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Nov 2007 - Princeton PC Users Group

1. IIIF Fr These articles may be published only by APCUG member user groups All other uses are prohibited When used APCUG must be acknowledged as the source and the author credited The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups APCUG an international organization of which Princeton PC Users Group is a member brings their articles to you All unattributed articles are solely the fault of the editor De Be he Ne Be Be Le ee Be Be Le Ne Be Be i Nie Bp Be ie Ne Be Be ie he gt i gt ie Ne Be i gt ie Ne Be i gt ie he ie i ie ee Nominations Sonalit At the November meeting we will be accepting nominations for Officers and 4 Board Members See any Board Member for more information Elections 2 will take place at the December meeting amp ERR REEL RR ERE ERLE EREEREER AEREE BE SHE BE OE k BE SE BE k k SS80 N H POA 6c XOJE Od dno s19sQ Dd UOUN dA
2. companies have become in trying to thwart trade laws But don t take my word for it take a look at some of the Microsoft Google or as the hardware industry attempts to apply the same yoke on its customers Lexmark EULAs and see what they have to say you may be amazed 1 Fox News 12 Year Old Sued for Music Downloading http www foxnews com story 0 2933 96797 00 html 2 BetaNews RIAA Sues Deceased Grandmother http www betanews com article RIAA_Sues_Deceased_Grandmother 1 107532260 3 Electronic Frontier Foundation Now the Legalese Rootkit Sony BMG s EULA _http www eff org deeplinks archives 004145 php 4 Electronic Frontier Foundation Dangerous Terms A User s Guide to EULAs http www eff org wp eula php 5 Spyware Guide s on line EULA Analyzer http www spywareguide com analyze analyzer php 6 EULAlyzer http www javacoolsoftware com index html This article s reference to the Electronic Frontier Foundation should not be construed as an endorsement of the organization by the author Rob Rice is a computer specialist living in Anchorage Alaska and a member of the Computer Club of Okla homa City Rob can be contacted at articles isp com November 2007 PPCUG NEWS Page 7 Mentioned Web sites http www spywareguide com analyze analyzer php http www javacoolsoftware com index html http www benedelman org news 112904 1 html http www eff org wp eula php
3. more screws If you try really hard the removal and replace process can be extended to 10 minutes but most folks will finish the task in about 5 Note that these screws are frequently tiny so it is a good idea to do this work on a light colored surface in a well lit work area In addition to the screws holding the drive in place there will likely be a small adapter that fits over the pins on the IDE drive and makes it compatible with the connector inside the laptop s tray holder This figure shows the HD naked connector pins on the left and the pins with the adapter installed on the right This adapter has the same hole pattern as the USB IDE cable adapter Note that there are two groups of pins the 4 pins on the right separated from the larger group on the left and the 4 November 2007 PPCUG NEWS Page 4 pin group is not used in this application either for the internal drive adapter or the USB IDE connection Be careful when handling the drive to avoid static discharge Hardwood floors and leather soled shoes are preferred over carpets and sneakers in the work area Also the drives should never be squeezed on their flat surface when inserting the pins in either the USB IDE connector or the internal adapter grasp the drive by the edges to avoid placing too much pressure on the flat surfaces of the drives The ability to easily replace a a HD is very valuable This gives you a way to do risky experiments such as using question ab
4. City www ccokc org Ok here s the deal I offer you a big 56 inch shiny new Filch Plasma Screen TV and I will sell it to you if you will agree to have a camera installed in your home so I may watch you watching the new television Sound fair You also agree that should you disable or inhibit the free operation of the camera in any way you forfeit the television and your money Neither am I responsible for any damages to your home from the equipment or its use nor do I guaranty privacy or even that the tele vision will work Would you sign such a contract Many of us in a sense have already agreed to something like the above scenario when we clicked on the End User License Agreement EULA the contract that accompanies most software these days It pretty much goes without saying that most of us do not read EULAs They are often long dry and hard to understand documents written in a very small type face and crammed in a tiny window Even if there is something bad in it what are the chances it will have any real affect After all I m one among millions We may often think of ourselves as just one among many cattle feeding in the pasture so The chances of lightening striking me are remote But lightening did hit hundreds of folks in the form of a Recording Industry Association of America RIAA lawsuit Hundreds of persons have been sued for allegedly downloading music illegally For example RIAA filed a lawsuit against 12 yea
5. November 2007 Volume 23 Number 11 PPCU Gnews A PUBLICATION OF THE PRINCETON PC USERS GROUP Social Software Hype vs Reality Janie Hermann and Karen Klapperstuck Monday November 5 2007 Janie Hermann and Karen Klapperstuck will define social software and give an overview of a variety of social software sites such as Myspace Facebook and LinkedIn discussing the pros and cons of each Trends in social software will be ex amined as well as instructions on how to set up your own profile Tips for staying safe in online communities will be cov ered and the question of what is hype and what is not about the dangers of connecting and collaborating in a virtual world will be debated Janie Hermann is the Program Coordinator and Technology Training Librarian at Princeton Public Library Janie is the founder of Tuesday Technology Talks at Princeton Public Library http www princetonlibrary org techtalks Karen Klapperstuck is the Director of the Bradley Beach Public Library http www bradleybeachlibrary org Her ex perience with MySpace and social networks stem from her work with the teens in her library _ _ lt lt __ _ __ a f Lawrence Library Meeting Rooms amp 2 US Alternate Route 1 South amp Darrah Lane Lawrenceville NJ Meetings of an organization at any of the facilities of the Mercer County Library System in no way imply endorsement of its programs In this issue Upcoming Schedule Meeting Mi
