Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey NEWS Volume 32, Number 7 September 2007 Lest We Forget by A. P. C. Nerd (ACGNJ) While the ACGNJ was on summer hiatus, a sad anniversary passed. It’s an occasion that should be declared a world holiday, with a momentous name like; “International Cosmic Injustice Day”. July 11, 2007 marked the 13th year since the death of Dr. Gary Arlen Kildall. He was the real “Father of the Personal Computer Revolution”; the true progenitor of all things now credited to the Great God Gates. I’m not going to say anything further here, since I don’t want to get the club (or myself) sued. However, if you want to see Gary get a little bit of his own back (from beyond the grave); follow the Groklaw link below (© 2003-2007 by Pamela Jones) to a report about a recently dismissed lawsuit — For History’s Sake: Pater- son v. Little Brown www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070730170729505. In addition to the main text, that report contains a lot of user comments; and many interesting additional links as well. I’m only going to list two of them. The first is by our very own club founder (copyright 1995 by the ACGNJ): The Gary Kildall Legacy, by Sol Libes http://www.kegel.com/remedy/archive/newsx011.html The second is a video from the Internet Archive (www.archive.org), re- Gary Kildall, May 19, 1942 – July 11, 1994 leased under the Creative Commons License. According to their home page; “The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we pro- vide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.” Computer Chronicles Gary Kildall Special (1995) http://www.archive.org/details/GaryKild This video was done as a memorial by former co-workers. (Gary had been an early co-host on the show). About this TV series, the Internet Ar- chive said (in part); “Hosted by Stewart Cheifet, Computer Chronicles was the world’s most popular television program on personal technology http://www.acgnj.org during the height of the personal computer revolution. It was broadcast for twenty years (1983-2002), and was seen on more than 300 television Founded 1975 stations in the United States and in over 100 countries worldwide, with translations into French, Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic. The series had a weekly television broadcast audience of over two million viewers”. Sir Isaac Newton reportedly said; “If I have seen farther than other men, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants”. (That’s the quote as I remember reading it many years ago - a little different from the quote as it’s found on the Internet today). Let us not forget the giant whose shoulders we are all standing on. : In This Issue DealsGuy, Bob Click .....................3 Free Widgets for Win & Mac, Ira Wilsker .........5 Net Neutrality — Time to Speak Out, Linda Gonse ....6 Nightmare, Berry F Phillips .................7 Dumb Things to Avoid, Vinny LaBash ...........8 Actiontec MegaPlug, Terry Currier .............9 Back-Ups Made Easy, Carey Holzman ..........10 Backing Up, Al Edmister ..................12 Your File’s Too Big, Robert D Hawes ...........13 SIGNews ..........................19 SpeechTEK 2000, Cass Lewart ..............19 Guru Corner ........................20 Officers, Directors and Leaders Officers Board of Directors President Mike Redlich (908) 246-0410 Director Emeritus Sol Libes (609) 520-9024 Vice President Mark Douches (908) 889-2366 Through 2008 Bill Farrell (732) 572-3481 Treasurer Lela Rames David McRichie Secretary Evan Williams (908) 359-8070 Lenny Thomas Past President Frank Warren (908) 756-7898 Malthi Masurekar (732) 560-1534 Special Interest Groups Through 2007 Gregg McCarthy .Net Jim Wong Arnold Milstein (908) 753-8036 Best Choice Investment Norm Wiss John Raff (973) 560-9070 C Languages Bruce Arnold (908) 735-7898 Norm Wiss Firefox Activity David McRitchie Standing Committees Genealogy Frank Warren (908) 756-1681 APCUG Rep. Frank Warren (908) 756-1681 Investing Jim Cooper Facilities John Raff (973) 992-9002 Java Michael Redlich (908) 537-4915 Financial Mark Douches (908) 889-2366 Layman’s Forum Matthew Skoda (908) 359-8842 Historian Lenny Thomas LUNICS Andreas Meyer Membership Mark Douches (908) 889-2366 NJ Gamers Gregg McCarthy Newsletter — open — Online Auction Bill Brown Trenton ComputerFest Mike Redlich (908) 246-0410 VBA & Excel James Ditaranto (201) 986-1104 John Raff (973) 992-9002 Web Dev Evan Williams (908) 359-8070 Vendor Liaison Bill Farrell (732) 572-3481 Window Pains John Raff (973) 560-9070 Webmaster John Raff (973) 992-9002 ACGNJ News Editor Publisher E-Mail Addresses Barbara DeGroot 145 Gun Club Road Here are the e-mail addresses of ACGNJ Palmerton PA 18071 Officers, Directors and SIG