Sarasota PC Monitor

Review Chairmans Industry Comments (09/03)

The Computer Buffet

by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor

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

SOFTWAREPATCH.COM is where you will find a great collection of software patches, drivers, etc. to bring both your software and hardware up to date. It's a convenient one-stop-shop. Try it. You'll like it! MOVIE BUFFS will enjoy a trip to www.imdb.com where they will find out what's playing where, what's in the making, and lots of other news about the movie and entertainment industries.

17 INCH LCD MONITORS have fallen below the $400 mark and are still falling. Inch-wise, a 17 inch LCD is equivalent to a 19 inch CRT monitor. Each provides an 18 inch actual display. Size-wise, LCD monitors in general provide a display that is an inch more while a CRT provides an inch less than their stated screen size. As technology improves, demand increases and prices drop. My first computer cost close to $4,000. Today you can buy one that would run rings around it for $500.

FREE AGENT This free program helps you subscribe to, filter, and organize UseNet newsgroup messages. You can dip into message threads as they interest you, mark long articles to be downloaded later, or download articles while browsing others. The program also supports binary attachments, so you can post and download files. You can also decrease your online time by using the program's offline mode, which briefly connects to the server to retrieve article headers. Then you browse the headers offline, mark the interesting ones, and hop back online to retrieve the marked articles. Forteinc.com

PHOTOSHOP USERS will find an excellent variety of good advice and techniques at russellbrown.com. Another good site for Photoshop tips and tricks is located at computer-darkroom.com. Don't miss this free education.

TELEPHONE DIRECTORIES DIRECTORIES, both white and yellowpage await you at both addresses.com and anywho.com. The latter also includes a search for toll-free numbers. Save yourself the absurd information charges from the phone company by doing it yourself. A BETTER BROWSER IS FREE FREE. Opera is smaller and faster than Netscape and Internet Explorer and has many neat features the others are missing. Among these is the ability to open multiple windows, even at start-up, without running out of memory. You can zoom in and out of pages, as you would in Word or Excel documents. The browser includes a newsreader, so you can seamlessly keep abreast of your favorite newsgroups. And the browser lets you navigate entirely with your keyboard, which can speed up your surfing. Because of its low memory usage and relatively small footprint, Opera is particularly useful on older PCs.

LOOKING FOR SOMEBODY? Chances are if you won't find them here, you won't find them anywhere. I site that offers a variety of people-search tools awaits you at http://www.person.langenberg.com/

CM DISKCLEANER helps free up more space on your computer by finding and deleting garbage files. Windows (and most applications) create temporary files while running, but these files are rarely deleted after use. These files vary in size, waste disk space, and slow down applications. CM DiskCleaner searches for garbage files (trash left by programs), invalid shortcuts, and zero byte files. When deleting files, they can be deleted (and restored using backup), sent to the Recycle Bin, or erased (and can't be restored). It's a free download at www.cmdiskcleaner.com TECH SUPPORT? In a recent issue of Consumer Reports it was revealed that one third of all calls to tech support fail to resolve problems. The remaining two thirds are probably still busy trying to translate their conversation. AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A pet python missing over the last two months made its reappearance by scaring a Dutch woman when it slithered out of her toilet bowl." Talk about being scared ****less.

A TREASURE CHEST of utilities, fixes, tools, freeware and much more awaits Windows XP users at winxpfix.com. A trip to this site is a veritable must for all XP users! SAVE MONEY ON INK? It has gotten to the point where it is in some cases actually cheaper to buy a new printer loaded with ink cartridges than to buy the cartridges alone. Many people who print mostly or entirely in black and white are better off buying a laser printer whose cost per copy is considerably less expensive and whose output quality is considerably better.

MUSIC BUFFS will appreciate the wealth of information at allmusic.com. You can search for music and retrieve artists, ratings and a variety of other information about any musical selection that interests you.

QUACKWATCH.COM COM. It's not about ducks, it's about docs. This site will clue you into fraud, quackery, scams and the like within the healing professions. I wish they would come up with a site that chronicled the members of congress who are being supported monetarily by the drug companies in return for blocking and stalling prescription drug legislation.

ETHNIC FOODS, MENUS AND SPICES SPICES. You'll find a great collection of them all, including menus, at ethnicgrocer.com. Wherever you family may have originally come way back, or the kinds of ethnic foods that whet your appetite, you'll find them at this appetizing web site.

PASSWORD PROBLEMS? This program may offer you a free solution. Ever think of how many hours and how much energy you've wasted entering your personal information to register at Web sites? RoboForm makes the process automatic: All you have to do is right-click on the form, and the utility inputs your name, e-mail address, mailing address, and more. Best of all, the program works inside your browser.

