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Dec. 4 - Chalmette Computer Users` Group
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1. Garland amp Jeanette Hilton Raffles Badges Sheila McElroy Setups Buster Matthews Parliamentarian Sargeant at Arms Virginia amp Curtis McElroy Newsbits Newsletter Staff Chief Editor Jerry Montalbano Assistant Editors Graphics Columnist amp Circulations Elaine Pitre Sue Wessing Judy Favalora CCUG PC CONTACTS Phone 504 279 2761 E mail jerryccug cox net Web Page Address http www ccugpc org WebMeister Jerry Montalbano NOTICE MEETING DATES Upcoming in 2004 MAKE NOTE Dec 4 Meets at Nunez Community College All dates are subject to change with room availability permitted CCUG PC Newsbits November 2004 FROM THE DEALS GUY T T HE et Lets Understand The Darn Weather Better i by Bob Click Greater Orlando Computer User Group I love this item and was able to put together a deal just in time for Christmas what a great gift I can t adequately describe this full featured weather station so check their Web site http www peetbros com I am just now learning everything about mine It s certainly full featured and I m having great fun I installed it just hours before our latest hurricane Jeanne and spent more time checking the Ultimeter 100 data than checking the storm It offers about any type of data and display you want and recorded my highest wind gust at 66 mph 9 26 04 at 10 05 AM I could have shown it in other units as with al
2. Get your tickets today Now 7 for 10 00 How TO GET EFFEC IVE TECH SUPPORT PA Lastly Paternostro gave many examples of online help such as using the online support FAQs Frequently Asked Questions Knowl edge Bases information about the systems online chat techs and even faxes in lieu of the phone calls which can bring one s call to India Pa kistan Ireland and the Philip pines Such calls he added can create linguistic problems where a language barrier 1s created be tween the 2 parties giving and re ceiving phone help Citing information placed on CCUG PC website and links to other sites which can help Ray said that such links were com piled to help offer CCUG PC a choice of where to seek help It should be said that CCUG PC has its own technical support message base on yahoo com http groups yahoo com group ccugpconline Thanks to Ray Paternostro for his informative and at times funny rendition of how to get effective and a less nerve wrack ing tech support session s Improve Your PC Skills amp Help Your User Group At The Same Time ampuan com SLL COMPUtING Dec 4 with Amber Coffin Nunez Community College Auditorium Amber will step members through an issue of Smart Computing convey the value of Smart Computing com through a live demonstration and introduce attendees to Smart Computing s sister publications PC Today Computer Power User and PC Novi
3. Volume 16 No 11 November 2004 OCTOBER WITH RAY PATERNOSTRO t October s meeting Ray Paternostro was the featured speaker and the subject of his presentation was How to Get Effective Tech Support Using a PowerPoint Presentation Ray gave his spin on just how ineffec tive tech support in existence can irritate both the caller and the tech nician who answers the call Armed with humorous anecdotes Ray tickled the audience with tales of the 1gnorant and the stu pid who places calls to tech sup port that at times can be as useful as a pin near a balloon and equally as disastrous when one considers that much of the tech support which ranges from a free year to 99 and up for a 3 year stint He pointed out that no one can get too far with support by phone 1 If a call is made with an attitude in a bad mood and pouring it on the technician 2 If one ex pects to get the support with much distractions such as a loud TV eating while calling and 3 Without being prepared as to serial number type of computer software and operating usage types Olympus D 580 Digital Camera Capture large colorful images This portable 4 megapixel digital camera 11x14 prints lets you choose between 7 different shoot ing modes or capture a mini movie with audio using QuickTime Download files to a computer with Auto Connect USB or connect toa TV Has a 3X Optical built in flash 1 8 LCD single click
4. I ve chosen to mostly stick it out near the house How ever it didn t get too long before summer clutter once again confiscated my leisure computer room Boxes of unknowns and yet to be deter mined junk that I let accumulate since last fall cleanup once again made its way to corners desks closets and shelves I realize what I have to do but cool weather needs to arrive soon unless I m going to feel the claus trophobic stranglehold I get when things become so cluttered that my printers monitor and lamps are now becoming shelves for papers magazines and printouts I realize it s a sickness that many of us have regarding accumulation of things we pile up on a daily basis One thing I m hoping to do is what some of you but nearly not as many as we d hope to do is to do similar housekeeping and help donate some of your unwanted but certainly not ancient or broken computer items to us for our monthly auction Since we still are hopeful in bringing in new members with our new membership program of Bring someone in to join and get a free yearly annual membership the fact still remains that we re in a position where fund raising is needed and always will be more than ever Helping the group by donating attractive computer related items for our auction makes the auction colorful interesting and hopefully beneficial to some one in need of recent technology stuff 2 NT Secondly not to har
