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2. The second program evaluated for screen magnification allows for an additional option speech along with the magnification This program is called iZoom and can be obtained from http www issist com really like the customizing options available in iZoom These can be accessed from the initial menu when iZoom comes on or once the menu is closed you can reopen it quickly by clicking the mouse on the iZoom icon in the system tray Here are the option screens lt insert izoom1 and izoom2 gt iZoom allows for default or customizable hot keys several sizes and colors of mouse pointers color combinations supplied with the program as well as custom color modes several sizes and shapes of locators that help the user find the location of the mouse pointer and a choice of several lens shapes as well as full screen magnification iZoom magnifies from 1X to 32X The negatives have found in iZoom are as follows First when using the lens mode you have to place the lens first over what you want to interact with and then move the mouse pointer within that lens Second from about the 3X magnification up the display becomes more and more pixilated which can be a problem for some vision conditions such as astigmatism among others Third there is only one voice offered with the speech option and it is not a particularly pleasant one As you would expect with additional options comes an additional cost Again you can download a
3. System Mechanic 8 A PC Swiss Army Knife System Mechanic 8 A PC Swiss Army Knife By Ira Wilsker APCUG Director Columnist The Examiner Beaumont TX Radio and TV Show Host Iwilsker at apcug net Obtained from APCUG with the author s permission for publication by APCUG member groups WEBSITE http www iolo com http www iolo com downloads aspx FREE TRIAL SOFTWARE Frequent readers of this column will be well aware that there are many computer utilities in cyberspace that can improve the performance of our PCs As we use our computers the registry becomes cluttered and inefficient useless files consume valuable real estate on our hard drives and other maladies caused by the software on our computers deprive us of the performance we paid for and deserve While admittedly use several different utilities to maintain peak operating efficiency of my computers if had to choose only a single utility for computer maintenance it would be lolo s System Mechanic www iolo com have used System Mechanic for many years in its earlier versions but now lolo has released the latest iteration System Mechanic version 8 Simply System Mechanic 8 is arguably the most comprehensive PC maintenance utility available with over 40 distinct performance and security tools included giving it Swiss Army Knife features Accord ing to published sales figures System Mechanic is the 1 best selling PC tune up software on the
4. s Restau rant 5925 Sawmill Road Dublin when 5th Monday of the month meet at MicroCenter CCS Resource Room During the Board Meeting Officer Reports are given by the President Vice President Treasurer and Secretary The various Department Directors report on Advertising Educational Services Electronic Communications Membership Publications Programs Events Public Relations Resource Center and Past President There is an opportunity for discussion of Old Business and New Business Members are always welcome to attend Greg Woeste greg wst ccscmh org COCUG Central Ohio Computer Users Group third Saturday of the month 10 A M Microcenter Store 747 Bethel Road Columbus Ohio 43214 Meeting Room 1 This SIG originally began as a separate club over 17 years ago discussing computers based on the 6502 processor With the tremen dous growth of the PC during the late 1980 s the groups focus migrated to the Intel AMD processor and the Windows operating system and joined CCS as a SIG in August 2002 The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 8 This group is unique in that members rotate monthly presentations of their choosing usually of their interests or hobbies and what software they use In addition there is a question and answer session Previous topics for novice to intermediate experienced users have included music sound gaming photo editing hardware upgrades computer networking amp security Windows troubleshooting and Internet techniq
5. but closer to the El station on the opposite side of the street It s a short walk Even if there s bad weather people staying at the Crowne can access the Hyatt via the Skybridge a pedestrian overpass that starts at the parking garage behind the Crowne goes between two other hotels and through the conference center and connects to the Hyatt Once again we are outsourcing hotel reservations to our meeting planners so please don t make reservations di rectly with either hotel That s a ways off anyhow We ll have more announcements in the future Watch this space We re currently discussing how the Program Committee will select talks for next year Anybody who is interested in helping out with this or any other aspect of PyCon is welcome to join us posted by David Goodger at 9 15 PM John Cramer July 28 2008 129 Laptop Impulsenpx9000 The title is correct you can now purchase a laptop for only 129 each plus shipping There is one caveat however you have to purchase a minimum of 100 units Perhaps you have a lot of friends The Impulse NPX 9000 laptop has a 7 inch screen and comes with the Linux OS It has a 400MHz processor 128M bytes of RAM 1G byte of flash storage and an optional wireless networking dongle It includes office pro ductivity software a Web browser and multimedia software It runs the Linux operating system not Microsoft Windows It sounds a lot like the Asus EEE that I described recently in a Plus Edition
6. in order to fit everyone in One of the compromises we had to make was in catering With so many people the hotel was unable to provide proper sit down hot meals simply because the space was t sufficient for everybody to sit banquet style Once the conference days were over there was no problem seating the sprinters on the first day of the sprints there were more sprinters and hangers on than anticipated so progress was slow but this was corrected on the second sprint day While we don t anticipate another 77 increase in attendance next year we do expect some increase so we had to change our plans Our meeting planners came up with two nearby options that allowed for growth and we chose one PyCon 2009 will take place at the Hyatt Regency O Hare hotel which has much more meeting space than the Crowne Plaza a larger main ballroom and additional ballrooms for a larger expo hall and a dining hall There s room in the main ballroom for over 1500 people all in classroom layout We still have a commitment to the Crowne Plaza for rooms and catering You ll have a choice between the two The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 25 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont hotels Filling the rooms at the Crowne shouldn t be a problem because they re the budget option 109 night vs 134 night at the Hyatt We re hoping to take care of the catering obligation via a hopefully sponsored recep tion The Hyatt is near the Crowne
7. you need an IP Internet Protocol address The IP addresses that we are currently using have 4 octets with periods between them They will be some thing like 192 168 100 1 When you access the Internet that address is read by the router modem whatever that links you to your Internet Service Provider Then it is read by the routers that route all the data through the Internet This address makes it possible for you to send data such as e mail or requests for web pages And in turn that same address is used to direct incoming e mail and web pages into your computer There are several websites and programs available that will translate these IP addresses into the name of the company that purchased them In many cases like our residential usages the company name will be the ISP For commercial use it will be the name of the company that rents the block of IP addresses Hackers use this IP address information to find their targets much like we use a physical address to find a house or office Once a hacker finds out your IP address it s relatively simple to send your computer a Trojan horse pro gram spyware or a virus that will open a port that you usually don t use Once that port has been opened he can freely enter into your operating system and browse around just like he was there in per son He would look for programs that store valuable data like social security numbers and credit card account numbers Do you have that information entered i
8. 08 Features of Green Computing Power management is the most popular method The operating system of the computer can be set to directly control the power saving aspects of the hardware It can automatically turn off the monitor or hard drive after a period of inactivity Or the entire system may hibernate turning off most of the com ponents such as even allow the user to manually adjust the voltages supplied to the CPU to reduce the electricity consumption and the amount of heat that is produced As of July of 2007 all new Energy Star certified desktops must have a power supply that is at least 80 efficient Other features include using motherboard video output instead of a video card hard disks that con sume less power flash based solid state drives that require fewer write cycles and lower energy moni tors And manufacturers of networking equipment are developing switches and routers that reduce en ergy costs Recycling Materials Obsolete computers can be reused for charities non profit organizations and developing countries Parts from really old systems can be recycled through some recycling centers Some recycling charges can be passed back to the manufacturers Recycling this equipment keeps the lead mercury and chro mium out of our landfills In addition computer supplies such as cartridges paper and batteries can be easily recycled How Can We Work Greener Visit the website for Climate Savers Smart Computing at sww c
9. 15 16 17 18 Saturday October 11 C en ee ee Ee 28 11 00 a m and 2 00 p m Wireless Networking 26 27 38 29 30 31 Sunday October 12 North J ersey and Rockville locations only 2 00 p m Wireless Networking November 1 Saturday October 18 11 00 a m and 2 00 p m Network Security 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Saturday October 25 11 00 a m and 2 00 p m Malware 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Saturday November 1 30 North J ersey and Rockville locations only 11 00 a m and 2 00 p m Video Capture and Editing The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 14 Special Interest Group NEWS Snippets This section includes brief SIG meeting reviews and news submitted by some of CCS SIG Leaders for the previous months meetings Office Sig June 2008 Submitted by Steve Rollison Time for Another WORD EXTRAVAGANZA Office SIG Meeting Thursday June 26 2008 THURSDAY JUN 26th 6 30 until 8 30 p m Micro Center on Bethel Rd At our meetings we usually do a little bit of this and a little bit of that But this week we go back to an approach we haven t used for a while It s Time for Another Word EXTRAVAGANZA Word stuff More word stuff And ONLY Word stuff Except of course for answering any questions you might bring about Excel Outlook Access etc DISPLAY PICTURES FASTER When your document has a lot of graphics it might take a while for Word to display all of them We sh
10. 89 ACO 1 me COLUMBUS COMPUTER SOCIETY http www ccscmh or Since 1986 Vol 23 Num 4 CCS October November amp 5 7 December Calendars Upcoming General Meetings MicroCenter In Store Clinics CCS General Meeting Online Computer Library Center OCLC Kilgour Building Auditorium ORDE ANAR News Press Releases amp bi i Speaker APCUG Special Offers amp Reports 38 40 Article Index 41 Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite v 10 Product Review Kenneth J Tubaugh Topic Public WiFi Safety Options For Anybody Who Has Thought About Trying Linux Viewing the Bigger Picture Your Next Computer Will Be Green 48 49 System Mechanic 8 A PC Swiss 51 _ 55 Army Knife Anti Virus Virus FastStone Capture A Review 56 57 46 47 More General Meeting Information and Directions on Page 13 The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 1 OFFICERS President John Cramer jcramer_ccs hotmail com Vice President Greg Woeste greg wst ccscmh org Secretary Ruth L Albert rlalbert copper net Treasurer Cindy Cramer Helen Isaacs Assisting hli business solutions com mimi52_mom hotmail com Immediate Past President Jim Bartos joartos columbus rr com DEPARTMENTS DIRECTORS AND STAFF Educational Services David Lauridsen Director david gryphic com Electronic Communications Director Craig Wright cjwright insight rr com Assistant John Cra
11. amp Travel Division Overview and Q amp A To contact the OHFRANKL list administrator send an email to OHFRANKL admin rootsweb com To post a message to the OHFRANKL mailing list send an email to OHFRANKL rootsweb com The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 33 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont May 28 2008 A Genealogy Library in Your Own Home Iam able to talk with many genealogists every year Iam amazed that so few of them know about the immense online resources available to them To be sure almost everyone has heard of Ancestry com and most are familiar with FamilySearch org However fewer people know about the tens of thousands of genealogy books that are available online many of them at no charge Every word of these books are available to you in your own home at your convenience any time of the day or night Some people are aware of Google Books a huge online resource for genealogists and for others Google Books is an online collection of all sorts of books genealogy and almost every other conceivable topic Yet very few people know about the online collections that focus only on genealogy and local history books Some of the other collec tions contain thousands of family history and local history books many of which are not found on Google Books I thought I d highlight a few of the collections this week The remainder of this article is for Plus Edition subscribers only If you have a Plus Edition user ID
12. and cover just TWO planned subjects The benefit for you more time to answer your questions 1 Taming that Frisky Auto Indent Word has a few features that make some of us cuss in exasperation dammit One of those features is Word s insistence that when you press the tab key at the beginning of a new paragraph you really don t want to indent just the first line of the paragraph you want to indent the entire paragraph Taint usually so and tomorrow we ll show you how to get Word to behave the way you want it to behave The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 16 Special Interest Group NEWS Snippets Cont 2 Using Graphics as an Excel Bar Chart Maybe you re putting together a report say 2007 New Home Sales and you want to include a bar chart that shows the number of houses sold each month Boring Now it might not be quite so boring if instead of colored bars you built your chart out of stacks of house clip art Can you say USA Today Yeah we ll show you how to do that Piece o cake To learn this stuff ya gotta pay the price Ya gotta come to the doggone meetin Susan and look forward to seeing you tomorrow Steve The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 17 Special Interest Group NEWS Snippets Cont Office Sig August 2008 Submitted by Steve Rollison In case your memory is less than perfect here s your reminder that the Office SIG meeting is tomorrow night THURSDAY AUGUST 28th 6 30
13. article I purchased one of the ASUS EEE 399 laptops recently and love it A cheaper model with less memory and no video camera is available for 299 I now use it as my primary laptop when traveling It is the only laptop that I carry unless I am giving presen tations It slips in an overcoat pocket and weighs two pounds so it is easy to pack and carry The new 130 Impulse NPX 9000 laptop has almost the same specifications and is less than half the price if you purchase 100 of them However the Impulse NPX 9000 does have less memory and its wireless connectivity is an extra cost option At this price the laptop costs less than some software packages The Impulse NPX 9000 laptop should be able to run GRAMPS a full featured free genealogy program for Linux I don t know if anyone has tried that yet however The 129 laptop is available on Alibaba com through the online store of Taiwanese company Carapelli Ltd You can read more at http www alibaba com product tp 101509462 World_s_Cheapest_Laptop html Hmmm anyone want to try for a group buy Posted by Dick Eastman on July 28 2008 The following article is from Eastman s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright by Richard W Eastman It is re published here with the permission of the author Information about the newsletter is available at htip www eogn com Anyone complying with the above does not need to ask permission in advance The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 26 NEW
14. fact that it may not be as flexible as the stand alone programs it will be easier for the novice If you are a true video buff then even if you own other video software you would also want to have EMC in your software chest The smallest stand alone module is Media Manager that enables users to easily browse manage share and protect their media files The final application module is Tools This module is used for creat ing disc labels obtaining drive information erasing discs creating virtual disc drives and a few other assorted utilities Roxio EMC is Vista compatible and includes gadgets for doing things directly from the desktop I m certain most computer users will find enough applications on Roxio Easy Media Creator to make the investment worthwhile If this review has captured your interest pay a visit to Roxio s website at http www roxio com They have some great videos that will demonstrate these neat features This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member groups All other uses require the permission of the author see e mail address above The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 43 For Anybody Who Has Thought About Trying Linux For Anybody Who Has Thought About Trying Linux By Drew Kwashnak Linux SIG Leader Danbury Area Computer Society CT www dacs org dacseditor at dacs org Obtained from APCUG with the author s permission for publication by APCUG member groups
