Review Chairmans Industry Comments (02/02)

Sarasota PC Monitor

Review Chairmans Industry Comments (02/02)

Reviewing Software

by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor

E-mail comments, suggestions, etc. to Herb Goldstein at: revieweditor@spcug.org

THE FUTURE IS ALIVE AND WELL! Our computer organization, one of the largest in the U.S., is mainly composed of people with exceptionally active minds who are in the upper echelons of intelligence and education. These are basic requirements for the serious work we do with computers. Not surprisingly, our members show a healthy current and future interest in our community. We in Sarasota are very fortunate to boast a unique attribute in our community's Teducational system of which we should all be rightfully proud and which reminds us that the future is very bright indeed. The shining star I refer to is our own remarkable Pine view School for the Gifted.

Exceptionally bright and highly intelligent children deserve a special educational opportunity to fully develop their potential. A visit to Pine View school would both comfort and amaze you to see how well that goal is being served in a unique and outstanding school environment. Children throughout the Sarasota elementary school system who demonstrate superior educational performance are eligible to take a test for admission to Pine View. Those who succeed will spend their entire elementary, middle, and high school years in an extraordinary learning atmosphere. Sarasotans are highly fortunate to have available to our children such a unique opportunity in public education that rivals and surpasses many of the nation's very finest private schools.

A visit to Pine View School is a rewarding and unusual experience. As you look about, you realize that you are viewing a college campus inhabited by children from six to sixteen. The behavior and dress of students is strictly college level. The children realize that attendance in this school is a privilege that they consequently have no desire to place at risk by inappropriate dress or conduct. The net result is a utopia for teachers. They can devote all their efforts to teaching without unproductive time disciplining. It is equally utopian for children who can concentrate without interruption their entire energies and talents learning and receiving an amazingly outstanding education.

Would you like to see a 2nd grader learning Russian, a 4th grader performing high school level scientific experimentation, or a high school sophomore discussing the works of Dante or Plato at a depth that might intimidate a college sophomore. These are a minute sampling of what constitutes the everyday learning experience of a Pine View student. What a joy it is to see every bit of a child's exceptional talent being fully utilized. What a blessing it is to those of us who are concerned about the future of our country and community.

Children are the messages we send to a time we will not see. This extraordinary school demonstrates that the future is alive and well and in good hands.

COMPUTER DEFINITIONS: PIXEL. There are thousands of various computer terms being used when reading and researching topics within Windows. One such term is "pixel." (Not to be confused with a Pixie; a mythical little fairy-thing.) A pixel is a term to describe a single dot on a computer screen. The more dots, or pixels, you have, the better the image on the screen. Computer monitors and graphics cards vary in the number of pixels that they are able to display on a screen at one time. This total number of pixels on a screen is called the resolution

DID YOU LISTEN TO YOUR UNCLE? Your Uncle Herb gave you advance warning of the foibles of WinME. Did you listen? I know there are enough of you who subsequently told me they wished they had. Dollars to doughnuts, the same people who failed to heed my warning are probably among the many who are crying once again over XP. Don't say I didn't warn you about compatibility. Some of you are happy as a clam with XP, while others are pulling out what little hair they have left because a variety of software and hardware problems.

So you say your scanner isn't working, your favorite utility bit the dust, and you have been all over creation trying to find updated drivers. Such is the lot of being one of the first kids on the block with a new toy.

The question is whether this new toy will have a greater longevity than WinME. The successor to XP, code-named "Longhorn," is scheduled for release in 2003. Longhorn will in turn be succeeded by "Blackcomb." It may well come to pass the XP will be known in time as a "corner turner." In the meantime, look before you leap! If you are considering upgrading to XP, you need to go to Microsoft's Website and run their "Upgrade Advisor" which will examine your system and let you know what will or won't work under XP. Additionally, you need to go to pcpitstop.com which has a feature that does the same thing. Added insurance!

HOME VS. PRO? If in spite of our caveats you are opting to go for XP, the "Home Edition" should be more than adequate for most users who have no need for the Professional Edition's advanced networking features. Remember also, if you install the Professional Edition now, you won't be able to upgrade to the Home Edition of the next version of Windows, so you'll pay an extra $100 both now and again the next time you upgrade Windows.

