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1. the hybrid PC JAN 2006 5 Commentary Circuit Rider Version 3 8 By Jim Scheef A Seminal Event ACH YEAR THE December gen Bes meeting is also the club s annual meeting The primary busi ness is the election of the directors who actually run the club This year s election went very smoothly so smoothly in fact that no one no ticed that Marc Cohen is no longer on the board This might not seem like a big deal but Marc has been on the board longer than anyone Marc has been a club member longer than anyone Marc is not just a founding member he is THE founding member Way back in the early 80 s Marc bought an Osborn portable computer It came with a bunch of software To get some help in learning to use his new com puter and software Marc called Osborn Computers out in California and asked for the names of other Osborn owners in the area They sent him a list Can you imag ine the security and privacy implications of doing this today After a few phone calls the first meeting of the Danbury Osborn Group DOG took place at a lo cal diner Since then Marc has always been involved in the club and not just watching from the sidelines Whatever needs to be done Marc has been there to help In all likelihood the newsletter you are reading was addressed by Marc In the interest of not allowing any good deed to go unpunished I propose that the club create the position of Director Emeri
2. ThinkFree Office is cur rently in beta test For those interested in an acompatible alternative to the very expensive Microsoft Of fice line of products this will be an excellent way for you to learn about some of the packages available out there This meeting is open and free to everyone so in vite anyone you know who would be interested in this topic JAMIE is DACS program director and a prolific volunteer in the area community THIS IS YOUR LAST NEWSLETTER lf the membership date on your mailing label reads EXP 10 2005 or earlier You need to renew your DACS membership NOW Are you up to your nose with computer questions DACS Special Interest Groups O may have the answers If not let us know and we ll try to create a new SIG that helps fulfill your spe cial needs http www dacs org Meeting Review The Future of the Internet By Jamie Yates T OUR TUESDAY December 6 Ans General Meeting John Patrick President of Attitude LLC presented his perspective of the cur rent status and future of the Internet John has kept the DACS member ship updated each December for the last dozen or so years on where the Internet is and where it is going He started out by telling us that the Internet is cur rently only being used to about 5 of its potential Al though this seems like a low number it is several times better than the 2 number he stated last year A
3. Danbury Area Computer society Inc Next Meeting Open Office In from the Cold and Open for Business DACS past prez Jim Scheef on office computing for the rest of us President s File PRESIDENTIAL RAMBLINGS appy New Year I hope you all had a joyous holiday season Before I get in to the nuts and bolts of this months column I d like say something to the thousands of our fellows Americans who are at this moment on the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq Thank you and God bless you News amp Notes Annual Meeting Recap We held our annual meeting in December Sean Henderson amp Lisa Leifels were elected to the board directors they join incumbents Howard Berger Charles Bovaird Richard Corzo John Gallichotte Bill Keane Bruce Preston Jeff Setaro Jim Scheef amp Jamie Yates Lisa and Sean replace retiring di rectors Marc Cohen and Anna Collens l d to thank Marc amp Anna for their tireless dedication and service to DACS They Il both be missed Election of Officers In March the board of directors will be electing the of ficers who will conduct the day to day op erations of DACS for the coming year Cur rently we have five officers President two Vice Presidents Secretary and Treasurer Pd like to add another vice president who will be responsible for marketing and pub lic relations If you re interested please contact me or any board member Changes We re lo
4. s where it takes me How do I fix this A Your browser has been hijacked one of several annoying things that can happen on the web If using TOOLS 14 JAN 2006 then INTERNET OPTIONS then DEFAULT PAGE in your web browser doesn t cure it and we doubt that it will then you need to use a tool that will find where it is being overridden and fix it We would suggest that you download Hijack This a free utility that you can get at http www spywareinfo com merijn downloads html When you run it you will get a list of everything that is currently running in your machine or that is set to launch when the machine starts Note that Hijack This makes absolutely no value judgment whatsoever as to whether a program driver utility browser helper object etc is good or bad It will classify items as to what kind of item it is and indicate what caused it to load If you are unsure about an item use Google to do a search on the item and see what is said about it There are also many sites which have posting boards where you may copy and paste the log from HiJack This and board members will analyze the log and tell you what to delete Each item in the HiJack This Listing has a check box if you check it and then click Fix Checked it will remove the offending item Just be sure that you don t remove something you really need such as the Windows Kernel Q Tam running Windows Me and have Zone A
5. A few are out right scams Below are a list of things that you should do as opposed to just think about if your going to buy an item with a rebate and have any real intention of claiming the rebate and actually getting it Follow ing that are three emails that dealt with a denied rebate claim for our new President Elise Edgell If you are going to buy an item with a rebate while you are at the checkout stand NOTAFTER YOU GET HOME do the following Write down the sales clerk s name then ask him to show you that you have all the items needed to claim the rebate Ask him to put an X on the correct UPC barcode Make sure you have a copy of the correct rebate form s Some are inside the box You just paid for the item it is yours open the box and read the terms If itis an upgrade rebate it is better to find out if your old product qualifies BEFORE you go to the store Check the vendor s website call the store and ask READ THE FINE PRINT THEN READ IT AGAIN Read the Proof of Purchase re quirement list Does it require the original Sales Receipt or is a copy OK If the original is required ask the store for a duplicate original that is acceptable for a product exchange if there is a problem with the product Some stores provide a Rebate Receipt Make sure that matches the re quirement list 12 e JAN 2006 Check the postmark requirement I have seen one that gave you onl
6. Contact Charles Bovaird 203 792 7881 aam mags net Meets on 3rd Thursday 7 p m at the DACS Resource Center Next meeting Jan 19 Digital Imaging All about digital cameras retouching and printing Contact Ken Graff at 203 775 6667 graffic bigfoot com Meets last Wednesday 7 p m at the DACS Resource Center Next Meeting Jan 25 Investment Strategies Discusses various investment strate gies to maximize profits and limit risk Contact Paul Gehrett 203 426 8436 ogehr4402 aol com Meets 3rd Thursday 7 30 p m Edmond Town Hall Newtown Next Meeting Jan 19 Jobs Networking and discussion of the jobs search environment Contact Charles Bovaird 203 792 7881 aam mags net Meets on 3rd Friday 7 p m at the DACS Resource Center Next meeting TBA Linux Provides Help in installing and maintaining the Linux op erating system Also of interest to Apple owners using OS X Contact Bill Keane wbk mags net 203 438 8032 Meets 3rd Wednesday 7 30 pm at the DACS Resource Center Next Meeting Jan 18 SIG News amp Events Macintosh Focuses on all aspects of the Mac operating system Contact Richard Corzo macsig dacs org Meets 1st Thursday at DACS Resource Center at 7 p m Next Meeting Jan 5 Microcontroller Investigates microcontroller applications from theory to hands on implementation and member projects Contact John Gallichotte 203 426 0394 ticlotus ieee org Meets on 4th Tuesday 7 00 p m at the DACS R
7. Editorial Committee Managing Editor Associate Editor Production Editor Technical Editor Editor at large Allan Ostergren Ted Rowland Marc Cohen Bruce Preston Mike Kaltschnee Contributors Charles Bovaird Richard Corzo Jeff Setaro Larry Buoy Jim Scheef Richard Ten Dyke DACS its officers and directors assume no li ability for damages arising out of the publication or non publication of any article advertisement or other item in this newsletter The editors welcome submissions from DACS members Contact Allan Ostergren at 860 210 0047 dacseditor dacs org Advertisers con tact Charles Bovaird at 203 792 7881 aam mags net Nonprofit groups may request permission to re print articles from dacs doc or http dacs org by sending e mail to reprints dacs org Reprinted articles shall credit the copyright holder and a copy of the final publication shall be mailed to Danbury Area Computer Society Inc 4 Gregory Street Danbury CT 06811 4403 Attn Reprints Links to articles reprinted on the web can be sent to reprints dacs 0rg Technical Support dacs doc is prepared using anAMSYS Pentium 733 and HP LaserJet 1300 printer Software packages used to publish dacs doc include Microsoft Windows XP Office 2003 TrueType fonts Adobe PageMaker 7 0 Calendar Creator 8 0 for Windows Security for dacs doc file transfer provided by AVP Internet access provided by Mags net Applications amp Hardware to enh