15. group at our Member2Member session FastStone Capture a review by Ron Hirsch Boca Raton Computer Society Member amp Contributing Editor Florida www brcs org Approx 870 words If you don t use a screen capture program this might be the program for you know that couldn t get along without the one that use Solid Cap ture also use it every day and especially with the curriculum put together for my classes Hacking 101 by Marjie Tucker Editor Macon Computer User Group North Carolina www mcug org Approx 1 356 words We are being bombarded with warnings about securing our data and the entry to our computers Do you ever wonder how a hacker can possibly get into your data And what he is looking for Marjie helps answer those questions The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 41 Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite v 10 Product Review Product Review Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite v 10 By John Roy President The PC Users Group of Connecticut www itpcug ct org johnroy1 at comcast net Obtained from APCUG with the author s permission for publication by APCUG member groups Roxio a division and brand of Sonic Solutions has been a leader in burning software for many years personally have used the product since it was distributed by Adaptec several years ago The CD DVD burning software today far exceeds the basic functions that existed in those early days Roxio Easy Media Creator EMC will accomplish so much more than th
16. jeep in the desert and had been lost to his fam ily for more than 50 years from Lackawanna County Pennsylvania and San Bernardino County California Says RootsTelevision com co founder Marcy Brown We hope this show will create awareness and that view ers will help with unsolved cases But most of all we hope it will motivate folks to pick up the phone and call that brother they haven t spoken with in decades I think it will make people ask themselves if maybe it s time to call home Unclaimed Persons can be viewed at www RootsTelevision com About RootsTelevision com RootsTelevision com was launched online in late 2006 and already provides more than 1 000 videos free on demand and 24 7 for family history enthusiasts around the globe In its first year this Internet based channel won four Telly Awards for its diverse programming For more information please visit www RootsTelevision com Posted by Dick Eastman on May 28 2008 RePosted by John Cramer The following article is from Eastman s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright by Richard W Eastman It is re published here with the permission of the author Information about the newsletter is available at htip www eogn com Anyone complying with the above does not need to ask permission in advance The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 35 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont June 05 2008 Legacy Family Tree 7 0 It s official Millennia Co
17. mar ket and has won awards for excellence from dozens of computer publications including Cnet s Editors Choice Windows Magazine PC Computing ZDNet Editors Pick Computer Shopper s Top 100 Com puterworld and many others Rhetorically why would choose System Mechanic 8 over all of its competitors Because of what it does its power versatility and features that is why Compared to its major competitors none of them offer the feature rich set of functions that System Mechanic offers According to lolo Over 98 of PC problems are caused by clutter and faulty settings that are the result of everyday PC use System Me chanic 8 can repair or otherwise remedy virtually all of these problems Many of a PC s problems can be traced to problems and errors in the registry a large data file that contains information on the hardware and software installed on the computer The registry is almost constantly written to and read often leaving obsolete data in the registry This obsolete and eventually erroneous data left in the registry consumes some system resources and can promote errors and other problems as faulty data is read and processed The registry must be periodically purged of useless data defragmented and compacted in order to contribute to better PC performance a function that System Mechanic 8 excels at Our computers are constantly reading from and writing to the hard drive and that drive often becomes cluttered fra
18. of transcribing old records with everyone contributing their extractions to the master copy again with multiple transcribers The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 21 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont Publishing the society s newsletters including back issues Creating a book of all the descendants of person X or republishing an existing family history book Each person listed in the book would receive a separate page on the wiki and could have more data contributed by oth ers as time goes by Wikis are beginning to become useful tools for genealogy The web site of WeRelate org is a huge and very so phisticated wiki featuring the life of one individual per page The site now contains hundreds of thousands of pages The New FamilySearch web site being created by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints contains a wiki as well as other software A wiki is a great tool because Jt is accessible from anyplace with a web connection Tt is an archive as every page revision is saved and is available at any time Tt is exciting immediate and empowering everyone has a say I have created three wikis One is a non genealogy related wiki that I created for an employer It contains technical notes and tips for the employer s tech support department Another is the Encyclopedia of Genealogy at http www eogen com I seeded the Encyclopedia of Genealogy with perhaps fifty pages of information about various gen
19. sells for about 100 but if you watch for sales you can buy it for much less The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 42 When you think of Roxio and burning software the primary reason most people purchase the product is for those tools The Copy and Data and Backup modules take care of those basic requirements along with some other goodies For anyone familiar with an older version you will still find the original Creator Classic still there but spruced up That old standby is quite the workhorse You select the type and size of disc you want to burn and it will keep you updated on available space as you move files or folders you want to burn into a holding area Once your files and folders are selected you can burn your CD DVD directly or make an image for later burning Of course you have advanced options to define the type of disc speed copies etc You can also make a bootable or multimedia disc and go directly to creating disc labels of your burn project The backup module provides capability to be selective of the files you want backed up or restored and at what frequency If you want more powerful options then you will be provided an upgrade link A range of backup devices and media including Blu ray discs and HD DVD discs are supported Large files can be automatically spanned across multiple discs as required The Audio module provides thirteen selections that cover just about everything you could possibly want to do with audio All the expe
20. 008 12 October 2008 General Meeting CCS General Meeting Online Computer Library Center OCLC Kilgour Building Auditorium October 15 2008 Speaker Kenneth J Tubaugh Topic Public WiFi Safety Options The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 13 s C3 Qs Free Clinics at Your Local Micro Center store Come participate in the free in store clinics hosted by our own tech support staff Each clinic covers a new topic from the latest technology to troubleshooting your gadgets You ll also have the chance to get your com puter questions answered by the experts Sign up to get In Store Clinic Update Get monthly updates on the latest In Store Clinics at your local Micro Center store L Saturday October 4 11 00 a m amp 2 00 p m These FREE clinics will be held at all Micro Center stores Registration is recommended not required since space is limited sign up sheets are available only in your local Micro Center at Tech Support or the Cus tomer Service area Wired Networkin e Windows network configurations e How to Network two or more computers together Assign TCP IP addresses Share and use resources Determine equipment and cables to do the job Hubs switches and routers Straight through patch cables Cross over cables October More Clinics 1 2 3 H Sunday October 5 North J ersey and Rockville locations only 2 00 p m Wired Networking 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
21. 053 words With Europe leading the way the computer industry is decid edly becoming green The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment WEEE and the Restriction of Hazardous Substances ROHS directives went into effect earlier this year These two directives state that certain electrical and electronic equipment must cut down on hazardous materials such as lead mercury and cadmium Going Green by Jerry Grommes Approx 450 words Should you leave your computer on System Mechanic 8 Review by Ira Wilsker Approx 1 092 words While admittedly use several dif ferent utilities to maintain peak operating efficiency of my computers if had to choose only a single utility for computer maintenance it would be lolo s System Mechanic www iolo com Anti Virus Virus by Sandy Berger CompuKISS www compukiss com Approx 569 words Sandy hates writing about computer viruses since it always reminds her of how many unscrupulous money hungry people there are in the world She lets us know about a very bad group of viruses that are out and about right now Broadsides by Ron Broadhurst a member of the Space Coast PC Users Group Florida www scpcug com Approx 635 words Ron provides us with ideas compiled from years of accumula tions from various magazines books on line sites and his own personal experience He claims nei ther originality nor ownership to any of the contents found three new ones to me that can share with my user
22. 3 ubuntu For anybody who has thought about trying Linux it has become easier than ever before with Ubuntu 8 04 LTS Hardy Heron As with most Linux distributions Ubuntu is available as a free download and is freely distribut able It is even available already installed on Dell computers The most common method is downloading the ISO image from Ubuntu s website http www ubuntu com and burning it onto a CD From the site you can download the Desktop version or Server for 32 bit and 64 bit systems There is even an option to download what is called an alternative version which is just the installer and does not include the LiveCD portion which also includes an installer If you are like me until a couple months ago and living on dial up or you do not have a CD burner handy or just don t want to put in that much effort then you can order a free CD through the corporate sponsor of Ubuntu Canonical ShipIt department I have been very pleased with the speed with which their CDs arrive Alternatively the website contains links to vendors where you can buy the CDs from under 5 to more and they can handle large orders as well Once you have your CD in your hot little hands trying Ubuntu is as simple as placing it in your CD ROM tray and rebooting your system If system will boot from the CD and after a short moment you ll be greeted with the Ubuntu welcome screen If you want to try before you buy then you can choose the default Try Ubun
23. 30 day demo of iZoom from the Website and if you wish to purchase the program the price is 199 00 However keep in mind that the two major commercial screen magnification programs MAGic from Freedom Scientific and ZoomText Plus from Al Squared both weigh in at from 300 00 to 550 00 de pending on how many options you wish to have So if you feel the need to view the bigger picture give the demos of the above programs a try and see if they will be of use to you This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member groups All other uses require the permission of the author see e mail address above The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 47 Your Next Computer Will Be Green Your Next Computer Will Be Green By Marjie Tucker Editor Mountain Computer User Group GA www mcug org mcug at dnet net Obtained from APCUG with the author s permission for publication by APCUG member groups With Europe leading the way the computer industry is decidedly becoming green The Waste Electri cal and Electronic Equipment WEEE and the Restriction of Hazardous Substances ROHS directives went into effect earlier this year These two directives state that certain electrical and electronic equip ment must cut down on hazardous materials such as lead mercury and cadmium They also give cus tomers the right to return their equipment free of charge Companies have several years to fully imple ment these di
24. 8 Re Posted by John Cramer The following article is from Eastman s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright by Richard W Eastman It is re published here with the permission of the author Information about the newsletter is available at htip www eogn com Anyone complying with the above does not need to ask permission in advance BCC CCS genealogy amp WEBDesign The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 23 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont Crash Smash Kaboom Course in Python Presented by Catherine Devlin will be located at MicroCenter Bethel Rd store Olentangy Plaza 747 Bethel Road Columbus OH 43214 See http www microcenter com at_the_stores columbus html July 1 2008 Track Languages Technology Platform Python Difficulty Level Beginner Abstract This session is a quick introduction to Python programming using a live graphical demonstration A simulation of solar system dynamics is built in gradual steps with Python concepts and syntax demonstrated as we go This session is suitable for anyone who d like to get started with Python or who just likes seeing planets blow up This talk is geared to Python newcomers and also gives a peek at IronPython About the Speaker After a wasted youth studying chemical engineering Catherine accidentally became an Ora cle database administrator in 1999 She started with Python in 2003 She works for IntelliTech Systems at Wright Patterson Air Force Base programmin
25. 94 Dallas Tx 75367 1294 APCUG Reports has been available for many years in both an online form at http reports apcug org and also a printed form which we snail mailed to the President APCUG Rep Program Chairman and Editor but in a cost saving measure beginning with the July Q3 issue it will only exist in an electronic form A PDF will be emailed to the President APCUG Rep Program Coordinator Editor Membership Chair Vice President Secretary Treasurer Webmaster Director i e all of the email addresses we have in our CDB If you do not want to receive this PDF tell your President or APCUG Rep to remove your email address from the CDB If you know someone who should have received it but did not tell your President or APCUG Rep to check their email address in the CDB In This Issue Recruitment page 15 Letter to Membership page 3 Region 2 page 16 SharePoint apcug net page 4 Opinions from the Attendees page 18 How to use SharePoint page 4 Layers in Graphic Programs page 20 APCUG Welcomes Its Newest Members page 5 Elections page 23 Help Wanted page 5 What are you doing Feb 7 and 8 2009 page 24 Remote Presentations and Sharing page 6 Hurricane Ike Up Close and Personal page 25 IBM Lotus Sametime Unyte Share page 10 Hijacked Websites and other Malware Provider Sto Stop Think Warning page 12 ries page 26 Region 12 Report page 13 FACUG Fall Conference page 28 Region 1 page 14 Region 6 page 30 Region 10 page 15 Midwest Reg
26. Novice and AutoCAD Super Highway AutoLISP 6 30 pm 6 00 pm Inactive Windows 6 30 pm 12 Investment 6 30 pm Consulting 7 00 pm I5 COCUG 10 00 am 16 17 18 Genealogy Linux 6 30 pm 6 30 pm 19 General Meeting 6 30 pm Delphi 7 00 pm 20 Java and Open Source 7 00 pm 23 24 25 CCS Board Web Meeting Development 6 30 pm 6 30 pm FoxPro Programming 6 30 pm 26 27 Microsoft Office 6 30 pm The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 LOOK WHAT S HAPPENING AT Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat l 2 3 4 5 6 WordPerfect Computer Access Anti Virus amp 6 30 pm Networking Visual Basic More 6 30 pm 6 30 pm 10 00 am Inactive Inactive 8 9 10 ll 13 Novice and AutoCAD Super Highway AutoLISP Investment 6 30 pm 6 00 pm 6 30 pm Inactive m Consulting Windows 7 00 pm 6 30 pm 14 I5 16 17 I8 20 Genealogy Linux General Java and COCUG 6 30 pm 6 30 pm Meeting Open Source 10 00 am 6 30 pm 7 00 pm CCS Board Meeting Before or after Gen Mtg Delphi 7 00 pm 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 FoxPro Web Microsoft Programming Development Office 6 30 pm 6 30 pm 6 30 pm ie Le 28 29 30 3I gh The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 7 SIGs are small Special Interest Groups that meet once per month Each SIG description contains SIG name location date and time of meeting name of leader and the e mail address of the leader Be sure to check the website calendar up
