http://apcug.net/	Tri City Computer Club is a proud       member of the Association of      Personal Computer User Groups
To view photos of our visit to the August, 2004 SWUG Conference,  and the numerous things we did while there, please click on the arrow that is to the right:

	The 2006 Swug Conference will be held at the Town and Country Convention & Resort Center in San Diego on August 11, 12 & 13. The property is located just west of the Hilton in the Hotel Circle area.  The room rate to be announced. We look forward to the 2006 conference.
	The conference website (www.swugconf.org)

We are looking forward to seeing you at the conference.  If you have new officers in your group who would be interested in receiving information about the conference, please let Judy know at swugconf@usa.net. 
Judy Taylour & Patricia Hill
Conference Co-Chairs

Hi Editors, the April PUSH articles and associated folders with graphics for two articles are attached. Please send your newsletters and articles to me – I get meeting ideas, fund raising ideas, articles, etc. from them and this all benefits the other APCUG-member user groups.  Lois Prete uploads the PUSH articles to apcug.net – and a great big thank you to her for doing that. I’ll be sending her the 13 author pictures that I have accumulated. Thanks to Charlie Sickels from the Chicago Computer Society for sharing his pictures with me (and fixing some of the ones I found).  Also coming up before the end of April will be several review articles. I won’t be sending those out to you directly but will let you know when they have been uploaded so you can download the reviews you want to include in your newsletter.  Happy editing, Judy   AMD's Visionary Gamble by Jim Hinwood, Monterey Bay User's Group - Personal Computer. For 35 years AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) was the "Beta" to Intel's "VHS": a lot of people would only buy computers with Intel chips even though in many ways AMD was the better value.  Back to the Future with System Restore by Marjorie Tucker, Member of the Mountain Computer Users Group, Young Harris, GA.  Did you know that your computer has the ability to go back in time – just like the movie, Back to the Future? The built-in Windows program named System Restore periodically makes an image of your hard drive, much like a backup copy. Computer Hysteria: The Sentence by Berry F. Phillips, Computer Club of Oklahoma City.  Berry faces the Judge of the Spammers' Court, awaiting his sentence while the Judge reviews his case.  Getting the Most Viewing Space in the Internet Explorer Window by Glenn Richards, Emeritus Member of the Lake-Sumter Computer Society, Leesburg, FL. The IE window toolbars can take up a lot of space that could be better used to see web page content; Glenn shows us how to maximize the viewing area.  Google Earth by Joe Schmitt, Member of the Tampa Bay Computer Society, FL. One of the greatest tools of the Internet has always been that of maps. From the early days of the Internet www.mapquest.com was a great source for online geography. Now a myriad of new tools is available to home Internet users to navigate through the world. This article also has a folder of graphics. Hard Drives and Hard Drive Management by Ira Wilsker, APCUG Director; Columnist, The Examiner, Beaumont, TX; Radio & TV Show Host. With the oft mentioned convergence, where our desktop computers are now commonly used for more than traditional computing tasks, many of us seem to run low on hard drive space. This is an indication that it is time to somehow utilize an additional hard drive. There is a folder of graphics to include in this article. Organizing the Favorites Menu by Glenn Richards, Emeritus Member of the Lake-Sumter Computer Society, Leesburg, FL. When you collect shortcuts to web sites like Glenn does, the Favorites menu gets difficult to manage without some organization. You will find it’s easy to add sub-folders to the Favorites main folder.  TechNews by Sue Crane, Editor, Big Bear Computer Club. Sun Microsystems, Microsoft Office 12, 1/3 of American Internet users go online just for fun rather than to check e-mail, RoboCup, What's Your "Brain Age?", plus more info is in Sue's article.   The New, The Best, and the Worst collected by Pim Borman, Website Editor, SW Indiana PC Users Group, Inc. Much of the unanticipated success of the Internet is due to the contributions made by selfless volunteers. The Internet would not be more than a large flea market if not for the powerful search engines capable of retrieving information almost instantly. More on the wonders of the Internet, as well as Oldie Tribulations.  Upgrading Your Monitor by Vinny La Bash, Sarasota PCUG, Florida. Do your research carefully if you want to watch high definition on your monitor, it must be HDCP compliant.  XP Housecleaning by Dick Maybach, Member of the Brookdale Computer User Group, NJ. Unless you are careful, after a period of use, Windows will begin to slow down. This occurs because many programs are always active, even though you aren’t using them and because the number of files increases, which means that searches take longer. Dick tells us about the many tools Windows XP has to help us ease these conditions.  Pim Borman -      swipcug@sigecom.net Sue Crane –       scrane5@socal.rr.com Jim Hinwood –     ehinwood@msn.com Vinny La Bash –  vlabash@home.com Dick Maybach –   N2nd@att.net Berry Phillips -     bfpdata@gbronline.com Glenn Richards –  grich32@yahoo.com Joe Schmitt  -     jschmitt@tampabay.rr.com Marjorie Tucker - tucker780@verizon.net Ira Wilsker –       iwilsker@apcug.net                               ********************
AMD'S VISIONARY GAMBLE by Jim Hinwood, Monterey Bay User's Group - Personal Computer (MBUG-PC) (Illustration by Regina Doyle, MBUG-PC)  MBUG-PC Newsletter, Volume 25, Number 23, March 2006  Ehinwood@msn.com    www.mbug.org  We computer enthusiasts have been the spectators in what I like to think of as a grand race. Leaving all the David and Goliath analogies aside, I like to think of the computer revolution like a car race. Different technologies race around the track - if one pulls a little too wide on a turn, it falls behind, only to make it up on the straightaway later. One "spinout" and you can be permanently out of the race.  There have been some grand reversals in this past year, quite unlike what I've seen in any other business. Quick and decisive changes leading to huge differences in market share. When I first started to play with computer hardware, Intel was king. For 35 years AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) was the "Beta" to Intel's "VHS": a lot of people would only buy computers with Intel chips even though in many ways AMD was the better value. The problem that Intel ran into was the buildup of heat, and the gamble by AMD on the 64-bit processor. Intel ran their chips as close to 4 GHz as they could, but they couldn't seem to crack the 4 GHz ceiling. A lot of gamers did, by going to water cooling, but nobody in the mainstream wanted to deal with water cooling.   