8. It can also use the USB ports or the parallel ports These are much slower than a LAN connection Move Me also works with removable media that can http www dacs org be read by both computers Now before you get too excited this is not a free pro gram It will cost you 39 95 for the Internet download version You can down load a trial version that has all the infor mation and help files It just will not do any transfer until you enter the serial num ber That you get only after paying for it The only thing that makes me nervous about the whole process is that you have to turn off your software firewall and vi rus checker during the serial number vali dation process This validation requires that you be connected to the Internet In my case I still had a hardware firewall in my router but that s not always sufficient protection But I went ahead and ran the software You know the saying Fools Yes it did work but with some glitches First let me say it transferred over 12 gigabytes of programs and data from the old to the new in just over 1 5 hours Now that is a definite time sav ing I had estimated it would take me more than a day to reinstall all my soft ware and move the data files Only a couple of applications and my external devices needed to be reinstalled after the move By that I mean printers scan ner and external drive The big excep tion was the Bookmarks for Firefox and the e mail address book a
9. amp personal design for individuals amp small businesses Anna raphics Web Site Design Graphics Digital Pre Press www annagraphics com Tel 203 746e 5922 ac annagraphics com Telemark Systems Inc 860 355 8001 Windows NT 2000 2003 Linux Networking Server Installation and Upgrades Custom Software Design and Development JimScheef jscheef telemarksys com www telemarksys com Allan Ostergren president 860 350 8848 rg apstone Services HUMAN RESOURCE ADVISORS 18 Wanzer Hill Road Sherman Connecticut 06784 Phone 860 350 8848 Fax 860 350 8898 2 Crooked Funroas Lane Shennan CT USTe Tel 250 21040047 ostereyenithcrldnet att net
10. you will have no problem running your applications This however can be a long and te dious process Also what happens when you can t find the original program discs Maybe it was download and you didn t keep the install file or make a copy of it Or maybe you can t find the serial numbers you need to install some of your programs Then you have to ask the software manufacturer for help pro viding you registered the software when you first installed it There is another option I got into all this because I have just built anew computer and needed to trans fer all or most all of my software to a new computer I had used two different transfer programs in past upgrades and found them to be somewhat lacking in both accuracy and speed Since my new computer is running Window XP Pro I also looked at the Transfer Files amp Set ting Wizard This transfers the Internet browser and e mail settings between the two computers providing you are us ing Internet Explorer and Outlook or Outlook Express It will also transfer the contents of your My Documents folder It will not transfer any applica tions For me this was useless since I don t use IE or OE In my searching for possible solutions I found a program called Move Me from Spearit Software It is the first trans fer program I ve found that uses network connections to move programs data files settings etc between your old and new computers
11. 0 2 ThinkFree Office Online beta OpenOffice org 2 0 is the productivity suite that individuals governments and corporations around the world have been expecting for the last two years Easy to use and fluidly interoperable with every major office suite OpenOffice org 2 0 realizes the po tential of open source With new features advanced XML ca pabilities and native support for the OA SIS Standard OpenDocument format OpenOffice org 2 0 gives users around the globe the tools to be engaged and produc tive members of their society without hav ing to use Microsoft products ThinkFree Office Online Think you can t open Office documents without paying hundreds of dollars for soft ware Think again Just visit ThinkFree Office Online and you can open edit and create Office documents with this easy and convenient online service new from ThinkFree With ThinkFree Office Online you can e Create Microsoft Office compatible documents from the Web e Open and edit your Office documents anywhere and anytime e Post documents directly to your blog without any conversion e Create powerful Web presentations using a familiar interface e Convert your existing documents to PDF format DACS ThinkFree Office offers all this in an online fashion so you can create input and modify Office formatted documents from any Internet terminal world wide It also allows you to save your documents in the widely used PDF format
12. Edgell showed me the rebate de nial post card that she received on 7 16 2005 The reason given for the refusal We did not receive a sales receipt with your request She purchased a BFG GeForce FX 5500 OC at a special Fry s Electronics one day sale where a 50 re bate was offered on your product In this case Elise did scan all the documenta tion sent in with the rebate and kept it as a JPG file In addition the original docu mentation was stapled to a printout of that file and a notation was hand printed on that sheet in bold marker pen CC Ven dor My Files That file is attached to this email As both of us bought the prod uct and requested the rebate in the same way it will be interesting to see if I get the same post card I understand that you contract the re bate function to other companies but the typical club member that has a problem thinks the problem is with the company that made the product and offered the re bate It is your reputation that suffers not the rebate center Would you express your opinion on which of the above reasons might be the cause of this rebate being denied Sincerely Jim Sanders Editor NOCCC Orange Bytes Hi Jim Thanks for contacting BFG Technolo gies and thanks for giving us the oppor http www dacs org tunity to clarify this particular rebate situ ation Looking at the picture in your attach ment of Elise s submission it appears there is not a
13. Registry that has all the set tings needed to connect to your hardware It also has all the settings for the software installed on your hard drive These set tings are references to the files on your hard drive that are absolutely essential for the proper operation of both hardware and 10 JAN 2006 software On Windows versions prior to WinXP Win2K the registry was con tained in two files system dat and user dat In Windows XP this has changed greatly The registry is now found in files in hidden folders within the System32 folder and the Documents amp Settings Folder Presumably this is to prevent us ers from deleting vital files You can examine the Registry by running regedit However it is not advisable to make changes to the Registry unless you are a very experienced user It is quite easy to corrupt the Registry and find that your computer will not run The Registry has five main branches in WinXP Win2K In earlier versions there were six These are identified as keys The most important are HKEY_ CLASSES ROOT which has all the file types used by your software HKEY_ LOCAL_MACHINE which contains all the information on the hardware and soft ware in your computer So if you used the image file to trans fer everything from your old computer to your new computer you would overwrite the Registry settings for the hardware and pre installed software on your new com puter This would very likely prevent i
14. and inexpen 4 sively publish their points of view for the world to see and cri tique One of his biggest points is that end to end solutions need to be provided For example why can t you book a hotel room on a hotel site and eas ily use your airline miles to pay for it without having to go to multiple sites to complete the trans action His advice to organizations implement ing services on the Internet is to think out side in and listen to what users want and Milam 2006 DACS not what is easiest for the organization Think big act bold start simple and iter ate fast is John s mantra He also believes strongly that bad things spam viruses spyware etc should be blocked with technology not laws We all will wait patiently for John to return next year to hear about the progress that has been made and what we still have to look forward to in the future If you want to know more about John Patrick visit his web site at http patrickweb com JAMIE is DACS program director and a prolific volunteer in the area community Smart advertisers reach over b00 active computer users an software buyers by taking advantage of the attractive advertising rates 1n DACS DOC KSLLLS wae oA SS ny T Ne M t e 2 a pa TEJ 5 a i Ri I S Aves yr i Pe cpp eis aay A e Ae vik a ie Sil ah AS f y 46 Introducing
15. copy of her Sales Receipt included along with the other required items In addition to the Rebate Form Re ceipt and the Proof of Purchase cut from the box a copy of the Sales Re ceipt is required With Fry s it can some times be confusing because they label the Rebate Formas a Rebate Receipt This could lead a customer into thinking that the form was both the rebate form AND the sales receipt although they are actu ally two separate items Some additional information that may be of interest this is one of two rebates that have the highest redemption rates we have ever run This indicates to us that a majority of customers are including all the correct documentation and getting the rebate for this particular program In this particular case the rebate house did refuse the rebate on proper grounds However we will contact the rebate house and approve Elise s rebate and yours as well We often do that for customers who contact us and believe that that they were denied incorrectly We look into individual cases and make approv als where the facts support it Thanks again for giving us the oppor tunity to respond If you have any further questions please feel free to contact us Kind regards John BFG Hi John Thank you for your quick response and also for fixing the problem In an effort to resolve why it became a problem in the first place I made a trip to the Anaheim Fry s Elec
