
although some new ones now have a Power Switch. 5) Make sure you have the
right Windows version of software for your computer; if not, you can
download it from the manufacturer. Sometimes the price is a "steal",
because it's an older version
We also installed an (older) 4.0 version of Print Shop last month and we
will be discussing the exporting and exchange of files between Word and
other programs this month. Y'all Come. Even parking is better at six than
at seven.
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CCCC Page 6 January 2002
WEB WANDERINGS
by Gil Smith
I-CRAFT
It's a little-known fact, but approximately 8 out of 10 households in the
United States have at least one family member who participates in crafts.
And this site is a sure bet for most who are looking for some fresh ideas,
changing crafts you're involved in or are looking for something fun and
interesting to do.
http://www.i-craft.com
FREEBIES ETC
Tons of links in well over a hundred different categories make this one of
the most comprehensive "Free Stuff Online" resources of the web to date.
Enter contests, sign up for free offers, try out products and services for
free, or just download free programs, tools and accessories for your PC.
http://www.gsmenter.com/
CULINARY NET
Whether you're a lover of find food or just want a quick and easy recipe
for something a little "different" for dinner, Culinary.net has you
covered. Aside from a searchable database of tons of recipes covering all
types of dishes, there are great Specialty sections like "The Joy of Soy"
and the "Singles Dinner Club".
http://www.culinary.net/
GET NETWISE
Get Net Wise is one website where both parents and kids can get educated.
In light of the recent tragedies, this site has a few links that may be
useful for parents and caregivers in this time of grieving and unrest.
http://www.getnetwise.org
HARDWARE FUN
Want to know what type of hardware is installed on your computer? Here's a
couple of sites you'll want to take a look at. They can use your web
browser to determine your computer's hardware info. Everything from free
drive space to processor speed. Very easy to use and very handy.
Belarc Advisor:
http://www.belarc.com/
PC Pit Stop:
http://www.pcpitstop.com/
HERE'S A HANDY ONE
Need to find someone? Check out AnyWho. Just type in the fields you know
and it will attempt to find the person or business you're searching for. It
doesn't always work, but who knows, you may find your long lost Uncle Fred.
http://www.anywho.com/
LIKE JIGSAW PUZZLES?
Check out this site. Tons of jigsaw puzzles you can play online. You can
choose the number of pieces based on your skill level. Anywhere from 6
pieces to 256. Yep, it's another big time waster, but hey you have lots of
spare time, don't you?
www.jigzone.com
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CCCC Page 7 January 2002
REVIEW: POWERQUEST'S DRIVE IMAGE 5.0
by Chuck Saylor
Objectives of review.
Show automating the backup of my
C drive using DriveImage 5.0.
System Requirements.
V5.0 Enhancements.
Other features.
Special offer to 4C's members.
First - the installation is very straightforward. Inserting the CD in your
CD-ROM. It is self-starting and uses a wizard, very easy. Upon
installation, I chose the "install" option, which installs a new feature
called QuickImage.
Before running the program, they recommend running scandisk and disabling
virus scan. To run QuickImage go to Start / Programs / PowerQuest
5.0 / QuickImage. This is the program which enables you to automate your
backup by working in conjunction with the Task Scheduler in Windows 98.
When you launch QuickImage - on your first screen your are asked to name
your backup file and destination drive/partition. In my case it was my
smaller drive and I chose the E partition. So I entered E:\DriveC_backup.
Removable media like JAZ, Zip, and others are supported. Add any comments
and click Select Partitions button. The program adds a pqi extension to
your filename and takes you to the next screen. The next screen shows your
drives, partitions, sizes, types (FAT16, FAT32 etc.), and utilization.
Select the partitions you want to backup and press OK. Review the advanced
to see if the defaults are ok. Note - Hi-Compression is one of the
defaults. If the destination media will require multiple CD's, here is
where you indicate that the image must be split into multiple files. Click
OK to return to the previous and you have a choice of creating the image
now or saving it. Save if you plan to automate the backup using the Task
Scheduler included with Windows 98. I pressed Save. And the Task Scheduler
screen appears.
Caveats using The Task Scheduler - The computer must be on for it to work
or in a normal standby mode (meaning the OS was not unstable at the
scheduled time) and "Wake up the computer" must be selected when defining
the task. Pressing the Schedule Task button brings up the Image Creation
screen showing three tabs - Schedule, Settings, and QuickImage
Schedule tab - very flexible, can specify daily, weekly, start time and
more.
