Official Newsletter SouthEastern Michigan Computer Organization, Inc.

BALLOT AND SURVEY ENCLOSED (member copies only)

Volume 28 January, 2003 Number 1

IN THIS ISSUE MEETINGS SCHEDULE ...... 3 ELECTION & MEMBER DIRECTORY NOTICES ...... 3 Deals Column, by Bob (The Cheapskate) Click ...... 3 Lockergnome’s Win XP Tips, by Chris Pirillo ...... 6 Have Yahoo Mail? Make It Usable, by Gabe Kingsley ...... 8 Guerilla Strategies For eBay Buying & Selling, by Steve Bass ...... 11 Buying a DVD Recorder, by Bob Elgines ...... 14 Testing OCR, by Karl Rehak...... 15 COMDEX Fall 2002, Bob Clyne...... 18 Pocket Pleasures, by John Blasdell ...... 22 Time to Consider a Notebook (Laptop) Computer, by Ira Wilsker...... 27 Letter From The Editor ...... 29 General and Board Meetings Minutes, by Carol Sanzi ...... 30 SIGs: IBM, IBM Intermediate, Advanced, & Novice IBM Group ...... 31 DATA BUS Deadline (7th day after meeting) ...... 31 Other Groups Calendar ...... 32 Tax Deductible Donations & Resource Persons ...... 33 SEMCO CALENDAR OF EVENTS ...... 34 MAP, OAKLAND UNIVERSITY, ROCHESTER ...... 35 1 SEMCO OFFICERS President Gary DeNise (248) 634-7514 Vice President Phil “Vic” Charns (248) 398-4465 Secretary Carol Sanzi (810) 739-7256 Treasurer Roger Gay (248) 641-7799

NEWSLETTER STAFF Publications Committee Chair Bob Clyne (810) 387-3101 Editor Bill Agnew (586) 752-2227 Associate Editor Bob Clyne (810) 387-3101 Publisher Phil “Vic” Charns (248) 398-4465 Calendar—Other Groups Chair needed

SIG (SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP) CHAIRPERSONS

SIG-IBM: CoChairman Tom Callow (248) 642-1920 (9-5) CoChairman Warner Mach (313) 326-0733 SIG-IBM INTERMEDIATE Jack Vander-Schrier (586)739-7720 (12-8) NOVICE-IBM GROUP Rotating Hosts SIG-ADVANCED Franz Breidenich (248) 398-3359

The SouthEastern Michigan Computer Organization, Inc. (SEMCO) is a non-profit, 501(c)(3), group dedicated to providing information, education and a forum to computer users (professional and amateur) and other interested individuals. Membership in SEMCO is open to all individuals 18 years or older. Persons under 18 years may become members through the sponsorship of a parent or guardian. Dues of $30/year include monthly DATA BUS, access to SEMCO’s Message Service, and free personal ads.

All SEMCO correspondence should be addressed to SEMCO - P.O. Box 707 - Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303-0707 Website: http://www.semco.org E-mail: [email protected] General information: (voice) answering device in Royal Oak (248) 398-7560

DATA BUS is published monthly by SEMCO as its official newsletter. Mail DATA BUS newsletter copy to: Bill Agnew, 3450 31 Mile Road, Washington, MI 48095; or e-mail to: [email protected]. Editor is responsible for contents and control of the DATA BUS. Materials published herein may be used for non-commercial purposes only, without further permission of SEMCO or the authors, except as noted, providing credit is given to the author and source, i.e. DATA BUS, and issue date. Entire contents copyright © 2003, SouthEastern Michigan Computer Organization, Inc. SEMCO does not condone in any way the illegal copying of copyrighted material and will not tolerate such practice at any SEMCO function. Your mailing label and membership cards list the month and year your membership expires. A DUES DUE message may appear on the newsletter back cover page two months before your subscription expires. Newsletters will not be sent after the month of expiration. Back issues may not be available. Renew your membership as early as possible to avoid missing any newsletters.