DIVX PLAYER AND DIVX CODEC Get all the software you need to create and watch videos in the popular DiVX video format with this application bundle. Features include real-time, software-based decoding of video at high-definition resolutions, as well as a range of options for optimal playback. The latest version fixes several encoding and decoding problems and includes version 0.6.6 of The Playa player application.

http://clickthru.online.com/Click?q=d0-vjohQWWAQEk4K8qXXg8e-KLh

LIVESITE is for anyone who wants to create a Website fast. It offers all kinds of wizards, themes, and templates to build your pages, and even makes it easy to include weather forecasts, news feeds, and more on your site. It will work on Win 95-98-NT, and best of all, it's free. Get it at zdnet.com/downloads.

IS THE DOCTOR IN? You bet! He's inside your computer. You can reach him for details on any health questions by going to the following sites which are most recently rated as tops for first-class, reliable medical information:

MedicineNet.com

Intelihealth.com

WebMD.com

merckhomeedition.com

DRAG SENSE. Dragging files or other objects from one place to another is a nice Windows feature. The thing you newbies need to remember is to hold down the proper key when you drag. If you want to copy the file to the new location, hold down the CONTROL key while you drag. If you want to entirely move the file from its current location, hold down the SHIFT key or don't hold down any key while you drag.

MORE TAXCUT HONORS. In a recent issue, PC Magazine gave TaxCut their coveted "Editor's Choice" in a comparative review of tax preparation programs. We beat them to it by in a few weeks in our review of TaxCut that appeared in our January issue.

SEARCH OPTION When you are searching for a file using "Find" (Windows 95 and 98) or "Search" (Windows Me) within the Start menu, you can use the ? as a single wild-card character in the name of the file for which you are looking.

For example: *.EXE will find all files with the EXE extension. ??LY.EXE will find all files with L and Y as the third and fourth letters of a four-character name and an EXE extension.

COMPUTER HELP IS HERE. A message board is a great means of solving your computer software and hardware problems and educating yourself about those that your fellow users are suffering so you may avoid falling into the same difficulties. There are 2 such boards readily available to SPCUG members. The first of these is our very own where members can post their problems via e-mail and read the advice of other members who monitor the message board. Great idea, eh wot? This brain child of our own editor, Gary Schweinshaupt, has been off to a running start. The powerhouse that monitors and moderates the board is our own efficient and tireless ex-president, Dave Gerber.

Getting involved is easy. You need only go to www.spcug.org and enter your e-mail address in the "Subscribe to SPCUG Yahoo Group" box. You will then receive any messages posted to the board in your regular e-mail.

Another readily available forum for posting problems and obtaining advice is available on CNET's message boards. You can post problems and offer advice by going to http://clickthru.online.com/Click?q=60-oqBtIsEFhhCYJk20-m1TfYJT

A QUICK FIX. So you are in an application that takes up your entire screen and you really need something that sits in your task bar or system tray that used to be on the bottom of your screen before your app covered it up. Fear not....just move your pointer to the bottom of your screen where your task bar used to be , at voila!....up it comes!

HERE'S THE PLACE FOR THE TIME. Atomic Clock Sync is a freebie that syncs your PC's clock with an atomic clock over the Internet. It'll check the atomic clock once a day, automatically, so that you'll always have the right time. Get it at zdnet.com/downloads

REPAIRING DAMAGED ICONS. In Windows 98, if your desktop icons begin to look strange, chances are good that the ShellIconCache file is damaged. To correct the decision, delete the file by starting Windows in Safe mode (depress the Ctrl key until the Startup menu appears, select Safe Mode, press Enter.) Be sure you can see all files in an Explorer window (select View, Folder Options, View tab, Advanced Settings, and Show All Files.) Open the Windows folder and right click on the ShellIconCache file, select Delete and Yes to confirm. When you reboot Windows, a new ShellIconCache will be recreated and your icons will be back to normal.

POINTING TO YOUR FAVORITE SITE. For quick access to your most-used Website, in Windows Explorer, go to C:\Windows\Favorites folder and find the site in your Favorites list. Right-click on it and choose properties. Under the Internet Shortcut folder tab, you'll see the site's address next to Target URL and next to Shortcut key you should see None. Replace "None" with any desired letter you wish to make a hotkey and click OK. You'll now need only to press Ctrl+Alt+ the letter that you designated. Make sure the hotkey you designate is unique; that is, not in use by another application.