5. bury your impulse to neglect this crucial step If your system has but a single drive con nected to the cable use the Cable Select option this will suffice in most cases when there is only one drive If another drive exists it will be connected to the same IDE cable using the Master setting 6 You re almost halfway done Wasn t that easy Now the fun begins Slide your hard drive into the drive bay then fasten it down Some cases employ a system in which slide rails mount onto the drive for easy insertion and removal from the drive bay 7 Remember that removable drive bay bracket that you removed in Step 4 Now it s time to return it to the inside of the case 8 You will find that most ATA 66 and ATA 100 IDE cables have either a blue connector or a connector labeled System Board In the likely case that this applies to your PC plug this blue connector into either the IDEO Primary or IDE Secondary connector on the motherboard The primary connector is color coded blue in most circumstances to indicate that it should be used for a hard drive Usually you can insert the cables in but one way However if the cable is not keyed for one way insertion make sure that the red stripe on the IDE cable matches up to Pin 1 on the motherboard 9 Attach your connector that is located the farthest distance on the ribbon cable to the hard drive Usually this con nector is either black or labeled Primary
6. Make sure you place the red stripe on the cable at pin 1 of the hard drive s connec tor Note Most drives are keyed to allow the cable to fit in only one specific way 10 Now locate a 4 pin power connector from the power supply Simply attach it to the hard drive s power con nector You re almost done 11 Next replace your computer case or panel 12 Tighten any screws or clamps to fasten down the case or panel 13 Finally reattach your computer s power supplies Harddrive Install continues on page 8 Have you tried Back to Basics Back to t 4 Basics is a very popu A BASICS T i A lar member benefit Long time board member amp Mem ber Representative Margaret Wynn as well as other mem bers have devoted themselves to help ing members amp new guests with their questions and problems in a semiprivate environment that is a quickly growing seg ment of our membership Meets from 9 30 10 20 A M monthly before the general meeting Try it once you ll instantly want to join the group at a low price membership of only 25 00 per year Where else can you get so much information at about 2 bucks a month We re the best kept secret in the whole Metro area ac cording to WWL TV s Jerry Serigni of Digital Gumbo Don t wait join today and enjoy all the member benefits CCUG PC Newsbits November 2004 Hi CCUG PC Members As it s been mostly hot these fall months
7. drive the next time you power up your Nera PC Double check your PC or motherboard user manual for instruc tions on how to detect a new hard drive Perhaps you may need to change some of the parameters in BIOS to detect the hard drive on the controller You must also format the drive before it can be used with the operat ing system Again consult your manufacturer supplied documentation for additional information r ei Didya Notice At the October Meeting A presentation that lasted 1 hr 20 minutes and a meet ing that only lasted 1 hr 50 minutes in length With a new meeting format a break has been eliminated to shorten time each month A great deal of items were donated to the group at last month s meeting Although the total receipts from win ning bids taken in wasn t fabulous many did donate items to make the auction interesting Attendance is still down but a few new members were signed Hard Drives Inside Look continued from page 8 you ll have a much easier time moving your drive to a future PC Now if you want to boost the storage capacity of an older PC choosing SATA is not such a simple proposition In order to use a SATA drive you re going to have to add a SATA controller card which can be costly However many of the new SATA controller cards have built in options to add RAID support to your system If you re a video editor or the kind of person who stores tons of di
