NET 2008.pdf · 2008. 9. 6. · Sharks, Terrors of the Deep. If you attended the meeting in...

June 3

A Look at Excel

Excel is one of the

most popular micro-

computer applications to date.

Microsoft originally marketed a

spreadsheet program called Multiplan

in 1982, which was very popular on

CP/M systems, but on MS-DOS sys-

tems it lost popularity to Lotus 1-2-3.

The first version of Excel was re-

leased for the Mac in 1985 and the

first Windows version (numbered

2.05 to line-up with the Mac and bun-

dled with a run-time Windows envi-

ronment) was released in November

1987. Lotus was slow to bring 1-2-3

to Windows and by 1988 Excel had

started to outsell 1-2-3 and helped

June 2008

V o l u m e 1 5 N o . 6

This Month

www.tugnet.org Price $1.75

INSIDE

Officers & Directors .................. 2

Coordinators, Fine Print, Etc. ..... 3

Meetings continued .................... 4

Special Interest Groups ............ 10

Marian‘s Memos ...................... 12

Highlights of Past Meetings ..... 14

Winners ................................... 21

Getting to Know ...................... 22

Benefits of Computer Sandbox . 25

Let‘s Clean ‗Start-Up‖ ............. 30

Talk About Humility ................ 32

Help Contact ................................... 36

Monthly Calendar ........................... 38

Membership Application ................ 39

(See Meetings, page 4)

Price $1.75 www.tugnet.org

TU

GN

ET

A Monthly Publication of

The Users’ Group Network

Never invest in a business

you cannot understand. -Warren Buffett,

American businessman

www.tugnet.org June 2008

OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS

President (1 yr) Programs

Marian Radcliffe [email protected] 818-249-1629

Vice President (2 yr) Special Events

Nina Van Leeuwen [email protected] 818-784-6144

Secretary (1 yr) Special CD

Susan Kennedy [email protected] 818-503-8973

Treasurer (2 yr) Deuk Perrin [email protected] 805-578-9236

Director (1 yr) Special CD

Larry Nye [email protected] 818-481-4837

Director (2 yr) Refreshments

Susan Phelps [email protected] 818-848-9810

Director (2 yr) Membership

Nancy Cook [email protected] 818-349-1542

Director (2 yr) Special Offers

Ed Jameson [email protected] 818-892-4074

Director (1 yr)

Thomas Eugene [email protected] 818-989-7121

TUGNET is a non-profit computer users group. TUGNET’s mailing address for membership

information, submissions to the TUGNET Newsletter, or other club-related material, is TUGNET, 3926 Community, La Crescenta, CA 91214-2375.

We welcome your submissions, including technical questions or letters to the editor, on PC disk (in a popular word processing format), or by e-mail to Marian Radcliffe. Hardcopy alone will no

longer be accepted!! All submissions must be presented on disk or e-mail as described

above!! The number one rule when writing for us is: Do not attempt to format your article,

except for bolding and italicizing. Instead, focus on writing a clear, organized, grammatically

correct article. We’ll take care of the rest. We reserve the right to edit as necessary for space

considerations. Other non-profit user groups may reprint articles (except for those copyrighted) without prior permission, provided proper author, title and publication credits are given.

Newsletter produced using Microsoft Publisher. Membership database is in Microsoft Access.

Cover Design: Jeff Marcus Graphic Design

June 2008 www.tugnet.org Page 3

COORDINATORS, ETC.

Membership

Chairman Greeters

Nancy Cook

Daisy Kuhn

Nina Van Leeuwen

[email protected] 818-349-1542

Equipment

Administrator

Jon Kranzler

[email protected]

818-703-0979

Media Bill Tracy [email protected] 818-842-0747

SIG Coordinator A.J. Camou [email protected] 818-367-9264

Tuesday Room Set-Up A.J. Camou

Winston Garth

Robin Winkelstein

Refreshments

Soda Pop

Susan Phelps

Mel Ader

Arlene Brooks

Bill Tracy

A.J. Camou

Webmaster Kat Koch [email protected]

Can & Bottle

Recycling

Winston Garth [email protected]

Fund Raising Kay Lalicker [email protected]

APCUG Rep. Maury Whitaker [email protected]

NEWSLETTER STAFF

Editor

Editor pro tem Open

Marian Radcliffe [email protected]

Meeting Photographer Larry Nye [email protected]

Proofreader Roger Poverny

Neither The Users’ Group Network, its Board of Directors, officers, nor members make any express

or implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. Opinions provided

by newsletter articles, or by speakers, members or guests who address TUGNET meetings are individual opinions only, and do not represent the opinions of the organization, its board, officers,

or members. All opinions and information should be carefully considered and neither The Users’

Group Network, its directors, officers, nor members shall be liable for any incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising from the furnishing or use of any information

or opinions. Brands and products referenced herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of

their respective holders.


More Meetings

Microsoft achieve the position of leading PC software developer.

This accomplishment, dethroning the king of the software world,

solidified Microsoft as a valid competitor and showed its future of

developing GUI software. Microsoft pushed its advantage with

regular new releases, every two years or so. The current version

for the Windows platform is Excel 12, also called Microsoft Office

Excel 2007.

Susie Phelps, leader of our Digital Imaging SIG, is going to take

us on a brief tour of Excel for tonight‘s meeting. What she shows

with Excel can be accomplished with most other spreadsheets.