You must first create an identity by providing the program with your name, birthdate, address, phone numbers, and any other information you want it to store. You can establish any number of identities and switch between them, saving you the inconvenience of trying to remember which identity you used at which site. To fill out a form, hit the 'Fill Forms' button and the program will fill in any blanks using the information you've provided. "Passcards" store your login names and passwords. However, you still have to remember a password to access and change your information. www.roboform.com/index.html UPI PICTURE SEARCH SEARCH. The United Press International maintains an archive of 100,000+ images, adding 1,200 more each month. If you're looking for a photo that made the news, chances are you'll find it at http://www.upi.com/ photos/index.cfm .

TWEAK WINDOWS SETTINGS with Xteq X-Setup v6.3. Tweak more than 750 hidden functions in Windows, Internet Explorer, and other common programs with simple button clicks. This so-called "hacker" or "tweaker" program allows you to change the appearance of your desktop or browser, modify memory settings, or bump your security up a notch. The Explorer-like interface makes navigating the tweak options a snap. Optional Record Mode and log files make it easy to retrace your steps and even reproduce your work on thousands of computers. You can view the source code of every plug-in before installing it, or you can set XSetup to automatically update with new plug-ins. It's free for the downloading at xteq.com. A word of caution...tweaking Windows settings requires you know what you are doing, i.e. not for novices.

MELISSA DATA DATA. Find ZIP codes, city names, locations, and more information regarding phone numbers, demographics, US and Canadian addresses, etc. Calculate distances between ZIP codes, and do a lot more useful lookups at melissadata.com/Lookups/index.htm .

INTUIT UPDATES QUICKEN QUICKEN. This solid finance manager still faces strong challenge from Microsoft Money. Users of these personal finance management programs will finds some interesting current information about their latest creations by going to a recent PC World article at http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,111963,tk, cx081203a,00.asp

SCREENHUNTER Capture screenshots with this free tool. Like SnagIt, ScreenHunter lets you capture rectangular areas, active windows, and full screens; you can select a hotkey from F1 to F12; you can also save your images as JPEGs, GIFs, or BMPs. Equally useful, you can save screen captures to your clipboard and paste them into Word or your email client. Unlike the $40 SnagIt, however, ScreenHunter is completely free. wisdom-soft.com

OLDVERSION.COM. Sometimes upgrading to a newer version can be a good thing. Other times, your computer may not be compatible with the new version, the new version is bloated, or all the good options are no longer available. If you are looking for an old version of any program, OldVersion.com should be your first stop. We are an archive of old versions of various programs. If you don't see the program or a version of a program that you are looking for, tell us and we'll try our best to add it.

STICKY NOTES FROM YOUR COMPUTER. Memento (formerly PostIt) lets you keep notes on your desktop to remind you of information/dates/times etc. It is focused on ease of use and simplicity. Notes are automatically saved every minute (if they have changed), can be collapsed into the note title bar, and you can change the color of the notes. This Free program is available from guyswithtowels.com

SENIOR MEDICAL BENEFITS BENEFITS. A variety of medical benefits are available in government programs to eligible persons over 55 years of age. Individual entitlement is available at http://benefitscheckup.org/

SENIOR EMPLOYMENT INFO. People who are 55 or older and out of work may qualify for the Senior Community Service Employment Program. This federal program hires people to work at community and government agencies for minimum wage. It's run by the Department of Labor. Get more information at http://wdsc.doleta.gov/seniors/

KIM KOMANDO never ceases to amaze me. She discovers more useful nooks and crannies on the web and offers more easily digested information for the average computerist than anyone else out there. That's a bold statement because there's some awfully strong competition for the honor. The main difference with Kim is that the material she presents and the way she presents it is unique in its appeal to both inexperienced and average computerists alike. When she occasionally gets into complex matters, she breaks it down into bite-size. You will find a trip to her web site at Komando.com a worthwhile experience. There you will also find reference to her wonderful radio show that you can tune to on weekends for a great computer education. In the meantime, here's a *sampling of the extremely useful materials she offers to all of us:

It is very difficult to make major changes to software that already offers pretty much what anyone could possibly want in a powerful suite of applications.

*FLIGHT ARRIVALS ARRIVALS. Here's a site that keeps track of arrivals and times on all major (and some minor) airlines.