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2 SEMCO MEETINGS NOTICE OF ANNUAL Sunday, MEETING AND January 12, 2003 ELECTION Board Meeting 12:00pm The annual meeting of the General Meeting 1:30pm members of the SIG-IBM Meeting 1:45pm Social Period 3:15pm SouthEastern Michigan IBM Novice Group 3:45pm Computer Organization, Inc. SIG-IBM Intermediate 3:45pm will be held Sunday, January 12, 2003 at 1:30 pm in Room 172 of the Science DEALS COLUMN and Engineering Building, from the Deals Guy Oakland University, Rochester, Greater Orlando Computer UG by Bob “The Cheapskate” Click Michigan. The election of Officers and Members at Large My wife and I attended Fall Comdex of the Board of Directors of the and the APCUG activities. It was nice seeing friends I seldom see otherwise. Corporation will take place at In spite of losing still more sponsors, the annual meeting. APCUG did find a few new ones, which is hard to do these days. It was sad to hear about Casady & Greene scaling their operations to bare bones. I feel MEMBERSHIP that APCUG is asking too much of the vendors, causing us to lose them. DIRECTORY Someone announced 350 attendees, SEMCO intends to publish a and I counted over 124 user groups membership directory in early represented, “according to the book.” 2003. This directory will list Not much in the way of deals this month with only three days between e-mail addresses and my return from Comdex and the telephone numbers for all column deadline. I’ll fill in with members who give their Comdex comments, which is another permission. The directory will sad story. You probably knew that there be distributed with the were 1000 less booths at last year’s Comdex. This year was no exception DATA BUS only to members. with yet another 600 fewer booths. Please send your current e-mail Everything including registration was address and/or phone number inside the LV Convention Center (old to if they part) with plenty of space left over. were not already included in Many booths were smaller than last the 2001 directory. year, and there were numerous booths 3 with names, but no occupants. that I saw. You heard correctly, two Key3Media, owner of the Comdex screens for your laptop; the keyboard shows, is severely stressed financially, was lying there separate with the and for sale. On the other hand, they laptop sitting on its side folded open have already announced Comdex will . be back in Las Vegas next year Nov. 15 Mitsumi is introducing a floppy – 20, 2003 (to dispel rumors). I believe drive that also contains three other it will still exist there, but we’ll see. slots for plugging in your memory cards, I noticed that the trend, started by and it will read them direct, to be Microsoft, of having a Partner’s introduced soon. Mitsumi also Pavilion, with many of their associated displayed their Parrot shaped PDA that vendors parked in six foot booths within retrieves e-mail, alerts users to new several small islands of booths, has messages, reads messages aloud, and spread to many other large vendors, too reminds users of appointments. Don’t numerous to mention. That way those know if it needs crackers or not . The USB (solid floor’s attendees, but at a greatly state) drives, about the size of a reduced cost. Comdex officials also cigarette lighter, were all over the place, complained bitterly about the many and some media people even got one in companies showing their wares at their press kits. I never struck gold private suites in nearby hotels without there, but one company promised me a bearing the cost of Comdex. Those deal on them. We’ll see. I heard that officials certainly have a point, but they one last year. seem to miss the point of making the Toshiba was showing their new 63" show affordable. I work in trade shows digital flat screen display, which was all the time and am aware of the very impressive, to be introduced in a tremendous costs for an exhibitor, some month or so. Others had their own new of which are ridiculously high, such as large screens, and some were just as the cost of freight. bright while not being gas plasma. Many PDAs and accessories were in people, including myself, do not like abundance, as was wireless networking. I the new aspect ratio (width to height, saw a small keyboard for the Palm that 16 x 9) of the new high definition was interesting (just slightly larger than displays, but it looks like they will cram the Palm itself), but the guy wouldn’t it down our throat anyway. How about work out an offer except to sell them to CyberLock’s line of cylinder locks that me in quantity. No thanks. The Wrist can be programmed and can keep track PDA caught my eye; it was a PDA in of their usage without the user’s the form of a wristwatch, using the knowledge. Great product . www.abacuswatches.com>. Looks like A booth was selling Nisis digital the ultimate in data portability. cameras (Pocket DV2) that would take both profile at Comdex, but was not very stills and AVIs. It was small, and stills popular among attendees. I was could be 1280 x 1024 or 640 x 480 impressed by the dual screen laptop pixels, while an AVI would be 320 x 4 240 pixels. It could also be used for a How About A Backup For Your PC cam, and there were other features. AntiVirus Protection! I decided that for $120 I’d take a chance. That’s right, many still accidentally He was selling them as fast as he could trigger a virus, and quicker than the get them out of the case and write wink of an eye, it goes into your them up. address book and merrily e-mails itself DVD was everywhere in all forms, to all your friends. That is, if you are both hardware and software, too using Outlook or Outlook Express and numerous to mention, even replicators. have not installed the patches, and However, there are still two major perhaps even then. What’s that, you’ve camps, each saying theirs is the best. been meaning to do just that “when you There was almost no Linux there have time!” The same with updating (I only saw United ), but there was in conjunction with whatever antivirus a small open source two-day show called software you are using. Its job is to ApacheCon at Alexis Park Resort. I allow the virus NO escape from an didn’t find out soon enough to go. infected computer. To reiterate: while For people with pets there was the traditional antivirus products work iSeePet by AlphaOmega Soft. It makes mainly to PREVENT a virus intrusion, it possible to provide for your pet when Viralock works seamlessly beside your you are away from home. In other normal AV to prevent all viruses, known words, at the office you just stop your or unknown, from getting out of your work briefly and connect to the Internet. computer to infect your friends, which Then you can take a look at your pet would be very embarrassing. and push the button to give the pet a It does this by encrypting the e-mail small or large dinner. I’m sure that little addresses found in popular e-mail break would pick up many people’s programs such as MS Outlook and day . Outlook Express. You may say that I’m out of space, but I’ve tried to your present AV will do the job of mention items that others probably preventing you from ever getting an would not write about. I also have one infected computer. Haven’t you read of the order forms for Comdex CDs that viruses such as some Klez variants and videos. There was much more, but can go in and turn off your AV while it enough of this dribble, let’s look into does it dirty work? With Viralock, this the two deals. won’t matter since the e-mail addresses Still Good in your program will be encrypted to The Gear Software deal is still good for prevent this. Feel better now? Take a January. For this DealsGuy special, go look at for to and a better explanation. look for the DealsGuy link on their Home The normal selling price is $19.95, Page. The coupon code is “Click.” The but until February 28, 2003, you can keyboard offer from Man and Machine buy it for just $14.95 by getting it at for free shipping is good until January 15. . Visit Use the coupon code “DealsGuy,” if and use the code “Click.” necessary. You can also download a 5 free version for trial if you prefer. might sound. Bob (The Cheapskate) Remember that Viralock is NOT an Click . AV, but is used in addition to your AV Visit my Web site at for past columns. Outlook and Outlook Express right now Also, I keep adding interesting articles with a Eudora version in the works. (taken from user group newsletters) to An Interesting Spam Tool. my “Articles of Interest” page for I saw SpamNet at Comdex, and you viewing or downloading. can try the beta version free right now until they are finished with the development. We are all sick of spam Lockergnome’s (except Hormel, of course), and Win XP Tips SpamNet is a Microsoft Outlook add-in that stops spam immediately. SpamNet By Chris Pirillo does not delete spam, but only moves it Chief Lockergnomie to your Spam folder with just a click of your mouse. Every time a consumer Windows Update Transfer Details uses the one-click “block” feature to Windows Update hasn’t been faring too remove spam from the in-box, you also well lately; it’s caused a few users some notify the SpamNet community at large. unnecessary headaches. It’ll say This automatically blocks spam for all something along the lines of: “Here, I other SpamNet consumers. On the other think you need this patch,” when, in hand, if they think a certain message is fact, you don’t. Mike Vigneau passed NOT spam, they can click an “unblock” along an interesting tip for those of us button to share their knowledge with who want to know what’s happening the network. It’s sort of like a when we’re using this particular “community” fighting spam together. Microsoft tool. I haven’t studied it to see how all This tweak has been confirmed with this works, but you can download the Windows XP and 2000 systems, beta version from as well as read versions of Windows as well. What up on what it’s all about. I did read just we’re going to do is set the transfer recently, in a UG newsletter, a short dialog to “debug” mode. This way, we write-up by a member who was pretty can keep an eye on what’s happening happy with the service. Check it out. at each stage in the process. Fire up the You’ll be surprised at who the Registry editor and fly to co-founder is. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFT- That’s it for this month. Meet me WARE \ Microsoft \ Active Setup. here again next month if your editor Enter a new String Value and label it: permits. This column is written to make “SteppingMode” (sans quotes). user group members aware of special Edit the String and give it a value of offers I have found or arranged, and my Y. The next time you use Windows comments should not be interpreted to Update, its actions should be a little encourage, or discourage, the purchase more descriptive. If you ever wish to of products, no matter how enthused I disable the verbosity, simply switch this 6 value to N. If you want another way to Lockergnomie Tom Maenner had grab these downloads, consider using issues with the feature in Outlook the Corporate version of Windows Express after he upgraded to Windows Update (a quick search on Google will XP. “I had to locate ‘csapi3t1.dl_’ on provide the appropriate URL). the Windows XP CD and expand it as Driver Queries and Wasted Space ‘csapi3t1.dll’ in this directory: What’s the quickest way (in Windows C:\ Program Files\Common Files XP) to get a list of the currently loaded \Microsoft Shared \Proof. Worked like drivers (including module names and a charm.” descriptions)? Get out of the GUI; I’m not certain if this will work on you’re better off at the command line every machine, but it’s worth trying if for this tip. Browse to your desktop the tool isn’t operational for you. If you folder, for simplicity’s sake usually dork up words every other minute, found at C:\ Documents and Settings \ consider turning on the “Spell Check [Username] \ Desktop). Now, at the before Sending” feature in your default command line, enter: “driverquery /V e-mail client. It’s and its, than and then, > drivers.txt” (sans quotes). That /V their and they’re, or any other provides a more “verbose” output. Other homophone may slip through the notable switches include /FO (which cracks. Butt (G) at least you won’t look formats the output as a table, list, or like a total fool—just a parshal (G) one. comma-separated values) and /SI Even online, credibility counts. (which provides details about any signed CompactFlash Formatting driver). Digital Media (the non-Lockergnome Open that freshly-created drivers.txt kind) is wonderful when it works. Most file and you’ll be in business. On a people use it in their digital camera or more entertaining note, do you PDA (as do I). Transferring data from a remember the music that played when portable device to the PC is relatively you first started Windows XP? Ya painless. Lockergnomie Glen Fabian know, the one that sounded like an pointed out something recently posted Enigma tune? If you wanna hear it again, to (the you can find it at C:\ WINDOWS/ CompactFlash Association): “By system32 \ oobe images \ title.wma. Of default, Windows XP will format any course, if you want to free up 3 MB CompactFlash card of 64MB or more worth of space, you can delete it and with FAT32 format. Digital cameras the intro.wmv file sitting next to it. and other devices use the FAT (FAT16) Built-in Spell Checker format and can not operate with a Quite honestly, there’s no excuse for FAT32 formatted card. You should spelling errors anymore. Typos were either format your CompactFlash frequent in the days of the typewriter; card in your camera or select FAT misspellings were common in the format to format your CompactFlash handwritten letter era. Though, there’s card in a Windows XP PC.” virtually no quick way to spell check a Even if you don’t use CF media or word when you’re in anything other Windows XP, this is something to keep than a “Microsoft Office Spell Checker” in mind. And do you need another supported application. reason to own a laptop? My Pocket PC 7 is a Walkman of sorts; I put new MP3s Bass, Pasadena IBM Users Group. on it every day. However, transferring Chris Pirillo developed Lockergnome, them via any USB (1.1) connection is a series of e-mail publications slow as molasses. delivered weekly to over 250,000 I picked up a PCMCIA CF adapter people. His best-selling book has been for under five bucks a few weeks ago recognized as the Bible of E-mail (they’re inexpensive to