The Newsletter for Sonoma County’s Mac and Windows Users December 2004 Vol.1 No 12 Happy Holidays Treat Yourself to Good Quality Media for the Holidays see story on pg. 4 Apple and Windows User Group Table of Contents Club Benefits and Info . .2 Digital Camera Buying Advice . .9 10 Axioms of Modern Computing . .3 Photoshop Elements 3 Advice . .10 CD/DVD Media Guide . .4 Donate Your Old Cell Phone . .11 Apple, the Apple logo and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Tucson Macintosh Users Group is an independent user group and has not been authorized, sponsored or otherwise approved by Apple Computer, Inc. Sonoma Valley RECYCLE: SVCG Members Computer Group Donate Used Aid Library OFFICERS FOR 2003-2004 Inkjet and Fearless leaders from the Sonoma Valley President Computer Group are volunteering their time Vice President Beth Pickering Laser Cartridges at the Sonoma Regional Library. The [email protected] Library has six new flat-screen, high-speed, Secretary Stephanie Clark Kathy Aanestad is collecting used Gateway public-access computers gifted by [email protected] inkjet and laser cartridges to recycle. Friends of the Sonoma Valley Library. Treasurer Joan Fabian Don’t throw yours away. Bring your [email protected] used cartridges to any meeting. They These machines offer access to the Library Newsletter Kathy Aanestad will be gladly accepted. Thank you. Catalog, Internet Resources, Microsoft [email protected] Works, and Super Search Interlibrary Loan. Members-at-Large George Pick Although the “front-end” screen format [email protected] looks a little unfamiliar when recalling the Jeannette Woods old terminals, the advanced search-limiting [email protected] SVCG UG and sort- Willy Smith ing capa- [email protected] Benefits bilities BOARD MEETINGS far sur- Usually following General Meeting. Open Benefits to being a member of the pass what to all members. Call 935-6690 for further Sonoma Valley Computer Group are a was pre- information. summer Adobe Photoshop Elements viously 2.0 workshop, O’Reilly Press and available. MEMBERSHIPS PeachPit Press/NewRiders Press giving S.V.C.G. Annual Membership: $20. you a 20% or more discount on all their Those S.V.C.G. Family/Couple membership: $30 books and software! For more informa- with questions, as well as those reluctant to (residing at same address). Membership tion, please contact Kathy Aanestad at try new online command protocols, are renewals are due and payable at the beginning 935-6690 or email at invited to ask SVCG volunteers for assis- of each year. ‘[email protected]’. tance. Our volunteers hours are 11am Friday morning. GENERAL MEETINGS Additionally, SVCG belongs to the S.V.C.G. meets second Saturday of each Apple User Group program whereby SVCG affiliation has been a significant fac- month at Sonoma Public Library, 755 members can purchase Apple products tor in our ability to continue as a computer West Napa Street; hours: 9:30AM to at a savings. Contact Kathy Aanestad club. We are pleased to participate in com- 11AM unless otherwise notified. Meetings for user ID and password in order to munity affairs such as this. free; guests welcome. access their online site. We need mem- ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION bers help with finding contacts for PC Kudos go to Jeanette Woods, Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter is published user group offers so that they can be Jeanette Barekman, George Pick, monthly by Sonoma Valley Computer Group. Desktop pub- included in the newsletter postings. Joan Fabian, and Wes Ford, Beth lishing services donated by: Kathy Aanestad. Call: (707) Pickering, and Elizabeth Palmer. 935-6690, email [email protected]. © 2004, SVCG. Thank you for your help. ONLINE NEWSLETTER: http://www.vom.com/svcg/index.html Copyright © 2003, SVCG. All rights reserved. Sponsored by PEACE our local ISP, DataProfessionals, on 19480-8th St. East. MAILING ADDRESS: Sonoma Valley Computer Group PO Box 649 El Verano, CA 95433 Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter 2 http://www.vom.com/svcg/index.html UPGRADES DO NOT HELP. THE TEN AXIOMS OF When you upgrade software nothing good happens. The software just gets prettier, maybe. In many cases the soft- MODERN COMPUTING ware vendor has studied the usefulness of the product and then added useless features while often eliminating or chang- By John C. Dvorak ing the one good feature, the specific feature that you used a lot. This is done on purpose because software companies hate Over the past few decades I've learned that the computers we use are you. bound by very rigid rules or axioms that, once understood, make