SPAUG Newsletter February 2003

SPAUG Editor: John Buck, Co-Editor: Mildred Kohn
SPAUG Publisher/Business Manager: Susan Mueller & Yuko Maye
SPAUG Co-Webmasters: Stan Hutchings & John Sleeman

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Notes from the Prez by Jim Dinkey
  
  
• General Meeting Notes by Stan Hutchings
  
  
• Planning Meeting Notes by Stan Hutchings
  
  
• Build your own system - here's a recipe  by Bruce Benz
  
  

Notes from the Prez

by Jim Dinkey

I've contemplated not working on any more HP Presario computers. I will, of course, but they are really some of the most user-hostile boxes I have had the misfortune to deal with.

Let me tell thee the ways I hate thee:

The manufacturer has hidden access to the BIOS with its logo, hiding the tools needed to do modifications. The manufacturer refuses to talk to the owner on the day after the expiration of two years. The offer of money had no effect. The manufacturer pulls all BIOS loads and downloads from the website on the day after the expiration of two years. The manufacturer fails to offer the original software, relying on an image CD which, if you are not careful, can format the entire disk losing all data. The manufacturer puts so much shovelware (about 30) onto the machine that it is sluggish both in booting and running thereafter. FDISK will identify correctly the "0" disk, but, because of the BIOS, may format the "1" disk.

Can anyone explain why, since backing up your data is such a vital function, that Microsoft does not make BACKUP the default in Win98 and does not even have a means to activate BACKUP on WinXP? In XP you have to know to mount the distribution CD and then search the CD for the BACKUP routine. Just why Microsoft doesn't consider backing up the entire machine rather than merely taking little snapshots, is counterproductive. The absence of the entire image means that the operating system still has to be reloaded and then the patches added, a complicated job that most users are ill-equipped to handle.

The obvious answer is to build your own, get some of the simpler machines at Micro Center or have Datawise build one to your specifications. Clearly the offerings by the general computer manufacturers are aimed at the masses and are designed for quick fixes by phone consultants - at severe cost to the buyers.

There are some changes in the Saturday Clinic: SPAUG members are free for the first two hours. Non-SPAUG personnel will be charged $35 (the cost of a SPAUG membership) and requested to apply. They don't have to join if they don't want to. All subsequent two-hour increments will be at the above rate with money being split evenly between SPAUG and the lab expenses.

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29 January General Meeting Notes

by Stan Hutchings

Administrivia

Grant Ossenkop, sales representative from Smart Computing and Computer Power User magazines, gave a short description of the magazines, and passed out sample copies. This month Smart Computing featured Digital Photography, a subject many of us are interested in. If you contact him by email at grant-ossenkop@smartcomputing.com and reference SPAUG's Source Code 8592, he'll subscribe you and send a gift. Subscribers get access to the entire Smart Computing and Computer Power User archives, as well as access to online advice.

Jim Dinkey completed the election process that was begun in October with a presentation of the slate of candidates. A call for additional volunteers and candidates went unanswered. The slate of candidates and volunteers was presented and elected by acclamation:

• President, Jim Dinkey;
• Vice-President, Dick Delp;
• Secretary, Maury Green;
• Newsletter Editor, John Buck;
• Treasurer, Nat Landes;
• Membership, Bev Altman;
• Webmaster, Stan Hutchings;
• Co-webmaster and Special Projects, John Sleeman;
• Newsletter Publisher, Susan Mueller;
• Publicity, Joan Wheelwright;
• Accountant, Arlan Kertz;

Jim Dinkey announced the Elks Lodge is closing, and so our future meetings will probably have to be relocated. This will be a major topic of discussion at the Planning meeting next week. Some possibilities are the Little House, MicroCenter, Palo Alto Senior Center. Many venues require insurance, which would cost the club about $1,000 per year. We'd like to avoid this extra cost if at all possible.

Stan Hutchings gave a short introduction the the club website www.pa-spaug.org/. He showed the Activities page, where announcements and coming attractions are found; the online version of the Newsletter; and ShareWhere, where members share where they have found interesting web sites.

