February, 2002
Contents
1. SIW requires sacrifice of a goat three lambs and a shepherd I whined about the need for various software tools for my webmastering duties One of my in house sites is up to about 6 megs of reference material for our depart ment and growing as information is added to the web site for the 20 additional states covered following the GTE Bell Atlantic merger that formed Verizon I need web authoring programs and graphics image tinkering software to perform my web duties and didn t relish the process of preparing a service request for the derisively renamed Hardly Any Solutions Center to get a tech to come and load new software or an updated browser plugin on my computer sometime next week do you feel lucky Getting the SIW software load has other marvelous benefits Because the hard drive is re imaged the IBM Thinkpad help system gets blown away so 20 megs of help screens with information about the laptop goes into the bit bucket Since the laptop comes with virtually no paper documentation the series of help screens that s supposed to be resident on the hard drive is essential to know how things work on the lap top including a bunch of special function keys I went to the IBM web site and downloaded the appropriate files for my model Thinkpad and operating system I can now push the Thinkpad key dedicated to start ing the help system and find the correct function key to turn on the keyboard illuminatio2. it just a bit As for trying it out you can get a trial version temporarily from the Web site http www gobe com and a better description The DealsGuy price is 74 95 just for the month of January MSRP for gobeProductive is 124 95 still a good price It will not be commercially boxed and will include shipping To order go to http www gobe com dealsguy html And how about this you are allowed to install gobePro ductive on each Windows and Linux computer in your own residence You are also allowed to install gobePro ductive on your computer where you work A certificate is included in the gobeProductive package explaining to your employer that this is allowed It works on a 200 MHz computer and Windows 98 or better Don t miss this one Gobe Problems When I set up the Go be Suite special last month readers were supposed to be the only ones to see the 74 95 price but problems with their Web site store software ended up letting everybody see the price so they made it avail able to anybody until they solve the problem Since then a hacker has wreaked havoc with their Web site so things have gone from bad to worse They wanted you to know the circumstances so please bear with them if you had trouble ordering www nctcug org February 2002 The NCTCUG Journal Is Your Computer Desk All Cluttered Here is the answer to that one Omega Frame http www omegaframe com is one of the ultimate organ
3. work with all versions of Windows includ ing XP It is an absolute gem of an application that be longs on everybody s computer You need to see it to fully appreciate it Don t hesitate download a 30 day free trial at http www aurelitec com If you like what you see and I have no doubt that you will you can regis ter it for only 14 95 www nctcug org The NCTCUG Journal February 2002 Selections From The DealsGuy Bob Click Greater Orlando Computer Users Group Icon See It Now Aha Soft s ArtIcons Pro 3 0 is called graphics edit ing software Here is their description Use this power ful utility to find and extract edit import and export icons and manage icon libraries ArtIcons contains a variety of paint tools to let you create and edit icons with image formats in either standard or custom sizes in color depths up to 32 bit True Color You can import icons from image cursor and library files and even from execu tables ArtIcons allows you to arrange icons into librar ies It is the first such software to support Windows XP icon format http www aha soft com PC User Group members can register ArtIcons Pro for 19 95 instead of 29 95 and save 10 14 95 extra for a CD Here is a link to register http www regsoft net purchase php3 productid 4 142 1 amp pc 6U47X Password is PCGROUP Is It Sweet Software Or Is It A Suite gobeProductive was a sponsor for th
4. your registry and puts dll files in vari ous Windows directory locations Getting rid of the pro gram s folder with all its files is a cinch It s all the other stuff that can make uninstalling a miserable and some times impossible chore Thave yet to find something that does a completely reli able job in doing a thorough uninstall with the exception of Ontrack s System Suite Uninstaller Aside from this exception it is best to depend whenever possible on the uninstall command file that accompanies most applic a tions The easiest way to get to that uninstall file is via Windows Add Remove Programs A R applet easily found in your Control Panel Select a program from the list Add Remove keeps every time you install something and A R will find the uninstall command for that particular program and activate it to do its job Unfortunately A R is only as good in getting rid of eve rything as the software developer has written into its un install file so don t look for miracles Personally I usually go into regedit afterward and find and remove manually every reference to the program in the registry something I don t recommend for novices As far as the DLL s are concerned it s a lost cause So A R is as good as most anything else around But if you want a vastly improved form of A R you will find it in the form of a little shareware gem entitled Ad Remove Plus 2002 It does exactly what A R does along with some ve
5. 01 Years ago when I decided it was time for a new PC I built my own In those days it was possible to save hundreds of dollars with a home brew When you success fully booted up for the very first time The Thrill of Victory took on a meaning all its own Things changed time passed and one day it no longer made economic sense to build your own machine Except for dedicated hobbyists no one builds their own automobile anymore and the PC went down that same congested highway You re most likely not going to build a PC from scratch but maybe you will buy that brand new digital doodad All the PC magazines have published rave reviews about it and all your friends are wondering how they ever man aged to survive without it You re all ready to rip the packaging to shreds and install it Stop Cease Desist Halt Before you do anything else rein in your enthusiasm and do some groundwork You want your installation smooth and as trouble free as pos sible Surgeons carefully prepare before surgery and you need to prepare for your upgrade Follow these simple rules before rushing in where angels fear to tread and your chances of attaining PC Nirvana will improve dra matically 1 Always allow yourself plenty of time If you think the job will take two hours schedule four hours to allow for unanticipated roadblocks Even the simplest in stallations can run into problems Sometimes a straightforward expansion card installatio
