C C C C N E W S L E T T E R
CENTRAL COAST COMPUTER CLUB
Santa Maria, California
VOLUME XVI: NUMBER 3 MARCH, 2001
NEXT MEETING: March 20, 2001 7:00PM KNOLLWOOD VILLAGE 4012 S. BRADLEY
PRESENTATION: Kevin Walters from Comstar Computers
on a subject of his choice and questions.
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| CONTENTS |
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(1) Officers, Helplines, S.I.G.s
(2) President's Corner Charles Barney
(3) Editor's Comments Dick Trissel
(4) February Internet SIG Dick Trissel
(5) Web Wanderings Gil Smith
(6) File/Program Associations Dick Trissel
(7) Windows 98 RUN Utilities Dick Trissel
(8) Sound Dick Trissel
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Officers Helplines
President Juno
Charles Barney 937-1240 Gilbert Smith 925-3743
cbarney@lightspeed.net colgil1@juno.com
Vice President Windows 95
Phil Grycel 937-1805 Amy Malicki 925-5780
feliksy@juno.com amymal@juno.com
Secretary Hardware & DOS
Barbara Godwin 934-9885 Ray Isenson 937-6938
yungbag@best1.net risenson@juno.com
Treasurer Voice control & Input/Output
Gerald Miller 934-1396 Amy Malicki 925-5780
2741 Banyan Way amymal@juno.com
Santa Maria CA 93455
gmiller33@excite.com
Librarian Desktop Publishing & scanners
Sharon Allen 928-2209 Don Harelson 934-3926
sallen4060@aol.com qef1@juno.com
Publicity Software User Identification
Bill Corning 934-0775 Fred Adams 934-1128
foster95@juno.com fred421@juno.com
Newsletter Editor Visual Basic
Dick Trissel 937-7572 Gerald Miller
rtrissel@juno.com Gmiller33@excite.com
Program Chairman AOL
Ray Isenson 937-6938 Frank Maciel 922-2318
risenson@juno.com frm8198@aol.com
Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
Windows 95/98 Internet
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
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 March 2001
President's Corner
by Charles Barney
About 70 people attended the February 20th meeting despite the damp, chilly
weather. Amy Malicki was back for her regular Windows SIG and Dick Trissel
returned to the "pool room" with his Internet group.
How about a hearty 4C's welcome for new members Frank Lemmon and Marshall
and Willa Willey! We are excited that you decided to join us and trust
that you will benefit from your association with our user group. Keep in
mind though, that being a successful member is a two-way street. Please
take advantage of all the benefits available to you as a member, but
understand that your active participation is also important. That can be
on any level that you are able and willing to do; from serving in a club
position, bringing cookies to a meeting or merely offering your comments in
a discussion, it all matters in an organization such as ours. The members
make the club!
Regrettably, the back-ordered First Edition APCUG shareware/freeware CDs
did not arrive in time for the February meeting and many of you wanting
them had to go without once again. I have been in close contact with one
of the two Association members who originally created the disk and have
been reasonably assured that we will have them in time for the March
meeting. Seems they waited until all final orders were in before having
another batch made in Canada. I appreciate your continued patience with
this.
Randy Whittle, this time representing MicroVision, was back to give us
another very informative and entertaining presentation. CD Recordable &
Re-Writeable (CD-R/RW) concepts were the main topic of discussion. Randy
told us how this increasingly popular portable data storage media is
quickly supplanting all other types. Disks produced in a "CD burner" are
universally readable by anyone with a regular CD-ROM drive. Huge capacity
(650MB) and cheap price (as low as 30 cents) make the CD-R very attractive
for such uses as making personal music compilations, backing up your hard
drive or saving and sharing digital photos.
He then gave us some useful tips on recording our own CDs such as how to
identify "which end is up?" and how to avoid turning our disks into
"coasters." MicroVision products showcased were the SureThing CD Labeler
to create and print highly customizable and attractive CD labels and jewel
case inserts as well as the SureThing CD Business Card Kit that included
mini-format business card-sized CD-R's small enough to fit in a shirt
pocket, along with labels and labeling software. Also discussed where two
hard drive utilities from the PowerQuest company, PartitionMagic 6.0 and
Drive Image 4.0. These programs allow the user to organize and optimize
the performance of their hard drives as well as to run multiple operating
systems and backup important data. Randy generously raffled off two of the
CD Labeler kits to lucky members.