CrossTalk/Random Access

• Jim Dinkey said MicroCenter has hard drives and RAM for Laptop and well as Desktop computer upgrades. He recommends taking the laptop to show them exactly what you are upgrading/replacing.
• A member recommended DesktopKeeper 2.1 to prevent your desktop from being "shuffled" after booting to Safe Mode, and will also lock your desktop against unauthorized use. Supported Platforms: Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP. Available for download from Greatis Software. Price: $17.95.
• Tired of buying expensive ink cartridges? Jim Dinkey recommends bulk refills from Kelvin or Kevin. Google link
• Nat found that AOL 8, when in off-line or standby mode, can cause your serial mouse to lock up. A USB mouse is not affected. If you find Excel is freezing but other applications are not affected and the computer runs OK otherwise, check for add-ins that may be causing the problem. Click Tools - Add-ins... and see what you have installed. Unclick suspects one by one until the problem goes away.
• Here is the web site that Pete Barba was talking about to generate a PDF file from a Word or other file. He has successfully used it on Word documents, and it is free. There is more information in the February 2002 Newsletter.
• Does anyone know how to convert a BASIC program to an executable? Try BASIC Compilers links. A few more links are:
  Compile BASIC files to executable: random.com.hr/products/qb2c/qb2c.html,
  www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/4504/basic_compilers.html,
  www.bright.net/~jonadab/albc/ http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/7052/freebas.html,
  www.sunbeem.net/quickforward,
  where do I find an update?. You can always get the latest version of the FAQ from the maintainer. Send an email to jonadab@bright.net. Put the abbreviation albc (stands for alt.lang.basic.compiler) in the subject line, and ask for the latest FAQ. Specify HTML or plain text, and specify whether you'd like it as an attachment or in the body of the message.
  The latest version of the FAQ is also now available.
  asic500.zip contains the ASIC (almost BASIC) compiler system. This package can compile BASIC programs into tiny .COM files suitable for embedding in a ROM disc and running under BOTBios. This is a zipped file, so you will need to run pkunzip on it.
  ScriptBasic COMPILE: BASIC programs can be compiled to standalone executable. ScriptBasic creates pseudo compiled code, which is interpreted afterwards.
• After you remove a disk or CD that is displayed in Windows Explorer and insert another, the old information is still shown. You can refresh the display by pressing <F5> or through the menu selection View - Refresh. Also, the file/modified/size/typy columns of the display are often too wide or too narrow. Use <Ctrl>-keypad <+> to optimize the column widths.

Presentation

Mr. Neil Scott, Chief Engineer for the Archimedes Project at Stanford University's Center for the Study of Language gave an overview of his latest project, "Smart Technology and Human Well-being". He discussed the importance of Simple Information Appliances, Intellighnt User Interface and Structured Knowldge Repositories working together with The Intelligent Total Access Ststem (ITAS) to enable and empower everyone to better access information and knowledge.

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Planning Meeting Notes

by Stan Hutchings

• The meeting was held at Bev Altman's house; attendees: Jim Dinkey, Nat Landes, John Sleeman, Bev Altman, Susan Mueller, John Buck, Stan Hutchings.
• We have a new meeting location: the Unity Palo Alto Community Church, 3391 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. This is between East Meadow and Loma Verde on Middlefield. It will cost a little more than $100 per night, or about $1400 per year for our monthly meetings. This is about 30 members' dues.
• For various reasons, such as to avoid Christmas and Thanksgiving conflict, speaker availability, etc. we will meet the second Wednesday of the month instead of the last Wednesday, starting in March on the 12th. The Planning Meeting will then shift to the third Wednesday of the month. The WebSIG will meet the Tuesday following the Planning Meeting.
• The Newsletter publication will shift to follow the meeting change - Susan Mueller should get the file for publication one week+five days before the General Meeting for optimum lead time; John Buck should have all the material one week before that (2 weeks+5 days before the 2nd Wednesday).
• The speakers for the coming months were reviewed, and will be confirmed. The change in meeting dates may necessitate some juggling of the schedule.
• There will be no 5 March Planning Meeting, instead it will be 19 March.
• Joan Wheelwright has volunteered to help Dick Delp with Publicity, but she will probably not attend the Planning Meetings. We can communicate with her by email and at the General Meetings. If anyone has any publicity suggestions or information, they should send it to her, copy Jim Dinkey.
• Jim Dinkey would like to make the Saturday morning Clinic more of a benefit to members while making it less of a burden to himself. For that reason, SPAUG members will get 2 hours as a fringe benefit of their membership; but additional hours will be a suggested donatiion of $35/2 hours. Non-members will donate $35/2 hours (or join SPAUG and get 2 hours as a benefit). The donation is negotiable - from each according to their ability to pay. The money will go to SPAUG and to purchase and develop the equipment and software used at the Clinic.
• With the added $1400/year expense of a meeting site, we may need to expand the SPAUG membership base. How can we do that? Why do people join SPAUG, and why do they let their membership lapse? Is the program a major factor? If so, what kind of programs should we schedule to draw more attendees? What do potential members need that we can provide?
• We discussed what we'd like Jan Altman to present - the proposed Karen Kenworthy's Powertools, Windows Commander (a file utility like Windows Explorer, or the classic DOS XTree), or Excel and/or Word Tips and Tricks? The attendees leaned toward Tips and Tricks, but perhaps the membership could be polled, and vote on what they like best.

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Build your own system - here's a recommendation

by Bruce Benz

I came across a very nice little Motherboard that would be a very good target board for an ATX upgrade/new machine: SuperMicro P4SGA at about $130.
This motherboard takes a 478 pin P4 based Celeron, or a 478 pin P4 Pentium Processor. This board uses DDR DRAM memory, rather than the older PC-133 memory. The on-board IDE controller is fully ATA-100 compatible. It has Local Area Network (LAN), Video, Sound, and USB 2.0 (6 ports) on the motherboard. The board sports 6 PCI slots for other devices.
I've brought up a system with the following items that is very snappy, even with a modest 1.7 GHz P4 Celeron processor and 512MB of DDR266 DRAM. This board installed Windows 2000 with no problems and it runs W2K without any hiccups:

I found all of these prices from searches through yahoo.shopping.com. I advise that you choose only those sites that have the highest service rating: nothing below Top Service.

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