27. S Press Releases and Special Offers Cont July 24 2008 Embedding EXIF Data in Photographs Congratulations if you have scanned your old family photos and documents or invested in a digital camera to pre serve today s pictures for future family historians Before resting on your laurels take a moment to recall all the old photos you ve come across that you wish had labels describing the people places or events pictured Your digital images have a built in capability to create such labels descriptions that won t get separated from their subjects with ease that would amaze our forebears With today s image files what you see is only part of what you get Let s take a look behind the scenes of your digital photos All sorts of information can be stored inside the digital file itself such as Date and time information Many digital cameras will print this on the picture but they also can save it with the image file Camera settings This includes static information such as the camera model and make and information that varies with each image such as orientation aperture shutter speed focal length metering mode and ISO speed information A thumbnail for previewing the picture on the camera s LCD screen in file managers and in photo manipula tion software Descriptions and copyright information Any information about the picture or its subject that you choose to add using one of the free or cheap photo edit
28. and password you can read the article for a few weeks at no additional charge in this web site s Plus Edition blog at http plus eogn com Default aspx pageld 113015 amp mode PostView amp bmi 35219 E mail address and password are required If you do not remember your Plus Edition user ID or password you can retrieve them at http plus eogn com For more information about the Plus Edition of Eastman s Online Genealogy Newsletter go to http www eogn com plus Posted by Dick Eastman on May 28 2008 Re posted by John Cramer Also please include the following statement with any articles you re distribute The following article is from Eastman s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2007 by Richard W Eastman It is re published here with the permission of the author Information about the newsletter is available at htip www eogn com Anyone complying with the above does not need to ask permission in advance The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 34 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont May 28 2008 Unclaimed Persons on Roots Television Roots Television has added a new episode about finding the families of deceased individuals These Unclaimed Persons have now often been identified by genealogists who use traditional genealogical techniques Unclaimed Persons also describes the Unknown Persons web site a list of deceased individuals whose families are unknown Thousands of unclaimed persons cas
29. at can bring you to the Linux world with a single click Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other Windows application in a simple and safe way Are you curious about Linux and Ubuntu Trying them out has never been easier Wubi can be downloaded as an exe file directly With Linux the installation is not the end only the beginning Whether you try the LiveCD Wubi or a full installation you will find a wealth of quality applications refreshing freedom and a community unlike any other If you have problems questions or want to find out more then you need look no further than the third Wednesday of every month for the DACS Linux SIG at 7 30 p m in the DACS Resource Center Drew Kwashnak Has been losing more nights of sleep with Linux since 2002 and just can t keep from downloading and trying the latest versions When not working with Linux he works with ASP NET and Micro soft SQL Server for a small financial company He is also the DACS Linux SIG leader and a father of 3 Links Ubuntu http www ubuntu com Get Ubuntu http www ubuntu com getubuntu ShipIt https shipit ubuntu com This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member groups All other uses re quire the permission of the author see e mail address above The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 45 Viewing the Bigger Picture Viewing the Bigger Picture By Bonnie L Snyder P PCompAS Colorado Springs CO
30. blem and no solution Fortunately have a couple of other computers at my house so tried installing the version 10 on both an older desktop and on my primary laptop system The install went smoothly on both of those systems So until get a chance to rebuild my primary desktop won t know if can ever use the latest version on it On a side note before trying to install EMC version 10 had version 9 successfully working After all the sys tem changes could no longer load my EMC version 9 So now struggled with that problem for a few days Once again not finding any online solutions contacted a phone support tech who was able to direct me to a download utility that cleared the problem and allowed me once again install version 9 While the above debacle was frustrating don t let it deter you from considering the purchase of this capa ble applications suite So let s look at why you should consider owning this product Once you get past the install you will see a super clean interface with applications divided into seven pri mary areas Audio Data and Backup Copy Media and Devices Photo Video and Tools Each applica tion provides another set of choices Audio has 13 Data and Backup 5 Copy 5 Media and Devices 2 Photo 9 Video 11 and Tools 8 Now that is a huge chest of applications at your disposal If you were to purchase each primary application separately it would cost you a few hundred dollars This pack age
31. ch phones a charging cradle in which to place that phone when not in use plus a black box The black box serves as the cordless phone base station It has three connectors on the back and not much else The connectors are 1 power 2 a standard network connector for a cable that goes to the broadband modem router 3 a standard telephone connector for the optional cable that goes to a standard telephone line The Philips VOIP841 is a two line phone You can use it both for Skype and for a traditional telephone line If you keep your traditional phone line you only need one cordless phone to use both Skype and the traditional telephone service Keeping a standard phone also avoids all the issues about 911 emergency calls directory assistance and other such issues However I wasn t concerned with those items I do not use a standard phone line at all only my Skype connection In use the Philips VOIP841 functions almost the same as any standard cordless phone you have ever used before There are two minor exceptions I can think of 1 When placing a call to a standard telephone you must start off with a plus sign to indicate this is a Skype call Otherwise the call will be placed over the traditional phone line For instance to call the National Genealogi cal Society via the Skype connection I would dial 1 703 525 0050 That plus sign is important 2 The Philips VOIP841 will display your Skype Phonebook That is you can store yo
32. ciety could use a wiki as a publishing tool for the local history book that the society wishes to create some day A group effort with input from multiple people could easily be come more complete and detailed than any such effort conducted by one person Almost all wikis are built on group collaboration my personal wiki is an obvious exception Most of the wikis I have seen allow new information to replace or update previously entered information Indeed since I created the Encyclopedia of Genealogy many of the paragraphs that I originally created have been replaced with newer more complete information written by other genealogists This week I decided to share my experiences at building the wikis You may be surprised at just how easy such a task is You also may be surprised at the cost two of my wikis cost zero while the third costs ten dollars per month The remainder of this article is for Plus Edition subscribers only If you have a Plus Edition user ID and password you can read the article for a few weeks at no additional charge in this web site s Plus Edition blog at http plus eogn com Default aspx pageld 1 13015 E mail address and password are required If you do not remember your Plus Edition user ID or password you can retrieve them at http plus eogn com For more information about the Plus Edition of Eastman s Online Genealogy Newsletter go to http www eogn com plus Posted by Dick Eastman on June 25 200
33. cted tools are there to rip CD s into MP3 files or create audio CDs from other formats You can make custom CD s with fades effects and mixing Tools are there to edit song information and to do batch conversions to formats of your choice One module allows you to instantly capture any audio playing on your computer including streaming radio There is one utility Convert LPs and Tapes that was especially enthused about At our meeting we have had the question of how to convert LPs and Tapes asked many times in the past While there are several methods to accom plish this Roxio EMC has made it easy and crystal clear with this application So for those of you that have a desire to do this you should give Roxio EMC serious consideration The Photo application contains a full featured photo suite with powerful editing effects and touchup tools It is complete with all the ancillary things you want to do with photos such as creating slideshows panoramas albums greeting cards calendars and layout templates You can quickly optimize a group of photos for sending email The Video application is another full featured suite for importing editing customizing and exporting video into various formats Included is CinePlayer a full featured video player The features are similar to those found in Pinnacle Studio or Adobe Premier While some of Roxio EMC tools are not as robust as the leaders you will find some tools not available in the others The
34. ctricity bills by as much as 10 by unplugging your appliances and electronics when they re not being used This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member groups All other uses require the permission of the author see e mail address above The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 49 Going Green Going Green by Jerry Grommes Past President Sandwich Computer Users Group Illinois Www scug org ggrommes at indianvalley com Obtained from APCUG with the author s permission for publication by APCUG member groups During our June program there was quite a discussion about whether to leave your computer on verses shutting it off when not in use I personally like to leave my computers run so they are kept up to date with auto updates and backed up with scheduled backups These tasks are done in the early AM so my computers are fully func tional when sit down to use them However others asked why not just leave them on the nights that the backup runs instead of 24 7 didn t think it was using much energy by running 24 7 but decided to check it out and run some tests using my Kill AWatt meter Measures watts amps hours kill a watt hours ect started with my newest computer which is approx 2 years old and probably the most efficient This machine is run ning Vista and had the Power Options set to turn off the monitor after 20 minutes and put computer to sleep to neve
35. d think it would be simple for Blackwell or some other book store chain to enter into an agreement with one or more of the companies who already have digitized thousands of out of copyright genealogy and local history books Retailers do have one big advantage over online there is no delivery time wait You can walk into the store purchase the book and walk out with it Amazon com cannot compete with that business model You can watch an interesting video of the book machines in operation at http www youtube com watch v JMFhS5axDKWU Posted by Dick Eastman on June 23 2008 Re Posted by John Cramer Also please include the following statement with any articles you re distribute The following article is from Eastman s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright by Richard W Eastman It is re published here with the permission of the author Information about the newsletter is available at http www eogn com Anyone complying with the above does not need to ask permission in advance The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 20 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont June 25 2008 Build a Wiki the Easy Way You or your local genealogy society might find great satisfaction not to mention accomplishing a lot with mini mal resources by creating a wiki This is a great way to let people collaborate on a project That project might be the creation of listings of old tax records transcriptions from census records or perha
36. dates regarding changes due to weather holidays leader illness etc at http www ccscmh orgq Access Visual Basic SIG Inactive Microcenter 747 Bethel Rd Columbus OH 43214 1 Wednesday 6 30 P M The group focuses upon Microsoft s Access Visual Basic programming and database products with some emphasis on techniques for the novice as well as on tips tricks and problem solving Generally the meeting time is filled with questions and answers from attendees Other times focused topics are covered Dave Kochs dave heydave com Anti virus and More SIG Inactive Microcenter 747 Bethel Rd Columbus OH 43214 1 Saturday 10 00 A M Spyware Firewalls and Dave Kochs dave heydave com AutoCAD AutoLISP SIG Inactive Advanced Solutions Inc 900 A Club Drive Columbus Ohio 43081 2nd Tuesday 6 00 P M Discussions include new issues for AutoCAD users what is everyone doing to learn what is next and what are the needs of users and managers of CAD departments Demo s are welcomed Bring your ideas and list of needs so we can include them in future meeting schedules and demo s Randy M Wilcox rep4oem attglobal net Columbus Computer Society General Meeting Online Computer Library Center 6565 Frantz Rd Dublin OH 43017 3 Wednesday 6 30 P M is new member orientation and learning forum at 7 00 pm is the General Meeting amp guest speaker Columbus Computer Society Board Meeting last Monday of the month 6 30 P M lacono
37. delete files from hard drives digital cameras memory cards and almost all other digital media Professional also includes DriveScrubber a utility that can securely erase data from hard drives This is necessary when donating a computer selling it or recycling it Without securely deleting our personal data others can access it and use it for a variety of purposes including identity theft DriveScrubber overwrites the data using methods that meet strict government and military standards ensuring the de struction of that data without harm to the drive itself lolo has a winner in System Mechanic 8 For those who like to try software before they purchase it lolo offers a free 30 day fully functional trial version of each of its products at www iolo com downloads aspx If you try the software you will probably like it as much as do and find it indispensa ble This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member groups All other uses require the permission of the author see e mail address above The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 52 Anti Virus Virus Anti Virus Virus By Sandy Berger CompukISS www compukiss com sandy at compukiss com This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author s permission for publication by APCUG member groups all other uses require the permission of the author see e mail address above hate writing about computer viruses It always rem
38. e President Secretary Treasurer Webmaster Director i e all of the email addresses we have in our CDB If you do not want to receive this PDF tell your President or APCUG Rep to remove your email address from the CDB If you know someone who should have received it but did not tell your Presi dent or APCUG Rep to check their email address in the CDB This issue is available at http reports apcug org 2008g3 him It has the PDF of the entire document a zipped version of the PDF and HTML files for each individual article urge you to either forward the PDF or the link to any officer or SIG leader in your User Group that will not receive it directly from us and urge him her to see if there are any ideas that you would like to try in your User Group And if you come up with an idea and find it works in your User Group please document it with pictures if appropriate and send it to dsingleton apcug net Table of Contents APCUG Midwest Regional 3 Improving a Photograph 14 ONEINE Reports seaca goo sieheven sions aa one 3 Region 2 soran RA esse a Era a aie yess sn aie 15 President s News 4 Supporting Computer Refurbishing 17 Temecula Valley Computer Children and Computers 17 WSEE S Group sesend Wi ae wie air Raaiete vo 5 Region TI 2 eked neisa seneca anena 19 Seniors Computer Group 6 THANK You TEM esses anse aa aega anaes 20 Virtual Meeting 7 Rec
39. e above does not need to ask permission in advance The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 32 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont Date Wed 10 Sep 2008 15 01 38 0400 From Russ Pollitt lt RPOLLITT columbuslibrary org gt Subject OHFRANKL FREE WORKSHOPS FAMILY HISTORY DAY CML To OHFRANKL rootsweb com Family History Day 2008 Columbus Metropolitan Library WHEN Saturday October 4th 2008 TIME 10 a m 4 30 PLACE Main Library 96 S Grant Ave Columbus Ohio 43215 COST FREE Come spend the day with staff and other genealogical experts and discover your roots Registration Host table will be open at 9 a m Registration is free but seating is limited so please register soon for an exciting day of genealogy programs Call 614 645 1249 to register for any of the programs listed below The Morning Session 10 12 noon Meet and speak with experts from various genealogical and historical organizations such as the DAR SAR Ohio Historical Society Franklin County Genealogical amp Historical Society and more Workshops 1 2 30 p m Genealogy for Beginners African American Research Genealogy on the Net amp Digital Resources Religious Records and Roots Workshops 3 4 30 p m Finding Public Records in Ohio Court Houses Putting Clues Together Learning More About Your Family Photographs Palatines to America Collection New Rare and Other Important Sources for Researching Your German Roots Genealogy History
