SPAUG Newsletter January 2007
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Notes from the Prez - So you're thinking about buying Vista
by Jim Dinkey
Think about the cost of a new computer that must have a new video card for a Vista feature, a minimum of 1 GB of ram (preferably 2 GB), at least 2 MHz CPU, and a new learning curve.
What you have (WinXP) isn't doing badly for you.
Don't even think of trying to upgrade your computer to meet Vista video card specifications - motherboards were not available until about 8 months ago that would accept the new video plug-ins.
But you need/want a new, faster, more capable computer and you don't want to start over with a Vista computer, and then throw away $200 worth of operating system just to get back to XP.
Either have a bare-bones computer built for you or buy a Linux computer and dump the $30 Linux program on it and install XP or, better yet, set it up as a dual boot computer of XP and Linux and learn how to transition from XP to Linux in stages - thus saying good bye to Microsoft.
Microsoft has a problem: XP works and there is no compelling reason to go to Vista. It's going to be a long, slow transition from XP to whatever you choose to go to next. The only catch is that many of the computers will come with Vista as a part of the monopoly position of Microsoft. Your challenge will be to find or build your non-Vista box. Witness the fact that Windows 2000 is still going strong in the industrial world. It works well enough for industry and it is stable. What else could you want?
My position on Vista is to wait until SP1 comes out. Why? Let me list ten reasons (Thanks to Maximum PC):
- Vista must run on about a $1500 computer.
- Many DVD functions are crippled by DRM.
- Overpriced: Vista Home $200, Home premium $240.
- Hundreds of legacy games have no sound.
- Some joysticks and microphones, etc may not work.
- Vista won't work well with games that need Admin privileges.
- Vista includes DRM (Digital Rights Management).
- Driver support not in place.
- Vista pops up myriads of install popups.
- You can wait until the hassle settles down.
On a new subject: SanDisk has released a 32 GB hard drive for laptops that has no moving parts costing, at present, about $600. The price will go down over the next few years of course, but the size will go up also. I have waited for this announcement for thirty years as it is ridiculous to store stuff on rotating magnetic media when it is so slow and memory is so fast. Cost is the big issue here. Now that 32 GB is available for laptops, it won't be long when 512 GB and bigger will be available and the time of crashing hard drives in laptops because of physical movement will be over.
How to prepare for a Clinic Visit:
When a computer comes into the Clinic for some software fixes, there is a protocol that I go though because if I don't, I tend to get sandbagged later on. The problem is that it takes a fair amount of time to do these procedures and that takes away from the important work of fixing what was the complaint in the first place.
So if the computer will run, I will be requesting that you run at home a number of long-running procedures that will make life easier for both of us:
- Get rid of the TEMP files by going to My Computer, right-click the C: drive and choose Properties, General and Disk Cleanup which will get rid of some of the downloaded files.
- Then go to the TOOLS menu in the same display, choose Check Now and Start and the physical integrity of the hard drive will be checked.
- Then go to Defragment Now and Start to align the files on the hard drive.
- Run Google: [ Windows Live Safety ]and "I'm feeling Lucky" to locate the Window Live OneCare which so far is still free. Run it to get rid of lots of viruses, worms, Trojans and lots of other stuff. Can take an hour easily.
- Update and run AdAware and Spybot.
- Run RegClean.
- Run Windows Updates.
- Then run Office Updates.
Many of these procedures can take a lot of time, time that we don't need to spend on the day of the Clinic.
Updating Office presents an especially interesting challenge as for some inexplicable reason, Microsoft has buried the links to it. Go to Windows Update and click on the Office icon at the top, and then click on the Office Updates box at the right of the next page and you will be at the proper location. Everyone reading this should do the Office Updates as 80% of the computers coming into the Clinic have not had this accomplished thus leaving the computer vulnerable for no good reason. Often the Office products work better because bugs are finally fixed.
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General Meeting Notes
by Stan Hutchings
Administrivia
- The meeting notes and Nancy's presentation were available online for a short time only.
- Jim has received a copy of Vista from Microsoft. If anyone would like to load it and experiment with it, see him. Make sure your system meets the minimum requirements.
- Patch Tuesday was yesterday, so make sure you download and install them. Also, be sure to get the Office patches if you run MS Office; they are important. You have to manually get the Office updates, they are not automatic.
- Solid state memory for RAM is becoming available for laptops; it's a premium cost, but is the wave of the future.
- Bill Worthington is working on the club CD, please give him all the assistance you can.
