For the last few days I have been fooling around with the 2003 version of Ghost - the one that purports to be able to talk to USB drives. All of this is true - up to a point. The one that I am currently fighting is the fact that there is a Ghost Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) that, while extensive, still leaves perfectly good CDRWs out in the cold. If you DO actually heed my advice and want to create bootable CDs, then you need to go to the Symantec website and obtain the HCL and take it with you to the store or have it handy when you initiate your on-line order.
One caveat: Use of the CLONE function in Ghost will make a duplicate disk, wiping out any partitions that might be there. To protect any additional partitions that might be on the target drive, merely use the partition-to-file option.
And finally, check out your USB interface. The USB 2.0 interface @ 480 MB/sec is about 40 times faster than the old 1.1 @ 12MB/sec. To make a 4 GB copy of my computer onto a USB 1.1 hard drive took me just over an hour. If I put in or activate a USB 2.0 interface, that time will be cut significantly.
The use of Ghost to create backups onto a second drive or a second partition is still a good strategy. The further use of a CD to form a removable medium for quick reloading or fire/theft protection is quite in order. The use of Ghost along with a CDRW also allows classrooms to be restored after a semester is over - to allow the computers to be reset for the next class.
In the current copy of PC Magazine (November 5, 2002), is a wonderful and complete set of Tips and Tricks for all of the Microsoft Operating Systems, all 104 of them. Each one is cross-referenced to which OSs the Tip applies. You should probably cut out and bind the tips for when you need them. Go buy a copy.
The activities of all of the attackers attempting access to my computer has caused me to take a strong defensive posture which, in my case, includes the following measures. Please note that these measures also permit me to leave my computer on line all the time with impunity. Persons using a modem for connection have the same risk as those using a DSL connection, only the duration is different.
Anti-Virus. I use Norton Anti-Virus ($30) because it has documentation that is far superior to McAfee or any other program I have had to deal with.
Firewall. I use Zone Alarm ($0/$30) because it is impressive just how much traffic is aimed at my computer and the potential damage it can cause. Most instructive has been the fee-based version that tells me where the offending inquiry is from - North Korea has no business fooling with my computer!
SPAM control. I use MailWasher ($0/$20) which in a week or so eliminated 95% of the SPAM. MailWasher also allows me to preview the headers of mail while the mail is still on the server. If I delete an unwanted mail while on the server, the time does not have to be invested in waiting for the actual transmission to my computer. Modem users note.
Mail Suppression. I use SPAM Cop to work on the 5% that MailWasher cannot get. The reason MailWasher cannot suppress that 5% is because MailWasher relies on the offender having a valid return address. Since there IS a trail left that takes a fairly comprehensive analysis of header clues, Spam Cop is being used more and more for the remnants. This was demonstrated at SPAUG.
BOT removal. I use Pest Patrol ($30) to find bots. Robots (bots) are programs put onto your computer by websites that have ulterior motives. Some of the bots are placed by other nations and are set up, often to have 10,000 computers send messages simultaneously to a designated website resulting in swamping of the server. This is called a Denial of Service (DOS) attack. At the Saturday Clinic, we had to deal with a computer that had over 200 bots on it (the complaint was slowness) but the damage was such that the OS had to be reloaded as there was too much damage. Once Pest Patrol eradicates the bot, it then patrols the interfaces and suppress any additional bots attempting to make it onto your computer. Pest Patrol is often bundled with Zone Alarm for a net lesser cost.
I do have all of the above running on my computer. I don't like to and I am not thrilled with the updating and effort that it takes to protect the computer, but I see no other alternative if I am going to control my computer and not others. In addition to the cost in money, there is the cost in CPU support. Anti-virus programs take 18% of the CPU at the last known test. All of the other take their piece of the pie. It is for this reason that I have abandoned my policy of purchasing CPUs that were just behind the state of the art and now am buying CPUs that are much faster.
As a result of some straw votes at the General Meeting, the Planning Committee has endorsed shifting the focus of SPAUG to include more multimedia. Towards this end, Bob Mitchell will be presenting at a dinner ($10) meeting beginning at 6:00 p.m. December 5th.. This will be a "dinner encouraged" meeting at the Elks Lodge.
The dinner before the meeting was a special occasion honoring past presidents of SPAUG. Past and present Presidents able to attend included Jim Dinkey, Rick Altman, Bob Mitchell, Kevin Ohlson, and Don Baird. They were gratefully thanked for their service to SPAUG. The dinner was at the Crown Plaza Cabana, attended by about 30 members and guests. After enjoying a delicious meal, we adjourned to the Elks Lodge for the General Meeting.
Bev Altman was honored as one of the earliest SPAUG members, actually a founding mother, since her son, Rick, became a club president. Other guests with more than 10 years membership in SPAUG were also honored.
Robert Reavis, a Fare Collection at BART described how TransLink® will allow commuters to use a single "Smart Card" to ride and transfer among the Bay Area transit system's trains, busses, trolleys, BART, ferries, etc. The engineering and technologies presented many challenges, which were described.
Attendees: Jim Dinkey, John Sleeman, Bev Altman, John Buck, Susan Mueller, Stan Hutchings, Robert Mitchell.
