SPAUG Newsletter October 2003
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Notes from the Prez
by Jim Dinkey
Where does one go to get help with your computer?
The are lots of sources, not all of them you would think of immediately.
One of them is Google. It is the first place I go when I have a definable and urgent problem. Often it fails because I am unable to spend the time to get the problem defined finely enough in terms that Google can use to find that particular miniscule area of inquiry. Often there are terms of the trade that I don't know to use, and part of the problem is to merely learn enough of the lingo that I can ask the question in terms that make sense to the algorithms of the pages of Google.
Then there is the shotgun approach to handling problems - buy books by the foot and start searching.
Small books, called magazines, are a valuable resource. They are more current than books by a large margin. I have been championing Smart Computing for SPAUG members as it seems especially timely and thorough with the articles it presents. If you subscribe and use the code 8592, SPAUG does get a miniscule portion your subscription.
In addition to the above, another magazine that is not well known is Maximum PC. It specializes in revealing the most powerful computers and their innards and accessories. Well worth the investment.
Then there are the newsletters like Woody's Windows Watch. This particular one romps over the Microsoft Operating System. Other Woody's discuss at length Office and E-mail. View at it at: www.woodyswatch.com
ZDNet's Anchor Desk has a newsletter and CNet has one to name a very few. Look around for support newsletters. Hank Skawinski likes TechRepublic, which is aimed at corporate-level gurus who are responsible for multitudes of computers.
When I need books, I often go to a used book store central clearing house like Alibris. Why buy new when you can get the same books at 20% in good condition? Try: www.alibris.com
A book like Windows XP Annoyances ISBN: 0-596-00416-8 has the uncanny ability to present the solutions to problems with the interfaces to XP. In my case, I had to activate passwords on my account against my wishes because Microsoft required that programs such as Norton Antivirus and SpyBot have passwords enabled. Windows XP Annoyances showed me how to supply the password automatically at startup. No more restarting only to find that the computer requires a password.
The book also taught me how to reset the time the computer waits for a program to stop hanging and to release before it forces the issue or asks the operator to do so. In my case, I reset the timer from 20 seconds to 4 seconds to speed up the operation of the computer.
Hate XP's SEARCH command? Windows XP Annoyances shows you how to either put in a better search engine or batter the XP search engine into submission. The same book has a very profitable discussion of the Windows Backup Command which is not available via Control Panel/Add remove.
Then there is a very interesting section on how to handle the Blue Screen of Death...
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8 October General Meeting Notes
by Stan Hutchings
Administrivia
- Susan Mueller has graciously volunteered to be Publicity Manager. Thanks, Susan! Offers of help should be directed to her.
CrossTalk/Random Access
- Q: WinXP will not keep color settings, and does not seem to find the video card.
A: you need to explicitly assign a video card and monitor. Usually WinXP will "find" the peripherals attached, but sometimes (especially with older pre-plug-and-play items, you need to manually make assignments. You may need the drivers of the peripherals, too (be sure to download the most recent ones from the manufacturer's website first).
- Comment: Jim Dinkey's Saturday morning clinic was greatly appreciated by a member, who thanked Jim publicly for his good work.
- Q: a plug-in USB memory card did not work, any advice?
A: most USB memory cards (memory sticks) work with Win2000 and WinXP. None work with WinNT or Win98 pre-SE. For Win98SE, you need to install a driver first, usually on a CD (which may be on of the tiny ones). You may have to download a driver from the manufacturer's website.
- Q: in WinXP the text is too large, how do I make it smaller?
A: Start by right-clicking in the display area, choose Properties, Settings. If this doesn't work, in the Display tab of the Control Panel is where you can customize your display. Try making the text smaller in the areas it seems too large. Another place that controls text size is the Accessiblity settings area. Check that, too.
- Q: A member reported the MailWasher site was down for repairs when he went to get the pay version.