Some can be done in a Word Processor‘s tables, etc. So there will

be something for everyone.

June 10

Ivan’s Back with

Geotagging

If you‘re not familiar

with it, Geotagging is

the adding of location

information to your digi-

tal photos. For someone

who hasn‘t seen or heard

of it, this sounds crazy but I‘m sure you have seen it before in

Windows, where your JPEG files reveal information like the cam-

era‘s make and model that shot it, the shutter speed, did the flash

go off, etc. This information is stored within the EXIF along with

a lot of other information. There are a few fields which are rarely

filled – Latitude, Longitude & Elevation, for example.

Geotagging your photos adds this information. With this new data

now embedded into the EXIF metadata, your JPEG file now has

(From Meetings, Page 1)


amazing new properties/abilities. Your photos can now be organ-

ized on a map, giving you a new way to look at your photos as

well as a fun way to share them on websites like Flickr, Picasa

Web Album & more.

Ivan says, ―I like to think of it as scrapbooking for men (although

the ladies tend to love it too).‖

June 17

Remote Blackberry

Sync Capabilities Baseline Data

Systems, Inc.

For the first time end users

will be able to keep their

desktop, laptop and Black-

berry PDA Data all in

sync with the push of a

button. The data will stay

consistent on all 3 plat-

forms.

Also for the first time, end

users will be able to Sync their Blackberry devices to their Phone

Book and Calendars remotely without any additional software or

Blackberry server. The end user can make changes on the Black-

berry device out in the field and send the updated information to

their desktop, laptop or network. The Blackberry Sync works

with Baseline Data Systems, Inc. current Web hosting model for

their product Office Accelerator.

Baseline Data Systems is located in Torrance, California, just 20

miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles. They have developed

award winning software products and services for over 15 years.


Their flagship Accelerator product line has won numerous indus-

try awards and has sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide.

The company had its first genesis in 1983, when Dr. Ralph Brack-

ert and Mr. Chris Furgis met at the graduate dorms at UCLA. Dr.

Brackert was working on his Ph.D in Electrical Engineering and

Mr. Furgis was attending the UCLA Graduate School of Manage-

ment. They frequently discussed starting a business that took ad-

vantage of their business and technical educations.

After UCLA they stayed in touch and a few years later they an-

ticipated the explosion of Windows. They took advantage of their

insight and Office Accelerator, their flagship product, was born.

Chris Furgis presented Office Accelerator to TUGNET members

a few times as the product developed. It is a terrific contact man-

ager with which some of our members are familiar. It is with real

pleasure that we welcome Chris back, after an absence of several

years, to bring us up to date on numerous developments since he

was last here.

Don‘t be thinking that you must have a Blackberry in order to get

anything out of this presentation. We will all benefit.

June 24

Prolific Publishing,

Inc.

With Reichart

―You've seen aquarium

programs before, but

you've never seen any-

thing like this! Marine

Life so vibrant you won't

believe your eyes. Inde-

scribable realism!‖


From Smart Computing

Tip

I‘ll bet you‘ve seen their Marine Aquarium on display systems if

you don‘t have it yourself. The current version is Marine Aquar-

ium 2.6 for Windows and they also have Goldfish Aquarium and

Sharks, Terrors of the Deep. If you attended the meeting in Janu-

ary and saw how they were created, you might remember

Reichart telling us he‘d be back with Marine Aquarium 3! So . . .

.

Yes!! Reichart will be here and if you don‘t come to another

meeting all year, you‘d better not miss this one. What a great

meeting to invite your friends to come along. He is charming, fas-

cinating, an industry veteran who knows what of he speaks. We

are so very fortunate that he is willing to share a Tuesday evening

with us.

As a bonus, we expect to have a new monthly CD from Larry

Nye.

Spot A Scam Email

There was a time when you could tell a fake email from the

real thing just by noticing all the spelling errors or carefully

examining the return address. Unfortunately, the crooks have

become much more savvy about creating email that looks ex-

tremely legitimate. They can "spoof" addresses so that they

appear to come from real companies.

Your best bet now to avoid getting taken in by a phishing

email is to be very wary of any message asking you to go

online and provide personal or financial information. Avoid

clicking links in email messages or filling out forms in mes-

sages. Don't reply to mail from someone you don't know.

If someone emails you about a supposed "problem" with an

account, call the company to verify there actually is a prob-

lem.


What You Can Bring to the

Meetings

Recyclables:

Cell Phones

CDs &

Floppy Disks

Ink Jet Cartridges

Toner Cartridges.

Drink Cans & Bottles

Your checkbook

to renew your membership if

the label on the back page of

this newsletter shows your

expiration date is near. Why

don‘t you check it now?

Your smiling face!

New Members

Robert Block (NL)

Jerry Hahn

Renewing Members

Warren Kingsley

Kathy and Steve Krogh

Bill Parker (NL)


Special Interest Groups Specializing in the unique interests of our

members Novices and experts are welcome

Real Estate SIG First Monday @ 7:00 p.m.

February‘s Real Estate SIG

meeting will attempt to con-

tinue keeping our knowledge

current in all aspects of real es-

tate.

Meets at Nancy Cook‘s home

818-349-1542

[email protected] Investments SIG Second Monday @ 7:00 p.m.

— Open Forum Discussion —

The What, Where, and

How of Financial Investments.

