Diablo Blue
The Newsletter of the Diablo Valley PC Users Group
Alan's Annual CES Excursion Report
Presenter: Alan Mildwurm, DVPC
As usual, our February meeting will be our regularly scheduled annual event, "An Evening at the Consumer Electronics Show with Alan". We'll see some of the amazing collection of goodies that Alan always gathers at this show. What will we see? You have to come to the February meeting to find out! And, as an extra inducement, we're going to have some extra-special door prizes in honor of CES, including goodies that Alan got in Las Vegas. (We can only hope they are all from CES!)
This month's meeting will be fun, interesting, and informative. We'll see you on Thursday, February 7, at Diablo Valley College.
Where and When We Meet
Our monthly meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. at Diablo Valley College In Pleasant Hill, California, on the Main Campus located at 321 Golf Club Road. We meet in room H109 in the Humanities Building. See the campus map on the About DVPC page for driving directions, parking information, and how to get to room H109. Remember: there's a $2.00 parking fee, payable at the ticket machines in each lot. These ticket machines require quarters, so be sure to bring 8 quarters to buy your parking ticket. Place the ticket face up on the driver's side of your dashboard.
We have a Networking Table from 6:30 to 7:00; if you have something to sell or trade, need technical help, or just want to exchange views, visit the Networking Table. The regular monthly meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. with Random Access where you can ask questions or report on technical problems, followed by a presentation by our guest speaker. Also, as usual, we'll have SIG news and some of our usual great door prizes.
Driving Directions:
680 Northbound:
Exit at Willow Pass Road
At the end of the exit ramp turn left onto Willow Pass Road
Continue on Willow Pass Road to the second signal and
turn right onto Contra Costa Blvd.
680 Southbound:
Exit at Concord Ave.
At the end of the exit ramp turn left on Contra Costa Blvd.
Direction into the Campus:
Continue on Contra Costa Blvd. to the signal at Golf Club Road and turn into Golf Club Road. At the second entrance into the campus turn left then immediately right to parking lot 7. Turn left into lot 7. Park (but don't use parking spaces that are reserved for faculty and staff only), then purchase a parking permit (see Parking Fees below) and put it on your dashboard. Click on this link (www.dvpc.org/about.html) to see:
> a detailed DVC map showing parking and our meeting room
> a map for driving to DVC
> an aerial view of the DVC campus
Parking fees:
On the Pleasant Hill campus parking permits are $2.00 per day for short-term parking. You can purchase permits at the parking permit machines marked with a red star on the maps above and below. Be sure to bring sufficient change! Parking permit machines only take quarters. DVC permits are required Monday through Friday at all times that classes are in session. That includes the times that DVPC meetings are held! Do not park in metered or faculty/staff spaces.
You need to purchase a parking permit and place it face up on your dashboard so it is clearly visible through the windshield. If you attend classes at DVC and have a campus parking permit, you can use it when you attend DVPC meetings.
Some members park (for free) in the College Park High School lot across Viking Drive from the DVC campus. Do so at your own risk!
Parking violations:
Be sure to purchase a parking permit! Fines range from $35 for parking in a regular space without a permit, to over $275 for illegally parking in a space reserved for the handicapped.
Parking alternatives:
Some members carpool and share the parking fee; they park at Sun Valley Mall, have dinner at one of the many restaurants in the mall, then take one car to the meeting. Some members park in the lots in front of College Park High School, which is across Viking Drive from DVC. Remember: if you decide to use any of these parking alternatives, you do so at your own risk!
Diablo Blue Password Access
by Ron Ogg, DVPC
You need the monthly login ID and password to access the current issue of Diablo Blue. If you are a paid-up member of DVPC you'll receive an email message, usually on the Weekend prior to the meeting, with the password.
As each month's issue is uploaded, it's placed in a password protected folder on dvpc.org. When you click on the link to go to the newsletter, a dialog box will be displayed asking for the login ID and password from the email message. The password is case-sensitive; either copy it from the email message or make sure you type it correctly.
