C C C C N E W S L E T T E R
CENTRAL COAST COMPUTER CLUB
Santa Maria, California
VOLUME XXIII: NUMBER 3 MARCH, 2008
Meetings are held on the third Tuesday of every month at the Knollwood
Village Clubhouse 4012 S. Bradley Dr., Santa Maria.
General meeting at 7:00PM. System Special Interest Group session is at
5:45PM. Guests are welcome.
Check out our web site: http://fourseas.apcug.org 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,
Help-line support, Monthly presentations, Valuable door prizes, Question
and answer sessions.
NEXT MEETING: MARCH 11, 2008 KNOLLWOOD VILLAGE 4012 S. BRADLEY
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****NOTICE***NOTICE***NOTICE***NOTICE***NOTICE***NOTICE****
THE MARCH MEETING WILL BE ON MARCH 11, THE SECOND TUESDAY
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PRESENTATION: COMPUTER QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS moderated by Dick Trissel
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************ MARCH COOKIE PROVIDER: NOT NEEDED ************
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| CONTENTS |
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(1) OFFICERS, HELPLINES, S.I.G.S
(2) PRESIDENT'S CORNER Vic McLaughlin
(3) EDITOR'S COMMENTS Dick Trissel
(4) BASICS S.I.G. Spence Stimler
(5) WEB WANDERINGS
(6) SYSTEMS S.I.G. Dick Trissel
(7) HOW FILE FRAGMENTATION OCCURS Diskeeper
(8) DUAL-BOOT VISTA AND XP Scott Dunn
(9) eSATA DRIVES Kim Komando
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OFFICERS HELPLINES
President Juno
Vic McLaughlin 937-8326 Dick Trissel 937-7572
vnmclaughlin2448@msn.com rtrissel@juno.com
Vice-President Help With Any Problem
Ray Shafer 934-0130 Ray Isenson 937-6938
rlshafer@msn.com risenson@juno.com
Secretary Hardware, Windows XP, Vista
John McCurdy 925-1825 Ray Isenson 937-6938
jmccurdy.1@verizon.net risenson@juno.com
Treasurer Custom Computer Design and Assembly
Gerry Miller 934-1396 Digital Imagery and Video
2741 Banyan Way Command Line Operations and Batch Files
Santa Maria CA 93455 Jim Tonge 937-0187
gandamiller@verizon.net jtonge1@msn.com
Publicity AOL
Bill Corning 934-0775 Frank Maciel 922-2318
foster95@impulse.net frm8198@aol.com
Newsletter Editor Visual Basic and Genealogy
Dick Trissel 937-7572 Gerald Miller 934-1396
rtrissel@juno.com gandamiller@verizon.net
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP (S.I.G.) Windows 95/98/ME/XP & VoiceControl
Basics (6:00pm) Amy Malicki 925-5780
Spence Stimler msamym5@verizon.net
SPENCE932@msn.com
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP (S.I.G.)
Systems (5:45pm)
Dick Trissel
rtrissel@juno.com
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CCCC Page 2 March 2008
PRESIDENT'S CORNER by Vic McLaughlin
Our February meeting was attended by 35 members and guests. We had three
guests: Mr. Lamar Coffey, Mr. Larry Brockmeier, and Mr.Curtis Reade. We had
one new member, Mr. John Denning. Welcome to all of you.
The Special Interest Group on Basics was conducted by Spence Stimler, and
the Special Interest Group on Systems was conducted by Dick Trissel.
The main program was presented by Ray Isenson on the application of ROXIO.
There was good audience participation in all of the programs.
We are sorry to learn that our vice president, Ray Shafer is in the hospital
and was unable to attend the meeting. We all hope you get well soon, Ray.
Remember, Our next meeting will be a week early on March 11th. Future
meetings will return to the usual time of the third Tuesday of the month.
My thanks to all the dedicated leaders who work so hard to make this club so
interesting.
I hope to see you all at the next meeting.
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CCCC Page 3 March 2008
EDITOR'S COMMENTS by Dick Trissel
This is a reminder that the March 2008 CCCC meeting date has been changed to
March 11 (the second Tuesday) instead of the usual third Tuesday. This is
because of a schedule conflict with the Knollwood manager's meeting on the
third Tuesday. We will go back to the third Tuesday in April.
No matter how many times we announce this, I won't be surprised if some
don't get the word .
The March meeting will not have a presenter. Instead we will do the usual Q
& A on computer problems. There will be a five-minute time limit on any one
discussion.
