August 1999
News Letter
A message from the President:
Our July meeting was attended by 18 members and 6 guests. 2 guests left their address, so they will receive two free issues of our Newsletter. 3 members paid a Year’s Dues.
Room 132 was set up for another purpose so we used the Computer Lab 105, again.
Our first order of business, after I tried to name everyone present was the door prize drawing. Gordon Gish won the prize but his name didn’t appear on our Statistics Sheet. He won a single $10 gift certificate from Staples.
Plenty of questions and answers.
Our own Jim Shotwell put on a great presentation on the subject of Digital Cameras. He really seemed to enjoy sharing his experiences with us.
As of the first of August, Joe Defazio will no longer be our liaison with IVY TECH. His replacement is David Hayes. We wish Joe the best in his new assignment with IUK and welcome David.
Unfortunately, IVY TECH has only digital phone lines and therefore there are no MODEMS in any of the computers in the entire building. Modems need an analog phone line. Realizing that the worst thing you can do for a group is to change the meeting time, day of the week or place, we still need somewhere that has analog phone lines and Modems for Rodney Malkoff’s presentation of MediaRing. We will hold our August 12, 1999 meeting at 2725 South La Fountain. That’s the second building north of the intersection of Lincoln Road and La Fountain on the west side of La Fountain. We’ll be in room 105. It’s small but has the facilities we need. It is IUK’s Continuing Education Bldg and we have the room from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM.
Debbie Gray told me that when the new semester starts, IVY TECH is full on Thursdays and that we should consider either another meeting day or meeting somewhere else. We are so spoiled, by having that great conference room 132, free that it will be hard to make a transistion to anything else.
MORE BAD NEWS: We have 14 members who’s dues are so far overdue that we’ve marked their mailing labels (LAST ISSUE). If your label is so marked and you don’t care, ADIOS. If you do care, bring or send your dues promptly.
If your mailing label is highlighted, your dues are due. Please pay them. Either bring $10 to a meeting or send your dues to Mr. Richard Coop at 2645 Apperson Way North. Make the check payable to: THE KOKOMO IBM PC USERS GROUP.
We must remember to patronize STAPLES and recommend them to others.
I’ll miss both the Officer’s Meetings in August as well as the Regular August Meeting. Two because of Wedding Reenactmants and one due to vacation scheduling.
Please be thinking of your choices for Group Officers for the year 2000.
See you in September,
Larry L. Thompson, President
Kokomo IBM PC Users Group
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Free Stuff
MediaRing is a free internet voice communications software / program that allows you to place phone calls over the internet to friends, relation and others, even international calls without cost. It places calls from one PC to another PC. Both PC’s must have MediaRing installed and up and
running when the call is placed.
Long-distance charges do not apply for PC to PC calls because MediaRing Talk connects to the other party using IP addresses, not through telephone networks. The telephone number is simply used to
signal the other party.
The latest MediaRing version 6.50 also has a new feature called VoizMail. VoizMail can be sent to anyone who has an email address. The recipient does not need to have MediaRing Talk installed. An e-mail with an announcement and a link will be sent to the recipient of your voizmail. If you do not like typing e-mail messages then this is the way to go.
The minimum requirements for using MediaRing are as follows:
Windows 95/98 operating system (a Windows NT version will be available at a later date)
133 MHz Pentium processor
32 MB of RAM
10 MB of Hard Disk space
half-duplex sound card (full-duplex recommended)
SVGA display card with 256 colors (16-bit color recommended)
microphone & speakers, or headset
28.8 kbps modem (33.6 kbps recommended)
MediaRing can be downloaded at http://www.mediaring.com .. The program is about 3.5 Meg long and takes about 15 minutes to download. I encourage you to visit the above address on the Internet
and learn about this free software.
Rodney Malkoff
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Where have my files gone?
More times than I can remember I have or thought I needed to re-install Netscape. I learned very quickly after losing my addresses and bookmarks that there are two files I needed to save before doing the
re-installation they are: abook.nab and bookmark. On my computer these files are located inC:\ProgramFiles\Netscape\Users\User1. Who knows where they are on your machine. To find them on your machine go to Start/Find/Files or Folders type in abook.nab [ENTER] - copy the file to
a safe place (I prefer using a floppy disk) again go to Start/Find/Files or Folders and type in bookmark [ENTER]. Once these files have saved you can go ahead with the re-installation of Netscape after finishing
you can copy the saved files back to their proper folder you then have all of your addresses and bookmarks back. If you are not sure where these files are located after re-installation you can use Start/Find/Files or Folders to locate them on your hard drive.
Works for Me.
Howard Ogle
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Tip of the Day
If you don't use the number keys on the numeric keypad, you can use them as
single-click keyboard shortcuts for launching your 10 favorite apps. Start
by pressing the Num Lock key if it isn't already on. Next, right-click on an
existing program shortcut and choose Properties. Open the Shortcut tab. Click once inside the Shortcut Key field, press the number key that you want to associate with the program, then click on OK. Repeat the steps for each app. For Internet Explorer, you'll have to make a shortcut to the Desktop icon first, then follow the same steps using the new shortcut. If your Num
Lock key isn't turned on by default, check your system's BIOS setup for a Num Lock default setting.
Howard Ogle
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WAVE GOOD-BYE TO THE TEMPS
J. Trick writes, "I have a directory called C:\Windows\Temporary Internet Files. It is filled with hundreds of files, some of which, when double-clicked, will start Internet Explorer and bring up Web sites or parts of Web pages. What is it? Can the files in it be deleted?"
