Fresno Personal Computer Users’ Group General Meeting
Monday December 4, 7:30 PM
Program Is:
Annual Pot Luck & Swap Meet
December is the month when we bring the entire family, kick back and relax, eat and swap ideas, hardware and software.
This is how it works:Pot luck - Bring an entrée and a side dish or dessert. Please bring enough to feed your family and invited guest(s) plus 4 others. The club will provide table service and refreshments.
Swap Meet - Clean out your bone yard of excess but working hardware, software and other computer related material, and it bring to the meeting. Make deals with fellow FPCUG members and visitors.
December's meeting will include the raffle of a computer. Here's the stats:
512mb RAM Memory
160gb Hard Drive
DVD ROM and DVD-RW Drives
Sound/LAN/USB 2.0
Windows XP Pro
Raffle tickets for the computer are $5 each.
One final note:No items can be left behind at the meeting site. All untraded items must go back home with you at the end of the evening.
Bill's Tricks & Tips
If It isn't Broke, Don't Fix It!
A common saying around many forums, including our own, if your computer isn't broke, don't try and fix it.
You'd be surprised at how many times customers will upgrade video drivers, firmware, bios updates, software, or hardware because they can, not because its really needed. Several examples include:
- Person A sees new video card drivers out for his series of video card. He has not been having problems with his video card, and none of the issues that are said to be resolved in the update affect him.
- Person B sees a firmware update for his wireless networking card that is supposed to add features that Person B wouldn't use if he had. There are no updates that he would use, and no stability improvements.
- Person C sees a BIOS update available for their brand new motherboard that adds support for additional processors - none of which he has. There are no stability / reliability improvements, and no new features in this update.
- Person D is thinking about upgrading their version of AIM because AIM says he should. The new version has even more adware than the previous one, and is even more bloated. It doesn't really add any more features that are needed.
- Person E just built himself a new computer with the latest video card that will run every game on the market. A week later, a newer card comes out that improves the frame rate on a video game by 1 FPS.
In all the above cases, unless there is an issue directly causing problems that needs addressed, it is often times a better bet to stay with a version that works than rush into an upgrade. Upgrades can sometimes be buggy themselves, and lead to problems you weren't having before. Fixing a problem that was not there often times creates a problem that wasn't there. Try not to upgrade unless you need the upgrade for stability, reliability, or functionality reasons. Many times, it will save you a huge headache.
Right-Click Menus
Desktop
Rightclick
Browser
Rightclick
MS Word
Rightclick
Right-click menus are a handy way to get to frequently-used commands. Depending on where you right-click (i.e. on a word in a word-processor, on a picture in a browser, on the desktop, or wherever else you think about), you will have a different assortment of commands in the right-click menu but what is common for all of them is that they are context-dependent and usually are the actions you are most likely to perform - i.e. if you select a word in MS Word and right-click, you will see options for copying it, cutting it, pasting it, applying formatting to it, etc. but if you right-click on an empty area of your desktop, you will get a different set of commands, like commands for arranging icons, for creating new folders, etc.
Most of the commands in right-click menus can be accessed from the main menubar or from the keyboard as well but right-clicking to get to them is much easier. And something else that even advanced users might not know is that right-drag is similar to right-click - it also opens a right-click menu.
Unhide File Extensions
When you install Windows, you might notice that you see only filenames but no extensions. It can be very confusing to see just an icon that identifies a MS Word file, for example, but no .doc extension. Don't worry, fixing this is easy - just go to Folder Options in Control Panel (or you can access it from the Tools menu in a Windows Explorer window) and open the View tab. In the Advanced Settings pane remove the mark in the checkbox in front of Hide Extensions for Known File Types and you are done!
Basic (Windows) Housekeeping
While Windows is not the most fool-proof operating system, it does have many tools that can help you maintain it clean and safe. Additionally, there are many activities that you can perform, in addition to using its built-in tools, to keep it healthy. The following list shows only some of the most important activities for having a trouble-free and reliable system:
- Never shut the computer down from the power button! If the computer is not responding, try with Ctrl + Alt + Delete either to restart it, or bring the Task Manager and close only a program that is not responding.