begin with). Publishing. Chris also hosts a daily Trust me, that will speed up the TechTV and weekly radio show. process. Visit for He is the Windows columnist for more information. Smart Computing’s Computer Media Access Control Power User magazine and also It’s no secret that 802.11b networks are is the content coordinator for the not very secure; we’ve discussed this annual Gnomedex technology point at length in the past. When you conference. Visit him at enable wireless connectivity through . your access point, you should filter out non-registered MAC (Media Access Control) addresses if your WAP supports this feature. A MAC address is unique to every network card on the market. Any Wi-Fi device may see your wireless access point, but it won’t be able to use the WAP unless its MAC Actual Lockergmomie Tips Book address matches the (manually entered) filter. Nice, huh? Okay, so how do you determine a network card’s MAC address? Either Have Yahoo Mail? use WINIPCFG or IPCONFIG. You’re Make it Usable looking for a hexadecimal string – By Gabe Kingsley, twelve digits long (six sections of two hex characters each). This is easy to PIBMUG’s San Francisco find when you’re on your own machine, Special Correspondent but what about those connected to your network? Quick quiz: True or false—a Yahoo As your home network expands, this mail account’s main purpose is to be a information will become increasingly spam accumulator. It’s certainly true important. You could use your router’s provided you don’t use their powerful DHCP table to view the addresses, or filtering tools. you could use Windows XP’s If you already have a Yahoo GETMAC command line utility (also account, jump right in. Otherwise visit available as a free Windows 2000 , click on “Sign Resource Kit download). Up” (under “Personal Assistant”), and Copyright 2002 Lockergnome LLC. you’ll be ready to go. Tip: give only Reproduced with permission. Article required personal information. Request reproduction coordinated by Steve notifications or sharing your info is at 8 your own risk (although you can Subject (topic of message). always edit your personal settings later). Message Body (word(s) in message). Once the account is established, Select one of the following click on “Mail” on the conditions from the drop down for each home page. Sign in, select “Mail of the above that you use: Options” on the right side of the page, Contains and then click “Filters” in the Does Not Contain “Management” column. Begins With What’s a Filter? Ends With The concept is easy: a filter is a rule Enter appropriate text in the box you establish that controls how next to each of the above that you wish incoming messages are treated. You to be acted upon. can specify conditions for accepting or Message Actions: Move to Folder: rejecting mail, and make these rules InBox - Bulk - Trash - (or any folder of broad or very specific. Even simple user’s creation). Here are some filters can allow mail from a certain examples: source or about a specific subject, or Create a rule to accept mail From can block mail from other sources or and Move to subjects. The most important thing? Folder named Inbox (select “Move Filters should be specific to give you message to folder” at the bottom). the greatest control. Reject all mail From the domain When I set up my Yahoo e-mail and Move to the Folder account, I used filters to allow only named Trash. specific From addresses or text in Allow mail with the phrase, Subject lines, and send all other “Family News” in the Subject field and messages (all non-specified addresses) Move to Folder you create named to the Trash folder, where they get Family (create custom folders on the deleted. “Check Mail” page by clicking on First, think about what you want to “Folders Add” above “Inbox”). accomplish. Do you want to include or If you subscribe to discussion or exclude? What folder do you want special interest groups, or receive news messages to go to, Inbox, Trash, or bulletins, you can easily filter mail from another folder you create? them. Do it by creating a Filter that Creating and Using Filters specifies a consistent line of text that Start by selecting “Add Filter” on the appears in the Subject line of their “Filters” page. There are a few boxes messages, such as “IBM User Group” with drop down lists from which you or “Genealogy,” and send it to the folder make selections. You can include or of your choice. (The text can even be a exclude e-mail based on words in unique word or phrase embedded within certain headings, or text from within the Subject field). You can also enable the body of a message. a news message by the originator’s You can configure filters under any address in the From field. of the following headings: Note: Make sure your rules do not From Header (message originator). conflict. You may enable messages from To/CC (you and any other recipients). a source by its return address that also 9 contains text in the Subject field that Helper Programs you block for another. In the case of A serious limitation of a Yahoo mail such conflicts, use multiple conditions account is that you must be online and in the filter, such as From a specific interactive to use it. (How else can they address and with specific text in the show you those ads?) That means you Subject field. must visit their web site in-person, sign An Easy Filter Trick in (or let the Yahoo cookie recognize I find it easiest to create and track you) to access your e-mail account. individual rules for all the messages I Fortunately, there is a terrific free wish to move to a specific folder. That program that eliminates this way if you cancel a subscription or wish inconvenience. The utility is to make a change to a rule, you can YahooPOPs, and it lets you retrieve simply delete or edit the individual your Yahoo mail remotely using filter. your current e-mail client program (see However, if simplicity is what you list below). Download it from (note the Filters into one list of originators or “Download” link in the upper-right). certain subjects. This tells Yahoo to This program is tiny, installs in an send everything to the Trash folder that instant, and is compatible across almost does not meet specific criteria in the all versions of Windows. The authors Subject field (such as: If Subject host a discussion group and offer does not contain “broad_band,” or support at the site, so check it out for “Infoworld,” or “Brian Livingston,” or tips and assistance. As Yahoo makes “Woody’s,” or “Briefing,” then move changes to their mail interface, the the message to Trash.) authors also make updates available to Note that the Boolean (logical) accommodate them. The program operator “or” must appear between comes with a file named HowTo.txt multiple items that are to receive the that explains it all and makes it a snap same treatment, or the syntax will not to configure. Something I really like is be correct, and the filter will fail to that it can be set to delete the contents work. This must be done manually, as of the Trash folder at Yahoo, saving the Yahoo filter mechanism will not do you the need to do so. this for you. I also created individual Before you install YahooPOPs, you filters for each of those originators or may want to read some of the most subject lines to send to the inbox. recent conversation in the discussion The Filter creation tools are very group for tips. Once you have the easy to use and should be familiar to utility installed, right mouse click their anyone who has used standard icon in the system tray, select Windows pick lists and drop downs. “Configure,” and check out the easy- But, if by chance you should make a to-grok options. mistake, you can edit a filter or You must also create a new account delete it and then recreate it. After for your Yahoo account in your the first two or three, you will feel quite existing e-mail program. This is done comfortable and should be able to on the same config screen as you set it create them with ease. up for your current e-mail servers. 10 YahooPOPs works great (and it’s a sources of mail, even mail received keeper)! through your ISP mail account. YahooPOPs supports most current MailWasher even comes with built-in e-mail clients, including Calypso 2.x, filters to block mail from known sources Eudora, FoxMail, Incredimail, Lotus of spam around the world. Notes R6, Outlook Express, 2000, and The author asks for (but does not XP, Mozilla and Netscape Mail, require) an unspecified donation for use Pegasus, and The Bat. of his program. The difference between Sending Yahoo Mail Remotely the registered and non-registered Now that you can retrieve your mail versions is a small block of advertising without being online and visiting the that appears at the top of the window. Yahoo.com website, how do you send I recommend that you try it at e-mail with your Yahoo.com return . If you love it, address? Simple! When you create your send along a few bucks and use it account for Yahoo.com within your own guilt-free. e-mail client program, use your ISP’s Copyright © 2002 by Gabe SMTP server address in the proper field, Kingsley. Reproduced with permission. near where you specify the server Article reproduction coordinated by address for YahooPOPs (explained in Steve Bass, Pasadena IBM Users the YahooPOPs HowTo.txt file). Group. Gabe Kingsley is a San When entering the return address to Francisco Bay Area based consultant be shown on outbound mail, use your and can be reached by e-mail at Yahoo name . . Mail sent using this account would show your Yahoo.com return address, even though it was mailed through your ISP’s Steve Bass SMTP server. Pasadena IBM Users Group Note: If someone wants to [email protected] determine the originator of an e-mail, they can read details of the Internet mail header, but for general purposes Guerilla Strategies this works just fine. Warning: If you are using an alias address behind which For eBay you do not wish to be known or that Buying And Selling you do not want linked to your main ISP e-mail account, do not use this Bass Shows You How To method. In Addition … and Finally! Take Advantage Of eBay’s In conjunction with my Outlook e-mail Loopholes and Trapdoors program and Yahoo account, I also use a very powerful little program called Everyone’s heard of eBay, even my Mail Washer, which helps manage mail Aunt Blossom, my only relative from any source. It offers its own without a PC. I’m guessing many of built-in “Friends List” and “Black List” you buy from eBay but haven’t had the to allow wanted or block unwanted nerve to sell. 11 Well, folks, I’ve been buying and I also have a dozen searches saved selling on eBay for about a year, much within the Favorites tab. of the time with great success. Over A Seller’s Market time, I’ve accumulated a few iron-clad Ready for some eBay sacrilege? I think strategies and a couple of rules, things you’re better off selling on eBay rather that have helped me prevent getting than buying. Sure, there are exceptions, burned either as a buyer or seller. lots of them. You might be looking for Fair warning: at least two tips might something unique, an item you just can’t rub you wrong; some of you might call get elsewhere (and willing to pay the them unethical. I’ll let you decide what’s price). For instance, I really, really, right for you. needed a CPU for an old Gateway Do the Diligence Destination and I found it on eBay – Like everything in life, in order to be and at a decent price. successful with eBay, you need to do My take? Just because it’s up for your home work. Whether you’re auction on eBay, it doesn’t mean it’s buying or selling, spend lots of time going to sell at a bargain price. examining similar products on eBay. But overall sellers are having a field My rule is to examine the price and day because there’s real excitement condition of at least 20 items from at bidding, something that often pushes least five different sellers. If it’s a up the price. For instance, not long ago high-ticket item (a set of expensive, I was looking for a specific Sony DVD custom-made GNP speakers, for player and watched a dozen eBay bids. instance), I also want to track the day I couldn’t believe what I was seeing: and time of day when other high-end The lowest auction ended at $130 plus speakers sell. That way I have a good $22 shipping; the highest at $140 and feel both for pricing and when to put $21 shipping. The price at Crutchfield, my speakers up for sale. a big online discounter? $135 with free eBay provides flexible—and shipping. (Sorry, you’ve got to do the powerful—searching tools. When math yourself.) searching for an item, use an The message? Check outside of assortment of spellings. For instance, I eBay for a pricing reality check. was looking for a charcoal barbeque, so Gimmie Some Feedback! I searched on BBQ, barbecue, barbeque, Everyone knows to check a seller’s bar-be-que, b-b-q, and grill. To hone in feedback, right? What’s important is on the right BBQ, I modified the search you need to do more than just scan the to ignore things I wasn’t interested in feedback, but pay close attention to the seeing. Placing a minus sign in front of details. each of following words eliminated The letter “B” and “S” at the right them completely: gas, propane, indoor, side of each feedback listing signifies book, tongs, and smokeless. whether the person was a buyer or seller. What may not seem obvious are If you’re a buyer, the feedback about eBay’s tremendous tracking tools. the person’s buying behavior, while not Before I sell a product, I’ll watch irrelevant, isn’t as critical as his seller dozens of items using the Bidding / feedback. Make sure to scroll through Watching tab portion of “my eBay.” at least five pages of feedback, 12 especially if you’re buying a really auction. I wrote to the seller, asked if he high-ticket item. had any more, and bought one at about You can also get a better sense of a $10 less than the price it sold for at buyer or seller’s attitude by viewing auction. I’ve tried that twice, and both their feedback about others. Head for times it’s worked out with a successful their feedback page and click on the purchase. “Feedback About Others” link. Now reverse the situation. Say you Ebay Trick One have something you’re about to put up I discovered this strategy by accident for auction. You do your diligence and and now use it regularly. find a handful of similar items for sale. I was thinking about selling my car, What’s to say that after the auction’s a ‘95 Volvo, through eBay. I watched ended, you can’t contact each of the dozens of auto sales, and the majority non-winners (okay, losers—I was were successful. Yet it was a $6000 trying to be kind) and offer to sell them sale so I was getting cold feet. I decided your item directly. to contact potential buyers, the people The truth is I’ve heard people say listed in the Bid History area of the these methods are unethical, at least auction page. according to eBay’s rules. I’m sleeping My goal was to find out what well, but you’ll have to make your own motivated them to buy and what decision. dissuaded them from bidding on the Listen, I’ve got to go. I just got a car more than once. What I got was an page that an auction’s about to end and enormous amount of valuable info. For I have to start bidding. instance, one guy said, “I only will bid Steve Bass is a Contributing Edi- on a car that has an eBay warranty on it tor with PC World and runs the Pasa- for major problems.” Another explained dena IBM Users Group. He’s also “Start the bidding at $1500 in order to a founding member of APCUG. just get serious buyers. Nothing annoys Check his Home Office columns at me more than someone who starts and bidding at $1.00 on a 2001 vehicle, sign up for the Steve Bass online news- especially when they have a buy-it-now letter at . price in the $20K range.” What was more exciting were these questions: “BTW - I’ve gotta ask...what color & how many miles?”, “I feel the urge to ask—what kind of 95 Volvo do you have to sell, color, mileage, options etc.?” I ended up selling the car locally, Printer Tip No.1 from a sign on the car that I parked in If a sheet of paper jams in your printer, the street. it is best to pull it out in the same The Second Trick direction as it normally moves through I built a small pond in the backyard, the printer, rather than backwards. something to attract birds. I needed a Pulling it our backwards may mess up submersible pump and just missed an some of the sensitive sensors. 