C C C C N E W S L E T T E R
CENTRAL COAST COMPUTER CLUB
Santa Maria, California
VOLUME XVII: NUMBER 5 May, 2002
NEXT MEETING: May 21, 2002 7:00PM KNOLLWOOD VILLAGE 4012 S. BRADLEY
PRESENTATION: Charles Barney on CD Burning Software
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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) April Internet S.I.G. Dick Trissel
(5) Web Wanderings Gil Smith
(6) April Windows S.I.G. Session Amy Malicki
(7) Wash Your Mouse Out! Dick Trissel
(8) Windows 98 Registry Save Dick Trissel
(9) Language Translations 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/XP & VoiceControl
Amy Malicki 925-5780 Amy Malicki 925-5780
amymal@juno.com amymal@juno.com
Secretary and Book Librarian Hardware & DOS
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
Gmiller@pronet.net
Disk 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/XP (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 May 2002
PRESIDENT'S CORNER
by Charles Barney
The official count at the April 16th meeting was 61 people in attendance.
New member Robert Walton joined the club, but managed to slip in under my
radar so I did not get a chance to meet him yet. I know, however, that you
will join me in welcoming him to our user group.
The main buzz of the evening was over the topic of CD burning. Seems like
just about everyone these days wants to get into this fun and useful
activity - and understandably so! What once was an esoteric subject
understood only by the nerdy, and affordable only to the wealthy, is now
easily within reach of the average home computer user.
Dick Trissel gave us a most interesting presentation on this very topic. I
had the easy part of clicking the mouse buttons to advance the slides Dick
had created for his talk. He put forth a solid background on the physical
properties of CD media, the various types of disks, terminology, and
strategies on how to successfully record your own CDs. A bit of
understanding about these shiny little platters can go a long way toward
using them effectively and problem solving when things go wrong. A question
and answer session followed.
A special thanks to Frank Maciel who donated a nifty wireless microphone
system for use by the club. While a
few kinks remain to be worked out with it, I'm sure it will be put to good
use at the future SIGs and presentations.
The faithful members who attended the meeting and were rewarded with
valuable door prizes are as follows: Ray Isenson - CD Stomper Pro CD
labeling system, Eldean Voris - 50 pack CD-R media, Vic McLaughlin -
PowerQuest Partition Magic 6.0, Sandy Ashby - 24 CD carrying case from
Mindshare and Charles High - Hasbro Interactive's Scrabble board game. The
not-so-faithful would-be winners that were called but didn't show: Enid
Gilham, Howard Williams, Lloyd Gay and Joann McBride.
At the next meeting I plan to approach the topic of CD burning from a
somewhat different angle by presenting the use of some of the popular
software available that you can use to do various home projects on your CD
recordable drive. These might include activities such as copying CDs,
backing up important files on your hard drive, storing and cataloging your
digital pictures, or making a music compilation CD of your favorite tunes.
The possibilities are enormous.
Be sure to mark your calendars for our next get together on May 21st. Once
again, the presentation will be on CD burning software, so come on out and
maybe learn something, or maybe teach me something - either way is good! I
hope that you will all attend if you are able. - Charles
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CCCC Page 3 May 2002
EDITOR'S COMMENTS
By Dick Trissel
At every meeting we hear the Treasurer's report of the Central Coast
Computer Club finances, which are very good. Now, here are some statistics
you haven't heard.
I will be sending out 90 newsletters (including one to Microsoft Mindshare)
for May, 2002. Included in the 89 member newsletters are 7 spousal
members. Therefore, we have 96 paid members going into May.
I send out 88 EXTRA4C e-mailing copies each time which include 6 non-
members. So, there are 7 members (89-82) that either don't have email
addresses or won't reveal their e-mail address (one has unsubscribed). A
couple of these members don't have e-mail capability and have explained
their reluctance as either they don't feel they need e-mail or are afraid
of jeopardizing their computer--perfectly legitimate reasons.
My experience may not be typical, but I've never gotten an e-mail virus. I
don't use virus protection software--it gets in my way. However, I also
don't open any questionable e-mail attachments. I may miss some things
because of this, so be it. I have three Web server accounts and five e-
mail accounts--Juno Gold and free Juno (local mail reader), free Netscape
and free Hotmail (online mail reader), and free Netzero (POP3 with Outlook
Express local mail reader).
