1 Pm 2:30 Pm
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
a publication of the san luis obispo pcug vol. 17 • no. 4 • april 2001 What’s New Kiplinger Taxcut by William Avery 2000 Deluxe CLUB A Software Review CALENDAR Our March SLOBYTES Meeting [in the by Herb Goldstein dark!] featured Alan Raul’s Quickly Member of the Sarasota Personal April 1st Answered Questions, and a visit by Computer Users Group, Inc. Ben Brady from Brady & Associates, 1 pm LLC, author of ClearICE, ClearZone and Early SIG’s. It’s that most unhappy time of the year. ClearRoute Firewall Log Analyzers. For the majority of us, tax time is Jim Kiraly, General [http://www.y2kbrady.com/ just that. To make things a little less Windows SIG (in Kitchen) firewallreporting/]. Even without any unhappy and a lot more productive, PG&E power, we dished some light on Alan Raul, General Q&A Block Financial (a subsidiary of the firewalls and their reporting logs, (main hall) popular tax experts, H&R Block in which Ben’s programs analyze. conjunction with the venerated and renown financial advisor Kiplinger) 2:30 pm Alan and Ray started our early meet- offers a dynamite tax preparation ing discussion with a review of Debbi program, Kiplinger TaxCut Deluxe. In Schmidt’s Defrag problem, which Dave Kastner will be fact, if it were not for the end result of turned out to be a virus infection speaking on "Digital Cameras - parting with your hard-earned bucks to [W95.MTX] that lasted 4 months ! .... Uncle Sam, TaxCut actually makes Revisited". He gave an excel- Cliff Buttschardt also noted that Dara dreaded tax preparation fun. TaxCut lent presentation about a year Hadley [SLONET Customer Service] will also prepare your state return actually detected an infected message, ago on digital cameras. and notified him of that problem. Nancy CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 Vrooman asked about a new installa- tion of Netscape, which was not notify- ing her about cookies, and we sug- gested reviewing her settings to find in this issue… the check-mark which controls that WHAT’S NEW MY CD ROM option, under Edit/Preferences. The wm. avery ..................................................... 1 john clark ..................................................... 7 latest version of Netscape, version 6.1 is now out, and Alan noted that 80% of KIPLINGER TAX CUT REMARKABLE SCANNER the browsers in use are currently herb goldstein............................................ 1 judy lindley .................................................... 8 Internet Explorer. SURFBOARD TIP A member asked about web-bugs, or dorothy kirk ................................................. 3 michael vincent ......................................... 8 snoop-ware and Ray Miklas recom- mended Steve Gibson’s web site BUGS & VIRUSES CLUB INFORMATION [http://www.grc.com] for a small scott spanbauer ....................................... 3 .......................................................................... 9 program Opt-Out which warns users of such programs and removes them. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 what’s new considering a Linksys hardware router, Neal had a 386 desktop system with continued from page 1 whose pricing has been coming down math co-processor + 8 MB RAM, recently. Ray also noted that a static IP available for donation [free!] to anyone Alan noted that there are freeware, address is not always provided with who could take all the pieces, without a shareware, trialware, and spyware, every form of high speed connection. hard drive. It went to the lowest bidder. which includes Netscape, Real Player, Some machines are stealth and some The other item available is a 150 MMX and Gozilla. They all report patterns of are not, which means they may not Laptop, offered by Alan Raul, at the use to their host sites, without notify- have static addresses assigned unless end of its warranty period, in a few ing the users. For Netscape users, the provider wants to do that. The months. He will be upgrading to a Alan notes that there is a web site, connection of the future will not be better machine, so see him for details. [http://www.netfaq.com] to explain modem based, according to Alan, but the differences in versions of that rather the new wireless style WAP A Tea Break provided by Nancy, our browser. connection will be common, as por- Intermission Hostess, was held in the table computing improvements con- naturally lit Chat Room, with goodies Another comment, by Alan, was on tinue. such as sweet rolls, cookies, and small Windows XP, previously code named talk, until our brave guest, Ben Brady, Whistler [the latest combination of The opening of the SLONET Community called us back into the darkness of our Win2000 and NT]. He indicated that it Resource SMART Center, which pro- Main Hall, for exploration of the March will be out in Beta by next month and vides free Internet classes