C C C C N E W S L E T T E R
CENTRAL COAST COMPUTER CLUB
Santa Maria, California
VOLUME XIX: NUMBER 7 JULY, 2004
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: July 20, 2004 KNOLLWOOD VILLAGE 4012 S. BRADLEY
PRESENTATION: The July presentation will be "Steven Burgess aka 'Doctor
Data' Makes a House Call"
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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 Gil Smith
(5) DIGITAL IMAGING S.I.G. Charles Barney
(6) SYSTEMS S.I.G. Dick Trissel
(7) REVIEW OF PHOTOSHOP ALBUM 2.0 Spence Stimler
(8) BACKUP TO THE FUTURE Dick Trissel
(9) BASIC INSTRUCTION S.I.G. Amy Malicki
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OFFICERS HELPLINES
President Juno
Spence Stimler 938-0217 Gilbert Smith 925-3743
spence@pronet.net 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 and Book Librarian 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 Fred Adams 934-1128
foster95@juno.com fredeadams@verizon.net
Newsletter Editor Digital Imaging
Dick Trissel 937-7572 Charles Barney 937-1240
rtrissel@juno.com Cbarney@lightspeed.net
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (S.I.G.s)
Digital Imaging (6:00pm) Systems (5:45pm) Basic (6:00pm)
Charles Barney Dick Trissel Amy Malicki
Cbarney@lightspeed.net rtrissel@juno.com savvyforseniors@juno.com
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CCCC Page 2 July 2004
PRESIDENT'S CORNER by Spence Stimler
We had forty-three people in attendance at our June meeting. This is less
than half of our total membership. There are probably many reasons for the
low showing and some of it might be that your interests are not being met
or perhaps they are being glossed over. We would like to hear what you
would like to see happen at our meetings. How can we structure our
meetings to better help you? Are there some features that you would like
to see covered? Please do let us know.
Our speaker for the July meeting is Steve Burgess. Steve has been here
before and was very well received. He is an expert on extracting data from
a hard drive. His presentations are always very interesting.
Unfortunately, somebody liked our 50/50 box and tickets more than we did.
As a result we were unable to conduct a drawing at our June meeting. Vic
McLaughlin has purchased new tickets and we will be back in business in
July.
The door prize drawing went off on schedule. Not only did we have the
usual great prizes purchased by Charles Barney but also a number of closet
cleanout items donated by Eldean Voris. The winners were: Fred Adams -
Kodak Inkjet Printer Paper; Charles Dorsten - CD Spring Case; Dick Jones
- Zone Alarm Pro 4; Ben Middleton - CD's; Jesse Lyman -
Solitare/Crosswords Double game pack; Seymour Schwartz - Norton Antivirus;
Dick Trissel - Memorex Spill-Proof Keyboard; and finally Carol Chambard - A
grab bag of goodies, donated by Eldean.
There were a number of losers whose names were drawn but who were not in
attendance. They were: John McCurdy, Jim Burress, JoAnn Mc Bride, Eugene
Johnson, Maureen Morrow, Maurice Ross, Charles High, Joseph Roberts, Jack
Sutherlin, Majorie Hoogenbosch, Miles Dennis, and Peter Dettelis. Sorry.
We are going to have a great meeting on July 20th. See you there.
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CCCC Page 3 July 2004
EDITOR'S COMMENTS by Dick Trissel
I subscribe to the three Kim Komando e-mail newsletters--the weekly (comes
on Saturdays), and the two daily "Tip of the day" and "Cool Site of the
day". As most of you know, I extract articles from these e-mail
newsletters and put them in the EXTRA4C bulletins (yes, I have permission
to do this).
If you want to subscribe to any of these, go to
http://www.komando.com/newsletter.asp or http://www.komando.com and click
on "FREE NEWSLETTERS" for instructions. To subscribe to the daily tips and
cool sites, send an e-mail to:
tips@komando.com and cool@komando.com
She also publishes three CD books that she has written. They sell for
$19.95 + $6.95 S&H for each CD. The titles are:
THE 50 BIGGEST COMPUTER MISTAKES
THE 50 GREATEST SECRETS OF DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
208 GREATEST COMPUTER & INTERNET TIPS, TRICKS & SECRETS VOL. 1
To order go to her Web site and click on "KIM'S BOOKS" for instructions.