40. e authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Columbus Computer Society its officers or members Articles may be e mailed to the Publications Director at publications ccscmh org Change of address should be directed to Columbus Computer Society c o Gary Smith 2033 Queensbridge Dr Columbus OH 43235 or by e mail to membership ccscmh org DEADLINES FOR The CCS News Please submit advertising for placement in The CCS News by the second Friday of the month Please submit articles or news items for placement in The CCS News by the third Friday of the month Articles can be submitted as text files Microsoft Word documents or Corel WordPerfect files Articles should be submitted by email attachment to publications ccscmh org Fall Winter 2008 Keep Up on What s Happening in CCS Website http www ccscmh org CCS Board Minutes and Treasurer s Report http Awww ccscmh org members financial_reports php Help List http www ccscmh org members help list php Download the Newsletter To get past and present issues delivered right to your computer connect your computer to the Internet and use the following URL address http www ccscmh org news index php CCS Blog http columbuscomputersociety blogger com If you or someone you know is interested in these classes or another topic for a class please contact John Cramer at jcramer_ccs hotmail com The Columbus Computer Society is always lo
41. e basic burning tasks and is now a full featured suite Doing this review has allowed me to explore and appreciate the many applications within this suite Be cause EMC is so comprehensive will provide an overview in this article but follow up with more details in future issues of our newsletter Before start boasting about some of these neat applications must discuss some installation issues The product would not install on my primary computer After trying several times to install under various sce narios checked for possible solutions using Roxio s web product support and also their user forum None of those sources provided any clues so connected with technical phone support was quite surprised that the wait time was very small and the technician was professional and extremely competent Unfortu nately after almost two hours of phone support the problem was not solved The tech support effort involved major system modifications including deletion of all files associated with my original EMC version 9 my Nero burner software a complete registry purge line by line of anything remotely associated with or influenced by Roxio software removal of all anti virus software and firewalls elimination of all startup files except system essentials and running registry clean utilities Nothing worked A trouble report was left open but never received any further calls In their users forum did find one other person with the exact same pro
42. e cof fee shops airports train stations and similar wi fi hotspots Nevertheless these wi fi phones all should work well on your home wi fi network They operate with WEP and WPA encrypted networks as well as with unencrypted connections Next all of these wi fi cordless phones seem to have limited battery life They typically last eight hours or less be tween charges The exact amount of time depends upon how much you talk on the phone In fact the Linksys iPhone WIP320 I used actually got hot during telephone calls You know it is consuming battery power quickly when it gets hot You can find a number of wi fi cordless Skype phones at http www google com products q wi fitskype amp btnG Search amp show dd Finally I will mention the Panasonic KXWP1050 Wi Fi Phone for Skype It works well but is expensive and is sort of a special purpose cordless wi fi phone for use with Skype It serves a rather narrow audience and I doubt if many people will require its unique features However if your needs are like mine you might find the Panasonic KXWP1050 to be a perfect solution The Panasonic KXWP1050 is designed for the frequent traveler who often finds himself herself in hotel rooms It is especially useful for traveling internationally when cell phone roaming rates are so high as to make phone calls home very expensive Placing international calls on Skype is always much cheaper than placing the same calls on a cell phone The Panason
43. e the enjoyment of showing off your family tree by producing stunning full color wall charts ancestor descendant fan hourglass bow tie and even DNA charts Use them for your next family reunion or for a deserving wall in your home SourceWriter Cite your sources easily and correctly with the new SourceWriter SourceWriter makes it simple for you to select the correct input screen so that you enter all the pieces needed to correctly cite any source of information in the thousands of formats that exist for them The information you enter is correctly and precisely formatted to match the genealogy industry standards for source citations when printing footnotes endnotes and bibliographies Multiple citations for an event can be combined into one paragraph thus avoiding a long string of superscripted numbers within the report body Interview Reports Choose from over 1 200 carefully pre written interview questions and memory triggers to help you capture your family s memories before it is too late Guided Setup Wizard Getting started with Legacy is even easier now The new guided setup wizard takes you by the hand and guides you through the setup process in an easy to understand way New Relationship Calculator See how any two people are connected not only through direct blood rela tionships but also by marriage A person might be the great grandfather of the wife of your 2nd great grandnephew You can also specify how many of th
44. ealogy related topics Since then several hundred other genealogists have added material or have updated corrected and expanded the information that I originally posted Perhaps the best example of this collaboration is the list of local regional and state libraries that offer free in home access to the records found on HeritageQuest Online That page at http www eogen com HeritageQuestOnline has been updated hundreds of times by many different people each one adding whatever information he or she could add about a local library Other pages on the Encyclopedia of Genealogy describe local societies give definitions of terms found in old documents tell where to download free genealogy charts and more The result is a collection of information that can benefit thousands of genealogists If you have not yet seen the Encyclopedia of Genealogy I would suggest that you go there now to see what a wiki can do for genealogists Point your browser to http www eogen com While there you might want to add a page or two of information that you wish to share If you find it helpful you might want to bookmark it in your browser as a favorite destination for later reference The third wiki that I have created is a personal one for my own use In fact I use it just like a huge stack of yellow sticky notes It is protected by a user name and password and I am the only person with full access to the con tents All the user names and passwords I
45. ed by the fruitless process and crashes When it crashes the website will vanish and the hacker will be given access to a prompt for the server He can then use Linux or DOS commands to request and view information on that server other servers How About Wireless Let s put this hacker into an airport where hundreds of people are sharing a wireless network It s like leaving a child alone in a candy store In this case the airport s wireless system usually provides the IP addresses through DHCP and he can easily look at the list of addresses that have been supplied He can test each of the addresses for available ports and it s quick work to access the most vulnerable The same principles apply in hotels and restaurants that provide wireless Internet access If you have a wireless network in your home our hacker can drive down your street using a laptop or PDA to search for wireless networks This process is called Wardriving If he finds one that has not been se cured at all he doesn t even have a challenge If you have added a password he simply has to crack the password What Tools Do They Use It s very easy for a potential hacker to find the tools of his trade There are many websites that offer program tools and tutorials for using them Here are some of the most popular Anonymizers and Remailers Anonymizers are online services that eliminate the trail of information that is left behind These sites use anonymous proxies that a hac
46. em 2 And Another Thing If you don t think Tables is a complicated enough subject to build a whole two hour meeting around well you ve never seen Susan and me give the thorough treatment to unmmmm dog gone it what s the word want Where s my thesaurus Hey they took away the thesaurus in Word 2003 What gives with that Come to the meeting tomorrow and see if you can help us find out what Microsoft did with the thesau rus The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 18 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers CCS Positions Needed e CCS needs a newsletter editor Publications Director by Dec 2008 e CCS needs Education Sig director and a Programs And Events director e We also have some sig leader needs AntiVirus Sig Consultant Sig Genealogy Sig and Web Design Sig Anybody wanting to work into these positions let me know John Cramer CCS President June 26 2008 Linux Genealogy CD 4 0 Released Gencd The Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System or GRAMPS is a popular free genealogy program for use on Linux It is powerful and easy to use and is released as one of the genealogy programs on a Linux Live CD That CD has now been updated to Version 4 0 You can download the Linux Genealogy CD ROM iso image online and burn it as a complete CD For infor mation about iso images look at http en wikipedia org wiki Iso_image Once you have the Linux Genealogy CD you may load the pro
47. er Store in Olentangy Plaza 747 Bethel Road Columbus OH 43214 Easily accessed from SR 315 exit at Bethel Rd The store is to the South off a section of Bethel Road about 1 2 mile East of the Olentangy River and Olentangy River Road ay Ye Py v Ny v Columbia A Computer Sox tety Froe v vr Breen tr Mesar A Moulrte Mt p ae Segerst Rooms py tart tne The CCS News This sign at MicroCenter includes a listing of all our special interest groups SIGs our General Meeting time and our website address for maps and addi tional meeting information Several of the meetings are in a room at Micro Center Fall Winter 2008 11 General Meetings are located at Online Computer Library Center OCLC 6565 Frantz Road Kilgour Place Dublin OH 43017 Note The section of Frantz Road on the other side of Post Road heading toward OCLC Campus has been rename Kilgour Place From the intersection of SR 161 and Frantz Road turn North onto Post Frantz Road after traveling about 150 feet take a slight right turn in front of MAG Used Cars after traveling another 200 feet you will see a sign for OCLC continue until you see a stop sign Turn left and follow that road as it curves to the right and toward the parking area Use one of the first two parking lots and enter the building using the left side door as you face the building from the parking lot and as shown in the picture below The CCS News Fall Winter 2
48. ere with the permission of the author Information about the newsletter is available at htip www eogn com Anyone complying with the above does not need to ask permission in advance BCC CCS Genealogy amp Linux SIGS The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 19 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont June 23 2008 3 Minute Book Printing at Your Local Retail Store Tens of thousands of genealogy and local history books have been printed over the years Wouldn t you like to walk into a local bookstore and purchase the book s of your choice within minutes That may not be as crazy as it sounds Blackwell bookshops in the U K are testing new super fast in store printers called Espresso Book Machines Similar machines are already used in the World Bank in Washington and at the Library of Alexandria in Egypt The best part about these printers is speed the standard unit can produce a 200 page book printed and bound in just 7 minutes The higher priced double printer cuts that time down to just 3 minutes Blackwell is only install ing a few printers at first If successful the company hopes to add the printing on demand facilities to 60 retail outlets If it works for Blackwell you can expect to see other stores install similar systems The business plan of Blackwell is simple local retailers have been losing a lot of business to online bookstores such as Amazon com Until now the local retailers had no means of matching the
49. es remain unsolved but you can help If you would like to help a great cause you might want to contribute your skills and expertise You can watch this interesting Unclaimed Persons television program on your computer now at http www RootsTelevision com Here is the announcement of the new show Coroners and Genealogists Join Forces in New Show to Tackle Quiet Epidemic of Unclaimed Persons PROVO UT May 28 2008 What happens to people when they die with no next of kin to claim their bod ies RootsTelevision com an online channel dedicated to all aspects of genealogy and family history has launched a new show Unclaimed Persons to bring attention to this largely unknown epidemic Coroners offices across the country are struggling to cope with thousands of unclaimed people whose identities are known but for whom no family can be found I knew about John and Jane Does said genealogist Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak but I had no idea about all these unclaimed people who are usually cremated and buried in unmarked graves and that s often after several months on a shelf in a morgue We hear about abandoned pets but you never hear about these abandoned bodies Accidentally stumbling across an article about one such case is what prompted Smolenyak Smolenyak to cold call a couple of coroners offices and offer her sleuthing skills for tracking down family members Unclaimed Persons features cases one involving a man who was found in his
50. ese non blood relationships you want to see The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 36 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont More Powerful Searching Searching your Legacy data is easier than ever before You can now search for individuals that are missing parts of names birth or death information marriage information and much more You can also search for missing source citations as you document your family files Now Attach Any Document to Individuals and Marriages Along with attaching pictures sounds and video to individuals events locations and sources you can now also attach any other kind of document PDFs Word files etc Enhanced Backups Legacy can now backup your family file and multimedia files at the same time making it easier to transfer everything to another computer Edit Records from the Used By Lists All of the master lists in Legacy have an option to view the indi viduals who use the items in the list You can now edit those individuals right from the list instead of having to exit the list and edit them separately Standardization Tips New alerts will appear if something questionable has been entered in the Individual s Information screen This helps users keep their data standardized Privacy enhanced privacy options ensure that only the information you want to share will be visible to others Best Fit Child Columns The new Best Fit option in the Family View expands or cont
51. etworks identifying the types of data and the internal addresses of this data It s a valuable tool for administrators but can save a great deal of time for a hacker NMAP This is a port scanner Since a hacker knows that he needs to use a port to access your com puter or network he can use this program to see which ports you have open NetStumbler This program finds any wireless networks that are in range Wardrivers drive through residential neighborhoods using NetStumbler to search for available wireless networks Kismet This program takes NetStumbler one step farther It searches for wireless networks that are not broadcasting their SSID NSLookup If you type a domain name into this program it will give you the company s IP address Traceroute This is a very valuable troubleshooting tool for technicians It will trace a packet on its route through the Internet It shows every IP address it visits along the way Snort This is an open source intrusion detection system It shows traffic analysis and packet logging on networks TCPdump This is the most widely used network sniffer analyzer for UNIX networks Net Cat This has been called the Swiss army program for hackers It performs many sniffing and cracking tasks This was really just some of the basics But if we know why security is so important we may remem ber to take the right precautions Hope your web surfing stays secure The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 60
52. g and maintaining small scale database centered web applications She gives entirely too many talks and blogs at http catherinedevlin blogspot com July 2 2008 John Cramer Meeting was good It took 30 to 45 min to get equ working together Never got overhead projector working with presenters laptop We did get things working with laptop amp CRT tube display All got to see and we still got out before 8 30 pm http catherinedevlin blogspot com Should have most of the examples Or See http catherine devlin googlepages com pyIntro html Mainly used Python From http python org check download folder http python org download We also got and loaded Vpython Visual Python http vpython org download html These two used together for 3d action display Also talked about Jython for from Java And Iron Python for net users If people are using Linux people needs to use Python Dev Tutorial on www python org Intermediate users could gain from lt Python Cookbook gt Also Python is an interactive shell for the Python programming language that offers enhanced introspection additional shell syntax code highlighting en wikipedia org wiki IPython The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 24 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont Many editors availed for Python Wing Ide Idle Komodo Edit Notepad Location and Conferences PyCon for 2008 Chicago PyCon 2008 March 13 20 2008 Ohio C