SURFSAVER IS AN EXCELLENT FREEBIE that lets you grab pages from the Web, store them on your PC, and then locate information from those pages via full-text search or keyword searches. For those who do a great deal of their research on the Web, this program is a godsend. zdnet.com/downloads

DRIVERSHQ.COM is the place to go to get the free Drivers Detective 2.0. It will find new and updated drivers for most of your needs.

TWEAK UI V1.33 Free yourself from the tyranny of ordinary Windows with this extra set of free tools (also called PowerToys) created by Microsoft developers. Adjust menu speed and window animation. Move the StartUp folder up the Explorer hierachy, or move the My Documents folder to another drive. If you get the "No Help topic is associated with this item" message when you access the help menu, Tweak UI may have answers. The tool set also offers quicker fixes for adding and removing items to your right-click New menu. And you may get a second chance at recovering lost uninstall options, but only if you've installed the program while the original uninstall list. You can get it at: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,2803,tk,Top10,00.asp

DID YOU PATCH YOUR XP? In case you missed all the commotion about security holes in Windows XP, you need to patch yours by going to: http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2835369,00.html

REGCLEAN This free utility cleans your Registry of unnecessary entries that were created when you installed or uninstalled programs on your computer. This release of the utility fixes a few problems and creates an "undo.reg" file so that you can undo changes you inadvertently make to the Registry. pcworld.com/downloads

HOT NEW INTEL CHIP. Intel has finally released its long-awaited Northwood version of the Pentium 4 processor running at a 2.2 GHz speed and adding a number of performance improvements, but the initial round of benchmarks shows that the new Pentium's performance still lags behind the $200 less-expensive AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 1.9 GHz chip in many key areas.

The "Northwood" is the first Pentium 4 to be manufactured to 0.13-micron geometry, which shrinks the size of the processor die from an exceptionally large 217 square millimeters to 146 square millimeters-still larger than the Athlon XP's 128 square millimeters. This switch makes the processor run faster, consume less power and emit less heat, while also reducing manufacturing costs, which have been high for the P4. Intel has also boosted the level 2 (L2) memory cache from 256KB to 512KB, meaning that more frequently accessed data can be stored directly on the processor die, leading to faster performance. In spite of its faster speed, the Northwood and the AMD Athlon processors are equal in performance while the Athlon costs some $200 less.

CD-RW DRIVES

The hottest hardware add-on today appears to be the CD-RW drive. PC World's recent tests and recommendations offer the following product ratings and advice:

Best buy TDK 24/10/40 VeloCDReWriter, $145. Outstanding/Very good. FEATURES: 24X/10X/40X,1 IDE, internal, 2MB buffer, buffer underrun protection. Includes Ahead Nero Burning ROM 5.5 and InCD 2.12 software, one-year warranty, 10.5-hour daily toll-free support. SUMMARY: This fast drive retains its number one spot thanks to seven-days-a-week tech support; TDK also sells a similar drive, the 24/10/40b.

Best buy Samsung SW-216, $85, Very good/Good, FEATURES: 16X/10X/32X,1 IDE, internal, 2MB buffer, buffer underrun protection, Ahead Nero Burning ROM 5.5 and InCD 2.11 software, one-year warranty, 10-hour weekday toll-free support. SUMMARY: A bargain price helps this solid all-around performer move up to second place; this is one of the best 16X drives we've seen.

CenDyne Lightning 24x10x40, $140 85 Outstanding/Fair. FEATURES: 24X/10X/40X,1 IDE, internal, 2MB buffer, buffer underrun protection, Ahead Nero Burning ROM 5.5 and InCD software, one-year warranty, 9-hour weekday and 4-hour Saturday support (calls are not toll-free). SUMMARY: Excellent performance and a competitive price make this 24X drive a fine choice.

The hottest hardware add-on today appears to be the CD-RW drive.

4. Philips PCRW2010, $150, Outstanding/Very good , FEATURES: 20X/10X/40X,1 IDE, internal, 2MB buffer, buffer underrun protection, Ahead Nero Burning 5.5 and InCD 2.22, one-year warranty, 11-hour weekday and 8-hour weekend toll-free support. SUMMARY: Less costly drives are on the market, but Philips offers toll-free daily technical support and helpful documentation.

5. LG Electronics GCE-8160B, $110, Very good/Very good. FEATURES: 16X/10X/40X,1 IDE, internal, 2MB buffer, buffer underrun protection, Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4.03 and DirectCD 3.03, one-year warranty, 13-hour weekday and 12-hour Saturday toll-free support. SUMMARY: This inexpensive drive is a strong overall performer and a fast CD-ROM reader for its speed class.