No, I don't get a commission :)
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CCCC Page 4 July 2004
WEB WANDERINGS By Gil Smith
UNNATURAL WONDERS
Well you've probably all read or heard about natural wonders of the world.
This is a site dedicated to the Unnatural Wonders around the world. It's
listed from A to Z, just click the link to be whisked to the wonder you
have chosen.
Prepare to be amazed as you surf through these wonders. I particularly
liked the Shoe Trees. You can find places and objects you'd expect like
buildings and such but others will surprise you at some people's creativity
like the "Piece of the Berlin Wall" photo.
http://www.thom.org/gallery/unnat/
INTERNATIONAL PRESS & MEDIA OF THE WORLD
You can read newspapers from around the world, check other forms of media,
and even art. This site is well put together, and has a topic reminder
with nifty images on every page so that you can get a quick glance at
what's happening on that page.
This is from an online magazine titled "Escape from America" that offers
information for people traveling or relocating out of the country (I know,
"Who'd wanna do that?" No jingoistic email please).
Even if you don't travel, you can find tons of information on Europe, Asia,
and other cultures from all over the world. A great way to broaden your
perspective in travel and culture. Czech it out!
http://www.escapeartist.com/media/media.htm
ALLERNET NATIONAL ALLERGY FORECASTS
Do you suffer from environmental allergies? Want to know the pollen and
mold information for all areas of the country? Yes? Great! Then just
head over to Allernet's National Allergy forecast and click on the maps.
For instance, those from Central Texas will experience mild mold spores
with a little Weed pollen. Break out the tissues and turn on the air
filter!
Explore the Allernet wite for more tips, facts, movies, and links for
allergy and asthma sufferers.
http://www.allernet.com/DAILY/
LAST WORDS
Sporting the Shakespeare quote, "The tongues of dying men enforce attention
like deep harmony." (Richard II, II.1.5-6), this site is about famous last
words.
You'll find a collection of Famous Last Words from real people and
fictional characters, as well as, Famous Epitaphs, Famous Wills and
Obituaries, Famous Last Stands, and Famous Farewells.
From the profound to the just plain dumb, you can find it here.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/6537/
THE EASTER EGG ARCHIVE
This site has nothing to do with brightly colored edible eggs and
everything to do with those little surprises that are programmed into
software that you use on the computer. Their definition of an Easter egg
is any amazing tidbit that creators hid in their creations. They could be
in computer software, movies, music, art, books, or even your watch. There
are thousands of them, and they can be quite entertaining, if you know
where to look.
This site is an archive of different Easter eggs. I checked out their top
25 and was greatly surprised at some of them.
http://www.eeggs.com/
DRIVING CONDITIONS
There are a lot of weather sites out there. Honestly, they are all fairly
similar. There's very little variation. Very few provide you with traffic
conditions as well. Today's site is the perfect mix. It lets you know
what the weather is like and how the traffic is going or not. Depending on
your location, you may find live cameras aimed at a major highway or
geographical maps depicting speed.
http://www.accuweather.com/www/accutraffic/index.html
ON LINE REFERENCE FOR PETS
Having a sick pet can be heart-wrenching and frustrating. It's nice to
know that there is a reference manual that can answer almost any question.
With over 12,000 indexed topics and 1,200 illustrations, The Merck
Veterinary Manual claims to be the single most comprehensive electronic
reference. After looking at it, it's hard to discount that claim. Has
your cat been diagnosed with feline leukemia? Find out the various
treatments or future prevention and control. Thinking of foregoing store-
bought food for your cat or dog? You might want to read the section on
nutrition first. If you have a pet, you might want to bookmark this site.
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp
WHAT DAY IS IT?
Need a calendar for 2004? Make one yourself the free and easy way. Start
off the New Year by downloading and using one of these free calendars.
Microsoft has a slew of templates that can be used with Word or PowerPoint.
