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Front Range PC Users Group Newsletter k-Byte |
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| v. 21, n. 5/6 May/June 2004 | Users Helping Users |
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Contents 1 Getting To Know Google - Billy Mabray 2 About k-Byte 6 Lost Your Wallet? Act Fast! - Julie Sturgeon 10 PCI Express - Timothy Everingham 12 Scanning Tips - Rick Mattingly 13 Online Information For The Elderly & The Disabled - Steve Rosenthal 14 Calendar of Events 16 June/July Calendars 19 What Is Shareware? - Dan Housley 18 Membership Application 20 Choosing A Surge Protector - Vinny La Bash 22 E-Mail Is 32-Years Old - Jim Smith 24 Keeping Your Passwords Secure - Sharon Housley 26 Picture And Video Files: Size Matters - Timothy Everingham 30 Trading Post 31 FRPCUG Contacts Getting to Know Google by Billy Mabray, Oklahoma City PC Users Group These days, whether you consciously choose it or not, your Web search engine is probably Google (http://www.google.com). That's because most search sites, whether they admit it or not, are powered by Google. And, why not? Google rose to the top of the search engines because its formula provided more relevant search results than any other. Also, its deceptively simple page makes it fast and easy to use. I say deceptively simple because, underneath that friendly, colorful logo is a powerful search system that can accept queries as complex as you want to make them. Many people don't realize that if they do not find what they want on the first try, there are techniques they can use to improve their results. There are also ways to search Google that are more appropriate for certain specialty queries. And, Google is hiding a few extras that take it beyond a search engine into an amazing reference tool. Let's start with an example. We're cooking dinner tonight, and we need a recipe for spaghetti sauce that does not use sugar. We might go to Google and type in this: no sugar spaghetti sauce recipe Google tells us we have about 56,000 results to wade through. A daunting task, considering the first page doesn't seem to contain anything relevant. The first thing we will try is grouping our search terms into phrases, using double-quotes. This tells Google that certain words should be searched for together. So, we try this: “no sugar” “spaghetti sauce” recipe That certainly narrowed things down, didn't it? This is a good technique to use when your search contains a lot of common words that could appear together in different contexts than what you are looking for. Unfortunately in this case, our first page of results is still not as relevant as we would like. The next thing we will try is searching for pages that do not contain a certain term: -sugar “spaghetti sauce” recipe This tells Google that we want pages that are about “spaghetti sauce” recipe, but specifically do not contain the term sugar. That seems to have done it--our first page of results is chock full of spaghetti sauce recipes that don't use sugar. “Subtracting” a term can also be useful when what you are searching for has multiple meanings. For example, if you are researching the “Holy Grail,” you might want to add “-Python” to your search to eliminate all the references to the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Now, maybe spaghetti sauce is too specific--we might want to also consider marinara sauce. In that case, we use Google's or syntax: -sugar “(spaghetti | marinara) sauce” recipe When there are multiple words that will satisfy our search, we can group them with parentheses and separate them with the “pipe” character--a vertical line that is most likely on the right-hand side of your keyboard. Google will then search for references to “spaghetti sauce” or “marinara sauce.” At this point, we've become so intrigued by what we can find with Google, we've completely forgotten about dinner. Now we are interested in just how many different chicken casserole recipes we can find. Here's one way: “chicken * casserole” recipe Notice the asterisk. This is called a wildcard. It tells Google that we don't care what word comes between chicken and casserole, but there should be something there. This can be particularly useful when you know most of a title of something, but are unsure of all the words. This particular search brings back all kinds of chicken casserole recipes. Something tells me we better just eat out tonight. Besides its standard Web search, Google has many specialty searches that are triggered either by a keyword or simply by what you are searching for. For example: site:microsoft.com “Internet Explorer” patches This searches for references to “Internet Explorer” patches on microsoft.com only. If your favorite Web site does not offer a search function, this is a pretty good substitute. Maybe we want to know which sites on the Web link to the OKC PC User's Group Web site: link:okcpcug.org We can also tell Google that what we are looking for is in an Adobe Acrobat PDF file: filetype:pdf refrigerator manual Google pays attention to what you are searching for, and offers helpful services based on what it thinks you want. For example, have you ever noticed Google shows your search words in the blue bar above your results? The search terms that are underlined link to a definition of that word at dictionary.com. If you spell a word wrong, Google will prompt you with the correct spelling and ask if you would like to search for that instead. Google has many tricks like this up its sleeves. Search for a phone number, and Google will do a reverse lookup on the number. Search for a name with a city and state and/or zip code, and Google will look up their phone number. Search for an address and you will get links to maps of that location. Include a zip code with your search terms, and Google will offer you local results--Web sites for locations near the zip code, ordered by distance. You can even type in a shipment tracking number, and Google will figure out who the shipping company is and give you a link to the tracking information. Google offers some services that have nothing to do with searching. Try this: 68.12 + (68.12 * .2) The Google calculator will return the result of this computation. Fun, although, admittedly, not particularly useful. The Google calculator can be useful though, for things like conversions: 68mm = ? inches You can do all kinds of conversions using Google--a handy tool whenever you get around to making that spaghetti sauce. Google is much more useful than most people realize--we've only scratched the surface of what Google can do. If you are interested in more, check out Hacking Google by Tara Calishain and Rael Dornfest. It includes many more search tips, and information for programmers who want to include Google search results in their applications. As you explore what Google can do, you will probably discover that Google feels like more than just a Web site. In fact, Google is your friend. Billy Mabray and his wife, Angela, own Smart Goat, a local software development and web design business. They are members of the OKCPCUG. Comments or questions on the article are welcome and can be addressed to: billy@smartgoat.com. Published bi-monthly, k-Byte is the official newsletter of the Front Range Personal Computer Users Group (FRPCUG): our mailing address is PMB 152, 305 W. Magnolia, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521. Opinions expressed in k-Byte are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the group or its members. Publication of information in k-Byte constitutes no guarantee of accuracy. Use of any information found in this publication is at the sole risk of the user. Neither k-Byte, nor its officers, nor k-Byte, nor its editors or contributors assume any liability for damages resulting from use of information in this publication. Submissions Articles, letters and short items of interest on computer-related topics are welcome and encouraged. All items submitted for publication are subject to