Craig started EastBay Technologies in 1998 in Pleasanton, CA because he found that there were a lot of Internet software packages that didn't have what he was looking for. Craig decided to design some himself. Most of his ideas come from his own needs, then he adds functionality that other users request. One thing that sets East Bay Technologies apart is their responsiveness to user's requests. Craig also realizes that because East Bay Technologies is a small company their products need some fine tuning, so they welcome comments and suggestions to help better develop their products.
Use this program to locate and play over 4500 radio and TV stations on the Internet. Support for RealAudio, Microsoft Media Player, MP3 Shoutcast and Xing StreamWorks. The program queries the database so the user can be assured that the data is very current and reliable. A feature has recently been added to search over 400,000 archive/non-live broadcasts. For example if you wanted to hear an interview or new segment for a particular day or subject, this will allow you to do that.
MediaGrab! allows the user to locate and download any of 19 different types of multimedia files on the Internet (MP3, WAV, MIDI, etc..) The great thing about this program is that it also verifies all links so you don't have to weed out bad links. The program does it for you. You can also search for websites by subject/keyword with multimedia content, list top 100 websites by filetype and also browse the Usenet for multimedia. There is a lot packed into this program so if you are looking for multimedia files, MediaGrab! includes many options.
IM SpeakEasy adds a very interesting feature to AOL's Instant Messenger.. SPEECH! IM SpeakEasy! allows you to assign specific voices to incoming buddy messages so they will be spoken to you as they arrive. Acronym support is also included so when your buddy send you "LOL" the program will say "hahahhaha Laughing Out Loud!', etc.. Future improvements include chat room support and recordable/assignable voice files.
UsenetGrab! is a Netscape like approach to the Usenet. One problem with the Usenet is that users are often overwhelmed by its organization of content. UsenetGrab! allows the user easy access to newsgroups, messages, posting, and message attachment decoding. The program also comes with ~500 or so servers if your ISP doesn't provide one such as (AOL).
If you have ever been to a website and wanted to download pictures, files or anything else from the webpage and didn't feel like saving them one at a time or wanted a better way to view them, WebGrab! is a great tool to do that with. It provides a split screen browser that shows all of the webpage elements so you can simply highlight them and save them to your hard drive. WebGrab! also allows you to save emebbed items that you normally can't download from a webpage such as Shockwave and Director files.
EBAY's Karin Stahl will be our speaker on January 26 at 7:15 p.m. EBAY, of course, is the hugely-successful online auction house. How they got that way, what there policies are, and what they are attempting to accomplish in the future will be reviewed.
Our February speaker will be Craig of East Bay Technologies. The firm makes a specialized browser that handles specific problems that the general public encounters at an all-too-frequent rate.
Our March speaker will be Bill Reichert, President of GARAGE.COM an entrepreneurial organization funding startup companies before they get large enough to need the usual venture capital requirements.
Our June speaker will be Hank Skawinsky, President of Datawise, who will be bringing and demonstrating competition to Microshaft, a Linux box and discussions of where it fits into the scheme of many customers. He will, as usual, have some cogent comments on the present state of the marketplace.
Elsewhere in this newsletter is a small empty space that represents the review and codification of the last Random Access/Crosstalk session. Because we do not have a Secretary at this time, there is no one to transcribe the notes; thus no record of solutions. There needs to be two functions covered: The legal requirement for a Secretary of the Corporation and someone to write up Random Access. The situation is controllable only by the membership volunteering.
So far we have sold 28 of our SPAUG CDs; not all of them to SPAUG members. Stan Hutchings has some ideas about how to keep it current and for additional materials.
The treasury has just about recovered from the $2400 expense of the video projector. The balance is about $4100 at this time.
No matter what we do, the membership of any organization will dwindle by 10% each year; yet our Club seems to be holding just about steady. We need to get the word out that there is a Club that does what you need. Our membership is our best means to spread that work and you are asked to do so.
Many clubs have decided to go to electronic publishing of their newsletter. Our board has discussed the possibility and rejected it for several reasons: You can't take it from room to room, you can't pin it up on a company bulletin board, you can't easily file it for future reference, etc. And John Sleeman has been doing a super job. But John Sleeman is getting ready to retire from the position and is in the middle of having teaching classes on how to create a newsletter applicable to all situations. That is why we have split the newsletter effort into two positions. The first position is the Editor who is responsible for the gathering of articles and content, and the Publisher who is responsible for getting the newsletter physically into member's hands including reproduction and mailing.