It's sort of like one-stop shopping. Go to flightarrivals.com *SENDING A PACKAGE? Have you ever dropped off a package at FedEx and wondered if you could have gotten a better deal at UPS or the U.S. Post Office? Those businesses do post their prices on the Internet, but you have to surf to each Web site and note the prices. You can stop surfing, because everything is consolidated at the Intershipper Quick Quote. Enter the weight, your ZIP code and the destination ZIP code. You'll receive a list of vendors and prices. You can also compare the differences in prices between standard and priority overnight, two-day, three-day and ground. http://www.intershipper.com/Shipping/Intershipper/Website/ MainPage.jsp

A VALID COMPARISON? For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on. At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon". In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive * but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine OFF!

MONITOR THE CONDITION OF YOUR HARD DRIVE . Don't wait till it's too late and you lose your drive with everything on it. HDD Health is a full-featured free failure-prediction agent for machines using Windows 95, 98, NT, Me, 2000 and XP. Sitting in the system tray, it monitors hard disks and alerts you to impending failure. The program uses Self Monitoring and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) built into all new hard disks, and can predict failures on your hard drives. A host of alerting features include email, local pop-up messages, net messages, and event logging, while using no system resources. www.panterasoft.com

MISSING BACKUP IN XP? If the backup utility is missing from your Win XP Home Edition and is not be on your Start menu or even listed under the Add/Remove Programs, you can install it from your Win XP Home Edition CD. It's located in the Valueadd folder. Browse on the CD to \VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP and double click on the "Ntbackup.msi" file to bring up a wizard that will install the backup.

WINDOWS SECURITY FLAW FLAW. Microsoft has issued a warning about a critical security flaw that affects most versions of its Windows software. The flaw involves DirectX, an extensive collection of programming add-ons for Windows used by computer games.

The flaw is unusually widespread, affecting all versions of DirectX from version 5.2 to the current 9.0a running on all versions of Windows from Windows 98 through the new Windows Server 2003, according to the Microsoft bulletin. If exploited, the flaw could allow a malicious hacker to run their own specially crafted computer code to plant a virus or even take over a machine. Microsoft has given the flaw its highest severity rating. (For the patch, visit http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/ technet/security/bulletin/MS03-030.asp)

PORTABLE STORAGE. Iomega has unveiled details of a small, detachable storage drive it is developing for portable electronics gadgets. The 1.5GB device, dubbed Digital Capture Technology, or DCT, uses a combination of hard drive technology created by Iomega and technology licensed from partner Fuji Photo Film, a digital camera maker.

ACCUWEATHER.COM will tell you everything you could possibly want to know about the weather and a whole lot more. How about an hour by hour forecast for a 3 day period? It's all here!

SOFTWARE, FREEWARE, SHAREWARE SHAREWARE, beta releases, reviews , what's new, what's changed, latest and downloading info and more awaits software enthusiasts at versiontracker.com.

A FRIENDLY REMINDER about anything you might otherwise forget can be sent to your email address on any date you wish by entering your choices at timecave.com. Don't risk forgetting your anniversary or your girl friend's birthday!

BUILDING YOUR OWN PC is something you might like to try. If it is, you can get a lot of good info on how to do it at mysuperpc.com. You will even find references on where to buy the necessary parts.

COMPARISON SHOP FOR DRUGS. Here's a site that offers comparison prices for drugs from domestic vendors. If you don't have prescription med insurance, give it a good lookover. It's probably not a reasonable as buying from Canada, but it's a great place to compare prices. www.destinationrx.com/prescriptions/

PEST SCAN. PestPatrol recently launched a free, comprehensive online spyware detection service. PestScan from PestPatrol is a web-based program that runs right from the PestPatrol website, downloading just a few small components to the user's computer. It is designed to provide a quick and easy way to scan Windows PCs for spyware, keyloggers, and other computer pests in the places they are most likely to be hiding. The PestScan results link directly to PestPatrol's extensive pest information database, enabling users to find out exactly what the threat level is.

PestScan can be accessed through the PestScan button on the http://www.pestpatrol.com home page or directly at http://www.pestscan.com . The PestScan microsite is selfcontained, with simple instructions for downloading the ActiveX code, running the scan, and interpreting the results, as well as direct links to the master pest information database and the rest of the PestPatrol site. The technology behind PestScan represents the first publicly available implementation of the overhauled and streamlined engine that will underlie future releases of the PestPatrol product range.

WINDOWS 98 VS. WINDOWS XP-BITING THE BULLET. It's the one question I am asked most often...."What operating system are you using?" It actually translates to , "Have you switched to XP?" Now all my compadres know I have been stubbornly latched on to Win98 from the day of it's introduction when I upgraded from Win95. Frankly, it was no love affair. Usually, in my long day at the computer, I experienced at least one (sometimes more) blue-screen crashes that resulted in freezeups, reboots, scandisk, lost clusters, and a tirade of language that resulted in my wife's rapid retreat from the vicinity. There were other indignities as well, like growing old waiting for my computer to boot up, and running out of memory at the worst possible times during multi-tasking. And it's not that I was using some elementary school hand-me-down for a computer either! These and other numerous problems were a deliberate attempt by Windows 98 to make my dear wife a widow.