The meeting was not without the usual door prize giveaway as well (at least
those who showed up had the opportunity to win). Absent "would be winners"
included Ben Middleton, Jean Burress, Harry Clark, Diane Hughes, Francis
Maciel, Bob Virgin, Mildred Smith, Frank Nagy, Robert Dixon, and Bill
Walter. Those present and called, (a.k.a. "winners") were James Miller,
who chose a copy of SnagIt 5.1; Christian Heck, who picked the security
paper shredder as his prize; Charles High, deciding to try his luck with
the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, 2nd Edition game and finally Armando
Perez took home a ream of quality inkjet paper for his printer.
The first 4C's class was successfully held on February 28 at the Louis
Oasis Center in Orcutt with 30 people in attendance. After playing
"musical monitors," Ray Isenson was finally able to set up a working
computer system in the front of the room for demonstration purposes.
Leading the discussion, Dick Trissel took individual questions from the
floor which covered a wide variety of hardware and software problems.
Class participation was good and hopefully, some solutions were found.
Please take advantage of this informal class if you want to learn more
about your computer. Classes are scheduled to be held every Wednesday from
1:00 - 3:30 PM.
I hope that you can all make it for the March 20th regular monthly meeting.
We will have once again as our guest speaker Kevin Walters of Comstar
Computers who will be at the clubhouse to answer your computer related
questions. Kevin is one of the most knowledgeable people I know on the
subject, and has a low-keyed and personable style which you are sure to
like. I'll see you Tuesday night. - Charles
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CCCC Page 3 March 2001
Editor's Comments
By Dick Trissel
The first two weeks of the new CCCC computer "classes" on Wednesday
afternoons at 1:pm to 3:30pm at Luis Oasis in Orcutt were just as planned.
There were about 30 people at the first and about 20 at the second. At
each session there was a variety of knowledge and questions. Since the
sessions are unstructured, there's no set time of arrival or departure.
So, come with your computer problems, questions, or curiosity. Everyone is
welcome, club members, guests, strangers, etc.
I just realized there may still be some confusion about the new club
membership dues schedule. It appears some people are waiting until their
membership anniversary to pay the remainder of the 2001 year's dues. NO!
Your dues were due in January 2001! The amount you owe now is printed on
this newsletter address label.
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CCCC Page 4 March 2001
February Internet S.I.G
By Dick Trissel
We had the usual (and some unusual) thirtysome attendees. Several
discussions were not Internet related, so I'll skip them.
Two people reported similar virus hits causing Internet Explorer to go to
X-rated sites at runtime. The user with WindowsME was able to go back to
an early backed up version of his system that was not contaminated. The
other person still has the virus-no solution was suggested.
I was celebrating my third anniversary as Internet S.I.G. moderator, so I
briefly reviewed the principles of modem dialup and PPP connections.
Mention was made of the possibility of having multiple DUN (DialUp Network)
connections (connectoids) established in a computer. And, the possiblity
of multiple modem configurations for any one connectoid.
The following items were discussed briefly:
How to connect computer to computer, and how to control a remote computer
(use the PCAnyWhere program).
How to transfer an addressbook from Compuserve to Pronet-probably can't.
Do a save to disk not an install when downloading.
What is a GIF file (Compuserve format compressed image file).
How to recover a DSL lockup-power the computer and DSL modem down, wait
several seconds, power up the modem, wait for the 3 lights to go out.
____________________________________________________________
CCCC WEEKLY COMPUTER LEARNING ASSISTANCE SESSIONS
Every week from 1:00pm to 3:30pm at Luis Oasis Senior Center in Old Orcutt
at xxx Soares Ave. Solve problems, share knowledge, and learn computers.
Everyone's welcome.
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CCCC Page 5 March 2001
Web Wanderings
by Gil Smith
CONSUMER REPORTS:
This well known source on various products, has put together excellent tips
for us to review at:
http://www.consumerreports.org/
UNSOLVED MYSTERIES:
Do you enjoy the unexplained? No, not Windows, but UFOs, ghosts, etc.
Here's a site that's chuck full of stories from everyday folks like you and
me.
http://www.unsolvedmysteries.com/default.asp
BUZZWORDS:
Do you hate buzzwords - the Internet is full of them. If you would like to
avoid looking bewildered when someone is talking about "dot.bombs" or
"vortals" head to the site below, they cover just about any buzzword you
can think of.
http://www.buzzwhack.com/
KNOWLEDGE:
Are you looking for some information? Check out Knowledge Hound. Tons of
great information on just about everything.
http://knowledgehound.com/
EXPLORER TOYS:
Want some cool toys for Internet Explorer? How about tool bar wallpaper?
