Diablo Blue
The Newsletter of the Diablo Valley PC Users Group
February 2 DVPC Meeting:
Our Annual CES Roundup by: Alan Mildwurm, DVPC
This is the time of year when Alan has returned from CES. Alan attended the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. He has returned ready to tell us about what was new and with some of the latest, coolest electronic devices to demonstrate.
This month's meeting will be fun, interesting, and informative. We'll see you on Thursday, February 2, 2012 in room H111 in the Humanities building at the Diablo Valley College campus in Pleasant Hill.
NOTE: The parking permit fee for all parking lots at Diablo Valley College is now $3.00. Click here to go to Parking Fees below for more information.
Where and When We Meet
DVPC 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 H111 in the Humanities Building. See the maps, driving directions, and parking information and fees, below.
Our monthly meeting starts at 7 p.m. with Random Access; this is when you can ask questions about or report on technical problems. Our SIG leaders will provide news about upcoming SIG meetings. This is followed by a presentation by our guest speaker. We close our meetings with our raffle prize drawing.
Maps and Driving Directions,
Parking Information
The Humanities Building marked with the red arrow is where DVPC monthly meetings are held in room H-111.
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 $3.00 per day. You can purchase permits at the parking permit machines. Parking permit machines take dollar bills as well as nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollar coins, and credit cards. Note that these parking permit dispensers do not make change. DVC parking 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. Handicapped spaces are available and require a current state-issued handicapped placard or license plate.
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.
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. There's limited street parking in the area near the campus. 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!
About DVPC
by Ron Ogg, DVPC
What is a PC User Group?
From Windows to databases to web site development, whether you've had formal computer training or not, whether you use computers at work for a small business or a huge corporation, whether you're a student who wants to learn more about computers, or whether you are just a user who wants to meet with friends for sharing and learning from each other, user group members all have one thing in common – we enjoy working with our computers. We have a desire not just to learn more about that "mysterious" box we call a computer, but we have the desire to meet to learn and to share the knowledge we have with others. A PC User Group provides a place to meet and learn and share.
DVPC is a PC User Group
DVPC, the Diablo Valley PC Users Group, is the place for doing just that. DVPC members represent a wide variety of users, with ages that range from teenagers to our many valued retirees. We range in experience from PC novices to consultants and computer industry leaders, from simple users to power users to hardware and software designers. Our members use equipment that runs the full gambit from legacy systems to the latest and hottest Intel Pentium and AMD systems. So whatever your needs, interest, skills, age, or PC experience, DVPC is right for you!
Membership in DVPC is Contra Costa County's best bargain for computer users today. For just $30.00 annually (about the price of a twenty minutes with a computer technician) you can become a member of DVPC. Full time students can join for $20.00 annually.
Bring along your questions to a meeting and challenge our collective experience, someone has already been there and done that, and are eager to share the solution.
We have interesting computer-related products for our raffle held at each meeting. So be sure to attend meetings on a regular basis. As a member you'll get your first raffle ticket free each time you attend a meeting.
Members receive a notification email message with a password so they can access the current month's issue of Diablo Blue, our monthly web-based newsletter. Each issue includes articles of general interest, tips and tricks, columns by DVPC members, articles by well-known columnists, and includes the latest Dilbert cartoon.
Our meetings are casual, and our members are a fun-loving lot that ask questions about their computer hardware and software and are happy to share tips, techniques, and ideas for spirited discussion.
DVPC has a number of SIGs, Special Interest Groups that meet regularly to share specialized areas of interest. See our SIG News section below.
We hold our main monthly meeting on the first Thursday of every month at 7:00 p.m. Meetings are open to the public – you don't have to be a DVPC member to attend. But we hope you will join DVPC so you can gain access to the current month's issue of the Diablo Blue newsletter, raffle tickets, and SIG meetings.