Now the answer was not as obvious as it may seem. When Windows XP came along and vendors offered some very tempting discounts, I bought it, placed it on my shelf, and there it lay gathering dust. Yes, Win 98 was a pain in my butt, but it was my Win98, and my butt and I was not willing to venture into an experiment that might lead to unknown consequences. And after all, Win 98 may have been an errant child, but dammit, it was my errant child. Every parent can sympathize with that feeling.

If there's one thing I keep nagging you about it's the importance of making backups, and I usually practice what I preach. As he usually is, Mr. Murphy was waiting in the wings. And as sure as the phone will ring just as you have relaxed on the john, it happened. My hard drive crashed at the worst possible moment in keeping with Mr. Murphy's infallible law. My backup drive was in temporary use for an experiment. It was time for gathering up what pieces I could and forge ahead, and time to reach for the dust-covered box of Windows XP. As it turned out, it was the best move I made in my 25 years at the computer. XP turned out to be a revelation. It is light years ahead of my masochistic adventures with Win98. It has solved so many of my former problems; it's hard to believe. Let me count the ways:

  1. XP is amazingly stable and infinitely more reliable. I have not experienced a single blue screen, crash, freeze or any other annoyances that were a constant way of life with Windows 98.
  2. I can multi-task and keep more windows open simultaneously than ever in the past. XP handles memory entirely different from 98. It isolates memory spaces in such a manner that different procedures don't fight for the same memory slots, the primary cause of bluescreens and freezes.

3. It is incredibly faster than 98. I boot up in a third of the time that 98 took. Programs open and close much faster. My desktop icons draw and redraw almost instantly.

4. My shutdown hang-ups are gone. It shuts down flawlessly.

5. My video card is optimized and provides much richer color with much faster draws and redraws.

6. XP is incredibly intuitive. It seems to know exactly what I want to do next or what I am looking for and acts accordingly.

7. My compatibility fears that for so long kept me from making the move were not realized. So far, everything I used with 98 works fine with XP.

8. Hardware whose drivers 98 stubbornly refused to recognize were recognized immediately in XP with no help from me. In a few instances I did go to a vendor's website to download drivers more suited for XP. With XP, plug and play is for real, as against Win98's plug and pray.

9. I could never get my computer's hibernate (temporary sleepstandby) feature to work consistently in Win98. In XP it works consistently.

10. If you are a long-time 98 user, you will not find some utilities and other items where you were used to looking for them. In addition, there are numerous new features you won't have seen before. Their new location and access takes a little getting used to, but when you do you will realize that the XP way of doing things makes more sense. If you are a new user, XP will be easier for you to adjust to because it works more intuitively, offers more and better help, and doesn't confront you with errant behavior that you won't know how to handle. I daily discover more surprising and novel nuances as I use XP. Even the same software I used with 98 keeps coming up with little goodies and graphic interfaces I never saw before. All in all, I am sold. My only problem is my sore backside from constantly kicking myself for not using it sooner.

In a practical sense, what does all this mean for you? If you are using Windows 98 should you dump it? Not necessarily! If you are happy with what you have, stick with it. If not, XP certainly offers many advantages. Computers are as individual as fingerprints. They each have their own assortment of software and hardware. Equally as important is the individual user's skill and competence. That's why we avoid recommending specific computers or operating systems. In the final analysis, only you can determine what's in your own best interests.

Improve Your Vocabulary

  1. Coffee (n), a person who is coughed upon.
  2. Flabbergasted (adj), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
  3. Abdicate (v), to give up hope of ever having a flat stomach.
  4. Esplanade (v), to attempt an explanation when drunk..
  5. Willy-nilly (adj), impotent.
  6. Negligent (adj), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightie.
  7. Lymph (v), to walk with a lisp.
  8. Gargoyle (n), an olive flavoured mouthwash.
  9. Flatulence (n), the emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.
  10. Balderdash (n), a rapidly receding hairline.
  11. Testicle (n), a humorous question in an exam.
  12. Rectitude (n), the formal, dignified demeanor assumed by a proctologist immediately before he examines you.
  13. Oyster (n), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddish expressions.
  14. Circumvent (n), the opening in the front of boxer shorts.
  15. Frisbeetarianism (n), the belief that, when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck there.
  16. Pokemon (n), a Jamaican proctologist.

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Copyright 2003. This article is from the September 2003 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 1,100+ 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.

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