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| Volume 21 | June, 2003 | Issue No. 06 |
| Second Edition |
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Second Edition |
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Regular Meeting
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Wednesday, June 18 at 7:00 PM Caseyville Township Bldg. |
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Wednesday, July 2nd Ryan's Steakhouse Everyone is welcome |
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This month's demo will be a little bit different. We are going to hold a repair session and SWAP Meet. Bring your computers in for repair, and bring in things you want to sell, swap or trade. Oh, don't forget, bring some money too. The repair session is for members only. Got a machine you need fixed? How about joining? Where else are you going to get a machine fixed for the cost of parts and $15.00?
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Next
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The demo for July 16th will be about using a scanner. This
was the most requested demo from the member survey.
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Hello From The
Pres... |
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COMPUTER
SHOW = 22 NEW / RE-NEW MEMBERS! BUILD
IT - FIX IT - UPGRADE IT - SELL IT - TRADE IT
NIGHT ! WELCOME
TO THE CLUB NO
DEMO SURVEY
RESULTS ARE IN I
was going to type up the results of the survey, but I’ll
leave you hanging until we get to the next meeting. We’ll let
you know what everybody thought would be a good demo and the
how everybody answered the questions to our survey. Don’t
worry, you weren’t the only one who asked for something
strange on the "write in your own demo suggestions" area….
See
you at the meeting … Mike |
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The Treasurer's
Report |
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There is no Treasurer's Report this month. Don has been hospitalized for heart by-pass surgery and a valve repair. Our wishes a prayers go with him. Hopefully he will be able to resume some of his duties on a limited basis next month. The
bank balance as of May 1, 2003 was
$2972.36 |
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The Secretary's Report |
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No submission was received. Your Pen Slave Carlos |
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The Membership
Chairman |
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| Number of Members in attendance last month: | 65 (estimate) |
| Total Membership Before last month's meeting | 201 |
| Number of Members renewing last meeting | Unknown 1 at the computer show |
| Number Of Members joined last meeting | Unknown 21 at the computer show |
| Number of members dropped | |
| Current Total Membership | |
| Number of Members in Good Standing | |
| Number of Members on Probation | |
| Note, with Don in the hospital we were not able to get the member update and renewal information that is need to make this report. The 201 total members shown above was taken from last month's report. |
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The Web Master |
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LOOKING FOR YOUR WINDOWS PRODUCT KEY? The product key is a 25-character alphanumeric code that can be found on the packaging material provided with Windows XP. It is converted to a Product ID by Microsoft in the activation process. You can't activate without it. If the computer is running, you can find it with a couple programs. they are : Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder v1.41 http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml ViewKeyXP. http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/tips_fixes.htm You can use Belarc Advisor. It lists the Product Key and the Product ID for Windows 98 and ME. That program also is free at: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html There's an easy way to avoid losing the keys. Write them down. Keep them in a safe place. If you ever need them, you'll be glad you did. There was a flurry of messages last week regarding spyware.
Who doesn't. Check this one out
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The Computer
Master |
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See you at the meeting. Enjoy.....JT |
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Mitch's Corner |
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SPECIALFEATURE: -----> 98 + 98SE <----- Not long ago, Microsoft said June 30 2003 was the last date for Win98 support. Soooooo... two weeks from now, Win98 would no longer be patched, updated, or bug-fixed. But just recently, Microsoft quietly extended the date. This will affect me (oh yeah, and tens of millions of other users worldwide)! Now, the "'nonsupport" date for Win98 has been rolled back 6 months to Jan 16 2004, and the new "end of life" date has been pushed back to Jan 16 2005. This is the second time Microsoft has pushed these dates back, which--- on the plus side--- suggests MS is being receptive to its customers' needs: The company probably was getting tons of negative feedback on ceasing support for so enormously popular an OS. On the other hand it also suggests that MS may not be seeing the rate of XP upgrades it hoped for; and/or may be fearing that users will defect to Linux instead of moving to XP. Keeping Win98 alive at least keeps those users in the Microsoft fold for now. But eventually, there won't be any more patches or updates--- so if you're still using Win98, you still need to make plans for the future. But it's not on the chopping block just yet.! -----> 2000 + XP <----- Here's an interesting piece of software that many of you might want to use. It's FREE and easy to work with: http://vtmig.w2k.vt.edu/ Daisy 2- An intelligent auto-hotfix utility for Windows 2000 and XP. Daisy reviews your system for service pack and OS levels, determins what hotfixes you lack, downloads and installs them the right way!! -AND-It checks that the hotfixes already in the system are installed correctly. Written by Marc DeBonis, Lead Systems Architect, Virginia Tech. The direct link to the "Daisy" page is http://vtntug.w2k.vt.edu/daisy.html -------------------------------------- It would be great if one of our resident geeks that uses XP will use this thing and let the club know how it works for them. It may be a reall boon as we are all forced eventually to abandon Win98. Hope you find some useful stuff in the 'corner' this month. Don't forget to check the stuff in the "Collections" area for Win 98 stuff. |
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Later,
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The
Librarian |
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| No submission received, and there are no new CD's this month. We will have the CD library at the meeting. |
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The Editor |
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Why the brown text Well that is the color I use to designate the editors comments. This month there is a lot of it in the other officer's articles. Everyone worked hard at the show, and they apparently did not have time to prepare their submissions. You will notice the newsletters a bit shorter than usual and I did not send out the post card reminders either...Next month things will be back to normal.. I would also like to welcome 16 of our 21 new members. It seems Mike's typing is not so good after all. Five of the new members emails were returned as undeliverable. We will try and get that fixed when I see the paper applications.