13 My ASUS computer is an Intel P3 @ Buying a DVD 866MHz, 256MB RAM @ 133MHz, Recorder 60GB Hard Drive @ 7200rpm ATA100, By Bob Elgines ATI Radeon 32MB video card, with the [email protected] “USB Instant DVD” input device. I tried out the DAZZLE equipment (but it had Well the prices are coming down, now big noise problems, and they had NO under $300 and as low as $220, for a support at all), and the VIVASTAR DVD recorder. The blank disks are now (LF311) DVD-R recorder. I have tried under $2.50 each in lots of ten or more. two operating systems, the Win ’98SE But beware, the great decision as to and Win’ME and saw no difference, so which format is still under debate, I stuck with to Win’98SE. DVD-R or DVD+R! If you just wish to For Windows ’98 -‘XP users, start make videos, either one should work in off with these suggestions on getting most DVD players made after the year ready to record a DVD: 2000, but not all. Cheaper DVDR disks *Install at least 256 MB of RAM. and players will not work. *Disable the Screen Saver. Support out there is very weak to *Disable the Turn off Hard Disks option. almost NONE! Much time needs to be *Disable the Hibernation option. invested, like 4 to 10 hours to make a 2 *Disable the Network Time Server hour video DVD, during which (Win’XP). several programs require you to sit in *Disable Text to Speech (Win’XP). front of your computer. *Disable any scheduled tasks (for Most of the software is over-priced example, virus scan). and does not work without many *Do not increase Virtual Memory problems and no support, like “Video beyond Windows’ recommended Studio 6” by Cyber. The best so far has setting. been “MyDVD” by Sonic. Some of the *Close any other running applications. suggestions listed below came *Do not copy any large files while from them. capturing. The best input devices are: “USB *Do not allow any remote activities, Instant DVD” by ADS ($160), “Bungee such as PC Anywhere or Timbuktu DVD” by Pinnacle ($150), “DCS 100” connections. ($170), and “DCS 200” by Dazzle *Have your hard drives formatted to ($230). They all come with software NTFS (which has no files size that has individual problems, and limitations, Win’XP). advertise “Fast, Easy & Fun.” Boy, *Have at least 21 gigs available on a that is a huge JOKE! It’s “Slow, Hard, single drive. & Will Drive You Nuts.” *Have the latest drivers for the If you cannot handle all of the following: DVD ROM, burner, CD- suggestions (really necessary evils) ROM and burner. below, then don’t get involved. I *Have your hard drives defragmented. became one of their guinea pigs, and I *In particular, while capturing video, do am about to throw it all in the circle file not use your PC for any other and call it a lost cause. activity. Video capture requires all 14 your PC’s processing power, and Testing OCR any action such as inserting a disc or receiving e-mail may cause Karl Rehak errors in the captured video files. Las Vegas PCUG *Have your monitor resolution set to Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is 1024x768, 16 or 32 bit color. used to convert an existing document, *You must run ASPI driver 4.6. No say a scanned page, to a document that higher, no lower. If you are unsure, is editable. OCR software has been you can go here to find out and/or around for many years. Anyone who has download the appropriate driver had a need to capture an existing . document for revision knows the value *Make sure you are not running your in having this kind of product to remove machine/session on a network much of the burden. or RAID configuration. A little background of my own *Make sure you have the latest version experience with OCR software might be DirectX (a must), WMP (a must). in order before beginning. I have been a *If your “Input digital device” is on user of this kind of software for over five USB, then remove all other USB years. Starting with the light versions of external equipment. OCR products with my first scanner, *You may also find it beneficial to followed by two releases of TextBridge. enable DMA for all your drives. This is my second experience with There are DVD-RAM and OmniPage Pro. The first OmniPage DVD+RAM which allow you to save up product I used was release 10. The latest to 9.6GB of data, but hard drives are version is number 12, but for this much cheaper, like 20GB for $69.00 or exercise in testing I used OmniPage Pro lower. It is just not FAST and EASY, as 11. OmniPage Pro release 11 was the they have stated in their advertising! first release since Caere was bought and There is no restriction against any ScanSoft merged their OmniPage OCR non-profit group using the article as program into the TextBridge product. long as it is kept in context, with proper Needless to say, and based on my past credit given to the author. This article use of OCR products, I was very is brought to you by the Editorial interested to see what has been brought Committee of the Association of to the scene. Personal Computer User Groups The overall design of the main (APCUG), an International OmniPage Pro OCR process is built organization to which this user group upon the age-old concept of what belongs. computing really is. The steps are Input, Process, and Output – a simple concept. Each of those processes can be broadly Printer Tip No. 2 segregated into three different It’s best to turn your printer off using approaches: They can be done manually, the button on the printer before cutting automatically, or described through a the power. That lets the printer do its wizard. I tried each method as I tested normal shutdown sequence, just like and found that they are very similar and your computer. easy to learn and use. It takes no 15 additional effort to move from one the more accurate an OCR program is, approach to another. the easier will be my brief but intense The input describes the source of excursions into their use. The bottom the OCR; it can be a black and white, line measure of the value of a quality grayscale, or color document. It can OCR product is end user productivity. also be a computer file. Introduced with As the quality of OCR products this release was a scanable file type, improves, and the interpretation of a Acrobat files. More on the PDF document’s content becomes more and scanning ability will be covered later. more a function of the computer’s The process part of the three ability to interpret information rather elements allows the user to describe than the time spent to have a human what he or she wants as a result. Among being interpret and make decisions, the the choices are: to preserve the page higher the productivity. That is, in the structure of the source, scan it as a single final analysis, all that matters. continuous column of information, The Test Begins include or exclude tables, or to output The first test was done primarily to to a spreadsheet format. The program allow me to gain knowledge and also recognizes over 100 different confidence in the use of OmniPage 11. languages; however, Chinese, Japanese I read the instruction manual and and Hebrew are not among them. reviewer’s notes and formulated a test Finally, the output function allows plan to put the product through its paces. the user to save the information as a file But first I had to know what capability for a word processor or other computer was in the software. For this first test I program, output to mail, or copy the used the documents out of the output to the clipboard. OmniPage OmniPage box. The documents are very also has another interesting output legible and of a standard-size font, about available—speech, which I won’t 12 point Ariel. I rated each test based discuss here. on the overall quality and legibility of My general opinion of OCR the source document, a 10 is a very software is that while it removes most easy document, and a 1 is an extremely of the effort in capturing printed poor quality document. These first test documents, the OCR process is in documents were quality 10. itself a very burdensome activity. The The first scans from the manuals software is only capable of doing so went as expected. It interpreted much of the effort, and any ambiguity everything with only three suspect in the OCR process requires words in three pages of scanning. A interpretation that only a human being word with a registration mark (the circle is capable of providing. As a result I R) next to it is an example of a suspect haven’t approached an OCR session word. It guessed correctly, and I only with delight or as being an activity that had to confirm the program’s choice. would be personally rewarding. In The interpret rating was 100%, and addition, my OCR sessions are again, the document type was a 10. generally infrequent and usually come Test Two in bursts that can range from several All right, the party’s over; time to see hours to several days. This means that just what this program can do. For 16 the second test I selected a sampling of Of the selections, it had guessed a legal document, reproduced many, correctly 15 times, and I had only to many times and originally bound in a confirm the choice. I had to select from plastic binder with half inch slots, later a provided list of choices twice, and the converted to three-hole punched paper. correct words were in the list. The document, because of numerous I’m convinced that lawyers invent copies over the years, was heavily words so nobody knows what they are speckled. I called it the document from talking about. The net in the OCR test hell. This is characteristic of many of was that the document was loaded with the scans I had done in the past and legalese, and this product flew through where the personal productivity factor the legal words just fine. went in the dumper. Lots of The additional pages had slightly interpretation needed, and in the older less selections to decide. The parts of OCR programs the remnants of holes the documents that contained remnants and slots were interpreted as of holes and slots were passed over by characters. The documents also had to the program; no need to clean them be cleaned of speckles and marks beforehand or eliminate wrong manually with older OCR programs. interpretations on the part of OmniPage. Further the document had a filing It’s beginning to get too easy for number stamped on it of a different this program , so for the final scan of size and slant. Document quality 2 at the legal document I decided to place it best on my scale, I decided to name this in the scanner at about a 10 degree part of the test ‘Extreme Scanning.’ angle. It scanned fine. The program automatically aligns the text. When I took the document off of the scanner I realized I had also put it in upside down. The program had also fixed that. At this point the effect on my overall productivity in the OCR area looked great. No more speckle and hole removal or spending countless hours interpreting information. But I figured there had to be one more test I could do. Test Three I had achieved my goal of watching the program pass the extreme scanning test, but what else would put it to the test after that? Looking over my bookshelf I saw an old copy of the Bible. The pages are 4 ½ inches wide and 7 ½ Fig. 1 Legal Document inches long; the font was too small for me to measure but was about 7 point or Four pages were scanned, and the less. Lots of unusual words, numbered overall scan accuracy was 93.93%. On verses, and italicized footnotes. I placed the first page it highlighted 17 words. it on the scanner at a 10-degree angle 17 and hit the scan button. The illustration, the user productivity soars. What used “Interpreting the Bible” shows what the to take 10 hours of effort can now be program saw. The result was 100% done in 1 hour. The more complex the accuracy, 13 suspect words and no document and the poorer the condition changes. On the scale of document the more work the program will take quality I put it at about a 6. on, relieving much of the effort of capturing documents. I would estimate that productivity improvements of an order of magnitude over previous releases can be realized. Tests like these will show it. The program test was also a lot of fun to do. Karl Rehak is currently a Director with the Las Vegas PC User Group, Inc., a non-profit organization. He served two years as President. Semi- retired as a consultant, he has over 45 years of professional experience in computers and information processing. The article was first published in “The Bytes of Las Vegas,” newsletter of the LVPCUG.