Meeting at Nancy Cook‘s home

818-349-1542

Marcie Green (818) 594-1272

[email protected]

Imaging SIG Second Thursday @ 7:00 p.m.

We will continue working with

the Photoshop tutorials.

We find much can be learned

from these lessons as we all

want to hone our skills.

If there is a project anyone has

in mind, bring it in and we‘ll try

to work on it as well.

Meets at Granada Pavilion,

Upstairs.

Contact Susan Phelps

[email protected]

Check with SIG leaders to confirm SIG meeting

locations


Web Design SIG Third Thursday @ 7:00 p.m.

This SIG is up and running

again and planning to help those

interested in designing web

pages.

This is when you can learn all

about this interesting topic.

Meets at Nancy Cook‘s home

818-349-1542

[email protected]

Linux SIG Fourth Thursday @ 7:00 p.m.

The May 22

meeting was a

fun night as Lee

Cole of SCLUG

made his first

presentation. He

used his projector to show us

how to make a partition on a

Microsoft system and then in-

stall Kubuntu. Then he showed

us how to use Debian

(debian.com) to do the same

thing. Debian is much better.

Meets at Nina Van Leeuwen‘s

[email protected]

818-784-6144

Bill Tracy

[email protected]

818-842-0747

Discount to TUGNET members

Check with SIG leaders to confirm SIG meeting

locations


Marian’s Memos

MARIAN’S MEMOS MARIAN’S MEMOS MARIAN’S MEMOS

LIBRARY WORKSHOPS We have a small committee dedicated to reaching computer neo-

phytes by handling workshops at local library branches. AJ

Camou, Sue Kennedy and Larry Nye currently comprise this

group. Basics are covered during the workshops which can be of

varying lengths. An outline has been developed as a guide. We

hope to hold these in other locations as well.

If you can help with this, please contact one of the above persons

or any board member. It will take very little of your time. We

hope to get as many members involved as possible so more ses-

sions can be held. With computer shows a thing of the past, this is

the best way for us to reach folks who are potential TUGNET

meeting attendees.

YARD SALE Our next yard sale will be in October so we hope you are saving

your unused items. If there is something you wish to donate but

simply can‘t keep for the next few months, we do have a solution.

Thanks to Frank Dodie, we have storage for yard sale items. Of

course, the storage space is limited, so we ask that you try to keep

your donations at your residence (or office) if at all possible.

The chairman of this year‘s sale is AJ Camou with Nancy Cook

assisting.

SUPPORTING TUGNET We want to avoid raising the dues. Supporting our fun fund

raising activities, as well as our monthly CDs, will enable us to


accomplish that goal. Thanks to those who came to eat, our recent

dinner at El Torito resulted in over $200 for our treasury.

Thanks also to those who purchased the Kow Chip Bingo tickets

which also enhanced our treasury.

You are a very special group of people!

TV REVOLUTION DRIVEN BY DESIGN, FASHIONED BY

TECHNOLOGY Changes in television and cabinet design now have to do more

with home-decorating concepts than technology. Yet decor is

changing technology: screens are getting flatter and thinner,

screens are becoming dual-view or 3-D, blacks are becoming ab-

solute and the ―in‖ color is red. Plus, TV is being extended with

computer applications so it can accommodate photos, music,

movies and videos stored on PCs around the home.

- From CEA

PC TOOLS THREATFIRE 3.5 ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE Solid free protection supplements your existing antivirus.

Paul Flynn, TUGNET member, calls our attention to the follow-

ing:

PC World says, “Your current antivirus program may offer plenty

of protection, but new, unknown threats still could slip through.

That's where PC Tools' ThreatFire comes in. Now in version 3.5,

this free utility adds an extra layer of protection to the security

software you already have. It blocks an impressive number of

threats through behavior-based analysis.‖

More information at: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,145652/

article.html

Download at: www.threatfire.com/


Highlights of Recent Meetings

System Mechanic (April 29)

Our guests from Iolo were impressed with how many of our

members are already using their products. Therefore, there was

just a brief intro to the company and the tools which are already

familiar. The fact that their utilities are not a static product as they

face the continual changes in Windows was discussed.

The discussion of the registry was particularly interesting; the fact

that the registry continues to grow since it has no way to shrink

itself is certainly something that needs consideration. That‘s why,

they say, 90% of computer problems can be traced to problems

within the registry. With their tool, the registry can not only be

cleaned up but defragged as well. This could be a worry but Sys-

tem Mechanic backs up your existing registry since safety is al-

ways a consideration.


System Mechanic contains a boot defragger and also defrags sys-

tem files on start-up which other programs cannot handle. Their

‗System Guard‘ keeps other software from changing settings and

will not allow another program to add itself to the ‗Start‘ Menu

without permission. ‗Task Manager‘ on steroids shows the ser-

vices running and has a priority level and description of what

each does. Many things can be customized to speed up both the

starting and running of a computer.

There‘s no feeling worse than when you start your PC and it

crashes or freezes before Windows can even load. Has all of my

data been lost? Did I make a Windows recovery disk? What do I

do now? These are some of the questions that arise after the pan-

icked and desperate feelings set in. The good news is System Me-

chanic’s powerful DriveMedic recovery console restores and

automatically repairs damaged drives, partitions, boot records,

and more if your PC‘s operating system cannot be started. Simply

insert the recovery disk, restart your computer, and you‘ll be up

and running again in no time.