editing. Send your contribution to the editor via e-mail attachment or submit on disk. If you have questions about a submission, please contact the editor for information. Copyright k-Byte is copyrighted ©2004 by the Front Range Personal Computer Users Group. Unless otherwise noted, other nonprofit users groups may reprint or quote from any articles appearing in k-Byte without prior permission, provided that proper author and publication credits are given and that a copy of the publication in which the article appears is sent at no cost to k-Byte at the above mailing address. User groups wishing to exchange newsletters with FRPCUG are invited to send a copy of their newsletter together with an exchange request. IBM PC, OS/2, Compaq, MS-DOS, UNIX, Windows and other trademarks occasionally mentioned in k-Byte are registered trademarks of International Business Machines, Inc., Compaq Corporation, Microsoft, Digital Research, AT&T or their owners respectively. Neither FRPCUG nor its newsletter k-Byte are connected in any way with any manufacturer or seller. We, however, gratefully acknowledge sponsorship of our group by Data Service Center, Jim Becker, owner. Advertising Classified advertising is free to members for non-business ads. See “Trading Post” for pricing for camera-ready display ads. Charges for ad makeup from sketches, etc., are available on request. Deadline for camera-ready and classified ads is listed in the Calendar of Upcoming Events. Deadline for ad-makeup is the same as for articles. About FRPCUG FRPCUG is an independent nonprofit computer society, so incorporated with the State of Colorado and open to anyone interested in MS-DOS, OS/2, or UNIX microcomputers. Its purpose is to provide an educational and scientific forum of mutual benefit for members of the micro-computer community. FRPCUG holds a monthly meeting and conducts various special interest groups (SIGS) and seminars. Members have voting privileges, subscription to k-Byte newsletter, SIGs and selected seminars. Annual dues are $25 for individual/family membership and $50 for corporate/group membership. FOR SALE: Compaq iPAQ H3650 Pocket PC This unit is in excellent condition and includes PC interface cradle, carry case and AC & DC power adaptors. Unit is installed with the Pocket PC operating system which also includes Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Calculator, Voice Recorder, Notes, Games, Internet Explorer, Outlook, Pocket Excel and Pocket Word. ROM is installed with complete Compaq utility bundle featuring QMenu, Picture Viewer, Asset Viewer and more. The installation CD includes even more Pocket PC software applications. The Processor is the 206 MHz Intel StrongARM 32-bit RISC Processor with 32-MB SDRAM and 16-MB Flash Memory. The rechargable Lithium Polymer battery provides 8-12 hours of use. Color touch-sensitive (TFT) liquid crystal display. Includes a Targus Portable Keyboard and a CompactFlash Card Expansion Pack. This iPAQ is fully functional and ready to go! All for only $200. Contact Rick Mattingly at (970) 613-8968 or email at rmatt@jymis.com. Thieves are faster and more clever than ever -- and your personal identification is a gold mine for them. Here's what to do and when. by Julie Sturgeon, Bankrate.com You just saw it on the counter. Honestly, it was right there a second ago. Yet, in a flash, your wallet or purse is AWOL and the hunt is on. So when do you call off the search and dial up the credit card companies to cancel your accounts? In these days of burgeoning identity theft, industry insiders insist you pick up the phone instantly. Cate Williams, vice president of financial literacy at Money Management International, lives by a more real-world time frame. If you're in public -- as in you had it at Macy's but not Burdines -- she imposes a 15-minute rule, just enough time to retrace your most recent steps. If you're at home, she increases that limit to an hour. But when the clock runs down, here's the drill: Call the credit card companies You should keep a list of credit card account numbers and phone numbers to the issuing banks' customer service departments somewhere in your home. But few Americans find the motivation until they're frantically searching for a billfold. Credit card companies established easy-to-recall numbers like 1-800-VISA 911 or 1-800-MasterCard with this in mind. These customer service reps walk you through the process and notify the individual banks. Check out your options. Expect to pass a security test at this gate, Williams says. Could be they'll ask your address, mother's maiden name or details on a recent purchase you made. "They're trying to protect you, not make you cry," she says. Tell the representative that you have lost your card, followed by the place, time and amount of the last transaction you know you made. Although the ultimate decision rests solely with the issuer, this call doesn't automatically commit you to the disruption of switching account numbers, says John Schettino, vice president in charge of global and North America credit at MasterCard. It is possible to merely flag the old number for unauthorized activity. "With the competition out there today, many banks will work with the card holder much more closely than in previous times. So if you don't want to block the number because you're headed to Hawaii on vacation, they understand that," Schettino says. Be aware this flag route means you may be delayed at the store the next time you use the found card since the credit card company needs to verify it's really you rather than an impostor. "I'd say if you haven't found the card after a few hours of searching, cancel it. Better safe than sorry," says Rosetta Jones, director of Visa USA. Don't pay for account-closing chores If you take the cancellation route, both Visa and MasterCard can send replacement plastic into your hands anywhere in the world within 24 hours. In some cases, banks send the new cards to the airport where you are scheduled to land. Everything from your previous account -- amounts due, incentive programs, interest rate deals -- transfers to the new plate, although it's up to you to update merchants with recurring charges, such as your cable bill or health club dues. The Federal Trade Commission reminds you to pick different Personal Identification Numbers and passwords for these new accounts, too. Some companies offer to handle these account-closing chores for a fee, a temptation you should resist, says Chris McGoey, an identity theft expert who runs McGoey Security Consulting in Los Angeles and San Francisco. "I'd never feel comfortable handing all my credit information and personal details to some company. Who are these people? Who do they employ? Do they do background screening? It's not worth the risk," he explains. Notify the DMV Canceling credit cards takes approximately five minutes each; replacing your driver license requires more tenacity. "Some areas may take the report over the telephone to put an alert on your license in case someone is stopped for a traffic violation," Williams notes. "But you probably still need to go in person for the replacement." Arrive armed with back-up documentation to prove your existence: a passport, birth certificate, Social Security card, marriage license. If your state still prints your Social Security number on the driver license (you were too intelligent to carry that Social Security card in your wallet, weren't you?), the game gets uglier. It's not as if you can get a new government ID number in a snap. "You usually need an extreme case or governmental support like the witness protection program to change your SSN," says McGoey. Yet if that number turns up in the wrong hands, a stranger has the key to your medical records, IRS payments, passport data and more. The FTC recommends you first call its hotline (877-IDTHEFT or 438-4338), followed by a call to the Social Security Administration at 800-772-1213. File a police report This step, too, requires a trip to your local precinct. But filing an official