Figure 2 Interpreting The Bible COMDEX FALL 2002 I’m amazed at this performance, and now we’re in bonus territory in our By Bob Clyne extreme scanning test. SEMCO The Bonus Round They say that getting there is half the Added to the program with this fun. I don’t know about half, but the OmniPage Pro 11 is the ability to OCR trip to Las Vegas for Comdex was fun. Acrobat files. To do this test I found a I decided to drive this year in order to ‘readme’ file in my Acrobat folder and avoid the security hassle at the airports. scanned it in. It is a 21-page file, and all I saw the harassment that some other 11,000+ words were input at 100% passengers were subjected to last year, accuracy with 64 suspect words. Again, and from what I have heard, it has the registration symbol and similar gotten much worse since then. Most characters required confirmation that passengers get through with only a the interpretation was correct. No moderate amount of harassment, but if changes had to be made. you get selected for additional Conclusion harassment, there is no limit. The The tests show that this OCR product really sad part is that I don’t think matched its promise. The product is anything they are doing would more accurate than previous releases, seriously inconvenience the terrorists. and as each release improves accuracy, I had never driven through the 18 Rocky Mountains before, and I found Key3Media’s problems affected this the scenery awesome. I took four days year’s Comdex, but they cast some driving out because I wanted to arrive doubt on its future. I think there will be in Las Vegas before 3 o’clock on a Comdex in 2003 but I don’t know Friday, November 15th, and I wanted what it will be like. to do some sight seeing on the way. Monday was the start of Comdex The trip went smoothly with a cooler of itself. Comdex has been getting smaller Coca Cola on the right floor, my laptop and smaller for several years now, and with DeLorme Street Atlas USA 2003 this year was no exception. Except for on the right seat, and the GPS in the some suites and press conferences in back window. The GPS tracked my the Hilton next door, the entire show, every move through the whole trip and including registration and press showed where I was on the map on the facilities, was in the North and Central screen. The voice navigation worked Halls of the Las Vegas Convention most of the way until Street Atlas got Center (LVCC) with some room left confused and said I was in Las Vegas over. LVCC renamed the old South Hall while I was still on I-70 in Utah. The to Central Hall when they added a new map kept tracking correctly, but the building, which contains the new South voice navigation quit because it thought Hall. Comdex is still big, but it is only a I was at my destination. I had a similar shadow of its former self. The trend problem on the return trip when Street toward companies having off-site suites Atlas said I was within a few miles of instead of show floor booths continued. Yale when I was still on I-94 in At least the metal detectors that Indiana. I made the trip back in three everyone had to go through last year days without any strain. As long as I were gone. was supplied with Coke and the car was There were USB solid state drives supplied with gasoline, we both did fine. from several vendors at the show. These Saturday and Sunday were are becoming more reasonably priced occupied with APCUG events designed in sizes up to 256 MB. These solid to help user group leaders do a better state, flash memory, drives are very job. There were also old friends to get small and much more rugged than a reacquainted with and some new friends hard drive but are still much smaller in to make among the user group people capacity and higher in price than a hard there, as well as some vendor drive. Some support USB 2.0, but many sponsored meals and product were based on the older USB 1.1 presentations. Among those present specification. They are a handy way to were Bob Click, a former Michigan store a file away from the computer and resident, who writes the Deals Column, to take files from one computer to and his wife. We had several enjoyable another. They are compatible with both dinners together. Windows and Mac. Almost from the time I arrived in UnitedLinux was at the show and Las Vegas, I heard talk about held a press conference to announce Key3Media Group, the company that the release of their Version 1.0. owns and runs Comdex, being in UnitedLinux is a partnership, which serious financial trouble. I don’t think includes Conectiva, SCO Group, SuSE, 19 Linux AG, and Turbolinux. HP and be Mt. Rainier compliant and is not IBM sponsored the launch event. Each based on the Philips reference design. of the partners will use the same core HP will not manufacture the drive Linux distribution, and each company mechanism themselves, but would not will then bundle their own value added say who will manufacture it. products and service for sale. The an- Voyetra Turtle Beach, who are nounced purpose of UnitedLinux is to known for high quality sound boards, simplify the certification of hard- were displaying their AudioTron ware and applications and provide digital music player. This device a more orderly release of updates and attaches to your home audio system patches. (I wonder if that will slow the and feeds audio from your PC or release of security patches.) I think streaming Internet Radio into your they also expect to gain a competitive audio system. The transfer of the music advantage over other companies and can be initiated from either the organizations distributing Linux. computer or the AudioTron. Accepted The DVD+RW Alliance had a large audio file formats include MP3, booth, which was sub-divided into Unsecure Windows Media (WMA), and stations for many of the member WAV. You can set up playlists on the companies. DVD+R/+RW is one (or device. Transfer to the device can be two depending in how you look at it) of via 10BaseT Ethernet running TCP/IP the formats that are competing or HPNA (Phoneline) 2.0. The device for dominance in the controversial has both analog output and optical DVD writable and re-writable arena. S/PDIF output to the sound system and Yamaha is going to release a includes a remote control. For more DVD+R/+RW drive in the first quarter information see . Missing is WiFi support, support a 4X write speed and a 2.4X but I would expect devices from Turtle re-write speed. It will also do CD-RW. Beach and/or others to have that fea- Since Yamaha has a good reputation ture in the near future. for CD-RW drives, this should be worth Linksys had a new line of routers watching for. I wish I could remember and access points that support 802.11g more details. wireless. This is a new standard; in fact, HP is scheduled to announce their it is so new that the standard has not DVD300 series of DVD+R/+RW drives been ratified yet. Linksys apparently on January 7, 2003. This drive will have believes that they can accommodate any a DVD write speed of 4X and a re-write last minute changes with firmware speed of 2.4X, with CD-RW speeds of updates. The 802.11g specification uses 16X write, 10X re-write, and 40X read the same 2.4 GHz band as 802.11b, but speed. The drive will ship with ARCSoft has data rates of up to 54 Mbs. It has a Showbiz software and is expected to range similar to 802.11b. Linksys’s have a street price of about $299 for the 802.11g equipment will also operate internal model and $399 for the with 802.11b equipment at the 802.11b external Firewire, USB 2.0 model. The speeds of up to 11 Mbps, but it is not external model is not expected to ship compatible with 802.11a. Linksys also until early February. The drive will not has some dual band 802.11a and 20 802.11b equipment, but no equipment the CPU temperature as constant as that covers all three standards. These possible to minimize thermal stresses units should be shipping now. See when the processor load changed. The for further control unit occupied a PCI slot and information. required its own AC power cord. There were many large flat panel There was a neat device called a displays. Most of these were plasma Segway Human Transporter at the show that LCD displays. The ones over 30" consisted of two wheels, one on each diagonal are still very expensive, and side, with a platform between and a the ones over 40" diagonal even more vertical handle in front. The user stood outrageously expensive, but they are on the platform and leaned forward or half or less what they were a year or back to make it go. Steering was done two ago for the same or a larger size. via the handlebars on a front column. It Numerous companies were selling looked great, and I would have liked to small cheap digital cameras. Some of have had a ride, but the line was long, these might be useful for clandestine and I heard that the wait was about 45 surveillance work. Other, not quite so minutes. I did not want to try it that small, digital cameras appeared to be in badly. I don’t know how they maintained the old box Brownie camera class, but the balance, but it seemed to work, and digital. There were better cameras there, the units appeared to be quite but they were more expensive. maneuverable. It looked like a cool but Several companies had water-cooling expensive (about $4950) toy, but beyond units for CPU chips and some of the that I think it is a solution looking for a other hot running components. These problem. It did not look to me like they keep the component temperatures down would mix well with either pedestrians and also reduce the noise level, since or vehicles. They looked like they could they use larger but slower turning fans cause significant damage if they than other heat sinks. These brands contacted a pedestrian, and I don’t know included Thermaltake, Koolance, and how much of a jostle in a crowd it would Alpha and Omega. TherMagic take to knock over Segway and rider. had a Besides, where would you park the darn cooler with all the parts except the thing? Other people seem to think the tubing and the CPU cooling block in a things have a future. Time will tell. unit that would mount where you would There were a lot of other items at normally mount a rear case fan. It was the show, but you will have to get the about 8" long and used a fan on each information about them from other end in a push-pull configuration. It even writers or, better still, go yourself next had temperature-controlled speed on year. I am planning on driving back out the pusher fan. to Las Vegas for the Consumer ActiveCool had a Peltier Effect Electronics Show (CES) in January. cooling unit that had an active CES is now much bigger than Comdex. controller to rapidly adjust the cooling It is supposed to occupy the North and unit in response to changes in the CPU Central Halls and two floors of the new temperature. The concept was to keep South Hall of the LVCC. 21 use CDPD, but OmniSky and other Pocket Pleasures services offer CDPD for wireless By John Blasdell notebooks, PocketPCs, and Palms. Pittsburgh Area The actual CDPD service in the Pittsburgh area is provided by AT&T Computer Club Wireless and Verizon Wireless; you can purchase the service directly from One piece or two? Not swimsuits, them or resellers such as OmniSky, handheld computers. You wouldn’t now EarthLink Wireless. I prepay want to carry an external modem for OmniSky/EarthLink $360 per year, your notebook PC. Until recently, instead of paying $40 or more monthly. you had to carry a separate wireless CDPD has a maximum data rate of 19.2 modem or a cable to connect your kbps; however, some of this capacity wireless phone and PDA. Then came is used for error correction and the first combination units with the system overhead. The data throughput styling and weight of a brick. The varies, but is usually in the range of 10 newest units are smaller, lighter, and kbps to 15 kbps. Two factors limit you don’t have to configure a PDA and your use of CDPD: 1) Coverage is good phone to talk to each other. in a few metro areas, but spotty Accessories add to the cost, size, and nationwide (see map @ . 2) Since the buying and carrying accessories for two speed is limited, wireless carriers are units, you can reduce the bulk and promoting their newer data networks. carry accessories for one combination AT&T Wireless has announced plans PDA/phone. Sounds like the to stop selling CDPD in the near future perfect match? Maybe not. and dismantle their existing CDPD Consider the technologies network in 2004. involved for both the phone and PDA. When choosing a handheld You may use your cell phone as a computer, consider the features and modem, but it’s much more than a drawbacks of each PDA operating modem. Cell phones and handheld system. The main choices are PalmOS computers are two different things, at and three similar versions of two different stages of development, WindowsCE. The OS differences are and are evolving at different rates. narrowing. Faced with poor sales, Many PDA/phone hybrids remind me Microsoft tried to make their interface of cartoon characters that are part one more “Palm-like” when they designed animal, part another. Unfortunately, PocketPC 2002. Palm recently the cartoon critters perform better than introduced a new version of their some phone/PDA combinations. operating system, OS5, that has many Until recently, most wireless data additional features, such as better (not voice) used CDPD (Cellular multimedia support and security. If Digital Packet Data). CDPD is the you could magically pull your desktop original wireless IP packet data computer out of your shirt pocket, what standard; the first commercial service would you do with it? For instance, I was launched in 1995. No combo units do a lot of writing on my PDAs, but 22 have no interest in playing music files. only with Sprint PCS. AT&T, Verizon, I manage my e-mail and check web and T-Mobile each have a specific sites (mostly news, weather, airline, and PocketPC/phone, and so on. Do the PDA sites). I’m intrigued by a few wireless carriers make it easy to strategy games, but have never had the compare service and rate plans? Here’s time to download and play them. Ask an example. Long distance plans for others how they use their PDAs, read your home and business telephones are magazines and web sites devoted to everywhere. The advertised price per handheld computing, and develop a list minute usually sounds low, but is that of things you want to do and features what you really pay? The advertised you expect. price is probably the off-peak interstate The proper operating system— rate. What is the weekday interstate proper for you—is important because it rate? The in-state Inter-LATA rates? determines the exact software you can The Intra-LATA rates? What are the use. If you buy a handheld because it’s different rate periods? The monthly great at one task, such as e-mail, then service fee? Is this with a carrier, later buy another unit for other tasks … rebiller, or sales agency? Do you know that defeats the purpose and idea of a all the specifics of your long distance “Swiss Army Knife” handheld plan? If you think long distance plans computer/phone. The Microsoft are confusing, wait until you look at all Smartphone OS omits Pocket Word and the variables with a combination PDA/ Pocket Excel, so you’d likely need to phone! Another example is the choice carry another handheld. More weight, between Windows, Linux, and Mac. accessories, and over $1,000 tied up in Suppose you found that in your two small pieces of delicate equipment! neighborhood Windows only worked And don’t believe the sales pitches from with dial-up Internet access, Linux only either Microsoft or Palm: they both bend worked with cable modems, and Macs reality in print and online ads, making with broadband? the other product appear almost Each wireless carrier has a different useless. local and national “footprint.” AT&T You may be surprised to find that just introduced a new GSM network for the largest cell phone manufacturers voice and data, but coverage on their don’t make a Smartphone 2002 or new network is very limited (their old PalmOS phone. Nokia, Motorola, and TDMA digital network remains in others are developing their own place). Nextel, T-Mobile, and Sprint software or use Symbian, an offer good coverage in some metro alternative OS. areas, but little service out where cows You may decide on a particular OS, outnumber people. Verizon Wireless even a great hybrid PDA/phone, but currently has the best national coverage. here’s the big variable. Cell phones and Most carriers have “roaming” PDA/phone combos available now work agreements with other carriers, but with one specific wireless carrier. The roaming airtime usually costs extra. If first two Handspring Treos only work you spend all or most time in one area, with T-Mobile, formerly known as local coverage is important, but do you VoiceStream. The newest Treo works also spend time at a lake, campground, 23 or relative’s house? Check the maps for Verizon network—my plan offers coverage. The carriers have brochures unlimited free voice and data usage at showing coverage areas, but the latest nights and all weekend, so I connect for coverage maps are available online. I free during these periods. keep brochures showing coverage maps 1+3=5. 