8. ake much difference for word processing or surf ing the Net Secondary Considerations Interface and Seek Speeds as well as Buffer Size Secondary considerations that taken together should have an impact on your buying decisions include Interface Speed Seek Speed and Buffer Size Interface Speed Interface speed is measured in ATA 100 or ATA 133 There isn t much noticeable difference between the two values To get the maximum performance from your hard drive its in terface speed must match the interface speed of your PC If not you must install an interface card that matches the speed of the new drive Seek Speed Average seek speed is how fast your drive can find a par ticular piece of data This should not be a huge factor in your hard drive buying decision unless you need to copy large folders full of many small files which makes it neces sary for your PC to assemble small scattered bits of data Buffer Size The buffer is a memory cache on the drive This cache is a repository for the temporary storage of data awaiting the next likely request of your computer s CPU Because random access memory RAM is much faster than mechanical ro tating storage the buffer can speed up performance Most new desktop hard drives have buffers of at least 2MB which is perfectly acceptable for most uses Other Considerations RAID SATA Moving Data to Another Drive RAID What is it Do You Need it In case you are int
9. any but with no success I consider them the losers I later found this company Banner Badge in another show and with much better prices The Banner Badge guys were happy to give my readers a deal which is 10 off the posted prices on the Web site Unfortunately there s no way to enter a price code for the DealsGuy price when ordering so you Il need to e mail them at info bannerbadge com or call them at 1 772 571 9944 and be sure to mention DealsGuy to get the 10 discount What a great Christmas gift Don t forget to order extra batteries at their low prices That s it for this month Meet me here again next month if your editor permits This column is written to make user group members aware of special offers or freebies I have found or arranged and my comments should not be interpreted to encourage or discourage the purchase of any products no matter how enthused I might sound Bob The Cheapskate Click T ARE It s the heartbeat of CCUG PC Volunteer CCUG PC Newsbits November 2004 Tech Lovers Corner TLC SIG CCUG PC has just established a new special interest group SIG As we may not have a permanent name but can de velop one upon the success of the group Let s just say that the intermediates and advanced users have sought such an ensemble for them and we have listened Beginning today from 9 30 10 15 a m TLC attendees have a special spot to meet a designated area of the general m
10. cally ad justs focus color balance and exposure All you have to do is click the record button and shoot Once you gain familiarity with video you can start using manual settings Look for an external microphone jack Most camcorders have an adequate built in microphone But these micro phones often will pick up everything even mechanical noise from the camcorder itself An external microphone provides better sound quality A built in light will illuminate dark subjects One of the most commonly recorded scenes is that of someone blow ing out candles on a cake Without the light you ll only see candles and a dark shape 3 Don t believe the hype Some camcorders promise to take 3 and 4 megapixel still photos as well But those photos are not as good as ones shot with a dedicated digital camera Don t let this unnec essary feature govern your buying decision Beware of outrageous zoom capabilities you might see 300x or 400x Concentrate on optical zoom Digital zoom a way of cropping and expanding an area at the expense of image quality is much less important Most cameras offer an optical zoom of 10x which 1s fine Try different models with the features you want Notice where the buttons are located Avoid camcorders with tiny buttons close to where your hand holds it You could hit something accidentally and miss your child s first steps It s not difficult to buy your first camcorder Armed with this information and som
11. ce Reference Series Each attendee will receive a packet of Smart Computing goodies and be eligible to win other Smart Computing merchandise The 13 Easy Steps to Installing a Primary Hard Drive Believe it or not all it takes is less than a half an hour and a Phillips screwdriver to install your primary IDE hard drive into your desk top PC Simply follow this illustrated 13 step guide and it s mission accom plished Please make sure you consult your user manual and other manufacturer provided documentation while you complete the installation you will need to refer to instructions at certain points in the operation 1 The first step is obvious Power down your PC And for safety measures make sure you have un plugged all your power cords 2 Next locate all the screws and or clamps that hold the computer case and or panels together 3 Now it s time to gain access to the interior of the computer case Simply remove the case or the panels that hold it together 4 If your PC happens to have a removable hard drive bracket now is the time to remove it It s specially designed to be removed without hassles and its absence will make this simple installation project even easier 5 Now it s time to leaf through the documenta tion that came with your hard drive along with any in cluded diagrams for instructions on how to set the jump ers on the drive If you re the type of person who hates to read the instructions
