Fresno Personal Computer Users’ Group General Meeting
September 11, 7:30 PM
Program Is:
Home Inventory
Would you be able to remember all the possessions you’ve accumulated over the years if they were destroyed by a fire or tornado? Would you be able to give an accurate report of items lost in case of a burglary? Having an up-to-date home inventory will help you get your insurance claim settled faster, verify losses for your income tax return and help you purchase the correct amount of insurance.
The Fresno PC Users Group program for September is "Home Inventory", and Don Cummins will lead the discussion on the subject. He will cover topics such as "What you should inventory?", "What tools you can use to do it", "How should it be done?", "Where should you save it once it is completed? at home? In a bank? In a safety deposit box?" Don will also allow time for a Q & A to share tips what on what works and what doesn't. Join us as we turn our computer skills toward this practical subject!
Bill's Tricks & Tips
Improve Core System Performance
If your system has a pretty large amount of RAM (around 1GB or greater), this tip should noticeably boost your system performance. This tip will force the core Windows system to be kept in memory and not
- Go to "Start > Run" and in the prompt, enter "regedit". Hit Enter.
- Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\
Memory Management" - In the list of DWORDS on the right, you should see one called "DisablePagingExecutive".
- Right-click on the value and go to "Modify".
- In the "Value" box, change the 0 to a 1 to disable system paging.
- Hit okay and restart the computer for the changes to take effect.
Easy and Cute Advanced Formatting
This Tip of the Day is about something very simple that not many people know of - how to paste text in Word without the formatting. When you copy text to Word from an external source, by default the text is pasted with all the formatting that goes with it. It would be OK, if the formatting styles of the source and destination documents were the same but this happens extremely rarely. Therefore, when you paste text with "foreign" formatting, you spoil the formatting of your document. If you do not care about fonts, sizes, and other formatting attributes, you will hardly notice the difference, besides that your document has become a bit of a mess and you don't know why.
A way to avoid pasting "foreign" formatting is by using Edit > Paste Special > Unformatted Text. Note: The words "Unformatted Text" might differ depending on what you paste from but you get the idea that you need to choose a similar command to have only bare text pasted. After you have pasted the bare text, the next step is to dress it in the formatting of the document. For this, you need the Format Painter icon. This icon is generally not viewable right away on the toolbar and first you need to add it to a toolbar. Right-click on a toolbar and choose Customize. Get the Format Painter icon and drag it to the toolbar. Then click on some text the formatting attributes of which you want to copy. The pointer turns into brush. Next, select the text you want the attibutes copied to and relese the mouse button. And this is all.
But if you want to make sure that everything is OK, select Format > Styles and Formatting and see if the two pieces of text have the same formatting attributes listed. Hopefully, everything is fine but if necessary, repeat the procedure.
Dealing with formatting in Word can be very boring and nerve-wrenching but if you want your documents to have the proper look, there is no other way but to pay attention to the formatting.
Password Managing Made Easy
With so many user names and passwords to remember, they can easily be overwhelming. A simple solution is a nifty open source program called KeePass.
Simply create a single master password for your database and KeePass allows you to categorize, set expiration dates, generate truly random passwords, and tons more while protecting it with SHA-256 bit encryption. For the ultra paranoid, KeePass will even let you tie a key to a floppy or CD so your database cannot be accessed without it.
Manage System Tray Program Icons
Do you ever get annoyed by the number of program icons in your System Tray? You can control how they are displayed or auto-hidden by going here:
Right Click Start > Properties > Taskbar Tab > Hide inactive icons > Customize
So now you can always hide, or get rid of the icons you do not want to display without trying to find the setting buried within the respective program's preferences.
Add Options to the Send To Menu
Right clicking on a file or folder and using the Send To feature is a pretty convenient and handy tool. It is even something you can customize so you can include all the programs you want, or exclude those you don't want. Customize it by doing the following:
- Start > Run
- Enter "sendto" in the open box (without the quotes)
- Drag and drop shortcuts to programs you want to appear as options, or remove those you don't want.
I always add Notepad to the list so I can open any file as plain text quickly.
FPCUG News
Last month
Drew Baker gave us a demonstration of how to install Suse Linux 10.1. He showed us that installing a current Linux distribution could be no more difficult than a Windows install due to improved hardware recognition and an easy-to-use graphical user interface. In addition, he showed us some of the cool, free software that comes as part of the Linux Operating System Package, such as Evolution email, and Open Office. In addition, Suse Linux looks good. It has a bright, clean user interface and easy to use menus with either a Windows (KDE desktop) or Mac (Gnome desktop) look and feel. It's easy to see that Linux becomes a real-world possiblity both at work and at home.Thanks to Steve Bibayoff, Dean Mason and Bill Leidenroth for their article submissions.