1+5=8. Not “new math” as in my glove compartment, so if I find taught in schools, that’s the new math myself somewhere new, and one of my of PDA manufacturers. $100 cell phone mobile phones doesn’t work, I can refer + $300 PDA = $500 combination unit. to the coverage map. $100 cell phone + $500 PDA = $800 I’ve had 6 cell phones from 4 combination unit. You don’t save different wireless carriers in 5+ years. money purchasing a combination unit The coverage area and service quality —you’ll likely pay extra. And that’s varies from carrier to carrier; they also just the beginning of the “bad math.” vary by carrier over time. The usual There are many costs with each cycle is something like this: a carrier purchase, but consider two. The initial starts off with limited coverage areas and cost, and the cost to buy the phone or high rates. They build up their network, combo unit again if you lose it, break it, offer more features and better pricing, or it fails after the warranty period but eliminate some of the reasons you expires. Some wireless carriers, such chose that wireless carrier in the first as Verizon, advertise phones at place. Their tech support and customer attractive prices, BUT there’s a catch. service are clueless at the beginning, get That price is ONLY available when you better over time, then go downhill as activate a new wireless contract or sign their success and volume of customers up for a new contract at the expiration grows. Same thing with their wireless of your existing contract. If you have a network. It gets better, then worse, as 2-year contract and lose/damage your they add more and more customers. phone in 5 months or a year, you have They claim to offer complete coverage to pay the advertised price PLUS $200 in major areas such as Pittsburgh, but I to purchase a new phone or data unit. continually lose calls on the Parkway. Other wireless carriers, such as Sprint, Most wireless carriers price data will sell you new phones at the separately from voice minutes. How advertised price whenever you want; many megabytes of data are you going you just pay a service fee to get the new to transfer on a monthly basis? It’s phone programmed and activated. hard enough to estimate possible voice Some carriers offer an optional usage when purchasing your first cell insurance policy to protect against theft, phone; imagine estimating your loss, or damage, but this is another cost, monthly data usage. Some carriers have and may or may not pay when tragedy an Unlimited Plan, but the cost strikes. Several friends and I have currently approaches $100 monthly. experienced this with Nextel; they Verizon offers 2 networks: connect at finally replaced my phone with a 19,200 Baud at no additional fee (just refurbished unit for a $35 fee. use your voice minutes for data) and Here’s another case of bad math, their new, high-speed network at an where 2 + 2 = 3. Mobile phones come additional charge. I use the lower speed with many features, from built-in 24 address books to selectable ring-tones. phone’s memory. You would think that a PDA/phone 12. Low radiation emission (see chart combination would have even more at ). advanced OS. Amazingly, the phone 13.Talk on each phone before feature list on some combination units purchasing to determine the clearest is smaller! and best sounding! Some wireless I wrote down a list of features phones sound better than a good for any new wireless phone I may buy, landline phone; others sound like a divided into 2 sections: 1) Must-have $4.95 bad bargain. features; 2) Desirable, but not Desired Features: mandatory features. 1. Speakerphone capable. Necessary Features: 2. Voice dialing of frequently used 1. Data-capable. numbers. 2. Long-lasting, replaceable Lithium- 3. Resetable timer showing total Ion or Lithium-polymer battery. minutes used per month. Last-call 3. Easy to read display showing: 1) timer & total-minutes-on-phone Signal strength; 2) Home/Roaming; timers also nice. 3) Battery strength/% remaining/ 4. Alarm (different sound than ring) charging/etc.; 4) If voicemail or that can be set for pre-selected time text message received; 5) Missed (I don’t use this feature any more Call indicator. since I now set alarms on my 4. Can set to work in “Home” areas pocket computers). only, so no surprise Roaming Battery life is a factor, especially charges. with a color screen. I have two handheld 5. Phone-book memory for at least 100 computers from the same manufacturer. stored numbers. One has a 4-bit mono screen (16 shades 6. One keypress to access voicemail of gray), the other has a 16-bit color (don’t have to dial a number, then screen. E-mail is OK on the mono enter a password + other keystrokes screen, and it’s great outdoors in while driving). sunlight, but otherwise the color screen 7. Last-number redial by pressing the wins easily. The color unit gives SEND key again. low-battery warnings after 3 hours of 8. Call-Forwarding, Call-Waiting on-time in one day; the mono unit is and 3-Way-Calling capable (carrier good for more than twenty hours use must offer these features). over ten days (that’s the longest I went 9. Easy volume adjust for ringer, without recharging; the mono unit still earpiece, and keypress tones. had 40% battery life left). I use the 10.Can display 10 or more last-dialed handheld computers 2–3 hours most numbers, answered calls, and missed days. Some days I rarely use the calls. wireless phones; others days I use them 11.Logical, easy-to-remember for one, two, or three hours. If you sequence to enter/edit phone have continual access to an AC or auto numbers and names in the outlet, that’s great, but you may be on 25 the move during the day, with little The early combo units had no slots time spent around a power source. to accept Compact Flash, Secure Ergonomics is another factor. I Digital, or other external media cards. frequently use a cell phone and PDA at Any unit without an expansion slot the same time. I may be casually should be free, or $25 at most! The chatting with someone while doing an most important use of expansion media unrelated task on the handheld; I may is to backup your important data. When be referring to a document onscreen your unit suffers a fatal brain cramp that is the topic of the conversation. away from your PC, you need a Either scenario means I can’t hold a convenient way to restore your data. PDA/phone to my ear. Use a headset, Second, sooner or later you’ll you say. If I’m just listening, they’re accumulate data you want to keep with great, but most headset microphones you. Spreadsheets, digital photos, don’t have the fidelity of the reference documents, e-books, video microphone in the wireless phone, so and audio files—it’s only a matter of it may be hard for the other party to time until you need to free up memory understand me. The headset may be in the handheld by moving applications uncomfortable if worn for long and data to storage cards. periods. My newest cell phone has a I could write a very long article speakerphone option, which I use when comparing Compact Flash, Secure in the car or where I won’t bother Digital, and other card formats, but the other people. only real difference is physical size. How legal is it to use a cellphone Purchase an external card reader ($20 – headset while driving? You may 50) for whatever format(s) you use to remember a couple of years ago when back up your external media to your the Pennsylvania State Police were computer. My current handhelds use giving tickets to motorists who wore a Compact Flash cards. I have an adapter headset while driving. I called the PA to plug CF cards into my notebook State Police and asked this question. computer’s PCMCIA slot, and use Their response was that it’s legal to Windows Explorer to copy the card wear a headset if the headset covers contents to an external hard drive I use only one ear. The other ear will for backups. hopefully hear a horn or other warning Some PDA/phones can be used as sound that may occur. an external modem to connect a For PDA input, you have your notebook or other computer online; choice of a tiny keyboard or writing/ some can’t. Check the documentation printing. The little keyboards seem for the particular combo unit you are designed for people who, for whatever interested in. Ask a salesperson? You’ll reason, dislike writing/printing. If you probably get the wrong answer. think you’d prefer a keyboard, find a Salespeople, whether at a wireless working unit at a local store and spend carrier or computer store, receive some time typing away. You’ll either minimal training, and barely a mention get the hang of it, or decide those little about wireless data and technical keyboards are sized just right for elves, issues. From magazines, web sites, not humans. and online forums, where actual us- 26 ers discuss their experiences, problems 7135 and other new combination units and solutions—after you’ve done look fantastic; just choose carefully so some research—you’ll likely know it’s right for you. more than the salesperson you’re talk- The article is reprinted with ing with. permission from the November “PACC As an aside, I keep important phone TALK,” newsletter of the Pittsburgh numbers in both my cell phones and Area Computer Club. handheld computers. If one unit has a problem, I can retrieve the number from the other hardware and quickly make Time to Consider a the call. Notebook (Laptop) The answer to the “perfect device” Computer? may lie with Bluetooth. Bluetooth technology uses tiny low-power By Ira Wilsker transceiver chips that enable [email protected] computers, printers, cell phones, One of the questions I often have been headsets, and other electronic “stuff” asked on my weekly radio shows, and to talk to each other within 20–30 feet. e-mails from readers of this column is, If you have a Bluetooth-equipped cell “What would be better (for me), a new phone and PDA, they can talk with each laptop or a desktop computer?” other. You can buy the best PDA and A simple review of the Sunday the best phone, and they will work as sale-books from the major office one. The cell phone can be in your supply and electronics stores clearly briefcase or purse; the PDA or other shows that there is an abundant supply computer accesses the Internet as though of notebook computers available. a cable connects the two units. The Standing in the security lines at the units are “smart,” so they don’t try to major airports also shows the popularity print to a headset, for instance. of notebook computers. Bluetooth has been in development for So, which one is better? Desktop or years, so it’s not science fiction or an notebook? As I have consistently untested technology. As Bluetooth replied, “What are you going to be gains popularity, it should show up in using it for?” many devices. The component cost is If a computer is intended for home only about $5 extra, but right now you’ll or office use, likely in one location for pay a hefty $$ penalty in most devices a period of time, a desktop computer is to pay for development costs. Bluetooth more practical. Usability features, such isn’t the same as 802.11b or 802.11a. It as a full-size keyboard, large screen draws much less current than Wi-Fi, monitor, and readily accessible drives, and at present is a better solution for coupled with significantly lower prices most of us than a one-piece, one-size- for comparable machines, make the doesn’t- fit-all PDA/phone combo. desktop the clear choice in this I won’t say that combination PDA/ scenario. Another factor is longevity. phones are a bad idea. They’re getting The average useful life of a desktop better, and may some day be my computer, according to both personal handheld of choice. The new Kyocera experience and published reports, is 27 typically four to six years. Desktop computer popular. They are computers are also usually easy and conveniently portable, and can often relatively inexpensive to upgrade run for a few hours on their internal or repair. The average desktop battery, but those are about their only computer becomes functionally major advantages. For those who need obsolete long before it physically fails. portability, such as businesspersons Notebook computers, commonly who travel and need computing power, called “laptops” by many, have some or people like me who frequently very strong advantages, compared to do presentations, a notebook computer desktop computers, as well as some very is a near necessity. For those who want strong disadvantages. The obvious the power of a modern PC, in an even advantage of a notebook computer is smaller and lighter package, the next portability. At Golden Triangle PC Club generation of “Pocket PCs” is meetings, when I would have to present, speculated to do to the contemporary I would often have to drag my desktop notebook the same thing that the from home to the meeting place; it was notebook did to the lunchbox— render heavy, bulky, and easy to break. them functionally obsolete. Lugging around the computer, The disadvantages of a notebook monitor, keyboard, and mouse was a computer are many, yet still they are a headache. I was not the only one necessity to many users. Other than hauling a monster around. For a while, their relatively high cost, notebook I had a “lunchbox” computer that I used computers are also typically fragile, for my presentations. It contained a difficult to repair, hard to upgrade (other standard sized PC motherboard, hard than swap hard drives or add memory), drive, floppy, and other internal parts, and according to widely published tests, along with an integral 7" monitor. The have a much shorter operational keyboard snapped over the front of the lifetime than do desktop computers. computer, closing it. While mine was a Notebooks are also subject to easy loss home built, no-name generic, it was the or theft. In a recent news article, citing early lunchbox computers that gave a report from Safeware, an insurance Houston’s Compaq its early company that specifically insures competitive edge. While still large computers for loss or damage, and heavy, it was portable. notebook computers have a far higher Today’s notebook computers are a rate of loss. In 2001, for example, far cry from my long-gone lunchbox. Safeware states that an estimated They are a fraction of the size and 600,000 notebook computers were lost weight of the old lunchbox machines, or stolen, up 53% from the year 2000. but contrary to other high-tech A large part of this increase is due to electronic items, have not dropped the rapid increase in sales of notebook substantially in price. Feature for computers. Notebook computers are feature, it is not rare for a notebook to also one of the most obvious items to be twice the price of a comparably steal (and stolen) at airport security equipped desktop computer. The checkpoints, due to their small size, high relatively small size, and light weight value, and obvious nature. By is what makes today’s notebook comparison, while there is an estimated 28 seven times as many desktop computers must also be transported in computers in use than notebooks, only quality protective cases. I have seen 15,000 desktops were reported stolen people ruin a $2000 notebook in a $29 in 2001, according to Safeware. carry case, a false economy. Screens While there are “ruggedized” are especially sensitive to physical notebook computers, such as Toshiba’s shock, can easily crack, and cost Toughbook series marketed to law several hundreds of dollars to replace. enforcement, utility, and construction Lacking a large physical volume to companies, the majority of notebooks circulate cooling air while turned on, are very easy to break, and expensive notebook computers are more to repair. The notebook reviews vulnerable to heat damage than published in the major computer desktops. Often containing only tiny magazines often include a “drop test” cooling fans, and using the notebook where an open notebook computer was itself as a heat sink, overheating is the gently pushed off a tabletop on to a principal cause of internal notebook carpeted floor, simulating a common failure. The more powerful the falling accident. Many notebooks processor, the more prone the suffered major physical damage, with notebook is to overheating, a well- some models of major brands documented problem. I have heard shattering to utter destruction. In several anecdotal stories of fairly new addition to extraordinary care in notebooks failing when left on protecting from theft, notebook Continued on page 30