But perhaps the most compelling reason to buy a digital camera, is that it will make you a better photographer. It’s amazing how quickly your creativity will blossom when you can take shot after shot without worrying about the cost. And since your digicam’s electronics will automatically balance different color qualities of light, there’s never a problem about using the wrong type of film. Best of all, scientific studies have shown that instant feedback accelerates learning; if you can recognize and correct a bad shot at the time you take it, chances are you won’t make the same mistake again. Learn more, click on the above title. Truly old color photos See some truly unbelievable photo of early Russia and learn about its buildings and its people. This is a very good site. Learn how some of these photos were colorized using a color rendering process, “Digichromatography” . Here is a sample to peak your interest. The photographs of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) offer a vivid portrait of a lost world--the Russian Empire on the eve of World War I and the coming revolution. His subjects ranged from the medieval churches and monasteries of old Russia, to the railroads and factories of an emerging industrial power, to the daily life and work of Russia's diverse population. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/gorskii.html Some of these photos were made using a special camera with 3 lenses (red, green, and
blue) and the three negatives were combined later to make the color
photo http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/making.html Linux is technically superior to Windows 9x and even Windows
NT. Just compare main features of 2 systems:
It's up to you to decide what you need. Furthermore, Linux gives you power, but it takes some time to learn how to harness it. Thus, if you mostly need commercial software, or if you don't feel like learning new commands and concepts, you had better look elsewhere. Be aware that many newcomers give up because of initial difficulties. Linux information was one of the more highly requested Demo topics. Several of us are working on a demo. With some luck and time it should be available sometime this Fall. |
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Still FREE!, and it has
a popup killer too. This company has a number of other free
programs available too. |
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Note! Dennis generally sends things to me and other members about current topics as well as interesting articles and software. This month he sent in a lot of things, so I put the ones of general interest here in a column. If you like what you see, let Dennis know. |
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SPY WARE "Spyware" refers to small, hidden programs that are embedded in larger applications to report information to advertisers. These programs are included in some shareware and freeware programs because, unfortunately, that's the only way some software developers can pay their bills. If you don't want any part of this--and feel that these hidden programs invade your privacy, try some of the following suggestions to route out and remove "Spyware". and If you had downloaded Mozilla...
It
has a "Built-In Ad Blocker Pop up, all images and banner ads stopper in it.
This helps load the webpages really fast. Among other great features. MITCH
has been saying at every meeting since I can remember - see story @ Mitch's
Corner)
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Among the adbots SpyBot targets: Aureate, CLPRS, Comet
Cursors, eZula HotText, Gator, GoHip, Radiate, WebHancer, and WildTangent.
The program allows you to update by subscribing to the author's mailing list. Finally, Spybot removes your usage tracks (last visited
Web sites, opened files, started programs, and cookies), so even spybots that
are unknown can't transmit this private information. The program supports
all three major browsers: Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator, and Opera.
Download Note: PCWorld.com is among those sites that use pop-up
windows to survey readers, show ads, and sell magazine subscriptions.
Download
Ad-aware v6.0 Build
0162 Version 6.0 offers improvements (like a redesigned
user interface) and safeguards for users who may be overzealous in removing
adware/spyware components. Because many ad-supported programs won't function
if you remove their ad modules, you may occasionally want to overrule an earlier
decision to remove one of these components. Version 6.0 addresses this problem
in two ways: It stores adware components in your Recycle Bin, where you can
later retrieve them; and it provides a backup archive viewer for reviewing--and
if necessary, restoring--components you've removed. Ad-aware is free for noncommercial use only. If you
want to use it in a commercial, educational, or governmental environment,
Lavasoft asks that you purchase Ad-aware Plus
or Ad-aware
Professional at its Web site. Download AVG Anti-Virus System Free Edition v6.0 Everyone knows you need antivirus software to combat known threats, but what about those viruses that sneak under the radar before code is written to counteract them? AVG Anti-Virus System spots programs that behave like viruses, locks them up, and puts them in isolation--even if no one's issued an all-points bulletin and corrective code. You can manually run a virus scan on your files and e-mail, or schedule them at predetermined times and folders. This program can run its quarantine operations in the background, so you don't have to be disturbed. Note: AVG 6.0 Free Edition offer is not valid for European users, except users from the United Kingdom, and the program is designed for protection of single computers, not computer networks. This free edition requires registration, and it does not offer technical support. AVG does offer a free 30-day Trial Version of the standard edition, which includes technical support, at the same link below. go to download site |
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Last night I was prompted on my XP Pro OS PC, I have yet to get it back up and running. However, thanks to Bob Young for these
links, at least there's a fix. Dennis....now you know one reason why we do not recommend Norton unless there is an over powering reason to use it.
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Miscellaneous |
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Fun sites We have two fun sites for this news letter. Check them out: A new VCR. Yes I know its a compute club, but this one is interesting.
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The Lighter
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Thank Mitch for this one. I linked to it because it is a bit on the long side, but definitely worth your time. Just got
this in from a reliable source. It seems there If
you have something you want to share, just send it to me
using the above mailbox
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