Leaders (and Tel: (570) 606-3596 the Newsletter Editor). This list is also at [email protected] (http://www.acgnj.org/officers.html). Bruce Arnold [email protected] Associate Editor Bill Farrell Bill Brown [email protected] (732) 572-3481 Jim Cooper [email protected] [email protected] Barbara DeGroot [email protected] ACGNJ News is published by the Ama- Advertising: Non-commercial announce- Mark Douches [email protected] teur Computer Group of New Jersey, In- ments from members are free. Commercial corporated (ACGNJ), PO Box 135, Scotch ads 15 cents per word, $5 minimum. Camera Bill Farrell [email protected] Plains NJ 07076. ACGNJ, a non-profit ed- ready display ads: Full page (7 x 10 inches) ucational corporation, is an independent $150, two-thirds page (4½ x 10) $115, Sol Libes [email protected] computer user group. Opinions expressed half-page $85, one-third $57, quarter $50, Malthi Masurekar [email protected] herein are solely those of the individual au- eighth $30. Discount 10% on 3 or more con- thor or editor. This publication is Copy- secutive insertions. Enclose payment. Gregg McCarthy [email protected] right © 2007 by the Amateur Computer Publication Exchange: Other computer David McRichie [email protected] Group of New Jersey, Inc., all rights re- user groups are invited to send a subscription served. Permission to reprint with ap- to ACGNJ at the address below. We will re- Andreas Meyer [email protected] propriate credit is hereby given to spond in kind. Arnold Milstein [email protected] non-profit organizations. Address Changes should be directed to John Raff [email protected] Submissions: Articles, reviews, cartoons, Martin Rosenblum ([email protected]) illustrations. Most common formats are ac- and/or to his attention at ACGNJ at the ad- Lela Rames [email protected] ceptable. Graphics embedded in the docu- dress below. Mike Redlich [email protected] ment must also be included as separate Membership, including subscription: 1 year files. Fax or mail hard copy and/or disk to $25, 2 years $40, 3 years $55. Student or Se- Matt Skoda [email protected] editor; OR e-mail to Editor. Always con- nior Citizen (over 65): 1 year $20, 3 years Keith Sproul [email protected] firm. Date review and include name of $45. Family of member, without subscrip- word processor used, your name, address tion, $10 per year. Send name, address and Lenny Thomas [email protected] and phone and name, address and phone of payment to ACGNJ, PO Box 135, Scotch manufacturer, if available. Plains NJ 07076. Scott Vincent [email protected] Tips for reviewers: Why does anyone Typographic Note: The ACGNJ News is Frank Warren [email protected] need it? Why did you like it or hate it? Ease produced using Corel Ventura 5. Font fami- Evan Williams [email protected] (or difficulty) of installation, learning and lies used are Times New Roman (TT) for use. Would you pay for it? body text, Arial (TT) for headlines. Norm Wiss [email protected] Page 2 ACGNJ News September 2007 From The DealsGuy Bob (The Cheapskate) Click (bobclick at bellsouth dot net) , Greater Orlando Computer Users Group I’ve had my fill of Earthlink as an ISP. Talking to techs with ation copy is available at <http://enplase.com/>. Product page: bad English is frustrating, not to mention ongoing e-mail <http://enplase.com/pages/MultiStage+Recovery+description.html>. problems. The final decision came when my phone became *Help For The Sight Impaired accidentally disconnected by Bell South. After it was recon- nected, but no DSL, the tech I spoke to had me unplugging and I saw an article in ComputerWorld about the efforts of the city plugging wires, and finally asked me to unplug the very line I of Stockholm to provide voice instructions for guiding the was talking on from the wall plug (I asked if she was sure be- blind, or people with poor vision, to wherever they want to go fore I did it), and she never called me back. Also, their price without other help. It is a serious undertaking and sounds was too high. I finally decided on AT&T who offered the best promising. See computerworld.com/Mobile_and_Wireless story. deal I found, but I still have to rely on techs speaking bad Eng- *What About Centralizing Medical Records? lish. My new e-mail address is above. I hope that strange I’m sure you’ve read about the desire for a centralized data- formatting will avoid address spiders. Already I ran into poor base of medical records for every individual so doctors can tech support. I was three days late getting my DSL up and run- have quick access to your complete records. This interesting ning because their own network had problems, and their tech article talks about some of the efforts support was slow getting someone to the house for further .