12. ck back at your conve nience and see 1f anyone has one for you It also takes some of the stress off of Jerry and other techs as they can respond when time is available and not have to rush to something else to keep on schedule This is the best Free Support you ll find anywhere and you can do it from work or home Try it you ll like it Buster Matthews Yahoo Group CCUG PC On line Moderator Holiday Party Slated CCUG PC will again be hosting it s annual Holiday Party tentatively on Tuesday December 14th from 7 P M 9 P M at the Covenant United Methodist Church 115 D Amour St in Chalmette near Paris Road next to Tastee Tonuts Sue Wessing Programs Coordinator will host the event As in the past it will be a pot luck covered disk event with members bringing dishes dinner items etc Donations will be accepted by members attending and not in attendance Sue will organize the list of items for the occasion so by December s meeting we ll know which items will need to be donated More to come in next month s newsbits Volunteer It s a ridiculously simple word yet it means all the love in the world to organizations 11 Member Classifieds Selling Jerry Montalbano Editor at279 2761 Advertising Policy Members are welcomed to place an advertisement for personal computer related items in News bits atno cost There could be limit spacing on a first come basis Commercial ads from memb
13. e practice using the camcorcS in the store you should walk away a happy customer rn A little about Kim You can read my weekly syndicated column in over 100 Gannett newspapers across the country I also host the three hour weekend Kim Komando Show Every weekday you can hear my Computer Minute I write a weekly column for USA Today too N CCUG PC Newsbits November 2004 Hard Drives Inside Look continued from page 5 Choosing a Top Notch Hard Drive Capacity We recommend at least 60 to 80GB but the more the merrier RPMs Go for 7200RPM it gives you faster read and write speed Interface Speed To get the max from your HDD the interface speed must match the interface speed of your PC Seek Speed Not a huge deal It s how fast drives can pick a particular piece of data 8ms or lower is an excep tional seek speed but 8ms to 9ms is just fine Buffer Size Go for at least 2MB Bigger is Better It s generally a smart move to purchase the biggest hard drive capacity your budget will bear even if you won t need all that drive space right away Of course larger hard drives cost more than smaller ones but the cost per GB doesn t work out byte for byte For example the difference in cost between a 60GB and an 80GB HDD isn t much but a huge HDD could cost quite a bit more Hard drives are able to handle larger amounts of data all the time And it s a good thing because programs are get
14. eet ing room where intermediate advanced members can hold roundtable discussions each general meeting Roundtable discussions are informal group meetings where more advanced topics are discussed such as computer hard ware technologies and software fixes patches you name it there s no limitations but to the knowledge of those in attendance The TLC group has been organized to address many issues that might be too complex for less experienced users Users who might feel topics too complex can attend the Back to Basics SIG group hosted by Margaret Wynn in the Com plex Conference Room behind the meeting room staging area Please join us as we wish to kick your computer habit up a notch e CORNER 7 The HDD Buying Guide Hard Drives Bigger is Better But Size GBs Does Matter and So Does Speed RPM When 2 Drives Are Better than One Purchasing a hard drive HDD is an im portant buying decision That s because all your data is saved on it If you buy a low quality hard drive it may crash on you and you ll lose all your games and all your digital data In the end though hard drives are all about capacity And far more often than not your biggest hard drives are the costliest However once the new models hit the market you will be able to pur chase the earlier generation models for less cash Addition ally the higher performance 7200 rpm drives are usually pricier than the more pedestrian 5400
15. erested RAID stands for Redundant Ar ray of Independent Disks Simply stated RAID allows you to use more than one hard drive to ratchet up your disk speed or retain a backup of your data in case a drive fails In either circumstance you will need more than one identical drives and it s not particularly easy to configure them More and more systems use RAID 0 which can markedly increase system speeds for reading and writing data If you want to go for RAID you will need to choose a couple of drives that match the storage capacity you re looking for Now that you can purchase 120GB hard drives for less than 100 you can easily go for the RAID advantage Making this decision easier is the fact that most new motherboards support Redundant Array of Independent Disks Take Serial ATA Seriously Serial ATA known as SATA is definitely the way to go if you are building your own PC from the ground up Even the most inexpensive mobos support SATA and if you go witha SATA drive your PC system will be easier to set up Plus HD Inside Look continued from page 9 CCUG PC Newsbits November 2004 About Your Dues Bob Fauxcheux Membership Secretary Uh oh Here we go We re going to talk about the dues The alarm just went off Houston we have a problem this is not going to be good Well maybe not let s take a look The board in its wisdom has decided to shake things up a bit Firstly in the past for every new member you br