As we add the current month's newsletter, the password on the prior month's newsletter will be removed so anyone coming to the DVPC website can access older issues of Diablo Blue.
If you have any problems accessing a password protected newsletter, please email webbie@dvpc.org.
Watch for Updates!
by Ron Ogg, DVPC
With our new method of producing and publishing the monthly Diablo Blue newsletter, we can easily add updates to each month's issue. For example, we added an update to the October issue, a news article about Barry Brown demonstrating the new version 6 of Photoshop Elements at the PE SIG meeting.
When we add a new article "mid-month" it will be shown in red in and will be at the bottom of the Table of Contents.
DVPC Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
by Tom Krauss, DVPC
With apologies to Clement Clark Moore…
T’was the week before Christmas and throughout the Tri-Valley
The DVPC Board was holding a rally.
The chairs had been placed at the table with care,
In hopes that the pizza soon would be there;
The Board settled in and the stories began
While listening discreetly for the pizza van.
Ruth in the kitchen was frosting the cake,
While I drew some doodles to help stay awake.
The sound of the doorbell silenced our patter,
And Zipper raced by to check out the matter.
Away to the kitchen Allen flew like a flash,
Tore open the checkbook and then made a dash
To the door, grabbed the pizza, paid the guy and came back.
And we followed our leader to serve up our snack.
Our plates piled high, it was back to the table
To scarf down our pizza as fast as we’re able.
The food disappeared as discussion resumed—
Stories were told, and old jokes exhumed.
Six miniature microphones Barry did show,
All worthless, but then, well, he didn’t know.
That’s why he brought them, to learn about sound,
And that’s why the Board is good to have ’round.
Though less than a dozen, we’re a technical repository.
Asking a question works like a suppository.
The flood gates are opened and data emitted
Till your questions are answered and curiosity surfeited.
Till your brain starts to tingle, your ears become numb,
Your eyes will glaze over but still data comes.
The Board are purveyors of true techno-trivia
More than you want to hear is what we give ya.
And then, in a twinkling, the pizza was gone,
But our conversation still dragged on and on.
Our business was finished before we began
But we kept on talking, as only we can.
At last in a lull someone said, “Well, it’s late”
And another agreed, saying “Hand me your plates”.
We cleaned up our places to keep Ruth content
So she’ll make more deserts for our next Board event.
As I sprang through the door, the cold helped me wake.
I started my car and released the brake.
I enjoy these evenings, don’t get me wrong
But some of the talking just goes on too long.
So I thought to myself, as I sped down the interstate,
"Thank God all those old farts think nine o’clock’s late."
This is obviously a wee bit late for the not-so-recently past Christmas season. Blame that on the lack of a DVPC general meeting and Board of Directors meeting in January because of the New Year's holiday. Blame it as a result of no meetings, there was no January, 2008 issue of Diablo Blue.
Photoshop Elements SIG Meeting Program
by Peggy Johnson, DVPC
The February Adobe Photoshop Elements SIG meeting was held on Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 7 p.m. at the home of Mel and Jim Lundgren, in San Ramon, CA.
Barry demonstrated techniques for restoring old photographs. This is a topic we have all expressed interest in learning about. As usual, checkout the Elements SIG pages at www.bkbrown.net for all the latest news, information and tutorials.
The Photoshop Elements SIG meets on the third Thursday of each month; note that this is a new meeting day!
Please email Peggy for further information and/or directions.
Windows SIG Meeting Program
by Wal Parsons, DVPC
We'll have a full agenda for our February 4th WinSIG meeting. We'll hear about:
Ron:
Organizing a hard disk under Vista
McAfee's Site Advisor (gives a rating of web sites)
Walt:
CPU-Z(a utility that tells you all about your RAM in your computer including the specs)
We'll also have TWO guest CURMUDGEONS with interesting tales of vendor obtusion and how it was overcome.