Marvin Kraft has taken over the Publicity slot and has been bombarding all sorts of entities with the raw material for needed publicity. I will be asking at the meeting how may people have seen our publicity. If you have locations that should receive our press releases, please contact Marvin.
I'd like to get a survey going that we would publish that covers the ISPs you are using and you evaluation of it.
Further, I'd like to do the same for the places that you have taken your computers for repair. Space permitting, we will have such a form somewhere in this newsletter.
And lastly, please note that our Post Office Box Number has changed. It seems that ALL of the old P.O. boxes have been exchanged for new.
As we do not have a Secretary of the Club, this review of recent Board actions will have to suffice.
A couple of years ago Parsons Technology aka The Learning Company offered a fairly good program called Screenshot. It made the Printscreen key active and provided the ability to print a copy of everything on the screen or any part of it. However, it was cumbersome to use and not very user friendly
Two months ago Parson's announced a successor to Screenshot named Screenshot 2.0 Deluxe. It truly does what its predecessor promised and has become very popular. When you have anything on your monitor screen and you wish to copy all or part of it you merely press F9 and a crosshair running from screen edge to screen edge appears. You then hold the left mouse key down and move the crosshair to encircle the area desired. When you release the left mouse button, the area you encircled will be copied to the printer.
I use it ten to thirty times a day to pick off phone numbers, addresses, URL's and sketches. It lists at $29.95 but there are promotional coupons circulating at a lower cost. Ask your friends, go online at http://www.parsonstech.com/ (the order page is http://www.shopmattel.com/product.asp?OID=4141020&SC=1105630), or call The Learning Company at 888-369-7426. Or Parson's at 800-779-6000 and if they ask for a priority code give them 2299998
Here's a computer Wallpaper "organization" suggestion you might want to consider using/sharing.
You come across a lot of attractive pictures on the web that make good wallpaper. Here's a handy way to capture and keep track of them, in MS Internet Explorer 5.
When you see a picture you'd like to use for wallpaper, right-click on it and select "Set as Wallpaper". IE5 will save this picture in your Windows directory as "Internet Explorer Wallpaper.bmp".
Then, right-click the picture again, and select "Add to Favorites...". If necessary, create a "Favorites" sub-folder named "Wallpapers" as a handy place to keep your wallpaper links together, then click "OK" to complete the save.
Note that "Set as Wallpaper" causes IE5 to write over your existing "Windows\Internet Explorer Wallpaper.bmp" file, erasing any previous image you've stored there. It does not ask for permission to do this. Thus, if you have a wallpaper image you'd like to keep, you'll have to rename the file you want to keep, so it won't be overwritten. Renaming the file means you'll always (as we understand it in PC terms) have the file (using up lots of storage space). Saving the link as a "Favorite"as described in the second procedure above means you can hope to get back to the source and get it again; this requires less storage space and makes it easy to share the image with others.
I am besieged these days with requests from my clients to upgrade their software and hardware. Now this is good since a computer user should certainly keep up with the times. However in this piece I'm going to suggest some other things that need upgrading-like your touch typing speed, for starters. In fact I'd guess that most of you were never secretarial speed typists. All of the software stores have inexpensive typing tutor programs.
Have you kept up to date on format and punctuation techniques? Have you noticed in newspaper ads and magazine stories some changes have sneaked in? In column format such as newspapers and magazines page layouts, very little material is right justified any more, The left alignment of a column is still straight as an arrow but the right margins meander all over the place. Also, have you noticed how the delimiters in dates and phone numbers have insidiously changed? Christmas day won't be 12/25/00. It will be 12.25.00.
Telephone numbers have been upgraded also to use periods for delimiters instead of hyphens and parentheses. You aren't one of the boys if you write a phone number like many people do today as, for example, (408)-739-3488. If you do, you are a relic of the last decade. Today that number is written 408.739.3488 The period (or "dot" as in dot-com) has taken over the role of separator or delimiter. Look at ads in the newspapers and you see what I mean.
Do you have difficulty writing a letter or article for publication? For most people, the basic problem is that no one ever told them the following secret. Don't try to organize and polish the "piece" as you write it. Just start writing. Don't worry about what font to use or what type style or margin size, or what the first sentence should say, and so on. Don't correct misspelled or mistyped words as you go or try to find just the right word.
When you think you've covered all the points you wish to make, you THEN start iterating-smoothing out the flow of thoughts, rearranging sentences, correcting or replacing the misspelled or wrong words, choosing a different type font or size, modifying the margins, and doing the final polish
If you think back to the last article you wrote, you probably iterated it many times before it was finished. You may have interchanged paragraphs for better continuity, replaced words that didn't have quite the right flavor, and so on. Everyone does this even though they planned or outlined it for continuity and changed sentences as they wrote.