6. 860 9246 Secretary Roger Arnold 301 946 7770 Director term expires Fred Boots 2002 703 370 4648 obtained b e STan Blair Jones 2002 202 362 7344 oe John Keys 2002 703 451 0896 Nick Wenri 2002 703 759 3938 Fred Cook 2003 703 921 1749 JJ Davies 2003 703 379 9222 Smet Sy Fishbein 2003 703 536 5894 Reprint Policy Dean Mires 2003 301 434 9343 computer club and nonprofit organization publications provided that a NCTCUG Inc receives a copy of the publication b credit is given to the NCTCUG Journal as the source c the original author is given full credit and d the article author has not expressly copyrighted the article Recognition is one means of compensating our valued contributors Newsletter Staff Editor Blair Jones 202 362 7344 bjones44 bellatlantic net Exchange Newsletter and Articles Editor Ron Schmidt 301 577 7899 Distribution Manager Arnold Austin 703 241 2351 COMPUCENTER BBS Is no longer in operation It has been replaced by the compucenter mailing list at http groups yahoo com If you are moving Please send your change of address to the club PO box as soon as possible to avoid missing issues www nctcug org The NCTCUG Journal February 2002 SHUTDOWN Shortcut February 2002 Normally shutting down Windows 98 95 and ME in volves clicking through several menus to provide a safe Ist Wed 2 6 7 p m Virginia General Meeting turnoff for the computer Here is a shortcut that
7. G He writes a weekly column for the Examiner This article is brought to you by the Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups APCUG an International organization to which this user group belongs Computer Terminology Ex plained from rec humor Don Singleton TCS email don apcug org Printed in the October 1997 issue of the Tulsa I O Port Newsletter Alpha Software undergoes alpha testing as a first step in getting user feedback Alpha is Latin for doesn t work Beta Software undergoes beta testing shortly before it s released Beta is Latin for still doesn t work Computer Instrument of torture The first computer was invented by Roger Duffy Billingsly a British sci entist In a plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler Duffy dis guised himself as a German ally and offered his inven tion as a gift to the surly dictator The plot worked On April 8 1945 Adolf became so enraged at the Incompatible File Format error message that he shot himself The war ended soon after Hitler s death and Duffy began working for IBM CPU Central Propulsion Unit The CPU is the com puter s engine It consists of a hard drive an interface card and a tiny spinning wheel that s powered by a run ning rodent a gerbil if the machine is a 286 a ferret if it s a 386 and a ferret on speed if it s a 486 Default Directory Black hole Default directory is wher
8. I slot you may not need anything more exotic than a screwdriver A new motherboard installation could be somewhat more complicated At a bare minimum you need a Phillips screwdriver and a pair of needle nosed pliers Follow all the installation instructions to the letter since even insignificant steps that may seem unim portant can turn out to be essential The manufacturer went to the trouble and expense of printing the in structions for a reason Ignore the printed instructions at your peril Don t dither about consulting an expert if you get stuck World class physicians don t hesitate to ask for a second opinion Why should you be any differ ent Make a startup diskette It takes only a few minutes and can save your butt E www nctcug org February 2002 The NCTCUG Journal How To Avoid Common Problems And What To Do When They Happen Anyway After you have installed your new component place the cover back on your PC and reconnect everything Turn on the PC and make sure it boots If your system crashes before Windows even begins STOP Turn off the PC and unplug it Take the covers back off and check for loose wires and components that may not be properly seated in their sockets If this doesn t remedy things it s time to bring in a professional Unless you know exactly what you re doing you can cause a great deal of damage be yond this point If the component is a Plug N Play device Windows
9. Not only hadn t he switched to an other home page he wasn t even aware that he could modify the page and get rid of much of the useless junk With an ad blocking program he could also avoid all of Microsoft s blaring shameless self aggrandizements My hand started twitching I was about to lunge towards his mouse and try to single handedly change his home page when his wife shouted barbecue s ready I was on my third beer when two things struck me I d had enough to drink and I had to help this guy out Dumping The Ads You can decide for yourself whether blocking ads is ethi cal As far as I m concerned ads that are deceptive the one that looks like a download gauge and says click here pop up boxes or worse those damn X 10 camera pop under boxes and blinking Flash animations are all fair game My favorite ad jamming utility is WebWasher www webwasher com It s free for personal use and if you accept the defaults easy to use Of course you can tweak WebWasher in dozens of ways fine tuning it to say allow some cookies to be released while withholding others Point Me Home Changing your Home page is a five minute operation It s straightforward in Internet Explorer IE Go to the Web site you want to use as your Home page Then from the Tools menu choose Internet Options and click Use Current In Netscape go to the Web site you want to use as your Home page From the Edit menu cho