CrossTalk/Random Access
- Jim reviewed the four-step procedure for backing up your drive:
1. disk cleanup,
2. check volume for errors,
3. defragment the drive (only before a full disk backup, not before incremental),
4. and finally do a full backup, Acronis or other.
Everyone should do this periodically; how often is determined by your paranoia about losing data and having to recreate it.
- A Comcast user had trouble sending email. An error message says it is a security setting problem. Comcast blamed the problem on Trend Micro. After more than an hour changing settings, the problem still exists sending from Comcast account. The AOL account works fine. One suggestion from someone with a similar problem was to uninstall and reinstall the offending software. Also, error messages may be hidden under other screens, so be sure to check. As you send a message, look for warnings from Trend Micro; it's probably blocking your email program, and needs to be told that it should not be blocked.
- Trend Micro warns that I'm trying to send my credit information to what I believe is a valid site, Windows Secrets. It won't let me. What should I do? It would be good to contact the site by phone or email, and confirm it's valid. Trend Micro's security is set to not allow your information to be sent, so you could turn off that while you deal with sites you trust –just be sure to turn it on again afterwards.
- A problem with a laptop recognizing an external hard drive was diagnosed as probably a FAT32/NTFS file structure incompatibility. If you have the problem, listen to the recording of the meeting about 16-18 minutes in. Jim and Kevin discuss how to find out what structure you have and how to convert to NTFS (going back is more difficult). Also, if you have problems with a permanent drive assignment, at 18-20 minutes there is a good discussion how to resolve the problem.
- A Windows media center RC1 adn RC2 encoder expired 31 December, so if your audio suddenly stopped working, you'll have to get an upgrade, or set your system date back to November to use it.
- If your're going to buy a new computer and want WinXP, you'd better do it before the end of March. AFter that, most new computers will come with Vista. You'll get a coupon for Vista, but XP will be installed. You should have both systems as dual-boot, because a lot of hardware and software won't work with Vista.
- How do you respond to a security warning that you're going to send encrypted information over an unsecured line? If the data is encrypted, is it a problem? Probably not, if you trust the encryption. Since you're not using a secure connection (i.e. a VPN or other technology) to ensure privacy, you're getting the warning. This is probably a security setting that you can disable.
- Incremental versus complete backups is discussed. There are pros and cons to both philosophies.
- How about using a password vault, to store all your passwords to various accounts in one place, and you only need to use the one password? If the passwords are encrypted (like Quicken and the one sold by Gene Barlow of UGR), you should be OK. Be cautious not to use one that's not widely recognized as safe! Windows Explorer has an option to remember your passwords, and it is said to be safe, but who knows? And it is open to anyone using that user account, so if you're sharing an account it would be a bad idea.
Nancy Blachman gave us more information about using Google to its full capabilities. Her topic was to be How to Make your Website more Popular on Google and How to Generate (more) Income, but due to attendees request, she devoted most of the presentation to her famous GoogleGuide www.googleguide.com. However, for those who attended to hear about website issues, she recommended her Developing a Website section www.googleguide.com/website_development.html, which covers
* Creating Content
* Linking to Search Results
* Getting Listed
* Improving Your PageRank
* Advertising Your Website
* Generating Revenue using AdSense
You can also get a printable version of Developing a Website, a presentation of Developing a Website (fewer words/page), and a printable version of the Developing a Website presentation at this site.
The information in this talk is based on Nancy Blachman's experience in designing and developing Google Guide, www.GoogleGuide.com. Google Guide is an online interactive tutorial and reference for experienced users, novices, and everyone in between.
Nancy has been using Google since the spring of 1999, when Google was less than one year old. She has written over a half dozen tutorial and reference books, including How to Do Everything with Google, Mathematica: A Practical Approach, Mathematica Graphics Guidebook, Mathematica Quick Reference, Maple V Quick Reference, and Putting Your Heart Online. Nancy obtained a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Birmingham, U.K., an M.S. in Operations Research from the University of California at Berkeley, and an M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, where she taught for eight years.
Go to www.googleguide.com for an interesting discussion and tutorial on how to use Google effectively and efficiently.
17 January Planning Meeting Notes
by Stan Hutchings
- The meeting was held at Bev Altman's house; attendees: Jim Dinkey, John Sleeman, Bev Altman, John Buck, Stan Hutchings. The attendees enjoyed the refreshments served.
- Status of SPAUG CD - Bill Worthington will take over and publish a CD eventually. It will be ready sometime later this year. Meantime, all members are urged to support his efforts.
