The DISIG seems to be going OK. Each month there are a few new faces learning how to use digital cameras and the subsequent processing available. The meeting is always the third Monday at the Sunnyvale Coco's Restaurant, Mary Avenue just south of Fremont at 6 p.m.
By the time you read this, the SPAUG CDROM Mid 2002 should be shaping up. The Club is attempting to bring the CDROM current as some of the included programs are not current. There are also a few programs we want to add as they provide information or tools that make PC computing easier.
Anyone able to assist with speakers is encouraged. So far we have:
There is a level of Win98 that seems to be working well. If you update your machine and put into place the latest patches including IE 6.0.2600, a lot of problems seem to be eliminated. If you are not having problems, then leave it alone; if you are, bring it to the Saturday clinic.
There is, however, one additional caveat: Even though you do not do much with multimedia and graphics, downloading Direct X 8.1 and Microsoft Media Player 7.1 is desirable -- not because they are so great, but because Microsoft is using these two loads to get additional Windows operating system patches onto your machine to fix problems and bugs. Even though they are each over 6 MB, download and install them.
We're looking for volunteers in two important areas. We really should have a Program Director to obtain speakers, but that position went away some years ago. I would like to bring that function back.
Further, while everybody is most helpful with setting up and taking down, there needs to be a bit more help. Often I'm involved with speaker arrangements and other necessary administrivia and therefore would like someone to step forward to act as Setup Coordinator to assure that the freebie table is set up and filled, the raffle area is loaded and the screen and coffee are on their way. Anyone willing to volunteer?
Milt Kostner has stepped in to handle Publicity. He was doing it as a result of his involvement in DISIG and thus felt that the extra message would not be a burden. Thanks Milt.
YAHOO has done it to us! The San Jose Mercury News, Saturday, April 6, 2002, Page 1C, right side bottom, indicated that YAHOO arbitrarily changes your preferences to allow EVERYONE to send you e-mail as a result of any YAHOO account you might have. I was lucky that I had opened an account only three days earlier and thus was warned in time. The way YAHOO works it, if you initially set your preferences to 'off', YAHOO immediately turns them back on. If you do not reset them back within a couple of weeks, YAHOO will encourage spamming the hell out of you. It is true -- I found them turned on again. I have turned the preferences off again and will be checking periodically. If someone will get the attorney of service for me, I will attempt to get a court order to correct this behavior.
For the record, sign in to your account administration page, click on '"Account Administration" and then "Marketing Preferences". Turn them all off. Check frequently.
For many generations of Microsoft Windows, whenever a user has migrated to an upgrade system, the user has had to bring over significant data files from the old system by copying them after figuring WHAT file and WHERE from. XP offers a program on the install disk that aids in locating and transferring files from your old computer. Please let me know your experiences with the program. Another program to try is PC Sync. Same request.
Attendees: Jim Dinkey, Dick Delp, Robert Mitchell, John Sleeman, Bev Altman, Nat Landis, Kendric Smith, John Buck, Mildred Kohn and Stan Hutchings.
The following topics were discussed:
Eric Johnston (ericjohn@microsoft.com) of Microsoft was the featured speaker. One of his jobs is to make presentations to user groups. He also trains the retail sales personnel (from Circuit City, Fry's, etc.). He is a Windows expert. His presentation introduced us to Windows XP. The presentations was very informative. If you missed it, you can get some of the information from www.microsoft.com/windowsxp (I recommend using IE rather than Netscape). And a couple of other useful sites are www.microsoft.com/window/catalog and www.microsoft.com/windowsXP/expertzone (that you can also access from the main link). A few tidbits: XP is something like 17 times more stable - an "normal" user will go 331 days without having to reboot. Minimum requirements for XP: 300 MHz processor, 128 MB RAM, and 1.5 GB room on your hard drive. These requirements mean upgrade from Win95 is not usually feasible. You would use the NTFS format only if you have high security requirements (want to encrypt data or files, or use digital certificates). You can upgrade to a separate (dual) boot configuration, or overwrite Win98.
First, thanks to all who sent suggestions to me about removing the listing of programs from the "Add/Delete" (sic) window in the Control Panel, (Start - Settings - Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs) when one makes the mistake of just trashing the program files.
Knowing that you can find anything you want on Google, this was the first thing that I did, but I searched for "Add/Delete". I got a lot of links, but nothing of value, which is not surprising, since the correct term is "Add/Remove". I guess you shouldn't try to do important things late at night.
Anyway, in the light of day, I searched for "Add/Remove" and got several good suggestions. I settled on a Freeware program: Add/Remove Pro v. 2.06 (346 kb exe file) www.superwin.com/freeware.htm
This worked beautifully. If it is not on the CDOM, it should be.
OK, everyone who has listings of programs on their Add/Remove screen that no longer exist on their hard disk, please hold up your hands.
Don't be bashful, use Add/Remove Pro.
Clearly the best solution is to reinstall the program, and then delete it properly through the "Add/Remove" window. However, this does not work if you no longer have the software, or don't want to bother downloading it again.
Some installed programs do not appear in the Add/Remove window, but they may have their own Uninstall program. You should use these rather than just dragging the folder to the Recycle Bin.
[This falls under the heading of "Don't do what I do, do what I say".]