So, all-in-all, the club's membership statistics are pretty good
considering that our method of collecting the annual dues at the first of
the year pares down the inactive members.
Our monthly meeting attendance has ranged from about 50 to over 70 (usually
between 65 and 75). Again, that's pretty good considering most of the
members are retired and travel a lot (and tend to forget ).
Now comes the not so neat statistic. There are only about 12 members doing
most all of the work. And, it's the same 12 people year after year. The
good news is that they all enjoy doing their thing. It's been said many
times, you only get out of an activity what you put into it (and I don't
mean the $15 per year). Obviously, those that regularly don't attend the
monthly meetings are getting practically nothing out of the club.
I have to keep telling myself that some meeting attendees look at the
"club" as just that--a social activity with door prize drawings and 50-50
drawings. And, that's fine--whatever pleases.
Speaking of "club", there was an article in the APCUG newsletter
(Association of PC User's Groups) that computer organizations with the word
"club" in their names are looked upon more as a social group than the
organizations with the words "User's Group" in their names, which sounds
more technical. No, I'm not proposing changing our club's name.
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CCCC Page 4 May 2002
APRIL INTERNET S.I.G.
by Dick Trissel
As usual, we covered a few items involving the Internet and several items
on other computer related subjects. Which shows the name Internet S.I.G.
is no longer appropriate for this "Special Interest Group", which is hardly
specialized anymore.
So, I proposed a change in the name. Suggestions were made and it narrows
down to either "PChelp" or "Systems". Starting in June, this S.I.G. will
be referred to as "Systems Special Interest Group". This seems more
descriptive of the subjects we cover. We'll keep the S.I.G. label for the
lack of anything better. We'll still do what we've been doing for the past
four years.
However, it was proposed that we devote some months exclusively to CD
burning--maybe the June meeting, as Charles is going to do a CD burning
presentation in May.
It was proposed that we do a scanner session. Amy Malicki volunteered to
do one some month for her S.I.G. (or maybe a presentation).
A question was raised as to what is BCC e-mail. BCC is a special type of
CC (the old "Carbon Copy" label, now meaning "Courtesy Copy"). The B in
BCC means "Blind". That is, each recipient on the BCC list sees only his
address in the e-mail header--he is blinded from seeing the entire list of
recipients in the original BCC list. In JUNO you must put parenthesis ()
around the CC list (or part of the list) to make that portion a BCC.
Again, the copying of the JUNO address book was discussed. The address
book file is in C:\Program Files\Juno\User0000\addrbook.nv (also one in
User0001 if you have two accounts). The addrbook.bak is a backup made
every time you edit the address book. It is interesting to look at the
addrbook.nv file with Notepad, especially if you have lists. Some editing
can be done in a text editor, but I wouldn't advise it--use JUNO's address
book editing features.
The question of Outlook Express address book management (and other OE
files) has been handled in an EXTRA4C bulletin (EXTRA4C 18/04/02).
A member wanted to know how I got the large icons on the club's computer.
Changing the size from the usual 32x32 pixels is covered in the EXTRA4C
bulletin EXTRA4C 15/04/02. It wasn't until later that I realized the
member was probably using a higher resolution display than my 800x640--the
higher the resolution, the smaller the icons. The resolution can be
adjusted in the Control Panel / Display / Settings.
We discussed a couple of features in the http://www.google.com search
engine Web site. The use of Boolean logic in search items is explained in
the Advanced area of Google search options. And, notice that some of the
sites listed from a Google search may be in a foreign language. However,
some of these sites listed have a (Translate) option. Click on that and
the site will be shown translated to English--kinda!
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CCCC Page 5 May 2002
WEB WANDERINGS
by Gil Smith
CAT TALES
This site belongs to a wildlife park for big cats. Some of those kitties
were household pets whose owners didn't realize how much work the animals
would be. Beautiful photos, sounds, and movies of big wild
cats. (Mountain Lions, Tigers, and Servals, etc) You can also see photos
of the closest living relative of the Australian Dingo and take a gander at
the New Guinea Singing Dogs.
http://www.cattales.org
PHONE SPELLER
Here's a site that will give you all the variations of
what your phone number spells. Just enter your number in their little
phone number box and click the submit button. It'll give you an easy way
to remember your Aunt Kate's phone number.
http://www.phonespell.org
HISTORY WIRED
The National Museum of American History has a vast collection of over three
million objects. Obviously they can't exhibit all of it at once. Wait!