16. ers and nonmembers are welcomed Please notify us when sold or cancelled Ss CLASSIFIEDS A Your Member Ad here wW i ALT V COM Have you a tip for a great utility a cool website a cure for a PC problem a lot of people have or any local technol ogy new Please have them send it to Jerry Seregni jerry wwltv com If Jerry uses it for a Digital Gumbo segment he will send them a token of his gratitude and give you credit on air Disclaimer This publication is the monthly newsletter of the Chalmette Computer Users Group PC CCUG PC The CCUG PC its officers newsletter editor and contributors express absolutely no warranty for material published herein This disclaimer ex tends to all losses incidental or consequential from its use or inability to use any or all information contained in any issue of this newsletter Opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the CCUG PC Membership Dues CCUG PC s annual membership dues are 25 00 Please keep abreast of your membership dues date You can determine your expiration date by doing the following 1 Check your Newsbits mailing address label 2 Inquire at the membership table 3 Remember your dues date from the time you joined CCUG PC Newsbits November 2004 SUZANNE SUE WESSING REALTOR Life Member Winner s Circle Prudential Gardner Realtors 9115 W Judge Perez Chalmette LA 70043 Bus 504 279 6344 Re
17. gital data it just might be worth your while In the alternative it s a wise choice to simply add a second parallel ATA drive Some manufacturers are adding new wrinkles to SATA technology to enhance hard drive per formance For example Seagate s Native Command Queu ing NCQ which requires a native Serial ATA drive accom panies one of its 160GB hard drives improves performance by packing good aerial density meaning it has more data than ordinary into a small space NCQ allows the drive to master multiple outstanding commands simultaneously and utilizes an internal queue that can store up to 32 commands at once to allow the drive to quickly reorganize the commands so they can be written and read more efficiently This particular Seagate drive with NCQ also uses 8MB of cache to help over all performance by caching sequential data hits Moving Your Data to Another Drive When it comes time to add a new hard drive to your older PC the new addition will almost always be faster than your exist ing drive However if all you do is install the new drive on your PC you re going to maroon your operating system on the slower drive In committing such an act of abandonment you will forfeit some of the benefits of upgrading So make sure you use the newer speedier hard drive as your boot drive Hard drive upgrade kits generally include software that will clone your existing drive to the new one thus turning your faster drive into your bo
18. l the data Data can also be accessed by phone line I m now working on a better mount and location for my rain gauge Ultimeter 100 can be set to continuously scan wind speed wind chill temperature today s rainfall time and date or just certain data It also shows the wind direction An alarm can be set for the danger of an impending flash flood if your area is prone or for other possible situations A 9V battery backup retains your data in the event of a power failure Pushing a button will give you highs or lows for any of the last seven days or for long term This deal is a scoop since they are introducing a new feature which is a serial text interface that works with your computer to view the weather station s accumulated data Simply connect the serial cable start Windows HyperTerminal on your computer then by pushing buttons on your weather station quickly view data from the Ultimeter 100 system s memory for various time periods and format it as you like on your computer The feed updates each minute For just 199 00 you get the Ultimeter 100 weather station MSRP 199 00 bundled with an indoor temperature sensor MSRP 12 95 and a 15 serial computer interface cable MSRP 20 00 both of which are normally optional The unit does include the anemometer wind vane and other necessary cables There are other peripherals such as a self emptying rain gage and The Weather Picture a large digital di
19. order models to choose from and the media is relatively easy and cheap to find about 5 for a 60 minute tape There are a few disadvantages to using tape You have to hook your camera up to your television to view your footage And searching for specific scenes is difficult Some cassettes are sold with special chips that index scenes but these are often two or three times more expensive The alternative to tape is recording directly to DVD Mini DVD Rs can only be used once and cost about 7 for a 30 minute disc Mini DVD RAMs are reusable but cost 15 for a 60 minute disc With DVD Rs playback is a snap because most DVD play ers accept them Also skipping around to different scenes is Komando continues on page 7 CCUG PC Newsbits November 2004 Sunday Oct 31 On Computers WODT AM 1280 12 05PM 3 00PM Web CNet Nov 7 On Computers WODT AM 1280 12 05PM 3 00PM Web CNet Nov 14 On Computers WODT AM 1280 12 05PM 3 00PM Web CNet Nov 21 On Computers WODT AM 1280 12 05PM 3 00PM Web CNet Nov 25 On Computers WODT AM 1280 12 05PM 3 00PM Web CNet Monday Nov TechTV Daily Mon Fri The Screen Savers 6 PM Cox Ch 355 Nov amp TechTV Daily Mon Fri The Screen Savers 6 PM Cox Ch 355 Nov l5 T l Nov 22 TechTV Daily Mon Fri The Screen Savers 6PM Cox Ch 355 Nov 29 TechTV Daily Mon Fri The Screen Savers 6PM Cox Ch 355 Tuesday Wednesday Nov 3 Can you wri