6. er This allows the creation of a CD that is bootable Flash or other USB also supported but your BIOS must support USB booting to use it Note that Windows is ALWAYS using the disk it is booted from making this disk hard to copy but by using a bootable CD it is possible to start the computer while the existing hard drive is not in use by Windows so it can be more easily copied Maxblast has two modes for Bootable Media Builder The Full version and the Safe version The full version seems more appropriate for using USB devices which I will need to use for externally attached USB drive so that is what I choose And since I wish to make a bootable CD I choose the ISO image which is the standard format for this capability About ready to make a clone of my hard drive Since the laptop has no capability to add additional internal drives the new drive is connected externally through a USB IDE cable under 20 for a cable that will interface with 2 5 and 3 5 internal drives After the bootable CD is created Power off the computer then connect the cable to the com puter and the new drive Put on your good glasses and examine the large end of the cable USHIDE or USBATA closely There is a set of holes that match the See es ne _ pins on the disk drive and where is one pin cable Most kits include missing on the drive there is one hole that is power supply plugged on the adapter If you have an adapter for 3 5 as well as 2 5 dr
7. etter New members pay 3 25 or 1 75 per month times the number of months remaining in the current year November 2007 Minutes of the October Meeting At 7 30 p m Clarke started the Meeting John LeMasney demonstrated useful add ons to Firefox John s presentation can be found at John also recorded his presentation and will be posting it on the web site Submitted by Clarke Walker John LeMasney by Judge Landis IIIF FFP Pictures from the October Meeting by Judge Landis Member of the Princeton PC Users Group PPCUG NEWS Page 2 lt lt lt lt F YY President s Message John LeMasney gave a very interesting talk at our October meeting He was kind enough to record it and you can find the recording oin his web site At the November meeting we will be requesting nominees for Officers and Board Members Please consider volunteering This month we have the duo Jane Hermann and Karen Klapperstuck presenting at our meeting They will be talking about Social Web sites These are web site aim at communicating with those of similar interests Their title may make it sound like a panel discussion but I attended their presentation several months ago and I think you will find it very interesting They will give an overview of several sites for socializing and if time permits how to get involved in a social web site Social networking is a growing use of the Internet and can be a fun way to spend time on
8. his kit is designed for professional installation ONLY None of the temporary storage devices hardware software specialized tools or instructions that may be needed to install this drive is included in this kit All right a challenge the only thing I love more than a good deal is a technical challenge I then worked about 4 hours on studying preparing and executing stuff like partitioning formatting managing drive imaging copying followed by several more hours of FIXMBR FIXBOOT C copying NTLDR and generally suffering extreme frustration Things that worked November 2007 PPCUG NEWS Page 3 in years past seemed to no longer work After I slept on it I realized there may be an easier way This new drive is a Seagate Hard Drive a product of the most ad vanced HD company on earth says so right on the box They must know that they could sell more HDs if they make it easy to transfer stuff to the new HD Off I go to http www seagate com www en us support downloads after a bit of poking around I find MaxBlast 5 a Maxtor program Maxtor is now a Seagate subsidiary However MaxBlast looks really promis ing It is a free download it is a product of Acronis who makes several high quality disk cloning and data backup products Now we are making progress I download and install Maxblast 5 Maxblast has a 60 page manual on line which I read thor oughly OK maybe 10 minutes then run it One of the choices is Bootable Media Build
9. ives there will be one set of holes for either type of drive Some about 4 of the pins will remain exposed no holes In theory this setup should work when plugged in after the power is on but with a weak USB power there have been reports of the drive not spinning up fast enough and the drive logic indicating a bad drive Turn on power and quickly insert the CD If the computer boots to Windows you can shut down and retry Note that you may have to change the BIOS set up to boot from the CD before the HD BIOS setup procedures are different on every machine but are usually accessed be he hitting F2 or Delete while booting but before windows starts Check your user s manual The Clone Disk is the choice and if you are happy with your existing disk setup no partitions or like the existing propor tions the default may be best I was able to increase several of my partitions for some slack and have room for a 20GB spare After you have finished the cloning process it is time to swap the internal hard drive with the external drive Remember that laptops have a battery don t do ANY work on the inside of the laptop without first removing the battery In fact don t do anything without reading the appropriate sections of your particular laptop s user manual They are all a little different Laptop HDs are usually in a small slide out tray my tray was held in place by two screws The drive is held in the tray by two