6. New Teac CD-W524E, $130, Very good/Satisfactory. FEATURES: 24X/10X/40X,1 IDE, internal, 2MB buffer, Roxio Easy CD Creator 5.1 and DirectCD 5.1, one-year warranty, 9-hour weekday support (calls are not toll-free).

SUMMARY: Though this drive's performance is a little sluggish compared with most other 24X offerings, Teac includes a better-than-average software bundle.

7. Lite-On 24x10x40x LTR-24102B, $105, Outstanding/Fair. FEATURES: 24X/10X/40X,1 IDE, internal, 2MB buffer, buffer underrun protection, Ahead Nero Burning ROM 5.5 and InCD 2.26, one-year warranty, 9-hour weekday support (calls are not toll-free). SUMMARY: The lowest-cost 24X model on the chart, this drive is held back by lackluster documentation and technical support.

8. QPS Que Internal 24x10x40x CD-RW, $140, Outstanding/Good. FEATURES: 24X/10X/40X,1 IDE, internal, 2MB buffer, buffer underrun protection, Ahead Nero Burning ROM 5.5 and InCD 2.23, one-year warranty, 11.5-hour weekday support (calls are not toll-free). SUMMARY: First-rate CD-R and CD-RW performance, as well as a competitive price (which drops this month by $25), keeps this model in the Top 10.

9. New Sony CRX175A/A1, $150, Outstanding/Very good. FEATURES: 24X/10X/40X,1 IDE, internal, 2MB buffer, buffer underrun protection, BHA B's Recorder Gold 3.01 and B's Clip 2.29, one-year warranty, 12-hour weekday and Saturday toll-free support. SUMMARY: Outstanding write performance and an excellent software bundle earn this drive a spot on our chart.

10. Yamaha LightSpeed CRW2200EZ, $185, Very good/Very good. FEATURES: 20X/10X/40X,1 IDE, internal, 8MB buffer, buffer underrun protection, Ahead Nero Burning ROM 5.5 and InCD 2.11, one-year warranty, 12-hour weekday support (calls are not toll-free). SUMMARY: This drive logged the fastest time on our CD-RW write tests. It also comes with a terrific software bundle.

A PAIR OF SHAREWARE GEMS

Would you believe that there are people who still look down their nose at shareware. They consider that if it doesn't come in a box (and today without even a manual in most cases) and you don't pay through the nose for it, the chances are it's second rate. Baloney and double phooey! Some of the very best, most creative, ingenious and well designed software I have seen in recent times are shareware applications readily available at comparatively low cost for simple direct download from the Net. It should also be noted that more standard software product are becoming available only by download rather than retail store purchase. PC-Cillin is one of many such examples. Numerous others give you the option of retail store purchase or direct download at a lesser cost.

They have recreated Windows Add/Remove on steroids!

Another unbeatable plus in shareware lies in its "try before you buy" feature. A considerable amount of shareware is freeware, free for your personal use. Most other shareware applications provide a 30 day free trial feature which gives you the opportunity to see if you really like it and want it. No prior commitments, no returns...how can you beat it?

A visit to cnet.com, zdnet.com, or tucows.com will introduce you to some of the best and most innovative software you have ever laid eyes on. I call them shareware gems. The shareware sites usually award these outstanding products 4 or 5 stars. We have already introduced you to several of these that our users rave about. Here are two more shareware gems that take first prize!

ADD/REMOVE PLUS 2002

There are a variety of software uninstallers around. Most of them take up valuable memory by running in your system tray on startup as they idly sit around doing nothing but wait for you to install something for them to monitor. They then reward you by doing no more effective a job than Windows own Add/Remove Programs application. It would make good common sense to provide something as simple as that Windows own add/remove applet but with a good deal more polish and refinement. And that is what the good folks at Aurelitec.com have done. They have recreated Windows Add/Remove on steroids! It's called Add/Remove Plus 2002 and you can get it at any of the aforementioned shareware sites or at aurelitec.com directly.

AR+ 2002 brings up a listing of all the software installed in your computer including the registry entry and the program's own uninstall command for each. Double click on any program in the list and it will be uninstalled using that program's own uninstall command which is usually the most effective. Furthermore, unlike Windows own Add/Remove applet, once the program is uninstalled, its name will be deleted from the list. Windows insists on continuing to display the names of software long gone. AR+ will remove it from its own listing and simultaneously from Windows AR listing as well.