20. ot drive CCUG PC Newsbits November 2004 The computer isn t down anymore but now the programmers are CCUG PC Chuckles December s Election December 4 At next month s December 4th meeting the following Board of Directors positions are up for election re election Presi dent Vice President Membership Secretary Programs Co ordinator Secretary Treasurer and Member Representative You can nominate someone of your choice in addition to October Scot Site of the Month HYT athe moth ay PD TREND A MICRO http housecall trendmicro com HouseCall Give your PC a FREE check up HouseCall is a demonstration of the power of Web based technologies that Trend Micro is developing to make deployment and manage ment of virus protection in corporate settings fast and easy You simply run the virus checker and it helps determine if there s a bug sit ting in your computer Good source of check ing on the fly when even your virus on your computer can become infected tampered You can also get the latest virus alerts Upcoming HiT gt Smart Computing Magazine B Corel Corporation CorelDraw WordPerfect graphics the current officers offering to run for another term The election and a final nomination prior to the election will be also be Printer Contest in January The Annual Printer Contest will be held at our January meet ing due to a change of location for ou
21. ought in you would get a 5 00 credit when you renewed your dues Now for every new member you bring in you will get a 25 00 credit toward your dues Yep bring in one new member you have a 25 00 credit bring in a second new member and you will have a 50 00 credit you can use to renew your dues That s the same as a two year membership at no cost to you For now we are going to give this idea a test run for one year begin ning April 1 2004 through March 31 2005 Now for the married folks in the group and any families that want to join You can now be a member under the family plan Here is how it works For the cost of one membership you can have your whole family as a member of CCUG PC Everything is the same as if your family were a single mem ber one newsletter one white ticket one red ticket and one place to sign on the sign in sheet But your whole family gets the benefit of being a member of the group Hey So what about the married coupes in the group that just renewed their dues Well any couples that have re newed their dues since the first of this year will receive a credit for any amount above the cost of one membership It s a good deal folks take advantage of it and bring some friends to the meeting They may like what they see and join and then everybody wins BF Voila You re done Your hard drive should now be installed and ready for operation Now your computer BIOS must detect the hard KN Eg
22. p too much of atten dance but it certainly encourages our speakers to volunteer on a regular basis when our presence is seen It s our way of courteously saying we support you because yov re helping us with great tech nology information we need You know a give back for receiving attitude Now back to my clutter problem see you knew I ve a half brain that runs off on a tangent and returns to reclaim a thought after a brief hiatus I ve decided to clean the garage although the temperature gets around 100 at times and the fan does little but to toss around the dust that is blown off objects this past couple of weeks I ve seen materials that I haven t witnessed in over 20 years since I built it Some can be trashed I hope because my aim is to clean the area to make room for the hoards of junk accu mulating in this room Since the attic has seen its days of storage being overly packed with last century s stuff and Lord knows when I ll ever get back to it ll need to move stuff from my computer room to the garage So ve a plan and if only if I can grin and bear the heat a short while longer I m praying for Fall to arrive in its glory giv ing me strength to fight that battle of the bulge once again Jerry Montal 1996 Lotus Intergalactic Newsletter CCUG PC ARTICLE CONTRIBUTIONS NEWSBITS Newsletter is published monthly by CCUG PC Articles for publication must be submit