- Use anti-virus programs and regularly update them. Do we have to say why?
- Regularly backup data (and the registry) - this will make your life easier if your hard drive dies, or your operating system cannot be booted (due to a virus, for example).
- Scan disks for errors and defragment them. Usually hard drives do not die all of a sudden and it might be useful to know that your hard drive has bad sectors and you can expect unpleasant surprises. Defragmenting the files on a disk speeds up your system and sometimes you can even free additional space that has been occupied by fragmented files.
- Regularly clean temporary files, browser caches, lists of recently used files. In addition to saving space, you will remove evidence of which files you have used, which sites you have visited and so on.
- Avoid frequent install and uninstall of programs. Even if a program is written professionally, installing a new unfamiliar program is always a risk - it could have malware in it, or it could modify shared system files on your computer, thus making older programs to stop working. But one thing that is absolutely bad to do is simply to delete the files of a program you don't need anymore. Never-ever do it - if you need to remove a program, go to Control Panel and select Add or Remove Programs and proceed from there.
- Don't use your computer during thunderstorms - computers are electrical appliances and they have many sensitive parts that can easily be damaged as a result of operation during thunderstorms. Also, when you are not going to use your computer for some times, switch it off and unplug it from the outlet.
FPCUG News
Thanks to Bill Leidenroth and Gary Gipson for their contributions towards the newsletter this month.
The Fresno Open Source Users Group (FOSUG) invites the Fresno PC Users Group members and visitors to join the impromptu discussions on computer and casual subjects in theFOSUG Java Chat room. This chat room can be accessed easily 24/7 using a Java enabled browser. Or, if you have chat software such as irssi, you can access it: irc.doteltech.com #fosug
The Fresno Open Source Users Group (FOSUG) specially invites the Fresno PC Users Group members and other interested ones to their December meeting. The December meeting will be held December 16, 3:00pm So, if you have a machine you want to install Linux on, or even just want to watch a Linux install, this is your opportunity, because this month there will be a focus on installing Linux, fixing individual problems, demos on setups and hardware. If you'd like a Linux distribution there will be many available, so bring a blank CD or DVD to have a copy for yourself.
Disk of the Month
4DiskClean Free 4.0
Author: RSS Systems
Date: 2006-09-21
Size: 539 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
4DiskClean helps you to manage your hard disk space, increasing the amount of free space on your drives, by deleting unneeded files including temporary data, old backups, duplicated files and DLL's, browser caches and history, etc. It cleans up temporary data and caches placed there by Windows and Internet applications and then forgotten. It displays, in graphics form, charts of disk usage and, disk settings to help you make decisions about file removal and completely understand the files and folders that are in your computer. It has an interface that is easy to use, does fast searches and is very secure.
a-squared Anti-Dialer 2.0
Author: Emsi Software GmbH
Date: 2006-09-19
Size: 2.9 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
Protect your PC with a-squared Anti-Dialer from manipulated dial up connections, which can cause a phone bill of several hundred dollars quickly.
a-squared Anti-Dialer provides a complete defense against Dialers. Scan all files on your harddisks for Dialer behavior using the Dialer scanner. The integrated background guard protects the PC from new infections. As soon as a potential Dialer creates or manipulates a dial up connection, the a-squared Anti-Dialer will alert it.
Alcohol 52% Free Edition 1.9.5.4327
Author: Alcohol Soft
Date: 2006-09-21
Size: 6.9 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
Alcohol brings a new meaning to the word multimedia! It is without a doubt a leader in it's class, bringing the ability to emulate and record CDs and DVDs together into one amazingly easy to use software program.
There are no limitations on this version, other than the ability to create only 6 virtual drives. Our retail version still supports 31 virtual drives.
Remember you can not run Alcohol 52% if you have Alcohol 120% installed on the same drive.
AutoPatcher XP Update September 2006
Author: AutoPatcher XP
Date: 2006-09-18
Size: 13.6 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win XP
Update AutoPatcherXP to the latest version.