report adds validity to your story. "It tells the world, 'I really did lose the card; I'm not just having buyer's remorse over a $900 purchase,'" Williams explains. Definitely save a copy of the report as proof should odd purchases begin cropping up in your account. If you last saw your pocketbook in a public place, be succinctly specific with the details: "I walked into the President's Hall meeting room at the Wyndham Hotel, dropped my purse in a chair and headed for the podium. There were 14 people in the room. When I returned approximately seven minutes later, my purse had disappeared." Dial the credit bureaus Finally, a break: Pick any of the three credit reporting agencies and it will share the information with the other two and add a "security alert" to your file, says Maxine Sweet, vice president of public affairs at Experian. This alert is a temporary statement that advises any company accessing your report to please verify your identification before granting credit because you may be a victim of fraud. After you receive your reports you can determine if there has been any fraudulent activity and decide if you need to add a "permanent" alert. To do so, you must provide proof of your address and proof of your phone number such as a copy of your phone bill. That statement does not block access, but provides a phone number for the company to contact you to verify your identity before granting credit. The temporary alert period varies by credit reporting agency; Experian's remains for 90 days. The permanent alert remains for seven years on all the reports. To remove that alert, you must send the request in writing with proof of your identity. --------------------------------------------------------- Contacting a credit bureau to report fraud Equifax: Call 1-800-525-6285 and write to P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA. 30374-0241 Experian: Call 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742) and write to P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013 TransUnion: Call 1-800-680-7289 and write to Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA. 92834-6790 --------------------------------------------------------- Tell your local bank According to the FTC, no federal law limits your losses should someone obtain your checks and forge your signature. State laws usually hold the bank responsible in this case, but the Catch-22 comes when they also require you to "take reasonable care" of your account. Stay in the law's good graces by closing your current checking account and reopening a new one. The bank will notify its internal processors about the now defunct account, but the FTC recommends you also get on the horn and call the check verification services to stop someone from using one of your checks at a merchant's cash register --------------------------------------------------------- Check verification services TeleCheck: 1-800-710-9898 or 927-0188 Certegy, Inc.: 1-800-437-5120 International Check Services: 1-800-631-9656 --------------------------------------------------------- Don't sweat the small stuff Thieves are wising up -- if your wallet has fallen into the wrong hands, the criminals' latest trick is to spend the cash and save the department store-issued credit cards, Williams says. Four days later, they test the shopping waters to see what you've forgotten to close. So don't put off contacting Home Depot and Target to cancel those cards -- even if the Visas and MasterCards register no illicit use. Although crooks could use your Blockbuster ID, union membership certificate or library card to build the illusion needed to establish bogus credit down the line, Williams doubts these cards represent immediate financial loss. "The bad guys won't stop by Kroger and say, 'Let's buy a six-pack of beer and use the amenity card to get 12 cents off,'" she points out. Replace these at your convenience. If you do discover later the dog hid your wallet in the closet, just move forward with the new credit card numbers. However, conduct a proper burial for your old accounts, Schettino warns: Shred the magnetic strip, lest criminals re-encode it with skimmed information. by Timothy Everingham, TUGNET teveringham@acm.org Those of you who have been around personal computers for a while might remember plug in cards slots referred to as ISA, EISA, Microchannel, and VESA Local Bus. ISA, EISA, and Microchannel were replaced by PCI. VESA Local bus was primarily for video cards, which was replaced by PCI, then AGP slots. It was a fun time during these card slot transitions because many times you could not use the plug in cards from your old machine in your new computer or motherboard or if you did it could slow down the entire system. Well guess what, its time to do it all over again. Intel has come up with a new slot standard PCI Express, which will start to show up in computers/motherboards this spring. PCI came out in 1992. Today these slots and its data bus technology are used for things not envisioned when it was under development over 12 years ago. PCI has its limitations and the PCI pro slots never became popular. The limitations are coming to the forefront in delivering multimedia content and Gigabit Ethernet. Of course getting higher frame rates at higher resolution and quality for video games also is an issue. PCI has been evolving over time increasing its speed to five times the original, but it has reached its limits of development. Many say that stretching out the AGP to 8x speed might be pushing at its limit too. First let us look at the current PCI architecture you will find on most motherboards. The CPU/Microprocessor communicates with the first of two data bridges, normally referred to as the Memory Bridge or Northbridge. The Northbridge not only communicates with the CPU; but also communicates to the AGP port, which is where your main graphics card is (usually the only graphics card). It also communicates with your RAM. The fourth thing it communicates with is the second data bridge, known as the Input/Output (I/O) Bridge or Southbridge. The Southbridge also communicates to your plug in slots/cards, drive controllers, and USB, Fireware/1394, parallel. serial, game, keyboard and mouse ports. The theoretical speed limit of the Southbridge communication to I/O including the PCI slots is 133 MB/second. All of the communications in the system are parallel with none of the data having any priority over any other. Blocks of data have to be sent one at a time and cannot be done concurrently. Therefore the data is transferred from one section of the motherboard to the next section based on the order received, not the importance or whether a piece of data arriving by a certain time to its destination is critical. PCI Express, instead of using a parallel bus architecture, uses serial networking typology with only two wires for each direction. At higher speeds, it allows concurrent transfer of data while having a similar look and the same type of Northbridge/Southbridge architecture as currently in desktops and laptops. However, in servers the Southbridge is eliminated producing greater data throughput. The PCI slots initially have a 250 MB/second throughput, but the scalable width technology (increasing the number of wire pairs) enables slots and cards to communicate at 32 times that speed in later implementations using longer slots. But the typology can also use network switching type technology, giving data priority and quality of service functions. Hot plug/swap of components is a native part of the architecture. The PCI Express Graphics Port, replacing the AGP Port, will have a 4GB/second transfer rate in its initial configuration, double that of the current 8x AGP ports. For laptops units there will be a new plug-in card to replace PCMCIA called ExpressCard. It will come in two forms, one that more looks like a PCMCIA card refereed to at the 34 module form factor (34 x 75 x 5 mm) and a more oversized L looking card called the 54 module form factor (54 x 75 x 5 mm). This new