To repeat--the secret is: DO NOT TRY TO WRITE THE FINAL DOCUMENT AS YOU
COMPOSE IT. Even if you do, you are still going to have to iterate and polish it several times. You should organize and polish ONLY AFTER you've supplied the facts or data you want to display.
For this article, I typed seven paragraphs as fast as I could think and type (about 15 minutes) covering all the points I wished to make. Then I quickly corrected the 24 misspelled words (less than a minute), moved four words and three phrases by selecting and dragging for better continuity (another minute), entered a title and centered it (a few seconds), and adjusted the margins to improve appearance (a few more seconds), and in about 20 minutes the job was done.
One problem with having a lot of Favorites is organizing them so your favorite Favorites are easy to get to, without having a lot of folders or subfolders.
When I have a large number of favorites in any one folder, and those I want aren't at the top of the list, I rename them so Sort by Name will automatically put them at the top of the list, in the order I want.
My renaming consists of inserting a three-digit index or sorting code at the beginning of whatever name is used to identify the favorite. A favorite identified as Terrific Site for Graphics might be buried near the end of a long list, possibly not even on the first page of its list. Renamed 010 -- Terrific Site for Graphics, Sort by Name will put it at or near the top of the list.
Using three-digit numbers gives me a range that lets me easily insert or rearrange the items I want at the top of my list. For example, if I start with an initial spacing of 20, I can easily insert or rearrange the ordering of items without having to reassign numbers for each one of them. I use the space-double-dash-space following the index simply as a delimiter to make it easy to read my lists.
If I find certain areas of my list getting a bit crowded, I can simply reassign the index numbers I'm using for the items in that area, using appropriately large incremental values.
To check on the flight arrival of one of our daughters, I logged on to http://www.thetrip.com/, and clicked on FlightTracker. Then I selected the airline and entered the flight number, and then "watched" the plane on a map as it flew from Portland to San Jose (there is also a text version). I also saw that it circled the airport for about 20 minutes, so she will arrive home somewhat later than expected.
It is a neat site! Give it a try when you have guests arriving (or travelling home).
Back in the days when I was working for a large test-equipment manufacturer, there was a large manufacturer of PC's that had the same name as our company, so it was natural to use their products.
My last PC was delivered with a 2 GB hard drive, which I partitioned into three areas-C: = 1 GB, D: = 0.5 GB, E: = 0.5 GB.
When a 4 GB hard drive was added to my machine, I simply let the old 2GB hard drive be my C: drive, and the D: and E: drives were expanded to 2GB each on the new drive.
This organization pretty much matched what our November 99 speaker, (Gene Barlow), http://www.ugr.com, described at the beginning of his presentation. An idea that he presented, that I hadn't considered was having two hard drives in your computer and backing up by cross-copying from one to the other. As I recall it, his scheme was approximately this:
The expectation, of course, is that it is unlikely that both hard drives would fail at the same time, and you should be able to operate from either one (if in a somewhat limited capacity, perhaps).
Gene's website contains advertising details for the products demonstrated. They're available for 60 days (that is, until about mid-Jan 00) for about half price. To get the SPAUG deal, use your order form (maybe there'll be one in this newsletter for those who couldn't make it to the demonstration), and be sure to use the Special user Group price Code given on the order form. They also have an on-line order form at http://www.ugr.com/order; again you'll need the Price Code.
For Freecell Devotees: Here is a new set of Freecell Games that are Easy and Fun. Have Fun!
This month's message starts off with my unhappiness with the fact that we didn't have the courtesy of filling out our 'rent' sheets at the last meeting.
I had placed the sheets at the sign-in table and found only five (5) sign-ins and thus chose not to turn them in rather than try to explain it.
The way we pay our 'rent' is to fill out those sheets. It is not a big deal to you, but unless there is some indication of how the facilities are being used to the Elk administration, there is risk that the facility may not be available to us – and that would be a great loss to SPAUG. So sign in! Please!
Craig Stadler, a single entrepreneur who makes audio grabbers and other audio support programs will be our speaker.. It should prove to be very interesting.
March will be the VC from the Garage that supports startup companies until they need serious financing.
John Buck and Mildred Kohn are co-authoring the newsletter this time; and already there are changes. As we go to press, there aren't any indications of what the changes are, but it is time to just let them do their thing.