AutoPatcher XP is an installation package designed to get your Windows XP system up to date quick and easily. This update package features a slick looking GUI and and can be customized to install as much or as little as you please.
BGEye 3.0.0.4
Author: OptionalReaction
Date: 2006-09-21
Size: 356 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
BGEye renders system information as the desktop wallpaper. The information is rendered as a variable array of elements, together with icons, onto a pre-defined background, before being saved as a bitmap and temporarily set as the wallpaper.
BitTorrent 4.22.0
Author: Bram Cohen
Date: 2006-09-20
Size: 6.2 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing/distribution protocol designed for transferring files from multiple locations. Because of the nature of this protocol, large files can be handled more efficiently than the typical client/server method.
CheckeMON 1.1
Author: Wong Ying Kit
Date: 2006-09-22
Size: 191 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
Test a monitor before you buy. Alternatively you could test your current monitor as well. Quality and performace of a monitor are usually not apparent when only still pictures are shown, as what is happening in shops. This program eliminates the problem by running a series of specific tests. Brief explanation for each test is included. Supports both LCD and CRT monitors.
DefaultBrowser 1.5
Author: Ramesh Srinivasan
Date: 2006-09-18
Size: 22 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win XP
DefaultBrowser allows you set the default web browser for your user profile in Windows XP, without affecting the other users. Note that the user interface in Windows XP does not provide an option for setting the default browser for each user. The browsers you see in the Preset Configuration are tested and working flawlessly as user defaults.
DVDFab Decrypter 3.0.1.2
Author: Fengtao Software Inc.
Date: 2006-09-21
Size: 1.8 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
DVDFab Decrypter is a simple version of DVDFab Express. It copies entire DVD movie to hard disk, and removes all the protections (CSS, RC, RCE, APS, UOPs and Sony ARccOS) while copying.
Foobar 0.9.4 Final
Author: Peter Pawlowski
Date: 2006-09-23
Size: 1.6 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win NT/2K/XP/2003
Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include ReplayGain support, low memory footprint and native support for several popular audio formats.
Foxit Reader 2.0 Build 0922
Author: Foxit Software Company
Date: 2006-09-22
Size: 1.7 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
Foxit Reader is a free reader for PDF (eBook) documents. You can view and print PDF documents with it.
Foxit Reader is small (the download size around a 1MB), so you can download it quickly. It doesn't need any lengthy installation, so you can start to run it as soon as you can download it.
FDM
Freeware
Win all
Free Download Manager (FDM) is a full-featured download accelerator and manager. It is absolutely free! Using this software product you can easily download a list of files and whole web sites from any remote server via HTTP, HTTPS and FTP. With FDM the downloading process will be as easy as never before!
Google Earth 4.0.2091 Beta
Author: Google
Date: 2006-09-23
Size: 13.7 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win XP/2K
The idea is simple. It's a globe that sits inside your PC. You point and zoom to anyplace on the planet that you want to explore. Satellite images and local facts zoom into view. Tap into Google search to show local points of interest and facts. Zoom to a specific address to check out an apartment or hotel. View driving directions and even fly along your route. We invite you to try it now.
Google Earth is free for personal use. No registration is required. You may (optionally) choose to upgrade to Google Earth Plus.
IE Tab 1.1.1.1
Author: Hong Jen Yee & yuoo2k
Date: 2006-09-24
Size: 158 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
IE Tab is a Firefox extension that makes possible embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox.
This is a great tool for web developers, since you can easily see how your webpage displayed in IE with just one click and then switch back to Firefox.
K-3D 0.6.2.0
Author: K-3D.org
Date: 2006-09-24
Size: 31 Mb
License: Freeware (GPL)
Requires: Win All
K-3D features a robust, object oriented plugin architecture, designed to scale to the needs of professional artists. It is designed from the ground up to generate motion picture quality animation using RenderMan compliant rendering engines.
The project authors recommend AQSIS as a rendering engine.
K-3D's innovative interactive tutorial system will introduce you to basic use of the program. New tutorials can easily be recorded and shared with the rest of the community.