It has never been easier and more effective to uninstall software than with AR+. A double click of the mouse does the job. It passes the simplicity and effectiveness tests with flying colors. Cleaning up your hard drive by getting rid of what you no longer need and use has never been easier or better.

AR+ works in Windows 9x, Me, NT, 2000, and XP. You can download a trial copy before you buy. The purchase cost is only $14.95. If you try it, you won't want to part with it. auurelitec.com

MEMORYBOOST PRO 2

Talk about ingenuity and excellence in shareware, here's a superb utility that belongs on everybody's computer regardless of which current version of Windows you are running, including XP. It recently received a well-deserved 5 star (highest) rating from ZDNet and is something I encourage each and every one of you to download free for 30 day trial from rosecitysoftware.com. The cost to purchase afterward is $19.95 and worth much more.

Memory is a key operational component of your computer. What comes from your hard drive and you see on your screen is not running directly from your hard drive, but running in your computer's random access memory, commonly known as RAM. Most computers today come with at least 128MB of RAM. Wise users add more to total 256 or 512MB.

Run a few applications simultaneously and you would be amazed at how fast that RAM is gobbled up. To add insult to injury, you more than likely have all kinds of memory hogs that you are not even aware of running in the background that are activated when you start up your computer, most of which you are likely completely unaware of. Furthermore, as you use and then shut down programs, they do not always oblige by returning the memory they used while running. The net consequence of these factors is that you frequently run low on memory.

As your memory supply is depleted, your computer starts to run slow and funky, programs freeze and frequently crash. Your hard drive is constantly clicking and spinning in the background as it attempts to catch up with your input. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have something running that will constantly keep you appraised of the status of your memory and intercedes when necessary to return the RAM your computer needs? That's the job that MemoryBoost Pro readily will do, and a whole lot more as well!

As MemoryBoost Pro works, it will speed up your computer and prevent crashes resulting from RAM depletion and restore stability and efficiency to your entire system. You can instantly and graphically see the current status of your memory and how and where it is being used. An easy current readout appears via MemoryBoost Pro's icon sitting in your system tray.

With the help and advice from the excellent documentation in MemoryBoost Pro, you can set and keep your available memory at a desired pre-determined level. MemoryBoost Pro will automatically intercede for you to boost your memory to the desired level of RAM when it falls below a critical level. Optionally and at any time, a quick click of a hot key combination will also instantly provide a "quick boost" and return the RAM that has been depleted. Furthermore, MemoryBoost Pro's "Detective" provides an accurate list of every item running in memory at any time and exactly how much it is using. Employing this feature, I discovered and was able to eliminate items placed resident in memory at startup that I was completely unaware of and did not even appear in Windows' own listing obtained from the startup tab at msconfig. I was further able to discover how much of a drag on my system was created by some items I had chosen to run in memory and did not necessarily belong there. MemoryBoost Pro makes it easy and accurate to get right at the root of your memory problems and do something about it.

MemoryBoost Pro provides a system optimization feature that lets you designate how much memory you'd like to be used for the disk cache and various other performance enhancements within Windows. It also offers an easy-to-use Optimizer Wizard, which will optimize your system based on the types of programs you like to run. Using the Wizard, you don't need to know anything about your system; MemoryBoost Pro will supply all the technical know-how.

MemoryBoost Pro can also create special shortcuts for your programs, which boost memory before they run. If you have a big spreadsheet, or an intensive game, and you need a large amount of memory for it, MemoryBoost Pro can clear the way to ensure that the program runs at optimum speed. MemoryBoost Pro's shortcuts even work for documents and files. You can instruct MemoryBoost Pro to avoid certain programs. If you want to run a high- intensity game and don't want MemoryBoost Pro to step in and manage memory while you're playing, you can put the game on the Avoided Programs list.

Extensive and easy to understand on-screen documentation about the program's operation and memory in general are provided in Memory Boost's help menu. Additionally, it offers an instant explanation of each of the features you select as you go.

There are lots of memory utilities around, both independent and as part of various utility suites that boast memory assistance. None of them offer anywhere near what Memory Boost Pro does. It is the only complete memory utility we know of. It not only boasts ZDNet's highest rating, but ours as well. You have nothing to lose. Download a free 30 day trial at rosecitysoftware.com and see for yourself exactly what we are talking about! :

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Copyright 2002. This article is from the February 2002 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/

The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,300+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.

See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.