SPAUG has been blessed with a string of outstanding editors. I wanted to publicly thank John Sleeman for the magnificent job he did and to wish him well in the series or courses that he is beginning. Well done, John.
Ron Nicholas has returned as SPAUG Secretary – which means that not only have we handled the legal requirements, but also that we will again enjoy the reviews of the Random Access, but also of the Planning Meetings.
Getting together for dinner before the SPAUG meeting seemed to work out just fine, so there will be a second pre-event dinner at the Su Hong Chinese Restaurant at 6 p.m. (Corner of El Camino Way and East Meadow).
Regards,
Jim
Recently I came across another Computer Magazine in the bookstore. The name of the Magazine is MAXIMUM PC - August 99. The magazine is about 105 pages long and has articles about computer products. All of them are PC related products like those in other magazines such as PC Magazine or PC World.
The one thing that I found different about this magazine is the CD-ROM disc that comes with the magazine. Many of the other Computer magazines will come with a CD-ROM once in a while, but it is usually a free AOL disk or some other online service, but mostly AOL. This magazine comes with a CD-ROM loaded with mostly useful programs. It contains everything from demo games to Utilities. The disc comes in a plastic container, glued to a cardboard sheet in the plastic-wrapped magazine. The people that publish this magazine sift through all the different programs out there, put the best on each month's disc. This disc may provide many programs for the club's disc of the month.
A different disc comes each month with each magazine. This month's disc came with both Netscape Navigator 4.6.1 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0. There are also other goodies such a the latest version of Direct X 6.1, WinZip 7.0 and another Web Browser, "Opera" a Shareware program for those who don't want to use the other two. This disc also comes with several hot games demos, such as the Episode 1: Racer and Apache Havoc.
One of the reasons why I bought this magazine is because of the two web browsers that were on the disc, in addition to the other useful programs on the disc. With my slow 56k modem, I didn't want to hog up my phone line downloading those large files and that I wouldn't have a convenient place to keep the program if I ever needed to reinstall the program. This magazine is a few dollars more than other computer magazines, probably because of the disc that comes with it. Providing that you find that there are many useful programs that you like, then this magazine would eliminate the hassle of downloading the program(s) and having to store on your hard or using a disc such as a Zip or other removable disc. The convenient CD-ROM disc holds all these useful programs and you would have to worry keeping them on not-so-permanent storage such magnetic storage such as hard drives and Zips. So next time you are looking out for a computer magazine at a news stand near you, then check "Maximum PC". Each month's disc may have the programs you're looking for.
SPAUG has a new editor...really a new editorial team. Mildred Kohn and I are going to be working out sharing the editorial responsibilities that John Sleeman performed so well alone. Robert Mitchell continues the as our newsletter publisher and manager. I'm sure we all wish John well in the classes he's taking that have taken him away from this important SPAUG activity.
I'm still a relative newcomer to SPAUG. I understand that Mildred has been editor before.
I intend to be an editor and formatter, not the major contributor of material to the newsletter. I expect you to contribute material of the type you'd like to see in the newsletter. If you have a particular interest or expertise you'd like to share, consider writing a column on a regular basis; the column doesn't necessarily have to be a monthly thing. Please go to John Sleeman's last newsletter (Jan 2000) and read and practice the ideas Walt Varner presented in his timely article encouraging you to write. As Nike (the cobbler, not the goddess) says, "Just do it." My personal editorial style is to try to maintain as much of a contributor's style (grammar, phrasing, etc.) as I can—editing primarily for accuracy, completeness, space, etc. In my personal writing, I like an informal writing style and often use words the way we say them, sorta like I did in the title of this item. As much as possible when I was writing technical manuals, I tried to use the direct, personal style a good service engineer would use when talking with a customer who might be calling in to complain that the manual wasn't clear.
Until January 1999 I was a technical writer (under several different job titles) for HP. The part of HP I worked for is (becoming) Agilent Technologies. My personal interest in PCs is their use as tools. I really don't want to get involved in the technical details behind the glass or below the keytops. I mostly use the computer as a word processor and data handler (via spreadsheets), do some graphics, and, of course, use the omnipresent Internet. I have not yet gotten involved with data bases, web page generation, animations, sound generation, voice recognition. I think voice recognition and speech generation are major directions of computing system development that will affect our lives in years to come, in ways we might not even imagine. I am also interested in how computers can be used by—and as aids for—people who have various limitations (low vision, impaired hearing, mobility limitations, etc.). I'd like to have our club involved in exploring these areas.