architecture is compatible with existing operating systems. Also the new PCI Express slot is capable of being placed alongside current type PCI slots so a choice can be made which type of card can be used in a motherboard just like was done with ISA slots and current PCI slots. The standard PCI Express slots being put in motherboards this spring (1x) will be a lot shorter than the standard PCI slots. All of this will mean that a lot of issues having to do with multimedia on desktop and laptop computers will have been solved. It also opens wider use of Gigabit Ethernet on local area networks. It also enables the prospects of new motherboard form factors and computer case designs. As the transition from ISA to PCI was an interesting transition with computer buyers having to do more research and planning on their purchases, the move from PCI to PCI Express will do the same. However, as was with the previous transition, the performance and capability increases of computers will be profound. Further information on PCI Express can be found at www.express-lane.org. Timothy Everingham is CEO of Timothy Everingham Consulting in Azusa, California. He is also Vice Chair of the Los Angeles Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPHand is also on the Management Information Systems Program Advisory Board of California State University, Fullerton. In addition he is the Vice President of the Windows Media Users' Group of Los Angeles. He is also part-time press in the areas of high technology, computers, video, audio, and entertainment/media and has had articles published throughout the United States and Canada plus Australia, England, & Japan. Further information can be found at http://home.earthlink.net/~teveringham Amazing Seattle-Tacoma International Airport reports finding 257 laptops lost or abandoned at the airport between March 2003 and March 2004. MSN from Rick Mattingly Scanning an image from the newspaper often results in a poor quality scan. This is also true of some magazine images. Text and images in newspapers and magazines are printed using dots resulting in a visual illusion of tone. To create a successful scan of such documents, check the settings of your scanner software for a "descreen" option. Scanning a bunch of photos on your flatbed scanner? Here is a time saving tip. If all of the hard copy photos are the same size, pre-scan only the first by placing it in the top corner of the scanner glass scan surface. Now, place subsequent photos in the exact same position on the scan surface and forego the pre-scan. The scanner remembers the area to scan as set in the original pre-scan. Avoiding the DSL Buzz One of the clever things about DSL is that the DSL connection shares the same phone wires with your phone. You can tell that this is so because on all the phones on the line with DSL, you will hear a loud buzz of Data Hornets swarming up and down your phone line. (Well, not really, but it sounds like it.) To get rid of the buzz, you need to install a DSL filter (which filters out the buzz) between the phone line and all your phones, but of course not between the phone line and your DSL modem. Filters are available from your DSL service provider, but you can probably find them cheaper at stores like Radio Shack. The ideal way to install a filter is to run a separate wire from the box where the phone line enters your house to the DSL modem, and to install one DSL filter in that box into which you plug the wire leading to all the phones. But life is rarely ideal, so most of us install a filter for each phone. For the phone plug where your DSL modem is connected, you'll want a splitter filter with a filtered jack into which you plug a phone and an unfiltered jack for the DSL modem. For all the other phones, the filter just plugs into the phone jack, and the phone cord plugs into the filter. You can also get wall phone filters that fit between the phone and the wall plate that the phone's mounted on, and baseboard phone jacks with filters build in, for that tidy look. Dummies.com by Steve Rosenthal, Secretary, Space Coast PC Users Group, Cocoa, Florida On Tuesday, July 22,2003, Kim Komando (www.komando.com) had a link to a site that is of major interest to EVERYONE approaching retirement, Social Security, and/or who is permanently disabled for any reason. The site is sponsored by the National Council on the Aging, and hosted by AOL's GovernmentGuide.com. It is called http:///www.benefitscheckup.org/ (do not add 'www'), and is a comprehensive guide and list of any and all programs that are available to the “older generation,” i.e. adults who are ready for Social Security or on permanent disability. This is a “must see” site for anyone with questions of importance about their benefits at or near 65. The opening page has several choices: 1) How to Use the Site, 2) Tips, 3) Sponsors, 4) Support for N.C.O.A. (National Council On Aging). The first place to go on the site would be the “Benefits CheckUp” button, which will take the reader to several pages that ask important and pertinent questions about the individual, spouse and any dependents living in the household. There is a second button that takes the reader to a page for prescription drug information and savings. I would suggest starting with the Check Up button, and going through the questionnaire, filling out ALL the questions as accurately as possible. The reader will need information on: A) State & Zip Code, B) Dates of birth for individual and spouse, C) Type of residence, D) Length of time living there, E) Veteran status, F) Employment History as it refers to governmental employment, G) Prescription Medication List (very important), H) Current income and their sources, I) Current Expenses. Get this information together BEFORE entering the site, as it will speed the process of “filling in the blanks.” The reader has only 20 minutes to answer all the questions, before the site 'times out,' meaning the reader will have to start all over from the beginning. Once the reader has started the questionnaire (Click the 'Click Here' button), there are about 35 or so questions, on approximately 10 different pages, some of which will require detailed information on medications, household income, work status, marital status, and the like. A detailed questionnaire on current medications will probably take the longest, so it is advisable that a current list of medications be written out and by the computer when answering this part of the questionnaire. Not all drugs are listed; some are listed as generic meds. After filling in all the information, the site will then take a minute or so to assess the input, and select a list of sites and contact addresses/phone numbers for applications for various programs that would be valuable to the individual, assist limited income individuals who need help with their bills and even suggest further research for available programs for the retired and limited income families. The federal government offers tax breaks and some private companies offer reduced price medicines for individuals and families on fixed incomes, which help retirees and the disabled cope with month-to-month living expenses and 'survival.' As far as I can tell, none of the information is stored -- it is erased after the 20-minute time period has elapsed. It doesn't appear to be 'collected,' and if it is, it would only be for statistical purposes, since the site does not ask for a name, address, phone number, Social Security Number, or any other personal identifying information directly traceable back to the individual. Answering the questions honestly simply retrieves information for the reader. In total, there are about 40 questions, and the most comprehensive is the one about prescription meds. With ALL of your personal information at hand, it should take about 10 to 15 minutes to complete the survey, and another minute or two for the site to retrieve the pertinent information for your specific situation. The results will vary according to each individual's input and