The Windows SIG meetings are held in the Community Room at the Concord Police Station. See the detailed directions on the DVPC SIG News page.
Windows Vista Tips
by Peter J. Mitchell, DVPC
1. Speed Up Those Drives
If you didn't know, Windows Vista operates external hard drives that are connected via USB differently than internal drives. Write caching is disabled so that you can safely remove the drive at almost any time. This is a great feature for USB flash drives that are frequently inserted and removed from your computer. But, if you have a large hard drive in an external enclosure that you never disconnect from your computer, write caching is also disabled, which can decrease performance. So, let's change that around a little, shall we?!
Today, I'm going to show you a tweak that will increase the performance of your external hard drive by turning the write cache back on, as well as, activating an advanced performance. Let’s get started!
1.) First, in Vista, right click on the Computer icon on your desktop and select Manage.
2.) Click on Device Manager from the side menu.
3.) Next, expand the Disk Drives option and locate your external drive from the list.
4.) Once you've found it, right click on the drive and select Properties.
5.) Under the Policies tab, select Optimize for Performance.
6.) Next, checkmark both the options of "Enable write caching on the disk" and "Enable advanced performance," as shown below:
7.) Hit OK and then restart your computer.
2. Format Web Page Printing
Do you like to print out web pages? If so, do you become annoyed at all the header and footer information that gets printed on each and every page? You know, the web address, title, date, mother's maiden name, etc? Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Netscape 7.2 all let you do this.
Well, with Internet Explorer, you can get that adjusted right out of there, or customize it. Here's how:
1. Click the File menu, Page Setup.
2. Find the "Headers & Footers" area and remove all the gibberish in the respective fields. Hit OK and there you have it.
Before:
After:
Now that will keep the computer from printing out all of your header and footer info, but what if you want some of it? Well, you can do that too, using the parameters below in the header and footer fields:
&w Window title
&u Page address (URL)
&d Date in short format as specified by Regional Settings in Control Panel
&D Date in long format as specified by Regional Settings in Control Panel
&t Time in the format specified by Regional Settings in Control Panel
&T Time in 24-hour format
&p Current page number
&P Total number of pages
&& A single ampersand (&)
&b The text immediately following these characters as centered.
&b&b The text immediately following the first "&b" as centered, and the text following the second "&b" as right-justified.
For example, if you want the header to have the window (page) title and the URL, you would type: &w &u
If you wanted to make it so it also specified you were the one who printed it, you could put something like:&w &u Printed by Steve on &d
The only thing you need to keep an eye on is the spacing. To get a single space between items (like &w&u) you need to hit the space bar twice. Experiment and you'll get it.
In Firefox and Netscape 7.2 you go to File/Page Setup then click the "Margins & Header/Footer" tab. No secret codes needed here like in IE. Just use the drop-down menus to select what information you want left, center, or right.
Let's say I want the title and URL in the header along with page number and Date/Time in the footer. Here's how it would look...
If I want the field blank, I choose "--blank--". If I want to add my own text I choose "Custom" and a box pops up for my text.
When you're done just click OK.
3. Previous Versions Feature
The Previous Versions feature is available in all editions except Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium. It is driven by the Shadow Copy utility, which is tied to System Restore. The latter is used to rescue your computer if something fouls it up. It was written for Windows XP, but Vista is about the same.
Each time a restore point is created on your machine, Shadow Copy creates a previous version for each of your documents. This is intended to help you if you need to recover a version of your document.
Of course, Shadow Copy also creates previous versions of folders. That way, you can retrieve an accidentally deleted document.
You can access the previous versions by right-clicking a file and selecting Properties. Then, open the Previous Versions tab. You can select one of the previous versions. Click Open to view it. Or click Copy or Restore to retrieve the document.