I plan to make changes in the organization and appearance of the newsletter, starting with this issue. Something not obvious that I want to experiement with is the idea of "themed" issues—where a major portion of the newsletter is devoted to a single topic. A major reason for doing this is to encourage contributions. Since this is the tax season, I'd like to have a tax-themed issue—your software recommendations, how you use your PC to help prepare your taxes, etc.
Other theme issues I'd like to suggest are "gifts" (Sept-Nov time frame) giving gift ideas (and maybe what you'd like to receive). Some of the areas I described above (word processors, spreadsheets, data bases, graphics, internet use, voice recognition and speech generation, adaptation for handicaps, etc.) seem to be possible themes. An alternative or addition here is themed columns—Q&A, places to shop/avoid. Comments and volunteeers are welcome.
Right now I'm working in MS Works' Word Processor. I have been authorized by Jim Dinkey (at the 1/26 general meeting) to buy Publisher, which is the program that has been used to produce the newsletter.
My home is small, crowded, and messy. I expect a lot of the work of newsletter generation and production will be done via e-mail.
How to print directory listings from DOS or Windows
by Stan Hutchings
Summary
The basic method of the procedures below is to use DOS to create a text file containing the directory listing you want and then print that file from your application of choice.
Create the Text File in DOS
Exit to the MS-DOS Prompt and type
dir X:\ /S > Y:\{anywhere}\{anyname}.txt
where
"X" is the drive you want to make a directory of
and
"Y:\{anywhere}\{anyname}" is the path and name of the resulting file.
Note: The "/S" switch searches all folders and subfolders. Leaving it out prints only the directory showing in DOS.
You can start from any subdirectory, or specify a subdirectory in the Path; for example, "c:\program files\photoworks\free" > c:\temp\pw-dir.txt [the quotes are required for long directory names].
To Print the File You Created
Return to Windows, then open your text file in the word processor of you choice that can handle a file of that size. Now you can print out the directory listing as you choose, including formatting it as you want using page breaks, etc.
Note: Notepad can't handle such large files.
To Create the File on a Floppy Disk
To create your directory listing on a floppy, use the following command:
dir C:\ /S > A:\drivec.txt
Printing Without Creating a File
If you don't need the word processor's commands to manipulate the file in any way, you can send the directory listing directly to the printer. Starting at the DOS prompt, type CHDIR (change to the directory to print, remembering to use the DOS names, like progra~1 instead of Program Files, or enclose Path in quotes), then type
dir /S > prn
and press Enter. Type EXIT to return to Windows, and wait by the printer (you may need to do a manual form feed to eject the page).
Other Variations on these Commands
Here are some variations on these commands that you may find useful. They involve the "/V" switch and the "/AD" switch. (Note: The "/S" switch used above searches all folders and subfolders.)
Printing a List Including Long File Names
To print a DETAILED (Verbose) file structure (for example, including long file names) of the files in the specified directory, but not including subdirectories, type
dir X:\ /V > prn
Adding Subdirectories to the Verbose Listing
To add subdirectories and their files to this detailed listing, type
dir X:\ /V/S {path to directory} > prn
Printing Directory Names Only
To print a listing of the specified directory and its subdirectories, but not the files within them, type
dir /AD/S (path to directory} > prn
Note: If you prefer, replace the "prn" in any of the above commands with the path and name of a .txt file.
A Good Shareware Tool
A good shareware option for printing directory listings is Print Directory, available for download from
http://www.pcworld.com/software_lib/data/articles/essential/2290.html
After you download PrintDir97.zip, extract its contents and then double-click PrintDir97.exe to start the program. Select the folder or drive for which you'd like to print a directory, click Config to adjust your options, then click the giant Print button.
Check SPAUG'S CDOM 9910
SPAUG's CDOM 9910 has two directory print files: "Directory print 32.zip" and "directory tree print.zip". Unzip them to a new directory of your choice and then double-click the setup.exe or tpsetup.exe file. Follow the instructions. Note: these are both zipped files, so if you don't have an unzip program installed, first install "winzip70.exe".
Coincidentally with Stan's promotion of X-Drive, the 2/14/00 issue of Business Week, page 146, has an article about "Web Storage," titled "Park Your Files on the Net." If you're interested in the subject, I suggest you read it. I can't reproduce it here. A sidebar table to that article listed three other providers of this service. Here it is, including their comments.
| Service | Space (MB) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| www.driveway.com | 25 to 100 | Basic storage with limited sharing features |
| www.freedrive.com | 50 | Basic storage; friends must register to share |
| www.idrive.com | 50 | Unlimited storage for files clipped from the Internet |
| www.xdrive.com | 25 | On desktop like any other drive; easiest to use |
Walt Varner was not present, but reported by phone that our club treasury stands at about $4600.