53. gmented and may also have some errors in the data stored on it While almost all flavors of Windows have some type of defrag and chkdsk software to defragment the hard drive and check it for errors the Windows integral versions of those utilities are very basic and lack the power to do a truly thorough job as System Mechanic will do Clutter and useless files consume a lot of the storage space on our hard drives System Mechanic 8 can identify and remove that clutter freeing up that hard drive space making for a more efficient hard drive Sometimes and it will likely happen eventually to each PC user the computer will not properly boot For that particular eventuality System Mechanic 8 will allow the user to create a bootable emergency CD The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 51 that may be able to revive crashed systems Another irritant that many of us suffer through on a regu lar basis is the boringly slow boot process itself where we wait and wait for our computer to become usable System Mechanic 8 claims to have 19 different ways that it can speed the boot process by making it more logical and efficient Another way that we are losing performance that we are paying for is by having improper internet settings Many of these settings are mundane and not readily accessible to the typical user By modifying these settings to their ideal point internet throughput can be improved in some cases tripled System Mechanic 8 will a
54. gram onto a Linux system or even better use it as a live CD A live CD contains a complete operating system as well as numerous applications In the new Live CD disk 4 0 GRAMPS is one of the included applications If you have a Windows PC you can shut down Windows insert the Linux Genealogy CD boot from the CD ROM disk and run a complete version of Linux including GRAMPS When completed you can boot down remove the CD re boot back into Windows and use your Windows system as if nothing had happened Use of the live CD does not leave any information behind on your Windows hard drive unless you specifically save something there yourself A Live CD is a great method of trying out Linux and any of many other Linux applications It is a great method of taking Linux for a test drive without having to re format your hard drive This Live CD is based on Ubuntu 8 04 Hardy Heron Desktop CD and in addition to the regular Hardy features pre installed GRAMPS 3 0 1 GeneWeb and LifeLines applications as well as the GraphViz program to draw pretty graphs in GRAMPS As with earlier versions of GRAMPS everything works out of the box For more information look at http www gramps project org wiki index php title Linux_Genealogy_CD Posted by Dick Eastman on June 26 2008 Re Posted by John Cramer The following article is from Eastman s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright by Richard W Eastman It is re published h
55. he Honolulu Airport are called the wiki wiki Likewise wiki software is designed to be used quickly and easily to accomplish a task Wikipedia org is the best known and most successful wiki to date It is an online encyclopedia that has now grown to contain ten or twenty times the information found in traditional encyclopedias such as Encyclopedia Britannica Wikipedia has thousands of authors with each contributing whatever knowledge he or she wishes to share A study produced by Nature Magazine found that Wikipedia org is very accurate The study shows that Wikipedia has roughly the same number of errors per article as the Encyclopedia Britannica Of course Wikipe dia org is free whereas many other encyclopedias charge for access The wiki software is a natural for almost any large collection of reference material especially for information collected by multiple people An encyclopedia is a natural application as is a dictionary thesaurus a user s man ual or most any other reference work A wiki also works well for almost any project where multiple people wish to share ideas and information How could you use a wiki for your next project Here are some examples that come to mind Creating a town or county history with input from multiple authors Each author contributes his or her own latest pages and also can easily see the pages written by others The group collaboration can be much easier than sending pages by e mail A group effort
56. he advantages quickly mushroom You now have a handheld phone that you can use to place inex pensive telephone calls over the Internet It makes no difference if you are in a hotel room in Tucson in Shanghai or in Marrakech the calls are always cheap You do have to pay the hotel for the one in room connection How ever you probably were going to pay for that just to check your e mail Adding in free or nearly free telephone calls on the same connection is simply an added bonus The Panasonic KXWP1050 is expensive with a retail price of about 300 However you can purchase it from a number of retailers for 260 or so You can find it at http www rootsbooks com shop php i BOOOMTWVNS and at http www google com products q K X WP1050 amp btnG Search Products amp show dd Again I consider the Panasonic KXWP1050 to be a specialty item aimed for use by frequent travelers For strictly in home use the Phil ips VOIP841 would appear to be a better choice All of these devices require a Skype account The basic account is free and allows for unlimited free calls from one Skype equipped computer to any other computer that is similarly configured If you want to add in the ability to call standard telephones or to receive calls from standard telephones this will require at least one of the extra cost options Unlimited outgoing calls to North American telephones costs 3 00 per month much lower than any other telephone service I have found For m
57. hitp ppcompas apcug org Bonniels21 at gmail com Obtained from APCUG with the author s permission for publication by APCUG member groups At the risk of being the bearer of bad news have to say that none of us is getting any younger User groups tend to be populated more by senior citizens than by any other age group As we age we find the need for more and more assistive aids including those that will help us to use our computers more comfortably and efficiently Many of us will find as time goes on that our vision is not what it used to be We may find that our eyes fatigue as we read information on the computer monitor and we may find that some of the smaller fonts and graphics on the screen require us to squint and lean forward into the display In this article will discuss two screen enlargement programs that might help us minimize our visual difficulties as we use our computers The first program want to talk about is called Magic Lens Max downloaded an older version of the program from Giveawayoftheday com and was very impressed with what it could do e oF Cee eee mailed the program s author and told hog nt one Sl pees ve E paa him what a terrific program it was and EAT x one i ie amp have demonstrated it to various groups PeP TME d ae none who provide services to the blind and visually impaired Additionally the cost mle Colar Lavala of the program is only 39 95 went maa ia os ahead and p
58. ic KXWP1050 works best with a wired not wi fi Internet connection in the hotel room However it also works with wi fi wireless if there is no requirement to open a webpage and log in The Panasonic KXWP1050 includes both a wi fi handheld telephone and a very small wi fi and wired router all zipped up in a small leather case that fits easily into the smallest of suitcases You unpack everything plug the in room Internet cable into the Panasonic router and then plug your laptop into the router or else connect the laptop via wi fi Then you boot the laptop and open a web browser The hotel may require you to log onto the Internet connection in some manner probably by entering a user name and password assigned to your room You can then use the laptop in the normal manner This can be useful if the in room Internet cable is not in a convenient location You can use the laptop s wi fi networking and the Panasonic router while using the laptop on the room s desk on the bed or perhaps on a nearby balcony Other than the extended range there is little advantage to using a laptop computer with the Panasonic KXWP1050 To be sure it does add a great firewall and the ability to simultaneously connect multiple laptops to one wired con nection but those benefits by themselves do not seem to justify its price However when you add in the handheld The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 30 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont wi fi telephone t
59. inds me of how many unscrupulous money hungry people there are in the world Yet there are times when feel that must write about a certain virus be cause it is causing so much havoc for everyday computer users Unfortunately that time has come again In the past two weeks my company has removed a very bad group of viruses from six different computers So feel it is time to send out a warning There are many different variations of this virus and its cousins They have many different names includ ing Antivirus 2008 Antivirus 2009 SoywareScanner 2008 and AntiVirXP08 Some experts are calling them viruses Some are calling them malware Symantec calls them misleading applications McAfee lists them as a PUPs potentially unwanted programs Whatever you call them they are terribly invasive By most accounts these awful applications piggy back on programs that are downloaded from the Inter net However some experts are warning that your computer may become infected by simply visiting cer tain websites especially if your operating system and or antivirus software is not up to date The gist of the matter is that once your computer is infected you will begin to see pop up windows that give an exaggerated report of the number of threats that your computer is infected with The window may say something like Your computer has become infected with 231 computer viruses and spyware These pop ups try to scare you into purchasing their ant
60. ing packages I ll describe in a bit The remainder of this article is for Plus Edition subscribers only If you have a Plus Edition user ID and password you can read the article right now at no additional charge in this web site s Plus Edition at http plus eogn com If you do not remember your Plus Edition user ID or password you can retrieve them at the same place http plus eogn com Anyone subscribers and non subscribers alike may purchase this article right now for 2 00 from the archives at http www lulu com content 3269480 If you decide to subscribe to the Plus Edition right now you will be able to immediately read this article online For more information about subscribing to the Plus Edition of Eastman s Online Genealogy Newsletter visit http blog eogn com eastmans_online_genealogy plusedition html Posted by Dick Eastman on July 24 2008 Reposted by John Cramer The following article is from Eastman s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright by Richard W Eastman It is re published here with the permission of the author Information about the newsletter is available at http www eogn com Anyone complying with the above does not need to ask permission in advance The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 27 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont August 09 2008 Use Skype Without a Computer NOTE This article has nothing to do with genealogy other than perhaps providing a cheap method fo
61. intained by Microsoft I was surprised to see that there is even a link to the Firefox web browser the major rival to Microsoft s own Internet Explorer I bookmarked this one I suggest you do the same http www windowsmarketplace com category aspx bcatid 1 amp maxprice 0 Posted by Dick Eastman on August 24 2008 August 28 2008 The New FamilyTreeMagazine com Family Tree Magazine is a popular U S printed magazine that also has an excellent web site The online web site is much more than an advertisement for the printed magazine it has that plus many other articles of its own Now the company has revamped the web site and it does look good The new site allows you to browse the article archives by topic or search the entire site from any page Each arti cle offers buttons to bookmark the page share it via e mail or social networking sites and generate a printer friendly version You can even subscribe to your favorite topics via RSS Take a look at the magazine s new web site at http www familytreemagazine com Posted by Dick Eastman on August 28 2008 RePosted by John Cramer Also please include the following statement with any articles you re distribute The following article is from Eastman s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright by Richard W Eastman It is re published here with the permission of the author Information about the newsletter is available at http www eogn com Anyone complying with th
62. ion GCIO was created to be an active participant in transforming the IT community from an environmental liability to an Earth conscious example of responsibility GCIO is a nonprofit organization that is based on environmental audit programs for consumers and small business homes with respect to general energy efficiency programs including lighting heating insulation etc GCIO s mission is to educate and assist enterprise technology users in the design of environmentally aware and responsible information system operations They help consumers become more environmentally responsible by reducing energy consumption and electronic waste in an effort to protect the Earth GCIO is sponsoring educational programs across the country and participating in a Green Computing Summit that will be held in Washington DC on May 20th The summit will address how public sector IT managers procurement officials and program managers public sector professionals can transform their IT and data center operations into more environmentally conscious yet efficient solutions This conference will attract senior government IT professionals and their industry partners tasked with help The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 48 ing agencies become greener in the coming years Attendees will represent federal state and local governments public policy organizations and suppliers to government You can read more about this event at www e gov com EventOverview aspx Event SGCS
63. ional Conference page 31 Scam Alert page 32 Don Singleton APCUG Vice President The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 40 Current News An Overview of Current Articles amp Reviews Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite v 10 Product Review by John Roy President The PC Users Group of Connecticut www tocug ct org Approx 1 284 words John has used this produce since it was originally distributed by Adaptec several years ago Reviewing this product allowed him to ex plore and appreciate the many applications within this suite For Anybody Who Has Thought About Trying Linux by Drew Kwashnak Linux SIG Leader Dan bury Area Computer Society CT www dacs org approx 993 words For anybody who has thought about trying Linux it has become easier than ever before with Ubuntu 8 04 LTS Hardy Heron As with most Linux distributions Ubuntu is available as a free download and is freely distributable Viewing the Bigger Picture by Bonnie L Snyder P PCompAS CO www ppcompas apcug org approx 831 words At the risk of being the bearer of bad news Bonnie says that none of us is get ting any younger User groups tend to be populated more by senior citizens than by any other age group and as we age we find the need for more and more assistive aids including those that will help us to use our computers more comfortable and efficiently Your Next Computer Will Be Green by Marjie Tucker Editor Mountain Computer User Group GA www mcug org approx 1
64. ip or Renewal Replacement Cards x 5 00 Additional Family Cards x 5 00 My Enclosed Tax Deductible Contribution Enclosed Check TOTAL Return to CCS Membership PO Box 44069 Columbus OH 43204 Fall Winter 2008 2 Advertise In CCS News Promote your business or service to the CCS membership in this publication You will find that The CCS News has a targeted audience of people interested in and knowledgeable about computers The following monthly rates will place your ad in The CCS News Full page 150 00 Three quarter page 125 00 Half page 100 00 Third page 75 00 Quarter page 50 00 Business card 20 00 Business card member 10 00 Help wanted classified style or up to Free a quarter page Help wanted third page up to full 25 00 page Items for sale classified style Free Purchasing a One Year ad entitles you to a 10 discount We Will Make Room for Help Wanted The CCS News CCS News ISSN 1041 0538 is published monthly by the Columbus Computer Society PO Box 163336 Columbus OH 43216 3336 as a service to its members Copyright 2005 by the Columbus Computer Society Permission for reproduction in whole or part is given to other computer user groups for non profit use provided CCS and the original author are credited All other reproduction is prohibited without the specific written permission of the original author Editorial contents are the opinions of th
65. isting Microsoft Exchange servers Pidgin multi protocol instant messenger including Yahoo MSN AIM Jabber IRC and more e Gimp GNU Image Manipulation Program a powerful Photoshop like image editing program that in cludes filters layers and a host of goodies e F Spot image manager for categorizing and minor editing of all of your pictures as well as easily import ing pictures from your digital camera And much MUCH more If Ubuntu doesn t come with a particular application thousands of free applications are available from the Ub untu online repository which are easily installed and updated from the Synaptic package manager When you decide to install Ubuntu onto your hard drive or virtual machine you only need to click the Install icon on the desktop to start the process After seven or so easy questions the installer will copy the files over to the hard disk Depending on your system s speed this could take about 60 minutes more or less It will even detect if you have Windows installed and offer to transfer over your files and compatible settings from your Windows accounts Of course if the limitations of the LiveCD such as settings are not saved from session to session and you are hesitant to partition and install the full operating system on your hard drive Ubuntu offers yet another alterna tive called Wubi Wubi is from the Ubuntu website Wubi is an officially supported Ubuntu installer for Win dows users th