10. Users People who are afraid that simply pressing a key might break their computer Intermediate Users People who don t know how to fix their computer after they ve just pressed a key that broke it Expert Users People who break other people s computers This article is brought to you by the Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups APCUG an International organization to which this user group belongs NCTCUG Information NCTCUG Post Office Box 949 Arlington VA 22216 Club Information call 301 577 7899 Web Site www nctcug org Officers and Directors All officer terms expire 2002 Article Submissions Articles helpful hints and other items of interest to readers of the NCTCUG Journal are always welcome and will be published as soon as possible after submission Priority is given to members contributions Items may be submitted via modem to the BBS or on diskette Submissions to the BBS should be uploaded to the Newsletter Conference and a message left for the Editor Files should be straight ASCII unformatted with C R only at end of paragraphs no indents for paragraphs should be used Preferred format for diskettes is MS DOS 31 2 720k or 1 44Mb Diskettes in other formats may be submitted but there will be a considerable delay in processing If absolutely necessary items may be submitted in hardcopy only but these will also meet with delay Membership Policy The National Ca
11. a the NCTCUG Journal www nctcug org Volume 25 Issue 1 rere 2002 Keeping Up by Paul Howard NCTCUG Happy New Year And with barely a month into 2002 how many resolutions have we managed to keep Why is the phrase Don t go there ringing resoundingly in my mind Gee none of the pounds have melted away can it be that the boxes temporarily stored on the treadmill are impeding the strict adherence to the exercise regimen Laptop Adventures Santa at work dropped off a new Thinkpad laptop late in No vember I m still trying to learn the ins and outs of this ma chine Td resisted the laptop option at work it always seemed like a 5000 accident waiting to happen given that the machine didn t come with a courier style handcuff for the wrist I always found that I could sneakernet my files be tween home and work computers on floppies or more re cently on 100 meg ZIP disks But the powers that be de creed new computers should be laptops so now I m the cus todian of a T22 with a 20 gig HD and 384 meg of RAM with a PII 900 MHz processor This is zippy machine except when booting or shut ting down It s operating under Win 2000 Professional NTS The computer came with a port replicator the low budget docking station that stays in the office and remains connected to the full sized keyboard my favorite Microspeed trackball and the 17 monitor plus hookups to speakers net
12. are lacking many useful software products and peripherals With many of the local retailers having both pre and post Christmas sales there will likely be some useful goodies available to go along with the new holiday comp uter or the not so new one previously owned Most new computers do not come with any meaningful virus protection Viruses and their cousins worms and Trojans have been the most frequent topic in this column At COMDEX last month one of the leading publishers of antivirus software stated to our group that fully 40 of household PCs totally lack any virus protection and an other 40 have antivirus software that is more than a month out of date Since dangerous viruses are becoming an even greater threat good antivirus software is impera tive Some of the better programs can be scheduled to auto update as often as daily strongly recommended I use Panda Antivirus Platinum which is available from some of the local stores or online http www pandasoftware com and have it scheduled to auto update at 8 p m every evening As I have stated many times before check the Sunday sale books for bargains on the software as the major titles are frequently available very reasonably or for free after rebates Another very useful item for a new computer is good Internet access Locally broadband high speed Internet service is available along with some excellent local Inter net service providers ISPs We have DSL se
13. ase the 4 port hub must have its own 2 1A power supply supplied with optional 4 port hub modules I like the fact that the BusStation includes built in Overcurrent Protection which shuts off a port if it draws too much current protecting both the connected device and BusStation from damage At the usual price of 79 99 I consider this Belkin prod uct a good value The cost is higher than two standard 4 port USB hubs but you get more versatility The price is competitive with multifunction hubs even when you add in the cost of an adapter module or two adapters range from about 50 an up and again you have greater choice in integrating USB into your system Copyright 2001 by Ken Fermoyle Mr Fermoyle has written some 2 500 articles for publications ranging from Playboy amp Popular Science to MacWeek amp PC World Ken s Korner a syndicated monthly column is available free to User Groups and other non profit or educational organi zations For information or permission to reprint contact kfer moyle earthlink net This article is brought to you by the Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups APCUG an Internationalorganization to which this user group belongs 8 www nctcug org The NCTCUG Journal February 2002 Installing new components By Vinny La Bash vlabash home com Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group Inc Reprinted from the Sarasota PC Monitor December 20
14. ch Tools I have all my lookups here Yellow Pages E mail and phone searches as well as bookmarks that link me to people and reverse phone directory pages Yahoo s A Flex Champ Page layouts are simple to design Most Yahoo mo d ules Calendar Maps E mail Weather for instance can be placed on either side of the Home page Book marks Portfolio News and other modules can be removed from the page to become a separate temporary floating boxes And the content can be set into either two medium sized columns or two narrow and one wide col umn Creating a Home page Portal is a fun project has the po tential to let you navigate the Web faster and unlike in stalling a new operating system is guaranteed not to hose your PC Steve Bass is a Contributing Editor with PC World and runs the Pasadena IBM Users Group Write to him at steve_bass pcworld com Check PCW s current edition at www pcworld com resource toc index asp and sign up for the Steve Bass online newsletter at www pcworld com bass_letter www nctcug org The NCTCUG Journal Ken s Korner February 2002 Unofficially USB Could Mean User s Super Buddy by Ken Fermoyle Officially USB stands for Universal Serial Bus Unoffi cially I think it could translate to User s Super Buddy for PC and Mac users Anybody who tried to install and configure a peripheral device in the old pre USB days likely will agree Back then t