Then, multimedia computers came in as the next best thing. With Microsoft wanting to make headway into your living room, they came out with a new operating system, XP Media Center. Now we had an operating system strictly for a media center PC in your living room, but without a solution to the heat problem, we had water cooling, or a computer with a CPU fan that sounded like a leaf blower. You don't want to watch a movie when the computer running all of your media devices sounds like someone starting a two-cylinder motorcycle!  The other problem is obvious - you don't want laptops that will scorch the gonads off anybody foolish enough to use it on their lap (and eventually you won't be calling it a "laptop" anymore)! Intel found a solution in the Pentium M for the laptop, reducing clock speeds and heat, and increasing battery life. AMD focused on 64-bit computing. When AMD presented 64-bit architecture, there weren't going to be any applications to really take advantage of 64-bit computing for a long time and no operating system in sight, but the AMD chips had immediate and substantial gains in performance for gamers and they started to trounce the Intel chips in any performance face-off.  Also, clock speed doesn't remain as important when you have a 64-bit pipeline. Instead of con- tinuing to increase clock speeds, 64-bit computing doubles the amount of data that can be processed per clock cycle. 64-bit architecture also means expon- ential amounts of memory that can be addressed. The best home computers Z can address 4 GB of RAM if the motherboard can handle it, but with 64-bit computing you can run 1 terabyte (1,000 GB of RAM). RAM is very fast and this adds substantial gains to the whole package. AMD then went to a true dual core processor which put two chip cores on the same die, the equivalent of two microprocessors in one. Then you need fewer clock cycles to process the same information - speed can remain the same with double the processing power and running 250 times the RAM.  With the addition of dual core processors and the expected increases in performance that come from splitting the pro- cessing of information between chips, AMD has again raised performance without increases in heat. These three things: 64-bit architecture, larger amounts of RAM, and splitting the processing between dual lower clock cycle cores have, for the moment, catapulted AMD from a distant second to an over 50 percent market share in personal computers. AMD is in first place for the first time in their 35-year history.  Does this mean the end for Intel? Not anytime soon, with Intel being seven times as large as AMD and with 34 billion dollars in revenue. Intel earns in 11 days what AMD will earn all year. Intel also sits on 14 billion dollars in cash, to AMD's 1.1 billion. This gives them a huge advantage in re- search and development and in building state-of-the-art production facilities. AMD's surge in market share is due as much to the stumbling of Intel as it is to its own genius. The only thing that seems to be holding AMD back is the refusal of Dell to use AMD chips. If consumer demand becomes great enough for AMD chips and Dell makes a reversal, it could mean huge gains for AMD. It remains to be seen if Intel can soon regain the summit on which it once stood firmly! [Coming in the April MBUG-PC Newsletter: Part 2 - "ATI vs Nvidia"]  There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.
Back to the Future with System Restore By Marjorie Tucker, Member of the Mountain Computer Users Group, Young Harris, GA   tucker780@verizon.net      http://mcug.org/  Did you know that your computer has the ability to go back in time - just like the movie, Back to the Future? Well, it does, using a Windows XP program named System Restore. This built-in Windows program periodically makes an image of your hard drive, much like a backup copy. Then, when you have one of those annoying problems, like losing all of your desktop icons, you can re- store that image to get your computer back in good working order. You can find System Restore under Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - System Restore. The screen that initially comes up gives you some basic information about this program. It will restore your settings to an earlier point in time, but leave your data completely intact. And, there is no fear of using it since the program is completely reversible.   To begin, you merely click the Next button on the right side of the screen. The next page shows a calendar, open to the current month, with bold num- bers indicating the dates when an image was created on your computer. You can also use the arrows at the top of the calendar to go farther back in time, if necessary. You merely choose one of these dates and click again on Next.   The following screen reviews your choice and advises you to close all open programs since System Restore will be restarting your computer. Verify that you want to take this step and then click on the Next button again to start the process.  Be patient because it will take several minutes to perform this action; but eventually your computer will restart itself and it will be back to the restoration time point. If this didn't solve your problem you can run the program again and go even further back in time. Create Your Own Restore Point  There are times when it would be very nice to know that you have a backup all ready to use - such as just before you start to install that monstrous new program that may destroy your entire computer setup. Well, System Restore will let you create an additional restore point anytime it would be convenient. To do this, merely click on the second choice of the initial System Restore screen, Create a Restore Point. The program will make an instant backup that you can use when that new program fails.  There are Some Cautions System Restore is very useful tool and you will probably need to use it before long. However, this handy feature can cause problems when your computer catches a virus or gains an unwanted trojan. Every time your computer creates a new restore backup point, it is also backing up that virus or trojan. That means that although you get rid of the problem, it has the ability to sneak back into your computer from that backup. For this reason Symantec and other antivirus software companies suggest that you turn off the System Restore feature before you de-virus your computer.   To turn off System Restore click the Start button, right-click My Computer and left-click Properties. Click the System Restore tab and then check the box labelled "Turn off system restore."  You will be asked if you are certain you want to turn it off; click on OK. System Restore is now turned off. You are now free to get rid of any viruses or trojans without fear that they will immediately return. Just remember to turn System Restore on when you have finished.  There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.