We do thank Abbas Mehdi, Product Manager; JJ Schoch,VP of

marketing; Becky Meeck and Giselle Bisson from Public Rela-

tions for coming and bringing us up to date on the latest version

of this valuable utility. We enjoyed JJ‘s recollections of the other

utility companies with whom he has been affiliated. He said

working at iolo is reminiscent of the old days with Peter Norton.

He stresses the fact that if the clutter is kept out the computer will

never slow down. He suggested everyone take advantage of the

‗System Checkup‘ available free on their web site.

Be sure to check the Special Offer on our TUGNE web site for

discounts available to TUGNET members.

www.iolo.com


HDTV with Walt Ordway

(May 6)

The question comes up: What is the difference between 1080i and

1080p? Walt explained that the original definition of HDTV was

1,920 (horizontal pixels) X 1,080 (vertical pixels). Then he noted

that there were three versions of 1,920 X 1,080. They were 30

frames per second interlace scan (1,080i 30 fps), 30 frames per sec-

ond progressive scan (1,080P 30 fps), and 24 frames per second

progressive scan (1,080P 24 fps). The 24 fps is what is used when a

movie is shown on TV because the original film only had 24 fps.


However, the TV stations that actually broadcast 1,920 X 1,080

typically use the interlace format (1,080i 30). No TV station in

the country actually broadcasts the 1,080P 30 fps format. Walt

noted that the problem is that interlace format has many visual

problems when there is motion (like a football game). He also

noted that if HDTV was done over today, the technology would

allow for 1,080P 60 fps. The advantage to 60 fps is that there is

no motion blur. Maybe some time in the distant future, 1,080p 60

fps will get added to the FCC digital format list.

As Walt noted, the folks who defined the 18 digital TV formats,

also called many lower resolutions HD. These were the 1,280 X

720 resolution formats. But the 1,920 X 1,080 versions are the

true high definition resolutions.

The TV broadcasters could broadcast their digital channel starting

in November 1998. But the TV set manufacturers decided that the

cost of the real HDTV sets would be too expensive. So, no digital

TV set had a native resolution of 1,920 X 1,080 until around

2006. And, also almost all of the digital sets did not have the digi-

tal tuners. These were called "HDTV Ready" TV sets. That re-

duced the cost of the sets then by around $1,000.

After March 1, 2007, every TV set is required to include the digi-

tal tuner. The FCC did this to try to reduce the number of house-

holds that might be affected when analog TV shut down in 2009.

When purchasing an HDTV set, it‘s important to know the native

resolution. It may take some doing because most salesman don‘t

know the answer and the marketing terms can be misleading. As

mentioned above, a set which has 1080P listed should be a true

HDTV set, but get the salesman to get the ―native resolution‖ for

you. Walt said that sometimes the store actually shows you what

When purchasing an HDTV set,

it’s important to know the native resolution.


Klassic Specialties

Check out Klassic Specialties at http://www.klassicspecialties.com/tugnet.html

TUGNET members receive a 5% discount and

TUGNET receives 5% of member’s purchases.

it is. However, Walt noted that if the set you want will not be a

large screen, then the 1,080 resolution is less important. He noted

that he will get an 18" set for one of his rooms and it will have the

1,280 X 720 native resolution.

When it comes to contrast ratio, the higher is better. In Walt‘s

opinion, over 5,000:1 is okay and 10,000:1 is better. One of our

members noted an LCD set was advertised 25,000:1. Walt felt

that was an error. But Walt has looked into it and found out that a

couple companies that make the LCD flat panels have made some

significant changes, and that the 25,000:1 is very true.

Cable and satellite companies tend to over compress signals to

save band width. This will be noticeable on the larger screen TV

sets since it is easier to see the detail of what's on the screen.

To get more bang for their buck, Walt explained how the broad-

casters can actually transmit multiple content streams (programs)

simultaneously in their one digital channel by using some of the

lower resolution digital formats (1080, 720, and 480).

As we are all hearing, midnight on February 17, 2009, is the date

when analog broadcasting will cease. Go to www.dtv.gov to see

the countdown clock and lots more information.


Only a short time was spent with HD Radio. Shows which have

AM & FM stations in the USA and have high definition broad-

casts can be found on the Internet listed by State and City. There

are a few in the greater Los Angeles area but one must have a

high definition receiver to hear these shows.

DSL Extreme (May 13)

We welcomed George Mitsopoulos, VP & GM, DSLExtreme,

IKANO Communications, back to bring us up to date on the ex-

citing things happening at DSL Extreme. He did have this news:

their efforts were successful at creating a strong partnership with

Microsoft and Google. This means the new Google apps: Gmail

with 10GB mailboxes, Google Talk and Google Calendar will all

be available to DSL Extreme subscribers. There will be free docu-

ment creation with a word processor along with spreadsheet and

presentation applications available. The increased collaboration

using Google tools and data will be available anywhere in the

world and be completely free with an Internet connection. Also


Microsoft Exchange, which is a bit more robust and business cen-

tric, is available at a small additional cost.

There is a device for plugging in a phone line to use VOIP. This

device can be taken anywhere to have access. There is a $19.95

introductory price, then it will be less than $25.00 per month for

additional features, such as unlimited long distance, for existing

accounts. Yes, 911 calls will be okay on their VOIP.

They will be running on fiber optic networks nationwide with

ADSL2.