23. r December 4th meet ing at Nunez Get your printouts ready to compete with other talented and not so talented entries SHAREWARE PICK OF THE WEEK Try before you buy smart software of all sorts Windows World Wind View the Earth from outer space or zoom in to ground level Satellite imagery and maps are used to display 3D images of the Earth mi Mac EarthDesk View a map of Earth on your desktop This animated image continuously updates itself Choose between political and satellite views Many shareware are available at download com cnet com and shareware com or a net search can assist your SUCCESS CCUG PC Newsbits November 2004 Any of you who haven t 7 joined the CCUG PC C Yahoo On line Group A are doing yourself and your PC a disservice With all the things that are packed into a lim ited time frame for the monthly meetings we can t possibly answer all your questions fully or tell you the latest news and virus alerts software bugs and patches scams Trojans spywares new technology workarounds new software great sites for pc resources hardware and software bargains the many MS bulletins that come out each month and more ONLINE There s no time limit on our CCUG PC Yahoo On line Group We have over 500 members from all around the world who will take all the time needed to get your questions an swered and your problems solved You can post anything pc related and 1f it needs a reply che
24. rpm drives at the same capacity and geez are they cheap today Hard Drives Inside Look continues on page 8 Sorting Through the Camcorder Clutter by Kim Komando f a picture is worth a thousand words there s no telling the value of capturing life s special moments on video The problem is selecting the camcorder With so many makes and models you need to focus on the right features Otherwise you won t walk away with a camcorder that you can use and use well When shopping you ll notice that there are many more digital camcorders than ana log models There s no choice here Digi tal camcorders provide a significantly bet ter picture and more options than analog From here center on the camcorder s following three features 1 What is the recording format Most camcorders record onto tape or DVD A few models have the ability to record onto memory cards Forget those The recording times are too short and the image quality is poor There are three digital tape formats Digital8 MicroMV and MiniDV All formats are erasable and reusable Digital8 and MicroMV are the least common formats Digi tal8 camcorders are able to record on analog 8mm and Hi8 cassettes as well as Digital8 tapes A 60 minute tape costs about 5 MicroMV is hampered by a limited selection of cameras and hard to find tapes The tapes are pricy too about 9 for a 60 minute tape MiniDV is the most ubiquitous format There are many camc
25. s 504 279 1610 suewessing cox net An Independently Owned and Operated Member of The Prudential Real Estate Affiliates Inc febpesdie MMMPIMIMA ii noni juice cox net TAHITIAN NONI JUICE is a pure fruit Juice that targets several sys tems of the body and actually revitalizes and rejuvenates cells Helps conditions of diabe tes weight loss many more Wholesale Prices www tahitiannoni com pwilson7 Call Patricia at 279 2040 LARRY LANDRY Auto Home Hospitalization Life Property Business Commercial Title Transfers Notary Service 3100 Paris Rd Chalmette LA 70043 504 277 4256 fax 504 277 4263 aM CAC AN arcs Discount Tire 277 7518 1S E Gene St Chalmette LA TOMI INSURANCE amp Title Company Bone and Joint CLASSIFIEDS Problems Back Ads Sold here James K Baker M D 21 2224 www jbakermd com Chalmette Computer Users Group Lf larry larrylandry com Owner Caries CoCo def aseial 277 7518 105 E Genie St Chalmette LA 70043 Owner Carlos CoCo dePascual High Quality Mini Blinds m Vertical Blinds CUSTOM Wood Blinds a 5 altel Cellular Shades BLINDS Roller Shades SS ae Shutters PVC AND ata Lele SHADES O B eee Jerry Artigue Consultant Phone 276 2544 Fax 276 2543 Free Installation Residential and Commercial i Address Correction Requested
26. splay that can be read across the room extensions for the cables and more The Ultimeter 100 is the only product offered with the bundle but obviously they have other models and accessories to offer Please mention the code DealsGuy when ordering this special 199 00 bundle E mail them at peetbros peetbros com or call them at 1 866 446 1216 or 1 321 206 6214 Shipping varies according to the dollar amount but orders between 200 and 299 will cost 15 75 S amp H FL residents should add 7 tax If you re not convinced call for their beautiful 10 page brochure that tells it all si Your Badge Says It All Si You may have seen digital badges at computer shows as I have and they took my eye I bought one and have enjoyed mine People comment when they see it since it really stands out It scrolls your message which can be up to 118 characters in red LCD letters You can vary the scrolling speed Get more details at http www bannerbadge com There s a video there of the Banner Badge scrolling a message but in person it looks much better than on that video according to my screen You can order either a black or red one and it comes with the programming kit There is an optional USB to serial adapter and the Buddy that will program it without your computer The digital badge is a real eye catcher and lots of fun Originally I purchased mine from another company and tried to make a deal with that comp