Google Earth By Joe Schmitt, Member of the Tampa Bay Computer Society jschmitt@tampabay.rr.com  www.tampa-bay.org  One of the greatest tools of the internet has always been that of maps. From the early days of the Internet www.mapquest.com was a great source for online geography. Now a myriad of new tools is available to home internet users to navigate through the world. Believe it or not, one of the biggest uses for online maps is not for that big long trip to the Grand Canyon with the kids but for finding local addresses. How many times recently have you used a service such as www.mapquest.com or maps.google.com to find that new restaurant or new store? While the online services available can be used to find the next route cross-country they are more often used locally. Another popular role that current cartographic sites such as mappoint.msn.com serve is where a particular place is in relation to your current location. There are many times when we are watching the news and someplace like Jumbo, WV pops up; there is now a great new tool to let you explore the world virtually. Google Earth(http://earth.google.com) is a new offering from Google that offers a unique spin on online cartography. While most mapping services try to offer you a straight forward approach to mapping, Google's newest tool takes quite a different tact. Described by Google as "a globe that sits in your PC," Google Earth offers a new perspective on mapping software. Like all its major competitors, Google Earth will allow you to find addresses, points of interest, or a driving route. What makes Google Earth different is the way in which items are displayed to the user. Google Earth has to install software on your machine, and once installed it needs an internet connection to display its images. Also be advised that Google Earth is resource intensive: it requires a fairly fast machine with 3D graphics capability. When you first start up Google Earth you see the below image: Insert GEinitial.jpg here Google Earth generates an image of the planet taken from a mosaic of satellite and aerial photographs. If you enter an address such as your home in the search bar, Google Earth doesn't just pop a map of your neighborhood but actually flies to the location. You see the image of the earth get larger and larger as if you were descending on the location from outer space. All the time as the planet moves closer, the program continually generates more detailed pictures of the surface until you are sitting above the location you are searching for. Insert GEstreetview.jpg here Another great feature of Google Earth is angular display. Not only are dead top center views available but you can also tilt the plane of the viewing area to see things in the distance. Now this sounds like I should be able to tilt the image and see the windows on my house, but that just isn't possible. All the images are from satellite or aerial photographs that are also taken from straight overhead. Topography is another feature that Google Earth incorporates makes the tilting feature quite impressive. Topography is how the terrain rises and falls in any given location. Google earth uses 3D technology to render the rise and fall of the land based on radar data gathered from multiple space shuttle missions. The images are melded with the topography and you have the impression of seeing mountains rise and canyons fall: Insert GEmountains.jpg here Not only does Google Earth provide these new ways to explore the world but they have also included the ability to include data files of your own. If you choose to upgrade to the "plus" version you can import data from any of the popular GPS (Global Positioning System) receivers currently available. You can import waypoints, routes, and tracks from the unit.  Also, you can import images, such as a topographic map, and orient them as overlays on the satellite images. The application will let you resize and rotate the map until fits. Google Earth will also let you save data in files that can be shared with other users. One interesting aspect is files that can utilize data available on the web for dynamic interaction. Click on this link to see some examples: http://earth.google.com/tour/thanks-win.html . For example there is a link to a file that will track flights around the US live. It displays an icon for the plane and shows it in relation to where it is in the air. Google Earth offers some new and interesting ways to explore our world. With thousands of user files, it can be customized to any number of needs to suit your tastes. A great resource for new ideas involving Google Earth is the Google Earth blog at: http://www.gearthblog.com/ or at the community: http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php/Cat/0.  The only limits to Google Earth are what your imagination and determination can achieve. Joe Schmitt is a computer and technology guru, who also has a love for the outdoors. He can often be found tromping around the woods with his GPS and digital camera. There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.
The New, the Best, and the Worst Collected by Pim Borman, Website Editor, SW Indiana PC Users Group, Inc. http://swipcug.apcug.org/    swipcug@sigecom.net  Talking Turk-ey. If you've ever earned some pocket money stuffing envelopes, the advent of e-mail may have put you out of business. But the Internet giveth what it taketh away. Much of the unanticipated success of the Internet is due to the contributions made by selfless volunteers. Businesses then realized the import- ance of the Internet to advertise themselves, and Wile E. Coyote would now be able to order his Road Runner catchers from www.acme.com (there actually is such a Web site). Nevertheless, volunteers expect to derive some form of satisfaction from their efforts, and the equivalent of envelope stuffing for free does not draw many aficionados.  The Internet would not be more than a large flea market were it not for the powerful search engines capable of retrieving information almost instantly. The retrieval algorithms depend on vast indexes maintained by constantly culling millions of Web sites world wide. Only computer-readable text is indexable. Yet, there are many other types of valuable infor- mation on the Web that are not computer-readable, such as hand-written documents and graphical images. It is almost impossible for a computer to distinguish a picture of Picabo Street in her ski outfit from Mother Teresa in her nun's habit. A human can distinguish them at a glance. Hand-written documents must be retyped, as many genealogy indexers know. Thus there is a great need for indexing graphics and hand-written information that requires human input. There are many other instances where human input is required, such as rating the validity of computer-generated keywords describing search targets, or retrieving numbers from scanned documents, such as transfer deeds.  Amazon, with its interest in computer searching with its A9.com search engine, has established a program that enlists human help for such tasks. The program is called Mechanical Turk, after a mechanical chess-playing automaton in 1769 that defeated nearly every opponent it faced. It featured a life-sized wooden mannequin, adorned with a fur-trimmed robe and a turban, seated behind a cabinet. It confounded such brilliant challengers as Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte. What they did not know was the secret behind the Mechanical Turk: a human chess master cleverly concealed inside. Amazon has set up a Web site (http://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome) as a link between programmers looking for "artificial, artificial intelligence," and paid volunteers providing human inputs to perform the requested tasks, referred to as HITs. These are typically of a simple, repetitive nature and pay a minimal amount, a penny or so, for each input.  For instance, I saw a HIT listed to look up deed records on a Web site and find the transfer taxes. The volunteers that complete such tasks are rated on their proficiency and accuracy and build up a reput- ation that qualifies them for somewhat more challenging and higher-paying HITS.  It is an interesting concept that may catch on as it is further refined. (Mentioned in Bill Machrone's column in PC Magazine, February 17, 2006).  