Dean Mason is very much wanting to train an apprentice to help with the Disk of the Month. Dean has been faithfully tracking down, downloading, and compiling useful software for our group for years! The Disk of the Month is one of the signature benefits to being associated with the FPCUG. Some of this software is very good. How would we even know it was out there, if it wasn't for Dean's efforts? In addition, donations from the Disk of the Month help with the expenses of running the FPCUG. Finally, you'll be surprised at what you can learn about computing by "shopping" for Disk of the Month software. By becoming his apprentice and prospective Disk of the Month inheritor, you could learn his secrets for finding good, usable, sometimes one-of-a-kind software. Have fun and learn, by volunteering to help!
Special thanks to Wilda Moller. There are lots of numbers out there in the world to be had, but she always seems to have the right ones handy when you need them.
Disk of the Month
ArtMoney
ArtMoney can make a troublesome game easier to win by helping you find the memory address where a desired quantity (like amount of money) is located so you can change that quantity. In spite of its title, ArtMoney actually allows you to change any quantity specified in a game, whether it be dollars, bullets, swords, or health points. The program finds a hex address based on the input parameters you set and prints these addresses with their corresponding values. For example, if your character has 1,431 dollars, ArtMoney searches and displays all memory addresses containing the value of 1431. Of course, as there can be hundreds of memory addresses displayed after a simple search, you will need to sieve this addresses. You lose nothing if you download FREEWARE Edition of this program.
Belarc Advisor 7.1h Build 7.1.8.4
Author: Belarc, Inc.Date: 2006-05-10
Size: 947 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.
Limitations: Free for personal use.
EvonSoft SysInfo 1.26
Author: EvonsoftDate: 2006-05-10
Size: 508 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
Evonsoft System Info is a 100% freeware tool that detects your computer systems hardware and software, including CPU, Mainboard, Bios, Memory, Harddisk, Video, Multimedia,Network and more.
ExtractNow 4.17
Author: Nathan MoinvaziriDate: 2006-05-10
Size: 837 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
ExtractNow lets you extract multiple archives with the ease of a singular button. Supports ZIP, RAR, ACE, & JAR file formats.
Feedreader 3.01
Author: FeedReaderDate: 2006-05-10
Size: 3.5 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
Feedreader is a free lightweight aggregator that supports RSS and ATOM formats. It works under Windows 95 and later versions.
Feedreader's functionality is focused on the main task - reading and organizing RSS feeds and offering seamless user experience.
IP Sniffer 1.87.1.0
Author: Erwan's LabDate: 2006-05-10
Size: 2.9 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win NT/2K/XP/2003
IP Sniffer is a suite of IP Tools built around a packet sniffer.
The packet sniffer can work on all Windows versions using either:
The new raw socket implementation of Windows2000 (driverless), WinPcap (needs to be installed), a NDIS protocol (needs to be installed , no reboot).
The sniffer has basic features like filter, decode, replay, parse
IrfanView 3.98
Author: irfan skiljan
Date: 2005-12-24
Size: 884 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003.
It is trying to be simple for beginners and powerful for professionals.
IrfanView was the first Windows graphic viewer WORLDWIDE with Multiple (animated) GIF support. One of the first graphic viewers WORLDWIDE with Multipage TIFF support. The first graphic viewer WORLDWIDE with Multiple ICO support.
MediaMonkey 2.5.3.956 RC-1
Author: Ventis Media, Inc.Date: 2006-05-02
Size: 4.7 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
MediaMonkey is the music organizer for the serious collector.
Manage a music library consisting of small to very large collections (50,000+) of audio files and playlists, whether they're located on your hard drive, CDs, or a network. Organize, browse, or search music by Genre, Artist, Year, Rating, etc., and never waste your time trying to find mp3s you know you have. Automatically identify tracks that are missing information, whose tags are not synchronized, or that are duplicated elsewhere.
MouseImp Pro Live! 0.0.0.0
Author: MouseImp Open Source ProjectDate: 2006-05-11
Size: 296 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
MouseImp PRO is a successor of MouseImp that became popular all over the world. Many users' wishes were considered in this new version of MouseImp, and many improvements have been implemented, making it even faster and more reliable. Hope you'll like it, and its unique features will make your work easier and more productive.
Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.3
Author: The Mozilla OrganizationDate: 2006-05-02
Size: 4.9 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
Mozilla Firefox project (formerly Firebird, which was formerly Phoenix) is a redesign of Mozilla's browser component, written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be cross-platform.
It is small, fast and easy to use, and offers many advantages over other web browsers, such as the tabbed browsing and the ability to block pop-up windows.
FireTune for Mozilla Firefox was developed for an easy and fast optimization of your browsing experience with Firefox.Portable Firefox 1.5.0.3
Author: John T. HallerDate: 2006-05-11
Size: 4.8 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
Portable Firefox is a fully functional package of Firefox optimized for use on a USB key drive. It has some specially-selected optimizations to make it perform faster and extend the life of your USB key as well as a specialized launcher that will allow most of your favorite extensions to work as you switch computers. It will also work from a CDRW drive (in packet mode), ZIP drives, external hard drives, some MP3 players, flash RAM cards and more.
Portable Thunderbird 1.5.0.2
Author: John T. HallerDate: 2006-05-02
Size: 6 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
Thunderbird supports running from removable drives with minimal reconfiguration. Repackaged Thunderbird as a complete, removable drive-friendly email client. This grew out of a mozillaZine forum topic on making Firefox portable back in June of 2004.
RegToy 0.3.6.0
Author: Ky NamDate: 2006-05-01
Size: 790 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win XP/2K/2003
RegToy is a useful program that was designed for WindowsXP , is used to Tweak WindowsXP , and some utilities like a remaner to change the filenames and a wallpaper changer. With RegToy you can optimize the performance of your computer and customize your system to suit your needs.
Editors Note:: The original language of this program is in Vietnamese, you can select English after you first run the application.
Sandboxie 2.4
Author: Ronen TzurDate: 2006-05-10
Size: 320 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win XP/2K/2003
Sandboxie requires neither the disabling nor blocking of functions available to Web sites through the browser. Instead, Sandboxie isolates and quarantines the outcome of whatever the Web site may do to your computer, including the installation of unsolicited software. There is no trade-off of functionality for security: the Web site can use the full range of active content tools, and if it uses these tools maliciously to install software or otherwise make changes in your computer, then these changes can be easily undone.
ShrinkTo5 1.7
Author: ShrinkTo5Date: 2006-05-02
Size: 2 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
ShrinkTo5 is the new, powerful and fast DVD copying engine. ShrinkTo5 has been developed as a cross-platform engine available for free for anyone. To ensure a fast spreading to other platforms ShrinkTo5 is distributed as open-source.
ShrinkTo5 can copy movies with an undeniably superior picture quality. No matter if you wish to copy just the main movie or the whole movie DVD, ShrinkTo5 always produces a superb picture quality, since the ShrinkTo5 engine always concentrates on the main movie. No tedious configuration is needed like with other copying tools, ShrinkTo5 will always find the perfect balance automatically.
SilentNight Micro CD/DVD/ISO/Audio Burner 5.0.25
Author: Positive Software CorporationDate: 2006-05-02
Size: 1.1 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
This is a standalone CD/DVD/ISO/AUDIO burner, and ISO creator that is quite easy to use, is small, no installation is needed, just one single file, and it has its own ASPI layer build in. It also has a powerful search tool. This burner is under constant developement and all users are invited to join in with suggestions, corrections and translations to new languages.
New in this version:
- Corrections in german language.
- Added polish language.
- Fixed a lot of bugs. (Slow loading/exiting of windows, standard burner is now saved etc.)
- Completely recreated the cover maker. It is no longer a simple addon, but a fully working paint program with lots and lots of options. There is also added support for DVD covers, both to create own, and to download from SilentNights video databases.
SIW (System Info) 1.59 (Build 604)
Author: Gabriel TopalaDate: 2006-05-01
Size: 1.2 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
SIW is a system information tool, that gathers detailed information about your system properties and settings. It includes detailed specs for CPU, Network, TCP/IP, Memory, Hardware, Users, Network Shares, and more, as well as real-time monitors for CPU, Memory and network traffic. SIW also displays currently active network connections, installed codecs, connected MS SQL and Oracle database servers (if any) and more. A standalone tool that does not require installation.
SocketShield 0.9.5 Beta
Author: Exploit Prevention LabsDate: 2006-05-01
Size: 2.3 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
SocketShield is the world's first dedicated zero-day exploit blocker. Using a unique combination of research technologies, a deep understanding of anti-malware techniques, and skilled coding, the software is able to block exploits from entering your computer, regardless of how long it takes for the vendors of vulnerable applications to issue patches - or how long it takes for you to install those patches.