Those present at Bev Altman's home agreed to have the club provide a screen for the Elks Lodge, with a suitable "Donated by ..." label attached, as described earlier in a message by Jim Dinkey.
We discussed the low attendance at the Palo Alto Power Center Tour. I think there was a lack of prior communication about the event. One officer had completely forgotten about it until I called him for a ride, which couldn't be arranged. I think maybe only two or three members attended this event. [Weather may also have been a factor, since there was quite a bit of rain that morning.— jb]
We talked about how to improve the newsletter, and looked at newsletters from other clubs.
There was mention about the Elks Lodge sign-up sheet that all attendees should sign at each General Meeting as to show we're making appropriate use of the Lodge facilities. Jim did send an email to everyone before to remind everyone of this, but it wasn't easy to find the sheet at the meeting. This needs to be improved so we don't lose this valuable room.
February's meeting was quite an exciting one and had a lot of things going on. We had two guest Speakers this time. One was from Macrovision, a maker of Copy protection software for Video tapes and CD's.
Our main speaker was Craig Stadler, CEO and founder of EastBay Technologies, a maker of unique software solutions for the Internet. He demonstrated screens of one of the pieces of software on his company's CD ROM, called LiveWire! Broadcast. This software allows you to listen to radio and TV stations via the Internet. It's exciting to listen to stations all over the World without being there. Craig also provided our raffle prizes; three of them included the registration code, a $30 value—a nice return for a free or $1 ticket.
[NOTE: This material has already appeared on the SPAUG website. It is a continuation of material I wrote for my first issue as Editor. The first few lines appeared on page 5 of the Feb 2000 issue, under my byline. Contributions from Stan Hutchings and Robert Mitchell took up the Print Screen space I'd intended to use.]
If you have a particular interest or expertise you'd like to share, consider writing a column on a regular basis; the column doesn't necessarily have to be a monthly thing. Please go to John Sleeman's last newsletter (Jan 2000) and read and practice the ideas Walt Varner presented in his timely article encouraging you to write. As Nike (the cobbler, not the goddess) says, "Just do it." My personal editorial style is to try to maintain as much of a contributor's style (grammar, phrasing, etc.) as I can—editing primarily for accuracy, completeness, space, etc. In my personal writing, I like an informal writing style and often use words the way we say them. As much as possible when I was writing technical manuals, I tried to use the direct, personal style a good service engineer would use when talking with a customer who might be calling in to complain that the manual wasn't clear.
Until January 1999 I was a technical writer (under several different job titles) for HP. The part of HP I worked for is (becoming) Agilent Technologies. My personal interest in PCs is their use as tools. I really don't want to get involved in the technical details behind the glass or below the keytops. I mostly used the computer as a word processor and data handler (via spreadsheets), did some graphics, and, of course, used the omnipresent Internet. I have not yet gotten involved with data bases, web page generation, animations, sound generation, voice recognition. I think voice recognition and speech generation are major directions of computing system development that will affect our lives in years to come, in ways we might not even imagine. I am also interested in how computers can be used by—and as aids for—people who have various limitations (low vision, impaired hearing, mobility limitations, etc.). I'd like to have our club involved in exploring these areas.
As you have seen, I have made changes in the organization and appearance of the newsletter, starting with this issue. Something not obvious is that I want to experiment with the idea of "themed" issues—where a major portion of the newsletter is devoted to a single topic. A major reason for doing this is to encourage contributions. Since this is the tax season, I'd like to have a tax-themed issue—your software recommendations, how you use your PC to help prepare your taxes, etc.
Some of the areas I described above (word processors, spreadsheets, data bases, graphics, internet use, voice recognition and speech generation, adaptation for handicaps, etc.) seem to be possible themes. An alternative or addition here is themed columns—Q&A, places to shop/avoid. Another theme issue that comes to mind is "gifts" (Sept-Nov time frame), providing ideas of gifts to give (and maybe PC-related gifts you'd like to receive).
Comments and volunteers are welcome.
My home is small, crowded, and messy—not suitable for visitors. I expect a lot of the work of newsletter generation and production will be done via e-mail.