- Membership - Bev - we have about 124 members.
- Treasurer - Nat - Jim reported for Nat that the club is in good shape financially.
- Review future speakers and topic vs. attendance -
Interesting topics and speakers result in better attendance. We'll continue to try to schedule topics and speakers with good draw.
Some promising topics include: Larry Magid on ISPs, TV providers, cell phone companies; Bob Mitchell doing a how-to-create-a-video presentation; OpenOffice.org; Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Users (if we have a significant number interested and can find an appropriate speaker); Database capabilities and applications; Linux, as an alternate or a full replacement for Windows; Spreadsheet capabilities; Blogs and Blogging; Wi-Fi availablility and use in the Silicon Valley; Really Simple Syndication (RSS); the advanced features of Outlook (Nat Landes has someone in mind).
The club membership will be regularly polled to suggest vivacious, lively, knowledgeable speakers they know of. Perhaps instructors from the local colleges, junior colleges, adult high school programs, etc. could be invited.
- Future speakers & planned pre-meeting dinner locations:
Link to Up-coming General meetings (NOTE: subject to change)
- PrintScreen - John Buck -
- Expenses - The SPAUG domain was extended for another 5 years.
Jim will write a check to the Elks Lodge for our use of the Lodge. Jim expects the Lodge to be available for at least another year.
Jim will contact Arlen Kertz to do our annual filing as a non-profit organization. Arlen may suggest again this year that we make a charitable donation.
Jim picked up some door prizes from Micro Center; look for some excellent items up for drawing over the next several meetings.
- Mail - John Sleeman - Some of the Newsletters were returned for additional postage because of orientation of address labels and stamps. They were printed by Kinko's instead of Lockheed Martin, and the setup was wrong. John Sleeman volunteered to affix the additional postage required and re-mail them. This should be a one-time problem. Nothing else showed up.
- WebSIG activities and schedules - next Tuesday 7:30 at Jim's to work on the CD.
- Publicity - Richard Sweet & Gene Duncan - Gene is working on taking over.
- Clinic activities and changes - the Saturday Clinic will be offered by pre-arranged appointment only.
- Other items that came before the Committee -
email to the SPAUG mail list will have to be sent TO: or CC:, not BCC:. Jim will send a message to the list.
we should try to get Andy Marken of Marken Communications to help with his software at one of the WebSIG meetings, unless we can figure out how to do it ourselves.
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Time to buy a new CD/DVD Drive?
by Bruce Benz (from an email message to the SPAUG list)
Typically, CD burner drives do not last as long as pure readers, and if you burn disks on a regular basis, then you'll someday have a CD/DVD drive failure.
Symptoms of imminent failure would typically include the drive can no longer burn at the higher rates, and you have more instances of failed burns. These are an indication the drive is beginning to fail, so start checking out the reviews, best buys, and sales.
Stay away from the no-name drives -- you'll probably have bad luck with them. Best quality is in Plextor, Pioneer, and Sony; and try to buy them on sale where possible.
Also, make sure any replacement drive can burn CDs as well as DVDs – there are still quite a few CDRs and CD-R/Ws that you'll want to be able read (many software titles are on CDR), as well as DVDs of various flavors; such as DVD-Rs, DVD+Rs. The drives you consider should also be able to read (and perhaps burn) Dual Layer; howeve, Dual layer media is not worth the cost at this time, and may not even stay around long anyway. Be sure any drive can read dual layer, because movies sometimes are on dual layer media and that is the main reason to have it. Read the box and verify the types of media the drive can handle - the more formats supported the better.
DVD-HD and DVD BLURAY are still duking it out for dominance, so don't worry about them just yet, if ever. Media cost is a real issue, too, even if you can get past the high cost of the equipment.
I currently have a Plextor PX-760A in one machine and a Sony DW-Q30A in the other. Both work just fine. I bought them at different times and got each on sale, that's why they are different. Both came with a version of PowerDVD so that they can play DVD movies, which is important to me, but maybe a non-issue for you.
At any rate, figure out what media you use on a regular basis and make sure the replacement burner can handle them. Again, try to catch it on sale.
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About Sonic DSL service in the Bay Area
by Bill Young
I signed up with Sonic in September 2006. Following is my experience.
In September 2006, my one-year contract with ATT (nee SBC) expired. I had been paying ATT about $21/month, including federal fees, for their DSL service. I called ATT to re-up and was told that the only special offer available was $35/month plus fees. I pressed for a lower rate, including threating to cancel, without success. (Later, in October after I had switched to Sonic, ATT called me with a lower offer, but it was too late.)