K-3D allows you to create and edit documents in multiple realtime OpenGL solid, shaded, texture-mapped views. You can even model, animate, and interact with animations while they play back for maximum productivity.
Keyfinder Thing Lite 1.11
Author: Matt Chugg
Date: 2006-09-20
Size: 43 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
Keyfinder Things is a simple utility to retrieve and decrypt your Microsoft serial keys. It also includes support for several non Microsoft software titles. See the readme included for a full list of supported software.
Differences between Keyfinder Thing 3 and Keyfinder Thing Lite:
Its smaller! (50kb) Its Faster! but it doesn't have the features of the full version. Its basic and to the point now and the only dependancy is MSVBM60.dll (The VB6 Runtime that most people have anyway these days.)
MediaCoder 0.5.1-pre8 Beta
Author: Yi-Chun Huang
Date: 2006-09-19
Size: 21 Mb
License: Freeware (GPL)
Requires: 98/ME/NT4/2000/XP/2003
MediaCoder is a free universal audio/video batch transcoder, putting together lots of excellent audio/video codecs and tools from the open source community into an all-in-one solution, capable of transcoding among different audio/video formats with many extra features.
Microsoft Virtual PC 2004
File Name: Virtual PC 2004 SP1.zip
Version: 582.27
Date Published: 8/30/2006
Language: English
Download Size: 18.2 MB
System Requirements:
- Supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000 Service Pack 4; Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
- (32-bit x86); Windows XP Service Pack 2
- Processor: Athlon®, Duron®, Celeron®, Pentium® II, Pentium III, or Pentium 4
- Processor speed: 400 MHz minimum (1 GHz or higher recommended)
RAM: Add the RAM requirement for the host operating system that you will be using to the requirement for the guest operating system that you will be using. If you will be using multiple guest operating systems simultaneously, total the requirements for all the guest operating systems that you need to run simultaneously.
Available disk space: To determine the hard disk space required, add the requirement for each guest operating system that will be installed.
Virtual PC 2004 SP1 runs on: Windows 2000 Professional SP4, Windows XP Professional or later, and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition or later.
NextSensor 2.5.2.1 Build 0916 RC3
Author: Central Brain Identifier
Date: 2006-09-24
Size: 313 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
NextSensor is an extremely easy to use temperature and voltage monitoring tool with an advanced graphic interface. Provides probing of Vcore, VDIMM, VAGP, VBAT, 5VSB, 3VSB, +12, -12, +5V, -5V, +3.3V sensor lines. Shows the temperature of the Processor, the North Bridge and the Hard Disk on the Tray Bar using separate LED indicators. The program is capable to monitor negative temperatures and three FAN speeds. The current version supports Winbond Super I/O LPC chips only.
Norton Removal Tool (SymNRT) 2007.2.0.5
Author: Symantec
Date: 2006-09-20
Size: 602 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
The Norton uninstall tool uninstalls ALL Norton 2004/2005/2006/2007 products from your computer. It also uninstalls Norton Ghost 10.0/9.0/2003.
Removes:
- Norton AntiSpam 2004 2005
- Norton Antivirus 2003 - 2007
- Norton Ghost 2003 , 9.0 and 10.0
- Norton GoBack 3.1 - 4.2
- Norton Interet Security 2003 - 2007
- Norton Password Manager
- Norton Personal Firewall 2003 - 2007
- Norton SystemWorks 2003 - 2006
- Norton Confidential Online 2007
NVIDIA BIOS Editor (NiBiTor) 3.0
Author: xtremetheme
Date: 2006-09-24
Size: 557 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
NVIDIA BIOS Editor (NiBiTor) enables you to change the sign-on message text & color, GPU & memory clocks, hidden features like SBA (Side Band Addressing) and much more.
NVIDIA BIOS Editor (NiBiTor) will support all BIOSes from NiBiTor does only work with Geforce5, 6 and 7 series. Does not require any .dll, and will work under any version of Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP.