The standard format of this newsletter consists of eight pages. Of these, I expect pages 1, 2 (part) 5, 6, and 8 to always be filled with material relating to Club activities. I consider page 7 to be generally available for personal views, either those of an editor or some other contributor. So far, five and a fraction pages have been accounted for. Your editor expects that he will never contribute more than one page of material to any issue. That leaves two and a fraction pages in each issue to be filled with contributions from others.
Experience shows that we should expect that there will be no December meeting and no December issue of the newsletter. Thus, with 2+ pages of contributions needed for each of eleven issues, we need about 30 pages of contributions for a year. SPAUG has about 70 members. Newsletter math says your editor needs a contribution of about half a page from each member each year to keep your newsletter pages from turning white in your hands.
It's probably safe to say that no two of us use our computers in the same way, or for the same tasks. I think it may also be safe to say that few of us use all of the software on our machines. One important benefit of an organization like SPAUG, with its newsletter and its website, should be the ability to share information with, and ask questions of, fellow members.
For example, when my PC is on, I'm primarily accessing the Internet, using MS Works or Publisher or playing FreeCell. I haven't used WordArt or the Canon Creative Graphics package that came with my printer. Similarly, I don't get involved with newsgroups and haven't explored any of those "buddy" systems for communicating while I'm on line.
If you have info to share, or a question to ask, please e-mail it to me for possible inclusion in the newsletter.
I want to hurt my computer.
I want to buy a software program that, when run, causes my computer to suffer grievously, though not permanently.
When my screen freezes or turns blue, I want a special button I can push to make the CPU start squealing like a motherboard.
I want a device that stores an electrical charge in my telephone. For every minute I spend on hold waiting for technical support to answer, the charge would increase in intensity. When the guy from tech support finally answers, the electrical bolt of energy would be discharged into him. This should not affect my ability to hear what's going on at the other end of the line, of course. And a special function would allow the volts to double every time a tape-recorded message urges me to continue holding. "Your call is important to us," the caressing voice always claims. I want my phone to be outfitted with a translation program which will reconstitute this irritating reminder into the truth: "Actually, we already have your money, so we couldn't care less. Our technical support department consists of two college kids, both of whom are busy playing Doom. Eventually, one of them will come on the line, but it will be the one who doesn't speak English."
I want my modem to sense when my PC has committed an "illegal function" and issue a warrant to arrest Bill Gates. When my system crashes and I lose a file that has taken me more than an hour to create, I want someone from the computer company to come out and retype it for me.
I don't understand why new, "upgraded" software creates files that cannot be read by old, reliable software with the same name. Is there no one in the computer industry who has noticed that word processor files all look alike once they are open? Why can't 6.0 recognize a 7.0 file?
It's all just words, isn't it?
There should be a rule that when software engineers buy a new car, their old cars should cease to function. If they don't understand why this is happening, they should call me and I will explain it to them.
How come when my computer catches a virus, I'm the one who misses work?
I want to know why my printer always jams on the last piece of paper or the last sheet of checks. When this happens, it makes me want to put sandpaper into the manual feed and print the Emancipation Proclamation.
I am really tired of hearing about all the things that happened with Y2K.
Why didn't anybody ever ask these computer programmers how in the world they didn't know the year 2000 would follow the year 1999? Software engineers are supposed to be pretty bright people - what did they need - a memo or something?
I bought a program that was supposed to tell me if my computer files are Y2K-compliant. The program wouldn't work because—get this—my CD-ROM player is too old (I bought it 34 months ago). The manufacturer doesn't sell an "updated driver." Thus, to find out if my computer is Y2K-compliant, I need to buy another computer.
I want to know what good is a Web search engine that returns 324,909,188 "matches" to my keyword. That's like saying, "Good news, we've located the product you want. It's on Earth."
I want to know why, when I had a tiny hard drive, my operating system was virtually crash-proof and took up so little space. My new operating system is five times the size of my original hard drive. With every "upgrade," it seems to grow 75 percent. That's as if every time your mother-in-law came to visit she weighed another 500 pounds.
Now I've found out that my PC no longer "recognizes" my floppy drive! How could they not recognize each other? They live together in the same little tower!
Please understand, I don't hate my computer...I just want to hurt it every once in a while!
This White Rabbit is a word or phrase to use as a starting place for exploring the Internet, in the manner of the white rabbit Alice followed in Alice in Wonderland. Simply use the White Rabbit with the search engine(s) of your choice and enjoy your adventure.