10. le or incompatible software or perhaps editing the registry while minimizing the risk of having to do a total system rein stall The MaxBlast program system requirements states At least one Seagate Technology or Maxtor disc drive as well as several other pretty easy to meet requirements I did not try to see if it would work on other drive brands and I don t know if it checks It is a pretty nice feature though particularly for laptops where there is no space to add a HD only to replace a HD I would personally not recommend this as a primary data backup as it is a little tedious and backups should be as easy as possible So HD replacement could be thought of as a way to upgrade the system as well as a sort of super system restore If your laptop is seriously important such as work related for a business get it set up well functioning smoothly and then after making a separate back up of your data create a clone of your hard drive and swap it to make sure it is a good copy Then if the worst happens your hard drive dies just swap in the the original Maybe even take the spare with you on trips along with a little screw driver Just don t loose it References http www harddriveupgrade com http www fonerbooks com laptop_1 htm http www seagate com support maxblast mb_ug en pdf IIIF gt gt gt Would You Sign This Contract by Rob Rice articles at isp com Member of the Computer Club of Oklahoma
11. nutes Pictures by Judge December 10 Member s party President s Message Link of the Month Attack of the Clone January 14 2008 Niel Cherry Home Automation Would You Sign This Contract 5 February 11 2008 Doug Dixon Consumer Electronics Show March 10 2008 tba About PPCUG General Meetings Second Monday of the month at the Lawrenceville Library Alternate Route 1 and Darrah Lane 7 00 PM Social Time Tech Corner 7 30 PM Meeting comes to Order 7 45 PM Featured presentation For information about upcoming meetings or joining PPCUG see or email us at Please include OK in the sub ject line Board Meetings Board meetings are open to all mem bers Notice of an upcoming meeting will be posted on the web site Board Members President Clarke Walker 609 883 5262 Vice President Tom Carman 732 828 6055 Secretary vacant Treasurer Judge Landis 609 737 2997 Members At Large Al Axelrod 609 737 2827 Kim Goldenberg 609 631 9140 Paul Kurivchack 908 218 0778 Vic Laurie 609 924 1220 Sol Libes 609 520 9024 Chairpersons Hospitality Bill Hawryluk 609 655 0923 Member Records Judge Landis 609 737 2997 Newsletter Editor Clarke Walker 609 883 5262 Program Coordinator Sol Libes 609 520 9024 Web Master Joe Budelis 609 921 3867 2007 Annual Dues Dues are 40 per calendar year with a mailed newsletter or 20 per year with online access to the newsl
12. r 5 900 words of text informed the user that You agree that you will not use or encourage others to use any unauthorized means for the removal of the GAIN AdServer or any GAIN Supported Software from a computer That includes removing it with Adaware or SpyBot which listed it as spyware Any use of a packet sniffer or other device to intercept or access communications between GP and the GAIN AdServer is strictly prohibited Meaning you cannot monitor what it is doing while it is on your computer Mr Edelman s website is a very good resource for the wary and worth a look http www benedelman org news 112904 1 html Sony has faced some embarrassing headlines as of late with their music CD s EULA and rightly so Take for example these observations by the Electronic Frontier Foundation regarding the contents of the Sony EULA If you file for bankruptcy you have to delete all the music on your computer The EULA says Sony BMG will never be liable to you for more than 5 00 If your house gets burgled you have to delete all your music from your laptop when you get home That s because the EULA says that your rights to any copies terminate as soon as you no longer possess the original CD You must install any and all updates or else lose the music on your computer The EULA immediately terminates if you fail to install any update No more holding out on those hobble ware downgrades masquerading as updates If yo
13. r old Brianna LaHara whose mom had paid a 29 99 service charge to KaZaA for the company s music ser vice said Brianna I got really scared My stomach is all turning I thought it was OK to download music because my mom paid a service fee for it Out of all people why did they pick me 1 November 2007 PPCUG NEWS Page 5 But what we have learned since Brianna s case came to light is that many intellectual property owners are using eavesdrop ping techniques to monitor end user compliance Whether it s intercepting data traffic over an Internet connection or placing spyware on your computer the name of the game seems to be intimidation through litigation Of course heavy handed tactics do tend to produce mistakes and bad public feeling such as RIAA s disastrous lawsuit where they sued a deceased great grandmother who reportedly had never owned a computer 2 But what is interesting is that software that tends to operate in a dubious manner will typically tell you up front or give you some hints in its EULA Take for example this classic EULA that was analyzed by Benjamin Edelman back in 2004 he is an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School and a member of the Massachusetts Bar It is Gator an advertising pop up software that often came embedded in weather monitors organizers and clock synchronizers The company changed its name to Claria Corporation GAIN stands for Gator Advertising Information Network The EULA with ove