16. itself was based on SmallTalk However compared to Real Basic Cocoa is more C like more com plex and requires more attention to be paid to memory management Another possible choice C is not actually an object ori ented language but allows the creation of object oriented data structures called classes Of the three Real Basic is amore understandable language and I chose it for that reason In the next installment we will first discuss using Real Basic to create the the first program Following installments will record our success or lack of in get ting the computer to play the game suc cessfully RICHARD TEN DYKE has previously contributed to this newsletter on the topic of Digital Photography and computer creativity He is retired from IBM and can be reached at tendyke bedfordny com All opinions are his own and he welcomes comments JAN 2006 13 2006 Richard Ten Dyke Random Access December 2005 Jim Scheef Moderator Meetings In addition members who are not able to attend the General Meet ing may submit questions to askdacs dacs org We will ask the question for you and post the reply in DACS ORG Please provide as much information as possible W WELCOME QUESTIONS FROM the floor at the start of our General since we can t probe during the session Q AskDACS Occasionally when I am in Outlook POP3 mode I delete a message in error It sets up a filter such that I don t ge
17. play a simplified game and play it ourselves for training This will help when we get to the point where we are trying to develop a computer gener ated strategy After reviewing a few object oriented programming languages the one we we will use is called Real Basic which is related to the original BASIC programming lan guage in the same sense that the Queen Mary is related to the Staten Island Ferry Many of the old BASIC data structures and statements are still there but a lot has been added making it quite a different language Texas Hold em Continued on page 13 JAN 2006 7 8 e JAN 2006 Special Interest Groups SIG NOTES January 2006 Access Designs and implements solutions using Microsoft Access and with SQL Server as a back end to the database program Contact Bruce Preston 203 431 2920 boreston mags net Meets on 2nd Tuesday 7p m at the DACS Resource Center Next meeting Jan 10 Advanced Operating Systems Explores OS 2 Linux and NT op erating systems For info follow link to Don s site on dacs org Contact Bill Keane wbk mags net 203 438 8032 Meets 2nd Wednesday 7 30 p m at the DACS Resource Center Next meeting Jan 11 dotNET Programs for Web site server Contact Chuck Fizer cfizer snet net Meets 1st Wednesday 4 6 p m at the DACS Resource Center Next Meeting Jan 4 Excel Math Review of mathematics with emphasis on program ming spreadsheets for business applications
18. point is many soldiers who blog about their expe riences in Iraq If you haven t read their blogs please do The stories they tell pro vide an important balance to reporting done by the major media outlets Some of my favorite s are They Call Us Doc Attp 278medic blogspot com J Barne s Coffee Shop http Jbarnescoffee blogspot com Major K http www visetveneratio conv America s Son http americas son blogspot com One Marine s View hAttp shepherdaway blogspot com A Soldier s Diary http soldiersdiary110 blogspot com Some of my other favorite blogs include The American Thinker http www americanthinker com Power Line http www power lineblog com Captain Quarters http www captains quartersblog com ThreatsWatch http www threats watch org F Secure s Antivirus Research Weblog http www f secure com weblog Mark Russinovich s Sysinternals Blog http www sysinternals com Blog Check them out PRESIDENT S FILE Continued on page 4 DACS Membership Information dacs doc ISSN 1084 6573 is published monthly by the Danbury Area Computer Soci ety 4 Gregory Street Danbury CT 06810 4430 Annual subscription rates 25 to regular mem bers 20 to students included in dues Postmaster Send address changes to Danbury Area Com puter Society Inc 4 Gregory Street Danbury CT 06810 4430
19. would be a chance to address the diverse inter ests of our members As for what is on the agenda for the Directors dacsboard dacs org Charles Bovaird Howard Berger Richard Corzo 203 792 7881 860 355 9837 203 797 1518 John Gallichotte 203 426 0394 Sean Henderson 203 837 0308 cbovaird dacs org Lisa Leifels 203 270 7584 hberger dacs org rcorzo dacs org gallichotte dacs org shenderson dacs org lleifels dacs org bkeane dacs org bpreston dacs org jscheef yahoo com jasetaro yahoo com Jyates dacs org Bill Keane 203 438 8032 Bruce Preston Jim Scheef Jeff Setaro Jamie Yates 203 438 4263 860 355 0034 203 748 6748 203 746 0892 Committees NEWSLETTER Allan Ostergren 860 210 0047 dacseditor dacs org PROGRAM Jamie Yates gt WEB MASTER Scott Preston spreston mags net PR Gloria Arnold or dacs org APCUG LIAISON Don Neary 203 746 5538 RESOURCE CENTER 203 748 4330 WEB SITE http www dacs org HelpLine Volunteers have offered to field member questions by phone Please limit calls to the hours indicated below Days means 9 a m to 5 p m evening means 6 to 9 30 p m Please be considerate of the volunteer you are calling HelpLine is a free service If you are asked to pay for help or are solicited for sales please contact the dacs doc editor the person requesting payment will be deleted from the listing Can we add your name to the volunteer listing
20. IL SIZE 1 9 2 9V _ 2 H L_ 13V _ 13H HALF PAGE FULLPAGE BUSINESS CARD _ ISSUE DATE SIZE VH SINGLE 6 INSERTIONS TOTAL Comments Sketch ad in this box anbury Area Computer Society is a non Me profit corporation organized under section TT i L 501 C 3 of the US Tax Code Its purpose is to promote education knowledge sharing net working and communication between users of per sonal computers DACS is an all volunteer organi zation with no employees The major source of in come 1s member dues Members can volunteer to become instructors lecturers DACS officers and board members committee members or SIG leaders We sponsor or participate in community sup port projects by collecting repairing and redis tributing used computer equipment and software to community service providers such as schools libraries and patient client support groups DACS members provide pickup refurbishing installation and training assistance as needed Firms or individuals with equipment to donate should leave a message on the DACS Infoline 203 748 4330 or send an email to recycling dacs org The Voice for Joanie program was created in 1992 through the initiative of DACS member Shirley Fredlund This program provides computer assisted speech for victims of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Lou Gehrig s Disease DACS members have contributed volun teer time and technical assistance since th
21. __ Financial___ other Digital Music___ Photo___ CAM_ TV____ other Business Corporate Employee___ privateemployee___ professional____ business owner___ Hours a week you use computers Company Name Office use only Paid Check Membership Meeting Location Traveling West on I 84 Take Exit 6 Turn right at exit ramp light at North Street Turn right on Hayestown Avenue Turn right on Tamarack Avenue Follow Tamarack Avenue uphill to traffic light Turn left at this light onto Hospital Avenue Follow Hospital Avenue to appropriate visitor parking lot on right Traveling East on I 84 Take Exit 5 After stop sign go straight ahead to intersection of Main Street and North Street Go straight through onto North Street Turn right off North Street to Maple Avenue Go on Maple Avenue to Osborne Street Turn left on Osborne Street Turn left onto Hospital Avenue Follow Hospital Avenue to appropriate visitor parking lot on right West Mountain Systems Inc Bruce Preston resider 120 Old West Mountain Rd Ridgefield CT 06877 3603 203 431 2920 fax 203 431 4543 Kenneth Digital imaging fine art printing Photography Graffic Hlusions 34 Lederwood Drive Jt S Brookfield Connecticut 6804 prafficaingefootcont Arthur E Crane Principal Danbury Hospital 24 Hospital Avenue Danbury CT North Sire Qe Comer Haynstown Ave Citgo GE Jalin Tamarack Wwe Creative
22. ance dacs doc are welcome Member of __ of Personal Computer U gion Ser cre Gr Don Neary APCUG Liaison 203 746 5538 http www dacs org Officers Directors Notes PRESIDENT Jeff Setaro 203 748 6748 jasetaro yahoo com Vice Presidents Gene Minasi Jamie Yates Gloria Arnold SECRETARY Lisa Leifels TREASURER Charles Bovaird regular meeting of your Board of Directors was held at the Resource Center on Monday December 12 2005 Present were Messrs Bovaird Berger Cohen Corzo Gallichotte Henderson Keane Setaro and Yates Also present was Lisa Leifels President Jeff Setaro presided and Secretary Lisa Leifels kept the record Minutes of the last meeting held on November 7 2005 were ap proved Treasurer Charles Bovaird reported current cash assets of 13 544 69 con sisting of total bank and postal accounts in the amount of 13 413 58 plus post age on hand of 131 11 Subtracting a liability of prepaid dues in the amount of 4 693 00 left a net equity of 8 851 69 He also reported that the cur rent membership is 343 Howie Berger offered the idea of changing the format of the general meet ing and suggested that there be less em phasis on the main presentation and a short talk on another topic be added Richard Corzo liked the idea of a What s New section Jamie suggested adding a URL s of the month John thought we should talk about new com puter appliances The new section