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CCCC Page 4 March 2008
BASICS S.I.G. by Spence Stimler and Gerry Miller
Because of the need to reschedule our meeting to the second Tuesday, Mar.
11, 2008, space to hold the Basics S.I.G. is not available. The natural
conclusion is that we won't have one this month. Instead, the Systems
S.I.G. beginning at 5:45 pm will be your only choice.
Our Basic S.I.G. sessions have been sparsely attended but we will continue
to hold them as long as even one person wants it. It's not a problem for
Jerry and I to chair the session and if you wish to participate, you are
more than welcome.
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CCCC Page 5 March 2008
WEB WANDERINGS
HDR PHOTOGRAPHY
Are you a fan of digital photography?. It has revolutionized the way we take
photos.
Unlike film photography, you don't need to pay for film and developing. That
makes photography easier on your budget. So, we're all taking more photos
than ever before.
Also, digital photography also makes it easy to edit photos. You can remove
red-eye or whiten teeth with a few clicks of the mouse.
But digital photography does have its drawbacks. The dynamic range of
digital photographs isn't as great as film photographs. Many photographers
complain about this.
But there is a solution: HDR photography. It will give your photos the
appearance of a greater dynamic range. Want to learn more? Then visit
today's Cool Site.
Start by browsing the photos posted on the site. You'll be amazed by what
you can achieve with HDR photography. Many of these photos are stunning!
Then, learn how to make your own HDR photos. If you're happy with the
results, post your photos on the site to share with others.
hdrcreme.com
WHAT'S ON YOUR DESKTOP?
If you use Windows XP, you may have a rolling green field and a brilliant
blue sky on your desktop. Or maybe you chose one of the other wallpapers
included with Windows.
These wallpapers were great for about five minutes! So, take a moment to
customize your computer with something unique.
You'll find many interesting pictures that you can use as desktop wallpaper.
You need only look around the Net.
You can change your desktop wallpaper regularly. for example, have a picture
of your family on your desktop. Or, find an awesome picture that you want to
use.
There are loads of great wallpapers at HDRwalls. All of the wallpapers were
created from high dynamic range images. They're amazingly vivid.
There are almost 500 free wallpapers at HDRwalls. They work on all operating
systems. You can even put them on your phone, iPod or PSP!
www.hdrwalls.com
BROWSE QUALITY PHOTOGRAPHS
Do you like to surf photo-sharing sites like Flickr? The creative photos
there are inspiring.
You'll occasionally find great photographs on these sites. You'll also see
plenty that leave something to be desired.
So, maybe you're looking for more quality photographs. In that case, visit
the Smithsonian Photography Initiative.
The Smithsonian has over 13 million photographs. You can't access all of
them. But you can view plenty of amazing pictures. Many were taken by
renowned photographers. Others are historical shots.
You're sure to find photographs that you'd like to save. You can do that!
Just click Enter the Frame. It presents a novel way to search through the
photos. There's a list of keywords from which to choose. Click one, and
you'll see corresponding images.
When you see one you like, drag it to your sequence of photos. Then, save
your sequence or share it with others! You'll need to register to save and
share sequences.
photography.si.edu
FACE FLIPS
How do people judge one's beauty? Facial symmetry is one of the most
important factors.
So this might leave you wondering how symmetrical your face is. Well,
there's an easy way to find out.
Take a picture of your face and split it down the middle. Create a mirror
image of each side. Then, put the two right halves and two left halves
together.
That sounds like a lot of work just to satisfy your curiosity, doesn't it?
In that case, visit PicHacks. This site automates the process.
But you can also use PicHacks to have a little fun. You can create silly,
wacky pictures. Just look at the gallery to get some ideas!
www.pichacks.com
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CCCC Page 6 March 2008
SYSTEMS S.I.G. by Dick Trissel
As those who attended know, we had a little problem with the projectors
recognizing the laptop computers. Ironically, I took them home and was
unable to recreate the problem--they all worked fine--as they should. I
tried every turn-on sequence there is with no problem--very frustrating.
Here are the subjects we covered:
1. To rename a list of pictures so they have the same name but with appended
sequential numbers, select the list, right-click the first file, rename it
with a space, open parenthesis, starting number, close parenthesis, and
press ENTER.
2. To show the mouse position, go to the Control Panel, click on Mouse,
Pointer Options and check "Show location of pointer when I press CTRL key".
3. Hold the Windows key and press the PAUSE key to show System Properties
window.