March 2000: hare
April 2000: showers
May 2000: flowers
June 2000: father
July 2000: fireworks
August 2000: holiday
September: fall
October: halloween
November: election
December: xmas
January 2001: 2001
February 2001: valentine
Wild Cards
gallery
webring
| For: | Ask MSN Autosearch for: |
|---|---|
IRS |
IRS |
Franchise Tax Board |
FTB |
Post Office (USPS) |
USPS |
Tax help |
tax help |
Tax humor |
tax humor |
In Larry Magid's article in the February 20th S.F. Chronicle entitled "It's easy for hackers to sneak in", he mentioned the following companies that will test or protect people on DSL and Cable:
ShieldsUP (http://www.grc.com, Gibson Research Corp.) This site will test your machine to see if you are at risk from hackers.
Firewall Software:
ShieldsUp found leaks for Magid. He now uses Norton on one machine, and BlackICE on the other. In the first 48 hours, someone tried to probe each of his machines, but could not enter.
Free and relatively simple precautions are available from Gibson's site:
http://www.grc.com/su-fixit.htm
For example, this site describes how Windows users can disable the Microsoft file and printer sharing from their Internet connection, without affecting the transfer of files on their local area network.
Have fun, but be careful.
William Reichert, President of Garage.Com, a funding agency for startups before the new organization achieves a size that VCs would be willing to back.
Bill is an excellent speaker on the financial aspects of startups and will have inputs about your ability to fund your own startup.
Our May speaker will be Dan Trimble, a single entrepreneur, who is beginning a company of website creating to meet the needs of people who have something to sell or inform on the Internet.
Our June speaker will be Hank Skawinski who is responsible for over 1000 PCs in the real commercial world. He has a wealth of practical knowledge PCs and how to best treat them for the most effective functioning for the consumer. In addition to the usual insights, he will be adding a section on Linux and what it can do for you.
As the Su Hong Chinese restaurant just doesn't seem to be able to get the meal onto the table any faster than 45 minutes, the next time we will try 5:45 as dinner time. If that doesn't do it, then we will try somewhere else.
And finally, mark your calendar for April 28 (Friday) at 10 a.m. for a visit to the Palo Alto Utility Control Section where the power being bought from the Utility Grid is distributed and the local power grid is monitored. We will all meet with Buzz Pier, Supervisor, Electric Systems, Electric Operations Division, 3241 East Bayshore Road (between San Antonio and Embarcadero Roads).
At the Planning Meeting, it was generally agreed that a trip about every 3 months was in order.
The Board of Directors has agreed that the SPAUG group will donate to the Elks Lodge, a 6 x 6 projector screen to assure that good projection will be available, not only for us but also for other organizations that need one.
Those are the salient parts of the what we will be doing for the next for months.
We would like to have input from club members about how the newsletter should be done.
Content: To keep the newsletter interesting, there should be articles from the membership interests, whether they are reviews about hardware or software products. The articles can also be about their own experiences with other computer-related subjects. If no one writes such articles, there will be mostly white space in the paper or we could just use fillers to fill the space. Neither one is good for the club or the newsletter. This will make people not think very highly of the paper or the club. So, please take some time and contribute some articles to the newsletter, otherwise the paper will contain mostly the same old information every time. Those of us who work on the newsletter work too hard to let the newsletter go to dust.
Format: The other part is which way the club would like to see the newsletter done. One is using standard 8.5 ´ 11" sheets and simply stapling it together at the top left corner. The other way we have done it is to use 11.5 ´ 17" sheets and fold it into a booklet. The latter is more professional. Please give us input on your preference of either one. This will help us create the best possible newsletter. Without your input on these subjects, we won't be able to make improvements to the newsletter.
With the imminent advancement of Kendric Smith to Webmaster Emeritus status, the club is in need of a co-webmaster. Anyone willing to help out with the updating and maintenance of the club web site, please volunteer. This is an excellent chance to see how a web site is created and maintained, especially for anyone interested in creating their own personal web site. Experience with HTML coding is preferred.
Contact Stan Hutchings to volunteer, or for more information.
One of the best sources for information about opera is http://www.operabase.com.
The first screen allows you to choose your preferred language from a list of six.
The next screen offers my favorite index: performance artists and roles, among other things. Choose a singer, alive or dead, and find the list of roles, where performed and dates of performances. A rather complete biography can be found of hundreds of artists.
A database of 500 opera houses and festivals with performance dates is particularly useful if you want to book a ticket in a particular place where you might be traveling. The e-mail address is included.
Do you want news and reviews? Follow your interests in English: The Times of London, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times; in German, Der Standard of Vienna and in Italian, the Couriere della Sera of Milan.
Of course, information on composers and their operas is a big item, too.