15. e all files that you need disappear to Error message Terse baffling remark used by program mers to place blame on users for the program s shortcom ings File A document that has been saved with an unidenti fiable name It helps to think of a file as something stored in a file cabinet except when you try to remove the file the cabinet gives you an electric shock and tells you the file format is unknown Hardware Collective term for any computer related ob ject that can be kicked or battered Help The feature that assists in generating more ques tions When the help feature is used correctly users are able to navigate through a series of Help screens and end up where they started from without learning anything Continued on page 15 Ns www nctcug org The NCTCUG Journal February 2002 Treasurer s Report FY 2001 By Paul L Howard NCTCUG Treasurer NCTCUG s financial position is good thanks in large part Account balances starting FY 2002 on 10 1 2001 were to the generosity of its members Of our income 533 checking 1825 43 certificate of deposit 3161 94 came as donations from our members in addition to their dues payments or from cash donations almost entirely In light of the successful financial position of the group from Pizza SIG During FY 2001 10 1 2000 9 30 2001 do from last year enhancements to the club s demo com nations in the first category were received from Wenri pu
16. e Las Vegas AP CUG events and they have offered a deal for the column Here is their description gobeProductive is an inexpen sive easy to use all in one program that lets you fly ________p Washington Area Computer User Group WAC Meetings The December WAC Meetings will be held on Saturday February 9 12 30 4 p m at the Fairfax County Government Center You do not need to be a member to attend For more information on WAC meet ings and events call the WAC AnswerLine voice at 703 370 7649 Also see WAC s Web through all your tasks with a set of powerful intuitive tools on a single elegantly simple desktop gobeProduc tive integrates full featured word processing page de sign spreadsheets charts illustration photo retouching even slide show presentations with special effect transi tions All In One gobeProductive reads documents from other major programs like Word and Excel And it can write your documents back out into those formats so oth ers can use your work You can even save documents as PDF files that everyone can read or post right onto the Internet All in one easy to use program gobeProductive for Windows and Linux Sort of an Office Suite I ve heard many positive com ments about it I took advantage of the outstanding pre production offer but have not received it yet so I can t speak from experience They had a special for APCUG attendees and have bettered
17. edia Audio WMA or WAV files MusicMatch is available at http www musicmatch com home just for the download time Ed Note Se lect download basic requires you to give your name amp e mail Of course if you want a step up they have a more deluxe version This column is written to make user group members aware of special offers have found or arranged and my com ments should not be interpreted to encourage or discour age the purchase of products no matter how enthused might sound Bob The Cheapskate Click Bobclick dealsguy com Visit my Web site at http www dealsguy com for past columns Also keep adding inter esting articles taken from user group newsletters to my Articles of Interest page for viewing or downloading AJD Happy Valentines www nctcug org The NCTCUG Journal February 2002 Continued from page 1 I begged I pleaded I groveled and the LAN Desktop support tech allowed me operating system admin privi leges Now I can load software on the new laptop ma chine without summoning a tech with the secret admin password Corporate computing is rapidly re turning to the days of the white coated priesthood where the freedom of a PC is rapidly being beaten into submission by restriction of ability to load software on the computer Computers at our company come with a Single Image Workstation approved software load Getting software loaded beyond the approved
18. ee it s hard to go wrong Give PowerDesk a try I think you ll push Windows Ex plorer off your desktop very quickly www nctcug org G Journal February 2002 Continued from page 9 Input Output Information is input from the keyboard as intelligible data and output to the printer as unrecogniz able junk Interim Release A programmer s feeble attempt at repentance Memory Of computer components the most generous in terms of variety and the skimpiest in terms of quantity Printer A joke in poor taste A printer consists of three main parts the case the jammed paper tray and the blink ing red light Programmers Computer avengers Once members of that group of high school nerds who wore tape on their glasses played Dungeons and Dragons and memorized Star Trek episodes now millionaires who create user friendly software to get revenge on whoever gave them noogies Reference Manual Object that raises the monitor to eye level Also used to compensate for that short table leg Scheduled Release Date A carefully calculated date determined by estimating the actual shipping date and subtracting six months from it User Friendly Of or pertaining to any feature device or concept that makes perfect sense to a programmer Users Collective term for those who stare vacantly at a monitor Users are divided into three types novice intermediate and expert Novice
