Kokomo PC Users Group

Message from the president:

There were 20 members and 2 guests present for the presentation by Coley Bevington. Good job

well done.

I’m sure glad I bragged on Ross Jordan while he was Vice-President, in charge of getting speakers. He did a great job and trying to fill his shoes has proven to be a difficult task.

I’m trying to get a speaker from Skyenet to talk to us about NETUSA1.NET. Keep your fingers crossed, I don’t have a confirmation yet. I have another guy in mind but I haven’t made contact yet.

Attend your meetings, pay your dues, give us ideas for speakers and bring us your problems and answers. That’s what this group is all about: share problems and solutions.

I have a Quicken program that won’t print my checks, they are the wrong size. So how does ole Larry solve this problem? That’s right, with a spreadsheet. I’ve spaced the information on a spreadsheet, torn my checks out of my checkbook and fed them into my printer. I love spreadsheets!!! I wish I could somehow use a spreadsheet to find another Vice-President.

Our next meeting is July 13, 2000 at Ivy Tech but I can’t tell you which room. Just check the sign in the lobby for directions to the meeting room.

After the druggist told the lady "Yes I sell Viagara," she asked if you could get it over the counter. "Not even if I took two of them," he answered.

Kokomo PC User’s Group President,

Larry L. Thompson

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TV on PC

Would you like to watch the ball game while you surf the net or type an e-mail message? You can if you have a video board that includes a TV tuner. I purchased an ALL-IN-WONDER 128 TV, video and graphics card made by ATI, a Canadian company. I can watch the TV channel of my choice now on my PC in the study while my wife watches a movie on the living room TV. Of course I had to have the cable company install an extended cable back to my study.

It has many nice features that an average TV does not have. When you first boot up, a task bar appears at the bottom of the screen (if that’s where you want it) that has, among other options, the TV icon. Clicking it will bring up a window portraying the channel you left off with in a previous viewing, together with a small second window, which is the control panel. Both windows can be placed separately anywhere on the screen the same as you move any other window. The window containing the picture can be displayed in four sizes plus full screen. The smallest size is about two inches square. The next size is about three inches square, which is a nice size for viewing while you are working on something else. The control panel contains many options, more than on an average TV set.

You can run an automatic scan which sets up your available channels as most TV sets have, except you can type in a name in a special window you prefer to assign to each channel. You may also, if you prefer, select channels from this window.

There is an icon on the control panel by which you can select a set-up window that contains various tabs for setting up many features, such as tint, color depth, contrast, brightness, input mode, whether or not you want the picture to always be on top, set ups for digital VCR and others.

Another nice feature that I like is the option of capturing a still picture. When you see a picture on screen for which you would like to have a permanent image of, no problem. There is a "camera" icon in the control panel by which you can snap the picture. Or an easier way is by the keyboard CONT-INSERT, even a quicker way to snap a picture. When you do this a small window opens, called the STILLS GALLERY. It displays a thumb-nail view of the picture you just snapped, together with several options: save the image; delete it; hide or show it; save as wall paper; print the image; or other set-ups such as if you want to capture it to the clipboard.

If you select the SAVE option it will ask you in which folder you wish to place the image. After you do this, you have a permanent record. If you have a color printer, you can print it out in color, enter it in a document, send it as an attachment to an e-mail message, etc.

Another feature is its ability to scan the channels and present thumbnails of the channels in a sequential form over the screen. This is a quick way to see what is playing on each channel. If you see a channel you want to view, just click on that thumbnail and it opens that channel.

If you are watching the Pacers for example and see Regie make a 3 pointer and want to see it again, you can click on an icon and see an instant replay in another window, which is always running a few seconds behind. Or you may actually record an on-going play, the length of which is determined by your disk’s available space.

There are other features worth mentioning:

Closed caption option is available whenever a channel is broadcasting it

A sliding volumn control is on the control panel

The plus and minus keys may be used to scan the channels up and down.

The back up arrow key can be used to switch between the last two channels viewed rather than the up & down arrows on the screen, actually easier.

The program can be minimized and maximized as any other program.