23. at many of us use to backup our hard drives Imaging software makes a very complete bit mapped copy of your hard drive Bit mapping means that everything contained on the hard drive is be ing copied usu ally to a com pressed file Generally imag ing software also backs up open files those that are currently in use on your computer Most but not all regular backup software can only make copies of files that are not in use at the time of the backup Thus it is very easy for a stan dard backup to miss some files or to pro duce a backup of your hard drive that is incomplete especially with regard to files currently in use by your Operating Sys tem OS Imaging software overcomes this problem So when you buy build or upgrade to anew computer why can t you simply use your image file to transfer all of your pro grams and data from one computer to an other The basic answer is related to the difference in hardware between the two computers If you are just replacing a hard drive in your computer you can use the image file to move everything to the new drive Some imaging software allows you to clone the old hard drive to a new drive That is providing both drives are connected to the same computer How ever when you change to anew computer with a new motherboard CPU chipset USB ports sound and or integrated video are different and require new drivers The image file contains a complete copy of the
24. d day e evening Program Alpha Four APL C UNIX ObjC Clipper Dbase DOS DOS Electronics Focus Hardware Interface Instrumentation Microsoft Access Newdeal Paradox PhotoShop Dreamweaver Statistics Data Analysis SQL Server Viruses Visual Basic HTML Java Windows http www dacs org Name Dick Gingras Charles Bovaird Kenneth Lerman Dick Gingras Alan Boba John Gallichotte Andrew Woodruff Jim Scheef John Gallichotte Andrew Woodruff Dick Gingras Marc Cohen Alan Boba Anna Collens Charles Bovaird Chuck Fizer Jeff Setaro Chuck Fizer James Costello Nick Strother Phone 203 775 1102 203 792 7881 203 426 4430 203 426 0484 203 264 1753 203 426 0394 203 798 2000 860 355 0034 203 426 0394 203 798 2000 203 426 0484 203 775 1102 203 264 1753 203 746 5922 203 792 7881 203 798 9996 203 748 6748 203 798 9996 203 426 0097 203 743 5667 DACS General Meetings in the new year Jim Scheef will be our first speaker in Janu ary with a discussion on OpenOffice He will also cover alternatives to using Microsoft Office including Star Office In February Jamie Yates will give a short talk on the steps he takes to keep his computer running smoothly Then there will be a Smart Home presentation showing how computers can automate the home of your future In March the general meeting topic will be CAD or in other words Computer Aided Design Howie asked if
25. e program began Voice for Joanie and DACS have earned national computer in dustry recognition and financial assistance for this vital collaboration Our general meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month in the Danbury Hospital Auditorium at 7 p m These meetings are open to the public The main presentation is scheduled from 8 9 30 preceded by casual networking an nouncements and Random Access an 1n formal question and answer session A free product raffle is often held at the con clusion of the main presentation In addition to the general meeting DACS sponsors many special interest groups SIGs where members can learn and share information about a specific topic Each SIG plans its own meeting schedule and program topics Our newsletter dacs doc is published monthly for our members and mailed to arrive before the general meeting It features articles written by members and oth ers on timely topics including product and software re views issues and trends in personal computing and how to articles on sound video digital photography etc In addition each issues includes the calendar of meetings announcements on SIGs and other DACS events dacs doc has won numerous prizes over the years for its design and content Through its activities DACS offers numerous op portunities to network both professionals and computer hobbyists Our Special Interest Groups are an excellent way for members to both learn and
26. ed The Flop Another round of betting A fourth card is placed face up on the table called The Turn More betting A fifth card on the table face up called the The River A final round of betting The win ner is based on the generally accepted rank of hands High Card Pair Two Pair Three of a Kind Straight Flush Full House Four of a Kind Straight Flush At each round of betting players can fold bet or raise With so many table cards shared it 1s easily pos sible for two or more hands to be tied as winners In those instances the pot is usu ally divided The betting can differ from a normal poker game Some games are limit games and some are played with pot limit betting leading to the expression All In when a player wants to bet everything he has on the table If that player wins his winnings are limited to the amount he would have won if the betting had stopped at that level If he loses he is gone out of the game Betting holds the key to playing the game successfully With numerous opportunities to bluff and with large stakes the psychol ogy of the betting game can overshadow the value of the hands Of course a com puter does not have emotions like fear or hope By necessity the computer will play a very mechanical although not a totally predictable game This may be as easily good or bad We will have to see The Plan Our first step will be to create a com puter program to
27. eded code is drawn from snippets Here the angels are in the details Our evening session concentrated on the use of ASP NET 2 0 to build cutting edge solutions in which we saw controls a SIG Notes Continued on page 14 http www dacs org http www dacs org January 2006 Danbury Area Computer Society Monday 2 7 00 PM Board of Directors Opensource Web Program 7 00 PM John Lansdale 914 533 2002 WALL STREET Phil Dilloway 203 367 1202 Tuesday GENERAL MTG Bruce Preston 203 431 2920 Wednesday Thursday Macintosh 7 00 PM 7 PM Visual Basic Chuck Fizer 203 798 9996 7 00 PM Server Jim Scheef Advanced OS Bill Keane 203 438 8032 Charles Bovaird 203 792 7881 7 30 PM Investment Paul Gehrett 7 30 PM Linux Bill Keane 203 438 8032 Digital Imaging Ken Graff 203 775 6667 203 792 7881 Dec 2005 2s e e i ai A 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 DACS Richard Corzo macsig dacs org 860 355 0034 203 426 8436 PC Maintenance Charles Bovaird SMa E E S Saturday DACS DOC Deadline Feb 2006 SME Y ES 2s Se Si LO te 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 JAN 2006 9 Tips amp Tricks Why Can t I J ust Copy My Programs to My New Computer By Brian K Lewis Ph D Sarasota PCUG Florida www spcug org ET S START THIS with a discus sion of imaging software Some thing th
28. ensions run on both operating systems and probably work on the Mac as well This is really cool because Firefox is pretty anemic by itself the ex tensions are what let you customize Firefox to suit your needs If you haven t discovered the exten sions click on the Tools menu and then pick Extensions A special Firefox web site will open where you can choose from literally hundreds of extensions I find the biggest problem is figuring out what is available After installing some extension and continu ing to browse through the list I sometimes find another one that does the same thing only better Extensions are little programs often less than 100k that add some feature to Firefox For example one of my favorite extensions is called PlainOldFavorites This little gem allows Firefox to use all of your Internet Explorer Favorites aka book marks directly without any conversion whatever You can even add a new favorite in Firefox and then use it later from Internet Explorer Since both browsers are using the same favorites there is nothing to synchro nize Another good one is NoScript which allows you to control which web sites can execute JavaScript on your machine This is one of those programs that can be rather annoying in operation You will be amazed to learn that some web sites run scripts from four or even five domains You ve always known that lots of web sites get their ad vertising from DoubleClick Wit
29. esource Center Next Meeting In hiatus until further notice Open Source Web Programming Focuses on open source tools for Windows and Linux Contact John Lansdale 914 533 2002 Meets on 3rd Monday 7 00 p m at the DACS Resource Center Next Meeting Jan 16 PC Maintenance Review of PC hardware and OpSys mainte nance and use Contact Charles Bovaird 203 792 7881 aam mags net Meets on 4th Thursday 7 p m at the DACS Resource Center Next meeting Jan 22 Server Explores Back Office server and client applications in cluding Win NT Servers and MS Outlook Contact Jim Scheef jscheef telemarksys com Meets 2nd Thursday 7 p m at the DACS Resource Center Next meeting Jan 12 Visual Basic Develops Windows apps with Visual Basic Contact Chuck Fizer 203 798 9996 cfizer snet net or Jim Scheef 860 355 8001 JScheef Telemarksys com Meets 1st Wednesday 7p m at the DACS Resource Center Next Meeting Jan 4 Wall Street Examines Windows stock Market software Contact Phil Dilloway 203 367 1202 dilloway ntplx net Meets on last Monday 7p m at the DACS Resource Center Next Meeting Jan 30 Web Design Applications for designing and creating Web sites Contact Anna Collens 203 746 5922 acvo annagraphics com Meets 3rd Tuesday 7 9 p m at the DACS Resource Center Next Meeting Feb 21 d t Net The dotNet and VB NET SIG meetings this month fea tured Greg Austin s challenge to report on the INETA