Oldie Tribulations I own a 6-year old former dream machine, once briefly the envy of friends and relatives, a Dell desktop with a 600MHz Pentium III processor and a 20GB hard drive. Over the years I added another 20GB hard drive, upped the RAM to 256 MB, and upgraded from Windows 98SE2 to Windows ME. Lately I have been using this computer to evaluate a variety of Linux distributions that I installed on the second drive in separate partitions. Recently I took advantage of a special offer to update my version of Xandros (Linux) Desktop Open Circulation to the DeLuxe Edition. I wanted to install it in a clean 10 GB partition, but as a result of the many installations of different operating systems, the second hard drive could not be repartitioned any longer because of a faulty partition table. I could read and write to the disk, but neither Partition Magic nor any other disk software was able to repartition the drive, or even to reformat it. It was time for drastic measures. I discarded the faulty slave drive, bought a new Western Digital 80GB hard drive, installed it as the master, and relegated the original 20GB master drive to slave status. All I needed to do was reinstall Windows ME and then repartition the disk to make room for Xandros and Linspire, my favorite Linux distributions. Easier said than done, as it turned out. I'll try to summarize the lessons I (re-)learned. " Windows ME only upgrades from Windows 98, not from DOS. " Read the manual about the proper location of the itty-bitty jumpers that determine if a drive is the master or the slave. Don't just go by the markings on the drives. Apparently all drives are different. " Re-use the old IDE cable if the new cable doesn't reach both drives. " Even the most recent BIOS version for this computer available from Dell (dated 2000) is not able to recognize more than 32 GB of the 80 GB drive. " Believe it when it says on the box that the drive requires Windows XP or better. " The special software, provided by Western Digital, to reach and repartition all 80 GB on an old computer must be used before installing the operating system. " After using the special WD software to set up the hard drive, don't use Partition Magic 8.0 to further repartition the drive. You won't be able to reboot and will have to start all over again. " The computer won't boot any longer from the old hard drive, reinstalled as the master. In computing too, you can't go home again. " After protecting the system with a ZoneAlarm firewall and F-prot antivirus you think it is safe to go online to update Windows ME and install Internet Explorer 6.0. You'll still receive half a dozen instances of a spy program called Alexa, courtesy of Microsoft. AdAware will identify and remove it for you. " All's well that ends well. The computer now has 20GB of Windows ME, 30 GB of Linspire 5.0, and 30 GB of Xandros DeLuxe Edition, complete with boot manager.  Maybe I should just have bought one of those cheapy Dell computers. But removing all the junk programs they come with might have been just as frust- rating. I'll hold out for a system using the 64-bit AMD chip. That excludes Dell, which uses Intel only. Linux has long since run on 64-bit processors, and Windows Vista is just getting around to it. Now is not the time; later this year, maybe. I might have a local dealer built one to order.  There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.
New Hard Drives and XP Hard Drive Management Utility By Ira Wilsker, APCUG Director; Columnist, The Examiner, Beaumont, TX; Radio & TV Show Host WEBSITE:  http://www.langa.com  With the oft mentioned convergence, where our desktop computers are now commonly used for more than traditional computing tasks, many of us seem to run low on hard drive space.  A quick review of the newspaper and online ads for the electronics and office supply stores often show a selection of large | capacity hard drives for very reasonable prices.  Sometimes these hard drives can be purchased for an exceptionally low price after the application of high value rebates.  Now that many of us are using our hard drives for the storage and editing of video (very large files), countless music files (typically a few megabytes each), and even recording and time shifting TV (huge files), it is quite easy for hard drive space to run short.  This is an indication that it is time to somehow utilize an additional hard drive. The aftermarket hard drives now so readily available come in a variety of packages.  Generally the lowest priced drives are name-brand drives packaged as "OEM" intended for computer builders, and typically lack cables, installation software, instructions, brackets, screws, and other sometimes useful accessories.  Commonly available at the retail stores, for slightly more, are drives packed in retail packages which usually include cables, detailed install instructions, partitioning and formatting software, technical support, brackets, and other paraphernalia.  At the top of the price charts, but still sometimes bargain priced are external drives, already partitioned and formatted, and ready to use by simply plugging one cable into a USB or firewire port, and connecting the traditional power cord, with no other hardware installation.  External drives often come with a variety of utility software titles for creating backups, and other purposes.  Since there are a variety of hard drive controllers (the device that physically connects the motherboard in the computer to the cable and drive) in use, the purchaser needs to be sure that any internal drives purchased are compatible with the controllers in the computer.  Acronyms such as IDE, EIDE, and SATA are commonly used to describe the interface of the hard drives advertised.  If the purchaser is not sure which type is correct, a knowledgeable salesperson or call to the hard drive manufacturer may help the buyer select the correct type. Installing an additional hard drive in a desktop computer may be easy, and can be done by anyone with moderate mechanical or electrical skills.  The retail packs often come with very easy to follow directions (and sometimes even a video!) showing the step-by-step process.  Most typically, computers come with two hard drive controllers either built in to the motherboard, or on a separate card; each controller can usually drive two hard drives, or a hard drive and a CD/DVD player or burner, allowing for up to four hard drives and CD/DVD units in any combination without the installation of additional controller hardware. One proviso worth noting here is that if the computer is still covered by warranty, opening the case to install an additional hard drive may void the remaining balance of the warranty.  There is no warranty risk in using an external hard drive since there is no "hard" installation necessary. Once a new internal hard drive is installed, it must be partitioned and formatted appropriately in order for it to function properly.  If a retail pack was purchased, there will likely be a floppy or CD included that contains the necessary utilities; if an OEM drive was purchased, either a third party utility must be used (my favorite is Partition Magic), or a little know XP utility can be used.  External drives, unless home built with a separate drive and case, generally do not need any utilities to make them function properly.  Fortunately, users of Windows XP have a built-in utility that can be used for the necessary partitioning and formatting of new drives, as well as other hard drive and computer management tasks.  Fred Langa, author of the very popular "Langa List" (www.langa.com) published a series of articles in early March documenting the availability and utilization of this integral utility.  "Administrator" access is necessary to access this utility.  While there are several ways to access the utility, one of the easiest ways is to right click on the "My Computer" icon on the desktop, and then clicking on "Manage".  "Disk Management" is listed under the "Storage" heading.  From this point, hard drives can be partitioned, formatted, have drive letters designated or changed, and a variety of other hard tasks can be accomplished.  It is im- portant to be especially careful not to partition or format existing hard drives with this utility, unless explicitly desired, as it is likely that existing data on the drive may be destroyed or otherwise become inaccessible.  Other non-hard drive management tasks can also be utilized from this utility. If a new hard drive is installed, it will show up as an "unknown" disk.  Right-clicking on the new disk will open a menu with "partition" as one of the choices.  Selecting this will open a wizard which will guide the user through the steps of initializing and partitioning the drive, and then formatting it with an appropriate format.  After the process is completed, the new drive should show up in Windows Explorer.  Since many of the new hard drives are truly huge in capacity, it may be more convenient in the long run to partition them as if they were several smaller hard drives, each partition with a separate drive letter.  This makes disk storage more efficient, with less wasted space, as well as easier to backup, maintain, defragment, and perform other tasks. A new large capacity hard drive may be useful to improve the utilization of the computer as well as allow it to be used for the many new non-computing tasks that are becoming popular. There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.