can list a few or several sources for further printing out the final results, as names, addresses, phone numbers and web sites can be extensive and comprehensive, depending on the individual's answers to the questionnaire. Examples of the results may include: 1) Golden Access Passport, 2) Food Stamp Program, 3) Medicare Counseling through the SHINE organization, 4) Real Property Tax & Other Exemptions, 5) Homestead Property Tax Deferral (for FLA residences in particular), 6) Earned Income Tax Credit, and other qualifying programs, depending on income status. These are by no means the total list; you will get a list that applies directly to YOUR specific needs and income level. Anyone with a computer can access this information, and if you don't have a computer at home, your local library (or even a neighbor, friend or family relative) can access the site, fill in the required information, retrieve the results, and print out the information for you to follow up via letter or phone call. The Internet is chock full of, and a FANTASTIC source of information if you know where and how to look for it. This particular information might take an individual months to collect separately, but on the Internet, it took only 20- 30 minutes to gather, print, and store in a file that can be referred to over and over again. I was able to download the PDF file with ALL the information in text form, which I can then read at my leisure or constantly go back to as a reference source. Anyone who is interested in available benefits should access this site, and do the questionnaire for themselves. Again, the name of the site is http:// benefitscheckup.org and is available 24/7. Take advantage of what the Internet has to offer; you'd be surprised at the wealth of information available. If you need further information, my Email address is stever43@bellsouth.net. Feel free to contact me, and I will do my best to help you find the information you are seeking. Good luck with your search, and use the Internet to its fullest capacity, you'll be pleasantly surprised at what it has to offer. - IMPORTANT NOTICE - FRPCUG meetings are held at the Fort Collins Senior Center. Check below for directions to the Senior Center. June General Forum Meeting We will meet at the Fort Collins Senior Center on Tuesday, June 1 at 7:00 pm. Meeting Agenda 7:00 - 7:30 Announcements 7:30 - 8:45 EdgeWise -Dave Trump will give a presentation on a new software application developed locally. 8:45 - 9:00 Break 9:00 - 9:30 Open Forum July General Forum Meeting We will meet at the Fort Collins Senior Center on Tuesday, July 6 at 7:00 pm. Meeting Agenda 7:00 - 7:30 Announcements 7:30 - 9:30 Annual Hardware/Software Zoo - Call for volunteers from the membership to display your favorite hardware and/or software applications in this round-robin event. See you at the meetings! Directions The Fort Collins Senior Center is located at 1200 Raintree Drive. This site is situated at the northwest corner of the Shields and West Drake intersection, on the north side of the Raintree Shopping Center. Check the marquee at the main entrance for directions to the specific meeting room. Up-Coming SIG's, Seminars and Meetings Board Meeting FRPCUG's executive board meets on Wednesday of the week following the General Forum Meeting at 7:00 p.m. All members are welcome and are encouraged to attend. These meetings are held at the offices of JYM Information Systems: 1630 S College Avenue in Fort Collins. New Technology SIG The LINUX SIG and the Telecommunications SIG have been combined to form the new Advanced Systems Support SIG. This SIG provides advanced support for all PC-related operating system and telecommunication issues. The meetings are held at 7:00 PM on the third Thursday of each month at the offices of JYM Information Systems: 1630 S College Avenue in Fort Collins. For more information contact Chuck McJilton at 493-2987 or email telecomsig@jymis.com. Northern Front Range Netware Users Group NFRNUG meets at 5:30 pm on the second Wednesday of each month at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife building, 2101 Oakridge Drive in Fort Collins. NFRNUG meetings are open to any users that are involved with Novell networking products and integration of other networking products into the Novell environment (Unix, NT, Mac, etc.). Contact Jim Stephens at 303-541-3376 or jcsteph@concentric.net or contact Chuck Kluko at 970-663-4770 or c.kluko@ix.netcom.com for further membership information. Yearly dues are $000.00 (yes, FREE) with pizza and pop served at 5:00 pm prior to meeting. Saturday labs and training sessions open to NRFNUG members only, space is limited. Rocky Mountain Internet Users Group Meets on the second Tuesday of 'odd' months at NCAR in Boulder. Meetings start at 7:00 pm, but members are encouraged to arrive at 6:30 pm for informal networking and refreshments. NCAR is located in Boulder at 1850 Table Mesa Drive. For more information see the RMIUG Web site at: http://www.rmiug.org/. Web Design SIG If you're an HTML author/WEB page designer, or would like to learn, contact SIG coordinator Doug Boicourt at 495-6949 or e-mail db@jymis.com for the date and location of the next SIG meeting. Upcoming FRPCUG Meetings Along with presentations of new hardware and software, we will certainly continue to present tips, hints, solutions, as well as what is new with Public Domain and Shareware offerings. If you have ideas for presentations which you would like to see at future General Forum meetings or seminars, please let us know. We would appreciate the input and opportunity to improve your meetings. Know of a another computer-related meeting in our area? Please let us know so we can post it here. 1 FRPCUG General Forum Meeting 7:00PM 9 FRPCUG Board Meeting 7:00PM 17 New Technology SIG 7:00PMJuly 2004 4 Independence Day 6 FRPCUG General Forum Meeting 7:00PM 14 FRPCUG Board Meeting 7:00PM 15 New Technology SIG 7:00PM by Dan Housley What is Shareware? Shareware is software that you can try before you buy. Software developers post trial versions of their software on websites. Consumers can then download the trial version to their computer and evaluate it. If the consumer likes the software they can purchase it. Shareware is also called try before you buy. Today almost every big software company including Microsoft, Winzip, and AOL use trial versions or a form of shareware to market their software. Why is shareware better than any other marketing method? Shareware is a good way to market software. It allows consumers to evaluate an application prior to making a purchase decision. They can easily determine if it meets their business or personal needs, which usually results to a satisfied customer. In addition because shareware companies are often small they can provide personalized service that is not found in larger companies. Shareware also allows for instant gratification, there is no need to wait for a shipment. Consumers can download and use the software immediately. Freeware vs. Shareware. As you know shareware is a marketing method for software. Freeware is also a way of marketing software. However, freeware is free so the developer does not ever request any money. Shareware is free to distribute but cannot be used for an unlimited amount of time, unless the developer is paid. Freeware can be used an unlimited amount of time and can be freely distributed; payment is not required. Many developers use freeware to draw attention to their shareware applications. What is software piracy? There are several kinds of software piracy. One kind of software piracy is hacking into software and disabling the copy protection. Software pirates then distribute or sell the hacked software. The developer does not receive any money for the software the hacker distributed. This is an infringement on the developer's copyright. Another technique used by hackers is to illegally obtain a registered copy of software. Pirates purchase the software once and use it on multiple computers. Purchasing software with