Customize them by inserting pictures, clip art and special dates. Use the
crayon design calendar for a school classroom or for your child. There are
monthly calendars, year at-a-glance and others.
http://snipurl.com/templatecalendar
FLYING SHARKS National Geographic has a lot of interesting stories this
past year. It has re posted its top 10 Web stories, based on the number of
visitors to the Web pages. Find out about the project that lets screen
savers search for extraterrestrial life. There's a great story on the
latest craze in gardening - weird and exotic plants. One such plant is the
Dragon Arum which smells like rotting meat and is generally covered with
flies. Nice. There are also stories on Bigfoot, four-winged dinosaurs and
sharks that fly out of the water. http://snipurl.com/natgeograph
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CCCC Page 5 July 2004
DIGITAL IMAGING S.I.G. - June '04 Recap By Charles Barney
At our June meeting we primarily covered a topic that seems to be of
concern to a lot of folks and that is how to resize picture files for
emailing. This process can be easily done with any number of imaging
programs currently available. Trust me, if you can use your computer, you
can learn to do this. The hanging point seems to be in grasping the concept
of just exactly what it is we are trying to accomplish.
If you recall from my previous rantings, digital images are made up of
nothing but tiny colored squares called pixels. Today's digital cameras
take wonderful, truly photographic-quality pictures by being able to
squeeze a whole lot of these pixels into an image. This is great for
printing out your photos on an inkjet printer and glossy photo paper. They
can look just as good as traditional film camera prints in most cases -
something you can be proud of!
The problem arises when we want to share our marvelous creations with
others by electronic transfer via email. The source of this trouble is file
size. Those multi-mega pixel pictures, while beautiful on your screen and
on print, become an 800-pound gorilla when you attempt to pass them through
a mail server (which handles your email). I won't go into analysis of modem
speeds, transfer rates, etc. here. Suffice it to say that downloading your
friend's full-sized picture of his pet iguana is about as much fun as
mowing your lawn with a toenail clipper - slow!
What we need to do here are two things: One - reduce the number of pixels
in the image and Two - use file compression. But won't this spoil the
quality of our beautiful picture? The answer is yes and no. You wouldn't
want to take these steps if your intention is for the recipient to be able
to print out the same quality picture as you get at home (there could be
some workable compromises here though). In most cases, however, all you
want is for the recipient to see your pictures on-screen. To this end, even
a tremendous reduction in file size won't hurt the way they look in the
least bit.
Let's use an example. On my digital camera, I like to take my pictures on
the highest quality setting and later resize them as needed. This produces
a .TIF (uncompressed format) image file about 14 megabytes in size. This is
not a file you would want me to email to you! I Open it up in Adobe
Photoshop Elements (could be most any other imaging program) and I select
Image/Resize. This displays the current file stats: Width 2560 pixels,
height 1920 pixels; document size 8.5x6.4 inches at 300 pixels-per-inch
resolution. The given document size refers to its printed size on paper and
is really not relevant to the size it is on-screen. It is the total number
of pixels that we are interested in changing. The quick way to get the
dimensions we want is to keep the Constrain Proportions and Resample Image
boxes checked and change the pixels-per-inch from 300 to 72 (the resolution
of most monitors). This gives us a 615x460 pixel image that will display
on-screen full size the same 8.5x6.4 inches. This will fit nicely.
Next we save the file using the .JPG compressed format. We see that there
is a choice in the level of compression that we can use, from zero to
twelve - zero being the highest compression and smallest file size and
twelve being the least compression and largest file size. I recommend a
setting of about eight. When saved after our adjustments, we see the file
size is now a mere 64 kilobytes in size - that's 219 times smaller than the
original! The real beauty is, it will up and download in a matter of
seconds instead of hours.
Many other available programs make this process even easier, such as having
the ability for you to just tell it you want to size a certain picture for
email and it invisibly does the work in the background. Some will even,
after resizing, bring up your email address book and let you choose the
recipient(s) and mail them for you. The sacrifice of this level of
automation is loss of control over the result, but may be just the thing
for those of us who don't want to get our 'hands dirty under the hood.'
If you try a Google search on the phrase 'image resizing programs' as I
did, you will be presented with an extensive list of links to shareware and
freeware programs, publications and tutorials on this very subject. With a
little bit of effort, you will soon be resizing your pictures like a pro!