Organizing the Favorites Menu                                           by Glenn Richards, Emeritus Member of the Lake-Sumter Computer Society, Leesburg, FL   grich32@yahoo.com   www.lscs.us  This is a follow-up on a tip from Worldstart.  I have been using the method for years.  When you collect shortcuts to web sites like I do the Favorites menu gets difficult to manage without some organizing. It is easy to add sub-folders to the Favorites main folder, either via the Internet Explorer menu item Favorites, or using Windows Explorer. The figure shows a main Favorites subfolder I named "Software."  Under that folder I have a subfolder named "A to C," etc. down to "U to Z."  The right-most column shows some of the contents of the UtoZ subfolder. I split the alphabetic range of the subfolders so that the height of the contents of any folder does not exceed the vertical space on the Desktop.  The figure has squeezed the display horizontally to make more room for these words. My Software folder is for web sites where I have found worthwhile programs for download.  One of its subfolders is "Tudogs," a web site that has shortcuts to hundreds of free programs.  I have acquired many of them for the group's CDs. The method of creating the subfolders using Windows Explorer that I use is to have WE in a two-pane mode with the Favorites folder highlighted in the left pane.  Right-click in the right pane, New, Folder, and give the folder a name of you're choosing.  This method can be cascaded as far as you want to go. The above method of organization can also be used to consolidate items in your Start, Programs menu.  Use WE to open your Programs folder at C:\Documents and Settings\<your own menu>\Start Menu\Programs, create subfolders for categories of menu items, and move appropriate shortcuts to this new subfolder.  This can reduce the height of the Programs menu so it will fit on the screen. My Favorites folder has 1968 files (web addresses) in 136 subfolders occupying 403KB, with no web address more than two clicks away.  There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.
TechNews By Sue Crane, Vice President & Editor, Big Bear Computer Club, California Scrane5@socal.rr.com   www.bigbearcc.org  BREAKING NEWS!! Microsoft will release Vista in two versions. The volume-license business version will ship in November 2006, but the consumer version will not be available until 2007 - too late for the holidays. Some MS partners feel this move will take a huge bite out of 2006 holiday sales, but others say they are not surprised. Sun Microsystems recently released the beta software for Java Platform Standard Edition 6.0, code-named Mustang. The update should make it easier to use scripting languages such as PHP or Ruby to write Java applications and improve diagnostics to spot bugs. Last year, Sun modified the license around Java to allow developers to see the source code. Sun also changed its development practices so that outsiders can see and contribute to Java development. The completed software will be available in the fall. Microsoft Office 12 (Office 2007) will offer new features, including an all-new user interface and new XML-based file formats, but no significant price increase. Office Standard will sell for $399, while Office Professional will sell for $499. Microsoft released an initial beta of Office 2007 in November 2005, with a second beta planned for this spring. The company is replacing its Student and Teacher edition with a $149 Home and Student edition that can be used by all home users and removing the Outlook and including OneNote. The Student and Teacher edition and the home version of Office can be used on up to 3 PCs in a home, but cannot be upgraded. The ProPlus version will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access and Publisher plus the Office Communicator, InfoPath and server-based content management and forms management capabilities. Many of the new capabilities will be included in SharePoint Portal Server, which has been expanded to handle forms management, spreadsheet hosting and content rights management. The "Core CAL(client access license)" combines licenses for Windows Server, Exchange Server, Office SharePoint Portal Server and Systems Management Server. The new "Enterprise CAL" includes those licenses, as well as Microsoft Operations Manager, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server and rights-management and security products. Microsoft is also using the SharePoint brand for a new Web site development program. Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007, like Microsoft's Expression Web Designer software is based in part on FrontPage. Office 12 is scheduled for release in fall 2006. Nearly one-third of American Internet users go online just for fun rather than to check e-mail, read news or use a search engine according to Deborah Fallows, senior research fellow at the nonpartisan Pew Internet & American Life Project, which examines the social impact of the Internet. A survey of 1,931 Internet users found 30 percent of respondents said they went online "for no particular reason" on the previous day. The survey also showed that 34 percent of online men were surfing for fun on an average day, compared with 26 percent of women. The Survey said that sending or receiving e-mail ranked highest with 52 percent of Internet users saying they did this on a typical day. Using a search engine ranked second with 38 percent, while reading news online was third with 31 percent. Lego has picked 100 lucky fans who will be the first members of the public to get their hands on Mindstorms NXT, the latest generation of the company's programmable robot toys. Last year some Lego fans figured out a way to hack the development tools on a company Web site. Instead of going after them with lawyers, Lego responded by saying, "That's terrific." The 100 Lego fans named last week have a chance to help develop the product by road-testing it and then share their impressions with Mindstorm executives. The 2006 version--which is expected to be publicly available in August 2006--gives users the ability to build and program robots that incorporate visual, sound and touch-sensitive sensors that can be controlled wirelessly using Bluetooth devices.  