SPAMfighter Standard 4.5.0
Author: SPAMfighterDate: 2006-05-11
Size: 10 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
If you are looking for a tool to remove spam from your inbox, look no further. Spamfighter is the tool you are looking for. Simple, reliable, and efficient. Spamfighter is using the power of more than 450.000 people that instantly report if they receive a spam mail. When several people have reported the same spam mail, it's automatically filtered for the rest of the Spamfighters. In this way very few people will ever see the spam mail. On top of that a lot of spam is filtered before it ever hits the community. But how we do that we will keep for our self, the spammers would love to find out how we do it. So if you use Spamfighter you will instantly stop receiving spam and if you by chance get one, have the good feeling of reporting it and remove it from all other Spamfighters with one single click. Spamfighter is currently in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, and Danish language.
Limitations: You get SPAMfighter Pro one month for free. After that you automatically get the 100% free SPAMfighter Standard for private use as long as you want.
Notes: Spamfighter loads as a toolbar in Outlook Express. Since it can take longer to load the toolbar then it does to check the email itself, we suggest going to Tools, Options in Outlook Express and unchecking "Send and receive messages at startup" for best results.
Systemometer Personal Edition 1.5
Author: Iftix Programming GroupDate: 2006-05-01
Size: 747 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win XP/2K/2003
Systemometer is a unique monitoring tool that shows system activity and resources in a thumbnail window or as a screensaver. It uses the Windows NT/2000/XP performance counters and allows you to create different monitoring profiles filled up with counters that available are on your system. The program can be used on the local computer and also gather statistics from remote machines (registered version only). The interface displays the values of monitored parameters connecting all the measured points in one polygon - a snapshot view that helps to read the overall system status at a glance.
The SphereXP 0.96
Author: Dušan HamarDate: 2006-05-01
Size: 2.1 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win XP
The SphereXP is a 3D desktop replacement for Microsoft Windows XP. Taking the known concept of three-dimensional desktops to its own level. It offers a new way to organize objects on the desktop such a icons and applications.
The project was under "heavy" construction, but now it is open for testing. Everybody is free to try it out. Every response is appreciated.
Requires the .Net Framework available at Windows Update or from MajorGeeks.
Universal Plug-and-Play Tester
Author: Noël DanjouDate: 2006-05-02
Size: 159 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win 9x/ME/2K/XP
Universal Plug-and-Play Tester (UPnPTest) is an experimental tool that lists all the available devices compatible with the Universal Plug-and-Play protocol including routers (IGDs).
Unstoppable Copier 2.12
Author: RoadkilDate: 2006-05-10
Size: 56 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
This program is great for recovering files from scratched CD's or defective floppy/hard disks. Normally when your computer is unable to copy a file from a damaged disk it will abort and delete the portition of the file it has copied. This program however will continue to copy the file right to the end. Any data that is not recoverable after many retries is replaced with blanks. This will allow you to truely recover every byte of information that is available for recovery. The program allows you to specify a single file, a group using wildcards (* and ?) or if you wish, select a starting folder and the program will copy all data from it and any sub folders it may contain. This program doesnt just need to be used for copying files form defective disks, it can be used to transfer any files!
The OpenCD Project
You may have been heard about Linux, OpenSource and Free Software for a few years but haven't had the inclination to install a whole new and different operating system just to try it out. Now, with the Open CD Project , you could take a small, intermediate step, and try out some of the more popular, mature and stable OpenSource and
Let me first start off with how to navigate the CD, what's all included The Open CD. Then I will describe where you could obtain your own cd. These descriptions will be brief, but hopefully will give you a good understanding off what everything is. I plan to discuss more in depth all of the programs in follow-up articles.
When you first insert The Open CD in your cdrom, it should start (if you have autostart enabled for your cdrom drive) the K-Meleon browser and bring you to the Main page (pictured right). If the program doesn't start automatically, you could run it from either Windows Explorer (open up Windows Explorer, go to whatever drive is your cdrom is, usually D:\ or E:\, and click on the "OpenCD" start icon) or start it from the run command (Click Start, then Run, then enter "D:\start.exe", the "D:\" may have to be changed to "E:\" or whatever your cdrom drive is).