30. est features of object oriented program ming was the ease of re using code Func tions which were originally designed as sub routines could be reconstituted as objects and more easily reused by other programs This benefit of SmallTalk was highly val ued and several compiled object oriented languages including C and Cocoa have been created using SmallTalk concepts Darwinian evolution will play a role in this story by allowing a computer program to learn to play the game We will create a poker tournament in which computerized players will play against each other The players with the better strategies will beget new little poker players to carry on in the family tradition and the not so good ones will die off What we hope to learn from this is whether the poker strategies which evolve improve over time and also whether they diverge into separate playing styles in the way that a single species can bifurcate into two distinct species over time Study ing how evolution works is the main pur pose of the exercise but to be honest I DACS haven t figured out how to do it yet al though I have some ideas Together we will see if it works In short this will be a mys tery story and you and I will get to the so lution about the same time The Game In Texas Hold Em each player is dealt two hole cards face down A round of bet ting takes place Then three new cards are placed face up on the table This is call
31. h NoScript installed you will see how pervasive DoubleClick really is unless you allow it of course but then what s the point There is an easy way to rid yourself of DoubleClick advertising if you are running Circuit Rider Continued on page 13 http www dacs org Programming Texas Hold Em an Evolutionary Approach By Richard Ten Dyke HIS IS A STORY a real life T story about three things the game called Texas Hold Em object oriented programming and evolu tion Yes really In the game of Poker with its many variations only one thing remains con stant four aces beats a full house The game has morphed from a legend of the old west to an inter net and TV phenom enon From the simple Five Card Stud to Texas Hold em the game has acquired a colorful variety with wild cards and cute names Only the rank of hands remains sort of There are some poker games where the worst hand wins and the definition of the worst hand varies from time to time and from place to place Texas Hold Em is but distantly related to the original concept of poker In this game a player holds only two cards that one can call one s own Five cards addi tional are shown face up on the table for all players to share A player makes his best hand out of the combination of these seven cards With two hole cards a player can only have one of 1 326 hands the number of possible two card combi nat
32. ich components of ob jects and code snippets are inte grated swiftly into a finished applica tion built of reusable software Greg gave us a heady review to give sub stance for perspective on this pan orama of advanced capabilities Server The planned program for the December Server SIG meeting was to complete the installation of DotNetNuke a web portal written in the dotNET Framework and released as open source under the BSD li cense However at the dotNET and VB SIG meetings the day before we all got so excited about the new 2 0 dotNET Framework that lost all en thusiasm for working on anything that runs in the old Framework So our attention shifted instead on other fun stuff Just for fun we started to investigate a text editor called WinVi that had been recommended by newly elected DACS director Sean Henderson While WinVi was a dis appointment sorry Sean we did find a web site called The Vi Lovers Home Page at http thomer com vi vi html If you want to learn to use Vi then suggest that you peruse this site Personally if you want to use Vi on Windows suggest the version that comes with CygWin cygwin com This DACS FREE CLASSIFIEDS DACS members may pub lish noncommercial com puter related classified ads in dacs doc at no charge Ads may be placed electronically by fax or by modem or hard copy may be submitted at our monthly general meeting Fax your ads to Charlie Bovaird a
33. in to the retailer Com plain to the vendor If all else fails file a complaint with the FTC at www ftc gov You can also file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau at www bbb org Taking the retailer to Small Claims Court is an option The email exchange with BFG Tech nologies Inc Dear Sir My name is Jim Sanders and I am the editor of the North Orange DACS County Computer Club s newsletter the Orange Bytes PDF copies of the publi cation are available at http www noccc org For several weeks I have been gathering material for an article on the rebate games Our members should see it in the next issue of the newsletter This is a hot issue with our members as a number have been burned by various re bate offers In a lot of cases it was due to not reading the fine print not crossing all T s or dotting all I s a claim that the re quest was never received or not received in time In some instances the rebate was a pure scam A few refused rebates may be caused by human error on the part of the highly trained intelligent well paid staff of the rebate center A common reason given for a rebate denial is that a required piece of documentation was not included All too often that claim cannot be re futed as the original was sent in and the suggestion to photocopy all submitted documentation was not followed because of the hassle involved In an interesting coincidence of timing our club President Elise
34. involve ment in the Microsoft Launch of their new platform Visual Studio 2005 This DACS SIG was contacted to present a copy of the Microsoft products launch for Visual Stiudio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 to our group Greg accepted the challenge and at this month s meeting he presented a project devel oped with Visual Studio 2005 Next month Greg will com plete the mission with a presentation on SQL Server 2005 Our SIG notes documentor extraordinaire Claude Prevots captured the action as follows For the day s sessions we enjoyed a brilliant and informative talk by Greg Austin on the latest version of Visual Studio 2005 from Microsoft Our afternoon session and evening session were combined to preview a full scope of aids to the developers DACS Only a few highlights can be reported from this rich panorama of features Our initial session concerned features of Smart Client which was an application for distribution of music shows Benefits to developers from Visual Studio include rich Web services high development productivity a responsive user interface and a broad reach of capability This application was based on a Win dows Forms template Data binding is facilitated This applica tion relies on Microsoft Framework 2 0 and it includes capabili ties for a user such as displays of shows in prospect and ability to purchase tickets Stress for development is on the visual design of features rather than extensive coding and where ne
35. ion Charter television also ran 30 sec ond public service announcements Howie said he would find out how much it costs to advertise future meetings on the Danbury News Times website John Gallichotte is an intern with Charter Communications and gener ously offered to videotape the Decem ber General Meeting Unfortunately the clip didn t work on the wireless micro phone which prevented the meeting from being on the air John recom mended we request a truck shoot which would provide additional cameras to tape the next meeting Howie offered to fill out the necessary paperwork to make this happen Richard Corzo brought up the prob lem that there were discrepancies be tween the website calendar and the newsletter calendar Jeff communicated that the website calendar is now the master calendar Calendar changes should be sent to Scott Preston who had done a terrific job of keeping the DACS website up to date lLIsSA LEIFELS 4 JAN 2006 Meeting Preview Alternatives to Microsoft Office By Jamie Yates T OUR TUESDAY January 3 A ees Meeting Jim Scheef former DACS president will present several free com patible alternatives to y Microsoft Office It s hard WP to believe that there are a number of offerings out there that are both free Micro soft compatible and run on multiple plat forms such as Linux Win dows and Mac The two offerings he will focus on f will be 1 OpenOffice org 2
36. ions from a 52 card deck The number of unique hands is even less when you consider that it doesn t matter if you are holding an Ace Queen of Spades or an Ace Queen of Hearts All that matters in the game is that the two cards are an Ace Queen and that they are of the same suit From a practical point of view there are only 169 unique two card hands The value of a hand depends upon how it works with the shared cards on the table Object oriented programming OOP is a technique for creating complex and interactive computer programs The folks at Xerox PARC Palo Alto Research Cen ter came up with OOP while developing http www dacs org the Graphic User Interface and the mouse Object oriented programming first emerged as a language called SmallTalk which along with LISP was a tool used in Artificial Intelligence I saw it first in 1983 at an AI conference at the University of Pittsburgh SmallTalk and LISP were loved by stu dent developers be cause it provided a means of creating programs with very complex logical structures And both suffered from the same problem They were interpreted languages rather than compiled Because of this every user of a program also had the power to change the program itself Programs written in these interpreted languages could not be widely distributed and at the same time assure that the program would always be running as originally intended However one of the b