Or maybe a set of software tools that lets you add zooming to your Right
Click menu? Sound interesting? Check it out at:
http://www.microsoft,com/windows/Ie/
WebAccess/default.asp
FILE TYPES:
Did you ever come across a file you can't open? You know that you could
open it if you knew what the heck it was. Put away that digital prybar and
head to this site. They'll help you out.
http://whatis.techtarget.com/
flat_files/whatis_file_forms_A/
NEED ADVICE:
Check out "Miss Abigail's Time Warp Advice". Folks ask her questions and
she gives an Ann Landers type answer - but with a twist. She also includes
answers to similar questions that were asked years ago (sometimes over 100
years). I guess we have the same problems, just in different times.
http://www.missabigail.com
JUST FOR WOMEN:
Are you looking for an on-line site that's just for women? Here it is. It
covers tons of topics; everything from home and family to careers and
health.
http://www.women.com/
BUSINESS NEWS:
Here's a business news site that really does a great job, up to date stock
information, breaking news, and lots more. Check it out at:
http://www.newsalert.com
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CCCC Page 6 March 2001
File/Program Associations
By Dick Trissel (Courtesy of Dick Savage)
File associations are the backbone of most of the applications you run on
your computer. An association means the application looks at the file
extension and determines if it is one it can use. Vice versa, if you click
on a file, there will probably by an application associated with that
file's file type.
Most of the time all this is handled by the operating system in conjunction
with the applications. But, as a user, you have control. Here are some
steps that you can use to manage that control.
FILE EXTENSION ASSOCIATION
1. Default Association - Set in 'Open With' dialog box by checking
off the 'Always use this program to open this type of file'
check box.
2. Opening a file with a non default association:
a. Select the file to be opened.
b. Depress 'Shift' key while 'Right Clicking' the selected
file.
c. Click on the 'Open With' dialog box and complete box to open
with a different application.
MULTIPLE FILE ASSOCIATIONS
1. Additional Associations - If you frequently use a variety of
programs to edit or open a particular file type, the procedures
in step 2 above may be too time consuming. A one step choice of
additional associations to open with can be placed in the drop
down 'file' menu by:
a. Open any folder or Windows Explorer window.
b. From the 'View' menu, select 'Folder Options'.
c. In Folder Options dialog box, click the 'File Types' tab.
d. Scroll down the 'Registered File Types' list and select
the file type for which you want to make an additional
association.
e. Click the 'Edit' button, then click the 'New' button.
f. In the 'Action' box type the phrase you want to place in
the drop down File menu for this file type (for a text file
you might want to type 'Open with Word' or 'Open with
NotePad').
g. Click the 'Browse' button and navigate to the folder where
the application is stored and click the executable file to
insert its name into the 'Application Used To Perform
Action' box.
h. Click OK and then Close to exit.
i. If additional additions to the File menu are desired,
repeat the above.
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CCCC Page 7 March 2001
Windows 98 RUN Utilities (Start/Run/...)
by Dick Trissel
The following list of programs can be run from the Start/Run command line
or from the file location listed below the title using My Computer/Explore
or Windows Explorer. Below the file location lines is a brief description
of the program functions.
MSINFO32.EXE System Information
C:\Program Files\Commom Files\Microsoft Shared\MSINFO\msinfo32.exe
or Start/Programs/accessories/
or System Tools/System Information
Hardware, software, resources, loaded and running.
MSCONFIG.EXE System Configuration
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSCONFIG.EXE
Review/change system.ini. win.ini, autoexec.bat, config.sys, etc.
SFC.EXE System File Checker
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SFC.EXE
Check for replaced or corrupted system files.
VCMUI.EXE Version Conflict Manager
C:\WINDOWS\VCMUI.EXE
Revert to newer versions of files after Win98 install or reinstall.
DRWATSON.EXE System Snapshot
C:\WINDOWS\DRWATSON.EXE
System snapshot for problem troubleshooting problems.
HWINFO.EXE /UI Hardware Diagnostics Tool
C:\WINDOWS\HWINFO.EXE
Color coded System Information Tool.
ASD.EXE Automatic Skip Driver Agent
C:\WINDOWS\ASD.EXE
Lists drivers erroneously not loaded at startup.
CHKLINKS.EXE Link Check Wizard
Win98 CD Tools\Reskit\Desktop
Scans shortcut files for dead links.
WINIPCFG.EXE IP Configuration Tool
C:\WINDOWS\WINIPCFG.EXE
Current info about the connected ISP.