27. te an article about a product you ve tried Nov 16 Newsbits Deadline Nov 23 BOD Meeting EVENTS November 2004 Thursday gt Friday Nov 4 We can use your help Just submit it to us We ll do the rest Nov lI Nov 12 Veterans Day Nov 18 Nov 19 Nov 25 Thanksgiving CCUG PC General Meeting 8201 W Judge Perez Gov t Complex Bldg Chalmette LA Board of Directors Meeting Nunez Community College Library Conference Room 1 102 LENDAR Saturday Nov 6 CCUG PC Meets 10AM Digital Photography Tips Nov I 3 Living with Electronics 10 am Radio 690 am Nov 20 Living with Electronics 10 am Radio 690 am Yom Kipper Nov 27 Living with Electronics 10 am Radio 690 am Meets 10AM mart Computing Magazine Dec ll Living with Electronics 10 am Radio 690 am CCUG PC Newsbits November 2004 A CCUG PC HELP DESK with Jerry Montalbano I msick of seeing Windows XP Instant Messenger run ning automatically always a pain to me and wish to turn it off How can I accomplish this The easiest way to turn off Windows Messenger which is unrelated to Messenger Service another troublesome utility is to right click the icon in the bottom right por tion of your screen Click Open When the Windows Messenger window opens click Tools Options Select the Preferences tab and clear the box next to Run this program when Windows starts Unfortunatel
28. ted typewritten and on disk to our newsletter staff by the 15th of the month for publication We welcome all articles of computing interest and we reserve the right to edit when appropriate SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH US If you have a tip or technique with a software program or hardware please enlighten us All computer related articles are welcomed Please submit your contributions to us in a file of any disk format or upload to jerryccug cox net for our Newsbits Newsletter Staff CCUG PC would love to hear from you Submissions from our members or reprints from other publications are welcomed but do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Board of Directors nor the membership Reprints are granted when credit is given to the author Submissions of any content articles or materials become property of CCUG PC for sole use and publication CCUG PC Board Members President COB Jerry Montalbano 279 2761 e mail Jerryccug cox net Vice President Harry Cancienne 277 3891 e mail harrycan cox net Secretary Laura Brunies 271 2346 e mail fluffylo aol com Membership Secretary Bob Faucheux 887 4341 e mail Bobfa juno com Treasurer Judy Favalora 279 4809 e mail judyfava bellsouth net Program Coordinator Sue Wessing 279 1610 e mail Suewessing cox net Member Representative Margaret Wynn 242 3993 e mail melody43 bellsouth net Committees amp Helpers Information Membership Sue Wessing amp Carolyn Wagner 50 50 Table
29. ting more complex graph ics intensive You can now hold an amazing 400GB of data on a single drive For those of you who hoard vast amounts of digital media or edit videos this ever burgeoning hard drive capacity is a gift from cyber heaven The proliferation of extra large hard drives takes away some of the mystery out of HDD shopping However determining what size hard drive you need is a subjective matter It really depends on how much data you need to store Some folks can get by with 60GB on a desktop others prefer the huge hard drives rang ing from 120Gb all the way to 250GB or more Size require ments of course differ for notebook computers Before you get too involved in the GB numbers though you will need to check your motherboard s manual or with your computer manufacturer to see how big a hard drive your PC can sup port We recommend that you start off with at least an 80GB hard drive The Need for Speed The speed of a hard drive is expressed in revolutions per minute RPM and it refers to how fast the computer can read data from the hard drive We recommend that your hard drive moves at a clip of at least 7200 RPM At less than 7200RPM your data intensive applications such as games might slow down because it takes too long access the data You need at least 5400 RPM for fast data read and write speed High RPM is especially critical if you use your com puter for multimedia or video applications Faster RPM doesn t m
30. y it may still start when you run Microsoft Outlook or Internet Explorer So try changing the folder name First go to Windows Explorer Start All Programs Ac cessories Windows Explorer The path to the folder is C Program Files Messenger Right click the Messenger folder and select Rename Change the name to Messenger2 or something A second way is to dump Windows Messenger In Win dows Explorer go to C Windows Inf Find the SYSOC INF file Open it in Notepad Find the line that says msmsgs msegrocm dll OcEntry msmsgs inf hide 7 without the quotation marks Replace it with msmsgs msgrocm dll OcEntry msmsgs inf 7 again leave out the quotation marks Then click Start Con trol Panel Double click Add or Remove Programs Click Add Remove Windows Components Clear the check mark next to Windows Messenger Here s yet another way to solve the problem Click Start Run then depress lt Enter gt Rund1l132 advpack dll LaunchINFSection Yow indir INF msmsgs inf BLC Remove Do not put a period after Remove Also note the spaces after RunDII32 and INFSection Click OK and yov ll be good to go with either of these tips Komando continued from page 5 easier than with tape But few DVD players will play DVD RAMs Plus the media is expensive compared to tape 2 Get the essential features If you re just starting out make sure the camcorder has a full auto switch This way the camera automati
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