Pdf995 8.0s
Author: Software995
Date: 2006-09-22
Size: 2.23 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
Pdf995 is a printer driver that works with any Postscript to PDF converter.
Pdf995 makes it easy and affordable to create professional-quality documents in the popular PDF file format. Its easy-to-use interface helps you to create PDF files by simply selecting the "print" command from any application, creating documents which can be viewed on any computer with a PDF viewer. Pdf995 supports network file saving, fast user switching on XP, Citrix/Terminal Server, custom page sizes and large format printing.
Picasa2 2.5.0 Build 32.94
Author: Google, Inc.
Date: 2006-09-18
Size: 4.7 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win XP/2K
Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you know. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized.
Process Tamer 2.06.01
Author: Donationcoder.com
Date: 2006-09-21
Size: 2.2 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win XP/2K
Process Tamer is a tiny and super efficient utility for Microsoft Windows XP/2K/NT that runs in your system tray and constantly monitors the cpu usage of other processes. When it sees a process that is overloading your cpu, it reduces the priority of that process temporarily, until its cpu usage returns to a reasonable level.
RegScanner 1.40
Author: NirSoft
Date: 2006-09-23
Size: 88 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
RegScanner is a small utility that allows you to scan the Registry, find the desired Registry values that match to the specified search criteria, and display them in one list. After finding the Registry values, you can easily jump to the right value in RegEdit, simply by double-clicking the desired Registry item. You can also export the found Registry values into a .reg file that can be used in RegEdit.
Getting Ready for Windows Vista
The next few months promise to be an exciting time for PC users as Microsoft rolls out their new Windows Vista operating system. While some business systems may be released late this year, most of the action will take place shortly after the beginning of the new year. Now is the time to start planning how you are going to take advantage of this new technology.
This is the first new version of Windows in over five years and is a major change in how PC user will interact with their computers. Lots of new function has been added to Vista to make it the most exciting new Windows since Windows 95 was first introduced. You will want to be a part of this major step forward in technology.
Some of the new features added to Windows Vista include:
- A complete redesign of the graphical user interface that you see and interact with. Windows Vista has a fresh new look and is a lot easier to use.
- Finding things on your Vista computer is going to be much easier. Files can be stored in one location, but retrieved in many different ways.
- New multimedia tools will now be part of Vista . This will help you to better work with your images, music, and videos files.
- Communications between computer systems has also been greatly enhanced. Connecting with other computers can now be done quickly and easily.
- System security has also been enhanced. Vista will provide you with more security features than older Windows systems did.
These are just a few of the hundreds of new features you will find in Vista. To read about more of them download the Windows Vista Product Guide found on the Microsoft’s web site at: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview/.
Interested and excited about Windows Vista? You should be. This is a very important change in how we use our computers. So, what do you need to do to get your computer ready for Windows Vista?
Microsoft suggests two ways to move to Windows Vista. They are as follows:
Do a Clean Install of Vista on top of your old WinXP operating system. This replaces your WinXP system with a new Windows Vista system. You will have to save all of your data files and settings from your old system before installing Vista and then put them back on your hard drive after Vista is installed. You will also need to reinstall all of your application programs from their original CDs. This is a lot of work, but it should give you a cleaner Vista system. Unfortunately, in the process you will destroy your old WinXP system. I consider this approach too risky for my use.
Do an in-place upgrade of your old WinXP operating system with Windows Vista. This will install Windows Vista on top of your old operating system, but will keep all of your application programs and data files from your old system in the Windows Vista replacement. This is an easier way to go, but if things don’t work, you have just destroyed your old working WinXP system in the process. Again, too risky for my liking.
So, how can you get to Windows Vista and still have the protection of your working WinXP system while you are getting use to Windows Vista? The secret is that you setup your computer’s hard drive to run multiple operating systems. That will give you the ability to run both your current WinXP operating system and the new Windows Vista operating system on the same computer. This is easy to do with the right software tools.
First, you need to set up a logical Data partition on your main hard drive to hold all of the data files. Then you can access those data files from either of the two operating systems you are using. To do this, you need a partitioning utility like Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0. More about this excellent utility later.