The K-Meleon browser is what is used to facilitate in the: navigation of the CD, installation of the programs, descriptions and screenshots of the programs, and location of more information from external web links. The K-meleon browser is based on the Gecko engine, which is used in the Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, and other browsers. If you click on the little "!" icon on the bottom right of the Main page, it will bring you a more detailed description of what the K-Meleon browser is.
After you inserted the Open CD into your computer and are at the Main page (see screenshot), you could navigate around by just clicking on the various links. The About (or About Open Source) page will give a general description about Open Source Software and the Open CD project. It also has the link to "Further Reading", the Open Source text mentioned above. The Ubuntu link describes what Ubuntu is, gives a brief tour (which includes some screenshots), and also how to use the LiveCD. The Resources (or On-line Resources) page includes links various Open Source related websites. These links should open up a your regular browser and take you to the website. You do need internet connectivity to access them.
The rest of the links on the left side of the browser, Productivity, Design, Internet, Multimedia, Games, and Utilities, will bring you to the various Program pages. All of the Program pages look similar to the OpenOffice.org page on the right. You will have a Description Tab and a Screenshots Tab (which have various screenshots of the program running). You also have on the right side of the browser, and Install icon (which will install the program when clicked), a Web Site icon (which will open up the program website in your usual browser) and a summary of how much disk space you need and the License of the program. All of the programs have a similar browser page.
Now, a quick description of the programs on the CD. Under Productivity, you have Abiword, MoinMoin, OpenOffice.org, and PDFCreator. Abiword is a light weight, small and very fast word processor. Being light weight, it will run fairly well even on an old 486 computer. MoinMoin is a personal wiki that you are able to install, use and access locally from you own computer. For an example of a wiki, take a look at theWikipedia at www.wikipedia.org . PDFCreator is a pseudo virtual printer. You now have the ability to create pdf documents just by printing out the document, but instead of using your normal printer, you would select the PDFCreator printer.
Do You Use Linux?
Under Design, you have Blender, Gimp, and Nvu. Blender is an advanced 3D modeling program used in make modern animations like the recent movie "Cars" (Blender wasn't used in this movie, but could have been). The Gimp is a image manipulation program (hence it's name "Gnu Image Manipulation Program). It you have seen or used Adobe Photoshop, should get up to speed with The Gimp fairly quickly. Nvu is a webpage creator/editor. It is based on the same Gecko Engine that the K-Meleon and Firefox browser is built on. A lot of the features are very similar to the Firefox browser.
Under Internet, you have Firefox, Thunderbird, and Gaim. Firefox is an alternative browser to Internet Explorer. So far it has a better security record than IE, and has many more features. Thunderbird is an email client. It comes from the same place and people that created Mozilla and Firefox. Gaim is an instant messenger client. It has the ability to all of the major im services, including AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! IRC and many, many others.
Under Multimedia you have Audacity, Celestia, and Screensavers. Audacity is a sound mixing program that works with all of the major sound formats (to work with mp3, you must install a 3rd party encoder, directions are included). Celestia is Universe simulation program. You could similuate the position and view of various planets, stars and even satellites from any where. Screensavers is just a collection of addition Open Source and fun screensavers. Under Games, Sokaban YASC and B. Wesnoth. Sokaban YASC (Yet Another Sokoban Clone) is a very simple, but addictive game. You have control of a player and you object is to achieve certain goals by pushing blocks around. B. Wesnoth is a turn based strategy game. You could play it alone, or with other on a network.
Under Utilities, you have 7-Zip and Notepad2. 7-Zip is a compression program that works for both compression/archiving and uncompression. It supports all of the major compression formats, zip, cab, rar, gzip and many, many more (don't let the 7 in the name fool you ;-) ). Notepad2 is a replacement for Notepad that normally comes with Windows. Like Microsoft Notepad, it is small fast and comes with few frills. But it does have some added functionality, like color highlighting and support for other character encoding.
This concludes a brief (or an attempt to be brief) description of parts of the Open CD Project that could be run from Windows.
The other part of the cd, is the Ubuntu LiveCD. A live cd, is an operating system that could be run completely from a cdrom. It doesn't need to access your hard drive at all. This means when you are done using it, just reboot your computer, and nothing has changed. To use the Ubuntu LiveCD, put the cd into your cdrom, and reboot your computer. You may have to go into your cmos/bios page and make sure your computer tries to boot from your cdrom first. Most computers are set up this way already. If not, please refer to your motherboard or computer manufactor manual.