Maybe they can, or at least they can try to. That's exactly what they're
doing with this site where you can see the initial 450 items displayed on
the web. The items include famous, unusual, and everyday items with well
written descriptions. Curious to what you might see there? How about
Abraham Lincoln's Life
Mask? Or the Mormon 'Sunstone' Sculpture? There's a lot here to look at
and enjoy. Dig in to the past with History Wired.
http://historywired.si.edu/index.html
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF ROOTS
A few weeks ago marked the 25th anniversary of the original broadcast of
Roots. From January 20, through Friday, January 25 you could follow again
the story of Kunta Kinte, Fiddler,
Kizzy, and more in the most-watched television miniseries of all time.
http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/tv/shows/roots25.asp
ENRON'S MIGHTY FALL
The demise of energy giant Enron is the biggest bankruptcy in American
history. Here's a site that details the company's political dealings and
the contributions made by the company and its employees.
http://www.opensecrets.org/alerts/v6/alertv6_31.asp
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
What's the history of your name? Here's a site where you can discover
where you've come from and how far your relatives have spread. Find out
how frequently you might find someone with your own name, from the 1850s to
1990s.
http://www.progenealogists.com/surnamestudy.htm
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CCCC Page 6 May 2002
April Windows S.I.G. Session
By Amy Malicki
One of the first questions that came up was "How To Use" the "Year to Date"
Shareware CD. The disk was put into the Club Computer's CD-DRIVE. Using
the "My Computer" program, the disk was accessed and two file folders were
displayed. One folder was named DOM (Disk of the Month). It contained
files featured in the Club's Monthly "Disk of the Month". The other was a
"SLO-BYTE" folder containing both Shareware and Public Domain software
collected by the SLO-Byte Computer Club.
Double Clicking a folder brings up a list of Program filenames. At the
bottom of each list is a text file with an "MS Word" Icon. Double Clicking
this Icon brings up a page of Code Numbers and Descriptions for each file
in the list. The date the file was created is used as the Code Number. We
were unable to find two of the files on the DOM list, but Double Clicking
other files opened them without a hitch. We checked out two colorful
(sound, voice and graphic) Santa Clause games to play - with some very
funny vocal feedback.
When you Close the CD, a black DOS (Disk Operating System) Window appears
asking to confirm you do not want to continue. At the bottom there is a
place for a Yes or No response. Press the letter N for No, then Click the
X in the Title Bar Box to Close. (Now YOU can say you worked in DOS).
Many of these programs are really old (10-20 or MORE years), but they work
very well, considering the lack of graphic and sound materials programmers
had to work with back then. It's like a walk down memory lane for some of
us "DOS Veterans", and for "Windows Veterans" I'm sure it has to be fun to
see what was "out there" BEFORE WINDOWS 95.
Public Domain Software, by the way, was created in the early 80's when
everyone was trying their hand at Programming. Since there were many
"bugs" and few user groups, everyone needed all the help they could get.
Many programmers, so excited about their discoveries they couldn't wait to
tell the world, often gave away their ideas, which helped others get
started.
In the meantime, there were some who felt they should be paid for their
work and ideas. They also offered free versions of the programs with a
sort of commitment. They added a request that said, "If you like the
software and want to continue to use it, send $5- $10- $35- or whatever, to
the author. The author's name and address were listed on the page with the
statement. Some authors offered Upgrades for an additional charge. This
software became so popular that companies were formed just to sell
"Shareware" disks for $3.50 or more. The requested payment to the author
was still a requirement, but the software became accessible to many more
users.
Since a presentation on CD's followed the Windows Session, I thought you
would like to know that Sharon (our Disk Librarian) used a CD-R (Read Only
Disk) with the "Single Session" method. She used the CD Creator and the
"Choose, Drag and Drop" Option, which allowed her to Choose her Directories
and Drag and Drop files into the two directories on the CD. She said it
was very easy.