37. larm and Cookie Cop in stalled as well When I connect to the internet over WiFi I get discon nected after about 5 minutes even if I am active What is causing the disconnection I don t get any er ror messages and the signal strength is fine A Do you have an unused on board network interface adapter for a wired connection If so Windows is getting confused DACS because there is no activity on that connection which it thinks is the preferred connection Go to Control Panel Network Connections and see if you can change the priority of the network adapters Alternatively go into Control Panel System Device Manager and disable the unused network interface card If it is a notebook machine that you sometime connect to a wired network you may want to set up a hardware profiles wired wifi that you select at boot time Q I have set up a Verizon DSL Com mercial account They tell me that I don t need Anti Virus Firewall Anti Spyware software etc as they provide it Should I trust them A More and more ISPs are now providing security features as part of their service Some are great some are adequate and there are probably some out there that don t do a good job We don t know which group Verizon falls into as we don t know which tools they are using The conservative approach would be to still run your own defensive mechanisms as well If you get into a situation where you need some
38. ld eas ily have changed Section 3 to explicitly state what kind of Receipt was re quired That if printing the Rebate Re ceipt is supposed to be a courtesy to the customer it would be trivial to have the computer print out a Duplicate Sales Re ceipt when that was required by the ven dor That if Fry s is going to the effort to provide this courtesy service at all they should go the extra step and endeavor to do it correctly rather than in the current confusing fashion I commented that Fry s apparently feels it is their responsi bility to remind customers that they should make a copy of all documentation sub mitted for a rebate by handing out a yel low sheet with that warning why not ex pand it to include a caution about the re ceipt problem Her response was in essence I don t have any control over what the IT depart ment does I counted to ten thanked her for her time and left I hope this feedback helps you with future programs Sincerely Jim Sanders Editor NOCCC Orange Bytes On 7 23 05 we put on our best opti mistic face and went to the Attp www rebatestatus com website to see how well the rebate had been approved We were hoping to see a message like The check is in the mail and lo and behold we did Pony Express or 4th Class but in the mail Jm SANDERS is Editor North Orange County Computer Club editor noccc org This article was provided bt the Edi torial Com
39. lso he pointed out that many of the businesses on the Web still don t get it as to how customers want to use the Internet and how many improvements are needed to make the experience easy and produc tive He gave many examples of both good and bad business use of the Internet For example a company that requests contact for some items using electronic communi cation email and other items requiring phone or fax only during business hours In a 24 7 world this makes communicating difficult when customers may be in time zones that make phone contact difficult or impossible John s presentation was excellent and provided the audience with food for thought setting a higher level of expecta tion for what the Internet can eventually do For every example of what isn t being done today he gave examples of what could be done With the number and types of mobile devices growing rapidly and the ability to stay connected whereever you are via hotspots and cell phones the ability to ac cess and use information and communicate is becoming more and more important He pointed out that user expectations are rising everyday When a service is pro vided by one organization to the user com http www dacs org munity it quickly sets a new level of ex pectation throughout the Internet The Internet is becoming more demo cratic with services like blogging and podcasting available to all Everyone has the ability to eas ily
40. m your application programs and your data you will find that others will man age it for their own purposes some times contrary to your wishes Now if you want the vast flex ibility of a com puter you will commit yourself to an unending learn ing program So come join DACS and help us help you become an informed computer user CHARLES BovairD is DACS Treasurer and leader of the Excel Math Jobs and PC Maintenance SIGS Post Your Biz on dacs org We would like to post a directory of our members business services on the DACS web site These would preferably be computer related hard ware and software solutions Web design etc but can in clude Accounting Travel Advertising Public Rela tions or any other business service that you might be able to provide to all our members At some future date we may include the directory in our newsletter To get your listing post your name business phone e mail and Web address to dacsprez dacs org JAN 2006 11 Computer Shopping Don t be a loser at the rebate games by Jim Sanders OST OF US HAVE bought M something that sounded like a great value After Rebate or Rebates Everywhere from a great price to FREE Most are legitimate Most re quire a fair amount of work to claim Most are never claimed Most say you will have to wait 6 to 10 weeks for a check for some that turns into 6 to10 months Many have tricky fine print
41. mittee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups APCUG an international organization of which this group is a member DACS Circuit Rider Continued from page 6 a DNS server easy on Linux but that s another story Look at the extensions and have fun adding features to Firefox Version numbers I was asked a few weeks ago if I could come up with something more imaginative for these columns than a simple version number Ok here s the story The version number counts these columns from when I first started after becoming DACS presi dent I continued the count when I moved to IPP ammediate past president As any programmer knows indexes should be zero based so my first column was version 0 0 The end of my first year was 0 11 If you don t understand I really don t care the numbers stay Hopefully you have all enjoyed the holiday traditions of your religious per suasion If you have no religious per suasion I hope you were not bothered by those who do credit to Bruce Preston JIM is past president of DACS Texas Hold em Continued from page 7 It employs the basic small b concepts of variables statements and functions but with the concepts of object oriented program ming added Real Basic can be compiled on a Mac or a PC and programs can be created to run on either platform Another possible choice of language was Cocoa which is a Mac only language based on Objective C which
42. nd mail set tings for Thunderbird Those I had to transfer manually Once I found the in structions on the Mozilla websites the setup went quickly The point of all this is if you buy a new computer try to get the dealer to transfer your old software as part of the deal If you do it yourself a file copy won t work You need special transfer software like Move me or Aloha Bob s PC Relocator However if you don t have a LAN connection between your computers expect to spend 1 hour per gigabyte for a USB 2 0 transfer and much much more time with a parallel port transfer Dr Lewis is a former university amp medical school professor He has been working with personal computers for more than thirty years He can be reached via e mail bwsail at yahoo com Bryan K Lewis Pu D is a member of the Sarasota PCUG Florida www spcug org This article was provided by the Edi torial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups APCUG an international organization of which this group is a member http www dacs org Commentary Computers everywhere By Charles Bovaird O YOU KNOW when you have D purchased a computer The simple computer in your stove have you bought a new electric stove lately It comes with a built in com puter The differ ence between the stove computer and your personal com puter is that the stove computer per forms a very limited set of functions maybe ten t
43. o fifteen If you read the in structions usually two or three times then performed each operation you eventually convince yourself that you understand how they work Two years later the num ber display reads and none of the button controls do anything The paperwork that came with the stove was not useful in resolving this problem Maybe a 100 service call would solve the problem You unplug and re plug the stove into the power outlet like we some times do with our PC hope your stove is not hard wired This action does not reset it You can not find a user manual among the paperwork you meticulously saved when you purchased the stove Next you go to the manufacturer s web site and download a user manual Near the last page you read something about a Sabbath Mode and how to reset the stove s computer pressing two buttons simultaneously A computer reset but ton on the back of the stove or better on the front would have been more noticeable and convenient Maybe a 3 computer display could display the characters SAB better than one de signed to display numbers only I would rather have a visible reset button Enter the complex PC It has mil lions of functions and you can add mil lions more by installing more applica tion programs Worse than that they change the operating system programs DACS quite frequently If you do not care to learn how to manage your computer its operating syste