I decided to look for another DSL provider. I went to DSL reports (www.dslreports.com) to learn about available options. This website site has lots and lots of info about both DSL and cable services, including forums for the different ISP providers and including broadband speed tests. By the way, their ATT DSL forum is monitored by ATT DSL technicians. If you are having problems with your ATT DSL, reporting your problem to the ATT technicians on this forum may give you faster and better response.
On the dslreports website, I found a comparison of DSL providers in the bay area. The top rated providers were dslextreme and Sonic. I checked out both at their websites and selected Sonic. I pay Sonic $14/month ($12.95 plus federal fees) for their 1500/384 kbps service. Today, I went to Sonic's website and learned that they have recently changed their plans and prices. Their 1500/384 service is now $17.95/month. For $12.95/month they provide 768/384.
I signed up with Sonic about a week before my one-year contract with ATT DSL service was due to expire. I did not want to switch earlier because ATT has a big early termination fee. I gave Sonic my ATT expiration date. On my ATT expiration date, Sonic stopped my ATT DSL service and switched me to their service. I did not have to contact ATT. Sonic did all the "paperwork". A few days after the switch, I called ATT and confirmed that I was indeed terminated on the day my ATT contract expired.
Several days before the switch, I got both an email and a letter from Sonic reporting the day of the switch (my ATT expiration day) and requesting that, on that day, I call their technicians to setup their service on my computer. I called and, over the phone, their technician walked me through a few changes I had to make to my router. For example, Sonic does not use PPPOE as does ATT. I made the changes and Sonic worked. I am using the same hardware that I used with ATT, including the SpeedStream DSL modem ATT gave me several years ago.
With Sonic I have about twice the speed than I had with ATT, 1180/321 versus 630/130. Previously, I had tried to up my speed with ATT, but ATT told me that I was too far away for faster speed. Yet, Sonic is faster. I suspect ATT had me capped for business reasons.
So far Sonic is working without any problems. I notice the faster speed on downloads.
Sonic provides email, web hosting and domains, if you want. I keep my email separate from my ISP so that I can switch ISPs without having to change my email address.
The Sonic prices I quoted above are introductory prices. When my one-year contract with Sonic is up, their price may increase.
If you decide to switch to Sonic, let me know first. If I recommend a new customer, Sonic gives me a month free.
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AT&T DSL (BASIC) for cost sensitive people
by Bruce Benz
I would recommend AT&T DSL (BASIC) for cost sensitive people. Right now the BASIC setup is running 14.99 a month, with a free month, if you sign up for 12 months of service. This is the best deal I've seen for home use. Once the thing is setup, it is always on and running when you boot up the computer.
The modem they use is low cost and up front it is $49.99 but they return that in a rebate, so the effective cost is zero for the DSL modem. The only other thing people need is a Network card in their computers to get this thing running and of course a DSL connection to their phone lines.
The account is just a on ramp to the Internet. Very basic *FAST* service. This is what most people want -- nothing fancy.
Just before I left, I did have DSL up there, but it was expensive. I could only get 26k with dial-up. It sucked. (This refers to a portion of Portola Valley several years ago).
Most people don't want or care about hosting and they have no ambition to set up a web page. If they want to do that they still can through other means. AT&T offers what almost everyone wants. Hell, it's what I wanted. If I want a web page, I can set it up through my Yahoo account.
AT&T offers 4 speed grades; of course, the faster the service, the more expensive it becomes. That is up to the user. Right now I am very happy with the BASIC service I've got in Vacaville. If I want to download something huge, I just set it up in the background and let her rip. In short, the BASIC speed is acceptable for 97% of my web activities.
The installation program had a couple things that could have been more clear, but I worked around the subtleties. One nice thing about the install program: it was polite at the end and allowed me to *UNCHECK* the junk-ware it wanted to install. Naturally, I *UNCHECKED* all of it.
At any rate, the AT&T BASIC DSL package is a very good deal and it works well. I highly recommend it to everybody who is considering moving from dialup to Broadband. Choose the "Self-Install" kit or if someone feels they can't do it alone, then AT&T will help with the setup over the phone or they can even send someone out (for a huge fee).
The program sets up your account at AT&T, helps you choose an e-mail address (e.g. xxxxx@sbcglobal.net) and password; finally it display's the SMTP and POP addresses you will need to setup your e-mail program. (Stuff I recommend you write down and save in a safe place).
These guys really, really want the business and they are almost giving it away. Let's take advantage of them...