We reviewed the other Printing Options under Tools in MS Word, such as:
Business Cards, Post Cards, Name Tags, Mailing Labels, etc. Once you
purchase your labels and have your Avery Label number, it's easy to create
a "lined" blank document in Word to enter your text and create a perfect
fit. CLICK Tools, Envelopes, then Labels, Options, (Choose No.), OK, then
CLICK New Document Button, and start typing.
We discussed "hotmail.com" which is a free E-mail service for persons who
travel a lot, or those who don't have a computer. Hotmail can be accessed
from almost any ISP Including JUNO and AOL. It can be accessed from
Schools and Libraries in any city or country. It is definitely not Porno
free, but it does allow blocking like other Internet servers, if you take
the time to do it.
We had a member who requested a copy of Word Perfect that would read the
old DOS version 5.1. This member has all his business records for the past
several years saved in Word Perfect and he has now switched to a new XP.
MS Word in XP will not stoop so low as to read a DOS file. He was offered
an another version of Word Perfect, which would allow him to open and save
each file in "Word" Format, so it could be accessed by his new Word
Processor. His present Word Perfect just offers the option to Save, or
Discard.
We were told that the latest version of Word Perfect will read old Word
Perfect files as far back as the 4.1 version. Now he has the option to
purchase Word Perfect (8 or 9.0) and it will access his old files so he can
continue working in Word Perfect, however, we did not establish whether the
person with the latest version of Word Perfect was using it on an XP.
Since the old Word Perfect data files date back many years, he should copy
his Program AND oldest files to a Zip drive for safe storage, and to reduce
the number of files he has to browse through every time he wants to open a
file.
For those of you who get (and read) the EXTRA4C news e-mails, there was one
recently on the use of Shortcut Keys. If this interests you, Shortcuts are
covered in my Mini-Book "Computer Savvy for Seniors", (What to do AFTER you
Turn the Computer On), which is getting close to publication. One of the
chapters covers keyboard buttons, shortcuts and how they are used.
You can also print a list of Keyboard shortcuts from Help Menus in Windows
and Word and most other Programs. To get help from Windows, CLICK Start,
then Help (or Press h), TYPE "Keyboard Shortcuts" - and try a few.
To get help from Word, CLICK Help Menu, Contents, then CLICK the INDEX tab.
TYPE "Keys" then DOUBLE CLICK Shortcut Keys, or CLICK Shortcut Keys then
CLICK Display. Try "Function Keys" or "Shortcut keys" and some of the
others. When typing, these can be a lot easier and faster than reaching
for the Mouse.
Bring your software questions and hangups to the next meeting. See you
there.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
| COMPUTER CONSULTING |
| |
| Amy Malicki has started an "In-House" computer consulting service. |
| She charges $35 per hour in your home at your computer. |
| She can be contacted at 925-5780 or amymal@juno.com. |
______________________________________________________________________
Definition of "Windows":
A 32 bit extension and graphical shell, for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit
operating system, originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor, written
by a 2 bit company, that can't stand 1 bit of competition.
Good thing there isn't any.
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CCCC Page 7 May 2002
WASH YOUR MOUSE OUT!
by Dick Trissel
Almost every time I sit down in front of someone else's computer and start
to use their mouse, it acts like it has a mind of its own--moves the cursor
only when it wants to. After a few minutes I ask the owner if they mind if
I clean their mouse. They usually respond with a comment reflecting they
didn't know it was possible. I guess they figured an erratic mouse was
just the way life gets and they would have to buy a replacement.
I imagine they suffer a bit of trauma when I flip the mouse over, twist a
disk, and the innards fall out. Well, not quite. The disk and the rubber
ball are all that is suppose to fall out. Thankfully, I've never had
anything else other than dust balls, cookie crumbs, and cat hairs fall out.
Here's the procedure to rejuvenate your mouse. This simple procedure
doesn't require turning off the computer. Turn the mouse upside down.
There will be a disk surrounding the rubber ball and it will have two
arrows on it. With your thumbs, rotate the disk in the direction of the
arrows about a quarter turn. Put your hand over the disk and turn the
mouse right side up catching the disk and ball in your hand.