When asked about security, George informed us that DSL Ex-

treme has anti-virus protection, a firewall and guards against

phishing. He also mentioned that everyone should have a router

since that is your best security.

Thank you for coming, George. We are so pleased with all these

new developments.

www.dslextreme.com

Computer

Forensics (May 20)

Mike McCort

of CSI, that is

Cyber Special-

ists Interna-

tional, was our

guest for this

meeting and

began by giv-

ing us a history

of how com-

puter crime

has (See Highlights, page 34)


Door Prize Winners

April 29 System Mechanic Pro: Nancy Cook,

Kay Lalicker and Marian Radcliffe

System Mechanic Polo Shirts: Ron Feldman,

Larry Nye and Marv Harris

May 6 SIRIUS Canvas Bag: Conrad Lalicker

Windows Vista for Starters - book: Maury Whitaker

Intel Flash Light: AJ Camou

Staples $3 Certificate: Chris Christopher

May 13 1-year subscription to DSL Extreme:

Arlene Brooks, Marvin Hirsch

and Dwight Randall

May 20 Britain - England, Scotland & Wales CD:

Victor Levin

Window Washer: Kay Lalicker

Sales Logix Big Bag: Marv Harris

$3 Staples Certificate: Glen Buckler


APPRECIATION APPRECIATION APPRECIATION

I decided it was time for you all to Get to Know our long time

member, Jim Burton. So I asked him to tell me all about himself

and here‘s what I got (edited a bit):

―Howdy Marian: You really want to dig up this dirty Old Man's

past?? Boy howdy, are you a glutton for punishment. Well here

goes:‖

James Burton was born in St. George, Utah, but most of his

schooling was in the Valley. He started grade school in Burbank,

Getting to Know . . . Jim Burton

by Marian Radcliffe


is a graduate of North Hollywood High School, then joined the

Calvary after graduation.

In December, 1947, he was out of the Calvary so went back to

school at Dixie Jr. College in St. George, Utah. In 1949 he says he

worked all over the western United States including Montana,

Washington and Idaho while involving himself in mining, smelt-

ing, railroad, construction, concrete, etc.

He eventually found himself in Santa Monica, CA, and January

22, 1952, started working at Douglas Aircraft in their Aerospace

division. He worked for McDonnell Douglas for 38½ years, start-

ing out as a Riveter. After more schooling – night school at Valley

College (taught by his brother-in-law, Don Sherman), then earning

a masters degree in electronics via UCLA night courses at Doug-

las, he finally ended up first as a Supervisor, and then as a Man-

ager of EDO (Engineering Development Operations) at McDon-

nell Douglas. ―The Saturn rocket‘s 3rd stage that went to the Moon

and back came out of my shop!‖

―How I got involved with Computers is an interesting story:

―If some of you remember during the 70's Nixon Presidency, Af-

firmative Action was inaugurated. I had to hire people that didn't

have a mathematical or mechanical drafting/developing back-

ground, consequently I was having to check out their mathematics

by paper; very time consuming (and of course They/I never made

calculation mistakes, HELLO).

―I bought a little Sharp hand calculator that had Basic installed (I

still have it), and I learned how to program in basic; first in the text

mode and later with the graphics of the time (200x400) with a

regular computer. That way I could have all the mechanical and

electrical formulas instantly available without all the time consum-

ing writing and calculating effort.

―As to when I got involved with TUGNET: Lowell Morrison was

the president and the only one that I know who belonged to the


club at that time besides myself is Ed Smith — there might be

others. (Ed. Note: There are several others) At that time we met

in a Mercury Insurance office on Ventura Blvd., then moved to an

upstairs office in Sylmar. I think it was twice a month at that

time, one meeting was for the Osborne owners and the next time

for the XT owners. Of course, the club has gone through it's evo-

lution too; moving to Woodland Hills at Tektronix, the bank, then

to it's present location.

―I've been retired now since 1990, taking care of my wife

(numerous strokes/cancer). This past year I lost my wife (married

May 20, 1954) and my dog (14 years old). Several years ago I

lost my only daughter and granddaughter in an auto accident but

thankfully I still have two sons.

―Oldest is Brad who has been in the air force 24½ years, and his

wife Marlene. They gave me a grandson who presently works for

the Las Vegas Unified School District and has a Masters degree.

The youngest is Curt who has served in the Navy 6 years. Curt

has never found anything he couldn't do from building a house to

completely revamping an auto. While in the Navy he spent 2

years learning all about electrical technology systems (equivalent

to Bachelor degree) while working on computers, fire control, etc.

―Yes, I still work on and build computers for people: relatives, etc

( sometimes they may even work..??).

―One nice thing about Old Age is one's memory improves.‖

Jim failed to mention that he served on our mailing committee

before the newsletter printing went to Florida and was an impor-

tant member of the Recycling Committee. I tease him because he

always shows up at meetings when we have food. Watch for him!

Thank you for all you have done to make TUGNET the organiza-

tion it is, Jimbo.


A computer ‗Sandbox‘ is newer technology that is not very well

known, but, it can be quite useful in many situations. By using a

‗Sandbox‘ utility, you can place your computer in a protected

state where you can try some rather risky things and not have

your computer damaged in the trials. Once you place your com-

puter into ‗Sandbox‘ mode, you can safely run anything on your

computer, knowing that all changes to your hard drive will not be

permanently made to your computer. While in ‗Sandbox‘ mode,

your computer runs as if all changes to the hard drive were actu-

ally made to your system. But, at the end of using the ‗Sandbox,‘

you can throw away these changes, putting your computer back

exactly the way it was before entering the ‗Sandbox.‘

Let‘s take a look at some real life situations to better understand

the benefits of using a ‗Sandbox‘ utility.