After you boot into the Ubuntu LiveCD (this may take awhile while it probes for all of your hardware), play around with it as much as you want. You really can't hurt anything, and your compute will be the same when you reboot. You may notice it takes things a little long for programs to start from the LiveCD, this is because it runs directly from your cdrom. If it was installed on your hard drive, it would be much, much faster.
Stay tuned for more in-depth description of the various Windows programs on the CD.
©Steve Bibayoff, 2006
My Dilemma
I need to copy 11.6 GB's of data from my laptop to a 160GB external HD (hard drive). I have a USB 2.0 card but haven't been able to get it to copy any faster than 4 hours. So what good does it do to backup my computer's HD and can't put it anywhere else. Now this was a real dilemma for me. I also do computer repair up here in the mountains and data recovery.
Using USB 2.0 isn't good for business. While looking for a better USB 2.0 card online I came across a Serial ATA cardbus card. Some people call them PC cards, PCMCIA cards. This device takes a type II slot in any laptop.
My laptop is a Presario 2100. It's about 4 years old. I ordered one of these SATA cardbus cards online and a 30" cable. I ordered it late Sunday eve, they shipped it Monday and it arrived today (Wednesday) by US Postal mail. The directions were very easy to read and understand. It only took a minute or so to get it up and running. After I got it set up for my laptop I then hooked up my external drive via an adapter to make it a SATA drive. What was going to take me over 4 hours to copy, copied it in 21 minutes. I gave it all the processing power it wanted by not running anything in the background. I have never been happier with any device in a long time.
This is where I got all the parts for this project:
The SATA cardbus:
http://sewelldirect.com/serial-ata-pcmcia.asp
A power supply to power it up externally:
http://www.pcclub.com/product_details.cfm?itemno=A1242906
All you need here is the power adapter
http://sewelldirect.com/SerialATAtoIDEConverter.asp A special power supply splitter cable:
http://sewelldirect.com/InternalPowerSplitterHDMtoHDFFDF.asp
You'll notice most of what I bought is from SewellDirect.com and that is because I've done business with them in the past and I like their service. One thing you can do is chat with a customer service rep or send an email to a tech. I found this to be very helpful.
I'm going to be placing an order for another SATA to IDE converter so I can copy data from a hard drive in someone's computer and place it on my external drive at the same time. This SATA cardbus will handle two drives at the same time.
Let me give you some interesting numbers about USB 2 and SATA.
USB 1.1 is 12Mb/s, USB 2.0 is 480Mb/s. In terms that are better under stood the USB 2.0 is 60MB/s. SATA is 150MB/s or 1.5Gb/s. So SATA is 2.5 times faster than USB 2.0.
Software Review: Trend Anti-Spam Software
Ever since my Internet Service Provider (ISP) discontinued using an effective Spam filter, I have been plagued with tons of unwanted Spam. Of 50 emails received at any given time, only 5 would be from people I wanted to hear from; all the rest were pure junk. I was told to either change my email address or use another free email service. In my case, neither of these options were viable solutions. With no immediate answer in sight, I just endured the unwanted barrage of junk mail with mounting frustration.
In my September 2006 issue of Consumer Reports, the featured article was “Best tools to stop Viruses, Spam and Spy ware.” On page 29 they rated Trend Micro anti-Spam pilot (stand-alone version) as one of the best; not to mention the fact it’s a FREE download with no annual fees! With nothing to lose, I downloaded the program (9.56 MB). It integrates with both Outlook and Outlook Express (see its add-on tool bar above).
It’s a simple download and installation. The program accepts your address book listings and all Incoming Spam is sent to a separate folder automatically created in your folder list (see Spam Mail folder in my list to the left).
Making adjustments as to whom to block, remove, add and/or accept is just a click on the tool bar.
I can’t tell you how happy I am with this program! Go to: http://www.trendmicro.com/en/products/ desktop/anti-spam/evaluate/overview.htm
- It’s easy to setup and use
- It integrates well with Outlook Express
- Setting rules is simple
- And it’s FREE
If you suffer from Spam; suffer no more. I highly recommend this program.
© Bill Leidenroth, 2006
FPCUG Board of Directors Meeting Summary
The following items were discussed or decided upon:
- The FPCUG has 74 members.
- Several members inquired about the status of silent auctions in the club. It appears we have not had any in recent times because those who organized them are no longer available to do so. It's something we can do again, if someone is interested in organizing.
- Some computer parts have been donated to the FPCUG to build a computer to raffle off at a future date, probably in December. It's been estimated that it will take about $500 to complete the build, and that the raffle tickets should sell for $5 each.
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.
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.