SYSMON.EXE System Monitor
C:\WINDOWS\SYSMON.EXE
Displays selected system parameters while running program
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CCCC Page 8 March 2001
SOUND
by Dick Trissel
If you don't have speakers or a headset on your computer, skip this article
and file it away for when you do. Otherwise, get set to learn more than
you ever wanted to know about controlling sound into and out of your
computer.
I'm not going to get into streaming audio or MP3 or other exotic audio
capabilities; just the basic Windows sound options adjustments. Believe
me, that will be plenty.
As a basis for discussion I'm going to use my system--Windows98 with a
Creative SoundBlaster sound card, stereo speakers, and a microphone. I do
have the speaker icon in my Windows taskbar systray. If you don't, I'll
tell you how to put it there (or remove it).
Let's assume you don't have a speaker icon in the systray. Go to the
Control Panel
(Start/Settings/Control Panel or My Computer/Control Panel).
Open Multimedia, and on the Audio tab, check [ ]Show volume control on
taskbar. This will put the speaker icon in your systray to make future
adjustments easier.
While you're at the Audio tab, in the Playback section, notice the
Preferred Device display. That's the identification of your sound card.
Click on the Advanced Properties and notice the Speakers Setup choices--
mind boggling. Click on the Performance tab and set the Hardware to Full
and the Sample Rate to Good.
Now, go back to the Audio tab and in the Recording section click on
Advanced Properties and set Hardware to Full and the Sample Rate to Good.
You'll notice in the Multimedia window there are other devices--Video,
MIDI, CD Music, and Devices. Look in these windows and note the control
capabilities displayed--too many to discuss here.
OK, now that you've got a speaker icon in your taskbar, let's use it. When
you right-click the speaker icon you get two options--Open Volume Controls,
and Adjust Audio Properties. Click on Open Volume Controls. By the way,
another way to get here is Start/Programs/
Accessories/Entertainment/Volume Controls.
Depending on your default settings, you'll get a set of volume slider
controls for Volume (this is the master volume), Wave, MIDI, CD Audio,
Line-In, and Microphone. The controls are Balance (for stereo) and Volume,
and a [ ]Mute check box to disable that option. The Volume section may
have an Advanced button to set Bass and Treble.
The Volume Control Toolbar has a menu called Options with the items--
Properties and an Advanced Controls toggle that turns on/off the Advanced
button (weird).
Click on Properties. There's a section named Adjust Volume For that has
three choices--Playback, Recording, and Other. Here is where you can
choose what modes get displayed for the Volume option to set the Balance
and Volumes--very important. Why? Because, if the audio option is not
displayed, you can't adjust it.
So, make the necessary choices for the Playback and Recording for your
system. If in doubt, choose them all.
Back at the speaker icon in the systray. If you click on Adjust Audio
Properties, you get the same window you got from the Multimedia Audio.
And, if you click on the Playback icon or the Recording icon, you'll get
the same Volume windows you got with Adjust Volume. As usual, Windows has
several ways to do the same job.
One more area of adjustments. In the Control Panel, open System. On the
Device Manager tab click on Sound, video and game controllers. On the
Settings tab check [ ]Allow Full-duplex operation.
Alright. Big deal. So now you've got control of your sound, but you still
haven't heard anything. Go to the control Panel and open Sounds. Play
around with the different Events and associated sound options. At the same
time, right-click the speaker icon in the systray, choose Open Volume
Controls, and play with the controls while you test the sounds. Also, put
an audio CD in your CD tray and use the speaker icon controls to adjust the
sound. Notice, when playing with the volume controls, there is an
interaction between the Volume (master) and the individual volume settings.
If you have a microphone, you can play with it through Windows Recorder.
Go to Start/Programs/
Accessories/Entertainment/Sound Recorder. Actual sound files can be
recorded from this application. Again, have the Volume Controls displayed
while you are testing the microphone. And, of course, make sure the [
]Mute or [ ]Select is not checked for the device your are playing with.
My older SoundBlaster cards have an option that seems to be unique. In the
Adjust Audio Properties, Audio, Recording, Recording icon, Advanced; there
is a [ ]Microphone Gain toggle. Without that on my microphone, input was
very low. With it on, BOOM!
One more final, final thing. Your sound card has several input jacks--the
number varies for different cards. You probably have the these first
three; Speakers (stereo) (also for headsets), Microphone, Line-in (stereo),
and maybe Line-out (stereo). Make sure your microphone is in the
Microphone jack and not the Line-in.
This is just a brief outline to get you started and is not intended to tell
you in great detail how to optimize your computer sound system. But, at
least you should now know where the choices are and how to get to them.
Have fun!
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