66. ivirus or antispyware software If you purchase it they send you a registry key but it doesn t work because the program they sell you doesn t exist These vi ruses are also being spread by malicious websites that sell fake antispyware software On top of that there are many other viruses or pieces of malware that can piggyback on the main virus So this malware can dramatically slow down or even stop your computer The infections being caused by these viruses and malware programs are extremely harmful and can be very difficult to remove They often require a cleanup by a professional or a complete reformatting of the hard drive and reinstallation of the software As an everyday computer user you need to be very careful about the software that you download from the Internet Make sure that it is from a source that you know to be reputable or a website that has been recommended by a trustworthy source You can also use a program like the McAfee Site Advisor to help you assess the validity of the website before you download the program McAfee s Site Advisor is a small program that is used by your Internet browser to indicate the safety of websites It is a free download available at www siteadvisor com and it is a valuable tool Also as usual be sure that you update your operating system and antivirus software regularly Don t fall for any program that pops up on your computer trying to scare you into purchasing antivirus or antispy ware sof
67. ker can use to access computers and servers without leaving his IP address on any log Remailers strip the header off a message and replace it with a meaningless header that can t be traced Command com When this command is typed into a server it will basically give you administrative rights You can then see all the folders and files It s also very easy for the hacker to create a new ad ministrative account that he can re use in the future Password Crackers These programs try random passwords at lightening speeds They are usually very successful Key Loggers Hackers frequently install these on computers especially public PCs The programs actually record every stroke that you make Hence when you type in a username and password it has been captured Port Knocking This is a method of externally opening ports on a firewall by mimicking the process you normally use to add a port to your firewall Wireshark This popular program captures and analyzes the data on a network It s used by hackers to find information they want and it s also used by network administrators to manage networks Aircrack This program is used to crack wireless WEP and WPA passwords Metasploit Framework This is a tool that can be used by hackers to search the Internet for sites that have dubious code These are the sites that are the easiest to hack especially when this pro The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 59 gram does the searching for you N
68. lepy The Cleveland Area Python Interest Group New members welcome Ohio CentralOH Only a mailing list so far we hope to begin in person events once the mailing list gains critical mass http mail python org mailman listinfo centraloh http mail python org mailman listinfo CentralOH others http pycon blogspot com 2008 04 pyohio html Columbus Ohio Python conference PyOhio the first annual Python programming miniconference for Ohio and surrounding areas will take place Saturday July 26 in Columbus OH The conference is free of charge It will include scheduled talks Lightning Talks and unconference style Open Spaces To get more information or to volunteer see http pyohio org See http wiki python org moin PyOhio CallForProposals for information on proposing a talk posted by Catherine at 9 29 PM US Pycon org http us pycon org 2008 about Plans for PyCon 2009 Dates amp Venue Tutorial days Wednesday March 25 amp Thursday March 26 2009 Two days of tutorials next year instead of one Conference days Friday March 27 through Sunday March 29 2009 Development sprints Monday March 30 through Thursday April 2 2009 PyCon 2008 was far more popular than we originally planned for and we nearly filled the venue the Crowne Plaza Chicago O Hare hotel We had hoped to have more tables classroom layout in the ballrooms but we had to cut back and use mostly chairs theater layout
69. limatesaverscomputing org to view a three step program to go green Here are the basic steps that they suggest Step One Turn on Power Management Since the average desktop PC wastes nearly 50 of the energy it consumes as heat it makes sense to use the power management features that are built into Windows XP and Vista The benefits You will reduce your electricity bills and your energy footprint will be lowered as you reduce your greenhouse gas emissions The Climate Savers organization predicts that the power management features on your computer can save nearly have a ton of CO2 and more than 60 a year in energy costs Step Two Buy an energy efficient computer Energy Star the program designed by the U S Envi ronmental Protection Agency specifies the standards that equipment and appliances must meet to wear the Energy Star badge You can visit their website at www energystar org for specifics Basically an Energy Star compliant PC uses 15 to 25 percent less energy This program is expected to save U S consumers and businesses more than 1 8 billion in energy costs over the next five years and prevent greenhouse gas emission equal to 2 7 million vehicles Step Three Unplug from phantom power As long as your computer is plugged in it still uses electricity even while it is turned off or in standby mode A computer that is turned off but still plugged in can use up to 10 watts The Climate Savers estimate that you can reduce your ele
70. mer jcramer_ccs hotmail com Webmaster John Cramer jcramer_ccs hotmail com Web Applications Charles Isaacs cri cri business Programmer solutions com Membership Services Director Cindy Cramer membership ccscmh org acting Assistant Eagan Foster _elfoster ccscmh org Public Relations Director Colleen publicrelations ccscmh org Coghill colleen c1 netzero com Publications Director Open publications ccscmh org Resource Center Director Cindy Cramer mimi52_mom hotmail com Key CCS Personnel This page includes the names and e mail addresses for the elected officers department directors and the key volunteer staff in the Columbus Computer Society The CCS News Online New Membership Application Online Membership Renewal US MAIL MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION NAME FIRST MI CITY STATE ZIP HOME PHONE WORK PHONE OCCUPATION EMPLOYER SPONSOR CCS NEWS PREFERENCE Please select from the following LAST prefer to receive CCS News as an attachment to an e mail message in pdf format prefer to receive a notice that the newsletter is available for download from the web site do not have e mail or access to the web THIS APPLICATION IS O New Renewal Member Address Change Gift From Request for replacement card See 5 00 fee below Name on card s if different from above Annual Dues 1 x 40 00 Additional Family Cards x 2 50 At time of Membersh
71. n right click the app in the Start menu and click Unpin From Start Menu CHANGE SYSTEM SOUNDS Through the Control Panel you can change your system s program event sounds Click Start and Con trol Panel If you re using Category View click Sounds Speech and Audio Devices and Sounds and Audio Devices If you are using the Classic View click Sounds and Audio Devices This loads the Sounds and Audio Devices Properties dialog box Choose the Sounds tab Select the sound you d like to change in the Program events box and then select a new sound from the Sounds drop down menu Or select a sound you ve saved to the hard drive by using the Browse button to navigate to the sound file Change as many sounds as you like Save your changes as a sort of theme from the Sound Scheme drop down menu above the Pro gram events box Select the blank line and click Save As You can also choose to disable program event sounds When you re finished click OK SAVING E MAIL MESSAGES To save e mail messages highlight the message you want to save then click on File Save As Select where you want to save the message and then save it as a txt file The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 55 FastStone Capture A Review FastStone Capture A Review Ron Hirsch a Member and Contributing Editor of the Boca Raton Computer Society Florida www brcs org Ronhirsch1439 at comcast net This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author s permission for p
72. nalyze our internet connection and make any changes necessary to maximize performance PC security is a major issue that all of us must deal with on a constant basis System Mechanic 8 con tributes to system security by fixing settings that would otherwise allow an intruder to access the com puter making cyber attacks that more difficult Sometimes we have files that we want to securely delete being well aware that normally deleted files are easy to recover which may create another security problem This utility offers the user a military grade wiping function that can securely delete unwanted data System Mechanic 8 retails for 49 95 for a one year license and can be used on up to three computers discounts are available online www iolo com for longer licenses For those who want an even more feature rich product lolo offers System Mechanic Professional ver sion 8 69 95 for 3 computers This Professional version is an integrated bundle which includes most of lolo s other popular products The bundle includes lolo s antivirus software renowned for its hourly updates and its Personal Firewall to protect from intruders and malicious software Another program included with the Professional bundle is another personal favorite of mine lolo s Search and Recover This program can recover files that were deleted including photos videos documents email music and other data that may have otherwise been lost Search and Recover can un
73. nd hints and tips to better surfing the web Craig J Wright cjwright insight rr com Web Development SIG Microcenter 747 Bethel Rd Columbus OH 43214 4 Tuesday 6 30 P M This group covers Web page design including PHP HTML CGI JAVA MySQL graphic images Also resources on the Web are given to participants to assist them with page design Time will also be spent answering your questions Charles R Isaacs Jr cri cri business solutions com Windows SIG Microcenter 747 Bethel Rd Columbus OH 43214 2 Tuesday 6 30 P M This group deals with all aspects of the Windows operating system software from Microsoft Discussion topics include Windows 98 Windows Me Windows NT Windows 2000 and Windows XP Time is also spent in discussions of software developed for Windows both commercial such as Microsoft Office and shareware A question and answer session is usually conducted at the meeting to help our members with setting up a new system or to assist them with problems or configuration Kenneth J Tubaugh ken tubaugh com WordPerfect SIG Microcenter 747 Bethel Rd Columbus OH 43214 1 Monday 6 30 P M WordPerfect word processing is discussed and demonstrated Participant questions are welcomed Bill L Young Jr young 33 osu edu The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 10 Many SIG Meetings amp Classes Meet in the Tech Support Room near the front entrance until a store manager guides you to a back room in the Micro Center Comput
74. nto your Quicken or Money program He would look through your My Documents folder for password lists and search your Internet Explorer favorites for financial sites where you saved the username and password And before he leaves he usually plants another Trojan horse that will give him the ability to take control of your computer in the future Commercial Websites The most common way to hack into a company s website through the Internet is by using a Denial of Service attack These DoS attacks use multiple computers to overload a website with bogus requests for information The hacker usually creates a Trojan horse program that he sends into the computers of unsuspecting people remember that program that was left behind when your computer was invaded above The message that he creates usually contains a header saying that it comes from an IP ad dress that doesn t exist When he is ready to attack he calls up all the computers that he infected with his Trojan horse and tells them to contact a specific IP address Those computers follow his instructions and send his preprogrammed message to that website Servers that control websites always check to The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 58 verify that IP addresses requesting information or webpage downloads are legitimate addresses When a server is hit by a bombardment of these false address requests it tries to track down every one of the fake addresses Before long the server becomes overwhelm
75. ocal library anyone you think can benefit from ZoomWare To download a free trial or to learn more about ZoomWare visit www GetZoomWare com Download Your Trial Copy Here Pricing Domestic US Canada Download 149 119 http getzoomware com download Domestic US Canada Shipment 175 140 The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 38 Laplink is very generously offering a 20 discount on PCmover to every member of an APCUG affili ated user group PCmover is an essential tool for migrating to the new computer in your future You will need to set up a Laplink account as part of the PCmover download process would also like to encourage you to write a product review on this PCmover so that it can be published in your own user group s newsletter and on your website In addition if you send your product review to Imoore apcug net then it will also be published on the APCUG website APCUG Quarter 3 2008 Report Please note the APCUG Mailing address has changed Effectively immediatemy it is P O Box 671294 Dallas TX 75367 1294 APCUG has been available for many years in both an online form at htip reports apcug org and also a printed form which we snail mailed to the President ARCUG Rep Program Chairman and Editor but in a cost saving measure beginning with the July Q3 issue it will only exist in an electronic form A PDF will be emailed to the President APCUG Rep Program Coordinator Editor Membership Chair Vic
76. ograms only by un checking the appropriate box under the Enable error reporting option You can also configure error re porting only for specific programs by clicking the Choose Programs button ALPHABETIZE START MENU LISTINGS When you install a new program on your system it will often appear at the end of your Start menu Re organizing files alphabetically in the All Programs menu does not affect how they appear in your start menu In order to alphabetize your start menu you ll want to click Start and select All Programs On any file or folder right click and then select Sort By Name Now all of your Start menu programs are in alpha betical order You can also sort subfolders in your Start menu the same way MAKE YOUR QUICK LAUNCH ICONS BIGGER 1 Unlock the Toolbar 2 Right click the QL toolbar 3 Select the View tab 4 Select large icons PIN AN APPLICATION TO START MENU The Windows XP Start menu includes an area where two or more Microsoft applications usually Inter net Explorer and Outlook Express are permanently positioned for easy access You can add your favor The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 54 ite application to this same convenient location Open Windows Explorer and locate the executable file for the application Right click the file and select Pin To Start Menu The application will now appear in the Start menu To remove an application locate it right click it and select Unpin From Start Menu Alternatively you ca
77. oking for new classes to present that are of interest to members and the general public We are looking for people with knowledge in all areas of computer programming applications and systems These people must have good knowledge of the program they would like to teach and enjoy sharing their knowledge with others If you would like more information on how to become a CCS instructor please contact David Lauridsen by e mail at david gryphic com The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 LOOK WHAT S HAPPENING AT s Wed Thu Sat l 2 4 Access Anti Virus amp Visual Basic More 6 30 pm 10 00 am Inactive Inactive 6 WordPerfect 6 30 pm 7 Computer Networking 6 30 pm 8 E Investment 6 30 pm Consulting 7 00 pm 12 3 Novice and Super Highway 6 30 pm 14 AutoCAD AutoLISP 6 00 pm Inactive Windows 6 30 pm I5 General Meeting 6 30 pm 16 Java and Open Source 7 00 pm 18 COCUG 10 00 am Delphi 7 00 pm 20 Genealogy 6 30 pm 21 Linux 6 30 pm 22 23 Microsoft Office 6 30 pm 27 CCS Board Meeting 6 30 pm FoxPro Programming 6 30 pm The CCS News 28 Web Development 6 30 pm 29 30 Fall Winter 2008 5 LOOK WHAT S HAPPENING AT Sat Anti Virus and More 10 00 am Inactive 3 4 WordPerfect Computer 6 30 pm Networking 6 30 pm 5 Access Visual Basic 30 pm Inactive 8 10 I
78. on of the author Information about the newsletter is available at http www eogn com Anyone complying with the above does not need to ask permission in advance The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 37 Introducing ZoomWare by Ai Squared Ai Squared is pleased to introduce ZoomWare revolutionary new software that magnifies and enhances everything on your computer screen It s perfect for those who squint at the computer screen and lean in to read the fine print Special APCUG Discount ZoomWare is affordably priced at 149 download version but as a member of APCUG you can purchase ZoomWare now for just 119 a 20 discount To take advantage of your special APCUG member discount simply purchase ZoomWare online at www GetZoomWare com and enter the following code at checkout APCUGO8 If you prefer to receive a CD version it can be purchased for 140 a 35 savings and we will ship the product to you within 3 to 5 business days ZoomWare is something think almost all of us need to relieve our eye strain states June Koppang a ZoomWare user I believe that once you use it you will love it and never want to use a computer without ZoomWare again Your eyes are too important not to protect In case you have missed out on our seminars and press releases we have put together a short informational video to give you an overview of how to use ZoomWare We invite you to share this video with your computer group friends family l