Installing New Software. Everyone knows that when you install

a new software product on your computer, parts of the product are

placed all over your computer‘s hard drive. Entries are made to

the Windows Registry, special supporting files are place in certain

directories of the operating system, and other shortcut and setting

files are scattered in various places on your hard drive. These are

in addition to the main folder that is installed on your hard drive

with the software programs. Most software will uninstall easily,

but often pieces of the product are left behind on your hard drive.

These leftover pieces of orphaned software can build up and slow

down your computer. Some software products include hidden vi-

ruses or other bad programs as you install them. The end result is

Article

Benefits of Using a Computer Sandbox

By Gene Barlow User Group Relations

[email protected]

ARTICLE ARTICLE ARTICLE ARTICLE ARTICLE ARTICLE ARTICLE


that installing new software on your computer can be a risky

thing to do.

Using a ‗Sandbox‘ to install and test new software is a much bet-

ter approach. With a ‗Sandbox,‘ you put your computer in

‗Sandbox‘ mode before you download and install the new soft-

ware. Since the ‗Sandbox‘ lets you use the newly installed soft-

ware just as if it had been permanently installed on your com-

puter, you can run the new software to try it out and see if you

like it. You can also run virus utilities to see if the installation

gave you a virus you were not expecting. If you find viruses on

your computer or just decide you do not like the newly installed

software, you can get out of the ‗Sandbox‘ and throw away all

traces of that software product and any hidden virus that came

with it.

Letting Others Use Your Computer. Another reason to use a

‗Sandbox‘ is to let others use your computer. Other users may

change your computer to match the way they like to use com-

puters. For example, many of us have grandkids that come to visit

and want to play on our computer. They may download games

they like, change your wallpaper and default font sizes. They may

pick up viruses in the process of getting your computer changed

to their needs. When they leave, your computer no longer is the

same as it was before they arrived. It may take you days to get it

working again like you want it to. With a ‗Sandbox,‘ you can

place the computer in ‗Sandbox‘ mode before they arrive and

then let them play on your computer to their hearts content. When

When they leave, your computer

no longer is the same as it was before they

arrived. It may take you days to get it

working again like you want it to.


they leave, you simply exit the ‗Sandbox‘ and throw away all

changes that they made to your computer. It is instantly back the

way it was before they started to use it.

Computer Labs and Classrooms. User groups that have com-

puter labs or classrooms have a similar situation. The classroom

computers are setup carefully by the instructors before the class

begins. Once the students have used the computer throughout the

day, the computers are different and modified from what they

were in the beginning of the day. This may cause problems for the

students that follow them, so the instructors will often restore the

computer‘s hard drives to put them back to normal. With a

‗Sandbox,‘ this long restore process is not needed. Instead, put

the computers in ‗Sandbox‘ mode at the beginning of the day be-

fore the students arrive. Then at the end of the day, exit the

‗Sandbox‘ and throw away all hard drive changes made by the

students. The computers are quickly returned to their normal state

as you exit the ‗Sandbox.‘

Browsing the Internet. Much of the Spyware that you pick up on

your computer comes from simply browsing the internet. Some

web sites are designed so that simply passing your cursor over a

part of the screen is enough to activate a download of Spyware to

your computer. Not only that, but your privacy is at risk when

you browse the Internet. Windows automatically saves all of the

places you browse to and all of the screens you see on the

Some web sites are designed

so that simply passing your cursor

over a part of the screen is enough

to activate a download of

Spyware to your computer.


Internet. Browsing the Internet in a ‗Sandbox‘ is a much better

approach. Place your computer in ‗Sandbox‘ mode before you

start to browse the internet. Then browse all of the sites you want

to. When you are done browsing the internet, exit out of the

‗Sandbox‘ and throw away all Spyware and traces of web sites

you may have visited.

We offer three excellent ‗Sandbox‘ products that you may want to

use on your computer. Let‘s look at each of these briefly to help

you decide which one would best meet your needs.

StorageCraft ShadowSurfer. The smallest and least expen-sive ‗Sandbox‘ we offer is ShadowSurfer by StorageCraft Soft-

ware. This product is the quickest product to install and the easi-

est product to use of all of our ‗Sandbox‘ products. With Shadow-

Surfer, all changes to your hard drive are always thrown away

when you exit the ‗Sandbox,‘ which is what you want in most

cases anyway. This excellent product runs on Win2000 and

WinXP systems and is available from us at the discount price of

just $20. This is an excellent beginning ‗Sandbox‘ product for

most home users.

Acronis True Image 11 Home Try&Decide. The next step up in ability and price is a feature that Acronis has added to

their new True Image 11 Home backup utility. This feature is

called Try&Decide and it is a ‗Sandbox‘ feature built into this

award winning backup utility. Try&Decide requires that you cre-

ate and use the Acronis ‗SecureZone‘ on your hard drive to con-

tain the temporary changes to your hard drive. When you exit the

‗Sandbox‘ with this product, you can choose to keep all changes

to your hard drive or throw them all away. This excel lent product

runs on Win2000, WinXP, and WinVista operating systems and is

available from us at the discount price of just $29 for a download

or $33 on a CD. This is a very good ‗Sandbox‘ feature that comes

with an outstanding backup utility.