Mindstorms director Soren Lund hopes many of the developer-program members will create attractive and impressive robots that Lego will be able to showcase on the Mindstorms NXT Web site when the product officially launches this summer.. The organizers of RoboCup, an international robot world's World Cup of soccer held annually, plan to have a new category this year named the "RoboCup Citizen Eco-Be League," which will feature the tiny Eco-Be robots, which measure less than one square inch. Citizen is releasing a developer kit so teams can create their own Eco-Be robots. This year's competition will be held from June 14-20 in Bremen, Germany, and will feature separate competitions for robots in various size categories as well as humanoid and 4-legged leagues. What's Your "Brain Age"? If millions of Japanese are to be believed, it is the secret to a happy and healthy old age as millions of them take up Nintendo's brain training. Players have to complete puzzles as quickly and accurately as possible, including reading literary classics aloud, doing simple arithmetic, drawing, and responding rapidly to deceptively easy teasers using voice-recognition software. The player's "brain age" is then determined. The first in the English-language series of games, Brain Age, is due for its US release on April 17, followed by Big Brain Academy in May. Brain Training for Adults, a package of cerebral workouts aimed at the over-45s, is said to improve mental agility and even slow the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's disease and also proves addictive to over-45s anxious to ward-off old age.  When Daniel Hickey's doctor suggested he have a microchip implanted under his skin to provide instant access to his computerized medical record, the 77-year-old retired naval officer immediately agreed. "If you're unconscious and end up in the emergency room, they won't know anything about you," Hickey said. "With this, they can find out everything they need to know right away and treat you better." Some doctors are welcoming the technology as an exciting innovation that will speed care and prevent errors. But the concept alarms privacy advocates. They worry the devices could make it easier for unauthorized snoops to invade medical records. VeriChip Corp. is selling kits containing scanners and the large-bore needles used to insert the chips, and recommending that doctors charge patients about $200 each. At an academic computing conference in Pisa, Italy, researchers plan to demonstrate how it is possible to infect a tiny portion of memory in an RFID chip with a virus. Started by Westinghouse in 1942, STS is the oldest, and generally most prestigious, national science competition for high school students. Intel took over the competition in 1998 as part of its overall effort to promote science education, for which it spends $100 million annually.40 students make the finals, plucked from 300 semifinalists and more than 1,500 total entrants. Shannon Babb, 18, won top honors, which included a $100,000 scholarship, for her research and remediation work on pollution. Yi Sun, 17, won a $75,000 scholarship for his discovery of new geometric properties. Yuan "Chelsea" Zhang, 17, came in third place to win a $50,000 scholarship. Zhang, from Rockville, Md., studied the plaque buildup of arteries that leads to heart disease. Students taking fourth, fifth and sixth places get $25,000, while those ranking 7th through 10th receive $20,000. The remaining 30 finalists receive $5,000, and every finalist gets an Intel Centrino notebook computer. Intel's new Core microarchitecture takes advantage of similarities to fuse certain types of x86 instructions into more manageable chunks. 3 new chips--code-named Merom (a notebook chip), Conroe (for desktops) and Woodcrest for servers)-are based on the Core microarchitecture. Intel has said all 3 chips will deliver significant performance increases compared with current chips--as much as an 80 percent improvement in the case of Woodcrest--while consuming less power. One way the new architecture makes this happen is through macro-ops fusion and micro-ops fusion. When the Pentium M chip that is the model for the Core architecture--was introduced in 2003, it used a technique called micro-ops fusion to glue pieces taken from the same instruction back together,.reducing the overall amount of work the processor needs to complete a task. The new chips will also be able to combine separate large instructions that usually appear in pairs into a single instruction, known as macro-ops fusion, which increases performance, but also reduces the amount of power used by the chip. Merom is scheduled for the second half of the year. It's really a major change in clock and in the amount of time it takes to execute a sequence.  Google Desktop 3 is a free, downloadable program that includes an option to let users search across multiple computers for files. The application automatically stores copies of files, for up to a month, on Google servers. From there, copies are transferred to the user's other computers for archiving. The data is encrypted in transmission and while stored on Google servers. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has urged consumers to boycott the software, warning that Google could be forced to turn over the data to the government.   There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.