To access the previous versions of a folder, open the folder in Windows Explorer. Right-click inside the folder and select Properties. Open the Previous Versions tab.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? Now for the downside. Shadow Copy exists in Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium. That means Windows is creating previous versions of your files. However, Microsoft took away the tools to let you access the previous versions.
This poses a security risk. Copies of your sensitive files are being made without your knowledge. And they’re hidden away on your hard drive where you can’t find or access them.
This data is retrievable with a simple upgrade. Yikes!
Unfortunately, there is no way to turn off Shadow Copy. Nor is there an easy way to delete the previous versions of your documents.
There is a work-around, though. You can turn off System Restore. This will turn off Shadow Copy. Turning off System Restore could create problems, though. If you need to restore your computer to an earlier time, you’re out of luck.
However, you could turn off System Restore and then turn it back on. Turning off System Restore will clean out all your old restore points. It will also remove all the previous versions of your files and folders. You could do this periodically, if you’re concerned about what’s lurking on your machine.
To turn off System Restore, click Start>>Control Panel. Double-click System and then click “System protection.” On the System Protection tab, you should see your hard drive under Available Disks. Deselect it. When prompted, click Turn System Restore Off.
To enable System Restore again, follow the above steps. But select your hard drive instead of deselecting it.
Benefits of Using a Computer Sandbox
by Gene Barlow, User Group Relations
A computer Sandbox is newer technology that is not very well known, but, it can be quite useful in many situations. By using a Sandbox utility, you can place your computer in a protected state where you can try some rather risky things on your computer and not have your computer damaged in the trials. Once you place your computer into Sandbox mode, you can safely run anything on your computer, knowing that all changes to your hard drive will not be permanently made to your computer. While in Sandbox mode, your computer runs as if all changes to the hard drive were actually made to your system. But, at the end of using the Sandbox, you can throw away these changes, putting your computer back exactly the way it was before entering the Sandbox.
Let’s take a look at some real life situations to better understand the benefits of using a Sandbox utility.
Installing New Software. Everyone knows that when you install a new software product on your computer, parts of the product are placed all over your computer’s hard drive. Entries are made to the Windows Registry, special supporting files are place in certain directories of the operating system, and other shortcut and setting files are scattered in various places on your hard drive. These are in addition to the main folder that is installed on your hard drive with the software programs. Most software will uninstall easily, but often pieces of the product are left behind on your hard drive. These leftover pieces of orphaned software can build up and slow down your computer. Some software products include hidden viruses or other bad programs as you install them. The end result is that installing new software on your computer can be a risky thing to do.
Using a Sandbox to install and test new software is a much better approach. With a Sandbox, you put your computer in Sandbox mode before you downloaded and installed the new software. Since the Sandbox lets you use the newly installed software just as if it had been permanently installed on your computer, you can run the new software to try it out and see if you like it. You can also run virus utilities to see if the installation gave you a virus you were not expecting. If you find viruses on your computer or just decide you do not like the newly installed software, you can get out of the Sandbox and throw away all traces of that software product and any hidden virus that came with it.
Letting Others Use Your Computer. Another reason to use a Sandbox is to let others use your computer. Other users may change your computer to match the way they like to use computers. For example, many of us have grandkids that come to visit and want to play on our computer. They may download games they like, change your wallpaper and default font sizes. They may pick up viruses in the process of getting your computer changed to their needs. When they leave, your computer no longer is the same as it was before they arrived. It may take you days to get it working again like you want it to. With a Sandbox, you can place the computer in Sandbox mode before they arrive and then let them play on your computer to their hearts content. When they leave, you simply exit the Sandbox and throw away all changes that they made to your computer. It is instantly back the way it was before they started to use it.
Computer Labs and Classrooms. User groups that have computer labs or classrooms have a similar situation. The classroom computers are setup carefully by the instructors before the class begins. Once the students have used the computer throughout the day, the computers are different and modified from what they were in the beginning of the day. This may cause problems for the students that follow them, so the instructors will often restore the computer’s hard drives to put them back to normal. With a Sandbox, this long restore process is not needed. Instead, put the computers in Sandbox mode at the beginning of the day before the students arrive. Then at the end of the day, exit the Sandbox and throw away all hard drive changes made by the students. The computers are quickly returned to their normal state as you exit the Sandbox.