on Tuesday main topic, Personal Firewalls, and his will be copy-protected by a limited-use nights, was noted. SLONET is a local product report on Firewall Data Log method so copies will not work beyond non-profit Internet Service Provider Analyzers. a fixed limit without registration. [www.slonet.org], serving the Central Coast from Paso Robles to Santa Ben’s experience in computing began A question was posed from the audi- Maria. in 1971, when he was only 14. ence, about making a listing of directo- Through a private school scholarship, ries , from Windows Explorer and no The last question concerned the he learned about programming on a way was suggested. lowest cost hard drive, currently DEC PDP-8. Those were the days of available. Alan reported his purchase Teletype printers and paper tape Debbi Schmidt was curious about why of two Western Digital 40 GB, ATA punch readers, using FOCAL8 and an the external modem lights are active 100, 7200 RPM drives for $149.95. early version of BASIC. Ben noted the when the dialup connection is not The newest Staples opened in San Luis advent of the MITS Altair Kit Computer established. Cliff and Bill suggested Obispo, with a Maxtor 20 GB, 5400 from Percom Computer, in 1975, in that this is related to the serial link RPM special, after rebate, $59.95. Albuquerque, N.M., where he was living between the modem and the local Ray also mentioned a good web site for at the time. Popular Electronics computer. hardware, www.googlegear.com. Fry’s magazine announced the kit in a front offered a complete computer system page article, and the Apple and the Guy reported that his cable modem after rebates and ISP contracts for TRS-80 computers appeared rapidly, in connection was being interrupted by a $50! A trivia question posed by Alan, a rush of events that changed the setting on his firewall, Zone Alarm due in closing, asked about which Operat- world. to periodic changes in his IP address ing System Gateway Computers chose by his service provider which the for their Corporate computers ? Ben worked days, selling at Radio firewall could not accept. He reduced Answer: Windows 95 !! So don’t feel Shack, and late nights programming on his security level setting to medium to bad, if you still see the same old clouds, those same day-customer’s comput- fix the problem. Alan suggested when you turn on your machine. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 *** people helping people *** NAME PROGRAM(S) PHONE NO. HOURS TO CALL Bill Roch Ami Pro 466-8440 anytime Dan Logan Internet, MS Publisher 927-0515 M-Sat 8-6, Sun 12-6 Jim Kiraly Win 98, Office 97, Quicken, Map Programs 556-0301(pismo) anytime Bob Ward Win 98, DOS, Internet, Eudora 528-0121 evenings Ray Miklas Any PC hardware or software questions 541-5633 anytime We could use more volunteers here. If interested, contact Bob Ward! page 2 HARDCOPY april 2001 The Surf board BUGS AND by Dorothy Kirk VIRUSES: ibm/pcug, redding, ca. [email protected] Which files are safe to open? The sites this month are drawing and painting programs for kids from 2 years old and up. by Scott Spanbauer, contributing editor, PC World. Just because these are programs aimed at kids doesn’t mean that they’re not as ©2000 Scott Spanbauer. Reprinted good as a “grown up” program. In fact, the opposite is true — Child’s Play has with permission. more tools and special effects than most programs aimed at adults! The secret to these programs is that they make even the hard stuff fun and easy. Several of If you were stung by the I Love You the programs also teach you how to draw and paint. Strictly speaking, a paint virus, you experienced one of the worst program is a bit-mapped (pixels) program and a drawing program is a vector effects a virus can have: inconvenience (lines) program for easy scaling. Most of the sites below use the terms inter- Whether the virus is pernicious or changeably. The programs for the very little ones are fun and easy to use. Some benign, cleaning it off your system of the included programs are freeware, but most are shareware, which means you takes time. Many viruses are capable can try them for awhile, but then you need to pay for it. of destroying data on your computer or stealing it from your PC, but most do CHILD’S PLAY http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/ neither and are written merely to 0,,000UXU,.html A shareware program for children that is truly a great program. prove the existence of flaws in the It has many options including support for 24 bit color and sound. You can use any operating system or e-mail software texture for polygon fills, take advantage of transparent pasting from any other they infect. program, and enjoy new background images. Actually , it You can use any texture for polygon fills, take advantage of transparent pasting from any other program, Of course, much of the flawed software and enjoy new background images.