Computer Hysteria: The Sentence by Berry F. Phillips, Member of the Computer Club of Oklahoma City and a regular writer for the CCOKC website and the eMonitor   www.ccokc.org   bfpdata@gbronline.com  I was terrified as I faced the Judge of the Spammers' Court awaiting my sentence. The Judge began reviewing my case. "You have been charged with sadistically deleting spam but reading 'ham'. Spam is described as unsolicited (usually commercial, usually unwanted) e-mail messages. 'Ham' is described as real e-mail messages. You are charged with a capital crime, spamocide in the first degree! Since your plea is not guilty, I will review your case." The defendant's brief contains some material available from CAUCE, The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail which is an ad hoc, all volunteer organization, created by Netizens to advocate for a legislative solution to the problem of UCE (a/k/a "spam". UCE is the leading complaint of Internet users. But junk e-mail is more than just annoying, it costs Internet users and Internet based businesses billions per year. Junk e-mail is 'postage due' marketing; it is like a telemarketer calling you collect. The economics of junk e-mail encourages massive abuse and because junk e-mailers can get into business very cheaply. The volume of junk e-mail is increasing every day." Vint Cert, Senior Vice President, MCI and acknowledged "Father of the Internet" is quoted by permission "Spamming is the scourge of electronic mail and newsgroups on the Internet." It can seriously interfere with the operation of public services, to say nothing of the effect it may have on any individual's e-mail mail system ... Spammers are in effect, taking resources away from users and service suppliers without compensation and without authorization." In 2002, Paul Graham discussed in a paper, "a Plan for Spam" developing Bayesian spam filtering to distinguish between illegitimate spam e-mail from legitimate "ham" e-mail. Many modern mail programs such as Mozilla Thunderbird utilize Bayesian spam filtering. Server-side email filters such as spamassasin and ASSP, make use of Bayesian spam filtering techniques, and the functionality is sometimes embedded within the mail server software itself. While there has been some excellent anti-spam software written, the increasing volume of spam clearly demonstrates the survival adaptability of the spammers. CAUCE indicates that very few legitimate marketers use spam. Spam takes a variety of forms, like chain letters, get rich quick schemes, quack health remedies, porno related products, pyramid marketing, pirated software (Warez), and many more too numerous to mention which can loosely just be called various scams. There are various techniques to get your e-mail address to be placed on a spam list. One that is very common is the offer of free software. In my opinion, deletion is the "ounce of prevention that provides a pound of cure." However, we are losing the war on spam; you may want to join CAUCE's efforts to get legislation to stamp out spammers. If you want to join other Netziens to support the efforts of CAUCE, visit the website for more information at www.cauce.org. The Judge at the Spammers' Court banged his gavel and pronounced my sentence. You have been found guilty of spamocide in the first degree! I remand you into custody of the processors at the Spammers' Cannery. I shouted at the Judge in the same spirit of Patrick Henry, "If I must be canned, then can me ham NOT spam!"  Thank goodness it was only a dream; I awoke looking at my e-mail client when I had obviously dozed off while deleting spam. However, this article must now end because I have a strange craving for a "ham" sandwich! Berry Phillips is a member of the CCOKC and a regular writer for the CCOKC website and the eMonitor.   There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.
Upgrading Your Monitor by Vinny La Bash, vlabash@home.com  Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.   In December I wrote about buying a PC for 2006, but other than size I was vague about the monitor. Many more folks than I thought are getting the urge to watch high definition video on their personal computers. If high definition has you captivated, pay attention to the technologies known as HDMI and HDPC. HDMI or High Definition Media Interface is a technology that connects video receivers and DVD players to devices such as a television. It makes no difference to HDMI if your set is high definition or not. The technology handles both standard and high definition resolutions. HDPC or High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection is a completely different animal. Intel developed the technology specifically to prevent distortion or any kind of electronic interference between source and receiver. For example, HDPC encrypts the digital content of anything that a device such as a DVD player might send through a Digital Visual Interface (DVI) to a television set, a projector or a computer monitor. The encryption used is not a form of copy protection, but a process designed to protect the integrity of the data. In other words, HDMI makes sure that what is sent is what's received. It's important to understand that HDCP is content protection, not copy protection. It won't prevent you from pausing live programming or recording a program to view at a later time. Any content provider that did this would soon be at war with its customers. As long as features such as "time-shifting" keep appearing, protecting copyright material becomes increasingly difficult. Copyrights are important because without them there is no protection for the artists, authors, and performers who create material or those who use them. Your home equipment can implement any kind of copy protection, but a content provider might allow no copies whatsoever. Another provider might let you make a limited number of copies. Still another provider might put limitations on how the material is used. Many factors come into play. The mechanism for distribution, source, equipment design, and equipment configuration all have their unique effect. A content provider will usually insist on enforcing its own brand of copy protection. HDCP makes its appearance at the DVI connection, the last link in the video chain. HDCP makes no decisions on any type of copy protection strategy, it merely protects the choice. It may be a let down to find out that HDCP isn't an issue yet. However, it will become more important when high definition takes over. Expect all high definition DVD players to eventually use HDCP. If you own a DVD player that isn't HDCP compliant, you will still be able to use it even if your TV isn't HDCP compliant. You just won't experience high definition quality images. HDCP will restrict playback to standard quality. This prevents pirates from getting perfect copies of movies or other digital content. Upgrades are definitely in most people's future. Windows Vista will certainly support HDCP, as will upcoming versions of the Mac OS. What it comes down to is if you want to watch high definition content on your computer monitor, the monitor must be HDCP-compliant. Almost any television set you buy today will use HDCP, but very few computer monitors are HDCP compliant. Do your research carefully. If you want to watch high definition on your monitor, it must be HDCP compliant.  There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.