a stolen credit card is another form of software piracy. Unfortunately there are many kinds of software piracy that has slowed the industry's growth. In order for developers to continue to develop software and provide support the software needs to be profitable. Registration Incentives A registration incentive is something that makes the person using the shareware version of the software want to buy. There are a number of incentives developers use to encourage users to buy. One popular registration incentive is to limit the time of the trial version. This is clever because then the user can't use the shareware version forever. It encourages them to buy the software so they can continue to use it when the trial period is over. Often shareware versions will have "grayed out" features on the menu that the consumer can see, but not use. Typically there is a pop-up windows in the software encouraging users to register in order to take advantage of the additional features. This is a popular registration method because if the person wants to do more things with the program, then they are forced to buy the registered version of the software. Another innovative registration incentive shareware developers use allows customers to receive discounts on other software once they have purchased the registered version. Developers also provide support incentives. The shareware version of software will have everything the registered version has, however, if a person buys the registered version of the software he/she will receive tech support, newsletters, and upgrades. Developers can also limit the number of times you can use the shareware version of the product. The trial version may expire after 10 uses meaning the user has to register if they wish to continue using the software. Shareware now and how the term changed Though the meaning of the term shareware has not changed the perception of shareware has evolved since it began. At first when you had a shareware program there was a note that asked for a donation. Now you are required to pay for the registered version of the shareware program. The shareware industry has also evolved and grown into a billion dollar industry. About the Author: Dan Housley is currently a student interning with NotePage, Inc. ://www.notepage.net developers of SMS and wireless messaging software and Software Marketing Resource http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com . by Vinny La Bash, vlabash@home.com Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. Let's start with some basics. Standard voltage in the United States is 120 volts. You can think of voltage as a measure of electrical pressure; the higher the voltage, the higher the pressure. It's similar to water pressure that makes water flow through a pipe or a hose. Voltage or electrical pressure is the force that makes electricity flow through a circuit. A sudden, temporary increase in line voltage above 120 volts has the potential to do serious damage to electrical devices. If a sudden increase in voltage lasts for one or two nanoseconds, it's called a spike. If the increase lasts for three nanoseconds or longer, it's called a surge. A nanosecond is a billionth of a second. How short a period of time is a nanosecond? Admiral Grace Hopper, developer of COBOL and the first computer compiler, used to use a piece of fiber optic wire in her lectures and speaking engagements to demonstrate a nanosecond. Light travels at about 186,000 miles a second. Her piece of fiber optic wire measured about 18 inches, which illustrated how far light can travel in one nanosecond. Without getting too deep into technical issues, spikes and surges create excess heat within electrical circuits. If the surge or spike is high enough, it can cause severe damage to electronic equipment. Anything electrical can be fried, from a large mainframe right down to your toaster. A standard surge suppressor works by diverting power during a spike or surge to the outlet's ground wire. Lightning is the most familiar cause of power surges and gets the most attention because its results tend to be spectacular. In a lightning storm your surge suppressor is likely to be toasted along with anything connected to it. Your best protection is to unplug everything for the duration of the storm. Surge suppressors are far from useless, but you should understand their capabilities along with their limitations. They are designed to protect you from common causes of line voltage fluctuations. Air conditioners, refrigerators, toasters, and blow driers are the most common sources of spikes and surges generated in the home. You can be affected by faulty wiring, downed power lines or even problems with your utility company's generating and transmission equipment. Because of the sheer complexity of power generation and distribution, power surges are unavoidable. So why didn't we need surge suppressors 50 or 25 years ago? It is only recently, relatively speaking, that modern electronic devices such as computers and TV sets became controlled by small delicate circuits that are sensitive to surges. Microprocessors can function properly only when line voltage is correct and stable. What kind of equipment should be protected by a surge suppressor? The short answer is anything that plugs into a wall outlet that is controlled by a microprocessor. That includes, but is not limited to, computers, TV sets, DVD players, and most home entertainment components. If it's expensive to replace, it makes economic sense to protect it with a surge suppressor. Broadband modems, telephone equipment, and cable TV systems also require protection from voltage spikes and surges. Your surge protector should have phone line input jacks, and if you have equipment hooked up to coaxial cables, look for a cable surge protector. Be aware that there are three levels of surge protectors: The Basic Power Strip: This equipment is characterized by low price, up to six outlets, and rarely phone or cable outlets. It offers very limited protection. The Surge Station: These are physically much larger units offering superior protection and in most cases, line conditioning. They feature internal circuit breakers and protection for phone and cable equipment. Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS): These devices have all the capabilities of a surge station plus battery backup in case of a power failure. This lets you to shut down your equipment normally and greatly reduces the chances of lost data or damaged equipment. High quality units filter out noise from your power lines and provide the highest level of protection. Here's what to look for when shopping for a device: Clamping Voltage Voltage: This is the point at which the device starts shunting voltage to the ground line. The lower the clamping voltage, the better protection you have. Look for an Underwriters Labs (UL) rating lower than 400. If there is no UL label, move on to the next candidate. Energy Absorbtion/Disapation Disapation: This tells you how much punishment the unit can take before failing. The rating is measured in joules and you want a high number. Most homes can get along with a rating of 200 to 400 joules. Units which can absorb 600 joules or more tend to be expensive, but they are worth the money if you need the protection. Response Time Time: This is the time the unit needs to respond to a voltage surge. You want a unit that can respond in less than a nanosecond. Indicators Indicators: Look for indicator lights that will tell you if all components are functioning. This article is hardly the last word on surge suppressors and Uninterruptible Power Supplies. However, you should now have a basis to find the kind of unit you need for your particular circumstances. by Jim Smith, President, Business and Professional Microcomputer Users Group, Inc. (BPMUG), Connecticut Spring has finally arrived and the winter weather is starting to give way to warm, sunny days. March was the anniversary of Email. Yes, in March of 1972 the very first basic e-mail