Once you have moved all of your data files from your WinXP partition to this new Data partition you will be ready to install Vista. You can do this in the following ways:
Multiple Operating Systems with a Clean Install of Windows Vista. Using the top rated partitioning utility, Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 you set up a second primary partition on your main computer. Then you install a Clean version of Windows Vista in this second primary partition on your main hard drive. When you are done, you can switch back and forth between your WinXP operating system and your new Windows Vista operating system using the OS Selector utility that comes with Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0. This lets you keep your working WinXP system while you are building your new Windows Vista system. You will need to install any application programs in the Windows Vista partition that you want to run under Vista. This will give you the cleanest installation of Vista possible.
Multiple Operating Systems with an Upgrade Install of Windows Vista. Also using the partitioning utility, Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0, you set up an empty space on your main computer where your Vista primary partition will reside. Then you copy your WinXP operating system partition into this empty space on your hard drive. This gives you two primary partitions, each with WinXP installed in it and running. Next, you do a Windows Vista upgrade install into the partition with the copy of WinXP. This will replace WinXP in that one partition with Windows Vista, but still keep your application programs and settings. You can switch back and forth between the two operating systems using the OS Selector utility that comes with Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0. This is the easiest way to get to Windows Vista from WinXP.
By using multiple operating systems on your computer to run both WinXP and Windows Vista, you do not risk having to burn your WinXP bridges before you are comfortable with Windows Vista. This gives you the time to test out your application programs and get everything working on your new Windows Vista system before you commit to using it exclusively. Once you are satisfied that Windows Vista works perfectly for you, then you can discard the old WinXP system and only use Windows Vista. It may be several months before you finally get rid of WinXP. You do not need to get rid of it the day you first install Windows Vista like the two Microsoft options suggest.
To help you move to Window Vista, we are putting several things in place. First, you will need a copy of the excellent partitioning utility, Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0. This product normally sells for $50, but we offer it to user group members and their friends for a discounted price of $29 in our Fall Special bundle. You will also get a copy of our tutorial, Getting Ready for Windows Vista in the Fall Special bundle. Both of these for only $29 is an outstanding bargain and one that you won’t want to miss. Order yours today from our web site at www.usergroupstore.com. Look for the Fall Special and use the order code of UGFAL06 to complete your order.
To help you understand and use Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 to get ready for Windows Vista, we have just completed a new tutorial titled, Getting Ready for Windows Vista. You can view it on our web site at www.ugr.com/tutorials.html. This will help you to better understand the steps needed to set up multiple operating systems on your computer. Those ordering our Fall Special on a CD will receive the tutorial CD with their order. Finally, we are working on a detailed step-by-step technical paper titled, Using Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 to Install Windows Vista. This paper should be available around the end of October on our web site. We want your move to Windows Vista to be successful, so we are offering you all of these tutorials and papers to help you get there as planned.
Be one of the first to use the exciting new Windows Vista operating system on your computer and share this information with your friends. We will help you get to that point safely and easily with our excellent products, tutorials, and prices. If you have any questions about this article or Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0, please send them to gene@ugr.com. I look forward to helping you if I can.
Gene Barlow
User Group Relations
PO Box 911600
St George, UT 84791-1600
Make a Muvee
Turn your holiday snap shots and videos into a master piece. Muvee allows you to share your memories on DVD, so that everyone can see them on their TV's.
Of all the movie making programs available, Muvee is the easiest to use; the easiest to learn and the easiest to master; giving you spectacular results that will amaze family and friends.
On Saturday at 10:30 am, December 2nd at CompUSA, member, Bill Leidenroth will show you how, step-by-step.
Dave Whittle demonstrated this program for our group earlier this year and Bill became one of its biggest fans; making many movies and amazing lots of friends. This program automatically does many very difficult tasks; fades music transitions; zooms and manipulates pictures with smooth transitions and makes mpeg formats and DVD formats with ease.
If you ever wanted to learn the easy way to make DVD movies from your pictures and videos...this is the class to attend!