Getting the Most Viewing Space in the Internet Explorer Window by Glenn Richards, Emeritus Member of the Lake-Sumter Computer Society, Leesburg, FL www.lscs.us   grich32@yahoo.com  The IE window toolbars can take up a lot of space that could be better used to see web page content.  This can be especially critical with small monitors and/or with low resolution settings.  But even with my 21" monitor at 1280 by 1024 pixels I like to maximize the viewing area.  The graphic above shows my setup (split into two rows to show the detail). Below the Title bar are the Menu, Standard Buttons, and Address Bars in one row.  Below these is the Links Bar that has the full width of the window for its choices.  Note that for the Standard Buttons Bar I have reduced the choices to just Back, Forward, Stop, and Refresh.  These are the only tools I use frequently.  The functions of some other tools can be found under View, Explorer Bar.  Make the selection via menu item View, Toolbars, Customize.  Also in the Customize Toolbar window are the options to select "Small icons" and to have "No text labels" - my choices. Some users may not realize that toolbars can be moved to the row occupied by the Menu Bar, but IE version 6 allows this.  To make the move go to View, Toolbars, and uncheck "Lock the Toolbars."  This enables vertical bars at the left end of toolbars.  These are "Handles" that can be dragged with the mouse cursor.  Once a satisfactory arrangement is found, go back and check "Lock the Toolbars."  This insures against accidental rearrangement of the toolbars. The Links toolbar, a special function of the Favorites menu because Windows and IE make its content available on the toolbar, contains internet shortcuts that I access frequently.  Actually, in my system it has more choices than I really need because I have the space for them.  And I shorten the references to the web sites they point to to make space for as many as possible.  For instance YahMail points to the web page for Yahoo Mail, http://mail.yahoo.com/.  And NAVUp points to the web site for updating Norton Antivirus references, http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/download/pages/US-N95.html.  The same shortcuts can be found under menu item Favorites, Links. Another space saver is shortening the IE program name in the Title bar.  Typically it is "Microsoft Internet Explorer."  Other info in this bar is the web site or other info.  I changed the program name to IE6 to make more space.  This involved editing the Registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main to have an entry in the Name column of "Window Title" with a Value data of your choice (like IE6). One last note is that I set the default Home page to Blank to prevent IE from trying to go to a web site when the window is opened. Remember to tap the F11 key for more space.  There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.
Windows XP Housecleaning By Dick Maybach, Member of the Brookdale Computer User Group, New Jersey http://www.bcug.com/   N2nd@att.net  Unless you are careful, after a period of use Windows will begin to slow down. This occurs because many programs are always active, even though you aren't using them and because the number of files increases, which means that searches take longer. Fortunately, Windows XP contains several tools to help you ease these conditions. Using these tools periodically (every month or two is reasonable) will help you keep your PC lean and mean. Use Disk Cleanup to delete useless files. Right-click on a disk icon in Windows Explorer (C: will be the most rewarding); then click Properties, click the Disk Cleanup button, and select the actions. (I prefer not to compress old files as I've had bad experiences with compression.) Also be sure to check the actions available under the More Options tab, in particular deleting all but the last restore image. Finally search all your hard drives for the strings "*.tmp" and "*.dmp" in filenames. Delete anything more than a week or so old; however, Windows will refuse to delete any files it considers important.  Go through your saved e-mail and delete old messages. This will reduce the size of the mail database file and help you to find important e-mail more quickly. Look at the list of installed programs (Start   Control Panel   Add or Remove Programs) and remove any you don't use. Most of find that new software often is less useful than we expected. Also, many PC manufacturers ship machines with software that we neither ask for nor need. While you're checking, be sure to click on the Add/Remove Windows Components icon in the left margin of the window. You find MS tools that you don't need. Windows allocates a large portion of your disk space for use by System Restore (Start   All Programs   Accessories   System Tools   System Restore   System Restore Settings). Select each drive and click on the Settings button. Reduce the Disk Space Usage by moving the slider to no greater than 1 GByte on each of your drives. Use less on small drives, especially if they contain nothing but data. Check the startup folder for programs that automatically start; you will probably find that you don't want many of these running. Start   All Programs   Startup to view the contents of the startup folder. To stop a program from starting automatically right click on its icon then click delete. This does not delete the program; it only stops it from being started at boot-up. Unfortunately, most programs that start automatically don't appear in the startup folder. To disable these, click Start   Run and type "msconfig". Click the startup tab and uncheck any programs you don't want to run at startup. When you finish, Windows will ask you to restart. After boot-up you will see a diagnostic screen. On it uncheck the box that displays the diagnostic screen each time you boot. You can also turn off Windows services that you don't need, but you shouldn't do this unless you are very knowledgeable. However, it doesn't hurt to look at what's running, and you may learn something. Open the Services window by clicking Start   Control Panel   Administrative Tools   Services and the System Configuration window by clicking Start, then Run, typing "msconfig" and selecting the services tab. Move the windows so you can see both. Clicking on a name in the services window will display a short description. Removing a check mark in the System Configuration window will disable that service, but no matter how confident you are, don't disable any service marked "essential". Check for unsigned files and drivers; these can be corrupted files or programs not approved by Microsoft. Click Start   All Programs   Accessories   System Tools   System Information   Tools   File Signature Verification Utility   Start. The search will take several minutes; then a list will appear showing all the program files without valid signatures. Consider deleting (by using the Add/Remove Programs tool) these. Another utility you should know about is System Information (Start   All Programs   Accessories   System Tools   System Information). This doesn't allow you to change anything, but you can learn a lot about Windows by exploring it. For instance, if you click on the plus box by Software Environment then on Startup Programs, it will show you a list (after a pause) of all the modules that start at boot-up. It shows information in each entry that may enable you to track down a troublesome program. As is common with Windows utilities, you can sort any column by clicking on its header. If you have problems with a program that ran with an earlier version of Windows, try running them in program compatibility mode. Click Start   All Programs   Accessories   Program Compatibility Wizard   Next   Next. You will see a list of all the installed programs. Select the troublesome program and a compatibility mode (Win 95, Win NT, Win 98/Me, or Win 2000). Clicking Next brings up a screen allowing you to set a lower resolution on the screen, which may be needed for very old Windows programs.  You can tune your PC performance with very little risk, even if you are a novice. Right click on My Computer in Windows Explorer; then, click Properties   Advanced   Performance Settings. Usually, checking "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer" is satisfactory, but you might to try "Adjust for best performance" if you machine is slow. If you are more adventuresome, you can select Custom and disable individual features by unchecking items in the list. If you don't like the result, you can just go back to "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer. After completing the cleanup check to see if you should defragment your disks. Right click on a disk icon in Windows Explorer; then click Properties   Tools tab   Defragment now   Analyze button. If Windows says the disk does not need defragmenting, don't do it. Defragging the C: disk takes a long time, and seldom results in any noticeable performance improvement.  There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.