Settings tab - Many options but I checked "Wake the computer to run this
task".
QuickImage tab - Specify the task name and to automate - the default
"Prompt Before rebooting to run DriveImage" must be deselected.
Finally you click apply and OK, exit the program and now your backup is
automated. Sit back and watch it happen at the anointed time. You can
always view your scheduled tasks by right clicking the Task Scheduler icon
on the systray and modify the task as desired or run immediately by right
clicking the task and selecting the properties screen.
Now the magic begins. At the scheduled time, you'll see the computer wake
up and launch QuickImage. And then QuickImage displays a message that the
computer will be rebooted into DOS and the DOS version of QuickImage will
be launched.
This is required so that the program will have complete control of the
operating system. And it happens. After the reboot and launch, your backup
is created to the partition you specified and you're given a progress
status - namely time elapsed and time till the backup is complete. In my
case it took about 55 minutes to backup about 4.7 GB.
Upon completion - again by magic - the program reboots the computer back
into windows but not back to Standby. In the Future???
Now lets look at System Requirements and version 5.0 enhancements.
System Requirements-
486 or higher recommended - 32MB RAM - 3.5 " Diskette Drive (for rescue
disks) - CD_ROM drive to run installation CD-ROM - 26MB Hard Disk free
space - Mouse and SVGA monitor recommended - and W9x, NT 3.51 or 4.0
Workstation, W2000 Professional, Windows XP, DOS 5.0, OS/2.
Version 5.0 Enhancements -
Expanded support for removable media (CD_R, CD-RW, SCSI, IDE, PCMCIA).
ImageExplorer for extracting single files from images or copying image
partitions to another PQI file.
Support for up to 80 MB drives.
QuickImage for automating your backups.
And more.
Two other significant features are DataKeeper and DriveImage DOS.
DataKeeper (not supported in Windows XP) is a separate program that can be
installed from the installation CD. Its function is to automatically
backup selected folders/files to a selected backup location every time you
perform a save operation to them. Password protection is available.
DriveImage DOS - Very powerful - Cannot only backup/restore image files,
but also perform disk-to-disk operations for upgrading your hard disk. In
addition can perform certain partition management tasks like deleting,
hiding, setting the active partition and creating extended partitions.
Password protection is available.
4C Membership Price - Usergroup members may purchase DriveImage v5.0 at a
special price of $35 (retail is $69.95) by ordering from the secure website
at http://www.ugr.com/order/. Indicate the special price code "UGEVAL01"
with your order . In my opinion this is an excellent price for a well-
documented tool for everyone interested in an easy way to AUTOMATE the
backup of his or her data from a top rated company.
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CCCC Page 8 January 2002
WINDOWS XP UPGRADE
By Dick Trissel
The following is a compilation of several articles taken from technical
newsletters.
Does your computer qualify for an upgrade to Windows XP?
Here's the hardware what you need to use Windows XP home edition.
CPU: Intel Pentium/Celeron family, AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family (233-
megahertz minimum (MHz) required--300 (MHz) recommended). 400-MHz CPU or
higher processor for digital video camera capture.
Memory: 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum
supported; may limit performance and some features)
Disk space: 1.5 gigabyte (GB).
Monitor: Super VGA (800 × 600) or higher resolution video adapter and
monitor.
For Internet access: 14.4 Kbps or higher-speed modem (33.6Kbps for network
and video conferencing).
CD-ROM or DVD drive (DVD requires 8MB of video RAM).
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device.
To find out if your current operating system is eligible for an XP upgrade,
look below for the version of Windows that you currently have, and then
check to see if you can upgrade to the edition of Windows XP that you want.
Previous Version Home Edition Professional
Upgrade Full Upgrade Full
$99 $199 $199 $299
Windows 3.1 NO YES NO YES
Any Evaluation Version NO YES NO YES
Any Server Version NO YES NO YES
Windows 95 NO YES NO YES
Windows 98/Windows 98 SE YES YES YES YES
Windows Me YES YES YES YES
Windows NT 3.51 NO NO NO NO
Windows NT 4.0 NO NO YES YES
Windows 2000 Professional NO NO YES YES
Windows XP Home Edition YES YES
Windows XP Professional NO YES
If your Windows version does not qualify for an upgrade, or your computer
is not adequate and you still want WindowsXP, then considering buying a
computer that's ready for upgrade or has WindowsXP installed.
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