44. of speech For All Your Printing Graphics and Copying Needs Call Shirley Fredlund at 203 770 6208 and become 4 Voice for Joanie volunteer 3 Commerce Drive Danbury CT 06810 203 792 5045 Fax 203 792 5064 mail rapid repro com ec sui Im ET OpenOffice POr cary 7 J amie Yates Tweaking Your PC March 7 Computer Aided Design CAD This space available Contact Charles Bovaird Phone 203 792 7881 E mail aam mags net p THE NEWSLETTER OF THE DANBURY AREA COMPUTER SOCIET Y INC Rate Card GUARANTEED US MAIL 450 OTHER DISTRIBUTION 100 PDFFULL COLOR VERSION DISTRIBUTED ON WEB SITE WWW DACS ORG DEADLINE FOR COPY IS 15th OF THE MONTH NEWSLETTER NORMALLY ARRIVES IN MAIL BY Ist OF EACH B i 7 E D a a a aa MONTH ALL PAYMENTS IN ADVANCE nsertion nsertion nsertion 6 Insertions 130 6 Insertions 250 6 Insertions 360 WITH COPY TO CHARLES BOVAIRD TREASURER DANBURY AREA COMPUTER SOCIETY BUSINESS CARD 4 GREGORY STREET Special rate DANBURY CT 06810 4430 14 Per Insertion TEL 203 792 7881 E mail aam mags net 3 1 2 a i 6 INSERTIONS AT 5 TIMES THE SINGLE INSERTION RATE 1 2 PG FULL PG lInsertion 100 1 Insertion 170 6 Insertions 500 6 Insertions 850 Order Form ADS CAN BE SUBMITTED AS CAMERA READY ART OR VIAE COMPANY MAIL AS A PDF JPG OR TIF FILE Editors will set up ads submitted ADDRESS as plain text without additional charge CONTACT PHONE FAX E MA
45. oking into making some changes to the format of the general meetings Before we make any final deci sions I d to hear your ideas E mail me IN THIS ISSUE PRESIDENT S FILE DIRECTORS NOTES HELP LINE PREVIEW OPENSOURCE REVIEW JOHN PATRICK Circuit RIDER JIM SCHEEF Texas HOLD EM Sic News amp NOTES CALENDAR COPYING PROGRAMS TO NEW PC 10 COMPUTERS EVERYWHERE 11 REBATE GAMES 12 RANDOM ACCESS 13 BOARD CANDIDATES 15 SAANA MN RW WN 2 JAN 2006 with your comments criticisms and or sug gestions Commentary Blogs Matter I m an information junkie I routinely read the Wall Street Journal The Wash ington Post The Washington Times The New York Sun and The Times of London I ve also taken to reading a variety of blogs for news and analysis Blogs have had a fundamental effect on the way we gather and exchange infor mation It wasn t that long ago that the de livery of news and analysis was controlled by a relatively small number of media companies That s changed dramatically over the last decade first with Matt Drudge searching the wires looking for fires and now with an ever increasing number of bloggers who are relentlessly searching the news wires for stories that might otherwise go unnoticed or who provide commentary and analysis on the major events of the day In addition to commentary and analy sis bloggers often provide valuable first hand accounts of events A case in
46. share application or hardware knowledge Any DACS member can form a special interest group on any topic where there 1s inter est Most SIGs meet in our Resource Center in down town Danbury If you have concerns requests or suggestions re garding DACS or its programs please contact dacsprez dacs org DACS officers and board mem bers phone numbers are listed on page 3 of dacs doc The DACS Resource Center is in lves Manor Lower Level 198 Main Street Danbury CT 06810 203 748 4330 l P DANBURY AREA COMPUTER SOCIETY Inc E Individual Membership Application QE Personal Information Name Home Phone Address Work Phone City State Zip Fax Company E Mail Billing Information Regular Membership Includes printed newsletter 1 Year 25 00 3 Years 68 00 Electronic Membership Newsletter available for download from www dacs org 1 Year 15 00 3 Years 45 00 Student Membership Includes printed newsletter 1 Year 10 00 Payment by cash check or mail order payable to Charles Bovaird Treasurer DACS Inc 4 Gregory Street Danbury CT 06810 4430 Tell Us About Yourself Please take a moment to answer the following questions Answer all that apply How did you learn about DACS Hardware PC__ MAC____ desktop____ laptop____ palm____ other OPSYS Windows MAC __ LINUX ___ other Communications Dialup___ _HI Speed__ ss WiFi__ LAN_ other Applications Office_
47. stamp BRUCE PRESTON is president of West Mountain Systems a consultancy in Ridgefield CT specializing in database applications A DACS director Bruce also leads the Access SIG Members may send tech queries to Bruce at askdacs dacs org http www dacs org SIG Notes Continued from page amp page framework and server applica tions Again we had a view of our prior application but now with a concentra tion on Master Pages and Content Pages in a namespace Page Master Now with ASP NET 2 0 we can create a new Web site without the use of Internet Information Services IIS Connection to data sources can be a choice of SQL Server 7 or later MS Access XML or others Of special interest is the Web Site Administra tion Tool with which connection strings can be modified Our enthusiasm was high in both sessions and we accorded Greg a round of applause for each session of stimulating talk and discussion As always we enjoyed our pizza break but Chuck and Greg generously took this interval to include help to Urey an attendee with some problems of programming For a larger observation we must grant Microsoft some recognition for commercial realization in Visual Stu dio 2005 of two concepts of software engineering One concept comes from Steve Jobs with his NeXT ad vanced development machine which facilitated building of applications by assembling visual components An other concept is that of the software factory in wh
48. support from Verizon they may require you to temporarily disable your firewall so that they may use a remote access tool But this should be the rare situation and once you are configured it shouldn t be needed at all You trust your mother but you still cut the cards Q What is Wild Tangent where did it come from and how do I remove it A Wild Tangent claims to be the leading on line game developer they develop and distribute first and third party downloads Their games are popular with many as they have implemented 3D effects etc However they are also advertising ridden and some classify them as spyware as it sends back information such as OS CPU memory video card sound card and the web site that did the installation It is also said to do periodic checks to see if there is an update and may perform the update without approval The latest version of AOL s AIM includes it It is especially annoying and hard to remove This page http www pchell com support wildtangent shtml has manual removal instructions http www dacs org Q My boot of Windows XP Pro some times goes for several minutes then stalls before it gets to the desktop Doing a power off power on cycle usually fixes it Any suggestions A We suggest the following 1 Bring up the machine in Safe Mode You do this by tapping the F8 key several times during the power on self test POST This is long before you see the Windo
49. t 203 792 7881 Leave hard copy classi fieds with Charlie Marc or whoever is tending the mem bers table at the meeting For Sale HP P920 19 CRT 1280x1024 resolution 30 00 Samsung SyncMaster 512n 15 Flat Panel 75 00 HP 200i DVD RW Drive 20 00 Contact Jeff Setaro 203 748 6748 or jasetaro mags net version is a text only editor that runs in a console terminal session as God intended and is every bit as hard to use as Vi running on any IX machine The next Server and Networking SIG meeting will be Thursday Janu ary 12th at 7pm in the DACS Re source Center Web Design The December web design SIG looked at some PhotoShop techniques How to ma nipulate images use layers slice designs and create HIML pages We briefly looked at image optimizing but a more detailed talk will cover that subject in the spring Some curious Emerging Issues regarding the new Dreamweaver 8 program were also discussed This excellent upgrade has some exiting new features how ever a visit to the Macromedia site can be worthwhile for the latest up dates There will be no meeting in Janu ary however we will be back Febru ary 21st Subject to be determined any suggestions considered For more information visit www anna graphics com sigsite JAN 2006 15 One to four color printing Kos Direct from disk high speed JO nie black amp white and color copying now available Help give the gift
50. t from completing a boot up It is really not practical to try to selectively transfer items from the Registry on the old computer This would introduce other problems I did a search in the registry for items re lated to one application The search found 128 entries This may not have been all of them Considering the number of pro grams you might have on your hard drive the total number of entries to be trans ferred is mind boggling Another example the Windows folder contains many Dynamic Link Library DLL files that are associated with the particular version of Windows you have been running There are also many shared DACS DLL s used by Windows and your appli cation software How do you know which ones should be transferred and which ones will create problems with your new OS or your new software Finally the motherboard chipset and CPU in your new computer require driver files that are specific to them and very likely are quite different from the drivers used on your old computer Faced with this problem what do you do The most commonly used solution is to dig out all the original disks for your application software Find the serial num bers and or other information needed to do a new installation on your new com puter Once you have the programs in stalled you can transfer the data files for each application This gives you a clean install for your software and if the pro grams are compatible with the new OS