4. You can drag a shortcut or folder on the Desktop to the screen edge to
create a toolbar. Right-click the toolbar to set its properties.
This next topic brought up a discussion on cookies. There are "first party
cookies", the ones that the Web site you are visiting puts in the Temporary
Internet Files (TIF). Then there are the "third party cookies" that get put
into the TIF by someone trying to trace where you've been on the Web. Both
of these types can be controlled in Internet Explorer by going to
Tools/Internet Options/Privacy/Advanced.
There was a comment that a person's computer would not go into Hibernate if
the Quicken program was running--strange.
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CCCC Page 7 March 2008
HOW FILE FRAGMENTATION OCCURS
On Windows XP / Windows Server 2003
From: The Diskeeper Development Team
A while ago we did a little research project to find out exactly how
fragmentation occurs on Windows XP. It was sparked by some users at a past
trade show that mentioned that having all the free space defragmented
prevented newly-created files from fragmenting, and we had wanted to
research if that was actually true. Well, it turns out that Windows XP/2003
fragments files whether or not all the free space is defragmented.
Let's take a look at it. Here's a list of a lead programmer's D: volume, the
volume usually used for running main development operations. Here's the free
space distribution on that volume:
There were 3 space(s) of size 1 cluster
There were 2 space(s) of size 4 clusters
There were 1 space(s) of size 844 clusters
There were 1 space(s) of size 14702 clusters
There were 1 space(s) of size 80000 clusters
There were 1 space(s) of size 288285 clusters
Well that's pretty well consolidated.
Now, to continue the experiment we launched Internet Explorer and navigated
directly to a favorite web site. Then we went to another favorite web site.
Whoa! What happened? Didn't we have the free space pretty well consolidated?
Wasn't that supposed to prevent the fragmentation of newly arriving files?
Let's look at what really happened. The first page ended up putting some
fragmented files at the end of the MFT zone and then after some NTFS
metadata. The second page ended up putting some more files in the area after
the metadata and then in some free spaces scattered around the existing
files.
Why did that happen? Well, for one thing, these files are files in the
Internet Explorer Temporary Files cache, which is a dynamically changing
file set, with files being deleted and added on an as-needed basis. When
internet temporary cache files get deleted, that makes free spaces! Even
though the free space was very well consolidated, the fact that some files
got deleted-as the very first activity after total defragmentation-there
were enough free spaces created to ruin the "nicely consolidated files" and
"nicely consolidated free space". For another thing, the free space
allocation algorithms in XP/2003 can actually contribute to the rate of
fragmentation.
Let's just take the NTFS situation as an example. The XP/2003 NTFS file
system driver maintains a list of the largest free spaces on the volume. On
a volume that started out as consolidated as my volume, ALL of the free
spaces were in the list and became candidates for allocation.
When a file gets created, it gets created in the free space that most
closely matches the size of data available to write, in other words a "best
fit". Additionally, a presumption is made that a newly created file will end
up larger than the size that is currently available for the operating system
to write, and extra free space, an "overallocation", is reserved for the
file so as to prevent the file from fragmenting (see Microsoft Knowledge
Base article Q228198). That presumption is that the file will be 2, 4, 8 or
16 times larger than the currently known data size, depending on how much
data is currently available for writing to the file in the operating
system's file cache.
The file data is written to the volume, and the file is closed. Any
overallocation is released, returning to the free space pool in the NTFS
file system driver if it qualifies as one of the largest free spaces on the
volume. In our extremely consolidated case, of course, it will. And, because
we were loading pages that had more than one graphic file per page, more
than one cache file was being created simultaneously.
Note that the simple business of just saving a few Internet temporary cache
files will result in the fragmentation of free space by the simple act of
releasing the overallocation! This happened despite the fact that we had
made the D: volume a 16K cluster NTFS volume! Imagine the possibilities if
we'd used a 4K cluster or a 512-byte cluster size!
This simple Internet access ended up with 6 fragmented files, even though
the free space was highly consolidated. The fragmentation was actually
aggravated by having most of the free space in four very large chunks and
five smaller chunks; the smaller chunks being considered better candidates
for "best fitting" the internet temporary cache files.
Of course, it can be argued that if those five small chunks weren't there,
they wouldn't have been considered candidates. But also note that the
internet temporary cache was getting files deleted from it simultaneously
and those free spaces were being added to the free space list being
maintained in the NTFS file system driver.