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computer will not open hotlinks in emails or on websites
From Micro Center 2006 Mail Bag by chris
Read the full answer, which gives advice how to allow the hotlinks and images to be shown, here: www.microcenter.com/random_access/newsletters/07_newsletters/0107/in_the_lab.html. There is more information for other questions/answers.
Problem: My computer will not open hotlinks in emails or on websites. If I have the address and can enter it into the browser, the website will open but when only a link is given, it will not open even with CTRL Click.
Answer: This could be caused by many things: security settings and changes to the OS, browser, or email program; pop-up blockers; anti-spyware, anti-malware or other protective programs or security settings; your Internet Security settings; Outlook and some other email programs' settings (since one method spammers use to verify email addresses involves tracking web page requests for image files that are tagged with a unique code that ties it to your email).
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Is Vista ready? - Clearly NOT!
by Jim Dinkey, Bruce Benz, Kendric Smith, Robert Mitchell
At yesterday's sessions, I was extremely pleased that no one wanted to spend time putting together a Vista computer. Evidently everyone wants to wait for the other guy to start in on the problems and have all of the fun of debugging Microsoft's software for them.
To further bolster the feeling that there should be a wait until SP1 is the article pointed to by the following URL (Uniform Resource Locator).
blogs.techrepublic.com.com/Ou/?p=402&tag=nl.e138
The fact that Vista is coming out at the end of January means that the time to buy a replacement computer will be for the next few weeks as the manufacturers are dumping the current inventory of stuff that won't run Vista. They also are giving a certificate, good for one year, that allows you to get Vista at a later time.
Also, if you DO wind up with Vista, I am told that there is an "XP Mode" switch which allows you to get a usable computer by blocking various actions.
Of course, if you DO wind up with Vista, you will probably be wise to set yourself up with an additional partition that has your old XP on it and make the computer dual bootable.
Hope this helps with the muddy water.
Jim
The suggestions that I see in PC Mag, etc. is to forget Vista until you buy a new computer with Vista installed on a machine that is designed to handle it. Even so, wait for SP1.
Kendric
P.S. Of course, the best option is to buy a new Intel Mac, unless you enjoy suffering.
Yes, buy the Intel Mac, then put Linux on it!
Change the flavor of your pain.
Bruce
I agree with the article about Vista. It has too many bugs and problems to spend any time with it, having to replace all the computer hardware as well From what I have seen of the user interface, it is nice, but not worth all the troubles with it. It is a shame that Microsoft wants to obsolete all existing software, and would be expensive for a lot of people to upgrade all the software.
I think Microsoft should have taken a page from Apple's book on Computers. Back 5 years ago when Apple went from Mac OS 9.2 to Unix based OS 10, all new computers that came with a copy of OS 9 in addition to OS X on the Hard drive, so users that still have OS 9 programs could install them and use them. The desktop icons for the software would still show up on the OS X's desktop, but OS 9 would start up when loading an OS 9 program and run along side of OS X programs, all seamlessly and without dual booting. The user would still have to install OS 9 drivers for things like printers, scanners, etc., but everything would work flawlessly. The latest Macs of course have the same Intel chips a PC, but no longer have OS 9 on them. Users who have Power PC-based OS X software can still use it on the Intel-based Macs, and something called Rosetta will allow Power PC software to run, probably with a small hit on performance, but will still run, unlike XP-based software on Vista.
I think that it is unacceptable and is a slap in the face for the user. Vista is also packed with a lot of anti-consumer technologies, which are being forced upon us via the RIAA and MPAA, that can and will cause a lot of headaches for law abiding users. My next computer probably won't be a Vista-based machine, and will more likely be an Apple Mac, and also maybe Linux for some things.
This is my take on Vista.
Robert
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How to remove temporary Internet files
by Maury Green
Question: Seems this was covered months ago, but I cannot find it. I want to remove some temporary Internet files, but not all. How's that done? (I have IE 6.0, but also use a pc with IE 7.0.)
Answer:
For Internet Explorer 6
Go to Tools > Internet Options.
On the General tab under "Temporary Internet Files" click on Settings.
In the "Temporary Internet Files and History Settings" window click on View Files.
This will take you to the Temporary Internet Files directory where you can selectively delete the files as you wish.
For Internet Explorer 7
Go to Tools > Internet Options.
On the General tab under "Browsing History" click on Settings.
the rest is the same as for IE6
Or you can go directly to the directory at C:\Documents and Settings\<Your User Name>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files and delete whatever you want.
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