A: [N.B. - MailWasher is on the club CD; however, we recommend the pay version if you use it regularly. The site was apparently up several days later. Also, there may be "mirror sites" that also provide MailWasher.]
Presentation 1 - AuctionDrop
Charlie and Ann O'leary from AuctionDrop gave a presentation on how easy it is to drop off your goods at AuctionDrop, and let them sell the goods on eBay. The Los Altos store is on the corner of Main and Third in the heart of downtown at 200 Main Street, phone 650-941-4365; other offices are in Menlo Park and San Carlos. They recommend visiting their site if you want to buy something, too. They are sellers on eBay, but you can pick up items at their store (you'll pay tax, but avoid shipping cost).
Presentation 2 - Voice and Speech Recognition and IBM Via Voice
Mr. Bernard Krevet, an IBM retiree spoke on and demonstrated Voice and Speech Recognition and IBM's Via Voice. The PowerPoint presentation is available if anyone wants to see it - , and say when you want it. For more help on using a speech recognition application, go to Computing Out Loud website. Another good site is the voice-users mailing list. Bernard then gave a demonstration of IBM's Via Voice. For an update on translation of one language to another, see the article Big leap in machine language translation in the International Herald Tribune.
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15 October Planning Meeting Notes
by Stan Hutchings
The Planning Meeting was held at Jim Dinkey's house. Attendees: Jim Dinkey, Dick Delp, Susan Mueller, John Buck, Stan Hutchings, Lamont Shadowens, Aldora Lee. The attendees enjoyed the refreshments served. The following topics were proposed for discussion:
- Finances - holding steady at $7000+. Susan reports the Newsletter is paid in advance for the next month or two; cost is around $100 for reproduction (at Lockheed) and postage.
- new projector progress report - continuing; Jim is looking for a native 1280x758 resolution to support the speakers we've had this past year. We want a zoom lens, too. The old projector will be offered for sale; Jim and Dick expressed interest.
- Holiday Party - a consensus to take up Jim's offer of the Elks Lodge for 9 December, the second Tuesday (when the trains will be displayed) for a buffet dinner, JIm will try to get some musicians (the club will pay for their dinners), and there will be a $10 gift exchange. Although this is the day before the General Meeting, it is probably the best time to attract the widest audience.
- Elections - new officers: we need back-up for the officers, especially Newsletter Editor and Publisher. Jim and John Sleeman can fill in for John Buck, Susan will write up her function and email it to Jim and John Buck. Our Recording Secretary Maury Green has not been seen recently - do we need an alternate, or should Maury be alternate?
- SIG activities and schedules
• WebSIG: 21 October is next meeting, no meetings in November and December, unless we reschedule the meeting dates.
• Linux SIG: 29 October is next meeting, no meetings in November and December. There will be a meeting 25 October at 9:30 AM at Jim's house, with Bruce Benz invited. The group will discuss Linux, and the dissolution of the SIG. There are enough Linux groups in hte area that a SPAUG SIG is not needed.
- Future speakers - February 2004 and later.
• R. Mitchell will be invited to demo activePDF software to generate a PDF document.
• members are interested in what applications can do for them
• members would like to know where technology is heading, and what that will mean for them
• Susan and Dick will try to line up speakers for February and beyond
- Plan show-and-tell demo of club CD for next meeting: John Buck still has about 5 items to demo. The CD SIG will create 20 CDs on Saturday 25 October at about 1 PM at Jim's house. The CDs will be the current image, not updated at all.
- Individual reports and suggestions
• should we join the Ziff Davis Headline Affiliate Network? Yes, let's try it.
- Use of email names without encryption has been found in email archives of MNC. These go back many years, and cannot be modified, only purged or perhaps "hidden" from email scrapers. A related problem is getting email names out of other archives and websites that are old, but still available to Internet searches. One solution is to periodically change your email address, but this seems counter-productive.
- Clinic activities and changes. There will be NO clinic on October 18. Non-SPAUG attendees are asked to join SPAUG, generating a member and the dues.