This folder (called a cache) stores information from all the Web pages you've opened recently. The idea is that if you attempt to open the same pages again, they'll open more quickly because you already have the information on your local hard drive.
To empty this folder, open a browser window from Internet Explorer and select Tools, Internet Options (or right-click the IE icon on your desktop and select Properties). On the General tab, click the Delete
Files button, then click OK to confirm.
Ed Danley
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Highlighting in Microsoft Word
Word has a nifty highlight feature that works like those highlighting markers you use to emphasize text on a printed page. To use it, click the Highlight button; it's probably next to the Underline button
unless you've moved it. (Don't have one? Go to Tools, Customize, click the Toolbars tab and click on Tools in the Categories box. The button looks like a highlighting marker with a small yellow square beneath it; just drag it up to your toolbar.) Word's default highlight color is yellow. If you'd rather use some other color, click on the down arrow at the right side of the highlight button. This will expand your color list. You can choose no color (None), green, cyan, or magenta,
blue, red, or dark blue.
Ed Danley
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There’s nothing we hate more than those who conspire to bring harm to our PC’s. When a virus attacks, the results can be simply annoying or completely devastating.
If you’re constantly downloading and installing gizmos, we urge you to pick up an anti-virus to watch your back.
NORTON ANTIVIRUS 5.0
Virus makers hate Peter Norton and his white shirt/black tie ensemble. Norton AntiVirus is tough stuff and comes loaded with features that would frustrate any would-be virus spreader. NAV uses "Striker" technology to weed out polymorphic viruses, and a heuristic virus scanner called "Bloodhound." In testing NAV found 53 out of 60 viruses on our infected system with scans averaging 3 minutes, 45 seconds. When the same viruses were placed into a single Zip file, NAV tracked down only 45. E-mail protection was exemplary--NAV refused to let us either attach viruses to e-mail or open them once they arrived.
Price $60.00
Company Symantec
Phone 800-441-7234
ULR www.norton.com
VIRUSSAN 4.3
McAffee VirusScan is a feature-rich package that performs impressively. Its Hunter scanning engine was the fastest and most accurate in the test. Scans averaged a zippy 1 minute, 39 seconds, and sniffed out 53 of 60 viruses--the same number Norton discovered. When it scanned our Zip file, VirusScan found the same number it did on the desktop--53. VirusScan’s e-mail performance was a letdown. Although it prohibited us demo sending some viruses as attachments, it unanimously allowed us to save them to our hard drive, and even let up open the Melissa virus. Considering how highly McAfee touts VirsScan’s e-mail capabilities, the fact that it missed one of the biggest troublemakers of the past few months is a serious lapse that we hope is addressed in future updates. E-mail concerns aside, VirusScan is a solid solution and garners our vote for the best anti-virus software currently available.
Price $50.00
Company Network Associates
Phone 408-988-3832
ULR www.mcafee.com
ANTIVIRUS PLATINUM
The wild card in our test, Panda’s Antivirus Platinum scored amazingly low despite the fact that it holds more certifications than any other developer in the world from the International Computer Security Association. To Panda’s credit, it offers many features its competitors do not, such as daily updates, year-round 24/7 technical support, and a lifetime of free updates. In initial scans, Panda’s Exterminator scanner found 50 viruses with scans averaging 3 minutes, 4 seconds. Its e-mail detection was top-notch, as it repeatedly stopped us from attaching or opening viruses via e-mail and sending them. But several files did slip through, including an Excel Marco virus. Panda displayed the poorest performance during its scan of our Zip file full of viruses--it didn’t find a single infected file. It sees the files when they’re extracted, but as soon as they’re zipped they disappear. While Panda offers a truckload of goodies its competitors lack, its virus detection is simply not up to sniff
Price $59.00
Company Panda Software
Phone 415-392-5950
ULR www.pandasoftware.com
R. W. Coop
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Software Standards Glossary
16-BIT. The number of bits of data that can be processed at once. With 16-bit Windows programming, one program must wait for another to finish processing its tasks before proceeding.
32-BIT. The standard number of data bits used by most current operating systems; 32-bit Windows programs allow preemptive multitasking, appearing to perform more than one task at a time.
ACTIVEX. A set of technologies developed by Microsoft; an outgrowth of OLE and COM. Often refers to ActiveX controls, which can be automatically down-loaded and excited by a WEB Browser.
API. APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE.
An interface between the operating system and application programs, which includes the way the application programs communicate with the operating system and the services the operating system makes available to the programs.
DB2. DATABASE 2.
A relational data-base management system from IBM.
ODBC. OPEN DATABASE CONNECTIVITY
A microsoft Windows interface that makes it possible to access different database systems with a
common language.
DDE. DYNAMIC DATA EXCHANGE.
An early Windows protocol allowing communication between applications, so that when a document is updated in one application, related information will be updated in other documents linked to it. Requires that both applications be open for data editing.
DLL. DYNAMIC LINK LIBRARY.
Collection of functions (program sections that perform specific tasks) that can be used by several applications at the same time.
IPC. INTERPOSES COMMUNICATION.
Sharing data among applications or on a network. The automatic exchange of data between one process and another, within a computer or between net-worked computers.
MIDDLEWARE.
Software providing a link between applications that do not use the same programming language.
R. W. Coop
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This month’s User Bucks
Howard Ogle
Ed Danley
R. W. Coop
Rodney Malkoff
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Newsletter editor Jerry Henry
jhenry@netusa1.net 453-4144
Keep those articles coming in Word
Perfect, plain text, or Word.
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