Letter From The Editor ADDICTION. Are you addicited to your computer? (That’s intended to be provocative.) My wife says I am. But I accuse her of being addicted to her horses, so we’re all even. We put in about equal hours on our avocations. How many hours a day are you in front of your computer? Of those, how many are for your vocation? Your avocation? How many are entertainment? How many times a day do you check your e-mail? Do you surf the internet or just use it to search for information? Do you use it to organize your life, finances, calendar, stock prices, addresses, etc.? Do you attend SEMCO meetings every month? Those are all “feel good” things and sound like worthy efforts. They justify addiction to your computer as a tool. But there are negatives to addictions. How much time do you spend maintaining your computer. I include rebooting after crashes, trying to find why the darn thing seems to have a mind of its own and won’t do what you want, doing virus scans and file corruption scans and backups. I also include trying to get the latest new upgrades and software to run (if you have to have all the newest). These are all negatives that simply interfere and take huge amounts of time from useful pursuits. (My car doesn’t need all that much maintenance.) Come to SEMCO and learn how to acccent the feel-goods and reduce the feel-bads of your addiction. Bill 29 overnight, due to overheating. I Nominations for Secretary: Tom recently replaced my oldest daughter’s Callow nominated Carol Sanzi, and she notebook due to that exact cause. accepted. There were no other Published reports indicate that the nominations for Secretary. average life expectancy of a notebook Nominations for 2 Members-At- computer is only about 18 months, Large of the Board: Bob Clyne before it is lost, stolen, accidentally nominated himself. Carol Sanzi broken, overheated, or worn out. nominated Chuck Moery, and he Notebooks, on average, have only about accepted. There were no other a fourth of the longevity of a desktop. nominations for Members-At-Large Desktop or notebook is a common of the Board. decision to be made. Weigh the Nominations were closed, and the advantages and risks before meeting was adjourned at 1:55 pm. purchasing either. There is no restriction against any BOARD MEETING non-profit group using the article as 12/08/2002 long as it is kept in context, with proper Carol Sanzi credit given to the author. This article is brought to you by the Editorial Board Members Present: President Committee of the Association of Gary DeNise, Treasurer Roger Gay, Personal Computer User Groups. Secretary Carol Sanzi, SIG-Advanced Chairman Franz Breidenich, SIG-IBM GENERAL MEETING Co-Chairman Tom Callow, Publication 12/08/2002 Committee Chairman Bob Clyne, and Carol Sanzi Warner Mach representing SIB-IBM Intermediate Chairman Jack Vander- The meeting was called to order by Schrier. Also in attendance was DATA President Gary DeNise at 1:35 pm. BUS Editor Bill Agnew. Arriving late Nominations for officers and two was Vice-President Vic Charns. The Members-At-Large of the Board were meeting was called to order at 12:04 pm. opened. Old Business Nominations for President: Tom Bob Clyne moved to reimburse Warner Callow nominated Gary DeNise, and Mach $7.10 for refreshments. Tom he accepted. Jerry Comptois nominated Callow seconded the motion, and it was Elliot Chandler, and he accepted. There carried. were no other nominations for Treasurer Roger Gay reported that President. SEMCO’s bank balance is $4,258.28. Nominations for Vice President: The membership is now at 91 with the Gary DeNise nominated Vic Charns, non-renewal of Richard Gach. and he accepted. There were no New Business other nominations for Vice President. Tom Callow moved that, assuming there Nominations for Treasurer: Gary are more than two persons running for DeNise nominated Roger Gay, and he the Members-at-Large board position, accepted. There were no other the two with the most votes would be nominations for Treasurer. Continued on page 31 30 SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (SIGs)