51. t any subsequent messages from the sender I tried removing the filter it appears to be gone but the sender is still blocked How do I repair this condition A It sounds like you have added the sender to your blocked sender list rather than created a filter The recommendation from the floor was to look in INBOX ACTIONS JUNK MAIL Doing a search in Outlook HELP with the words BLOCK SENDER gives details Q AskDACS I need to send a monthly report to a committee with about a dozen members I have a distribu tion list established in Outlook that I use However when I sent it the members are not disclosed I then get messages back from committee members asking if I sent a copy to someone on the list Is there a way to force the members of the distri bution list to be revealed A Usually we get the opposite question as many people do not like to have their e mail addresses shown on large and yours is not distribution lists as eventually these lists fall into the hands of spammers For that reason Outlook does not offer the capability We d suggest that you create a small file with any text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad and place just the individuals names without e mail address in the file Then copy and paste the names into your document whereever you want it Q Whenever I start my web browser it always takes me to a site named Morewill I don t want to go there I never asked to go there but that
52. there was any way we can get some feedback to ask our mem bers what they thought of the presenta tion Jeff Setaro said we have done sur veys in the past but it was hard to col lect and analyze the information Jamie said he would create an exit survey for the January Meeting Press releases were sent to the Danbury News Times and the Citizen News in New Fairfield and Sherman to Directors Notes Continued on page 4 JAN 2006 3 President s File Continued from page 2 End Notes I ve been making concerted effort to catch up on reading of late Here s my win ter reading list so far If you have any sug gestions send me an e mail Chain of Command by Caspar Weinberger and Peter Schweizer Consent to Kill A Thriller by Vince Flynn White by Christopher Withcomb Inside CentCom The Unvarnished Truth About the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq by Michael DeLong The Last Big Gun Naval Battle The Battle of Surigao Strait by Howard Sauer The American St Nick by Peter Lion War Stories III The Heroes Who Defeated Hitler by Oliver L North and Joe Musser That s it for this month As always I welcome your questions amp comments You can reach me at jasetaro mags net or jasetaro yahoo com JEFF SETARO Directors Notes Continued from page 3 advertise last month s general meeting Jeff Setaro did a taped interview with 95 on the morning of John Patrick s presen tat
53. to worry about this because you don t use the library well think again All records includes credit card medi cal travel any business records and stuff none of us have thought of Librarians as a group have been one of the most vocal in opposing the act While your local pub lic librarian might think twice about pro viding the FBI with the fact that you wanted to read a book on Islam your health insurance company your credit card company I hesitate to call them banks even your employer will all give you up in a heartbeat If you use one of the national internet service providers I would expect that your web viewing his tory and email correspondents are also DACS obtainable by the FBI with little more than a mouse click Republican senator John Sununu N H said Those that would give up essential liberties in pursuit of a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security He almost managed to quote Benjamin Franklin correctly The growing concern from Republican senators means that there is a fighting chance that we could emerge from this debate with some part of our civil liberties still intact Once again I ask that you step up to the plate and call our senators and tell them how you feel even if you don t agree with me More on Firefox This past month I upgraded to Firefox 1 5 the current version on both Windows and Linux In the process I discovered that almost all of the ext
54. tronics store I asked to speak to the person in charge of dealing with rebates The woman that re sponded to that request was pleasant enough but not very helpful I asked why Fry s was having their checkout clerks tell customers that the Rebate Receipt is the same as the full sales receipt for re bate purposes Her response was Well sometimes it is and sometimes its not The discussion lasted several minutes It bogged down into questions of semantics perception lack of explicit wording and responsibility Her rebuttal to your assertion that it is a Rebate Form Receipt was that if you cut that form in two just above the line Rebate Form you have a Receipt and a Re http www dacs org bate Form That to help the customer by not having multiple small separate documents that are more easily lost or difficult to match up with the appropriate rebate form they are printed together That the Proof of purchase require ments Section 3 says a copy of your receipt not Sales Receipt not Full Sales Receipt not Rebate Receipt just Receipt That obviously the Rebate Receipt is a receipt I commented that the Fry s IT department controlled what is printed and how it is printed That it would be trivial for them to better sepa rate the two forms with a couple of extra blank lines a line of asterisks and a line that says Cut here That they cou
55. tus to honor Marc and his many many con tributions to DACS The Patriot Act Yet again Last month I suggested that you call your Congresspeople and ask that they protect your civil liberties in the final ver sion of the renewal of the incredibly mis 6 e JAN 2006 named USA Patriot Act Well our Congresspeople have surprised me once again by not yet renewing the Patriot Act Much of the act is already permanent Congress made only the most controver sial sixteen sections expire after four years So here we are four years later dis cussing these draconian provisions once again Only this time we have had the opportunity to do something about them The most controversial part of the act is Sec tion 215 often called the library section So what is so controver sial about library records Well the truth is that the section covers more than just libraries Section 215 allows the search of just about ANY records in mat ters involving national security There are any number of problems here but the big gest is that all the FBI needs to do to con duct such a search is to say they want to conduct the search there is no opportu nity for review and even the person asked to provide the records is forbidden from telling anyone Since questioning the re quest involves talking about the request they are between a rock and a hard place from the get go So if you ve been telling yourself that you don t need
56. ws Flag logo if your machine displays the memory check during POST then that s the time to do it If your machine displays a manufacturer s logo such as a DELL screen or HP or COMPAQ or IBM etc then that s the time to do it You will get a character mode menu that offers SAFE MODE SAFE MODE WITH NETWORKING SAFE MODE WITH COMMAND PROMPT etc Select just plain SAFE MODE Your boot will proceed but very slowly as Windows brings up the machine with baseline drivers When it starts up you will get a notification message that you are running in Safe Mode you will get the words Safe Mode in the four corners of your screen and your video will be set to VGA mode 640x480 with just 256 colors That s all normal When the machine settles down hourglass is gone just do a standard shutdown restart When you do a boot into safe mode windows resets many files such as the desktop cache which might be the problem Once you get the machine up in normal mode we d suggest that you do the normal system maintenance such as clearing your Internet cache Control Panel Internet Options Delete Files and delete temporary files Remember that any file or folder in C TEMP C TMP or C WINDOWS TEMP that is dated prior to the time of your starting the machine is fair game for deletion When in Windows Explorer click on VIEW then DETAILS to expose the tabular view of folders which includes the file s time
57. y three days to get it postmarked Don t wait till the last day to mail it Make sure a website address and or telephone number is included that you can use to contact the rebate center about your rebate Most of the upscale rebate centers include an 800 number Make two copies of ALL documentation submitted If a cheesy rebate cen ter decides to tell you they never re ceived your re quest without copies you re up the pro verbial creek I am working on an article about using your scanner for this purpose think it is a good idea to include one of the documentation photocopies with the submission to make the point that you have copies Mark it CC Vendor My Files On the larger rebates buying the 0 95 proof of delivery service at the post office is cheap insurance Having a witness to the mailing doesn t hurt Error on your side of the game If it says 6 to 8 weeks check at 6 weeks don t wait three months Be reasonable with phone calls but check the website as often as you like Mark your calendar to remind yourself to check on the rebate Keep a folder for all of your rebates Move completed ones to another folder Once you get your rebate check read how long it is good for Some are good for 6 months Most are void af ter 60 days A few are void after 30 days I got one that was expired when it was delivered When you think you have been shafted don t just grimace and bear it complain Compla

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