How to Join
DVPC annual dues are only $30/year with access to the current month's issue of our on-line web-based monthly newsletter, Diablo Blue, and only $20/year for full time students.
To join DVPC, print and fill out a Membership Application and mail it with your check to DVPC, or bring it to one of our monthly meetings that are held on the first Thursday of each month.
Watch for Updates!
by Ron Ogg, DVPC
With our method of producing and publishing the monthly Diablo Blue newsletter, we can easily add updates to each month's issue. If an article is updated,the word Updated will be added in red to its entry in the Table of Contents.
When we add a new article "mid-month" the entire entry will be shown in red in the Table of Contents.
Links to Interesting Online Articles
by Ron Ogg, DVPC
Here are links to some interesting items we've found online. Check them out!
SOPA and PIPA: Internet Blacklist Legislation
The "Stop Online Piracy Act"/"E-PARASITE Act" (SOPA) and "The PROTECT IP Act" (PIPA) are the latest in a series of bills which would create a procedure for creating (and censoring) a blacklist of websites... Although the bills are ostensibly aimed at reaching foreign websites dedicated to providing illegal content, their provisions would allow for removal of enormous amounts of non-infringing content including political and other speech from the Web...
Read More (2/2012)
Websites go dark in protest of proposed SOPA/PIPA legislation on 1/18
Wikipedia, Moveon.org, Craigslist, user-submitted news site Reddit, the blog Boing Boing, Firefox browser creator Mozilla and the Cheezburger network of comedy sites planned to participate in a blackout to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) bills...
Read More (2/2012)
Unable to print or view the print preview of a webpage in IE
When you try to print or view the print preview of a webpage in Internet Explorer the webpage may not print or print preview correctly...
Read more (2/2012)
FBI Megaupload Shutdown Blocks Users from Personal Files, Business Data
After law enforcement authorities shut down Megaupload, a popular file sharing service, for violating copyright laws, Internet users took to Twitter and online forums in protest, calling it a form of censorship...
Read more (2/2012)
Kohler Website — Introducing Numi, Kohler’s most advanced toilet.
The Numi toilet combines unmatched design,
technology and engineering to bring you the finest
in personal comfort and...
Read more (2/2012)
NASA — Amazing Images from the Space Station
We envy the International Space Station astronauts with their window on the world offering breathtaking views of the Earth and the universe...
(Found by Paul Mitchell on the ‘Love These Pics’ website)
Read more (12/2011)
IEEE Spectrum Tech Alert — Opinion: Should the U.S. Scuttle NASA?
G. Pascal Zachary, a science policy professor at Arizona State University, says that it's time for NASA to be transformed into a dispenser of funds for private space ventures...
Read more (12/2011)
Why Partition Your Hard Drive?
by Gene Barlow, User Group Relations
I’m sure that most of you have heard of partitions on your hard drive, but may not be totally aware of what they are or why you would want to use partitions on your hard drive. A partition is simply a portion of your hard drive that has been specially prepared with a File System so that it can store your program and data files on the drive. Each partition you create on your hard drive is given a drive letter to make it easier to find and retrieve the files later. You can have a single partition on a hard drive or there can be many partitions on the drive. Most users have a single c: partition on their hard drive and perhaps one or two other hidden partitions put there by the computer manufacturer.
Adding additional partitions to your hard drive is very easy to do with the right tools. The purpose of this article is to suggest several reasons why you may want to add additional partitions to your hard drive and to introduce you to a software tool that will make doing this very easy to do.
Protecting your Important Data Files
The number one reason that your hard drive crashes is because the Windows operating system becomes corrupt and brings down your entire c: partition. Viruses also attack your c: drive. When this happens, other files in your c: partition may be lost. However, files in other partitions on your hard drive will probably be untouched by the crash.
For this reason alone, the c: partition is the most risky partition on your hard drive and the one most likely to crash. If you set up other partitions on your hard drive and keep your important data and photo files in these other partitions and not in the c: partition, these files will probably be safe when your c: drive crashes.