19. ext one or two USB ports can support many peripherals In theory up to 127 devices can be daisy chained from a single port There are practical limitations power supplies among them and most of us will never use anywhere near that number The ability to plug a USB hub into a USB port and then connect four or more peripherals to it is a real convenience You can place a hub anywhere on your desktop for easy access no more crawling under the desk to connect or disconnect a mouse digital camera or any other USB compatible device Bus Station Frosting on the cake comes in the form of an impressive hardware package from Belkin the USB BusStation This versatile docking station not only serves as a hub that gives you up to seven USB ports Using optional adapt ers it can accommodate many non USB peripherals It also offers a laundry list of other features Innovative modular tower with three slide out mo d ules that fit into the palm of your hand Configure your own low cost universal docking sta tion choose whatever module combination is right for you whether you are a PC or Mac user Compatible with Windows 95 rev B Windows 98 Windows 2000 Mac OS 8 1 or higher 7 port hub standard configuration connects seven devices to a single USB port on your PC Freedom to connect keyboards mice joysticks speakers and more to a single USB port on your computer 4A Ampere power supply provides tr
20. he chore was a major one especially with PCs It required a ton of computer savvy and no little amount of luck First you had to figure out which port to use from a bunch of confusing possibilities Then in most cases you had to pull the cover off your computer always scary for either Mac or PC to install an add in card For PCs this often required setting pesky DIP switches Next came the job of finding and configuring an available IRQ not always easy Basic system components used up some IRQs serial devices already installed used up still more It was a fun job yessir I can recall blowing the better part of a day trying to install a single new peripheral in com puters ranging from the venerable XT through a variety of X86 machines even into WinTel systems of the 90s Mac users had it easier but USB has been a boon for them too Windows Plug n Play eased the problem when it worked but it took USB to solve it completely With USB a computer automatically recognizes the device connected and installs the appropriate drivers It enables computer users to hot plug computer peripherals to their PCs Hot plugging means you can plug in and unplug peripherals without having to power down and then re boot your computer no small benefit Not that there weren t difficulties at first I heard many complaints from people who tried to install USB ports and devices in the early days of the technology The
21. izers for the unorganized geek s computer desk I ve seen people s computer desk including mine literally cov ered with all kinds of slips of paper with notes scrawled on them along with tons of other items laying all over The Omega Frame is designed to fit on most monitors and has all kinds of clips etc for hanging papers and other stuff It even includes a mirror to spot the boss watching while you work There is sticky note space document hangers business card holders a calendar and photo clips Omega Frame attaches to your monitor with Velcro and will clean up your desk a lot It fits monitors from 15 to 21 inches and is easy to attach or remove from the monitor They are offering us a discount during February and March Instead of the MSRP of 29 95 my readers get it for just 19 95 S amp H To order e mail your request to George Johnson jenco pacbell net and mention the DealsGuy column for ordering instructions This is a bit different but George prefers to handle these orders personally CD Burner And MP3 Ripper How About a Free CD Burner And MP3 Ripper Here is an alternative to the software you get with any CD R RW drive Not that it is all bad but there is more than one way to get the job done Use MusicMatch to rip CD quality MP3s and convert your records tapes and CDs into MP3s with an easy one step recording process It lets you choose your recording formats with a choice of MP3 Windows M
22. n LED that allows one to see the keyboard in low light environments Using a laptop has all kinds of unique aspects that didn t apply to the old desktop so I m really happy that I found a way to restore the Thinkpad key s functionality Powerdesk I ve been using PowerDesk 4 a freeware Windows Ex plorer file manager replacement for several months now and recently bought the PowerDesk4 Pro package on CD for 20 via the web The freeware version can be downloaded from http www ontrack com powerdesk The pay version adds an ftp client and a variety of other features that enhance this utility One feature of the freeware program I ve found useful is the ability under the edit menu to copy a filename or full pathname as text then paste it somewhere this can be an ideal way to get file and path names correct when preparing web sites or documentation Powerdesk includes the ability to zip up a group of files into an archive or unzip a zip archive The program is what most utilities are the features left out of the op erating system that make a program really useful or lots more convenient In this case Power Desk is an en hanced file management utility that avoids the make everything look like a web browser view that Micro oft thinks we re all enthralled with The program ap pears with regularity on the various computer maga zines lists of Ten Best Shareware Programs Since the basic version is fr
23. n can be come enormously complicated by a stripped screw Not only do you have to take Murphy s Law into account but keep in mind that Murphy was an opti mist 2 Back up your system before making any changes I don t care how simple you think the job is Too many tears have been shed by not doing a complete sys tem backup first Power failures can occur at any time Don t rule out a meteor strike 3 Make sure pets and children are kept away from the open PC Toddlers are insatiably curious about eve rything You don t want a pet or a child cut by an exposed component with sharp edges Make sure computer and peripherals are ALL un plugged and never touch any exposed components in your PC without discharging Discharging happens when you touch something metallic to remove static electricity One accidental jolt of static electricity has been known to fry motherboards and reduce grown men to quivering blobs of jelly Small dogs and chil dren sometimes don t do well when jolted by static electricity Neither might you Turn your PC off and leave it off for several hours before opening Internal components can get very hot during operation Allow sufficient cooling off time before starting any project that requires removing the covers from your machine Have the right tools handy Many PC manufacturers have made the upgrade process much simpler than it used to be If all you re doing is installing a board in a PC