The bottom line is this: on an active volume, with a dynamic operating
system and dynamic utilities, the disk volume free space situation is
constantly changing. This, in conjunction with the algorithms used to
allocate the free space, defeat the very best efforts of any defragmenter
the very next time you go off and surf the web. This just underscores the
necessity to proactively address fragmentation with regular file
defragmentation.
And "consolidating every piece of free space" is no guarantee that newly
arriving files won't be fragmented by the file system. That was a maxim on
FAT volumes in DOS, but certainly is not applicable to NTFS or FAT volumes
under Windows XP/2003.
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CCCC Page 8 March 2008
DUAL-BOOT VISTA AND XP
By Scott Dunn WindowsSecrets.com.
It's getting harder to buy a new computer with Windows XP installed and -
after Microsoft stops selling XP on June 30, 2008 - it will become nearly
impossible. Fortunately, you can have your XP cake and eat your Vista, too,
by setting up your system to boot between the two operating systems.
Add an XP option to your new Vista system
If a new computer arrived in your recent past, or you plan to buy one in the
near future, chances are it will come with Windows Vista installed. Although
some manufacturers still give you the option of getting XP on your new
system, that option is likely to dry up for most consumers later this year
when Microsoft stops selling Windows XP.
If you're not ready to dive into Vista all at once, there is an answer: set
up your Vista computer to dual-boot between Vista and XP.
In this article, I'll tell you how to make your PC give you a choice between
Vista and XP every time you start up. In a separate article coming soon,
I'll give you some additional tips that save disk space on a dual-boot
system.
Although some sources, such as Computer Shopper Magazine, advise that you
need an add-on product like VistaBootPro to dual-boot, you can accomplish
the same thing without any additional software other than the two operating
systems.
Before starting, make sure you have your Windows XP install discs ready as
well as your Windows Vista DVD. In addition, it's a good idea to make a
complete system backup before beginning an operation like this. Once you've
laid that groundwork, you're ready to go to work:
Step 1. In Vista, click Start, type diskmgmt.msc, and press Enter. Click
Continue if prompted by User Account Control.
Step 2. Right-click a drive and choose Shrink Volume. Specify the amount to
shrink, which in this case is the amount you want for your XP partition. At
a minimum, you'll need around 2.5GB for XP Pro SP2. I suggest you select a
larger partition to leave room for updates and other files that may need to
be on the same drive as XP. Because I wanted a 5GB partition, I typed 5000
(representing 5,000 megabytes) in the available box. Click Shrink.
Step 3. Right-click the newly available area and choose New Simple Volume.
Follow the steps in the wizard to assign a drive letter now, or wait until
the next step. When prompted, check Perform a quick format to format the
volume with NTFS.
Step 4. When the wizard is done formatting the new volume, you can assign or
rearrange drive letters as needed. For example, changing drive letters may
also put your CD/DVD drive in a more logical order.
To do that, right-click a volume or the CD/DVD drive and choose Change Drive
Letters and Paths. If a volume hasn't got a drive letter yet, click Add.
Otherwise, select the drive icon in the dialog box and click Change.
If you're rearranging the letters on existing drives, you may need to change
the drives in a particular order. Or you may need to give a drive a
temporary letter (such as Z) to free up a letter for another drive; you
would change the Z drive to something else later. Make your selection and
click OK. Repeat for other partitions or drives until you have the order you
want.
Step 5. When you're done with your partitioning chores, exit Disk
Management. Insert your XP disc into the drive and restart your system,
booting from that disk.
Step 6. Follow the steps to install XP. When asked for the target drive,
select your new partition and press Enter. Because you already formatted
this partition with NTFS, you can skip the formatting step. At the
appropriate screen, arrow down to Leave the current file system intact (no
changes) and press Enter. Continue the installation process until it's
finished and XP has started.
Step 7. Your system now boots to XP, so we'll need to do some fixing to set
up a boot menu. Insert your Vista DVD and restart the computer from it.
Click Next in the first screen.
Step 8. Don't click Install when prompted! Instead, click Repair Your
Computer in the lower-left corner.
Step 9. When the System Recovery Options dialog appears, make sure Microsoft
Windows Vista is selected and click Next. In the next dialog box, select the
Command Prompt option at the bottom.
Step 10. In the command-prompt window, type the following commands and press
Enter after each one:
bootrec.exe /fixMBR
bootrec.exe /fixBoot
Step 11. Close the command prompt and click Restart.
Step 12. When your computer has booted into Vista, click Start, type
cmd.exe, and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to make the command window open with
elevated privileges. Click Continue, if prompted by User Account Control.