Turn the mouse over and you will see in the hole two small diameter
rollers. These are actually shafts for the digital encoder wheels on the
ends of the shafts. The rollers are 90 degrees to each other for forward
and back, and sideways motion as the ball rotates. There will also be one
or two idler rollers that keep the ball against the shafts.
Many writers recommend using a damp que-tip or equivalent to clean the
rollers. I find that all that does is make the dust balls sticky and
doesn't affect the crusty buildup on the shafts. And besides, there
shouldn't be any moisture put in the mouse. I use a toothpick and my
fingernail to scrape the rollers and pick out the debris--and frequently
blow out the residue. Use a flashlight to visually inspect the rollers.
You'll see if they look clean. The ball can be wiped with a damp cloth if
necessary, but I seldom find the ball very dirty. And just wiping it with
a cloth usually suffices.
The re-assembly is just a matter of dropping the ball in the hole and
placing the disk in so the tabs line up with the notches and turning the
disk in the opposite direction of the arrows. Don't be surprised if you
find you need to repeat the cleaning. It's easy to miss a few chunks on
the rollers.
I've seen some really bad buildup on the rollers where nothing would do the
job. In these cases I've had to disassemble the mouse. This is not a job
for the ham-fisted mechanically challenged.
To disassemble the mouse, turn off the computer; there are live circuits in
the mouse. Usually there are two screws on the bottom of the mouse case.
They may be hidden under a decal. Remove the disk and ball and then remove
the screws. CAREFULLY, lift the top at the end away from the wire. There
will be tabs on the wire end of the case. Very slowly separate the case
halves and note the position of the internal parts. The mouse button
micro-switches will easily slip out of their correct position, so be alert.
Once the case is opened it will be very easy to access the rollers and
clean them. I wouldn't suggest removing the rollers to clean them.
The mouse re-assembly is just the opposite of the disassembly, but make
sure the case tabs are properly engaged and the tail (wire) is placed
properly.
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CCCC Page 8 May 2002
WINDOWS 98 REGISTRY SAVE
By Dick Trissel
The following procedure is to enable the Windows 98 system to automatically
save a compressed backup copy of the two registry files (system.dat,
user.dat) along with the system.ini and win.ini files into the
Windows\sysbckup folder as rb00x.cab. A new backup is saved every new day
you boot up. It is cyclic from rb000.cab to rb005.cab with a default
maximum of five rb00x.cab files. Since there are six possible numbers, it
is not unlikely one number may be missing at anyone time.
The program scanreg.exe (or scanregw.exe in Windows) can be used to
manually force a registry backup. However, scanregw.exe can not be used to
restore a registry--only scanreg.exe in DOS. All this information is in
the Windows 98 Secrets book, not the Windows95 books--this option was not
in Windows95.
To enable automatic registry backup at startup:
Go to Start/Run and type msconfig and OK. Select the Startup tab. Click a
check mark on the ScanRegistry option. The ScanRegistry option should
read: [ ]ScanRegistry C:\WINDOWS\scanregw.exe /autorun. Then OK out.
To turn off the autosave, uncheck the ScanRegistry option. This is not
advisable. The only reason would be to conserve disk space for systems
with very little disk space.
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CCCC Page 9 May 2002
LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS
by Dick Trissel
There's a little known Web site (at least it was unknown to me) that will
convert almost any language to another language for single words, a typed
text, or a Web site. And, it's free.
http://babelfish.altavista.com
Anyone that has read The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy knows what a
babelfish is. When placed in your ear, all languages are automatically
translated for you.
I needed to be able to read a German Web page. First, I went to the
Babelfish Web site. After choosing the German to English translation, I
typed in the German Web site URL. Almost immediately, there was the page
in perfect English. And, the links from that page were translated as well.
On the Babelfish Web page, there are two other functions-Help and World
Keyboard. The Help is useful. The Keyboard is similar to the first page
text insert window-you can type in text, or paste text from a file.
However, in one place it says there is a 150 word limit. In another, it
says 5Kbyte limit to the text size and the Web page. I guess, any large
text will have to be done in 5Kb sections.
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