Organize your Hard Drive with Partitions
Computers today come with very large terabyte main hard drives. To leave such a large hard drive with only one c: partition does not make much sense. If your hard drive is very large, you should divide it up into 3 or 4 smaller partitions and then store different types of files in different partitions.
I suggest you use your c: partition just for the Windows operating system and all of your application programs installed on your computer. Then you should have another partition just for your important data files, for example your spreadsheets, your written documents, your financial records, your genealogy database, and other important data files. Finally, I would suggest a separate Photo partition to contain all of your digital photographs, your video clips, and your scanned pictures. By organizing your large hard drive this way, your computer will be much easier to use.
Gain Flexibility in Doing Backups
Finally, having more than one partition on your hard drive can give you added flexibility in doing your backups of your main hard drive. Today, doing full partition backups is vastly superior to the old file backup approach. Partition backups handle entire partitions including Windows and your application programs as well as your important data files. So, running a good partition backup utility like Acronis True Image Home 2012 is the best way to do backups today.
If you carefully separate your files into different partitions, then you could backup the different partitions on a different schedule. For example, I would backup my Program Partition (c:) only once or twice a month. However, my important Data Partition, I would back up daily or at least every 2-3 days. My Photo Partition, I would only back it up when I have actively saved new photos to it. So, having separate partitions for these types of files lets you back them up on a schedule that is important to each type of file.
Partitioning Made Easy with Acronis Disk Director
Acronis offers an excellent utility, Acronis Disk Director 11 Home, that makes partitioning your hard drive easy for anyone to do. We offer this excellent product for just $25, which is half the normal retail price. In addition, I provide my customers with a step by step Starter Guide that makes setting up extra partitions on your computer a simple task. If you do run into questions or problems while using this product, you can send me an email and I will help you with answers and problem resolution to get you going again quickly.
To order Acronis Disk Director 11 Home from me, go to http://www.ugr.com/DiskDirector.html and click on the appropriate Buy Now button. You can order a download copy or we can mail you a CD with the software on it. (There is a $5 shipping fee if you order the CD.) When checking out of the shopping cart, enter in the special order code of UGNL1211. In a short timeframe, you will have your hard drive partitioned and ready to better use your computer.
If you have questions about this article or the Disk Director product, send an email to support@ugr.com and I will try to help you with your questions.
This is one of a series of technical articles that I distribute to those that have subscribed to this newsletter. You can subscribe at http://www.ugr.com/NewsletterRegistration.html. Watch for them and learn more about your computer and its hard drive. 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 (between the two horizontal lines) 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.
Copyright © 2011
Skype Reformats Phone Numbers on Websites
by Ron Ogg, DVPC
I developed and maintain a website for a Contra Costa HICAP, a County department. This website includes pages that have telephone numbers for locations where HICAP counseling and Medicare classes are offered. One day these numbers were displayed as an icon that had a colored background, a U.S. flag, and a green telephone symbol.
It turned out this was the Click to Call feature added when I installed Skype on my PC. Click to Call lets visitors to a website call a phone number using Skype (if they have it installed) by clicking on any Skype telephone number icon. Unfortunately, when one of these pages was saved as a PDF file the code behind the Skype icon was displayed instead of the icon.
While Skype Click to Call might be useful on some websites, I didn't want it on the phone numbers on the HICAP site. Nor did I want it displayed on phone numbers on other websites I visited using Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Firefox. So what to do?
When you install Skype there's an add-on installed in your browser that displays the phone number in the Skype Click to Call format. To uninstall this add-on for all browsers, go to Control Panel and select Programs and Features or Add/Remove Programs depending on your version of Windows. Double-click Click to Call with Skype then click Yes to uninstall the add-on. That's it.