Chet Hanna

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Windows 98 freeze ups:

1. Remove all screen savers

2. Turn off the EXTERNAL cache memory. [Very sensitive area of RAM]

3. If you have After Dark or First Aid installed, uninstall and give it to someone.

4. Make SURE your mouse does not have the Snap To feature turned on.

5. RAM? 16mbs! Increase it!

6. Reduce screen resolution and see if it helps.

7. Check new hardware settings, see if it is getting too hot inside the case.

8. Remove any start up applications, like the popup that allows you to control your video card. Some are not '95 compatible.

9. Check the BIOS. If Video ROM is on, turn it off.

10. See if A000-C7FF is cached for Video - if not - give it to video if you can to insure that nothing else can use it.

11. Be sure you have a 100% compatible mouse & driver.

Marcy Young

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Testing your virus program:

This is done by running the Eicar Test File. Back in the early days of antivirus software packages, some users were curious about what would happen if their software DID detect a virus - how would it act, what to watch for, etc. So several of these software companies got together and agreed to develop a standard, harmless file that would cause the software to display its warning message(s).

You can create and use this file yourself - simply by typing (or cutting and pasting) these characters into a document in your favorite word processor:

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

Be sure to save it in TXT file format with the name eicar.com - if you do this properly, you can run the file in a DOS window or double-click it in Windows. The result will be a screen message: "EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!" If your antivirus has been programmed to do so, it may warn you about the file - either when you run it or when you scan it. If it does, you'll know what to expect. (Be aware that your antivirus scanner must be programmed to recognize the Eicar test file.)

Marcy Young

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STRETCH DESKTOP WALLPAPER

If you're using Microsoft Plus! and you select a wallpaper that doesn't fill the entire screen (for example, a custom Paint picture), there's only one thing left to do: Stretch it. Assuming you've just selected and centered the wallpaper (by right-clicking the desktop,

selecting Properties, choosing a wallpaper (on the Background tab), and selecting Center), click the Plus! tab of the Display Properties

dialog box. Select Stretch Desktop Wallpaper to fit the entire screen, click OK, and watch that wallpaper stretch.

Ed Danley

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WORD: USE COLUMNS FOR TEXT APPEAL

Version 4.x, 95

If you've been appointed to produce a newsletter for your organization, club, or church, you can use columns to make the

newsletter look more professional. Columns are much easier to deal with than most people imagine.

Let's say you decide to create a two-column newsletter. This isn't a problem at all. Simply choose Format, Columns. Click Two and click OK. To view the document properly in two columns, choose View, Page Layout.

People sometimes run into problems when they want to use a full-width banner headline over a two-column page. But you can do this fairly easily. Go to the very top of the document and choose Insert, Break. When the dialog box opens, select Continuous and click OK.

This inserts a section break. Now click above the section break line and choose Format, Columns. Click One and click OK. Type in your headline and make it long enough to cover the entire width of the page, if that's what you want. In any case, you can center it on the page by clicking the Center Text button in the Word toolbar.

Ed Danley

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WORD: PLACING PICTURES IN A TWO-COLUMN NEWSLETTER

Version 4.x, 95

Let's say you'd like to place a picture right in the center of a two-column page. To begin, choose View, Page Layout so you can view

your two-column document in the form in which it will print. Next, add the picture by choosing Insert, Picture and then locating and

selecting the picture you want to include. After you select the picture file, click OK.

Once the picture is in the document, don't worry about its placement just yet. Right-click the picture and choose Frame Picture. With the picture framed, you can drag it anywhere in the document--even between the two columns. You can also size the picture now.

The text should flow around the frame. If it doesn't, right-click the picture and choose Format Frame. Make sure you select Around and click OK. You can also use this dialog box to set the distance between the text and the frame. The default is 0.13 inch. Reduce that number to place the text closer to the frame. After you enter the new number,

click OK.

Ed Danley

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COOL WEBSITES

AIRLINES

1. www.americanair.com

american air

2. www.delta-air.com

delta air lines

3. www.nwa.com

northwest airlines,inc

4. www.twa.com