24. ose Preferences I m using version 6 01 your Netscape version may have slightly different menu settings You ll need to find the Navigator category or a dialog area that shows the Home Page option Click the Use Current Page button and you re done But while you re there examine the Toolbars section of the Options area Uncheck the buttons Net scape automatically adds things you might not need or want Presto Chango You may encounter a sleazy web site that changes your Home page without permission It s happened to me and it threw me for a loop Not only couldn t I figure out how they did it I couldn t change it back to my original Home page First try the previous instructions If that doesn t fix it you ll need to change a setting in your Registry Fred Langa has a way to do it and he explains the process here http www langa com newsletters 2000 2000 07 10 htm 2 Playing Around With Portals I think of my browser and Home page as the center of my online activity sort of a control panel that gets me to other places quickly and efficiently I ve never counted the hours but I m guessing my browser s on screen about 40 percent of the time Probably another 40 percent is with Eudora and the balance in Word and PowerDesk By the way a portal isn t something mysterious or eso teric It s simply a single integrated point for access to information people and other Web sites a personalized and cu
25. pital Tandy Computer Users Group Inc is a non profit 501 c 3 organization founded in 1977 to educate users of all Tandy computers and MS DOS compatible computers Membership dues are 25 00 U S Funds per year with a 5 surcharge for international mail Membership in NCTCUG includes membership in all SIGs access to the BBS and software libraries and subscription to the Journal published 10 times per year Applications may be obtained at any club meeting by downloading from the BBS by calling one of the officers or board members or by writing to the club A sample newsletter membership application and related information may be obtained by enclosing 1 and mailing your request to Jim Rhodes 201 S Kensington Advertisement Policy Members advertisements Ads are accepted from members for non commercial purposes at no charge Copy should be sent to the Editor in the same format as article submis sions Commercial Advertisements Ads are accepted from commercial advertisers at the rate of 60 per full page per appearance with discounts for multiple insertions Smaller ads are priced accordingly Payment for ads must be made in advance of appearance Advertisers must supply a permanent address and telephone number to the Permission to reprint articles from the NCTCUG Journal is given to school personal President Jim Rhodes 703 931 7854 lst VP Ron Schmidt 301 577 7899 2nd VP Roger Fujii 703 280 1243 Treasurer Paul Howard 703
26. problems usually arose from trying to use USB in hardware or soft ware systems that weren t ready for it i e older systems that hadn t been built with USB compatibility in mind I do not recall getting any similar complaints during the past year Lack of USB devices was a problem at first but now they re everywhere USB Benefits USB offers many more benefits than simple installation First USB Version 1 1 can carry data at up to 12 megabits per second Mbps 100 times faster than any serial port This broad category includes digital cameras modems keyboards mice printers digital joysticks some CD ROM drives tape and floppy drives digital scanners and spe cialty printers USB s data rate also accommodates a whole new genera tion of peripherals MPEG 2 video base products data gloves digitizers and computer telephony expected to be a big growth area for PCs and Macs In addition USB pro vides an interface for such business oriented technologies as Integrated Services Digital Network ISDN and digital PBXs The latest version of USB Version 2 0 introduced late in 2000 offers even faster communication with bandwidth up to 400 Mbps It easily accommodates high performance peripherals such as monitors video conferencing cam eras next generation printers and faster storage devices www nctcug org February 2002 The NCTCUG Journal Happily USB 2 0 is backward compatible with Version 1 1 N
27. referably one with a wrist pad My personal favorite is the Belkin mouse pad with the gel wrist pad It is comfortable and works very well The gel pad reduces strain and stress on the wrist and is typically available for under 10 Again watch the Sunday sale books they are often in there with a substantial rebate even free after rebate I bought one for myself and each of my children Most mice are mechanical and contain a ball and some roll ers A little preventative or routine maintenance can avoid a common frustration If the mouse pad is dirty or picks up moisture and body oils from the user the mouse will work erratically For under a dollar a bottle of alcohol and some cotton swabs can be used to clean the ball and rollers ina few minutes restoring the mouse to pristine operating con dition Look at the bottom of a mechanical mouse and there will be an arrow showing how to remove the ball Clean the ball with an alcohol dampened paper towel and then use some alcohol dampened swabs to remove the obvious debris off the rollers When dry reassemble the mouse Finish up by cleaning the pad with the alcohol dampened paper towel For less than a dollar the user now has a gift that will en hance the joy of computing Almost everyone has a printer attached to his computer Some new computers come bundled with a printer but most do not Most new printers on the market are color ink jet models and all will do satisfactor