StorageCraft ShadowUser Pro. The most advanced ‗Sandbox‘ utility we offer is ShadowUser Pro by StorageCraft


Software. This is a professional level ‗Sandbox‘ product that has

many options and features to it. With this product, you can pass-

word protect the controls of the ‗Sandbox,‘ so that nobody can

disable the ‗Sandbox‘ unless they know the password. Perhaps

the biggest differences between this product and the other two

‗Sandbox‘ products is that you can pick and choose what files to

throw away and what files to keep as you exit the ‗Sandbox.‘ This

top of the line ‗Sandbox‘ product runs on Win2000 and WinXP

operating systems and is available from us at the discount price of

$47. This is the product you should use if you are running a pub-

lic computer workstation that needs tight controls.

A ‗Sandbox‘ offers you a new way to protect your computer from

damage from the software you install or access on the Internet. It

also keeps your hard drive safe from damage caused by others

using your computer. The selection of ‗Sandbox‘ products we of-

fer lets you pick and choose which one is right for your needs. To

order your ‗Sandbox‘ product, go to www.ugr.com and find the

‗Sandbox‘ product you are interested in. Then click on the ‗Buy

Now‘ button on that product page to place your order using our

secure web shopping cart. As you complete your order indicate

the order code of UGNL0108 to qualify for these excellent dis-

count prices. If you have questions about this new technology or

about any of these products send an email to [email protected] and I

will try to help you.

Gene Barlow

User Group Relations

PO Box 911600

St George, UT 84791-1600

www.ugr.com

A ‘Sandbox’ offers you a

new way to protect your computer

from damage . . .



Obtained from APCUG with the author's permission for publication by APCUG member groups

Does your computer boot-up or run slow? Maybe there are too

many programs running in the back ground. Let us do the follow-

ing check first:

Hold your CTRL & ALT buttons and press the DELETE button.

Click on the ‗Performance‘ tab, is your CPU Usage running more

than 10% or is your Physical Memory being in total use?

Go to ‗Start‘ then ‗Run,‘ type in ―msconfig‖ which stands for Mi-

crosoft System Configuration. In Windows Vista you can find

‗RUN‘ in the ‗Accessory‘ folder under ‗Programs.‘

The System Configuration Utility windows will come up.

First go to the upper right tab labeled ‗Startup,‘ here you will see

the list of items that load during startup. Of course some you

want, some you don‘t. The first column, labeled ‗Starti[ Item,‘

gives a very rough idea to what it is referenced to, but the second

column labeled ‗Command‘ is much more useful. Too read it bet-

ter, widen the column out by holding your mouse symbol over the

vertical line located before the next column label. A double arrow

will appear, then hold down left mouse button and move it to the

right. This information tells you where it is located and in some

cases which program is using it. Uncheck those in question. You

can put them back in later if you need too. Do not uncheck you

Antivirus or Spyware programs.

Article

Let’s Clean ‘Start-Up’ By Bob Elgines

Colorado River Computer Club www.crccaz.com

[email protected]


Next go to the tab on top labeled ‗Services,‘ this shows all of the

programs running now. You do not what to uncheck those labeled

Microsoft under the ‗Manufacturer‘ column so to start off, lets

put a check mark in the box below labeled ‗Hide all Microsoft

Services.‘

Now while you are reviewing the other programs running in the

background note the forth column labeled ‗Status.‘ If it says

‗Stopped,‘ then don‘t worry about it. We just want to stop the

strange ones that are ‗Running.‘ You can uncheck those that you

are not familiar with; here again you may bring them back in

later.

After unchecking all those items under tabs ‗Startup‘ &

‗Services,‘ then click on ‗Apply‘ and ‗Close.‘ The System Con-

figuration Utility will now ask you to ‗Restart‘ (or Boot) your

computer.

After restarting a window will come up stating ‗System Configu-

ration Utility has been changed.‘ Be sure to put a check mark in

the bottom left (labeled ―Don‘t show this message or launch

…..‖) before clicking ‗OK.‘

If you improved the operation of your computer, you can put back

in the items one at a time until you find the program that was

slowing you down. This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publi-cation by APCUG member groups. All other uses require the permis-sion of the author (see e-mail at top)

Terms We Should Know

TAPI

Telephony Applications Programming Interface

TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol


Article

There was a one hour interview

on CNBC with Warren Buffet,

the second richest man who has

donated $31 billion to charity.

Here are some very interesting

aspects of his life:

1. He bought his first share of

stock at age 11 and he now re-

grets that he started too late!

2. He bought a small farm at age

14 with savings from delivering

newspapers..

3. He still lives in the same, small 3-bedroom house in midtown

Omaha, that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says

that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not

have a wall or a fence.

4. He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or

security people around him.

5. He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's

largest private jet company.

6. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He

writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies,

giving them goals for the year.. He never holds meetings or calls

Talk About Humility From an Interview with

Warren Buffet



them on a regular basis. He has given his CEO's only two rules.

Rule number 1: Do not lose any of your shareholder's money.

Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1.

7. He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His pastime

after he gets home is to make himself some popcorn and watch

television.

8. Bill Gates, the world's richest man, met him for the first time

only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in com-

mon with Warren Buffet. So, he had scheduled his meeting only

for half hour. But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten

hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.

9. Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer

on his desk.

His advice to young people: 'Stay away from credit cards and invest in yourself and remem-

ber:

A. Money doesn't create man, but it is the man who created

money.

B. Live your life as simple as you are.

C. Don't do what others say. Just listen to them, but do what

makes you feel good.

D. Don't go on brand name. Wear those things in which you feel

comfortable.

E. Don't waste your money on unnecessary things. Spend on

those who really are in need.

F. After all, it's your life. Why give others the chance to rule your

life?'


(Highlights, from page 20)

evolved over time and how he conducts Computer Forensics In-

vestigations today. He says, ―It took relevant case history and

landmark events to develop many of the procedures that we still

must follow to this day to ensure proper procedures in handling

digital evidence.‖

He discussed ―digital artifacts‖ generated by cyber criminals. It

seems these criminals are so proud of their expertise they leave

individual signs to identify their accomplishments!


An explanation was in order:

Cybercrime – Any crime that involves computers and net-

works

Computer Crime – Refers to a limited set of crimes that are

specifically defined within State, Federal and International Laws

Computer crimes against persons include pornography/obscene

materials, cyber harassment and cyber stalking. Computer crimes

against property include hacking, cracking and virii. There are

also computer crimes against government entities that include

hacking/cracking, cyber terrorism and information warfare.

Digital forensic experts are called upon to collect and analyze

digital information from electronic devices such as computer hard

drives, CD‘s, PDA‘s and cell phones. Recent changes to the Fed-

eral Rules of Civil Procedure have legalized the use of digital evi-

dence in court, making this new field of forensics more relevant

than ever.

Thank you, Mike, for a most informative presentation that held

everyone‘s interest.

Tip

Protect Your Primary E-mail Address -Dave Gerber

Chat rooms and message boards are among the most appeal-

ing places for spammers to gather e-mail addresses. Protect

your primary e-mail address by creating other "throwaway"

e-mail addresses for posting on message boards and for giv-

ing out to people and sites you're not sure you can trust.

Many ISPs allow you to create secondary screen names or

additional e-mail addresses at little or no cost, or you can get

free e-mail addresses from Yahoo!, Hotmail, and other free

e-mail services.

If spam comes flooding into those accounts, you can always

delete them and make a new one, all the while shielding your

primary address from the flood.


Are You Experiencing Technical Difficulties?

DOS Jim Burton

[email protected]

818-344-5300

Eudora Roger Poverny

[email protected]

Hardware Installation Jay Cunnington

[email protected]

Jayscomputershop.com

818-362-8015

Internet—General Roger Poverny

(See ―Eudora‖)

Internet Explorer Jay Cunnington

(See Hardware Installation‖)

Microsoft Publisher Kay Winnert

[email protected]

818-884-9441

Outlook Express Jay Cunnington

(See ―Hardware Installation‖)

Pagemaker Roger Poverny

(See ―Eudora‖)

Print Artist Jim Burton

(See ―DOS‖)

Quickbooks Pro 5 Rich Kimmell

[email protected]

Windows thru 95 Jay Cunnington

(See ―Hardware Installation‖)

Windows 98 Jim Burton

(See ―DOS‖)

Windows ME Jim Burton

(See ―DOS‖)

Jay Cunnington

(See ―Hardware Installation

Windows XP Jim Burton

(See ―DOS‖)

Jay Cunnington

(See under ―Hardware Installation‖)

HelpContactHelpContact is a FREE service to members of TUGNET only. The following volunteers have offered to field questions with software and

hardware listed. Please be considerate of the volunteer you are

contacting. If you’d like to have your name added to the list, call or

e-mail the editor. Need help on a subject and there’s no name listed for

it? Try calling one of the SIG leaders.


Word Marcie Green

[email protected]

818-594-1272

WordPerfect Marian Radcliffe

[email protected]

Marcie Green

(See ―Word‖)

Susan Kennedy

[email protected]

There are many reasons why you will

benefit from a TUGNET member-

ship. Here are a few of the most obvi-

ous:

Weekly Meetings where you‘ll see

the latest and greatest computer prod-

ucts presented by well-known, as

well as lesser-known, industry repre-

sentatives.

Special Pricing often offered only to

TUGNET members.

Door Prizes at the weekly meetings.

Other Special Offers that regularly

come to us .

Monthly Newsletter, Keywords, delivered to your mail box.

Special Interest Groups on a variety

of subjects.

Help with computer-related prob-

lems, both at the meetings and via

our ―Help Contacts.‖

Products that become yours when

the editor accepts your written re-

view.

Late-breaking information and

offers e-mailed to members only.

Volunteer opportunity to help with

the many activities that keep

TUGNET a viable organization.

Is that enough? Okay, you‘ll find a

membership application on Page 39.

in this newsletter!

Why Join TUGNET?

DOOR PRIZE POLICY

Only members are eligible to win a door prize.

Members must also attend the full presentation

in order to qualify for that night’s drawing.

This is the arrangement that the vendors who

donate the door prizes expect and that is the

policy we will follow for all meetings. To

reduce the distraction of the seated audience

and the presenter, registration and the

distribution of name badges will cease at the

start of the presentation. Those members not

yet registered, but who are present at the start

of the presentation will be registered and given

their badges during the break. Members

arriving more than ten minutes after the

presentation began have not met the attendance

requirement and will not be eligible for the

drawing.


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