14. t instantaneously The EULAlyzer personal is free for educational and personal use and a Pro version with added features is also available 6 Home Analyze Make sure you have the latest version by checking for updates If you are still not convinced of the importance of reading the EULA you might consider this the folks over at PC Pitstop http pcpitstop com decided to see just how many people read the agreement In their EULA they actually offered monetary Settings compensation for reading the document It stated EULAlyzer Scan EULA Watch Statistics Saved EULAs Upgrade to EULAlyzer Pro You re missing out on EULA Watch and other pro features Upgrade today 2 eH Sg ch SPECIAL CONSIDERATION 5 oe ig ae A special consideration which may include financial compensa gt My saved EULAS tion will be awarded to a limited number of authorize licensees to read this section of the license agreement and contact PC Pit 2 EULAlyzer Online i 5 Seer stop at consideration pcpitstop com This offer may be with gt Check for EULAlyzer Updates drawn at any time Unfortunately it took four months before anyone collected Doug Heckman was the first person to email them in 3000 downloads For his efforts PC Pitstop gave him 1000 So there you have it incentive to read the license agreement Reading EULAs can actually be quite an interesting experience Read enough of them and you quickly learn how bold some
15. the Internet So come and bring a friend with you Clarke Walker lt lt lt lt ee Link of the Month John LeMasney gave plenty of good websites during his talk One of these is www ugr com Have you discovered a useful link Then share it with the members of the P PC UG lt lt lt lt r Attack Of The Clone by Mick Topping mickt at mtopping us Member of the ICON Interactive Computer Owners Network Missouri www iconusersgroup org I have been dragging my feet on Vista I really don t see much in it that I think I need However it is getting time for a new laptop the hard drive on the old one is getting a little crowded and a little busy and slow on startup What I really needed was a way to distract myself from how much I wanted a new LT and maybe delay getting a new one until Vista gets a little more debugged Here we go a really good deal at a local store on a laptop hard drive I never could resist a good deal The staff guy had a hard time finding the special A bit of confusion on the sale circular But finally found it Then he says you are not going to install that by yourself We have a fine technical staff that can do that sort of thing for a small fee I had done a similar install before and did not re member much of a problem so I politely declined The first surprise on opening the box was right on top a big yellow card with bold print READ THIS Q Can I install this drive myself A T
16. u move out of the country you have to delete all your music The EULA specifically forbids export outside the country where you reside 3 Most EULAs that I have read place all of the burden and financial responsibility upon you You pay the money you take the risk and you take the liability The software company decides everything in its favor and takes no responsibility what so ever even for the software doing what it claims to do It would seem that you in effect given up your legal rights in exchange to use a piece of software Ok so you read the license agreement but the mind numbing experience had you re reading the same sentence over and over and by the time you were done you felt like the first documented case of someone having actually died from boredom What is worse you still don t know what it said But cheer up there is help available For example The Electronic Frontier Foun dation has a helpful article titled Dangerous Terms a User s Guide to EULAs by Annalee Newitz 4 It describes some of the more dubious terms found in some EULAs and what to look out for Such as Do not criticize this product publicly Using this product means you will be monitored Do not reverse engineer this product Do not use this product with other vendor s products By signing this contract you also agree to every change in future versions of it Oh yes and EULAs are subject to E November 2007 PPCUG NEWS Page 6 change
17. without notice 6 We are not responsible if this product messes up your computer You can also use some of the EULA analyzers that are available While they are not a substitute for carefully reading a user agreement they can be very helpful by flagging suspect sentences especially when you have an insanely long contract such as the over 32 000 words found at the Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum s web site Figuring this would bring any EULA analyzer to its knees I put it through the Spyware Guide s on line EULA Analyzer 5 It performed beautifully and flagged areas that the Analyzer thought suspicious including You agree to pay us three thousand dollars per unsolicited e mail sent or prohibited comment posted to the CPRR Discus sion Group or telephone call and fifteen thousand dollars per e mail address added to your commercial mailing list in viola tion of the foregoing plus damages The CPRR Museum participates in Project Honey Pot which allows us to track and help catch spammers who harvest e mail addresses from our web pages One analyzer that I have been using for several months now is the EULAlyzer by Javacool Software LLC who also publish SpywareBlaster This is an application that is very simple to use just click analyze and then drag the application s pointer over the EULA and automatically copies it into the program Click the Analyze button and it gives you its assessment al EU LAlyze Eia mos

Nov 2007 - Princeton PC Users Group

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