28. rvice widely but not universally available from most of our local ISPs and the new cable Internet service is being heavily adver tised While somewhat pricey broadband can easily spoil anyone who has ever tried it Despite the growing avail ability of broadband traditional dialup service is still far more popular due to typical price advantages and the fact that broadband is still not universally available The local ISPs generally offer superior and faster service than the heavily advertis ed national providers usually at a much lower price Even in the same price range the local ISPs typically offer better service than the big national provid ers which is well worth it Consider signing up the new computer and its owner with a local ISP or broadband pro vider and enhance the user s computing experience If broadband is purchased then also get a firewall This re stricts unauthorized access from hackers Several commer cial titles are available in the local stores and some new antivirus software includes a firewall but also consider ZoneAlarm from www zonelabs com It is available for free for personal use Good peripherals do not have to cost a lot of money There is nothing more frustrating for a computer user than having a balky mouse Most of the time it is not the mouse but the mouse pad or lack of a mouse pad Some of the mouse pads included with new computers are terrible Buy the new com puter a decent mouse pad p
29. ry significant improvements that make it a must have little gem of an intelligent completely easy to use and thoroughly effective utility A R maintains and presents a list of all your installed software just like A R but that s where the similarity ends Double click any software item on the list and A R will activate that application s uninstall command Not only will the selected program be uninstalled it will also be removed from the list of installed software in A R something A R itself will not do The software list presented in A R will present some programs preceded by a yellow check mark which indi cates that the program is either missing or its uninstall feature can t be found If it s a program you know you previously uninstalled double click it and it will be re moved from the list Two columns follow the software list Column 1 pro vides the detailed path to the uninstall command for every program Column 2 provides the name under which the program appears in the registry very handy for manual removals If you select any program on the soft ware list a dialogue box will appear containing further information and suggestions for uninstalling A product details button will bring up a list of details about the selected program and the software publisher A modify entry button enables you to change the name under which the program appears on the list and offers further information A R 2002 will
30. should recognize it during the boot process and install drivers automatically If you need to install software follow the manufacturer s instructions If Windows snubs your new hardware go to the Control Panel and select the Install New Hardware icon and follow the instructions If Windows continues to ignore the de vice go to the manufacturer s Website The fix may be as simple as downloading the latest driver Once the hardware and software are installed and every thing seems to be fine monitor your system for a few weeks If problems pop up go to the manufacturer s Web page and see if there are any updated drivers on the site If there is no restriction against any non profit group using the a FAQ section explore it You may find some good information or Troubleshooting Tips You can also go to the Control Panel select the System icon and then select the Device Manager tab Your new component should be listed under the appropriate device heading If you see an exclamation point then you have a problem If that s the case press the symbol to open the device s directory Now right click the device and select Properties You ll find a series of tabs and choices depending upon the product type Go through the tabs and see if any error messages appear You might be able to fix the problem at this juncture If not make a note of the specific errors and look in the manual or contact the manu facturer for instr
31. stomized user interface While I m not happy with Yahoo s emulation of Microsoft they bought eGroups only to make it a complicated cham ber of horrors their portal is terrific My bias towards us ing Yahoo is twofold Yahoo provides a variety of informa tion more than most portals and it s blessedly easy to customize a page Better I have five separate Yahoo pages each serving a different need For instance my main page includes the following in SS ZX www nctcug org February 2002 The NCTCUG Journal k News Technology local science world and oth ers Calendar A quick view of my upcoming events with access to my calendar E mail and messaging I get to see my Yahoo mail account and who s online for an instant message Local area events Bookmarks I use this handy category to jump to sites that I want access to but aren t important enough to add to IE s Links bar amp Weather Financial portfolio A small password protected box that lets me see my daily losses Mapping Similar to MapBlast com but with a pull down history News clipper Yahoo automatically searches its news database to find articles that I m tracking I have other Yahoo pages each accessible from my Home page Entertainment with a listing of movie show times for theaters in Pasadena and an evening s worth of TV listings amp l Yahoo Sear
32. ter of additional memory and a larger hard drive were Boots Schmidt B Jones F Jones Colder Leggett How authorized at the January 2nd meeting This will allow ard Fishbein Darrow Stafford S Jones Gruenther the installation of these components and Windows XP Newhall Johnson and Macfarlane Professional as a demonstration for the 4th Wednesday meeting in January Pizza SIG donations result when one member will pick up the tab at the restaurant and other members will make a contribution of the amount of their normal shared check to NCTCUG INCOME Revenues oe Cash Pizza SIG donations fo a Z Donations Dues Total Revenue 1683 00 Interest Income CD Acct 161 76 Total Income 1844 76 EXPENSES Adminstrative Insurance VA State Corp Fee APCUG membership PO Box Rental Total Administrative Newsletter Printing Postage Total Newsletter Total Expenses Total Income vs Expense www nctcug org February 2002 The NCTCUG Journal Ad Remove Plus 2002 A shareware gem by Herb Goldstein Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group Inc Reprinted from the Sarasota PC Monitor December 2001 Installing most software is pretty easy Getting rid of it when you no longer want is a whole nuther story When you install an application it does more than create a folder full of files on your hard drive which is easily ac cessible in Windows Explorer It also plants a bevy of references all over
