Page 2      Diablo Blue      December, 2000

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topic. Luckily, the parties seemed up to their usual outrageous propensities.
This year I think the two "mainstream" products were digital imaging and wireless connectivity. We saw lots of new PDA's (I like the Visors, but those new CE devices sure can do a lot) and lots of megapixel cameras. (I am trying to wirelessly connect to Santa and hint for a new Sony camera that burns a CD-ROM). We also saw lots of companies talking about B-to-B and B-to-C e-commerce. Some seemed as clueless as we were about exactly what their product or service was. ASP's are on the rise. This year was also a big Gizmo year. Lots of new spins on things, for example: a combination mp3 and digital camera or mice with retractable cables. Intel showed off their Pentium 4, Creative Labs and Iomega had some new toys worth looking at. Printers for under $100 that just blow you away.
Steve and I will show you some of the new stuff we came back with this next meeting! Additionally, EGems will demo their new product and Microsoft will treat us to some of their new entertainment software -- wait till you see Crimson Skies and Mech 4!
See you on the 7^th!

After a series of cancellations, we finally had our Fall meeting of the Windows SIG on November 6th. Ron Ogg showed a gaggle of interesting Windows utilities including:
Tray Manager (V2), a program that hides some of the icons in the  system tray (that's the area at the right end of the Windows task bar); Icon Collector; A Intel Processor performance Monitor; A Shut Down manager for those people who's Windows PCs don't shut down properly; A spy checker which looks for spy modules in your software that pass information to web sites; Opt Out from Gibson Research which is similar to Spy Checker; and a Favorites Organizer for the IE Browser.
By the time you read this these utilities will hopefully be available on our web site. There are some problems with the FTP capability that we use at Value Net -- we're working with them to resolve the problems. 

Walt Parsons passed on a warning that two commercial programs that worked fine under Windows 98 won't work well under Windows ME.  Both of these programs flash a warning that there are incompatibilities with the program if it is loaded under Windows ME.
Norton Systems Works (2000) requires that you update to Windows 2001 for Windows ME use.
JASC, the publishers of PowerDesk, say that the current version of PowerDesk should be loaded on to a Windows ME machine but ASAP the user should go to the PowerDesk web site and download a patch for Windows ME use.

Note that there won't be Windows SIG meetings in December (the room at the Concord Police building is being used for a police training session the night of our meeting) or in January (the first Monday in January is the 1st -- we don't think there will be a very large turnout on that night, including your SIG leaders). Our next meeting will be on February 5, 2001. Have a great holiday season and we'll see you next year in February!

1)    Love Connection:  You and your spouse celebrate your anniversary by logging on to the chat room where you first met. -- Mike R. Self

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