Jim Dinkey's Saturday morning clinic is an institution. I recently took advantage of it to upgrade an old 166 MHz MMX CPU with 64 MB RAM to a new motherboard and replace the CD-ROM drive with a CD/RW drive. I made an appointment, and showed up at 9:30. Bruce Benz was there to help with the upgrade. Jim had already gotten the motherboard, 1 GHz CPU and memory to be installed. So after we spent some time figuring out how to open the case, we got inside and took a look.
There was a 5-year accumulation of dust inside; we had to take it outside and clean it up before we could start working. We could keep the power supply (marginal at 200 watts) and 8 GB hard drive currently installed. But the sound card had to go, as well as the modem, since they were obsolete technology (ISA, superseded by PCI) and the new motherboard did not have slots for them. Fortunately, the motherboard had a sound card built in, and I was not planning to use a modem anyway. There was a problem with the sound connection to the CD player, but Jim found a surplus cable that fit. Then the floppy drive cable had a pin blocked where the old motherboard had a pin removed but the new motherboard still had the pin. Again, a surplus cable without the pin block was found, and we proceeded. There were several other glitches where if I had been doing it myself, I would have had to go to Fry's for parts or technical asssistance, but between Jim and Bruce, they managed to fit everything together.
Finally everything looked good; the new board fit into the case without modification, and the screw holes lined up. Then we noticed the backplate did not have a slot for the (new) USB slots. Jim spent half an hour and the contents of three toolboxes before an acceptable slot was added. It was then 11 AM and time for a lunch break.
After lunch, with the new hardware installed, we had to set up the BIOS. Bruce Benz was very familiar with the changes required, and went through the setup very quickly. I couldn't help think how long it might have taken me, having to puzzle over the very technical manual. My old network card was not recognized, and attempts to find the driver on the internet were unsuccessful. (Moral: save all drivers for all hardware you have installed; if they are on CD or floppy, create a subdirectory somewhere on your hard drive and save them there; also, save a text file with the URLs of all the manufactruers of your various hardware so you can easily get updated drivers.) So out came the card, and in went a spare Jim luckily had on hand. Jim had its drivers, so Windows was easily persuaded to recognize it. Once the LAN card was installed, after installing several of the programs on the SPAUG CD, we could finally connect to the Internet. Then the Microsoft upgrades were downloaded and installed (with three reboots required).
Finally, with everything working, we were ready to take out the old CD drive and replace it with a CD/RW. The CD had screws on both sides, but we could only get the left cover of the computer off. We could not figure out how to remove the right cover (thanks, Micron engineers!) to remove the other screws. We finally decided to just leave the old drive there, but disconnect the cables and power and reconnect them to the new drive. Amazingly, it worked. With the drivers loaded, everything worked as hoped.
After profusely thanking Jim and Bruce for their help, I finally left about 5 PM in the afternoon. I don't know how long it would have taken me, and I may have given up in frustration before completing the upgrade. The magazine articles make it sound so simple, but there are many little "gotchas" that get you. It's good to have the expertise available to help you through upgrades, or out of desperate situations.
In response to a question posed by Bill Goldmacker, "does any one have experience or a qualified opinion on Corel Draw Essentials? It is on sale at Microcenter for $29.00 right now. Should I be tempted?", Dick Delp responded
I succumbed to temptation at its former price of $79. It includes versions of both Corel Photo-Paint and Corel Draw. My copy was derived from Version 9 of each; I suspect that's what the currently offered ($29) version of Corel Draw Essentials is exactly what I have and am about to describe.
Corel Draw is the best-known program for creating original artwork. For several years, Corel maintained several versions of it active in the marketplace. I specifically remember that Corel Draw versions 4, 5, and 6 were simultaneously marketed and supported by Corel. The older versions sold for much less, but Corel -- unlike Microsoft -- did not treat them at unsupported orphans in order to induce the end-user to upgrade. This seems to be a continuation of this practice. However, I have not requested support on either part of Essentials, so past experience may not be a guide, especially at this price point.
Corel Draw is oriented toward vector graphics; Photo-Paint is oriented toward bit-mapped graphics. I found that the Photo-Paint part of Essentials compares well to Photoshop Essentials, which is the one you hear about for digital image editing these days, including at DISIG. I did not find anything that Photoshop Essentials could do better than the Photo-Paint portion. I can't comment on how the Corel Draw portion compares with the full version of Corel Draw. But the latter costs 20 times as much!
The manual for the Corel Draw portion is 150 pages; that for the Photo-Print portion is 250 pages. They are separate in content, pagination, and indexing, but bound as one volume.
Go for it!
Because ANY backup is better than NO backup, here is a painless way to back up any Microsoft OS to a separate partition or any second HDD. The following feedback is from a non-SPAUG acquaintance.
Regards,
Jim
Jim, I don't know if you have seen the version of Drive Image for Windows XP. I got it, and the operation seems to be about the same as earlier versions but the way it gets there is quite different. First of all when you start it tells you that it will reboot. I guess that takes the place of the old system where you shut down, start with a floppy into DOS (?) and then load Drive Image from a second disk. From that point on, except for slight differences in the dialog boxes, it is much like the old version. When the image has been created, XP again reboots the computer.
In my case, with no compression, it made the image of 4.3 GB in 5 min. 51 sec. The first time I ran it last week it was set for "High Compression" and it took about 6½ min. The file was 2.4 GB rather than the 4.3 GB. So the compression activity added less than 1 minute with an almost 50% reduction of file size.