SIG-IBM SIG-IBM INTERMEDIATE Tom Callow Warner Mach Jack Vander-Schrier

January 12: Scanners - Part 2: January 12: Free Genealogy Co-Chairman Tom Callow will Programs on the Internet. Chairman continue his presentation on scanners Jack Vander-Schrier will discuss and and scanning, and he will include a demonstrate genealogy programs that more detailed demonstration of you can get free on the internet. scanning transparencies and a discussion of how to scan in documents to be edited with a word processor. NOVICE-IBM GROUP Rotating Volunteer Hosts

January 12: Q&A: Member directed discussion.

Continued from page 30 SIG-ADVANCED elected. Bob Clyne seconded the Franz Breidenich motion, and it was carried. Roger Gay moved that a membeship February 3: Meetings held first survey be included in the January DATA Monday, 6:45 pm, at the Oak Park BUS. Tom Callow seconded the Library. The library is located at 14200 motion, and it was carried. Any Oak Park Blvd., Oak Park, MI. Phone: suggestions for survey changes should (248) 691-7480. Directions: 14200 Oak be sent to Bill Agnew. Park Blvd. is 9 1/2 Mile Road, located Bob Clyne moved that a SEMCO west of Coolidge. Best route from free- volunteer party be held in January or way is to take I-696 to the Coolidge February. Franz Breidenich seconded exit. Head south on Coolidge for 1/2 the motion, and it was carried. Carol mile to Oak Park Blvd. and turn right. Sanzi will coordinate arrangements. Topic: Wide ranging discussion of The meeting was adjourned at computers and computing. 12:58 pm. February 2003 DATA BUS DEADLINE (7th day after meeting) SEMCO & SIG DATA, & MEMBERS’ ADS - Deadline: Sun, Jan. 19, 11:59pm. Members’ personal ads are free. To mail, use Editor address on Page 2; e-mail address: . PLEASE send to arrive sooner than deadline. BUSINESS ADS - Deadline: Second Friday monthly. Mail unfolded camera-ready copy; payment in full made out to SEMCO, to the Editor (address Pg 2). 31 Bill Agnew CALENDAR-OF-EVENTS [email protected] OTHER GROUPS (to post monthly computer group info)

AAIICI (American Association of Individual Investors, Computerized Investors) Jan. 25–Saturday; W. Bloomfield Huntington Bank, Orchard Lk Rd., S.of Maple Rd. Info: Jack Lockman at 313-341-8855 or . COMP (Computer Operators of Marysville/Port Huron) Feb. 5–Wednesday, 7pm (Meet 1st Wednesday): Rm 201, Clara E. Mackenzie Library- Science Bldg, 323 Erie St., Port Huron. Ron Walters, 810-679-4144. Web: . Topic: Instant Messaging. DCOM Computer Club Jan.10–Friday, 6:30 - 8:30 pm (Meet 2nd Friday); Henry Ford C.C., Patterson Tech Bldg, Ford Rd/Evergreen, Rm T143, Parking Lot C. Info: Doug Piazza 313-582-2602. Delta Computer Club Jan.30–Thursday, 7 pm (Meet last Thursday); Bay de Noc C. C., Escanaba. Info: Gordon Nelson, Pres. & Editor at or 906-428-1014. DPUG, (Detroit Palm Users Group) Jan. 9–Thursday, 7pm (Meet 2nd Thursday); Kensington Community Church, northwest corner John R & Square Lake Rds, Troy, MI. . Free membership. Topic: David Rafferty, National Sales Exec. for Palm Enterprise Solutions Group. MacGroup Detroit Jan.19–Sunday, 3pm-5pm (Meet 3rd Sunday); Bloomfield Twp. Library, 1099 Lone Pine Rd. (corner of Telegraph Rd.). Genius Table (Q&A) at 2 pm. Info: Terry White, or 313-571-9817. Web: . Topic: QuickTime and Animation. MacTechnics, (MAC User Group) Jan. 18–Saturday, (Meet 3rd Saturday); Coffee 9:00am, SIGs 9:30am, Main meeting 11:00am. Mack Open School, 920 Miller Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48103. ). Info: Cassie at or 313-971-8743. Topic: Ed Noonan from the Apple Store will show a virtual tour of the new Apple store and discuss new products. MCUG (Michigan Computer Users Group) Jan. 16–Thursday, 7pm (Meet 3rd Thursday); 35271 Rockingham Dr, Sterling Hts., MI 48310- 4917; Info: Jerry Zinger, Pres., 810-792-3394. Michigan Apple Computer User Group Jan. 9–2nd Thur, MAC SIG; Dec. 12–2nd Thur, Golden Masters SIG; Dec. 19–3rd Thur, Green Apple SIG; Eagles Hall in Clawson, 174 Bowers St (one block North of 14-Mile and one block East of Main). Carl Pendracki 248-647-8871 or . Web:. Oak Park Computer Club Meets every Friday, 10:15am at Oak Park Library, Oak Park Blvd. at Coolidge Hwy. SHCC (Sterling Heights Computer Club) Feb. 4–Tuesday, 7:30pm (Meet 1st Tuesday; Carpathia Club, 38000 Utica Rd, Sterling Hts, Pres. Don VanSyckel at , 586-731-9232; Web: . SVCA (Saginaw Valley Computer Assoc.) Jan.9–Thursday, 6:30-9:00pm (Meet 2nd Thursday); Saginaw. Web: . Wayne State U. Mac User Group Jan. 11–Saturday 10:00am-Noon (Meet 2nd Saturday); at Mich.com, 21042 Laurelwood, Farmington. Info: Lorn/JoAnn Olsen 248/478-4300 or Denny MeLampy 248-477-0190. 32 TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS DECEMBER SEMCO Members REFRESHMENT Helping the Community DONORS Beth Fordyce is accepting Warner Mach, Coordinator Macintosh computers, components, Gary Denise peripherals, manuals and software Betty Mackenzie (working or broken) for Carol Sanzi Immaculate Heart of Mary School Chuck Moery PreK–8th grade, 175-200 students Roland Maki for computer science classes. Anita MacSorley Contact Beth 734/453-0349 7pm–10pm or bfordyce215331MI@comcast.net You may also contact the school directly: Sister Mary Stephanie Holub 19940 Mansfield Your SEMCO membership (Greenfield/8-Mile area, Detroit) card is good for a $1 discount (not 313/272-0990 valid with any other offer) on admission to Printer Tip No. 3 A1-Super Computer Sales Keep your inkjet printer’s nozzles shows. See (black and color) unclogged by regular www.a1-supercomputersales.com use. Run the printer’s maintenance or www.a1scs.com routine, or simply print a single page for show schedule. every day or so. Never use alcohol and a cotton swab on the nozzles.

COMPUTER RESOURCE PEOPLE This is a list of members willing to be resources for other members to call when they have hardware or software questions. Are you willing to help members learn? Which software programs are you familiar enough with? It is not necessary to be an expert, but just have some familiarity with the program and be willing to help someone starting to learn it. Please give this some thought and volunteer at the next group meeting. Almost Anything: Vander-Schrier MS Office for Windows: Callow AutoCAD: Comptois, Gay MS Word: Clyne Genealogy: Cook Networking: Callow IBM PC Hardware Issues: Clyne, Gay, Yuhasz Novell Netware: Yuhasz Operating Systems: Callow, Clyne, Yuhasz Quicken: Clyne, Gay Geocaching: Cook Clyne, Bob—810-387-3101, 9am-10pm ...... [email protected] Callow, Tom—248-642-1920 9am–5pm ...... [email protected] Comptois, Jerry—248-651-2504, anytime ...... [email protected] Cook, Stephen—313-272-7594, eves ...... [email protected] Gay, Roger—248-641-7799, 9am-10pm ...... [email protected] Vander-Schrier, Jack—586-739-7720,12-8pm ...... [email protected]

33 SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN COMPUTER ORGANIZATION, INC.

SEMCO CALENDAR—January/February

SCIENCE & ENGINEERING BUILDING, OAKLAND UNIVERSITY, ROCHESTER, MICHIGAN

January 12–SUNDAY (Meet 2nd Sunday) SEMCO Board Meeting at 12:00 pm, Room 172. For Officers and SIG Chairpersons. Other members are invited to attend. SEMCO General Meeting at 1:30 pm, Room 172. Special Interest Groups (SIGs) SIG-IBM 1:45 pm, Room 172. Program: Scanners - Part 2: Co-Chairman Tom Callow will continue his presentation on scanners and scanning, and he will include a more detailed demonstration of scanning transparencies and a discussion of how to scan in documents to be edited with a word processor. SOCIAL PERIOD 3:15 pm, Room 164. Refreshments! (Reminder: We must maintain a neat environment.) NOVICE-IBM GROUP 3:45 pm, Room 168. Program: Q&A, member- directed discussion. SIG-IBM Intermediate 3:45 pm, Room 172. Program: Free Genealogy Programs on the Internet. Chairman Jack Vander-Schrier will discuss and demonstrate genealogy programs that you can get free on the internet. February 3–M0NDAY , 6:45 pm (Meet 1st Monday), SIG-ADVANCED Oak Park Public Library, 14200 Oak Park Blvd.,Oak Park, MI. Phone: (248) 691-7480. Directions: Oak Park Blvd. is 9 1/2 mile Road, located west of Coolidge. Best route from freeway is to take I-696 to the Coolidge exit. Head south on Coolidge for 1/2 mile to Oak Park Blvd., and turn right. Info: Franz Breidenich 248-398-3359. TOPIC: Wide-ranging discussion of computers & computing. February 9–SUNDAY (Meet 2nd Sunday). SEMCO, 1:30 pm. Topics: To be announced.

http://www.semco.org PUBLIC INVITED (Please copy this and the next page to post on your bulletin board) 34 MAIN CAMPUS of OAKLAND UNIVERSITY City of Auburn Hills Walton Boulevard

Drive

. East Oakland N Meadow Brook RoadRavine Drive West

Oakland Dr

To City of S Squirrel Road Pontiac Wilson Blvd. 3 Miles

West Campus University Drive Pioneer Drive KL

INTERSTATE MICHIGAN 75 HHS DHE PSS Exit #79 SEB PL Varner Drive Meadow Brook Road Meadow 38

Library Drive Pioneer Drive

Lonedale Road

MAP LEGEND SEB Science and Engineering Building DHE Dodge Hall of Engineering KL Kresge Library Note: SEMCO meetings are in the Science (west) wing of the Science and Engineering Building. DIRECTIONS Driving north on I-75 (from Detroit and suburbs), take Exit 79 (University Drive), stay to the right on University Drive to campus entrance. Turn right (south) on Squirrel Road (at traffic light which is just outside campus); turn left on Pioneer Drive (next street to left). Turn left off Pioneer Drive onto Library Drive (second left) toward Kresge Library. Turn left before you get to the buildings, into parking lot 38 on the left. Proceed to the far end of the parking lot and up to the next lot. After parking, enter the first set of glass doors (at the SE corner of the building). Member of

The meetings at Oakland University are sponsored by OU’s Academic Computer Services (ACS), and the student chapter of the Association of Computer Machinery (ACM). SEMCO thanks OU, ACS & ACM for their assistance.

35 Dated Material FIRST CLASS MAIL

January12 February 9 SEMCO: A Community Organization Helping People for the 21st Century

SEMCO (future meetings) SouthEastern Michigan SouthEastern Computer Organization, Inc. Box 707 P.O. Hills, MI 48303-0707 Bloomfield 36