To order your Muvee Program call Dave Whittle at (801) 489-0605. Mail your $59.00 check to:
Webworking Services
653 North 600 East, Suite B
Springville, UT 84663
He'll email your Key Code and you can download the program off the website: www.muvee.com ( you can preview the program here.) Be sure to tell Dave you're a member of the Fresno PC Club for this special price! Its normally $99.95.
FPCUG Board of Directors Meeting Summary
- This newsletter was released before this month's board meeting.
Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
Digital Photo SIG:
The Digital Photo SIG is held on the first Saturday of the month at CompUSA on N. Blackstone at 10:30am and is hosted by Nancy Mason and Jo Townley. This month, on December 2nd, Bill Leidenroth will be giving a demonstration on Muvee, a program that automates the process of turning photos into a movie presentation.
Sanity Savers
Sanity Savers are members who have volunteered to help other members with their computing problems. SIG Leaders are also a valuable information resource.
Do not expect long term counseling, house calls, or to get pirated copies of software recommended to you. Also do not expect any of the volunteers to help you if you are not the legitimate owner of a software package.
If you have any experience in an area of computing, feel free to add your name to the Sanity Saver's list. You do not need to be an expert to be listed as a Sanity Saver--patience and willingness to help count for a lot.
| DOS | Dean Mason & Krikor Geyoghlian |
| Desktop Publishing, Graphics, Adobe Acrobat | Susy Ball |
| Excel | Krikor Geyoghlian |
| General Computing | Bill Myers |
| Internet Help | Dean Mason |
| Audio Help | Robert Caraway |
| Linux | Ben Lutes |
| Lotus 1-2-3 | Krikor Geyoghlian |
| Medical | Cecil Bullard |
| MS Word | Krikor Geyoghlian |
| Office 97/2000/XP | Krikor Geyoghlian & Laura Barnard |
| Windows 3.x | Krikor Geyoghlian |
The Fine Print
The Fresno PC User's Group (FPCUG) is a non-profit organization run by and for users of IBM compatible computers. The only membership eligibility requirement is an interest in computers.
FPCUG meetings are generally held the first Monday of the month at:
| President | Bill Myers |
| 1st VP | Dean Mason |
| 2nd VP | Jo Townley |
| Secretary | David Smith |
| Treasurer | Wilda Moller |
| 1. | Regles Bellamy |
| 2. | Gary Gipson |
| 3. | Monica Braun |
| 4. | Brian Fulk |
This newsletter was prepared using Macromedia HomeSite 5.5. Ronnie Ugulano is editor.
Contributions.While there's no guarantee that submitted material will be used, contributions to the FPCUG Newsletter are appreciated. Articles of 200-500 words should be submitted in MS Word doc or rtf format. Contributions can be in the form of an article written by a member or an article found on the internet with permission to reprint. Any screenshots or photos should be sharp and high resolution, and sent as jpgs, bmp, or tiff files, preferably not gifs. Files submitted as pdfs are likely to have their text and graphics extracted as separate entities so that they can be converted to html format. Graphics might be cropped or reduced to fit into available space. Contact Ronnie Ugulano for further information.
Reproduction Rights. Original articles may be reproduced by other computer users groups for internal, non-profit use, provided credit is given to the Fresno PC Users Group and the author(s) of the reproduced articles. This notice does not supersede the rights of authors whose copyrighted material is used by permission.
Disclaimer. Trademarks used in this publication are hereby recognized and acknowledged. The information provided in this newsletter is believed and intended to be correct and useful. However, the Fresno PC Users Group cannot assume responsibility for errors contained in the articles or misapplications of the information provided. Unless specifically stated otherwise, opinions expressed are those of the individual author(s) and do not represent the opinions of, nor endorsement by, the Fresno PC Users Group. The Fresno PC Users Group is an independent, non-profit users group and is not affiliated in any way with any vendor or equipment manufacturer.
Vendor Notice. Only review products that have been obtained by the product review coordinator and received through the FPCUG address shall be considered the responsibility of the FPCUG, unless otherwise indicated by the Board of Directors and with the full knowledge of the review coordinator.