Step 13. Type the following commands in the command window, one at at time,
pressing Enter after each one. After each command, you should get the
response, "The operation completed successfully." A response of, "The
specified entry already exists," is OK, too. If not, retype your command to
make sure you've entered it correctly. If Vista is installed on a drive
other than c:, change the first command below to use the proper drive
letter. The curly braces around {ntldr} in each command must be typed
exactly as shown:
bcdedit -set {ntldr} device partition=C:
bcdedit -set {ntldr} path \ntldr
bcdedit -displayorder {ntldr} -addlast
bcdedit -set {ntldr} description "Microsoft Windows XP"
That's it! The next time you restart your system, you should be see a prompt
that will let you choose between Vista or XP. Select the one you want and
press Enter.
How to customize your boot menu
When you start your dual-boot system, the menu will appear for a few
seconds. If you don't press any keys, eventually Windows Vista will start.
Fortunately, you can change this if you don't want Vista to be your default
operating system. You can also customize the waiting period before the
default kicks in.
Here's what to do:
Step 1. Click Start. Type systempropertiesadvanced and press Enter. Click
Continue, if prompted by User Account Control.
Step 2. Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.
Step 3. At the top of the dialog box, select the operating system you want
to start by default.
Step 4. In the box to the right of Time to display list of operating
systems, specify the number of seconds for the options to stay on screen.
Click OK.
Microsoft provides documentation of Vista's bcdedit command and its
parameters in an article in the Windows Vista Technical Library.
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CCCC Page 9 March 2008
eSATA DRIVES by Kim Komando
Q. I bought an external hard drive for backing up my computer. The drive has
USB and eSATA connections. I'm unfamiliar with eSATA. The manual claims it
is faster than USB. Can you explain eSATA? Also, how do I connect the eSATA
drive to my computer?
A. I'm seeing more and more external drives with eSATA connections. But I'm
sure many people are still unfamiliar with eSATA. It stands for external
Serial Advanced technology Attachment. Now that's a mouthful! eSATA is the
external version of a SATA drive. Many computers today use SATA drives
instead of older IDE drives.
eSATA provides benefits over USB and FireWire connections. Most notably,
eSATA is much faster. There are two iterations of eSATA. The slower one
transfers data at 1.5 gigabits per second. Newer eSATA connections can
transfer data at 3Gbps. There are rumors of an eSATA that will hit 6Gbps.
USB and FireWire are not in the same league. USB 2.0 transfers data at 480
megabits per second. USB 1.1 topped out at 12Mbps. FireWire is available in
two speeds: 400 and 800Mbps.
USB 3.0 has been announced. It will offer speeds up to 4.8Gbps. Firewire
will also get a boost-to 3.2Gbps. To achieve these speeds, however, you'll
need to upgrade your computer.
eSATA is able to achieve high speeds for one important reason. The data is
not translated as it passes into the computer. In contrast, USB and FireWire
drives use bridges. The hard drives themselves are SATA or IDE. A bridge is
needed to connect them to USB or FireWire cables. The bridge must translate
the data so the cable can transmit it. The translation process slows things.
eSATA will also let you access S.M.A.R.T. information on your hard drive.
S.M.A.R.T. stands for Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology. It
is a set of tools built into hard drives. The S.M.A.R.T. data can alert you
to pending hard drive failure. For more on learning about the health of a
hard drive, read this tip on my site.
eSATA also has drawbacks. An external peripheral cannot receive power
through a SATA cable. So it requires an external power source. Some
peripherals can be powered via USB and Firewire connections. Thus, no
external power source is needed. The lack of power can be a hassle. However,
eSATA connections should soon be able to power external gadgets. Not many
computers have eSATA connections. So, you may have to do some minor surgery
to your computer.
Adapters are available for desktops. They allow a direct hookup to an
internal SATA connection. (eSATA and SATA connections are physically
different.) Or, you could install an expansion card. These plug into PCI or
PCI Express slots. They usually provide several eSATA connections. And you
don't need to use one of your internal SATA connections. A card will run
about $50.
eSATA cards also are available for laptops. They plug into the PC Card or
ExpressCard slot.
Copyright 2008, WestStar TalkRadio Network. All rights reserved.
Kim Komando hosts the nation's largest talk radio show about computers and
the Internet. To get the podcast or find the station nearest you, visit:
http://www.komando.com/listen. To subscribe to Kim's free e-mail
newsletters, sign-up at: http://www.komando.com/newsletters.
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