Electronic Waste — Where to Dispose of It
by Peggy Johnson, DVPC
Here's a list of ewaste donation sites in Central Contra County County. We've included sites where you can recycle single-use and rechargeable batteries, and to dispose of unneeded pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter medications. Be sure to check the websites to determine what they will accept. If you know or learn of others, please let me know with the location, hours, and website URL.
Computers and Electronics
Hauling Pros Recycling Center
www.dumpmytv.com
73A South Buchanan Circle
(on the left behind S&S Roofing)
Pacheco, CA 94553
925-682-8987
Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Rapid Recycle
www.rapidrecycle.net
110 Second Ave., South B-1
Pacheco, CA 94553
925-671-8008
Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Recycle for Breast Cancer
www.recycleforbreastcancer.org/dropoffanytime.htm
31 Beta Court, Suite C
San Ramon, CA 94583
800-315-9580
7 days a week excluding holidays 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
A completed donation form is requested at the time of donation; this form can be downloaded from their website
e-Recycle OnUs
www.erecycleonus.com
1271 Boulevard Way
(at back left corner past East Bay Art and CTA)
Walnut Creek, CA 94595
925-934-1515
Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Electronic Waste Management
www.noewaste.com
E-Waste recycling events at Diablo Valley College
321 Golf Club Road
(in DVC overflow parking lot across from north side of main campus)
Pleasant Hill, CA
866-335-3373
First Saturday of every month (except holidays)
9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Where to recycle Batteries
Single-Use Household Batteries
CVS/Longs Drugs
www.longs.com
Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Lafayette,
Moraga, Orinda, Walnut Creek, San Ramon
Right Aid Drugstores
www.rightaid.com
Orinda, Walnut Creek
Radio Shack
www.radioshack.com
Danville, Walnut Creek
Check websites for store hours
Rechargeable Batteries
Right Aid Drugstores
www.rightaid.com
Check website for store hours
Specialty Batteries
Call(2)Recycle
www.call2recycle.org/drop-off-your-old-batteries.php?c=1&d=213&e=85&f=142&w=9100&r=Y
Where to Dispose of Unneeded Pharmaceutical and Over-the-Counter Medications
Walnut Creek City Hall
www.walnut-creek.org
1666 North Main Street, Walnut Creek
Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Look for the green Pharmaceutical Disposal bin
Please don't flush your drugs!
How and Where to Recycle or Dispose of Other Household Waste Items
Central Contra Costa Sanitary District
The CCCSD has a two-page Disposal Guide for Central Contra Costa County brochure that can be viewed online or printed. This handy guide tells how to dispose of common household waste in safe, simple, and environmentally healthy ways. Click on the link below to access the brochure.
www.centralsan.org/documents/Brochure_Disposal_Guide.pdf
This brochure requires Adobe Acrobat Reader; you can download and install the latest version of Acrobat Reader by clicking this icon.
SIG News
Adobe Elements SIG Meeting Program
by Peggy Johnson, DVPC
Check back for the date the Elements SIG will be held in February.
Windows SIG Meeting Program
by Walt Parsons, DVPC
The next Windows SIG meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. This month's meeting is on a different date and at a different time so we can participate in this special event:
Ron will demonstrate Stardoc Tiles and Tweak7.
The Windows SIG meetings are usually held each month in the Meeting Room at the Walnut Creek-Ygnacio Valley Branch Library. It's located at 2661 Oak Grove Road in Walnut Creek. Take Ygnacio Valley Road east to Oak Grove Road and go south approximately 3 blocks to the library entrance.
The Daily Dilbert Cartoon
by Scott Adams
- Where and When
We Meet - Maps and Driving Directions
- About DVPC
- Watch for Updates added to the TOC in red.
- Links to Interesting Online Articles
- Why Partition Your Hard Drive?
- Skype Reformats Phone Numbers on Websites
- Electronic Waste — Where to Dispose of It
- Adobe Elements SIG Meeting Program
- Windows SIG Meeting Program
- The Daily Dilbert Cartoon