79. online bookstores immense inventory Anyone can order almost any book online Local bookstores the so called bricks and mortar stores have inventories that are limited by physical space Local stores can only carry a small percentage of the books out there They also have higher prices because of the rent they pay the staff they need and the cost of shipping the books to the stores Amazon s much larger inventory is available by overnight delivery if required Amazon com s warehouse space is presumably cheaper than retail space and the labor expenses are also cheaper As a result Amazon s prices are often much lower than those of retail stores even after shipping charges are added Super fast printing on demand solves most of the retail stores problems The content of thousands of books could be stored on a local disk drive or on remote file servers connected to each store s Espresso Book Machine via the Internet The customer could walk into the store order a particular book and then receive the physical book within three minutes Even Amazon com cannot match that speed Blackwell expects the print on demand pric ing to be very competitive when compared to Amazon com s prices In today s announcement of the new Espresso Book Machines Blackwell representatives never mentioned the word genealogy However more than 25 000 genealogy and local history books have already been scanned by others and are now available as digital files I woul
80. opy m otost doesn t care what created those pixels a EE a Open A csinal pogen Remember this capture method saves things as an image I use the jpg choice It will not save text in editable form If you want to do that you must copy and paste into a text editor such as Notepad But if you have a program such as Omnipage which is generally included when you buy a flatbed scanner you can use it to convert a a jpg image of text to an editable page of text L z em The images below are several of the screens and drop down menus from Fastone The choices avail able to the user are well thought out and very useful Note all the various options for what can be cho sen to get saved and the hot keys for these choices The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 57 Hacking 101 By Marjie Tucker Editor Macon Computer User Group North Carolina www mcug org mcug at dnet net This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author s permission for publication by APCUG member groups all other uses require the permission of the author see e mail address above We are being bombarded with warnings about securing our data and the entry to our computers Do you ever wonder what the big fuss is all about How can a hacker possibly get into your data And what would he be looking for Let s spend some time answering those questions How Does A Hacker Get In To Your Computer When you give your computer access to the Internet
81. or 129 or less You can find a long list of retailers at http www google com products g voip841 amp btnG Search Products or even purchase it directly from Skype at http accessories skype com store skype DisplayProductDetailsPage productID 69958700 The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 29 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont NOTE Do not confuse the Philips VOIP841 with the model VOIP321 from the same manufacturer While much cheaper the VOIP321 plugs into a computer s USB port and requires that you keep the computer on all the time in order to answer incoming calls Aside from my favorite several companies manufacture wi fi phones for use with Skype These handheld units theoretically can connect directly to any wi fi base station and do not require a separate base station In theory these handheld wi fi phones can be used at home as well as at any wi fi hotspot at coffee shops hotels airports train stations and elsewhere See the note below that describes exceptions I have used a Linksys iPhone WIP320 and have also seen similar units from Belkin Netgear and SMC I have not been terribly impressed with any of these handheld wi fi phones First of all these wi fi handheld phones typically do not have a built in web browser If the wi fi hotspot you use requires the entry of a user name or password there is no means of entering that information from most handheld wi fi phones This seems to eliminate 90 of th
82. ore information about Skype go to http www skype com Whatever device you choose Skype is a great telephone service when you use a cordless phone for your connec tion You do not need to leave the computer running all the time and even better you can walk around the house while talking to your friends Posted by Dick Eastman on August 09 2008 RePosted by John Cramer Also please include the following statement with any articles you re distribute The following article is from Eastman s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright by Richard W Eastman It is re published here with the permission of the author Information about the newsletter is available at http www eogn com Anyone complying with the above does not need to ask permission in advance The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 31 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont August 24 2008 6 800 Free Programs for Windows Here is a list of a bunch of free programs for Windows Vista Windows XP and Windows 2000 Most of the pro grams will also work on Windows 98 and ME The list includes games anti virus programs adware removal pro grams backup and restore utilities music and video media programs and music and video production programs There are text to speech programs desktop themes and a lot more All programs are totally free of charge and may be downloaded directly from the Internet More than 2 000 companies have products listed here The list is ma
83. ow you why this happens and suggest some things you can do to give Word a kick in the seat of its pants WATCH A FREE WEB CAST Did you know that Microsoft has a bunch of free web casts available for Word Excel and Outlook too Some VERY useful stuff here Did I mention they re FREE DELETE A SINGLE HISTORY ITEM From the File menu Word displays a list of the last eight or nine files you had open On occasion you might want todelete one file from that list Can you say prying eyes There s only ONE WAY to accomplish this little task The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 15 Special Interest Group NEWS Snippets Cont WHEN TO AVOID AUTO LINE SPACING There s single spacing double spacing etc There s also AUTO line spacing and if you don t understand it you might drive yourself crazy If you like EXTRAVAGANZAS come and vote with your seat i e grab a chair at the meeting so we know to schedule more extravaganzas in the future Besides as The Flying Nun would say We like you We really like you And it s been too long since we ve seen you Steve Office Sig July 2008 Submitted by Steve Rollison In case your memory is less than perfect here s your reminder that the Office SIG meeting is tomor row night THURSDAY JULY 24th 6 30 until 8 30 p m Micro Center on Bethel Rd AGENDA Last month we covered several subjects during another Word Extravaganza Tomorrow we take a different approach
84. ps a written history of a town or county You and a few cousins could create a wiki to help facilitate group research on a particular family or surname A wiki is a great tool for almost any form of documentation that is created as a group effort In fact I use wikis both for group efforts and for one solo project of my own According to Wikipedia org a wiki is defined as follows a Website that allows the visitors themselves to easily add remove and otherwise edit and change avail able content typically without the need for registration This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring The term wiki also can refer to the collaborative software itself wiki engine that facilitates the operation of such a Web site or to certain specific wiki sites including the com puter science site the original wiki WikiWikiWeb and on line encyclopedias such as Wikipedia I might shorten Wikipedia s description to say that a wiki is a website where users can add remove and edit any page by using a web browser It s also easy to use In fact wikis are becoming known as the tool of choice for large multiple participant documentation projects Many software products now use a wiki for the user s manual often with information provided by company employees and customers alike NOTE The name wiki is derived from wiki wiki a Polynesian word that means to go quickly The free shut tle buses at t
85. r With these settings the computer was drawing between 110 and 140 Watts of power with a total average of 2 63 KWH kill a watt hours per day Cost per day was 026 7 87 a month based on my most recent bill then changed the Power Options to turn off the monitor after 20 minutes and put computer to sleep after 2 hours The watts dropped from between 110 and 140 while was using the computer to 6 while in the sleep mode and the total average of KWH dropped to 0 65 per day Cost is now down to 6 cents a day 1 94 a month With the current power options turn off the monitor after 20 minutes and sleep after 2 hours the computer will wake up and get updates as well as run the scheduled backups So with a simple change to a power option was able to reduce power consumption by approx 76 and save 5 93 per month with out affecting my user experience plan on testing my XP machine next to see what it is costing and to see if it can be reduced Thanks go to Louise and the rest of the group for a great discussion on energy use To get more info and tips on energy savings try one of Louise Dieden s favorite links http www energy gov forconsumers htm Louise is a SCUG Board Member at Large This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member groups All other uses require the permission of the author see e mail address above The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 50
86. r you to call your distant relatives However I have written before about Skype and thought I would offer one more article de scribing its uses I love Skype Instead of placing calls over standard telephone lines this VoIP Voice over IP telephone service works by placing the calls over almost any broadband Internet connection The best part of all is the price of calls calling anyone else who uses Skype is always free of charge even if that person is located in another part of the world Unlimited calls to standard telephones anywhere in North America cost 3 00 a month Skype s competitors typically charge 15 to 30 a month for the same thing Overseas calls are also cheap I can call telephones in England or New Zealand or even China for two cents a minute Calls to Mexico are two or three cents a minute depending upon the Mexican area code being called Calls to other coun tries typically cost two to perhaps five cents per minute Calls to some third world countries or to tiny islands in the South Pacific can cost more The rates are always a fraction of what traditional telephone companies charge The complete list of call rates may be found at http www skype com prices callrates I also appreciate the sound quality of Skype calls Skype to Skype calls are almost high fidelity whereas calls placed to traditional telephones are limited to the audio quality provided by the distant telephone company You can listen to some of the podca
87. racts the child list columns to fit the number of children for the current couple No more trying to guess the optimum number of child columns Legacy does it for you Watch the What s New Video at http www legacyfamilytree net videos new7 What sNewInLegacy7 html Pricing and Availability Legacy 7 0 is now available at www LegacyFamilyTree com for just US 29 95 for the download only version or US 39 95 version which includes the 336 page printed user s guide installation CD and beginner s training video The free Standard edition can also be downloaded from www LegacyFamilyTree com Or call 1 800 753 3453 Legacy 7 0 is also set to be released in select retail stores this summer About Millennia Corporation Millennia Corporation is located in Surprise Arizona The company strives to provide top quality genealogy software so people can record and track their family history It is also the publisher of Legacy News an online newsletter bringing genealogists tips and tricks about genealogy http www legacynews typepad com For addi tional information on Millennia or the products they offer visit http www LegacyFamilyTree com Posted by Dick Eastman on June 05 2008 Re Posted by John Cramer Also please include the following statement with any articles you re distribute The following article is from Eastman s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright by Richard W Eastman It is re published here with the permissi
88. rectives but the leaders have already started to make changes Dell for example is advertising Energy Smart workstations and notebooks that can reduce power con sumption by as much as 78 The Energy Smart configuration uses a default power setting that is de signed to reduce consumption and energy costs right out of the box In addition the power supply fan and motherboard use significantly less energy to maintain cool internal temperatures HP is using 80 Plus power supplies to lower energy bills and AMD technology that reduces heat output and PC power consumption In addition they have already introduced an HP recycling program where you can trade in or donate the products Government Initiatives Many U S government agencies have implemented standards and regulations to encourage green computing The Environmental Protection Agency launched an Energy Star program in 1992 and strengthened its requirements in 2006 In 2003 the California State Senate enacted the Electronic Waste Recycling Act and in 2007 President Bush issued Executive Order 13423 requiring all federal agencies to use the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool when purchasing computer systems In addition a global consortium called The Green Grid was founded in 2007 by AMD APC Dell HP IBM Intel Microsoft Rackable Systems SprayCool Sun and VMware Another initiative formed by a group of Global minded IT executives the Green Computing Impact Or ganizat
89. rporation has now released Legacy Family Tree version 7 0 the latest version of a popu lar genealogy program for Microsoft Windows Here is the announcement from Millennia New version 7 Continues 10 Years of Innovation and Quality Now Offers Wall Charts Automated Mapping SourceWriter and a Host of New Features Millennia Corporation a leader in family history software today announced the release of Legacy Family Tree 7 0 The new release contains dozens of significant new features and enhancements including the first ever Sour ceWriter automated family mapping and brilliant wall charts In one software package Legacy Family Tree 7 0 provides tools to help users record their family s history or ganize their pictures perform their research and share their findings Legacy Family Tree 7 0 is truly the next generation of family history software said David Berdan president of Millennia Corporation Its new SourceWriter interactive satellite maps and especially the incredible wall charting capabilities keep Legacy as the favorite for beginners and professionals alike The following new and updated features add to Legacy s list of robust capabilities Mapping Use Microsoft Virtual Earth to automatically pinpoint and plot important locations in ancestors lives from within Legacy See 3 D satellite and bird s eye images of where your ancestors lived Now it is easy to track your ancestor s migration Wall Charts Experienc
90. se a cordless phone that will reach anyplace in my house including the backyard while talking on Skype When talking to someone I want to be able to check items in the refrigerator pull a document out of my filing cabinet or simply relax in the backyard A quick online search produced a dozen or so such devices Almost all of them look and perform like a standard cordless phone Unfortunately most of them connect to a computer s USB port meaning the computer must be left running all the time A further search however found a few devices that do not require connection to a computer You simply plug them into your existing broadband modem router NOTE While you can turn the computer off and continue to use any of the devices Iam about to describe you must leave your broadband modem router running all the time if you wish to receive incoming calls Luckily all The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 28 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont those devices consume very little electricity typically about the same as a nightlight The amount added to your monthly electrical bill will be trivial These devices also have no moving parts to wear out Over the past three years I have experimented with several such devices I will start by describing my favorite The Philips VOIP841 has now served me well for more than six months Upon opening the shipping box you find what looks like a regular cordless phone only it is smaller than most su