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CCCC Page 6 July 2004
SYSTEMS S.I.G. by Dick Trissel
I guess the L.A. "Fakers" championship basketball game kept a few members
home. There were only forty-some members total at the June meeting, and 20
of them were in the Systems S.I.G. Some of the rest were in Amy's new
Basic S.I.G. We didn't use the club's computer/projector for the Systems
S.I.G. so that Amy could use it. However, we will have both for the July
meeting.
Last month I described the special Juno $4.95/month account available
because United Online (Juno and Netzero) said they were going to
discontinue the direct dial mail for the free Juno and the POP3 mail for
the free Netzero. As of this writing, the free Netzero POP3 is gone, but
my free EXTRA4C Juno account direct dial is still there for Juno versions 4
and 5. BUT, the direct dial is NOT available for my other free Juno
accounts. I'm confused!
Versions 6 and 7 never had direct dial e-mail capability. None of my free
or Platinum Juno accounts have POP3 capability. One good thing about
getting the $4.95/month deal, the Platinum Juno Web access has no
advertisement banner.
I showed some pieces of CDs, commercial and writable, to demonstrate that
the data layer is on the top of the CD and is VERY vulnerable, especially
on writable CDs. So, I say again, DON'T put labels on CDs or write on them
except in the hub area or where you can see from the bottom the area where
no data is written. Commercial CDs are not as vulnerable as writable CDs
because they are made differently--stamped aluminum, not chemically
deposited.
A member asked that we talk about backing up your hard drive. My
recommendation is to buy the PowerQuest/Symantec program DriveImage (and
maybe PartitionMagic). They can be obtained at a discount at:
http://www.ugr.com/store at a club discount if you use the group discount
code: UGWCM04. See the article on backups elsewhere in this newsletter.
We had a brief discussion on keeping the Windows registry clean. Almost
everything you do with your computer causes an entry into the registry.
Therefore, it can become very large slowing down system startup and using
up memory space. I use a free program called ToniArts EasyCleaner. One
member said he preferred RFA (Registry First Aid). It sounds like it has
more capability, but costs about $20. Both can be found by searching the
Web using Google. The EasyCleaner program removes unneeded registry keys.
It also provides other system cleanup features. RFA will not only cleanup
the registry, but will actually make some repairs. EasyCleaner will work
on all Windows systems. I don't know about RFA.
There was mention of the Belarc Advisor system analysis program. I use
AIDA32. I installed Belarc to compare the two. I prefer AIDA32. For one
thing, the older AIDA32 version is small enough to run from a floppy disk.
The Belarc requires installation. Belarc uses Internet Explorer for
display (it crashed my computer). AIDA32 can be displayed in many
different formats. I use the plain text report, save it to disk, and
review with a text editor.
Members were advised that the long awaited Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2)
is still not out. It is expected later this year.
If you didn't see the notice in the Santa Maria Times, there was an article
about the Santa Maria Museum Of Flight (SMMOF). They have a nice WEB site
at: www.smmof.org
There was a comment that Comcast Internet is available in Santa Maria. One
member said his neighbor has it. This was news to me. However, the next
day Comcast had an advertisement in the S.M. Times for Internet access. I
went to their Web site and was told Internet signup was not available from
the Web. It referred me 1-888-COMCAST. Call them if you are interested.
The representative at the Santa Maria Trade Show said Comcast Internet was
available in part of the 93454 area (north of Betteravia), and it will be
available in 93455 in a few weeks. According to the pamphlet handed out,
it starts at $43/month plus, if you are a Comcast subscriber.
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CCCC Page 7 July 2004
REVIEW OF PHOTOSHOP ALBUM 2.0 by Spence Stimler
Originally, I downloaded a free beginner's version of Photoshop Album 2.0.
So, I had a chance to get acquainted with it. Unfortunately I never was
able to register it and after a period of time not able to use it. This
left me frustrated for I had created a number of albums and was not able to
access them. When the opportunity presented itself to receive the program
and review it, I jumped at the chance. The program was easy to install,
and I was happy to find all my previous albums intact. This time I was
able to register on-line.
My purpose in wanting to make albums is two-fold. First, I wanted to
reduce the size of the photos for emailing purposes. Secondly, I wanted to
sort and organize my pictures in order to save them in folders and on CDs.
Mostly they are organized by date and some have titles. Once the photos
are put into albums, all are able to be accessed from the Well. The Well
is the repository for all the albums. It is easy to access all the
different albums by searching for them by file name or date.