using these devices much more pleasant. The key to modern com- CUSTOM INSTALLS ARE NOT CUSTOM. puting is simple acceptance of the axioms. Fighting them will make When installing software you are often given two options, a your life miserable. "typical install" or a "custom (advanced)" install. There is no difference. This option is to give you the illusion that you are How these axioms evolved, nobody knows. They may be universal. smart and in control when you pick the advanced option. And we should never forget the simple fact that all computers (and networks) are bounded by software in some way, and that it is WHEN YOUR NET CONNECTION IS DOWN, impossible to write perfect code. Human nature has an influence on NOBODY WILL KNOW WHY. the workings of computers. Nobody knows why your Net connection is down, ever. Most ISPs, especially if they are owned by a phone company, will Instead of moaning and groaning and asking for change, it's up to not even know that your connection is down until you tell users to bite the bullet and accept the reality of the situation. The them and then they will act flabbergasted. If you ask them to following are my top ten Axioms of Modern Computing: look into it they will start a trouble ticket which is then thrown into a waste bin. The connection eventually returns on its own USE DEFAULTS. for unknown reasons. Always let the program choose the default during installation. Give up on the idea that you're in charge of the machine. While Wi-Fi BRAND INTEROPERABILITY many programs give you the option of choosing a different destina- DOESN'T WORK. tion for all those installation files, forget it. These offers are not seri- Oh, it works sometimes, but generally if you begin to mix too ous. You can be certain that by choosing an installation location many different Wi-Fi brands you'll discover that they don't that is anywhere other than the default location, you'll suffer in work well together, if at all. These companies are too busy some way someday. making money to care. Get over it. RESET NOW. OLD BURNED CDs FAIL. When asked if you want to reset, always reset immediately. They don't fail immediately, but those old backups and files Sure, you are given the option to reset later. You can do it right you burned onto CDs (and now DVDs) will stop working any away, or you can do it in a week. The reset-later option only exists minute. Go check some of the old ones you did. You'll see. to trick you into seeing what happens if you delay resetting. If you You'll discover that you can't read a few of them already. So ever call customer support it is the first thing they will ask you sorry. about. Then if you tell them you did not reset immediately they will laugh and put you on the speakerphone. Don't be fooled, reset now. COMPUTERS CRASH MORE AS THEY GET OLDER. MINIMUM DOES NOT WORK. This is part of a scheme hatched Don't be cheap with memory. While you can buy machines with the by the hardware and software companies to get you to buy minimum memory required to run Windows, this is actually a mar- new machines. It's a slow degenerative process that you can keting gimmick. Get twice the minimum or you'll be sorry. Four do nothing about it. Nobody is really sure how it works. We're times the minimum is even better. studying it. WIZARDS ARE A HOAX. Wizards are not wizards, they are attempts to waste your time and frustrate you. Once in a while they work, but not intentionally. Installation wizards, troubleshooting wizards--none of them work. When you call customer support in Bombay you get someone there running the same wizards only with an Indian accent. The better solution is to throw out the computer and buy a new one. SVCG Plugged into Technology Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter 3 http://www.vom.com/svcg/index.html Media ID Quality Guide CD/DVD MEDIA GUIDE The following list is in preference order. The best discs are near the top of the list. The discs at the bottom of the list are suitable What is your opinion on using generic-brand only for a landfill. PVC is the best of all, LONGTEN is the worst DVDs? of all, etc. Note: Some codes may be listed twice, done because a I have always bought brandname inks, CDs, DVDs and come -R, -RW, +RW and +R by the same company may not be the same from the old-school of ‘You get what you pay for’. Maybe that quality. The format is listed because of this. doesn’t apply now with newer technologies. 1ST CLASS MEDIA Here’s a great website that thoroughly informs about these Almost flawless burns with 95-100% reliable results: issues. The appropriately named link is PVC = Pioneer = (-R)(-RW) ..