33. uctions Summary Have a plan before you upgrade At a minimum back up your data and install current drivers for your hardware The more thoroughly you prepare the less likely trouble will ensue As many of you know this column deals with issues per taining to Windows From Windows 95 to Windows Me keeping track of all the variations and inconsistencies of the different versions has become an almost impossible task What works with one version does not always work the same with another and with the Introduction of Win dows XP keeping track of which version does what to whom has become even more difficult Starting in January 2002 all future columns will focus on Windows XP I will no longer test previous versions of Windows The desktop in Windows 95 acts differently from Windows 98 ME has its own quirks and XP is a com pletely different ball game There simply isn t enough time to conduct adequate testing across all versions of the product Copyright 2001 This article is brought to you by the Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups APCUG an International organization to which this user group belongs www nctcug org The NCTCUG Journal February 2002 That New Holiday Computer By Ira Wilsker email iraw apcug org This holiday season many of you are giving or receiving a computer as a gift They make great but pricey gifts Generally they work fine out of the box but
34. ue 500 mA milliAmp power to each port Modules available for Ethernet SCSI devices serial parallel PS 2 and additional USB ports Illuminated green LEDs for easy access to port status Supports all high speed and low speed USB devices Includes a Belkin Pro Series 3 ft USB Device cable for a quality connection lifetime Belkin warranty and USB Wizard to make configuration even easier I ve been using a BusStation for many months now and find it invaluable Faithful readers know I don t report on a service or product until it has proved itself over a reasonable length of time and I have become thoroughly familiar with it Even before installing it in my main com puter I vowed never to buy another non USB peripheral again With BusStation I ve found it easy to connect some of my older devices including one of my several scanners and a digital camera with only a serial interface This rates as an especially valuable feature for those of us who can t afford to replace all of our currently owned periph erals with new USB products One caution The BusStation User Manual clearly states that that the 4A power supply is more than enough to supply adequate power to all ports in normal configura tion At 500mA per port the power draw would be 3 5A Low power devices such as mice and keyboards draw only about 100mA However adding a 4 port hub as one of the modules would overtax the BusStation In such c
35. work connection cable etc With luck I ll soon get the scanner to work that I inherited in the workstation I moved into a year ago It s a USB Hewlett Packard scanner and the NT4 oper ating system on my previous desktop computer didn t support USB which has been added to the support features in Win 2000 Pro Continued on page 14 Inside Give Your Portal Some PIZA77 3 csiscdvcsscruedegesseacesexsuneedavsgeceerayeuesd page 2 USB Could Mean User s Super Buddy 0 20 eceeeseeeeseeeesteeeeeeees page 4 Installing New Components eeseesseeeeeseeeseserssreresressrreresreesresresres page 6 That New Holiday Computer cc occssedsoncoscacssurscaeeerceavenrcaedsccetuennennend page 8 Computer Terminology Explained cc eeceeeeeeeeeeseeeseeeeeeeeeeeeeneees page 9 Ad Remove Plus 2002 A Shareware Gem c cceseeesseeeeees page 11 Shutd wn SHOT sis sssrin oseas eesin eiaeaen page 16 Treasurer s Report FY 2001 wicscccavcasdasoeassoascecasdanteadensgereaadesaeees page 10 Selections From The Deals Guy cccceeeccecsseeeseeeeeseteeeesteeeeaees page 12 The NCTCUG Journal Give Your Portal Some Pizzazz February 2002 Customize your browser s home page and increase your productivity By Steve Bass Pasadena IBM Users Group I was at a buddy s house recently and spotted something alarming His home page the screen his browser auto matically opens with was MSN Yeah you heard me
36. y printing for most house hold and small business tasks If printing photos may be SS ZX www nctcug org February 2002 The NCTCUG Journal come a common task then look at printers with higher resolution more dots per inch or dpi If the printer is to be used for business purposes then print speed may be an issue One factor that should also be considered is the cost of printer accouterments such as paper and ink While regular copy paper may be fine for routine work ink jet capable paper tends to be not much more expen sive and often results in a sharper output Photo grade paper comes in a variety of weights and qualities but tends to be expensive When printing photos a good tip is to print first on plain paper in draft mode minimize ink usage and verify the desired output When satisfied print in high quality on the more expensive ink jet photo paper Ink cartridge cost is another significant factor in printing Note the cost of ink cartridges and their capac ity before buying any printer If the user is likely to be doing a lot of printing the availability of generic or third party ink cartridges can significantly lower printing costs Personally I will not purchase a printer for which I cannot buy reasonably priced ink cartridges One of the decent quality universal refill kits may be a good gift as well Ira Wilsker is a member of the LIT Computer Resources Group and is on the Board of Advisors for APCU
37. you can create that shuts down your computer in one easy mouse 4th Wed 2 27 7 p m Internet SIG click E 3rd Monday 2 18 7 p m Board of Directors 1 Go to your Desktop and right click on a blank space All meetings are at Carlin Hall 5711 S 4th St Arlington 2 Select NEW and then SHORTCUT VA East off of Carlin Springs Rd just south of Arlington Blvd Route 50 3 In the command window that appears type this se quence exactly Aidah 4 rundll exe user exe exitwindows 5 Click NEXT and then name your shortcut Shutdown An icon that looks like the Windows logo will appear on your desktop with the nnme SHUTDOWN Clicking on this shortcut icon will shut down your computer quickly N ew CI u b We bs ite and safely Address That sequence is rundll dot exe space user dot exe comma exitwindows WWW nctcu g O rg NCTCUG Inc P O Box 949 x Arlington VA 22216 S
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