In addition, Album 2.0 has made color, cropping, lighting, and red-eye
correction very simple and easy to use. Of course, the corrections are
simple and limited. I would recommend the program for the first-time users
of digital photography. It will give them an understanding of the basics
so that they can go on to more sophisticated programs. Album 2.0 further
provides a simple program for sharing your photos via email, Internet, cell
phone, or Palm OS.
The only drawback I found was in using the built-in program for burning to
a CD. It performs the task in a satisfactory manner for a one-time burn,
but there is no provision that I could find for adding additional photos
once the CD was made. All in all, I think that Photoshop Album 2.0 is a
very good program and would highly recommend it, especially to newcomers in
digital photography.
$49.99 Adobe Systems Incorporated
www.adobe.com
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CCCC Page 8 July 2004
BACKUP TO THE FUTURE by Dick Trissel
Computer system backups are probably the most important thing most home
computerist don't do. Why? Because it is a complicated, time consuming,
confusing operation. Why even worry about backups--VIRUSES, bad
installations, operator errors. All these can be fixed with a restore from
a recent backup. Note the word "recent". If you wait too long between
backups, there may be changes to your system that won't be there when you
restore.
There are full system backups, partition backups, and file (data) backups.
The latter are usually just file copies as opposed to image files. An
image file is a single file (usually compressed to save space) that
contains files, folders, and even partitions.
There are full backups (an entire system) and incremental backups (selected
files and folders). I'm concerned here with full system backups.
I have three computers with dual-boot systems on them (each operating
system in a different partition, naturally), and I back them up several
times a year. Sometimes I backup all partitions, and sometimes just one
partition. So, to get the discussion started, here is how I do it (then
I'll describe alternate techniques).
I use the PowerQuest (now Symantec) DriveImage 2002 program (retail $70,
street price as low as $45). I have made emergency floppies from the main
program and use these exclusively. I use version 2002 because some of my
systems are Windows XP which requires 2002.
The compressed image file is written directly to a set of CD-RWs. With
compression of about 1.6 to 1, I can put 1GB per 4X CD-RW disc; and takes
about 20 minutes per CD. The image file could be written to the same hard
drive but must be in a different partition than the one being backed up.
Each partition can be imaged separately, or several partitions can be
imaged in one operation.
It is not necessary to have CD burning software installed--DriveImage uses
its own. And it doesn't conflict with any burning program. However, if
you plan to burn to a DVD, you must have DriveImage version 7, AND be
running Windows XP or 2000.
As far as I know there are no other backup programs that will burn to DVD
directly. Of course, you can make a backup image on the hard drive, and
then burn it to DVDs or CDs with burning software.
Another similar program (also by Symantec) is Ghost, which used to be by
Norton. I don't know what features it has other than making disk copies
(more about disk copies further on).
In the past I have used Veritas Simple Backup (VSB), a little brother to
the Stomp Inc. BackupMyPC program. It worked just fine, but only burns to
CD. I've used the Windows Backup utility. It only makes an image on the
hard drive. It won't burn to CD directly. And, you have to have Windows
running to do a restore, a kind of "catch 22".
We've concentrated on making backup images on hard drives and discs, but
many people want to copy an old hard drive to a new larger drive. This is
called "disk-to-disk". This is not an image backup. Image files are not
executable. There are programs, including DriveImage, that will do this
job.
To order price discounted PowerQuest software (DriveImage, PartitionMagic,
etc.), go to the User Group Store at http://www.usergroupstore.com (or
http://www.ugr.com/store). You can read more about these two products in
the security department of the store. Click on any of the Buy Now buttons
to get to the secure web order form. Complete the form including the
special code of UGWCM04.
Finally, you also can make a backup image from the old drive to CD or DVD,
and then restore it to the new drive. Certain rules have to be followed,
but I've done it many times. It beats the lengthy operating system and
applications installations.
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CCCC Page 9 July 2004
BASIC INSTRUCTION S.I.G. by Amy Malicki
At the July CCCC meeting, Amy Malicki will continue the Basic Special
Interest Group for learning the basics of computing. It will start at
6:00pm in the Library. A computer will be available for the instructions.
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