- Jim and Bev are searching for a means of replenishing the doorprizes, which have fallen to a low number. Jim bought some inexpensive but generally useful items from MicroCenter. He is still soliciting suggestions of appropriate prizes.
• Aldora suggested that, instead of drawing for all doorprizes, a basket or box be put in front of each prize; members would put their ticket into the box in front of the prize they are interested in winning. Extra tickets can be purchased for $1 each if multiple prizes or chances are desired. This solves the problem of people winning something don't want or for which they have no use.
- Susan Mueller, our new publicity manager, has a list of contacts for the local papers. She will submit an announcement of our upcoming meetings.
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Report Spam to the Federal Trade Commission, the California Attorney General's Office and/or the FBI
by Stan Hutchings
Tired of receiving all that spam? For the few MailWasher doesn't catch, when you're feeling grouchy or testy, there are couple of places to vent. Here's the info I have on reporting spam (in addition to Spam Cop). I usually extract the header information and HTML source of the email (when it's not text) for Spam Cop, then forward the email (as is, after inserting the header information at the top of the forwarded message) to the two addresses. It takes about a minute to process the spam, but there is a feeling of satisfaction that the spammer will be blocked and if it's a fraudulent operation, the FTC or AG will investigate. It's vital that you send the header information, because that's what they use to track the spammer. Each email application is a little different (use Help, and search for header), but the header will look something like this:
- Received: from virtual.finland.fi (h48n1fls311o1003.telia.com [81.224.188.48]) by mailgw2.lmco.com (8.11.6p2/8.11.6) with SMTP id h99F4Xr28925 for ; Thu, 09 Oct 2003 11:04:56 -0400 (EDT)
- Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2003 15:16:03 +0000
- From: Lynn Deal
- Subject: "Want a _B`I'G* -P-E^N;I'S? k lpyzhzb
- To: victim@isp.com
- Message-id: <5d1401c38e78$58aa6182$e7b69d08@vwfunyd>
- MIME-version: 1.0
- X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165
- X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1158
- Content-type: text/html
- Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
- X-Priority: 3
- X-MSMail-priority: Normal
- Return-Path: dealbg@minedu.fi
- X-OriginalArrivalTime: 09 Oct 2003 15:05:18.0371 (UTC) FILETIME=[C084A730:01C38E76]
The really important information is the IP address, the 81.224.188.48 in the header above. That's the real source of the message.
The Federal Trade Commission website to report spam is www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/spam. It has lots of information about dealing with spam. To report Spam, you can use the online form at rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01 or just forward the spam, with headers, to uce@ftc.gov
The California Attorney General's Office is looking for samples of spam that meet all of the following conditions:
- You are the recipient of the spam and you are a resident of California.
- The spam was delivered via servers located in California (sender's, recipient's or intermediary server will suffice).
- There is some indication that the spammer is operating in California, such as a California telephone number or address for orders. If you can identify the spammer and have information from other sources showing that the spammer is in California, that will also work.
- The spam fails to comply with the statutory restrictions. To comply, the unsolicited advertising emails' subject line must begin with "ADV:", the first text in the message must offer a toll-free number or functioning email address for removal of the recipient from further unsolicited emails, and that statement must be in a type size as large as most of the other text.
The web site is caag.state.ca.us/spam and you can forward the spam you receive to caspam@doj.ca.gov (be sure to include the header!).
For really egregious cases, if your were actually defrauded, or were nearly taken in by a scam and think others could be defrauded, you can make a report to the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC). The Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). Before you do file, you should read their guidance on their home page, and I wouldn't report minor stuff. You can get an idea of the kind of scams they investigate in the Operation E-Con Report (more than 90 investigations, involving 89,000 victims and estimated losses of more than $176 million dollars). I reported an email that purported to have the latest Microsoft update as an attachment (characteristic of the Win32.Swen (also known as just "Swen," and often seen as W32/Gibe).
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