Browsing the Internet. Much of the Spyware that you pick up on your computer comes from simply browsing the internet. Some web sites are designed so that simply passing your cursor over a part of the screen is enough to activate a download of Spyware to your computer. Not only that, but your privacy is at risk when you browse the Internet. Windows automatically saves all of the places you browse to and all of the screens you see on the Internet. Browsing the Internet in a Sandbox is a much better approach. Place your computer in Sandbox mode before you start to browse the internet. Then browse all of the sites you want to. When you are done browsing the internet, exit out of the Sandbox and throw away all Spyware and traces of web sites you may have visited.
We offer three excel lent Sandbox products that you may want to use on your computer. Let’s look at each of these briefly to help you decide which one would work best you’re your needs.
StorageCraft ShadowSurfer. The smallest and least expensive Sandbox we offer is ShadowSurfer by StorageCraft Software. This product is the quickest product to install and the easiest product to use of all of our Sandbox products. With ShadowSurfer, all changes to your hard drive are always thrown away when you exit the Sandbox, which is what you want in most cases anyway. This excel lent product runs on Win2000 and WinXP systems and is available from us at the discount price of just $20. This is an excel lent beginning Sandbox product for most home users.
Acronis True Image 11 Home Try&Decide. The next step up in ability and price is a feature that Acronis has added to their new True Image 11 Home backup utility. This feature is called Try&Decide and it is a Sandbox feature built into this award winning backup utility. Try&Decide requires that you create and use the Acronis SecureZone on your hard drive to contain the temporary changes to your hard drive. When you exit the Sandbox with this product, you can choose to keep all changes to your hard drive or throw them all away. This excel lent product runs on Win2000, WinXP, and WinVista operating systems and is available from us at the discount price of just $29 for a download or $33 on a CD. This is a very good Sandbox feature that comes with an outstanding backup utility.
StorageCraft ShadowUser Pro. The most advanced Sandbox utility we offer is ShadowUser Pro by StorageCraft Software. This is a professional level Sandbox product that has many options and features to it. With this product, you can password protect the controls of the Sandbox, so that nobody can disable the Sandbox unless they know the password. Perhaps the biggest differences between this product and the other two Sandbox products is that you can pick and choose what files to throw away and what files to keep as you exit the Sandbox. This top of the line Sandbox product runs on Win2000 and WinXP operating systems and is available from us at the discount price of $47. This is the product you should use if you are running a public computer workstation that needs tight controls.
A Sandbox offers you a new way to protect your computer from damage from the software you install or access on the internet. It also keeps your hard drive safe from damage caused by others using your computer. The selection of Sandbox products we offer lets you pick and choose which one is right for your needs. To order your Sandbox product, go to www.ugr.com and find the Sandbox product you are interested in. Then click on the Buy Now button on that product page to place your order using our secure web shopping cart. As you complete your order indicate the order code of UGNL0108 to qualify for these excellent discount prices. If you have questions about this new technology or about any of these products send an email to gene@ugr.com and I will try to help you.
Gene Barlow
User Group Relations gene@ugr.com
PO Box 911600 www.ugr.com
St George, UT 84791-1600
This is one of a series of monthly technical articles that I distribute to those that have subscribed to this newsletter. Watch for them and learn more about your computer and its hard drive. You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to it or have purchase products from us. If you do not want to receive these newsletters, simply reply and ask to have your name removed from the list and I will do so immediately. User group newsletter editors may print this article in their monthly newsletter as long as the article is printed in its entirety and not cut or edited. Please send me a copy of the newsletter containing the article so that I can see what groups are running the articles.
Article Copyright January 2008 by User Group Relations