program was written and the "@" sign was chosen for its "at" meaning. Here it is 32 years later and email is a mainstream means of communication and an normal tool for most businesses and for personal use. Naturally with this handy mainstream concept comes those wanting to abuse it. I would hope that most of you are aware of some of the tricks and hoaxes that can be offered via email. For the others, I'd like to review some of the more common ones so you won't be tricked. First, there are the obvious scams trying to get you to buy endless supplies of gimmicks that promise to make many of your body parts larger or somehow enhanced. Less obvious are sites that promise prescription drugs for bargain rates and ones with Hormone Growth solutions, or great mortgages on-line or credit repairs and many others. Much like the snake oil sales team of yesteryear, most of these are scams. The occasional one that is legit should also be considered suspect since anyone desperate enough to jump on the wagon with the snake oil sales team is not likely to be around for long enough to deliver anyway. Businesses that use unsolicited commercial email (spam) to sell their products should be viewed with great caution. Then there are hoaxes that alert you to something that request that you spread it to everyone in your email address book. Any time you get an email that tells you to spread it around, think about it first! Most likely it is a hoax. The most recent one I've seen is the one that asks everyone to not buy gasoline from the big producers in order to prove a point. Searching on-line will give plenty of reasons why this is a farce but it still doesn't stop people from continuing to send it around. Of course there are plenty of hoaxes around about viruses that will eat your computer unless you send it along to everyone else you know. There are jokes that beg to be sent to everyone and there are emailed chain letters that promise doom and gloom for breaking the cycle. Don't continue to clutter up the email system with these. Here's something to consider -- if you do what you are told and send these to everyone in your address book, and they turn around and add the addresses from their list, and it goes through that for a while, eventually it will likely land in the hands of someone that will sell all of those email addresses to junk emailers who will delight in sending a huge assortment of get-rich-quick and body enhancing scams to everyone listed. I get enough of those spams without friends adding my email address to those lists. The other popular email hoax is the endless variation on the Nigerian widow with too much money from her late husband and looking for a trusting American with a bank account ready to enter into a business deal in exchange for a percentage. These scams have been around for longer than email has but, rather than using US Postal Service and phones to deliver the pitch, email is a much cheaper way to fish for unsuspecting victims. Speaking of fishing, there is another hoax that is know by its variation, "Phishing". Phishing is when someone tries to get you to divulge credit card or passwords by pretending to be legit. If you get an email from PayPal asking you to "Click Here" and confirm your account info or from Citibank asking you to verify your credit card number, or from EBay asking you to type in your password so they can keep your account active, these phishing trips are hoaxes! Do not fall for them no matter how legit they appear to be. If you are not sure of something like that, be suspicious. Assume first that it is a phishing expedition rather than assuming it is legit. With a keen sense of skepticism, many of these hoaxes will become obvious. They prey on our not thinking too much but just doing as we are asked. Most people that fall for them are thoroughly embarrassed after it is over because they realized that if they had stopped to think about it they would have realized the absurdity of it. Don't be hooked in a phishing expedition! So with 32 years of emailing behind us, there are many wonderful things about email and some things to watch out for. I've given you a few of them... it is up to you to stay alert to many of the other ones that are out there. BPMUG is a great resource for those wanting to find out whether something that sounds too good to be true, is true or not. Don't be taken in. Stop to ponder it first and then verify it. Then if you find an amazing deal to get rich quick that you just know will work... don't share it with me. I probably won't believe it anyway. You Have Mail This guy is sitting outside on his lawn when he sees his blonde neighbor walk outside and check her mailbox. With a confused look on her face, she walks back inside. Five minutes later, the blonde walks outside again to check her mailbox. Seeing that there is nothing in it, she walks back inside her house. Another five minutes later, the blonde comes back outside to check her mailbox. After watching the blonde check her mailbox 3 times in a row, the guy is pretty curious. When she starts to walk back inside again, he asks, "What are you doing?" She says, "My computer keeps telling me that I've got mail." As the web has evolved, so have the methods of collecting personal information. A large number of websites require visitors to register to gain access or participate. While the need for registration is understandable, tracking user names and passwords can be burdensome. Consider using software to store your passwords, in a safe accessible manner. Most websites have privacy policies, but the value of privacy statements are only as honorable as the people behind the websites. Here are suggestions for keeping passwords and your information secure: 1.) change your password frequently 2.) never share your password with anyone 3.) try to choose a password so it doesn't need to be written down, but not so obvious others would easily guess the password 4.) be sure your password is at least 6 characters 5.) don't use a password containing all the same characters 6.) don't send your password via email or provide it over the phone 7.) don't use pet, family or friend names 8.) don't use your telephone number, zip code or address 9.) use a different password for each account 10.) don't use user name 11.) deactivate accounts for terminated employees 12.) don't allow shared accounts 13.) password contains upper, lowercase letters, non-letter characters and numbers Resources Password Software - http://www.password-software.com Passwords are not foolproof. Do not rely on a password alone to protect sensitive information. Monitor accounts closely to ensure that security is not breached. About the Author - Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com, and A recent study says that nearly 100 million PCs are likely to be replaced this year, with 120 million being swapped out in 2005, according to data research firm Gartner. Digital Image Color Adjustment Color corrections: Photo too yellow: reduce yellow or increase blue. Photo too blue: reduce blue or increase yellow Photo too green: reduce green or increase magenta Photo too magenta: reduce magenta or increase green Photo too red: reduce red or increase cyan Photo too cyan: reduce cyan or increase red. Kodak http://www.kodak.com/global/en/digital/products/ by Timothy Everingham, TUGNET (The User Group Network), Granada Hills, CA teveringham@acm.org You may have gotten a bunch of spam that try to sell you something because they are telling you that size matters. However even though they may be trying to con you, in regards to the size of picture, graphics, and video files size does matter. Some of it is because it is related to image size. However, when you try to compress files there reaches a point where you start to lose something. First you have to understand that if it is either an image or video file each little pixel or time interval is represented by bits of data. You may have heard 8, 16, 24, 32 bit color. The number of bits represents the color of each pixel. On an 