91. se pages in a loose leaf notebook A Screen Color Pdr Screen Ruter 2 You have some digital photos that you d like to send to Settings someone in an e mail If you just insert the pix into the e Reset Capture Pane Poston mail message as many people do they may come out to a sats very large size much larger than you wanted or expected Exe There are of course a variety of ways to resize image files but there is one that is pure simplicity What do is to display each picture file in a program such as Windows Picture and Fax Viewer or the free Fastone Viewer offered on their site Then adjust the size of the displayed image on the screen to what you d like the size to be in your e mail Then capture the image When inserted into your e mail it will be exactly the size that you captured since it captures pixels and monitors all have very similar pixels inch 3 You re on a web page and there is something interesting that you want to save but you don t want to print out the whole page Just select the desired area using Fastone Capture and save print that area only Zo o ee x there was an image of someone l something you wanted to capture Just Captse Homeys Fiehisve Auto Save fete Ese meceteneous pause the video and select the area you ai al oa willl oe want in Fastone Capture Your image is S ee mmi captured Remember screen captures Oaa fete Pewter Ca are just pixels The capture process 7 C
92. sts that I recorded at http blog eogn com eastmans_online_genealogy podcasts Many of them were recorded on Skype to telephone calls In fact you might want to listen to my conversation with Simon Orde at http blog eogn com eastmans_online_genealogy 2006 05 podcast_an_inte html I used a laptop computer in Massachusetts while he was in London England We talked Skype to Skype and the audio sounds as if we were both in the same room even though we were 3 000 miles apart The audio in that recorded conversation was far better than that of standard telephones NOTE Skype and most other VoIP services work well with DSL cable modems and fiber optic Internet con nections They typically do not work well with satellite Internet connections however because of the time delays involved I have used Skype from cruise ships satellite connections with variable results Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn t When I first started using Skype I used a headset plugged into my computer s soundboard This worked well but I didn t care to be tethered to the computer Cordless phones and cell phones have spoiled me I like to be able to get up and walk around while talking on the phone The wired headset prevented that I also did not appreciate the fact that I had to leave the computer running twenty four hours a day waiting for possible incoming calls Luckily there is an easy solution In fact there are multiple solutions I prefer to u
93. to the FastStone site is http www faststone org index htm While here check out the other excellent programs all of which are free or click on the Download but ton for FastStone Capture to download it FASTSTONE CAPTURE PAGE The link to page for this program is http www faststone org FSCaptureDetail htm or just click on the capture program when you are on the first link noted above WAYS TO USE SCREEN CAPTURES Below I ve included some of the ways use this screen capture program which by the way use just about every time I m on my computer The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 56 Remember this program can capture a wide variety of areas on your screen see the listing below in one of the screen captured images 1 Have you ever installed something where a variety of Restore screens and dialog boxes came up and had to be filled in Cape Active window SAR Prtse with info for various options etc Sometime later on Capture Window Object Ake Prese weeks months or even years you need to know what info p Oes Se Regon CMS and options et al that you filled in No problem just save 5 ee ee ee each screen and store the saved screens in a named folder i Capture Sooing Window Cirle At PtSe Then all that info is available at a moments notice All you ow d have to remember is where you stored it And you can also a anon print out each of the screens after saving them and file C Screen Magnifier tho
94. tu without any changes to your computer and your hard drive will not be touched during your session unless you choose to You don t even need a hard drive to select this option you just will not be able to install it from the session If you are more certain or just daring then you can go straight into the installer and in about 60 minutes 45 minutes if you know what Different Strokes For Anybody Who Has Thought About Trying Linux by Drew Kwashnak you are doing you re booting to your new Ubuntu installation Ubuntu will scan your hardware and load the modules and drivers necessary for your system If you have hard ware that has proprietary drivers available Linux cannot include them in the CD for legal reasons Ubuntu works around this by providing a Restricted Drivers tool that lists all such hardware found on your system and provides the ability to download and install the necessary drivers in a click or two legally Now that you have Ubuntu up and running on your system what can you do Plenty Ubuntu brings you a fullfeatured operating system complete with The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 44 Firefox 3 05 beta web browser e OpenOffice org 2 4 full featured office suite compatible with pre Office 2007 Word Excel PowerPoint and some Access files e Evolution personal information manager for email and calendar goodness a Microsoft Outlook user can feel comfortable with There is even plug ins to allow Evolution to access ex
95. tware Yes the bad guys are out there and they have a lot of computer savvy So we all need to be smart about the software we download and the websites we visit The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 53 Broadsides Broadsides by Ron Broadhurst a member of the Space Coast PC Users Group Inc Florida www scpcug com ringram728 at earthlink net This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author s permission for publication by APCUG member groups all other uses require the permission of the author see e mail address above These ideas are compiled from years of accumulations from various magazines books on line sites and my own personal experience claim neither originality nor ownership to any of its contents My only intent is to share the various tips tricks amp hints in hopes of helping amp maybe enhancing your com puting experiences They are all intended for anyone who uses a PC It is for beginners as well as ad vanced users njoy and use as you will Ron Broadhurst HOW TO GET RID OF SEND ERROR REPORT TO MICROSOFT Right click My Computer on the desktop or in the Start menu Click Properties Click the Advanced tab Click the Error Reporting button at the bottom Click Disable error reporting You can select the checkbox under it if you still want to be notified when errors occur 6 Click OK g eao Note that you can disable error reporting for the operating system only or for pr
96. ublication by APCUG member groups all other uses require the permission of the author see e mail address above THE BEST SCREEN CAPTURE PROGRAM I VE EVER USED Since it is possible that some of you may not know what a screen capture program is I ll start off by defining that program type WHAT IS A SCREEN CAPTURE When you are working on your computer the material you are working on looking at is displayed on your monitor screen as a bunch of pixels Often it is nice to be able to save the info onscreen or parts of it for further uses Windows does offer a Print Screen capability to send info to the clipboard or printer but as with many of Windows utilities it s a pretty barren utility with very few options Fortunately there are several 3rd party utilities out there one of which consider the best I ve ever used MY HISTORY WITH FASTSTONE When started using FastStone Capture in early 2007 it was still freeware with a request to sendina contribution if one liked it liked it so much sent off a contribution immediately and received a very nice Thank You Shortly after my contribution it became a paid for utility For 19 95 you get the program and updates are free forever There is a 30 day free trial period during which you can use a fully functional version to convince yourself that this is indeed a program that you want to keep using LINKS FASTSTONE MAIN SITE The link
97. ues Ralph Buckley robuckley insight rr com Computer Networking SIG Microcenter 747 Bethel Rd Columbus OH 43214 1 Tuesday 6 30 P M Discussions include designing selecting hardware for operating diagnosing problems of and troubleshooting networks John Cramer jcramer_ccs hotmail com Consulting SIG Contact SIG Leader below for meeting location 2nd Wednesday 7 00 P M This group addresses the needs of members who run or are considering the set up of a computer related consulting service Speakers have met with the group on issues of incorporation insurance copy rights setting up a business plan and legal issues Usually a presentation is planned but newcomers with questions are always a welcome part of the meeting David Williams ccs dcwconsulting com Delphi SIG Old Worthington Library 820 N High St Worthington OH 3 Wednesday 7 00 P M The SIG provides a forum for exploring Delphi and popular third party Delphi related prod ucts usually by having members present work they have done or explored The environment is open exploratory and example laden where questions and suggestions are encouraged Delphi program mers of all experience levels benefit from the tips examples and advice shared in these dynamic meetings Rick Ross rickross ameritech net FoxPro Programming SIG Microcenter 747 Bethel Rd Columbus OH 43214 4 Monday 6 30 P M Learn programming procedures algorithms pitfalls to avoid and other iss
98. ues related to Micro soft s Fox family of programming languages The meeting will often include a presentation and will certainly have time for question and answer session Jerry Gibson jegibson on ramp net Genealogy SIG 747 Bethel Rd Columbus OH 43214 3 Monday 6 30 P M Use e mail data storage and web based information to research your relatives John Cramer jcramer_ccs hotmail com Investment SIG Microcenter 747 Bethel Rd Columbus OH 43214 2 Wednesday 6 30 P M Meet with this group to get help using computer hardware and software to manage your finances Garth Trappe gtrappe columbus rr com The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 Java and Open Source SIG Ohio Super Computer Center 1244 Kinnear Rd Columbus OH 3 Thursday 7 00 P M This group uses an open format dealing with all aspects of JAVA and Open Source Software James A Bartos jbartos columbus rr com Linux SIG 747 Bethel Rd Columbus OH 43214 3 Tuesday 6 30 P M Learn about the FREE Fastest Growing Operating System in the World Scott Sharkey ssharkey lanshark com Microsoft Office SIG Microcenter 747 Bethel Rd Columbus OH 43214 4 Thursday 6 30 P M This group focuses on Microsoft Office software with emphasis on tips tricks and problem solving SteveR columbus rr com Novice amp Super Highway SIG Microcenter 747 Bethel Rd Columbus OH 43214 2 Monday 6 30 P M Discussion focuses on ways for the novice to become better acquainted with the com puter a
99. until 8 30 p m Micro Center on Bethel Rd AGENDA Tomorrow we tackle a topic that sometimes befuddles experienced Office users as well as those who are still a bit wet behind the ears wonder where that idiom wet behind the ears came from It doesn t even make any sense does it No wonder some foreigners don t have an interest in learning our lan guage when they move to America It s kinda like what Yogi Berra once said If the people don t want to come out to the ballpark nobody s going to stop them Anyway back to tomorrow s agenda 1 It s Time for a Table Tutorial Creating a table in Word is a piece of cake There s another idiom don t understand But once you have the table how you gonna change column widths Add rows and columns Join two or more cells together into one cell And why would you want to do that anyway We ll even throw in some table vodoo Things you ve probably been told can t be done Like use a photo or graphic as a table background instead of a plain ol boring solid color Or add text above a ta ble that you ve created at the very beginning of your document Try if if you want to but if you don t know this bit of magic you ll drive yourself crazy Or swap rows 3 and 4 with one combination key stroke Try swapping two rows the regular way and see how long it takes you So we re going to go over tables with you from beginning to end creating them using them formatting them and navigating th
100. ur phonebook on Skype s servers and then access those listings wherever you are connected Simply scroll down the list on the VOIP841 s tiny screen until you find the one you want and then press TALK The call is initiated immediately The range of the Philips VOIP841 is impressive It uses DECT the latest thing in cordless phone technology For an explanation of DECT look at http en wikipedia org wiki Dect I have not tested the maximum range but I can report that this phone is crystal clear anywhere in the house or outside on the lawn It works better than any of the older cordless phones I have used in the past although I suspect that modern DECT phones from other manu facturers probably can match its performance In any case the Philips VOIP841 works well and I can turn my computer off without affecting incoming or outgoing phone calls The battery in the cordless phone will last sev eral days without recharging You can also add a standard headset to the Philips VOIP841 You can find these headsets at most any electronics store office supply store department store or other retailer that sells cordless phones and accessories The headset allows you to walk around the house talking on the phone in a hands free manner That s great when you are cooking dinner working in the yard or performing other household chores The Philips VOIP841 is a bit expensive however The list price is 169 US although almost all the retailers sell it f
101. urchased a copy of the ead 7 Sees Os most recent edition and was even more Sevis Ox pleased with what the author had added since my downloaded version one raietan fines Sharpen Magic Lens Max provides a variety of Sharpen More lianna Airini Reheshng ways to magnify the computer screen a Epira Gurna Lovi 18 5 A Rem Rehosh Ruro 10 Second from resizable moveable lenses which magnify directly over where your mouse or cursor is working to a full screen magnification option which slows down the screen refresh very minimally You have some color contrast options to choose from with this program as well as an invert colors option for light text on dark background The magnification levels can be selected from 50 which is non magnification up to pretty much infinity Anything above 350 starts to blur a bit although there are options to sharpen Below is the Magic Lens Max option screen lt insert magic_lens_max gt The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 46 The Magic Lens Max icon that resides in the system tray can be single clicked to turn on or turn off the magnification This is an excellent program that is both useful and affordable If you are interested in testing it out go to www visionsuit com You can download a 30 day demo of the latest version If you decide to purchase Magic Lens Max once you have paid the 39 95 you will be sent a registration code that can be entered into the demo and it becomes fully functional
102. use for various web sites are recorded in this wiki along with my to do list my travel schedule ideas for upcoming newsletter articles and much much more If I suddenly think of something that needs to be done or some idea I need to remember I write it in the wiki If I see a web site that I d like to investigate in the future I copy and paste the more relevant information into the wiki If I see an on line reference to one of my ancestors I copy and paste the information to the wiki The VIN number of my automo biles the combination lock numbers for my luggage my driver s license number my credit card numbers and the customer support phone numbers for those cards the phone numbers of most of my friends and much more infor mation is all in my personal wiki If I need to find any information in the future I can do so within seconds by entering a search word s or phrase Despite the 1 000 pages in my personal wiki I can find any snippet of infor mation within a few seconds Just try that with a huge stack of yellow sticky notes The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 22 NEWS Press Releases and Special Offers Cont I keep most of the pages in my personal wiki as private pages visible only to me My family members do have read only access to my travel schedule however I control their access by user names and passwords I can also grant them full read write access if I wish to I would also suggest that your local genealogical so
103. ycling Success 20 APCUG 2008 Membership amp Leadership Mindshare Codezone 21 Development Conference 8 REGION 6 sk E Ly tase ee ema ale wale 21 REGUOM T fe aseckig ja Seensricts aaae aaa shies E ayers 10 News from R gion 9 sess sss eicsr ses 22 APCUG Sponsor Offers Discount to Region 12 Report csccesseecss 24 APCUG Member Groups II TEVCCEVDC Sele eacee ou seams e ewes 25 Laplink PCmover Product Review 11 Regin 10 s cnccidiaaceeeaaai ae eas 26 REGU OM lt A gt srcane Cans a geo eie BLE nE S 12 SCAM ALEFC geeis aia oE E E E E iSi 28 Region 3 wacdaaciwonnees swe te aawe 12 Southwest Computer Conference 2008 32 The CCS News Fall Winter 2008 39 APCUG Quarter 4 2008 Report This issue or APCUG Reports is available at htip reports apcug org 2008q4 htm It has the PDF of the entire document a zipped version of the PDF and HTML files for each individual article urge you to either forward the PDF or the link to any officer or SIG leader in your User Group that will not receive it directly from us and urge him her to see if there are any ideas that you would like to try in your User Group And if you come up with an idea and find it works in your User Group please document it with pictures if appropriate and send it to dsingleton apcug net As announced last quarter please note the APCUG Mailing address has changed Effectively immedi ately it is P O Box 6712

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