800x600 image you have 480,000 pixels (800 multiplied by 600). Then you multiply the color bit depth to get the size of the image representation (800 x 600 x 24 bit equals 11,520,000 bits). Divide by 8 and you get the number of bytes (11,520,000 bits divided by 8 equals 1,440,000 bytes). It get worse with video because you have to multiply by the frames per second and by the number of seconds in the video (at a standard 30 frames per second it would be 41 Megabytes per second or 2.4 Gigabytes per minute). Now if you have a lot of large image or video files you are trying to transfer through a dial up connection to the Internet you have problems. If that is the case, you just figure you will save and send things using a smaller image size and blow up when it will be used. The problem is that when you go to a smaller image size you loose detail in the process. Then when you try to blow it up again it just gets blocky. The same thing goes for video files, the smaller the file size the less detail and nuances are in the file. This really shows up when you take a small image and then try to project it using a good LCD projector. So if you want to project it, show it on a large monitor, or print it out large you need to keep the image size up. This is one reason there is so much hype on the amount of megapixels a digital camera has. So how then do we get the small file size of images we do. We use compression algorithms, also known as codecs (compressor/decompressor). There are lossless and lossy compression algorithms. But how can there be lossless compression? It is because nature is filled with patterns and uniform things, which is what we take images of. So if we record info about the pattern instead of each pixel of it a lot of file space is saved. An example would be if a person in your image is wearing a blue sweater. Instead of recording every pixel individually you record this area of the image, where the sweater is, in blue. The Tiff image format (.tif) uses only lossless compression techniques, so it is a good format for achieving purposes or something you may wish to edit later. But then there is lossy compression. You lose some of your detail, but a lot less than if you just shrank the image. One of the regularly used lossy compression techniques is color palette reduction. With 24 bit color you have 16 million colors available. However, there are far less that many colors in an image. It takes less space to analyze which colors are in an image, and create a custom color table that will represent all the color in the image in less than 24 bits, write the color representation of the pixels with the custom table code, and then include a copy of the table in the file. This can be used as a lossless technique, but usually this is taken one step farther. In the analysis of the image it is detected how often each color is used and ranked. As the compression rate increases then the number of colors that are less used are converted to colors that are close to it but are widely used in the image. This compresses the size of the color table, which decreases the bits per pixel representation of a color used and the blending to nearby colors increases the space that areas of the image that can be described as having one color (this is a situation of compression techniques complementing each other). Some formats start out using only lossless compression techniques but as the level of compression increases they start to use lossy compression. Some common formats that use a combination of lossless and lossy compression are GIF (.gif) and JPEG (.jpg). Remember once you lose image data using a lossy technique you will not have it anymore unless you still have the original or a lossless copy. The compression methods discussed so far are referred to as spatial compression because they reduce the file size by compacting the description of the visual area (space) of an image. Video is made up of sequential images played over time. This means we can not only use spatial compression; but also use temporal compression, which compresses the file using analysis of the difference and similarities of the frames in an image. This usually exhibits itself by the first frame in a video sequence being compressed just like a still image using spatial compression, but in the following frames only the changes from the previous frame is recorded. Periodically or when there are major changes between frames, a new initial frame, also called a keyframe, is produced followed by more just recording of differences between frames. These temporal compressions can be lossy or lossless. As with still images you should achieve them using only lossless compression. However, using only lossless compression may be impractical because of the limitation of your computers or hard drives' speed or hard drive space, but keep lossy compression at a minimum. If you are creating a video DVD for achieving that uses the MPEG-2 format that uses both lossy and lossless compression techniques, it is better to achieve the file using the DV codec it was originally imported in from your video camera and writing that file to a data DVD or CD. Be aware that some compression techniques and settings are better for some types of video than others. If you just have a talking head in your video with a static background you can compresses it greatly without degrading the image much, But if there is a lot of fast action or panning of the camera, the amount of compression you can successfully have you have to be more picky on what codec you should use. File size matters because it limits what you can use the file for. If you just want a small file you can send to a friend's dial up connection or have friends using a dial up connection view via a website a small file is good. However in printing large photos, showing on a large computer display or having it projected on a screen small files are not good. Use only lossless compression techniques on things you want to achieve or edit later because it keeps your options open. Keep your archival file large and make smaller copies of it for other purposes. It is fortunate that hard drive and DVD and CD blank prices have come down a lot so doing this does not cost a fortune, but not planning ahead on image size and which compression techniques can cost you not being able to fully use your precious digital photos and videos. Timothy Everingham is Vice Chair of the Los Angeles Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH, the largest chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques and one of Southern California's significant professional organizations within the entertainment and media industries. He is also part-time press in the areas of high technology, computers, video, audio, and entertainment/media and has had articles published throughout the United States and Canada plus Australia, England, & Japan. Further information can be found at http://home.earthlink.net/~teveringham FOR SALE: Viewsonic 17GA 17" monitor with speakers in bezel. Must see/hear this monitor to appreciate how wonderful it is. $100 or best offer. Paul, 484-7680 FOR SALE: Gateway 800C Desktop w/Monitor, 20GB Hard Drive plus Epson Stylus Color 777 printer. Less than one year old. Only $600 complete. Contact Frances in Fort Collins at (970) 224-0776. Members: Place your FREE ad here! About Trading Post k-Byte runs classified ads in Trading Post for three consecutive issues. Trading Post ads up to 10 lines (or 70 words) long are free to FRPCUG members: $5 for non-members. To place an ad in Trading Post contact Rick Mattingly at 223-2154 or email rmatt@jymis.com. Commercial Advertising Specifications (Monthly rate) Full Page (8 1/2” X 7”) $30 Half Page (3 1/4” X 7”) $20 One Third Page (3” X 4”) $15 Business Card (2 3/4” X 1 1/2”) $ 5 We offer a substantial discount for repeat ads and continuing contracts. For additional charge, we will design your ad for you. Contact Will Horton for information on this service at 223-2154 or email whorton@willsigns.com. |